AN: It took much longer than I expected (almost four entire days!) to write this chapter. I had to make sure that it didn't conflict with canon information, except where I deliberately wanted it to, and also that it told the story I wanted to tell. Hopefully my next chapter won't take this long.


After Adam and Lilith finished speaking with Dell, the rebel leader worked up the courage to speak with the citizens of Dragai again. But even after an entire hour of discussion, there was no real progress.

"It would be better if we were ruled by a group of people, rather than a king standing at the top—"

"But you would make a good king!"

"All of the other countries have kings! The idea wasn't the problem, but the people who used to be in charge!"

"We need order now!"

"But… But…"

It was clear that Dell was the type of person who had trouble refusing people. At this rate, his personality would leave him with no other choice but to become king, yet at the same time it would prevent him from being a competent king.

We need to do something, Adam thought. If Dragai does not gain competent leadership, it will soon fall into ruin—perhaps a different kind of ruin to its previous oppressive regime, but ruin nonetheless. But what can we do? We aren't native to this country, we have limited knowledge and influence here. We could leverage the fact that we helped overthrow the previous regime, and make our voice heard that way, but there's still the potential for things to go wrong…

Nothing in Adam's experience could have prepared him for this. The closes thing was the change of heart by the monsters of the south sea, and that had mainly occurred thanks to the intervention of Poseidon, a literal goddess.

There's also the question of what the dragons want out of all this. At the moment, it seems that the freed wyverns, or many of them at least, want to try living with the humans, while the wild dragons are a more open question. Coexistence won't be an easy thing to obtain without divine intervention…

And there were also the non-draconic monsters of Dragai to consider. While they were relatively few in number—it was difficult for most monsters to survive when they faced such fierce competition here—they still posed a problem.

Adam looked at Lilith, about to suggest that the two of them intervene, when an ear-splitting roar suddenly filled the air. There was no mistaking who had made this roar. Shortly afterwards, there was a deep tremor in the earth.

A side-effect of this roar and tremor was that they distracted the many citizens who'd been talking to Dell. This was something that Dell clearly appreciated.

"It sounds like the leader of the dragons has returned," Dell said. "I'd better go out and meet with her."

Nobody else attempted to challenge this, so Dell walked out of the room and towards the exit of the palace, with Adam and Lilith following at a discreet distance.

Outside the palace, Deonora had landed in the central square of the Imperial Capital. The massive red dragon was given a wide berth by both humans and by other draconic monsters.

Dell walked forward nervously. Even if he'd spent considerable time working with wyverns, that didn't necessarily mean he was prepared to face a true dragon. But he did so nonetheless, something that Adam could definitely admire.

"Seems you're all starting to rebuild," Denora said. Her eyes flickered over to Adam and Lilith, but she said nothing about them. "Have you decided who'll be in charge now?"

Dell looked visibly shaken by Deonora's loud voice. He eventually said, "No… we have not. But I… well, there's something I want to ask you. What reward do you, and the other dragons, want for coming to the help of the people of Dragai?"

The atmosphere suddenly grew tense. This was a question that many people wanted an answer to, but were too nervous to bring up.

"We came here to help our enslaved brethren," Deonora snorted. "And it wasn't difficult at all for us to crush your armies and burn your fortresses to the ground. Hardly something that needs a reward."

Adam winced. Deonora's words were true, but also not the best thing to say when the human population of Dragai was already nervous about the draconic monsters among them.

"Still, I believe that a reward is needed," Dell pressed on. "And that brings me to… bring me to…"

"Speak up, boy," Deonora said.

Dell took a deep breath, clearly trying to gather his nerves. "That brings me the topic of Dragai's new leader. Given the current state of Dragai, maybe having a human king at all might not be a good idea…"

"If you're suggesting what I think you are, then you're a fool," Deonora said bluntly.

"P-Please let me finish," Dell said. "My point is that it would be better for both humans and dragons—and other monsters, if they agree—to rule this land together. After all, we all live here. For… For example, we humans could handle things like collecting taxes, judging disputes and—and other things like that, while you dragons could protect Dragai against foreign enemies, keep the peace within its borders, and otherwise use your great strength for the good of us all."

"And as we have such great strength, why do we need to do anything further to help you?" Deonora asked. "What can you humans provide us?"

