Infinite Classes in the Apocalypse

Chapter 178: Dragon Clan

The forest changed gradually.

There was no clear line where one thing ended and another began, just a slow accumulation of differences that took a while to add up into something undeniable.

The trees thinned first.

Not the thinning of a forest’s edge, where light increased and undergrowth thickened before open ground arrived.

This was different, the trees became sparse in the way things did when they stopped finding the conditions agreeable, their trunks narrowing, their canopy pulling back, the dark green of the Kitsune territory’s forest gradually giving way to something with less colour and less certainty about its continued existence.

The ground changed next.

The soft forest floor hardened beneath his boots. The soft soil that had once been turned to stone. It happened so gradually he only noticed it when he looked back and realised the ground behind him was already different from the ground ahead. The stone was dark, the kind of surface that had been formed by heat rather than pressure.

The air shifted after that.

It was still breathable, still carrying the faint floral sharpness of the forest they long left. But underneath it there was something dry and mineral, something he couldn’t quite place.

Yoru walked ahead of him at the same unhurried pace she’d maintained since the mountain path, her black hair catching no wind, mostly because there was no wind here, the air was eerily still.

The clouds above were thick and dark, blocking all the light.

The last of the trees disappeared behind them shortly after.

Ahead, the landscape opened into something that had no equivalent in anything he’d walked through since arriving in this world.

Volcanic plains stretched to every horizon, dark stone broken by rivers of deep orange light running through fissures wide enough to swallow a building, their heat rising in visible waves that distorted the air above them.

Formations of cooled rock rose at irregular intervals, some the size of small hills, others considerably larger, their surfaces cracked and layered in a way that told you they had been built up slowly over a very long time rather than formed all at once.

And in the distance, far enough that the heat distortion made the edges uncertain, something that was unmistakably a structure.

Not built the way the Kitsune estate had been built, designed around human scale, carved into cliff face with a waterfall beside it. This was built around something vastly different. The proportions were wrong in the way architecture had never needed to consider whether a human could navigate it comfortably.

Damon looked at it for a moment.

Then at the rivers of orange light running through the ground between them and it.

Then, at Yoru, who had stopped walking and turned back toward him.

"Welcome," she said, something in her tone suggesting she found his silence mildly entertaining, "to the territory of the Dragon Clan."

They reach the estate, if one could call it that, not long after, and when they did, Damon quickly realised why they needed structures of that scale.

Massive beings with wings spanning a dozen feet moved through the terrain. Their scales were dark, their maws were large enough to consume a small family house whole.

Damon read stories about dragons, they were nothing but a fairytale, so seeing them now, in person, unmistakably alive was quite astonishing.

Yoru enjoyed every bit of surprise in his expression, her lips curving up with each glance she took at him.

The gaze of everyone there immediately locked onto them, watching him with not just wariness but active hostility, as if debating striking the second their gazes landed on him.

Yoru led him away from the open court and the gazes of her people. Despite the hostility in their reptile eyes, none dared to question her, as if her presence beside him was enough of reasoning they needed.

She led him inwards, toward the largest of the buildings and to its top floor, where she entered a chamber so massive it could clearly fit her in her dragon form, the balcony on the end a clear launching point if she wished for it to be.

The second the door shut closely behind them, she moved deeper inside, her heels clicking softly against the floor until she reached a bed and sat softly on its edge, her legs crossing with a motion too slow to be seen practical.

Damon remained near the door.

She looked at him from across the room with the particular patience of someone who had all the time available and knew it.

"You can come further inside. I don’t bite" she said. "Unless you want me to,"

"I’ll stand," he replied flatly.

She smiled faintly. "Suit yourself."

She reached up and removed one of the ornamental pins from her hair, setting it on the surface beside her with a small sound, letting her jet black hair drop loosely across her shoulders.

"You have questions," she said, "Ask away."

"The title loss mechanic," he said. "How does it work?"

"Every divine beast has a source the system uses to measure the divine title." She didn’t look up. "Kitsune tails are the clearest example. Break all of them and the system is bound to stop recognising the beast’s authority. Every clan has an equivalent."

"And yours..." Damon began but she quickly cut him off.

"You’ll find out eventually" she tried to say but he was fast to finish his sentence.

"...are horns."

Her eyes lifted to meet his.

A flicker of surprise flashed across her face, followed by inexplicable amusement. Her finger trailed across her lips as if she was thinking of a meal she had set her eyes on.

"What about the other clans?" he asked, ignoring her expression.

"It’s not relevant. I can accept leaving one of the divine beasts stripped of their title, but the rest? They all must die. It’s non-negotiable."

Damon nodded.

He wasn’t going to negotiate anyway. All he cared about was helping Ayame and her clan survive, anything else became irrelevant.

"We should deal with Tengu first. They are fast, annoyingly so. Once we get rid of them, the rest will fall shortly after."

"Trying to eliminate the only thing holding your clan back?" Damon almost laughed. "I heard about your troubles in the sky. Tengu goes last."