UNKNOWN TIME.
The young teen looked at his father with a conflicted look in his eyes, but he was not the only one with such a look. His sister looked bothered by his presence, but they knew that they wanted nothing more than to run into their father's arms and tell him how much they missed him. Their friends also had worried looks on their faces, because their parents were here too, but so were their enemies.
"Oh great dragon kings, it's quite a honor to see your accursed faces here, on this glorious and auspicious day. But it's not like any of you have a choice, not when your legacies are stuck firmly in my hands."
There were no answers to given to his words no reactions. On the right side of the teenager was his sister, his best friends, one of whom had the most resplendent pure white wings that glowed golden under the dimness of outer space. She was more self aware of what was happening than any single one of them. The floating platform in space provided a bubble that kept than safe, but the sinister looking black hole spiraling behind them with traces of soul, ether, elemental and mental energy left her feeling all kinds of weird.
Her own mother wasn't here, and neither were her fathers, but she couldn't help but feel as if she has seen this accursed day before. The dragon kings with their magnificent ship and aura of power that is not even matched by the gods themselves. And they were being blackmailed by a herald of evil that has caused so much pain in all their lives. How could this have happened, she should have seen it coming.
"By the time this is over, I would either be very dead, or you guys would be very heartbroken, especially for you Emperor Kael of the dragon realms. I've taken so much from you, I'll like to see if I can take some more." The evil herald had spoken again, and the teenage boy could not help but look at his father with fear in his eyes.
They all knew what the evil meant, but the heartache and disaster it has caused to everyone present. And he was scared, all four teenagers and on young six year old girl were afraid, their lives hanging in the balance and separated from their parents by a thin barrier that even the greatest of their spells could not breach.
It was a harrowing moment for the children. So far they've won all their battles, beaten all their enemies, achieved heights and varieties of power that most people their age could never touch. The platform they were standing on was not just a platform, but a part of a ship that was currently cloaked to protect the lives of the crew within, but for one second none of them was disillusioned that their parents and the evil in front of them did not know that there were other lives at stake apart from theirs. But knowing their parents reputation, they obviously wouldn't care.
The black hole let out a loud boom that shook the vastness of space as a stronger gravitational pull was generated, and the cloaked ship with it's only visible platform began to dip into the sinister anomaly death imminent.
"Wait! Your fight is with us, don't you think it's cowardly to include innocent children into such a delicate matter." One of the dragon kings, a young looking woman with blond hair and eyes that were completely black said to the evil.
"Innocent? Bullshit. They may not have as much blood on their hands as their parents, but it's there. You've all killed in their name, and they have killed in your name. Your quest for multiple universal conquest has left a trail of bodies that would never be counted in all of history. You and your spawn are abominations that shouldn't exist."
From his words, it would be pretty hard to discern who the villain was, and who victim was. But the teenagers being held captive knew things were not so black and white as he had put it. After all the fate of the five layer universe was at stake, and with the merge for the fifth and fourth layer about to happen, it was imperative that nothing went wrong. While many would not understand the need and use of the universes becoming one, everyone present here knew it was about survival, but the evil herald was commissioned to put a stop to it.
And in his attempt to do so, he had led millions of soldiers and off different races across three different universes, fighting the dragon kings and their forces, accruing great losses on both sides. Losses that were both material and very, very personal. Of all the young ones being held captive, not a single one of them didn't hate the bloody monster in front of them, he had robbed them of a childhood, of chance to grow like normal children and have time with their parents. But they could do nothing but seethe and hate him at a distance as they were now. Being used as bargaining chips against their own parents.
"Let's be frank here dragon kings and not beat around the bush. Nothing is meant to last forever, the death of the earth is inevitable, and with that the death of the original seven layer universes. Stop fighting it, so that we can all fade into blissful oblivion, don't you understand! There will be no pain or anger, no suffering no hate, no wars and no losses. Everything would end, and we would all be at peace. There would be no need to fight for a future for your children, because quite frankly there would be no future to fight for. It would just be nothing."
This dude was obviously crazy, at this point it was obvious that the evil herald had no intentions of handing the children over to their parents. Which means there was no other choice left but to fight, and so they did.
*BOOOM!*
The dragon kings were gods in their own right, just in a different breed as compared to the traditional ones. The power terribly great, and the anger behind those powers would leave many shuddering in fright and anger. And the three who fought the hardest was Kael the soul dragon King, Ming Bae King the fire dragon King, and Joshua the Wind and Spirit dragon king. But who would blame them for fighting so hard and so desperately, after all it was their children that were in danger.
