Xefr's shiva formed a majestic aura that dominated the small room with its colours and light, while the dark wave of the hyl started to deform. Cui's and Myst's bolts surprised the Hyl, who in turn lost balance  ...now Xefr's Shiva started surrounding the Hyl's shadow, covering its wings and mask, dancing along with its dark aura and transferring alltogether to the black dragon's imagined place.
Its soul struggling to remain intact as it was sent to the void of space, the Hyl removed its mask and threw it to the ground, revealing a serene face with a deep sadness in its eyes - Standing still and uttering a few words before vanishing entirely "...We are not your enemies."
All psionic auras were lost as quickly as they appeared, silence overwhelmed the room and only the sound of the Hyl's Mask swirling on the ground could be heard, before that too stopped still.
A great danger was avoided, but Xefr's Scales had been burnt on their edge and Caprima seemed hurt beyond a physical state. Nevertheless she smiled at Xefr, not saying a word for a few moments to enjoy the silence of peace. She finally broke the silence with her fragile voice "I'm harpy for you my child, Heh! ...Really proud of what you achieved here today.. Let me regenerate some strength and I'll explain everything. We'll have to act fast." She seemed a bit unsure of her appearance and slightly avoided eye contact "Don't judge this form of mine... it's not what I really am."
Still retaining her small stature, Cui kissed again Myst in a moment of triumph, believing it was them two that sent the Hyl to outerspace. Soon however the little blue dragoness flew full of worry next to the hurt capricorn and hugged her, plunging her snoot in her soft fur "..You still are fluffy and cute, even with those fangs and creepy eyes. You shouldn't be ashamed of what you are, you silly goat!" Caprima smiled and patted Cui "If you say so, child".

-

Re'Ni was quite interested to see how these dragons had fun  ..she knew much about her own species in Shyr but only through scripts and stories. Her only memories of any celebration of dragons was when she was just a hatchling, going to the Great Temple of Fire with her parents - Thus her eyes were filled with anticipation about these new dragons! {"Ah, celebration! Nice see what Heord dragons do! Self need that. Propably forget all problems too   ...but celebrating death? Weird!"} She followed Tec with a big smile on her face.

Caprima didn't like all these meaningless praises, these children knew nothing of what her true appearance meant  ..and perhaps they would never learn. She frowned a little and stood back up "Alright children, enough about my looks - they're of little importance when compared to what we'll all have to face while fighting against the Death Queen." She stopped for a while and tried concentrating by placing her hand over her forehead "The Hyl haven't fully awoken  ...I can still sense most are in deep sleep. However the Queen and most of her Heruv'aym are already on the move towards the Galactic core." Cui started munching her claws and shaking, being evidently worried that history would repeat itself, "Does this mean..  ..it is over again?"
Caprima still quite grumpy looked at Cui and grabbed her by the wings, putting her down on the ground to calm her "No! We'll hunt them to this and the other world if need be. This anomaly ends here!  ...besides, the Hyl are ruthless - they cannot resist stopping at stars and energy sources to regenerate without destroying them - We'll catch them soon." She then turned to Xefr, still being quite unhappy and trying to bury all of the memories her meeting with the Hyl unearthed "Xefr, you must understand that your duty is the most difficult of all. A simple Hyl may be sent to outerspace, killed or have its soul torn apart  ..but not their Queen; you'll have to try your best in order to save the universe, your friends and your son."
Caprima sat back on the cold tiles and started meditating, trying to regain her balance  ..for it was quite evident that her sadness amd wrath had surfaced and overwhelmed her shiva, but most importantly they had taken over her train of thought as well.

-

Re'Ni was enjoying passing by the wilderness and giving looks left and right at all the skittish critters  ...during the night they all seemed so frail and smaller than during the day - perhaps these were only her predatory instics kicking in, but she sure felt superior, strong and proud. Tec grounded her back to reality soon enough though, and she turned to him with a somewhat dumbfunded smile, talking quietly for no apparent reason {"Hmmm, perhaps good reason that dragon died. And thatever Tec want; Fly, walk  ...in beautiful place like Heord with mate by side both good! Also ..something born be great, yes ..and for Tec and Re'Ni this very great and soon  ..perhaps tommorow, or day after. Already feel egg!"} She smiled and patted lightly her underbelly with her paw for a bit.

