This wasn't what Lilith and Adam had been expecting… though considering the nature of this country, perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise.
"I'll land near that village, so we can find out just what's going on!" Lilith said.
Lilith changed the angle of her wings, setting herself and Adam on a downward trajectory. The sounds of battle grew louder as they descended, and Lilith could soon clearly make out the screams of people dying. But she couldn't descend any faster without running the risk of a crash landing, and while that probably wouldn't be fatal for them, it would leave them less able to help anyone.
Finally, Lilith's feet touched the ground. She let go of Adam, who smoothly made his own landing, and the two of them drew their weapons.
At least a quarter of the village buildings were on fire, and there were several buildings that had already crumbled into ash. Additionally, there were some buildings that had been reduced to wooden chunks by physical impact, rather than fire.
As for the villagers… most were running and trying to find shelter somewhere, anywhere. A few were bloodstained corpses or charred ashes, and Lilith spotted one corpse that had been bitten in half by a large monster. There were some villagers who were still fighting, using axes and bows, but it was clear they were outmatched.
The ones attacking the village were dragon knights. Three humans in plate armour, with helms modelled after the fearsome heads of dragons, and wielding swords and lances that gleamed with magical power. They were accompanied by wyverns: reptilian monsters larger than horses and with their forelimbs modified into wings. The dragon knights were outnumbered by the villagers to an incredible degree, yet none of them showed any signs of injury or even fatigue.
Monsters and humans fighting together… Lilith thought, as she quickly disguised her succubus features. No, not exactly…
On closer inspection, Lilith saw countless old scars on the bodies of the wyverns. Yet according to what Lilith knew, wyverns and other dragon-type monsters had potent regenerative abilities. For these wyverns to have so many scars, they would have had to been injured both severely and very often…
"What should we do?" Lilith asked, just loudly enough to be heard over the commotion.
"Let's find out just what's going on," Adam replied. "Of course, while being prepared for the worst…"
Adam moved forward so that his sword and armour were shining in the light of a nearby fire. As expected, he immediately caught the eye of one of the dragon knights, one who rode a blue wyvern and wore armour of the same colour. Lilith stayed back in the shadows.
"You… Who the hell are you!?" the dragon knight demanded, raising his lance. He sounded like a young man no older than twenty.
"I am Hero Adam, from the town of Merith!" Adam shouted back in response. "Just what are you doing in this village!?"
This attracted the attention of the other two dragon knights, who approached from multiple sides, weapons at the ready and wyverns snarling in anger. An intimidating sight for most people… but for Lilith and Adam, who were opposing the very order of the world and had already faced stronger opponents, it wasn't nearly enough to make them falter.
"I… what should we do about them!?" the first dragon knight asked of his allies. "I've never met outsiders before…"
"Get out of Dragai!" another dragon knight said towards Lilith and Adam. This one rode a black wyvern and wore black armour. "This is an internal problem, there's no need for you to be here!"
Adam glanced to the side at a group of cowering villagers. "And what problem is that, exactly?"
The first dragon knight lowered his head, seeming ashamed about something. The other two, however…
"Kill him!" shouted the third dragon knight, who wore red armour and had a feminine voice.
At this command, the dragon knight's red wyvern opened its mouth. But before it could breathe fire on Adam, Lilith raised her spear and cast a powerful ice spell. The dragon knight and her mount were both covered in ice, so thickly that nothing more than their outlines could be seen.
With one temporarily immobilised, Lilith leaped towards a second dragon knight, the one in black armour, trusting Adam to deal with the third. She impaled the knight in the chest and knocked him off his mount… or at least she tried to, in the case of the former. Her spear pierced into the knight's armour but didn't reach his flesh.
And Lilith didn't have time to deal the finishing blow. She withdrew her spear and quickly jumped up to a nearby roof, just in time to avoid the snapping jaws of the dragon knight's black wyvern.
Lilith heard loud cracking in the distance. A quick glance confirmed that the previous dragon knight was half-free from Lilith's ice.
