CHAPTER 74 – INTO THE COSMOS


    The dark lord stood crunched over, clenching his sides. His body unhinging itself, decoding his make-up and fusing with the godly essence on a fundamental level. For him his consciousness was propelled forward unyieldingly. He hit spots along his imagination and memories, maybe even a glimpse here and there of the future and events to come. For the Emissary and Zora, the view was much weirder.


    The dark lord’s eyes flooded with black, spreading to every corner of his sight. The darkness churned in his eyes and the edges glowed. He could finally see, he could see outside of his humanity, his material form a mere shell he chose to discard. That’s when Malinor felt something foreboding, dreadful, to the east. It was a massive force and it weighed on him. Its power was equal to if not more than the dragon god force Malinor just inherited, but what he felt to the east was so much more potent. It reminded him of the first day he saw the edge of MagnaThora.


    The Dark Lord Malinor exhaled deeply. The blackness in his eyes pulled back to just outside his pupils. The glow diminished almost completely. He closed his eyes. His body twitched in places it shouldn’t. Shoulders spasmed like arms. He was trying to hold tremendous power inside him. The Emissary stepped forward.


    “My lord…please…I beseech you…use the orb.”


    The Emissary offered up the gem harnessed to his chest. Malinor looked at him like he wanted to tear his head off. He raised his hand, and it was huge, with scales and long claw-like nails, resembling a dragon. Malinor blinked for a second and then placed his monstrous hand onto the gem. The mysterious orb hummed and shook Malinor’s claw. It shined beams of light through the claw, the pale light opened up as his claw dwindled back down to a normal human hand. The process left the hand smoking, which was anything but normal.


    Malinor practically had to peel his hand off the gem on the Emissary’s chest. It was now fully aglow with splashing light. There seemed to be an obtrusion within it, like mixing oil with vinegar, two substances that did not blend together. The Emissary stepped back, a slight uncertainty in his step. Malinor rubbed his head. He tried to find his words.


    “That is true power.”


    “How did it feel?”


    “It felt…right, like destiny calling.”


    “You wield the power of the gods, surely there is nothing that can stop you. What shall we do now, my lord?”


    “I’m going to raze the Pride to the NetherRealm.”


    “Come forth, Sky Marshal.”


    Zora hesitantly approached. The only thing giving her the bravery to do so being the fact that he just emptied all that insane power into the gem. She was wrong. Malinor looked up and closed his eyes. When he opened them they were black again. Zora screamed and jumped back, but she was not quick enough. Fathom immediately sprang into motion, swatting the Emissary away with his tail and attacking Malinor. Malinor whispered and the dragon stopped. His eyes pulsed, as if trying to resist. Fathom the dragon sat at attention and watched the dark lord hold his mother Zora by the throat. His other hand bulked up into the giant dragon claw again. This time he focused on it and reduced it back down while his hand began to shine red.


    He pressed his hand on Zora’s chest, and she felt something awful enter her body through her heart. Malinor released her, letting Zora drop to the floor helplessly. The feeling that crept inside her was unnatural and unyielding. It cut right to the core of her. This must be what death feels like. The fire in her soul went out briefly and what was left was petrified ash.


    It spread throughout her body as her skin began to morph into an odd stone. Soon the stone covered her entire body from head to toe. She panicked. It moved like her normal skin, but it creaked and cracked, giving off subtle dust clouds in places like the knees and elbows. Zora’s panic mostly came from her human lungs seizing up. She couldn’t breathe, the final parts of her mutation coming to completion. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    “You won’t be able to breathe in MagnaThora’s atmosphere for a while. I gave you the gift of moonstone flesh. You will be able to survive in the cold of deep space. You will fly through the void with the velocity of the moon. Go and find me my stardragons.”


    Zora tried to talk and coughed instead. She was having a hard time. Malinor smiled and rubbed her on the back. It felt weird, in more ways than one.