"More than you think," Dell retorted, with more firmness than any of his previous words. "I've spoken to some of the freed wyverns, and they've come to like living as humans do, rather than having to always be on the lookout for your next meal. In time, I think that more will want to live this way. And…" Dell became nervous again, but he didn't stop. "And, humans are skilled at delicate work, such as making magical items, that dragons are not—are not experienced in. So there would be benefits to you in working with humans."

For over ten seconds, there was an uncomfortable silence. Dell shifted around on the spot, clearly nervous about the possibility of angering Deonora, yet he didn't take his eyes away from the red dragon.

"Hmph… you make good points," Deonora said at last. "Very well! Then from this day onwards, this country will be one of humans and dragons, ruling themselves! This I swear on the name of Deonora, Empress of Dragons!"

This proclamation led to cheers from the nearby humans and triumphant roars from the nearby draconic monsters. While the humans no doubt still had some misgivings, they had just seen Dell successfully negotiate with a dragon.

"And since this country has changed greatly from its former self, it seems fitting that it also take a new name!" Deonora continued. "From this day onwards, it shall be known as Dragonia!"

-ooo-

After that fateful meeting, one that would undoubtedly go down in history, there was a much more celebratory mood in the Imperial Capital. People still continued to repair and rebuild the city, but now they did so with a better understanding of their future.

Furthermore, Deonora was now being hailed as queen of the newly founded empire of Dragonia. This was something that actually seemed to discomfort her, likely since a small but increasing number of humans were among the ones doing this. It was the first time that Adam had seen the dragon look so uncomfortable.

As time passed, more and more human leaders—guild leaders, family elders, aristocrats who had sided with the revolutionaries—gathered in the capital. There were lengthy discussions about the details of how Dragonia would be governed from now on. Dell was visibly relieved when this happened, since this freed up him for a small celebration with his friends.

As for Adam and Lilith, they continued to stay out of the spotlight. They walked through the streets of the Imperial Capital, observing what was going on.

When the sun set, the two of them left the city altogether. They found a quiet spot out in the wilderness, where the rocks and trees hid them from view.

"All in all, this has been a success," Adam said. "Even with our newfound… power, I never expected to achieve anything on the level of improving an entire country."

"But we still had to depend on getting the help of the dragons here," Lilith pointed out. "And if we'd come here just a day later, we would've been too late to stop the execution. There's many things that could've gone wrong."

"True… and there's also the issue of Justinia still being at large," Adam said. He paused for a moment. "Do you believe she might pose a threat to this country? Now that humans and monsters are able to coexist in peace, there's the potential for the human population here to grow… which could attract her attention."

"Maybe, but there are the dragons here to stop her," Lilith replied. "As powerful as she is, she's definitely no match for multiple true dragons. Of course, that just means she'll find other places to slaughter…"

Adam and Lilith both fell silent. No matter how far they'd come and how much they'd achieved, they didn't feel like they could relax as long as that fallen hero was still out there.

"We still need to strengthen ourselves further," Adam said. "If we were capable of defeating the strongest Dragon Riders of Dragai, we could have rescued Dell's group without needing to take a risk on trying to recruit the dragons. Likewise, in the event that the dragons chose to destroy Dragai, we could have stopped them if we were stronger."

"Hmm… aren't there legends of heroes with equipment made from parts of dragons, their scales and bones?" Lilith suggested. "Obviously, we can't just kill dragons to butcher them for parts, but if we ask around, we might be able to get the parts of dead dragons. I've never heard of any dragons caring about what happens to their dead…"

"That is one possibility," Adam said. "But at the moment, they all seem to be enjoying themselves," he gestured towards the city, from which the roars of draconic monsters could be heard, "so we should not disturb them."

"I guess you're right."

The two of them fell silent again. They remembered that they were currently alone, where no one would disturb them, and they did need to become stronger…

Throughout the night, Adam and Lilith celebrated the birth of Dragonia in their own way.

-ooo-

The next morning, they returned to the Imperial Capital. They found it to be in much better shape than expected from a city that had seen fighting as recently as yesterday.

The reason for this became apparent as the two of them walked through the streets. They saw many instances of draconic monsters—mainly wyverns—talking with humans and moving around huge loads of material at their direction. It was clear that they were now making decent efforts at working together.

Many more years will be needed before they can fully coexist, Adam thought. But this is an excellent start.

