As before, Adykon was contacted by the female mage... this time, a shimmering form appeared before him in the strange world... its outline was clearly that of a nude female, but it glowed white and had no visible features...
"Come, Adykon. It is time to show you a story. How you react to it is your own choice..." the female said, before starting her tale...
"Long ago, our race was created by a council of dragons, archmages, and some entities who were both. We all know that the Dracons, who we are, is due to magic. We did not, and probably could not evolve naturally. Our society, our language, even our very bodies are derived from norms found in the dragons. Among these are base desires... food, water, mating, sleep, comfort, and safety. But in our hearts also lies something else... greed and lust for power."
The female guided Adykon through this strange, unreal world, walking through the ruins, moving past rubble as they spoke. She stopped walking when they reached the rip in space-time. She spoke: "This anomaly you see before you is called the Great Rift... also known to some as the Great Tear. It is so-called because it is a rip or tear in reality as you would tear a piece of parchment."
The female rose into the air and Adykon rose with her, much against his will. She controlled this dream, not him. From above the rip, the ruins seemed rather small... but then, before Adykon's eyes, a great city appeared, far larger than any he had ever seen, heard of, or though possible.
"My gods... is this... was this city there in the past? Are we looking at what the ruins once were?" Adykon asked the female.
"No. We are seeing the future. If the master succeeds, this place will become his capital." The city was vast, its many mostly brown-colored buildings were often 10 or 15 stories in height, long roads stretched out beyond Adykon's vision, and the walls of the city could only be barely glimpsed in the horizon.
But most shocking of all was the tower built over the Rip... the structure was well over a kilometer tall and was wider than the largest Dracon palace. "The rift emits unimaginable power... too much for almost anyone to control... but the master... he knows how to harness it... and use it! If he can use it, not only will his power powers increase to that of god-like levels... he will be able to single-handedly unleash and harness all of the threats he has tried to harness over the years... our cities and our tribes won't stand a chance..." the female said to Adykon.
The effort of maintaining such an elaborate illusion was taking a strain on her, however slight... this spell was changed a bit to accommodate her weaker female body. The vision of the city faded, and was soon replaced with a long stream of Dracons, all of whom were hungry and tired. There were over 100,000 of them, and all of them were shacked. "This is what we are in for" the female continued "We are going to be forced to pay crushing tribute to the master each year, for he will be our emperor. Ruling from his capital, he will unite our lands, stop the wars between our cities and tribes, and create a huge army." The scene shifted to an troop review, where there were easily half a million soldiers, all heavily armored, well-trained, and all standing geometric formations. Accompanying the army were hundreds of dragons of all colors, and easily a couple thousand clerics and mages. And the speech given by a general stated that this massive force was only a small fraction of the army they had available.
"My gods..." Adykon said for a second time, shocked. "It gets worse" the female said to him... "The scene shifted to the city of Minthebec, where this whole adventure had begun. The city looked like a giant prison, with drab, dull walls, quiet citizens, no music, and few crowds in the streets. The city's once constant traffic was now limited to maybe a quarter of its previous amount, and none of the people in the streets were female. "Why are the female's not-?" Adykon asked before being cut off "Behold..." the female said, sadly.
The scene shifted to a room with 50 different females. They were totally naked, like hierodules, but these females were unhappy. Placed in a room with heavy enchantments on themselves and in the room itself, they were enchanted so they couldn't speak, couldn't leave, and couldn't think about anything else except for mating... and that was their whole life, once they reached a certain age... it was the same for all females, save for a few magically-talented ones... this was far beyond the norm, even for Dracons... many, many times beyond what was allowed!
"Marriages will be made illegal by the emperor" the female said as the scene shifted to a temple. The place of worship had fewer than half of its statues, indicating that only some deities were worshipped... "and the temples will be unable to worship most gods... even the statues which you see weren't originally there in most temples... these are statues to evil gods..."
