Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 886: Fourth Challenge ()

She’d stopped falling, she realised.

Neveah’s eyes snapped open to find she no longer stared up at the sea of blue that was the skies, but instead large golden scales now covered her line of sight.

Her eyes widened. Not in horror, or terror or anything of the sort. Just in a silent myriad of feelings that surged through her, faster than she could identify or comprehend.

There was a tight, rough grip around her torso. Not tight enough to suffocate, just enough that she didn’t fall.

Her eyes scanned the grip around her, and the realisation dawned almost instantly. Just as a calm, steadying voice filled her mind.

’Beloved. I’m here now... I’m here.’

Dragon! It was a dragon!

Unlike the last one she’d met, this beast was dusted in golden scales, with wings that spanned wide enough to overwhelm the skies.

She couldn’t see much from her vantage point, only that the ground and the battle below was getting further and further away as they climbed to a higher altitude.

’I’m here... I’m here now...’

It was a repeated chant in her mind. And she wasn’t sure if it was her own mind playing tricks on her, or that was just how many times the dragon spoke the reassurance.

There was something about the voice in her head that stirred an ache deeper than anything she’d ever felt before. And it grew with each time he said the words, ’I’m here.’

Her heart pulsed in a rhythm that was distantly familiar yet far beyond the bounds her memory allowed.

A sense of familiarity, heavy and undeniable, flooded her mind.

She knew that voice...it wasn’t even a question. She knew it!

She knew it as surely as she knew her own heart. She’d heard it a hundred...no, a thousand times before.

Even if she couldn’t quite recall it, she was certain of this one thing. She knew him!

The searing pain returned, sharper than it’d ever been.

The wind whipped all around her, but it did nothing to ease the pain ravaging her skull.

Her temple throbbed, her insides felt like they were on fire.

The urge to retch grew steadily, but she couldn’t even move a limb. Not with how tightly she was held in the dragon’s claw.

The cloudy mist in her mind seemed to grow foggier, until all she saw behind her closed lids was a haze of white mist.

And then, all at once, like a blade had cut through, the mist parted.

Scenes flashed through her mind faster than the wind whipping through her hair.

It was too fast for her to make sense of it, of anything at all.

Other than the fact that she was right there. In every one of those scenes, she was there.

In another world, in another place where the earth and the skies converged as one.

’I have to remember.’ Neveah thought to herself.

The memories were right there. Triggered by his touch, his voice in her head. They were closer than they’d ever been. They were just a hairsbreadth away, close enough to touch.

She could practically feel the whisper of a time she’d forgotten. A time lost to the cloudy haze in her mind, buried beneath months of doubts and uncertainty and questions to which there had been no answers.

All she had to do was reach out and grasp it. And she tried. By the Creator, she did!

But there was just something...a disconnect. A darkness looming right overhead that didn’t allow her to quite reach it.

But she couldn’t lose it! Not this time! Not today!

Because without her memories, what did she have left? Who was she?

She gritted her teeth through the pain, forcing her mind to slow down.

But before she could settle her own thoughts for long enough to open her mind to the memories that brushed right across the surface, a sharp pain ripped across her sides.

She could feel her flesh tearing open. Her lips parted in a soundless scream as her midriff grew damp with blood.

Alessio!

This feeling...was his call. His demand for her to return or face the consequences of the influence he now held over her.

She didn’t know if the dragon felt it. The beast was so focused on taking her away from the battle, she wasn’t sure he’d noticed. She didn’t wait to find out.

Rage surged within her veins. She felt the warmth of magic spark to life within her, even before she could reach for it.

The world spun around her. One moment, she was too many feet off the ground to keep track of, and the next, the world tilted and in a flash of golden light, she found herself right back at the rooftop garden, across from him.

Alessio...

He stood there, bleeding from a new claw wound around his midriff. The exact same place she could still feel the pain radiating. His own claws dripped a steady stream of blood.

She wasn’t sure how. Or why, but she’d portaled back to him.

Far behind her, a terrifying roar shook the earth.

She heard it echo right down to her bones. Her heart stuttered within her, but she suppressed the ache.

She could feel him coming. Not him alone. She caught the silhouettes of great beasts circling the skies.

She felt the heat even before it reached and on instinct, she lifted a hand. A barrier of glowing gold materialised, surrounding the rooftop garden, enclosing above right as a torrent of flames rained all over where Alessio had been standing.

The heat was harsh enough, she could still feel it through the barrier.

Alessio ducked on instinct, his eyes staring up wildly as the barrier blocked out the flames. And then, his eyes found hers.

"Neveah!!!"

It wasn’t Alessio. It wasn’t even the voice in her head. It was another voice...a different voice, yet it stirred much the same hollow ache.

She heard the call, the familiarity of the voice pulling at her heart.

But she didn’t turn. She didn’t acknowledge it.

"This is us..." Alessio said, "You and I, nothing can stop us."

Neveah’s eyes blazed with fury. She’d said it a thousand times that there could never be an ’us’, in their equation. But it seemed Alessio would never face this reality.

"Nothing." She agreed,

"But I can." She completed, stopping the smile on Alessio’s lips before it could spread. "I can stop us. End us."

Alessio’s eyes narrowed, his tone was wary, "What does that mean?"

"You’ve faced three challenges today, Alessio Terran Lothaire. I will be your fourth... and final..." Her voice trailed off,

"You and I, this only ends when one or both of us is dead."