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Heat billowed through the cavernous tunnels and caverns of the underground conclave. Screams of fever pitch bounced along the limestone walls. Cries of agony and rage followed, accompanied by waves of rippling power that flooded the senses and weakened the heart. Flickering flames washed through the tunnels, and the stones themselves began to turn hues of glowing red, slowly drooping, before collapsing in several places.

In the depths of the conclave, a white dragon ran as quickly as she dared. She could feel the inferno burning above her, wreaking havoc upon her home. She could hear the cries of her subjects. She knew that they fought a hopeless battle. They hadn't been prepared, believed they were protected by the chaotic storm of war a decent way away from their conclave. A place they believed was secret and hidden. But when the raging fire had fallen from the heavens, they regretted their complacency.

The dragoness was unused to the feeling running through her. It was a dread, starting in her stomach, before coiling up through her entire body, like being draped in a heavy blanket. It made her breaths short and ragged, and her four legs move all the faster with claws scratching against the stone, and her long wings curled tightly to her side.

She entered a small chamber, this one only illuminated by the soft glow of flaming torches. She stopped in the middle, looking down the path that continued from the cavern with slight trepidation. It was a dark passageway, lacking the lighting of the rest of the conclave, but it was large. Large enough to fly down. The dragoness shuffled her wings with slight eagerness, a small smile appearing across her muzzle. She had prepared for this. And now, her enemy would pay for ever rising against her. With a growl she opened her large wings, launching forward into the darkness with a flap. The heat chasing her was growing. She didn't have much time now.

"You better be ready sage," she rumbled with narrowed eyes, remembering the most contentious part of her plan.

The darkness blocked nearly her entire sight, but she had been down the tunnel so often now that she had memorized the way. After a minute or so of flying, the tunnel opened into another large cavern. This one was flooded with what seemed like liquid darkness. There were pinpoints of light far down below, barely flickering torchers, as well as the glowing body of another dragon with golden scales. The light illuminated other figures of different colours, gathered around a large light blue drake and an unconscious, smaller, purple drake.

She folded her wings, diving down toward the ground with a soft warning growl. They quickly backed off at her presence as she landed near the blue mind dragon. The drake had an odd aura running from him, one that seemed to encompass the entire room, but the white dragoness ignored it, knowing that her aura was very much the same.

"Is it done?" she growled at him, glancing up into the inky blackness above her.

The drake didn't immediately respond, staring down at the unconscious purple dragon with a pondering gaze.

"Sage, we don't have time for this. Is it done?" the white dragon growled again.

He sighed, "Eledior... this is wrong. You shouldn't have done this."

Eledior snorted, "Save your quips for another day, and answer my question."

The Sage turned his gaze toward her, studying her for a long moment, "After this, you must let these dragons go."

"These dragons are our only salvation at the moment sage. I am not going to bargain with you."

"You will promise me," the Sage growled back, "I don't care if we all burn to death. After this, if you win, you will let these dragons go, and you will forget this horrible practice."

Eledior narrowed her eyes, her pointed tail tip flicking back and forth with dangerous elegance, "Fine. I will let them go."

The Sage nodded his head, "Then I hope it will be enough. It was difficult to convince Light and Dark to work together for this, but it is done."

"I didn't doubt you, Sage," Eledior smirked as she looked down at the purple rift dragon in front of her, "You hear that everyone! Should I win today, you all get to go free!"

There was a rustling of wings and a murmuring of disbelief. There were several anxious glances to the top of the cavern, where red firelight was beginning to glow. The very roof of the cavern was beginning to adopt the magmatic orange of molten rock. Not wasting a moment more, Eledior took a deep breath and allowed herself to dissipate into a white ethereal mist. Several dragons took a step back with anxious breath.

The white dragoness moved quickly, dissipating her ethereal through the cavern and encompassing the dragons within, flowing into their bodies, hearts, and minds. She felt soft resistance from a few, but she quickly clamped it out with her own will. As she settled into each body she allowed herself to move her many legs and shuffle her many limbs. It was always a strange state of being, to be several different beings all at the same time. She could feel all their hearts beating in their chests. She could feel the slight sickness that had overcome several of them. She could feel the different elements, each one with its own unique sense in the very core of each dragon. All eighteen different attributes, from the flickering of her own thoughts from the light blue mind dragon to the innate belonging and connection to the darkness, thickly pressed around them, coming from the large elder shadow drake. Eledior took a deep breath, each of her bodies breathing with her will, and let it out with a communal smirk.

