《A little bit of Villainy》


 Prologue - part 1 - Even the Gods like to scheme

    Inside the room of an old shabby inn, three men and one woman were seated at a long rectangular table in silence. This silence was only broken when the door of the inn was suddenly thrown open and a figure walked in calmly. Cloak fluttering in the wind and a hood over their head, revealing only cold and calculating red eyes.


    After a moment of silence, the tallest man of the group, a well built, armor wearing middle-aged man with short black hair and golden eyes, stood up, walked towards the cloaked figure and said with a voice filled with irritation, "Chaos drop the act and explain why you called all of us to your domain and why you made your domain look like a shabby inn."


    The cloaked figure simply ignored the man and walked painfully slow towards the head of the table. While walking The figure''s cloak just started to fade away revealing the face of a young woman with red eyes and the black horns decorating her head.


    The woman known as Chaos crossed her arms and with a goofy grin on her face said, "I am quite sure you all are wondering why I called you here, but first War, why don''t you take a seat? Do you not know it''s not polite to make others wait on you?"


    The large man, known as War, just let out a sigh and walked back to his seat while mumbling, "Oh you got to be kidding me."


    The others at the table also let out a small sigh but knew better than to complain about Chaos her antics, because if they did, they knew they would become the next victim of some lame prank.


    Seeing the looks of annoyance on the faces of her guests, she stopped grinning and muttered, "Damn these over serious geezers, no idea how to have a bit of fun, I even went through the trouble of changing the look of my domain to create a fitting atmosphere for our secret meeting."


    She cleared her throat and began talking again," Well, first I would like to thank you all for coming even though I¡¯m sure you all have a busy schedule. I called you here because I would like to ask for all of your help."


    A woman who''s clothing looked like it was made of shadows chuckled, "Oh the great Goddess of Chaos herself asking for others their help? What is the problem? Did our sister Order steal your candy bar?"


    "Wow, Shadow are you able to read minds? Cause that''s actually what happened.", Chaos replied a bit sad.


    The woman, known as Shadow, just looked blankly at Chaos trying to wrap her mind around the nonsense that Chaos just spouted.


    Seeing Shadow''s confusion greatly improved Chaos her mood. The now grinning Chaos continued, "If with candy bar you mean life force then you are right."


    Another member of the group, a scholarly looking old man with a big white beard and glasses, slowly said, "But that would mean that.."


    Before he could finish his sentence Chaos her grin somehow became even bigger and she cheerfully said," Yup, I am dying."


    After this statement, the other members of their little group became silent, each of them trying to deal with this new piece of information. The old man was to first to recollect himself from the shock and said with a small voice, "Is it because of the heroes?"


    Chaos started clapping her hands like a small child and happily replied, "Correct, for guessing the answer you get a kiss from me." Suddenly looking flustered she added, "on the cheek."


    Before the old man could reply the large man, known as War slammed his armored fist onto the table, shattering it before roaring with a voice filled with anger and grief, "Chaos this is no laughing matter, no God has ever died. Please tell me that you are kidding"


    Chaos''s grin immediately died and she answered in a serious tone, "I know and believe me, I''m not planning on being the first, but you have to admit it is kind of fitting that I, the Goddess of Chaos, am the first kick the bucket."


    The woman clad in shadows snarled, "I knew that the plans of those two bitches would screw us up."


    The older man took off his glasses and said with a shaky voice, "I might be the God of Knowledge, but there are some things that even I don''t want to learn, one of them is what happens when a God dies. I am truly sorry Chaos for aiding light and order with their reincarnation plan. I should have known that it would only cause trouble but my curiosity got the better of me."


    The last man, a sickly looking young man with completely black eyes and gray hair, who had been silent up to now said with an unnatural voice, "While I rule over death even I do not want you or any of our siblings to die. Light and Order have gone too far."This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Seeing the other Gods confirm that Chaos, one of his sisters, was dying broke something in War. He slowly stood up and started walking towards Chaos with great effort. When he finally arrived in front of her he fell to his knees and started crying, "Please forgive me, Lil sis, this is my fault. How could I have been so foolish? When Order and Light came to ask for my help in summoning those heroes I thought that it could do no harm and might even be fun to have those heroes participate in some battles. I never predicted this, I never meant you harm. Please, little sis, forgive me. I¡¯m so sorry....


    War kept repeating those last for what felt like an eternity. He only stopped when Chaos gently pulled War in for a hug and whispered, "Why are you crying, Big bro? I know that we don¡¯t have the best of relationships but I know you would never wish any of us harm, you are too much of a softy for that. So stop crying and try to keep up the image of the big bad God of War.


    War cast down his gaze before muttering, ¡°But this is all my fault. It is because of me that you are dying. Why are you so forgiving?¡±


    Chaos just smiled and said, ¡°Because you did not do anything wrong just yet. I am still alive and I have a nefarious plan to save my pretty little ass but I need your help to execute it.¡±


    The last part of her sentence calmed War somewhat down and piqued the interest of all the other gods in the room. After breaking her hug with War up, Chaos saw all the other gods staring at her. She cleared her throat one more time and then said, "I guess you all heard that last part about me having a nefarious plan?¡±.


    The other Gods answered Chaos her question with a simple nod. Chaos then stood back up and continued, ¡°We all know that the reason that I''m fading is that there is not enough Chaos in the world. Because of this, the amount of power and life energy I get is almost nothing and far from enough to survive on. Luckily I have some power reserves from the last great war. These reserves will last me for around a year or two. So what we need to do is create a bit more chaos before my reserves are used up."


    ¡°What do you mean there is not enough Chaos? Last time I checked the mortal world there was still a lot of conflict and strife.¡± , questioned Death.


    ¡°Well¡±, replied Chaos, ¡°In the final battle between the heroes and the demon lord I tried to give the demon lord and extra blessing when he started losing, just like Order and Light had done, but right at that moment they used some strange artifact that temporary severed my connection with the world. Normally this would be no big deal since the actions of the demons would create enough energy to live on, but since almost all demons have been wiped out, I¡¯m in a lot of trouble. This was no doubt planned by our dearest sisters and I have to admit I am impressed with their little scheme.¡±


    Shadow looked at the confident and determined gaze in her sister''s eyes and asked, "You said you wanted our help to create more chaos. How? We can''t interfere except by guiding mortals and none of us except war have any real servants anymore."


    Hearing this War shot and shouted, "I''ll fix it! I will have my servants wipe out a kingdom or two. If I do that you will be saved, right sis?"


    Chaos let out a small chuckle and said, "If it only was that simple Big brother. Order and Light would surely send their servants and self-proclaimed heroes to stop you and even if your servants succeed, all the power and life force would go to you. But no worries I stole, I mean made a plan to save my pretty little ass."


    Chaos heard Death mutter, ¡°Why do you love your ass so much?¡±, but just ignoredhim. She had better things to than to explain why her ass is so amazing to Death.


    Seeing that all the other gods were looking at her she made her eyes glow and said, "Order and Light had some people reincarnate to ''save'' the world and defeat the ¡®evil¡¯ demon race. Those reincarnated people then became the stupid heroes who made parts of this world so disgustingly peaceful. So all I have to do is create my own little cute hero or well villain in this case and have them create a bit of chaos and as long as he is blessed with my power I will be able to survive on the chaos he creates until my connection to the world has been restored"


    Death looked at his sister who at this point was laughing like a maniac and said: "Let me guess you already have a someone in mind?"


    Chaos stopped laughing and chuckled, "Did you all know that those reincarnations already were a group of heroes in their old world?"


    All the other gods in the room expect Knowledge raised their eyebrows at this piece of information. Knowledge raised his voice and started speaking, "Yes, I heard that they were from the world without magic that had run out of resources. Apparently, the heroes fought against the more ''evil'' survivors while saving the weaker and ''good'' survivors."


    "Completely correct Knowledge", Chaos replied, "those heroes were doing a pretty good job of saving their people but in the end, they all died just like the people they tried to protect. All by the hands of a single person, the older brother of Order''s favorite paladin."


    Shadow let out a good hearty laugh before saying, "So let me guess you want our help with letting him reincarnate?"


    "Yup", Chaos replied with a big smile, "but it can''t be a normal reincarnation because I don''t have enough time left to wait for him to grow up."


    Chaos now looked at Death and sweetly said, "And that''s where you come in big bro, I have to corpse of a dragon that I corrupted a few eons ago and with your power, we can bind his soul to the corpse. So what do you say? Want to help me create the first Dracolich?


    Death''s only answer was flashing the biggest grin they ever saw him make.


    <hr>


    Firstly I would like to thank everyone who gave this story a chance.


    Secondly, I would like to mention that English is not my native language. Therefore I would like to ask of all of you that if you see a stupid mistake or if some of my sentences don''t really make sense, please tell me about it so that I can fix it. And finally, to end this little author''s note I would like to explain what a


    And finally, to end this little author''s note I would like to explain what adracolichis to those who might not have heard of it before. A dracolich is basically an undead dragon created by a third party. More about what a dracolich is (in my story at least) will be explained in the next chapter(or the one after that) which should be released tomorrow evening or the morning after that (GMT+1).

 Prologue - part 2 - Liar liar pants on fire

    The only sound that could be heard inside a shabby inn was laughter. While it is completely normal for there to be laughter inside an inn, this laughter was a bit strange. This laughter was not made a bunch of drunk patrons but by a single woman. Inside one could see a red-eyed woman smiling like a maniac, hands raised in the air and you could even see a bit of fire on the woman''s clothes.The other people in the inn just looked at her while shaking their heads.


    "We are lucky that she lost most of her power aren''t we?", asked Death to no one in particular.


    "We are indeed, normally there is a lot more fire", replied knowledge.


    Death just sighed for what felt like the hundredth time this evening and said, "So who is going to try to snap her out of this?"


    "I¡¯ll try", replied War before roaring," "Chaos. Chaos! CHAOS!!!"


    Shadow just sighed, "Amateur, you should know that shouting won''t bring Chaos back to her senses." She takes off the glove on her right hand and chuckles evilly, "The only way to snap her out of her little evil villain acts is with a bit physical pain."


    "Can''t we just wait until she is done with laughing?", asked Knowledge."


    Shadow raises her right hand and says, "Yeah we can. If you want to waste a few days. Also, waking her up this way is way more fun."


    "Sadist", mumbles War angrily.


    Shadow smiles again and a loud slap resounds through the whole inn.Chaos flies backward and crashes her into the wall. The impact visibly cracked the wall and made Chaos lose her consciousness.


    Shadow looks at the limp body of her sister and calmly says, "Oh yeah, I forgot that she lost almost all of her power. No wonder her defenses felt so weak."


    "Oh drop the acts Shadow. We all know you have wanted to beat her up ever since her chosen killed yours 60 years ago.", said Death.


    Before Shadow can reply, they hear that Chaos starting to wake up. A few moments later she opens her eyes and asks, "Why is my face burning, why do I have a headache and why am I on the floor? Did I try to beat War in a drinking competition again?¡±


    Knowledge walks to her and holds out his hand before saying, "No you started laughing after revealing your evil plan and we could not get you to stop, so Shadow slapped you."


    "Oh", replied Chaos before glaring at War, "War you promised me that you would be the one to slap me if I ever did that again! And all of you, why did you let Shadow slap me? You know what she is like!"


    "Oh stop complaining you, big baby.", said Shadow, "I didn''t even slap you that hard."


    "So Chaos I get why you called Death here but why did you also invite me, Shadow and War?", asked Knowledge in an attempt to get the conversation back on track."


    Chaos walked back to her seat while rubbing the back of her head and says, "Ah yes I should start explaining what I need you guys for."


    "Knowledge", said Chaos, "I would like for you to fix my new servant''s soul."


    "Dare I ask why his soul needs fixing?" , asked Knowledge carefully.


    "Well", answered Chaos, "I might have been a bit careless with how I stored his soul. I kind of forgot that a soul without a body always starts to disappear if you don''t keep feeding it energy."


    "This", said Shadow, "is the reason why we don''t allow you to have pets. They always die in the end. It would not even surprise me if that dragon corpse you are keeping died again before you even put the new soul into it."


    Chaos replies, "Don''t over exaggerate, it is a corpse without a soul, how can it die again?"


    ¡°Considering your track record with pets, it would not surprise me that you got a corpse killed again.", said Death.


    "Oh!", replied Chaos with fake tears in her eyes, "Big bro War the others are bullying me. Please tell them that I can take care of a pet."


    War, who is easily manipulated when one of his sisters start crying, scrapes his voice and says, "Guys maybe you should stop bullying Chaos."


    Shadow just looked at War unamused, "Remember that Hydra? Or that King Chimera?"


    "Isn''t it normal that one or two of my pets die of neglect considering how long I have lived?" , said Chaos in her own defense.


    "It is, replied Shadow, "If you had normal pets like cats and dogs, but you had two immortal beings as pets."


    "Don''t call them Immortal, that is false advertising.", puffed Chaos.


    "No", interjected Death, "They are immortal. Well, they can''t die of old age at least and can life purely of the mana in the air."


    "Then why did Snakey and ChiChi die? You all told me their lifespan ran out.", asked Chaos.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    All the other gods in the room looked at each other with despair in their eyes mumbling things like, "Did we not agree to never tell her? and "Shit, who is going to tell her the truth."


    After a small discussion War, Death and Shadow grabbed Knowledge and threw him towards Chaos before running out of the inn.


    "Well", said Knowledge who was now shaking a bit, "They might have killed themselves."


    "WHAT! WHY!", shouted Chaos,"


    "You held them captive against their will for eons and almost never paid them any attention. I think they just lost the will to live. You could even say that they died of loneliness.", said Knowledge with closed eye, expecting to get hit at least once.


    He heard Chaos walking around and a few moments after that he heard a thud. And another one, and another one. The sound just kept repeating and after a minute he finally mustered enough courage to open his eyes. When he opened his eyes he was perplexed with what he saw, namely Chaos banging her head against the wall.


    "Chaos........?, Chaos.............?", he carefully said.


    "I am a horrible pet owner, I should just disappear. Light and Chaos were right." mumbled Chaos with a vacant expression .


    Knowledge walked towards the door of the inn and opened it. Outside he saw a vast nothingness and the three other gods just standing outside.


    When he walked or actually hovered over to them War ran towards him, arms open wide and started hugging him while shouting, "Brother you are alive!"


    "How did it go", asked Death.


    "Best if you just follow me", replied Knowledge.


    Back inside the three other gods saw Chaos banging her head against the now visibly cracked wall while mumbling about how she should just accept the punishment from Light and Order."


    After staring for a few moments Death said, ¡°I think we broke her."