Hearing this dragon's determination and optimism despite everything that life had thrown at him, caused a spark inside the old capricorn that lit up her spirit and hope. Mortals once again were showing her the way and teaching her to keep fighting, for this was life; a big messy fight - an adventure to behold!  ...She stood up, not saying a thing - her subtle smile was saying it all, "Xefr  ...you're ready. And that is all I need to regenerate." She slowly turned her head to face him, closed up and put her hand on his chest while extending her other arm towards Myst for him to grab "I promised Guardian to explain the situation personally... say the place and we'll be there in a moment; This old goat still has some tricks and a certain dragon reminded her the reason to use them!" Cui smiled as well, she flew right on Myst's shoulder and winked at him.

-

Re'Ni walked next to Tec as if she was enchanted by the magic of the night, paying little attention to the critters as her eyes moved up to the stars and back to Tec. As she smiled back to him she let out a small blissful sigh, {"Tec  ...make Re'Ni very happy. Perhaps Self full of problems, but when Tec around  ..not matter. Dream come true  ..literally."} She pointed forward with her wing {"Off to Village!"} However, she was not telling everything to Tec  ..she wasn't telling him of the more macabre sights she was seeing, of the demons that plagued her mind - hoping to forget them and move on.

Having fully regained her will to fight, Caprima's physical strength soon followed suit; she grabbed Myst and Xefr tightly with her hands. She turned with a smile towards Xefr - it seemed he didn't understand her peculiar nature, but that was always the case with mortals! ...feeling sure of herself, she talked to him in a calm and contained way, almost motherly, "We have no time to spare my child ...besides, I got what I needed from this old place, there's nothing left for me here other than old memories. Stop worrying about me and focus on your task." she then nodded at Myst, "To the observatory it is.  ...round two begins!" her eyes gained a subtle red light and her smile's fangs shined bright from the majestic beam of light coming from within her, surrounding all four of our heroes. For a moment Xefr could feel a wrathful emotion surrounding him, but before he could sense anything more particular, all of existence was vanishing around him, other than Caprima, Myst and Cui - all emotions became stronger and then there was that undescribable feeling.. it was as if he had broken free from the universe itself. In a few seconds and out of the white emptyness, the forms and shape of Soul Eclipse's observatory appeared, along with Guardian and the pile of morbid reminders of Xefr's past.
Cui extended her wings and winked at Myst "It's always fun travelling with Cap!"

-

While at first Re'Ni was frightened and intimidated by all those unknown dragons being so close, her facial expression soon made clear that all of her thoughts were now being overwhelmed by a sense of amazement  ..not only because of the festivities and jubilant atmosphere, but mostly due to the realisation that she was finally amongst her kind. That however didn't help much to get her unhooked from Tec's embrace, since while admiring all the dancing in the skies and the multitude of colours, the fact that there were so many gold-scaled dragons seemed peculiar to her; she leaned closer to Tec, muttering quietly, due to her feeling somewhat awkward {"Very beautiful.. self glad Tec bring Re'Ni here! But many Mountain Valxes ...other scales rare ..some wear war masks too - what for? No matter, Self want see how Heord Valxes have fun!"} She kept looking around happily until noticing the young combat drake commander{"Hmmm, Valx similar. No? Tec more handsome though."} She swiftly gave Tec a subtle peck.

