Chapter 8 - The True Core Awakens
Inside the vault, the air was suffocatingly hot. The real Dragon Core was spinning wildly inside a cage of black iron needles, turning a violent, blinding shade of scarlet as it neared total magical meltdown.
“Stay back!” Lord Caspian screamed, holding a crimson-runed dagger against the throat of the young King of Valoria, whom he had taken hostage moments earlier. “One step closer and I bleed the boy! If the royal line dies, the core will detonate and wipe this city off the map!”
The blood-mages raised their hands, preparing to launch a barrage of dark, lethal spells.
Fenris didn’t stop walking. He didn’t even look at Caspian. His eyes were fixed on the agonizing, spinning Dragon Core.
“It’s weeping because you forced it to serve greed,” Fenris said softly.
With a motion faster than human eyes could follow, Vana threw her hunting dagger. The blade whistled through the air, piercing Caspian’s hand with surgical precision.
Caspian shrieked, dropping his dagger. The young King scrambled away into the shadows.
“Fire! Kill them all!” Caspian screamed, clutching his bleeding hand.
Fifty blood-mages unleashed a torrent of dark red flames and necrotic spears directly at Fenris and Vana.
Fenris simply raised his right arm and swept it across the air. A shimmering wall of pure, crystalline ice erupted from the floor, absorbing the entire magical barrage without a single crack.
Stepping through the mist, Fenris reached out and grabbed the wildly spinning Dragon Core with his bare hands.
The blood-mages gasped. Touching an unstable core bare-handed was instant suicide—the magical heat would vaporize flesh in milliseconds.
But as Fenris’s fingers wrapped around the burning gold crystal, something impossible happened.
The violent scarlet flames vanished. The black iron needles corrupting the stone shattered into dust.
The core hummed pleasantly, its light softening into a warm, gentle brilliant gold that filled the dark vault like the morning sun. The crystal pulsed in perfect harmony with the beat of Fenris’s own heart.
The ancient relic hadn’t just stabilized—it was singing.
“How... how are you doing that?” Caspian whispered, backing away until his spine hit the cold wall.
May you like
Fenris turned to look at Caspian, the golden light of the core reflecting in his clear grey eyes.
“Because the dragon who gave his life to create this core,” Fenris said softly, “was my companion.”
