After what happened yesterday, Niel found himself finding it hard to get up from his bed. He feels like his world has taken an unexpected turn. Alone in his room, he's trying to find some motivation to get up, but his body feels sluggish. He feels his skin burning from the bright sunlight coming through the window, alerting him that the sun is already up in the sky.

'I can't continue like this.'

He didn't expect he would lose all of his motivation when he woke up. He actually doesn't care that much about his lost summoner power. For him, they don't do that much for the party anyway; just convenient tools to carry their things... or not. The whole time, his party members were always trying to find a way to make sure his summon power contributes to the party. They have many ways to carry their luggage, but they always make excuses about preserving their power for battles instead of using it to carry their things. Niel just accepted it at that time, even though deep inside he knows they just pity him. The fact that they still accept him, even though he is left behind in terms of power, and readily help him anytime, is something he is really grateful for. His summon power doesn't matter to him; he doesn't care if it's useful or not, he just wants to be with them.

'Is it because of this I lost my power?'

Because he doesn't care about it? Maybe the Oracle realized this, then told his friends to leave him alone. And he can't go with them because he's not worthy anymore to be with them. He was given that power from the God. When it's useful to him, he's proud of it without giving his power any credit. When he can't depend on it, he throws it away like it doesn't have anything to do with him. The God told the Oracle how he disrespects his given power, and that's why they forbid him from the meeting. At least that's what Niel believed.

'Looks like I finally got my karma for being so selfish.'

It sounds simple.

Just want to be with them.

But it's really selfish of him to take advantage of their kindness and put his summon power behind, just so that he can stay in his little world.

Niel raises his hand while he's still lying on the bed. He looks at his stretched hand for a few seconds; after that, a glowing white scroll appears above him. Niel tries to focus on the scroll, but nothing happens, and the scroll just falls on his face. Niel drops his hand and lets out a sigh while the scroll is still on his face. He doesn't even bother moving it away, just staring at the ceiling without any thoughts.

"So useless..."

He didn't talk about his power. Those words are for himself. With those words, he finds himself losing more and more will to do anything. So he decides to close his eyes and try to sleep. As he closes his eyes, he remembers what happened yesterday when Remilia hugged him. He still remembers her warmth at that time, and that warmth slowly drifts into a dream.

***

The black clouds cover the sky, preventing the sunlight from reaching the ground. The invisible fires that always burn this barren land, even though there is nothing to burn, make it hard for them to breathe. But they just ignore it since it's not the most threatening thing here. What they fear the most is the creature in front of them.

The Black Jet Dragon, its size is really formidable, reaching 30 meters tall. On its body, there are purple lines that glow eerily. Its red eyes are burning, emitting literal fires. Its big claws emit a dark aura. It spreads its wings, covering the sky to show its domination to them.

Niel sees Remilia heavily breathing; she looks so ragged. This is the first time he has seen her struggle this much. Usually, she overwhelms all of her enemies and slices them into pieces with her light magic. Behind her is Greg. He raises his shield to protect the three people behind him: Tristan, Chelisa, and Selia. Greg also looks beaten up; there are some holes in his armor, and blood is coming out from his eyes and mouth. Even so, he still stands up unfazed. Tristan points his staff at the dragon, ready to fire his magic at any moment. Chelisa stands behind him while holding her staff, ready to heal everyone when they get injured. And Selia holds her astral fire bow, five astral arrows on her bow ready to be fired. While Niel himself is up in the sky riding a wyvern, one of his summon monsters, monitoring his friends; behind him, there are two big birds flying, holding their luggage. Niel summons some monsters to attack the Dragon, but they immediately die from a single sweep of its tail. Remilia launches herself immediately after Niel's summons die and shoots her light magic at the Dragon's eyes. The Dragon reacts to the magic and evades it, then blocks Remilia's sword with its claw from reaching its neck. Seeing some opening, the Dragon slashes its other claw at Remilia. Its claw is so fast that Niel almost cannot see it, but Remilia evades it without much trouble by flying to the side.

Unfortunately, the Dragon waits for this opportunity to happen. The Dragon immediately releases its breath at Greg and the others when Remilia is not in front of them. Greg raises his shield even higher and uses his magic. His shield is big, but he cannot cover three people at the same time. By using this magic, he can increase his shield defenses and widen the area he can protect. Even when Greg is able to protect the other three, the Dragon's breath is so enormous that it covers them entirely. Remilia raises her sword up to the sky, and it starts glowing brightly. Not long after that, a pillar of light shoots at the dragon from the sky, but those lights don't hit the ground; they just hit the entire Dragon body like they have their own mind. Some of the Dragon's hard scales start to peel, but its breath doesn't stop barraging Greg and the others. Remilia launches herself again and slashes at its neck as hard as she could. She manages to hit its neck, but the cut is just too shallow. Even though she already attacked it with all her might, its scales are still able to absorb her strongest attack. After she attacks the Dragon several times, the Dragon finally stops its breath attack. Even after it stops, Remilia keeps attacking its neck at the place she just cut. The Dragon tries to block her but is unable to move because the Dragon is already holding its body against Remilia's Judgment Lights.

