"C'mon, give us a smile."

…

"Is that supposed to be a smile?"

"You tell jokes with that face?"

"What is wrong with my face? I don't understand."

"Whak."

"What-"

"Whak Milgasia."

"What do you mea-"

"Whakgasia."

"Milgawhak."

"I am a dragon and a leader of Dra-"

"Not everything is lost, man. We will make a person out of you yet."

"I don't-"

"But before that happens, let's see how much stress you can take before you'll start showing signs of personality."

He sped across the clean blue sky that hung above the ocean. The hour was early but the sun had already managed to climb high above the horizon, slowly waking those who were still snoring under their quilts.

Sunlight warming his golden scales was a welcome sensation after the disastrous night at Filia's cottage and what followed when he got out of it. Besides, too much darkness tends to make a golden dragon weary. It was widely known that they are the creatures of the light and thus need it to stay strong and healthy.

Milgasia yawned and then nearly choked on the cold air that rammed straight into his throat. He's been stuck with Val for nearly an entire night until the ancient dragon sobered up enough to stop recounting events of the past, or making irrelevant observations about irrelevant things.

The way he behaved when Val and/or Xeinaar were around him made him feel unworthy of being called an Elder by golden dragons. But alas! It could not be helped since these two had decided that they will capture his fellow golden dragons, with whom he was travelling at the time as well as his elf friend Memphis, who was the main reason for that unfortunate turn of events . Oh how he regretted letting her fight in that damned rink! But the moment they saw the contestant they knew that something was awry with him and she pleaded for permission to use her Zenaffa armor. An elvish multiweapon that could change its shape and size, and trap mazoku no matter its power, according to its master's wishes.

What would it hurt? He thought back then.

The champion wore black robes and hid the lower parts of his face behind a cloth and an upper under a hood.

They had stumbled upon an underground fighting rink during their search for a very rare blend of herbs which they needed to cure Memphis's father who had contracted an equally rare disease.

The man in the rink was rude and arrogant, but also unbelievably strong. A little elf maiden would have been equal to nothing in such person's eyes.

A lesson in humility would've served that individual well. Milgasia thought as he granted his friend permission to wreck some havoc. People who gathered there were criminals, so maybe getting struck with some flying debris would enlighten some of them and turn them to the path of redemption.

Or maybe it would just serve them right.

But no matter. As long as Memphis had her armor no one could land a finger on her…

How wrong they were to think that way.

When she stepped into the rink, hands on her hips and legs apart, the dark figure turned towards her. He seemed to regard her for a second, before saying: "Ey, Val. How much is Zenaffa worth?"

"Oh, man, I don't know. Really. Like… it depends on whom we would be sellin' it to. But it's gonna be a lot." Replied a very tall, young man with toused teal hair, who was watching the fights from under the wall not far away.

"As if you'll be able to take it from me! It is loyal to me only, and you won't even have a chance to touch it before it touches you!" Memphis bragged from the other side of the rink.

The black figure then stepped forward without replying and she was about to command her Zenaffa to sprout a pair of large, clawed arms. But before that happened, he suddenly appeared in front of her with his own arm extended and finger pointing at the piece of armor on her chest.

He drew his finger closer and as he were to touch it, the armor gave out a shrill scream and parted around his finger like liquid, revealing the soft clothes underneath.

"Yeah… " The man said pensively. "I think that touching this piece of junk will be a problem, no matter who initiates the contact."

Milgasia knew then, that they are deep in trouble. Regrettably, it was not the kind of trouble he anticipated.

At least most of it wasn't, he mentally noted as he gained altitude to feel his way to Dragon's Peak better. Flying low somehow could make him feel claustrophobic, despite not being surrounded by anything other than water that was making up the ocean far below him.

The memory of his first meeting with Filia's two unruly wards made him drop low, probably in check with his mood.

Yes, there were two of them. Almost always together. And although she never outward said anything about them, he knew that the dark one was her son. She shares a bond with him, that only blood relatives between dragons can share. As for the father; Milgasia hand never asked about him, because he simply feared the answer that she was most likely to give. An answer like that would be unacceptable anyway. But there were times during which he was itching to ask, with hopes of having his theories debunked.

But they looked so alike in face…

Milgasia shook his head.

No. No. Don't think about it. It's ridiculous. You're overreacting. He mentally scolded himself.

