「North-East Area – Dawn」

Deborah wakes up from another of her brief nap on the castle wall. It's rather strange for her, since she has been sleepy all the time from yesterday. If not for the noisy battle noises in the West ward, Deborah might have continue sleeping in as if it's a normal Sunday morning, but there's still a war to fight, and it won't wait for her to finish her sleep. Deborah rubs her sleepy eyes to wake herself up…

…only to find four human soldiers suddenly charging at her with a black chain of their hands.

-What!?

Caught by surprise, Deborah reacts too slow to escape from the soldiers' encirclement. They trap her by tying her arms with their black chain, and swiftly drag her away in a hurry before she has any chance to break free and escape.

'This chain…'

Deborah tries flexing her arm muscles, surprisingly, that isn't enough to break the chain. If it's a normal chain, Deborah can easily break them merely by flexing, but of course, the humans won't try something as reckless as dragging a dragon away with a simple chain, which explains why they're in such a hurry dragging her away as if their lives depend on it, and it's true in a way.

'It might be enhanced.'

The invading army probably have some alchemists coming with them to prepare this chain solely for the purpose of restraining Deborah. Do they mean to capture her alive, bring her back to their land in a cage, imprison her before dissecting her in search for her power, or maybe doing something 'worse' than those...?

If so, they'll need armies at their back, not just four soldiers!

-Araghh!

Deborah screams as she focuses strength into her arms. The enhanced black chain shows signs of breaking, and eventually Deborah breaks free from her binding. Despite that, they have already dragged her out for quite a bit of distance. They may not be the same soldiers who escaped her claws in the battle prior, but those who survived won't be foolish enough to keep their comrades uninformed. These humans know what Deborah can do, and when she have her chance to retaliate, they sure as hell won't be in range to be beaten to a bloody pulp.

-Scramble!

One of the four shouts out loud, which prompts all four of them to abandon the now broken chain and scramble away to four different directions, leaving Deborah behind and confused from this sudden course of action. Normally, they would wave their swords and charge at her like maniacs all while screaming "Glory for the Heaven Realm!" or something like that...This is shady, too shady, yet Deborah can't make clear of the goal behind all these.

Only when a large shadow gets casted on Deborah's position does she understand everything.

From the sky, a huge round rock falls down and crushes Deborah's body under the castle wall. Too fast, too sudden, Deborah can neither react nor scream as the giant rock turns her body into a bloody pulp and traps her between itself and the cold stone wall. Only part of her hand manages to stick outside, immobile in the middle of her own pool of blood.

When the human soldiers feel secure enough, they start getting closer to the crashing site, inspecting whether or not the dragon girl has truly died.

-Did...it work?

Asks a soldier. Despite the success of their plan, some of them still seem to have doubt, but it's natural considering the insane feats she displayed from the start of this siege.

-I can't believe this crazy plan actually worked...

They stare at each other through their iron visor, trading confused looks among themselves.

-We need to make sure she's dead for good.

Suddenly, a soldier brings out a twig he hid behind his back.

-You brought a twig along with you? In a life or death mission?

-You never know when you'll need one!

The soldier with a twig is oddly proud of his preparation.

-Just get it over with…

Says another soldier, which prompt the rest of them to slowly walk away from the crash site, leaving the soldier with a twig as the only one near the giant rock and the crushed dragon girl. Just in case.

-Damn you all…Well, here goes nothing.

As careful as possible, the soldier slowly uses his twig to touch Deborah's arm. The first touch doesn't prompt any reaction for the girl's arm, not very different from a dead girl's arm. The soldier feels safe enough, but just to be sure, he continues touching the arm with his twig. No noticeable reaction so far.

But just before the soldier can finally conclude that Deborah is dead, her arm suddenly grabs the twig and breaks part of it into wooden crisps. The sudden reaction scares the helmeted soldier and makes him fall back on instinct.

-She's still alive! Run!

All the soldiers run away for their life as Deborah's arm push away the giant rock that crushed her body, despite their difference in size and position. At first, the moving process is slow since she can barely use her arm, but it eventually get faster when more spaces becomes available and thus more movement. When her main body is free, Deborah stands up from the place she is stuck with a bloodied body soaked from her own blood. The rock fails to crush her to a pulp, it merely traps her on the castle wall with its body. Deborah's body is unharmed, despite all the blood on her clothes. Even so, Deborah's more pissed and angry than happy from getting out from a death trap.

