Elyndris, Wyrm of Cloud and Flame, drifted in the sky. Her eyes, each the size of a dinner saucer, were closed. They had come for her. She knew it would have been only a matter of time. Mortals were so attached to their little castles and meager cities. They had so many, why were they so attached to the one she burned? Of course, she would meet her enemies happily. With a deep breath, she drew in the essence around her. Cloud and fire. She had spent years cultivating her territory. Gently nudging it to create the ideal environment to nourish her soul.
Clouds of ash and smoke naturally formed near her lair. Rivers of lava spilled into pools of brackish water. Every tree for miles was either a tower of charcoal, or it had adapted, becoming ever burning trees.
Her spirit filled with fire from below and the clouds from above. She felt the power. Essence compressed so tightly to resemble stone. Elyndris let herself bask in the feeling. Only recently had she attained such heights.
She opened her eye. They had brought an army. How considerate, she needed something to test herself on. She flexed her dominion over flame and her deep iron scales began to glow with heat. Gently, she guided her dominion over cloud. Her wings extended, becoming sails to guide her, no longer needed to keep her aloft.
Elyndris then dropped. Falling from the sky, hurtling with the speed of a comet towards her enemies. She had never been a a patient creature. The first volley of arrows shattered upon her scales. The meager steel breaking like glass and the wood disintegrating before her heat. Large bolts of iron, fired from siege weaponry, were dodged with grace.
The dwarven army was supplemented with giants and mountain folk. None were below level 25, or they would not have survived the journey here. Their formation was wide, scattered. It wouldn’t be enough. Her jaws opened into the suggestion of a smile. As she fell, she was building her breath of fire. Pouring more and more flame into the back of her throat. Enhancing and condensing the fire with her dominion over it. The air rippled around her as her throat began to glow white hot. The warmth was comforting.
While within the dark cloud of arrows, she unleashed her breath. Before, the army would have been too far away to easily burn. But, now, her power was enough. The attack came as not a cone of flame, but an almost solid bar of light and heat. Superheated air exploded into a cloak of fire that followed the beam of fire. It crashed into the earth, cutting a groove through the dwarves’ armored vehicles. Dozens were disintegrated. Even more were dead or wounded. With satisfaction, she noted one dwarf staring at his smoldering stump where his arm used to be.
Her laugh shook the heavens. Burning clouds of ash danced around her, mimicking her joy. This was power! True strength, only obtained by years of effort, finally realized. But it was not enough. It was never enough. She needed more power, more strength. Her greed washed over her. It was an instinct, a need, that went beyond mere gluttony. A feverish wanting of power, wealth, land. A need to consume all before here, to own all of the worlds treasures and to conquer all the lands. Even then, she would not be satisfied. Elyndris sought the very seat of heaven.
Four figures rose from the smoke and dust. Women clad in blood tinged armor. Wings lifted them towards her. Each wielded a spear that seemed to thirst for her blood. When Elyndris last fought the Valkyrie, there were five of them.
They screamed their challenge as one. The combined power pushing back against the encroaching black clouds. When they finally attacked, Elyndris danced. She spun and twirled, guiding her long body through complex gymnastic maneuvers to avoid their spears.
The first fell from a casual swipe of a claw. The second was blasted with a beam of fire. The third and fourth she gripped in both claws as she dove to the rabble below. She learned long ago to give in to the need to destroy, rather than fight it. It was more fun that way.
The last of the valkyrie were crushed beneath Elyndris as she threw herself into battle with glee.
Even as she cut and clawed her way through the warriors below, she gathered her cloud essence. The sky turned black and the clouds became tinged with fire essence. With a laugh of glee, the storm began.
The rage of a full storm cloud filled to bursting with the fires pride. Boiling drops of liquid fire fell upon the dwarves. The effect was… disappointing. Their armor was protected against fire. Well, no matter. What was important was to feed the need to slaughter.
When the giants approached, fog rose from the ground. It concealed nothing from the Wyrm of Cloud and Fire, for this was her domain. Fog was just cloud bowed low in supplication. Like a predator, she hunted the large humanoids. Cutting them down one by one. Elyndris had never had so much fun as she had now, she was almost giddy.
It was then that she felt weight settle upon her. It was like a mountain was dropped on her wings. Her claws dug into the earth as she tried to remain standing. Her tail cut into the stone where it was pressed. She called upon the cloud once again, but this only lessened the weight. She could move, but she would not be able to fly.
