-Night. Nefiru's POV-

The lone Dragon me strolls back through the obscured forest after spending the whole day hiking, fighting and herding bigger Dragons, to finally rest in the usual mountain of logs on the northeast corner of the estate. I rely on my night vision to advance while straining my ears in high alert to discern the forest critters make their usual noises and with the nose, scan the area for predators that might pose a threat then collect mana to enhance the sore muscles as I tread.

After walking for a greater amount of time than needed to reach my siblings during the day, I finally made it to the edge of the forest at almost midnight and lost my tension seeing the open field behind the Ragefire's backyard. Being an armored vehicle doesn't bother me walking in the sea of grass reaching up to a person's neck that would tickle my belly would I not be covered in scales, but towering over the brown blades makes me conspicuous and was detected by the tower sentinels not long after coming out of the forest.

...It looks silly seeing someone using a telescope at night to search for spies, but they look like pirates during the day with an eye patch to keep their sight sensitive, and they also sleep in the towers. I recall Alphonse explanation about darkness users who train their eyes to see well in the dark for jobs like these or assassinations in the shadows. Although being so sensitive to light creates a weakness that could blind them really bad since they don't have cat eyes to shut the light fast and even I who has that mechanism get caught off-guard sometimes. I stare at the towers where sentinels are looking back at me.

Bah! Cats got nothing on me! I compared the felines with highly evolved lizards of another world. My night vision is good enough even to see some colors in a narrow view focusing hard while the rest is black and white, though I wonder if it has something to do with my eyeball presently being around two human fists in size since my vision keeps improving while growing. Perhaps it has something to do with Magic enhancing the eye muscles or more Cone Cells still growing, and I can see slightly into the infrared or ultraviolet, but it gives me a headache distinguishing those colors for some reason. I think back to the discovery on Alphonse's black hair reflecting a wavelength in the infrared range.

Shaila's progress is slow using magic in her eyes to perceive other electromagnetic wavelengths apart visible light or changing them into known colors and bending light to see farther, but it's dangerous since she could get blinded which might need Super grandma to heal. I stop my advance and stare at the constellations while hearing the blades of grass rustling with the wind.

Still, they got telescopes huh? I recall the sappy story behind the discovery of the revolutionary invention. They say it was awe-inspiring when a device used to concentrate sunlight with glass lenses for high-temperature furnaces was accidentally pointed at the night sky and tinkers cried after witnessing the beauty of the firmament which gave it the name 'Sky-loop,' but I think it's funnier watching the stereotypical dwarfs crying. I assumed the birth of astronomy in this world.

However, this is a World where knowledge or inventions don't get passed down because Divines die or Demigods reach the higher stage and leave the world with their wisdom...it's highly possible telescopes were already discovered in ages long past since certain magicians can make glass and mold it with an amazing precision. I deduced the existence of lost knowledge in this world thay many aren't aware of.

Still, there is no moon here but the night sky is quite beautiful without city lights blocking the view, and the bright Galactic plane across the sky indicate this might be an active spiral galaxy with many young stars. Perhaps it is closer to the center of the Galaxy since there are less dark spots in the Galactic plane compared to the Milky Way's, or maybe it absorbed smaller galaxies containing molecular clouds not long ago that seeded the formation of enough stars to make the night so bright that it doesn't need a Moon. I may not have a telescope but can distinguish with bare eyes a few hazy nebulas and the bright spots outside the Galactic plane are either Star clusters or neighbor Galaxies from a local group, though I lack magnification to be sure. Too much of a hassle to build a dragon-sized telescope just to casually use and my primary affinities are not suitable for the task, so I have to rely on Shaila who specializes in light to show me things. I concluded sky gazing then approached the backyard's walls.

Geh!... I have to jump on top of that wall without full magic and body heavier than usual... Also, I forgot to take a piss... After giving in to the urges in the tall grass, I accelerated towards the wall at ten-hum away at high enough speed to feel the wind whistling, and the grass below became static sound, then jumped from the estimated angle while extending my wings in the air to soften the landing. However....

"GAACK!..." I uttered a yelp expelling all the air in my lungs that accompanied the impact on top of the wall at high speed after failing to gain enough altitude.

