The other dragons went back to war, Sinistrar had stayed by Zaaar's side.

Zaaar was looking up at the stars.

They sat before the glowing remnants of the pyre.

Argentrix, Auronne, Fomalhaut and Hissa were also accompanying the last glow of the blaze that had sent my body to the stars.

The silence was interrupted from time to time by sobs.

Then, on the horizon a known figure arrived, accompanied by two humans, one of whom was abnormally tall.

Argentrix cried and looked at the known figure.

She let go of everything.

IVAAAANNN !

IVAAAAAAN!!!!!!

she shouted!

"You've come back!"

Oh, my love!

She flew away and crashed at the foot of the black dragon.

She grabbed him and wanted to kiss him but a human stood between him and Argentrix.

Isabella: "He is my husband. I'm sorry, but it's TENEBRIOON."

Argentrix: "Let me hold him just once!"

Argentrix jumped at Tenebrion's neck.

"I know you're not Ivan, but you're his clone, his doppelganger... You don't know how much I miss him."

Sinistrar was afraid that Tenebrion would bury his great-granddaughter, but he blew a sigh of relief.

He rushed to slay the dark dragon, but a creature half human, half wyvern, an abomination for golden dragons, got in his way.

SSSSSSSS

She whistled like a snake

"Don't touch my daddy!"

Then a human also got between the two dragons.

That stopped the golden dragon dead in its tracks and he turned his head towards Darkia, his wife.

Darkia: "I don't feel any malice", but, she didn't finish her sentence, she jumped on her brother's neck...

TENEBRON! I thought I'd lost you!

They hugged each other for a long time, but it was unbearable for Argentrix to see another dragon get a loved one back.

She buried her head under her great-great-great grandfather's wing: "Sniff; It's not fair, Sniff."

Darkia: "She can't stay like that! She is dying of grief... Poor child!

Sinistrar: "I've seen more than one dragon die of grief.... It is unbearable. I have done everything in my empire to alleviate suffering and soften life, even if the dracosires were senile, at least when they were strutting around, the little people had peace. They understood nothing.

Higgins came to join Sinistrar.

"Our intelligence and spy services have reported a meeting between the forces of the Axis of Evil.

Hakumen has not yet been completely eradicated, but the most fearsome part of the demon is dead, unfortunately also with our friend Ivan.

Sinistrar, did you know that he called me uncle?"

The dragons sighed.

The dracosire trembled but it was Argentrix who let himself die.

He caressed his neck.

Then a roar ...

It was Zaaar.

For the first time a demon shed a tear.

Then he turned to the dragons in a circle around the glowing ashes.

"A drama is unfolding... Ivan is tormented and is no longer with his parents... That's what I feared most for him... We should never put a child as Demon Lord..."

Sinistrar knew what that meant. But they were trying to stop Argentrix from hearing.

He turned his head and met the gaze of Tenebrion.

Tenebrion: "That's why I'm here risking my life, but I'm surprised my sister is with you, Lord Sinistrar."

Sinistrar: "That's in the past. There is no more empire... Just a grieving family trying to come together.

Speak up!"

Tenebrion: "I am the son of Bahamut and my egg has travelled through time, millions of years...

When I, too, was slain by Uther, a miracle happened to Ivan and I. Although we swapped bodies... I was also, and before a dragon, a hydra like my mother.

We cut off one head and two grow back. Technically, Ivan is my twin brother, one of my two heads and I'm the other. He feels what I feel and I feel what he feels.

We're related.

I, too, have been on a plane that didn't take off, but I got to see my adopted family massacred by humans in the 6th century. They soothed me and I was able to stop the cycle of violence and hatred that characterized me. I was able to meet Isabella and have my little Octavia, a Hydra/Wyvern/Human hybrid.

I had a lot of love and took care of the family to the end, especially Ivan's father, whom I consider my own father and my aunts and cousins. I also took care of his little dog...

But what worries me is that I was a Demon Lord and a Duke of Hell. Unfortunately Ivan used the powers to protect you and do good and also indirectly participated in the secret mission of the Demon Lord: To serve Tiamat less than to save her from herself.

It's very complex but basically, Tiamat, stuck in hell, being an avatar of absolute evil and also technically my mom and Ivan's mom ceding her legions to the Demon Lord. Not to serve the Demon Lord, but to serve her.

But unfortunately, absolute evil can no longer see if it does evil or not.

The light can't see that it's shining.

Darkness cannot see that it is dark.

Nor does Tiamat."

Sinistrar was getting tense as he explained it. The more he heard, the more anxious he became.

Zaar: "That's right. Right now, he's being judged, not as Ivan or a dragon, but as the Fallen Lord Demons: Total extermination. His soul will be destroyed, devoured and shredded into nothingness. Adult, old man, child, it doesn't matter. It is their fate.

They all knew, except maybe Ivan, who was not born a Demon Lord.

At best, he will be reduced to a larva or a single soldier in a legion and will serve until the end of time. A horror equivalent to the destruction of the soul."

Auroness ran off to throw up. So did Emerald. And Hissa ran away holding her mouth.

Sinistrar pressed harder. Argentrix choked and fainted, very weak.

Other dragons, ex-servants of the emperor, took the poor dragon and injected her with sedatives to keep her asleep, so she wouldn't get worse.

Her mother tucked her in with her grandmother.

They pecked her again like when she was a baby dragon, so that she wouldn't lose any more strength. Her life was now in danger.

Tenebrion said, "We must pray to Tiamat. The other gods will be deaf. She's a terrible monster, but she will only listen to the dragons, if she still has a conscience."

"Come and let us make a circle. Let's give each other our paws and pray together for mercy."

Sinistrar: "Why isn't he on the plane to reach his star? He has golden blood in him..."

Zaaar: "Yet you too have only seen his black colour and not his blood..."

But the group formed too late.

They all felt it was a lost cause.

The embers suddenly went out and the grave marker broke. Physically because of the thermal shock of the fire going out and the stone cooling too quickly and thus splitting in two.

But the dragons, with their subtle senses, knew what this meant. That Ivan was destroyed forever and therefore would never reincarnate. In his place, they felt Tiamat had punished him, devoured him."

Sinistrar made an awful, weeping, revolting grimace.

Then Tenebrion got angry: "Mother, you have eaten your child! Damn you!"

Then, first of all, it was like a silence.

The insects didn't make any more noise.

Time, slowing down like a wave retreating before a tsunami.

The birds landed and all nature fell silent.

A silence of death.

Then, a very, very high-pitched whistle, like tinnitus, subtle at first, then more obvious soon after.

A telluric wave was felt and, as if, the magnetic matrix of the universe twisted like a rubber band or a hole whose edges were spread out.

Then, violently, at the level of the portal, the earth began to shake.

Sinistrar: "The portal! Quickly, it must be closed!"

The dragons flew to the portal, which received black lightning, but Sinistrar removed the rune and everything calmed down.

He turned to Ténébrion: "You should have been quiet... you know you can't even pronounce her name????!!!!!! Maybe you woke her up!!!!"

Dark One: "Then it would be the end of everything!"

They escaped and fled and resumed their military missions.