To avoid being overwhelmed by numbers, Lilith cast another ice spell at the nearest wyvern, pinning it to the ground. She then jumped down and attempted to finish off the dragon knight, but he'd already gotten to his feet and was ready for a fight. Lilith thrust her spear at the knight's head, but he blocked it with his sword.
"Why are you doing this!?" Lilith demanded, as she traded blows with the black knight. "Why are you attacking this village!?"
"They're rebels!" the black knight replied, delivering a powerful slash that forced Lilith back. "They rose up against their rightful leaders! For that they must die! And for getting in our way, you two will die as well!"
Lilith charged up her spear with lightning magic and then thrust it at her opponent, who blocked it with his sword… and then his body jerked as it was ravaged by the lightning. He crumpled to the ground.
Then Lilith leapt to the side to avoid a blast of fiery breath. The black wyvern had broken free from its icy bonds, taken flight and then begun attacking Lilith.
Fighting dragons head-on… it's something I wouldn't have even dreamt of before… but now I can do it! Now I don't have to cower in fear anymore!
Lilith took flight herself and darted towards the black wyvern. The lesser dragon opened its mouth, presumably intending to either breathe fire again or bite off her head… only for Lilith's spear to enter its mouth and pierce its skull from within.
The black wyvern immediately stopped flapping its wings, causing it to plummet to the ground. Lilith tugged on her spear but, with her complete lack of stable footing, she wasn't able to pull it free. She therefore jumped away to avoid being crushed under the wyvern.
When she landed, Lilith approached the dragon knight she'd just been fighting. Despite taking a dose of lightning that would kill a normal human dozens of times over, he was standing once more, albeit unsteadily. Lilith didn't waste any time; she placed her hands on both sides of the knight's helm and twisted, snapping his neck.
Lilith turned around and saw that the blue knight and wyvern had also fallen. But the last ones, the red knight and wyvern that Lilith had initially frozen in ice, were now engaged in battle with Adam. More specifically, Adam had jumped onto the back of the wyvern and was now grappling with the knight. The last surviving wyvern writhed around, apparently not caring if it threw its rider off in addition to its enemy. In the process, it smashed a house into rubble and splinters.
I have to help… but I can't do it without the risk of hitting Adam! Unless—
Lilith directed her attention to the earth. While earth magic wasn't something that succubi were normally good with—they were monsters that enjoyed the freedom of the air, after all—Lilith had gotten much better at it after… recent events. She was therefore able to make the earth rise up and engulf the wyvern's wings and legs, holding it in one place. Even then the wyvern struggled, with enough force to send tremors through the earth.
But now that her other target wasn't moving so much, Lilith had a clear shot. She raised her spear and fired off an arrow of ice, which struck the remaining dragon knight in the shoulder and knocked her to the ground. While this wasn't enough to penetrate the knight's armour, the attack did create an opportunity for Adam to jump down and pierce her through the heart.
"Damn… you…" the dragon knight said, choking on her own blood. "You will not escape retribution for this… both of you will burn in dragonfire for—"
Adam pulled his sword out and then used it to cut off the knight's head. "Your allies may try," he said, "but they will never succeed. That, I promise you."
Then Adam looked back at the red wyvern, which had now almost freed itself from the earth. He didn't attempt to finish it off, however.
"Lilith, do you think there's any chance of saving this one?" Adam asked.
This question initially confused Lilith… just enough for her rage to cool down. Then she realised that the red wyvern wasn't the only survivor of the force that had attacked this village. She sensed the spirit energy of the first dragon knight to have spoken, the young one in blue armour who seemed to have some doubts about his mission.
I didn't even realise Adam left him alive… Just how angry was I? I've never been that angry before… Is this because Adam means something different to me now?
But right now, there's something else to worry about…
"I might be able to calm it down with magic… but I've never tried anything like this on a dragon," Lilith replied.
"It's worth a try, regardless," Adam said. "They are victims as well, in a sense…"
Lilith nodded. She first extinguished the fires in the village using ice magic, then approached the red wyvern. It breathed fire at her, but Lilith blocked it with a magical shield and continued approaching. She then cast a sleep spell using more than ten times the usual power. The wyvern's head drooped, but it still remained half-conscious, a testament to its magical resistance. Lilith repeated her spell using even more power, and the wyvern finally fell asleep.
