The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

Blackbeard was breathing slowly when his ship turned about and headed towards the lines of the Ninth Legion. While the bombs they dropped significantly helped to lower the number of monsters that tried to breach the Arcadian lines, it was not enough. Once the enemies realised they were going to lose that fight, some of the fast monsters tried to avoid fighting and simply retreated and it looked like they wanted to breach the border elsewhere. To counter it, Morrigan ordered Hussars and Eagles to hunt down and destroy any pack that tried to sneak past Adiutrix.

"Mr Blackbeard, I need you to pin down the main enemy force under heavy fire!" The Vampire Queen commanded.

"I wish, but my boys are on their wits ends..." He grimly sighed. "It's a miracle that we managed to fight them for so long."

"Tsk... How long do your people need to rest?" She asked with a mild frustration clearly noticeable in her voice.

"Four hours minimum. After that... Well, let's just hope we don't have to check."

"Send half of the crew to rest while the remaining will..."

"Oh, we're already doing that. But the intensity of the fire is unsustainable." Edward sighed. "I'm afraid that I wasn't clear enough; we need four hours for the previous shift to wake up after replenishing their mana after rest."

"Is it only because of the low mana?"

"Yes?"

"I see..." Morrigan looked at the Lamia. "Aurora?"

"Hmm..." She hummed with her eyes closed but the Vampire waited patiently. Morrigan knew that her sister-scion was asking the King for permission to give mana potions to the pirates. "I was allowed to give them a small amount of potions."

Suddenly, a few crates with vials filled with some kind of liquid appeared near Aurora on the deck. The Lamia smiled and after picking up one vial, she tossed it to Edward. He caught it instinctively and his gaze slowly drifted towards the glass container in his hand. It was filled with translucent, slightly yellow liquid. He looked again at the Vampire and Lamia in front of him, but they simply smiled. With a sigh, he opened the vial and after steeling his nerves in anticipation of the awful taste he associated with the potions, Blackbeard drank it. In amazed shock, he discovered that the potion was incredibly, but not overwhelmingly sweet, with a distinct, unknown, but very obvious fruit flavour. In disbelief, he looked at the vial but then, his eyes went wide when he realised that his own mana reserves began to replenish.

"You know what? I shouldn't have been even surprised at this point." He returned the empty flask to Aurora who started giggling. "You also have items of holding? And fabled mana potions?"

"And many, many, maaaannnnyyyyyy more... Hahaha." Aurora laughed, still amused.

Morrigan clapped two times, amused herself, but her voice was calm and deceivingly serious. "Gather your people, Captain Teach, and give them potions. Just remember; no hogging secretly for later."

"Ehhh... Fine." Despite her clearly teasing tone, Blackbeard felt that she was focusing on the battlefield below. "JIM! GET YOUR ASS HERE!"

"Yes, Boss?" The Quartermaster got from under the deck a few moments later and curiously eyed the unexpected stockpile near Aurora whose facial features slowly got serious.

"Give these potions to the people. Each one of them gets one, then keeps the rest for the gun crews and it's up to you to keep supplying them until we run out. These are mana potions so be careful not to waste even a drop."

"MANA POTIONS?!" The Orc turned around in shock to take a better look at the crates.

"I know, Jim... I know." The Captain exhaled. "Just do as I asked. And no hogging for later! Is that clear?"

"Yes, Boss..."

In the meantime, Aurora approached, or rather crawled to, Morrigan. It was a subtle but noticeable change in the behaviour of both women... Monsters? He wasn't so sure anymore if those two could be called just monsters. They were so natural in their behaviour that after spending so much time with them he started thinking about them as the people. However, that impression was suppressed by the unnatural focus they right now displayed. Both of them were standing on the starboard looking somewhere into the quickly falling darkness of the night. Blackbeard, who was tired after hours of fighting, stopped and watched them simply standing there, but their presence and aura began to completely vanish. He couldn't understand what they were doing until Morrigan slowly turned towards him. Her crimson eyes were shining dangerously.

"Now I am sure that we are fighting the Dungeon monsters. The scion is coming."

"A scion?!" He shouted, gaining the attention of his nearby people. "The enemy sent here a scion?"

"He is still far away, but I can sense his power already."

