The two guests looked at the flying dragons at the entrance of the dragons'' nest.


    "I see, if no one ever found your territory, it may have been because it is a natural hiding spot."


    Orion observed the mountain range, and all the dragons flying around the entrance.


    Amelia was in awe, as the scene was straight out of a fairy tale for her.


    "There are so many dragons flying, and the entrance! I''ve never seen something like this!"


    The entrance was more of a ceiling opening. Grass was growing at the bottom, where a small river passed through, ending at a large pool of water.


    As they approached the entrance, dragons began to converge around Monolavir. Their voices began to fill Orion''s mind, giving him a small headache.


    Out of the dragons pestering Monolavir with questions and thanking him for coming back, only one got his attention.


    "Mono, you''re back! Why did you leave so suddenly?"


    A green dragon with two tails showed itself behind the many other dragons.


    "I''m going to ask for everyone here, but did you seriously bring humans to-"


    "Wait, one''s not human. I can feel the demon''s magic signature ever so slightly from the one you''re carrying."


    The many dragons who knew the demons of the past gasped in surprise. This was a shock, but thankfully for Orion, that information silenced the voices.


    "Orion, this is Ruminona. My-"


    "Your wife?"


    "Mate. I don''t know what a ''wife'' is, but that might be the word in your communities."


    "Ah, my bad. Yes, it is an equivalent. I shouldn''t have interrupted you."


    Orion got up from his sitting position, while Monolavir brought the bubble in his claws closer to his face.


    He looked at Monolavir, then at the green dragon.


    "My name is Orion, and the one next to me is Amelia. I am the last member of the demon and angel faction. She is a human, though, but a special one, so please don''t treat her badly."


    "I can vouch for her being special. You can treat her like a demon, too."


    The giant dragon holding them said, leaving no choice but to the other dragons but to listen.


    "Thank you Monolavir."


    Monolavir agreed with Orion to avoid an unfortunate accident.


    "Wait, Mono, he can understand us? That means he really is a demon. This is something I never thought would happen."


    "Me neither. But let''s talk inside."


    He glanced at his surroundings.


    "It''s far too noisy to focus on a conversation."


    Ruminona agreed with him, and stared at the dragons flying around them.


    "You''re right. Everyone, make way. We''ll listen to Monolavir later, go tell everyone else we have two guests, significant ones at that."


    The dragons all flew down to the entrance, and dispersed inside to talk to everyone living in. Only two stayed outside, to guard against uninvited guests.


    ...


    After breaking the group of dragons apart, the four began their descent inside the nest.


    Monolavir and Ruminona led them through a couple of tunnels, which, at some point, opened into a large cavernous chamber with an abundance of crystals acting as light sources.


    At the far back of the cave, two large rocky nests with dragon scales embedded into them stood out.


    ''Are these decorations? Or is it to differentiate which nest belongs to whom?''


    Orion had no idea, and didn''t feel like bothering them with this question.


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    "It''s good to be back. I didn''t expect to go out in such a rush today."


    Monolavir dropped to the ground and released the bubble from his claws, popping instantly before freeing the two inside.


    Ruminona landed next to him.


    They noticed at that moment that she was smaller compared to Monolavir. She displayed one of the rare mutations happening to dragons, a split tail.


    These dragons, Monolavir and Ruminona, were the only ones in the whole dragon faction to possess a mutation. The four wings of Monolavir were one too.


    "Mono, tell me what happened? Where did you go?"


    "I sensed the nostalgic aura of the demons on the remains of that island. Luckily enough, I managed to find one before it was too late."


    Monolavir took his time explaining what he saw to her.


    ...


    It took around an hour for him to finish the conversation. At some point, Amelia fell asleep on Orion''s shoulder, maybe because of the stressful situation and the relief of being in a safe place.


    ''They unquestionably are massive. I can''t believe they saved us. I''m getting sleepy, too.''


    After a few minutes, Orion had fallen into a deep sleep, exhausted by the events that took place earlier, and the pain that was inflicted upon him.


    ~


    The chaos that remained after Monolavir, the Azure Dragon, left was not cleared yet.


    The moment he flew out of sight, the soldiers affected by the dark aura began to attack the unaffected soldiers, and even the Apostles outside.


    Layla did her utmost to calm everyone, but it didn''t work whatsoever.


    "This is absurd! Why is my water magic, which can calm any negative condition, isn''t working on these men?!"


