How It All Began

[Dwayna DragonFire]

So, until we figure out what's going to happen to the forum, I'm going to re-post my fic again here.

Prologue

Not everyone knows how it all got to this point. Creatures mythical and normal alike buzzing about on a planet three times the size of Earth but still with the same sort of features. Rivers, mountains, forests, deserts, the whole works, just with four suns and four moons instead of only one of each, and only one landmass in the center of a vast ocean. Terrater, the planet in question, had been that way since the beginning of time, except then it was much quieter, no life to really speak of except the plants.

No one really knows where they came from, but one day from the depths of the ocean, complex, intricate beings of metal started to arise. They were built much like humans would be, except everything about them was made of technology beyond anyone's wildest dreams. From the water they traversed the deserts, made their way through the forests, and found themselves on empty land on which to build. But what was there anything to build for, if there was no other life?

The beings of metal, whom the people of the planet now call the Androids, started building intricate devices called portals. They would be able to have the function to transport one being to another place, time, universe, dimension... anywhere they pleased, really. Being as intelligent as they were they always got the coordinates exactly precise of each portal they built to who-knows-where.

But each portal had something in common other than their similar designs. Every single one of them contained in the largest skyscraper in the entirety of existence - thanks to technology that allowed for more space than there actually was - lead to an individual world with sentient lifeforms. It was like it was encoded into the Androids to seek out life signatures throughout the multiverse and have as many of them as possible brought to Terrater.

The first portal the Androids ever opened was one to a nearby planet called Draconia, as they soon found out was an apt name indeed. The span of Draconia - which was actually much larger than Terrater - was covered mostly in mountains and volcanoes with large pools of water scattered about, and was absolutely covered in dragons. Different colors and types of dragons, all of them majestic and beautiful in their own right, some fearful warriors and others friendly diplomats.

The Androids spoke with some of the more diplomatic dragons, and convinced a lot of them to come to Terrater, to keep the Androids company. In return, the Androids offered them technology that would help the dragons who could change their form into other beings to better control the change as it happened, knowing that some of them had great difficulty pulling it off. They agreed to the deal, even convincing the king of dragons to make his mark on their planet.

The telling of the story of Orn Vur Achuisk and his human queen is one that many on the planet know very well, but would best be told another day. This story is about how the other races came to be on this planet, and some of the main people who have changed significant events within the span of Terrater's history and the life of My Lady Dwayna, daughter of Orn and Nerezza.

This is how it all began.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Chapter One: The Explorer

For every new beginning that happens, there has to be someone or something that spurs that beginning. For a little while, the Androids and the dragons were the ones opening portals to see where they went, greeting the friendly species and battling their foes wherever they came. But as much as it was splendorous visiting all sorts of different worlds, they thought it too big of a job for just them. The Androids needed to upgrade themselves every so often and the dragons needed their rest.

Portal number thirty-five was the one that gave them their answer. At first, they merely thought it to be a world at war - the dragons there were mostly evil as well as the trolls, ogres, goblins and other beasts of the like. Fighting against these creatures were beings that were mostly humanoid, their system based on militaristic things. It was a bit medieval at the time, but the dragons of Terrater noticed something odd about some of the weapons the humanoids of this place carried around with them.

Swords, daggers, hammers, axes, bows, you name it, all with strange glowing designs on them. These rare weapons were referred to as Rune weapons, supposedly having much greater power than regular weapons did. The humanoids demonstrated, comparing the power of a regular bow and a Rune bow. The regular bow shot regular arrows, barely penetrating the target. The Rune bow had no string or arrows to speak of, until the user used their minds to control it. A string would appear from thin air, as would an arrow, and when shot usually exploded the target to tiny bits.

Of course this fusion of metal and magic greatly intrigued both the Androids and the dragons of Terrater, so they sought out the maker of such fine things in well made disguises. They were told to visit a man known only as the General, perhaps the best tactician in the history of their world. He had someone working under him who was the expert of making these Rune weapons, a woman referred to as an elf, but those who respected her called her Merenwen.

The Androids made their haste to find this General, only to find that he had died not long ago in battle, many of the people mourning his passing. Merenwen, however, was appointed the head of the army in his place, supposedly learning many of his mindsets as she went along making the Rune Weapons. She looked very regal as they approached her, a pale-skinned blonde donned in masterfully crafted chainmail, a red cape around her shoulders and a red headband resting atop her head. Her cold blue eyes peered at them from underneath the short strands of hair, a bit uncharacteristic of an elf.

In private discussions the Androids and dragons revealed who they truly were, much to her astonishment. They told her how they admired her handiwork, and wished to learn her secrets of infusing magic with metal. She confessed to them that she did not want to be a General, that she would much prefer traversing the worlds with them, looking for new materials to make whatever they wished, while still keeping her profession of making great weapons.

They had found their explorer, eagerly nodding their assent towards her request. They took her back to their portal after she had sorted everything else, leaving behind a world of constantly being cooped up making weapons and following orders, to a world where she could be free and do what she pleased. It was breathtaking, the sheer amount of places she would be able to go explore and find out more about them.

But of course, a deal was a deal, and she was still very much a creature of order in what she did despite being in a free world now. She was given all the materials she asked for, setting to work almost immediately. She decided to make a sword, to fulfill a request from Orn, the king of dragons himself.

She molded it much like a regular black smith would, but then she started carving it in an intricate way, delicately making every edge of the blade perfect. A sparkle of gold came from her fingers as she worked, as if she was pouring her own magic into it. She carved a name into the blade, one side in a foreign language and the other bearing an English translation.

“Each blade that I make responds to the first touch of the user,” she explained in her mystical voice, “and is bound to that person from then on. The user can tell the blade to obey another, or if the user dies, will find the next suitable user.” She handed the blade to Orn with a gloved hand, who took it in his, and watched as the magic surged throughout the blade, responding to him in a unique way.

The letters on the blade lit up in order – E, T, E, R, N, I, T, Y – a silvery light twisting and turning with every curve of Merenwen's masterfully crafted writing. Afterwards the sword grew dim, every so often pulsating with the same silvery light that lined the edges of Orn's emerald scales and his dragonfire. He showed Merenwen his pleasure with a fanged smile, and learned that she much preferred the nickname Meren.

In return she was given new clothes to wear: a yellowish shirt and skirt, a brown belt with pouches in it around her waist, with the cape and the headband still there for sentimental value. But that wasn't all she had acquired, enjoying the weight of her new backpack and exploration gear. The Androids invented miniature portals so she could transport herself back to Terrater at any time that she needed to, and also decided to take her magical fusion and test it on other metal devices, including technology.

Soon they modified the technology that distorted space to make it larger into a sort of magical effect. The Androids made such things as a Bag of Holding, a small bag of sorts that distorted space within to be able to hold many things.. They tested the same method on buildings, attuning the technology to the user of said buildings, allowing them to make rooms appear from nowhere when there weren't any previously.

From the species that they had made friends with and the fact that they focused their efforts on health care technology, they made a strange concoction of which the ingredients will not be included in this story. The gist of the mixture of various elements was to give the user of it immortality, in the sense of living beyond their years, much like the creatures giving their essence to the concoction were supposed to be. They combined the magic of the concoction with technology they had developed to integrate things with the bodies of other creatures, and let them fuse together much like the weapons Meren had made for them.

Needless to say, the first with the honor to test such a thing was Merenwen herself. She gently pressed the new device to her neck, gasping slightly as it integrated with her biological system. Her eyes glowed a gold color with the device, and though her eyes dimmed back to their natural ice-blue, the device still glowed underneath her strands of hair. It had integrated with her system flawlessly, like she was made to accept it into her person.