Eventually, they found one of the dragons perched on top of a block of buildings and looking out at the events below. This dragon had black scales and straight conical horns, and was one of the dragons who'd previously tried to talk Deonora into helping the humans. Based on Adam's limited but growing knowledge of dragon anatomy, this one was a male.

When Adam and Lilith approached, the blue dragon turned slightly towards them. There was a brief pause, then the blue dragon spread his wings and took flight, leaving the city within a matter of seconds.

The intention of this act was clear. Adam and Lilith moved across the rooftops, taking a slightly different route to where the blue dragon had gone, and left the city as well.

A few minutes later, the three of them were together at a spot outside the city. There was no natural concealment here, but the blue dragon's massive body hid Adam and Lilith from the view of anyone in the city.

"Thank you for being understanding," Adam said.

"From everything I've heard, you two have been keeping your identities hidden ever since you fought yesterday," the blue dragon said, in a much quieter voice than his usual one. "Deonora has been quite… confused by it. I sometimes wondered if she was going to publicly confront you over it."

"It's lucky she didn't," Lilith said. "There's a good reason why we've been trying to hide ourselves."

"Now that there is no one around to overhear, you two can tell me about that," the blue dragon said. "But first, I should tell you my name, since you've not heard it before. I am Pelagos, one of the great dragons of the new nation of Dragonia, who will be one hundred and twenty years old when summer arrives."

Adam and Lilith quickly described the fallen hero Justinia and her horrific plans to delay the ascension of a new Demon Lord by culling humans.

"I never thought anyone could do such a thing, monster or human," Pelagos said, astounded. He growled. "I'll be sure to let the other dragons know. If she dares step a single foot into Dragonia, she will burn in dragonfire on the spot."

That was reassuring, at least. But there was more to discuss.

"In addition to that, the two of us are looking for methods to improve her personal strength, to hopefully deal with this fallen hero ourselves," Adam said. "We would be grateful for any help that the people of Dragonia can provide."

Pelagos considered this request for a few moments. "I don't know much about what the humans could provide, not yet, but I know that many useful materials exist in Dragonia, ores and crystals charged with magic. I think those would be useful for making weapons, armour and magical charms."

"That would be very helpful, thank you," Lilith said. "We've already got good weapons, but armour and charms would definitely be useful."

"And there's another way in which we could help you," Pelagos said. "I mentioned this earlier, but Deonora has been thinking of talking to you again…"

-ooo-

A couple of hours later, Lilith found herself on top of a mountain that was far from any human settlements. Adam was, as usual, right by her side. Facing both of them was a colossal red dragon, gouts of flame leaking from between her toothy jaws.

Lilith was already beginning to have doubts about this.

"It's annoying to skulk around in the shadows, not meeting face to face," Deonora said. "But now we finally get to understand each other properly."

In theory, this training session would be beneficial for all. Dragons preferred to come to an understanding via combat, and Lilith and Adam would be able to grow stronger by fighting a strong opponent.

Of course, none of this did anything to alleviate the fear Lilith felt at fighting an actual dragon.

Adam drew his sword, while Lilith raised her spear and imbued it with her mana. Deonora did not move from the spot or change from the posture, but she also had no need to; simply by existing, she was the strongest person on this entire mountain.

Then the spar began. Adam held his ground while Lilith took flight and flew up and towards the right. They planned to attack Deonora from two directions, which was their only chance of… well, not defeating her, but of lasting for more than a few seconds.

Deonora opened her mouth and let loose an earth-shaking, ear-splitting roar. Lilith screamed and almost fell out of the air due to the sonic assault. Then the red dragon reached out one massive forelimb, swatting Lilith out of the sky and causing her to crash into Adam.

That… wasn't even a few seconds! Lilith thought as she struggled to her feet.

"Are you alright, Lilith?" Adam asked, also getting to his feet. "You don't have the armour that I do…"

"I'm fine, nothing seems to be broken, at least," Lilith replied. Never thought I'd say that after being hit by a dragon. Though I never thought I'd be fighting a dragon in the first place, either.

Meanwhile, Deonora looked down at the two of them. "You're better than I thought," she said.

"You beat us before we could even do anything," Lilith pointed out. "And that was while holding back."

"But even while holding back, I never thought I'd ever meet anyone else, anyone not a dragon who could get up that quickly after taking attacks from me," Deonora said. "I suppose you'd have to be that tough to consider negotiating with dragons in the first place."

