I dreamt of an almost empty land covered in ash that stretched on for as long as I could see it. The only thing breaking up the ashen wasteland was a mountain of black stone that breached the black clouds above it. As I wondered what was at the top I felt myself moving and I saw everything become a hazy blur as I suddenly found myself at the top of the mountain. I looked around confused until my eyes spotted something.

At the edge of the mountain's peak was a lone humanoid figure sitting on the black stone. I could tell even with it sitting down that it was tall, easily dwarfing me unless I raised myself as high as I safely could in my lamia form. It had ash-grey skin and wore the tattered remains of a black and white robe around its waist. A pair of strange triangular-shaped horns, that swept backward before suddenly jutting forwards past the being's head, protruded from its ashen hair. Its face was almost skeletal but some things were off, and she couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong. It was like her mind just couldn't understand what was wrong.

It figure turned its head towards her, its empty black sockets staring deeply into what felt like her soul. It slowly stood up from the cross-legged position it was in, its bones audibly cracking from lack of movement, and ash the same color as its skin fell off the now moving body. When it stood to its maximum height it stood a little over three meters (around 10 feet) and its figure was extremely lanky despite all the visible muscle it bore. I also noticed that it had a golden locket around its neck.

"What brings you here newborn? You shouldn't even be here in the first place," it said in a deep bassy masculine voice, but it was also tinged with sadness.

"I don't quite know what I'm doing here either. Do you perhaps know the way I may leave? I'm afraid I need to awaken from whatever this is if I want to survive." I asked and stated.

It rubbed its chin in thought before nodding sagely.

"For your current condition, it should just be a matter of time before you naturally awaken. Don't worry about your body, it'll be fine. Now do you mind if you entertain this old man's curiosity?" he asked while gesturing with his hand at an open space near the edge and two thrones of black stone materialized themselves.

With nothing better to do, I agreed. I sat down and beheld the view from the mountain. As far as the world stretched on, there was seemingly nothing but ash, smoke, and dark clouds.

"The view is nothing much but it helps stave off the eternal boredom. Now what is the reason you find yourself here in my little slice of this realm newborn?" he said while sitting on the other throne.

"I have a name you know. And why do you keep calling me newborn?" I curtly responded.

He just chuckled at my response. "You are a newborn since you became an Ur so recently little one. Also if you have a name it's only proper to introduce yourself, no? To make it easier I will go first. To some, I am the 'Monarch of Ash', 'The Eighth King', and the 'Heavens Defier'. But you may call me 'The Eighth Ur of Demons'. If you prefer something shorter than King is fine."

I gulped in nervousness. This was a being that may as well be a god to me. If he's the eighth that means he killed the seventh who killed the sixth and so on. Plus he called himself old which even if he's a demon means he's been around for a while. But I felt no hostility from him, despite, or maybe because, him being so powerful he probably could destroy this mountain with a single punch.

"My name is Orstelia and I am the first Ur of the lamia. To answer your previous question, King, I was beaten into the ground and unconsciousness by a lesser demon. Otherwise, I have no idea why I'm here." I answered honestly, if not a little nervous because of who I was talking to.

King just nodded in understanding.

"May I ask a question myself, King?"

He didn't seem surprised and just nodded.

"I know this may seem rude of me but why do you have a locket? Did you lose someone?"

Even though his facial expression didn't, or couldn't, change I felt great sadness come from him as the very air around us felt like it was sad with him.

"Yes," he melancholicly replied. "They were very dear to me, and I don't think they could ever be replaced."

The sadness coming from him was enough to almost make me want to weep with him. Even the heavens seemed to agree with me as in this land of ash and smoke it started raining on us. The cold rain snapped me out of the crippling sadness I felt, and all I could think to do was ask one specific question.

"Would you like to talk about them? It won't bring them back, but it may help alleviate some of the pain."

King turned to look at me instead of the landscape. I felt a small tinge of warmth come from him and a small but warm smile came onto his face.

"I think I would like that." he quietly responded.

Something decided that our talking to each other wouldn't be good as the chiming of a large bell filled the sky, which dispersed the rain instantly. King looked skywards in annoyance.

"We should've had more than that, but it seems like it's time for you to go, but before you do would you be interested in some advice I have to give?"

"It wouldn't hurt I suppose."

"Good. When fighting against demons remember that their hearts are to their right instead of to their left. I think that information will prove quite useful to you."

I nodded in understanding as my body began to fade away.

"Until we meet again King," I said while waving him goodbye. Hopefully, that would make him a bit happier and make sure we meet in the future. He needs all the happiness he can get. 

I soon faded away and awoke in a bed with the smell of cooking meat traveling through the air.

-POV Change-

The being, known as King to Orstelia, watched the newborn disappear from what he suspected was an unintentional dreamwalk. They happen to magical beings, especially Urs when they experience great turbulence of mana. Since she was previously fighting a demon it latched onto something demon-related, and since he has a great deal of emotions running through him he was like a lighthouse for the dreamwalk. But the brief interaction with her had helped at least get him moving from the spot he sat in for a decade. So he decided it was time to manipulate the red string of fate a bit.

Tonight was a Walpurgis, a meeting of the twelve monarchs of the world. He hasn't attended in the past decade due to the depression blanketing him, but he felt that now was the time to act. His tattered robes went up in purple flames that then covered his entire body. When they disappeared he was covered in black and gold robes greater than any mortal king could ever wear. He had an annual meeting to attend, and he must look his finest while doing so.

-POV Change-

The smell of cooking meat filled the air and I heard a faint humming as someone was cooking. That was ruined by my system's sudden intrusion.

