No Such Thing as Good and Evil

Shade pretended to fumble through his magic bag like he couldn’t find what he was looking for, even though with the bag he could just query it and the item would come up. Eventually he found the item he wanted, a book. The book had a blank red cover, but the contents of the book were various cooking recipes he would never try. Faylen had found multiple copies of the book in one of the destroyed human towns they had cleared of monsters, and gave him one. She had said he needed to ‘broaden his diet’, whatever that meant. The book hadn’t come out of the bag since he got it, until now. But he didn’t need to cook anything, rather he needed a prop for his impromptu reading. He opened up the book, then sat down on the ground cross legged like a child’s teacher would. “I think its time for a little story.”

Alasse stared at Shade with a rapid mix of many emotions. Curiosity, confusion, amusement, shock and others passed through her. The scene was so odd and unexpected, she wasn’t sure how to react. Shade, an extremely powerful Lucifer dragon was in the middle of an enemy’s base with the enemies still very much alive. Sure, they were quivering in the back of the room in fear, but they were still alive. He was also about to get into a life-or-death fight with an old companion, maybe it lasted all of 2 seconds, but it almost happened, twice. Now, with all of that, there he was, a gigantic dragon holding a book, sat down in his enemy’s base getting ready to tell a story.

Alexis was far less surprised, and certainly far less amused. “We don’t have time for this.” He said, turning away from Shade. He pressed a button on his weapon and the ridges around the edges retracted back into the blade, allowing it to easily slide into the golden sheathe he had tied around the waist of his golden armor. “Come on Alasse, you’re right, the message has been delivered, we should…”

He was cut off as Shade loudly began telling his story. “Once upon a time, there was a sad, lonely, weak little foxlike thing. He lived in a tiny village in Northern Lyari that I don’t remember the name of, but that doesn’t matter. He had no friends, and his only parent, the wolf side of him, his mother, despised him. She had found herself in debt, and one day a kind and loving Lucifer Dragon offered to pay off that debt for a night of fun. Before you ask, no, it wasn’t me. Anyway, that fun resulted in him being conceived and born. His existence though caused most men in the village to not want anything to do with his mother, causing her to be forever single, never to find true love. That caused her to loathe her only child, and our poor Alexis would spend most nights outside, cold and alone.”

Alexis growled and sneered at the story being told. His hands tightened into a fist out of anger and frustration. It wasn’t just anger at Shade, but the fact that the story was rather true, if only exaggerated a bit. Memories of his childhood he had long suppressed rushed back into his mind, the bullying, the despair, the loneliness. All the feelings he never wanted to feel again engulfing him like they had never left. He desperately wanted to leave, but when he turned back around, he saw Alasse was entranced by the story and wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. He then turned his attention to Shade who was only a few feet away, sat down with his book open to a page on lobster bisques. He glared down at him, unsure of what to do, what he wanted to do. His mind spun as raw emotions decades old flooded his veins and he froze, unable to do anything but listen, another audience member in Shades telling of his life’s story.

“Then, one day, his village was attacked by monsters. A family of Basilisks came down on the village, and them being small and remote, the town was quickly over run. Villagers had to hide in their homes, hoping the snakelike things wouldn’t see them and the beasts would leave. Day after day after day passed by, but the basilisks didn’t leave. Instead, it appeared like the beasts were going to make the village their new home. The villagers began to starve, and slowly succumb to de-hydration. Some having to brave leaving their homes in search of food and water, only to be eaten almost instantly.”

Shade took a dramatic pause, and animatedly turned the page of the book, now on a section about soups. Alasse stood there hands clasped together nervously, like she was scared about what was going to happen even though the main subjects of the story were both a few feet from her, alive and well. “But when all hope seemed to be lost, a powerful, dashing, handsome Lucifer dragon appeared. He was in a nearby tavern and overheard one of the patrons saying how nobody had heard from anybody in the village recently. As the kind hearted dragon would be passing near the village on the way to his destination, he decided to take a quick look. He found the besieged village, and wiped out the basilisks with ease, freeing the village and saving the day. The village was so thankful, they eventually built a statue in honor of him.” He looked up from the book at Alasse, who was enthralled with the story, her face living and dying with each word of the story she already knew what a lot of the end was. “That’s true by the way, there’s a 30-foot bronze statue of me in the middle of his home village. The king of Lyari once tried to force them to remove it, but they refused, even paying a higher tax rate to keep it standing.” He then looked at Alexis, whose face was stuck in a growl, but eyes were distant, like his mind was a million miles away.

