RE: Deity - The Breath of Creation

Alexander was woken from his sleep by Father's hand resting itself upon his head, silently calling him to…wherever it was He had been. He could feel changes happening in the Four Realms, his siblings already making waves from whatever insights Father had to show them. Slowly, Alexander raised his head to look at the strange, swirling portal that had appeared before him, purples mixing with whites and blues and reds in an almost psychedelic display not but a few feet from his face. Father's hand had reached through it, beckoning him forth.

He rose and flew forward, slipping through the portal like breaking the surface of a river, to behold a stark-white room. Pillars rose around twelve arches, each with a flag depicting various symbols hanging over them, while Father stood directly in front. He looked slightly annoyed, eyebrows scrunched together, though he still smiled happily at Alexander as he pulled his massive body into the relatively empty room.

"Father," he greeted, raising his head to scan the room. There was a strange, inverted floating pyramid along one side of the wall, a perfect orb floating behind it, and –

A growl echoed up from his chest the moment he laid eyes upon the other dragon in the room. His own rainbow irises locked onto the other dragon's glowing orange, her teeth baring into a feral snarl. Rays of light shot off of him as his aura flared, circling around himself and Father as the Dragon began to laugh, a deep, echoing sound that sent shivers down his spine and set fire to building up in his throat.

"Alexander, meet the Primeval Dragon. Dragon, meet my son Alexander. Let's go." Father introduced, voice eerily calm. Alexander dared not take his eyes off of the Dragon for a second, twitching as it broke eye contact to glare at Father.

"What is this, a dragon playing as a god?" She sneered, turning away from Alexander in a clearly dismissive manner. "Pitiful. Weak! Disgraceful!"

"Better those things than whatever you are." Alexander ground out, lifting his head to his full height. Tall as he was, the Primeval Dragon had to crane her neck to look up at him – but he was under no illusion that he was in a position of superiority here. Father silently walked past him, gliding across the ground on silent footsteps as He circled the table to stand beside the Dragon, shooting her a nonplussed look.

"Enough of this. Lead on." He said firmly.

Alexander hesitated, claws tapping against each other and teeth gnashing as the Dragon turned with a huff, vanishing into her portal. Father followed after, shooting one glance back at him that clearly said well? Come on.

Rage boiled in his gut as he flew forward, fury he tamped down upon with sheer force of will. He was better than that. He was no animal of base instinct that reacted like he just had – he tried to hide his frustration beneath the shame of acting so childish, but the anger burned too hot. It boiled and bubbled even as he flew through the portal – yet was still momentarily forgotten as he beheld an entirely new world.

It was one of destruction. A Domain entirely made of primordial chaos, almost eerily similar to the Four Realms prior to he and his siblings creating their Realms. The essences of creation flew every which way, souls drifting about through the aether collecting whatever they could. The echoes of the Void clashing against pure primordial chaos rattling the entirety of the universe like a house in a thunderstorm. Nothing was in order. It was all simply piled together haphazardly; though, even at first glance, Alexander did notice a few souls going through a similar process of absorbing energy to become gods, just as they had in the Four Realms.

Yet nothing compared to the burning power of the Dragon, brighter than the Realm Sun and Lunar Star combined.

Fire spilled from the Dragon's maw as it turned back to him and Father, settling down in a cave made of primordial chaos. Treasures of many sorts lay behind her, half-hidden behind a veritable wall of Chaos. Gold glittered and souls shifted, gems gleamed and elemental crystals lay in piles, curios of a million different types gathered in the center of her cave.

"My fires burn, and the Void burns with it." she proclaimed, words echoing through the entirety of her realm. A shudder ran down Alexander's spine as he recognized the true ruler of this creation – all else lay beneath her, and this was her territory. Hers. Alexander's lips pulled back over his teeth, spine cracking in a thousand places as he stretched himself out.

The Dragon's Domain was so big. For the first time in his life, Alexander let out a long, slow breath that didn't feel weighed down upon by hundreds of thousands of pounds of spiritual pressure. The skies were empty, save for the raw essences of creation. The grounds were clear of any who might obstruct his passage – spirits were nothing but nascent souls, barely even a whisper of consciousness between any of them, even those who attempted to gain divinity.

