Soft voices could be heard in the darkness. My eyes slowly focused, and I glanced around, wondering where I was at. Moving around, I noticed that my hands and feet were tied behind my back.

What the heck? I glanced down. I was sitting on the chair with my mouth wrapped with a cloth. Was I just chained to the chair? Rattling metal could be heard, and the murmuring voices stopped.

Two people stepped out from the darkness and into the bright light. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to see who it was.

An elderly Asian man that steps out, his bald head glimmers underneath the harsh light making his head shine like a cue ball. “So this is the so-called White Dragon? A Kid? Are you sure you got the right one?”

“She’s the one,” said Rei calmly. He stepped out right behind the elderly man.

“Even though you are known to be the number one tracker, you think you can trick me?” The elderly man scowled, looking at Rei as if he was lying.

“I am not lying, nor did I find the wrong person. I’m telling you she is the one.” Rei motioned his hand in front of him, emphasizing that he wasn’t just running his mouth. He stopped, taking a step forward to take a look at Berry. “Even though I still have a difficult time believing that she’s so young.”

“If you don’t believe in such things, then why did you bring her here.”

Rei took a moment to answer, but he clearly stated with confidence. “Its intuition. After she ate the gold, why wouldn’t I?”

“Your sense of reasoning doesn’t make sense.”

“Come on, old man.” Rei half-heartedly laughs, “I always deliver things 100%. Never have I failed once.”

“We’ll see if you tell the truth. If you lie, you will die first.”

“I am confident in what I bring.” Rei scoffed at the old man’s words.

The elderly man slowly walked around me. He reached up towards my head and lifted my chin.

I felt a cold shiver run down my back. My eyes squinted, and I gave the elderly man a glare. Being tied down like an animal made me want to tear off both of their heads.

“She looks like she’s only ten years old.” The old man moved my head in different directions.

“Probably why she had that tantrum at the store then.” Rei chuckled. “It wouldn’t be a surprise at all if we go with that reasoning.”

“You fool. You think a dragon would just show itself over a tantrum. Do you actually believe that?

A dragon of all creatures is considered the wisest and knowledgeable mythical creature in existence. Compared to us humans, they wouldn’t do things without a cause.”

The elderly bald man was seriously overly praising me. To my embarrassment, I would actually agree with Rei’s statement more. It was a so-called tantrum of not being able to eat gold, which caused substantial casualties and destruction.

“But she’s a kid.” Rei threw out his words, disappointed that I was a kid, to begin with.

“So? A Divine creature like a dragon had lived one hundred times more than anyone of us. You think such a creature would have a mind of a child in our perspective?”

Uh yeah. I couldn’t help but answer Rei question in my mind. Was I that old? Seriously? I barely even lived for over twenty-five years. Well, I’m not even sure anymore. The wisdom of a dragon is completely bogus right now. If I had such wisdom, I would’ve used it by now not to get caught.

I wanted to smack those two, so they have some common sense knocked into them, but all I could do was grumble. Plus, this was kidnapping. Hopefully, Phil will know that I’m gone. Wait, I shouldn’t even count on him. I’m no damsel in distress here. I’m a dragon.…that has been tied up like a fool—complete failure in trying to boost up my self-esteem.

“A child dragon is fine. We might even be able to bring out the older dragon’s.” The old man spoke with a grin.

“I don’t think that is a great idea.”

“What are you talking about? Think about it, having a dragon under you to rule the country. Do you not understand what it means to have the symbol of a dragon means? It is the sign of a king.”

“This is in modern times,” Rei replied, rolling his eyes, not really taking in the old man’s words. He crossed his arms. “I don’t think people think like that these days.”

“This wouldn’t only prove that the mythical creatures are real, but also boost me in the political campaign. I do not see myself just ruling one country but the whole world.” The old man stood up straight, thinking about the future that was to come.

“I think you might be pushing your luck too much.” Rei snorted.

The old man glared. “Tch, you brat don’t understand the bigger picture. In China, an emperor is represented by the dragon. With me bringing her to China, I would be revered as being placed as the king.”

“I highly doubt that.” Rei rolled his eyes at the old man’s words. “Or in the western culture, you would be seen as the reincarnation of the devil that brought the end of the world.”

A loud punch could be heard from the bald man making contact on Rei’s face. “Be quiet, fool! I am no devil.”

