There were a few things Damon wanted to accomplish while Aya was still recovering and before the remaining Clan Leaders made their move.
Fortunately, ti was sothing he had more of than most.
Two weeks passed.
For the Kitsune Clan, the ti was spent rebuilding.
The damaged sections of the estate were repaired first. The wounded followed shortly after. Divine Beasts recovered faster than ordinary creatures, and with Aya no longer on the verge of death, the atmosphere hanging over the territory gradually lightened.
Not entirely.
The death of the Naga Sovereign had spread further than anyone would have liked.
No one knew how the remaining Clan Leaders would respond.
Which was exactly why Damon spent those two weeks preparing.
Most of his ti was spent inside the domain.
The Black Knight beca his opponent.
The Naga Sovereign beca his benchmark.
Again and again, he crossed blades with one and tested himself against the other.
The results spoke for themselves.
[Abyssal Sword Art has advanced to Level V.]
The improvent wasn’t rely technical.
Every strike felt cleaner.
Every movent required less thought.
The sword no longer felt like a weapon in his hands.
It felt like an extension of them.
His mana control also continued to grow.
He finally began to learn how to control the abnormal capacity of his mana.
The injuries he was previously getting from every ti he used mana subsided, but more importantly, the way mana flowed inside his body changed.
Before, it felt like trying to hold a flood inside his body.
Now the sensation was different.
The pressure remained.
But the flood had begun flowing exactly where he wanted it to.
Sowhere in between the training sessions inside his domain, Damon visited Aya, checking on her recovery, which went quite well.
By the second week, she had resud handling clan matters, though Damon occasionally caught her rubbing her side when she thought nobody was looking.
According to her, she was perfectly fine, but according to him, she was still far from being at her 100% strength.
He also visited Yuki, who on the surface, recovered much faster.
But despite her brave front and the smile she welcod him with, he could see that the toll losing a tail took on her was incomparable to an ordinary injury.
Everyone in the estate looked at him differently now, too. Seeing their human champion, whom they had written off as a mistake, kill a Divine Beast made everything they believed until now a lie they couldn’t quite shake.
There was a hint of awe in their gazes, but more importantly, there was hope.
Hope that the impossible could happen again.
Hope that their human champion could actually save them.
Damon wasn’t nearly as optimistic.
Because while the Kitsune Clan spent those two weeks rebuilding, soone else had been moving as well.
And as the second week went by, his suspicion would soon turn true.
He was just about to check on Aya when he found her in a dire mood, discussing sothing with her brother.
"What’s going on?" Damon imdiately asked, reading the room with a single glance.
Aya turned, her eyes flashed with a faint surprise at his sudden appearance, but she quickly locked into focus.
"Our scouts spotted Dragon Clan forces near our territory."
Damon frowned. "So they sent their army..."
Aya’s expression darkened. "No," she shook her head. "The Leader... she is coming here herself."
Damon’s frown only deepened.
"The leader is coming on her own?"
Despite how ridiculous it sounded, despite how naive it sounded for the enemy leader to move on her own, the expressions on both Aya’s and Raiden’s faces said that it wasn’t the enemy leader who was in danger.
They were.
Raiden exhaled slowly, his expression settling into sothing more resolved. "We should et her outside the estate," he paused for a mont before continuing. "Whatever happens, we should keep our remaining clan mbers out of danger."
Aya nodded, though her gaze seed rather distant, as if trailed off sowhere far and desolate.
Damon didn’t disagree with the logic either. His most potent attack left a lot of damage. If he wanted to go all out, he needed space to do so.
"Let’s leave right away," he said, which caught both siblings off guard.
"You’re not scared?" Raiden asked, slightly amused by Damon’s calmness.
"What’s there to be scared of? This was bound to happen."
Raiden shook his head. "I can’t tell if you’re crazy or stupid, but let’s hope you’re ready because the Dragon Clan is nothing like the Naga Clan."
Damon shrugged off the comnt and moved toward the door, his expression already settled into resolve as he ntally prepared for the battle bound to happen.
Monts later, Damon, Aya and Raiden made their way down the mountain path leading away from the Kitsune Estate.
Behind them, the clan watched in uneasy silence.
So understood what was coming.
Most didn’t.
But none of them dared to follow.
"If she’s really headed this way, she should be around here," Raiden said, scanning the terrain with a faint frown.
"Can’t she fly?" Damon asked. "If she’s a dragon, wouldn’t that be faster?"
Aya shook her head. "The skies aren’t safe for her kind here."
Damon glanced up. "aning?"
"She doesn’t need them," Raiden answered quietly. "Not where she’s strongest."
That made Damon’s eyes narrow slightly.
They walked further down the broken mountain path.
Wind moved through the cliffs.
Birds had long since gone silent.
Even the air felt heavier the lower they descended.
Then—
Aya suddenly stopped, and Raiden followed a second later.
Damon noticed it half a mont after them.
A presence.
It wasn’t approaching them. It was already there.
Below them, on the winding path carved between jagged stone and dead trees, soone was walking upward.
She moved with complete unhurriedness, as if the mountain itself had been placed there for her convenience.
She looked almost human at first glance... almost.
Jet-black hair flowed down her back like ink spilling through air that refused to resist it.
Two obsidian horns curved from her head, polished and smooth, as if they had never known imperfection.
Behind her, wings folded lazily, too large to belong comfortably in this world, too still to suggest effort.
But it was her eyes that made the world feel wrong.
Her reptilian, deep blue eyes made the light curve around them.
Raiden’s expression tightened.
"...So she really ca alone."
Aya didn’t answer.
Her body was already positioned into a battle stance.
Damon studied the woman in silence.
There was sothing about her that felt wrong.
It wasn’t a pressure like it was with most opponents, not a weight but sothing else entirely.
Before he could put together what it was, the Dragon Clan Leader stopped.
For the first ti, she looked directly at them.
Her gaze passed over Raiden.
Then Aya.
Then settled on Damon.
A faint smile ford on her lips.
As if she had finally found the answer to a question she hadn’t bothered asking aloud.
"So," she said softly.
Her voice carried down the mountain like it didn’t need permission to be heard.
"This is the human who killed that vile snake..."
She tilted her head slightly, her smile widening.
"Yes..." she murmured, almost only to herself. "...he’ll do nicely."
A pause.
The wind around them stilled for a fraction of a second.
Then she added, almost conversationally.
"I’ve been looking for sothing new to keep."
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