Selene…
After Marcus blew Malthael's dragon head to smithereens, his human form fell backwards as he went into shock.
Not wanting to waste this opportunity and allow him to regenerate any further, Selene straddled him and pinned him down as she put her knees on his arms. She then raised both swords above her head and looked into Malthael's eyes as she stabbed her two swords into his chest.
She watched as the light in the Archdragon's eyes began to fade.
She had heard of a tall tale of being able to see what the dragon sees through its other body in the last moments of its life but she had no idea if it was true and yet she stared deep into Malthael's eyes with a look of contempt and hatred on her face being reflected back at her.
At the very last moment of his life Malthael blinked and a flash of golden light shined from them briefly and she could see through Malthael's own eyes. She looked up at Marcus and saw him with his armor fractured, wreathed in lightning and covered in blood. He raised his sword and ended Malthael's life.
"There will be no more resurrections for you. This death is final," Selene said as the flames and blood keeping him together collapsed and he finally died.
She stumbled as she got to her feet and limped forward before she used the last scraps of her magic to teleport into her room at the Inn. She appeared in front of her bed with Artemis still lying down on it and fell to her knees. She struggled to keep herself upright as her arms hung off the edge of it. She turned around and pressed her back up against the frame as she took in a deep breath and let it out with a sense of relief that she never thought she would have.
It was like a massive weight lifted from her chest that she was able to personally avenge her father after all these years. All she could do now was rest and breath in her sense of victory.
"Selene...," Artemis said with a strained voice.
She looked up at Artemis with an exhausted expression as she replied, "He's dead...Malthael is...dead."
Artemis smiled as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back into her pillow. Her whole body was covered in blisters and burn marks and the stab wound on her chest was still leaking blood but already her moonlight magic was slowly repairing the damage. It was honestly incredible to see as her magic acted like thread as it seemed to stitch her up and pull her together, even the burn marks on her skin which had looked permanent were also starting to fade and her skin was healing back to the way it was before.
She figured that Artemis would be back to normal in less than an hour.
Her head started to feel light and the room tilted as her body fell sideways and she passed out on the floor.
Alta...
He had been buried underneath the snow for several minutes during the fight and he thought that he would either freeze to death or suffocate as he was buried underneath the snow or he would get crushed from a falling dragon claw.
Thankfully, when he had been buried underneath a snow drift, Malthael's head exploded which created a gust of wind that acted like a vacuum and pulled all of the snow off of Alta's body just as he was about to run out of air.
He was pretty exhausted from his fight with the dragon wraith but he still had enough energy left to make a small ball of flame and transfer the heat into his body to avoid hypothermia.
He groaned as he pulled himself back to his feet and walked forward.
He turned his head to look up at the Malthael's skull and noticed that someone was standing on top of it. As he squinted his eyes to try and see them better he realized it was Marcus standing atop Malthael's corpse.
Marcus turned to look at him and Alta nearly jumped out of skin when he saw the bloodcurdling expression of blood lust on his face. Magic was pouring off of him in waves, and with all the blood and gore covering his body, it made him look like he just walked away from a slaughterhouse.
"Oh...shit," he stammered through his teeth as he took a sudden step back.
When Marcus noticed him he quickly calmed down and brought his magic under control as he jumped down from the dragon skull and landed next to him.
"Looks like the job is all taken care of. We should start heading back," he said as he started wiping the blood off of his face.
"Uh...yeah," he said as he was still processing the look that Marcus had on his face not that long ago. If he had thought Selene was terrifying just from her power alone then this man scared him shitless.
Marcus then asked, "Wait, where's Gaiyen? Wasn't he with you?"
"He uh...he's dead. He died fighting a dragon wraith...," he said as he struggled to get the words out. It still didn't feel real to him that he was dead even though he had put his body to rest himself.
Hearing that Marcus said, "Ah dammit, and there were so many things I wanted to test things out with him. I had so many questions..."
"Well, what do we do now that Malthael's been put down?" Alta said, changing the topic so he didn't have to think about Gaiyen's death.