“You sure act like one.” Rei spat blood out of his mouth and onto the ground. He massaged his face and grinned. “Pay up so I can leave.”

“I could kill you right here and now.” The old man growled, looking at Rei with disgust. He wasn’t too thrilled with what Rei had said or enjoyed his presence at all.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You already know that’s going to completely backfire on you on your goal.”

The bald man grinned his teeth, and venomously spoke. “Do you think you can dangle such a cheap threat to me?”

“Cheap? Hardly. By the rate that you are getting angry, I know I hit the right spot.”

The bald man went silent and instead let out all his steam. The once angered voice was gone, and instead, a serene voice that was devoid of emotion was spoken. The change made me feel very uncomfortable, making me realize how volatile the human emotion was. “Until she is tested, I can not give you your money.”

“Fine then, I’ll be sticking around.” Rei was not happy with the old man’s decision. He honestly wanted to kill the fool and be gone. Taking a look at me, I felt a shiver.

“Do what you will.” The bald man clapped his hands. A group of men in white coats came in and surrounded all around me. Medical machines that I have never seen before were pushed into the room.

“Will just start out with a simple blood test.”

The people in lab coats brought out a syringe. They pushed my arms forward so they could take a sample of my blood. The moment of contact, the syringe broke in half.

“What?”

The old man turned around. “What’s wrong?”

“Well, nothing, sir.” The people in lab coats tried again. The second syringe once again broke on contact as it tried to pierce my skin. “It did it again.”

“What did it again?” The bald man came forward and watched what the man in the lab coat was doing.

One after the other, every single syringe was broken in half. “I don’t understand what’s going on? How is it possible for a girl to have such thick skin?” They stared flabbergasted.

“Well, let me try.” Rei came over, and in one swing, he rammed a knife downwards onto my arm.

Alarmed, I thought my arm was going to cut in half from that swing for a moment. Instead, the knife broke into two pieces and fell onto the floor. Silence filled the room as they stare with gaping jaws. They did not fully understand what had happened.

“I guess I ‘ll try with something a bit stronger.” Rei had a hint of darkness in his voice. I did not like where this was going and started to struggle.

My strength was not completely back, but this did not mean I couldn’t break free from the chains. One pull, I freed my arms and pushed aside the people next to me. They flew across and hit the wall, crumbling into the ground like putty.

“I told you I got the right one,” Rei spoke giddily. He pulled out a gun and shot multiple shots. Every single one bounced off my body and did not inflict a single wound. My arms and body were covered in white scales that cropped up to protect my body. I couldn’t help but wonder at the strange predicament of my skin; I did not realize that I could do this now and not in the past. I wonder why it was not that I could unconsciously bring up such power. In the past practicing with Phil, I always had a couple of wounds here and there.

I ripped off the gag on my mouth and pulled hard on the other chains.

“Stop her!” The old man yelled, pointing towards me.

Large groups of men in black suits flocked in the rooms for both sides. Each one of them had guns or swords in their hand. The first group of men shot continuous fire of bullets.

Even if the bullets did not penetrate my skin, I did not enjoy the light ticklish feeling that the bullet was giving.

Bursting out laughing, I couldn’t contain it anymore. The bullets were tickling my body, making me convulsed into a fit. Everyone stopped to stare flabbergasted in what they saw as they drew down their weapons.

“What’s going on?”

“Is this even possible?”

“How is she still alive?”

“What are you doing, you fools? Stop her, not kill her!” The old man jolted me out of my laughter. At that moment, I ran towards the closest person and punched him hard. Blood erupted out of his mouth, and he was sent flying backward into others.

I stared at my fist, surprised that I was able to put in so much strength. Was I this powerful in the past? I know I fought head-to-head with the Black Gryphon, but that almost killed me. Not only that, I was not able to even subdue the Black Gryphon at all, but instead trapped him in a crystal. This was all done in my dragon form, not in my human form.

This whole time, I thought my strength did not come even close to Phil’s. Maybe I was overthinking this, and I was actually more durable than Phil. A crack of a devious smile spread all over my face. I couldn’t help but feel a rush of adrenaline that washed over me thoroughly.

They all charged towards me in the hopes of overwhelming me. To me, everything felt as if it was in slow motion. All these attacks were easily avoided without a single hit on my body. Instead, I took their attacks and reverted it all back to them in multiple punches that sent them collapsing onto the ground, unmoving.

