Chapter 11 Evira #3
“Just upon the initial connecting aspect. I saw it hurt you too, my ice stabbed at you, didn’t it?”
He averted his eyes.
“Now they’ve made the connection, it’s okay. But you holding back isn’t going to work. You actually need to let loose. I’ll balance against that on my end.”
His gaze flicked back to me. “You swear to me, icicle?”
“I swear.”
“All right.” He shifted his weight again, then I felt the resistance dissipate, and I pushed my sphere further into his.
I smiled when his raged wildly with his fuchsia flame, lashing at mine.
I stepped closer, ramping up my power, feeding more and more, and walking along the proverbial bridge I could feel running between our magic now.
Easy.
It was so easy now.
His eyes lit up as he felt it too, then pushed harder.
Both our hands were shaking, but not from the strain—from the all-encompassing thrill of it, the heady intensity as our magic literally converged into something else entirely.
The spheres aligned, essentially snapping into place.
The moment they did, our fused creation started sparking and swirling, then spinning faster and faster, like it was about to detonate.
Because it was.
It was ready.
I signaled Zayn and he gave a nod.
Then, in the next second, we thrust our palms forward, sending the Ecliptic Convergence propelling into the middle of the hostiles gathered.
As soon as it hit center, power exploded out of it in a series of insanely powerful shockwaves that rocked the entire area, all that magic rushing out in its fused state, flooding through the hostiles.
It absolutely decimated them all, touching each one of them, and the moment it did… melting them into liquid magic. Pools all over the ground of that midnight-blue.
Every. Single. One. Of. Them.
A choked sound of relief and disbelief escaped me.
Zayn staggered back a step.
A stunned silence fell over the troops.
And then applause and cheers erupted.
People high-fived us, hugged us. Dad and Grandma grinned at me. Torvek winked.
A few shoulder slaps from excitable dragons that Zayn got nearly knocked him over, so I wrapped my arm around him to keep him steadied.
He leaned in to kiss me, and I was absolutely here for it—but then we were all startled by commotion in the distance.
“The mountain,” Dad uttered, and I pulled Zayn tighter to me, as we looked out at the damaged ice mountain that Dad had told us about earlier being the place where Vorzyr had been holding Ruxnoth off.
A dangerous thunder rumbled.
And then all of us jolted and stepped back in response as the mountain imploded.
Snow, ice, and chunks of earth exploded out everywhere.
Vorzyr came into view, propelled from it violently, in human form, drenched in blood, his clothes shredded. He landed brutally hard on the ice rocks bordering the area, choking up more blood all over the place.
Kai was sailing from it next in the same direction as Vorzyr.
I saw Vorzyr roll with a pained grunt and catch Kai at the last second so he didn’t hit the rocks at brutal force. He didn’t have dragon hide to protect him like V did.
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
A blindingly bright explosion of silver power shot from the base, and then Ariana rose from it, her golden wings out.
Midnight-blue light erupted right in front of her, and then Ruxnoth was there, hovering with his own wings outstretched, a shimmering blue and gold. He had that fancy old world coat on, his chest on display, and his skin was almost covered entirely in blue veins.
Ariana fired two silver streams at him, her power so immense that it sent him spinning out away from her.
But that relief was short-lived. She only just managed to check on two of her loves in V and Kai, before Ruxnoth was bursting back into the fray.
She fired again.
But this time, one of her streams turned to… glitter? Just tiny sparks raining down on the snow below, not touching him anymore, not driving into him.
Oh fuck, he’d just transmuted her stream.
At her shock, he moved in, grabbed her other still live palm and forced it to his chest.
She tried to pull away, but he wrenched her to him with his free hand and clamped down on her shoulder.
A scream escaped her, while a cry of ecstasy sounded from him—he was siphoning her!
“Yes… there it is. How very thoughtful of you. I did need a top-up, Ariana.”
Collective panic broke out among our ranks, and I saw Dad and Grandma exchanging a grave look.
This was beyond bad.
I heard Dad start strategizing with Flame as to how we could intervene without being wiped out instantly.
“You should have brought the Celestial children along to see me,” Ruxnoth taunted Ariana. “That would have been a glorious power infusion. Well, there’s still time for that, isn’t there, pretty angel?”
“You’re not touching them,” she seethed.
“Do you really have much say in that?”
She grunted as he obviously pulled harder, drawing on more of her True Celestial magic. “Your power is truly colossal. Unfortunately a little too pure for me. It means you get to live. Although, soon you’ll kneel to me like all the rest.”
I caught sight of Kai on the ground below, staggering to his feet across the snow. Vorzyr was now passed out.