Now that she thought back on that, Lilith really wondered what her past self was thinking. Dragons were subjects of fear and awe for virtually all other monsters in existence, and succubi were no exception to that. It would have been smarter to try rescuing Dell's group from captivity, despite the many Dragon Riders that had been in the way.

But we've been doing ridiculous things for a while now. Even going to the bottom of the sea was dangerous, but we did that anyway!

Afterwards, they tried to attack Deonora in various ways. They tried overloading her senses with blinding light and extremely high-pitched noises. They tried attacking using invisibility and illusions to deceive her. Adam even tried using his anti-monster spell, Evil Obliterating Incantation, while Lilith flew up to a great height to reduce her exposure to the spell.

None of it worked. Deonora's eyes and ears were too resilient for sensory overload to work. She filled the entire battlefield with her fiery breath, rendering any form of deception useless. She shrugged off Adam's Evil Obliterating Incantation… though this also led to the unexpected discovery that Lilith was also unaffected, even though she should have felt at least some negative effects at this distance. Presumably, this was a side-effect of Adam's new body.

"A human with demonic energy is also something I've never seen before," Deonora commented when this discovery was made. "Or would it be better to call you part-monster, now?"

"Whatever I am now, it has not changed how I think and feel," Adam said. His body was covered in dirt and a few burns, as was Lilith's. "I never expected this to happen to me, but I will not hesitate to make use of it."

"You two must be enjoying yourselves, having such a convenient route to power," Deonora commented.

Lilith and Adam both blushed and looked away. Even though they were gradually getting used to their new… situation, that didn't mean they were used to having it discussed by other people.

"Speaking of which, could other pairs of humans and succubi do the same thing?" Deonora asked.

That caused Lilith's embarrassment to be overwhelmed by uncomfortable memories. The succubi she'd grown up with, and the many other succubi in the world… they'd never be able to fall in love with humans. To them, humans were nothing but prey; prey consumed in a different manner to other monsters, but prey nonetheless.

But they have to change, if there's to be peace in this world. The question is… what could possibly make them change?

Adam seemed to noticed Lilith's discomfort, as he said, "That is possible, but we are currently not in a position to test that out."

"Hmm, you should consider that sometime in the future," Deonora said. "For now, you've still got some fight in you… so what about this? I will stand perfectly still and allow both of you to land one attack, each. You may prepare as long as you want."

Lilith and Adam exchanged glances. It was a supremely arrogant offer, one fitting for a dragon. They eventually accepted.

Lilith placed both of her hands on Adam's shoulders, giving him most of her remaining demonic energy. Adam raised his sword, which became surrounded by an increasingly intense purple light.

Finally, Adam ran forward and brought his sword down towards one of Deonora's forelegs. The moment the weapon made contact, there was an explosion of demonic energy that very nearly swept Lilith off her feet, an enormous gouge was formed in the ground, and droplets of blood scattered from a thin cut Deonora's foreleg.

All that… for a wound that probably won't even slow her down. And I don't have enough energy left for an attack of my own.

But Deonora did seem impressed. She lifted up her injured foreleg and inspected it closely.

"You managed to cut through muscle as well as scales," Deonora said. "You might think this is a small wound, but remember that I am the oldest and greatest dragon of this era. An attack like this should be able to slay that fallen hero you're so worried about."

That was… a compliment, without a doubt. Though it was tempered by the fact that Justinia would definitely not just stand in one place and let herself be killed, and neither would any other potential enemies that were on her level.

We'll need a lot more to stand any chance against her, Lilith thought.

-ooo-

Over the next week, Lilith and Adam continued receiving more training from a dragon. Deonora was now too busy for this—much to her annoyance—so the duty ended up falling to the blue dragon Pelagos.

They were still using the isolated mountain for their training, and the terrain of this mountain was… conspicuously different from what it had been a week ago. Multiple landslides had been triggered by the intensive training, shifting around the soil and sweeping away the vegetation.

During their current session, Lilith flew up high and rained down various spells on Pelagos, aiming for the eyes and nostrils. Normally, the blue dragon could have attacked her by either flying up to the same altitude or using a ranged attack. But he was prevented from doing so by Adam, who darted in and out dealing small wounds to the legs of the dragon.

