"Master!" Yuko yelled, tackling me into the snow. "You're back! Did Master find the prince?"

I shook my head. "No, but we think that we know where he could've gone."

"We?" Yuko asked, blinking.

Rosalba jumped out of a corner of the house and grinned. "Good to see that you're better, Yuko."

Yuko smiled. "Yuko is glad to see the princess too." She turned her eyes back to me. "So, what is Master going to do now?"

I rubbed the back of my neck and sighed. "First thing first, it seems that I'm going to need some help after all."

I followed Yuko inside the small house. Amira was busy stitching some baby shoes while Kohri napped. The doctor and Father were nowhere to be seen.

"Has that man woken up yet?" I questioned.

"The doctor is attending him over there." Yuko pointed at the next room over. I walked into room which lacked a door. Father was fast asleep.

"How long did he spend in the cold?" the doctor questioned, glancing up at me with those lifeless eyes of his.

"About as long as I have."

He narrowed his eyes. "I mean buried in the snow. You came with him so why was he buried? Did you leave this man out in the snow without helping him?"

I crossed my arms and scoffed. "I helped him in the end. Now, I need you to tell me something. Where is the closest coastline?"

The young doctor pinched my face, causing ice to encase my cheeks. "Listen here. I don't take orders. Especially not from someone who cares so little about the life of another."

I slapped his hands away. "That's funny coming from a guy who didn't want to let us in before. You practically did the same to us. You must know how cold it is outside! What changed your mind?"

The doctor sighed. "That child. She asked me to let you in."

So it was because she asked after all.

"It's hard to believe how she can be attached to a guy as heartless as you. Did you cast some sort of spell on her?"

"I'm an angel, not a mage."

The man chuckled. "You refer to yourselves as 'angels' but you're not. You're more akin to demons than anything."

"There certainly are some among us who come off as such." I recalled the king's smile. "I won't pretend that we're all nice and righteous. Our world. At least our clan, has become decadent."

The doctor's cold eyes widened. "Rather blunt of you. What is it that you seek in this frozen land? We only ever get visitors that desire to take something from us. The angels, the mages, the current empire. That's how it has always been."

"I'm looking for a powerful dragon so that I can defend my world," I said, raising my broken shield.

"A dragon? The most powerful dragon in this land is one that you shouldn't mess with."

"Too late."

The doctor slapped his head. "Oh my... You're going to doom us all! That beast nearly destroyed the entire village last time it was awakened!"

So it's lived here for some time now. "How long ago was that?"

"During the time of the conquest of Ryussia by the imperial forces. It was awoken by the parents of our emperor. They're the ones who conquered our region in the name of their son."

"What happened to them?"

"They're said to have died in the encounter. The imperial army didn't even make any attempt to save our town from what followed. They just fled like cowards. Our people had to live in seclusion for the next decade until the beast calmed down and retreated back to its resting place."

"I see," I said. I closed my eyes. Now it was the grandchild who had awakened it. I only hoped that history wouldn't repeat itself. "So the closest coastline?"

*Ryonoko*

Hot water splashed around me as my blades struck the scales on the red dragon's back, but they wouldn't even scratch the ruby red scales, less so through its body.

"Damn," I said, jumping high into the air. I spun my swords around and covered them with white and yellow lightning. I used my wings to propel me straight down at the beast.

The dragon roared as its scales shattered, unleashing a heatwave that would've melting my body if not for the dragon scales covering me. Hot fog began to cover us just like it had back in the mountain.

"Damn, even after teleporting this thing here, it's still strong. If only I had water powers, this would be so much easier!" I yelled. I swung my sword and unleashed a mighty roar of my own, sending the beast stumbling back. "Bow before your future emperor! You foolish dragon!"

Wow, do I sound like Zyuuni or what?

The beast straightened itself and swung its entire body up and down, left and right. Each swing caused the every ground to tremble. Trying to attack it felt like riding a bull. Except that killing a bull would likely be far easier. Not that I would. Killing animals for me was a big no. Except if they tried to kill me or a loved one. And this giant beast for sure wanted to do just that.

I yanked my swords out of the dragon and used my magic to float closer to the remaining glaciers floating across the icy soup called the Sea of Ryussia.

The dragon moved quickly despite having its feet submerged in shallow water. It opened its mouth and let a round of six fireballs. I lowered my swords and jumped unto one of the newly formed islands the beast had raised with its earth powers. The spots where the fire stuck evaporated and the earth rumbled.