    “Did you really think I would ever trust you? I see the look in your eyes. I am not blind. You are a ghost of the past, Sky Marshal, and this is your station now. Find my stardragons before this war is over and you will get your humanity back. Until then, your only salvation is the stars. Go now or die!”


    Zora cried, or at least she tried to cry. The cracks under her eyes spat out a little cloud of dust as they rubbed together. She opened her mouth. Again nothing.


    “Oh, this is truly pathetic,” said the Dark Lord.


    The Emissary laughed behind him.


    “How…how will…” Zora tried to say, “I know….what to….look…for?”


    Malinor walked her over to Fathom still sitting before them at the ready, long large gold and black dragon eyes bulging out of his head. He put his hand on the dragon’s chest, just as he did to Zora. With all of the energy she could muster, Zora grabbed his arm and begged.


    “Please! No!”


    Malinor shook her off and she toppled over to the floor. With his free hand, the one he just pushed Zora with, he summoned back some of the power from the Emissary’s gemstone harness.


    “Ahhh!” the Emissary yelled.


    His hair shriveled and some of it fell out of his head, Malinor had taken some of his life force with the gem power. The Dark Lord mumbled an incantation under his breath and imbued Fathom with two streams of cosmic energy. The gem shot the charge into Fathom as the Emissary fell to his knees. Malinor pressed both his hands upon the dragon’s chest, essentially launching it with void light into what little airspace the cavern provided. The dragon started increasing in size, his spine pierced his scaly skin and then turned blue, icing over his body, as the blue began to flush over the dragon entirely he cried out, physically panicking.


    “Better get going, Sky Marshal,” the Dark Lord smirked, “before Fathom dies of heat exhaustion.”


    Before the dragon grew too big for the cavern Malinor opened up a portal large enough to fit them all through. It opened up atop a mountain peak. Zora could only surmise that it was merely above where they just were in the caverns. The important part was they were outside now. Fathom had room to grow to the size of a tower.


    “If you do not take off with him soon, he will break the continent.”


    Zora rubbed her tactile face as if to wipe away nonexistent tears and got to her feet. She was barely able to mount her enlarging dragon. That is until Malinor created two void spikes that snatched her by the shoulders and carried her to Fathom’s hide. The poor stardragon was having trouble pumping his cold wings hard enough to take flight. They were both struggling with the abhorrent changes put upon them.


    “Fathom,” Malinor said, “Listen to the moon above you. Find the orbit.”


    The dragon opened his wings as Zora settled into her position on top of him. It was night time and the clouds parted revealing the moon. The dragon’s blue scales reflected the moonlight. The light bounced into its open wings and scattered. The moonlight hit the strange violet-black connective tissue of his wings and it turned into void light, quickly getting sucked into the wing.


    Fathom’s wings began to glow. He tried to fly again, and this time took off into the air with ease. By the time Fathom and Zora exited MagnaThora’s atmosphere, the dragon was the size of a city. Zora finally felt okay. She’d rather not think about how her flesh was now moonrock but being in the vast darkness of space eased her transition to this new form. It almost felt…calming.


    She had never thought she would ever penetrate the void of darkness behind the sky of MagnaThora. Now that she was on the other side the views were serene, and really put MagnaThora into perspective. Strangely enough, from up here Zora could see that MagnaThora was not the only continent in the world, contrary to popular and historical belief.


    Fathom gained moonlight at an accelerated rate as they move closer to the moon. This increased his speed. Zora came up with a quick plan. She was going to slingshot Fathom around the moon and pick up as much velocity as possible to travel the stars as fast as possible, the only downside of the plan was…which way to travel, which way to find the stardragons.


    Zora heard something in her head. It sounded like it was coming from the surface of the planet. It was Malinor humming. Zora copied the tune. Then, very quietly at first, so quiet it made Zora think she was going crazy, hearing phantom echoes, she realized Fathom was humming along with his mother. The dragon got louder with his song, and it rang out in all directions. They waited for what felt like a long time, an eternity. Finally, one of the song-rings came pulsing back to them, so they flew in that direction.