His thoughts went now to Val, who asked him to go back to his continent and arrange a few rooms in one of Seyruun's cathedrals. He had found such decision fairly acceptable, especially after the other dragon firmly stated that he was going back to their cottage and sneak Filia out.

Finally! A glimmer of sound judgement!

So now Milgasia rushed across the skies and above the deep ocean to find a well hidden cathedral, with wind under his wings and great amount of anxiety shaking up his mind.

A long distance behind him, in a wooden cottage that stoon in a clearing between the trees that made up the woods that grew under the mountains Filia woke up with a headache.

It was an early morning and she felt tired and nervous. The events of the previous day and the dream she had after she passed out had left her exhausted. Aside from that, she could swear that she heard a response to her call just a few seconds before she fell unconscious. It had been incredibly disheartening that she didn't have a chance to hear a complete message.

Especially because of the information that Val brought to her when he came back from the bombed city. He had said that one of the explosives that failed to detonate on time bore Xeinaar's sigil.

That information made her weak back then and later it drove her into sorrow, which led to her ill tempered outburst at Zelas. She knew it was foolish to just walk up to a Mazoku lord and simply demand from The Greater Beast to leave.

She also worried that the recipient of that call had decided to visit her in person when he did not received a reply. Filia had to admit, that lamenting in dragonsong to Xeinaar was a bad idea. If he were to find Zelas here, he would definitely blow up at least one mountain and drag Val through a mud a few times for not doing something about the Mazoku. And who knows what he would do if he and Xellos met. She didn't know if Xeinaar wished to harm him.

A shudder went through her at the thought of a possible fight between the two mazoku who made themselves comfortable at her cottage and her overly emotional disaster of a son. If it ever came to this she didn't want to be near the resulting fight.

Filia shook her head. She was overthinking and she needed to stop before the stress will push her over the edge and she'll end up suffering another attack. Those used to happen more often than before they moved to this secluded cottage, and she began to feel better after some time of peace but of course something had to happen to make it all worse again.

"I need some tea." She concluded to herself. After a day filled with so many stressful events she deserved a lot of it.

She rubbed her eyes and slowly scrambled off of her bed. Her eyelids felt heavy and she could feel nausea building up within her. Aside from that she had trouble regaining her balance after she got up.

It seemed that it was one of these days when she will need Val's assistance. Reality had become more difficult for her to process and her own body felt more like a rough suit tightly wrapped around her soul than her own flesh and blood.

Filia also had concluded that the time for her and Val to leave their cottage has come. They've dwelt there for too long and now that Xellos has found them, she could not allow herself to stay near him and his master. Being near them for so long was already taking its toll on her. They were already suspecting something; especially Zelas, who seemed determined to find out what is happening with her.

She slowly made her way to the kitchen, hoping that both Mazoku are occupied with something of greater importance than getting in her way. After taking a few steps toward the cabinet that contained her herbs Filia stopped dead and her eyes widened slightly as she recalled another even of the previous day.

Milgasia!

That's right! He's been here and Zelas had held him captive!

How could she forget about that!?

As the reality settled in more firmly her strength began to rapidly evaporate. The surroundings seemed to get darker and the air became colder and thicker. She tripped over her own legs and fell onto her knees in the middle of her kitchen.

The morning sun seeping through the window irritated her, and the cheery birdsong sounded like an abominable clamor. The very smell of wood that her cottage was made of was suffocating her and the sensation of her own skin rubbing against the fabric of her clothes felt like they were made of sandpaper. Grating against her body and tearing at her very being.

Filia's breathing became faster and more erratic. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to not become overwhelmed by the illusion of sudden hostility of her surroundings.

The song from yesterday came to her mind and she tried to focus on the possible response to her words. But to no avail were her attempts to keep herself occupied to what should matter the most to her right at that very moment, for the darkness kept calling her from beyond the boundaries of the world of the living.

She hoped that Val would come to her aid soon. There was no life around her to climb on, and if one of the Mazoku who were staying at her house found her right now they would, without a doubt, try to exploit her moment of weakness. Zelas was already suspecting something and the previous day had proven that she would happily drive Filia further into the abyss, if only to see what would happen.

Just as she was about to lose control the hinges of the front door let out a long, miserable screech as they had slowly been pushed open. A few intangible grunts followed by heavy footsteps sounded from the corridor and then a disheveled and dirty Val showed up in the entrance to the kitchen. He did a double take when his eyes landed on Filia and let out a horrified gasp.

