The Black Mage, as Henry heard from the soldiers’ whispers, noticed Henry’s approaching presence. His cocky grin was turned upside down into a frown of displeasure.

The kingdom soldiers also came to notice Henry’s presence now that he was streaking through the sky overhead them. Smiles of relief adorned the faces of the haggard soldiers one by one. They raised their arms and began cheering loudly with expressions filled with hope.

“The Dragon God has heard our prayers!” shouted a knight who was mounted on a horse. He was only the knight whose armour was completely red in colour.

Besides the red knight was an elderly priest in tattered robes. The priest’s face turned pale but not because of fear but reverence. He immediately got down on his knees at the sight of Henry and began his prayers that Henry was somehow able to hear.

The morale of the entire army was raised through the roof just like that.

Now that Henry had flown close to the battlefield, he could see the Black Mage had a small army of his own. They were humans dressed in a soldierly fashion but they didn’t look alive at all. Their gazes were blank and their skin was as white as a corpse.

“Are they alive?” Henry muttered in his head.

“Braindead but their body is very much alive. They’re vegetables but they can still move as normal due to the Demon Adherent’s magic. Why? Still having reservations about taking the lives of human-like creatures?”

“No reservations but it does ease the nightmares.”

“Hesitation is defeat when you’re up against Demons.”

“I’m not hesitating. I’m just looking for an excuse to calm my demons.”

“They’re scums before they were even turned into thralls.”

“Good enough.” Henry dispelled his wings and let gravity pull him towards the Black Mage.

The Black Mage sent out a barrage of black bolts at Henry but none of the bolts even made Henry wince. The Black Mage then shot out telephone pole-sized javelins of darkness toward Henry which also resulted in the same outcome as his previous attack.

Gritting his teeth, the Black Mage took out a vial of blue liquid from his robes and downed the content within. Henry felt the Murux of the Black Mage surged greatly.

“Mana Potion?”

“Murux Potion, to be exact.”

“Same difference,” Henry mumbled.

A large magic circle appeared in front of the Black Mage with Murux gathering at the centre.

“Oh shit, it’s the beam attack.”

“You’ll be fine. I think.”

Henry tutted. “Not taking any chances.”

As the Murux accumulated to a certain amount, it shot towards Henry in the form of a broad beam of darkness. Henry unleashed his Fire Breath in retaliation against the beam.

The Black Mage sank into despair as he witnessed its strongest attack being easily overwhelmed by Henry’s Fire Breath. The Black Mage quickly dispelled its beam attack and moved himself a few hundred feet away from where the Fire Breath’s point of impact.

After the teleportation, the Black Mage dropped to his knees panting. “Impossible!” the Black Mage cried.

“But it is, asshole!” Henry shouted gleefully in response.

Henry’s voice shook the entire battlefield, literally and metaphorically. It appeared no one had expected Henry to be capable of speech.

“A talking Dragon!?” The Black Mage looked even more surprised. “A Divine Creature? Impossible…”

“Only a Divine Creature can talk?”

“In this world, that would be the case.”

“Wow, sounds like a boring world. Well, not as boring as the last one.”

The Black Mage clapped his hands above his head and started uttering some delirious-sounding chant.

“What’s he doing now?” Henry asked, summoning his wings to soar upwards.

“Summoning a pet, if I’m not mistaken.”

“A Demon?”

“I won’t sound so calm if he is summoning a Demon.”

“Fair enough.”

A magic circle larger than before appeared on the ground before the Black Mage. A large shadow instantly shot out from the magic circle, rushing towards Henry.

“What the… Is that a—”

“Dragon? Yes. Yes, it is.”

The pet the Black Mage had called upon was a Dragon nearly as large as Henry but not just any Dragon. It was a Dragon with flesh beyond rotten and much of its skeleton could be seen. Essentially, it was an Undead Dragon. Ropes of black mist were constantly leaking out of the Undead Dragon’s orifices all over its mutilated and desecrated carcass.

“This motherfucker…” Henry grunted furiously. For some reason, seeing the Undead Dragon brought out an unfounded rage within him. He felt nearly as angry as if Yula was hurt or harmed. A patch of blackness began to spread from the top of his neck. “I’ll turn this fucking asshole into nothing!”

The Undead Dragon had intended to ram itself into Henry per its master’s will. However, Henry easily swatted the Undead Dragon away like a fly with a spin of his body combined with Aura Blades. The Undead Dragon’s crash-landing rose clouds of dust and smoke and sent waves of tremor through the ground.

“Henry, calm yourself.”

“I am calm…” Henry murmured with a raspy voice.

“No, you are not, Henry. Your anger is overwhelming you. It’s dulling your other emotions. You need to calm down, Henry.”

Henry folded his wings and dropped himself straight down towards the Undead Dragon, who was in the middle of scrambling to its feet. Before the Undead Dragon could take flight, Henry landed right in front of it and smashed its head to the ground with his claws coiled into a hammer fist.

“Henry, if you don’t stop now, you will soon be unable to differentiate between friends and foes.”

“I… don’t… care…”

The Undead Dragon lunged at Henry with a bite but smacked its mouth away with a backhand. The Undead Dragon tried gaining some distance between them and used its breath attack but Henry unleashed a point-blank Fire Bolt that sent the Undead Dragon tumbling away.

“N-no way…” the Black Mage muttered in despair.

Henry rushed to the Undead Dragon, grabbed it by its head, and flung it into the sky. He then unleashed his strongest breath attack, the Inferno Breath. The stream of flames that left its throat and mouth spun into a blazing vortex that consumed the Undead Dragon.

