Far from the Pride and further beneath the clouds, the forest around the Vasas' volcano was burning, having all the snow melted away, giving space for a constantly sizzling, glowing flow of lava that unnaturally remained in place, revolving, pouring, folding in on itself like a strange lake with a whirlpool in the middle of it. As it kept rolling, slowly expanding, it was charring everything it touched, turning trees, rocks, everything into black glass.

As for Ignis, after another round of bathing, she emerged from the volcano, the molten rock clinging to her scales like some exotic skincare routine, shaking it off with a sigh while her neck coiled upward, her eyes blinking, clearly enjoying herself and her newfound freedom. If Leon were present, he would probably grumble that the Vasas were idiots from the start, as they thought of raising a dragon... that managed to outgrow them. They should have watched how a certain boy trainer and learned why he failed to command his pocket monster after it evolved... As for Ignis's shape? It was definitely a dragon. Yes, it was a bit fluid, less robust than the depictions Leon was used to, but the similarities were there, like her wings on her back, half-formed from burning gas and molten ash, not exactly material at all, but an inherent extension of her magic. Nevertheless, she wore it folded against her sides as she crouched, perched on the edge of the volcano like some kind of cat, ready to pounce, testing the ground beneath her claws.

"Too bad you all left..." She muttered to herself, but outwardly it sounded like the low growl of a tiger.

Her disappointment came from the fact that there were no Vasas here she could punish, as the people who constantly pushed her back into a dreamless sleep, trying to keep her consciousness down, slumbering, were all gone by now. But that was in the past now, and she was awake, twitching her scaled, pointy ears on the side of her heart-shaped face, as... There were so many things to experience now. She learned patience, so she wasn't in a rush... she had the whole world to explore, to see everything, and when she had done so... she could start consuming it all. Looking up at the clouds and the falling snow that turned into mist way before it had a chance to fall on her head, Ignis opened her jaws and exhaled, almost as if she was smiling.

"Hmm?" She felt it just then... "Children..."

Opening her wings, she pounced from the top of the volcano and, like a massive shadow, almost the size of the Camelot with its wings spread far and wide, Ignis flew over the burning forest where she felt the presence. The unlucky beast that was crouching between the trees, sensing the horror coming closer and closer, had no chance to escape. Even though it was a massive creature, too, covered in bone plates and with a jaw full of tusks, it was nothing before Ignis, and even in its dumbed state, it watched her with terror.

"Hmmm," Ignis tilted her head, circling around it in the sky, watching, trying to decide what she was feeling. Hunger? No. She wasn't hungry, and even if she was, she just had to breathe and inhale the energy in the air. Toy? More likely. Yes... a toy.

She watched as the creature turned to flee, and she reached for it, but not with her claws, but with her mind, following the same technique she instinctively picked up from the Vasas. But this time, for the first time, she would be the one doing it. With excitement, she extended herself outward, past the limits of her body, quickly latching onto the other consciousness. Compared to her, it was small, trembling even, burning bright in panic.

"Good little one, sssh. Mommy is here..." She touched it gently, then, feeling its futile resistance, she pressed harder.

Right when she did, the beast screamed, a very much animalistic yelp, but Ignis didn't quite understand the concept of mercy... At least, not yet... if ever. She only knew that she must devour the world so no one else could harm or stop her... and... she also felt an undeniable curiosity. The creature's will shattered the moment Ignis pushed against it, eradicating everything, even its instincts.

"Hm?" Ignis tilted her head to the other side, trying to figure out what just happened, "It went to sleep... this easily?"

She could feel it as she kept circling in the air like a vulture, then when she twitched a claw, the monster's body twitched with it. When she looked left, its eyes followed the same direction, surprising her.

"Hah... How cute!" She giggled, then took a breath, extending her senses... and she found another. And another.

Every living thing she encountered, freely flying all over the endless forest, be they whatever or however strong, she took them. She did not even fight them, as she simply pressed down on them with the weight of her mind, and they bent down, snapping like twigs. The more she did it, the more she understood that these creatures' minds folded like paper before hers, their memories vanishing, which made her frown...

