"Sigh! A viper is my Guardian Beast? What kind of joke is life trying to play on me?"

Jon stepped on the viper's neck.

The viper looked up to him and opened its mouth wide revealing its terrible fangs and hissing in anger.

Jon summoned a short blade in his hand then he held it in reverse with the two and pointed it down at the viper.

The viper made its last angry hiss opening its mouth wide and Jon coolly stabbed down with the sword.

The sword stabbed down through the viper's skull and no resistance was shown. The viper's body then dissipated in light particles and disappeared.

"Humph!" Jon snorted as he stood his ground.

{Congratulations! You splendidly passed... I guess I was worried for nothing."

Shadow's voice sounded then Shadow revealed himself.

"Why don't you show me your true face?" Jon asked.

"No, it is still too much for you."

"Who says?"

"I do."

"And you are?"

"... Let's just say you wouldn't come to be if not for me making you what you are." Shadow said in his lazy attitude.

Jon narrowed his eyes yet.

"I thought you are whatever that test is about at first but it seems I am wrong, now that I think about it, the Viper is not one of the Guardian Beasts, the snake is… the fuck is going on?"

Jon felt a bit of a threat from the entity in front of him and started getting in a lousy mood.

"Nah, no need to worry. I've been here from the beginning, it is no threat to you anyway. I was just pressuring you."

"For what reason?"

"Simple, you are the best of both selves, I simply separated them and wanted to observe how will you put yourself back together. You can thank me now…"

"… Thank you?"

"You are welcome." Shadow said with a smile.

Jon wasn't pleased with Shadow's behavior.

First, Shadow has an amount of control over him.

Second, Shadow seemed to have immersed himself in Jon's memories.

Third, Shadow has as much smugness as Jon himself.

And Jon could tell if Shadow is a threat or not.

"What is your motive?" Jon asked directly.

"Simple, if you were to take that Guardian Beast or whatever challenge, the result wouldn't come as you predicted."

"Huh?"

"Since your reincarnation, the young soul wasn't perfectly merged together with the old one, you saw, it looked like a ten years old brat. What we did just a while ago was to boost it to grow normally instead of relying on the older soul so much. I am not saying the older soul is bad, actually, I never thought it would be good with magic and mental power, it is like adding not just knowledge, but power to the Dragonborn's soul and giving it even more potential..."

Shadow kept talking about how he wanted the 'Red Jon' soul, which is the one with the Dragonborn power, to grow. The minds and the souls are connected, so the mind of Red Jon had to be adjusted so it can start to naturally grow faster and become more connected to the mind and soul of the reincarnation.

"… Think of it as a Barbarian game character and a Mage game character. Now we put them together with all their states point combined, and the resulted Barbarian Mage is you. You were at least able to reach some sort of synchronization between the two but now you are perfectly molded together. Amazing, right? Once we gave your minds separate choices, the got back together in their own terms this time."

"Still, what will you gain out of it?"

"… A lot!" Shadow's expressions changed and smiled at Jon.

"We both are the final vectors in this… I trust you will do what is right." Shadow said as he returned back to the void.

"Oh! Almost forgot, if one day you may encounter a problem that you really can't solve. I'll give you a hand out as an apology, come find me by then." Shadow said a disappeared completely

"Tsk! Annoying, why do I have to do what you want?" Jon clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction and started feeling a change of the place around him.

Before he knows it, he was back at the location he was supposed to be at from the beginning.

***

Back to the place I was in before I get dragged by shadow. My hand just touched Nurina's.

The difference about then and now is that; I am back to my normal appearance, no one is around anymore, and the sky changed from the night sky to a burning fire sky. It is still the Alexandria I know though.

Nurina who seemed to have seen the past me and looked baffled. Hilda noticed the changes around the place and looked around.

"Hey, beauties! So both of you are here? Like what I have done with the place?"

I was about to try to comfort them as it seems I got late and Nurina had to come into the Mind Realm after us. I was about to say something but out of nowhere, I was tightly hugged...

… by Hilda.

Looks like I really made them worried!

It's all because of that asshole Shadow, I don't know what he is but there are a lot of possibilities I need to discuss with someone knowledgeable once I get out.

"I am sorry for not believing in you, boy. I am really sorry!"

Hilda wasn't letting go of me any time soon.

Nurina also joined the hug playfully.

It seems some discussion was raised about something but I don't think I have time for that now.

My challenge is here.

*RoAaAaAaR*

Alright alright, I hear you…

I looked up to the sky and there was a something flying around.

