The gates of Morath, reduced to rubble before the people’s eyes. A slew of drakes breached the city, with another wave well on the way. A pirate man tucked away behind wreckage observed the corpses littered around him. Atop buildings, crushed into the dirt. His chest convulsed as he clung to a rifle in his arms as if it were his lifeline. “They’re dead… They’re all dead!” With an exasperated gasp, he glanced to his left and saw the trampled bodies of his former colleagues. To his right, the gnawed limbs of the same men and women. A tear burst from the corner of his eye as the parading steps of a horde of forty drakes rattled his cover to shambles, exposing him for all to see. Dreadful roars hit his body like a hammer, triggering a warmth between his legs. The thud of his pulse turning louder than their overbearing steps. From the corner of his eye, a red essence crashed into the fray. A red-haired man, shirtless, with cuts and wounds covering his body.

Shrouded in red ether, Zio touched down in the horde’s path. A caress of his spearhead turned it into a bright orange and trailed a haze as he held the spear behind him. “Monsters. That’s all you’ll ever be.” He thought back to a different time. Where he stood below a larger red haired man before a crowd of familiar faces. A flash and suddenly he looked the man eye to eye. Blood on his face, a fading smile that weakened his muscles. You killed her! It’s all your fault! You killed him! It’s all your fault! The argument rampantly rang in his ears, tightening his chest and sharpening his focus. Never forget… Your pride. Thrusting the spear until his arm stretched as far as it could, he exhaled. “Dragon’s Pride!” A ray of heat exploded from the spearhead. Its vast size consumed the gate and sundered the center row of the horde, leaving behind a trail of flame. Tension left his chest, leaving him gasping. “Time to clean up.” Zio threw the spear over his shoulder, the trembling of the man behind him stealing his attention. “Still alive? I cleared a trail on the way here! Take the path until you find some others!”

Legs frozen in place, the man’s upper body swayed. His arms stiffened around his rifle as he gawked at Zio. “W-What? Try speakin’ common!”

“I am speaking in common, you idiot! Run!” An unforeseen roar drowned out Zio’s word. A drake reached him, overtaking his position and flinging its head into him. Zio fastened tight to his scales with his free arm, burying his feet in the dirt while it forced him into the city. The drake came to a halt as Zio pressed against it. Its scales securely in his grip, he tossed it into the air, drawing back the spear and slicing the beast’s underbelly. The spilling blood sizzled as it came in contact with his ether, spilling on the ground after he charged back toward the gate. “About twenty more.” The lasting drakes had infiltrated the city, the few with their sights on the bystander, and tackled him. “No!” Before his eyes, the man’s arm was ripped from his body. The drakes tumbling over him as if he were a rag doll. Zio dropped his head, a shadow cast over face. His chest bulking, Zio released a terrible howl. Stabbing a drake through its scales and bursting the spearhead from his body, before he jumped into the air with a front flip and plunged the spear into another’s head. The other drakes spread, establishing a boundary around him. With another howl, Zio pummeled his chest and rushed into battle. Dragging his spear through the burn, the blazing spearhead leaving a trail of flame through the dirt, he sliced through the neck of a drake. Twirling the spear, he jumped into the air, crashing down on the back of a drake. Shattering its scales and killing it on impact. The heated breath of a drake came beside him, its jagged teeth closing in on his chest. Ether surrounded Zio’s hands, grasping onto the teeth before its jaw could snap, then inhaled, expanding his chest. Fire flowed from his lips into the drake’s mouth, tossing it to the side as smoke billowed from its mouth.

***

“Deadly as ever.” said Nomu as he observed Zio. “Though his strength pales compared to his ancestor, avoiding a prolonged conflict with him was wise. There's nothing more dangerous than a beast that has tolerance. They’re far less predictable. Unwilling to give into the urges that compel them to unleash the dragons ether. And yet, he walks about with uncertainty. Like he could lose it at any moment. Doubt perhaps? Could this be from the murder of his father?” Nomu chuckled, caressing his hand across his chin. “With enough pressure, he’ll fold. Setting the stage.” Nomu pondered, turning away from Zio’s battle. A glance over his shoulder and he found himself caught in a vocal train of thought. “The heir is the greatest obstacle to reach the boy. And to break a rock, you must chip at it piece by piece.” He spun back in Zio’s direction. “I’ll gamble with the chance. Destroying him now will secure our victory.” Nomu slowly descended from the sky.

