The White Dragon - Versa Pietru - mysteriously disappeared during the Blank.

This is why.

Huan Strongarm: A Bartfort Folktale, by Lufas Maphaahl

The Armours scattered as Pietru attacked, immediately opening fire. "Wait!" Leon screamed. "Don't hurt-"

He was interrupted as she crashed into him, sending them both plunging into the filthy swamp water. Leon hesitated to hurt her, while the Dragon Reaper furiously went in for the kill.

"Pietru! Snap out of it! Please!"

She didn't hear a word. Her personality, the sweet girl he had befriended in the Blood Barrier was gone. Only a rabid beast remained.

As Leon kicked her away she once more took to the skies, giving the Armours room to shoot at her; a transparent purple barrier surrounded her, deflecting the bullets in all directions. When she flew at the mechs the shield turned into a makeshift wrecking ball that sent the squad flying as she crashed into them.

"Dammit! DAMMIT!" Leon allowed the stray bullets to bounce harmlessly off his hide, leaping through the air and grabbing the barrier between his jaws; his fangs shredded the shield into confetti, leaving shards of purple light to fall through the air as a timely magic blast blew the Elder Dragon out of the sky. "Guys! That's your country's sacred beast over there!"

"I think he's congratulating us!" The whole squadron cheered as the wolfdog rolled his eyes.

"Should have waited. I should have waited for the fucking translator…"

The Makili Pietru erupted from the crater with a flap of her terrible wings, tackling one of the Armours out of the air as its pilot screamed. Leon bit her and tore her off, earning a scream of pain as he sank his teeth into her shoulder; he was blown away as a fresh shield was created, and as her body flashed with purple light he was suddenly reminded that she could regenerate.

"Get into formation!" The leader of the mechs began shouting orders as he drew his sword. "The barrier is weak to physical attacks! Draw your weapons!" Unable to fly, Leon watched helplessly as they danced through the air; Pietru's barrier was indeed weak to their weapons, and soon it was destroyed as she snarled with rage. "Keep it up! We're almost there!"

With a terrible roar from the Elder Dragon, strands of energy were leached from the Armours like purple chains; the Makili Pietru soaked them up like a sponge, leaving the mecha to fall out of the sky as their power was drained. With a horrific noise, a stream of black energy erupted from her jaws.

"Oh no you don't!" Leon placed himself between Pietru and the Armours, howling as hard as his lungs could bear; there was a brief struggle as his invisible attack met the beam in the middle of the sky, raging back and forth before suddenly exploding. The wolfdog was blown back by the shockwave, part of his face melting off before growing back. "Urgh," he groaned. "That never happened in Dragonball Z!"

Most of Pietru's face and chest had been reduced to a smoking, skeletal mess, though it quickly grew back in a burst of black and purple light. Unlike Leon she clearly couldn't regenerate indefinitely, and was already starting to falter.

"Pietru, please snap out of it!" Leon begged. "You're the goddamn Dragon Reaper! You can fight this!" The Black Dread unleashed another breath attack, which this time took the form of a stream of black fire. The wolfdog raced across the swamp as she burned the ground behind him, desperately leading her away from the downed Armours. "You're stronger than this! You can fight it!"

The onslaught ceased as her wings glowed with red and blue light, causing his stride to slow as she directly robbed him of his speed. She used the stolen momentum to tackle him at incredible speeds, hitting him so hard that his internal organs were sent rocketing out of his mouth to scatter across the marsh. He could barely feel her tearing into him through the agony of his insides growing back, and for a nightmarish instant he couldn't feel his heart in his chest.

Then she used the same technique that had finished off the Armours, draining his energy in blue and purple strands. Leon could actually feel his healing factor begin to slow. His mind became hazy as he remembered Canaria Monastery, and how he had been able to tear apart the spectres haunting Novice Sama.

He bit into the strands escaping from his body, holding them in place as his body began to heal at its regular pace. He looped the strand around Pietru's neck and began to choke her with it, causing her to squawk and writhe beneath him as his strength returned. When the sound of his new heart beat reassuringly in his ears, Leon used it as a lever to fling her over his shoulder; her body carved a huge tent in the mud, struggling to her feet as he grew back his lungs and digestive tract.

