I felt the war in the Below spreading like wildfire.
Scourge's chains trembled against fate. Ellas's new throne of shadowfire groaned beneath the weight of his vow. The Elder's presence unsettled even the serpent. Destiny's sight shattered like splintered glass.
The universe was bending.
Cracking.
Breaking.
I had sworn not to interfere.
But I had never sworn not to create.
So I shaped a new force from the ether around me:
Order.
Three beings condensed from mist and will triplets, pale and flawless like carved stone. Lines of molten gold ran through their limbs like veins of sunlight, and their eyes opened in perfect unison.
They were not alive the way gods are alive. They were not spirits. Not angels.Not serpents.
They were corrected given form.
Balance.Judgment.Reckoning.
"What do you require?" Balance asked.
Their voices were one tone, divided into three echoes: soft, steady, merciless.
"You will walk the universe," I said, "and correct imbalance."
Judgment tilted its head. "Judgment."
Reckoning's fingers flexed. "Ending."
I opened a seam in reality.
"Go."
They stepped through.
And the universe trembled.
The Dragon God Xaryon
Far across creation, nestled between twin suns, rose a world of emerald mountains: the Cradle of Dragons.
It was there the first execution would take place.
Xaryon the Flame-Heart, brother of Vaelthar, rested atop a volcano, his scales deep crimson, his wings vast enough to eclipse the valley below. Rivers of magma curled around his coiled body like molten serpents.
Beside him lay a mortal woman.
She was small compared to him, fragile, ephemeral, but she rested her hand on his claw as though he were merely a companion, not a god of flame.
She was not a Dragon Warrior. She had no draconic blood. She had no destiny among their kind.
She simply loved a god.
And he loved her.
Xaryon had sworn to protect her. To shield her from the storms of heaven and hell. To carve her name into ages mortals would never forget.
But when the Order arrived
His love became the reason he died.
They stepped from the air like cracks in reality. Grass blackened beneath their feet. Stone cooled around their presence. The volcano's heat died in their shadow.
Xaryon's massive head lifted, eyes narrowing into molten slits.
"Who dares step onto my Cradle?"
Balance answered: "Order."
Judgment raised its hand."Correction."
Reckoning watched the mortal woman calmly.
Xaryon snarled, flames trailing from his jaws."You will not touch her."
He lowered a wing around the mortal like a shield.
Balance spoke without emotion: "You have given divine devotion to a mortal."
Judgment added: "This is imbalance."
Reckoning finished:
"And an imbalance must be corrected."
The mortal woman clung to Xaryon's claw.
He roared at the sky: "I DEFY YOU."
Fire blasted outward.
The Order did not move.
Judgment lifted one finger.
The fire died.
Reality tightened.
The woman vanished.
Xaryon froze.
Then he screamed, a sound that split mountains.
"BRING HER BACK!"
He lunged, wings cracking stone, jaws glowing with starfire.
Reckoning touched his chest with one fingertip.
The volcano extinguished. Flame died. Xaryon's heartbeat stopped. His core cracked open, light spilling from the wound.
His wings turned to ash.
His roar faded into nothing.
The first dragon god fell.
His death shook every realm.
The Five That Remain
Xaryon's essence broke across the world like shattered flame.
His blood seeped into soil and stoneand mortals nearby inhaled the spark that escaped him.
They would become the first Dragon Warriors.
The Order left his corpse cooling on the Cradle. They did not linger. They did not look back.
But far across the Realms, Xaryon's kin felt his death:
Vaelthar the Ember-Titan. Seralune the Tide-Serpent.Morthien the Night-Winged. Arkaelion the Storm-Bound. Granithos the Stone-Father.
They descended upon the Cradle the moment the Order departed.
They did not roar. They did not burn the sky.
They only bowed their heads.
And they made an oath:
Never again would a dragon god take a mortal mate. Never again would their bloodline be risked. Never again would they give the Order a reason.
They withdrew into storms and silence.
Five remained.
And they would remain forever.
But their blood, the blood spilt by their fallen kin, began to spread across the world.
Xaryon's spark ignited the first pure-blood Dragon Warriors.
And a hundred years later…
The world would be full of them.
A Century of Shifting Fate
In a blink of draconic time, one hundred mortal years passed.
Kingdoms rose and vanished.
Pure-bloods descendants of Xaryon's spark awakened their elemental birthrights:
Fire Water Shadow Energy Earth
Mixed-bloods spread across continents, unaware they carried draconic ancestry.
Some were welcomed. Some were worshipped. Some were killed.
But their rise was unstoppable.
And the Order watched.
The first execution was only the beginning.
The Order appeared in Destiny's realm as silently as they had descended upon Xaryon.
Destiny rose from his seat of woven light, eyes wide."You… you are not part of the tapestry."
Balance stepped onto the threads of fate. They vibrated. Then fell still.
Judgment placed one hand upon a trembling timeline. It straightened.
Reckoning touched a knot of conflicting futures. It dissolved.
Destiny stumbled back.
"You cannot these threads are not yours!"
Balance turned to him."We tread where correction is required."
Judgment said: "You see futures that no longer hold."
Reckoning finished: "And we mend what you cannot."
Destiny's eyes widened with something he had never felt:
Fear.
"For the first time," he whispered, "I am not the keeper of fate."
Balance's golden eyes dimmed slightly.
"You are no longer alone."
The triplets spread out across his realm, calm, unwavering, merciless.
And the universe bowed.
Because the rise of Dragon Warriors had already begun to twist fate beyond prediction.
And the Order had been made for this.
Correction would come again.