Klaus plummeted from the sky, entangled with the raging, maddened dragon. He had died thousands of times within the Temple of Astral Pain. When he'd clashed with Serka, perhaps he had perished hundreds of times—perhaps even over a thousand. But that had been a duel. but that had been a battle. A true contest of strength and will, where two forces clashed, tested each other, and struggled for dominance.
But this?
This was no fight. This was annihilation. Klaus was reduced to nothing, over and over again—unable to retaliate, unable to resist. Each time the statue of the goddess drove that nail into her crystalline heart, both he and Sevirax were struck by a tidal wave of agony. Every injury, every gruesome death, every echo of torment—they experienced it in full. Shared it. Endured it.
He burned alive, was crushed, torn asunder, devoured—thousands upon thousands of times. The pain etched itself into his soul until even Klaus, with all his pride in enduring the impossible, felt hollow. Numb. Dazed.
The cruel irony was that neither of them had physical bodies in the Temple. There was no release. No mercy of unconsciousness. No death. Just pain. Infinite, exquisite, merciless pain.
He had grown used to being set aflame.
Nephis…
He had once heard of Nephis's flaw. That every time she unleashed her flames, she felt the unbearable pain of immolation. this must have been what his little sister felt every time she fought.
A cruel and bitter realization. He didn't mind his own torment—not truly—but imagining his little sister enduring this kind of agony with that same quiet resolve twisted something deep inside him.
Still, Klaus was not alone in this torment. Sevirax, the proud and ancient dragon, endured it alongside him. The same unrelenting pain. The same maddening cycle of death. Klaus had long embraced the fire if it meant burning his enemies with him. He had the will, the indifference, the sheer madness required.
But Sevirax… Sevirax had a will as unyielding as his own. This was the dragon who had resisted the corruption of Hope for a thousand years.
Klaus knew he was locked in a war of attrition against a being as unbreakable as himself.
In the end, when his mind neared the brink of collapse, Klaus finally deactivated the Temple of Astral Pain. He could have kept going, could have dragged Sevirax further into the abyss—but to do so would be to risk breaking himself as well. And if he shattered, there would be no one left to fulfill the plan.
So he let go.
He hadn't suffered in vain. It had all been for one purpose: to give Noctis the opening he needed.
The dragon, maddened and blinded by agony, would falter. Disoriented from the abrupt shift between realms, his perception would be fragmented. In that moment of confusion and rage, Noctis would strike.
The Temple of Astral Pain began to crumble, shattering like stained glass beneath a divine hammer. Its luminous beauty collapsed into nothingness, and both Klaus and Sevirax were flung out of the astral realm.
Though they had warred for what felt like two eternal days within the temple, only a heartbeat had passed in the material world. They were still falling from the heavens.
Wind howled past Klaus as he felt the sky cradle his weight once more. Snapping from his daze, he vanished in a shimmer of distortion, teleporting toward the Ivory Tower.
But the dragon… the dragon fell still, roaring, its wounds oozing light and fury. Sevirax was blind with pain, his flames devouring the sky, raining annihilation on all beneath him.
The moment Klaus had appeared and than disappeared, Noctis knew. He sensed the shift, the instability. Without hesitation, he condensed his form into a radiant spear—a thousand motes of moonlight compressed into a singular point of destruction. The Spear shimmered with pale death and streaked through the sky like a shooting star.
It struck.
Thousands of glowing motes burst apart on impact, burying themselves in the dragon's flesh and tearing into his scale-armored body. They pierced deep, violating muscle and marrow, and then detonated from within.
Sevirax screamed.
His form was torn apart from inside and out, shredded into brilliant, falling fragments.
With a final, echoing cry, the Ivory Dragon fell.
The Sevirax, mighty and terrible, fell from the sky like a dying sun, trailing smoke and fire. When his broken body crashed into the island below, the impact sent tremors through the floating island. A pillar of smoke rose toward the heavens as the ground shattered beneath his fall.
And just like that… the skies fell silent.
