Elly walked abreast with Leo, occasionally looking at him with concern in her eyes. She put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. “Leo, do you want to talk about it?”

Leo glanced at her, then shook his head.

She nodded and dropped her hand. “If you ever change your mind, I’m right here.”

He nodded again, eyes on the floor. He put his hand on his chest, over where the carving sat, and sighed.

“I mean, it’s a bad carving, but it isn’t that bad,” Gideon said.

Jet pressed the pendant.

“Ow! Hey, it’s true. You were thinking it too,” Gideon replied.

“It isn’t funny,” Jet said.

“It isn’t? It’s not not funny.”

“Do you know the meaning of the word respect?” Jet asked, tired.

Gideon shrugged. “I do, but respect is boring.”

Leo stopped abruptly. He turned and glared at Gideon.

“What?” Gideon asked.

“You have the gall to…” Jet muttered, staring at him.

Leo’s chalk squeaked across the walls. Kill the cultists, and I don’t care what you say.

“I only like killing dragons… but they worship dragons. It’s basically the same thing,” Gideon said, grinning.

Leo nodded. He walked on.

A huge door blocked off their way ahead. Tiles covered the door, each one marked with an intricate image showing some part of dragon worship. On one, a dragon egg hatched. On another, robed figures cared for the young dragon. An old dragon and a new dragon touched noses on one of the tiles. On yet another, a young girl met the young dragon. On one tile, a pregnant woman sat, a hand on her stomach. A dragon devoured a young woman on another.

Leo put a hand out, indicating for them to stand back. His hands blurred, manipulating the tiles. The pregnant woman. The dragon egg. The old and the young dragon. The dragon and the robed figures. The dragon and the young girl. The dragon devouring the woman. He stepped back, and the door creaked, slowly opening. The stone moved slowly, grating across the floor. The hinges squealed, unused for decades, if not longer.

Standing in front of the door, Leo’s fists clenched. He stared ahead, his eyes flickering with emotion. His eyes narrowed and he took one last deep breath and waited.

Elly gasped, hands over her mouth. “So it’s true. I always hoped…”

“What, that dragon cultists weren’t dragon fuckers? Everyone knows they are,” Gideon said.

“Dragons can turn into people, according to you. So what’s gross about that?” Jet pointed out, frowning at Gideon.

“You’re right, turning into another form to deceive your lover is much less gross than bestiality,” Gideon said sarcastically, putting his hands out.

“But if they’re cultists, they’re probably fine with it,” Jet said, shrugging. I don’t actually care. I just don’t want to let Gideon be smug. Even if it means playing devil’s advocate for a while, I’ll grit my teeth and bear it, just to make him a little less insufferable!

Gideon looked at Jet from the corner of his eyes and smirked. “Did I mention? Dragons live a lot longer than people. They age a lot slower, too. If they’re raising dragons here… well, it takes several decades for a dragon to reach maturity, but the tiles show a young dragon being presented to the girl… You know, you’re right, Jet. Dragon cultists screwing children is better than bestiality.”

“But if they only look like children…” What the hell am I arguing. It’s still disgusting. Jet shut his mouth and turned away.

“Oh, that makes it better, that they’re only physically children? Elly, we need to keep Kat away from Jet, okay?” Gideon said, clicking his tongue.

Elly frowned at Jet and stood between him and Kat. Kat grabbed ahold of Elly’s skirts, scooting behind her. Even Angel and Leo shook their heads at Jet.

Jet took a deep breath. Why do I keep engaging in duels of the tongue with this idiot? I ought to lop his tongue off. Save everyone a lot of pain.

“Looking at these tiles, they breed the women with the dragons, then have the dragons eat them… how disgusting. Live sacrifice. Forcing women to bear the dragon’s hideous spawn. It’s all true,” Elly murmured, shaking her head, ignoring the previous conversation.

“Not really hideous spawn. Just ordinary dragons. How did you think lesser dragons bred so quickly, since they age so slow? Dragons and humans… when they breed, they create humans or dragons, but nothing between the two. Maybe it was different in ancient times, but nowadays, lesser dragons mostly mate with humans,” Gideon said, looking ahead at the door.

“Eh?” Jet asked, looking at Gideon. How do you know that? You’ve admitted you only care about dragons when it comes to killing them. You wouldn’t have wasted your time independently researching dragons to this extent unless it helped you kill them… or you were forced to learn about them.

Are you… were you a dragon cultist?

Is that why you hate dragons so much?

Elly looked at Gideon in shock. “Who knows this? If the church of the High God knew, we would—”

“Eradicate dragon cultists? You’ve already done your best, and here we are,” Gideon muttered under his breath. He shook his head. Crossing his arms, he continued louder, “Leave it to me. I’m killing them off so they don’t overwhelm the stupid human population. If I hadn’t slain that town, you’d all be overrun by dragons right now.”

This time, Jet didn’t leap at Gideon’s throat, but hesitated. Maybe… he really did kill a town full of dragons…?

No, but… we still haven’t seen any dragons turn into humans. It’s ridiculous to believe him simply because of what he said. He’s a murderer, a criminal, and a liar, Jet. Don’t fall for his nonsense so easily.

With a great squeal, the door swung open. Sunlight burned in, blindingly bright. Black shadows stood before them.

When their eyes adjusted, a dozen cultists stood before them, arrayed n long black robes. They stood at the mouth of a large chamber with an open roof, letting sunlight spill down. The leader lowered his hood and stepped forward, revealing a warm old man. He reached his hand out, a smile on his face.

“Welcome back, Leo. While you were gone, we kept the faith. We always knew our god hadn’t deserted us.”