Before even Magnum was able to move, the Master was already on the offensive. He saw a red blur jump above him and a series of red flashes hit the snake’s head. It revolted as deep cuts appeared on its face. Mad painful hisses filled their ears released by the snake. It started forming a hood making it look much more sinister. Its head wandered around trying to locate the Master not giving an inch of attention to Magnum and the snipers. It turned its back on them and followed the one who hurt it, standing on a tall triangle-shaped dune, its red armor shining behind an orange-yellow sun with his eyes burning red.

The snake whipped its massive tail around before it moved away. Magnum needed to exert effort to evade them. He jumped on its tail and held on as the creature crawled towards the dune.

“Shoot it!” Garza said.

“I know! But it's not working anyway! I need bigger bullets! It's too big,” Tanna said.

“Just shoot it! It's going for the Master!” Garza said while shooting the snake at will.

“How about the ballistas?” she said.

“It's out of range now! “We have to get closer! I’ll use grenades!”

“Good! Let’s go!” she said.

As the snake crawled, it started spitting poison towards the Master. The bullet-like shots were quick, but he easily dodged them.

“Look out! You might hit them!” Garza said.

“I won’t!”

“Grenades! Carzie!” Magnum shouted.

“Yes,” the demon dog replied and two grenades materialized in his hand. He threw it immediately on the head and it exploded removing a patch of its hard skin. The snakes swerved left and right, groggy from the explosion but it was still fixated on the Master.

“Good work Carzie!”

“Hmmm…” the dog replied.

Magnum stood but before he could even run to the head the damage on the skin already healed back.

“It’s okay, give me some grenades again when the time is right,” he said. He started walking to the head of the snake balancing as it moved. He saw something peculiar on the thick hard skin. Several holes opened and It was all around its body. In a quick snap, black spikes came out of the holes almost hitting Magnum.

“Oh shit!”

“You’re lucky human!” Askel said.

The snake crawled around the dune as it went up. It covered the sand with its long body not giving any space for the Master to run off to. Magnum was evading the spikes as it came in and out randomly from the holes. The head of the snake finally reached the Master. It stared at the old man, mouth closed while moving its head backward, readying to attack. The Master was still as a rock, he had raised his sword earlier in a striking position and hadn’t moved since. Both were looking at each other.

Magnum was still running on the snake’s body but he has a shortcut now since the snake rolled around the dune. He ran towards the center and he was jumping from one coil to another while still evading the spikes.

The snake finally opened its mouth and stroked forward. The master blazed in fire. Before he could be bitten, he struck his sword absorbing all the fire around him and cutting the snake’s head in two. The cut was so strong it went through the snake’s body and the sand. The cut burned the snake and the plague frothing from its mouth and wound.

“Carzi!”

Magnum jumped and ten grenades appeared on his hands; one for each fingers. The Master saw him and quickly jumped away.

“I can’t find your core yet! So I’ll just make all of you explode!”

He threw the grenades on every part of the snake's body and then jumped away as multiple explosions followed.

Tanna, Garza, and even the Master covered their ears as the explosions happened. It blew up all the parts of the snake revealing the broken core on its tail. They all stood on the beetle, watching Magnum walk behind the scattered pieces of the snake.

“That snake won’t survive that! Time to eat eat eat!”

“Okay, Bunta Get it!”

The dog ran to the dune and started eating the scattered cores.

“Good job old man!” Magnum said as he went up the beetle.

Garza swatted his back, “Address him as Master!”

“Oh ah sorry Master. But we did it! Yeah!”

“I got nervous on that one!” Garza said.

“That’ was an impressive strike Master!” Magnum said as he pointed to the cut on the dune itself.

The master looked at Magnum and then looked away.

The Don’s eagle flew passed by them with a loud screech.

“Human!”

The eagle came back carrying the demon dog in its talon.

“Cerberus!” Magnum shouted. He jumped down to the sand and followed the eagle.

“Hey!” he said.

“This is the first time I saw that eagle this aggressive!” Tanna said.

“It hates demons!” the master replied.

“But Master, I think it's not a demon. It's a dark spirit, please let my father look into it.”

“Demons, Dark Spirits, Dragons, what’s the difference? They all want to devour us. Take it but never let it near me.”

“Thanks, Master. And now let’s go back!” Tanna said and she drove the beetle back to the town.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

###

Magnum was standing in front of the white mansion looking at the grass.

“This was where the Don healed me. This is where the eagle went. But where are they?”

“Cerberus! Speak! Why aren’t you responding!”

“Hey!” Tanna said waving her hand. She wasn’t in full battle gear anymore but still had a pistol on her hip. He arrived with Garza and a few other mercs.

“Where is the eagle?” Magnum said.

Tanna and Garza looked around and above and then they looked at each other.

“It must be inside! Let’s go.” Tanna walked to the mansion’s front porch. Garza followed but Magnum stayed in the grass.

“Let’s go,” Tanna looked back.

“I can’t!” Magnum said.

“What?” she said as her head leaned left.

“I just can’t! It won't let me,” he said pointing a finger to the house.

“What do you mean it?” Garza and Tanna were already in front of the door inside the front porch.

Magnum composed himself, “It won’t let me. Watch.” He took a breath and walked to the porch and suddenly bounced back as if an invisible barrier hit him.

Tanna and Garza’s mouth dropped.

“What’s that?” she said.

“I don’t know! It must be a spell.” Garza said.

“A spell? So he created a spell so I can’t enter?” Magnum said.

“Maybe not specifically for you, but maybe it's a generic barrier for bad persons? This is the first time this happened,” she explained.

“Bad person?”

