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Leo

It was a stroke of luck that Allis showed up at the inn not long after he cleared it, apparently going on her own little rampage and eliminating several mages along the way. The inn was closer to the clinic, so she wanted to check there before heading for the market to try and find Elaria and Glia, but now she could simply stay at the inn to protect everyone while he left to put an end to the purge.

Leo had kindly asked one of the mages how many of them there were, and received a terror filled eighty two as an answer. He didn't have the time to comb the town without using some very experimental ideas, and after his first gravity incident, he wanted to test such things in a more controlled environment with a clear mind first.

Suffice to say that current circumstances were too fucked for that option.

The human originally hoped that whoever was in charge would just shit themselves at the sight of Fel, letting him use them to order every mage in town to the base with a sound spell. Unfortunately that was not the case, as he spotted another dragon with clear hostages when flying over the area.

It only took the mystery dragon implying forced consent on Fel for the summon to lose it, especially after seeing what happened to Kesl not too long ago. He cast the atomizing spell on reflex, relieving the sick bastard of his wrists and tail. Hostages freed, he pulled them back to safety. As well as Fel, because it was clear that the dragon was basically a de facto leader, and Fel would definitely kill the shithead before Leo could make use of him.

Ignoring Fel's outburst, Leo took a glance at a large pile of mutilated bodies that seemed casually thrown to the side of the large street, and any consideration for his own restraint was dissolved too.

“Sorry Fel, but I'll need him alive for just a little while longer than I intended…”

There was, however, no tomorrow for any of these monsters.

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Rak

Rak was almost unable to process what happened as he glanced between the bleeding stubs of where his missing limbs used to be, and the mage standing in front of Fel and his former hostages.

The dragon scowled at the insect between him and the others, piecing together what happened. ‘Was I … wounded by this bug…? I, a dragon who could squash armies, was harmed by this lowly thing?!’ His thoughts screamed along with a rage filled shriek, as he fully shifted into his massive second form.

He grew into a four legged, three storied high, gray scaled, behemoth of a winged lizard that was nearly a hundred feet long from head to tail. Unfurling his massive leathery wings, they shadowed ominously over the ants below him, and the hands and tail of his second form replaced his missing ones.

Leo, as Fel called it, looked up at him with annoyance. “Change back, or lose your wings.” It commanded, the nonchalant threat dulling his anger a bit as he cocked his head in confusion at the insignificant little thing below him.

‘This pest dares to order me, and in my second form? Is he suicidal or just a fool?’

Rak barked a deep gravelly laugh. “I don't know how you managed to cut the limbs off my weaker form, but I'd rather die than take orders from an in-Ahhhh!” He howled in pain as his wings were ripped off with some strange spell.

The little bug crossed his arms and walked closer to him, completely disregarding the monumental size difference between them. “I will not repeat myself. Next you will lose your tail.”

‘This filthy thing dares to make light of me?! I'll crush it like the worthless insect it is!’ He scowled at the disgusting creature, his thoughts spiraling into a rage as he raised his claws to strike.

“You insignificant lit-AHHHH!” He screeched in agony as the street was filled with the sounds of flesh being torn apart.

“I'm running out of safe parts to rip. So seeing as your full forms don't share damage, next I'll start breaking bones.” It remarked with a commanding malice, glowering hatefully as his mutilated tail was casually flung to the side.

For the first time in Rak's life, he was afraid. And not only was he afraid, he felt the chill of death when he looked upon the small thing with much clearer eyes. He didn't notice it before, probably because he was in a blinding rage, but it was pouring out more mana than he could ever imagine any creature wielding.

It was like he was staring into an abyss, and unfortunately for him, it was staring back.

Rak's eyes went wide as he looked down at the creature in sheer terror, and he started to tremble while taking a few slow steps back. “By the gods, what ar-AHHHgghhh!” He was cut off again by the spine chilling crunching of bone, as one of his legs became twisted and mangled.

The sound made even the little thing slightly wince, but after the creature took another glance toward the pile of bodies, any sympathy that it had instantly vanished. “Since I can only guess that you've somehow forgotten. I told you to change back.” It commanded once again, and Rak quickly shifted back without a word, the stubs of his arms and tail still dripping blood.

