Between Saints - Courage, Fear, Betrayal

As soon as Athena turned into a dragon, Ella wondered how Athena was a dragon more powerful than herself, who was a real dragon.

With her eyes lost in thought, she got her answer.

Athena had said that she would not devour the world but, without realizing it, she was constantly feeding on the world's mana. Ella wondered why she hadn't noticed this sooner, but then, when Athena devoured the crystal, she could understand and laughed.

(Her potential is even greater than that of a dragon!)

Thin strands of smoky mana rippled toward Athena and mingled with her mana without causing any immediately noticeable change. But when Athena devoured Lhia, the mana dissipated and backed away from Athena as if avoiding her.

This was due to the change in Athena's natural mana quality and quantity. Her mana, which until then was a deformed energy of a lilac color, now glowed azure blue with a faint dark gold and it moved like a veil in the wind, rippling slowly.

Ella was ecstatic at the sight and thought that maybe, if she stayed by Athena's side, she would never have to sleep again to escape the boredom she felt with Ertala's absence.

Ella could barely stand her excitement and wanted to jump and dance with the fun future to come, yearned for time to pass quickly.

(Dragons? Gods? If Athena continues like this, maybe even if all the gods and dragons united, they wouldn't be able to defeat her.)

Dragons were the oldest creatures. Legend has it that the king of all dragons, the one who had become a god, was the oldest god of all gods, but there would be no way to prove such an allegation. The dragons came from another place and it was not known where they would go. The truth was unknown even to the primordial gods, who had the power of omniscience and only the first dragon could, perhaps, know the truth.

Either way, Ella was anxious, her boredom disappearing with each day she spent with Athena. Her monotonous heart was racing and she felt something, like a flutter in her stomach as she looked at Athena who now glowed with runes in her sleep. She felt a shiver on the back of her neck and just as she was about to think about something, a mana distortion happened in the space between Athena and her, emerging from a bluish light, a man with long purple hair.

"Who are you?" Ella asked.

"Gion!" Anemus frowned. "What are you doing here?"

"That's a stupid question, Anemus." Gion said in an oddly agitated voice. "I came to take what belongs to me."

Gion turned to Athena and between them, he found Mifa's huge paws. She ducked her head, baring her sharp teeth and growling menacingly. She didn't know Gion and had only heard of Nimo, but that man was Athena's current enemy and that was enough for her to dislike him.

""Stay away!"" Ordered Mifa.

Gion looked into the wolf's reddish brown eyes, smiled and without saying a word, the man transformed into a red dragon, engaging in a voracious fight with the giant wolf.

"Faena, get out of here!" Anemus yelled and looked back, but Faena was no longer there.

As soon as she saw Gion, Faena ran. She fled in fear of the man. Even with her incredibly limited stamina, she ran with all her strength without even realizing that Gion hadn't even looked at her.

However, that hadn't been a bad choice of action. She would just be dead weight to be protected in that situation. This was what Anemus needed least.

As her attention returned to the battle that had just begun, Anemus spread her wings and flew over the two, waiting for a chance to attack.

The battle between the dragon and the wolf was intense and obviously, the one getting the better of it was Gion.

The man was stronger and had more experience in battles where he would have to fight big creatures.

However, Mifa was neither big nor strong enough to be of any threat to Gion. He was over twenty-five meters tall, while Mifa was no more than twelve. He had armor and hard, flexible scales defending him, and she had only fur stained with her own blood.

Mifa was being overwhelmed by the strength Gion had in that form and even though she didn't give up even for a moment, her defeat was imminent and came in just over two minutes.

(Is anyone else going to get in my way?) Gion asked, looking at the three women present, challenging them. (I won't kill this wolf, but if any other of you try to stop me from doing what I came to do, I will kill you all.)

This was such an obvious bluff that Ella and Lucifer just smiled at the man. They could see the high mana consumption the man was suffering. They knew that form wouldn't last long and that as soon as his mana ran out, he would die.

However, the existence of a human who could transform into a dragon was something Ella thought Athena was the only one. She knew the man was a saint, no human would have that unnatural amount of mana if they weren't, but that didn't explain why he managed to be in that form.

Ella was angry that Gion could become a dragon, even if for a little while, it was starting to get too common and she wasn't enjoying it. But more than anger, Ella was curious about how he accomplished such a feat. She wanted to study the magic that allowed him to transform and perhaps study this man. He could turn out to be a new entertainment for her.

Lucifer was uninterested in the motive of that human, dragon or whatever that man was, to attack Athena and preferred to wait to take action.

This was due to her desire to know how useful Athena would be against her brother. If she was hurt and/or threatened in any way by a being as weak as that thing talking nonsense in front of her, she would drop the idea of ​​relying on Athena for help.

