Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 907: To Matter ()

The sky was blanketed in darkness. A cold gust of wind billowed down the side of the hill, growing stronger the further up one climbed.

Celeste hurried up the hill, hands tucked underneath the thick fur coat draped over her shoulders.

Her wings felt itchy underneath the heavy and coarse fabric, but it was either this or let them freeze over in the dastardly early winter wind.

The spectral membrane was meant to be a superior advantage for the Fae, but she’d realised in these centuries that they were rather bothersome and didn’t do much good to anyone, other than being a beautiful appendage that left others gawking.

It could hold her weight up, fine. But it couldn’t withstand strong winds or navigate soaring heights like a mighty dragon wing. So it was technically possible to soar a great height, with the danger of getting your wing broken and toppling down to a gruesome death.

Her kind had quickly realised they were stuck just a few meters above every other common land dweller. Maybe good enough for a few acrobatic dances for the entertainment of others.

The skies? They belonged to the dragons alone.

Fate, that unfair bastard had made it so.

And so even now when she desperately needed the advantage a soaring pair of wings could possibly provide, she was stuck guarding her feeble pair from freezing solid while making this treacherous climb on foot.

Her pace wasn’t nearly fast enough, but the cliff was within sight. She might have considered using a portal, but she knew he hated the sudden arrival of the space defying technique, and the idea of being snuck up on.

Maybe it was the dragon in him, still holding onto the barest traces of prejudice towards magic, but she had quickly learnt her portal travel was only permitted to end at the foot of the cliff.

The rest of the climb, she would have to make by her own strength. That way he sensed her presence long before her arrival.

It was the same for Azkar. Or at least it had been when they both served the Lordship. She’d ruined that with her own hands, getting Azkar stuck in that dimension with no magic.

And she’d reaped no benefits too. He came back in one piece. She on the other hand, had failed to carry out the Lordship’s orders, and had instead gotten caught and nearly executed herself.

But he’d come for her. The lordship...Mykael, he had.

Barged right into the heart of dragon territory and rescued her from certain death. That had to mean something, right?

If nothing else, that he did not wish to see her leave his side by the permanency of death.

She’d been exiled from his presence since that day. Kept out of active duty, her services and that of the Dark Fae were no longer needed for the cause.

It was a punishment she had to accept. She’d lived silently in that dark hall, by his command, hoping there would come a day he would have use for her again.

She’d held tightly onto this hope to ward off the humiliation that ate away at her.

’When that time came, she wouldn’t fail.’ She’d told herself.

She’d prove she was a better confidant than Azkar had ever been. Because she was the only one who truly... truly wanted to see the lordship achieve all he desired, even if it meant wrecking the entire stronghold.

She was the one who would do anything...to see his near-dead eyes light up with a genuine smile, just once.

That was all. The very purpose of her existence was just that. Even beyond the vengeance against her lighter winged kind who’d left she and her Dark Fae brethren to shoulder the sins of the race alone.

She’d believed it would happen one day. Sometime far in the future, perhaps a few centuries from now, when the mission was finally completed. When dragon kind was brought to their knees at the Lordship’s feet, maybe then...her greatest wish would be fulfilled.

How could she have known the Lordship’s ultimate purpose was this? To serve as fodder for the rebirth of another? To offer his body a vessel to resurrect the soul of a deceased King?

That was the death of the soul, was it not? A total obliteration of the soul giving up its body, like it hadn’t ever existed.

There would be no shadow dragon, no after life... Mykael had chosen the path of complete damnation.

She’d heard the news barely an hour ago. Heard the ritual requirements were complete...

The soul to be revived. The heart blood of an arcane wielder. The power of at least one origin rune. A sorcerer, adept in the soul arts... and a soul, willing to submit to be erased.

This was what he’d been fighting for all along. This was the true plan he’d never shared. The reason he’d never truly wanted to seize the stronghold for himself...

She believed him to be a new dawn, a rising monarch untainted by the damned dragon royal bloodline.

But he’d simply been a king’s guard, existing only for the day he’d revive his deceased King, even if it meant his own life was forfeit.

"He can’t! He can’t! I won’t let him!" Celeste cried, doubling her pace, "Damn the stronghold! Damn the vengeance! Damn it all!"

A steady stream of tears slipped out of her eyes, soon dried by the chilly night air.

The cliff was already in sight and there he was. As always, sitting right at the edge, like he couldn’t decide if to tumble down to his death in the poison field below, or to hold onto the final strands of life at the edge of the cliff.

But he’d made his decision, hadn’t he? He’d made it. He would tumble to his own death and nothing could stop him. No one.

She knew it even before she cried out his name, for the first time ever, since they’d first met and knew they shared a common purpose...hate, vengeance and a darkness they could never escape.

She knew it, yet she had to try. If it was the last thing she did.

She had to let him know he mattered. He was desired, he was loved, he was the reason to live.

To someone...he mattered.

"Mykael! Mykael!"