by Dreagen
“KyGahl!” cried BaRone as he and KySer landed next to his children. “You’re…you’re one of them? You’re a DraGon?”
“Silence,” the beast roared. “Never address me by that accursed moniker again! The SaVarian you knew as KyGahl was but a ruse. I am Grand Marshal DayKar, Templar of the Holy Order!”
“So it is you,” ShinGaru said. “When the other one revealed herself to be LemaRes, I immediately knew I had heard that name before. I learned of it during the course of my training. LemaRes, captain of the vanguard forces of the DraGon Knights. The very same who laid siege to EeNara ten thousand years ago, second in command only to the grand marshal himself…DayKar.”
“Very good, ShinGaru,” DayKar said with fearsome smile. “If there would be anyone to have put the pieces together, it would indeed be you.” He gave him a slight nod before returning his attention back on Rex. “Now reveal yourself, Doom Bringer, last of the TyRanx!” He immediately unleashed an onslaught of fire, which consumed Rex, his silhouette vanishing in the wave of golden fire.
“Rex!” DiNiya tried to rush forward before quickly being held back by her brother.
Rex looked up and saw an all-encompassing golden light descending upon him. He felt something calling to him from deep within, a distant cry from seemingly another place entirely. He closed his eyes and saw the burning red flame in front of him. Without giving it a second thought, he reached out with both hands and grabbed hold of it.
The others looked on in horror as their friend was seemingly burned alive right in front of their eyes.
This can’t be happening, DiNiya thought as she stood powerless. How can he be gone?
“Damn it,” EeNox groaned as tears streamed down his face.
The titanic DraGon, showing no signs of stopping, pushed his flame even harder from his mouth, seemingly delighting in the brutality, when suddenly there was what looked to be a flicker of red within the golden onslaught.
DiNiya wiped her eyes and looked more intently. It happened again, and this time she knew she saw it for sure, a streak of red flame from within the fire. “Did anybody else see that?”
To her surprise, the DraGon did not, for he only pushed harder until veins began to bulge in his neck. Then without warning, something happened that not only took everyone by surprise, but also would mark this as a night no one present would ever forget. From deep within the golden fire came the sound of a beast that could not be compared to anything alive, but it sent a surge of anxiety through everyone. For a moment, everyone watched, frozen in silence, before gasping at the sight of what appeared to be two glowing red eyes from within the golden fire.
“What is that?” LyCora asked.
There was an explosion of red flame, which completely overtook the gold and sent the DraGon reeling backwards. Everyone shielded their eyes, for the blast was blinding, almost as if the sun itself had exploded, but all knew that was not the case, for no sooner did they see red then they felt a fearsome presence that was both terrifying and familiar.
DayKar shook his head in an effort to alleviate the effects of the concussive blast, and went wide-eyed when he looked back to where Rex had been standing.
DiNiya and all the others also forced their eyes open and beheld something they never dreamed. There, surrounded by furiously pulsating red flame, was a young TyRanx.
“Who…is that?” EeNox asked, astonished.
With both a look of horror and astonishment, DayKar uttered, “Do my eyes deceive me, or have you indeed returned, bane of all DraGon born: Doom Bringer?”
The TyRanx reared his head back and let out a roar that sounded so deep and powerful that it seemed to echo from another world. Instantly, DiNiya was struck by something that made her realize exactly who he was—a burning familiarity that resonated deep within her own dormant red flame. “Rex!” she gasped.
“What?” EeNox said, turning to her in surprise.
“It can’t be!” LyCora added.
Above, LemaRes observed the frightfully menacing DyVorian with intense curiosity. “I can’t believe it’s him,” she said to herself as her brother rose up beside her and peered down.
“He’s certainly a great deal smaller than I remember,” he commented.
“Indeed. His body must grow in conjunction with his SaVarian form, just like DayKar. How very curious. Still, there he is. Alive and in the flesh!”
“Ten thousand years later, and we’re still forced to face that monster,” VorTak said as he shook his head in disbelief. “I was a fool to think anything would have changed.”
