It’s like some kind of acid of their truest heart has singed my drive. I roar in rage and wrath now, as a dark crimson and green drake surges in before their fallen bodies, snarling in protection of them.
But although I didn’t manage to shred their souls from whatever their tattoos did, my roar with the Black Dragon was potent. Both dragons fall limp as their hearts beat their last.
Cursed by the Usurper’s heart-killing blast instead of its soul-shredding one.
I feel their souls rush to the Black Dragon now, adding unmentionable power to the beast from their vicious might. But something about their sacrifice has damaged me; pain blisters through my entire body now, as I roar in agony.
But the twins’ valiant action has destabilized some resonance inside me; the Black Dragon shrieks now as my connection to it is lost. As it goes Berserk and Wraith again, roaring its infernal hell-fire to the skies, it whips its head everywhere, decimating the last survivors of the battle and making them plummet like swatted flies allaround.
Its power grows as it takes their souls. It becomes wild, roiling in its own living hell as its horrifying roar blasts everywhere.
But I remember the Thorsen twins now, as both Mikkel and Lærke’s shrieks echo through my mind. Shock hits me with a towering wallop, as I see how both have fallen, heart-cursed by my own vicious wrath. As their indomitable souls fly to the creature’s Void, I feel a vicious sensation tear my insides, as if something precious—like the true love of a loyal mate and a sister—has been ripped from me.
As another dragon roars and barrels in before me now, blazing blue-white like the most ancient stars in the cosmos, I feel his towering roar shake me to my very fundament.
Rikyava! There is always free will and choice!Baldur is desperate as he roars to me now, trying to get through to me in my unhinged state.Fate is not predetermined—it can change! It can change!!
I shift down in the chaos as I feel Baldur shine brighter than the brightest star inside me. I feel him gather up everything I am there in the place of our Ancestors, as he works his tremendous magic—to change my fate, in the most incredible effort of his life.
Even as his soul shines, with no trace of darkness or addiction anywhere in him now, I feel him get hit by the Black Dragon’s blast. Baldur goes down with a roar, as his attempt to change my fate in the Void shatters. I feel him bring down every last wall between us as he dies, showing me his true heart and how it shines, all for me.
But Baldur is not returning to the everlasting Void now as I scream, rushing to him in my defenseless human form as he falls in a tangled heap, heart-curses from the Black Dragon riddled throughout his dragon body.
The hell oil from the Rift surges everywhere now, thrusting outward like a bomb as Baldur’s tremendous light is added to it via the Black Dragon. The Usurper goes crazy, amok as it feels Baldur’s cosmic power added to its inner hell.
Winging into the skies, it decimates the remaining battle in three-sixty now, as black fire surges from it in a tornado. Everything is pulled intothat tornado of all-cursing hellfire, as I watch, horrified and fully aware now, from the cavern.
Only the small space with Lithava, her drakes, and mine has not yet been consumed. I can’t even see anything else anymore, as the Black Dragon’s terrible cyclone of power claims everything.
Swept into the pile of my dead by the cyclone, Ström thrusts the beautiful passion of his power into me,Hold on to your heart, Rikyava! Don’t let it fail just yet!when he is hit by the sweeping roar of the Black Dragon, too. Ström falls to the pile of our dead as the cyclone of power far above us doubles, the beautiful music of my Bloodbond to him ripped away.
Heart-wrenching sobs rip from me now as I clench my fist to my heart, gripping it and falling naked to my knees in the chaos. Because Ström’s most beautiful music has been ripped from me, as I feel every pain of my sundered Bloodbonds tear through me, devastating me from the inside out.
As Lithava and her drakes are hit by the Black Dragon’s madness now, it sunders their faltering shield, wiping them out in one terrible blast, despite the black rings they still wear. I feel the protection that was once in those rings shatter; because nothing can withstand the all-devouring madness of the beast now, and the darkness that drives it.
They die, the light leaving all their eyes as their own hubris resurrecting the Black Dragon finally undoes them. Just two souls remain in this chaos now, as Bjorn wraps himself around me in human form, resisting the endless cyclone of my pain that resonates with the Black Dragon’s.
As he tries one last time to bring me back.
“It doesn’t have to be this way, Rikyava. We can be the powerful, burning light we feel inside… rather than the devouring dark.” Bjorn’s voice is so soft, I barely hear it through the maelstrom, except that he pours it through my very blood and bones now with his power. I feel him kiss my cheek as he wraps me in his powerful arms, so strong and warm, and good.
As Bjorn speaks, I feel him amalgamate all the powers of my deceased drakes. They live only in him now, thanks to the unity we all found recently as Bloodwalkers.
Using his own Bloodwalker power now, Bjorn pours them hard through my bones and veins, making me feel their love, still alive inside me. As Ström’s beautiful dark magic flows through me, the scent of a fresh glacial river inundating me, Baldur’s paint-and-sunlight fragrance pours into me, making me shine like the endless stars, despite my hell.
Mikkel’s heady old-world cocktail fragrance fills me as Lærke’s beautiful springtime scent comes with it, casting me back to better days.
But it’s Bjorn’s powerful scent of scorch, battlefield char, and peat whiskey with good cigars that really takes me. Because he smells of both war, and peace—a unity of opposites that has always been a part of him, right from the start.
That understanding catapults me up to the cosmos in a spontaneous Bloodwalking now, as Bjorn shows me the fullness of who he really is. He shows me who I truly am, too, out in the stars, as he uses our Bloodwalker power to thrust me into this sudden, towering Bloodwalking.
I see myself in the cosmos now, not endlessly dark but so incredibly bright. A towering white and gold drakaina with crimson spikes and markings, as beautiful as Aesa herself, I know I am not the darkness as I see myself, so bright.
I am not this sundering energy that claims me, trying to put out my cosmic light. I still shine, despite all the darkness shredding me apart. My soul-light is still there, and I am the brightest star in the cosmos. It hits me then—that I am not the worst evil but the best good in the universe; that this shining nature is who I am, united in all my endless facets.
United with the very stars of the Void, I wake up now to who I am. I wake up to the best Rikyava; the most righteous, the most heartfelt, and the most bright, as I see who I am as Bjorn holds me.
I turn my head, kissing him in the chaos now. That kiss is the mostloving of our entire lives as it floods me, insanely bright to this hell of darkness cascading all around us in our worst night.