It walked over to the terrified dragon, who tripped backwards in fear and screamed in pain when he landed on the base of his cut tail. “Now you're going to say exactly what I tell you. And if you say anything else, I will cauterize your limbs with temperatures so high, that even a dragon like you will feel it. Do I make myself clear?” It ordered with cold eyes staring down at him, the dragon now a broken mess of his former self.

Rak nodded with sheer terror plastered across his face as Leo started to instruct him on what to say. Then the creature cast a massively wide spread spell that seemed to be directed everywhere, and a nearly omnipresent voice could be heard throughout Telnar when Rak started to speak.

“This is the guardian, Rak. All mages cease your attacks and come to the front of the former guard base. Also, do not attack any more people on your way back, this is a direct order. Disobey and I will personally skin you alive.” Rak repeated multiple times before his captor ended the spell.

Then Fel marched toward him with a blinding rage.

“Done? Now let me skin the bastard!” She snarled, causing Rak to stumble back in fear once more, because Fel could very well do that with the state he was in.

The creature held her back with magic while wearing a sympathetic expression. “What I plan for him will help us, trust me Fel.” It paused to look over the pile of mutilated corpses, and Rak realized that he was already a dead man walking.

“He will get what he deserves.”

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Fel

Fel was filled with a rage and hatred that she hadn't felt since she killed all those nobles for their sick thrills, right before her grandfather died. She didn't just want Rak dead, but would also see him suffer for all that he's done. As hypocritical as she knew it was, she wanted to set an example of what would happen to those who relished in the suffering of others.

Not just end him, but make sure that any like him would have second thoughts about ever treading his sick and self indulgent path.

The woman's light grayish blue eyes were fixed on Rak with murderous intent. ‘I'll trust Leo for now, but this garbage will die before the day is done…’

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Sel

Sel had to witness many gruesome killings, be audience to a dragon fight, was nearly killed by a dragon, and watched what she could only assume was a minor god playing mortal mutilate said dragon.

Safe to say, Sel was nearing the end of her mental endurance for today.

Leo ordered Vesta, the rebel leader, to regroup her scattered forces and start aiding those still alive, as well start taking a body count on the town.

The potential minor god turned to regard Sel, who gulped under the hard look to his glowing white eyes. “You are the leader of the guard, right? I know that we were the ones who brought this hell on your town, but will you be willing to help us? If not, then you are free to leave and rejoin the town as a civilian, or leave Telnar all together. The choice is yours.”

Sel looked upon the slightly glowing man with a fair amount of caution and confusion. ‘He's letting me have a choice? What's more, he's talking to me like an equal, and actually requesting my help instead of ordering it. With the power that he showed, I would have expected to be forced to get on my hands and knees and grovel at his feet as I begged for my life. I'm almost tempted to ask if he is a minor god, but what does it matter? My town is in ruins, and my people need help.’ The thought finished as she felt a determination wash over her.

Sel sneered at Rak, who was trembling on his knees next to Leo. “Considering that my 'kingdom's' response was to write off the lives of everyone in the town, and send sick sadistic monsters to kill all those I was sworn to protect.” She spit on the broken dragon. “It would be an honor to serve my town again.” She finished with a practiced salute.

The powerful being cocked his head slightly, gave her a once over, then smirked. “Okay then, reestablish your guard and assist us in our efforts, and tomorrow I'll need to fill you in on what we do from here, as well as a job opportunity you might be interested in.” He ordered before she left to assist the town.

‘Thank the gods that he wasn't just another arrogant ass of a lord.’

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Leo

One by one, mages started showing up, and Leo restrained them with magic as they appeared, pulling them into a formation as they floated just a foot off the ground. Most of them initially yelled and struggled, but when they saw their guardian on his knees with blood dripping from the stubs of his arms, they quickly cowed into frozen fear and shock.

First he wanted to get a quick estimation of the death toll, so Leo walked up to one of the mages and asked each one how many people they killed. Mass murderer number one had their head instantly twisted backwards after they refused to answer, forcing him on to the next one, who pissed themselves after giving a number.

