Anxiously searching all around me, I noticed what seemed like writing on one of the white stone walls and rushed towards it. Something was carved there, but the closer I got, the more I realized it was all written in the old tongue, Latin. My hand lifted to the carvings, noticing there was something underneath. The shape embedded into the wall reminded me of those nooks you sometimes saw in churches, where the holy water was poured.
Confusion gripped me, but I decided to focus on the ancient writing. Lucky for me, I had learned enough since my arrival to try and decipher it.
“Right, guardian, awaken, guardians.” I stopped, shaking my head. “You are the guardians, why would you need a guardian to wake you up?” Sighing, I continued. "Blood, blood, sleeping—" Damn it! This was even more ancient than the Latin I learned. Unless it was another language all on its own—similar to Latin, yet not the same.
Blood twice didn’t make sense, unless the first blood meant something else… “blood, ties, family. Family blood.” My eyes widened, beginning to understand. “Right guardian to awaken the guardians.” I stopped again, making sure I was using the right meaning for the word guardian. “Protector, defender, overseer… Leader? King!”
The Sky Gods had created the Devenish to protect the Soulris… Okay.
I was close, I could feel it. And family blood was the key.
Magic swirled inside my being then, fighting to be set free, so I let it, focusing on the scripture until a golden hue captured my vision. The wall shimmered, and the words shifted before me, revealing their hidden truth.
“Only the rightful king, born of magic and family blood, can awaken the sleeping guardians…”
Holy shit. The king of magic and family blood… their family’s blood.
This had been written for me. The Celestials had seen this day would come, and so, they waited for me. The only man powerful enough to awake them.
“My name is Braxton Devenish Skystorm!” I declared, glancing at the Sky Gods while magic rushed through my being. “I am the rightful king born of Devenish magic and Dragon blood, and I have come for you!”
Filled with power and truth, the words thundered along the space, until the wall began to crack beside me. Gravel and dust fell from the rupture as it travelled down, reaching the bowl and continuing below it. Now set free, it instantly detached from the wall, floating my way without stopping. I stepped aside, watching it hover past me and reach the center of the space, facing the sleeping gods.
The stone floor below it seemed to fracture too, and the silhouette of a tree once carved over the ground began to grow. Branches made of earth and white stone protruded from the growing trunk, sliding around the bowl until they gripped it tightly.
It was a pedestal made from our family tree.
Its energy called to mine until I stood before it, touching the bowl before I could stop myself. My magic connected with it, causing it to glow and illuminate the entire pedestal. The light didn’t stop there. Reaching the floor, it spread into the depths of the cavern, rushing over a path of carvings that stretched all the way to the four mountains.
Except, they were not random etchings. The silhouette of a narrow river was carved along the stone floor, four channels extending from it towards the sleeping gods to connect them all.
“A river of blood will save us all…”
“A river of blood, Dragon blood!” I breathed, a wave of relief crashing against my being.
I instantly reached for my sword, but it was gone, just like my crown, my cloak, and my armor. Fuck. Urgently reaching behind me, my fingers curled along my dagger’s cool handle, a second surge of relief reaching me when I found it there.
Without hesitation, I sliced both of my palms open and sheathed the blade, fisting my hands inside the bowl to help the flow and keep the wounds from healing. My blood poured into the bowl, travelling down over the branches, and slithering into the river. The energy in the air rushed into my sliced palms at the same time that mine flowed out, renewing me in a continuous way so the feat would never weaken me.
Yet, it wasn’t just a crimson liquid. Not in this place. Gold particles shimmered and swirled within it, as though they were alive. A living, breathing, powerful force. My Devenish Magic.
Slowly, the narrow river filled, and as my blood gushed into the channels, reaching each mountain, they illuminated. In blue, amber, green, and a brilliant white, the glowing intensified until I was forced to look away from the blinding light.
My boots sunk into a thick blanket of fresh snow the following moment, a strong breeze dancing freely around me. I opened my eyes to see the white mountain had disappeared, a perfect crisp sky spreading above us. The four gods changed before me into their Dragon bodies, and I was forced to take a few steps back while they stretched and stood.
The glimpse I’d had of them during the rite didn’t do them justice. The Sky Gods were… everything.
Ignis pulled my attention first, and even though I’d half expected him to be red, orange, and yellow—the colors of fire—matte, charcoal black scales stretched over his entire form. Standing to his full height, his pores released embers that floated all around him, falling onto the snow and igniting it with bright red fire the second it touched it.
The snow was on fire.
Terra stood next, her soft, feathered wings tripling the span of her body once they stretched elegantly behind her. White feathers with a slight brown and peach sheen covered her body all the way to her tail, and two curved, elongated horns that seemed enclosed in tree bark protruded from her head, half-hiding between her white strands. As she moved, a certain peach-hued shimmer exuded from her, creating moss, flowers, and plants wherever it landed.
A tail tipped with sharp ice crystals swept the ground next to me, and I whirled around to watch Glacies’ leathery, icy-blue coat gleam under the sun. His chilled fog covered the earth while he stretched the kinks out of his body, frosting Terra’s fresh flowers and moss on contact, and even engulfing the still swaying flames Ignis had created. They froze mid-dance.
Frozen fire… I thought I’d seen it all.
The sharp icicles continued along his shoulders and head, resembling armor. Even his knees had the prominent spikes, projecting rainbows onto the snow with each sunray that hit them.
The three of them offered me a slow head bow of acknowledgment, which I returned, speechless. In a mind-blowingly good way. There were no thoughts shared with me, no words, but the emotions seeping into my being from each of them humbled me beyond belief.
“It is an honor to meet you too,” I offered, seeing Terra tilt her head at me, assessing the new king.
A wave of appreciation left her. She was the motherly, and gentle presence of the three.
Yet, it was the waves that rolled over the frozen land that left me truly shocked, making me stagger several steps away. Aqua was already on her way out of the Icelands. Flowing from her own essence, sea water rolled in massive waves under her elongated, aquamarine colored body, reminding me of the ocean guardians. Wide, fin-like wings swayed at either side of her with her waves, while soft coral hues mixed with her scales and along the horns that formed a pointy crown above her head.
Salt crystals that shimmered like diamonds were left at her wake with each swell.
Ignis rose to the sky behind her, followed by Glacies, both reminding me there was no time to waste.