Spreading its wings to catch wind, extending its head and neck to pierce through the air, making loud roars in the sky, that's definitely one of them.

"Alright, ladies! There is a flying lizard situation in my Mind Realm right now, mind if I go take care of it?"

""…""

Hilda and Nurina were having trouble speaking after seeing a dragon. Still, they recovered early after remembering that it is only in my head.

"I am going after it!" I said as I started following on foot.

The dragon was high in the sky so it was impossible to catch up with it but that was the point of the trail. Jonrad told me that one needs to either follow, withstand, or fight the Guardian Beast but in the case of having a Dragon, one must not fight it.

That's why I started making sure of its direction and ran according to the layout of the area that I remember. Thank goodness I still knew about the alleyways and the shortcuts. Before I know it, the dragon was flying over the sea.

If someone saw a dragon flying over Alexandria like that then it would turn into a total freaking out season. I kept laughing over the bizarre idea in my head.

Hilda and Nurina followed me smoothly, it seemed that some laws of physics don't apply to them.

The Dragon turned in the sky and flew north then started to land.

I ran as fast as I could and found the dragon landing over the Citadel of Quaitbay…

A dragon... on Quaitbay…

The immersion level is reaching a critical state right now.

The Dragon opened its mouth and jumped and shouted an unheard word. It sounded like the Thu'um but it wasn't. It was just a raw and a powerful mental shock wave.

I could only grit on my teeth and endure the pain.

It was a strong pain as if I was chewing on a piece of glass and a black hole growing in the center of my brain. I felt as if my head was being hit by a large thing.

It was horrible!

Jonrad told me about that part and it was more painful than he described.

After two or three round of withstanding the intimidation of the dragon. It spread its wings and flew up.

'Where is it going?'

It only flew up then suddenly turned down and took a nose dive at me.

Should I still watch it come at me?

I was kinda terrified but I kept saying it can't be true.

It shouldn't be true, right?

Well… no point in asking, it was already too late anyway.

I could only wait to be flattened under the dragon but Jonrad said it will be alright.

Once I could feel it, the scene around me turned white.

***

The next thing I felt was a white space and… nope, there is a clear sky above me… which means…

"I AM FALLING!"

That's all I could tell.

I was having a free fall over the sea.

*RoAaAaAaR*

"A LITTLE HELP HERE, PLEASE!"

It seems that the dragon was also making another nose dive beside me. It was faster than me and got to the sea first then dived into the water.

I had no power to do anything so I readied myself and dived after it.

The scene changed once again.

***

The next thing I saw I was in the water. A bit too deep for someone who just fell in it as I could see no sea surface though...

The dragon was there but it was as if it was made of golden light. It swam in the water is if it is flying in the sky. Strangely, I could do the same.

I kept following it in the water and it moved through a school of fish that dispersed away from the movements. The Dragon started taking turns after turns then it shot upward as if falling in the other direction of the gravity.

I could only harden my heart and follow its pace.

Once I rose up the same way it did, I could see the water surface coming clearly and with a booming sound, I was already out of the sea.

The place I arrived at was a cave-like space with a lot of trees and flowers as if it's a piece of heaven, I was no longer flying.

I walked out of the water and saw the dragon in its light form standing there on a rock not far from me.

I understood that I should follow.

Once I arrived to it, the dragon jumped up and flew to another rock.

I looked at it flying and ran after it.

It flew one more time and headed far into the cave.

It was a bit of a thick greenery around here so I lagged behind a bit, but once I passed the thick greenery, my mouth almost fell off.

In front of me was a valley of light dragons. There were a lot of them.

I looked around and it was a very majestic feeling. I could also see the dragon I was following landing on the other end of the valley.

There was a road between the greenery and it only meant one thing. I kept following between the big number of light dragon until I reached a stairway that was reaching up. There were no other way.

After I took the stairs up. I arrived at a half circular wall and the dragon was standing on top of it. That was a Word Wall, and just like the dragons, it was made of light.

The dragon's aura seemed to not intimidate me anymore, I understood that I have already reached the end. Yet I still could feel something glowing in the middle of the Word Wall.

I approached it and knelt down so that I can reach it.

Once I realized what it is… I was…

"You've got to be kidding me!"

Alas, the dragon didn't reply and all I could feel was the light glowing intensely and my back becoming cold.

I opened the eyes I closed and in front of me… I saw a lot of familiar faces.

Yep, I was back!