By Order of his Royal Majesty, a competition will be held to decide who will fill the newly created position of the Office of the Royal Artist, whose task is to capture the grandeur of the dragon form of the Emperor.

-31st Royal Decree of Emperor Malvar Aya scratched his chin as he examined the portrait in front of him. Beside him was Garett of the Church of the Dragon, standing tall and proud with his hands clasped behind his back. Garett wore fitting blue coat over his white uniform emblazoned with the sign of the dragon hands grasping an orb. Both of them were invited to have audience with the princess. Earlier, several mages dressed in blue came knocking on the villa rented by the Dolsworth students. Aya initially thought that they had figured out that he was a void mage, then he calmed down when he figured that they would have attacked the place rather than come in through the front door. He was already planning to feed them to Five if it turned out they were trying to capture him. Emelie and Orvin were ecstatic when they told Aya the news that mages from the palace came to fetch him. They made a huge fuss out of it and even made Aya wear formal robes, which they borrowed from another student the same size as Aya. Which was the reason he was now wearing silky white robes with fitting sleeves and a high collar, instead of his usual black. The mages placed Aya in a bubble and flew all the way to the top of Krysperium where the new palace was built. He was surprised when he saw that guy he met in the arena who wore the expensive armor was also there. If he remembered correctly, this was the same person that he was supposed to fight last. Maybe he could fight seriously this time. The princess personally met them outside the palace. She didn’t have a train of servants following her except for one man. Aya did not know what the princess wanted with them. They were just touring the palace so far. Mostly they were just looking at statues and paintings, of which, the palace had a lot of. Personally, he wasn’t big on artistic things so he just nodded every time the princess explained about a piece. The “new” palace was dozens of times grander than his own palace. No surprises there. His palace wasn’t built with grandeur as a goal, nor was it built to house him or to receive diplomatic guests. Aya wondered when the princess would invite them for dinner. Surely, there would be a banquet for them? For how long was this tour going to last? Princes Adelind stood on a raised platform at the foot of the painting as she explained various things about the history of the kingdom. She wore a modest white dress while her blue hair was tied back, looking more like a fair maiden visiting the countryside than the princess of the most powerful empire on Forkspear. A man with an intricately braided hair with a familiar fiery color stood by her side. Aya raised a brow as he examined the man beside the princess. There was something not…right with him. Aya couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he was sure that there was something strange with that man; perhaps, he was using some type of spell. He must be her guard then. Garett was nodding at everything the princess said. He probably already knew what the princess was talking about. It was more to Aya’s benefit that she was talking about Krysperia. She also asked Aya a few questions about Roghinia, which he answered with stuff he put together with his conversations with Bhorg. Aya wasn’t very interested in what happened during the five hundred years that he was asleep. All of this was simply a lull. His goal remains the same, and that was to save humanity. He only bought a moment of respite from their destruction which was supposed to be five hundred years ago. Two things that would probably interest him after he fell in a five-hundred-year sleep was where the Archmagus Clement went, for surely he would still be alive after all this time. The second question was how these people currently ruling Krysperia was able to gain their power. Not that he has anything against them. They ran Krsyperia pretty well in five hundred years, which was very impressive. Kingdoms and empires in the past, although starting strong, would eventually decay through time. But that didn’t happen to Krysperia. So good job to them. Clap clap It wasn’t a remote possibility that there was a Bloodline that allowed one to transform into a dragon, or, an even more plausible explanation, it was all an illusion that they could transform into one. Maybe, the royal family were generations of great illusionist? However, it wouldn’t make sense if that was the reality. The people of this generation might be perfectly happy following a person transforming into a dragon, thinking that said person was descended from him, but that won’t be the case for the people of five hundred years ago. Tribes, kingdoms, states, peoples. One of the reasons they followed him was because of his power, or more specifically where his power came from. They knew what his power was. And they knew where it came from. You couldn’t just place someone who could transform into a dragon on the throne and call it the heir of the First Emperor. But that was five hundred years ago. Aya was almost sure that the true version of whatever happened