First, let me say again that I don't own any kind of right towards the license and the story. And I'll also apologize for any kind of mistake that I could have made in this chapter. Since I'm inspired, I might continue this story for a long time, I'll see with the returns of this chapter. Once again, enjoy your reading and feel free to review the chapter.

IX.

We were transported in a strange forest, the area appeared to be thriving with fauna.

A strange man with a cap was apparently waiting for us. He greeted us:

"Ah hello, you're the daughter of the Gremory, eh?"

"Yes. As we agreed, these two would like to get familiars."

He took a good look at booth Asia and I. Then he said:

"Welp, you sure did choose a bad day, there's that dragon lurking around, it's scaring everything around here."

I could felt a little tick in me, Nova appeared to have reacted to something.

Raynare asked:

"Wait, it's that thing's aura that makes the air feel so heavy?"

"Yup." Confirmed the man. "I'll take you to the south, the farther away from it we are, the better it is."

We just agreed. As we went on walking, my whole body shivered. Nova's voice rang in my head :

[Go North.]

"Nova, there's a dragon there, I can't really go and say hello on your behalf."

[Trust me on that one. Go North.]

I took a look at the rest of the group, that was already a bit ahead of me, since I was walking slower when talking to Nova.

"Give me a good reason?"

[That dragon… I must be sure before I tell you, okay. The group left without you anyway.]

I noticed suddenly and cursed. Why was he being so stubborn?

I decided to roll with it and went North, towards that dragon. I wasn't particularly good at finding energy sources, but with Nova guiding me and the tremendous aura emitted from that thing, it was not hard at all to find it.

We arrived quite fast to where it was. In a clearing, sleeping against a rock, with the burnt remains of another monster that probably was its meal before we came here. There, there was a man, his tanned skin contrasting heavily with his hair, coloured in a mix of red and brown, some of them spiking backwards on his head, giving the impression of him wearing a crown. He was wearing a vest and trousers, made of a yellowish fur, it was also stained with what looked like blood and some black stuff, probably ashes or coal. The air appeared to be undulating a little around him, giving a strange vibe to his surroundings. On his right arm, there was a tattoo, going from the wrist up to the shoulder, the motif appeared to be some kind of runes.

I asked Nova:

"Is that the dragon?"

[… Yeah.]

"So what now?"

[Go and talk to him.]

I went in the clearing, only dimly lit by the full moon ahead of us, a prerequisite to hunt for familiars as Rias said during her briefing. As I entered, the man opened his eyes, allowing me to see their amber colour and the black stripe in the middle on them. He said, menacingly:

"I don't know what you thought you were doing. But you must go back from where you came young Devil."

"I came here to talk."

He took a look at the moon and smiled:

"Ah yeah, familiar hunting I suppose. So you came to me in order to ask me to be your familiar, that's your deal?"

He stood up, towering above me around two meters. But he didn't gave me time to answer, flames went erupting from his body, scorching the ground around him and raising to heat to the point that I had to cover my face in order to bear it. I heard Nova's voice:

[So. It might sound dumb, but I want you to open his vest.]

"What? Why?"

[Dragon thing, you'll understand later.]

The beast in front of me was something legitimately scary, his powers was almost on par with Grayfia from what I was able to see.

The flames died out on his body, he said:

"Eh, still there? I might give you a chance, you know that?"

I took a stance as an answer. Ready to rush him. I already felt the surge of power allowing me to promote myself when arriving here, he would probably not see it coming. I whispered:

"Knight."

I dashed straight forward, aiming directly at him. In an instant, he vanished, forcing me to stop to understand what was going on. I felt the danger coming from behind me and ducked, just in time to see fireball crash in the forest in front of me, burning the trees it touched to ashes in a matter of seconds. He then talked, with the same calm yet emotionless voice:

"You won't gain anything by promoting. I can still clearly see you."

I turned to face him, his palm extended towards me still left with remaining flames on it. He went on:

"So? How about I teach you not to mess with something you can't handle the hard way?"

He leapt towards me in an instant and threw a punch, I barely had time but promoted to rook and crossed my arms in front of me, trying to parry the hit. I surely wasn't prepared to be hit with that much power. It sent me flying back into the ashes of the trees, making both my arms hurt really badly. Yet they didn't broke. I asked Nova, mentally:

"Is he taking us lightly?"

[Probably. Knowing him it wouldn't be that much of a surprise.]

"So you DO know him. Talk to him then!"

[No can do. You need to open that vest first.]

"Let me guess, dragon things?"