    Dearest sister, "said Shadow like she was walking on eggshells, "don''t let it get to you. Show us that you can take care of a pet by taking care of this Dracolich that you are going to create. But before you can show us how responsible you can be you need to tell us what our roles are in your evil master plan."


    The mentioning of her evil master plan brought a small smirk to chaos her face.


    "It is working", mumbled Death in a barely audible voice, "Quick talk more about her plan."


    "Yes big sis, you still need to show Light and Order who the top dog is", said War, earning him a slap from Shadow.


    "What was that for?" complained War.


    "Don''t mention dogs you idiot", complained Shadow.


    "Oh, don''t push the blame on me, it is your fault we are in this mess", replied War.


    Their little fight got interrupted when they heard Chaos laughing again, but this time it was one of amusement.


    After a few moments Chaos stops with laughing and says, "Thanks, I really needed that. Now let me start explaining again."


    "Knowledge I need you to fix his soul and it would be nice if you could improve his affinity for arcane magic. War I would like for you to make and bless a weapon and piece of armor for him. Shadow I would like for you to make an artifact which lets him change his appearance and Death I just need to shove this soul in his body. You all understand your roles now?"


    Knowledge just walked towards Chaos and asked, can you give me his soul, I want to get started as soon as possible."


    "Sure", replied Chaos and handed him a glass bottle with a ball of essence clad in a red light in it."


    Knowledge walked towards a corner of the room while mumbling, "Such a stupid way to preserve souls. But still how long did she keep you in here, it looks like eons have passed since she got her hands on you. You really are lucky to have absorbed a lot of chaos energy from this plane or else there would be no saving you."


    Shadow was the second to answer," Yeah got it. I will be leaving now to make the artifact. What do you even need it for?"


    "It is so that he can disguise himself as a human or any of the other races. Cause you know, looking like a dragon makes it easier to start thing like a cult but leaves him unable to infiltrate cities. Also, it makes it harder for the heroes or other self-proclaimed defenders of the realm to find him.", replied Chaos.


    "Makes sense", replied Shadow before opening a portal. "She waved everyone in the room goodbye before walking away."


    After Shadow was gone, War said, "Considering what you just told Shadow, the armor and weapon should be able to change forms?"


    "Yeah", replied Chaos, "I would be kind of stupid and awkward if he could not use his armor and weapon after he changed his appearance with Shadow her artifact."


    "I will need to inspect his soul for a second to see what kind of weapon would fit him. That is no problem, right?", asked War.


    "No problem, you can inspect his soul after Knowledge is done with repairing it.", replied Chaos.


    After a few hours Knowledge walks over to the other three gods who are now chit chatting.


    "I''m done with fixing and improving his soul.", He said before yawning."


    "Already?", questioned Chaos


    "What do you mean already. I used my personal arcane magic to warp time. It actually took me almost a half a year to fix and strengthen it.", replied the drained looking Knowledge.


    "Thanks, Knowledge", said Chaos.


    "No problem, but I will going to sleep for a month or so, using that spell always drains me", said Knowledge and before anyone could reply he had opened a portal and walked through it.


    War walked towards the soul and took it in his hands. After a few moments, he gave it back to Chaos and made a portal of his own. Right before he walked through the portal he said, "I will start working on it right away, you can expect it to be finished in two or three months."


    Now only Death and Chaos remain in the room. Chaos looks towards Death and says, "I guess you have a few more questions?"


    "Yeah, why are you doing all of this?", asked Death.


    "Did I not tell you, it is because I''m dying.", replied Chaos grinning.


    "You can fool them Chaos but not me. I know you stored enough power during your whole existence to survive for at least a few thousand years. Your connection with the world would have been restored by then." , said Death.


    "Simple", grinned Chaos, "Because fixing it like this is a lot more fun. Now let''s wake my new servant up, we need to explain quite a bit to him."


    Chaos grabbed the soul, flashed Death a mischievous grin and said, "You know I actually did not expect Shadow to fall for my little lie. Especially considering I warned all of them that I was lying."


    ¡°Is your memory going bad because as far as I remember you did no such thing.¡±, said Death.


    ¡°Oh you are right I said no such thing but I gave them a hint.¡± , replied Chaos.


    ¡°And what would that hint be?¡± , asked Death.


    The smile on Chaos her face became bigger again as she said, ¡°Remember that when I was laughing, my clothes caught fire?¡±


    ¡°I remember but what does that have to do with anything?¡±, asked a visibly confused Death


    ¡°Don¡¯t you know what the kids of mortals like to say when people lie? , asked Chaos.


    "No, I don''t really have the time to concern myself with those kinds of things.", replied Death.


    "They like to say ''Liar liar pants on fire''.¡±, said Chaos happily.


    Death just sighed, he had a feeling that his workload was going to increase quite a bit after Chaos released her newest servant.

 prologue -part 3- Every story needs a evil dragon

    Inside a shabby inn, Death and Chaos were glaring at each other, neither of them willing to back down. Death his gaze was filled with annoyance while chaos her eyes showed a certain amount of playfulness.


    After a few minutes, Chaos raises her voice and said, "Death if I were you I would start feeding energy to his souls so that we can talk with him."


    "And why should I do that? He is your new servant, use your own energy." , replied Death coldly.


    Chaos pouted and said, "But I have almost no energy left. If I feed energy to him I will only be able to survive for a year."


    The man grinned and nonchalantly said, "Too bad sis, acting like that only works on War and besides I know you have more than enough power saved up."


    "If you don''t use your energy to feed his soul then I''m going to tell it to the others that you took advantage of the situation to bully your cute sister." , replied Chaos.


    "I win this time sister", said Death with a cocksure attitude, " If you tell them that then I will tell them that you lied to them."


    Death looked at the now blank face of his sister and was complimenting himself about how he finally managed to beat Chaos in her own little game when he suddenly saw a big grin creep up on her face. Chaos slowly walked over to him and whispered in his ear, "If you do that then I will tell them about your dirty little secret."


    At the mention of his secret, Death face somehow became even paler than it already was and sweat visibly formed on his forehead. He scraped his throat and said, "I have no idea what you are talking about sister."


    Chaos now hugging him from behind whispered with a sinister smile on her face, "Oh, do you want me to say what your secret is?"


    Death slipped out of Chaos her hug and said in an almost shaking voice, "Chaos if you are trying to intimidate me then you should stop wasting time, I have no deep dark secret."


    "Oh I am not trying to intimate you, brother dearest.", said Chaos, " If I wanted to do that I would have worn different clothes I would have worn that golden cross that goes well with my black dress."


    Deaths eyes were darting around the room, looking for a different subject to talk about. After looking around for a bit he saw the kitchen and asked, "Sister do you actually have food inside this inn, I''m getting a bit hungry."


    Chaos just walked towards the kitchen and disappeared for a few minutes. When she came back she was wearing a maid outfit and was carrying a plate with a bit of food on it. Upon seeing her outfit Death almost had a heart attack and nervously asked, "I never thought you to be the type to wear an outfit like that."


    Chaos set the plate in front of Death and said, "Yeah, I normally don''t dress like this but I know someone who does and stole, I mean borrowed the outfit from them. Oh, I just remembered that I forgot to bring you something."


    Death audibly gulped before looking at the plate that Chaos had brought over. He saw a steak, a bit of bread and a little bit of salad on it. He grabbed a knife and a fork that Chaos had also brought him and started eating. Half a minute later Chaos walked back into the room holding a small bottle in her hand and asked, "Do you want some dressing on your salad."


    Death just dropped the tableware he was holding and roared, "Fine you win I will use my energy to ''wake'' him up. Now give me my maid outfit back!"


    Chaos just smiled and with a snap of her finger, she had changed back into the clothes she was previously wearing and was holding the maid outfit in her hands. She then handed the uniform over to Death and said "You know brother you should visit me again when we have more time. I have so many dresses that I want you to try on. Oh, and I would have never guessed that we would have the same sizes.


    Death massaged his temples and said, "Can we stop talking about that subject."


    "What are you talking about?", asked Chaos innocently.


    "You know what I mean!", snarled Death.


    "Oh, you are talking about the fact that you love to cross-dress?", asked Chaos with a Cheshire smile on her face.


    "Yes.", replied Death


    "What is the magic word?", asked Chaos


    "Please?", replied Death with despair in his voice.


    Chaos just let out a small laugh before asking, "Please who?".


    "My favorite sister and role model can we please stop talking about this?"


    "Sure, because you asked so nicely, am I not the most generous sister ever?", asked Chaos playfully.


    "Yes, you are. I''m so lucky to have been given such an amazing sister.", replied an exhausted looking Death.


    Chaos jumped on the table and theatrically shouted, "Ok, now that I showed you who is in charge around here, I order you to wake my new servant up. Oh and brother no worries I won''t tell anyone your little secret. Oh, and if it makes you feel better Order sometimes still wets her bed at night and Light likes to ''ship'' all of her male servants with each other."Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    Death looked at his sister, his expression filled with fear and asked, "How do you know all that?"


    Chaos snapped her fingers and the room was suddenly completely dark. Suddenly two bright red eyes appeared in front of him and he heard Chaos say, "Oh, I know everyone''s deepest secret. How did you think I got Shadow and Knowledge to come here today?".


    Death heard Chaos snap her fingers and the room was suddenly illuminated again allowing him to see his sister standing in front of him with the soul of her newest servant in her hands. She smiled, handed him the soul and said, "Now let''s wake the sleeping beauty up."


    Death grabbed the soul and injected his energy into it making the souls start to glow and change shape. A few minutes later the soul has changed from a red blob of energy into a miniature red human shaped thing without a face or gender. A now panting Death places the soul on the table, walked towards a chair and dropped himself on the chair. Death desperately tried to catch his breath while Chaos walks over towards the soul.


    She puts on a charming smile and whispered, "Hello there can you hear me?"


    The soul looks towards Chaos and said in a quiet voice, "What the fuck is going on?"


    Death suddenly bursts out in laughter and shouted, "You have been ''asleep'' for eons and the first thing you do is cuss. Oh, this is hilarious."


    Chaos straightens herself and with a big smile said, "You must be very confused at this moments let me explain what is going on. As you might remember you died and because you committed such terrible crimes during your lives you will be sent to what you mortals would call hell to be punished for eternity."


    The soul places his hand on his chin and said, "That''s fair I guess. I mean I did some pretty terribly fun things when I was alive. Well, fun for me at least. For my victims, my actions were just plain horrible."


    "Wow, that was boring. I was hoping that you would plead or beg for mercy but I guess such a reaction is to be expected from my newest servant", replied Chaos.


    The soul nodded and replied, "Yeah, to be honest, my reaction was kind of lacking. I mean if I had captured someone and threatened to kill them and that would have been their reaction I would also be kind of disappointed. Can I try again?"


    Chaos simply nodded with an amused grin on her face.


    The soul fell to his knees and begged, "Please don''t send me to hell, I will do anything you want."


    Chaos faked an evil laugh and said, "What could a mortal such as yourself offer the great Goddess of Chaos herself?"


    "I could offer you my eternal servitude.", replied the soul, his voice betraying that he was just playing around.


    Death just groaned, "Oh you got to be kidding me there is someone else who is like Chaos?"


    The soul somehow was able to give the impression that he was grinning even without a face and asked, "So, what is the real reason you called me here and where is here?"


    Chaos simply replied, "You are awfully calm about this."


    The soul shrugged and said, "I learned to go with the flow and besides I''m half sure this is all a strange dream that I am having after setting of that nuke, maybe an after-effect of radiation poisoning?"


    Chaos replied, "Oh this is no dream, let me tell you what happened in the last few eons. After you blew up the city two of the gods of this world snagged the souls of the hero party that you killed and had them reincarnate here. Because of them, I am dying and I need your help to fix this. Oh, and by the way, your sister is obviously also one of the heroes."


    "And why would I help you?" , replied the souls.


    "Simple, because our goals align.", said Chaos.


    The soul asked, "Oh, and what would that goal be?"


    Chaos opened her arms wide and with a big smile said, "To show our sisters who the top dog is."


    The souls started thinking and a few moments later said, "I guess I got nothing to lose, but out of curiosity what would happen if I said no?


    "Well", replied Chaos, "I would set your soul free and you would lose all your memories and be reincarnated as a normal baby."


    The soul managed to look surprised and asked, "What no intimidation? Is this not the point where you say something like, ''Otherwise I will torture you soul for eternity''?"


    "Fair point", replied Chaos as she summoned a bit of fire and shouted, "Serve me or suffer eternal torment!"


    "See, way better. Now I can act like I am forced into doing all the horrible things you are going to ask me to do.", said the soul.


    Chaos looked at the soul and curiously asked, "Why do think that I''m going to make you do evil things?""Simple", said the soul nonchalantly, "You picked me as your servant, of the people on that world who died at that moment, you picked the guy who wiped humanity off the face of the planet."


    "Simple", said the soul nonchalantly, "You picked me as your servant, of the people on that world who died at that moment, you picked the guy who wiped humanity off the face of the planet."


    "An impressive deduction", replied Chaos, "but you there is one thing that is wrong in what you just said. You did not end humanity in your old world."


    The soul just stared at Chaos for a few moments and then said, "What?"


    "Yeah, you came close but there was another city of survivors on another continent.", said Chaos.


    The human shaped soul fell to his knees and muttered, "All that work and I still failed in the end." Suddenly he shot up and shouted, "If I accept your offer you will naturally give me some power right?"


    "Of course, I would make you a Dracolich.", replied Chaos.


    "Ah what?", asked the soul.


    "A Dracolich, a undead dragon. And with the blessings of the other gods who are helping me, you would become be one of the strongest creatures in that world.", said Chaos.


    "And what do you want me to do if I accept your offer.", inquired the soul.


    "You just need to shake the world up, bring some chaos to them.", replied Chaos.


    The soul looked at Chaos and said, "I accept your offer, I will shake things up in that world in your name." After saying that, he started laughing like madmen and shouted, "Prepare yourself, little heroes you might have foiled my plans last time, but this time will be different. Sister, you have not won our little bet just yet!"


    Seeing that her new servant was having his own evil villain moment she walked towards Death and said, "We are done here can you bind his soul to the corps?"


    "Yes, sighed Death knowing that he will come to regret this decision.


    Somewhere inside an underground cavern, a group of kobolds was praying to the corps of a great black and red colored dragon. The largest of the Kobolds, still rather small compared to a human, grabbed a ceremonial axe and beckoned a group of kobolds to him. The group of kobolds walked towards the corpse, dragging two prisoners with them. One of the prisoners, a well build black haired male was only wearing linen pants and the other prisoner, a long haired blond woman was wearing a dark green hunting tunic and matching pants.