Tristan and Selia are preparing their strongest attacks as they wait for Remilia's magic to run out. Chelisa is focusing on healing Greg's wounds from the Dragon's breath; even after he blocked its breath, his skin still got burned. And Niel is just watching the battles from the sky, unable to do anything. He doesn't have any ultimate attack like the others. Even Greg and Chelisa have their own ultimate attacks. They don't use them because they prefer to focus on their roles. This makes him feel pathetic. Even if he tried to attack the Dragon with his sword, he would just end up standing in Remilia's way or getting sliced by its claw. Not to mention, if Remilia barely managed to cut through its neck even after putting all her might, then it's impossible for Niel to even give it a scratch.

"Lisa, please strengthen Tristan and Selia. If Remilia's Judgment Lights barely managed to break its scales, I don't think those two can scratch it."

"But..."

"You've already healed me enough. After we defeat that dragon, you can heal me again later."

Chelisa just nods her head and reluctantly stops treating Greg. She uses her boost magic on Tristan and Selia, and both of their bodies start to glow. As Chelisa keeps using her magic again and again, Tristan's and Selia's bodies glow more brightly. They only focus on the Dragon in silence, waiting for Remilia's magic to stop. For them, this sight is really terrifying if you know how Judgment Lights work.

In the past, there was a kingdom that got destroyed by millions of monsters. All the people that lived there were killed by the monsters; not a single person survived. After they were done with the kingdom, they moved to the next place trying to destroy another kingdom. Fortunately, Remilia and her party were already there waiting for the monsters. When they saw millions of monsters covering the ground marching towards them, they thought it would take days for them to wipe the monsters out. But Remilia, without uttering a single word, flew to the sky and raised her sword. Suddenly, a flash of light appeared in a split second, like when thunder emits light when it hits the earth. And not long after that, all the monsters fell to the ground like their souls left their bodies. Not a single drop of blood left their bodies, and not even a single wound was visible on their bodies. For normal people, it looked like Remilia just raised her sword, some light appeared, and monsters died. But for her party members who saw through it, it was something incredible and terrifying at the same time.

At that time, Remilia only released a light beam as big as a pinky finger; the beam spread into strings of lights shooting towards millions of monsters and killed all the monsters with it. But now, she releases her Judgement Lights as big as a twenty-meter diameter. That means countless strings of lights are focused, shooting at the Dragon right now, and she's able to hold it for more than five minutes while attacking its neck over and over again.

After witnessing Remilia's full power Judgement Lights, Tristan and Selia are not so sure if they can hurt the Dragon with their powerful attacks. But still, they need to do their best and try it. Maybe with the help of Chelisa's magic, they might be able to hurt the Dragon.

"Now!"

Remilia shouts at them, signaling her magic is about to run out. Tristan immediately releases his ultimate magic, and Selia shoots her astral arrows up to the sky. Up in the sky, there is a big magic circle made from a combination of five magic circles, and it starts rotating faster and faster. On the ground, Selia shoots five astral arrows with different colors at once. They beautifully launch into the sky, and when they're up in the sky, the arrows clash with each other and explode into beautiful fireworks. The dark gloomy sky turns into a beautiful spectacular fireworks show. Niel, who is up in the sky, is left speechless by the beautiful view in front of him. After more than seven minutes, Remilia's Judgment Lights finally vanish into thin air, revealing the Dragon's burned flesh. Its scales are completely gone, its wings are just remains of bones, and the burning smell of its flesh covers the area. Seeing a split second of opportunity, the Dragon tries to run away. It swings its claw and thrusts its tail towards Remilia, pushing her away from its neck. Before the Dragon can run away, a dark circle appears below it and pulls it to the ground, making it unable to move. It's one of Greg's strongest magic; he didn't use it before because the Dragon could resist it. Now that the Dragon is weakened, he is able to hold the Dragon down.

Tristan immediately starts shooting his magic; the magic circle that is rotating in the sky shoots a spiral light and dark beam from the middle magic circle, followed by the outer layer of the magic circle, a spiral red, blue, green, and brown beam shoots out covering the spiral light and dark beam. Tristan's magic engulfs the entire front part of the Dragon. Following Tristan's attack, Selia's fireworks sparks turn into thousands of colorful shooting stars; they beautifully descend from the sky towards the Dragon. When they touch the Dragon, they explode with another beautiful array of colors.

