Rise of the Devourer
Book 4: Chapter 41 — Shard Trial Pt 3

Vion's feet touched the fleshy floor just as cracks of brilliant light began spreading across Noah's skin like fractures in glass. The sight sent terror shooting through her heart, she had just been freed from her prison only to watch the person who had saved her destroy himself in the process.

"Noah!" she screamed, but even as the word left her lips, she could see it was already too late for warnings or advice. The Dragon's Heart fragment pulsed in his hands with increasing intensity, its power feeding on itself in an exponential cascade that would tear him apart within seconds.

She could feel the energy radiating from him in waves that made her dragon heritage sing with recognition and terror in equal measure. This was raw draconic essence in its purest form. Noah's body, enhanced and beyond reach of most mortals though it was, simply couldn't withstand such a force.

His body convulsed again, and she watched in horror as the light beneath his skin grew brighter. The sound he made wasn't quite human anymore, it seemed to be like the pained growl of an animal, a scream suppressed and compressed. Blood began to seep from every pore in his body as his very structure started to break down.

He's going to die, Vion realized. He saved me, and now he's going to die because of it.

But as despair threatened to overwhelm her, another realization struck. The Dragon's Heart wasn't trying to just kill Noah—it was trying to complete itself. She could feel it calling to her, recognizing the draconic essence in her blood, seeking to establish a connection that would stabilize its massive power.

Her parents had designed it this way, she understood now. Not as a weapon or a prison, but as a bridge. Something meant to be shared between two beings who could each handle half of its incredible force.

"Power shared is power doubled, while power hoarded leads only to corruption." Her mother's words echoed in her mind as Vion made her choice.

She moved without hesitation, crossing the distance between them in three quick strides. Noah's eyes were squeezed shut in agony, his face contorted as he fought against forces beyond his control. The light leaking from his skin was so bright now that looking directly at him hurt, but Vion didn't look away.

The moment their lips touched, Vion felt the Dragon's Heart respond with explosive joy. She felt Noah's shock ripple through the link, followed quickly by desperate gratitude as he realized what she was doing.

Take half, she projected through the connection, the link allowing her to communicate directly with him. Let me share this burden.

Vion, no, came his almost incoherent reply, filled with anguish. It could kill you too.

It will definitely kill you if I don't, she shot back, already beginning to draw the excess energy into herself. Trust me. Trust us.

The Dragon's Heart responded to her will, its crystalline structure beginning to shift and divide. What had been a single overwhelming force started to separate into two distinct but connected pieces—one remaining with Noah, the other flowing into Vion through their kiss. The process was like trying to split a lightning bolt while it was striking—extremely hard, and ludicrously painful.

Power flooded through Vion's system in ways that made her previous transformations seem like gentle rain compared to a hurricane. She knew that she’d be growling incoherently just like Noah had a few seconds ago, if not for the fact that her lips were sealed, greedily sucking power from the fragment in Noah.

The almost familiar sensation of ranking up seized her, but it was nothing like Zax and Draxius had explained it would be like. Instead of the usual process of carefully selecting paths to focus on, Vion found herself presented with a single, overwhelming choice. The Dragon's Heart fragment wanted to become something more than just a source of power—it wanted to become her Path Focus, the defining artifact that would shape her abilities for the rest of her existence.

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Yes, she decided without hesitation.

The renewed surge of power that flooded through her almost made her break the kiss.

***

Noah's consciousness drifted back to him like surfacing from the depths of a vast ocean. The first thing he noticed was the silence—after hours of battle, corruption, and cosmic forces tearing at reality, the simple absence of sound felt almost surreal.

He blinked his eyes open, expecting to see the crystalline formations of the Dragon's Heart chamber. Instead, he found himself lying amid scattered rubble and fossilized scales that had once been the chamber's magnificent structure. Cracks ran through what remained of the walls, and chunks of the ceiling had collapsed entirely, leaving gaping holes that let in streams of golden sunlight.

Sunlight. That meant it was over. They had survived.

Noah tried to sit up, wincing as every muscle in his body protested the movement. The aftermath of channeling the Dragon's Heart's power had left him feeling like he'd been struck by lightning and then trampled by a herd of wyverns—no, strike that, ancient dragons. But he was alive, and more importantly—

"Vion," he whispered, turning his head to see her lying peacefully beside him.

She was breathing steadily, her face relaxed in sleep despite everything they'd been through. Her hair had changed, he noticed—what had once been purely crimson now held streaks of gold that seemed to shimmer with their own light. The Dragon's Heart fragment had marked and changed her, it seemed, just as he was sure it had marked and changed him.

Noah could feel the power flowing through his own system, no longer the overwhelming torrent that had threatened to tear him apart, but a steady stream of energy that felt somehow more substantial than anything he'd possessed before. It was like the difference between drinking from a fire hose and having access to a deep, clear well.

That's when the notifications appeared, floating in his vision with the familiar blue glow that meant his system had been busy while he was unconscious.

You’ve defeated an Ancient Undead Dragon - Lvl 1000

You’ve achieved a feat of Myths!

Three skill points awarded.

Title Titan Slayer has been upgraded to Dragon Slayer

You’ve absorbed an Ancient Dragon’s Heart (Half)

Your race has changed from Human to Dragonspawn.

Wyrmblood Guardian has reached level 300.

Runebody Arcanist has reached level 300.

Abyssal Predator has reached level 300.

You can rank up!

Noah stared at the notifications in stunned silence. Level 300. And also the fact that he could rank up to B-Rank, now. The numbers seemed almost abstract—he could feel the power humming through his system, but it was hard to comprehend just how far he'd come already, in what felt like the blink of an eye.

A Dragonspawn. He was no longer even technically human. He sighed. He didn’t quite know how to feel about that—it brought a complex array of emotions that he did not want to deal with right now, right after he’d awakened, so he ignored it. There were worse races he could have become, after all, than a Dragonspawn. Like a Lich, for example.

Being a skeleton for power did sound cool, but he’d not have his handsome face to look at in mirrors anymore, so… A net negative, Noah would say.

Dismissing the notification, Noah carefully gathered Vion into his arms, marveling at how light she was despite being a sturdy dragon lady. At least it made things easier for him.

He climbed through the ruins of the chamber, navigating carefully around the worst of the debris. The holes in the ceiling made the ascent easier than he'd expected, providing handholds and ledges that led upward through the dragon's corpse toward daylight.

The final climb brought him out through a massive gap in what had once been the dragon's chest cavity. Noah emerged into brilliant morning sunlight, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the brightness after so long in the creature's dark interior.

What he saw below him made his blood run cold.

The dragon's massive form stretched out before him, its head and foreclaws reaching to the base of the outer city walls and ripping apart a massive part when it had fallen. If it had taken just a few more proper steps—if they had been even minutes later in stopping its rampage—the creature would have collapsed directly into the city, crushing a major part of the outer and even inner district under its enormous weight.

Noah could see the outer districts spread beyond the walls, intact but bearing the scars of the recent battle. Smoke still rose from several buildings, and he could make out tiny figures moving through the streets—rescue workers and guards, he hoped. The devastation was extensive, but if they’d been just a few more minutes late…

"That was way too close," he mumbled. A second later, unable to hold back, he quipped, “Well… That is pretty standard for city ending events like this, isn’t it?”