    The prisoners arrived next to the axe wielding kobold and were then forced onto their knees. The axe wielding kobold raised his weapon in the air, readying himself to decapitate the male when suddenly a red light filled the room. The kobold dropped his axe and quickly started kneeling. When the other kobolds saw this they followed his example. The two prisoners, baffled by the sudden and strange actions stood back and somehow found themselves looking in the glowing red eyes of a dragon.


    The dragon let out a demonic laugh and said, ¡°Feels good to have a body again.¡±

 Chapter 1 - Size is a liability

    Inside a cave, a large red and black colored dragon was looking at the scene unfolding before him with a mixture of surprise and amusement. He saw a group of small lizard-like creature all kneeling in front of him while two others, who at first glance looked like humans, silently tried to crawl to the door.


    Seeing that he was stuck in this rather strange situation the dragon started planning, "How should I deal with this? From the looks of it, these strange lizards were praying to my corpse and considering that the two humans are trying to escape they most likely were some sort of sacrifice. This can be quite dangerous. If these lizard-like creatures find out that I am just using this corpse and that I''m not a real dragon they might decide to throw themselves at me in some sort of holy lizard crusade to expel the vile beast that is possessing their object of worship and that would be a real pain in the ass."


    The dragon let out a sigh, now that he had thought of the worst case scenario he started thinking up a way to avoid it, "I think the best course of action would be acting like an overbearing but bored dragon. I mean that is how dragons are always depicted right? Yeah, let''s do it like that because that way I can also get away with asking the human simple question by saying that I am merely asking it out of curiosity and if they get suspicious to why I don¡¯t know things like that then I can play it off as having been cursed many years ago and that that curse has just been lifted."


    After waiting until the presumed humans reached the door he said, "My dear guests, leaving so soon?"


    At his words, all the lizard-like people in the room turned their towards the door and he had to use all of his willpower to not burst out in laughter when he saw the faces of the humans go completely white. The male human tried to respond to his question but all that came out was some incoherent babbling while the female just started shaking.


    ¡°Who are you two?¡±, asked the dragon.


    The male human answered, ¡°I¡­.I¡­¡­¡­.i¡¯a¡­¡­..¡±


    Seeing how annoying it was going to be to get some real answers out of them the dragon started contemplating what he would lose and gain if he just disposed of them now. He thought to himself, "If I get rid of them now I will be sure no one knows about my existence and it will help me hold up my cover, but I will lose an somewhat important and easily accessible information source and there is always a small chance that there is a way for their friends to locate them or the place where they died. I guess that for now, it is best that I try to get some basic information out of them and then dispose of them.


    With a deep voice, the dragon declared, "Everyone besides the two who tried to run away need leave the room. Oh, and your leader also stays here."


    The lizard-like creatures immediately obeyed and quickly left the room. Seeing this, the dragon mused, "You know I can get used to this kind of authority, being an actual god must be fun."


    The two humans still stood completely unmoving next to the door. "Mhhh it seems like they need a bit of motivation, let me fix that", thought the dragon happily. He then flashed a smile, revealing his giant fangs, towards the two and said, "You can come closer you know? I won''t bite."


    The female human let out a loud shriek and fell unconscious. Seeing this extreme reaction to just a few words the dragon thought to himself "Are all the humans in this world so weak willed, all I did was grin and say that I was not going to harm them....for now."


    The dragon turned his massive head towards the only lizard-like thing still inside the room and asked, "Tell my where am I and who you are."


    The still kneeling lizard-like thing immediately answered, "Your lordship you are in the Whitepeak Mountain range and I am the tribe leader of this insignificant tribe of kobolds that had made these caves their home after finding what you thought was your Lordship his corpse inside this room."


    "Oh, and why did you that?", the askeddragon."Of course it was to defend your body from filthy looters like those two over there.", he spat out.


    "Little One I have been in a near death state for a long time and now nothing of the changes that happened in the time that I was asleep, so tell me, what are kobolds? They did not yet exist when I was roaming these lands", asked the dragon, now that the other kobolds are out of the room he could always easily kill this chieftain if he became too suspicious.


    The leader replied with a hint of surprise in his voice. "My lordship we are a race that was formerly human but after consuming dragon blood and surviving, we obtained the blessing of the God of Destruction and transformed into what we look like now."


    The male adventurer who finally regained control over his mind and body then said, "Lies, you are simple monster hell-bent on destroying all the civilized races." Only after saying this did the adventurer seem to realize that he was trapped inside a room with what he called a monster and a dragon.


    The dragon let out a hearty laugh and chuckled, "Ah it seems like we have a new member in this conversation. Tell me what do you mean with a monster? That is also a term I have never heard of."


    "No need to rely on a lesser being like him your lordship, I can easily answer such a simple question for you." , shouted the kobold.


    Hearing this the dragon happily thought to himself, ¡°Seems like the excuse of having slept for a long time is working but that kobold thing is getting a bit too cocky maybe I should threaten him a bit so that he does not start asking too many questions."


    "Little one, tell me did I ask you to answer me?", asked the dragon with faked anger in his voice.


    The kobold somehow bowed even deeper and said, "I am sorry my lord, I overstepped my boundaries."


    The dragon let out a sigh and thought, "Seems like threatening worked. I need to keep up the act of dragon that is just toying with lesser life forms while sating his curiosity.¡±


    After a full minute, the human nervously said, "Monsters are what we call the races that were not blessed by one of the five major gods."This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Oh this could be important, let''s see how much I can get out of him", mused the dragon to himself. He then crossed his front paws and rested his head on it before saying, "Tell who are the major gods and what race did they bless?"


    The human looked a bit suspicious at the dragon for not knowing this but decided that his life was a bit more important than his curiosity and said, "Well, there is the Goddess of Light who created the angels, the God of Earth who created the dwarves, the God of Wind who created the Elves and the Goddess of Water who created the nymphs and then most importantly the goddess of Order created the humans..


    "Mhhh, Seems like this human has really lacking information when it comes to the gods. I mean I met the Goddess of Chaos and God of Death personally and yet he did not mention them. Now I really want to find out more about these so called gods. Maybe I should ask Chaos? No, where is the fun in that? Let''s just capture their religious leader and force the answers out of him, he should know the truth about the gods. Yeah that sounds like fun.", contemplated the dragon.


    The dragon who suddenly had a plan said, "Mhhh you still seem a bit shaken, let''s do this, you and your girlfriend over there can rest up while the kobolds will a prepare a feast in honor of my awakening. We will continue our conversation after that. Little One call some guards to bring our newest friend to their quarters and give them back what you took from them."


    Both the human and the Kobold seemed shocked by the orders of the dragon but complied nonetheless. Right before the humans left the room the dragon cheerfully said, "I need not remind you of what is going to happen if you harm a kobold or try to escape?"


    The male adventure quickly nodded and carried his unconscious companion out of the room.


    The dragon turned to the kobold and ordered, "I know that you want to ask me something, so tell me.


    "My lord, I would not dare.", replied the Kobold.


    "That was no question but an order," barked the dragon. Who silently thought that this overlord act was getting boring and annoying.


    "Please excuse my rudeness then. My lord why are you so interested in the lies of the humans and their allies?"


    The dragon let out a small laugh and lied, "Simple curiosity. I have been sleeping for who knows how long. I want to know what is going on in the world and to have a clearer image I need to ask as many people as possible."


    "I understand my lord.", replied the Kobold.


    The dragon asked, "Oh yes why do you call me lord?"


    "Because you look like a true dragon my Lord", replied the Kobold a bit nervously.


    Hearing this the dragon thought to himself, "True dragon? Does this mean that there also are false dragons? Oh, I have so many questions but can''t really ask him anything without making him even more suspicious of me. I can just claim that ''civilized'' races their lore and customs never really interested me but I can''t get away with not even knowing what the difference between dragons is considering that I myself am a dragon."


    After a small silence, the kobold said, "My Lord I have one more question, am I allowed to ask it?"The dragon just nodded and the kobold continued, "My lord what are you? You look like a dragon, but there is this strange red glow seeping through your scales, where your heart is supposed to be and your eyes shine with the same light. Also you scales have strange red marks while everyone knows all dragons have completely black scales and strangest of all is that air of wrongness that you have around yourself. Like your existence itself is unnatural."


    The dragon just nodded and the kobold continued, "My lord what are you? You look like a dragon, but there is this strange red glow seeping through your scales, where your heart is supposed to be and your eyes shine with the same light. Also you scales have strange red marks while everyone knows all dragons have completely black scales and strangest of all is that air of wrongness that you have around yourself. Like your existence itself is unnatural."


    Seeing that the dragon in front of him was still smiling he mustered all his courage and said, "You might look like a dragon but I have been so blessed to have once seen another true dragon and the two of you feel completely different."


    The dragon lied ¡°Simple, Little One what you see are the aftereffect of a curse one of the old servants of the God of Death put on me. The same curse that made me look like a corpse for who knows how long. Tell me, if you were doubting if I was a true dragon or not then why do you still act so obedient towards me?"


    The Kobold let out a deep sigh and said, "Because dragon or not you can easily wipe my whole clan out. So why would I antagonize you?""


    "Well said, but no worries after I have complete regained the strength that the curse robbed me of I will leave this place to find someone to take revenge on. Tell me does the God of Death have an organization serving him in this day and age?", chuckled the dragon.


    "No, my lord.", replied the Kobold.


    The dragon let out a sigh and lied, ¡°Too bad, that means I have no one to take revenge on for placing this curse on me.¡±


    The dragon thought," I need to get away from here as soon as I can. Staying here without knowing anything is just asking for trouble especially now that humans have found this place. Because if two humans can find this place who says an army can¡¯t?"


    The dragon let out another sigh and started planning, "I guess that the best thing for me to is to wait until I have that shape shifting artifact. If I remember correctly Chaos told me that it would be done in a month. Until then I guess I should just ask all the stupid question that I have. The chieftain seems to believe my lies so I can ask him anything concerning the races if I play it well. Too bad that I can¡¯t ask him about magic since asking something about that would instantly make him suspicious of me and I still need this place to hide myself in until Shadow brings me that artifact. Then I can easily leave this cave and travel this world a bit to learn more.¡±


    Seeing that the chieftain was about to leave the room, the dragon raised his voice and asked, "Kobold is this the first time humans have encountered your clan or do they already know you lived here?"


    The kobold simply answered, "This is the first time that someone found this cave in the whole existence of my clan."


    The dragon then asked, "How close is the nearest human-friendly settlement?


    The kobold thought for a bit before saying, "Considering that we are in a cave on top of one of the bigger mountains in the area, I would guess a week at least on foot. Unless they meet someone on their way back."


    The dragon started smiling for a bit and asked, "Do you have a poison that kills their target, preferably a poison that only starts working after a few hours?¡±


    "We don''t have anything like that stored but one of my clansmen can make it in a few hours.", replied the kobold.


    "Perfect", said the dragon, "Order him to make it and afterward mix them in the food and drinks of the humans. Also, give me two doses of antidote for that poison."


    "My lord might I ask why you don''t simply kill them now?", asked the kobold.


    "Simple my little friend, if I kill them here others might track this place down and I would rather not fight in this weakened state. But if we send them out while they are poisoned like this then they will die outside after succumbing to the poison. There, scavengers will surely eat their corpses and people will just think that they died from an animal attack.", replied the dragon.


    The kobold nodded with understanding before asking, ¡°And what do you need the antidote for my lord?¡±


    The dragon let out a sinister chuckle and said, ¡°I need the antidote ready for the small chance that I can use for some of my plans.¡±


    The kobold chief ran out of the room as quickly as he could, while thinking about ways to save his clan from this calamity in the form of a dragon. While the dragon in question was trying to solve one of the biggest problems he faced in his short existence in this world."Mhhhh, how am I supposed to get out of this room?", asked the dragon to an empty room with as only exist a human sized door.


    "Mhhhh, how am I supposed to get out of this room?", asked the dragon to an empty room with as only exist a human sized door.


    The dragon sighed," Size really is a liability."

 Chapter 2 - Confessing your love is harder than facing a dragon

    Jay''s POV


    "Shit, shit shit, shit shit," I shouted as I slammed my now armored hand into the wall. I should most likely be a bit quieter considering that my only companion is lying unconscious on the ground next to me or maybe I should make some more noise and wake her up so that she can enjoy the last few moments of her life before that fucking dragon is going to eat us. I mean does that dragon think that I''m fucking retarded. Claiming he is going to have these lizards make a god damn feast for us, I know that he meant that he is going to have these lizards make a feast out of us.


    After raging for a few more minutes, Lisabeth starts to wake up. She lets out a small yawn and sleepily trying to stand suddenly remembers what happened just an hour ago and screams again.


    All she has been doing for the past few days is screaming and crying and it''s getting on my nerves. How did I even get in this mess, I was a respected mercenary for years and now I''m going to end up as the meal of an oversized lizard.


    Actually, I know exactly how I ended up here. It is all because I have a soft spot for a pretty woman in trouble. It all started when I saved Lisabeth from some thugs who apparently were assassins in disguise sent by her dear cousin who usurped the position of family head of her noble family by killing the previous head, Lisabeth''s father.


    One thing led to another and before I knew it I had fallen head over heels for this girl but the fact that we were getting chased all across the allied territories by her cousin''s henchmen and that Lisabeth is denser than a rock kept her from realizing my feelings for her.


    After getting chased for almost a year we ended up in one of the border territories and decided to take the gamble and try to cross the Silverpeak mountain range. If everything went well we would have been able to start a new life in the free city, a sort of safe haven for all the members of the races of the alliance who had enough of the political games played in our homelands.


    By entering the mountain range we were able to get away from the assassins but in the end got captured by kobolds in one of the most stupid ways that I have ever heard of. After a long day of traveling we were completely exhausted and when we found this cave and since we could not sense a Nightmare, we decided to sleep in there. When we woke up we were captured by the kobolds.


    I mean come on Kobolds, what were they even doing here? Don''t all the kobolds live in the southern part of the continent, in that thing that they call a holy mountain? How could we have expected that?"


    Then after getting captured they brought us to this massive dragon corpse and they planned to use us as a sacrifice for one their rituals and then the fucking corpse starts moving. Normally I would not have accepted my end this easily and would have tried to go down fighting but what am I supposed to do against a dragon? Correction a dragon who''s eyes and heart glow in an ominous red light and like everyone knows don''t fuck with enemies that glow, that never ends well.


    While I was getting distracted by rethinking everything that happened in the past year, Lisabeth was able to collect herself and she asked, "Jay what is going to happen?"


    I sighed, "I have really no idea Lisabeth."


