Like a Fairy

by Ventanus

After surviving the horrors of the 37th floor and returning to the surface things are about to change a bit between Bell and Ryuu. And a certain grey haired woman is also interested. This is a "what if" story focussed on Bell and Ryuu. Rated M for later chapters. Contains spoilers up to LN 15 and a special one in chapter 1, avoid it with skipping "at Babel". Hope you like it

36. The black beasts

Ais Wallenstein ran and jumped over the rooftops in the direction where she heard the loudest roars, followed by Lefiya Virdis. Seven times she had encountered the black snake so far, had attacked and evaded the counters, but everytime the snake vanished into the earth again, as it was it´s nature. Her garment and her wind helped her against the Miama, so he had taken only minor damage, from the distance the mages of the Loki Familia had attacked whenever they saw a chance. Most of the magic was useless against that giant black beast, even Ais´ wind dealt no damage. The only things so far that had scratched the skins on the snake was Ais´ "Scale Breaker"
and, after she returned to the battlefield, Lefiya´s "Ark´s Ray" magic. Light based magic seemed to be the weakpoint, but the only one capable of using non-wide area light magic was Lefiya.

After the white fire pillars had shot into the sky, the Loki Familia was finally able to make room, the Miasma in the streets was gone and they fought with their full strength, defeating the monsters without much problems, since they were used to much harder monsters.

The snake vanished only moments before the white fire came under the earth and they heard it´s scream. The ground was shaking as the snake dug through the ground to the source of that fire.

"Ais! Lefiya! Go after it! We will follow you when we are finished here! Don´t let it get away, if you can kill that black beast!" Finn pierced a bone-sheep with his spear as he yelled out his commands.

""Understood!""

"Come Lefiya."

"I´ll follow you Ms. Ais."

And together they ran off. Some would expect that Lefiya was the one being more nervous, but it was Ais that didn´t felt good. Ever since Tiona told her about the black dragon, her heart was racing.

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A black dragon...it can´t be...not "that" one...

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Ais was also worried about Bell, was he fighting somewhere...protecting his home? She hoped he was not in the city, her feelings about Bell were unclear. Ais wanted to see Bell, talk to him...
maybe even more? She knew that he was married to that elf but that didn´t cut off her feelings. She didn´t told anyone, but lately she slept every night with her plushy in her arms and...imagining it was Bell.
It was nothing she was familiar with, but when she thought about it her face grew warm...was that normal? Was she getting sick?

And her feelings had changed how she looked at some of her memories. When Bell had seen Ais naked on the 18th Floor, she had lightly covered herself but was not too embarassed, why did it bother her now? The thought that Bell had seen her naked was in her head again and again. When she rememberred that one night as she squeezed her plushy...suddenly her face became hot and she started to squeak, pressing the plushy into her face, then throwing it to the side as she imagined she just had Bell pressed into her face. Ais had taken her body pillow and rolled around in her bed with a red face, making sounds of an embarrassed girl in love.
One morning her plushy was lightly wet at the snout and Ais was embarrassed that she had drooled in her sleep...but she hadn´t drooled...in her sleep Ais had kissed the plushy again and again...
Another morning when she had washed her "blue fox" outfit, she had tried it on and looked at herself in her large mirror in bright light for the first time. She turned around and her face became hot when she saw how much of her roundings were clearly visible in that outfit. She could even lightly see the tip of her breasts through the cloth! After Ais had changed back, Loki received another divine punishment...Ais still kept the costume. For a moment the idea flashed in her head, that maybe Bell would like the sight...

All those and more thoughts were in Ais head even in that grim situation...it was like as if there were two selves in her head. One was the trained warrior that was completely focussed on the battle...the other was the pure maiden...when she imagined it, her maiden-self looked two or three years younger than her warrior-self...about how old Bell was...

Bell...I want to talk to you when this all is over. I have to tell you something important.

It was still dark outside and the clouds growled, a rainstorm was approaching. In the distance she could see two shemes of...nothingness? The scales of the black beasts were so dark that they were slightly visible...it was a strange sight since most people would have thought that they would vanish into the darkness.

Hurry...