I struggle to acquire a foothold using my wings to latch on the top along with my foreleg paws gripping the top while the hind leg's claws slide down on the smooth stone bricks with screeching noises and the swaying tail beat the grass like a weed whacker.

Ouch... That hurt like hell... right in the Kokoro, the sharp corners of the stupidly tall wall that is.... I'm not testing Dragon crashes, nor the sturdiness of the giant brick walls damn it! A claw trimmer is what it is... as sturdy as prefabricated concrete on Earth since high ranking magicians made it. I reflect on the miscalculation of the crash at over forty miles per hour while confirming a stable hold.

There wasn't enough magic in the muscles to accurately jump to the top with the weight of two digesting giant wolves. Which reminds me, soon I have to go out again and fertilize the forest since I'm not in the hotel anymore-- I mean prison where they disposed of the waste and washed my body while here, hardly anyone wants to get closer to the blue lizard. I'm not getting spoiled enough since Shaila only brushes the hair when is dusty and I have clean myself with magic, but without her, I would feel a forever alone dragon. I recall with nostalgia the leisure days in the beast pen at the guild while climbing the four-hum tall walls of the place that can be considered a prison that is easy to leave but harder to come back inside.

I stabilized my body on top of the human-waist thick stone wall by balancing with the wings, the tail fanned out and the paws firmly gripping the stone while waiting for the pain to pass when a ball of red light appeared on the left side of the tree by the middle of the backyard.

Ah! Speaking of the white devil...she's probably been waiting for a while. I stare at the light source coming from below when suddenly, it intensified to illuminate my body then followed by a little girl's voice.

"You are finally back..." Shaila affirmed getting closer and send to the collar. "Alphonse said my pet escaped to reunite with his family in the wild..." She reproached for falling victim to a tease by not telling her my whereabouts for the whole day.

A wild Shaila has appeared! I muse watching her with a serious look holding a ball of red light in her right hand to remain adapted to the dark. A surprise bright light into my eyes would have been quite the punishment.

That Alphonse implied that I left her, and then he complains when Shaila ignores him... Still, she should know better than to believe that, but it is amusing seeing her like this, and the first time she clung on my tail when I was leaving the estate. Well, I know what it feels to have your pet run away in my previous life and in the forest which ended up eating them when they ran away. I recall my attempts at making a companion in the forest.

We never recognize how important freedom becomes when it's taken from you, and yet we consider ourselves free, by spending countless hours in front of a computer, inside a room...totally worth it! I evoke the years of entertainment in my head.

"Yes, your pet is here and now... Catch him!!" I requested raising my extended wings parallel to the wall and prepared to pounce the nine-year-old girl.

"You are joking right...!? Even your tail can squash me!" She protested stepping back.

"Are you calling me fat!?" I pretend to be upset showing my teeth in a menacing way.

"...Right now, it looks that way. Did you eat your siblings too?" She mocked my bloated body balanced on top of the wall.

"How mean! I'm just full from eating two wolves as I told you I could fit, but there's still room for a little girl!" I triumphantly proclaimed then glided into the courtyard with the forelegs in front while the open paws fully display the claws.

"You are not joking..." She realized. "EEEK!..." She shrieked while running away.

"THOOM!" I touchdown with a loud thud before extending my neck over to block the fleeing girl.

"Oomph..." She smashes onto my lower jaw.

"Captured!" I informed holding her against my neck with my left front paw.

"KYA!" The white haired girl did a high pitch scream attack making my ears ring.

"Screaming like a little girl hurts my ears..." I notify her flickering my ears in annoyance.

"I am a little girl!!" She retorted struggling.

"Hmph, a little girl with enough magic to overcome a normal adult by strength alone..." I mentioned her robust physique due to the effects of high Magic density. "Speaking of Magic--" I started sending when a window opened abruptly then I let Shaila go.

"HEY!" Liana yelled from a window. "People...trying to sleep!.." After calling our attention, she yelled something I could recognize while the rest were probably curses and grumbles. "You shouldn't be out this late." The angry woman in sleepwear nagged at Shaila before closing the window.

"Sorry... a bit longer." Shaila pleaded towards the window that just closed.

