Chapter 146 - 135

At first, as I keep searching for the Demon King among the chaos of the battlefield, my nostrils just catch some odd burning smell, and fearing that there may be some fire demons among his army; which would render my army and Fire Shield useless; I look over and try to find the source of it.

Is not hard to find the source however when I glance backward for I see that one of the wounds in the sky is brighter than the others, the shadows deeper, and the contrast only increases as time goes and suddenly is turn out very bright and orange, almost as it set ablaze.

Then a creature starts to take form, stepping out of it, fangs in display, eyes ablaze as its insides, almost as if made of pure flames under that scaled skin, and a huge paw opening the wound in the air more so the rest of its body could step forward.

Then our eyes meet, my three versus his six eyes, and a full fang smile reaches our lips.

Well, I didn't expect our meeting to go like this, but I could not care less about the circ.u.mstances.

"Hunthor!!" "Brother!!" We scream over the chaos at the same time, and for a moment I hesitate, wondering if this could not be a trick from the Demon King, until Hunthor, stretching his three big heads and showing off his Cerberus form, bites one of the spiders at one side and set a fan of fire with the other, only the head in the middle keeping a steady gaze at me as he gets closer.

And of course, beyond all the other 'unimportant' things happening around us, he jumps up at me, tongue out of his ablaze mouth, only to fall down right on top of me.

I mean at least try to fall on top of me for he would always be miles away from catching up with my speed, so I manage to simply dodge his attack with ease by sidestepping to the side.

I look over to him, raising my eyebrow, only to see his three heads pouting, ears down, with a look that a stray dog would have in the rain.

I roll my eyes at that, then laugh and jump up right at him, bumping our shoulders and pulling at his ears, rolling him down like we used to do when we were pups. Of course, however, that the demons around us do not find our scene moving, and instead used our distraction as an opportunity to attack, only to be slashed by my shadow without much of a thought from my part.

I have an all-seeing eye that gives me such advantage without giving away its abilities after all. Plus I wouldn't just let these low life get in the way of my family again.

Once I'm done bullyin-I mean, saying hi to my brother I step aside only for him to paw his way up and stand one more.

But I cannot overlook the fact that one of the heads has a chain around the neck and others around the paws, still hanging, with bruises around it from pulling at the chain for days, with enough strength to make it bleed.

I frown, anger building up even more in my core, but my brother bumps at my shoulder and brings my attention back up to his eyes once more.

We say nothing this time, taking in the presence of each other, and smile. 

"How the hell did you get here? Are you hurt? Did they beat you? Are you hungry? Where you-" As the questions start boiling up and out of my mouth my worry increases with each word, only to be his time to roll his eyes at me.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it." He says, trying to calm me down, but before I could keep worrying myself sick about him and asking a million questions I hear something coming out from the same wound as him, and as I look over I'm left in shock to see all the people who came to our aid; and I would even say a little emotional about it, but good thing hound faces are hard to read.

"Yo" Say Aeglos, a glint in his eyes that wasn't there before, bruises and blood smears ignored for how proud and relieved he feels by finally rescuing my brother and having him here, safe and sound, and alive I may add.

"For how long do we have to keep cleaning up your mess hound? Geez look at this place, wasn't supposed to be a party?" Isaac says, complaining, but I could tell it was just an act to look tough in front of me as he is soon followed by that Templar of his, who quietly nods in acknowledgment at me as I do the same.

A green dashing figure surges too, jumping right at me, and with queu queu sounds keeps brushing its face on mine, hugging me in a small bear hug.

"Shu, so glad you are ok. Calm down buddy, haha, is alright, I'm not going anywhere, I'm not leaving you, shh."

"That one is a brave pup." Says Aeglos. "Once I reached their cage he had already gotten Thor out."

"Yeah, he kept me company too… I'm sure they regret ignoring him…" Says my brother, looking fondly at the small creature plastered against my face to never let go.

I could not help but have a silly smile on my face at this point, and not even the ones that appear after my hounds manage to take that away, though I frown a little.

"…We are sorry, we did not mean for things to go that way, we never intended to offend you and-" I stop the antshiva twin brothers from going on, raising my paw for silence, and look over the guilty party.

"… Well, it was me who brought them up, so what? You didn't really think that I would just simply sit still like a good little doll and wait for you all to die on me now do you? Anyway, anyhow, keep your complaints for later and we can have an hour-long discussion about it." Says Isaac, raising his chin and crossing his arm at the front, making me realize for the first time that he is dressing up as a man.

"Glad to see with have come to terms with it." I say, pointing with my snout, and as he looks down he shrugs, out of words; and that's a given.

I wanted to talk more, to question more, to have more time for their presence to sink in, but clashes underneath reminds me of the dire situation we are in as Leonel makes his way up towards us, battling against the demons until he is right beside me, sweating and slightly out of breath, pulling his growing hair back and away from his eyes as he says:

"We have a problem, Cain is going out of the circle. He wants to open his portals all around the land." And what he doesn't need to say is that with his army free to advance outside, countless of demons, would surely devastate the elven lands and people more than he already has.

I look at Leonel, and we exchange knowing glances when Aeglos, catching up with the situation rather quickly, says:

"Go after him, we can deal with the situation here."

I hesitate, not wanting to part ways with my brother so soon, if ever, not after what we've been through, not after knowing, after watching it unfold, on just how easily he was taken away from me once, but my silly brother says:

"If we do not deal with him this nightmare won't end. Just go and teach him a lesson! You are a good professor after all." He complements with a cheeky smile. "We can handle things here, now go!"

" ' I'll be alright.' " He says in my mind once more, reassuring, calm.

So that's what I do, leaving with a heavier burden than I have from coming in, not only to end this quickly for the safety of all my companions and my brother, but for the safety of the only race that has taken us in and cared for us for many years.

I set my gaze to the horizon, and narrow my eyes for the challenge that is up to come.