Sorry for late update ;-;
tw: blood and violence, lots of it

Wheat, wheat, dirt, and more wheat.

"Shit…." Val grumbled when he failed to recognize his surroundings. He could not jump spaces if he didn't know where he was!

"Watch your language." The mazoku in front of him rebuked. "I don't know what was happening with the two of you during those two hundred years when we did not see each other, but it's obvious to me that it was nothing good." He said without even a hint of humour in his voice and stared up at the dragon with a grave expression. "Start talking."

"I don't kno-" Val got hit in the face by the tip of Xellos's staff so fast that he had no chance of dodging and the force of the blow made his head bounce back.

Xellos took a few steps closer to him and halted when their chests were nearly touching. "Don't lie to me." The priest hissed as he glared up at the dragon with his cold amethyst eyes, the scars on his face only made him look more menacing.

"Oww… " Val moaned into his open palm. He placed one hand over his nose and pulled it back to look at it, then winced when he saw blood dripping down his fingers. He made a move to touch his face again but appeared unsure if doing so won't make it hurt more than it already did.

The sun still hung high on the clear blue sky and the cold gust of wind moved the sea of wheat around them in waves. Silence weighed heavily between them while the taller man struggled to come up with a sufficient answer.

"I asked you a question. Answer me or I'll break more than just your nose." The priest whispered threateningly.

"You'll make me into a baby?" Val huffed.

"What?" The Mazoku knit his brows together in confusion.

"Infants have more bones than grown people. If you'll break some of mine then I'll have more." The dragon explained.

Xellos's eyes flashed red.

"I always thought that was kinda inaccurate because, what about teeth? They're bones, right? And we grow them as we grow up, so, we end up growing more bones anyway when our infant bones fuse together."

" . . . . . . . ' . ." The priest grit out and twisted the end of his staff into the ground. "I'll ask again, nicely, if you will keep avoiding answering my question then you'll end up a few bones short in your mouth, kid. What happened when I was gone?"

"You're asking a wrong person-"

Xellos swiftly grabbed Val by his neck and brought him down so their faces were at the same level. "You have the information that I want, ergo, you are the right person." He said with a strained sort of patience.

"This answer is not mine to give." The dragon choked out while his captor tightened the grip on his neck.

"So something did happen." The mazoku concluded while Val's blood kept dripping down between them. "How serious?"

"Ask ύlita Filia." Val said.

Xellos shook him like one would shake a piggy bank in order to check the status of their savings, splattering some dragon blood on his own scarred face. Ironically, Val's pocket jingled with all the gold coins he had harvested earlier that day.

"I-I d-don't know-w! I w-wasn-n't ther-e-e!" The young dragon stammered.

"Where?" Xellos stopped shaking the hustler.

"Wherever." Came a short reply that indicated Val's complete refusal to cooperate.

To say that the ancient one was annoying, was an understatement because right now the priest had found him to be the most infuriating thing he had ever dealt with. Val clearly wasn't good at pretending that he has nothing to hide, or that he was totally harmless, but what he was actually good at, was his ability to derail conversations towards ridiculous topics, and to show up when he was least wanted. He was somehow able to mentally outmanoeuvre Xellos while deliberately pissing him off and completely discarding any notion of self preservation that normally would go into overdrive had any other dragon been put into Val's situation.

There was only one other person who managed to master all those ridiculous abilities into near perfection, and that person was no other than Lina Inverse. It was all incredibly unnerving considering that despite of an abundance of friendliness that Val seemed to radiate at everybody who approached him, it was difficult to tell what he was actually thinking. Facing someone this difficult to read and manipulate, and not being allowed to bring upon them any permanent harm, was something that made Xellos want to eradicate all life within 20 leagues radius.

Had the world not been working backwards as of late he wouldn't have such an intense reaction to his current situation. At least dealing with Lina Inverse was fun! He could not say the same about Val.

"You have a problem?" The dragon croaked out while trying to breathe through his broken, blood dripping nose.

