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The soft sound of leather boots on frost echoed off the cavern walls quiet, Aeron didn't move as the figure stepped closer, a sword held loosely in his hand, its blade suddenly igniting into flame. Orange light flickered wildly across the gnarled roots and stone walls, casting both Aeron and the Three-Eyed Raven into a flickering tapestry of gold and shadow.
The fire hissed like a serpent, alive and dancing.
Aeron's eyes narrowed at the sword for only a heartbeat, before his lips curled faintly, almost amused.
The Three-Eyed Raven, still half-entwined in the roots of the great weirwood, spoke in a voice dry and distant.
"Beric Dondarrion."
The name echoed in the chamber.
The man gave a faint nod, stepping fully into the open where the fire touched every inch of him. His face was weathered, his eye hollow with too many deaths lived and survived. The flame in his sword pulsed as if it breathed with him.
"So you've heard of me," Beric said, a touch of sardonic humor in his tone. "What am I saying? Of course you have. There are few things in this world that escape your gaze..."
Aeron only listened in silence.
Beric lifted his chin.
"I am Beric, once Lord of Blackhaven… now little more than a corpse reanimated too many times. A humble servant of the Lord of Light. Fire and life. That which burns away death. That which resists the cold and all that is dark."
His words echoed softly, as if the flame itself repeated them.
Aeron let out a low chuckle. "Poetic."
In answer, the greatsword Drakaryzor materialized in Aeron's hand, its black flames blooming across the blade like smoke forged into steel. The cold violet of his eyes clashed violently with the heat that Beric's sword exuded.
The three-eyed raven watched in perfect silence, eyes shifting from one man to the other, as if witnessing two storms crossing paths.
Aeron spoke again, softly, but with a bite.
"So… you are the Apostle of R'hllor."
Beric's face darkened slightly. He took another step forward.
"You speak the Red God's name so casually. It is not a title for idle tongues."
Aeron tilted his head in mock apology.
"Forgive me. It's hard to keep track of all the gods who want me dead."
Beric didn't rise to the bait. Instead, his voice deepened.
"I sought the Raven," he said, nodding toward the ancient man in roots, "to know the shape of the threat rising in the north. The Great Other...the god of death and darkness. His creature is the one who waits in the storm beyond the Wall."
He paused.
"But the Lord of Light showed me something more which I didn't expect.. You."
He raised his flaming sword slightly not as a warrior in challenge, but more of a priest, declaring judgement.
"Another bringer of death. Another creature of shadow and cold. Your name burns in the fire of the Lord."
Aeron laughed. It was not mocking it was simply amused.
"You people.. I'm just misunderstood by your petty gods.. Not that it matters."
Beric's eye did not waver, but the flames on his sword seemed to roar louder in the enclosed space. Sparks fell to the ground.
"Misunderstood or not, you walk in the wake of death. Wherever you go, the gods take notice. Fire, shadow, and ice all gather now. The question is…"
He lowered his sword slightly.
"What do you intend, Grim?"
Aeron met his gaze without flinching.
"What I've always intended," he said. "I'll kill the Night King myself and all those who dare to get in my way, including yourself and your god."
Aeron's suddenly, without a whisper of warning, he moved.
The air cracked from the sheer force of his speed. One heartbeat Beric stood within the cave, flames dancing lazily upon his sword next, he was gone, seized in a violent blur by Aeron's hand.
A thunderclap echoed through the cave.
The Three-Eyed Raven didn't flinch only closed his eyes as the shadows rushed outward.
The world turned to blur and frost, then
BOOM.
Snow exploded outward as Beric's back slammed against the icy earth outside, flung through gnarled roots and rock as if hurled by a god. The ancient branches of the trees above groaned and cracked from the passing shockwave, scattering ravens into the bleak sky.
Aeron stood atop the slope above, his cloak billowing like smoke behind him, eyes glowing bright with that unnatural amethyst hue.
Beric groaned as he pulled himself upright, rolling his shoulder.
"How thoughtful of you," he said with a crooked grin. "To bring us out where the old man wouldn't catch a stray limb."
Aeron didn't reply. No snark. Just that cold look, and a slow steps forward into the snow.
But from the tree line behind him, a shadow moved
GARM.
The monstrous shadow direwolf, eyes glowing violet like his master's, let out a thunderous growl. With speed unnatural for his size, he lunged toward Beric, fangs bared, darkness trailing behind him like a cloak of smoke.