“Oh, but it will, dear brother. You must trust in that.”
Back on the ground, DayKar was looking quite pleased with himself. “PeroDay,” he called over to his brother. “See to it that none of the others interfere.”
“As you wish,” PeroDay replied, turning back to DiNiya and the others. “All right, you heard him. Stay put and you just might live a bit longer than even we intended.”
DayKar flexed his powerful muscles and spread his wings. “Now, Doom Bringer, let us see if you can at least hold your own against me in this form!” With a sudden pulse of fire, he rushed forward with a wild look in his eye, when he was suddenly struck in the side of the head by a green fireball that sent him reeling off to the side. Growling from deep within his throat, he righted himself in midair and turned in the direction of the blast, burning pain spreading across his left cheek.
“Damn it, PeroDay, I told you to watch them—” He stopped when he saw the other DraGon gasping for breath, a massive burning hole in the upper chest plate of his armor. Peering from just behind him, DayKar saw a bright auburn-furred woman with both hands outstretched in front of her, breathing heavily.
PeroDay fell backwards and hit the ground with a heavy thud, groaning in pain as he placed a hand over the hole. “Damn it,” he growled. “Brother, are you all right?”
“Better than you, it would seem,” DayKar replied dryly before turning his gaze over to the woman who had, for the moment, knocked the fight out of the other DraGon. “Hello, VyKia.”
“Do I know you?” she asked breathlessly.
“Not as well as you would have thought,” he mused.
VyKia closed her eyes for a moment before they shot back open with a look of surprise. “Your flame! I know it, but…it can’t be…”
“No, KyVina,” BaRone said as he walked up next to her and allowed her to lean against him. “It is. He’s KyGahl, or should I say DayKar, Grand Marshal of these DraGon Knights.” KyVina gave him a look of such disbelief that he feared she would pass out from shock. DayKar folded one of his enormous wings in front of him and bowed. “Grand,” BaRone scoffed. “Such a title is wasted on the likes of you!”
DayKar just laughed. “As if the opinion of an animal means anything to me.” Now he turned back to Rex, who to his surprise appeared to be burning through the very ground on which he stood. All around him his flame slowly grew and burned with such intensity that the soil beneath him was blackened. However, it was a fearsome, unwavering gaze that gripped DayKar most. A look he had seen before but not for a very long time. Those eyes, he thought. The last time I saw them, they almost cost me my life…along with everything else.
VyKia, who had been reeling from the shock of learning that one of the world’s most respected scientists was an enemy in disguise, now shifted her gaze towards EeNox. A look of anger appeared on her face, and with lightning speed, she reached out and put the back of his neck in a vice grip. “Damn it, boy! I swear if you ever pull something like that again with me, I will set you ablaze where you stand. Is that understood?”
EeNox pulled himself free and shouted back. “Well, what choice did I have? You weren’t going to let us fight!”
“Of course I wasn’t! You’re children!”
“No, we’re not, and besides, when has that mattered?”
“When has it not?”
“Now is not the time for this,” BaRone said, putting himself between them and moti
oning up ahead. “We have more pressing matters to be concerned with.”
She followed his gaze and was suddenly struck by what felt like a shard of ice right up through her spine. “It can’t be,” VyKia stammered.
“I’m afraid it is,” he replied.
“But…how did he…”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
Rex, who had been standing in silence, staring down his adversary, cocked his head to either side as his tail swayed behind him.
No one but DayKar saw him bend his legs with lightning speed before launching himself forward with jaws spread wide and teeth bared.
“Whoa,” EeNox exclaimed.
DayKar’s eyes went wide, but another DraGon appeared in front of him. “Grand Marshal, watch out!” he called back, preparing to fire a blast.
“Rex, look out!” DiNiya cried.
Rex, however, in a display of incredible brutality, burst right through the obstacle; the fire blast, being severed from its source, exploded in the DraGon’s mouth, detonating him in a lavender explosion. For a moment, no one could see Rex through the blast, until he erupted from the massive fireball seconds later, jaws open to reveal burning teeth like something out of a nightmare.
