Outside the crater caused by the hell gate’s collapse, the adventurers’ party was yet to arrive. In fact, it was just a few seconds after the collapse.

The debris still rolled down the hole, the trees were groaning, and the flames left by the blast still burned faintly at the bottom, illuminating what would’ve looked like a black abyss.

Ignis was left outside, and she looked down at the crumbling hole, her eyes opening wide. Obelisk, Agnar, and Yuwaku had disappeared there. She was left out; she couldn’t help or follow them because she was still a weak wyrmling.

She growled, feeling a dull pain slowly reaching up her head, and the burning flame in her chest started to grow hotter.

Her flames weren’t hot enough, they weren’t big enough, they lacked the power and will of dragons, the indomitable arrogance and reckless fury.

A dragon, even a wyrmling like herself, was supposed to be a powerful monster, deadly and scary, enough to burn and cause mayhem. For all intents and purposes, a wyrmling like her was a fast, powerful, massive, and angry alligator with wings and could breathe flames.

How did she fail to help? Why couldn’t she burn those devils to ash? Yeah, devils are nearly immune to flames as they come from hell.

If she just dove into the cave and set it ablaze, if she was just powerful enough to catch them and fly away, if she was only able to exert her will on the local monsters and command them.

Arad had once told her to live how she wants, not how the world wants her to be. She is a drakaina, and the world is supposed to bend and twist around her will, not the opposite.

She heard tales of him fighting as a wyrmling and often getting beaten nearly to a corpse. Even when the odds were against him, he still jumped headfirst into the fray and made his presence known.

In this world, you can be one of three things. A passive being who avoids change and conflict. A reactive being who only acts when they are prompted, and an active being who takes actions and forces everyone else to follow their rule.

Arad was an active being; he fought and challenged the world, and now he had twisted so far that he had his own empire. He was the opposite of all humanoids, who remained mostly passive or reactive. Ignis herself was now a passive being, living with Agnar and Yuwaku to hunt monsters and grow.

She had to change.

Something snapped inside her head. Her draconic pride and arrogance won’t let her sit still and wait. This place, this forest and snow, they had robbed her of the people she cared about, and this wrong won’t go unpaid.

Waiting for the adventurers and army to come won’t bring any change. She had to act on her own, and this forest had to bow down.

Her body burst into flames, and a howling roar filled the air, shaking the trees around. A dragon’s roar was deep, loud, and could be heard from miles away. It was supposed to be heard, and tell anyone who’s around that this land now belongs to a new ruler.

First, it was this annoying and cold snow, which made life harder for them, and how could nature dare to snow in the presence of a red dragon?

Ignis’s flames grew stronger and stronger, soon drying the trees around and setting them ablaze, engulfing the entire area in a raging fire.

The snow melted and turned into flowing rivers, which didn’t last long in the blaze before disappearing. Some monsters were nearby, and they burned, unable to escape the incandescent blaze.

If this were a normal forest, Ignis would’ve already started a massive forest fire, but since the snow around was over ten feet deep, it was extremely hard for the flames to spread, so they remained contained around the crater.

As the snow melted and evaporated away, a large pillar of vapor and smoke rushed into the sky like a flare, drawing the attention of both monsters and the approaching adventurers from afar. They had heard the roar before, and their wizard knew it belonged to a dragon.

Red dragons usually don’t live around here, so the adventurers knew it was Ignis, and immediately guessed that something must’ve gone horribly wrong.

"It’s mad..." The wizard mumbled with a worried, somber face. His long white beard flew with the wind, and his dark eyes glistened with magic. "A wyrmling, and it’s pissed to the bones. If we get any close without preparation and decent fire-resistant equipment, we’ll get cooked alive."

"That has to be Ignis." The fighter looked at him with a stern face. "Remember? A Nymph, Lady Obelisk, a Human kid, and a red wyrmling."

Their scout, a seasoned rogue, frowned. "I can’t speak draconic. Does that wyrmling know us?"

The wizard shook his head. "That’s the scary party. We know her, she is a drakaina. But she doesn’t know us, so we might get attacked if we approach recklessly. Dragons embody rage, so expect them to act worse than a human blinded by rage."

Another wizard, a tall woman, smiled. "I want to say the others would stop her, but..." She looked at the flames. "Since she is going this far, I suspect they are all dead. Otherwise, they would’ve stopped her already."

The fighter paled. "Are you saying Lady Obelisk is dead? The Nymph and her were killed, but a weak wyrmling survived?" It was almost inconceivable.

The old wizard leaned on his staff. "A wyrmling is still a dragon, and they are harder to kill than cockroaches and even more trouble than devils."

The tall woman pulled a crystal. "If devils used fire, then the wyrmling would be the only one to survive. She might’ve even finished them off."

The fighter looked at the raging flames and billowing black smoke. "What if those devils are still there? We should prepare before jumping in."

****

Back in hell, and minutes later, Tiamat was about to open another portal to the mortal world. Agnar was luckily a devil now and not a sinner, meaning he can exist in the mortal world as long as he’s bound by a contract to someone. So, making a contract with Yuwaku was all he needed to do.

Tiamat, the witch called Sofia, lifted her hands and pushed her fingers into the air, getting ready to rip space open and force a gate to be born. She could cast a spell, but in her mind, it would look cooler this way.

"Staying in hell for any amount of time is dangerous. Since you all have no reason to be here, I’ll send you back." She looked at them and smiled, quickly shifting her gaze to Asmodeus. "I won’t get shocked, would I?"

"No, go ahead." She got a quickly reply.

Sofia’s nails flashed crimson, and the air seemed to rip apart at her touch. It groaned like tearing steel, and a red fracture in reality started appearing.

But then, from that gate, a blazing maw lunged at her, biting her face. The moment the gate opened, Ignis had leapt inside and bit the first thing in her path that she didn’t recognize.

Then, before even waiting to think, she unleashed her breath at full power, washing Tiamat’s face with searing flames, then pushed her body to the ground, standing over her as she roared. From the gate behind her, tens of burned monsters rushed in, following the orders of their overlord.

"Excuse me..." Tiamat looked up, unharmed by Ignis’s attack. But before she could finish speaking, Ignis smacked her in the face with her claw, grabbed her mouth and stretched it open, then breathed a torrent of flames down her throat.