The dragon’s roar pierced the air, visibly shaking the entire realm in the process. At the moment before it arrived in front of her, Elizabeth felt the ground beneath her feet tremble almost in terror and the air fluctuate, desperate to get out of the bellow’s way. Although feeling powerless before it, Elizabeth did not close her eyes, though she would hardly have the time to do so as the magic imbued sound wave impacted on the protective shell surrounding Elizabeth.

What followed the impact was neither pain nor death. Instead, it was a strange hum, a bit like a dozen gales passing through a narrow alleyway or disorganised whistling of a hundred children. Quickly returning to her senses, Elizabeth realised that the defence of Voidmother’s embrace did not withstand the onslaught unscathed, many small dents momentarily tangible in the layer surrounding her until they fixed themselves an instant later. Only Truth could damage Truth, in other words, she was not facing anything even remotely close to the 4th tier, instead, in front of her was a genuine awakened being of unimaginable power. It was no longer a wonder that Desir’s corpse lied by the gate. Without Elizabeth’s battle regalia he never even had the chance to react.

“Alive… Alive…,” and just as Elizabeth was preparing for a hopeless struggle, the bone dragon spoke. Its voice was strange, each word or even vocal jumping octaves as pronunciation shifted haphazardly, “ALIVE!?”

“You can speak?” Elizabeth couldn’t help but blurt out. It went against what she knew. Monsters were beings without souls, lacking the intelligence necessary to perceive language much less speak it.

“so LONG… so Long since we spoke… A thousand. MaYbe two. A thousand… thousand… thousand,” after repeating the same word, it suddenly moved its front paw and with incredible speed and force, smacked its own hollow skull to the point it recoiled, “We are sorry for our pitiful form. For Showing this fleshless puppet.”

“Aren’t you supposed to stop me?” Elizabeth spoke, still confused and slightly shaken.

“Of course! OF COURSE!” the thing replied, “bUT spEAK first. The boredom… boredom… boredom…” after repeating words again, its previous actions were mirrored, the other paw also smacking the hollow skull with all it could muster, “But how rude of us. Let us introduce ourselves. The name was Blasphemy, the 8th arch dragon, though of Course, our TRUE form remains beyond the lasT Gate.”

“There ever only were seven arch dragons,” Elizabeth couldn’t help but doubt. She had first heard of them at the festival of Dragoncull, since it, after all, did celebrate the death of Wrath, the second arch dragon whose corpse nourished the North with the mana necessary for it to become the haven of mages. Back then it had piqued her curiosity enough to learn more, such as that there were 7 of them, each of the so-called deadly sins derived from their names.

“Seven… SEVEN… SEVEN…,” that time the dragon did not just smack its jaw. Instead, it let its body fall head first down to the ground, crashing into the white floor with its entire colossal form. Since there was no dust to veil it, Elizabeth could clearly see even from the distance that it was not enough to even crack the skull or vertebrae, “Do you not find it curious? There are eight original aspects, eight major elements,” it spoke clearly again as though the entire fall didn’t even happen, “Most of the fundamental concepts were set with the number 8 at its core. So why would there be only seven arch dragons? The history is different. Because of the betrayer, our kind Could no longer be ALLOWED to exist. SO we were erased. SCOURED frOM that history…. history… history…,” another smack to the jaw, “Yet some could not be killed. Unable to die yet must mot live. The Abyssal ridge became our refuge. Home. Prison.”

“Unable to die?” Elizabeth almost gasped. Even the awakened were not truly immortal. They could still be killed, their bodies and souls could be erased if one possessed enough power. And anything that could create a place like this no doubt wielded plenty.

“Ignorant girl,” the monster said, “CHERISH your mortality. The gift of forgetting and ceasing, some were stripped of IT. Perhaps one day you may reach it too. The TRUE immortal, exiStence OnlY an Aspect can ERASE… ERASE… ERASE…” that time it leaned back and slammed its head into the ground, “But future is grim. Let us speak of something else, girl. I find it curious, so ignorant, yet you can stop my shout which kills all souls. Even in this puppet, Truth can still only be halted by Truth,” it stared Elizabeth “That armour. Yes, We have sEEn it before. Eternities ago. The girl who WORE it… Remember… remember… remember…,” the sight of a bone dragon smacking its own jaw with frightening force somehow started to appear less strange, “She was young, like you. The same eyes, the same questions. It was before the Academy. Before the Ridge was brought here. But that armour, RECALL…. RECALL… RECALL…,” it smashed its head against the ground. And then again and again, until the ground shook. Elizabeth patiently waited and listened. Since Irwyn never told her where the regalia came from, it couldn’t be too important for her and therefore she wouldn’t dwell on it but the dragon’s words aroused her curiosity, “Cannot recall. Far too many eOns. But the girl. We REMEMBER the girL. Lover OF void, FLAME. DeAR and mother of… mother Of whom? wHOm… WHoM… whoM….”