When this ends, the land and sea around this place will for sure to look different.

Suddenly the sea started to spin erratically until a giant whirlpool consumed the forming landmasses whole.

What in the world is that?

I glanced around as the seas roared with the ferociousness of a mighty dragon. I raised my swords in front of me. "Something is coming..."

I noticed as the land beast turned around, glaring at the source of the chilling roar.

*Grwaaa* A mighty beast yelled once more from beneath the chaotic waters.

I stepped back from both the land dragon and whatever new beast was beneath the waves.

Suddenly a massive Tsunami struck both the land dragon and me without an ounce of warning. I covered myself in a barrier of light, and pushed against the churning waters as they pulled me back into sea. The sea surrounded me completely as I sunk deep and deeper. That was when I saw a massive shadow resembling a sea serpent. The thing was huge. Bigger than the multi-story high land beast!

I raised my arms into the air, raising myself up to the surface as if riding on top of a bubble. That was when I saw it, a pair of massive dark sapphire eyes, peering back at me.

I was shaken. A long, sapphire tail had struck the barrier and was coiling around it.

"Damn it! Not you!" I screamed.

Why the heck is this thing doing here? It's not supposed to live here! Did someone summon it here from Zionia?

The beast rose its head and torso from the water, revealing a figure riding on its neck. It was a shirtless raven-haired man with what looked like a bull's horns on his forehead. On his back were a pair of small black wings.

Did this guy tame it? Oh heavens, no! Why did this have to happen? I can barely fight off Behemoth!

"So, this is what you found, mighty Leviathan," the man said, petting the beast. He grinned. "The Behemoth and the scion of the angels and dragons."

I narrowed my eyes. The man bared a strong resemblance to the young man with the shield as well as the man who had insulted Amira.

"Who are you?" I yelled, clenching my swords tightly.

The man chuckled. "The name is Reginald. I'm here for that land beast. Though, imagine my surprise upon running into you. I'm sure that the Rulers will be happy to see you."

"Rulers? What rulers? Who are you fighting for? Tell me the traitors' names!"

He flashed me a toothy slasher smile as darkness surrounded him. His smile was just like that of the creator of the five weapons...

"They're not rulers of this world, nor of Xeleria, nor even Zionia. And neither am I."

My eyes widened. "Then... who are you? Or better yet, what are you?"

The man snickered. "I already told you, I'm Reginald. If you mean to ask, what I am, then I shall tell you. I'm one of the Pillars of Destruction. Equivalent to your Seven Angels and these two mighty beasts you see before you." He jumped up as flames flew toward Leviathan.

The mighty sea serpent dodged the fire balls and shot concentrated beams of water at the land beast. The beast of the land roared as watery tendrils grasped its body.

The serpent raised its tail into the air as it continued to dodged fire balls. Reginald landed on top of the thing's head and smiled once more. "You're about to witness a marvelous sight. The gathering of three ancient dimensional beasts!"

I stared at Leviathan's dark sapphire blue eyes. The creature was said to be one the seven demons who rivaled the Seven Angels. The angel who rivaled it was Renata, the female ancestor of the Kasai no Ki.

Behemoth meanwhile made its dwelling in the realm of the dragons. The third beast was the mighty winged lion that made its dwelling high in the heavens of Xeleria.

I closed my eyes and focused all of my energy into my magicae organum. "Come out! My familiar!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. A white three-sided star appeared on the back of the sea serpent. From it emerged my beautiful familiar, a giant black bear. The bear ran up the spine of the demon, setting its sights on the man.

Reginald smiled widely. "So you've chosen your fate. I was hoping that you would join us. Alas, it seems that you foolishly chose the path of the grave! Begone!" He raised a hand up and shot my familiar off of the dragon's back, sending it falling toward the sea.

"Urs!" I yelled, lightning crackling across the still intact barrier. I transformed into my full dragon-angel form; A white beast with a black crest and a pair of mismatched wings. I undid the barrier and flew down toward my familiar. I caught it in my arms and closed my eyes.

"Sorry to have failed you, Ryonoko," my familiar said, coughing.

I shook my head as I landed on the Leviathan's back. "You did your best. Now, rest." My familiar vanished, returning to the realm of dreams where I had summoned it from.

Darn it, that didn't work like I had wanted, and I wasted energy on that summoning too. Seems that I won't be able to flee by teleporting like I had wanted to.

"You're awfully caring for a prince. You're so unlike prince Osamu," Reginald said, snickering. "Though there was one person he did care for during his youth."