This continued for almost ten minutes with neither side gaining the advantage. Eventually, all three of them came to a stop.

"You've made considerable progress already," Pelagos said, his sides heaving slightly from exertion. "If there were three of you instead of two, then I would have lost. That isn't just false praise, it's an honest assessment of your abilities."

Lilith certainly felt as if she'd improved. She hadn't just improved in power or skill, but her ability to work with Adam had somehow improved even further. They would never have been able to hold their own against a dragon—even one not seriously trying to kill them—otherwise.

"But to complete your training, you'll need to fight a serious opponent," Pelagos said. "I have an idea about that, which would also let you gather useful materials…

-ooo-

Their next destination was an area of Dragonia that Lilith and Adam hadn't been to before; the northern region that was known as the Graveyard of Dragons. This was where the Dragai Empire had buried wyverns who'd died during training or military expeditions. This was done out of fear of a curse from the dead wyverns… a fear that was founded in reality.

The two of them arrived here while riding on the back of Pelagos. Furthermore, the blue dragon had a considerable quantity of canvas tied around one of his hindlegs; this was to help the three of them transport the rare material that they were here for.

Just from approaching the Graveyard of Dragons, Lilith could feel its foreboding atmosphere. The air was filled with a thick, cloying demonic energy. There were hardly any plants to be seen down below, and no animals. Even the weather was dismal; while the rest of Dragonia was sunny, the skies above the Graveyard of Dragons were filled with unnaturally thick clouds.

"This is a place that the rest of the country avoids," Pelagos said. "Even true dragons like myself avoid it, because while we are not in danger here… it is simply an unpleasant place to be for any length of time."

As if on cue, three wyvern zombies flew up towards them. These undead monsters were covered in scars and gaping wounds, and they'd lost much of the flesh on their limbs, causing them to look almost skeletal. Their eyes were filled with nothing but endless rage.

Lilith picked up Adam, jumped off Pelagos' back and flew towards the wyvern zombies. The latter opened their rotting jaws and let loose streams of foul green miasma. If that were to strike Lilith and Adam, it would rot the flesh off their bones.

But not a single speck of miasma hit its intended targets. Lilith flew up to avoid it all, and when she was near one of the wyvern zombies, she threw Adam towards it.

Then Lilith landed on the back of a second wyvern zombie. Her temporary mount turned its head around in an attempt to snap at her flesh, but it couldn't quite turn far enough. Lilith took advantage of this opportunity to shoot a fireball at the third wyvern, knocking it out of the air.

Even if normal dragons, including wyverns, are resistant to fire, undead are weak to it. Now I just have to finish this one off!

Lilith covered with ice the neck of the wyvern zombie she was riding. The ice immediately began to crack, but it still restrained the wyvern zombie's head long enough for Lilith to thrust her spear into its brain. The wyvern zombie abruptly stopped moving and began falling, so Lilith jumped off its back and took flight with her own wings again.

With one down, Lilith looked around and saw that Adam had finished off a second wyvern zombie, causing it to fall. But the third, the one that Lilith had hit with a fireball, had recovered and was now flying towards him!

Lilith prepared another spell, one that would definitely bring the wyvern zombie down… then she saw Adam jump into the air and land on a platform of white light that appeared beneath his feet. With this stable footing, Adam decapitated the wyvern zombie as it approached, then jumped to the side to avoid being hit by its freshly made corpse.

But then Adam fell down rather than making another platform to support himself, so Lilith flew over to catch him.

"Thank you!" Adam said.

"I can't believe you managed to do that," Lilith said. "Isn't that the same technique that Justinia used? You managed to figure out how to do that yourself just by seeing it?"

"Technically, I also read about it in a book, sometime in the past," Adam said. "When that wyvern zombie came… I somehow managed to pull it off out of instinct. But when I slew it and then had to jump off the platform, I couldn't remember how to do it again, not with the ground rushing up towards me… Just how do you manage, flying all the time?"

"I took years to do that properly," Lilith replied. "At first, I was panicking even though I had wings. Trust me, it's not something you should be worried about."

At that moment, Pelagos approached. The gusts of wind created by the blue dragon's massive wings were so intense that Lilith had to put all her focus into her own flight in order to avoid being blown away.