All eyes turned toward the Sage, who was watching with slight uneasiness. She could see it in his mind. The disgust. The horror. The acknowledgement that this may just work. It amused her. The body of the rift dragon got to his feet, shaking himself out, before turning his gaze to the Sage, and speaking with words governed by Eledior.

"You may want to get out of here Sage," all eighteen dragons spoke at once, "Once the fighting starts I cannot guarantee your safety."

"Worry about yourself, Eledior," snorted the Sage, holding himself up a little, "And I will worry about me."

Wings shrugged, "Have it your way."

Eledior gripped at the connection she had with the darkness, reveling in the power for a moment, before launching forward with a roar from eighteen different maws, and the flaps of eighteen different pairs of wings. The rift dragon went first, flying ahead. Eledior had a smile on her face as she reached forward with the new connection she had to the very energy separating dimensions, and split it open, revealing a rift into darkness even greater than what was in the cavern, outlined by glowing purple energy.

One by one the dragons flew through the portal. She kept the glittering red fire dragoness near the silver and pale-yellow metal drake, sparking a burst of flame over the metal drake's shell as they were encompassed by blistering cold greater than even the freezing temperatures of an ice dragon's breath. No light, no air to breathe, no heat to survive. But it was only a moment. Another portal was ripped open, and each dragon quickly flew, or more accurately, floated, through it. Almost immediately Eledior could feel the blistering heat of what was now happening below.

She drew her dragons together, hovering in the air as they gazed down toward the destruction below. What had once been a stone of monumental significance was now reduced to a flaming ocean. Fiery tentacles piercing into the many tunnels within the ground, fiery hands grasping at fleeing white dragons, catching them, and turning them to ash. The ground had become molten, stone melting into itself as it steadily collapsed. Giant clouds of white mist, spirit dragons of equilibria, attacked the fire, driving into it and trying to smother it, but failing as the fire pierced through the mist and tore them apart.

Righteous fury flooded Eledior as she watched the massacre of her home. The sky around her rumbled dangerously as dark clouds began to gather around the eighteen dragons. Flashing lighting lit the sky. The wind began to grow violent, tearing at the few left-over trees that had not yet succumb to the flame. Rain began to pelt down onto scales, followed quickly by balls of ice that slammed into the ground below. Steam began to billow from the flames below as they flared with even greater heat.

Eledior handled the storm with great care, gripping the wind twisting it around her dragons so that it didn't fling them from the sky, while the storm grew stronger and stronger. The flames seemed to realise something was going on, gathering into a ball, before launching upward with an explosion that rocked the earth. It was what the spirit dragoness had been waiting for. With a roar several of her dragons charged forward, the purple rift dragon opening his mouth and fired a beam of purple energy, accompanied by a blizzard from the maw of the ice drake, a river of water from a water dragoness, and a gust of wind from a wind dragoness. The purple beam split the fire down the middle, where the water and ice collided with it, causing it to waver slightly, before being knocked back by a massive gust of wind.

Eledior could feel the slight surprise from the dragon behind the attack as the flames were knocked back. Flickers of confusion, curiosity, and impression amongst an ocean of heated fury. The flaming pillar being knocked away, suddenly several more erupted from the ocean below, curling up toward the storm. Steam hissed as rain and ice were evaporated. Even the wind seemed to struggle against the flames as the clouds began to fold back. Eledior gritted her teeth as she held onto the storm through her weather dragon, strengthening it as much as she could. She gripped the lightning with her yellow electricity dragoness, shooting it into the flames, while her chaos drake fired beams of chaotic red energy into the fire, splitting it apart.

But she couldn't defend against each pillar of approaching flame. A growl escaped her as she reached forward with her mind dragoness, finding the mind of her enemy, and piercing it, flooding the connection with as much pain as she could summon. The fire halted, falling back suddenly under the violent storm as her enemy was frozen. Eledior smirked.

'It was a mistake to come alone Athaer. And now you are mine.'

'Who is this?' came the rather surprised response.

Eledior doubted she would be able to hold the fire queen for any significant amount of time. But she had what she wanted, pinpointing the location of her enemy amongst the flames. With a roar, her dragons descended, each different colour and attribute one after the other as she homed in on the fire queen's location.

She lead with ice and rift, having the pair disappear into the void, before reappearing directly above the flaming dragoness. There was a growl of surprise as the glittering red dragon narrowly dodged the blast of rift energy, the fire surrounding them leaping up in a counterattack with gripping tentacles. Eledior instantly had the two of them out of there as a beam of chaos energy shot from above, along with whipping wind. But it seemed Athaer was not concerned about either as she used her flames to accelerate her movements, breaking through the walls of wind and dodging past the chaos energy.

