Battle isn’t the time to think—if you have time to think, you are already dead. In training, I taught you to use your body, mind, and spirit to fight—the embodiment of action is how well you trained. Should you die… then train better in your next life. Bahaha! Now march! May our spirits forever haunt this land with our battle cries!

~Lugh, God of Battle and Craft

Nin handed him a meal of cooked fish, and Crow absently ate it. She growled and stomped her foot in anger.

“You big dummy!”

“Huh?” Crow asked, looking up and breaking away from his thoughts.

“Not going to ask where the fish came from?”

“What? Oh… Oh!” He finally stood up and broke from his dark thoughts.

“I don’t know why I picked such a dummy to be my mate. I should just devour you—” Nin stopped when she saw Crow’s face turn white. “Okay, enough of this. Talk to me, and that’s not a request.”

Crow shook his head, not wanting to say anything, but he was on the floor the next moment and lights danced before his head. The entire right side of his face was throbbing, and Nin stood above him with a toothy smile.

“Try to tell me no again. I dare you.” Nin’s serpentine eyes narrowed to slits, and Crow felt he didn’t know this dragon woman at all. “Now talk. What did you see?”

“Y-you hit me,” Crow said while gingerly touching his face.

“And I’ll do it again if you don’t talk.” By this time, Lily was on her shoulder, staring at Crow. Both sets of eyes stared at him accusingly. Lily even made a fist and punched her own hand as if to mimic Nin. Crow grinned, feeling light invading his dark mind.

“How long?”

“Two days,” Nin said softly, seeing how Crow wasn’t resisting her anymore.

Two days in a dark cave, while cowering in his dark thoughts, and he dared question why he felt so morose. Crow’s anger and rage at getting punched dissipated once he realized how foolish he had been. This trial messed with his mind in ways he didn’t fully understand.

It made him question one thing. How much could someone sacrifice for power?

Not even he had an answer for that one. He’d already seen the darker side of humanity and knew people were capable of great cruelty. Observing it hadn’t impacted him as much as what came after. That was his grandfather, grandmother, and mother—it was his bloodline and even his heritage. The Maddox clan taught him that a man’s strength was based on his roots—family. Everything he’d been through shook that foundation, but he realized even the healthiest trees could use pruning.

Nin stepped forward again—

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk,” Crow shouted and backed away. “But… let me eat first. Where did this food come from?”

“The river. Turns out there is a lot of fish. It makes me wonder why the forest had no creatures at all. You should bring the water into your Soulscape and the fish too.”

“Glutton,” Crow laughed, finally feeling his mood break. Realizing the reason she said so much was so she had a constant source of food. The food on his plate was gone in seconds, and it barely filled the cavernous hole that was his stomach. “Is there more?”

“After you tell us everything that happened, I’ll gladly capture a hundred fish for you. So talk.”

And Crow talked—for hours. By the end, they were all hugging and bawling. Nin thought she had suffered by losing her mother, but Crow’s life was a damned tragedy.

Nin felt frustration build up within her and finally swore in her heart that no one was allowed to hurt what belonged to her. She didn’t know at the time that she invoked a Dragon’s Word, which was damn close to creating a law among dragons. Neither of them could have expected the amount of drama such a thing would cause in the future, but unfated lived unpredictable lives.

***

Crow spent a week taking in water and fish, and once he saw a live one, he realized most of the fish were large-mouthed bass. They were pretty easy to maintain but didn’t provide any benefits other than nutrition. Meaning they weren’t beasts, so they didn’t have and mana or cultivation benefits.

His Soulscape was changing once again, but it was slow, unlike when he created this place. Not that he couldn’t carve out an enormous hole to put water, but that his soul world would naturally evolve on its own. Adding water just provided another essence. Now that his Soulscape was more or less stable, it would develop slowly and find its own equilibrium. Actually, he didn’t feel it was an organic evolution, but because of what Crow understood about ecology, life cycles, and mana. His soul drew upon his Mind and subconsciously provided his Soulscape with answers for its own growth.

Lily watched the changes but remained strangely silent. It was because of the initial pool of water Crow created. It was nearly a perfect circle and line with stones so that it looked like a massive well. As a Fae, she was very familiar with Fairy Portals. She was almost sure that he created one but didn’t understand how or why. Overall, it wasn’t dangerous because the Soulscape was a manifestation of his soul. No one could randomly enter without his permission.

Crow didn’t stop there. Since his landmass wasn’t enormous, he put a hole directly through it, so a natural-looking lake formed on the dark half. He created reservoirs underground and increased the pressure in some of them to force the water up and make a natural spring. He built one inside a newly formed mountain, which he could only do because he stole rocks, dirt, and sand from the outer world.