“Wow,” Rei whistled cheerfully. “I never expected someone so small to be able to bring out so much power. It makes me wonder how you were so easily knocked out.”

I couldn’t help but feel stupid in what he said. It was true, somehow whoever knocked me out was able to transfer me all the way here. At the rate my skin was defending me unconsciously, I shouldn’t be even able to be harmed.

Then it suddenly struck me. There really was no one here except the old man and Rei. So that meant that Rei was strong enough to knock me out temporarily. “So it was you.” I carefully watched every movement.

Rei shrugged his shoulders as if he did not understand. “Little miss, I think you got the wrong impression.”

“What is she talking about?” The old man asked. Then a couple seconds later, he finally caught onto our conversation. “Rei, I’ll pay two times more if you can subdue her and bring her under control!”

“No.”

“What did you just say?”

“No.” Rei walked forward and sighed. “I thought I would choose a good client, but you can’t even pay up, can you?” He looked over his shoulder towards the old man and shook his head in disdain.

“What are you talking about? I can!” The old man shouted, angry that he was being denied.

“No, what you are saying is just a bluff. I have already done a thorough search of your background and your bank amount. What you just paid me was literally everything that you have.”

Alarmed, the old man turned quiet.

“You really think that the future prospect of support will give you the money to see you have the dragon? Hardly.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No. I know it for sure. You see, I already made a deal with them.”

“Traitor! You dare rat me out! I’ll get you for this.”

“You get me?” Rei sighed and pulled back his hair. “This is why I hate low life clients. They think that they have the power to overthrow me.”

Out of nowhere, the old man’s head went flying. With a thud, the body fell forward, and the head landed a few feet away from me.

I was utterly shocked. What the heck just happened? Everything was moving too fast for me to comprehend. Did Rei just turn Traitor, or did he save me? Wait, the question is, how the heck did this guy die?

Looking up, I saw blood dripping from midair and saw a thin, bright wire hanging where the old man stood. All of a sudden, I felt my guts feel queasy from the horrendous sight. I ran over to a corner and hurled. All the food that I ate, except for the gold coin, came out of my stomach.

I didn’t understand how I was affected by this. When I have seen so many monsters and people die in the skirmish with the goblin. But then again, seeing them being beheaded so close up was a completely different story. The blood, the gore, and the beheading were vividly stuck in my head that I couldn’t help but throw up once again.

“You seriously don’t act like a dragon at all.” Rei was behind me, rubbing my back.

I turned towards him and pushed him back. “Get away from me.” I hissed.

“Little princess.” Rei chuckled. “You’re quite innocent, aren’t you. I thought you would have ravaged villages, destroyed or killed people by now, but it seems you are nothing near that.”

“I’m not a monster.” I vehemently replied.

“Really? But that’s not how the world sees you.”

“Shut up.”

“What? I was telling you what the world thinks of you now.”

“Shut up.”

“Princess, it’s not bad, you know.”

“I said, shut up!” A massive burst of fire shot towards him.

Rei barely dodged the attack, and the fire dissipated into smoke.

“I was right. You are a dragon. That old geezer just couldn’t see it until it was too late.”

“What do you want with me?”

“What do I want? Hmmm.….Gold and maybe a couple other things.”

“Well, we are somewhat similar to that level.”

“Really? You have a stash of gold?”

“That wouldn’t be your concern.”

“But you see, you have eaten my favorite gold coin. If that’s not called stealing, what is?”

“Look, that was by complete accident. I was hungry, and I warned you countless times to take it, but nooooooo you didn’t listen! Then look at what happened, and it was swallowed up in one gulp.” I started to chatter.

“Apparently so.” Rei shrugged it off. Not really caring about what I had said.

“You probably don’t understand this, but that was one of the best meals that I had for a week. A Week!” I stressed the last words.

“A week, huh. That could be a problem.”

“So with that being said, that was not my fault. So if you understand that, I would like you to let me go.”

“You really think I’ll say yes?”

“Yes.” I stubbornly stated. Who am I fooling? Seriously, no bad guy would just let anyone go just because they asked. Right?

“Your right. You can go.”

I stare flabbergasted. Did I just hear, right? I cleaned out my ears to make sure that I heard correctly. “Come again?”

“You can go.”

I squinted towards him, not entirely believing in his words.

“Go on. I don’t have all day.”

I slowly walked towards the exit, where he was blocking the way. “You’re not fibbing me, are you?”

