Vessel Ruina

The sound of bullets rang throughout the realm, It shouldn't have worked like that but for some odd reason it did. The glass shards on the floor all had people watching from inside now.

The floor was littered with blood, Feathers, And scales. Isle's right arm was riddled with bullet holes his posture shifted towards his right arm. Cassius had purposely targeted it so Isle wouldn't be able to use his greatsword.

Cassius wasn't without his own injuries though, One side of his puppet face had been smashed beyond repair and besides that, The cracks that had formed before had only grown as the fight went on.

The once pristine doll was now completely unrecognizable. One of the wings that had sprouted out of it was roughly cut at the root. Isle had detached it with the greatsword.

There were large gashes into the puppet mostly inflicted by Vermilion, Though some of them were created by Isle's greatsword, Each one of the gashes leaked mana.

Vermilion was pretty much fine apart from missing a few scales here and there, They would recover soon enough though. Unlike Isle's now useless right arm.

Cassius wouldn't be able to control the doll for much longer if this fight stayed the way it was now. While fighting Vermillion noticed that Cassius's movements were slowly becoming more labored.

The fight had come to a standstill after Isle's arm was hole punched by the puppets revolver, And the puppets wing was severed.

Vermilion could very easily beat Cassius by himself, But he wasn't confident that he'd be able to while also protecting Isle.

Nevertheless he still had to. Vermilion put his black cloak onto Isle, Isle didn't stop him at all, If anything he accepted it with open arms.

Isle had almost fallen to the ground as the heavy cloak hit his shoulders, It was at least twice the weight of the greatsword he had wielded before his arm was disabled.

"Jesus are you trying to kill me too?"

Vermilion had simply ignored him before glaring at the smiling puppet, His wings twitched a few times. If looks could kill, Cassius would've been ground into a fine dust.

Isle scowled as he felt around in the cloak for the source of its weight, He had quickly found that it was reinforced with red scales he couldn't recognize on the inside.

This was why his surprise attack against Vermilion had failed earlier, He was wondering why it was so strangely difficult to pierce through.

With the cloak on, Isle could theoretically survive the rest of the fight without moving a finger. Of course he wouldn't be able watch idly though.

What type of student would he be if he sat back and watched while Vermilion did all of the work, Plus he knew that Vermilion would 'Train' him later if he missed such a 'Great opportunity for growth' as the brutal dragon probably would've put it.

The fight probably wouldn't last much longer, right? Isle's greatsword vanished from the ground as he manifested another weapon with his quantum, Manifested from his quantum was a cerulean dagger.

'Again?' As per usual he didn't get an answer. If Isle didn't know any better he'd have thought that the mysterious man had hated him, That wouldn't make sense though Caeruleus had given him this blessing of sorts after all.

Isle stood by Vermilion as he put on the hood of the cloak and held the bat with the barrel resting on his shoulder, He glanced over at Vermilion before he heard a gunshot.

Isle jumped back slightly before his cheek was cut open. Vermilion moved his hand to block the bullet, He frowned slightly as he failed to block the bullet.

"Fucking puppet." Vermilion sighed.

A deep cut appeared on Isle's cheek, His cheek was painted a deep crimson. He had jumped back before but it wasn't nearly enough for him to completely dodge the bullet.

Isle held his cheek with his left hand, He winced slightly and glared at the puppet. Of course Cassius wasn't at all afraid of him so he reacted with a smile.

"Did you expect me to sit and listen to your conversation?" Cassius chuckled while holding his face with his hand. His slender, Perfect hand fell back to his side afterwards.

He slowly walked towards the two, While swaying side to side. The loss of mana seemed to be taking ahold of his control on the puppet already. His remaining mana was suddenly condensing in his uncut wing.

Vermilion moved to block Isle with his scaled wings, Something told Vermilion that this was a last ditch attempt to kill him and Isle.

'Hold out your hand towards the puppet.' The ethereal voice of Caeruleus once again appeared only to order Isle then disappear again.

Isle would've tried to say something back if he didn't know how Caeruleus acted. Isle pushed Vermilion out of the way and promptly raised his hand aiming it towards Cassius, Vermilion glanced with widened eyes at Isle for a moment before sensing mana converging towards his students palm.

This mana wasn't from the air though. Vermilion watched as Isle slowly drained mana from the puppet, It's movements moved slower and slower until it eventually came to a complete stop. Vermilion grinned eagerly.

Isle panted as he lowered his hand, He was drenched with sweat. His right arm had partially been repaired presumably as a result of rapid consumption of mana. He was leaning with his hands on his knees.

The realm had returned to its prior state. The chains and darkness that encompassed the vast prison retreated, Sinking through the floor returning to the prisoner.

Vermilion patted Isle's back with no restraint over his strength, Almost knocking him over. Isle clenched his teeth together, He was going to say something he'd likely regret, Until Vermilion spoke.

"Good job! Where'd you learn to do that? Or was it your contract with little bro?"

Vermilion was bombarding his student with questions, While Isle was just trying his hardest to not attack his brutish teacher.

"You dickhead can't you see I'm tired? Fucks sake…"

Isle frowned while still panting, He was rubbing his back while he panted before he realized what Vermilion had said. His eyes widened as he stared at Vermilion, The dragon looked back at him with a childish grin on his face.

"Did you say little brother? As in Caeruleus…?"

His jaw dropped, He'd have never thought that someone as respectful and mature as Caeruleus would be the little brother of such a brute.

Just then, Before Vermilion could respond to Isle the puppet moved, It stretched its limbs as if it had been a sleep for awhile, That wouldn't make much sense though.

"Huh?"

Isle and Vermilion stared at the puppet incredulously. It didn't care to address the current situation, Instead it uttered.

"Grit your teeth."

Before Isle could react, The puppet appeared beside him and punched him in the gut sending him flying back. Vermilion glanced back with a slight frown before he swung his arm towards the puppet, It dodged the swing then grabbed his arm trying to bring him down.

Isle was already back, He pushed mana into his legs and dashed towards the puppet, He slashed at the puppet with his previously manifested dagger.

The puppet dodged Isle then jumped back to avoid Vermilion's knee, If it stood still then it would've been shattered to shards. Vermilion stared at the puppet before inferring it was no longer just a puppet.

It had morphed to be a living being.