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It was supposed to be a simple journey. They were Dragons. They were the ones who stood at the summit of power. Even if their true strength was impaired, they were still a force to be reckoned with. However, Aedan and Olivia could not have foreseen such an outcome from a furtive individual.

What was supposed to be a breeze trip had evolved into a major upheaval of events. Never could they ever guess Marduk would reach this level of desperation, to send his lieutenant to oversee all those who were leaving Sephrodia Valley from high up in the sky. When they realised such an individual was guarding the sky, it was already too late by then. They were already discovered. Though they weren’t the ones Marduk was looking for, he sure wouldn’t let a pair of Dragons escape as they were powerhouses. Most important of all, Aedan still had Erin’s Mana trace on him due to the coitus they had last night.

“God fucking damn it!” Aedan cursed under his breath and leaned himself against a wall under the cover of rocks that formed a tall and slightly curved cliff that was the edge of a hill range.

“Just who was that, milord?” asked Olivia, who was leaning against a boulder while clutching her ribs and breathing heavily with a pained expression.

“Varus,” Aedan muttered grimly. “A goddamn Seraphim. Marduk’s lieutenant.”He’s over level eighty, last I heard.”

“That’s not good, m-milord…”

“Are you alright, Olivia?”

“I’ll live, milord,” she answered with strained breaths.

“Can you move?”

“Don’t worry about me, milord. Even if I can, I’ll just slow you down.”

Aedan frowned and grimaced. He grabbed her by the arm and drew her face close to his. “I am not leaving you behind, Olivia. Don’t you ever bring that notion up ever again, do you understand?”

She smiled weakly. “I understand, milord…” She then tittered. “You really have changed…”

“Time changes all, Olivia,” he said and laid her back against the boulder.

“But it wasn’t time that changed you. It was her, wasn’t it?”

“Really, Olivia? You want to talk about that now when we’re being hunted by a bloodthirsty Seraphim?”

“Just trying to alleviate the air, milord.”

“Well, don’t. Save your breath.”

A strong gust of wind blew past them, stirring the dead leaves on the ground and rustling the bushes.

“Are we exposed?” Olivia asked.

“Not yet.” They were currently camouflaging their Mana with the natural Mana flowing in the air but that was only effective beyond a certain range. For a high-level individual like Varus, he could easily sniff them out once he got close enough to them. “Come on, let’s move,” Aedan said and held out an arm to Olivia.

She shook her head. “I’ll manage by myself. Milord, you should focus on scouting.”

“Alright, then. Just.. try not to fall.”

“I won’t, milord.”

Right as she said that, another strong gust of wind blew past them as she was pushing herself off the boulder. In her already feeble state, the gust was strong enough to blow away her bearings and she fell into the small puddle of dead leaves, shed from the surrounding trees.

“Sorry, milord,” Oliva uttered.

Aedan offered no verbal response and simply kicked Oliva to the side, just as Varus came streaking through the dense foliage like an arrow. Clenching his fist tight, he backhanded the Seraphim to the trees before they collided. The air rippled from that blow and Varus went tumbling and ploughing through the trees and ground.

“Stay down, Olivia,” Aedan warned without throwing her a glance.

“But Milord, I can—”

“Stay down. That’s an order,” he steeled his voice at her and strode towards the angel wannabe.

Blades of gleaming silver flew towards Aedan in a volley but Aedan fended all those projectiles off by stomping his foot hard to the ground and letting the shockwave do the rest.

Silver streaks of light rained down on him from above. Aedan dove forward and avoided being shredded but trees and bushes weren’t so fortunate. The moment he rolled to his feet, he was greeted by a gleaming grey wing. He dodged low and the straightened feathers sliced through the air. A kick followed. Aedan crossed his arms in front of his face but the force behind the kick launched him off his feet. He flipped in the air and landed on his hands and feet without tumbling or staggering.

His winged assailant did not wait for him to fully recover his stance. Emerging from the trees, Varus came down on him with a spinning slash of his wings. Aedan tossed him backwards but that was not enough. He withdrew a stave from his subspace storage and stuck the metal pole into the whirling vortex that was Varus.

Not much to his surprise, the stave was sliced into half without much difficulty but it did its job of stopping Varus’ spin. The Seraphim brought his left wing close to his eyes and assessed the bruise. He couldn’t believe he was hurt, something that hadn’t occurred for a long time. “What manner of metal is that?” he asked.

“Mithrill alloy,” Aedan answered and threw the severed halves of the stave at Varus.

The Seraphim dodged the staves instead of blocking and he was glad he did. He didn’t see how far the staves travelled but judging from the sounds, they went far and they went through multiple trees. He feared not even his wings could block the throw.

Another projectile came at Varus and it was a stone this time. But as it was thrown by Aedan, even a stone should not be underestimated. Varus veered away from the stone streaking past him, nearly grazing his neck. Aedan was upon him when he regained his focus. He blocked a haymaker from Aedan with his wings and he felt the bones of his wings cracking. However, Aedan’s punch was not enough to break through his defence.