“Why would I?” Rei held up his hands, showing me that he was defenseless.

I carefully walked around him, watching for any sudden movements. Then I picked up my pace and walked towards the door. All of a sudden, I felt an unexpected danger lurking in front of me.

Barely dodging hair breathe away, I felt something fly by my face. “What?”

“Rei, you really shouldn’t let the Emperor’s Dragon go so easily.” A young Asian lady with red clothes walked out of the exit that I was heading for. Behind her, ten guards in traditional Chinese clothing came with her.

“Xing Ming. What a surprise that you are here. I didn’t expect the Chinese Mafia would move in so fast.” Rei spoke. He raised his hand and placed it on his hips.

“Are you out of your mind?” A young male’s voice came out from the other door. All-clad is a rich black with a hint of blue, a handsome Italian man stepped forward. A group of well-outfitted men came in behind him. “You should’ve killed it!”

“Why if it isn’t Stefano Accardi of the Italian Mafia. What are two powerful forces doing here of all times, especially in the middle of the night, to be exact?”

“Don’t give me crap,” Stefano spoke with disgust towards Rei. “You know as well as I do that wherever you go, you can not hide from my family.”

“I would never,” Rei said, he gave them a distraught look. His hand grabbed his chest.

“We knew your scamming still persisted until this day. Do you think we wouldn’t move when we heard that a so-called Dragon wouldn’t appear before us? I came to kill it to bring honor to my family.”

“Kill it?” Xing hissed with anger. “You dare kill the Emperor’s Dragon that will protect my family? My family has descended from the great Dragon Emperor of ancient times. My brother will be the next in line for such a title. We will never allow such barbaric acts befall upon us in front of us. She will marry into my family and bring honor to our family name.”

“Marry a monster? Are you guys nuts? Do you not understand the evil that is standing in front of us?” Stefano pointed towards me. “It has been known throughout countless centuries that dragons are considered the devil’s pet or the harbinger of the end. The end of the world is starting, and you want your family to marry the devil?”

“What preposterous lies are you spouting? You do not understand the power, wealth, and good luck a dragon brings. Instead, your religion clouds your judgment in thinking everything is a devil.”

“I’m telling facts, you vile witch.” Stefano waved a cross in front of him as if he was trying to repel a demon.

“Witch?” Xing spat at Stefano’s feet. “The devil I see is already standing in front of me.”

Tension was high in the air. Already, the two were pulling out guns ready to shoot each other if necessary. Even I could feel that the spike in danger was out of the ordinary. Every single one of these people was truly crazy. I couldn’t help but wonder what the heck did I just got myself into.

“Guys. Guys. Guys. Let’s not scare our little princess here. You all came here for business, have you not?” Rei called out, trying to quench the thirst of blood in the room.

Both Stefano and Xing toward Rei and the tension in the air simmered but still was present.

“Tch. You should’ve brought the monster to us, Rei. Have you forgotten your favor to me?”Xing replied with annoyance.

“No, absolutely not,” Rei replied.

“Favor to you? I will buy off that favor, and instead, Rei, you should work under us. I always found you pleasing to the eye and charming in your own little way.” Stefano replied, tapping the cross in his hand.

“I am glad that I am popular, but you see right now, I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Why?” Stefano crossed his arms.

“Well, you see…” Rei strolled around and walked next to me. I scooted backward, trying not to be near him. “She is the merchandise, but you forgot.” With a snap of his fingers, the light in the room became bright. They were twenty large monitors present in the room.

Every single one of them clicked on, and twenty hidden faces were present on the screen.

“This was only the test trial.” Rei chuckled. “I was only showcasing her skills to show you that what I had found from this one scale is the actual thing.” He grabbed my hands, and with a flick of his knife, he ran it across my arms. The blade skidded across my arm as the scales stopped it from penetration.

“Quite spectacular, isn’t it? Her skin changes to the same color as the scale that I have here.” Rei showed the viewers what he had in his hands. A single white scale. “Indestructible by modern-day weapons and machines. Magic that she can conjure up by her own free will, and I am certain that she can change to her original form. Though so far, I have not found out the way to force her to change.”

I pulled back and spat out icicles that he dodged. A couple of them went flying to the wall and embedded themselves.

“See what I mean. She can even summon ice magic now. What other crazy abilities do you think she has? Aren’t you all curious?”

