Shadow Dragon Training (Haretsa's Secondary Magic Training w/ Ayeseru)

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

The moon hung high in the midnight sky as Haretsa laid on the upper deck of the ship she had hired. Her eyes were wide open and focused on the moon; seemingly unphased by her usual motion sickness whenever she was on transportation. Despite the fact that she was alone, where she usually tended to get rather... crazy, Haretsa's mind was in a surprising state of calmness. The only thing that she could focus on right now was that strange voice that had called for her to head towards a very remote island after she had gotten her passport in Hargeon. This place was known as Shadow Island; a place where any and all light was ten times dimmer than anywhere else in all of Fiore according to what the captain of the boat she was on told her. This voice had been calling out to the young Slayer ever since she had done her first mission with the guildmate she had nicknamed Tree. While it was helpful in explaining a bit about the magic she possessed, the voice seemed to be growing more and more persistent with urging her to "feed it". Haretsa had grown annoyed at this constant nagging, so she finally decided to listen to whatever was speaking to her and travel out to this place.


   When the boat had finally come ashore, a chilling breeze swept across the sands as Haretsa departed from the vessel; shaking off her motion sickness her boots touched the sand. The moment she set foot onto the island, Haretsa clutched her head in pain as the boat departed back toward the mainland. ”Go deep into the jungles forest… You will find him in a clearing in the dead center of the island; where the shadows are the thickest…” the voice said in its eerie tone before fading once more. ”Whose him and who the hell ARE you!? Why won’t you just tell me already!!?” Haretsa shouted, only receiving the response of the howling wind. With a sigh, Haretsa drew her pistol from its holster and proceeded into the forest on high alert.

 

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

Haretsa walked through Shadow Island’s haunting forest with her ears on high alert. There were countless beasts dwelling in this forest; all making noises ceaselessly at once. Strangely enough, none of the beasts that dwelled on this island seemed all that concerned with Haretsa. The boat captain had warned her that the beasts on this island were known for being violently territorial and yet here Haretsa was; walking through who knows how many of their territories without a problem. It was almost as if Haretsa was nothing more than another shadow on the island to them and honestly, she wasn’t complaining. The fact that the animals of the island were ignoring Haretsa simply made her journey here that much easier.


  The cream haired girl pressed onward for a good five minutes with her ears twitching at every grunt, howl, and twig snap that she heard. She finally reached the clearing, looking around and seeing no one around. It was at this moment that she had to clutch her head once more with her free hand. ”Look there, in the center. He’s here just as I said he would be…” the voice spoke, confusing Haretsa even more. She looked up, her eyes widening in shock as there was now a black haired male sitting in the center of the clearing; meditating. She knew for a damn fact that there was no one there when she got here, so what the hell was going on? Haretsa also noted that she couldn’t sense any magic power from this man despite the fact that she was standing within a few feet of him. Was this guy even real or simply an illusion? There was only one way to find out. Haretsa took quite a few steps forward before she stood roughly six feet from the man, still unable to feel any form of magic power. ”Um… hi there! My name is Haretsa and uh… Well, I was brought here by a voice in my head!” she spoke in her usually cheery tone; surprising given just how confused she was about the whole situation.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

Haretsa had a miniature freakout moment as the man in front of her disappeared before her very eyes and a voice spoke out to her from behind. While she half expected it to be an illusion, she wasn’t exactly expecting the person that was responsible for the illusion to end up directly behind her. The young girl spun around and fell over in shock to see the black haired man standing there so calmly. ”Damn you scared the crap out of me!! Can you teach me how to do that?!?” she asked the man, completely derailing from the advice he had just given her.

  Due to the shock, it took a minute for Haretsa to register that the man told her to ignore what the voice said. She pushed herself back up off the ground and stood before this strange person who had yet to even introduce himself. ”Trust me, I tried to ignore him but he wouldn’t shut up! He kept telling me that he was hungry and that I should stop ignoring his power. I haven’t gotten the damndest clue who he is or what power he’s talkin about, but he said you’d be right here in this clearing to help me, so I don’t think he was entirely lying.” she explained, reaching out to poke the man’s arm a few times because she wasn’t sure if he was actually real or another illusion.

