P'hath's Decision

A small gaseous wisp billowed a few feet from where his large head rested on the barren rocky landscape... it was neither cold, nor hot, yet a chill as deep and cold as one could imagine would make even the strongest weak to continue. Yet there he lay, unmoving, unflinching, not a shiver or a sigh, save for the occasional, barely perceivable outlet of breath from the great dragon.
Darkness swallowed the entire sky, and the landscape was bathed in an eerie cold white, shadowy light, like a permanent eclipse... yet no sun ever shown on that landscape before, not for eons, and none would, save for maybe one time, the end of time...
Naked iron bars, gates of cold warped spines spun like a spider’s web to form a barrier between the land he was in, and what was next-door loomed. Great slabs of rock, chiseled with hideous creatures, skulls, bones, both human and not adorned the walls that the gate opened from... a great terrace and double watch tower kept silent vigil along with the dragon... and there the dragon waited, had been waiting for quite some time.
Nobody amongst the denizens who ventured to the gates, nor the ones who were able to pass through them actually noticed when the dragon appeared, but most could have cared less, for his kind wasn’t uncommon there, what was uncommon was that he happened to be outside, instead of being tortured, or dealing the torturing within... truly an oddity that a scant few dared to watch from occasion... none mustered the courage or bravado to approach this beast though (and few actually could, since nothing could pass through the gates unless willed by a greater force)...
So for a great time the dragon remained undisturbed... unfeeling, uncaring, and totally oblivious... almost dead, but not quite... and this was how he felt... his mind was shattered, pieces echoing the ear splitting noise that shattered it... his heart was nearly gone too, a few tattered remains that kept him technically alive, and willing to stay alive... but only by a bare margin...
The betrayal stayed ever so fresh within him... his broken state a constant reminder... why he didn’t just end it there? he cant, he couldn’t, it was against his nature, his very essence... he could self destruct, as simple as wishing it, but he needed a reason, he needed no more hope, a complete lack of anything else to live for... sadly, along with the tattered remains of his mind and heart, there was a single ray of hope, that kept him alive... kept him breathing, and not fusing himself into the magic held within, unleashing his soul, and enveloping self-destructive nature...
A paradox... what could bring someone so close to death, yet with every effort, death still unable to take them? What kind of torture did this merit? Why? P'hath knew... even if he wouldn’t admit it to himself, or over the course of time would burry the truth inside him, and convince himself to forget the reason, he still knew.... and still would know... betrayal was a wound that never in any experience seemed to heal fully, and a betrayal deep enough... well...

A creature of darkness, apparently a goblin-demon of sorts, from the smell, and his ability to pass the gates, slowly creped towards the dragon, cradling a bladed scepter behind him. He knelt near one of the forepaws, almost as large as the goblin-demon itself, and prodded it with the scepter, jumping back in a spring like reflex. After no apparent movement, other than the occasional breathing, the goblin stepped forward again, stabbing the forepaw, this time with a bit more confidence and jumped back. After seeing no movement whatsoever, not even a flinch, the goblin stabbed again, this time near the bicep the knifed end of the scepter penetrating a few inches, and twisting the blade before withdrawing it. The goblin smiled a wicked evil grin and hobbled back through the gates, hoping to gather many more industrious hands to help hack this pile of useless meat to pieces.
P'hath neither flinched nor turned to examine the wound, which was slowly oozing blood, and foam. Apparently the blade had at one time been tipped with poison, but it was faded and only labored breathing slightly. But not everything remained motionless and still within the dragon during the attack... a tiny shard, the merest fraction of the total orb that once was his mind before shattering, shivered and shuddered, slowly seeking it's neighbor before stopping altogether on the littered floor of his skull...
The eerie light wound it's way down the midnight sky, tracing an erratic and elliptical orbit across the blackened heaven, signaling the end of what could only be concluded as a "day" in this place... the shard that moved twinkled, a light that briefly flared to life within it, now flickered and waned, before failing and dieing out again... all was dark in the dragons mind once more

The goblin returned with more hands, the journey to the gates was a fair distance, yet the stubborn-ness and persistence of the wretched creatures made the path an even longer one. Finally after many days, many threats, and many haggling’s, a fair sized band of denizens appeared at the gate, a few attempted to step through, only to be met with an invisible wall. apparently the head goblin forgot some could not leave, while others could, somewhat... the numbers dwindled slightly as those that could pass stepped through and stood before the dragon, after a few moments of just staring at the dragon, another daring demon crept up near the rear of the dragons hind legs and made a quick deliberate slice, and leapt backwards... the rest of the gang also took a large step backwards, but began striding forwards once there appeared to be no retaliation. the first goblin strode to the dragons head and smiled wickedly at the beast while the others experimented with there blades, cutting and stabbing at various areas of scaly flesh... the grotesque goblin grabbed a nostril and was about ready to take a mightily slice when the dragon raised his head slightly, becoming eye level and opened his mouth to speak. The goblin froze instantly, horrified at the first movement of the apparently dieing creature... the movement was noticed by few, but soon all activity slowly ceased in a wave, the other creatures backing away slightly as the dragon spoke, with the first goblin still firmly grasping his nostril.

