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Three days of preparation was enough for the dragons to start their attack on the dragon prison. Mitra was to be the leader, while Avila went on first and do her job before everyone else. Mitra and the rest of the squad agreed on Avila's strategy, though they knew it posed a very great risk in Avila's part.

Travelling to the dragon prison's vicinity took three days, but the dragons took a position further away from the vicinity of the prison. Avila and Mitra had been to the vicinity to assess the condition and the area they would engage. Like many prisons the humans managed, it did not look like it outside, but they didn't want to imagine what's going on inside the walls. For a vital reconditioning facility, the place was heavily guarded with dragons and slayers, but fortunately for them, they did not find any dangerous traps that could cause problems with their plans, nor was there anything related to anti-darkness magic. It was either they had no light mage currently around or that they used darkness as their main magic. Either way, it wouldn't be a problem.

Of course, in strategic viewpoint, Xiciro quickly dismissed Avila's plan as 'child's delusion', though she interpreted it as 'not possible'. Avila knew what he meant. With Scadel betraying them, there would be a chance that the Dragonsbane knew about their abilities and would develop something to counteract their ability. With usual optimism, Avila just said that they wouldn't know what's coming for them.

But then, even with such developed strategy that had a chance of success, Xiciro gave an input that was very useful for the Argoons, considering there were no spies in their city. Avila could detect a spy the moment they acted weird, and she bragged that only a perfect actor, who had no longer remember that they were supposed to be spying, would pass off as someone normal. She was being sarcastic, as Xiciro noticed, because there was no such thing as a 'perfect actor', because they would lose one identity to be another.

Richard and the draconians were also included in the strategy, which somehow made everything unique with Orozco's own strategy adapting with them. The draconians were to dispatch the dragon slayers with their weapons without alerting anyone, which was something that both Orozco and Juagar excelled (both were sniper). They went on and execute the plan the very next day.

The night before the attack, though, Richard was going to go to sleep when he noticed Avila watching the moon with a solemn expression. For someone who had seen draconian expressions many times in his line of work, he approached the dragon. She didn't notice him, but when he let his presence known, she was surprised.

"You're not the type that can get surprised that easily," said Richard sitting beside her. He uncorked a bottle of sort and drank it. "Want some?"

"I need a barrel of those to get drunk tonight, but it's not the time."

"I'm not really trying to get drunk, too. This world's alcohol is no longer strong enough for me," said Richard. "I still miss the early days when I said 'malt' to the bartender back home."

"You know that's retarded, right?"

"Nah, it's just you who don't know about how we ask for beer, at least in the human's world anyway. I may look draconic, but I have my own way of ordering a drink."

Avila chuckled. "You haven't changed much, you know that?"

"And you just have feathers like a raven." After a moment of silence, Richard drank another gulp and said, "You're afraid that Sera won't recognize you in this form."

Avila didn't immediately answer, which proved Richard correct. He just sighed and sat with his hand on his knee.

"You know, if he truly loves you, he will recognize you even if you have this avian form," said Richard sipping a drop. "It's not like he loves you because of your appearance with that shining, crystal-like scales, right?"

"I know that, but a part of me still thinks that it's not the case. You know our past, right?"

"You told me that."

"I know he loves me because of our shared past, but now I found a father, and I'm a Dark Angel. I'm no longer the same before we were thrown to another world. He would've seen me as something else. No, I know he won't take me as an abomination, but he won't recognize that I'm Avila."

Richard sighed. "You've been thinking too much about that, Avila. Dragons, draconians, who the fuck cares? In the end, if they believe that you are still who you are, they will be ready to return to you. Just be yourself and it will be fine."

"That's the problem, Richard. I...I'm not sure if this is me."

The golden-scaled draconian knew what Avila was facing right now. She knew Seraphor was a faithful dragon, but like many people who would judge the cover first by instinct, she knew the silver red would not recognize her before realizing her. By that time, Avila would not be convinced that Seraphor was going to see her. But, seeing the silver red being perceptive, he couldn't help but smile at the exchange later.

"Don't worry, Vila. Everything's going to be fine. I'm going back to camp. Let's hope everything went smoothly. Things will be back as it should be."

