by Sain Artwell
All Alron could do was continue to crush core after core.
Crush and hope he was swift enough.
As Voidwalker’s skull cracked and began to leak cranial fluids, Apocalypse’s spin-core once more began its otherworldly groan, suffering under the pressure of stored spin-energy near maximum capacity.
Despite stargod’s best efforts to stop him, Alron rushed to the base of a cluster of tentacles, each hundreds of miles long, and unleashed the load of kinetic energy.
Flesh evaporated, his and the god’s.
A total of three tentacles had been destroyed at their root. The tide of battle changed. Voidwalker tore at the remaining tentacles, plucking them from stargod’s spherical bulk one by one as if they were cosmic weeds. Its claws gouged the size of small nations. The beams of black dragonfire it unleashed clung to the stargod’s wounds, festering like a disease.
Alron abandoned the stargod and headed for Voidwalker. He was halfway to her when Yuvera warned him.
“The stargod is dying fast. It has a day at most.”
“And?” Fei asked. “We’re not far from finishing Voidwalker off.”
“Might not be enough,” Oqhizt pointed out. “Think we could make it, Alron?”
“Hmm. The stargod was born to battle Voidwalker and Corecrawler specifically. Its internal defences were rushed in a way a dragongod’s aren’t. It took us years to damage Corecrawler. Wounded though she may be, Voidwalker still possesses most of her spawn. We’d be at a great disadvantage, and without distractions to occupy her.”
“Indeed. I suggest you retreat for now. It will take years for her to fully heal. She might not risk a confrontation before then,” said Yuvera.
Alron found himself hesitant. “We won’t find weapons more powerful than we already wield within a few years.”
“If you wanna risk it, let’s go. I’m fine with that too.” Of course she was. Oqhizt was all too accommodating to throw herself into the fray.
“Though admirable, your bravery might not be enough this time.” Alron glanced at the Great Den. The world was barely held together, its core lay exposed. “Hmm… Yuvera. Out there, among the stars, there live stargods and dragongods beside these three, yes?”
“Stargods know of hundreds of thousands, though I was not privy to their exact numbers. Why?”
“How far are they?”
“Ten. No. Twelve thousand years of void flight for the closest dragonflight. As for stargods… They would never dare to openly cross this deep into dragon territory, not now that our stargod failed to establish a foothold on the dragons’ spawning world.”
“Hm.”
“What do you have in mind?” asked Fei. “I sense a plot hatching.”
“I was thinking that we could try peace talks.” Alron began winding Apocalypse again and dove towards the Great Den’s core.
Several days later, the stargod’s shredded remains joined Corecrawler’s on the newly born asteroid belt circling the world below. Voidwalker’s eleven purple eyes locked with Alron’s as it descended from the heavens to destroy him. Alron had long since tuned out all communications with the jadegold resonator, making himself immune to mental attacks. All the same, its voice boomed inside his skull.
Choose.
“Stop. Or the world dies.” Alron hefted the fully charged Apocalypse above the core of Great Den. “If you doubt my ability to do so, watch the future. I know you can see into it.” His grip slipped for a second, before he caught it again.
Voidwalker’s wings spread out to halt its descent. A single strike of its wings summoned the storm of all storms to strike the world’s remains, stripping azure from the sky directly above Alron, replacing it with the black starry void. The dragongod attempted to overwhelm Alron with a godly equivalent of a sensory overload, but it brushed harmlessly off his jadegold resonator.
“If I die, the blade falls,” Alron warned her.
Voidwalker stopped. Its purple eyes loomed against its pitch black body like a constellation of malicious purple stars. A constellation whose planet Alron was holding hostage.
Speak.
“Bring me your spawn or representative. Something capable of a conversation. I will wait.”
A purple star twinkled into being. Slowly, over several dozen minutes, the light grew. Alron relished every second. The dragongod’s avatar broke its speed with a booming crack and an explosion of purple lightning, arriving hundred yards from Alron.
She was a wyrmkin of black skin with a crown of horns and eight sets of wings matching Voidwalker’s. All eleven of her purple eyes regarded Alron with mild disinterest, if not disgust. Her accent held an almost sing-song lilt. “You’ve begged to converse as hatchlings do, and I’ve indulged. Now speak so we may be done with it.”
