“What’s going on?!” Astra shouted as the fissure began to shake.

Dahlia kept her eyes on the dragon and replied, “Relax, just stay still.”

Astra traced Dahlia’s line of sight and focused on the dragon.

What was going on? What is it doing?

A soft glow emerged from the dragon and began to spread throughout the fissure. As the glow surrounded Astra and Dahlia, an aura of warmth and comfort covered them and put Astra at ease.

Dahlia waved her dainty arm in the air and rubbed her fingers together, “Thank you...I will repay you for your loyalty.” Dahlia murmured as she sighed.

Astra felt the mana around him becoming more dense and compact.

“What just happened?” Astra asked.

Dahlia looked to the skies as she began to explain, “One of the descendants of the Supreme Lightning Dragons, The Vreme Dragons. Blessed with the combat prowess of dragons and the elemental attributes of lightning, the Vreme Dragons were also gifted with the ability to distort time and space. However, this ability could only be used by sacrificing their life force. Depending on the amount of space, each hour inside is equivalent to one second outside. However, each second inside equals a decade of their life.”

Astra was baffled. Being able to distort time? How ridiculous is that? It made sense that the price for using this ability was extremely costly.

“How long do we have?” Astra inquired.

Dahlia closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, “I would say at least three days.”

Astra muttered to himself as he did some quick calculations in his head. Three days...Seventy-two hours...Four thousand three hundred twenty minutes…

“The dragon could’ve lived for at least two million more years,” Dahlia said as she saw Astra taking quite a while.

“T-T-Two mi-mi-million?!” Astra stuttered in shock. The dragon was the dragon willing to give up two million years of its life in order to help Dahlia? Who exactly was this girl?

“Focus. We don’t have much time,” Dahlia frowned.

Astra quickly took a couple of breaths and regained his composure, “What’s the plan?”

“Do you remember when you reached for that ball of light in the classroom?” Dahlia asked.

Astra nodded, “I would never forget it. I was possessing a master of enchantment and experienced everything that he did.”

“Good,” said Dahlia. “I will teach you a skill that will help us get out of here.”

“...Am I going to possess you?” Astra asked slowly.

Dahlia glanced at Astra’s pendant, “No, there isn’t enough energy for that. In fact, I don’t think you’ll be able to receive your inherited memories in a long while.”

Astra raised an eyebrow, “My inherited memories?”

A loud crackle came from Dahlia’s palm and a cerulean rod that was a meter long appeared in her hand.

“Enough, you will know more after we get out of here. The skill I will be teaching you is called the Lightning Shura. There are seven steps in completely mastering the Lightning Shura. No one in the clan’s history has ever gotten to the seventh step. Even our progenitor was only at the sixth step.”

Dahlia thrust the rod into the air a couple of times. Even an ordinary person would be able to tell that Dahlia was at a high level of mastery with the rod.

“Since our time is running low, I will beat the skill into you.”

Astra quickly retreated a few steps and looked for his sword.

“No weapons, learn it with your body,” Dahlia quickly thrust the rod at Astra’s abdomen as they were less than a few feet apart.

Astra bent over in pain as he gasped for air.

“The first step of Lightning Shura, Tempest Bolt. The very foundation of Lightning Shura which supports all future steps.” Dahlia swung the rod at Astra’s legs as she continued talking.

As Astra was still bent over, he couldn’t see the rod coming at all and ended up being swept to the ground.

“To use Tempest Bolt, you must have an innate lightning physique which is already covered by your bloodline. By gathering and converting the mana inside your body into the lightning element, you will be able to move as fast as lightning.”

Dahlia continued explaining as she did an overhead swing.

Astra quickly rolled out of the way and pushed himself up with great difficulty.

“Wait! How do I do that? Just teach me normally! Why are you beating me up!?” Astra shouted.

Dahlia smiled as she charged at Astra.

Astra turned around and began to run...but it was too late. Dahlia was already right behind Astra and began pummeling him with a series of thrusts and swings.

“Trust me...you’ll learn faster this way,” A soft laughter came from Dahlia as she continued chasing down Astra.