Erik slammed aside another book, grabbing a new one from the surrounding library which filled the large room’s walls. Yet already most of the books were stacked in a mountain where he sat the last read, pacing around it now to move back to the table at the room’s centre, a map of the continent lying before him.

Glancing off his read momentarily, he looked the map over, multiple thoughts running through his head as he switched from one to the other. Back and forth his gaze went, as the night only continued to get older.

His weary eyes, forced to remain open, as from time to time he’d silently chant a short spell beneath his breath.

A revitalizing light then spreading across his face, allowing his expression to harden and refocus once again.

Albeit the redness in his eyes only continued to get worse.

As the hours passed whilst he paced, stacking the mountain of books higher, even moving something over the map here and there.

To Makaela as she entered the room, it was a disheartening sight.

Even more so as he seemed to not even notice her, “Erik?” Speaking his name, she noticed his shoulders rise suddenly in surprise.

As he turned around to face her, blood-shot eyes opened wide.

“Huh? Oh, it’s you Makaela…” He mused, relaxing then as he returned to multitasking his thoughts. “I was just going over the books I ordered up from the Abu Katra library, just through the oldest of them and some Zrosian ones, which are surprisingly rare.” He said, moving another flag over the war map around, the same one he had just moved earlier.

Makaela sighed, “It’s been five days Erik, you haven’t slept for five days.”

Erik chuckled, “Who needs sleep when a whole nation is marching to your door? No, I need more information…” He said, lowering his book then onto the table as he glanced over the stack nearby.

“Is it?...” Makaela mused, moving to stand by him then.

“It’s getting worse, by the day it’s just getting worse.” Erik whispered, “And all I’m finding is the same two things over and over, the prophecy of the ancient, and the lie spun about my past…It’s like…It’s like someone destroyed all records of it. And I know there were other Dragons in the past who turned…I know there were.” Erik grumbled, leaning onto the table then as his gaze froze upon the map before him.

Makaela looked him over, his decaying scales falling off for the newly grown black, his deteriorating blue eyes turning a dark red surrounding by black, his darkening hair, his now half crimson half golden wings.

But what she saw, wasn’t all either.

She felt it, she felt the change occurring within him.

Makaela sensed a dark energy collecting where his core once lay, pooling into his chest. She sensed what once was the soul of a mighty dragon of fire and light…slowly but surely, becoming something else.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be searching for answers within the records held by a kingdom who survived upon lies and deceit?” She offered.

“Hah, I wish it was that simple…Even Druvia’s records, public, kingdom and church…Even the collective adventurer’s guild records. Guess how far they all go.” Erik mused, rising then to meet her gaze. “The end of the 4th age, my first rise, is as far as everything goes. Nobody has anything beyond…Nobody except…” He then grabbed hold of a scroll which lay wide open upon the table, “Me.”

“What is that?” Makaela asked, as she looked over the writing but found that she couldn’t read a single word.

“Draconic script,” Erik answered, “not that we Dragons write or read…It was invented by one of my kind long ago, before even I was born. We rarely make use of it, if anything, this and two other pieces of indestructible parchment are the only ones I know of that hold these characters. I found this many centuries ago, and held onto it…”

“And what does it say then?” Makaela urged on.

“The prophecy of the ancient, is the title, it speaks of what I believe to be my ailment but…to no detail at all.” Erik sighed as he put it aside, “Nothing more than the ravings of a mad dragon, speaking of doom and horror.” He glanced down at his own hands then, “I’m growing weaker Makaela, with each passing day I feel the control over my own magic faltering…”

Makaela watched over him, his grimace filled with pain, his faltering gaze as his hands clenched into fists around the table’s edge.

“Everything is coming back around full circle,” Erik mused, “I find myself asking, can I actually fight off fate? Can I truly shrug off my defeat as it keeps on looming over my back? It is the reason Grim brought me back in the first place…I know that now, I’ve known it for a while…To lose, that is the purpose of my return!”

There was no rage in his gaze as he spoke those words, no fury which Makaela felt should have followed them. She only saw sorrow.

For the very first time ever, she saw through his tough borders and walls, right through the scaly armour he wore.

Makaela for the first time, saw fear within Erik’s eyes.

“You know…” She spoke softly in elven then, turning to rest her back along the table as her gaze wandered off. “Do you remember, the first time we met? I do, it was like a God had descended before me…Amongst the chaos of our surroundings, a deity had come down and set his own laws. No matter what plans anybody else had, no matter what impossible odds moved against us…While everyone else was planning for the end of Druvia, to grab all the titles and riches, and run…You appeared, and did what we thought was going to be impossible. Erik, you slew a Devil King.”

