With a snapping of bones and rush of pain, Layla transformed into her Dragon also. Snarling with terrible instinct, she whirled a hot golden wind through Adrian’s fire as she coiled around her human friends, shielding them as she thoughtsafe, protect, fragile. She felt Reginald’s wrath flow through her from afar, as Dusk’s earth-shattering energy shot through her also, spiking out through the cathedral and skewering Storm Dragons and Smoke Faunus in the river. As Storm Dragons blistered them with gales, Layla and her friends resisted – punishing them for their attempts to bring the Bind down.
But as they fought, Layla felt the High Priest’s power come to completion. Flaring a mantle of serrated black spines, his eyes sharpened on their group. Layla saw Hunter’s mind behind it as Lodrian’s Dragon-gaze connected to hers. Taking all the energy of his White Chalice, Lodrian transformed their power into a single, deadly strike. Aimed to take Layla out at the Bind’s heart, she felt all that power focus on her. She felt it aim like a spear upon her as Lodrian turned his enormous black head in her direction.
But as Lodrian opened his jaws, lightning and smoke churning in his great maw, Layla heard someone roar like crystals being blasted together in a 10.0 earthquake. The sound came from Dusk as he gave a tremendous shudder, surging up into a terrifyingly huge Dragon even larger than Lodrian. Armored with sapphire-blue and diamond plating, every scale on him was serrated, screaming with diamond-light. Opening jaws with fangs large as mammoth tusks and raking talons of pure diamond through the earth, he roared to the vaults – a hammer of power uprooting trees and concussing the ground, exploding everything into fault lines and making the entire cathedral shudder.
As spears of serrated diamond shot from Dusk’s spine and head, creating an armored mantle of light, Dusk heaved with uncanny control, cracking his crystal-spiked tail and skewering Storm Dragons, sending them careening through the cathedral’s walls. Turning his furious sapphire-diamond eyes upon the High Priest, Dusk roared with a shockwave of ground-roilling power, cracking the stout trees of the cathedral. Storm Dragons were suddenly shrieking, pummeled by tree limbs bigger than houses as they came crashing down. Layla, Adrian, and Rhennic’s abilities were now used only for shielding in a vast dome around their company as Dusk brought the enormous cathedral down by his power – unleashed in its true glory at last.
But even as Dusk raged, Layla felt the High Priest’s attention sharpen. Boiling with whitenullaxinside his maw along with that star-bright annihilation now, Hunter’s mind guided Lodrian’s as the big black drake curved his neck and blasted all that power from his throat. That lance ofnullax-storm shot not at Layla as Hunter unleashed it from Lodrian, piercing right through the dome of their protection.
But straight to Dusk.
Layla didn’t even see the blast hit her Royal Crystal Dragon, but she felt it. She felt Dusk’s scream all through her as his power was stolen – as everything that made him a Crystal Dragon was sucked from his marrow like a Vampire Revenant devouring its prey. She felt Adrian scream; she felt Rhennic’s shock. She felt Luke’s horror and Rikyava’s heartbreak, and Reginald’s roar of agony far away. But mostly, she felt her own darkness as all of Dusk’s diamond-light brilliance was taken from her. All his joy, all his pleasure. All his righteous energy and indomitable strength. All his cheeky laughter and winsome bravado.
All of it, ripped away and casting her into darkness.
Darkness devoured Layla, and she screamed as she collapsed back down into human. Shuddering naked on the broken ground, she heaved as a terrible nothingness filled her from Dusk’s energy killed inside her, as he collapsed back down to human also. Protecting her and Dusk as his Dragon, Adrian blasted a gout of vicious flame, charring enemies even as he roiled in pain. Collapsed to his knees, Luke screamed in agonized fury as hisnullaxshot out in a terrible wave, devouring enemies right and left.
But it was Rhennic who roared in defiance as his Dragon flashed to Dusk, fast. Locking his jaws over Dusk’s chest, Rhennic poured his magic into Dusk through the Bind. Layla felt Rhennic pouring hisnullaximmunity into Dusk as the final bit of Dusk’s magic was devoured by the High Priest’s blast. And as Layla felt Rhennic give his all to try and save Dusk, Layla felt Luke’s energy roil through the blasted cathedral like a mist from hell.
Layla felt the barrier of the Nexus-space flash out to Luke’s ability, returning the cathedral to the Twilight Realm. Snow and winter winds seethed in through the cathedral’s broken vaults as hundreds of Storm and Blood Dragon cavalry blasted through. Falling like a shooting star upon the High Priest, Queen Justine dove as an all-white Dragon with piercing midnight-blue eyes, lightning blazing around her in a ball of white plasma. Hurtling right to Lodrian, she smashed into him, bowling his black Dragon over in the river and pinning her jaws to his. Exhaling all her tremendous power, she blasted it right down the High Priest’s throat.
Taking him at last.
Breathing fire down someone else’s throat could scorch them from the inside, but breathing star-plasma down someone’s throat was obliterating. Lodrian’s Dragon exploded like a supernova, serrated scales and spines blasting out in terrible black projectiles as his insides charred into ruin. Shields of power slammed up fast from their allies; Layla and her group were saved by a quick lightning-wall from Rhennic. But with a triumphant roar, Queen Justine fell motionless over Lodrian’s grisly remains.
Pierced through the heart by a hundred serrated scales and black spines.