In the absence of movement from the other two women, who seemed overwhelmingly more powerful than he, Gion glanced at Anemus, who glared at him with fury burning in her green eyes.

Their eyes met briefly and Gion could tell the difference between the Anemus of two months ago and the one now.

Anemus was hundreds of times stronger. The mana around her felt like air itself. The mana behaved in an almost intimate way with Anemus, hugging and wrapping her as if she were a lover.

Gion couldn't understand what was happening around Anemus. He had never seen a fairy in his long life and didn't understand how intimate a fairy was to nature.

It was as if the wind was gathering power and offering a tribute to Anemus, making her a threat to Gion, who turned his back and looked back at Athena.

He was in a hurry, that shape wouldn't last long and it was draining him with considerable speed. It was as if his mana were a reel of thread which had the loose end tied to something and then thrown from a high place.

Gion looked at Athena, who in a matter of size was two of him, raised his claws and with all the strength he had, launched a blow against Athena.

However, even though she didn't have the confidence to defeat him, Anemus stopped him with a layer of intense wind that covered Athena's body, making Gion's claws slip on the surface of the platinum scales without even touching them.

Gion turned on Anemus and puffed out his chest for a breath attack, but he was caught off guard by a mass of energy that hit him in the side.

Mifa, even badly injured and breathing heavily, was on her feet again. ""If... huff! my claws and... hmph! teeth don't penetrate his body, so I...haaah...just need to attack another way!""

"Mifa, go find someone to cure you!" Anemus yelled.

""I am fine.""

"You're not fine! Look at those wounds!"

Mifa had a broken leg, teeth marks were visible on her ribs, as well as claw marks on her neck and face.

""That... is nothing..." Lied Mifa. She was in intense pain, but Athena needed her and she wouldn't let Gion do anything to her beloved. ""It's just scratches.""

Anemus pursed her lips apprehensively. If Mifa died, she would have Athena's love all to herself, but that would also devastate Athena. Between having monopolized Athena's love and seeing her happy, Anemus' choice was obvious.

"No, you're not fine!" Anemus said and enveloped Mifa in an air bubble, smothering her to the point of fainting and making the wolf float back to Basilian. "Now, are you going to help or not?"

"Hm? Are you talking to us?" Ella asked upon noticing the fairy's gaze.

"Who else?" Anemus dodged a fire breath from Gion and attacked him uselessly. "Aren't you friends with Athena?"

"Me? No I'm not." Lucifer replied. "I'm someone she has a deal with."

"Am I friends? We never said if we were friends..." Ella said. "Anyway. Why bother with the safety of someone who can't be hurt by something so weak?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"She's right. Athena wouldn't take any harm if that thing attacked her now. In the short time the wolf have stopped him from touching her, she's already strengthened to the point where nothing weaker than..." Lucifer looked to the side, to Ella. "...Weaker than this dragon, might hurt her."

"Besides, I'm quite curious as to why he managed to transform into a dragon..." Ella said as she held her chin awkwardly, making a mustache with her index finger.

"He is a druid." Anemus replied. "Druids are-"

"I know what a druid is!" Ella yelled. With the answer came surprise and overwhelming anger. "This is a disgrace to dragons!"

Ella was furious that Gion was a druid. A druid's power came from what he ate and if a druid could become a dragon, that meant he killed and ate the flesh of a dragon. This was humiliating, infuriating and repulsive to Ella who was a real dragon.

"Wait!" Ella said with sudden clarity in her Machiavellian mind and an almost evil smile came to her rosy lips. "That's a bigger shame for the Reds. It's going to give me many years of fun rubbing off the fact that one of them got eaten by a human. Hihi!"

The story behind Gion's transformation was very different from what Ella imagined, but this is another story that involved a red dragon named Lafityran, a human woman and her half-blood daughter. A story that might never be discovered and the fact that it remained incognito gave Ella endless ideas for teasing and humiliating the red dragons who were the most proud of dragons.

Hearing all this, Gion couldn't ignore that he was doomed to failure in there place. Between attacks on Anemus, he thought about what to do and momentarily considered bringing Nimo in to finish Athena, but that idea was quickly discarded when he remembered Athena and Anemus' conversation.

The magic he had placed on Athena, to monitor her for benign purposes, was still active, but now it was used only for espionage.

Gion smiled with his eyes as he thought of a name. (Fotiá...)

Killing Fotiá would also bring death to Athena and this would cause the seal to be lost, freeing Ytria. Gion untransformed and after covering himself with a new tunic, he disappeared without saying anything.