"Keep an eye on that other knight," Lilith said, placing her hands on the wyvern's head. "I can't afford to be distracted."
Adam nodded, and then Lilith dived into the wyvern's mind.
-ooo-
While in the wyvern's mind, Lilith looked down at her body. As usual, she had her true appearance in here, rather than a disguise.
Now then… first, I need to find out who this wyvern is, and why they're acting like this.
Lilith imagined the wyvern hatching from an egg. She was soon surrounded by warm, moist darkness. Then there was blindingly bright light, followed by the sight of pieces of eggshell.
The wyvern fully emerged from her egg—now that she was in their mind, Lilith could discern the wyvern's sex. The wyvern was surrounded by the remains of other eggs and by several other infant red wyverns. Nearby was the mother wyvern, a monster so big she could likely devour an entire horse and not be satisfied.
For what seemed to be a few weeks, the red wyvern and her siblings were raised by their mother. Each one was given a name, with the red wyvern's being… an unpronounceable set of syllables that apparently meant "Sunheart". Their mother taught them how to find food, how to avoid larger dragons and how to find shelter. When their wings were sufficiently developed, they began learning how to fly, a process that involved a lot of mishaps and hard falls. It reminded Lilith of her own experiences growing up.
Once all of the young wyverns could fly, they were abandoned by their mother. Some tried to follow her, but the mother simply knocked them away with a casual flap of her wings. This part was definitely nothing like succubus childcare…
Over the next few years, the wyverns grew up in the mountains of the Great Dragai Empire. They initially stayed in one group, but competition for food eventually caused them to split up and form their own territories. One of them even died during these competitions, though he was not mourned by Sunheart or by any of the other wyverns… that was simply their culture.
When Sunheart was about three years old, she came across a caravan of seemingly unarmed merchants travelling through the mountains. The smell of the humans was incredibly delicious—just as it was incredibly disgusting for Lilith, reliving this memory—and the wyvern attacked immediately. But these humans noticed the wyvern approaching, and they pulled out weapons hidden in their carriages. After a short and bloody battle, two of the humans were dead, three more were seriously injured, and Sunheart was restrained in an enchanted net.
And from that point on, the nightmare began.
Sunheart was kept in a steel cage, next to many others in their own cages. Human handlers threw in hunks of raw meat every day, which the wyverns devoured completely, not even leaving bones behind. The cages were occasionally flushed using water from buckets, roughly cleaning the wyverns and removing accumulated waste. It was the kind of treatment that even livestock didn't receive… and that wasn't all.
Whenever a wyvern snapped at a human, they were punished by being cut using special tools consisting of carved wyvern claws on long sticks. The more aggressive a wyvern was, the more cuts they received. Sunheart was among the more aggressive ones in this group, and she received an enormous number of cuts. The shame and humiliation of being imprisoned by mere humans was unbearable.
At one point, the wyverns were taken out of their cages for exercise. One of the other wyverns took this opportunity to maul a human handler… only to be surrounded and attacked repeatedly by the other handlers. Once they were done, the wyvern's originally yellow scales were stained red with blood. This was a demonstration of what would happen to any wyvern that dared to resist.
When the red wyvern was about ten years old, she no longer snapped at the handlers. None of the wyverns did. Their pride as draconic monsters had been completely broken, and they no longer even wanted to kill and eat humans. They just wanted to survive another day without feeling that pain. And while they had now learned how to speak the language of the humans, none of them tried to speak even a single word. There was no point, after all.
Eventually, the red wyvern and several others were brought out from their cages, rinsed with bucketfuls of water, fitted with saddles and brought to an open field. They were paraded in front of a crowd of what were clearly nobles, judging from their fine clothing. This was the first time the red wyvern had ever seen noble humans, as both the humans who'd captured her and the humans who'd trained her were commoners—"geytar", to use the local term.
"These are the finest wyverns we've ever reared!" said one of the human handlers, with a little nervousness in his voice. "I'm sure that they will make fine mounts for Dragon Riders!"
