My one and only ruler… Padinyss looked down on me all because of these little shits, and they even dared to badmouth me! The worst is that I can’t even hurt them! Inhe screamed in her mind, enraged.

“Follow me,” she said to Elena and Dred and walked towards the door.

“Do we want to annoy her any further?” Elena asked Dred.

“We shouldn’t or she could lose her head. It wouldn’t do us any good if we died because of her mistake, haha,” Dred replied.

“Mhm, then let’s not fuck her up and tell her she should carry us~” Elena mused, imagining Inhe’s reaction had they really went through with it.

Inhe led them to a garden inside the place. The ceiling was painted sky blue, and a yellow Mana crystal lit up the closed garden. Grass covered the ground and a few flowers and trees could be found as well. In the middle of the garden was a luxurious cabin, perfect for a summer vacation.

“I took you two here because you have no way to leave this place unnoticed. There is only one way in and out, and this garden isn’t used anyway. There will be guards outside, so don’t try anything funny. Oh~ and before you start enjoying your stay here, I’ve just realized something.”

“I thank you very much for your hospitality, but we don’t care about you~” Elena said as she shut the door in front of Inhe and walked towards their new house.

Inhe clenched her fists behind the door and decided to chase them. Opening it, she shouted after them, “I was told not to hurt you physically. But what about mentally? I wonder how happy you would be if you saw your dear demoness being raped in front of you! I’m sure I can find a few dragons who’d be interested in her.” She shut the door and when she turned around, she saw two lesser dragons walking towards the door.

“Don’t let anyone come in or out without my command or I’ll kill the both of you,” she said with a cold voice as she left.

“Yes, ma’am!” with that, the guards shut the door.

“What the hell? Did she say what I heard?” Dred furrowed his brows.

“Mhm. We should get out of here as soon as possible. I don’t plan to be touched by anyone else but you,” Elena said.

Dred looked at her face for a few seconds before muttering, “Let me hug you.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to.”

“No, I mean why are you asking it? Haha,” Elena laughed at him and hugged him.

Coiling his arms around her back, Dred closed his eyes. “Padinyss knows that the devourer is alive.”

“Mhm,” Elena muttered.

“He is also looking for us.”

“Mhm, but at least he doesn’t know that we are born in pairs~” Elena mused.

“Now this bitch is here to screw with us too.”

“Mhm.”

“And this is the first time that our friends are alone. What do you think, will they be able to gather capable lesser blood servants? You told them what to do, right?”

“Mhm.”

“Haah- we will have to be very careful from now on. A wrong step and we might die. We also have to keep our friends alive. They are important both for our plans and because we are friends.”

“Mhm.”

“Thanks, now I feel much better.”

“Haha, if it helped.”

“I really love you.” *Chu* Dred said before kissing her.

---

“Mhhg-” Elena stretched her limbs and stood up from the bed. Her long black hair reached her bare buttocks, forming an exciting sight in front of Dred. “This was a nice ‘rest’, indeed~” she mused, but in the next moment her body got covered in a simple black dress.

“Heh, my girlfriend is a world-class beauty~” Dred said with a clear tone of amusement.

“Sure, sure. Come and help me instead. Now is the time to learn inner-devour so we can remove Inhe’s binding spell,” Elena said. Both of them had a dragon tattoo coiled around their left arms, which was the source of the binding spell. It used their own Mana to seal their Mana, and even though they were able to use Mana outside of their bodies, they didn’t wish to make it public and wanted to break Inhe’s binding.

It wouldn’t be surprising if they used spells that way. But they needed their own Mana to break the seal and since it was sealed, they couldn’t do it. That’s where their Devour came into the picture. Their bodies were already devouring the spell, but it was a slow process. If they learned inner-devour, the same that had been offered as one of the last specializations, they could escape much sooner and it’d also turn their bodies into dangerous weapons.

“Now then, how do we speed up the devouring process if something is in contact with our bodies?” Elena talked to herself as she sat down on the grassy ground outside the cabin. Dred joined her shortly and started pondering while meditating.

“If we can devour things through our shadows, then we should be able to do the same with our bodies. I suppose we need to control its strength by supplying it with Mana.”

Elena tilted her head to the side while saying, “Hmm- then the rest should be all about moving and controlling our cells.” Looking at her own palm, she tried to pull her own cells apart and pour Mana into the gap between. Her skin, her veins, her nerves tore, and a black gap opened. She turned her hand and looked at the back of it and couldn’t find anything strange. But she had a dark pit in the center of her palm.

As she touched the earth, it dried out and the grass withered in an area of five meters around her. She quickly pulled back her hand and looked at Dred with shining eyes. “This is much stronger than if I use it through my shadow!”

“Hmm- it’s understandable, after all, our bodies are the cores of devour. That’s where the true strength of the spell comes from, the source. Our shadows are like cables and the further it goes, the weaker the signal or in this case Devour becomes, though the weakening is a bit on an extreme level,” Dred replied and returned to his panther form.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing, I just prefer my real body. I’m more used to it and I’m stronger too.”

