“How much longer,” Isabel was antsy.

“We are almost there just up that mountain,” Stella gave directions while holding onto Vex’s wavy mane.

Vex with one grand leap landed beside a huge metal fortress, the three got down from the shrinking Vex downsizing to make it easier to land safely.

“Okay Vex, you can go back to sleep now, I will call you if I need you.”

Vex bows his head and descends to the ground.

“Stella if you may,” Ash does a hand gesture towards the door.

“C-could you turn around, it is embarrassing when people watch me change.”

Ash awkwardly agreed, “Oh um okay?”

Ash and Isabel turn around looking at the grand forest below. Stella glows bright, sending a bright white light all around her covering her, the light grows big then fades leaving a shiny bright red-scaled dragon.

“You can look now,” Stella shyly gave permission to turn around.

The two spins around, Isabel was in awe at the beauty of Stella’s dragon form.

“I see you used the magic I showed you to clean your scales.”

Stella, proud, showed off her reflective scales, “Yup, I use it every day.”

Ash is glad but rushes her, “I know you want to talk more Stella but I want to see the situation in the town then we can talk okay.”

Stella realized it was not the time to talk about all of the fun times she had, “Sorry Ash, I forgot.”

She stretched out her wings pointing them outwards, with one great swoosh Stella ascended up and over the fortress. The giant rusted metal doors creaked open, the town was damaged from ice blasts, ice shards covered the houses.

Most houses collapsed in on themselves, “When did they attack the town.”

The sad sight got a little brighter, “They attacked two days ago but everyone is safe and sound!”

The voice came roaring in from behind huge debris, a big red dragon burned away the mess.

“Ash I am glad you came back!”

Stella's father shouted uncontrollably forgetting he is still in dragon form.

“We are so glad you arrived with our little princess here, we told her to stay put but she decided to trust her gut,” Stella’s mother gave her an unforgettable stare.

Stella’s father boasted about Stella’s talent, “My little princess just saved our kingdom with her gut, NOW that is a true leader, taking risks for the wellbeing of her people!”

Stella’s mother ended her father’s praise, “Ash, how rude of you, you haven’t introduced us to your little friend here.”

Isabel blurts out before Ash can say anything, “Hi I am Isabel, Ash’s student, it is so awesome to meet you, I never saw a dragonkin before and I love your scales!”

Stella’s mother switched moods quickly from polite to questioning her, “Was Ash ever hard on you, did he bully you.”

Isabel had a huge smile, “Well our first encounter was rather hostile, but I was the one who started it.”

After the cheerful meet, the bleak state of their home brought down the mood for Stella, making her turn away from the destruction, “If only I found you faster, we would still have a home.”

The crystals formed in Stella’s dragon eyes, Isabel cheered her up, “If you didn’t try you will never have found us.”

Stella stopped the crystal tears, “Thanks, Isabel.”

Ash began trying to figure out who came up with the idea to attack the clan, “So the water and earth clan teamed up, what caused them to unite, after the war they just had. Is it an outer force doing this or are they desperate for resources?”

Ash pondered on who was the real enemy.

“Have you heard of the titan Longwei, or the dragon lord, my second heard rumors from other clans that he has awoken from his slumber. It was only a matter of time until he woke back up but his daughter would be there to keep him under control, now that she was sadly killed by our clan in the war, he probably wants revenge.”

He sighs greatly, “Ash, can you do this for us, I understand if you don’t want to take on this job. It makes sense if you don’t, he is a god to us dragonkin, he even fought back the gods from killing us all.”

Ash processed the info while the others talked, “Alright I will take this task but I will need to rest here for a few days after the battle.”

Everyone agreed happily, Ash and the dragons talked about their life and caught up with each other till dusk.

#

“Ash be careful, Longwei is not the most understanding person,” Stella’s father warned him of Longwei’s hostility.

Vex waited for Ash on the edge of the mountain top.

“Okay Ash, let's beat this grouchy dragon and bring peace to the dragon clan,” Isabel hyper as always is turned down.