Xellos responded by headbutting him and letting the dragon stumble back, and fall into the wheat field while letting go of the suitcase that he was still clutching in his hand. "Yes." The mazoku said. "Mostly because you're not answering my questions." He made to walk over where the dragon was scrambling from the ground but stopped in his tracks when he noticed that Val's hand had wandered toward the hilt of his sickle sword, which he kept hidden under his cape.

"You can't be serious." Xellos sighed as he rubbed his temples, but even as he did so a small smile stretched across his face.

"S-scared tha-at you'll end u-up with your fa-ace in the di-irt?" The dragon blurted out while he tried to regain his balance, resembling more of a drunken vagabond who just woke up from his afternoon nap in the hay, than the last member of ancient dragons race. "I kno-ow how to fi-ight."

The mazoku scowled at that. "I wasn't asking you about your fighting skills." He tightened the grip on his staff and waited for Val's next move. There was no denying that he was genuinely curious about the hustler's combat abilities but at this particular moment he wasn't in the mood for holding back.

"Too b-bad." Val finally managed to stand up straight and drew out his sword. The curved blade shone in the sunlight as he turned it's curve downward and brought it at his eye level, one hand holding the handle and the other placed near the tip of it between his thumb and his open palm. He then swung it around and gripped the handle with both hands, holding the blade upright in front of his face while angling himself so his right leg was slightly drawn out.

"I appreciate the presentation, but that won't change the fact, that no matter how much strength an ancient dragon could possess, it will never be enough to even put a hole in my cape." The mazoku taunted.

"You won-n't let me go, so I'll ha-ave to a-at least try. You know-w, I wa-anted to get some grocers' befo-ore we go back home. I've bee-en craving stew-w for a few days." The dragon admitted.

"I will let you go when you answer my questions, then you can have your stew. One would imagine that saying a few words would be much quicker and easier, than subjecting oneself to pain and humiliation of defeat, but let's have it your way." Xellos replied with poorly feigned politeness. He had enough of wasting his time on pointless rambling that Val seemed to initiate whenever he tried to distract people from the current topic of their conversation when things didn't go his way.

"What's y-your worth?" Val asked as his expression darkened.

"What?" The sudden question caught Xellos off guard. Now that was really confusing and he failed to pick up the context for it.

"How many m-moves… it had taken you to defeat... your most powerful opponent so far, and h-how long did i-it take?" Came the reply that was mumbled between Val's unsuccessful attempts to snort back in the blood that was dripping from his nose.

"In minutes?" Xellos raised his eyebrows at the explanation and then started mentally sorting through the battles he could remember.

"Segonds." Val supplied.

"... it's… I don't remember. I don't pay attention to such things when I don't have to." The mazoku admitted in irritation. "Besides, I am the one who's asking questions here, so you tell me instead, how did Filia get associated with an owner of a brothel who runs her business two countries away from where you live?"

The dragon did not respond; he leapt forward instead, and attacked. He sliced across Xellos's middle but the mazoku was quicker and easily avoided the blade by disappearing from it's path before it could reach him. To mock the move he reappeared only a few centimeters away from his previous spot.

"Oh my, you're slower than I expected." Xellos commented as if he were merely making observation regarding the current state of the weather as Val kept moving forward and trying to reach him with his curved sword.

For a moment he considered actually letting Val land a blow on him, just to see the dragon's reaction when it would do no damage whatsoever, but he decided against it. There was enough strange happenings as of late, better not to bait the fates. "What Urquina Onram?" He asked while dodging Val's attempts to cut him.

"Who knows." The dragon replied while he kept attacking.

Xellos noticed, with some curiosity, that Val kept following a certain pattern: every fourth swing was aimed at the head, and every second aim was a thrust at the heart. The dragon kept steadily attacking with his sword despite taking a hit that was strong enough to make him fall and lose his balance. The ancient ones truly were a sturdy race, the priest noted, but sooner or later he'll run out of stamina and then it will be only a matter of knocking him off of his feet one more time and dragging his already bloodied face through the dirt.

