Amendments (30 page)

              To Noir's surprise, Fafnir did not argue.  She looked sideways into the distance for a moment.  Nidhoggr took the opportunity to say, “See?  You aren't even sure of them yourself.  I am now going to continue to purge them from our world.”

              Fafnir's attention was snapped back to Nidhoggr.  “No, you can't—”

              Nidhoggr continued over top of the female dragon's words.  “If you try to stop me from purging our world from this disease, I will consider you my enemy and I will destroy you, Fafnir.”

              “No!” Fafnir and Noir yelled at the same time, but Nidhoggr already was taking flight once again.  He rose high above Fafnir and immediately exploded the building he'd been standing on moments before with a burst of fire.

              Noir was startled at the bellow of rage that erupted from Fafnir.  He was, for the first time since first meeting her, afraid of his teacher and mentor.  Noir found himself taking a few frightened steps away from the dragon.  Then, to Noir's shock and horror, a massive ball of fire streaked over his head and slammed into Fafnir.  An immense draft of scorching air blew past him and Noir instinctively put up a light barrier to protect himself.  Heat and fire rained down upon him.

              Once the burst of flames dissipated outside of Noir's shield, a cart of straw nearby had started to burn.  The wall above Noir was scorched black, but Fafnir still stood atop it unharmed.  Noir realized she must have put up her own light barrier at the last second.  Suddenly, Fafnir glanced beneath her directly at Noir and they met each other's eyes with surprise.

              Fafnir regained her poise and looked up at her attacking brother once more.  Without looking down, she commanded, “Run, Luxin Noir.  Help the other humans to get out of the city.”  Then Fafnir jumped off the wall, thrust her wings down, and catapulted into the sky after her brother.

              Noir watched as Fafnir darted at her brother.  Nidhoggr turned and shot a barrage of ice spears at his sister, many of which rained violently down to the ground around Noir and shattered.  Fafnir kept a shield of light in front of her, deflecting the ice attacks.

              Noir ran around the side of a building to keep the two dragons in his view and continued to watch in horror.  Nidhoggr turned his body in the air to flee, but Fafnir's massive body slammed into his.  It happened quickly, but Noir thought he saw a streak of dark red blood spray out and fall from Nidhoggr's back beneath Fafnir's claws.

              A fireball erupted between the two dragons and both went separate directions.  Fafnir's abdomen smoked as she was flung back, obviously not having time to block the attack.  She was hurt, but steadied herself in the air and steered herself back toward her brother in another attack.

              Noir felt panic at his helplessness.  What could he do from the ground?  Perhaps he could use lux from this far away to help.  Noir grasped lux as the two dragons flew toward each other.  He made a massive, strong light barrier between the two creatures.  They slammed into the barrier instead of each other.  Nidhoggr clawed ruthlessly at the barrier obviously thinking it was his sister’s creation, but Fafnir flapped her wings and looked directly down at Noir.  “Do not interfere, Luxin Noir!” her feminine voice roared.  “This is beyond you.”

              Fafnir’s attention was drawn back to Nidhoggr who still clawed furiously at Noir’s barrier.  Fafnir vaulted herself over Noir’s light shield and slashed at her brother.  Nidhoggr responded with a burst of fire to her face.

              Vaguely, Noir realized he’d never made a light barrier that massive or strong before and he only felt a small drain to his chakra.  It had doubled in size indeed!  He pulled out the Einlanzer from the scabbard on his belt and felt even more chakra available to him.  Maybe he
could
do something.

              Fafnir solidified the air around Nidhoggr’s neck.  He jerked to an awkward stop in the air and clawed at the restraint around his neck.  Fafnir surged forward with her arms and legs toward her brother.  Her massive black claws were extended as she plummeted.  Nidhoggr still clawed at the air around his neck, but created a ball of fire in front of him and shot it toward Fafnir.  Fafnir deflected the fire with a light barrier and spun to the side abandoning her attack.  Nidhoggr sent a barrage of fireballs her direction forcing Fafnir to block each one and abandon the lux flowing into the solidified air around Nidhoggr’s neck.