"I can't wake them back up..." She muttered, stopping after about an hour, having more than a hundred monsters already connected to her psyche. "That's no fun... Now they are uninteresting. What should I do with them...?"

Flying back to her nest, to the volcano, she quickly realized that these creatures were... weak. Very weak, as the moment they walked into the lava, they began burning away, dying. Getting annoyed, she just scoffed, trying to order them to stop, but it took a good amount of concentration to get her command through, still losing about a dozen of them. Without her proper puppetry, they were clumsy, getting knocked into each other, falling over their own tails, looking as if they were fighting their own bodies to move.

"Hm?" She waved a claw, bringing up their now uncovered cores as their bodies got burnt away, letting them float around her body, "These are... Hm, hm. I think I remember..." She drilled into her own memories, trying to discern the Vasas' knowledge, but then, suddenly, her head began hurting. "Huh?" She snapped her eyes open, shaking a little, but the moment she stopped thinking, the pain was gone. "Meh, doesn't matter."

With that, she threw the cores away, no longer interested in them, never actually realizing that Zah'Ratil's last act in life was one of the greatest harm that he could have done to her... He managed to block her Vasa part, wounding it, letting it crack and be injured, like an open wound she had no knowledge about.

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"Now... what am I supposed to do with you all? You are noisy with that heavy breathing." She moaned, sitting down on the edge of her volcano, beginning to lick her paws. "Hmm..."

Turning her head, looking far towards the south, she could sense raw energy pulsate, with a faint memory telling her it was... even too much for her. But that didn't mean it would remain that way forever. Ignis's lips curled, as even with Zah'Ratil's wound, she did remember the tale of the Gods, even if she was like an infant back then. And she also knew now where the Vasas should be, because if their volcano had become her nest, the last refuge they could ever hope to protect them from her anger was there.

"Go." She ordered at once, thinking about it, picturing it in her mind, and the 'small' horde she managed to collect began marching, all flooding southward, heading towards the mountains.

With them gone, she just sank back down into the lava, floating within, curling up within it, and trying to maintain the connection between herself and the horde. It was... difficult. She was sure she had learned it from the Vasas, but the moment she tried to remember the details, the headache started again.

"Ow..." She grunted, hating the feeling, immediately deciding she didn't want to feel it, so she didn't push it at all. But then again, the sense of agony returned after half an hour or so. But this time, it was a distant thing, making her reopen her eyes, sticking her head above the edge of the volcano. Reaching out, she could sense that one by one, her servants began to vanish, the connection between them and her being cut away. How? Why? "Damned Children!" She growled, realizing it had to be the Vasas, but she had no way of knowing, as she hadn't had a clue how to connect up her senses with the hundreds of servants she made.

Trying, she reached out again, stretching her mind as far as she could, as her awareness rippled forward, sending it so far she felt herself being thinned out, seeking her toys. Once again... the headache started, and this time, it was so intense, she cried out in pain, panicking, drawing herself back in a hurry, abandoning all the connections, cutting herself off. Instinctively, she chose to let them die, no longer caring how or why. In response to the pain she felt, her flames brightened, turning into tangible fury as the lava ruptured around her, shooting into the sky, raining down magma everywhere.

"Just you wait..." Ignis lowered her head, reeling in her tantrum, her eyes narrowing to slits. "I will get to you soon... devour you all and devour your secrets... You will get your turn! Bad children... need to be punished."

... .... ......

The battle, if I can even dare call it that, had ended ten minutes ago or so. Of course, there were no survivors, and the Camelot and the Punisher had flown forward, with a contingent of my troops only, collecting our reward. I need their cores, especially if I go through with it and let the Union start building their own mechs, and I begin selling our completed frames to those who can produce their own.

