His words hurt me. And I decided to take a moment and try to sort through my throbbing skull and lack of memories, after all the Wizard's advice had served me well.
Framed in the doorway to the hoard, stood a man who looked exactly as my brother once had, but everything else about the being was alien to me. My dragon man whispered to us that a red dragon stood before us, but I was too stunned to pay any notice. They spoke for a few minutes and we learned that Mugen had somehow stole much of this dragon's essence and the only way the dragon could get it back was to fall in battle.
"That is the only way?", I asked. His assertion spurned me on, "Then it is with a heavy heart that I formally challenge you."
"I accept, take time to prepare", was his answer.
I began to weave spell and song to provide my small army with the magic we would need to overcome a dragon. We learned the dragon was known as Larexian and he had been a ancient red wyrm once, before Mugen had stolen part of his essence.
The battle was hard and fierce. The Dude fled the field and did not return. The tiger man and his mate fled as well, but they were made of sterner stuff and their return helped turn the tide in our favor. Bahamut even sent forth a wrathful angel to help us and strike the killing blow.
After the dispersal of the red's corpse, all that remained was his vast treasures and his ancient skeletal remains.
Let me take a moment to explain to you the best tactic to fight a dragon. Do not fight a dragon, under any circumstances. This is the best tactic you will ever use. Trust me, stay on your farm with your family or as an apprentice to the tight-lipped smith or playing the fool to the perverted old lord who makes your feel uncomfortable with his eyes. Any of those fates are better than fighting a dragon.
Each of us found a single object of significance before the treasure disappeared. I received an unknown Orb that I felt might help in battling my brother. I paid little attention to what the rest found, until the Red Wizard's cloak seemed to fill the vault with an air of malice.
And then Bahamut appeared to us, on the dragon man's behalf. It seems that as long as Larexian's essence was bound to this hoard, Mugen could potentially raise him as a Dracolich. The dragon man used a ritual to pay fealty to Bahamut and give the red's soul over to him, as Tiamat had failed the ancient wyrm. Bahamut wasn't exactly pleased, but he did reward the dragon man and he spied the Red Wizard's cloak.
Did I mention he made the dragon man smarter? We will see how that fares.
The Dragon God's attention then, seemingly, allowed Asmodeus himself to step from the Red Wizard's own shadow. Apparently the cloak had been stolen from the ArchDevil aeons ago. He was threatening to take the Wizard away, while Bahamut argued with both of them.
It was then that I snapped out of the contemplation that had wracked me thus far.
Who was this ArchDevil to threaten and command my servant? My head hurt, I was burnt and tired, I'd had to contend with seeing relatives, enough was enough. If anyone would hurt or slay my Wizard, it would be me!
Did I mention that the Red Wizard had a name? It was Enzio and he seemed truly alive for the first time, upon my uttering it.
Bahamut entered into our argument offering his cloak in place of Asmodeus, but the Red Wizard was firm upon keeping the ArchDevil's attire.
Eventually Bahamut departed and Asmodeus, as so many of of my enemies, was impressed and asked for a favor, knowing I would accomplish any task he set forth.
He took us to a demi-plane, just outside the 8th Level of Hell and told us the Fiend who had also empowered Mugen laired there. He bid us farewell, firmly aware that he had stood in my presence, if only for mere moments.
We then rested and I began to draw forth plans for our assault.
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