The dragon soared through the endless sea of trees as its wings continued to slash and its jaws continued to mutilate anything that entered its path.

Be it wood, rocks, or even some of its eight-legged inhabitants, Lian Garen would leave nothing standing anywhere he passed through, for he refused to ever let anything lock him down ever again now that he was finally set free from the devilish girl that tormented him so much.

"Yes!! Yes!! Finally, I can spread my wings! Finally, I can feel the breeze of the wind on my scales!" he shouted as if he wanted the entire world to know he was once again back to his former self.

The sound of the girl crying his name in anger just as he abandoned her at the mercy of the swarm of crawlers still played inside his head as the most beautiful melody he ever heard. After all the times she stabbed him, insulted him, humiliated him, and looked down on him, he finally managed to achieve his revenge by filling her with hope only to take it all away from her when she needed it the most.

"I have not felt this good in ages!! I might even start to sing at this rate! Hahahaha!!"

To top it all off, thanks to the nameless knight helping him reach the tower left behind by the scientists that explored this forest, which allowed him to go through all their data and reports, he now knew exactly where he needed to go to finally unlock the secret of this place, all while the child acted as bait to keep the beasts occupied for him as they continued to show an unexpected fascination for her.

The forest was basically deserted as so many of the creatures had either gathered after her or fallen to her blade. He would never have a better chance than that.

After long, the red-scaled bat with the head of a snake finally reached its destination, a massive cave placed at the bottom of a cliff with an entrance covered in purple crystals.

"Mmm... Too small for my second form. That's unfortunate..." he sighed as he once again assumed the shape of a man with long strings of crimson hair. A form that now he was starting to dread as it reminded him of his time as that girl's prisoner.

Lian Garen stepped into the cave and noticed that the tunnels, although dark, were being illuminated by paths of the same types of crystals found outside, as if to help outsiders to make their way in.

"No crawlers in sight... Perfect!"

The man began to dash forward as if he was running towards his destiny. Just a little bit more and he would become the one to solve one of the biggest mysteries of this land, all thanks to his now-deceased partner.

He promised himself that he would make sure to mention her contribution in reaching this far. He wouldn't dare allow her fall to be forgotten by the world.

The tunnels began to grow wider. He could even transform himself again.

A red dragon soon once again took flight inside of the tunnels while following the path of crystals ahead of him.

"To think there was still so much of this forest to be explored... The reports of those scientists truly proved to be helpful. But it does beg the question... What stopped them from coming back with the answer themselves?" he wondered as he found the lack of corpses on the ground rather unsettling.

Those that came before had left behind plenty of information stating that many of the attempts at exploring the caves ended up in failure, as the ones that entered either never returned or simply came out as a new addition to the crawler race.

Lian began to feel something wrong with his wings, as the symptoms of the crawler infection rapidly began to appear all over his skin.

The dragon wasted no time and simply shoved his fangs on his own body and tore his wing apart before the disease could spread even further, followed by using his flames to quickly grow a new limb.

His left leg was next, as it also began to show marks of the infection, and just like before, it was disposed of and replaced.

The process continued. A tail, a claw, a piece of his stomach. It didn't take long for the red dragon to start leaving behind a path made by his severed limbs as the infection continued to appear in different parts.

"So this is the source of all of it..." he concluded, "I see... Naturally, any being that dared to enter this place must have fallen prey to the crawler infection... Any being but me!!" the crimson beast commented.

The tunnels finally became so large that Lian was starting to have trouble even seeing the ceiling. The moment he looked up all that stood in front of him was nothing but darkness. The light from the crystals on the ground was the only thing that could help him continue his advance.

"An endless tunnel that drives you further away from the light, a disease that takes over your being the further you advance..." he commented before suddenly being jumped on by a series of eight crawlers that were hiding in the dark, but ended up all being eliminated by the crimson beast's claws, "and a swarm of foolish creatures that will either kill you or turn you into one of them should they manage to overpower you...

