Chapter 181: Dragon vs. Slazzigula. [Release Version] (Patreon)

<[Music Resonation (Moderate)] [Sanctified Blaze] [Various Spell Buffs] [Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Allegro)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>

Without any further delay, the fight between two giant fire-spitting lizards began in the most appropriate way possible.

“Kriiiaaahhhh!”

“Grigriaahhh!”

Streams of crimson and bright red flames exploded out from our respective mouths like rockets, crashing onto each other, clashing together to form a massive fire wall. This only lasted a moment though, as the tides turned against the slazzigula, the severe difference in magical powers made itself known, pushing his fire back.

The slazzigula, realizing that it couldn’t compete against me in this manner, canceled its breath attack and jumped to the side, avoiding my dragon fire from hitting him. Displaying its nimbleness once again, the giant salamander landed on the tips of its feet and used this momentum to sling its body forwards, flames swords forming around its carapace gauntlets.

Stat difference in our intelligence. A massive one. It knows it and is going for close-combat, where it believes it excels more. Can’t have that. Firing squad, go!

Nine of my parallel minds went into action, each activating a projectile spell from my spell list and blasting it at the slazzigula. Lightning, terra, storm, lava, sacred; my elemental prowess forced the monster to slow down its advance, jumping side to side to dodge.

My spells connected, though, damaging it considering its groans. Sadly, despite its slender form, the slazzigula was quite the bruiser according to its Profile. Level eight and a focus on strength, vitality, agility, and stamina to facilitate roughhousing, and even its wisdom wasn’t too bad.

Regardless, it continued charging forward like a raging bull. Just, instead of pointing its horns forward, its twin swords were directed at me, now ready to spill blood.

Can’t fight here. Too close to the others.

Although I wasn’t watching their fight, I could hear spells colliding against each other under me. High-pitched grunts, fury-filled shouts, and blood-curdling screams. I had to take off my party bracelet before transforming, meaning I couldn’t spectate as to what was going on their side. I was worried about them, but I had to concentrate on my fight.

Still, two multi-floor house-sized monsters rampaging around wasn’t good. A normal-sized human only reached up to my knees, meaning I could stomp someone flat just by just stepping on them. This would disrupt the fight below me. To avoid this, I erected multiple [Terra Walls] to slow the slazzigula down, forcing it to either break through or climb over—considering its physical power and how light-footed it was, it should have no problem with either.

<Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Allegro): Flames burning as fast as flashfire, increasing the caster’s Agility by half of the base amount. All fire elemental attacks increase in strength>

However, that was all just part of the plan. In [Symphonie des Feuergottes]’s first movement, Allegro, my current Agility was about 50% higher than usual, which, when boosted by wind’s [Swift Winds] agility buff, made me far faster than this slazzigula. Charging in with my flaming tail, I slashed at the salamander with [Hellblade Edge].

The slazzigula guarded against it perfectly, not letting me move my tail any further despite the strength I put into it. Still, that was expected. Sliding my tail down the salamander’s gauntlets, I slipped through the slazzigula’s arms and used [Wind Blast] while jumping, pushing me onto one of the rock walls I constructed. While I slithered over them like a lizard, my opponent began destroying them to reach me, effectively enabling me to lead it away from the Ellaine’s group’s fight.

Number eight, nine, and ten, music time. Boss battle time!

“Is this the fated battle, the light shines ♫

It’s blinding my sight ♫

But I’ve gotta hold on, the stage calls ♫

The cries of a thousand, the flames of war will descend ♫”

I didn’t need the arena for this fight when this monster only had eyes for me. The place we were fighting in was like the savannah’s fields, flat and wide. This meant, using [Dragon Fire] wasn’t the best choice here, but [The Will to Fight and Survive]. What I needed was sustain.

[The Will to Fight and Survive] made losing stamina a non-issue, but it also increased the damage I could deal with fire and holy spells and decreased my enemies’ morale and wisdom by 5%. And that last part was what I was really aiming for.

In addition, by increasing the amount of Mana I invest into [Aerokinesis] to play my song spells, it allowed me to support my teammates. They received the positive effects of my song while their enemies received the negatives. Sometimes I really loved [Idol].

Dedicating two parallel minds to continuous cast [Wind Blast], I jumped off the last [Terra Wall] and kept myself afloat using wind magic. While I couldn’t fly properly yet, raining down dragon fire and spells while floating overhead was no problem. The monster wanted to get close to me, meaning all I needed to do was to fly.

