I pulled my sword out as well. “Alright,” I said. “Let’s go!”
Elysian and Raiya took off, heading to meet him from different sides.
I almost took off to join them when I caught sight of the bright light blinking at me. I squinted down onto the ground, where I saw Dante was running up from the marina, hailing me.
As Raiya and Elysian met Draco in battle, I hurried down to see Dante.
He was freezing over, his body cut off from Time’s power.
“Dante,” I called. “What is it?”
“You,” he said. “You have to stop him.”
“We know that!” At his hardly-new information, I nearly hit him for calling me away from the fight.
“No,” he said. “You have to stop him.”
“I know that, too,” I cried. “I was just about to go and stop him when you called me down here—”
“No,” Dante said. “That’s not what I mean. You have to stop him from ripping the world away out of this realm and you have to stop him from freeing Alküzor. You can do this by releasing the Blood Flame.”
“Okay … ” I was starting to get weirded out. “And I can do this by—”
“To release it completely, you’ll have to die.”
His words slammed into me. What?!
Dante breathed in deeply. “SWORD is not able to withstand this pressure,” he said. “We are—I am—not able to help you.”
“I have to die?” I repeated. I couldn’t get past that part. I looked back up at Raiya, who clashed in the air once more with Draco, as he met her, his sword against her bow.
Elysian roared, letting the flames of his celestial fire heat up the sky, adding spirals of fire to crawl across the crystalline ceiling of Draco’s bubble.
I turned back to Dante, watching as the last of his body froze over, falling away into the trap of a forever moment.
Helplessness suddenly came over me. I have to die?
“Boss!” Elysian called. “Are you coming or not?”
I turned toward him. “Coming,” I called back, not sure if I would.
As helplessness fell around me, a memory suddenly called to me—the memory of the first time I met Adonaias.
I had felt a similar way; like I was going to die, but much more so that I wasn’t going to live. My fear had strangled me, wrapped me up, and sentenced me to a life of slavery to the self, to the endless service of selfish fear
There had been little hope, no help.
And then, all of a sudden, there he was, calling out the power I had inside of me to prove me wrong.
I have to believe that there’s still hope.
I looked at Raiya, as she faltered from one of Draco’s attacks.
And then it all made sense—to me, at least. I had wished to go here, to follow Raiya to Earth, after she damned herself. Our enemies had been captured within Time for us to subdue, and now, as I faced down the greater foe, I knew I could stop him. There was a power inside of me that had been freed and tamed and strengthened through its growth and discipline. And I knew I could be saved—hadn’t I already been, by Adonaias? I would be, again, by Raiya’s power.
All this full circle was bound by a power driven to be overcome by love.
I saw it, and it was a thing of beauty.
My fingers tightened around the hilt of my sword, and I narrowed my wings in determination.
Raiya swept herself aside as I flew into the battle foreground. My sword came up, swinging hard and fast.
It met Draco’s with a resounding clang, moving a gigantic force of energy between us. The clash went through me, pushing me back even as I refused to move.
Draco frowned underneath the sheer weight of my power. “Been practicing since last time, have you, lad?”
I couldn’t answer him; my jaw was set, continuing to stream power at him, until he relented.
For a long second, I wasn’t sure if he would give up or not. I wasn’t sure if I would give up or not, either.
At last, a moment later, Elysian roared, sending another burning burst of fire our way.
I shouted in triumph, as Draco stepped back to avoid the flames. I pushed through a second after, holding him back again.
He managed to rebound, enough to where I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace if this continued.
An idea hit me.
“Starry Knight!” I called. “I need to you shot an arrow at my sword!”
“Why?” she yelled back.
“Just do it!”
She looked frightened, and for a moment I didn’t know if it was for me or for Draco. Even as far apart as I was from her, I knew the second she decided to do as I asked.
“I love you,” I whispered to her as she drew back the arrow in her bow.
“I trust you,” she whispered back. And then she released her arrow.
It sliced through the air, headed toward my sword; it moved through the air seamlessly, perfectly. Still concentrating on pushing back Draco’s sword, I had to move quickly. I couldn’t mess this up.
I only have one chance for this …
Draco laughed, even as it came barreling toward us. I grinned. At the last second, I stuck my arm out toward the arrow. It struck me hard, slicing open my skin and sending a trickle of blood down my arm.
I saw Draco jump back from me at once. He nearly dropped his sword in surprise, and I took advantage of his momentary weakness.
“Augh!” I lunged forward, bringing my blade down on his arm.
I grimaced as my sword struck him; he was more human than the Sinisters had been. I felt the shock of hurting another person like me, and I stumbled back.
I heard Raiya call out to me, and Elysian cheering. But I didn’t pay attention to them. I was too focused on Draco.
“You’ll lose this battle,” I declared, bringing my sword back up to the ready as I breathed in deeply, trying harder to steady myself.
Draco stepped back, and I watched, grimly, as his arm fell to the ground and his blood, black as a demon’s, came rushing out.
Despite this, there was a smile on his face. “Haven’t you figured it out yet, young Hamilton?” He laughed. “Evil doesn’t die; even if you destroy me, you will always find evil waiting, just waiting, to rise up in a new form.”
