"We have arrived!" said Abalone as she gazed intensively at the dragon continent.

It has been years since she last visited her homeland and even then, she could only watch from afar, out of fear of being attacked by the grunts of the dragon council. A strange sense of nostalgia and tranquility overcame her. It was weird for her to feel such sentiments. Being born in the outside world without having ever taken a step on Oros, Abalone could still somehow feel a deep connection to this ancient land. Perhaps it was a natural instinct of the dragons, something that resided in their blood since the time of the Gods. The years of wandering without every staying in one place for too long have not been kind to Abalone. Losing her family, it wasn't easy. And now she has finally returned home.

But those feelings might evolve into something else soon as for the first time in her life and probably for all members of her clan, a sea dragon would now walk on Oros once again.

"I see nothing!!! Where is the way out?" a young voice echoed from inside the dragon's belly.

"Alastor, should we go further in?" a female voice spoke in a monotone accent.

"NO NO NO! Stay right where you are! I will push you out!" Abalone shouted in panic. In this situation, there were only two ways out: either by the way they came in or....the other way. An image flashed in the dragon's mind as she quivered in dread and disgust at the mere thought of it.

Landing on a nearby beach, it was time for the main guests to come out.

*Vomiting sound*

Two figures were thrown out of the dragon's throat on the beach sand as they started standing up and tried to shake off the slimy liquid they were covered in.

"This experience has opened a whole new world of transportation for me. But I wish we will never do it again." Alastor sighed.

"You still have to go back, no?" asked Abalone.

"Nah! Amelia has given this portal stone that will allow me to transport back to everywhere I have been. From now on, no need for Abalone Express anymore! But I have to thank you for helping us get here. What will you do from now on?" inquired the demon lord.

"...To be honest, I don't know...What about you? It's late for me to ask but what exactly are you doing here? Last time I heard, Oros is currently in a state of war because of a rebellion. And when dragons fight, no one wants to be anywhere near them. Yet, you insisted on coming here. Why?"

"....There are quite a few reasons but..." Alastor muttered with hesitation.

"It's fine if you don't want to tell me. I can understand that..." the dragon said.

"No it's not like that. It's just a bit complicated. As for you, I think I can trust you. You don't seem like a bad person and everything you told me so far was the truth. In return, I must do the same.

There are three main reasons I am here. First is that this civil war between the dragons concerns not just them but also the rest of the world. Depending on the outcome, we can either look forward for a chance at peace with the demons or a total war with them in the future. As you may have guessed, I want to make sure that the demons will be considered a proper race and equal to the Primes. Surely you must have seen some of them in Ragna. Are they really that different from you?"

"....Like you said, indeed I was surprised when I first met them. They are...more normal than I thought they would be, totally the opposite of what we used to be told. I guess it's a legitimate reason to give them at least a chance at peace...And you...should I take it that you are a demon too? Not that it matters now anyway."

"I am. Sorry I haven't told you about it!" Alastor confessed.

"It's alright! I can understand why you didn't, considering the horrible thing we did to your people in the past. Actually, we even did the same to our own. Me and my clan is an example of that." Abalone spoke.

"I see...As for my second reason, apparently someone is waiting for me in this place, someone I cannot ignore. However I don't know what he looks like so it might be hard to find him."

"Do you know his name? Not that I would know since this is also my first time being here but if he is someone famous, I probably might have heard about him." Asked the dragon.

"I think his name is Amon...if I remember correctly."

"Wow the same name as the Dragon God? That's amazing!" Abalone uttered in shock.

".....Yeah!"

"But are you sure he is here? The dragon council forbids anyone to adopt the same name as our God because it would be sacrilegious toward our God. I doubt he could be freely moving around here..."

"That's what I have been told by a friend of his. I don't think she would have lied to me..." the image of the dying Goddess of the Moon flashed in Alastor's mind as he spoke in a sad tone.