In a matter of seconds he was kneeling by her side, trying to calm her down and bring her back to reality. He called her by her name a few times, but when that failed to make her respond, Val wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up.

A shiver went through Filia's body when she felt a familiar warmth pressed against her. The sensation of being under care of someone she could trust helped her calm down. Slowly she began regaining her senses and a blurry image of Val's dirty face and tangled hair came into focus in front of her.

She frowned, clearly displeased by his unruly state.

"Va-Valtýr? Baev jege mante...?" (Valtýr? What happened to you?) Filia asked while to reach out to touch his hair.

"Oh, viede… túre ges." (Oh, you know… I got lost.) He gave her a lopsided smile, hoping that the topic of their conversation would change soon.

"Jege... " (You…) The dragoness went stiff and frowned as she was struggling to remember the events of the previous night. But it was not long until the lost pieces of information came back and formed a number of cracked images of Xellos and his unnatural possessiveness.

She blushed when she remembered how he kissed her while he mended her arm. It was so strange. No Mazoku should be able to heal anyone. It went against their nature. To think that he would go out of his way so far to do something like that for her…

And at last Fiia remembered the chaos that broke them apart and an angry Zelas covered in eggshells, and that was when her her expression turned stern and she pointed her finger accusingly between Val's eyes.

"Jege! Tarrmate ges!" (You! You got high!) She shouted, all memories of kisses and healing suddenly thrown aside.

Filia scrambled out of his hold but when she tried to put her foot on the ground, she nearly fell before she noticed that they've been sitting on her bed. Fortunately Val took a hold of her upper arm before she ended up on the floor.

She struggled to regain her balance for a few seconds and nearly pulled the other dragon off of the bed along with herself before she finally stood on her own two feet without acting like a shaky toddler. Without much of a warning she then swiftly took off her slipper and slammed it against Vals dirty face.

"Jege granta!" (You idiot!) Filia yelled in anger and swung the slipper to hit him again, but he dodged the blow by throwing himself flat onto her bed. "Æ geta jege tem iveor faver er sabiþ! Tie dané hata jega ete wer mang æ fagal ize markh!?(i had not given you these herbs so you could waste them! How many times do i have to tell you to stop taking this shit!?)"

"Téreman! Ée gorthe! Hvite geva mer savae geth!" (I'm sorry! I was hurt! I needed something to dull the pain!) Val cried out into the sheets while Filia continued to pummel his back with a leather slipper.

"Æ kirr éer da! Gura þierar mative geth fer áate, jege rava!" (I don't care! You can endure some of it just fine, you stoner!) She bellowed and the whole house seemed to tremble in fear of her wrath.

"Xellos éer tvisa!" (Xellos attacked me!) The other dragon yelped. "Unev za…" (He's onto us…)

At that, Filia stopped and stood above him with a slipper still in her raised hand. She dropped onto Val's back unceremoniously and then balled her hand into a fist and swung it around as she turned away from him.

"Nen ka ima?" (And whose fault is that?) She growled.

Val pushed himself up on his elbows and looked at her. He couldn't see her expression but he knew her well enough to know that she pushed her lips into a thin line and narrowed her eyes to glare through the window.

An angry Filia was a force to be reckoned with, and this time, she was enraged enough to shake herself out of her dark episode. Val couldn't decide if her short temper was a good thing when it came to her condition, or not. While it was true that negative emotions were the ones that were driving her further and further to the point of no return, her anger didn't seem to have the same effect despite being one of them.

Perhaps that was because it was more of a personality trait than a temporary state of mind? Being hot headed is something that people do inherit from their parents in certain cases after all. And Gold Dragons were known to get overly emotional very fast.

"Ag ovr ate? Damu jege gotrav?" (What did you tell him? Did he manage to hurt you very badly?) Filia asked after a moment of silence. Her voice already began to lose the rigid tone it carried when she was angry.

"Ægir ovr æ ate, adar vamiyan éere ad rema ad kavam æ angar caas.(I didn't tell him anything, but he phased us to a place to which i hoped to never return.)" Val replied as his expression turned serious.

So that is why Xellos had that bell… Filia thought. She remembered the terror of what the sound of it heralded. Those bells were supposed to never appear in front of her though. How ironic it was to see it in the Mazoku's hand.

"From one Mazoku to the other…" She murmured to herself, but Val knew her her words and was aware of their meaning.

Filia turned slightly her head to look at Val then. "There was a time when I thought that it was his doing, that we weren't even worth his time and he's sent someone to get rid of the problem."

