Familiar Forest.
A few minutes before James and his peerages finished finding their familiars, a tall dark skinned man with dark blue hair, Acnologia appeared in front of a cave. When he did, he closed his eyes for a few seconds to sense any form of life in his surroundings. When his scan of the surroundings was over, he opened his eyes with a blood thirsty smile on his face.
"Finally, I've found you, Tiamat." Acnologia said with an insane smile on his face.
A moment later, Acnologia was covered in a dark glow. Then, the glow, which was in the shape of Acnologia's outline, began to grow. When the transformation ended, standing in his place was an eighty-two foot (25 m) long, from snout to tail, forty-one foot (12.5) tall dragon with round black scales decorated with blue spiral-like patters, a grey underbelly, a round head with an arrowhead shaped protrusion on its chin, and a stinger shaped tip of the tail. On top of that, there were two, feathered, bird-like wings on its back.
After standing in front of Tiamat's cave in his dragon form for a moment, Acnologia opened its mouth. In his opened mouth was an orb of swirling black and blue light. Once the orb had obsorbed enough energy, Acnologia fired it, in the form of a breath attack, at Tiamat's cave.
*Boom!*
An instant later, the entire cave and the mountain it was dug into exploded. However, Acnologia knew that was far from enough to kill Tiamat, as she was only a step away from entering the Heavenly Dragon realm of power. So, instead of leaving, Acnologia stood and waited for Tiamat to climb out of the rubble.
*Boom!*
*Roar!*
Along with the roar, a large amount of rubble was shot into the air. Standing where the rubble used to be, was Tiamat in her dragon form, a large, nearly on par with Acnologia, Western dragon with celestial blue scales and dark blue eyes.
"My treasures~~~~~!" Tiamat roared with lament. "Who dares to destroy my treasures?"
"Ha, some things never change." Acnologia said in a tone of derision. "Even after dying and coming back to life, you have not changed at all, Tiamat."
Hearing Acnologia speak, Tiamat quickly turned her head in the direction his voice came from. When she did, she saw Acnologia in his dragon form. Burning with rage, Tiamat fired a breath attack of her own.
Seeing Tiamat's pale and dark blue flames flying in his direction, Acnologia fired another fire breath to counter them. However, even though Acnologia was stronger than Tiamat, her flames were much stronger than his. Realizing that he would be injured if he continued this power struggle, Acnologia flapped his wings and flew out of the path of the flames.
After Acnologia dodged, Tiamat's flames blazed through the forest, incinerating everything along the way. Eventually, a more than 656-foot (approx. 200 m) swath of forest was wiped from existence.
"Damn [Chaos Karma Flames]." Acnologia muttered as he looked at the destruction Tiamat caused.
As previously mentioned, Tiamat's strength is lower than Acnologia's however, the [Chaos karma Flames] have the ability to burn away karma. Which means that if the target is not strong enough, they would be wiped out of existence, as if they had never existed in the first place.
"Acnologia, I thought Ophis killed you." Tiamat said in a tone that held both rage and confusion. Then, in a tone without any confusion, she continued. "Not that that matters, I'll just kill you again. You'll pay for destroying my treasures."
With that, Tiamat shot into the sky, flying towards Acnologia with her claws outstretched.
"Foolish dragon." Acnologia scoffed as he watched Tiamat draw near. "[Eternal Flare]."
After saying the name of his spell, a large number of star-shaped magic power constructs formed around Acnologia's wings. Then, he fired them down at the approaching Tiamat.
Seeing the approaching projectiles, Tiamat did not alter her course at all. Instead, she began to cycle her magic power around her body. Then, as she neared the first projectile, she swatted it away with one of her claws. As she neared Acnologia, so too did the frequency at which she swung her claws. Eventually, however, she was whipped across the head by Acnologia's tale when she drew close enough.
Just before being sent flying by Acnologia's tail, Tiamat opened her mouth and clamped down on the end of the tail, causing him to be dragged away from his spot alongside Tiamat.