"Then I guess it's high possible that he is in the rebellion army. Your best bet is to find them." Abalone gave her opinion.

"And I intend to as it is also my third and final reason for being here. Actually it is my highest priority; I am also looking for someone...a family member of mine. I think he is among the ones who trigger the rebellion in the first place."

"Your family..." Abalone twitched slightly at the mere word. Something appeared in her mind: a bad memory of the past. "Alastor, would you allow me to accompany you for a while?"

"Well I don't mind. You are more than welcome but why do you want to go with me? It will be quite dangerous for someone like you."

"I know the pain of losing one's family. Since you have helped me recovering the last heirloom and memory of my parents, I want to help you too. You don't know how precious it is for me and how frightened I was when I lost it. I will never forget what you have done for me. So let me help you, once again!"

"Thank you! I guess this makes us friends now." The boy grinned joyfully together with the dragon. "But how will you go on land? Should I make the bubble like before?"

"Haha no need! Watch this!" In an instant, the moonstone on Abalone's necklace shined brightly as the light engulfed her body before fainting and revealing an adolescent girl around in her twenties. With long tied up bisque haired color, wearing a green cloak and attire of a travelling merchant with small pouches attached to the belt of her blue dress, Abalone's human form looked quite similar of that of an elf, especially due to her pointy ears. "My stone allows me to take on a human form, a specialty known only to us sea dragons. Though we cannot maintain it forever and need to charge the stone under the moonlight and underwater. But no worry since it will take like a month for the current state of the stone to run out of mana."

"What a convenient item to have!" Alastor commented. "Then let us go!"

* * *

A young girl was playing by herself in a nearby lake. Or perhaps playing was not the right word as she was staring at the ground, turning her head left and right as if she was looking for something. The answer was simple. She was looking for a present. Last time in this place, she has found a rather beautiful stone and decided to make a statue of her best friend out of it as a gift for him. However, in the end it broke so now she wanted to return to this place in hope of finding something similar to replace the broken one.

However, it has been since early morning that she began her search, to no avail unfortunately. Still she persevered, just so she could please her friend in the best way she knew. What an innocent and thoughtful girl!

Deciding to take a break, Syralth lied down on the green grass carpet under the brilliant sunlight. Perhaps it was due to her reptilian side but the girl really liked basking under the sun. The warmth, it comforted her and protected from the bad dreams...at least that was what she thought in her pure mind.

Then suddenly, her afternoon nap was disrupted by noises coming from the forest.

"Is this the right direction?" a young male voice spoke out loud.

"What is the right direction? We are just going further into Oros without really knowing our destination." A female voice said.

"May I suggest we fly instead of walking?" a monotonous voice spoke.

"....Yeah why didn't we think of that?" the male spoke. "Oh yeah! Because our dragoness can't fly!"

"Don't blame it on me! No one taught me how to fly so how I am supposed to know? Besides, Oros is filled with dense forests, making it very difficult to spot someone from above like you said. Sure, it's quicker but there is a high chance you will miss the person you are looking for."

Immediately, the young draconian decided to hide behind a large rock. After the attack of the adventurers, she has learnt to be more careful with strangers. But upon seeing the strangers, she quickly lowered her guard as they were only a bunch of kids. While they seemed to be slightly older than her, they were not rough looking men like before, making them looking more 'trustworthy'.

"Hey who are you?" Appearing from behind the rock, Syralth walked out and showed herself to the strangers.

"Oh hello little lady!" said Alastor.

"I am not little. It's called humble in size." Syralth pouted. "And you are not that taller than me anyway."

"My apologies!" Alastor excused himself. "My name is Alastor. These two are my companions Stella and Abalone. Your turn!"

"As if I will tell you! BLEEE!" Syralth showed her tongue to the group. The girl's behavior might seem a bit immature but inside, she was actually very excited. It was her first time seeing someone her age after all. "What are you three doing here, sneaking around in my forest?"

