I cradle Caudecus’s bloodstone mask in my arms, my eyes bloodshot with grief in the mask’s reflection. I’ll follow those bastards to the ends of earth.
First, the Pact Commander and his minions humiliate me by assaulting me at swordpoint for “betraying the Screaming Falcons.” So what? It was their fault that they were killed. Now, he kills my leader, my benefactor, my idol - Lord Caudecus. The man who gave me life and purpose. He...he'll pay for his crimes.
- - -
A lone silhouette totters in the midst of Draconis Mons’ fiery landscape - Tervelan. He body is emaciated, his bony chest showing from underneath his tattered White Mantle robes. Pursuing his master’s murderers for three months without rest into the Fire Isles has taken its toll on his body, but Tervelan seems oblivious of his condition. His sunken eyes smolder deep within his sockets as the scene of Caudecus falling to his knees replays over and over in his head.
- - - - - - -
I look down. A set of footprints - two? - go up, then down, into the heart of the volcano. No matter. Any buffoon that follows the Pact Commander will also meet his demise. I vowed to myself to pursue him to the ends of earth, and I meant that - literally. I keep trudging on.
The air grows blisteringly hot, mirages of heat dancing on the stones beneath me.
My hair catches on fire.
Do I give a damn?
Embers rain up and come back down in a steady hail.
My skin shrivels up even more.
I don’t give a damn.
As I claw my way into the heart of the volcano, an enormous dragon skull sitting in a lake of magma comes into my vision, clear as day. Yet the Pact Commander is nowhere to be seen. I keep following the footprints, but they end right at the shore of the lake. How did he disappear into thin air? WHERE IS HE? Somewhere far away, my knees hit the ground.
This is the end.
- - - - - - -
A tidal wave of pure misery bubbles up to Tervelan’s parched, seared throat, and he unleashes a scream of raw, raging desperation, crumpling backwards into a sack of skin and bones at the lake’s shore. He can’t even close his eyes - his eyelids have burnt off.
As he begins to slip into the Mists, the dragon's leviathan skull looms overhead. The pressure of an almost-infinite power grows in Tervelan’s mind, and glimpses of untold devastation, of lands swamped in magma, of darkening skies brimming with ash flood his brain. Compared to this, the Ascalonian Searing is nothing. Suddenly, the Pact Commander’s face flares for an instant and burns away. Tervelan understands immediately. If he bows down to the presence, he can fulfill his deepest desire: obliterating his nemesis. It is an offer too tempting to resist. He accepts.
Instantly, the volcano shudders as if in approval, sending rock shards raining down. Molten waves of magma consume his body. All becomes quiet.
After what seems like an eternity, a figure rises from the center of the lake.
Tervelan is no more. In his stead is the avatar of the newly-christened Ignis Caelum - he who wears his past on his face, he who will blanket the world with skies of ash, and he who will renew it in flame...as Primordus did unto him.
Ignis Caelum (Fiery Skies)
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This is the second installment in a series of dragon heralds (only for dragons that have not yet appeared in the storyline, so I'm cutting out Zhaitan and Mordremoth). The main character is from the human personal story, and you met him if, for regrets, you chose "dead sister."
- I found it a lot easier to take screens for this because 1) elementalists have so many fire-related spells/conjures and 2) there are more locations that suit fire themes.
- The main image of his rebirth was kind of a pain to get down. (I took about 150 screenshots in rapid succession over 5 minutes of recasting overload fire and filtered them all down to one) It's my best unaltered screen so far!
- sorry for the text wall! I enjoy writing too much.