The freezing mountain wind tore at their coats as they sprinted desperately through the snow.
"Do you have any escape plan?!" Ravon yelled over his shoulder, his boots churning through the deep powder.
"No!" Lyra shouted back, her breath pluming in the frigid air. "I need some time to think!"
We can't outrun a dragon, Ravon realized, his heart hammering. I have to draw his attention. "Looks like we need to distract him!"
Before the words fully left his mouth, a colossal shadow eclipsed the valley. With an earth-shattering boom, Cryovax landed directly in front of them, his massive talons cracking the bedrock beneath the snow.
The frost dragon let out a deafening roar. The sheer sonic force knocked them both to a halt.
Cryovax's jaw unhinged. A blinding, thick beam of concentrated ice erupted from his throat, freezing the air itself as it tore across the valley.
Ravon dove violently to the right. Lyra threw herself to the left. The beam blasted the space between them, instantly turning a massive boulder into a shattered glacier.
Running is useless, Ravon thought, gripping the hilt of his chipped sword. If we turn our backs, we die.
He flooded his core with mana. Channeling the green aura of Speed into his legs and the red aura of Strength into his sword, he charged the mythical beast. He raised his left hand, rapidly summoning a volley of roaring orange fireballs, hurling them directly at the dragon's chest.
Cryovax didn't even blink. The fireballs impacted his silver scales and snuffed out instantly, leaving not even a scorch mark behind.
Ravon closed the distance. He swung his enchanted blade with everything he had, slamming the heavy steel against Cryovax's front leg.
The kinetic shockwave traveled straight back up Ravon's arm, nearly dislocating his shoulder. The blade bounced off. Not a single scratch appeared on the silver scale.
"Insects cannot even scratch my body," Cryovax rumbled, his voice echoing inside Ravon's skull.
Suddenly, three high-speed wind lances struck the dragon directly in the face. Lyra stood thirty yards away, her staff leveled and glowing.
Annoyed, Cryovax snapped his massive jaws downward, trying to bite Ravon in half.
Ravon blurred backward, utilizing his Speed enchantment to dart between the dragon's front legs. He sprinted toward the beast's hindquarters, wildly hacking at the thick scales.
Move! Keep moving! Ravon's mind raced.
Cryovax didn't even look back. He simply swept his colossal tail horizontally across the snow.
The tail slammed into Ravon like a falling mountain. The impact shattered his defense, sending him flying through the air. He crashed hard into a snowbank, coughing up a heavy splatter of dark blood.
I am nothing to him, Ravon realized, staggering back to his feet and gripping his sword with trembling hands. But I have to keep him away from Lyra.
He charged again.
"I can feel that you possess all the energies," Cryovax observed calmly, watching the boy run. "But you are still vastly weaker than Ken."
Ravon ignored the taunt. He launched a relentless barrage of fireballs, landing a direct, concentrated hit on the exact same spot on the dragon's foot. The smoke cleared. The scale remained flawless.
How can we even hurt something like this? Ravon thought in despair.
"Step away!" Lyra screamed.
Ravon didn't hesitate. He immediately reversed his momentum, sprinting away from the dragon's feet.
"The little witch still has a trick," Cryovax noted, shifting his massive head.
Lyra's blue eyes burned with absolute, desperate authority. "Abyssal Vestibule."
The howling mountain wind instantly died. Absolute, suffocating silence crashed over the valley.
The earth to the left of Cryovax violently split open. Thick, oily black smoke poured from the fissure. From the smoke, a towering double door slowly materialized. It was half the size of the dragon itself, its heavy frame constructed entirely of writhing, grasping hands—skeletal hands, rotting hands, tiny baby hands, and slick, dark tentacles. Thousands of coiled snakes were carved directly into the surface of the doors.
With a heavy, horrific groan, the doors cracked open.
Inside the gap, the endless void of the underworld waited. Hundreds of glowing, mismatched eyes blinked in the darkness, turning their gaze upon the frost dragon.
An astronomical suction force erupted from the gap.
Cryovax felt the pull. His massive claws dug deep into the bedrock. He didn't even flinch. The suction was incredibly powerful, but it was not enough to drag a mythical being.
The wind abruptly stopped.
