Volume 3, Chapter 13: Three's a Crowd, but Four?

I looked upon the vast expanse of land, upon which I stood in the middle of. As far as my eyes could see, miles upon miles, leagues upon leagues, there was only a darkness covered desert land to the front of me. Behind me, however, the scenery changed into that of brightness, a land of fire. There were multiple volcanoes erupting and their subsequent fire flaring up into the skies, lighting the nearby surroundings. And irregularly dotting the land of fire were huge lakes of liquid fire.

The depths of my mind—a place that led to my soul—was a mess. A fiery land which suddenly cut off into a darkness covered desert land, a darkness which could only be seen due to the intermittent flashes of light from the land of fire.

And I stood in the middle of their borders, where these two lands met and blended together. To my front was a dark figure which looked entirely similar in appearance to me, except he had two glowing red eyes and black, feathery wings. Demon Lord Codrixas; in the integrated memories I have of him, his appearance was entirely different from mine. Here though, in the depths of my mind, he looked entirely similar to me. It was an intriguing prospect which I needed to consider.

I turned around, and immediately saw the Lesser Fire Elemental, a feminine figure made entirely out of orange-red flames. Pun intended, she cut a bright figure, especially her orange eyes which were rounded, but slightly upturned on the ends.

I let out a small sigh. I felt besieged on both ends, and soon I would be besieged by a third side—the Deathwalker, champion to Goddess Linara. He was slowly awakening as the seal on him decayed, becoming undone ever so slightly as time passed by. Without any troubles, the seal would last only a year. With the Deathwalker awakened, I would have three different lands bordering each other and blending together in the depths of my mind.

The depths of my mind was a place I had learned to travel into while learning Ancient dragon magic. This place was called Animus, and was the place to advance Ancient dragon magic. To enter Animus, a dragon would have to meditate for a short while, immersing himself through blood and soul, but since bonding with the Lesser Fire Elemental, I could enter Animus easily by following the bond I had with the elemental. The Lesser Fire Elemental was like a bright beacon lighting up the darkness in my mind.

I looked back and forth as the two figures, who resided in the depths of my mind, glared at each other.

“Foolishness, my other self,” Demon Lord Codrixas said to me while still glaring at the Lesser Fire Elemental. “Foolishness,” he repeated. “Why would you let this Lesser Fire Elemental bind to you.”

The Lesser Fire Elemental, Seraphine—she had finally named herself that after I had given her a list of names—answered for me. Her voice was like a crackle of flames, except there was an odd touch of femininity in it.

“That is because my host does not wish to be sullied by the likes of you,” she said.

I interrupted. “Your choice of word there, Seraphine, makes me sound like a virgin maiden that has been sullied by the demon lord.”

Seraphine turned her fiery head toward me, crackles of the more intensely orange-colored flames which made up her hair, following the motion. “Apologies, my host. Let me rephrase that.” Seraphine started again. “That is because my host does not wish to sully you.”

I didn't bother to correct Seraphine again. She was still learning how to structure her words, at least that was how it seemed to me, though I was unsure of how the mind of a fire elemental worked; rather, I think she had a fiery sense of humor.

We were all speaking in the very first language of the humans, the trade language that most human kingdoms adopted as their official language. Valian, this was the language I was most familiar with, so my mind itself reflected this language when Seraphine or Codrixas spoke. Interestingly enough, the continent was also named Valian by our human ancestors.

The people of Shail Kingdom, my human birthplace, for example, almost mainly spoke in this language. The language stems from the kingdoms in the Southern Region of the human lands since that was where humans initially started out during the Age of Reformation. And if the information in the historical books were correct, the humans then started expanding upward, conquering the wilderness, the monsters, and the unknown in what was known as the Age of Expansion.

I glanced at the Lesser Fire Elemental who had the figure of a shapely maiden with conservative proportions. I suppose one could call the figure beautiful if one found flames to be beautiful. She only looked similar to a human woman in terms of shape. If one ignored the shape, however, the Lesser Fire Elemental was far from human. Her body was made entirely out of fire. There was not one bit of physical human traits.