“Sorry Isabel but this mission is too dangerous for you, I may even have trouble in this battle.”

Isabel pleaded, “Ash please, I want to show you all my training. I even trained in secret so I can impress you.”

Her plea was in vain, “Look Isabel, I know you trained in secret, I had a spy on you at all times. I did that because if you were to be killed again, I would lose it, I, I can’t lose you again. If anyone was to die no one could be brought back to life if there is no king of the underworld.”

Isabel, downhearted by the denial, waved goodbye with the others, “I will be back with good news or die trying.” Ash rode off, on his mission to subdue the dragon lord.

#

“Vain, how much longer till we reach Meso.”

Vain reminds him, “Sir I will have no regrets sending you flying if you keep asking me that.”

King shuts his trap for a minute then opens it to ask, “Did I make the wrong choice,”

Vain stayed quiet letting him ride with his thoughts, “I am your familiar, I don’t give advice, I just enforce them.”

King is left to deal with his choices himself, they finally make it to Meso. The person waiting for him in a frightened town is none other than Nemesis herself, “King, could you send your familiar away, you are scaring the villagers.”

Vain bows, she speaks to Nemesis with a classy tone, “Nice to finally meet you lady Nemesis, I am Vain,”

King leans on Vain’s head, she borrows into the ground, King falls on his face.

“Well that was elegant."

King lifts himself off the ground, dusting himself off, he cuts to chase, “Nemesis, do you know where Ash went. I really need to know.”

She wore a red leather chest piece with golden arm guards that were in the shape of crows.

“I am sorry but you are a bad influence on my son. That needs to end now!”

Nemesis pulls out two gloves one white the other black, the material of the gloves is magic.

“Holy and abyss magic created these gloves, I call these the gloves of judgment.”

Nemesis begins the battle with two swings, a holy right hook to the face, and an abyss magic uppercut. The holy right hook made a white blast, the abyss uppercut sent him flying off his feet with a black blast.

“You will not interfere with Ash’s life ANYMORE!”

King lands on his back dizzy and out of ideas to control the situation, “Oh come on lady it is not like I mean it,” King sits up.

“Well, this is going to end badly either way so can we stop this,” he stands,

unsheathing his blue soul eater from his hip, King punches the ground pulling up two skeletons from the ground. One was a mother from the looks of her bone structure and the other was a child but he had a disease making his bones rot.

“Now watch this.”

King releases two souls out of his sword merging them with the bones, the skin and organs start to regenerate on the bones, “If you want to do this then you are going to have to kill these two. By the way, I did kill these two for the sheer fun of it.”

The bodies are now fully recovered awakening them, “Momma what happened, where are we.”

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The little boy sickly shakes his mom, waking her up, “Honey, oh come here my baby.”

She sits up and embraces him, her eyes got stuffy. She was howling.

“This is the perfect reason that you shouldn’t be near my son, a man who could end this world, killing countless families.”

Her words have little to no effect on him, “Know what, I am tired of this, YOU, attack her, make sure she is unable to fight.”

The mother stands, leaving her weak son to fend for himself, the mother’s eyes are soulless, she charges at Nemesis with a fist. Nemesis dodges right but the mother is unrelenting.

“She will listen to me without hesitation.”

Nemesis’s moral code is challenged, her mind begins to snap, “You MONSTER,” she snarls at him,

the mother starts turning more feral, her moves are more animal, she strikes on all fours.

“That is enough of you,”

King has her pause her assault, with one swift slash he cuts her down, She looks at her son for the last time before turning into dust.

“What is WRONG with you!”

King ignored her, “You're up kid, go make your momma proud,” the boy’s tears stopped.

He shakily stands, limping towards Nemesis, “OKAY, I will tell you please stop.”

Nemesis couldn’t stand it anymore, her godly hood is to punish the evil but her not surrendering meant hurting the good.

“Great, because it would pain me greatly to see this child fight, now, die!”