  It was at this moment that the shadows of the island began to shift strangely towards Haretsa, crawling all around the young slayer and even beginning to seep off of her in a sinister looking black flaming aura. Her eyes widened as she examined herself; confused as to what exactly was happening. ”Wh-what the hell!? Why am I glowing black?! Did my flames get all depressing all of a sudden or something?! I didn’t even feel my eyes change color!” Haretsa rapidly blurted out, dropping to the ground and rolling around as if to put herself out, despite the fact that she didn’t feel like she was on fire and she knew damn well that being on fire really wasn’t a problem to her magic. Yet despite this, Haretsa oddly enough DID feel quite a bit of pain from these bizarre flames.  The man before her simply stood and watched on at the rather bizarre sight playing out in front of him.

 

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

Everything seemed to just happen in a blur to the young Dragon Slayer. She was suddenly unable to move as the man before her suddenly made his shadow grow and grow, until it completely surrounded both of the mages. Haretsa simply blinked in utter confusion until it was all over and she could move again. She had no idea what the man had done to her, but the black flames that had once enveloped her body just moments ago had suddenly vanished and the pain was gone. Whatever he did, it was almost as if he sort of ate her shadows; which raised a few questions in Haretsa’s mind.

Before she could even say anything however, the man told her to relax for a bit as well as explaining what he did to her before asking her a rather strange question. ”Why does your shadow taste like a Shadow Dragon?” he asked, to which Haretsa simply sat up and looked at the man as if he had eight heads all of a sudden. ”Ya know, it's kinda rude to not introduce yourself… Haretsa muttered, holding her head as she thought about the question. He basically confirmed her thoughts about him eating her shadow, so did that make him some sort of Shadow Dragon Slayer the same way she could eat fire as a Fire Dragon Slayer? ”So you can eat shadow’s, I’m assuming that makes you a Shadow Dragon Slayer? That’s pretty cool! ...but honestly, I really don’t know why you think my shadow tastes like a Shadow Dragon. Those bastards only put a Fire Dragon lacrima in me to turn me into some kind of weapon… she said in a remorseful tone, pulling her knees up to her chin and letting out a sigh. ”So unless they somehow put a Shadow Dragon lacrima in me too without me figuring it out after all these years, which I don’t think is even possible, then I don’t really have an answer to your question Mr….whatever your name is.”

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

”Wait, what about a sapphire now?” the young Slayer asked, mishearing what the man known as Ayeseru had said. She listened as he went on to explain that Haretsa did in fact have another Dragon Lacrima within her; of which she really didn’t know how to feel about the whole thing. Shadow Magic most likely wouldn’t be as hard to control as fire, so that really wasn’t much of an issue. However, Haretsa couldn't help but be a little mad at the fact that they had planted not just one but TWO Dragon Lacrima inside of her and she didn’t even know about one of them until this very moment. Just what kind of twisted, killing machine did they originally intend to make her by giving her two Dragon Lacrima?

   Shaking her mind free of that, Haretsa listened as Ayeseru offered to help her train these new powers of hers. ”So that’s what Mr. Weirdo Voice meant when he said you would help me! HELL YEAH I WANT TO LEARN; ESPECIALLY THAT ILLUSION SHIT YOU DID EARLIER!!! YOU HAAAAAAAAAAAVE TO TEACH ME HOW TO DO THAT!!!” she exclaimed with excitement, completely glossing over the fact that Ayeseru said he wasn’t a Dragon Slayer. Haretsa never had any form of teacher to explain to her how to use her Fire Dragon Slayer magic properly. She was on her own when it came to figuring out that magic and sense it got out of control easily, Haretsa chose to explore other methods of combat than her magic which was why she was considered a fairly novice mage. However, with this she would have someone to help her learn the limitations of her magic which meant it would be easier to master for her than the Fire Dragon Slayer magic she possessed. Haretsa’s eyes were alight with curiosity and the desire to learn, the thought of what those mages did to her in her past completely faded now; mostly due to her incredibly short attention span.
 

