Ashes Whisper

Chapter 85 : Eldritch Dragon

Zeirsulair roared once more, the dragons rise and fly together. The Land of Eldar burned beneath a crimson sky. The once lush plains were now torn apart by chaos, twisted spires of flesh.  Screams, steel, and the guttural howls of Eldritch spawn filled the air.

People of Eldar fought desperately, their armor slick with ash and blood.

"Damn it!" one of the soldiers shouted, cleaving through a crawling mass of tentacles that had once been a man. "There's no end to them!" 

Before the creature behind him could strike, Mikaela "Behind you!" she cried, hew twin blades slicing clean through the abomination. Its black blood splattered the ground, burning holes into the soil. 

In a fluid motion, her breath heavy but she tried her best. "Keep your focus! If you hesitate even for heartbeat, you're dead!"

The air trembled as another wave of Eldritch horrors poured from the ruptured sky. Their shapes twisted and shrieked, too grotesque to belong to any sane creation. Some crawled on limbs that bent backward; others slithered with mouths instead of eyes.

The soldiers stumbled back in horror.

Samael clenched his jaw. "Hold the line!" he roared. "We fight until the sky itself burns!"

The Battle for Eldar raged on with no sign of relief.  "Keep pushing them back!" shouted Zarek, his spear trembling in his grasp. Each thrusting strike an Eldritch creature, but for every one that fell. two more took its place, writhing from the earth like maggots from a carcass.

Mikaela darted through the chaos, her movement too fast for the eye to follow. She cut down an aberration with a single fluid strike, the creatures body collapsing into black sludge.

But the corruption spread faster than they could contain it. From the distant ridges, Eldritch towers of bone and flesh pulsed like living hearts. 

Khai, his arm bloodied, pointed toward the horizon. "Did you see that!? the Eldritch Dragon he's coming!"

Everyone froze.

From the mist and carnage, a colossal shadow emerged, the Eldritch Dragon. its form was unspeakable; scales of rotting flesh, tendrils writhing between cracks of bone, the eyes that bled with a thousand screams. The earth split beneath its steps, and the air itself warped around its presence. 

It opened its maw, a grotesque spiral of teeth and unleashed a roar that shattered the clouds.

Mikaela's heart pounded. "Gods.." she whispered. "How do we fight that?"

The soldiers around her faltered, their courage waning. Some dropped their weapons, others knelt in despair.

Before anyone could catch their breath, a bolt of lightning tore through the field, striking down a cluster of Eldritch in a single blinding flash. Samael turned his head toward the source of the strike, eyes wide in disbelief. "Kirin.." he muttered under his breath.

Mikaela blinked in surprise, lowering her blades slightly. "Kirin.. and could this mean my sister is coming?"

Kirin landed gracefully beside them, "Ashes Whisper? No," he replied calmly. "We're not here because she called us. We came of our own will. Even without her command.. we fight for this world too."

Khai tightened his grip on his sword, eyes widening. "Our? Could it be?"

Before he could finish, a deafening roar split the skies. The earthquake suddenly appeared as the Leviathan emerged from the raging sea., Leviathan unleashed a torrent of high pressure water, slicing through the hordes of Eldritch and protecting the warriors of Thalassia. The sea itself seemed to rise in defiance, crashing against the Eldritch creature.

The battle continue as Leviathan roared the ocean obeyed its command, swirling, surging, forming a colossal whirlpool that dragged the Eldritch creature into its violent pull. From Above, Mirage with powerful chant, he struck his claws into the earth causing the molten beneath the land to erupt upward. Rivers of glowing lava surged and hardened around the Eldritch Dragon. 

Then Kirin raised his horn to the storming sky, thunder answering his call. "Now banish from this world!" he shouted. Bolts of lightning thick as pillars struck down upon the Eldritch Dragon. 

For a moment, it seemed the tide had turned. But then...

A terrible sound echoed - wet, writhing, unnatural. The Eldritch Dragon's charred flesh twitched, then began to regenerate, knitting itself together at impossible speed. 

Its wounds closed in seconds, sinew reforming, new scales bubbling up from beneath scorched flesh. Everyone watched in silence knowing this creature could not be slain so easily.