“My fault?” Mr. Bubbles asked, tears forming in her eyes. “You’re the one who randomly punched me in the head!”

“All of you, kneel down and put your hands behind your head! Now!” A bulky man wearing a green beret pointed a silver rifle at Mr. Bubbles. Unfortunately for Khrx and Mr. Bubbles, he was shouting in an unknown language.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Anaheim said, holding her arms out to the side as she stepped next to Khrx, speaking in the language of the man with the green beret. “Why don’t we all calm down here for a moment?”

“Hero?” someone asked in Rokean. “Is that you? That blue woman beside you is a calamity-level threat; we hope you can sincerely cooperate with us to take her down.”

“So you were right, they were after me,” Theda said as she smiled at Anaheim. A booming noise resounded through the air, and Theda staggered backwards as a fist-sized hole appeared in the middle of her forehead.

“Ah!” Khrx shouted as his head whirled towards the man who opened fire. “You can’t bully people who treat me nicely!”

The man ignored Khrx and continued to press on his trigger, blowing holes in Theda’s body. She didn’t make a sound as her arms and legs dropped to the ground followed by her torso and head. It was like she had turned into a pile of scrap metal.

Khrx’s eyes turned red at the sight, and a growl rumbled out of his throat. He took in a deep breath through his nose, and all the surrounding soldiers couldn’t help but stumble forwards a bit as all the air and mana in the vicinity was sucked into Khrx’s chest.

The bulky man with the green beret shouted, “Shoot him!” but no one could hear him since all the air had vanished. A majority of the soldiers were panicking as they struggled to breathe like fish out of water. The bulky man pointed his gun at Khrx and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. There was no mana to condense and shoot. Khrx continued to inhale, and the man’s face turned blue as his diaphragm compressed, crushing against his lungs. A thought flashed through the man’s head as his vision turned orange, then gray. Wasn’t this the start of the legendary dragon’s breath?

Surprisingly, Khrx’s chest had barely swelled as all the air and mana he breathed in was compressed, pressurized, and condensed. He narrowed his eyes at the soldier who had opened fire on Theda and stomped his foot against the ground while opening his mouth. A glaring light shone from his throat, blinding everyone who saw it. Anaheim’s hand flashed, and she smacked Khrx’s chin as his chest decompressed, pointing his face towards the sky. A giant laser beam flew out of Khrx’s mouth, piercing through the clouds. Its radiance could be seen from across the ocean as if a pillar holding up the heavens had appeared.

The air rushed back into the vicinity, and the panicked shouts of the soldiers filled Khrx’s ears. Khrx stomped his feet and glared at Anaheim. “Why’d you do that!?”

“They only want Theda,” Anaheim said. “If you killed them, they’d hunt you down too, and I can’t let that happen.”

“After seeing such a display, do you think we’re willing to let him go?” the man with the green beret asked as he gasped for breath. “He’s a dragon! There’s no way he’s not a dragon! As a hero, you should know the prophecies of the high elves! When the dragons are free to reign again, it won’t be long for the world to end!” He gestured around himself at the soldiers coughing up blood. Some of the soldiers were lying on the ground, unmoving as puddles of blood formed around them, soaking into the sand. “Look at what he’s done!”

Anaheim’s eyes narrowed. “If they weren’t preparing such massive spells, do you think the backlash would’ve been so great? Who told you to threaten Khrx?”

The man with the green beret pointed at one of the special forces. “General Park! What is the meaning of this? Your citizen is interfering with our cause!”

General Park sighed as she lowered the scarf covering her mouth and nose. “Ms. Miehana, please, cooperate with us. Though you may be the descendant of the hero, that doesn’t mean you can do whatever you wish. I’ll have to arrest you if you continue to insist on obstructing justice.”

Anaheim gritted her teeth. As she mulled over what to say, a dark shadow spread outwards from Theda’s body like a carpet of mold. It crawled along the sand, engulfing every grain, speeding up as it got further and further away from Theda. The soldiers shouted as shadows climbed up their shoes, and Anaheim paled as she summoned a barrier of light around herself, Khrx, Mr. Bubbles, and Lorin.

An eerie laughter rang out over the beach, causing the furs on Khrx’s ears and tail to stiffen. Theda’s broken body reassembled itself as she balanced on her knees, then on her feet. “Khrx. Look carefully. This is what it means to open the gates of the underworld.”

The special forces screamed as the shadows melted their flesh off of their bones, the pink chunks disappearing into the shadows. General Park ground her teeth together before decisively shooting off her own legs and initiating a teleportation before the shadows could climb past her knees. Before the others could do the same, Theda frowned and snapped her fingers. A web of shadows descended from the sky, causing the soldiers to decay from above as well as below. “Such a large-scale sacrifice. I’ll be able to summon Esaesid at the very least.”

“Esaesid?” Khrx tilted his head. Where had he heard that name before? Wasn’t that the disgusting blob that hugged him and gave him a skill?

As the special forces dissolved into tiny lumps barely bulging out of the darkness, a fissure formed in front of Theda. It widened with every passing second as the tiny lumps shrank even further. A brackish hand extended from the fissure, and clawed on the ground attempting to pull itself out. Theda smiled as Esaesid’s head appeared followed by the rest of his body. “Lord, I answer thy call.”

***

Awakening Cycle 1,072,362: Day 22.

Dear Diary,

Sigh. It’s happening again. The world’s ending a lot sooner than I expected. It hasn’t even been a month since I woke up! This must be a new record. Wait, no. Awakening Cycle 32,440 was the fastest time the world ever ended, right? It only took four hours that time. Well, disregarding that time, this is the quickest it’s been in a while. And I made a promise to not save the world. Should I honor it? To be truthful, I really don’t like this era. I’ve been bullied nonstop since I woke up. Yeah, I’ll let this era come to a peaceful end. As long as there’s plenty of destruction, bloodshed, and carnage, Fufu will definitely escape from Luke’s grasp. I can’t wait to reunite with her.

Love,

Khrx