DayKar, not wasting a single precious second, put up a flame shield just as Rex’s open jaws collided with it. With a grin, DayKar began to push the shield against Rex with more force, driving him back. “Got a bit ahead of ourselves, didn’t we, TyRanx?”
Rex just scowled and let out a deep growl.
“Oh no,” DiNiya exclaimed. “Rex, get out of there!”
“No, wait,” EeNox said while pointing. “Look!”
With a sickening crack and pop, Rex completely unhinged his jaws to an almost one hundred and eighty-degree angle. DayKar reared his head back with a look of horror.
Thrusting his gaping jaws forward, Rex sank his teeth into flame as if it were flesh, and with great visible strain, they began to close.
“What the hell is he doing?” TyRoas asked, stepping up next to his older brother.
“Eating his way through that DraGon’s flame!” NyRo replied in disbelief.
DayKar was now feeling the pang of fear creeping over him. How could this be happening? Even if he is the Doom Bringer reborn, his power should be nowhere near what it was!
With one final bit of pressure, Rex bit clean through the golden flame, which broke back down into normal fire, and went for the DraGon’s throat. DayKar pulled back but was too slow, for no sooner had he tried to move away did Rex clamp down onto the left side of his face, plunging his teeth painfully into his skull.
“He’s got him!” EeNox exclaimed excitedly. “Bite his fucking head off, Rex!”
DayKar cried out in pain as he whipped his long neck back and forth, up and down. Despite his best efforts, though, Rex would not let go, nor lessen his grip. Spreading his wings, DayKar shot straight up into the air before veering sharply to his right, slamming into one of the peaks.
Below, everyone scrambled to get out of the way as large boulders came crashing down, releasing a plume of dust. From it, DayKar emerged with Rex still clinging to him. The DraGon slammed him repeatedly against the wall, only to feel the TyRanx dig his hind claws into his chest and shoulder. “I admire your persistence,” DayKar said as his left eye glanced down at his unrelenting foe. “However, like you, I am not the type to yield.” With what could have been called graceful, he pushed off the wall and did a reverse arc in the air before diving at full speed towards the ground.
“Watch out,” KyVina shouted as she and many of the others threw up a flame shield of their own at the last second using their combined power.
DayKar slammed into the ground with an incredible force, sending a shockwave colliding into the wall of fire.
“Stand firm,” VyKia called out as she bared her teeth.
The shockwave pushed against the shield for close to a minute before it finally began to dissipate. With loud, exhausted sighs, everyone ceased their efforts, dropping the wall and revealing the dense plume of dust and smoke where the two relentless combatants had fallen. At first there was no sign of movement, but shortly after four massive wings unfolded and flapped once, dispersing most of the dust. DayKar rose up on all fours and cracked his neck. Then, as if realizing he had dangerously let his guard down, fixed his gaze on the now large crater in the ground.
“There’s no point in hiding,” he said, sounding more at ease now. “I can sense your flame.” At that moment, all the dust in the crater was suddenly ignited, looking like thousands of tiny sparkling red lights. Slowly, a glow from down inside grew brighter and brighter as it neared the lip, until Rex stepped over the edge, red flame gliding off him like waves of water. “You still have that tenacity of yours,” DayKar mused, rearing up on his hind legs and crossing his arms. “I would have thought the centuries would have honed your ferocity, but you’re still far from the monster I once knew. I’m almost disappointed. Still, facing off against the mightiest TyRanx to ever live is not something to take lightly.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head for a moment before gazing up to the sky, recalling some distant memory. “It’s better that monster remain a thing of the past.”
Rather than move in for another attack, Rex reared his head upward as his mind became flooded with memories that at first seemed to not be his own, before eventually growing more familiar. Faces and voices raced through his head as emotions of all sorts swelled within him. Pain of losses he had suffered in a previous life now opened wounds in him he did not even know he had. The burden of these lost memories now grew into something almost too painful to bear, and he parted his jaws, releasing a mournful cry to the sky.
