Ep 38. Do You Know My Name? (4)

  ‘…This was what they were capable of.’

  Serenis meekly thought to herself as she strolled through the night alone. Without Patrick ht apanying her as her usual times outside, she was able to properly examihe city’s sery now: rows ht-colored buildings; , tidy street of bricks and stone; artificial lights that lit the night as bright as day in its still busy streets. Streams of water soothingly flowed throughout the city, with trimmed trees and patches of flowers decorating the occasioy spaces.

  Some parts of the city were undoubtedly built and powered by magic; the rest funed beyond the dragonlord’s uanding. She had not a single clue how these glorified mps (read: streetlights) were able to remain alit for hours without magic every single night.

  It was a worldly difference from the small vilges of straw huts she remembered from her own era. The most advanced human architecture she’d seen were castles built of wood and cy, or the occasional stones. When night fell, darkness would swallow the world.

  But left to their own devices for a thousand years, mankind had aplished so much more. The star seemed to have turned upright, and the state of human civilization was beyond anything Serenis could’ve imagined. Nothing seemed the same – not their cities, nor their people.

  Perhaps this was the future that the First envisioned: a future without demonkind and their lords. A world that would never cease to grow in the hands of man.

  Ohe brethren had been oppressors. They had cared little for what humans could do. Although the dragonkin under her rule had always been the oddities that treated mankind as people, in a typical demon’s eyes, man was insignifit; theirs was a civilization no different than a dle fme that could flicker out at the lightest breeze. Their lives amouo little. Demons had faithfully held onto that belief.

  But the world Serenis now beheld was denying her brethren’s beliefs, proving h they’d been for thousands of years. A potential killed uheir oppression was finally bearing fruit.

  ‘Perhaps they have every right to call us evil.’

  As Serenis explored her thoughts, her steps led the dragon back to the park where she’d entered the beasts earlier. She wao explore the sewer’s depth to affirm her suspis about the ins of those beasts, but when she’d finally arrived at the sewer’s entrahe dragonlord noticed a pair of humans standing watch – likely the enfort sector’s personnel.

  ‘Hm. I wonder if Patrick’s at another entrance…’

  But right as the dragon was about to decide on a way to sneak her way in, Serenis could hear small whispers of versation in a small patch of trees nearby. When she spared a brief gnce, a familiar pair could be seen standing behind the shadows of leaves and branches.

  “…Light, I do a lot of things, but sneaking isn’t really one of them. Isn’t there some secret backdoor to the sewer?”

  “There is, but…you’re too big. I don’t think even I could fit through them anymore.”

  “…”

  Serenis quietly approached the whispering pair, cirg the park to not disturb the agents on guard.

  “Ilias.”

  “Huh?...Lord Serenis? What’re you doing here?”

  “The same thing you two are up to.”

  The dragonlord shifted her gaze to the half girl beside Ilias. Light was shivering just like before, but the gleam in her eyes clearly showed her io stay.

  In fact, Light seemed to be on her guard, warily staring at her peer. After all, it hadn’t been long since she’d stopped the dragonlord from chasing after her friends into the tunnel.

  “…Did you e back to kill them after all?”

  “If necessary.”

  A tense air filled the atmosphere betweewo students. Ilias hurriedly intervened with what little mediating skills she had, stepping iween to stop them from staring each other to death.

  “Uhm, settle down! We’re just here to, you know, uh…capture them. Yeah, capture. There’s o kill anyone.”

  “Depending on the circumstances, I-“

  Ilias creaked her head towards her lord. The desperation in the youngling’s eyes immediately vinced Serenis to correct herself.

  “…I was merely curious what those beasts had been. I suppose there’s o kill them.”

  “See, Light? It’s fine, she’s not going to do them any harm. I’m sure she’ll help us. Riiight?”

  “Of…course.”

  The half girl’s distrusting eyes fell on the dragonlord. Ilias’ reassurance did little to do away her suspis, but at least they weren’t ht hostile anymore.

  “…Fine.”

  Ilias retreated back a step with a relieved sigh. No more death stares was a good start.

  “Okay, now we just o figure out how to get ihen. Maybe if I break the ground open somewhere, we could…”

  “There’s no need. e.”

  Serenis motioned for the two younglings to e closer. She id a hand around both their waists, and soon, their figures faded out into the sery. Despite standily where they had been, no one could dis their figures from the background anymore.

  Ilias simply found the spell useful and iing. Light was internally freaking out.