    She cried, "It''s not fair Jay, we worked so hard to escape. We were able to outrun my cousin''s goons for a year."


    I walked over to her and pulled her into a hug, "I know Lisabeth, I know."


    She tightened her hug and whispered, "I sorry Jay, I am so sorry for getting you dragged into this."


    I patted her head and calmly said, "You don''t have to apologize. Even if I knew it would end like this I still would have helped you. This last year was the happiest year of my life."


    After crying for a few minutes Lisabeth raised her head and asked, "Jay how did you get your armor and weapon?"


    I let out a desperate laugh and said, "The dragon gave it back to me after I answered some stupid questions."


    Lisabeth tilted her head and asked, "What kind of questions?"


    After I told her about my little conversation with the dragon, Lisabeth simply started laughing and said, "Jay, you really called the kobold chief a liar and then told the dragon the church their view on the races? The same view them labels both of them as mindless killing machines?"


    I just lowered my head and said, "Yes."


    "You really are a big idiot you know that," She said with a smile.


    "An idiot that is big enough to ruin his stable life to help a lady in trouble.", I said with a smile on my face.


    She smiled a bit sad at me and said, "Thank you for being an idiot Jay."


    I chuckled, "No problem, it''s hard work but someone has to do it right?"


    "So what do we do now?" asked Lisabeth, while she was putting on her leather armor.


    "I guess the dragon wants to see us go down fighting. Why else would he have given us our weapons back, "I said as I banged my right hand on my kite shield.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    Lisabeth tested out the string of her bow and said, "I guess you are right. So are we going to attack the first thing that opens that door or are we going to wait to see what the dragon planned for us?"


    I shook my head and said, "Don''t think that we can escape from a true dragon."


    "But isn''t he stuck in that room?", asked Lisabeth confused.


    "Why would you think that?", I replied.


    "Well the only exit was that door and it is way too small for a dragon.", she answered.


    Lisabeth has got the be joking with me. I mean even she can''t be that stupid right? I carefully said," Lisabeth are you serious?"


    She looks strangely at me and says, "Jay why are you looking at me like that?"


    I let out a groan and say, "Lisabeth that is because he obviously has a secret way to leave or enter that room. There is most likely an exit behind him. I mean what idiot would place a dragon in a room that he can''t exist.


    Somewhere Chaos let out a sneeze and suddenly felt the urge to smite down a few mortals.


    Before Lisabeth could enter an argument with me the door opened up and the kobold chieftain beckoned us to follow him.


    After what felt like ages we arrived in front of the ritual room.


    I turned towards Lisabeth and said, "Lisabeth if this is our end then I would like you to know that I l-"


    Before I could declare my love I heard the dragon shout, "My friends enter the room, did no one teach you that being late is a show of bad manners?"


    Lisabeth opened the door, turned towards me and said, "Oh sorry Jay were you saying something."


    I silently mumbled, "Fucking dragon has to ruin god damn everything." while following Lisabeth into the room.


    The dragon smiled and said, "Oh did I interrupt something?"


    I shook my head but in my mind, I shouted, "That piece of shit knew, he did it on fucking purpose. Why me, what have I ever done to your dragon. First, you capture me and then you interrupt my confession. It took me nine god damn month to muster up the courage to tell her that and you ruined it. Don''t you have anything better to do than to ruin the love lives of us mortals?"


    The dragon just smiled teasingly at me and said, "Ah good to know that I did not interrupt anything of importance. Now that you have finally arrived let the feast begin."


    I place my hand on my sword and see Lisabeth''s hand reach towards her bow. Both of us are ready to fight for our lives. It might be useless to try to kill a true dragon but it''s not my style to just roll over and die. And who knows with a bit of luck, we might be able to take on of his eyes considering that he can''t fly into the air in this cramped cave.


    The door of the room gets flung open and a group of kobolds enters the room. Five of them are carrying a whole roasted ox, four of them a giant urn filled with wine, two of them are each carrying a plate filled to the brim with meat and vegetables and the last kobold is carrying a jug of wine and two cups. The kobold chief guides us towards a table and the other kobolds place the plate and a cup of wine in front of me and Lisabeth before leaving the room.


    The dragon takes a huge bite of the roasted ox and with a full mouth


    said, "Would the two of you be willing to answer a few questions?"


    Lisabeth who is already stuffing her mouth full of food nods.


    "Perfect", chuckles the dragon,"My first question is what can you tell me about the demons?"


    Lisabeth swallowed the food in her mouth and started explaining, "Well the demon race is a race created by the Nightmare of Chaos with a bit of help from the Nightmare of Fire and after the great war from 5 years ago, the demons were completely wiped out by the heroes and soldiers of the alliance."


    The dragon looked confused at me, slowly swallowed the food he was eating and asked, "What do you mean with Nightmare of Chaos? Is she not a Goddess?"


    Before I could give the dragon a vague answer like ''Some consider her one'' Lisabeth said, "The demons and the other races that are considered monsters say so but the higher ups of the alliance claims that she is just a very powerful Nightmare."


    The dragon took a sip from his wine and said, "What is a Nightmare?"


    This time I was able to answer before Lisabeth and said, "A nightmare is a normal person or animal who has been corrupted by negative energy. Almost all Nightmares are completely mindless killing machines."


    The dragon nodded and said, "Claiming that your enemy is nothing but a dangerous animal is given human shape. A smart move if you want to gain more public support."


    "Now a more important question, what can you tell me about the heroes?", asked the dragon.


    Lisabeth also takes a sip of her wine and said, "Well there are five of them and they each are given a weak blessing by the God of War and the God of Knowledge and one strong blessing by gods that they serve. The gods are the same ones that created the races that are part of the alliance. I only know that the hero of Order, Aria is their leader and the hero of wind uses a bow. But to be totally honest I don''t really know a lot about the heroes."


    The dragon nodded his head once more and asked, "Tell me, how did you end up here?"


    After telling him about the last year of our life the dragon just flashed a big grin at us and asked, "Is one of you able to use magic."


    I looked at Lisabeth and tried to tell her to not tell him, but being as dense as always she just nodded happily and said, "Yup I do, my house had a good relationship with some elves and they taught me how to use some wind magic."


    The dragon his grin just winded and he asked, "Tell me do you two want the power to take revenge on your cousin for killing your father? Or maybe revenge on your whole family for allowing it? Oh, maybe you even want to see your entire country burn for allowing this to happen to you?"


    Lisabeth just shook her head and said, "No, not really I just want to build up a life with Jay."


    "Oh, I think I can make that happen. So tell me, are you ready to make a deal with the devil or well dragon in this case?", asked the dragon with a big toothy smile.


    I simply shrugged and said, "It is better than dying."


    Lisabeth just jumped out of her seat and hugged me with her stupidly strong arms. While I was getting thrown around like a ragdoll by Lisabeth I thought to myself, "This is the perfect moment to declare my love. She even said herself that she wanted to build up a life together with me. It is now or never."


    I scraped my throat and then heard the few words that could make even the bravest of men quake in their boots with fear.


    Lisabeth released me, walked towards the dragon and hugged his nose while squealing, "I can''t believe I made a new friend, before meeting you Mr. dragon my only friend was Jay."


    My mind went black and could only reply those last words ''my only friend Jay'' ''my friend Jay'' ''my friend'' ''friend''. I could not believe my ears. I fell to my knees and thought, "I had been friend zoned all this time without even noticing it. I am not allowed to call Lisabeth dense anymore." Even the dragon somehow managed to look sympathetic at me for getting friend zoned, maybe he is not so bad after all.


    The dragon suddenly took out two small vials and said, "Oh before you leave you might want to drink these."


    I walked towards to dragon and asked, "What is inside of it?"


    The dragon shrugged and nonchalantly said, "Nothing big, just the antidote for the poison that I had the kobolds mix in your meal."


    I just let out a deep sigh, drank the antidote and thought, "This is going to be a long week."

 Chapter 3 - More is always better

    Inside a cave, a dragon was humming happily. Why was the dragon humming? Because he was about to learn how to use magic.


    After a few minutes, the door to the room opens and Lisabeth walks in, normally Jay would also have been present for the teaching session but he had fallen into a small depression after learning the shocking truth about his relationship with Lisabeth and is now sleeping in the room next to the dragon.


    She walks towards the dragon with a big grin on her face. The reason for her grin was simple, after this, she could claim to have thought a dragon how to use magic. A feat that no human, as far as she knew, had ever done before.


    She stops in front of the dragon and asks, "So dragon you ready?"


    "I was born ready.", replied the dragon.


    Lisabeth suddenly seems to be lost in thought and after a minute asks, "Dragon what is your name actually? Can''t keep calling you dragon after all."


    At these casual words, the dragon suddenly looked nervous and started fidgeting and thought to himself, "So it has finally come to this. My greatest enemy has appeared again, names."


    The dragon let out a sigh and said, "I had a name but I can''t really use it anymore since if my enemies hear that name they might come to hunt me down. So at the moment I have no name."


    Lisabeth simply shook her head and said, "We can''t just keep calling you dragon. So if you don''t have a name then I will give you one and afterward I will be known as Lisabeth the dragonnamer."


    The dragon lets out a sigh, "Please don''t, I don''t really need a name so just keep calling me Dragon."


    Lisabeth shook her finger and said, "Tut, tut tut, everyone needs a name. Let''s see you look like a.... Oh, I got it maybe a Dex?"


    "Is that a dog name?", replied the dragon.


    "Might be.", shrugged Lisabeth.


    The dragon mused, "She actually is right, I need a name since I can''t use my old one. I mean the heroes might not care for a random villain but they will surely care about the villain that already killed them once and at this point in time I am in no state to face a hero. Let''s see what could I use as a name."


    After a few minutes, Lisabeth was still giving some of the most stupid names and the dragon let out a sigh and thought, "Seems like I only have one option left, let''s steal a name from the mythologies from my old world. I know for certain that the heroes barely know anything about mythologies so as long as I don''t use one of the more well-known names from our mythology like Thor or Zeus and it¡¯s not really a problem if they figure out that I am from the same world as long as they don¡¯t know who I was in our old world.


    The dragon scratches his head and continuous with brainstorming, "Now let''s think about dragons in mythology. Well, you have Shenlong, but hearing that name reminds of a certain fighting show so that is a no go. Then there is also Azi Dahaka, he was a cool dragon, but that name is going to be a real pain in the ass to say every time. Maby Ouroboros? Nah I''m a dragon, not a snake. Tiamat? No, that name just reminds me of a tabletop game and isn''t Tiamat female? Come on there has to be a dragon with an easy name. Of course, I can use his name. How could I forget about the dragon, Fafnir? Yeah, it is going to be Fafnir was he not also originally human and then got turned into a black dragon."


    The dragon, now called Fafnir, cleared his throat and said,"Lisabeth you can call me Fafnir."


    Lisabeth just nodded happily and said, "See isn''t having a name better Faf."


    Fafnir let out a small sigh and said, "Did you just shorten my already short name?"


    Lisabeth shows a sheepish grin and answered, "Well a lot of people always just call me Lis so I wanted to try giving someone a nickname and since I can''t really shorten Jay, I decided to shorten the name of my second best friend."


    The dragon simply chuckled, "You don''t really have high standards for who can be your friends do you?"


    Lisabeth replied, "Nope, but for now, let''s start with the lesson about magic Faf." and with a small voice added, "Giving a friend a nickname, check. Next on my friend list is, getting more friends and giving a friend love advice."


    Fafnir just looked confused at Lisabeth and asked, "Lis, what was that?"


    Lisabeth just looked away and nervously said, "What was what?"


    "That weird checklist.", answered Fafnir.


    After panicking for a few moments Lisabeth answered in a small voice, "My list of things I want to do with friends.¡±


    Fafnir just facepalmed and groaned, "Why do I even count as your friend? Remember I kidnapped you, poisoned you and basically treated you into helping me."


    "Yes, and what is the problem with that? That is how everyone made friends back home, but I was never really good in that so I had no friends.", replied Lisabeth with a sad smile.


    "Yeah, even I know that is not how you are supposed to make friends. Just go ask Jay how to make friends after this teaching session. Oh and just explain like I know of completely nothing of magic.", suggested Fafnir.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Lisabeth nodded, took a deep breath and said, " First, of all, you should know that there are two kinds of magic. Soul magic, more commonly known as arcane magic and racial magic.


    Arcane magic refers to magic that uses one''s soul as a power source. Everyone can learn this type of magic but it requires years of study to master. Arcane magic has a bunch of standardized spells that you can learn and after your mastery in soul magic becomes high enough, you can create a unique magic. The kind of unique magic you create depends on your wishes, goals, and personality.


    The numerous people who learn arcane magic are called mages. The ones who can create a unique spell are called sages. Before I ran away from home there were around two hundred sages alive in the alliance. The reason why there are only two hundred sages is that a lot of mages don''t even try to create a unique spell because creating one requires so much time to make but can end up being completely useless. If I remember correctly there was once a sage who''s unique spell was just cleaning things up. He was happy with the spell but a lot of people saw it as wasted time.


    The second type of magic called racial magic is like the name suggests only useable by members of one race. Every race has one kind of magic that they can use. The only exception to this rule is the human race. Humans don''t have any racial magic but they can learn racial magic from the other races. No one really knows why this is but the most common theory is that the humans are the oldest race and that the other gods used them as a base for their creations.


    While you might think that the humans, therefore, were the strongest, but in reality, they were the weakest. No other race was willing to teach their magic before the heroes arrived and even now, the only humans who know a racial magic are those who have a real good connection with a member of another race. I was able to learn wind magic because my family has a connection with a family of elven nobles.


    Another thing about racial magic is that it is really unfair. Certain races their magic is so stupidly strong compared to the magic of races in the alliance. Take the demons and their fire magic as an example. The demons were outnumbered 30 to 1 but thanks to their fire magic they were able to fight back for a whole year before going extinct. There exists another race who can use fire magic but their fire magic is less destructive and a lot weaker than the demons their fire magic.


    Another stupidly strong magic is you dragons their destruction magic. It is actually the strongest magic that is known and so overwhelming that the dragons ruled the world for a long time.


    Fafnir nodded and then asked, "If destruction magic is so powerful then how did the races stand up against their dragon overlords?"


    "Well, replied Lisabeth, " destruction magic possesses one big flaw, it is not really that useful against a very large amount of enemies since every shot uses up a big amount of energy. As long as you have enough soldiers then you can wear the dragon down and kill it. The other races abused that weakness by banding together and outnumbered the dragons with tens of thousands to 1. This was the first time that the races learned the concept of power in numbers."


    Fafnir let out a small sigh and said, "The saying Quantity has a quality of its own'' seems to fit rather well in this situation. I do have one more question, why did the dragons not teach a few trustworthy humans their magic and have them help with the war?"


