The canyon swallowed the world.
Danny dove through it in a blaze of gold, wings outstretched wide enough to scrape the storm-walls, each beat of those massive membranes blasting shockwaves through the air. Lightning shattered around him instead of striking—skittering off creation-light like needles hitting armor. His claws carved long trails of fire behind him, burning bright even in the planet's endless storm.
The storm didn't resist him now.
It parted.
It bowed.
It recognized something ancient in him—something that was not here to destroy, but to reclaim.
As he descended deeper, the light faded. The canyon floor existed in a strange half-darkness, lit only by the occasional flash of lightning and the last flickers of a dim golden stone floating above cracked ground.
Danny landed in a quaking burst of radiant fire, talons gouging trenches into the canyon floor. His wings folded in, still glowing softly, and he stalked forward, lowering his great head to stare at the sigil stone.
It was exactly as he had seen in the vision.
Perfectly smooth.
Perfectly round.
Unbroken, unbreakable.
But its surface—usually bright enough to light a valley—was barely glowing.
A dying ember.
The dragon's pupils constricted.
He felt the stone's heartbeat.
Slow.
Weak.
Thready.
Not damaged…
But drained.
The Elemental Lords hadn't harmed it physically—they couldn't.
Their rings siphoned its ambient creation-energy, forcing it into a dormant state like an exhausted star.
Danny extended one enormous claw toward it.
The stone flinched.
Not physically—but its light spasmed, flickering as if trying to hide.
Danny froze.
He lowered his head, pressing his muzzle to the stone instead of his claws.
Golden flame did not erupt from him this time.
No beam.
No roar.
Just warmth.
Just presence.
The stone shuddered faintly.
A whisper like wind through broken glass trickled into his mind:
…bearer… late… fading…
Danny squeezed his eyes shut. I'm here. I'm here now.
The voice frayed.
…stormlord… drained us… rings… wrong… poison…
Danny's chest tightened.
Tempestron hadn't broken the stone.
He'd leeched it.
And with the sigil weakened, Danny felt its senses stretching thin, desperate, trying to anchor itself through him.
But then—
Another thought spilled into him, faint and trembling:
…you burn too bright… flame unfocused… cannot take… raw creation…
Danny stiffened, ashamed.
He had come in too violently. He'd flown too fast. His power was pouring from him like a breached dam because he had no idea how to control it. A dragon's natural instinct was to overwhelm, not fine-tune.
He knelt lower, letting the stone rest against his scaled snout.
I'll fix you, he promised silently.
I'll learn.
The canyon trembled—not from him this time, but from the storm above.
Voices echoed distantly.
Shadeclaw's roar.
Swift shouting orders.
Jade yelling something that sounded like "STOP RUNNING SO FAST YOU GLOWING MANIAC!"
Then Jake screeching, "WAIT, WE HAVE TO GO DOWN THERE?!"
Danny exhaled slowly, pulling back from the stone just as the first figures reached the canyon rim.
Shadeclaw appeared first, dropping the last five meters in a controlled slide, claws digging into the rock. He landed on all fours, eyes wild, fur bristling. He saw the empty space where Mira should have been.
His breath froze.
His heart broke.
Then his gaze snapped to Danny—still in dragon form, towering, glowing, looking far too powerful and far too distant.
Swift descended more carefully, sliding along a stabilizing rope, wrist console flickering information. Jake tripped halfway down and was saved by a B.E.A.R. that caught him like a mother catching a toddler falling off a couch. Jade simply punched footholds into the rock wall until he could jump down. Bumble just rolled and bounced and somehow made it.
Shadeclaw marched forward.
"Where. Is. Mira."
Danny lowered his great head.
"He took her," Danny said, his voice rumbling like thunder shifting inside a cavern. "Tempestron opened a storm corridor and—"
Shadeclaw's snarl echoed violently through the canyon.
The shadows around him pulsed outward, tendrils reaching and retracting like claws searching for something to tear apart. His fangs elongated. His ears flattened. He was one heartbeat away from losing himself.
