Days turn into weeks.

Weeks turn into months.

I don't get used to the suffering or learn to endure it, but it becomes the only thing I truly know. The man I was becomes a memory lost in a torrent of agony. I begin to wonder if the life I lived before this was all an illusion. An illusion brought on by constant suffering.

I actually begin to believe it.

Until the day Bahamut rises from the lava and places a cage on the jagged rocks in front of me.

"Jenny!" I yell, scrambling to my sister and grabbing the iron lock on the front of the cage. My sister looks up at me with fear in her eyes. She's naked. There are marks on her skin. I see dried blood around her pelvis and all along her thighs. "D-did he hurt you?"

The look in her eyes give me the answer. Her silence says the rest. I can tell where the blood came from. She's been raped. Repeatedly, judging by the bruises, marks, and blood. There's fresh blood mixed with the dried remnants, and it trickles down to the bottom of the cage, pooling with a white, sticky substance. Tears well up in my eyes. Rage simmers below the surface. Bahamut's laughter finally draws my attention away from my sister.

"Sometimes I play with my food before I eat it," the dragon rumbles.

"K-kill me, Henry," my sister whispers, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Please, don't let him hurt me again. Just kill me."

"He'll never touch you again," I growl, letting go of the lock and turning to the enormous dragon. "If you want me to suffer then make me suffer. Leave her out of it. She's a wife—a mother. She's got children that need her."

"Does she?" Bahamut chuckles.

"H-he ate them in front of me," Jenny sobs.

"You bastard!" I grind out, glaring at the dragon.

"Don't worry, Hank," the dragon rumbles. "I'm not going to kill your sister today. She's a fun toy to play with, and I'm not ready to give her up yet."

"She's not a toy," I spit back.

"Take a good look at her," Bahamut chuckles. "The next time you see her, there may not be enough humanity left to even recognize you."

"P-please, Henry," my sister begs, gripping the bars on her cage. "Kill me."

"You're actually thinking about," the dragon laughs. "You're considering killing your own sister. How amusing."

I look at my sister in the pitiful condition she's in. Death would be a release from her torment. I don't know any other way to put an end to it. I can't fight a dragon that can roast me alive as easily as he can look at me. Before I get a chance to choose, Bahamut swings his claw, hooks it into the cage, and yanks the the iron structure off the ground.

"Henry! No!" my sister screams.

"Don't worry," Bahamut says, sinking into the lava. "I'll torture her to death in front of you soon enough."

"Jenny!" I run to the edge of the lava and skid before my toes dip into it. "Stop! Leave her alone!"

All I hear is chuckling that slowly dissipates until the crackle of the lava drowns it out.

"Jenny…" I mutter, dropping to my knees as tears roll down my cheeks. "I'm so sorry…"

She's been suffering below me the entire time I've been here. I thought surely Bahamut had eaten her—or forgotten about his threat to torture her in front of me. He can hear my thoughts right now. He's probably getting off on how much this hurts me.

"I am," Bahamut chuckles from below the lava. "Your sister screams even louder than you do. Your niece and nephew were delicious little treats, though, I must admit. Oh how little Lily cried while I peeled the meat off her brother's bones. Then it was her turn."

"Fucking monster," I grind out, shaking off the images that rush into my thoughts.

"Sweet Jenny is about suffer again, Hank," the dragon rumbles. "She'll scream while I fuck her. Begging for mercy every time I hit her. She'll cry for you to save her every other breath. But you can't save her. Nobody can."

I feel helpless. Bahamut's right. I can't save my sister. I can't even save myself. I promised her he'd never touch her again and I've already broken that promise.

I'm still kneeling on the ground when Bahamut rises from the lava. I don't close my eyes or look away when the lava pools in his mouth. I welcome the pain and misery this time. I burns every other thought of my head, which is a strange form of relief, but one I gladly embrace to escape the turmoil of knowing my sister is suffering because of my mistakes. Knowing her family is dead. Innocent children devoured by a dragon because I ignored a dream.

