Chapter Five

City of Trênt

Dozens of healers rushed to the Manor's courtyard as a wyvern rider landed. Those who haven't spectated the previous battle was shocked on Cai's current state, his whole body seemed to have lost decades of lifespan as wrinkles covered his face, his golden hair was populated by silverish ones, his body mostly sustained all the damage. Aside from the bony skeletal figure of a once lean but muscular man dozens of gashes were no longer bleeding but the flesh covered in bandages. Dozens of wounds that look likes mini-explosions inside the body were the dire ones for they prevented the flow of his spiritual essence and enhanced regenerative capabilities.

The healers started doing their diagnosis without any orders to check Cai's well-being.

"His heart is beating normally but his breathing is very shallow" Ranger said

"He doesn't react to any mental probing. He's in coma." another healer observed.

"Lots of veins popped and blood lost. I can only detect a minimal amount of spiritual essence left in his body" the third healer muttered.

"I'm sorry my Lords but I have to assist my troops, if you could please take care of Lord Founder" Holt said while bowing

"Of course my Lord, go ahead. We all have a job to do" answered Ranger

"Thank you" Holt mattered as he mounted his wyvern once more.

"And Holt, this is no one's fault. Don't go suicidal because of this. The Lord Founder needs you, this city needs you. More than ever" Ranger added.

Holt paused for a couple of seconds then nodded "Thank you Ranger" he muttered as he flew away.

"Now, we make sure the Lord Founder lives with his cultivation intact" Ranger commanded. The group of healers rushed to the healer's bay to avoid Ahria seeing her husband at this state but that plan wasn't for long as they met Ahria with Skye in tow. Her mouth agape as her cheeks were flooded by streams of tears "Cai" she whispered almost silently as he touched her husband's cheeks.

"Father?" Skye looked at the man but cannot see any resemblance with his father.

"Walk with us" Ranger demanded as they proceeded to the healer's bay.

"What's his state?" Ahria asked.

"He's under coma. Lifespan lessened. Punctured lungs lots of blood lost. Veins popped. Cultivation on verge of collapse but he'll be fine. I'll make sure he'll be fine" assured Ranger.

"Thank you" Ahria replied.

"Please stay here. We need to perform the healing immediately. I'll provide more details later" Ranger stated.

Ahria simply nodded trying to clutch her child but found nothing.

"Skye?" she called out to his son but no one answered.

"Guards!" she called out.

Skye was walking in circles, confused on what's happening. But more than that angry. Anger welled inside him. Anger that he never felt before. "Devour" a voice deep inside him whispered. "Devour" the voice repeated. "They didn't protect your father. Devour them!" "Devour them all" "Devour" "Devour" the voice chanted. It made him afraid of himself. He was afraid as the darkness inside him, it confused him beyond belief. He bolted throught the gate manor before any guard could stop him. His instincts told him to run away from people before he goes mad. He was angry but he was still who he is. "Think!" he told himself "Think". "No, no, think!" he said to himself before darkness clouded his judgement.

A pair of armor clattered as it hit the ground. The guards occupying them suddenly vanished with a moments thought leaving their clothe and armor.

"What a pleasant body. Small, but it could contain my essence atleast" Skye talked to himself. He sniffed the air in an exaggerated fashion as dozen of shadows circled around him. "Finally, fresh air after centuries of exile" The shadows soon took human form.

"Skye Vjorn, you are guilty of colluding with the dragons against humanity and you are hereby sentenced to death" a cloaked figured muttered.

"I- I don't u-understand" Skye stuttered mocking his fear.

"You will never understand for you are already dead" another cloaked figure materialized a scythe to cut off his head. But Skye had other plans and it doesn't include losing his head. He easily blocked the scythe using his middle finger as the scythe slowly turned to dust. The cloaked man was shocked by the turn of events that he just stood in his place. Another man decided to attack Skye this time with dozen of wind blades invisible to the naked eye but Skye didn't even need to move as he dodge most of the blades with minimal effort while the few vanished as if they were never even there.

"Retreat" the leader of the group commanded.

As they turned back to their shadowy form, Skye laughed in amusement.