My observations only made myself more curious about the beings of the Elemental Planes. But as much as I was unsure of what she was exactly, I was, however, quite sure of the effects Seraphine was beginning to have on my emotions and my fire magic.

Demon Lord Codrixas did not bother to retort to Seraphine's words. “Time grows short. Soon, the third entity known as the Deathwalker will join us, my other self. The depths of your mind is already crowded enough with this Lesser Fire Elemental. I do not need another entity awakening.”

A few seconds passed by as Codrixas observed my face, looking for any signs of reactions. “I can see that you will not heed my advice to embrace indifference and abandon all unnecessary emotions.” A dark smile formed on his shadowed face. “No matter, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future for me to take over and obstruct the influences of this Lesser Fire Elemental.”

“What about Desini?” I casually asked, looking for any signs of reactions on the shadowy face of Demon Lord Codrixas.

I found none. There was not one bit of reaction on his face, not even a twitch. There was only his red eyes looking back at my own eyes, which had turned back into a pair of light green eyes due to the bond with Seraphine. But even though I could not find one bit of reaction from Codrixas, I felt as if he was somehow forcing control over himself.

“That name,” Codrixas said in an even tone, “I have long forgotten in my imprisonment.”

Codrixas disappeared, retreating back to the depths of his darkness-covered desert land where the sun did not even shine. It was a cold, barren desert with only darkness for company.

A lie, I thought to myself. It was most likely a lie. Desini was his long-dead lover and the cause of his mindset, at least that was what the memories I had integrated from Demon Lord Codrixas told me. I could remember the scene of her death vividly, her pale, bloody legs protruding from the corner of the Great Wolf's jaw. Fenrir had been a voracious eater, a powerful terror traveling around the world and indiscriminately killing creatures from both the Greater races and the weaker races.

In a way, I felt a strange kinship to Demon Lord Codrixas. We were similar, both barren of any strong emotions, though Codrixas was better off, or should I say worse off, in this regard. The time his soul spent in imprisonment by Navra also did not help this attitude.

“What is this third entity the both of you were speaking of,” Seraphine asked with a small amount of curiosity in her voice. It was a somewhat strange sound, a feminine crackling of flames that translated into the words of the very first language and trade language of the human kingdoms in Valian continent.

From the memories that Demon Lord Codrixas have of this world known as Elandria in the dragon's language, I knew that there were other human kingdoms in other continents of the world. It made me wonder where the very first humans started out from. Perhaps they were just created by some powerful god or perhaps they just came into existence at the very beginning of time.

There were just too many curiosities in the world. Too many secrets.

“The entity we were speaking of is the Deathwalker, champion to the Goddess Linara, who is the patron of the Devourers, a race that has greatly diminished since the Age of Residuum and after the humans continued hunting down the remnants of their descendants. As to what the Deathwalker truly is, even I do not know. Navra likes to keep me in the dark for his amusement, but I suspect that he does not know much about the Deathwalker either.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I will eventually know when the Deathwalker awakens from his sealed slumber.”

“Come to think of it, my host, I do feel as if there is another being residing in the depths of your mind.”

“Oh? What is it that you feel exactly, Seraphine.”

“I can sense a sort of—”

I felt myself no longer paying attention to what Seraphine was saying as I heard Aqua's voice in my mind, and as I felt my outside body shaking.

I nodded a farewell toward Seraphine, retracing the bond I had with her to quickly leave the depths of my mind.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself faced against the afternoon sun at the top of a mountain, and Aqua shaking my right shoulder.

“Verath, Verath! It's been an hour.”

“Thank you for waking me, Aqua.”

“You are very much welcome. I am your caretaker after all,” the small two feet tall Asrai declared.

It had been a month since Navra Bloodseeker had supposedly left for the Nilfloria realm and since I started training with Elder Kronos, along with Kiara and Eden.