Both Tristan and Selia are barraging the Dragon with their powerful attacks. Remilia readies herself to attack the Dragon again after Tristan's and Selia's attacks stop. Greg is still holding the Dragon with his magic. Chelisa goes back to healing Greg again. And Niel loses both of his legs up to his knee.

"Aaaahh!"

Hearing his scream, the others look at him. Beside him, there is another Dragon that swung its claw, turning Niel's wyvern into pieces and cutting off his legs. Thanks to his bird summon behind him, they manage to grab Niel's collar and pull him away from complete demise. But the Dragon doesn't stop there; it immediately swings its claw again towards Niel. Remilia, without thinking, flies towards Niel at full speed. Unfortunately for Remilia, she doesn't manage to reach Niel in time. The Dragon slashes through Niel's bird summon, and at the last milliseconds, another of Niel's bird summon pushes him away and manages to dodge the claw by a hair's breadth. But his summon and his left arm get slashed by the Dragon's claw.

Remilia manages to catch Niel as he falls from the sky. Instead of attacking them, the Dragon flies towards Greg and the others. At this time, Tristan's and Selia's attacks have already stopped, Greg cancels his magic and protects the others from the incoming Dragon. But instead of attacking them, the Dragon flies towards the weakened Dragon. It bites its neck and releases its breath. The body of the weakened Dragon is engulfed by the breath. After the breath disappears, it reveals a terrifying sight.

"No way!"

"Impossible!!"

"Are you kidding me?!"

Greg, Selia, and Tristan are surprised at the sight they're seeing. Somehow, the weakened Dragon is completely healed, even its wings have grown back. Witnessing the Dragon recovered completely from its wound, Remilia begins to panic.

"Retreat!!"

Greg immediately picks up Tristan and Chelisa in his arms and starts running away, with Selia following them from behind. But the Dragons aren't going to let them go; the recovered Dragon fires its breath at Greg and the others. Before its breath hits them, a big wall of ice forms to protect them.

"Villy!"

Villy, an Azure Dragon in her true form, descends in front of them while keeping the wall of ice from being destroyed by the Dragons. Finding an opportunity, Remilia immediately flies towards Greg and the others.

"Lisa, please heal Niel first. He lost too much blood. And Niel, after you're feeling better, summon one of your monsters and get out of here with the others. Me and Villy will hold the enemies for a while. After that, we will follow you."

Chelisa immediately starts to heal Niel and stops him from bleeding. Remilia stands beside Villy, leaving Niel in Chelisa's care, waiting for the Dragons to destroy Villy's ice. Her white armor is stained with Niel's blood. Behind her, Greg, Tristan, and Selia will protect Chelisa so that she can focus on healing Niel.

Villy stops reinforcing her ice, and not long after that, the ice gets destroyed. Remilia immediately launches an attack, trying to take the Dragon by surprise. Villy flies towards the other Dragon and swings her claw targeting its neck.

Remilia starts her clash with the Dragon. Instead of attacking, Remilia focuses on evading and defending. She will attack the Dragon's mouth whenever it starts to open, trying to prevent them from firing their breath. The Dragon attacks Remilia with its claws and tail. Their attacks are really fast but not fast enough to hit Remilia.

Meanwhile, Villy is already fighting in the sky, clashing each other's claws and creating sparks in the sky. When one of them fires their breath attack, the other one will counter it. They fly so fast in the sky that they leave their trails behind.

Tristan and Selia try to distract the Dragon by firing his magic and shooting her arrows. Greg, on the other hand, is ready to receive any surprise attack.

"I'm sorry... I'm giving you guys so much trouble..."

"That's not right, Nii-nii. You never give us any trouble."

"That's a lie... I always get lost... and you are the one who always finds me first."

"Now that you mention it."

Chelisa giggles when she remembers their first meeting. But she also starts to cry.

"Why are you crying? It's not like... I'm about to die..."

"Nii... nii..."

When Niel realizes it, there is something on Chelisa's chest, a single drop of blood falls to his cheek. She drops her staff and starts floating—no, something is pulling her up. When Niel looks back, he finds another Dragon piercing Chelisa's back through her chest using its tail. Niel sees the Dragon throw her body away like a ragdoll. As she lays on the ground, blood gushes out from her chest, with her last strength, she stretches her arm trying her best to reach Niel.

"Nii..."

Niel sees her golden eyes slowly losing their light as she finally stops moving.

