FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Shit...not only did they can do a stealth attack, they are fast, too!"

"Did you get attacked by one?"

"Yeah, but I can't see that bastard. Where is it?"

"We need to analyze the situation first, Hans. Move closer to Azureath."

Hans did that, but of course he could not see the attack before it was too late. Many of the attacked inflicted to him were glancing blows, but of course they were just taunting Hans and Nergora to attack blindly. Those hellhounds behind them might not get the chance to even be aware.

"Just how the hell do you know these creatures?" asked Hans to Nergora.

"Do you think I'll sit idle for a whole year? These assholes once destroyed a whole village and I was the only one there with Sovarn. He knew hellish bestiaries better than I do, and he helped me kill some."

"No wonder. Sovarn knows his animals."

"Well at least you know it now. First off, you gotta have that sixth sense of yours open."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"Do you know Anubis Caropus? He may be blind, but his sixth sense naturally helped him with seeing things. If he was here now, those creatures would not stand a chance. We, on the other hand, must fight them with disadvantage."

"Wait, are you telling me these unknown creatures are ghosts?"

"Ghosts and wraiths can be seen by naked eyes. These are not."

"Great, another pseudo-knowledge that turns out to be correct."

But because of Nergora's suggestions, Hans could use one of the senses he gained after becoming a werewolf. During full moon or otherwise a normal night, Lycans had an ability to sense the lunar energy emanating from the moon. That lunar energy could be considered something ethereal. Hans and Lilac were taught how to sense it when they were young to prevent themselves to lose control and become bestial werewolves. Hans thought that it could be the same method to find these concealed menace.

Concentrating himself, Hans tried to do the same thing he did while sensing the night. He could slowly sense a presence, then slowly something materialized while he closed his eyes. He attacked towards the direction. Unfortunately, the attacked missed its vital part, but was enough to make it injured. Nergora was astonished by this action, and tried his best not to get killed.

In the end, both Hans and Nergora (with the help of Hans's senses) managed to defeat five of them, and thought that it was the last of them. Yet Nergora was not so sure.

"These dimensional creatures are actually weak because they could not manifest anything corporeal for more than a minute," said Nergora. "A strong one would be able to do that and..."

A high-pitched shriek came to them and caused them to be stunned for a moment. Suddenly a black cloud approached Hans and started putting itself into the Lycan. He struggled, of course, but Nergora managed to disperse the cloud by moving towards it. It reformed at another place.

"What the hell was that?!"

"I don't know! I've never seen this cloud monster before!"

The monster attacked and Nergora tried to freeze the air, but it did not have an effect to it, forcing the frost hellhound to roll away. Hans ran to the side behind Azureath, and could finally see the carnage the monster had done to the hellhounds.

Basically, while it could not be technically all the hellhounds, most of them were scattered like a corpse from an internal explosion. Body parts were thrown all around them and made the whole scenery looked like a hellish landscape proper, though of course it was not what in Nergora's mind as he was a hell creature himself.

Again the cloud attacked them and instinctively, Hans threw a hand to it, in which it was possessed and started attacking Hans. The hand was destroyed when Hans burned it with his sword. Knowing that this cloud of darkness was bad news, he started running around, trying to find anyone or anything responsible for it.

Just then, Nergora noticed the burnt hand and the cloud of darkness's erratic behavior, before he realized the weakness.

"Hans, burn that cloud again!"

Hans did just that by conjuring fire blast on the tip of his sword, which hit the cloud. It made an otherworldly shriek as it was consumed by the flame, and it vanished with an explosion. Everything seemed to be over.

"I never thought it would be that easy," said Hans. "But that means practically every hellhound here could defeat it."

"It can be if something is not killing them first. I think we are missing the big picture here. These bodies were a lot less than what I assume to be a crowded concentration camp."

"Why are you still thinking about that? We need to find Azureath's lock key so we can free her!"

But as Hans wanted to get into a building, Nergora stopped him and said, "I think I have the worst idea, and I must warn you. What lies behind this door...is something you surface dwellers never saw before."