When Bahamut finally tires of me and blasts through the roof of the cavern, I'm crushed beneath the falling rubble, but I don't even try to avoid it. Even after I regenerate, I just lay on the ground, staring at the sky. There's no point in getting up. I've trained a little, and I'm able to do a lot more than I could the first night I tried, but the progress seems worthless. I could do push-ups for eternity and not have the power to rival a dragon, much less a god.

"Jenny…" I sigh.

With no pain to cling to except the turmoil inside me, my thoughts spin in every direction. The days I've spent in this cavern tumble around in my head until coherence emerges.

"Bahamut always sinks into the lava, except when he needs to sleep. My sister is alive—somehow—underneath this lava." I blink a couple of times. "There must be another cavern underground."

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I sit up and look down at the lava. I'm not immune to it like Bahamut, but I regenerate, no matter how badly I'm burned. If there's another cavern, I need to find it. I have to. There's no other way to put an end to my sister's suffering. Based on where Bahamut rises in the lava, it's likely directly in front of me.

I take a deep breath and walk into the lava. Silencing my screams is impossible. It's like wading in fire, and when I stumble on a rock, I go face first into the fiery inferno. Then I sink. My body burns into char, but I can feel the slow regeneration. As soon as my feet hit something solid beneath me, I push a foot forward. Then another. It's a slow, agonizing process, and it feels like hours before cool air hits my face.

"Henry!" Jenny's voice echoes. "Oh, my god! Are you…"

I can't speak. I fall to the ground as soon as I exit the lava and wait to regenerate. Jenny screams my name and pounds on her cage, but I can't respond to her. Not until I regenerate, at least. I gasp as soon as my throat and vocal chords are repaired, then slowly sit up, even before the regeneration is complete.

"I'm here," I breathe out, then start crawling towards her, dragging my charred legs across the ground. "I'll get you out of that cage."

"The key!" the says, pointing at the wall.

I look around the cavern. It looks more like a palace than a cave. The walls are bricked. There are painted portraits that show grand battles, and I see the mark on my arm present on those who seem to be winning. There are shelves with bottles filled with herbs, liquids, and body parts—some human and some animal. I see a bed that is too small for a dragon, and the sheets are covered in blood. There are multiple hallways leading away from the room we're in, and I can hear screaming echoing from one of them.

"Hurry, Henry!" my sister urges. "Please!"

"I'm trying," I groan, putting pressure on my legs and forcing myself to my feet.

I'm finally able to walk. I hurry to the wall and grab the key, then unlock Jenny's cage. She hugs me as soon as I'm free and I hold her close. I apologize so many times my voice is hoarse. Tears stream down my face. But there's no time for it.

"We need to get out of here," I mutter, looking back at the lava. "And we can't go the way I came in."

"We should kill him," my sister says. "When he comes down here, he's not a dragon. He turns into a man—or a beast that resembles one, at least."

"He does?" I question, raising a brow. "But even if he turns into a man, I'm sure he has power. He's… I think he's a god."

"He eats people," my sister whispers, swallowing hard and pointing to a table. "He puts them on the table and cuts pieces of them off while they're still alive. It's… it's all he feeds me, too. I tried starving myself, but he held my mouth open and forced me to eat. I had to eat a child, Henry. A little boy no older than Lily..."

"Jenny," I sigh, shaking my head and hugging her again.

I look around and my attention in drawn to the hallway with screams pouring down it. "That must be where he has everyone else," I deduce. "We need to save them, too."

"But where will we go?" Jenny asks.

"There has to be another way out of here." I look around. "Follow me."

I avoid the hallway with screaming and lead my sister down another one. It takes us to a series of smaller hallways, but none of them offer a way out. I see a library, a wine cellar, and storage rooms, but nothing of interest.

"We'll keep looking," I state firmly, grabbing my sister by the arm.

It won't be long until Bahamut returns. He'll realize I'm gone as soon as he enters the cavern. I quicken my pace until I'm practically dragging my sister, but there's no time to lose. The next hallways leads to a dead end. The third is longer, and there's a large iron door at the end. It takes almost all of my strength to push it open, but when I do, I see a room filled with weapons, armor, gold, silver, and jewels.

