Baldur begins to lose it, too, as I feel his addiction to higher magic re-surge. He thrusts himself up into the Void, searching for more power to hold open our portal, even as that addiction drowns him.
As all my drakes lose out now to this sundering darkness, everything inside me spirals. As that pinpoint of light flashes out, I’m lost; all my rage and hate of Lithava crashes back, swamping me as it overcomes my love.
My unity and oneness are lost—I become my black dragon now, as power unlike anything I’ve ever known crashes through my flesh.
Because I have become that sundering energy, as I rip back up towards the Black Dragon with a towering hate inside my heart. Caustic black-violet sigils careen through me now, as I roar with massive overtones and sub-bass notes in my dragon-voice, unhinged.
I feel it punch through the creature’s bones, shuddering them, even as it blisters through its veins, boiling its blood from the inside out. The creature roars in pain from what I’ve done, as it hearkens to me.
Though what I’ve done is torture it into submission, rather than help it.
Enough!I roar at the Black Dragon, even as I feel another command pummel it from Lithava:Attack!
The Black Dragon roils in its vast pain and madness; thrashing in the skies, it hammers both Lithava and me with its blocky head now, slamming us away from it as we go careening through the skies.
Pain devours me as I’m hit by the Black Dragon. It shocks me back to my senses now, as I snap back from that ultra-black place where I had gone in my most devastating night.
The rest of my drakes are also shocked back from that most annihilating place, but Bjorn is not. Because he has not found true unity with the rest of us yet; as his battle hits a pinnacle in the skies, he hammers his most terrifying volley of furiously barbed Bloodspears at his father yet.
It’s then that my love finally wins over my hate. With that completely merciless drive, I know Bjorn is nearly lost to us now; I have to save my First Drake from himself, even as I see the scalding white sigils all over his body careen black.
He’s going for the kill. And though I once promised him I’d stand back and let him do what he had to against his father, I know I can’t let him make this kill in such towering hate.
His hate will sever him from us, this Bloodbond finding such unity with each other now, in our innermost brightness. He will be lost to us forever; that awareness makes me explode up through the skies as I abandon Lithava and the Black Dragon now, to save Bjorn.
Because he is my beloved, my First Drake, the man I hate to love and love to hate. But that hate is really only love, as I finally make it to where he rages in the skies.
As Bjorn slams Oggi with a thrust so towering in his all-black madness that it bowls Oggi head-over-tail in the skies, I feel Bjorn power up for his last hit. A raging, ultra-focused Bloodlance to pierce right through Oggi’s infernal heart, it is a strike that will curse Bjorn’s heart forever, away from me, and us.
I can’t let that happen. As I wing up hard now, wrangling all my drakes’ last power, I know I am him and he is them. We are all each other now in this Bloodbond, as I use what Bjorn can do and make a spontaneous portal on the fly, flashing out of existence, then right back into being immediately before him.
It pulls Bjorn up hard with a surprised snort, just before his strike. Ihave one moment to see his beautiful golden eyes clear of the all-black taint that had claimed them.
But out of the corner of my eye, I see Oggi Magnussen power up. That bone-white tattoo upon his neck flares, just like it did with Jarl Jorg Eriksson.
And then his strike heaves out—not at me, but at Bjorn.
Hitting Bjorn right in the chest.
23
LOST
Bjorn drops from the skies, releasing our Blood Dragon King from his talons as he plummets. I scream as my dragon as I feel my First Drake’s heart stop, cursed to death by his father, Oggi Magnussen.
Everything inside me goes wild then, as Bjorn’s fierce brightness is ripped from me. As our Bloodbond flashes out, there is nothing within me where his vast golden love once was.
Only emptiness.
I am wrath, as my blackest midnight takes over. I am the rip and I am the shred, as I come after Oggi Magnussen like a hurricane, blasting him with the most terrifying swathes of ultra-black magic any Blood Dragon has ever manifested.
Caustic black sigils careen from me everywhere as they explode from me, decimating the skies. I am a terror of the ancient world, as those sigils sear a terrible, diseased red, blistering everything around me to death.
The Black Dragon is with me, as it resonates fully with my own insanity now—we become a duo of terror as we roar through the skies. Our remaining enemies are ruined; swathes of caustic black firespew from me as the Black Dragon goes ultra-Wraith with me, one with me as we kill everything around us.
Because all must be punished for our never-ending pain. The Black Dragon, because it contains only division, so many souls in torment screeching through its bones and veins.
Me, because I just lost that which was most precious to me—my First Drake.
