“Hmmmmm…” The entity thinks as he feels probing at his consciousness. “Did something truly enter my domain while I slumbered?” It sends out it’s consciousness in the form of a shade, the shade slips into the miasma, swimming up the shaft that holds the trespasser. When it arrives in the area it sees an elf, or what remains of one. “Poor little elf.” The entity thinks. It then floats towards the elf slowly, running a semi transparent hand over what remains of her cheek, her natural regeneration attempting to fight the damage from the miasma but the miasma is slowly winning. “This elf… looks familiar.” The entity thinks as it moves closer. The entity then realizes who the elf is. “Well… if you wanted to see me that bad you could have waited till I was awake again.” The entity wraps his shadowy body around Astrid, dragging her deeper into the miasma.

“I will… kill… you both!” Viele roars, charging at the assailant who dared to injure his master, the shadowy tendrils attempting to grip him tear like paper.

“Sneff! We need to be careful, it may be a small guardian but guardians are extremely dangerous!” Shawn hollers as he dodges out of the way of Viele’s charge, throwing a dagger as he does. The dagger slams into Viele’s side, bouncing off his armor harmlessly. “Shit!” Shawn yells as he picks up the dagger as he runs by.

Viele skids to a stop as he passes by Shawn. Letting out another roar he charges at Shawn again, trying to smash him against the wall. Sneff suddenly jumps on Viele’s back as Viele charges. Sneff then starts slamming his fists down on Viele’s back armor, the force of the blows are powerful enough to crack the armor on Viele’s back. Viele lets out a pained roar as the armor cracks. Suddenly a multitude of snakes burst out of Viele’s back, wrapping and biting down on Sneff, injecting him with venom.

Sneff screams as he feels fangs penetrate his legs. He knew he is in danger so he jumps off Viele with all his might, nearly ripping the snakes out of Viele’s back as he does. “Master! Be careful, this guardian, it is strange.”

“I know!” Shawn yells as he raises his hands. “Shadow cannon!” A black blob appears in Shawn’s hand, he then throws it at Viele as he charges again, the blob slamming against Viele, causing intense pain but no physical damage.

Viele grins as he watches Shawn spawn another black blob and throw it as Viele continues his charge. When the blob gets close to hitting him again he shifts into his normal form, sliding underneath the thrown ball. He then shifts into his dryad form, his legs in a crouched position. He then leaps from his crouched position, his hands turning into blades as he flies towards Shawn.

“Shit.” The only words Shawn can get out as he watches the strange guardian shift twice in front of him, dodging his spell and at this very moment flying towards him in the form of a beautiful woman. He raises his hands in an attempt to cast another spell to save his life but the blades are already inches away.

“NOOOOOOO!” Sneff hollers as he slams into Viele’s side, sending Viele’s light dryad body flying across the room, slamming against the wall.

“Sneff, thank Gaia.” Shawn says as he watches the dryad shift into a guardian form again. “We are going to have to use the daggers again, if we don’t, we may not get out of here alive.”

“But… master.” Sneff sniffles, but he knows it is safest bet as he slowly starts to lose control of his legs as the venom from early takes effect.

“Don’t complain, just do it.” Shawn reaches into a pocket and pulls out two small red and black daggers, he then tosses one to Sneff.

“Well master, see you in a few months.” Sneff says as he stabs his right paw with the dagger.

“Back at you.” Shawn says as he stabs his right hand.

Viele snarls as he watches the two in confusion, he then starts to worry as the black monkey seems to start to fade away. He then kicks at the stone floor charging at the man who is the target for his anger. As he gets close to Shawn, mere inches from running him down he gets thrown back from an explosion of mana, slamming him against the stone wall. Viele quickly gets back up and his eyes widen when he sees Shawn. He seemed to have changed, instead of a human he is now covered in black fur and has an extra set of arms.

“I hate doing this because it’s dangerous, and it dissolves the daggers more and more with each use but I guess I needed to use them. They are a specially crafted weapon that allowed you and another creature to temporarily merge, kind of like a temporary demon transformation you can say.” Shawn says as he smiles, revealing several rows of razor sharp teeth. “Now, let me finish you off right quick so you can join your master.”

Viele enrages when he listens to Shawn’s words. “I… WILL… KILL… YOU!” He roars as he transforms into his dryad form, raising his hands a root spike forms and quickly fires at Shawn.

Shawn raises his hands, several tendrils erupt from the ground and grip the spike, stopping it midair. “Too weak!” Shawn yells as he raises all four arms into the air, four black orbs forming, one for each arm. He then throws them at Viele at a frighteningly high speed.