“Quite a fine specimen,” a male voice called out. I couldn’t tell who was behind each shadow. Every single one of their faces were hidden. “I am quite bedazzled at her strange ability. I never knew it was possible to be able to conjure up power like her. This is a whole different scale in itself.”

“I agree,” Rei stated cheerfully. “Doesn’t it get your blood riled up wondering what kind of power she has? Even controlling a dragon-like her would be considered astronomical in profit, don’t you think?”

“Yes. I agree, but I do not see this as a good sign.”

“What are you talking about? This is a blessing in disguise. I want to buy her. How much would you sell?” One of the viewers, excitedly replied.

“Be quiet! I’m the one who wants her.”

“No, me!”

“Please. Please. Ladies and Gentleman.” Rei raised up his hand, trying to stop the noise. “The bid has not started yet. We must consider what our little Princess here thinks for herself.” He turned to me. Everyone went silent, watching what I would do.

I spat in disgust to Rei. “Did you think that I would go with your sick plans?”

“Not at all. I brought you here to show you off to the underground world.”

“To the underground world?!” Alarmed at what he said, it made me uncomfortable. “Why?

What purpose do you gain in exposing me?”

A smirk rose from Rei’s face. “You who seem to be sheltered for the rest of your life don’t understand how this world works, do you? The crime organizations are the true owner of this world. Having a push and pull of things behind the scenes is finally going into motions. This is something worth watching more than gold itself.”

“You’re crazy.”

“No. I’m not. I’m an idealist.”

“You think that one of these twenty or more loony people would change the world by seeing what I can do? So far, I haven’t even changed into the so-called dragon that you have sought out for.”

“Doesn’t matter what you see. Everything that you have done already put you on the top wanted list by the criminal organizations. What power you possess. They want it too.”

“Well, if you think you can stop me, bring it, puny human!” With a roar, I spewed out fire from my mouth and twirled it all around me. Rei jumped back to not get burned. Pulling from my magical pocket, I pull out the Magic Stones that I had.

“Barrier!” A blue sheen could be seen around me. The sound of the gun’s going off by Stefano’s man could be seen. Each one of their bullets ricocheted off the barrier. Even though I was sure I could withstand the bullets, I did not know how long. They were a couple of them that did actually penetrate a bit into my thick scales.

“Kill her!” Stefano shouted.

“Don’t kill her!” Xing shouted. “Stop him!” Xing pointed towards Stefano. It became a three-way fight that caused Stefano men to drop dead like flies. Stefano duck and shot back.

“Pull back! We can not win right this moment!” Stefano waved his men back. “I’ll kill you! Monster, if it’s the last thing I do!” He ran out of the room and left in a hurry.

Xing’s men chased closely behind them.

I, on the other hand, ran towards the nearest exit.

“Explosion!” I threw another Magic stone. And it exploded behind me. I could hear the sounds of people in agonizing pain.

One of the Xing’s men saw me heading straight towards him, and he lunged to grab hold of me. Ducking down, I slide underneath him. I honestly did not want to stay here and fight for an extended period. I did not know how many people were here in this building.

“What the hell did I get myself into.” I was angry at myself for even thinking about negotiating with Rei. I should’ve controlled my urges in eating the gold coin. Instead, I habitually ate it in front of him like it was nothing. What the heck was even wrong with me anyway? Why is it that even here on Earth, this curse was still in effect? How was I also going to even break away from this curse and get back into my normal body?

“Stop!” A group of people with guns pointed towards me.

I threw another Magic Stone. “Explode!”

The group of men was pushed back into the wall, stunned. Turning right, I continued to run ahead without even looking back once.

What the heck is with his maze-like place? Everywhere I turned, I couldn’t find a single exit that led me to the outside. Instead, I found the stairs leading downwards. Without stopping once to take a break, I bulldozed my way towards the front of the building.

“Finally!” I yelled with relief when I saw the exit not too far away from me. I did not expect the place to be a large office building.

“Couple more feet.”

Almost there! I reached towards the door, then suddenly felt a heavy invisible weight pushing down on me. “What the heck?”

My hands were shaking as I reached towards the door.

Bzzt!

Electric sparks flew out from my hands and the door. I pulled back at the unexpected pain and then fell a harsh push downwards on my body. Stumbling backward, I fell onto my back.

“What’s going on? Why is there an electric barrier?”

Confused, I tried to get up, but a heavy force field pushed down onto me, making it very difficult to get up. The force to get up took a lot more effort than usual as I stood on my two legs.

