I still am not exactly sure what happened, though Micheal explained to me much later. He touched upon something beyond even my reach, something that I can remember only fragments of.

Endless.

Azure.

Eternal.

But that's a story for another day.

Micheal’s flesh stitched back together in a instant, and a azure-gold mantle burst from his back, billowing behind him like a pair of divine wings. His crown exploded with light, and together with his mantle, they blinded all that dared look upon him. His aura redoubled and redoubled again, surging forth like the stormy sea. He closed his eyes and tilted his head upward, basking in his newfound power. His anointment.

A new quality, a new authority saturated it, and the world rushed to bow before its new king. The battle below came to a halt as some of the beasts began to prostrate themselves to the shining being floating above them.

Micheal opened his eyes, and gazed upon them with regal authority, like a king looking down upon his disobedient subjects.

Dargonth roared at seeing his army bow before another, and surging with power, he charged Micheal.

Micheal simply held out a hand.

“Stop”

It was more than a mere command. It was an edict. It was a decree. It was law.

And the world obeyed, not because he forced it too, but because he was a King, and kings were obeyed.

The wind froze, the battle froze, the seas froze, Dargonth froze.

In a world of frozen time, Micheal marveled at his mantle, still streaming even in the frozen wind. The world obeyed his every whim, and with a thought, a salty sea breeze unfroze and gently caressed his cheek.

Dargonth exploded with more power than he had ever shown, his red-gold scales turning black as he unleashed every bit of power he had. Time unfroze as he managed to break free of the working, but Micheal was no longer paying any attention.

Instead, he was looking down at the army of beasts below, who were hesitantly returning to the battle after the shock of Micheal ascension. With new eyes, he truly saw them for the first time.

Dargonth had been right. Orion had been right. Their power was derived not from their souls, but rather from their blood. From their inheritance. It made them mighty for little effort, but it prevented further growth And beyond that, it made them vulnerable.

Path’s forged from the soul were inseparable from those that wielded them. To separate them was to kill them. But paths inherited from blood were not nearly so immutable.

Micheal extended an arm over the hordes of beats below, gathering his power.

“Sever” he commanded, feeling reality obey his edict.

Immediately, the beast’s advance ground to a halt as they were separated from their paths. As the path to survival was severed before them.

The command washed over his people harmlessly, bounding off their immutable souls.

I watched in shock. Such a command should have been impossible for a mortal to execute. While their paths may come from their blood, they were still incredibly tightly bound to their bodies.

To sever them so casually…

Micheal had reached the threshold.

I could barely hold back my laughter.

He was almost there!

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If he could just take the final step…

I wouldn't be alone any longer.

Then, Dargonth let out a roar, and struck Micheal like a falling star. His mantle wrapped around him protectively as Dargonth hurled them into the earth. They struck with a massive explosion, the mere force of their impact killing hundreds of beasts.

Black flames surged around Dargonth as he burned his path in a last desperate gambit against the newly ascended king. He refused to be inferior to another, especially one younger than himself. One who was originally weaker.

The earth shook and the skies blackened as Dargonth released everything against Micheal, burning himself away in the process.

Even Micheal’s sibling were forced to back up and shield themselves and their descendants with massive shields of manifested truth. The beasts enjoyed no such protection, and severed from their paths, they died in droves.

At first, Micheal’s mantle protected him, but as he overcame the surprise he began to fight back, slowly forcing Dargonth back through pure will and authority. Dargonth’s desperation reached new heights as he was slowly forced back.

But Micheal was beginning to flag as well. He had severed the paths of thousands before even fully understanding the extent of his true power, and the backlash was making itself apparent, as was the exhaustion.

Soon, they reached an impasse, striking out in a flurry of mental, physical, and spiritual attacks. Dargonth gave Micheal no time to muster the strength for another edict, and as he noticed Micheal begin to give ground, he pressed harder.

And harder.

It was a matter of endurance now. Would Dargonth burn himself out before Micheal succumbed, or would Micheal succumb first?

The planet began to shake as their metaphysical weight threated to crush it, and I quietly reached out to stabilize it, entrapped by the immensity of what I was witnessing.

Micheal began to struggle more. He just needed time to familiarize himself with his new power, but now he felt like he was in a different body. Unfamiliar and foreign. He had power in spades, but he didn’t know how to properly leverage it. And Dargonth didn’t give him the time to figure it out, pressing Micheal so hard he couldn't even find it within himself to ignite his own path in turn.

His sibling watched him be slowly pushed back towards them, and struggled to defend the rest of their descendants as they grew closer and closer. Something had to be done.

The sun was setting now, the entirety of the day having been passed in furious battle. Humanity was barely hanging on anymore, trapped behind a massive shield as Dargonth burned away in a last ditch attempt to kill a newly ascended Micheal. They were mere miles away now, and the power they exuded threatened to slay all of them. And some of them it had.

Promoth had sacrificed himself first, diverting Dargonth’s full power attacks, burning up even as he erased world-ending black fire from existence. His wife Soteria joined him shortly after, burning herself away to cast a massive shield of protection around them, one so powerful it had endured non-stop attacks for nearly an hour.

But now that the protective influence of the sun was falling behind the horizon, the children of Adam found themselves weakened.

All except one.

As their shields began to give way, as even the time Soteria had bought them turned out to be too little, and the full moon rose above the horizon, Artemis stood from where she had been quietly preparing.

She looked at her siblings and their descendents huddled together, excluding otherworldly power and glory even at their end. Less than half remained, but It would have to be enough.

She looked outside of the dome that surrounded them and saw Micheal, her brother, fighting for his life. Fighting for their lives. She could see him desperately trying to burn his path for power, and failing as Dargonth denied him the time and familiarity he needed to start the process.

Yet even without the flame of sacrifice and glory lighting him up, he shone with brilliant light as he stood strong. But she could tell he wouldn't last long.

Dargonth, too, had burned away too much of himself to survive when sacrifices flame winked out, but it would last long enough to end them first.

She wouldn't let that happen.

She reached behind her, and drew the arrow she had been working on for decades. It was a simple thing, an arrow of silver, filled with violent intent. But its power was staggering.

As the rest of her family turned their attention to her, she nocked the arrow, and stepped outside the shield through a ray of moonlight.

She had always known this is how it would end. Had known it since Orion died.

She drew the arrow, pouring more power into it then she had ever before. Then she went further, letting her life and essence flow into the arrow.

This arrow would be the moon.

It would be death.

When it was finally ready, she stood on legs she could no longer feel.

“Orion, my love. I’m coming.”

She released the arrow.

Micheal saw the opportunity in the steak of silver, and agony filling him as he sensed his sister's bow tumbling to the ground, he used Dargonth momentary hesitation to muster one final command.

“Halt” he snarled, the edict binding everything except for a single flash of silver.

Dargonth struggled, but in the end, he couldn’t break free of Micheal’s final command.

A flash of silver struck him in the chest, and its majestic essence of silver stillness, icy cold, and quiet death, extinguished the already weak flame in his chest.

For a moment, the world was frozen.

Then Dargonth, Tyrant of the beats, Dragon of Flame, the last remaining being from the beginning, toppled to the ground, dead.

Micheal followed him to the ground a second later, exhausted and unconscious.

The barrier fell, and humanity hesitantly walked forward, gazing at the dragon's corpse.

They were less than half of what they once were, yet gazing at the corpse of the dragon, a glorious realization filled them.

They had won.

Heimdall slowly raised Prenutius, his horn, to his lips and blew a single triumphant note from it. It echoed across the planet, this time, not a herald of the end, but rather a herald of a new beginning.

Of a new age.