"I know, Úlita. We've talked about this many times." The younger dragon said and shook his head sadly while he moved to get up.

Her episode was clearly over, and her anger appeared to be thinning out as well.

She turned to face him fully and crossed her arms on her chest. "Now. Get out."

"Huh?"

"I said: Out!" The dragoness pointed firmly at the door leading out of her room. "You're dirty and you stink of weed! I don't want to see or smell out until you have washed all this crap off of yourself!"

"Wha- I-... fine I'm going." He whined and dragged himself towards the washroom but a slipper hitting his lower back had him halt his steps and turn around to stare at her in resignation.

"I mean, out of my house." Filia hissed and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"Outside!?" Val squeaked. "But-! But-! Why!"

"Because it's still your fault. Besides I want to take a bath right now, and I won't tolerate a dirty bathtub, nor your smelly towels anywhere near me." She stated firmly.

"I'll clean it!" The younger dragon protested.

"No." Filia crossed her arms defiantly on her chest.

Feeling utterly defeated, Val turned around and walked past her and toward the front door. But before he managed to take a step outside the sound of her voice had stopped him once again.

"Valtýr.. ." She said hesitantly, drawing his attention back to herself. "Why do you think is he doing this?"

This question made him raise his head in order to look at Filia. It took him a second to realize who she was referring to.

"I- I honestly don't know. He hadn't contacted me since he left." Val replied after a few moments of hesitation. "I only noticed that he had been acting strange before we parted ways , like, he was kind of calmer? But he never said why."

Filia only nodded solemnly and turned toward the kitchen. The recent situation had put more strain on her than she was capable of enduring and in the back of her mind she had already made a decision to forget about Xellos and not dwell on the past.

Seeing that she wanted to be alone and seemingly in no danger of falling into another episode, Val rubbed his face with both of his palms and walked out of their house. Deciding that it will take his a few hours to go to the nearby lake and wash most of the dirt and the smell of weed that Filia hated so much, he reached to a hidden pocket inside his tunic and fished out a cigar-like looking object.

"Well, if I'm not going to be home for some more time I might as well hit another blunt… " He rasped as he lit the blunt by blowing out some fire on it like one would blow air at dandelions, and went down the path that led in the direction of the lake.

At the same time Xellos was sitting amongst the debris of the bombed city that lay nearby the forest in which Filia had build her cottage. He's been greatly disturbed by his recent actions and for most of the night he had tried to find a rational explanation to his unusual behavior. Not to mention that he had disobeyed a direct order from his master to not enter the remains of the city to avoid being seen in this area.

He's never disobeyed an order to blatantly and for a moment wondered about the consequences he would surely face when he got back.

For most of the night he had wandered about the ruins, picking up (or tearing off) any left hands of every corpse he had happened to stumble upon and holding them together like a bouquet of freshly plucked flowers. The smell of burnt flesh and an overall aura of misery had brightened his mood considerably. And when he had no room in his arms for more left hands, he stuck them in a ground in a neat rows sorting them by the amount of burn the flesh had suffered.

The city was completely destroyed by the bombs, leaving no survivors and it was situated a good distance away from other human dwellings. So even a day after the catastrophe no one seemed to be on their way to investigate the noise that the enormous explosions had caused.

Xellos mused that, in the end, no one would come to investigate but that would be too good to be true. People lived here, they traded, sent mail, traveled, etc. Eventually someone would get fed up with an unanswered messages, or unpaid loans and they would be on their merry way to… whatever this place was once called.

He was sitting now on a pile of burnt debris and throwing rocks at the hands that he stuck into the ground, trying to throw them with enough force and precision to have a small rock leave a hole in the palm as is passed through the flesh, but without making the hand fall flat on the ground.

He was successful for the most part.

Only the memory of Filia had him destabilize enough to fail at shooting through yet another palm of a partially melted hand and it got knocked off instead.

He shouldn't be bothered this much by whatever was happening with Filia. She was only lending them a place to hide and the sole reason for her to do so was because of Val's childish fascination with him. He had felt no fear whatsoever coming from that stupid dragon. Val resembled Filia in that overconfident demeanor when faced with something he could not handle or, quite possibly, understand.

The apple didn't fall far from the tree, Xellos thought.