“If I were you, I would just stay still.” Rei’s voice could be heard from behind me.

Startled, I turned around to see he was just lazily walking towards me with no care in the world.

“What did you do?”

“Me?” Rei acted all innocent like he did not know what I was talking about.

“How did you set up a barrier? Earth shouldn’t have the power to do this!?”

“Really, Princess? I think you are underestimating humanity.”

I couldn’t help but feel ashamed at what he said. He was right, where did I suddenly get this superiority complex from? I was once a human before; even if I was only part human now, we were still familiar.

“Why the heck did you start calling me Princess? Forget that, I’m going to throttle you when I get out of this!”

“Empty threat princess.”

I struggled to get up onto my knees. Even though the pressure was not intense, I could still feel the weight bearing down strongly. Finally, able to stand on all four, I inhaled deeply, letting out a deep breath. “This is not going to stop me.”

“I know.” Rei chuckled. He threw a strange paper talisman towards my direction.

Five talismans flew towards me and fluttered down to the floor, glowing red. A strange wave of harsh energy pushed down towards me. A chain shot out towards the paper talisman and wrapped itself tightly onto my body.

“What?” I pulled with all my might. The first talisman broke, causing one of them to suddenly catch on fire.

Rei threw another five talismans that fluttered around me like snow. Five more chains shot through the air and wrapped around my arms and legs. The power from the talisman was no joke. Each one seems to zap my strength.

“These are a special type of talisman.” Rei was looking down upon me, and he squatted down. “Nobody around here can see that these talismans are magic. Compared to your magic that seems to be vibrant with energy, these talismans are quite different. I got this from the Buddhist temple. I was worried that it wouldn’t work, but apparently, it does fairly well.” He chuckled.

I spat in his face, furious at what he did.

“That is disgusting, princess.” Rei whipped the spit off his face. Another set of five talismans was wrapped around me, causing severe pain to my chest. What the hell? I couldn’t believe these fourteen talismans were able to create such a strong force?

“The more you struggle, the more you will lose your strength, princess.” Rei chuckled. “Doesn’t matter to me though, it makes my job a lot easier if you know what I mean.”

“I despise you.” I sharply spat out, getting angrier and angrier.

“Please do. I do not mind at all. It actually makes things a lot more easier to see. To have an enemy to go after. Maybe you will turn into some chaos dragon and ruin this world? How fun would that be?”

“You’re insane.”

“That’s your second time saying that. Thank you very much. I can’t seem to get enough of it, Princess.” Rei reached over and lifted up my chin. My hair fell in front of my face covering my eyes.

Anger rose up from the pit of my stomach. This was not how I was going to end! With all the strength I could muster, I pushed up onto my knees. I blew fire from my mouth towards him and the talisman hoping it would burn it away.

A couple of them caught on fire, while the others were protected by some kind of barrier. I pushed to the point where every single one of the chains broke simultaneously. Excited, I got up and rushed towards Rei with my hand clenched in a tight fist.

“Eat this!” My fist bee-lined towards his face, Rei sidestepped out of the way. He grabbed ahold of my hand and threw me over his shoulder. What the heck? Stultified at the sudden throw, I fell onto my back.

“Too bad, I had the feeling you were just a beginner in a fight. Do you think I’ll let you hit me with that tremendous strength? I am not that stupid, you know.”

Once again, a paper talisman spewed out chains wrapped around me, but this time there was a completely different paper talisman that was three times more powerful than the ones that he threw before.

Like a wild animal, I screamed. “Let me go!”

“At the rate, you are thrashing around, you’ll look like a fool.”

Fire erupted from my stomach to my mouth. Everywhere I spat, the intensified heat pushed Rei backward. Even still, I was not able to touch the paper talisman. I changed the direction of my magic and spat out icicles around me in the hopes of one of them hitting the talisman.

Rei rushed in and knocked out the icicles from the air with his bare hands. Each time he hits them out of the air, I use this chance to redirect my aim. More and more were slowly coming together in certain areas, becoming more specific. I couldn’t help but snicker at Rei’s little dance as he was forced to jump around, knocking the icicles out of the air.

At this rate, he was going to tire out first, then me losing my magic. I could go on for hours. Continuing with spewing out flying icicles, this time, I aimed upwards towards the lights. The lights exploded and turned off. I felt that things were now going more in my favor. Without the light, Rei will have a much harder time stopping the icicles.