back then would have been buried by time. The truth wouldn't matter anyway, so he pushed the matter out of his mind, however, a clue presented itself now. A clue was the painting in front of Aya. The painting behind the princess covered the whole wall, easily ten meters in height. Two people were depicted on it, both stood in regal clothes. The man on the painting had a golden crown adorning his blue hair. The crown had an intricately carved dragon on the center with its mouth gaping wide. A large blue gem was held in place on the crown by the dragon’s teeth. The man wore a golden cuirass on top of his robes with red dragon patterns all over. By his side was a sword, his left hand gripping its hilt. Aya didn’t need to be told who the man in the painting was. He has already seen him in the painting in the empty hall at the bottom of the temple, his former palace when he had just woken up. The man’s right hand held the hand of the woman Aya assumed to be his wife. The woman was dressed in robes in the same shade of blue as the hair of the man beside her. She stood high and proud as her brown hair fell in front of her shoulders. It was a pleasant surprise for Aya to see her in the painting. She looked very happy on the painting, making Aya smile as well. One could feel the love between the two people in the painting even though both of them had passed away hundreds of years ago. I never saw her smile before, Aya thought. Azurelise. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Princess Adelind said, noticing where Aya was looking. “Azurelise, the wife of the First Emperor. There’s a certain radiance about here in this painting. I often wonder what kind of person she was…to be the wife of the great First Emperor.” “My princess, I am certain that empress Azurelise was a strong woman who supported the First Emperor in founding our great empire,” Garret said. “Founding an empire that lasted five hundred years during in the aftermath of the war against Blighted Multitude...” The princess sighed. “It’s unfortunate that the records are scarce about her. I hope to know more about her and to be more like her.” “While we know so little about the wife of the First Emperor, it is apparent that her mesmerizing splendor has been passed on to her descendants,” Garett said with a bow to the princess. Aya stopped himself from rolling his eyes. This Garett guy was good. Garett said it in a way that it sounded like he was sincere with his complement and not just trying to suck up to the princess. He has met a few people of the same type as Garett. Princess Adelind smiled. “That’s such a roundabout way of complimenting me,” she said. “I hope that I’m not presumptuous in assuming that you were complimenting me.” “A statement of fact rather than a compliment, princess,” Garett replied. “That’s a compliment even if you word it that way.” The princess walked closer to the gigantic painting that filled the end of the corridor of portraits of past rulers of Krysperia. “But it’s true that the empress consort was very beautiful. I often spend some time comparing her portrait with her descendants, my ancestors, especially the females. It’s amusing that we all look kind of like her after even after several generations.” “Well, she is the princess’ predecessor in the royal Bloodline. And with the great care in preserving the royal Bloodline, it should come as no surprise that her features have been passed down as well.” “That’s what I’ve been mulling over. Passing on the Bloodline normally meant that the physical features of the ancestor is passed down as well. For example, Elverius here and the Fahllyrs all have this shade of red hair. And when I look closely at Elverius, his chin and cheekbones, and his somewhat tall nose are the same as his ancestor Alluverius.” She turned to the man beside her. “Lord Alluveius was the first one to exhibit your Bloodline, is that right?” So the man beside the princess was a relative of Aileen and all those Fahllyrs in his former palace. Five hundred years ago, Alluverius was a considered a “Gifted One,” a human exhibiting superhuman powers with no recorded heritage. When those powers were passed down, then that particular bundle of powers would be recorded as a Bloodline. Some powers remain as “Gifts,” never showing any pattern to inheritance and seemingly cropping up in random humans who have no connection to each other. The Gifts that turned out to be Bloodlines sometimes needed several generations for confirmation, more often than not Bloodlines have peculiar rules, like manifesting in every third born son or something stupidly random like that. Although, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Alluverius’ Bloodline. There seem to be lots of Fahllyrs who carry his Bloodline around in the capital. “Yes, my princess,” Elverius said. “Another example would be the Hastas who inherit their Bloodline have a very distinctively shaped close-set eyes and an aquiline nose,” he added. “They also have darker streaks of hair that do not turn white even if they get old.” Princess Adelind said, “Precisely my point. Those who inherit the Bloodline have the features of their ancestor. For us, it’s the blue hair. We should also have the features of the First Emperor…but we kind of look more like the empress