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

Haretsa blinked in confusion as Ayeseru placed one of his finger’s on her forehead. In a single heartbeat, the black flames once again completely consumed Haretsa; placing her in the exact same predicament as she was before. She tried to keep calm and took in what Ayeseru had said, standing up and still instead of freaking out as she had done last time. She was cringing at the pain, but it was surprisingly a lot more bearable than the young Slayer thought being on fire with weird shadows would be.

  Watching as Ayeseru turned away from her and sat down, Haretsa tried to think of a way to get these weird shadow flames under control and to stop burning her. ”..I wonder if trying to eat them is a good idea… Nah, that’s a stupid idea. Hmmm…” she pondered aloud, not realizing that her body was slowly beginning to fall into the ground; or more specifically, into the shadows. She looked down to notice that half her body had already been consumed into the shadows on the ground around her. ”Uhhhhhhh… is… is this supposed to be a thing that happens? …..Ayeseru? Hellooooooooooooo….. A LITTLE HELP HERE!?!” she shouted as her body continued to sink, but Ayeseru couldn’t hear her. She closed her eyes in fear, unsure of what was happening to her or why.

  When she finally opened her eyes, Haretsa looked up to see the island still, but from quite a different perspective. It was as if Haretsa had become the ground itself and was seeing the world from its perspective. However, looking around herself, every direction but up was pitch black like a void. ”Did… I just become a shadow? How the hell did that even work!? she thought to herself before realizing that she was still on fire from the shadow flames. Yet, for some reason, she didn’t feel any pain from them in… wherever it was that she was currently located. This was probably the most ideal situation for her, since now she could try controlling the flames in a similar to fashion to how she controlled her regular magic. It was worth a shot, especially since she wouldn’t be causing any kind of wildfires in a place like this.

 

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

Since the two had already established that Ayeseru was a proficient Slayer involving shadows, Haretsa wasn’t surprised at all when he grabbed a hold of her shadow and picked her up by it. Her teacher gave the young girl some rather helpful and odd advice when it came to re-entering the real world from the shadow’s. She couldn’t help but wonder what he meant when he said “make sure it’s clean” as he set her shadow back down; returning her to the strange world she was in. Ayeseru told Haretsa that she could take as long as she wanted, so she decided to use her time in this world to its fullest.

    Out of curiosity, Haretsa lit her hand aflame and waited to see if it would change to be like the fire that was burning her. The flames about her hand remained orange for a good two minutes, not changing in the slightest nor drawing in the flames around her. Extinguishing that flame, Haretsa crossed her arms and pondered exactly what she should do in this situation. ”Well, its not like the fires hurting me right now anyway. I’ll figure out how to control that later… probably would be easier if I knew more of what I was doing with fire in the first place…. Oh well! Lets start with moving around this weird world.” she thought aloud, deciding to take a swimming approach to moving around in this world of shadow. While it was working out, Haretsa’s movement was fairly slow compared to what she felt it possibly could be. However, for the time being it was working out just fine.


    As she swam through the shadows, Haretsa began to notice something when she looked up at the real world above her. It seemed as though whenever she could see rocks and dirt in the shadow world, that seemed to be the extent of the shadow that she could travel within. It was difficult to see at first, where Haretsa was constantly slamming head first into these boundaries but as time went on her eyes started to adjust more and more to her surroundings.

 

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

   Haretsa got used to swimming through the shadows in around ten minutes or so, but it wasn’t enough to her. She felt as if there had to be a much better way to travel around than swimming like she was. However, she concluded that more likely than not, the ability to travel through the shadows easier would come with being able to actually control shadows properly; which is where Ayeseru would come in. Before all that could happen, Haretsa felt as though she had to get a handle on these basics by herself. She had a desire to be able to use this power that had remained locked away within her for years because she felt it would be an alternative to her fire magic; something that she could control now that she met someone who could teach her.

