Annihilated, they are consumed; it’s Armageddon come alive, as I surge up towards the Black Dragon like a star now, blazing through the skies to take it down. The air is thin and frigid as we gain the Black Dragon’s location, but energy unlike anything I’ve ever known superpowers me as I wing hard around it, trying to find an opening.
Even as I roar at it, trying to interrupt its mad rampage, my drakes and I cannot get close. As we wing around it, Lithava and her drakes come for us like a hurricane, splitting off from the battle to come get us, even though they were drained nearly to death by the Black Dragon’s heart-curse just moments ago.
They’re recovered now, thanks to how much energy my drakes and I gave them via the Two Rings, and how much the Black Rift gives them. Even though they no longer carry the energy of Hedda, Lithava and her mates are possessed by the Rift now as they fight to let Hedda’s end come.
Lithava shrieks up at the Black Dragon for it to blast us, but I feel how she can’t command it anymore. As the creature looks at me, I know Lithava’s lost control of it. It’s my turn now; I scream at the Usurper with all the towering overtones and bass notes of my entire Bloodwalker dragon in my voice, to get ahold of it.
My inner dragons unite in a gargantuan explosion of auric wildfire as I burn like the brightest star in the cosmos, to take this behemoth down. Allmy drakes do, too, as the united fire of our new Bloodwalker power explodes through us like the universe going supernova.
And the Dragon of All Souls listens—training in on our voices and magic.
Before it roars.
Resisting our call—decimating the skies once more.
28
BLACK
As the Black Dragon of All Souls resists my united Bloodbond’s call, I know we are lost. Our brightest light cannot command it—only our darkest can, as I suddenly know what I must do. This battle, this resistance, this fight; none of it will mean anything if I can’t make a connection to the Black Dragon and get it to listen. Because its mad rampage will devour everything; there will be no surviving this, as I let go now.
And let the infernal blackness of my darkest inner Void take me.
I’m swallowed into an endless pit as I give in to the darkness inside. For I must try to wield the Usurper in my darkest state now, or all of this ends—because it is my own endless division which resonates with the beast.
I don’t hear Hedda’s voice gloating inside me now as I let everything go to resonate with the Black Dragon. I hold on to the incredible, ever-blazing light of my new unity with my drakes to anchor me as I plummet. Like a star of the ages, the light of our united Ouroboros fills me, even as I fall.
As my body bursts into a vicious black dragon with violet-dark lightseething from my flesh, a sudden starburst of white-gold sigils explodes all around the valley—and it didn’t come from me. Shocked, I glance over to see a massive sigil-field fill the skies; as that vast net erupts into being all around, blazing figures crash into the battle.
Seven-layer wings spread wide, the Intercessoria Archangels burn brighter than sunlight as they arrive. Their massive web of Archangelic magic cuts through the Black Dragon’s curse-ropes, plus the leviathan tentacles of the Black Rift, severing them as neatly as a butter knife.
The Black Dragon shrieks in pain, as those all-devouring curse arms are sliced off like its very own limbs. A subsonic roar issues from the Black Rift as well, screeching with overtones so high it skewers right through my ears.
But as two Archangels with opal-black wings burn brighter than the rest, leading a fresh charge against our foes, I know Insinio and Heathren have come through for us. I will not waste it, as power as dark as hellfire itself boils all through me.
Knowing it’s time.
As my most diabolical Bloodwalker power sings through every pore of my body now, I know I must use this advantage with the Archangels while it lasts. Even now, new coils thrust from the Black Dragon and the Rift, hammering that incredible incarceration as white-gold Archangel sigils burn away, charred to nothingness.
Other sigils scroll in fast to replace those that were destroyed. This deterrent will fail, however, if we can’t get the Black Dragon to stop its madness with the Rift, annihilating us between their endless jaws.
We have to ground it!A sudden instinct fills me about how to bring this ancient hellion down.
On it!A plan from Ström bursts into being, that he floods into us all, as he lights up his vast mesmeric magic inside us.
We meld our minds to his, as I feel us all surge with Ström’s mesmeric power and also Mikkel’s mind-paralysis. Their abilities light into animmense amalgamation now, as we add Bjorn’s pure strength, and Baldur’s cosmic power and blazing certainty we can do this.
As I yoke us all together, ripping power from us like the ocean and ravaging our bodies, hearts, even our very souls from this dark state I’m in, I feel how I draw on Bloodwalkers, awakened. Each of my drakes is a Bloodwalker now, not just me; it superpowers our might as I ready our attack.
I hold on to my brightest light, even as I descend into my darkest, and gather all our mind-powers, hard. Then, thrusting that magical drive out with everything we’ve got, I hit the Black Dragon square between its eyes as we roar at it in unison.
A towering wave of love, light, and death rushes through our newfound Bloodwalker powers—and smites the Black Dragon. With a shriek, it’s paralyzed, its mind overcome by our masterful maneuver. As the Usurper plummets, its body immobile and its wings useless, it tumbles into the cavern of the Rift.
It crash-lands among the Rift’s seething tentacles, and I feel how the pain of that landing casts our mind-maneuver off. The Usurper can’t rampage through the skies anymore, though; as my drakes and I dive like eagles on the hunt, I see how it’s crushed one wing beneath its gargantuan body as it fell into the cavern’s hole.
Its black taint ripples through that wing now, however, making bones crunch and mend. Worse, the leviathan darkness of the Rift feeds it, as those massive coils of darkness boil all over the creature, restoring it.
As my drakes and I screech down to the Black Dragon’s position, I finally see our King—protected within one of his powerful Bloodshields now, rather than lying inert on the stones. King Huttr’s massive crimson-gold dragon roars in pain, as his Bloodshield is swarmed by the Rift’s taint.
