IV

King of the Skies

“Are you alright?” Crane held Anem as he staggered and almost fell. The old man felt too frail in his arms. Limbs as thin as a newborn calf, unable to stand up on its own.

He shouldn’t have been. It was wrong. Everything was wrong.

Gentle winds had to rustle the evergreen leaves of the forest and the sun had to shine, warming their hearts. Anem had to be strong. He had to stand tall. That was how the world worked. Everything was wrong now.

Rough winds beat the island accompanied by raging waves, the sun had gone to hiding behind dark clouds. Anem struggled to stand, his frail legs trembling. If the world were to end one day, it would begin today.

“I’m fine. Just keep going on.” Anem grunted as he pushed Crane away and tried to walk again. His body, however; didn’t agree with him. As he was about to collapse again, his wyvern nimbly got closer and supported him with her grey head. He then patted her with his sole hand and listened to the rest of Crane’s story.

“Then the rift closed, and I collapsed. The next thing I remember is your wyvern digging the ground and pulling me out. After that, she brought me to you, and we pulled you from under the rubble”

“She has a name, you know. She is not just an animal. She is Arash.”

“Alright, I get it.” Crane knew the talk that would follow. Anem would praise the wyvern by telling him how weak or useless he was.

“Thank you.” Anem looked at Arash. “Thanks to you hope still lives.”

“I helped her save you too but… okay. If you don’t want to thank me it’s all ri...”

“Idiot.” Anem cut Crane off, swearing in a short breath. “I wasn’t thanking her for helping me. I was thanking her for saving you.”

“Me?” Crane raised an eyebrow, baffled. He didn’t know whether to feel touched by his master caring for him more than himself or get upset at his insult. His emphasis on the idiot sounded like it came from deep within his heart. “I don’t even know what the hell happened.”

“That’s what I am here for son. Don’t worry and just listen to me.” He put his hand to his back, straightening it a bit. “This island houses something more ancient and greater than us. The Darkness lies beneath this cursed soil.”

“The Darkness?” Crane asked. “Are you being rhetorical, or someone really lacked imagination while naming it? Who the hell named that thing?”

Anem sighed, his eyes half shut. “Of course, it is not his real name.” He looked like had a few ruder things too but then shrugged it off and continued. “Old tales tell that it once had another name.” Anem’s face soured. “Before Vaella stripped it from him.”

“God Emperor fought him? Why the hell did he let him live?”

“It’s not that he let him live; he simply couldn’t kill it.”

“Eîlar!” Crane cursed as he covered his open mouth with a hand. “What hell are we supposed to do against that?” He yelled in panic, looking around frantically to find a way out. “We need to get the hell out of here.” He tried to raise his voice again, but it only grew smaller and smaller in his chest. He pushed himself to scream harder and harder but the only thing he could do was choke on air. He struggled to breathe but his lungs didn’t listen to him. He fell to his knees as his heart raced and felt Anem’s warm touch on his shoulder.

“Calm down.” He said as a warmth filled his body. “Don’t panic. You’ve lived on the coffin of Armageddon for two decades; you can do so for another minute. Calm down.”

Though Anem’s words made him even more anxious, his touch was as calming as a mother’s embrace. Not that he knew experienced it beforehand but he imagined if had experienced it, it would feel like this. He felt safe. He felt at home.

“I’m fine.” Crane got up.

“No, son. You are not. You saw the embodiment of death and destruction. No soul can gaze upon the Darkness and leave unfazed.”

Upon hearing what Anem said, Crane stopped walking and sat on the dirt. He waited for his heart to stop racing. After a few minutes that felt like an eternity, he continued. “Why haven’t you told me about this before? That a devil lived right beneath our very feet?”

“Not a devil, the devil. I told you not to go to the willow, son. I wanted to keep you away as much as possible and we all know how that turned out. Had I told you about the beast, the first thing you would do would be going there poking something you were not supposed to.”

Crane averted his eyes, fully knowing that was the exact thing he would do. “At least I saw the man trying to open the cage. The beast may be untouchable, but the man looked very punchable. Maybe we can find him.”

“Not we. You are going to find him.”

“Wait what?” Crane was baffled even more. “I’m leaving?” He asked to quench his curiosity. “But I can’t leave you alone here. Not with this thing.”

“There isn’t much for you to do here son. The runes of the cage had been withering for centuries. I was trying to slow that down every month as I went to the willow. It takes a great toll but I will have to continue what I have been doing and keep praying. I will delay his escape from here. And you will stop the idiots trying to get this filth out.”

“What if I fail?”

“You won’t if you do as I say and get help.” Anem pulled out a golden necklace from his neck and a compass from the inside of his robe. He then gave those two to Crane.

“Take Arash to the skies and follow the compass. It will lead you to a woman. A mage. Her name is Levise. She will help you. She will help us all.”