Richard left her side and walked back towards his camp, singing a song Avila couldn't recognize, but she was happy when she heard about it. Avila then looked at the moon with renewed resolve. Seraphor was no longer her world anymore. She had a bigger world than the one she lived in with her mate. Even if he didn't know her, it wasn't the time to be depressed and jeopardize the plan.

The night went on and was replaced by day, during which Avila had already went on with the plan by flying towards the dragon prison with Xiciro in tow. With his unique teleportation ability, they cut their travel to only half a day, as he was given a 'dark tether' from some of the Argoons wishing him good luck, which cut his use of energy to almost a half.

The draconians followed behind them, but they also used the portal. It seemed strange for them to use this method of travel, but they knew this was the fastest travel method they had ever known. For Richard, he had half-expected this since this was once his world, but for his companions, this felt like a weird science fiction sensation that they knew was fictional, except this was real.

Due to Avila's size, she was able to take cover behind a rock while the draconians did their job. She was waiting for the signal to go in since the prison had no side entrances, only the front. While the dragons were nothing to her, the slayers posed a bigger threat because of their weapons that could wound and possibly kill her if she got attacked by it.

Orozco prepared for the attack by picking a suitable sniping position, while Richard was his spotter. The rest of the draconians were in position to infiltrate the moment the dragons were ready to get inside. For Orozco, this was the weirdest infiltration mission in his career as a special force. He would never have thought to consider feral dragons as special force, but he knew an infil briefing when he sees one. The dragon known as Avila was something else.

"Guard post, 11 o'clock 5 degrees down. Fair wind. Shoot when ready," said Richard. He may have no knowledge of military codes since the Watch was more a mercenary group than a formal military training, but he understood regardless. He saw a human carrying a glaive standing still by the gate. He felt the wind and shot the human in the head. As he had suspected. That shot was noticed by a nearby guard, but he took him out too.

Avila lost sense of the two humans guarding the front door, so she assumed that they had already died. Without a mean of communication like the draconians, she could only rely on her Dark Dimension ability to detect enemies. She quickly went in, using her wind step to minimize drag and noise as she went near the door without being detected by the dragons.

Bestreid and Seiglet infiltrated from the other side of the door where they stealthily kill some slayers. Juagar also went in and shot some of the unsuspecting slayers and others were killed by Orozco's rifle. They only need to be careful with the dragons as they had no way to kill them without alerting the whole camp.

The draconians were surprised on how big the camp was, but they didn't know how the whole complex had no dragons being tortured in sight. They could only assume that the whole building complex had the atrocities happening indoors, especially with the dome sitting in the middle of the camps.

Of course, like many plans, there were times when they needed to adapt with the whole situation, and times when they went all in, especially after they were detected. Avila was walking near some of the sleeping dragons when she heard a booming voice saying, "Do you think I'm stupid enough to not realize the intruders?"

Avila recognized that voice. She knew the traitor from Xiciro, but it was unlikely, even for her. Even now, Scadel still gave a facade of emotionless pride that hid his true purpose well.

"So the traitor has finally shown himself," said Avila. "What? Do you expect me to lash out? Angry because you killed Erakor? I don't think that's strategically sound."

"Yes, I know you won't, because you are not a fool," said Scadel. "But, I know your strategy well, Avila. I think it's time we show you our work."

A sudden sensation of being exposed ran through Avila as her dark veil failed, revealing Mitra and the rest of the dragons hovering above the prison. They were surprised by how easily the plan failed, as did the draconians. Of course, Avila was still calm, only pretending to be surprised by how everything turned out.

"I know you well from the Dragonsbane, Avila. The warden here thought that the possibility of you attacking us is zero, but I know better than them. I know you want to find Seraphor, the famed silver red dragon from the West. Don't worry. He's still alive, and you will be joining him soon. As prisoners, that is."

Many dragon slayers quickly came out of the buildings and pointed anti-dragon spears towards Avila. She knew that any rash movement will kill her and her companions, as they were also targeted by some weapons designed to pull a dragon down from the sky, and they had a lot of them around the camp.

Avila could sense something inside a dome-like building. She could sense a small dragon fighting a powerful opponent with dense darkness that almost overwhelmed Avila's senses. She knew that small dragon was Seraphor, and he was struggling to fight the dragon. She knew she needed to act the second plan and make a subterfuge to get in. Problem was, she had no idea on signaling the draconians.

