Chapter 24 - The Past is Fated to Return

“Falven, you need to hide until the Heavens Arena battle, that’s the only way. They’re coming for you, I have seen our demise in my vision!” Her face was wet with tears, her eyes were imploring him to listen.

“I won’t hide, I’m Falven Eye of the Tempest, of the Asura Tower! Let them come, we’ll deal with whoever dares to provoke us”.

“Don’t go! Please, listen to me Falven!” She cried in desperation, frustrating tears kept blurring the back of the departing youth.

“Nooo Suari!” Falven woke up, drenched in sweat. He clenched his fists while sorrow and regret replaced everything else.

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The room was scorching hot, runic patterns were alimenting the fire under the cauldron. All the required ingredients had been provided by the sect and by elder Devil Destroyer, boiling blood mixed to other materials was reviving the bone.

The process lasted for quite some time, but in the end the bone completely absorbed all the medicinal properties. A sudden primordial fear capsized Falven’s mind, immobilising him. He felt like an ancient beast was eying him, the terror he felt was originated by his very bones and blood, his body was naturally submitting.

This crippling sensation soon disappeared “Human brat, let’s make a deal!”.

“Who are you?” “Can’t you say? I’m a fraction of soul left behind by the black dragon Enraerkon, junior brother of the Dragon King Baksaerun!”.

Baksaerun was a name of the legends since before the Heavens Punishment, the ominous Black Dragon King! Its fame was widespread across all the sentient races, the most powerful dragon, he had indeed the power to rule the universe, luckily for the other races that had never been his aim.

True dragons were legendary creatures, the most proud beings of the universe. The rare black dragons were considered the fiercest ones, only the Asura Tower could claim to have hunted them, the weakest at that. Their proud and domineering attitude pushed them to attack the Heavens, in order to be praised as the absolute lords of the universe.

The attack was lead by Baksaerun, but the results were disastrous. There was no reliable description of the fight, it was only known that the attacking dragons disappeared from the world and a curse befall the dragon race, preventing them from breeding true dragons ever again.

Since that event the dragons started to copulate with other races, giving birth to flood dragons and to the Draconics. Flood dragons were born from a true dragon and a beast, their aspect was very similar to true dragons, they were born as non sentient creatures, but they could develop a sentient soul upgrading their bloodline.

Draconics were the breed of true dragons and other sentient races, like humans. The highest ranked true dragons could change their form, looking like humans and mate with them. The humans were among the preferred races to breed Draconics because of their strong breeding ability.

After the catastrophe the highest ranked true dragons who hadn’t joined the assault gave birth to the Draconics and then left for far realms, lead by Enraerkon, or at least this was the content of the legends. The other true dragons spread all over the universe, giving birth to many flood dragons which populated many planets and who were often hunted by the most advanced sects of the sentient races. All this lead to the extinction of true dragons in the world populated by the 9 sentient races.

The Draconics kept some of the habits of their progenitors, living far from the other races and avoiding any contact. Their race was deemed to be the most powerful, sometimes they would start battles against the others for the sake of training their youngsters, but most of the time they continued to have not contact with external sentient beings.

Falven was flabbergasted, he couldn’t imagine this was a bone of the mighty Enraerkon, probably the strongest dragon after Baksaerun.

“Mighty senior, please allow this human junior to hear your wise words”.

Even if he wasn’t the true Enraerkon, but a tiny fraction of his soul, the being before him could make the whole world jolt. Because in the past he had had his body empowered by a black dragon marrow, his bones perceived the superior bloodline and naturally submitted to it, that’s why he was paralysed by the terror before.

“The ingredients you’ve used to revive me are too low quality for my precious bloodline, we have only a few moments. If you make an oath, I’ll help you absorb this bone to upgrade your trash constitution. I’ve never seen a human with pure chi, you’re the first of your kind, so I guess this won’t be a too huge of a waste. You also have traces of black dragon in your body, thus you should be able to digest the bone. Although I hate to waste this precious dragon bone on a human, I’m about to die anyway. You need to promise to take care and if necessary to save with your own life Baksaerun’s draconic daughter. I’ll implant a seal in your mind, if you don’t follow through your promise or try to erase the seal, your mind will explode, decreeing your death. No worry about identifying her, once you’ve absorbed the bone you’ll gain the power to naturally understand who she is. So, do you promise or not?”

Falven was jubilant and confused at the same time “Senior, please pardon this lowly junior, didn’t the Dragon King disappear before the Draconics could be born?”.

“Ignorant human brat, what do you want to know about my brother, the Dragon King? I’ll tell you, differently from his army he didn’t depart for that place, he didn’t fall in the trap lied by the Heavens. The truth and the reasons behind the attack to the Heavens are something you cannot understand, a terrifying doom is nearing. In the end our king decided to not flee and came back to fight. How do you think this bone ended up in human hands? After a hopeless struggle against the incoming doom, I returned to leave my dying bones in human lands, hoping to find an inheritor for my bloodline. So you now know, the doom is getting closer generation after generation, absorb this bone and save the daughter. Now! No more questions, my energies are disappearing, we have no more time, just follow my instructions!”.

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His whole body was aching, he felt as if a mountain had crashed each single muscle and tendon of his. The bone had been absorbed following its own instruction and Falven’s constitution grade had increased to Captain from the Soldier one. Its constitution would slowly upgrade itself while continuously absorbing the blood produced by his revived dragon marrow and the bone micro-particles flowing in it. As long as his cultivation improves and time flows his constitution would be naturally upgraded. Another fairytale event had happened to the youth, something not even the professional daydreamers would hope for.

Falven’s mind was in utter confusion, he had so many questions, what is this nearing doom, what about the Heavens’ trap. Never mind, he just needed to acquire more power, he was too weak to deal with these issues right now.

The youth resumed his cultivation, continuing to increase his pure chi and gathering squeezed chi around the dantian flame.

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From the window it was possible to admire the rock fortress developing on steep sides of the mountain range. Powerful arrays placed on the mountains and on the stone towers made this an impregnable defensive position, symbol of the glory of the Demon race.

Quick steps approached “Sir, news have arrived from the conquest expedition, a draconic citadel has been discovered”.

“Deliver this letter to the Demon King of the 4th Legion. They need to leave their surveillance duty and join the conquest expedition as soon as possible. Tell the expedition to not attack before the 4th Legion arrives. Any news from the Heavens?”.

“No Sir, we haven’t received news from the Sacred Leaders. I have another report for you, General. The Exploring Legion has found the Dark Realms, they have asked for backup forces”.

The general pondered on the issue and finally commanded “Send them the new 9th Legion. Their job is to backup the Exploring Legion and to protect the border. If unknown forces emerge don’t engage if it’s not necessary, the priority is to safely escort the Exploration Legion”.

“Yes Sir, as you command” the Demon bowed his head and swiftly departed, leaving the High General in deep thoughts.