Gadorf had met the Master only a few years prior. Unable to assume a human form, the only way he had to acquire new techniques and materials was stealing them.

Even if descending from the bloodline of an Evolved monster granted him the use of true magic on all six elements, the wyvern was still too weak to attack a major noble family or important merchants.

Gadorf had already nearly got killed multiple times after raiding small cities. The Association responded quickly to threats, sending several mages at once to deal with him. Gadorf managed to survive only thanks to his mastery of light magic and arrays.

In over two hundred years of practice, he had reached a level in those fields that very few mages could even start to comprehend. It was exactly because of his stubbornness that the Master had taken interest in him.

Fighting the Master had been a humbling experience for Gadorf. Despite their experience gap, despite them being a fake mage, Gadorf's defeat took less than a minute.

"You're lucky the Association put you on priority C until now." The Master wheezed. The fight had been brief, but exhausting for someone not used to fight like they were. Especially because they wanted to take Gadorf alive.

"Me? A proud dragon, just a C-lister?" Gadorf's rage made the ground tremble, but the array keeping him prisoner didn't even budge.

"A dragon? You?" The Master guffawed.

"Good gods, your ego is bigger than Lady Tyris's a*s! Don't tell me that's the reason this dump you call home is full of gold and pieces of art?"

Gadorf's reply was breathing fire with all the strength he had. The act almost resulted in suicide. The breath of a wyvern, just like those of a dragon, was neither normal fire nor a magical one.

It was a unique effect caused by the mix of their life force with the world energy, no mana was involved. It was a similar effect Balkor had developed for his Valors, allowing them to emit rays of darkness from their eyes, without them being affected by slowness that affected all kinds of darkness magic.

The downside of such powers was that just like a body can damage itself, so that kind of attack based on life force, no matter how little was employed, would harm the user as well as anyone else.

Gadorf's screams of agony only made the Master guffaw until small tears of hilarity streamed from his eyes.

"Conceited and stupid. It's a miracle you managed to survive this far. That's a good piece of news, Lizzie." The Master simply replaced the most consumed magic crystals with new ones. The array was back to full force in a split second, adding despair to the wyvern agony.

"I'm not a lizard!" He roared. "I'm Gadorf, son of Xedros the first wyvern! One day I will evolve into a dragon and feast on all those that belittled me. Be it you or my father, you'll end up the same way! Burned to death by my hand!"

"The good news, Lizzie…" The Master continued after silencing their noisy prisoner.

"...is that I believe that just like me, the gods don't play dice. We were destined to meet. My research can't go any further without a willing subject who allows me to study true magic, just like your pathetic daddy issues fueled quest can only get you killed if you keep acting on your own.

Our interests are aligned. If you stop with your temper tantrums, we can make a deal."

After summoning by their side an Eldritch Abomination to keep in check Gadorf's mood swings, the Master brought him to one of their labs. Gadorf was able to learn about Arthan's Madness and study its blueprints. The insane contraption turned out to be an endless source of inspiration for him.

Together, they developed the Life Draining array for Gadorf and some of the technology the Master needed to fuse together Abominations in a stable form.

"I don't get it." While sealed up in one of the Master's gene-tanks, Gadorf could still talk while daydreaming about how inflict to his partner in crime the slowest and most painful death possible.

"If you are already able to create artificial cores, why didn't you make one for yourself?" Gadorf was a prideful creature, to the point of considering even an equal partnership as a dishonor. He believed to have been born a ruler.

As such, stomping arrogant ants was his birthright and the Master was no exception. By defeating him, by subjecting him to all those humiliating tests, the Master had earned themselves a thousand deaths.

Alas, just like Xedros, the Master was too strong for him, yet. Gadorf could only suck it up and bide his time.

"Because I don't like the middle way. The method we have developed for you may turn you into an Awakened one, but then what? You'll get a little more powerful, live a little bit longer. I find your idea of turning into a dragon is nothing more than wishful thinking.

"You are already a wyvern, the very thought of someone as conceited as you becoming a Guardian is disturbing, to use a euphemism. Instead, if I succeed, I'll become an immortal being with no limit to my strength and none of the weaknesses that plague Abominations.

"Humans have stopped evolving for a long time. Awakening is just a palliative care. I'll bring the dawn of a new golden age for mankind. Imagine a world where a selected few, the truly brilliant and enlightened, can lead the masses without the threat of death, aging, or illness."

Gadorf had listened to that speech countless times. The Master's eyes always shone with a childlike enthusiasm that bordered madness.

"Sure, there will be collateral damages. Some people will be sacrificed for the greater good, but Mogar is full of idiots that do not deserve to live. Small minded cretins incapable of seeing further than their nose."

The rage transpiring from their words made Gadorf suspect that the Master was lonely, unappreciated, or both.

"You don't want to conquer the world?" Gadorf was flabbergasted. The Master was as powerful as short sighted.

'Power is the only requirement to rule over the weak.' He thought.

The Master laughed heartily at those words.

"You really are insane, Lizzie. I'm just tired of seeing good people die while the mediocre thrive. To see true genius go unnoticed or buried under useless paperwork that could be handled by lesser men.

"I only want to show humans their true potential, to cure the ultimate disease: death. I'm sure that despite their name, Abominations are as natural as you and I. They are the next evolutionary step, they just need to be perfected."

After acquiring his black core and practicing his new skills, Gadorf was eager to leave the Master's side. The next time they met, it would have been when he ripped the Master's still beating heart from their chest.

Or so Gadorf thought.

"Where do you think you are going, Lizzie?" The Master refused to call him by his name until the wyvern gave up his pretentious dream of becoming a dragon. Both had proven to be stubborn.