   The young mage stayed in the shadow world as if she was floating in water; reminiscing back to the days of her past. ”I wonder how things would have turned out if you were still alive, Emi… You could have taught me all this yourself… she thought aloud in a disheartened tone, wrapping her arms around herself as she floated. She always hated when her mind went back to those times. Knowing that now wasn’t the right time for recollecting on the past, Haretsa looked up to the world above and decided it was time for her to try entering it and reentering this one on her own accord.

  Swimming up towards the real world, Haretsa pulled herself out of the shadow world only to feel the sting of the black flames that still engulfed her body. Once she managed to climb out of the shadows, Haretsa turned and was about to ask Ayeseru a question when she realized something felt rather… off. The Slayer turned her gaze towards her right leg to notice that it was essentially missing. All that was there was a set of black flames in the shape of her leg; still seeming to be tied to the world of shadows. She tried and tried again to pull her leg free from the shadows, but it simply would not budge. It was almost as if someone, or something, was holding on to her leg and keeping it in the shadows. ”The hell..? Uhh, can I get a little assistance with thi- WOAH!!!” she exclaimed, as it appeared as though she was forcibly dragged back into the shadows.

  When her entire body had reentered the void, Haretsa’s eyes widened as she was now able to see what monster had pulled her back in. Before her was an enormous, black dragon with eyes that glowed as white as the entirety of Snowfall Isle. The horns that adorned this beast’s head like a crown looked as if they could impale mountains and shatter them to pieces. Haretsa floated there in shock, as the beast decided to speak with her. ”Why were you in such a hurry to leave, child? The fun hasn’t even begun yet.” the dragon laughed in a baleful tone. ”T..tha...that’s a huge bitch….”

 

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

   Haretsa stared into the vibrant white eyes of the beast that was before her. She listened as she suddenly heard Ayeseru’s voice from behind her.  He explained to her that this dragon’s name was Sapphiron and that it most likely wanted Ayeseru to unlock her powers so that the dragon could either help with her with mastering them or take over her body. When Ayeseru asked what Haretsa was going to do, her answer was swift and expected. ”LIKE HELL I’M LETTING THIS DAMN LIZARD TAKE OVER MY BODY! THAT’S JUST… NASTY!”

    The hulking dragon simply laughed when he heard the young girls response. ”Good, child, simply splendid. It wouldn’t be any fun if you didn’t show some resistance!!” Sapphiron roared, before bearing down one of his massive claws onto Haretsa. With little time to dodge out of the way, Haretsa instinctively threw her hands up to catch the beast’s massive claw in her hands, just barely keeping one of its talons from slashing into her body. Her eyes widened at the fact that she had actually done this. ”Wait a minute… this shouldn’t be happening at all. Sapphire is a lot bigger than me, there’s no way I should be able to be holding his claw back… Unless…” she thought to herself, looking at the dragon’s arm and seeing it genuinely struggle against her own strength. ”Unless you’re weak as CRAP!!” the girl exclaimed, bringing her knee up to impact the center of the dragon’s claw; causing Sapphiron to retract his arm in pain.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

  Realizing her opportunity, Haretsa quickly swam forward onto the arm of Sapphiron and began to climb the beast as quickly as she could. Sapphiron promptly responded to this by swatting the young dragon slayer off with his other claw; sending Haretsa flying through the world of shadows. ”Little bitch. You’re a fool if you think that I have become THAT weak inside of you!” he roared, charging through the shadows after the girl. ”So that’s what you meant by feeding huh… you wanted me to feed you so you could kick my ass right now!” she responded, quickly drawing Blamo from her holster and firing three shots straight for the head of the oncoming behemoth.

  ”Yes, but just because you ignored me doesn’t mean I can’t devour you.” Sapphiron said, the bullets bouncing off his hardened hide and continuing his charger towards Haretsa. ”I’m still plenty strong enough to deal with the likes of you!!” he shouted, swiping his claw at Haretsa once more. With a quick tap of her wrist, Haretsa activated her armor, causing her to glow a faint, fiery orange as she was knocked out of the shadows by Sapphiron’s attack; thankfully lessening the power of the blow just in time. As the girl was sent back out into the real world, Sapphiron reached one of his arms out to grab her by the leg once more and dragging her back into his domain. Haretsa did have a point. While he may not have been at his peak in power, he was still easily on par with Haretsa if not a little bit stronger than she was; especially within the world of shadows. She needed to come up with a plan to beat this dragon and she had just the idea.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

