“That was some bullshit!” Shade spat at the air as he walked down the stairs from the temple. “Why did I even want to come here? How are you going to tell me to save some godling, but then refuse to tell me where she is!” He began to throw his arms around in the air while doing a terrible impression of Colandria. “Oh, I can’t tell you, oh, it would be pushing the boundaries, oh, it could be considered breaking the rules. Bullshit! Wouldn’t everything she told me be pushing the boundaries? And what does she care about boundaries? She’s the fucking goddess of life, she’s peeping at everybody at all times. I’m naked in a bath, she’s looking, I’m having sex, she’s looking, I’m jerking off, she’s looking! Boundaries my fucking ass!” As he reached the bottom of the stairs, and exited the influence of the temple, he felt a large amount of light echos begin to form behind him. He turned around, to see the still fuming Ashera with that same ball of crackling light she had threatened him with before, ready once again to throw it at him. “Are we really doing this shit still?”

“Colandria can’t protect you now.” She said with venom dripping from her voice. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you where you stand!”

Shades somberness from before when he was asking Colandria about Ashera, and Ashera had berated him for what he had done, had all but vanished. It was replaced with anger as another person was trying to push him into becoming a king he didn’t want to be. He sarcastically put his finger to his chin like he was genuinely trying to think of a reason, then pretended to have an epiphany. “I got one! Because you can’t. You’re weak, you couldn’t kill me if you tried. Go ahead, throw that ball at me, I wont dodge, deflect, reflect, protect, or any other ect ability.” He then opened his arms wide in a welcoming gesture.

She didn’t need a second invitation. She launched the ball of light at him with a loud grunt, and the ball crackled as it flew through the air. As he said, he didn’t move, and watched as the ball hit him square in the chest, blowing through the terrible warrior shirt that supposedly protected against magic, before hitting his thick, black scaled skin, and dissipating into nothing, leaving not even a mark. He looked at the hole in his shirt, the lack of a mark on his skin, then looked back over to Ashera with a cold stare. “Weak. So very weak. That’s why you got caught, why your friend got caught. Why you became a slave, why you rode that fairy’s dick like he was carnival ride. Why you needed me to save you.”

Ashera growled. “You fucking piece of shit, die!” She then created a large lance made out of bright white light, and launched it at him.

“Oh, a light lance.” He sarcastically said with a flat, mocking monotone about his voice. “How original, never seen one of those before. What, oh what will I do. Your creativity truly knows no bounds.” He watched again as the lance plowed into his chest, into the same hole in his shirt as before, and exploded into a flash of light. When he could see again, he looked at his chest, and was of course not surprised to see absolutely no damage at all. “If that’s all you’ve got, if you don’t mind, I’ve got better things to do then be a practice dummy for some weakling. Theres drinks to be drank, bars to be hopped, and towns to be kicked out of.”

He turned and continued walking away from the temple, and into the woods that surrounded it. She growled even louder. “Going to continue running away!” She yelled at him.

He put his hand up in a wave as he continued to walk, changing into his human form, his warrior clothes at least shrinking to fit his new size. “What do you care, if you had your way, I would be dead. Dead men tell no tales, and certainly save no godlings.”

She breathed in and out heavily a few times, clenching her fists, before chasing after him. “Do you really not feel bad at all about the things you did? Do you really not feel sick about raping people?” She asked as she caught up to him and put her hand on his shoulder to stop him.

He threw her hand off his shoulder, as he turned around to face her with fury in his eyes. “You want honesty, here’s my honesty. I think your anger right now at me is rather bullshit.”

She matched his fury with her own. “You think me being angry at you for raping my mother, leading her to killing herself is bullshit?”

“I do. He responded with a vehement nod. “When we were at the hunter base, you seemed ready to put aside your feelings about me and other lucifer dragons if it meant I joined the war and helped you. What’s different now I wonder?” He asked pretending to be confused, before slapping his forehead as he pretended to make a realization. “Oh, I know what’s different now! Before, you were willing to put what I had done aside because it didn’t affect you. Ignorance is bliss, right? I might have been the black devil, but none of things I had done effected your life, so what did you care. But now, it turns out that something I did did in fact directly affect you, so now I have to die. That’s some hypocritical bullshit. White picket fence thinking.”

