CHAPTER 88: CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT: RAISING THE ABILITY TO "DRAGON RANK."

Damien sat bare chested on the ground, surrounded by the seven elders who had their hands placed on different parts of his body: stomach, chest, left cheek, right cheek, right arm and left arm while the head was in Medderath’s hand.

Those parts represented the power points according to the dragon mythology. They were all dressed in long, grey robes that swept the ground with each movement.

Damien had been ordered to sit with his legs crossed, placing his arms over his knees. This was to ensure proper flow of energy all around his body.

"Is everyone in position?" one of the elders who has his hand on his left cheek asked.

"Let us begin." the others replied.

After sweeping his eyes over them to make sure everyone was holding their parts, Zephyr, began to chant a spell.

"Cutirdfro yvennesarty jeriox sutodram."

When he finished the first round, the other dragons joined him. They repeated the chant over and over again until the third time when they stopped.

"Get the oil, Zephyr." Medderath commanded. Zephyr brought out a small glass bottle from his robe and poured it all over Damien. Within a few seconds, the tattoo on his back began to reshuffle itself. Millions of ant-like creatures erupted suddenly in heaps and bounds as the chanting of the spell resumed.

Damien, whose eyes were closed on command, began to writhe slightly from their movements. The creatures on his back burst forth continually as if they were never going to end.

When the last of the creatures poured out onto the ground, Medderath spoke up.

With her eyes closed, she raised a hand and everyone whose eyes were shut fell silent as if they could see her without opening them. She made a sign with her right raised palm, signifying for a switch.

The dragons upon receiving her telepathic message, changed their chant. The words spilled out powerfully from their tongues and the millions of ant-like creatures that scattered about them began to mutate.

Great, razor sharp wings emerged like bubbles from their heads and their bottom grew pointy with a needle-like object attached to it.

At the second chant, the flew up in the air, resembling an army of eagles about to descend on a prey. They flew upright, suspended in the air then began to unite themselves with one another.

Meanwhile, the chants from the dragons increased in tempo and rhythm, coming out faster and faster than before. Damien sat rooted to the ground, completely numb and unfeeling of anything around him.

The mutated bugs merged with each other quicker, creating a swarming sensation of themselves as they rotated with unmeasurable speed. Their rotation gathered up the sand around them, forming a tornado that grew bigger by each passing second.

By the time they stopped rotating, the dust fell to the ground in a heap while the dragons were still chanting.

Flying in an upright position with a big, pointed needle over Damien’s head was the gigantified version of the mutated bugs. Thankfully his eyes were closed or else he wouldn’t have been able to stand their massiveness.

"You just keep your eyes closed prince!" Medderath yelled out admist the commotion from the bugs. The whizzing, buzzing sound stung his ears painfully that it didn’t take long before they started to bleed.

That marked the completion of the first stage: the demon had taken over his hearing.

The next thing that happened sent the orange-red sun to turn blood red. Suddenly, it began to rain viciously. The liquid that descended from the clouds only touched his body alone and not the elders despite their connection with him.

"Release your hold!" Medderath yelled again and the elders snatched their hands away. The moment they disconnected from him, they were flown backwards and a massive, transparent forcefield separated them from Damien.

Kiriat stood up in awe as he watched the swarming bugs that had now mutated to one big one, command the rain on him.

He turned to Medderath who half laid on the ground. "Elder, this isn’t right. Nothing should have changed the sun color. Orange symbolizes the dragons while red is for our demons. If it’s only red then..."

"Then he is mostly demon." Medderath completed calmly.

"Will he survive it, elder?" one of the dragons asked, fixing her gaze on the materialized forcefield.

"That depends on how strong his will is." the woman answered nonchalantly.

The liquid rained down continuously, not ceasing or reducing for a bit. Few seconds after it begun, an ear shattering cry was heard from where he sat.

Red, hot boils sprang up on his skin like locusts feeding on grain. The liquid pierced his skin thoroughly causing him to yell out from the amount of pain it brought.