"You know… " The mazoku started again. "I don't think this fighting technique suits the kind of sword that you're using." He said nonchalantly as a curved blade was thrust at his shoulder, which still remained barely out of it's reach; and just as the move for the head was supposed to come, Val suddenly spun around, and jumped high while aiming a kick at the side of Xellos's head.

The move was so fast and unexpected that he almost succeeded in landing it, but at the last moment the mazoku disappeared and then showed up a few meters behind Val, who landed and spun 180 degrees on his knee to face him.

To priest's astonishment, the dragon immediately sprang to his feet and charged at him again.

Val took a swing at Xellos's arm and then aimed a thrust at his chest while the mazoku proceeded to dodge just like before.

"I see. So that's how it is. This dull pattern only serves to trick your opponent into thinking that they have you figured out, but in reality you're waiting for a moment they let their guard down enough for you to make an irregular move and take them by surprise." Xellos observed. "That's sneaky. I find it impressive that the last representative of an ancient race would resort to such methods."

The dragon took a swing at his head but Xellos only took a step back.

The mazoku regarded his opponent for a second and then all of sudden lifted his staff and hit Val in the abdomen with its bottom end, making the dragon double down and fall to his knees as he clutched his stomach with his free hand. Xellos was about to bring down the orb-adorned top on Val's head to bash it into the ground when the young dragon swiftly jumped forward and sliced at his legs, avoiding the blow at the same time.

Xellos's staff made an indent in the dirt path while the curved sword sunk into the side of his leg, but he felt no pain and it did not manage to cut even halfway into the false flesh of the body he projected into this realm.

The failure to cleave his opponent's leg off did not have the anticipated effect on Val, who quickly pulled away and twirled the sword in his hand as he spun around the mazoku and aimed at the back of his neck with all his strength. It was all too slow to reach the priest however, and Xellos had vanished again before appearing next to the dragon, catching his sword hand by the wrist, and throwing him down the path with enough force to make him hit the path several yards away.

"Tricky, aren't you?" The mazoku said more to himself than to the dragon who was picking himself up in the distance. Their little skirmish actually started to grow pretty amusing.

Val, who was struggling to hoist his body from the ground, shook his head weakly to clear his vision which went momentarily blurry. He tried to think about a way out of being interrogated by the approaching monster.

The wheat around him had waved slightly from side to side, moved by the northern wind that blew down the field. It made the air more chilly and the prospect of harsh winter had once again made itself more prominent. This time he remembered Jillas and his snow igloo that he had built during the night after the first snow had fallen 208 years ago. They hadn't had an igloo since that time. Maybe he should make one this winter? Perhaps he could talk Xellos into competing with him in igloo making? Filia would be the judge, of course she would declare Val a winner just out of spite but he knew that she would have fun. They hadn't had fun for a really long time…

His train of thought was derailed by the mazoku, who appeared in front of him and fladhed him a wicked smile. "Done already?" He asked with a malicious note in his voice.

"Wann-a make an-n igloo?" Val splattered as he slowly stood up on wobbly legs.

Xellos blinked down at him and his smile had promptly vanished. "I don't understand you." He stated as a matter-of-factly. "What does me making an igloo has anything to do with this?" The priest outstretched his hand and swept it around in the air, gesturing at their surroundings.

"Ah. I was just thinking… no matter." The dragon mumbled and then moved forward to slice at Xellos's arm.

Instead of dodging, this time, the Lesser Beast blocked the blow with his staff. He noted with some interest that the blade curved neatly around it, and it's tip hovered a few centimeters away from his left ear. Without a warning he caught Val by the neck once more and dragged his face closer to his own. "Why isn't Filia's tail showing up anymore when she loses control over her feelings? She's never been good at controlling herself, what changed?" He asked.

Val responded to that question by kneeing him in the groin.

Xellos grimaced and looked at him in a funny way. "... rude." Was all he said before he paid the dragon back by sinking his knee in Val's already bruised abdomen. "I've said it already but your fighting style really doesn't suit the kind of sword you're using. You're never going to reach me with a blade like this. Take it as an advice."