              Nidhoggr flapped his massive wings to gain height and to pull away from Fafnir.  He rained down fire and ice spears toward his sister as he ascended.  Fafnir placed one massive light shield over her head and moved it with her, chasing her brother higher into the air.  The barrier deflected Nidhoggr’s din attacks and sent them raining down on the already damaged buildings below.

              Noir heard cries of anguish nearby and forced himself to stop watching the terrible fight in the sky.  Perhaps he couldn’t make a difference in the battle in the sky, but he could help people on the ground.

Noir ran toward the voice crying out in terrible pain and found a three-story house engulfed in fire.  An older man was forcibly trying to keep a younger man from running into the burning building. The younger man hysterically yelled, “Let me save her, dad!  Let me go!  My daughter is burning alive in there!!!”

“You’ll die, son!  I can’t lose you both!”

Noir stopped next to the two men and put a hand on the struggling man’s shoulder.  He looked at Noir’s hand, then at Noir’s face and pulled back in surprise and horror.

“Maybe I can help,” Noir offered.  “I’m a Luxin.”

Both men’s faces changed from revulsion to one of hope.  “Yes, sir Luxin!  I can pay you!  However much you want!”

Noir shook his head.  “No.  I don’t want your tali.  Where is she?”

“The top floor!  Her bedroom is on the left!”

Noir encased his body in a barrier of light and ran into the house.  Flames buffeted his barrier and obscured his vision, but he felt none of the inferno except heat coming in beneath his barrier.  Noir tried to go quickly, but the flames were intense and impossible to see through.  Finally, his foot found a step and he raced up the burning stairs.  Wood steps broke beneath his feet, but he pulled himself up using the handrail and replaced the collapsing steps with solidified air.  He noticed with horror that the solidified air burst into flames quickly after he made them, but they lasted long enough for him to step higher.

Noir found himself on the second floor.  He turned and found another staircase on top of the previous one.  Black smoke filled the landing and some found its way inside Noir’s light barrier.  Noir circled back and started up the second staircase that led to the third floor but found them in even worse shape than the lower floor.  Noir created a solidified brick of air to step on, but it erupted in a burst of flames as soon as it was formed.

Noir looked up the stairs to the third floor and felt panic rising in his gut.  He didn’t know how to get up the stairs.  Noir cursed loudly in the noise of the fire, but got an idea.  He could make tiny light barriers to step on instead of air.  Noir made a shield of light covering where the second stair should have been and stepped up onto it.  It took more of his chakra to support his weight using light, but it worked.  He repeated the process and jumped from one light barrier step to the next and finally found himself on the top floor.  Noir was proud of his new ability, but pushed the thought aside.  Through the fire and smoke, Noir could barely make out two doors at the top of the landing.  Noir rushed to the one on the left and let the metal door handle penetrate his light barrier.  He touched it and immediately pulled his hand away.  The skin on his hand burned fiercely.  He was reminded of the underground lake and the searing pain he’d faced there.  Noir forced the thought from his head and grabbed a section of his brown cloak.  He used the cloak to shield himself from the hot handle and pressed it down.  Noir cursed as he found it locked.  Frustration, anxiety, and fear was building.  Sweat streaked down his face.  Noir cursed again and kicked at the door.  It creaked, but did not budge.

Suddenly, a section of the ceiling caved in over Noir’s head.  Debris rained on his light barrier.  Fire and blackened wood tumbled down against his shield and fell to the rapidly deteriorating floor beneath his feet.  The hole revealed blue overhead.  Thick black smoke rushed through the opening and escaped into the sky above.

The situation was getting more dangerous by the second.  In desperation and fear, Noir grasped din and made a ball of fire in front of him.  He thrust the din attack at the door.  It burst into flames for a moment.  Once the flames lessened, a hole showed in the middle of the door.  Noir released his light barrier and felt tremendous heat buffet his body.  He rushed forward, ducked his head, and stepped through the opening he’d just made through the door.  He immediately reformed his shield around himself to block the heat.

Most of the objects in the room were already blackened.  One of the corners of the ceiling had collapsed and flames and smoke billowed out.  Little was left that was not charred, but Noir could tell this room had been a bedroom.  Noir feared the worst and looked around the room frantically for the girl.