Upon seeing the pictures and realising who that dragoness was, Caprima was filled with fear of how her student would react  ...he failed once, could he fail once again? However after hearing the two dragons and Guardian's question she just snickered and walked near Guardian not saying a word. She tapped him in a friendly manner and tried explaining to him the situation without getting him confused, "Yes my child, something happened. And we must make sure nothing else happens...   ..I promised to explain to you our mission and I will do as such, but first you must all learn afew things about who are we fighting and what for." Caprima took a deep breath and focused to bring back to her mind all of her memories of her life in the previous universe  ..she then extended her hands, creating an orb of crystallic light, only to throw it at the ground and break it. Upon doing so time seemed to move in a far slower pace, as the flying parts of the shattered orb seemed to remain still, and everything around looked blury and unapproachable. The capricorn took a deep breath and closed her eyes, when she opened them the shattered pieces of the orb would reflect pictures from the past like a mirror as Caprima narrated, "This is not the first universe, nor the last  ..or even the sole universe in this timeframe. There are many planes of existence all co-existing and trapped within their own time, while there are also other planes  ..darker and wilder and lacking existence, where time is relative. This collection of relativity and reality is what we call the Greater Multiverse, a conjuction of different universes and possibilities that is watched upon by powerful spirit-guardians, the Haelyonim, that have control over time and reality, since life contains something that cannot be contained by time; Soul, the source of all existence. Now, most mortals cannot breach time and travel from one realm to another, but a few can and at some point they will, and in the end they will usurp their position as guardians of the universe. This was always the way and will always be, but sometimes ultimate power corrupts and change scares  ..so for once, instead of the Haelyonim ascending even higher and leaving the plain of existence once and for all, they made the most hideous decision; to break the cycle and remain as existence's eternal guardians and protectors ..and grow even more powerful by using the souls of the living. Thus s long time ago -or short, it depends- the treasonous Haelyonim were approached by an ascended people, and this ascended people, the Ilai, realised that life was being manipulated  ..merely a toy in the hands of greater forces - And so out of the traumatised Ilai the Hyl were born; a force of dark angels wishing to destroy all life, to supposedly end all oppression by destroying stars, galaxies, universes and the plane of existence itself. You galaxy is the realm were the continuation of their previous efforts will take place and as of now the process has already begun." Caprima paused for a while and looked to see if everyone was following,
"Ehm, anyway..  the plan is to locate the Hyl and distract them for Xefr to reform the Hyl Queen. We will need a big distraction, but ..I want to make something clear, my dear child; ..that while the Hyl may be right in their own reasoning, one thing is certain; destroying life and extinguishing its soul is not liberation. The cycle may be broken, but it cannot be repaired if it is torn apart."

-

{"Heh, to self Tec be most handsome dragon in universe! And.. Oooooh!"} She looked at a passing-by dragon making a rather hard trick with four torches and a pineapple while flying.
Re'Ni was happy with all the nice celebrations and the glad, satisfied faces all around  ..many images were slowly coming back to her of going with her parents at the great fire temple as a hatchling. Until she begun noticing the wrestling and the bawdy behaviour..  ..they were even spitting at something! ..was it *gasp* a tomb? It certainly looked like one and if it was, then by all the Saints, that was sacriligious territory; Burning an enemy to coal? sure! But spitting on their grave? Unbelievable!
She closed her head next to Tec's and tried subtly clearing things up, {"What spit in? ..kind of wishing hill? Not really understand."}

Caprima smiled and clapped her hands a bit, satisfied that her plan was being understood and approved "Good, good  ..all of you children seem to understand!" however suddenly she turned a bit confused, scratching her head and trying to focus "..But I truly worry about the distraction a little. I can't sent you out to fight the Hyl, that would be suicide  ..and I neither can hold them all on my own. We have to get a bait, but that will be risky too. My little Cui has had an idea  ..but I'm not sure" Cui looking fairly serious, flew right infront of Caprima -who in striking contrast looked rather sad- and she raised her claw proudly "I will be the bait! You see, while all as Qoatl new and old have a little bit of the old universe inside us, me having a connection with the orb I am a genuine part of the old universe itself ..and while the Hyl want to destroy this universe and the renmants of the old  ..they only consider the old universe to be a threat worth going after. So, I will attract their attention so that Xerry can sneak inside the Hyl High Temple, and Caprima will help me be safe while he kicks the Hyl Queen's feathered butt.." Caprima sighed and pushed the tiny blue dragoness out of her face "It will take more than that...  ..we can't risk both your life and the orb" Now both Caprima and Cui seemed confused  ..though the Capricorn turned her surprised eyes towards a direction, as if something had happened right outside the vessel.
A familiar whale-like sound was heard, leading to Caprima finding her voice again "We could try though. After all, it's our only hope."