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The people of Orario who were hiding in their homes, fled to the outer wall of Orario, no monsters were in that area, they were all scared as the two titans of death smashed into each other.
Only one person remained here, after she had helped the citizens to flee...even breaking into a house and saving two scared children right next to the fighting beasts. She haven´t noticed it, but when her Familia had hugged her, a faint aura of light was around Ryuu, more and more people saw her as an angel of justice that came to rescue them. In a side street she had spotted an unconscious female half-elf, that she remberred from the guild. Ryuu had brought her to a place where fleeing citizens had taken her with htem.

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Ryuu waited at the basement of a clocktower, her weapons and magic ready. If she would get the chance, Ryuu would help Bell in his fight.

But even an experienced warrior like Ryuu...could only stare for a while at the sight before her. On one side was the heavily wounded dragon with white hair and crushed wings, on the other side was an evenly wounded giant black snake.
The dragon easily measured twelf meters as he stood on his hind legs...one of his wings was ripped off by the snake in the initial attack, Ryuu had looked in terror as Bell received such a heavy wound...she only hoped when...if!...he would change back, he wouldn´t get a deep wound from that since the wings were no natural part of his body. The snake in comparsion was longer than the dragon, but could only raise it´s body about fourteen meters, it had to keep the longer part on the ground to balance.

Ryuu was worried about the man she loved so much...so she didn't feel afraid of the snake.

But still...the sheer impact whenever they crashed into each other let the earth quake, the houses were cracked or broken. Seeing two giants fighting...if it weren´t so dangerous, it would be an amazing sight.

Justice Lumina pulsed as if it was angry with so much depravity in front of it, the sword produced it´s own faint aura of light, just like the former owner of the antlers had done, the aura wandered over Ryuu´s arms to "Sacred Oath".

Bell...fight!

With a titanic hiss, the snake shot forward, snaked across the floor to the dragon. Instead of using all four legs, the dragon balanced himself with his long tail and thundered forward on his hind legs, roaring at the snake, the ground cracked where his claws came down.
In the last moment, the snake shot to the side instead of slamming into the dragon, wrapped the giant body with enormous speed around the dragon. But the dragon was not helpless, with the claws of his arms...it just didn´t felt right to call them forelegs...he tore wounds in the snake´s body. Faster and faster the snake wrapped around the dragon´s body, squeezing him hard, it´s head rose above the dragon´s and he prepared to attack.

Instead of waiting, the dragon´s head shot forward and he sunk his giant teeth deep into the snake´s body. The snake screamed in pain, brought down his head and bit his shoulder. The dragon tossed its head back and forth before jerking a large chunk out of the snake. In return the snake sank his two giant teeth deep into the shoulder, injecting it´s advanced poison. Every enemy would die from that alone, but resistence to poison, the fire inside the dragon and sheer anger burned the poison away.

The two giants wrestled with each other, both reluctantly togive in. The dragon bit into the snake again, but now the snake had calculated with this movement, freeing it´s maw from the dragons shoulder and attacking the head instead. One of the long theeth carved a deep wound along the left eye of the dragon, letting him scream in pain and throwing his head back. The snake´s head shot forward forward to rip his throat out but...

.

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A white light flashed as two shining blades sunk down into the snake´s right eye.

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The angel of justice had come to save her love.

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Screaming in pain, the snake backed away and the dragon staggered back.

Panting and with an enraged face, the dragon raised his head. The deep cut forced his left eye to shut, now he really looked like an one eyed black dragon with a fierce red eye. His glance flicked over to Ryuu, he had finally found his female and fought together with her against his rival.

"Hisssss..." The snake raised it´s body again...this time it´s gaze wandered over to Ryuu.

Thrum!

Ryuu turned her face to the dragon as she heard a strange sound and the dragon made a thundering step forward.

Thrum!

Light gathered at the white hair again...the sound of bells was gone...it almost sounded like...throbbing?

Thrum!

He didn´t shoot out his white fire, this was a threatening gesture to get the attention of the snake and to show dominance.

The black snake rattled it´s tail, raised it´s dragon-like head and half hissed, half howled. It´s body rose as far as it could, threatening the dragon.

For a moment they stared at each other.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" With a titanic scream, the dragon thundered forward.

"HIIISAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The black snake returned the howl and shot forward.

