Chapter 260 - The Dragon That Ate the Sun ( Part 3 )

There was life in the darkness.

Jennie Queens realized that when Vorthal ate her.

The first second of it was devoted to falling.

The second to screaming.

Third—wondering if now was the time when she could actually complain about her fate as a valid survival tactic.

But then something hit her hard.

Pain burst out of her injured knee, ran up her spine and stopped somewhere in her skull.

Jennie froze.

For a minute, she pondered staying there forever. It sounded like a good idea, lying down, closing her eyes and letting the digestive process take care of the rest.

But her body didn’t like the idea.

She coughed.

Some faint orange sparks appeared before her eyes.

More appeared.

The darkness around her started to vanish. Not run away, but withdraw like the shadow before the sun, leaving the place warm and easing the pressure against her skin.

Jennie opened her eyes.

And couldn’t breathe anymore.

Above her there was a miniature night sky.

Thousands of stars gleamed in endless space, their light reflecting in what seemed to be inverted ocean floating high above. Nebulae were spinning in the dark, swirled violets and reds and dark blues, each of them throbbing with the slow rhythm of something ancient and alive. Constellations were moving in between enormous ribs glowing with silver veins.

There was no sun here. There was no moon.

But the whole space shimmered with cold beauty of the timeless universe.

Jennie sat up.

"...I’m inside the dragon."

She looked up at the impossible sky.

"Yes, of course."

A regular person would have freaked out. A regular person would scream, pray or try to find an escape route. Jennie had tried those tactics somewhere between being thrown into the abyss of fire and being pursued by centipede made from warriors’ weapons.

So she looked around.

The ground beneath her feet was a platform of black scales stretching into the horizon, curving upwards and lost somewhere among the stars. The scales were warm under her boots, throbbing with the same rhythm as the sky above—a heartbeats of something so huge it seemed to pulse from everywhere and nowhere.

Far away, something was throbbing.

Once. Twice.

Black star hung in the center of the miniature universe, different from the surrounding celestial bodies in the absence of light. The star absorbed the radiance of everything around it, creating the empty space in the middle of the dragon—an injury in the fabric of the sky.

Around it, ancient weapons were orbiting in enormous ellipses, leaving traces of light behind them. Chains were connecting the weapons to the star. Thousands of them. Each covered in the symbols which seemed to move every time Jennie tried to decipher them.

She looked at the chains. Then at the star. Then at the impossible sky.

"Let me guess."

She pulled herself to her feet, suppressing the hiss of pain in her injured leg.

"There is something wrong with the dragon’s heart and I’m supposed to fix it."

The black star throbbed. Wave of darkness rolled over the miniature universe. Jennie stumbled, her magic dying out in the process, she managed to grab onto one of the ribs to prevent falling.

"I asked rhetorically."

The star throbbed again. The chains shivered.

Far away, there was a sound.

Not a roar. Not a growl.

Cry.

That was the sound of something suffering so much that it had forgotten what freedom feels like—it was a cry of pure eternal pain, reverberating through the darkness as the prayer never to be answered.

Jennie slowly turned toward the black star. For the first time since coming into Vorthal, she realized that the creature was attacking her because it was in pain.

And whatever had happened to it, the source of this pain was directly ahead of her.

Jennie moved towards the star.

The miniature universe shook. Something below her began to move.

She looked down. The platform was alive.

The road to the heart wasn’t a road.

It was an enormous structures growing out of the dragon’s insides, twisting through the darkness like the ruins of a celestial palace. Jennie climbed up. She walked on the bridges formed from the intersecting scales. She passed through the narrow spaces between the gigantic ribs. She grabbed any bones protruding from the walls, making sure they wouldn’t collapse under her weight.

Each move sent new burst of pain through her injured knee. Her right hand remained useless, fingers dangling helplessly. And the broken dagger she had used during the battle was just a piece of broken metal now.

She was definitely not ready for the journey into the dragon’s heart.

But she went on.

The chains became thicker as she was getting closer to the star. Some were wide enough to encircle a castle. Some were thin, almost fragile, but all of them carried huge magic pressure pressing to her like the physical one.

Jennie reached the first chain.

As soon as she touched it, a vision erupted inside her mind.

Battlefield. Golden sky. Thousands of divine warriors standing under the banners of dead gods.

And Vorthal.

This dragon used to have scales of silver gloss. It wings were spreading over skies and the light of distant stars blazed in his eyes. He was flying above battlefield, swallowing darkness which tried to consume the world.

Not devouring light.

Defending it.

Vorthal used to be a heaven guardian – the creature able to devour the darkness corrupting worlds’ borders.

Then the vision changed.

The gods started fighting between themselves, their divine weapons crashed, the skies were shattered.

And something hit Vorthal’s chest.

A black chain of light was twisting around his heart. The dragon cried out as his scales darkened. His wings were folding and the stars around him were vanishing one by one.

A voice was ringing through the vision – cold, ancient and completely merciless.

"Let the devourer consume the light, until nothing will remain to oppose us."

The vision vanished. Jennie was staggering backwards, gasping. Her hand slipped off the chain, and for a moment she couldn’t move.

She saw enough to understand.

Vorthal wasn’t always the Eclipse Devourer. He was cursed. Somebody managed to turn guardian into monster and make him devour the very light he used to protect.

And the black star wasn’t its real heart.

It was a prison.

Jennie looked towards the distant star. Anger trembled in her voice.

"Whoever did this..."

Her fingers were twisting into fists.

"...I hope the Celestial Battlefield has a special trial prepared for you."