One by one, the nobles began mounting the wyverns and riding them for short distances, while a senior noble judged their performance. Those that were deemed satisfactory received the title of Dragon Rider, and the wyvern they rode was assigned as their personal mount. Throughout this entire process, the wyverns were completely obedient.
The red wyvern's turn arrived. She was eventually assigned to a noblewoman with distinctive blonde hair, who introduced herself as "Zenovia of House Katarn".
After that were eight years of serving as a Dragon Rider's mount. No, "mount" wasn't really the proper description, since horses received far better treatment. Even "weapon" wasn't the proper description, because even weapons received maintenance to function effectively. The red wyvern was fed with whatever waste cuts of meat that her rider felt like giving to her. She was required to sleep outside, even though the cold of Dragai nights was harsh enough that even livestock were given barns to sleep in. She received no treatment for any injuries she suffered in battle, being expected to simply heal on her own. All to ensure that she never forgot her place…
The most recent memories were of a revolution, with the geytar rising up against the nobles. Considering how they were expected to capture and train wyverns at great risk to themselves, it wasn't hard to see why… though Zenovia didn't see it that way, as she raged about how ungrateful the mere geytar were. Meanwhile, the red wyvern didn't care at all about this conflict among humans, seeing it as just another battle.
Lilith had seen enough. She stopped focusing on the red wyvern's memories, causing featureless darkness to surround her.
So that's what's going on here… we need to do something about it. But we can't fight an entire country at once, even with our new strength… We need allies.
Lilith clapped her hands. This was enough to rouse the inner part of Sunheart's mind. An avatar of the red wyvern appeared before her, looking confused.
"I'm not here to hurt you," Lilith said. "I'm here to help you."
Sunheart looked around, clearly confused at the situation. She eventually charged at Lilith and tried to bite the succubus' head off, but Lilith dodged to the side.
"You—is this your true form!?" Sunheart roared. "I'll kill you!"
If there was one good thing about this situation, it was that Sunheart hadn't forgotten how to speak despite those years of abuse. Now, Lilith just had to deal with the fact that this wyvern was trying to kill her…
"Again, I'm not here to hurt you!" Lilith said. "Look, this is who I am!"
Lilith spread her hands to the side, revealing her own memories to Sunheart. The wyvern stared at the barrage of images, frozen with confusion.
"The two of us want to stop this pointless conflict between monsters and humans, and we're not the only ones who want this," Lilith said. "And these horrors in Dragai are another thing we want to stop."
Sunheart continued staring at Lilith's memories for a few more seconds. Then she opened her mouth and unleashed a gout of flame, causing Lilith to dodge again.
"Lies!" Sunheart roared. "You're one of those monsters who takes over minds! You're just trying to trick me!"
"I am a succubus, but if I was really trying to take over your mind, I wouldn't need to do any of this!" Lilith retorted. "I wouldn't need to reveal myself to you!"
Sunheart glared at Lilith. There was a tense silence, during which Lilith wondered if the wyvern was going to attack again.
"If you want me to trust you," Sunheart said, her words still filled with venom, "then get out of my head."
Lilith nodded and immediately left this mental world.
-ooo-
Back in the physical world, Lilith undid her sleep spells and took her hands away from Sunheart. The red wyvern opened her eyes and, after looking around at her surroundings, pulled herself free from the earth and glared at Lilith suspiciously.
"I won't say you have to trust me yet," Lilith said. "Or that you should trust Adam. But just remember that we're not your enemies."
Sunheart continued glaring at Lilith, but didn't attack.
There were fearful cries from the surroundings; the villagers had now emerged from their hiding places and were looking at the conscious wyvern fearfully.
"It's alright, we've… come to an understanding," Lilith announced.
"That's fortunate," Adam said, approaching while accompanied by someone else. "Lilith, this is Glenn."
The one accompanying Adam was the sole survivor of the Dragon Riders who'd attacked this village. He was no longer wearing his helm, revealing pale skin, untidy blond hair and soft green eyes. And he was extremely nervous; no wonder, when he was surrounded by the corpses of his allies and by villagers shooting harsh looks at him.
"I-I'll tell you anything that you want to know," Glenn said.
