The scream of torment and rage was a distant call to which she could not respond. Gavyn…she wanted to whisper, but she could not move. Xian slowly felt her soul stretched, a light flickered inside, and she centered her thought on that pinpoint of energy.
Suddenly he was there, his arms closing around. With a distant sense of shock, she noted the changes in him, changes that were still ravaging his body. Swirls of black chakra curled around him, and his bones twisted and break even as he struggled to hold her. He screamed, agony leaked from him, and it was not the metamorphosis of his body that seemed to rip his soul his pieces.
It was her death.
Xian tried to reach for the fire inside her and came upon an empty well. “Gavyn,” she whispered, trying to lift her hand to cup his cheek.
Her brother arrived with Tehdra in a burst of crackling flames, his chain, and swords of fire, jumping and cutting down dozens. The general determined in his ambitions to capture a
Tenzu converged thousands of warriors on them. Tehdra’ was without her beast, but she did not hesitate, calling the shadows and darkness and wading into the thick of the bloody and brutal battle.
“Do not leave me,” Gavyn said, his hands trembling as he poured the elixir of life down her throat. “I’ll never leave your side again. I should have been here to protect you.”
His voice was full of unfathomable promise and a sweet, sharp pain throbbed in her chest. He roared, tipping his voice to the heaves as fire, unable to be contained the flames inhis body blew to the heavens. Gavyn grabbed the sword and pulled it from her wound.
“Ah kings,” he said hoarsely. “Your heart is charred. It is the Phoenyx’s chakra which has kept you alive.”
In desperation, he poured some of the elixir over the gaping wound, and more onto her lips. The elixir trickled in her mouth, and a pulse of heat washed through her, but the darkness was more compelling and insistent. It pulled her toward the abyss, away from her love, and away from the awful pain in her body. A dark coldness had clasped her in an inexplicable embrace…and it was as she floated in a sea of inky nothingness, she understood death had come for her soul.
She drifted further and further away from that lingering pinpoint of energy in her body, and her bones felt brittle with cold.
Open your eyes, my child.
The words, a garbled whisper of power pierced through the darkness.
A bright burning light appeared in the darkness, and her eyes fluttered open. Xian struggled to understand the millions of stars and systems before her. She tried to glance at her hands, not understanding where she was, but only her consciousness seemed to be present.
Before her stood four primordial entities, each glowing with fire, massive wings, clawed feet, and a tail swishing about them.
What is happening?
The entity which glowed with a pure blue fire strutted toward Xian. As it came closer, she could detect the form was a female in nature, its eyes were the blue of the oceans of the Amagarie, and its fire was burning sapphire.
“We are the Phoenyx force, daughter of light. I am the blue Raijin, protector of the ninth galaxy.”
Another approach, its fire so orange, Xian could not stare at its purity, fearing her eyes would be burned from the socket.
“I am the white Kagutsuchi Phoenyx, the force of life and the guardian of all creation.”
The third being slinked forward with sinuous elegance, its fire a mix of darkness and orange, its eyes black, its skin almost translucent but peppered with a network of dark veins. I am the harbinger of darkness, keeper of the Demonage, the black Phoenyx.
Fear clutched Xian’s throat, and she could not look upon that darkness.
Then fourth entity coated in pure, bright dark red flames sauntered forward with elemental grace. Recognition tugged inside Xian along with awe….and fear.
“I know you….”
I am the red Phoenyx, the undying fire of creation and destruction, the void between death and rebirth, and I am in you.
There was a smile atop the lips, it hinted of mischievousness….and something else unfathomable.
“Xian please, do not leave me!”
She turned to that voice, and her breath strangled in her throat as the battlefield around her became clear. Gavyn kneeled on the blood-soaked earth, and she hung limply into his arms, and her body was clutched to his chest. The blackest of chakra swirled around him, his eyes had shifted to pure black, and the most beautiful wing of blue, gold, and black sprouted from his bleeding back. And on his face…. streaks of tears in the form of blood and fire.
She felt his pain, brutal and unrelenting as if it were her own. Such despair and sorrow and her soul shattered at the unfathomable depth of his anguish. Chakra swirled around him, and she felt the power of the beast in his blood. Xian had expected evil when his dark side would eventually manifest, not this sense of cold, unfathomable power. His face was both terrible and irresistible. The cruel beauty calling to the Phoenyx inside of her.
Gavyn….