Dragon Aster Trilogy (45 page)

The Regal stepped back and fanned its colorful wings out around its back like a peacock. Then its feathers all changed to one color; blue.

“You want to help? What can a handful of Regals do against the army of the Falls?” Loki asked. Perhaps that answer had a certain color too.

“There are more than a mere handful who wish to help you,” a voice said from inside. Master Gei’s white-furred head appeared from the room that separated from the rest of Loki’s makeshift stone castle.

“Master Gei—how? What are you doing here?”

The Iynx jumped up to where the dragon sat on the wall and looked at the Regal below with his equivalent cat-likeness. The Regal immediately lay down as if bowing to a god. “I only wished to say goodbye before I left for Earth.”

“I didn’t know I was that significant to you…” Loki said, unsure of what to make of the Iynx. The Regals he could likely handle, but the mysterious, ageless fallen Sentry was well above his current skill level.

“Those who have felt the cold knife of separation by sacrifice are often drawn to the warmth of each other. You are far from alone. That and the Rift that will take me where I need to go is on this side of the world. This war must be stopped on both sides if we are to succeed.”

“You mean the broken one at the former town of Berion?” Loki asked.

“A broken Gate is a broken Gate. The Rifts are still open,” Gei explained. “It also looks like you can use some help with Toria.” He looked at the Regal that was now sitting down, twitching its tail patiently.

Loki also looked at the Regal. “We’ve killed so many of them, and now they want to help us? The irony of it all. If Simera was here he’d kill me for so much as thinking something so absurd.”

“Your kind killed many of them to appease the wrath of a single Sentry. But she is a Sentry who is now very much imprisoned for her crimes and will remain as such as long as her soul burns with hate.”

“Alexia…” Loki said as his memories drifted into the past. He still couldn’t believe that she had been such a dangerous threat all this time, hidden in Cirrus for that matter.

“Indeed. Now every living creature has the power to change the course of Fate. Aragmoth is dying, and you must secure the Soph Aur and give the Caelestis more time to stop the collapse of our world.”

Sybl,
Loki thought to himself. He remembered how he wanted to protect her and give her a real castle and home. She was the only mirror he ever had that could truly see him, even before he had become an Awl. Now she was the only one who could save them all. “So you won’t be coming with me?”

“I have a war to prevent on the other side of this world as I have said. But I have called in the last of my favors on Aster to aid you with your cause.”

Loki looked towards the Casus Beli Canyon. The buzzing emanating from it grew louder and louder, until it took shape to what looked like a flock of birds, condensed together tightly enough to pass as brown smoke.

The Regals that had been following Loki gave a lions-roar. It reached the canyon and sent the swarm of thousands of plumas flying straight towards Toria.

The hope in Loki brightened a bit, but it was still dimmed by disbelief.

“You must stop daydreaming, Loki. Your mother’s and sister’s soul are within Aragmoth now. If he ceases to exist, then many will cease to exist with him. Many souls will be lost.”

Loki looked back to where Gei had been, but the white cat had vanished. He spread his light green wings and leapt into the air as the swarm of plumas led the charge towards Toria.

Sybl’s psi had sent a rush of panic through Kas before it was abruptly cut off. He tried to stay focused as he looked for Cirrus’ psi, which could be where she was now, but he didn’t answer him. He looked out the window as the dragons filled the smoke-blackened sky, while the Harbor tried to get control over the fires raging through it from the Phoenix’s fall.

The dark green dragon in the distance took the lead of the flight towards Atrum City, before suddenly doubling its speed and heading straight for the black spire of the Atrum. General Dyaus hit the castle with the force of the titan that he was, and his claws smashed through the windows of the throne room in an onslaught of glass and debris. Then Dyaus snapped several Threads in his mouth and whipped his head back, before unleashing the flares of fire at them.

Gwa ducked behind Kenshe as Kas pulled Tenu behind him while the fiery lashes flew past them. They collided against the door of the throne room, melting it into the walls around it.

“They must have been just waiting for the Awls to flee the City so they could attack!” Gwa shouted to Kas.

Sybl, where are you?
Kas pleaded by psi.

Dyaus swiped his claws across the room again, and they ducked and rolled out of his reach. The dragon was taking full advantage of how Sybl’s energy defied the Laws of Aragmoth with somns versus souls. She was still alive, but where was the question. Suddenly the dragon let out a frustrated cry when something struck Dyaus from above. He lost his grip and fell to the base of the castle with an avalanche of black stone.

Another streak of lightning came out of the dark sky and struck the General again, nearly rendering him unconscious. Kas looked at Tenu as her black eyes saw something in the storm that he could not see.

Gwa gulped as he looked out the window. “I think this is where they trash our winnings.”

Kas frowned at his griffin somnus friend.

Moon flew at the castle next, leaving Sybl from his hand in the shattered throne room as he gripped with his other clawed hand the windowsill. Then the black dragon sprung off of the castle and back into the fight.

“Sybl!” Kas called to her. She dizzily looked at Kas for a moment, before he hugged her to make sure she was alright. He could see what was wrong when their thoughts met on those of Hain.

“He’s gone…” she said, as Hain turning into ashes replayed in her mind and ended with her shivering.

Kas looked back out the window as the castle and city surrounding it shook with the presence of two dozen High Guard. The True had taken up defensive positions and chose their winged-targets, while the somnus Packs worked to restore some sense of order in the city.