“Are you really going to try to make me seem like the bad guy here?” She snarled.

He nodded his head again. “Don’t get it twisted though; I’m not trying to say I’m a good guy. I know what I am. I’m merely pointing out that you’re not. The willingness to push aside your morals, values and ideals if it means accomplishing an end goal you want is the exact line of thinking that leads to you becoming me.”

“I would never become like you!” She replied.

He let out a soft laugh. “You’re my child Ashera, you’re already 50 percent me.” Then he turned around and kept walking into the woods, with her continuing to chase after him.

“Are you not going to at least save Luna?” she asked.

“Who the fuck is Luna?” He said, pushing branches aside. “They could build a fucking staircase, and a 20-foot statue, but they couldn’t build a damn road.” He mumbled to himself.

“The godling!” She replied.

He let out another laugh. “Can’t kill me, so might as well use me, huh? What a hero you are. They’ll be writing books about you for generations.”

She huffed. “Then what are you going to do oh great and powerful black devil.”

He huffed right back. “Why do all the people I end up traveling with recently seem to be girls with attitude problems. Why can’t they be girls with a problem keeping their pants on? Or guys who want to go out drinking. Hell, I’m not really into it, but I think I would rather it be guys who struggled to keep their pants on as well. Or a girl who liked to go out drinking.” He stopped walking and his eyes went wide. “Or a girl who likes to go out drinking, and struggles to keep her pants on.”

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

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Ashera asked, arms crossed.

He looked over to her with a shrug. “Welcome to the Endross family, where we all have daddy issues. You could almost argue I was just continuing our family heritage, now its on you to have a child with a piece of shit father.”

“I’m…not going to do that.” She replied as the two started walking again. “You didn’t answer though, what are you going to do instead of saving Luna?”

He looked at her confused. “What do you mean, I did answer. Drinking, lots of drinking. I tried quitting a little while back while I helped train this girl, Faylen. But the world seems insistent on sending me to the bottle. And who am I to question the world, right?”

“The world wants you to save Luna.” She pointedly replied.

He waved that away with his hand. “That’s not the world, that’s some fate thing. And why should I be a pawn for some power that nobody knows who it is, what it is, or what it wants. What if it wants something terrible, and I help it achieve it. Wouldn’t be the first time that happened in my life, that’s for sure.” His shirt then got caught on a branch, and he annoyedly untangled it, before turning to Ashera. “Can you turn around for a few minutes. I’m a rather kinky person, but even I have lines, and family is one them. I would prefer not stripping while you watched, but I really need to change into the clothes that fit my human form.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, but turned around. “Not going to re-claim Endross, not going to save Luna, not going to fight the hunters, not going to stop Merellien. You’re really ok with all of that?”

“Done.” He said.

She turned back around and looked at him confused. He was now wearing his usual long black cloak which went all the way down to his feet. But she could see what looked like the same shirt with the same hole in it as before underneath, which made no sense as he said he needed to change into clothes that fit him better. “You didn’t change at all, you just put on a cloak.”

He ignored her true accusation, and took on a serious face. “Let’s be real for a minute Ashera. You do actually wish I was dead. If you could, I don’t doubt you would have killed me a few minutes ago. Are you really ok with fighting by my side if I did go and try to save this Luna person?”

Ashera pursed her lips as she considered it. She tilted her head back and forth a few times before finally responding. “I think I would be. Its true, option one in my mind is you dying. But if that’s off the board, at least for now, then the second-best option would be assisting you in saving Luna, as well as the other dragons enslaved by the hunters.” Shade stopped walking as she answered, he pushed a large branch that was in there way forward like he was holding it for her to pass through, but when she went to, he let go and it smacked her in the face. “God damnit, fucking asshole!” She sneered. “Even if you just go drinking, I still have no idea why you don’t just fly there. At least close to there, wherever this there you’re going to is.”

He sighed. “I’m going to back Endross, at least eventually. I still have to see what Mozan left for me, and I have a sneaking suspicion that my old friend Aerith, someone you might be keen to meet, is still there even though I told her to leave.”