He punctured through the boy’s chest, going through the heart, the blood covering his sword. His body decaying rapidly turning to dust, Nemesis was beyond angry, words couldn’t describe the feeling she felt.

“Are you going to tell me where Ash is or do you want me to do this again?”

King lifts his hand ready to strike the ground to bring more unfortunate souls, Nemesis screams out letting out her anger, all she could do was scream out knowing attacking him will only make more souls suffer.

“No lies, if you send me somewhere else I will burn the nearest city to the ground.”

Nemesis had no choice, she growled at him, “He went to one of the two places with a little girl named Isabel. The first place which is the best choice is Crestia, a city of adventures.”

King cuts her off and walks away, “I heard enough, see ya later,” he walks away now on his way to find Ash and Isabel.

Leaving Nemesis to contemplate her decisions, “I should have killed him.”

#

King reaches the city in less than a day all thanks to Vain, “King we have arrived.”

King barked an order, “Vain shrink.”

Vain shrank, she is now the size of a scarf, “Knocking would be the logical choice.”

Before he could do so the gates opened and came flooding out adventures, and guards.

“Is it too late to get some ice cream or are they closed?”

He is instantly surrounded in a matter of seconds, “Do any of you know a man named Ash and a little girl that goes by the name Isabel?”

King, unfazed by the small army around him, a lady in red walks through the guards and adventures, “I know those names.”

She tries to use the number of men to get answers, “Who are you and what do you want with them.”

The talking bores King, with one quick flex of his power sends all guards and adventurers flying, “I figured you will be the last one standing.”

Rin slid back a couple of feet leaving a mark on the ground.

“I am King, the brother to Ash and his second in command of the tyrants of death, YOU WILL REMEMBER THAT NAME!”

King cools down, he lets Vain slither down his body to the floor, she grows to turn into her giant form.

Rin had a bewildered look on her face before figuring out, “Are you talking about the syndicate that ran the county hundreds of years ago.”

King was surprised by her answer, “Oh, I guess our name hasn't died all these years. Give my brother my regards and tell him I will be causing havoc outside this city.”

She blasts him with her wind element only to have Vain bat her with her long tail, “Good someone feisty, at least I won’t be bored waiting for him.”

Rin hit her city’s walls cracking it, “What are you Ash,” she slid down the wall with her back against it. The question puzzled Rin as she passed out, what was he hiding and how can someone so old look so good.

#

“Ash, we are here,” Vex with his gruff voice wakes Ash.

“Alright, thanks Vex, I will call on you for support soon.”

Vex seeps down into the ground moving in the form of a shadow, Ash walks towards the cave that has been carved into the mountain by unnatural means, “Yeah I guess this looks a little out of place.”

He makes it inside the dimly lit cave, the cave was just a hollowed-out mountain.

“Who enters my domain,” a voice shakes the very ground Ash stands on.

“I am Ash the representative of the red dragon clan.”

He laughs at Ash, “You can't be serious, they don’t even have the stones to face me themselves, what a joke!”

Longwei calms down after his laugh attack, “Get out of here before you get hurt, boy.”

The words ring in his head, “Don’t call me boy,”

“Or what, boy, are you going to beat me and save the day. DO YOU KNOW EVEN THE GODS COULDN’T BEAT ME, what makes you think a weak little boy can win.”

Longwei grows tired of Ash’s existence, “Die you bug,”

Longwei spits out fire covering Ash. The flames burned around Ash as he was blasting flames of his own. Longwei stopped, leaving scorch marks all around Ash.

“Oh, looks like the fire has no effect, how about water.”

Longwei lifts his head, then violently lowers his head shooting out an enormous wave of water, Ash, quick on his feet, puts the palm of his hand on the ground,

“Earth wall level two,”

a wall of rock and dirt lifts into the air and spreads around him fully covering him from the harsh wave. As soon as the water flowed out of the cave his green wall collapsed.

“Do you still want to talk Longwei?”

