“Five, trash this room,” Aya said.

“Five hears and obeys, master,” the corrupted being said in its disconcerting cacophony of voices as it turned into a whirlwind of tentacles, overturning tables, smashing medical instruments.

“Leave those green containers to me. I want to smash some things too.”

Aya drew two seals on the air, one with each hand. All of his fingers were moving at the same time, bending in weird angles to draw the complicated runes that made up the seals with inhuman speed. His hands were a blur, with tendrils of violet light spinning off of them spin the magic he was creating. It has been literally ages since he drew seals this complex. Do people even make seals this way anymore?

In a few seconds, he was finished. Two seals, each about a meter across, floated in the air.

He opened his palm and pressed them on the seals, then he knelt down and pushed down the seals on the ground. They disappeared right through the floor.

“That should buy us some time.” The friends of the guy in armor he just knocked out loitering around the hospital might not have noticed the faint void magic he used to snap back his past, relatively healthy self to his present seriously messed up body but they would have sensed their friend getting knocked out.

Aya wanted to leave the city already. If he engaged them in a fight, he would win, especially because the curse was already removed, but more and more of them were going to come, and the powerful people currently outside the city for the ceremony of the princess would also rush back. And the defenses of the city would be used against him. There was no way to win this.

And he had other things to do than be defeated on the city he founded.

The magic circles he made were decoys, high-level ones at that, void seals masquerading as running people meant to attract the attention of the royal knights. The seals would split into more and more seals as they spread out away from them, scattering across the city, triggering all sorts of alarms.

Quite harmless except that when someone got close to them, a disabling charm would activate, momentarily incapacitating anyone nearby. It really depended on the capabilities of the person going to be hit by the spell, but even if they were able to easily dispel them, they were certainly an annoyance. The knights would realize that they were decoys. But what could they do? Just leave those things running around the city?

“Five, you have to get back inside my body,” Aya said as he opened his mouth by stretching it with his hands.

A lump of incomprehensible tangle of black tentacles jumped into his wide-open mouth.

He didn’t know how the knights would react nor what the city guards were going to do but they would certainly go for the void energies roaming around their city. Time. He needed time to finish up his business in the city. However, he sensed that one of the knights was going up to their location.

Green water flooded the room as Aya smashed the vats containing regenerative fluid. He then transformed his body into his favorite beast to use for escaping sticky situations- a slimy creature that looked like an eel with dozens of legs that can be retracted at will. A rabacan; a creature whose blood he drunk when he was still testing out his powers in the beginning after receiving them. The beastmaster of the Dragon's Chosen recommended it to him.

It proved itself useful, allowing him to escape many dangers in the past. A special trait it has was that its skin mimicked the flow of mana and structure of elemental essences around it making it hard to look for unless you were specifically looking for it. Not only could Aya transform into beasts several times larger than him but he could also transform into smaller beasts, something that most people didn't even consider when going up against him. His only restriction was the size of the objects inside his stomach; the orb and the necklace from his master.

He jumped down one of the drainage tubes of one of the vats. With the room destroyed, the knight wouldn’t know that he specifically smashed one vat to use its pipes to escape.

Well, they should enjoy chasing after void energies running all over the city right now.

Slithering, he navigated the piping system of the hospital. Sometimes he felt fluid energizing him, probably healing liquid, and sometimes he passed something he’d rather not think about. The weird mouth of the rabacan made a clicking side making it ‘see’ even though it didn’t. With every click, it was able to sense the world around it, even what was on the other side of the tubes and the walls.

A room with only one person. Perfect. Aya swam his way up a tube and opened the rabacan’s mouth filled with sharp serrated teeth. He chomped his way through the metal cover of the tube. Once he was through, the fluids of the vat he exited in started to drain down the tube. He extended his legs to climb out of the pipe. Then he transformed back into human form and smashed the glass of the vat.

There was a man inside the room cleaning it. He didn’t notice Aya in rabacan form bursting into a vat behind him but he did notice the sound of breaking glass. He turned his head as Aya grabbed his face.

The man fell unconscious. He caught the man so that he wouldn't fall to the floor.

“Need some new clothes,” Aya muttered as he undressed the unconscious man, leaving him in his undergarments. Aya turned his head to get a good look at his face. Should he copy the man’s face or make something random? He had plenty of blood left from the shapeshifting creature that one of the Dragon’s Chosen captured for him for stealth purposes; that was towards the start of the war with the Blighted Multitude, which was why he rarely got to use the skill and had plenty of its blood left. Obviously, trying to disguise himself as one of the Blight wouldn't work since people have different perception of them and no one knew what they actually looked like.

I wouldn’t have to do this if Garett didn’t make everything go boom. Aya sighed. He really didn’t expect that Garett was capable of doing that. He was forced to transform into a dragon to survive it. It was a good thing that the curse has completely unraveled by that time. Aya already felt it weakening before that, which was the reason why he was able to slowly transform more and more body parts, especially during his fight with one of the Baccarat twins.