Layla heard King Huttr’s strangled roar as he swooped in as his massive snow-white drake with geodesic blood-lines, hurling blood-lances in a furious hurricane through the hearts of their foes. Layla saw her human friends cowering in the carnage as Rikyava coiled around them, keeping them safe as the entire cathedral came tumbling down in thundering waves to the Dragon-battle. She saw Adrian coiled around Dusk’s body, roaring jets of fire as Rhennic’s lightning-wall coalesced around Layla, protecting her from careening debris.
But she didn’t see the rest.
Layla felt herself leave, drifting on empty time as sound faded in her ears. She flowed away, wanting to die from all the pain she felt surrounding her, and within her own heart. But even as she despaired, lingering on the brink of an endless nothing, she felt someone call her back. Heat scorching as desert sands flowed into her and Layla gasped. Fire-coils wrapped around her with the tenderest love, hauling her back from the brink. Layla wanted to leave; the destruction was too much.
But with a sweet breath down her throat, Adrian’s winds called her back – waves of jasmine and cinnamon leading her back to the light.
Layla came to. His lips upon hers, Adrian was naked in human form as he poured his reviving winds down her throat. Layla gasped, drinking him in as her eyelashes fluttered. Luke was compressing her chest with CPR, and as she coughed, surfacing, he ceased. Kissing her as tears of relief streamed down his face, Adrian pulled her into his arms.
All around, the cathedral was in ruins, silent now but for the groans of the dying. With a massive retort, a tree-limb cracked, hammering the ground nearby and sending up a sluice of dust. The cathedral was destroyed, their Storm Dragon allies erecting a barrier to keep out snow and winter winds, even as Justine’s storm-wielders worked to calm the storm itself. Inside the decimated cathedral, bodies of Smoke Faunus and Storm Dragons were now back in human-form, littering the carnage.
Nearby, Layla saw a sarcophagus of sapphire and diamond glowing in the ruins. She could just make out a man inside, in repose with his arms crossed over his chest like an Egyptian mummy. The crystal sarcophagus was so thick, she couldn’t make out Dusk’s face. But she felt his indomitable energy as the sarcophagus gave a slow pulse. The last fragment of Dusk’s magic shuddered with a vicious stubbornness, deep as the earth and just as immutable as it coalesced into a cocoon around him. Layla could just hear the sub-bass notes of his Dragon as Dusk’s magic resisted obliteration like a star in the void.
Humming a sweet vibration into Layla’s heart.
“He’s alive!” Layla gasped, her hand clutching her chest as tears sprung to her eyes, feeling Dusk’s light inside her once more.
Nodding, Adrian kissed her brow as his own tears fell. “I don’t know what condition he’s in, or if he’ll recover. But at least he still has his magic and his life. And his Bind is still with us…”
The way Adrian said it broke Layla’s heart. Wrapping her arms around Adrian’s neck, she held him fiercely as Luke cradled her, setting his cheek to hers. Layla could feel Luke’s tears as they slipped down her cheek. She could feel him resonating with their Bind now, with their emotions as his own woe twisted deep into his heart.
But as Layla and Adrian held each other, Layla saw their allies victorious. She saw the White Chalice killed to the last Dragon and Faunus, the High Priest’s Dragon-remains charred upon the moss. She saw the Storm Dragons kneeling around the fallen Queen Justine, returned to human-form but with her slender chest skewered by serrated black spikes. Beside her, King Huttr knelt naked, his eyes closed as he held her hand, murmuring a benediction for the battle-slain. Nearby, Layla’s human friends huddled in the wreckage, Charlie embracing Celia and Arron in his big buff arms as Storm Dragon medics wrapped them in wool blankets. Arron’s gaze caught Layla’s, and she saw shock in his grey eyes – knowing how deadly Layla’s world was now.
But as Layla’s gaze roved the carnage, she suddenly felt a pull on her Bind. Rhennic’s beautiful royal purple eyes found hers where he knelt next to his mother, gloriously naked and covered in battle-gore. Layla felt an indomitable wind move in her, like the breath of evening over summer fields as they watched each other. The scent of lavender rose in her and she caught her breath, unable to look away. As she clutched Adrian and Luke, she felt Rhennic pour his calm strength into her, into them all – unperturbed by her love for her other men.
As their eyes met, Rhennic gave her the smallest nod, like a knight to his lady. Layla’s heart swelled, Adrian and Luke both inhaling as Rhennic’s energy fed them. Though wreathed in crystal, she felt a flicker in Dusk, saved by Rhennic’s selfless act. Somewhere far away, she felt that calm power flood Reginald, brighting his sea-grey eyes.
Rising, Rhennic moved towards them, walking carefully as if everything hurt from the magics he’d expended. As the Storm Prince came to them, Layla rose with Luke and Adrian, facing him. Flashing with lightning just like his mother’s once had, Rhennic’s gaze roved them as he gave a sad smile.
“I thank you, friends,” he spoke soberly, “for delivering to my mother her final wish. The White Chalice are uprooted at last, and we have dealt your enemy Hunter a severe blow. Though my mother is gone, I am not, and as temporary Regent of the Storm Dragons I declare you all heroes among our clan. A tremendous deed has been done this day, and though sacrifice strikes our hearts,” he nodded at Dusk’s crystal sarcophagus with a deep sadness, then his mother’s fragile body with King Huttr whispering death-prayers over her, “we have prevailed. Additionally, we have secured a gift in the ashes – for you.”