“Rex,” DiNiya whispered. The sound was the saddest thing she had ever heard. It was almost as if his pain and misery had become tangible and flowed into her, into everyone. Then it changed and became something else altogether. Lower it grew and more savage as anger now seeped into it. It was a call, one that made something very deep within her shift. Something she had never before realized had been there, but now it was desperately trying to claw its way up from her depths and out into the world. However, she felt something weighing down on it, something keeping it pinned down in that dark corner she knew her flame was hiding. Turning, she saw EeNox standing rigidly, his fists clenched and his eyes aglow with his flame. Baring his teeth, he let out an echoing growl. “EeNox,” she cried, “what’s wrong with you?”
He did not answer; rather, he emitted his green fire as he reared back and roared to the sky. The sound gave way to two others; turning, she saw AnaSaya and LyCora, who were glowing with the aura of their blue and lavender flames. ShinGaru was trembling as his body began to contort and arch to the point where his back looked as if it would break. DiNiya could still feel something moving inside of her but could come no further. This was obviously not the case with the others, who were emitting a power that seemed too great for any of them to possess.
“What’s happening to all of you?” she cried out. “EeNox, please! Say something to me!” She could feel fear and panic growing within her, overtaking that which had been trying to surface and forcing it back down from whence it had come.
ShinGaru, EeNox, LyCora, and AnaSaya exploded in massive bursts of flame, and DiNiya watched in shock and wonder as their bodies dissolved into the light. From it arose four beings seemingly made from the fire burning forth from them. The blinding light faded, and standing where the four had been were four young DyVorians.
“W-what…just happened?” VorTak stammered as he and his sister watched in disbelief.
DiNiya took a tentative step to her brother, or at least the DyVorian who now stood where he had. She recognized the species immediately; it was the same as VayRonx and KyVina: A TarBoranx. Standing not far behind him was a young VyoNyvora adorned with beautiful dark blue and grey plumage; locking eyes with it, she was met with an overwhelmingly judgmental stare that, while making her feel uneasy, was also very familiar. “LyCo
ra,” she said before turning to a white-feathered VeNyrox with purple and red feathers adorning her tail, who regarded her with sympathetic eyes, and who she immediately sensed to be AnaSaya. The three of them stared back at her, and then to everyone else behind. She heard a familiar voice speak her name.
“DiNiya,” said the young TarBoranx.
“EeNox,” she half cried. “Is that really you?”
“Yes,” he replied as if uncertain by her meaning. “Why…What’s wrong?” He took a step forward and froze when he felt dirt beneath his feet instead of his boot. Looking down, he was shocked to see a set of three-clawed toes, and reared back while emitting a shriek. “Wha…What happened to me?”
“What happened to us,” LyCora said behind him, causing him to whip around and almost fall over in shock to see her looking the way she did.
“LyCora,” he said with wide eyes. “You look like a younger version of your mother! And AnaSaya… you’re a VeNyrox! Why are you a VeNyrox?”
“For the same reason you are a TarBoranx, I suspect,” came another familiar voice. Everyone turned and saw a creature that was neither SaVarian nor DyVorian.
“ShinGaru?” DiNiya asked.
His entire body was long and serpent-like, with four short legs and a rectangular head crowned with what looked like two blunt horns or antlers. Small tuffs of wispy fur growing out of his cheeks and head swayed under the elegant golden flame that gracefully flowed off him. A row of short-pointed spikes ran down the length of his back, which turned into his tail past his rear legs, terminating into a leaf-shaped fin. “Yes,” he said calmly. “It is I.”
Hovering above them, LemaRes and VorTak found themselves unable to take their eyes off the scene unfolding below.
“Damn it, they’re here, too!” VorTak exclaimed.
“No,” his sister replied. “They can’t be! They’re dead!”
“If memory serves, so was he,” VorTak said, pointing down at Rex. “Clearly that did not stop him from showing up tonight!”