It might have been big, but it was also empty. Alexander found himself missing those powerful souls who inhabited the Four Realms, even if their presence could be oppressive. His eyes once again found the Dragon.

"I burn the Void, the Void retreats, and my Domain expands. This is my world, mine, and none are allowed to infringe upon it. Especially not something as mindless as the Void." She snarled, claws digging into the chaos at her feet. Her eyes narrowed at Alexander and Father, who crossed his arms silently, observing all around him. Alexander tried to remain silent. He tried to. But the Dragon kept talking. "You disgust me. Freely giving pieces of yourself to others, letting them twist what is yours. No self-respecting being would do this. You are a god, lesser though you are for it, and what do you do? Play pretend with false children. Have you no pride?" the words were directed at Father, and Alexander found his voice burst forth from his chest unbidden.

"Do not speak that way to Father." He snapped. "He is wiser and kinder than you could ever imagine to be. He has earned the title of Father, fought His own children to teach, not to destroy and subjugate. You and your domain of emptiness are nothing compared to Him." The Dragon laughed. She laughed.

"A father? A parent? That is nothing. What is a parent to a calamity? My wings are a maelstrom, my breath the inferno of creation and destruction. What is a father to a Dragon? What –"

"Mine." Alexander cut her off with a roar, power flaring, his body coiling up upon himself like a snake ready to strike – only he was no mere lizard. The Dragon froze upon his word, but only momentarily. "He is mine. My Father. My parent. He is more than you will ever be, creator and parent to something you do not realize. And I am a Dragon."

"A dragon, playing god. Nothing more than a mere lizard that can breathe harmless flames." The Dragon taunted. Alexander felt his hackles rise – but he caught himself. His fires died in his throat. His emotions escaped from his head and heart like the smoke from his lungs, pushed out of his body alongside his sigh. He was better than this. He was the wise dragon of spirits – "You are little more than an overgrown lizard playing at being a god, a lesser being, with a self-sacrificial idiot as a so-called parent. You are a pair of imbeciles, worth less than the mud between my toes, and –"

Alexander roared.

The primordial chaos around him shattered, shard of glass-like reality floating through the air, golden flames shooting from between his teeth as he bellowed his defiance to the immaterial skies. The primordial chaos churned, howling against his spiritual pressure – and freezing in place as the Primeval Dragon spread her wings, asserting her dominance over reality with a mere thought, and hurled herself at Alexander.

No, I didn't mean – he thought, suddenly realizing what he was doing, shooting backward with all his might to escape the seeking claws of the Dragon.

"What kind of a Dragon runs?" She growled, cleaving through space and time itself with a single swipe of her claws. Alexander shuddered, but he could not deny the rage and anger that burned within him even as he retreated, the Dragon turning to him with a furious snarl. "What kind of Dragon hides behind their so-called parent?"

Alexander turned his gaze to Father for a brief second, only to find Him watching with a blank expression, hands folded into the sleeves of his robes as if to say you made your bed, now sleep in it.

"I am a guest in your house. I apologize for my actions." Alexander hissed out between his teeth, doing his damndest to make it sound believable and sincere. "I –"

"SILENCE!" The Dragon roared, shattering what Alexander had to say as she hurled herself forward, maw agape, orange fire spewing forth in a scale-melting wave of heat and death. Alexander shot downward, tail thrashing as he swam through the primordial chaos, fire and earth and energy splitting before him like water before a pike. He narrowly avoided a swipe of the Dragon's claws rending reality, but failed to dodge a swipe of its tail, crashing into the top of his head like a hammer.

His teeth snapped shut, blood oozing from the cracked scales on his forehead as he fell, slamming into a solid stretch of primordial chaos that cratered beneath his form. Time slowed as he looked up at the form of the Dragon – and he found it beautiful.

Her wings were illuminated by the orange glow in her chest. Shadows swirled about her, the raw heat emanating from her blackened scales distorting reality. Her very presence inspired creation, every flap of her membranous wings sending swirls of souls and elements hurtling through her domain to join the chaotic forces that comprised it. And then she breathed out.