consort. The First Emperor has a wide, strong forehead with a prominent brow ridge. We have, on the other hand, the more slender features of the empress consort. You can see it in the other portraits. I can see it in my dad and the pictures of my grandmother. “In historical records, Emperor Krystfallen was the first one to exhibit our Bloodline. I simply find it…interesting that the facial traits of the empress consort were also passed down.” That’s because she’s the one who actually have the blue hair, Aya thought. “An interesting observation,” Garett said. “What do you think, Roghinian warrior?” the princess said. “Elverius instructed me that your people place more importance on runic tattoos rather than Bloodline, but I suppose that there are some Bloodlines that you prioritize and keep pure throughout generations.” “Of course, there are. The Mol— .” He placed a hand over his mouth then winked sheepishly. “Whoops, I’m not supposed to talk about the Bloodlines we are cultivating. I hope the princess understands.” And Bhorg probably do not want people to know their people have such an important Bloodline. “Such a matter should be a closely guarded secret. Understandable, Roghinian warrior.” The princess walked past him followed by Elverius. “On our part, the Bloodlines of the Five Martial Noble Houses serving Krysperium is no secret at all.” Aya nodded, as if he cared about which Bloodlines which kingdom has. He took one last look at the portrait before following the princess out of the hall of portraits of past rulers. His brows furrowed momentarily as he made sure of the identity of the wife of the “supposed” Emperor Krystfallen. As for the supposed Emperor, he had no idea who he was at all. He was strangely familiar but Aya was sure that he hasn't met him before. Maybe he was the son of one of the warlords that followed Aya? That was very plausible. He was just...so familiar, yet at the same time unfamiliar. But he was sure that the woman was Azurelise. Although he wasn’t good in recalling people he doesn’t meet often, he was sure that he knew her. That she was the same Azurelise that he knew. For one, how many people have natural blue hair? As far as he knew, only her. All of the royal family of Krysperia who carried her Bloodline would naturally inherent the blue hair as well as her prominent facial features. The observations of the princess were closer to the truth than she could ever have imagined. Retaining much of the appearance of their first ancestor who started the Bloodline, it was easy to check which descendant has inherited the Bloodline even if they do not have such flashy inhuman telltales signs like golden eyes or fangs like some Bloodlines have. They went out of the hall of paintings by a different corridor than the one they used to enter. It brought them to another hall also full of paintings. Paintings of dragons. Aya made the connection and correctly deduced that these were the dragon transformation of the past rulers of Krysperia. Which meant that they didn’t have his full power of transforming into different types of creatures, because if they had, then there was no point in painting specific dragons and ascribing them to specific rulers. Nevertheless, they probably have some semblance of his power which made it possible for the kingdoms and city-states that were to make up the future Empire of Krysperia to unite and rally around. The princess said, “Someday I’ll also have the portrait of my dragon transformation added here. But I am yet to have my coming of age ceremony, so I can’t transform yet.” Aya fleetingly frowned. What did she mean by that? He doesn't need some coming of age ceremony to transform since his power was only given to him. "I hope that my transformation would be huge," the princess said wistfully. "Perhaps, it could even be bigger than father's" she said with a giggle. "Whatever it will be, I'm sure it will be a beautiful transformation," Elverius said. The princess smiled at him. Aya scanned the paintings as the princess pointed them out one by one, mentioning an interesting fact or two about each one. These dragons were familiar to him. Some of them weren't even technically dragons, but dragon half-breeds or lesser dragons. These people wouldn't know that, of course. Majority of the dragonkin perished the day they lost the mana node to him. The remnants of the Ghalzan Empire would probably have records of the former denizens of the mana node, but the Blighted Multitude started there, so good luck with getting anything from their ruins. So, based from what he has seen, the rulers of Krysperia can transform into one specific creature, and they can pass on this power. This power also was somewhat akin to his own, an uncomplete version of sorts. Azurelise was the key to all of these. Or more specifically, her Bloodline. Aya had absolutely no idea what her Bloodline was. Then he jerked up from his thoughts. Something suddenly occured to him.

"Is everything alright, Mr. BasketSlayer?" the princess asked.

"My stomach rumbled slighlty," he said sheepishly. "I was just afraid the princess might have heard. This is embarassing." Aya then glanced at Elverius and Garett, as if daring them to say that he was lying, for surely they would have heard it if his stomach did rumble.