“Then what?” Alasse said impatiently, drawing his attention back to her.

He smiled at his oddly attentive audience member and looked back to his book, turning the page to a recipe on apple pies. “Then the hero of the day, me, decided to stay the night in the village before heading off to his next destination. That’s when this weak little fox thing approached me at the bar in the inn I was staying at. He begged me, please, oh please, take me under your wing, no pun intended. I was still traveling alone after having left the knights of Alessandria and had no interest in becoming a teacher. But me being the saint that I was eventually caved, intrigued by the half wolf, half dragon aspect. I taught him everything I knew, how to better harness and control his dragon powers, and even helped him hone that dumb shadow tentacle ability he loves to use.”

The smile that was on his face vanished, turning into a sorrowful frown with his voice matching. Alasse noticed the emotion change, and her odd nervousness at the story grew, her clasped hands beginning to shake. “I thought I had a friend, a life long companion, but he thought differently. Secretly, he despised me, only using me to grow stronger. One day, while we were in Normuc on a job, he was approached by some knights. They asked him if he wanted to leave the life of ‘crime’ I was dragging him along on and join them instead. He instantly accepted, leaving me with barely a goodbye. That would be bad enough, but a few months after we parted ways, he contacted me. Saying Normuc needed help with a monster infestation by the southern coast. He said the monsters were so strong, they needed all the help they could get, and would offer me a large reward. He gave me a meeting location to meet up with him from which he would take me to the base camp where the rest of the attack squad were meeting. Obviously, I was wary, but there was no way he would stab me in the back completely, right?”

Shades face morphed into an angry sneer, his voice oozing with the scorn he felt from all those years ago. “Wrong. Upon meeting with him, we walked through dense jungle, having to cut our way through vines, trees and shrubs. Both of us having wings, I was confused as to why we weren’t flying, but he said it was due to not wanting to notify the monsters of our presence. Which speaking of presences, I had sensed none. No monsters, or other warriors. When night came, we made camp and went to bed. He offered to take first watch, and I accepted. I laid down and closed my eyes, drifting to sleep. But even when sleeping, I’m always on guard, and sensed him approaching. He then, literally, stabbed me in the back. He then pulled his sword out of my back and went to stab me again, but before he could, I had already jumped to my feet. The first thing I did was put out the fire in the camp to make it completely dark, not a single shadow for him to use. Being part dragon, he can easily make fire himself, and almost instantly re-lit it, but in the few moments it was out, like I did here, I had already made many copies of myself. I wasn’t nearly as good back then as I am now, but he wasn’t nearly as good at echos detection as I’m sure he is now. He couldn’t tell which one was real and which one wasn’t. Panicking, as he knew he couldn’t beat me in a fair fight, he flew off, running away like the coward he is. I could’ve chased after him, could’ve hunted him down and put him in the ground. But I didn’t, as I have some morals, values and empathy, even though he claims I don’t.” Shade paused for a moment at the storys end, then sighed and closed the book. He got back to his feet and tossed it to Alasse, who caught it. “If you want to learn more about his betrayal, you can read that.”

Alasse glared down at the book, her enthralment with the story now replaced with confusion. “But…. this is a cookbook?”

“Yes, and the recipes in it contain the ingredients to my sorrow and sadness.”

“Wow." She giggled. "Alexis told me you made some atrocious jokes, but that was truly something. Speaking of whom.” She turned to face Alexis whose face was still stuck in a growl as his eyes were miles away. She walked over to him and leaned directly under his face, but he didn’t move. “Hello, anybody there?” She said snapping her fingers right in front of his eyes. After 5 snaps he finally snapped out of his stupor.

“Sorry.” Alexis said sheepishly as he shook his head and regained reality. “Is he done telling his story where like usual, one of the most wanted murderers the world has ever seen was actually the victim the whole time?”

“Yes, his tale of your grave betrayal is over, he was even gracious enough to give me his story book. I might cook one of the stories up later. Now Sir, I think its time we leave before you and him try to fight once again.” She grabbed onto Alexis’ arm and angled him toward the hole in the wall that was once the front gate.

Alexis huffed but after one last glance toward Shade he relented, and walked down the aisle and through the gate, Alasse trailing behind him to make sure he didn’t turn back. Before she exited through the hole she turned to face Shade. “I hope you do accept the invite; I would love to spar with you again!” Giving him an oddly friendly wave, like they had been best friends for years.