He didn't answered, I sighed. Well, it wasn't going to be easy in the first place. I changed my role again:

"Bishop!"

I went for an increase in magic power and clapped my hands together. Noticing it, the dragon began to laugh and said:

"That's the spirit! Hit me with all you have boy!"

He opened his arms, ready to take the attack head on. I smiled, the ball of dark energy formed quickly between my hands. The beast was apparently surprised since he took a step back. Taking advantage of the opening I switched to Knight in order to dash right at him, holding the black sphere of energy in my hand with the gauntlet, that manifested itself when I began to summon Nova's power. Going right in front of him, I then pushed the black ball forward, towards his chest, swapping to Bishop again, in order to push more power in the attack.

The explosion was quite violent and sent me rolling on the ground. I quickly picked myself up and stood there, ready for a counter attack… Which didn't came. When the cloud of dust I created with the explosion dissipated, all that was left was the figure of the man, standing there, his vest was torn to piece, exposing his… Breasts? What? That dude had breasts? And big ones at that. Wait it wasn't even possible to not notice them in the first place, how even? Nova explained, while the dragon quickly covered its exposed part.

[Still using mirages to disguise as a man, eh Salamandra?]

He spoke through the gauntlet. The air around us began to cool down. I gasped then as I noticed the beast I thought was a man was indeed a female, her face showing more feminine features, her hair wasn't short, in fact it was almost reaching her butt. Her eyes were widened in surprise, loosing that slid in their middle to a normal black pupil. She gave us a look and asked, still in shock:

"Nova? Is… Is that really you Nova?"

[Sure is. It's been a while.]

She leapt to us in a matter of seconds, not minding her exposed breasts now, and fell on her knees, her eyes tearing up and her face resting on my chest as she gave me a hug.

"Why… Why are you in there?"

[You know, the usual, wasn't sure if I could leave you alone or not so I decided to stick around longer.]

She gave me a light hit on the shoulders, with barely any strength compared to the punch I received earlier. She said, crying:

"Shut up. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry… It's my fault you're… No, most of us are like this now."

[Don't beat yourself over it, we had our fun, let the other have their share of it.]

"But you're just a lingering soul now… Just a weapon, being passed from a guy to another…"

[And I am fine with that.]

She loosened the hug, hitting the ground with her first, smacking the ground below her with enough force to shatter it:

"It's not fair… Why did you come?"

[I want you to help this boy.]

She gave me a look and said, still sniffling:

"Him? Why?"

[He's serving under Rias Gremory.]

She hit the ground again, more furiously this time.

"Why?! They killed you Nova! Don't you even want to take revenge?!"

[After the first couple thousand years I kinda lost the will to do so. Salamandra, I'm asking this to you as a friend and a mentor.]

Her eyes were still full of tears yet she gave me an understanding look and said:

"If… If that's what you will, okay. I can at least do this much for you."

Wiping her eyes with her arm, she quickly regenerated the vest, using flames the same way a member of the Phenex household would do. She then stood up, still towering around two meters of height and said:

"What's your name?"

"Soma, Soma Honoaka." I answered.

"Soma Honoaka… My name is Salamandra, I am the [Blazing star of Fire]"

"Wait, so you're a living Draco Constellans? Is that even a thing?"

[Yeah, some of us managed not to get killed. By the way, we met Sphallow. She's in an even worse state than me.]

"Oh god…" She said, covering her mouth. "What happened to her?"

[I don't know, she apparently was split in multiple Sacred Gears. Right now I know of one of them.]

Salamandra turned her back to me and began to shake:

"I… I'll have to properly apologize to her some day..."

[You'd better. She would be furious otherwise.]

With a single chuckle, she answered "That she would, yeah..."

She then turned to me and asked:

"So, what's your deal?"

"Well I was just searching for a familiar but then Nova basically took me by force here, so I don't know, the others might be a bit worried." I answered.

"I can tell you where they are. But first, tell me, do you need me?"

"What?!"

"It's simple. You bear Nova, he asked me to follow you so I ask. Do you need me?"

"Well I want to assemble a strong peerage and you're super strong already so yeah clearly."

"A peerage eh." She sad, shivering. "I… I'm okay to follow you for now. We'll see about that peerage deal later if you don't mind."

I just nodded, asking:

"So, can you lead me to the others?"

She just nodded and began to sniff the air, pointing towards another side of the forest:

"Around here. Come, I'll show you the way."

She began to walk, calmly, waiting from time to time in order to sniff again and be sure we were following the good trail. I asked:

"So, how did you do that whole man voice thing?"