With his dragon blood stores running low, he used a portion of each, mixing them all together, and out came that dragon that took on the explosion of Garett. He made sure that he left some blood of all the kinds of dragon he had inside him, as was his promise to the dragons. Aya was wary of the exploding mana because he saw a stronger variation of that being used by one of the Dragon’s Chosen. He had to go all out and to mitigate the damage to him.

Aya wasn’t sure what the people saw in that arena. The emperor surely saw it; but what exactly did he see? Did he see someone transform into an actual dragon, a power only they supposedly wield? An impostor who mimicked their powers? A powerful illusionist? An over the top beaststone transformation? A summoned titanic elemental spirit? The audience certainly had plenty of assumptions as to what happened in the arena, but what concerned Aya was the perception of the emperor.

This Roghinian might be a threat. That might have crossed the mind of the emperor. Or it might have been something else. But the emperor did care about Aya’s transformation, as expected, which was probably the reason why the knights were sent to watch him.

"Look's like losing was the right decision," Aya said as he put on the clothes of the man cleaning the room.

Aya’s only way out was to get injured enough to get rushed to the hospital, away from the event. Once he was in the hospital, Aya was sure that he could figure out some way to escape. They wouldn’t bring an army to escort a severely injured man on the brink of death, now would they? The knights sent to accompany him were powerful. But they didn't know what he was capable of. Countless enemies have fallen because they let him touch them. A punch obviously needed to be avoided, but a touch? Baccarat might have a rough idea of how his power worked during their fight. But it was Garett who realized that Orvin fell unconscious because Aya touched him at the end of the fight, not that Orvin ran out of mana on his own.

The guy who guarded his 'injured' body didn't know about it. But he had a helmet on, a potential source of delay, which was why he ordered Five to remove it.

Aya poked his now transformed head outside the door. He decided to copy the face of the man to go with the cleaner’s clothes. Those who work in the hospital might find it weird that someone who didn't look familiar was wearing employee clothes. He looked back inside the room. The unconscious body was hidden inside a closet but the vat was obviously broken and might cause some concern to anyone who entered the room.

As Aya closed the door, he heated the doorknob and the lock, slightly melting them. Then he walked down the hall like he knew the place. Fortunately, no one greeted him as he tried to find the exit.

“I made sure those seals were full of void magic,” Aya said under his breath. “Surely, the city guards also detected them. And the knights are also chasing them, and me. I don’t think they forgot about me.” He rubbed his stomach. The orb was another concern with the curse having been dispelled, but Aya had already prepared for this eventuality.

From the time the curse was weakening, Aya began making small magic seals to diminish the energy given off by the orb. He would apply them on the orb, one by one, building them up over time, making the orb more and more invisible to the senses of a mage. His patchwork spell worked because even Garett didn't sense the orb. Or the explosions his stupid mana caused was interfering with everything.

As Aya left the hospital, he headed for the villa of the Dolsworth students. Orvin was waiting for him there with his stuff. Earlier, he has already decided that whether he won or lost during the tournament, he would leave now because there was work to be done elsewhere. He hoped that the decoy seals he made were enough to draw away the knights from going to the villa. Those mages who picked him up for a dinner with the princess knew his address, it was prudent to assume that there was a chance that the knights also knew about it.

He broke into a jog.

"I still need to get my basket there too," he said with a grin. "All this misfortune befell me because my basket wasn't by my side."

Princess Adelind stepped out of the portal and into a tent. She looked back through the blue gate laced with crackling lightning and accented with snowflakes of sparkling light. The principal of Milla Lyceum, an old man with long braided grey beard and a playful twinkle in his eyes, could be seen on the other side along with her the royal knights escorting her. She waved at the principal, who gave her a bow.

The portal slowly started to collapse on itself and fizzled into nothingness. It was the ancient long-range targeted portal Milla Lyceum kept, a relic from before the war with the Blighted Multitude. No one could use teleportation spells to get in or out of the city. The barriers would prevent that.

Gates connected to other cities, which were technically portals, could operate in the ‘outer city’, or the new city, the expanded part of the city. But no portals could be targeted inside the original area of Kryperium nor could portals be opened from within the area connecting to outside of it.

The only exception to that was the ancient portal of Milla Lyceum. She used it to hurry to the place where the event was to be held.

A shadow loomed over her.

She turned and said with a smile, “Elverius.” She hugged him but then let go because there were royal knights around them. The knights stood at attention, giving no hint that they noticed anything wrong or weird. “Is everything fine here?”

“Some dangerous circumstances that arose after the final match forced a little change of location. But we are prepared for it. The last of the audience boxes have just been put in place.”

“Oh my, I hope the contestants were fine.”

“Our healers are attending to them.”

