The Wizard and the Green Dragon (Part 4)

This is the fourth part of the story.

To read the previous part, click here.

To read the first part, click here.

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“You gave a nice show, indeed, Wizard. If I didn’t know better, even I would have thought you kept the moon in front of the sun for two hours.”

“I’m just a plain and powerless human, Galen my boy. I can destroy a planet, or two, but I can’t control how they move.”

“One would hardly call this ‘powerless’!” The Wizard grinned. “So, are you really going to let them be?”

“Let them be? Well… that Dog King won’t see another day. Larchwood will be destroyed, today, and the country will eventually fall, but other than those little things, yes, I’ll let them be.”

“I was expecting worse.”

“I’m not that merciless, my dear.” Galen raised an eyebrow. “When I’m in a good mood, that is.” The Wizard smiled innocently.

“Then, the Green Dragon appeared?”

“Yes! And right on its destined time. Now, we only need to force that stupid knight to reveal where he hid it, and then seize it. In case you are wondering, this knight dies today, too.

And the group of three, seemingly of one, reached the entrance of the larch forest and dismounted.

“Now,” said the Wizard and disappeared, only to reappear a hundred metres away, a moment later. He grasped the man hiding in the bushes by the collar and raised him into the air. The Wizard looked at him, as if he was trying to pierce his soul. “What are you?”

“Let me go, you bastard!”

“I can see you are not a demon. That’s for sure. You aren’t a wizard, either. Nor a diviner, of any sort. In fact, I can’t detect anything supernatural in you, or about you. So, what the hell are you? No matter how I look at you, you seem to be a useless, absolutely ordinary human. But a human shouldn’t know about me, or the eclipse.”

“Let me go!”

The Wizard, breaking the belt, took the diviner’s bag and threw it out of the man’s field of vision, towards the woods.

“Search it.” He didn’t relax his hold. The self-proclaimed diviner tried to look at where the bag had fallen, but in vain.

Not for the man to hear, Galen spoke. “On the twelfth of March, 1346, about two hours after the sunset, an unknown young man will be seen exiting the woods, at the east of Larchwood.”

“What?” The Wizard turned to him and saw Galen reading from a small pile of papers in his hands.

“Taking advantage of the solar eclipse, the next day, he will convince the King he is a great wizard. The very same day, he will murder the head knight of the Royal Guard, and disappear, causing the country to fall in the coming war.”

“Nonsense! As if whether a knight lives or dies determines the fate of the country. Are you that stupid? Who wrote that fake prophecy? It wasn’t you, so who?”

But the man could still only hear the Wizard’s voice. He gathered, though, that somehow the Wizard was “reading” his notes.

“As if I’d tell you!”

“What else does he have in his bag?”

“A history book.”

“A scholar?”

“Printed.”

“What did you say?”

“Published in 2112.”

“A fucking time traveller! You are a bloody, stupid, fucking time traveller! Holy hell and profane heavens!” The Wizard threw the man to the ground towards where he had thrown his bag, but the bag was nowhere to be seen. “You’ve screwed up big time, boy! Big time!”

“What is happening?”

“Where is your machine. You are not a wizard, so you came by some kind of machine. Where is it?” The man didn’t speak. “I said, where is it?”

And the time traveller lost his ability to resist. He told the Wizard where exactly in the forest he had hidden his machine.

“Make sure he stays here, boys.” And out of nowhere, in the time traveller’s eyes, two men appeared. One of them was holding his things. “If he tries to leave, or even slightly move from his place, break his legs, Dagwood. A hundred times each.”

And the Wizard disappeared again. Ten minutes later, he walked out of the forest.

“That was dealt with.”

“What did you do?”

“I destroyed that thing, of course. Such things should not be found in the present.”

“How can you possibly destroy it in a few minutes? What are you?”

“A wizard, of course!”

“Nonsense! There is no such thing.”

“Nonsense, Mule, is not believing in what you can witness. If I am not a wizard, then what could I possibly be?”

“From which country are you, then?”

“None! I’m not even from this world.”

“You are not from this world, yet you came to destroy my country? It doesn’t make sense!”

“You came to destroy this country. Not me. I came here to save this world. And, you short-eyed mule, when saying ‘world’ I neither mean this country, nor this planet, but this entire universe.”

“Bullshit!”