"Well uh...I think for the moment you should make your way to the Inn on the outskirts of town. Its where Selene and I were staying. She's probably resting there at the moment but she'd no more than me of what to do."
"And what about you? What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to try and preserve the corpse as best I can. There's some things I want to salvage from Malthael's body that I could use for armor, weapons, and even food."
Alta scrunched up his nose in disgust, "You're going to eat the dragon?! What the fuck!"
Marcus looked at him like he was an idiot, "What's wrong with that?"
"Don't you understand what happens to people that ingest dragon flesh and blood? They aren't the same afterwards. They end up changed. Think about what happened to Jiroh. He ended up the way he did because he drank Malthael's blood. What do you think is going to happen to you if you start grilling up some gourmet dragon steaks?!"
Marcus's expression changed as if he thought what Alta said was a good idea.
"That sounds pretty good I'm not gonna lie. Although, there is one part of the dragon in particular that I want to eat," he said.
"And what part is that?" he asked and regretted it as soon as the words came out.
"The heart. There's a folktale I once read about where a man cut out a dragon's heart and roasted it before eating it. Apparently he gained incredible powers because of it. He was able to hear the voices of animals and gained the wisdom of the dragon. I want to see if I can't do the same. Although, what I need to do right now is figure out how to preserve the remains so that they don't rot."
Alta involuntarily sniffed the air and said, "No, what you need is a shower. You smell disgusting."
Marcus paused, looked down at himself again, sniffed his shirt and said, “Yeah I need that too. Why don’t you head to the Inn and I’ll meet you there.”
He nodded and started making his way there while Marcus pondered how he was going to harvest his meat from the dragon's carcass.
Marcus...
After he had finished setting up a rune formula for food preservation and harvesting the meat, skin, and scales from Malthael's corpse, he stored it in tiny obsidian boxes made out of his own magic and headed back to the inn catching up with Alta along the way and helped him make it there with him faster.
When he opened the door to their room, Artemis was lying down on Selene's bed while Selene was passed out on the floor.
Marcus grumbled in annoyance and pulled his pillow and blanket from his bed. He then carefully placed the pillow underneath Selene's head and covered her with his blanket before making his way into the shower.
After cleaning himself up he made his way to his bed and could feel the drowsiness take over as his eyes became too heavy for him as he fell asleep
Kayron…
He looked on in awe at the destruction caused from Marcus’s battle with the Archdragon as Ruvick stood beside him.
“I was almost worried that he was going to be killed by that monster but he pulled through in the end. What do you think of him?”
Ruvick stood in silence as he looked down at the ruined landscape and the devastation that Malthael had caused during their fight. Kayron wasn't expecting the battle to turn out nearly as well as it did and yet Ruvick looked at it as if he were...unimpressed.
Why did he have that look of dissatisfaction? What more could he expect from Marcus to have that look? Was this not the power that he was looking for?
He finally spoke out and as always, Kayron felt a sudden chill go through his body as he heard Ruvick’s voice like a knife dragging against his spine. By itself, his voice would have sounded normal, however every time he spoke it seemed to echo in his mind as if he were connected to his thoughts.
“When I asked you to find a suitable challenge to push Marcus and Selene to their limits, I was not asking you to partner with a war criminal that would end up slaughtering whole families just to bring his old pet dragon back to life. Do you have any idea just how much you could have put us at risk by doing this?"
"What risk could Malthael have ever pose to us? You could have killed it in an instant if-"
"THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT YOU FOOL!" Ruvick shouted at him in anger.
Kayron backed away a few steps in a panic as Ruvick calmed himself down enough to speak normally.
"Whether I could have killed Malthael if he had become a threat is not the issue. The issue is that you put us in a position to be connected to a war criminal who was wanted across the entire planet while also leading to the deaths of dozens of innocent lives and probably hundreds more as a result of Malthael's breath destroying everything in sight. Who knows many people might be dead now because of this, and it would all be on our hands. Now I may have orchestrated this job for Selene and by extension Marcus as well, but I did not want it to lead to this mess. To make matters worse, you provided Jiroh with a fragment of that Bloodletter sword you carry with you. I have no doubt that Selene will make the connection that you were involved with all of this. Above all, you handled this sloppily."
