Consciousness returned like a hammer to the skull.
Darian gasped, his body jerking as the psychic bonds of Sumner's mind released him. The cavern swam into focus—stone trembling, dust raining from the ceiling. The air was thick with the stench of ozone and something older, something that made his teeth ache.
And then he saw it.
The First Dragon.
It was not just large—it was impossible, a grotesque mockery of nature. Its obsidian scales shimmered with stolen light, its wings stretching so wide they scraped the cavern walls. Its eyes were pits of swirling void, fixed not on Darian, but on the figure standing between them.
Sumner.
But not the Sumner he knew.
The dragon's form had twisted, his once-golden scales now black as a starless night, his wings edged with jagged spikes. The corruption Darian had forced back into him had changed him—reshaped him into something fiercer, wilder. Yet his eyes—
Still burned gold.
Still his.
The First Dragon's laugh shook the cavern. "YOU GAVE HIL MY POWER," it crooned, its voice slithering through the air like a serpent. "BUT HE IS STILL JUST A CHILD. A THIEF."
Sumner didn't flinch. His claws dug into the stone, his muscles coiled.
"Darian," he growled, the word vibrating through the bond—their bond, reforged but different now, humming with a darker current. "Get up."
Darian forced himself to his knees. His body screamed in protest, his veins still alight with the aftershocks of the corruption. But he moved.
The Devourer's massive head tilted, amused. "YOU THINK THIS CHANGES ANYTHING? HE IS MINE. YOU ARE MINE. THIS WORLD IS—"
Sumner struck.
He moved faster than Darian had ever seen, a blur of shadow and fury. His claws raked across the First Dragon's snout, not just tearing flesh—but drinking the void that bled from it.
The Devourer roared, not in pain—in outrage.
"YOU DARE—?"
Sumner bared his fangs, his voice a guttural snarl. "I'm not yours. I'm his."
Darian didn't hesitate. He ran. Not away—toward them.
The Devourer's tail whipped toward him, a killing blow—
Sumner intercepted, taking the hit full-force. The impact sent him crashing into the wall, but he was back on his feet in an instant, his wings flaring.
"The seal," Sumner snarled through the bond. "The broken pieces—you have to remake it!"
Darian's gaze snapped to the shattered remnants of the ward. The runes were dead, their magic spent.
How?
Then he saw it—the corruption in his arm. Not gone, but lessened. A sliver of the Devourer's own power, still clinging to him.
And if the seal was meant to hold the First Dragon...
Maybe it could recognize its own.
Darian dove for the largest fragment, his blackened fingers closing around it. The stone burned, but he held on, dragging it toward the center of the ruined ward.
The Devourer shrieked, sensing his intent. It lunged—
Sumner met it midair, his jaws clamping around its throat. The two titans crashed to the ground, shaking the cavern.
Darian pressed his palm to the stone. "Work, damn you—"
The corruption in his arm surged, tendrils of shadow lashing out, stitching the broken seal together like living thread. The runes flickered—
Then ignited.
A pulse of golden light exploded outward. The Devourer howled, its form distorting as the magic lashed around it like chains.
"NO! YOU CANNOT—!"
Sumner wrenched free, his body heaving. "Darian—!"
Darian didn't need the warning. He felt it—the seal wasn't just repairing itself.
It was reactivating.
And it would take everything in its radius.
Including them.