“Ah, brother! How kind of you to deliver Grivonym here to me!” he cackled as he leant over Tirolith’s squirming body, reaching a clawed hand out to grasp the weapon.

Serkukan’s armor began to glow more powerfully than before. “Take Grivonym. As soon as you see your chance.”

“What?” His eyebrows raised.

Serkukan blared out a roar like a warhorn as his helmet surged with light, and the scales on his armor began to bleed red mist into the air.

“Oh, so you’re going to use that to kill me?”

Serkukan was unresponsive. He reached a hand over to where his armored shoulder had begun to expand into a long staff, pulled it out to reveal a sharpened red glaive.

“This is going to be fun, isn’t it? Just like old times…” Algirak grinned with ecstacy.

Serkukan teleported to Algirak's face. His glaive was mid-swing when Algirak sucked away into a vortex, emerging again into the soundwaves where Serkukan had stood a moment before. He reared his head back to Cedric with a terrifyingly playful grin.

Cedric raised his sword. His footing became unsure.

A vibrating blast of air shot out of Algirak’s maw, struck the boy with enough force to launch him like a catapult.

The devastating pain tore through his eardrums first, then the rest of his body as he lifted up then hit the ground and rolled around in complete disorientation.

Before long, he came to a full stop against a hard, jagged rock, and his legs ruptured like twigs beneath him.

He didn't hear the crunch, nor did he hear his accompanying scream. His coat was torn all over, revealing bloody gashes like cuts from hundreds of blades.

Serkukan kept up a barrage of quick attacks, though Algirak seemed to evade them as quickly as they came.

“Oops!” he snickered, “Looks like it’s just you and me now, brother!”

Serkukan jabbed the glaive rapidly as he neared again.

Algirak snaked his tendril-like neck down beside the crimson man and shouted another shockwave.

Serkukan took the brunt of the blow and slid backward through ice, keeping his glaive braced as Algirak clamped his jaws down repeatedly in his charge.

He twirled his polearm and swiped the blade back and forth at Algirak.

“Come on, brother, you know my humanoid form is nowhere near as refined as yours! And this form, it’s much too slow for either of us!” Algirak morphed suddenly into a black robe.

Serkukan launched his glaive forward.

Algirak manifested on the other side of the glaive’s whistle, dodging it entirely. “Ah, I can hear…”

He manifested again with his ear lowered to Serkukan’s chest. He tapped a crooked finger against the armor. “I can hear your heartbeat!”

The crimson man’s fists came swinging. The glaive flew, discarded. Algirak merely backpedaled the frenzy.

Cedric kept screaming. One of his eyes, as well, had lost color and left him half blinded. His heart felt as though it might burst. His lungs creaked with each breath.

Whatever other damage had been done from the blast, he could not discern. His mind had already given up on trying to process it all.

He swore.

And again, though neither of them dampened the pain.

Then he shouted something, though he had no certainty of the words that escaped his mouth.

He gasped and heaved. He vomited into the snow.

{{Cedric—}}

He raised his head with a whimper.

No more, stop it!

{{Come to me, Cedric.}}

Please! Just get out of my head!

His vision blurred. He dropped his head into his hands.

Gods above, whoever it may be, please!

Serkukan had not stopped moving. Nor had he spoken since the mist had begun to pour out from his body.

The landscape around them had become even more scorched and torn; a mix of fiery fists and explosions of warping air having done considerable damage. The trees around them threatened wildfire.

And Cedric had gone missing, as far as he could tell. Tirolith, as well. There was no one more to aid him, only more of his eternal war, eternal conflict against the infinite demon that always threatened his peace.

But it didn’t matter. The misting, the releasing of his energy, it destroyed conscious thought just as quickly as it arrived, leaving him thoughtless and careless, wanting only the destruction of everything that stood in his way.

And most specifically, Algirak.

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“Like a dog, Serkukan.” Algirak struck true, punching a shockwave directly into Serkukan’s spine.

Serkukan only flinched and spiraled a kick through the air.

Algirak appeared on the opposite side, punching him once again in the chest with the same force.

“My, what’s made you so weak? I had expected this to be a much more interesting fight…

Oh! It’s the boy, isn’t it? He’s dying, or dead, and you’re fading with him!”

Serkukan returned to his stance.

“Then, should I find him first? End his life, thus ending yours mercifully? You must be suffering quite the ordeal in there, eh?”

Serkukan threw a punch.

Algirak caught the fist and cackled. “Ah, I was right!”

Cedric slid, rolling into the crater where Algirak had slain Llestren’vatis.