Beric stood tall. The flames on his blade flared
And then the sun rose.
Not the one above.
Behind him, a brilliant sphere of golden fire manifested small at first, but rapidly growing, pulsing like a heart. The air warped around it. The very shadows screamed and recoiled.
Garm halted for only a second. Then he lunged again, jaws wide.
Beric raised his hand.
"You are a creature of darkness," he said softly. "And darkness dies in light."
He brought the flat of his flaming sword down in divine finality.
The moment it touched Garm's snout, a shockwave of light erupted from Beric, engulfing the direwolf. Fire crackled, not red or orange, but pure white-gold, divine fire, alive and roaring with a voice of its own.
Garm howled.
He fought, leapt, struck but the flames clung to him like chains of judgment, searing into his shadowed essence. Every swing of his claws passed through Beric's blazing body, melting mid-air, undone by his weird body , it was composed of divine fire. Attacks pass through him or melt upon contact.
Aeron's eyes widened.
For once, he looked impressed.
"Hmm. That's gonna be troublesome."
Garm lunged again, fangs wide and Beric raised his hand to finish it.
But
"GARM!, enough."
The command thundered through the wind like a whipcrack.
Garm's body halted mid-leap. He landed, claws carving trenches into the frost. Smoke hissed from his limbs as the light retreated, the fires around Beric dimming for a moment.
The wolf's chest rose and fell, steam rolling from its maw.
Beric's eyes narrowed. "You trained that thing?"
Aeron stepped forward, calm and unbothered, as he laid a hand upon Garm's head.
"He's not a thing. And I've got more."
Beric's blade still crackled, but he didn't raise it again.
"Tried to rip out my throat."
Aeron chuckled, actually chuckled. "You are the one who raised a blade at me, Beric. What did you expect?"
Beric said nothing.
No more words.
Aeron moved.
One punch. That's all it took. In an instant, Aeron blurred forward, fist crashing into Beric's chest and lifting him off his feet again. The fire around the man dimmed only for a second as he was sent flying once more this time tumbling across snow and rock like a comet, until he landed hard and rolled into a frozen tree trunk with a grunt.
Beric coughed, wiped blood from his mouth. His golden eyes glared at the figure approaching through the snow.
"So that's how it is…" he muttered.
Beric stood once more, wreathed in flame, his golden eyes glowing. Behind him, the miniature sun blazed, burning away the cold, melting the snow in a ring around him. His sword pulsed with divine heat.
The space between Aeron and Beric suddenly vanished, they met.
Aeron blurred forward faster than a man had any right to move and his sword came down like a thunderbolt of night. A cleaving arc meant to split mountain stone in two.
Beric raised his sword Dawnbringer in answer. The flame sword met its dark flame counterpart in a blinding clash.
BOOM.
The shockwave flattened the snow for thirty feet around them. Trees bowed, shadows twisted, and fire and night howled together as two titanic wills wrestled for dominance.
Violet eyes met golden ones, neither blinking.
Each felt the weight of the other's power.
Aeron smiled faintly, "Truly impressive," he said, voice calm but rumbling like distant thunder. "It seems your god wasn't stingy with the gifts. He gave you fire, body and soul. Gave you a whole set of powers. I can tell you are stronger than the ones I fought already."
Beric didn't flinch. "He gave me what the world needed."
Aeron surged forward again, the ground cracking beneath his boots. He brought his sword in a swift horizontal arc meant to take Beric's head clean off.
But the blade passed through him.
As if he'd swung at a literal fire.
Beric remained, form rippling like molten heat, his body no longer entirely bound to flesh.
Aeron stepped back, the dark flame of Drakaryzor swirling at his side. His eyes narrowed. "Tch."
Beric lowered his sword slightly, voice low and steady. "All for a great purpose. I am flame. And flame exists to purge darkness. Don't you agree?"
He took a step forward, fire trailing behind his boots.
"You walk in the skin of men, but the fire sees what lies beneath. Even if your heart beats, it is not mortal. I will die once I fulfill my purpose. That is to make the world free of you and the Night King."
Aeron chuckled at that. A deep, dark laugh that rumbled from his chest like something primal. "You sound like the Seven's dog before I killed him. He said the same thing."
He gripped his sword tighter.
"And yet here I stand, Alive."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Shadow Monarch in DC
&
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