Viele quickly dodges two but the other two hit one of his legs, seeming to devour where it hit, causing the leg to separate as the orb goes through. Viele lets out a roar as snakes erupt from the severed leg and reattach to the main body, reforming the leg.

“So, you are some sort of snake monster huh?” The transformed Shawn chuckles. “So do you have a main body or do I have to destroy all of you in one hit?”

“You will… never find out… I will kill you… and save massssster!” Viele roars as he raises his hands again, this time several snakes erupt from Viele’s back. “Wrath of Yggdrasil!” Two large root spikes and a multitude of smaller ones appear in front of Viele as all the snakes open their mouths, seeming to chant as the root spikes float midair. The mass of root spike suddenly fire at Shawn, a screeching noise can be heard as they fly through the air.

“Eternal darkness!” Shawn yells as the spikes fly towards him. Suddenly the entire room turns pitch black. The sound of a multitude of root spikes can be heard slamming against a stone wall.

“That was a dangerous spell Viele.” Shawn says in the darkness.

Viele’s vision is totally blackened, he is not even able to see his hand in front of his face. When he hears Shawn talk he quickly fires a root spike spell towards where the voice was coming from. Only to get the sound of the root spike hitting stone wall in return.

“So, Viele, have you ever met a proper demon? They can be very scary.” Shawn says as he hides in the darkness.

Viele fires another root spike towards the voice of Shawn then suddenly feels two fists slam into his side. Viele roars as he gets slung across the room, slamming against the wall again. He quickly gets back on his feet and shifts into his guardian form, violently thrashing randomly attempting to catch Shawn in the darkness.

“I met one before, someone in the RexDevils, well back then it was the mithrilcorps, was one. Not sure if he was always one, or if someone turned him into one, but he seemed like a normal person. Till one battle we were assisting in the defense of a major city near my hometown. They were on the border of an enemy country, and even though the city was at peace for years the enemy country decided to pillage the city for resources.”

Viele lets out another roar as he feels four fists slam into his side, the sound of armor breaking can be heard as the hit causes Viele to roll across the floor. Ignoring the pain, he gets up and charges where he was, only to slam into the wall.

“Well, the fight was going as planned, we were holding them back. Then during the final battle we had fire start to erupt from one of our front ranks. We at first thought it was an enemy fire mage hidden somewhere but to our horror it was something… different. From the eruption of flames came a giant creature, it was humanoid…ish… but it had three heads. The middle head was one I recognized, it was one my comrades, but on both sides of that head was two canine heads. Before we could regroup the two canine heads started to spew fire, killing people left and right. More would have died if it were not for two courageous men. Our captain at the time, Eric Rex, and his son, the second in command, Sken Rex.”

Viele lets out a pained roar as he feels several more punches get rained down on him, unable to defend himself in the darkness.

“Well, those two men charged at the demon, dodging flames, giving the men time to escape. Then suddenly the creature spoke out of its human head. It talked about how it always wanted to put the two in their places, and how it was going to play with the two till it got tired.” Shawn then pauses for a moment as he watches the injured Viele try to slash out with the snakes on his back. “Well, after a bit of fighting Sken received heavy injuries due to the powerful flames. We were able to drag him away from the fight as we made one last ditch effort to kill the creature. We moved over the city’s ballista into position. Thankfully captain Eric was able to guess what we were doing and did his best to keep the demon from figuring out what we were doing. Unfortunately, due to that he ended up getting cornered, the creature was able to grab him and as we were firing the ballista the demon pulled Eric apart. We tried to block Sken from seeing it but he seen everything. Thankfully though, the ballista where able to impale the beast and kill it.” Shawn lets out a laugh as he punches Viele in the face, shattering the armor on his face and sending him into the wall again.

“Why… are… you telling… me thisssss?” Viele asks as he tries to stand back up, but slumps back down as his body screams out in pain.

“Oh, I guess it is due to your master. See, my captain apparently killed her parents. I guess this is my little way to say that Sken wasn’t always a bad guy.” Shawn appears as the darkness fades away from the room, the glow from the moss reillumination the room. “Not that it matters, the miasma should have killed her off by now.”

Viele hears his words but doesn’t believe him, he still felt his master, their connection was faint but it remained. He then looks up as the shadows all seem to fade away, revealing the room again, the luminescent moss as bright as ever.

“And that is pretty much how the RexDevils were formed, Sken took over and renamed the group. At the same time he also seemed to have lost his humanity and become like a demon himself.” Shawn says as he walks closer to Viele, all four of his arms get engulfed in a shadowy essence as he starts to pummel Viele mercilessly till Viele no longer moves. “One last thing with my story, the reason Sken chose the name RexDevils, instead of RexDemons, is because of the old legends saying that the Demons where made from powerful devils, which in a way is perfect for our little group.” He says as he punches Viele one more time making sure he was no longer moving. “I guess you are dead now huh?” Shawn stands up, stretching his arms as he turns around, walking towards the exit. “With this form I should be able to handle those clicker ants if they are still out there.”

