Meheret, late holy general of the Dragon King, had jumped back, latching his arms and legs onto the pillars far above; he scaled them slowly, creating space in between him and Mytri.
"Old friend! Don't get lost amidst the fiery battle. Oh, how much I longed for this day to come!" He shouted as he hawked up a glob of thick, black ichor and spat it into the air before him.
"Right away, no?" Mytri smiled as a tight hexagonal shield materialized in front of him.
Meheret clenched his neck, and sparks flew out of his throat, and the fluid ignited spontaneously. He, without stopping, began to breathe out fire, engulfing the cathedral in fire.
The barrier groaned, its bluish surface bleaching white under the heat. Mytri closed his eyes, and the sword in his grip dissolved into a blade of pale light.
He drew it through the shield in a single horizontal arc. The barrier split cleanly open, and the fire went with it, peeled apart and shunted to either side as if the air had been carved into two channels.
"Care not to do that again? It's very inconvenient of you to spew that fire right now." Mytri said as he clenched the hilt of his sword; he placed it by his left side and closed his eyes. The blade slowly transformed into a bluish light. "And so will I! Have my inconvenience for you!"
Mytri sliced through the barrier and displaced the fire to the side; it was something impossible. Meheret kept moving backwards, but the fire he breathed kept on being displaced away from the middle.
So he stopped the fire flood and glanced right at Mytri. "Old friend! You have no shame? I at least use my biological weapon, but you cowardly use mana to push it aside! Haha! I wouldn't think of that! You still got it, no?"
"Am I really that old?" Mytri muttered to himself while picking up three small pebbles. He gently moved them in his hand in a triangle shape.
Mytri smiled as he looked up at the dragon. "Care to get down?" He said as he threw the pebbles, one at the pillar behind him, one at the one in front, and the last at the one he was currently on. As they crushed into them, they crushed the pillars under the weight they carried.
"You old fox!" Meheret shouted as the pillar beneath him buckled. His arms wheeled once for balance, found nothing, and then he dropped like a landslide, crashing through the burning pews in a tangle of limbs and wings.
"Like old times. It's been a while since I saw this strength…"
"Well, you won't see it for too long, since your honorable death is near, right… wouldn't you say, dragon?" Mytri chuckled,
"Oh, don't make me blush, old friend."
Slowly rising onto his hands and feet, his long claws digging deep into the floor, he grinned wide, forcing his lower eyelids upward.
"Have a piece of this magnificent spell!"
The moment he spoke, the ground beneath Mytri began to bubble. The walls followed. Then the ceiling. Cracks spread in every direction, leaking a deep reddish glow.
Mytri observed his surroundings; without making any unnecessary moves, he felt a shift underneath his feet, and he saw that the ground began to cave in underneath him.
With a brief glance he noticed that the pillars were untouched by the phenomenon, so he latched onto them. "Have you truly gone insane? Where did your clarity go? You want to turn this whole mountain into a volcano!"
Within a blink of an eye Meheret's fist was right in front of Mytri; its size was as Mytri's height.
He was launched backward, spinning uncontrollably. He tore through pillar after pillar, stone exploding around him as he was driven deeper into the collapsing chamber.
With a chuckle Mytri smiled as he lodged his sword into the wall, but nothing had happened. He furrowed his eyebrows as he muttered, "I forgot…"
In a split second, he twisted his body and struck it with a full-force punch. The impact released a thunderous shockwave, halting his momentum. Cracks burst through the pillar as he seized what remained of it, finally stopping himself.
Mytri looked towards Meheret, who was now like a dot. Mytri opened his mouth but said nothing, just smiled from ear to ear.
"Even through your loss… You never ceased to stop learning, didn't you?" Mytri chuckled and added, "Of course you never did…"
Mytri threw his sword down towards the floor and looked at the dragon. He stepped forward and jumped from pillar to post towards the dragon.
Meheret stood wondering why Mytri had abandoned his sword; He watched him jump from one pillar to another while smiling widely, like a game one enjoys to the fullest.
The wind flew past him as he closed his eyes, and he steadied his breathing, Meheret took a deep breath and dispelled the spell. 'Please, walk normally, old friend. I… stop.'
The cathedral returned back to normal, the distorted floor returned to its straight state, and the cracked walls became whole, but the destroyed pillars remained broken.
Mytri stopped and looked at him and listened.
"I… just… don't want to do it anymore. I was so happy to see you again, but… you reminded me of my daughter. I feel so lonely, you know that much yourself… don't you?"
Mytri, seeing Meheret stop and talk, walked up to him and said, "I know, but… you always wanted an honorable death. What changed so suddenly?"
"I don't know… It just doesn't matter anymore. It's not the same when she isn't here. I thought I wanted to die an honorable death, but… I think it was just a lie I told myself when I had her, but now that she is gone. I understand it now."
"My time here was only worth it because she was with me, and I don't want to be here anymore."
"But why?" Mytri asked.
Meheret remained silent; he just sat down and sighed, "Please come here and take my heart. She needs it, doesn't she?"
Mytry stood as his eyes widened; for a second he didn't see Meheret, he just… saw himself. "I see… alright." He slowly walked up to the dragon as he noticed dark bags underneath Meheret's eyes. He didn't notice it before.
With each step echoing through the hall, he slowly approached him, but as he did, the whole cathedral started shaking, like an earthquake.
Mytri stopped and looked around, unsure what was happening, but in that second he understood everything, but it was too late.
Meheret watched as a giant worm-like monster easily ate through the cathedral and took Mytri with him.
In a split second, Meheret caught a glimpse of its face.
The creature's mouth was a perfect circle, a gaping void lined with thousands of razor-sharp teeth spiraling along its inner walls. Its eyes bulged from the sides of its head, each with a vertically split pupil that seemed to slice through the darkness. Its massive body was armored in jagged brown scales that scraped and clattered as it moved.
It appeared and vanished in the same heartbeat.
Only the aftermath proved it had been real. The air still trembled from its passage. The tunnel it carved stretched forward, vast and jagged, a wound through stone and earth. Whatever it was, its length was immense, and its speed was equally unnatural.
Meheret jolted upright.
Snow whipped through a fresh rupture in the cathedral wall, carried by a howling wind. Chunks of stone crashed down around him as the ceiling groaned and began to give way. Frost crept across the shattered floor, and the cold bit into his lungs.
He staggered toward the opening, staring into the tunnel the creature had left behind, dark and endless.
"Mytri!" he shouted, his voice breaking as it echoed into the abyss.
His eyes opened in horror as he stared down, deep into the abyss.