Leon walked through the empty halls of the monastery that Tiraeses called home.  The chamber they’d briefly fought, and then made peace in, was rather spartan, with little else in the large room save for the carved wall.  However, once Tiraeses led Leon deeper into the mountain, that changed.  The walls were alight with highly realistic reliefs depicting ancient myths and battles that Leon had no context for, though he could still appreciate the artistry involved.  Many of these reliefs glowed with various hues of arcane light, and Leon noted that in all cases, the glowing seemed to indicate the magical element being used in the depicted scene.

Though he couldn’t identify anyone depicted, Leon still walked through the surprisingly ornate halls of the surprisingly large monastery.  Tiraeses was busy with his private prayers, so Leon had little else to do other than explore and admire what could very well be the only surviving fragment of civilization in this part of Arkhnavi.

He encountered numerous other rooms in his explorations, from barracks to storage rooms, though none caught his eye as particularly important facilities.  It seemed that the control room for the monastery’s wards was hidden, as was whatever source of power for those wards.  That disappointed Leon greatly, as he’d hoped to get a good look at the enchantments keeping the monastery so well-protected, but he supposed he could always just ask Tiraeses when he finished his prayers.

So, with no critical parts of the monastery open to him, Leon eventually settled onto a hard stone bench in what he considered to be the most interesting room in the entire monastery: a room that he guessed was designed for relaxation or meditation.  It was octagonal in shape and enchanted to appear to be a gazebo opening out of the side of the mountain.  Seven of the eight walls showed the plains in such detail that Leon could easily see himself being fooled into thinking it was real, had he not already known what those very plains now looked like.

He could see farmers working fields of golden wheat, forming small villages along a large river that bisected the eastern plain.  That river was dotted with small fishing boats and the occasional larger river barge.  In the far distance, he could see forests and hills, while what he could see of the mountain the gazebo seemed to sprout from was dotted with lush green thickets of trees.

It was a highly realistic depiction of a living world, of a rural agricultural idyll, of a place that no longer existed.

That river had dried up, the fields were gray dust, and the people were dead.  The raelon swam through the dust that buried them while the air above was so polluted with dark magic that Leon had broken his wings trying to fly in it.

Killing the raelon would do nothing to restore this scene, but Leon felt at least a small stirring of anger in his heart for what had become of such a peaceful place.

[Be careful around this one, Leon,] Xaphan whispered, pulling Leon out of his thoughts.

Blinking rapidly in the bright light of the simulated noonday sun, Leon responded, [Should I guess the reasons why?  Or will you be gracious enough to tell me?]

[Making you guess might be fun for a minute, so why don’t we go with that?]

[If you’re going to make me guess, demon, then the reasons why I should be careful around Tiraeses aren’t going to be very good or based on logic, will they?]

Xaphan audibly grumbled a moment before saying, [He sensed our communion.  He dislikes that we have a contract.  Keep an eye on him; he won’t stay friendly for long.]

[I’ll take your advice under advisement,] Leon replied.  He supposed Xaphan had a point, though he thought the demon was being a little paranoid.  Now that they could communicate, Tiraeses had been nothing but polite, giving Leon no small amount of relief in his having tried the more peaceful option rather than simply trying to kill Tiraeses right off the bat.

Now, they just had to kill a massive monster and then he’d have a guide to the center of the plane.  He had no idea what might be out in the dark storms past the gray wastes, so having even just one more person there to watch his back and to make sure he was going in the right direction would be critical, especially since flight was going to be hard, if not impossible.

[Reckless,] Xaphan murmured.

[I can afford to be reckless, Xaphan,] Leon replied with a grin.  [You’re watching my back, aren’t you?]

[Yes, but you shouldn’t rely on me too much, human…]

[That’s ominous.  Are you planning on leaving sometime soon?]

[Absolutely not, your soul realm remains the best place for me to try and recover my lost strength that I currently have access to!  No, I’ll be staying here as long as is necessary.  But not forever.]

[Thank the Ancestors,] Leon murmured back, ensuring that Xaphan could hear it even though he could’ve kept it to himself.

[You’re welcome,] the Thunderbird responded, and Leon almost jumped out of his skin.  [Where are you, Leon?] she asked.  [What have I missed?]

Leon was about to respond when the door behind him opened and Tiraeses entered the heavily enchanted room.

“My prayers are complete,” he said.  “I’m ready to face the raelon.”

Leon nodded.  [Xaphan, could you update my Honored Ancestor?]

[Low blow, human, shifting your responsibility onto me and then fucking of—]

Xaphan’s statement was cut off by a sharp shriek of pain.

[See to your business, Leon dear,] the Thunderbird said.  [I’ll wring out what little knowledge of worth this little match has to offer.]

Leon grinned shallowly.  He took some comfort in knowing that it was only Xaphan’s pride that had been injured when the Thunderbird magically silenced him, so he focused on Tiraeses while the Thunderbird could be brought up to speed.

