You stood at the edge of Crater Lake. The water boiled as the earth's deep rumbling rose and surrounded you. This was it. You were confident that everyone else would be safe but you were trembling in fear. You feared for yourself. You hadn't really thought about it much before but you feared death, you feared the loss of existence. You let your essence seep into the earth and circled the edge of the crater, dipping down further then rising back up at the small, disconnected wizard island that stood alone in the lake. You felt as lonely as the little island was. As you tried to focus your energy you felt something growing, something else, as though something was trying to pull you in a certain direction. You looked in that direction and saw a speck in the sky, rapidly drawing nearer.
As the speck turned into a body and the body came into clear view, you realised it was Jack. You turned to him gratefully as he landed beside you, his eye full of concern. "Terra what's going on?" he asked, "It's - ", your reply was cut short by the sound of sleigh bells and you looked up to see North in his sleigh, and Sandy and bunny along with him. The sleigh landed near you and Tooth followed after it, her wings humming. You stared in astonishment as the Guardians faced you, there to offer you aid. You looked into each pair of eyes, full of determination and saw they were not just your guardians, but your friends. "Guys it's dangerous here, he's too powerful -", "We won't let you go without a fight" Tooth said, he crown of feathers flaring as she smiled at you in determination.
The water in the lake suddenly stopped boiling and the rumbling stopped. Everyone looked around to see what had happened. And as the steam lifted you saw a black figure rising from the lake. The other caught sight of it too and turned to watch as the giant dragon, which was now twice his original size. The lava that shifted beneath his scale was cooling and heating with the constant heat from his powerful body and the water from the lake. Exscidium loomed over the small island and sneer, letting loose a ferocious roar. Bunny reacted by hurling a boomerang at him. Exscidium snapped it up in his jaws and spat it back at Bunny, the now flaming boomerang impaling the earth inches away from Bunny's feet. Exscidium let out a low, guttural laugh, baring his jagged yellow teeth. North threw a sword at the beast, the blade skewering his shoulder, but not deep enough to cause him harm.
The beast lowered his head and blew out and explosive burst of hot ash and debris, knocking everyone off their feet and scattering them. You got up slowly, the pain of the burning ash, surrounded your body. As the ash settled you saw he had pushed you all back to the edge of Wizard Island, nearer to the craters edge. You looked around for you friends, finding them scattered around you. Tooth and Bunny had been hit by hot rocks, the burns more sever on their body. Sandy hovered over them, herding them to the side, out of Exscidium's direct path. He was to strong, he so much as breathed on you and you were all on the ground. There wasn't any stopping fate. Jack and North who hadn't been hit directly came to stand by your side as you backed up to the edge of the island, the water less than a metre from your heels. Exscidium made a slow, deliberate slither in your direction, any tree in his path obliterated. You took a step forward when Jack stopped you. "You're not going to Terra. There's still a chance -" "No there isn't, Jack, it has to be now" you said, stopping him mid-sentence. You saw him search, desperately, for some reason, some excuse to stop you. "I thought we'd have more time" he finally said, choking on his words. His icy eyes glistened, threatening to shed tears. "I wish we did" you said, "maybe I'll be the first to come back" you said. Jack stared at you in defeat. You pressed your lips to his suddenly, passionately, but briefly, before pushing away and turning to face Exscidium.
He was almost upon you. Before you could think, you charged him, and he gladly accepted your challenge, picking up the pace and diving towards you and you felt one final burst of power pulse through your veins as you collided with the giant beast.
Jack was pulled out of his shock suddenly by the site of Terra running towards Exscidium. Things happened suddenly. Jack yelled out her name, the dragon dove at her and she brought a glowing hand down on the beast's snout. As this happened and the two made contact a white light erupted from Terra, it burned so bright it stung Jacks eyes and he clamped them shut and shielded them. The power sent a radial burst through the atmosphere that knocked the air out of Jack's lungs. He looked up to see the light was now tolerable and Exscidium were gone but the light that stemmed from where they were, it was growing, twisting, branches of light erupted from it, literal branches. The light twisted into the shape of a tree and solidified from its roots up. Jack flew up to the tree. As he got closer he saw various ancient symbols engraved into the bark. Jack ran his hand along them "Terra?" he whispered. He heard the others run up behind him.
The tree was oak and stood out among the spruce and pine that was around the island. Jack stood back, the tree was glowing. He felt a little bit of hope "she's still in there somewhere" he said, more to himself than the others. Suddenly the leaves on the tree began to smoke, and then started burning. Jack panicked and sent an icy wind over it. The leaves went out only to light back up again. Every time jack tried to put out the fire, it sparked back up, but Jack didn't stop trying to put it out. The other Guardians just stood back and watched him with pity.
You brought the beast down with you, your roots extending deeper and deeper into the earth. The beast struggle but your roots held him, dragging him down. You almost lost your grip once you passed the crust. Below the crust was his domain, molten magma coursed beneath the earth and scorched you, you knew it wouldn't kill you, not yet, but you felt as though it was melting you alive. You travelled faster, struggling more to keep Exscidium at bay as he drew strength from the heat. The pain intensified and you screamed but nothing could be heard but a roaring caused by the power that coursed through you. The heat got worse and worse as you drew nearer to the core and you knew you were growing weak. Exscidium knew it too and he struggled further, but you didn't let him go. You felt the core now, its intense heat near unbearable. You felt your energy suddenly drain much faster and you began to fade, and so with that last burst of life you penetrated the core, your essence surrounding it and trapping Exscidium inside, just long enough for another to be chosen and take over. You felt your essence spread and as it faded so did you, your conscience slipping into eternal darkness.
So this is actually the 2nd last chapter. Just in case you thought this was over