I do not own Legend of Dragoon or any of the characters.


God of Destruction

Cade took a long, deep breath, ignoring Melbu Frahma's gloating, focusing his power. Then, as agreed, he fired the first strike in their final battle. He held out the Psychedelic Bomb's crystal and focused his magic into it to activate it along his line of sight without having to throw the crystal. Instantly, a vortex of rainbow-colored Magic Energy, more dense and powerful than Cade's silver explosion spell, began to form in front of Melbu Frahma, who shouted in surprise, more and more Magic Energy flooding into the rapidly expanding vortex from the Moon That Never Sets itself, using the God of Destruction's own power to fuel an attack against it. Then, Cade formed a crystalline barrier around them all just before the vortex erupted into a massive, blinding, rainbow-colored explosion. Melbu Frahma's shriek of rage and pain extended past the explosion just as Cade and the others reached him, their barriers breaking apart just before they struck. Cade and Rose crossed at Melbu Frahma's chest, splitting him open before swinging around as Dart slashed him down the front. Albert reached him and spun, his spear head tearing through Melbu Frahma's abdomen from right to left, then stabbing into his chest. He flew backward instantly, clearing the way for Kongol to split Melbu Frahma down the front, then flip and embed his axe in Melbu Frahma's chest. Meru's hammer exploded into it a second later, then Haschel's fist, sending Melbu Frahma exploding into the Moon's core. Kongol tilted his axe and dropped, ripping it out through his bottom just as a dozen arrows drilled into Melbu Frahma's arms, pinning them firmly to the core. Then, Cade, Rose, and Dart tore into Melbu Frahma again and again, streaking around and around for more and more passes before both Dart and Rose finished their strings of attacks with a blast of Darkness Magic Energy and Dart's new non-elemental Magic Energy, which was a light, silvery blue and more pure and potent than Rose's.

Melbu Frahma thrashed and roared in pain before four new tentacles grew out of the core to replace those that had been burned away by the Psychedelic Bomb. The tentacles whipped downward at Rose and Dart, only for both to retreat, avoiding the tentacles just before Cade slashed the two on Melbu Frahma's left off, then teleported to the other side, slashing those two off as he slashed back upward. Melbu Frahma ripped his right arm free just as Cade held his hand in the air, shoving his newly expanded Magic Power into action, mimicking what he'd sensed Faust's do. Clouds formed high above them as the world around them distorted. Then, a massive ball of fire, larger than Melbu Frahma but smaller than Faust's, fell from the clouds like a meteor, crashing into Melbu Frahma and erupting into a massive explosion. As it began to clear, Cade shot forward, stabbing Melbu Frahma through the abdomen, the edge of his blade upward, then shot upward, slashing up and out of him before vanishing just ahead of a swipe from four freshly regenerated tentacles, reappearing with the others.

Melbu Frahma roared in pain, fully healed, as Cade had expected, and held his hands in front of his chest, a circle forming ass Wingly symbols began to spiral around the outside. Instantly, Albert began to cast Rose Storm, finishing granting their barriers just as a ring of flames formed around them, rapidly heating the air and ground inside. Cade once again formed a crystalline barrier around them just before the spell exploded, a suffocating amount of heat hitting them all, but the flames and concussion of the explosion failing to breach their barriers. The moment the spell had ended, everyone else struck. Meru encased Melbu Frahma in ice using three massive formations slamming into him at once, then smashed them with an arc of frozen Magic Energy, Kongol actually surprised Cade by managing to form a pocket dimension and summon a meteor, then fly up to meet it and shatter it with his fist, sending countless fragments the side of Cade's head exploding down on Melbu Frahma with the force of a small explosion, Albert sent a razor-sharp trail of Wind Magic ripping across the ground into Melbu Frahma where it exploded into first a tornado that tore at Melbu Frahma's body, then a sphere of Wing Magic before finally exploding, Miranda used Star Children to rain blasts of Light Magic on Melbu Frahma and the four tentacles thrashing around him before engulfing all four in a pillar of Light Magic, Haschel coated himself in Lightning Magic and shot down into the ground before bursting out of it several times as he headed for Melbu Frahma, setting off a massive electrical explosion as he finally exploded up from the ground below Melbu Frahma, and drilled a lightning-empowered uppercut into his chin for good measure, and Rose used Astral Drain to heal Cade, seeming to have realized at some point that he actually hadn't recovered fully from Melbu Frahma's attack earlier.