At the same time, Eledior reached from her light blue gravity dragoness, using her ability to drastically increase the gravity around the fire queen. Athaer let out a grunt of surprise as she slammed into the ground, the sudden increased weight far too heavy for her to live. Her flames quickly rushed to her rescue, however, curling around her in a searing ball of heat and fire. Ice and water were evaporated. Lightning and chaos broke through but were turned aside by the sheer intensity. Beams of light and piercing veils of shadow were split apart and broken. Acid had as little impact as water, and the storm above did nothing to break the flames. Dragon steel and earth became. molten before being vaporized, and crystal faired not much better. Athaer's will and mind were too well disciplined to be broken by mental attacks, there was no direct line of sight that allowed Eledior to use telekinesis, and the beams of rift energy shattered on impact. The very heat of the flames was enough to kill a dragon simply by proximity, but Eledior was using her life drake to keep a constant flow of life energy between her eighteen bodies, healing any wounds and burns instantly, as well as keeping a cold wind breezing across them with her ice and wind.

Seeing as nothing else was having an impact, Eledior kept her focus on gravity, increasing it to greater and greater lengths in an attempt to crush the dragoness she had trapped. She could feel the strain through Athaer's mind as the fire dragoness attempted to fight back against the crushing pressure she was experiencing. There was a sudden cry of anger as flames began to boil and writhe, suddenly lashing outward like a solar flare, a ring of flames that lashed out to attack her enemies.

Eledior cried from several dragons as searing pain cascaded through them. Her life dragon quickly swooped in, giving them the life-saving green energy as she quickly retreated as the flames around Athaer grew volatile. The ground crumbled as the rest of the tunnels gave way under the molten rock being evaporated by the heat. But that was the least of Eledior's worries as she saw what Athaer planned to do next. Her eyes widened as she quickly flapped forward with her rift dragon, catching each of her bodies and dragging them into the void as with an echoing roar the flames gathered around Athaer exploded.

The blistering cold of the void was almost soothing after Athaer's flames, and by using her wind's dragon's abilities was able to create air to breathe. She stay in the void for several moments longer than she was used to, basking in the pitch blackness as she floated in nothingness. She wondered if this is what being in an egg looked like, minus the freezing cold. Eledior growled out as she began to feel the cold seeping through her bodies, especially the metal drake. With a grunt she dragged her dragons out of the void and into the world again, looking down at the destruction caused by her enemy.

All that was left of the conclave was a crater, spanning several hundred dragon lengths long. A hole in the earth, with lava gurgling down below as it tried to harden back to its original state. The storm above had been replaced with a glittering night sky. The eighteen dragons hovered, looking down in disbelief at the sheer destruction caused by the fire queen. Her home was gone. She didn't know how many of her subjects had escaped, but she didn't think it was many.

A roar of fury escaped the eighteen dragons as they turned their gaze toward the fire queen. Athaer hovered in the middle of the crater, looking up at her opponents as they steadily descended toward her. Beams chaos and rift energy cut through the air, and Athaer simply dodged with a burst of flames from her scales. With a flap of her wings, tendrils of fire shot forth from her toward the charging dragons. Ice, water, and sizzling green acid met them.

'Who are you all? Only the shadow dragon has equilibrium, yet you fight as though you all have an innate connection,' Athaer thought with direct words toward Eledior.

Lightning and light followed the fire dragoness as she spend around the crater at high speeds, boosting herself along with her flames.

'I do not understand how you got light, chaos, and lightning dragons to fight for you? Is this mind control?' Athaer questioned.

Eledior roared with all her voices as pillars of shadow sprouted from the walls of the crater, only for Athaer to cut through them with searing fire.

'But you fight far too well for this to be simply mind control. Are each of you a spirit dragon in control of another's body?'

Eledior reached for her gravity again, increasing it suddenly and at the same time summoning spikes of earth from the ground, attempting to piece through Athaer's body. The fire dragoness simply twisted, falling toward the side of the crater readily. The heat around her increased exponentially, the earth simply ceasing to exist as it got close. She flew into the earth, quickly pulling out of Eledior's range of control, before exploding up and out of the earth.

Several of Eledior's bodies were beginning to breathe heavily, having been pushed far more than they were used to. The elemental power they were showing was something none of them had ever done. Their limbs were aching, and their bodies were tired of being nearly constantly burned. The constant trickle of life energy was beginning to not be enough to keep them satiated. The only dragon not struggling was the shadow drake.

