Indura slowly rose from the crater, stone grinding beneath his claws as he shook the dust from his body. Cracks spread through the earth where he had landed, but he stood tall regardless, rolling one shoulder as if testing his own bones. "Well...that's new. To think I could get thrown all the way here," Indura murmured, lifting his gaze just in time to see the guardian descending from above, cloak flowing, blade already drawn.
The guardian landed firmly, boots pressing into fractured stone. "Red dragon, if you must face me...know that only one of us will remain standing. The sky palace must be informed of this," the guardian told Indura, unsheathing his sword fully, the steel humming with contained power. "The kingdom of the dwarves will not fall today." As he spoke, radiant energy expanded outward, forming a massive barrier that sealed the entire kingdom behind him in a dome of light.
Indura's golden eyes flickered with interest as heat began building between his scales. "How delightful...to seal the whole kingdom in a barrier...you must be powerful," Indura told the guardian, flames gathering at the back of his throat.
"My power is too much for this world, but for you... I'll make the exception," the guardian replied, lowering into a battle stance, blade angled forward, energy rippling along its edge.
Indura did not wait. Mana surged violently around him as he unleashed an immense beam of catastrophic scale toward the barrier. The air screamed from the pressure alone. Before the blast could connect, the guardian leapt upward, blade flashing. With a single decisive swing, he cut the beam cleanly in half. The divided energy detonated mid-air, erupting into a violent explosion that shook the battlefield and lit the night sky.
This blast was more powerful than before, the guardian thought to himself as he shot forward through the fading explosion, blade now blazing with condensed energy. He reached Indura in an instant, unleashing consecutive slashes that grazed and cut through dragon scales. Sparks and fragments scattered as the strikes overwhelmed Indura, the dragon unable to fully block the flurry.
Indura roared and swung his massive claws, but they sliced only air. The guardian had already appeared above him, descending with a devastating thrust. The blade struck with concentrated force, driving Indura into the ground and carving a deep trench through stone and soil.
"You wish to continue, Red dragon?" the guardian asked, hovering above the impact site. "I will give you a last chance. Withdraw this instant, there is no need for bloodshed."
Indura's body trembled as he slowly stood, mana radiating from him in visible waves. Blood trickled between cracked scales, yet he smiled through the pain, eyes burning brighter. "You talk too much." He swung his claws again, faster this time, but the guardian dodged effortlessly, stepping through the air itself.
"Is this all you can do?" the guardian asked coldly. Above the battlefield, swords of pure light began to materialize, dozens of them forming in silence. "I gave you a chance, Red dragon."
Indura looked up just as the glowing blades descended. He inhaled sharply, gathering another blast breath crackling with violent energy. Before he could release it, white energy snapped across his jaws, sealing his mouth shut. The summoned swords launched downward, each one impaling his massive frame, piercing scale and flesh with bursts of searing light.
Pain ripped through him. Indura spread his wings, straining to lift off, but his movement was blocked as the guardian rose high above and dove once more, blade thrusting downward in a streak of blinding brilliance. The strike connected, followed by a slicing arc that exploded against Indura's body, shattering the ground beneath them. Dust and shockwaves rolled outward like a storm.
Oh, this is bad. I might actually die at this rate. Indura thought to himself as he lay within the shattered earth.
The guardian hovered above the destruction, breathing steady despite the carnage below. A proud smile crossed his face. " To think that I would slay a named dragon. Surely the sky palace will think highly of me. I told you, didn't I? That you had a chance. Now you wi—"
The sentence never finished.
Indura burst upward from the dust in a flash of red mana and delivered a crushing kick to the guardian's chest. The impact sent him flying backward at blinding speed, slamming into the barrier and crashing straight through into the kingdom itself.
When the dust cleared, Indura hovered in the air — smaller now. His massive dragon body had vanished, replaced by an armored humanoid form. Red crimson hair flowed behind him, horns curved from his head, sharp claws brimmed with mana, and his eyes burned with golden aura. His body pulsed with controlled, lethal energy.
"I told you...you talk too much," Indura said, smiling brightly, amusement dancing in his expression.
"Sigh...to think that you would push me this far, to force myself to evolve on the brink of death...it was scary, but I felt more alive," Indura murmured to himself, admiring his new appearance as mana coiled tightly around his form.
Far within the kingdom, the guardian rose slowly from rubble, wiping blood from his mouth. He looked around and saw dwarves lying lifeless near the crash site. "No," he murmured, remorse cutting deeper than the wound in his chest.
Indura appeared above him and descended, landing lightly despite the destruction around them. "Do you like what you see?" Indura asked the guardian, spreading his arms slightly as if presenting a masterpiece.
"You already achieved the humanoid transformation!... I thought I felt less power coming from you, were you hiding your true power?" the guardian demanded, forcing himself back into stance despite the shock.
"It doesn't matter, right now I feel more alive than ever. This kingdom... its future is already decided," Indura tells the guardian.
They launched at each other instantly.
Their clash shattered what remained of the streets. Every strike carried tremendous force. Indura's claws met radiant steel in bursts of light and red mana, shockwaves tearing through buildings. They exchanged blows at rapid speeds, vanishing and reappearing across the battlefield, each collision carving new scars into the kingdom.
"This kingdom is already done for," Indura tells the guardian as he catches the guardian's blade and slices the sword into pieces with his claws, fragments scattering across the ruins.
"I've already won this battle," Indura says as he rushes forward, seizing the guardian by the neck and slamming him into the ground, creating a massive crater.
