“Kondra,” Minerva said, freezing in place. “Above you.”

“I won’t fall for such petty tricks, Minerva!” Kondra said. She roared and lunged at the phoenix, her teeth glowing with a bright white light. She sank her fangs into the phoenix’s flesh, but Minerva collapsed into a pile of flames before reappearing above her. Kondra growled and raised her head. “Even that won’t…”

A wry smile appeared on Minerva’s beak. “Do you see what I mean by above you?” she asked the petrified dragon. She waved her wing in front of Kondra’s face. “Are you that shocked?”

Kondra’s jaws snapped such as her eyes narrowed into slits. “Nova! What are you doing in my lands!?” She sucked in her breath, her chest bulging. Minerva flew out of the way as a white beam of light pierced through the sky, slamming into the screen of red meteors falling towards them. A few meteors were directly vaporized, but there were so many that she couldn’t see the blue sky behind them.

“That’s Nova?” Minerva muttered as she hovered off to the side. “Odd. It feels more like Vur. Tafel did say he was Nova’s grandson….” She shrugged before spreading her wings and letting out a clear cry. The flames surrounding her and Kondra converged and condensed into an orange net which fell onto the dragon matriarch’s body. “Good luck.”

Kondra glared at the phoenix, who was retreating, before biting the net. The orange material bent but didn’t break. When she released her jaws, the bent portions sprang back into place. Kondra spread her wings and leapt into the air, the net sticking to her and the ground like glue. She struggled, flapping her wings and soaring up, but the net extended like a stretched rubber band. An instant later, she shot back towards the ground as the elastic material snapped back into place. “Minerva!” Kondra shouted and fired a laser beam at the phoenix.

Minerva swerved to the side, but the light clipped her wing, causing her to tumble in the air. Blood poured from her side, but she ignored it and flew towards the city. Even she didn’t want to be hit by the meteors when they fell.

Kondra gritted her teeth and spat on the ground. “You gave up your world of fire to pin me down? You thought a few meteors could defeat me!?” Her eyes glazed over, a silver light spreading outwards from her pupils. She raised her head and let out a soundless roar, causing dozens of runic circles to appear in the air above her but below the layer of falling meteors. From the runes, meteors of her own emerged, shooting upwards and colliding with Vur’s.

Kondra panted as she reached into a gap in the net and spread it open, sticking her head and neck through. Explosions rang out overhead as the meteors grinded against each other, cracking and exploding into tiny flaming particles. By the time the explosions stopped, she managed to slip both of her front legs and one of her wings out of the net. Her eyes widened as she raised her head. “There’s still more?”

Kondra ground her teeth together as her eyes glazed over again, filling with silver light. She summoned more runic circles which created more meteors which created more explosions and flaming particles. After another struggle, her other wing came free, the net’s hole tightening around her waist, still holding down her legs and tail. She stopped trying to free herself and glanced up at the sky. A frown appeared on her face. “Still three left? How much mana did you use, Nova!?”

Kondra roared and shot out a laser beam which crashed into the remaining meteors, causing them to explode into a cloud of dust. She snorted and wiggled her lower body, pushing the net down to her lower back. She froze mid-action as her eyes widened at a black, dragon-shaped figure, Vur, emerging from the dust cloud, plunging towards her. “You’re not Nova!”

Vur roared in response, barreling into Kondra’s body. His jaw snapped shut, and his teeth sank into Kondra’s shoulder, causing her to howl in pain. She clawed at his eyes while lunging forward, biting Vur on his shoulder. She tried to smack him with her tail, but the net prevented it from reaching. Hot air shot out of Vur’s nostrils as he pulled his head back, trying to tear flesh off of Kondra’s shoulder. But her scales were too hard, her muscles too tough; instead of tearing off a chunk of flesh, Vur widened the wounds by a tiny margin.

Kondra growled, and her chest puffed up. White light spilled out of the corners of her mouth as her eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth as a laser beam engulfed the left half of Vur’s body, causing him to roar and release his jaws. Kondra snorted as she retreated as far back as the net would let her and tended to her wounds with mana. “You,” she said as her flesh stitched itself back together. “Why are you unharmed!?”

Vur glared at her with blood dripping from his maw. The bite-marks on Vur’s shoulder disappeared as the black aura filled in his wounds. Other than that, he was unscathed, the laser having had no effect. Vur snarled and lunged forward, tackling Kondra onto her side. He pinned her wing behind her with one of his legs and snaked his head in between her front legs, lunging towards her neck.