“Sorry,” the bone dragon suddenly apologised after another blow, “My mind can no longer bear. It is the curse of us with consciousness yet no soul. Best oF LUCK as we still must battle… BATTLE… bAttlE!” then it closed its jaw, firmly stood on the four bone paws and locket the hollow eye sockets onto Elizabeth, clearly showing that there would be no more words spoken.

So Elizabeth readied herself, leaving thoughts about the dragon's words for later. She held Equilibrium tight and waited for the monster’s first move. And it arrived soon enough as the creature surprisingly charged directly at her. Seeing that, Elizabeth followed suit and also broke into a sprint, magic already coursing through every fibre of her being. With a slash of her blade, she sent an arc of Voidflame towards her foe, though the dragon didn’t even attempt to avoid the attack. Instead, it allowed the magic to impact the head directly, not even slowing down because of the shallow dent or the black flames which failed to take hold.

Hardly surprised, Elizabeth didn't slow down either. Since Ranged attacks had little to no effect, she would have to cut directly. A moment later they were already within arm’s reach from each other and the dragon swung with it’s claw. The speed was too fast to follow but Irwyn’s teaching had proven useful as Elizabeth was never trying to avoid the attack once it started, instead she caught the twitching of the limb before it and was out of the way before the blow was even inbound.

Dashing beneath the blow, Elizabeth kept the best track of her surroundings she could, dodging another kick as she noticed magic gather above her. Had the location been different she would’ve caught it far sooner, however, because of the ludicrous ambient mana density in the area but in that scenario, the spell completely formed by the time Elizabeth could notice it and was inbound by the time of her reaction. It was a massive barrage of missiles of raw magic, not even a trace of an element was present, though they would obviously not be so simple. Elizabeth had no idea how powerful the bone dragon in front of her really was, but at the very least it had used the power of Truth before, therefore it would imbue its magic with it again, even if the current her could not feel it. So tanking through the magic coming from all direction was too dangerous. Instead, she redirected her momentum back towards the front paws, putting her faith into Equilibrium is she used its long blade to slice a way out of the encirclement.

To her surprise, she didn’t even feel any resistance as the edge tore through the volley. For a moment she even considered whether there even was Truth imbued into those attack but only until one managed to bruise her shoulder, tangibly shaking up the regalia’s defence. With her dexterous manoeuvring she avoided or cut almost all of the attacks and the few which landed on her only left small dents which would soon recover. Of course, the creature did not allow Elizabeth any respite. She managed to end up exactly between the front paws and one of them immediately lashed out at her. That was exactly the opportunity she was waiting for. Jumping over it, she managed to use the bone limb as a jumping pad while the claw which had missed blocked the other for a moment. And in that short second, Elizabeth went for the neck.

Since bashing its own head had an effect on the creature’s speech, Elizabeth figure that the source of its consciousness would be inside. The thing even mentioned the body being just a puppet, which only supported her hopes that cutting off the head would fell the beast. Likely realising her intention, the dragon prepared another burst of magic. It was more direct blast wave, far more dense though less piercing, likely an attempt to push Elizabeth away. But it was too late for that. Elizabeth forced every bit of power she could muster into the blade, as much mana as she could control and then some more. Voidflame began to dance on Equilibrium’s edge as she simply lacked the control to completely contain all of that power inside. And with that, she used all the momentum and muscle strength available to her to cut, right between two vertebrae.

The bones were hard, so hard in fact that for the first time ever, Elizabeth felt resistance while using Equilibrium to cut something. The blade could pass through hardened steel and magical alloys from what Irwyn had told her but mere bones were enough to resist it, at least partially. Because of that resistance, Elizabeth didn’t manage to completely bisect the creature. Instead, its head remained hanging by a thread, though, at the very least, the Voidflames began burning it, surging from the wound and spreading fast.

Then, Elizabeth was struck by the blunt force of the spell. Although she was struck hard, she still landed a crippling blow. Realising that the Voidmother’s embrace defence was deeply damaged by the spell, she tried to rotate midair and block the inevitable incoming talon with Equilibrium, only to suddenly realise that her left hand wouldn’t move, still clutching her blade as though it was frozen. And that she somehow no longer was beneath but in front of the dragon. And the dragon was moving away from her, fast. No, rather than the dragon moving, it was her who was flying away from it at great speed. Everything happened far too quick so it took Elizabeth a second to notice something out of her expectations: The dragon’s tail had passed beneath the creature’s body and was extended beneath its neck.

And then the pain struck her as the left palm finally let go of Equilibrium. And then it didn’t continue travelling with her, instead, the hand cleanly bisected at the shoulder fell to the ground. Though even the agony did not last long as Elizabeth’s body impacted on the wall. The material did not crack, instead, her body took the entirety of her massive momentum. Had she not passed out instantly from hitting her head, the pain of ruptured organs and mutilated bones would’ve knocked her out just a moment later.