I pulled myself to my feet, staring up in awe in spite of myself. Aurum was massive and magnificent. I felt an intense desire to supplicate myself before him that I was only able to fight off thanks to the repulsive feeling of self satisfaction I could feel emanating off of him.

He stretched luxuriantly, absentmindedly rending large cuts into the ground with his claws, then he swept his eyes across the battlefield. He rose into the air with powerful wingbeats that produced so much wind I thought I may be blown away. He glided across the no-man’s land between the armies, and once he reached the Sylfen lines, he unleashed fire on them. If I could be blinded I feel the intensity of those flames may have done it. Even with the distance between the armies I could hear the screams as thousands of elven soldiers perished.

Once he was satisfied, he turned around and came back, landing where he’d started, the earth trembling. He looked across the field, eventually settling his eyes on me. He tilted his head downward at me and opened his mouth to speak, revealing teeth as large as I was tall.

“Hail son of Rubrus, grandchild of mine.”

I clenched my fist, looking at the fire still burning in the distance. “Aurum.”

“Thank you for attending my resurrection party. It was a little drab so I decided to do a bit of decorating.” He gestured with a talon to the fire blazing on the elven lines. “What do you think?”

“I think you’re a monster.”

Aurum chuckled. “You’re one to talk grandson. We’re two of a kind you and I. I can feel the power I’d provided Rubrus running through you, powering you, and I can also sense that you’ve made liberal use of it.”

I stayed silent, and began summoning as many multi-swords within myself as I possibly could.

“I’m rather proud of you actually. You wound up being more useful to me than any of my recognized offspring. You pushed them into giving me more of themselves than I could’ve hoped. I had initially expected them to compete more directly with one another, but their decision to cooperate turned things glacial. Nothing like a new threat to speed things up.”

I remained quiet, but tilted my head down. I’d known since talking to Vash that I may have been helping him, but I still felt that I couldn’t have simply let his children remain unchecked. I continued to summon blades, and readied myself to make quick action. I wasn’t sure if my plan would work, but I needed to do everything I could to ensure that it would.

“As a reward for all your help,” he continued, “I think I’ll let you leave.”

That surprised me, and I lifted my helmet back to face him.

He smiled a terrifying smile. “Of course, your allies will have to stay behind. The large woman and priestess should provide some entertainment. Sure one of them worships Sidi for now, but I’m sure I’ll have them both worshiping me before too long.”

I looked over and noticed my allies pulling themselves together and preparing. I wasn't sure they were ready for this fight, even with all they'd done to prepare. I pulled all the metal from inside myself and expanded. First the elyrium, then the steel, and finally, the metal from all of the multi-swords I had within myself. As I expanded I drove my enlarging fist right into Aurum’s chin, using the force of my growth to strike him with enough power that he was launched into the no man’s land.

I lumbered after him, moving as quickly as possible to put as much distance between the impending battle between Aurum and I, and everyone else.

He managed to overcome his surprise before I reached him and he unleashed a wave of fire that covered me. I pushed through, restoring the metal he melted as quickly as I could by drawing on more multi-swords, while also trying to bring up a magical barrier to lessen the damage as much as possible. I slammed my fist into his open mouth, once again sending him reeling, then I gripped one gauntlet in the other and slammed both of them down on top of him, cracking the earth beneath him as I did.

He clawed up at me, tearing out enormous hunks of armor as he did so, and pushed me back. He then stood himself up and leapt at me, knocking me to my back and sending up an enormous cloud of dust. Once he was on top of me he began tearing and biting at me, each individual blow slamming into my essence and causing black ooze of the void to begin spilling freely from me.

I opened my faceplate and unleashed a continuous spray of multi-swords directly into his face, forcing him off of me. I kept shooting them at him, dismissing them as soon as they struck only to immediately summon more so I could force him to stay down.

He backed away and roared, unleashing another harsh spray of flame as he did so. The flame immediately melted any incoming sword and I backed away to avoid it. When I did so the flame began to narrow, becoming a focused beam like what I’d seen the firebreather use.

I rolled, an inelegant gesture at that size, and managed to avoid it as it crashed into a line of trees in the distance causing a massive explosion that lit the battlefield. Aurum reared up for another, but I lifted up a gauntleted hand and shot it toward him with as much explosive force as I could muster. It slammed into his golden face, closing his mouth just as his blast was about to leave and causing an explosion within his mouth, but he recovered and leapt at me, using his wings to increase the force of his blow.

I molded my remaining gauntlet into claws and slashed at him, but his wings let him shift his momentum at the last moment to dodge. My other gauntlet returned and I shaped that one into a blade, moving to close the distance between us as I did so.

