Chapter 49: Me and Meachin

“Oh god, May is going to kill me… Henrek will kill me again…” Utarou panicked as he saw Rhiney lying in a crater, his wing fully blasted off and not a single person to be found.

From a distant hill, the Dwarf, Meachin, watched from afar, judging the man's every action.

Rhiney let out a grunt as it saw Utarou.

“Oh thank god you’re still alive, hey, hey you alright? Do you need to heal? Oh god you need to heal a lot… Fine! Fine! ALRIGHT!” Utarou whined as he took a deep breath and walked towards Rhiney, he was laying on his side with his jaw agape, groaning meekly as his black white and pink body struggled to not bleed so much.

“What in the bloody hell is he…” Meachin wondered as Utarou walked directly into Rhiney’s gaping jaw, being swallowed whole by the beast. Meachin was needless to say, extremely taken aback, but upon seeing the beast begin to rapidly heal its wounds he had one suspicion confirmed.

“The black beastie is definitely a monster, but to heal that much that quickly from one man… His regenerative abilities are beyond that of any magic. Would Logos give a demon such an ability?” Meachin pondered, watching as Utarou was spat back out by a fully healed Rhiney.

“I hate doing that…” Utarou groaned as he stretched, his body rapidly undigesting.

Rhiney suddenly perked up, turning its head to look at Meachin. Before the dwarf could pull the trigger, Rhiney appeared in front of Meachin and had ripped the gun out of his hand with its mouth.

“Woah woah! Rhiney what are you doing!?” Utarou shouted from the clearing in the forest Rhiney’s massive body had produced.

Meachin glared at the beast, the beast glared back at him and snorted, slowly flying back to Utarou and landing.

“Now’s not the time to run off Rhinoplasty, we need to find BJ, Hope, Penelope and Julia.” Utarou explained with a sigh as he leaned against Rhiney’s leg.

Utarou now only reached just above what you could call Rhiney’s elbow, the beast had grown extremely large while he was on the run with Bucket Julia thanks to May using him as a trash compactor for bones and Barney taking him on hunting trips.

Perhaps he’d even gotten a little larger from his near death and rapid regeneration experience as well.

Meachin watched as Utarou clambered up Rhiney’s back, the dragon dutifully following his commands as they flew into the air to begin searching.

Meachin’s heart was racing and his mind was struggling to keep up.

He looked at his radio pack and quickly tuned into his unit’s frequency. He quickly steeled himself as the dragon

“Officer Meachin, requesting emergency communications with General Aitkens.” Meachin declared dutifully.

“General Aitkens, what is it?” Aitkens replied, hearing his scouts panic as the black silhouette of Rhiney began flying around the air in the distance.

“Evidence of Demons severely lessened. Update thy Priors.” Meachin admitted.

“Priors updated. Good thing too, considering we’re not going to survive without negotiation.” Aitkens laughed.

“W-what?!” Meachin exclaimed before the sounds of something crashing into the ground blasted through the radio before cutting out into static.

…

Rhiney bowed his head, allowing the nude Utarou to confidently walk towards the Dwarves aiming their guns at the man and the big black and pink dragon he was just riding.

“RHINEY!” Junior shouted, jumping to the bars of his cage.

“So ye the immortal man then eh?” Aitkens asked, motioning to his men to hold their fire.

“The one and only, there appears to be some kind of misunderstanding, luckily no one was hurt it seems so let’s just discuss this like civil individuals.” Utarou offered, thanking his lucky stars he couldn’t see so much as a scratch on anyone in the overground dungeon they’d been locked in.

Aitkens eyed the man up and down, he was physically unimpressive, despite being a human he was on the shorter side, without an ounce of muscle or fat.

The dragon he’d rode in on was a juvenile great dragon, and as far as Aitkens knew an entirely foreign variety to the kind he was accustomed to, with a seeming cloak of mana beginning to form around its wings.

“Aye, I do think that’d be for the best. But I’ll need to do somethin’ at first before we can let ye go. Just a test ‘n all that.” Aitkens explained, his men still aiming their weapons at everyone.

“Of course!” Utarou said, eagerly agreeing. He just needed to get out of this situation as fast as possible, ideally snagging a few of those guns for himself on the way back.

“A demon test.” Aitkens said seriously. Utarou cocked his head.

“Uh, yeah sure, what’s that?” Utarou asked, now suddenly a lot more cautious.

Aitkens laughed.

“Ye either from far away or tryna get info from me. Sorry but we canny be lettin’ that leak. Trust us, if ye ain’t a demon there’s nothin to worry about.”

“Don’t worry! A Dwarf never lies! That’s why they’re big jerks!” Penelope shouted from the cage, causing Aitkens to let out a chortle.

“True that lass! Now, this is somethin’ I can only do one at a time.”

“Right… I’ll go first then.” Utarou offered, the rest of his squad looking on intently.

“I’ll go with Rhiney!” Junior shouted eagerly.

“Abso-” One of the dwarven gunners shouted.

“Of course! Ye two will just have to be last. And it’ll have to be here.” Aitkens interrupted, glaring at the gunner.

“You two, set up the curtain, get the thing.” Aitkens snapped, a pair of gunners quickly holstering their rifles and running towards the supplies they were able to bring with them from the tower.

Hope had stayed quiet and only glared at her captors hatefully.

“U-um, we’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Pinklia said, as reassuringly as the small ball of anxious pink mucus could muster.

Hope looked at the small Pinklia and sighed.

“It’s okay, you can still get out if everything goes wrong.” Hope said as she hugged her legs. Pinklia awkwardly stumbled but couldn’t think of anything to say so she just stayed quiet, while Penelope was trying to apologise for the vicious insults Junior was throwing towards his captors.

“He doesn’t mean it! He’s only 7 years old!” Penelope shouted as she tried and failed to pull the boy away.

“MY DADDY IS KING! AND MOM WILL BEAT YOU ALL UP WITH A PAN AND YOU’RE GONNA BE ALL DEAD AND EVERYTHING!” Junior screamed, snot coming from his nose as his righteous fury eventually tuckered him out, causing him to fall backwards and pass out.

“You’re uh, not going to do anything crazy right?” Utaoru asked nervously, seeing the state his party as in as the gunners put up a small screen to block their view of whatever this test was.

“Long as ye ain’t a demon.” Aitkens laughed, a large wooden box being pushed between the two men.

It was to Aitken's chin while it reached just below Utarou’s chest, it had a latched door at the top, with an ornate wooden handle.

“This ‘ere is a Demon Detector. Put ye hand in, and we’ll know if ye be a demon or not.” Aitkens explained. Utarou cocked his head, confused at how this could be test, let alone something that would need to be kept secret.

“Haha, relax, it’ll all be clear in a moment.” Aitkens laughed, opening the box and gesturing for Utarou to put his hand in.

Utarou paused, wondering what possible reason there would be for keeping it secret, before shrugging his shoulders and putting his hand straight in.

One moment he was standing in front of Aitkens with his hand in a box.

Next, he was back in Japan.