But it seemed that she has finally sobered up when it came to handling Mazoku. It did not feel as pleasing as Xellos thought it would though. During their Darkstar campaign he had found her lack of fear and respect for him annoying on the most part, however, that had also made her interesting in his eyes. But now that she did seem more distanced from him, even though she tried to maintain her previous persona, something felt off. Unnatural even.

And when he saw her in Milgasia's arms, half-conscious and clinging to that old Golden Dragon... it had pushed him to the brink of such wild anger that if his master had not been there, he would have ended Milgasia's miserable life right on the spot. He couldn't tell what came over him. He even healed her after the whole ordeal. Whenever they were close he couldn't stop himself from wanting to initiate some form of physical contact with Filia and he had found it difficult to stay away from her for long.

At some point while he was sitting in the middle of a wrecked city he had admitted to himself that something was happening to him that no Mazoku would never even take into consideration

in their wildest dreams. He didn't want to think about this particular thing any further lest he'll admit something impossible to himself and self-destructs on the spot.

He thought about the bell instead. The one he'd found while he was interrogating Val. Fila's reaction to seeing it had piqued his interest. For some unfathomable reason she seemed truly frightened of it, also, there was something about song that she had sung out when she left the cottage; he was nearly certain that it was some sort of a message for it had been laced with power but unlike a spell it had not resulted in any reaction from their surroundings. He knew that the words were carried by the currents between the fabrics of space and matter, he could feel it.

Xellos remembered something similar happening during the Koma War, but he'd been too young back then to fully comprehend what was happening because the words were exchanged constantly through the span of the war and only after it was over did the songs gradually recede.

It must have been the dragons communicating with each other astrally in their own languages, he thought. Perhaps Filia was calling for Val?

He slowly opened his eyes and glared at the burnt and disfigured hands that were sticking out of the ground in front of him.

Or maybe she was calling for Milgasia? Are there any other dragons beside him with whom she is familiar? Could it have been Nevabedaya? Does she have that sort of ability?

Why did Filia's pain made him choke?

Xellos stood up abruptly and phased out. If there was something he could not stand, it was being in the middle of a mess that he knew absolutely nothing about while weaklings like Filia and Val had all the information he needed.

He followed Filia's astral signature and appeared in her washroom.

She was sitting in the bathtub with her back against the wall and a big cup of what appeared to be a black tea in her hands. At the sight of him she promptly let go of it and started screaming.

"Be quiet, will you? I'm not in the mood to deal with your insolence today." Xellos threatened as he kept eyeing the naked dragoness who was squirming in the tea infused water and trying to cover herself with her hands.

The tone of his voice and the unusually unhappy expression that betrayed his nature were enough to silence her protests. But it did not stop her from glowering at him and trying to push herself further underwater to at least make her feel like she was covered by something.

"Say what you want and get out!" She hissed.

"It's not going to be that simple." He replied as he took a step towards her.

Filia felt herself shiver under the scrutinizing gaze of the Monster's cold, amethyst eyes. He stared her down with a curious mixture of hunger, frustration and mockery. As if he himself didn't know how to go about whatever he wanted to do.

"There are things I wish you to tell me and I won't tolerate 'no' for an answer." He said calmly as he drew closer.

"NO!" Filia yelled from her corner of the bathtub.

That made Xellos move faster and then he lifted one leg and stepped into the water. To Filia's horror, he placed the other leg at the bottom of the tub next to the first one and sat down across her, fully clothed.

"I said someth-"

"You're going too far with this! Get out of here at once!" Filia hissed as she tried to push herself as far away from him as possible.

Unfortunately that only made him lean in towards her with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

"You're not in position to order me around, Filia." He grimaced, making her flinch at the acidic tone of his voice.

He quickly pulled out the squashed bell, that he'd found during his skirmish with Val, from his soaked bag and shoved it at Filia, uncaring for her reaction this time.

At first- her eyes widened up in surprise and her entire body tensed, but then her expression quickly changed into one of disgust mixed with horror and she tried to quickly scramble out of the bathtub. But before she managed to get out Xellos grabbed her by the neck and pinned her down, nearly forcing her head under water.

"Let me go, scum!" She yelled and trashed, spilling water everywhere.

"Not unless you tell me what this is supposed to mean." The Mazoku hissed at as he waved the bell that he still held in his free hand in front of her.

"Why does it even bother you so much!?" Filia bit back as she desperately tried to claw her way out of his grip.

He shoved his face closer to hers. "Now this, is a secret." Xellos said without much of his ever present humour in his words.