He repeated the process without any resistance from the mages, but a few of them fainted as he approached them, which prompted him to kill them if they didn't give a number before they passed out as an example to the rest.

When Leo was done, he walked back to Fel with a chillingly cold expression. “An average of fifty people… with all eighty two mages, plus this sick fuck, that's well over four thousand people…” He remarked through gritted teeth.

Fel's rage towards Rak visibly subsided for a moment as her expression became mournful. ‘Less than I expected, still more than should have ever been lost…’ She thought as her eyes became distant, before they refocused on Leo.

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“So what are you going to do with them?” She asked while gesturing to the restrained mages, and he could see that she was eager to get it over with already.

The glow of mana around him momentarily flared, as his visage hardened into determination.

“Now you will take me to Selaria's academy.”

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Fel

All of Fel's anger immediately dropped at Leo's request, as there was an unsettling implication, causing her to take a cautious step back. “Leo… You're not planning on wiping out the academy… Right?” That course of action was a bit too far, even for her.

The enraged man slightly relaxed, the glow in his eyes blinking out for only a moment to show a deep brown. “No, I won't harm people who weren't directly involved here, but I need to go there if we don't want any more trouble from Selaria.”

It was apparent that he wasn't going to hide anymore, a decision Fel understood and wasn't going to argue against after seeing how powerful his magic was. But now that her head was clear enough to consider the situation, she felt mild fear with how casually he had been killing what were essentially completely defenseless people.

It was a moment of clarity that made knots form in the pit of her stomach, as if watching herself from a third person view, since she herself would have killed them all so casually and with the same cold anger.

Seeing those actions committed by another, more powerful being, made her worry if he wouldn't step back behind the clear line that he set up for himself. And how all he's done up till now would affect him when, or if, he does.

Fel couldn't help but give him a concerned look, her internal conflict warring with itself to comment on it. “Alright, but…” She shot a glance to Rak, doubt and hesitation quickly replaced with a muted anger.

Whatever he had planned, she didn't think it a good idea to sow that seed of doubt. Nor did any of these inhuman pieces of garbage deserve any half measures.

“Nevermind. let's go.” She told him while phasing in her wings to take flight, hoping that she wasn't mistaken in choosing to tread this new path.

…

The dragoness felt a tense air around her summon as they flew to Selaria's academy, their captives being pulled along from behind. She was worried about him hurting people that had nothing to do with the massacre, and knew that she couldn't stop him if he wanted to, so she would just have to trust him at his word.

‘My first real leap of faith with him huh…? I hope that you are more like me than I’d like to admit…’ She thought as they reached the academy.

Hovering just outside the gate, Leo lined up all the mages into a floating grid with their backs to the entrance, then flew up a little higher to gaze over the academy grounds. It was an estate with four large buildings, not of selarin architecture. The design was closer to tiefling, but much of it was entirely stone, which was the only touch of selarin craftsmanship. They were long, massive, and blocky structures, with the main building being five stories high and having large ornate windows all over the sides which were divided by large stone buttresses.

Leo waved a hand in the air, and every window on every building bled away into nothing. With another wave, hundreds of people started flying out of the windows, and Fel's gut sank a little at their flailing. She was slightly relieved when she realized that he was only emptying the buildings, as all those people were placed safely outside the gate into an ever growing crowd and in full view of all those restrained from the attack on Telnar.

‘Ah, he's making an example of them then…’ The thought both relieved and unnerved her, morbidly interested in what kind of message he would send.

When there seemed to be no one left to pull out, Leo floated in between those restrained in the grid, and those on the ground who were utterly confused.

The human looked upon those pulled out of the academy with a somber expression, and cast another spell. “Hello to all those who are studying or are employed at this academy. My name is Leo, and I am here today because of a multitude of reasons.” His voice boomed over the crowd, being amplified by a sound spell.

He held out a wide arm to gesture to those restrained behind him. “These people and what they've done, is the main one. Now many of you might recognize those behind me, and yes, some of them are dead, and that partly has to do with why I'm here. These people were sent by your academy to exterminate an entire town, not only that but many of them took sick pleasure in killing, torturing, and having their way with their victims. Some of which were VERY close to me.” He finished with a growl, before casually waving a hand up.