Noir ducked to look under the charred remains of a bed.  What Noir suddenly found himself staring at made him feel like he’d been kicked in the gut.  A girl’s body about the size of a ten-year-old was huddled beneath the destroyed bed.  Charred hands covered a blackened head in a terrified, protective posture.

Noir stared at the girl’s body with horror.  He tried to force his lungs to breathe but found he couldn’t.  There was no use trying to heal this person.  She was gone.  Noir lost focus and his light barrier faltered.  Noir felt heat rush in and he finally gasped.  Noir pulled his eyes from the sad, horrifying sight under the bed and stood.  He grasped at lux and, for the first time since he’d trained with Fafnir, felt the power slip through his grasp.

Noir panicked.  The rest of the ceiling crashed down around him and flames found his brown cloak.  He stepped away from the flames only to find more fire climbing the wall behind him.  Noir forced himself to focus and attempted to grasp lux within the core of his body once again.  He barely managed to seize lux and throw a light barrier around his body as the floor beneath him cracked and collapsed.

Chapter 29

Rage and Consequences

              “I'ts collapsing!” the two men outside the three-story building screamed in unison.  The younger man reached out helplessly toward his home as it collapsed upon itself.  In a spectacular and terrible pillar of fire, the wood structure tumbled to the ground.

              “No!!!” the younger man cried in complete anguish.  “My baby girl!  No!”  The man’s father continued to hold his son back from scrambling to the flaming ruins of their house.  Tears streamed down his face and blurred his vision.

              “You!  You bastard!” the younger man cried out.

              The man’s father had no idea who his son was talking to.  He wiped his eyes on his shoulder and peered at his former house.  In the middle of the wreckage crouched the scarred Luxin that ran into the house not a minute earlier.  A light barrier showed around the man as he slowly stood.  Flames whipped around the light barrier, but did not reach the man inside.

              “You bastard!  You didn’t save her, did you?!”

              The Luxin turned slowly in the wreckage to face the two men.  The older of the two men felt rage boiling in his stomach as well.  This Luxin had let his granddaughter die! 

              The grandfather started to throw a curse at the Luxin when a glimmer of light reflected on the scarred Luxin’s cheek through the flames.  The Luxin was crying!

