CHAPTER 52: CHAPTER 52: DRAGONBOUND

The path to Sythara’s seal spiraled upward, brick by glowing brick, climbing through the lightning-charged mist that hung in the upper sky of the dungeon. The floating mountain—her prison—now hovered less than a hundred meters overhead. It turned slowly, impossibly massive, unaffected by wind or weight. Thunder crackled as ancient energy danced through its edges like veins pulsing with starlight.

Evon stepped cautiously onto the first platform of the spiral. Each step shimmered beneath his boots, vibrating faintly with celestial pressure. The ascent was more than just distance—it was resistance. With every level climbed, a new layer of elemental force pressed inward.

First came fire. Not like Lyria’s familiar True Fire—but wild, falling from above in spirals and streaks. It hissed with chaos and struck randomly across the stairs. Evon raised a flame-shield without hesitation, forming a swirling orb with Lyria’s energy to protect himself as he climbed.

Then came screeching winds. Hurricane-force currents that tugged at his clothes, his blade, his very thoughts. He grounded himself with Naia’s presence—letting stillwater calm settle around him, reducing friction and sound to manageable pulses.

Next—the air froze.

Cold unlike any before. Snow didn’t fall, but the absence of motion itself bit into him, like the world had stopped breathing. The sky grew silent. His breath fogged instantly. Veyra’s cyber field helped modify thermal balance, building a subtle temperature field that surrounded his organs and reflex points.

All three of his sealed Fated were helping him now, silently, instinctively, through resonance. But even with their aid, every level of this ascent tested the core of his spirit.

At last, the steps ended—with no fanfare. No gate. Just sky.

And before him stood the dragon.

She lay across a crystalline ridge curled halfway around Sythara’s floating seal—a glowing purple-gold orb embedded in a throne of stone.

The final guardian of this trial.

But she wasn’t like the others.

She wasn’t corrupted.

She wasn’t malfunctioning.

She was majestic.

Her body was long and sinewy, a serpent-dragon of volcanic stone, wrapped in veils of wind and crowned in fire. Her wings stretched outward like starlight woven from lava and ash. Her eyes weren’t hostile—they were sad. Knowing. Watching.

Evon stepped forward without drawing his blade.

"You are guarding her."

The dragon’s gaze blinked slowly. Her mouth did not move, but her voice echoed in his thoughts, smooth and heavy like distant thunder.

"I was born from her breath. I am the last flame she gave form before she was sealed."

Evon listened.

"She foresaw the collapse of your realm. She chose to be sealed to keep this world safe. And she placed me here... to wait for you."

His eyes narrowed. "You know who I am?"

"I do. She spoke your name beyond time. Evon Wang. Soul-Bound. Flame-Touched. Dragon-Wrought."

He bowed his head slightly. "Then will you let me pass?"

Silence.

"No."

A pause.

"Not without proving you are worthy of carrying her storm."

The dragon slowly stood—steam hissing from joints, celestial dust falling from her wings.

"She gave her power back to the world. You must take it back in pieces."

The ridge cracked beneath his feet.

"Show me you’re worthy of the final blaze."

The dragon lunged—a streak of burning wind and shadow.

Evon moved instantly, leaping just as claws tore through the ground where he had stood. Sparks ignited as he rolled midair and landed back into a ready stance.

He drew the Blade of Fate and activated **Eyes of Fate**.

He saw everything.

The dragon’s breath arcs. Its tail lashes. Its wind pulses between wingbeats. It fought like thunder reincarnated.

He struck forward with a flurry of Naia’s piercing stillwater strikes, redirecting wind currents, using microbreaks in the dragon’s posture.

The dragon howled, flame streaming from its nostrils.

Evon dashed through the fire—his body wrapped in **Lyria’s soul-flame**, slipping through the inferno untouched.

The battle closed in. Claws and blade. Fire and fate.

He used **Veyra’s booster nodes**, attaching them to surrounding stones midair, pivoting with magnetic jumps that allowed him to flip above the dragon’s shoulders and strike into its back.

Scales cracked. The dragon reared and flung him with a thundering roar.

Evon smashed into the side of the ridge. Blood hit the stone.

He coughed, then stood.

Still alive.

Barely.

Naia’s presence rushed through him, cooling the pain. Lyria’s warmth pushed him forward. Veyra’s focus kept him alert.

"You fight me because you’re bound by purpose," he said out loud to the dragon. "But your soul wants her freed."

The dragon untangled from the ridge, massive body rolling like a wave.

"Prove to me you can carry her."

Evon clenched his hands. Light surrounded the blade.

He whispered once—but not to the dragon.

"To you. Sythara. I know you’re listening."

There was no answer.

So he did the only thing he could.

He poured everything they had into the next attack.

Destiny Prison: activated to freeze the dragon’s next movement spike.

Naia’s water: condensed into raw pressure around the sword’s base.

Lyria’s fire: surged, refined into a clear, pure flame.

Veyra’s tech: calculated gravity vectors and velocity pockets.

Sparks exploded as he launched skyward.

He deactivated destiny prison just a millisecond before he slashed.

It was a cut that didn’t scream. It didn’t shine.

It *hummed*—a quiet, undeniable blow that bypassed armor, resistance, and distance. The blade touched the dragon’s core—the fusion of soul and seal—and the energy dissipated without blood, without death.

The dragon stopped mid-flight.

Her body lifted upward in a shimmer of light.

"You have passed."

She dissolved into thousands of ember feathers, spinning upward.

Evon landed silently. The seal ahead pulsed.

He approached the throne where a ring of stone cradled the violet-gold orb.

A meteor of power sat inside that sphere.

He reached out—and the moment he touched it—

"Evon."

It wasn’t a voice.

It was a roar.

But a roar that *knew* him.

He fell forward onto his knees as the pressure hit him.

Not pain—but weight.

Stars. Volcanos. Cosmic storms.

Sythara’s soul pressed against his own.

"Long have I waited."

He gritted his teeth. "You’re coming back."

"Naia. Lyria. Veyra. I feel them."

"One more left."

Evon nodded. "Yena."

"Then we rise. As we always were meant to."

He tightened his hand around the orb.

The light dimmed slightly—as if the seal acknowledged his hold.

But like before—it would not fully awaken until Yena was found.

He placed the orb in the fourth slot of the containment sleeve.

Four seals.

Four goddesses.

One remained.

As he turned to descend the ridge, lightning split the sky for the final time, a perfect, vertical flash.

Evon smiled faintly at the trace of a familiar dragon’s presence still echoing above.

"Thank you," he whispered.

The journey back down did not test him further. All guardians had receded. The gate returned him to the base below where Commander Martinez waited by the perimeter.

Martinez stared at the case in Evon’s arms. "Is that..."

Evon nodded. "Sythara’s seal."

Martinez exhaled. "I’d heard rumors. That she only trusted one man with her divine form."

Evon looked out at the stars rising over the Andes peaks.

"She didn’t trust me," he said slowly. "She *chose* me. That’s different."

Martinez nodded. "What now?"

Evon stared at the horizon, toward the far north—Scandinavia, where holy light danced between ice and sky.

"There’s one more," he said. "Yena. The light."

He turned to the gate team. "Get me to the Arctic Circle."

Later that night, Evon meditated inside his soul world, sitting cross-legged beneath a glowing sky.

Before him hovered four sealed orbs: Naia, Lyria, Veyra, and now Sythara.

Each one pulsed in rhythm, as if breathing.

Evon reached out.

They didn’t speak this time.

They only pulsed together.

One missing.

Yena.

He opened his eyes.

And began preparing for the final journey.

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