Melbu Frahma fell limp for a moment once all of the spells ended, then rose back up, roaring angrily. As he did, three Virage fell from above. Cade snarled in rage as they landed in a triangle around them all, and he and Rose both spun, circling with each other as their blades slashed all three Virage, making them stagger backward and tilt away from them just before they fired a laser each. The blasts exploded somewhere above them, bits of stone and shattered wood falling around them before Cade swung his sword in a circle overhead. the air began to rage into a powerful wind above them, forming the same cyclone spell as Faust had used and sucking the Virage into it. Then, Cade swung his sword down to point at Melbu Frahma, and the storm tilted, aiming at Melbu Frahma before suddenly firing a barrage of shredded Virage parts into him as projectiles. Cade's free hand snapped up instantly, his palm extended toward the back of the still spinning cyclone before he formed a fist and ripped it back to his side. Instantly, all of the Wind Magic inside of the storm, both raw Magic Energy and blades of razor-sharp wind, exploded out of the cyclone into Melbu Frahma, blasting him into the core and ripping massive gashes into him.

"Amazing!" Meru gaped. "It's even more powerful than Faust's!"

"No," Cade said. "If Faust had wanted to, he could have put all his power into any one of his spells and killed us, but he was arrogant and didn't see us as a threat, so he neglected to really try."

He drained a magic potion, then cast the bottle aside as Melbu Frahma pushed himself up again, once again roaring in rage. Dozens of tentacles burst out of the core around him, but just as they did, Dart shot into the air before angling his left shoulder toward Faust. A section of it opened, revealing dozens of small openings, which began to spray a massive flood of the same magic blasts as the Divine Dragon could fire from his chest. Explosions blanketed the world before them, the explosions all merging into a bigger and bigger blast until the attack finally ended. As it did, Melbu Frahma roared in rage. He raised his arm, but just as his hand flashed red to use the same attack that should have killed Cade, Cade appeared beside him, severing his arm at the bicep and making the laser punch into the ground. Then, Cade spun, severing Melbu Frahma's head from his neck before teleporting back to the others again. As he did, darkness suddenly swallowed all light, leaving them all blind. After a few seconds, a a small light streaked past them, like a shooting star. Then another past, then another. Suddenly, tiny specks of light were flashing past them on all sides, forming a sort of tunnel in the center with everyone floating roughly in the center of it. Before them, there was something totally different than what they had been fighting. It was shaped almost like what Cade had been told a heart should actually look like if it were removed from a chest. It had mostly silver covering it, but parts of it looked like gold. There were a pair of openings facing them near the top, one roughly centered at the top, and one on the thing's right side and slightly higher, and on the thing's left side, pointing off to the side, was a tube that looked like some kind of barrel. The thing had three arm-like appendages on its right side, and one extending forward on its left side, the tip of that one open. The only thing that identified this misshapen thing as the God of Destruction was Melbu Frahma's face just below the right-most hole, though his eyes were closed, as though he were asleep.

"Disgusting," Rose spat.

"Be careful," Cade warned them all. "His power has increased. Drastically."

They all nodded just as one of the right arms swung up, a beam extending out from it before it swung it around at them like a blade. Cade shot forward, roaring in effort and slashing upward into the beam. His blade hit hard, but he managed to redirect it over himself. Then, once it had swung past them, they all shot forward, tearing into the thing. Cade noticed something instantly, and could tell that Rose and Dart did as well. Melbu Frahma's power may have doubled, but his form was severely limiting his ability to fight. The same arm that had used the odd, beam-like blade before continued to do so, slashing at them relentlessly as they all swarmed around and around him, striking at almost random intervals and in almost random combinations, Cade and Rose both also taking advantage of their blades' ability to extend to strike from a distance. Melbu Frahma was able to spin and move quickly, spinning almost constantly as it slashed with its blade, but with its arm's limited range of movement and its bloated, easily targeted form, it was almost easy for them to hold the upper hand, even without magic.