"Sound doesn't travel the same way in hot air. Same deal as the mirages really." She answered, as if it was a normal thing.

Nova said to me, mentally:

[She's weary, good, at least she learned a thing or two…]

"How long have you known her?"

[I was basically there when she was born. I was her mentor.]

"Oh… I see… And what she was talking about?"

[In due time, first we go home, I don't think you'll ever need a familiar with her at your side now.]

"True, she indeed is powerful."

He didn't answered to that, leaving me to catch up with her, who had took some steps in advance.

It wasn't long before we heard the voices of everyone, calling my name.

We went through another patch of bushes when we saw them, on the opposite side of the little lake we ended up getting at. Salamandra then proceeded to follow me when I ran to them, apparently she was able to keep with me without any problems what so ever. Rias was the first to come to me and gave me a tight hug, kissing me bashfully without caring about the others. She then proceeded to give me a hard slap, saying with teary eyes:

"I thought that dragon ate you! I was so worried!"

"I don't eat people." Said Salamandra from behind me.

They all stood there, in shock. I made the presentations:

"Everyone, this is Salamandra, the [Blazing Star of Fire], things happened and she's now part of my group."

Raynare whistled:

"Wow, you didn't loose any time did you? Recruiting a living Draco Constellans as second member."

Salamandra shivered a bit and said:

"About that, I'm only following him around for now, I'll see if I join his peerage later."

She only nodded to that, not wanting to make that powerful beast angry.

Asia then came to me and said, pouting:

"It's a shame though, until now we had spotted a cute little blue dragon. He ran off when you arrived."

"Oh so you met him?" Asked Salamandra, curious. "That little guy is usually not that shy when I'm around. Here, let me try a thing."

She cleared her throat and let out a powerful roar, enough to force us to cover our ears. Quickly, the little blue shape went flying at high speed towards her, crashing into her chest while she caught it. She then held it to Asia:

"Here, was it him?"

"Yes! He so cute!"

The little blue dragon squeaked in response. Salamandra said, smiling:

"Eh, he likes you too apparently. Why don't you try and make it your familiar? These little guys grow to be quite strong." She explained.

"You understand him?" Asked Asia.

"Mostly. He's still young so he doesn't make that much sense when he talks, kinda like a baby."

"Does he not have a mother?" Asked Rias, curious about that little dragon too.

"Probably. But we don't usually meet our parents." She explained. "Even young we're strong enough to take care of ourselves in the wild, so our parents leave us quite early."

"I see… Well then, I'll adopt you Raima." Said Asia, holding the little beast in her hands.

"Raima?" I asked, puzzled. "Already giving him a name?"

"Well… It's a combination of lightning and your name… But I can change that if you don't like it."

"I don't mind at all." I said, patting the little dragon on the head.

Seeing him squeaking in a pleased manner, Salamandra commented:

"You two must be saints or something. These ones don't usually like Devils."

Asia then took a good look at Raima and gave him a hug. Salamandra then went to face Rias and said:

"You and I will have to talk. About Nova."

The Gremory heiress simply nodded to what the Dragon said. She then continued:

"Also, you might want to move, there are slimes just above us. I can fend them off with heat, but you can't really and they love to eat clothing for some reason."

And so, it was decided that we would go back. In the meantime, the guy that accompanied us took a good picture of Salamandra and Raima, saying that since these two were rare it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do so.

When we got back, Salamandra took a good look around and asked, politely:

"May I take a shower? I've been living in the woods for years, I'm probably too smelly to live in a city right now."

"Oh right, this way." Said Rias, showing us the bathroom around. When we heard the water flowing, we went on and sealed the contract between Raima and Asia, making their contract official. When that was done, everyone went to me and Raynare broke the silence:

"How even did you convince her to follow you? That's a living Draco Constellans we're talking about here, something with the power to level a city with only one attack!"

[She can't do that to be honest, she cares too much about people to do something like that.]

That was Nova, answering directly from my gauntlet, that still hadn't vanished. He followed:

[As for why she did follow Soma. Let's say that I asked her to do so.]

"Do you know her?" Answered Rias.

[Yeah. I was her mentor.]

"Want me to explain?"

That was Salamandra's voice. She came out of the room she was in, wrapped in towels that barely covered her breasts and her nether region. Said, drying her hair instantly thanks to heat she produced:

"I'm warning you though. This is not something you are supposed to tell to anyone else, okay?"

