Chapter 11

The sprouting of several new heads was followed by a shout of surprise and rejuvenation. The serpent felt immense pleasure as a neck grew from midway down his body. He willed the new head to look at his first with narrow, slitted eyes. He was impressed with the extra eyesight it offered him.

And then another grew. The third head stretched from the left side of his body after the second had grown from the right side. Soon, more necks and heads sprouted from his body so that he could see from all around. With each of his new heads, seven in total, he could see the fearful expressions painted on the faces of the people of the treasure. They looked on in horror as his body thickened immensely, the serpent growing proud of the looks he incited in them all.

His body was harder and harder to be called a serpent’s with each stage of his transformation. Another pleasurable sensation filled the top of his head as a golden crown sprouted from it. His many heads allowed him to watch every crown that grew from the new scalp. Then his pride increased as a single, silver horn sprouted from five of the heads. The head close to the right from his center head grew two while the centermost head, the original, sprouted three.

His obsidian scales were no longer black in color. They became dyed a deep red between scarlet and crimson. His tail lengthened as well, swinging it below as wildly as a tree branch in a storm.

And finally, legs. This was what the serpent turned dragon wanted most. Four of them sprouted from the bottom of his body from which he crawled off the tower and onto the golden floor in front of him. This is what he was most proud of.

When the grand star cast me down…He remembered. I lost my legs. It is what gave me the ability to exist as easily as a mortal would on Earth. Without them, I could not physically manipulate anything. That all changes now. 

His first act as a dragon was to swat the treasured people with his tail. Dozens of them went flying with one swing of his tail, crashing into the procured palaces they had stayed in for thousands of years that while he had spent on Earth. He then roared loudly enough to make the treasured people stagger back, some falling to their feet.

He then bit in half one with his centermost head while slinging back another to the ground with a swipe from his left most. The remainder of his heads went in a volley of bites and slammings, throwing the treasured people every which way or slicing them to bits with the fangs of his mouth. He raced through the second floor of heaven, crushing those in his wake with his claws. Every thing and person he destroyed in his attack felt glorious.

The treasured people retaliated, conjuring bejeweled weapons of gold from their bodies to slash and stab at him with. However, their swords and spears had no effect on him. The newly grown scales as red blood were so sturdy the blades and bludgeons broke upon contact. Any that attempted to attack were soon broken into bits by the dragon’s attacks. 

The dragon looked around to find the spawns doing as they had done to the star guardians. They were engaging in combat with the treasured people and holding their own very well. It was not as strong a victory against the star guardians as more of Nathan’s creations lay dead here than below but the dragon had destroyed many a treasured person in a very short time. 

And they seemed to have no difference of opinion between him and Nathan. They still fought for him as they did their master, as he knew they would. Now that he had digested Nathan, the ghoul was apart of him and the recognized it. They could feel his lifeforce in him. It would be soon that he would have dominion over this portion of the heavens. 

Yui held the new knife in her lap as drew Trap rising from the grave. The portrait of the knife leaned against the wall next to her, exactly as it had been before minus the snake insignia. The physical knife itself had the golden snakes disappear from it as well. As she painted, Calvin noticed the speed and realism of she captured in her artwork was even greater than it was before.

The knife of choice has amplified her abilities. He thought. I just hope it’s enough.

Yui was finished with this painting soon after completing the one that transformed the knife of choice. She put her paintbrush down after she had rinsed it with water. Calvin only had to wait a moment before the picture came alive. He looked out his window to find something rising from Trap’s grave.

Tears flowed down his face as he saw the lanky, noble looking cur rise from the soil with renewed energy. However, he did not stand near his grave before disappearing from outside the yard to his side. The dog gave Calvin no time to turn and look at him as he jumped directly toward him.

His paws sat directly on his shoulders and his face stared directly at Calvin’s he was so tall. As Trap balanced his hind legs on the floor of his bedroom Calvin ran his hands down his back, feeling his thin coat of fur for the first time in years. He couldn’t handle the whole experience. Calvin broke down crying.

He fell to the floor while Trap licked at his arms, the dog more than comforting him. Enough tears wet his hands that they pooled in his palms like he had dipped them in a fountain. Calvin was unable to contain his joy, not able to look Trap in the eye as it seemed too much of a pleasant dream. He was unable to stare back at the dog despite his affectionate display as Calvin was too worried he’d wake up and discover it was over.