The Black Dread flared her wings as she roared intimidatingly; Leon snarled back as each slowly circled the other, staring her down as one apex predator to another. "I don't wanna do this, Pietru."

The Makili Pietru attacked first, only for Leon to catch her colossal horn between his fangs. Her body pulsed with black energy, gathering slowly like the tide coming in.

"What the…" They continued to scrap, leaving craters and rents across the wet mud; although they were about the same size Leon was slightly stronger, an advantage negated by Pietru's massive horns and toxic miasma. The black energy gathering in her body infected him the longer they fought, giving him persistent chest pains and making it harder for him to breath. "What…" he coughed. "What're you…"

The Black Dread thrust him away as her attack finished charging, flying into the air and flapping her wings as they crackled with black lightning; thousands of huge purple crystals erupted from the ground, surrounding him before impaling him like spikes. Leon let out a canine scream as Pietru roared, her body shrouded by a cloak of black magic.

She dove out of the sky as a black sphere appeared between her horns, growing to surround her entire body like a dark comet. The clouds were blown away by the immensity of the attack: Leon's eyes went wide as the comet seemed to fill the horizon. "Wait," he croaked. "Please…"

"Run!" The squad leader screamed his head off as he fled, abandoning his fallen Armour. "Everybody run!"

"But what about the dog?"

"Forget the dog!"

In Canaria Monastery, Abbott Laurent noticed a ripple in his wine: a moment later a vibration went up through his chair, and was felt by every monk in the Order. He raised his eyes, meeting the gaze of the Prioress.

"Evacuate. Now."

In Saanavarh, the Ulsadana felt the same shiver. She felt it far more vividly due to her proximity to Gehemene. "Is the Wolf Siege ready?" she demanded shrilly.

"Not ye-"

"Then make it ready!"

Mylene gripped the frame of her bedroom window as the castle shook, earning screams of terror from her maids. She could see the black dome expanding over the distant swamp; not enormous, but big enough that it was easy to see even at night. "Where's my daughter?"

Her guard seemed surprised by the question. "I… uh… I don't-"

"WHERE'S MY DAUGHTER?"

Angie and Livia froze where they walked, feeling the tremor come up through the soles of their feet. They shared a look.

"Don't worry," said the fairy. "He's got this."

When the comet hit him, Leon saw only darkness. There was no explosion, no impact at all: sound and sensation had been devoured by the unexistence of the attack. The Black Dread roared victoriously as it hovered over the resulting crater, which was already being filled by a slow trickle of swamp water.

At the bottom of the crater was the remains of a gigantic dog; all hair had been burned away, his skin black and melted from whatever the attack had done to him. Smoke rose in ugly curls from his ruined flesh, and in places his bones and organs were visible. The pilots saw this with dismayed horror; Leon had made a concerted effort to lead Pietru as far from the Armours as he could, which had saved their lives.

Suddenly, like a scene from a horror movie, the cadaver took in a choked breath. It coughed up viscera that had been scorched into uselessness as fresh innards grew to replace them, the charcoal-coloured meat sloughing away as almost his entire body replaced itself. He staggered to his feet as a fresh fur sprouted all over his body, brand new eyes growing into his skull that glared murderously as the hovering Elder Dragon.

Leon spat the last of the bad taste out his mouth, his grief replaced by rage. "That it?"

Elsewhere, Hierophant Serbia Notre-Dame Paolo III watched the battle on a floating screen, which hovered before the statue of Twin Pupils in the Temple's most secret Sanctum. Sir Ammund of Osaan approached behind her, but she refused to avert her gaze.

"Your Holiness," he bowed. "How long until the Exile?"

"He is right outside the Cullis Gate." As the two behemoths resumed their clash, Serbia could see the dead lake beneath which Elodach was hiding. "So… minutes. An hour at most."

"Project Eden is ready to be deployed. Just give the word."

Serbia smiled as she watched the monsters fight. "Not yet," she whispered. "For now we watch."

"Did you guys feel that?" Corkus asked. "It was like… like something shivered. In the ground."

"It might have been the dungeon," guessed Judeau. Although his tone was casual, he was playing with the hilts of his knives anxiously. "You know, one bigass dungeon boss doesn't like the look of another bigass dungeon boss, and…"

"Or it was Griffith's buddy fighting a giant monster," said Casca blithely. "It's what he does now, or so I hear."