    She was enveloping soldiers into gentle water currents, but they just stepped out of it, unaffected.


    "Lady Layla, it doesn''t work! Please let us do something about it!"


    Dony, Julian, Pierre and Leonis, who followed Layla outside, prepared themselves to attack.


    "I leave it to you! There''s nothing I can do at this point. Lowering our troops even more is not a good idea."


    More than thirty percent of the joined army was in a berserk state.


    "Yes!"


    They all used different magic weapons of various elements, and cleared through the soldiers with a smile.


    The four that remained at the window this whole time did not miss these details.


    "These guys, they find pleasure in killing their troops. How bad have they fallen."


    Eric couldn''t believe what was happening. The idea of treating them like pigs in a slaughterhouse never crossed his mind, as he always treated them with respect.


    Something unexpected caught their eyes, though.


    "Eric, do you realize what the situation is outside?"


    Florian grabbed the left shoulder of Eric, and pointed to three armies.


    "Why are mine, yours and Kamala''s men not affected by that dark thing?"


    They all looked closely at the soldier''s state. They removed themselves from the carnage happening, and watched from afar, out of danger, confused in front of this strange event.


    "It did affect my army too, but is it because it is not my personal one?"


    This was Olivia''s observation. Florian looked at her and nodded.


    "Is it because we treat them well, or is it because we never drank that weird liquid? There are so many questions we cannot answer yet."


    Kamala stepped forward, and unexpectedly said the longest sentence of her life.


    "The world is at a turning point with the appearance of that man. This might be the right moment to switch sides. The question is, will they accept us? I suggest we wait for them to come to us."


    She backed away a little, expecting some kind of angry backlash. The idea of waiting for the enemy to come first did spell danger for them.


    "This is something we all need to think about. Let us all go back to our cities, and ponder on that. I''ll add that everything you said might be right, Kamala."


    Florian, the brain of the group, thought with a finger on his left brow.


    Kamala was a woman with a troubled past. She was used to having her words ignored, so she felt appreciated.


    Realizing that at some point, they lost the honorifics in the middle of the conversation, like friends would talk to each others, she tilted her head.


    This was truly unexpected. She expected this year''s ceremony to be miserable, as usual. Another year when she moved across the whole continent to see the wretchedness of the Apostles.


    But instead, she found two allies she could call friends in Florian and Eric, and a little sister figure in Olivia. She got attached to her incredibly fast.


    Florian looked at each of them, and spoke.


    "For now, everyone call their armies and move away from this place. We''ll exchange letters later to plan our future actions. Take care on the way home."


    Eric turned around and moved away while waving his hand.


    Kamala bowed and walked away with Olivia, the one that had almost no sane soldier remaining, leaving Florian to think in front of the window.


    His reflection appeared in front of him, before he removed his glasses to wipe them clean.


    "It is time for changes to occur."


    The start of Orion''s faction was birthed this day.


    ~


    "They fell asleep. Do they trust you this much?"


    Ruminona asked her partner.


    "Rumi, I''ve saved both of them from despair and impending death. It is normal to trust kind and strong beings."


    "You call yourself kind? You''ve decimated three cities, a few years ago. Remind me how many lives you took?"


    Apparent anger showed on Monolavir''s face, as a deep growl coming from deep within his chest echoed.


    "Even a kind being can become the worst of monsters when their children are killed."


    "And I never said what you did was bad. They got what they deserved in the end. Believing in false rumors that dragon''s blood gave immortality..."


    Orion woke up the moment Monolavir growled, silently listening to both of them.


    "They dared dig into the mountain, find our nest, and steal our eggs while we were slumbering. If not for that thief who woke up one of us, they would have left without being ever found."


    Recalling the tragedy that was caused by humans, he snorted.


    "Ravaging three cities and killing thousands of humans wasn''t even enough. These places were full of thieves and greedy individuals. One glance was enough for me to understand."


    A particular event popped in Orion''s mind while listening.


    ''Was he the one that destroyed these cities twenty years ago? I never knew it had something to do with dragon eggs. In the end, there is always a reason for tragedies like this.''


    A long silence replaced the rage of the dragon, which Orion used to speak to him.


    "Monolavir."


    "Oh, you are awake? I''m sorry if I woke you up."


    "It''s not a problem. I just want to ask something related to what you just said."


    "Yes?"


    "During your rampage, you might have killed Amelia''s parents."


    Monolavir stopped breathing after this shocking information, while Amelia''s body twitched lightly.