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Description
Chapter lll

Delmira wakes up startled from a restless night. She rises up slowly so as to not wake up Zilla who lays asleep on a patch of grass next to her. As she wanders forward she is met by a mysterious figure who begins speaking to her, “What are you doing all the way out here?” To this Delmira walks away, attempting to ignore the man. The shadowy figure then continues, “I made you. Everything you think, every move you make, comes from me! I know you better than yourself. That’s why I know you can’t change. So stop this self-righteous attempt at redemption and come back home where you’ll be doing what you’re meant to do.” “Go to hell!” Delmira yells as she strikes the intangible figure, shattering a large tree behind it. “Where do you think you’re going?” The man says before dispersing off into the mist of the early morning.

Delmira turns around to see Zilla standing there, visibly annoyed from being awoken from her sleep. “I’m sorry for waking you up,” Delmira apologizes with a hand resting on her brow—still agitated from her previous conversation. “Yeah, you should be sorry! Sleep deprivation wasn’t part of this deal! Do you just wake up early every morning and decide, hey, you know what would be a great idea to do, smash some trees, and yell at the top of my lungs while I’m doing it, yeah, that totally won’t wake anyone up!” Zilla exclaims sarcastically with her arms crossed and her glare in her eyes before noticing Delmira’s troubled look. Trying to divert Delmira’s attention from what was bothering her, Zilla suggests they find something to eat as she was hungry.

After pushing leaves and branches from their face, they step outside of the thick trees from the forest, finding a small village of people living in the outskirts of Ortus nearing Arena. “It seems we are doomed to encounter people wherever we go. The cold depths of outer space never looked more tempting,” Zilla says with a heavy sigh. “You can stay here, I‘ll get some food.” Delmira then begins searching through the small village for someone who sells food.

Zilla is standing in the forest when some kids burst through the bushes and meet eyes with her. Zilla tells them to scram but the kids are soon met by their parents and more people until she is surrounded by a large crowd. Delmira rushes over, worried for Zilla. But when she arrives she finds them offering Zilla food. Delmira observes that the people here seemed intrigued by Zilla as they had never seen anything like her before. They feast together before Delmira inches closer to Zilla whispering in her ear, “I think they are trying to fatten you up.” To this Zilla responds. “I know, I just figured we can capitalize on this meal before we run off to the next place.”

They end up spending the day relaxing, and recharging in the village. Now being night time, the two plan to leave as everyone heads to bed. As they are about to leave they see an ambush begin on the village. Invaders from Arena start to slaughter the villagers. Delmira sees this and steps forward to fight them but is stopped by Zilla who grabs her by the arm, and says, “This is not our fight.” Delmira pauses for a bit before choosing to go and help anyway.

Delmira charges in with her enlarged ax in her hand, decapitating several Arenite soldiers in one swing. Delmira continues in this manner until she sees another person plowing through the army on the other end, working their way to each other. Upon closer inspection Delmira finds that the person was her old partner, Thorn. They team up and fight off the horde of Arenite infantry. Their teamwork and coordination are still as in sync as it had been before.

They defeat most of the troops, causing them to unleash a young man they had brought confined in a cage as a last ditch effort. The young man is of light complexion, with different shades of blue in his hair. He is of small frame and yet it seems they have much to fear from him as he is chained to the very cage. An Arenite soldier cuts the prisoner with a blade causing a force field to form around the man before releasing a burst of energy. Even from the confines of the cage, his power fueled from shock and fear proves to be too strong, incinerating everyone that was too close, armor and all.

Delmira and Thorn, having been in cover, emerge from the wreckage, but the man is still letting out barrages of energy. Thorn, annoyed, walks up to him, reflecting with his sword all the energy that shot towards him. Once he reaches the man, he pumbles him until he is fully unconscious. Still determined to complete his mission, Thorn steps towards Delmira to execute her in her staggered state. He is thwarted however when Zilla rushes onto him in her full Dragon state, clawing him. Thorn manages to gain some distance from her before pulling out a whistle that makes an ultrasonic sound. This hurts and temporarily stuns Zilla, although its true purpose is for something different. Having been summoned from the whistle, charging on its fours, arrives a Bloodhound. Delmira and Zilla are shocked to see the wolf-like beast sparking a memory of when the Thief King had spoken of such a creature.