The Undead Dragon cried out sharply as the flames turned its rotten flesh and bones into cinder and ashes. The flames had all but dispersed, there was nothing left of the Undead Dragon but dust and a red child-sized crystal chunk among the remains.

“Alright, Henry… You killed the Undead Dragon. It’s at peace now. Please get a hold of yourself now.”

“No…” Henry said, shifting his gaze and focus to the Black Mage who was stunned with trembling fear. “Not yet… The desecrating fucker still breathes.”

“Wait wait wait wait, Henry. See that shiny chunk falling down from the sky? That’s the Dragon’s Murux Heart.”

Henry caught the crystal chunk that was falling in mid-air and tossed it into his mouth. Once the Murux Heart was absorbed by Henry, his Murux was replenished and his mind felt as if a heavy load was lifted off of his brain. The black patch on his body receded but not entirely.

“W-what… what the h-hell?” Henry fumbled with his words.

“Good, you’re back.”

“Y-yeah… I think so… But how was I able to—”

“Consuming a Murux Heart not only replenishes your Murux and mends your wounds, but it also rejuvenates your mind.”

“I see… but what the hell happened?”

“You’re not becoming a Demon or being taken over by anything Demonic, if that’s what you’re worried about. That was simply the Demon’s ability. It responds to your anger. You become stronger and faster but at the cost of your sanity.”

“And you don’t sound very worried about me.”

“That’s because it’s not a big deal. There are many skills, abilities, and spells out there that offer power in exchange for one’s sanity. It isn’t uncommon. Yours is just… better. If you can properly control your emotions, that ability can become very useful.”

“How can I control my emotions properly?”

“You’ll learn with time and experience. Let this be a lesson. Do not lose your head.”

“But why was I so angry?”

“That’s simply just how strong the kinship of Dragons is, especially that you’re the Dragon God’s avatar. It’s only natural that you would feel this way when you see your own kind being defiled.”

“I don’t think I like that aspect of Dragons.”

“It is how it is, Henry. It’s too late to rewrite the base essence of Dragons now.”

Javelins of darkness rained down on Henry without any form of warning. Henry jumped from the sudden assault but that was the extent of the damages, if it could even be called damages. The next wave of attack was reels of black chains with spikes all over. The chains grazed and wrapped themselves around Henry but he easily broke himself free with a light tug of his limbs.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” the black mage shouted, stomping his foot. “This can’t be happening… not after how far I have come!”

“Just put that fool out of his misery, Henry,” Nadea said.

Henry obliged and severed the Black Mage into halves with his Jetstream Breath. The Black Mage’s upper body cleanly slid off by the waist and the rest of the body followed.

In an instant, the pallid soldiers all collapsed in tandem like puppets having their strings cut off.

The kingdom soldiers in silver armour erupted into a cheer of victory that shook the air. Their voices of triumph echoed through the dryland far and wide.

Henry ignored all the commotion behind him and approached the Black Mage’s severed corpse.

“Good riddance,” Henry muttered as he stared at the corpse.

“Assessing your kill?”

“Assessing my guilt. Strangely enough, I don’t feel terrible about this after seeing what he had done to a Dragon. If anything, I feel that he got off easy.”

“Don’t be treading into that territory now, Henry. You’ll get lost in it and go mad searching for the exit.”

“I know… I know… Say, is it a Murux Heart that I’m sensing from within the corpse?”

“That’s odd. Only a monster’s Murux would crystallise after death. A human shouldn’t have it.”

Henry cut open the corpse and lo and behold, there was a small chunk of crystallised Murux just under the heart. The Murux Heart of the Black Mage was of a deep dark red.

“I see now. He was undergoing Demonification.”

“Demonification?”

“The Demonic power he was using was slowly changing him from the inside out, starting with the composition of his Murux. You killed him before he was able to completely turn. Well done, Henry.”

“My job is over then?” Henry asked, prying the Murux Heart out of the corpse and tossing it into his mouth.

“It is.”

“I’m still sensing some Demonic presence.”

“Taking care of those would be the job of this world’s natives. If you’re thinking of helping them, don’t. They’ll become complacent and take things for granted.”

“I know. I wasn’t intending to in the first place. Time to head back.”

As soon as Henry said that, a sharp wave of heat spread through the back of his body. Though it was painful, it wasn’t too much that Henry couldn’t endure.

“What’s happening…?” Henry asked with strained breaths. The patch of blackness faded off as steam began to rise from his back.

“You’re evolving.”

“I’m evolving?”

“Come to think of it, you were always out cold when you evolved. But now that you’re much stronger, you can stay awake throughout the process.”

“I prefer being unconscious.”

“Don’t be a baby. You’ll get used to it.”

The kingdom soldiers saw the faint distress on Henry’s face. They immediately began making assumptions about the worst scenarios such as him being affected by the Black Mage’s Demonic power or suffering some unseen injuries to the soul and many other absurd guesses like those. Henry could only scoff silently at those theories.

Cracks formed all over his scaly hide as a new batch appeared underneath those fractures. Unlike a snake shedding its skin, Henry squirmed and tore through his old skin and emerged anew with a roar to the skies. He could feel he was a size larger than before and most importantly, he had finally grown an actual pair of corporeal wings instead of one that was conjured with magic.

The kingdom soldiers stared at Henry in amazement and reverence as they gasped in awe. One by one, the soldiers bent their knees before Henry and lowered their heads, including the red knight and the priest.

Henry could hear Nadea clapping in his head. “Congratulations, Henry.”

“Thank you,” Henry said and brandished his wings in all their glory, scattering the dust and sand around him. The gust he cause was so strong that it toppled some of the kneeling soldiers. Henry muttered a silent apology to those soldiers and took off into the skies with an ecstatic grin.