I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Battle of Minds

'I- I can't move?!' Ergen yelled in frustration, causing his body to roar as he struggled to stand. Whatever this circle was, it seemed to be both sap Ergen of what little strength he had left to him as well as root him in place. And no matter how much he fought against it, the circle only seemed to only tighten around him, restricting his movements even more while Emric didn't seem effected on his end at all. 

"Finally... after all of these years." Emric said in a tone of wonder as he looked at Ergen. "I will finally achieve my goals!"

As he spoke, small bolts of red electricity started sparking between the two illuminated circles on ground, and Ergen suddenly tensed as he felt strange. With his mind started feeling clouded, and Ergen was shocked as he could no longer move at all now. Though, whatever magic was effecting him, the most surprising part about it was what came next.

'At long last... I've opened the path to saving Ligan.' Ergen shockingly heard what he guessed were Emric's thoughts inside of his head.

'Whatever you're doing, it won't work.' Ergen responded to the thoughts. 'No matter how you get to the world of gods, there's nothing that either the avatars or champions of the games can do to them.'

'So naive...' Emric responded with what sounded like a sneer. 'Just let the ritual take it's course and you will not have to worry about any of this anymore. I will solve everything... by using your body carry out my plans.'

'My body?!' Ergen asked in shock before the circles suddenly started shining even brighter beneath them and Ergen suddenly found that he had the most massive migraine that he'd ever experienced before.

'Is it really that difficult for you to figure it out?' Emric asked with a sigh. 'There is only one way to travel to the world of the gods, and that is if they bring you there personally. Therefore, I'm transferring my soul into your body so that I can kill Chae and emerge victorious in your game, and in doing so, I will gain chance to defeat the gods. But you actually benefit from this as well, don't you? Just think about it, after this ritual is completed, your soul will be transferred into my body and you will become a king!'

'I don't want to be a king! All I've ever wanted to do was just to live in piece!' Ergen yelled in his mind, though it was becoming difficult to even follow along with his conversation as his consciousness slowly felt like it was being pulled out of his head. The migraine intensified, and Ergen clenched his jaws from the pain as he continued to try and resist the ritual.

'Just think about it. If you become me then you can become human. You won't have to survive in the wilds anymore and you can even fix everything problem that I caused within Ligan. You can become a hero, just like I once was!'

To be honest with himself, Ergen thought that it really was a somewhat decent proposition, other than the fact that there was currently an army of people nearby that were all trying to kill Emric. And as Ergen thought of the man, several images suddenly appeared in his mind of Emric eating at extravagant feasts, having the authority to order everyone around and even having access to all of the magic spells that he could ever dream of. A life free of worrying about food and danger... to Ergen, it almost seemed like a dream come true.

'I'll be cheering for you.' Another voice suddenly spoke out in Ergen's mind, and he instantly recognized it as Echo's. The voice had instantly dispelled any visions that he had been receiving, though he didn't know why he had heard her voice so suddenly as she didn't appear to be anywhere in sight. However, thankfully she'd managed to snap him out of his delusions, and in doing so she also made him remember why he was there to begin with. He was there to survive, which wouldn't happen if he and Emric changed bodies. Not to mention that, in submitting to Emric's ritual, Ergen would be betraying the one person that he knew that he never would. The one person that had been with him ever since he was trapped alone inside of the Land of Legends.

'Sorry, but I'm not giving up my body just yet.' Ergen stated inside of his mind with new determination as his migraine was numbed just a bit. 'Even if this is all just a game... I don't want Echo to lose, not when she'd been supporting me ever since I first arrived in this world!'

'She's the once that most likely brought you to this world to begin with!' Emric yelled in reply, though that didn't matter to Ergen. Echo had spoken to him when Ergen found himself alone and on the verge of becoming a larger creature's meal. Her words had been a comfort to his lonely self while he'd focused on nothing but survival, so how could he ever even think about betraying her?!

"Why... why isn't it working?!" Emric suddenly yelled angrily, holding both of his hands out in front of him before apparently adding his own magic to the ritual as the circles shined twice as brightly as before. And while Ergen didn't know if it was him being a dragon, the magic resistant metal armor he was wearing or some kind of divine intervention that was protecting him, he didn't care as he finally managed to stand on his unsteady legs. He resisted the magic circle to his fullest, yet it unfortunately still wasn't enough as he couldn't find the strength to take even a single step outside of the circle.

Now that he'd regained full control of his mind, Ergen now stood facing Emric in a glaring match as the man attempted to activate the circles again, though it was to no avail as Ergen was feeling less and less affected by the magic with every passing second. Though while his mind had been freed, his body was still immobile before Ergen noticed something odd in the background. While Emric was furiously attempting to give power to the magic circles, Chae seemed to be having some sort of panic attack behind him, shaking her head wildly and smashing her body into the nearby walls and pillars as she seemed to have lost her mind. And when Emric noticed it as well, he separated one of his hands and pointed it at her, seeming to calm her down somehow while the circle weakened around Ergen. And thus, Emric spent the next few minutes frantically attempting to keep both the circle around Ergen as well as Chae under control, and Ergen was beginning to wonder just how long the man could keep the effort up before something unexpected happened.

Seeming to have recovered, both a trembling Asal and a bleeding Sera started running forward from where they had been laying on the floor. As they ran, Emric began looking desperate before a large ball of fire detonated against him, making him stagger backwards to the edge of his circle from Asal's attack. Though, while it hadn't quite knocked him outside of the circle, the fireball had covered Sera's advance before she finally yelled out a battle cry as she attempted to behead him.

Reacting more quickly than what should have been possible for any human, Emric managed to raise his arm in time to defend himself, letting his gauntlet take the blow for him before the enchanted metal armor surprisingly shattered and Emric was blasted to the side. He let out a slight scream as he flew through the air before colliding into the already partially destroyed wall that Ergen had crashed through earlier, completely obliterating the rest of it before falling to the floor. However, as soon as he reached the floor, Emric was already back on his feet and casting a gaze of pure hatred at both of his aggressors.

"You-" Emric breathed heavily as he seethed. "This is not even close to being over!"