#hohoe

Despite being some sort of legend around the magical world (dragons usually kept to themselves, but they loved to test their magical strength against witches from time to time, so their gossip was the one who flew faster), Devoid hasn't been heard of for over seven years.

Coincidentally, during that time, a single young man has been rumored to have incomparable power...

The wind had been strong at the wasteland, kicking up sand and making it difficult to travel as well as see the path ahead. From the distance, a single figure could be seen through the dust, its figure tall but hunched over, the steps strong and resolved.

Upon closer inspection, the figure was composed of not a single man -- he was carrying something, or rather, someone, on his back, hence the reason why he was hunched over.

Worried, he kept looking over his shoulder to the sleeping blonde little girl he carried. "Damn this place; there ain’t a single tall rock! How can I make camp, now? I don't want Suzu to be scratched all over by this fucking sandstorm." He grumbled.

The girl's white dress fluttered around the strong wind, her body as unresponsive as always. But he heard something inside his head and almost tripped due to the mental ear-pull.

"Aight, aight, sorry, Suzu." He laughed and groaned after rolling his eyes, "I ain't saying bad words anymore."

His black, tattered overcoat danced with the wind, though in a completely different direction, as though it had a life of its own. The long, eastern sword he carried on his hip did not move at all; like such measle wind was going to make it budge.

Once again, the man groaned. "Okay, fine, I give up." He crouched and placed Suzu on the ground right beside a wilted tree trunk. He let out a faint and tired smile as he put some strands of hair behind her ears before his eyes turned somber as he looked to the dark shadow far, far ahead into the wasteland. "If you're not letting me find a good place for her to rest, I gotta finish you off right away."

The air crackled around him and the figure, as though the sandstorm itself had breathed in and out, preparing itself for battle. Without taking his eyes off of the approaching darkness, the man took off his overcoat and placed it over the little girl. Her hair and clothes stopped fluttering; the coat served as a barrier against the climate, making Suzu look like she was simply sleeping peacefully covered with a tasteless black blanket.

Swiftly, the man took his overgrown sword out of its scabbard only to place the sheath beside the tree trunk. "Protect her, you hear?" He whispered and immediately a purple barrier enveloped the area around the sleeping girl.

The long sword he carried -- it had a deep, black blade.

No, it couldn't be called as such since it wasn't made of steel; it was made only of raw power. He had chosen his weapon to look like a sword because it was similar to what he was used to wielding in the past -- but it could shape itself in virtually anything he wanted it to.

Sensing his strong feelings and tight grip, the dark blade started to sway, ready to take the shape of anything its master ordered through their bond.

Free of his coat, the man could be seen on his entirety -- he had short, black hair and had countless scars around his body as well as a single cut in the middle of his face. Each step he took towards the darkness made his heart thump more.

"You knew I was coming, right? You guys always seem to." He yelled, his steps getting faster, his legs making him run.

Once he was close enough to the darkness, it towered over him by at least 30 meters, but he didn't cower.

He had but one fear, and that only surfaced after each fight he picked.

Without needing words to communicate, an Earth Dragon finally made itself seen through the sandstorm: It had a large turtle-like beak protecting its mouth, and, out of all of its species, it was the most physically strong dragon. Its scales were deep brown, contrasting with its hooves. It didn't have a tail and its wings couldn't take it out of the ground, but it had total control over each and every thing that belonged to the earth -- even the smallest shard of stone -- making it a terrible foe to winged enemies.

The Dragon let out a roar, accepting the challenge, already aware of the conditions.

"Ya'll are some gossipy grannies, ya know? Sheesh." The man complained, effortlessly jumping twice the Dragon's height so as to dodge a stalagmite it had created on the ground right in front of him moments before.

The sound leaving the Dragon's mouth could be heard as laugh, though its jaw wasn't made for speech. As soon as the man was vulnerable on the air, the Dragon made the hundreds of thousands of sand grains to condensate into earth needles before he shot them all at him.

"Oh!" The man let out an exclamation of false surprise as his sword moved too fast for the eye to see -- soon there were no shards around, though one or two made their way to scratch his face.

He never really researched about the foe he was going to battle, hence the amount of scars he carried throughout the years. He never really minded the physical pain, since any wounds on his body could be recovered.

As long as he held onto hope, nothing could faze him. Not pain, not giant dragons, not never-ending wastelands.

Not even death.

As long as he could avoid the fear he felt after each fight -- as long as he could hold onto the hope of being successful in his endeavors… He would defeat any foe in his way.

The Earth Dragon, despite having the best physical defense out of all, also had an incredible magical affinity, as every dragon in the world. The man's sword was made out of magic, though he himself used it as a melee weapon.

The battle was bound to last a while -- the man would try to cut his way through the physical and magical defenses by blindly hitting his overgrown enemy. If he had spared a thought and made an effort to look into the Earth Dragon's weaknesses, he would have found out about the five crystals engraved into the Dragon's scales: one inside each leg and another under its tongue.

But alas, the man was as brute as always, and his sword swayed impatiently. Having none of that, it abruptly raised itself over his head. He frowned and looked up to it. "Hey!"

A magical circle began to appear around the sword's hilt and the dark blade melted into a black smoke, bleeding into each and every symbol the circle created.