Aurum and I began engaging in a fierce trade of blows, slashing, stabbing, and clawing at one another. Before long I was covered in so many cuts that I could no longer repair myself quickly enough to keep up with it. More black ooze flowed freely out of me, and I could sense my essence fading fast, but I kept pushing, putting everything I had into the fight.

Aurum on the other hand seemed completely uninjured. There was rage in his eyes, and I’d landed blows I knew had hurt him, but nothing that had left anything resembling a wound.

I managed a strong blow that turned the dragon god slightly away and I leapt onto his back, wrapping my arms around him and attempting to cut off his air supply. I pulled with all my might, but as I did so he began to claw at my arms eventually removing enough that he was able to free his head and bite the rest of them off. As he was about to throw me off his back, I opened my faceplate, shaping it into rows of sharp teeth, and bit down with all the force I could muster, finally breaking through his thick scales and drawing blood.

Aurum roared and threw me from his back, slamming his tail into me as he did. The combined force of his blows launched me from him and I landed on my back.

I went to push myself back up, but realized I hadn’t been able to reform my arms since he’d destroyed them, instead only black ichor flowed out. I opened my mouth and shot multi-swords at him as I had before, but it didn’t even slow him.

He pounced on me and started neatly carving through my armor toward my elyrium center. I kicked and struggled, but couldn’t deter him, I lost more and more strength as my essence was ripped asunder in his attack.

Finally, he reached into the giant shell I’d created and pulled out my now elyrium bronze colored core. I struggled, but I was too weakened and his power seemed not at all diminished by our battle. He gently slashed across my chestplate, cutting through the elyrium easily in spite of its durability.

“That was the greatest fight I’ve ever had with a mortal. You truly are worthy of being considered my progeny. For that, I’ll offer you the honor of dying by my hand.”

He smiled and the point of his talon slowly pierced my chest.

I kept struggling, summoning swords to attack the talon, trying to seperate and escape, and just pushing back the talon as hard as I could, but it was useless. I felt the claw slide through me, and then there was only blackness.

…

I awoke in a room. Despite what I had just been experiencing I felt a tremendous sense of calm. I was in a kitchen, seated at a table. There were four others seated with me. Two men, a dwarf, and a young woman. A man leaned over a stove across from us. Next to him sat an arrangement of spices in small bowls, perfectly measured and arrayed. The man started placing each of the spices into a pot, stirring as he did so. Once all of the ingredients were in, he stoked the heat and stirred for a few minutes. He then placed a large wooden spoon into the pot, and sampled some of the sauce, frowning as he did.

“Hmmm, still not as good as Sidi’s.” He muttered, starting to pour generous amounts of the sauce over a dish of chicken and rice. “I followed the instructions perfectly, I refuse to believe that it can only be made perfectly when cooking by ‘feel’.” He stopped muttering and shook his head, grabbing plates and approaching the table.

He was a severe looking man, tall and thin with sunken eyes and black hair touched with gray. He radiated a kind of calm, but it wasn’t pleasant, it reminded me of the kind of calm that comes with acceptance that things simply are the way they are. He placed a plate in front of everyone and then sat at the table’s head across from me.

They all started eating, and the severe man pointed at a small pepper shaker in the center of the table.

“Could you pass that Sevald.”

I reached for it, but was cut off by the man sitting to my right. I looked up at him and saw the face of the man who had been my fourth meal. I looked around the rest of the table, seeing Syven, Pebble, and Byn all quietly eating their meals. I looked down at my hands and instead of gauntlets I saw only a silhouette of a body, filled up with darkness. When I looked up the man at the head of the table was looking at me.

“Welcome to my table,” he said, and at that moment I realized who he was.

“Thank you for having me, Lord Dur.”

He smiled. “Sidi and Jeiri wanted to welcome you themselves, and Krish has a bit of a crush on you, but I reminded them that I laid claim to you some time ago.”

“The oath?”

“That is correct.”

“I didn’t think that was something I could actually complete. Leaving my armor is a bit of an impossibility.”

“You’d think so wouldn’t you? Either way, before we see what happens when you’re let out, let’s make sure you’ve honored your end of the bargain.” He turned to Byn. “So, how heavy do you feel his sins are?”

Byn finished his food and looked up at Dur nervously. He still looked young, just a boy, but in spite of that he managed to smile through his anxiety as he looked at me.

“I-I feel, that is to say, I think his sins are light as air. I feel that the good he’s done, outweighs the harm he brought me, and I appreciate that he did what he could for Dad.”

Dur nodded and tilted his head at Pebble.