-Damn you all…Get back here! I'll rip you apart!

Deborah shouts in a fit of anger. She starts to move her legs in an attempt to chase down and punish the human soldiers who did this to her. Despite her self-imposed pacifism, Deborah doesn't hesitate to punch first and negotiate later if she's absolutely pissed, just like this situation.

But as Deborah's legs start moving, something suddenly grabs them before Deborah can react, and that something starts pulling her off the ground and slams her down the stone tiles like a pitiful rag doll. As Deborah gets herself mercilessly pummeled by the unknown assailant, her eyes recognize the enemy attacking her.

It's the giant rock earlier, yet rather than a big but harmless rock, it now assumes the form of a stone golem humanoid in shape but not in size, another creation of Ignisian alchemists. Despite its bulky appearance and faceless feature, the shining "eyes" at its neckless "head" keep blinking like an amused child happy to found their new toy, which their idea of playing involve beating the crap out of their toy to see how durable it is.

'If the rock doesn't kill you, the golem will finish the job…'

-Whoever made this must have a really sick sense of humor!

Deborah won't accept being humiliated like this any longer. When she sees an opening, Deborah throws a punch down the arm grabbing her legs. Her punch actually makes a crack on the hard arm made of stone, it's not enough to break the whole arm to bits, but it actually weakens the golem's grip on her legs and allows Deborah to free herself, albeit she still needs to take some moments to recover from being wounded once again.

-UGAGAGA!

The stone golem makes some sort of strange battle cry that doesn't resemble any known languages. It's smart enough to know not to give its opponent anytime to recover. The golem charges at Deborah and attempts to grab her once again, this time her whole body. But the element of surprise is gone, Deborah won't let it capture her again that easy.

-Eat dirt!

Deborah shouts and throws a punch at the golem's lunging arms. This time, Deborah's punch actually manages to push the golem away from her, despite their difference in size. Part of its arm shows signs of breaking. Her punch actually packs a force similar to being rammed by a truck. But not even her can defy Newton's third law, the force she generated also inflicts some damage on her knuckle, which makes them bleed out, though Deborah can tell there're no broken bones in her fists. Either way, her battle plan from now on is simple: Punch harder until her enemy breaks.

Deborah's right arm suddenly bursts out a flame, and from that flame, her normal human-like slender arm is now wrapped in red scales of a fire dragon, accompanied with five black claws at her fingers. Deborah clenches her dragon fist and charges at the golem with incredible speed that makes the stone wall tremble for a moment.

-UGAGAGAGA!

The golem throws a punch, which Deborah counters by throwing her own using the dragon arm. The stone arm and the dragon scale clash, this time, the stone arm actually breaks apart from the impact between their fists, while Deborah's scaled arm remains unscathed.

-A good rock is a rock that doesn't move!

Deborah throws another punch, this time with all her full force concentrated on her dragon arm and aims at the golem's torso. Its huge body combined with being thrown off balance from the loss of its arm make the golem an easy target for Deborah to take her revenge.

-Die!

Deborah punches, a punch so strong it generates a small wind storm, and that punch breaks the golem into smaller chunks of rock that remain immobile after being destroyed. From its remains, a small ball of glittering light comes out and hurriedly flies away into the morning light. Deborah cares too little of its insignificant existence, but she's still intrigued of its presence inside the golem. May be the reason the golem can move is because of that tiny ball of light?

However, Deborah doesn't have the time to think about how the golem works as she finds herself surrounded by the four soldiers who trapped her in the first place.

-Give it up, the four of you alone can't hope to defeat me.

With her anger satisfied, Deborah returns to throwing threats instead punches at the human soldiers. Yet the human soldiers are still as stubborn as ever, despite the fear aura emitted from Deborah's draconic eyes.

-We're not alone.

From the walls, waves and waves of human soldiers crawl over the castle wall and assemble themselves into groups. Not only that, from the part of the wall leading to the North-West ward, another wave of soldiers also flood into this back corner of Melas castle. Deborah can only watch in fear of her comrades' fate as the waves of human soldiers from both sides assume a pincer formation to trap her inside.

'Three hundred…no, there're more…four hundred!'

