The dust had yet to settle but the folks of the Zera Clan were already launching their counterattacks. A volley of arrows rose from the clouds of smoke and fell unto Henry who was hovering in the sky with its magically-conjured wings. Upon a closer look at the deadly hail of steel, it was no hail of steel at all. The arrows were ethereal in appearance, magically conjured just like his wings.

Henry grinned and conjured a Spell Shield. In his strangely jaundiced and augmented state, his Spell Shield was stronger and bigger. It was the size of a twenty-foot-tall wall. The arrows dispersed into nothing as they collided with the anti-magic barrier that was ironically made of magic.

After the volley of arrows, it was a storm of fireballs. Henry chortled loudly for all to hear as he dispelled his wings and dove straight into the barrage. The explosions did little to harm him and the flames burned fruitless on his hide.

“The monster’s insusceptible to fire!” someone screamed from the ground.

“Right you are!” Henry roared in affirmation as he landed on the ground with a shockwave that pushed back all that surrounded him, including the buildings and the people.

When the dust had settled, Henry found himself surrounded by warriors dressed in hide armour and armed with spears, axes, and swords. He commended them for their quick recovery but scoffed at their futile attempts and struggle. He even snickered at the shielders who stood at the vanguard.

A pair of warriors with twin axes leapt at him with battle cries but Henry easily swatted the brave warriors into the trees some distance away. A spearman lunged from behind his right but the spearhead snapped off the pole upon contact with his hide. Before the spearman could retreat, Henry assisted him by kicking him back to his companions.

As he was drawing in his breath, preparing for his blazing roar, the sound of a horn blew through the battlefield. It was loud and appeared to catch everyone’s attention, despite there being an imposing monster in front of them. Henry was also robbed by the sound of the horn as the people frowned at that sound.

“Aragnias!” someone shouted from afar. “They’re coming from the high cliffs!”

“W-what?! Now?! Of all times?!”

“Curses! What do we do? Where’s Patriarch Roven?”

“The Patriarch was caught in the explosion, along with Rayne and Soren.”

The warriors descended into a turmoil of panic, seemingly more worried about the so-called Aragnias than the havoc of a beast in front of them. Henry felt a little hurt by that. As he was a Dragon, his pride refused to be disparaged. Before he could unleash his breath, a boulder slammed into his head from the side. His black fire breath was released into the sky. He frowned at the colour but his attention was drawn to the taunt that came after.

“Lizard!”

Henry swerved his head to his new challenger. Or rather, his recurring challenger.

It was none other than Rayne, emerging from the rubble and debris with only some light bruises and shallow smudges. The cleaver-sword was in her hand. Her body was more barren than before. The fur-hide garments she wore to stave off the cold were in tatters and barely covering her body. She was shivering but with the adrenaline pumping, she soon forgot about it.

“Don’t just stand there, you fools! Go and protect the town from the Aragnias!” Rayne shouted at the confused and dazed warriors.

“But Rayne, what about Soren and the Patriarch?”

“Father and Soren are fine.”

“And what about the—”

“I will deal with this lizard! You all will— Fuck the stars!” Rayne leapt to the air and over Henry as he shot towards her. “Just get going already, you dimwits!”

The warriors gave a hasty bow and scattered down the shallow slopes, and rushed into the town.

“Just you and me now, lizard.”

“Your Geas would not work the second time on me.”

“Even if I wanted to bind you to my will again, I won’t. To have you as my Familiar, I doubt anyone would approve after all the destruction you have caused.”

“Then perhaps a certain bitch shouldn’t have brought me here,” Henry retorted with a growl.

“How could I have known you were a Demonic Beast?”

“I am no Demon… But I will become one, just for you!” Henry roared and sent rubble flying Rayne’s way.

She easily cleaved the rock into two with her sword. “You sure look like one.”

“I look like a… Demon?” Henry stammered. He cast his gaze down and peered heedfully at his forelimbs, which were now near pitch-black in colour and the veins on him were glowing a vibrant reddish-gold. He widened his eyes and dropped his jaws. He then glanced over his shoulder, at his back, seeing his tail, hind body, and hind limbs to be of the same colour with the same ominous intense reddish-golden glow.

“Are you unaware of the change in your appearance all this while?”

“What…” Henry stuttered. He swallowed a lump in his throat and glared hard at Rayne. “What have you done to me?”

