And Ruin Followed Behind Her

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

I didn’t even have to close my eyes anymore to make myself disappear or reappear. I saw Aziolith in front of me, and in just a blink, I appeared in front of him. The bullets from the military whizzed by my head as I floated inches from his face.

Suddenly, I no longer saw the world in slow motion. Everything sped up and a dozen bullets clanged off the great dragon around me. An RPG exploded against his neck. He wasn’t even fazed.

Aziolith looked even more imposing up close. His shimmering scales jutted out from his body, each one a little shield which protected him from all harm. He stomped down on the tank that had fired a missile at him. I gathered my wits about me and flew out of the way as the dragon’s breath destroyed three Humvees and his tail whacked over the last tank in his path. Only a small contingent of guards still stood against him, and they cowered as he walked forward.

“Now, humans,” Aziolith said. “I give you a choice. Leave, now. Run and never look back, and I will spare you. Stay, and you shall feel my wrath.”

One of the soldiers pissed himself. He looked at his fellow soldiers, then stowed his gun and ran away as fast as his feet could carry him. The others watched him flee, took a second, and ran after him.

The dragon watched them go and turned his gaze toward the horizon, as if summoned by a force beyond his control. “I hear you there, pixie,” he said. “Or do you not remember that my hearing is impeccable? I seem to remember you commented on it on the second day of our battle.”

I floated toward him. “I have no idea what you are talking about, Aziolith.”

Aziolith turned its lumbering head toward me. “Ah. My apologies. I mistook you for another of your ilk. You smell the same. A combination of magic and sulfur.”

“I know who you’re speaking of. I just ran into your nemesis Akta in the pits of Hell,” I said, holding up my daggers. “She helped me sharpen my blades to defeat you.”

“Is that all you people think about, destruction? My entire life, all your kind did was try to defeat me. Such violence.”

I floated up toward the head of the great black dragon until I settled near his great eyes. “We’re violent? You massacred towns for sport!”

“Ah, you have been reading the wrong history books. I was always provoked,” Aziolith said, indignant. “That is the curse of great power. Many will try to take it from you. If you do not protect yourself, you are seen as weak and invite attack. If you defend yourself, then you are labeled a monster.”

“So, this was all what? You protecting yourself? You destroyed my town!”

“No! I have not destroyed anything that did not provoked me first.”

“You burned a group of cultists for fun!”

“First, it was not just for fun. My enjoyment was but a small part of it. Second, they were horrible people, as you recall. I mean, they demanded blood for their loyalty. Those are not the kinds of people I associate with if I can help it. Their bloodlust is never satisfied. I did the world a favor by ridding it of them.”

“You also let demons roam the world and started Hell on Earth!” I yelled.

“You are mistaken. All I did was walk through a portal and toward the edge of town, content to be left alone. Whatever happened with that portal afterward was out of my control. Frankly, those demons are just awful. I wish I could have left them in Hell, but unfortunately, the portal only has one way to close it.”

I rested on the ground in front of Aziolith. “Yes, only your blood will close it.”

Aziolith lowered his head until he was at my level. “I am aware of that fact.”

“If you really aren’t evil, why would you allow this m******e to continue, especially if you could stop it?”

Aziolith gave a heavy sigh, and hot smoke poured from his nostrils. “I do not want to go back, little one.”

I walked slowly down the length of Aziolith’s neck. “You must know you’ll be hunted across the sea. There is no place you can go that people will not attack you.”

“That was the nice part about Hell. Nobody bothered me. Finally, I was just another monster. Unfortunately, that was the only nice part about it.”

“You can’t fly. Akta made sure of that. Which means that you will never be free. You might defeat individual humans, or even whole nations, but never humanity as a whole. How far do you think you’ll get before somebody else finds your weakness and kills you again?”

“I just want to find peace.”

I moved toward the fleshy weakness of his stomach and placed my hand on it. His breath moved the stomach up and down, just like any other creature. He was alive, as much as I was alive. We had both seen Hell and lived to tell about it. “I can help you find peace.”

“I am not stupid, pixie. I know what you are doing. You would not have got so far if I didn’t will it.” Aziolith pulled away his right wing to reveal a patch of pink skin near his heart. “Make it quick. Akta, for all her faults, made my death painless. Do not hesitate. Dig the dagger in deep.”

“Not here,” I said. “I need you to bleed into the mystery spot. Will you come with me there?”

“Why should I do humanity any favors?”

“You shouldn’t. You should do one for me.”

“I have never done a favor for a pixie before,” Aziolith grumbled. “Especially not one who is ready to kill me.”

“Please,” I said, pressing against his pink belly.

Aziolith nodded his head down to me. “I will do you this favor if it allows me to find peace once again.”

I put my hand on him and closed my eyes. I pictured the mystery spot, not as it was before, but as it stood now, spinning portal and all. My wings started to vibrate faster than I could see, and then purple light flashed.

*

WE REAPPEARED IN FRONT of the mystery spot where the red portal spun six stories into the air. This close to the portal, my whole body trembled with its power, and my mind focused sharper.

“Mmm,” Aziolith said, looking up at the great portal. “I just spent the whole evening walking away from this place only to end up where I started.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” I nodded. “I just died here.”

“Ah, then you will be coming back with me.”

I hadn’t thought of that. Closing the portal might just send us all back to Hell, and then we’d be stuck there for all eternity. What if I could never escape?

No. I couldn’t think like that. I was willing to sacrifice myself once. I must be willing to do it again.

I looked up at the great dragon. “Are you ready?”

“I have died before.” Aziolith nodded. “I can die again.”

I swung my daggers across the breast of the great beast, and nicked open his chest, but I didn’t stab through it.

Instead, I allowed the blood to seep onto the ground slowly. I opened my nearly empty bag of pixie dust and let the blood pool inside it. When the bag was full, I walked it over to the mystery spot and poured it in.

The portal stopped moving and turned from a bright to dark red, and eventually a sackcloth black. It expanded a hundred feet into the air, and then shrunk back to nothing before a great red shockwave blew through the town and flung me away from the mystery spot until I landed at the edge of the park and rolled to a stop.