“What if I can’t find her? What if we fail?”

“I die. Then everyone else dies. The last time that thing walked the earth free; humanity lost the Nevra. It took Vaella himself to end its rampage. Desert rules the continent ever since. And now, we have no Vaella should it break free.”

“What about the necklace?” Crane asked again.

“Just keep it close. She’ll be of help.”

***

“Why are you going there?” Azavel asked Crane as they flew over the red dunes of Nevran desert. “Arash says she doesn’t like the big cloud.” She pointed at the approaching sandstorm.

“She can talk?” Crane asked, baffled.

“Not like talking but more like feeling.” The young spirit answered.

“I’m sorry big girl.” Crane patted the head of the wyvern and showed the compass Anem gave him before he left with Azavel. It was one of the two things he gave him and unlike the necklace, it proved to be useful. It was very easy to get lost in the desert even if you had the privilege of flying. The desert was vast, spanning over a whole continent. “The compass shows this way.”

Arash grumbled.

“Why don’t you go around it?” Azavel a few hasty circles around his head. “Arash really doesn’t like that place.”

“Don’t worry.” Crane smiled. They didn’t know how much longer Anem could hold the cage in check. Time was of the essence and the approaching sandstorm covered the whole horizon. They would have to avoid the whole continent if they went around.

He raised his head as he glimpsed at the clear sky above the approaching crimson behemoth. “I’ll avoid it but going around would be a waste of time.”

He grasped the reins tightly and whipped them nimbly, pulling them towards himself right after. Arash rose his head up to the sky and flapped her wings even harder as the raging storm passed them beneath the wyvern’s burgundy wings.

“Hey.” Azavel stopped turning around Crane’s head. “I hear something! There’s water!”

“There can’t be water here buddy. This place is supposed to be as arid as a rock.”

“Then what is this sound?” Azavel asked and Crane looked beneath the wings of Arash, seeing the crimson storm slowly turn into a darker shade. Dark clouds quickly swallowed the whole sandstorm. The red horizon was lost.

The only thing beneath their feet was a chaotic wave of dark clouds and the sounds of rain beating the dunes, accompanied by occasional roars of thunder.

“It sounds a lot like it’s pelting down.” Azavel shouted. “Oh! A thunder?” He continued as blinding light pierced through the clouds accompanied by the deafening thunder. “It looks sooo cool. So blueee!”

“I guess so.” Crane raised a brow. He had to teach him colours later. Again. It wasn’t blue at all.

“No! Not that. It’s behind.” Azavel must have felt what he thought. This is going to be annoying. Crane thought.

“It’s coming to us.” Azavel continued. “I think it wants to play!”

“Rise!” Crane heard a women scream. “Higher!” The shrill voice resonated in his ear as the warmth in the gold coin kept increasing. “It’s coming!”

He couldn’t see the woman, but the echoing voice sounded very close. It felt like someone whispered right in his ears.

“Who are you?” Crane shouted but the clashing winds suppressed his voice. He could hardly hear his own words. How come her voice is crystal clear? Crane asked himself.

No answer came from the woman, but he grasped the reins tighter and pulled it back over his shoulders, raising the Arash’s head upwards. He didn’t trust the stranger's voice, but he felt something very ominous hidden in the cloudy storm. Flying higher wouldn't hurt.

Then, they heard a crackling sound below as a shield made of grey fire and smoke appeared around them. It gave off the same bright and warm feeling as the woman’s voice.

The whole sky shimmered under the roar of a beast accompanied by thunder. Something hit the bubble of fire around the Wyvern like a whip in a flash. It was hard to see what it was, but it wiped half of the smokey fire shielding them.

“Higher!” The woman shouted as she patched the broken parts of her shield.

Crane still wondered to whom that voice belonged, but he neither had the time nor the luxury to keep asking. So, instead, he did as he is told and pulled the reins harder.

Arash’s wings whipped the unruly winds and rose above the screaming dark clouds. She roared as she soared through the sky, leaving the storm beneath afar.

She stopped a few kilometres above. Crane’s breath got heavier, deeper. Thin air and rough winds made it hard for Crane to breathe. Still, wings wide open, Arash kept her altitude floating over the wind currents like a kite.

“What the hell was that?” Crane shouted still dizzy from the height. The coin was almost hot enough to burn his skin, but the woman didn’t answer. She simply extinguished the shield around them. He felt her flaming existence around the necklace vanish, yet she was still there. She simply didn’t bother replying. Instead, Crane felt the cold coin pressing onto his flesh beneath his shirt.

He pulled the coin out of his shirt and held it in his hand. On one side he saw a flame engraved, and on the other, there were various runes he couldn’t read.

“Are you there?” Crane asked, feeling a faint but fiery existence in it but the only answer coming from it was a flare of heat. It was indeed there, just not keen on talking if not necessary.