His words angered Longwei, “FINE Take THIS!”

Lightning and wind cyclone spins towards Ash. He threw his cape over him, covering him from the cyclone, the cyclone past him leaving only scratches. Ash finally takes the initiative sprinting at Longwei with his katana, Ash uses the debris to jump off of and strike the great grey dragon in the neck.

It left a tiny cut, “Is that the best you can do.”

Ash was slowly descending down, Longwei swung his tail sending Ash to the wall. He violently coughed up blood, his ribs were cracked making one rib go through his lung.

“Aw was that it, all bark no bite.”

Ash climbs out of the hole in the wall, “Oh there is plenty of bite left,”

he unveils his eyes sending a shockwave of lighting,

“Did you know lighting is the only element that can’t be learned, well it’s my strongest element. Let me show you what power is.”

Ash raises his hands in an ascending way, “Levina, come play.”

A lightning bolt burst through the cave cracking down in front of Ash, a cheetah stood there full of electricity, its body was made up of electricity. She had brown spots like a cheetah and glowing yellow eyes,

“Are you ready master,”

Ash nods, giving her the signal to attack. She zooms to Longwei dodging his elemental blasts, she strikes Longwei’s left eye with a charge of a bolt coming out of her body.

“YOU LITTLE RAT,” before Longwei could bite she teleported in a flash of light.

“Too slow,” Levina appeared beside Ash.

It was Ash’s turn to attack, Ash, charged up black lightning in his hand,

“Eat this, THUNDERBOLT LEVEL FIVE!”

A stable lightning bolt formed, he proceeded to launch it at Longwei winging him, the bolt left a hole in the dragon’s arm.

“HOW DARE YOU, You scum,” Longwei hissed at the two.

They sat there waiting in silence, seeing who would make the next move, out of nowhere he started to laugh, “HAA HAA ha ha ha.”

Longwei laughing startled Ash, “What are you laughing about.”

The dragon laughed off the pain, “My daughter used to want to fight with me every time I woke up. She was the only one who could tire me out like this.”

Longwei was favoring his right arm, leaning on it more.

“Do you still want to fight,” Ash readies his blade.

“Come on, the fight is just starting.”

Ash and Levina charge forward, “Have it your way then,”

the two split, Ash goes right while Levina goes left. She goes up Longwei’s tail, getting to his back, she sends lightning through his body. Ash is Longwei’s main focus, ignoring Levina’s lightning, he stomped on the ground creating an earthquake. Ash lost his footing leaving him open for an attack, Longwei stomped on him smashing him,

“Guuuaaaah!”

Longwei removed his gigantic paw, Ash couldn’t get up, he had many broken bones and other injuries.

“Vex, help me,” his words were a mission just to get out, liters of blood came out too.

Longwei shifted his attention to Levina, he flapped his wings blowing gusts of wind, his scales were as hard as a rock making it hard to hold on. She dug in her claws as hard as she could, Longwei was occupied with her, he didn’t notice Vex coming out of the ground.

Vex goes straight to Ash, “Master are you okay,” his deep voice didn’t mix well with his worry.

“Yeah, I am good, just hold him off for me,”

Vex got his orders, the black lion grew and grew until he overshadowed Longwei.

“You dare hurt my master, then you pay with your life,” Vex roared at Longwei, suddenly making him the target.

Levina willingly hopped off Longwei’s back, Longwei was going to speak but Vex leaped and sank his fangs into Longwei pushing him against the wall. Vex held his teeth into Longwei’s neck using the advantage to slam him against the wall repeatedly.

Vex used his size to overpower him, Vex slammed him one last time, breaking through the mountain and sending the battle outside. Vex finally let go of his death grip,

“I see you are not much of a talker.”

Longwei can clearly be seen breathing hard and slowly, the wound left by Ash and Vex took a toll. Vex begins to sprint, Longwei waits for him to get close, right when Vex is in the hitting distance Longwei unleashes a devastating tsunami, it only gives Vex little time to blast it back with his fire.