*Roar!*
*Boom!*
Just after Acnologia roared in pain, due to the force behind Acnologia's tail whip, Tiamat was slammed into the ground, with Acnologia slamming into the ground right beside her. However, Tiamat refused to let go of Acnologia's tail, beginning to thrash around as if she had every intention to rip off the part her fangs were sunk into.
"Let go of me!" Acnologia roared.
After his roar, Acnologia closed the distance and began to rain punches down on Tiamat's head, in the hope that she would release his tail. Unfortunately, Tiamat's rage from the destruction of her treasures made it so that she barely even felt the punches Acnologia was throwing.
"I'll make you pay!" Tiamat bellowed in a muffle voice.
Then, Tiamat stood and began to spin her body. Eventually, Acnologia felt the force of Tiamat's spin lifting him from the ground. Before Tiamat could make a full rotation, she was swinging Acnologia around by his tail, causing gale force winds to whip up around her.
After several dozen spins, Tiamat eventually released her hold on Acnologia's tail, sending him flying into the rubble that used to be her layer. Then, before he even struck the pile of rubble, Tiamat unleashed another breath attack in Acnologia's direction.
*Boom!*
*Roar!*
Once again, Acnologia roared in pain. After receiving Tiamat's [Chaos Karma Flames], there was not much else that he could do. After a few seconds, Acnologia's pain filled roars died down as the remainder of the flames burned the pile of rubble.
"Hmph!" Tiamat snorted. "Serves you right for destroying my treasures."
As she mentioned her treasures again, an immense sense of sadness overcame Tiamat. Eventually, she turned away from the wreckage of her old lair and began making her way to another mountain so that she could dig out a new lair.
However, before she could get too far, Tiamat noticed that a shadow fell over her surroundings. Then, when she looked up to see what was casting the shadow, she saw a heavily burned Acnologia descending toward her.
"Damn you and those accursed flames." Acnologia shouted as he slammed his large draconic form into Tiamat's back.
With Acnologia, a larger and heavier dragon, landing on top of her, Tiamat was forced onto the ground. Then, Acnologia once again began raining punches on Tiamat's head. Unfortunately, after thinking that she had killed him, Tiamat's rage had been transformed into sadness over the loss of her treasures. So, she could feel the weight behind every one of Acnologia's punches.
*Roar!*
Tiamat roared in pain as she struggled to free herself from Acnologia. Unfortunately, due to the unfavorable position she found herself in, she could not budge him in the slightest. All she could do was receive the one-sided beating. Over time, Tiamat's struggles lessened as her scales began to break and her blood began to flow from her wounds. Then, when she was barely conscious, Acnologia let up on the punches and raised his right claw.
"Now, it is time for you to die, Chaos Karma Dragon." Acnologia said as a ball of energy began to form in his raised claw. "Let me show you the [Power of the End]."
Once the energy coalesced in his claw, Acnologia made sure that Tiamat could see it as he lowered it toward her head slowly.
"[Inferno Dragon's Tail Whip]!"
*Bang!*
However, before Acnologia could finish the job, he was kicked in the side of his head and knocked off Tiamat's back with James now floating in the spot Acnologia's head previously occupied.
"He didn't fly as far as I thought he would." James said as he watched Acnologia begin standing again. "Only about a hundred feet." (approx. 30 m)
"[He's a pretty strong dragon.]" Ddraig said. "[One that I've never seen before.]"
"How do you not know a dragon that strong?" James asked incredulously.
"Because he wasn't even born until a few centuries after Ddraig died." Irene said looking at the black dragon warily.
"So, then I'm guessing you know who that is?" James asked with a hint of curiosity in his tone. "Not that it matters, I was gonna kick his ass for making a disturbance in the Familiar Forest anyway. I mean, what would the devils do in the future if that guy had destroyed the forest?"