The Bloodhound is a monstrous humanoid figure with numerous fur patches scattered across its body. The Bloodhound pounces on Zilla and the two begin to claw and bite at each other. Delmira regains her senses and clashes weapons with Thorn. The two exchange blows in an even fight. “This won’t end like last time, I won’t show you any mercy,” Thorn says as he thrust his sword, which Delmira narrowly dodges. He then stabs his sword into the ground before a purple aura forms around it.

Delmira finds herself in a different world not akin to earth, there being no sky or sun, but just an infinite flat surface as the ground. “Remember escaping when we were younger? This is the spirit realm, everything in our world happens here first.” Thorn explains. Delmira hears his voice but he remains out of sight. Thorn then continues, “Our strength in this realm reflects how strong we are in spirit, and while you are strong in the physical realm here you are weak.” She sees Thorn and charges at him but her feet begin to sink into the floor. Thorn slashes at her several times with his blade while she remains unable to step forward.

Meanwhile in the physical realm they remain stationary as the fight is only in the spirit realm, the injuries from battle however are physically present and appear shortly after they are inflicted in the spirit realm.

Zilla and the Bloodhound continue to fight, Zilla having the upper hand as she proves to be the stronger of the two, however she is caught off guard when the Bloodhound bites her before sucking her blood, restoring the Bloodhound back to its prime. As Zilla is still recovering , the Bloodhound leaps in the air. Knowing she can’t withstand another direct blow, she breathes out a great ball of fire, frying the bloodhound in its tracks.

Over in the spirit realm, Thorn explains that as the dominant one between the two, he can manipulate the spirit realm. “You’re broken, you don’t even know what you’re fighting for anymore. Let me finish you off quickly.” Thorn pleads as he winces with visible pain on his face as he saw what he had done to her already. “You’re right, I don’t know what I’m fighting for, or even why I live. But right now, I know I want to kick your sorry ass.” As Delmira says this she begins to regain her footing. Thorn, albeit shocked by this development, swings his sword for the finishing blow but is blocked by Delmira's ax. The two fight, and while Delmira is stronger than when she first entered she is still far weaker than Thorn. She swings her ax, missing Thorn every time, while all of his slashes connect. Much to Thorn’s surprise as to how she is still standing, they continue in this manner for some time before she is able to cut him with her blade. This causes Delmira to smirk, while Thorn’s eyes widen, visibly afraid.

A yellow aura builds around her ax, as its blood ability causes Thorn’s wound to bleed profusely, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. As he looks up he finds that she had disappeared. Coming from behind him, Delmira swings her ax. Thorn narrowly dodges, the blade cutting some of his hair, before standing back on his feet, ready to fight again, all the while still bleeding.

The fight is on more even grounds as they are able to land more blows on each other, each one of the cuts on Thorn bleeding more than a normal wound. Both of them are at the end of the line however as Delmira has sustained more injuries and Thorn has lost a lot of blood from his wounds. They both pause for a bit to regain their barings before they both charge in for what could be the final blow on either one. They are interrupted however when they are blasted back by the impact of a cannonball.

Ortus armies have arrived in response to the invasion from Arena. Being outnumbered and in no condition to fight further, the two are detained by Ortus soldiers. Delmira hopes that if these are her final moments that at least Zilla will escape. She is saddened however when they walk forward and see Zilla and the blue-haired man detained by troops as well. They are then taken to a detention center where their fates are to be determined.

After some hours on the road in a carriage, they finally come to a halt. They remove the bags off of Zilla and Delmira’s heads, revealing them to be in the royal palace of Ortus, the emperor himself sitting there to speak to them. “I have heard a lot about you both from all around Ortus,” Before either of them could form a reply the emperor continued, “You don’t have to worry, if I had planned to kill you or arrest you I wouldn’t have brought you to my palace to do so.” He assures them as he pours them tea. “I have brought you here in order to thank you. I have heard of you killing that thief.” The emperor says as touches his crown and looks over to his new throne, remembering that he had to replace it after it was stolen by that said thief. “Furthermore, the villagers told me that you fought the Arenites in order to protect them. I was initially confused as to why a Volcanan soldier would be fighting to protect my people, but once a Volcanan soldier was sent to kill you it made it all clear that you have defected from your country. And thus the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The emperor finishes his speech as he hands them the cups of tea. Zilla can’t help but glare at the emperor as she still has within her memory how he had treated the dragons before her. Delmira sips some tea before asking, “I don’t mean to be impolite, but if you’re not going to kill us, what do you want from us?” The emperor beats around the bush, saying, “Come now, I want to introduce you to my family.”

