Dragon Aster Trilogy

by S. J. Wist

  40: FALLING ROSES

  The Phoenix rose from the Keol just outside the Sanctus, igniting the empty fields with its fire. Then with a downstroke of its wings, it sent a wave of fire at the temple itself, igniting everything attached to it that would burn.

  But there were no cries of terror or fear. Nor were there any dying screams. There was only fire, and the crackling and burning of what it could make answer to it.

  The Phoenix slithered like a snake across the ground with its torso and wings upright, using the claws of where its wings folded to pull itself up to the pinnacle of the temple. It coiled itself around it, enough to crush the stone and cause the building to collapse. But instead of landing on the ground, it caved in entirely into the basement. It landed in the Chamber of Light, where Gei waited.

  The specially made golden Threads ignited, but held as the creature struggled to escape, only making its entanglement worse.

  “Solar, it has been a long time.”

  “RELEASE ME!”

  “I intend to,” Gei said, as he avoided the Phoenix’s tail that lashed out at him like a whip. His trap had caught enough of her soul’s Threads, and he quickly caught the ones connected to it and pulled them free.

  All at once, the Phoenix’s fire went out, leaving a bird-like snake in the net, and a young, naked woman on the floor before him.

  Solar rolled to her side and got on her hands and knees. “Do you honestly think you’ve won? Even without my Phoenix, the Falls will crush your pathetic army.”

  “Perhaps. But you have proven one thing for sure.”

  “And what’s that?” she hissed back.

  “That your gift of foresight cannot see what we will do next.” Gei raised his paw, then used his claws to catch the memory Threads in her mind. He snapped all of them, except for the ones of the life she had on Aster, before the enemy recruited her hate to their cause.

  The Phoenix began to ignite back into flames and struggle again. Gei carefully picked up Rose behind his canine teeth, and fled the Sanctus with her. The room exploded with the fire serpent that was now enraged from having its host taken from it all over again.

  Its flames sent sparks flying with every Thread that connected with it, until they erupted in an explosion that sounded for miles.

  41: PHOENIX RISING

  Kas sent out the orders for the Packs to intercept the approaching Falls army, and they were carried by the voices of the ayame. Once the Callers were in sync with each other, the Packs moved forward. Their low voices flowed with the energies of the Animus Threads in the Triage Woods, but collided with their targets that were not of estus energy. It took only moments for it to be determined how many they were against, and exactly where they were.

  It wouldn’t matter how much the Falls used their chemicals and smoke to hide in the forest, for even if the phelan had no sight, scent or hearing, they would still be able to find their enemies by psi sonar. But it made their Callers the enemy’s primary target, and the lines had to be kept tight.

  Kas sent his psi to Ishtar, as the minds of the older ayame were under the most stress. They had the younger, more reckless of the Packs, as they could adjust better to their mistakes. When an overlooked griffin jumped her from a tree overhead, she stopped her Call to quickly kill it. Her Pack came back shaken, and after she scolded them fiercely, they returned to the fight. Are you hurt?

  “My Bond will eat them at the end of this.”

  I am sorry that I had to separate you from him.

  Jasper came to a stop beside Kas, making sure that their psi’s of Ishtar’s condition matched. “There are a lot more than I originally thought.”

  “I know,” Kas replied as he took from one of his Custos an injured phelan somnus. He quickly used his aeri to heal his broken arm, before urging him back to the fight. “Will we be able to handle it?”

  “With the help of the True, I believe so. But it would be so much easier if we could communicate with them. The Aeger has most, if not all of them, and I can’t make out what they say any more than they can me,” Jasper explained. “If we had the Caelestis—”

  “Just deal with it,” Kas interrupted.

  Jasper didn’t argue, and ran back towards the fight. His given Caller was young, and depended on him the most to keep the rest of the Pack in order.

  So far, everything was working to their favor, as the griffins had only a few phelan with them and no Callers of their own. Even when a massive explosion took out the Sanctus, Kas forced himself to stay calm and remember that his mother’s home was just a trap in the battle plan of it all. He had been right to not underestimate Solar’s wrath, and the Falls likely counted on her taking out the Sanctus and turning their attentions backwards, instead of forward.

  But there was no one but Gei behind him.

  Shots were fired not far from where he had come to a stop, as the True collided with the Falls and their Tech. They overturned the enemy’s cannons and lured the gunfire to their massive forms. Then his Custos worked to take out the resulting chaos they created by sheer terror.

  Kas continued forward when the clear was Called. A bullet struck a tree beside Kas, and he dodged behind it as two more followed. Unsheathing his blade, he moved like a shadow and cut down his two griffin somnus attackers. They collapsed to the ground in a spray of blood, and he looked ahead as a stranger Call went out.