“Perhaps it is time to have a meal,” the princess said, “all this talking about history have also left me famished.” “I’ll inform the kitchen to send food up, my princess,” Elverius said. Then he turned to Aya and Garett, “This way to the dining hall.” Aya grinned at the mention of food. What actually made him jerk up was the thought that the princess and all the past rulers of Krysperia were the descendants of Azurelise. Somehow, that made him genuinely happy. He met Azurelise in his first mission as an adventurer. Fresh from the harsh training of his first master who mysteriously disappeared without a trace, Aya resolved to help other people than continue trying to find his master. He came upon a poor village and met a skinny teen, the same age as he was, asking his help to look for a girl that was kidnapped. That was Azurelise. Some bandits were contracted by an organization that studied Bloodlines to gather 'samples', one of which was Azurelise. So Aya was sure that Azurelise had a Bloodline, but he had no contact with her after they saved her. The boy who was with him eventually joined him in fighting the Blighted Multitude and became one of the Dragon's Chosen, but he also wasn't able to maintain contact with Azurelise. On some level, Aya felt that he didn't really complete his mission since he never knew if bandits came for Azurelise again. The painting provided closure, and a sense of fulfillment, a surprising event in his grim mission. He couldn't help but smile when thinking that Azurelise had lots of descendants. It must be the same feeling that Clement experienced when he saw the descendants of his friends who have already passed away and couldn't accompany him anymore in his immortal journey. This plus the food made it a very good day indeed. Trance kept quiet as he followed a couple of blue armored knights. He found the two of them outside the door of Lord Jaguar’s room. They beckoned him and he had been following them since. About twenty minutes? They have been walking for a while, even passing through a few elevators and portals. He wasn’t sure what part of the West System they were. They probably walked so far that they reached the East System. He chuckled at his own joke, making the two knights look at him. He mumbled a quick apology. The knights went inside another elevator. Glass enclosed the elevator. Beyond the glass were rocks, walls of rocks. They were going underground, Trance thought. The elevator sped downwards. “So, where are we going?” Trance said. “Is Lord Jaguar down there?” As expected, the knights did not say anything to him. He turned around just in time to see the rocky walls enclosing them recede and open up into a large cavern. “Wait. What are those?” He squinted his eyes to focus on two large formations in the middle of the cavern. Two large mounds of ice. Or crystals? Really large. Maybe as large as one of those cathedrals in modest cities. The elevator slowed down and then came to a stop. Trance followed the knights to room enclosed in steel connected with a tube to the elevator. Crystals lined the length of the room. The door behind them closed and then the crystals began to glow. “What are these? Seals?” Trance said, raising his arms, examining them as runes flowing from the crystals wrapped around his body. The two knights stood still. They probably have experienced this before. Two more rooms followed, also applying different colored seals on them. The last room placed a bubble on top of them. It was obvious to Trance that whatever was kept inside this place was dangerous. Maybe it was where they kept secret weapons? Or where the government experimented powerful new magic? It would make sense that Lord Jaguar was here. There wer a dozen people working in the cavern. Thick, sleek, white clothes covered their bodies and they had masks on. Magical bubbles also covered them. The bubbles mimicked the shape of their hands when they reached out to do some work. What was even more surprising was the large number of golems working with them, maybe a fifty of those personnel type golems. All of them had their mandate cores on the outside. Even their mana crystals were on the outside of their body. Trance rubbed his face. His skin felt clammy. He knew what was kept here. There was only one reason to keep mandate cores on the outside, and that was to watch out for signs of corruption. But that was decades ago. More modern golems have security features that wouldn’t call for displaying their mandate cores on the outside. And it’s not like you couldn’t perform maintenance on them every now and then. It would mean that their line of work was something that required long exposures to a source of potential corruption. The source of corruption that readily came to his mind was The Blighted Multitude. As they approached the large crystal structures, his worst fears were confirmed. A Death Sprinkler was enclosed by the crystal. The largest Death Sprinkler he has ever seen. It was the same one that destroyed Liftersville. He was sure of it. Although one couldn’t really tell the Blight creatures apart, he