After a common nod, she simply showed us her back, covered in scars. Some of them appeared to have been deep wounds, something that would've killed any of us for sure. She explained:

"Around two thousand years ago, I fell in love with a man. Reize Phenex. At first, it was simply one-sided, he was what I liked, confident, loyal, brave… He first came to me in order to ask for help in his research. He was trying to understand better how Dragons worked, in order to understand why Phoenix tears weren't working on them."

"They don't?" I asked Nova, mentally.

[No. You could bath a dragon in them after slicing him up from top to bottom and it wouldn't do anything.]

"So I did ended coming quite often to the Phenex household, giving him samples of my blood, my tissues and even some of my flames." She took a light pause. "After a while, Reize asked me to join his peerage. You can imagine how delighted I was, so I said yes. But then, I saw how he treated them. Sex dolls, that's what they were to him. Minions he could cum in and throw in front of him when he needed to fight. Somehow… I thought it was different with me, I thought he actually cared for me… So yeah, we ended up having sex, I wasn't that okay with it but that did not appear to bother him at all. The worst part in that is that I had the strength needed to push him back… I could've just flung him in a wall if he did something I wasn't okay with… Yet I ended up letting him have his way with me, using my body as he pleased."

She took a pause, sighing. Then she resumed:

"I was really dumb back then… In the meantime, he went on with the experiments, understanding better and better how we worked, form what we were gaining power. It didn't took him long to figure out about power plates."

"What?" Asked Rias, confused.

"Power plates." She said, showing off her left arm covered in scales, with on of them, right in he middle of her forearm glowing brightly in red. "They usually don't show up when you use your powers. Dragons like us are born with five of them, each of them representing a vital point of our power. Without them, we're just big angry lizards that can barely breathe. I told Reize about their existence… I don't know what I thought about when I did that… But it must've rang something inside of him. Doing so, I broke the greatest taboo ever possible for a dragon. Power plates are something one shouldn't even reveal to another dragon, let alone another race. Yet I did, out of love for him… He proceeded to ask me where were mine. I showed him and complied. He took three of them, testing each time how much more damage I was able to take, how much strength I had lost in the process."

She took a pause, clenching her fist, her whole body tensing:

"He then said he was ready and that a rug like me had no use beside being a cum dumpster. He then made sure to let Nova know of what happened. He was trying to see if he could kill a fully powered-up dragon while using my plates to reinforce his powers. At the time, Nova was considered to be one of the weakest of us, well among the devils that is, and it was mainly due to the fact that he was never letting loose when fighting."

She gave the gauntlet a sad look. Nova resumed from there:

[I went in there as fast as I could once I heard the news. This was preposterous, how could my pupil, of every dragons possible, make such a huge mistake? And yet, when I entered the hall of their household, he was there, his whole peerage with him. He apparently had just finished fucking Salamandra and just threw her down the stairs… The state she was in, I heard him boast about how powerful he had become, how Devils hadn't anything to fear about our kind now and how after killing me, he'd sell my power plates to the highest bidder, along with the cum rug that was my pupil.]

He went silent for a second, I could feel the sheer anger boiling in him right now. Nova spoke again after a bit:

[I lost it. It was the one and only time I choose to let loose on my own volition. I destroyed all his servants and killed him. Did you knew that Phenex stop regenerating after their body is blown to pieces for four thousand, nine hundred and eighty three times? I guess it will vary from one to another, but that's what it took to kill him. He stopped regenerating. Being done with that, I rushed towards Salamandra, towards my pupil, and took her with me, running away as far as I could. I had done something that wasn't to be done too. I broke the peace that was lasting as the time. Quickly, the three factions united their might and, with Reize research around, they were able to dispose of us, well most of us that is, since some survived, just like she did.]

"If you're wondering how I survived" Began Salamandra. "It's because he left me in these woods. I remember clearly when he carried me, we only took a temporary refuge there, the time for him to heal me fully. Then, when I came back, he told me all he had done, asked me if I was okay and if I wanted help to retake my plates back."

[And your answer was "Why? Why did you have to kill him?"]

"Yeah, I'm not that proud of that one. I understood my own stupidity only years later, when the news of all my brothers and sisters dying reached my ears. I decided to leave for good, secluding myself in these woods. And yet here we are."

"So… My family was the one that killed you Nova?" Asked Rias, with teary eyes.

