With the setting sun behind his back, Orion anxiously waited.


    Inside the black cocoon, no sign of movements or surge of energy happened, even after hours of waiting.


    Orion kept using his power to help Deveralna, but has she shown no signs of recovering consciousness, he could only doubt.


    "..."


    Not a single second went by without him staring at the cocoon. His attention was solely turned to her, in the hope she would break free.


    But his magic supply was starting to run dry. The Abyssal Sovereign form was constantly draining a fixed amount of his magic energy, and even more while materializing dark matter.


    Patiently, he kept on hoping for the best.


    It was when the sun disappeared past the horizon. A low breath, followed by a groan, caught his attention.


    Relief filled his heart, as a small smile replaced his previous expression.


    The cocoon began to rip from the bottom, until a white tail dropped to the ground with a large thumping sound.


    It slithered slowly, as if the one inside the cocoon awakened in a daze.


    Hands ripped the top wide open, before a yawning Deveralna emerged from it.


    She stretched her back while lifting her arms, and looked around her.


    "Oh. When did it get so dark?"


    "That shows how long you stayed unconscious."


    Her eyes fell on Orion, before she smiled brightly.


    "I see. Thanks to you, I managed somehow."


    Orion nodded, before looking at her carefully.


    "You''ve changed quite a lot."


    "Hmm?"


    She grabbed a strand of hair, and glared at it.


    "Ah! My hair!"


    When she looked down, she noticed her tail, similarly sharing the same color.


    "My tail! Why are they white?"


    "Your eyes too."


    As she touched her cheeks with confusion, Deveralna cursed her new power.


    "Damn it! I liked how I looked before..."


    "Those wings too. They are white."


    "Wings?"


    Deveralna looked at Orion''s wings.


    "Not those, the ones behind your back."


    With a mocking smile, he pointed at the pair of wings on her back, tightly glued to her waist, hips, and tail.


    They seemed pretty large at first glance, until Deveralna stretched them to acknowledge their existence, which she hadn''t noticed until Orion pointed them out.


    An elegant gleam of particles caught Orion off guard the moment her beautiful, untainted wings flapped.


    Around a meter of length, they had a strong base, capable of lifting her in the air with ease.


    "You''re... not a lamia anymore."


    "Seems... like it."


    As both of them were acknowledging the fact that Deveralna had changed, they both looked confused.


    Deveralna especially, as she began to move her wings however she wanted.


    Their elasticity was greatly surprising, as she bent them upward and downward, even bending them above her and in front of her.


    Moving them independently was also possible, even though it looked difficult, showed by her frown when she tried.


    Physically, they were similar to a dragon''s wings, compared to Orion''s weird wings made of dark matter. While Orion had two pairs, both of different shapes and forms, he couldn''t move them at will like her, as they weren''t part of his body.


    The difference between Deveralna, and a dragon like Monolavir, was that her wings were more of a symbol than an actual necessity compared to Monolavir, who needed them to move his massive and heavy body.


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    A basic dragon wing couldn''t move that freely, as its only states were in soaring mode, or resting mode.


    "Now that I think about it, Velridar had no wings. Why did they sprout out so suddenly?"


    "That''s probably an evolutionary thing. You are a Remnant now, not a lamia. Well, I think you still are a lamia, but a more advanced type. You became the leader of the lamias, and the dragons."


    Orion nodded to himself.


    "Yes, I think it''s correct to assume you needed some sort of dignified traits to show that you are capable of leading both factions."


    "And what better than dragon wings to show that you are now part of them, as their new Remnant."


    Deveralna sighed loudly, as she glued her wings to her skin.


    "There''s a lot to process. By the way, where are we?"


    Now that she had everything under control, she could take her time to look around.


    "I know where on the continent. From the looks of it, this is the Parsmata Desert?"


    Behind her, the Talviera Mountain Range appeared in sight, with the Northern Sea barely entering her line of sight on her left.


    "You''re correct. This is where we fought our first Apostle. If you look behind me, you''ll see the ruins of Kaios."


    When Orion moved aside to let her see, all she noticed was a few broken walls covered in sand. There were no rests of the city, flattened by Ivan at the time.


    "These broken stones over there? Really?"


    With a smile, Orion looked at her.


    "Deveralna."


    She glanced at him, her eyes glowing brightly. The sigil of Strength appeared in her eyes, before vanishing, as if they were never here in the first place.


    "It might be late to ask, but are you fine?"


    Releasing his demon form, he walked closer in front of her.


    "I''m perfectly fine. There doesn''t seem to be any rejec-"


    Orion pulled her toward him, and hugged her tightly. Surprised, Deveralna took a few seconds to understand what had happened.


    With her head buried in his chest, she slowly reached for his back, and hugged him back.


    "That''s great."


    She glanced at him, unable to contain her words from leaving her mouth the moment she saw his expression of relief.


