"Madam, the subject has passed the first test. Should we commence the second?"

A fire flared in my soul as my body moved on pure rage. Within a second, I found the commander who had made that insensetive statement within my grasp, his neck buckling beneath my grip. The two behind him didn't dare raise their heads to witness the execution.

"How dare you?! Did you happen to conveniently forget what I had specifically ordered of you?! That man is no 'subject' - no - instead, he needs to be treated with the utmost respect! When you refer to him, he shall be referred to as 'Sir'! And these are not 'tests'! This is simply training for when I meet with him again!" I tightened my grip one last time, hearing a sharp crack as the man in my grasp went limp.

"You two," I continued, glaring at the two who had accompanied him, "You shall not make the same mistake as this failure. If you do, you shall have a much, much more brutal fate. Do you understand?"

"Yes madam. We shall make sure to never offend you or sir. After all, you are both beings with power lying far beyond our comprehension." Enforced one of the guards, in a stern, emotionless voice.

I scanned the man over once. "Finally, somebody actually competent in this dump."

The second one began, "We thank you for your praise, madam - however, we have been instructed to inform you that sir has successfully cleared the first training session, with minimal effort. We were wondering if it's okay to begin the second session?"

My answer was instant. After all, of course I wanted to watch him fight more. "Go right ahead." I sat back down in my original position, behind a screen that monitored his group's every move, "It has been far too long, Kei-Kei."

<Keizo's Perspective  -  Lost Region  -  00:23  -  9th / August / 2081>

Now that it was all over, I finally felt a bit of the fatigue beginning to set in. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't that physically tired. If I was, that would just be pathetic. But as my eyes lost the intense glow and the dread spreading blue lightning engulfing my form began fading, I began feeling what it was like to have a half empty ability-core. In many ways, I suppose it was nostalgic. It had been a while, after all.

"For the love of fucking Kyra, Keizo. What the fuck was that?" Screamed a voice from behind me.

I turned to find that the voice belonged to Evan.

Huh, interesting. I didn't think that such a goody-two-shoes swore. Maybe he does in situations like these, where he's experiencing waves upon waves of overwhelmingly strong emotions, each clashing with each other. Or maybe he just always had and I simply forgot. I mean, he isn't the most distinct or memorable person.

I didn't really care enough to answer his questions, though. I needed to find the princess and prince, before something else insane happened. And if I knew the Lost Region, the next crazy goddamn event was just around the corner.

I spotted the two slowly approaching me, the princess with a smirk, the prince with a rather amusing look of complete astonishment.

"H- How-?"

"Don't ask, it's not the main priority right now." Interrupted the princess, verbalising my thought process.

Eventually, all 11 of us had gathered together once again. And I knew exactly what they were gonna ask me. 'What should we do now?' Truth be told, there were limitless answers to that question. However, none of them were clearly right or wrong.

But there was one answer that seemed the most straight forward at the moment. And it didn't involve moving, resting or training. No, this was much higher priority.

"Everyone, gather round. We need to do something before we can continue our journey. We need to decide on a team leader."

9 of the other 10 looked at me like I was crazy. Of course, it may not seem like it's that important right now, but it will be completely indispensable in the long run. If we decide on a leader now, it gives the others someone to look to for guidance in all situations.

"Well, shouldn't the leader just be the strongest or something? So, in that case, it should be you, Keizo." Started Gabi. 

I knew I'd be the first choice. It makes logical sense that they'd gravitate towards the strongest being the leader, but that was the absolute wrong way to look at it.

"No. I refuse to be the leader. The fact is, I can't be the leader because the leader has to hold equal value to everyone. The leader can't pick and choose favourites, they have to make tough decisions, while holding sympathy and empathy for everyone. But, and this may sound harsh, I don't value your lives. The only ones here who I value are the princess and the prince."

Everyone other than the princess and prince began staring at me with a subtle intensity, seemingly trying to read my face on whether or not I was lying. I wasn't of course. And it seemed the princess and prince already knew that. I suppose they figured it out when I suggested abandoning the others when we first woke up. I still wish we would've done that. Things would've been so much simpler.

"S- So, in that case, who do you, uh, think should be leader?" Questioned Evan.

I looked to my left at the pink-haired prince standing beside his sister, "Him, of course. The prince makes the most sense, as he values everyone here, and has experience in training to lead."

"Wait, m- me?"

