Veralla tried to grab Airo as he flew past her, but it was as if she tried to stop a falling meteorite. He slammed into the door in an explosion of composites, and disappeared outside. Veralla rawr–ed in dread at the sound of impact.

"Airo!" she yelled and jumped after him.

She hit the cold ground in a huff of breath. Pain flared in her tail and left wing. She hissed and curled up, enduring the hurt. She rolled wildly, completely disoriented, and finally stopped. Everything hurt. She stretched slowly and cried out, the cry collapsing to a whimper as something inside her nearly gave out. She rose gingerly, and saw an unmoving armor-clad form nearby.

"Airo!" she yelled again, torn, and hobbled next to him. She nudged his shoulder with her snout. "Airo, wake up!" He didn't move. She hrrr-ed desperately, and nudged him again. She sensed a presence, and turned sharply to see who was behind her.

The man called Ferrtau stood a few paces away. His red-gold armor glinted, light reflected from the great energy pillar on the horizon, and his hair waved as the blizzard gusted across the plain. Veralla was seeing his aura radiating like a brilliant halo, its intensity so very great, like a blazing sun. His power frightened her.

Ferrtau gazed at her with his deep, luminous eyes, and she shuddered when she looked into the vortex that was his soul. "Veralla, I will not harm you," he said softly, and moved closer.

She took a step back, her wings spread out, her tail quivering. Ferrtau moved very slowly toward her, gauntleted hand partly outstretched in a longing gesture. "Veralla, please, come with me," he said, the words strangled and subdued.

She took another step back, and her hind leg bumped into Airo. She was very afraid. She was alone against this terrible man, who killed her friends and other people. And hurt Airo. As the thought came, she felt her throat rumble. Strength rose within her. She would not let this man hurt Airo or anyone else further. Veralla stared defiantly at Ferrtau, and growled.

He froze in place. For one long moment he stood there, motionless as a statue. Then his hand fell limply to his side, and his eyes became dark as the cosmic void. "Now I truly must continue," he whispered, his voice almost lost in the wind. He raised his hand again, this time in a dooming gesture, and Veralla braced herself for the attack.

Suddenly, the air shimmered. Ferrtau turned to look at the disturbance, and a blast of force knocked him off his feet. He flew over a dozen paces away, and landed with a grunt.

Veralla turned to see where the attack came from. Walking through the blizzard was another human, a tall, broad-shouldered man. He wore a heavy, regal-looking robe in the same red-gold colors like Ferrtau's armor. He seemed to be of great age, his aquiline features weathered, his hair and beard completely bleached of color. Veralla sensed his vast inner power, yet it was a restrained and disciplined presence in contrast to Ferrtau's wildly surging aura.

The old man stood at a respectable distance, waiting. Ferrtau rose to his feet, and sneered. "Magus," he said in contempt. "Is the Order so desperate they recalled you from your self-exile?"

"I am not apprised of the current situation," the other man said calmly. "However, I have traveled to the Shard and have seen that something terrible has transpired there. And now I find you here, your soul twisted and you acting the villain against a helpless man and a fledgling dragon. The facts are not with you, Ferrtau."

"I do not need your interference, old man," Ferrtau said. "You already plunged the galaxy into darkness once. I will not give you the chance to do it twice." He disappeared into a blur.

Magus reacted, also winking out of existence. An instant later Ferrtau surged in his place, a turbulent vortex tearing the air in the wake of the attack. Magus reappeared at another location. Ferrtau turned, and narrowed his eyes.

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"I see I was not wrong in my judgment," Magus said. "I do not want to kill you, Ferrtau, however you are too powerful to leave me a choice." He spread his arms, and blue-white lightning crackled in his hands.

Ferrtau smiled. "Ah, Magus. Has your power diminished so much you use physical forces to attack me?" he asked.

The old man's response was a single, thunderous blast, a lance of energy so bright it nearly blinded Veralla. She raised a claw to shield her eyes, hissing in surprise. The blast hit Ferrtau, engulfing him in an instant. He reemerged, seemingly unharmed, though he wasn't smiling anymore. "That was clever, hiding a quantum resonance wave in the lightning," he said, frowning.

