A being hovered in the middle of the storm, flapping a pair of wings spanning wider than any ship. The sea below it swirled around the breach where it escaped the bowel of hell, burning and smoking as lava continued spewing out, forming new black burning land in the nothingness. It snarled at its former prison, a deep deafening noise that sent any living creatures on the sky and in the sea fleeing. Its mere presence disrupted the natural order of the world. Dark clouds of storm gathered around it, summoning thunder and lightning echoing and flashing amidst crashing ocean waves.
Between the flashes of lightning, an enormous dragon revealed itself. It was not the body it used to have. Gone was its beautiful jet black scales covering a muscular tough body. Its prison had burned and seared its flesh off, leaving just the core of its energy lingering around its petrified skeleton. In the cavity of its skull were bloody red eyes that sucked all light from around it. Black smoke-like substance with a mind of its own swirled around its skeleton in place of its flesh, switching gaseous or liquid as it pleased, either burnt flesh or foul liquid dripped and blown away as its wings moved, searing the surface of the sea and poisoned the water. A whip of its tail was strong enough to split the sea, a thundering chaos causing never before seen destructive storm.
Its head turned, dark eyes scanning its surrounding, through its nostril sucked in the air of the world. A smirk rose from the edge of its snout, pleased to find no traces nor foul stench of other beings like it. It, the being of darkness, was the last and only dragon in the world.
It roared victoriously and sprayed a breath of black fire into the sky, and black smoke-like substance of corruption rained down around it. The dragon stretched its wings wide and soared, again spewing its fiery breath as it flew to enjoy its freedom. The world was its possession free to do as it willed. The closest land in its vicinity was a continent south, millions of colorful souls soon to be its subjects.
However one soul suddenly shone far brighter than others and a magical incantation formed between the dragon and the land.
"Magic user..." it snarled.
Puny magic of protection too weak to do anything other than drawing its attention. The dragon focused at the lone magic user, at the audacity to interrupt its glorious moment. The dragon roared and decided to teach it a lesson. It folded its wings and descended toward the continent.
***
Ramford held his left hand in front of him and a bow made out of long extinct wood materialized outward from within his fist. He pulled on the string and a magical arrow appeared with electrifying sparks around its tip. The knight aimed at the being fast approaching the continent and let go of the arrow. A thunderous boom and a trail of light followed the arrow to its target. Ramford held his breath and waited, but seconds past when it was supposed to have hit and nothing happened.
He gritted his teeth and stashed the bow back into where it came from.
"Fuck," he cursed.
***
A streak of light darted from the land and struck its wing. The dragon did not evade and did not feel a damn thing but made it furious nonetheless. A hole had appeared on its wing that disrupted its flight. Something had taken away a part of its smoky flesh, but darkness returned the shape of the wing almost immediately. It was a futile attempt but the creature stopped nonetheless.
What an embarrassment would it be to perish so early after it resurfaced to the world. It had been imprisoned under the crust of the world for eons, so long the world was no longer recognizable. Dragons used to rule the world but now, only it remained. And it did not have its original glorious body, but a manifestation of its spirit and energy on what remained of its existence. So fragile, so useless. When a single strike destroyed a chunk of its darkness, the dragon could not risk fighting in its current state.
That land must wait for another time. For now the dragon must recover its original form. It needed energy. The land in front of it was severely lacking and only one out of millions possessed enough energy to satisfy it. It needed an easier picking, something unguarded, something delicious.
As it adapted to its environment, the dragon's vision caught an interesting sight. Five sources of energy on its right, unmoving, glowing softly on the horizon. Exactly what it needed. The dragon flew westward toward its new target, the sky pierced as it went.
***
"Faster, Colt," Ramford pleaded. The horse neighed back in protest. Every leap the white horse made it flew forward a mile. The earth shook whenever its hooves touch the ground. It had run as fast as it could from the beginning.
"Sorry, friend," he apologized. Nothing the knight could do but tighten his fist around the rein. The being on the north sea had stopped moving for now but the storm still followed the creature and ravaging the northern shores. He managed to strengthen the magic wall as he got closer to the creature, but what then? The energy the being exuded spanned the horizon, visible to naked eyes as thunderstorm and raging ocean tides, but the knight of magic saw the mist of darkness growing larger from the being.
The gulf between their power was immense but the knight feared nothing. From the day he lifted his first sword the knight was taught the way to kill a dragon. Never mind that dragons had long since extinct, but that art was also incredibly effective killing other creatures, including humans. The first lesson all knight must master, the most basic of any school of magic was making himself stronger than he should be by borrowing the power of the elements. Ramford had not been riding idly on Colt's back. For a being that had lived as long as he was, he had come to learn the most powerful thing to borrow from. Ramford raised his arm and a motion of his fingers manipulated the air around him, a string of swirling particles extending from the tip of his finger into sky, toward the thunderclouds.
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The world was full of energy. The sun warmed the world, the wind moved the clouds, the river could split mountains, but lightning was the world's most concentrated form of energy. When the sun warmed enough clouds and when the wind sent them colliding, thunderstorm occurred and sent powerful energy that could scorch the earth, start a fire, or outright kill a living being. When Ramford connected with the storm, a flood of energy rushed into the string, reaching from the clouds into the tip of his finger.
