Chapter 128: The Battle Began

"..." Typhon watches the two Nios silently in a new inn. This time, the innkeeper wasn’t cooperative, so Typhon had to crush him a few dozen times until he begged her to take whatever room she wanted.

Since Typhon has no way to just stop what both Nios started, she decided to watch and ensure the safety of the two.

"This is truly lascivious to watch. I wonder what they’ll both think when they realize what they’re doing," Typhon murmurs while both Nios are licking each other.

After having spent a literal 36 hours biting each other, both instinctively admitted defeat by releasing at the same time. With that, an "error" occurred in both of their instincts. Normally, it’s assumed that in a display of dominance, one dragon always wins.

But since both Nios have the same attributes, both gave up at the same time, so they began to gently lick each other’s wounds as a display of care after a dominance fight.

However, Nioh is naked, and Nio also ended up naked, since Nio’s clothes were torn by Nioh, who tried to scratch Nio when Typhon threw the two onto a bed, and Nioh saw that as an attempt at cheating and reacted with aggression.

Both rub against each other, sharing their scents. It’s not exactly something romantic; they’re like two beasts trying to recognize each other to avoid another fight in the future.

"Dragons have such a strange physical culture." To Typhon, this display of affection and recognition is something alien. She, as a conceptual entity that didn’t even have a body in the past, cannot comprehend the physical rituals that animals and living beings in general perform.

To her, the physical display of the dragons that Nio and Nioh are performing is something meaningless. And although Typhon put her scent on the two of them, she didn’t do it for "recognition." She did it to prevent other dragons from becoming interested in them, and, for the moment, to help Nio not lose control when she smells Nioh.

"...Haa... I imagine the two of them will team up to kill me. That’s problematic." While caring for them, Typhon also thinks about her future. The soft moans of pleasure and pain from the two aren’t enough to distract Typhon’s mind from what matters.

’Nio and I are evenly matched in overall power, and even when we had our full power, we still had equivalent powers in several aspects. I have no way of beating two of them...’ Typhon knows it’s impossible for her. It’s not "almost" — it’s literally impossible.

Both now, and if the three of them recover their original powers, any scenario is unfavorable for Typhon.

’The only positive scenario I can see would be if I got my original power before them and could restrain them or prevent them from getting their original power, or if Nio decided not to ally with Nioh...’ Typhon thinks seriously about the two.

’I need to break that bond. Break it in a way that makes it impossible for the two to even accept teaming up, even if it’s to kill me...’ Typhon’s gaze is dark, because her immense love doesn’t accept that anything — even Nio herself — could break the fragile balance that exists between them.

"Giihhk..." The two Nios moan in pain when both grab each other’s horns tightly, both making one last failed attempt at dominance, both trying to break the other’s horn, but with the pain, both stopped.

"..." With the failure of that, the "ritual" between two Alphas ends in an instinctively accepted draw. With that, the rationality of both begins to return as they both pant as if they had been through something exhausting.

"..." The two just stare at each other as their pupils return to normal, and Nioh, who now smells like Typhon, is no longer as attractive to Nio.

"I—" Nio tries to speak, but Nioh slaps her hard across the face. Nioh stands up in silence with a dark look on her face and looks at Typhon.

"Is this fun for you?" Nioh speaks with a bit of courage.

"It was, indeed. It’s interesting to see how two dragons with equal attributes fail at the most basic act of dominance between members of the same species. It’s something new. I’ve never seen it happen." Although Typhon expresses her opinion genuinely and honestly, without mockery, Nioh sees it as taunting.

"Great, you damn—!!" Nioh leaps through the inn’s window, breaking the wooden frame, while Nio covers herself with a sheet, more embarrassed than angry about having licked a girl in various places on her body.

"W-What the hell was that that just happened to me!?" Nio asks Typhon, who tosses a set of real clothes to Nio — ones she managed to buy with money she earned during the time she was away from the two.

"..." Nio looks at the simple black dress and white panties, realizing it’s normal clothing. She quickly tries to get dressed while Typhon tosses a second set, almost identical to the one she gave Nio.

"I bought this one for Nioh, but don’t say I bought it. Say you took it from your inventory, or she’d rather walk around naked than accept my gift. And I don’t want to force her, but I won’t let her stay naked, so it’s better we keep some peace, right?"

"...R-Right... so my question—"

"It was your dragon instincts. There are many of them. When they activate, they take over. There are defensive ones, when you’re in a situation of a dangerous attack on your life, made in a cowardly way from behind." Typhon mentions one that Nio vaguely remembers feeling.

When Nio was cowardly attacked just before dying, her body reacted on its own to try to defend itself.

"There’s also the mating one. That one comes from scent. And there’s also the dominance one. That one is also heavily influenced by another dragon’s scent. There are several others, but I can mention them another time if you’re interested."

"Right now, I’d like to adapt our plans. Now that we have Nioh here, we’re three. And since we’re three very powerful people, a lot has changed in what we can do now that wasn’t possible before." Nio finishes getting dressed and touches her shoulder, seeing the marks left after her body regenerated.

"...Do as you please... I’m not in the headspace for this right now. My whole body aches. I feel like I got run over by a truck..." Nio ends up leaving everything to Typhon, who looks at Nio’s body, and all she thinks about is how to break the relationship between the two Nios.

’I need to break this little bond right here in hell. If we leave here, the two of them will flee from me if we’re close, and if we’re far, I won’t even know how to find them...’ Typhon realizes she only has one opportunity: hell. Once they leave here, either Nioh and Nio have to hate each other, or Typhon loses.

Nio doesn’t realize it, but the battle has already begun. The fight against Typhon won’t only happen when they return to life. It started the moment Nioh arrived as Nio’s ally in hell and gained the possibility of having a body in the world of the living.