   As she was dragged back into the world of shadows, Haretsa would holster her pistol and pull out the contraption that she had holstered around the back of her waist. With a tug of the ring and the flip of a switch, the box like contraption quickly unfolded itself into Haretsa’s sniper scythe; Scisara. The blade hummed to life as Haretsa threw what weight she currently could into slashing Sapphiron’s arm that currently was gripping her leg. Since Scisara’s blade was made out of a plasma like energy, it was much more proficient at cutting through the dragon’s scales than a normal blade would, leaving a rather nasty gash along Sapphiron’s wrist.

  With the dragon howling in pain, Haretsa quickly spun herself in the opposite direction and aimed Scisara like a sniper rifle towards the abyss. Pulling down on the weapon’s trigger, the massive recoil from the weapon while it was in scythe mode propelled Haretsa through the shadows straight towards Sapphiron’s face. Holding Scisara in her left hand now, Haretsa spun herself to face the dragon she was rocketing towards, pulling back her right hand with her palm facing Sapphiron as her entire hand became engulfed in a brilliant flame. ”FIRE DRAGON’S RIFLE PALM!!” she shouted before thrusting her palm straight into Sapphiron’s jaw. The flames from her hand entered into the dragon’s head before erupting out the top; causing him to wail in agony. Haretsa then grabbed onto the dragon's snout, pulling herself up and bringing Scisara across in a horizontal slash straight into both of the dragon's eyes; causing him even more immense pain. "You may be just some apparition of what's inside me, but you're still a dragon and this magic of mine is good for one thing at least; KICKING YOUR FRIGGIN ASS!"

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

   Sapphiron continued to cry out in agony as Haretsa floated there a few meters away; Scisara acting as a light in the darkness as the blade hummed quietly. ”You… arrogant little wench!” the dragon cried, as Haretsa seemed rather confident in her current situation. ”Sounds like someone’s a little mad! If only you could see the look on your face… too bad your eyes are gone. Oh well, just makes my job a lot easier!” Haretsa taunted arrogantly, assuming she had the upper hand. At the current moment, she was indeed the one with the upper hand. However, she was about to learn that the most dangerous of beasts are those that are backed into a corner.

    The black dragon simply smirked at Haretsa’s arrogance as he made his move in the darkness. Haretsa was about ready to make her move until she felt Sapphiron’s grasp around her leg once more, but how? She looked down in confusion to see a smaller version of Sapphiron’s claw wrapped around her leg. More and more of these claws began forming from seemingly no where all around Haretsa until she couldn’t move her body at all. She turned back to Sapphiron, noticing both of his arms had faded and been replaced by shadow versions in a similar fashion to how her leg was before he pulled her back into this world. ”Did you honestly think blinding me would help you at all? You’re in MY domain, brat. I can feel you with every single one of my senses; taking away my eyes matters not. I’m not about to be defeated by some brat who is afraid of her regular magic and doesn’t even have a decent grasp on it despite having it for thirteen years!! Now, let your consciousness perish and become one with the void!” Sapphiron commanded, the black flames around Haretsa erupting to complete encase her in a sort of cocoon like structure.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

    Haretsa’s attempts to struggle free of Sapphiron’s grasp were in vain as the shadows engulfed her entire body. Sapphiron’s loud laughter grew quieter and quieter until Haretsa could no longer hear it. She couldn’t hear anything at this point, not even the sound of her very own breath. All her eyes could perceive was a pitch black darkness every which way she looked. ”So that’s why I couldn’t control them… they were just shadows, not actually fire…” Haretsa thought aloud nervously as the situation she was in dawned upon her. If she didn’t do something now, then Sapphiron would consume her and take control of her body. She already knew that she couldn’t break free from his grasp, so what else could she possibly do in this situation?