Like a ninja, the salamander was dodging right and left, seemingly getting used to my shooting patterns. Flames then erupted from its right hand. While using it as a pivot to dodge through my spells, the slazzigula crushed through the ground when it did so, confusing me when nothing happened. “What was it trying to do?” I wondered, continuing shooting out spells.

The slazzigula groaned when a [Bedrock Blades] pierced the monster’s shoulder, tearing through its scales and spilling blood. The salamander destroyed the rock blade with a flaming punch, roaring in anger afterwards before beginning to simply punch through all the remaining approaching blades.

Enraged! Opening for me to—

[Foresight] activated before I could continue, directing my attention to the ground as the magma veins broke through the crevasse. Like pillars, jets of molten rock erupted underneath me, forcing me to ditch attacking and focus on maintaining myself in the air.

My reliance on [Wind Blast] to keep myself afloat showed itself here, when volcanic gases followed the pillars, interrupting the winds around me. Sprays of rock made it impossible for my wings to properly flap, making it even harder for me to keep my heavy body up in the air. I had to escape from this predicament and when I did, the slazzigula reacted.

[Danger Perception] exploded once again, warning me to jolt my head to the side. When I did, I could hear the sharp report reminiscent of a gunshot as a flaming spear was thrown at me. “Fast!” was all I could think as my reflexes moved my body without my input, rolling in the air to avoid the brunt of the attack. It was a glancing hit, but somehow I felt the heat through my [Draconic Barrier]

Even with my high fire resistance, that rank B nearly pierced my defences to deal damage. Every single rank B has been a nightmare up until now, and even as a rank B myself it still hasn't gotten easy! Well, damage was irrelevant as long as this thing didn’t decapitate me or cut an arm off, since this was prime time to level up [Inferno Resistance]!

As I was readying myself for its next attack, [Danger Perception] activated, sending a chill down my spine as I noticed the scale crest on its back suddenly opened up. Fire spouted out like a blooming flower before the flames turned into long paddle-like wings.

“For the inferno ruler’s true power is restricted by it,” was something I remembered from the slazzigula’s description. An accumulation of fire-potent scales from its slazzanbal days, restricting its ‘true power’ until this ‘scale-crown’ opened up.

With a wild roar, the slazzigula jumped into the air with its scale-crown serving as a jetpack, propelling the monster up in the sky and towards me. Forming another flame spear with its [Pyrokinesis], it threw it at me, forcing me to use [Draconic Roar] to blow it away. Sadly, the recoil sent me off-balanced.

Scheiße, flying is too hard!

My inexperience with flying showed itself at this moment. The advantage I’d thought I had was invalidated.

With flaming blades forming around the monster’s gauntlets, I assessed the situation, noting that I couldn’t escape with [Wind Blast] while struggling to regain my balance in the air. If I tried to blast myself away, all I would achieve was another crash landing. My only option here was to blast it with spells and then resort to [Hellblade Edge] and [Scale-Dust Veil] the moment it got close. [Dreadflare Aura] would be for Plan B.

Like the bruiser it was, it shielded its vitals using its flame sword while continuing its charge. Clicking my tongue at how well it was wielding its airborne body, I placed the sharp, scaled edge of my tail inside my mouth and with one quick swipe, I sharpened and reheated it using my jaw plates. Sparks flew as I snapped my claws against each other, readying myself for a physical fight.

Panzer!

With purple armor protecting my body now, I closed the distance between us with [Wind Blast].

Let’s do this!

Flames and claws clashed. Scales broke off as flesh was rendered and blood spilled. The slazzigula grew angrier and angrier while white and purple fire began shrouding my figure. Neither of us even attempted to stay in the sky, knowing this was just a phase of the battle. As we fell ever closer to the ground, neither of us disappointed each other as we dueled like two swordsmen.

In this match, it was a competition between stats and skill. I had higher stats than the slazzigula while it had to rely on its stronger skill set and ability with its twin blades. None of us could land a decisive blow against the other, but every glancing hit on the salamander meant a step closer to my win while I could heal from the hits I suffered.

Come on! Sustain tank, let’s go!

When the ground came into view, we stomped each other, creating some space to soften our fall.

