"Wow Kolary! Those new pets of yours are really neat!" said a blond figure hovering over the city of Palan.
Below them some huge spider like creatures with fangs were crawling around destroying whole houses and partially eating the inhabitants.
"Well... I wouldn't call them pets... You see I had planned to make some octopus like tigers, but Sana threw the wrong mixture in the pot, ne Sana?" the red haired priestess said as she caressed her pet sitting on her right shoulder.
Kolary's catbird looking pet looked at his yellow cat-eyed mistress making a wolf like sound.
"They're neat anyway. I'm sure my Val and my Xellos would like them." said Mia.
"Oh, don't worry, I'll tell them all about it." said the dark blue haired general to Mia's right.
Mia clung to his arm and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Agy, that's why I love you."
Agaroth fussed her hair, "I know."
Kolary rolled her eyes and looked back down. These creatures had turned out more destructive than she had expected. Well, maybe she just was a genius.
"Aw! Kolary these people are using magic against your animals and it's working." said Mia disappointed.
Dynast's priestess saw it, she would have to work on new animals with magic protection. JAHOO!! A new project!! Kolary smiled happily.
"You two finish this here, 'kay? I have some experiments to run! Bye!" and with those words Kolary teleported away.
"I just hope she doesn't try anything weird on MY men." Mia told Agaroth.
"Shall we?" Dalphin's general extended his hand, "I've heard a rumor that there were supposed to be dragons here. Wanna see if we can find them?"
A malicious glint crossed Mia's features, "Of course!"
Eris was collecting some women and children around her, telling them to calm down and to follow her while Aishan was using her crossbow and her sword to keep the strange creatures away from them. She saw Filia and Xeres running around a corner. Eris turned her attention to the secret entrance behind a tree and indicated the others to be silent and to go down to the tunnels where Krishak was waiting.
"Eris!" she heard Aishan call her.
The black haired priestess turned to her friend.
"I'll lead those things away from here, so don't worry about me."
"Don't do anything stupid." Eris told her.
"I never do." said Aishan smiling, before running towards the creatures with her sword, insulting them to attract their attention.
Xeres was the first one to notice the two high ranked Mazoku descending on the city.
"Damn!" he said.
He had thought that the creatures were bad enough, but two high ranked Mazoku were even worse. He looked around for his wife and companions. Filia was nearby, she too had noticed the two newcomers and was preparing a Chaotic Disintegrate while Eris and Tires were leading people to the tunnels with Krishak.
"Good. Now it's my turn to get their attention." he said as he cast a Rune Flare and let dozens of high velocity Flare Arrows fly towards the Mazoku.
They teleported out of the way, but Xeres had already expected that they would do so and had cast a Fireball in his hands and threw it at the blue haired man.
Agaroth easily dodged the Fireball.
"They seem to have a plan... the girl there is leading Kolary's babies away. The other three are leading away the survivors. And that one is trying to get my attention." said Agaroth, he dodged another Flare Arrow, "And he just got it!"
"I'll take care of the other three." said Mia phasing out.
Agaroth floated toward Xeres, dodging his opponent's useless fireballs. He drew his sword. At that moment he felt the approach of a white magic spell from behind and he tried to dodge it, but he wasn't fast enough and the attack of blue light hit his arm. A trap. How interesting... Agaroth looked at the wound, his whole arm and shoulder were burned, his clothing ragged. Had the spell hit him on the back it would have really have caused some damage. He looked up at his opponent.
My turn! Agaroth raised his good arm and cast a Diem Wind, knocking the man in front of him backwards before turning to his treacherous attacker, a blond woman. She was standing there, completely drained after that ill aimed attack.
Agaroth smiled as he charged his own magic, a fitting end for such a human.
Xeres opened his eyes and saw the Mazoku charging his attack against Filia. She was too drained to move fast enough to escape, and he was too far away, he would not get there in time unless...
Filia saw the Mazoku summon up the black energy of... the Dolph Strash?... Filia remembered Luna telling her about it, a spear like shock wave at super sonic speed with the purpose of destroying its target. By Cephied!! I AM the target!!... Filia might be a dragon and the attack wouldn't harm her as much as it would harm non-dragons, but under her condition the spell would do her more than harm. She had to get away, but she was only barely staying on her feet since those creatures had hit her hard on her leg. She tried to move away when she saw a golden form rush forward and throw her off her feet as the black magic shock wave approached her.
"Xeres!! NO!!" she screamed.
"Shh., Filia... I'll be fine." the Golden Dragon smiled.
That was the last image Filia saw before an uncontrollable urge to sleep overcame her.
Xeres saw his wife fall asleep, it was better if she didn't see him die. He knew he had signed his own death sentence when he had turned into his dragon form, but only in this form he could have been fast enough to help her. He hoped Filia would live through this day.