"Shouldn't we be helping?" Rickert asked nervously. Although he wasn't originally going to be part of the mission, they had invited him along after seeing how badly the Lao-Shan Lung had rattled him. "Surely even the God Hound needs help sometimes!"

Pippin placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "We are helping. The strongest warrior in Holfort is King Roland, and he needs that dagger if he wants to communicate with him. Finding Prince Julius and retrieving it is the best thing we can do to help."

They were standing outside a large grate, which was the same entrance used by Leon's group earlier in search of Pomporo's heirloom. The automaton they had defeated wasn't far from the lizardman village, so Griffith, Guts and the love interests had most likely used it as a point of entry. Pippin heaved the gate open, only to let it clang shut as an unfamiliar guard jogged up to meet them.

"Hey guys! Wait up!" The man's face was mostly covered by his helmet - much like everyone else in their group besides Rickert - exposing only a pair of electric blue eyes. The voice was lighthearted and carefree. It was a himbo voice, as Leon might say. "Mind if I tag along?"

Pippin searched his memory, but couldn't for the life of him remember who the guy was. "And you are?"

"Caesar! I'm a friend of Leon's!"

Nope. Still nothing. "Look, I realise that he must be getting very famous by now…"

Pippin trailed off as Caesar's necklace flashed with blue light, transforming him into a very familiar Warhorse. "Whoa!" Judeau blurted. "So you… This whole time you were…"

It should be noted that at no point did Leon bother revealing the Warhorse's true identity to his friends.

He turned back into a human with a flash of light. "Yes: it is I," proclaimed Caesar, unknowingly quoting Leon as he did so. "I overheard what was going on and I thought I'd help!"

Casca shot him a suspicious look. "Don't you have your own post to worry about?"

Caesar just laughed. "Nah! Today's my day off!"

Pippin gave him a long, steady look. "Fine. Let's go."

Caesar cheered as the group piled into the sewers; unfortunately, they were operating off outdated intel. None of them had accounted for the rigorous deprogramming the five scions had experienced at Leon's instruction. Each of them was now far more competent and had much better gear, to say nothing of the massive boost in attack power given the guards' acquisition of the Lionslayer and Dragonslayer.

The point is, Julius and co had not only reached the lizardman village but also slain the Alligator Beast, retrieved the rag doll and returned above ground. They had been trying to locate Humbus the Rat Catcher for a while, and had finally tracked him down near the city gates.

"Yo!" Greg cheered, holding the rag doll victoriously above his head. "Look what we found!"

"The doll!" Humbus sobbed, hugging it to his chest as though afraid it would disappear. "You found it! You found the doll!"

"This is my favourite quest so far!" Julius declared.

"I feel good inside!" Jilk agreed.

They all simultaneously stopped smiling as Humbus pulled a frighteningly large knife from his belt. Everyone backed away except for Earis and Guts, who could tell that he wasn't hostile. "You have saved my daughter's life! This knife is my most prized possession, friends. You'll not find a sharper blade in all the world, for it's crafted from Galadian Steel."

Greg accepted the knife: the blade was made of black metal, and the hilt was decorated with golden wings. "Thank you," he said nervously. "I'll… uh… treasure it." He was extra careful as he tucked the blade into his belt. Humbus wasn't kidding: the knife was very sharp.

"Guys?" Brad said hesitantly. "Am I the only one seeing this?"

They followed his line of sight through the city gates: off in the distance, the front half of Eddy the Ceadeus was still sticking out of the massive hole he had opened up in the ground. The Lao-Shan Lung and a few Armours were teaming up to try and tear off the overgrown horn covering his eye, but didn't seem to be having much luck.

For a moment they just watched in mystified amusement. "Well that's not something you see every day!" Guts remarked.

"Prince Julius!" They all turned as Angie called them out, the fairy close on her heels. "Are you alright? Do you have the Blade of Tarun?"

"Sure," he grunted, and pulled the ceremonial dagger from his belt. "Why do you ask?"

"More importantly," interrupted Chris. "Why are there two Elder Dragons cavorting in front of the city gate? And why isn't everyone freaking out?"

"Miss Olivia?" Earis pointed, his finger slightly shaking. "Why are you glowing?"