He awkwardly waved back, confused by her friendliness, then yelled after her. “Kill any hunters on your way out!”

She nodded “I think we got all of them before, but if I see any more ill make sure they eat it!” Then she turned back around and disappeared through the hole.

Shade stared at the hole in the wall for a moment to re-gather himself. He didn’t have the time to think about the strange girl or the meeting Normuc wanted. Nor could he think about the fact he just ran into Alexis for the first time in decades. He also wanted to know more about the technology they apparently had, if he was going to join in on the war, having access to that would be helpful. But he still hadn’t decided if he was actually going to officially join or not. All that had to be pushed to the side though as he was technically still inside the base of an enemy. Even if that enemy was all but defeated.

He turned to face the back of the room where 11 hunters were huddled in a corner while using around 20 dragons as shields to protect themselves. “While I do appreciate you all staying quiet and allowing me and him to have our little re-union.” He then paused and peered once more at the mangled corpse of the minotaur. “Well, most of you stayed quiet at least, anyway, unfortunately, you all still have to die. It’s pretty cute though you think using the dragons as shields is going to save you.” He lifted his hand into the air, and from the floor, stone spikes shot up from the ground skewering most of the hunters. A few of the dragons screamed, and ran away, while most of them seemed to still be nervously following whatever orders they were given, still afraid to disobey as they kneeled on the ground looking up at their now kebabbed masters.

Two of the hunters managed to dodge the spikes in time. One of them, a fairy with standard wings pointed right at Shade with false bravado. “I’m not scared…” He began to lie, before a cross-bow bolt shot right into his mouth, piercing into the back of his neck before exploding, leaving his headless corpse to collapse to the ground. Shade looked back towards the doorway he had come from to see who had shot the bolt, and was pretty amused to see a dark blue dragon standing there naked. The dragon that was being used as a dart board. “Ah, I see someone helped you get down. Pretty on the nose to be using a crossbow after your whole, dart board situation, don’t you think?”

“Go fuck yourself.” He replied while aiming down the sights of the crossbow at the last hunter. The hunter tried to dive behind a dragon to hide, but to Shades surprise again, when the dragon pulled the trigger, the bolt shot off and past the dragon masquerading as a shield and the hunter behind them, then stopped, and turned around. The bolt then jolted up and down, almost like it was waving at the hunter, before it shot forward into the hunter’s chest. “Hey, dragon shield, you better dive away before it blows up!” The dragon though didn’t listen, still not sure about going against orders, and when the bolt blew up, the dragon went flying across the room, slamming into a wall before sliding down it. “Shit!” The crossbow wielding dart board in dragon form yelled, before running over to the completely still dragon.

Shade was more interested in the completely torn to shreds body of the once hunter, his body now in pieces strewn about the room. “How did somebody as powerful as you get caught?”

“A friend, or I thought they were a friend, sold me out.” He replied, as he laid the now unconscious dragon flat on the ground.

“Wow, pretty ironic, I just ran into an old friend myself who stabbed me in the back as well, I mean what are the odds of that.” Shade joked, but then he narrowed his eyes and looked toward the ceiling, and the sky beyond it. “What are the odds of that?”

“Hey, you wouldn’t know any healing, would you?” The dragon asked as he lightly shook the unconscious dragon, hoping to wake them up.

“Nope.” Shade replied. He then thought about it for a second, and took a vial out of his bag, throwing it over to the other dragon. “I have a friend who learned some stuff from another friend who plays with herbs. I think she said this should help heal things, but i wasnt really listening, so i'm not actually sure what it does. It might heal poison, stab wounds or maybe deep ingrained mental scars, I’m not exactly sure.”

The dragon forced open the other dragon’s mouth, then popped the cork on the vial and poured it down the dragon’s mouth. “Well, I’m sure with what they did to us here, this poor dragon probably has a lot of all 3 of those issues.” After the vial was empty, a golden glow began to emanate from the dragon, and his eyes opened up. For a moment, he was dazed and confused, but then his eyes shot around the room, remembering where he was. He instantly got back to his knees to assume the same position he was in before being blown away, and bowed his head toward the dismembered corpse of his old master in apology.

“Wow.” Shade said as he looked at the now once again kneeling dragon. “They really broke him in, huh. You think he can be brought back?”