_____
Throughout the unrelenting nightmare, Sunny had never once allowed himself to forget about Mordret. In truth, he regarded the banished prince of Valor with more apprehension than even the immortal Saints themselves—no matter how terrifying or formidable they were.
After all, an entire Great Clan had failed to contain the Prince of Nothing. What hope did a single Awakened like him possess?
Of course, there was no certainty that Mordret would turn against them during this accursed Nightmare. By all appearances, they were allies in this trial of torment… at least in theory.
But Sunny wasn't the kind to place his life on the mercy of uncertain allies—especially not ones like Mordret. The words Master Jet had offered him before he ventured into the Seed echoed often in his mind. Her hard-earned wisdom had proven vital time and again. This time would be no different.
So, he and Kai had agreed upon a simple plan—practical, silent, deadly.
One of them would wield the Obsidian Knife. The other, the Glass Knife. Depending on which of the immortals fell first, one would strike the fatal blow… while the other was going to prevent the Prince of Nothing from intervening, in case the need to do so arose.
And indeed, there was need for it.
When Sunny unleashed the full might of his [Dying Wish] Enchantment, a tide of soul-eroding radiance exploded outward. Mordret and his reflections—alongside Sunny himself—were all caught in the wash of annihilation. But Sunny and his mirrored doubles bore the Mantle of the Underworld, shielding them from the worst of the soul-devouring light.
Mordret had no such protection.
Clenching his teeth, the Prince of Nothing absorbed his reflections in a desperate surge, sealing them within the sanctuary of his soul and halting the spiraling torment.
He stumbled, just a few steps away, his body swaying under the weight of agony. Then, slowly, he turned.
His face was pale with pain, eyes wide and bloodshot with rage.
"Argh… what…"
He stared at Sunny, eyes wild and murderous, then grimaced like a beast baring its fangs.
"What a vile Memory… Clever trick, Sunless. But it won't work on me."
The voice of an old man echoed in the air, tainted with mockery and disdain. He began to sneer—but suddenly, the mockery died. His expression froze. A slow, withering scowl spread across his wrinkled face.
"But why… why would you want me to attack you, Sunless? That makes no sense… you know precisely how dangerous I am. Unless, of course..."
Realization dawned. His eyes widened.
At the same time, Sunny grinned.
Far in the distance, beyond the vast abyss separating them from the Ivory Island, a faint figure emerged from the darkness of the Sky Below. Swift and silent, it flew like a comet toward the bleeding dragon.
Sunny threw back his head and laughed, full of reckless joy and wicked satisfaction. The trap had sprung, and the prince had been fooled.
But when he glanced at Mordret again, his laughter faltered. Confusion crept into his expression.
Why… wasn't he reacting?
Mordret shook his head slowly. In the guise of an old man, his kind and wrinkled face made the smile curving his lips all the more disturbing—a grotesque mask of mockery.
"Oh gods… how thoroughly I was fooled, hm? What ever shall I do now?" Mordret chuckled, a cold glint in his eyes. "Someone, please… advise me…"
His chuckle was dry and hollow, but his eyes gleamed with unsettling calm.
Sunny's heart sank. He scanned the surroundings, uncertain, trying to find what he had missed.
"What now, you bastard?!" he demanded. "Aren't you angry? What are you planning? Say something!"
Mordret narrowed his eyes, stepping forward. His voice dropped to a murmur.
"Well, I did fail, didn't I? Nothing to be done about it now. No sense in wasting time here."
He turned away.
"Farewell, Sunless."
He gave a final look—unreadable, amused—and then his form shimmered. With a ripple of liquid silver, he vanished into one of his reflections, leaving Sunny standing alone in silence.
Confused. Unsettled.
He had bought time. Kai would finish the dragon. Mordret's plot to let the beast endure until Hope could be slain had been shattered. And yet… he had not fought back. Had not raged. Had not even tried.
Sunny had won the battle.
But had he truly won the war?
Something was wrong.