As the spring emerged higher up the slope of the new mountain, it flowed down toward a small canyon Crow put in. Inside the canyon was the main reservoir, so the water ran down until it went over the canyon’s edge.

It wasn’t a particularly noteworthy thing, but he enjoyed seeing the flowing river in his Soulscape. It really felt like a real world. Even so, it took a week because transporting that much water, earth, and stone drained his mana repeatedly. Plus, he brought in ungodly amounts of water, so he never had to worry about dying of thirst.

Then he added in a few shallow ponds that connected to his river. He wanted to create a spawning area for the fish to nest, but he still wasn’t all that confident they would. It wasn’t that they didn’t know how, but that his world still lacked life essence. While lacking, it was no longer void of life essence because Lily and Nin lived there. Living in his world, they shed life mana in exchange for death mana. This was part of the life cycle of all living things until they could contain the shedding of life. At that point, they became true immortals.

The thing Crow found interesting was that his Soulscape could turn life mana into life essence. The exchange rate was very minuscule, and if it hadn’t been his Soulscape, he’d never have noticed. The odd thing about that was that even death mana converted into life essence, but that was where things got tricky too. If there was no death mana, the shedding of life mana was paused until the exchange could happen. Which meant they had to leave his Soulscape, and he’d lose out on the benefits.

This was where he discovered an oddity. Life and death mana were both converted to Life Essence, which meant the essence was the culmination of the life and death cycle. Or maybe what he thought of as Life Essence was really just Primordial Energy—all essences probably were. It was a discovery he’d never have accomplished without his Soulscape, but he still did a few tests to confirm some things.

The girls watched as he took a fish and put it in a puddle of water. Crow contained the surrounding area, so nothing could get in or out unless he willed it. He converted the life mana into essence within the confined space but did not expect the death mana to run rampant. The fish and grass enclosed within shed life mana at an alarming pace until it achieved equilibrium. The grass lost its luster, and the fish looked close to death.

Undoing the contained space, he grabbed another fish and tossed it before sealing it up again. Converting all the death mana into essence had another strange effect. The fish and grass stopped shedding life mana, but it suddenly reminded him of Tír na nÓg. They stopped aging there too, but it wasn’t really stopped. Crow didn’t immediately break the containment because he feared it was too soon.

“What are you doing?” Nin asked.

“Waiting.”

“Dummy, I know that. Why?”

“If I’m right, the moment I release the fish, it’ll shed life mana in greater quantity as well as absorb even more death mana.”

“You think its aging process was paused?”

“Its aging wasn’t paused, but its effects. The moment I release this containment, the fish should catch up to its actual age.”

“All because you withheld death mana?” Nin asked, genuinely curious.

“You got it,” Crow smiled at her and then released broke open the contained area. Using the powers granted him by his Soulscape, he observed the results and found that his hypothesis was correct. The fish shed life mana at an increased pace and took in even more death mana. It wasn’t as noticeable as what death mana did without the presence of life mana, but it was enough to convince him that the fish caught up to its actual age. After it caught up, the mana flow reverted to normal.

“Were you right?” Nin asked. She didn’t have the sensitivity to detect mana at that level. As a young dragon, her powers developed slower than a typical cultivator, but her body was stronger and more durable.

“I am,” Crow nodded. “Which strengthens my thoughts on essences.”

“What does that mean?”

“I believe essences are a stop-gap between mana and Primordial Energy. At first, I thought they might be Primordial Energy, but that essence still had the taint of life and death. However, essence is purer than mana, which explains why the conversion produces so little essence.”

“Oh, you mean like your Soul Burn curse?”

“Yea…” Crow hadn’t really thought about it, but she wasn’t wrong. Was his Source absorbing essence? It would explain why his Soulscape was the way it was. He’d never heard of anyone developing a Soulscape like this unless they were gods. It would also make sense that a Heavenly Flame was at the heart of Soul Burn because anything else wouldn’t have been as effective.

After a week of moving things into his Soulscape, he saw that the grass looked more vibrant. Even the water seemed to have a purity to it. On a whim, he grabbed a few herb seeds and planted them near his well.

“You should grab some of those Fireheart Oak saplings,” Nin told him. “Plant them around the cave for me.”

That… was actually a pretty good idea. So Lily scouted for saplings while he and Nin spent the time digging them out. Crow would have gone for bigger trees, but his Source lacked the power to bring them in. Overall, there weren’t many plants in the forest, so he took what he could. By the time he was done, Crow had almost a dozen new trees, a bunch of random… weeds. And he added enough dirt, rock, and water that his landmass expanded another few centimeters. Even the shape of the land rounded out more toward becoming a sphere.

