Dragon flew down to the werewolf. His hands glowed yellow, transforming into large, scaly golden claws with red nails. He slashed at Fenrir but Fenrir dodged the attack swiftly. Dragon landed on the ground and lunged at the devil. The werewolf kept on avoiding every single attack with ease, seemingly unfazed. Dragon then slammed his claw to the ground, creating a large monolith that hit Fenrir in the chin, so hard that the wolf was sent flying to the air!

"I got you!" he yelled at the devil victoriously.

Fenrir had his own tricks however. Using his abilities, he created jawed vines from some of his shadow wolves. The shadowy tentacles crawled towards Dragon, attempting to bite and tear him to pieces. The winged spirit managed to dodge them by flying. The shadow vines rose from the ground and chased the rainbow beast through the air. Meanwhile, the wolf devil safely landed on a nearby bolder as he continued to attack Dragon with his shadows.

Dragon soared through the sky, dodging the vines that were trying to bite him. Dragon found  that escaping them was quite challenging as they followed his every move in the air. He grew tired of dodging the shadows and resorted to countering them. He created as many fireballs as he could and rapidly launched them at the tentacles. Dragon managed to destroy all of the vines. However, before getting burnt, one of the snapping vines managed to bite his left wing, causing it to bleed.

"Gyahh!" Dragon yelled in pain. He started to fall, but luckily, was able to glide safely to the earth. The spirit sighed in relief while he held his injured wing, trying to heal it. 

'Good thing Longinus taught me how to glide those years ago.' he thought. But now was not the time for nostalgic moments. His friends needed him. Drum needed him.

As he was about to run towards his friends to help them, he suddenly felt something cold on his ankles, then his wrists. He looked down at his hands and feet.

They were shackled with chains. Shadow chains.

At this realization, Dragon struggled to break free. As he struggled, he saw Fenrir on the boulder with a smug look plastered to his face, amused by the winged spirit's efforts. The werewolf then leaped from the bolder and walked towards Dragon. At this, Dragon's body stiffened in defense.

Fenrir stopped when he got close enough to Dragon. He began to speak.

"So, those humans," he said. "You said one of them is your master, correct?"

Dragon glared at the wolf. "Why do you even care? Humans have nothing to do with creatures like you! Why can't you ask why I was with one of the Valkyries instead?"

Fenrir laughed at this. "Oh, have forgotten who your father was? Everyone knew him and his wife, the very one who revealed your existence to us! Not to mention that you were raised by one of Aether's most powerful dragons! Of course you would be close with one of Lady Eir's sisters! It is because of what your father did that every spirit knows who you are!"

"Don't speak of my father in front of me." Dragon growled, anger growing inside with every mention of the figure he knew as his father. Fenrir only smiled at this.

The devil continued. "Now let us get back to the original question. Which one of those children do you serve? The quicker you speak, the less painful his and your deaths will be."

Dragon refused with a single, low, "Never."

"Then watch as I gleefully peel those children's ski-" before Fenrir could  finish telling his twisted plans to Dragon, the devil was hit by a great force.

◀️◀️🔶▶️▶️

Valkyrie and Achilles were tirelessly trying to fend off Fenrir's dark wolves. The beasts attacked them from every side like mosquitoes  trying to bite their target. In the end however, the mosquitoes always get squished and in this case, the wolves were slashed in half before disappearing like mist. However, no matter how much they sliced and diced, the army of shadow wolves kept on growing and attacking.

The blue and red duo of spirits grew frustrated at this but their will to protect their bladers were like stars that never die. They screamed their battle cries, furiously swinging their weapons at the black hounds. But truth be told, they didn't have fight any longer.

Suddenly, a loud "CRASH" resonated through the surrounding area, followed by the violent shaking of the trees and, unexpectedly, the wolves mysteriously vanishing without a command from Fenrir.

"What the- where did they go?" Valkyrie questioned.

"Beats me." Achilles replied. "Last time I checked, I didn't hear that guy shouting at his little dogs. Also,where did that loud sound come from?"

"It must be Dragon. I'll go check on him while you stay here with the boys. Fenrir couldn't have left in such an instant." Valkyrie instructed.

Achilles nodded in response. With this, Valkyrie walked into the forest to search for her draconic friend. As Valkyrie further and further away from the red spirit's view, Achilles turned around to see the five boys huddled in his golden barrier, with Drum still unconscious. He kept a very close guard on them.

◀️◀️🔶▶️▶️

Valkyrie ran with speed into the forest, worried about the fate of Drum's partner. It didn't really took her long to find him.

"Dragon! What happened?! Are you ok-" when she found him however, the scene was not what she expected.