    Lisabeth nodded and said, "They did but human bodies could not contain the destruction energy and they all died. Some claim that not all of the humans died and that the survivors became what we now know as kobolds and gained a fraction of the power of a dragon. It would explain why the kobolds look like a small humanoid dragon and why they are able to use destruction magic."


    Fafnir scratched his nose and said, "I remember the kobold chief saying something similar but Jay vehemently denied it."


    Lisabeth chuckled, "That is typically Jay. He was raised in a church of the Goddess of Order as an orphan so when he hears something that conflicts with the teachings of the church he has the habit of defending their point of view. But enough about Jay, I still need to teach you how to use racial magic.


    "Teach me? How? Did you not say they only members of a race could use their racial magic?" , asked Fafnir.


    "Yes but as far as I know the process is the same for every type of racial magic. The only difference is the power that you draw upon. You need to take a deep breath and then feel the energy flowing through your body."


    Fafnir pov:


    I did as she said and closed my eyes and tried to find a sort of energy in my body. I could feel countless streams of energy all gathering in one place, the spot where my heart was supposed to be. Now that I think about it I never felt a heartbeat while I was inside this body. I guess that I really am heartless this time around. I also got the strange feeling that this energy source is most likely what keeps my soul anchored to this body."


    I breathed out and said, "I think I can feel something."


    "Perfect", said Lis calmly, "Now you need to draw that magic out. gather it inside one of your fingers or mouth and then pick a target, preferably not me, to release that power upon.


    I tried to do as she told but when I wanted to use the energy I noticed that there were actually three types of energy inside of me. One felt extremely overbearing and oppressive, this one was most likely destruction magic. The second type of energy felt violent and full of life, to be totally honest I have no real clue what magic this is supposed to be. The third one was completely different from the other two, it even looked like it was keeping the other two in place. The feeling this one gave me was that the energy was unnatural and just plain wrong. Considering all of this there is a big chance that this magic is Death magic, the same magic that allows me to ''live''. Let''s better not touch mess with magic until I got a better grip on the use of the other two. I don''t really want to accidentally destroy the binding between my body and soul.


    I gather the destruction energy in my mouth, aim the only door in the room and release a small beam of red and black energy. Upon making contact with the door the beam effortlessly blows the door and the wall surrounding to pieces, revealing a shocked Jay.


    Jay just looks at us with a vacant expression before laying on the ground and mumbling, "Nope, nope, nope. I''m just going to sleep and when I wake up this did not happen."


    I grinned happily and said, "I love magic."


    I aimed at a table as I gathered the second type of energy in my mouth. After charging up for a second I then release a breath of fire. Looking at the table that has now turned into a pile of ashes and the shocked face of Lisabeth, I chuckled, "Well I did not expect that. Seems like Chaos tempered a bit more with this body than I expected but that is fine by me. Since when it comes to power more is always better."


    Lisabeth let out a small squeal and said, you got to teach me that."


    Jay, who had opened his eyes after hearing fire shouted, "What the fuck was that? Which idiot decided to also give a dragon fire magic, the strongest large scale magic on top of destruction magic, the strongest single target magic. How the fuck are you supposed to fight against that?!"


    Somewhere Chaos who was spying on the dragon simply said to herself, "You don''t."

 Chapter 4 - Setting out

    Fafnir''s pov


    I was playing around with, I mean training my magic in my room, well it is not really my room but since I can''t leave this room without destroying a big part of the cave I kind of claimed it for myself, when suddenly my shadow detached itself from me and formed a genderless humanoid figure without any real features.


    The figure looked up at let out a small sigh and with a ghastly voice said, "I am here to bring you the artifact."


    A smile formed on my lips and I said, "Perfect that means I can finally leave this room."


    The figure looked around real quick and then asked, "Wait did Chaos really put you in a room that you could not leave?"


    I just nodded and the figure started laughing, "I really should have expected that stupid sister of mine to mess something up."


    "You said sister does that mean.....?", I asked


    "Yes, I am talking about Chaos. You have the great honor of being in the presence of one of the puppets personally piloted by the Goddess of Shadow."


    The corners of my lips curled upwards as I said, "Perfect do you want to answer a few questions of mine?"


    "That was already a question and I would rather not waste more of my time. Chaos is going to visit you soon anyway and explaining things is her job.", answered Shadow whose body was starting to dissipate.


    When half of her puppet had sunk into the shadows she suddenly said, "Oh right I forgot to tell you how to use it."


    I let out a small sigh and commented, "Seems like Chaos is not the only one who messing this up."


    The shadow lets out an angry puff and threatened, "I might let Chaos explain how you need to use the artifact. I mean you have already waited for a month what is two more weeks right?"


    I raised my paws in defeat and said, "You win. Oh, great Goddess of Shadows will you please tell me how to use this artifact that you have so generously bestowed upon me."


    The shadow chuckled, "Was that so hard? You just need to pour in some of the energy that you normally use for casting racial magic and then a few options will appear in your mind. After that, you only need to focus on the one you want and let the artifact do the rest. While it was fun talking to you, I still have some business to take care of. I will see you another time dragon, try to not commit suicide like Chaos her other pets."


    After saying that she was completely gone and I muttered, "Not sure if I should fear for my life or if I should be offended by her calling me a pet?


    Now let''s use this artifact and leave this stupid cave together with Jay and Lisabeth. The last month was a real challenge to overcome. I had nothing to keep me busy with expect playing, I mean training my magic and making a few plans The magic training is going a bit slow since I can''t try fight with anything here and for some reason, I have a real issue with control. Not that it really is a problem. Well, it is not a problem as long as I don''t care about collateral damage, but I still should not allow a weakness like that to exist.


    As for the plans I made, they are rather simple. I heard from Jay that it is not actually that dangerous to cross these mountains as long as one stays on the roads. The only reason why they found this place is because they decided to leave the roads in order to scare away their pursuers. He also told me that other than the nightmares the real thing that makes these mountains so dangerous is that there are a lot of bandits who raid the merchant''s caverns of the alliance that trade with the free city.


    You would expect that almost no merchant would go through these bandit infested mountains, but the whole fact that these mountains are infested with bandits actually attracts merchants. If they succeed they will be rich and if they fail they will most likely end up dead. When a merchant screws up and becomes really desperate they try to cross these mountains as a sort of an ultimate gamble to win back their fortune.


    My plan is to first destroy a border village or two first since I still need to supply Chaos her life force and then beat the bandits into submission and become the ruler of this mountain range. Then I will strike up a shady deal with a few merchants and with the money that I will get from that, I will be able to start or buy a few crime organizations in the human countries. These organizations will allow me to sow a bit of discord between the members of the alliance. If everything goes according to plan, which it never does, then I will have the alliance disbanded in a year or two. And the moment that they are divided I will pick them off one by one.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    This is the best case scenario for my plan. To be totally honest I expect that I will need to brute force myself through a lot of obstacles and then there is the fact that my plans do not include the heroes and that my understanding of this world is severely limited.


    But to set all these plans in motion I first need to learn how to use this artifact. I grab the artifacts and pour in some energy into it just like the Goddess of Shadow told me to and two images appear in my mind. One of the images looks perfectly like my old self. A well builds male human in his mid-twenties with black hair and brown eyes. The other figure is a pale but rather good looking young man with long untamed red hair that reaches his waist. This figure also has two big black horns sticking out of the sides of his head. The horns have the same position and appearance as the ones of a bull but are quite a bit thicker and look a lot more threatening. This form also has red glowing eyes, black and red dragons wings poking out from his back and red and black scales covering its forearms, lower legs and most of its vital organs. His figners are adorned with small but sharp looking claws and the same red glow in the place where my heart is supposed to be is also present in this form.


    Looking at these forms remind me of something I once read in a book on my old world. It was a book where giant creatures also had some sort of battle form to concentrate all their power into a smaller body. The biggest advantage to this was that in these forms they could use armor and weapons, further increasing their power.


    It seems like this is something like that. The first form is more of a disguise and it would not surprise me if my battle power was greatly weakened. While the second form is more like the battle form.


    Well, there is only one way to test it out this theory. By using the artifact. I first concentrate on the weaker looking human form. My body changes into shadows and reforms to look perfectly like the man in the image. The first thing that I notice in this form is the feeling of weakness. The boundless energy that I normally feel inside of me has been suppressed and reduced to merely a tenth of its original power. My body itself also feels so feeble. I got a feeling that if I try to cast destruction magic in this form it won''t end well for me.


    I use the artifact again and this time the two forms that spring up in my mind are my dragon form and my battle form. This is actually the first time that I could see my dragon form from a different angle so I''m really going to compliment myself for a bit. First of all my body is absolutely massive. I guess that it is around thirty meters long and fifteen meters high, head included. Secondly, my fangs are god damn massive, I think I need to respect Lis and Jay a bit more for not pissing their pants when they stand close to me. Thirdly, my scales look amazing, the red and black really mixes well and further improves the whole evil dragon vibe. And then lastly, the red glow in my eyes and in my chest just look amazing. I think that I am falling for myself. Is this considered bestiality?


    All jokes aside let now try out this presumed battle form. My body once again changes into shadows and forms into the chosen form. After a few moments of standing there, I let out a hearty laugh. This is definitely a battle form, I can still feel all of my energy, ready to run rampant. It also feels like my raw strength has stayed the same.


    After thinking for a few moments I decide to use this form as my standard form for as long as I stay in these mountains. I stretch out the sore limbs of my recently acquired body and call Jay, Lis and the kobold chief.


    After they entered the room Jay and the chief just look at me in disbelief while Lis just waved happily at me. I walked closer to the group and then said, "Jay, Lis we are leaving. Well unless you want to stay here with the kobolds all alone and chief.


    I turned my now human sized head towards him and said, "I sincerely hope that you are a smart enough man who knows that it would a stupid move to share any information on me. I would just hate to have to come back to this cave and kill everyone."


    The kobold chief hurriedly bowed and said, "We would not dare to tell other about a dragon like yourself.


    I flashed him a smirk and said, "Good to know. "


    As we walked towards the exit of the door Lisabeth suddenly shouted, "Wait did you not tell us that you are an undead?"


    I scratched my head and replied, "Basically."


    "Won''t this mean that you are weakened while the sun is out?", asked Lisabeth.


    I simply shrugged and said, "Only one way to know" and took the final step. After standing in the sunlight I shout,"Seems like I can function perfectly under sunlight." The reason that I don''t have the same weaknesses as an undead is most likely since my body is dead and not undead. You could consider my body to be a suit that my soul pilots. But talking about sunlight I am really happy to finally leave that cave and see a bit of the world that I am supposed to turn upside down.


    While we leave the cave we can see the kobold chief simply waving us off. If I had not seen any use for these lizards, like being able to talk to other dragons on my behalf then I would have most likely killed them all in order to make sure that my little secret stays safe.


    Lisabeth walked up to me and asked, "So Faf how did you suddenly turn into whatever you are now?"


    "Ah, you could say that I had some outside help.", I replied


    I tapped on Jay''s shoulder and asked,"So do you know where the nearest settlement is?"


    Jay nodded and said, "The closest city is the outpost."


    The outpost?" I inquired.


    "The outpost was originally a fortress that served as a ward between the nightmares that once infested these mountains and the civilized races." answered Jay.


    I inquired, "You said once infested, what happened?"


    "Well with the defeat of the demon race, the alliance used the remains of their armies to purge these mountains. There are still nightmares here but all of them are young and weaker or ridiculously old and powerful.", answered Jay.


    Well, it seems like I have a target for now. A former fortress seems a lot more fun to destroy than a normal town or city. I got to admit that I love a challenge.

 Chapter 5 - Never become cocky during a fight

    Fafnir''s pov


    "That is the fortress city I was talking about", said Jay calmly while pointing at a giant gray wall. It seems like this city was not your ordinary fortress. I mean what fortress has a watchtower every twenty meters, at least five meters thick walls, a shitload of what looks to be ballistae and a gate that looks like it was made to stop an artillery barrage from my old world.


    "So what are you going to do now?", asked Lisabeth with a pang of worry in her voice.


    I sigh, "I don''t really have an option. Due to circumstances, I will need to try the head on approach."


    I looked at Lisabeth who obviously had a moral problem with this plan and calmly said, "Lisabeth I will be blunt, I don''t really care if you try to run away when I attack the city. You don''t know anything super important so I won''t hunt you down, but if you decide to stay on my side then you need to know that this won''t be the last time that a lot of innocents will die by my hand. Oh and no worries I''m not planning to kill everyone but to destroy the city. The more survivors to tell the tale the better. I estimate that about half will survive the destruction and maybe half of those survivors will survive the trip through the mountains.


    Lisabeth cast her gaze downwards and said, "Why are you attacking this city, these people never did anything wrong to you."


    I let out a small sigh and replied, "To make a statement to all the bandits in the area. The smart leaders will try to talk to the one that destroyed this heavily defended city and that is when I will force them to serve me or die."


    Jay glanced at the city one more time and then said, "Fafnir I also have a few problems with this plan."


    "Oh, I replied with surprise in my voice, "Never expected you to be the moral type."


    Jay shook his head and said, "No that is not my problem, I mean I did some pretty fucked up shit for money before but are you sure that you can take on the whole city on your own. I mean there will probably be a few real strong adventures in there and if you include the defense measurements of the fortress then you will most likely be in for a difficult fight."


    I replied with a big cheery grin, "That just makes it more fun and who knows I might find a new playmate in the city. Also, did you not tell me that they reduced their defenses by almost half after defeating the nightmares in the mountains?


    Jay nodded and said, "But half of a shitton of is still a fuckload of defenses. Can''t you take a slower but safer approach?


    I shook my head sadly and said"I don''t really have a lot of time before I die and that the only way to lengthen my time is by causing wanton destruction and chaos. So while I would love to take a slow and calculated approach where I play the inhabitants of the city against themselves out, weaken their defenses and then swoop in for the kill, I just don''t have the time. Also, the slow and careful approach won''t have the same fear inspiring effect on the bandits."


    I start walking towards the city and said in a more serious tone, "Jay can you stay with Lisabeth and comfort her a bit. Also, try to explain that sacrifice is necessary if you want to accomplish something and that she will never be able to return to a normal life without sacrifice, not as long as her cousin is still hunting her."


    Jay let out a sigh before demanding, "Fine but if you come out of this fight alive then you are going to tell us your plans and explain why you do all of this."


    I nodded and said, "If that keeps you two on my side then I will explain it with pleasure because to be totally honest I have grown quite fond of you two in the last two months. You know, I really should not make promises like that, in fiction character who do things like that always die right before they can fulfill promises like that."


