Chapter 22: Nothing is Impossible
Imported from SF2 with no description.
The dragons fought bravely against the monstrosity that was once Gothen. Even those that had finished fighting like Bartoz and Jaradas decided to join the fight. All the efforts were in vain because of Gothen's giant body and the hardness of his body had become.
Meanwhile, the humans and the Shifters were trying to evacuate the rest of the dragons that couldn't fight anymore, including the Northern dragons. Gothen's nightmare was enough to make the Northern dragons knew what they had been involved in.
The dragons, fearless as they may be, were still unable to fight the giant monstrosity. The giant monster was also retaliating, and each time they tried to gang him up, they couldn't muster any strong strength to pierce its tough scales. Only Angelus' Rune fire could penetrate it to a degree.
“Shit, we're in for a round two," said Zarxavio. “Any ideas?"
“My water is useless against him."
“No shit, genius."
Ernest scanned his opponent, trying to find any weakness. Due to its size and near-impenetrable defense, the android dragon couldn't find any meaningful weakness. That was, until he decided to fly down and saw an opening from its scale. His calculations made it certain that the chipped off scale could lead to its core (it didn't have any hearts). The problem was, the position was blazing hot and full of raw energy that even heat-resistant dragons like Angelus and Xerocia/ Zarxavio wouldn't be able to penetrate it.
Ernest flew up and said, “There's an opening at his chest we can exploit. Problem is, the place had a very unstable magical energy that could disperse any magical particles that came to it. Yes, including rune fire."
“That's kind of an impossible thing, right?"
“There's a 0.05 percent chances that your attack can go through and…hey, what are you doing?!"
“Never tell me the odds! Attack with everything you got!"
There was a barrage of attack towards the dragon's underparts, which caused it immense pain and roar. The dragons tried not to relent in the attack, but whatever they did, it couldn't break through the dragon's magical energy.
Meanwhile, Seraphor, barely conscious and could only watch from afar, noticed that despite of the dark clouds over them, it was relatively sunny at his position. He could feel the heat of the sun on him, and it made him feel energized, if only for a moment. Trying to absorb as much sun radiation he could, he charged one of his old ultimate attacks that he knew burned a whole forest. He only wished that the dragons knew what he was trying to do, since aside from Angelus and Xerocia, most of the dragons up there weren't able to stand the heat of amplified sun radiation.
Near the monster that was Gothen, Riant got an initiative of a plan, which was very risky, but might just work. He flew towards the giant monstrosity's face and said, “Hey, you big loaf. Come and shoot me!"
“Riant, he's a mindless beast now! Whatever you do won't work on him!"
“If I can lure him to shoot me, the magical energy would disperse and you would find an opening to kill it! Come on, I thought you're strong! Is that body just for boasting?!"
Suddenly, the monster's consciousness came back and grabbed Riant. The powerful heat that caused by the magical energy started to burn Riant and he holler in pain. The monster said, “I am a world eater, dragon scum. Nothing is going to win against me!" in a very deep voice. Riant wasn't able to move away when the dragon was trying to attack him, and was hit by a sheer amount of the powerful magical fire beam that was burning him intensely.
Right at the same time, Seraphor managed to charge himself far more than he could muster. Knowing he wouldn't be able to use his fire again, he smiled and said, “Behold, my final fire…" and fire the strongest sun fire beam he had ever done in his life. It pierced through the dragon's leg and through its neck. It saved Riant from being burned to crisps, yet he still fell to earth. Now with that attack making an opening that leaked Gothen's magic, it also lost any defenses it had around its weakness.
“Now, attack!"
All of the dragons engaging him attacked with all their might, exhausting all magical abilities they had. Gothen was in breaking point before Ernest stabbed it directly with all the magnetized steel he could find from the ground. It destroyed the leg, but it was enough to destabilize Gothen. With a strong deep roar, Gothen's body slowly became a rock and dispersed into nothingness. At the same time, the dark cloud vanished. All of the humans and dragons that saw this cheered on, knowing that the short war was finally over. It wasn't, though, for the heroes of the hour.
They all tried to find where Riant fell, and they found him in a mess. His whole body was scorched. Even by a fire dragon standard, it was worse than anything they had never experienced. He also fell from a considerable height that it broke his body, but the one that they noticed was how he was impaled by a sharp rock near the outskirt of the city, one that's supposed to be a natural wonder to them.
Riant was barely conscious by this point, and he cough out blood far more than he was supposed to be. His blood was flowing like a small stream down to the crater. All of the dragon there knew he was beyond saving.
“H-Hey, we made it," said Riant weakly. He then noticed his wound and said, “Well, shit…I am going to die, huh?"