"...We should all put collars on our sisters." I spoke with derision staring at the same window. "Hey, I need you convince your brother to get me a collar a little bigger than mine for my sister since she seems the smarter of the two and two collars would be too expensive." I appealed her to communicate with my siblings as soon as possible.

She nodded then lowered her gaze to the black frilly dress.

"Look at what you did..." The white haired girl shows me her dirty dress with an accusing tone. "Sighs... I will have to take a bath before bed..." She protested shaking her head.

"You look fine..." I commented then earned a glare from her. "Now, let us go to my place and have some fun on my wooden bed." I lower my neck for her to get on the section where the spines are small.

"Just for a little while...it's cold." She complained getting on and dismissing the red light before we head to the firewood pile. "So, what did you for the whole today?" The curious passenger asks while gripping my hairs.

"I tracked down my siblings into wolf territory without taking unnecessary risks, then rescued them from a sub-pack with Rank 5 golden wolf leader, but I took a liking to him and let the survivors live. The two lizards are now sleeping in the corner of the forest between the two territories, but they should be safe tonight and won't die from the wounds either with the stomach full." I recount today's events arriving at the wood pile.

"How rare, Nefi leaving something alive..." Shaila insinuates I'm a killing machine.

I climbed the firewood pile to the top and curved my body on the corner with the right side against the walls before lying down, then Shaila sat on my left firearm while leaning on my chest.

"I'm not that heartless... though I did swallow a wolf alive and possibly in front of the parents..." I tilt my head reflecting on my actions then bent my neck to look at her.

"Why would you swallow something alive!? What if it does magic inside of you? Healing your insides would be very hard because of your size and with the stomach injured, your natural healing won't work...you could die." The girl nags with a glare looking up to meet my gaze.

"B-because it's more efficient to collect it like that and I had the idea when we exchange Mana inside our bodies." I stammered explaining the reason for taking the risk.

"So... you ate a wolf in front of its parents, and they didn't attack you nor it woke up inside you?" The upset girl crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes pointing out a mistake.

"It's alright. It was a low-rank darkness wolf who wouldn't do much damage, and the others were exhausted while my magic reserves were enough to kill them should they had tried anything, but it is a reason why I need my siblings besides help me capture creatures alive. I also confirmed it didn't wake up in my neck, but I must have enough magic serves to avoid the accidents you mentioned and kill them as soon as they reach my stomach." I explain watching her reactions without blinking.

"Sighs...you plan on keep doing it...?" Shaila lowered her head questioning.

I need to increase my Rank a little more to be able to escape from powerful beasts, but increasing magic density got harder since my current Level took almost a month and the next is at least four months away, then Rank 7 could take years at this pace. Finding magical creatures is not easy either, stopping them from running and killing them much less, but the pace should improve with the siblings. I anticipate not reaching the goal by the time limit with the current progress.

"Of course. I don't have the same advantage as you who have been playing with magic for years and need to take greater risks to get to Rank 7 within four years." I declared while recalling the knowledge taught by my teachers that are also my students.

Rank 7 is such a huge jump that individuals have to use Tiers to differentiate such as low, mid and upper, or maybe they were too lazy to use a bunch of levels. I marvel at the four Ranks containing the scale until Divine. Magic Density doubles for each Rank until six, but beyond that is ten times per Rank since the Soul and Spirit become ten times as powerful after the awakening, making the new ladder easier to climb. A higher Soul stage is too important for all the benefits it brings and the mysteries one can unravel, but I wonder if what Guardian told me will prove useful with the delicate process using Magic. I look forward to having a Soul ten times stronger.

The way I see it, the influence of the Soul depends on the restrictions of Reality which manifest as Spirit directly proportional to the Soul's strength then Spirit can be considered the Soul's root in a Dimension, and by developing this influence, the grip progresses until it manifest or materializes the tree... er- the soul. I ponder the mechanism behind the Soul growth and recalled what I was going to ask before Liana interrupted me.

"Oh yeah, speaking of mana, can you give me some, and pick my teeth after? I could use a massage too since my shoulders are stiff and my chest hurts." I made unreasonable requests causing her to grumble.

"Why do you need magic at this hour? Aren't you going to sleep?" She inquired sending her Magic inside my chest while rubbing the scales.