  One of the Callers collapsed. It disrupted the others for a while, as they all tried to discern what was silencing the Threads of communication between their psis. Kas knew what before they could see it. The Phoenix had caught up in the Keol under them, and its radiation knew no barriers as it had already started to burn away the Animus Threads around them.

  The Packs scattered space between them, as the eerie cry of the fire serpent shattered the last voices from the ayame. Then it erupted from the ground moments later. The phelan it had nearly struck recovered quickly, and lunged at the mass of fire, before the Phoenix’s sheer size threw them against the ground and trees. Then it twisted around the trees and used its fire and strength to bring the forest down. With it, more Threads burned, separating the Callers and the Packs from each other.

  Kas took cover behind a fallen tree, as the Phoenix took to the air, sending a wave of fire out in all directions as it did. When it passed, he quickly sent out his psi in search of his Callers, but the psi lines had been completely burned away.

  They were now fighting this war blind.

  Kas closed his eyes as the shattering of bones and trees from the Fall’s cannons made it hard to focus on anything else. He thought of Sybl and how if they lost here, they would go where she was in the Efereal Mountains.

  With every True that fell, another one took up its place with an even stronger fury. The massive, wolf-like creatures made short work of the griffins who didn’t expect the Eminor spirits of the Triage Woods to become physical enough to kill them. But even with the True, they were still outnumbered three to one.

  They had to reach Atrum City before they ran out of time, or lives to fight with. But Time was slowly freezing to a stop and reversing, as Kas’ strength was waning. He remembered how the air, and how everything had felt when the Sylvan Tower had exploded. He remembered the magnificent Sylvan City being decimated by the rain of fire that fell on it afterwards. Now it was happening all over again, despite their refusal to surrender against the absolution of Fate coming full circle.

  42: NOVA OF DEATH

  Kenshe panicked as three griffin somnus came up from the ground they were camouflaged in, and immediately aimed their guns at his given ayame.

  The young Caller didn’t have a moment to react to protect herself, as the three bullets struck her in the chest and one in her neck.

  Kenshe raced to her, not knowing if she could survive long enough for a Sano to reach her. She had spun back from the attacks and collapsed, but he didn’t feel any pain come from her.

  He retaliated against her attackers with a raking of his claws, grabbing the last so
mnus with his teeth to snap in half. He pounced on her next.

  Her phelan form disintegrated, and left her Sylvan body dead before him. It was over before she had felt anything.

  “WHAT HAPPENED?”

  Kenshe’s head spun in pain from Kas’ psi. They came from the ground—I didn’t see them till it was too late!

  A gap in the line now would give their enemy the chance to flank them. But he couldn’t see enough to command his Pack through the Fall’s assault. He gripped his ayame’s arm, praying that there was a miracle he was overlooking.

  The massive phelan spirits of the True began to howl in sync, and Kenshe left her with another of the Pack and ran to the nearest clearing. He looked up into the sky as cries that Moon was here were echoed with more howls. The True sounded as if they were calling to a god that had returned. Only this was no cry of madness on their part, as a rush of wind went through the forest. The black creature continued for the front lines where the Custos had trouble taking out the cannons. Explosion after explosion, they were quickly destroyed by the titan, as if mere toys.

  “Kenshe.”

  Kenshe looked back as Sybl grabbed his breastplate, giving him a good shake back to the present. Then she robbed him of his sword as he completely surrendered to any and all miracles that she might have brought with her.

  Sybl used the blade to cut her hand, until her blood covered it. “Pass this to the others and get Feryl to run it through the other Packs. I’ll take over.”

  Kenshe shivered. “You can Call? I’ve never heard you sing—”

  “Kenshe, who the hell you think invented the Nova? The only reason I don’t sing is because I only know one song.”

  Kenshe caught his forehead, trying to process her words, before running back into the woods. It took him a good minute to get his head back on straight, and one of the phelan snapped at him to snap him out of it. He retaliated by slashing his blade across their face.

  The phelan snarled back, before the blood on the blade mixed with his own, going straight to his brain. Now he could hear Sybl’s Nova as clearly as Kenshe could. Kenshe did the same with his sword to the other five, and they turned to head back into the fight that had become possible to see through again. He looked for Feryl’s psi then, as Sybl’s Nova sung of one perfect peace.

  Death.

  43: SING FOR ME

  A furious cry went out, as the black dragon didn’t stop in its destructive path. It didn’t feel pain and Moon didn’t slow down. Anything that was not estus energy like itself was crushed by the gravity of power that surrounded his body. Cries of terror and death followed as the phelan became the same frenzy that the black dragon was in. Together, they formed an unstoppable torrent against their enemies.

  Kas followed quickly behind their advancing forces. But before they could gain more ground than they could have ever hoped for, the Phoenix reappeared from the Keol and collided with Moon. The two of them fell against the forest like a bomb.

  Moon quickly recovered, and sent his teeth for the Phoenix. The fire serpent twisted violently out of his grip and fled back into the Keol. The black dragon followed it.

