Calina began to seize. Something inside her was growing. No, something inside her was beginning to take its proper form.

"Nikolai, you cannot stop what is happening. The end has come at last. Join your family, Nikolai. Stand at your father's right hand, where you belong," Asriel said.

Darkness pervaded Nikolai. His eyes sunk into an abyss. Silver cascaded from his head. The pitiful metal bonds broke at his power. He rose.

"Asriel, you are an ass," Nikolai stated, and flew out at Doctor Ricks without hesitation. He launched the doctor through the concrete wall and watched his corpse fall to the street below. "That is the only end you shall find."

"Killing the prophet won't stop anything." Nikolai turned to see Max standing before him, his hair a brilliant gold and eyes radiating white. "It has already begun," he gestured.

He turned to look outside the new hole he had put in the wall. The world had begun to burn. The crowd below that had gathered around Doctor Ricks' body started to panic. Inexplicably, an imminent sense of death arose in all of them. Nikolai could see his father's flame spread around them and into the city.

The hysteria began when the first person erupted. It touched the man's inner flame and ignited it into a real one, then slowly repeated the process. It was unbound by space. People across the city were combusting one by one, reduced to ash within seconds. Crowds began to run, but could run nowhere to escape. Humanity ran blind in a sea of flame, soon to join it.

"I have to stop It," Nikolai said, and leaped to go to the streets below. Max quickly grabbed his ankle and flung him to the back wall.

"You shall do no such thing. I will not allow my prodigal brother to stop this day." Max blocked the hole to the streets below.

Nikolai rose and smiled. From his back spurt forth enormous silver wings of steely feathers; he flew at Max to tackle him through a now larger hole. Flying above the street, Nikolai mercilessly pummeled his brother. With a final smash Nikolai plummeted him toward the fires below.

"Father!" Nikolai challenged the fires. "Come and face me!"

The ashen fire began to swell and take shape. The enormous form of the beast rose before Nikolai, constantly shifting in the chaos of its flames. And still the world burned below.

Come...

But before it could say more than a word, Nikolai had already flown at his father and swung at It with an otherworldly fury. The beast was knocked back by the blows but simply reshaped before him once more. And still the world burned below.

Is that all you can do?

Nikolai thought for a moment and then reached his hand into his own chest, drawing forth a great silver sword from his very being. He flew out at It once more, this time cleaving through the flames with his sword. Enormous sections of the beast were cut through and dropped to the fires below. It appeared to be diminishing. And still the world burned below.

You think that will stop me?

The fires surged forth and pressed onto Nikolai. He violently hacked away at the incoming flames but there were too many. He was beginning to feel that there was no need to fight. It enveloped Nikolai in Its fire. And still the world burned below.

It is pointless.

Silver light exploded from the fire covering Nikolai, reducing the beast further still. Nikolai was now a body of silver with emptiness for eyes. He could no longer bring himself to continue. And still the world burned below.

My son, with each manifestation of your power you are becoming more and more a part of me. A part of me that I can now control.

Nikolai knew he should still fight, knew that if he lost himself more in his powers he could have a chance. But he couldn't bring himself to act against It. With each of his strengths he just developed a greater weakness. And still the world burned below.

The dragon Calina awoke to a burned world. Life had been purged from every section of it. The flames had dissipated, and no signs of gold or silver could be found. Only desolation could be found among the ruins of man.

She smiled. A new world would come with time. She would help to grow it. The dragon Calina scratched at her gold and silver stomach, pregnant with child.