Magus attacked again, wasting no time for words. Ferrtau raised a scintillating barrier, and parried the blast of energy. Then both of them turned into blurry shapes, moving from one place to the next in an instant, creating passages of sonic booms, energy lances and vortices of exotic waves tearing between them. Veralla ducked her head under her wing, and watched the deadly duel in transfixed awe.

Without warning the old man, Magus, slowed down and stopped in place, arms twisted in an elaborate stance, his face strained in concentration. A second later, Ferrtau also decelerated, his right fist enveloped by viridian light and held at eye level. His expression carried grim satisfaction. "You are beaten, Magus," he said. "I am sorry it had to end like this. You were my mentor, and I always respected you."

"I can still fight," Magus replied with an even voice despite his obvious strain. "Even if it results in my death."

"Death will follow us all, ultimately," Ferrtau said, and glanced at Veralla, who flinched. "Yet I will first ensure that my Legacy shall endure!" The viridian light around his fist blazed with murderous intensity.

But then the sky thundered, and a golden shape stormed high above. It was a giant skyship, its titanic engines flaring at maximum thrust. A dozen beams shot out from its hull, each of them wide as a building, and descended upon Ferrtau in a cyan-purple blaze. He immediately surrounded himself with a defensive barrier, his outline barely visible in the storm of light. Up above, one of the skyship's bulwarks morphed into a launch ramp, and great forms leapt into the cold night air, unfurling their mighty wings.

Veralla roared in joy. Those were dragons!

"ATTACK THE TARGET ONLY AT RANGE!" a voice boomed from the skyship. "WATCH OUT FOR THE CIVILIANS!"

The dragons swooped down and unleashed streams of nova-hot plasma from their jaws, adding their firebreaths to the overwhelming assault against Ferrtau. Veralla could dimly see him moving under the torrents of energy; he was trying to do something. Then Magus broke free, and he joined in the attack, two void-black energy rays shooting from each hand. The backblast from the combined forces was hot and violent enough that Veralla's scales began to hurt. Despite this, Ferrtau was still holding on, trying to overcome the awesome firepower arrayed against him.

Veralla sensed a small ping in her mind. She turned, and saw Airo, who stirred weakly. His power armor was encased in a bluish energy shield, which pulsed intensely against the waves of rampant energy. Veralla squeed, and nudged him vigorously.

"Airo!" she shouted, though the energy storm drowned her words. He reached for his side, and took out the veronite blaster. Veralla angled back her webbed ears in dismay, as Airo slowly lifted the blaster and aimed it.

***

Light. Heat. Pain.

All these didn't matter to Airo. He willed himself to move, and drew the veronite blaster. Veralla was beside him, jostling him and shouting something, but he ignored her. His entire being was concentrated at the barest of outlines that was his archenemy, trapped inside the vortex of obliterating power.

The power armor's HUD produced a targeting solution and Airo prepared to squeeze the trigger. In that instant, he glimpsed Ferrtau's face clearly through the blinding veils of light. Their eyes locked. The moment seemed to drag for eternity.

You will pay, Ferrtau, Airo vowed silently.

Then, in a flash, his archenemy disappeared. Almost half a minute passed before the attackers realized their target was gone and ceased their bombardment. Airo relaxed his arm. Next to him, Veralla gestured and clamored in wild excitement. "Look, look, those are dragons! Airo, those are dragons!"

He glanced at the sky with an empty gaze. He felt exhausted and spent. His whole head throbbed with acute pain. A tall, broad-shouldered man in a red-and-gold robe walked toward them, circling around the smoldering crater left from the über-attack.

"Do you know who that is?" Veralla asked quietly, her attention shifting suddenly to the approaching man.

It took Airo several seconds to recognize the familiar figure due to the aged appearance, his exhausted condition, and seven centuries passing since they last met. He snorted halfheartedly and closed his eyes. "That is Magus Dei – one of the Grandmasters of the Order of the Radiant Knights."