The spell had past above them, but it had still reached his back. His back ached and bled.
Agaroth looked at the dragon, he hadn't thought there would be any more Golden Dragons alive. Well, there won't be any pretty soon...
Xeres turned around to face the Mazoku after casting a small healing spell on Filia. He was not going to let the Mazoku harm her, not as long as he was still alive, not without a fight.
"You who crosses between sky and earth, gentle flowing water, gather in my hand and give me power! DEMONA CRYSTAL!!" Xeres shouted.
Agaroth saw the dragon send forth a chain of ice crystals towards him. So he wants to play rough, he?... He teleported out of the way and cast an Icicle Lance, which he threw at Xeres. The dragon cast a Ray Wing, blocking Dalphin's general's attack. Agaroth smiled: the fight with the dragon was getting more and more interesting. Maybe he should try something more powerful like a Laguna Drive, but since it summoned upon the power of Phibrizio and his mistress wouldn't be very pleased about it, he decided against it.
The dragon flew above the city and Agaroth followed him. Xeres cast a Flame Breath. Shit!.. the dark-blue haired general dodged it and the spell flew past him.
"Okay dragon. That's enough!" Agaroth was getting annoyed. He started to concentrate for a few seconds with his eyes closed as he summoned on the power of his Lord, "RUBY EYE BLADE!!" he shouted as he opened his eyes.
Xeres saw a blade made of powerful magical energy been thrown towards him.
Agaroth clapped his hands as he felt that the Golden Dragon's life energy disappear and floated down to the city.
Mia looked towards where Agaroth was standing. She had felt him summon the power of Shabranigdu. She let go of the short black haired woman she had been about to kill. The woman had been throwing some very impressive black magic at her, for a human, that is. The woman fell to the ground; she would probably die anyway.
Mia ran to her companion.
"Agy!" she looked positively scary, even for a Mazoku, Agaroth had to admit.
"You know how much Val loves to kill dragons, especially Golden Dragons!"
Agaroth took a step back, you didn't get a Mazoku general angry just for fun, and certainly not one that was as powerful as Mia.
"He was trying to protect that woman over there." Agaroth pointed towards the spot where the blond woman lay sleeping.
Mia eyes brightened as she saw the tail popping from under the woman's robes.
"Well, Agy, maybe it's not so bad after all. Val might like her better," she said as she walked over to the dragon maiden and took her by the tail. Under other circumstances Mia would never give anything even remotely female to Val, much less a beautiful blond dragon, but it was a Golden Dragon. No reason to fear any competition.
Agaroth smiled, it was good to be on Mia's and Val's good side. He couldn't wait to tell everyone about this.
Mia looked around, "GAAV FLARE!!"
A straight line of fire damaged the last houses that were left. There wasn't much left of the city anyway.
"Mission accomplished." she said as she teleported herself and the dragon away, swiftly followed by Agaroth.
Tires woke up, that Mazoku kid had given him a hard time, one of his arms was broken and hung limp at his side. He hurt all over and considered drifting back to unconsciousness when he remembered the last image he had seen before blacking out: Eris throwing her strongest spell at the little blond girl to stop her from taking his life.
"Eris," he murmured and stood up shaking. "Eris."
He looked around, she wasn't where he had last seen her.
"Eris!"
She was lying in the alley, a pool of blood around her. Tires half-walking, half-crawling came towards her. He shuddered: she had some burning wounds all over herself, but what shocked him most was the bloody hole in her stomach, where all the blood was pouring out, but she was still breathing.
Tires cast a small recovery spell, but since he wasn't specialized in white magic it only stopped the bleeding. He took her in his good arm and rested her head on his shoulder. She didn't move. He had to get her some help and fast. It would be been faster to turn into a dragon, but he lacked the energy and it would only draw unnecessary attention to them.
He walked for almost half and hour, the will to help his beloved forcing him to go on. He had seen no one as he walked out of the city. Maybe they were all in the tunnels, he didn't know. The city was completely destroyed yet he didn't run into any of those spider like creatures: Aishan had done her part of the job.
Tires looked around, it was turning dark, but he knew there was a tunnel entry around here somewhere. He finally found what he had been looking for, for anyone else, it would look like a normal stone, but there was a magical marking, the sign of Kayless was on it.
Tires put Eris on the ground and took a deep breath to fight the dizziness. He moved the stone out of the way and saw the dark tunnel underneath. He cast a light spell and let it float down to the tunnel, then he took the black haired priestess in his arm, she was turning cold, too much blood had been lost. He hoped he would make it in time as he closed the tunnel entrance above him.
Outside the shadows smiled as they saw the red haired dragon in human form disappear into the tunnel. The shadows had found what they had been looking for.