Contract: Cry Of The Black Dragon

One moment, Elysia was locked in the eyes of the dragon, the next, she was already running. Her lungs burned, her feet pounding on an unseen surface that felt like goo. She was in a city, but it was a twisted version of one, its buildings impossibly tall, reaching a twilight sky that offered no sun or moons.

Ahead, through the dark, she saw the thrashing form of a boy, the same one she had seen who was screaming. He was writhing on the ground, convulsing as if being electrocuted, before he was violently yanked backward into a wall of darkness, his scream swallowed by the void. Thick ropes of black ooze defied gravity, creeping slowly up the sides of the buildings, yet for her nothing changed… Her body, a prisoner of normal physics in a world that didn't seem to have them. The silence was the worst part, broken only by the beating of her own heart. That's when she heard slithering coming from all around.

She dove behind the corner of a broken building, pressing her back against the solid surface, forcing her breathing into a shallow rhythm. The slithering grew louder, as it got closer. She felt it before she heard it fully… a chilling wave of cold that washed over her as something passed by just on the other side of the wall. She saw nothing but a deeper patch of moving darkness, but its presence felt horrifying. She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting down the scream that was building in her throat, the thought of two names Baro, Keito chanting silently in her mind, a desperate anchor in this sea of darkness.

When the sound faded, she ran again. The silence itself had been terrifying, but it was now being slowly replaced by something worse… the sound of screaming.This was a chorus of distant, drawn out wails, the sound of agony and pain, but still it sounded familiar…

The slithering returned, louder this time, accompanied by a low snarl. She scrambled for cover again, her eyes darting wildly in the dark, spotting a broken and beaten merchant’s cart. She dove under it without a second thought, curling into a tight, trembling ball and praying she was hidden.

A giant shadow passed overhead, so big it blotted out the lighter aspects of the darkness. She took a peek and saw something serpentine, a creature made of solidified shadows and ooze, gliding by with a heavy, wet, scraping sound. Its movement stirred the upward flowing slime, causing it to cling to it. A horrible smell, like burnt trees and flesh, filled the air. She knew that if this caught her she would be done for.

Once the shadow faded and seemed to have moved on, she crawled out, her body covered in a cold sweat. The screams were closer now. Every survival instinct screamed at her to run the other way, to just stay hidden. But the sound of someone suffering was a hook in her soul she could not get out. She rose up on shaky legs and ran towards it.

She burst into a plaza, and the sight that met her made her panic…It was him, the one who had been dragged into the dark. He was no longer on the ground but suspended in the center of the plaza, his arms and legs stretched wide and pinned by tendrils of shadow that seemed to pull him apart. The black ooze was latched onto his body in a dozen places, and his skin was turning grey. He was a prisoner in his own mind.

“No!” Elysia whispered… A fierce, protective anger surged through her, a white hot fury that momentarily took away her fear. She charged forward, her hands reaching for the shadow ropes. They were cold and sticky to the touch, but she poured all her will into her grip. With a sound like thick painting tearing, the tendrils snapped. The man collapsed into her arms, his body weightless, his eyes wide with fear.

“You have to go,” he gasped, his voice a whisper. “It knows you’re here! It will take you too! Get out!”

But it was too late. Before she could answer, a thick ribbon of black ooze snaked up from the ground. It wrapped around her ankle, its touch slimey and cold. Then another wrapped around her other leg, and another around her waist, pulling her, dragging her away from him.

“No!” the man screamed, lunging to grab her arm. He was thrown backward as if he’d hit a solid, invisible wall, tumbling through the air and landing on ground, ten feet away.

“Do something!” Elysia cried out, her voice cracking with desperation as the ooze coiled around her torso.

He scrambled towards her again, his face a mask of frantic desperation.

“I can’t! I’m powerless here! It has me… it has taken everything from me!”

The ooze crept up her chest, squeezing the air from her lungs, the darkness reached her neck, her chin, stealing her breath. This was it. She was going to be consumed…

Just as the slimy coils were about to cover her face, the gem on her forehead erupted. From that light, a shimmering, spectral parchment materialized…. not in front of her, but directly before the powerless, weeping man.

It was a contract. Runes of power, familiar yet different from the ones seen with Keito, swirled across its surface, leaving a single, empty, waiting space at the bottom.

As if summoned by the contract, a wind, the first real wind that had been felt in this mind scape kicked up around the man, whipping his hair and tattered clothes. He stared at the contract, his eyes widening. He looked from the shimmering contract to Elysia, who was now just a pulsing blue light beneath a mound of black ooze. He looked at the chance for freedom, a choice he thought he'd never have again. With a desperate cry that was both a sob and a roar, he reached out and pressed his hand to the waiting space on the contract. A vortex of raw, untamed magic exploded around him.

Outside of his mind, in the market square, Elysia’s body arched in a weird angle.

Keito saw it first. Her eyes were wide and blank, a thin line of blood trickling from her nose. A choked, desperate gasp escaped her lips as if she were suffocating…

“Elysia!” he shouted, drawing his sword not knowing what to fight.

Baro roared, his face a mask of panicked confusion. He charged forward, ramming his shoulder against the shimmering black mist that surrounded her and the dragon, but it was like hitting solid granite, the impact sending a numbing jolt up his arm.

The very ground seemed to shake, and from across the ruined city, something stirred. From the lifeless bodies of the Green and Red dragons, thick rivers of black ooze began to seep out. It wasn't blood, it was their corruption, unspooling from their wounds, their eyes, their mouths. It flowed together, converging from two directions on the market square, drawn to the black dragon.

Suddenly, a shockwave erupted from Elysia’s body, throwing both Keito and Baro off their feet and sending them skidding across the cracked pavement.

Inside the mind, the man’s voice roared, imbued with a power that was not his own, shaking the very foundations of the nightmare.

“I ACCEPT!”

A white hot swirl of energy surged through him, flooding the empty spaces where his own power had been siphoned away. He looked down at his hands, at a body that no longer felt weak and broken. He threw his head back and roared again… The black ooze encasing Elysia shattered into a million droplets of shadows, blasted away by the sheer sonic force of his voice.

She fell to the ground, coughing, gasping for air. She looked up in awe as he roared again, a sustained blast of pure energy that acted like a shockwave, annihilating everything, blasting the ooze from existence.

The nightmare was ending.

He turned to her, no longer a victim, he looked to be full of immense power, his form coalescing into the spectral image of a great black dragon made of starlight. He offered a hand, which was now simply a gesture of pure light, and she took it, allowing him to pull her to her feet. He looked her in the eyes, immense gratitude shining within them.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice calm and very deep.

“My power is now yours to wield. I will be by your side. You have freed me.”

As he spoke, his form began to grow transparent, the world around them dissolving into shimmering motes of light. His light collapsed inward, until it was a single, brilliant point that shot forward and gently entered Elysia's chest. In the market square, a final, deafening shockwave erupted, powerful enough to crack the stones beneath them. Keito and Baro were thrown back again, tumbling through smoke and debris. When everything stopped spinning, they pushed themselves up, their ears ringing.

Through the settling dust, they saw her…. Elysia, huddled on the ground, cradling something protectively in her arms. It was a single, perfectly smooth egg, the color of obsidian, pulsing with a soft, internal purple light that seemed to swirl in the egg. Before they could speak, the rivers of black ooze that had flowed from the dead dragons converged in the center of the square. The slime swelled upwards, coiling upon itself. It rose into a monstrous, semi humanoid shape, a giant of pure corruption.

It looked down at everyone and they knew the battle was far from over.