I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

A New Monster

"It's unfortunate, but I suppose that I won't be ascending to the world of gods as a dragon after all." Emric sighed as he calmed down. "But there are still other ways to succeed."

As Chae joined Emric at his side, Ergen finally managed to take a few steps outside of the magic circle, which had weakened a great deal after his struggling. And as soon as he was free, Ergen raked his claws through the sandstone floor at the edge of the circle, breaking the magic and making it disappear once and for all as he had no intention of accidentally falling into it again. And with both Asal and Sera by his side, things began looking similar to how the battle had first started with the three of them facing both Emric and Chae.

"I suppose then... that there's no other way." Emric sounded almost depressed.

"Whatever you planned to do to Ergen had been cancelled, Emric. Just give up and face the punishment for your crimes!" Asal yelled, though even if Emric seemed to be weakened now that some of his armor was shattered and he'd used up a lot of his magic in attempting to possess Ergen, the odds still suddenly turned sour as a large group of soldiers stormed thought the temple's opening, all spreading out before surrounding Asal, Ergen and Sera with knights as mages and priests gathered in the back behind them.

"You could have replaced me and been a king, Ergen." Emric glared at Ergen as he spoke in a low tone. "But seeing as my first plan doesn't seem like it will come to pass, I will now have to use the other gateway."

'Other gateway? But the only other...' Ergen wondered silently, knowing that Chae was just an undead so she couldn't be of any use to Emric. However, his line of thinking was apparently wrong as Emric held out his hands and Chae ran until she was behind him. With another screech of pain, Ergen flinched as the sound of bones snapping filled the temple and Chae's chest burst open to reveal five human-like arms that all reached forward and grabbed Emric's body. And once they were all securely wrapped around his arms and middle, Chae suddenly jumped from the place where she had been standing until she landed directly in the red magic circle that was still very much active from before. And as soon as she was inside of it, her open chest cavity suddenly closed with Emric now inside of it.

"They're coming!" Sera suddenly announced, and Ergen turned his head sharply to look at the nearby knights beginning to charge at them as the red magic circle behind them flared with a blinding light that would have made him look away anyway. However, with so many new assailants to focus on, Ergen forgot about Emric and Chae for now as he set his sights on the knights surrounding him. The mages attempted to protect their allies with barriers, but those barriers were easily shattered when Ergen slammed the full weight of his body into them before he started slashing both his tail and claws in every directly. Entire groups of enemies were defeated in an instant while Asal and Sera held their own nearby. However, they were having a difficult time in dealing with any of their opponents as the knights were getting healed almost just as quickly as they were getting injured. And now, Ergen focused on the source of the healing as he took a few steps towards the priests and destroyed their barrier with his claws.

Releasing a small stream of ice breath now that his enemy's barrier was broken, the priests didn't stand a chance as all of them were frozen solid instantly, and soon the other soldiers followed their example as Ergen either killed them with ice or Asal and Sera destroyed them with their magic and sword. It was a short and bloody fight, though it seemed to have fulfilled it's purpose as Ergen suddenly heard Emric's deep laughter sprouting out from behind them. And while the light was still to bright for him to tell what was happening, one thing was for certain, and that was that Emric was changing as his voice was starting to grow more raspy with every second passed.

As all of the soldiers had been dealt with; Ergen, Asal and Sera all turned towards the red light, shielding their eyes until a loud cracking sound suddenly extinguished it. And after looking at Emric and Chae again, Ergen was shocked to see that it had been the ground around the magic circle which had cracked. Even more shocking was the creature that was now standing in the place of where both the corrupted king and griffin had been was now only a single being. It was a being that, while Ergen could have called it by many names, only 'demon' seemed appropriate.

"This... pain..." Emric wheezed as he looked at himself. Somehow, the man had somehow managed to... merge... himself with Chae, and now he looked even more decrepit than the griffin had been. Looking like an extremely tall and thin humanoid, only parts of Emric's new dark-grey body was covered in long black feathers with bits and pieces of his golden armor still scattered around various places of his person. His two feet both had claws like a birds and his four arms and hands seemed no different save for perhaps that they were a bit thicker and had five appendages instead of only four. Two large void-black wings were attached to the man's bare back, shedding a never-ending stream of black feathers that seemed to distort the air around them. And while Emric once had long golden hair, it had now been replaced by a pale-grey color that matched his wide-open eyes that seemed to have lost their pupils.

"That pain is most likely what you've been making that griffin suffer through this entire time." Asal was the first to recover from seeing their new foe.

"This... is nothing for what I plan to accomplish." Emric turned towards him with his eyes seeming to glow in contrast to the dark aura he was producing.

"The gods will destroy Ligan long before you can even touch them Emric!" Sera yelled. "Just look at yourself... you've lost everything, for nothing!"

"What I've sacrificed is nothing compared to what I'm about to achieve!" Emric swiped his two right arms through the air as if to emphasize his point. "Only a little more needs to be done before I can save Ligan, and then the world will finally be at peace. Once and for all!"

'You're wrong...' Ergen thought to himself as he prepared to fight again. 'From the experience from my former world, even if you remove gods from the equation, war will not end. Rather, in doing this, you'll only run out of people to blame for your own actions.'

"Ergen!" Emric yelled while pointing his two right pointer-fingers at Ergen with his arms outstretched. "All of the preparations have been made. The only thing left to do now is to kill you, and my ascendance will be assured!"

Glaring at the man in response, Ergen opened his mouth and released the loudest roar he'd ever made before. And surprisingly, that roar was combined with both Asal and Sera's own battle cries as they suddenly ran forwards towards their new enemy. In an instant, Ergen followed their example, now fully prepared to fight to the death as he knew that this man in front of him wouldn't relent until one of them was dead. This was going to be Ergen's last battle... and now more than ever, Ergen was determined to win.