She blinked and looked down at herself, noticing the light was coming from the baggy pockets of her blessed surcoat. She reached inside and pulled out a wooden box, opening it to reveal the Prism entrusted to her by the Keeper of Lore. "Oh no," she whispered. "Please don't be broken! Please don't be-"

With a flash of light they were teleported away, whisked out of Holfort before any of them could react. They found themselves standing on the underground Cullis Gate, Elodach standing smugly before them with a sole UnFae at his side. A terrifying, misshapen creature had melded itself with the cave's exit: it had a huge, flat head with glowing purple eyes, its fangs dripping with saliva that burned holes in the cave floor. It had two huge forelimbs - like a mantis - while its lower half was a writhing mass of tentacles.

"Hello again, puny worms," Elodach sneered. "I-"

"Jilk, kill him." The UnFae barely pulled him out of the way before the bullet could pierce his skull; the semi-immortal shrieked in terror as he threw up a barrier, cringing back as every bullet in the barrel ricocheted off the wall of light. "Damn! New plan: Greg! See if that spear's effects work on that shield!"

"On it!"

"Why are you already attacking me?" Elodach screamed. "Aren't you confused or curious as to how I-"

"Of course not," snorted Livia. "We already knew that this Prism was the key to the Cullis Gate; you were probably planning to reverse the connection to bring me here, then turn me into an UnFae. Am I right?"

His face twisted in ugly ways. "I… You… That…"

"Figures," snorted Angie. "How predictable." She unleashed a devastating storm of fire magic at the barrier, causing it to crack; realising they had found its weakness, Brad began to synchronise his own spells.

"Get them!" Elodach shouted. The Warmother and the UnFae shot him confused looks, not immediately clear who he was shouting at. "You in the entrance… G… Grom… Gromaides! Your name is now Gromaides!" He pointed dramatically at the gaggle of main characters. "Kill them all!"

Of course, he had already forgotten that he needed Livia alive.

They got into formation: Jules stood at the front with Perseverance and the decayed bulwark he took from Ikus Fou Seberg. Chris stood on one side with the Sword of Spirits, while Greg stood on the other with the Robber King. Jilk loaded his revolver with elemental bullets behind them as Brad hefted the Berserker Sword, while Livia shrouded herself in holy magics enhanced by the blessed surcoat and Angie shifted the Shard Sword into attack mode.

Suddenly, someone realised what was up.

"Where the hell are Griffith and Guts?"

Being humble guards, the two of them had taken to standing slightly apart from their charges at all times; this placed them far enough away when the Prism was triggered that they weren't directly pulled into the spell. As they found themselves dragged through time and space they fell slightly short of the Cullis Gate, instead landing outside in the Gehemene Marsh.

"Geho!" Earis choked, making an odd noise as he spat the stinking water from his mouth. He looked around, still disoriented from the transfer. "Where the hell are we?"

"Move!" Guts roared, tackling him out the way just as two giant monsters rolled past, snarling furiously as they tore one another apart: Leon was now giving as good as he got, and while the Makili Pietru lacked his infinite stamina she clearly had the edge in raw power. The larger swordsman dragged his friend as far from the violence as he could. "I think we're back in the swamp!"

The enormous monsters separated just long enough to take a breath; with a great roar the Black Dread belched a stream of black fire, blasting the wolfdog across the marsh. Parts of Leon's fur were now matted with blood and filth, but mostly it remained pristine due to being burned and grown back faster than it could get dirty.

"We can worry about the details later," snarled Guts, drawing the Dragonslayer from his back. "He needs our help."

"Right." His eyes narrowed as he drew the Lionslayer from his hip. "I'll go right."

"I'll go left."

They rushed the Makili Pietru while she was distracted by the giant dog; Earis was in her face before she could react, his ancestral sword cutting off her horn with startling ease. As she recoiled with pain she stumbled into his partner's path; with a hot-blooded roar, Guts clove her left wing from her body. It thrashed for a few moments in the mud before it was burned up by its own flames, leaving only white avian bones behind.

"Lord Leon!" Earis shouted, running to the wolfdog's side as Guts cautiously kept his weapon raised. "We're here to help!"