"Nob-dy acksed yo." The dragon spat out a generous amount of blood and shoved his blade at Xellos's chest while the mazoku vanished from existence right in front of him.

"There's something else I want to know, and I'm positive that you can provide me with an answer." The priests voice sounded through the air. "Lady Nevabedaya mentioned that she recognized my facial features. I'm quite sure we've never met. Care to elaborate on that?"

"C-can't help wit dat o-one. May-be you passed her on a-a street?" Val stammered while he swept his sleeve across his face to wipe the blood off.

"Ah, but you see, she would have to pass me quite frequently to be able to recognize me and I don't recall visiting that city during the last 10 years. And she said that she recognizes my facial features, not me." Xellos appeared a few yards away from Val and started circling around him like a predator waiting for a chance to leash out at his prey.

"H-how am I supp-sed to kno what she m-meant?" The dragon cursed Nevabedaya's carelessness. She liked to meddle with other people's business, of course it would be too much for her to not bait Xellos with information that did not concern her. Some things should be left unsaid; memories of old horrors left to fade with time of which he and Filia were running out of.

Val grit his teeth. That interrogation had to end!

He disappeared and then showed up behind Xellos, aiming his sword at his neck once again. The mazoku avoided the blow by falling into a crouching position and spinning around on his knee to swipe his staff at Val's legs but before it reached the dragon, he had disappeared again.

Val appeared next to Xellos and aimed a kick at him, however, instead of dodging the priest had caught his leg and swung him in the air as he stood up and slammed the hustler face down into the ground. A cloud of dust from the dry earth of the path had engulfed them, thrown in the air by the sheer force of impact.

The dragon groaned. "I'm pree-tty sss-ure I brokh a rib…" He spluttered while turning around to lay on his back.

"And what about your teeth?" Xellos inquired while surveying him from a standing position.

"... s-sdill haff enuff o' dem… to bite ye lim-mbs off…" Val mumbled as he tried to blink off particles of dirt and dust that kept falling around him.

"I suggest using them, along with your tongue, to tell me what is going on with Filia." The priest poked his stunned victim with his staff. "It'll be healthier for you, believe me." He nodded at his own words.

"S…" The dragon started weakly but did not seem to be able to summon enough strength to finish the word.

"Hm?" Xellos leaned forward and smiled at the miserable sight in front of him.

"Screw you." Val growled and once again teleported to Xellos's side while taking a swing at his arm. He very nearly managed to hit his target and cleave the monster's arm off, had Xellos not jumped away. The dragon immediately sprang forward with his blade lifted up, aiming at the tip of the priest's head. He stomped down his leg so hard that the ground had cracked under his boot as he slashed down, nearly burying his sword in the dirt while the mazoku had jumped to the side with a mocking grin on his face.

"It doesn't matter how strong you are if you can't catch me." The Lesser Beast taunted but Val did not respond, nor had he moved from his position and remained kneeling on the ground on one knee. The dragon was breathing heavily and staring at something that layed in front of him. The grip he kept on the sickle-sword tightened for a moment and Xellos could sense a great amount of distress coming from him all of sudden. Everything around them seemed to become even more quiet than it was before.

"Is something wrong?" Xellos asked, ignoring all the obvious things that were not right with Val.

Slowly, the hustler peered through his shoulder but the priest couldn't tell what he was looking at for his eyes were obscured by a portion of curly teal locks that got matted and soaked with blood. Val appeared to be considering his next move, but there was something more to the way his entire body had tensed once his blade nearly dug into the ground.

Val felt the tip of Xellos's staff dig on a spot between his shoulder blades. He grunted and tried to stand up but the mazoku only increased the pressure of it to force him to stay in kneeling position.

"Where did you learn to fight like that? I doubt Filia would let you participate in any kind of violence." The mazoku asked.

"Ugh…" The young dragon spat out some blood and sighed. "M-my ex taught me."