“Please, I know, this is the only time you can do it till I get stronger.” Viele mumbles, causing Shawn to turn around.

“Oh, you are still alive?” Shawn starts to crack his knuckles as he walks back towards Viele. “You might have lived if you would have just kept quiet.” He suddenly freezes as he starts to feel an overwhelming feeling of fear.

Viele’s body erupts, snakes flowing out of the guardian’s body like water, all slithering together and expanding rapidly, the snakes continue expanding till they take up nearly half the room, forcing Shawn into a corner. The snakes then start to shift, taking on the form of a giant green armored creature with giant scythes. When the body finishes forming two red eyes appear under the green hood covering its head.

Shawn feels his blood seem to freeze as he looks at the large green scythes, one scythe was longer than he was tall, and the body encompassed half the room, even blocking the exit. “Eternal darkness!” Shawn yells. He watches the two scythes, one twitches slightly when he yells to activate Eternal Darkness. He stands there as the room doesn’t turn dark, instead his stomach starts to hurt. He looks down to see blood trickling down his stomach, he then looks up and feels his body sliding. He looks down after he lands on the stone floor. “My legs, why are they like that?” He says as he sees his feet are now laying near his head. His eyes grow wide as he realizes what he is looking at, his body is cut in half, and on the wall behind where he was standing there are several feet of stone cleaved out of it. “This is impossible! How are you that powerful!” Shawn yells as he lays there, growing colder by the second.

Viele leans his head over Shawn’s. “I… guess… I couldn’t keep… promissss… to massssster…” He says before his palps lift up Shawn’s upper body half and brings it to his mouth, devouring him in one bite.

He then turns to the pool of miasma. “Now to… sssave… massssster…” He says, taking one step, he falls forward, shifting into his normal form as he does. When he starts to slither towards the miasma pool his body stops moving as his body gets overcome with drowsiness, the last thing he hears before he faints is a voice in his head. “I told you that you don’t have the power to control my form yet."

Deeper inside the mountain.

“Poor little elf girl, she doesn’t see me in forever and when she does decide to, she looks like this!” The entity says as it lays Astrid down on the stone floor in a cavern deep inside the mountain. It looks up at the giant bones that he laid Astrid in front of then back at Astrid. It reaches down, feeling for any life in the body. “There is a tiny amount left, but her flame will be extinguished shortly.” It then slowly descends, its’ body covering Astrid body, seeming to freeze her body in its’ current state. “Let’s talk to her consciousness while it is still here.” The entity says as it starts to merge with Astrid’s consciousness.

Astrid’s consciousness floats in a sea of white, around her, darkness slowly creeping up to her. She looks slightly different from what she does outside of her consciousness. She is in the form of a small elven child, around six years old. Tears are flowing from her eyes as she floats there, waiting for the end.

“Hello there, child.” A deep, almost fatherly voice says. “Why are you crying?”

Astrid lifts her young face up to look where the voice is coming from, tears still flowing like a river. “Snifffle… my… parents…. Are… gone… sniffle…” She bawls, the tears blur her vision. “And… sniffle… now… I am goingggg to dieeeeee.” The childlike Astrid cries.

“It will be okay little elf.” The voice says again.

Suddenly something hard taps Astrid’s head, confusing her as what she sees in front of her is a dark blur due to her tears. She then wipes away her tears, letting her eyes unblur to make out what is in front of her. What she sees now is the scariest thing she has ever seen, a massive black lizard like creature is standing in front of her, on its’ sides are too massive wings that seems to fold perfectly against its’ sides. Its’ head is covered in long black horns.

“Are you an angel sent to bring me to my mommy and daddy?” Astrid asks as she wipes her eyes more, looking up at the massive creature.

The creature’s mouth opens wide, letting out a thunderous laugh. “My my my, this form of you is no different from when I last seen you.” The creature then lays down, curling its’ massive tail against its’ side. “No little elf, I am not an angel, as you call them.”

“Awwww…” Astrid pouts.

“I’m actually an old friend.” The creature says.

“Huh?” Astrid tilts her head, confused.

The creature opens one of its clawed feet, bringing it in front of Astrid. In its’ hand a familiar shade suddenly forms, causing Astrid’s eyes to widen.

“It’s you!” Astrid screams in delight and runs over to the creature’s clawed hand, wrapping her stubby arms not even halfway around one of the clawed fingers. She then stops and steps back. “I’m sorry, but my mommy and daddy said not to talk to you.”

The creature frowns. “Not even a little? What if it is just a little bit.”

