They danced in the air, two dragons defying every limit hatchlings should have.
Sierra's wings thrashed, ice crystals blossoming with each stroke. Null circled opposite, his cosmic scales pulsing brighter than ever. Neither spoke. Words were unnecessary now. Their bodies screamed for rest, but their eyes demanded more.
Sierra struck first. No testing blow this time—she came with killing intent. Her claws aimed for his throat. Null twisted, caught her wrist, and used her momentum to flip her. She recovered mid-air, tail whipping around like a frozen blade. It caught his ribs, ice spreading from the impact. He didn't flinch. Just grabbed the tail, yanked her close, and drove his knee into her stomach.
She folded but didn't retreat. Her wings wrapped around them both, trapping them in close quarters. Ice erupted from every scale on her body. Null's cosmic scales flared in response, a heat that wasn't fire pushing back. They spun through the air, a ball of opposing forces, neither giving ground.
They hit the ground, still locked together. The impact created a crater thirty feet wide. Sierra got her back legs between them and kicked hard. Null flew back but landed clean, charging before his claws touched earth. She met him halfway.
The collision was different this time.
Their claws met with a sound like reality tearing. Sierra's ice didn't just coat her claws—it erupted from them, frost racing across the ground in fractals. Null's scales blazed with stellar light, and where his feet touched, the ground cratered. The air around him bent, distorted, as if space were uncertain.
They both felt it. The surge. The awakening. Power that had been sleeping suddenly roaring to life.
Sierra's eyes blazed white-blue, frost spreading from her in waves. "Now it's real!"
Null's voice came low, calm despite the cosmic fire burning through his veins. "Then don't stop."
She didn't.
Ice exploded from her maw—not a breath but a storm. Null walked through it. Not dodging, not blocking, just walking forward as space bent around him. The ice curved away, pulled by invisible forces. Each step left craters. Each movement dragged reality slightly out of place.
Sierra burst through her own ice storm. Her claws came in high, ice coating them thick but uneven—she didn't know how to control it yet. Null ducked and tried to grab her arm, but something went wrong when his claws touched her scales. His grip was too heavy, dragging her down harder than he intended. They both stumbled.
She recovered first, spinning her tail. Ice sprayed from it in jagged chunks—an accident, not a weapon. One chunk struck Null's wing, another his shoulder. He flinched, trying to jump back, but the leap carried him too far. He overshot, landing awkwardly twenty feet away.
"What the hell?" Sierra muttered, looking at her ice-covered claws like they were foreign objects.
Null flexed his own claws. Every movement felt wrong, like the air was thicker around him. The ground cracked deeper than his weight should have caused when he stepped forward. When he swung at the air experimentally, his arm felt too fast, then too slow.
They charged each other again, fighting their bodies as much as each other. Sierra tried to breathe ice, but it came out as frozen mist. She couldn't see. Null reached through the fog to grab her, but misjudged—whatever his element was doing to space made distances feel off. His claws scraped her side instead of gripping.
She whipped around, wing-strike to his head. The ice on her wing was sharp but brittle. It shattered against his scales, sending frozen shrapnel everywhere. Both dragons recoiled from the unexpected explosion of ice.
"Your element," Sierra panted, ice crystals still falling from her mouth with each word. "It's not normal."
"Neither is yours," Null replied, spitting out a piece of ice.
They were bleeding now, exhausted, and frustrated with their uncooperative elements. But neither would stop. Breaking apart, they launched skyward, twin streaks against the moon, determined to end it in the air.
Sierra pulled everything into one attack. Her claws froze solid, becoming weapons of absolute zero. Her wings trailed ice shards like frozen comets. She dove at him with everything she had, a white star falling from the heavens.
Null rose to meet her, cosmic aura blazing. But he didn't match her force with force. Instead, he warped the space around her. Sierra's perfect dive suddenly felt wrong, as a subtle but undeniable pull twisted her trajectory. It was just enough.
She realized too late. Her attack, pulled off-center by forces she couldn't see, left her open. Null moved with surgical precision. His claws caught her mid-dive. Using her own momentum and the weight of twisted space, he slammed her into the frozen earth with devastating force.
The impact shattered the ice for a hundred feet in every direction.
Before Sierra could recover, Null was on her. One claw pressed against her throat, not drawing blood but making the threat clear. His wings pinned hers entirely. His weight, amplified by his element, made movement impossible.
Silence fell. Victory was absolute.
That's when Aurora landed.
She appeared in a silent flash of gold, her feet touching the shattered ground without a sound. Her eyes took in the scene—the devastation that rivaled an elder dragon's battle, the two wounded hatchlings, and the sheer power still radiating from them both.
Null released Sierra and stepped back, his aura still flickering with galaxies and void. His expression remained neutral, almost bored, as if awakening an element and defeating another awakened dragon was merely expected.
Sierra rose slowly, panting hard, ice still crackling along her scales. But she was smirking even in defeat. "Guess you're stronger… for now."
Both dragons bore wounds—deep scratches, frost burns, impact bruises. But their eyes burned with the same exhilaration. They'd found their elements in combat, awakened through pure battle instinct.
Aurora watched Null, her expression unreadable. Her son stood there, blood dripping from various wounds, his new element still manifesting in reality-bending waves, and his face showed nothing but calm satisfaction. Like this was always going to happen. Like he'd known all along.
The air grew heavy with a power that had nothing to do with ice or space—it was the pure, undeniable authority of the Queen.
"Training is over for tonight," Aurora finally said, her voice quiet but carrying the force of a command that could not be disobeyed. "Both of you, medical ward. Now."
Sierra limped toward the castle, throwing one last grin at Null over her shoulder. He watched her go, then turned to his mother. The power coming off him was still chaotic, bending light around his form.
"Spatial manipulation," Aurora said, her voice a mix of awe and concern. "You bend space itself."
Null tilted his head slightly, considering. "Is that what it's called?"
His tone was genuinely curious, as if he'd just learned something mildly interesting. As if he hadn't just shattered every expectation of what a hatchling could achieve.
Aurora's gaze softened for just a moment. "Medical ward. We will discuss this tomorrow."
Null dipped his head in acknowledgment and walked toward the castle. His cosmic scales gradually dimmed as his element settled back to dormancy, but the craters his footsteps had left remained.
Proof that something impossible had just happened.
A dragon had awakened space itself as an element. And he wasn't even a year old.