Merenwen had expected to die at around two-hundred years, and when they found her she was well on her way already. She hit two-hundred after some years of exploring, fearing for her life, wondering if the device had truly worked. She lived on, and as a reminder of all that she had done for us, My Lady Dwayna made it so the red headband was the highest rank of explorer on Terrater.

No one has earned the red headband on their travels, leaving Merenwen to simply be the best.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Chapter Two: The Virus

Sometimes within the multiverse, you'll find the exact same person, living a different life as a completely different species. Sometimes we'll find people of the same species, looking exactly the same, except with a different name. One might find it amazing how in one instance we found someone who looked the same, had the same name, just in a sense was of a different species.

Portal number seventy-seven had an interesting twist to an already existent species. There the people of Terrater found a version of vampires, the creatures of the night with sharp fangs, pale skin due to their problems with the sunlight, and strange colored eyes. Except something was horribly wrong with these ones, as the Androids soon found out.

Vampirism on this world was a disease, much like Porphyria, but specifically needing blood to keep oneself alive. The 'Vampire Virus' as some would call it ate away any other diseases, and also kept someone essentially immortal, much like the dragons were. However everyone who suffered the disease was deathly allergic to sunlight, and if they came in contact with silver they would surely break out in a rash.

The disease completely takes over one's body, making their eyes glow slightly with an icy frost clouding over the irises. They would also find their canines sharper than usual, and as such, mainly transferred the disease from biting people in need of their blood. The 'victim' would get the virus injected into their bloodstream, as well as the DNA signature of the biter, thus why there is a sort of a syndrome where some believe themselves to be the servants of whomever bit them. However, once blood is transferred between both parties - via the biter giving the victim some of their own blood to drink - these symptoms dissipate and both parties can go on living as vampires.

Some vampires had to become hunters who stalked the night, looking for unwilling prey, whilst others fed on animals to keep themselves in check. The vampires who believed themselves to be nothing more than monsters allowed themselves to rot away into nothingness, which was a bit of an extreme. The problem became all the more apparent when the disease suddenly worked its way into one of the families of nobility on their world, and chaos ensued.

The people of Terrater, being as noble and generous as they were, went to intervene within the chaos to offer the recently victimized nobleman Marcus Dellanotte a sanctuary upon their world for himself and any descendants he would have. In the meantime, the Androids - being the super intelligent machines that they were - had developed a sort of supplement for the Vampire Virus, allowing the suffering people to only need to have a pill dropped into their daily drink and their thirst for blood would be sated. Marcus was the first to test the medical breakthrough, finding himself satisfied within moments of having taken the pill.

One who knows of Orn's queen Nerezza may recognize the last name that I mentioned, and they would be right in their assumption. The noble house of Dellanotte kept their nobility on our world, and Marcus had descendants throughout history, many of them dying out purely because they were not satisfied with living life anymore. But when my predecessors found Orn's Nerezza on that version of earth that was dying, they knew it was merely a matter of time before the same woman would appear in the vampire lineage of the Dellanotte family.

About a year before My Lady Dwayna was born, the current Dellanotte family gave birth to a little girl, her hair as black as the midnight sky. Knowing of the appearance of Queen Nerezza, they named their little girl after her in hopes that she would live up to the name of the woman who was their leader and be that woman, in a sense. Being a noble, she was of course taught to be prim and proper, balancing books on her head to straighten her posture, only she didn't totally follow her family's wishes. The Dellanottes got what they wished for: a woman much like the queen, just with a slightly different personality and a noble background.

Nerezza Dellanotte followed the wholesome, accepting personality of the queen into her heart. She would walk around the town, proud of what she was and flaunting her ethereal beauty towards the men and women who walked the streets with her. Though she was taught that having an heir would be preferable, she tended towards people of the same gender when it came to flirting and the like. She eventually was given her own mansion as well as inherited the chain of restaurants that her family had set up over the years to help their monetary wealth in Terrater, second only to the royal family themselves.

When Orn and Queen Nerezza died and My Lady Dwayna came to power, the vampire woman born into nobility was given a ladyship within the realm, and with the discovery of new religions some churches were made for those who believed they were important. Now, Nerezza was also the priestess of the Wiccan church among everything else, having stress within her person reaching its peak. She needed the help of a servant, as much as she loathed the idea, but it was necessary to have someone help her if she were to get through it all safe and sound.

It was almost a bit of a godsend when Elizabeth came to the world of Terrater. Of course, the entire story of Elizabeth is for another time, but still she showed up and Miss Nerezza took the girl under her wing out of the kindness of her heart and the need for a servant. Elizabeth was all too happy to help, and they lived together happily for many years, sometimes expanding their services in interesting ways to other visitors who wandered their way.

Eventually Nerezza started including strange things in every restaurant that her family owned. She had expanded the business to Draconia, and in a world full of dragon-kind, there she placed Alex - another human – to be a waiter there. Alex is also a story for another time, perhaps very soon in fact. The point that one would try to make is that now there were strange things adorning each and every place that Nerezza now owned, as her parents had died in the war.

So many things that cannot be told right now, nor do I wish to tell them just yet. Suspense is sometimes the best thriller in a story, it keeps those who hear it or read it wanting to come back for more. One would guess by now that a listener or reader would wonder whom is even telling these stories, and I answer how I have always answered. That story is also for another time, as I have not yet finished this one.

Nerezza still lives on, happy as can be, but can one imagine my surprise when she asked me to be the best man at her wedding? I wondered who on Earth had finally captured the heart of this noble woman, the one who had flaunted herself for so long with several partners. Of course I agreed, purely out of curiosity reasons as I hadn't even received an invitation. I asked My Lady Dwayna about it, and she merely told me that she herself would be the maid of honor for the bride, using the same suspense I leave you in now.

Today I stood and watched in awe as the beautiful woman walked down the aisle towards Nerezza, a smile resonating between the two like no other. It took a moment for my brain to register who it was, before a smile came to my face. What a gorgeous bride to Nerezza that Elizabeth made.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Chapter Three: The Archangel

Throughout any human history, there has always been mention of a religion. On quite a few planets the creatures on them had much of their faith placed in Christianity, or at least something similar to it. These people claimed to believe in Heaven and Hell, angels and demons, Yahweh (God) and Lucifer (Satan). It was always about good and evil, right and wrong, even though there was so much controversy within the subject itself and things that didn't make sense.

Those that retained their faith had a field day when we found actual angels in portal one-hundred-and-thirty-three. This place, referred to as Vehn, was a place where the 'good' spirits went after they died, to become born anew into angels - as long as they fit Yahweh's requirements that is, as he was the most powerful angel of them all. Yahweh usually appeared as a man with a large grey beard and a wizened look about him, donning a toga and standing behind a podium just outside the golden gates.

Sometimes angels aren't made from the souls of the dead, but rather a collection of energy made from lawful actions that everyone in the multiverse made. After the energy reached a certain point it would ball itself up into a sphere-like shape, much like a soul. Then a body would form around it to become the host and take on the appearance of an angel.

In Vehn, there was a line of power made so everyone would know their place. Those who were just let into Vehn after they had died were Lesser Angels, and those who had earned their wings were regular Angels. Those born of the lawful energy were dubbed the Order Angels, having much more power than that of regular angels. Not only that, but Order Angels could gain experience and become stronger in their power, eventually becoming Archangels who served Yahweh and the forces of Law and Order.