Suddenly, the right side hole on Melbu Frahma's front began to draw in anything before him, Rose, Meru, and Haschel all caught in its attraction, and were quickly sucked toward it. However, before they could reach it, Cade swiped his hands in a circle then upward, sending a volley of blasts raining down at Melbu Frahma, all of the blasts being sucked into the hole. A moment later, a massive explosion burst out of that hole, the other one on Melbu Frahma's front, the one on his left, and the open end of his left arm. Melbu Frahma's face shrieked, the sound vibrating, high, and unnatural. As soon as the suction ended, all three who were being pulled in shot forward, Rose slashing the thing across Melbu Frahma's face before Meru and Haschel both slammed devastating strikes into it, sending it streaking backward. Suddenly, as it stopped itself, flames began to roar past them from behind, gathering into a sphere behind Melbu Frahma. The flames raged for a long moment before the smoke they were releasing began to surround it before it swung around. The smoke passed over them as it lightened into a pale, whitish-grey, and when it had finished passing them, they found it was a cloud, and the fireball below them had become a rocky, desolate planet. It swung up toward them rapidly before slowing, depositing them all safely on top of a mountain, Melbu Frahma gone.

"Where is he!?" Albert shouted.

Before they could worry about it, the clouds began to unleash their fury, lightning striking the ground rapidly as they began to pour raindrops the size of coins that stung when they hit any exposed flesh. Within seconds, they were standing in ankle-deep water and the world around them had flooded around their mountain. Lightning struck the water rapidly and the ground began to shake violently, more and more mountains rising from the water, streams of excess water cascading down them in waterfalls. Then, as darkness fell and stars began to blaze to life in the sky, whole galaxies visible, it finally occurred to Cade what this was they were seeing. What was happening around them. It was Soa's plan. It was the progression of time and the development of the world. However, his realization was immediately made completely irrelevant by Melbu Frahma's presence returning once again, descending from the darkness above them, now more than four times as powerful as he had been at the beginning of their battle. He looked, now, like some form of flying ship. His body was extremely long, about a hundred feet in length, though only as tall as Kongol was in front, but at the rear, Melbu Frahma's new form had a round, shield-like piece sticking out on the left, and three almost wing-like fins sticking out on the right, then two more below it, one extending straight down like a rudder and one down and out to the left. On top of this newest form, a long, thin growth extended forward like a cannon, and the front end of Melbu Frahma's form was split in two. One of the pieces was detached and floating apart from the other half of what would be the bow of the ship. In between the two sections was a sphere of scarlet Magic Energy so powerful it hurt Cade's senses, and a blue sphere of Magic Energy twice the size of its red one was just behind it. There also seemed to be an opening about halfway along his new form, because there was a blue crystal sphere circling the back half of his form.

"He's changed his form again!" Haschel said.

"That's not all!" Rose warned. "He's doubled his power again!"

Melbu Frahma shuddered, then swung out the thing on his left side, which shone instantly.

Everyone tensed, only for stones about the size of a fist to begin being pulled into the shining center of the object. As they did, darkness engulfed everything else. Then, a planet passed Cade's head and his jaw dropped, eyes darting around rapidly. There was another planet. Another. There was Earth. And still the meteors flooded into the thing.

"Brace!" Cade shouted, forming a much, much stronger crystalline barrier around them all, just as the fins on the right side flashed and a galaxy began to spiral toward them quickly.

"Is that..." Meru gaped.

"This is gonna hurt!" Cade shouted.

Then, the galaxy reached them, starting with the meteors. They all shouted and screamed in pain as their bodies were battered endlessly by what felt like every chunk of stone and ice in the galaxy. Saturn slammed into Cade's head and flipped him backward, Mercury exploded into Rose's back, Jupiter bounced off of Kongol's face, scattering blood and teeth into the darkness of the space between planets. Then, Earth shot toward them, expanding rapidly, and they all fell through the atmosphere rapidly, punching a hole in a cloud before exploding into the ground hard enough to shatter it. Cade coughed up blood, slowly dragging himself up.

"Heaven's...Gate," Miranda groaned.

