"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"
Blood was gushing from his head, dying, dying, squirming and wriggling inside of his brain. Help him, save him, save him, s,a,v,e,h,i,m—
Following the assault to his brain, the rapier was torn from his head and a large, gargantuan sword too unfit to be wielded by a mortal was created, used to cleave off his legs, before his body was grabbed and thrown through the floors of the building, breaking through a few and ending up on the fifth floor.
…
A woman with brown hair held a small boy in her arms, before tossing him onto a bed, to which he said "oof!"
A blanket was wrapped around him, and he was unable to move, as if he was a burrito. He laughed wholeheartedly, finding playtime with his mom to be quite enjoyable.
…
A youthful boy, perhaps around 14 or 15, walked down the hallway of a new highschool, enthusiastically greeting everyone.
He seemed desperate, even if friendly, as he wasn't typically one to do such a thing. In fact, this was his last time trying to make lots of friends. It was the third day of school, and though he tried to greet everyone happily, it failed in terms of getting him any friends.
Still despised, and though he really tried on the first and second day of school, the fact was that he remained still utterly friendless by just the third day of his freshman year.
…
'The, the furnace, I have, hafto…'
In the middle of a room, with white stone walls, Arthur fell to his knees, looking at his hands.
"I have, the, ferns…"
He looked around at the walls, the word "ASHES" etched into them, along with blood and chalky, broken fingernail dust.
Arthur turned over, seeing himself. Yet, it was not his currently monstrous form, with terrible acne and a completely bald head, but rather his old self, perhaps even before he became a dragon.
"We have to, we have to go, the furnace," Arthur stumbled, walking over and grabbing his other selves arm. For convenience sake, his other self shall be called Assas.
"No, it's scary…" Assas whimpered, rejecting Arthur's grasp. Arthur was thrown into a rage, kicking Assas in the nose, breaking it and causing blood to shoot from his nose.
"You fucking idiot," Arthur told him. "It's scary? How do you think I feel, knowing my life got ruined because of you, huh? You think it's so hard being you, but you don't know what it's really like to be helpless. I'll show you. I'll show you, alright."
Arthur mounted Assas, balling up his fists and wailing on the weaker version. His fists collided with nice smacking sounds, though the punches also hurt Arthur's knuckles more than he expected it to.
"A-aagughaaaa—"
"Shut up!"
Wrapping his slender fingers around that man's throat, Arthur placed all of his bodyweight on his arms, driving Assas' throat to the ground with absolute heaviness.
"Stupid, stupid stupid! We have to go to the furnace, but you're afraid? Huh? You're afraid!? You, you fucking killed Sally, and you're afraid?! Stupid, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"
Clenching the slim neck with all his might, Arthur berated Assas relentlessly.
It was all Assas' fault, after all. If Assas had just died, or ran away, or done anything, then maybe Sally would still be alive. But he didn't.
"I ended up like this because of you. You betrayed mom, and this whole fucking mess, everything, all of the pain, all of the misery, it's all because, because of… BECAUSE OF YOU!"
Arthur began to sniffle, angrily crying as he continued trying to strangle, to drown the life out of himself.
The world began to swirl around, the etches of "ASHES" being mixed with other etches, as Arthur's world became blurry from crying.
"Someone, someone, help me, help me, please help me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll do better, I'll do better, please just make it stop hurting so much…!"
Arthur wailed, before letting go of Assas' neck, collapsing to the side.
'The, the furnace, I hafta, the furnace…'
Arthur got up, sloppily walking through the swirling and dizzying world, as he felt sick. He grabbed the door and opened it, entering the furnace alone.
'I need, the furnace, wait, why isn't he… he has to be here, right? Arthur, you have, have to, go to the furnace with me, please, if I want to leave, I—'
In order to leave the room, he had to enter the furnace with the other Arthur, and be burned to ashes, then rise up as the same person.
The flames turned on, and Arthur began to melt, jumping around, trying to not feel pain but was ultimately unable to escape, being burnt to ash.
Sure, he came out as one person, but Assas was still Assas, and not him, meaning that—
"I can't leave, Arthur! You have, have to, wha…? What's going on? Why am I, aaaaaa? It hurts, why, what? What? Wait, seriously, what? What's going, huh? Huh. Hm."
Arthur crouched, holding his head as his head was still filled with tears.
"I'm dying, I'm dying I'm dying, no fucking way, I'm actually, I'm actually dying! Oh shit, oh shit shit shit shit, I'm dying, I'm gonna fucking die, I'm dying, I'm dyingI'mdyingdyingdyingdyingaaaaaaaaa—"
…
Back in the real world, his body was kicked into overdrive. His brain was sending all kinds of signals.