Deborah makes a quick estimate, and deduces that there are roughly four hundred human soldiers surrounding her.

'Why are they here? If the front walls have fallen, then taking the castle should be their first priority…or…'

Her train of thought gets cut off as a human soldier loudly declares their intention.

-It's over, dragon! You're surrounded! Even if you can regenerate yourself, that ability must have its limit! Nothing is unkillable, and we will prove it today!

The soldiers draw their weapon and show no sign of fear. Do her eyes have no effect because she wasted so much strength up until this point? Deborah wonders that herself, but that can't change the reality before her, about the men she must kill if she wants to protect what she holds dear.

'Why are humans always this stupid!?'

Deborah clenches her fists and teeth as the human soldiers charge at her from both side. But…just before Deborah delivers the first kill, there's a disturbance in the soldiers' ranks behind her back. From behind their rear, bodies start flying away from their united formation as someone charges in and attacks all the humans blocking their way. This sudden attack throws the humans' formation into chaos, and only helps to make it easier for whoever charging in to make it to their intended position, or rather, Deborah's position.

And finally, they emerge through the human soldiers, with their body bloodied but unscathed, leaving behind corpses after corpses from their wake. It's not one, but two of them, they are riding a blood soaked Warg, a type of giant wolf monster tamed for riding in the Demon Realm. One of them is a male with orange blonde hair, a tall young man holding a spear stuck with several human heads still in their helmet, while his rein-holding hand is equipped with a typical iron sword. The other is a grey-haired quiet girl who's holding a tome in her hand. Both of them have a rather varied outfit, but they have one thing in common:

Both of them are wearing a black cloak, Melas's black cloak.

"Caelan! Iola!"

Deborah shouts. Her face brightens as if she just saw some light after being imprisoned in the dark.

"Kept you waiting, huh?"

Caelan laughs as he turns his Warg behind and starts stabbing the human soldiers following him. His spear is quick and precise, a perfect weapon for a rider, especially when accompanied by a brutal and savage mount like a Warg. As for Iola, she gets off the Warg as Caelan starts doing his own business. She rushes at Deborah's side, but utter no words but a bunch of magic chants as she gets on her knees and starts making some sort of magic.

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-Die, demon scums!

Deborah may not understand, but she still realizes these two have some sort of plan, and starts devoting herself into protecting these two so that their scheme may bear fruit. As the soldiers from the other side start charging at them, Deborah also begins fighting. Her normal, human-like arms are enough to hold the humans at bay. Even when consciously holding back, Deborah still shows no mercy. Every punches she throws is an instant kill attack. Armors and helmets, swords or spears, nothing can stop her from tearing the humans' rank apart. Her attacks lack neither finesse nor grace, but should a dragon care about techniques when it can destroy lesser beings solely through brute force?

"Deborah! Caelan! Get over here!"

Iola suddenly shouts out loud. Despite this out-of-character moment of hers, the two in question get back to her side as ordered. With her comrades nearby, Iola slams her tome to the ground, and suddenly, wind starts gather around their area, conjuring an intense whirlwind in the process which wraps the three young students within itself like some sort of barrier. Some soldiers try stabbing the people inside with their spears, only for them to get broken to bits by the sheer power of the wind's movement.

Inside the whirlwind, the three young students exchange gazes, wondering what to react in such a bizarre situation. Iola is the first one to make a move, by hugging Deborah as she starts crying.

"Deborah! You're still alright! Thanks the Gods! I can't imagine what to do should you die before we come!"

Even Deborah is surprised, she can only replies by hugging her friend back with her own blood soaked hands, but not without a smile on her tired face.

"The gods might not helped, but you can be sure that I won't die so easy in a place like this!"

Deborah starts hugging Iola tighter.

"And I'm glad to see you too…Iola"

Maybe a little too tight…

"De…bo…rah!! Can't…breath…!"

Deborah realizes her mistake and quickly lets go of her hold of Iola. She forgets with a part of her limiter unlocked, her strength is now vastly stronger than it usually is.

"Since when…did…you get so strong?"

Iola seems traumatized. Well, the girl is a rather frail girl like a tender flower, and Deborah used that kind of strength to hug her like a bear catching its prey…

"I'm sorry!"

"E-hem…!"