"Of course. Or what, do you think you can't do it?"

This was the prince's trigger. He hated people underestimating him, and would go out of his way to prove them wrong, which happened to work in my favour quite a lot of the time.

"No! Of course I can do it! This will be nothing! I'm trained to lead a country, a small group of people will be like child's play!"

"Good. Does anyone else have complaints?" I questioned.

"..."

No-one spoke, and so I assumed that everyone was fine with the decision.

"Alright. Now we have a leader. And let me just make something clear. By 'leader', I mean that for your time surviving in here, you will follow his every single order. Imagine our group as a country, and the prince as the king of that country. If you don't follow his commands, entire plans could go to shit."

Everyone silently nodded, accepting the role.

"Okay then, leader. What do we do now?" Questioned Gabi.

The prince took a second to contemplate everything. I didn't just choose him randomly. He is the most experienced. He can make tough choices. But he's also the person who originally demanded to save the others. On top of that, he's also a rather quick thinker, and a surprisingly competent planner.

"First, we should rest. We can't keep moving when our strongest fighter only has half of his original mana."

Everybody agreed and began resting. I was given the night watch, which made sense due to the fact that I was the most observant, and mana restores faster when a person is conscious.

As is usual for the Lost Region, there wasn't much to look at. Everything was either obscured by the darkness reigning down from the walls, or only faintly lit by some protruding lava or the occasional sliver of moonlight that managed to somehow find it's way this far down. The only remotely interesting things to look at were the walls themselves. Despite how many years I had already spent in this hell, these guardians still managed to impress me everytime. Of course, they weren't too different from any other Daybreak's walls. But their sheer size was awe-inspiring.

Small glops of lava flowed carelessly down, occasionally having to overcome an obstacle like a loose rock. The lava illuminated any and all crevices that tried hiding away. In this hell hole, these walls were the things that blocked the exit, killing so many, yet they also somehow appeared to be something truly divine in nature. If you could get a view of the walls anywhere else on Kyra, I'm sure that it would be one of the single most popular attractions.

"Hey. This all feels a little surreal, doesn't it?"

I looked behind me to find that it was the princess. I suppose she must've been unable to sleep. Well, I'm not gonna refuse some company.

"Yeah, kinda does. I didn't think I'd ever be back here again."

She took a seat next to me.

"Me neither... Weird to think it's already been 4 years since we escaped. It really feels like all of it was just yesterday."

"True. Still, I guess that means it was a good 4 years, since it passed so quickly."

"Heh, maybe... Hey, Kei, do you think... Do you think that they brought us here?"

"Who?" Of course, I already knew who she was referring to, but I really needed to confirm it first.

"You know... Rogue."

I sighed a little.

"I... I really, really hope not. But... It does seem like something they'd do."

"It's just... why?" 

"Well, that's pretty obvious. Back when we were involved with them, we were very high ranking. We were the 003 and 001. What scares me isn't their motivation, but who's leading them."

"Why would their leader scare you? Didn't you already beat him before?"

"That's what scares me. I didn't just beat him... I killed him. So if he isn't running Rogue anymore, then I have no clue who is."

That wasn't the entire truth, of course. I had an idea who could be, but I really didn't want it to be true. I really didn't want it to be her. If it was, I didn't know how I'd handle it.

"Well, no matter who's running Rogue, there's no way they're a match for both of us. If worse comes to worst, maybe I'll finally be able to save you for once."

The princess slightly rested her head against my shoulder for a second, her slightly frightened expression returning to it's confident facade.

"GRHUUUR"

Out of nowhere, an ear splitting shriek sounded from up in the sky. It was too dark to make out what it was, but I knew that whatever it was couldn't be good. The princess hurried up, and I followed. We were both overtaken by curiosity. After around 3 seconds, our appetite was quenched, as flames emitted from the beast's body, allowing us view of the creature.

Dark red, almost black scales lined it's whole body, wings big enough to hold planets flapped on it's back. It's face was ghastly, a sick grin too elongated for it's own body stretched across it's jaw, while crimson eyes that reeked of rot and decay gleamed down at me like I was nothing more than an ant. It's long body twisted and knotted like it was it's own separate creature, trying to escape from it's captor.

The dread I felt in that moment wasn't comparable to fear, it went beyond boundaries of emotion.

This was every Doomsday-tier's worst nightmare - the Dragon.