Transformation

While Leo continued his barrage of merciless attacks, the fox stood in front of its master, determined to protect Kai at all costs.

Forming a shield in front of Kai, Daksha began to transform, awakening its innate abilities and revealing its true form. Its eyes glowed orange as its fangs sharpened, claws out. The small puppy-sized beast grew in proportion, gradually evolving into a formidable monster.

The aura around it transformed into something that, under normal circumstances, would make anyone in the vicinity shudder in fear.

Rrrrr…

Growling at Leo, who smiled at his adversary, unfazed by the beast's strength it had just demonstrated, Daksha vanished into space around him, lunging forward to attack.

"Struggle all you want, but this is where your journey ends," Leo said, preparing himself as the beast attacked with its claws.

Meanwhile, Kai wrestled with his own internal turmoil. In a place he detested, he was compelled to yield control to his other friend.

"What were you doing?" Kai asked the mirror in front of him, reflecting a figure similar yet somewhat different from himself.

"..." Zeff remained silent. To him, more crucial matters demanded attention than conversing with Kai. "I'll explain once we're out of danger."

Kai grimaced at that response. Yet, Zeff was right. It wasn't the time for discussions when potential danger loomed. He remembered how he had been coughing up blood moments ago.

"Fine. But there's something you need to know," Kai said, catching Zeff's attention.

"?"

"Leonard is there. Just as we suspected, he's the commander of this entire facility," he stated seriously.

Zeff lapsed into momentary silence before remarking, "So that's it." He wasn't keen on facing his old problems. After all, Zeff was the reason why Leo targeted Kai. But he never once regretted his past decisions. Leo was someone he knew had to face one way or another. For he knew the old man was as persistent on revenge as a vampire with blood.

After exchanging information about the situation outside, Kai resigned control of his body to Zeff.

All this happened within seconds. the mind operates faster in moments of crisis, This held especially true in Kai's case. The situation in the Weaponry remained mostly unchanged from Kai's description.

When Zeff opened his eyes, he witnessed a scene he had never expected. A man combating a ferocious beast with nothing but his bare hands. He wrestled the giant fox with two tails to the ground, employing brute strength and animalistic ferocity.

Daksha appeared helpless, blood dripping from various orifices. Its glowing eyes dimmed as it expended the last of its strength in the prior attack. But the inhuman strength of the man before him overwhelmed it as it fell to the floor, its neck interlocking in Leo's arm.

Then, the magical strength of the fox diminished as its size shrunk, becoming more vulnerable to attack.

Then receiving another attack to the head, Daksha's mind jerked, lost touch with reality, immense pain housing through, his consciousness slowly fading as he saw Kai picking himself up from the floor.

Zeff, on the other hand, had an emotionless expression as he saw the beast moaning in pain. He didn't have much attachment to Daksha as Kai did, but he needed it if he wanted to get out of there.

The atmosphere changed as Zeff healed himself of the wounds, previously suffered by his body, he rose on his foot.

[Integration: 28%]

"Oh, did you switch?" Leo commented. "That smug expression. It must be Zeff."

Zeff knew he had no fighting chance at Leo. Many things have happened in the last five years. Leo has grown much stronger since he last saw him. Abnormal isn't the right word, monstrous was more like it. His magical energy was about ten times denser than his past self.

"I see you haven't been neglecting your training," Zeff said, narrowing his eyes. "If the master was alive, I'm sure he would be happy to see you right now."

"Oh, spare me your nice words, Zeff," Leo said. "Don't you have anything else you have to say to me?"

"..." The sounds on Zeff's body closed as he remained silent. "Nice to meet you?" he asked, sarcastically. "Also, it seems You've lost your hair. What happened?"

The nerves on Leo's forehead clenched when he heard that, his head turning red in scorn for Zeff.

"Brat! I'll see how long you can keep that blabbering tongue of yours."

But just then, Leo felt a chill at the back of his neck. He felt a glare behind him. An intent to kill.

It was the hateful stare of the wounded beast.

Although weakened, the determination to protect its master in the eyes of this monster did not falter one bit.

For a moment, Leo didn't know where he had gone wrong. He was sure he knocked out that thing. Sure, Leo had yet to use half of his strength, but it should be enough to deal with this problem.

'Does it still want to fight?' he thought.

Unfortunately, Zeff didn't have the ability to heal anyone besides himself. He can come back from fatal injuries but he can't help his allies from the same danger.

All he could do now was buy time until the self-healing power of Daksha took place.

Zeff's body and his powers were already stretched to the limit, he wasn't sure how long he could hold out.

'Shit, I have no choice.'

Thinking that, he jumped in the direction of the enemy, closed his eyes tight, and picked up a spear nearby. without a second thought, he charged forward.

To Leo, it looked like Zeff was charging forward without much plan, a last-ditch effort to escape from him, a suicide one. But Leo knew better, Zeff is more rational than this. The kid always managed to blow surprise attacks on him. He's not someone to be underestimated, even in a weakened state. so he was cautious and took a defensive stance.

Then, as Leo expected, Zeff changed direction at the last possible second as he jumped towards his ally, throwing the spear.

"Hmph, cheap tricks."

Even at point-blank range, Leo was confident that he could deflect such a weak attack. When he did, he saw Zeff, near that damn fox, holding an amulet at the beast's neck.

"You've done well, but let me borrow this for some time," Zeff said to Daksha.

The beast nodded before Zeff pulled out the amulet, breaking the link, as the beast fell unconscious. After that, the fox shrank in size, back to its original one-tailed form.

"There's no way I'm dying here," Zeff muttered, clenching the pendant tighter.

The 'transfigura' amulet glowed green, masking the surrounding darkness with light, when Zeff began imbuing with his remaining magical powers.

Then a surprised look came out of Leo's face, seeing Zeff with widened eyes.

"Impossible... That..." he said, trying not to believe in the reality in front of him.

The amulet in the hands of Zeff had several gems, all green with different glow and inscriptions, marks. Among them, there was a mark that Leo, with his information network gathered from the survivors and his last expedition, recognized very well.

A mark that made him, and his group of survivors in the past, feared with all their being.

'That symbol... It belongs to Drakaroth, and the Dragon God, Thal'dor.'

Leo felt goosebumps on his akin.

'There's no mistaking it. How the heck did he get his hands on it? Don't tell me he...'

…

Meanwhile above the surface, in the desolate landscape of a ruined city, just outside the 'Hatch', Crimson was gathering his men.

"Can you open it?"

The men at the front took some time to analyze the situation, "Yes. it seems it can only be opened from the inside. The mechanism is a bit more complex than other bases, but it's doable."

"then…"

"But it will take time."

"..."

Of course, with Zeff in the middle of all this, anything hardly goes the way he expects.

Crimson was about to say something when the kid behind him poked at his shoulders.

"What?"

"No, I mean. I was wondering what Miss Luna is doing. She's been like that for a while now."

At a distance, above the pile of dead bodies of once-alive valiant soldiers of MB-35, along with Lieutenant Sands, was a woman sitting in a lotus position.

"Kid, she'll be fine," Crimson said. "She's using her ability to locate that bastard, Zeff. It shouldn't take long.

Anyway, where the heck is Koul? He was supposed to look after her."

***

If you find any mistakes in the chapter, or something I missed, please comment below so I can fix them as soon as possible.