I can’t help myself. He thought. You’re back…just like Yui. What…what did I do to deserve this?

“How do you feel?” Yui asked.

He looked back up at the girl, her beautiful face staring down at him from the seat in front of her easel. Calvin saw the painting in front of her split into two opposing images: one with Trap standing in front of a hole near his grave he just rose from and the other with Trap standing in the room with the both of them. Calvin couldn’t smile, his joy unable to be expressed through any expression he knew of.

Now Calvin understood why he had become a loner later in life. Trap had been his best friend. And once he died, it left a wound in him that could not heal. Yui was the only thing holding him up from utter despair but once she became more interested in Nathan, it left him devoid of hope. 

“I’m…” he said. “Beyond…beyond life. I now understand what you mean…death is unnatural. And us humans can feel it’s warped effects on our heart. For the rest of our life. We don’t get over our loved ones' deaths…we just bury those dark emotions.”

“Really?” Yui asked. “You agree?”

Trap wasted no time in walking further over to Calvin and laying his head down in his lap. The young man gently petted his head down the length of his back. The dog groaned in pleasure as he relaxed in his presence.

“Something…” Calvin said. “Something in me feels…feels healed. Like a scab or…or flesh is forming over a wound I had.”

“A wound?” Yui asked. “You still had a wound from this dog dying all those years ago?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I don’t know how to say it but…but the wound was still there. After all those years of me forgetting about Trap…I never got over him. And that’s why I became a loner…because I knew I would never find as good a friend as Trap.”

“Never got over him?” Yui said. “But Calvin…he died when you were a child…right? And you say…and you say you're just now getting over him?”

“Yeah,” Calvin said. “The wound never healed…Trap’s death left a scar in me I could never overcome…because the only solution for it is for Trap to have never died in the first place.”

“Is that right?” Yui asked. 

“Like you said,” Calvin explained. “Death is unnatural. And the sorrow and ill effects it leaves on humans are unnatural as well. We are forced to move on from something we know should have never happened in the first place. And because we know death should not exist some of us cannot move past the pain of our loved ones…so we must bury them. We bury that pain just as we do the dead…not because it helps but so that we may forget. We try to forget about our pain…we try to forget…even though it’s futile. And it is futile because the only remedy for that pain is for them to have never died in the first…or for them to be brought back.”

When the dog stood up, Calvin held Trap close to him, hugging his neck as their faces touched. It was just like old times, when he played with Trap outside. He couldn’t control his tears, the amount of memories rushing into him felt too great. Calvin could hardly contain the joy he expressed, unable to hold it in.

“And that pain is gone now,” he said as he looked back at Trap. “Because you're back.”

“Now what do the stars want you to do?” she asked. 

“I don’t know,” Calvin asked. 

He turned to look out the window nearest him. However, he was not greeted with a pleasant black canvas dotted with twinkling stars. He saw streams of fire blast down from the sky above. Lightning followed as well, flashing so brightly the night turned to day.

The city of Maple Loaf in front of him was being burned to cinders and utterly destroyed by the wrath of the heavens. Wind blowing horizontally uprooted houses before soaring into the horizon. Calvin watched as the weird weather ravaged every portion of the city he had grown up in his whole life. Even weirder was how his own house and yard remained unchanged. While the fence around his yard glowed a bright yellow, the winds, fire and lightning did not touch them. Any blast of fire was repelled by an invisible force, like a transparent barrier that hovered in the air. The lightning could not penetrate this invisible barrier any further than the fire could. 

No matter how hard the wind blew, the tree in his backyard did not sway. Not a single blade of grass was taken out of place. The house was firmly rooted in the ground.

“What-?!” Calvin asked. “What’s going on?!”

“A storm is approaching,” Yui said. “One that could destroy the entire Earth.”

“But how did this happen?!” Calvin asked. “Is this the work of the star guardians?!”

“No,” Yui said. “This doesn’t look like it.”

“Then what?!” Calvin turned and asked. “What?”

“Creatures that have replaced the star guardians have done this,” Yui said. “Nathan’s army of spawns must have defeated many in a battle and done this.”