A beam of light slammed into the ground behind them, then swelled before opening into a pair of wings. As the light washed over them all, their wounds faded quickly. They all pushed themselves up just as the crystal began to streak around the back half of the ship-like deity before them, which Cade was only just now able to view as a deity. Nothing less could have thrown the galaxy at them. Just as he readied himself to create a barrier around them all, the sphere exploded out of the ship's form, exploding into Cade's chest and shattering his ribs again. He groaned pulling a healing potion out of his pocket, drinking it as the others finally began their assault, Dart opening their turn with the same attack he'd used against Melbu Frahma's first form. As the explosion faded, four spheres of hyper-condensed Magic Energy dropped out of the blue sphere. Once Cade was on his feet again, he swiped his arm in an "X", sending a massive beam of pure white light exploding down on Melbu Frahma, the beam wider than his form was long, unlike before, when it had been only slightly wider than Kongol's shoulders. As the light faded, the four spheres of blue energy shot into the air and exploded, fist-sized blasts of Magic Energy raining back down on them, barely held back by Cade and Albert's combined barriers. Once the blasts had ended, they all shot forward again, Cade teleporting out of the way of the crystal sphere for the second time. They all raced around Melbu Frahma as fast as they could, their attacks splitting his body over and over, only for him to spin, the right side of the front end of his ship-like form into Kongol, then slammed the front closed around him before dropping him, his entire body bruised and considerably thinner than he had been. Cade dropped beside him, pure white light shining from his hand before Kongol's body ballooned back to where it should be before Miranda's Moonlight reached him, healing him the rest of the way. Kongol pushed himself up, transforming back into his Dragoon Form just as meteors began to pass them for the second time, heading for Melbu Frahma.

"Oh no you fucking don't!" Cade shouted, casting his ultimate spell.

At the same time as the Magic Energy flooded toward Melbu Frahma, Magic Energy began to flood into Dart's cannon. Then, at the same time as the galaxy was passing next to the point where Cade's spell was charging, directly between Melbu Frahma and the others, Dart fired at the exact same moment as Cade's spell exploded. Instantly, the darkness around them shattered, along with the galaxy Melbu Frahma had fired, and the two, overlapping explosions, both many times wider than Melbu Frahma was long, raged for many more seconds before fading, leaving Melbu Frahma once again missing. Suddenly, a fish jumped from the water off to the side, and when the ripples reached land, they continued, spreading green grass and forests, the mountain becoming a grassland with an ocean before them. Birds flew through the air, a lizard watched them from a tree. Then, images began to flash through their head, still frames, like carvings, or sketches, blinding them to the world before their eyes. The images showed humans, or at least, the main intelligent species, passing through the ages. Their technology, culture, even the clarity of the images, changing with each image. There were images of peace, images of war, images of reconciliation, images of farming, of new life, of death. The last image, however, was of despair, and as the images faded, Cade saw why.

The world had changed. What once was a world full of life was now a scene of death and destruction and horror. The seas had been replaced by blood and lava, and there was no longer any visible ground. Instead, mountains of bones, Human, Giganto, Mininto, Wingly, animal, were piled so high that they extended more than a hundred feet above the blood and lava, not counting however deep the blood and lava were. They were standing on an island of bones, and Melbu Frahma's current form hovered before them. This time, it looked like a flat mushroom on top, then a bloated body extending from the underside and reaching backward. He had a long, thin tail ending in three wicked, curved blades, a pair of wings extending down and outward from her sides, his face on the front of the mushroom, and four long, barrel-like tubes extending forward from the topmost section of its body.

"It just keeps getting weirder," Meru said.

"Focus, Meru!" Cade snapped.

His entire body was trembling both from the sheer ocean of power he could sense from Melbu Frahma, and from the recognition of knowing this was their last chance. If they couldn't kill it in this form, permanently, then his future really would be set in stone.

"I've had enough!" Rose snarled. "All of you, focus! Call your dragons' power!"

