Adam, Evelyn, and Heinrich all paused when they heard the men talking about the dragon. With a single glance, they all quickly agreed that they wanted to investigate this. Adam walked up to the two who were gossiping and asked: “I heard you mention a dragon, what was that about?”

The men turned to Adam. “Oh, yes. There is a dragon roaming about the border up north between Heider and Luxom. Just as the northern kingdoms and southern kingdoms are getting ready for a large war! Surprisingly, the dragon has not attacked any of Luxom's towns or villages. Some are wondering if the dragon is somehow on the the northern kingdom's side! It would be devastating to the southern army if that were the case.”

Adam showed a slightly confused face. “We have traveled here from a far distance away, what are the northern and southern kingdoms?”

A hint of surprise showed in the men's eyes. “Well, it is pretty much as it sounds. The kingdoms to the north of us are allied with one another while we are allied with our neighboring kingdoms in the south. The other kingdoms would usually avoid allying with either us or Luxom since we get into so many wars, but a divide has been created between the kingdoms based on how we rule. Our great kingdom Heider and that foolish kingdom Luxom are the front lines for these alliances. Recently, both sides have been preparing for a huge war to erupt, but this dragon has suddenly come out of nowhere and is causing worry. After all, what if it really is on their side?”

Adam nodded in understanding and thanked the men. Turning back to Evelyn and Heinrich, the three walked off to have their own conversation.

“What do you think, should we see what's up with this dragon?” Adam asked

Evelyn said: “Yes, I think there is something odd with this dragon.”

Heinrich also nodded and voiced in contemplation: “There are three things I can think of about this dragon. One is that it is one of our own and we will be able to easily talk to it. Two, this is the Dragon-form of an outsider that is still battling for control over its soul as it has not gone crazy and attacked anything yet. The last one... is that it is from the southern flock of dragons... it might be hostile if we approach.”

Evelyn tensed at the idea of the dragon being hostile. If it was, there was every chance that they would get locked into a fight to the death. Evelyn asked: “Should the three of us go in our Dragon-forms?”

Adam shook his head: “I think that is a bad idea. Three more dragons being sighted will only create a sense of chaos. I think one of us should go in Dragon-form while the others ride. If anyone sees us, they might mistake us for the other dragon and no one will realize that there are more in the skies than they think.”

Heinrich voiced: “We should stick with me being the dragon. That was our plan when we left the village, after all.”

Having come up with a plan, the three headed out of Hessler. A good distance away, Heinrich Dragon-formed in the forest and took off with Adam and Evelyn on board. None of them knew how long it was going to take for them to find the other dragon. All they knew was that it was roaming along the border. It could quite literally be anywhere!

It was a short flight to reach the border from Hessler. Before any of the three could think of a plan to quickly find the dragon, Evelyn noticed a plume on the horizon. Pointing it out, she asked: “What's that?”

“It looks like fire!” Heinrich said.

The three all instantly came to the same conclusion; “The dragon!”

Heinrich immediately directed his flight toward the plume of smoke rising up. In just a few short minutes, they were already close enough to see what was going on. The horrific scene of a regiment of soldiers was being devastated by a dark red dragon! Fire formations were being endlessly created as fields of fire fell among the soldiers, blocking most of their escape. The dragon itself was down on the ground, smashing the soldiers apart with its tail and claws!

Heinrich roared as he, Adam, and Evelyn all sent a thread of spirit essence to the dragon. They all shouted: “Stop!”

The dragon did stop, as it coldly gazed up at them. A scoffing male voice was sent back: “You whelps can't stop me! Death to the northern flock!”

The dragon took off and headed straight for Heinrich with evil in his eyes! Heinrich immediately tried to back away, but the red dragon was far more comfortable with flight than Heinrich was. As the dragon quickly closed in, both Adam and Evelyn quickly fired off a wind blade and fireball. Both were hastily done, in an attempt to make the dragon change his course to give them some time, but they just bounced off the dragon's scales! Before anything else could be done, the dragon rammed into them with a large BAM!

Heinrich was forced backwards by the collision which destabilized his flight. Adam and Evelyn could barely hold on! Both wanted to Dragon-form to turn the tide against this red dragon, but if Adam and Heinrich's fight had taught them anything, it was that they were very vulnerable during the Dragon-forming process. They had to wait for the right moment when they were certain the dragon wouldn't be able to attack them during the process.

While Heinrich was trying to recover his flight, the red dragon spread his wings wide in front of himself and a giant flaming inferno appeared between them! Just as the power in the formation the dragon was using to conjure the inferno was about to peak, Adam thrust his palm out and a lightning bolt issued forth! The lightning passed through a gap in the inferno's formation that Adam could see with his elemental sight. Instead of directly clashing against the spirit essence in the inferno, it passed right through it to smash into the dragon's chest!

