Rene: “What the?”

As soon as she woke up, she noticed that Arma was not inside the make shift tent.

With his injuries, he couldn’t have gotten far.

Luckily, she was quickly able to find him.

It seems like his bandages opened up; he was leaving a clear trail of red.

Following the fresh drops of blood was an easy enough of a task.

Rene: “What the hell do you think you are doing?”

Arma: “Must destroy….must destroy dragons…”

Rene: “You really should not be moving, Arma-kun”

Rene: “Arma-kun?”

Rene: “!”

Arma’s non-bandaged left eye was closed and the motions his body was carrying out were very strange, almost as if he was still asleep.

Arma: “Must destroy dragons…must destroy dragons….”

He kept repeating that mantra again and again.

Rene: ‘Oh goodness. Arthur once mentioned that warriors of the north use a technique called the Berserker Mode in order to go beyond their physical limits while ignoring any pain inflicted upon them. What he is doing seems awfully similar to Berserker Mode’

With the state of his body, he shouldn’t even be able to move, but somehow, he managed to walk this far before his legs gave out. But he kept crawling forward, reaching with his arms, trying to hold on to something.

He was not in the right state of mind. That much was for sure.

Rene: “I am sorry about this, Arma-kun”

Rene:

Upon being struck with the spell, Arma’s body collapsed on the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Rene: “What a night”

With Arthur’s help, she managed to move Arma’s body back to the tent.

* * *

Arma: “Rene…”

Rene: “Good morning, Arma-kun”

Arma: “Let’s start with the obvious”

Rene: “Go ahead”

She wore a cat-like grin.

Arma: “Why am I tied up?”

Currently, his body was inside of what appeared to be a makeshift straight jacked composed of blankets and ropes.

Rene: “Don’t you remember? You went crazy during the night and almost ended up bleeding to death. It was for your own good”

Arma: “I guess there is no arguing with you, huh?”

Rene: “Nope”

Arma: ‘For some reason, this person’s stubbornness really pisses me off’

Arma: “Since I am ok now, mind untying me?”

Rene: “Certainly”

With a snap of her fingers, the ropes came undone.

Rene: “So Arma-kun, I am a little curious…Do tell me, who is this Akara person?”

As Arma’s gaze shifted towards the decapitated head of a demon that was nearby, Rene finally made the connection.

Arma’s expression was pained, but he managed to squeeze out his words.

Arma: “She was…my master”

Rene: “I see…That is her, huh”

Rene: ‘So he too had lost his master’

Rene: “Arma-kun…Could you please tell me, what exactly happened to you? What could have caused you to end up with such injuries?”

He was not sure whether it was out of desperation or the pain or the desire to be heard by someone, but Arma ended up telling her everything.

How his family was burned to ashes.

How he joined a group led by a demon named Akara to seek revenge.

And how they were betrayed from the inside, leading all of them to be either turned or slaughtered.

All at the hands of dragons.

Rene: “Dragons disguised themselves as humans? Is that even possible?”

Arma nodded.

Rene: “I am sorry, by the time I had arrived, her body was nowhere to be found. The only reason the head remained intact was because you were holding on to it for dear life”

Without saying a word, Arma slowly approached the decapitated head.

There was his grandfather’s dagger and Akara’s demon sword near the head. Apparently, only those two items managed to stay intact after being exposed to Black Dragon Lord’s flames. But right at this moment, Arma paid those items no heed.

He lifted the demon’s head up, and cradled it in his arms. It was almost as though he was holding a newborn child.

Rene: “The fire burned all around you, turning everything to ash, but even though you did burn, your body remained intact. You must have really lucked out by not being in the center of the inferno”

If only she knew just how wrong she was.

Rather than avoid the inferno, Arma took it on fully, but even then, he stubbornly clinged on to life.

Arma: “Yeah, lucky me”

Struggling to stay on his feet, he headed out of the tent, with the head still in his arms.

Rene: “Arma-kun, what are you doing?”

Arma: “My master deserves a funeral. That is the least I can do as her student”

His entire body was bandaged up. Each movement made more and more wounds to open up. But he did not care.

Even if he bled out completely, this was something he needed to do.

Using a piece of wood he found on the ground, he started to dig.

With each mound of earth he removed, more and more blood started to drip down the length of his arm.

Rene: ‘He is no longer in that crazy state, so how is he still able to move? The worst of his burns had affected not only the muscle but the bones too…He shouldn’t be able to stand, much less walk. How can someone endure this much pain and still keep going?’

Her companions, the very same ones whose corpses she reanimated after their deaths, they took nowhere near as much damage as Arma, but they died because of it.

Yet, despite having injuries that should have killed him at least three times over, he managed to survive.

Rene: ‘What kind of a monster are you, Arma-kun?’