All of the Dragoons focused, and a pocket dimension began to form around them, rainbow in color due to the colors of all of their Dragoon Magic mixing. All except Dart's. Dart, instead, began to charge both of his spells at the same time. Cade likewise began to focus his magic. Then, six massive dragons of all shapes and sizes appeared. Kongol's attacked first, falling on the floor of the pocket dimension and transformed it into a sand sinkhole, only to then blast Melbu Frahma as he fell into the hole. As he fell, the ground froze, and he crashed down on ice. A moment later, the ice all but exploded as Meru's fish-like dragon jumped up through the ice, forming the water suddenly below the ice into a massive water tornado, which once again hurled Melbu Frahma high into the air before he crashed back down. Then, Rose's dragon dragged it into a shadow before streaking forward, its bottom fin severing the shadow and causing anything inside of it to be blasted by a flood of Darkness Magic as the dimension or space inside the shadow all but exploded inside, then spat Melbu Frahma back out. As it crashed to the ground, Haschel's dragon, a massive, powerfully built dragon with massive spikes sticking forward off of it, rammed Melbu Frahma, setting off a massive explosion. Then, Cade used the Psychedelic Bomb again, charging it with more of his own magic this time, and at the same moment it finished charging, Miranda's dragon fired a beam of blinding Light Magic, Albert's unleashed a massive blast of Wind Magic, and Dart fired his two spells. A moment later, they all slipped out of the pocket dimension, now a shining spot of light above the island of bones, just before the resulting explosion. Shining cracks began to spread from the spot of light, then further. Finally, it shattered, and Melbu Frahma's burnt husk crashed to the ground, only to begin regenerating instantly as it rose into the ground again. Then, suddenly, something appeared over it and Cade's gut dropped. The Dragon Block Staff. It activated instantly, pulling in a spectral version of all of the others' Dragons before the staff faded.

"No way!" Miranda breathed.

"We can't..." Meru shook her head, then narrowed her eyes, extending her wings. "No. We don't have that option."

"We don't have any options," Cade said, jaw set. "We fight. There is no other choice."

The others nodded, and Cade and Meru took off, Rose slashing rapidly with the Dragon Buster's blade extended, even as she charged with everyone but Miranda. Cade slashed Melbu Frahma across the side, but just as he did, Melbu Frahma proved just how uphill the battle had become. He tilted his head backward and fired a golden laser into the dark clouds above. A hole opened and light shone from it just before dozens of the same armed Winglies Archangel could summon swarmed downward. Meru shouted in fear as Cade raced upward. Rose's rapier spun into the air, and he caught it before his blades began to clash with the incoming army's. Except, there was a difference this time. The Winglies Melbu Frahma had summoned were all faster and stronger. Every clash of Cade's blade and another knocked his blade aside, and for every successful block, three blades tore into him. Finally, the last passed and Cade fell. He crashed down hard and Rose sprinted for him, skidding to a stop behind him and lifting his upper body, pouring a potion down his throat. Cade groaned, picking up both blades just as the same exact lightning construct as Faust could make appeared over them, only much more powerful. His eyes went wide, and Rose also stared up at it. Then, just as the hammer fell, Haschel roared in preparation to be in pain and intercepted the strike. The magic didn't hurt him, but the explosion still sent him crashing to the ground. Cade shoved himself up, pointing at him as he drained another potion before spinning back toward Melbu Frahma.

The battle was not going well. As he turned to them, Kongol was struck in an upward strike by Melbu Frahma's tail, and hurled skyward. Dart leapt into the air, but was only barely able to slash the underside of Melbu Frahma's body. Meru slammed her hammer into the top of Melbu Frama's head, forcing him toward the ground, and Albert slashed over his head with his spear, then spun and slashed again. Kongol crashed down on top of Melbu Frahma, axe first, and slammed it into the ground. No one missed a beat. In an instant, Dart, Albert, Rose, Meru, and Haschel tore into Melbu Frahma anywhere their strikes could reach. Then, symbols appeared around the edge of the top of Melbu Frahma's head before a single, large seal flashed in the center and the symbols faded. As they did, however, all light vanished. Then, suddenly, agony flared in Cade's side as something tore through his side. Then his back. His chest. His abdomen. His other side. His abdomen. His leg. His back. His other leg. His chest and down into his abdomen. Finally, the darkness around them faded and they all began to try to push themselves back up. Cade was out of potions, but that didn't matter. Miranda seemed to understand what needed to be done, because she transformed instantly and began to cast Heaven's Gate. Melbu Frahma spun toward Miranda, only for a flood of magic blasts to explode down on top of his head, courtesy of Cade. As the blasts ended, and Melbu Frahma began to rise again, Cade swiped his arm in an "X" and a blast of Light Magic began to explode down on it, once again forcing it to the ground. This time, everyone began to tear into Melbu Frahma, even wounded. Then, finally, Heaven's Gate began to heal them all and Miranda transformed back. Cade's spell ended, and everyone leapt away as Melbu Frahma spun, his claws raking through the air and only narrowly missing them all.