“Good. I’m glad you indulged my demand.” Alron raised his chin to look down at her. “Listen closely. If I cannot have this world, then neither can you. I possess the power to break it, and break it I shall, unless you leave.”
Voidwalker studied him for only a split moment before she replied. “Foolish hatchling. This world has been the spawning ground of dragons for three billion cycles. It has spawned hundreds before your time, and once time destroys your immature vessel, it shall spawn hundreds more. You wish for me to leave? That shall happen. But know that the world will regenerate from this wound. A time will come when its scales are strong once more, and your blade is unable to wound its core. At such time, we shall return, and you shall either ascend, or be devoured by the Primordial Father of the Cosmic Dragonflight.”
Alron nodded. “He may try.”
Voidwalker’s wings glowed. Air cracked as the avatar shot upwards and returned to its main body, which slowly turned to leave.
Alron flew up from the planet’s core and settled on a cliff amidst broken wasteland. Oqhizt and Fei materialized by his side and threw their arms around him. The three cheered, fucked, and slept, and fucked again for days with intent to breed. The fight was over. It was time to rest and live for once.
Chapter 35 - Destroyer’s Duty
Two months after Voidwalker’s departure to the void behind the Farmoon, Alron and his women finally found Sofi. She’d fled the godly battle to the opposite side of the world—a small island continent of lush pink-blue jungles of needle trees—and built a small cave home in the cliff of a round-edged mountain. When Alron approached, Sofi waved at him from atop the fort. Beside her, a tiny hatchling clutched her leg.
Alron landed on the balcony. Fei immediately scooped up the hatchling and spoke to it in rapid-fire motherese.
“Waah…” the hatchling protested lazily, grasping towards Sofi.
“Oh, aww. It’s missing the mommy? Poor widdle one, don’t you worry, Fei will be your mommy for a while. Isn’t that fantastic? A second mommy. Not many have them, and none have one as awesome as mommy-Fei.” Fei rubbed her face against the hatchling’s and carried it inside Sofi’s home.
“Sofi. Good to see ya.” Oqhizt lifted the smaller woman in a crushing hug.
“Guh… Likewise.”
Alron shed his wings and regained his natural wyrmkin form. Oqhizt released Sofi when he stepped in and clutched her tightly. She rushed to claim his lips, demanding years of attention to be paid in a single embrace.
“Thank the… drat.” Sofi wiped a tear. “I don’t know what to swear by anymore. I’m glad you all made it back. Are you hungry? I have some fish I traded from the native tribe, and these green pine cones. They call them jahalals. The texture is bit of an acquired taste, but they aren’t too bad.”
“Yes!” Oqhizt groaned. “Food! You won’t believe the things we ate up there. Actually, you might. Alron had me sucking nutrients from rocky insects and acid puddles. Yuck.”
Sofi chuckled softly. “You’ll have to tell me all about it. Besides some hazy dreams I saw through the bond, I mostly stared at the heavens and worried myself to death like the rest of the world.” She blinked. “Oh, what exactly happened with Voidwalker? Why did
she leave?”
“Later.” Alron rested his hand on her shoulder. “We can talk over the victory feast, after you’ve introduced me to the little one.”
“What’s his name?” Oqhizt asked.
“He doesn’t have one yet. I wanted to think of it together with you.”
Her gaze, voice, that very moment struck Alron’s heart like a lance of dragonfire. His exhale shuddered, and he returned her smile. “I love you.”
“I love you too, my Alron.” Sofi hugged him again, tighter, nuzzling his chest. “Mine.”
Oqhizt laughed and slapped her ass. “Don’t get cocky, newbie! Or do you need a reminder of who—”
Sofi let go and hugged Oqhizt just as fondly. “I love you too. Thank you for letting me be with him.”
“Ah… Eh, don’t mention it.”
They convened in a cramped lounge within Sofi’s cave home. Exotica of unknown barbarian tribes and various memorabilia from Blackmetal City decorated the walls. A potted sapling grew on the windowsill.
Sofi served them dragonfire grilled fish, smoked tree-lobsters, and local vegetables spiced with a variety of colorful mountain salts. Everyone played with Alron’s and Sofi’s tiny son until he fell asleep. Alron then told Sofi of the battle with gods, and the result of his final negotiations with Voidwalker.
