Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 829: Only Path ()

For a beat, there was silence. Asrig’s words rang through her mind, goaded on by his eyes peering deep into hers, like he could see into her soul.

Like he could read her thoughts and knew just how to etch doubts and uncertainties into her heart as surely as he had etched his own self.

And Neveah felt it, crawling along her spine, teasing her to question what she knew to be true. Halfway up, it died.

Finally, Neveah smiled. "And?"

"And?" Asrig raised a brow in question.

"So what if it was you who killed him? What then?" Neveah continued blankly.

"If there’s any truth to that, what do you hope to achieve by telling it to me? Do you want a crown? A standing ovation...you already had the entire world in the palm of your hand and you still ruined it."

Asrig frowned slightly, tilting his head to the side.

"The dark lord’s demise was necessary for the stronghold. If Agardan killed him, you rose to the throne riding on his tails and not one person stood against you."

"So what of it? It is okay if it was you reaping from Agardan’s feats but you feel an injustice when it’s otherwise?"

"Everyone believes my father killed the dark lord, that is the entire basis of his prestige..." Asrig hissed.

Neveah shook her head slightly. "That’s what you think."

"Agardan embodies the entirety of dragon supremacy. The birth of the uprising and the cause that brought all dragons together under one banner...long before the war was won and the dark lord died."

"Agardan didn’t become King because he killed the dark lord. He became King because he believed in the dragons, when they couldn’t believe in themselves."

Neveah smiled slightly. "And do not speak to me with that tone. Save your sympathy for the dead."

Asrig was quiet for a moment. "I don’t quite see what he did right...to deserve you."

He turned back to stare at Ebonhollow and tilted his head to the side. "You want to know why I burnt down Ebonhollow? Wiped out their race?"

"They took what was mine and gave it away to someone else." He murmured.

’He had...a true bond?’ Neveah realized.

"She was... the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen since the little silver haired bundle in my mother’s arms." His tone was distant, eyes as hollow as ever. "She took my breath away... even when she was in the arms of another man."

Asrig passed Neveah a look, smirking slightly to see he had finally caught her attention.

"We discovered our bond by chance. Attacked by some roaming dark fairies. Struck by adamantium, I sought refuge in Ebonhollow. Unable to shift, Mykael found me a young witch healer who tended my wounds."

He paused. "You know Mykael."

It was more of a statement than a question. Neveah wished she could say she didn’t.

"Your King’s guard." She confirmed.

Asrig smiled, almost sadly. "Turns out, she wasn’t just any healer."

"I hadn’t really hoped for a bond, you see." He shrugged casually. "I had women to satisfy my needs. I would live long enough, a heir was not an immediate concern. Why would I desire the hassle of becoming a lifetime mount to some... being?"

"I knew the answer, when I saw her." He chuckled to himself. "I understood it better, when I found her in the arms of another."

Neveah winced visibly. One of the greatest tragedies of dragon-kind was the rarity of finding their true bond.

As few as they were who found their bond, even fewer found a willing bond. Dragons could live centuries...time wasn’t so kind to every race.

While they mostly waited centuries for that one bond, it was likely the lives of their fated partner would go on. They would love others, build families... grow old, and die.

"So...I killed him."

Asrig waited, but the reaction he sought never came. Neveah wasn’t even surprised. Asrig was not a man who would ever stand for being denied, especially not in favour of a race he considered weaker.

He shrugged casually. "She would mourn him a few years, and then I would come for her. It wasn’t supposed to be that difficult."

He fell silent for a long moment, just staring down at Ebonhollow.

"Until I felt my soul being flayed from within... and I knew what she had done."

Neveah exhaled shakily. She wasn’t certain what to feel knowing Asrig had faced the severing... she wasn’t certain to feel anything at all. "She took her own life...to punish you."

He smiled, a slow, almost menacing tilt of his lips. "She gave me...a gift. A feeling unlike any other. For the first time in centuries, I felt... something so deeply and utterly, that I gained a new clarity."

"I understood my purpose." His eyes met Neveah’s. "To destroy the one weakness of my kind... that damned bond."

A chill crawled down Neveah’s spine. She couldn’t move her gaze from his even if she tried.

"And I had just the thing to replace it with. Something far stronger and more fulfilling than a meager true bond. Power... magic."

"Only a dragon who has overcome the severing and lived can achieve true enlightenment. Only a dragon with enlightenment is worthy of supremacy." His tone was deep, almost reverent.

"I didn’t destroy Ebonhollow for the witches... I destroyed it to free my race of their doomed bond. In one night, I severed dozens of undiscovered bonds, giving my dragons true freedom from their shackles."

Neveah’s heart shrivelled up in cold terror. This was the part of Ebonhollow’s fall that was never spoken about. The reality that amongst the thousands killed were those fated to dragon lords, yet bonds undiscovered.

Ebonhollow’s fall wasn’t Asrig’s judgement on the witches... the true motivation, was his own kind.

"You’re sick!" Neveah spat. Tears springing to her eyes. "You’re completely deranged!"

Asrig’s grin widened. His eyes flashed with delight.

"Do you know why you got a second chance at life?"

Ebonhollow seemed to go still. Deathly still. As still as Neveah’s blood had gone, frozen stiff within her veins.

"All along...this was my brother’s chance, to truly gain enlightenment."

Neveah retreated slowly, eyes wide. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"He failed once...he won’t fail again. He’s stronger now, and that’s all thanks to you. You’ve played your part well..."

"...so Neveah Vairheac...your only path from this point, is death."

Memories flashed through Neveah’s mind. That horrifying night... bleeding out in the cold...

The pain... the emptiness, the regrets...

"Get out...of my head!" She shrieked. "Get out!!!!"

A sharp tug sent Neveah flying backwards, Asrig disappeared and she was once again spinning in an abyss of darkness.