I feel her Magic moving towards my Core before it starts to untangle slowly to match the rate of my absorption and avoid leakage.

"Oh, gotta go to the bathroom soon..." I inform the white haired girl, causing her to become agape.

"You want my precious Mana just to go poop in the forest!!??..." Shaila protested retracting the energy. "That's all I'm giving you since you won't be so heavy on the way back and I can't fill you up anyway." She compromised snuggling on the scaly chest to avoid the chilly breeze. "And this counts as massage." She declared from the scratched scales in my chest.

"Tch. How stingy... Who was it that woke me up every day to steal my Mana just so she could play with lasers?" I reminded her of the confiscated the staff by her brother for making lasers around people.

"Mu!" The girl in black pouted with arms crossed. "Sister didn't mind it that much, but Brother still took the staff away, and making lasers without a medium is very hard." She complained untangling the hair from the scales.

"Hmm... indeed, we lack the control to stack elementals tightly together then replace the ones that disappear at the right time, but in your case, you have to do all while synchronizing them to make a beam with the same wavelength and keep it concentrated. It can't be helped since those little buggers are too small for our magic density to command them with the optimal precision to make a thin beam, yet strong enough to do damage, and perhaps at Divine Rank that won't be a limitation anymore." I consoled being glad such a constraint is not a problem for my affinities.

"Yeah... I can't make a perfect mirror with elementals alone since the photons escape through the gaps, and there's a lot of leakages when making a simple laser that barely does damage, but producing images as you said doesn't require the same precision as lasers, just need a lot of practice. Light magic is much harder than I imagined..." She describes her inability to produce lasers freely.

"It seems we have a severe Mana problem, and we are rich...well, you are. I can't even make money selling my scales, but I can only imagine how hard things are for everybody else..." I point out before turning to her once more. "Can you check my mouth now? I want to sleep comfortably, but those bone fragments annoy me." I remind her bringing my head closer.

"Ack! I was hoping you'd forget." The little girl expressed reluctance then produced a bright light ball floating above her left palm. "Open up." She commanded placing her right hand on my lips, and I comply. "Stinks... On second thought, use my mana to take a bath and wash your mouth when you are done in the forest." She ordered throwing away the dislodged pieces of bones.

"Well the good news about eating things whole is no leftovers, and the bad is the stinky breath...sorry about that." I apologized for putting her through that while adding to the equation magic reserves to wash.

"Ah geez, don't take so many risks just because you can reincarnate, I will be lonely for who knows how long until I find you." She pleaded drying her hands in the dress before sitting back down on my forearm and inject magic into my body again.

"About that... a strange dream that should be a hidden memory made me puzzled, and now I have no idea where or when I would reincarnate, but identifying me shouldn't be so difficult since I'm a weird dragon who has no clue how to fly." I imagine the lonely times she will face if I die while licking my teeth and absorbing the mana.

"Pffft. What kind of dragon doesn't know how to fly!!?" She laughed before mocking me.

All I've done in this life is fall and crash with the volcano a new record for skydiving, but my problem is the flying mechanics and coordination which the instincts are too vague about... I ponder the reasons I'm taking so long to fly.

She really can't fill me up... I guess it would require more than ten Shailas. Well, that's enough mana to visit the forest and make the jump back in, I have yet to collect elementals anyway. I affirm the logical downside of having a large mana pool.

"Hmph! I am so dropping you from the sky." I grumble then lift my arm and throw her down to the logs.

"Kyaack! Owww. It hurts, it hurts ...Meanie." She rubs her butt and scowls my way holding a ball of red light before climbing down the rest of the way.

"It's because you are as flat as a plank and too flabby! What are you waiting to start doing exercises?" At the mention of training, she runs away.

"I'm riding you tomorrow until your neck falls!" She declared before running outside the collar range on her way to the house's middle door.

Riding on my head that long? She doesn't believe in motion sickness it seems. I shake my head and tuck it under my left wing.

At least she improved her physique by eating better, but we are not practicing Magic just for fun... she can't remain this frail by the time I take her to hunt in the forest with us. I remember the siblings back in the forest and look forward to meeting them tomorrow under better circumstances.