  “Wait, you use invisibility spells? On multiple people at once?? We didn’t even cover this in css yet!”

  “Ooh, you learhings in css, Light? That sounds fun.”

  “Quiet, both of you. e.”

  The three invisible figures quietly walked right past the guards, entering the sewers with ease. Serenis undid their spells ohey were some ways in as they reappeared uhe light of the hanging torches, standing on the underground al’s floors.

  “That was so cool! I guess not everyoo be a lord. I wish I could do stuff like that.”

  “…No wohe profs don’t bother waking you up.”

  Despite the chatter, Serenis’ attention remained focus onto the corridor ahead. Only a few torches lit their path forward, and even expanding her mana sensory yielded nothing different from what her eyes could see; in a crowded city like Partivihe readings yielded masses of mana tightly clustered across a random spread. Other than being within close proximity, it was impossible to tease the clusters apart from a distance.

  “Now, where to find our two beasts…”

  Light likewise stared into the darkness of the corridor. She balled her hands into small fists, shaking her head towards her peer.

  “…There’s going to be a lot more than two. Probably hundreds.”

  The dragons turowards Light. Serenis simply bliwice as she he ued t in silence – but Ilias couldn’t remain calm at the number. When Light had mentiohere’d be more, she was expeg maybe a dozen at most, not hundreds.

  “Hundreds?! Light, I don’t think we escape the city with that many…”

  “…I know. But if we find the doctor, he might be able to fix them back.”

  “The doctor?”

  “…Mhm. The person who made everyone like this.”

  Serenis mused at the remark. It seemed like the half girl had a clear destination in mind.

  “I’m assuming you have the means to find this individual?”

  “Yeah…I remember the way there.”

  ? ? ?

  Numerous mana bullets ly buried themselves into the deformed male’s shoulders and legs, but did little besides making the man-like beast groan in pain. And his pained cries of help were barely audible, buried in the ughter of the doctor apanying him.

  “Ehaha, hahahaha! H, h, how long you r, run away, enforcer?!”

  Iris bit her lips as another wave of magic struck at her. Fiery barriers shielded her momentarily, but soon gave away to the rays of light that exploded outwards. The impact sent Iris crashing into the far wall of the al, pebbles and smoke haphazardly flying about.

  ‘…Do I have to do it? If I want to capture him without killing, then…’

  Chirp! Chirp!

  A sharp pain interrupted her thoughts as Iris looked down at her right hand. A blob of white scales had dug its teeth into her finger, with dozen others following suit behind their leader.

  ‘…Rats?!’

  “Ehahaha! E, e, eat her alive, m, my children!”

  “Kh…get off me!”

  A burst of fmes shrouded the enforcer’s arm, sending the rats running off from their meal. However, while Iris was occupied with the rats, the groani charged up another beam of light towards her.

  ‘…Twelve be damned.’

  Iris hurriedly spent what little mana she had left as she erected several yers of barriers before her. A few yers gave away as rays of light crashed onto their surface, and only the st yer had mao hold.

  The enforcer pao catch her breath. A hand reached into her inner pockets and plucked out a bck pill that was shoved dowhroat. She forced herself to rise afterwards, her damaged legs struggling to support the body’s weight.

  “M, my…are you perhaps s, s, short on m, mana?”

  “Shut it. Aldrid made a mistake letting you be born.”

  Iris wove her hand in the air as the path behind burst into fmes, iing the y of rats whole. The smell of burnt flesh began to fill the corridor as the enforcer held her ground, gring into the doctor ahead of her.

  “Ehehehe…hehahahaha…g, g, good…keep s, struggling…!”

  When the doctor snapped his fingers, mlimmers of prismatic light began to shihis time from within the shadows behind him. A chorus of pained groans apahudding footsteps as two more man-based beasts emerged behind him.

  ‘More?!…There were more of the human types as well?!’

  Iris betedly opened a portal behind herself to retreat, but rays of light crashed into its entrance, destroying her escape path. Another beam would break the barrier spells she’d erect, and the final one would directly crash into her abdomen, sending the enforcer sprawling powerlessly across the burnt flesh of rodents.

  “Ehehehe…we…we did it, my children! Good, good, v, very very good. A human subject is a, a, always, wele.

  The doctor approached Iris on the ground, produg a metal syringe from his b coat. Its milky tents faintly glimmered in the dark as the needle was stabbed into the enforcer’s chest.

  In her fading sciousness, Iris bleakly noted a burniion paving its way into her heart.

  Praybird