Crrrack!♪

“Escape!”

After one final punch Shiryu’s head splits open he manages one final yell before falling out of consciousness

“Shiryu!” Aki scrambles to his body

Fwangashk!!

Her strength now drained she barely manages to dodge a spike rocketing at her,

“I got him!” Pinoki now the only capable of the three extends a shadow hand grabbing up both Aki and Shiryu’s body away from the black suit

“Is he alive still!?”

“I don’t know,

I can’t–we can’t win without him,

Get us out Pinoki quickly!”

“On it!”

….

….

***

“And that’s basically what happened,” Pinoki finishes his recap to Shiryu,

“I can easily hide myself and others into my shadow, and move around,

Aki seemed to be pissed we had to retreat,”

“Yeah, she doesn’t like losing,”

Skkkcksh!♪

Shiryu's swings a spear through the grass cutting up a layer of dirt, currently him along with Pinoki prepare themselves for a round two with the sentient throne-armor,

“That ability of yours, she seems to depend it on now.” Claude although not going with the trio is here…

“Have you figured out how it works, or how you can get it to work on others?” he asks, desperately missing being able to use magic.

“I’ve been going over various scientific and magical theorems in my brain for the past few months trying to figure out exactly what and how my ability works but nothing adds up for me yet”

“Translate that for me again?”

“I have no clue how it works completely besides the fact that I usually have to share the same feeling or I guess sentiment, feeling is a bit vague, my ability is overly specific…”

“You really do remind me of Kage,” mulls Pinoki,

“He had this strange ability to see people’s memories, it was weird, I really wanted to follow him on his adventure, I would have learnt so much….”

“That’s just scratching the surface of what Kage can do, as a matter of fact we would be better off trying to find the things Kage can’t do.” Shiryu says this boastfully as if talking about himself

“Relax with all of that,” Pinoki grabs up a handful of dirt chuck it into the air before catching it with his shadow hand

He does all this while sitting on a patch of grass leant against a tree overlooking the lake,

“What I really want to know is about what Gino–King Geedorah, I think it referred to itself,

I want to know what you have in common with it, why did it suddenly decide to go after you Shiryu?”

“Union, I’ve had this strange feeling ever since passing this city for the first time…

Like an invisible force trying to rip my heart out my chest,

The dragon wants me to join with it permanently, I don’t even want to know why…”

“Power maybe?” Claude suggests

“Everyone wants to get stronger.”

“That was Ginobelucci’s goal but who knows if the dragon shares the same,” Pinoki responds to him

“It angers me that, Ginobelucci gets to cause all this pain and misery, but his entire existence is already swallowed by the dragon,

What’s the point of my revenge if I can’t kill the bastard.” The young man laments

“Your guild master must have been quite the man for you to want revenge this badly,”

“No, Giichi was honorable warrior, but an irritable old man at times, I wanted revenge for all the pointless killing he caused within my guild, he was a former member himself and even journeyed alongside guild legends like Emma and Raguel, and–”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“–Raguel?

As in my father Raguel or someone different?” Shiryu cuts him off

“Actually those two are Apollo’s parents.” Pinoki interjects.

“Emma was the last queen of Soterra’s sister, we didn’t even know Apollo’s father’s name till reaching here actually.”

“…..

My fault he no longer lives…” Shiryu mumbles under his breath

“What?” Pinoki catches it

“Elaborate on that?”

“Another time.”

“No, now, I want to know.”

“It’s a long story but you aren’t ready to hear it.”

(I don’t think he would understand if I tried to explain, Terra, the education system, and angels all at once)

“But on the topic of things we want to know.” Shiryu artfully changing the subject,

He turns to Claude,

“What kind of asylum has you chained to the wall where you eventually die that way?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” puzzles Claude

“When I came to I chained but, I’ll let it slide since I know how people here see me, but there was another room with a whole dead body chained up, and when I touched it, it turned to dust completely, which is weird since that means it had to be there for a century or longer.”

“That is weird….” Mutters Claude,

“This asylum isn’t that old only constructed in recent times when the order and the merchant alliance formed a land agreement, this was previously merchant territory..”

(How could people turn to dust that quickly, what is Dexter hiding….)

“Is this entire city divvied up into territories?” Shiryu asks out loud

“Yes, that’s basically the gist of how it was… not much of anything out there now.” The young man slips into forlorn thought

….

Skkkcksh!♪

Shiryu swipes his spear again as a brief silence ensues

“You don’t strike me as a spear wielder,” comments Pinoki,

“It’s tactically sounds to maximize my powerful jumping, I need to be far to pull of great leaps in fights, if I go barehanded then it is more difficult for me to jump when I need to.”

“Don’t you have other actual abilities as a dragon?”

“I do, if I used my dark energy I could boost my physical power greatly, also I could roar black flames similar to the ones surroundings this city, and probably much more but I haven’t experimented.”

“Why? At least enjoy your own power?” Pinoki urges

“And become more of monster?

The only reason I’m like this right now is because of using my power so much as a child, I didn’t understand what was happening till it happened,

I rather call it quits now lest I end up with a tail or horns later.”

“And then there are some who would kill to have your power.” Claude suddenly says after being quiet the whole while

“Power is–”

–Brrrcckkk–BOOOOMM!

A loud tremor of thunder interrupts the conversation

“Huh, a storm?

I thought it was summer by now” Pinoki tries to peer through the fog..

….

Surprisingly however the fog begins to clear, showing off bright blue sky

“Wait a minute…” the little man hops up as the gray sheet moves away, revealing a web-like series of cords overhead from which black bulbs of those big-headed monster hang–

–No, they begin fall

BRRRGRRROOOAAAARRRR!!!!

The sound reverberates throughout the entire city

An alarm that sends a pan of fear into the hearts of all living beings,

The dragon has awakened.