Smoke curled off the dragon's broken corpse, its scales dulled and cracked. For a moment, the only sound in the valley was the wind rustling through fractured stone.
Bell slumped to his knees, barely breathing. "It's... over."
Harry stood atop the dragon's massive snout, arms crossed. "Took long enough."
Finn let out a long breath. "Then we—"
Crack.
A low sound echoed through the valley.
Crack... CRACK... BOOM!
The dragon's body twitched. Its eye, once dim, flared with a molten-red light. Magic surged across its body like veins of lava, knitting muscle and bone back together with horrifying speed. Blackened scales flaked off, revealing shimmering abyssal crystal armor beneath—dark, iridescent, alive.
"No," Leon whispered, backing up. "There's no way—!"
The dragon roared, deeper and more primal than before. The ground split beneath it as it rose once more—twice as fast, and just as furious, if not more so. Wings ignited with shadowflame.
Harry raised an eyebrow. "You ever stay dead?"
The Black Dragon opened its mouth, charging a black orb of annihilation—a gravity-bomb dense enough to collapse a small fortress.
Finn shouted, "Everyone MOVE!"
The five scattered just as the orb fired. It screamed across the battlefield, vaporizing stone, air, and time itself in a straight line. An entire cliff behind them disintegrated.
Bell's voice shook. "This isn't like before… It's faster. Stronger."
Harry cracked his knuckles. "Then we get stronger too."
He turned to them, eyes blazing gold.
"We hit it together. No holding back. No breaks. We finish this here and now."
Ottar stepped forward, brandishing his gleaming longsword. "Agreed."
Leon surged with lightning. "Let's cook this bastard."
Finn leveled Gungnir. "Coordinated strikes. Keep the pressure on. Bell…"
He turned to the youngest.
"You end it."
Bell's eyes widened. "Me?!"
Harry grinned. "It's your story, kid."
Ottar struck first, launching into the air with a seismic jump, his sword crashing into the dragon's wing with explosive force. The limb snapped, sending the beast into a lurch.
Leon blitzed across its body, slashing at joints and tendons, leaving trails of violet lightning in his wake. "Keep squirming, lizard!"
Finn hurled Gungnir into its eye socket, blinding it momentarily. He launched himself after it, retrieving the spear mid-flight and stabbing deep into the socket with a flash of blue flame.
Harry rocketed up and crashed his fists into the dragon's chest with enough force to fold its ribcage inward. He kept punching—each hit a meteor of magic and fury—slamming the beast back into the ground crater it had risen from.
And as it writhed—
Finn shouted, "Now, Bell!"
Bell's daggers gleamed in his trembling hands. He could feel it—the power, the trust, the fate of his friends resting on his shoulders.
He leapt high, higher than ever before.
His daggers glowed a brilliant white-gold, brighter than the sun, burning with the hope of every victory and every loss.
"Light of the Dawn!"
He descended like a falling star, spinning.
The world went silent.
Then—SCHHHHRRAAAAKKKK!
His blades carved down through the dragon's skull, down its neck, splitting scale, sinew, and shadow. The magic flared wider with each inch, a burning trail of pure light.
The beast shrieked.
Bell's body blurred with speed as he dashed along the back of its spine—cleaving it in two, from skull to tail, in one impossible, god-defying slash.
He landed behind it, sliding to a stop, panting.
Behind him, the Black Dragon shuddered… then collapsed, bisected cleanly down the center.
The two halves fell apart with a final groan, crashing into the earth like mountains being laid to rest.
Silence. Victory. Dawn.
The first rays of morning broke over the shattered cliffs.
Steam rose from the dragon's remains. A strange stillness blanketed the field—sacred, eternal.
Bell dropped to his knees, daggers fading to silver. The light that had guided him dimmed, now spent.
Harry walked over and offered his hand.
Bell blinked up. "Did I... do it?"
Harry smirked.
"You didn't just do it, kid. You made history."
The others gathered around, battered, bruised, but alive. The five warriors stood shoulder to shoulder before the split carcass of the mightiest beast the world had ever known.
Finn wiped blood from his lip. "That... better be the last resurrection."
Leon looked at the horizon. "If not, I'm moving."
Ottar nodded once. "Good fight."
Harry grinned. "And a damn good ending."
Bell, still stunned, just smiled softly.
"…Light of the Dawn, huh," he whispered to himself.