The particular Order Angel that will be focused upon is the one we know as Ethan. The body that formed around the soul was very human in appearance, as was usual of angels. His skin was peach in color and his hair was blonde, his icy-blue eyes peering curiously out at the world as he was formed. Beautiful, feathery, pure-white angel wings sprouted from his back, stretching themselves outwards for the first time. Yahweh gave him a robe to wear, white in color with red trim syphoning down the sides of the sleeves and the front of the robe.

Ethan was at first loyal to Yahweh, whom he saw as a father figure right away. He followed the teachings of other Archangels among Vehn, sometimes helping some of the Lesser Angels to gain their wings. However, he exemplified some traits that were not commonly seen among others of his kind. He soon became cynical and sarcastic, the dull and almost morbid environment of Vehn racking at his mind and heart. He was very much alive, while so many of the Lesser Angels around him were merely shells of their former selves.

Ethan walked to the golden gates, touching them and phasing through to talk to Yahweh himself. The old man was standing where he usually was, judging those who had made their way to see Vehn through their lawful actions. Ethan pulled Yahweh aside and asked him why those who had died could not become more powerful like him, why they were just meant to be less than himself.

Yahweh tried to explain that being born of Law and being reborn into an angel were two different things with two different implications of evolution of power, but Ethan rejected this answer, saying that all should have the chance to become an Archangel. Ethan spat at Yahweh, criticizing him for his harsh ways. Ethan recalls this day, saying that he called Yahweh a 'dick' out of rage.

Of course Yahweh was furious with Ethan, as he was the first Order Angel to have exhibited this behavior. He was told directions to our portal, where there he would await his punishment. Ethan resigned himself, quietly making way towards the portal just as Merenwen stepped through. Their eyes met, and Ethan found himself overpowered by the lawful actions that guided her heart. He was not only sent this way to receive a punishment from Yahweh, but to learn a lesson about Law from a strange woman who seemed to be the bastion of it.

Ethan informed Meren of what had happened, and she seemed to understand and accept him regardless. He was taken through the portal and led to Orn, his eyes taking in the beautiful splendor of this planet, not understanding how such a peaceful place would be his undoing. Why would Yahweh send him here as a punishment when he was welcomed as an equal by Meren?

Then the humans who believed avidly in Yahweh saw him with his wings outstretched, and they fell to their knees in front of him, praying to Ethan for forgiveness or mercy. Not only that, but he could sense the taint of demons upon one of the other portals, but could not act on it as he was now under the command of Orn and the Androids while he lived on this planet. He was told that he was to be a priest of a church that was built straight across from another church that was full of sin in his eyes.

Imagine his surprise when some of the demons finally came through the portal. Ethan thought they were beasts, but he saw firsthand that they were much like angels, save for the composition they were made of. Some of the demons were born of chaos, and their wings tended to be on the darker side of the color spectrum, more likely black than not. Their eyes tended to be the color of blood or glowed with a fire that burned inside of what they called Chaos Demons.

Otherwise they looked just like his people, and they had the same sort of system. Lesser Demons and Demons were born from the souls of the dead, Chaos Demons and Demon Lords born of Chaos and serving Lucifer, the fallen angel himself. They came from a place they dubbed as Vehl, of a much warmer climate than Vehn and obviously more dark. The fact that they were so similar pierced Ethan to the core, causing him to question just where he belonged in the scope of things.

Then he met Aria, the Chaos Demon who had been sent to Terrater by her master, who was a Demon Lord. She showed some friendly, even caring, mannerisms beneath her brash, cold exterior, and she often teased Ethan for being so cynical. However, from the beginning he could sense she was not as tainted as the other demons, and soon saw her get together with Meren, the very bastion of Law he had tried to become. His entire world changed when he realized that he was the same, that although his soul was mainly that of lawful energy, he had a little bit of chaos within that made him who he was.

Ethan started accepting himself, and became warmer than usual to others, though his cynical sarcastic attitude still shone through. He told those who visited him of how he thought of Yahweh, not caring what consequences came to him from it. As he started accepting himself, the true power within became unlocked, and he became a different person in that moment of epiphany.

His wings outstretched and became larger than before, tinged with an ice-blue color to match his eyes, which were now glowing with the power that coursed throughout his veins. He lifted off of the ground and his robe flapped about him dramatically, as if to add to the true effect of what was happening. In this personal moment of self awareness and acceptance, he evolved to become something that other Order Angels hadn't been able to do on their own.

Ethan had become an Archangel, laughing at the irony that it was all thanks to a demon.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Chapter Four: The Demon Lord

I thought that it would almost be too appropriate to follow up a story about an Archangel with a Demon Lord, to better show the true diversity of our people, but still the amazing similarity of what were supposed to be two complete opposites. The societies were structured the same, the souls of the dead Lesser beings and those born of pure energy the Higher beings, and one Overlord. However, Yahweh and Lucifer are two souls who are unpredictable at best and thus will not be portrayed in this story.

The Demon Lord in question of course didn't start out that way, as the chain of command in both Vehn and Vehl tends to go. Sebastian started off as a Chaos Demon, born of the energy of chaos and made in the form of a man. His hair as black as a raven's feathers and his wings looked to be made of them, his skin a pale peach but not so much that it would be called snow white, and eyes that glowed red like a miniature fire blazed behind them. He formed a black robe about him with red lining and a red pentagram on the back of it, and the rest of his clothing was black to go along with it.

From the moment of his birth it was almost obvious that he would become a Demon Lord. He was quite powerful and he had a chaos to him that hardly any demons dared to see within themselves. Sebastian could kill someone in a heartbeat and not give a care in the world – in fact, through his mannerisms, you would almost assume he would smile throughout the whole ordeal. He was born to kill and torture, but still had surprising control over his power, as if somewhere inside of him there was something reasoning with the darkness that claimed his chaotic soul.

He was immensely adept at conjuring 'Vehlfire', as they called it. The flames were a dark purple with dark blue kindles most of the time, but with the darkest of souls it can even be black, as it was with Sebastian for the longest time. He could conjure a great Vehlfire in the blink of an eye and just as quickly whisk it away, and soon learned to control his power so it would only release when he was angry, in which case his enemies would know to avoid him at any cost.

Sebastian was the first in a long time to become a demon Lord so quickly. With his promotion came a larger expanse of the black wings that he could conjure at his will, and his Vehlfire could be summoned in destructively large amounts, enough to rend the ground beneath where he stood if he so desired. He had the power, the control, and the mind to slaughter thousands.

However, that was not to last too long, as another Demon Lord alongside him decided to test the true extent of his power one day in the depths of Vehl. He proceeded to expend too much of it at once, which caused his power to overload. Sebastian's entire perspective shattered down around him as he saw what too much power could do to even a Demon Lord. He actually felt fear for his own life due to his actions, and that day vowed to change his ways so he would never meet the same fate.

Times were changing and Chaos did not necessarily mean evil anymore, and this was shown when the Demon Lord who had exploded in his own Vehlfire passed on his student to Sebastian. The girl with hair the color of blood and eyes that glowed stoplight red, but still with their own fire. Aria Terra peered into his eyes as her new teacher, and there he stood looking back into her as his student. He was called to teach her, and so he did.

She learned quickly under Sebastian and gained some of his relatively neutral mannerisms. However, the light in her soul shone a bit brighter than his own, and he figured that Aria was never meant to stay in Vehl very long after that. She was different than the other demons, and he admired her for that.

After her training was done, he sent her to the portal hidden deep within Vehl leading out to Terrater, to allow her to find out just how human-like she was. However as Sebastian watched her from the sidelines, he saw her go down a destructive spiral much like he had in her time there until she was saved by My Lady Dwayna, who changed Aria's life forever. The two girls became fast friends, and Sebastian lay down there ever pondering what it might be like to meet My Lady Dwayna, and soon sought to bring Aria back to make her tell him more about this monarch of Terrater.