Swift stepped between them. "Shadeclaw. Listen—"
"DON'T tell me to listen!" Shadeclaw snapped, voice breaking. "While you were flying ahead of us—while you were chasing the stone—she was taken!"
Danny's wings drooped.
His claws curled inward.
His fire dimmed.
"I know," he said quietly. "I'm sorry."
The words weren't enough.
Shadeclaw trembled, torn between grief, fury, and the instinct to lash at the nearest thing that made sense.
But then—
Danny shifted.
His massive form shrank inward, scales dissolving into light until he stood again as a humanoid, kneeling before Shadeclaw rather than towering above him.
"Blame me if you need to," Danny said. "Hate me if you need to. But don't lose yourself. Not now."
Shadeclaw's shoulders rose and shook.
He wasn't crying—wolves don't cry the way humans do—but the air around him tasted like grief.
Swift placed a hand gently on Shadeclaw's back. "Danny is right. We can't fracture. Not when she's alive in Tempestron's custody."
Shadeclaw's head snapped up. "Alive?"
"Tempestron needs leverage," Swift said. "He wouldn't kill his only bargaining chip. Not yet."
"Also," Jake added shakily from behind Swift, "Mira doesn't die easily. Like at all. She's terrifying. I wouldn't kidnap her."
Bumble beeped in agreement. "STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: ABDUCTING MIRA IS THE NUMBER THREE WORST LIFE CHOICE. NUMBER ONE IS TOUCHING THE CHIEF ENGINEER'S LUNCH."
Shadeclaw exhaled—sharp, trembling—and forced himself to stand upright again.
"Then we get her back," he said.
Danny nodded once.
He turned toward the sigil stone.
It hovered weakly above the cracked ground, flickering like a dying star. The stone reached toward Danny's presence, desperate to be recharged—but unable to withstand the raw flood of creation that poured from him instinctively.
Jake whispered, "Can you… fix it?"
"I can't force energy into it," Danny said. "I'll destroy the canyon in the process. It needs a gentler flame."
Jade blinked. "Since when do you do gentle?"
Danny ignored him.
He extended his hand, fingers slightly trembling. A single ember glowed in his palm—so small it barely lit his face.
Creation flame.
Not a blast.
Not a surge.
A controlled spark.
He lowered it slowly, cautiously, into the sigil stone.
The stone pulled it in.
The canyon brightened.
Not much.
But enough.
A pulse.
A heartbeat.
A whisper.
…bearer… yes… this… this is right…
Danny's breath hitched.
He had done it.
The stone was still weak, dormant, but no longer dying. It regained just enough strength to project an image into the air—
A map.
Not a physical drawing—
a glowing constellation of sigil-locations floating above the ground.
Seven points.
Seven stones.
One blazed brighter than the rest.
Where Mira had been taken.
Shadeclaw stared at the glowing point with a predator's murderous silence.
Jade punched his palm. "Oh, he's dead. Storm boy is dead."
Jake whimpered, "O-oh no we're actually going to fight the Elemental Lords—like plural?"
Bumble rotated his dome excitedly. "QUERY: DO WE GET COOL TITLES AFTERWARD?"
Swift studied the map, eyes focused. "This location is far. Possibly off-world. We'll need a ship."
Danny stood, his aura settling like a golden mist around him.
"We're not losing her," he said. "Not to Tempestron. Not to any Elemental Lord."
Shadeclaw's voice dropped to a low growl that felt like an oath.
"We hunt him."
Danny nodded.
"We hunt them all."
The sigil stone's last flicker dimmed again, exhausted but alive.
It whispered:
…bearer… hurry… seven hunt… seven devour…
Danny placed a hand on it gently.
"I'm coming back," he said. "I'll recharge you completely. All of you."
The stone pulsed once more—
a faint, trusting heartbeat—
then fell silent.
Thunder crackled far above them.
The canyon wind shifted.
Somewhere on the other side of the world, Lord Tempestron felt the stone awaken—
and smiled.
Danny lifted his glowing eyes to the storm.
"Chapter 171," he whispered,
"we come for you."