Mellyssa, Duccio, and Riven led their master up the steps of the Greatwall encampment. The castle guards all tipped their helmets as they passed by, opening the gates for them. This was it and they all knew it. Alixx was to challenge the dragon. As they ascended the staircase, Riven took his masters hand.
"You're shaking," he noted.
She rolled her head to look at him. "I'm essentially walking into my death, Riven." She squeezed his hand. "I love you Riven. Thank you for sticking by me."
He stopped and hugged his master. "I will protect you, Arisen. At any and all cost."
A voice rattled through the Greatwall, "Come, Arisen...forge in my fire the next link in the endless chain..."
Mellyssa held the iron door open that led to the Tainted they walked across the ledge, they encountered Geo Saurians. After entering the cave with a broken rift stone, they came across several Succubus. They were a lot tougher then the Harpies they fought before. Going farther into the cave, they encountered more Succubi and Geo Saurians. And after a while they fought their first Hellhound. Progressing farther into the caverns, they made it to the Grand Hall where a Gorechimera awaited them. It took a good while for them to fell it, but once they did, the doors to the dragons roost opened. His voiced bellowed through the halls.
"Now choose, flee or step forth. Take hold of what lies beyond. Claim mastery o'er the eternal ring."
Her pawns surrounded her. She looked at them one by one, seeing the fear in each of there faces.
She was the one to take Rivens hand this time. "Lets go guys. We have a dragon to slay."
Looking up to the sky, she kissed her fist and held it up. "May the Maker watch over us."
"I didn't think you religious," Duccio said.
"I'm not," she replied. "But I'll welcome any hope that I will live past this."
She and Riven walked up the stairs hand at hand. Stopping in the middle of the room, the creature ascended from the darkness. He glowed a bight red, and put his head at eye level with Alixx.
"What is your purpose here, Arisen? If you sought to live you had naught but run and hide yourself away. But then, tell me, child of man...what does it mean to live in truth? To wage war against the passing days? To pray to the unseen for a few breaths more? To raise grand cities from stone, and spawn new life in turn? Mankind has done this, yes, and more. But is the tapestry you weave truly of your own design?"
"I am no child of man," she told him. "My father was a coward. He abandon all hope, and for what? To rule this land? That is not my wish. I am not like him, or any other."
Grigori raised his head back up. "Their kind is easy to fathom, they go on living from simple fear of death. But not mankind. Some welcome the end with arms outstretched, while others come to face death incarnate, arms in hand. I ask again, what is your purpose here Arisen?"
She glared at him. "What are my options?"
"One path to your survival, lies in my defeat. Still my heart, and you stay the coming end."
"Sounds fair."
He slammed his claw down. "Another path before you...is to offer up that which you hold most dear. Abandon all delusions of control."
She laughed. "Jokes on you then. I don't have anything to offer, besides my heart. Which you already have, by the way."
It was had to tell, but Alixx could swear she saw the beast smile.
"I beg to differ, dear Arisen."
A horde of goblins ran into the room. Alixx looked in their general direction, and saw someone in the middle of the horde.
"Julien!" she called out.
When he saw her, he tried any means of escape, but the goblins kept him in the middle. As if it were a game to them, they toyed with him, surrounding from all angles. Knocking him from side to side and then to the ground, not allowing him to get back up. The goblin spoke but Alixx turned her attention back to Grigori.
"For the price of a single life, I shall leave this land in peace. As my "vanquisher", the duchy would bow to you. Wealth and power are sweet anodyne for heartache. You'll not gainsay my terms are more than generous. If it matters aught, the man who rules this land now won that honor through just such a bargain."
She looked over at Julien, he tried to get up and run towards her. Grigori shoot fire at them and Julien went flying, being knocked unconscious when he hit the ground. Alixx had to shield her face to protect against the flames, seeing as her mask did nothing.
"The decision is yours, Arisen. Now...choose!"
She ran over to Julien and fell by his side. Lifting his head, his eyes slowly fluttered open and she smiled behind her tears.