“Grigri!” the slazzigula seemingly laughed at our clash while I was trying to recover my breathing rhythm. When the slazzigula once again did its “come at me” hand sign, something snapped inside me when confronted against its arrogant personality. Furious, I ground my teeth against each, creating a small spark in front of me.

… And the scale-dust covering its body blew up like dynamite. Ohoho, its cry of surprise was satisfying as hell.

Sure, fighting up close and personal wasn’t my forte, which the monster recognized immediately. I might suck in it but it was also the best method to cover my enemy in my scale-dust, adn with how everything inside this magma chamber was bright red or similar, it hid my plan perfectly until the time of detonation.

It was a shame that my Job skills didn’t transfer into my dragon form, since [Crimson-Scaled Dreadgiver] would’ve made this far easier.

<Scale-Dust Size Increase: Increase the size of scale-dust expelled from the owner’s body. Increase explosion size>

<Fire Abnormality Effect: Dread: Adds an effect to all fire produced by the owner through magic or abilities, called [Dread Burn]. [Dread Burn] nullifies all source of Health regeneration on an afflicted target and decrease their fire resistance by 30%>

Honestly, if I could buy them using SP, I would have done it already. Whatever the price, I didn’t care. I wanted them badly! These were dragon skills, they didn’t belong to a dragonewt.

Let’s act spoiled after this fight ends.

<[Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Adagio)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>

<Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Adagio): Flames burning slowly with powerful notes, increasing the caster’s Strength and Intelligence by half of the base amount. Mana consumption of all spells is reduced by 50%>

Perfectly timed, the next movement began, reducing my maximum agility to increase my strength and intelligence in return. Honestly, I preferred adagio for this fight but I couldn’t control when the movements switched. This was my “boss battle phases” gimmick.

… Speaking of phase gimmicks, the reason why I called it perfectly timed was ‘cause the slazzigula had its phase change, too.

Standing straight like a human, the slazzigula was tall enough to look down at me, showing off its height. As the dust settled, I could see broken scales, blood, and burn scars covering its body. My explosion definitely did damage, but it also triggered the scale-crown on its back to fully unleash its power.

Six wings of pure flames emitted from its back, making the slazzigula look more like a flaming angel than a salamander. Flames began to form beneath it as it somehow slowly began hovering in the air with its flame wings flapping hard. It roared, and the moment it did, five pillars of flames suddenly formed around it before they rushed towards me.

Looking similar to the [Inferno Magic Lv. 2] spell [Blazing Twister], those tornados scorched the earth, leaving black marks behind. [Danger Perception] didn’t warn me about them, so I believed I could safely stay inside them without incurring too much damage, but what did catch my attention was slazzigula itself. Flame blades formed around its gauntlets again, but instead of jumping or running, it flew towards me with those six fire wings.

What the fuck!

With both swords drawn back, it slashed at me the moment it could, prompting me to dodge. Magic circles began to flicker around me as spells were prepared, but the slazzigula left no time for me to breathe, striking relentlessly at me. This was where not having allegro’s speed buff was an issue, since its current form seemed stronger and faster. I couldn’t keep up with it!

I growled as the monster landed a proper hit on my wings, ripping the membrane apart and piercing through my [Panzer] armor to expose the skin on my limb. My projectile spells were hitting it, but like a berserker, it continued attacking without flinching.

Crackling, it suddenly changed its attack pattern. Extinguishing its flame swords, the slazzigula sucker-punched me right in my head before grabbing my neck. Grappling my neck with both arms now, it mounted my back. I had no idea what it was planning but my heart skipped in fear.

Dreadflare Aura!

Scale-dust exploded from inside my scales, creating a super-hot aura that flared right in front of the slazzigula. Caught unawares, it let go of my neck and was blasted back. Using this chance, I shot multiple [Banishment Beam] at it, but it dodged them like an insect with its wings.

Materializing another flaming spear, it blasted itself forward with the spear tightly gripped in its hand, slamming the spear down where I just stood. Dodging further away, I noticed the spear exploding into a pillar of flames, sending a small shockwave forward. It seemed this attack required some recovery time, so I managed to counter-attack with a [Hellflame Breath].

It blocked my breath attack in time with its arms, but it still growled as it was being pushed back. I had to press my advantage!

Rumbling Might! Levin Core! Warp Point: Entry!