Kondra squirmed and pressed Vur’s head to the ground with her left front leg, but he slipped through like an eel, the black aura on his body acting like a lubricant. “Stop!” Kondra shouted as she arched her back, trying to create some distance between her neck and Vur’s teeth. White light poured out of her mouth as she fired a laser point-blank into Vur’s face. Her heart pounded as she willed the remainder of her mana into the strike, causing the light to shine brighter than the sun. Vur’s body stopped moving, but she didn’t let up, forcing every last ounce of her mana into her attack. When her mana reserves began drying up, and she was about to relax, a sharp pain assaulted her. “I-impossible…”

The scales around her neck cracked and shattered as Vur’s teeth sank into her flesh. His golden eyes glared at Kondra, causing a shiver to run down her spine. She whimpered as her head fell to the ground, limp. Her front legs struggled uselessly. “How did you stop my attack…?”

Vur ignored her as he opened his mouth, releasing Kondra’s neck, and bit down again, creating another wound. Kondra coughed out a mouthful of blood. “At least tell me your name…”

Vur snorted as he released Kondra’s neck and prepared to bite down again.

“Vur, that’s enough.”

Vur blinked as Lindyss landed on top of his head. Grimmy landed beside him and pulled him away while Kondra’s children appeared by her side. Grimmy grinned at Kondra’s glare, and patted Vur’s back. “Good job. But dragons don’t kill dragons. At most, we rob them of everything they own, but we leave them their lives.”

“What is this?” Kondra asked as she sat up. Leila was healing Kondra, the jagged wounds on the matriarch’s neck stitching themselves back together. Leo, Luke, and Lulu were busy freeing her legs and tail from the phoenix matriarch’s net.

“This is Vur,” Grimmy said as he pulled Vur’s necklace off. It was dangling on one of the scales by his neck. The aura around Vur shuddered and dispersed, returning him back to a normal-looking, ocean-blue dragon. “He’s Nova’s grandson.” Grimmy glanced at the necklace, ignoring Kondra’s outraged expression. He passed it over to Lindyss and asked, “What did you make that out of? It’s neat.”

“A thousand souls,” Lindyss said as she placed the necklace into her pocket. She shrugged. “If I had better materials, I could’ve used more.”

“What is Nova’s grandson doing here?” Kondra asked, her face expressionless. “And why did he attack me?”

Vur’s body shrank as he returned to his human form. He placed his hands on his hips and glanced at Tafel, who waved at Kondra from Grimmy’s head. “You hurt my wife.”

Kondra stared at Tafel. Then her gaze swiveled back onto Vur. “I guess I did. Sorry.”

“Whoa!” Luke said and released the orange net in his hand out of surprise. It snapped back into place, smacking Kondra’s leg. “Mom apologized!”

“The world’s ending?” Leo asked, his eyes wide. “I’m not ready yet; I don’t even have a girlfriend!”

Leila smacked both of their heads. “Stop being ridiculous,” she said and helped Lulu free Kondra’s remaining leg and tail. “The loser’s in the wrong. Even Mom knows that.”

Kondra sighed and hung her head. “I lost,” she said. “What do you want from me? My territory? My religious foundation?”

Lindyss coughed. “He already took both of those.”

Kondra froze. “Huh?”

Vur glanced at Grimmy. “What do I want from her?”

Grimmy’s eyes lit up. “How about this?” he asked and lowered his head. He cupped his claw around his mouth and whispered into Vur’s ear. He drew back and chuckled. “Your grandpa would greatly appreciate it.”

Vur’s head tilted. “Would he really?”

“Of course, of course,” Grimmy said, waving his claw around. “He’ll love it. I guarantee it. What’s with that look? Do you think I’d try to trick you? I’m not a fairy.”

Vur grunted.

“Before you ask,” Kondra said. “Can you tell me how you resisted my purifying light?”

“Purifying light?” Vur asked. “Wasn’t that just a flash spell? Flash doesn’t hurt people.”

“N-no,” Kondra said. “They have a similar side effect, but purifying light cleanses the pure-hearted and purges everything else.”

Tafel’s hand smacked her forehead as Vur glanced down at himself. Vur nodded. “I do feel a bit cleaner. It worked.”

“Y-you’re pure-hearted!?” Kondra shouted. “That’s impossible! You, you, you looked like the personification of evil when you attacked me!”

Lindyss placed her hand on Vur’s head and ruffled his hair. “This boy has never told a single lie in his life.”

Vur puffed his chest out while Kondra planted her face into the ground. “I made a mistake.”

Vur nodded. “Uh-huh. Now for my request, you—”

Kondra yelped as a black blob hit her forehead. Like a droplet of ink landing in a puddle of water, darkness spread along her silver scales, crawling down her head and neck. Before anyone reacted, half of Kondra’s body and wings had already turned black. A booming laugh escaped from her mouth. “I, Breeze, have succeeded! In my last life, I was a dragon-slayer, but in this life, I’ve become a dragon!”