The place where we were training was inside a valley surrounded by chains of mountains. It was to the south of the Amphitheater of Dominance. There were, of course, other amphitheaters in the Arkanan territory, but the closest one near Navra's home took a few hours of flying eastward. This eastern Amphitheater of Dominance was the place where I had the Dragon's Duel of Dominance with Eden.

I said toward Aqua, “Let's start heading down to the valley.”

Then out of nowhere, I sensed the formation of magic inside my two hundred feet sphere. Instantly turning around to face the source, I saw a huge whirlwind of snow mixed with sharp blades of ice, a second layer made entirely out of fire, a third layer of blades of earth, and a fourth layer of blades of wind. It was a whirlwind made entirely out of the four common elements, and large enough to swallow one-fourth of an average adult dragon's body, which was usually more than one hundred feet tall.

“Aqua, get behind me!” I shouted, quickly summoning my magic to form a shield of fire and earth all around me. As soon as the shields were up, the whirlwind smashed into them, tearing the shields apart like thin silk.

'Virdust Vict Sangius!'

I said those Ancient dragon words in my mind, immediately feeling the words shape and influence my magic more effectively. Dressed in my Dragon Living Blood Armor, I blocked the whole whirlwind of four elements with barely a scratch afterward. The scratch which could not even be called a scratch was so miniscule that my armor did not even see the need to repair it.

“Are you uninjured,” I calmly said toward Aqua who was behind me.

“I am fine, Verath. Thank you,” she said with a smile, coming out from behind my back.

I looked up at the hovering, black-attired figure who had attacked me. Dressed in a loose black doublet that was not buttoned up, revealing his muscular chest and stomach, and in a dark blue leggings, the figure was of a male dragon in his human form. He had hair that looked as if all the colors had congregated together to form a dark black. His eyes, however, were contrary to the color of his hair—they were half-closed eyes of a bright yellow, and even half-closed, they felt piercing.

“I had thought you would be stronger than this, black dragon, being the brood of our Astlan Dragon king,” the male said lazily with a half-smile on his face. With a sharp, strong jaw and a high-set nose, the face would have been handsome had it not been for his lazy expression and half-closed eyes.

“Who are you?” I asked with indifference, though in truth, I was curious.

Ignoring my question, the male continued speaking. “Ever since Navra Bloodseeker, the Eldest of your Arkanan clan, has been crowned, your name has spread to the other clans. The first black dragon and to top it off, an Eldest who is our current second king is your broodkeeper.”

“Oh. So you are just feeling envious then?” I said, hoping that my provocation would elicit some more information. I pretended to turn around and said toward Aqua, “Let's go. Elder Kronos will be dissatisfied if I am late.”

“Running away?” the male dragon said with a slight disgust in his lazy voice. “I wonder how you even survived your first tribulation with that kind of mindset.”

I ignored his words, forming my wings almost instantly. There was no pain or any discomfort at transforming. It felt natural.

“I am disappointed at this sight, black dragon. I had thought that you would be more powerful than this. To think that you would need your Ancient armor to block my magic.”

Slightly turning my head to look at the flying figure, I casually said, “For a dragon, you sure are dressed up quite fashionably. How intriguing.”

“Ah, this?” he replied while fiddling with his black doublet. “It cannot be helped, for the dragons in my clan are fanatics about clothing.”

“You look stupid in that,” Aqua spoke up while standing atop my right shoulder. “I think Verath would cut a much more striking figure in it.”

His lazy smile instantly changed into the smile of a predator. “It looks like your little aquatic fairy is asking for trouble. I should rip her wings out for such an insult.” His threat was in the dragon language, but Aqua still understood the words, since a dragon's gift for communication naturally translated the words. It was quite a useful gift.

“You can try,” I simply said.

His lazy smile returned, the flying figure said, “Normally, I would have accepted your invitation, but I lost my will upon seeing you defending such a weak creature. No matter though, I only came here to introduce myself and to see for myself who the infamous black dragon was.”

“I suppose you are disappointed then?”