With a cry of defiance and indignation, Varus pushed Aedan back as he spread out his wings and pushed him further back as he beat his wings. The raging gust sent Aedan tumbling but he didn’t tumble far before he found his bearings and held his ground.

“Now this is a surprise,” mused Varus, as he stretched his shoulders and wings. The bruise on his left wing had already faded and his cracked bones were already mended. “And here I thought Rex and I were the only high-level individuals in this kingdom. Adding to that, you have a Dragon for a companion. Just who are you?”

“First name, Piss. Last name, Off.” retorted Aedan as he straightened his posture and patted his garments of dirt and dust.

Varus cackled. “What a fun personality you have. The boss will be pleased to have you and your companion under his employment. I will be glad too to have someone interesting like you as my colleague. You will be well-paid and there are a lot of other benefits.”

“You can tell Marduk to go fuck himself,”

Varus frowned slightly before letting out a sigh. “If you know his name… then I assume you know about the Covenant and who I am.”

“Aye, I know who you are. Varus, the exile of Silverlock of the Skylands. Cast out by your very own family for your violent and psychopathic tendencies. You killed your cousins in a duel for a girl’s hand. You massacre the envoys of the Augurs because they arranged a marriage with the girl you were pursuing. It’s a wonder that they didn’t just outright execute you.”

Varus tutted. “Because they need me. My banishment is just a farce to placate those old coots’ dissatisfaction with me. When they are gone, I will return to the Skylands with an army of my own.”

“Marduk’s army, you mean.”

“You lot have been giving him more credit than he deserves. Marduk is nothing without me or Rex. He’s a sheep commandeering wolves because the wolves themselves found it amusing.”

“I can see why you work for him now. You are just like him. He hasn’t changed a bit.”

Varus raised an eyebrow. “You know him?”

“I do.” Aedan drew a sword out of his subspace storage. “I know him better than anyone else. Well, I knew him , to be precise.”

“You’re truly going to fight me?” Varus scoffed. “You’re strong but I can tell you’re ill and enfeebled. You can’t win.” Varus flourished his wings. The surroundings trembled from the aura he unleashed.

“I have no intention to,” Aedan said and tossed his sword at Varus like a javelin.

Varus was about to swat the sword away when Aedan teleported to the sword with it already being in his grip. He dodged low, avoiding Varus’ wing slash. He retaliated with an uppercut but the Seraphim slid back by only a few inches and lunged back with a thrust of his wings. Aedan pivoted on his toes, evading the wings, and swung his sword into Varus’ neck.

A clangour of steel echoed as Aedan’s blade clashed into an ethereal shield, Arcane Aegis, right before the sharp edge could carve into Varus’ flesh.

Varus snickered. “Thank the Divines you were debilitated. If you weren’t, I would have been dead,” he said and whirled around with his wings straightened.

Aedan quickly tossed the sword behind him and teleported to the sword to get himself away from Varus’ deadly counterattack.

“How disappointing,” Varus spat. “I was looking forward to a challenge but… you are holding back too much. Just what is hindering your prowess?”

“Is your nose as big as your wings?”

Varus chuckled. “You love to jest and quip, don’t you?”

“I don’t. It’s a necessity. How else can I keep my sanity in the presence of idiots and cretins?”

Varus’ brows were twitching. “I take back my previous offer. Instead, I’ll be offering you a drawn-out painful death.” He clenched his fists until his knuckles were cracking.

“Death, huh?” Aedan shrugged. “I don’t doubt your ability to bring me suffering, as you are already doing it, but I do sincerely doubt your ability to bring me death.”

“Fancy yourself as some kind of an unkillable immortal?”

“I don’t fancy myself as unkillable. I'm just stating a fact.”

“Allow me to verify that fact by myself,” Varus said and shot toward Aedan.

The grey gleaming wings blurred and flashed across Aedan’s eyes but no faster than his rate of perception. He leaned away from the strike, just enough to not be harmed. He twisted his body and brought his sword around and lunged for the opening. However, the tip of his sword met with a small wall of steel, a buckler that was twice the size of a palm.

“Do you honestly think my wings are all that I have?” Varus jibed. He spared not another second and countered with another whirl of death.

Instead of backing away, Aedan rushed right into the spinning wings.

“What the—”

The Mana-empowered wings shredded through Aedan’s flesh and carved through his bones but not with ease. Aedan’s body itself was steel for skin, flesh, bones, and even blood. As a result, Varus mangled his own wings from the relentless assault he unleashed upon Aedan. The wings were also stuck in his body. More specifically, one wing was stuck around his ribs and the other wing had carved halfway through into his head horizontally. Yet, Aedan was still alive, breathing, and moving. He also smirked.

A small canister appeared in Aedan’s free hand and he pulled the pin on top with his teeth. Once the lid of the canister popped open after the pin was pulled, red fumes gushed out from the canister.

“Grey Spores!” Varus exclaimed as he tried to pry himself away from Aedan but his wings would not budge.

“With finely crushed Crimson Roots as the catalyst,” Aedan added and grazed the blade of his sword against Varus’ mangled wings, producing sparks as the steel grated against the magic protective filament laced on the feathers. The red fumes caught the sparks and grew them into a large blaze in seconds.