“Bullshit, your ass! Let me describe to you the original flow of time, without my interference and yours. Today, three minutes past ten, at the moment of the total eclipse, that head knight would have manifested the Green Dragon, and-”

“Oh, now there are dragons, too! Right!”

“Are you that much of a fool, or do you just pretend to be? I thought you were a scholar. The Green Dragon is a book. How can you not know that? As if, in this world, with so little magic, a real dragon could be born!”

“A book?”

“Of course!”

“You… you don’t mean the mythical grimoire?”

“It’s not mythical, but I surely mean the grimoire. There are few truly demonic grimoires in each world. That is, grimoires written by demons. And there is a total of four of them that were written by demons who reign in more than one world. The Green Dragon is one of those four. And this truly demonic grimoire was manifested, today, on this planet, right in Larchwood, via a ritual that head knight of yours performed.”

“And you came here to obtain it?”

“Seize it. Not obtain it. Seize it to seal it.”

“As if someone like you would miss the opportunity.”

“Maggot, you munch too loudly. I have no use of the Green Dragon. I only came here because Baskar asked me to seize it for him.”

“Who is Baskar?”

“Do you know more than one with this name?”

“You can’t possibly mean the God of Light?”

“That’s the one.”

“Now you want me to believe you are a god?!?”

“I am a human, you moron. Gods can’t see, sense, or touch the Green Dragon. Why else would Baskar need my help? What do you know about the Green Dragon?”

“It is supposed to be almighty and indestructible and whoever obtains it can rule the world.”

“So, you know only the way demons advertise it, then. It’s true it’s indestructible, by any means, including the divine ones. But almighty? Demons are not that powerful. The Green Dragon is the grimoire of greed. It’s fed by its holder’s greed and strengthens its holder’s greed. It can help its slave, who thinks is its master, obtain whatever this person wants, and, in return, it destroys whatever its slave obtains.

“The head knight wanted to obtain the Green Dragon in order to help this country become more powerful and himself to become a hero. That’s his original greed. But the Green Dragon would raise his greed, and then the knight would annex the throne, to rule this country, as its mighty king. And once the grimoire would have surrendered the country to its slave, it would consume the country’s life. The soil would become barren, the water would become scarce. In less than two years, it would be impossible for people to live here. And, thus, the grimoire’s slave would decide to conquer another country, to obtain resources. And the circle would continue, until finally, the whole planet would be under the grimoire’s slave. And, of course, the whole planet’s life would be consumed by the Green Dragon, eventually causing all plants, insects, animals, and humans to die.

“But it wouldn’t stop there. Once the Green Dragon manifests, it intends to consume the whole world. It would wait patiently on this dead planet for intelligent beings from other planets to come and get it, giving it the opportunity to destroy those other planets. In just a few million years from now, there would be no life in this universe. Not even the possibility for life to be created.

“Baskar can see the future, and he saw the destruction of this world. Naturally, he realised the cause of it, and pinpointed the moment and place of the beginning. In other words, when and where the Green Dragon would manifest. And asked me to seize it and take it to him, for him to seal it, for all eternity.”

“Even if all these were true, which I don’t believe, because, after all, there wouldn’t be life on this planet by the time I was born, but there was plenty of life, why would Baskar ask you to do it?”

“I answered this before, you maggot. Because a god can’t see it, sense it, or touch it. How could he do it himself? And since he needed help, I naturally am the best choice. Not only am I one of the most powerful wizards in all worlds, but, also, there is nothing the Green Dragon can give me that I can’t obtain on my own, more easily and with less risk. Conquering this country? I can do that in a day. At most. In less than a week I can conquer the whole planet. So, what greed can this grimoire satisfy, for me to depend on it?

“As for why you had the chance to be born, it’s thanks to me. Because, here is my original plan, and hence, the timeline where I came to this world, but you hadn’t come from the future. So, I was to come here, when I came, yesterday. Then, I was to make sure to enter the head knight’s tower to get the Green Dragon once it had manifested. Apparently, I would have used the eclipse as a way of being close to the manifestation. Of course, I would have killed the head knight who brought this disaster into this world. After then, I would have left. And then, eventually, you would have been born.

“Whether this country were to rise, or fall, it would have been in history’s hands. Countries, and even empires, rise and fall on their own. Wars are done by humans and are fought by whole countries. What do you think this head knight is? A super man? A mythical hero who, on his own, can repel a whole army? Are you that stupid?”

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To read the fifth part click here.