Something had slipped through Sunny's grasp.
_____
Flying under the last bridge connecting the rest of the city to the Ivory Island, Kai avoided being noticed too soon, and then ascended into the sunlight.
A tremor of dread stirred in his chest as he crossed into the sacred air of the Island. Below him stretched rolling emerald fields, untouched and beautiful, crowned by alabaster towers. But amidst that splendor lay the beast.
The dragon.
Sevirax.
A majestic titan of old, sprawled across the grass like a fallen mountain, his once-pristine scales now drenched in blood. His wings were in tatters, his flesh torn and shredded—ravaged by the fangs of the Beast of Twilight.
And yet… he lived.
Each ragged breath spilled smoke and agony into the air, but his immense chest still rose and fell. The tyrant refused to die.
He was, after all, immortal.
…But not for long.
In Kai's trembling hand gleamed a blade of ghostly glass. Inside the knife, the dragon's fate was sealed, placed there by a ruthless god.
Was he defying the will of the heavens by returning this cursed gift? Or fulfilling their decree?
Kai didn't know. He didn't care.
All he cared about was killing the dragon.
He had never been the strongest, or the wisest, or the bravest among his friends. His growth had been slow, his path uncertain. He was no hero. But in that moment, he carried one unshakable truth in his heart:
Sevirax had to die.
The Ivory City, for all its beauty, was steeped in horror. The monstrous reign of the dragon had to end.
Clenching his jaw, Kai pushed the pain aside and dove at the sleeping colossus, the ghostly dagger gripped tight.
The blade shimmered in the sunlight, aimed for the exposed, blood-soaked flesh of the dragon's neck…
But even terribly wounded, the immortal Transcendent was still immensely powerful and deadly. How could a mere Awakened ever hope to wound him?
With a dreadful slowness, his golden eyes snapped open, and from his maw billowed smoke and heat. The world seemed to freeze.
Then, everything happened at once.
A sudden gust blasted from the dragon's tail, smashing into Kai like a hurricane. He spiraled through the air, the glass knife grazing harmlessly off an unbroken scale.
Before he could recover, a claw larger than a carriage swept across the field. Kai managed to evade a fatal blow by a hair's breadth, but the mere touch of the beast's talon tore through his armor like paper. His breastplate shattered, and something cracked inside his chest.
With a pained cry, he crashed into the grass and tumbled across the ground in a broken arc. His breath came in shallow gasps as he struggled to rise on shaking knees.
The dragon's roar shook the heavens. The air trembled.The ruins of the Ivory City groaned.
Eyes blazing with fury, Sevirax stared at the tiny defier beneath him.
Wounded… dying… but still a dragon.
And Sevirax was not just any dragon.
Kai gritted his teeth, blood filling his mouth.
His ambush had failed.
The moment was lost.
With the Transcendent now fully awake and wrathful, there would be no second chance. No room for error. No opportunity for a clean strike. Even on the verge of death, Sevirax was still impossibly vast, impossibly fast, impossibly powerful.
Kai could never win this fight.
The immortal was not going to die. Hope was not going to escape. The Nightmare was not going to end…
He felt something twist inside him—a terrible, hollow ache. Then, slowly, he lowered his head.
A moment passed.
And then—he charged.
Not away, not into the sky—but forward, straight toward death, sending tufts of torn grass into the air behind him.
If he couldn't wound the beast from the outside… then he would strike from within.
Let the dragon devour him. Let him carve his vengeance from inside its throat.
Kai flung himself into Sevirax's jaws—
—and his eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
Because just before the crushing maw could close, a shadow tore through the sky.
A screech echoed above.
And in the blink of an eye, the Loathsome Thieving Bird plummeted from the heavens and snatched him away.
***
Well, well, well... Klaus betrayed cohort. It wasn't that unexpected because he likes to do things with his own ways. So there's no way he would ever agree to plans that doesn't benefit him.
Well, i won't say much about this so not to incidentally spoil you guys.
So enjoy :)
***