[Ten Years Ago...]

"Thank you so much, Mr. Pan. My wife and I will forever be in your debt." Nathan thanked the humanoid panda who held a staff and wore a welcoming smile.

Irene inclined her head to him.

"I owe you my life."

She looked bright and radiant now, no longer held by the claws of the terrible illness that had once clung to her life.

Pan laughed a bit and patted both their shoulders, telling them it was all good and that he was glad to have been of help to them the past two years. He wished them a safe journey as they traveled to the Southern Continent.

Two years before now, Nathan and Irene had arrived at Pan’s cottage on their way as they crossed the boundaries of the Western Continent.

Pan was one of the Panda-folk and, as such, looked very much like a panda, but more importantly, he was a Druid. This Druid was the one who had tended to Irene’s illness.

It was for this reason that they had spent two years of their lives in that small village where the Panda-folk lived.

Pan was a healer so profound that he had been able to detect the cause of Irene’s strange illness as the effect of curse magic that was meant to slowly bring her to her doom.

And, of course, it made perfect sense. The dragon they had fought back on the Western Continent, the one that caused Celestina’s death and was ultimately killed by Irene herself, was a Curse Dragon.

It was also Pan who had specifically advised them to head for the Southern Continent, specifically to the Druid people who would accept them, assuring them with certainty that once they made it over, they were going to be free of the dragons’ chase.

Druids were known as guardians and preservers of nature, and because dragons were creatures of nature themselves, there had always been a longstanding understanding between them. Not even a raging dragon would seek to destroy a Druid, no matter the cause of its rage.

They both eventually set out from the cottage, continuing on their way. At this time, Nathan and Irene had lost every piece of formal clothing and every gadget they once possessed, nothing linking them to the Western Continent anymore. Even the airship they had initially traveled in had been left behind a long time ago.

They made this journey on foot and appeared to be ordinary travelers.

For a good part of the three-day journey, they traveled out of sight and through paths that weren’t the easiest to follow from behind, until they finally arrived at an open clearing. They were still quite some distance from the Southern Continent and Druid territory as a whole, but they were much closer than when they had begun their journey.

That was when, suddenly, the roars of dragons were heard overhead.

They both stared upward in surprise.

But before they could make any attempt to retrace their footsteps and head into hiding, a large torrent of ice was unleashed at them from above as a bluish dragon flew past.

In tandem with that, a blackish dragon flew past from another direction and released another torrent of flames that washed down below upon the same two targets.

When both attacks had passed, it was revealed that the ground around their targets had been littered with both ice and fire, but the targets themselves were unscathed.

Irene, the Space Dragon, had expanded the space around herself and her husband, creating the effect that the attacks aimed at them had been pushed away.

The dragons who had just launched those attacks began circling both targets, but that wasn’t all.

Several more roaring sounds could be heard from farther in the distance, which meant there were more on the way.

Understanding the danger, Nathan said, "Teleport us away, Irene. Let’s go back."

Irene had a determined look on her face as she stared into the skies, almost as though she hadn’t heard Nathan.

"Irene?" Nathan called to her again. "We have to go now."

That was when she shook her head and turned to him. "If we turn back now, then all the effort we put into getting this close to the Southern Continent would have been for nothing."

"Irene..." Nathan began, but right then his wife quickly held onto his hand and said,

"Just point in the right direction. I can fly us there."

Unfortunately, because she didn’t know the exact point where the Southern Continent’s borders were located, she couldn’t teleport them forward with her ability to warp space, as it required that she knew where she intended to go.

Then she looked up at the two encircling dragons as she added, "Moreover, we can easily make it past those two there."

Nathan smiled and gave a nod.

Right then, two more torrents of ice and fire converged on them both.

Out of that outpour of blue and orange, a gigantic red dragon flew out, with Nathan riding on its back.

Due to trying to avoid the possibility of being spotted, Irene had not transformed to fly all this while, but since they had been found, it didn’t matter anymore.

The Red Dragon of Space opened its mouth and released a dragon breath forward, targeting the black dragon that had been brewing flames within its mouth.

Due to the trait of Amplification from Nathan, her Space Breath carried a strange purple-like aura.

Her amplified Space Breath attack pummeled straight through the body of the black dragon, leaving a gaping hole as the dragon fell to the ground with its flames dying in its throat.

The blue dragon now chased Irene from behind, releasing torrents of ice breath that forced the red dragon to swerve from side to side in avoidance.

Then, suddenly, the red Dragon of Space vanished from the ice dragon’s sight.

The dragon flew forward in confusion until, suddenly, the space above it warped as Irene reappeared overhead, releasing another amplified Space Breath simultaneously, which burst straight through the body of the ice dragon.

The sounds of other dragons drew closer immediately, and when Nathan turned to look behind them, what he saw were about eight dragons all on their trail.

"Shit..." he whispered, turning forward once again. "They are coming."

Irene roared and then disappeared, reappearing several meters ahead through a warp in space.

But the trail behind her never stopped, no matter how fast she went.

Without warning, a yellowish streak of lightning appeared beside Irene as a yellow Dragon of Lightning emerged several meters to her side, releasing a humongous lightning breath almost at the same instant.

The lightning struck what felt like a barrier of space that had already been set beforehand, encasing Irene and her husband.

However, at that same moment, a massive golden dragon breath carrying tiny bits of debris parted the skies and struck down from above toward Irene.