The Mausoleum Part 2

A tense silence settled over the chamber. The weight of the unseen presence pressed against Riven's skin, as if something ancient was watching - waiting.

Nyx was the first to break the silence. "Well," she said, forcing lightness into her voice, "that's not ominous at all."

Riven barely spared her a glance. His gaze remained locked on the colossal door before them.

Waunuk of the Obsidian Realm.

He had never heard the name before, but he felt its weight. Like an echo of something buried in the marrow of his bones.

Riven exhaled sharply as he stepped forward, his fingers hovering just above the chains.

"This is probably a terrible idea," he muttered. "But I'm doing it anyway."

He pressed his hand against the cold stone and the moment his skin made contact, the door reacted.

The runes along the chains ignited in a deep, sickly blue, flickering between existence and nothingness. A tremor ran through the floor, and then the chains shattered.

The heavy clang of metal echoed through the chamber as the chains hit the floor, and the doors groaned as they began to shudder open.

A rush of cold air swept through the room, thick with dust and something that smelt like decay. Riven shielded his eyes as the wind battered against his skin.

"Enter." The voice was even louder now, the sound reverberating through Rivens bones. He lowered his hands and peered into the void that lay beyond the now opened doors.

Riven glanced at Nyx, whose obsidian eyes gleamed in the dim light. "Ladies first?"

She let out a scoffing noise and put a hand on her hip. "Wow, how gentlemanly of you, your highness."

Without further hesitation, Nyx stepped forward with Riven close behind her. The moment they crossed the threshold, a sharp snap rang through the chamber.

The doors slammed shut behind them and darkness swallowed everything.

For a brief moment, there was nothing.

No light. No sound. Only the suffocating weight of the void pressing against his skin. Then, like ink dissolving into water, the darkness began to stir - shifting, unraveling.

Faint, ghostly blue light flickered to life, revealing their surroundings.

They were in a vast underground hall, stretching endlessly into the shadows. The architecture was unlike anything Riven had ever seen—dark obsidian walls etched with ancient carvings, shifting as if alive. The floor was smooth stone, reflecting the dim light in eerie, rippling waves, as if it were liquid rather than solid.

Nyx's voice broke the silence, her tone soft. "Wow… it's kind of beautiful."

Riven exhaled through his nose, scanning their surroundings. "Stay alert. We don't know what's waiting for us."

A chuckle. Low, deep and amused.

"There is nothing to fear in these halls, little king."

Riven and Nyx froze as they heard the voice.

Nyx's usual smirk faded, her expression sharpening as she instinctively stepped in front of Riven, arm raised in a protective stance. "You know who he is?" she demanded, her voice devoid of its usual teasing edge.

"Continue forward, and I shall answer all," the voice urged, echoing through the chamber.

This time, Nyx hesitated.

Riven placed a hand on her arm, his grip firm but steady. "We've come this far," he murmured. "No point turning back now."

Nyx gave a small nod, and they pressed forward.

The next chamber was vast, circular in shape, with a towering domed ceiling. Faded murals stretched across the stone, their once-vibrant colors now dulled by time and dust. The remnants of grandeur clung to the air, an echo of a past long forgotten.

But Riven barely spared the architecture a glance.

His focus was entirely consumed by the thing bound in the center of the room.

"Is that… a dragon?" Riven's voice was barely above a whisper, his wide eyes fixed on the figure before him.

"Well," Nyx murmured, just as stunned, "what's left of one."

At the heart of the chamber lay the massive skeletal remains of a dragon. Its colossal wings were bound in thick, rusted chains, each bone locked in place as if to prevent even the idea of movement. Its head was stretched forward, facing Riven directly, another set of chains coiled tightly around its jaws - silencing whatever final words it might have once spoken.

"I told you that there is nothing to fear from me young ones," The voice echoed through the room once more. "These old bones are all that's left of the once Mighty Waunuk."

Nyx crossed her arms, tilting her head as she eyed the remains. "You'll have to excuse my skepticism," she said, voice edged with something unreadable. "But you don't exactly seem alive enough to be speaking."

A low, rumbling chuckle rolled through the chamber. "Perception is an amusing thing, child of shadows. My body is long gone, but my essence… lingers."