A thunderbolt struck the rider and his horse. By all natural law it should have fried him to death, but the knight of magic absorbed the load of energy, forcing it to course into every cell in his body, amplifying his inner force. Electricity escaped from all strand of his hair, making them straightened out of their roots. His senses were heightened so much so he could feel the particle of airs going past him, the electricity brewing from the storm, and a clear vision through the darkness hovering on the north.
He could see the creature that was a disaster, its gigantic wingspan, its overflowing power, its breath of fire. It was a dragon. A creature of myth. The knight braced himself, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword, ready to fight it should it made land. But his eyes saw the dragon's head turning, its wing flapping and the creature began to fly west. Ramford followed its direction and dreadfully remembered the existence of the Towers of Storm.
***
The dragon crashed and dug its talons into the side of the tower. Shards of stone bricks fell freely into the sea but the tower stood still despite the dragon's weight on it. An impossible structure reaching into the sky, rising from the depth of the sea floor, and there were four others like it across the horizon. The dragon dug its claws into the spire and rose its head to peer into what contained within. A glowing crystal orb the size of a human head spun inside the empty room at the top of the tower, ancient runes carved on the walls inside.
It did not have the need to read the spell for it could observe what the runes made the crystal do. The crystal overflowed with magical powers that its shell was unable to contain, turning the tower into a magical apparatus that summoned storms to stop any beings from reaching the towers.
The dragon sneered. What a curious and pointless spell, it thought. The dragon broke through the storm with ease and no illusion could fool it. It pulled its arm back and swung its claws into the spire. A deafening boom exploded on the top of the tower, the air shook and dust and rocks flew but the tower stood tall. The spire unscathed but for the marks its claws left.
The dragon roared and breathed fire at the inanimate structure. Furious it struck another blow at the tower, another crack and shaking earth around the deviant tower.
What a useless creation! So much power wasted to imprison itself, power that could have been used to rule the world. What is the purpose of existing without power! And there were five of them! What an utter waste!
The dragon gripped the tower with all four of its limbs, wings stretched wide. Its bloody eyes shone and sucked all remaining light from the night and clouds of darkness began to spread from its body, engulfing the tower.
What magic could stop the might of a dragon? A dragon's being was the root of all magic, a gift to the world. It had decided to rip apart all magic in the tower by force. Its darkness collided with the force within the tower, probing for cracks within the spell. It found some from the holes its claws made, forcing darkness into the structure, corrupting the spell, dismantling it from within.
The tower began to crumble under the weight of the dragon. The force that maintained its shape waned, drawn back to the top of the tower, focusing its strength to protect the room and what contained within. The dragon smirked devilishly and strengthened its attack, burst of corruption entering the tower, aiming at the crystal from inside the tower. A spherical force field condensed around the spire, an impenetrable last protection thwarting the dragon's forces from touching the crystal.
The collision between the two forces created a ripple on the space around them, wreaking havoc on the world, endless tremors inflicted on the sea and land, but a mere crystal and a mindless rune was no match for the creature's assault. The dragon's darkness eventually broke through and touched the crystal and without a moment spared, it drew the crystal's power. The darkness formed a channel between the crystal into the dragon's hollow heart.
Where there was nothing among its ribs was filled with glowing light, emanating from a growing heart-shaped crystal. The dragon was bursting with power. Petrification on its bones from eons trapped in the sea of magma reversed. The darkness that replaced its flesh condensed and living cells began to grow back.
It was not, however, satisfied with the progress. The devil lacked patience and thus pierced its claws into the room full of runes and physically touched the crystal, intent on directly absorbed all power contained within. Darkness rushed into spire and engulfed the defenseless crystal before it squeezed its claws and shattered it.
The energy exploded, destroying the tower, but the dragon's darkness contained everything and absorbed every single drop of power. Energy crackled from its claws, traveling through its arm into its new crystal heart, and from its crystal heart spread to everything everywhere on the dragon. Its flesh regenerated, red hide growing, gleaming as brilliant as ruby under the sun.
"NOOOO!" the dragon of darkness trashed and roared. It crashed into the sea and crawled its way atop the pile of rubble that was the tower, wings tearing apart its newly regenerated body. The moment it absorbed the entirety of the crystal something else awakened within it, something that was fast gaining control of its body.
Panicked the creature stabbed into its own chest, blood spluttered from its brilliant red hide and its vile, still petrified bony claws ripped its new heart out, veins pulsing softly as power spread from the chest into the rest of its.
The dragon roared and destroyed the crystal with its last controllable limb, the blast pulverized that limb and cratered its chest. The dragon was thrown back and crashed into the sea again. Its new living cells lost its source of power and decayed, rotting back to nothingness. Vile black smoke of corruption returned in place of its long gone flesh, but nonetheless a price was paid.
The crystal heart was destroyed but it had invaded the dragon. A soul of another dragon was revived within darkness. Another voice grew behind darkness' minds, calling, asking.
"What are you?" it asked.
Darkness roared. Spitting fire into the sea, trashing rubble, futile attempts to drive the voice out.
"LEAVE!" it commanded.
The voice took it as a challenge and began to gather its strength. A concentration of bright fire grew within darkness and cracks formed on the dragon's chest. A shape of a dragon's head forced its way from the cracks. Darkness felt no physical pain, but to feel its own power drained by an invader brought back a long forgotten terror of defeat, of powerlessness.
It did the only thing it knew could save itself.
Darkness abandoned the world and flew away from the towers. It focused all strength on flying back north, and dove back into the hell it came from.