"This is bad, oh fuck, this is very bad!" Edward ruffled his black hair. "Fighting monsters is bad enough, but a scion? What are we going to do?"

"Huh?" Morrigan looked surprised. "We are going to capture him, of course."

That gave Blackbeard a pause. He felt the heavy gazes of his men on the back of his head and he took a deep breath. They should be reasonable so if he explains to them what menace a scion is, they surely understand how frightening the situation was.

"Nope. No fucking way. I saw scions destroying the ships of the Bernan Navy as if they were toys thrown against the fury of the ocean! I saw entire battalions decimated and routed in a few moments by scions who had monsters on their sides. There is no way for anyone here to hope to fight and win against a Dungeon Scion!" He yelled, almost hearing approving nodding from behind him.

"Captain Teach..." Aurora smiled charmingly and raised her hands in a calming gesture, but Blackbeard was too angry to listen.

"No! I know that you are powerful! No, not just powerful. You are single-handedly capable of killing me and my crew, but let me assure you, that fighting a scion is a different kind of story!" He bellowed, quite happy with his very sound reasoning. "Only a scion can fight a scion!"

"Mr. Teach..." Morrigan was still amused, which infuriated him.

"Are you a scion, Lady Morrigan?!" He interrupted her, hoping that argument would convince her to stop that madness before it would be too late. He looked down at the shorter woman who smiled at him.

"Yes. In fact, I am." She replied sweetly staring straight into his eyes.

"So as you can..." The sudden freezing ball of ice condensed inside his stomach once he realised what she said. The people behind him fell silent as well, but he could feel the disbelief emanating from them. He cleared his throat, thoughtfully covered his mouth and cocked his head, then, he cleared his throat once again as he slowly put together the tips of his fingers in front of his chest. "What have you just said?"

"I am, in fact, a scion, Mr Teach." She replied in the same sweet tone as previously.

He took a sharp breath and turned his gaze at Aurora who also smiled at him, but he could see the compassion in her snake eyes. He begged the Lamia with his gaze but the tall snake-woman simply gathered her loose, blonde with green and blue streaks hair into a ponytail.

"I'm also a scion, Captain Teach." The words were there, but his mind refused to believe the ears.

"Hahaha, so he is a scion as well?" Blackbeard turned towards Jasper who was on the further side of the ship, and pointed at him with both his hands.

The Scavenger Rat Lord tried to look innocent while he was introducing the tired pirates to some kind of card game. The piles of silver coins were a clear indicator of what was going on there. To Blackbeard's growing dread both women snorted in amusement simultaneously.

"Yes." They replied in unison.

"I..." He slowly turned around and after blindly approaching Jim, he grabbed his bottle of rum and emptied it. "Pffff... Carry on then, I guess..."

"The King sent here six Scions of the Righteous Dungeon. The one approaching here is not strong enough to impress me, and I am not a combat scion, Captain Teach." Aurora smiled encouragingly.

"Oh, he is a capable warrior for sure." Morrigan shrugged and while Blackbeard looked at Jasper, the Ratman was again busy robbing his stupid crew in a gambling game.

"I... Ummm... What is he doing?" Blackbeard was still looking at the Scavenger Rat Scion carelessly playing some game.

"Who? Jasper?" Aurora lifted herself on her tail to take a better look. "He is teaching them poker and blackjack. Oh, those poor bastards... Captain, you might want to stop your people from playing against him. They are going to lose everything they have."

"If that's the only danger then it's their problem..." He waved his hand dismissively. "When that scion is going to arrive?"

"In a few hours. He probably believes that his aura alone will break the soldiers allowing the remaining monsters to kill our forces." The Lamia Queen coiled her tail as if she sat comfortably.

"But wouldn't that be the case? Oh... If your people know that you have six Scions here and only one is approaching..." Blackbeard nodded with understanding.

"Praetorian?" Morrigan smirked. "Do you think you could defeat the enemy scion?"

The closest black and gold-clad knight slowly turned his gaze over the horizon and the intense chill ran through Edward's spine.

"He is weak, but not weak enough that I could capture him myself." The deep voice surprised the Captain. "But I could kill him."

"You are insane..." Blackbeard slowly shook his head and slowly turned towards his crew. "Guys, are you done with the potions?!"

