Chapter 20 Hellfire #2
“Power like I’ve never felt in the Void… tied right to that infernal division energy.” Baldur’s blue eyes are beyond dark as he stares right into the Void, still seeing what’s happening there.
“It’s like staring into the maw of hell itself,” Strom says darkly as he holds me, then gazes around us all.
“We need to move out at once. Hedda’s waiting for Rikyava; she hasn’t fully imbued herself into the beast yet, and she won’t until she’s ready for Yava to take over—which still gives us a chance to work our plan.
We need to take advantage of that, while it—”
As I heave up to snatch Heathren’s gilded Intercessoria smartphone from the bedside table, however, a bomb suddenly goes off inside my head. I jolt, tumbling out of bed, as Strom rushes in to pick me up.
I’m blacked out, though, blinking away starbursts as he holds me. I hang my head with my fists on the stone floor, disoriented, because that blast wasn’t here—it was somewhere else. Terror fills me now as I feel Bjorn come back to consciousness from that same blast.
Far away at the Grand Palace in Stockholm.
As I understand what just happened, a horrible roar like pummeling thunder and nails screeching down a blackboard assails me. I know I’m hearing it from Bjorn, as he floods our Bloodbond open wide—to pull as much energy as he can from me and my drakes, for an attack.
I stare up in horror now, seeing with Bjorn’s eyes, as the gargantuan form of the renewed Black Dragon hangs in the skies over Stockholm.
Its cursed ropes of leviathan darkness seethe everywhere over the city.
Bjorn stands in an enormous hole, an entire section of the palace blasted away, as the Black Dragon inhales again in its terrible wrath.
As the Usurper slams a hard drive from its wings right at the towering Throne Hall of the palace now, I realize what that bomb was which sent Bjorn reeling.
This next hit from the Black Dragon bursts the towering roof beams of the Throne Hall like matchsticks from its pure, ferocious power; as stone and silberskrae, thatch and tile scatter in hurricane winds, I know this is worse than any hurricane could ever be.
As the Black Dragon inhales again, opening its giant maw and spewing its terrible hell-oil right down into the entire Throne Hall now, the entire palace is devoured by its infernal hellfire.
The Usurper pours its black fire down upon the entire city now, as Bjorn shifts up alone from his blasted-out spot in the ruins.
To fight it.
He’s not alone, however, as countless Grand Palace Kingsguard shift up now to battle the Black Dragon in the skies above Stockholm with him, protecting their King.
The King and his most loyal Jarls have shifted up also; the crimson and gold dragons of King Huttr Erdhelm and his son, Prince Halfdir, roar up in towering rages of Berserk might, as they burst from the oilslick hell of the Grand Palace, to battle the behemoth in the skies.
A glorious and massive crimson dragon with gold spikes, King Huttr fights next to his eldest son, a crimson dragon with storm-blue, viciously serrated scales.
Both brutes in a fight, our King and Prince smite their enemies in towering waves, as they work to keep the Black Dragon away from the palace and the city center now.
But even as they do, a force ten thousand dragons strong careens in from a massive portal just above the Black Dragon’s head. Far more than what Lithava brought to the Old Palace, kin turn on kin now as they crash into each other in the skies, and the Jarl’s Revolt begins.
It’s led by Lithava and her drakes, and championed by their creature, as the Black Dragon blasts another volley of its terrible oilslick hellfire down upon the palace.
That hell-oil sticks like tar, roaring up into cursed black-violet and caustic crimson blazes everywhere.
Bjorn fights in a tight cordon now with the top Kingsguard elite, engaging a contingent of rebel Jarls and their best fighters, along with our King and Prince.
The defenders come for those controlling this madness with the Berserk nature that is our bloodright, as they careen up in surges of raging Blood-might to do battle.
Cyclones of Bloodwind seethe from them; torrents of Bloodspears are cast from their wingtips, even as everything around them is decimated.
Because our King’s most elite forces are tough dragons, fierce and composed as they fight.
The Usurper sends terrible ropes of oilslick-black hell down upon the King and his most stalwart fighters, but they’re the best of the best. Bjorn and his Kingsguard join the King, the Prince, and their Jarls, as they blaze hard at the Black Dragon now, razing incredible magic at its wingtips to topple it from the skies.
They finally manage to blister it enough to ground it.
But that’s almost worse, as the gargantuan giant crash-lands into a massive section of the palace now, decimating everything.
Just like in Copenhagen, the creature is that big and that strong; as it flails, it knocks down several sections of the palace.
Massive white stone foundation blocks scatter like tinkertoys now as enormous silberskrae timbers shatter.
But even though it rains hell upon the King and his fighters, going for its eyes now as they dodge flying debris, I see the King suddenly pick out Lithava and her drakes far above, engineering this attack.
King Huttr and Prince Halfdir are twin spears of madness as they let their elite forces and best Jarls harry the Black Dragon now, surging right for Lithava and her drakes in a hurricane of fury, on the hunt.
They are not our royal family for nothing; towering in stature, impeccable in their rageful might, our King and Prince are ungodly in their command of our magics as they careen upwards like two barbed darts, right for our enemy’s heart.
But our enemy has no heart, as she screeches battle commands to her rebel Jarls and their forces to battle our King now. Bjorn and his best Kingsguard are with King Huttr and Prince Halfdir, protecting them as they crash into Lithava’s foreguard, battling them out of the way.
As the King, Prince, even Bjorn, surge in with unhinged fury to battle Arvid and Lars, Emil Beck, and Bjorn’s father, Oggi, I feel how all of them go Berserk with their need to put this rebellion down.
Through my familial bonds to my uncle and cousin, I feel how each of their hearts turns to the most furious rage now, as they face the epicenter of this rebellion.
Because Lithava and her drakes have orchestrated all the problems they’ve been facing with their Jarls, for months; Bjorn’s fury is no less, as he comes for his father in a tirade of golden rage now, fully Berserk thanks to everything Oggi Magnussen has done.
Through our Bloodbond, I feel that no one is home inside Bjorn’s dragon right now, as he comes for his father like a hurricane of madness, ready to hammer him out of the skies.
Our enemy sees them coming, though. Even as Bjorn breaks the neck of one of his father’s big Magnussen protectors, giving the King and Prince a clear shot to Lithava and her drakes, and Bjorn to his father, I suddenly feel the Black Dragon’s attention turn.
Even though Hedda has banished me from its mind, I still feel it as the monstrous creature turns its head, hearing Lithava screech. Watch out! I barely have time to scream through my mind to Bjorn when the Black Dragon opens its great maw.
Blasting Bjorn, King Huttr, and Prince Halfdir with its heart-cursing roar.
And making them plummet from the skies.