From the pitch-black gap, the sound of weeping children and manic laughter echoed across the snow. The doors swung wide open. A wave of pale, rotting hands and thick, slippery tentacles exploded outward, violently wrapping around both of Cryovax's left legs.
"Run!" Lyra shouted, already sprinting toward Ravon.
Ravon matched her pace.
As they ran, Lyra reached into her dimensional pouch and pulled out the smoky Orb of Invisibility. "I do not think I need to explain what happens if we overload this orb with mana."
"I remember!" Ravon panted. "We will be erased from reality for hours!"
"My mana is almost completely empty," Lyra gasped. "Pour your mana in with me!"
Without stopping their frantic sprint, Ravon grabbed the glass sphere with his free hand. He flooded his raw energy into the core, mixing it with Lyra's mana. The dark smoke inside the orb began to swirl violently, glowing brighter and brighter until the glass began to hum with unstable pressure.
Behind them, Cryovax simply flexed his wings.
With a single, powerful beat, the dragon took flight, effortlessly ripping his legs free from the rotting hands. He hovered for a fraction of a second before slamming his massive weight directly downward onto the Abyssal Gate. The horrific doors shattered into a million pieces of smoking ash.
Crack.
The Orb of Invisibility snapped into three uneven pieces in their hands.
The explosive magical feedback washed over them. Ravon and Lyra's physical forms began to dissolve, fading into transparent silhouettes. They were being violently erased from the physical plane.
Lyra dropped the broken shards into the snow. "Now we can escape easily," she breathed, her transparent chest heaving. He cannot track what does not exist.
"That Abyssal Gate was the weakest gate I have ever seen," Cryovax's voice rumbled through their minds. "I expected much more from the witch's daughter."
"That gate was just a distraction," Lyra whispered to Ravon.
They continued to run, their invisible boots making no sound, leaving no tracks in the snow.
Cryovax turned his massive head. He didn't look at the snow. He looked directly at the empty space where they were running.
The dragon opened his mouth. The freezing blue light of an ice beam began to violently charge in his throat.
I can see you.
The words echoed in Ravon's skull right as the blinding beam fired.
Ravon whipped his head around. The massive column of absolute zero was tearing across the valley, aimed perfectly at their backs.
"Gale Burst!" Lyra screamed.
She slammed the butt of her staff against the snow. A massive concussive shockwave of wind erupted point-blank between them. The force slammed into Ravon throwing him fifteen feet to the right, completely out of the beam's path.
Lyra, utterly drained of her last drop of mana, took the full, uninterrupted force of the attack.
Ravon hit the snow and rolled, his ears ringing. He scrambled to his knees, looking back.
Lyra stood frozen mid-stride. She was entirely encased in a thick, jagged pillar of transparent, unbreakable ice.
"No, no, no," Ravon chanted, his vision blurring. "You are not leaving me!"
He scrambled to his feet and sprinted to the ice pillar. He raised his chipped sword and began to hack wildly at the frozen block. The steel bounced off harmlessly, sending agonizing shocks up his arms. Hot tears spilled from his red eyes, freezing on his cheeks.
"I'll free you!" Ravon sobbed, striking the ice again and again. "Just wait!"
High above, Cryovax let out a low, rumbling laugh. "Every insect deserves to die."
Ravon stopped hitting the ice. He slowly turned his head, looking up at the colossal, silver beast.
My magic destroy everything, Ravon thought, his mind snapping under the weight of absolute, unbridled grief. But right now... I want to destroy him.
"Only you deserve to die," Ravon Screamed.
He threw his head back and unleashed a raw, agonizing scream of pure rage. All of his buried fear, all of his calculated restraint, vanished.
He stopped suppressing the dark anomaly inside his core.
Thick, crackling sparks of pitch-black energy began to violently arc off his body.
"Tornado!" Ravon roared.
A horrifying mixture of bright green Motion mana and inky, consuming black energy erupted from his heart, flowing down his arms and blasting from his palms.
The sky over the valley instantly turned pitch black.
The wind began to shriek at unnatural, catastrophic speeds. Three towering, massive tornadoes materialized around Cryovax. The vortexes weren't just wind; they were laced with the violent black energy of the Void.