    He shook his head and answered, "No idea what you mean with that. But what I wanted to say was that I also see you as a friend."


    I grinned and shouted, "You really have a poor taste in friends."


    He shouted back, "Well you don''t really have a lot of people to pick as your friend when you are in the middle of nowhere surrounded by criminals and monsters and if you are going to make friends with one of them, why not with the biggest and meanest of them all."


    I waved Jay goodbye and walked towards the city. I thought sadly to myself, "I really hope Lis decides to stay, they are the first people that I befriended ever since Jen died."


    I slapped myself lightly on my cheek in order to stop thinking about Jen since thinking about her for too long always leaves me feeling like shit.


    When I arrive at the gate I notice a massive amount of people who were lining up in order to enter the city. I grinned and thought, "Luckily for me, I won''t need to queue up to enter the city."


    I skip the line shoving anyone who tries to stop me aside. I might be a lot weaker in human form but my raw strength is still several times greater than your normal adventure or soldier.


    One of the guards sees me skipping the line and shouts,"You there, get back to the end of the line before I force you to."


    I taunted, "Force me?"


    The guard let out an angry growl and shouted, "Now you are asking for it." Before walking towards me, sword in one hand shield in the other.


    When the guard was in front of me I turned into my combat form, making the people around me run away from fear. The stunned guard does not have the time to react as I quickly used my inhuman strength to literally disarmed the poor bastard. I then grabbed him by the throat with my right hand and lifted his now armless body in the air. I glanced around and saw a group of three guards running towards me, weapons drawn and shock on their faces, from the guard station and then throw the guard as hard as I can into the approaching group. The force behind the throw pushed the three guards and the ''ball'' into the station. The impact blew up the guard station and a good chunk of the wall. Oh did I forget to mention that I put some destruction magic into that throw?If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I looked at the destruction and laughed, "Strike."


    A few of the more brave visitors run towards me in order to strike me down. I snap my finger and a ring of fire start expanding with my in the center, turning all of them but one, who blocked my flames with a shield of light, into ashes.


    The survivor a man with two big white wings on his back looks at me and snarls, "Fire magic. Since you don''t look like a human or a demon then I assume that you are a nightmare who somehow got their hands on that cursed magic. Just my luck why did I have to meet a humanoid nightmare while on vacation."


    I look at the man in front of me and chuckle, " Am I correct to assume that you are an angel?"


    "Shit", cursed the angel in front of me, "You can talk? What are the chances of running into an ancient nightmare when I''m not even working."


    I circle around him and laughed, "Are angels even allowed to curse?"


    The man reached behind his back and pulled out a massive greatsword before he snarled, "Cut the crap you filthy beast."


    Before charging right at me with ridiculous speed.


    His speed is seriously impressive but it is too bad for him that I''m even faster. I jumped backward dodging his swing before taunting, "You know that it is not really nice to call someone a filthy beast, I mean you also would not like it if I called you something like a bird brain right?"


    The now visibly irritated angel formed a spear of light in one hand and throws it at me. I shoot a blast of fire at it in order to intercept it. The two different types of magic hit each other and create a blinding light, forcing me to cover my eyes. When the light fades away I can see the angels charging at me. I try to jump back but since my eyes are still affected by the blast, I wrongly calculate the distance and end up overshooting tens of feet, bumping into someone else. The man who I bumped in to quickly unsheaths a short sword and stabs me in my back.


    I silently curse from the pain before turning around and use my claws to rip out the man''s throat while my wound quickly closes itself.


    Making use the distraction caused by the other man, the angel starts to gather energy in his hands to create a ball of light and shouts, "It''s over the nightmare. "Retribution."


    The ball of light turns into a blinding beam of energy. I got a feeling that if that attack hits me that even I will take quite a bit of damage, lucky that I already dodged it", I thought happily as I felt my hand, adorned with claws pierce through his back armor into his chest. After searching for a few moments I finally find his still beating heart in his chest and pulverize it, stopping his effortless struggling.


    I walk towards the city gate, where gunners are now firing the ballistae at me while muttering, "Brute forcing things is clearly a lot less fun than to play mind games with them. Damn you Chaos for waiting so long to revive me. If you had allowed me to be reincarnated sooner or if you had told me how much time I had left instead of saying that if I don''t cause destruction quickly than the chaos energy that keeps my body functioning will dry out than I would not have been forced to do things so sloppily.


    I walk towards the gate, ignoring the ballista shots and arrows that are landing next to me and take a deep breath before I punch the door. The door makes a metallic noise but still seems to be closed firmly. I raised my fist again and punch the gate once more. Seeing that my normal punches would not be able to break the gate. I decided to gather a bit of destruction magic and to then punch the gate one last time. A part of the gate gets blown away, killing a few more guards before colliding with a wall behind it.


    I slowly enter the fortress, eliminating all those who block my path by casually throwing a bit of fire around. After walking aimlessly for a few minutes, while setting a good part of the city ablaze a group of armed men and woman walk towards me.


    The leader grabs a wand from behind his back and shouts, "Beast you will find your end at the hands of the A- ranked adventure group ''Red Sun''.


    A small smile decorates my face and I declare while playing the part of the stereotypical villain, "Ha kill me? You and what army?"


    The man waved his wand and a swarm of blue a arrows appeared behind him before he shouted, "Soul magic, Arrow swarm, FLY."


    Seems like the man is one of those soul or arcane mages Lis told be about, the ones that use mana. The blue arrows swiftly flew towards me. I dodged most of them but a few hit me nonetheless. Immediately after the arrow rain stopped a woman with a spear dashed in and send a few swift stabs towards me, forcing me to jump backward. While I was still in my jumping motion another man wielding two small daggers appears next to me and slashed two times at my neck. I dodged one dagger and let one impale my hand. The man tries to release the dagger that is now stuck inside of my hand but I quickly grab his arm and then pull him towards me.


    I channel a bit of destruction magic into the man, who on a closer inspection looked a bit like an elf, making his entire body go boom and staining myself and his spear wielding friend with his blood and flesh.


    The members of the party of adventurers shouted some standard things like ''How could you, you monster'' and ''I will avenge him''.


    I pulled out the dagger and threw it towards the mage that shot the arrows at me, only for it to get intercepted by the shield of one his allies. The shield bearer lets out a painful cry and grabbed his now bleeding arm. It seems like he did not expect there to be so much force behind the throw.


    The mage and the lastmember of their group, a woman clad in white robes, looked at the wounded man. Making use of the distraction I send a blast of fire towards the spear wielder who swiftly jumped backward. Abusing my superior speed I jumped towards the woman and quickly appeared behind her. A quick stab with the other dagger of the elf that I picked up when I was dashing towards her ends her life.


    The three remaining members look at me in horror and let out some more mournful cries. The woman, clad in white, touched the arm of the shield bearer, healing it. I made a side note to ask Lis for a bit more information about healing magic after I kill these guys.


    The mage started to gather a stupidly large amount of mana and created a giant blue ball in the air. I slowly looked around and am surprised to notice that no one is trying to attack me. Is this guy retarded? Is he really planning on using a spell with such a long casting time at this range without having someone to distract me?


    I picked up the spear of the woman I just killed and tossed it towards the shield bearer who once again tried to block it in order to protect his friends behind him. Utter foolishness if you asked me. The impact once again broke one of his arms and I immediately jumped towards the mage. When I arrived in front of him he suddenly stopped his spell and jumped backward. I look around confused until I see the woman clad in white firing a massive beam of light towards me.


    Looking at the beam that is about to hit me I brought up my wings in front of me like an impromptu shield and mumbled, "Shit, seems like I was the retard here".

 Chapter 6 - An organization needs to hire new people to grow

    Inside the ruined marketplace of a burning city, three people could be seen hugging each other whilst crying.


    "We finally killed it."


    "Yes we did, thank you, Anna and Joe, your sacrifice would not be forgotten,", a man with a wand exclaimed while he walked towards a spear that was lying on the ground.


    Before he reached the spear he felt a chill run down his spine followed by the bloodcurdling screams of his last two friends. He quickly turned around and cried out in horror, after seeing the monster they had thought to be dead, standing over the fresh corpses of his friends.


    The battered looking winged monstrosity in front of him let out a haunting laugh and said, "Did no one tell you that a final boss never dies until the end of the story?"


    The mage fell to his knees, sobbing and tensed up when he heard the beast move closer to him. The monstrosity placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "I know I should finish you off right now so that you won''t try something stupid like attacking me out of hate at the worst possible timing, but would a revenge story not be interesting? The mage who lost his party, joining up with some hero in order to strike the monster, who made him lose everything, down."


    The mage shouted, "Do you think this a game?"


    "Actually I do and this fight was just my introduction cutscene to show everyone how evil I am and to build up the hype for the final battle.", answered the monster with a big cheerful grin. Right when he said that the mage quickly gathered some mana in order to send an arcane spear at the monstrosity in front of him. The haphazardly made spear shattered when it connected with the targets chest, destroying a piece of his shirt and revealing black and red scales.


    The monster chuckled, "Now that is the attitude. I like people who never give up. Since you showed me your determination to live, I''m going to grant you your desire and spare you. Come back to me in a few years after you get stronger. Oh and do me a favor and tell people what happened here."


    The monster that was walking away suddenly turned around and said, "Oh I almost forget that you need some battle scar. That way you will really look like a badass battle hardened survivor and it will also serve to remind you of this day and your incompetence until the day you die." After saying that he snapped his finger, firing a small ball of fire towards the mage. The too exhausted to dodge or block, the mage took the fireball to his face, scarring half of it.


    The monster waved him goodbye before jumping into the air and flying away. Leaving the mage to pitifully lick his wounds.


    Fafnir''s POV


    "Now that was a good fight and should serve my purpose of making my power known to the surrounding factions if I''m lucky it might even cause a bit of panic in the alliance.", mused the dragon to himself with a big smile on his face


    He looked back at the rapidly shrinking figure of the man he just spared and thought, "Yeah sparing him might have been a mistake but when I was channeling my inner villain it just felt like I had to do something like this. But I need a survivor who fought with me to tell the members the alliance of my amazingness."


    "It is not like I''m actually taking a risk by doing this. I mean this guy is not strong enough to actually make a difference. The only possible problem is the fact that this mage against all odds could get strong enough to help the current heroes. That would be a real pain in the ass, but if that is what causes my end then I will have no one to blame for myself. Also, it''s more fun this way."


    After flying for a little bit I spotted Jay and Lisabeth talking with each other on the same spot where I left them. I landed gently and then with a small smile asked, "Can I assume that you guys decided to stay on the dark side?"


    Jay simply nods and Lisabeth giggles, "It was kind of stupid of me to think about leaving one of the only two people who ever treated me like a real person."


    I sighed, "You know I only spared you for you knowledge right?"


    Lisabeth nodded happily and said, "At that point, you might have only spared me because you needed something from me but right before you left you gave me the choice to leave. That one action is more than anyone except Jay has ever done for me. To all the other people in my life, I was just a handy pawn who''s only purpose was increasing the families political power.


    "God what kind of shitty home did you grow up in.",I asked with a bit of pity in my voice."


    "A patriarchal noble family", replied Lisabeth softly.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    I sighed, "Well I guess I should be happy that your loyalty is won so easily. Since you two are going to stay, then I guess that I should explain some things.


    After saying that I told them that I was from an other world just like the heroes and explained what Chaos needed me for. I basically told them everything except the details about my old life.


    After I finish my story Jay scratched his head and asked, "I''m a really thankful that you told us everything but why did you do it? Are you not afraid that we lied to you and will use this information to harm you?"


    I smiled and answered, "Simple, If I tell you now then you know what you are in for and to be totally honest it is not like you could actually do me harm by telling this information to anyone. I mean do you honestly think that you can run away from me? And even if you do who is going to believe you? And let''s say that you are able to run away and that they believe you, what are they going to do? Send the heroes headfirst into a possible trap? No they will send scouts and in the time that it takes to send them I will be long gone and then I will simply start all over again. well not like I have done much at this point."


    "It feels like we just avoided a deathtrap by staying.", replied Jay


    "What is with that false accusation. I would not have killed you if you had run away. What do you take me for? Some kind of villain with a nefarious plan?


    Lisabeth giggled and Jay asked, "So what is the next step of your master plan."


    I chuckled, "Now, we wait and let the information spread."


    Just like Fafnir intended his feat created a chaotic storm in small and large organizations alike. Everyone tried to get their hands on information about this new threat that suddenly appeared in the Silverpeak mountain range. The local bandit gangs met up together to decide what they were going to do fight or flee. The kingdoms sent scouts to the mountains in order to investigate if this beast could be working for one of the other countries. A lot of the smaller towns in the area around the mountain decided to relocate themselves to an area that was closer to a big city.


    While all this happened I, the culprit, was enjoying myself by teaching Jay and Lisabeth how to play chess in my human form. I grabbed one of the pieces that Jay made according to my instructions and said, "This is the knight, this piece can only move in an L-shape but can hop over other pieces. It is also my favorite piece since it is so unpredictable and fun to use.


    Lisabeth was absorbing the rules like a sponge while Jay was only learning how to play to do Lisabeth a favor.


    After explaining the rules to them I had Jay and Lisabeth play against each other. Seeing the two of them playing so peaceful got me to reminisce about my own past and the person who thought me and his sister the game, Jen.


    I mused, "I will never tell these two since that would break his evil overlord style character but he was truly thankful that they decided to stay. I have been so lonely ever since Jen died. And the worst thing about it is that I did not even notice. Maybe I should talk to my sister. Yeah-"


    Before I could finish that line of thought I suddenly heard a shouting outside of the cave that we were resting in.


    I motioned for Jay and Lis to hide while I walked outside and shifted into my combat form. The moment that I was outside I saw a gigantic group of what looked to be well-equipped bandits. All of the bandits looked tense and among them, I found the one that I caught a few days ago and used to send an invite the leaders of the bandits to meet me at my cave. I also made it clear who I was and what would happen if they would refuse.


    I displayed a warm smile and said, "Ah I''m so happy that you accepted my invitation."


    "Cut the bullshit and tell us why you called us here.", said a gigantic man with a big axe on his back. My sources (the bandit I interrogated) told me that this man''s name is Jorn the knight slayer A man known for only two things his gigantic axe and the fact that he once fought an entire squad of knights to save his family while he was just a simple woodcutter. He succeeded in fighting off the knights, killing four of them and then escaped with his family into the Silverpeak mountains, starting one of the more ''human'' factions and the fourth strongest bandit group in the mountains.


