“The Phoenyx force is hungry, and it will not stop until it has had its fill. If I did not know better, I would think it is a Darkan.”
Xian.
Ajali stepped forward, the chains wrapped around his hands jumping to life, the swords attached coating with fire.
“You dare challenge me?” the Phoenyx spoke, the voice an echo of ruthless, distorted power that they all heard clearly.
“It is in control of her,” Ajali said, walking forward with confidence and deadly grace.
A blast of fire torpedoed from the sky with such speed Gavyn almost missed it. The flames slammed into Ajali, splitting the earth in two. He rolled to his feet the energy of his Phoenyx surrounding him, and before the other three blasts which had been fired in rapid succession hit him, the monster on Tehdra’s skin leaped to life with a roar of rage and dominion. The Dracan, an unholy creature over twelve feet tall with serrated teeth and wings, appeared before Ajali and absorbed the blasts. It spun with predatory grace, launched into the air heading for Xian, spewing black fire toward her.
“No!” Gavyn roared, struggling to control the wings on his back. He leaped into the air and flapped the monstrous appendages. He soared for a few feet before plummeting to the ground. “Xian!” he shouted. “Tehdra call back your demon, it will kill her!”
Xian screamed, the shrieking cry echoing across the wasteland, a piercing whistle of a primeval sound, and a ball of bright red-orange flame poured from her mouth and slammed into the Dracan. It spun in the air, the flames eating it, and with a pulse of dark chakra, it appeared once more on Tehdra's skin.
Xian spun in the air, creating a whirlwind of fire…with such relentless heat Gavyn started skin to melt. Cries of dread echoed from the warriors on the field. The mountains behind her caught fire and started to burn, but not with flames. He watched in trepidation as the forest began to blacken and hundreds of trees simply vanished, turning to black ashes under the wash of her power.
“We must save our people!” Ajali shouted. “Tehdra, take a much as you can in the shadows, and move them to safety.”
She whirled with the shadows to carry out his commands, grabbing warriors and taking them in the shadows towards Nuria. Acheron waved his hands, chanting, creating a barrier of kinetic energy to cover the warriors on the battlefield, spreading until it inched toward Nuria. His eyes swirled with madness and power, as he whispered casting the spell far and wide.
“It will not hold,” Ajali said grimly. “The Phoenyx lives within me as well, but the dreadful power I feel at the center of Xian is something I have never tapped into.”
She flew into the warriors, and in a blink, thousands disappeared under the wash of flames. Men and women from Mevia, Avindar, and Nuria. Thousands started to run, scattered in several directions as the very earth under their feet turned soft.
Gavyn stared into the sky, recalling the many times she had cried on his shoulder, fearful that the power inside of her would one-day rip control from her, and she would turn on innocent people as her mother had once done.
I couldn’t bear it if I killed innocent people, Gavyn.
Ajali stepped forward, his Phoenyx’s wings of flames expanding around him. “I do not know how to contain her,” he said. “A battle between us will be to the death.”
"I cannot contain her," Acheron rasped. "Nor do I have the abilities to summon such might to the bottom of our oceans and hold her there. I could summon the coven of the white witches, but by the time they reach it would be too late."
Nuria would be burning, or Xian would be dead as Ajali did everything to protect his people and kingdom.
Gavyn…
And everything in him reached for her. The flames beckoned, and a wild, terrible rage filled him as he responded to her call. "I will take care of my mate," he rasped, ignoring Ajali's jerk of shock and Prince Baku inane protests.
Gavyn made a sound of disgust, a rumbling growl deep in his throat. He ran toward her, and for the first time since he discovered his origins, he opened his mind to the wash of power and darkness. Violent energy burning through his veins, convulsing his body repeatedly. He fell to the earth as the bones in his back shattered. Instead of resisting it, he welcomed the brutal pain of the transformation which had been ravaging through his body for the last day and a half. Waves of dark energy swarmed around him, bones broke in his feet, and a massive clawed appended coated with black scales replaced his foot.
His body contorted and stretched, agony, bright and hot, almost robbed him of breath. Instinctive knowledge filled him. He felt the fire and soul of the Kagutsuchi dragon rising in him, spreading out to encompass his being. Then with a pulse of power, he transformed into the fire breathing beast, crimson, black, and orange scales first rippling over his body.
He could the enormous increase in his size, his bones lengthen and reshape becoming much harder and denser. The weight of the wings he’d had before tripled as did their width and length. He could feel his nails lengthen, become razor-talons.
Great wings flapped, and he shot with unparallel speed toward his mate. She screamed an inferno of red flames, and when it touched him, he opened his massive jaws and devoured her flames. Fire poured down his throat, clenched around his insides, and filled him with a dark rush of pleasure. Primal emotions filled his heart, and a love so intense the man in the heart of the dragon ached.
Fearless, confident of his dominance, he hurtled toward her, gripping her in his massive talons, careful not to hurt her. The Phoenyx did not fight him. Instead, she enfolded him in her enormous wings, as a wild, unstoppable forcefield of fire gathered around them, the energy at the center of it a pitiless promise of destruction.
Gavyn spun with speed towards the vast oceans of Amagarie. The remorseless fire of the Phoenyx burned through his scales, melting the bones of the dragon. A scream ripped from the beast’s throat, but he did not stop. Mountains beneath them crumbled, the lakes dried.
“I love you Xian. Come back to me. Take control of the force inside you, please, my love, come back to me.”
A burn of intense fire touched his thought as they plunged to the icy depths of the oceans. He could feel the wash of power from Acheron as he chanted, beseeching the powers of the Phoenyx force to sleep.
He burrowed deep in the inky murkiness of the oceans, their flames heating the depths of the ocean. The landed on the floor, and he wrapped his wings around her, holding her to him. He could not stay there forever. He would need to breathe, but Gavyn could not let her go. She was his mate…. his love…his entire soul. Inside the beast, he struggled to come to grips with a storm of fierce emotions he felt for his mate. When the man inside the dragon struggled to rise for breath, the immortal beast took over, obliterating the heart of the man, the very essence of Gavyn so it could stay with its mate, buried under the oceans.
* * *