“No! No, no, no!” Valtak struggled to escape from the bigger Dragon’s embrace but she stopped him with ease. “I can’t let that happen. I won’t let that happen! They need me. For the Great Mother’s sake, your sake, they are just hatchlings!”
“Just like the thousand others who live with me.” Mogar/Tharma replied. “The only difference is that you are not looking at them right now. Those hatchlings on the moon are not special. They are not even yours.
“As you told those disgusting, rotten souls, life is for the living, Valtak, and your time is up. You don’t belong in my world anymore and whatever happens next is none of your business.”
“How can you say that?” He retorted in outrage.
“How can you say otherwise?” She asked back. “Do you know the damage an Abomination with your power and knowledge could cause? Do you think you are better than everyone else who came here before you?
“Do you believe that you can conquer the hunger that will plague you the moment you wake up and not kill those who are trying to save your life? Even if you do, you’d never master your hunger and Abomination powers in time to be of help.
“Hundreds would die to prolong your existence, and for what? To prove a point?”
“That’s not true. One man succeeded. One puny human man conquered the Abomination’s hunger.” While in the Mindscape, Valtak was part of Mogar’s consciousness just like Nana before him.
He knew everything the planet knew, including the circumstances of Threin’s death.
“Indeed, but not for long.” Mogar/Tharma replayed those events for the Elder Wyrm. “The father of Elphyn Menadion knew he couldn’t win so he let himself go. His love for his daughter was so strong that it allowed Threin to resist, but only until he made sure she was alright.
“Then, he returned to me of his own will. You can fight, Father of Fire, but you can’t win.”
“That’s all I ask.” Valtak jumped off her arms and this time she let him.
His body quickly reverted to its original size and age, but the height gap remained.
“If you really are in contact with my mother, tell her that I’m sorry but she’ll have to wait for me just a bit longer. Tell her I can’t still pass the mantle of Father of Fire.” The Elder Wyrm took in the moon’s landscape, the Life Maelstrom coursing through the ground and everything that his newfound Vision could grasp.
“If I turn my back to those who need me just because it’s hard, I won’t find peace. I will lose everything that defines me and spend eternity in regret.” Valtak saw the immense power hidden inside Mogar’s moon and every form of life it nurtured.
He saw the smoldering embers of a golden light faintly shining under one of his scales.
“I’m the gods-damned Father of Fire and there’s no Flame I can’t conquer!” He turned his back to Mogar and charged against the black mist of death.
***
Mogar’s Moon, outside Lith’s secret lab, one second after Lith clenched his fists.
Valtak’s breathing turned into wheezing as his lungs fought to get one last bit of fresh air. Then, his head fell back and his neck became still.
Lith knelt down, putting his hand on the red scales and finding no pulse or sign of life with Invigoration.
“He’s gone.” Valtak’s core had yet to crack, but it was quickly degrading from violet into blue, and cyan streaks were already appearing.
“What’s that?” Tista hiccupped, trying her best not to cry and upset the babies further.
“A firefly.” Lith looked at the small insect, his enhanced ears hearing it buzz as the firefly landed on a blade of grass. “Guess they have them on the moon as well.”
“Not that. That!” Tista pointed out at the mass of small lights that was converging toward the Elder Wyrm’s body.
Some of them were indeed fireflies. Others were insects that had no reason to glow yet they did. Most of them, however, were empty spheres of light.
“I’m not done!” Valtak’s neck gasped as his neck snapped straight. “And I’m not going down without a fight.”
He bridled what was left of Valeron’s Life Maelstrom and used it to access the silver lightning that coursed through the moon’s soil. The Father of Fire let it seep inside his body, filling every one of his cells without energizing them.
He knew that he was too weak to bear such strain, that even the smallest boost to his powers would overload his mana core and shatter it beyond saving. What he did, instead, was use the ability exclusive of Fire Dragons, Primal Spark.
It flooded everything for hundreds of meters around him, extracting mana from plants, insects, worms, and all life forms and splitting it into its basic components. Valtak let go of the elemental energies and kept only the life force.
Then, he consumed the final spark of his own life force, betting everything on the mastery over Flames he had gained by conjuring them millions of times during his life.
Valtak called upon the dying Life Flames and brought them inside his lungs. The final spark fused with the golden flames which found the world energy drawn upon by the Elder Wyrm’s breath and the Life Maelstrom that filled him.
His body was set ablaze as the Father of Fire proved worthy of his title by igniting more Life Flames on his own. The golden fire captured the life forces hanging around his body without burning them.
The Life Flames preserved the small bits of life force, altering their energy signatures until they matched Valtak’s. He who had given life was now receiving it. The combined effect of Primal Spark and Life Flames brought droplets of wax to the dying wick of the Father of Fire’s life.
Bit by bit, his molten essence became solid again, allowing the wick to stand tall and not burn what was left of the Elder Wyrm’s lifespan all at once. The droplets were small, almost insignificant.
Yet more than enough for a Dragon to fight Death standing.
The Life Flames collected all the small lights and absorbed them at astounding speed.
Lith tried to put his hands in the golden fire but Salaark stopped him.
“Don’t be stupid! You are too strong. Your life force would be like feeding a steak to a man who starved for weeks or cold water to a desert survivor. It would kill Valtak on the spot. And that’s without taking your Abomination side into account.”
“What about me?” Tista said, quickly followed by Solus and Kamila.
“Too strong and too different.” Tyris shook her head. “Even a hatchling of Fire Dragon would be too much.”
The Life Flames went off as soon as the last spark of light disappeared inside the Father of Fire’s body. The Elder Wyrm panted, the strength leaving his body along with the Life Maelstrom.
Then, the pants turned into a raspy wheezing. Valtak’s eyes rolled back and his neck fell slack, his open mouth producing no sound.
Lith checked the pulse again just to feel it come to a halt as the mana core degraded further.