Shrugging her shoulders, Elena looked at her current level. “Four hundred and eleven. Why did we not get any specialization?”

“Weren’t we already getting one too often? Our class has pampered you way too much… we didn’t even have enough time to master one before getting the other and the further we go, the fewer specializations we can pick. I’d guess the next time to pick would be around the five hundredth level.”

“I’m not spoiled…” she pouted. A dark pit appeared on her arm and she was about to devour Inhe’s binding spell when Dred stopped her.

“Wait! Should we really remove it? What if she visits us before we could even get away. Then we’d have to explain ourselves. I suppose you don’t want that to happen.”

“Ugh, fine. You’re right, I’ll keep it on for now.”

Their chatting was interrupted when the only door leading to their ‘prison’ was slammed open. “I’ve returned~” Inhe said with a grin on her face as two other dragons stepped out from behind her back.

“You think we can get away?” Elena asked Dred while her face turned pale.

“I don’t know, but I’d rather die than let them shame you.”

---

“Tu-tu~ tu~ tu~” Padinyss mused in his room, remembering an old song. “Oh, I should check Inhe, she seemed to be really down because of her mistake,” he talked to himself as he stood up from his table. I need only two more rings to finally get out of this place and if I can kill the devourer before it gets too strong, I can live a fulfilling life. Hehe, I can’t wait!

“Greetings, his majesty,” the guards in front of his door bowed when he pushed open the door. Nodding his head he went towards Inhe’s private quarter but while on the way, he started hearing a shouting female voice. Focusing his ears on the sound, he heard Inhe.

“THESE FUCKING BASTARDS! *crack* *smash* THEY SHAMED ME IN FRONT OF HIS MAJESTY!” *smash*

“And even his majesty seemed to be interested in that bitch! But just you wait, hehe. I’ll break your fucking mind and I’ll see how you talk back then! They have no way out so I could wait. They’d probably turn into a nerve-wreck by the time I got there after hearing my last words, hehe. *smash* ARGH but I can’t wait to see her struggling face! Nobody ever talked to me like that! I’ll just force them, damn it!”

Huh? What is she up to? I told her not to hurt them, didn’t I? Padinyss thought with a frown on his face. By the time he reached Inhe’s room, he found it empty. Only broken vases and glasses littered the ground. She is really angry… Haah-

“His majesty! The king of the Demon Kingdom has come to visit. What should I tell him?” a servant ran towards him and shouted when he left Inhe’s room.

Tsk. At the best moment, his timing is so terrible every time. And what the hell does he want here personally? I should at least welcome him, Padinyss clicked his tongue and followed his servant.

A minute later he found the king of the second most powerful kingdom on the planet sitting in his dining room, eating fresh meat. “Jotun! I see you found my dining room this time as well. You are always so carefree when you visit as if this was your home,” Padinyss raised his voice as he walked towards the table and sat down in front of the demon.

He was a first-class creature of the demon race, called a Devil. Only the Devil God was more pure-blooded and it was as powerful as a Dragon God. But Padinyss was the only legendary creature on this planet based on his knowledge, and nobody was strong enough to beat him while on the same or lower level.

Jotun coiled his hairy black tail around an apple and raised it to his mouth. He smiled at Padinyss as he brushed his hand through his short brown hair and put his arms behind his neck. “You are always so stuck up, Padinyss,” his slit brown eyes seemed to smile.

“...Why did you come?”

Leaning forward, Jotun looked into Padinyss’s eyes as he said, “I heard your people have found two rings. But I also heard they couldn’t get it on time and the ring bearers are demons!”

“The birds must be chirping too much.”

“Hahaha, I don’t know, I’m not listening to their chirping~”

“You still didn’t tell me what you want.”

“I want them.”

“What?”

“The demons, of course. They are my kind, I should be the one overlooking them. Oh, and I heard they were High-Demons too, a rare kind! I can’t have them stay imprisoned in your palace when they could be my guests don’t you think?” Jotun said with a smile.

This bastard. He doesn’t have even a single ring and he wants to get his hands on ring bearers so he could come with me when we find every ring. Hmph… but it’s fine. I don’t really care about Reinald’s treasures. What I want is freedom from this sealed world! Padinyss thought as he leaned back in his chair.

“And what do I get?”

“What do you need?”

“Information about the remaining two rings. The ring of darkness and the ring of wind. I know that you have some sort of knowledge, tell me what. You demons are great when it comes to spying…”

“Hehe, I’ll see what I can do. But I want my demons at first if you don’t mind. With your position, you could easily scam me and leave me empty-handed again.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Padinyss chuckled.

“Yeah, yeah… Could we hurry up? The quicker I return, the quicker I’ll tell you what I know.”

“You bastard… but fine. They are in the Palace Garden.”

“What? That shitty place? Why did you even build a place like that?”

“It wasn’t me. It was Reinald’s doing when he was still around.”

“Heh, that old fool was the only one who screwed you over, wasn’t he?” Jotun laughed at him.