Nergora slowly opened the door and they were both given the taste of a hellish scenery, which even Nergora was grossed out.

Inside a wooden building, the whole place was covered with gooey, gel-like substances. It practically covered the surface area of the room's interior. It was only after Hans smell it did he realized what horror he had seen and started throwing out, with Nergora sighing.

"I warned you..."

"Those...those are..."

"Yes, they are melting flesh," said Nergora while looking at the uncanny and horrific scenery. "These hellhounds were unaware. They were attacked by those dimensional creatures and are put in here to be melted away into a flesh pudding and decorated this place. I can bet all of the buildings were also covered with the flesh of these poor hellhounds."

"This is so out of my league. Do we actually have to deal with these things?"

"I suppose that this whole mess about the hellhound civil war is getting out of hand," said Nergora while trying to find the key. "I can't believe the damage an elder demon could cause to the surface world is to this extent. This is not a hellhound's matter anymore."

"Then what's good of a dragon rider if we can't even fight the unknown?!"

"Everyone has their worth, Hans. You just need to find it." Nergora then pulled something out from the flesh, grossing out both of them. It was a black carbon rod which looked like an oversized graphite inside pencils, in which it was also as big as a pencil.

"This is it. This is the key to unlock the whole circle," said Nergora while getting out of the place. "Next I need to find the place to put it on Azureath's body."

"Wait, are you going to put that in her body?"

"Yes, of course. Olhend Circles have the lock inside a subject's body. All I need is to find the place to put it."

Hans did not understand what Nergora was saying until he put the lock to one of the stakes. All of the sudden the stakes were released from Azureath, where she quickly made a sudden jerk of movement and a roar far louder than Hans had ever heard. But after that moment, she quickly slumped on the ground, panting hard and very tired.

"Azureath!" exclaimed Hans while he went to his dragon's head. The female dragon noticed him and tried to form a smile on her reptilian head, but she was too tired, possibly to endure the pain the Olhend Circle caused to her. Nergora moved around the camp to find something of interest, but unfortunately he could not found any.

"Oh, Hans...you are such a sight for sore eyes," said Azureath while licking the smaller Hans. The Lycan, of course, smiled when he saw how his dragon was still well.

Azureath then noticed Nergora. Both of them had known each other and enjoy each other's company. She then said, "Nergora...I must thank you for freeing me from the circle of pain I must endure. A little too late, and I won't return the same again."

"I'm glad you can make it and return to Hans, Azureath."

They exchanged look for a moment before Azureath returned serious and said, "Where is Angelus?"

"We cannot find where she is," said Hans to her. "When I go for help, she is being carried away."

"So I have noticed. Nergora, we must find your brother, Ifrit Schelkz. I have a feeling our help is needed."

"I wish I can tell you where he is right now. We travel a different path these days. Not only that, there is a very important information we need to tell the command base in Tanah."

"Are we going there right now?"

"You still need to rest, Azureath. Enduring that pain must've taken a lot of your strength."

"I can still muster a little of that strength to fly for a distance, then we can rest," said Azureath, trying to stand up and open her wings. "We can cut our travels to a mere two days if you fly with me, Nergora. Hop onto my back. You too, Hans."

Even though Hans knew Azureath was still shaking after her mental ordeal, he rode on her anyway. She quickly lifted off and flew towards the general direction of Tanah. After an hour, however, Azureath started to pant and her flying was noticeably out of tempo. Hans noticed this first and shouted, "Azureath, make a landing!" The black female dragon had no choice but to attempt a landing, but with the lack of any space, she was forced to land near a village populated by humans. They were naturally scared and ran away, but none dared to try to fight the dragon, for they knew how terrible a dragon was, both in legends and real-life accounts.

Hans jumped down to go to Azureath's head, who was panting about and was very sick. The dragon looked towards Hans and said, "I guess I cannot act brave and strong...when my body can't even take it."

