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Sangre scread in agony as his body exploded. His soul and the darkness endlessly flowing from it vanished as his demonic heart was sliced apart and devoured by Drake’s blade.
The Dominion collapsed swiftly, disappearing entirely as everyone was brought back to the Singularity Vortex.
There, as the smoke cleared, Sangre remained.
"What... What did you do... to ...?"
Sangre stared at Drake in disbelief, unable to comprehend that he was still alive.
He was certain his heart had been destroyed and his soul shattered into countless pieces.
Yet... he was alive? And healthier than ever!
"I have slain the embodint of your negative emotions and destroyed the Sin of Greed clouding your judgnt, brother."
"What?! That’s nonsense! All of that... it was... it was because..."
Sangre’s eyes widened as he gazed at Drake.
A painful sense of absence lingered in his chest.
Yet, simultaneously, his mind had never felt clearer.
"..."
He remained silent, looking down.
He felt pathetic, grabbing his face in anger and almost piercing his own flesh with his claws.
"Sangre...!"
Drake flew to his side as he saw Sangre crying, his tears mixed with blood.
"Why?!"
"..."
"Why do you keep insisting?! There’s nothing about that can be saved or helped. I’ve been ruined long ago... Look at ! I am nothing but a monster. My form, my shiny ice scales... my own appearance, everything about ... I am nothing but a warped aberration..."
"No, you aren’t."
"?!"
"You’re my brother..."
Drake hugged Sangre as the evil vampire dragon remained still, unable to fight back because he felt so weakened.
And he felt his brother’s hug.
And warmth, the warmth of family love, for the first ti in thousands of years.
"..."
In that mont, countless mories flowed through his mind.
mories long repressed by the trauma he endured when the Vampire Venerable took him away and experinted on him for years.
They were faint, from before he was even born as an egg.
Indeed.
Most dragons have mories of when they were inside their eggs.
"I love you, my dear child..."
His mother whispered as she caressed his egg.
"Mama will always be there for you..."
How she took care of him in her nest.
She never left him alone.
Hopes and dreams swirled through that little dragon inside that egg.
Of the future ahead, of what awaited him once he hatched.
He could hardly wait...
And now, through Drake’s Aura, a gigantic dragoness manifested.
Her gentle eyes, her long neck, her shimring scales.
"My dear child..."
"M-Mother...?!"
Sangre’s eyes widened as Drake brought forth Nifl herself.
It wasn’t an illusion. Her form rapidly materialized, and her titanic form, hundreds of ters tall, towered amidst the endless vortex.
She quickly reduced her size so she could show love to her children more closely.
She was alive after all, one of the few primordial mothers still living.
"Sangre... I’ve always loved you... and I’ll always do..."
"We’ll always love you, Sangre, no matter what..."
Drake nodded, smiling back at Sangre as their mother nodded, her enormous form smiling at Sangre as her large arms wrapped around both of them.
"I’m so happy to see you again..."
Nifl started crying.
"My dear son... I’m sorry... I’m so sorry..."
"Mother..."
And at that mont, Sangre let go of everything holding him back and hugged his mother and his brother.
This...
This was everything Sangre ever wanted.
After all that suffering, he was sure he could never have it.
And now...
He felt like an idiot.
"I’m sorry... for everything I’ve done..." Sangre muttered. "I was wrong... I... I didn’t know what I was doing... My head still hurts... I..."
"It’s alright... You were my lost child, and now you have returned, oh my dear son..."
Nifl smiled, licking his face.
"Your na is not Sangre either. That is the wicked na that man gave you..."
"I... I have a dragon na?"
"Yes, your na is... Hrimvaldr."
Hrimvaldr.
Drake smiled, feeling very happy right now.
His efforts had paid off...
Despite the chaos of everything, this mont...
Nobody would ever be able to take it away from him.
"It ans Ice Lord. You were destined to beco my next heir, the Lord of Niflheim. Your brother would clearly never take that title, knowing him... so it’s yours, if you ever want to co back to us."
"I-I don’t even know... I don’t even know what to say... I... I have a na..."
Sangre, or rather, Hrimvaldr, smiled happily, glancing at his own hands.
And yet his black scales and his red eyes remained.
His monstrous form, his aberrant being...
A result of endless experints, a living and eternal reminder that he was used and discarded.
And yet...
"And with your na, I bless you as my heir, the Ice Dragon Prince, Hrimvaldr!"
Nifl kissed Hrimvaldr’s forehead as he suddenly felt a flow of azure ice energy encompassing his entire being.
And then, ice covered him completely, from head to toe.
Crack...
CRASH!
Before shattering apart, and...
To everyone’s surprise, a shimring lord of frost erged.
Beautiful, elegant, and yet strong and intimidating.
With shimring ice scales and an icy frost aura.
With beautiful golden eyes and large blue horns...
"I...! I am...?! This form...! I...!"
Hrimvaldr gasped in disbelief, his tears freezing into small snowflakes.
"This is your true form, my dear son... I have simply given back what was always rightfully yours."
"Mother...! Thank you...! Thank you...!"
Hrimvaldr cried even more, feeling both happy and nostalgic to hear her voice again and to have her by his side once more.
"Welco to the family, Hrimvaldr, my brother."
Drake extended his hand toward him. The entity he defeated was Sangre, and now, his brother was finally reborn as his true self.
He smiled, shaking Drake’s hand and then hugging him.
"Thank you for never giving up on ... I owe you everything, Drake."
"Don’t sweat the details, you don’t owe anything! I did it because we’re brothers, that is all."
"Brothers..."
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