As Deborah starts feeling remorse, she suddenly remembers the presence of the other friend of her.

"Oh Caelan, you're here too."

"Thanks for remembering me!"

He seems understandably annoyed.

"Why are you two here anyway? Weren't the two of you supposed to go home for New Year?"

Deborah asks. Instead of Iola, Caelan himself is the one answering her.

"Well, it's a long story, but I'll keep it short! When I started walking back home, after a day of endless walking, I suddenly bumped into a bunch of 「Sanguin」 cadets, as numerous as an army! They told me our academy is being attacked, so I went with them. We met with Iola along the way, and I dragged her along because that's what friends do. We head into troubles together!

"Reinforcements from Sanguin? Wait, you walked on foot to your home?"

Deborah doesn't know what surprises her more, the fact that reinforcements have arrived from the Demon Realm, or the fact that Caelan decided to travel back home through the monsters-filled land on foot and by himself…

"Wait, that doesn't matter! Where're the red cloaks!?"

Deborah asks.

"Waiting at the Erkunia Forest. They said they brought along one thousand battle ready cadets. Though how many is one thousand anyway?"

"Enough to save this castle."

Deborah replies. She has read about this battle-focused academy, they train their students to become the best soldiers there are. The human army is also at their limit, a thousand elite soldiers are enough to help save Melas castle!

"They are waiting for the gate to open, Deborah."

With that one sentence, Deborah understands everything. About why they risked their life through the human soldiers just to get to her, and why Iola even bothered to make this whirlwind for their conversation to happen.

"I'll guard your back, you two get to the gate and open them for our reinforcement's arrival."

Suddenly, Iola laughs, not too loud to make her feels unladylike, but still a rather out-of-character moment for a quiet girl like her. Perhaps because of Deborah's own obliviousness.

"We already opened the gate. Everything we did up to this point...it's just a distraction, Deborah."

From outside the whirlwind, the human soldiers' attention starts turning to the waves and waves of Warg riders in red cloaks riding through the secretly opened gate. The sudden appearance of their enemy's reinforcement brings panic to the ranks of the human soldiers. They hurriedly rush to close the gate, but it's already too late, a part of the reinforcement army has already detached themselves from the rest and now they are standing guard at the place holding the mechanical system used to operate the gate. The young and full of vigor red cloak riders easily dispatch the oncoming exhausted human soldiers. One part of the human soldiers start retreating back to the North-East area in order to alert their comrades, the rest remain to deal with their enemy. When the whirlwind protecting the young Melas cadets disappears, they find themselves staring at the backs of two different group of enemies. A perfect chance for a counterattack.

"Well...I never expected my first battlefield would be at our own academy. But I can't be picky on that matter."

Says Iola. With a helping hand from Caelan, Iola gets back to sit on the back of his Warg, behind its rider.

"Are you sure the two of you will be okay?"

Despite being friends, Deborah still doesn't know much about her own friends other than the time she spent with them in this school. This maybe their first battlefield, and while they fare rather well up until now, who knows what will happen?

"We can only try and move forward..."

Iola replies.

"Well, you're right. I can't afford to hesisate any longer. You two, attack their rear and help guide the red cloaks through our castle. I'll take care of the retreating humans myself."

"Aye aye commander!"

Caelan seems excited as Deborah relays her order. Despite his lack of presence in their conversation, Deborah did witness his skills with a spear earlier and how he non-challantly destroyed the human soldiers. Maybe he's actually better at this than what she expected of him.

'So there's actually something he good at.'

"Will you be okay on your own? And where's Akuma? Don't tell me he..."

Iola asks.

"He won't die that easy, I won't allow it to happen without my permission. And don't worry about me, I can handle this on my own! You two just go and fight the enemies! We'll meet again after this siege is over! We'll then gloat about our victory to his face when that time arrives!"

"Roger, madam! I can't wait to see his reaction! But well, there's a war to fight, and Caelan's joining the fray!"

Caelan commands his Warg to start running, and when her friends start doing their part, Deborah also begins to do the same by running to the opposite direction, chasing the retreating enemies.

"Haha! This is way more interesting than having dinner with a bunch of old farts back home!"