Arash kept floating for a few more minutes as Crane inspected the coin until another thunder roaring beneath broke the silence. Just the sound was enough to rock the wyvern, almost making Crane fall.

And then, it came with a rumbling screech. They all saw it coming. It was too fast to do anything.

Another lightning appeared deep beneath the dark clouds, slithering from one to another like a giant serpent made of pure power, turning the whole storm into white for a second with its light. Like an arrow released from the bow, lightning jumped forth to reach them, penetrating the whole storm from underneath.

It shot up and hit Arash like a spear. She tried to helplessly avoid the shot, but it was in vain. The spear of lightning landed on one of her shoulders, dismembering her wing away from her body. She fell spiralling and Crane tightly held the reigns so that they wouldn’t fall apart.

Soon, the storm swallowed the falling prey like an insatiable monster. Thunder whipped the winds clashing around them as they fell through raging clouds. Electricity flowing through the air had no sympathy, no mercy.

Right before one just hit them, Crane felt his skin burning under the heating coin of the necklace Anem gave him. A cloud of grey fire escaped the coin and two pairs of white wings covered them, one pair shielding them from the lightning and another slowing their fall.

Fire resisted the first lightning but then another struck them right as they hit the ground. They had slowed down quite a bit, the wings resisted the fall, but their momentum was too big to be stopped easily. Not while they were showered down with bolts of lightning.

What they fell into was something of a swamp. The rain had turned the crimson desert into a giant sea of mud. It was raining. No, it was hailing down!

Another lightning hit them as Crane struggled to get out of the sea of mud and stand on his feet. It felt like he was standing in a pool of blood.

It must have looked like this when the Darkness laid waste to these lands, he thought.

Then another hit them, and the wings met them again. Right before the fifth, the fire roared unintelligibly. Crane felt like it meant something, but the only thing Crane could make sense of it was pure wrath that gave him goosebumps.

The fire shot forward and opened its wings wide as it vanished in the storm. Fire and lightning soon started to clash in the stormy sky.

Crane’s feet had sunken in mud, up unto his ankles he was stuck in the dark red sand yet he had difficulty standing still. Each time the two attacked each other ground shook as if an earthquake was hitting them from beneath.

The fire spirit clapped her wings and flames exploded, swallowing the whole sky and the storm with it. The clouds had vanished at an instant and with the veil gone, Crane could finally see what was happening.

They raced in the sky, if one missed all the fire and thunder, it could have been mistaken for a dance. Fire spirit clashed her wings and nimbly hit the white beast.

She looked like an exotic bird in flames, almost Arash’s size but still, she was dwarfed by its adversary.

What slithered in the air and rained her down with spears of lightning looked like a giant wyvern with four lightning-clad wings. Five horns ornamented its head like a crown, and with sparks bridging on its wide-open wings, the white dragon bellowed like it owned the sky.

As they continued the dogfight, winds started to clash again, and the dark clouds gathered to the place once the flame spirit had chased them away from. The storm swallowed them again, and soon the screeches stopped. Crane saw the cloudy flames shining amidst the storm and right after a blinding explosion, flames dimmed. As the fire returned to the coin, the white dragon roared victoriously, beating the sky with thousands of bolts of lightning behind a veil of dark clouds.

Crane had goosebumps as he stood still and felt the gaze of the dragon turned towards himself. The power was gathering in the clouds once again and another lightning started to slither from one cloud to another like a snake. coming.

The lightning felt the same as the one that ripped Arash’s wing and the one like that put his champion of fire down.

His heart paltipated. He was like a sitting duck. The dragon had already aimed at him. He could feel it. Running would prove no use. Nothing was faster than the lightning. He’d rather dying facing his enemy than getting hit from behind.

“The man in the diary did it, right? How hard can it be to deflect them?” He fooled himself. Bolts it the diary were natural. A mage could easily bend the nature to his will. That thing, however; was anything but natural. Nevertheless, he needed to be assured and there was no one mad enough to do that but himself.

He held his hands towards the beast, and the spear of lightning hit them with all its might. For a second, all the dark vanished from his sight as a blinding light surrounded him, taking him into its grasp.

Crane felt the lightning burning his hand and creeping slowly into his body. He had bet that it would end too quickly to feel anything. He was wrong. Though it was just a fraction of a second, it felt like an eternity.

He directed the power surging through his muscle and bones towards his other hand and let it return to the sky.

Lightning roared as it returned to where it once came from, and Crane fell onto his knees. His clothes ripped, scorched, and on fire, his arms and chest burnt. He collapsed. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t talk. He simply collapsed to the ground as Azavel worriedly drew circles around him, unable to do anything.

Crane felt the power of the fire spirit in the gold coin. “Lend me your power,” Crane begged as his voice cracked. “Whatever left of it.” He continued. “Dying this soon would be embarrassing. Anem would kick our asses on the other side.”