“Yes, you are a disappointment. But I will still see you at the Inter-clan Tournament, black dragon, so try not to disappoint me. I will be one of the final winners, after all, so engrave my name into your heart. I am Izara of the Casmaw clan. And I am one of the few violet dragons in all of our seven major Astlan clans.” Saying that, Izara left without even looking back once, using wind magic as a substitute for his wings.

“There is a beauty in disappointment, you know...” I said in a voice so soft that even Aqua, who was close beside me, could not hear my words, far less for the violet dragon who was already a small speck swallowed up by the clouds.

Izara, huh, I thought to myself.

A violet dragon who could use all four of the common elements, and who belonged to the Casmaw clan, which bordered the middle west of our clan's territory. There was no doubt in my mind that the Inter-clan Tournament of Dominance would indeed be quite interesting.

As for the other five major Astlan dragon clans, they were Scorchgrasp, Jovingrad, Brismar, Tanakh, and Dulanon. From each of the seven major Astlan dragon clans, the five strongest dragons of our generation who could utilize magic would be selected.

Eden, Kiara, and I were just three of the five dragons who would represent the Arkanan clan. The other two dragons were still training with another Elder in the northern parts of the Arkanan territory. I had not met them yet, so I did not even know what they look like, and neither had Elder Kronos deigned to tell me their names or appearances.

“You should have just kicked his ass!” Aqua said, a slight anger in her voice.

“There is no need to show my true power yet, Aqua,” I said with a calm voice, directing my pair of bright, green eyes toward the small aquatic fairy. “That would be the epitome of stupidity, to show your power to a suspected future opponent.”

The reason I had shown Izara my Living Dragon Blood Armor had been so that he would underestimate my ability. And it wasn't as if he could figure out the abilities of Virdus Vict Sangius with just one glance.

In the one month of training I had done, I had greatly improved the effectiveness of my Living Dragon Blood Armor, my fire magic, and my earth magic. My magic could now be used from a distance of 240 feet, and I could sense incoming magic within a 200 feet sphere. I could use fire area magic up to a forty feet radius circle with varying heights depending on how much magic I put in. For earth area magic, I could form up to a twenty feet radius circle.

I could, of course, make the radius larger, but that would have consumed too much magic, so my limit was forty feet for fire magic and twenty feet for earth magic, which I had a lesser elemental affinity with.

I was, however, frustrated. No matter how much I tried, I still could not hide my magic from the normal eyes of creatures who did not have magical capacities or creatures who were far weaker in their control of magic than me. No, I still could not hide my magic like the Elders or Navra.

As for the Ancient dragon magic, I had also improved greatly.

I could now use Aeris, which was the Ancient dragon word to use magic aura to hold yourself in the air, and Volarus, which was flight. So even without wind magic available to me, I could now fly in the air freely by consuming magic. There were other Ancient magic, of course, but those two were the most important if my wings were somehow destroyed in battle.

The Ancient dragon language was a form of lost magic that the dragons used to manipulate magic. Through the Ancient words, we influenced our normal magic, tuning and transforming it into Ancient magic. The words also activated the depths of our soul, which further manipulated the normal magic.

I was a strange exception to this. I did not have a dragon soul, yet I could manipulate and use the Ancient dragon magic. Perhaps it was due to the two souls inside me, or perhaps it was due to this black dragon body, which was borne of Uraza, the Black Serpent of the East, and Navra, the oldest dragon in the world.

Nonetheless, Ancient dragon magic was quite an intriguing topic, which Elder Kronos and Navra had explained to me.

“Let us go back now, Aqua,” I said. “And stop making that pouting face.”

“Fine, fine. But you better get me some tasty fruits in the eastern forests on your next day off,” Aqua finally said after a few more seconds of pouting. “Also, let us go visit my sisters!”

“Yes, yes,” I said with slight indifference, jumping off the top of the somewhat cloud-covered mountain to start my flight. I would be using my wings since using Ancient magic to fly consumed too much magic. I could only continuously fly for around 20 minutes before I would exhaust the amount of magic reserves I could use.