As Zio plucked the spear from the drake’s spine, he gathered red ether in his hands, pausing when he realized the drakes were fleeing. Sensing a presence behind him, Zio lashed the spear around and pointed it. “You again!?” The spearhead followed a descending Nomu. Touching down out of range of Zio, and promptly opening his arms before swaying one in front and the other behind him. “Mistake me with Tsuna? I know our ether is similar, but I would’ve thought your kind would be smart enough to tell the difference. Hell, even the hair should’ve given it away.” As Zio spoke, his eyes bounced around the area, to Nomu, to his sides, then back to Nomu.

“Has your exile dulled your common sense? Was there nothing you developed when you deserted that faction of dragon killers, except for a flawed sense of humor and a heroic facade? Traits you’ve honed to replace the failure you feel in your heart for what made you what you are.” Nomu strolled over to the body of the pirate man, who gasped for his life. “It’s clear in your ether and even clearer on your face. Death follows you, no matter how hard you try to prevent it.”

Zio’s grip on his spear loosened, biting his bottom lip, then quickly tightened up. “What is it you want? First Tsuna, now me? Are wyvern too far beyond saving that you need one of us? Or did some hidden elder dragon put you up to this?”

Nomu shook his head. A straight face remaining still on his lips. “A compromise.”

Zio’s mouth hung open, then closed as his teeth clashed, hearing the response. “Compromise?! Death, destruction. The people’s suffering. All for a fucking compromise! That didn’t cross your mind before all of this happened?”

“It had. But what does any of it matter when you lack the strength or authority to make the call?” Nomu tilted his head. The pirate’s eye opened, staring directly into Nomu’s. “Is it that hard to believe that I do not want a fight?” Zio’s easing brought surprise to his face. Now with his head held high, standing upright.

“Then stop dancing around the question and tell me what you’re here for. Skulking around with a handful of wyvern does little to support your point.”

“Hmph.” Nomu’s attention went back to the man. “In a battle of prideful fools with more power than they deserve, all one can do is wait until they destroy themselves.” Nomu kneeled to the pirate and placed a hand on the man’s face. Pressing his jagged nail on the man’s cheek, he slowly dragged it, drawing blood that shifted from a red to a purple color. “Talion will not stop. Not until he has what he wants, and who am I to stop him? Better, who are you to stop him? Son of Infernus, in all ways except soul, marching to repeat the course of history. Plunging the world into another war it may not recover from should he wake the sleeping Tiamat. Dragons will die, Humans will die. Will you stop him or run as you always have?”

“See…” A smile cracked on Zio’s lips. “That’s what you don’t get. This isn’t my story.” Striding over the corpses, he chuckled at the confusion on Nomu’s face. “You’re right about me. I’m a murderer and a phony. With my stained past, I could never be the hero.” He watched as Nomu’s face became tense, Zio smirking as he came closer. “Self-awareness is a hell of a thing. If you thought I’d spend my whole life running… You miscalculated. Death is in my ether because I’m the one who causes it. I want nothing more than to live in a world without war, like everyone else. But who’s willing to kill monsters like you for the greater good? Without rules or restrictions, it’s all too easy for me.”

Nomu stepped further back the closer Zio came. “You foresaw this, didn’t you?”

“Heh. I am a descendant of the First Tarragon, after all. Infernus’ ether runs in my veins. That said, I can sense anything of draconic ether.” Zio pointed. “Even you.”

Nomu grinned, raising his hands to his sides, then swung his jagged nail to his chest. “I overestimated you, Zio. You’re no beast with control, but one with patience. Anticipating my arrival being the exception, the true Zio is no better than those of which he murders.” Zio stopped walking towards him, his sudden pause giving Nomu a chance to jump back.

Zio focused on Nomu, peering at the deep red color that sounded his body and the violet aura within his hand. Suddenly, his eyes darted to his left, toward the docks. “Talion’s here!”

“And you won’t have the chance to get in his way!” Instantly, Nomu pierced his chest with his nail, unleashing a flurry of energy that burst from under his robe and exposed the purple veins coursing throughout his body. “This is the beginning of the end!” The pillar of violet energy climbed into the sky, scattering around the city. A stray beam flew downward, striking the pirate, causing him to scream. His body shifted as he wailed, slowly encasing in a purple shell that spawned from the injury.

Shielding his face for what else might come, Zio peered at the monstrous egg that appeared from the pirate. It flashed as powerful tremors shook from within. “No… How!? Is that?!” He looked at Nomu. “Who the hell are you!?” In his ear, shrieks burst from all over the city, followed by the egg before him burst. The newborn wyvern exploded out of its shell, joining along the monstrous chorus.

Nomu covered his body under the robes, ensuring his hood remained secure over his face. “I… am a Son of Ebon!” As the words left his lips, he vanished. Leaving Zio with the enraged wyvern