felt deep inside his heart that this was the same one. The other crystal structure held another Death Sprinkler. It was probably the one they captured in the last battle. So that answered the question of where they kept it. He clenched his fists as they walked between the two Death Sprinklers. Why did they let them live? Especially the one that destroyed Liftersville? “Because we need it to find the person who controlled it.” Trance stopped and automatically bowed his head, as he was taught by his seniors in the retinue of Lord Jaguar. The knights also stopped and bowed. Sure enough, Lord Jaguar was in front of them, and, knowing her, she was probably there all along. “Interesting that you didn’t protest that I was inside your head,” Lord Jaguar said. She was inside her Devastator Armor, towering above them. “My Lord, I have nothing to hide inside my head,” Trance said firmly. He was still thinking about the victims at Liftersville and that they should be avenged. His anger was simmering. He surprised himself. Instead of fear and repulsion, he felt that this time, if another chance was given to him, he wasn’t going to run away. Lord Jaguar beckoned for two of the people dressed in white. “Wake up Specimen B,” she said to them. There was slight rumble as the crystal containing the smaller Death Sprinkler glowed. Inside, the Death Sprinkler moved and then growled. Lord Jaguar came over to Trance and grasped his body with her huge fists. “Open a hole.” The two knights grasped their swords. A small hole opened at the side of the crystal cage of the awakened Death Sprinkler. “Wait, what are you doing?” Trance said. She didn’t answer, instead dispelling Trance’s protective seals. Lord Jaguar then lobbed Trance into the hole. “Seal the hole,” Lord Jaguar said. “And start the recording.” “Hey, let me out of here!” Trance stood up and banged at the crystal. The Death Sprinkler was roaring behind him. Lord Jaguar suddenly disappeared again. It looked like she was ignoring him. He kept of banging but they wouldn’t let him out. Was it because they thought he was corrupted by the Blight? But he has been with them for a while now. Surely, if he was corrupted, he would have decayed by now. Trance turned around to look at the Death Sprinkler. Strangely, he felt calm. The Death Sprinkler was roaring, swinging its head back and forth, as if looking around even though it doesn’t have eyes. “Move closer to Blight,” Lord Jaguar said in his mind. “Is this some sort of experiment,” Trance said as he nonchalantly walked up to the Death Sprinkler. It suddenly bolted and hammered its fists on the crystal cage. Trance was just an ant near its feet, it wasn’t surprising that it paid him no mind. Lightning brands appeared inside the crystal cage and shocked the Death Sprinkler. Trance rolled on the floor to avoid some of the sparks. He was getting very good at evading and running away from death. All those times running away from the Blight paid off. “I’m still here,” Trance shouted, as he ran back to the edge of the enclosure. “Do I get compensation for getting injured here?” The Death Sprinkler hunched over, the bulbs on its back pulsating, then it let loose the creatures living in the bulbs. Trance screamed and hunched down. His newfound courage was useless against the rain of black spikes. There was no way he could avoid those spikes in such a small space. To his relief, floating orbs appeared above him and generated a shield. The spikes harmlessly bound off. After the Death Sprinkler finished the discharge, the shield on top of Trance disappeared. There was a garden of black spikes around him. Only a tiny circle around him was not covered with spikes. He pressed himself closer to the crystal wall. He knew what was going to happen next. The spikes wiggled as if the wind blew threw a plain of grass. “I think this is the time to let me out,” Trance said. The floor became full of seething Blight snakes, coiling with each other. They still didn’t come for him. “Try reaching out for one,” Lord Jaguar said. “Am I getting paid for this?” Trance asked, his voice nearly shrieking. He gingerly reached out for a snake. The snake then turned to him and pounced. A blinding light flooded the large crystal cage. Trance felt the cold grasp of the hand of the Devastator Armor as Lord Jaguar pulled him out again. “We do have a disability package,” Lord Jaguar said as she put Trance down. A couple of golems rushed over and scanned his body. “No corruption detected,” they chirped and then they backed away. “Hmm, a slight setback in the experiment but we will make do,” Lord Jaguar said. One of the white-clothed personnel handed her an orb. “Trance,” she said, “you will be kept here in this facility for the rest of your life. You will be experimented on and you will be dissected.” Trance bolted up and said, “What!” “Jesting, jesting, young manaforger. But now, you can see why I picked you up from Liftersville?” “Is it something with the Blight?” “Yes, the Blight do not seem to sense you, on some level. It is quite different from my power, whatever my actual power is,” Lord