Return of the Dragon

Tiam tore down the stairway muttering curses under their breath. Rage couldn't begin to describe what they felt. Their emotions were so incoherently mixed that they didn't even remember where it all started. Probably just the frustrations of potentially losing a friend. But not when Tiam still burned with life. They imagined many things–images of what they would find when they finally laid eyes on Leo. They spied a door at the base of the stairs and did the same as they hand with the last–they pumped the equivalent energy of a truck impacting it with their Ruh. The door bent open beyond what its locks were capable of stopping and slammed the wall.

Tiam floated into a room full of messy cords, a strange slug creature, that dillweed Harvey and poor Leo. He was strung up by metal bands with legs looking like the knees weren't sitting right. The rage in Tiam rose to boiling point. Something was wrong with Leo–his skin had turned grey and was getting darker by the second. He turned his head up and looked at Tiam with pupilless black eyes. It was like they'd replaced his eyes with balls of pure ink.

'Leo!' Tiam flew forward, cutlass ready to split the bindings in a single swipe, but something stopped their advance. Harvey clutched the blade with his bare hand, even smiling as blood splattered on the cold floor.

'Leo's new friend, right?' Harvey pushed back on the blade, chin upturned and teeth flashing through his curled lip.

'His real friend.' Tiam wasn't here for a conversation, and so brought their scimitar to Harvey's chest. He grabbed that blade, too. As blood rained down, Tiam had the dark thought to bend it into Harvey's mouth and suffocate him.

'Stop,' said Harvey in monotone. Tiam couldn't move all of a sudden, and recognised the same power the demon wielded. This was different, however. Tiam couldn't find the willpower to push back like before. Surely Harvey wasn't stronger than the demon upstairs, right? She was no run of the mill grunt.

'I can't let you hurt my friend,' Tiam said hoarsely. 'Not anymore.'

'Oh, you poor girl.' Harvey said with an evil glint in his eye.

'I'm n–' Tiam stopped. Argument was exactly what the man was fishing for. They realised that this guy was a true piece of shit–sly scum from the bottom of Earth's worst of humanity. How in the afterlife did he get into Heaven?

'You see, miss.' Harvey could easily walk free of Tiam's frozen attack, and paced around Leo. 'Leo is mine, now. Thanks to Daghkin, he'll be exactly what I need to tear down every opponent in this colosseum. Just look at him–already the Dragon is showing itself.'

Tiam got a funny idea, but it would have to wait for the right time. They had bigger problems to worry about for now, and one was Leo's eyes burning with real hellfire. He didn't speak, but opened his mouth like he was trying to say something. His neck bent unnaturally, and his skin had turned to black. The texture was like a serpent's or, as Tiam quickly realised, a dragon's. Black deformed wings sprouted from his back, hardly looking capable of any flight. His hands curled into clawed feet, and his back arched with spikes peeking from his spine.

'Stop this!' Tiam cried. They struggled with every bit of willpower they could find until they broke free of Harvey's ability. They turned their blades from Leo's restraints to Harvey.

Harvey smiled again. 'Stay right ther–'

'No!' Tiam threw their blades upon Harvey, but he ducked and wove between them. 'It was you who was researching the false angel, wasn't it!?' Tiam threw their scimitar, sending it pinwheeling through the air and barely missing Harvey by a hair.

'Maybe so!' Harvey said with glee. No, it wasn't him. There was a look in his eye like he was deciphering the meaning of a false angel.

'What do you get out of hurting Leo? What could make you want to stoop below even demons?'

Harvey caught another blow from Tiam's cutlass before answering. 'I want the wish.'

'And what would you wish?' Tiam snapped faster than their blade as they ripped it free of Harvey's grasp.

'For the power to kill God, of course.' Harvey shrugged like the answer was obvious. In a way, Tiam felt like they should have expected it. Spectacular. 'I'll become like God to do what Lucifer himself couldn't. It's my calling, after all.'

Tiam made the decision then and there to stop pursuing answers from this human waste. A god complex was one thing, then there was this guy. They laid attacks into him until they swung their cutlass just deep enough to slice the 'h' in his death tattoo. That would be kind of funny if it scarred.

'Daghkin, release the Dragon from its restraints,' Harvey spluttered between blade swings. The slug demon didn't respond. It had Tiam's scimitar impaling its head, slowly drawing black muck from its body. Tiam didn't miss their target with that throw before. 'Fine!' Harvey gripped the restraints around Leo and tore them apart like an axe hacking through wood.

Leo growled from a form that was beyond death. It grew and swelled in the wrong places, forcing Tiam and Harvey back. It swiped out with claws that burned through steel and stone alike. Cords burst around the room, releasing black acid and a smell like rotten fish. Tiam had no choice but to make a retreat. They clutched their remaining sword in both hands and flew up the stairs on their bending Ruh.

Passing into the bar again, they spied a few greedy drunken individuals raiding the unprotected drinks behind the counter. 'Run, you idiots!' Tiam burst onto the street, hacking spittle and blood from their mouth. They could do nothing but clutch their wounds and watch the chaos unfold. The drunken thieves obviously didn't listen, as screams reverberated from inside.

The building filled with black scales, then burst with inky mess and blood rain. Passers-by on the street ran from the rising, roaring mess of scale and claw. Its head was long and arched, its body bulbous and covered in needle-like spines. Horns protruded from its head that pointed to one another with a bright hellfire flame floating between them.

The creature gazed emotionlessly at Tiam. This was it–Tiam needed to kill Leo. It was him or this entire area. They finally made a good friend, and of course he would be taken away. Nothing good could last in this realm built for pure torture.

Footsteps fell beside Tiam. A burly bearded man with simple brown robes and a large curved blade on his back appeared. Jun of the Massacre.

'Well, this is not what I expected to find.' He finished off a large leg of raw meat, tossed the bone aside and wiped his beard. 'I came looking for your friend, the lightning boy.' He nodded at Tiam. 'But it appears we have the return of Lucifer's dragon to deal with, eh?'