Furrowing his brows, Padinyss turned around and raised him into the air by his throat. “One more word about the truth and I’ll snap you into two halves.” He threw Jotun to the ground and walked towards the door.

*cough* *cough*

“Haha, *cough* you are still as sensitive as back then,” Jotun said and stood up from the ground. He really hates when I bring up his shameful defeat, hehe. Against a human, the race he looked down on.

They soon arrived at the Palace Garden, but what welcomed them wasn’t what they expected. Elena was forced to the ground by Inhe, while another dragon restricted Dred’s movements.

“Let go of me, you fucking bitch! You think I won’t kill myself if you want to go through with this?” Elena shouted, struggling to get out of Inhe’s grasp.

“What the hell is wrong with your clothes? Why won’t they tear!” Inhe shouted back and tore off a piece, but in the next moment, it was back again.

“Tsk, she won’t listen to my threatening! What should we do? Should we use devour and try to get away quickly?” Elena questioned Dred.

“It’s better than going down without a fight!” he replied and was about to use it when he noticed Padinyss and Jotun in the door.

“Help us! Your fucking servant is crazy!” Dred raised his voice. The other two dragons who were squatting on the ground half-naked, holding Elena’s legs, turned around in confusion. Their faces turned ashen upon realizing who were standing behind them. They quickly stood up and walked towards the door. After bowing quickly, they wanted to leave but Padinyss grabbed their heads and smashed them into the wall.

The wall of the palace cracked and shards of stones flew through the air. The third-class dragons fell to the ground with bleeding wounds on their faces, unconscious.

“Inhe? I remember I told you not to hurt them,” Padinyss growled, angered by Inhe’s disobedience.

Her body froze on the spot.

Looking at Elena’s grinning face, she felt like crushing her head on the spot but decided to hold back her wrath in Padinyss’s presence. Her body stiff, she let go of Elena’s wrists and stood up. Elena quickly jumped up and ran to Dred’s side. Since the dragon holding him was frozen unmoving, she punched him in the face and freed Dred.

“You fucking shit,” she grumbled in a low voice while looking into the dragon’s angered eyes.

“M-Master?” Inhe slowly turned around and looked at Padinyss’s feet, not daring to meet his eyes.

“Get out of here.”

Seeing that she wasn’t moving, he shouted, “NOW!”

Inhe quickly ran out of the room, but she still turned around to glare back at Elena.

She just had to do this now! If only it happened when Jotun wasn’t here, I could’ve overlooked it… but not like this, Padinyss cursed in his mind.

“Your servants seem to be really unruly. Aren’t you the ruler? Why are they doing things you didn’t allow? In my kingdom, I’d behead them. And to hurt noble creatures like High-demons… I’m offended!” Jotun raised his brows.

Tsk, you fake bitch. You don’t even care! I wonder what will he ask for this time…

“Indeed, it seems like I’ll have to discipline my servants better in the future.” Hmph, I won’t ask for your forgiveness. I’m the true ruler!

“Yes, yes. It’d be really bad if your servants continued to offend other demons too by doing these kinds of things. Should I help you out by any chance?”

So pushy… “No, I’ll be fine. If you don’t mind, take this ring with you as my token of apology. There are a few things inside,” Padinyss said with a smile as he pulled out a ring from one of his storage rings.

Seeing his twitching brows, Jotun almost started laughing but held it back. “Hmm- hmm- I appreciate your kind-hearted intentions. Now if you don’t mind, could I leave with them? I still need to gather information about the… theme of our discussion,” he smiled as he patted Padinyss’s shoulder.

“*cough* You are right. I’ll hand over these two. Take good care of them until the time comes to open the gate to Reinald’s legacy.”

“Hahaha, I knew you’re a great ruler! And of course, I’ll take good care of them, though… it won’t be hard to outdo this,” he shook his head as he spread his arms and looked at the Palace Garden. The ground had holes in it, the walls had cracks in them, there were two unconscious dragons and one sitting on his ass, and the welcoming sight still lived fresh in everyone’s mind.

“Are we supposed to go with this man?” Elena asked, dusting off her sides.

“Yes…” Padinyss replied shortly, clearly not in the mood to talk. Elena and Dred quickly walked up to Jotun and stopped behind him as if he was their father. The trio left with quick steps. By the time they reached the door, they heard a loud shout.

“AAAAAARGH!” This god damned bastard! He couldn’t have left without that remark! I swear one day I’ll kill him… it seems like he doesn’t know the number one rule when dealing with dragons, never poke a sleeping dragon!

Jotun waved his hand and a horse made up of black smoke appeared in front of them. He pulled out a roofed carriage from his storage ring and a part of the horse’s body connected to it. “Get in,” he said as he opened the door and took a seat. Looking at each other, both Elena and Dred shrugged their shoulders and got into the carriage. After closing the door, the horse ran towards the sky, dragging the car behind it.

Leaning back in his comfy seat, Jotun crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at his newfound guests. “Now then… let’s talk,” he smiled.

-----------------------------