They enter a large dining room, the emperor’s family already being seated. The emperor introduces them to his wife and children; his youngest daughter, named Uta, takes particular interest in them. They talk and dine; Delmira, though full, doesn't know how to politely stop them from serving them any more. Uta sees this and tells Delmira in hand signals that she should leave some food on the plate to signal that she is full. Zilla, seeing the hand signals, asks if Uta is mute. This causes the room to grow silent as all their eyes fixate on Zilla before switching to the emperor to see his response. The emperor takes a swig of his rice wine before speaking in an almost boastful yet defensive tone, “One day she spoke out of place so I took her voice away from her. It was in this room I believe.” After his speech there is a tense silence, this being something they never talk about. This tense silence is broken by a soldier barging through the door, “He is dead, your highness.” The soldier says in a shakened timbre. The emperor hastily stands of from his seat, yelling, “You incompetent idiots, you can’t even torture someone right?! Take me to him at once!” The emperor yells as he storms out of the room.

After a little while, Uta asks them who the handsome blue-haired man that was brought with them was. Delmira explains, “We don’t know him, I suspect that he was a prisoner of Arena.” Very curious about them, Uta continues to ask them more and more questions about themselves and their recent adventures together. Uta asks them how they met, to this Zilla answers, “It seems it couldn’t be helped, although I still can’t help but hope sometimes we didn’t meet that day.” Uta asks her if it was destiny then, to which Zilla responds, “More like bad luck.” Although it was in half jest, what Zilla said causes Delmira to think about their past events and if their arrangement is truly what’s best for the both of them. Delmira puts her arm on Zilla before saying, “I didn’t get to thank you for saving my life before, I know that none of this is what we agreed to, so I understand if you would like to part ways when we leave here.” prompting Zilla to respond, saying, “I’ll think about it. The meals aren’t too bad and it’s not like there’s anywhere for me to go.” Delmira smiles in relief that her friend will still by her side as she ventures to find purpose and redemption.

Over in the detainment center, the emperor enters into the cell where Thorn was being tortured. He checks his pulse and finds that he is indeed dead. As the emperor stands up, Thorn’s sword begins to raddle on the table where they had put it. The sword thrusts through the emperor’s chest, landing into Thorn’s hand; revealing that Thorn had used his sword to lift his spirit from his body, leaving an empty carcass until he put his spirit back in. With his blade in hand, he then swiftly kills the other men in the room before using his whistle to call the Bloodhound. The Bloodhound arrives, having been revived when Thorn poured some of his blood onto its nearly dead body before their capture. “Let’s get out of here, we’ll come after Delmira another time!” Thorn exclaims before scaling down the building on the Bloodhound’s back, escaping the compound.

As the night wraps up and everyone is preparing for bed, a phone call with the news of the emperor’s death reaches the palace. The palace enters into a state of disorder and rambling which Uta attempts to bring into order. Uta goes to Delmira and Zilla’s sleeping quarters and tells them of the recent development before warning them that Ortus is likely to become less friendly towards foreigners. “What would you suggest we do?” Delmira asks. Uta replies, saying that she believes it to be safest for them to leave the country. “I highly doubt we’ll have a warm welcome anywhere else either,” Zilla responds, frustrated with their situation. Uta explains that Ortus does a lot of business with Ardor so it’s the easiest for her to take them to, before continuing that soon it will be safer for them to be there than in Ortus. Conceding, the two follow Uta, who leads them to a boat she organized to take them to the country of Ardor. She hugs them before saying that she wishes they would have gotten to know each other better. The boat then sets off, leading them into the land of the unknown.