"Where in the balls did you two come from?" Leon coughed. Famously, the Lernaean Hydra's healing factor had been utterly stonewalled when Heracles had used fire: he was pleasantly surprised to learn it was a weakness he didn't share. "Oh my god, Pietru! What happened to your wing?"

The Dragon Reaper screamed in agony as blood gushed from the stump; her regeneration closed up the wound, but the wing didn't grow back. She glared at him with hate in her eyes.

"She can't fly!" Guts pointed out. "Let's kill her while we have the chance!"

"Yeah! Let's kill her, Leon!"

"Guys, calm down! That's the White Dragon from legends… Oh god you guys can't understand me. OH GOD YOU GUYS CAN'T UNDERSTAND ME!"

Then things got worse. A lot worse.

A stream of concentrated fire poured from the sky, so hot it was like liquid metal. Leon's leg was instantly vaporised, forcing him to spring away on his remaining legs as it chased him across the marsh. The guards dove for cover as the swamp water instantly evaporated into steam, the ground melted into glass by the heat.

The air thrummed with deafening wingbeats. Pietru's tail hung between her legs as she cowered in terror. "What the hell is that?" Guts shouted.

"The second worst possible scenario," whispered Leon.

The creature resembled the classic depictions of a dragon, with four legs and two enormous batlike wings. It had a long neck and massive, powerful jaws, with sweeping horns on its crown and a row of spines that went from its head to the tip of its powerful tail.

"A dragon?" Earis whispered. "But… why would it help…"

This was no mere dragon. As was stated earlier, the Makili Pietru was the final boss of its home game; originally a Versa Pietru, it was corrupted by something known as the Black Blight. In Canaria Monastery, Leon had told Pietru that the Blight was like if evil were a disease; he had also named its source as one of the four Elder Dragons capable of killing him. This was that dragon, the one responsible for warping his friend into her current state. The Living End of the World.

"Fatalis," whispered Leon. "The Dark Demise."

The terrifying creature landed on the destroyed ground, seemingly immune to the intense heat as the glass crumbled beneath its weight. The trench created by its breath had divided the battlefield into two, making its intentions clear.

Pietru would deal with Earis and Guts. The Fatalis would fight Leon alone.

Elodach watched all of this through the eyes of the Fatalis itself, which he could also do with Gromaides if he so chose. "I see," he muttered. "So you were the one who corrupted the Saint's pet."

He ignored the seven teenagers battling his original Warmother, looking instead at the unhatched cocoon still pulsing slowly in the corner. If it wasn't his third UnFae, then it could have only come from one place: much like the alien scorpion had evolved to become Gromaides, so too did the poisonous lizard become a dragon. When the White Dragon had attacked his hideout, he remembered his second Warmother burying itself below ground; it must have been hibernating, preparing for the evolution into its second form.

At long last, Elodach had done it. He had discovered the true nature of his Talent as a semi-immortal.

Transformation.

Although he still couldn't understand a word Leon said, the dragon's instinctive understanding of the language of beasts caused a certain word to be implanted in his mind. "Fatalis," he whispered. "Kill him, Fatalis. Kill him like the dog he is."

Boss: Makili Pietru

Summary: The final boss of Monster Hunter Stories, this chapter constitutes massive spoilers for the end of that game. The primary antagonist of that game is the Black Blight, which was mentioned in passing by Leon back in Chapter 16 as one of the few things capable of killing him. Its ultimate attack is called Black Reprimand, and is usually an instant kill. Those guys in the Armours were very, very lucky that Leon led her so far away.

It's been a while since we've seen him, so here's a quick recap: Caesar first properly appeared in Chapter 8 as one of the winners of the Oak Leaf Contest, having collected all four Bronze Oak Leaves and won the useless Pendant from Dark Souls. He is able to transform into a Warhorse (a kind of tameable monster) using a magic necklace, which he took advantage of to infiltrate the household of Lord Korel. After Leon beat the shit out of Korel in Chapter 6 he began following him around, aiding him during the Stampede of UnFae and his initial confrontation with Elodach. Leon only learned that Caesar and the Warhorse were one and the same in Chapter 11 after Leon became a dog, returning to his regular unit after the group returned to Holfort.

Warmothers Active: 2

Cocoons Gestating: 1

Remaining UnFae: 1