“I’m sure as hell going to give it a shot, I don’t want to lose any more dragons to these scum.” The other dragon said, before tossing the now empty vial back to Shade. “Thank you for that, and thank your friend for me as well. My name is Rygut by the way, may I ask who you are? We haven’t seen any Lucifers in quite some time, it’s good to see one actually taking some initiative.”

Shade stored the empty vial back in his bag before looking back over to Rygut. “Most people know me as Shade.”

“A lucifer dragon going by Shade? What are you, a big fan of that old black devil?”

“Well, they say you should be your own biggest fan.”

Rygut laughed. “Oh, I see, you’re pretending to be him. Do you think anyone’s actually going to believe that though?”

“He’s…. not…. pretending.” The kneeling dragon nervously stuttered while still staring at the ground.

“What?” Rygut asked as both he and Shade turned their attention to the kneeling dragon.

“Before…. you…came…in…Alexis…knight commander…. of…Normuc…was here...for him. That…is…actually…Shade Night.”

Ryguts eyes went wide as he slowly turned his attention back to Shade, who met his wide-eyed glare. “Shade Night was an Endross, related to Mozan. He was the rightful king of Endross.”

“Well to be fair.” Shade responded. “A lot of Lucifers are related in someway to Mozan, but yes, I am directly blood related to him.”

“If someone as strong as you fought the hunters, maybe we could…” Rygut began, but was cut off by Shade.

“Yes, yes, I’m strong, I can kill lots of people, and if I went to war with the dragon hunters, I could wipe them out. Not sure if you noticed, but we are still in their base. Can you act all shocked later? There may still be other hunters around, and I still haven’t seen the commander of this base. Aren’t all the collars linked to him? Surely, he's noticed all the slaves being disconnected from him, and there’s no way he didn’t hear the explosion of the gate, where is this guy, I heard he was strong.”

Rygut shook his head a few times to bring himself back from the shock. “You’re right, we have later to discuss the future.” He then let out a light sarcastic laugh. “The leader of this base is strong, in power only. He’s not actually a fighter. He’s a royal from Merellien who had a path to the throne before that merchant took over, on account of killing you.”

“Oh, I see.” Shade said disappointedly. He was somewhat hoping for a good fight, but it seemed the reason the base was built like a castle was because a wannabe king was inside, which sadly made sense. “Do you know where he would be in this place?”

“Take one guess.” Rygut replied.

Shade sighed. “At the top of the tall tower at the center of the base.”

“Wow, you must be great at guessing games.”

Shade sighed again. “Well, I’m going to go get him. You try to clear the rest of the base for hunters and captured dragons. I told a dragon downstairs I would kill the commander in an hour, but I have no idea how long ago that was now.”

“Why don’t you just capture him, then drag him here. I’ll have all the dragons meet in this room, and you can execute him in front of them. It will be somewhat cathartic for them, and maybe help the more.” He peered at the kneeling dragon. “Broken dragons heal a bit.”

“Seems like extra effort, but fine, I’ll see what I can do.” Shade replied. “Do you know where the stairs to the tower are?”

“Sure.” Rygut said, pointing to a door behind the false throne.

“Of course, silly me.” Shade sighed once more, and walked over to the door, opening it and walking through. The stairs were the standard stone spiraling stairs from most cliché towers. He was hoping a wannabe king might have some more flair, but alas. As he got to the top of the stairs, he heard some moaning, and as he got closer, he could hear two voices. A male voice, and a female voice, both moaning in pleasure. The door at the top of the stairs was open, and he walked into the doorway, and into the room. The room was rather small for a ‘Kings’ bedroom. Half the room was taken up by a luxurious king-sized bed with sky blue sheets on it. On top of the bed were two people. The Rainbow winged, rainbow haired fairy was playing the role of bottom. He looked young, but as he was a fairy he could be anywhere from 20 – 200, and he would have no idea. The man was rather plump, and was laying completely still, and naked on the bed. Riding him was a golden eyed, bright white female dragon, who unlike all the other slaves, didn’t have her wings, horns, or tail cut off. Neither of them noticed Shades entrance, which wasn’t that surprising seeing as he had apparently not noticed hundreds of his slaves being disconnected from him.

Shade stood in the doorway for a good 5 minutes, just watching and looking around the room. He wanted to see how long it would take for them to notice him, but apparently, they were as oblivious as it got. Finally, he got bored. He much preferred having sex to watching it. “Hey, you do know the base is under attack, right?”

