Graveyard

The imagery of Dente's madness and Serrum's demise stained my mind for a while. Their faces that I once remembered as ones that radiated sunshine, now diminished to distorted and pitiful memories. The thoughts of our dead friends haunted us, even the sky light we had found ourselves back in was not able to heal the mood. In the agony of these thoughts, there was yet another thing that bothered me. Verit's last words to me and the strange title he had given me: "the royal's twin soul." Verit could have offered us some answers, seeing that he knew something about the person that once fully owned this body. I dwelt on "twin soul" the most, realizing that Verit may have known that this body was merely being borrowed. It's too late for thoughts like these, now that the man who could have answered them is now dead.

 As we wandered through this shaded wasteland, I could not help but wonder how Fesha and I had gotten where we are now. We had stumbled in the dark for what seemed like miles after escaping the chamber Serrum was held in. Eventually, we had found ourselves back in the atmosphere of the hazy yellow light, a much needed change in scenery. The level we were on now has, from the looks of it, experienced more destruction than layers below. Not a single building Fesha and I past had its walls fully intact. I could count on one hand the number of buildings I had seen with their roofs still attached. Many walls had been broken through, revealing the insides of the buildings. Much of the infrastructure was complete torn down, seemingly by something large. No human or even monster we have come across thus far could have possibly done this much damage. 

As we continued on, the rocks beneath my feet began changing their sounds as I walked over them. The solid rustling of pebbles now sounded more hollow. I looked down to see a new type of stone, its colors different from that of the stones that came from ruins. They glistened in several dull hues, the colors of gray, yellow, and red peeking through. I looked over at Fesha to see what she made of this. To my surprise, an expression of fear shown across her face rather than the intrigue I had expected.

"What is it? Do you recognize these stones?" I asked her.

She nodded slightly. "These are no mere stones. These fragments are of the scales of dragons."

Her words shook me. I glanced down at my bandaged hand, noticing the tiny splotches of blood that had seeped through the cloth. The man within me had not reacted as fast as he had before Verit. Would he still come to my aid next time, to fight a dragon no less. Fesha seemed to notice my distress and said something that relieved me a little.

"Fear not, from the looks of it, it seemeth the dragons these belonged to are long dead. My only question is how and why they are here?" She said.

The uneasy feeling lingered as we traversed over topple monuments of what I could imagine was once a thriving metropolis. As I stared into the dark opposite of the layer's edge, I felt as if we were being boxed in. It was an indescribable feeling, not one of claustrophobia, but rather a feeling that the space around us was shrinking. In the haze of sky light that embraced the atmosphere, I noticed something far off. It was tall and jagged, while also stretching far and wide. It was certainly something of a large form, much larger than the buildings we had passed. As we approached, the distant fog slowly cleared, revealing the structures shape. There were four giant spikes that reached as high as they could, all seeming to stem from a singular focal point. Between each spike was a thin veil wrapped through each spike near their tops, gravity pulling the segments down between each point. The veil had multiple large tears spanning throughout, and its color was pale gray, blending into the haze around it. 

Fesha and I continued forward until we had finally gotten close enough to see what it was. It was a giant wing that had been sticking up, petrified in its stretched position. Piles of rubble covered parts of what the wing was connected to. Hiking around the mountain of crumbled ruins, we saw it. The horned head of a giant dragon, dead and frozen sideways in place. Its mouth was agape, displaying many rows of sharp teeth and pale tongue. Cracked spiraling horns covered the top of its head and down its long neck and spine. Its entire body was lying on its side, propped up by the rubble against its abdomen. Its scales were large and thick and their textures looked rugged like the side of a cliff. As I examined it further, I noticed a familiar sight. There were large sections of its body that were missing scales. From within those sections, the grotesque black growth thrived, shooting outward from its body. Threads of darkness hung from the growth and to parts of its raised wing.

I wondered in horror how a beast as grand as a dragon could be reduced to such a state. In my state of delirium, Fesha called out to me.

"It seemeth that the cause for Caelum's fall shall uncover itself soon enough." Her voice quivered. 

I turned to look at her. As I turned, I noticed more shades of gray in the distance, matching the shape of torn wings. When my eyes met Fesha, I saw her staring into the brilliant rays of light offered by the open sky above. I had realized that it was not the light she was looking at, but what was behind. I stared slightly upward and across at the crumbling edge of the layer above. Scattered across the level, dozens of dragon corpses littered my sight. Their colors varied, but all of them dull, their various shades nearly matching in gray. Their wings were petrified in various positions, some even dangling downwards as they were draped over the layer's edge. In this moment I had realized that just above us were the remains of a massacre of once threatening beasts.