“You're a hero, Riant. Without you…we won't be able to attack that monster," said Angelus.
Riant made a small laugh. “Oh…I'm not the real hero here. There's one other dragon…that needs more time than I do now. M-make sure he's alive."
He then moved his gaze upwards to the heavens. “It's…kind of sucks, huh…to know that this is my ultimate fate. Well…this is not even the final…fight. There may be more than today…but I doubt it would be as epic as this…"
“Yes…this is the finest hour yet," said Ernest.
Riant was too weak to even see things anymore. He knew his end was nigh, and so he stared at the sunny sky and said, “It was…such a great adventure…we had together…." He then exhaled his last breath, before succumbing to his wounds, and died. Ernest closed his eyes before joining the others in mourning his death.
After the fight, the humans and the rest of the humanoid races met together and celebrated their victory together. They were prevented by the rest of the dragons to execute the surviving Northern dragons, stating that they wouldn't be better than the Dragonsbane.
The Northern dragons were then interrogated before some of the benefactors of the war that supported Gothen and Akkelas were executed, while the rest of them were given a pardon, especially for the fact that some of them were malnourished and still younglings. Some even still had the chains binding them in their prisons they force to endure for millennia. Ramusk then gave an order to the dragons to find the rest of the Northern dragons, but after recovering the Order from the ordeal, with the Northern dragons helping them.
Seraphor and Spyro were in critical conditions after forcing themselves fighting Gothen, with Seraphor in particular lost the function of one of his lungs, preventing him to use any fire again. Spyro's back leg was broken badly it needed extended time to recover. With Bartoz's dark medical abilities, they managed to survive, but they were still in a coma for at least 5 days before they woke up. Bartoz broke the news of Riant's death, which the silver red dragon took it quite well, though deep in him, he was wailing loudly.
Shirdan almost lost his front leg due to the overwhelming darkness, but he managed to survive and regained control over his claw. He was also grief-stricken over Andelhaus' death, knowing him only for a moment. Despite of all things he had done to Xiciro and Avila, Xiciro readily forgive him because he knew what the young Ceroz's clone had faced. Avila, on the other hand, wasn't ready to forgive, and she still gave a nasty look towards Shirdan, which made him felt scared. Seraphor, on the other hand, decided to adopt Shirdan, knowing that he had nowhere to go, to Avila's protest. Despite of only 35 years apart in age, he agreed to it, knowing that he was still not an adult, either (due to clones).
After a while, the fight was remembered as the Seventh War, and all that was involved remembered it as the worst fight they had ever survived, but nevertheless, they were proud of it, for it's the last siege of the Dragonsbane, with they finally winning an extended period of unfruitful manhunt.
The Order of the Dragons managed to settle the dispute between the younger dragons and the older dragons, now that they had no one to hunt anymore. The older ones decided to retire from the political strain and let the young ones to organize, now believing that the newer generations could surpass the older one in a period of peace. They were also backed up by all sides of the continents.
Then again, there was no better closure than the characters involved.
Angelus, meeting Ramusk after a long separation, finally confessed her love to the old hell dravern, which was accepted by him. They decided to go back to the hellish domain and to Ternor continent as ambassadors between surface races and the hellhounds. They were granted two young dragons, but one of them was an albino dravern. They decided to name them Mikhail and Raphael.
Xiciro finally returned Legna to her original self and they finally mated for the first time. Avila was ready to accept foster sisters from them both, and now they managed to make the youngling survive without any darkness altercations, which pleased the whole family. Still, Avila was still feeling awkward for being far older than her foster sister, and also the fact that her friend became her mother.
Jaradas and Asola became the new leader of the Order, with their only child a member of it. Under their directions, the Order was expanded to the neighboring continent of Ternor and gave protection to them. They acknowledge the only dragon Order member there to be the leader of the guardians there: Azureath.
Spyro and Cynder saw their son, Alduin, grew up to be a dark purple dragon that everyone loved. In his age of 5, they trusted his lessons to the guardians. Some years after that, Alduin was given two more younger brother named Paarthunax and Odahviing…not that I didn't have any more original names, but this was Spyro's idea.
Yrelka and Sannourah, with the help of Cynder and Avila, managed to sort the problem in the dark Realm and finished all sorts of dispute with the Fuzandres by finally convincing them to abandon their reclusive life and integrated to the community. Despite of that, they refused to comply if their forest was cut down, something that made the rest of the current Dark Sentinels designated their ancient hunting ground as a guarded heritage site.
As for the rest, they have a better closure than those given here. But the story didn't end here. There might be things you don't want to know, and let them be happy. Again…not all happy endings is ever after.
Reality is crueler than a story, and nothing will be permanently smile and sunshine….