"Then I apologize for trespassing on your territory. We are actually lost here so if you don't mind helping us out a little bit..."

"Where are you going?" asked Syralth.

"We don't really know either..." Abalone spoke.

"That's...suspicious...What exactly are you doing here?"

"We are looking forward someone named Kaiser." asked Alastor.

"KAISER?" Syralth shouted in disbelief "Hum...no? I certainly don't know any man named Kaiser..."

"I didn't say he was a man though."

"Well Kaiser is a boy's name." the draconian grunted.

"It could be a girl's name for all you know." Alastor jested.

"That's not true!!! Mister Kaiser is a boy..." the young girl blurted out before quickly covering her mouth upon realizing what she just said.

* * *

"I am telling you, I am so close to solving it now. Just wait a bit longer and don't do anything stupid!" the lich said in a displeased voice after hearing the plan of the little girl by his side.

"Then just continue what you are doing! If I fail then it's not like it will change anything." The Goddess grunted.

"But we don't know what is down there. What you do might instead awake it or something even worse might happen."

"Like what? Do you have any proof?" the red haired girl inquired.

"...Not really but I am very close now. Most of the translation is almost done. All I have to do is to finish it and pierce them together. Just wait for one more day...no, an hour will be enough, please!" Noroeth tried to convince the girl.

"I am tired of sitting around doing nothing. I have given you enough time already. Now it's my turn!"

"But why the rush? We still haven't seen any sign of the living metal's awakening yet." Noroeth conveyed.

"And if we stay idle for too long, it would be too late to do anything when it does. You weren't there, Theoron. You don't know how terrifying that thing is. Do you know how dreadful it is to live in this castle, knowing that that thing is right under your feet? No you don't!" Lilith retorted back before storming out of the room. Her voice could still be heard, echoing throughout the hallway from afar. "Archna, lead me down to the tunnel! We will destroy this thing once and for all."

.....

"God damn it! Why doesn't she listen? It's not just Akroma down there...There is also Tartarus, which we know absolutely nothing about. I have to translate this quickly and show it to her." The skeleton spoke to himself as he sat down next to his desk and resumed what he has been doing for the last few days.

It took a lot of time but Noroeth has finally managed to create a small dictionary based on the old text that would help him translate the ancient Oath made between the Artificer and the demon lords of the past. However, from what he has gathered so far, the lich figured out that he might have stumbled upon something much more significant than he thought. Inside his mind for the last few days, he has pondered a lot on the subject, deducing quite a few speculations and possibly hypothesis based from what he has translated so far. However, there was one particular conjecture that kind of stood out from the rest as it was the most terrifying out of all. Something that Noroeth prayed it would not be the case. Because if it was, what Lilith was doing, if she succeeded, it might doom them all.

"Finally! Let's finish this!" Taking out each word from the dictionary and inputting the translated version of that word into the half translated text, Noroeth began to read in his mind what was actually hidden all these times right in front of them.

"No.." With each word put into the puzzle, things started to become clearer and clearer. And with each word, the horror started to unveil itself. The truth of Akroma.

"No no no no no no no....this is bad...very bad! LILITH!!!!! YOU MUST STOP!!!" Storming out of the room while holding the translated version of the Oath pact, the skeleton rushed to the entrance of the castle.

.....

Following her plan, the spiders have dug a large tunnel right outside the demon lord's castle that would lead right down to where they found a wall of living metal. Situated dozens of miles in the underground, Lilith and a few spiders together with their Queen Archna were currently inside a large chamber they made. In front of them lied a hole on the wall, revealing a silvery object was present, or rather a part of that object. Its surface was smooth and shiny, a bit like silverware, reflecting a slightly deformed image of the ones standing in front of it.