Dragon was breathing heavily, as if he had released all of his anger. Valkyrie noticed that he had spawned his large tail, his giant claws were still there and one of his wings was wounded, something she didn't really worried about since spirits heal faster than humans. Opposite to the winged spirit, Fenrir was slumped onto a tree motionless. But the tree was demolished, snapped in half. The female came to the conclusion that Dragon had attacked Fenrir using his tail with absolute might, resulting in the scene that was before her right now.

"Oh, Valkyrie," Dragon said while smiling softly, finally noticing the blue spirit's presence.

"I'm guessing that you did this all, right?" Valkyrie asked.

"Yeah, he...taunted me a bit about my father so...I got a little angry." Dragon replied.

"Don't worry. I understand. You don't like it when spirits talk about him." 

"Say, you guys were going to The Heart, right? We did agree to meet there." 

"Yeah, but that wolf devil attacked us out of the blue."

"Huh. That's weird. Devils usually roam at night to cause trouble. Wonder why he'd show up at a time like this?" 

"Well, when he appeared to us, Fenrir said he was sent to kill our bladers by his mistress."

"Mistress? It can't be his blader, right? Because I didn't really see a bey mark on him during our fight."

"No devil would want to listen to their blader, Dragon. They would want it to be the opposite. "

"If that's the case, he must be some higher devil's lackey. Whoever his mistress is, I think she's targeting humans so that us bey spirits can't be reborn again. With us out of the way, it would make it easier for her or them to take control of Aether and possibly humanity too."

At this theory made by Dragon, Valkyrie felt uneasy. "If that's really possible, then we're facing something dire. We need to inform-"

"Hehehe.." a sudden laughter rang out.

Startled, Valkyrie and Dragon turned to the voice. It was Fenrir.

"Planning to inform His Majesty?" he asked tauntingly.

Valkyrie summoned her sword and pointed it to Fenrir's neck. "So, I guess that confirms what Dragon said was true."

The devil chuckled darkly. "Our mistress has even bigger plans in store for this kingdom."

"What are those plans? Speak up this instant!" Valkyrie demanded

"Unfortunately for you, listening to them...

...is worth dying for."

Suddenly, a dark aura surrounded Fenrir, who was laughing maniacally. Valkyrie and Dragon put themselves into a battle stance. The shadows engulfed the devil and began growing in size.

◀️◀️🔶▶️▶️

"He's not awake yet?" Achilles asked the boys within his barrier. It had almost been an hour since they encountered Fenrir. He was waiting for Valkyrie and Dragon to emerge from the forest, hoping that they had defeated the devil. On top of that, Drum Koryu wasn't awake yet after being exposed to Fenrir's dark aura, which was very worrying.

"Not yet." Valt Aoi replied, holding the still unconscious blonde boy in his hands. "He's still breathing though. He can wake up anytime now."

"I'm not too sure about that. Fenrir's still around, which means his aura is still lingering so, he might wake up when we defeat that devil fir-" before Achilles can explain further, a strong rumbling vibrated through the ground.

The bladers and Achilles quickly turned to the forest that Valkyrie and Dragon were in. What they saw was a large mass of darkness emerging out of the trees that was growing bigger and bigger. Out of the trees, they saw Valkyrie sprinting towards them but there was no signs of the winged spirit.

"Hey, Valkyrie! What the hell is going on?! Where's Dragon?!" Achilles yelled and questioned the female. 

When Valkyrie reached them, she didn't have anytime to explain as a loud, demonic howling can be heard. When they found the source of the noises, they were met with a terrifying sight.

A massive wolf that was as tall as a five-story building towered over the surrounding area, barring it's sharp, jagged teeth. Its fur was as black as a moonless night and its eyes were burning with a fiery orange.

"Where did that wolf came from?!" Hyuga asked in shock.

"That's Fenrir. He transformed into that thing. Me and Dragon tried to escape but...he was dragged away by the shadows." Valkyrie explained.

"I-I don't know if my eyes are playing tricks on me or not," Hikaru suddenly spoke, a little shaken at the sight of the beast. "But...is that Dragon? In his mouth?" He pointed at the wolf so that his companions could get a closer look.

The group's eyes focused on the beast's mouth. There, they saw Dragon in between the wolf's enormous jaw, his claws and feet desperately trying to push it apart.

"I'M GOING TO CRUSH YOU!" The hellish wolf bellowed. 

"N-No...I'm going to protect...Drum.." Dragon uttered in his struggle.

"And how long do you think you can keep up?" Fenrir taunted. "All you are doing is wasting all of your energy! After I completely drain you of energy, I can easily crush you! It will take forever for you to regenerate your body and by the time you recover, your friends and this pathetic kingdom will be GONE!!!"

Fenrir proceeded to erupt into deranged laughter as he clamped his jaw  down harder on Dragon, who was starting to lose his strength. The blue and red spirits were about to go help their friend, if it weren't for the black barrier that suddenly appeared in front of them.