“You have a beautiful home,” Leon said appreciatively.

Tiraeses cocked an eyebrow as Leon remained seated on the bench.  “It pleases me to hear you say it, though I had little to do with its construction.”

Leon shrugged.  He nodded to the projections on the walls.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen enchantments rendered so lifelike before.  The artist who made these was truly great.  Is this accurate to what the wastes outside used to look like?”

Tiraeses frowned as he took a few more steps into the gazebo.  He cast his gaze about, taking a few seconds to examine each scene in detail.  “I… I don’t remember,” he admitted.  “Mulitan, Lord of Memory, has taken much in these past seven centuries.  So long with only these images to stare at…  They may have supplanted what my home used to be in my mind.”

Leon frowned deeply.  Tiraeses looked about middle-aged, so Leon didn’t think Tiraeses was much seven centuries old.  With that much power at his apparent age, he shouldn’t start having memory issues for centuries at least.

A few potential theories floated through Leon’s head for why the man might be so confused, but he refrained from asking more about it.  He could see great pain in Tiraeses’ face as he stared at the projections, and poking at that right when they were about to fight the raelon was… unwise.

Suffice it to say, though, he quietly resolved to try and spend as little time in the outside air as he could, polluted as it was with strange darkness magic.

“Should I then cross off studying this place’s enchantment scheme, then?” he asked, hoping to lighten the mood a bit from the pit he’d thrown it into.

“Wise Farangeun’s arts have always eluded me,” Tiraeses replied.  “I could not point out to you the difference between a rune and a scratch on the floor.”

“I… don’t think you’re giving yourself much credit,” Leon said, finding it hard to imagine such an extreme scenario.

“Honesty is the first step on the path of virtue,” Tiraeses seemed to recite.  “I aim to be a virtuous man.”

Leon’s frown deepened.  He supposed he ought to just write off studying the monastery’s enchantments, then, though he really didn’t want to.  One of the last things he wanted to do, though, was to antagonize Tiraeses so soon after their partnership was formed, so again, he decided to shelve his request—at least until the raelon was dead.

“Very well.  Shall we finish our preparations to kill this thing, then?” Leon asked.

Tiraeses finally cracked a shallow smile.  “Yes…”

---

Leon stood upon a cliff looking out at the gray wastes.  The air was still just as choked with darkness magic and the black storm in the far distance still raged, though he took no comfort in it—like everything else on the plane, that storm was far from natural, and it seemed hostile to his power.  His focus, however, lay on the dusty wastes closer to the mountains, where the raelon lived.

“It’s still close,” Tiraeses said, crouching next to Leon with his hand on the ground.

“How can you tell?” Leon asked.  “I can barely project my magic senses a mile in this place…”

“I can sense the vibrations when it moves,” Tiraeses explained.  “Raelons can be subtle, but Strong Ashagon must have stood with you when you arrived; its pain is great enough that Mad Thelior has taken its senses.  Now it stalks these mountains, waiting for you to show yourself again.”

Leon smiled, the plan they’d cooked up giving him enough confidence to see it as a test of his skills.  “I know you offered to be the rabbit, but if it’s so furious at me, wouldn’t it be better if we switch places?”

“Wise Farangeun may not have often blessed me,” Tiraeses began in an affronted tone, “but Valiant Ashatar has always shown me favor.  I do not fear this monster.  If it kills me, then so be it; the Red-Eyed One will spirit me to Just Helior, and the weight of my sins shall be judged.  Should I die in this, I stand a… good chance of being reunited with my brothers in Heaven.”

“Your tone doesn’t fill me with confidence.  I have a better idea: don’t die, and let the man with more power take the more dangerous job.”

Tiraeses rose to his full, fairly imposing height, and glared back at Leon.  “Do not try and take this from me, Leon.”

Leon grinned provocatively, then said, “If you’re so set on this course, then far be it from me to try and argue against it.”  He lowered his head slightly and took a few steps back while staring meaningfully out at the wastes.  “You’re showing such trust in me that I can’t help but try and talk you out of it at least once.”

“Honor ought always be rewarded; never condemned,” Tiraeses murmured in what Leon hoped was forgiveness for any minor offense he inflicted.  Tiraeses then turned away from Leon to stare in the same direction, took a deep breath, and then without any more hesitation, launched himself off the cliff with great force.  Leon was intrigued to see the darkness pollution seemingly sliding off of the monk far easier than it did for him—it still clung to him like oil, even when he was fully armored and protected by Clear Day’s pearl.

With his ninth-tier power, Tiraeses cleared a large distance, landing well out in the dusty dunes.  As soon as he hit the soft ground, dust exploded around him from the force of his landing, and Leon heard an ear-splitting shriek from barely more than ten miles away.  A massive wall of dust was thrown up as the raelon began beelining straight for Tiraeses, showing that it was willing to attack more than just Leon.