Athaer flew back into range within moments, her flames dissipating as she hovered above her enemy once again, "You will never win against me! Borrowed power is no power at all!"

Eledior roared out again, suddenly trying a different tactic. Now with a direct line of sight, she lashed forward with her telekinesis. Athaer let out a grunt of surprise as she was suddenly held still. It was only a moment as she quickly tried to summon a wall of flames to cut off the vision of the ability, but it wasn't quick enough to block a bolt of lightning. There was a cry of pain from the queen as she was electrocuted, being flung backward through the sky, her fire dissipating.

The rift dragon disappeared through a portal, appearing behind the stunned fire queen. Before she could react, the two of them disappeared into the void. It was an odd feeling for Eledior, being in two completely separate places at once. One being the blistering cold of the void, and the other being the rather intense warmth of the real world. But she didn't care. She had won. No one could survive the void for long, and if she had to sacrifice the rift drake to kill the fire queen, she would.

The fire dragoness and the rift drake hurtled through the void, fire rocking through Athaer's body as she scrambled for warmth. Her claws clamped down on the rift drake, keeping them together as she increased the heat of her fire, struggling to keep it alight in the void. Eledior hissed through the rift dragon as the fire dragon's claws clamped onto him, digging into him like molten steel. It hurt, far more than the spirit dragon thought it would. The rift dragon's cry of pain was silent as he struggled to writhe away from the fire queen, desperate for his own survival. But Eledior knew what Athaer was trying to do. By torturing the poor drake, she was trying to get him to take her back.

But Eledior wouldn't let him. Her bodies in the real world tense with her pain, as she hissed and tried to snap back at the fire queen, only to find herself clamping onto flames and more pain. The rift dragon's eyes watered as the burning of the fire queen became greater and greater. It was too much. Eledior felt a slip in her control as the consciousness of the rift drake suddenly broke through in a desperate clamber for survival. A portal opened, and the two tumbled into the open. Athaer quickly separated from the rift drake, not wanting to be drawn in again, before opening her mouth, and before Eledior could gain control to dodge again, bathing the rift drake in fire. The screams of seventeen other dragons echoed over the crater as Eledior felt as though a part of her very soul was burned to ashes. Her control wavered of them wavered for a moment, but she quickly clamped down on her dragons with a snarling growl, trying to ignore the searing agony at the very heart of her being.

Athaer hovered, taking in big breaths of air as she turned to face her remaining enemies, the ash of the fallen rift drake being scattered in the wind, 'You're all one spirit dragon... aren't you?'

Eledior allowed her bodies to snarl in response, replying for the first time, 'You will suffer a thousand hells, Athaer!'

Lightning, chaos, and light blistered through the sky once again as the two foes fell back into their dance. This time Athaer was far more careful, beginning to gather her flames once again, growing them further and further as she danced back and forth with the elements.

'You are Eledior, aren't you?' the snarled anger in Athaer's thoughts rumbled through their connection, 'This is what you were using them for?'

'You knew? Why am I not surprised?' growled Eledior.

'My mate was part of your collection once upon a time,' chuckled Athaer as she flung around with her firestorm, flinging her flames upon the dragons while Eledior summoned a cloud of shadows to protect them, 'Before I rescued him of course.'

'That was you?' Eledior snarled.

'That it was. And it was always my intention to come back and make a stop to this.'

'The only way you can do that is by killing these dragons. Dragons I've promised freedom through victory.'

'If that's what it takes to rid the world of your evil, then so be it,' Athaer's roar echoed.

Pillars of fire shot toward Eledior, which the spirit dragoness was forced to meet with water, ice, and wind as she fell back, trying to figure out how to get out of her worsening situation.

'I'm impressed you managed such control over the elements,' Athaer said, 'I didn't realise the full extent of spirit dragons.'

'For centuries I have trained with the elements Athaer. Trained for evils like you who threaten the entire continent. I knew it was only a matter of time.'

'Yet for all that effort, you have failed.'

'Not yet!'

Athaer's fire was surrounding Eledior now. The spirit dragon's ball of shadow, ice, and water was slowly torn away by the approaching flames as they hammered down on the shield. Eledior once again shifted the gravity for Athaer, forcing a crushing weight to fall upon her. There was a cry of frustration as the fire dragon fell to the earth, but this time she seemed to fight back, using her fire to thrust herself upward while at the same time condensing the ball around Eledior.

