The King of Eidolons had been pacing in thought at the border of the Summoned Lands, when grief came crashing in waves over his body not unlike the sea during an unexpected storm. A roar tore out of his maw, ringing far and wide as the draconic Eidolons that remained howled their resonant pain across the far corners of the land.

Asura the Queen approached him, waiting for his acknowledgement before she spoke.

"It's time. Achlys and her summoner are slain, just as Odin forewarned." His eyes widened at the news.

"And Erebus? Has he strayed from us?"

"Yes."

Leviathan snarled.

"Just as he'd forewarned," he echoed bitterly.

Betrayal, not just of his home, but of his family as well. The mist dragon, murdered, and the shadow dragon, become traitor. Odin was right after all - and they had discarded his warnings as an attempt to needlessly pull the Eidolons into an incoming war among men.

I have been called by the darkness, and when it calls again I will be compelled to answer.

Erebus's supplications for forgiveness as he answered the first blasphemous call were ignored, even after Odin had informed them of the celestial scheme underway.

"Sacrilegious fool! To allow himself to bind to one who dares disregard the covenant. He will suffer our rage," Leviathan swore. Asura interrupted his diatribe, urgency in her voice.

"We have to close ourselves off from the valley. It's the only way to prevent the Lunarian from inflicting his binds on more Eidolons. The other summoners - they dispatched our kin from Mist when Achlys died. He will call again, and, if allowed, he will enslave more than Erebus."

Leviathan took deep breaths, feeling the pain fester into a growing sore in his chest. He turned to Asura, her faces betraying her emotions: anger, apprehension, and worst of all, fear. The waves of pain didn't stop, the oaths taken by full blooded summoners allowed him to sense the moment they were snuffed out. One by one, like the wicks of candles caught in a strong breeze, the summoners perished, until he could only sense one left. The time to act was now.

"Titan!" His voice bellowed, and the giant appeared before him, bowing.

"You called for me," he rumbled, waiting for instructions.

"When she calls, you will answer. Sense her anger. Sense her pain. Sense the grief that will summon you despite the missing bond and destroy the interdimensional barrier at Mist."

"So it will be done." Titan stood, towering over Leviathan and Asura as he left to stand guard at the veil between the Feymarch and Mist. Asura lurched, and Leviathan waited to see which identity spoke to him now.

"She is unprepared for the toll it will take to hold Titan to the mortal realm," Asura the Healer said, following him. "I'll keep her alive - if I can."

Leviathan thought on the prophecy created years ago. Would it come to pass now?

"Whyt, " he said, softly this time. In a burst of white smoke, Whyt appeared at his side, chirping excitedly.

"She is your summoner, is she not? Yes, it's time. You will stay with her, but you will also begin your transformation into the next mist dragon. It is only right that the honor is bestowed unto you," Leviathan said. Whyt jumped up and down excitedly, fading away as the king dismissed him.

If Asura can keep her alive, he thought. Only time will tell if the way of summoners will survive, or if the Eidolons would need to find a new calling. An innate part of himself knew a new era was ushering in.

He soared through the air to be next to his mate, waiting for the familiar tear in dimensions. Soon, the veil began to quiver, at first a web disturbed by a moving spider. As the arcane magic grew stronger, the veil began tearing apart, the fabric popping and crackling until nothing was left but a gaping hole between their land and the mortal realm.

The soul of the last summoner seeped through, teary eyed and glowering with rage as she screamed. Titan reached for her hands, and she grasped his thumb, barely able to wrap her arms around it. Once secure, she pulled back and they melded together in the aether, souls intertwined to become one. Through the veil they saw Titan's physical form tear through the ground between Mist and Kaipo, arms swinging down on the earth to create a massive fissure, the edges rising ever higher to form peaks.

Asura began chanting, healing magic snaking like tendrils across the plane between the worlds and sweeping through the child, her mortal vessel knelt on the ground unmoving and oblivious to her surroundings. The magic continued to pour into her; her small body threatening to disintegrate from the sheer power the summon required, not to mention the violation of the oath she and her ancestors had made with the Feymarch since time immemorial.

The two men who'd unknowingly assassinated Achlys had been separated by the fissure. The one closest to the last summoner reached her and threw his body across hers, letting the flying rocks pelt his back as a shield. The other, the one dressed as a dragon, was launched back, past the Mist Caves and into the forest. Likely due to the deference he held to the wind, he managed to land on his feet and headed towards the kingdom south of Mist.

The earth stilled, and in place of the closing barrier were new, sharp mountains, the mist pooling along the borders of the newly formed basin and mixing with the smoke from the razed village. Titan stepped across as it finished sealing and his body dissipated. The soul of the summoner simultaneously disentangled from his as she closed her eyes and fell back into her body. The last image they saw as the gate shut was that of the unconscious girl, no older than seven and yet capable of harnessing the wrath of Titan and surviving.

Leviathan was in awe. Asura took a step back, breathing heavily from the exertion of magic she'd used.

"She's the strongest summoner I've ever seen. With the right instruction, she could've been the strongest mortal on Earth. However, witnessing the genocide of her people and the subsequent strain of summoning Titan through her anger has fragmented her spirit. I fixed what I could, but it's possible she'll lose her white magic.." She trailed off.

"Capable of summoning even us, isn't she? We must keep an eye on her."

"With no one to teach her, I'm afraid her potential has gone to waste," Asura pointed out.

"Then we will," he said. Asura turned in surprise. "We will, because this war has now invaded our realm and spat on our way of life. What's been done to us is an affront to our identity and our security. I will not stand by and let anyone take from us that which was not bestowed."

"When will we train her?" she asked. Leviathan paused, thinking briefly.

"When she has known enough of war to want to fight, too. It needs to be her decision as much as it is ours."

"We ask for much from one so young."

"Do we have any other choice?" Leviathan asked.

"No," Asura responded. She stood taller and prouder; it was Asura the Warrior's turn to speak.

"The wheels of a fate greater than us all are turning now."

She sensed it, too, Leviathan realized. He considered the man in the dark armor, his dual nature betrayed as he protected the summoner with his life.

"Then we are as involved as anyone," he said, resolute.

A/N: It never made sense to me why Golbez could also summon. Or why Titan specifically came to Rydia's aid. That's it; that's what prompted this.