Death was dark, a void without feeling. Maeyune stood alone.

Blackness surrounded her on all sides. For a long time, she considered the possibility that she simply could no longer see. Was this to be her fate for the rest of eternity?

She had hoped to find familiar faces in death. But there was no one to greet her when she woke within the realm. And there was no Reo.

Darkness would be her everlasting companion.

But what was this light that glowed in the darkness? She glanced down at herself, at her hands. Her skin appeared to emanate a gentle sheen, and she became a lamp inside the empty realm.

Then, the light evaporated from her flesh. Her body grew dimmer. The light gathered into a ball in front of her, drifting slowly out of her reach.

"No, wait!" she cried out. Her hand shot outward to catch it, to force it back into her body again. "I'm not ready yet!"

The light stopped for a moment and hovered just a few feet away. It became her only anchor in the vacancy. When she reached out to touch it, light erupted and filled the space.

It was strange how time seemed to shift. There was no pulse from her heart, nor breath in her chest, but the air around her felt alive. Time moved forward—or was that backward?

The light waned, and she found herself standing on an invisible plane in Vaius' green ocean. Ahead, she saw a silver man who stood at around twenty feet tall. His back was to her, his long, silver hair adrift in a mysterious wind. She could still see the horns that curled down from his temples.

Before him stood a human woman donning a simple day-dress. Her hands cradled her large belly. Maeyune stepped closer and discovered her face.

Ayla Ereni gazed up at the Moon God, and when he turned to reveal Maeyune behind him, Ayla's eyes widened. Maeyune froze.

Surprise and sorrow glinted in Ayla's eyes. She held out her hands, and Maeyune instinctively stepped forward to take them.

"I'm sorry I cannot be there for you when you need me," Ayla said, her lips quivering. "I am placing such a heavy burden on you. I know that Shivra will raise you into a strong warrior. I know it will be difficult not understanding your purpose in this world. But it gives me great joy and gratitude to know that my sister will be there for you, to love and protect you."

Maeyune's brow crinkled in worry as she watched her mother.

Tears spilled down Ayla's cheeks and streaked around her smile. She touched Maeyune's face. "You are everything I dreamed of."

Her gaze rose to meet Shivra's. She nodded to him once before looking at Maeyune again.

"He needs an empty body to carry him," she said. She patted her swollen belly. "So he wants to return to you what was once yours, so that you may become one again."

Ayla pressed Maeyune's hand against her stomach, and silvery, sapphire light passed from her unborn baby and into Maeyune's body.

Give us the sun, and you will become one.

Ba-dum.

It was a sound Maeyune remembered hearing for the first time at the Ursan celestial base. She'd been five at the time, beginning her studies on the human body. One of the scientists had placed the tips of a stethoscope into her little ears and pressed the diaphragm against her chest.

"Do you hear that?" the scientist said. "That's your heart, moon warrior."

Ba-dum.

But Maeyune was sure it had stopped.

The scientist's face transformed into her mother's.

"No, Maeyune," she said, and smiled. "You're very much alive."

Death was dark—and hard and smooth and growing warmer with each second.

When Maeyune propped open her eyes, they felt stiff as if she hadn't opened them in years. At first, there was nothing but blinding light. She felt the summer heat heavy on her back, but she lay slumped over something hard and yet malleable to the touch, like an enormous bed made out of both sandpaper and silky rock.

She forced her eyes to open wider—and saw silver.

And more silver. And scales. And more scales.

She leaned against a long body that gave off the slightest vibration of movement. When she'd found her footing in the sand—that was sand beneath her feet—the body slithered and opened its cocoon, letting her stand on her own.

A giant wolf's head emerged from the silver coils. It hovered over her, its neck leading into the long, serpentine body of a dragon.

Maeyune's heart leaped to her throat.

Shivra.

Awestruck, she could only gape at the celestial beast enfolding her.

Silver scales stretched across the entirety of the dragon's back, from his horned head to the tip of his tail. The scales were hard and fish-like—iridescent and reflecting millions more colors deep within the silver. The horns that extended from the dragon's temples were curved like a mountain ram, gallant and ivory in the sunlight.

The sunlight. Real sunlight.

Not a dream.

Despite the shock that overwhelmed her mind, her vision was as clear as the blue sky above.

For a moment, her gaze slid to the harvester ship behind Shivra's head. Its top half continued to implode and crumble, but she had been taken far enough away to avoid the shower of debris.

Shivra's head shifted and blocked the sun from her eyes, and her attention returned to the dragon. No longer blinded by the light, she was at last able to see the god who had caught her from the sky.

His silver, glittering eyes were larger than her head, and they held her captive within their gaze. Giant nostrils flared as breath moved in and out. His long beard flowed naturally with the desert wind. Power throbbed from every inch of the silver dragon's body, and Maeyune could feel it pulse beneath her hands.

The Moon God was alive.

She was alive.

She was different. She felt different, as if she were someone inside a stranger's body. Or was she someone with a stranger inside?

