The Forsaken Hero

Borealis slammed into the skyship like a meteor, a whirlwind of ice and fury. Protective wards flared beneath his massive talons, only to shatter an instant later, exposing the deck. Soldiers scattered, scrambling for the nearest handhold as Borealis reached the ship.

The leftmost deck crumpled like paper beneath the demon’s titanic talons. The force of our impact caused the skyship to lurch violently, tilting precariously to one side and plummeting hundreds of feet of altitude. Soldiers screamed as they were flung from the deck, their bodies tossed into the air like rag dolls. Their cries echoed in the wind, fading with every passing second as they fell toward the city below.

I screamed, too, burying my face in Fable’s fur. Borealis had attacked so swiftly that I hadn’t a moment to grasp his intent or brace for impact. Amidst the chaos, R’lissea continued her spell casting, her soft chanting swallowed by the screech of tortured metal and the cries of the wounded.

Borealis lunged forward across the deck, his claws tearing through mana cannons and leaving deep gashes in the ship’s armor. Ice spread from wherever his talons touched, creeping over struggling soldiers and encasing them in crystalline prisons. The attack had lasted mere seconds, but the entire leftmost deck was devastated, the mana cannons reduced to twisted wreckage or frozen within the ice. The few soldiers who survived huddled behind whatever shelter they could find, faces pale and hands trembling.

At last, the crystal core nestled deep within the hull blazed to life, its hum rising above the destruction. Crystals along the hull flared in response, and the ship shuddered, slowly stabilizing its descent. As the decks leveled out, the surviving soldiers began to regain their footing. Powerful auras lit up across the deck: one, two...no, three seventh-level soldiers. The first wore a mage’s robes, the others full plate armor.

An eerie calm descended as Borealis shifted his stance, turning to face the remaining deck. Soldiers and mages rallied into a loose formation, their gazes locked on the dragon in defiance. Besides the seventh-level combatants, I counted at least a dozen sixth-level mages and over a hundred weaker ones. The air thrummed with the power of their combined auras.

”We should leave,” I whimpered, huddling deeper into Fable’s fur. ”We need to find Luke and—”

My blood ran cold. Luke! I scrambled into a sitting position, my stomach churning as I frantically searched for any sign of the apostles. But there was nothing but a sea of glittering feathers across the demon’s back, no familiar face to offer reassurance.

”Luke...?” I whispered, tears welling in my eyes. Where was he? He couldn’t be... gone.

My throat tightened, cutting off my breath, and my heart felt hollow, colder than the frost creeping over the ship. For a moment, my consciousness wavered, threatening to blur. Then, I remembered the Nexus.

It was still there, a steady, warm pulse in my chest. I let out a shaky breath, collapsing against Fable’s back. They weren’t dead. But... we had been so high. How could they have fallen when even R’lissea and I had managed to hold on? And if they had fallen... My stomach twisted as I looked down at the city sprawling beneath us. Could they really survive something like that?

Fable’s growl snapped me out of my stupor. I looked up just in time to see magic circles forming around the soldiers on the other side of the ship. Most were weak enough to be disregarded, but a seventh-circle spell slowly spun overhead, its runes winking into place.

One of the seventh-level warriors raised his sword, his voice booming across the sky. ”Drive them from the ship!”

The enemy force roared and unleashed a torrent of magic, filling the sky with fire, lightning, and sunlight. Borealis took to the sky, his powerful wings carrying us through the onslaught of spells. The sudden shift of weight caused the ship to lurch upwards, nearly flipping it before it stabilized again. The soldiers were thrown into disarray again, with several losing their grip and being flung over the edge.

Borealis screeched in triumph as we rose above the ship, dissipating spells and mana dripping from wings like water. A few flaps reduced the ship to a dot in the sky, nearly invisible against the backdrop of the city behind it.

As we pulled away, the mage’s soul flared with light, and a massive magic circle appeared above the ship. His chant was lost in the distance and roaring winds, but a sudden surge of heat caused my tail to stiffen.

Flames erupted at the edges of the magic circle, collapsing inward to form a solid veil of fire. Claws ripped through the inferno, gripping the portal’s edge like a door frame. A terrifying roar echoed as the creature emerged: a dragon-shaped being of living flames. Waves of heat radiated from its flickering scales, melting the ice from the damaged ship in a billowing cloud of steam.

