Chapter 69

Mallow's POV

The beast was strong-willed, I could give it that much, but I wasn't easily beaten; Not here, not anywhere. It flew as high as it could before I grabbed the horns that were drilled into its sides, and pulled back forcing it to go straight down.

"Either you serve me," I said before moving my hand from one of its horns to its forehead, "Or you perish here, once and for all!"

It flew straight down at top speed, it knew it had a choice here, and I wasn't letting go of it anytime soon; Its will to live was strong, and it had a choice to make, either serve me and my ends, abandoning the dark void it had served for the last millennia, or it perished here in the Necropolis, never to be remembered nor feared again. As the ground grew closer and closer, the beast started showing its fear, and as it caught ablaze it spread its wings out and avoided the ground below.

"You win, Child of Ice!" It said as the void born shed its scales, burning the void from its very soul and swearing allegiance to my will. As the scales fell from its side I hopped off of its back and watched the magic of the celestials take its course, the dark spirit within the beast's soul burned in agony, and as it did so; Its physical form shifted, from Black scales and Red Eyes to Piercing golden eyes, and firey gold scales replacing the scales that had fallen off. It bowed its head, asking me to get on its back, and I obliged, opening a rift in the sky back to the physical realm.

"Time to head back home, Taydhes, you've suffered here more than you ever deserved to," I said as I climbed on its back and willed it to fly to the rift, with the Strange Music Box in my pocket, we flew higher and higher until we got to the rift and flew through it. Imagine traveling from one dimension of reality, into another, and having your body be remade just to make it through to the other side; That's the amount of pain that tore through my veins as we traveled through the rift and appeared on the other side, overlooking the world as we knew it.

"What do you think, Taydhes? Anything like how you remember it?"

"No, Child, this world has changed drastically from the last time I saw it. People are living in constant fear of persecution of their fellows, simply for living the lives they desire, fear of being themselves."

"Then let's give them some hope, shall we?"

"Indeed, let's shall," He said before flying at top speed across the world, flying through the air at Mach Jesus, leaving a golden trail behind us as we rode; It had been literal ages since we've done this, to anyone who would see it, it would look like a shooting star to make a wish on, and that filled me with joy knowing that something as sentimental to us, could give those below such hope. A reminder that no matter how dark the tunnel, there's always a light at the end of it, even if it was in the form of a crazy person riding a golden dragon.

"If I may, sir?"

"Yes?"

"There are men in these lands that are causing chaos, planting the seeds of war to manipulate others into fighting unjust wars, what should we do about that?"

"If they can see us, they'll know the fear of the righteous, we'll get to them eventually; For now, we need to return home, I can't imagine how the others are doing right now. It had to have been days since they returned home, still rebuilding from the damage of La Bruja, I presume."

"What will they do about me?"

"Let me handle that part, if nothing else I'll send you on your way, and call you back when it's time for me to leave. However, I doubt it'll come to that," I said as we continued flying through the skies, heading straight for Texas, where this whole ordeal first began. As we descended closer and closer to where the others were, I saw that Jacke and Alex were sitting out front with no sign of the others, and landed away from their home to try and not wake up any who were fast asleep.

Jacke's POV

Alex and I had been sitting out front, talking about how we would proceed with rebuilding our home, and building it stronger than before when she brought up that following tradition, there was a ceremony for a pack to accept their Luna as one of their own. It apparently was a big deal, and revolved around me having to address her pack, and talk about who I am and what I do, what I have to offer, and all that good jazz.

"I can't see myself doing that, Alex, I can try but I just can't see myself being that open about my position in our relationship, it feels wrong."

"I know, Love, and I wouldn't expect you to accept this kind of thing overnight, but you will have to do it eventually," She said before she stopped speaking and pointed at something in the sky, it looked like a literal star falling from the sky, and as it got closer it slowed down enough for us to see that it wasn't a star. It was a dragon, and it looked almost identical to the one M had fought in the Necropolis, but it was golden instead of black. Milo and Gloria joined us out front from the room they were staying in as the dragon landed far away from the home itself, and sure enough, riding on top of the mighty beast stood The Golden Child of Ice himself.

"I hope I'm still welcome here," He said before getting tackled to the ground by Milo and Gloria, who started ranting and raving about how 'If you scare us with that kind of stunt again, we're going to kick your ass' but M could only laugh as he stood back up.

"Guys, I'll explain, but first. Meet Taydhes, an old friend of mine," He said and signaled to the beast, who bowed his head in return, "That dragon I fought in the Necropolis was Taydhes, but he was corrupted by the eternities spent in that twisted realm."

"But the Necropolis is Lady Muerte's realm!"

"It is, but when La Bruja invaded and stole it from her, the realm itself twisted to math her energy, leading to the further corruption of Taydhes' soul."

"I apologize for my actions in the Necropolis, I wasn't in the right mind."

"It can talk!?" Jacke asked in shock, staring at the beast in a mix of Awe and Terror.

"Call him an 'It' and you'll find out he does a lot more than just talk, Jacke."

"I want one! With all due respect of course, can I ride him?"

"Only Mallow has the privilege of riding on my back, maybe one day in the future, you'll find a suitable dragon for your spirit, Jacke, until then; Make peace with what you've earned in your war of Necropolis, it was a mighty victory, and many of my brethren were awoken by that war," Taydhes said, speaking in a softer tone than usual, there were many of his brethren that could be considered stronger than him, dragons were prideful by nature and mighty beasts to be respected, not feared.

"So, shall I begin my story? Or would you rather wait until tomorrow, and rest easy knowing your taste of Victoria?"

"TELL IT!!" Everyone shouted almost immediately, so I took a seat, leaning on Taydhes and staring into the night sky, it was beautiful and peaceful. Nights like this were one in a million, it was perfection, plain and simple.

"The stars really have aligned for us, you know?"