Before she could utter a sound, plasma fire pulled her out from her trance. Violet energy rained from above and turned the desert around them into a tsunami of sand.

Maeyune's eyes returned to the scene around her. Meters away, the Overlord's black smoke continued its dance, inching closer by the second.

A stray spear of plasma hurtled toward her, and before Maeyune could react, Shivra curled his body tighter around her. Purple energy rebounded off the translucent shield that he had summoned.

A formation of Wobeck aircrafts skimmed past. With a single, elegant stroke, the Moon God twisted his body across the sand. His tail whipped in the air and obliterated one of the escaping aircrafts.

Maeyune stared, her mind and body not yet accepting reality. She watched as another wave of aircrafts approached. Shivra threw his head to the sky and roared.

It was a deafening warcry, like the voices of a thousand animals contained within a single entity. The sound echoed across the desert plain and shook the hollow cage of her chest. It woke her from her paralyzed state.

Shivra unfurled the length of his body and rose on his four paws. Then, with a slight push from the ground, he was flying. His body slithered through the air with hypnotic grace, and his limber paws lacerated Wobeck planes as they darted past. He aimed for one of the motherships, and his body slashed through its side as if he'd become a sword himself.

Shivra emerged from the opposite end. While the mothership began its descent to destruction, the Moon God returned to the desert floor to confront the Overlord's black mass of death.

He roared again. This time, Maeyune was sure it was loud enough to wake the planet.

The ground shook. She stumbled off to the side as the dirt beneath her feet bulged upward. The sand hill burst open, and from it rose a shimmering, green serpent. It appeared like a transparent hologram at first, made from the energy of Vaius's life force. Then, it's body solidified into a black, scaled dragon. It stretched its body and its four limbs before taking to the air.

More dragons burst through cracks in the ground, rising first as green specters before molding into dragons. There were three, then five, then ten, cropping from the ground like young sprouts. For miles, the desert came to life. A sandstorm gathered from the shifting and sliding, casting layers of sand and dirt over the tiny figures of human beings who gawked, astounded.

The light of the sun had brought Vaius's weapons to life. One by one, they joined their Moon God in front of the black, writhing mass. Together, they became a wall of dragons, vibrant and aglow.

A second roar joined Shivra's, its deep resonance laced with higher shrills. Something large flew overhead, and Maeyune was dipped in shadow for a long second. She watched as a serpent armored in gold scales landed beside the Moon God.

The Sun Goddess was the largest of all dragons. She reared her lion's head back, her antlers grazing the sky. Her jaws fell wide, and when she leaned forward again, she was the first of the dragons to deliver an energy wave.

It was like pure sunlight from her throat, a bright and rumbling power that Maeyune could feel echoing in her chest. Shivra opened his mouth and added his own canon of silver light. The rest of the elemental dragons followed.

When both life energy and black smoke met, it delivered a horrifying song. The Wobeck's weapon fed from the life energy in voracious gulps, generating a sound that was grating to Maeyune's ears. And as the black smoke fed, it died. Both light and dark collided; both eliminated the other. The dragons stood their ground, refusing to let Death's Embrace advance any farther across the planet.

Several Wobeck motherships continued to drop their canisters of the black death. Shivra paused and pushed back his head. He gave a single command--the sound a mix between a howl and a bark. Three elemental dragons broke from formation and ascended to the sky to confront the ships.

In a dance that tantalized Maeyune's eyes, all three moved as one, dipping and diving to avoid plasma. They caught smaller Wobeck planes in their jaws like prey, then dug their claws into the side of the first mothership. They tore metal into ribbons, unleashing sprays of their elemental power.

Gunships appeared to pause in midair, as if the pilots inside had stopped to witness the scene.

The ground shook again, and Maeyune's eyes returned to the line of celestial dragons. They began to march forward, their combined energy now pushing back the black smoke.

She turned round to watch as dragons descended from all directions to join both Moon God and Sun Goddess. Among the action, her eyes caught a lone figure on the ground between rubble. Her chest shuddered as awe turned to fear.

"Reo!"

She dashed to where he lay unmoving and fell to her knees beside him. Her hand slid beneath his head and lifted it from the sand.

His eyes cracked open, and she brushed off dirt and tiny rock bits from his face. He blinked several times, his vision refocusing. Then, he squinted at her.

Daylight reflected off her--around her--in a halo. He blinked again and lifted his hand to give her cheek a caress.

"Am I in heaven?" he croaked.

She laughed, but the sound resembled more of a choke. Her eyes watered. She laid her hand over his, holding it firmly against her face. "No, you idiot."

His thumb brushed away a lone tear. He opened his mouth to speak, but his gaze shifted sideways to glance over her shoulder. Abruptly, his bewilderment changed to alarm.

Before she could follow his gaze, he pulled her down underneath him--at the exact moment when a torrent of plasma landed near their feet. He clutched her close against his chest and shot a hand to the sky.

The movement had been instinctual. Maeyune half-expected for plasma to burn through their bodies and for them to die in each other's arms. But energy flew from Reo's fingers. A shield generated around them, and the air was dipped in golden-red.