Not that I'm complaining. I like easy wins, I really do. As for the Vasas? Well, they had been watching the entire thing, hundreds of their warriors, all lined up with their beasts, weapons drawn, expecting to ride out and prove their worth to me or something. Instead, they had seen what happens when you have superior firepower at your disposal. Sorry... but not really.

"Sovereign," Pion came up beside me, his helmet under his arm, "It's a clean sweep, and Lady Seltana has reported that nothing's moving out there anymore."

"As expected." I nodded, rubbing my eyes. "Make sure the salvage teams only collect the cores. We can't let them get trapped outside; it's too dangerous."

He gave a curt nod, putting up his helmet, relaying my orders. As for me, I looked at the Elders of the Vasas who came up to the wall, probably looking for me. The expressions on their scaled faces were… difficult to read, but shock was universal enough to make me smile. Ahh... I still got it. Coming straight up to me, I turned fully towards them as Sa'Ith reached me. She didn't speak at first, and she just stood there, taking in the devastation and then drilling her gaze into my eyes. I almost asked what she wanted, but when she finally spoke, her voice was surprisingly soft.

"We felt them die," she said slowly, "Each one. A hundred monsters, gone in less than what a battle of these proportions should be. Yet you stand here, calm, untouched by the victory we just achieved... No. What YOU achieved... Sovereign. Now I begin to understand why you gave yourself this title."

"Um, thanks, I guess..." I muttered, shaking my head.

"..." Her gaze shifted, becoming a bit sharper as she kept studying me, "You joke around, but this…" She gestured toward the corpses, where my airships now hovered, her fingers trembling slightly. "This isn't... a joke. We have fought beasts since our birth, we burned our blood to survive, I saw our children being eaten because they weren't strong enough... and you destroy them with... This much ease? One of our warriors can best a beast, yes. But numbers still triumph over skill..."

"That's why we don't rely on individual strength alone," I shrugged. "That's the point. If I only had a few handfuls of strong mages, I wouldn't be able to do this. Instead, I have a hundred cannons, operated by hundreds of simple men and women... Numbers against numbers."

"..." Sa'Ith didn't smile as she listened to me, and then she stepped closer, her scales pulsing a little. "How?"

"High-velocity physical rounds against possible barriers and simple fire spell against the rest," I answered automatically, but she wasn't asking for technical details.

"..." When I didn't elaborate any further, she just frowned, then looked up at the sky where the Camelot was. "A flying fortress... Really... You claim to be men…?" She glanced back at me with one eye, "Yet I see no trace of any mortal signs in this. No magic flows through your blood, well... not enough to awaken our bloodline. Yet you wield power greater than any within our Sect... And you managed to give it to all your followers... Who are you?"

"Leon of Avalon." I spread my arms, grinning, "I just build things that do the job for us. Call it... Hm... laziness. Did you know I initially only wanted to have a home where I could sit between my wives and do nothing? Maybe only some physical... exercises?"

"You are worse than I thought," She turned her head slightly, studying me. "You hide it behind your humor, but I can feel it... Zah'Ratil may have been right... Your soul is... different, isn't it?"

"My soul is my problem," I gave her a slight grin. "Did you know I almost died once? Woke up outside." I pointed towards the sky, "Then I got dragged back by my wife's magic, brought back from the dead in the last moment. That was a close call!"

"...!" Sa'Ith's eyes narrowed at once, but I could tell that it was not in anger but in fascination. "I see... I see..." She repeated thoughtfully. "I came here to meet your son, our Saviour. I still will… and I still want to... but now I see someone Zah'Ratil may have overlooked. And so did we... I ask for your forgiveness for that, Sovereign." She bowed a little, but deeper than when we first met.

"Careful," I said, smirking, "Flattery makes me nervous. You might end up with an engineering lecture you didn't ask for if you start asking me about details now..."

"I don't know what you really mean," Her lips began curving upwards, "But I would listen."

Wait... I couldn't help but flinch, seeing her smile and the way she then turned around, going back to the other elders, visibly swaying her hips a bit more than before... Was I... being flirted with? Oh boy... Did Sasha see this?

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