They continued their journey, heading for the city destroyed by the Phoenix Queen, hoping to find any clues there. Kesshō and Opal were carried more than half the way by Kurai, Opal being too small to keep pace with him, and Kesshō being too sleepy to walk straight most of the time. It only took them two days to make the journey, gladly.

Krystallites like Kesshō did not require sleep as long as their core contained energy, it only served to minimise energy consumption and give the core more time to modify itself and grow stronger. Kurai would have assumed that to be the reason for Kesshō sleeping most of the way, but he knew her well enough to know the reason.

Kesshō did not like warm climates, she slept to minimise the heat generated by muscle activity and allow her body to cool down. Krystallites generated a lot more heat than most other beings, largely due to the high amounts of energy generated by their core and the constant flow of energy throughout the body, along with the constant leakage of excess energy. Due to the energy generated by their core, Krystallites were physically incapable of being cold-blooded, yet Kesshō managed to be one due to her unreal energy efficiency.

Kesshō naturally possessed cold blood as well, and she does not know how to adapt for warm climates, so she simply sleeps and allows her core to do the work. This does become a hindrance in combat however. At the start of a battle her body is mostly relaxed and takes some time to prepare itself for maximum efficiency, which is after her blood becomes warm. Her body works weirdly in the way that it adapts to immediate problems but later discards many of those adaptations, something most Krystallites choose not to do.

As much of a natural talent she has for combat both physically and mentally, she is a mostly peaceful person, only engaging in battle when told to or necessary. Along with that, she is just a kid, and as a hybrid of many species which would live for thousands or millions of years, she isn't going to reach adolescence till she is a few thousand years old at the very least, and her skills will continue to grow better for many thousands more. It scares even Kurai to think just how powerful she would be at her peak, though he does wonder if she would win in a fight against him even then.

Locating the city they were headed for proved to be easier than expected, the ruins visible from far away with smoke rising into the sky even now. It happened to be a riverside city, as are a great many others. Kurai was aware there were dams built on the river, barely any signs of which remained now. The city itself appeared to just be a big mess of debris, bodies of both people and animals, water, and flames.

Kurai stood at a pile of debris at the corner of the city, looking around to try get a better look of everything and where to look for clues. He found it impossible to distinguish what any of the debris used to be, even finding it hard to figure out which patch of blood and crushed flesh belonged to what. He could see one singular structure still standing in the entire city, only structure spared from the attack. A large building in the distance, reaching high into the sky, many windows dotting it's walls.

"It would be a pain to look for anything in this mess." Kurai sighed as he kicked a chunk of debris. "Monsters may have already infested this place, be careful you two."

Kesshō and Opal nodded understandingly as Kesshō clung to Kurai's left arm, Opal feeling safe between the two of them. Kurai led them through the debris towards the structure, trying not to step on any sharp pieces of debris, and making sure the careless walking incarnation of death clinging to him did not stab herself with anything either.

"Kesshō, I request, don't even think about trying to eat anything that's here." Kurai pleaded as he tugged her along, not allowing her to stop and inspect anything. "And walk straight, don't trip and fall or you might hurt yourself, if that is possible."

Kesshō lowered her head and simply followed, not having been allowed to quench her curiosity and find out what a broken chunk of a house would taste like. While not visible, Kesshō could feel her nine phoenix tails sighing in disappointment. She shot a glance at them, the feeling disappearing instantly. She let out a low growl before focusing back on following Kurai.

Just as she turned back ahead she stepped on the corner of a brick without realising it, causing her ankle to tilt and her to fall towards the side as she closed her eyes. She could feel her feet in the air, but she didn't feel the tilting sensation of falling. On opening her eyes she found that Kurai simply raised his arm higher which she clung to, lifting her up in the air.

"Seriously?" Kurai sighed with an annoyed stare directed at her.

Kesshō smiled nervously, tilting her ears and doing her best to look completely innocent. She knew it usually worked on Kurai, and if it didn't she simply needed to make herself look scared. She doubted Kurai really fell for her deception everytime, but it happened to be the only thing she knew to do for getting her out of trouble.

Kurai sighed and placed her on the ground, continuing onwards as she continued to cling to him. Opal simply sat in the bag, looking sad on seeing the condition of the city, and the many bodies left around it.

Kurai stopped in his tracks on seeing a dead body nearby, instantly noticing something to be off. Opal and Kesshō did not realise it even after he crouched to inspect it. The dead body belonged to a person, not being burned or charred in the slightest. The cause of the death an arrow protruding through the back of his head as his face buried in the ground.

