ug smiled, her heavy footsteps shaking the ground as she approached Arad.


    With each step closer to him, she got more wary, finding herself approaching him in circles.


    Arad stood on top of the dracolich''s bones, his six wings slowly pping to push the dust away. He red forward, seeing ug getting closer.


    "You came? This one must have gotten you into a lot of trouble in the past," n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "His brother once sought me as a mate, but he was too weak, so I ate him. This one wanted to kill me as revenge, but I managed to pit him against an angry army and he was in by them."


    "His brother sought you as a mate? If he''s as weak as this, that was a stupid decision." Arad said, his head tilting to the side as his six eyes blinked.


    "He was as strong as his brother, but I was a fair bit weaker in the past as well. I ate his brother since he was too small for me,"


    "Size matters?" Arad giggled, "But, you''re bigger than the average ancient green dragon,"


    "I was always a bit brawny. I might do well with a big red dragon, or even a gold one if I felt like taking a risk." She giggled, "Sadly, you''re too small currently,"


    "We voids grow far bigger than the rest of dragon kind, let''s see how big I will get in a year," Arad stated, staring at ug with a sharp re.


    ug giggled, the tip of her tail wiggling, "You''re still weaker than me, and you''re almost a quarter of my size. But your growth rate speaks for itself," She prowled around Arad, "If you were to be a shred as strong as your mother, I might consider you."


    "Let''s leave that forter. What brought you? It wasn''t just this one."


    "Alice asked me toe help you. She didn''t know about the dracolich," ug shook her head, "She''s a good woman. But I say a bit too invested in the goddess of magic, and this time was fooled by her."


    "Titans, I''m not that keen on getting friendly with them." Arad growled, "I was about to fly and eat all of her projections for this,"


    "Leave them. The world needs them." ug approached Arad, staring at his neck and back, "You got severely wounded by healing. I can smell the dracolich''s bone dust inside your body."


    "He got my neck pretty bad," Arad sighed, "I''m lucky that all my organs are hidden in my void. Otherwise, his second sh would have gutted them out."


    "All dragons cover their organs with their elemental energy. If I was struck with a sword. My toxic blood will ssh out." ug exined, "The insides of a red dragon are searing hot, while a ck dragon''s organs swim in acid. That''s the case for all dragons."


    "Then it''smon to stab a red dragon only for your de to melt," Arad looked at ug, "But mines work better,"


    "It''s the void, hiding your organs all together is an advantage."


    Eris approached Arad, staring at him and ug, "Arad, She is..."


    ug looked at Eris, "The half-dragon woman that ran away the moment she sensed my approach in Rita. That was a wise decision."


    "Since when fighting a dragon could be considered wise? It''s always something that you shouldn''t do unless there is no other choice,"


    "You''re right," ug turned around, expanding her wings, "I need to go. I left some important matters unattended. I can''t stay for long,"


    "Is it something I can help with?" Arad looked at her, and she turned to look back at him, her opal white fangs reflecting the faint moonlight.


    "Very serious business. The politics of a whole kingdom rely on it." ug smiled, thinking in her head. ^I wonder if they kissed or not. I''m going to mess that whole man''s fields if he chickened out now.^ To her, nobles'' rtionships only existed for her amusement. Even Arad''s rtions weren''t safe from her scrying eyes.


    ug expanded her wings and soared into the sky, staring back down at Arad and Eris on the ground. ^Well, even if those nobles didn''t get on, I still have the life of Arad to watch.^


    Arad growled, shaking his head and neck from left to right. This transformation was powerful, but it made him feel a bit weird. His muscles ached, and his mind slipped through a hazy mist as if he were fighting to remain awake.


    ^Doma, is it safe to fight like this?^


    ^[Yes and no, there is always an inherent risk in using curses. That''s the main reason most people avoid them. As a void dragon, you can resist it extremely well, but that exhausts you mentally and physically.]^


    Doma looked deeper into Arad''s mind, discovering that he was in fact, exhausted. ^[You better sleep soon or at least once between each transformation. Otherwise, you might end up passing out in the middle of it. I''m sure no one wants to deal with a rampaging Arad or do they?]^


    ^No they don''t,^ Arad took a deep breath and stared at Eris by his side, "All the bandits have turned into vampire spawns and are inside me. The giants were exterminated and the gobins gave up. I say we finished here."


    Eris looked around with a smile on her face, "It''s been a while since I smelled so much blood in one ce. It''s sad that I don''t have any corpses to cremate."


    Arad thought about it for a second and then asked, "Does Alina have a funeral house?"


    "I asked around, but it seemed they buried everyone directly into the ground. Funerals are usually carried out by the family of the deceased, everything is prepared by them."


    "Then how about you create a funeral house? You can use the spawns and hire some workers for a start." Arad pointed out, "I have enough money for that, and if not, it won''t be that hard to make it by killing powerful monsters."


    "And the dragon gets a cut of the profit, I like that. With me, Roberta, the kobolds, and Mira, you would have a lot of extra ieing in." She nodded, "You wanted to build a castle in the mountains for dragons to meet, didn''t you?"


    "And that needs funds." Arad confirmed and then looked toward the bandits'' camp, "We should clean this up, we''re already past midnight."


    ***


    After half an hour of Arad and Eris walking around, using his void to clean all the destruction, they could feel Five''s barrier slowly fading away. She canceled her magic and left, leaving them alone.


    Arad transformed into his half-dragon form and flew to the sky, scrying the forest around the camp only to find what he sensed. Only animals and monsters prowled around with no intelligent creature in four-kilometer radios.


    ^We''re alone, but I still can''t be sure.^ Arad flew down and transformed into his draconic form to dig arge tunnel leading deep underground. Eris rode on his back, protected by his wings.


    "Your digging skills are amazing. wing down with your ws, sucking the dirt into your stomach then taking it out through the tip of your tail to close the hole behind you." She looked back, thinking this looked simr to something that everyone was familiar with.


    "As long as it works." Arad didn''t care how the whole operation looked, as long as it allowed him to burrow through the ground while making sure no one followed him.


    Crack! After several minutes, Arad finally reached an underground caverge enough for him tond into.


    Eris looked around, and even though she could see in the dark, she could only make shapes and not colors in a ce with no source of light.


    Arad shifted into his humanoid form and stood beside her, lifting one finger and forming a tiny fireball. "You can ignite a light."


    "I know," Eris lifted her hand and created a purple sma ball, "I even can do this!"


    With arge grin, she created several more sma balls and sent them flying around to illuminate the ce with a purple haze.


    "Now this looks better," She looked at Arad with a smug grin, knowing he didn''t have the fine control to achieve such a thing.


    Arad looked around, the cave consisted of onerge cavern with multiple stgmites and stctites covering the floor and ceiling. He could hear a waterfall in the distance as the humidity in the air was quite high.


    Searching for signs of life made Arad sure, they were over eight kilometers deep and the only beings around were monsters that avoided him like the gue.


    "No one will see or hear us again, perfect," He walked around, stretching his arms as he looked for a nice ce to set the furniture.


    Thud! Eris touched his shoulder, her fingers slowly reaching up to his neck. He could feel the sharp point of her nails scratching on his skin, "Before that," She giggled, "Can I get a sip?"