Sybl pulled away from him and looked at Tenu, who seemed the calmest of them all.

“He’s waiting for you,” Tenu said, continuing to stare out of the window. In the center of the city, Damek had unsomned into his human-like appearance, as white flames reflected off of his golden armor from the lightning storm overhead.

Atrum City’s inhabitants had gone into hiding when Dyaus collided with the base of the castle. Cirrus looked up at the lightning that had given them another chance. The High Guard remained situated around the city on its various buildings, fearing the sky and the white fire that had attacked Dyaus.

Cirrus knew that they would end up destroying the entire city if he didn’t stop their attack before the lightning gave out. He made the decision to unsomn as Dyaus got to his feet and sent his claws for him. He thought of peace. He thought about Sybl and why they had come here as he stood in his human form, and it was enough to stop the General in his attack. A momentary standstill to the dragon’s violent nature followed. “Call the High Guard off, father.”

“What is going on?” Dyaus asked as he pulled his claws back to himself.

“That isn’t Nafury who you are following. He is the Awl, Damek,” Cirrus said.

Dyaus knew the Texts as the High Guard were required to. He looked back to where Nafury stood on his own chosen building in the center of Atrum City. “What are you talking about? That is our resurrected Prince.”

“That isn’t Nafury!” Cirrus shouted back at the General. “It is the demon who has taken him from us! Sybl never brought him back from the dead!”

Dyaus let out a yelp of pain when Damek caught his life Threads and pulled on them. Cirrus somned and went straight for the rooftop that Damek stood on. He had once called him his Prince, but now there was no one but an enemy before him.

“Why are you fighting me, Cirrus?”
Damek asked him by psi.
“Join me and let’s stop this senselessness.”

You are not Nafury, and I will not answer to you!

“You are giving me no chance to reason with you outside of war,” Damek threatened as his green eyes glowed brighter. He somned as Cirrus landed on him, and the two dragons tumbled off of the rooftop, crushing everything they touched underneath them. Damek caught one of Cirrus’ life Threads to his lungs, and the black dragon collapsed for a moment, before just as quickly springing back to his feet and charging at Damek. After the demonic dragon had met his charge, the two exchanged a fury of claws and teeth, before Damek had Cirrus’ neck in his hand. “Call the Caelestis here, or I will have my High Guard retrieve her. Even if it means overturning this entire city.”

He expanded out of Damek’s grip and spun around, whipping the dark brown dragon across the street, and it scraped against several buildings and brought others down entirely.

One of the High Guard flew at Cirrus, and he caught Wyr and whipped the red dragon through the street in the opposite direction. He knew he couldn’t fight all of them, even as two phelan caught Wyr’s wings and kept the fire dragon grounded. But he wouldn’t be the one to dispel Damek’s appearance of Nafury when the Awl’s illusion weave suddenly faded away. Everything seemed to stop, as no one had ever seen an Awl in its true form before. The black creature spread its webbed wings on its back, as its form seemed more of a dark human-shaped spirit than entirely in the physical.

“You wear my coat with so much shame,” a familiar voice said from the top of another building.

Cirrus looked to see that it was Delare. Somehow the Awl had cut the illusion Threads around Damek, revealing the demon’s true form. Before he could figure out how or why, Damek sent his rage flying for the somnus. Delare quickly somned into his pluma form and caught Damek by his side with a rake of claws, before the vengeful Sentry veered backwards and flew higher into the air.

Cirrus looked to the Atrum where Sybl was standing in the window of the shattered throne room. The Sylvan energy contained within her glowed dangerously brighter. He took to the air to put himself between Damek and his Bond. “You are nothing but a vengeful puppet! Now leave!” It felt like he was threatening Nafury, even as Damek gave no indication that anything of his friend was left within him. There was only this monster. The part of this demon that had once been Nafury was long snuffed out. Now he just had to believe it entirely.

“How dare you!” Damek stopped at a hover before him. “So is this where our friendship ends, Cirrus?”

“My friend was Nafury. But now I’m certain there is nothing of him left in you.”

“I am what I always was. Soon our Caelestis will be much the same, a reborn Goddess of War. Then you will see that you are very much on the wrong side. Then you will see that without me, she will never truly be yours.”

“Sybl will never be like you!” Cirrus flew at him, but the dark Sentry dodged out of the way.

“Time is all that stands in my way now, and very soon Aragmoth’s strength will give out entirely. I will see you again where all the ends to the Animus Threads lay scattered. Then I will pick them up and carry them with my revenge to Earth.”

Cirrus chased after Damek, but the demon opened a Rift in the center of the city from where his blood had dripped to and dove in, vanishing into the Keol. He flew back to Delare, who sat in his pluma form and acted oblivious to the dragons who surrounded him. “Just what the hell are you things?”

Delare didn’t answer him. The unexpected move by the Awl had trapped Damek in his own attack, as the High Guard believed what they had watched with their own eyes.

Cirrus sent his psi to check on Sybl. She was alright and with Kas, but when he looked to where Dyaus was, something else was seriously wrong.

Sybl walked through the Atrum’s dark halls, as the ayame and soldiers stepped aside to let her pass. Most of the Atrum was focused on healing the injured or fleeing the city, as the High Guard remained like wardens over it. They had driven off Damek, but he would find another way to return. He always found another way to return.