Both of Yoichi's hands came away from his temples, and his fists struck the turf below several times. Punch after punch, Yoichi seemed to resist the incredible internal pain with his teeth gritted.

In the next moment, something never before seen happened to Kenji. The little demon dragon's eyes opened wide, and it lost its breath for an instant: as if a mysterious force was pushing them upwards from below, the small black horns of Yoichi's pet increased in size, stretching a few centimeters.

​​

Being made of many thin concentric rings of the same resistant material, a short but intense blaze enveloped the newly formed rings.

At the end of that extraordinary shape-shifting process, the flames on Kenji's head disappeared, and the intense pain clutching Yoichi's temples ceased instantly.

*anf*anf* - the young tamer's deep, intermittent breaths helped his eyesight focus on the terrain between his hands. Drop by drop, sweat from the effort dripped profusely from his forehead and the tip of his blond forelock.

Reacting to his first instinct, the young tamer turned his gaze to his Oracle, gaping at the new Kenji.

Under the incredulous gazes of Ryutaro, Shioko, and Yoichi, the black horns on Kenji's head had grown, giving witness to the acquisition of new draconic power and the growth of the little dragon demon.

Just before the transformation, Kenji's horns were straight and a few inches short; after that process that lasted only a few minutes, they had curved forward slightly, increasing their length and widening in the middle.

"Wha... what happened?! Kenji... Kenji!" - when Yoichi hurriedly tried to get up, his blood pressure suffered a violent collapse, and, for the second time, the young tamer lost consciousness, falling onto the soft grass of the hill.

...

*tabdak*tabdak* - "Hiiii!"

Once again, he had passed out, and once again, he was awakened by the sound of horses' hooves. The shaking of the carriage under his back made his body wobble like a jelly.

The wheels of the carriage struck larger stones scattered here and there on the rough, dirt road. As a direct consequence, both the bodies of Enatsu and Yoichi, next to each other, were bouncing like goldfishes in a pond.

"Urgh... damn..." Yoichi muttered, turning on his side. "It happened again..." he continued, touching his forehead and realizing that the pain in his temples was definitely gone.

Enatsu and Rokuro were sleeping blissfully on the other side of the narrow rectangular wagon. Kenji had just woken up, as had its tamer. The little dragon demon looked to be amazed at its brand new horns: like a cat sharpening its nails against a rough surface, it began to scratch the tips of its horns against the base of the wagon, flaying the wooden beams.

"I won't hide the fact that this time I was scared too, boy" - Ryutaro's voice interspersed with the sounds of the horses' hooves and the wheels of the carriage.

Yoichi sat up, rubbing his eyes as if after a long sleep. "Where... where are we?" he inquired, looking around. With one hand, the young tamer held on to the edges of the carriage, trying not to fall off below.

As his gaze traveled past Enatsu's sprawled body, Shioko appeared beside the carriage. The red-haired tamer proudly rode Taya, following the same path as the gatekeeper.

Behind her, several miles away, the clear surface of the sea reflected the sunlight like a brilliant blue mirror, blending into the clear morning sky.

Soon after, Yoichi looked across, noticing that barren mountains flanked the side opposite the carriage with partially collapsed slopes. The vegetation along the edges of those sharp, rugged promontories had been almost entirely eaten away by the black mud.

The treetrunks, already bent under the weight of the soil of those unstable slopes, had been consumed from the inside. Their bark appeared as a mere container deprived of its soul and sap. The Blackblood had not limited itself to consuming demons, small animals, and the Crimson Lotus plantations.

Even the typical vegetation of the area, though already sparse and shabby, had suffered the voracity of the Immortal Emperor of Kamakiri's blood.

All the details of that macabre panorama made Yoichi realize their current location. Aboard his Sensei's carriage, he was retracing with his companions the road leading to Goldhaven, heading up north.

"It certainly seems that little Ildriss has decided to give its fragile body an upgrade. Apparently, its true nature is taking over, and its body is beginning to adapt to the changes in his species," Ryutaro spoke again, waking Yoichi, who had momentarily dissociated from reality.

"I... I don't know what to say. I never wondered when Kenji's body would start changing, and... apparently... it had no idea either," Yoichi commented, looking away from his demon pet and at Ryutaro's back.

The gatekeeper was intent on driving the carriage, hurriedly escorting the two Nightblades warriors to the capital. "Ryutaro-sensei," Yoichi called, anticipating the old gatekeeper's response.

"Tell me, Yoichi-kun" - the wind moved the veil in front of Ryutaro's face. Looking at the back of his head, Yoichi discovered that a thread of fabric hidden behind his ears and connected to the side ends of that veil allowed the gatekeeper's face to remain perpetually unseen.

"What will happen to you when we get to Goldhaven?" the young tamer asked. His long blond hair fluttered following the trajectory of the carriage. Yoichi's question generated a few seconds of silence. Although the wise Ryutaro always had an answer for his doubts, he seemed to have been caught off guard.

"I'm glad you asked me such a question, Yoichi," he sighed. "Emperor Nishiyama will send his men to pick me up at the gates of Goldhaven's Arena. When they have captured me, they will escort me to the prisons of the Imperial Palace, where the guards can constantly keep an eye on me," he explained.

From the perpetually relaxed tone of his voice, Ryutaro seemed to have no worries about what would happen to him once he reached the capital.