Finally an answer, albeit a vague one, has been presented to Xellos's question. It was about time for Val to cave in and start spilling. The Lesser Beast doubted that his current object of interest could take any more damage and not end up hovering on the verge of death. Who knew what Filia would do if that were to happen, and what would Beastmaster do with him, if he took a dragon's anger too personally.

"You must have had an interesting ex?" Xellos inquired while digging his staff a little further into Val's spine and making him fall on the ground. Maybe getting to know about that person will turn out to be beneficial in a way. It was better than not knowing anything at all, anyway.

For a short moment the young dragon seemed to be contemplating whether to answer or not, but in the end he yielded the information.

"He used to f-fight for a l-living… " Val breathed heavily when Xellos had ceased applying pressure to his back. "V-very strong g-guy… h-had to quit… b-becau-se of his m-mother… "

The mazoku tilted his head do the side curiously. "Why? Did she get sick?"

"Ah-hah!" The hustler huffed out a weak laugh."Mo-re like… s-she found out… went t-to a match, a-and demanded… that he fights h-her." Val started chuckling at the memory, which caused him to cough out some more blood. "S-she beat the h-hell outta him… w-with a f-flipflop… in a ring…"

Xellos couldn't help but laugh at that. "Sounds like one hell of a woman." He grinned at the mental image of a heavily muscled man being beaten by a small middle aged woman in front of a cheering audience. That must have been a lovely sight. Shame he wasn't there to see it.

Just as he was to prod Val for more stories from his past the dragon had vanished, making his staff dig into the dirt in the spot where the hustler was lying a few seconds ago. Alarmed, Xellos turned around to locate the runaway dragon and noticed him several yards away quickly grabbing the old suitcase which he had dropped once they'd started, let's call it, fighting.

Before the mazoku could make a jump to his target, Val had vanished. It was apparent that something must have tipped him off about the location that Xellos had chosen for his interrogation.

The priest made an attempt to feel out the direction which the dragon had taken but oddly enough, there was nothing. Not a single disturbance in the fabric of physical plane that could be associated with Val.

The first thing that went through the priest's head, was that Val must have purposefully lead him to The Candy Shop if he knew how to mask his presence so well and yet chosen not to do so earlier; second, was a dawning realisation that the dragon in question must have already been in this particular field and he had somehow recognized it despite the fact that there were hundreds of large wheat fields across this part of the continent, just like this one. It was impossible to tell them apart and Xellos had chosen his current location for this specific reason.

Come to think of it, Val got all weird after he failed to slice him in half and landed on one knee in the wheat.

Xellos walked closer to the spot where the plants were parted by the dragon's blow, to take a closer look at the damage. He tilted his head left and right while he was looking down. It didn't take him long to notice a small piece of metal sticking out of the dirt in a place where Val's blade would have hit the ground, and weakly reflecting the sunlight. The item seemed to have some kind of a sign emblazoned on it but he couldn't make out what it was supposed to be because most of it was stuck in the earth.

He crouched next to it and after some digging and scratching at the dry soil, which turned out to be encompassing most of the shiny item, he managed to pull it out of the dirt. Mistyfied, he turned it around in his hand a few times.

The gold tinted metal piece appeared to be an old, squashed up cowbell, bearing a deformed emblem of an equally old settlement that used to stand there. The population wasn't large enough for it to be considered a proper town, but it was too big to be called a village. There wasn't anything exceptional about it if his memory did not fail him, and he was positive that it didn't. The maps back then marked it as Soplica and it was mostly known from exporting mass produced goods to the bigger cities. It didn't even layd on any major trading path.

He looked at the gnarled cowbell in his hand. It was a fairly boring place, until some kind of calamity had smitten it completely out of existence roughly 200 years ago…The priest stood up abruptly and tightened his grip on the cowbell to the point where it started to bend from the pressure.