The ground shook strongly as the slazzigula lost balance. A lightning ball appeared behind the monster, buffeting it with strong lightning bolts, weakening its guard in the process. It roared out in pain as the flames hit its head, melting through its scales as it struggled to keep its legs standing with the earthquake I was creating.

Flame swords erupted from its arms, shielding it from my attack long enough to slip past, storming at me while missing half the scales on its face. When I snapped my mouth shut, instead of attacking back, I chose to avoid it.

Warp Point: Exit, now!

After having my parallel minds place a grey magic circle behind the slazzigula, the air suddenly ruptured right in front of me and my opponent. Unable to stop its charge, the slazzigula entered through the portal and reappeared a bit further away; however, instead of facing me, it had its back toward me.

Fuck, this mana cost is insane! Why must these two shitty spells cost so much Mana every single time?

Too much mana used up and this thing wasn’t even close to half health yet. This was going nowhere! My scale-dust was dealing damage thanks to my song, but it was time to go overdrive.

Solar Beam!

Flames burst underneath my scales as my solar core shined with a bright yellow glow. For a whole week, I have been holding onto my solar energy for this very moment. If I couldn’t stop the spider from entering the surface due to all the delays from this fight, then I had to end it now and hope the sun was currently up in the sky to refill later. I was running out of time.

When the slazzigula turned around, it let out a growl of surprise, widening its eyes as it scrambled to dodge the beam. However, I still had enough juice to continue shooting it. Turning my head around, the slazzigula seemed to sense my desperation to end this fight, but it couldn’t capitalize on my rashness, knowing instinctively it would not survive getting hit by my beam directly. Unfortunately for it, I could turn my head around faster than it could dodge.

It howled like a banshee as it blocked my beam with its carapace gauntlets. Sturdy as they were, they began to melt in front of my [Solar Beam]. The slazzigula formed its blades again, allowing it to escape and blast itself into the sky with its wings.

Once my beam was over, the stored solar energy inside my solar core went into this “overdrive” mode I liked to call, causing my body temperature to skyrocket to the point that my scale-dust exploded non-stop. Although its gauntlets were falling apart from the super-heat, the slazzigula only dedicated a small groan as he flew at me to continue the fight, looking even more alive than before.

That was when it dawned at me.

Hold on … couldn’t I do the same? Why do I need wind when I can create my own force with … fire?

Call it stupid, call it crazy, call it a waste of mana and stamina. The salamander was using its own flames like a propulsion engine, so why couldn’t I do the same? Solar core allowed me to control my body heat, [Pyrokinesis] helped me morph and control my fire, and as long as I had scale-dust inside my body, I had fuel.

A rocket, of course! I’m a living rocket!

Without further ado, I went ahead and increased my body temperature, and for the first time, it felt like I was burning my organs. I was cooking myself alive here, but, oh boy, the elation drowned out the pain.

Turning my head to my wings, I thought I was seeing a rocket engine shooting out fire. The thrust created by this action was unbalancing me, fighting against gravity and friction. I could feel my mind “sweating,” but I honestly couldn’t stop smiling.

AHAHAHAHIEHIEHIEK!

[Foresight] and [Danger Perception] activated. I knew what was coming. My only response to these warnings was to let it all out. My internal engine roared, granting me a significant boost in speed as I swerved under the slazzigula’s flame swords, imitating that jetpack it had!

While it sounded all amazing, I was as much of a beginner with this movement style as my usual “flying” method. I used too much power and sent myself right past the slazzigula, unable to counterattack like I wanted to.

The slazzigula followed behind me with its wings, while I was trying my best to keep myself balanced. Sadly, at this point, I realized my experimentation went awry quickly. My control over this new ability was horrendous despite my crackling laugh.

Super heroes always learn new abilities so easily mid-fight. So, why was I failing at this so hard?

Incoming!

Unable to properly handle this new ability, I once again put too much power into my turbo boost, crashing against the slazzigula, unintentionally body slamming it. As the both of us grabbed onto each other, the slazzigula managed to support my flight using its own jet engine, balancing us. I could see the slazzigula wanted to slash at me, but the heat I was emitting made its scales melt like cheese.