"Goblins." Kurai clicked his tongue on figuring out the culprits, the crude arrow being enough of a clue.

Opal seemed to cower further into the bag while Kesshō tilted her head. Kurai removed the arrow and took a last look at it before tossing it away. He stood up and looked around, noticing a trail of dried blood as if something got dragged away from there.

"This place is already infested with goblins, be extremely careful and don't touch anything." Kurai ordered as he grabbed Kesshō's hand and continued towards the structure. If it's goblins, then they would use that standing structure as their nest. They know adventurers and explorers will enter it, giving them a good chance of ambushing them, but it would only work at night.

Kurai glanced towards the sun, just a short distance above the horizon. He clicked his tongue as he stopped in his tracks, glancing at Opal and Kesshō and before looking back at the structure.

If it was just me then I would have gone anyways, Kurai thought. It would've been fine even with just Opal, she could stay hidden in the bag, and the goblins won't try to target her either. But I don't want to put Kesshō in danger, one of the worst kinds of danger. Even just the things she might see in there are horrible enough, and I do not want her to see any of it.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Kesshō tugged at Kurai's sleeve, pointing towards the structure after he turned to her. Kurai didn't see it at first, but on a closer look he noticed some small figures scurrying around on the flat roof of the structure. Kesshō's vision being far better than his could easily see what the small figures were doing. The hostile hiss from her after seeing it happened to be different from her other ones. The hiss did not happen to be a sign of 'I can kill you', it meant 'I want to kill you'.

From how it looked from afar, and knowing how goblins were, Kurai suspected the person the trail of blood he saw earlier belonged to already died. The goblins already broke their toy, and probably have already spotted a new target as well.

"Kesshō." Kurai called, attracting her attention to him, her hostile glare relaxing ever so slightly. "Kill them." Opal glanced between Kurai and Kesshō, confused as to what was going on, not having looked at the structure. Kesshō unfolded her wings, her tails having extended further, half their length lying on the ground. "Blow them away," Kurai ordered.

Kesshō opened her jaws, planting her right foot in front. Blue-pink lines shot through her body to her neck, a collected glow travelling upwards into her mouth before being released in a burst of blue-pink flames. The breath attack hit the building's top, blasting away the roof before Kesshō lowered her head, destroying the entire building as the flames descended, levelling it all the way to the ground, blasting a path to it through even the debris on the ground effortlessly. The flames died out as she ascertained the structure and it's occupiers were exterminated.

A roar echoed from behind, drawing Kesshō and Kurai's attention and causing Opal to hide inside the bag. Kurai reacted before Kesshō could realise the threat, grabbing her by the arm and dashing to the side, just moments before a burst of icy wind and icicles blasted through where they stood earlier.

Kesshō turned to the source of the attack, only to find her view of the attacker to be blocked by debris. Kurai placed her down and she prepared to spring into action, being stopped from doing so due to Kurai lifting her over the ground by grabbing her by her coat's hood.

"Don't charge into the battle before knowing what you are about to fight," Kurai reprimanded. Kesshō nodded slowly and flailed her legs, gesturing him to put her down. Kurai placed her back on the ground. "It's a Makuu," he explained, "they are powerful and quite large drakes of the tundra, which raises the question of how it even got here."

As if just having been waiting to be introduced, the Makuu burst out through the debris, revealing itself and roaring at Kesshō, clearly seeing her as a competitor due to her being part dragon. Its white scales reflected the light of the setting sun, giving them a beautiful orange glow. It's cold blue eyes narrowed on Kesshō and it's claws dug into the ground, prepared to spring forth. It exhaled mist, getting it's body prepared for a battle. Three rows of short black spikes followed up its neck down it's back all the way to the tip of its tail, clusters of similar spikes present on its arm as well. Two tusks from the sides of its head, black in color and curving into an arc, a sharp dagger like point at their end, most suitable for impaling objects.

Kurai patted Kesshō on the back and smiled. "All yours," he informed.

Kesshō nodded and faced the Makuu, accidentally making eye contact, a gesture of accepting a duel for drakes. The Makuu rushed at her with all its speed, Kurai already having taken some distance from Kesshō to let her battle without any issues. Startled from the sudden start, Kesshō drew her katana and took in a short breath.

Third form: Moonrise.

Kesshō slashed upwards, deflecting the beast's ramming head and causing it to stop just short of her, not inflicting any cuts due to an imperfect attack. The first charge startled Kesshō, but she already recovered, prepared to not let it happen again as she brought her katana close to its scabbard.

Second form: Lonely Moon.