Adykon had a hard time taking this all in... "But... how? How can we stop him? Why didn't any other mage try to use this... tear thing?" he asked.
"Several have tried to use it... all were atomized." The female said, a strain showing in her voice. "The powers of the rift are so great that if even the slightest percent of its energy is in a position to harm you, it can reduce you to ashes... if you are lucky!"
"But... the master can avoid being destroyed by this, somehow?" Adykon asked.
"Yes... I am not sure how he does it..." the female replied.
"Who are you, female?" Adykon asked. "I would like to know who it is I am talking to..."
"Ha! That's a first! Adykon, I cannot read your mind using this spell under most circumstances, but if you are thinking of something very strongly, I can sense what it is... Don't say you actually CARE about the females you meet... you didn't even care about your mother and sisters..."
"What?! How can you say that?! You know nothing about-!"
"You thought betray you. You were raised to think of females as little more than a means of incubating eggs and preparing food, as well as a way to have some.... fun." the female said. "You don't need to know my name any more than the females you mated with... you rarely knew their names..." as she said that, dozens of nude Dracons females appeared out of portals, approaching Adykon none of them said anything; they just walked around Adykon and sat down, looking at him with expressions of longing.
Adykon was getting nervous at this point. "But... what about Vaeri? I know who she is, and I know that I-"
"Love her? Don't kid yourself. You not only abandoned her to raise your child in Hekaga all by herself, but you are also planning to leave her now... really Adykon... this will have to change."
"Change? Change what? Who are you to tell me what to do! You're a-!" He stopped himself before saying what would prove her point...
"I'm what? A female? Go on... you can say it...." she told him.
"Fine. A female. You are a female. Males should never ever have to listen to a female tell them what to do." Adykon said, finishing his thought. "It still doesn't mean that I want to enslave all of the females in our lands!"
"No, but it does mean that, on a certain level, you and the master both value half of our race for purely physical qualities... and what's worse, you also don't care about... the children."
With that, seven children appeared before Adykon. Four of them looked as if they were zombies, the other three were perfectly normal... and an eighth child appeared in the arms of the female.
"Before you tell me that these are MY children, you should know that there is NO way you could know what they look like or be able to find them! This is a trick, a dream, a phantasmal apparition or whatever you mages call it! I know that I have at least one child, and probably several other ones, all of whom are illegitimate! But...."
Adykon stopped, unable to justify his actions...
"If you are going to be our savior, you will have to love the land you wish to save, and you must love its people too... as of now, you think the perfect life is one spent fighting to make a living, and to kill your enemies to serve your wealth and your ego" the female said, getting more tired "Almost as bad is your idea of how to spend your money... when it isn't going towards weapons and armor, much of it is spent getting drunk... and getting females drunk to make mating easier for both of you... and wasting time watching blood sports and nude dancers..."
"But... this is how our people live! This is what we DO!" Adykon said, exasperated. "What do you want? For me to walk through fields of flowers writing sentimental love poetry?! What kind of a warrior does that?!"
"...Let me tell you another story, Adykon... a long time ago, there was a rich and powerful Dracon who, much like yourself, fought for money, and spent his free time and money indulging his every whim and urge." the female said.
"It sounds like you've just described every Dracon noble who ever lived..." Adykon replied, unimpressed.
"This Dracon was a mage... a very powerful one... and he lived in an age where our people were even more divided than they are now... every little tribe, town and village fighting each other for every last little scrap of land... anyway, he lived in a time of great war, but also great ambition... in time, he put himself more and more in the center of his own little universe... using his powers to live for countless years and gaining more and more knowledge and might... until he tried to take over... and failed... and... and... ugh..." the female said, her power being rapidly spent.
"This... this was the dark master we are talking about, right?" Adykon said.
"Yes... ugh... now... I will contact you again tomorrow... I... cannot stay... awake." The female figure said, falling down to the floor and fainting. As she passed out, the world Adykon was in faded to black, and he awoke with a start.
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