"Don't push yourself, Azureath. I don't want to lose you," said Hans while trying to comfort Azureath. "We are in this together."

"I know.... I won't leave you, Hans."

In the end, Hans did not want to make Nergora, who was a hellhound, being accused of something he did not do, so Hans, with a heavy heart, walked towards the nearby village asking for food and water. Because of his distinguished status as a dragon rider, the village helped him with everything they got, including water, meat, and wine for him. Hans wanted to thank them, but the villagers said, "Don't thank us. We cannot provide your dragon more than we could."

"It's more than enough, my dear fellow," said Hans to them. "We'll make our land safe again. I promise."

Despite of that promise, knowing that his enemies were far more dangerous than he thought, he could not hold true anymore. He first thought that only hellhounds using technology from beyond the layers of hell was not a threat, but now, with an enemy coming from the deepest layers of hell, extra-dimensional, and could even give a hellhound who was accustomed to hellish scenery disgusted expression, Hans felt like he went too deep for something he did not know. Not only him, but also Lilac and Azureath were thrown into something they should not know.

On the other hand, Nergora, while tending on Azureath, felt weird to see deep layer hellish creatures wander around the surface world. While it was possible, they were bound to the ancient treaty. Their appearance on the surface world, and also their ferocity on killing those hellhounds, proved that and elder demon was responsible for orchestrating their temporary release. Nergora knew that he had been warned by Anenka back in Tanah about demons beyond the gates of hell. The appearance of Azgal, the goat demon from the fifth circle, and that mysterious Catsith enchantress from the second circle, proved that this whole invasion was not only the hellhound's matter. Something worse was in play, and could possibly correspond with the 'prophecy' he once heard from Sovarn.

"(For now, I cannot just think irrationally. If the deep layers have broken through, then all we need to do right now is to convince the hellhounds to unite and fight the elder demon, but I doubt that can be something easy to do)," thought Nergora. "(Those rebels have deep-seated hatred to monarchs because of Ensalder Winsel, and he was possessed by the elder demon. If these things are all connected, then we have to make haste)."

Nergora did not realize that Hans came back to them already, still in his werewolf form. He was deep in his thoughts when Hans said, "Oi, Nergora, stop spacing out!"

"Oh, uh...shit, sorry, Hans. I was thinking about those creatures..."

"Oh, goddess, don't talk about them..."

"Are Lycans normally this squeamish after seeing molten flesh?"

"You know what? Fuck that! Let's tend to Azureath and let our minds fly so we don't need to think about that bloody shit ever again!"

Of course, hearing this out from a Lycan still in his werewolf state made Nergora felt weird. It was true that the horrific scenery was disgusting, even for him, but Lycans looked like animals already, so it felt strange seeing a werewolf complaining about that.

Azureath managed to came to after an hour and they resumed their flight to Tanah region. Unlike before, Azureath had her energy replenished after she was given all the meat the villagers gave to Hans, on the expense on Hans and Nergora's portions, which was nothing to be alarmed about. With their destination being on a rather tropical region and generally a safe place, both Nergora and Hans were relieved when they finally could see some hellhounds waving at them from a watchtower as they get into the tree city.

Despite of the major boost, however, Azureath was using up a lot of energy to get them to Tanah region in under 12 hours. After getting consent from the two canines, the black female dragon flew faster than the safe speed the Order's dragons told her. She remembered one of them, or more specifically, the second in command to Ramusk, named Riant. He was a jolly fellow, and was quite young, still only around 400 years, and of course, it felt awkward to talk about it to an older dragon like her that clearly had flown before. Riant talked to Azureath after noticing how the dragon's flying was rusty, as if she had never flown for a long time, which she was when she and Hans reached Dracokin.

Riant was awkward all the way when talking to her, seeing that she was clearly older than he was (though her appearance was of that of a 100 years old female dragon), but he told her some tricks, especially now that Azureath had a rider behind her back.