As he did, however, Wind Magic raged around him, and he flew upward just as Faust's cyclone spell formed around him, more than double the size of Faust's. Cade roared in effort instantly, forming his own cyclone spell and sending it crashing into Melbu Frahma's, only for his to disperse like mist against a wall. Then, they were all sucked into the typhoon. Cade looked around frantically, and finally, he spotted him. Melbu Frahma was hovering in the center of the typhoon, all of them speeding toward him as they were whipped around and around the tornado, broken chunks of bone and razor-sharp wind blades tearing at them. Cade swiped his hand through the air frantically. A moment later, massive icicles, magic blasts, a beam of Light Magic, a rain of condensed Darkness Magic droplets began to slam into Melbu Frahma, all forming less than a foot from him before firing to prevent them from being caught by the tornado. Finally, the tornado faded and they all fell, crashing to the ground, except Cade, who managed to catch himself with his wings. Just as soon as he did, however, Melbu Frahma shone a red laser at Cade before forming four golden lasers extended from the four barrels below its head. The lasers stopped just ahead of Melbu Frahma and formed a gold square at the end, the red laser extending from the center of it before they all angled away from each other, expanding the square. Then, suddenly, there was a second Cade inside of the square. Suddenly, Melbu Frama was also inside of the space within the golden light in a form similar to his first one but lacking the tail that had attached him to the Moon's core. Attached to his arm was a weapon nearly identical to the Dragon Buster, but with a trident end. He slashed the second Cade across the chest and a matching wound appeared on Cade's chest. He slashed again, once again wounding the real Cade. Then, he drove his free hand into the second Cade's chest, a matching wound bursting open in Cade's chest before both the second Melbu Frahma and the second Cade faded along with the red laser and the gold light. Cade fell, crashing to the ground, and Meru reached his side in an instant, rolling him onto his side and pouring a pair of the special healing potions from where they'd fought Lenus the second time onto him. His wounds shrank, but didn't close.

"Cade, please!" Meru pleaded. "You need to get up! We need you!"

Cade groaned, pushing himself up slowly and began to use his own healing spell on himself, getting his wounds almost sealed before flying into the air again, panting. Just as he did, Melbu Frahma finished casting another spell, in this case using Flash Hall on Kongol, four lightning bolts striking around him before a single massive one exploded back up from below him, hurling Kongol into the air. He crashed back to the ground, then struggled to his feet, horribly burned and bleeding. None of them were doing well. They weren't going to last much longer if something didn't change. As if on cue, Melbu Frahma shook his head, dropping a pair of monsters that looked like skin-colored leaches to the ground. They both sprouted arms and pushed themselves up, floating into the air as their mouths, fang-filled slits down the front of their bodies, opened and unleashed loud shrieks, their beady eyes staring at each of the others hungrily. Cade shook his head. No more. He swiped his hand through the air, silver light shining from his hands. Silver Magic Energy swarmed toward Melbu Frahma, and just before it exploded, Cade formed a sideways claw with his hand, then formed a fist and ripped his hand back. A massive, crimson barrier appeared around Melbu Frahma and both of his new pets. Then, Cade's ultimate spell exploded, filling the barrier and merging with the second spell's own explosions. As the explosions raged, Cade spun, stabbing his magic sword into the ground and holding out both hands, blinding white light shining from them onto the others, healing them enough for them all to stand. Finally, he turned back to Melbu Frahma just as the spells faded, leaving a heavily damaged Melbu Frahma behind, though he was beginning to regenerate already. As he was, however, the Dragon Block Staff reappeared over Melbu Frahma, only to explode, the spectral dragons returning to their respective Dragoons. As soon as it had, Dart transformed, already charging his cannon. Then, he fired, the blast exploding into Melbu Frahma and erupting into an explosion rivalling Cade's ultimate spell for size, though surpassing it in power. As the explosion faded, Melbu Frahma was burning, the front half of his head blasted off, his tail missing halfway down, and more and more flames were exploding out of his body every few seconds. Melbu Frahma screamed in pain just before his left eye exploded outward to be replaced by flames, and he fell. A second later, it exploded into a massive fireball, everyone else flying out of the way in their Dragoon Forms.

"We did it!" Meru cheered.

"Miranda, heal us all, now!" Cade snapped.

Miranda jumped, but complied as the world around them faded before returning to the reality of the inside of the Moon. A few seconds later, Heaven's Gate finished healing them all fully, and Cade took a deep, steadying breath as he watched the sea of flames. Dart and Rose had returned to Shana and Zieg respectively, but Cade made no move to join them, even as the others began to head for them. All but Meru, who remained resolutely at Cade's side.