“I did nothing to you.”

“You did,” he growled.

“I did not.”

“Stop lying to me!” He unleashed his shout along with his Fire Breath.

“Enough of this!” Rayne shouted back as she bisected the flaming stream into half, nullifying it. “You are inebriated by your rage and fears, I can tell.”

“You’re quite right about that. My rage and fear, which is you.” Henry snarled and lunged.

With a kick to the ground, Rayne leapt high up into the air and found her footing by condensing the wind with magic under her feet. “You missed,” she mocked.

Henry screeched and brandished his wings. He took to the skies with a great flutter, darting towards Rayne.

“That’s right, come at me,” Rayne muttered and ran through the air in the direction opposite of Henry.

“Running away?”

“What? Can’t match my celerity?” she scoffed with a brief glimpse behind her before facing forward and dashing towards the high cliffs as if she was sprinting on solid ground.

Henry’s glowing veins bulged on his forehead and he streaked through the air to chase her down.

It’s following me, good. Rayne muttered in her heart. The faint grin she always had was slowly overturned as she closed in on the high cliffs, where the Aragnias were pouring into her home grounds.

The Aragnias were horse-sized spiders with steel-like carapaces that lived in the mountains. They were the apex predators in these parts but never once had they ever bothered themselves with the Zeras until ten years ago. The Aragnias came attacking them. They came in waves. Every time they were driven back, they would return after a month or so. Gradually, the Aragnias became the Zeras’ long-standing foes and nemesis.

Despite being the ones at top of the food chain, the Aragnias numbered in the hundreds. They were carnivorous. It was a wonder that they didn’t already cull the forest of animals and creatures due to their seemingly bottomless voracious appetite.

Rayne came to the edge of the cliffs, where hundreds of Aragnias were waiting for their turn to descend upon her village. It was an odd sight to see order among monsters as if they knew their aberrant innate nature would only bring ruin to their kind. However, the Aragnias lost all of their manner of orderliness when they saw Rayne’s approach. They broke away from the formations and rushed towards her like packs of frenzy beasts.

When she landed on the cliff, the Aragnias swarmed her. She brought her cleaver-sword around in a circle, cutting down all the Aragnias that pounced at her. An Aragnia managed to dodge her swing and rammed into her, but she didn’t even budge. It bit her arm but its fangs couldn’t even scrape her skin. She snorted and slammed her arm to the ground, along with the Aragnia’s head.

Rayne was mildly surprised by the brief fear and hesitation the Aragnias displayed when she pulverised one of their kin’s heads, but her wonderment didn’t stay for long before she resumed cutting the spiders down.

Though she had great strength and nigh-impervious skin, she was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the Aragnias but she wasn’t the least bit concerned. Her offhanded reinforcement was quick to appear as if it had been trailing her closely with a burning vengeance. The appearance of Henry shocked the Aragnias stock still. They all stared blankly at him with those four pairs of glinting eyes of theirs.

But Henry didn’t return the same gesture and flooded the swarm of Aragnias in his black Dragon fire. Seeing the dark blaze, the Aragnias screeched and shrieked in terror. Their orderly formation was gone and they scattered and scampered in all directions as if their orderliness from before was an illusion.

Black fire… Just what has happened to me… That bitch, what did she do to me?

Henry made his landing and tore his way through the scurrying Aragnias towards Rayne. His advancement was not unhindered. A few of the Aragnias found their guts and retaliated. They pounced on him, plunging their fangs into Henry but only to deform their jaws. The Aragnias shrieked in pain and Henry took this opportunity to shake them loose or pry them off.

The Aragnias spat webs at Henry but with his overwhelmingly superior strength, he swung all of the Aragnias off the cliff and he let them fall after burning away the webs attached to him. The webs burned and spread way too easily. It was as flammable as oil. This was probably the reason they were all so afraid of him, Henry surmised.

“This is truly efficient,” Rayne exclaimed joyously as she too was cutting down her share of Aragnias. Though they were running scared from Henry, not all were devoted to retreating. Some were switching their target to Rayne but with their numbers slowly dispersing, they were no threat to Rayne. They were all easily felled by her. “This is also quite fun, isn’t it, Henry?”

“Go die!” Henry snarled and hurled a firebolt Rayne’s way.