Perhaps the calamity that had befallen upon that place took a shape of a dragon, he thought. But Filia had already leveled a town in front of him and she didn't seem as ashamed of it as she was over the fact that she had to get naked in order to do that. So why wouldn't she just admit that she had destroyed a town in her rage and needed to hide from humans until they forgot about it? It's not like it would bring her any more shame than sleeping with a mazoku…

Xellos stuck the metal piece into his bag, with every intention of questioning Filia about it, and looked around to see if there were any more clues laying scattered around.

Unfortunately, after an hour of walking through the fields he had only managed to find a few scorched scraps of wood, and a piece of crumbling rope.

That didn't tell him much, but such thing was to be expected. It had been how many years? 200… 208? Yes, that was about it. And the area got reworked into a wheat field, making it nearly impossible to deduce anything out of it.

The gods must have been in Val's favor today if he stumbled into a hidden clue pointing at his location pretty much in the middle of nowhere just as he hit his limit.

The mazoku frowned. Why can't the gods be on his side in this case? There was clearly something big and bad going on and he felt entitled to the information concerning it. It's one thing when he has secrets and pisses other people off by not telling them, and another thing entirely when something crucial is being kept a secret from him! It just wasn't fair!

The mazoku looked up towards the sun that hung on the western side of the sky. It would probably be for the best if he got home before Val did, otherwise Filia could set up some kind of an ambush in order to pay him back for hurting that damned drug dealer.

-Six hours earlier-

Zelas was sitting on her too small bed, in her too small room. The explosions had stirred in her a bunch of emotions that not too long ago she had considered herself unable to feel.

She had been mulling about the events that led her into her current state, and thinking about the possible course of action which they would have to take in order to get the situation under control. What was happening now, was unacceptable! The balance between powers had been greatly disturbed by a party that did not belong in their conflict. Grimnir had appeared from nowhere with unclear motives and way too much power in his hands so suddenly, that she didn't even know what exactly she should plan to make it work against him.

He seemed to wield a power that was beyond even her own comprehension. How was it possible for such a creature to exist and not be noticed by anyone before he made his moves to overthrow the mazoku lords?

The riddle of Grimnir however, was not the only disturbing thought that kept occupying her mind as of late, for there was a shadow about Filia that Xellos seemed to be stupidly oblivious of.

For a brief amount of time Zelas had considered it to be a dragon disease of sorts. A new kind that confined it's victim entirely within their human and drove them mad for a short amount of time before their eventual death. Even now she wasn't entirely sure if that wasn't the case, and there was no way of finding out other than observing the dragoness, who seemed to be currently standing in front of the door to the Greater Beast's room.

"Come in; or do you plan to stand there until the dusk comes?" The Beastmaster asked.

The door handle slowly turned and Filia had reluctantly stepped into the room. She was nervous, which pleased Zelas immensely. It was hard latey to get a good amount of fear out of anyone.

"We need to talk." The dragoness stated as she stood in front of the bed that hoisted a large, frowning mazoku.

"Perhaps we do." Zelas replied and heaved a sigh. It was the best moment to have a little interrogation session with Filia and she had a few questions that she felt would require something more than just a verbal threat to get answered. And Xellos wasn't around to mess it up. She could not afford to have her only direct subordinate to fall out of service right now because of some weird sentiments that he seemed to develop through the years for that dragon.

Filia was about to state her business but she got interfered by Zelas,before she managed to voice her thoughts.

"I am intrigued by you, Filia Ul Copt." The Beastmaster admitted while staring pointedly at the dragoness in front of her. "You are bothering me greatly. Something's preventing you from changing back into your dragon form, isn't it?"

Filia was baffled by Zelas's observation. It took her a minute to compose herself before her expression darkened and she shot a glare at the mazoku. "I want you to leave this house." She said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

The request did not incite a desired reaction, for Zelas had only quirked her eyebrow and looked Filia over like she considered eating her.

"Letting you and Xellos stay here was a mistake." Filia continued, taking mazoku's silence as a cue to explain her sudden change of heart. She nervously sucked in some air though her teeth before speaking. "I think your presence is putting me and Val in danger. These bombs… I don't know if they were a weird coincidence or a warning. Nonetheless, you have to leave. Now."