Loud sounds of fist pounding against flesh, blades cutting into skin and abilities so powerful they cracked reality like a fragile glass. This place, right on the edge of a universe had become the battleground of gods, and coupled with the furious roars of their dragons, the power of nature, creation and destruction was brought to the table, in a manner which has never been seen before. Before the eyes of their children, stars turned to dust, whole galaxies into became nothing but a memory, and living planets faded away from existence like they were never there in the first place.
The children were horrified, even if it was just to save their lives, how could their parents take away the lives of others wantonly. It wasn't right, and it wasn't fair they felt guilty, responsible, and scared of the people who brought them into this world, because the way they saw it. If their parents could take lives this easily, then there was not much of a difference between them and the evil they were battling, even if they were fighting for a righteous cause.
"Stop! Stop! Dad please stop!" A girl screamed out desperately, a rune that could be translated as sound appearing over her throat as her voice spread out across a million stars and planets.
He stopped, just in time to get pierced in the chest with a spear and his heart pulled out along with it. The girl screamed, as her eyes widened in horror at what she had done. Her twin brother and little sister yelled out too, their knees weak as their father stared at them with a smile that showed them how much he loved them, how much he cared. There was a shield in his hands, and with a great push the shield flew towards his heart broken daughter, while the sword he also held flew to his sun.
The black hole behind them seemed to experience a qualitative change, as it became a spiraling cloud of white energy, rather than black. Then their father raised his hands towards them, and with all the love in his heart he mouthed the words.
"I love you."
Then he raised his hands, and a rune so huge it was practically the size of a planet came into being. By this point many across multiple universes knew what rune it was, due to how many times he has been seen using it. [PUSH]. And slowly his children, and the son of his very close friend, and the betrothed of his son, and the dozen or so people onboard their ship, were slowly pushed back into the portal behind them, a portal that was born from the volatile composition of black hole.
He never stopped smiling, even when the portal had faded, and the evil herald defeated and in chains. His children were elsewhere now, not within the seven layer universes, or even in the universe that the original earth is on. He had no idea where they were, all he knew was that they were safe, and away from all these death and suffering. He hoped they found their mother, he was sure she would be able to take care of them a whole lot better than he ever could. And with that knowledge his smile remained etched on his face, and Kael Cor closed his eyes.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
ETHERNALIA LEONIS
PRESENT TIME
Asha woke up to the sound of loud screaming coupled with hysterical crying. It was the middle of the day, and she was asleep so why the damn noise. She got up, quickly checked on Cassiel and Michael, making sure they were okay and still asleep, before she made her way out of her room.
She ignored the palace spirits that were busy taking care of it's upkeep, the maids that were running around, and just every other thing else in general. The room where the screaming was coming from was not too far from hers, and she knew just who it belonged to, seeing as this was not the first time the peace have been disturbed by hysterical screaming.
Asha got to the room in record time, and found her cradled in her mother's arms, as Galadriel used her huge wings to shield her from the world. Asha made her way towards them, and knelt in front of the mother and child, watching as the little half Nephilim half god trembled in terror and fright. But there was something else wrong, Asha could smell blood, a lot of it.
"What happened?" She asked Galadriel as she rubbed her hands on the snow white hair of the two year old girl clutching her mother.
"There was another vision, look what she did." Galadriel answered, with more horror in her voice than Asha would have ever expected.
Asha furrowed her eyebrows and looked at the room. The horrified look on her face could not be matched with any expression she's ever had. The entire room was mishmash of colors, splashed allover the walls as it painted a scene. But the colors, especially the red had a distinct scent to it, and that was the scent of blood, Ariel's very own blood.
And the scene she painted within her room was something that would give even the strongest of wills, chills all the way to the depths of their soul. It was a fearsome battle, a battle within the confines of the stars, And the causalities included multiple worlds, stars and even galaxies, it was a terrible sight and Asha could not extricate herself from it. She didn't even notice when Xaseah came to stand beside her.
"Asha that's Kael right? That's our husband dying, and our children being sent somewhere else. What is this? What's going on?" Xaseah asked, with panic in her voice. But Asha did not answer, how could she, the fear Xaseah felt, was also coursing through her veins.
"Nefisat seal the room, and scrub everything clean. Tell me everyone who's been in this room since Ariel finished her painting, and keep it quiet. No one else needs to know about this, and above all Kael must never find out!"