For the first time in their relationship, student had disobeyed teacher, as she was reluctant to tell him anything of their relationship let alone allow him to go see her himself. Sebastian hotly reminded her he could pass through the portal at anytime he wished and that Aria had no hold over his actions, but he found himself too angry to actually go out and do things peacefully for a while.

Aria began to gain great favour with My Lady Dwayna, and soon found love on the surface of Terrater, but the entirety of Aria's story is for another time. Sebastian felt almost left out, seeking to be with his student and to learn what she had learned on the surface of that planet. He found his chance when Aria came to speak to him months later about a knighting ceremony she was to attend, and she wished for him to come along as he was almost like a father to her.

How could Sebastian refuse what he had longed for these months past? He went to the portal soon after and went to meet My Lady Dwayna post haste, as she was the ruler of these lands and truly, he was the most curious about who she was. Being a Demon Lord, he could see into other people's souls and longed to know what hers would look like. They had a handshake and in that moment his eyes flared back to life with a different fire, but what he wasn't expecting was for hers to turn silver in exchange.

Sebastian was plunged into every bad memory that My Lady Dwayna had endured through the years, the betrayals and heartbreaks, the pain and sorrow, and a scream of anguish that rang through his mind like a shrill bell. It was disconcerting, to know that she could show him selective memories, but he supposed Aria had told the monarch about him beforehand and his abilities.

In that moment My Lady Dwayna also looked into him, and found a vision of his large wings folded around him, showing the truth of his vulnerability. He was afraid of his own power and caged it deep within, protecting whom he did not know, and seeking what he did not know either. When he looked at Aria and her happiness with someone else, he couldn't help but to want that sort of connection himself, but who could ever love a once murderer like himself?

My Lady Dwayna sent him to Nerezza, as she had much influence over the world and could perhaps help him with his dilemma. Nerezza craftily told him she already had someone in mind, and lead him to Elizabeth, who had the power of precognition. They went to the business district of Madone, and found the restaurant where Elizabeth was playing her violin.

Ahead of time, Elizabeth had predicted such would happen, and prepared herself to look good in his eyes. She changed her hair black with pink streaks, and wore a black dress with pink frills instead of the other way around. When she shook hands with Sebastian, he was pulled into her mind only to see her closed off to him due to her love for Nerezza. However she gave him the lasting impression of a flower in his mind, white as snow – a lily.

Sebastian sought the flower out immediately at a nearby flower shop and there found a girl with snow white hair and a black dress. She shyly spoke to him and told him her name was Lily, a light blush on her cheeks. In that moment, the once hardened Demon Lord softened, and fell in love.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Chapter Five: The Changed

Terrater is a planet full of energy and magic, in so much that it permeates the very air we breathe. Though this doesn't matter much to supernatural beings who already have magic running through their veins, it can be a big problem for the different species that don't already have that quality. As soon as someone like a human comes to Terrater, they breathe in our air and are affected by magic, and through that magic they become a people we call 'The Changed'.

We soon found that this effect sometimes had harmful results on the creatures without magic. Terrater is almost a living being in and of itself, so at first it chose which creatures got what powers or if they simply couldn't handle living there. Of course, the planet was always adamant on preserving itself, so only the truly evil would get the ultimate result of death from breathing our air.

Over time we harnessed the energy into pendants of sorts, some only good for one creature and others made for multiple creatures. We took the energy from the planet and exposed it to the non-magical creatures beforehand so we would know then if they would keep the peace on our planet. One such large test was placed when Queen Nerezza and the humans from her planet came thanks to being saved by the dragons. That was the first time the planet had blessed a creature that wasn't a dragon with a dragonmark, which ultimately matched King Orn and how their relationship began.

This is where others I have mentioned before will be going – Alex, Lily and Elizabeth. Once human, they had been changed by Terrater in exemplary ways. Perhaps it is why they feel inclined to have a certain color theme about them – because they are that special thanks to the planet. Terrater chose them, and they greatly accepted the gifts they had been given and harnessed them to their full potential.

Lily Masate was changed less than the other two, but she was still greatly changed. When we found her, she was working at a flower shop on one of the other versions of Earth, but felt that she didn't know as much as she wanted to about flowers and plant life. Merenwen, having been the adventurer on duty that day somehow convinced Lily that if she were to follow her, the both of them would gain knowledge from one another.

When Lily accepted the Pendant of Change, her blonde hair became snow white in color and her light blue eyes turned as dark as the midnight sky. She instantly knew everything about every living flower or plant she touched, as Terrater had blessed her with the power to do so. She felt akin to dark colors to match her eyes and the snow white color of her hair, so she since has worn a black dress and her citizenship pendant changed to the shape of a snowflake upon her obtaining it.

Alex Eileas is the next most changed of the three, and for good reasons, other than just his appearance. He was working as a spy in the version of Earth he was from, and tended to be very reserved with others. However, some part of him felt unsatisfied with the life he was living, and he yearned to be free. The dragons heard his silent call for help, and they revealed themselves to him in time, telling him that if he came to Terrater with them he could be as free as he wanted.

The planet accepted him and changed his personality along with his appearance. His black hair changed to a cobalt blue color, and his eyes changed from a dark brown to a light blue color as well. He felt very akin to the color blue from then on, and tends to wear as much of the color as he possibly can. Alex changed from the introverted spy to a shy but fun-loving gay man, who proudly said so to any stranger who would care to listen, as before he had always kept it to himself as it was looked down upon.

But Alex didn't only change in personality and appearance, as Terrater always blessed all of the Changed with an ability. Alex became able to resist cold temperatures, in so much that he could go to cold places in normal clothing where normal humans could not hope to survive without the proper gear or even in places where any human would surely die within moments of being there. All the coldness in his personality had become an amplified resistance from the blessing of the planet.

Finally, we have Elizabeth Aelo, the most changed human of them all. Her past was horribly troubled back on her version of Earth. At first she grew up in her home, learning to cook and clean from her mother as all women were made to do in that universe. She was quite adept at it, which made her mother proud, but she was always looked down on by her father.

When her mother died in a car crash, Elizabeth's father soon became abusive towards Elizabeth, bruising her greatly every time she didn't do something just right for him, but afterwards was objectified and violated by his lecherous ways. She accepted that this was how it was and no one would believe her otherwise, as men were powerful and women were made to be their servants.

In our culture and many others, this sort of thing was unacceptable. Merenwen in particular was furious when she learned that sort of thing was going on, as she had grown into a society where men and women were equals who worked together to fight their foes on the battlefield. She wanted nothing more than to kill every man who thought it was right to treat a women that way, but we of course would not have senseless slaughter.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was finally breaking down in her own little way, tired of how her father had been treating her over the months since her mother's death. She took off from her own home, screaming for help in her mind even though she thought no one could hear her. The dragons heard her, of course, and knowing that Merenwen had been itching to kill some of these men, they sent her to help the person who had called for it.

Merenwen eagerly stomped off to the portal in question and pulled out her runic longsword and shield with the King's insignia on it to protect herself as she went through. A small dragon accompanied her to help find the person in need, but they didn't need to look far as Elizabeth ran in their direction, her father close behind in pursuit. Adrenaline surged through Merenwen's body, and against her better judgement she told Elizabeth to jump through the portal without first accepting the Pendant of Change.