Her eyes widened. “You do plan on becoming king.”

“No.” He replied sternly. “I don’t, but Mozan apparently left something important to me, and I’ve been curious recently as to what it is.”

“Then why don’t we just fly there?” She said, annoyed. “We could be there in a few hours, if we walk it could take a week.”

He nodded in agreement. “Yes, it would take a week to walk there. And if you include all the taverns I plan to stop at, it could take multiple weeks.”

She groaned. “How does anybody deal with you?”

“They don’t.” he responded. “That’s why I’m always alone.”

She tilted her head like a curious cat. “I would’ve thought it was because of you being a heinous person who’s committed some of the vilest crimes in history.”

“Hmm, maybe that as well.” He acknowledged.

A nervous faun was once again kneeling in front of King Elluin Venali, who was sat in his throne sipping on a golden chalice of red wine. The king, whose eyes were glowing gold, same as his wings, was sneering down at his messenger, who had just finished providing the final report for the attack on the hunter base. “So, Alessandria isn’t going to do anything about the attack on the base? Frustrating, but not surprising. The bodies having no souls though may be a problem. If a dragon did attack the base, only certain dragons can manipulate souls, mainly, Lucifers. That suggests someone really is playing the role of the black devil. Trying to make me look like a liar.” He paused, looked around the room and pursed his lips, before looking back down at his messenger. “Did you ever hear back from Alexis? What is Normuc going to do about this phony?”

The faun gulped. “Well, sire, I did hear back from Alexis. He was actually there the day of the attack.”

“He was there?” Elluin said surprised, jumping to his feet, wine spilling from his glass to the white marbled floor. “Normuc took part in the attack?”

“I’m not sure if he took part, sire. He told me he wanted to investigate the person pretending to be the black devil himself, and had it on good authority the person would be attacking that base.”

“He knew the base was going to be attacked, and didn’t warn us? That’s as good as taking part in my mind.” Elluin snarled. Elluin then stared down at his messenger waiting for them to continue, but the faun didn’t say anything. “Well, what did he find? Did he find the person playing the black devil?”

The faun gulped again. “Well, sire. He said he did, except…” He gulped again. “Except, he said it wasn’t a person playing him. He said it was the actual black devil.”

Elluin threw his golden Chalice across the room, making a loud bang as it slammed into a wall, echoing all through the large throne room. “So, he’s in on it as well, huh? Normuc wants to make me look bad? Make me look like a liar! We’ll see how that ends for them! When they’re on their knees, bowing to me, I’ll make them lick my boots! Lick the dirt off the floors of my palace! Then they’ll learn what happens when you try to embarrass me!” After a few moments, his breathing slowed down, and he took a deep breathe, once again looking down at his shakingly nervous messenger. “Well, what did Alexis say he did after he met up with his old companion.”

“He said he invited him to Normuc for a meeting, sire.”

Elluin laughed. At first a couple giggles, before slowly turning into an uncontrollable chorus of laughter. “A fool! He’s a fool! Everyone knows how much he hated Shade; everyone knows he would never invite Shade to Normuc. He tries to make me look a liar, but makes one of himself. It seems our enemies might not be as clever as we first thought they were. No matter, that makes our end goals that much more attainable. If he wants to try to defeat me with lies and deceit, while we use swords and axes, we’ll see how well that ends for them.” He laughed again a few more times, before sitting back down in his throne. “Have someone bring me another wine, and a maid to clean the floor, and maybe my clock as well. Unless you have something else to report.”

The faun gulped once more. “Well, sire, our scouts did see something I think you may be interested in.”

“Go on.” Elluin said with an impatient wave of his hand.

“The dragons that were freed from the base, they’ve all gone to Endross. It seems they’re rebuilding it.”

“What!” Elluin yelled, jumping to his feet again. “You should have started with that! If the dragons band together, even behind a fraud, taking over the continent would become impossible! Endross cannot come back! Get in contact with the hunters, now! I want every commander in my throne room by next week! They call themselves dragon hunters, then they better be ready to hunt some fucking dragons!”