Max's POV:

Ater re-grouping everyone who had decided to fight with us, we travelled to the river of Animarum by dragon, and as soon as we neared it Asher flew ahead of us, stopping above the river's edge.

"The forcefield is definitely broken" he revelled as he scanned the water below him.

"Well let's go then, there's no time to wast" exclaimed Orpheus' sister Adelia.

At her words, Titus urged his dragon forward. I watched in anticipation as flew past Asher swiftly but let out a long sigh of relief when he successfully crossed the river.

We all followed and had begun to leave the river behind when Orpheus shouted to gain everyone's attention.

"Down there!" He said, pointing at the soggy ground below us.

"I-It looks like something has been dragged out of the river," I said before tapping Verity's shoulder to get her attention, without me having to say anything she got the message and flew down towards the ground.

Her dragon Nadia landed softly on the soil and immediately started to let out a low defensive growl.

"Something is close," she whispered as Orpheus and Ithrendal landed next to us with a small thud.

"I'll check it out" volunteered Orpheus with a shrug, swinging over the side of Ithrendal.

"Why did he have to get off the dragon? it never ends well" sighed Verity as she watched him walk ahead of us.

"There's a lot of blood" shouted Orpheus, looking over his shoulder.

As soon as the words left his lips a thunderous roar echoed through the air, and before we knew what was happening the sky was filled with fire.

My hands instantly shot up to cover my eyes from the blinding light as it illuminated the area, I peered through my fingers to see the silhouette of Orpheus slowly being devoured by the outline of a magnificently humungous dragon. Looking to Ithrendal, I noticed that he was watching his rider carefully but calmly.

It was that moment that I realised... realised that the dragon before me wasn't just any dragon... it was Obsidian.

"Orpheus, get away from there," I shouted, thinking the worst as Obsidian let out another ear-splitting cry.

Instead of turning around to run away, I watched in horror as Orpheus took a step closer to the hostile dragon, holding his right palm out towards the beast.

Seconds that seemed more like hours passed by as the fire and dust settled around them to reveal Obsidians whole body, his usually pristine black scales were gashed deeply in certain places and his wings and legs were bound together with some kind of rope or plant, preventing him from taking flight.

"It's ok, it's just me," cooed Orpheus soothingly as the dragon let out a spine-chilling growl "I can help you" he added, causing the dragon to let out a small puff of air.

Obsidian lowed his head stared at Orpheus for a second before pressing his nose to the boy's palm.

"That's it" praised Orpheus before moving around to the dragon's side.

"What is he tangled in?" I questioned relatively quietly, not wanting to spook the dragon and cause Orpheus to be obliterated by dragon fire.

"Fireproof water weeds" he replied, giving one of them a small tug.

When it didn't break he let out a small sigh and pulled a small dagger off his belt, Obsidian immediately spun around and stared at Orpheus suspiciously.

"Don't look at me like that," he laughed "I'm going to cut you free" he finished, watching as the dragon temperamentally puffed out some air and turned to look back at me and Verity.

I watched silently as Orpheus got to work cutting Obsidian free, moving swiftly around the dragon's body. Once he had finished, he walked to Obsidian's front and let out a satisfied sigh.

"You should be able to fly now," he revealed happily.

Obsidian tested that theory by stretching his wings out above him, seemingly satisfied by Orpheus' work, he blasted some more fire into the air blissfully before looking back down at Orpheus.

"Take us to Aurora," he said, giving the dragon one last pat on his nose.

Obsidian let out a small roar of agreement and span around to take flight, he leapt off the ground and flapped his massive wings, causing dust to fly everywhere as he ascended to the clouds.

"Let's go!" I called down to Orpheus who was watching the dragon.

I watched as he nodded his head and held out his left arm, a small smile tugging at his lips. Ithrendal immediately ran towards him and leapt into the air, allowing Orpheus to vault onto his back as he flew past.

"Nadia, volar!" exclaimed Verity, causing her own dragon to take flight.

Taken by surprise, I grabbed onto Verity's torso and rebalanced myself as Nadia climbed up to the clouds to re-join the others.

I looked over to Orpheus to see Asher congratulating him about freeing Obsidian, it was then that all that Asher had done for us came flooding back in. No matter how hard I tried to come to terms with it, I just couldn't believe that he was the traitor.

"Come on everyone, let's move!" instructed Andrea impatiently, snapping me out of my thoughts. "We have a demon to kill" she finished, causing the Elysium warriors to erupt into cheers.

A small smile formed on my lips as I gazed over our army, although the phrase 'demon' wasn't physically the correct term for Lucifer it sure did suit him... and killing demons is what we do best.