"The dragon's hoard," my sister whispers.

I look around the room in awe, but then I feel a strange sensation buzzing inside of me. The mark on my arm lights up, and engraved glyphs on the weapons and armor light up as well. Some match the mark on my arm. Some are different symbols I don't recognize. All of a sudden, I'm blasted by a stream of knowledge that flows out of my mouth like I'm reciting it from memory.

"The weapons and armor in this room were created in the Celestial Forge by the Blacksmith of the Gods." The mark on my arm flickers as I speak.

"Then maybe we can fight Bahamut with them," my sister says, walking over to a spear and reaching for it.

Another stream of knowledge hits me, and I turn to my sister in a panic. "Jenny, don't!" I yell, but it's too late. Jenny touches the spear and it radiates with white light, then throws her across the room. "Jenny!"

I rush to my sister's side. She lands on a pile of gold and gemstones. Her arm is burned from fingers to shoulder and still boiling. I shake her a couple of times, but she's unconscious.

"Only someone marked by a god can touch them…" I mutter, looking at the symbol on my arm.

Jenny's breathing is shallow, but she's still alive. I'll have to carry her. I'm careful not to damage her arm any worse than it already is, but as soon as I scoop her up, I hear something clattering behind me.

"Wield me, Hank Nelson," an eerie voice squeaks, then a sword slides down a mountain of gold and lands at my feet. "I was made to pierce Bahamut's heart."

"W-what?" I look down at the sword. It has a golden shimmer and a curved hilt with sapphires that make a eye-shaped pattern.

"Oh, how I've longed to be held," the eerie voice echoes from the word. "I've craved my purpose since the moment my soul was sharpened. I'll show you how to heal your sister. All you have to do is pick me up."

"How are you talking to me?" I question, gently lowering my sister and kneeling beside the sword.

"We can all talk," dozens of voices echo in unison all around me.

"Oh, f-fuck!" I stammer, spinning around as the echoes die out.

"I'm the only one capable of piercing Bahamut's heart," the sword says. "Because that is my purpose. My—destiny. But you must hurry. The dragon will return soon, and with him, comes all of his wrath."

I look at my sister, then back at the sword. Do I really have a choice? I've been roasted by a lava-breathing dragon for months. A lava-breathing dragon that has murdered my family and loved ones. Done horrible things to my sister. And he'll keep doing them, unless I do something to stop him.

"Okay," I say, grabbing the hilt.

As soon as I touch the sword, it crackles until white lighting bolts are surrounding it. They flow down the sword, dance around the glyph, and surge into my arm. It hurts. Not as bad as being burned by Bahamut, but the pain still radiates through my body. The lightning bolts center on my mark and light it up until it's almost blinding, then the light disappears.

"Rise, Avatar of Bahamut," the sword says. "You did not fulfill your destiny, but you can still fulfill mine."

"How do I help my sister?" I demand.

"Place your hand on her head and want it more than you want to breathe," the sword replies.

I clutch the sword, put my hand on my sister's head, and my hand starts to shake. White light radiates from my sister's eyes, then pours across her skin, and as it disappears, all of her wounds do as well.

"Jenny!" I say, shaking her. "Jenny, wake up."

Jenny's eyes open slowly, then her eyelids flutter a few times. "Y-you look different."

I look down and notice she's right. I'm bigger than I was. The fat around my midsection has hardened into muscles that would make a bodybuilder jealous. My arms are thick and my shoulders are wide. Even my dick is bigger than it used to be.

"The sword transformed me, somehow. We don't have much time," I say, helping Jenny to her feet. "Can you walk?"

"Y-yeah," she says, letting go of my arm and taking a couple of steps. "I'm okay."

I hear a menacing roar that shakes the walls. Bahamut is coming. The sword radiates and buzzes in my hand.

"Stay behind me," I say, tightening my grip on the sword.

"What are you going to do?" Jenny asks.

"I'm going to slay a god," I grind out, then I start walking towards the door.

Destiny? Prophecy? I don't give a fuck about any of that.

But if this sword can pierce Bahamut's heart, then I know exactly where I'm going to stick it.