She thought about cutting down the firebolt but heeding her instincts, she avoided it instead. And the firebolt exploded behind her. Bits and matter of the Aragnias rained down on her. “You really intend to kill me?”

“Trying someone sticking their unsavoury hands into your mind and turning you into something Demonic!” Henry shot out another firebolt.

Rayne slid under the firebolt as she charged at Henry. “I did not turn you into what you are now! That darkness was already inside you from the beginning.”

“Lies!” he roared. Tendrils of darkness sprouted from his shoulders and darted towards Rayne.

The tendrils faded into nothing when she cut off the barbed tips. “It would seem words are useless.” Her attention was on Henry but she did not forget about the Aragnias. Not all were retreating. Quite a lot was seeing her as prey, forgoing Henry. “Well, I don’t expect much intelligence from a lizard in the first place.”

Feeling insulted, Henry unleashed his Infernal Breath. A vast torrent of black flames swept through the field. The snowy chill of the air was quickly overtaken by the blazing heat of a black flaming vortex, slowly consuming the whole cliff. Not a single Aragnia that remained was spared. Rayne dashed for the edge and the explosion threw her off. She shielded herself from the flames with her cleaver-sword but as a result, her cleaver-sword was no longer unusable. The blade had melted from the fire it shielded Rayne from.

Still, she was able to use the melted-blade cleaver-sword to slow her fall by plunging into the side of the cliff. “Has the fucking lizard completely lost its mind?” she groaned as she reached the foot of the cliff. Looking up, she could see the proliferating black blaze up on the high cliff. It was a terrifying sight but it did ease the fright a little when she saw all the Aragnias that were engulfed in the explosion. Even Henry himself was enveloped in his own doing.

It had been her intention to aim Henry’s attack at the Aragnias but she didn’t think Henry was able to or would use an attack of that magnitude.

All in all, Rayne had accomplished her goal. The Aragnias were fended off and with this much casualty, it would most likely be months before they would come attacking again. Her gaze remained on the high cliff, dazzled by the dark flames. She wondered if Henry survived his own outburst and going by her guts, she didn’t doubt Henry’s survival.

“Rayne,” a voice called out to her.

She turned around and saw her two brothers approaching her with a small group of warriors behind them. She lazily gave them a wave from where she was sitting. Now that the battle was over, her exhaustion was catching up to her.

“What was that up there? Was it the work of the Demon?” asked Soren.

“Really? That’s your question, brother? No concern for your sister’s well-being at all?”

“Just the questions, Rayne.”

“Fine. Of course, it’s the work of the Demonic lizard. What else could it be?” she retorted, panting. “Say, this has got to be the shortest confrontation with the Aragnias in history, wouldn’t you agree, brothers?”

“It is, sister, but don’t think this feat of yours will pardon you from the crimes you committed against the Clan.”

Rayne scoffed. “Had it not been for me, there would have been a lot of deaths and casualties on our side. Tell me, Soren, how many died fighting the Demon or the Aragnias today?”

“...Zero,” he answered.

“But it still doesn’t change the fact that you brought that Demon into the village, Rayne,” said Damien. “You will stand trial once the after-battle has been concluded.”

“Oh? Is that why you brought so many warriors? To seize me?”

“Not just you.” Soren stepped forward. “The Dragon too.”

“Dragon? That thing’s a Dragon?”

“What else can it be other than a Dragon? Its diamond-hard scales and the ability to spew flames, are the traits of a Dragon.”

Rayne laughed. “Dragons are no more. I’m more inclined to believe that thing is a rare variant of a Drake than a Dragon.”

“Regardless, you are now under arrest, along with your precious prize and Familiar.”

“Unfortunately, it ain’t my Familiar anymore. It had completely broken free of my Geas. I no longer had any control of the Demon.”

“So you didn’t command it to attack the Aragnias?”

“I did not. It absolutely despised me and I took advantage of its fury and aimed it towards the Aragnias. You should be glad that your dear sister came out largely unscathed.”

“Just the contrary, dear sister,” Damien scoffed.

“And where is the Demonic Beast now?”

Rayne pointed to the high cliff. “Up there, within the inferno the Demon itself created.”

“Within the inferno?”

“In its rage, it unleashed a terrible and powerful attack that consumed even itself.”

“Is it still alive?”

“...For our sake, I hope not.”