Sharp rocks ripped his skin more as he rolled down, too dazed to shield himself. Before long, his body hit a cold surface, and he dropped his head back to die.

A white mist came off of the snow nearby. It floated up toward him, slipping into his nostrils before he could protest.

{{Cedric Castelbre.}}

He wheezed. “Y-you know my name… It wasn’t random chance at all, was it?”

{{Clever. Very clever. It’s going to be a wonderful opportunity. It always is.}}

He wheezed in an attempt at a laugh, “It’s a death sentence.”

{{Quite the opposite. We saved you from the brink once, when those from your old and future cults surrounded you, ready to take your life. And now, you'll save us.}}

“Why?” His gaze turned to the churning iridescence in the clouds above. “After all I’ve done, you still think to trust me? You still think I can do this?”

{{This is your shot at reparation. Think of how many you would save. All those lives you've taken, all repaid in this one moment.}}

Cedric finally got his breathing under control.

{{This is the part where I expected I’d have to ask you to kill me, but… it’s as though we’re both burning out here. I hadn't expected that Algirak might attack you just for fun… the Rule of Pawns mostly forbids it…}}

Cedric dropped his eyes back down to admire the panting white dragon against his side.

{{These few minutes that we wait for my death… they could prove fatal to Serkukan. Unless you have the strength to—}}

Cedric didn't wait to hear the question. He threw the last of his strength behind his hilt, pushing it down through Llestren’vatis' throat.

The white dragon did not flinch. His glossy eye remained on Cedric as his body became heavy.

{{Thank you, Castelbre. Not only have you saved Serkukan, but me, Tirolith, and the rest of the world with him.}}

Algirak flinched and took his first blow from Serkukan; a devastating punch into his face. The crimson man’s claws extended as he connected, tearing the robes open and dripping black tar into the snow.

“Llestren’vatis…” Algirak grimaced, feeling the white dragon’s death.

Cedric stuck his hand into the white mist that gently seeped from the wound. It began to suck into his flesh and through his open pores, rejuvenating him.

{{Your mind is hurting, isn't it, Castelbre? I can mend it. Just long enough to win this battle, I can—}}

“Surprise.” the mist hissed.

Cedric didn't hear it. Llestren'vatis warned him, but he could only manage to roll onto his back to watch the dark robes step over his body, extending a black sword to his throat.

“Say, pawn, are you much of a thinker? I suppose none of us really are. I’ve wondered for centuries what effect it might have to rewrite our existence, to change some basic nature of our reality, even to become the new god of this realm… But right now, I’m mostly wondering what a dragon-rending blade would do to mortal flesh…”

Cedric’s body moved on its own again, shooting a feeble kick into Algirak’s leg. He turned over to crawl away, but Algirak wasn't delayed by much.

The dark robes placed a bandaged hand on Cedric's shoulder. The boy tossed a clump of snow at Algirak.

He snickered, "What did you hope that would accomplish?"

Llestren’vatis shot off some strange signal from within him.

"A delay," he wheezed.

The auras surrounding them shifted and a red haze filled Cedric's dulled vision. Within less than a second, Serkukan swapped places with the boy, suddenly sitting crouched where Cedric had lay.

"You—"

Cedric gasped himself back to life in an unremarkable mound of snow.

{{Cedric, to your right.}}

He turned. A dragon—Tirolith—lay by the trees, still rolling in turmoil.

Cedric shouted for her. She barely managed to raise her head to see him. Her lips moved.

He began to crawl toward her. The next moment that he raised his head, she was humanoid, limping to close their distance.

"Cedric," her voice eventually broke the deafening hiss in his ears. He blinked and his sight was back. Tirolith held her glowing hand to his shoulder. "It's a miracle you're even alive."

He glared and shrugged away her hand. His wounds were mended, his pain was gone entirely. "Blame that damn red dragon..."

"Ah—" She shuddered and grasped the watery wound across her shoulder.

Cedric stood, amazed that even his legs had straightened out in some capacity. His footing faltered.

Tirolith caught his arm and held him up. "Algirak has Grivonym."

"I know. Hurry up and fuse, there's no time to waste."

"Fuse? How am I supposed to—"

{{With me, Tirolith.}}

She piqued up as though she heard Llestren's voice. A smile crossed her lips, "You got it."

Her body became vibrant as she shed her armor and her skin began to light up. Before long, her physical shape was lost and only the light remained, quickly dissolving into steam and wrapping around Cedric.

{{We need Grivonym…}}

"Then we'll get it." Cedric affirmed before Tirolith's crystalline helmet clamped down over his face. A churning growl hissed out as her plates and scales painfully affixed themselves to him, melting painfully into his skin...