Description
Chapter lll

Delmira wakes up startled from a restless night. She rises up slowly so as to not wake up Zilla who lays asleep on a patch of grass next to her. As she wanders forward she is met by a mysterious figure who begins speaking to her, “What are you doing all the way out here?” To this Delmira walks away, attempting to ignore the man. The shadowy figure then continues, “I made you. Everything you think, every move you make, comes from me! I know you better than yourself. That’s why I know you can’t change. So stop this self-righteous attempt at redemption and come back home where you’ll be doing what you’re meant to do.” “Go to hell!” Delmira yells as she strikes the intangible figure, shattering a large tree behind it. “Where do you think you’re going?” The man says before dispersing off into the mist of the early morning.

Delmira turns around to see Zilla standing there, visibly annoyed from being awoken from her sleep. “I’m sorry for waking you up,” Delmira apologizes with a hand resting on her brow—still agitated from her previous conversation. “Yeah, you should be sorry! Sleep deprivation wasn’t part of this deal! Do you just wake up early every morning and decide, hey, you know what would be a great idea to do, smash some trees, and yell at the top of my lungs while I’m doing it, yeah, that totally won’t wake anyone up!” Zilla exclaims sarcastically with her arms crossed and her glare in her eyes before noticing Delmira’s troubled look. Trying to divert Delmira’s attention from what was bothering her, Zilla suggests they find something to eat as she was hungry.

After pushing leaves and branches from their face, they step outside of the thick trees from the forest, finding a small village of people living in the outskirts of Ortus nearing Arena. “It seems we are doomed to encounter people wherever we go. The cold depths of outer space never looked more tempting,” Zilla says with a heavy sigh. “You can stay here, I‘ll get some food.” Delmira then begins searching through the small village for someone who sells food.

Zilla is standing in the forest when some kids burst through the bushes and meet eyes with her. Zilla tells them to scram but the kids are soon met by their parents and more people until she is surrounded by a large crowd. Delmira rushes over, worried for Zilla. But when she arrives she finds them offering Zilla food. Delmira observes that the people here seemed intrigued by Zilla as they had never seen anything like her before. They feast together before Delmira inches closer to Zilla whispering in her ear, “I think they are trying to fatten you up.” To this Zilla responds. “I know, I just figured we can capitalize on this meal before we run off to the next place.”

They end up spending the day relaxing, and recharging in the village. Now being night time, the two plan to leave as everyone heads to bed. As they are about to leave they see an ambush begin on the village. Invaders from Arena start to slaughter the villagers. Delmira sees this and steps forward to fight them but is stopped by Zilla who grabs her by the arm, and says, “This is not our fight.” Delmira pauses for a bit before choosing to go and help anyway.

Delmira charges in with her enlarged ax in her hand, decapitating several Arenite soldiers in one swing. Delmira continues in this manner until she sees another person plowing through the army on the other end, working their way to each other. Upon closer inspection Delmira finds that the person was her old partner, Thorn. They team up and fight off the horde of Arenite infantry. Their teamwork and coordination are still as in sync as it had been before.

They defeat most of the troops, causing them to unleash a young man they had brought confined in a cage as a last ditch effort. The young man is of light complexion, with different shades of blue in his hair. He is of small frame and yet it seems they have much to fear from him as he is chained to the very cage. An Arenite soldier cuts the prisoner with a blade causing a force field to form around the man before releasing a burst of energy. Even from the confines of the cage, his power fueled from shock and fear proves to be too strong, incinerating everyone that was too close, armor and all.

Delmira and Thorn, having been in cover, emerge from the wreckage, but the man is still letting out barrages of energy. Thorn, annoyed, walks up to him, reflecting with his sword all the energy that shot towards him. Once he reaches the man, he pumbles him until he is fully unconscious. Still determined to complete his mission, Thorn steps towards Delmira to execute her in her staggered state. He is thwarted however when Zilla rushes onto him in her full Dragon state, clawing him. Thorn manages to gain some distance from her before pulling out a whistle that makes an ultrasonic sound. This hurts and temporarily stuns Zilla, although its true purpose is for something different. Having been summoned from the whistle, charging on its fours, arrives a Bloodhound. Delmira and Zilla are shocked to see the wolf-like beast sparking a memory of when the Thief King had spoken of such a creature.