Hahahaha! I knew it! This challenge was basically made to be beaten by me! I truly am destined for greatness!!"

Lian Garen finally reached the end of the path, and before him stood a gigantic area of the size of a palace.

He still was unable to see the top of the cave, but this time the walls as well were being hidden, although not by the darkness, but by the layers upon layers of crystals. An uncountable number of minerals of all sizes, from a tiny as a finger to as big as a house, each radiating with a bright purple light.

"Now this is curious..." he commented while assuming his first form and began to explore the place with slow and careful steps as if he was waiting for something to ambush him at any moment.

He began to come closer towards some of the crystals and noticed that some of the larger ones were keeping strange figures inside of them. As he approached the nearest one and gave a better look he began to grasp a better understanding of what they were keeping in.

The shape of a pair of wings, a long tail, claws ad horns, it didn't take much for Lian to realize he was staring at a dragon frozen still inside of the gem.

"Very curious..." he simply added at the sight of one of his own.

He inspected another crystal, then another, then another. As he suspected, many of them contained a dragon locked inside as if the entire cave was meant to act as a prison for the members of his race.

"Why only dragons though?" he mumbled as he noticed a lack of humans, vampires, dwelfs, or any other type of species besides dragons anywhere he looked.

"You are not welcome here!" someone suddenly spoke, interrupting his train of thought and causing him to immediately turn around with a jump.

Lian assumed his guard but quickly proceeded to relax upon taking a closer look at the one who talked.

It was a child, a girl who seemed to be around the age of five or six, dressed on a simple dress that went all the way to her feet, even managing to cover them completely. She was glaring down at him from behind her long bangs with hair that managed to reach all the way to her shoulders.

The reason she had to look down was because the girl was floating in the air as if she was tied up by an invisible string. What was most strange though, was that her entire body had the same color of the light of the crystals, a strong purple glow that when stared at directly nearly blinded him.

"And the surprises just don't stop coming, apparently..." Lian reacted, "Who are you supposed to be?"

The girl did not reply and simply raised her arm, aimed at the red-haired man. The light of the crystals began to grow even stronger and suddenly the disease started to appear on his skin once again.

She expected him to start panicking, but Lian simply smirked and tore his own skin off before growing it back again.

"Sorry, this won't work on me."

"Tch!" she clicked her tongue.

"I see... A virus that moves in the form of light... Fascinating! A perfect way to infect your enemies as they keep relying on the bright crystals to guide them through the cave. Very clever... And I assume you must be the one responsible for the crawlers appearing despite our attempts at eliminating all of them."

The girl remained quiet and aimed both her palms at the ground. A series of arachnid monsters began to rise from below and attempted to pierce Lian with their fangs and claws, but the man simply assumed his dragon form and began to tear each of them apart as if they were nothing.

The girl widened her eyes, "A dragon!"

"Indeed!" Lian nodded with his massive snake head, "You should feel honored for being in the presence of such a mighty existence! Do feel free to bow down and revere me to your heart's desire!"

The child's glare began to grow worse by the second, "I. Hate. Dragons!!"

Suddenly, the dragons that were inside of the purple crystals began to open their eyes and break out from their slumber.

Their skin began to assume a pale appearance and extra limbs started to come out from their torsos as they yelled in agony.

"So is that how it is...?" Lian whispered as he simply swung his tail around and smacked all of them before they could finish their transformations.

"Ugh!!" the girl cried as she saw her army easily being defeated.

"Oh... It appears one of them managed to bite me..." he commented before eating his own tail and spitting it out as a new one started to form, "There! Much better!"

The child began to lose her composed expression and backed away a few steps, "A dragon that's unaffected by my curse? This... This is the worst possible scenario..."

"A curse...?" Lian repeated as he took a closer look at her and realized that if he focused, it was possible to see through her body, "You... You are a spirit!"

Just like before, the girl refused to talk and simply averted her furious gaze.