Suddenly, grey flames burst out of the coin, healing Crane. Just like that, Crane got up, completely healed after getting wrecked. Second time in two days.

The dragon hid among the dark clouds, gathering another lightning. The storm was on its side, hiding it, arming it. So, just like the spirit did, Crane decided to get rid of the storm. He would have some time until the dragon summoned it again.

With eyes closed, he stood still in the hailing storm, clapped the air once with his hands as he took a deep breath, and fire burst outside, splitting the storm into two, revealing the menace above naked, unable to create the great lightning.

Seeing his domain extinguished, it descended, looming over Crane like a calamity.

It was closer. A lot closer. Now he could see more than just a silhouette. Wretched flesh revealed the openings between in its shining scales, three rotten wings held together by crackling lightning, a skull with no eyes, no flesh left. The spirit had done her job, Arash’s wing had been avenged but it still didn’t calm him down. So long as the undead beast followed soaring through the sky, he would calm down.

In the new light emanating from the lightning-clad wings, he saw Arash and the wing that got ripped away. He rushed to her side. The spear had burnt half of her face and the skinless flesh was scorched down to her shoulder, giving a heavy and sulfurous stench.

“It’s not over yet buddy.” He caressed her scar as he summoned the white flames of the spirit from the coin, stopping the painful screams of the wyvern.

His fists trembled in fury as he burrowed his eyebrows. His nostrils grew larger with each breath and a heavy feeling took hold of his body.

He then marched a few steps away from her as he summoned the flames of the spirit for the last time. He used every bit of it left, gathered as much as he could. This time, however; it was not to heal his own body, not yet. He was not hurt; the flames had healed him already, but soon he would need them.

The dragon rose to air once more and started to draw a vertical eight a few times. Each time it turned and twisted the lightning on its wings grew larger and larger, but the storm was gone. The attack this time had to be weaker.

He raised his hands and met the lightning once more. The power hit him hard, scorching his flesh but the flame kept him together, healing him almost as fast as the lightning burnt his skin. He then let all the wrath and lightning leave his body, emptying his chest like pouring a wine bottle empty.

A crackling spear of light struck the dragon deep, right on his chest. It swallowed the winged demon and the whole sky with its light, ending the dwindling storm outright. Dragon shrieked and wailed in the air, struggling to stay up. He turned his rotten face towards Crane, looking directly at him with his empty eyes. It was fazed for a bit but didn’t look hurt at all.

The beast roared as its four limbs beat the crimson sands, approaching Crane. In once empty eye sockets, he saw a pair of faint blue lights. Limbs moved one after the other, like a new-born struggling to walk. Its body had filled its time, but something deep within pushed it to keep going.

Crane looked at the beast. Sharp teeth and claws, lightning arching from one limb to another. That would be the way he died. He closed his eyes, imagining what would follow when that happened. Anem would wait for him, and no news would reach Levise. The beast would break out of its cage eventually and it would kill Anem. It would kill Azavel. It would kill Mefdet. Without him fulfilling the duty Anem gave; without him being alive, he couldn’t imagine the others surviving the Darkness.

He had to live. For the people he loved. For his family.

He opened his eyes. He opened them to a world of grey. Everything had lost its colour. Everything but the dragon. Crimson sand turned into a faint shade of grey; the night sky was now pitch black. His clothes were dyed in various shades of grey as well.

The beast, however; was shining in indigo blue light.

No, Crane was mistaken. He was shining. He was not just a beast. He once had a name. Crane could see something deeper. He could see the faint traces of a once-mighty soul in the indigo light that took hold of the dragon’s empty eye sockets like a pair of eyes. It was in his eyes, in his rotten heart, in his wings. It was holding the whole body together.

Crane wondered why he hadn’t noticed it before. It was right there, covering every inch of its body, in the lightning, in every breath.

Crane looked at the Dragon and it looked back at Crane with empty eyes. He felt something familiar in the flaming eyes. Something he knew, something he had forgotten.

“Acredna.” Crane called him with all the power left in his body. “Run.” He whispered.

His legs were trembling; he felt powerless. He didn’t even know why that name came to his mind or whether the dragon would understand him. He didn’t know why the dragon would even listen to him.

Nevertheless, it worked. Dragon stopped. He looked at Crane for a minute or so, judging him. The gaze felt intelligent, almost sentient but not complete. All the thought was stripped away from him. Crane could feel the emptiness in his mind. Only something primal was left in the abyss inside his head, left from the ancient times when it was once alive.

What lay within was not hunger; he didn’t see Crane as prey. It was not bloodlust; he didn’t see Crane as a soul to torture. It was not malicious or evil. What lay in his rotten heart was much deeper and darker. Much pure. Much ancient. It was fear.