Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 927: Crash ()

Neveah’s words echoed in Jian’s mind, fueling the rage he’d contained for so long.

He’d spent centuries believing he had to atone for something. He had erected an altar against the will of his council, against his better judgement...

When everyone else had chosen to forget, he had believed if he at least held him in his heart, they would one day be reunited.

That he would have a chance to make up for the betrayal that had weighed on his conscience for centuries.

That in another life, they could perhaps be brothers again. And he had sworn he would do better then...

But in the end, it was just his own wishful thinking.

Asrig was not a man worth saving. He’d never been. Their father had known it, when he’d entrusted the throne to Jian in his final wish, instead of Asrig.

And Jian should have seen that...if he wasn’t too blinded by his own sentiments.

"You’re no match for me." Asrig said pointedly, "Your control over the elements is inferior to dark magic."

"If you surrender now, I will make it quick and painless." He smiled coldly, "Return the favour you did me all those centuries ago."

Jian’s response was a torrent of wild flames.

Asrig jumped out of the way, eyes glowering with rage. He leaped into the air, and gave way to his dragon form.

The bronze-scaled beast climbed into the skies, and Jian didn’t have the luxury to wonder the possibility. He leaped after him, transforming with a ferocious roar.

The skies were set alight as the great beasts wrestled in the skies, claw against claw, flame against flame.

It was apparent that they were now evenly matched. Jian knew it. He’d gotten the upper hand all those years ago, but Asrig was different now.

Stronger. Crueler.

The dark magic in his veins fueled him, strengthened him, and he matched Jian’s ferocity unrelentingly.

Jian roared, a whirlwind of frost surging at Asrig. It began lightly, and then grew into a blizzard, freezing up everything it touched.

Asrig summoned a swirling mass of shrieking pitch black shadows, shielding himself. The shadows easily dispersed the blizzard.

And then the shadows amassed together, taking the form of a golem. The golem struck down. Jian swerved, attempting to get out of the way, but he wasn’t fast enough.

The golem’s strike caught his side, hitting him with the force of a boulder. It sent him tumbling through the skies.

Jian righted himself at the last moment, surging forwards again. He released a torrent of flames on the shadow golem, swerving to escape its claws as he tackled Asrig’s bronze beast.

Both dragons went tumbling through the skies, crashing through a crackling portal, and into the midst of the ongoing battle in Ebon-Hollow.

Asrig ripped himself away from Jian with a furious roar.

Jian knew he had to get away from the battle. The forlorn would turn on him. That was exactly why Asrig had portaled them back here. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Jian ripped through a manticore pack as he took to the skies again, and Asrig wasn’t far behind, a wave of shrieking shadows swirling around him.

Asrig roared. And a bolt of black lightning split through the sky, ripping through Jian’s right wing.

The pain was sharp and blinding. Hot, white agony lanced through him and he roared out,

He struggled to stabilise his flight, but his right wing was completely ruined. He was rapidly losing altitude, and crashing straight for the jagged peak of the mountains at the borders of Ebon-Hollow.

He survived the last crash. But Jian knew he wouldn’t survive this one.

This was it. This was how he would go out.

He wouldn’t get to see Neveah one last time. Wouldn’t get to look into her eyes and see her love for him shining through them.

He wouldn’t get to show her the ends of his stronghold she was yet to see. North’s End, Knights Den, Dusk Castle, Kezrar Dun, Claw’s Tower...

He hadn’t gotten around to showing her even a half of his stronghold. The vast lands and territories she’d fought by his side to protect,

He wouldn’t get to keep his promise to her.

And Xenon, he hadn’t gotten to know if he was fine... He hadn’t gotten to tell him, there was no one else he would leave his dynasty to, but his Black Fiend.

Menarx...they were yet to share a drink. While he listened to the ruby scaled lord pour out his heart as he drowned his sorrows in nectar.

He was yet to tell him, that he would have rather he never recognised the Fae princess on that night. If it meant he didn’t have to go through the pain he had,

Imagor... he vowed to the Argentine scaled lord that he would teach Zephyroth to fly.

He would teach him to govern as well as his father did. He would teach him the sword, and whisper the secret to him that it was the most useless lesson for a dragon since they never got around to making use of that knowledge in their long, and flight filled lifetimes.

But at least it looked good on the hip.

He’d be breaking yet another promise, he thought. Letting his dragon form slip away, in favour of his human form.

His robes billowed in the wind, armour catching the last rays of the sun.

Kirgan... that brother of his that he could never quite figure out. But he loved the emerald scaled lord, with everything in him, he did.

He brought the laughter to the ever cold Keep. He was the warmth they all sorely lacked.

And then, there was Cassian... ever loyal, ever present. He would become even more withdrawn... spend the next century beating himself up over Jian’s death.

The thought of it ached more than his torn wing.

If only he’d gotten more time with them, he would have said it more often, that his life had only been worthwhile because they were in it.

That he hadn’t been the one to choose them, but it was they who had chosen him.

That he hadn’t honoured them when he accepted their oath, but to have been granted the privilege to be their King and brother, was his greatest honour.

And Veah...oh, his beautiful, beautiful Queen.

The thought of never seeing her again was like a dagger twisting into his heart, cutting his breaths short.

The skies stared back at him...they were beautiful. Truly...

There was only one more beautiful.

"Neveah..." He whispered, his silent tears lost to the wind.