No Such Thing as Good and Evil

Shade was walking down a dirt road south of Alessandria. Like anywhere in the world, no matter how dense, or populous a city might be, you head a few hours in any direction and you’ll find yourself in empty grasslands or some form of forest. This was no different. After walking through a few small towns on the outskirts of the capital, then through some farm lands, he was now walking down a dirt road that cut through tall grassy fields with cattail like plants sticking a dozen feet high out of the already tall grass, making it feel like a forest of grass rather than the field it was. On the other side of the grassy field on either side of the road was actual forest, with tall evergreen like trees.

He had been following the road in a straight line, never turning down other paths when they came on offer. He was rather directionless as what he told the people in the meeting wasn’t exactly a lie. He hadn’t really thought about what comes after seeing Faylen off into the academy. He had told them that he would probably go back to drinking, but could he do that now? Over his time with Faylen, he had slowly begun to sober up, and came to the sober realities and conclusions his drinking was running from. Now that he had stared them in the face, what would be the point of drinking?

Though just because he had finally begun to admit to himself the realities of his past, didn’t mean he was any happier than before, in fact it was quite the opposite. Coming to grips with yourself being the villain you strived not to be, and swore to people you weren’t is a depressing reality, and one he thought could in theory be drunk away. His mind and body wanted to find the nearest tavern and empty its cabinets out in one night. But what would the point of finally admitting to himself his past failures if he just fell back into old habits?

He wanted to spend a few quiet days walking through the country side deciding what his next move would be, if he had one. Maybe finding a quiet cabin in a quiet town would be nice. The world though wasn’t nearly as nice or accommodating. As he was walking down the path thinking to himself, he sensed two beings in the tall grass next to him. He stopped walking and looked over to the grass, where two people walked out, a phoenix and a wolf.

“I’m surprised you sensed us; you must be as powerful as we heard.” The phoenix said in a similarly high-pitched chirp like voice as the knight commander he had just met. This phoenix though looked more birdlike than the knight commander from Alessandria, but still mostly human. Her lower legs and lower arms ended in hawklike talons, and her mouth was a beak, but the rest of her looked like a person. That was except for her hair made out of fire smoking off her head and wings made of fire exploding from her back.

“He doesn’t look like a dragon to me, don’t dragons normally have scales?” The wolf said. His voice deep and dopey, matching his comments. His body also matched as well. He was quite tall, slightly shorter than 7 feet, and was massive, but not with muscles. He was rather round, and looked like he gave great hugs. His fur was a light brown with a few white spots visible on the little fur he was showing off. Both of them were wearing black leather armor with the now very familiar skull dragon hunter logo embroidered onto it, these gold as well, just like the ones he fought while saving Vestelle.

“If I had a coin for every time people came out of tall grass to attack us, I would have two coins, which is weird but…” He began to say, looking over to Faylen…. who wasn’t there. He frowned. “Right.”

“Who are you talking to?” The dopey wolf asked.

Shade looked back from the empty void next to him to the wolf. “Just another ghost to pass through my life, anyway, what can I do for you fine people.”

“You’re under investigation for being a dragon. We were given a description for a dragon in hiding that perfectly matches you. You’re going to have to come with us for further interrogation.” The phoenix said.

“Why do we need to interrogate him? Why don’t we just ask him if he’s actually dragon?” The wolf asked.

“He’s not going to just tell…” The phoenix began to say, but was cut off.

“Yea, I’m a dragon.” Shade said.

“See?” The wolf said pointing at Shade while looking at the phoenix.

The phoenix snarled and her eyes shot daggers at Shade, a sudden feeling of visceral hatred filled the air. “Now you’re definitely going to have to come with us. I’ll make sure to slowly break this sense of humor right out of you.”

“What’s got her so mad?” Shade asked the wolf. “It’s not like she’s the one who’s being threatened with getting kidnapped, tortured and used as a slave before ultimately being killed. That would be me, shouldn’t I be the one that’s mad?”

“She hates dragons, I think something happened to her in the past with them, but she doesn’t say. A bit of a closed book when it comes to her past.” The wolf responded.

Shade shook his head and looked back to the Phoenix. “You should probably open up a bit more about your past, it’s a bad idea to keep it all bottled up. Unless you want to drink your past away for 10 years like I did, then just keep doing what you’re doing.”