The Dragon felt a sudden chill over its spine -- if the next attack hit it, it would cease to be.

The magical circle grew and grew, until it covered almost the entire wasteland around them.

Then, time stopped.

Rather, it seemed to. It was the fickle time between breathing in and breathing out -- the calm before the storm.

The man held his breath, his hand still bound to the sword's hilt, now merged into the circle, before countless rays of darkness flew out of it at the speed of sound.

To protect itself, the Earth Dragon erected wall after wall around its weak points, but they were shattered to pieces under the immense dark power leaving the circle.

More sand kicked up, making the man cough and look over his shoulder to the place he had left Suzu: the barrier had held everything out, even the tiniest spec of sand. As though his hand wasn’t shooting a dark ray of death, the man breathed out in relief and cracked a smile looking at the little girl.

After everything was done, the circle bled back into being a sword and the man slowly glided back to the ground. His ears rang with the sudden silence after such tremendous explosion and he glared at his hand before taking a step towards the Earth Dragon.

However, no matter how many steps he took, he couldn't find the gigantic body. "Great, did you pulverize him to death, Witch?" He spat on the ground.

A weak laugh was heard a few paces away from where he stood. "Ahaha, nay, she did not. It was a close call, however."

"Oh, yer older than I expected." The man said bluntly to the shadow that made itself seen through the dust in front of him.

Once again the Dragon laughed, but now on its humanoid form -- it was a tall, black and old man, his beard treading over the ground in front of him -- as he approached the winner. "I should say 'watch your tongue', but alas, I have lost a fight against you once; I cannot fight again that soon."

The man scratched his head, fear finally creeping into his heart. He stuck his sword on the ground and approached the Earth Dragon while checking his pockets. He was looking down, afraid to hear the same answer he had been getting for the past seven years.

Feeling the young man's anxiety, the Earth Dragon simply shook his head and looked towards the purple barrier, far behind the human.

"So, uh, since you already know what this is all about..." The man started, finally raising his gaze to meet the dragon's. "Please... please, save Suzu!"

Unlike witches, dragons were born with feelings -- and theirs actually resonated with human's more easily. The weight of that young man's feelings; the intensity with which he begged to save the little girl's life... it all struck the Earth Dragon deeply. He grimaced and spared a glance at the sword before opening his mouth.

"I'm afraid there is only one way--"

"NO!!" The man yelled, covering both ears with his hands, his body instinctively hunching over. "DON'T... Just... don't say it!"

The Earth Dragon's lips trembled as he looked at how the man pitifully kneeled on the ground, his entire body shaking. From the side of his eyes, he could see when the sword evaporated into a thick smoke and flew to the man's side, now showing itself on its true form.

"You have had the answer alongside you all this time, have you not, young man?" The Earth Dragon mourned, looking at the witch standing beside him.

She had deep purple skin, and her hair and clothes were of such a deep black they couldn't be discerned from each other. Her once expressionless face now only weeped.

"It has... it HAS to have another way! It can't be just this..." The man clenched his fists and hit the ground with all of his strength.

Without taking his eyes off the witch, the Earth Dragon pursed his lips, his heart aching. "For someone so powerful to be known as The Void to be seen like this..." He whispered, his eyes looking into the bright purple iris of Devoid's, the black sclera of her eyes of such a depth that could suck a lesser man inside. "You shall be known as The Weeping Witch from now on."

Tears fell down tirelessly from Weeping's eyes, as they have been for the past seven years. "A fitting name," she agreed, her voice sounding despite her mouth staying shut.

She cried the tears her human did not, for his feelings were now hers. She hadn't stopped crying from the moment they were united, all those nights seven years ago.

The tears his heart shed every single day for his slumbering little sister.

Controlling his sorrow, the young man finally stopped trembling and reached out once again for his pocket -- to a dismantled map he had been using since the beginning of his journey.

He got up and handed it to the Earth Dragon, his jaw hard and his eyes escaping reality. "Anyway, mark here. Ya should know what, right? Ya gossiping pussies and all."

Suzu was far away, but he could almost feel the mental ear-pull for the curse word, but he ignored it. The Earth Dragon looked down from his tall height to the small human.

"Young man, you already--"

"JUST-- MARK IT!" The man yelled, looking away. "I won't give up. There has to have another way."

Once again the Earth Dragon looked at Weeping. Her tears streamed down in spite of her as she woefully looked at the human's back. "... Very well," the Dragon said, taking the map and using magic to mark a path on it to where they should go next.

For the past seven years, man, girl and witch had been challenging powerful magical beings -- to the point of such beings looking forward to the challenge and waiting in specific locations for them. The Earth Dragon was waiting for him after he had defeated the Water Siren. Now, the Dragon was marking one of his sibling's lair -- the Lightning Dragon's domain -- so the man could once again ask a single answerless question.

After the older man was finished, the young man snatched the paper away and turned his back to the Dragon, heading towards his sister.

"Young man," the Dragon called and the man stopped without turning away. "Might I ask what do you go by? Surely a human such as yourself was given a birth name."

He looked over his shoulder, his deep brown eyes without a single glint. "Hohoe. Though that's not my birth name." He said and went back on his way.

'Fleeting Smile', the Earth Dragon thought.