Bahamut

Mike landed in the woods near the address Hamza had given him. The cabin was hidden from the air, buried in the trees. He walked through the underbrush, the forest quiet and still. The gentle rush of a stream whispered nearby, and the thick, scent of wet earth filled his lungs.

It was familiar. Too familiar.

The smell reminded him of the trial when his senses were primal, when blood and dirt were home. That time hadn't left him. Not really. He still had dreams with those scents and instincts.

At the top of the hill, a cobblestone path wound its way to a small cabin. A vegetable garden sat to one side, a shed to the other. Peaceful. Exactly like Hunter described it.

A rare smile tugged at Mike's lips. He stepped forward and knocked.

The door creaked open with the knock.

"Hunter?" he called. "It's Mike."

No answer.

He stepped inside, drawn by the familiarity of the place. A couch. A TV. Animal heads on the wall.

Then, something else. A smell that didn't belong. The unmistakable stench of blood and rot.

Mike's stomach tightened.

He moved toward the kitchen, and the moment he crossed the threshold, the world collapsed.

All the air left his lungs.

A body hung from meat hooks, suspended in the center of the room, its abdomen slashed open. Entrails spilled onto the floor in a coagulated heap. Dried blood covered every surface. A soaked cloth covered the head. Nailed to the kitchen table, flayed skin pinned by hunting knives.

He took a step forward, the weight in his chest threatening to crush him. The cloth covering the face had something written on it.

World's Best Mom.

The pressure climbed the back of his neck like a blade. The floral patterns beneath the blood were unmistakable.

His mother's apron.

He peeled the cloth away.

It was Hunter.

Eyes gouged out. Mouth slack with silent pain.

Mike's fists clenched so hard they drew blood. A deep, primal tremble overtook him. His vision blurred, not with tears, but with fury. Fury edged in agony.

He looked to the table.

The flayed skin had been carved with a message:

Hi my love, I stopped by to visit your friend to see if he would accept our love, but he didn't. You deserve better friends.

Mike howled.

"AHHHHHH! FUCK GODS AND DEMONS!!! ALL OF THIS FOR YOUR FUCKING GAMES!!"

Mike's mind went black.

In an instant, the cabin and the trees, and the air around it was incinerated in a roiling inferno. The heat vaporized bark and bone alike. Animals fled, their screams swallowed by the roar of flame.

At the center of it all, sat Mike fully transformed.

Wreathed in molten aura, fifteen feet of dragon muscle and obsidian scale, he bellowed into the sky with a voice that cracked the clouds.

"Get your emotions under control. You are weak!" Bahamut roared.

The dragon snarled in reply not words, not thoughts. Instinct. A beast broken loose from its last chain.

Bahamut roared back, unleashing a cascade of divine essence that punched through the veil between realms. The sky rippled like boiling glass. The fire around Mike surged with it, devouring entire hillsides, consuming valleys in an expanding tide of annihilation.

The flow was so strong, it broke the silence of the higher realms.

Aether felt it.

"Go to the djinn. Now!" Aether's voice thundered in Nicolas's mind.

Nicolas bolted from the council hall. He burst into the training room, breathless, eyes wide. Hamza sat calmly in meditation. But before Nicolas could speak—

"Filthy djinn! What did you do to Bahamut's chosen!?" Aether's voice cracked through the air like a whip, speaking through Nicolas.

Hamza opened his eyes slowly. "Something serious must have happened for you to finally acknowledge my existence."

"Answer me, half-breed!"

"I've been teaching him to control the flow of essence across the veil, in both human and dragon form."

"Then you've failed catastrophically. Go fix your mistake before there's nothing left on your side of the veil."

Hamza rose instantly. "Where?"

Nicolas stepped aside and gestured to the massive window. They didn't need to speak. On the horizon, a vortex of black and crimson energy twisted into the sky like a living wound. Essence poured into the atmosphere.

Hamza didn't hesitate. He transformed mid-stride, his Ifrit form igniting in silent, smokeless fire. Without a word, he leapt through the window and ran, streaking across hills, faster than flame, toward the eye of the inferno.