“It's just an example. Don’t take it personally. Stay here! I'll talk to the Don and get Cerbie!”

“Don’t call him Cerbie! Cerberus is his name!” he said.

“Oh, stay here. I’ll need to report to the Master.” Garza said.

Several minutes later, the door opened and Tanna came out holding a puppy-sized Cerberus.

“Cerberus!” Magnum stood up from the ground when she came out.

She was all smiles as she carried it, “Let’s go to my father!” she said. The three heads of Cerberus looked at Magnum as she passed him.

“Human!” Askel said.

“Master! Hehehe!” Bunta said.

“Why is he small again?” Magnum asked Tanna, “And where’s the Don and the eagle?”

“Hmm… I am not sure but spirit beast can change their size at will. I’ve seen it plenty of times with Talon here.”

She held the dog up and hugged it for a few seconds, “But I just think Cerbie wants to look cute for me! Right? This proves my point that Cerbie is a spirit beast! The eagle was there inside but Don Cid wasn’t so I just took Cerbie from the floor. They were both sleeping; the eagle and Cerbie.”

“Yes, I saw the eagle change size as well. But wasn’t it angry earlier with Cerberus? You just took it without his permission?”

“I’ll just ask Don Cid when he comes back but yeah. I took it and the eagle didn’t respond,” Tanna casually answered.

Magnum followed Tanna. “Is this true? You’re just like that eagle? And why none of you were answering me earlier?”

“Human, there was a barrier! Didn’t you see?” Askel said.

“I didn’t see it but it prevented me from going inside. So it also stopped our connection?”

“Yes!”

“I understand now. So what happened inside? Why did you shrink?”

The three entered the lab in front of the Guild Master’s house. It was the same house where Tanna caught Magnum.

“What is that?” One of the researchers said. All of the researchers within were shocked when they saw Tanna holding the three-headed puppy.

“Tanna!” one of them cried while slowly moving away.

“Don’t worry! I’ll just show it to Father!” Tanna walked passed them casually.

Magnum followed her observing the same infected animals he saw back then. Behind the glass rooms, still and silent.

“We just. We just. We just want to look cute!” Bunta said.

“You got three heads! You don’t look cute!”

“Hmm… we won't look much threatening if were small. That’s why. But you’re right. We should hide our heads Bunta next time.”

“Thanks, Carzi! As always, your words make sense.”

“Stop patronizing the human! Bunta! Carzi!” Nothing happened! The Spirit Beast doesn’t talk. It just took me inside that house through a large hole that opened above and just let me wander off. We got bored so we just slept.”

“It doesn’t talk? Isn't that great? Hey, you’re ignoring my spirit beast question!”

“Stupid human! If it's not talking. That means it's fake! We’ve encountered this before. Yes, I'm a spirit beast but black!”

“So you’re a black spirit beast… huh... Okay but fake? What? Why?”

“It's a long story! I don’t want to tell!” Askel said.

They passed two more glass rooms with large instruments and monitors and then went inside to the next room. They saw a man with dark glasses tinkering with a small instrument standing in front of a long table surrounded by drawers and instruments displayed on the walls. His hair was long but tied like a ponytail.

“Father! Look!” Tanna shouted with glee.

The man did not respond but continued to do what he was doing.

“Father!”

Frustrated, Tanna walked in front of the man and held the puppy in front of him, “Father! Hey!”

The man stood up and looked at Tanna.

“Hello, my daughter! And why did you bring a puppy here that doesn’t have charms? Didn’t I tell you that they might get… infected here…”

The man went silent after seeing the huge smile on her daughter. He finally took notice of the peculiar creature and inspected it. He put his instrument on the table and walked around the dog. He opened a drawer and took a thin rectangular instrument. It was a lens but it was attached to something. He faced it to the dog.

“What is he doing human?”

“What are you doing?” Magnum stepped closer.

“Don’t worry. It's just a spirit checker. It checks your spirit classification,” Tanna said smiling at Magnum.

“Woah! It's so dark! It's a Dark Spirit!” he said smiling. Tanna and his Father looked at each other smiling.

“Stop this human!”

“Hey! He’s mine!” Magnum took the dog from Tanna.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! Magnum. Tanna! You should ask permission first! Good to see you again by the way! Hope you learned your lesson here.”

“Thanks and I did. Please explain to me what’s the meaning of what you said.”

“Sure! I am Darwin Barls by the way, Tanna’s father and head researcher of the Talon Guild. My daughter should have introduced us earlier,“ he eyed her and then looked back at Magnum.

He put the instrument in his hand and let it sit there for a few seconds.

“You see, it turned white. It's because humans and animals are white spirits.”

“We are white spirits? Just like the Spirit Beasts?” Magnum said in awe.

“Yes! All humans are white spirits! But as there are white spirits there is a counter to that and those are black spirits. And the Vicari faith has been weaponizing this difference in color for ages.”

“Wait so it's natural? There is White and Dark spirit.” Magnum said.

“Yes!” Darwin said.

“Great! I was right! There was no demon after all! It was a Dark Spirit Beast! But there is one more thing I’d like to confirm Father.”

“What is it?”

Tanna looked at the dog who was in Magnum’s arms, “Let me hold him again. I just need to take a good look at…”

“No, tell me what are you gonna do first?”

“Okay, then just hold him a bit higher for me.”

“What is she gonna do?”

“Don’t let them get their way. I don’t trust them!”

Tanna looked at the dog’s heads. Then she quickly touched Magnum’s right wrist and

unlocked his bracer. It fell on the floor.

“What?” Tanna and her father said in astonishment.

Magnum looked at his Oath.

“It turned black?”