“I’ll settle for a new form,” I shot back. “So long as it’s not you.”
I swung my sword again, this time calling forth the power of my soul. I felt it mix with my blood and burn, and I knew this was the moment—this was the moment where I could seal him away and save the day.
My sword swished through the air, only momentarily clipping him on his side as he stepped just out of reach. Immediately, I pushed forward, but he surprised me by ducking out of my way and diving toward the ground.
For the split-second I saw him, I felt a rush of relief; there was nothing underneath us but the sunken ground where Rosemont formerly stood.
It has to be over now.
Raiya’s cry changed all of that.
“We have to stop him!” she said, as she hurried past me.
“Watch out, boss,” Elysian called, as he tackled me just before the vortex’s center came reeling toward us, following Draco and Starry Knight toward the ground.
“Starry Knight!” I cried.
“She’ll be fine,” Elysian snapped. “I’ll get her.” He hurried toward the ground as I shoved my sword into its scabbard.
From the angle I was at, I could see Draco was not going to make it; he was going to fly straight into the ground, sword first, closely followed by his head.
He isn’t going to survive that, I thought. Surely not.
The image of Orpheus’ sacrifice soared into my mind, and I realized Raiya was right; Draco wasn’t concerned with survival anymore. Now, it was only about winning.
What better way for him to win than to die setting Alküzor free?
That makes his taunting make a bit more sense.
Coming to my senses, I followed Elysian down; despite
the large dragon butt in my face, I never took my focus off of Draco.
I could see him bleeding out as he thrust his sword into the heart of the darkened ground—the sword made out of meteorite rock and demon power, forged from the fires of a celestial dragon, capable of standing up to the power of my Sealing Sword.
There was a hollow ringing noise that sounded out, as though the heart of the earth had been pierced.
“No!” I cried.
It was too late. I was too late.
☼14☼
The Void
Elysian managed to use his tail to grab a hold of Starry Knight at the last moment, before the power of the vortex began to collapse on us. He flung her into me, and he managed to catch both of us as we felt the pressure of Draco’s bubble suffocating us.
The center point of the vortex came crashing down on top of the sword; Draco let go of it with his good arm only seconds before the power rushed behind him.
The earth groaned, and I could hear its cry of anger and tiredness. I could hear its guttural call for rest, for peace, for salvation—only to be met with the crack of the voided lightning, the power behind Draco’s vortex, as it further divided the world into pieces.
The ground sunk even further in as the vortex pressed the sword into the ground like a wedge. From the split halves of the ground, I saw something that looked like a black hole rising up between them.
It’s the void. Alküzor is coming.
Raiya, after she unwrapped herself from Elysian’s tail, came over to me. I felt her fingers dig into my skin, as she grabbed onto me. “What do we do?” she asked.
It was surprising to see she was at a loss. I stared at her blankly, until I felt the rush of her power around my arm.
“No, don’t do that,” I told her. “I can use my blood and my Soulfire to purify the void that’s breaking through. Alküzor can’t come through if there’s something blocking his way.”
“I’m going with you,” Raiya declared. “It’ll be dangerous, but we’ll face it together.”
Before I could tell her that was the plan, if we were both going to survive, a force from behind knocked me over and out of her reach.
“Didn’t forget about me, did you?” Draco grinned as he glanced toward the sword in the ground. “Soon, Alküzor will be free, and I will be at his right hand.”
“We can still stop you,” I told him, drawing my sword out for battle once more.
“It doesn’t matter what you do now,” Draco said. “My mission has been fulfilled.”
I glared at him. “We’ll see about that.”
“We will indeed,” Draco said, as he transformed. His human-like form glowed with a bright, angry black, and seconds later, I watched as his dragon form took shape.
He was still missing an arm, and he had a gash in his side to rival the one he left on Elysian before.
I saw Raiya unleash another arrow, aiming close to his eyes; Elysian fired a ball of dragon’s fire at him, and I took up my sword, flying up as close to his wound as I could.
All of us began to fight, unleashing our power and helping each other out. For a few moments, as tired and sweaty as I was getting, I felt the relief of winning a battle inside of me, and one I shared with my friends. Raiya, Elysian, and I had all had moments where we were never completely in sync with each other. The fight with Draco, while the world was tearing apart and we could hear the looming roar of a demon encased in the fires of the earth, was among our finest moments as a team.
The vortex’s power continued to fall into the hole forming in the earth. I wasn’t expecting Alküzor to come, or I wasn’t paying attention at least, because when his arm jutted out of the ground, I cried out in shock.
“Augh! What is that thing?”
A grisly ghost of an arm, covered in fire and ash, salting the air with sulfur, reached out and lashed power enough to rival gravity’s revenge.
“Watch it,” Raiya called. She turned her attention to the arm, shooting several arrows. I saw she followed my example, slicing open her palms and saturating them with blood, so it would be easier to seal away the demonic powers.
“Be careful,” I called back. “I don’t want you to—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Draco’s tail wrapped around me and squeezed. “I don’t want you to worry about fighting anymore,” he finished for me.