For my black fire, the Flames of Interitum, I could surround my entire body with it while using my Dragon Living Blood Armor for forty five seconds at a continuous and steady pace. The potential of my magic capacity I could use had increased by a nice amount.

Our flight to the valley was not too long. It took less than half an hour of flying at Aqua's speed before we arrived at the valley. The reason it only took that long was because we had been at the top of one of the mountains that surrounded the valley.

'Sounds like that violet dragon needs to be sullied by you, my host,' Seraphine, the Lesser Fire Elemental, commented inside my mind through our bond, midway in our flight.

'You use the word sully far too much. I am beginning to have my doubts about you, Seraphine,' I replied back.

Silence.

For the rest of the way, there was only irregular periods of silence as Aqua frequently strayed off into a variety of different topics.

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When Aqua and I arrived at the valley surrounded by mountains, Kiara and Eden were already waiting there in their human forms. They were dressed in white training robes that did nothing to hide the curves of their bodies; rather, the tight-fitting robes only further served to emphasize their curves, especially Kiara, whose proportions were larger than Eden's. Likewise, I was also wearing a white training robe with two holes in the back for my wings to sprout through.

The reason why the three of us were all wearing white training robes was because Elder Kronos made it a requirement.

His reason? He did not like to see dangling and bouncing parts of dragons in their human forms while training.

Quite amusing, really.

The training robes, by the way, were made by the Driads, the various beast tribes, and other tribes of different races who lived in the forests of the seven Astlan territories. The Driads and the other tribes, in return for protection and the freedom to live inside the dragon's territories, were employed as tailors, healers, and various other occupations for the dragons.

The Driads, being tree-dwellers and specializing in healing and nature magic, were humanoid creatures with slightly elongated proportions and small antlers on their heads. Their limbs were slightly longer than that of humans and were more pronounced, giving the light, green-skinned creatures an unearthly beauty.

“Afternoon, Verath,” Kiara greeted with a cheerful smile on her face.

“Verath,” said Eden in an even toned voice. Ever since Eden had lost the duel against me, she had started calling me Verath, no longer using words like “Jester,” or “Clown.” I suppose if I had to describe her attitude, it was something akin to that of grudging respect.

I greeted both the dragons back.

And as usual, the two dragons only slightly acknowledged Aqua with small nods of their heads.

Standing atop my head, Aqua declared, “You cannot have Verath, for he is mine!” She was most likely sticking her tongue out at the two dragons.

A look of small annoyance flashed across Eden's lightly tanned face while a slightly amused smile formed on Kiara's snow-white face. Both dragons in their humans forms would have been considered peerless beauties, turning the heads of every man.

“Stop making trouble, Aqua,” I said softly to her, lightly swatting at her for standing atop my head without permission. She quickly dodged my incoming right hand, before positioning herself on my left shoulder.

“Elder Kronos is still not here?” I asked in a calm voice which belied the small excitement I was feeling. This afternoon, Elder Kronos was going to show the three of us how to use Aural Weaving.

Aural Weaving was a powerful technique that was similar to how the human mages had worked together to mix their magic. By weaving their magic threads together, the human mages were able to form even stronger magic spells, which allowed them to imprison Eden and Kiara during the war between Shail Kingdom and Falinor Kingdom.

Dragon magic, however, was different from human magic, so Aural Weaving worked differently in humans and dragons. The only common factor for the magic of the various races was that it all stems from the four common elements—earth, fire, water, air—and the lesser known dark magic element.

“No,” Kiara replied. “It seems he will be late today.”

“Hell, what's that old man doing,” Eden complained.

Eden had the facade of a proud green dragon, I had found out. If Elder Kronos did not come today, she would be the most disappointed out of the three of us. Eden, after all, was the most hard-working one out of the three of us. She trained whenever she could in secrecy, away from the eyes of others. No doubt Eden would have been embarrassed had she known that I had seen her secretly training during the middle of the night at a hidden enclave in the nearby mountains.