Okay, a couple of questions for you system. What do you mean by that last question? What do souls have to do with me leveling up?

Okay, so what I seem to understand is this. Every living thing has a soul, and the souls need energy to function. When something dies that leftover energy is then absorbed by the killer to empower it. So it's safe to assume that the stronger something is the more energy it gives right? I did level up a lot from killing Arthur after all.

Well, that answers that question. now to see what this curse is.

Interesting. So I become lazier but I also improve myself faster. Are all sins curses like this? A debuff and buff at the same time? Well, I don't particularly feel lazy right now, and that food is calling me.

I threw off the blanket covering me only to see a pair of legs instead of a tail. Didn't I turn back into my lamia form before being slammed into the ground repeatedly? Weird. I also have this cloth wrapped around my lower parts. That was probably done by my rescuer as I can tell that I'm in a city now by looking out of the glass window and seeing the twilight-kissed streets, buildings, and people. No need to display all of that for everyone to see.

I slowly got off the bed, my entire body aching from the beating and whipping I had taken. I slowly left the room and marveled at all the excessive shiny things. Whoever lived here loved everything shiny, that much was obvious. I heard a cheerful humming coming from down the wooden staircase that led to the ground floor. I slowly stumbled my way down the stairs, my body was not fully healed yet and the aches and pains were extreme. What I saw at the bottom was a sight to see.

Various things were floating around and making food. Some knives were chopping vegetables and greens for a salad, a large spoon was stirring some sort of drink, and several dishes were being cleaned. They were all presumably controlled by the person who stood over a large metal plate that glowed with heat and had four steaks cooking on it.

The cook made me pause midway down the stairs. There were many words I could use to describe her but only one came to mind, divine. She was a head taller than me in my human form, more so with the singular fluted and spiraled black horn she had that started from her forehead, and curved back towards the middle of her skull before curving upwards. She had short white hair with shimmering gemlike black scales running down part of her neck. From her forearms down were also covered in the same scales but from her elbow came a blackened spike and her fingers ended in black draconic talons. She also had scales from halfway down her shins and beyond, her toes ending in smaller but similar claws. She had a long and thick tail with scales of the same color and a white underside that also had evenly spaced angled spikes down it and it ended with a small curved, almost blade-like spike. Her draconic sapphire eyes were transfixed on her cooking as her tail swished back and forth happily, her fanged joyful smile a vast difference from King's sadness. It almost felt like the sun was warmly kissing my scales while I was in her presence.

I found an empty seat at the table and sat down, watching her cook. Her tight black crop top and black hotpants left most of her exposed, much to my delight. I found her luscious curves and ample breasts appealing for some reason, maybe because of the contrast between them, her joyous mood, and her rippling muscles. I don't know personally but something about her drew me into her. I sat there and watched her cook for a few minutes before she finally finished. She plated everything as nicely as she could before stepping back and admiring her work.

"I should go and see if she will wake up now. Don't want all this food to go to waste after all," she said to herself, not expecting anyone to hear her.

"I'm already up and waiting," I said, trying to surprise her. I was not expecting her reaction though.

She turned around to look at me and in a fit of presumably practiced embarrassment, she turned a bit red while covering her horn with both her hands while mumbling something incomprehensible and collapsing to her knees. To my surprise, her body transformed into that of a normal human woman, all draconic features gone, and her white hair turned into a flaxen color. Everything else stayed the same. She was still mumbling something incomprehensible while still holding where her horn was and looking like she was about to burst into tears. Well, this isn't good.

I got out of the chair and approached her. She didn't even register me coming towards her. She seemed like she was about to become a hysteric mess so I did the only thing I could think of. I grasped one of her hands with mine and tried to convey I wasn't doing anything else. This seemed to confuse her as she just looked up at me confused.

"What are you doing?" she asked cautiously. "Shouldn't you be threatening to kill me?"

Okay, now I'm very confused. "Why would I do that? If my guess is right you saved me from being stuck out in the wilds. Why would I threaten my savior?"

"Because I'm a black and white dragonkin. All I'm supposed to do is bring calamity and ruin," she stated as if it were a matter of fact.

"I don't think that's the case at all. Now get up, we have your home-cooked food to eat, don't we? After that we can talk about who put these lies in your head, okay?"

She just nodded meekly as she stood up.

"And why don't you turn back into what you truly are? You're too pretty and cute to stay in this false appearance. Plus I think your scales and horn are quite nice to look at." I said confidently, as it was the truth even if she didn't like it.

She quickly turned around to look away from me, her ears betraying the fact that she was blushing heavily. She went to grab the plated food while her body slowly transformed into her true appearance. I went back into my seat at the table and waited patiently for her. I had a feeling that this would be an interesting night.

PlagueDaddy Happy Holidays to everyone. The next chapter will be a bit heavy in lore but as a treat, I might include some cute fluff in that chapter or the next. The interlude will be about the Walpurgis meeting and I thought to include some interesting information about Walpurgis since it's a name that a lot of media likes and a footnote would not be ideal for all of it. The history behind it is long so I'll give a very brief abridged version. Walpurgis Night, or Sankt-Walpurgisnacht in the native German, is a German festival celebrating Saint Walpurga who was known for fighting back pests. whooping cough and witchcraft. She was especially famous for converting a lot of the local populace to Christianity. The festival started on May 1, 870 as she was canonized as a saint, and her relics were moved to the city of Eichsätt. It's celebrated on the night of April 30 and the day of May 1, and a common practice is to light bonfires to ward off evil spirits and witches. There are other versions of it throughout Europe, some becoming their own festivals. There's a lot of interesting stuff about it so I recommend looking it up. Have a wonderful day and may the stars watch over you.