"How curious, you chose to hide in the depths of darkness while battling the Darkness itself. Let me show you how it is truly done"

Skye's shadow begun to expand omnidirectionally. The shadowy figures tried to escape his grasps but failed doing so. After a couple of meters the shadow went back to Skye. The shadowy figures nowhere to be seen.

"Think!" he said to himself only to find himself in a place filled with darkness.

"Where am I?" "where am I?" "where am I?" his voice echoed in the darkness.

"Hello?" "hello?" "hello?" the sound continued.

He tried to explore the infinite darkness. But he found nothing.

"Think " "think" 'think" he chanted.

"Think!" then he remembered.

"I've been here before" he closed his eyes and let himself fall through the darkness.

It took no effort to reach the ocean of water but this time a massive abyss serpentine dragon loomed above the ocean.

"Better than your predecessors , I see" the dragon said with glee.

"Who are you? Where am I?" asked Skye.

"I am you and you are me. We are one, but different. We go with different names. I go by the name of Dejvrah Lord of Time and Space, you go by the name of Skye Lord of Time of Space" Dejvrah answered

"I don't understand" Skye said confused with the word riddles.

"Nobody does, but it is how it is" the dragon answered.

"Where are we then?"

"Your soul and my dimension a part of me is here atleast but your conciousness is here"

"A part of you?" Skye queried

"Yes, if your conciousness is here then who will take control of our body?" the dragon answered.

"What? You seized control of my body!" exclaimed Skye

"Our body" Dejvra corrected.

"No, I don't want to share my body with you" Skye said angrily.

"You clearly chose me, you chose my darkness not light. Do you know why is that?" the dragon asked changing the topic.

"I just chose to go with my instinct... Mother always tells me to think but that time I thought it was the right call. I never thought that i'll release a demon in exile" Skye wondered how he got that information.

"Oh! You can access a part of my memory this early too? Impressive" the dragon smirked " but you see Skye we are no demon"

"People fear what they cannot understand. They thought that darkness was the enemy of light. That evil was the opposite of being good. Chaos to peace. Hate is to love. White is to black. Demons with angels. Funny isn't it? I was never truly in exile I could break that stupid dimension any time I wanted but none of the candidates intrigued me like you do. You were the first one to choose darkness in millenias of my sleep" Dejvrah explained "You see Skye everything works because in balance. Do you think you'll recognize light if there is no darknes? Do you really think anyone could truly be a hundred percent good without even a hint evilness? If I murdered the God of Mercy's son, do you think he'll have mercy on me and just pray for his loss. Hell no! He'll smite me the moment he spots me. You see everything coexist but no one truly understands this. It is simpler to fear whatever they cannot understand than trying to understand and risk being labeled as different" Djevra lectured

Thousands of thoughts lit up Skye's brain in a matter of seconds. He slowly assumed a meditationg pose.

"Truly something special" Djevra grinned "a couple of statements and he jump started in the state of enlightenment".

* * *

The Grand Wilderness

"Fucking stone bitch!" Kieran cursed as smoke puffed through his nose.

"Why can't you just explode you stupid stone"

"You're relying too much on your instinct, you don't simply pour your spiritual essence to the stone and it will magically explode" Jiaolong instructed.

"I know! Im trying!" Kieran said annoyed at his one thousand one hundred fourth attempt.

"Brute force won't work either. Your kind is too hot-headed seems like our grace haven't rubbed to you in all these years"

"Oh yes! Our kind are hot-headed impulsive angry creatures that reverts to their bestial instincts and you guys are calm serene intelligent creatures profound with wisdom" Kieran said as his incinerated the stone with his breath glaring at his mentor. The dragon didn't seemed to be bothered by Kieran's sarcasm.

"You're the first of your kind to admit that" the dragon calmly said "and the first one in centuries to show contempt in front of me not worrying about the consequence" as an unknown force quickly filled the whole room forcing him down Kieran to his knees.