"It doesn't concern you!" She tried to slap him but the Mazoku just let the bell fall into the water and caught her arm mid-swing by the wrist, and refused to release it.

"Now, I wouldn't be so fast with such assumptions. You see, everything that you're involved in seems to have an impact on me to some degree. And something is telling me, that this time is no different." He pulled her closer despite her struggles to get free.

"Why won't you just let go for once!?" Filia cried out in frustration.

"Because it's not in my nature. You should already know that." He stated flatly and looked at her with eyes absent of any emotion. "I happened to throw Val into a middle of -I presumed- nowhere to have a little alone time with him, but it had turned out that we were having a talk between the ashes of old Soplica town. I had not wasted a single thought to wonder about the untimely destruction of that place... until now." His stare got more determined with every word he spoke.

"Long story short, Val had recognised that little piece of metal that you are so desperate to get away from and avoided getting a well deserved right hook in the face." Xellos continued. "As far as I know, Soplica had been completely burned down and let me guess; it met its early demise by dragonfire?"

Filia ripped her hand out of his grasp as fast as she felt his hold on her falter. She quickly jumped out of the bathtub nearly slipping on the wet wooden floor and immediately made her way to the door. But Xellos was faster and he effortlessly teleported between her and the exit, barring her only escape route.

"I won't let you out until you answer my questions." He said and his lips twitched upwards when he saw Filia take a step back realising that she's completely naked.

That had obviously made her panic even more and she turned around to grab a towel, but once again he appeared between her and her target, only this time he has standing much closer than before. She almost grabbed onto his garments but quickly withdrew her hands before they'd made contact with the fake fabric of his shirt.

"Tell me about that bell and I will leave you alone for now." He crooned.

But it did not have a desired effect on the dragones for she greeted her teeth in anger and embarrassment, and glared up at him.

"I will tell you nothing and you shall still leave!" She hissed and began chanting a holly spell.

That finally made the Mazoku stop smirking down at Filia and this time he was the one to back away.

"You don't really mean to use this spell on me, Filia." He laughed nervously as he remembered the magnitude of damage the same exact spell had inflicted on Almayce centuries ago.

But she had been relentless in her chanting. And if that wasn't enough bad news for Xellos, he had suddenly found himself seeking an intervention from his master only to find out that Zelas is not in the house. Nor anywhere nearby.

The realization that she decided to vacate her current hideout while she's unable to regain control over her astral body and not inform her most trusted subordinate had startled him. Did she leave him as a punishment for visiting the destroyed city after she had told him not to?

No. Something like that would be too childish for her to do. But where would she go?

Xellos quickly glanced at Filia who nearly managed to finish her spell.

"Fine! I'll go!" He threw up his hands in defeat. "You've got me here." He admitted, if only to placate the angry dragoness in front of him.

"And take your master with you! Go back to hell, where you belong!" She snarled at him and stomped her bare foot against the wooden planks that made up the majority of the floor.

This time he didn't have to be told twice. The Mazoku has disappeared from the cottage only to show up a few yards away from it, next to the rim of the forest clearing before going down the path that led deeper into the woods.

He briefly noted Filia's lack of awareness about his masters disappearance, which only meant that Zelas had not been gone for long. His dragon had probably been too worked up to notice the absence of the other Monster, which was a little worrying given Filia's obsession with detecting any Mazoku within ten leagues radius.

Nonetheless he had received no orders from Zelas prior to her disappearance and Filia had proven herself to be more dangerous than he had given her credit for, so he had chosen to withdraw and see what happens next. His master had definitely not left the cottage without a reason. Or at least that what he has been telling himself as he went down the winding path until he reached another clearing.

Feeling a little down and useless at the moment, Xellos walked out of the forest only to be met with a sight of a great black dragon laying on its back in a lake of which quite considerable size was still not enough to contain the beast that had decided to take a bath in it.

Well aren't they all alike? The Mazoku tilted his head as he stared at the dragon. He opened his eyes slightly in annoyance and a frown appeared on his face.

"Val." He said in a voice more flat than the wooden floor in Filia's bathroom.

"Whhhh?" The dragon in question drawled lazily and his golden eyes rimmed, with thick turquoise outline, turned towards the source of the intrusive voice that seemed to be either calling his name, or not. Depending if the person to whom it belonged really did say something.

Or maybe it was just the wind blowing between the branches of trees that surrounded him thickly enough to resemble an elaborate maze rather than a simple forest.

