Ep 103. An Even Worse Monster. (1)

  When Raizel had first taken off for the imperial pace, it wasn’t long until Serenis took flight after the youngling; despite the distaween them, it was only a few seds difference sidering their flight speed.

  But before even a minute had passed in the air, Serenis caught a glint of light from beh, within the hills the pace stood upon.

  Soon, a rge spear shot forth from below towards the dragonlord.

  Of course, it wasn’t very difficult to block with a simple shielding spell; at first, Serenis thought of it as nothing more than a particurly observary catg them in their flight. But when a dozen more were thrown at her from beh, even the dragonlord was forced to look down at the steep hill below.

  ‘What are these spears? Where…’

  When she lowered her gaze, a speck of bck came to view, hiding amongst branches and leaves. An individual cloaked in bck was holdi another spear in hand, his stance fully prepared for ahrow.

  “Fall, Aymeia.”

  A sinister voice resonated into the dragonlord’s soul, and a spear throw quickly followed it.

  “…Aymeia?”

  Although she questiohe voice, Serenis’ shielding spell remained unscathed, and the dragonlord expected this throw to be deflected like any other; a dozen other attacks had already proved futile against it.

  And this recisely why Serenis failed that the deflected throws had clouded her judgment, preventing her from notig the bronze-like glint of this spear’s head.

  “…!”

  Her spell was her destroyed, nor pierced through. The shield she’d erected simply disappeared as if it had never beeo begin with, and the thrown on tis trajectory to bury itself into Serenis’ shoulder.

  The spells that had maintained her wings and appearance ceased their funing, making the dragonlord fall out of the skies. Only a handful of snapping branches broke the fall to prevent a fatal oute.

  “Hff…”

  Serenis suppressed a pained groan as she struggled to get ba her feet, gripping at her bleeding shoulder where the on was lodged. But before Serenis could even begin to recover, a series of rustling noises were soon followed by her assaint’s appearance.

  A tattered, dusty cloak covered the ey of his fad body; even his hands were ed in worn bandages, preventing even a sich of skin from showing. Their eg voice was the only distinguishing trait the assaint possessed.

  “So I didn’t imagi. What is that regressed appearance, Aymeia? Has your body finally begun breaking down after all these years?”

  “…I am not Aymeia.”

  “…”

  The assaiurned no verbal reply to the pained answer Serenis croaked.

  Instead, he gripped the spear buried into the dragonlord’s shoulder, ripping it out with a vicious noise as her spewing blood wet the dirt beh. Serenis gasped in pain, gripping at the open wound.

  The man then brought the bloodied speartip to the dragonlord’s neck, pressing it against her bare skin.

  “Then that is all the more reason to extinguish your soul. This world has no need of such stained souls.”

  “…”

  Although the assaint’s nonsensical words were mildly ing, a far more pressing occupied the dragonlord’s mind.

  ‘Kedor…your shell’s still a nuisance.’

  As Serenis turned her attention away from her shoulder, the bloodied spear came to view, clearly of the make of her friend’s shell.

  Ever sihe peculiar on had wounded her, Serenis’ mana was failing to synthesize; even the smallest clump would dissipate before a proper spell could be formed. Her capacity in magic meant little when she couldn’t even form the simplest of spells.

  If she’d been careful of it from the beginning, it may have been a trivial matter to subdue the individual before her – but with her biggest tool now robbed of her, there was little the dragonlord could do in her current body.

  ‘…Foolish. I, of all, should’ve knower.’

  sidering how Raizel had flown straight towards the pace, there was no way the youngling would know the situation here – especially sidering her hatred towards the empire. She may as well have been half-blind.

  As Serenis wracked her head for a solution, her assaint was the first to break the silence.

  “…I suppose you really aren’t her. Your soul is far more vile. How siing you are, sinner.”

  “…Sinner?”

  The man tinued, ign the dragonlord’s response. He was merely muttering to himself.

  “Your soul is not that of a man turned demon; no, rather, you possess both ience. A treacherous bahreatening to swallow the man within…”

  Even if no one else could see it, he could. The soul lying before him was, in all aspects, a threat to the star.

  “…Unworthy.”

  Finally, the assaint sshed his spear sideways, cutting the dragonlord’s throat open.

  Cut off in both void thought, Serenis’ body limply feel backwards. She sunk unto a tree behind her, unmoving.

  The cloaked figure scoffed at the sight of the fatal wound that was inflicted upon the dragonlord. Sooretched out his free hand into the air.

  “Do not fear. After suffit sing, you will-”

  The assaint stopped himself midsentence.

  When the dragon’s hand once again began to twitch despite her fatal injuries, he retreated his hand, fixing the grip on his spear. He warily poised for an ining attack, preparing himself to retaliate.

  But instead, Serenis merely brought one hand towards her wounds.

  Pure, e light radiated from her palm, rapidly closing her bleeding wounds.

  Soon, she even began speaking to him again.

  “…Threatening to swallow me, is it? You say the strahings. She would never.”

  “…?”

  The cloaked figure remaiill in a poised stance. Despite his initial thought of striking the dragonlord over and ain, he merely stood in pce, unsure of who – or what – eaking to him.

  ‘…Something’s ged.’