“Then fucking take care of it, that’s what you’re being paid for.” The fairy said still lying down while not putting any effort at all into the sex he was having.

“Sorry, I wasn’t very clear I guess. I’m the one attacking the base.”

The white dragon stopped her moans and her riding, turning her head around. As soon as she saw Shade, she hopped off the fairy’s dick and to the side of the bed in an instant.

“Who said you could get off?” The fairy snarled, reaching over and slapping the dragon on the ass.

“But master.” She said pointing at Shade.

The Fairy looked at Shade, surprise on his face at first, but then a smile grew over it. “A lucifer huh. Adding a lucifer to my mix would make me infinitely more powerful. Nobody has a lucifer and a light dragon as slaves, they would have to take me seriously then.” He rolled his plump body off the bed on the opposite side of the dragon. He stood up, and golden light began to roil around him, crackling like electricity.

If he has a light dragon under his control, even if most of the other dragons’ collars are off, a light dragon plus the rainbow wings, maybe he will be powerful after all. Shade thought to himself. He formed a ball of black energy, shooting it at the fairy, who formed a ball of golden energy and shot it himself. The two balls collided and dissipated.

“You’re not strong enough to beat me on my own, and with her power, you stand no chance.” The fairy said puffing his large chest out.

Shade looked at the fairy with mock confusion. “But you don’t have her power anymore, can’t you tell?”

“What?” The fairy replied, looking over at the light dragon. The collar no longer around her neck, now laying on the floor. “But how, when?”

“You think a tiny ball of power is a real attack of mine? Just a distraction. While you countered it, I shot a ray of echos at her collar, breaking it off. You really do have no idea what’s going on around you, do you? Just a buffoon with a well of echos inside him.”

The fairy snarled and looked back to Shade. “Even then, you don’t have the power...” He was cut off by a snap. A collar was now around his neck. “What?” The fairy screeched in shock, grabbing and ripping at the collar. “Take this off of me, do you know who I am?”

“Not really.” Shade shrugged. “And I don’t really care”

The fairy tried to form any sort of attack in his hands, but couldn’t as the slave collar siphoned all his power away. “You didn’t even move; how did you even do this.”

“Like I said, no idea what’s going on around you. While you were staring at the broken collar, I made a clone, gave it a slave collar I happen to have in my bag, then sent it behind you. I, and it, can mask our echos, and while it can move fast, you still should’ve noticed it passing by you. It’s not a big room, and it’s not like its invisible. You’re just as oblivious though as it gets. Truly a disappointment. I was hoping for a good fight after Alexis took most of the kills with his entrance, and I can’t even get that.” Black echos in the form of metal chain links began forming out of shades hands, more and more links made there way across the room until they got to the fairy and his collar. The links latched onto the collar, and Shade pulled on it, sending the man to his hands and knees. “Now then slave, there are some people downstairs who have some pointed thoughts for you.” The fairy growled at the indignation and tried to get up. “When did I say you could get up?” Shade snarled and shot electricity down the chain and into the man, who screamed and collapsed to the ground, his body convulsing from the power. “Back to all fours.” Shade said with a deep and hateful voice, letting some of his echos out, filling the room with the sense of death.

The fairy, feeling the echos, broke, as fear took over his face. “Please, my father is the former king of Merellien, he can give you whatever you want.”

“When did I say you could speak?” Shade snarled, and shot more electricity down the chain, sending the man into more screaming convulsions. “You used to be a slave master; you should know. A slave quietly follows the orders of their masters. Now, to all fours.” he said pulling on the chain. The fairy began to let out sad whimpers and tears formed in his eyes as he slowly got to all fours. “Good boy.” He said with mock affection, then looked over at the light dragon, who was staring at the fairy with hate filled eyes of her own. “You look pissed, or is that an act as well just like the moans were.”

She turned her disdain toward Shade. “Are you making a joke about me being raped and forced to serve that man?”

Shade frowned. “Yea, I guess that was in poor taste. I’ve never been good with emotionally supporting people with trauma. Honestly, I’m usually the one causing the trauma.”

She ripped off the bed sheets and wrapped them around herself, making a makeshift robe. “I don’t care, to be frank. Just take him wherever you’re going to take him, and then I want a chance for some revenge.”

“You, and I’m sure a whole host of others.” He replied, and yanked on the chain again as he walked the fairy out of the room and down the stairs.