Zelas tilted her head to the side. "I don't think I have to do anything you want me to. Don't mistake me with Xellos. I am a lord, and I serve only the Great Shabranigdo and no one else." The mazoku narrowed her eyes at Filia, and her voice bore in it a note of anger. "And I am quite sure that the bombing had nothing to do with us. You were just looking for an excuse to get rid of us and the destruction of that city had provided you with an excellent one, did it not?" She smiled maliciously when the dragoness visibly paled.

"I didn't-" Fiia started, only to be cut off by the Greater Beast.

"Don't bother denying it!" Zelas spat. "I can feel the guilt and uncertainty plaguing you! But that was to be expected from a dragon… a golden one at that." She added mockingly.

"I-I don't care what you think about it." Filia reined in her anger and shame at being so easily figured out and judged by one of the most horrible creatures of this world. "Dragons and mazoku should not live together! I shouldn't have let Val have his way. I'm sure you can see logic in this. We are not meant to coexist." She stated as firmly as she could while the mazoku in front of her kept looking at her critically.

A heavy silence hung between them after Filia was done talking. It lasted for a few minutes as they kept glaring at each other, and just as the dragoness thought it was safe to assume that she could excuse herself from the room, Zelas had appeared before her and slammed her into the wall, knocking the wind out of her.

"You don't seem to understand when I say that you're in no position to tell me what to do. I don't care whom this house belongs to, I'm going to stay here if I so desire. But no matter. There are things I wish to know and you're going to tell me everything." The Beastmaster growled as she pressed her palm onto Filia's windpipe.

The dragoness struggled against a choking grip of the Greater Beast. That was not the way their conversation was supposed to go, although, she did consider a possibility of it becoming somewhat violent. She felt her blood pounding through arteries in her head, and hear body slowly becoming numb. When she was sure that she won't be able to draw another breath again Zelas had let go of her and watched her fall to the floor.

"There is something about you. Something disturbing. And yet I can't find a way to perceive what it is." The mazoku walked to Filia's side and crouched next to her. "Something unusual is happening with you and I want to know what."

Filia coughed a few times and pulled herself off the floor, her golden hair falling around her face like a curtain. "I don't know what are you talking about." She hissed.

That response agitated Zelas even more. She grabbed the dragoness by he back of the head and slammed her face into the wooden floor hard enough to leave an indent.

"Oh I think you do." The mazoku growled and flipped Filia onto her back to look her in the eyes. " I've been observing you since I have arrived here. You don't leave this barrier, you don't speak with anyone but Val. When you have a business that needs to be taken care of outside of your barrier, you send him to do it. I bet no one knows that you're here. It's like a shadow had fallen over you. You're hiding from something, or you are hiding something from others."

Filia was breathing heavily and trying to push herself up on her elbows while blood started dripping down her forehead but Zelas had pressed her knee to the dragon maiden's chest, making her lay back down and rendering her immobile.

"Why don't you understand what I am saying to you? Has your dragon brain regressed to it's hatchling state? You can't win against me in any way, and you can't lie to me. And know, that I can't stand liars." Beastmaster brought her face closer to Filia's, and moved her hand to grab the dragon maiden's upper arm. "I told you, I'm not of the likes of Xellos. You can't play games with me to see if I'll let you win for funsies. When I'm asking you a question, you answer, and you say the truth."

So that's why Xellos was so set on following his rule of never telling a lie, Filia thought bitterly while Zelas kept tightening the grip that she kept on her arm.

"I don't know," The dragoness panted heavily. "about any shadow."

The sickening sound of bone being crushed filled the room along with Filia's agonized scream. It was then, that Lord Beastmaster felt it; a ripple spreading between the astral side and a physical one followed by Filia's body rapidly becoming colder and colder as she seemed to fade out of consciousness.

Zelas stared down at the golden dragon in her grasp, frowning in confusion. "Now this is something I have never-"

A sound of a dragon flapping his wings as he landed made her suddenly divert her attention toward the window. She could see a large golden beast arrive in a flurry of colorful leafs that were recently tossed from their branches by the winds, and switch to his human body as the glow from the transformation got reflected in the glass.