The dragon's eyes grew wide as his heart palpitated under the intense electrical surge. Having been temporarily paralyzed by the lightning, the dragon plummeted to the ground as the inferno he was summoning exploded where it was!

Finally having their chance, Adam and Evelyn vaulted off to either side of Heinrich and Dragon-formed. While the two were Dragon-forming, Heinrich closed in his wings and dived straight at the dragon! Heinrich's forte was close combat and the dragon was currently unbalanced and trying to recover its fall. It was the perfect opportunity to attack!

The dragon straightened himself out and roared out angrily at Adam, Evelyn, and Heinrich. “ROA-” His roar was cut short, however, as he suddenly found Heinrich just a few meters away in a powerful dive aimed right at him! he didn't have any time to move before Heinrich's shoulder rammed into him! The force from the collision finally forced him to the ground as he crashed through a few trees.

Heinrich then hit the ground and smashed his claws into the ground to cause pillars of earth to suddenly jut up and attack the dragon from every direction! However, the pillars simply broke or glanced off the dragon's scales. With a flash of fire, the dragon created an explosion that destroyed the pillars that were surrounding him!

At this time, Adam and Evelyn also started their own attacks! Adam once again created a bolt of lightning, stronger than the last! There was no way for the dragon to doge the lightning as it struck his chest! The lightning actually blew apart some of his scales as the dragon howled in pain and convulsed from the lightning! At the same time, a field of fire fell from the sky as Evelyn summoned the most damaging flames she could! The flames scorched the dragon's scales, but didn't cause much damage to them. At the wound on his chest, though, the fire burned away at the dragon's flesh!

After the electricity stopped coursing through his body, the dragon leaped up from the ground. Fear could finally be seen in his eyes! He was obviously not expecting the fight to turn out this way! he quickly turned around and started to flee!

Watching the fleeing dragon, Adam gave a cold: “Hmph.”

This dragon was nothing more than a bandit! Attacking when he thought he could win and fleeing when he could not. And he seemed to be blood thirsty with the way he attacked both the soldiers and Adam's group! If Adam could claim any achievement in his life, it was that he was good at putting down bandits!

Adam gave a ferocious beat of his wings as electricity surged from them! Adam seemingly turned into a line of light as he zipped straight at the fleeing dragon. The dragon's speed was nowhere near fast enough to escape from Adam! Before the dragon could even realize Adam was closing in on him, Adam over took him! While passing by his side, Adam gave a savage sweep at the dragon's wing webbing. With his claws sharpened by blades of wind, Adam tore through and ripped the wing asunder!

With another cry of pain, the dragon plummeted to the ground. Heinrich and Evelyn could only look on, stunned by Adam's sudden burst of speed. The dragon was faster than either of them, so there was no way they were going to catch up. However, Adam overtook the dragon in but an instant!

Adam flew in slowly while still keeping his distance. He had a glowering look in his eyes. The dragon below him looked up: “You think I will allow you to win so simply? Think again!”

The dragon raised his head and howled an odd sound. The air above the dragon distorted and then seemed to cave in! A swath of black flame spread out from the hole that was suddenly formed in the air! It only existed for a moment before disappearing, though. Seeming to have accomplished whatever it was that the dragon was trying to do, it looked back at Adam with a menacing look. All the spirit essence in the dragon's body surged together and he rocketed through the air towards Adam! The spirit essence was in an extremely unstable state and ready to explode out with tremendous force! With hardly a thought, Adam quickly shot out a bolt of lightning at the dragon. The lightning bolt tore into the the unstable mass of spirit essence that had become the dragon's body and caused the dragon to loose control over it! The mass exploded in the air a short distance from Adam and he was thrown back by the shock-wave of the explosion!

The shock-wave didn't cause him any sever injuries, but caused pain all over Adam's body. Adam slowly got up with a grunt issuing from his dragon throat: “Ugh.”

Looking over to where the mass of spirit essence exploded, Adam's scales seemed to stand on end in fright! A crater that was a around twenty meters across was embedded deep into the ground! The trees for a hundred meters around were all uprooted or broken down by the force of the shock-wave! If Adam had been any later in releasing that lightning bolt, he could have been inside the radius of that crater when the dragon exploded!

And that was only a small part of the after math. The area a few hundred meters around started to rapidly wither! The dragon was mostly made of fire essence and that all exploded out from his body. The fire essence was now settling around the area. Life could not co-exist with a high amount of fire essence since it was too hot! Not only that, there were a few creatures caught by the spirit essence that were turning into demonic beasts!

Adam had pushed that dragon to the brink in order to kill him and this was the result! Heinrich and Evelyn slowly flew over, their thoughts immersed in the scene. Adam sent to them: “There isn't any time to waste. We need to take care of the demonic beasts that were created by this explosion. They will cause havoc if we don't!”

