Pyro and Ultio stared at Meghana, who was twitching sporadically as she drifted in and out of the realm of dreams.
"I must say, I find it odd that you simply watched me bring down indescribable torture on Miss Meghana." Ultio said and held a fist up to his mouth as he held back a cough.
He was still in a very weak and sickly state.
Pyro shrugged. "I actually don't like touching people all that much. But I did want to see her suffer though, after all, she's responsible for the death of my lover and my friend." He said and gestured at Ritcher's corpse over his shoulder.
Ultio frowned slightly and finally coughed. After coughing heavily, he discovered that he had dark blood on the hand he held up against his mouth as he coughed.
"My condolences." Ultio said with a small nod and wiped the blood on his outfit.
Pyro nodded and took off a necklace he had hidden underneath his hoodie. "This belonged to her. She was really weird in a cute way, and she asked me to burn this on the day she died."
Ultio frowned slightly and wondered how Pyro was going to burn the gold chain which had a small cross pendant, when he remembered that he was a pyromancer.
In a somewhat solemn mood, Pyro held the chain in front of him with his right hand and clenched it tightly as his hand ignited.
"Meria Vassil, you will be remembered." He muttered and unclenched his fist, showing that he had indeed heated up the chain to the point where it had been reduced to nothing.
"Impressive."
"Thank you."
At that moment, someone groaned slightly as they slowly stirred.
Ultio turned to Meghana, who now seemed more stable than before. "Miss Meghana, I believe Mister Midas is in need of medical attention."
"Then he can go... Fuck himself." Meghana said with a small laugh as she struggled to get to her feet.
Ultio smirked darkly and slowly walked over to her.
"Sometimes I worry myself when I get happy at the thought of making someone suffer."
He squatted slightly so he was at Meghana's eye-level. "Miss Meghana..." He trailed off as he placed his entire hand over the Dragon's lower abdomen.
She bit her lips slightly and grabbed Ultio's wrist a little forcefully with a worried expression. "P-please... I'm a little tender there."
Ultio didn't waste more words and just pointed at Eric, who had regained consciousness a few feet away.
"She doesn't have any skill or spell, Mister V." Pyro said from behind Ultio as he took out another cigarette after finishing his last one.
Ultio smirked evilly as his eyes stared deeply into Meghana's. "Oh, I believe Miss Meghana would strongly disagree, and please, call me Ultio."
Still biting her lower lip, Meghana looked away from Ultio and stretched out a hand towards Eric.
"‹Dragon's Embrace›"
A golden light slowly appeared around Eric and formed the faint form of a long, ethereal Dragon that encircled the blonde young man.
"Thanks." He said weakly and rose a thumb.
"You're welcome." Meghana and Ultio said simultaneously, before turning to face each other.
Ultio smirked and slowly got to his feet. "I believe he was speaking to me, Miss Meghana, as you were the one who put him in his current state." He said and took a deep breath of the night air. If it wasn't for the smoke and dust in the air, he might have actually enjoyed it.
"True that." Eric added helpfully.
Meghana rolled her eyes and laid back on the ground as she needed a long time to catch her breath after being subjected to... Extreme pleasure.
"Mister Muspel." Ultio turned to face Pyro, who was staring at the pair of moons hanging in the sky.
One was giving off a warm, silver glow. While the other was a bright orange and red, and it looked like a ball of fire, basically seeming like a mockery to the sun.
"Galavan, The moon of fire." Pyro said as he carefully watched the orange ball in the sky. "It's only fitting that she dies on this warm night, under the moon I was born to."
Ultio twisted his lips to the side in displeasure, but he didn't interrupt. He didn't fully understand sympathy nor loss, but he understood that everyone needed time to grieve.
"Ah well, fuck it." Pyro said with a small chuckle and turned to Ultio. "You called my name."
"Indeed." Ultio said and placed his hands into his pockets. He hadn't even taken time to admire his newfound control over Grimm Hand. Although most of his powers were either unusable or were basically chipping at his health, he was still able to forcefully suppress Grimm Hand to perfection.
Why didn't he use it against Meghana instead of simply incapacitating her?
Well it wasn't at full strength. He had tried, earlier in the day, to destroy a simply wooden plank that was four feet long, and it had taken him half an hour to reduce it to half its original length. Now imagine what little it would do against a Dragon.
So he simply forced it off and used his hands like a normal person would.
"I would like to ask if you know where your teammates, as well as Guild White, have gone to?"
Pyro nodded once.
"Splendid." Ultio said dryly and stretched out a hand, much to the confusion of everyone, with the exception of Eric.
Within Ultio's shadow, something large and ferocious began to stir. Something many heroes and legends have fallen prey to over many centuries.
