The Omega Fire (Book Three of the Omega Game Series)

Chapter 1

Nira

Somewhere inside the Amateran Forest.

Present day

    I had to say, dying wasn’t fun. It really wasn’t. The only good thing about dying was that I remained dead for a very short amount of time. I was right there, talking to Death- whose name  is Mourna by the way -and growing all anxious about all the possible explanations I could give my dad this time around for getting in trouble and dying and all that...when it hit me. I felt pain. And believe me, feeling pain when you are dead equals not being that dead at all. There is no pain in Death’s world. There is no nothing actually. 

    It’s just you and Death- who looks like my cousin’s Katala twin and is way too pretty to make my heart go boom-boom for him- and miles of greyness. Everything is grey in Mourna’s kingdom. From the sky to the sand and...that’s it. Not much to describe there. Anyway, there I was, dead and lonely. Like one of those unwatered plants my mother kept with the hope of some day reviving and then she would end forgetting them altogether. Mourna was going all blah-blah on me, saying something that I wasn’t really paying attention to but probably sounded like I hate your cousin, I’m still pining over her even if she had moved on with my brother an eternity ago but I still hate her...and then a horrible pain scorched my insides making me scream and fell on my knees.

    “No! You are staying here!” screamed Mourna, trying to reach out and touch me. I smirked at him on my way out and would have made a very vulgar gesture in his honor if it wasn’t because I was burning from the inside out. I had my priorities in order and between being alive again and leaving with a big exit I was partial to getting the hell away from Death.

    I clenched my teeth and roared in pain. To give a visual of exactly how I was feeling I must say I was like one of those pink pigs that are slowly roasted at campfires. I felt like those pigs but from the inside out. My insides were literally in flames but my hands and body looked perfectly fine. The more in pain I was the more translucent I became. Mourna yelled in anger. His violet eyes turned diabolically furious giving me the creeps because now I knew how Katala would look if she ever got angry at me. 

    The fire consuming me seemed to explode in my chest and the world surrounding me disappeared. I came back to the clearing at the Amateran Forest. It was as if a second I was sleeping and the next one I was awake. For a moment I just felt genuinely happy to be back. I mean, I was in pain and everything hurt but at least I was alive. I screamed through the scorching pain running through my body while my four favorite people in the world and Aros circled me. To my horror I realized I was in Aros’s arms. Who the hell had allowed him to do that? And damn, I needed to reorganize my priorities again. I was in pain here, Aros and his arms could wait.

    “Nira! Nira hear me out,” screamed Katala at me and I grunted, my body spasming and jumping in uncontrollable waves of agony, but throughout the unbearable pain and the horrible fire burning my invisible insights I focused on Katala. She looked otherworldly in her Queen of Spirit regalia. It would take me some time to get used to it but I had to say she looked badass with all that silver light covering her body. Noctis was a lucky bastard, I would give him that. Katala touched my forehead then and started yelling at me, so I could hear her through the pain, “you need to look for the new spirit inside of you. His name is Teran and he is terribly lonely. Talk to him. Make him stop fighting you!”

    “I...I’m b...burning!” I screamed through my grounded teeth and Katala grew anxious, touching my face and neck.

    “It’s Teran’s fire!” exclaimed Katala, her hands trembling over my shoulders. She looked up to Aros and gave him a grave look. Aww s**t, I hated those looks of hers, “Aros, Teran is trying to break out of her body by burning her. I need you to reach inside of her and redirect the fire out of her body.”

    She didn’t need to say it twice. The mongrel-face acted right away and what happened next would go down in history as “that time when Aros went apeshit and grew a body made of fire with bull horns”. I’m kidding you not. Even in pain and feeling my body burn I saw Aros transform into a gigantic fire monster. He had to be around eleven feet tall, covered in red fire from horns to toes and extending a pair of bat-like wings that fluttered softly when he opened them. What surprised me the most-apart from the fact that Aros could grow wings- was that the fire covering his red skin didn’t burn me. All the contrary. His fire felt almost soothing.

    Aros placed a hand over my chest and put pressure in his fingertips. Any other time I would have cut his arm off for the offence, but right then I felt a strange pleasing touch reaching inside of me, making me relax right away. I felt as if a gentle hand was gathering all the fire burning me, moving the fire into one large ball that burned painfully hot in my core. Aros pushed his hand to the side right after, and a wild tongue of fire burned over the extension of the Amateran Forest. The more he transferred the fire burning inside of me to the air, the better I felt. I started breathing easier, enjoying not feeling pain at last. 

    Aros was still redirecting the fire burning me when I tensed. I grew aware for the very first time of the presence roaring in my chest, right in the place where Teran had delivered his killing blow. There was no scar in my skin but inside I could feel him. He was like a heart of fire beating in madness, fury and desolation. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on that raging heart that was Teran. Through the darkness of my closed eyelids I saw him as clear as if he were standing before me.

    Teran.  In the black expansion of my consciousness there was this lonely space barely illuminated. And right in the middle of it was the beautifully dangerous figure of Teran. He was huge; his head, neck and powerful torso were covered in ruby colored scales. They were eye catching, long and shiny like precious gems. His wings were extended and widely opened while he pulled at the chains that tightened around his talons and neck. I thought for half a second that such an incredible creature like him shouldn’t be in chains and then he roared red flames at me and I shrugged and walked away.

    It took hours for Aros to redirect Teran’s fire out of my body. The dragon seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of red fire to burn me with. A fact I would not be so sensitive about, if it wasn’t because I’ve just died recently. It was hard not to hold grudges when one had just come to life and there was a dragon trying to kill you locked inside of you. 

     Katala’s careful directions helped Aros redirect the fire without hurting me in the process. I wasn’t sure what Aros was doing but I wasn’t in pain any longer. I just felt...alive. I waited there while I watched the night sky above me. It started snowing at some point but the white snow melted softly against my skin. I just thought  Man...I’m alive. I need to get my s**t together for once and figure out what I want. I had another chance to make things right. I didn’t know how I ended up connected to a mad dragon or what I was supposed to do from now on. But I was alive. That had to count for something 

    Not everyone had the luck of being offered a second chance. Life was pain, I knew that better than no one, but I also knew that now I appreciated air more than before. I was even happy to stare at the sky and feel the cold snow against my skin. I was even happy to see Aros which was something I’ve never experienced before.  

    I closed my eyes and for the first time in what it felt like my entire life I enjoyed sleeping in peace.