Chapter 518 - 518: Essence of Creation

Elsa looked up.

Drake and Lily were standing at the entrance of the throne room. For a few seconds she did not move, as if her eyes were playing a trick on her. Then they slowly widened, and she pushed herself off the throne and got to her feet. Her sword stayed buried in the floor behind her.

Drake and Lily looked around the room. Cracked walls, scorched stone, and the bodies of the guardians lying where they had fallen. It did not take long for them to understand that the other guardians had been taken out.

Lily walked toward Elsa. She did not say a word. She simply wrapped her arms around her and held her tight.

Elsa's shoulders shook. Then she broke.

She sobbed into Lily's arms, loud and unrestrained, the way a child cries when she has been holding it in for far too long.

"I had to watch them all die for me," she said between breaths. "It was so hard. Everything has been so hard. I missed you both. I missed Silva. I missed everything."

Lily said nothing. She ran her fingers slowly through Elsa's hair and let her cry.

Drake came up beside them after a while. He looked at the bodies of the guardians, and his voice was low when he spoke.

"The guardians fulfilled the destiny they were born for, Elsa. They were meant to protect the Dark Dragon race, and that was you. I am sure they were happy to lay down their lives for it."

He placed his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes.

"Silva is outside now, fighting for our home, for this world. He is giving it everything, the same way you did. He would be proud of you."

Her head lifted. "Silva is here?"

Her eyes lit up. She had felt it the moment she saw them, that he was somewhere close, but hearing it confirmed made her heart lighter than it had been in a long time.

"He is," Lily said gently. "But no matter what he does, we might not be able to save everything. Things are heavily damaged. We need to find the others and bring them somewhere safe before it gets worse." She glanced at the dead angels. "These weeping angels you fought are weaker than some of the strongest ones."

Elsa wiped her face and nodded. "Then we should get moving."

"Wait," Drake said. He looked at the guardians again. "We should at least bury them first."

Elsa looked down at the bodies and her chest tightened. "You're right."

"Yes," Lily agreed quietly.

They did it together. They dug a grave for each guardian, one by one, and laid them down gently inside. They covered each one and smoothed the earth over it, right there in the throne room. When it was done, the three of them stood in front of the graves in silence.

"Silva would be proud," Elsa finally said. "I'll tell him you said hello for me."

They left the dungeon after that. Outside, Elsa stepped back and let her body shift, her form stretching and growing until she stood as a massive dragon. Drake and Lily climbed onto her back, and she shot into the air, heading toward where Silva's parents were.

[…]

Ragnar raised his hand, and a white blast roared out of it.

It came down as a massive beam, straight at Silva. The crawler reacted at once. Black liquid shot from its body and spread into a dome that pushed forward, slamming into the blast head-on.

For a second, it held.

Then the beam tore right through the black liquid, and everything it touched turned into stone and crystal.

Silva stared, stunned.

"Oh shit," Zion said inside his head.

Silva leaped off the crawler just as the attack slammed into it. The crawler turned into a mass of rock and crystal in an instant, and it crashed to the ground and sank deep into the earth. The crystal spread outward, and the entire ground around it was turning into rock and glittering shards.

Silva looked down at it, and a cold feeling crept into his chest. This was not good at all.

He looked up at Ragnar.

Ragnar laughed softly. "Do you see now? I am a primordial. My essence is creation, the act of making. And my favorite thing to make has always been rocks." He spread his arms. "It is the very logic that I used to create the weeping angels."

He tilted his head and looked down at Silva with curiosity. "I wonder how the beings of this planet would live once everything has turned to stone."

"Then you would have to kill me first," Silva said, "before you do that."

He did not say anything else. He shot into the air, flying fast and straight toward Ragnar.

Ragnar raised his hand again, and a series of blasts fired out toward him. Silva weaved between them in the air, spinning and twisting, slashing through some of them. The ones he deflected hit the ground below, and each one crystallized everything it touched. They kept coming, one after another, and he kept moving through them.

He got through the last of them and came in with a full slash, ready to finish it.

Ragnar vanished.

Silva's blade cut through empty air. Ragnar re-formed out of crystal behind him and unleashed a blast before Silva, or any of the eleven minds inside him, could react.

It slammed into his back.

A crystal formation grew between his wings, locking them in place so that he could not fly. It spread across his wings, then down his arms and legs, wrapping around him. He lost his lift, and he fell toward the ground.

Black flames exploded out of his back.

They tore through the crystal and rock, shattering it all. Silva gritted his teeth, but before he could even fly up, Ragnar was already beside him.

BAM!

Ragnar's punch drove down with massive force and sent Silva rocketing toward the earth. He hit the ground hard, and a massive crater formed around him.

Ragnar floated down above the crater and looked at him.

"Did you really think you could defeat me after fighting for so long?" he said. "Even for you, that would be impossible. Do not forget that I am a primordial."

He lifted his hand into the air.

Another white ball began to gather above it, growing larger and larger, until it hung in the sky like a mini sun, shining bright over the broken land.