With a spark of magic, that Aetherbound Scepter of his materialized in his hand, the thing that could battle against Celestial magic—even True Celestial magic.
“Motherfucker!” he roared, as he slammed it into the ground right underneath where Ariana and Ruxnoth were hovering.
Silver, gold, and white light shot from it and struck Ruxnoth, breaking his siphoning connection to Ariana.
As he blew backward, Ariana’s eyes fluttered closed and she dropped, but Kai enveloped her with his magic, bringing her now unconscious form down safely.
Another shot of silver light tore into the area, and then Cornelius Martel was arriving on scene. He grimaced at the sight of his unconscious granddaughter, then went to attack Ruxnoth who’d already recovered from Kai’s blow.
“No!” Kai called out. “He’ll just siphon you. No more Celestials here. Get out of here.” He gestured at Ariana and Vorzyr. “Get them out of here.”
“You’re not staying here to fight against him.”
“Ambrose is still recovering, but I’ll have him lend me some of his magic, create a protection spell around this realm, one Ruxnoth can’t penetrate, and I’ll use it to force him out. What’s Ryker’s status? To pull this off fast enough, I need likeminded help. If not him, send me Gabriel Morgan.”
“It won’t be Ryker. He’s dealing with a situation created by the Light Fae mobilizing units against Glacialis Arx to take Sylas—the shortsighted plan Temperance has now abandoned of using him to unmake his son.
It triggered King Darethor sending a counterforce of Dark Fae to cut off the Light Fae, in order to protect Sylas and his family on Velra’s behalf. ”
“Jesus Christ, it’s a complete shitshow.”
“When fear wins out over reason, this is often the result, yes. He has sent Guardians equipped with Bastion Gauntlets this way, but I’ll head them off now to keep further Celestial power away from Ruxnoth. I’ll have Ryker send them without. We can’t leave Draven and his people without backup.”
“No!” Dad called out. “Don’t bring more beings into this who will be damaged!”
“Draven!” Cornelius called back.
My dad looked absolutely devastated as he stared out at all of us, then turned back toward Cornelius in the distance and uttered the words that dragons just did not do well with, “We’ll retreat!”
Ruxnoth burst down from the sky, dematerialized his wings, then grabbed Cornelius by the throat and wrenched him off his feet.
“Ah, Cornelius Martel, you interfering fool. How great you could have been if you’d carved out your own seat of power here when the Celestial Plane first ejected you.
Instead, you became one of them, all these lessers down here, even capitulating to them, giving up your position as supreme leader of the supernatural world. ”
“The foolish actions belong to you,” Cornelius rasped.
Ruxnoth snarled. “No one is evacuating. They will behold my glory.” He grinned with manic excitement. “You see, these are to be my first subjects, the beginning of my rule.”
Cornelius didn’t get to reply, to do a single thing, as Ruxnoth tossed him away with a burst of power so formidable now he was hopped up on Ariana’s power as well, that it ripped a hole in the fabric of the realm and sent Cornelius tearing through it.
“Holy shit,” Zayn choked.
The whole lot of us choked, gasped, fucking freaked, honestly.
Kai went to activate his Aetherbound Scepter again.
“Stay your hand!” Dad boomed over to him.
Kai looked out at him, hesitating. He didn’t like retreating either.
“I need that spell you discussed with Cornelius. That needs to be the focus, Kai.”
I saw Kai grit his teeth, but then nod.
Thankfully, because in the next moment, Ruxnoth went for him, but Kai was already teleporting out, and wrapping it around Ariana and Vorzyr, taking them with him.
In the next second, Ruxnoth shot onto the battlefield in amongst his liquified soldiers.
“Hmm,” he uttered, surveying the damage.
“I am duly impressed.” He eyed my dad. “And with you also, mighty Vortimer ruler. It’s refreshing to finally encounter a dragon who isn’t just a mindless beast like the rest of your kind. ”
Snarls and growls came his way, mine included.
Ruxnoth merely laughed.
“Piece of shit,” Zayn muttered under his breath. And then he yelled out to the psychopath, “Where’s Win? Did you hurt him, you son of a bitch?”
“My miraculous boy is settling in perfectly well to his new life in my domain.” He narrowed his eyes at us both. “He is closed to you now.”
“The fuck he is,” I seethed.
“You don’t even know him,” Zayn rumbled.
No, he didn’t. But the look in Ruxnoth’s eyes indicated that he thought he did.
Huh. That was an advantage for Winter, something he could work with, and use against the manipulative maniac.
“Winter is open to me rather wonderfully in actual fact.”