"Can you tell me now why you were sealed here?" Riven asked, stepping forward cautiously.

A strained breath echoed through the chamber, the voice thick with something between pain and exhaustion.

"No…" The word rasped out, as if the effort to speak was becoming unbearable. "But I can show you."

The chains binding the dragon rattled, a deep, metallic groan reverberating through the stone. Nyx's hand shot out, gripping Riven's wrist instinctively.

Then—the dragon's hollow eyes ignited.

A dark blue glow pulsed from the empty sockets, growing brighter, denser, until it consumed the entire chamber in an eerie radiance. The energy coiled and then shot forward, streaking toward Riven with terrifying speed.

He barely had time to react before the light engulfed him—and his world went black.

—x—

"Waunuk, you have finally been captured and stand before the Five Kings to face judgment."

The voice was ancient, heavy with authority, each word laced with the weight of an undeniable truth.

Riven's vision flickered, shifting from darkness to a scene unfolding before him.

"Will you now confess to the sins you have committed?"

Riven now stood within a gargantuan throne room, its sheer scale so vast he couldn't even glimpse the ceiling. The towering stained-glass windows stretched endlessly upward, fading into a blinding expanse of light that obscured the heavens above.

Encircling him were five colossal podiums, each adorned with an ornate golden seat. Upon each throne sat a dragon of immeasurable size and presence, their forms radiating an ancient, overwhelming authority.

The first was a brilliant crimson, its scales shifting between hues of molten fire, shimmering with an almost palpable heat. Embedded across its body were ruby gemstones, each glowing faintly as if pulsing with a heartbeat of their own.

The others mirrored its regality, each radiating with a different colour.

One gleamed like diamond, its body a prism of pure, unyielding light. Another radiated a deep, rich green like emeralds, its scales sparkling like a forest in spring. A third shone with the piercing clarity of sapphire, its body reflecting an endless depth like the ocean itself.

And the last…

The amethyst dragon sat motionless, its violet hues dark and enigmatic - it looked the most unbothered out of them all.

They watched him. Judged him.

And Riven, despite knowing this was not his body, felt the weight of their gaze settle over him like chains.

The silence in the throne room was suffocating, a heavy force pressing against Riven's chest. He knew—felt—this wasn't real. Not in the way the present was. But his body was no longer his own. His breaths, slow and measured, were not his. His movements, his posture—foreign yet familiar, as though his very essence had been woven into another being's past.

Waunuk's past.

Before him, the Five Kings loomed in their golden thrones, each dragon an embodiment of an elemental force. Their gazes burned through him, the sheer weight of their presence enough to make his soul tremble.

The red dragon, its molten-crimson scales flickering like living fire, leaned forward first. Its ruby-encrusted body shimmered, each gemstone pulsating as it spoke, voice crackling like an inferno barely contained.

"Waunuk of the Obsidian Realm," it rumbled. "You stand before the High Council accused of treason against Varethun. Will you confess your sins?"

Riven felt his own mouth curve—not his own will, but something ancient, something that remembered standing in this very place.

A voice not his own, yet his, spilled forth.

"Treason?" A chuckle—dark, sharp, mocking. "Is that what you call it?"

The sapphire dragon, deep and unwavering like the vast ocean, lifted its head, speaking next. "Do you deny your actions?"

Waunuk—Riven—laughed again, the sound bitter, edged with something deeply broken.

"I deny nothing," he—Waunuk—said, the words spilling effortlessly, like they had been waiting to be spoken for centuries. "But let us not pretend this is a trial. My fate was sealed the moment I refused to accept the ridiculous rules you all put in place."

The emerald dragon's tail flicked against the polished marble, the sound like a distant storm rolling in. "You help him ascend." The dragons voice was filled with an unwavering fury. "You know it is forbidden for us to ascend higher than our plane - now we will suffer the wrath of them."

Something in Waunuk shifted, a surge of raw defiance flaring within his borrowed chest. Riven felt it as if it were his own rage, his own pain—an emotion so consuming it burned like a second heartbeat.

"It is our right to ascend just as it is the humans right to ascend should they wish," Waunuk growled, and the chamber trembled at his words. "You fear the unknown - anything that will disrupt your pathetic cling to power."

