Astride his great dragon Elan dived toward Light-Raider who did not bolt.

Giant claws grasped for the Troubadour but could not sweep him from his horse.

Then suddenly the Vollkon looked toward the sky and screamed. Ansond closed on him. The Golden Knight recalled a ploy he had used in earlier attacks and sliced through the canister which Elan’s dragon grasped. Fire engulfed both beast and rider.

As the saddle girth collapsed and the searing flame rushed over him, Elan wailed in terror. In separate moments yet almost one, Emperor and Vollkon hit the earth.

Two Vollkons remained. One wheeled and confronted winged Invictrix in the air. Wildly its six great talons ripped the air. Invictrix barely kept beyond the reach of all its savage claws. Each way the horse flew, the beast turned in the air to face Ansond and fight. The roaring Vollkon almost deafened those below. The reptile opened its deadly jaws to grasp the horse’s wings.

Below the screaming skies, the battle ranks began to close. Along a hundred-mile front, sword clashed on shield. The wail of dying men continued through the day. Above the din of war echoed the cries of dragons in the air.

By afternoon the Vollkon had begun to tire. Invictrix circled it until the sun fell full into the monster’s face. The reptile’s glazed eyes spoke its death ahead of time. Its wing beats slowed and finally it settled toward the earth. It could not rise although it longed to do so.

Invictrix and her rider watched the beast descend. It hovered for a moment above the thickest combat, then fell the few remaining feet.

The men of Ellanor moved back to give the dragon dying space. Its great leather wings fluttered like a crippled gull. Its claws dug into the bloody earth among the corpses of the fallen soldiers. It whimpered, groaned and gasped. Then died.

The dragon’s slow, painful death unnerved the men of Ellanor. They had reason to fear. Elan was dead. Terra was aflame and the fire had spread to the capital. The gates were now ablaze.

Ansond turned to the final Vollkon. The beast, knowing it was the last, had lost its heart for war. It would not fly. It perched like a great stone gargoyle on the palace armory where the canisters of death ore were stacked in pyramids.

As Invictrix flew close, the Vollkon toppled backward, scattering the deadly piles.

It could not fold its wings. Spasms shook its ugly head. Froth poured above its forked tongue.

Seized by desire to end its existence, it brought a merciful conclusion to the war. Grasping a canister, the Vollkon tore the frail shell until it burst. In an instant fire shot high. The whole armory detonated. Flame, growing in intensity, collected in a golden ball and settled on the city.

Terra was ablaze! Hate’s final grudge against Earthmaker’s love was holocaust.

Dreamer, turned Avenger, struggled to find the Prince of Mirrors in the burning city. He was confused by all the flame. The streets were filled with the fallen, and the buildings were in ruins. He sought the stable where the Dark Prince had sharpened his weapon for the conflict.