"What are your intentions." said P`hath.

The voice filtered through the surrounding area, yet the sound did not come from the dragon’s mouth, but more like his voice was inside their minds, a strange echo following the voice... a long period of time passed from the first movements to the time when the goblin finally spoke in reply.
"You... You are worthless... creatures of your kind only come here if they are dead, or are close to it" the goblin licked his slimy deformed lips, thinking about those ones that had come to die "and you are fresh... so you will quickly be escorted in" the goblin snickered at the choice of words, his voice finding ground and sturdiness, continuing with a sly vileness to it "of course, since you don’t come willingly, we are here to help you enter, piece... by delicious... piece..." each word spoken separately as the rest of the gang closed in again, resuming their work. His left arm shifted as he wielded the blade that would have cut his nostril, yet he aimed and launched the dagger towards the closest eye... the weapon missed its mark, hitting and penetrating the dragon square between both eyes and remain stuck...
The next response from the dragon echoed louder, yet held little to no defiance... it was more of a statement, a simple word...
"No"
Again, the echoing effect left the entire party paralyzed. But the first goblin stuck a defiant chin out, "Your path is this one..." gesturing to the gates and the road inward "And your fate is decided. There is no choice pitiful dragon, your going in!"
The dragons eyes, an unfocused murky yellow, suddenly became clear and glowed a bright amber, with a dangerous hue of red, and pinned the small goblin in their stare. The staff, still stuck squarly between the eyes shuddered and sizzled, as if being seared by that deadly gaze. "Oh yes, I do have a choice, it is my own, and I shall not suffer you because of it..."
Rage built upon itself, the shards of his mind, all of them vibrated and slowly slid towards each other.
"Not you..."
White hot anger, incredible amounts of virulent energy swept from within the dragon's body, the wounds, and gashes seemed to fill with this energy, wisps fall to the ground like smoke, and a low steady rumble issued from the dragon, and from beneath the dragon
"Nor any creature..."
His eyes flashed to the burning red of fire, the shards of his mind slipping together swiftly, forming the whole it once was long ago, and power now flowed through that orb glowing brightly, and throughout his body.
"Or any being, ever!"
And with that, his opened mouth released a short swift blast of earthreal fire, like a wailing hurricane formed into a column, that swept right through the goblin before him, literally vaporizing the entire lower half of the goblin creature. Only the chest, head, and right hand, still firmly gripped on the nostril, remained.
The goblin uttered a weak painful moan, gritting his teeth as he spat out his last words...
"He will have you yet... demon!"
A column of billowing smoke and white blue light issued forth from beneath the dragon, the land cracked and a fissure formed below. The light washed through the dragon and seemed to fill him, powering him, his body glowing with spectral dark blue light, his eyes being two bright shining red crystals as he stared at the goblin and the last remark uttered. The eyes swelled in brightness, turning from the crimson red before, to a hot crystaline whiteness of two identical suns. P'hath stood and launched himself strait up, snapping his head down and throwing the goblin remains towards the ground next to the fissure of light. He opened his mouth with a single word that sounded like "NEVER!" but was lost in the intense noise and light barrage that issued forth. The goblins fate was not to die, and appear back in hell where he came forth... no... P'hath was destroying this creature, removing it and all its followers from the very existence whence they came. Those specificly would never inhabit an existance again...

A pulse from the column of light feeding into P`hath created a spasm from the dragon, and he raised his head skyward, letting the column of destructive light follow until it was vertical... The pulse grew inside the dragon swiftly, the light increasing exponentially until finally an explosion, like a supernova rocked the landscape, shattering the gates and walls nearby and impregnating a blast crater underneath where the dragon had hovered above the ground...

But as the final whirlwind began disappearing, when the light from the fissure slowly waned and disappeared, the crack sealing itself, no crater stood visible, and the dragon's low slumped figure came to view from the receding dust... The dragon lay as he did, as he always did for the longest time, his position almost unchanged, his body marred only with scars by the hacking, slashing, and maiming of the demonic attack, and the area around him literally untouched, with the exception of a minor hole in the walls near the gate. Even then as the last whirlwind of dust settled the breach appeared to be sealing itself inward, as if some invisible force guided the two gaping sides together like a piece of cord, joining each stone, and finally sealing the masonry up...

P'hath lay there, unfeeling, uncaring, motionless, and cold... as before... his heart torn, his mind shattered... yet... the slivers weren’t as numerous as before, in greater clumps, and vibrated slightly... A light remained a-glow within as the eerie light from outside disappeared, again...