His bladder and bowels both were relaxed, leading to an accident.
"Ah, ah, a,a,a,a,a,a,a,a, AHHHHH, AAAAAAAAAAAHHH. Mlegh, flred, boandn, kghhhh!!"
His head was burning up, absolutely flaring with intensity, swelling and exploding, destroying and being destroyed.
He twitched like a dead pig, vomit and saliva were ejected from his throat, as his body writhed around like a dying centipede.
He was going to die soon.
The dragons rushed down to him, ignoring Damien, who did nothing to help. However, just before they could get to him, a dragon flew through the windows of the building, grabbing ahold of him and exiting through the other window, flapping their wings.
It was day outside, so this dragon, one who descended from Luna, the Moon Dragon, wasn't as powerful as he'd hoped.
Arthur continued to twitch violently, making noises that one might hear in a room full of brain damaged people.
Though the rapier hit his brain, it wasn't immediately fatal. It was as if he'd undergone a traumatic brain injury. No, it was not "as if," since he clearly had.
Though, his body being thrown into overdrive was actually a good thing, since that made him auto-heal.
His brain was healed, in turn with his legs, as was the acne on his face, and his baldness was removed, with him growing a full head of hair
He found himself in the arms of Taylor, a previous opponent, and he leapt out of those hands.
Arthur had accidentally recovered the blood, which shattered and was absorbed into his body, which allowed his legs to be cleaved off. Arthur looked at Taylor, before sprouting clothes to cover up his body, before cleaning up his lower half of the mess he'd made.
"W-waha, ahagu, huu?"
"Er, whatever, yeah. Listen," Taylor said. "You spared me, so I came to help you. But since you only spared me once, the same applies for now. Now, we're even, so I'll kill you once this is all said and done, got it?"
"Uuh."
The damage to his soul and body was still going strong. However, his brain still registered itself as if working properly.
So, in recalling what had just happened, seeing that Damien had seemingly "killed" him, it was only natural that Arthur looked at it with even further destruction.
…
It was all over.
His mission of killing dragons was worthless. In an existence where he knew for sure that all he would experience was the pain of living, knowing that he would forever be unfit for the world, such was the world Arthur lived in.
All alone. And when anyone did try to reach him, he smacked their hand away.
Then, they would hate him. Of course they would. It was only natural.
So, it was all pointless, and much too painful to even think of trying to stick out. Such was the factors that caused him to be determined to die.
Craving death, yearning for it. Arthur was well aware that his life simply wasn't worth living.
He'd known it for so long. But it was only now that he would decide to fully push for it, give it everything he had.
…
He wanted to die, so he would pursue death, but it would not be by his own hand.
'It's all worthless anyways. Fine, I admit it. I want to die, and I just want it all to end already. I just want to finally stop moving, to stop thinking, to stop existing, to stop feeling so much pain already.'
'I'm weak. I'm so, so weak. Everything was all stacked against me from the beginning.'
'I was born ugly, I was always so weak, stupid, and I can't do anything right. I'm just tired of living, of being myself.'
'I got my friend killed. Whatever. I don't care about anything anymore. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters. Arthur Assas has just been a stupid fucking idiot from the moment he was born, and as always, the weak tend to suffer.'
"I just want to die already. Please, end this pain and kill me already, you useless pieces of shit."
Such were the final words of Arthur, before he burst at Damien, summoning that armor around himself, with the helmet taking the form of a monster with an elongated mouth, with sharp red teeth to rip apart and devour.
Damien saw his older brother, still alive, lunge at him with intent to devour.
After all, to violate the Second Taboo, one must consume their related family member to death.
Initially he tried to evade, but it was too late. Arthur reached him, biting down to kill him.
"——!"
But before he could reach him, another family member took the blow, having his shoulder bitten down with such force that it was torn off, before being swallowed by the Dragon.
"H-Hiein…?"
Blood exploded from the missing limb, but the bleeding was stopped due to Hiein using Blood Armory to harden the blood at the wound, preventing it from continuing to bleed.
Hiein attempted to fight back, but it wasn't enough. The tentacles sprouted from the back of the Dragon, wrapping around his limbs and spreading them. His body was lifted into the air, as Hiein tried to shatter the blood using his own Blood Armory.
However, with Arthur's own Art being on a higher level, it was unable to be altered by Hiein.