'The spirit dragons will be whipped from this planet! An all their evil with them!' Athaer cried out in her mind.

'NO!'

Eledior knew that without her rift dragon, she wasn't agile enough to get away from this situation, nor did she have the power to break through the ball of fire she was trapped in without serious injury. But what she did have was one last power, one last effort, that could possibly grant her victory.

With a roar, she curled life energy around the dragons she controlled, and with a flap of their wings thrust them forward. The elements curled together into a single beam. Chaos, light, lightning, fire, water, earth, shadow, wind, acid, meta, crystal, and ice, focused into a single beam. It broke through the fire wall, and with a rushing flap of their wings, all seventeen dragons raced forward toward the opening as it quickly began to close. Screams of pain broke out from several of them as they were trapped by the flames, the shadow dragon pierced by fire. The ice and wind incinerated. The earth and metal cooked. From each death tendrils of ethereal mist escaped, being absorbed into the surviving dragons, until only one broke free.

The light green life drake flapped his wings under Eledior's command, breathing heavily as life energy sealed the burns lacerating his body. With a huff, Eledior let him have his will back, separating from him and becoming a swirling ball of mist. Immediately she reached for a power within the pit of her being, solidifying into a beautiful white dragoness once again. The waves of her power causing the very air around her to shimmer as though reality itself were breaking.

The fire launched toward her. The life dragon beside her let out a yelp of surprise, faltering in the air as he tried to flap backward to escape the coming firestorm. Then Eledior exploded into ethereal white mist. A cloud of spiritual energy that rapidly tried to expand to encompass the flames. But the flames were quicker. Tendrils of flaming tentacles pierced through the cloud, tearing through it like ravenous teeth. The equilibrium was unable to grow quick enough to combat the ocean of flames that steadily surrounded it.

With a mental cry, Eledior attacked the fire, trying to drive into it and possess it like she could if she was fighting another equilibrium. But this fire wasn't part of any equilibrium. It was merely controlled by the fire dragon below, and the spirit equilibrium had no way to fight back. Eledior tried to escape, but the power she had unleashed quickly dwindled, flooding back into the centre, and imploding in on itself.

Eledior found herself back in her own body, with her own flesh and blood. She cried out in anger, gasping for breath as her wings faltered in weakness. Her energy drooping from her sparse use of her power. Fire shot at her, slamming into her and driving her into the ground below. Eledior felt several bones crack and felt the fire burn her pure white scales, charring them black. A groan escaped her as she lay, dazed, for several moments.

The approaching click of talon against stone broke her out of her stupor. She rolled onto her stomach, breathing heavily as she struggled to her feet. She hissed as she turned to face the fire queen. Athaer looked back impassively, the only emotion the satisfied fury in her eyes. Eledior screamed out her anger, dissipating into mist and charging the fire dragoness, only for flames to suddenly strike from around her, piercing the body of mist and burning her very soul.

Gasping she fell back into a solid form, staggering and falling, unable to support her weight as the world spun around her. The heat was scorching the back of her throat, and the pain in her ribs and flank was like a haze behind her eyes. A grunt escaped her as talons pricked her head, slamming it into the ground. She grunted all the more as more wait was pressed against her, grinding her pristine white snout into the burning earth below.

"You... are nothing to me," Athaer whispered to the spirit dragoness, "Your death, will be more painful than you can possibly imagine. You hear me Eledior, your evil ends here."

Eledior closed her eyes, relaxing as she realised there was nothing more she could do. It was a surprisingly freeing feeling. Enough that it allowed her thoughts to clear for but a moment and allowed a mirthless laugh to escape her.

"You will never win... Athaer. We... are spread across the entire world. In every nook and cranny. Everywhere. You will never win, because no matter how many of us you kill, there will always be another to take –"

Eledior let out a gasping cry as Athaer's molten claws dug into the dragoness's skull, touching the bone with searing molten claws, "Then I will burn the entire world until nothing of you remains."

"You... will... try AAAAHH!!"

Eledior's screams echoed through the crater. Molten fire poured into her blood vessels, flooding her body, burning away all senses except overwhelming pain. She writhed, trying to break free from it. But it was inside her. Eating away at her. Everything was red. The blood in her mouth became fire. The contents of her stomach became fire. Her tears became fire. Then... nothing...

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Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed! Finally! The battle between Eledior and Athaer. What did you think? Was it what you expected? It felt pretty epic to write so I hope it came across that way haha. Let me know, and as always, vote on the Chroncile for next week. See Ya!

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Pennator^^