The snake tried to bit into the dragon´s side, but he contered with his claws, shutting the maw of the snake and biting deep into the side of his "neck". In return the snake whiped his tail onto the eye wound of the dragon. The dragon´s grip loosened, the snake freed it´s head and bit into his side, starting to push him back.

The dragon loosened his bite to attack another area, but the snake used that moment to let go of his side and rammed it´s head from below into the dragon´s head.

Screaming, the black dragon fell backwards onto the ground, immediately the snake shot around and raced towards Ryuu.

Ryuu had watched the battle and was ready to evade or run away. An idea had come to her as she watched the fight, magic against the scales was not really effective, her light magic had only been effective because she had attacked a soft spot.

As she ran away from the snake, Ryuu started to sing, she ran right towards the clocktower.

"Distant forest sky. Infinite stars inlaid upon the eternal night sky."

Confident of swallong it´s prey soon, the snake followed Ryuu as she ran faster. It didn´t even looked surprised when Ryuu put her right foot against the clocktowers wall and...ran upwards.
Using her strength, agility and parts of her wind magic, Ryuu ran along the outer wall to the spire. The snake didn´t slammed into the building like it thought she had hoped and it didn´t snaked around the tower like a normal snake would do.
No it slided upwards right after Ryuu, at the spire she would have no room to escape and jumping into the air would mean death.

"Heed this foolish one´s voice and once again grant the protection of the starlight."

So far the snake had killed more than one adventurer that were jumping from rooftop to rooftop, it burst out of the ground and swallowed them before they could react.

"Grant the light of compassion to the one who forsook you."

Ryuu kept running, both swords held at her sides.

"Come storming wind, fellow traveler."

The snake put more speed into it´s movement, coming closer.

"Cross the skies and dash onto my enemy."

Ryuu jumped over a window...from the side it would look strange seeing her running a tower upwards.

"Faster than any, unstoppable to all."

The snake´s eye was completely focused on his prey.

"Imbue the light of stardust and strike down my enemy!"

The black snake opened it´s giant maw as far as possible, it would swollow this little creature.

This was exactly what Ryuu had hoped for, she did one last step, putting all of her strength into the muscle of the right thigh, kicking herself from the wall, Ryuu flew high into the air, turning herself around.
The snake followed her movement with it´s maw, now she couldn´t escape in any direction.

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"Luminous Vortex!"

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Ryuu thrusted both of her swords forward, the light around her body, the blades and that of her magic gathered together, a tremendous rush could be heard.

A bright stream of white and green light, as well as concentrated wind streamed into the opened maw of the snake. It was too focused on swallowing it´s prey that it didn´t payed attention to what it´s prey had done, so the snake was too close to evade. Iit screeched loudly as the magical tornado slashed, cut, smashed and burned it´s way through it´s body.

The snake fell to the side, Ryuu made a safe landing and turned immediately to the snake. Smoke rose from it´s maw and blood was gushing out, it hissed and screamed in pain, while it shook his head from one side to the other, shooting a murderous glare to Ryuu.

So magic from within works! But I can´t do that again...

A thunderous roar came from behind Ryuu, the dragon was on it´s feet again, stomping towards the snake. The snake screamed loud and with a loud crash, it dug under the street.

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From where will it attack the next time?

Ryuu looked from one side to the other, not noticing that the dragon slowly turned his head to her. She looked very tasty for him...not untouched anymore but that didn´t matter...

The dragon turned to the small elf, making a first stomp in her direction.

Ryuu turned her head to the approaching dragon, when she saw the hungry glare in his eye...Ryuu took a tiny step back, a shudder running down her body. "Bell?..."

.

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"Get out of my way!" Bete whirled himself around, dealing another kick against his opponent.

"I won´t let you escape, I won´t let you unharmed...not after what you did." Allen´s tone was calmer than Bete´s, but he countered with his spear again and attack fiercly on his own.

No matter the differences he had with Ahnya...and they had often quarreled...anyone who dared to harm her that way would pay. After all...she was still his cute little sister...not that he would ever say that out loud...especially not the word cute in front of Ahnya. From time to time Allen would sit on a rooftop near the Hostess of Fertility and made sure she was fine. Since Ahnya had good senses,
after a while she would smell him and looked into his direction, but Allen was the fastest adventurer in all of Orario, she never saw him.
The gods had a word for people like Allen, Freya had told him once but he didn´t understood the word and he didn´t liked it either for a reason he didn´t understand himself...Tsundere.