This made Anemus even more apprehensive. It wasn't logical for an attacker to lose interest in his target like that. Anemus began to analyze all the possibilities.

(First, how did he know Lhia was here?)

Anemus had no idea how Gion had found out about Lhia, but she could guess his next steps.

For some reason, Gion always knew what was going on, even when and in places he wasn't present, and that made Anemus ponder.

'He wants to kill Athena…' The answer was obvious. Anemus' eyes widened and her trembling lips said. "Fotiá!"

***

Inside Basilian's walls, Serien, who had just learned about Mifa's condition, ran to the center of the city, where Mifa had been carried.

"More battles?" Serien asked a soldier. "After all, what's going on today?"

"According to the sentries on the walls, the empress turned into a dragon and slept..." The soldier reported everything he knew while Serien healed Mifa.

"And the soldiers?"

"Majesty?"

"What are the soldiers doing?" Serien's voice was almost a roar.

"We're patrolling the city and watching the walls as usual-"

"What?! Your sovereign is in danger and you're not doing anything?!"

The soldier dropped to one knee with his head bowed. "Forgive us, Your Majesty, but they are dragons. What could we, humans, do to them when not even the saint of beasts could defeat them?"

"Slow them down!" Serien screamed, but then she thought again and took a deep breath. "No, you're right. Have all soldiers stand by in case the Empress needs it. I will cure Mifa and send a messenger falcon to the adventurers' guild."

In the palace, Lunnia hid in the darkest part of her room. From early on, due to the intense mana fluctuation in Basilian, her ring of transformation was not working, showing her real appearance.

She was scared and gripping her horns as if she wanted to pluck them out. Lunnia shivered in the corner between her bed and the wall of her bedroom.

"Lunnia?" Hercules knocked on the door three times. "Are you there?" But Lunnia did not respond.

Her sharp teeth snapped together as she held back her cry with a slight quiver in her chin. Hercules was the last person she wanted to discover her secret and she had no one to turn to but Athena, Anemus or Fotiá.

However, she had no way to call them. Lunnia would have to leave the room for that, but that was a risk she wasn't willing to take.

Lunnia didn't know what was going on and that even if she left, she wouldn't find anyone to ask for help.

"There's been a run around the palace right now..." Hercules said. He could feel the woman's presence inside the room. "Athena destroyed a lot of stuff in the palace and now she's having a battle..." Hercules paused briefly. "It looks like Mifa is injured and Anemus is fighting a red dragon..."

"And Athena?" Lunnia asked after Hercules made another silence. "What is Athena doing?"

"...Looks like she's asleep after swallowing the crystal..."

"What crystal?" Lunnia asked in a terrified voice. She didn't know anything and that ignorance was making her more and more apprehensive.

"The crystal that had a sealed goddess... Looks like it was Faena's sister."

At that time Lunnia's heart shuddered and her fear grew stronger, but this was a new fear.

A fear only known to those who have already lived in the suffering of loneliness and come to know the warmth of being accepted and loved.

The fear of being alone again.

That fear gave Lunnia the courage she needed. The fear of losing those she loved and loved her back was greater than the fear of suffering prejudice and violence from the hatred people had against demons. So she rose from her fear and hurriedly donned her armor, took her sword and shield, and without putting on her helmet, which was not designed to fit her horns, Lunnia opened the door.

The expression of bewilderment and more diverse feelings on Hercules' face made his heart ache, but before Hercules could say anything avout her appearance, Lunnia rushed past him, shoving him aside with her shield, and ran, disappearing down the hall.

With each step, her thoughts echoed Hercules's face, making her heart clench and the fear return, but then she thought of what Athena had told her in Juefu.

("I'll be by your side when you feel like you don't want to wear this anymore.")

Since hearing these words, Lunnia had kept them in her mind like a mantra. That gave her enough courage that she sometimes considered taking the ring off and being herself. But then she met Hercules and the fear of rejection and prejudice returned.

However, knowing that those precious people were in danger, those words strengthened in her mind, burning the courage in her chest and giving her security in her steps.

"But now is not the time to think about it! They need me." Lunnia said thinking about Hercules again as she passed by the garden, where Fotiá, Malana and other children were playing. Lunnia was about to call out to Fotiá when a man appeared in her path after a faint blue glow. "Huh? Gion? What-"

Lunnia's voice was interrupted by a strange heat in her chest, accompanied by an uncomfortable twinge in her back.

Gion raised an eyebrow in surprise as he saw a blade cut through Lunnia's armor, which should have been as tough and hard as the scales of a basilisk, but most surprising was the expression the attacker had on his face.

The young man had a pained expression filled with anguish and hatred as he cried. That was the expression of Hercules as he stabbed Lunnia in the back.