It kicked me away, and I could see its hands sizzling once it let go. At this point, I had to choose between stopping my overdrive mode to regain my ability to shoot spells or continue this madness. The amount of mana I was consuming while keeping [Symphonie des Feuergottes] and [Solar Beam]’s overdrive mode active was draining me at a worrying rate. Without a source of Mmna regeneration, the smart choice was to stop this insanity now.

Well, speaking of the devil …

<[Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Minuet)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>

<Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Minuet): Flames burning like a dance, lively as the finale approached, increasing the caster's Vitality and Wisdom by half of the base amount. Health, Mana, and Stamina regeneration from all sources is increased by 50%>

Yeah, no, the insanity would continue!

Not like I would complain. That was exactly what I needed!

Minuet, usually the third movement of a symphony shared with the scherzo, was the light-hearted dance part following the slow and rhythmic second movement. It was supposed to act as a “refresher” to help listeners settle down before the final movement. How ironic that my first application of it would be during a discord and disharmony moment.

While it still wasn’t enough to offset my mana consumption, it drastically slowed down the rate at which I drained it. When I locked eyes with the slazzigula, it made me feel like I could continue this fight. It might be a fight to the death against this thing, but this third phase activation made me feel like I could win this.

No, I would win this.

Adjust the power. Parallel minds, help me out a bit more.

I didn’t learn how to fly alone, I had my parallel minds help me in the process. All ten of my parallel minds should have had enough time to adjust and learn how this rocket boosting worked. Learning how to do it in such a short time with one mind was hard, but with eleven? Easy!

… Just kidding, I still couldn’t do it.

Waaaaaahhhhhhhh!

As the slazzigula and I approached each other with our respective fire transportation method, I accidentally put too much power in it again and I lost balance while flying. Anxiousness filled my mind as I saw the slazzigula drawing its flaming sword at me while I couldn’t respond properly.

I’m gonna get cut!

As the blade drew closer and closer, the unexpected happened.

“Shriiiiiieeek!”

It was deja vu. Just, instead of appearing underneath us, the ceiling suddenly broke, raining giant spiders. The slazzigula noticed this, canceled its attack as I flew past it like mentos erupting from  inside a coke bottle. Comically crash landing on the ground, I quickly reduced my energy consumption to slow myself down, recovering my footing in seconds.

When I jolted my head towards my opponent, instead of seeing it attack me, the giant salamander used its flaming swords to pierce an elephant-sized spider’s head, instantly killing it before attacking the next one falling from the ceiling. Like a nightmare, giant spiders fell from a crack in the ceiling.

The slazzigula roared in rage after killing the second spider. It gave me a short glance before its fire wings grew in size, helping it fly up and into the hole.

As I was trying to process what just happened, my focus switched from the slazzigula and spiders towards Ellaine and the students.

“Argh! Shit!” I heard an echo curse.

Approaching it, the sight of a scorched battlefield came into view. Numerous followers of Shiterno laid on the ground, either dying or dead in a field of fire and broken rocks. In the middle of all of this, six humans and a garm caught my attention.

Oh no!

Nishio was cursing uncontrollably with blue-purple-colored skin, shooting out magic as he screamed in pain. Kazumi, Kohaku, and Ellaine were standing up, stalwart, but parts of their armor were burned black from fire, as well as the body parts it defended. Misaki and Tamae were the only ones looking healthy, but I could already see signs of arcane corruption creeping up, similar to Nishio. Quatre, despite the numerous wounds on him, continued defending everybody behind him, undeterred by the fire its body blocked for everybody.

“Do not give up now! The enemy lies weakened, we must press on to preserve our faith!” The large congregation of fire mages, on the other hand, was drastically thinned down from everybody's efforts. From the spells they shot out, the ones left were the inferno mages.

Heal, I need to heal them! Quick!

This was all I could think of. I pushed my body forward with this single goal. Nothing could stop me.

“This is a trial we must complete! We must do this for our God! With the honor and dedication of all our brothers and sisters who fell on this day, we must persevere! If we cannot pass this trial, how can we free our God Danterno? Fire mages, we must fight!” Cries of desperation came out from those fire mages but all I heard was the rattling noises of vermin. When I saw them preparing spells to finish off the students, I only saw red.

As I was preparing a flame breath to kill them off, another cracking sound came from the ceiling, however, instead of spiders, four giant wolves came shooting down.

The leading wolf, clad in black and white fur, growled with a blood mist emitting from its eyes. Black lightning wrapped around its body for a moment before it shot straight at the leading mage, frying him to death.