Allen didn´t cared for whatever reason the werewolf had attacked Ahnya, he would pay.

In the past Bete wouldn´t had a chance against Allen, now he was at least level six like Allen. But Allen Fromel was one of the strongest level six adventurers in Orario, closer to level seven than every member of the Loki Familia.

So there was still a huge difference between them and Allen was used to fight very strong opponents, the elite of the Freya Familia fought against each other in a daily routine.

"Ack!" Bete´s head jerked to one side, when Allen drew a bleeding line down Bete's cheek.

It wasn´t the first wound that Bete had taken from the spear, Allen had stabbed and slashed him again and again.

But Bete wasn´t the only one that got hit, he managed to return the favor he got from Allen.

Allen... Ahnya leaned leaned limp against the wall.

She was really happy that her brother came to save her, but she was worried about him getting hurt. Ahnya knew he was incredibly strong...but he was her older brother...so she was worried about him.

I will make sure you never forget what you did to her.

Allen lowered his stance and held his spear with the tip forward. Bete didn´t fought like he normally would, the rising anger made him let down his defence, strenghtening his offense.

"Raaaah!" Bete jumped forward, trying to kick at Allen´s head.

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Suffer!

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What happened next was impossible to see for Bete and Ahnya.

The sound of a blade hissing through the air could be heard...then something whirled through the air...Bete´s left leg and arm...

"Ah..AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Screaming in a pain he never felt before, Bete fell back, holding the stump of his arm, blood gushed out from both deep wounds.

Allen had cut it off right under Bete´s knee and his elbow.

"That was for hurting her...it won´t kill you, then your suffering would be ov-"

"ALLEN!"

When he heard Ahnya´s scream, Allen whirled around, ten members of Evilus came running onto the place...each of them had a bomb attached to their chest and they activated the trigger all together.

In the last seconds he had to react, Allen threw his spear at the Evilus in the front and jumpedinto Ahnya´s direction, covering her body with his own from the following explosion...

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"Bell...do you hear me? Please..." Ryuu stepped back again as the dragon came closer.

The dragon stopped and shook his head...then he stomped forward and stopped again. Ryuu could see his eye changing from that of a dragon to only part dragon. Bell was fighting inside himself against the black beast.
The spanking he had taken from Mia had strenghtened Bell´s essence in the dragon again. She had known instinctively that he was fighting against himself. Since Bell was scared of the angry Mama Mia...well everyone else was too...
the spanking had helped to awaken him again. Bell being scared of the angry Mia was also the reason why the dragon was afraid of her, they were one being deep inside...even though Bell was losing more and more.
Mia had meant no harm to Bell and she felt sorry about spanking him...but extreme situations required extreme measures...

"Bell...please hear me...come back to me!"

"Rrrrrrrrr...yuuuuuuuu..."

Her eyes widened...he just had tried to say her name.

"Bell! You can hear m-"

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The ground burst open...the snake had returned...and it shot right onto Ryuu.

Oh n-

With an earshattering scream, the black dragon shot forward and rammed his fangs into the neck of the snake, it roared indignantly and attacked the dragon again.

"Thank you Bell!" Ryuu yelled as loud as she could, she had to talk to Bell to keep him awake.

For now the dragon had the upper hand, pushing the snake down to the ground, snapped at her and sunk down his claws into the snake´s body. The snake tried to brake free, screaming, but the dragon refused to let go, biting deep into it´s flesh and ripping out another chunk.

It was a very brutal fight between these two giant monsters, deep wounds covered both of their bodies and blood streamed onto the streets. The snake had bitten the dragon with it´s two very long fangs often enough to have holes in his body and the snake was missing chunks of flesh in return.

They pushed each other back for a moment, the dragon raised his right claw to slash at the snake´s head, but it ducked down and bite right into the dragons neck, in return the dragon digged its claws into the flesh at the back.

Growling, the snake raised it´s body together with the dragon´s and slammed him into the street. The dragon screamed in pain, but as the snake raised it´s head to attack the neck again, he shot an electrical fireball into the snake´s face. It dealt no damage but it blinded the snake for a moment.