The water was going around him and over, he needed to defend Ash with his life and so he sent a fire blast as big as the mountain behind him, the fire blast pushed it far enough to where if he would take the rest of the water head-on Ash would be safe.

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Vex covered the hole in the mountain with his body, he rapidly spits his fire until his body was taken with the water extinguishing his flames slowly. Vex’s body sat against the hole as his flame burnt out, in his mind, he spoke to Ash,

“Take care of yourself Ash, and thank you for taking care of me,” his last words to Ash awoken something in him.

“Vex, Vex, WHERE, VEX, GOD TELL ME WHERE,” he searched recklessly for him, pushing through the pain.

His last words echoed in Ash’s mind, “No, Please, don’t leave me alone, I, I can't do this without you,” Ash broke down.

His partner has perished, his partner who was with him since the very beginning now left him in this sad bleak world, all alone. He sat there on his knees with his head to the floor.

Ash snapped,

his last string had been cut, only the gods could stop him, his appearance started changing, his clothes grew glossy red, his wounds all healed themselves leaving him with red eyes and floating hair.

He sat up cold, ruthless,

emotionless,

his eyes eventually faded grey and his final step was complete, a killer was born. He flew in the sky eradicating the mountain with a single black fire blast, Levina hid in the sky waiting for Ash’s orders.

He floated in the sky seeing Longwei standing, waiting for him, Ash held both hands forward.

“Fire and Lightning ball, level six,” two small grey balls formed at the palm of his hands.

The two balls the size of softballs flew to Longwei at rapid speed. He blasted the grey fireball with water, the tiny ball split the water in half, it still moved forward without resistance, Longwei switched to the ball of lightning creating a giant wall of earth.

The ball dissolved the wall and moved forward, Longwei blasted both balls with all the elements, it had no effect on them, the ball stopped right at the dragon’s body,

“See you in hell pathetic lizard, explode.”

He turned around and flew inside the cave, behind him was an explosion so big the world felt it, grey covered the sky.

Ash sat on his knees, putting his blindfold back on, and closed his eyes, his appearance went back to normal.

He suddenly jolted awake, “Where am I?”

His memory was foggy. Ash finally remembered Vex, he ran to the giant hole looking around until he spotted a giant lion laying down on his side.

Ash burst to him, “Vex, VEX, stay with me!”

He slid down the mountain and reaches his snout. His eyes turned blue, a faint breath came from Vex,

“Master, you are alive,” the lion nudged Ash softly.

“Yes bud, I am alive,” Ash kept the tears back.

“Thank you for being my master, I enjoyed the good times we had and the friends we made along the way, tell Stella and everyone else to be strong for me.”

His breathing was being pushed, “Tell S, to take care for me.”

He paused for a moment, “And Ash, thank you for choosing me as your familiar.”

Ash sat against Vex’s belly, he purred his last great purr before slowly turning to stone.

“Goodbye partner.”

When the first tear came down, he couldn't hold it back any longer, as the tears went down, Vex’s body crumbled away leaving Ash nothing to lean against, the sun seemed so somber and sad as he sat there empty without his friend. He laid in his ashes, staying silent for a long period of time. His life was bleak, all he could think about was hurting someone, anyone.

Anything can make him lose it at any moment, his thinking was bleak, “Is this my life now, death and sorrow. Am I destined to be alone forever?”

His cold blue eyes froze parts around him, the thoughts in his head scared him. As he sat in the now ashes of Vex, movement caught Ash’s eye, there was something in Vex’s ashes, the movement stopped for a second then shook then paused again. It started to move then,

“Achoo.”

A little grey lion sat there looking up at Ash.

“Are you my master sir,” the little lion asked with her adorable voice.

Ash sat up full of emotions. He patted the little lion, “Yes, I am your master, Vex.”

Ash stared at the sunset full of hope that was given to him by his partner, Vex laid in Ash’s lap, rolled into a ball, and went to sleep.