“So, ten-thousand years, until the dragongods come?” Sofi summed up.
Yuvera spoke up from the corner, where her crystalline prison rested. “Closer to twenty-thousand years considering the time it will take Voidwalker to reach the closest dragonflight. Possibly much longer if this great father of dragonkind resides in the deeper reaches of the Void Sea.”
Fei crossed her arms, eyes glancing pure murder in Yuvera’s direction.
Sofi rubbed her chin in intense pondering. “Twenty-thousand years. Do wyrmkin even live that long?”
“Your turn to share a story.” Alron took her small hand in his.
Sofi blinked, snapping back to the moment. “Right. Apologies. At the beginning, I spent a lot of time surviving the devastation from the battle, avoiding meteors and volcanoes and such. There were run-ins with bandits, beasts, and unwelcoming tribes. I kept on going and looking for a safe home. Once I settled here around… Goodness, it must’ve been one-and-a-half years already. Well, once I did, I was secure enough to continue Mlevanosk’s experiments a little bit.
“By combining what I knew of the dragongod communicator and Mlevanosk’s vis-harmonizer, I theorized upon the nature of myth and its manipulation methods. There were a few attempts at practical experiments, but without access to jadegold, I couldn’t test them out. I ended up continuing her studies on the colors of vis instead. That’s when I encountered something remarkable…”
With a flourish and a grin, Sofi opened her claw. “Surprise!”
Motes of faint light rose from her palm, dissipating.
Oqhizt gasped, and clapped. “Wow! Amazing.”
“Wait, it didn’t work…” Sofi drew a deep breath. Her brows furrowed in focus, and the stream of vis intensified. Swirling thin streams of pale light began to fold in on themselves as if binding into a loose knot. Her arm began to tremble as Sofi squeezed more vis onto the cup formed by her claws. Slowly, a familiar pattern emerged and faint colors of myth manifested around Sofi’s claw.
“The vis harmonizer…” Fei gasped.
Sofi nodded, sweat now sliding down her breast as she focused. Alron could feel her dragon-core shriveling at the amount of vis she drew, and was about to touch her and give her some, when she stopped him.
“No. I’ve spent a year re-purifying my source. You would contaminate it again. Just watch…”
A low spectral thrum trembled the room. Tiniest speck of iridescent myth appeared at the center of her vis-construct. Transparent lines of vis turned opaque, and Sofi drew a gasp of relief, sagging backwards.
Her breasts heaved with laborious breaths. With a proud smile, she handed the myth container to Alron. “There. Now you can clap.”
“Woo! AMAZING!” Oqhizt pumped her fists up, determined to outdo her previous celebratory cheer. “Is that a vestige?”
“No. Let me explain. Turns out, vis is all you need to manipulate myth. Pure vis, mind you. The dragon-tainted sources you have won’t be able to do this, unless you ascend and gain fine control over vis. I believe it is somehow tied to the lifecycle of a dragongod. The way I—and Mlevanosk—understand it, we the wyrmkin are to the vestiges what cattle are to parasites. Vestiges offer power, and, in exchange, the wyrmkin host provides them a stable source of vis, and a mind in which the psychosymbiote portion of the vestiges can germinate. If vestiges are mastered and bound into a stable dragon-core, this spiritual portion of the vestiges eventually manifests as a dragonsoul. Dragonsoul typically takes over the vis control, weaving it into the host’s body and techniques without their knowledge, until they grow powerful enough to ascend. It’s a great deal for both parties, up until that point the wyrmkin ascends.”
“No wonder my dragonsoul hates the new vestige,” Fei muttered. “It’s not the same as the rest.”
“Ah, that’s right!” Sofi grew excited. “You might be able to access pure-vis as well. I can teach you a few methods if you’d like to try.”
“I love it that you’re so eager, dearie, but I’m not going to do anything resembling hard work for a little while.”
Alron nodded by himself, finally having words for questions that had quietly haunted him. If vestiges were indeed parasitic sources of power, they could all fuck onto the smelly side of Farmoon.
“So what’s this thing do?” Oqhizt leaned closer to Alron, her nose nearly touching the shiny object Sofi had created.