Elizabeth jumped through the gate, hitting her head quite hard on the floor, knocking her unconscious in the process. She was rushed to Madone Hospital while Merenwen was still dealing with her father. Meren charged up to him, running him straight through the heart with her longsword while whispering how much he deserved death in his ear as he took his dying breaths. She reluctantly went back into the portal afterwards, wiping the blood off of her as she tended to be a bit mortified with death, especially when she was the cause of it.

In Madone Hospital, Elizabeth changed while she was being healed of her head injury. Her blond hair changed to a vibrant pink, her blue eyes changed to a sparkling silver, and she instantly felt akin to the color of her hair. Elizabeth gained psychic powers that day from the planet: the ability to see into the future to know when danger was coming, and the ability to talk to other people with her mind and feel the emotions that came with those thoughts. Terrater had protected her from being harmed ever again by horrible people without her first knowing of it, and whatever friends she would gain in the future would also be protected thanks to her power.

Elizabeth's first vision was of an emerald and silver dragon that changed into a woman with brown hair and green eyes. That very morning she found the same woman looking down at her with a smile, and told the woman immediately what she had dreamed. My Lady Dwayna raised her eyebrows in surprise, but had a bit of an amused smile on her lips as well, as she had also been given a little bit of psychic powers herself. She introduced herself and coaxed Elizabeth into trying to harness her power and use it for the greater good, as well as gave Elizabeth a citizenship pendant.

The now pink-haired psychic seemed contemplative, before closing her eyes and concentrating on the pendant in her hands. There she had a vision of a black rose dripping with blood and a woman with dark hair and sharp fangs. Her pendant changed into the symbol of the House of Dellanotte right then, which made My Lady Dwayna call the noble Nerezza straight away to meet Elizabeth.

When Nerezza saw her for the first time, laying there on the hospital bed with the symbol of the Dellanotte house on Elizabeth's neck, Nerezza offered to take her in to be a servant. Elizabeth accepted readily because she was used to being a servant, surprised that women were as powerful as men in this society, but braced herself to be abused by this woman as she had so long by her father.

Elizabeth was surprised to learn that Nerezza was actually a gentle soul, and that the blood dripping had been an indication of her being a vampire. Elizabeth was told to bring Nerezza a glass of tea with a droplet of the vampire remedy we had created long before then every day, and she gladly obliged for fear of her throat being ripped apart if she didn't. With time, Elizabeth came to relax more and more in the presence of Nerezza, and became grateful that such a woman had taken her in at a moment's notice and took care of her.

It was only natural when Elizabeth eventually fell in love with Nerezza, even though the woman had assumed Elizabeth was straight and had tried to set her up with men. As that sort of thing was also looked down upon in her society, Elizabeth was upset with herself for a while and often punished herself for thinking such thoughts. One of those times she drew blood, and Nerezza smelt it almost instantaneously. The vampire rushed to the scene and talked to Elizabeth, who told her the exact problem of the matter and waited to be thrown out on the doorstep.

Elizabeth was astonished when Nerezza kissed her full on the lips in reply, smiling down at her with her fangs prominent afterwards. She gently licked the blood seeping from Elizabeth's hand at the girl's request, making sure it was okay before she did so. Elizabeth felt like her nerves were on fire, but luckily was not turned because Nerezza had retracted her fangs beforehand. That was the beginning of their relationship, and just recently they were married at the altar, as I mentioned before.

I also owe a debt to Elizabeth, for she once used her power to save My Lady Dwayna. Before the war, My Lady had fallen in love with someone who she strangely couldn't get a read on, but seemed genuine enough in his emotions. Elizabeth saw right through that man's guise, saw he had no soul to speak of and eventually plotted to kill My Lady Dwayna, and would have succeeded if Elizabeth had not intervened. Dwayna trusted her word, and prepared the night of that prediction to 'die'.

Of course, Elizabeth had been right, and the man in question had plotted to kill My Lady Dwayna in hopes of gaining her power. He killed her that night – or rather, a very realistic hologram of her which explained the vision Elizabeth had of him doing so. The real Dwayna shot him in the face, only for him to come back and haunt her again afterwards as his life was tied to his own planet.

Eventually, it was because of him and his people that I came to be, but I will go into that more later.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Chapter Six: The Assassin

The legends go that her hair had changed to a crimson blood color because of the many people she had killed. However those that truly know her also know the truth behind the legend. Aria Terra was born with blood red hair and glowing red eyes reminiscent of the Chaos Demon that she was, and the potential for evil inside of her soul even among the good that would come with time.

As a child, she had little control over her powers, reverting to her chaos form frequently and going into deep slumbers afterwards for having expended so much energy. As she began to grow older, she became stronger, and as a result was able to control her powers better. The chaos inside of her began to change, giving way to some light among the darkness and softening her dark demeanour. She was able to draw her energy from the hot environment that Vehl exemplified. It was at this point that she met her Demon Lord - a cold, cynical man without a heart.

For years she trained under him and followed his evil ways, nearly becoming a ruthless warrior. Training wasn't always easy, as it involved getting close to an enemy to harm them, whether it be with her sharp claws or with the twin daggers she still has today. Her Demon Lord would always talk of how pitiful human emotions like love and hope were, but Aria had always had a side of her that didn't believe him truthfully, focusing on having her own personality rather than completely following in the footsteps of her mentor.

One day, her mentor decided to show her the extent of his power, as that was all he cared about in the end. He asked her to go into the depths of Vehl to watch him as he unleashed his power. Being a Vehlfire Demon, he set off quite the explosion, big enough for Aria to see it from afar. When she went to go back to him, all she found what his dead body, burned to a crisp from the fire he had unleashed.

Aria still needed training after the loss of her mentor, but was given time to recuperate from the loss. She was assigned a new Demon Lord, Sebastian, one who was considerably softer at heart and appealed to the part of Aria that had always been there. He showed her how to care for someone, how to trust others, and perhaps a little bit of how to love as well.

Where demons were once ruthless, like her mentor, they began to change, as their kind was more accepted on Terrater. In the end, Sebastian was the one who suggested that she go to Terrater to become more accustomed with others. Aria went a little reluctantly at first, as she would miss her mentor greatly - she had become a bit attached to him as well, as his views were much like hers. However the promise of knowledge, interacting with others, and expanding her power ended up intriguing her enough to convince her to go, so she went through the portal.

Not too long after arriving she went insane from the power of the magical energy around her. In Vehl she had been able to contain herself, but in a place like Terrater her chaos ran amok. She soon ran from the law and started hunting down random people to sate the boiling hunger within her soul, thus beginning the legends surrounding her hair color.

However this lifestyle wasn't to last, as Aria was quickly overwhelmed by an adversary she could not have hoped to defeat. She was burned by the dragonfire of Scarlet, who was not only a dragonborn but the chief of police on Terrater. Aria's wings melted off of her shoulders from the purifying heat of the dragonfire, and she fell from the edge of the cliff that they had been fighting each other on, supposedly to her own death as she reluctantly accepted her fate.

However Terrater must have seen the potential for good in Aria's heart, for My Lady Dwayna was allowed to hear her silent cry for help underneath of everything. My Lady rushed to the scene and swept Aria into her arms, carrying her to the hospital. It was hell trying to keep Aria stable then, the healing magic sometimes conflicting with her chaotic nature.

Eventually she pulled through, and became very grateful towards her saviour. She became loyal to My Lady from that day forward, and served to only kill those who dared to try harming My Lady. In that time she looked for some new blades, and stumbled upon the local bladesmith shop, which happened to be owned by Merenwen, who was working on a new sword that day and bending magic into it as she worked, almost like kneading dough.