[Not exactly. An order had been issued to kill me, of course, I had killed a high rank devil after all. But then, I was killed by something else, a man with silvery eyes and the wings of both and angel and a devil. That dude… I don't even know what he was, he just came up out of nowhere, asked me if I was the [Black Star of Destruction] and when I said yes, he attacked, with powers I could barely do anything against. All your family did was finding my agonizing body. There, we struck a deal. A would let them and their heir use my power by giving them my right arm, along with the power plate it bore, but only under the condition they threw my body in the Interdimensional rift and swore to not touch it, in order to preserve the other plates. They were the ancestors of the family Bael. And since then, them and only them have been able to use my power. I guess one of them did end up with one of your parents, am I right?]

"Yeah" She confirmed "My mother is from the Bael clan."

[I see… That explains itself. Your children will probably inherit that ability too.]

She simply gave him a nod. I then noticed but most of the people here were in tears from hearing that story. Can't say it wasn't really sad, but with Nova's emotion interfering, I wasn't able to muster a single tear. Salamandra went to face me, kneeling and said, resting her head on my shoulders:

"Nova… Soma… I'm sorry, again… I messed up."

Instinctively I began patting her back. As opposed to what I thought, it was strangely cold, I wasn't touching any scales but her body had a strange cold feeling to it and yet she was a master of flames. I gave her a hug, then said:

"I think you went through enough. Just stay with us, I swear I'll protect you from harm."

She chuckled "Watch out, I might take you seriously."

"Please do." I answered. "Him and I both agree on that one."

She kept a smile on her face, the rest of her face still hidden by her hairs falling down. She was obviously crying her heart out, but I kept hugging her. It was kind of ironic, me, a puny human reincarnated as a Devil comforting and acting as emotional support for one of the mightiest beast there ever was. Nova answered:

[Strop crying Salamandra, tears don't suit the empress of flames.]

"Pretty sure you're crying too." She said, without even moving.

He didn't but the rush of tears coming to my eyes against my will were a good enough indicator that she was right.

[Damn… It's good to see you.]

She didn't utter a word after that, tears still running on her cheeks.

It took a little while for her to calm herself. After that, she gave us a good apology for what she had done and it was brushed as nothing too important. What was important though, was how to bring her home… That was the moment Rias decided to tell us:

"My family kinda went a bit nuts and decided to renovate the whole house. I wasn't aware of this until this afternoon, so I don't know what to expect, they just told me they were making enough bedrooms for a full peerage."

I was dumbfounded, how much wealth did the Gremory posses in reality?

Willing to check on that, we went home, Salamandra following. Nova felt silent again, I didn't wanted to bother him anyway…

Then Raynare said:

"Eh… how about her clothes though? She looks like a savage plus her tattoo might worry the neighbours."

"Can't you mirage your way in?" I asked, remembering her ability.

"I would a walking fireplace if I did that." She answered.

"I have an idea. Come with me Akeno, wait for us here." Said Rias, after some thinking.

They both left, leaving us. Salamandra asked:

"So, what's the deal?"

"What's the deal?" Said Raynare. "You're taller than everybody living here, you have red hair, tanned skin and a tattoo covering your whole right arm. To give you an idea, Asia and Soma are already sticking out like sore thumbs."

"Oh! Yeah, that would be problematic then." She commented. It appeared she hadn't realized how much turmoil she would've caused yet.

Rias and Akeno quickly came back, holding a whole outfit for her. Then the asked her to follow them, taking Salamandra to the room where Akeno and I were earlier that day.

When the three off them exited the room, the two bishoujou were followed by a barely recognizable Salamandra. The two of them gave her a grey dress that covered her up to mid thighs with that was a matching grey jacket. Along with that, she had a white shirt below the jacket, the same kind we had under our uniform's jacket. The collar of the shirt was opened revealing a cleavage. They also did attach her hair, making a hair bun held in place by two chopsticks. Finally, she was also wearing glasses and heels.

She said, visibly troubled:

"Okay, so that's feeling way to weird for me."

I clearly heard Nova's laughter echoing my mind and had a light chuckle myself. True, see appeared to be really out of place but it was still better to have her following us that way rather than as she was when she arrived.

The Dragon then gave us a stern look:

"What?"

"You look like a teacher dressed like that." Commented Koneko.

"Because these are one of the teacher's belonging we took as base." Answered Rias.

"Base for what?" I asked, curious.

"Basically reproducing the items via magic. We also took the liberty to adjust these to her size." Explained Akeno with a smile.

"Also, what are these things you made me wear under? I'm feeling, compressed..." She said, blushing a bit.

"Underwear, you'd better get used to them, you'll need to wear those every day if you want to live with us."

She sighed in answer to that. "I should've stayed in the woods..."

On that note, we all went home, Salamandra following us a bit clumsily, since she wasn't use to walk with heels on...