Brought back by Adam's words, Heinrich agreed: “Right. Let's split up and mop them all up.”

Evelyn tacitly nodded. She really didn't like all this fighting. Killing creatures with her ability as a spiritualist also didn't sit right with her. But, she knew that it would be worse to just let the beasts go.

With their ability to fly, it was easy for the three to scour the area and take care of any demonic beasts. Most were still in the process of transforming and couldn't even run. After the short time it took to mop all the demonic beasts up, they met back up near the crater in their Human-forms.

Heinrich started out: “I think that was an elder from the southern flock! He was very powerful.”

Evelyn nodded: “We still don't have as good a grasp on formations as those older than us. Our attacks could hardly do a thing against that dragon! If it wasn't for Adam's lightning, we would have had to flee.”

Heinrich shook his head: “That elder was faster than us. We wouldn't have been able to flee. he would have killed us!”

Adam then voiced his thoughts: “The question is; what was he doing here? Why was he attacking that army regiment?... are the southern flock of dragons joining in on this war between kingdoms?”

A grave silence fell after Adam's question. No one knew the answer. This could even potentially be a part of the spirit wars spilling over into this world!

Evelyn asked: “Should we go back to the village to warn the elders? Ask them if they know anything about this?”

Adam suddenly had a thought about this: “It would take too long to reach the village. However, we could warn the Church of Spirits. If the southern flock is planning on interfering with this war between kingdoms, I want to put a stop to it. It will just cause even more chaos! The Church of Spirits may have a way to deal with this.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Heinrich responded.

Evelyn also nodded her head: “Okay.”

Adam then said: “Alright. I will take us to Heider. I am the fastest.”

They took a short few hour flight to get to Heider City. It was the closest place that had a Church of Spirits cathedral. A fair distance from the city, Adam landed. It would cause a big ruckus if he landed near the cathedral in his dragon-form. The army might even attack if they felt threatened! So the three approached on foot in their Human-form.

The cathedral in Heider City wasn't nearly as large as the last one Adam had previously been to. Still, it was a grand and majestic Gothic style building. As the three approached, they were trying to solve a small dilemma.

Evelyn asked: “Who do we talk to? Are they going to believe us if we talk about dragons?”

Adam stopped them just outside of the cathedral grounds. “You should try to talk to a bishop if there is one there or a high cleric. I am going to stay here.”

“What, why?”

Adam sighed: “The Church of Spirits primarily follows the spirits of life. They hate it when they see the death essence I carry. It'll be easier if you just talk to them without me. I can't add anything extra that either of you could say.”

Heinrich and Evelyn left Adam outside the cathedral grounds and went in themselves. An hour later, a small bustle occurred in the cathedral as a few messengers were sent out. Shortly after, Heinrich and Evelyn came out. Walking up to Adam, they had an awkward look on their faces.

“What happened?” Adam asked.

Heinrich said: “Well, we got in to see a high cleric. He knew enough to know that we were telling the truth. Then, a spirit spoke to us in the altar room! It said that they already knew the southern flock was interfering with this war, but all the dragons from the northern flock will still take a few weeks to get here! The war is likely to erupt this week and the army to the north likely has more dragons on their side! We were asked to try and protect the army stationed in Heider until the other dragons could come and we agreed.”

Adam gave a sigh. It seemed that Heinrich and Evelyn were forced to agree through a guilty conscience. If they didn't do anything, a lot of mayhem and death would ensue. Adam said: “That's fine, I just hope they don't expect us to fight in the war among men. We should only be there to deter the dragons.”

Heinrich and Evelyn shifted uncomfortably. Adam gave them a look: “Don't tell me...”

Heinrich continued: “They are attaching us to an army regiment as a dragon and his 'tamer'. We will naturally join the war efforts until the others come.”

Evelyn spoke up: “I told him that we shouldn't have agreed to that! Its just not right to fight in a war like this.”

Heinrich looked to Evelyn: “And I told you that you don't have to fight. It is enough that I do. That is the only reason why I said yes. You don't have to do anything, but this is something I want to do.”

Adam looked at Heinrich: “Why do you want to do this?”

“The army to the north is aligned with the southern dragons. You fought that elder, you should know how evil they are! Why shouldn't we fight against those allied with them?”

Adam shook his head: “War is more complicated than good and evil. Only twenty to thirty people in that entire army probably know about being allied with the southern dragons. The rest are simply patriots fighting for their country. Good men led astray by their superiors. I won't stop you from fighting, but just remember that and don't do anything you will regret later. I have already been down that road.”

Heinrich wasn't sure how to respond to Adam. Evelyn looked at Adam and asked: “Will you come with us?”

Adam nodded: “I will help against the southern dragons, but I will not do anything for the war itself.”

With that, the three of them left Heider City. After going far enough out, Heinrich Dragon-formed and took the other two to the staging area where the army was gathering in Heider.