In a place between Heaven and Earth, not so far as the land of Immortals, yet not a place of mortals either, two middle aged men spoke fervently beside the stagnant rays of twilight.
"The third pillar of Heaven has fallen, and the foundation of its continent is broken. As it was decreed in Heavenly bylaw, this continent is now adrift! The seal has been broken long before the end of time, and the Demon Lords have already begun to rouse from their slumber. As the watchers, we must hold until the heroes of this generation can realize the time!"
One white haired man told the other who had completely black hair. The black haired man responded equally urgently,
"I don't understand, how is it that this generation's heroes are not already informed! What has happened? They need to know!"
But the white haired man simply shook his head,
"We cannot influence this generation directly, we can only hold on until they realize themselves. It is unfortunate that the seal has been broken so early, the culprit is obvious, and we can only hold for as long as possible. This is unavoidable, to break the rules of Fate itself, unforeseen effects are to be expected. We will hold until this generation understands!"
The black haired man sighed at these words, they were not something he wanted to hear. If only... he could directly intervene! But the laws of Fate itself were clear,
"So it will have to be. However... how long must we hold for? You know that our time as the last time of need's ancestors is limited. I fear since we have been released this early, we will not last until the end!" The white haired man also sighed,
"How could we hold our head's high when we fade away if we could not at least buy our juniors some time! It's time, summon the rest, we will do battle until we are no more!" The black haired man nodded and then asked as he turned away,
"Senior, but what side do we stand on? If mankind were to battle the Heaven's, would we stand against the gods? Or if they allow the intervention of Heaven, will we side against the demons? What if they choose neither, will we be the only ones to stand with them?" Sounding lost, he began to walk away, but the white haired man's words brought a short smile to his lips and he renewed his steps with vigor.
"We will stand with them, whatever path they choose, as we are tasked by Fate itself. Even if they should choose no side at all, we will stand with them, one and forever. To have face is to face every enemy our people choose, Heaven, Hell, or Fate, it does not matter, we are the only one who will always stand by this generation!"
And so, in the coming twilight, the two middle aged men walked out and began to battle against the rising forces of the Hells as the Heaven's watched above.
Lineir woke with a start, and reflexively clutched the back of his left shoulder blade. He felt a strange taloned pattern, the skin there, was permanently changed, as if he had been branded. To have marked his body though, and for it to not heal, meant that it was a wound filled with power. Mei immediately picked up on this,
"Disciple, I was watching, and that dragon girl has definitely implanted a large amount of elemental energy into this strange scar. Otherwise, your body could definitely heal many life threatening injuries, let alone this flesh wound. However, she definitely did not do this with the intent to kill, so do not worry, while you should still be careful, I believe her attitude toward you has changed."
Lineir did not feel particularly reassured here. Several times now, he had hoped that she would just leave him alone, only to be surprised time and time again. Raising himself to a sitting position with his hands, he looked around, and noticed the culprit of this strange scar was peacefully snoozing a few feet off in the cave. As he shifted,a slight noise came, and a ray of twilight danced on her eyes which immediately snapped open.
"Ah, you're awake, impressive, it took a ton of energy to overpower your bodies natural defenses. Be thankful I am generous and fed you some of the flesh of the Drowsy Otter, else that would have hurt a lot more!" She vehemently stated, before walking over and yanking down the back of Lineir's robe to see the state of the wound.
"Excellent, its taken, you're a lucky man, to be binded to me!" She walked away and began to eat some more meat which she conjured from thin air via spacial ring.
Lineir quickly tugged his robe back up, and asked, trying to look over his shoulder to see the mark,
"What is it, what did you do to me? Why did you drug me!" The girl sniffed and said haughtily,
"Oh, you don't know? I binded you, as is my right as dragonkin. It's a great honor, the Nero Sect and various other powers behind them greatly wanted this, but for life, I can only bind one, and it's you now, so they're not a problem. Besides, I haven't seen them in months. As for the meat, isn't it obvious? I had to burn that into you! Would you rather I did that while you were awake?" Calmly, she chewed and took another great bite of the mystery meat. Lineir's face was growing more and more crazed with every word however.
"Binded? What does that even mean, why would anyone want to be binded by you! Also, isn't it against common sense to do something like this without first asking the other party for consent!" Outraged, he furiously stared at the girl, only to see her completely ignoring his venom.
"Well you see, dragonkin, as descendants of dragons, select only one person to bind with for life. You're strong and you helped me a little in getting off that pillar. You should be honored, since I felt the desire to bind you, you're now mine! The greater sects were all clamoring for this honor, but they were too weak, and the old men were ugly, disgusting!" She wrinkled her face in disgust and chewed harder. Lineir could only gape at her complete disregard of his will. She... was claiming him like property or cattle!
"Don't worry, the binding just means that your mine and I can find you wherever you are! I can even sense when you're in danger and fly over if I feel like it, think about it, I'll keep you safe, as mine, I won't ever let anyone else have you!" Lineir was doing his best to unclench his muscles.
"Master.... what do I do! She can find me whenever she wants! When she gets angry again and decides to murder me, there's no way I can escape!" He appealed to Mei for advice, but she simply started laughing.
"Kiddo, don't worry. You could be said to have gained here. What's a little lost manhood, when you've been picked by royalty and dragonkin. She will definitely protect you as her one and only chosen one. Think about it, she can at least help you survive until you grow stronger!" Lineir shook his head, he felt like howling. How could he possibly think this was a good thing, he had almost been killed by her several times already! In fact, that one time, she basically had killed him, his heart rate was so slow!
"Fate itself is broken! Truly broken, how can my life get any worse!" Lineir cried out mentally, and cursed. At that moment, the ground beneath him shifted and vibrated twisting beneath his feet. The girl also shifted, so it wasn't just in his head,
"What now, is this cave going to collapse as well!"