"Good work," Pelagos said. "It's… It's quite pleasant, seeing people I've trained grow stronger. It's not a feeling I ever experienced before. But, more importantly, that isn't the end of this expedition. We must continue until we find a dragonium deposit."

Dragonium was, according to what Pelagos had said prior to this expedition, a crystalline material that only formed in regions with a high concentration of the demonic energy of dragons. It was not only extraordinarily durable, but it also had the property of dissipating magical energy. Armour forged from this material was virtually indestructible to magical attacks. Dragonium could also be used to make potent weapons, but Lilith and Adam already had those.

However, equipment forged from dragonium was almost completely unknown, due to the sheer difficulty in obtaining the material. The most accessible source of it was the Graveyard of Dragons, a place where even live dragons hesitated to enter. There were legends dating back to the Dragai Empire, legends of Dragon Riders wielding dragonium equipment and using it to defeat Demon Lords. But that equipment, if it ever actually existed, had since been lost to history.

And now… it's time to see if we can actually find this legendary material ourselves.

Lilith landed on Pelagos' back again and the three of them continued flying over the Graveyard of Dragons. The landscape never became any less foreboding, and more wyvern zombies attacked them on a couple of occasions.

After roughly half an hour, they—or more specifically, Pelagos—finally detected signs of dragonium. But there was one more enemy to deal with.

The signs of dragonium were coming from a cave in the side of the mountain. Also coming from this cave was the demonic energy signature of an extremely powerful monster. Considering their location, there was only one possible option for what it might be.

"It would be a dangerous fight," Pelagos said, looking down at the cave. "Would you two prefer to move on and find dragonium elsewhere?"

"That is one option, but I have a plan we might try out…" Adam said.

Adam explained his plan carefully, making sure that the others understood every detail.

"That sounds like it should work," Lilith said.

"Indeed," Pelagos said. His lips curled in a toothy grin. "I must also confess that I was hoping for the chance to fight!"

Pelagos opened his mouth and breathed out a fireball, which shot downwards and struck the entrance to the cave. The moment it struck, there was an unearthly roar of pain and anger.

A dragon zombie lumbered out from the cave. It was covered in murky scales and, like the wyvern zombies from earlier, was slender to an almost skeletal extent. But it was just as large as Pelagos was, and now that it had left the cave, the demonic energy emanating from its body could be felt even more intensely. It was an enemy that Lilith would never dare facing if she was on her own… but with the allies currently at her side, she was confident of victory.

The dragon zombie took flight on its rotted wings, rapidly ascending towards Pelagos. As it approached, it unleashed a colossal breath of miasma from its mouth, which Pelagos countered with his own fiery breath.

Then Lilith jumped off Pelagos' back and began flying in a wide arc around the dragon zombie. It would have followed them under normal circumstances, but Pelagos closed in on it and began grappling with the dragon zombie. The two gigantic monsters snapped at each other with jaws that could crush entire boulders, and raked each other with claws that could tear down castles. Although the dragon zombie was missing most of the muscle it had in life, it still put up an excellent fight against a living dragon.

Lilith pushed her wings as hard as she could, and soon she arrived at the opposite side of the dragon zombie from Pelagos. This was the position needed for the next step of the plan.

In Lilith's arms, Adam raised his sword to the sky and shouted, "Oh, holy light! Purge the wicked in the names of the gods! Evil Obliterating Incantation!"

Adam glowed as brightly as the sun, sending out brilliant white light in every direction. Despite literally holding him, Lilith didn't feel the slightest pain or discomfort at this supposedly anti-monster spell.

The dragon zombie wasn't so lucky. When it was struck by the light, its flesh crumbled away in large clumps, like dried leaves disintegrating in a bushfire. It roared in agony.

It's just like Adam said—this spell is really effective against undead monsters! Though it's still odd how it doesn't affect me…

Meanwhile, Pelagos threw the dragon zombie to the side, causing it to slam into the side of a nearby mountain. He immediately followed this up by breathing fire onto the dragon zombie for what seemed to be several minutes, even though it couldn't be more than ten seconds in reality. When he finally stopped, there was nothing left on the mountain except a charred corpse.

"Are you alright?" Lilith called out, raising her voice in order to be heard at this great distance.

Pelagos was covered in countless wounds, but was still flying normally. "I'm well enough to fly all the way back without any rest," he said, looking over towards Lilith and Adam. "And that anti-monster spell barely affected me."