Orange fire hurled faster than he could blink toward him, destroying all that was in its path, returning even Chaos to the raw energy that made up its creation. Alexander was frozen in place, unable to move as fire that would incinerate his very soul threatened to discintegrate him –

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And then Father was there, a shield of white and black whirling into existence, splitting the inferno from the Dragon like a wall against the wind. And shame filled his chest. Once again, Father had come to the rescue. Once again, he had failed to – no. He couldn't think this way. There was no shame in…

"Is that it?" Father asked, breaking through the silence that came with lying to himself. His purple robes billowed in the faux wind created by the Dragon's breath, his expression obscured by shadow and the fierce orange glow of the Dragon's breath as he turned back to look at Alexander. "Is this all you are?"

"What – "

"Do not deny yourself. Do not. You can lie to everyone else, even me, but do not lie to yourself. Is this all you are, Alexander?" the roar of the Dragon's breath threatened to drown out Father's words, but Alexander understood them all the same. Even as the heat threatened to sear his scales, even as it threatened to melt his horns and burn away his soul. Fire rose in his stomach. Anger. "There is no reason to fear, here. Deny yourself no longer – deny your emotions no longer. To deny is to rage against, and the most dangerous type of anger is built within the heart of one who is good. Is that who you are?"

Alexander grit his teeth, his shame reaching a fever pitch. But beneath it burned raw, all-consuming anger. Is this the extent of who he was? This strange Dragon meant nothing to him, and everything. She was the opposite of all of Father's ideals, all of his ideals – NO! NO! NO.

"no." His head lifted, anger burning away. He would not deny it. He could not deny it. But he should not accept it as his truth, either. Something clicked within him in that moment, a peaceful silence falling about him that sent the fire within roaring to greater heights than ever before – but never once overcoming his mind, nor threatening to burn down his rationality and reason.

"This is not the Four Realms. There is nothing to protect here. Free yourself of that which suppresses you – and do not show me who you are. Show yourself who I know you are."

Alexander's roared pierced the very heavens themselves as he shot skyward, through the Dragon's flames, bursting through the all-consuming heat to the skies above. The Dragon ceased its breath to glare at him, mouth open, maw smoldering, reality bending to its destructive whims. How wasteful. All that power, for nothing. He thought, in that split second where he rose above the Dragon. Yet beautiful all the same. He could not deny the beauty of it. But it was not his Truth. He was not that kind of Dragon.

"I AM ALEXANDER!" He roared. "AND YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW HIGH THE HEAVENS ARE!"

"Yes!" The Primeval Dragon roared in delight as Alexander descended upon her, eyes burning with righteous fury, aura soaring to new heights. She let him come, crashing into her body like a missile as they tumbled claw over tail through her Domain. His teeth bit into her neck, cracking scales, yet not with enough force to choke. He was not strong enough for that yet. "YES!" She turned her maw to the white-scaled dragon, biting his back and ripping him from her own neck, hurling him across her Domain, writhing and thrashing his sinuous form.

Fire billowed from her maw, and this time he met it with a burst of golden flame.

It was weaker than her own, and for a moment she was disappointed as he vanished beneath the roaring orange explosion of her breath. Did she accidentally kill him with her full might? Or did the other fucker get in the way again?

And then – heat.

It burned her chest, more of a tickle than anything, that slowly grew in intensity until claws buried themselves in-between her scales, Alexander bursting through her flames wreathed in golden light. Power rippled behind him, pushing through her flames with all the constant force of a river, driving his claws deeper into her flesh. She shuddered in delight as her breath was forced from her lungs in a burst of smoke and flame.

"Good, good!" she laughed, lifting her foreclaws to bat him aside, blood dribbling from between her scales as his claws were torn free. Blood. Her blood. She lifted one claw to her chest to examine a droplet, dripping down her scales. It burned with all her power, evaporating into mist to merge with her Domain. He had drawn her blood. Finally! "This is more like it! Come, false god! Show me more!" she crowed, shooting forward, wingbeats stirring up an elemental maelstrom that hurled itself at the white dragon. He roared his defiance, not dodging, not avoiding, but barreling right through her condensed power in his arrogance – only to emerge the other side with battered scales and a broken horn, but no less fierce for it. Good! A true Dragon was arrogant because they had earned the right to be!

She laughed as they clashed, fighting tooth and claw, putting all her effort into putting him down.