As if Eden's complaint had been heard, Elder Kronos suddenly appeared in the valley, having teleported.

Wearing a loose, black robe, Elder Kronos had his usual, strict face and unkempt, dark brown hair with an even darker brown and lightly sparse beard, which was quite rare to see on a dragon—facial hair, that is.

“Apologies, I was a bit held up in a meeting with the other Elders.”

“No need to apologize, Elder Kronos,” all of us said in varying sentences, but with the same general meaning behind them.

“Before I show you how to do Aural Weaving, let us all have a practical spar. I wish to see how much the three of you have improved in this one month. Do try your hardest to even make a scratch on me.”

Though his words sounded boastful, Elder Kronos was truly not being arrogant.

It was simply a plain stating of a fact.

Having lived for more than a millennium, to be precise, 1678 years, Elder Kronos was the second oldest dragon in the Arkanan clan, right after Navra, whose age was unknown, but suspected to be a little over 2500 years old. The reality, however, was that Navra was far, far older than a mere two and a half millennium.

“Also, stay in your human forms,” Elder Kronos added. “Begin.”

“Virdus Glacia!” At these Ancient words, a spherical blizzard storm that covered more than twenty five feet instantly surrounded Kiara. When the storm ended, Kiara was equipped in her Dragon Ice Armor which was of a pure, light blue color mixed in with a snowy hue. Affixed on her forehead was a frost covered circlet of pure white, and surrounding her were multiple flying ice shards with just a tinge of a blue hue. The shards hovered around her like small, protective servants.

It was as if a snow-white queen of ice had descended from the skies.

“Virdus Incentia!” Eden shouted almost simultaneously. Upon these Ancient words, a vortex of flames more than twenty five feet appeared, and soon Eden was equipped in her Dragon Fire Armor, which looked as if she was cloaked in metallic, living orange flames. Her hair had also turned into living flames of orange and her hands were intense conflagrations.

It was if a queen of fire had ascended from the very grounds.

Almost immediately after Eden and Kiara had equipped their Dragon Armors, the ground beneath them burst out into fire and froze solid respectively.

The two of them turned their heads almost simultaneously, glaring at me, as if saying “Well, what are you waiting for.” It was almost enough to somewhat scare me. Ice to my right side, and fire to my left side.

I faked a small smile, sighing inwardly. I had been hoping to see the Aural Weaving. “Yes, yes. I am starting,” I said in a placating voice.

“Virdus Vict Sangius!”

My black-colored normal magic transformed into Ancient magic upon these words and my mixed dragon and serpent blood soon crystallized with my magic to form my Dragon Living Blood Armor. I felt my strength, speed, and defenses improve as the blood armor grew outward like a thick, second layer of skin.

“Hmm,” Elder Kronos said in a contemplative voice. “I suppose the time it took for the three of you to form your dragon armor has improved considerably. About two seconds. Not bad, though you still need improvements. It should only take you less than one second, and there should not even be an outburst of magic!”

“Do go easy on us, Elder Kronos,” Kiara said in a light tone.

“Aqua, go watch from a safe distance,” I warned, not bothering to specify at what distance she should watch from. Aqua had seen enough of our fights against Elder Kronos to know what to do.

“Good luck, Verath,” she said, moving toward a ridge of the valley, so that she could view the fight from an elevated position.

I nodded a little toward Eden and Kiara, who returned my gesture with nods of their own. The three of us had been working as a team to fight against Elder Kronos for quite a few times the past month, so we did not even need words to convey simple intentions.

Being the vanguard out of the three of us, I would make first contact with Elder Kronos while Eden and Kiara flanked my left and right respectively. From three different directions with me coming at Elder Kronos from the front, we started charging toward the Elder Arkanan dragon, whose physical might and magic was far greater than ours.

Elder Kronos was, after all, 1678 years old and the second oldest dragon in the Arkanan clan. Not to mention he was also considered one of the top five strongest dragons in the Arkanan clan.

Volume 3 (Chapter 14)