When it shook it´s head, instead from the front, the attack came from behind.

Ryuu jumped past the neck of the snake and slashed with both of her swords after a wound that the dragon had dealt, the scale around the wound were loose so Justice Lumina finally made some damage.

"HIIIISSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

It´s head came around but before it could attack Ryuu, the dragon came from behind. Instead of biting again, the dragon threw his whole body against the snake and rammed it into the clocktower, the tower got massiv cracks but didn´t fall. As the snake hit the ground, the dragon lost no time, raised on of his massiv hind legs and stomped with his full weight onto the middle of the snake´s body.
With a wet crack, something broke inside her and more blood came out of it´s maw.

Enraged, the snake raised it´s head and spat a huge amount of blood, acid and venom into the dragon´s face, aimed at the one good eye.

"Bell!"

Ryuu saw how he flinched and tried to get his eye free with his claw.

Now the snake attacked again, ignoring the pain in it´s body, it jumped forward and wrapped itself around the dragon again with massiv speed and strength.

"Rrrrraaaaaaah!" The dragon screamed in pain as the wrap tightened, his arms were bound.

Again the snake bite right into his neck, using every bit of strength she had in her jaw and began to wrestle him down.

The dragon´s scream slowly faded into a whimper, the snake choked his breath.

"Bell no!"

Ryuu ran and jumped onto the snake´s body, it was difficult to hold a steady footing but she ran to the cracked scales on the middle of the snake and rammed her swords inside, moving and turning them to hurt her as much as possible. Ryuu didn´t had much mental strength left for her magic and only one potion.

The snake tried to kill the dragon but the pain was too intense as Ryuu opened the wound more, blood gushed over her white garment. Justice Lumina shone angry as it´s essence burned that of the snake.

Eventually it let go of the dragon and followed Ryuu.

The dragon tried to come up again, leaning his claws on two nearly collapsed houses, panting heavily...the sap of his life flowed out of him in rivers.

Somewhere in his mind was a faint voice. Ry...uu..

And then...the houses collapsed under his weight...as well as the houses around him, buried him under themselves. At full strength it would be no problem...but the dragon was half dead and most of his strength gone.

The weight of the collapsed houses hold him onto the ground, he could only watch helpless how the snake chased his female.

Ry...uu...

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Run! Run! Buy Bell time to get up!

Ryuu had sheathed "Sacred Oath" and ran with only Justice Lumina in her hand through the streets, the snake followed her. Again and again she had to jumpd out of the way as the snake snapped at her, trying to swallow her whole.

She hadn´t even time to ask herself where the Loki Familia was.

The ground rumbled...Ryuu jumped up, evaded the snake´s maw way too short for her taste, but the snake got her with it´s tail.

"ACK!" Ryuu flew a few dozen meters, slammed onto the ground and rolled a few meters more, feeling a sharp pain in her left foot.

Ouch...that hurt alot...

Fortunately, she hadn't dropped her sword ... or fell on it.

The snake came again...it wasn´t even enraged anymore...it went berserk...and pulled a huge trail of blood behind it.

Move...Move!

Groaning, Ryuu got up and hobbled on as fast as she could.

Ow!...Move mo-Ah Ouch! It huuurts!

Maybe something was broken in her foot.

Out of nowhere came a lashing tail and whiped her of her feet, sending her fly again.

After she stopped rolling over the floor, she tried to get up, but immediately fell down again.

AH!

A sharp pain was constantly in her foot now, definetely broken.

She crawled forward, dragging her battered leg behind her...only her garment had saved her so far from getting more bones shattered...and saved her from the Miasma that still clung to the snake´s body.

"Hisssss..."

The snake was right behind her...

Ah...ow...

Two meters ... she couldn't make it anymore, so she turned around and leaned her back against a piece of rubble.

Bell...I´m sorry...I love you...

Ryuu looked up to her raising death, Justice Lumina pointed forward.

The snake came slowly closer...only now Ryuu saw that it´s sense holes at the head were all destroyed by her and Bell...only one eye remained to take in the surroundings.

I hope...we will see...each other...in the next life...

Ryuu felt no fear...just sadness.

Bell...thank you...for everything...

The snake raised it´s head, opened it´s maw wide...and shot forward.

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Thrum!