"Sorry, but I intend on destroying you all one by one." Fenrir said, laughing like a maniac as he reveled in the helplessness of the group.

 Valkyrie and Achilles were not able to break the shadow barrier while Dragon was growing weaker and weaker by the second. It seemed like the bladers' trip to their partners' world would be cut short gruesomely.

Suddenly, the boys heard a groan and Valt sensed some movement in his hands. Everyone turned to the groaning sound.

Drum had woken up.

"DRUM!" The boys exclaimed, relieved that their friend had finally gained consciousness after a long time.

"G-Guys? What's going on?" The dragon blader asked hazily as he slowly lifted himself up. "Is-is that a giant wolf?"

"Long story short, we got attacked by a werewolf demon that can control shadows. Then, Dragon came to the rescue and we thought the werewolf was gone but then he turned into a massive shadow wolf who is currently trying to eat Dragon." Aiga attempted to summarize.

"Wait, DRAGON'S HERE?!" Drum exclaimed, now fully conscious. "WHERE IS HE?!"

The blonde boy eyed the black beast frantically until he saw his partner in its jaws.

"DRAGON!!!" Drum yelled, calling out to his bey spirit.

Between Fenrir's jaws, Dragon was using what strength he had left to escape. The wolf was right. He was losing a lot of energy. His claws and feet were about to give up. That is until...

"DRAGON!!!" he heard. The winged spirit turned around. To his surprise, his master, Drum Koryu had woken up. Dragon couldn't help but smile at the sight of the boy.

"DRUM!!!" He called back but then the weight of the jaws suddenly increased.

"I see that the blonde boy is awake." Fenrir spoke. "But what can he do to help you? He's nothing but a powerless brat!"

"THAT'S WHERE YOU'RE WRONG!!!" Drum yelled from the ground. "DRAGON HAS BEATEN THE STRONGEST OPPONENTS AND IT'S ALL THANKS TO OUR BOND!!!"

Suddenly, Drum was surrounded by a bright blue and yellow aura. The blue highlights on his blonde hair began to glow and flare up, resembling the horns of a dragon.

"D-Drum?" Valt and the other boys were in awe at this. 

"They're resonating!" Valkyrie suddenly said. "Look at Dragon!" She pointed at Dragon who was also glowing.

"WH-WHAT IS THIS?!!" Fenrir was in disbelief as he felt his jaws opening wide.

"What Drum said was right!" Dragon said to the evil spirit, his energy now replenished through resonance. He was surrounded by a burning blue aura. "He's no ordinary person. He and I have a connection that is the root our strength!"

Dragon's claws began to glow with bright colours. Fenrir felt his jaw beginning to be pushed back wider and wider. The devil tried to close his jaw completely in an attempt to crush the winged spirit but to no avail. Dragon then pulled his right arm away while his other arm held the wolves upper jaw. His right claw glowed and the nails started to grow big and sharp.

"TEMPEST BREAK!!!" He plunged his claw into Fenrir's mouth, tearing it apart and causing a massive explosion of rainbow flames that burned away the devils monstrous form. Fenrir's roared in agony as he disintegrated until he completely disappeared. The heavy aura that came from him slowly faded away, easing the bladers and bey spirits.

Dragon, now free from Fenrir's grasp, flew down to his fellow spirits and bladers who were waiting for him below. When he reached the earth...

"DRAGON!" Drum lunged at his partner and hugged him as if the spirit was his long lost brother. The boy hugged the spirit so hard that they both fell to the ground. Realising this, the blader and bey can't help but laugh at their own mishap.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Drum." Dragon said. "Though, I wished we could've met a little bit properly."

"At least we're still alive, right? Plus, I got to see you use Tempest Break! That was seriously awesome!" Drum said excitedly with sparkles in his eyes.

"Oi! Have you forgotten about us?!" The duo heard the voice of Achilles. They turned and saw the red spirit along with Valkyrie, Valt, Aiga and the Asahi brothers.

"I'm glad that we managed to get out of that situation." Valt said in relief. "This journey would've been our last if you hadn't woken up, Drum." At this, Drum simply smiled.

"Come on, guys!" The voice of Hyuga suddenly said. "We're getting close to that castle! Let's go before it turns to night time!"

"He's right." Dragon said, now standing up. "Let's go to The Heart!" Everyone nodded at this.

However, before they could walk to the centre of Aether, they saw two figures standing on the path that they were about to take. Both appeared to be males with built bodies covered in glistening armour of gold and silver adorned with multicoloured gems. Their faces were covered by metal helmets and both were carrying a spear in their right  hand.

They stood their silently before one of them spoke,

"So, what has happened here?"