"Let me tell you dear disciple why most of your kind are either in seclusion or dead. Most of you are angry little creatures who think they own the world. No matter how powerful you think you are, there is always someone out there who's gonna be better than you. Your father realized that the hard way. Be better than him in that regard. We dragons are enlightened spiritual beasts. Enlightened, intelligent, we gained that for reason. Use it!" the dragon lectured

Kieran waited for the pressure to ease but it never did. Couple of minutes later he can no longer bear the unknown force.

"Master, please" he said calmly

"What?" the dragon asked in mock anger

"The pressure is killing me" he begged

"Then get back to work and control your essence better or you'll die right here, right now" Kieran's eyes almost popped out of its socket when he heard the statement. "He won't kill me" he assured himself with confidence but the pressure never eased "Oh shit! He's really trying to kill me" He tried to defend himself by projecting his aura outwards but it didn't do anything significant.

"The only way to defend against a rampaging ambient spiritual essence is through a spiritual essence barrier. Gather your essence but this time form a barrier" the dragon spoke.

"But I can't even focus it on one point yet" Kieran retaliated.

"Your problem, not mine" Jiaolong answered. He expected the boy to attack him directly instead the boy became silent as ever. "What do I do?" he thought to himself. He knows the dragon loves riddles, he might have hinted it during the conversation. Intelligence. Enlightenment. Use it! Words the dragon used. Brain. "Fuck, why am I born with great instincts with no intelligence" "Wait, that's it" he thought to himself "He's telling me to use my brain " "That doesn't help much, wait, enlightenment"

"Fuck" he said aloud as he assumed a meditative pose.

State of Enlightenment is when you can be more aware of yourself, your surrounding. The reality. Nobody knows how to unlock this state but most speculations are perceiving and understanding knowledge not common to others therefore being enlightened. Enlightment takes many forms and differ in many aspects like race and personality. A frog who thinks he already seen everything in the world only to realize how big a mistake that was when he finally jumps out of the well is one form of enlightenment. A prideful Eldritch dragon who sets aside his pride for once and earns a massive amount of gains is another. An ancient being who rants about Balance can also be another form of Enlightenment. Precarious but still Enlightenment.

As Kieran's body was in the state of meditation, he started to feel less pressure. He became more aware of his self and his surroundings. He felt that the world was different from before. He looked at himself and smiled cheekily. He thought his flaming red hair was a mess. He also thought that having a bit of light freckles between his button nose and blue draconic eyes was charming to his boyish appearance. Well, he is still a boy afterall. Then he started focusing on what's important. He looked at his spiritual essence flow and it was a mess. A lot of essence leaks out of his body which stunted his further growth at cultivation. The flow was also somewhat inefficient in ways he didn't understand. He tried guiding the flow to a better route and felt massive amount of pain as he tried to change the flow of his spiritual essence but ultimately ignored it. His body was now shaking uncontrollably as the pain sharpens a thousand times. "For a better flow" "for a better flow" he chanted to himself as grit his teeth through the pain. An hour of guiding later he reconnected the path of essence from where it originally came from. The pain vanished and he felt much powerful than before. Immediately he willed his essence to one point and slowly let it flow to a barrier. Jiaolong opened his eyes as he sensed something was different from Kieran's spiritual essence flow. His eyes glowed for second and gasped on what laid before his eyes. The boy guided his own spiritual essence flow, that's the most sophisticated and dangerous essence guiding in Herald. And on himself at that, he knows that it is incredibly painful even an Earth Dragon would pass out if one has not enough pain tolerance or willpower. Wait! It's not the time to be amazed. The seal is broken. Before Jiaolong could seal the boy's fate once more. A massive golden Elder Dragon roared and passed through the cave system to the skies, this time it remained golden. As quick as it came it disappeared.

"Oh shit!" Jiaolong cursed elegantly if thats possible.