"I see! Hahahaha!! Now I understand! This entire thing has been nothing but the result of the remorse of a small child who refuses to accept her own death! How interesting!"

"Silence!!" the purple girl shouted, but the red dragon simply ignored her.

"So the crawlers were never the problem... They were just a side-effect. You were the one who caused all this! You and your undying grudge!" he continued as more crawlers started to come out and get easily destroyed by the crimson reptile, "Truly fascinating!"

"Fascinating!!??" the girl screamed, "You think my death and the death of those I loved is entertaining?? You having fun with my misery??"

"Quite a bit, honestly..." he answered as if it was obvious.

"I knew it... All dragons should just go ahead and die... If it weren't for you and your race-"

"Apologies, I sincerely do not care..." he commented while slamming the girl with his tail and causing a small earthquake inside the cave.

A pile of smoke began to rise, but once it dissipated, the girl simply remained untouched as she continued to float above Lian's tail, as if his attack had passed right through her.

"Oh... That's unfortunate..." he mumbled.

The crystals began to light up again and more crawlers started to come out, but no matter how much the girl tried, she simply could not compete with Lian's size, speed, or regenerative ability.

"Just give up, lass... I'm not like other dragons that you have faced before. I'm on a completely different level!"

"No..." the girl whispered as she continued to watch her attempts at driving him away failing one after another, "No, no... This isn't possible!!"

"Sadly for you, I already have a little bit of experience dealing with the souls of deceased annoying young girls trying to take me down and failing miserably. The last one at least had a sword and an indestructible armor. You just have this pathetic army of small fries that couldn't possibly hope to compete with me!" he talked before squashing another creature under his gigantic foot.

The dragon then lifted his head and began to use it as a chain ball in order to smash each of the crystals into tiny pieces.

"STOOOP!!!" she cried, trying to place herself in front of his attack, but still unable to stop it.

The red dragon marveled at its own work. Several of the stones were destroyed and piles of crawlers corpses were laying on the ground.

The young girl couldn't help but fall on her knees and start to tear up while biting her lips.

"Dragons always ruin everything..." mumbled, "I hate you all... I HATE YOU ALL!!! WHY CAN'T ALL DRAGONS JUST DIE!!??"

Lian began to laugh at her agony, "Hahahaha! Don't feel sad, young one... There is nothing in this world that can hope to compete with my greatness!"

Suddenly, amidst his increasing laughter and her growing cries of sadness, the ground began to shake and caused all the crystal fragments that were scattered to jump.

The two of them instantly froze as another quake took place, followed by an even bigger one, and then a third.

More tremors kept coming and each grew stronger and louder, as if a massive being was approaching with absurdly heavy steps.

The red dragon and the purple spirit then finally aimed their gazes at the entrance of the cave and watched as a third figure approached them.

"What in the name of all that is sacred...?" Lian blurted out.

The child continued to watch as the strange metallic figure covered in rust kept approaching, towering over her with its body composed of a cubic compartment being carried by a set of cylindric arms and legs that appeared to have been split in half.

On its back, a set of rings surrounded by sparks of electricity were floating right behind it, and above the compartment, a small spherical visor made of glass.

It appeared to be a humanoid creature made of metal that managed to be bigger than the red dragon himself. Above one of its shoulders, one small man-sized figure covered in black was hanging on while looking at her.

Lian seemed to recognize that figure, "You... How...??"

The figure jumped out from the metal giant's shoulder and landed in front of the girl before kneeling as if it were her knight.

"Hey..." the black figure spoke with a soft voice while glancing at the dragon, "Is this guy making you cry?"

The girl simply nodded while trying to hold in her tears.

The figure then stood up and pulled from its back what appeared to be a massive double-edged wide sword, carrying it with just one hand.

The giant began to release steam from its arms and a series of four claws started to appear on each side of it. Meanwhile, the black figure aimed its claymore at the massive reptile.

"Then... How about we make HIM cry this time?"