"Osamu?" I said, glancing up. "You aren't speaking of King Osamu, aren't you?"

He crossed his arms as his beast continued to fight the land dragon. "So he's king now. My, how time flies. Yes. I speak of your mother's underling."

I narrowed my eyes. "How is it that you aren't aware of Osamu being king, but know of who my parents are?"

He rubbed his chin. "Ah. That's because I don't watch over small fry. That's the job of my children. I on the other hand watch over the top guns. Your parents and uncle. Those three are the ones whom I seek to defeat." More swirls of reddish darkness covered his body. "And soon I shall get what I seek. All three shall be gathering in Kyuu Seishin in Xeleria right now. But first, we must rid ourselves of an obstacle."

I gasped and ran down the beast's spine as it began to thrash around.

Damn it, I have to get out of here and warn everyone! Or at the very least get help in defeating it. No, I don't think those knights my mother sent here will be able to fight off this guy. We need to get help from my parents and uncle... even if they are whom he is after.

*Tetsuya*

"This is where Ryonoko is?" I said. I stared out at the sea as we stepped out of the vehicle. Or at least I tried to. One could barely make out the border between land and sea due to the warm mist enveloping the area.

"You should get as far away as possible," I warned, turning over toward the new princess.

Amira scoffed. "I'll have you know that I can handle myself. Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean that I'm defenseless." She stepped forward and had a pair of wings that glowed like the starry night sky emerge from slits on her back. They weren't draconic wings, instead they were angelic.

"You're an angel?" Yuko said, mouth agape. Like her cousin, she had pressured me to let her come with us. If it weren't for Kohri then they wouldn't have come. He wouldn't have come to help me out if I didn't let those two go. The guy might have had a way of judging people accurately, but that didn't mean that his other verdicts were right either.

"Yes. My father is one," Amira said as she ascended into deeper into the fog.

"Hey!" I yelled, chasing after her.

"Why did you bring her here?" a voice boomed. Ryonoko appeared next to us. Lightning crackled through his twin swords as water rolled down his forehead. His body was like that of a dragon's.

Two mighty roars pierced the otherwise quiet beach as flames shot through the mist and head toward us.

I raised my shield in front of us, shielding the prince and his wife. "How much more strength does this thing have?"

"The people of this region once called it a god," the doctor said as he ascended on top of a feathered white dragon. On top of the dragon's forehead, where the guy stood, was a sky blue jewel with golden scales around its circumference. "Sneg! Ice Ray!"

The doctor's dragon raised its head up as its forehead glowed silver and cold energy gathered around its mouth. A few seconds later a beam of freezing energy struck the raging behemoth below. The once steaming water transformed into a large glacier around the beast's four legs. The beast batted its wings, unleashing a heatwave which evaporated the ice directly into steam.

Kohri and Hyosetsu cooled the air around us as we floated back.

"Let's get out of here," the doctor yelled. "Forget about trying to claim this beast."

I nodded. "Fine. I don't think that I would even be able to control it even if I could capture it."

"Plus we don't need the beast anymore," Rosalba said with a smile. "Hyosetsu and I found something interesting in the mountain. Might be easier to tame."

"Something?" I asked.

The land dragon raised into the air and shot flames in all directions. It's ruby eyes were directed at Rosalba.

"I'll show you later," she said as the doctor's dragon drove down. I felt myself falling to the side but a hand caught me.

"Don't fall! We still need to find out the truth," Rosalba yelled, pulling me up. Her face was slightly red. It seemed as if she wanted to tell me something else but was holding back.

My face flushed as a rush of memories came flashing through my head. From our time training, to our time in our journey to Kuroyuki no San, to our time dancing in the ball. If only things had kept their course, then Rosalba and I would likely be more than cautious allies.

"Y...yeah," I said as I grasped the dragon tightly. "Thanks for saving me."

Rosalba smiled. It wasn't as bright as her old smile, but it was still beautiful in its own way. How odd... that despite everything that had happened, I couldn't abandon the feelings I had developed in the course of a few days. Had it been the same way with her mother and my father?

I was brought back to the present by the sound of steam. Water was boiling around us.

Hyosetsu raised his sword into the air and unleashed a gale of freezing energy. The ice and the dragon's hot breath clashed, causing the clouds overhead to spiral into a funnel shape.

"This isn't good," the doctor said with a sigh. He patted his dragon's forehead, directing it to turn back. "Get on. Ice knight, hold back its attack as much as you can."