One of the villagers spat at these words. "Not even brave enough to stay loyal to your order? Are you only brave when killing children?"
Glenn shook so much that Lilith wondered if he might faint on the spot. Based on the emotions pouring off him, he clearly regretted his actions…
Sunheart snorted. "This one never had the guts of the others," she said. "He was shaking from the moment we were sent to this village. Wasn't ready for what it would mean to fight other humans."
Everyone was shocked at these words, with the exceptions of Lilith, Adam and Sunheart herself. Some of the villagers even staggered backwards, looking as if they were seeing the Demon Lord before them.
"More importantly," Adam interjected, "my partner and I are foreign to these lands. We would like to know about the situation here."
The villagers and Glenn were still shocked by the revelation that wyverns were, in fact, capable of speech. Eventually, one of the older villagers stepped forward.
"I am one of the elders of this village… Thank you for coming to our aid, young heroes."
Lilith felt a trace of discomfort from Adam in response to these words, but her partner hid it well. "We were simply doing our duty," he said. "Whether human or monster, our duty is to protect the weak."
"Still, I must thank you on behalf of our village," the elder said. He bowed, followed shortly after by the other villagers. "Now then… I shall explain the situation to you. First of all, this country is divided into two categories, we geytar, the low-born, and the nobility."
"And…" Glenn said, having recovered somewhat. "And we nobles have a history of not treating the geytar properly."
This caused Glenn to be heckled by the surrounding villagers, with shouts of "Tell them everything!" and "You treat us like slaves!".
Adam raised a hand to call for silence, but that didn't work. Eventually, Sunheart let out an ear-splitting roar, causing the crowd to fall silent… and cower in fear.
"…As I was saying, we've been mistreated by the nobility," the elder continued. He glanced fearfully at Sunheart. "They force us to do all manner of hard, dangerous work for them, including the most dangerous work of all… capturing and training the dragons that this are the cornerstone of this country's army."
"And, about three days ago… someone wanted to change that," Glenn said, keeping his eyes firmly on the ground. "Dell Walker… he's a beginner Dragon Rider, a couple years younger than me. He used to be a geytar, but another noble saw potential in him and let him become a Dragon Rider. Then three days ago, he… he and his friends released all of the wyverns that were normally kept in the capital."
"After that, young Dell called on the geytar to rise up," the elder said. "For the past three days and three nights, the country has been wracked by fierce battles… What you've seen in this village is merely a small portion of it, and that was driven by a belief that we were sheltering rebels…"
"Are you?" Lilith asked. "Not that I'm blaming you, but it's important to know."
"We have not done that, but we have given supplies to rebels passing through our village," the elder replied. "Other villages have done the same, and I fear they may have already been wiped out…"
"I see, then we have no time to waste," Adam said. "Does anyone here have a map?"
As it turned out, Glenn did have a map of the Great Dragai empire. He nervously took it out and used it to show the geography of the country to Lilith and Adam, as well as the last-known positions of the forces involved in the civil war:
"Dragai is in the Lingfeng mountain range… and we're h-here, on one of the southern mountains… the Imperial Capital is here, to our north, near the centre of the empire… The last I heard, there was still a lot of fighting going on there… Apart from that, I remember hearing about two other groups of Dragon Riders being sent to villages in the west to… to…"
"I understand," Adam said. "In that case, the western villages would be our next destination, followed by the capital city."
"And… And what about me?" Glenn asked, his body again shaking like a leaf. "And… And Zenovia's mount?"
Sunheart growled at this. "I have a name, even if your soft lips can't say it properly. And I do not belong to her."
Glenn jumped back at this, and Lilith had to step in between him and Sunheart to prevent any potential confrontation.
"We'll be taking you two with us," Lilith said. She looked around at the villagers. "Is that alright? We still need them for information."
This was met with some discontent with the villagers. They clearly did not appreciate having any of the ones who'd attacked their village survive. But it was also clear that they weren't too eager to attack an adult wyvern, or the ones who'd defeated multiple Dragon Riders in open combat.
"As you were the ones who saved our village from annihilation, that is your right," the village elder eventually said. "Will you be needing anything else…?"
