“You think you can handle him?” Henry asked.

  “I’m not handling anyone,” Rayne replied. “I’m fighting someone. Your choice of words is as odd as always.”

  “But you get my meaning. So, can you?”

  “I do not know but I will soon find out. Very soon,” Rayne said and rushed at the old knight.

  “What an impulsive ss,” the knight, Lionel, remarked and responded in kind.

  Rayne ducked under the greatsword and countered with a straight kick.

  Lionel received the kick straight on but he barely stumbled from it. He brought his sword around and swung down at Rayne.

  Rayne tutted and tossed herself out of the way. She twirled on the ground and swung herself back onto the knight. Her foot found the knight’s elbow, disrupting his stance. She then twisted her body and kicked at his other arm. The old knight went stumbling backwards and she sprang at him with both of her heels smming into his chest.

  Lionel went sprawling across the ground but his grip remained firm and strong on his greatsword. Despite his age, he was quick to recover and get back on his feet.

  “I can use some assistance,” Rayne said and rushed at the knight once more.

  This time, Lionel blocked Rayne’s attack with his sword instead of just accepting it with his armour. His stance was proper but even so, that kick made him falter and take a step back. “You’re stronger than you look, ss. Just what are you?”

  Rayne did not answer and pressed on with her assault.

  Meanwhile, Henry came at the knight from above. Lightning crackled in his hands. Using his fmes would be too risky considering Rayne was in the vicinity. Lightning was quicker and more precise but it cked the power his fmes had. He threw the lightning in his hands and it streaked towards the knight in the form of bolts.

  Lionel saw the bolts coming and he quickly fended Rayne off with a wide swing before dealing with the lightning bolts by backhanding them away.

  “Wow… that didn’t do shit,” Henry muttered. He knew he was weaker in this mindscape but not to this level.

  “A mage with a fighter’s aptitude. Or a fighter with a mage’s aptitude?” Lionel smiled, seemingly amused. “Either way, you two are very intriguing individuals. Lass, you’re obviously no human but you, boy, are no human either, are you?”

  Henry shrugged and threw Aura Bdes at the knight.

  With a roundhouse of his greatsword, Lionel destroyed all the ethereal projectiles thrown at him.

  Rayne aimed for the moment right after the knight made his move. It tends to be the most vulnerable moment of anyone in combat. However, the norms couldn’t be applied to Lionel.

  The knight brought his greatsword around in a wide arc in a different direction without a moment to rest.

  Instead of being surprised, Rayne snickered in delight. She used the sword as a foothold and dashed towards the knight.

  Left with no other option, Lionel raised his arm to guard against Rayne’s kick to his head. Though armoured like the rest of his body, the power behind that kick was nothing to scoff at even in the face of steel. Lionel heard a crack. No doubt it came from his arm. He stuck a foot out to maintain his bance but Rayne wasn’t finished yet.

  She spun in the air and smmed another kick into the knight. The air rippled and the shockwave sent the knight tumbling to the ground. The assault wasn’t over yet. It was Henry’s turn. He flew at Lionel and threw a firebolt. There was no way for the knight to defend himself this time as he was tumbling, or so Henry thought.

  With his other hand, Lionel conjured up an ethereal shield and blocked the firebolt. The shield crumbled into nothing as soon as it was exhausted of its use.

  “Oh, come on!” Henry grumbled.

  “Such amateurish attacks, boy. Are you one of those who grew up with only talent and without putting in any effort?”

  Henry ignored the knight’s words and sent a flurry of firebolts at him.

  Instead of using the shield, Lionel cut down the firebolts with his greatsword. When he was finished with the firebolts, he turned around just in time to deal with Rayne. Her punch grazed his helmet and her kick nearly took his stance.

  Henry clicked his tongue. “Fisticuffs it is.” He joined Rayne in her close-quarter combat. A simple punch yielded nothing for him. The knight saw his move coming from a mile away. He tried a kick like Rayne did but the knight easily repelled him with a knee jab. He went for a haymaker but the old knight spun out of his way.

  Rayne had better results. Her blows were connecting more than not. The knight had his attention all on her.

  “I’m slow and sluggish,” Henry told himself, a reluctant self-acknowledgement. It wasn’t just his spells and abilities. Even his movements were slower and heavier. It felt like he was wearing weights on his body, something he had never felt in a long while. “Perhaps my human form is holding me back in this world…”

  As soon as that thought crossed Henry’s mind, his disguise came undone. The world shook and trembled as if in fear of his sudden appearance.

  Lionel stopped and stared at Henry. “This cannot be… A dragon…” he gasped. “Four proper limbs with an extra auxiliary pair as its wings… This is no subspecies. You’re a pure-breed dragon.”

  Rayne wasn’t so generous as to let the knight stare in awe unharmed. Her straight punch caught the dazed knight in the jaw. She swept the knight’s legs and drove heel into the knight's belly.

  Lionel barely hung on to his bance using his greatsword as a clutch.

  Rayne was about to sm her foot into the knight’s face when she suddenly stopped. A crack appeared in the space in front of her.

  In fact, cracks began appearing all over the mindscape.

  “What have you done!?” Lionel bellowed. “The mindscape is colpsing. You’ll kill the hero at this point! Stop this!”

  “Will I?” Henry asked.