Pebble pushed the glasses that sat on his nose back up onto his face and scratched at his neatly trimmed beard. “I don’t think his sins are quite that light, but I also acknowledge that weighing concepts is inherently-”

Dur cleared his throat and gave him a withering stare.

Pebble sighed. “In a metaphorical sense, I feel his sins are lighter than his armor. He’s learned so much about the world, and I’m grateful that a part of me has been a part of that. Also I rather enjoyed him smacking a few of my old professors around.”

Dur nodded toward Syven.

“Personally, I feel a bit more sin may have been good for you. You’re out there constantly helping people, saving who you can, and even sparing those that try to harm you. You didn’t even try to negotiate pay with Granite when you basically saved his restaurant!” She sighed dramatically, but there was a small smile on her face. “I have to sadly agree that your sin is lighter than your armor. I’m very disappointed in you. Maybe if you get back you and Hrig can work on that by-”

Dur coughed, and she sheepishly put her head down and began eating again, though not before giving me a wink.

“Sevald?” he asked.

The man to my left raised his head and looked at me, his expression hard. “I was in my prime, I was just getting started at being an adventurer. Since you’ve killed me, you’ve lived the life I’ve always imagined for myself. Slaying goblins, fighting in tournaments, dueling pirates, foiling the plans of evil men.” He shook his head. “I wanted all of that, but before I make a decision I need you to promise me you’ll do the one thing every adventurer dreams of, the one thing I wanted since I was a boy.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Slay a dragon.”

I wished at that moment I could smile.

“I’ll do it.”

“Then in order for a part of me to live my dream, I find your sins to be lighter than your armor.”

Dur nodded at Sevald and looked at me.

“Your oath is fulfilled. Keep in mind, when I send you back it doesn’t mean that your victory is assured. It is still a nearly impossible thing.”

“Is there anything else you can do to help?”

“Myself and the other gods have already done all we can do.”

“In that case, thank you, I’ll take it from here.”

He nodded a grim smile on his face. Byn, Pebble, Syven, and Sevald smiled as well, and then I was sent back.

…

I returned to Aurum's claw piercing me, and extraordinary pain wracking my every sense, but there was also something else. The runes that linked me to my armor were gone, I no longer felt any connection to the thing which I’d considered my body for so long. All that was left of me was void, power, hunger, and an amalgamation of souls and essences that held it all together.

I surged out onto Aurum’s talon, my blackness covering as much of him as I possibly could as quickly as possible. He jerked back, dropping the hunk of elyrium I’d once been and backing away, but I was already on him and I kept spreading.

I felt fear from him for the first time as he unleashed a blast of fire onto me, scorching me with intense heat, but I didn’t relent. As I reached his shoulder and started spreading out onto his wings, I began eating my largest meal yet.

Unlike the others it wasn’t instant, and it wasn’t easy. It was sheer agony. His every scale contained as much essence and memory as a hundred distinct meals would have. I wasn’t able to fully shield my core as flashes of thousands of years of experiences rammed into me. His godly nature also burned ferociously as I fought to contain it. In spite of all of that I dared not relent, pressing harder and harder, eating more and more.

Aurum began roaring and flailing, sending out flames and radiating rage and holy golden light. The sky itself clouded over, and lightning rained down onto us. The earth began to shake, not as a direct consequence of our titanic struggle, but as if the entire world was roiling from what was happening.

I pushed forward more and more, covering the tip of his tail up to his neck in inky blackness. Eventually I reached a tipping point as I managed to eat more of his essence than I was losing in the struggle. I could feel his will pressing against my own, a god and his desire for life, one that was stronger than that of any other living thing in that moment. The only thing that was stronger than his desire to live, was my desire to end him. I reached his face and eyes and as he gave one last defiant roar, I flowed down his throat, completely absorbing his essence.

I felt the last of him fade away into me, and for a moment I was completely alone. Then the full force of his personality slammed into me. His raw sense of self fighting to be as much a part of whatever we were becoming as possible, but in spite of that my core stayed strong. I wrestled it down and subdued it, godlike though it was, and found myself fundamentally changed.

I shrank down, alternating between dozens of shapes. Man, woman, orc, dwarf, goblin, dragon, all with their own advantages and connections to who I was, but I knew even as I started cycling through them, that there was only one possible decision to make.

I landed in the middle of where Aurum and I had fought. My boots clanking as I hit the ground. A longsword sat on my hip, and my burgundy cape flowed behind me. My silver skin was marked in places with scars of gold.

I looked up to see five figures running toward me. Two short, two average height, and one tall. Hrig slammed into me first, her long legs carrying her further faster than the others. I didn’t have to fall backward, but I let it happen anyway. Shortly after she was followed by everyone else and I was covered in a diverse pile of adventurers. We’d won.