    "Were you scared?"


    "Of course I was. I have no intend to let you go anytime soon."


    "Well, I''m deeply sorry about that."


    "You don''t have to be. It was your choice."


    "..."


    Deveralna looked down for a moment.


    "What''s wrong?"


    "You..."


    She struggled to form words, but Orion didn''t care. He would wait until she was ready to speak her mind, however long it would take.


    "Don''t you hate me now? I''ve changed so much."


    "Why?"


    Suddenly, she felt a hand touch her hair and caress her gently.


    ''Aah...''


    All the nervousness in her mind was instantly lifted. Her body relaxed, and she gave in to the feeling, pressing her body further against Orion''s.


    ''As much as I enjoy this, focus, Orion.''


    He felt the power of Silka surge from within, but contained it. Orion was slowly adjusting to it, making it possible to avoid situations like what happened with Amelia.


    "Did you change inside? Are you not the same lovely lamia I met and shared a night with?"


    "No. I''m still the same."


    "Then it''s good enough. Just because your body adjusted to your Remnant power, doesn''t mean you are different."


    "..."


    Orion stopped for a moment, before smiling dryly.


    "Well, if you had completely turned into a dragon, it would''ve been pretty difficult to ignore the changes at that point."


    "Haha~ For sure."


    While giggling, she pushed him away slowly.


    "So, I''m glad to hear you don''t have anything against the new me, but what about my powers? Are you interested?"


    Crossing his arms, Orion nodded.


    "Of course I am. Show me what you can do."


    Deveralna nodded, before turning around. She turned once again, and glanced at him with a frown.


    "I can''t use very much energy, so it''ll only be a small demonstration."


    Orion shook his head.


    "Don''t use your full power anyway. I don''t want you to erase Triazils accidentally."


    "I wouldn''t do that even you asked! Stupid!"


    They exchanged a faint smile, before Deveralna pointed her left palm in the air.


    "I have no interest in destruction. If I were like Velridar, I probably wouldn''t care, yet, I''m different."


    A sphere of plasma appeared in her hand, the size of a watermelon.


    ''Such pure raw magic.''


    Orion couldn''t look away. Compared to Velridar, who used the energy in the world to condense it into his own energy, Deveralna used the lightning magic as a medium to manifest that energy.


    It crackled violently in the air, before she slammed it in her stomach.


    A field of static electricity enveloped her, before a white glow covered every inch of her body. Her eyes turned bright white, and her thoughts became sharper.


    *Flash*


    Deveralna vanished from the spot, leaving behind her an afterimage of herself that lasted for five seconds.


    "Impressive."


    Orion opened his mouth wide, and tried to keep up with her speed using his eyes.


    "She''s..."


    *BAM*


    In the distance, Orion recognized a familiar sound, before a burst of static air caressed his cheeks and blew his hair backward.


    "Hahaha~ So easily."


    Seeing her break the sound barrier so easily without feeling the aftereffects made him laugh out loud. He couldn''t believe it.


    "I believe it is a principle similar to Florian''s movements? Too bad I can''t use lightning magic."


    While shrugging, he noticed Deveralna turning around in the blink of an eye, slithered her tail in the sand toward a large rock, and stopped in front of it.


    From his spot, he saw her talk to herself.


    ''Might as well use it.''


    Is what he read on her lips, before her wings stretched on her sides.


    Deveralna flew a few meters above ground, and dropped toward the ground while flipping her body.


    Her tail crashed with the rock, splitting it in half. Before Orion could blink, a loud thunder like growl echoed in the desert.


    A white bolt of lightning crashed where Deveralna hit the rock. It twisted and merged into the shape of a massive dragon, before disintegrating everything around her.


    Even though he was far away, Orion was forced to leap backward a few times.


    "..."


    Amazed, Orion observed the roaring lightning-shaped dragon until it disappeared. In its center, Deveralna stood among the burnt sand, unarmed.


    She disappeared, only to stop inches from Orion''s face.


    "So? What do you think?"


    Her aura vanished, as the energy filling her magic ran dry.


    "You became rather terrifying."


    "Is that so?"


    "Yes, so much, I would love to fight you right now."


    "Please don''t."


    "I said I would, not that I was about to."


    "That''s a relief. I''m too exhausted for that."


    Orion nodded, and opened a portal next to him.


    "Let''s return, then. We''ll stop by the fairy village to notify Tiohr-nam about your success, and then we''ll go home."


    Deveralna smiled and grabbed his arm.


    "I wonder what the others will say about my new look."


    Both disappeared from the Parsmata Desert, not knowing that they scared the living daylight out of Hocride''s citizens, who heard a dreadful sound coming from far into the desert.


    That night, many heard a thundering roar from the desert, creating the legend of a giant monster dwelling in the sand.