Leon breathed deeply, steadying himself for the coming fight as Tiraeses assumed a defensive posture, a barely visible sphere of protective light surrounding him.  While the monk hadn’t been able to tell Leon whether or not the raelon was intelligent, the monster certainly seemed like it lacked much self-control as it bore down upon its waiting prey.

About a quarter of a mile from Tiraeses, the mountain-like beak of the monstrously large raelon burst from the dunes, and the creature thrust upward, bearing down upon the monk.  Even with the amount of dust it kicked up, Leon could see its relatively tiny eyes set far back in its skull, behind the beak, and made his move, leaping from the cliff with decidedly more power than Tiraeses had done a moment before, while below, Tiraeses roared, “BROTHERS OF WAR, ACCEPT THIS OFFERING!!!”

He punched out, sending a beam of light as thick as his arm and as powerful as a dozen Lightning Lances rocketing at their monstrous foe.  His light was bright enough that as the beam crashed into the raelon, for just a moment, it seemed like Arkhnavi’s sun had fallen through the clouds and brought its light and warmth back to the plane.

And then it was gone.

But as the light winked out and the raelon, uninjured aside from a long burn mark along its black beak, opened its beak and fell upon Tiraeses, Leon soared above the raelon.  He reached the zenith of his leap and began to fall, but as he did, he passed over the raelon and thrust out with Iron Pride.  A silver-blue bolt of lightning exploded out of the blade and almost instantly struck the raelon directly in one of its beady eyes.  The power of Leon’s bolt threw the raelon enough that it crashed into the dunes just to the side of Tiraeses, and the immense creature squealed in pain as it immediately tried to burrow back under the dunes, while a river of black blood spewed from the smoking crater where its eye had once been.

The raelon didn’t get far before a web of light appeared all around it—Tiraeses’ doing—and pulled it back out of the dust.  It shrieked in pain while Tiraeses roared incoherently in exertion, each of their voices shaking the dust so much that practically liquified.  Fortunately, Tiraeses’ head remained above the rising dunes, and he was able to pull the raelon enough to keep it from diving back beneath the surface.

Leon wasted no time diving down upon the raelon, Iron Pride glowing with built-up lightning.  He swung his Adamant weapon with zeal, his every swing only a basic cut or thrust in his family’s fighting style, but backed with his tenth-tier power and a Universe Fragment, the sky cracked and burned with lightning, the dunes below and the mountains hundreds of feet away shook from the thunder, and above it all, Leon could hear the shrieking of the raelon as it tried to escape.

Leon cut and hacked and cleaved his way along the raelon’s body as Tiraeses tore it free from the dust, but a well-aimed flail of its long serpentine tail landed upon Tiraeses like a meteor.  The monk cried out briefly, his magic fizzling out, as he was buried in the dust.

The raelon screeched as Leon redoubled his efforts to cause as much damage as he could, striking the creature with earth-shattering bolts of silver-blue lightning as often as he could swing Iron Pride, and while it clearly had some effect, burning and tearing huge chunks of flesh from the titanic monster’s body and wetting the gray wastes with an ocean of black blood, the monster had the flesh and blood to spare, and it dove back under the dunes with a speed that belied its bulk.

Leon leaped into the air to dive after it, but just as he was about to hit the surface of the wastes, the dust exploded outward in an intense flash of white light.  Leon was unexpectedly hurled back as the screeching raelon was thrown backward, but Leon landed easily; the raelon did not, tumbling through the air and hitting the dunes with all the grace of a sack of potatoes.

The monster was far from dead, though, and it thrashed in an attempt to save itself.  Oceans of dust joined the darkness magic in the air, and even Leon found it hard to see, but Tiraeses, looking bloody and far worse for wear, rose from the dust from which he’d thrown the raelon, and spread his arms.  Motes of white light the size of his head formed around him faster than Leon could count, and the monk with hardly a move, launched them all in the vague direction of the thrashing raelon.

Leon followed suit, adding thick bolts of silver-blue lightning to the mix.  The gray dust was blasted out of the way, and the light of their attacks illuminated the enormous shadow of the raelon in the distance, giving them a better target.

The raelon continued to shriek and thrash, but Leon noted that Tiraeses’ power seemed wildly ineffective compared to his own.  It was doing damage, to be sure, but it barely burned the raelon’s scales, whereas Leon’s lightning carved great chunks from its body.

Soon enough, the raelon began to quiet and its thrashing ceased.  Its beak was halfway buried in the dust, but its body had been severely mutilated, and Leon could sense its aura fading fast.  He ended his barrage, though Tiraeses continued his for a few seconds more.

Only once the raelon had fallen completely still did Tiraeses follow Leon’s example, and both men watched intently as the raelon’s flickering aura dissipated into the air.

And with one last death rattle, the raelon finally died.

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