    The young girl began to panic as she felt a sweat breakout over her. Was this really how her life was going to end, being taken over by a damn dragon? ”Wh-what do I do...What the hell am I supposed to do? I… I want to live… No, I NEED to live… They’re still alive, I know they are… I can’t die while Momma’s and Emi’s killers are still out there… but what do I do? Emi… what am I supposed to do to live?!” Haretsa cried out, her voice reverberating throughout the shadowy cocoon. ”...control the dragon…” a familiar voice whispered, causing Haretsa’s eyes to widen. She looked around but saw no one else near her and that voice sure as hell didn’t belong to Ayeseru. ”E..Emi..?” ”Haretsa, remember these words well... You control the dragon, the dragon doesn't control you. I want you to never forget that, kiddo.” she heard the voice whisper before fading off. As it did, Haretsa recalled what Sapphiron told her about feasting on her respective element during the mission she partook in to save Clarissa from those Vulcan’s with the help of Tree. ”Then… I’ve only got one hope left… It’s worth a shot!”

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

   With his arms now returning to him, Sapphiron drew ever closer to the cocoon, planning to enjoy his meal and reenter the real world once more with full control over this new body. The Shadow Dragon had become the arrogant one now; perceiving the fight to now be over. His eyes widened in disbelief as he watched the shadows that formed Haretsa’s cocoon swirl around in a type of vortex; a vortex that was entering into Haretsa’s mouth at a rapid rate. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. Haretsa was actually consuming Sapphiron’s magic just the same as she had consumed fire just as he instructed her too. ”No… that’s not possible! You don’t even understand the power locked within you!!!!” the dragon shouted, Haretsa responding with a rather loud belch. ”Huh… kinda tastes like chocolate ice cream!” she exclaimed, now acting like her usual self and as if she wasn’t just in a life or death situation.

  The dragon roared in anger in frustration, bearing down on Haretsa with one of its claws once more. Haretsa simply gave Scisara a quick spin before cutting through the dragon’s arm causing him to wail in pain once more. Haretsa then swam up to the split arm and bit into it, the body of the dragon slowly beginning to disintegrate into shadows as she began to consume them once more. ”No, NO! It can’t end like this!!!!!!!!” Sapphiron’s shadow wailed in agony as it was consumed by Haretsa; nothing remaining of the apparition of the Shadow Dragon. Shadow flames engulfed Haretsa’s entire body once more, but not the same as before. These were truly flames and shadows mixed into one; black as night with a midnight purple outline dancing around them. With these flames, Haretsa shot up towards the surface, reentering the real world with the flames still engulfing her entire body; none of her features capable of being determined.

 There in the shadow world, where Haretsa once floated, was the form of a baby Shadow Dragon that had a giant grin on her face. ”I knew you forget I told you that, otherwise you would have done that without me needing to say anything. You’re lucky big sis was still lookin out for ya, kiddo…” the baby dragon said, turning towards Ayeseru who had been spectating these events the same as she had. ”So tell me, was I able to avoid the gaze of even the great shadow god or did realize I was here the whole time?”

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

    The baby dragon tilted its head in confusion as it listened to Ayeseru’s proposal of returning her to the real world. All she could do was simply laugh and smile at Ayeseru’s confusion. ”You think that I’m stuck here, huh? That I’m trapped down here in the void looking like this? I guess there are some things I can keep hidden from you.” the dragon spoke, as shadows began to seep from her scales. These shadows enveloped her, transforming her from a dragon into a woman in her early twenties.

   The woman now before Ayeseru stood at about six feet tall with medium length, light black hair and jet black eyes. She wore a black tube top with a dark purple trench coat, dark purple pants and black boots. She also had an incredibly powerful aura about her, one that matched even Ayeseru's in terms of the raw, magical power it was giving off. Suppressing this aura once more, the woman turned her gaze to her hands which bore finger-less gloves, flexing her hands slowly as if they were somewhat foreign to her. "Sorry about that, not good at keeping my power concealed when I'm changing back! Anyway, to answer your question, I'm perfectly capable of going back to the real world of my own free will, I've just been busy training here for a while... Huh, guess it really has been a while since I've been in my regular form. Feels really weird going from claws to hands, ya know?" the woman laughed, turning her gaze up to where Haretsa now stood; watching as the flames continued to rage around the young girl. "Honestly, I almost gave up on finding her. I guess Sapphiron was right in telling me to follow you around for the past two months. Its unfortunate that she got stuck with the darker side of him, huh?" she asked, now turning her attention towards Ayeseru. "But she kicked his ass all the same. As much as I really want to go say hi and help her train, its better if you train her. After all, you're basically the god of the shadow dragon's in a sense! That and I can't exactly eat shadows blended with freakin' fire if things get out of hand... so there's that."