"Ruvick, sir, I can fix this. I can clean up this whole mess and nothing will-," he tried to say but Ruvick cut him off as he swung out his fist and Kayron's head burst like a water balloon.
Kayron's body flopped backwards, his hands scraping at his throat as his head slowly regenerated from the neck up.
When his ears had regenerated he then heard Ruvick say, "From now on, I'll be handling everything personally. You will only get involved if I say so. Do you I make myself clear to you?"
"Crystal clear," Kayron said with blood still leaking out of his mouth.
Without even acknowledging him, Ruvick turned away from him and looked back at Malthael's corpse as he pondered to himself, "Now all things considered...I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to see Selene's Fallen Form but the fact that she finally awakened her Moonlight magic is an interesting development. Perhaps Artemis can teach her how to properly use it. Or maybe I could meet her again and teach her myself. Marcus however, he had the greatest amount of growth between the two of them and was able to use the Mark of the Conqueror to an impressive degree...Not only that but his well of power increased during the battle...Just how much power is being held down by those chains...?"
Listening to him ramble on like this confused the hell out of Kayron. There were terms that he had never even heard of up until now. Mark of the Conqueror? Fallen Form? Marcus's power being restrained by chains? Just what did all this mean, and how much information was Ruvick hiding from him?
Regardless of all of that, he didn't intend to be sidelined by him in the slightest. He still intended to do things his own way. He had his own way of getting information through his connections in the various kingdoms in the world and he had many ways of stockpiling power if need be. He just needed to find the right moment to use it.
He then looked at his right forearm and noticed that Malthael's mark had already completely taken form and assimilated as part of his magic. It was the mark of a dragon's skull wreathed in black flames. When he had given that fragment of the Bloodletter to Jiroh, it was with the intent that he would die merged to Malthael and whatever power that was connected between the two of them would carry over to Kayron with their deaths.
He wasn't absolutely sure it would work but it seemed that his experiment paid off.
I don't care how powerful you think you are Ruvick. One day, I'll gain the strength to put you in the ground and take over everything you've built. Just wait and see, he thought to himself as he Ruvick turned around with him following after.
Selene…
It took several days for them to smooth things over with the townspeople of Lunaas, to explain to them what had happened to their children, to the families that had been captured. Explaining to them that Jiroh had taken on the appearance of Mayor Anderson and played everyone for fools did not go over well. Some of the families cried at the loss of their children, some of them screamed at her in rage for either failing to bring them back or even blaming her for what had happened while some of them thanked her simply for showing up to put an end to him. Either way, she was mentally exhausted by the end of it that she didn't want to bother with riding the carriages back home, even if it was to enjoy the scenery. She just wanted to be home in her bed as soon as possible.
After she sent Alta away, Marcus seemed to pick up on her expression and asked her, “Is something wrong?”
“Hmm? Oh, No. I'm just stressed out from talking to everyone in town. None of them were especially happy to see me after Jiroh kidnapped and sacrificed their family members to bring a dragon back from the dead. You can imagine how well that went over with them."
"I'm sorry you had to deal with that alone," he said.
"Yeah, well it was for the best that you weren't there. Its not your responsibility to deal with this part of the job. Besides, from the way they were talking about you, it didn't seem like they were grateful to you despite the fact that you saved their lives. They kept talking about how, despite your speed, you weren't able to make it up the mountain in time to stop Jiroh from raising Malthael."
He looked like he was about to say something in frustration but held his tongue as he said, "Thank you for handling all of that."
She nodded before she turned to Artemis.
"So, are you coming with us? I bet the Darkmoon Knights would be thrilled to have someone as powerful as you join up."
"Hm...no, I think I'll stay here. I want to watch over this town a little bit longer. I'm hoping that maybe the person who cursed me might show back up."