Saori!

It was Saori and her garms!

With lightning wrapped around her body, Saori’s landing caused a shockwave of black electricity, stunning all the mages around her. With her powerful arms, every stomp she did with them was like a punch, shaking the ground as she mercilessly smashed men and women alike into pulps of viscera. Once her garms landed with her, this fight turned into a one sided rabbit hunt, as none of the mages could stand against the unwounded wolves crushing their skulls with their bite.

Tasianna! Grimnir! You guys are all safe! Urgh, Sacred Field.

With the enemies in front of me gone, I cast [Sacred Field] under Ellaine, the students, and Quatre, healing them of their wounds as my fighting instincts suddenly stopped completely. I felt relief, causing me to unintentionally deactivate [Symphonie des Feuergottes] and let my body cool down; that said, overdrive was still active and I had to release this pent-up energy somewhere. Looking at the horde of giant spiders that dropped down, crawling away when they saw me, I remembered I still had a job to do.

There were two ways to cancel [Solar Beam]’s overdrive mode, and that was either through a supernova explosion or another solar beam. The idea was to drain all the remaining solar energy with this last move. Choosing the latter method, the area where I fought the slazzigula which was now swarmed by spiders became my target.

With a beam hot enough to instantly melt rock, I ensured none of the spiders lived to tell the tale. Once it was all over, my body just slumped on the ground, exhausted. Even my music stopped playing.

<[Starvation (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]>

Wow, looks like I got too invested in my fight against the slazzigula. That booster rocket was a good-bad idea …

Before the adrenaline went away completely, I opened up my storage, letting numerous dismantled cuts of felgheist meat drop onto the scorching ground, instantly grilling in the process, even some turning right into charcoal.

“Aifli eir Vintral.” A soothing voice entered my ears as white snow dropped down on me like on a calm, winter day. It was Tasianna’s custom spell. “You did a fine job, Lady Hestia. Allow me to serve you.” While drinking a Mana potion and dragorade simultaneously, she picked up a slab of meat with an ice plate and put it inside my mouth.

Forcing myself to chew it, I could only think about how lacking in spices the meat was … but it was better than nothing. Hunger was a wild thing. It made everything taste better.

“S-Sensei?” Five voices, almost in tears.

I could hear a mist dispersing as I mindlessly chewed anything Tasianna set inside my mouth before hearing, “… I-I … I’m sorry for being late for homeroom. I lost my way here.”

“Sensei!”

Thank goodness … Huh?

As I tuned out of Saori’s and her student’s heartful reunion, a woman clad in white armor suddenly came into my vision. She had white hair and features resembling a Scandinavian woman in her late twenties or mid-thirties. Tasianna wasn’t reacting to her as she approached me, giving me a short bow before mana mist suddenly was being released from her body.

Her armor made clanking noises as two limbs erupted from her back along with a third appendage from her butt. White scaled wings, an ivory-colored tail, two short beige horns, and marble-like scales covering her neck and hands. Her face was still that of a human, but her race certainly wasn’t.

She bowed before me the moment her transformation ended, smiling as she addressed me, “It is an honor to finally meet you, Princess Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor, youngest daughter of the imperial family of Kargryx. My name is Yorshka Nordor and I am your terribly older niece.”

Confusion. Nordor? Yorshka? My mind was still processing what just happened but something was preventing me from connecting the dots together. Sometimes, compassion could become an issue.

Where is Talon?

***

What is that explosion? Why did the ceiling just crack open? Where did those spiders come from?

My mind was hazy. I couldn’t express my confusion to anybody around me. Pain. The pain was the only thing keeping me awake. For twenty years, I have become accustomed to living with burn scars, tormenting me in the first few years whenever I tried to sleep. No, that wasn’t the pain I was feeling.

Keith?

I looked around. A corpse of a man. His face was burnt and his eyes lifeless. He could not speak anymore. A knife with a wavy blade was stuck in his chest. It was the cause of his death.

The sound of thunder. The crackling entered my ears but I eventually lost the ability to hear. I looked up at the ceiling. Four giant wolves jumped down. My vision became hazier.

Keith. What could our lives have become if we had chosen a different path?

My heart ached. Was this sadness?

See you soon at Ilsaphone’s palace … old friend.

With that last thought, my mind went blank.