Why Not

The vast chamber was silent, held in suspended animation by the scene being played out on the stone floor before them. Torches flickered around the room in the still air as people held their breath… waiting.

Mordeaux stared at the man currently hanging from the frame in the centre of the floor. Steel manacles circled the man’s arms, the metal digging cruelly into his flesh causing blood to trickle into rivulets down his arms.

“Surrender to me, Dante, and I shall let you live. Resist and I shall kill you and take your powers anyway.” He walked over to the prisoner, lifting the silver wand as he approached. “You have no other options left open to you. No one will rescue you now, Dante Kostantis.”

Dante slowly raised his head and stared hard at Mordeaux. His blue eyes flashing like a cold blue flame. His body was one huge ball of pain from the hours of torture that Mordeaux had inflicted upon him. He could feel his life force slowly ebbing out of him with each pulse of the blood that ran down his arms. Time was running out for him but Mordeaux was wrong if he believed that there were only his options available to Dante. There was a third that no one else knew of.

“Merge with me,” the voice whispered softly inside his head. “Merge with me and free yourself.” A tempting feeling of power flowed briefly along his nerves, hinting at what would be available to him if he were to merge with the voice.

Mordeaux waved the wand closer, its silver tip glowing threateningly in front of Dante. His mouth was almost watering at the prospect of taking Dante’s powers for his own. With those powers he would be invincible. No one would be able to stop him.

“Surrender, Dante!”

Dante looked around the chamber, seeing Mordeaux’s followers holding prisoner those who had come to help him. His gaze settled on Leonie, her golden eyes tortured as she saw his distress yet unable to help him. Suddenly he knew what he had to do. He was dead if he did nothing and possibly dead if he took the third option. Why not, he thought to himself. He had nothing left to lose.

“You have no choice, Dante,” Mordeaux urged.

“No,” Dante replied. “You’re wrong.” With that he closed his eyes and opened his mind to the force that had always been with him. He had an image of a great black dragon with flashing blue eyes breaking free before a great white light seemed to envelope the chamber. His last thought was hearing Mordeaux’s anguished cry before he lost consciousness.