Cronyssia heard the voice and in that moment she let go of the energy holding over the time field while her body receded back to its petite size with a gaping bleeding wound on her chest that bled profusely.

A resounding roar of more than one dragon shook the entire atmosphere as majestic figures fell out one after the other from the gaping pit above that led into the edge of the demon realm.

They descended through the massive circular tunnel with their enormous forms silhouetted against the red sky and their wings spread wide as they emerged from the darkness and entered the twisted landscape below.

Dravion had a satisfied smile on his face even as his body disintegrated and was starting to fade away like pieces of paper being consumed by flames.

"It gives me no greater joy than knowing I have served you well, Master," he said, but this time without his dual-layered voice.

The first dragon with light blue scales flew descended rapidly toward Cronyssia while his form shifted mid-flight and shrank until he transformed into that of a male man with white hair, blue scaly horns, and light blue eyes.

This was Syqora the Dragon of Destiny.

The moment landed beside his sister, he knelt down to cup her head gently in his arms.

The other two dragons, both majestic and about three hundred feet in size, landed right in front of the gates beside Aiden and immediately stretched out their hands to channel the power of their authorities toward the lock.

Orlien, the Mind Dragon with scales in shades of deep violet, used her authority over the mind and soul domain to link her consciousness directly to the seal's core in order to keep its structure from collapsing further.

Thyron, the white Dragon of Creation, created the concept of indestructibility itself and applied it to the lock and chains so that they would never crumble under the effects of being destroyed.

Thyron turned her head slightly toward Aiden and nodded once. "We'll take this from here, young Thyrak."

Aiden nodded back and darted immediately toward the wounded Cronyssia.

While Cronyssia's head rested on Syqora's arm, he was trying to alter fate using his authority over destiny, in a bid to change her predicament and rewrite the outcome of what had just happened.

But Cronyssia with a pale face and almost blackened eye bags gave off a faint laugh. "You know that won't work, Syqora."

He clicked his tongue in frustration and with a glare turned toward the fading and yet smiling Dravion who had at that point just fully disintegrated into nothingness.

He gritted his teeth as he watched before turning his eyes back to Cronyssia with something close to tears forming at the edges.

Aiden came closer to Cronyssia and knelt beside them both while uncertainty filled his mind because he didn't know what to do, but he felt this growing pain within his chest, a pain that only came when one was about to lose family.

"You're a powerful dragon," he said urgently while looking at Syqora. "So you can heal her, right?"

Syqora shook his head slowly but said nothing more in reply.

Cronyssia spoke to Syqora with a dimming voice. "Don't you have something to tell him?" she asked quietly.

She had seen a future in their conversation where Syqora would mention something to her, that would definitely be of much more importance and concern to Aiden.

Syqora sighed heavily. "It's too late already," he replied. "What is done has passed."

"Hey, what is it?" Aiden said sharply while staring at them both and wondering what was going on.

Syqora turned toward him with a grim expression. "I sensed a change in the flow of fate," he said. "The destinies of many mages from Dragonhold have been cut short from being fulfilled."

He paused and met Aiden's eyes directly. "In other words, they are dead."

Aiden's eyes widened and in that instant he vanished from sight.

-------

Earlier, while the fight against Dravion had continued relentlessly in the edge of the demon realm, three more days had passed in the real world and right at that night was the appointed time Cassian had planned out with his cohorts.

This was Ravens Grave's experience...

Bernard was in the kitchen like almost every other night when others were asleep or about, rummaging through the cupboards and shelves in search of what extra food he could find to eat.

He opened one cabinet after another with increasing desperation, in search of a hidden stash of pastries and leftover meat, that he had placed in one of those cabinets.

He muttered to himself, "Oh Rick, please tell me you didn't take my stuff..."

That was when all of a sudden and without warning a parasite, a black leech of sorts no larger than his thumb, slipped right through between his legs and into his clothes.

Bernard felt something cold and wet climb up his leg beneath his trousers and his eyes widened as panic set in immediately. "Hey get it off get it off!" he screamed while hopping on one foot and slapping at his leg frantically.

But it was just him there alone in the kitchen and no one came running to help as the creature burrowed deeper into his clothing and pressed against his skin. Then all of a sudden he stopped screaming.

He stood straight with his arms dropping limply to his sides and his head tilted slightly as if listening to something no one else could hear.

Black line markings appeared on the side of his cheeks running from his temples down to his jawline in two parallel lines, and he grinned widely to revealed his teeth that had just become clawed.

The leech was a demon parasite and right now it had taken root in Bernard's body and seized control of his mind and body entirely.

Some of the other mages started running out of their rooms to head down to the main room when they heard the screams from the kitchen earlier.

The captain's chamber was closer to the main room which was closer to the kitchen so she ran out first in her see-through nightgown that left little to the imagination, and she found Bernard standing with a grim look on his face and a kitchen knife gripped tightly in his hand.

"Bernard what in the hell was that scream?" she asked with a growingly disturbed look on her face.

Then Bernard grinned again to reveal clawed teeth which made the captain's eyes widen slightly as she repeated with a certain edge in her tone. "Bernard?"

A few other mages who had run out when they heard the screams looked confused as well while they gathered near the entrance to the main room.

Then all of a sudden there was another scream from upstairs, a lady's voice that carried sheer terror in it.

This was Innis.

The captain and some of the other mages turned their heads briefly away from Bernard to look toward the direction of the scream.

And in that instant, Bernard shot toward the captain in one single leap with the kitchen knife raised and ready to strike.

The unsuspecting captain who didn't think she would be attacked by her own mage took a stab directly into her side. Her eyes widened and her body staggered sideways as blood began soaking through her nightgown.

That was when the other mages who had turned away noticed what had happened. One of them screamed "Captain!"

It was also at this moment that Piers who was just adjusting his robes to cover up as he stepped out of the captain's chambers came into view and saw what had just happened. With widened eyes he ran toward Katherine immediately.

One of the mages then turned with an angry look on his face to confront Bernard but the man vanished from sight all of a sudden with that grin still plastered across his face.

He had employed the usage of the Invisibility supplementary spell.

The next thing that was seen was the guild's main door leading outside being opened up by itself before swinging shut again with a loud bang.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.