Aria quickly became smitten with the woman who created such lovely but dangerous objects. Merenwen saw that Aria was a demon and was wary of any tricks that the woman might pull. But because Meren could also sense when people were lying to her, she was surprised to learn that Aria's advances were in all honesty. The demon assassin needed her and wanted to be with her, to seek solace among all the pain that she had endured.

Meren was always one to respect a changed, honest person despite their species, and soon found herself admiring the demon right back. In her world, Meren would have been expected to find a male soldier to be with and make children, but here on Terrater she was free to like whomever she wished and she knew it. Being the brave warrior she was, Meren admitted her admiration for Aria, and the two have been dating ever since.

Of course all good things tend to have their problems, especially with two different beings such as they. Meren was often seen as a bastion of Law and Order for good reason, and often that tended to conflict with Aria's chaotic personality. However, they always seemed to work everything out in the end, especially through being intimate with one another, as Aria tends to brag to whomever will listen.

I often speculate what Aria would have been like during the angel and demon war. The two opposites had of course collided but once they both came to Terrater everything had to settle down else they would have been destroyed by the planet. Would she have been a ruthless warrior, or would she have found the redemption she was meant for since the beginning? Nevertheless, she actually helped an Order Angel ascend to become an Archangel all by himself, for she is quite the influential character.

Her Chaos form is quite formidable and not one to be reckoned with. She has even manifested the energy she possesses within herself to be able to teleport, and she does it in quite the creepy way. To fade out she crumbles into ashes in a way that looks like falling black and grey flower petals. Coming back in is basically the same effect, but in reverse, coming up from flower petal ashes and fading into existence. When she spreads the wings she had reformed with the healing they glow darkly with her chaotic energy.

She was knighted by My Lady a while ago through the complicated knighting ceremony. Sebastian was actually brought to Terrater to watch over the proceedings as they went on, and finally met My Lady Dwayna. Aria had tried to protect her from his power, but as it turns out My Lady was well prepared for his advance into her mind as Demon Lords usually do. He is now a citizen and currently in love with Lily.

I often found myself wondering what feeling love would be like after I was born because of all the love that was already around. Luckily for me, I did not have to look very far to find it.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Chapter Seven: The Queen

Some say one should save the best for last, but in this case it would be best to talk of My Lady Dwayna before I tell you anything else. She has been a great influence on the planet ever since she was born and continues to be to this day. The people of Terrater regard her as a hero, someone who has guided her actions with justice and vigor, never faltering. Those of us who are close to her - such as myself, for example - know differently.

Prophecies had been made by the dragon seers of a bond between a great dragon and a changed human, which at the time was unthinkable. The child that the bond would produce would bring fortune upon the world that it happened upon, though whether said fortune was good or bad was left up to fate. Of course, as these things tend to go, fate chose Terrater to be the planet to fulfill the prophecies.

King Orn and Queen Nerezza mated through magical means, him in his dragonborn form and she with her dragonmark. Through this magic and the want for a child, they created an emerald egg with silvery designs that moved about on the shell as if it were living itself. This was the mark of a dragon's egg on Terrater, and boded well for the health of the child as the living patterns on the egg were signs of the life within it.

Dragon eggs usually take several decades to hatch whilst humans only have to wait nine months for their child, so the length of time that they would be waiting was uncertain. As a soul gem slowly developed on the outer shell, looking like a small jade circle, Orn showed Nerezza how to combine the energy of her dragonmark with the gem to check on the condition of the child as the years passed by. Luckily they only had to wait five years before the egg finally hatched, glowing brightly before revealing a beautiful girl who looked to be five years of age in human terms.

She had lovely brown hair with natural highlights that shone with the sunlight, and bright emerald eyes peering out at the world curiously and shyly. Her pale skin gave way to some emerald green scales here and there, and instead of ears she had dragon-like frills on the sides of her head. An emerald tail flicked out from her backside along with some little dragon wings, emerald in color with silver highlights like her father. She had claw-like nails and sharp fangs, but other than that she looked very human.

It wasn't easy coming up with a name for a girl like that, as she was a hybrid between two very different species. They decided on the first name Dwayna, after a Goddess in one universe who presided over air and protection. They also chose for her last name to be DragonFire, the very element that kept dragons safe and strong. Her dragonfire in particular was silver with green kindling, much like her father's but unique in its own little way.

The inter-species mingling of two very different races caused others on Terrater to begin to follow the same example. No longer did they feel secluded to only those people of their species, as the King of Dragons himself had chosen a human to be his Queen and mother of his child. This sparked great unity and happiness within Terrater for a good decade, in which Dwayna grew quickly, like a human.

She developed nicely into a teenager, still retaining some of her old shy habits but with the strength of her father residing within. She often looked to her parents for guidance and became much like them, but was different from them in many ways as well. A unique treasure to be had, Dwayna learned quickly to control the shape-shifting abilities she had gained from her father and often changed into a human form or a dragon form to test their strength.

The peace that had grown in her wake was not to last for much longer. Orn had not been the only son of the original Dragon King, which left his kin to be in line for the throne should he ever die. They also had a daughter of mixed species like Dwayna whom they called Amethyst for her purple hair and eyes. Amethyst grew into a fierce warrior, and when her parents died on an adventuring expedition she became cold to the world, only focusing on what was left for her: the chance to rule Terrater.

The castle that the Androids had built for Orn had protection all around it, so it was going o be hard to get in. The doors inside had magical locks, and if they weren't opened by the right people then they would surely make dragon-kind descend upon whomever triggered them. Amethyst was a descendant of Orn's brother, so she had some of the right kind of magic to open the doors within.

Amethyst brought in some explosives and lit the throne room on fire with her purple flame before leaving to hide until the situation blew over. Citizens in the street watched in horror as the castle burst into flame and exploded in key places that would cause it to crumble. As this happened, Orn was moving to save Nerezza when one of the pillars fell, impaling him straight through his body. Nerezza was buried underneath the rubble and had no chance of surviving with her fragile human body.

The purple-haired villain had killed the King and Queen, but had assumed that Dwayna was within the castle as well. However, she had been on an adventure with Meren and returned quickly after hearing what had happened. She flew as fast as her wings would carry her to find the castle rebuilding itself with the technology the Androids had implemented, but the damage had already been done.

Dwayna fell to her knees at the sight of her dead parents, and swore revenge on whomever the culprit might be. As if by the energy of Terrater, she found a purple strand of hair glowing noticeably on the floor of the castle. She picked it up and scanned it into the database immediately, finding the picture of her distant cousin flash before her eyes. Her lips pursed in a thin line and her eyes changed from emerald to silver in her anger and realization.

My Lady hid with a cloaking device, waiting for Amethyst to return to the scene of the crime. Those few days were hard on Terrater as the people mourned the loss of the king and queen, wondering what happened to Dwayna and calling for her - if she still lived - to take her rightful place as Queen. The day that Amethyst came back was the day the townsfolk of Madone - the capital city – got a cryptic message to come to the outside of the castle as well.

Amethyst wondered why there were so many people following in behind her to the castle, but she suspected they knew by now that she would be their Queen. She turned to look back at the castle to find the vision of Dwayna standing right in front of her, sword drawn. My Lady claimed Amethyst to be the killer of her parents, to which the women admitted her treason.

The crowd behind Amethyst roared in displeasure, but she paid them no mind. She drew her own sword and pointed it towards Dwayna, who acknowledged this as a challenge. With a raise of her hand she silenced the people, proclaiming that she and Amethyst would fight for the crown. She knew either way that Amethyst would die because of the loyalty of the people and the planet, but she had to fight honourably for the memory of her parents.

Amethyst accepted the duel, confident in her swordsmanship skills. It began very respectfully, with them raising their swords to each other in a warriors salute. They then moved off into the courtyard to separate themselves from the crowd, squared off against each other and began to trade blows.