Frankly, it was a great mischaracterization of words, and I almost sighed as he said it.
But that wasn’t the only thing that was mischaracterized.
Elysian shot up out of the shadows and tackled Draco. Using his teeth, he managed to pull Draco’s tail away from me.
Draco roared and let out a beam of his own dragon’s fire. It was entrenched in lightning, with fire swirling devilishly in between the forks of twisting light. Elysian and Draco fell into a beastly battle.
“Go help Starry Knight,” Elysian called, as he managed to (briefly) tie Draco down.
I watched as Draco’s bloody stump smooshed into his face. “Are you sure?” I asked.
“Go!” Elysian ordered.
There was no doubt in his voice, and I heeded his call.
Hurrying over, I saw Starry Knight digging her feet into the ground where Alküzor’s various body parts and power kept exploding free; she was trying hard to get closer without getting sucked down into the void.
“Raiya,” I called. She reached out for me, and I grabbed her hand eagerly. In the fiercest hub of our battle, her warmth became life-sustaining for me—and she wasn’t even using her healing powers.
“We’ve got to close up the break,” she said. “Draco’s sword managed to pierce into the next realm. If Alküzor escapes, he could use it to break us completely away from Time.”
“What would happen then?” I asked.
“I don’t want to know!” she insisted.
“So how do we stop it?” I yelled back. The gravitational pull toward the hellish opening increased, making us dig into the ground even more fiercely.
She cried out as Elysian and Draco rolled overhead, their snakelike bodies whipping around each other in a deadly dance. I grabbed her hand and felt the trickle of oozing blood.
The Blood Flame.
I knew what I had to do all of a sudden. I grabbed my sword. “Give me your hand,” I said.
It was hard to maintain my balance and coat the sword with our blood, but I managed it. I tucked my sword into my one hand, and then I grabbed one of hers with my other. “Stay with me,” I called.
“I will,” she said. “I promise.” Her fingers wound around mine, and there was a new power that flowed between us.
“Get ready to get sucked in,” I said. “On three?”
“Three’s good,” she said.
“One … Two … ”
“If we don’t make it out of here,” she said, “I’ll be waiting for you on the other side. Assuming I make it there.”
“Raiya,” I breathed. “There’s nothing Adonaias and I want more.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I said. “But we’re going to make it out of here, just like you’re going to get forgiven by the Prince. All we have to do now is believe. How hard can that be?”
“Right.” She grimaced, as if she knew I was pretty sure I was going to die if any part of this went wrong.
I was about to say, “three,” when it happened. I felt a new, familiar rush of power.
“There’s something more you can do.” A voice spoke to us, calming the winds around us.
Adonaias appeared between us. “Do not let go of each other,” he ordered. “When you go in, you will be tempted to let go. But I tell you the truth, you must remain together.”
For a long moment, Raiya just gaped at him. “Adonaias,” she finally said, gasping out his name.
“Astraiya.” He greeted her warmly, reminding me of a father who was welcoming his daughter home. “Follow his lead and stay with him.”
She clung to my hand, but she also reached o
ut for his. Her hand went right through him, as if he was a hologram or a projection. She stepped back.
“I am with you in spirit,” he explained patiently.
Raiya nodded and steadied herself. “Does this mean I’ll get a new wish?” she asked him.
I almost yelled at her for asking for such a trivial thing when we had Alküzor to stop and the world to repair, but I couldn’t. One look at the desperate, disbelieving love on her face, and I knew I would have thrown the world away for her if it meant she was welcomed into the Celestial Kingdom again.
“No,” Adonaias told her. “I have something better for you. But you will not receive it until you are willing to let go of your own wish.”
“But, what—”
“Are you going to just stand there?” Elysian yelled, raking his claws down Draco’s underbelly.
I guess he can’t see Adonaias, I thought. It made sense; Elysian had avoided meeting him directly before. The more I thought about it, the more I could see it; Elysian wanted a peek, but he didn’t want to get caught doing the peeking. Adonaias likely knew that.
Before Raiya or I could respond to Elysian’s call, Adonaias vanished, and we were left back in the center of the storm of wind and shadow.
I squeezed Raiya’s hand. “It’ll be alright,” I told her, even as I was the one who more likely had to be told that.
“Right.” She nodded. “Let’s—”
“Augh!” We both flinched and stalled, as Elysian howled in pain behind us. Hands together, we turned to see Draco laying him out against a hard surface, kicking his head further into the crumbling earth.
Elysian stilled, and I felt my heart stop as Draco laughed.
He turned to us. “My brother always thought he would be better than me one day,” he said. “I’ve waited centuries, millennia, to prove him wrong.”
“Get up, Elysian!” I cried. I took a step toward him, but Raiya held me back.
“We need to stop Alküzor,” she said.
I didn’t really want to hear her words. It took me twice as long to process them.
Draco turned on us, his long, scaly body, still dripping with blood and dust, snaking around us in unholy excitement. “There’s no way you’ll win,” he taunted us, striking forward and snapping his fangs at us.