Chapter 14: The Sky With Teeth
The first warning came as a shiver across Seren’s skin an unfamiliar ripple in the leyline like someone dragging claws over the city’s spine.
The second warning came when every rune in the depot flared white-hot, and Nyros cursed under his breath, a rare and unsettling sound.
The third was the sky.
A thunderous crack split the golden auroras, tearing them apart as something massive forced its way through. The air vibrated. Metal groaned. The depot’s roof buzzed like a living drum.
Seren rushed outside.
Aurevia’s skyline glowed with molten light, and in the center of the sky hung a colossal ring no, a portal formed from spiraling fire sigils. Inside it, something moved. Scales. Wings. A long, coiling shape.
But not a dragon.
This thing was thinner, leaner, wrapped in bands of metallic armor. Its eyes burned blue, not gold, and its body left behind trails of frostfire that made the buildings tremble.
Rowan staggered out beside her. “Seren… what is that?”
Nyros answered, cane trembling.
“A Seraphim Wyrmling.”
Kaien paled. Liora swore loudly. Rowan blinked in horror.
Seren felt her flame recoil instinctively.
“That thing isn’t alive,” Nyros murmured. “It was built. A war-forged beast from the Celestial Imperium. They sealed their dragons into mechanical bodies centuries ago.”
“They built dragons?” Liora whispered.
“No,” Nyros corrected. “They enslaved them.”
The mechanical wyrmling screeched. The sound cracked glass across two blocks and shook the street beneath their feet.
Seren’s pulse synced instantly with Rowan’s fear, fire, instinct. The Solar Wyrm inside her stirred, a low growl rumbling through her bones.
Kaien gripped his sword. “It’s searching.”
“For what?” Seren asked.
Nyros’ blind eyes brightened with terror.
“You.”
The wyrmling dove.
Its descent split the air. The street peeled apart under the pressure wave cars flipping, debris scattering, lampposts snapping like brittle glass.
Seren grabbed Rowan and leapt, flames bursting from her feet. The blast launched them onto a rooftop as the wyrmling crashed into the depot behind them, shredding metal like paper.
Kaien and Liora rolled out behind them, battered but alive.
“MOVE!” Kaien shouted.
The wyrmling’s tail lashed outward, slicing through a billboard and sending it spiraling toward them. Seren caught it midair with a burst of gold flame, melting it before it crushed the group.
Nyros staggered onto the roof, face twisted with strain.
“They will not stop with one,” he rasped. “The Imperium will send more. They felt the Solar Wyrm awaken.”
“So they’re here to kill me,” Seren said.
“No.” Nyros shook his head. “They’re here to capture you.”
The wyrmling screeched again and lunged upward, metallic jaws snapping as it soared toward them.
Seren stepped forward instinctively, flames wreathing her arms. But Rowan grabbed her wrist.
“Seren wait your flame every time you push it, the Wyrm awakens more. You saw what happened in the leyrealm.”
Seren’s heartbeat stuttered. The molten eye of the Solar Wyrm flashed in her memory.
“I can’t stand here and do nothing.”
Rowan looked her dead in the eyes. “Then don’t use everything. Use only enough.”
Only enough.
A laughable idea for someone trained to fight with everything or burn out.
But she nodded.
Liora pulled out two rune grenades. “Buy me ten seconds.” She pressed them together; the runes whirled and interlaced, glowing violet. “I can knock it out of the sky maybe.”
Kaien’s sword gleamed obsidian. “I’ll get under its armor plates.”
Seren took a breath, steeling herself.
The wyrmling lunged again.
Seren hurled a narrow arc of controlled flame not a wave, not a blast, but a spiraling golden thread. The wyrmling twisted to avoid it, wings clipping a streetlight and showering sparks across the block.
“NOW!” Seren shouted.
Kaien leapt, landing on the wyrmling’s back. His blade dug between its armor plates, sparks blasting outward as the beast thrashed violently.
Liora hurled the rune grenades. They detonated in midair purple shockwaves wrapping around the wyrmling like chains. The creature faltered, wings spasming.
Seren sprinted along the rooftop edge, leapt, and slammed both palms onto the wyrmling’s skull.
White-hot fire burst from her veins.
The wyrmling shrieked, its frostfire surging out of control.
Seren pushed harder but not fully letting her flame strike only the runes controlling its thoughts, not the creature trapped inside.
For a moment, she saw it
A dragon’s soul screaming inside a cage of steel.
Her heart clenched. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to it.
A pulse of gold flared from her body, and the mechanical plates cracked open like brittle eggshell.
Rowan shouted from the rooftop, “SEREN STOP! HE’S FEEDING ON YOUR FIRE!”
She gasped. He was right.
The wyrmling’s internal core an orb of crystallized frostfire was draining her flames through the cracks she opened.
Her vision blurred.
Rows of glowing sigils spun inside her mind.
A voice not Rowan’s, not Nyros’, not even the wyrmling’s whispered:
“Burn deeper.”
The Solar Wyrm.
Seren recoiled internally. NO.
She slammed her hands together, cutting off her flame.
The wyrmling’s draining core sputtered.
Kaien pulled his blade free and kicked off the wyrmling’s back.
Liora yelled, “Seren DUCK!”
A massive explosion erupted from the wyrmling’s spine as the grenades’ final runes detonated.
The beast convulsed, wings folding inward as gravity reclaimed it. It crashed into the street in a cyclone of metal, frostfire, and sparks.
Silence.
Smoke rose from the wreckage. The auroras above flickered uneasily.
Rowan exhaled shakily. “We… we did it?”
Kaien landed beside them, bruised and breathing hard. “For now.”
Liora hopped down next to him, knuckles bleeding, grin wide. “We just slayed a sky-machine dragon. That’s getting added to my resume.”
Nyros approached the crater, face grave. “Be careful. A Seraphim Wyrmling does not die like organic creatures.”
Seren frowned. “What do you mean”
A metallic groan echoed from the rubble.
Then the voice came.
Cold. Mechanical. Inhuman.
A voice that originated somewhere far, far beyond Aurevia.
“Target confirmed. Solar Wyrm signature: 83% match.”
Seren froze.
The wyrmling’s core flickered to life, projecting a massive blue sigil into the sky a circular crest of interlocking wings and runes.
Kaien’s face drained of blood. “That’s an Imperium seal.”
The voice continued:
“Celestial Imperium Directive:
Deploy Retrieval Squadrons.
Initiate Capture Protocol Theta.
Classification: PRIME ASCENDANT.”
Seren’s stomach twisted.
They weren’t coming to kill her.
They were coming to take her.
Rowan grabbed her arm, fear sharp in his molten eyes. “Seren we have to run.”
Nyros turned toward the glowing sigil. “No. You must do more than run.”
The voice echoed again, louder this time.
“PRIME ASCENDANT DETECTED.”
“PREPARE FOR SECURE CONTAINMENT.”
Nyros lifted his cane toward Seren, urgent and uncharacteristically afraid.
“You must hide your fire… before they descend upon us all.”
Seren’s flame pulsed in her chest.
The Solar Wyrm stirred.
The sky sigil widened.
And Aurevia trembled as something far larger than a wyrmling began forcing its way through.