Destruction. It is a word that means different things to different people, for Maxwell, he had a well-formed idea of what destruction, born from the time he found himself raiding the same dungeon as a [Queen IV] ranked party, and watched them decimate hoards of chimeras within seconds, it was both mesmerizing yet terrifying… but not anymore.

Their feeble attacks meant nothing. Their redundant spells were pointless, and their feats were simply too lacking. So what if that party managed to wipe out a whole horde of dangerous beasts? What does any of it matter in the face of utter and true destructive power. That was the only thing Maxwell could think of upon seeing the aftermath left behind by that child, a result of her merely flicking her finger.

The very ground was gouged, sundered apart by a blast of magic power that split apart everything in its path, even the very clouds floating in the morning sky.

It took Maxwell a few seconds to realize that he survived, and the big muscular back covering his view made him realize why he did. Aslan, the first dragon slayer, kept his promise and protected him, saving him from certain death without as much as breaking a sweat.

“hoh, that wasn’t bad for a kid, but what’s with these so called gods? Will they invite anyone here as long as they can provide a good show? Even children? Maybe I should deal with them after I’m done here.” Aslan spoke with a mocking tone, his massive body unharmed by the child’s spell.

“w-who the hell is she? How can a child even have enough mana to do that?” Gomu was next to speak. He, much like Maxwell, was too slow to actually react to the attack, and was saved by Aslan’s intervention.

Their words broke Maxwell of his fear induced trance, leading him to wipe the sweat pouring down his face and provide an explanation to the two. “that’s not a child, stop treating her like one. That’s Bathory Ezli, the butcher of the Darcey duchy, that monster is at least 200 years old.”

Maxwell’s words were mostly meant for Gomu, but Aslan couldn’t help but turn his head to peek at him in surprise, but his care free attitude was taken advantage of by the monster wearing a child’s face, sending another attack his way, only for Aslan to block it with ease once more.

“I see… but that doesn’t explain much, those attacks are basically just her tossing mana around, its crude but packs a punch, how does she have so much mana to spare?”

“I-Its complicated, let’s get away and I’ll tell you everything you want to—”

“no!”

Aslan’s answer was immediate, not a hint of doubt or uneasiness soiled his tone. Maxwell was confused until he got a glimpse of his eyes, only then that he remembered who was he speaking so casually to. Much like all other contestants, Aslan was a battle addict that so happens to be powerful enough to slay high dragons barehanded, he was not about to shy away from a fight just because he was asked nicely.

Bathory lifted her hand, preparing to send an even more powerful attack flying their way, but she was caught off-guard by the massive club coming down right on her head, squashing her entire body into a bloody mist. Aslan, having heard enough, leaped an abused distance and easily finished the fight with a single strike, or so he thought.

“t-that fucking moron.” Maxwell was sweating even harder, his eyes exuding an aura of horror and his body trembling head to toe.

Not understanding why he was in such a state, Gomu asked. “what’s wrong? He got her, and in one hit at that. Let’s just leave before he changes his mind about sparing your life.”

“you don’t understand, because of her massive reserves of mana, Bathory Ezli needs to conserve her mental strength to manage it all without overloading her brain, so she would remain in a state similar to a coma. The few survivors left behind from her infamous nightwalks said that she seemed to be sleep walking while tearing their loved ones apart, and she only woke up when she was gravely wounded.”

Gomu looked at Maxwell as if he was a madman. “are you stupid? He turned her into mincemeat, there is no coming back from that.”

Maxwell pointed at the remains of Bathory, mere a splat of blood and bone. His arm trembling like a new born fawn. “look at her you fucking idiot, does she look dead to you?” and as if answering his call, the puddle of blood moved on its own, twisting and shifting into the form of a child.

Bone, muscles, skin, organs, and hair all grew from within the blood puddle in seconds as Gomu and Aslan watched in disbelief. Both of them have undoubtably seen many things that a normal person would believe to be impossible, but this was different, it wasn’t healing or even regeneration. It was revival, a power thought to be reserved for the gods alone.

“Gomu, listen to me carefully…” his words were shacky, void of any confidence but dyed in a fake sense of bravery. “fly over to Aslan and tell him to follow me into the forest, tell him that… that he can’t win against her now, but I know of a possible method.”

“b-but why don’t we run away by ourselves?”

Maxwell shook his head, a dreadful expression drawing on his face. “because once she’s awake, she’ll chase after us as soon as we turn around to run, just trust me, I’ll tell you everything once we’re at a safe enough distance so just hurry. She probably won’t be fully awake for a minute, so we need to get this done with right now.”

Unbale to think of a good retort, Gomu accented his extremely dangerous task with grace, and flew as fast as he could towards Aslan, who was staring the newly formed body with disgust in his eyes.

Maxwell did not wait to hear his answer, instead he chose to believe in the first dragon hunter’s instincts. He ran as fast he could back into the thick brush, hoping to see Aslan and Gomu following him when he turned around to take a peek, but the last thing he saw before darkness enveloped his view wasn’t a mound of muscles or a small block with wings, but a giant scythe of blood slicing through the intertwining tree branches, heading right for him.

“it’s been 10 minutes already, why isn’t he waking up?”

“have some patience, his body isn’t as sturdy as yours.”

“there is no time, waiting here is just foolish, what if that thing attacks?”

“I…I don’t know, let’s just hope she doesn’t find us.”

“bah, how expectedly naïve. He promised me knowledge on how to beat the demon child, he better cough up soon or I’ll deliver him to her myself.”

“w-will you just calm down, she’s still combing the forest for us, it doesn’t look like she can sense mana so we are safe as long as she can’t see or hear us.”

Maxwell slowly opened his eyes and was met with the sight of Aslan and Gomu arguing in hushed tones. Their topic of choice seemed to revolve around him.

“w-what happened?”

Maxwell’s words immediately grabbed the attention of the two who quickly approached him with completely different questions.

“Max! are you okay, how are you feeling?”

“weakboy, you are up! Quickly, tell me everything you know about that demon child.”

Overwhelmed by the bombardment of questions, Maxwell pushed both Gomu and Aslan aside to give himself enough space to get up to his feet and look around.

“where are we? What happened? The last I remember was the giant blood scythe coming my way.”

Aslan wanted to brush his question aside, but Gomu rushed in to answer. “Aslan managed to save us in the last second and we went deeper into the forest to get away from that monster. Also did you say blood scythe? So as I thought, she used blood as a medium for her spells, how is that even possible?”

Suddenly, the very agitated voice of Aslan carved its way into their conversation.

“enough, I saved your life three times now, and I even trusted you enough to back away from that battle, its time you hold up your end of the bargain. You said that I wouldn’t win as I am, why? What do you know about that thing?”

“I-Its not that you can’t win…” Maxwell took a deep breath, trying to formulate his words in a way that wouldn’t confuse Aslan further. “you’ll probably kill her a hundred times, but she simply won’t stay dead. You’ll run out of mana long before she does, but if the story is true, there might be a way to do it.”

“story?”

“yes, the story of how the twin mages of the Elowen Empire brought down the butcher of Darcey… the real story that is.”