"...Milgasia… " Filia breathed out.

The mazoku whipped her head back to Filia, not bothering to hide a panicked expression on her face. "You were supposed to be the only people living here!"

"He's a friend of ours… he visits… sometimes…" Was all the dragoness was able to get out of herself. She felt like reality around her was becoming warped and the light of the day started to fade, encompassing her slowly in darkness. It was not a completely unfamiliar feeling to her and Filia prayed to the gods for the strength to fight it off. She feared of what might have happened if she went completely cold again, for she knew that this time there would be no turning back.

"Visits?" Zelas asked disbelievingly. She lifted the weight of her body from Filia's chest and stood up while still holding onto the dragoness' broken arm and pulling her along.

They both heard as the front door downstairs was hesitantly opened by the visitor and after a few seconds of silence Milgasia carefully invited himself into the cottage. He was quiet, and Zelas guessed that he must have sensed her presence in the house and decided to investigate it, perhaps thinking that his friends were in danger, which wasn't far from the truth.

The Greater Beast dragged Filia with her as she exited her room. She stopped at the top of the staircase and looked down at the golden dragon, who stood in front of it, between the stairs and an entrance to the house. He was visibly startled by the sight of one of the mazoku lords staring at him while clutching half conscious dragoness in one hand, and completely lacking the other one.

"Zelas Metallium." He choked out while struggling with his fight-or-flight response to confronting a mazoku nobility. To him, the only thing worse than Xellos, was his master and creator, who stood now way too close to him, and who was holding an injured Filia way too carelessly for the action to be taken as a first aid attempt.

The mazoku threw Filia down at the other dragon and promptly disappeared. Milgasia had immediately ran up a few stairs to catch his falling friend while Zelas appeared by the front door and locked them. She did not know if this particular golden was trained in the skill of phasing between spaces, therefore she resorted to the basic methods of keeping people confined for a time being. If she was completely honest with herself, she may have had done it because it made her feel safer.

Milgasia hoisted Filia up in his arms and looked her over hurriedly before turning his attention back to the monster. "Why are you here?" He asked, his voice wary.

"... hiding… " Filia said, dismissing Beastmaster's outraged glare.

Zelas balled her hand into a fist. "I don't owe you an explanation. Why are you here?" She asked pointedly as she stood between the exit and the two dragons. "From what I know, you don't even live on this continent."

"There were reports of strange occurings. I had to consult one of the temples. On my way back I heard about the recent bombing. I got worried that Miss Filia along with Val got caught in the fire, so I decided to check up on them." Milgasia summarized. He was vague while remaining truthful which reminded her of Xellos.

Perhaps it had something to do with him coming in contact with her servant earlier. One would learn how to keep playing word games when they were forced to deal with her priest and general. Milgasia was a middle aged (for a dragon) war veteran. He obviously knew how to pick his fights and how to back out from any potential confrontations that would end up badly for him. The fact that he was still alive after Koma War was a proof on itself.

Zelas grit her teeth while contemplating on the best course of action. It would be a bad idea to fight him right now. They were supposed to be in hiding; away from the creature who is hunting the mazoku lords down, and the nearby city bombings had already called some unnecessary attention to the area. Milgasia being there was a walking, talking, breathing and annoying proof of that. On the other hand, he could still be useful.

She eyed the dragons pensively for a few seconds, and then turned her head briefly to her left, where an entrance to the kitchen was located. "Let's have a talk." The mazoku gestured at the kitchen while Milgasia tried to warm Filia up by rubbing her uninjured arm and pressing her closer to himself. He kept glancing at Zelas as she made her way to sit by the table.

There was no way he could escape her without prompting a fight, and he couldn't risk it with Filia being in that state, so he slowly followed the mazoku and took a seat on the chair by the table, on the opposite side from her. He opted to comply to her requests as much as possible and keep his questions to himself. His main goal for today was to survive and not let Zelas finish what she started with Filia.