    "Calm down Jorn, remember what he did to the city", said the more lanky man who was not wearing any visible weapon or armor but had two big white wings on his back. This man is known Safrit, the dark merchant. The angel is known for his cunning and intellect and the fact that he is the only bandit leader who actually does not have a price on his head. Safrit is actually a well-known and well-respected merchant throughout the alliance who keeps the shadier parts of his business well hidden. His faction is the third strongest in these mountains.


    "Tsk, how can you be sure if he is the right guy?", asked a heavily armored small woman with a gigantic hammer on her back. This woman was the only female and only dwarf bandit leader in the entire mountain range, the Iron Queen Magnhilde. She was actually originally a hostage of one of the more wicked bandit leaders but she broke free, killed the leader in combat and usurped his position. Under her leadership, the bandit group was more successful than ever, becoming the second strongest group. Her men see her as some goddess of war and only have the utmost respect for her.


    "Come on Magnhilde, I mean who else has large reptilian wings and red glowing eyes in these mountains?", asked Safrit.


    "A good imposter", growled Magnhilde.


    I chuckled while setting the area around me on fire for a moment, "Oh I''m no impostor I promise you."


    "So why did ya call us here, lad?", asked Jorn.


    "Simple, I need your help, no scratch that, I want you guys to work for me.


    "Ha, and why would we do that?", laughed Magnhilde.


    "I have to agree with miss Magnhilde, what can you offer us in return for our help?", inquired Safrit with a small smile on his face. He was most likely already calculating how much he could rip me off for.


    An evil smirk formed on my face while I said, "Well I can offer you two things. First, you can keep your little lives and second I can grant you these entire mountains and even more."


    Magnhilde and Jorn drew their weapons while Safrit took a few steps backward. After a few seconds, Magnhilde growled, "And what makes you think you are strong enough to threaten us?"


    I changed back in my true form and laughed, "This". before letting out an ear shattering roar.

 Chapter 7 - Sword fighting is harder than it looks

    Fafnir''s POV


    "Ah, threatening people really is the best way to negotiate.", I happily thought to himself after seeing the three bandit chieftains in front of me fall into complete chaos.


    Magnhilde tried to mask the fear in her voice while she rallied her men but failed horribly. Safrit slowly crept backward in a futile effort to hide behind his men but noticed that they all had already run away. Jorn shouted to his men to run and get to safety while he shakingly reached for his axe.


    I let out a small chuckle, "Relax I''m not going to harm you..... yet."


    Safrit, now hiding behind a tree nervously smiled and asked, "Is there a way for us to turn that yet into an ''I''m never going to harm you?''."


    "I was hoping you would ask that. It is actually quite easy to do and would not even cost you anything. "I replied with a wicked grin.


    The three in front of me looked at me with eyes filled with fear and hope, a quite peculiar combination if I say so myself. I let out a small chuckle thinking about how easy the plans I made back on earth would have been to execute if I had this power back then. Now let''s test them a bit by checking how they would react if I turn into a weaker looking form. I turned back into my ''combat'' form and declared, "You only need to serve me."


    Magnhilde jumped towards me before the other two could reply and shouted, "Quick attack him while he looks like this. Don''t let him transform back into a dragon." Most of her men and even Jorn followed her command and drew their weapons before charging at me.


    As I watched this idiotic situation play out before me I chuckled "While it is a smart idea to attack your enemy when he looks at his weakest. Did you confirm that this indeed is my weakest form?"


    Before they could react to my words I jump forward, creating a small crater and start to take out one bandit after the other using my superior strength and constitution.


    After only a few minutes only me, Magnhilde, Jorn and Safrit remain standing surrounded by their now unconscious allies. I looked into the scared yet determined eyes of Jorn and Magnhilde and declared, "Why don''t you just surrender? Does serving me really sound that bad?"


    Safrit gave me a small smile and said, "No not really I would be glad to serve such a strong leader, well for the right price of course."


    I smiled and responded, "Of course there will be a suitable reward for each of you if you help my plans come to fruition." I turn towards Jorn and Magnhilde and showed them my most charismatic and friendly smile and said, "What about you two won''t you lend me your strength?"


    Jorn lowered his weapon after seeing how outclassed he was and said, "If you promise to treat my men right then I will join you."


    Magnhilde stepped forward and sneered, "Cowards." Before turning towards me and shouting, "Show me what you got you oversized lizard."


    I make a mocking bow before blasting some fire towards her only for it to get blocked by a wall of earth.


    "Oh, so the dwarves unsurprisingly use earth magic. Well let''s see how strong my flames actually are.", I mused to myself.


    I increased the output and started showering Magnhilde with fire while she kept raising earth walls. After a while, she sends the wall she was hiding behind towards me in an attempt to seize the initiative. I gather a bit of destruction energy in my mouth and fire a beam towards the wall, obliterating it. With a little jump, I propel myself towards my now revealed enemy and try to tackle her.


    She creates a little hole in the ground and hops in it, making me jump over her. I slam my claws into the ground to slow my momentum down and then send destruction magic into the ground, resulting in a deafening explosion that ripped the ground to shreds.


    I walk to a loudly coughing Magnhilde who was able to wall herself in right before the explosion and taunted, "Seems like your strength came short."


    The dwarf just glared at me and said, "Fine I surrender. So what do you need us for?"


    "Can someone explain why we waiting to ambush a return party of Diedrich''s men?", asked Jorn.


    "Well it is simple", I replied, "Your men kill the guards and a part of them will pretend to be Diedrich''s men to infiltrate his camp and open the gate. Then the rest of your, Magnhilde''s and Safrit''s men will then swarm in through that gate and take control of the camp while I hunt Diedrich down.


    Jorn let out a sigh and said, "No, I know the plan. What I don''t understand is why we are doing this. "


    "Well for my plans we need to have control of the entire mountain range and Diedrich''s men are the biggest bandit band of bandits in these mountains so we need to get rid of them. It is too bad that they did not accept my invitation to come meet me like the three of you did. If he had accepted, I would have more men under my command and it would also save me some time.", I replied.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Jorn massaged his temples and said, "I get that but why are we doing things in such a roundabout way. I mean could you not simply go in there and beat them all down alone or just blow that gate away with that destruction magic of yours just like you did to the fortress city?"


    "I can", I replied calmly before grinning and chuckling, "but brute forcing you through every obstacle is no fun."


    "You sure that you are a dragon and not just an annoying brat?", asked Jorn.


    "I''m almost certain.", I laughed.


    Before Jorn could retort I heard a group of people approaching


    together with a few carts. I grinned wickedly and said, "Now some me your skill. Oh and be sure to kill them in a way that leaves their cloaks intact, we still need those because for some reason all of Dietrich''s men wear that stupid black cloak with a white raven on it."


    "Yeah you already told us.", replied Jorn before signaling his men to get into position.


    A few moments later, a bloody and chaotic battle unfolds before me. Thanks to our numerical advantage and the fact that this was a surprise attack, I don''t even need to do anything. I watch as Jorn''s men easily overwhelm the enemy. A part Jorn''s men take the acquired loot away to the cave where they met me and the others donned the clothes of the men they just killed. Since there were only a handful of guards most of our men had to hide inside the cart without a cloak.


    One of my men handed me one of the newly acquired cloaks before leaving together with the group that is going to be part of the main force. For good measure, I also picked up a random sword from the ground and hang it on my belt.


    I donned the cloak, that I have to admit looks a bit cool, while I was still in my battle form resulting in it somewhat hiding my tail and wings before entering one of the carts.


    After traveling until a bit after dusk I can finally see the wooden walls of Diedrich''s camp before me. I let out a small sigh and thought to myself, "It''s a shame that he is the only of the four big leaders who decided to ignore my invitation and did not bother showing up this morning. He seems to be a much better leader than the other three. I mean that is no bandit camp but a small fortress, I really pity anyone who would try to attack that. Well, anyone who does not have a dragon with them at least."


    When we arrived at a checkpoint in front of the camp the guards decided that checking the goods was not worth their time so we were able to enter their camp quite effortlessly. I made a small mental note to execute every lazy and incompetent guard who slacked off on the job in order to prevent thing like this.


    Jorn who was also inside the cart gave the signal and his men jumped out of the carts and charged towards the gatehouse, killing all the enemies who tried to intercept them. While Jorn''s men tried to overwhelm the defending bandits I calmly walked towards the center of the camp while shouting Diedrich''s name. After a minute or two a tall, burly man walks up to me and with a deep voice asks, "Why are you calling for me? Did something happen."


    With an evil smile on my face, I answered, "My lord there are enemies inside the camp and I think there is an assassin prowling around to kill you."


    The man who I presume is Diedrich answered a bit shocked, "Raise the alarms and tell me how you know that there is an assassin trying to kill me?"


    I drew my sword and said, "Because I''m talking about myself.", before swinging my sword at him.


    Diedrich who also was a capable fighter quickly jumped back and drew his own sword and we engage in a sword fight. I decided that now would as good of a time to try and learn how to use a sword so I turned into my disguise form lowering my physical strength to the level of a normal human and did not use any magic. Of course, considering that I never actually wielded a sword, I completely sucked and missed attack after attack while Diedrich hit me time after time. The attacks that did not land on the few scales that I have in this form left me with bloody wounds. Luckily my ability to take hits stayed the same even in this form. I really should ask Chaos the next time I see her why my body is able to do that.


    I let out a sigh, tossed my sword on the ground and said," Oh fuck this, a sword is a way to difficult to use."


    Diedrich who thought that this was my surrender smirked and said, "Smart choice. If I had to fight myself I would also have surrendered."


    I chuckled, "Who is surrendering? I just got rid of some dead weight. I"ll give you some friendly advice If I were you I would start running, well not like you would be able to escape but you will get to live a bit longer like that."


    "Ha, why would I need to run away from a badly wounded incompetent sword fighter who does not even have a sword anymore.", mocked Diedrich.


    Right at that moment, the loud shouts of our main force could be heard as they charged at the enemies after entering the camp through the gate that we controlled now.


    The smile on Diedrich''s face died while a grin was born on mine. I said, "Two reasons, one my allies are currently overwhelming your men and two, I am not planning on playing around anymore.", and turning into my combat form.


    After transforming I dashed behind him and coated my fist with destruction magic before punching right through the poor guy.


    I bring my mouth to his ear and whisper, "You really should not have declined meeting with me."


    He coughed up some blood and answered, "What are you talking about? I never got an invitation."


    I pulled my hand out of him and shrugged, "Yesterday I told one of your men to tell you that the destroyer of the fortress city wants to meet you."


    He looked at me before sadly laughing, "Seems like that guy ran away instead of telling me. What a stupid reason for my death."


    After saying those pitiful last words Diedrich fell down and died with an expression of disbelief and regret on his face as I made another mental note to myself, "Be sure to find a better way to contact possible allies then ambushing their men and threatening them to tell it to their boss."


    I ripped his head off with my bare hands and then walked towards the place where the biggest fight was being held.


    In roared once, halting the fighting and shouted, "Diedrich is dead, all of you who don''t want to become a fertilizer for the fortress need to surrender NOW!"


    Seeing the head of their leader in my hands three-fourth of them threw their weapons down and my men easily killed the once that kept resisting.


    I looked at the scene in front of me and thought, "You know becoming the boss of this mountain was quite easy. How OP did Chaos make this body of mine.

 Chapter 8 - It is easy to avoid work by forcing it on your underlings

    Fafnir''s POV


    I glanced over the nervous men in front of me and a small, cold smile formed on my lips. I cleared my throat and shouted, "First of all I would like to thank you for you unconditional surrender. It really warmed my heart to see you all throw down your weapons out of the goodness in your heart. Secondly, I would like to introduce myself. I''m Fafnir, your new boss and if you try anything stupid your judge, jury and executioner. Now since I can''t be bothered to actually take care of all your small problems I will be introducing my second in command. Please step forward Jay."


    A flabbergasted Jay, who also took part in the attack as a member of the main army, slowly walked up to me. I grabbed his arm and raised it in the air as I shout, "Come on men, cheer a bit for the guy."


    A few men start applauding a bit confused and the whole army joins in after a few seconds. The reason why they all suddenly joined in was that they actually had a lot of respect for Jay and had nothing to do with the humanoid dragon behind him slowly but visibly gathering destruction energy in his palms.


    I slapped Jay on the back and smiled, "Now give your new men a good and rousing speech while I''m giving the other chiefs their instructions.


    As I neared the biggest tent, formerly Diedrich''s sleeping quarters that are now serving as makeshift ''throne'' room (the place where I talk with all my guest) the two guards outside of it quickly saluted me. I entered the tent and saw the three bandit chiefs waiting for me.


    I put on an amiable smile and said, "Before I give you guys your instructions I would like to congratulate you on our splendid victory."


    The three of them silently nodded and I continued, "Now for the next phase. Safrit, I would like for you to spread the information that the bandits in these mountains are now united under a single leader and that these bandits will attack anyone passing through these mountains. But more importantly, you need to spread the information that there is a way to buy a safe passage. I would also like for you to be in charge of making those transactions. I will send the girl called Lisabeth to help you with your job."


    The man''s lips turn into a cold smile before he asks, "And will I be..."


    I interrupted him by saying, "Of course what do you think of a cut of 25%."


    "Perfect, I love when I get to earn money without a real risk.", replies the man before walking towards the entrance of the tent.


    Seeing the greed of the angel, I raised my hand and threatened, "You know what will happen if you try to cheat me out of my money?"


    The angel visibly paled and quickly said, "I would not dare to."


    I smiled wickedly and chuckled, "I know, but I still wanted to remind you that you are not out of my reach once you are inside a city. Oh and don''t forget to send me a list of the merchants who are allowed a safe passage."


    The angel quickly nodded and walked away while I turned my attention towards the two bandit Chieftains, "You two will be working together with Jay to raid every merchant that dares to pass through these mountains and bring the loot to this place. You will be allowed to take 40% of the loot for yourself."


    The two accepted the deal without hesitation since they did not really expect to earn anything, except the promise that I would not kill them, from working under me. While they were leaving the tent I said, "Oh and leave six of your most trustworthy men behind, I will have them bring you the list of merchants who are allowed to pass through the mountains. Also if there is a high-value target passing through these mountains who you think is too strong for you to rob, just send one of your men and I will personally help you or send you a few more men. Oh, and if you see a someone or a group of people who have a special skill, capture them. "


    "Special skill?", asked Magnhilde.


    I nodded and replied, "Yeah like famous blacksmiths, carpenters, mages... Oh in case you find a well-known mage you should let me know and then I will come over to capture him myself.


    Just a quick question Boss, but what do you plan to do while we are following your orders?", asked Jorn


    "Simple, I grinned, "I''m going to take it easy. It really is fun being the boss."


