Page 13 of Echoes of Eternity

With a resolute command, I unfurled my wings, vast and glorious in their span. Each feather coated in crimson—a foreshadowing of the bloodshed to come. I unsheathed my sword, its blade gleaming with an ethereal light. I felt the weight of sacred duty upon me. I descended upon the burning mortal village with purpose, my presence a beacon of hope amidst the darkness.

Screams, both feminine and masculine, pierced shrilly through the roar of the growing fire and the ominous cracking of collapsing buildings.

Stepping over the burning roofs with ease, I opened my beak and released my own controlled and purposeful flames of retribution. The dragon, sensing my arrival, let out a roar of defiance, a challenge to the force that dared oppose it.

“You have no say in what transpired here, Karurawarrior!” he bellowed. His voice was reminiscent of thunder rolling across the heavens as he swept his wavy, concave steep horns in challenge. “These mortals reek of sin and darkened souls. Their cries are nothing but the echoes of their own transgressions!”

Memories of her dark, silken strands flowing with the breeze as she slowly turned to me whispered across my mind amidst the chaos. I savored the way her face softened as her smile grew like a crescent moon, her aura illuminating the darkest corners of my existence, bringing forth an unfamiliar emotion that threatened to topple all I had ever known—desire.

I flared out my wings, creating a shield of divine fire and feathers, pushing back the dragon’s searing breath. “Your wrath may be ancient, but it is no excuse for the suffering you’ve inflicted!” My voice resonated with heavenly force, infused with the authority of the heavens. “I am Noboru, a guardian of the Eight Legions, and your havoc ends here!”

My opponent swung his scaled, serpentine tail in my direction. I leaped, twirling my sword before bringing it down with a wide arc that pulled the tails of flames with it.

With a hiss, the dragon dodged with calculated agility, snapping his jaws in the direction of the blade. Beating my wings, the short distance it moved me offered enough room for a bludgeoning kick into his frog-like belly, sending his body careening into one of the nearby buildings, crumbling its structure to the ground.

She summoned me unknowingly with her deepestdespair, a divine warrior from Sumeru, one of the guardian units of the Eight Legions, with a gifted pendant.

I never anticipated the power her sorrow would have over me that fateful day. Her love had always been a quiet force, overshadowed by the havoc surrounding us, but now it felt like a tidal wave, pulling me under with its intensity. It was both exhilarating and terrifying, a reminder of everything I had overlooked while I tried to keep my distance for her sake.

The dragon emerged from the rubble, its snakelike neck rising beyond the flames. His eyes, burning coals of malevolent fire, narrowed as it regarded me with disdain as blood trickled from his maw. “You dare to defy me? I am the embodiment of nature’s primal fury! These mortals are but ants beneath my claws, and their pleas fall on deaf ears. You of all should understand their insignificance in the grand scheme of the universe.”

The invisible force tugged my soul once again, a familiar magnetic pull that drew me toward a voice that haunted me—a sound that had buried itself within me for the rest of eternity. Reluctantly ignoring its call due to the circumstances, I kept my eyes on my opponent as his scales shimmered against the billows of smoke.

“I am no mere guardian,” I declared, my flames intensifying with every word, my mouth watering for a taste of dragon’s flesh. “I am the divine will manifested. These people may falter, but their spirit is unyielding. It is not your place to judge them; your place is to face the consequences of your own existence!”

And the consequence of mine was separation. The gods made sure to reign in their fierce warrior, afraid of the changes she brought forth—afraid of the way I had grown to worship her love, distracting me from my purpose.

The dragon roared in anger as he climbed the rubble with his tiger-like claws. “You know nothing of their sins, Karura! I am their reckoning, sent to cleanse this world of its corruption!”

“The sins you speak of are not yours to punish,” I retorted, weaving my flames into intricate patterns that formed a protective dome around the remaining villagers. “They are trials of the mortal realm, not reasons for wholesale destruction. I have sworn to defend this land from your kind of chaos!”

He lunged but I was ready for it.

With a swift, decisive movement, I slashed through the air with my sword, sending a cascade of fire that struck the dragon’s flank. It howled in pain and fury, its long tail whipping the air with a force that sent shockwaves through the burning village. Opening my beak, I sent flames that painted the sky in oranges and reds.

A slash as fast as lightning struck, his claws scratching my inner elbow between my armor. With a hiss, I swung upward with my blade, striking the dragon’s thigh, and spraying blood over the land.

“You will find no solace in the destruction you seek!” I continued, pressing the attack. The dragon parried my next swing, making me twist, and shouldered his form,taking both of us to the ground in a thunderous crash of titans. “The balance of the world is not yours to disrupt.”

And neither is it yours, warrior.

Our bodies this close, the dragon strikes with his razor fangs through my shoulder armor, sinking into my flesh. With a hiss, I flip the hilt of my blade and slam it down, through the dragon’s neck. The copper tang of his blood sprays on my face as a familiar feminine scream pierces my soul.

Whipping my head in the direction of the sound, all the calamity around me muffled, drowned out by her next scream.

My soul pulses as if searching for its other half.

“You think yourself a savior, but you are just another pawn in this cosmic game!” The dragon choked, gurgling on his own life force as it went down his throat.

I frantically searched the disarray of mortals scattering like insects to zone in on one figure being dragged to the middle of the destroyed village. Fury climbed as one of them kicked the back of her legs, forcing her to her knees.

I saw red.

The dragon’s tail let out one final whiplash before his soul left the mortal plane. Dropping the corpse, I dislodged my blade and twirled it with my wrist, ready to exact destruction on the village I came to save.

“She’s the one! It’s her fault! She called upon the Karura! She’s the reason our village is destroyed!” one of the men sneered as he grabbed her long black hair,jerked her head back, and placed a short blade to her delicate throat.

My pupils contracted, my sole focus on her worried expression. In her right hand, she clutched a familiar amulet tightly in her fist. Her eyes, glistening with unshed tears, stared directly into mine.

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