"Son of a bitch…! Damien!" Hiein initially yelled. However, upon calling that name, his voice softened.
He turned his head around, looking down at the teenager, seeming concerned, yet still smiling.
If this truly was the end for him…
"Save Jack, okay?"
Damien swallowed his spit on instinct, before bearing witness to the execution of Hiein Assas, by beheading.
Arthur chomped on the skull, crushing up the bone and brain into mush, before swallowing it and continuing to devour the corpse.
It had been done.
…
The Second Taboo was primarily broken in order to obtain strength lost on deformed children. Outside of that, dragons didn't have the guts to do it, as their family members were typically either too important to them, or too strong to devour.
So, for the first time in a very, very long time, the Second Taboo had been broken twice by the same person.
Upon breaking the Second Taboo once, increased power to their Dragon Art would arrive. However, if done a second time, even further power would be gained.
Lastly, however, what if the devoured persons had the very same Dragon Art as the devourer?
The Self Consuming Dragon. In such an act of self consumption, in such an act of eating someone with an identical Dragon Art to oneself, there was nothing left to be said but a simple, done-to-death phrase.
The birth of a monster.
…
Damage being done to his mind and soul, Arthur turned towards Damien. Of course, the dragons who were attacking prior were busy dealing with the others, so it was just them.
"Kill me."
Such was Arthur's command, as he formed his cutlass once more, at the cost of his armor being taken off.
Arthur exploded towards Damien, and before Damien could do anything, he was severed in half, top and bottom. His upper body was kicked away, before Arthur launched into the air, getting rid of his wings and relying solely on his legs.
Arthur impaled a dragon in the back of the head with his cutlass, stabbing the brain and cranking it around inside of the skull, killing the dragon before it could heal properly.
Blood Armory, having evolved even further, was now able to drain blood far stronger now.
For an estimation, it would take Arthur around two or three minutes to completely drain the blood of a fully transformed dragon off of one impalement, assuming nothing was hindering him or causing him to remove the weapon.
It drained up as much blood as it could, before Arthur left off of the dragon's corpse, soaring through the air and looking down at the battles below.
He set his sights on one dragon, before gliding down, using blood as a glider before releasing it, and elongating the cutlass, beheading the dragon in just one swing. Arthur plunged himself into the main body of the dragon, coating himself in Blood Armory to absorb the blood quicker than before.
Ultimately, then, he stole all of the blood and stockpiled it, leaving the corpse of darkness and beheading the dragon once more, as it had fully healed back its lower body once more.
Now, the dragon was too exhausted of stamina to heal, leading to its demise.
Arthur stood on a rooftop, looking down at the ground with a small laughter.
"Kill me. Kill me, kill me, kill me, please, just kill me already, I just want to die, I just want to die!"
He leapt away, continuing his onslaught.
…
Using the splashes of blood which coated the buildings as a result of the gargantuan beasts fighting, Damien was able to heal himself. The Darkness continued to rise, drowning the people in the lower areas.
'Fuck, shit, shit! I lost, I couldn't… I couldn't stop Todd's plan…!'
With Arthur's ability to kill all of the enemies being the main crux of the plan, it was now perhaps the worst case scenario for Damien, that Arthur was not just alive, but also stronger than ever before.
Damien took back his clothes, looking out and seeing Arthur's movements.
He was leaping from dragon to dragon, slaughtering the enemies nearly effortlessly, it seemed. After all, that cutlass could cut right through them, so all it required was a good slice to the brain.
In fact, their gargantuan size made it even more troublesome for them, as not only was their durability practically null, it meant that they were slower simply due to their sheer mass they had to carry.
'Shit, if it's like this, then, then…!'
"Damn. I was actually really worried there, so this sure is a relief."
Damien turned back with great fright, hearing the voice of the War Dragon. Todd stood with his hands behind his back, seeming extra cool.
"T-Todd…?"
"Yep, that's my name. I bet you thought you were real slick, trying to get Arthur to die, huh?"
"No, but, son of a…"
Damien looked over at the mass of blood left behind by Hiein's corpse. Todd smirked.
"It was pretty easy to guess what you were trying to do, since you seemed awfully upset at my comment about making Arthur's hard work for naught. You yourself have learned the goodness of hard work, so you were able to empathize, and do what you could to stop me."
'This dick…'
"You sound like a villain, giving monologues and whatnot," berated Damien. "Please, enlighten me on more of your master plan, douchebag."
Todd shook his head, taking a step down from the ledge and walking over to Damien, bending down to look him in the eyes.