The astronomical suction force grabbed the frost dragon. Cryovax roared in surprise as his massive body was dragged into the center of the storm. Massive boulders ripped from the mountain were sucked into the funnels, operating like high-speed shrapnel.
Cryovax was thrown into a violent revolution around the tornadoes, his silver scales pummeled endlessly by flying, hundred-ton rocks.
"Enough," the dragon growled.
He forced his massive wings open. Fighting against the incredible suction, he propelled himself out of the vortex and slammed his claws into the side of a sheer cliff. Anchoring himself, he beat his wings with mighty force, generating a localized hurricane that finally disrupted and repelled the abnormal storm.
Cryovax looked down at the boy, genuine surprise in his ancient eyes. "That was the strongest tornado I have ever seen."
"I don't need your compliments!" Ravon screamed.
He flooded his legs with Speed. The green aura violently clashed with the black sparks, refusing to mix, creating a volatile, explosive pressure around his boots. He funneled Strength into his sword. The red aura and the black energy twisted around the chipped steel like a barbed wire of pure destruction.
He launched himself forward. The black energy acted as a catalyst, accelerating his speed far beyond his physical limits. In a fraction of a second, he crossed the valley and appeared directly at Cryovax's front leg.
He swung the corrupted blade.
BOOM.
The impact sounded like a cannon firing. The chipped, rusted steel sliced through the indestructible silver scale. The cut wasn't deep, but dark dragon blood instantly welled up from the wound, spilling onto the snow.
Cryovax flinched. "Now, we are fighting."
The dragon viciously stomped his massive foot down, trying to crush the boy. Ravon backflipped, using the explosive black energy to propel himself completely out of range.
Cryovax raised his horned head toward the darkened sky. Thick, unnatural clouds swirled. A devastating rain of blue thunderbolts began to strike the battlefield.
Ravon moved like a blur of dark smoke. He effortlessly dodged the lightning strikes, using a shattered boulder as a ramp to launch himself high into the air. He landed squarely on the dragon's broad, silver back.
He raised his free hand. He didn't summon orange fire.
He summoned white-hot blue fireballs, corrupted by the black sparks.
"Die, you monster!" Ravon screamed, aggressively hurling the volatile blue fire directly into the dragon's spine.
The intense heat bypassed the magical resistance of the scales. The silver armor scorched black. Cryovax shrieked in genuine pain, rearing up violently onto his hind legs to throw the human off.
Ravon lost his footing and began to fall. As he slid down the dragon's side, he drove his sword deep into the thin, leathery membrane of Cryovax's wing, dragging the blade down and tearing a massive, vertical gash through the flesh before he hit the ground.
Cryovax was furious. He instantly charged a point-blank ice beam and fired it at the fallen boy.
Ravon rolled to the side, the ice beam grazing his coat. He sprang back to his feet, utilizing the black mana to jump thirty feet into the air, landing directly onto Cryovax's face.
He drove his sword into the dragon's cheek, sprinting across the beast's snout and dragging the blade to carve a long, bloody line across the silver scales.
"This is for Lyra!" Ravon roared.
He reached the top of the dragon's head and brought his blade down with everything he had against the base of Cryovax's massive horn.
CRACK.
The tip of the golden horn shattered.
Cryovax let out a deafening roar of absolute agony. He violently shook his head. Ravon lost his grip, flying backward into the open air.
Mid-fall, Cryovax snapped his head forward, swatting the boy out of the sky with the back of his massive claws.
Ravon hit the frozen earth hundreds of yards away. The kinetic impact was so severe it instantly cratered the bedrock beneath the snow.
Ravon lay in the rubble, his vision swimming in absolute darkness. He coughed a thick pool of blood spilling from his lips. Every bone in his body felt shattered. The green, red, and black auras sputtered and died.
Using his chipped sword as a crutch, Ravon forced himself up to his knees, his hands trembling.
Through his blood-soaked vision, he saw Cryovax standing tall. The dragon opened his massive jaws, the freezing blue light of an ice beam rapidly charging in his throat.
Ravon didn't have the strength to dodge.
The beam struck him directly. A thick block of transparent ice encased him. The intense cold numbed his pain, but it also locked his body completely in place and sealed away. Trapped inside the frozen tomb, his consciousness began to slip.