The Bloodhound is a monstrous humanoid figure with numerous fur patches scattered across its body. The Bloodhound pounces on Zilla and the two begin to claw and bite at each other. Delmira regains her senses and clashes weapons with Thorn. The two exchange blows in an even fight. “This won’t end like last time, I won’t show you any mercy,” Thorn says as he thrust his sword, which Delmira narrowly dodges. He then stabs his sword into the ground before a purple aura forms around it.

Delmira finds herself in a different world not akin to earth, there being no sky or sun, but just an infinite flat surface as the ground. “Remember escaping when we were younger? This is the spirit realm, everything in our world happens here first.” Thorn explains. Delmira hears his voice but he remains out of sight. Thorn then continues, “Our strength in this realm reflects how strong we are in spirit, and while you are strong in the physical realm here you are weak.” She sees Thorn and charges at him but her feet begin to sink into the floor. Thorn slashes at her several times with his blade while she remains unable to step forward.

Meanwhile in the physical realm they remain stationary as the fight is only in the spirit realm, the injuries from battle however are physically present and appear shortly after they are inflicted in the spirit realm.

Zilla and the Bloodhound continue to fight, Zilla having the upper hand as she proves to be the stronger of the two, however she is caught off guard when the Bloodhound bites her before sucking her blood, restoring the Bloodhound back to its prime. As Zilla is still recovering , the Bloodhound leaps in the air. Knowing she can’t withstand another direct blow, she breathes out a great ball of fire, frying the bloodhound in its tracks.

Over in the spirit realm, Thorn explains that as the dominant one between the two, he can manipulate the spirit realm. “You’re broken, you don’t even know what you’re fighting for anymore. Let me finish you off quickly.” Thorn pleads as he winces with visible pain on his face as he saw what he had done to her already. “You’re right, I don’t know what I’m fighting for, or even why I live. But right now, I know I want to kick your sorry ass.” As Delmira says this she begins to regain her footing. Thorn, albeit shocked by this development, swings his sword for the finishing blow but is blocked by Delmira's ax. The two fight, and while Delmira is stronger than when she first entered she is still far weaker than Thorn. She swings her ax, missing Thorn every time, while all of his slashes connect. Much to Thorn’s surprise as to how she is still standing, they continue in this manner for some time before she is able to cut him with her blade. This causes Delmira to smirk, while Thorn’s eyes widen, visibly afraid.

A yellow aura builds around her ax, as its blood ability causes Thorn’s wound to bleed profusely, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. As he looks up he finds that she had disappeared. Coming from behind him, Delmira swings her ax. Thorn narrowly dodges, the blade cutting some of his hair, before standing back on his feet, ready to fight again, all the while still bleeding.

The fight is on more even grounds as they are able to land more blows on each other, each one of the cuts on Thorn bleeding more than a normal wound. Both of them are at the end of the line however as Delmira has sustained more injuries and Thorn has lost a lot of blood from his wounds. They both pause for a bit to regain their barings before they both charge in for what could be the final blow on either one. They are interrupted however when they are blasted back by the impact of a cannonball.

Ortus armies have arrived in response to the invasion from Arena. Being outnumbered and in no condition to fight further, the two are detained by Ortus soldiers. Delmira hopes that if these are her final moments that at least Zilla will escape. She is saddened however when they walk forward and see Zilla and the blue-haired man detained by troops as well. They are then taken to a detention center where their fates are to be determined.

After some hours on the road in a carriage, they finally come to a halt. They remove the bags off of Zilla and Delmira’s heads, revealing them to be in the royal palace of Ortus, the emperor himself sitting there to speak to them. “I have heard a lot about you both from all around Ortus,” Before either of them could form a reply the emperor continued, “You don’t have to worry, if I had planned to kill you or arrest you I wouldn’t have brought you to my palace to do so.” He assures them as he pours them tea. “I have brought you here in order to thank you. I have heard of you killing that thief.” The emperor says as touches his crown and looks over to his new throne, remembering that he had to replace it after it was stolen by that said thief. “Furthermore, the villagers told me that you fought the Arenites in order to protect them. I was initially confused as to why a Volcanan soldier would be fighting to protect my people, but once a Volcanan soldier was sent to kill you it made it all clear that you have defected from your country. And thus the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The emperor finishes his speech as he hands them the cups of tea. Zilla can’t help but glare at the emperor as she still has within her memory how he had treated the dragons before her. Delmira sips some tea before asking, “I don’t mean to be impolite, but if you’re not going to kill us, what do you want from us?” The emperor beats around the bush, saying, “Come now, I want to introduce you to my family.”