“I don’t need to take life advice from someone whose people are what made me like this.” She snarled back.

“Racism doesn’t fix anything Ms. Phoenix.” He replied, then put his finger to his chin. “I just realized I’ve seen two Phoenix’s today. Aren’t you supposed to be rare? Are you related to the knight commander in Alessandria?”

“No.” She replied in the same snarl. “I’m not related to that half blooded phoenix. She doesn’t even have the beak or limbs of a true phoenix; how dare you compare me to someone like her!”

“Oh, more racism, great.” Shade said. “Well, if this is going to turn into a fight to the death, could we maybe do this another day? Just a few hours ago I gave this long out of character monologue about how sad and depressed I am from all the killing I’ve done in my past, and I would prefer not to kill anyone right after that.”

The wolf took a small book from a magic pouch that the book in no way shape or form should have been able to fit in, then started looking through it. “Hmmm…. Would Wednesday work for you?” he asked.

Shade and the phoenix both looked at the wolf baffled for a moment, before Shade reached into his own bag and pulled out a random book that was in no way a calendar, then began to turn pages, pretending to check his availability. “Wednesday?” He shook his head. “I’m rather busy Wednesday. Does Saturday work for you?”

“Saturday?” The wolf replied scratching his head while looking at his calendar. “I could make it work, but I would prefer not to. I’ve got a 10 – 5 torture shift that day, I’m usually so sore after those you would think I’m the one being tortured!” He joked, letting out a belly laugh.

Shade did not laugh. “Sounds awful.” He said flatly.

“Put your damn calendar away you fool, we’re taking him in now. That’s why we were sent out here in the first place.” The phoenix said, glaring at her companion.

“But he said…” The wolf began but was cut off.

“It doesn’t matter what he said. He’s a dragon, he’s going to be no more than a slave to us soon. His wants and needs don’t matter.” The phoenix said in a stern voice, ending all discussion.

The wolf looked from the phoenix back to Shade. “Sorry sir, but my boss here makes the decisions, it seems like it’ll have to be today.”

Shade sighed. “Fine, lets get this over with then.” And transformed into his true form.

Shock befell the faces of both hunters before a devilish smile came on the face of the Phoenix. “A lucifer. I’ve never fought one of your kind before. I can see why they sent two of us out here, this should be fun.” Shade didn’t react or respond to her words, instead he stood there silently, almost bored. He looked around at the surroundings, the sky, kicked a rock and hummed to himself. The phoenix scowled. “You don’t seem to understand your situation. Your life is over.”

“Are you one of those people who go on long diatribes during fights?” Shade asked nonchalantly. “I understand my apparent current situation just fine. I’m just waiting for you to actually, you know, do something. You want to capture me, its on you to start the fight and make first move.”

The devilish smile returned to the phoenix. “I can’t wait to break you.” She said almost seductively.

The wolf looked over to her. “Wait, why do you get him?”

“Yea.” Shade said. “What if I want to be a slave to the wolf?”

“You don’t get a choice. Fireball!” The phoenix yelled as her fire wings flared bright orange and she took off into the sky as a ball of fire erupted out of her talon hands and soared at Shade, who looked at her with confusion as he casually dodged to the side causing the fireball to explode on the ground harmlessly. “Fireball, Fireball, Fireball!” She yelled in rapid fire, and dozens of fireballs rained down at Shade, who casually dodged them all.

“Why are you yelling out what ability you’re using, there’s literally no reason too!” Shade yelled up at her.

“She thinks its cool.” The wolf said, shaking his head.

“Cool?” Shade replied turning to the wolf. “What person thinks that’s cool. It’s also a terrible fighting strategy. You’re literally telling what you’re about to do.”

“I agree.” The wolf shrugged. “But she thinks it’s cool, so she does it.”

“Can you stop conversing with the enemy. Fire Spear!” She yelled, and as suggested, a spear shaped fire came flying at Shade, who once again casually moved to the side.

“You do realize that just changing the shape of the fire doesn’t do anything, right?” Shade called up to her. “That ‘spear’ had no physical substance; it was just more fire. Whether it’s a fireball, a firebolt, a fire spear, a fire duck, it’s still just fire. Also” He began to say while mockingly pointing at himself. “Not sure if you noticed, but I’m a dragon. Fire doesn’t affect me.”