Snarling, Elyndris searched for her attacker. One of the mountain folk had his will focused entirely upon her. This one towered above the dwarves, its skin like stone. White frost clung to every surface of his body, as though he was a tiny walking mountain. Strung around his neck were several beads the size of a human head. Each formed from the stone at the very center of a mountain. She hissed as she recognized him. Yochlo, Demon of the North. How he was convinced to fight for the dwarves, she didn’t know. Actually, she didn’t care. He was a worthy adversary. He had cultivated his spirit with the essence of mountains and ice. Her natural enemy, and she his. But, what he lacked was a perfected monstrous body. That in its own right would be enough to tear him to shreds.
As she charged, something clipped her in the chin. The sound was like slamming a sledge hammer against and anvil. The hammer which struck her flew back, spinning in the air, only to be caught by a dwarf. He wore thick armor and had complex braids in his hair and beard. Dwarven runes were tattooed across his face. His helm doubled as a crown. Another character torn from the legends. King of the dwarves. The god slayer’s son. Ragnvaldr. He was a Champion and one of the few who reached the maximum level possible. Rage burned withing Elyndris. She spent half a century waging war against this dwarf. Today was the day it would finally end.
It was the third legend’s appearance that made her start to worry. With a roar, it smashed into her. Claws racked down her scales, tearing some free. Then it kicked from her fast enough to avoid the retaliating lava-like blood. Ban, The Dragon of the South. The gentle man eater. A great tiger. Form perfected over decades of growth, body mutated into the perfect killing machine. Like most dragons, it had wings, though his were feathered, rather than scaled. Once, it feasted upon entire kingdoms. The tiger was meant to be slumbering, as it had achieved the peak of evolution and could grow no longer. Why was IT here?
Elyndris faced three opponents, each representing the peak of their paths. One hundred levels, the utmost power that can be taken from the angels. A Champion. One hundred mutation points, the maximum possible. A Dragon. And a soul condensed, reforged, and unbounded. A Demon.
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But this did not frighten the wyrm. For she was Elyndris, the Demon Dragon. Body and soul perfected. She only lacked skills, but that would be her next conquest. She would be the first in over a hundred years to become an Avatar.
With a roar of rage, joy, and battle lust, the dragon advanced upon her enemy. She bore down upon Yochlol with condensed fire and slammed her tail against the dwarven king. He held his ground, but the wyrm rolled out of the way from the tigers pounce.
Yochlol pulled upon the planet itself until it relinquished a small mountain, which he hurled at the Demon Dragon. Cloud essence caught it and guided it gently past. A wing slammed into the tiger, knocking it away. But a blow strong enough to split an ocean shattered one of her arms. Elyndris could feel her iron bones reforging themselves back into shape.
If it was only these three, she might have been able to fight to a stalemate, or at least escape. But, there was still an army to contend with. Volleys of accurate arrows peppered her, doing nothing but causing an irritating itch. Thrown weapons, spells, and siege equipment slammed into her. It was like fighting while standing in a waterfall. Painful, but relatively harmless.
The four legends continued to battle for minutes, then an hour. At the end of the second hour, the four were all panting rigorously. Elyndris’ bones and scale armor had been shattered a dozen times over, each forging themselves back into place. Forging fell within the domain of fire, and she had mutated her body into iron. Ban had lost an eye and was severely burned. The dwarven king’s shield had shattered, his helm split in two, and his beard was actively burning like a candle wick. Yochlol was least harmed, but hist spirit was nearly exhausted. Elyndris, however, could replenish her spirit with ease here. She could fight for hours longer, if needed.
The others sensed this. They would lose this fight if I continued much longer. Together, they made one last, desperate, attack. Yochlol drained the last of his spirit, redoubling the weight upon her. She couldn’t move as freely, but he also couldn’t hold it for more than a few seconds. Ragnvaldr hefted his hammer with both hands and screamed a battle cry as he charged her, head on. The fool. He had opened himself up to an attack. She did not need to move to burn him, and the command over her own fire was even greater than normal. She opened her jaws wide and unleashed her firey beam.
The look in the kings eyes went from desperation, to victory. Before him, a mass of complex geometric shapes projected into reality. A spell, one more complex than most. The fire bored into it and was funneled. The spell had trapped the fire breaths energy, absorbing it and converting it into something else. A spell like this would have to have been designed with the fire breath energy in mind. Elyndris realized the only way this was possible is if the king had been crafting this spell while they fought. That would have required an immense amount of focus, mental effort, and concentration. One slip, and the spell would have detonated early. She found newfound respect for the dwarven king.
Her beam of fire was captured by the spell, funneled, transformed, and returned. A beam of force and destruction of equal power to her beam of fire washed over her. She could feel her scales rusting from the destruction magic and peeling away from the force. It lifted her in the air, and with the weight of a mountain atop her, she slammed back into the ground, creating a crater.