"I don't think that will be as easy as you think." Irene said. "That's Acnologia, the Apocalypse Dragon."
"The one who attacked Asgard?" James asked. Then, before continuing he shrugged. "They got their asses kicked by a real ugly son of a bitch."
At the same time, Acnologia stood up once again and looked at James with hostility and exuding a massive amount of killing intent.
"It looks like I pissed him off." James said with a smirk on his face.
"[You'd be pissed off too if someone drop kicked you in the side of your head with flaming shoes.]" Ddraig retorted.
"Indeed." James replied with a nod. "But it doesn't look like I did any damage."
"[Of course, you didn't.]" Ddraig scoffed. "[He's only slightly weaker than me at my peak, at the first half of God King-rank or the middle of Heavenly Dragon Class. Whichever you prefer.]"
"I guess that means I need to go all out, huh?" James asked with a battle hungry grin on his face.
"No, what you need to do is help me get Tiamat so we can get out of here." Irene said in exasperation.
"I, who am about to awaken..." James began his [Tyrant Dragon Domination Drive] chant without paying attention to Irene.
"Damn it!" Irene said forcefully.
A moment later, James appeared with dragon scale-shaped markings on his forehead, and wearing his form fitting black, sleeveless Shihakusho with silver and red accents, and a white sleeveless hoari with the word "Alaverus" stitched into the back. At the same time, Acnologia fired another breath attack at James, Irene, and Tiamat, who had lost consciousness right after she was freed from Acnologia.
"Get her out of here." James ordered. Then, he sucked in a deep breath of air. "[Inferno Dragon's Roar]."
James sent out his own breath attack to counter Acnologia's. At the same time, Irene landed on the ground next to Tiamat's unconscious form, materializing her staff on the way down. Then, she slammed the end of her staff on the ground and invoked her own magic.
"[Universe one]." Irene said, teleporting herself and Tiamat close to the rest of the group so that Shuna could start healing Tiamat's wounds.
The next instant, Irene and Tiamat appeared next to the rest of the group with Tiamat crushing a number of Trees underneath her.
"Irene, where is James?" flora asked with concern.
"He defended against Acnologia's breath attack so that I could escape with Tiamat." Irene said in a frustrated tone. "Not that it would have made a difference, he was hell bent on fighting Acnologia once he saw his attack get shrugged off as if nothing happened."
"Yeah, that sounds like James." Moka said with a shrug. "As long as it won't endanger us, he'll revel in the chance to fight someone so strong."
"This time it's no ordinary opponent, though." Irene said with a frown. "Acnologia was the one attacking Tiamat."
"The dragon who attacked Asgard?" Scathach asked, interest clear in her tone. "I do not believe I have ever seen this dragon. Perhaps, I will see if my disciple needs any help with this unknown foe."
A moment later, Scathach shot off in the direction where James was fighting with Acnologia.
"They really are master and disciple, huh?" Mizore said with a small smile on her face.
"Why didn't any of you try to stop her?" Irene asked in exasperation.
"Did she give us the time to?" Cu Chulainn asked.
"More importantly..." Dante said. "Do you think any of us could have stopped that crazy woman?"
*Bang!*
The instant after Dante finished speaking, he was hit in the head with a rock that caused him to fall to the ground.
"Damn, that really hurt." Dante said while rubbing his head. Then, he looked at Irene and continued speaking. "See what I mean?"
Meanwhile, Shuna approached Tiamat with Katsuyu in her hands. Then, when she was close enough, she flew into the air and placed katsuyu on one of Tiamat's open wounds. She then channeled her [Healing Senjutsu] through katsuyu, increasing the potency of her healing by a factor of three.
"Okay, Katsuyu." Shuna said as she continued to heal Tiamat. "Let's take it slow, since this is our first time working together. When we get back home, we'll find out exactly what the two of us can do together."
Like that, the rest of the group talked about James' battle and waited for him to return triumphantly.