United in our purpose—to keep safe everything we love.
But Stockholm is overrun by the rebel forces and the Black Dragon. As Lithava snarls at me, a tremendous aura of ultraviolet, burning crimson hatred seethes all around her and her drakes.
As the Black Dragon roars above us, it pours its terrible oilslick-darkness through the skies in a renewed wave; dragons drop all around, even as our remaining fighters rip through the skies, fighting on.
But as the Usurper’s terror coats the skies, the behemoth roaring a new jet of black fire at the palace again, it’s devastatingly clear; we must get everyone out, so our Lineage can live to see another day.
As we tighten around the King and Prince in a hard knot now, I know we’ll have no one left if we don’t. I focus on the portal still shimmering in the skies to Harnakje, and feel my drakes understand.
They’re ready to get everyone the fuck out, so we can live to end this thing later. The problem is getting there, as we face off now with Lithava and her drakes in the burning rubble of the palace, not to mention the Usurper itself.
The Black Dragon no longer has its own mind, as it roars at us again, trying to take down our auric shield. But that shield holds, no matter how many diabolical curses the behemoth roars all over it; stalwart, we stand in our deepest heart of hearts as we know what we protect now and hold fast against annihilation.
As Lithava and her drakes shift down, however, I know we’re in a stalemate. My drakes and I are already exhausted from everything we’ve gone through; so are Lithava and her mates, even as the Black Dragonheaves its tremendous wings again, hurling ropes of burning black curse-work everywhere.
I can feel the influence of the black rings and the silver rings, pulling hard from both our Bloodbonds now. Because everyone is exhausted from everything both us and our enemies have been through recently.
Though the rings try to keep us alive, neither group is able to pull enough power to finish this. A strange moment takes us then, as the carnage continues all around.
As we stand face-to-face with our enemies, I feel the intense wrath that takes Mikkel and Lærke, to see their former father-figure Emil Beck. A pure, burning hate scalds all through Bjorn, too, as he faces his father, Oggi Magnussen, staring us down with a seething hatred in his gold-black eyes.
Terrible, Oggi’s towering stature is covered in diseased runes as his rageful eyes blaze. All of Lithava’s drakes have been ravaged by ghastly black-violet and ruined crimson curse-work, scalding right through their very blood and bones, and all the sinews that make them.
They look more like demons than dragons because they’ve done a deal with the devil, taking on the taint of the Black Rift to do Hedda’s diabolical ceremonies and restore her creature.
Lithava stares me down with those horrid black runes coursing through her eyes, seething like a living thing through her body. As she snarls at me, I realize I don’t even know her anymore. Her vicious voice is deeper, more dragon than human, as I see how none of her drakes are so terribly cursed as she is.
My once-sister is almost more curses than flesh, as that charred blackness claims her, everywhere. It takes my breath away as I see what she has let in. Hedda’s Usurper roars to the skies again, punishing the battle with its madness, as my shock catapults me into a sudden Bloodwalking now.
My power thrusts me into the Void, and I see Lithava’s crimson dragon in the cosmos. But Hedda has taken over her; Hedda’s all-black drakaina wraps through my sister’s aura completely now, leaving littlecrimson visible as she coils throughout my sister’s soul in the Void, inseparable.
Worse, the cosmic division energy of the Black Rift devours them both, seething all through them like a black hole. Nothing exists where that energy goes. I see how it tears apart the very fabric of the cosmos, as it boils from Hedda and Lithava’s joined auric dragon now in a tirade.
Spreading like a cancer across the stars.
As I’m thrust back from that spontaneous Bloodwalking, I know my sister cannot be saved. Though I had been tempted to dive into my most horrible wrath against her right now, I don’t.
Instead, a quiet place finds me in the chaos, as I suddenly mourn what my sister has become. I know she made an awful choice, donning that black ring of Hedda’s and latching onto her power. She’s let Hedda dominate and manipulate her, all the way into her very soul in the Void.
As I understand that Lithava’s very essence has become diseased by what she’s agreed to, like the Black Dragon snarling above, I know she can no longer let any light in. Those crimson-black sigils burn so vividly upon her flesh, as I see how she has become like a rabid animal—and like a rabid animal, she must be put down.
But that death can be merciful, as a vast compassion sears through me now, as wide as the sky. A sensation of being unending fills me; it lights my entire being up like wildfire as a true, endless love shines from my heart.
That love is echoed in my drakes, even Lærke, as they all blaze in their love, righteousness, and true power with me. As Ström threads his fingers through mine, I feel how he will never let his innermost light go out again.
He stands strong in his deepest power now—his ability to love and remain bright, even when all other lights go out. As Baldur burns like a star at my back, I know that despite his addiction to higher magic, he’s found his real strength in our love, and knowing he’ll never have to face that darkness inside him alone again.
Even Lærke and Mikkel burn more brightly than I’ve ever felt them before as they join hands, staring Emil Beck down. Neither surrender totheir poisonous vendetta now, because they’ve learned their love is far more powerful than their hate. Righteous, they stand with us, even as their inner dragons snarl viciously at Emil, ready to take him out.
Only Bjorn is not completely with us, as we blaze now like a star being born in the cosmos, from our united love. Although our auric fire-shield increases tenfold, searing like a new dawn as it rages all around now, Bjorn stares his father down with a conflict of hate and love inside his heart.
Although Bjorn was part of our most recent lovemaking with our united Ouroboros, he also was not, far away at the Grand Palace. It makes a difference now, as he wars with himself against the man who whelped him.
And cannot decide which way to move his heart.
But Bjorn’s conflict doesn’t undo our love right now, as we righteously stand in protection of our lives, our Lineage, and our King. As we blaze in our powerful love, Lithava bristles. I feel her hatred of me seethe up hard now, as her wrathful power boils around her.
Ugly black sigils careen around her in an oilslick-dark wind, which rises from all her drakes. I see her eyes go all-black then, scoured with devastating black sigils just like Hedda’s, as her mates’ do, as well.