Kesshō performed five slashes in front of her, three horizontal and two vertical, slashing the beast's chest and drawing a square print of red blood on the canvas of its white scales. The beast hammered it's arms towards the ground, a strange white glow surrounding them as it did. Kesshō dodged the attack, getting blown backwards regardless from the power behind the attack, landing some distance away from the drake.

The wounds inflicted by Kesshō's blade healed near instantly and the beast charged towards her again, it's head lowered to ram into her with all its speed this time. Kesshō did not move as the beast charged towards her, and she did not move as the beast rammed through her. The Makuu turned and glanced at her, the afterimage fading as it's brain processed what happened.

Fourth form: Moonbow.

Kesshō slammed her katana on the Makuu's back, inflicting a slash, but not deep enough to damage it's spine as she intended to. The Makuu roared in pain and fury as it swung it's head in a swift arc, slamming it's tusk's side into Kesshō's leg as she jumped off its back. Kesshō's body turned in the air from the impact as she heard a crunch of her leg's bones breaking and pain shot through it.

The Makuu pressed it's head into its neck as it again turned it, aligning its skull with Kesshō as she spun mid air. In a split second it's head shot forwards with great speed, slamming into Kesshō and puncturing many internal organs along with crushing many of her bones. Kesshō rolled and bounced through the debris before crashing into the burnt remains of a brick house, destroying whatever remained of it and getting crushed further under the debris.

The Makuu opened its jaws and shot a blast of its ice breath, freezing the debris and Kesshō inside of it. After encasing Kesshō the Makuu turned it's attention to Kurai, who did not show the slightest sign of worry. He stood calmly and smiled at the drake.

"I really thought you were intelligent creatures," Kurai sighed.

The Makuu glanced back towards Kesshō, hearing the sound of a blast as it turned. Using a breath attack, Kesshō blasted the debris and ice away, damaging herself to some extent. She bled from all over body, a veil of blue-pink flames covering her.

The Makuu stepped back in fear, blasting Kesshō with its ice breath out of desperation. The icicles melted as they got close to Kesshō, the mist also being vaporized near instantly. Kesshō unsheathed her katana as she drew in a breath, the Makuu questioning whether it should attempt an escape or an apology.

The Makuu stepped back to escape, but Kesshō turned out to be much faster than it. She dashed towards it, leaving a trail of flames and charring the ground as she did. Sliding on the ground Kesshō slashed both of the Makuu's forelimbs, leaving burning cuts which quickly set ablaze. Spinning on her feet Kesshō slashed its two hindlimbs before slicing off its tail with an overhead slash.

As the Makuu fell forwards Kesshō jumped onto its back, sliding on its smooth scales and inflicting multiple slashes on the spikes and scales of its back. Jumping up as the Makuu's hind legs also gave away and its body hit the ground Kesshō spun her body in the air and sliced the Makuu's neck, decapitating it's massive head. She landed and sheathed her katana as the Makuu's head hit the ground, blowing a gust of wind and dust which helped extinguish the flames on Kesshō's body.

"A wonderful performance," Kurai observed. Emerging from the dust cloud Kesshō stood beside him, not saying anything. "That wasn't Tsuki Kenjutsu there, did you make a new style?" Kurai inquired, gently caressing Kesshō's hair. Kesshō nodded slightly. "What do you call it?" Kurai questioned.

Kessho thought for a moment, raising her hand to her chin. "Konton Kenjutsu?" She wondered, tilting her head.

"Chaos Swordstyle," Kurai murmured, "it looked more fire than chaos."

"Few fire," Kesshō mumbled.

"So not all forms are fire?" Kurai inquired. Kesshō nodded. "So its basically for all the forms you can't classify as Tsuki Kenjutsu?" Kurai inquired.

Kesshō thought for a moment, counting several times to ten on her fingers without saying anything. She nodded after doing it four times, stopping on the fourth finger the fifth count.

"So you have created forty-four forms?" Kurai inquired with a smile.

Kesshō's ears stood in alarm, but her facial expression remained the same. She did not confirm his guess to be correct, but she didn't say the opposite either, though her ears said it all. It seemed as though she didn't try to tell him, she simply counted for herself.

Opal poked her out of the bag, looking at the two before checking the surrounding area. She let out a disappointed growl on seeing the same ruins and retreated back inside. Kurai and Kesshō both shrugged, not understanding what she expected.

"Anyways, lets finish our work here and get a move on, it's not good to stay in these type of ruins after dark." Kurai suggested as he held Kesshō's arm and led her ahead through the debris.