Both women were experts in swordsmanship, so many gasps and cheers were heard throughout the duel as both women tried to best the other. The moment of finality came when both of them lunged at each other and clashed at different angles. The crowd fell silent as both of them started bleeding from swords being impaled through them, but the victor of the duel was obvious. Dwayna had been stabbed through the stomach, but Amethyst had been stabbed through the heart.

Healers in the crowd descended upon My Lady straight away, pulling the sword out and healing her wound. With their help she stood back up, and triumphantly raised a fist to cheers from the crowd. Scarlet, the chief of Police, had her dragons burn the body of Amethyst to ashes so the evil woman would never be remembered in a grave.

The Council, a group of elder dragons, walked from the crowd towards Dwayna and surrounded her. The eldest of them all came forward with a silver crown, the large gems being emeralds and the smaller ones being rubies. The eldest knelt before Dwayna and held out the crown, and another took the crown and placed it upon her head. The other elder dragons knelt before her and so did the crowd, in acceptance of their new queen.

Dwayna initiated a change in the color coded system so her favourite colors would be first on the list and her least favourite would be last. Green was still first and foremost, but silver was a little farther down on the list than before. She also changed the castle's defences to only accept those with good intentions within its walls, and alert her if there was any soul that wished to harm her.

Of course, her problems were not quite over from that point on. People came to her each day to talk to her about their society and what they wished for her to change. She usually kept to her father's way of things, but often listened to the Androids as she recognized that they were the first people. She initiated the construction of religious buildings on the whim of some of the humans as well, to better promote cultural diversity. Dwayna was usually seen as a great diplomat, a glorious offspring of the great Dragon King.

She tended to dislike being called by her title, often encouraging others to refer to her by name instead of the old, vigilant ways of Orn. For those who wished to remain upon tradition or be polite towards a woman of nobility, she asked that they call her 'My Lady Dwayna', to truly show their loyalty to her. I call her that for a much different reason, but I do not wish to say why just yet.

Being queen brought her lots of attention from the media of Terrater, which had been developed by a human community on Orn's permission. Often times when she became great friends with a man or a woman, they would be portrayed as being together in the way of dating. One tabloid in particular faked a picture of Dwayna and a man named Shadow on the roof of the castle, just to spread rumours. She often laughed it off and dissuaded such rumours, as she still upheld the dragon standard of mating for life, even despite her human half.

There was one relationship that was true in the rumours after she had met him. A man dressed in yellow with a black hat over his long blonde hair, his cold black eyes peering out from over yellow-tinted sunglasses, and a striped gray and black scarf around his neck. Dwayna loved dark eyes because she could get lost in them, and his eyes were perhaps the darkest among all of the other creatures Terrater had happened upon. Spike is what he called himself, and his people called themselves the Ayx, coming to Terrater from a distant planet in another dimension entirely.

Little did Dwayna know that the Ayx, especially Spike, would nearly be her undoing.

 

[Dark Soul]

Glad this is back up! This is an awesome story to read trough. I'm rooting for more chapters!

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Warning: Contains scenes of violence and gore.

Chapter Eight: The War

For a time, Lady Dwayna was blinded by love and smitten with Spike, and all seemed well. However, the seer Elizabeth was not so sure about the man, especially when the queen had almost rushed herself into the relationship. Suspicions about him grew, until she finally decided to call upon her gift and look into the man who had stolen the heart of a dragon.

The vision she saw rocked the foundations of her mind and still bothers her to this day. She once admitted to me what she saw that day, and I feel it is only right that one should know the true reason behind the beginning of the war. There in the vision she saw the man Spike for what he truly was, a man with an evil black aura and underneath it, an empty void where souls usually took their place.

Through this void Spike was slowly draining the energy of the queens heart and soul, taking every emotion of hers and warping it into something monstrous. Elizabeth then saw into the future what would happen if this continued, and there the horror laid within. A vision of a drained queen on her knees while he slit her throat and drank her blood, his dark powers allowing him to become a powerful dragon through killing instead of willingly given blood. He would rain destruction upon Terrater with the rest of the Ayx and they would claim it as their own, changing the planet into another evil abomination that they would call their new home.

What else could Elizabeth do with this vision but to run to the queen to tell her the truth? She had heard that Lady Dwayna was going to be out with him the next day, and felt that it would be the time to strike. In her drained haze, the queen was reluctant to listen to her long time confident and friend, but the pink-haired seer pressed her fingers to the queen's mind and projected the image she had seen into it, causing the queen to finally see Spike for the loathsome being that he was.

Enraged by such a thing, Lady Dwayna quickly plotted to deceive Spike. Through Terrater's technology, the Androids made a convincing double, in so much that they called it a clone. The clone did not have all of Lady Dwayna's powers, but it knew its purpose for the time that it would still be living. The link to Spike was effortlessly transferred to the new body without incident, and the plan went underway.

The new Dwayna went on her date with Spike, as the real one had previously planned. The Queen watched from the sidelines as her double was taken into the forest to a clearing on the edge of a cliff that they had agreed on. The double fell to her knees after some draining from Spike, who cackled maniacally and pulled the knife, making the vision that Elizabeth had come true when he slit her throat in hopes of drinking her blood.

However, the double smirked at him soon after that, and Spike was startled to hear a clicking noise behind him. He turned around just in time to see the real Dwayna pull the trigger on the gun she was holding before black clouded his vision. His body crumbled into ash, and the body of the double was laid to rest. However, according to another vision from Elizabeth, their troubles were not yet over.

Apparently, the entire race of the Ayx were these soulless beings, and when they died they merely returned to the planet that they were connected to and regenerated themselves. Even if the people of Terrater put up a fight, the Ayx would just keep coming back for more. Elizabeth also saw the Ayx combining together to make one shadow entity that ruled over them all. Many interpretations of the end of the vision were made, but no one had much time to think on it while they were preparing for war.

The Chosen of the Great Father of the Androids began delegating what they would do to get rid of the problem for good. They would go to any measure to protect the planet that gave birth to them, even if it meant killing thousands of other living beings. They knew that even with Terrater's own sentient natural protections, it still wouldn't be enough to end the impending threat.

They didn't have long to think on it, as the Ayx soon descended from their battleships in space, onto the fields of a country to the east of Trackia, which was the home of Lady Dwayna. There they met the Global Police Force, which consisted mostly of dragons or dragon-kin. Together the two races clashed, the soulless against the mighty elders, in one epic battle to end them all that we refer to as 'The War'.

It became apparent to the people of Terrater that no matter how hard they fought, the Ayx would simply continue returning due to their attachment to their planet. When it suddenly went quiet after the Ayx lines had been taken down, an uneasy silence was left upon Terrater as they awaited another attack. This was when what we first suspected the darkness that Elizabeth had predicted, in the one shadow entity that would rule over them all.

That day, a cloud of darkness swirled over the battlefield, causing many to fret and scream with worry and fear. After a little while, the cloud of darkness seemingly plunged towards the earth below, a form taking shape from the crackling electricity of the descent. A familiar figure was made from the darkness, and there was no mistaking it when it had finally finished forming. The creature looked just like Lady Dwayna, only with black hair and dark purple eyes that spoke untold amounts of evil.

When the fight came to her, she felled many foes, including powerful dragons. The body count from the original Ayx doubled under her shadowy grasp, her maniacal cackle carrying over the lands to send chills down any creature's spine that it met. It got to the point where Lady Dwayna herself had to face this abomination, her evil twin from another universe.