"This isn't all apart of some elaborate plan or scheme. Sure, I've got ideas for the future, but by no means do I particularly 'plan' things out," Todd explained quite calmly.
"I'm an opportunist. I find out a boy has become a Traitor, and he's joined the Graves family. Obviously, Hiein, the current strongest member of the Asssas family won't be too pleased with that; he's got some trauma related to that. So, I ally with the Assas family, see what I can do with the Traitor, I visit and get a read on him. He seems dorky, and after a background check with his mother, I find out he loves his friends dearly and has a grudge against the world of dragons."
With a smile, he continued:
"So, I take a friend and kill them. I gamble on if he lives; if he dies then Hiein, a big man in the Assas family, takes a liking to me and I've gained standing. If he lives, then that can mean war against the Graves family. Whether he lives or dies, it means battle against the Graves family, one of the big three families. Because he's a Traitor, and I've gained allies with the Assas, who themselves are allies with the Zeus family, I can wage war and, if I play my cards right, win."
"Tch… you bastard!" Damien yelled. He grabbed Todd by the collar, pulling him even closer. "You, I was being sarcastic when I asked for your master plan! I don't need to know how all of this came to be, I don't care, I don't want to listen to you spill your heart out right in my fucking ear!"
"Oh…"
Todd seemed genuinely hurt for a moment.
"I usually don't get to talk about evil plans, or, as I like to call them, 'evil decisions.' You're a rude one, aren't you?"
"Shut your trap!"
Damien kicked him in the leg, though neither were particularly hurt by the attack.
"Shit, I just wanted—I just wanted to make sure as few people died as possible… It was just supposed to be the end of a really evil family, and my really evil brother… so why, why is everyone fighting, why are hundreds of dragons who live in a far away continent going to be killed…?!"
His voice became hoarse the more he yelled, to which Damien crouched down, grabbing his head with both hands.
"For fuck's sake, so many people are going to die, so many, so many people are going to die… whole families of dragons, who I've never met before, are going to be slaughtered… In the end, the one who wins this conflict's gonna be some piece of shit old bastard who gets respect for piggybacking off of Arthur, damn it, damn it, damn it!"
Todd found it rather amusing. "Man, you seem awfully upset, young man."
"Shut up… I don't want to hear you anymore, just go away…"
Ultimately, Damien wasn't sure of what to do from here.
The entire conflict, that which Todd had created, was going to end in catastrophe, no matter who won. After all, it was a war between two large groups of dragons.
There was the typical idea of "better them than us." That wasn't entirely wrong here. These dragons in Africa were well known for their might and brutality, consistently honing their strength.
So it made sense that it would be better if they died than the American dragons, especially since Damien was part of the Americans.
However, it was still unacceptable to the teenager to think so black-and-white about the situation.
He'd lived a fairly good life, the only real troubles he had were that his mom was out of the picture. But with his friends, he'd come to know a lot of people.
Some people weren't as good as others, some people were more quiet or more loud, more timid or more bold, more happy or more sad, more kind or more selfish.
However, Damien couldn't bring himself to call any of them outright "evil." He'd seen the louder friends have their need for quiet time, or the quiet friends speak up to have a good time. In the same manner, he'd seen the kinder friends get angrier or do something bad, and the selfish friend do something for another person.
So he knew that at the end of the day, most people were gray. Yes, he could slip up and view Arthur and the Graves family as evil, but it's not too hard to see why, seeing that Arthur's main goal is genocide and the Graves family literally are Death Dragons.
The dragons here in Africa, he'd not seen them. But he couldn't imagine that the Dragons of Wind would be extremely evil people, who the world was better off without.
So, while he could get hyped up at the thought of being part of an epic fight that would go down in the history books, in actuality, he'd come to understand the great cost of said fight.
Whole families of dragons would die. Families, the people inside, who love and are loved, will die.
So while he could understand that there would be casualties, he couldn't get behind the whole decimation of families.
'A way to end the war… Can I even do that? Is it even possible? Is it? Is it…? Arthur, he can't be killed, he's too strong. But if he's not stopped, then we're going to win, and so many people, who are both good and bad, will die…'
'If we can't kill him, then… maybe something else? Crud, what did Jack tell me? It was something, something about the Earth Dragons… wait, I know. Apparently, they're more than just about dirt and stone, but they're also able to manipulate whole worlds… '
'They're apparently really powerful. But right now, they're not helping. They're still inside of the tower… If anyone can help, it's bound to be them…!'
So, Damien left Todd behind, rushing to the Earth Dragons in pursuit of help.