POV Vesuvius:
The dragon was flapping his wings high in the sky, his mind still burning in a fury. He observed how his minions were searching for the thief when suddenly, all of them, one by one, stopped and just stared into nothingness.
They stopped their chase and instead started to bicker between themself. Some of them even vanished in flashes of light as they disconnected.
“Is it real?!”
“This must be some prank. Something like that is simply not possible?”
“There were live witnesses. It was real lightning.”
“Just hoax!”
“No, it is happening all over the world.”
Vesuvius immediately turned more than curious, even his anger towards the thief getting pushed aside as he realised that something extremely important must happen for his minions to stop playing and instead start discussing it.
Some players even started to dance in excitement, making Vesuvius even more interested.
“I told you! The government deceived us for generations!”
“Hahaha, this is what I was hoping for! No, one will stop me now!”
The next moment, a few players ran towards the tower to chase the thief. And as if a dam broke, the remaining players rushed behind them, running like insane. All of them ran after the thief with even more fervour than before. They almost looked like rabid dogs.
The dragon just watched in surprise, still not understanding what happened just from the dialogue of his minions. He only knew that it was something big.
It didn’t take long, and a crowd of masked people dragged a screaming man in grey out of the tower. He was bleeding all over his body, and his grey outfit was in tatters.
He was desperately screaming, “Let me go! You are monsters! You want to feed your fellow human to a monster!”
However, none of the players even cared about it, all overflowing with such fanaticism that even the dragon himself didn’t understand what was happening.
They all gazed at the dragon in the sky with immense greed in their stare.
“You Highness!!! We caught the thief! Please reward us!”
They dropped the thief outside of the tower, pointing all of their weapons at him as if he was some kind of a sacrifice.
“Please let me go! I beg you!!!”
The dragon flapped his wings, his massive body descending from the sky. His large shadow covered the whole crowd of people. The players grew even more excited while the thief froze in utter terror.
Even though Vesuvius wanted to know what was happening with the players, he still wanted to finally finish his business with the thief.
The dragon covered in the shroud of smoke with blue light leaking out loomed over the people on the ground. The air around turned immensely hot just from his presence.
Everyone turned quiet, the players waiting in anticipation while the thief was so terrified that he couldn’t even open his mouth with a puddle of liquid growing underneath him. The only sound was the flapping of the wings resounding around the tower.
After a few seconds of silently observing the thief, the dragon opened his mouth with a large scary grin as he finally got an idea of how to deal with the thief.
“You have sinned against dragons! Cutting? Crashing? None of these is enough for you! Instead, I shall sentence you to a long and slow death that will drag on for months with your body slowly falling apart!”
Vesuvius finally removed all of his restraints, and the blue glow within the cracks of his armour and on the armour itself intensified. The air around him glowed in a weak light under the invisible force radiating out of his body.
With a single thought, his horns flared up in dim light, all seven of them slowly pulsing. Without any effort, his sub-brain took over and directed all of the radioactive particles in the air towards the thief, the small and invisible bullets piercing through his body, destroying his cells and genes while avoiding the crowd of masked minions.
The invisible force washed all over the thief’s body, seeping into every cell of his body. He kept shivering, feeling a slight heat wash over his body.
“Hahaha!” the dragon erupted into mountain-shaking laughter as he knew how excruciatingly painful death awaited the thief.
“You are free to go! You may even survive if you are strong enough to resist my curse slowly eating upon your body. Take it as an opportunity.”
The minions looked at each other in confusion, as if they couldn’t comprehend why the dragon wanted to let the thief go.
‘The image of a human slowly dying with his whole body falling apart will forever remain in the thoughts of anyone thinking of stealing from me.’
He also seriously doubted that anyone would find a way to save him, ‘They can keep healing his body with magic and potions as much as they want, but that will only delay the inevitable. The damage will always return if they don’t solve the issue’s root. His body is full of radiation, with his genes corrupted. He might even irradiate more of his friends.’
It was more than just revenge to him. It was an experiment.
The thief didn’t even move, still trembling on the ground, his whole skin looking red like a tomato. A strong smell of fear was drifting from him.
The dragon flapped his wings, his body ascending towards the clouds in the sky, leaving the thief and his minions on the ground.
POV ???:
Multiple people in suits sat around a circular table made of polished mahogany wood. All of them were ashen pale, sweat running down their faces with their eyes glued on semitransparent displays before them. Everyone was silent, their mood so sour that no one felt like talking.
Only one young-looking man stood, facing the table in his black suit with a blue tie. He nervously opened his mouth and spoke, everyone in the room turning towards him, “Sir, our operatives have raided all of the data centres.” he suddenly paused, contemplating if he should continue, “They didn’t find anything. All of the servers were not even operational. They were all just fake decoys.”
“Dammit, do you consider us to be fools?! All of these simulations must run on something. Just shut it down!”
“Sir, I am afraid that we are unable to stop it.”𝔬𝗏𝐥xt.𝗇t