The chain was pulsing under her fingers. Cursed reaction.

Darkness was flooding through the structure, throwing Jennie away from it. She was hitting a nearby rib and almost losing her balance. Her injured leg was scratching against the scales and she held herself up with her left hand.

Below her, the miniature universe stretched into the abyss of the stars.

Jennie swallowed. "Right."

She was looking at the chain again.

"Complaining later. Climbing now."

The closer she got to the black star, the more chaotic the dragon’s inner world became. Gravity was shifting unpredictably, the parts of the structure were spinning, making Jennie hold on to the scales as horizon was turning around her. Ancient weapons’ fragments were sweeping past her, glowing with the remnants of divine power.

One gigantic spear hit a nearby rib and exploded. The shockwave tossed Jennie across the platform. She fell on her injured knee and a scream escaped her lips.

For several seconds she couldn’t see anything but flashes of white pain. She was pressing her forehead against cold surface and breathing through clenched teeth.

"Get up."

Her voice sounded weak. She hated it.

"Jennie, get up."

She was trying to stand. Her leg gave way. She hit the ground again.

For a moment, the temptation was returning – the desire to stop, to stay here, to let the dragon take her into oblivion. There would be no more trials. No more monsters. No more watching people dying because she was too late.

The thought was comforting.

That was what scared her.

Jennie was lowering her head. Rudy’s face appeared in her mind – her sister in her previous life, never really good at taking anything seriously, always finding ways to make her angry, embarrassed or unwillingly amused even in the most awful times.

Leo, you’re overthinking again.

Jennie was closing her eyes. "Yeah."

She was taking a trembling breath. "I probably am."

She was putting her left hand against the platform and pushing herself up.

"I’ll fall apart after I get out of here."

Her voice sounded steadier. "Until then, I still have some work to do."

She was continuing to climb.

The black star was getting bigger. Chains were becoming clearly visible in all their terrible details.

And Jennie was understanding what she had to do.

She couldn’t destroy the star. Not with her strength, not with her magic, not even sacrificing all the blood in her body. Star was too deeply connected with Vorthal’s existence. Destroying it would kill the dragon as well.

But she didn’t have to destroy it.

She had to free it.

Jennie was examining the chains. They were converging to the black star in a complicated manner, each of them being connected with the fragment of ancient divine weapon. Chains weren’t simply restraining the star. They forced it to absorb the power of the relics around it, turning dragon’s heart into the endless source of darkness.

Each time Vorthal was devouring light, this stolen energy was flowing through the chains and strengthening the curse. Dragon was trapped in the endless loop of agony. He was devouring light because the curse required it. This curse was growing stronger because it was devouring light. And the loop was repeating – for centuries, perhaps for millennia.

Jennie was looking at the broken dagger fragment hanging in her belt. She was almost laughing.

She used to use Divine Swords, capable of cutting through entire armies. She used to control the storms, oceans, shadows, and rage of the ancient kings. Now she was going to fight against the divine curse using a broken piece of metal.

"I would have found a better weapon."

The words escaped before she could stop herself. She was staring at the dagger. Then she was shaking her head.

"Too bad there are no divine swords around."

Jennie was pulling the fragment out.

"I’m all you’ve got."

The first chain was easier to reach than she expected. It was hanging below the enormous fragment of golden armor, its surface was covered with the burning symbols every time Jennie was approaching. She was waiting until the symbols were diminishing. Then she was wedging the broken dagger between the chain’s links.

The metal was resisting. Jennie was pressing harder. Her left hand was trembling. Dagger was slipping, a sharp edge cutting into her palm.

Blood was dripping down the chain. The symbols were blazing up.

Darkness erupted. Jennie went flying, but was able to grab hold of a projecting scale with her left hand. She swung over the abyss. For one awful second, she was suspended over the miniature cosmos, where the twinkling of stars could be seen down below.

She glanced at her bleeding hand.

"...I really need to stop doing that."

She climbed back up to the platform.

The chain remained bright. Jennie inspected its symbols more closely. They became brighter every time she exerted herself against the metal surface. The curse was guarding itself by being constructed in a way that made breaking the chains impossible for anyone strong enough.

Jennie thought about the problem. Then she noticed the chain movements. It vibrated every time the black star beat. The links were not entirely rigid. They moved with the rhythm of a heartbeat, contracting and expanding periodically.

It was a weakness. Not a weakness of strength.

It was a weakness of timing.

Jennie waited until the black star beat. The chain contracted. It relaxed.

Jennie stabbed the dagger in the crack. Its blade got stuck between the links. She twisted the dagger in the side direction. Metal made an unpleasant noise. Jennie pulled with her left hand, using the weight of her body to twist the blade further.

The chain did not want to give in. Her wounded knee gave in, and she almost fell. But the black star beat once again.

The chain relaxed. Jennie twisted.

The link broke.

The sound was almost imperceptible. Yet, its effect was instant.

The whole miniature cosmos quivered. Black energy erupted from the broken link, shooting away from the star. The surrounding darkness weakened, and one of the distant constellations became brighter.

Jennie gaped. Then she smiled.

"One."

The black star beat furiously. Every other chain contracted. Shock waves struck through the structure, making Jennie lose balance. She crashed into a rib, sending shooting pain through her head. Her left hand slipped, and she held on to the edge with just her fingertips. For a few moments, she was hanging there, trying to pull herself up.

But eventually, she succeeded climbing up to the platform. She lay there, panting.

One chain was broken. Thousands remained.

Jennie stared at the miniature night sky above.

"...This is going to take a while."