“Then why dodge? It’s because you know, you can feel it. My fire is hotter than the sun!” The phoenix proudly proclaimed.

“No.” Shade replied. “It’s because the fire would still affect my clothes, I would rather not be standing here naked after the fight. Hotter than the sun though? How do you know that? Have you been to the sun to take its temperature? I’ve never been myself; it seems to be pretty far away. Was it like a weekend getaway with the girls?”

The wolf let out a giggle, and the phoenix scowled. “You want substance, fine, I’ll give you substance. Fire Tornado!” She put her talons to the sky, and a tornado made of fire seemingly reaching the clouds appeared and began barreling toward Shade, the grass around the path blowing so hard it looked like someone was trampling over it. The twister was easily larger than the road, and Shade would actually have to put in real effort to dodge it.

“Oh. This one is at least interesting.” Shade said as he calmly watched the bright orange tornado move toward him. “Though still I would argue that the main danger is the fire. The wind is kind of an inconvenience, some dust is getting in my eyes, but ultimately since I’m not flying, it’s not a huge deal. Anyway, you seem dead set on burning my clothes off, not sure if you have some dragon fetish and want to see me naked, but I guess I’ll play along.” He stood completely still as the tornado engulfed him. It stopped on top of him, with him at the center, and spun for over 30 seconds while the phoenix laughed maniacally. Finally, she clasped her hand that was to the sky and the tornado disappeared to reveal the grass around the road burnt to cinders and Shade, now naked, without a single burn mark on him. Her laughter quickly turned to shock, then anger. “I told you I wouldn’t burn, I guess I’m hotter than the sun. If only girls saw it that way.” He shrugged.

The wolf laughed again, this time loudly, and the phoenix turned an angry glare at him. “You think this is funny, you’re just standing there not doing anything!”

Shade nodded his agreement and looked at the wolf. “She’s right, let’s see what you’ve got for me. Please for the love of God though don’t start yelling out your moves.”

The wolf smiled. “You wish to see my art!” He yelled, as Draconic wings erupted from his back and he flew into the air as well.

Shade squinted suspiciously at the wings, but didn’t say anything about them. “Your art?”

“Yes!” He yelled now about 100 feet in the air. “With the power I have now, I can show you my true talents!” Then a large ball of iron formed above him, quickly shaping into a statue of a lion. He threw the statue down at Shade with shocking force. Shade once again easily dodged to the side, as the statue slammed into the ground, creating a small crater. After dodging though, he immediately went up to the statue to look at it. It was a perfect, oddly anatomically correct, statue of a male lion.

“You throw statues at people as your attacks?” Shade asked while still inspecting the ridiculously well detailed lion statue.

“Life is beautiful, and thus death should be beautiful as well!” The wolf proudly proclaimed.

“What does that even mean.” Shade muttered to himself. He then turned away from the statue and ping ponged his eyes back and forth from the two now flying hunters a few times. “Oh, I get it now. You two are paired up because you’re the…different ones of the group, aren’t you?” he then quickly looked back at the statue, then back to the wolf. “Can you do other creatures?”

“Of course, who do you take me for!” The wolf yelled, and 5 large balls of iron appeared over his head, forming into creatures. A Basilisk, Griffon, Whale, Elephant and Sea Serpent. He threw them all down at once at Shade, who managed once again to easily dodge them all, before looking them over.

“Man, the next person to come down this road is going to be very confused.” Shade said, then had an epiphany. “Wait, can you make things out of other metals or rocks then iron?”

“Sure can, is there some stone you would prefer to get beaten to death with?”

“Can you make gold, diamond, ruby, emerald, and other valuable stones or metals?”

“Sure can.” The wolf smiled. “I’m not supposed to as it apparently would affect the economy, but for a strong foe like you, I can make an exception. What creature would you like to kill you?”

“Can you make a statue of me?” Shade asked.