Valtýr couldn't tell. The weed that he had smoked after Filia had yelled him out of their cottage was dimming his senses. Oh! How he loved being this stupid! The world seemed to be much simpler when he couldn't be bothered with its elaborate mechanics and simply let himself be carried by the flow.

Another obstacle with perceiving objects, people and things in-between (such as Mazoku) was the size difference between his current dragon body and the aforementioned factors. For his body has been far larger than that of any other dragon's and his wings were sticking far out of the edges of the lake and had been spread on the wet moss around it. Not to mention that his weight was causing a small flooding around the area.

Xellos would be lying if he said that he was unimpressed by the sight so he resolved to simply not address the topic of Val's appearance. But he did find himself quite puzzled by the other's decision to change his body into its native form.

"What are you doing here?" The Mazoku asked, genuinely curious as to why Val would be spending time in the lake instead of running back home along with Milgasia to get Filia out of, what Milgasia would call, danger.

"Ay Xellos, whaddup?" The Ancient slurred in direction opposite of his company.

"I asked you a question. It would be unwise to deny me an answer again ." Xellos growled in annoyance. He ran out of patience for Val the last time they spoke, and had very little intention of holding back for long were the dragon to decide not to cooperate.

"She kicked you out too?" Va turned his large head towards the priest who stood a few yards away.

The question in itself presented an answer and Xellos's shoulders slumped in defeat after hearing it.

"Yeah… " He admitted and after a second he had quickly recovered from a wave of exasperation. But the dragon's question raised another one. "What did she kick you out for?"

That made Val look up at the cloudless sky. "I blazed all the weed I had on me before I managed to get back home. Man, she hates when I smoke... " He trailed off and in the very moment Xellos had decided to say something, the dragon in front of him spat out a thick pillar of fire into the sky.

The flames were so horrendously hot and bright that the light of the day itself seemed to diminish around them. That proved that the power of Ancient Dragon's fire breath was by far more dangerous than Xellos had anticipated and the sight of it made the Mazoku reevaluate a few things he thought he knew about the creature that currently laid sprawled in front of him. Which was a good thing since that made Val a pretty useful tool for future use. Especially considering the series of disasters that had been recently brought upon the monster race.

But setting that aside, Xellos walked up to the dragon's head, which was lying on a muddy beach that later turned more sandy as it descended into the waters. He looked up to stare into Val's eye intending to resume their conversation from the wheat fields, however the difference in size proved to be in the way.

Threatening Val right now would be like screaming at a mountain, and it sure felt like that to the priest who failed to make the dragon look at him. Violence was out of question, as it had already proven to be ineffective in making him speak.

It didn't help that Val was currently higher than any dragon could fly. The Ancient's pupils were blown wide and his tail swished lazily on the beach situated on the other end of the lake, tossing logs and some smaller trees around in the process. But Val's intoxication could also be used to Xellos's advantage.

The Mazoku remained silent for a few short moments. Then, after tying a few loose facts along with several unprecise observations and assumptions into knots, and twisting them to resemble a string of coherent words he very sloppily formed a plan that would, or would not work. Which didn't matter much because he severely overpowered the dragon in front of him anyway. Still… things would go much smoother if the scaly fool decided to cooperate.

"There are a few things bothering me but I don't think that I am in possession of such knowledge. You on the other hand, I find rather well informed when it comes to certain matters which would be of great use to me." Xellos flashed his most courteous smile at the dragon in hopes that enough flattery will coax Val into yielding information that he was so far unwilling to share. The Ancient's drug induced brain surely would have trouble with processing Xellos's meticulously crafted interrogation.

"Yeah go on…" Val grunted without bothering to even look at him.

"Ah, first of all, I should apologize for treating you so badly on our way back from… your place of business? I must confess that you had surprised me back then, which rarely happens to a Mazoku of my rank." Xellos bowed shortly and glanced from under his fringe at the large yellow eye which had so far remained unfocused.

"Uhm, 's cool bro… " The dragon replied dully.

That wasn't a reply Xellos expected to get. His mouth twitched as he straightened up and dug his staff into the ground, however, he was far from giving up.

"Also, while you were away I had encountered a slight problem with Filia. She's been acting like she's in great pain. You see, I took her to bed and offered my further assistance but the first thing she asked me for was a bottle of absinthe hidden beside her bed. It's not like I've found it surprising that a Golden would resort to such practices but the reason for her drinking so much of it had me quite puzzled… Care to elaborate?" The priest cocked his head to the side, mimicking a confused expression.

