The undead dragon landed, a feast delivered on a platter. Her bones crunched so easily between its jaws, blood flowed richly with no tongue to lap it up. The strength of this thing’s jaws sent a foot flying towards Gileon who was nimble enough to dodge it. It was a dark deed, how many more would they have to do to achieve victory? Carl made them pay this price, he was to blame. Any blood paid would be added to his tally, surely he should have to pay it back?

Not letting the opportunity go to waste, Lixiss called upon Neva’Coh’Etriel to empower her strikes. A boom was added to each strike like a castle crumbling under mangonel fire.

“For Alma!” Gadraek shouted redder than he’d ever been, frothing at the mouth. Thick hair grew visibly over his body, peeking out of loose sleeves and gaps. As he screamed it turned into an animalistic roar. Seemingly out of nowhere a boar charged in ramming it’s tusks into whatever little flesh the undead dragon had remaining before skidding away and transforming back into Gileon who’d send his newly made familiar to explode into a protective lightning shield for Patrik; as the undead dragon unleashed another breath attack. Agazuul never told me his friends were capable of therianthropy. A wispy blue thing came from the pile of broken bones and torn flesh that used to be Alma. The undead dragon drew it towards itself, the empty eye sockets gaining blue orbs.

As the dragon charged another lightning blast visibly in its skeletal mouth, Agazuul charged in to protect the party. This time however the move did not come without a cost as Agazuul was blown backwards by the attack tumbling backwards awkwardly. Gadraek now fully transformed into a rather small bear tried to keep the dragon on the ground, roaring at Lixiss to attack. I hope Agazuul isn’t dying. Lixiss thought as she gazed at his unconscious body. I can only do it once.

She rushed in seeing the effect her strikes had already had, but before she could add another three strikes to that effort Gadraek lost his grip and the undead dragon took flight once more.

“Thanks for buying time, Gadraek.” Gileon said confidently, Gadraek almost immediately shifted back at this confirmation from Gileon. Out of the loose gravely ground came hulking stone titans who grabbed the dragon's legs before slamming it down; this summoning seemingly took a lot out of Gileon as with every telegraphed move he commanded he grew immensely paler before passing out entirely. Do we even really need Carl? Lixiss thought as she charged the dragon which she hoped was the last time she would have to do so. As she came in close it was clear the dragon had another lightning blast at the ready and unleashed it on her. This did not stop Lixiss but the heavy blast made her every muscle ache with the effort of unclenching. Blood ran down her mouth. Her body was marred by the blast; her midnight purple skin bruised, discolored and broken up by the blackened veins making her look as if she was stitched together from a hundred different bodies. Lixiss didn’t feel any of it at that moment and she charged forwards after the blast made her take a momentary pause, each strike damaging her body almost as much as the dragon.

After the adrenaline had worn down she could feel it and she felt it all at once. She screamed louder than she ever had before; louder than during her transformation. Lixiss reached inside for her motes of power, happily finding them restored ever since making it to Tartarus and used that energy to restore her broken body, the scars fading to thin discolored lines. She went over to Eira and healed him just enough to heal the worst of the burns.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Lixiss extracted the soul taken by the undead dragon, arrayed the bones of Alma and kept the bottle she had held for just such an occasion to herself, just in case she’d need to do it again. Carl laid in the middle of it and everyone had gathered around.

“Even I’m starting to doubt this.” Gadraek said.

“I’ll have to agree…” Gileon put in.

“Remember the tale of the battle of two wyverns?” Patrik pleaded. Eira remained uncharacteristically silent, his expression said all that he would have said. Lixiss listened to their words, but it was her choice and their worthless input would not sway her judgment.

The bones clattered on the ground moving erratically, the soul circled above Carl’s body faster and faster until it became a bright circle. Lixiss chanted all the while, it was not something easily done and the cost was great. She’d have to rely on Carl’s help from this point for what this spell cost her. Can he for once make sure he’s worth it. Lixiss thought some part of her regretting not laying Mirva in this circle; but she had seen what he could do. She had not seen all he could do. The chanting slowly raised the body from the ground, the bones starting to stand upright. The soul circle slowed and stretched to mimic Carl’s body. As the soul touched his body, the body convulsed and dropped to the ground, the bones lifeless again.

“You killed me!” Carl shouted accusingly, pointing with his bad hand towards Eira.

“And I have brought you back.” Lixiss said not correcting him in his false accusation.

“...where is Mirva? Where is Alma for that matter?” Carl asked aloud.

“Why is she not in chains?” Carl asked, pointing again to Eira.

“I’m not the one who killed you, I wish I had.” There was more that Eira wanted to add to that but he bit his tongue. Carl looked shocked, he looked around frantically hoping to find the answer on their faces.

“It was Lixiss.” Agazuul almost whispered.

“...What?!” Carl shouted, although he didn’t seem to be ready to receive an answer.

“You were going mad…” Patrik said not unkindly and lifted a pants leg to show burn marks on his left leg.

“You were ready to burn us all in your rage.” Agazuul said and Lixiss couldn’t help but wonder if she heard some awe in there. Carl looked at them all as if they were mad.

“Is that true?” He asked but it didn’t seem to be to anyone present.

“I understand…” He continued.

“I am sorry, and will prove worthy of this second chance.” Carl said.

“Second?! You dare say second?! This is…,” before Eira could continue Gileon went in to stop him shaking his head. Eira grumbled but let it go.

“After all this is done, we can go our separate ways, maybe even settle the scores. Right now though? We go on, we fight and win. We will make it to the end, there will be an ‘after this’. In order to get there, we will have to work together for this last stretch. I don’t expect all of you to agree with me on this, but understand that it’s in your best interest to do so.” Agazuul said, sounding like a leader for the first time since stepping through the portal to Tartarus.

They made it fully out of the labyrinth and before them were hills of huge stone slabs and pulverized rock, blocking anyone from gleaming what was beyond the horizon.

“Palatium hills, a low mountain range composed entirely of broken and shattered headstones, littered with the names of the dead who roam this realm.”