              “I am so sorry,” The Luxin called to them with immense sorrow.  “She’s gone.”

~~~

              Noir stared at the two men and felt a pain in his consciousness deeper than he’d ever felt before.  They stared back at him with a mixture of shock, despair, and hatred.  Their little girl was dead.  “It’s all my fault she is dead!” Noir found himself screaming at the two men from the wreckage of their house.  His words sank into his mind after he’d said them and realized he meant them in more than one way.  He’d released Nidhoggr to cause this destruction.  He’d not been able to stop Ruith from wounding the dragon one final time and spurring on the creature’s rage.  Lastly, he’d not been fast enough, skilled enough, or observant enough to help the young girl escape the fire.

              Noir let his light barrier push aside flaming debris beneath his feet as he stepped out of the wreckage of the house.  Noir was surprised as the two men actually took a few steps back from him as he approached.  “I am so sorry,” Noir repeated.  “This is all because of me.”  Noir swept his hand around him to include the entire city around them.  “All of this.”

              A mighty roar drew their eyes toward the sky.  Fafnir and Nidhoggr streaked across the sky above them still locked in combat.  Both dragons’ bodies were streaked with wounds and blood.  Nidhoggr chased Fafnir sending repeated din attacks in her direction.  She either dodged each one or deflected them with light barriers.

              Fafnir’s massive form spun to avoid a streaking attack of fire and came up on her brother’s side.  She roared and raked her claw up her brother’s side creating a long, deep gash.  Acidic blood sprayed out and rained on the city below.

              “Do something,” a voice behind Noir said pleadingly.  He turned to the two men.  The grandfather was holding his son who was half collapsed against him in desperate weeping.  The older man repeated, “Do
something
,” putting more stress on the second word.  “You’re a Luxin and a Din Mage, right?  You have to do something. 
Anything
!  People are dying.”

              “I…,” Noir started, but faltered with what to say.  “I don’t know what I
can
do.”

              An burst of orange light and the roar of an explosion overhead brought Noir’s attention back to the fight above him.  A massive burst of fire had just sent Fafnir careening toward the ground.  Nidhoggr flapped above her.  He thrust his wings downward and roared with a rage that shook the entire capital city of Tier.  A massive ice spear formed where he flapped his wings and shot straight downward.  To Noir's horror, it shot straight into the plummeting dragon's chest.

              “Fafnir!!!” Noir screamed with horror.  He sprinted toward her falling body.  An earth-shattering crash shook the buildings nearby when her body hit the ground.  “No!!!”

              Noir leaped over rubble and pushed past overturned merchant carts in a frantic effort to reach his ally, mentor, and friend.  He burst into a large, central plaza in the center of the Tierian capital city.  To Noir's surprise, there was a group of people there.  They had come to stare at Fafnir's body where it had fallen.  It was terrifyingly limp.  The massive spear of ice was embedded into the ground and pinned Fafnir's body to the grass.

              Noir sprinted to her side and immediately put a hand to her chest.  He grasped an immense amount of lux and sent healing tendrils into her body.  Noir could sense the extensive damage to the dragon's body and knew he could repair it, but something was off.  Something was new and different and felt wrong.

              Noir pushed the thought aside and started flowing lux into the dragon's wounds.  Her flesh rejoined where it was ripped, bones reattached and reformed in place.  He worked incredibly fast and poured massive amounts of lux into his work, but something still felt wrong.

              Noir couldn't heal the large hole that the ice spear had made in Fafnir's chest while she was pinned by it.  Thinking quickly, Noir embraced his anger and flung the emotion at the din inside him.  He grasped the destructive power inside him and put one of his hands out toward the huge spear of ice.  With his other hand, he made a light barrier to protect the dragon's broken body from what he was about to do.  Noir made a spark of heat beside the ice and let din flow from his hand into it.  A surge of fire sprang up started rapidly melting the ice.  Water poured down the sides of Fafnir's body and down into the wound.  Within a few moments, the ice had disappeared.  Noir released his grasp of lux and sent a huge flow of lux into Fafnir's final wound in her chest.  As he healed, he again realized that somehow healing felt wrong for the first time.  He'd healed people hundreds of times before, but it had never felt strange like this before.

              It hit Noir suddenly.  Blood was not flowing through the dragon's flesh.  Every other time he'd healed, he could always feel blood flowing through the flesh he prodded and healed.  Noir sent a tendril to the center of Fafnir's chest and confirmed what he feared.  The creature's huge heart had been pierced and destroyed by the ice spear.  Fafnir was dead.

              Nidhoggr suddenly landed with a thunderous sound that shook the ground beneath Noir's feet.  The black and red dragon strode forward toward Noir and Fafnir's body.

              “You will not stop me from destroying these evil creatures, Fafnir!”

              Noir drew the Einlanzer and felt a new source of chakra available to him.  He turned to face the massive dragon.

              “Fafnir!  Do not play coy with me, sister!  You cannot defend these--”

              Noir screamed, interrupting the dragon.  “She's dead!  You killed her!

              “What?”  Nidhoggr growled.  “Impossible!  Heal her, Luxin!  Isn't that what your kind can supposedly do?!”

              “I can't, Nidhoggr!  She's gone!”

              “What's the point of giving you powers if you can't use them at a time like this?”