—

As he neared the blast zone, the air shimmered with raw heat. Forests were already ash. The fire blazed so hot, stone itself glowed orange.

And in the middle of it, he heard them, two roars.

One was Bahamut, roaring condemnation and fury across the veil.

The other was pure rage, Mike.

But there were no words in that voice. No thought. No language.

Only pain.

Hamza pushed forward through the inferno. It parted around him, he was fire itself. He followed the thunder of breath and claw until he reached the hilltop.

There, through the smoke, was the black dragon.

Massive. Terrifying. But not in control.

Mike lashed out wildly, his aura so dense it warped reality. Hamza didn't flinch as one of the blasts came for him. He vaulted into the air and landed on the back of Mike's skull, planting his feet between the horns.

"Mike!" he shouted. "Can you hear me!? Follow my voice!"

A furious roar was the only response. The dragon tried to throw him.

Hamza held on. "Mike! Come back!"

He reached forward, pressed a flaming palm to Mike's crown, and closed his eyes. He shoved himself into the flow of essence, parting the torrent like water. Searching.

There in the abyss he found him.

A flicker of thought.

"Fuck you, Hamza! Get off me! Why are you here!?"

"Because you're about to burn out your soul." Hamza's voice was steady, hypnotic. "You must regain control before you detonate. This is not how your story ends."

"Let it burn," Mike roared. The flames surged around them, shaking the earth.

Hamza gritted his teeth. "What happened? Where is Hunter?"

"HE'S DEAD!" Mike's voice fractured through the essence like a cannon shot. "HECATE STRUNG HIM UP AND BLED HIM OUT LIKE AN ANIMAL!"

"Is that what started this?"

Mike's fury poured out in molten grief.

"Hunter was there for me. Since the day we met. He joked with me like nothing was terrifying. He trusted me. He fought beside me when I was still learning who I even was! He helped me remember how to laugh again!"

His voice trembled. Essence cracked at the edges.

"I thought I had it figured out. I thought I found balance. I thought maybe I could be something human again. Then she took that from me. They all did."

"My mother's apron, Hamza. She put it on his face like a joke. Like we're just pieces on their fucking board."

His claws dug into the earth. The sky above twisted and cracked.

"The gods. The demons. The angels. They all think I'm just a piece in their game!"

"All of it, everything I tried to rebuild, was just part of their plan to twist me. Control me."

He raised his voice to the heavens, screaming:

"FUCK YOUR ABSOLUTE!"

"FUCK YOUR TRIALS! FUCK YOUR GODS! FUCK IT ALL!"

"I never asked for any of this!"

"I didn't ask to be chosen. I didn't ask to play this fucking game! 

Essence lashed out in red waves. The air caught fire again. Mike staring fiercely at the sky.

"I'm not your tool. I'm not your fucking puppet."

"I'm done!"

"You want war?"

"I WILL GIVE YOU WAR."

"I will kill them all."

Hamza waited, breathing, watching for the break in the storm. And when it came, when Mike paused just long enough, he struck, not with force, but with conviction.

"Then I'll help you," Hamza said, voice low and firm. "Let's kill them. I will be the herald of their destruction at your hand. Let our fire's cleanse the earth."

Mike went still.

"But not like this. Not now. If you burn yourself out here, they win. You'll give them what they want, a weapon that breaks before it strikes."

Hamza pressed both hands to Mike's skull now, red flames twining into the cracks in Mike's aura.

"So reign it in. Master it. Hold the reins, even if your hands bleed. Then unleash it on the ones who deserve it. The gods. The demons. The witch."

He leaned in close, his voice like a whisper in a furnace.

"What do you say, Mike? Let's balance my scales by clearing the table. Let's erase them all."

"My King will rejoice at an empty table."

The essence began to calm around Mike as he continued looking at the sky.

I'll tear apart every last one of them until I find that bitch Hecate."

"I'll rip Kelsey out of her soul, even if I have to claw through the underworld itself."

"And then… then I'll come for the rest of you."

His voice dropped to a snarl.

"I'm going to kill the gods. One by one. And I'll devour whatever they leave behind."

"I will not be the Absolute."

"I will be the only one left."

Bahamut responds in a prideful tone

"First dragon and last dragon."