The amethyst dragon, silent until now, finally moved. Its violet eyes, deep as the void itself, bore into him. Unlike the others, it did not radiate fury or disappointment. No judgment. No wrath.

Only… understanding.

And yet, when it spoke, its voice was cold.

"You were meant to protect Varethun. Instead, you sought to change its course. Not through counsel. Not through unity." A pause. "But through your own selfish desire."

A cruel smile played on Waunuk's—his—lips. "Is that what they told you?"

The diamond dragon, its body shimmering like celestial starlight, exhaled slowly. "Enough."

A pulse of magic—so ancient, so immense, that Riven felt his very soul quiver beneath it—swept through the chamber. The air thickened. The verdict was coming.

"Waunuk of the Obsidian Realm," the diamond dragon intoned, voice layered with power, finality, and an eerie remorse. "You are hereby sentenced to eternal imprisonment, your soul bound in chains of unbreakable mana, never to rise again.

The chains.

The very chains Riven had seen wrapped around the skeletal remains in the mausoleum. The ones he had shattered.

Riven was confused. So Wanauk was imprisoned because he apparently helped someone ascend? But that didn't make any sense. Varethun was the highest power - the precipice of power that all humans sought to reach

So… where could they ascend to?

Before Riven could process further, a new force pulled at him, yanking his consciousness from the trial, from the throne room, from the past itself.

The world fractured-

And then, he was falling.

— x —

Riven gasped, his chest heaving as his mind was wrenched back into his own body. His vision blurred, the weight of the past pressing heavily on his lungs, making it difficult to breathe.

A voice cut through the haze - sharp and frustrated, but laced with undeniable concern.

"Finally!"

Nyx.

Riven blinked as his vision adjusted, the dim glow of the chamber flickering back into focus. He became aware of the cold, dusty floor beneath him—and something warmer beneath his head.

Nyx's lap.

She was leaning over him, her obsidian eyes scanning his face for any sign of consciousness. Her expression was unreadable, but there was something in her tense grip—one hand braced against his chest, as if she had been trying to wake him for far longer than she wanted to admit.

"Do you know how worried I was?!" Nyx snapped.

Riven groaned, rubbing his pounding head as he struggled to sit up. "What…?" His voice was hoarse, his body still reeling from the force of the vision. His limbs felt wrong, as if they had been submerged in someone else's existence for too long.

He forced himself upright, rolling his shoulders to shake off the eerie sensation of displacement. His gaze flicked back toward the remains of Waunuk. The once-mighty skeleton was trembling—cracking, as though the very act of speaking had pushed it beyond its limits.

Waunuk's voice emerged again, but this time, it was frail, stretched thin with exhaustion.

"I cannot… show you everything… but I hope it has granted you… a large part… of the truth."

The chamber shuddered, deep cracks splintering across the stone floor. The chains that had bound Waunuk shattered, vanishing into the void like dust in the wind. His colossal form trembled, his very bones collapsing inward.

Nyx tensed, rising to her feet and stepping back instinctively.

Riven remained where he was, watching.

Waunuk was fading.

"…Though I can finally rest," the dragon murmured, his voice barely more than a whisper now, "I ask… for one last… favor."

A deep rumble filled the air, the vibrations rattling through the chamber. Waunuk's massive form cracked and then—

He disintegrated.

Bone turned to dust, swirling into the air like a final breath released after centuries of captivity. The energy within the chamber pulsed, rippling outward in a silent farewell.

As the dust cleared, something remained.

Something small.

Something alive.

A single, obsidian-black egg rested in the center of the remains, untouched by time or decay. The surface was flawless, smooth as polished stone, yet deep within, veins of iridescent blue light flickered, pulsing like a heartbeat.

A Dragon's Egg.

"When you reach the top…" Waunuk's voice—now only a whisper on the wind—echoed one last time. "…Deliver this child… to their father."

And then, silence.

A slow, hollow whoosh filled the chamber as the remnants of Waunuk's presence vanished, leaving nothing behind but the weight of his final words.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Nyx was the first to break the silence.

"Oh my god."

Her voice trembled as her wide, stunned eyes locked onto the egg resting in the dust.

Riven could do nothing but stare.

Waunuk's last wish.

A dragon heir.

And now, it belonged to them.