              “Lux can't bring someone back from the dead!  You killed her!”

              Nidhoggr stared at Noir in shock like he finally understood what he was saying.  “She's... dead?”

              For some reason, Nidhoggr's lack of understand made rage boil inside Noir as he'd never felt before.  He screamed at the dragon, “Yes, Fafnir is dead!!!  You killed her, you murderer!!!  You creature of death and destruction!!!”

              Nidhoggr's massive form took a step back as if in disbelief of the scene in front of him.  “No.  This can't be true.  My sister is... dead?”

              Noir took a threatening step toward the massive black and red dragon.  He held his sword up in front of him.  “Yes.  She's dead!”  Noir noticed his eyes had started to blur with tears.  “My friend is dead because of you!”

              Nidhoggr lowered his head to stare Noir in the eyes.  His brow furrowed and he bared his teeth with sudden anger.  “You made me kill her!  You made me do this, human!”  Nidhoggr raised his head and looked at the crowd of people in the plaza.  “You all made me do this!  I was at peace before your kind arrived in this world!  I was happy!”  Nidhoggr turned his massive body away from Noir and took a threatening step toward the crowd.  He hunched down as if to pounce on the group.  “I never wanted to give you our powers, now look at what's happened!  My sister is dead because of you pests!”

              Noir could see Nidhoggr preparing a din attack through his body.  The red energy of din flowed from the dragon into the ground beneath the crowd of people.  Noir created an immense flow of lux and made a light shield on top of the earth that Nidhoggr was about to make explode.  The ground heaved up with a massive amount of din, but Noir forced an equal amount of lux into his shield, holding it in place.

              Nidhoggr rounded on Noir, suddenly taking him for a threat.  Noir screamed, “Run!” at the people in the plaza, though most had already started to flee when they realized what had just happened beneath their feet.

              “You!” Nidhoggr bellowed with pure hatred.  He pushed himself up with his front legs so he stood upright on his hind legs.  He stretched out his wings and blocked the majority of the sky above Noir.  At his full height, Nidhoggr was taller than any structure in the Tierian capital city.  “You are defiled.  Your body shows the signs of the evil of humans.  You are living proof of why your kind needs to be destroyed.”

              “You killed my mentor and friend!” Noir bellowed back.  He held the enchant sword tightly in front of him.  “You killed Fafnir!”

              “Humans made me kill her!” Nidhoggr bellowed far above Noir.  “Humans tortured me and held me prisoner for years!  Your kind is evil, human!  I will destroy all of you!”

              Noir embraced lux and surrounded his body with a thick light barrier.  Nidhoggr drew back one of his massive arms, and swung down.  His massive black claws hit Noir's light barrier with tremendous force.  Noir felt a significant drain on his chakra and finally tapped the energy available to him in the Einlanzer.  His shield doubled in strength, but Noir knew he couldn't hold back the attacks of a dragon for long.

              Noir gritted his teeth and pushed his anger towards the din inside him.  He grasped the power and thrust it wildly into the earth beneath Nidhoggr's feet.  He could sense the ground in a similar way as when he healed flesh with lux.  He felt every rock, grain of sand, and clump of dirt, and pulled up with as much din as he could control.  The ground beneath Nidhoggr exploded and erupted upward.  The dragon was immediately pummeled by rocks and catapulted into the sky.

              To Noir's shock, the dragon seemed mostly unharmed.  Nidhoggr flapped overhead sending down huge gusts of wind with each motion.  He growled, “You are strong, Luxin!  I may not be able to penetrate your shields, but I can start destroying the other humans.

              “No!” Noir screamed up at the dragon.  “Fight me you bastard!!!”

              Nidhoggr pushed down with his wings and gained more height, then continued his rain of destruction on the Tierian capital city with renewed fury.

              Buildings exploded nearby.  People screamed as huge portions of earth heaved beneath their feet, then plummeted down again crushing them immediately.

              Noir was wild with anger at his helplessness.  He couldn't protect any of these people.  He had to stop Nidhoggr's attacks, but he had no idea how while he was grounded and Nidhoggr flew high above.

              Noir wracked his brain, spurred on by more screams in the distance.  He'd learned that he could stand on light shields in the burning building.  He could make stairs of light going up so he could reach Nidhoggr.  That would be dangerous and very ineffective, though.  He'd be a sitting duck standing on a light shield in the sky.

              Noir was suddenly reminded of the Luxin in the spiral staircase.  She'd moved a light shield as an attack.  Perhaps Noir could stand on a light shield and move it.

              Noir immediately put his plan to the test.  He made a shield of light hover in front of him, and then stepped onto it.  He pushed the lux shield forward.  To Noir's surprise, it did, indeed carry him.  However, controlling the light shield took tremendous concentration and he felt awkward standing on the moving platform.

              An image from Noir's past suddenly flashed in his mind.  He'd seen someone use lux to fly before.  The Lumin, his friend Asiada, had created wings of pure lux-fueled light.  Noir realized with shock that he now knew exactly how she'd done it.  With the Einlanzer's spare pool of chakra and his doubled chakra from the dragon's blood, Noir realized with awe that he had enough to create his own wings of light.

              Noir looked up at the black dragon as it flew overhead with determination, then bent over and placed one hand to the ground.