-

 ...everything started to come together; the fighting, the tomb-spitting; Barbarians! Barbarians Everywhere!
She tried calming herself though, realising the danger of exposing their foul ways  ..instead she just made a small disapproving frown and turned to Tec, {"This spitting  ...not appropriate way treating dead - ever! See: Every soul holy, because passes to next egg, and next, and next. Not way dragons should behave to dead!  ..but at least nice fireworks, hmph."}
She made some short of a pouty face with her snout and sat down, subtly snorting some firesparks as three adolescent Golden Dragons who were saying rather rude words for their age spitted at the tomb and left while laughing. However her eyes soon captured two dragons who were looking at her in the side  ..their look was one she knew well, Ghashyr or Dragon it didn't matter; eyes never lie and their eyes were filled with disdain.
Her eyes flashed for the split of a second. Inside her mind, thoughts and emotions started mixing  ..fear, rage, pride. Nevertheless the feeling she was most familiar with soon started overwhelming her; Wrath!  ...who did these two dragons think they were? No one would look her like that ever again! ...The fire inside her was burning brighter than ever, her fear and logical thoughts being turned to ash by her wrath's fire, while raging voices started calling on her to act, to let them taste the fires of hell itself. However the black dragoness was more civilised than that, after all where's the fun if you don't play with the minds of your prey first?  ...slowly she turned her eyes towards them, glaring at both of those two ignorant punny little lizards with all her hatred combined. Peculiarly enough she smiled, her eyes not twitching even once, {"Dragons see something interesting?"} she calmly said to them.

Caprima was deep into thought but patted Xefr to try and console him   ..they needed a good solution and fast. Cui seemed lost into calculations, but then it hit her mind! Cui evidently jubilant went over to Myst and gave him a big kiss, next flew over to Caprima and hugged her, and then over to Xefr and gave him a whipping with her tail while smiling in a most annoying way. She had remembered an important detail.. "I KNOW! THE OLD BONES! THE SKULL! THE WALL! REMEMBER XERY? We need a psionically strong Qoatl, a presence so great that would draw the Hyl's attention  ..but do they have to be alive? NO! Haha! I knew there was a reason we met in that old grave!"  ..Caprima seemed surprised and worried at the same time "My child could you talk in a more coherent way? What bones?" Cui turned her head, still bearing that big smile "The orb, it was stored in a wall, and the skull was the key   ..and the room was definitely ancient. Now, I'm not trying to be patriotic  ..but that room was definitely of superior Qoatl design and of Imperial worth at that. And that skull must've belonged to someone important  ..someone not born into that small planet, someone born in Aztlan." She looked at Xefr, then to Myst and back at Caprima "Are you all pondering what I'm pondering?"

