(At 11 years old and a few months)
(3rd person PoV)
"Dear niece, how beautiful you are today" Henryk stated poetically while making fun of Nephelont, business as usual.
"Enough! You evil uncle! Nephelont's angry!" A pouty Nephelont, whose nostrils were expelling some unintentional whisps of flames, was running behind Henryk with a raised pair of "mighty" fists.
"Evil dad!" Three tiny whelps followed in the footsteps of the angry little lizard, punching the cement wall of a father they have.
"No! A dragon and a bunch of tigers are angry with me! I must flee for my life!" Henryk started picking up pace after shaking them off his body.
"Naughty Henryk!" He had to shove away a sudden intruder, his wife Shira, who jumped at him from the shadows.
"Haha! You'll never catch me!" He started running away in earnest. When Shira was involved, things became serious. The little game with the children turned into a real hunt for the man.
(A little while later)
"Children... hah... never run out of energy... *breathes in* do they?" Henryk was left gasping for air, five children sitting on his limp body and cheering that they caught him. 'How?! Like, genuinely, how do they never run out of energy when it's about playing a game?!' Henryk was left questioning his knowledge of biology and the modifier falna applies to it. He discovered the divine intervention that is children. They broke those rules and laws he studied, tested and applied successfully all his life. 'For fuck's sake! At my level, I should have been able to outrun them for far longer than they could chase after me!'
"Another game! Dad!" Oliver said energetically. A year of playing with the two bunnies made the triplets open up to them completely, making them relaxed being themselves around them, especially while playing a game.
"Again! Uncle Henryk!" Eucleia was in on the fun. A game of chase was always fun when they worked together to hunt one target down.
"Dad! Dad!" Hugo and Arthur were slapping their father's chest in demand he stands up to run away from them again.
'I should be thankful to my parents once they're brought back. They put up with so much of my bullshit as a child that I now wonder if they were some form of saints or outright aliens. No human should be able to keep up with kids like these' Henryk stretched his hand up, a Horror appearing and whisking him away.
"Cheating!!" All five children, and surprisingly Shira as well, shouted in unison. Shira would be reluctant to admit that she wanted to play chase at her age. Entertaining the kids was a convenient excuse.
(At another location)
"Oh, I'm done for" Henryk was looking at a blue-haired huntress and a silver-haired seductress. They were glaring at him with clear intent to have a very serious talk.
'Traitors! All of you!' He screamed at all the members of the Horrors squad. He received mental feedback of more than a dozen scoffs and pitying thoughts.
(Back with Nephelont)
"Let's go to the dungeon!" He exclaimed. Having become the impromptu leader of the group of now five, he wanted to go to the dungeon. Last time he went in, he dove down to the 20th. He is aiming for surrounding floors again in hopes of finding a vouivre.
Unbeknownst to them, Henryk convinced the other adults to give them the room to feel confident. He had them tailed by the Horrors, experts at blending in with the shadows and disappearing at speeds not even Albert Waldstein himself could track.
It was here when their party of five was officially formed. They went on to remain in that party for the rest of their lives.
(At 12 years old)
Nephelont was taken to witness the blind black dragon's pitiful final moments. The terror of a thousand years, reduced to nothing but a writhing limbless mass. No wings, no arms, no legs and no tail, it was left with only the barrel of its chest and abdomen. By now, it was tortured that even with its previous pride, it would eternally fear approaching humans anymore. This torture session has been going since before Nephelont was born, after all.
"Look closely, Nephelont, my sun" Ais was holding a hand over her son's shoulder as she pointed at the black dragon. "Witness the last moments of our family's mortal enemy"
Nephelont wanted to contribute, much as Ais does, but they could not. He was still far too weak to interfere even with the black dragon weakened to this degree. That did not prevent him from loathing it from so far away. Ais told him stories of how this monster was directly responsible for her separation from her parents, killing one and trying to devour the other's strength. Nephelont detested it.
His dark feelings were put to rest, however, when he saw how Albert and Lionheart were butchering it as Henryk's "children", the blue papilio, were constantly healing it to deny it an easy escape in death. The dragon's vocal cords have weathered at this point, with no amount of healing capable of bringing them back. It was breathing erratically, awaiting the moment it was finally released from this nightmare. A nightmare where the one who took an eye and the one who nearly took its life were beating it senseless, a hair's width away from death, only for it to find itself still alive and ready to be beaten again.