The number of icicles in the air increased by three folds, making it ten times more difficult to deflect. Not only that, my control of magic was exponentially growing. My only thought was that it was because of my life and death battle.

“Princess, you need to try better than this.” Rei punched through every single one of the effortless. He was not even breathing heavily through this whole ordeal. His fist was glowing red light that I have never seen before. “You actually believe that I don’t believe in magic? It was all a show. A show.” Rei laughed. This time, he rushed towards me and aimed downwards towards my exposed stomach.

Instinctively I pulled up an ice barrier around my exposed stomach. Layers upon layers were thickly condensed into one. I had no choice but to create the thick layers of barrier before I could get hit.

Rei pounded downwards, breaking apart the ice barrier as it splintered into a thousand pieces. The force of his hit made my stomach reel in pain. Black and white spots burst through my head, temporarily blinding me. I coughed in pain.

“Don’t worry, Princess. I’m going to take care of you very well. Selling you to the highest bidder and seeing the destruction of the world begin. You do not understand how long I have waited for this.” Rei grabbed my hair, and he whispered into my ears. “Haven’t you ever wondered how I can use more potent magic? I’m actually a Residence of Torren.”

I couldn’t help but be shocked at Rei’s words. Did the Goddess of Light truly bring a dangerous person over to Earth?

“I’ll tell you a secret. I, too, was once a Legendary Creature. A Titan.”

“W-What?”

“Don’t you know all defeated Legendary Creatures of the past are thrown here on Earth. All our past powers and our original body stripped from us. Instead, we are cast into this human body that can barely do anything. We are thrown here in this god-forsaken world where magic is almost barely usable. Not able to go back to the world that I used to call home. Destruction, Power, Wealth, and Women were all at the tip of my fingertips, till those damnable Heroes came and took it all!”

Rei’s words were with such venomous that I felt a deadly chill down my back. He took a deep breath and calmed himself.

“The moment you stepped into this world princess, magic has doubled. All the powers this puny human body had acquired had double to do things that I was dreaming of. You are a catalyst for magic princesses.” Rei chuckled, looking at me as some kind of item. “Even if I cut you into pieces and send parts of you around the world, magic will constantly flow from your body and enrich it. Do you know how special of an existence you are?”

“No, but I’ll make sure to destroy you.”

“Oh, really, Princess? You’re stuck in ancient magic that I have uncovered in Ancient Egyptian culture and around the world. I have lived on Earth for over one thousand years and found many things. I am the only Legendary Creature that was alive till you came. The others had dwindled into a human’s mindset and have forgotten the world of Torren. Those disgrace of a creature.” He spat. “Though I have to wonder why you are allowed to keep your form, but I am not.”

“I don’t know, but you, for sure, don’t deserve to go back to your original body.”

“Really now? I will get what is mine, even if I have to kill you.”

“You can’t kill me.” My voice cracked. I was actually starting to get scared for my life. I thought he was just an average human, but he was not. He was from the world of Torren and a past Titan. His knowledge of what a Legendary Creature was a lot more than me.

“You really think so? Princess, I told you, didn’t I? I have collected thousands of artifacts about what your kind can do at the ancient tombs of China. What Xing had said is true. Her family had married the past legendary dragon from the world of Torren. The so-called Red Dragon.”

“The Red Dragon. He was here.” My eyes became wide. “The Dragon’s Legend just ended a few days ago. How?”

“Then, that means the reign of the Black Gryphon shall begin. Then finally, it will be my time again.” Rei’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “I’ve been waiting for this day. Have you heard of the Reign of the Lightning Titan’s Reign?”

“Lightning Titan’s?”

“It seems you don’t know. Damn, never mind. It is no concern for me.” Rei picked me up like a lifeless sack of rice bags. I couldn’t move a single inch, nor was I able to use magic. How was this possible? It did not make sense at all.

“Like I said Princess. You will be taken care of either in pieces or married off to mingle your magic with humanity. But don’t worry, I will not cut you into pieces yet, not until you are an adult. Your magic is not in its prime yet; by the time you are fully grown, magic on Earth will increase by a hundred folds. By then will be the perfect time to pluck the ripe fruit.” He chuckled. “But don’t worry, I’ll always be beside you even if you get sold. I only need a puppet to do what I need to be done.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” A male’s voice spoke out loud from the darkness.