A Tale After Four Lives - Volume 1: Receiving The Reward Chapter 36 36: Getting The Hell Out Of Dodge

In an abandoned part of Kuoh town a massive man with a pair of horns growing from his head and slanting like that of bulls, curving until it stops by the side of his cheeks, stood in front of a man who was lying on the ground and a woman who was barely standing.

“I think you should get out of here while you still have the chance”, Mournomon said as his eyes scanned the surrounding area, looking at the various devils hiding, waiting to ambush Cleria and Masaomi if they were to escape, when his eyes passed thought the hidden devils they unconsciously shivered in fear, feeling as if he could see them, but that was clearly impossible, right?

“What do you mean?”, Cleria asked, she felt dead tired and just wanted to close her eyes and rest for a bit, but she couldn’t do that not while they were still in the open and not till Masoami’s condition was stabilized.

“Don’t act dumb with me girl, you know as well as I that the exorcists are the least of your problem”, Mournomon said.

‘Of course’, Cleria thought as she became vigilant once more, “It seems my family wants me dead”, she stated bitterly, Mosaomi also had a bitter expression on his face.

“So now we’re facing devils, after barely surviving my old team, why must God hate our reunion so?”, Masaomi asked out loud bitterly, as he stared at the sky as if asking why he was forsaken for merely loving a devil.

“You ask a question no one will be able to answer you at this time, I have questioned the dude against the devils and angels for some time, there must have been a purpose a long time ago, but in this time and age, it is nothing but meaningless slaughter, with the already dwindling numbers of angels and devils its a wonder that each race still has some pittance of order.”, Said Mournomon.

Cleria could only sigh at there situation, hated by all sides, and there only hope was an unknown dragon with great power. How long could they rely on this dragon, how long would he even be willing to shelter or protect them, she had used one of her life-saving chances and only had two left not to mention she didn’t know how far he would help each time she used it. Her face was filled with worry just thinking of what would happen to her and Masaomi if this dragon, were to abandon them.

Mournomon gently placed his hand on Cleria’s shoulder, pouring a bit of his mana into her. She stared up at him in surprise as she felt his mana travel into her, but she didn’t jump back in retreat instead she just let it run through her body, it brought her a calming feeling, as well as the illusion of infinite strength, just feeling the power that coursed into her body, made her once again realize what kind of existence a dragon was or more precisely this dragon in front of her. To her surprise, her wounds started closing up as the mana that was sent into her devoured the holy traces left by the light weapons, which were stopping her from healing herself.

When all the vestiges of holy energy in her body was gone Mournomon withdrew his mana, “I see you have a lot of burdens on your shoulder, let this one at least try and lift some of it”, he said in a calming voice different from what Cleria was used to him acting, he seemed gentler, kinder even…

“Well now that you have calmed down, whats are you going to do now, my time is precious and I can’t be wasting it protecting some devil girl and her weakling of an exorcist lover”, Mournomon said.

‘Yip, he’s still an asshole’, Cleria thought as she shook off all positive delusions of the dragon in front of her, but just couldn’t seem to get rid of those kind draconic eyes, they’re like a brand burned into her very soul. SHe couldn’t help but feel that he really cared but was putting up a front as not to show it.

“I think it would be best if we could get someplace less open first, I can’t help but feel as if there are enemies stalking us in the dark.” Cleria said as she threw all other thoughts aside.

“Probably because there are enemies stalking you in the dar, in fact, there are several devils hidden in the surroundings and they are all eyeing your perky ass, well your and that sorry-looking exorcist over there are asses.”, Mournomon said, smiling nonchalantly.

“So were surrounded just great”, Masaomi said as he vigilantly looked around him while pathetically lying on the ground too weak to move even a muscle,

“Would you stop badmouthing him, isn’t it enough he is in such a horrible condition?”, Cleria finally spoke up about a point that had been urging her this whole time.

“How did he become so messed up anyway?”, Mournomon asked ignoring her.

Masaomi answer with a sad expression, “I was ambushed, it’s a good thing that Cleria was close or I’d be a goner, we were going to meet up here, so I came a bit early and well you know…”

“So you came here early thinking of how you are going to get lucky and in the end got your ass handed to you and almost died because of your old teammates, got to say, man, my heart bleeds for you”, Mournomon said while giving the man a sad expression, well trying to as he was fighting of laughing his ass off at the exorcist’s bad luck.

“Can we stop talking about this, were still in danger and were wasting time with nonsense”, Cleria flared having had enough.

“Chill woman, as long as I’m here there’s no chance of any of you dying, thought your right let’s get out of here, I’ve got somewhere to be so let’s get this over with”, Mournomons said as he cracked his neck a bit. Pointing at Masaomi he spoke, “He’s in no condition to move on his own so you’ll have to carry him, stay close to me and you might live to see another day”, with that Mournomon started running in a random direction, Cleria quickly reacted as she picked up Masoami, causing him to flinch in pain as she grabbed him, but unfortunately, there was no time for her to be gentle as she had to stay close to the dragon lest they lose him.

…

Mournomon was quickly passing by the trees, Cleria close on his heels, every now and then he would contend a bit of purple manna into a pulley the size of a marble and flick it in a direction.

Flick*

Boom!

The damage caused by the little marble-sized bullet was insane as it destroyed not only the hidden devils but a good part of the are where they stood, it was as if the area never existed and not even ashes remained. Not being able to cause widespread damage as he was close to human civilization Mournomon could only resort to this as a quick way to kill of any devils closeby.

Cleria was surprised as she followed Mournomon and saw him flicking of the marble-sized manna bullets, and horrified when she felt the shockwave from the explosion caused by those small balls of death.

Masami’s expression was the best as he just stared stupidly at Mournomon no believing the bullshit he was seeing of marble-sized manna balls destroying devils like shooting a rabbit with a bazooka.

The three quickly left the forested area behind as they entered kuoh town’s residential area, causing Mournomon not to be able to fling his marbles of death anymore, that however didn’t mean he didn’t have other way’s of killing them off, in fact, one of his way’s was what he was doing now as he had just run into one of the devils who was trying to keep an eye on them, he didn’t expect them to come his way thus he was left with no choice to defend himself, but he was literally run into by Mournomon, like a human being hit by a bus he was send flying slamming into the ground and hopping a few time and as a coup de grace Mournomon stepped on him as he ran over the devil.

Mournomon repeated the act a few more times before the devils finally became wiser and avoided t him like the plague, they were no longer following him but trying to run away from him. Cleria and Masoami just wore blank expressions as they followed him, they didn’t know what to think nor did they want to damage their brains any further thinking about it, they just accepted that this dragon was unique in his own way but powerful none the less.

Having “lost” their pursuers Mournomon lead the two towards the other side of town were an abandoned factory was, entering the factory he closed the door behind him. Using his manna he quickly made a concealing barrier around the factory.

“All righty, this place should be safe for the moment”, he said as he looked at the duo, Mosaomi was on the ground again, but this time he was sitting with his back against one of the pillars in the factory, Cleria was sitting next to him while gasping for breath.

“Now what”, Masoami said as he looked towards Mournomon.

“That’s up to you two” was the reply