Val seemed to tense at those words but then the dragon's tail had swept across the corresponding beach back and forth, and his throat had made a gurgling sound. It all led to Val sucking in a lungful of air and then spitting up a great column of fire into the sky once again. When he was done, he lazily smacked his jaws two times and grunted.

"Well… she's sick, I guess." Val responded with apparent disinterest in their conversation.

The Mazoku's grip on his staff tightened. He couldn't feel anything from Val, no fear, no joy, no nothing, not even hunger. That's so annoying, talking to that dragon was like trying to decipher some sort of a secret code.

"Aren't you worried though? Maybe I could help you cure her? I might sound weird coming from a Mazoku, but I didn't like watching her suffer." Xellos said as he took a step closer to Val hooping he'll be able to finally catch his attention.

It seemed to work, for the dragon's eye had turned to stare down at him in contemplation briefly before it returned to its previous task which was pretty much gazing at the empty sky, without a sliver of thought behind it.

"I wouldn't catch you lying so sucks to be you as much as it sucks to be her. I don't know what's up wit her tho…" Val replied lazily.

Xellos had to resist the urge to jam the sharp end of his staff into Val's eye. That idiot was supposed to get emotional and start spilling information. How is that possible that someone raised by someone like Filia doesn't get temper tantrums and is capable of such emotional detachment that a possibly fatal illness of their family member doesn't move them in the slightest?

"Were you always like this?" The Priest hissed through clenched teeth. What was with him getting so easily pissed off by a few words spoken by a dragon?

"I think I used to be more honest. Uhhh… and smaller, like, I remember being half my current size." Val said thoughtfully.

"That's not what I mant!" Xellos struck the ground with his staff in frustration. "Im serious here, I can't understand how can you be so bland!"

"HHn. I don't know what you expected. If you haven't noticed already, I'm just a criminal making a life out of the world's misery. Kinda like a Mazoku bro." The dragon shrugged making large waves hit the beach in the process.

"Oh no you're not like us. We have a certain pride to uphold, and you- you're such a reptile." The Priest shook his finger at Val in much more threatening way than he used to.

"Heh, at least I have the capacity to be a decent and compassionate person, unlike you. Haven't you ever been jealous of that?" Val turned his great, black snout towards the Mazoku nearily crushing Xellos.

"I don't get jealous over such petty things. Besides, I don't remember inviting you to ask me about anything." Xellos sneered finding himself unable to play nice to Val anymore.

"So, you can get jealous, just not about mortal emotions and such." The Ancient noted out loud. "You're so pitiful."

"What?" The Mazoku halted all his thought processes for a moment to better examine the words he had just heard.

"I pity you, Mazoku, who possess only one way of existence. Created only to carve extinction, unable to understand something as simple as joy of living, poisoned by mere thought of love. Nonsense creatures." Val said in such a low and cruel voice, that even a Mazoku as powerful as Xellos could feel the raw whiplash of the words spoken to him.

"You lowlife… You're dead-" Xellos didn't have the opportunity to finish the sentence because the ground began to shake and crack as a great shockwave swept across the continent. He turned his head sharply northway and opened his eyes wide.

"What's up?" Val whispered warily.

"The King of the North… something's happening with him." The Priest replied, brows knitted in concentration and lips twisted into a frown.

Within seconds Xellos was gone, heading for his master to assess the situation and await further orders.

Alone, Val turned back to stare at the sky. "I bet it's Xeinaar's doing… what a crazy fucker." He mumbled to himself and yawned. And just as he closed his massive jaws another Mazoku had appeared next to his head.

It looked like a big furry ostrich with a large beak and a pair of pointy ears turning left and right, it's big yellow eyes seemed to be frantically looking for something.

Val nearly jumped on his back at the unexpected intruder.

"AHAHA! Da hell ya suppos'd ta be?!" The dragon squeaked in mirth when he took a better look at the creature skipping beside his head.

The Mazoku skipped a few times around the place previously occupied by Xellos. It snapped its beak frantically and puffed up, which made it look even funnier, but despite appearance, Val wasn't stupid.

"You be lookin' for that Priest ain't ya?" He asked and as if in confirmation, the creature bobbed it's head up and down and jumped wildly in place. "I know where he should be right now, but nothing's for free." The dragon bared his teeth in a wicked smile and the Mazoku immediately seemed to shrink into itself.