18 Archon

I had been running with Meridith on my back for nearly fifteen minutes before we left the forest, when we got to the ashen grounds of the volcano. In just a few minutes; pits, rivers, and pools of lava came into view.

"I guess you're a dragon after all but damn, that was brutal. When I fought at Mirden I killed many people but there wasn't much blood unless one of their heads came off."

"Yeah. I've been denying it this entire time but I've really stopped being human. I don't feel anything when I kill… Well, that's a lie, I feel a great deal of pleasure when I kill a sentient being. The taste of the blood is like warm chocolate that you just can't stop eating. And the death energy flows into me like adrenaline, putting me into an aroused battle-ready state."

"Stopped being human?"

"Don't mind it, we're almost at the cave."

"Hey hey, you may be fine sleeping on the floor, but I'm a civilized elf so that's not going to work out with me."

"You can sleep on top of me, and you don't want to, I have a special place in my second stomach just for you!" Meridith cringed at the suggestion and patted me with her feet on either side as if to speed up a horse.

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Archon soared through the clouds with Brittany at his rear. Lately, Brittany and Cyrus have been traveling with him. Either due to their Loneliness or Archons' strength was up for debate. Archon was the strongest of the six siblings. Pyro and Scourge went off on their own and Seraphina left Brittany as soon as she joined Archon.

'The next time I see Scourge he's dead!' Archon thought to himself. His lips curled up into a cruel snarl. When a dragon kills something it absorbs a portion of their strength. In the case of killing another dragon, all of their strength is absorbed.

Scourge was weak in Archons' eyes but killing him would be more efficient than a year's worth of hunting. Archon was power-hungry and despised the weak.

"Where are we going Archon?" Brittany squeezed out between breaths. They had been flying for two days straight and Brittany felt as if her wings would fall off.

"Chill out Brit. We are going someplace hot so you might need to." Archon said as he slanted slightly downwards.

"But really where are we going?"

"The volcano Brit! I want to test our fire resistance to see how durable we are and how our flames compare to lava."

"Okay, is Cyrus coming?"

"Yeah, he is a bit behind us."

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Meridith and I were in the hottest part of the volcano's base. There was a small lake of lava in a pit. The surface of the lava was about seven meters away from us but the heat could be felt from here. We were about halfway to the cave when Meridith recognized this part of the volcano.

"Hey, Maggy."

"It's Scourge."

"Hey, Maggy."

"What!?" I asked, defeated.

"Did you know that this lake is called 'The Crucible of Unresting Souls'?"

"No. I actually did not know that, why's it called that?"

"Because this is the place where the country's' greatest criminals are executed. A magic barrier is put over part of the lake in the form of a bridge and the prisoner is walked out to the center. The magicians then drop the barrier and the prisoner falls into the pit. It's a bad way to go, you take about thirteen seconds to lose consciousness. The top of lava is also a lot harder than water so you usually break your legs from the fall and get sucked in like quicksand. The only good way to die here is to go head first. You have a good chance of knocking yourself out from the fall then dying painlessly but only one person has done that. There was a woman titled Lisa the Relentless. She took small children from the street and froze their fingers off one by one with Ice magic, she then proceeded to bite them off and squish their eyes in with her fingers. She would keep them and force them to do plays with each other until they died from an infection or exhaustion. She was put in an Iron casket and sunken into the lake. She died from being cooked alive in the lake. Some say the casket could still be at the bottom considering how thick it is."

"Well, thanks for the information. I'm going to have a good night's sleep tonight."

"Oh come on you're a dragon, isn't burning people alive your specialty?"

As she finished the sentence, a flash of red flew by and knocked Meridith nearly a mile away back into the forest.

"Hey Scourge, so happy to meet you again." A sinister voice mockingly stated.

It was Archon. He had landed silently and gotten rid of Meridith straight away. A loud crash sounded as Brittany 'landed' behind me. After Brit landed Archon began to speak again.

"How lucky I am to find you here my brother. I get two of my main objectives done within one day!" When Archon finished speaking he started the prowl towards me while slamming his tail to the groups in a wagging manner.

"Oh? And what would those objectives be?" I said while trying to stand taller on my four legs.

"One is to test my resistance to lava, which there seems to be much of. The other is to kill my dearest brother Scourge."

I was slightly surprised by the answer but knowing Archon he was the one to do such a thing. I may be weaker than him but I'm not going to go down without a fight.

"Oh really, well there's a huge lava lake right here. Allow me to show you." As I finished the sentence I lashed my claws out and swiped his face to the side.

Archon got three long red slashes on the left side of his face and had his gaze directed towards the lava.

"Oh, so that's how you wanna play," Archon replied as he lunged towards me.

Archon slashed me across the face as if to return the favor, then used his left claw to slash at my throat. I evaded the fast claw and found myself inside of Archon's guard. I stabbed my talons into Archons exposed underside and ripped the out to the left.

Archon let loose a scream of anger and agony and grasped my arm with his hands.

"You fucker! Your death won't be painless," He snarled as he pulled back my arm and broke it in half.

I screamed in pain at the loss of my right arm and flared my wings. My new objective was just to live. Blood flowed into my right eye from the cut earlier and the pain coming from my arm blurred my vision.

I retracted my body and made space between us. When I was far enough away from Archon I turned tail and ran as fast as I could.

"Are you just going to let him go Arch?"

"No Brit, it seems he forgot we can fly." With that said, Archon jumped up into the air and soared towards Scourge.

As soon as he was above Scourge, Archon dived. His muscular body slammed into Scourge, completely immobilizing him. Archon then grabbed Scourge by the jaw and dragged him back towards the point they met.

With Archons' claws dug into my lower jaw all I could do was sit their semi-paralyzed with the cut getting deeper and deeper. Half of my jaw hung out by the time we were back where Archon first landed and disposed of Meridith.

"Hey Scourge, this is the lake you wanted me to look at right?" He said as he lifted me up towards the lake. he moved his claws to get a better grip on my body and threw me into the pit.

"Why don't you take a closer look also."

My body hit the scalding lava and I used the last bit of my energy in resistance. but in just under two seconds my heavy body was consumed by the lava and pain surged for what seemed like an eternity until I blacked out.