The wind screamed across the jagged peaks of the Hollow Crown as Ren, Lilith, and Thorn crept forward, their feet crunching over scorched rock.
The Bloom of Ashes flickered ahead like a cozy flame in the middle of a cold camp. Warm. Comforting. They could feel it even from where they stood.
The Thunderwyrm stirred beside it, a mountain of dark scales and slumbering violence.
Static clung to the air, snapping at their skin. Every footstep somehow echoed louder than it should have, and each breath rattled in their lungs.
It was as if everything was moving in slow motion. As if a deity up in the sky was watching it all in anticipation.
Ren held up his hand. "Ready?"
Thorn gave a grim nod, already flexing his bone arm, the white surface rattling softly as it elongated and sharpened.
Lilith's fingers twitched as she built up a storm of soul energy within herself. She stared straight ahead, her gaze locked on the wyrm, unblinking.
Thorn stepped forward, his boots scraping deliberately against the stone. "Hey, oversized worm! Got a bone to pick with you."
The Thunderwyrm shifted. Its blind head tilted toward Thorn. A low growl rumbled through the air like thunder crawling over stone, a warning to all who dared approach.
"Come on!" Thorn shouted, slamming his fist into the ground and sending a burst of blood energy outward. Cracks appeared throughout the stone.
The creature moved. Scales scraped like grinding metal as it raised its colossal head.
A bolt of lightning erupted from its maw, lighting the sky and slamming into Thorn.
Thorn's bone arm was outstretched, absorbing most of the blow, but he was thrown backward, tumbling across the rock like a ragdoll.
"Thorn!" Ren shouted, racing forward.
Lilith surged ahead, throwing knives blazing in her palms. She ducked under a strike from its tail and lashed her knives across the wyrm's flank. The attack left a glowing wound.
The Thunderwyrm shrieked, a sound so shrill the air fractured. Stones fell from the ring above.
"Didn't they say it wasn't like a normal Thunderwyrm?!" Thorn yelled through gritted teeth as he struggled to his feet, still alive and shaking out the effects of the electricity.
The beast swung its head, jaws open. Lilith dodged, but its massive tail swept her off her feet. She was hurled against the wall of the Hollow Crown, the impact shaking the entire ridge.
"Lilith!" Ren's voice cracked.
He threw himself at the wyrm, his bracers glowing violently. He slammed both fists into its ribs, releasing a kinetic detonation that made the creature stagger. But it turned on him, enraged.
Claws slashed. Teeth gnashed.
The Thunderwyrm struck him with another lightning blast. It tore through his chest like fire and steel. Ren crumpled. His body collapsed into the dust, dead.
His veins lit up his skin like cracks in glass. He coughed blood and rolled aside as a claw gouged the rock where he'd just been. Pain sang through his nerves.
Lilith dragged herself upright. Her aura ignited into a radiant blaze. She screamed, a war cry that split the clouds. She launched herself at the beast, her twin knives slicing through its front leg like it was butter. The limb buckled.
Thorn reappeared, blood trailing from his nose. He threw his entire body behind his bone spear arm, jamming it into the Thunderwyrm's second flank.
It screeched, blood geysering from the wound.
The wyrm roared, thunder booming through the mountains. It surged forward, leaving the Bloom unguarded.
Ren stood in its way.
Each death tore him apart. Each return left less of him.
Lilith dove at the wyrm's exposed neck, carving into it with a wild, glowing arc. Her soul energy flared within her like a solar flare. The wound deepened, searing open.
Thorn pounded a pillar of bone through its wounded leg, anchoring it. The creature shrieked, thrashing.
It turned toward Ren again.
"Come on!" Ren shouted, throwing a kinetic punch that cracked a scale off its snout.
The wyrm inhaled, readying its next attack.
Lilith became a blur, her hand glowing internally with soul energy. She rammed it into the Thunderwyrm's heart, piercing through thick muscle and bone.
The creature screamed.
Steam hissed from its corpse. The Bloom of Ashes shimmered faintly behind it.
Thorn limped to the flower. He knelt, his fingers trembling as he touched its glowing petals.
The moment he did, his eyes rolled back. They glowed white.
"Thorn!" Ren rushed forward.
Thorn blinked, gasping as if he'd been underwater. He stood slowly, eyes wide with a hint of madness.
"I saw..." He trailed off.
Lilith took the flower from him, cupping it in her hands with her eyes closed. She glowed a bright blue for a few seconds as she absorbed energy from the bloom.
"Hahh…," she opened her eyes, sighing in satisfaction, "that hits the spot."
"I saw…" Thorn stammered, paying her no mind.
"What did you see?" Ren grabbed his friend by the shoulders, giving him a hard shake to bring him back to himself. "Thorn! Thorn! Look at me!"
Thorn's eyes snapped to Ren's, finally calming down.
"I saw universes. Not just… stars. Whole realities. Endless layers of existence. All connected by a vast ocean of darkness." Thorn swallowed. "The Abyss."
"The Bloom... it holds a spark from one of those places. It's a piece of something bigger. Not just power. Truth. Memory. Origin."
The others stared, stunned.
"I didn't see anything when I touched it." Lilith said, staring at the flower in her hands.
"Let me see." Ren stepped forward, laying a hand on the flower. All he could feel was its unnatural warmth and the incredible power it contained.
He shook his head. Nothing. He'd felt nothing.
"Let's get it back to Luna." He said at last. "We have to part with it no matter the power it holds."
Thorn blinked, nodding. "Yes. Let's."
And so, they descended the ridge.
By the time they returned to Ur, Ren had changed out of his bloodied clothes. He'd died more than five times to the wyrm, keeping its attention so that the others could kill it.
Luna met them outside her home, arms folded. She looked at the Bloom, her sharp eyes softening.
"You lived. I'm impressed. Most don't."
Ren offered her the flower.
She took it carefully, then nodded.
"You'll have your guide. Rest. Dario will return in a day or two. Take a home for yourselves. You've earned your place here."