  The overwhelming darkness of the dragonlord’s demonic soul had instantly yielded the moment it was struck, giving reign to the small light glowing from within – a tiny glimmer that unmistakably beloo mankind.

  What the assaint had perceived to be a soul held in captivity had suddenly prevailed uhe life-threatening circumstao save its demon captor.

  “…You’re not of Nature’s creation. Who are you? WHAT are you?”

  “A relic of the past.”

  “…”

  After her wounds closed, the dragonlord raised her gaze towards the assaint’s shadowed visage. Unlike her usual self, she was beaming a soft grin towards the figure while she spoke.

  “She means no harm. I’ve no qualms allowio exist alongside myself. Is that not suffit to permit her existence?”

  “I ot. What binds you is a demon’s soul. My duty is to se you of it.”

  “Even if I wish otherwise?”

  “That is not for you to decide.”

  “…Very well.”

  The dragonlord raised herself unto her feet, taking a deep breath. She closed her eyes, if only for a moment.

  A moment was all that was needed.

  ? ? ?

  ‘Do you hear that, Serenis? We’re bound in both body and soul. Isn’t that iing.’

  No response.

  Then again, it was merely a thought: a message thrown into the depths of an endless abyss.

  Perhaps she’d hear it, perhaps she wouldn’t.

  But at the very least, he could hope that she would.

  ‘Our death was not your fault. Even now, I wish you’d abandon this quest...’

  Their flict had ended in the previous era. tless had died for its clusion, including Serenis herself.

  Yet, the dragonlord still persisted, tinuing her daughter’s will after a millennium’s passing.

  And if she wouldn’t do as he wished, then the least he could do was support the dragonlord’s wishes.

  ‘…May the stars forever shine upon your path.’

  Once again, he would retreat into the depths of the dragonlord’s scious – this time much further than before.

  ? ? ?

  When Serenis came to once more, she was on the ground, slouched against a tree. The fresh blood coating the grass around her clearly told that she hadn’t imagihe st fatal strike.

  But when she rubbed her neck, she didn’t feel a single hint of pain – the wound had disappeared, as if it’d never been there. Her shoulder was likewise fully healed, even though she could clearly remember agonizing in pain from the open wound.

  Unfortunately, not everything was so merry; her assaint was still standing before her.

  After fixing his grip on his on, the cloaked figure thrust his spear forward at an unbelievable speed. With no time to dodge the attack, Serenis hurriedly put her hands fripping the speartip to stop the on mere inches away.

  But weirdly enough, the whole act was effortless now. Her hands felt fine holding the on’s bde; not a drop of blood could be seen, nor was she struggling to hold it in pce.

  Serenis narrowed her eyes. Her own hand seemed a alien, glimmering in a strange, familiar white color.

  ‘…Scales?’

  Suddenly, Serenis could feel a loud thump in her heart.

  The dragonlord’s body violently vulsed, her innards painfully twisting out of shape. Her thumpi quied as if it would burst at any moment, and her human body desperately resisted against the ge being forced unto it.

  Pure white scales began to form over the dragonlord’s hands that held the spear in pce.

  Armed, and equally fused as the dragonlord, the assaint attempted to withdraw his on – only to find it impossible to do so with Serenis gripping its tip. When the speartip pletely shattered, the cloaked figure abandoned his on, cautiously retreating back a few steps.

  “…”

  Serenis had no attention to spare for her retreating assaint.

  She heaved in ragged breaths, pure white scales beginning to encroach upon various parts of her exposed skin. A pair of sizeable wings newly sprouted on her back, along with a tail of the same color. The blue glint in her dishevelled hair had noticeably faded, and the small specks of b her head had grown to a pair e bck horns.

  It wasn’t that she’d fully regained her proper form as a dragon; but even so, the eyes that stared into the darkness of the assaint’s cloak were no lohat of a human’s. Instead, a long, sharp pupil extended across her blue iris.

  It didn’t take long for the cloaked figure to alter his judgment of the woman before him.

  “…A sinner’s soul that fo its human in at will. It seems you were never quite human to begin with. A marvel that su abomination is able to exist.”

  “…”

  It wasn’t like Serenis particurly uood the situation aer.

  As far as she was ed, she’d suffered a fatal attack, only to return to her senses in a fully healed state. Her half-baked dragonkin body had the her heart on an unscious rampage, rapidly regressing the dragonlord to her inal form.

  But whatever the cause of this event was, she had no time to question it before the immihreat.

  After steeling herself for the sed phase of their frontation, Serenis gred into the shadow of the figure’s hood.

  “…Call me what you would.”

  She couldn’t bring herself to deny the man’s words. This whole venture was nothing more than a blind search for redemption.

  ‘…So I ot rest. Not until this flict sees its end.’

  Though she’d somehow quied her transformation intonkin, there was no telling whether her body would tio tolerate the sudden ge. No good would e out of prolonging things.

  Serenis pulled back her arm, readying to ehe newly grown scales and cws clearly attested to her inhuman birth.

  ‘…Serenis.’

  A vague, distant voice seemed to mutter from the edges of her sciousness. But she could hardly afford to trate on it.

  She couldn’t afford to dis if it was even real.