Astrid shakes her head no. “Nope! I am a good girl!”

The creature cracks a smile. “Well, I just wanted you to know I missed you visiting me.”

“I missed visiting you too!” Astrid says before her face turns red and she turns back around looking away from the creature. “I’m not supposed to talk to you!”

“What if your mommy and daddy secretly wanted me to talk to you in case something ever happened to them?” The creature says as he moves his giant head closer to Astrid.

Astrid turns around to look at the creature’s giant head right behind her. “Mommy and daddy told you that you can talk to me?” Her eyes then narrow as the head, several times larger than her, is only a foot or so in front of her. “I guessssss… since you are my friend… I believe you.” Astrid then smiles puts her arms on the creature’s face, hugging it.

“So Mr. friend, since you are not an angel come to bring me to mommy and daddy what are you doing here, and what are you?” Astrid asks, her innocent eyes boggling at the creature.

“For why I am here? You can say to help a friend. As to what I am?” The creature brings up a clawed hand and taps its’ chin as if it’s thinking. “I used to be called two different things many years ago. Way before you parents were even born.”

“And what are those things.” Astrid asks.

“My friends called me… a dragon… my enemies called me… a devil.” The creature says, looking down at the tiny elf sadly.

“DWAGON!” Astrid says cheerfully. “Since I am your friend I will call you a dwagon!” A giant grin is on Astrid’s face as she stares up at the dragon. Her grin suddenly turns into a frown as she starts to shake slightly as if afraid.

“Mr. Dwagon, I am dying, right? For some reason, I feel… and know… that I am dying.” Astrid says as she looks around, noticing the black areas are growing larger again.

The dragon looks at the now sad Astrid. “You don’t want to die, do you?”

“No, well unless I get to see mommy and daddy again.” Astrid says as she looks back up at the dragon.

The dragon nuzzles its’ nose against the little elf girl. “Nope, if you die you won’t see your parents again.”

Astrid hugs the dragon’s nose again. “Then I don’t want to die.”

“Are you sure? It may hurt, a lot, and you may be a little, different.” The dragon says as a small smile creeps onto its’ face.

Astrid hesitates a moment then nods. “Mommy and daddy said I am a big girl now.” She then starts to sniffle as tears start to fall again. “And I don’t want to die.”

“Then wait here, little Astrid, I will make sure you don’t die.” The dragon says as it fades away.

Outside of Astrid’s consciousness the entity quickly goes to work. It goes to the pile of ribs, gripping the side of a rib bone he rips off a three-inch piece of bone in the shape of a sharp spike. “Rib bone, fitting choice for what I am about to do.” It says as it floats over to Astrid, lifting the shard high into the air. The cavern starts to shake as the entity concentrates on the bone, a nearby pool of miasma starts to float for a moment before flying towards the bone. The pool of miasma starts to gather and condense on the top of the bone, forming a small orb that seems to absorb all light. Once the miasma pool is entirely absorbed into the orb the entity grins as runes start appearing on the bone. “Good, good!” Now I must hurry; she is nearly gone.” The entity then lifts the bone above Astrid’s left breast. “Wait… elves… their hearts are in the middle. Not on the left.” The entity moves the bone to the center of Astrid’s chest. A cracking noise can be heard as the entity thrusts the bone into Astrid’s chest, once the bone penetrates Astrid’s chest slightly it starts to burrow all on its own as if it was alive.

Astrid’s body suddenly starts to spasm, flopping around uncontrolled.

“Thankfully she is not going to be awake for what is about to happen.” The entity says as it watches Astrid.

The child Astrid screams as her chest feels like it gets stabbed, slowly the pain starts to fade as she grips her chest. Replaced by a strong warmth coming from her chest. “It hurts… mommy… daddy… save me… please…” She cries out.

“Mommy and daddy can’t save you, they are dead, and you are not.” A feminine voice says.

Astrid looks up to see a strange looking adult woman, she is covered in black and green scales and has two large wings. She also has elven ears but has long black hair with several large horns sticking out. But what surprises her the most is her face, other than the eyes having red lizard like pupils, her face looked almost exactly like her mother. “Mommy?” Astrid says as she stands up, trying to run to the strange woman.

“Mommy? No… I’m not your mommy… I am you. Or the you that you will eventually be.” The woman says as she stops the child Astrid from hugging her.

“But… how?” Astrid asks confused, staring at the woman’s face.

“I am a part of your consciousness made by master to help you till you are fully transformed.” The woman says with a smile.

“Transformed?” Astrid asks, her eyes then growing wide when she sees a large black and green tail behind the woman flicking agitatedly. “Into what?”

“Into a creature lost to the legends. The demon known as a Dragoon.”