It was like time stopped at the moment Greyson looked over at Rosalie. There was nothing he could do to stop her body falling to the ground. An awful ringing sound screamed in his ears as everything went red. He could see the dagger hilt sticking out from her chest. From his angle, it looked like his sister had been stabbed straight through the heart. Turning his eyes towards the beast who caused it all, Greyson could feel his throat tightening. The words suddenly were stuck there.
Why? WHY?! He wanted to shout at the top of his lungs, but his mouth would not move.
Blood pounding through his body, his heart rate rising, his body feeling as though it were burning. Something was happening, it was coursing through him like never before. Anger, it was anger. Pure, unadulterated fury that he could not control. The scenes in front of him were like pictures that meant nothing to him. Lucius fighting back, Rosalie bleeding out, he could not move like he was sucked from this reality. Faint screams were blurred out behind all the noises, but they were slowly getting louder and louder.
"Greyson! GREY! What are you doing?" Lucius yelled.
Ringing in his ears grew worse as he crouched on the ground holding onto his head. All his mana was running rampantly in his body. Seven elements slowly fusing into a sole power, a power which he directed all towards the traitor. Snapping his head up again to glare daggers, one could see his eyes were an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colors. Anyone who made eye contact would feel mesmerized by them.
"Aeos. AEOS. How could you..." Merely a hoa.r.s.e whisper, Greyson ultimately managed to mutter out the desired words.
"Greyson, you wouldn"t understand. I never intended to hurt Rose. You know that."
"Her name..."
"What?"
"You no longer have the right to say her name!" Greyson screamed out. At that moment, something just blasted forth. No elements were used, it was just pure mana that sent power running through his veins. Slamming Aeos far into the distance, Greyson could feel the last strand of sanity just snapping. Suddenly appearing in front of Aeos, Greyson kicked him again sending him flying back with a loud boom. Then, it was a punch and then another kick. Beating him slowly to death, Greyson did not flinch even at the sounds of bones cracking. Each hit echoed like thunder. Pinning Aeos to the ground, he began pummeling his face over and over again. Fueling his anger even more was the fact that Aeos was not fighting back. As invincible as Greyson felt at the moment, he knew that Aeos was a genuine great magister level stage two dragon and that he had spells that would slow Greyson down. Yet he did not try any of his spells, it was like he just gave up. Hitting harder and harder, Greyson questioned him once more.
"Why won"t you fight back?! I don"t need your surrender."
"Why would you do this to us? Why?! Don"t you know how Rosalie felt about you?"
Still no answer.
"Say something!" He did not stop until he felt a hard bite into his shoulder. s.h.i.+fting his anger towards the source of the bite, he went to grab the creature only to realize it was Lucius."What are you doing, Lucius? Get away! I have to kill him. I HAVE TO KILL HIM!"
"You idiot! Couldn"t you hear me screaming at you? Rosalie is not dead! But she is about to be if you don"t go over and start healing her! Do you want her to bleed to death?"
"What..." Now this definitely stopped him. That one sentence was all he needed for the storm in his heart to recede. Widening his eyes in surprise, Greyson quickly got off of the dying Aeos and flew over to his sister. Only now could he hear the faint sound of her labored breathing. Swiftly arriving at her side and grabbing onto her hand, he started his most powerful healing spell. Both of them bathed in the warm, golden light as he started with the internal injuries first. Eventually, he grabbed onto the dagger and slowly removed it from her chest. Blood splattered onto his face and his breath caught in his chest again. However, he continued to persevere because he knew he could save her. Without even realizing, his hands were shaking and tears flowed down his face. After all the mana he exploded forth with before, Greyson could feel himself growing weak. Face paling, his energy was draining too quickly during this healing spell. Most high-level light element healing spells required much more mana than he could provide at the moment. Accurately perceiving his situation, he knew that he should take his sister to his grandparents quickly using the last of his magic. Gently lifting his sister up, Greyson took one last look at the bleeding heap still struggling to breathe. Every bone in his body wanted to go up and drive the same dragon slayer dagger used on his sister through that man. But he knew his priorities. Rosalie was still alive and breathing, and he needed to keep it that way.
"Lu, can you bring him with us? As much as I want to kill him, we should present him to the other dragons. I feel like it was more than just Aeos who wanted us dead. This was part of some sort of plot. Maybe we could flush out some more traitors using him."
Nodding in a.s.sent, Lucius went over to bring the body back with them. Right before he could activate his spell, the shadows came to life and swallowed down Aeos. Not expecting the help, Lucius and Greyson were not able to react in time allowing the body to disappear.
"Who was that?!... A Dark Dragon?" Frustrated and confused, Greyson knew now was not the time for guessing because he was feeling extra paranoid about everyone. Rosalie started losing more blood during his hesitation. Feeling the warm flow of blood, Greyson snapped out of it and quickly headed out. Whoever saved Aeos, it clearly indicated that he was not working alone. There were more things at work, and the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt was somehow a part of this.
Rus.h.i.+ng over back to Snow Peak, Greyson could tell that he miscalculated. In the state that he was in, his mana was leaking out uncontrollably. Estimating the distance, he realized his speed would not be enough. With but a thought, Zephyr appeared at his full size. Spitting blood, Greyson suffered another large chunk of his remaining mana disappearing.
"Hurry." Holding his heart, he strained to get the words out. Zephyr responded with a quick whine and flew straight towards Snow Peak. With his speed, it only took a matter of seconds to arrive at the entrance to the Elders" cave. However, once they arrived, Zephyr"s body began to dissipate. Luckily, they were close to the ground and landed safely. Overdrawing himself, Greyson spat some more blood. It was up to Lucius to bring them all into the cave.
"Grandmother! Grandfather! Help!" Exhausted at the moment, his shouts came out more as hoa.r.s.e croaks. Lucius saw the issue and used his wind magic to amplify the sound and help it carry. Obviously, the spell worked well as the sound of flapping wings swiftly approached. Almost instantly, two large dragon bodies appeared in front of them.
"Grey! What happened?!"
"No time, look at Rosalie. I"m fine." Weakly waving away their concern, he directed their attention over to his sister.
"Someone stabbed her! You tried to heal her Grey?"
"I already took care of the most immediate damage, but I don"t have enough mana. You need to get someone to heal her right away, or she could still end up dying."
Although they were dying to question him, now was not the time for interrogation. Elder Freizon nodded at her husband and flew off into the distance to get help while Elder Brevre brought his grandchildren to lay down.
Only then was Greyson able to calm down and look at his body"s condition. One word: terrible. Whatever happened earlier obviously did not agree with his body, like the power was not natural. The power of the seven elements combining damaged his mana channels, and that damage was what caused his mana to leak uncontrollably. Trusting that the situation was now under control, Greyson could feel his consciousness slowly slipping. His body was inducing rest in order to recover from his internal injuries. But before that...
"Grandfather, it was Aeos! Look at the Time Dragons. Someone helped him afterwards using dark magic. I did not see who it was." Voice fading away with each word, Greyson was already asleep after finis.h.i.+ng his sentence.