"Yes, Boss!" Jim yelled back to him.

"All right, Guys! Forget about scions and other bullshit. We have to pin down that horde! Now when we have mana it's time to work again!"

The gunports snapped and the cannons came back to life. The horde was as unfazed by the airship as it was previously, but once the sun set entirely, the magical lights of flying spells were the only source of light illuminating the darkness. Suddenly the four bright columns of light flew towards the night sky from the Legion positions and a bright, but quiet explosion consumed the darkness. Four light spots started very slowly descending to the ground, brightly illuminating the battleground.

"Seriously?!" Blackbeard pointed towards the sky. "Really?! What else are you hiding?!"

Aurora simply shrugged while Morrigan ignored his question. The Vampiress looked down at a visibly smaller horde after hours of fighting. The cannons of Queen Anne's Revenge were firing again, thinning the monsters even further. The previously huge army was already reduced to a fraction of its previous numbers, however, her Legion suffered huge losses as well. If not for the presence of Arani and Gawain, she would have been overwhelmed by the enemy. The two aerial scions were hunting relentlessly, always hitting straight into the heart of the horde, killing the biggest threats and boss class monsters. However, even those two were reaching their limits. The exhaustion could only be temporarily suppressed by the energy drinks and once their effect wore out, Arani and Gawain would need to rest. The presence of the frigate helped as well, allowing Morrigan to overview the battle without exhausting her energy, which would be unavoidable if she were linked with any observer Eagle. The enemies should have known they had already lost that battle but it seemed that whatever Dungeon sent this army here, it cared only about killing enough people.

"This is strange, Aurora." Morrigan lowered her voice. "The enemies seemed detached from the direct link with their Master."

"Why do you think so?" The Lamia asked in a similarly lowered voice.

"If any Legion would have met such a formidable enemy, I'm sure that the King would start issuing orders directly by himself. Even now I feel his calming presence on the fringes of my mind when he monitors the situation. I know if I ever needed his advice he would never refuse. I'm certain that he would have issued his orders in case the Legate or even Scions would have suffered such huge losses. It's different now because we simply had to hold the line. Losses are unavoidable."

"Hmmm... The enemies never adjusted their tactics, they just threw themselves on our halberds and shields." Aurora slowly nodded.

"Exactly. Before Galahad drilled into me the importance of tactics and critical thinking, I wouldn't even question that battle. If you know what I mean..." She gave the taller scion a doubtful gaze.

"Hahaha. Of course, I know! On a side note; Galahad asked Master Bjorn to help him carve preserving runes on that famous stick." Aurora laughed and covered her lips with her hand making Morrigan blush in embarrassment. However, the Lamia quickly got serious. "You think that the enemy commander is simply executing orders without really thinking about them? That might be the case, but why the enemy Core is not interfering?"

"I don't know..." Morrigan slowly shook her head. "Maybe Master knows?"

"I don't believe that information is important right now, but that information certainly has to be highlighted in the report." The Lamia rubbed her chin and wiggled with the tip of her tail. She eventually sighed and opened her hands with a shrug. "The monsters below needs to be wiped out. There are maybe five or four thousand left. Some surely slipped into the Kingdom, so we have to send Eagles to hunt them down."

Suddenly, the airship shook violently, hit by immense force that pushed the large airship aside. Morrigan and Aurora yelped shortly like teenage girls but managed not to fall. They instantly realised that the situation was dire. The ship's shield, constantly drained and weakened by never-ceasing but rather harmless Salamanders' attacks, was breached in one quick instant.

"We are going down!" The Helmsman yelled, surprisingly calmly for the message he conveyed.

"Brace yourself!" Blackbeard shouted and the women could see the serious expressions on nearby faces.

The ship was skillfully turned and it slowly but inevitably descended. It glided behind friendly lines and Morrigan smelled smoke coming from under the deck.

"Fire?" Aurora looked at the Captain who slowly approached them.

"We were hit hard. We have lost eight cannons and their crews. If not for your shield we would have all been dead." He slowly shook his head. "We have a huge hole in our hull and you can smell our lost supplies. Until we repair that hole we are sitting ducks."

Morrigan turned her head towards the enemy horde and saw the first change in the enemy's behaviour. The monsters tried to get to the airship...