Done with his preparations, twelve days had passed since they had found the cave. On the thirteenth day, he rested and prepared himself for the trip downriver.

***

“Is that what you want us to float down the river on?” Nin asked—her face twisted as if she swallowed something sour.

The boat was an old, dilapidated piece of junk, and he wasn’t even sure if it’d float. Crow had assumed that since it was part of Tadd’s legacy, or at least included in the items he gave him with the Vortex Pin, it’d have something unique about it.

But no… the most amazing thing about it was that the headless bastard kept this thing for so long. It might be safer building a raft from the Fireheart Oaks. Regardless, they pushed the craft out into the pool of water and found that it didn’t leak at all. Despite its appearance, it moved through the water gracefully.

“Are you sure we should do this?” Nin asked again, and Crow shrugged while paddling.

Before long, they both felt they had a grasp on it and were coordinating well. So the duo turned the boat away from the waterfall and headed downriver. Their antics secretly amused Lily because she knew the river and that things wouldn’t go the way they thought. If she didn’t think it was their best option, she would never have agreed to take the river.

An hour later, the river lost its lazy appearance. The water churned, and froth appeared against large rocks that jutted upward. The boat picked up speed as the current pulled them along faster and faster. And it was only until they approached the big rocks that he wondered if this was a good idea.

Thump! The boat smashed into a rock with a horrifying crunch. Nin, sitting at the front, was launched upward and out into the water. The boat spun, and he lost control of it, especially without Nin’s massive strength.

“Help,” she growled as she clawed her way up to the surface. It wasn’t that deep, but the current was too strong, the rocks too slippery, so she couldn’t keep her footing.

“Huh?” Crow wasn’t sure why she was panicking but tried to angle the boat toward her. However, they kept swirling past each other, as the current didn’t give them a chance to do anything but struggle to hold on.

Nin was beyond freaked out, and Crow leaned out of the boat, putting his own life at risk attempting to grab onto her. The paddles lay forgotten at the bottom of the boat. It was unfathomable to Crow, but Nin honestly looked afraid, and he felt guilty for some reason.

Thump!

The boat once more smashed into a rock, but Crow had a death grip on the crossbar as he was reaching for Nin. Getting knocked around moved the boat sideways, which sent him right at Nin. The moment he could grab onto her, he yanked her into the boat. He fell back onto the paddles and across the crossbar as she came over the side and landed on him. Pain racked his body, but before he could adjust himself, Nin had grabbed onto him. She gripped him so fiercely that he could barely breathe, much less move.

“What is wrong with you?” Crow asked softly, and despite his pain, he stroked her hair and back, trying to calm her down.

“Can’t swim,” she muttered, and he couldn’t only sputter as if it was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. He thought about them playing around in the water before and realized that she could stand up the entire time and never went into the deeper parts. And she had clung to him most of that time. Crow had to admire the amount of courage it took for her to remain calm while agreeing to this downriver journey.

“You foolish girl,” he finally laughed. They were hurtling down the river out of control and smashing into things left and right. Crow already realized he had judged the boat too harshly before. The crunching sounds didn’t come from the boat, but from the rocks it smashed apart.

Weirdly, even the water that came over the sides didn’t settle at the bottom of the boat. Crow did not know what the hell kind of boat this was, but he felt reasonably sure it wouldn’t tip over either.

“How does a dragon not know how to swim?”

“I’m not a water dragon, dumb ass. Did you see any big rivers or lakes in the forest you rescued me from? The only water of that magnitude I came across was at that smelly poison dragon’s place. He lived in a forested swampland, and no self-respecting dragon would swim in a place like that.”

“Fine, but once this is done, I’m teaching you to swim.”

“Thank you. And… thank you for saving me.” Nin spoke so softly, Crow was sure his ears were playing tricks on him. But horror replaced his big smug smile. “What is that sound?” Nin asked.

“Fuck, hold on to me tightly,” Crow told her and grabbed onto the crossbar and tried to wedge his body under the other one. “Lily? How close?” Crow roared to be heard over the pounding water.

She held up her little hand with all five fingers out, then one dropped, followed by another and another.

“Here we go!” Crow muttered to himself and sucked in a massive breath of air.

Arrrrrggghhhhhh! His roar ripped across the sky as they fell over the waterfall. Time seemed to hold still for a moment as Nin’s eyes grew wide with panic and grabbed onto Crow so tightly that he felt his insides getting crushed.

Then time rushed forward, and Crow felt his stomach drop as they plunged downward. The jarring impact dislocated one of his arms, but he didn’t have time to think about it as the boat and the people inside plunged into the deep water below.