And the weight of the world fell upon the Sun Prince.
Tens of tons of supernatural force pressed on the face of the Sun Prince. At such a point on his face where his centre of mass was so far away, the force was more than adequate enough to tip the giant. With the acceleration of gravity exponentially increasing the giant's fall, there was not a single thing that the colossus could do. A fleeting hand attempted to reach his face, but it was simply too late.
In the midst of free fall, Aldric could only endure. After all, this was not a weapon but an armour, and for every pound of force it exerted, Aldric would have to endure. It was only his enhanced durability as a creation of Nether that allowed him to attempt such a move. If this was attempted in his own body, a mist of blood would be all that was left of him.
CRASH
With the force of a falling star, the Sun Prince fell backwards onto the island below. A massive sound erupted across the entire island with a gale that traversed through the entire Ivory City. The battlefield was silent for but a moment as all those still alive witnessed the giant fall. Like David going against Goliath, a figure that they could not even see from their position had made their prince fall on his back. The biggest humiliation for any warrior.
The Sun Prince's lifeless molten eyes began to stir as he spoke.
"Who are you? Why…"
Walking across the prince's long nose bridge, he was now in front of his blazing eye. Meeting the bright plume with his own, Singularity spoke with the airs of one that knew everything.
"I am your liberator. From the madness of this city, the madness of hope and the chain of the gods. So show some gratitude."
And with those words uttered, his form shifted. Physical turned into incorporeal. In a shift of momentum, the cloud of darkness poured into the molten eye. Because in that molten eye, light still needed to come through. So through the open pupil, the cloud of darkness flowed through. Feeling the heat and subsequently the feeling of being squeezed through a tight hole, Aldric could only direct his mass forward. In the multiple small pathways that made up the golem of the Sun Prince, they all led to the same place.
The chest that held the prince's cage.
Quickly exiting out of his ghastly form, Aldric was met by blistering heat, but that was fine. It was fine due to his incredible composition as a kin to Saint, but that would not mean he would take his time. In the hollowed-out space, Aldric looked directly through the cage and saw a horrific visage. A figure suspended in molten metal. The stench of burned skin could be smelt instantly.
"What a gruesome sight. I'll put you out of your misery."
With his ascended blade, Aldric bisected the human cauldron and sidestepped the overflowing pool of molten metal. Seeing a charred figure fall to the ground, the figure had no semblance of features or life. Yet, he did not waste a single second and grabbed the ruby knife on his waist, plunging it deeply into the broken figure.
Just before he could begin to heal the devastating effects of his torture, Aldric had returned the fate of the Sun Prince. Making one who was once immortal now mortal. His injuries now truly burning into effect.
[You have defeated a Transcendent Beast: Sun Prince.]
[Y̷o̴u̶r̵ ̶s̶o̵u̴l̸ ̶g̵r̸o̶w̴s̴ ̴d̶a̸r̵k̴e̴r̶.]
[You have received a memory.]
Only a pained gasp was all that came from the Sun Prince. Yet to Aldric, through the pain, it sounded as though it was a gasp of relief. The child of the sun, having found an end to his eon-long nightmare.
As the molten metal began to cool and harden, as the light began to dim, Aldric left. Left the dead corpse of what was a chain lord behind. Now back on the battlefield, everyone who remained witnessed it. Witnessed as Aldric stood on the now unmoving face of the iron golem.
A clear victor emerged.
---
The second burst of power traversed through the Kingdom of Hope. Two chains were liberated in the death of the Sun Prince at the hands of the Singularity and the death of Solvane by the treacherous, spiteful shadow.
Feeling both chains collapse, Sevras burned. His sanity, his patience and his mind burned with rage. Having felt the death of his brother, he no longer cared for whatever weakness may be derived from his flaw. They sought him out in his own city, so he would respond in turn.
For that was the only thing that he had left: his ivory city.
And in that flame, the world burned too. The crimson moon shed its light as a burst of light eclipsed from the edge of the city. Sunrise was here. But to those who were observant of the time, it was simply too early. But the way the sun appeared, it was reminiscent of something else. The fragment of a domain. A false sun had appeared beside the now bright full moon.
Night and day intermixed as the light reflected through the atmosphere. A universal contradiction. True twilight.
"Another domain! This bastard has another fragment and just popped one."
Aldric thought in a frenzy. Even he did not know that the Sun Lord had obtained more than Shadow's domain fragment.
But luckily for all present, the false sun was just a source of light. There was no damage or attack originating from it. Perhaps the fragment was just that weak, or maybe this was planned by the Sun Lord himself, to avoid destroying the one thing that he still had left. His people.
ROAR
In a massive gust of wind, the ivory dragon descended upon the battlefield from the heart of the Ivory City. Carrying with him a roar that spoke of untold agony and sorrow.
Knowing exactly where the dragon would head to, Aldric quickly wreathed himself in darkness and left the cooling corpse of the dead Sun Prince.
CLASH
An amalgamation of light shifted and twisted into the form of a wolf. As large and as bright as the moon, it stood as tall as the dragon. Clashing harshly against each other, the displaced air and force crushed anything that surrounded them. Noctis had arrived on time, no longer weakened by the covered moon yet still in the presence of a false sun. The two Saints were on equal footing.
Under the illusionary twilight, the battle between the Child of the Sun and the Child of the Moon had begun.
---
The Ivory City burned. Stones charred and irrevocably turned black. Mountains of ash piled upon itself in between the remaining debris. A city, full of culture and full of people, completely annihilated in the battle between two saints. A population nearing the hundreds of thousands was erased in the span of one night. Disturbingly, there were no remains. No corpses or bones. Just endless black ash.