But he did not yield. Not for a moment, not for an inch. He had maybe twenty percent of her own power, if she were to put it into mere numbers, but his warrior's spirit made up part of the difference. Every time she batted him away, or bit into his flesh, he fought back with twenty times the savage determination. For each insult she hurled at his scales or at his so-called father, he returned two-fold in the form of dents in her scales or tears in her wings.

And she watched with glee as he finally gave in to his Truth, devouring his own divinity, aura skyrocketing as he allowed himself to become what he truly was meant to be. A dragon was not a god. It was a Dragon – an existence to challenge the heavens themselves! And no true Dragon could fly under a sky in which it was not its own sovereign.

She bellowed her joy to the sky, and Alexander shouted his challenge.

She roared her dominance to her challenger as they clashed again, and again.

And not once did he give in. Not even bleeding and broken, aura shaking and shattered, power all but spent – he breathed in one last time and shouted his truth at her, all he was spent in a single burst of golden flame.

I AM ALEXANDER! It said. AND I DENY YOU!

She basked in the heat of his flames, letting it sink into her scales and ignite the passion of her heart. This was what a dragon was meant to be. It was passion. It was fury. It was protection of what was theirs. Nothing could challenge a dragon. Nothing.

But she was still the Dragon.

She burst through Alexander's flames, foreclaws grabbing his head and slamming it downward, into the roof of her cave. Chaos shattered beneath the force, and Alexander growled weakly, still snapping her at her toes. She sighed happily but was not satisfied. Conflict was how she rose and grew. It was how her Domain grew. And good as this fight had been, it was not enough to satisfy her. Maybe in few million years he would have the power, but…no, she needed more.

"You have earned this." She declared. "The right to know my true name. Not given to me by another, but decided for myself. Sehuyun. My name is Sehuyun, the Primeval Dragon." Alexander's rainbow eyes flicked upward briefly to meet her own, still filled with the light of defiance, but the moment was short-lived.

Alexander's consciousness dimmed, his eyes falling shut, and any hope for the continuation of the fight faded away.

That is, until clapping echoed through the following silence like thunder.

"Thank you. Though he lost, he needed that." Statera Luotian said, stepping calmly through the aftermath of their battle. His hair was immaculate, for a god, robes as pristine as ever. "Now, get off my son."

Sehuyun grinned savagely, sensing the opportunity for another fight as she pressed Alexander's head deeper into the chaos.

"And what if I don't?"

Statera's expression never changed, and that was the most impressive piece of what happened next. He simply raised his hands and snapped his fingers, raw power exploding outward and sending her tumbling back, head over tail, claws free of Alexander. She righted herself, tail digging a trench through the chaos to halt her momentum, gaze snapping immediately to the newest threat to her Domain – only to find him kneeling over his son, a kind smile on his face, healing light washing over the white dragon's body. Scales mended. Blood flowed back within Alexander. And a green shield layered itself over his body as he stood to face her.

His expression was calm.

His aura was not.

Sehuyun licked her lips.

"I have not tried this yet. I know now of its possibility, but…I never considered to use it until this moment. Perhaps that is because I have not felt the need to truly defend my children, even against my own child." Statera said thoughtfully, his entire aura shifting.

"Tried what yet?" She asked, anticipation setting her tail to thrashing and smoke to billowing from her wings.

"You said it yourself. I gave pieces of myself to make the strongest of my children – shards that have evolved into splendid beings of their own will. And one of them chose to be a Dragon." The word dragon echoed through Sehuyun's bones as Statera cracked his knuckles, the energy within him as still as a pond. His green eyes flashed dangerously, and Sehuyun's breath caught in her throat, glee filling her once again. "Who do you think he got that from?"

Statera's body began to grow. His aura shifted, purple lightning cracking through the air as he elongated, purple robes transforming into purple scales. His sinuous body thrashed, horns as black as the night glittering against the light of his lightning. His teeth bared in a feral snarl, whiskers twitching and green eyes burning with protective rage. But he was incomplete. Golden light sparked from within his chest, symbolizing the injury he had sustained.

A dragon, without its breath. Statera did nothing to hide that fact, proclaiming that even as he was now, it was enough.

Sehuyun shuddered in joy.

"I am Statera Luotian. I am the Heavens. Now you know their height."

Thunder boomed.

Fire roared.

And with a bellow of pure emotion, two more Dragons clashed.