    After the two, who are quite irritated that I shoved almost all of my work on them, left the tent I sat down on one of the chairs and ordered one of the guards to tell Jay to come over when he has a bit of time.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    After a few minutes, Jay entered the tent and I beckoned them to take a seat. I cleared my throat and asked, "Could you give me a bit more information on the composition of the alliance?"


    Jay nodded and said, "Well like I already told you there are four races in the alliance, the dwarves, the elves, the humans and the angels. The dwarves live almost completely separated from the other races and hardly ever leave the territory of their clans. The elves are separated in two big factions, the wood and the high elves, who each think themselves to be the superior of the two. Many members of the alliance are convinced that the only thing that kept them from killing each other was the threat of the demon race and it seems that they were right since the relation between the two factions has almost turned into an open war at this point."


    I made a small mental note of such an abusable weakness and even felt a bit bad for the goddess of chaos. I mean how much energy would she get from that conflict if her connection with the planet had not been severed.


    Seeing that I was still paying attention, Jay continued, "The humans are divided into five kingdoms, each having their own hero. These five countries have a relatively good relationship with each other. The nymphs are a perfectly united race but they don''t really have deep ties with the other races since they are quite solitary and don''t have that much interaction with the other races of the alliance. Lastly the angels. They are completely united under a single leader, or that is at least what it looks from an outsiders perspective. Safrit told me that most of the angels are actually far from united but just have a common goal, the destruction of as many evil races as possible and that their so called leader is just the strongest of the bunch."


    Hearing the last part I asked, "Evil races, so there are more races just like the demons?"


    He nodded and said, "Yeah there are a few but none of them even come close to the strength of the demons, well none except the dragons."


    I replied, "Ah, so I''m considered a member of the evil races, interesting."


    "Yeah the dragons are also technically one of the evil races but no one, not even those angels dare to provoke them.", shrugged Jay.


    I nodded knowingly and added, "Let sleeping dogs lie. I get it."


    After a small silence, Jay continued," Well there are actually two more big factions. One of those two is the free city. This city filled up with people who fled the alliance. The alliance and the free city don''t really get along but since they are quite far from each other there is no real conflict between them."


    "The last faction is the beastkin, "They are a strange crossover between man and beast created by the God of War. The beastkin don''t really involve them in outside conflict and prefer to wage war between themselves for fun. During the war with the demons, beastkin mercenaries could be found on either side.", finished Jay.


    "I nodded thank you, Jay, I can put this information to good use. Oh, do you know anything about the evil races?" , I asked


    ''A bit, but most of it is rumors.", replied Jay while shrugging.


    Hearing this I mumbled,"Maybe I should ask our mutual lizard friend for some more information?"


    "I don''t really think he would not that much considering that he and his clan have been living in that cave for who knows how long. But it might be worth a shot.", replied Jay.


    I sighed, "Jay, how big do you think is the chance that a hero is going to come looking for me?"


    Jay thought for a second and then said, "There is almost no chance of the hero coming after you as the bandit king but it would not surprise me if they came to exterminate the nightmare that destroyed the fortress city."


    "I groaned, "Do you have any idea how strong a hero is or how many of them will be coming and when?"


    He shrugged, "I guess that only one hero would be sent here in around a month or so. The hero that would come will most likely be the hero of the wind, who works together with the Elderwood Kingdom, the country that the fortress you destroyed was part of. As for her strength, I have no idea."


    "Any idea how she looks like," I inquired.


    "Mhh, long wavy red hair, quite busty, green eyes and quite a few freckles on her face.", replied Jay.


    "Mhh, Is she by any chance called Monica?", I asked.


    "Yeah, that sounds about right.", confirmed Jay.


    I silently mused, ''Perfect, Monica always the biggest idiot of the five. She is also one of those I see the good in everyone. So let''s see, I guess that if I told her some sob story about how dying made me realize the error of my old ways and then beg her to ''free'' me from the evil goddess that is controlling like a puppet then I can most likely get her to drop her guard and then give her a mortal wound."


    I nodded and said, "Thanks, Jay, can you send tell the guards to call back Safrit when you leave I have an extra job for him."


    "Sure," replied Jay.


    A few minutes Safrit enter the tent and I gesture for him to take a seat. I poured two glasses of wine and took a sip of mine and then asked, "Safrit I got a favor to ask of you. Do you know anything that gives of red light and can cause an explosion after detonating it from a remote location."


    He contemplated for a few moments and then answered, "I''m sorry but I do not know of an object like that, but getting my hands on one might be possible."


    "Please elaborate.", I asked


    "I know a mage who might be able to make something like that given enough time and resources.", he finished.


    "Perfect, is there any way for me to meet him.", I asked


    He nodded and replied, "He is a teacher at the arcane academy and each year the students of the academy will go on a field trip into these mountains to test their spells against some nightmares. This trip should be next week."


    "Wait, they are sending a bunch of kids and geezers into these bandit infested woods.", I asked flabbergasted.


    Safrit nodded and casually said, "Yeah normally bandits are no match for magic since even the most basic spell, arcane arrow, can kill most of the bandits."


    Thinking how a bunch kids were going to play hero in my domain was strangely aggravating and I growled, "Now let''s see if these kids are going to end up as fertilizer or become the first group of mages under my command."

 Chapter 9- It is almost impossible to completely get rid of something

    Fafnir''s POV


    I was sitting on a thick branch of a rather old tree, happily humming while watching the mages enter the forest. The enhanced senses of my body could see even the happy and carefree expressions on the faces of the teenagers. Well, they are not all teenagers actually.


    From here I could see four big groups. The loudest, biggest and the most annoying group were the teenagers wearing luxurious clothes. Safrit told me that these kids were the sons and daughters of rich merchants and nobles. The second group was a bunch of older men and woman, I guessed their age to be somewhat around thirty-five, wearing shabbier, but still decent looking clothes. These people were most likely commoners who worked their entire lives to gain entrance into the school. The third group was a band of armed soldiers wearing light blue cloaks. With a quick headcount, I learned that there were about twenty of them and then there was the last and most problematic group. This group consisted of three adults wearing dark blue robes. This group was the most problematic and the most important considering that the three of them were teachers at the school. Safrit gave me the description of the man I was looking for but because all three of the teachers always have this hood covering most of their faces I could not find out who the real target was. Well, at least I know that one of them is not the target since I''m sure that one of them is a woman.


    Seeing that the merry band entered the mountain range, I gracefully hopped off the branch and started making my way back to the camp. Normally it would take at least two days to reach the camp but with my strengthened body, it only took me four hours. I could have been even faster if I had reverted to my true form or if I had flown the distance but sadly, I can''t really afford to have these mages notice me before I have killed at least one of them, considering that I do not know of their strength.


    The first thing I did when I entered the camp was to send messengers to the three bandits chiefs. Well since they are now working for me are they still considered bandit chiefs? I mean what would that make me? The bandit lord? The bandit king?


    The head-chief? The bandit over-chief? Wait the last two did not even make any sense.


    Seeing how it now was a bit past noon, the chiefs should arrive around dusk. Having nothing better to do I decide to roam the forest for a bit in my combat form. I heard that before the end of civilization people liked to walk in forests. A bit silly if you ask me. I mean who would consider walking into a place that is perfect for ambushes a recreational activity? Thinking back to what I saw this morning I chuckled, "Mages apparently."


    After I walked around aimlessly for an hour, the serenity of the forest was ruined by the sound of trees snapping in half followed by a big crash. Walking to the location where I heard the sound, I ended up in a big clearing or well a big open area where all of the trees had been destroyed in what looked like a massive fight. On the edge of the clearing lay a giant bear with red fur. I crept closer to the unmoving bear and saw that his fur was not red but just stained with the blood that kept flowing out of his cylinder shaped stab wounds, well calling them stab wounds is a bit of an understatement. I mean these wounds make it look like the poor bastard got hit a dozen times by a fracking ballistae. I take another quick look at the bear and I have to correct myself, this was no giant bear but an absolutely massive one. The bear in front of me was at least a 4 meters long and looked like he had a shoulder height of 2 meters. All by all, he looked like he was about twice as big as the grizzly bears from the earth, well the ones that were not mutated by the fallout of the nuclear war caused by a shortage of food.


    But the strangest thing about this bear was not his size but the fact that the thing had eight legs and two heads. It actually looked like someone took two bears and used polymerization, I mean fused them together. I quickly checked the vitals of the bear but felt nothing. Just to be safe I placed my hands or well claws on him and send some destruction magic through him, damaging its body even further but surprisingly not destroying it. Well, that confirmed it. This thing is as dead as the one bandit who dared sleep when he had guard duty. I really should stop using destruction magic to solve all my problems, it always is such a hassle to clean the corpses up. The better option is obviously to fire magic since that cleans the corpses up in one go.


    I cracked my neck and quickly surveyed the area around me. And then sat down on top of the corps, while mumbling, "Now let''s see if the thing that killed is going to come to claim its prize."


    After a few hours, I heard something approaching in the distance. I looked up to see a normal sized deer or to be more precise a buck. The buck had quite a lot of slash wounds covering his entire body and a few patches of his fur looked like it had been burned off. Most of his wounds looked like they only recently started to heal. The beast in front of me flashed his teeth in an attempt to intimidate me. I might not know a lot about biology but aren''t bucks supposed to be herbivores, because those wicked looking teeth give off the impression that this buck has developed a taste for flesh. And then there are its antlers. I mean what are those things, they look more like the oversized horns of a bull. I got a feeling that the blood they are stained in is not its own blood. Well, those horns do explain the why the bear has all those stab wounds.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    I was still wondering how he was able to take on this two headed bear who was most likely four times his size and weight. when the buck screamed and air started to surround him. He snorted, wow someone has an attitude, before charging at me with an explosive speed that was barely visible to the untrained eye. Before I can recover from the shock of seeing a buck almost teleport, I can feel one of its antlers piercing my abdomen. With a quick shake of its head, it throws me into a bunch of trees who burst into splinter the second my body makes contact with them.


    I slowly crawl back up and spat out a bit of blood. I silently cursed, "This is not what I meant when I said that I wanted to know how he killed that bear.". I spotted the beast cautiously and making its way towards me while the recently created wound in my abdomen started to close itself. After a quick glance, I estimated that it is going to take my body a few hours to patch itself up. Luckily for me, this body is not actually hindered by wounds. A bit after I came to this world I learned that as longs as I have magic energy inside of me this body will not grow weaker. I would rather not say how I learned of that since it is rather embarrassing. I grinned at the now rather exhausted looking beast in front of me. That attack most likely consumed most of the stamina he had left after the fight with that bear.


    It really made a mistake in trying to fight me while in such a weakened condition, well not like it could defeat me even if it was in its best condition. I mean the only reason that hit me was that I was not expecting it to be able to reach a speed like that in not even a second. Now that I know it I''m quite sure that I can dodge it and even if I''m not able to, I can just fly up in the air and rain literal fire and destruction on it, or just use the massive size and thick scales of my true form. What do you mean cowardly and dishonorable? I call that resourceful.


    While the beast is circling around me, I taunt him by doing some quick stretches, can''t pull a muscle right before the big ambush on those kids this night. Halfway through my stretches the beast, now visibly irritated, once again cladded itself in wind and charged at me like he did in the beginning. With a quick but powerful jump, I dodge the massive ball of muscle, hair and death and then launch myself back at it, crashing into his side with my shoulder and sending him flying.


    A cocky smile formed on my lips and I taunted it. "Come on you can do better than that, while your almost instant transmission is impressive and something I really would like to learn. It is not that hard to dodge when you have such an obvious indicator like the wind gathering around you. I fought bosses in games whose attacks were less telegraphed than yours."


    I lit the forest behind him on fire with a quick burst of flames to prevent the beast from escaping and said with a wicked grin, "My turn."


    I fired a blast of destruction magic to its right side forcing it to jump to the left and then when it did I quickly shot a ball of fire to the spot he tried to jump to. The beast once again clads itself in air, but this time the air looks a lot weaker. He then focused the air around his feet and somehow was able to defy gravity and made a Metroid style double jump. It''s only too bad that the only place he could jump to was higher into the sky. The beast now also noticed that he was trapped mid air and slowly closed his eyes when he saw my claws rapidly approaching his throat.


    I muttered, "Good fight, so tell me how were you able to double jump?", while cleaning the blood off my claws on its massive corps. I grabbed it by two of its legs and placed it on my shoulders. "You know it''s bad manners to not reply when someone asks you a question."


    A female voice close to me snickered, "You know that talking to corpses of Nightmares makes you look stupid, not cool right?"


    I drop the corps and take a battle stance while turning around towards the voice only to not see anyone around me. Well, I could not see anything around me but I could surely feel something. It was a strange sensation like there was a human-shaped blob of mana in front of me. Now that I noticed it I really wonder how I did not notice it before. Was I too distracted by the fight? Or did this concealed thing allow itself to be detected? What is this voice actually? Did the mana maybe get a conscience or did Chaos finally decided to contact me. Or maybe...


    Before I could think of any crazier and even more rediculous theories a woman wearing blue robes suddenly appeared before me and said, "Sorry for sneaking up on you with that invisibility spell but you should understand that it was for my own safety."


    I chuckled, "Oh and what makes you think that you are safe now?"


    The woman laughed, "Well those two elder nightmares killed each other so what should I be afraid of."


    I mused, "Interesting did she see me cast fire magic and is this a trap? No, if that was the case she would have simply attacked me before I noticed her. Does this means she actually thinks that I just stumbled on their corpses? I mean come on she can''t be that stupid. Even if she did not see me cast fire magic, she has to have noticed these big leathery wings on my back, or maybe the two horns decorating my head. No this has to be a trap, well let''s play along until she reveals what her intentions are."


    I smiled and said, "I might be a treat. For all you know I could be a bandit."


    The woman let out a small laugh and said, "I fear no bandits, they are but target practice to a great mage like me. But do you know what I do fear?"


    I asked, "Do tell me what would scare a strong mage like yourself?"


    Her gaze instantly grew serious and she said, "Strange winged fire-wielding demons."


    I cracked my knuckles. "Seems like you are going to get company in the afterlife Buck."


    Seeing this the woman in front of me raised her hands and created a small flame, "Luckily I have no wings, otherwise I would piss my pants everytime that I see myself in the mirror." Her tone grew sad and her voice silent as she said, "It''s good to see more of our kind have survived the purge."


    Seeing the flame in her hands I laugh,"Interesting, want to help me cook this thing? I''m ravenous and we could use the meal to sort this out."


    She pulled down her hood down, revealing a pale but obviously human face and teased, "Wow elder nightmare meat on a first date? You sure know how to impress a woman.