With a scream loud enough to be a sonic weapon, the dragon jumped from the side, bored his fangs into the snake again. He had gotten a bad angle...for the snake.

Thrum!

Slowly he pulled the fighting snake back from Ryuu.

Thrum!

The hair on the dragon´s head started to glow more and more.

Thrum!

Pure rage was in the dragon´s one eye.

Thrum!

He brought his claws to the snake´s maw and dug them into the flesh and stated to wrestle with the snake´s head.

Thrum!

"Sh...Sha...Hiisshaaa!"

Thrum!

The shining got intense, the snake fought with all of it´s last strength against the dragon but slowly bit by bit he opened it´s maw.

Thrum!

Sensing what would follow, Ryuu threw her arms over her face.

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With a thunderous roar, the black dragon unleashed his ultimate attack again and shot a white roaring fire stream right into the snake´s maw. He had seen his female doing that, that was what got him the idea.

The snake tore open it´s remaining eye as endless fire rushed down her throat. At first it struggled and screamed in immense pain...the the movement slowed down to a twitching. From between her fingers, Ryuu could see bright dots along the snake´s neck...

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Then with an sisgusting wet smack ... the head was cut off the body.

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The enormous body of the snake fell down...twitched for a few moments, then turned to ash with a small explosion. Until the moment of it´s death, the black snake had cilled fourty-seven adventurers...at least five of them from the Hermes Familia...and countless citizens.

The dragon...no...Bell hold the severed head in his right claw, reared up and roared his victory into the sky with a scream loud enough for everyone in Orario to hear, Ryuu had to cover her ears. The scream seemed to have no end, not only Orario, Bell announced his victory to the whole world and the heavens above.

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Countless houses were destroyed around them, the clocktower was about to collapse and swayed dangerously. It sounded unbelievable...but Bell Cranel...or the black dragon...haven´t killed one citizen of Orario in all of his rage...the pure hearted boy inside him had fought with all of his strength to prevent that...and his enormous luck saved many more people from accidentely killing them.

But still...the whole area where they had fought...had nearly been razed to the ground.

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Panting heavily...the dragon looked down to Ryuu, half of her clothes were dark red due to the blood.

"...Be...ll...?"

Slowly the dragon leaned forward and dropped the snake´s head a few meters in front of Ryuu. Dust came from the head, all flesh vanished, leaving behind only the bones...a gift for his female.

"Bell? Do you understand me?" Slowly Ryuu pulled herself up, using Justice Lumina as a crutch.

"Rrrrrrrrr...yuuuuu..." The eye that looked at her...looked like Bell´s.

Using his attack two times and fighting so hard had taken all of the energy from the dragon...he panted heavily and was bleeding everywhere.

Ryuu she propped herself on the crutch with her right arm and raised her left arm.

"Bell...please...come to me...my love."

"Rrrrrr...yuuuu..."

Slowly and...gently for such a big creature, he leaned down until the tip of his snout was in front of Ryuu...the rage in his eyes was gone. For the moment his soul was in balance...one half Bell Cranel and the living dragon...the other half the extremely weakened black beast.

"Bell...please listen to me..." Ryuu moved her hand forward to touch his snout.

It was a sight right out of a fairy tale. A young pure woman in...mostly...white clothes that looked like a fairy, stood in front of a giant black dragon and softly touched his snout.

Ryuu felt something like a spark between them...she didn´t knew what that was but it felt good.

"Be-"

"...RAAAAAAAFAAAAAAGAAAAAAA!"

Something green and whirling shot through the air. And angry screaming spirit slammed right into the dragon´s flank, tore him to the side and away from Ryuu.

"No!" Ryuu could only scream helpless as she saw the already half dead dragon flew out of her field of vision.

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Ais Wallenstein made a face like never before...no anger...no rage...only hatred...black blazing hatred for the one eyed black dragon with the fiery red gaze that had taken her mother from her.

Inside her head, Ais´ maiden self screamed at her warrior self and begged to stop.

Noooooo! Please! Stop it! Don´t hurt Bell!

Yes...the maiden self felt what...or rather who this dragon was...but the warrior inside her...would kill that thing...it was the reason she had suffered so much...had so much of the black flame inside her.

Don´t hurt Bell please! I love him!