It was obvious that the elder was hoping they'd say "no"; with the current state of the village, they definitely couldn't afford to give any food, clothing or other supplies.
"That won't be necessary, we'll live off the land as we travel," Adam said.
At that moment, Sunheart glanced at Lilith. Then the wyvern took flight, picked up Glenn with one foot and then flew off towards the northwest.
"Wh-What is this!?" the elder exclaimed.
It was obvious that Sunheart wasn't simply trying to escape; if she was, she wouldn't be slowing herself down by carrying Glenn, and she'd be flying much faster than her current speed. Lilith has a vague suspicion of what the wyvern was planning…
"Leave this to us—just focus on rebuilding!" Adam replied.
Adam followed Sunheart by running at high speed, with Lilith right next to him. They were out of the village in seconds.
Eventually, they found the wyvern in some woods near the village, having set Glenn down on the ground. The young Dragon Rider was cowering and looking like he'd be running away at top speed if he thought that could possibly help.
While Adam checked on Glenn's condition, Lilith said to Sunheart, "That wasn't necessary."
Sunheart snorted. "You're the ones in a hurry. There's no point wasting any more time in that village. But if you want me to go along with you, there's one more thing you need to do."
"And what is that?" Lilith asked warily.
"Show this one your true form," Sunheart said, gesturing towards Glenn using her snout.
Glenn and Adam both looked at Lilith: the former in confusion, the latter wondering how she would respond.
Might as well… We need to find out how more people will react to this.
Lilith undid her transformation, becoming a silver-haired succubus once more. This caused Glenn to back away in fear.
"Y-Y-You're a monster!?" Glenn cried out.
"Yes, but I'm one that's learned to not attack humans," Lilith said. "And if you're wondering how that's possible, that's because I saw my fellow succubi killing a human when I was young, and found that horrifying. I later met up with Adam here, and right now we're working to stop this conflict between monsters and humans."
This revelation proved too much for Glenn, and he fainted on the spot.
"Like I said before, this one's weak," Sunheart said. "You should just leave him here, let those other weaklings have their revenge."
"We are not doing that," Adam said firmly.
"Come to think of it, just how did someone like him become a Dragon Rider?" Lilith asked.
"I asked him that while you were occupied earlier," Adam replied. "It seems that he comes from a long line of Dragon Riders, and his parents forced him to follow the family tradition."
"A weakling like him has no place in a fight," Sunheart said. "But if you won't leave him here, then you carry him. I am never carrying another human for the rest of my life."
"That's reasonable," Adam said. "So you are willing to accompany us?"
"I don't like having to say the obvious," Sunheart growled.
"Alright, then we'll take that as a 'yes'," Lilith said. "Wait, one last thing. How would you us to call you?"
Lilith had been mentally calling the red wyvern "Sunheart", but that was just the translation of her original name into the common tongue.
"I have no plans to be your friend," Sunheart growled.
"Understood," Adam said. "then we'll just have to face you when talking to you—"
"But if you insist… my original name isn't something you can say," Sunheart continued. "It means 'Sunheart' in your language… you might as well call me that. It's not like I care."
"Very well then, 'Sunheart' it is," Adam said. "This might just be an alliance of convenience, but it's nice to meet you."
Sunheart turned away, clearly no longer interested in conversation. She spread her wings and took flight again, heading for the northwest.
"She just does everything at her own pace," Lilith said. "I guess it's only natural, she was raised as a solitary monster and is now trying to go back to that life."
"At any rate, we'd better follow her," Adam said. "I'll run, you fly while carrying Glenn."
Now that they had a plan, the strange group of four proceeded towards the western region of Dragai. It was almost midnight now, and the darkness would normally provide the perfect opportunity for monsters to attack Adam… not that they would succeed. But although Lilith sensed the occasional monster along their path, none made any attempt to attack. Having a wyvern accompanying them was helpful in that respect.
But right now, the main problem wasn't the monsters living in the Dragai wilderness. It was the civil war that was ravaging this country.
This is something at least as big as what happened in Lescatie… and if any true dragons get involved, it might get even bigger.
But we have to try. If we can't make a difference in one country, how can we hope to change the world?