"What's the point of living immortally if you can't spend it with the one that you love?" she admitted. She heard her pawns gasp behind her. Julien looked up at her with loving eyes. "That's right.. I said it." She looked back down at him. "I love you, Julien." She stood as he sat up. "So that's why I'm not letting him take you away from me."
Grigori came to eye level again. "Mirum fallat fatum... occursum civem. Fiat, fortasse verum est novum in forma draconis. Hinc mundi voluntatis. Stas contra mi."
Alixx smiled. "Quibus eritis? Hóminem? Draconem? An aliquid aliud?"
"You understand the wyrmspeak?" Riven asked.
"'Tis rare for an Arisen," she replied. "But It can happen."
Grigori growled. "Mundum, clamat ad novam ringmaster. Omnem terram et hominem et beluam. In omnes partes totius."
"A ringmaster?" She looked concerned. "The Maker is said to work next to the Seneschal."
"One should not assume to only that in books." He stood upright again and stretched out his wings. "Though I called you here to me, It was ever your own feet, your own will that brought you. And now again, the choice is yours, Arisen. Offer up the life of your beloved, here and now, and you shall live as sovereign of this land. Your heart will remain ever in my safekeeping, and with it your mortality. Or, if you would stand against me now, as at the outset of your journey, I shall allow it."
"Who did the duke offer to you?" Duccio interrupted. He was looking rather determined.
"Why not just ask his very own companion of old?" Grigori said back.
They all turned to Mellyssa. Alixx pulled down her mask.
"You were his pawn?" she breathed. "You knew.. You knew this would happen and that he would offer up Julien."
"Pray I knew he would offer a life, but I did not know who."
"Who did the duke sacrifice?"
"A young woman named Madeleine."
She turned back to Grigori. "Where is she now?"
"Fight me, and find out." He growled again, then let out a huge roar. "I ask this final time. Will you turn and leave this place?"
"No!" She stepped up.
"You would face me, then? Tis a fool's choice, Arisen. But better fool than craven. I knew your mind ere you came... Still, I ask this final time. Arisen, will you stand and fight?""
"I'll make you a deal. If I win, you release the girl."
"And if you lose?"
She exhaled heavily. "I die, obviously."
"I will accept your terms. Your choice is made, Arisen! As you have willed it, so shall it be!"
He slammed both of his claws down and let out fire and a loud roar. The ceiling began to give way. Alixx looked back at Julien. He nodded and ran for the entrance. Riven and her pawns ran in a different direction, away from Grigori, but he followed. They made their stand in another chamber. Alixx released arrow after arrow and Riven summoned ice spikes. After exposing the heart, he rose above the roof.
"Show me your power, Arisen. Awaken now in full! Still my heart and lay open the path beyond. This is not fate, nor duty's call. This battle is your own, waged of your own free will. If you lack the strength to stay my fire...to stay the fated ruin...then all shall scatter as ash. Now come, Arisen!"
Mellyssa and Duccio ran ahead. "This way master!"
They made it half way across the felled bridge when Grigori flew past.
"Heed well this place, Arisen. Know the frailty of the works of man. This hold once stood proud and firm...twas the foolish decision of a man too weak that brought it down."
"Give him a taste of the ballista!" Duccio called as they made it to the top of the tower.
Alixx took perfect aim at his heart, and fired. He hit the side of the tower, while Alixx grabbed on to his back. He took heed of her presence, and continued to fly as she scaled his back to reach his heart.
"Fight! Cling to life! Pitiable wingless human...return to the earth! Your life...your very heart rests here within me!"
Alixx dug her dagger deep into the back of the beast and her threw her off. She somehow managed to survive the fall back down to the ground. Riven, Mellyssa, and Duccio awaited her on the ground. Grigori landed before them.