The wolf scratched his chin as he looked down at Shade. “Maybe. Can you turn around a few times.” Shade obliged, spinning around a few times like a model showing off a new dress, even doing a few poses in the process. The wolf nodded. “I can make it work.” He said, and a dozen balls of various valuable metals and stones formed above his head, then shaped into a statue of Shade. Then the rainbow of wealth in Shade form shot down at actual Shade. Shade dodged again and watched with hope that the statues wouldn’t take any damage from hitting the ground.

He could have used an ability of some sort to slow their fall, but he was finding enjoyment in playing with the two hunters. Was he falling back into the ways he just told Gaelin he wasn’t proud of, and regretted? Maybe. But if he was to join the war like Gaelin wanted, these are the very same ‘bad’ people he would be fighting anyway, so what’s wrong with having a little fun along the way.

As Shade looked around at the wasteland of himself in statue form, the statues all depicting him heroically holding his famous daggers to the sky, which he appreciated the wolf doing, the fun began to leave his mind as he made a realization. He had been confused when draconic wings came from the back of the wolf. Then the wolf said “with the power I have now”, insinuating he doesn’t typically have this power. Looking around at the statues, and how quickly he made them, it would take a lot of power. Power he suggested he didn’t normally have. Which could only mean one thing. It was someone else’s power, they had slaves here they were using as batteries. But where? They had to be hidden in the forest somewhere, but which forest, there was forest on both sides of the road. After debating with himself for a moment, Shade took off flying towards the woods opposite of the grass they appeared out of.

“Running away are you!” The phoenix yelled. “A great lucifer dragon scared of us. We won’t let you get away though, Meteor Shower!”

Hundreds of various sized meteors engulfed in flame began to rain from the sky and plummet to the ground. “I would like to make it clear that if any of those hit and hurt me, it’s the rocks in the meteors, not the fire!” Shade yelled as he flew through the woods.

“I don’t need your clarification!” The phoenix yelled back as she and the wolf gave chase.

Meteors crashed into the woods, sending trees tumbling to the ground, and causing the woods to go up in flame. Smoke bellowed to the sky as explosions sounded from all around, but Shade did not stop nor falter. The two hunters could not come close to matching his speed as he slalomed through the forest with ease. He could easily have gotten away from them, but that wasn’t his goal. After a few minutes of flying, he came to a clearing in the woods, and in the center of the clearing were six dragons all kneeling on the ground. He flew over to them, and landed right next to them, taking them in as his breathing began to get faster and heavier. The six dragons all had their tails cut off, horns cut off and wings cut off. They were all blindfolded, collared, chained and gagged. They all also look malnourished, and had scars on them from various beatings and torture they had endured.

The two hunters then arrived at the scene and landed a few dozen feet behind Shade, with the Phoenix laughing evilly. “I see you found our little secret. Now you know though how futile your fight was from the beginning. You couldn’t match the strength of six dragons, nor could you remove all their collars one by one without us taking you down first. It’s over lucifer, if you give up now, I promise I’ll only torture you a little bit.”

Shade though didn’t hear anything she said. His eyes had stopped on the last member of the line of dragon slaves. A small brown dragon, no more than eight or nine years old. He stared at the cut off wings, the gags, the cut off tail, as anger consumed him. Not just at the hunters, but at himself. He had disappeared for about a decade; this dragon was not as old as that. Merellien had apparently been capturing dragons for awhile now. Had this kids’ whole life, or close to it, been as a slave? As he considered that, his eyes, tail, and horns began to blink like a light, from the typical red to black and back again.

“Oh, the child has seemed to upset you. Would it make you feel better if I told you how we broke him.” The phoenix laughed. “The only food we ever gave him was his own parents. We made him eat his own parents, part by part. You should have seen the tears!” The blinking stopped, as his eyes, tail and horn locked into solid black. Just like when rescuing Vestelle, electricity began to crackle around him, and the ground began to shake. The phoenix frowned as she looked down at the ground. “What’s this power?” Shades posture became perfectly straight as he reached his hand out toward the collared dragons, and six perfect streams of boiling black echos shot into each collar, causing them to all break at once. “What? Impossible!” The phoenix yelled.