"That reminds me, you never told me any details about who it was that cursed you. Do you know who it was? Maybe if you could describe him...?"
Artemis simply shook her head as she said, "I wasn't able to make out any specific details about him. He was covered in this shadowy blackness that hid his features. It clung to him as if it were a living thing. All I was able to learn about him was his name, Ruvick."
Selene blinked in surprise.
"Y-you said...Ruvick? But...why the hell would he be involved with Jiroh, or Kayron for that matter?"
Artemis gave her a confused look as she asked, "Do you...know this man?"
"I don't know him personally but I did meet him, fifteen years ago. He came to visit my father Adrian to warn him that he might be dragged back into the war by circumstance, but the way he talked about the war made it seem like he was talking about something else. Something way bigger than the Mordrinite War."
Artemis' eyes widened in disbelief as she listened to what Selene had said before she turned her head to hide her expression and she quietly spoke to herself in ancient Greek. Whatever it was that startled her, she didn't want to share it with her.
"Well, whatever the case may be, we can discuss it later," Marcus said, looking more than eager to return and be with his sister again.
"You go on ahead, I have a few more questions to ask her," she said and he nodded before she sent him back to Duranell, leaving her alone with Artemis.
With him gone it was just the two of them as they looked down at the town, standing atop the hill and enjoying the peaceful silence. Despite the calm, there was still something that seemed to nag at the back of her mind.
“You know...I've always been curious as to why my hair has two colors, red and white. I never questioned why because my hair had never changed. I've always had more red than white in my hair but now it seems like its more half and half. Its the same with the moonlight magic. I never thought that I would have a secondary magical element to use with my father's flames. Not only that but I noticed that my hair had changed color as a side effect of me being able to use my moonlight magic now.”
Artemis didn’t say anything as if she was trying to avoid the conversation.
Selene turned to face her and said, “When you talked about my father you also mentioned him by another name. You called him Adrianos."
Artemis stayed silent.
Selene tried to meet her eyes as she asked, “ What did my father mean to you?”
Artemis tilted her head to the sky and closed her eyes. She then took in a deep breath before speaking as she said, “Your father Adrian was someone I met during the war against the Mordran empire. We fought together and drank together, and he was one of the very few men I’ve accepted making friends with over the course of my life. So much so that I was even there to help deliver you when you were born, but I never had a chance to really get to know who your mother was. I’m sorry.”
Selene’s hair had only changed to what it is now because she had used Artemis' sword and it hasn’t changed back.
“Then how can you explain this? When you lent me your sword I was miraculously able to use your moonlight magic and it hasn't diminished, it’s still a part of me. How does that make any sense?”
“Selene, when you were still in your mother’s womb, the doctors had to place hundreds of seals upon your body to prevent you from not only destroying yourself upon birth but also to prevent your magic from reducing all of Lunaas to ashes. In the end they placed as many as they were able to, but you had still managed to burn three doctors alive and even though your mother didn’t get burned from the flames she still passed away shortly after and I was forced to turn half of your magic into my moonlight magic to balance it out. My magic became yours and it was completely sealed off to keep it under control.”
Selene stood there quietly as she tried to make sense of what she heard.
“I never met your mother before then and Adrian never brought her up in conversation with me, but he seemed very proud to have you as his daughter regardless of the fact that he lost his wife that day.”
Artemis unfastened the scabbard that held her moonlight sword and held it out for Selene to take.
“Hephaestus always said that they would be at their strongest when they were together, so they shouldn’t be separated any longer. Take it.”
Selene reached out reluctantly and accepted it.
She fastened the belts of the two scabbards so that they were at either side of her waist. She would have to get them adjusted later.
"You should make your way back now. I'm sure Marcus and your friends are waiting for you."
"Will I see you again?"
"Most likely," Artemis said.
Selene stepped back and smiled as she said, “Well then, I hope that day comes soon.”
With that goodbye she burst into flames and joined Marcus and the others back at the Dark-Moon hall.
As Artemis watched the flames sputter out with Selene's departure, she said, “I hope so too.”