Sofi tapped at the pale container with a claw. “That thing? It’s a shiny bauble. It shines very faintly. I’ve been trading these practice vestiges with the native tribes. They think I’m some kind of sorceress and sometimes leave gifts nearby.”
Yuvera snorted.
“These are just baubles, but,” Sofi continued, “with practise, I reckon I could forge vestiges free of draconic taint. With resources, I could manufacture them en masse. With help, I could purify the vis of those who’ve yet to assimilate a vestige and teach them to create vestiges themselves. With enough time, we could purge the world of draconic vestiges. I think we could actually do it. We could realize Mlevanosk’s legacy as she intended.”
The room quieted besides the gentle flicker of a dragonfire lantern and nightly chirrup of insects.
After several long moments of contemplation, Alron asked the question in everyone’s mind. “And those who already possess vestiges, or a dragon-core?”
Sofi let out a breath, her gaze dipping to the ground. “The vis source must be purified before any pure vestiges are assimilated, or the dragon-core will possess a dragonsoul. None of us will ever be free from the influence of our dragonsouls. We could adopt new pure vestiges, but not grow beyond that. Apologies, I don’t think this method will help you bypass the limits of draconic ascension.”
Alron touched Sofi’s hand to pause her apology. “I’ve no illusions of ever growing powerful enough to fend off this ‘Cosmic Dragonflight’ alone.”
Her eyes widened. “You don’t? But… Oh. That’s heartening to hear. I feared that you had plans to fight armies of gods alone.”
Oqhizt chuckled.
Fei leaned forward, her eyes tracing the trails of steam wafting from her mug. “Since we’re on the topic, do we have a plan for how to relieve the wyrmkin all around the world of their vestiges?”
“By force, if we have to,” replied Alron.
“The entire planet is littered with them, to its core,” Yuvera pointed out. “That is not a task achievable by a single mortal lifetime, not even one prolonged by a dragon-core.”
“Granted, the journey will not be an easy one. The coming centuries may well see enough bloodshed to put the destruction of Ascendancy to shame, but you heard Voidwalker. For three billion years this world has serve
d as the cradle of dragongods. For those billions of years, countless civilizations have risen, only to be snuffed within centuries when the next aspiring dragongod devoured them. Now, perhaps for the first time ever, we have the keys to set the wyrmkin free of the unbreakable cycle of ascensions. I’ll see to it that it gets done, no matter the cost. We owe that much to the innocent caught up in the misery we wrought upon the world. But first.” Alron lifted a cup of steaming drink to his lips and breathed in the pleasant aromas. “First, let us live for a time. I wish to love this world again, before we do what we must.”
All agreed.
A few more grim topics were brushed upon that night before it came time for Sofi to enjoy her intimate reunion with Alron.
Days passed in Sofi’s cavern home. Days of joy and relaxation devoid of strife. Those days stacked into years.
Apocalypse rested forgotten in a corner, as more rooms were carved into the cavern home. With the seasons, the weapon grayed beneath layers of dust disturbed only once by a set of tiny handprints. Later, three curious little ones managed to topple it over, scratching the floor. Alron moved Apocalypse to a secure storage deep beneath the mountain, an oubliette where Yuvera’s crystallized remains were kept and left untouched, for a time…
A full three decades after the battle against gods, Alron glided down the stairless descent of the oubliette to retrieve Apocalypse.
“Alron, it’s a pleasure to see you,” said Yuvera. Oqhizt had long ago sculpted the crystallized blood to conform to what remained of her, turning the former Sorcerer King into a living bust of blood-crystal.
Alron acknowledged her with a bitter smile. “And you.”
“How is little Nvei growing?” she asked.
“Strong of will and body, quite like her late sister.”
Yuvera’s smile faded. He began clearing the pile of vestiges and starsteel fragments stacked over Apocalypse.
“Apologies,” Alron said after picking up the blade. “That was in poor taste.”
“I deserve worse… I’ve relived my choices many times over. Your imprisonment on the island… Mlevanosk’s containment… Fei’s torture by Kastalos… I could have assassinated my father before he passed on the mantle and usurped the throne. If I’d done that, everything could’ve been different. I could have saved you all. We could have…”