Hyosetsu nodded as he started to fly backwards. Odd, he normally wasn't one to follow directions. Guess that even he saw how futile it was to defeat such a monster as the dragon of the land.

The beast however wasn't ready to give up pursuit.

Suddenly a blue sea serpent sprung out from the mist and sent lasers of concentrated water at us. Riding on top of the beast's head was a man who seemed to resemble Serrano and me.

"Who's that?" I asked, mesmerized by the similarities.

"I'll explain things later. Go a little faster!" Ryonoko yelled at the top of his lungs. "A little further and I'll be able to trigger the inter-dimensional gate to take us to the magic realm." He held Amira tightly as the chilly wind intensified and the dragon sped up.

"Are we almost there?" Hyosetsu asked as the land dragon followed closely behind. The land underneath us shot up into the air, forming mountains where there weren't any before.

"Yes!" Ryonoko yelled as he raised a scaly fist into the air. Despite his words, I saw no portal in sight. Was it invisible to all but him?

I glanced back and saw that the sea serpent was still gaining on us.

"Hurry up, Ryonoko," Amira said before jumping out of the dragon's back.

"Amira!" he yelled.

"Told you to hurry up!" she snapped.

Ryonoko turned away from her and held out his hand.

"Dimensional Gate, activate!" the Zionian-Wynaga prince chanted as his wife flew around the Leviathan.

Amira's right leg delivered a kick strong enough to send the leviathan back.

"Woah, Yuko's cousin is strong!" Yuko yelled.

Amira smirked as she landed on the doctor's dragon. "That should buy us enough time."

Suddenly, a blue glow enveloped all of us just like the green light back in Abyssia had. Slowly, we vanished from the realm of dragons.

Bye, Wynaga. Hopefully the next time I visit, it'll be less eventful.

***

"Where are we?" Amira asked as the blinding light cleared away. We found ourselves floating over a roaring crowd.

"Look up there!" someone yelled, pointing up at us.

"Is that a dragon?" one of the two people fighting below asked. It was Princess Koukyuu. She stopped attacking her blue haired opponent and in turn he did the same. Both of them looked at us in amazement with a slight hint of terror.

"Descend now or we will be forced to shoot you out of the sky," yelled a woman. Several black cloaked mages flew up from the stands and surrounded us.

I shook my head. "Not this again."

"We come in peace," the doctor said, glaring at the mages. "We don't plan to get revenge on your kind for what you did to our people all those centuries ago."

The mages summoned identical midnight black wands and focused their prana on the tips. "Your tone says otherwise."

The young man chuckled. "Oh I wouldn't mind fighting. Looking at you, I instantly recognize that you're the clan spoken off in our village's legends. The Kyuu Hyaku."

"Stop!" I yelled. "We don't wish to fight!"

"He speaks the truth. At least most of us don't," Ryonoko spoke up. "I am the nephew of your supreme leader, Magus Maximus Daisuke."

"Then that means that the guy is," the audience shouted, "the future king of the angels and dragons!"

Ryonoko nodded. "That's right."

"Settle down," a familiar voice called out. Flying through the heavens is a yellow-winged Zyuuni.

"Zyuuni!" Ryonoko said with a smile at the sight of his cousin.

Zyuuni stopped in front of us and turned his attention to the mages in cloaks. "Please spare them!"

"Even if he is your cousin he might still be dangerous," one of the cloaked ones said, this one a man.

Zyuuni snickered. "Really? You think that this bear hugger is dangerous?"

"Bear hugger?" Yuko asked.

"Ryonoko's favorite animal. He used to carry a stuffed bear for most of his life," Amira responded, snickering.

So the badass guy who held back the fiery land dragon had an unknown cute side, who knew? Though I knew that he had to be weird somehow.

"Don't call me that!" Ryonoko said, his face bright red.

"Doesn't matter," the woman from before said as she removed her hood. The woman had jade-colored snake-like eyes and long thick hair the color of grass. Looking at her gave me an unsettling sensation. Zyuuni and Ryonoko seemed to have had the same feeling as they both backed away from her.

*Character Section*

Reginald in 'Demon form'- Age: Time immemorial Sex: Male Titles/also known as: Ox/Bull Pillar, King of Abyss, Chosen of the Shadows, Azure One, One with the Secret Eye

Trivia: He isn't actually a demon, his form gets its name from its resemblance to one.

**Solar Note: What do you think will happen now? Will Ryonoko be able to warn his mother about Reginald or will he be detained by the mages?**