Something worthy enough to be seen as a direct relative of the Dragons.
It was Wyvern the Wyvern.
The winged reptile rose from Ultio's shadow in such a way that everyone was already on his back as he exited Ultio's shadow and flew into the night.
"Holy shit!" Meghana exclaimed as she suddenly found herself soaring through the sky without doing anything.
The corners of Pyro's lips twitched slightly and he slicked his hair back with a hand. "Interesting."
Ultio didn't reply, but instead said something else. "Mister Muspel, Wyvern awaits your directions."
Pyro nodded and walked forward till he stood right on Wyvern's head, then began to speak to the reptilian shadow.
Ultio turned away from him and focused his attention on Meghana. He sat beside her and watched her unblinkingly, causing the Dragon to feel extreme discomfort.
"Miss Meghana, I believe a man is not worth a Dragon descending to a town such as Lont. I currently know where your reverse scale lies, so it would be wise to tell me the truth, wouldn't it?" Ultio said without even bothering to smirk as his mood was quite awful.
He had spoken with Pyro earlier, and found out that Meghana had supposedly come to Lont looking for someone.
"I... I..." Meghana stuttered as she considered not telling Ultio the truth.
The white haired man known as Ultio didn't waste any time at all and directly placed a finger on the Dragon's navel. "I will only count to three in my head, so prepare yourself."
"W-wait! I'll talk!"
"But I don't want to listen any more." Ultio said as he glared at Meghana.
"I'm sorry, alright? I'll tell you." Meghana said with a huff and scooted away from Ultio and his devilishly skillful finger. "I came to Lont in search of a man named Veryn."
"And why would a Dragon be in search of a regular man?"
Meghana paused and glared at Ultio impatiently. "I'm getting there, okay? Yeesh! So anyway, long story short, I'm looking for him because I've got to trick a couple of Dragons that work for my mother."
"I see," Ultio nodded slightly. "While there seems to be more you have to say, I have no interest whatsoever in whatever may have caused the princess of the Dragons to leave the Dragon Realm-"
Meghana's eyes widened and she gasped lightly. "You know who I am?!"
Ultio narrowed his eyes and lightly jabbed a finger into the Dragon's navel, causing her to wince and crossed her arms over her stomach.
"Never interrupt me." Ultio said with a tone that implied he was thoroughly annoyed. This was the only way to tell what he truly meant, as he never let out emotions on his face.
Meghana nodded hurriedly and scooted back even more, as she was already developing fear directed at Ultio and his finger.
"Now, as I was saying, I have no interest in your matters. And about your identity, your accessories, mannerism and the way you speak made it too obvious for someone as intelligent as I am. On the other hand," Ultio paused briefly as Hermes popped out of his shadow.
Name: Hermes
Level: 30
Rank: Shadow Commander
Class: Messenger of Death
Title 1: Death Runner
Title Bonus: +10 to speed attribute. 20% increase in damage while running. 50% critical chance while running.
Title 2: Speed of the gods
Title Bonus: +20 to speed. +35 to balance. +4 to luck.
Strength: 40
Speed: 52 (82)
Charisma: 20
Luck: 14 (18)
Sprint (SSS)
Dash (SSS)
Fast Perception (SS)
Weapon Throw (S)
Air Walk (A)
Although there was a slight improvement to Hermes' abilities, it was not worth the damage he had taken.
Even now, the shadow couldn't completely form, as Ultio couldn't provide enough mana to heal him. Which meant that he would be missing half of his entire upper body until Ultio got better.
But even that didn't reduce the loyalty and pride in his eyes.
"Boss..." He said in a hushed tone as he bowed before Ultio.
Ultio nodded with a slight frown. Maybe it was fondness or the fact that Hermes was his first shadow, but Ultio didn't like seeing the shadow like this. Not because he cared, but because it would reduce the shadow's efficiency.
"Miss Meghana, you have dwindled the number of loyal subjects under my command, which had thus reduced my overall strength."
Regarding the other two shadow soldiers, Ultio didn't really care much for their existence, but their deaths meant that his overall strength had reduced.
One was an arrogant brute that died miserably by his hands, and the other was some random nobody he used to test his power.
"How do you plan on compensating me?" Ultio asked with a raised eyebrow, then quickly added, "I actually plan to kill and revive you as one of my shadow soldiers, but I would like to know if you have a better suggestion."
Ultio ran a hand along the cracks that had spread out to the right side of his face as he waited for Meghana to provide a suggestion.
"Well, I can..." Meghana's brain couldn't provide an answer for her as it was distracted. Firstly, just merely staring at Ultio made her lose her train of thought, and secondly, she didn't understand most of what he just said.
She chuckled to herself and said, "I can form a blood contract as the lower existence."