“So, who won then?” Adelind said. Was it going to be Garett Berklaw this year again? She had high hopes for the Roghinian, but she should root for someone from her country.

“Berklaw,” Elverius said. “Although there were some problems…he seemed to be in a stupor. But you shouldn’t bother yourself with it. You have an important task in front of you.”

Adelind put on a determined face and nodded firmly.

“Are you ready, my princess? Do you require some rest first before proceeding?” Elverius spoke in her mind. He knew of the preparations needed for one of the royal bloodline to transform, seeing as he was from the Fahllyr family who has served the throne for generations. “I can tell them to wait until your highness is ready.”

“It was exhausting, both mentally and physically, but I am very much ready.”

“We have healers if you’re feeling unwell,” Elverius said “Shall they administer to you before you set out?”

“I am fine. Andaera made me drink too many potions,” Princess Adelind said. She made a face. “I can’t believe how many kinds of medicine I drunk today.”

She walked out of the tent. Trumpets announced her presence. There were even fireworks in the air. Shouldn’t they wait for the end for the fireworks? It must be her father. Seven royal knights were her honor guard.

Their leader, identified by a red sash, whispered to her. “My princess, we will be ready with a silk robe when you transform back.”

She nodded while blushing a little. The people should be able to see her transform into a dragon and transform back to a human. When she transformed into a dragon, her clothes would be torn apart, thus, she was going to be naked when going back to human form. She couldn’t just fly into a tent and hide there to return to her human body. The full process of transformation should be witnessed by the people.

There were boxes floating high above her. The people were leaning from the sides to look at her. She transformed her eyes into the eyes of the dragon to see better. Some of the people were even using binoculars.

She scanned the boxes and found Elverius’ little sister, who was probably older than her. She should get to know her.

Her eyes then fell on the royal box. She met her father’s gaze. Her father had a disapproving look on his face. It was probably because she already transformed a part of her, even if it was just her eyes. She smiled sheepishly and mouthed a ‘sorry’ before changing her eyes back.

The voice of the emperor echoed through the mountain.

“My daughter, Princess Adelind Melusine. Witness her, a descendant of the First Emperor, Krystfallen.”

Adelind took a deep breath and began her transformation. She wanted to rush it so that the people wouldn’t see much as her dress ripped. She crouched down. Her plan was to transform her wings first so that they can cover her partially.

There was no more pain. Only discomfort from the sensation of her internal organs and bones rearranging themselves and growing. She felt the thin bones holding up the wings erupt from her shoulders, dragging and stretching her skin along. Feathers grew from her skin. First, they were just ugly buds, then they grew and spread out into a beautiful covering of white and red.

Only her hands and legs weren’t sprouting feathers. A thick layer of black scale covered them. Her fingers extended, her nails sharpened into deadly claws.

Her body grew to five times her original size. Quite a small dragon, relatively compared to her ancestors. But she loved her transformation. It was sleek and slim and beautiful.

She lowered her wings to cover her body. Even though she was going to have a body of a dragon, she was technically naked. A stupid concern, but she couldn’t get it out of her head. She waited until all of her feathers finished growing. A thick puff of feathers covered where her breasts were. I think I should fly now.

While she had practiced the transformation a few times before she came to the mountain, just to avoid some embarrassments, she still hasn’t tried flying.

A flap of her wings sent her into the hair. She screamed, but it turned into a roar. Everyone broke into applause and cheers. She could also hear her father cheering in a manner not befitting an emperor. Apparently, he forgot to turn off the spell that amplified his voice, or he just didn’t want to turn it off.

Don’t forget to flap your wings. Don’t you dare forget to flap your wings, she ordered herself. Her father told her before that her body would know what to do. A human brain wouldn’t know how to fly so she had to let her body do it with instinct.

She flew higher and higher into the sky. She tried twirling, looping, diving low and speeding around the boxes. Her confidence grew as she graced the skies with her presence. The people in the boxes waved at her as she passed. She weaved through them, roaring once again. Her sharp dragon eyes could see people getting hysterical in cheering.

A slight sound of squealing made her turn back to the ground. The Nemir hogs have been released.

According to legends, the First Emperor hunted Nemir hogs in the mountains to sustain him during his fight with the dragons living where the city now stood. Other stories say it the First Emperor attacked some dragons while they were hunting Nemir hogs, catching them off guard.

The true story concerning Nemir hogs may have been lost to history, but the tradition of burning it during the coming of age ceremony of those of the royal bloodline has been kept through generations.

I’m sorry, Nemir hogs. I promise that I will share you with everyone.

She opened her mouth and used her mana, or rather the dragon’s mana, to generate flames. Her chest felt warm as her beaststone provided energy. A stream of blue and purples flames poured from her mouth. She felt a pang in her chest as the hogs squealed in pain and tried to get away.

Tune it out. This is just like roasting pigs.