Shade then slowly turned to the pair, his breathing now slow, but heavy with black embers coming out of his mouth with every breath. “You told me your fire was hotter than the sun. I’ve said this once before and I’ll say it again now. You want to see fire? I’ll show you fire.” Shade launched himself at the Phoenix like a bolt of lightning, covering the ground between them in milliseconds. The phoenix still tried to dodge, but having lost her strength and enhanced power from the dragons she was sapping, she could not. Shade barreled into her, knocking her to the ground. She tried to get up but he pushed her back down with a foot into her chest. She wheezed from the kick as he then pinned her arms to the ground with his legs kneeling on top of them. The two of them locked eyes for a second, the pure fear in hers giving Shade pleasures he wished it didn’t. But now wasn’t the time to admonish himself, or try to be the better person he wanted to strive to be. If anybody he had ever killed had deserved it, this woman was at the top of the list. He opened his mouth wide, and hells fire poured out engulfing her entire body in flame. She yelled and screamed, kicked and struggled trying to get away, but there was no getting out from under Shade. She tried to counter his fire with her own, but hers wasn’t as hot as the sun, and now without the extra power, it certainly wasn’t as hot as hells flames.

While most people burnt to ashes within moments of being engulfed in hell fire, the phoenix being made of fire, did have some resistance to it, but that was fine by Shade. The longer she was tortured, the better. The wolf tried to help, first running at Shade to try and push him off, but Shade casually punched him with one arm without even looking at him. The wolf went flying back, tumbling over the ground. When he got up, he formed a now small ball of iron which took no shape, and shot it at Shade. Shade caught it in the same hand without looking, closed his fist around it, and engulfed his fist in hells fire. Molten liquid iron dripped from his fist, as the phoenix finally fell silent, her resistances failing as she became ash.

“Who are you?” The wolf asked with wide eyed pure fear.

Shade reached his hand into the ash pile and pulled out her soul, then ate it. He slowly got off the ashes, then turned to the wolf, grinning. “I’m the black devil. Did they not tell you when you were sent for me?”

The wolfs eyes somehow went wider, looking like they were going to pop out of their sockets. “The black devils dead, he’s been dead for a decade.”

“No.” Shade said with a voice oozing bloodlust. “I’m not dead, but you are.” He then launched himself at the wolf, who had no time nor ability to react as Shade grabbed his head in his hand, and popped it like a pimple. The now headless corpse limply fell to the ground. He punched his hand into its chest, and ripped its soul out, eating it as well. He then began laughing as he let out a large burst of echos in victory. Then he heard chains rattling and turned around to see the six dragons all shaking violently in fear. In fear of him, the man who was saving them. Instantly his eyes turned back red, as did his tail and horns. He had lost his head again, after almost getting Vestelle killed doing so, he was now terrifying the people he was trying to save.

He completely hid his echos and walked over to the six dragons. He removed the gags, blindfolds and chains, freeing them. It didn’t stop them from nervously shaking still afterwards. All of them remained kneeling, refusing to make eye contact with him. All except one, the child. The child got up from his kneeling position, with a female dragon next to him trying to stop him. She failed though and the child stood right in front of Shade, nervously looking up into his bright red eyes. “What?” Shade asked.

The child winced at the simple question, as did the rest of the now freed dragons. The child though stood his ground. “Sir Lucifer, did you come to save us?”

“I’m going to be honest with you, no I didn’t.” Shade replied, and the child flinched at the words, scared of why Shade had come then. “I was attacked by the two dragon hunters that brought you out here, saving you just happened to be a part of killing them.”

The child looked at the motionless and headless body of the former wolf dragon hunter that was behind Shade, then back to him. He gulped before speaking. “Then what are you going to do with us?”

“Nothing.” Shade responded. “You’re free now, go do whatever you want, I’m not your master or anything.”

The child and all the now freed dragons seemed confused by those words. He assumed they had been slaves for a while now and weren’t sure how to move forward or what to do with their newly found freedom. After a few moments of silence, the child spoke again. “Where should we go?”

Shade shrugged. “That’s up to you.”

The child’s face went through a few phases as cogs were turning in his head. He then looked at Shade one more time. “Where are you going?”

Shade paused for a moment and sighed before turning and facing north. “I have an old friend who I’m pretty sure wants me to go to Endross. I don’t really have any interest in going myself, but there is something there I’ve always wanted to check out. Something I was told about awhile ago but never looked into. I think it’s time I finally did.”