A battle of titanic proportions had taken place in the Kingdom of Hope that night. As if the rapture had descended, the calamitous battle did not stop or pause. Unrelenting, the clash of moonlight and fire made ruin of their surroundings.
Across on the elusive Ivory Island, a dismembered ivory dragon was grounded. With clipped wings and exposed bones, only its immortality had kept the husk from collapsing. A horrific gash poured a river of blood from its neck. In front of it, a similar sight stood. With his ethereal form spent, Noctis remained in his human form. With crippling damage across his entire body, his essence had run completely dry.
The two chain lords were silent at the end of their battle. Knowing that the other did not have their respective fate knife, there was not much they could do. As Noctis remained still, Sevras could only wait. For sunrise would be upon them soon. After all, the domains erected were only fragments, so they would wither soon.
And in that sunrise, Sevras could only gain strength as Noctis would be weakened tremendously.
Noctis would admit the only reason he could keep up with Sevras would be because of the two contradicting domains influencing one another. As the lightless shadow conflicted with the fire, twilight reigned. But that was soon coming to an end.
However, visible to them, something was coming to meet them on the solitary island. A floating ship rose into the air, hidden from view. Crossing the chasm between the Ivory City and the small island the Ivory Tower was located on.
Effie, Kai, Aldric, and Cassie at the helm approached just as the battle calmed down. Only Sunny was missing, supposedly in search of the person that he believed had followed them into the nightmare. With [Shadow Step] and his skills, Sunny lay in wait somewhere on the ivory island.
But that was not all.
Kai stood straight with his bow in hand. A pitch-black arrow encroached in darkness, its viscous properties clutching onto a glass knife at the arrow's tip. Strangely, once again, a faint distortion surrounded the arrow. Black specks of darkness floated in the air around it. Yet unknown to everyone but Aldric, a wire-thin string of darkness hung from the end of that arrow.
Behind him stood Aldric, in the same pose with a beam of darkness lodged in Bael's war bow. With Aldric as its tether, the beam of darkness would surely change mid-flight.
With his enhanced vision, Kai gave the signal, and Aldric released.
BOOM
The beam pierced through the air as it traversed hundreds of meters in seconds. Like a meteorite breaking into the atmosphere, the beam of darkness exploded into a shower of arrows. No less than thirty arrows showered through the air towards the grounded dragon.
The sound immediately alerted both the fallen saints. While Sevras was in a horrific state that would spell death for anyone else, the cohort knew not to stage a short-range surprise attack. For a near-death saint was still multitudes stronger than them all. And Sevras showed this.
In his defeated form, the ivory dragon's eyes watched the dozens of projectiles aimed straight towards him. At its speed and trajectory, he knew exactly where they were headed. In the crevice of his open wound, unprotected by adamantine scales. But that was as far as his insanity-ridden mind could plan. Like a wounded creature, it chose a manoeuvre devoid of any strategy.
Dropping its slightly raised neck straight to the ground, the creature fell to its instincts and formed a shell out of its broken wings to protect itself against the onslaught. While he knew that it would damage him immensely, he could not afford to give the Beast of Twilight a moment of weakness to exploit.
In the chaos, Kai released his arrow silently. With all the emotions of this nightmare pouring into the forefront of his mind, his finger let go. Images of being sacrificed by the crazed populace, burned at the stake for escaping and the death of his comrades by the Ivory Dragon. Kai had long since made up his mind; the Sun Lord would end with him.
In the chaos, the arrow traversed a perfect trajectory. Silent and light, the small lag between the two attacks slowed down the reaction time of the Sun Lord. For burrowing his neck into himself, the dragon could not see what was heading straight towards him.
But he was still a saint, feeling the murderous intent. All the dragon needed was a small shift of his wings that would allow the arrow to pass through a gaping hole on the wing.
Kai, with his enhanced vision, could see it. Could see the arrow about to miss. His insane accuracy could not contend with the reflexes of a Saint. With feelings of inadequacy, he closed his eyes.
Yet the arrow distorted in the air. As if space itself were bent, it twisted towards its true target even as the dragon moved. What it was drawn to, nobody knew. Whether that be the blood of a demigod or perhaps the dragon's essence. The glass knife tipped arrow embedded itself into the soft flesh of the ivory dragon. Returning its fate immediately, the Sun Lord was mortal once more.
The dragon was strangely silent. As blood poured from its open wound, as its life force left it by the second, the dragon – no, the Sun Lord Sevras – felt the sanest he had ever felt in years. With his brother gone, his city annihilated and his chain broken, the man felt free in death. And so, separating the man from the beast, Sevras had returned to his human form for the first time in years. He did not wrap his dragon form around the Ivory Tower as a memory of his eternal duty; the Sun Lord remained still on the grassy field. The manic look in his eye slowly receded as he drew his last breath.
Moments later, in the depths of his mind, Kai awoke to a familiar sound from the nightmare spell.
[You have defeated a Transcendent Beast: Sevras, The Sun Lord.]
[You have gained a memory.]
Twisting his head to the group, Kai spoke out in a stunned voice.
"The dragon is dead."
And the word confirmed it. A familiar burst of power echoed across the Kingdom of Hope as a chain was released.
And so now, only one chain remained.
A chain that would soon be reborn.
***
Thank you for reading.
Two brothers and Solvane packed up. With only Noctis remaining, do you think this Noctis will accept death that easily?
Hope incoming.
Take care, till the next one.