      Rolling her neck around and cracking it, the black haired woman sighed as she continued to speak. "I gotta get used to being normal again... Anyway, I'm gonna chill out here for a bit. Lil' Hare didn't notice me until I wanted her to hear my voice, so she won't be seeing me anytime soon. I don't want to keep you from your student much longer, but just know I'll reveal myself to her when the time is right. So for now, could ya keep this convo our lil' secret?" she asked the shadow god with a smile.

"I’m the mongoose and you’re gonna be my dinner."

- Haretsa

     As Emilia and Ayeseru were having their conversation, the shadowy flames that engulfed Haretsa were now beginning to die down into a much less intense aura. The young girl was finally able to see herself now and things were quite different than normal. Looking down at her arms, she saw pitch black scales covering the full length of both her arms which had a pulsating midnight purple outline to them. Her fingernails were now replaced with deep black claws that looked like they might be able to carve through solid steel if she so desired. What she couldn’t really see was that her eyes were now an asphalt grey with her hair matching the black of her now scaly arms. The ends of her hair seemed to flicker like a calm flame as she looked at herself in awe and confusion. "Holy crap!! This is like what happened when I entered Dragon Force that one time… THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!!! But… she said, looking around at the aura that was about her. These weren’t just shadows around her; they were shadows fused together with flames. That’s why they were black with the same midnight purple that adorned her scales. This magic wasn’t just fire or shadow, but a bonded fusion of the two.

       ”Of course, because why would it ever be that simple…” the young slayer sighed rather heavily, turning her attention towards Ayeseru’s meditating body. A rather small smile came to Haretsa’s face as she walked over to the master of the shadows. ”I guess it isn’t all bad though. If you can help me control these, then that might just help me a little with my normal magic too! Now let’s get to training already!” she exclaimed, poking Ayeseru’s shoulder with her boot until her teacher finally opened his eyes and stood up, taking a few steps back away from the girl without saying a word. As she watched Ayeseru’s body become enveloped in a dark and sinister shadow, Haretsa took a combat stance; needing no explanation that the training was about to truly begin.

       Ayeseru seemed to vanish almost instantly after he began to charge at Haretsa, but she actually noticed him merge into the shadows instantaneously. However, by the time she managed to see this feat, Ayeseru was already standing behind her. ”Damn, he’s really fast…” she thought as Ayeseru asked the Slayer to impress him. She knelt down quickly and leapt into the air, staring down at Ayeseru as he stood there. ”Lets see… I’m gonna need to come up with something involving my shadows on the fly, but I’ve been making shit up as I go my whole life with my magic so this shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s gonna need a cool name though, but in the mean time…” she thought, inhaling deeply as she gathered flames in her mouth and lungs; noticing they felt quite different from usual. FIRE DRAGON’S ROAR!!” she shouted upon exhaling, unleashing a raging cylindrical beam of her new black and purple flames straight towards Ayeseru. The blast felt much more powerful than when she had first attempted this roar back on Snowfall Island, so it seemed that this Dragon Force esque mode boosted her magic along with her physical prowess. It also was good to know that even in this strange new mode, the shadows were bound to her regular flames; which she had to admit was pretty freaking cool. ”I GOT IT!” she exclaimed as she landed on the ground quite a distance from Ayeseru; completely unconcerned with whether or not her roar made impact. ”I’mma call it Blazing Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic! And I’m gonna call this mode thingy Fusion Force! That sounds freaking AWESOME!!!” she exclaimed, not even realizing that albeit slowly, she was really starting to accept and enjoy her magic now.