The swarming, gigantified bugs had shifted from the top of his head to allow the rain beat down mercilessly on him. It got to a point that he couldn’t take it anymore. Angry red lines streaked with black painted his veins as the boils appeared, popped and appeared again.

His screams reverberated throughout the land, multiplying as more of the liquid battered his raw flesh. The rain got heavier, faster and more vicious that before as if in a hurry to empty out its before the deadline reached.

A painful, final roar shot out of Damien’s lungs and the rain dealt a final blow on him.

Silence fell thicker than blood over the place.

"The second stage is complete. The demon has taken over the body." Kiriat said in a daze. His eyes had never left their savior for one minute.

"His body is failing what if he can’t handle it?" Zephyr said as worry brought a frown to his face. He had seen witnessed and helped thousands of dragons accept their demons and all through that, nothing like this had ever happened.

The swarming bugs that flew suspended above him looked down. Damien laid lifelessly on the ground that had been bared of any grain of sand just for him. The dragons watched in anticipation, expecting the next agenda to take place.

But nothing happened. Not even a flinch or a tick of a muscle. He just laid there... supposedly dead.

Kiriat squeezed his palms into balls. Right from the bloodred sun appearing, he already knew something was off but had decided to stay hopeful.

"We have to get him. What if he really is dead?" Kiriat said, dusting his arms and walking towards him. He had barely taken two steps forward when he felt Medderath’s death stare bore a hole in his back.

"The process must not be interrupted, Kiriat. You know that."

"But—"

"Get behind." the woman said strongly, emphasizing each word.

An invisible wave circled inside the forcefield, bringing the lifeless body to a sitting position.

Kiriat had only taken a step back when the ginormous, integrated bugs descended mightily into his head.

"Gahhh!!!"

All the elders, including Medderath, jumped in shock at the shattering sound resonating from the confined space. They rushed forward, pushing Kiriat backwards and stood a little bit closer to the forcefield.

The massive consolidated army of bugs had forced themselves directly into his head, taking in it first the pointed needle on its bottom.

Damien’s screams echoed louder and louder until the invisible barrier shattered into a trillion pieces. Now gone, the sound of his intense shriek tore through the air with an excruciatingly painfully loud intensity that any human would have gone deaf just by hearing a fraction of it.

The shriek, coupled with the roar reverberated all around the red painted world. Everything, living or nonliving was soaked in the blood-red atmosphere.

Darkness. Unending, thick darkness deepened its harshness so much that gravity stopped completely.

The brutal screech of something far from human resounded louder than any words could describe and the gigantified bug had only gone half way through his head.

With one final, concluding thrust, it forced itself into his head and the entire place erupted in a sand storm.

The storm lasted for a full minute, spinning around the entire environment like a tornado and a tsunami joined forces. A deep earthquake rumbled through the earth shaking the very ground on which they stood.

Medderath waved her hand and a dome lifted itself over herself and the other dragons, protecting them from the raging storm.

A hot, insane, desert-like wind blew fiercely against them, marking the end of the sand storm.

The dust settled down in another minute and Medderath finally released the dome.

It was like they had landed in another universe.

Everything was either destroyed or wrecked beyond repair. The mountains were crumbled, the trees had been pulled out of their roots and now laid on the sandy ground like scorched up plants.

But the seven dragons barely paid any attention to it. Soon, they focused back on the one person responsible.

Damien.

With the dome gone, Medderath took the first step towards him while the other dragons followed behind her. By the time they got to where he was, he was on his knees but that wasn’t the shocking part.

The dragon tattoo had turned itself into an intriguing, intricate, advanced version of itself. It was no longer green or whatever color it had been but was now a deep, dark shade of violet.

The long, violet body was twisted multiple times and a small, pair of black wings graced the end of it.

On the head of the dragon was a squarely shaped crown that was split at the middle by a sword.

Slowly, Damien rose from the ground. His muscles bulged hard beneath his skin and his eyes were violet colored. It seemed he had increased in size, weight and mass.

Everyone could feel the dark, powerful current of power emmanate from his body.

He took three steps towards them, shoulders held up high like a god.

"It’s time to free our people."