She let those words hang through the following silence, allowing them to sink in through several quiet moments. “You broke me, when you told me the truth, that you were no almighty god returned to show my people the way…I was lost, yet somehow even after being betrayed…Somehow I found my way back in you.” Makaela sighed, turning back around to meet his own wandering eyes as they stared down at the table’s surface.

“I’ve watched you for this long, Erik, I know who you really are and this…this here is not it.” Makaela then sternly said in common, grasping him by the collar as she forcefully raised him to meet her gaze. His own eyes going wide with surprise.

“You’re a conqueror who put his foot down upon every king and queen throughout the civilized lands. You’re a nightmare to each and every hero and adventurer. You are no God, you aren’t any sort of immortal. Yet that only makes your story so much more incredible. Erikathyr, the destroyer of the weak, guardian of nature’s spirits, Devil slayer, Dragon slayer…White Red Dragon, master of the arcane arts, Emperor of The Dragon Empire and…”

Her eyes resolved, as she smiled.

Makaela stepped around, cornering him between herself and the table…as she then leaned in.

“The man I love.” Whispering those last words before her lips met his, pushing the entirety of her body upon him as he instinctively held her.

For long moments, they remained intertwined, grasping onto one another as their lips pressed into the other’s.

As Makaela’s tongue ruled supreme within, acrobatically leading his around and about, also later grabbing his arms. Leading his hands then through a quick tour around her own body before she released his lips. Her eyes, almost glistening as they met his wide and weary gaze.

Moving in closer, she whispered into his ear. “I’m done holding back.”

A cold shiver crawled up Erik’s spine then, followed by a warmth beneath his belt as it was Makaela’s turn to wander with her hands.

-

Cough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFZ951XFk9o

Cough

-

Hours later

-

Rousing from her sleep, Makaela slyly snuck out from under his arms and sheets. Glancing back momentarily at his form, Erik lay sound asleep.

A smile snuck upon her face then as she looked back onto him, gazing over his grimacing expression. A nightmare, she figured.

As he restlessly turned about even in his sleep, his tail swiping back and forth, distorting the sheets which lay on him. She watched as he curled up, knees raised and arms around them, it amused her just how much like a beast he liked to rest. Coiled up like a serpent.

(“And other things…”) She mused, smiling to herself at that afterthought as she rose out of bed. Remaining fully naked, she silently flowed over to the nearest window, a dark metal humming out magical energy surrounding it. The barrier within was barely visible as she looked through it and onto the midday sun.

Taking in a deep breath, “I guess it’s time we make our move.” Makaela said as she gazed at the sky, twisting within her grasp a strand of her own hair.

“As we planned…Yeah.” Erik sighed, having sensed her rising he also had woken up, moving into sitting at the bed’s side then. “Makaela I…” He tried to speak, but her sudden laughter cut him completely off.

“Erik, spare me the excuses.” She said with a chuckle, “I don’t care.” She then said, taking in another deep breath. “Second to her, or whatever. I really don’t care anymore. I told you, I’m done holding back. I won’t hold you down either, I’m not going to stand in your way. But just like that, I’ll also do as I wish and like.” She explained as she stretched out her arms upward with a groan.

Erik couldn’t help himself from giving her flexing body a glance, a weak smile crawling upon his own face. “If that, is what you want.” He mused, rising then to stand straight. “Makaela, you know I might die…be it today or tomorrow. I don’t know what is happening to me, worse is even possible…”

“Whatever happens, I know you, you’ll find a way around or right through it~” Makaela said with a giggle.

“What if I can’t? What if I don’t, and just how the prophecy says, I become an unstoppable monstrosity? What then?” Erik solemnly asked.

“Hmm?” Makaela hummed as she turned to her pile of clothing, starting to redress. “If you do, then I’ll stop you. If you die, then I’ll just have to burn world after world until I find a way to bring you back. That’s, what you’re going to do for her, after all.”

“And you’re fine with that? You’re fine with my obsession anyway?” Erik asked, turning to find her fully clothed and already donning her leather armour.

Meeting her wide smirk as she glanced over his still naked body, she fully turned to face him, then kneeled. “I’m a complicated woman, Erik, but my wants and needs are as simple as they get. I am not your Empress, I am your General, and lover. Your bidding, is my command. If you wish to burn this world, if you wish to collapse reality, I will give everything I have to make sure you can.”

Erik gazed upon her then, his eyes narrowing as his mind filled with many more objections to her words. Yet, he couldn’t help but allow his smile to widen. Snapping his fingers then, the pile of fine clothing that lay beside him rose up, warping and reforming around his body of its own will.

“Then…as your Emperor, you know my orders. Go…” Closing his eyes, Erik took in a deep breath as well, allowing himself a few silent moments to accept this strange new relationship of theirs. “Go commence this war.”

“With pleasure~” Makaela giggled, opening his eyes then to find that she was gone, having left behind nothing more than dissipating wisps of shadow.

And one mess of a bed.