"Azureath, dragons are free to fly all they want, and they, of course, can give out gracious flying techniques for the purpose of entertaining opposite gender. But, if you have chosen to let a rider or two on your back, you cannot fly harshly. You need to be as gentle as a horse. I am not saying that you need to be like them. We are flying, not galloping. When you have a rider on your back, you need to decrease your speed and when banking, don't make a sharp angle or they might not hold the momentum of the flight and might fall off. Only if they are ready to take on extreme flying will you be able to fly fast and do maneuvers that could normally be too much for them. Remember this, Azureath."

Yes, but with Hans and Nergora giving her the 'go' to fly recklessly, she managed to reach Tanah region in less than 6 hours. She made some tricks with the mountain by boosting herself with kicking the top of the mountains with her back legs, giving her substantial speed. Of course, this maneuver was not common, but given how Azureath was struggling to fly herself, it was necessary.

After they reached the region's gate, Azureath could not muster any strength to hover and make a soft landing. Instead, she opted to a more recent style of flying, promptly said to be inspired by how the heroes Seraphor and Avila flew by running on a long track while extending their wings before the wind lifted them up. She heard them firsthand from Riant, who was their friend back when before they disappeared.

Azureath extended her wings to glide and put all four of her claws on ready to grasp the ground, yet she realized she came in too fast. Knowing that she could not fly up again due to exhaustion, she hoped that the distance was enough between her and the gate so that she would not accidentally crash through the gate. After her claws touched the ground, she quickly grounded her wings and she turned her stance to run. She quickly started moving her legs as if she was sprinting on a desert, only this time the land was fairly flat and full of mud. She ran and tried to stop herself after a while, but she felt herself slipping. She stopped near the gate, greeted by surprised hellhounds, looking at her like some sort of crazy, but she smiled with her toothy grin to them before she promptly fainted, energy spent.

The hellhounds were clearly far too interested in how a dragon as massive and as glorious as Azureath could faint in front of their gate, ignoring even Nergora and Hans who jumped down from her. Hans moved to Azureath's head to comfort her when Nergora, noticing how the hellhounds were stunned, approached one and said, "(What? Never seen a black dragon before? Stop gawking like an idiot and help her!)"

"(I-it's a she?)"

"(No, it's muscular, so it's a guy. Of course it's a fucking female! Get me someone in charge here right now!)"

Nergora knew he was taking too far of being sarcastic. He knew hell dragons had no appearance similar to Azureath, and that dragon, while she had been to the tree city before, had never fainted in front of it or running towards the gate as if trying to ram it off.

After a while waiting, Nergora saw a familiar figure walking down the steps, who looked a lot like an acquaintance of his, yet older and looked wiser. Some part of his fur had started to turn white, which, white it was not the case for a hellhound, it was if the said hellhound had lived too long on a surface world.

"(Never thought I see you again, Nergora Schelkz)."

"(Well, I love travelling, Anarim, what can I say? How's your grandson?)"

"(We can talk about it inside, dear Nergora. Come with me)."

The white-furred hellhound noticed the refugees had started to flow into the tree city, in which they were mostly hellhounds. Many of them were still children, playing with each other as if nothing happened. What took Nergora's interest were the relationship of the teenagers in which teenagers from the hellish races and the humans and Lycans were conversing to each other without burden or any hint of being forced, yet the older generations were reluctant to start talking about anything. The children were also the same, but their parents, both from the hellhounds and the surface world would not let them.

"(The younger they are, the easier to make a long-lasting relationship)," said Anarim upon seeing it. "(Of course, hellhounds are easy to adapt and become like surface dwellers)."

"(Have there ever any riots or altercations?)"

"(We don't live in a perfect world, right, Nergora? Mostly drunks and bullies, but we help them get along well. Say, Nergora...do you fancy meeting your friend again?)"

Nergora did not know what to say, but when Anarim opened the door to a condo, he saw a familiar grey-furred hellhound reading and smoking pipe. When he saw the younger hellhound, he stood up, looking at Nergora in disbelief, and ran towards him. He quickly hugged him, ignoring Anarim beside him. Before the hellhound could realize his mistake, Anarim moved away, pretending to not be there in the first place.