Jaguar said, wagging her finger at Trance. “I surmised that there was something special in you when you were able to survive the night in a town overrun by a Sprinkler’s blightlings. My first hypothesis was that they don’t consider you a target, maybe you’re not living?” “My Lord, then I’m probably dead inside,” Trance said, snorting. “Aren’t we all?” Lord Jaguar said. She gently patted Trance’s head causing him to grimace because of the weight of the hand. “Cheer up, Trance. Do you want to be a hero?” “Does that involve getting killed? Because I seriously don’t want to end up dead,” Trance said. “And I’m not much of a hero material.” “You seem to have gotten better at surviving. And that is what I would require of you.” Trance licked his lips. He didn’t know why but he was feeling giddy. A sense of adventure? Maybe the mention that he had some special trait sparked something inside him. Something that made him aspire for higher goals. “I’m not sure about that hero part, but I will do as my Lord commands,” Trance said kneeling down in front of Lord Jaguar. She laughed, sweet tolling bells fluttering inside Trance’s mind. “Young manaforger, an expedition will be sent out to the Blighted Lands. We have sent several before, but they don’t make it very far.” Seeing the concerned face of Trance, “They don’t make it very far because of the inference of the clouds, not that they didn’t make it far because they died. We don’t send out people to die…Well, some of them did die. An unavoidable risk seeing that they’re travelling in the Blighted Lands.” “And I will be part of this expedition?” “Yes. Actually, I require two things of you. My team will develop something that would amplify your trait, skill, whatever that is. We have to have that analyzed as well. Is that a Gift or a Bloodline? Although that is not a Bloodline, if it is one, that I am familiar with. So, the first thing I would require of you is to cooperate with my team in this cavern to make that item. We need to cover the whole expedition team.” “So, I will still be experimented on?" "Yes, But, we will not cut you up.” Trance shivered, not knowing whether Lord Jaguar was joking or not. “I hope I’m getting paid for that,” he said, laughing weakly. “You will be compensated. And you should view this as a contribution to the Empire. A patriotic duty in this dire times. Yes, dire times, that is why we are rushing the preparation for the expedition to the Blighted Lands. “We have discovered some troubling information after we have examined this Death Sprinkler we captured near Liftersville and comparing it to this Death Sprinkler that we captured outside the walls. Information that needs immediate attention. The expedition will leave as soon as my researchers are able to sufficiently expand the coverage of your power.” “But, but, when I reached out for that blight creature, it attacked me.” “That is indeed a problem. Based from initial findings, it appears to be that your thoughts, if you’re specifically concentrating on a blight creature, and the size of the creature are factors that affect your power. Like when you focused on picking up a specific creature, it noticed you when you got near.” Trance grinned and said, “Heh, I have a power.” “Yes, praises be to Paxmillon that you survived the attack on Liftersville. Nothing short of a full military campaign can hope to penetrate the Blighted Lands. However, with your power, we might have a chance. If we are able to understand your power, then the expedition team can practically roam around the Blighted Lands unmolested." Trance knew better than to ask what the expedition team would do in the Blighted Lands. Even though Lord Jaguar told him that he was important, he was still basically a grunt. And it was better to leave all those planning and experimenting and whatnot to the experts. “How large is this team?” he asked, his voice slightly higher pitched due to excitement. It was such a weird feeling that he was excited at the prospect of being a central piece of such an important operation. “Quite large, a lot of healers, because you will be walking amongst the Blight. Some of my knights will come with you. Golems with engynares. Logistics people. Special types of scryers, because normal ones would just go crazy from the interference of the clouds above the grey desert. Many more. All in all about a hundred people.” “A hundred? That is a lot.” “And you will be responsible for their lives. If your protection wavered in the heart of the Blighted Lands…well, you can imagine what will happen.” Trance gulped. He said, “You won’t be coming with us?” “No,” she replied. “However, another Devastator Knight will come with you. You wouldn’t know about him because he is a roving one, like me, unlike those Devastator Knights who have a permanent post, like the Lord General of this West System.” Lord Jaguar suddenly disappeared. The knights also walked away. “Young manaforger, you will now be in the care of my research team. Your Empire calls upon you to serve.” “I am ready to serve,” Trance replied with a firm voice and a determined face.