Yui stared down at the knife in her hand, squeezing it. Calvin wondered if a surge of power was flooding her, a similar experience he had when first taking the knife in hand. It shined in the artificial light oddly, almost too bright to look at it. 

Without the snake insignia the weapon had a markedly different appearance. There was no feeling of temptation one could feel just looking at the blade. And yet it emanated a certain power that made one almost afraid to touch it, a sacred essence surrounding the weapon. It was almost as though the snake insignia had been an inhibitor to its true potential and removing it had unleashed its full might. Yui turned back to glare at her easel.

“We have no time to waste,” she said.

She slipped the knife back into its scabbard she had fit around her waist and started back to painting. However, instead of drawing on a new canvas, Yui began painting on the same one that depicted Trap rising from the grave. Calvin walked behind her to find she was painting the dog in the portrait.

The dog was being covered in golden light, like a robe of bright yellow was being draped over him. It was odd to see a dog dressed in raiment but the closer Calvin looked it appeared more so like he was bathed in solid light. The yellow covering was almost like armor.

His bedroom shined bright, the flash of nearly blinding Calvin. After covering his eyes and they adjusted to the brightness, he looked back at his source. He found Trap covered with the same yellow brightness as in the painting. 

Surrounding every portion of his body save his tail, paws and head was a robe of what could only be described as solidified light. The flowing robe of brightness was like the twinkling of the stars only magnified. Calvin had to make sure to stare most directly at Trap’s face because looking too closely at his clothing would be like staring directly into the sun. The dog smiled happily, obviously very pleased with this development.

“What-?” he asked.

“Trap has been clothed with the power of light,” Yui said. “The knife of choice has granted some creatures to be given the power of the brightest star–but only after it was purified.”

“The power of the brightest star…” Calvin said as he kneeled in front of Trap. 

“This is probably what the grand star wanted,” she said. “This was probably part of the grand star’s plan…to be purified of the serpent’s influence. In its original state it can give a being the strongest power a being can be granted.”

“Can Trap really defeat these…?” Calvin asked. “Whatever’s up there?”

“If the stars are correct,” she said. “The knife of choice devoid of the serpent insignia is the ultimate conduit of the grand star’s power.

Yui then took the portrait with Trap in it off her easel and picked up a new one. There had been a dozen blank canvases in total and Yui had already burned through nearly half a dozen. Calvin hoped that whatever she intended to do would be done quickly. 

“Yui…?” Calvin said. “You’re not…?”

Tears flowed down his face.

“You’re not going to have Trap fight these things are you?!” he shouted.

“I have no choice,” Yui said. “Only something wearing the sun as a robe can defeat whatever Nathan and the black snake have conjured up.”

“But he may be killed!” Calvin shouted. 

“That may be,” Yui said. “But the entire world will be destroyed if we don’t take the opportunity to challenge them. I’m sorry but it has to be done.”

“No!” Calvin screamed.

He held Trap’s face, looking directly into his eyes.

“Don’t!” he said. “He’s all I have! If he’s gone-”

“This is what the stars told you to do,” Yui said as she continued painting. “To use Trap to fight Nathan’s army. For whatever reason, he was their first choice. You needed to let go of Trap the moment you realized the stars called for him to be brought up.”

“But…” Calvin said.

“This is your problem, Calvin,” Yui said. “You are so desperate to latch onto people and possess them for your own happiness that you won’t let them out of your grasp. This is how the black serpent seduced you into killing your brother as a sacrifice for me…because you believed I belonged to you…just as you believe Trap belongs to you.”

Yui quickly finished painting the sea of blood again as well as a beach of flesh. However, there were no more stars in the sky. Only bolts of fire and lightning covered the black night. Then she drew Trap with his robe of light in the painting. He hovered between the red sea and the black sky alit with wrathful blasts.

“And now he belongs to the grand star,” Yui said. “To end the war in the heavens once and for all.”

Calvin hugged the neck of the dog tight enough the pet let out a cry of pain.

“Fight well,” he said. “Trap. Fight well.”

And then Trap disappeared from Calvin’s grasp again. The pain in his heart reminded him exactly of the time when he knew Trap was dead. He could see his heart split in half by a sword at that point, the two halves of the core of his being falling to the side. Tears formed in his eyes again, Calvin holding back screams of agony.

“Fight well,” he said. “Trap. Fight well.”