-

The Dragon's words were not unfamiliar to her, she just smiled {"Real Dragons? Petty lizard's mind not capable of understand true nature of what mean be dragon. All petty dragons here  ...self, mate, all"} she paused and pointed at the golden dragon with her claw  {"..but this? This not even dragon. This lizard!"} She was about to make that dragon's mind devolve into that of a gecko, however her attention would be driven to something that would ignite in her something greater than wrath; her mate being hurt and driven to fear!
Re'Ni's eyes stuck at the newcomer, never blinking or leaving her prey out of sight ...there was nothing more she had to say to these weaklings - they were just like everyone else; mere animals, unworthy of being called dragons. She covered poor Tec with her wing and smiled at him ..only muttering a few words in her frail and somewhat unnervingly calm voice, while her eyes' white had given its place to a dark void {"Not worry love  ...Tec never fear again when Self here to protect."} She calmly walked near the blue dragon bearing a soulless expression and opened her wings wide  ...wind started to move around her and the ground begun heating, she suddenly raised her front paws and fire clouds appeared surrounding the rude trio. She knew how she would handle these tribals, but first she had to show them what she was made of ...A tremendous amound of fire left her mouth, but in a matter of seconds she moved her head towards the ground  ..only a few white flames would pass near the dragon that insulted her first, but they would be hot enough to burn very few of his scales off. Re'Ni seeing the burnt ground almost being turned to lava and realising what could've happened, she nearly panicked, but soon the image of her loved-one in fear came back to her along with her thirst for revenge  ...she had lost control. She smiled widely and looked back at the blue dragon {"HAHAHaha  ...not worthy of death! Self have better future for blue dragon!"} she quickly reached her paw and touched him - a firey aura surrounded the two dragons   ..the blue dragon would feel all of his scales starting to burn painfully, being left with not blue  ..but pitch black scales as dark as the night. She looked at the dark sky and drew some kind of energy, filled with red and green out of her necklace which was transferred to the blue jester, {"Night; dragon have black scales, but mind of own. Day; have own scales, but mind of gecko! Hahahahaha!"} She moved back and just stared at the blue dragon while smiling. At this point Re'Ni was devoid of reality, nothing mattered to her, not even the Golden Dragons arround her  ..nothing! Her tail was shaking like a rattle-snake's from the excitement.

Cui danced around the room and turned back to Xefr "Oh don't worry about archeologists ..I'll have them running in no time! It wouldn't be the first time either." However as she glanced around, she noticed Myst had a rather peculiar and rare expression   ...propably he was still thinking about the kiss, that silly big dragon.
On the other claw, Caprima soon understood everything her children where gloriously blabbering about, and even though it baffled her a bit to use the skull of a universe destroyer to save another universe  ...it was probably the only way, no matter how ironic for her old deceased friend and traitor, "All right children, this idea sounds so thick-skulled it may actually work  ...gather up and give me your claws! And Cui, I want you to think of the room really, really hard."
Cui moved forwards and placed her paw on Caprima's shoulder leaving the Capricorn's hands free for Myst and Xefr, then she tried thinking about the room   ..somewhat unsuccessfuly though due to Myst's charming effect, but she would manage it.
Upon arrival the four adventurers could see infront of them nothing but darkness  ...the familiar aura of the Myst was close, but this total darkness was certainly not helping.

-

Being overwhelmed by her wrath, Re'Ni at first did not understand any of the words Tec said to her.   ...didn't he want her protection? Wasn't her action right? She punished those who hurt him, yet he was there crying!  ..something deep inside her started to crush her heart as it always did, she knew that feeling well - the reason why she hated people like the blue dragon came back to her mind as powerful as a lightning; She was the real monster, she had hurt Tec  ..not the blue dragon. But could she fight that monster? She had hurt Tec, she had hurt that blue Dragon, she had hurt all. Inside her mind a battle raged on, and the 'together forever' seemed like a dream she would never reach  ..for some it would be easy, but not for her - not after living on the edge so long; She could see clearly what she already knew, she couldn't have a happy ending either way ...not with all the pain she was causing and she could cause.
All fire and psionic energy ceased. Re'Ni's desperate eyes met Tec's, somewhat starting to sob as her tail and entire body begun to shake violently, {"Leave... please  ...Re'Ni hurt Tec. Re'Ni hurt dragon. Re'Ni hurt all. RE'NI MONSTER!"} Crying inconsollably and trying to not look at him, she pushed Tec away from her.
It was a mistake from the beggining; her love for Tec  ..their child ..she would doom them all. No, she could not stand it; she had to fly away, far above the horizon where she could hurt no one! And as such with a strong jump she rised up to the starry skies trying to fly as fast and high as possible, but for a moment she felt something inside her, something other than herself, and she looked back one last time...