"Aye, reclaim that which you have lost...take back your life...the surge of blood that tethers you to this world...it awaits you, Arisen, yearning here within me. The hour for turning back is past. The world will have its answer: you or me? Death, or life beyond! If you would gain aught, give your all here and now! Such is the contest you have chosen! Have you come so far to be stricken with cowardice, Arisen? You have chosen your path! Aye, raise your weapon..your teeth of steel, your blood-red voice...show me your power Arisen! Prove yourself worthy of what lies beyond my corpse! Show that you possess the strength to still my heart. The will to do it. The soul! There is naught beyond this moment for those who will not give themselves whole to their cause."
Alixx scaled the dragon and attacked right as his heart, causing him to recoil and holler in pain.
"Yes...I remember now. This sensation, this pain...I know it well. The hurt you visit upon me is the selfsame pain I once inflicted. This battle is mine, just as it is yours. It is aught I began long ago. The one you refused to offer up shall die as sure as the rest."
Grigori gained flight.
"'Tis aloft!" Riven yelled. "Have we the means to shoot it down?"
Alixx smiled and pulled out her bow. "We do." Aiming straight for his heart, she closed one eye and focused.
Right as he was about to dive, she loosened her arrow and her dropped right back down, giving them all opportunity to attack his heart. He shot them all back and roared in pain.
He sighed. "Ugh...stubborn child...whate'er meaning life holds...it makes men deaf to all reason. Heed me well, Arisen. In my death, you've won a future for this world...but what that future spells for you...for all men...is a truth you'll find staring back from this world's utmost depths. Arisen! You have earned back...what is yours...your life belongs now to no other. You've won it by rights...it is yours to use or cast away as you see fit. Remember that."
There was a thud in her chest and a feeling of warmness. Suddenly, she felt a heart beat and she clenched her chest. Grigori turned to ashes, right in front of them as they watched in awe. Riven ran up to her.
"We have won master," he smiled.
She looked at the huge pearl bones. "We did it. We actually did it."
"Begging your pardon?" a voice said behind them.
Whirling around, a small but busty blonde haired woman stood behind them. She looked very frazled.
"You must be Madeleine," Alixx said.
"Where am I?" she asked. "Who are you? Where's Skylar?"
Alixx handed her a small coin pouch. "Go home Madeleine. Forget about Skylar, forget about all of this."
Madeleine nodded without a word, and headed off in the opposite direction then they went for.
"Let us return to the encampment," Duccio said.
As they entered back to the Tainted Mountain ruins, Julien awaited them in the great hall. When he saw his beloved, he ran towards her and she met him in the middle. He just looked at her and Alixx took his hand, leading him out of the Greatwall. Gran Soren guards waited outside the gates for her return, and they all bowed to her. Julien did not let go of her that night, but held her. He removed her mask once again and took off her hood as well.
"Pray, I like it better when I can see your face," he smiled.
She blushed. "No one has ever been so kind to me as you have Julien. And I thank you for that. You gave me the strength I needed to win this battle."
He reached into her cloak pocket and held the ring she had taken from him earlier that day and put it back on.
"Where did you get this ring?" he asked.
"When I first found that the Dragonforged was still alive and I had visited him, before Riven and I left, His pawn must have slipped it in my pocket."
"Do you know what such a gesture means, for me to wear this ring as a favor from you?"
She turned his face to hers and kissed him softly. "Yes, I do know. I love you, Julien. I can't imagine my life without you anymore." Her heart fluttered.
"Your heart is racing," he smiled. "The first time I've felt it beat."
She placed his hand over her heart. "And it beats only for you."
His face turned bright red.
"We never did talk about that night we shared," she said suddenly.
"You never wanted to talk about it."
"Julien.." She hesitated. "There was this day I was captured by Salomet. The same day I broke you out. He made me see things throughout the hours torture. Of my past and my future. Our future.. Together."
"Alixx, what are you trying to say?" She looked down, but he raised her head to look at him again. "You can tell me anything, and it won't change the way I feel about you. I love you, Alixx."
She took a deep breath. "I'm with child, Julien... A boy."