Rak was pulled out from behind the gate to be in full view of the crowd, the dismembered dragon trembling with fear as Leo gestured to the broken man.

“And this sick bastard that you see here, took his time getting off on it.” Leo paused to start pacing in the air, locking his hands behind his back while he walked as if he was on the ground.

“Now I like to think of myself as a good, calm, and restrained man, but when over four thousand innocents get butchered for fun when I had the power to stop it? Then saying that I've lost my shit is only a surface level description, because that's like saying I've had an okay day.” He stopped pacing to slam Rak to the ground onto his knees, making a slight crater just in front of the gate.

“But the reason why I am here isn't because of what happened to those people.” The frighteningly powerful summon scowled, and his body glowed brightly with mana that seemed to pull off him like fire.

Everyone simply watched on in petrified silence, all the mages able to feel the abyss of mana pouring out of the man.

“It is however, because of the reality that it happened at all that has made me realize something far too late.” He stopped to snap his fingers, and all the structures behind him started to slowly bleed away into nothing, and a massive amount of grayish brown dust slowly gathered into a ball next to Rak, seemingly out of nowhere.

The display started a commotion amongst the crowd of mages, provoking Leo to snap at them. “Quiet! ... As I was saying, what I've realized was that I never needed to hide, and that if I wasn't sneaking around and playing secret savior, then the massacre at Telnar would never have happened.” He paused to look over the crowd, and snapped his fingers again.

Screams of pain could be heard coming from Rak, as grayish brown dust started to form on his skin. Although she felt no sadness for the sadist, Fel couldn't help the horror she felt as she realized that it was sinking into him, shuddering at what that must feel like.

Leo's body glowed brightly. “Now all of you may be wondering who I am exactly. Who is this near god like being to wield such magic? Well in light of my realization, I'll tell you, because I am most certainly not a god. I am a man, a human, a lord, an arch mage, and a very pissed off summon.” He stated with a third snap of his fingers, and all those restrained behind him started to bleed away, all of them screaming in terror as they realized what was happening to them.

The dramatically pissed off human spread his arms wide as the buildings were nearly gone. “And I want you all to spread the word that if you ever hurt the people of Telnar or those close to me, then I will personally make you, and all that you hold dear…”

He trailed off as the last of the restrained mages and what was left of the buildings vanished. “Simply bleed away.” He finished right as Rak stopped screaming, a total and chilling silence filling the area.

Leo floated down to Rak, who seemed to have completely turned into a metal statue, his face permanently warped into sheer agony.

He spat on the statue and gestured to it for the crowd. “And let this be a monumental reminder, that I will make good on that promise. Whether it's kingdoms, dragons, or even gods. Cross that line with me, and I will not hesitate to meet you on the other side.”

With his cold and malice filled speech concluded, he floated up to Fel, who herself was utterly speechless.

“Come on, I want to go home…”

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Leo

Leo was flying alongside Fel as his rage and anger started to fade away, fast, as other emotions finally surfaced while he went over all that happened with a clear head.

‘I was hiding to keep myself and everyone around me safe, but the reality was that nothing could harm me, and everyone else got hurt as a result. If only I didn't hide. If only I had flattened the area earlier. If only I destroyed Slessi's collar before-’ The stream of self doubt stopped, as a chilling thought finally reared its ugly head.

“I just killed nearly eighty people…”

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Fel

As Fel and Leo flew back to Telnar, she did not know what to feel about his little speech and actions. Fear, respect, reverence, horror, satisfaction, awe, sadness, and even more emotions filled her thoughts, but the one thing that confused her was the lack of worry about Leo revealing himself.

‘I thought I would be more afraid of Leo exposing himself to the world, but it's probably the smartest move, considering he could just snap away people on a whim, which is definitely way scarier. But his anger should be fading soon, so hopefully he'll step back behi-’ A loud crash sounded from the ground behind her, jarring her out of her thoughts.