* * *

City of Trênt

Skye magically floated on the ocean of water as he meditated in his Enlightenment. Weeks already passed while Dejvrah watched over him."The boy is learning too fast" Dejvrah pondered. It took him mere minutes to realize what he was really capable of doing while in his realm. Sharing the title Lord of Time and Space, he bended the fabrics of Dejvrah's realm and made it to a time dilation chamber. Days here were merely minutes in the real world assuring the boy Dejvrah cannot hurt any more people while he is in control. Minutes later he felt the part of them who was controlling the main body is being forcibly recalled to their realm then he heard a voice "I may be weak, but my Mother told me I am a fast learner" Skye spoke "I learned a bit of your tricks from your memory, I don't know how yet but i'll assure I will be back. We are one after all. Right?" the boy smiled as Dejvra felt chills in his draconic body. Never had he thought that an eleven year old would scare him, the Mighty Devourer, the Lord of Time and Space.

"Yes, of course" Dejvra answered as the boy's conciousness vanished.

"Where the hell did that child acquire those knowledge?" he pondered to himself "No need to rush, we got all the time in the world. For now, we watch our new brother"

Hundreds of men remain to power the final defensive ward as a dozen more meteorites was approaching. One more meteorite later, the golden dome collapsed leaving a hundred men undefended as a meteorite approach their direction. The city hall was crushed to bits as if there was no defensive ward to power it. Buildings exploded to smithereens while flames burn whatever was left. It was hell and there was nowhere to run, not that they have the energy left to do so.

"We had a good run" the dwarf exclaimed as he chugged the remaining ale.

"That we did" an elf answered "took us a decade to agree to something"

"A huge ass meteor helped too" the dwarf chuckled.

"That it did" the elf smirked. All of the knights closed their eyes as they wait for the impending doom. Except that it didn't came as quickly as they thought it would.

An explosion was heard later.

Skye was shocked at the number of corpses, no, clothes and armor around him. Dozens of their House Guard ended dying for naught. He blamed himself, he blamed the Devourer but most of all he blamed his weakness. "I'll be stronger this moment forward" he thought to himself as he heard a glass like material shatter above him. The barrier was gone. Ten if not a dozen meteorite came for the city. Flames and explosion here and there but amidst all an aegis was raised to defend a group of knight from a meteorite. He recognized the knight, it was Lord Grey.

He wanted to help but he had no capability to do so. He had knowledge on spatial magic to banish the meteorite but he doesn't have enough spiritual essence for it. "Think!" he said to himself once more and delve deeper to his soul.

Once more he was on top of an ocean of water. Dejvra loomed above it like he always did.

"Back so soon huh?" Dejvra teased

"I have a proposal for you" Skye said in the most business like tone he could muster.

"Mother please help me! I don't know what to do anymore" Ahria begged in her room. An ethereal tome hovered in the room. "Hush my child" an other-worldly voice spoke "when you decided to descend in the mortal realm, you know suffering is bound to happen"

"Mother it is not time for your lectures, please" she begged

"No need to worry my child, he will be back soon enough"

"Who?" Ahria asked

"Both of the men in your life"

"Thank you, Mother" Ahria muttered trying to smile under the circumstances. It has been so long since she talked with her mother.

"You should contact me more in the future my child" the Goddess requested

"You know how risky it is Mother. I do not want you to suffer any more grievances"

"I know my child" the Goddess griefed "I just think it's my responsibility to ask"

"I am but a mere servant of the Goddess"

"Hmmph. You're my daughter when you need favor a servant when you don't"

"You know what I mean, Mother" Ahria responded

"I know servant" the Goddess mocked

"I thank you for the counsel Goddess of Wisdom" Ahria holding back a tear in her eyes.

"I thank you for your loyalty" Ashiera the Goddess of Wisdom replied as the tome gently closed.

"I've been crying a lot these days aren't I?" Ahria thought to herself.

Holt was mantaining the aegis as if his life depended on it because it actually is.

Every second his chances of defending against it goes lower and lower.

"Lord Commander, leave us" the dwarf commanded.

"No!" we discussed this before

"I can take this, just watch" Holt said

"You're only fooling yourself, you know that" the dwarf added

"Just shut up" Holt shouted

Before the dwarf could rebut a boy enveloped by darkness appeared inside the aegis. His eyes was the void while his hair was the abyss. With a flick of his hand the meteorite vanished like it was an illusion played in everybody's mind. Then he flicked his hand once more as spatial rift opened devouring the remaining meteorites. And just like the meteorite the boy vanished without a trace.