Fortunately for her, the draconians knew what's up. Seiglet, Bestreid, and Juagar were still within the complex in their guerilla tactics. From the communications given to Richard, they were trying to find a way to disable to sky anchor to give the dragons a chance. Richard smiled and then said, "Orozco, can this rifle be upgraded?"

"What do you mean? This is a .50 caliber rifle. It has the strongest chamber to withstand any...oh. Goddamn it."

"Can it hold?"

"How many rifles have you destroyed just to do that? Why can't you use your weapons?"

"Hey, it's a 9mm," said Richard pulling his gun out. "It may be a portable railgun, but it's a short-burst type."

Orozco looked at Richard, then his rifle. He then said, "Ah, fuck it." and said. "You break it, you pay it."

"Keep the tabs on." Richard then took the rifle and aimed it towards Avila. He then licked his lips and said, "Sorry, girl, but I hope you understand."

Avila was thinking on how to proceed and trusted the draconians, but was surprised when she heard a loud bang coming from the draconians. She thought that their position was discovered, but what she got was a sense of numbness coursing through her body as electricity ran through her. The high-voltage electricity was Ray's style, and she knew Richard started the attack already. All the dragon slayers around her was electrocuted in an instant.

Richard looked at his job, then the rifle. All he could say was, "Damn, this thing's tough."

"What the hell were you thinking?!" exclaimed Orozco while trying to snatch his rifle away from Richard. "I thought you have a good aim!"

"It's an area attack. Besides, I think it's not a good idea to touch this rifle." He then absorbed the electricity then gave it to Orozco. "Now, I guess plan A failed. Seiglet, how's the infiltration going?"

"We are being pinned down by magical shots! What the bloody hell are those?!"

"Well, don't worry..."

"Stop with that 'cavalry' catchphrase and get here, you bloody bastard! You have the worst Northern Accent I've ever heard!"

"Hey, don't be so sensitive about that. We're coming!"

Richard opened his wings with Orozco and started flying towards the camp's gate. Some dragons that heard that noise started to fly towards him, but his small stature managed to evade them, as did Orozco. Richard then pulled out his trusted sword and slashed the ground near him, where the resulting attack caused a long streak of condensed lightning to go towards the slayers. It wasn't enough to kill them, but it was enough to cause momentary numbness.

"Avila, plan B! Go to the compound as fast as you can! We'll take care of them here!" exclaimed Richard as he ran towards Avila.

"What?! But that's insane! You can't possibly fight all the human slayers in this complex! Just look at the building behind me!"

"Just fight with something your own size and get the hell out of here! With your fighting style, you can't possibly defeat every human in here."

"I can..."

"Your fear power may be effective, but it is only temporary. Now go!"

Avila wasn't sure if being lectured by a draconian would hurt her pride or not, but considering that Richard was a friend and was also a great fighter, she left the two of them to fight the horde of humans.

Avila didn't turn her head back to see Richard and Orozco in action. As she left, Orozco scoffed and said, "Fight with someone your own size. Isn't that sweet?"

"How so?"

"We're bigger than these chumps."

"Oh, right. And I guess this is the part where we kill everyone?"

The humans laughed with that half-joking remark, but their laugh quickly died down when Richard pulled out his gun and shot one in the head. He smiled and said, "Brawling rule number one. Never carry a sword to a gunfight."

With a roar, Richard pulled out his sword and started to stab the stunned slayer in front of him while saying, "But that doesn't mean swordfight is out of question!"

His remarks snapped the slayers around him as they yelled and attacked the two of them. Orozco quickly flew up to avoid the spears while Richard made a tailwhip to three slayers, snapping their necks. After the twist, he quickly slashed his sword towards some unsuspecting slayers. In a great feat of seemingly choreographed movement, Richard danced between the humans. His style of fighting was like choreographed fights in movies, which was far more elegant than in real life. Orozco followed by helping him burn some slayers and then throwing a grenade, all while still flying.

On the other side of the camp, Juagar and Seiglet ran frantically trying to find the sky anchor's main mechanism or kill switch. Somehow, when they tried destroying one, it was protected by some sort of invisible shield. Bestreid helped them by stopping pursuers with his shotgun, but even he had limits as to how many ammos he could use. Coupled with them being in a fantasy world with the concept of guns and ammunition being non-existent, they need to preserve their weapons.

