The Primeval Era

Damian’s eyes grew heavy as he looked at these beasts.

His massive lion form stepped forward, nine tails sweeping behind him as he addressed the Pteranodon in Mana vibrations that needed no translation.

"The Dominion of Crimson Stone has enslaved an entire Noble Beast Lineage?"

The question carried weight that pressed against the air.

The Pteranodon’s response came immediately.

"They use taboo shamanic magic that the Ancestors forbade long ago. Binding runes carved directly into flesh and bone, suppressing our consciousness until we become nothing but tools for their wars. They have joined hands with demons to accomplish what they could never achieve alone."

Its massive head lowered slightly.

"We must let the others know. We must prepare for what is coming."

Damian interrupted before it could continue.

"Stay for now."

His beast voice rumbled across the garden.

"A delegation from the Noble Simba Lineage will arrive here within a few hours. You can tell them everything as well."

...!

The Pteranodon regarded him with eyes that held centuries of accumulated wisdom.

Then it nodded, a motion that seemed strange on such an alien form but carried meaning that transcended species.

"We will wait."

With those words, Damian flew deeper into his Cradle of First Flames.

His beast form leaped into the sky while his human body rode currents of Mana that carried him alongside it. Serala followed with her white-gold wings spread wide.

"Persevere."

The word emerged from both his throats simultaneously.

HUUUM!

Radiant blue flames erupted around him with intensity that painted the morning sky in colors belonging to sacred fire. The flames spread from his human body to his beast form and reached out to embrace Serala as well. The letter of the Primordial Tongue blazed through his existence and extended beyond.

Around them, rain began to fall across the entire paradisiacal garden.

The clouds above blazed with matching blue flames, vapor and fire weaving together in displays that would have seemed impossible to anyone who didn’t understand what Damian had become. Twenty miles of sky burned with sacred light while twenty miles of earth received the blessing of water infused with Mana purer than anything natural.

The flames and drops washed away fatigue that had been accumulating across hours of battle and torture and revelation.

They washed away thoughts that had been circling without resolution, guilt and rage and desperate planning all dissolving under the cleansing touch of power that answered to his will. He wasn’t refreshed exactly, but he was cleared!

He looked ahead as they flew, Serala following alongside him.

Behind them, in the periphery of this vast sacred garden, clusters of dinosaurs looked at each other while feeling the Mana-filled rain land on scales that had known nothing but chains for years. Pterosaurs and Velociraptors and the massive Pteranodon that had carried a traitor’s throne, all of them standing in paradise that had swallowed their former masters whole.

An army was being consumed beneath the soil.

Its corpses dissolved into earth that would use them to grow greener grass, taller trees, more vibrant flowers. The warriors who had trampled this place seeking conquest would become part of its beauty instead, their essence feeding the paradise they had tried to claim.

They had never arrived!

That was what the garden would say when anyone asked.

Only grass swaying in gentle wind and rain falling from blue-burning clouds and the silence of a place too peaceful to have ever known war.

---

The walls of the Purple Stone Tribe rose before them like welcoming arms.

Damian descended toward the expanded settlement with Serala at his side, his massive beast form following from above while his human body floated on currents of Mana that had become second nature.

Uncle Adam stood near the main gate of the tribe with Grandmother Essun beside him.

Their expressions shifted from tension to relief as they recognized the approaching figures. The old warrior’s shoulders loosened visibly, while Grandmother Essun’s sharp eyes softened.

They were safe!

Everything was going to be-...!

Damian frowned as he felt something.

The inscription on his heart was burning.

Both hearts. The one in his human body and the one in his beast form. That letter of the Primordial Tongue carved into the deepest part of his essence blazed with intensity. Pain lanced through his consciousness!

And then his awareness was pulled somewhere else entirely as he lost control of his bodies!

...!

To those watching from below, Damian simply fell.

His human body went limp mid-flight, eyes rolling back as consciousness fled to destinations unknown. His beast form crashed toward the earth at the same moment, though Mana gathered beneath it instinctively, cushioning the impact until that massive leonine shape landed with gentleness that belied its size.

Serala caught his human body before it could follow.

Her white-gold wings flared as she adjusted to the sudden weight, arms wrapping around him as she floated downward with concern painting her features. Her voice called out to him.

"Hey! Tokoloshe!"

He could barely hear her.

Her voice came from somewhere impossibly distant, muffled by barriers that had nothing to do with physical distance. He was aware of her arms around him, aware of Uncle Adam rushing forward with alarm on his weathered face!

But all of it felt like echoes from another world.

Because he was somewhere else now.

---

Endless blue flames surrounded him.

They stretched in every direction without boundary or horizon, sacred fire that burned without consuming, that illuminated without source. The space was vast and intimate simultaneously, pressing against his consciousness while offering infinite room to exist.

He almost found it familiar.

This felt like that place where he had first heard the letter of the Primordial Tongue. That moment of resurrection when Persevere had given him purpose beyond simple survival. The flames held the same quality, the same ancient presence, the same sense of something far older than the Lands of Stone.

For him to be back here again...

Did he say the letter too many times? Had he advanced to a point where return became inevitable?

As he wondered all of this, he began to hear something.

A faint voice emerged from the flames around him.

It almost sounded like his own voice, but different. Deeper somehow.

And it wasn’t saying Persevere.

...!

Damian focused with eyes that shone bright against the endless blue.

The radiant boundless flames cradled him from every direction, warmth that seeped into his essence rather than his flesh. His existence buzzed with sensation that felt far too grand for any mortal form to contain, pressure building behind his thoughts as if something was trying to pour an ocean through a channel meant for rivers.

It was too much.

It was overwhelming!

But he held on. Oh he held on!

He listened as the voice grew clearer, as syllables resolved from noise into meaning, as a letter that had existed since before the Lands of Stone took shape made itself known to someone capable of receiving it.

He heard it.

And he repeated it!

"Exelissomai."

BOOM!

The moment the word left his lips, the blue flames around him transformed.

Verdant light erupted from nothing, green fire blooming across the endless expanse with intensity that made the blue seem pale by comparison. The new flames didn’t replace the old. They wove through them, merged with them, created patterns of blue and green that pulsed with life!

The verdant flames covered everything.

And Damian felt something new carving itself beside the first letter on his heart!