They enter a large dining room, the emperor’s family already being seated. The emperor introduces them to his wife and children; his youngest daughter, named Uta, takes particular interest in them. They talk and dine; Delmira, though full, doesn't know how to politely stop them from serving them any more. Uta sees this and tells Delmira in hand signals that she should leave some food on the plate to signal that she is full. Zilla, seeing the hand signals, asks if Uta is mute. This causes the room to grow silent as all their eyes fixate on Zilla before switching to the emperor to see his response. The emperor takes a swig of his rice wine before speaking in an almost boastful yet defensive tone, “One day she spoke out of place so I took her voice away from her. It was in this room I believe.” After his speech there is a tense silence, this being something they never talk about. This tense silence is broken by a soldier barging through the door, “He is dead, your highness.” The soldier says in a shakened timbre. The emperor hastily stands of from his seat, yelling, “You incompetent idiots, you can’t even torture someone right?! Take me to him at once!” The emperor yells as he storms out of the room.

After a little while, Uta asks them who the handsome blue-haired man that was brought with them was. Delmira explains, “We don’t know him, I suspect that he was a prisoner of Arena.” Very curious about them, Uta continues to ask them more and more questions about themselves and their recent adventures together. Uta asks them how they met, to this Zilla answers, “It seems it couldn’t be helped, although I still can’t help but hope sometimes we didn’t meet that day.” Uta asks her if it was destiny then, to which Zilla responds, “More like bad luck.” Although it was in half jest, what Zilla said causes Delmira to think about their past events and if their arrangement is truly what’s best for the both of them. Delmira puts her arm on Zilla before saying, “I didn’t get to thank you for saving my life before, I know that none of this is what we agreed to, so I understand if you would like to part ways when we leave here.” prompting Zilla to respond, saying, “I’ll think about it. The meals aren’t too bad and it’s not like there’s anywhere for me to go.” Delmira smiles in relief that her friend will still by her side as she ventures to find purpose and redemption.

Over in the detainment center, the emperor enters into the cell where Thorn was being tortured. He checks his pulse and finds that he is indeed dead. As the emperor stands up, Thorn’s sword begins to raddle on the table where they had put it. The sword thrusts through the emperor’s chest, landing into Thorn’s hand; revealing that Thorn had used his sword to lift his spirit from his body, leaving an empty carcass until he put his spirit back in. With his blade in hand, he then swiftly kills the other men in the room before using his whistle to call the Bloodhound. The Bloodhound arrives, having been revived when Thorn poured some of his blood onto its nearly dead body before their capture. “Let’s get out of here, we’ll come after Delmira another time!” Thorn exclaims before scaling down the building on the Bloodhound’s back, escaping the compound.

As the night wraps up and everyone is preparing for bed, a phone call with the news of the emperor’s death reaches the palace. The palace enters into a state of disorder and rambling which Uta attempts to bring into order. Uta goes to Delmira and Zilla’s sleeping quarters and tells them of the recent development before warning them that Ortus is likely to become less friendly towards foreigners. “What would you suggest we do?” Delmira asks. Uta replies, saying that she believes it to be safest for them to leave the country. “I highly doubt we’ll have a warm welcome anywhere else either,” Zilla responds, frustrated with their situation. Uta explains that Ortus does a lot of business with Ardor so it’s the easiest for her to take them to, before continuing that soon it will be safer for them to be there than in Ortus. Conceding, the two follow Uta, who leads them to a boat she organized to take them to the country of Ardor. She hugs them before saying that she wishes they would have gotten to know each other better. The boat then sets off, leading them into the land of the unknown.