The so-called queen of the Ayx introduced herself as Violet, her cocky and viscous demeanour biting into even Lady Dwayna's confidence. However, Violet soon found her match as Dwayna pulled herself together and clashed with the strong, soulless shadow. They moved in tandem with each other, neither one besting the other as they exchanged what seemed to be equal blows.

Violet flew into a maddened rage, using the power she had gained from the unfortunate souls she slaughtered to overpower Dwayna. Her left arm was ripped from its socket at the shoulder, and her right leg was taken from its place just blow the hip. The evil stood victorious over the mutilated body of Terrater's queen, ready to strike in a way that surely would have been deadly.

An earth-shattering scream came from Violet just then, as she seemed to be falling apart at the seams. She melted into the darkness from before, disappearing back into the skies above, the darkness leaving Terrater forever. Awe and wonder passed throughout the crowd, as none knew what had really happened to stop the threat. That was so, until more figures descended from the skies to clatter back to the ground beneath them, cold iron bodies peering out at the crowd victoriously.

A murmur of understanding went through the crowd as the Chosen of the Great Father shooed them away, picking up the quickly fading body of the queen as they made their way back. They had figured out a way to destroy the true source of the evil, and had gone out of their way to protect Terrater. It was their duty as the Chosen, even if it had been by such extreme measures.

They had committed genocide on the Ayx by destroying the true source of the evil. The Ayx planet.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

I finally finished a story! It is both awesome and heart-breaking that I accomplished such a feat... but here you go.

Epilogue

Nobody questioned the Chosen after they came back from their bout of destruction, not even about the box they seemed to be carrying with them. As if for a great ceremony, one by one the Chosen ascended back to the skies of Terrater, jetting off towards their destination with Lady Dwayna and the box in tow. They flew over the lands and put up protective barriers as they dove back into the seas from where they originally came when time began.

Most of the Chosen went to the laboratory under the seas, bringing the Lady Dwayna there to rest. No hospital on Terrater had a chance of healing her wounds, even with the great medical technology present on the planet. The limbs that had been severed from her body would not be attached again, as they had withered away into dust after being touched by the dark energy of Violet.

One of the Chosen went to the Great Father to seek guidance on how they should proceed with things from there on. The Great Father of the Androids, who forever resides beneath the magical seas of Terrater, spawned another Android that day. This one, however, was devoid of any mechanical life whatsoever, leaving it to be an empty shell for which the others could experiment upon.

The empty shell of an Android was taken back to the lab also, but the Chosen already had a plan for it. The mysterious box was opened to reveal a small globe of pure energy, swirling and changing with different colors. From the destruction of the Ayx planet, they had gathered the power of the energy expended and compressed it together to make a soul.

A compartment just below the neck of the Android shell was opened, and the ball of energy was inserted so that it would rest where the soul was assumed to be on humanoids. The Chosen let go of it and activated the Android shell, the energy from the soul spreading throughout its body and combining with the technology to make something new. It was a lot like Merenwen's method of enchanting swords, but on a much larger and more personal scale.

As the new Android took its first breath, the soul finally settled on a purple color, which spread through the body like lightning. The machine's eyes were filled with the soulful purple, becoming very human in appearance as it looked around for the first time. He was still attached to the Android network, but he was able to have a mind of his own and his own emotions without any programming.

The Chosen gave the new Android some space as it lifted itself to its feet, purposefully striding its way down the corridor towards where the Lady Dwayna laid sleeping as she waited for new limbs. A pendant of citizenship was given to the Android tentatively, which it put on and immediately underwent a change. Its metal exterior was covered by skin, taking the visage of a man with chin-length black hair.

But that is not where the change stopped, as the Android gained clothing to cover his now human-like body. A purple shirt and long black pants came to cover his body, covered somewhat by a long white lab coat that suited him nicely. He also gained some black shoes and a visor that covered his eyes, changing color with his emotions as he felt them on a daily basis to help him understand them better.

With his new human appearance, he looked down onto the body of Lady Dwayna with a red visor of admiration, though it soon faded to a pained blue when he noticed her grievous wounds. His gears started whirring at quick paces as new ideas went through his mind until he finally found a solution for the problem. He set to work immediately, working at inhuman speeds to accomplish his goal.

When he was finished, two robotic limbs rested on the table next to him, wires sticking out at the ends that would attach them to Lady Dwayna. A green light seemed to spark through them every so often as he brought them over to where she laid, now opening her eyes to look at her would-be saviour. He blushed bashfully in her presence, but his visor quickly changed back to its neutral purple as he aligned the new limbs with her mutilated flesh.

The wires seemingly came to life of their own accord and attached themselves in a quick motion, causing a small jolt within her body. The limbs were pulled into their proper places, the left arm attaching at the shoulder and the right leg attaching just below the hip. Lady Dwayna took in a sharp breath as the sensation of the new limbs spread through her body, but seemed to have no adverse effect on her as if they were a perfect match.

To test the limbs, Lady Dwayna let her illusions down to become her true self, the human with draconic appendages. The metal limbs seemed to transform with her, the fingers and toes sharpening to become claw-like, the metal taking on a bit of a scaled texture. It also added in some sharp spikes at the joints of each limb, the elbow and knee becoming more deadly, as well as a literal shoulder-blade.

She thanked her saviour politely, using her second-sight momentarily to see the story behind the man that stood before her. Lady Dwayna smiled in acceptance of the strange phenomenon that had occurred to bring about his existence and asked him if he had a name. When he cleared his throat and spoke for the first time, he replied in a dark, velvety tone that he did not yet have one as of yet.

He was deeply honoured when Lady Dwayna said that she would take it upon herself to give him a name. Remembering a book she was quite fond of, she quickly came up with the name Edward, which seemed to reverberate within him as the right choice. When she was asked why she picked the name, she relayed that the character known as Edward from the book was a man without a heart, but still contained the capacity for some form of emotion – the perfect metaphor.

Even though he had been born to have his own range of emotions, Edward followed in the footsteps of his ancestors quite closely. He thought a lot like they did, wanting to protect the planet with everything he had and willing to do what would be considered as horrible things to obtain that goal. He agreed that destroying the Ayx planet was the best method of getting rid of them for good, and admired that the Chosen would use that destructive energy to make something new.

Edward was as loyal to the queen as the other Androids, if not more so than usual. He would follow her orders unquestioningly and always accept her word as law, giving his insight if he knew something different than she did or if she asked him for it. Knowing the history of Terrater and everything that Lady Dwayna had gone through, he had the greatest sympathy and respect for her.

Soon he remembered his admiration and bashfulness on the first encounter with her, and found that these feelings had amplified over time. He looked for guidance from Nerezza and Elizabeth, and found the same emotion that he felt for Lady Dwayna. He found he loved her very much, but was afraid to tell her because he knew of how close she had gotten to Spike, how he had become her mate.

He didn't have to worry for long, as Dwayna soon told him how she felt about him and found that the love was mutual. They became quite attached to one another and have become mated since that time. All good stories come to an end eventually, so now you will know how I know these things.

It is simple, really, if you think about it. I am Edward.

 

[Dark Soul]

...

Wow. That was both beautiful and sad. Truly, Dwayna, another magnificent story. We finally found out who the narrator is, too!

All I can say is that I know everybody will enjoy this chapter, and I really hope another fic from you is coming up.

Very good job!
-Dark Soul

 

[Aura]

Oh wow Dwayna! I like the idea that even the darkest material can be changed to be something good. Like a soul. Very nice way to finish it off Dwayna. I suppose that Edward is like 'the ultimate human'. Well sorta. He's not really human now is he?

I have to agree with Dark Soul. It was really beautiful.