"We can still win," Meru said. "You said his core was exposed. We can kill him without you following your vision."

"No, we can't," Cade said.

"Damn you all!" Melbu Frahma roared, rising from the flames as a massive, twisted thing created from dark flesh.

A pillar of it, ending where the Moon's core had merged with his body fully, about half of it exposed, then the flesh reaching up from it on Melbu Frahma's right side to Melbu Frahma's torso, missing below the ribs and with his ribs and spine exposed. His right arm extended into a massive shoulder, then downward into an enormous right arm.

"How dare you!?" Melbu Frahma seethed. "Inferior Humans...filthy parasite...cannot outshine me...a god!"

Cade shot forward with Meru as the others all stared in shock. Cade made the first pass, slashing him up the front, and Meru followed it up with a devastating blow to the head. Melbu Frahma roared, a sphere of light appearing in his right palm before unleashing a swarm of green Magic Energy blasts just as everyone else but Dart charged.

The blasts raced outward, blasting into them all, Dart using his body to shield Shana. The others all exploded into the wall. They all charged again instantly, including Dart this time, but Melbu Frahma swung his arm, swatting everyone but Cade away like flies. Cade roared in annoyance, wiping his fingers in a circle, then upward, but when the blasts began to rain back down on Melbu Frahma, they did nothing. Literally. They didn't even leave a scorch mark. Melbu Frahma roared in rage and swung his arm up, a beam almost identical to Dart's Divine Dragon Cannon flashed from his palm, exploding into Cade and sending him exploding backward through a root and into a wall of stone, shattering it. Cade caught himself with his wings, the crystalline barrier that had done next to nothing to protect him shattering.

"It's too strong!" Miranda shouted, firing arrow after arrow into the core, only for the arrows to shatter against it. "I can't even hurt it!"

"Our dragons might!" Albert said, then shouted in effort.

The others all did the same, but just as all of their dragons appeared, Melbu Frahma blasted the dragons with the same attack he'd started with, all of the dragons vanishing in the explosions as the pocket dimension faded. Cade grit his teeth. It was time. The others all charged, only for Melbu Frahma's palm to pulse, blasts of Magic Energy raining from the darkness above, blasting them all into the roots below, Dart and Rose crashing down by Shana and Zieg. Cade swallowed hard as the others all flew back up to Dart and Rose, watching Melbu Frahma carefully.

"Only one," Cade muttered, recalling Haschel asking him if he had a spell that could kill the God of Death. "Only the one."

"Cade, no!" Meru shrieked. "You can't!"

"I have to," Cade said, pulling out the Psychedelic bomb and using magic to replace the Divine Dragon's eye, which he tossed to Lloyd. "It's the only way."

"What's he doing?" Rose asked, just as the magic particles around the ends of Cade's pauldron wings more than quadrupled in length.

A ring of shining swords the same color as the magic particles of his wings formed around him, beginning to spin around him at a greater and greater speed before beginning to tilt as a ring, moving so that their blades faced Melbu Frahma.

"He's using a sacrificial spell to turn his Magic Energy and lifeforce, as well as that of whatever his blade pierces, into a single, massive explosion!" Meru shrieked.

"No!" Rose shrieked.

"You all have to go!" Cade shouted, turning profile to Melbu Frahma and pulling his sword back, his blade pointed at his target. "Now!"

Then, he exploded forward. As one, his Magic Sword and the blades around him all drove themselves hilt-deep into the core. Melbu Frahma shrieked in pain, reaching for him, but a pulse of Magic Energy exploded from his Magic Sword, obliterating his arm for half its length. Magic Energy began to flood into the sword from both Melbu Frahma as Cade's Magic Energy flooded the blades around him. Melbu Frahma roared in pain, firing a barrage of Magic Blasts, but a barrier formed around him, blocking it, the barrier aligned into a perfect spherical shape over Cade along the swords, but stopping against the core. Rose screamed at Cade to stop, but he ignored her, roaring in effort and agony, shoving with all his might, forcing Melbu Frahma back to the wall.

"Rose!" Dart shouted, holding Shana. "We have to go!"