In the silence of Ravon's fading vision, he watched the dragon's bloody cheek and torn wing suddenly glow with a deep, pulsing green light. In an instant, the torn flesh knitted back together, but thick, ugly, permanent scars remained where the chipped sword had cut him.
Cryovax touched the scarred scale on his face. "Even Azhurak managed to scar me... but so did this boy," the dragon rumbled to the empty valley, though Ravon could not hear the words.
The dragon walked slowly toward the crater. He raised his massive front leg, casting a lethal over the frozen swordsman.
"I will not forget our fight," Cryovax stated.
He brought his foot down to shatter the ice and end Ravon's life.
"Cryovax!"
The voice did not come from the valley. It came from the sky above, echoing with an authority that made the very air tremble.
Cryovax froze, his massive foot hovering inches above Ravon's head. The mythical dragon instantly retracted his claws, pressing his chest low to the ground and bowing his head in submission.
"Master..." Cryovax rumbled.
"What are you doing?" the mysterious voice demanded, cold and absolute.
"I am killing these intruders," Cryovax answered, trembling.
"Do you not belong to our Church?"
"Yes, Master."
"Then why are you breaking our rule?"
Cryovax's eyes darted nervously. "Which rule? I am merely executing mortals who sneaked into my territory."
"Silence," the voice commanded, holding the weight of a dying star. "You broke our absolute mandate. You interfered with HIS child's journey."
Cryovax slowly turned his massive head, looking down at the bleeding boy in the crater. Pure, unadulterated terror flooded the dragon's eyes. Sweat began to freeze on his silver scales.
"HIS... child?" Cryovax whispered in horror.
"Yes. HIS child," the voice confirmed. "HE left his child in this world to grow on his own. HE is making him to learn the laws of this reality independently. HE wants him to understand human frailty, to comprehend why he must protect the innocent."
"I... I did not know this new mandate was added," Cryovax stammered, backing away from the crater.
"Your ignorance of the law does not excuse you from it," the voice condemned. "No entity belonging to our Church is permitted to interfere with HIS child's journey. You broke the rule. Your punishment is eternal imprisonment in the Underworld."
"No..." Cryovax gasped. Panic overtook the mythical beast. He flared his wings, desperately leaping into the air to flee. "I refuse to go there!"
"You cannot run from your fate."
The clouds violently parted. A blinding, pure beam of absolute white light struck from the sky, engulfing the frost dragon completely. It was the exact same blinding, silent light that had struck the Beast Forest five years ago.
Cryovax was violently sucked upward into the sky, his roar silenced instantly. The light vanished.
The frost dragon was gone forever.
Dead silence returned to the frozen valley.
Across the snowfield, a sharp crack echoed.
The supreme-tier ice encasing Lyra began to fracture. The ice shattered outward, depositing the little witch onto the cold snow.
She fell to her hands and knees, coughing as warm air rushed back into her lungs. She was utterly exhausted, her mana core completely empty, but she was alive.
She pushed herself up, her blue eyes scanning the empty, devastated valley. The torn earth, the shattered boulders, the melted snow.
Where is he?
She grabbed her wooden staff, using it as a crutch to force herself upright. She limped painfully across the snow, following the trail of destruction toward where Cryovax had been standing.
"Ravon..." she called out, her voice raspy and weak. "Ravon, where are you?"
She crested a small ridge and stopped. Below her was a fresh crater carved into the bedrock.
At the center of the crater, Ravon lay completely motionless. The divine intervention had saved him from being crushed, but Cryovax's beam had already encased the broken boy in a thick, transparent tomb of solid ice.
"No," Lyra whispered.
She scrambled down the loose rocks of the crater, ignoring the burning pain in her legs. She reached the block of ice, falling to her knees.
She had no mana left. She gripped her wooden staff with both hands, raised it high, and brought it down physically against the ice.
It barely made a scratch.
She hit it again. And again. And again. Tears of frustration blurred her vision as she relentlessly battered the thick ice with the blunt wood.
After several agonizing minutes of physical labor, a deep hairline fracture spiderwebbed across the surface.
She swung one final time.
The ice shattered.
Ravon's heavy, bloodied body fell forward. Lyra dropped her staff and caught him, lowering him gently to the cold earth. He was completely unresponsive, deeply unconscious, but a faint pulse beat against her fingertips.