"Still, I could heal some of your wounds," Adam said. "I still have a decent amount of energy left—"

Suddenly, Lilith felt a spike of demonic energy from below. She and the other two quickly looked around to find that the dragon zombie, despite being visibly burned to a crisp, was now on its feet again. It opened its mouth and Lilith quickly flew away to avoid the oncoming attack. Pelagos, on the other hand, was too large to manoeuvre quickly, and one of his wings was struck by miasma.

"Argh!"

For a fraction of a second, Lilith was paralysed by this abrupt attack. But then she flew down towards the dragon zombie, gathering up most of her remaining demonic energy. She unleashed this energy in the form of a massive fire spell that bathed her target in bright orange flames. This wasn't nearly as powerful as a dragon's breath, but it was enough to make the dragon zombie recoil.

When the flames died down, the dragon zombie was still standing, but only just. Most of its remaining flesh had been either vaporised or charred, including both of its eyes, leaving it as little more than an actual skeleton. But the dragon zombie continued to glare balefully at its enemies.

Then Lilith let go of Adam. Her partner fell in an arc towards the dragon zombie, his sword shimmering with white light, and with a single stroke, he cut off its head.

Finally, the dragon zombie fell to the ground. Technically speaking, it still wasn't dead, as its severed head continued to move weakly in a futile attempt to bite Adam.

Pelagos landed nearby. The dragon now had a dozen large holes in his left wing, from which blood and pus were oozing, but that hardly seemed to slow him down. He opened his mouth and unleashed one last burst of flame, reducing the dragon zombie to ash.

Lilith landed as well, and Adam hurried over to begin healing Pelagos with what remained of his spirit energy.

"Thank you," Pelagos grumbled. "I let down my guard… I should have realised that even a dead dragon wouldn't fall that easily."

"We all let down our guard," Lilith said reassuringly. "None of us could have expected it to get up after being burned that much."

"But this is something I must remember for the future," Pelagos said, looking again at the ashes of the dragon zombie. "I can't teach anyone properly unless I can avoid such mistakes myself."

"I wonder how a true dragon died here?" Adam said, still holding his hands over Alt-Eris' wounds. "I was under the impression that this area was used as a graveyard for enslaved wyverns."

"It was, but before that, dragons of all kinds would come here at the end of their lives," Pelagos explained. "It was avoided by living dragons as a result, and that is why the humans of Dragai would later use this place to dump the corpses of their slaves. The question is, why did a dragon become a zombie here? That should only happen if they had great regrets that they couldn't fulfil before death. That makes sense for the wyverns, but this dragon… well, I suppose we may never know."

Adam eventually managed to heal all most of Pelagos' wounds. The holes in his wing remained, but they no longer oozed any fluids and Pelagos was quite certain that these would heal in time.

"Now, there is still the dragonium in this cave," Alt-Eris said. "We had best retrieve it before anything else appears."

The three of them entered the cave. There was still a high concentration of demonic energy in here, to the point that Lilith nearly felt like vomiting.

It didn't take long to find the dragonium. The end of the cave was a large chamber—presumably used as a lair by the dragon zombie—with walls that were lined with large chunks of golden crystal. These crystals gave off an intense aura of demonic energy.

They undid the canvas from Pelagos' leg and spread it out on the cave floor. For several minutes, they broke off or dug out pieces of dragonium from the cave walls, then set these down on the canvas. Finally, they pulled up the edges of the canvas to form one enormous package, comparable to a small house in size.

"This will be a great boon to the newly hatched country of Dragonia," Pelagos said. "Though I can only hope that no foolhardy youngsters decide to follow our example and come here for more dragonium. They'd only get themselves killed."

Once they were done, they left the cave and took flight again, Pelagos holding the package of dragonium carefully using both forelegs. A few more wyvern zombies attacked them along the way, but Lilith and Adam were able to fight these off, and they returned to the Imperial Capital without any further problems.


AN: I changed the founding of Dragonia a bit to make it a little more realistic. Even if their hero Dell suggested it, the humans of the country would be nervous at best at being ruled by dragons. The dragons definitely wouldn't have the expertise to rule humans, at least not at first.

Pelagos is an OC I made for this fanfic. I actually originally had Alto-Eris in this position, but then I re-read her profile and found that it would be easier to put an OC in this position.