Like an experienced warrior, Caelan starts tearing the human's rear with a sudden blitz, in unison with the red cloaks from Sanguin on the other side. The two forces start cornering the humans into the same pincer attack they made on Deborah earlier. Caelan's spear betrays his reputation as a famous idiot, his deadly skills with a spear fail to make him look like someone with below average intelligence, though one may argue fighting techniques don't require the mind of a scholar to train and use.

As Caelan starts the killing on his own, Iola can do nothing but watches the back of her dear friend Deborah running far away to chase the retreating humans. Iola and Caelan arrived to this place sooner than they thought, and the two of them witnessed what Deborah can do from her fight with the stone golem, and of course, they are partly aware of her true heritage as a dragon. They didn't say anything because they didn't want to bother Deborah with unnecessary thoughts right before the big fight. On the contrary, it eases their worries considering how strong Deborah actually is, she's far stronger than they actually expected.

Even so, Iola can't help but feel worried for some reason…

From the sky, a huge rock suddenly starts falling down. From what Iola can tell, the location is probably near the gate. The humans are attempting to block the red cloaks' advance right at the door. It's probably a golem as well, just like earlier, but it won't be able to make a difference considering the fighting ability of the red cloaks.

But that's not the problem. The problem is Iola sees someone riding along with the stone golem as it falls from the sky. An unimaginable thought, Iola even doubts her eyes considering no one is crazy enough to ride on a flying golem through the sky. But as that person detaches themselves from the falling golem, Iola realizes she's not seeing things. Her fear is real.

"DEBORAH! LOOK OUT!"

Deborah hears her friend's warning, but it's already too late for her to do anything.

Sphhhlt!

Deborah finds herself being stabbed through the stomach from the back by a crystal blade. She bursts out blood through her mouth from the attack, but despite the wound, the girl retains some consiousness to swing her arm for a counterattack. The unknown assailant draws back their sword from Deborah’s stomach and nimbly evades her punches with some backflips.

“DEBORAH!”

“I’M OKAY! GO!”

Deborah shouts to reply her friends from behind. Her wound is severe and would kill a normal human being, but Deborah’s no human being. She falls on one of her knee, but quickly regains her balance as her wound automatically heals itself once again. And soon, Deborah stands to confront the one who attacked her.

-I originally aimed for your heart, but it would seem that fate chose to save you. Not to mention your healing powers...I guess that is to be expected from one of Anul’s chosen.

The crystal blade earlier has torn apart part of the clothes at her stomach, which makes it rather revealing and immodest, but it’s no time for any of the humans to be aroused by a girl’s bare skin, because on Deborah’s navel, right where her bellybutton ought to be lies a glowing sigil, or a seal, to be exact. Anul’s 「Dark Seal」, granted only to his chosen champions. Around that seal is the tattoo of six feathers gathering around the seal like a circle, a tad different from what is known about Anul’s Dark Seal.

But there’s no mistaking it. Deborah has a Dark Seal in her navel, which she hides carefully that no one but the Headmaster knows about its existence. The only time this secret almost came out is at the time when Akuma saw her in the middle of changing, but that is irrevelant information as of now...

Either way, with her possension of the seal, Deborah in reality is not only a fire dragon, but also a seal bearer, and a 「Demon King Candidate」, one with the right to challenge and rule over all of the Demon Realm!

-You and me are alike. Chosen by gods, brought here by fate to kill each other by the order of destiny. Anul’s chosen bearer, my destined nemesis, I have arrived!

Her assailant is a young man, almost the same age as Akuma in appearance, with a handsome face accompanied by short brown hair and a pair of sky blue eyes. He’s equipped with a common leather armor, with the clothes of a peasant boy beneath them. Despite his common looks, the young man is in possession of a sword with an extremely regal appearance, a broadsword with a crystal clear blade and a gold handle. If not for the 「Light Seal」 of the Light God Lielos glowing on his right hand, one would have mistaken him for a thief who stole the sword from a real hero. But that glowing white seal tells the truth, this holy sword belongs to him, a 「Hero」 of the Heaven Realm!

-HERO! HERO! THE HERO IS HERE!

The human soldiers shout with joy from their hero’s arrival, which fills them with morale to fight back the demons’ reinforcement army. But when the two destined enemies facing each other, even the war of men and demons seem hardly relevant.

- My name is Sera Fino of the Empyrean Mercenaries! My enemy, on your guard!