"This fight has been decided...this kingdom's fate is decided...along with you," Indura tells the guardian, smiling widely, sharp jaws visible beneath the glow of his mana.
The guardian smirked despite the blood at his lips. His hand tightened around Indura's armor. "But I'm not done yet, red dragon."
Light erupted from his body, brilliant and violent. With a roar of effort, he grabbed Indura fully and uppercut him into the sky with catastrophic force, launching him high above the kingdom.
The guardian staggered slightly after the strike, panting as he forced himself upright. He looked to the sky, determination replacing doubt. Right here, I must use everything I have to take down this dragon. It's the dwarves or me, I cannot let this dragon run wild...I must use it...my final form..."
He leapt upward, chasing Indura into the sky.
Above, Indura soared through the sky, stabilizing mid-air. He looked down at the guardian flying toward him, golden eyes narrowing with anticipation.
The guardian surged upward in a blaze of radiance, light erupting from his body so violently that the night sky itself seemed to fracture around him. It was not merely brightness; it was presence — immense, sacred, undeniable. From the ground, the dwarves saw the darkness peeled away as that ascending brilliance carved a path through the sky, clearing clouds in spirals of glowing vapor.
Among the rubble, the dwarf chief sat slumped against shattered stone, his beard dusted with ash and grief etched deep across his face. He looked up at that rising star with trembling hope, his kingdom in devastating ruin around him. "Kill the dragon, oh great guardian," he murmured, the plea barely carrying over the distant thunder of the sky. It was not a command. It was desperation.
In the upper sky, the guardian's form began to change.
Light thickened around him, shaping and rebuilding him into something beyond mortal frame. His body grew larger, more defined, as divine energy layered itself into structure. Four radiant wings unfolded from his back, not feathered but forged from condensed brilliance. Plates of bright silver armor formed piece by piece over his body, each segment locking into place with a resonant hum. His aura shifted from warrior to sovereign force, heavy with ancient authority. In his hand, a golden divine sword manifested, brimming with energy so dense the surrounding air bent around it like heat over a furnace.
His voice carried across the sky with terrifying clarity. "I am the sword of the sky, I am the guardian of the Varta, I am Gundr, the sword of the world." The declaration was not boastful; it was absolute. The authority behind it pressed against Indura's senses like gravity.
For the first time since this battle began, a chill traced along Indura's spine.
Then Gundr moved.
The chase ignited across the heavens, both figures tearing through layers of cloud at blinding speed. Shockwaves rolled outward behind them as they pierced the upper sky. Gundr's wings flapped once — a single motion — and the distance between them collapsed instantly. His golden blade swung in a clean, merciless arc, divine energy slicing against Indura's armor and sending him spiraling off balance. The strike burned deeper than any wound before, searing through scale and mana alike.
Hey, hey… that hurt. I felt that. It burns.
Indura steadied himself mid-flight, teeth clenched, golden aura flickering unevenly around his humanoid form. The wound hissed where divine energy continued to eat at him from within.
He's stronger. No… he's more than that.
Gundr pursued without hesitation, blade cutting through clouds in wide, devastating sweeps that forced Indura to weave and dive in desperate arcs. Each slash carved luminous scars across the sky.
"You will die by my sword, Red dragon. Your death will bring peace to this world," Gundr declared, his voice resonating through wind and vapor as he closed the gap again.
Think. Think think think. I have to think.
Indura's mind raced as another swing barely missed him, the displaced air alone rattling his bones. He could not match that raw authority head-on — not like this.
Mana.
Yes… That's it. Mana. I have to release all the mana I have in my body. All of it. If it works.
Blood trailed behind him as he forced a grin through the pain. "Hey, guardian," Indura called back, twisting sharply through a bank of clouds, "how long are you going to keep chasing me around?"
Gundr did not react to the taunt. He did not rise to it, did not accelerate in anger. Instead, he stopped completely.
The sudden stillness was worse.
He hovered there in the open sky, wings spread wide, light swelling around him in silent accumulation. The divine sword rose slowly above his head, energy gathering along its length until the air trembled and the clouds below began to tear apart from the pressure alone.
"'Skyfall'."
The word carried like a verdict.
With a single controlled swing, Gundr released it.
A blade of light expanded outward instantly — impossibly wide, impossibly vast — a horizontal slice of divinity that dominated the horizon. There was no angle to escape, no blind spot to exploit. It was not a strike aimed at Indura alone; it was a decree written across the sky.
The attack hit.
It tore through Indura's armor and scales in a burst of blinding brilliance, nearly cutting him in half as divine energy ripped through his body. The force hurled him backward violently, blood scattering in burning droplets as he was launched upward with catastrophic momentum.
The slash did not end with him.
It continued past, carving through the upper sky in a glowing arc that stretched all the way toward the moon, leaving a radiant scar against the darkness.
"-uughhh—"
The sound tore from Indura's throat as pain flooded every nerve. His body spun helplessly, divine energy still burning inside him like a slow execution. His vision blurred as the blue of the sky deepened into black.
When he forced his eyes open again, the curve of the planet was visible below.
He was rising still.
Drifting past breathable air.
Stars sharpened around him as the atmosphere thinned, frost beginning to form along the edges of his bloodied armor.
Below, Gundr hovered in distant brilliance, a radiant figure against the world.
Above, the void waited in absolute silence.
And Indura — bleeding, broken, but not yet finished — was crossing the boundary between sky and space.