  “You’ll kill his mind. He’ll live but not his brain, which is what we are trying to accomplish. You should have done this from the beginning.”

  “Well, apologies. I don’t know how any of this works.”

  “Damn you two! Get out of this pce now! Your presence is too much for the hero’s mind to bear!”

  “I’m sorry, old man,” Henry apologised. “I don’t like any of this one bit but the hero is my enemy. An obstinate one. He’s a threat to me and my home.”

  “Leave!!” the knight roared and charged at Henry.

  “Just get this over with, Henry.”

  “Alright,” Henry said and huffed. In this form, a small puff was able to produce a giant ball of fmes that could easily envelop an adult human.

  The knight tried cutting the fireball down but unlike the previous times, his sword melted into molten steel and he himself was charred to cinders. When the fmes had faded, so had the ashes.

  “Oh, damn… That never gets easy to look at.”

  The world continued to crumble, breaking off piece by piece like fragile viscous gss.

  “Well, we did what we came here for. Now, how do we return?”

  “We wait,” Rayne answered.

  “Wait? Until when?”

  “Until the world saw fit to push us out of here, which is the complete destruction of this mindscape.”

  “Hold on. What were we supposed to do?”

  Rayne shrugged. “Destroy something.”

  “You’re not sure?”

  “I wouldn’t know until I saw what it is. However, we are fortunate enough. Your presence is enough to destroy this entire pce without the need for us to go looking for it.”

  “Are you telling me that we couldn’t have escaped this pce if we didn’t destroy what we were here to destroy?”

  “We can forcefully remove ourselves from this world but that method is… excruciating, to say the least.”

  “And you didn’t mention this. Why?”

  Rayne sighed. “Because I know you wouldn’t agree to this if I told you.”

  “You’re damn right about that…”

  “And I’m grateful for that,” Rayne muttered softly.

  Henry caught it but he didn’t tease her about that. He decided to let her have it. It was progress and he didn’t want to ruin it.

  The world continued to fall apart. Half of it had already crumbled, revealing the empty darkness underneath.

  “Why did you hesitate?” Rayne asked.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Why didn’t you just raze everything down the moment we got into this world? In fact, you are always very… reserved with your strength even though it’s limitless.”

  Henry smiled wryly. “What can I say? I don’t like it when things are too easy or simple.”

  “I’m not stupid, Henry. You adore convenience. Why do you always hold yourself back?”

  “...Because I don’t deserve this heritage that I have. I was born into it. I didn’t earn it or train for it. I just… have it. Having power, absolute power is addictive. I don’t wish to become reliant or compcent, as much as I can help it. My spar with Vishara had made my weakness much too obvious and my fight with the knight even more so.”

  “Talking about it changes nothing. You need to train.”

  “Obviously. But who would teach me?”

  “Vishara can but I doubt she would be willing to teach someone that could potentially become her enemy.”

  “Therefore, it falls onto you.”

  “Naturally.”

  Henry ughed. “I love you, Rayne.”

  “I know,” Rayne grumbled with an annoyed face but as soon as she turned her face away, she broke into a smile.

  Even though Henry couldn’t see her face, body heat told him enough of her feelings.

  Soon enough, the world was completely destroyed, leaving the two behind in darkness, though not for long. They were soon plunged out of the ruined world and back into reality.

  “Whoa, that was exciting. Now, what’s our next step?” Henry asked. He was back in his human form. He stretched his muscles and waited for an answer but no response came. Feeling the oddness, he turned around, only to see Rayne and Vishara frozen on the spot as if time had ceased to flow. Henry was confused for a second but then he remembered the time he experienced such a phenomenon.

  “Hello, Henry.” greeted a voice.

  Henry turned around and found a girl standing behind him. “Of course, it’s you, Nadea.”

  “You don’t sound thrilled to see me.”

  “Should I be? You only appear when there’s something terrible happening.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  “I am right.” Henry sighed. “So, what’s the problem now? More rifts?”

  “Just one.”

  “Where?”

  “Here.”

  “Here? Specifically this town or this world?”

  “Specifically, in the royal capital of the Argon Kingdom.”

  Henry’s eyes went wide. “Well… that’s not good.”

  “It isn’t.”

  Henry groaned. “Great… Just great. How did this happen? You said he will be out of commission for quite some time.”

  “He is out of commission. He is seeking haven at the moment. That’s not much he can do besides fleeing. He just so happens to choose that pce of all pces.”

  Henry sighed in exasperation. “I trust that the nation is in chaos right now?”

  “That’s the strange part. It’s not.”

  Henry frowned. “It’s not? How can it not be?”

  “I do not know but a rift has appeared there and no commotion was raised. Either the people there are unaware or…”

  “The high officials are keeping it a secret to prevent a panic.”

  “Henry, what kind of era do you think this world is in? Do you believe the high officials would care so much about their people panicking?”

  Henry thought about it for a moment. “They would care but not to the point of preventing it. They are keeping it a secret because… Oh. I see… but can such a thing even happen?”

  “He needed a pce to recuperate. A pce that you can’t easily reach. He will need protection while he recovers. This is a win-win scenario for him. He will recover and spread his influence at the same time. Given the kingdom’s reputation, their greed will make them blind to consequences.”

  “Well, ain’t it just fucking dandy.”