"They are really going at it, huh?" Henryk sat nearby, completely relaxed and not at all concerned about anything. Rather, he seemed expectant of something. "They were never this intense before" 'Maybe they're just giving it a particularly heavy parting gift'
Bell was also there in the mix, although he was not using any fancy magic like Lionheart's or as impressive a swordsmanship as Albert's. Nonetheless, he was given the honor of finishing off the monster for good.
Alfia was standing there to support Meteria, whose legs gave out. They were witnessing the final moments of the monster that killed Lionheart, and their famailias. It lifted a weight off their hearts.
Many others among family and friends were standing close-by and observing the spectacle.
A moment later, Bell's knife, the Hestia knife, glowed as it got longer, a very loud gong sounding in the area. Argonaut was activated, and along with it, Bell cast another Argo Vesta on the Hestia knife, making it unstable yet longer and thicker. He brought it down on the monster's neck, ridding the world from its baleful shadow for good. That was not before, of course, butchering it alive.
The scales, the teeth, the skin, the sinew, whatever remained of its severed tendons and ligaments, the blood, the meat, the organs, certain body parts like the tail and wings which were taken much earlier, and especially its heart were set aside before its second beheading. Yes, it was beheaded once before, having lived thanks to near-perfect healing from Riveria and a sprinkle of Henryk's magic to reattach the head before it truly died. The black dragon always looked back at that moment and cursed the elf who returned it to hell.
Cheers went all around the world at the news. The Horrors, all 20 of them, have made sure to spread the word far and wide the moment the black dragon's head turned to dust.
As the cheering settled around the site of the black dragon's death, the people there started working. This was not a simple venting or cruel torture for the sake of it. No, it was much grander than that. It was ritualistic in a way.
They started mixing the black dragon's ashes with its own blood in disproportionate quantities, making a slimy substance. Next, they were each handed a piece of paper with instructions on it. They practiced this many, many times to perfect it over the last decade. They started drawing a pair of ominous magic circles.
Next, they started cutting pieces of the black dragon's organs into shape to fit inside a human's body. As they did so, Henryk and Riveria were responsible for arranging them as they had the best anatomical knowledge among the crowd.
After arranging the organs and the guts into place above the spines, they were all then covered in select pieces of muscles. Carillon insisted that they be perfectly aligned, or this could turn awry very quickly.
Next was the skin. This one was tricky, but they managed it. The amount of skin available far surpassed the demand. They needed to cut the skin into the right thickness and sizes, being sewn together using some of the excess black dragon entrails.
The eyeballs were unfortunately not so easily replaced, and stuffing their ingredients inside was simply not enough as the consistency was not going to be the same.
"You can use your magic to give them new eyes before they wake up. That option is still open for you" Carillon patted Henryk's back in reassurance. Henryk was still bitter about it, however, as he waited for this moment for so many years. The crushing weight of his hope was suffocating him at this point.
"I know. I really do. I-... I just need a moment to myself" Henryk sighed and let himself collapse on the ground. Refusing to leave him alone, Shira was sitting beside him, brushing shoulders with him. Her attempt to ease his mind partially succeeded, giving him some calm. Although his boys did not grasp their parents' perspectives, they sat down in Henryk's lap and leaned on him.
It was at this moment when they noticed how entranced Nephelont was while looking at the remaining pieces of the dragon's heart.
'...' Henryk's brain took a moment to take it in. 'Oh, yeah. I need to deal with this one as well'
'Horrors, come take the remaining pieces of the black dragon's heart away from Nephelont' Henryk directed the message to all the Horrors, resulting in the disappearance of what remained of the heart.
Nephelont came to a sudden stop. Shortly after shaking himself back to reality, he saw Ais's concerned eyes. He felt his heart wrenched as he felt compelled to go hug her. Ais returned the hug.
"Let's talk, Nephelont" Henryk said to Nephelont.
Nephelont turned his face towards him with an inquisitive look.
"Do you want that heart?" Ais glared at Henryk for even daring to ask this.
"Is it gonna make me stronger?" Ais's heart stopped beating for a second. She could not believe that Nephelont considered it.