Maeyune thought her heart had stopped again.

Reo still had powers.

After plasma disintegrated against his shield, the Wobeck planes that had targeted them passed overhead. Several small dragons flew in pursuit.

For a long time, Reo stared after the dragons in disbelief. His wide eyes took in the sight of Shivra and Yunra, who continued their march against the black cloud. Then, he drew back his hand and gaped at his fingers. He touched his face, his chest, Maeyune's cheek--as if in that very moment, he finally realized they were alive.

"What happened?" he asked her, breathless.

With the sight of the gods, the dragons and Reo's display of powers, Maeyune was speechless. All she could do was allow a smile to stretch across her face from ear to ear.

If Reo still had powers, then did that mean this new sensation inside her was—

Another attack interrupted her thoughts. Grasping one another, she and Reo hauled themselves to their feet and ducked behind plane debris. The tall, dark figures of Wobeck emerged a few meters away, their rifles pointed.

Reo gave his hands a cursory observation. He summoned his golden-red shield once again. Standing beside him, Maeyune felt a rush of determination.

Every fiber of her being acted for her, and she called on the power deep inside her. Only now, it felt strange and unfamiliar, as if the force she called upon were neither Shivra's nor her own.

But it was her own.

When she threw out her palms, an arc of energy appeared before her fingers. It wasn't the silver she had known her entire life. It was pale blue--silvery blue.

It still felt warm and hopeful like Shivra's powers had been. But now, the new energy that flowed in her veins was gentle, smoother and fluid.

She remembered the beginnings of her training as a child, when she'd first learned to use her life force. And she remembered when she'd first met Meera and Benny and how their energy had felt--how water felt.

With fingers spread wide, she imagined the energy in her veins emerging through the pores of her skin. She willed it to become something tangible outside her body. Water spouted from a point at the center of her palm. It was weak at first, but with a smile of accomplishment, she willed strength into the element.

Clear water gushed outward and struck the nearest Wobeck in the chest. It shoved him off his feet, and his companions retreated to the nearest cover.

Silver flashed as a wolf's head came down and snapped its jaws around one of the aliens. The others made their attempt to flee, but silver paws struck each one to the ground. They lay unmoving.

Maeyune didn't know how long it took for her to finally hear the quiet.

She and Reo turned as slowly, humans and celestials lowered their weapons. They all stood in a daze among the destruction of the battlefield. Many shielded their eyes from the sun so that they could look to the sky.

Serpents danced in the air as they finished off the last of the Overlord's retreating fleet. Metal continue to rain from above, but with each second that passed by, it became apparent who had reclaimed the sky.

Maeyune glanced to where Death's Embrace had once ravaged the land. Now, there was nothing but a clear, desert landscape.

Shivra took a few steps forward, and sand crunched beneath his taloned paws. A larger shadow landed a short distance away, and Yunra joined him at his side. They became a painting of pearlescent silver and majestic gold against the horizon.

Maeyune felt Reo next to her, and together, they faced the two celestial beings who now dominated the desert plain. A long moment of silence passed between the two pairs of dragons and humans. Remembering herself, Maeyune abruptly fell to her knees and bowed low over the ground. Reo took her lead and bowed with her.

There was a pause, then a slight rumble of movement. They glanced up--only to find that both Moon God and Sun Goddess had lowered their magnificent heads to the ground—in a bow.

Maeyune slowly straightened in surprise. She heard the quiet stirs from the humans behind her. A crowd of soldiers and celestials had gathered to watch the gods and their two former incarnations. People lowered to their knees and leaned their torsos over the ground. The wave spread across the crowd as row by row, people bowed.

But they weren't bowing to the gods. They were following the gods' example: bowing to her and Reo.

Stunned, Maeyune rose to her feet and stared at the display. A hand slid into hers, fingers interlocking, and she looked to Reo as he stood with her. He smiled but said nothing. They turned to face the gods again.

Shivra lifted his head to her, and her eyes stung. "Thank you," she managed to whisper.

He gave a soft exhale. A thought appeared in her mind, enunciated by the deep voice of a man.

No, young one. Thank you.

Beside her, Reo and Yunra were in their own open stare. The Sun Goddess was not telepathic like her counterpart, but judging by Reo's wide-eyed gaze, Maeyune was sure they'd shared a brief conversation just by eye contact alone.

With only those few words, both Moon God and Sun Goddess turned and stepped away. A moment later, they were in the air.

Maeyune and Reo watched every second as both silver and gold dragons came together and then apart, together and apart again--repeating the movement that she and Reo had done so many times before.

Around them, dragons faded from sight. They morphed into their green phantoms, returning to Vaius's life force until there came another time when they were needed again. Every serpent disappeared, leaving only Shivra and Yunra.

Maeyune watched as they departed, watched as they became tiny specks in the sky. When she could no longer see them, she felt her heart leave her throat and return to her chest.

She squeezed Reo's hand.

The war was over.

They had won.