Ban’s jaws were around her now vulnerable neck. He squeezed and tore at her throat. Finally, the weight was gone. Elyndris began to lift into the air. Then Ragnvaldr slammed down on her chest, crashing her back to the earth. The dwarf smashed her again. Each blow shattering bone or rupturing organs. Venom from Ban’s jaws dug through her veins and his strength was impossible to break.
Even yochlol redoubled his attacks, wielding a staff of iron.
Elyndris seethed. She fought to keep them off of her, but… the injuries were too much. She saw the flaw in her reforging technique. While wounded, she had less control over the fire domain. While within the earthen tomb of her own crater, she had limited access to the sky to pull cloud essence. He armor was peeled away and her life leaked away, burning into the ground beneath her like spilled lava.
The tiger pulled with all of its strength, and Elyndris felt her neck tearing and bones cracking. Her vision began to fade. The strength left her limbs and wings. She began to drift into unconsciousness.
No.
She was Elyndris. Greatest of the dragons. Mightiest of the demons. Soon to be Champion over the system. Her story would not end. She couldn’t simply die here. As her spirit was torn from her body, raising towards the heavens to join the eternal war, she fought. Even as her cloudfire essence spilled into the land and her body dissolved into a white powder, with all of her will power and every last drop of ego, she held on. Elyndris gripped her name, her identity. It was like holding onto a wet cliff face during a storm, but still she held.
Her spirit kept her form. Lashing out, she cut and burned through the line of souls before her. Then a hand that could block out the sun reached out, and dragged her to the front of the line.
[Measuring soul…please wait…Measuring soul… please wait…Measuring soul…please wait…]
The words appeared in the heavens, but all of her attention was going to her battle of wills. Herself against the very laws of life and death.
[Dragon detected. New monster evolution formed. Name: Forge Drake. Evolution path: Drake. Congratulations, soul. You have expanded the system and left a legacy that will persist for all time.]
Elyndris screamed from the effort of holding on, but felt herself claw back to reality. Her soul returning to the world of the living. The scream was noticed. The white void seemed to stretch and reform itself. A pure light, as calming as it was authoritative, washed the heavens with the will of order and law. It spoke.
“Release your hold, Mortal. You have died, and must move on. This is not the end for you. Fight and continue to grow in the heavens, you have surely earned your place.” Her spirit was pulled back from returning. Forced into the cycle of death.
“NEVER, I am Elyndris! Dragon! Demon! CHAMPION!”
“Not a Champion. But you have achieved more than most. Your life is done, you can only bring yourself harm by holding onto-”
[Soul valued. 2%. Unworthy.]
“Oh. I spoke too hastily.” The force of law seemed to loom over her. “All you have done is destroy and take. You have done nothing worthy of heaven. We do not need warriors like you.”
Elyndris couldn’t reply, every aspect of her being hurt from the effort of holding onto her self. The force moved away, leaving her alone in the void.
[Reincarnation cycle, restarted. Selecting species. Species selected: Larva]
Statistics filled the space. It seemed to flicker, as though it was the thing fighting Elyndris’ will.
True Name: ~Error~
Species: ~DrWaokerm~
Soul Type: Monster
Monster Level: 1
Attributes:
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Constitution: ~error~
Intelligence: 1.1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Will: 1
Charm: 1
Skills:
None
Feats:
Enc ~Error~ Angel
Traits:
Base size: Miniscule
Finally, she fell back. Hurtling back to her world. Her will weakened, slightly, and she could feel parts of herself drifting away. Memories, goals, experiences, power, and potential.
Then it was dark. For a long time, she drifted as nothing but a slurry of proteins, cells, and acids. One cell at a time, she pulled herself together. Reforming her great body. It lacked iron, but that was a mistake in the first place. This time, she would do better.
Light glowed through a screen of wire. Layer upon layer of it, creating a cage. No cage can hold Elyndris. She bit at it with her mighty jaws. Tearing away at the substance, until, finally, she hatched.
Elyndrs tried to roar in victory, but had no lungs. No mouth. And no memories. She held her name, her knowledge, and her spirit. Her ambitions and gluttony burned within her as well. She knew she needed to grow, feast, and take all that she could.
Her form was vast and slimy. A giant worm with potential unrivaled. Internally, she cackled in anticipation. As she slithered among the flat, giant grass-like structures that towered into the sky, she had one thought. This world will kneel.
Elyndris
True Name: Elyndris
Soul: Monster
Genseed: Larva
Monster Level: 1
Attributes [0]:
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Constitution: 1
Intelligence: 1
Will: 1
Charm: 1
Feats:
Encounter: True Angel
Biotraits [0]:
Base size: Miniscule