That was right. This block was made out of Akroma, also called living metal and perhaps the deadliest weapon known in history of Astora. Last time it was unleashed, half the population of the world was killed by it. But because it was so long ago, its existence has been erased from the pages of history or cast away as nothing more of a myth and the people of the current area would not have the slightest idea that this thing has simply remained dormant all these years, waiting for the day it would wake up....or so Lilith thought.

Has she ever considered that Akroma might be awake all these times for a certain purpose? Consumed by her own fear, Lilith, just like any normal being of Astora would do in her shoes, decided to destroy it without knowing the consequences of her actions.

"Lady Lilith, I am not sure about this..." said the spider Queen Archna. Even she had doubt about Lilith's plan: to take care of the problem before it spread.

"Archna, I am not the same as three thousand years ago. My power has also slowly started to come back to me, although I am still not as powerful as I once was. However, this should be enough to take care of it. Or at the very least, this will be a test to see how my current power fares against Akroma." Lilith reassured the spider.

"Akroma relies on its abnormal regeneration capacity. Not even your poison, the strongest venom in this world, can melt it down. However, that's because you only attacked once and just one was not strong enough for it. Against opponent with strong regeneration, you either need something that can continuously inflict damage that exceeds its regeneration, wearing it down. Or you must finish it in one single strike, giving it no time to regenerate.

As for me, I intend to go with the first option."

What Lilith said was not wrong. The tactics were viable and could be most effective like she said. However, it was perhaps too much of a wishful thinking for a Goddess like herself. Maybe that was how she ended up being tricked by Eden in the first place and had her heart literally stolen by him. Alas, this unreasonable primordial Goddess was about to commit something that would scar her for a very long time.

Raising her hand forward, Lilith formed a ball of burning hot lava. The succulent scorching fluid looked almost like a sun in her hands. Directing it toward the silvery wall, a ray of intense heat fired itself at the Akroma, melting it down as the beam slowly pierced layers and layers of the thing. Even more, the leftover heat burned away the surrounding silver liquid that tried to close up the gap. It seemed that everything went exactly as Lilith has planned.

"Hahaha, take that you piece of shit!" The Goddess laughed excitedly, seeing that her attack was successful.

"Incredible...." Archna uttered in dismay. "This might just work."

So did her children think the same thing. In their entire lives, these spiders have never seen such demonstration of strength, not to mention from a Goddess herself. A fire laser was a common attack for the dragons and fire mages but a beam of lava was something completely different. Not only was it much more devastating for everything it touched, the lava also spread everywhere that would naturally destroy the area.

"S..."

"...Hey do you hear something?" a spider talked to one of his brethren.

"Hear what?"

"Someone is shouting something...I think.."

"ST.."

"Humm...yeah I heard something too...Where is it coming from? Behind us?" The two spiders turned their back to the marvelous display of power and looked at the tunnel they came from.

From the darkness, a figure wearing a dark robe was running as fast as he could toward them while shouting something.

"STO...."

"Hey is that the lich from the castle?" a spider pointed out.

"Yeah, looks like him. What is he doing here?"

"STOP"

"What?" shouted the spider back at the incoming figure. "Speak louder or we can't hear you!"

"FUCKING STOP! YOU MUST NOT DESTROY AKROMA!"

"Noroeth? What is he....." hearing the desperate scream of the skeleton, Lilith turned her small head back at take a look at him while still maintaining the beam. And that was her biggest mistake.

......

.....

In an instant, without warning, a thin spear shot out of the silvery wall and impaled the little girl, interrupted her spell and stopping the lava beam. Lucky for her, her quick reflex has helped her to make a quick evasion, making it only piercing her right shoulder.

"Lady Lilith!!!" the spider Queen shouted out loud.

"This damn thing.....let me go!" Using her incredible strength, Lilith tore out the spear and threw it to the side on the ground. The wound it made however was minor, enough only to draw blood and slightly damage the muscles it touched because of its slender head. It was as if it was not its intention to kill with that weapon but for another purpose.

"Lilith!" Noroeth rushed to her side. "Are you okay?"