  Kas thought that panic had completely overtaken the Packs, as he lost his psi connection to even those nearby. Feryl charged through the trees and straight for him, and Kas braced himself, fearing the phelan intended to run him over.

  But he didn’t. Instead, he ran past him so fast that Kas didn’t see the nip to his arm, or feel it until the heat of his own blood surfaced outside of his body.

  He grabbed a tree to keep his balance upright, as he could hear Sybl and her thoughts. Moon was here. The True were now following his command, and her Nova made the Triage Woods as clear as daylight to their senses. It felt as if the entire world had been flipped over to become the one of death. For now, the estus energy of their bodies was all that kept them from losing grip and falling into oblivion like their enemies.

  “Sing for me, brother. I have to go and help Moon.”

  It felt as if her request had touched his mind from the past. Kas had always sung for her when she asked. It was what made her smile. It was what cooled her temper when she was mad at him. It was what had healed the Threads woven between them, and let him find her at the Casus Beli Canyon. In trying to keep her safe from everything, he had only broken all that kept them together.

  Kas looked through the smoke and death to the view of Atrum City that was now within his grasp. He began to sing until his voice spread through the Threads her energy and Nova had fortified against the Phoenix’s radiation. He would not sing her song of death, but one of the victory she had given him.

  His Call spread across Atrum City, as his voice was carried further by the other ayame, including those not of the Sanctus. Soon they had the entire city surrounded.

  44: FIRE TAIL

  Cirrus followed the Phoenix right back out of the Keol, catching its right wing with his claws and teeth. He tore away as much away as he could before he was forced to let go. He could take the creature’s heat for only as many moments as it could endure his coldness.

  It was enough to send it back to the ground, as the Packs charged at the Phoenix and began to take turns taking it apart piece by piece. But the creature quickly healed and floated back up, as its size alone threatened to crush its attackers.

  He looked back as Kenshe ran towards him, dropping off Sybl who he carried on his back.

  “Bring her back!” Kenshe barked at him.

  Cirrus pulled her into his somn, as he felt the Phoenix’s gaze focus on him. He knew that he had to get it away from the fight, and with Sybl, he now had its full attention. He took to the air, and dodged to the side as the serpent spat out a flare. It exploded next to him like a small bomb. He continued to fly up and the enraged serpent pursued, close enough to make his tail feel like it was on fire. The only thing colder than Aragmoth and the deepest of the Eternal Waters, was the furthest reaches of space. So he would bring the small sun there with the hope that the iceless void could contain it.

  As they broke through the atmosphere, Cirrus could feel the cold of space threaten to paralyze him, as the Phoenix was neither suffocating or freezing regardless of how high he flew. You asked me to bring down the moon, not take up the sun.

  Sybl forced him to unsomn when they had the lead, and he instinctively pulled her next to him.

  Sybl! He looked at her with nothing short of panic. She didn’t look bothered by the cold, as her dark blue eyes glowed brightly. It’ll kill us—its flames are too much!

  “We’re going to have to destroy it the hard way.”

  Cirrus tried to calm down, but it was taking all of himself to do it. He pressed his forehead against hers, absorbing her courage and certainty. The Sylvan energy within her was more than the past or the future. It was the power to make their own Fate. They didn’t have to run from it anymore.

  “It cut through the Sylvan Aur and our hearts once. It’s time to return the favor.”

  With his next breath, he pulled her into his somn. Cirrus looked at his wings as they turned blue from the Sylvan Aur that she had contained in her body.

  “I got you,” she said calmly within him. She was conscious in his own somn, and Cirrus could feel her pull on his wings. If he didn’t listen, they were going to die as he didn’t know how much higher he could fly before becoming exhausted—or out of air.

  He glanced behind him at the Phoenix and its flames of hate that refused to suffocate. With his mind made up, Cirrus made a last flight-sprint to get a higher lead.

  Then he flipped backwards, and fell straight towards the heart of their enemy.

  45: BLUE LIGHT

  Kas rested his back and head against the walls in the corridor of the Atrum, as Kenshe and Gwa took a similar break. They had infiltrated the city and the Atrum itself, but the Fall’s forces persisted with their defenses. Some of the phelan of the Atrum’s Order had taken their side, and without them, they might not have gotten so far.

  “There
are too many,” Kenshe panted next to him in his phelan form.

  Kas looked at the Threads around them as he tried to quickly figure out their next move. He was going to have to take a chance if they were to stand one. “Stay here.” Then he summoned his somn part way, and vanished from the hall in a black mist.

  The guards that aimed in the direction of Kenshe didn’t have the moment needed to react when Kas reappeared behind them out of thin air, and cut them down with his sword. He missed one, and the soldier fired on him. Kas dissipated in time to avoid the bullet and then reappeared to cut his attacker in half. Gwa and Kenshe caught up to press on.