"You are a bad liar, I'm surprised she fell for it." Brimgarn's voice echoed in Akuro's head.
'Liar? What do you mean?' Akuro asked mentally.
"Don't play dumb, Akuro." Mato's voice came then. "You may have become colder than before, but you aren't so cold that you have lost all your emotions."
'And how would you know that?'
"Because," Brimgarn said, "we may share the same body, but we also share the same mental space, meaning we can feel one another's emotions."
'Then why can't I feel yours?'
"Because, unlike you we can actually hide them." The dragon answered.
"Not just that, but it's obvious you care about the girl. You are quite attached to her, yet you are scared to be more attached than you already are... because of the past."
'You don't know shit. I meant what I said back then.' Akuro denied his words.
"You may be able to lie to her, but you can't lie to us, Akuro." Mato spoke. "You pushed her away because if she stays near you she will get hurt, just like she did before. You never wanted Emma dead. You just wanted Inari to think that you've become cold and heartless."
Akuro stopped walking, a sad smile crossing his lips. He closed his eyes, clenching his fists.
'I can't let the past repeat itself... it hurts too much. Not just that... but I lose control whenever my allies get hurt, I can't let that happen anymore.'
"Then why don't you tell her that instead of breaking the poor girl's heart?" Brimgarn asked.
"Because," Mato said. "I know this story. If you tell them how you feel, if you give them your reasons, it only makes them become even more bonded to you, and that leads to them staying even when you tell them to go. In the end, that leads to them dying. I've experienced the full story first hand."
"Yes... I almost forgot." The dragon hummed sadly.
'Your story sounds like a long one, Mato.' Akuro said.
"Yeah... it is."
'Maybe you could tell it to me some day.'
"Maybe. But not today. Today, you will revel in the glory of your accomplishments and behold your army."
Akuro nodded, then continued walking down the hallway to a balcony attached to a sheer cliff looking over the open chasm that was once the city of Xinoll, now destroyed and nothing more than an empty cavern. But now, it was filled to the brim. Akuro's eyes widened and a smile pulled at the edges of his mouth as he looked down at the thousands and thousands of demons of all shapes and sizes gathered below him in six large groups.
Akuro could spot his generals among the demons at the head of each group. Everything was going as planned.
Soon, the gods would fall by his hand, and the knot of fate would be undone.
•
•
•
*Sometime during the 6th Immortal War*
Mato stood across from his opponent, arms crossed as he waited for them to speak. All around him laid the bodies near a thousand humans. It upset him, how the gods could just create an entire race out of thin air just to throw them into the flames of war. This is what fueled his hate for the gods, mankind was only a couple hundred years old at the time of the 6th war, and yet they were already on the verge of extinction because they were used as cannon fodder for the gods.
And now, Mato stood alone, his allies all killed by one demon... the one that stood before him.
"Who are you?" Mato asked, his opponent simply staring at him. He clenched his jaw. "Is this some kind of joke to you!? Or are you just mocking me!?"
Again, the demon gave no answer.
"Damn you.." Mato cursed. He held a large two handed sword at his side, the golden blade seeming to give off a light. 'I know I promised to give this sword to Sedori.. but I need it's power now!' He thought.
The sword he wielded went by the name of Etskarius, but, once it's power is used, it becomes little more than a fancy piece of metal, although the immense power it held was enough to win almost any battle on its own. It can be used up to three times, and Mato had already used it twice. He'd planned on saving the last time to give it to Sedori so that he could kill the Titan King, but...
"You're the Demon King... aren't you?" Mato asked as aura began to gather into the golden blade. "Azazel."
The demon's head tilted, though Mato could not see its expression, as a cloud of black aura blotted out the demon's features, all he could see were glowing, pale white eyes.
"Answer me, damn you!" Mato roared, "You killed them! You killed her! You took everything I cared about! The least you can do is tell me your name!"
"But you already came to the answer of your own accord, there was no reason for me to speak." Came a cold hiss.
"Ha, so you finally speak only to mock me." Mato said. "So you are Azazel."
"Yes... and you are a nobody." Azazel hissed. "And you do not belong here..."
"A nobody, huh..?" Mato said quietly. "Don't doubt me, demon!" He raised his sleeve, revealing the tattoo of a dragon marked into his skin. The mark began to give off a faint blue light, and as it did light blue symbols were etched into the ground and the air turned cold as snow began to descend, churning in a violent blizzard that quickly turned the battlefield white, patches of red showing in contrast as blood seeped into the snow.
Then a tremendous roar shook the earth and a massive silver-and-gold scaled dragon descended from the sky, shards of ice covering its body.
"Scillia, I request your aid." Mato called up to the beast. A powerful, feminine voice that echoed across the valley and the mountains came in return;
"Of course, it is my obligation to aid you in your destiny, Mato."
"A dragon?" Azazel hissed. "Maybe you are someone, but not someone that matters."
"We will see about that, in the end I will be the victor!" Mato spoke as he jumped up onto Scillia's back. With a powerful downward thrust of her wings, the dragon rose into the air, then drew her head back, her chest glowing with a faint blue light as aura gathered into her body, then it was all released into a stream of destruction that was sent straight at Azazel. The demon simply held up his hand, his fingers splitting the beam of aura into two different rays of energy that were sent in two different directions, one of them crashing into the earth and blowing a massive city sized crater into the ground after a large explosion, and the other blasting through two mountains, reshaping the land itself.
Azazel shook his hand as if he'd slapped someone too hard and had hurt his finger, smoke trailing up from it.
"Impressive, you made me move." the demon said.
"Mato, just who are we fighting?" Scillia asked.
Mato was quiet for a moment, then answered in a grim tone, "Azazel. The Demon King. I'm sorry, Scillia, but this... might be our last battle."
"I see... well, I do not hold this against you, so do not worry. He has killed many of my kind, I have been wanting to bite his head off for some time!"
"You think we can defeat him?"
"We can, and we will, even if it means we shall die in the process! If it comes to it, I will seal him myself..."
Mato's eyes went wide. "Wait... you mean..?"
Scillia gave a soft hum, that hum that all dragons made deep in their throats. When it came to dragons, that was the equivalent of humans saying "mhm".
"I see... well, let's hope it never comes to that!" Mato said.