"(I can't believe it! It has been a year, Nergora!)" he then smelled the hellhound. "(You smell like shit)."

"(That's what travelling is, Sovarn. Never thought I've seen you in this city. When did you get here?)"

"(About a month ago. I was supposed to get out there again to find refugees and to help rebuilding but I preferred an extended sick leave just for the sake of it. Travelling is tiring)."

"(You never complain like that when you are with me)."

"(Travelling_alone_ is tiring. There. Satisfied?)"

Both hellhounds made some laughs and walked outside, talking about their adventures. Months before they were reunited again, they were separated by obligations. Sovarn was given a task by Anarim to gather refugees and rebuild whatever he could from devastated villages, while Nergora decided to go alone and helped Ifrit, Eshdar, and Anubis in doing what he could in places the three of them could not reach or otherwise help. They never crossed paths, and so Nergora was so glad that he could see his dearest friend again, safe and sound.

They talked a lot of things, including the connections and spies Nergora had in Adaline, which had since gone silent because of the hellish invasion forcing the spies to blend in. It had almost been a year since the invasion, where refugees from the conflicted Outer Ring was pouring out of the portals, bringing destructions with them alongside the rebels. Companionship was something he needed after so long for him.

As Nergora and Sovarn talked about their respective experiences, Anarim, contemplating the problems in the whole seriousness, approached Hans. With the Lycan now reverted to his human self, he could at least drink a cup of tea and eat some bread and dried meat, but his expression was still of a shocked man, as if he had seen something traumatic.

"Tell me, Hans, my dear boy. What did you see during your travel? Why does a dragon as mighty and proud as Azureath fell in front of the tree city's gate, and why are you shaking like a scared pup?"

"You won't believe what I saw..."

"Let me tell you an advice. Never assume the impossible, especially if it's the time of the devil on our hand. Now tell me everything you can understand."

And so Hans talked to Anarim all his experiences as detailed and as close to his recollection as possible, starting from their capture, meeting Nergora, the Olhend Circle, the Trans-dimensional creatures, and especially the molten flesh. Anarim heard all of them in silence, gradually becoming more and more serious. Hans could see he was gripping his cane harder and his reptilian eyes become agitated, before finally ending it with their travel to the place.

"I see...those sons of bitches." Hearing this from a fatherly Anarim made Hans surprised, but he knew already that the horns, the reptilian eyes, and the long devil tail were throwaways of his origin as a hellhound.

"(Karkos!)" said Anarim with a raised voice, again something that was out of his character. Is this what the former king looked like if he was dead serious? That's what Hans thought.

A hellhound approached Anarim and said, "(Is there something the matter?)"

"(Send a message to Arbal and all our outposts. Tell them to gather everyone who were once in your list. Just find anyone who is still alive. And get me Al!)"

"(But Albreich just left some days ago...)"

"(He got a telephone in his car and I have the line. Tell him that he's got a favor from an old friend)."

"(I can say that to him right away, but...what is going on?)"

"(Something worse than the demon's invasion is coming. The old demon has finally make the move. Creatures from beyond the pit will rise, and conquer the world, and there will be nothing that can stop that wretched beast. We can only be strong if we are one)."

"(Are you planning to negotiate?)"

"(Better now than never, Karkos. Find Anenka and everyone who was once in my family's military. Go!)"

Karkos knew the urgency and quickly turn towards another room, where he promptly close the door and operated the contraptions behind it. Anarim then turned towards Hans. His presence had caused the Lycan to gulp, but now, with the old hellhound looking at him with complete seriousness at his face, he knew that it was urgent.

"Now, considering you are not delusional and telling me gibberish, then this surface world might survive, or your beloved Ternor continent and the rest of the world will become the plains of hell, and I am not planning to give up on that beauty!"

All Hans could say in this turn of event, was, "This is way out of my league."