Only Juagar, who was a crossbow expert, could use the weapons there. He was surprised that even in a fantasy world, automatic spring-loaded crossbow was a thing. Even more surprising was the magic bolts that were used in it. They were very useful and as his own crossbow was out of bolts, he took one and used it ever since.

Seiglet, being a sword and knife expert, was the greatest contribution for their frantic search. He could run and slash people, especially since a draconian's strength was far bigger than a human's, so there was no problem in their search. However, after searching for a while, they started to think that there's no kill switch and the whole sky anchor was automatic.

That was when they saw a whole coven of magicians standing in a circle chanting something unintelligible for them. What attracted their attention was the thing in the middle that looked like the rune with the same engraving as those in the anchors. Juagar then called Bestreid and snatched his shotgun. He quickly approached the magicians and quickly shot them. Somehow it was so near that they weren't even able to cast a shield. Juagar managed to kill at least five of them before the rest cast shield on themselves, during which Seiglet noticed a shimmer on the nearby sky anchor.

"Can't put a shield and protect yourselves, eh?" said Seiglet. "Bad choice of weakness, mate."

"This ain't exactly Saturday morning kid's show," said Juagar.

"I know that. Get to the anchors and let those dragons down. Automatic or not, they can't focus on two things at the same time."

"You do realize that we can't use magic, right?"

"Fire's not one?"

"It's...ah, fuck it. Don't get killed!"

Juagar ran towards one of the sky anchors, but then when he tried to climb it, he was rebounded. He looked at the same shimmer of the shield. Seiglet noticed it too, and realized that it was far too easy to be true.

"Oi, that's cheating," said Seiglet while pointing his sword. "You're not ordinary, aren't you?"

"We will not let you dragons sabotage the plans, even if it costs us our lives," said one of the mages. "You may be draconians, but what can you do without magic? We know you can't use them."

"Well, mate, let me tell you something. We may not need magic, but we have technology."

Seiglet quickly put his hand inside his jacket and pulled out a frag grenade. The mages were unsure on the pineapple-shaped green object, but they quickly realized what it was when Seiglet pulled the pin and threw it near them. His reaction of quickly shielding his body with his wings was enough to convince the mages that it was dangerous.

In haste, they quickly changed their focus from protecting themselves into containing the grenade. That was a fatal mistake. Bestreid, who happened to be standing near Seiglet, caught the white draconian's signal and ran towards the mages. In the split second before they realized their mistake, Bestreid cocked his shotgun and shoot two unprotected mage point blank. The result was a gory finish as their head blew apart. The remaining three were surprised, but they couldn't decide between the grenade and Bestreid. The brown draconian made short work of them.

The shield then vanished, but the grenade did not explode. Bestreid, seeing what happened, said, "You're lucky they don't know that this is a dud."

"Better that than being blown off by some magic, right? Besides, our work is done here. Let the ferals do the rest."

Bestreid nodded and ran with Seiglet, while the horde of Argoons, finally free from the sky anchors, flew down and wreak havoc. Everything seemed to be aligning towards the attackers, with their surprise unconventional attack succeeding.

But then, Avila realized something's wrong. She felt Seraphor's aura before, but now it was overwhelmed by something dark and dangerous. No, she _recognized_this darkness, somehow. It's similar to the redeemed traitor, but she couldn't believe it. He was supposed to be dead a hundred years ago.

Xiciro also sensed the darkness, but his thoughts were different. He knew Bartoz's darkness aura, but it wasn't supposed to be like this. It was dark, vile, and full of hatred. It was like a bottled-up perfume bottle that was spilled and filled the room with strong smell. It wasn't Bartoz.

He quickly teleported near Avila. She noticed her father and said, "What is going on inside the dome?!"

"I am not sure, my child. It is best if we get inside and see it for ourselves."

Just then, Scadel flew down towards the two Argoons, wings outstretched and enhanced with darkness. Both dragons knew that it was dangerous, but Xiciro managed to dodge and absorb the darkness coating the wings, but he was cut from the attack. The darkness went inside his wound and caused great pain to Xiciro, in which he tried to hold.

"I will not let you interfere with his plans," said Scadel while making a fighting stance. "Even if I must die here, Konaz will kill the silver red dragon of hope, and save our race."