Above him, Haschel, Kongol, Lloyd and Albert were all dragging Meru by the limbs as they fled. Meru was shrieking profanities and fighting with all she was worth to reach Cade, to stop him. Dart, seeing Rose wasn't moving, swallowed hard before turning and fleeing with Shana.

"Rose," Zieg said at last. "You have to go."

"We can't leave him!" Rose shrieked, tears flooding down her face. "I can't lose him!"

"I know, Rose," Zieg smiled, cupping her face. "You won't. You're taking him with you."

Rose's screams and sobs caught, and she turned her eyes to him, her eyes widening. "Zieg..."

"I can do it," Zieg said. "Melbu Frahma possessing me granted me insight into Wingly Magic, and the ability to use it. I can use the same spell he is."

"No!" Rose shrieked, terror in her eyes. "You can't! I can't lose you! I can't lose either of you! I just got you back! You can't do this to me again!"

"Rose," Zieg smiled. "I will always love you. But...you and I...we had our time. We had our life together. Maybe it wasn't the one we wanted, but it was ours. But our time has passed. I'm your past. Your future is with him."

"Please, Zieg!" Rose sobbed. "I can't! I need you!"

"No, you don't," Zieg smiled. "Not anymore."

He kissed her, then pulled away, and despite Rose sobbing and begging him to stay, she didn't hold him. She allowed him to slip from her grasp. Zieg smiled one last time, then turned, extending his wings and exploding off the ground, the Dragon Buster fusing itself to his right hand as he streaked through the air, then extending before it exploded into Melbu Frahma's core beside Cade's Magic Sword.

"What are you doing here!?" Cade demanded.

"The right thing," Zieg said, then grabbed Cade's Magic Sword, ramming his shoulder into Cade and knocking him away.

Instantly, Cade's spell ended, his wings fading entirely as his lifeforce settled. Within a second, Zieg had fused the Dragon Buster and Cade's Magic Sword using Melbu Frahma's own Magic Energy to power his spell, then restarted the sacrificial spell, the combined sword shining brilliantly as fiery red swords appeared around him and hilted themselves in the core before erupting into a massive bonfire within the confines of the swords as Zieg added the power of his Dragoon Spirit, Zieg at the center of the blaze.

Cade caught himself with his wings and shot upward, only for the flames to repel him like a barrier. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING! ! ! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! ! ! YOU HAVE TO STAY WITH ROSE! ! !"

Zieg smiled back at him. "Take care of her."

"ZIEG! ! !" Cade roared, ramming himself into the flame barrier, only for it to repel him again.

This time, Rose caught him, streaking away from Melbu Frahma rapidly.

"Stop!" Cade shouted. "This isn't right! Why are you both doing this!"

"Please!" Rose sobbed, still with her shoulder in his gut as she flew him away as fast as she could. "I can't lose you both!"

Cade stopped struggling staring down at her for a long moment before turning himself and beginning to fly along with her just as the explosion made the entire Moon lurch violently. Instantly, countless Virage swarmed in to stop them, only for Cade to swipe his hand in a circle and upward. The six blasts shot into the air, each one splitting into hundreds more and raced forward, countless explosions blooming before them and blasting a trail straight ahead, Cade and Rose flying into the explosions without hesitation, the much larger explosion rapidly gaining. Finally, the last of Cade's blasts opened a gap in the Moon's shell and they burst out of it, streaking away from the Moon as it erupted into a massive sphere of Magic Energy, consuming the Divine Tree in seconds before transforming into a massive explosion that reached miles into the sky, waves of flame rolling up the column slowly. Finally, they slowed to a stop beside the others, all of them staring at them for a moment before looking back to the explosion as they all realized what had happened.

"Father," Dart breathed.

"It's...It's over now," Meru said. "Right?"

Cade was silent, staring at the explosion. He shouldn't be alive. Rose should have abandoned him. But she hadn't. She'd begged him to go with her, to live for her. And yet, it hadn't been her choice. It had been Zieg's. Zieg had been the one to choose him.

"It's over," Rose said. "Zieg killed him. He sacrificed himself to kill the God of Destruction."

Just then, the Pseudo Dragon Cade had found at the tree, which had been with Shana and Zieg while they fought Melbu Frahma, jumped from Miranda's shoulder to Cade's. He reached up, resting his hand on its head, and they all silently watched the explosion until the flames gave way to a pillar of smoke, several long minutes later.


Leave a review.