The King's Gamma (#Wattys2024)

Eighty one

The larger black dragon fell from the sky, the earth trembling as he hit the surface.

A streak engulfed in flames streaked after it. No longer in her dragon form, they could not distinguish between the flames surrounding her and her hair. Her eyes were pinpointed at one specific area where the dragon lay, trying to regain itself in the brief moment of respite she had allowed it.

"Fuck!" the fox cussed as he pushed the demon queen back and quickly placed more barriers around the area. He knew full well that when Marcenia was single-mindedly focused on Gaelik every time there would be no attention to spare for those around them. And it would be his head on a plate if he did not take care to keep the onlookers safe. It was also why he had warned Gaelik time and time again to leave the young goddess be.

However the black dragon headed none but his own delusional mind.

"If you know what's good for you you would put up your own shields as well." he yelled to those around him. "Marcenia is a goddess and a known destroyer. Her opponent is also a calamity and destroyer class dragon."

Thousands of smaller shields appeared, all of varying colours and sizes as they acted quickly to protect themselves and braced for impact. No sooner had they acted, did she strike the dragon. The earth around the shields instantly upturned, imploding and charring over as wave after wave of scorching heat pushed at the shields. They watched, in awe and fear, as one shield after the other broke down and disintegrated as soon as a wave touched it. The fox took his true form, growling as nine tiles flared out and whipped forward, bracing new shields in place. Cuts and burns appeared on several of the frontlines.

A second wave of smaller shields appeared, more joining in as they realized they were in danger. 

The constant waves finally became calmer and calmer as they tried to peer through the rubble. The landscape that had been luscious and green for hundreds of years was now a wasteland around them, physical lava flowing through the cracks as though they were rivers that had been there for millennia. The harsh sounds of metal clanging against metal rang out from the middle over and over. The black dragon no longer existed where it once had lain mere seconds before. Marcenia was fluidly swinging her body around, landing hit after hit on the beast.

She twisted in ways they had never seen, fighting like a shadow or some kind of fiend. This was not any fighting stance any of them had ever seen before. He snapped his jaws at her, slithering around on the heated ground and clawing at any openings he could see. Fire spewed from his mouth, melting the ground around her further. She twisted again, landing a kick to the beast's jaw and closing it for him. The beast immediately reacted, almost as if it was choking on something as if it had tasted something horrible.

"Hah! You call yourself a dragon when you can't even swallow your own flames!" she laughed. The sound was barely audible for those with extremely sensitive hearing, so to others it seemed as though she was merely laughing at the beast.

"What a pity. I thought you might actually still pose a threat to me. You're no more than a showpiece."

It snarled loudly, shifting back to its fully naked form. Blood streaked in thick and dark lines down his back where the wings had been ripped out. He stood there as a large blade appeared in his hands suddenly and he ran at her at a speed they could not fathom. The blade flew through the air a moment later, making contact with her skin and severing an arm completely. She stood still, watching the arm fall with a wide and sadistic smile on her face. The arm grew back instantaneously.

He seemed almost taken aback as he watched it unfold. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"No living being can regenerate when the sword of separation cuts it."

"You seem to forget that I have not been alive for quite some time, Black beard."

"You are immortal. You would not have died no matter what we did to you."

"It seems you forget that Gem's orb world strips immortality. How many times did you watch me die in it? Twenty times? Fifty?" she took a step closer. "A hundred?" She took another step. "A thousand times?" the third step had her within his striking distance. "How about a hundred thousand times?" she took a fourth step, smiling as if she anticipated his reaction to be entertaining. "Honestly, I lost count of the number of times my brain completely shut off. I lost count of the times my heart excruciatingly restarted its beating. And what did you care? 'She will be the most powerful female after this'. Did I fulfil your wildest imaginings for me?"

Her hand softly touched his cheek as she examined his entire face. "Did I become as strong as you needed me, husband?" she hissed the last word, her lips snarling in clear disgust at the mere thought of calling him such a thing. 

It was at this moment that they noticed her eyes had changed again. They were golden, glowing even, but no white could be seen. Around the irises was pitch black and her lips pulled again at excruciating angles, almost lizardlike. Almost as if her face would split clean off at the jaw if she were to smile too widely.

She gave a smile nonetheless, the eery look somehow suiting her better than the quiet aloofness she had been showing for years. "I am not alive, you bastard. I am undead. Nothing is living on me for you to cut with your separator."

Her hand closed around the blade, blood dripping down as she held it firmly. Her large wings shook out again, stretching and returning in place as they stared each other down in a long quiet moment. 

"Leave my world. Before I actually eat you."

She pushed him back firmly, holding the blade in place as he fell back at the sudden hit. She held the blade up, glaring at the hilt that he had held onto so brazenly. Her hand lit aflame again and the blade became red hot before it slowly melted.

The look on his face suddenly changed, turning to one of delight. "You turned out perfect. Now, let me mark you as mine as it had always meant to be."

He was on his knees, holding both arms out to her invitingly as he adoringly waited in anticipation for her embrace. 

"What did you just say?" she asked, tilting her head with a frown as if she was asking him if he was sane. Only Gem knew that sanity had long left the dragon.

"We will wed immediately and you will bear my children. We will be together forever. Just let me touch you again like the first time and you will remember."

A brow slowly lifted as she stood perfectly still, watching as he came closer on his burning and cut knees. He touched her hand, pulling it to his cheek again as if she had touched him willingly. 

"You will be mine forever. As you have always meant to be."

Her eyes blackened further as she continued to stare at him as if she were in some kind of hypnosis. 

"Yes, darling. Feel it. Feel the way my pheromones make you feel."

"KENT!"

Gem, extremely disturbed at the sight of his once friend's crazed eyes and actions, had not paid attention to those around him. A large man ran through the barriers, burning his clothes and skin in the scorching heat as he ran towards the scene in the middle of the wasteland. 

"KENT! SNAP OUT OF IT!" 

Her head twitched, but Gem knew well enough that the black dragon's true power was deception. Whatever he was showing her, was her deepest desire. This had captured many in the past. It was also why he had been condemned by his own kind. His misuse of the power had toppled many and ended up endangering his own kind to the brink of extinction. For millennia he had taken every dragonness as a bride, ending up causing the near extinction by the pure act of killing all sons and taking all daughters for brides. Gem had been a great hedonist himself and had grown bored of his own existence at the time, and this is when they became friends. When he had been overthrown by those ugly things called the leviathans. 

The once proud Black Celestial overthrown by his own daughters and wives who took on the other remaining celestials in order to breed again. One branch however, remained following their father's footsteps and continued inbreeding, creating the giant and eventually mindless beasts. This caused their own downfall and created the new Celestial line. The very line Marcenia was born from thousands of years after most except the Royal bloodline had forgotten about the beast that almost ruined them. Gaelik the black.