"LISAAAAAAA!!!"

Niel uses all his might to crawl towards her with only his right hand. As he gets closer and closer, the Dragon steps on her body, turning her body into a chunk of meat.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Remilia, who is still fighting with the second Dragon, is shocked when she realizes what happened behind her. The Dragon sees an opportunity and bites her body up to her waist. Remilia struggles to break free from its mouth. It tries to bite Remilia's body as hard as it can but Remilia's armor is too hard for it. The Dragon releases its breath while Remilia is inside its mouth as long as it can. When the Dragon finally stops its breath, it spits Remilia out from its mouth and drop her to the ground. Her body becomes charred, and her armor is melting. She can't be recognized anymore. Her hand still moving for a while, but not long after that, she completely stopped moving.

Tristan, Selia, and Greg are shocked and can't move their bodies when they saw Remilia's body. The third Dragon flies towards them and pierces Tristan's body with its claw, then slams it to the ground and swings its other claw to Selia, cutting her into pieces. Greg, who still freezes from shock, looks at Tristan and Selia's lifeless bodies. Without hesitation the third Dragon fires its breath at Greg's defenseless body. After it's breath gone, Greg's armor stuck to his charred body, and his body fells down.

'What?'

'What is happening?'

One after another, his friends got killed right in front of his eyes.

"Lia..."

He looked at Remilia's charred body lying on the ground. His strength started leaving his body, and he fell to the ground.

'Please don't leave me alone...'

All of his party members are strong and really dependable. They're pretty much the strongest party in the world and always able to handle any kind of situation, no matter how bad it looks. So, this scene happening in front of his eyes feels surreal.

Tristan is an incredible man, always gentle, very reliable, and smart. Every time everyone struggles with something, he will always help them find a solution. He also masters all elemental magic to the highest tiers. He is the best magician Niel has ever known. Even if his physical strength is the weakest among the other party members, he is still far above average.

Selia is always kind and caring about the other members' well-being. Her food is also really tasty. She's also really good at cleaning and doing laundry. Niel always tells her that he wants a wife like her one day. Without her, he can't imagine what would happen to this party; maybe they'll be chewing on grass all the time on their journey. She's also really good at detecting traps and enemies. She can also use high-tier fire and wind magic. She can fly and use an astral bow that always appears out of thin air, shooting arrows that also appear out of thin air.

Greg, though his face might look terrifying, is actually really gentle. He always asks everyone if they've had enough water today. He always protects everyone from danger and will literally jump into a monster's mouth to save them. Everyone feels safe when they stand beside him. He also scolds them when they fight each other, making sure that nobody gets hurt. He can take any kind of attack and still stand like nothing happened, even when he gets hurt. Even though he doesn't have any weapons, he can crush his enemies with his shield alone.

Chelisa is an adorable and sweet girl who always cares about everyone. When someone gets hurt, she will heal them immediately. But every time she heals someone, her face always looks so sad. Everyone in the party knows that she hates it when she needs to heal someone. It's not that she doesn't want to heal people; she just doesn't like it when people get hurt. Even though she is small, she is actually stronger than Tristan when it comes to physical strength.

"Vi..lly..."

Somehow, Niel got some of his strength back. He uses all his strength to sit, so he can breathe and avoid the ground from burning his face. When he looks up to the sky, he sees Villy fighting against the three dragons. She is struggling to defend herself as they bombard her with their attacks.

Niel raises his right arm towards Villy.

'Please! I beg you! Please work!'

A white glowing scroll floats in front of him. He tries to summon his monster, but the scroll just falls to the ground.

"Why..."

Niel slowly lowered his hand down, keeping his eyes on Villy, who is barely able to fly. Her wounds worsen as the dragons keep attacking her. His heart hurts when he sees Villy's helplessness.

"Please..."

Niel tries to stand up. He doesn't care about the pain in his legs. He pushes the ground with his hand, trying to balance himself, and shouts as hard as possible to the sky.

"SAVE HER!!"

Suddenly, Villy's body starts emitting a blue light, and she explodes in the sky with a loud sound that shakes the ground.

The sky and the ground immediately turn into ice, the three dragons fall from the sky as they turn into ice. Their bodies scatter into pieces of ice when they touch the ground.

Niel still looks up to the sky, but his eyes look at the place where Villy exploded. Snows starts fall to the ground. Niel sight follow a single snow slowly falling down, as the snow almost reach the ground. Niel find someone in a distance, standing looking at him. Somehow he find some familiar feeling toward that person. As that person start to walk toward him. The ground starts to shakes and the world began crumbling. And Niel find himself inside the darkness.