Looking around, Fel noticed that her summon was no longer with her, and after backtracking a bit she found him sitting in the middle of a large crater.

She flew down, hearing Leo sob heavily into his arms while they were folded on top of his knees. He was no longer overflowing with mana, which made it easier to approach him now that the ocean of power that he seemed to have been pulling from was gone, but it was difficult for her to speak for an entirely different reason.

“Why, why didn't I feel anything then?! I just twisted there heads like a fucking bottle cap, and I felt nothing?! Am I no better than those I killed?! God fucking damn it!” The self hate in his voice touched something deep within the dragoness.

Fel's light grayish blue eyes softened and her long tail drooped at the sight, as the display brought on her own memories of the first lives she took out of anger. The deep pain of realizing that there was in fact a monster within yourself, and that it was just as merciless as those you despised while it hid right below the surface.

Although Fel was justified in her first killing, a bunch of sick mages that were torturing people, she couldn't even sleep for a few days after that, and it took weeks to come to terms with her actions, all on her own. Even months after the fact, she still had traces of self hatred for how casually she took a life, but eventually she did grow numb to it, especially when working under Yez.

As Fel stared pitifully at Leo, she steeled herself, and swore that she wouldn't let him go through that pain alone, nor would she let him grow numb to his reverence for life. She paced over to his side and knelt down to bring him into an embrace. And as she pulled him close to her chest, she curled her long tail around him and phased out her wings.

His summoner gently ran a hand through his soft short brown hair, trying to comfort him the best she could. “Shhhh, Leo. You did what you thought was right.” She told him in an almost motherly tone to calm him.

“But I felt nothing! I literally snapped my fingers and people died, while I felt nothing but hatred! For fucks sake, they were completely restrained!” He wailed in hitched tones while his head laid against her shoulder.

Fel grimaced, unable to downplay the weight associated with ending a life. ‘God's I suck at this, this would have never worked for me… But if he's like me, then I should do it how I would need it done to me.’ She thought as she pulled him off to look directly into his eyes, which had returned to their original dark brown color.

“Did or didn't those people torture, rape, and massacre thousands of innocents and soldiers alike in Telnar?” She questioned him directly, her expression hardened.

The emotionally crushed man winced at her bluntness. “That's… That's not the problem.” He deflected while breaking eye contact, but she placed a hand on his chin to gently force his gaze.

“Okay, you were angry when you killed them, so what? The reason you killed them was because they were vile pieces of shit that got off on what they did, it was a mercy that you didn't make them suffer more for what they've done.” She continued bluntly, making sure every word landed.

Leo was frozen for a few moments, unable to come up with a counter to her points as his mouth opened and closed multiple times. But then he started trembling. “It was just so easy…” He breathed out, as he slumped completely in her arms.

Those simple words hit her at her core, and she began to tear up for the first time in years. “Yeah… I know. And that's why you need to remember the reasons why you did what you did, and if you felt like you messed up or were wrong in some way, then learn from those mistakes. Use that to better yourself now, so that you can be proud of yourself later.” She told him softly, one of the hardest lessons anyone could learn.

Silence reigned between them for a few moments, before Leo started chuckling between soft sobs, which prompted a confused Fel to ask if something was wrong.

Leo finally relaxed into her embrace, still chuckling as he did so. “Fuck, now I really can't say that you're nothing like me.” He remarked in a little disbelief, but there was a warmth behind the comment.

Fel hugged her arms around him a little tighter, and realized that tears started streaming down her face at some point without her notice. “Hey, I'm the one who summoned you. If anything, you're like me.” She responded playfully.

Leo scoffed with mocked offence. “Damn, I must be full of myself then if that's your response.” He remarked warmly as he pulled away to look at her.

Fel smiled, while her chest felt a bit lighter. “And I'm such an ass if you could ruin a moment like this.” She jabbed jokingly, while she became lost in his eyes.

Leo seemed to have become just as transfixed as Fel, while they just stared into each other's eyes, both of them knowing what they wanted to do, but letting the moment last as long as possible.

After a minute of really seeing each other, they synchronously both leaned in for a light, but emotion filled kiss.

‘Okay… Maybe he's above tolerable...’

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