Death.

Destruction.

Despair.

Dragons left nothing else in their wake.

Arma: ‘Stand up…’

His body was badly hurt. At this point, it was a miracle that he was even alive, much less conscious.

Arma: ‘Stand up…’

His mind could still think, but his body refused to move.

Arma: “Stand up, dammit!”

The charred corpse was still struggling to stay alive.

Black Dragon Lord’s attack sure did a number on Arma’s body.

His right leg, several ribs, and right arm were clearly broken.

Wounds left by the dragon’s claws were still fresh. The only reason he was not completely bleeding out was because the Black Dragon Lord’s slash was imbued with fire magic, which partially cauterized the wounds left by the slash, while at the same time horribly scarring Arma’s body.

Any normal person would have passed out and died from shock alone, not to mention the continuous physical agony.

His body was in horrible condition, completely beaten up, bleeding, and burned all over. Most of his body was covered in burn scars.

Arma: ‘That damn bastard cooked me….’

When he tried to open his right eye, he realized that it was no longer able to see. No, he could see, but only the whiteness….

But his eye was not the worst part, it was his body.

The sheer agony would have driven anyone to the brink of suicide within moments to just stop feeling this pain.

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It stung like hundreds of bees swarming upon him at once.

Judging from the pain, he felt that the right side of his face received most of the damage, with a claw like mark left over his right eyelid and burns covering three fourth of his face. Only the small area around his left eye remained unburned.

His torso was burned as well, with his clothing fused to his flesh. But the physical pain he felt was nothing compared to what he felt in his heart.

Once again, he lost everything.

His mentor was dead.

Akara Velen was dead.

She was gone.

Arma’s left eye was overflowing with tears. Accepting the cruelty of the reality was too much for the young Arma’s shoulders.

Ever since he lost his parents and his sister to dragons, he swore that he would never cry again and that he would never have to experience such loss.

But now, he lost his family all over again.

He never asked Akara to care for him, but care she did regardless.

Despite her being a demon and him being a human, Akara still treated Arma as one of her own.

Over time, Arma came to see her as a parent.

In many ways, she was the closest thing Arma now had to a mother.

A mother that was butchered before his very eyes.

Now, he was face to face with Akara’s disembodied head.

His emotions hurt far more than any wound ever could.

Tears streamed down from Arma’s left eye.

He was shaking as he slowly crawled towards Akara’s head.

It was not easy, with one arm and leg broken, and with his entire body burnt, but he kept crawling forward.

Once he reached her head, he lifted it up.

Clutching on to his dead mentor’s head, Arma could only howl in despair.

Arma was slowly dying, but he did not care.

Arma: ‘Why? Why does everyone I have ever cared about is always taken away?’

Arma: “Why did you have to die?”

Arma: “Why did I not die?!”

Arma: “I should have died with them! Why?”

Then, his despair was replaced by another emotion.

Pure and unbridled rage.

All of the people killed by dragons, his family, his fellow Dragon Hunters, Akara….they did not deserve to meet such an end.

It was all the Dragons Fault.

It was all the Twins Fault.

It was all that Black Dragon Lord’s fault!

Even though his body was near death, his rage kept him alive.

Arma: ‘Their scent, yes, I must memorize their scent…’

For one reason or another, Arma could differentiate people by their scent alone, and when he smelled those Twins, their smell was different from the rest.

Back then, he could not put the two and two together, but now he knew.

Black Dragon Lord also had the same smell.

It was the scent of dragons.

The smell dragons exude….it was unlike any other creature walking the earth. And now, Arma was determined to use their scent to find them….

Arma: “I will hunt down….EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!”

But he could only keep his body conscious for so long before falling over, still refusing to let go of Akara’s head.

Akara: ‘Is this how I die?’

From the corner of Arma’s eye, he saw an apparition, a woman in white.

He could clearly see her face for a moment.

She gently smiled.

Then, Arma’s world once again faded into the darkness….