The ship sailed through the frothing steam, limping away from the dragon. Much of the ice had faded, but the heat was such that, with their wards broken, flames sputtered from the jagged edges of broken wood planks. The whole vessel resembled a ball of kindling, cut to size by Borealis’s talons and dangerously close to bursting into flame.

The portal vanished, and the dragon plummeted a hundred feet before its wings snapped open, catching the updrafts generated by its own intense heat. It roared again, turning until it spotted Borealis. With a mighty flap of its wings, it surged towards us.

”Life Dragon!” R’lissea cried, raising her staff overhead.

Another immense magic circle materialized, this one dwarfing even Borealis. The same process unfolded, but instead of a raging inferno, ethereal vines and trees wove themselves into existence. However, when the dragon emerged, my heart sank. The beautiful creature, formed from glossy wood and flowers, felt far too delicate to face against the storm of fire hurtling toward us.

The two dragons clashed in a flurry of slashing claws and snapping teeth. Shockwaves erupted from the impact, tossing Borealis through a violent series of jolts and drops. I cowered behind Fable’s shoulder, whimpering as the rough, unpredictable turbulence shook me, leaving me nauseous and disoriented.

R’lissea placed a hand on my back, soul casting a spell. I gasped as warm energy flooded my body, clearing my mind and soothing the erratic tremble of my muscles.

”That should keep them busy for a second,” she said, wrapping her arms around my waist. ”Let’s get out of here.”

The two dragons broke apart, flapping wildly to stabilize their flight. The fire dragon looked completely unchanged, save for a slight decrease in the spell’s mana. R’lissea’s summon, on the other hand, was scorched and blackened, with jagged claw marks scoring its verdant chest. As I watched, however, it consumed a small portion of its mana, and the withered parts sloughed off, replaced by new growth. At the end of the exchange, both creatures appeared unharmed and had lost a similar amount of mana.

”We have to find Luke!” I cried, tail lashing in the bitter air.

She hesitated, tightening her grip on me. ”Xiviyah... are they even...you know...?”

”Please! We can’t leave him!” Tears blurred my vision, scattering through the bitter air as I shook my head. ”We just can’t!”

She sighed, letting the tension flow from her body. ”Alright, but that’ll mean entering the magic zone.”

”I’ll protect us,” I said, scrubbing my sleeve across my face. ”If we get close enough, I should be able to sense his soul.”

”What? But something like that takes...” She trailed off with a dry chuckle, shaking her head. ”You two really are similar.”

My tail twitched, but I pushed the question aside. I could ask her what she meant later. Right now, we had to—

The dragons collided again, and another series of shockwaves sent Borealis tumbling further from their battle. Even when the turbulence subsided, my heart hammered in my chest. I squeezed my eyes shut, struggling to breathe, then froze. That wasn’t just my body reacting.

”Dive!” I screamed, clutching Fable’s neck.

Borealis obeyed, tucking his wings and plummeting towards the earth. His soul surged with infernal mana, adding to our speed—just barely avoiding a blinding lance of light. The shockwave flared against my wards, making my heart skip a beat. Any closer, and it would have hit us.

My eyes found the skyship, and my blood ran cold. The skyship’s mana signature was barely noticeable. All of its power was diverted to the enchantments on the hull, keeping it airborne. It keeled on the side Borealis had ravaged, limping in slow, uncoordinated loops down to the city below. Its mana cannons were dark, all hands scurrying around the ship, repairing the magic circuits and tending to the survivors.

”Over there!” R’lissea shouted, her voice sharp with alarm.

I followed her pointing finger, and a chill crept down my spine. The clouds above had vanished, scattered by the shockwaves and clashing auras of the battle, revealing another skyship hovering ominously overhead. It was a few thousand feet away, but it resembled the one we’d sent limping home.

A trail of dissipating mana traced from the attack that had nearly hit us to the menacing vessel. But it didn’t originate from the large cannon atop the deck, but from the underside, where six seventh-level mana cannons protruded, fully extended toward us, their crystal cores blazing with light.