"It's bound to do so. It's the heart of this world's strongest dragon, after all" Henryk confirmed. His eyes momentarily drifted to the preparations. They were almost complete.
"I'll take the risk, then. Also, break all my limits for this level and the next" Nephelont's words shook Ais's heart and made Bell raise an annoyed eyebrow.
Ais felt something trying to get her attention to the side. Looking there, she saw mini-Ais with a bitter yet defeated smile on her face. She gave her a thumbs up with one hand and held her notebook in the other. In her notebook were written the words "He will be an adult in a few years. We should support his decisions instead of holding him back. We can be there to help him with the aftermath."
Ais pulled away from Nephelont, putting a hand on his back and pushing him forward. Her other hand was squeezing Bell's hand.
Nephelont turned to his mother with a confused expression.
"Go. Do what you want, my sun" Ais stepped back, pushing her back against Bell's chest. "We will be there to support and help you" Nephelont teared up as he went back for a hug.
Bell nodded as he hugged his son, visibly concerned.
"If his mind is to be twisted, I could always bring it back to normal" Henryk reminded them. "That's the same thing that happened to Filvis Challia when she was brought back from the brink of eternal death"
The preparations were now complete. The magic circles were done, and the replica bodies were placed where they should be. Another set of magic circles were drawn next, one connected to each of the first two. These smaller circles were made so that whoever or whatever is inside them have their mind taken away to fuel the ritual.
"Finally, I can see them again... after all this time" Henryk picked himself up. A tear trickled its way down his face as he somberly made his way to one of the two smaller circles and placed the black dragon's magic stone in it. It was the one for his mother's body. 'Father would have demanded this preferential treatment if he had the chance'
The magic stone from a black typhoon was used for his father.
(Typhoon, a monster rex that is estimated to be at early level 9 and a mid level 10 for the black variant)
(At another location)
The Horrors siblings were now standing away from Nephelont, who was entranced by the allure of the black dragon's heart once again. He staggered in his steps, slowly losing control of his form. He slowly turned into an amalgam of all the dragon forms he could take. It was a hideous sight to witness, and once he took his first bite, it got worse.
His body started becoming more uniform, certain traits from the weaker forms slowly disappearing as he took more bites out of that heart. With time, his form started fluttering between that of an ancient dragon and that of the black dragon. Even that ended in his ancient dragon form losing the battle for control, if only by a slight margin. His golden eye became red as he slowly lost the last shreds of his control over himself.
Nephelont did not stop before eating the entire heart, turning to the Horrors next. At the next moment, his pupils were widening and sharpening repeatedly. The sight of the Horrors made his mind tether itself back into reality a bit more, but it was not enough.
The Horrors kept calling his name, somewhat succeeding in stalling for time with him stuck in place.
While they were still doing so, Nephelont's neck snapped in the direction of something approaching him at tremendous speed.
Looking closely, one of the Horrors recognized that it was Eucleia in her dragon form approaching. Eucleia was supposed to be where the ritual is taking place, but she refused to be away from Nephelont for too long. She came to him when he did not come back quickly enough.
Ais flew at him from a different angle, however, avoiding his eyes that were raised to the sky.
Ais kept flying while hiding herself until she abruptly stopped in front of Nephelont's face, suspended mid-air.
"My one and only sun" She hugged his snout, draping herself on it limply. Ais's words, coupled with her touch, worked like magic, bringing him back from whatever took over him. The barely perceptible hum and beat of her heart brought him back.
Only a moment later, Eucleia arrived. She turned back into her human form mid-flight, throwing herself on his face.
"Golden bunny!" She landed in front of his eyes. "We still have many things to do together!" She said.
Nephelont stiffened all over, slowly seeing the world turn from red to black, before collapsing on the ground unconscious. Something was changing inside of him on a deeper level.
(Some days later)
"Are you sure?" Hestia was sitting opposite Eucleia. Her eye looked upon the young demi-god with concern. She had seen Eucleia neither eat nor drink for extended periods of time daily. Forget about happiness, she was often seen frowning or crying silently not to disturb the comatose Nephelont. Their only reprieve was that he was breathing loudly.
"Yes" Eucleia said in a firmer than usual voice. "I would like to delay my rank-up to be with his"
Hestia gave her a fond smile as she ruffled her hair. They agreed to wait for Nephelont to wake up.