Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

*Groan* Slowly opening my eyes, Ilios was licking my face with his tail wagging. "Hey Ilios. I hope I didn't make you wait long.."

Looking up, I noticed he had grown a ton. He was now around 14 meters long and looked much more mature.

-He's still so cute though..- Being unable to hold back my urges I ended up rubbing my face into his fur for a bit until I felt more satisfied. -Thank the heavens I'm still alive..-

"Alright I need to figure out the situation now."

First on the chopping block was to see what changed about myself.

-I guess I'll start with the inside..- As soon as I tried to use mana to scan my insides, I realized my reserve had expanded immensely and changed fundamentally. -It'll take some getting used to but I might be able to directly control how much aura I let out now.-

The rest of my insides had completely changed as well. Both my muscles and bones were denser and larger and my entire skeletal structure had been rebuilt on top of that. -It'll be a bit before I can see how that affects my movement though..- I couldn't exactly fly or run around in the vault.

On the outside, I had gone through a complete metamorphosis. My previous, large but young looking dragon form was no longer visible.

I had grown to a whopping 29 meters tall, and looked incomparably more mature and intimidating.

Before, I was sleek and skinny but now I looked more rugged and adult-like with various protrusions and more muscle.

Although significantly more intimidating, I still kept the sense of majesty from before with my matte black scales and purple glow. -I think my scales got even darker..-

Standing up, I realized just how stiff I was and stretched. -Man how long was I asleep..-

Just like with most living beings, dragons naturally have many 'internal clocks' all being far more accurate than humanoids, so dragons are able to tell how long it has been with just instinct even if they were sleeping.

As soon as I tried to think about how long it had been, the answer just popped in my head. "I was out for 8 years?!"

I looked over at Ilios who was still wagging his tail.

"Woof!"

-I.. I left him here alone for 8 years..- "I'M SO SORRYYYYY!!!"

As I coddled him, he just licked my face to try and comfort me.

After nearly 30 minutes of feeling terrible about leaving him alone like that, I finally realized something odd.

-Wait if 8 years have passed in this bubble..- "Have you not eaten anything in that long?!"

I felt completely awful thinking that I starved Ilios, but he looked to be well fed. He wasn't skinny at all.

Besides him not having food for 8 years, neither did I, but I wasn't even hungry currently.

-Is it possible for us to live with just mana?-

I stood there, baffled for a while before I realized I needed to get moving.

-Whatever I'll figure that all out later.. I need to focus..- Looking around, I looked at the bubble still encapsulating us. -How do I get out of this..-

I reached up and tapped the bubble with the tip of my claw.

*Vwoom* As soon as the bubble popped, the room that previously had nearly no mana in it, was immediately filled with my aura, causing a satisfying noise. The noise was nothing new to me as I noticed it when I first fiddled with large scale spells whenever I would move a huge amount of mana quickly.

-Well nothing seems different..- There wasn't even a thin layer of dust on anything meaning it couldn't have been more than a day. -How did I just instinctively make a barrier like that.. it'd be awfully convenient to have control over.-

Taking a moment to walk around, I felt lighter, but I was definitely significantly heavier.

If I stepped down a little too hard I would crack the stone floor now.

After a bit of figuring out how to walk without destroying everything, I figured it would be best if I got the hang of my new humanoid form too.

After changing forms, Ilios shrunk down as well.

My humanoid form was just as it was in the dream. I looked to be around 16 with an extremely toned body, but now that I was out of the dream, I could actually get a good feel for my new muscles and bones.

Sadly, the only thing nearby that I could test my strength with was the greatsword leaned on the wall outside of the treasury.

I quickly went over and picked it up.

-Holy cow..- Not only was I incomparably faster than before, I was also significantly stronger. I could wield the greatsword with one hand and even then, I could only barely feel its weight. -Its almost too light..-

Remaking my 'noble clothing' I decided to go with black and purple instead of white and purple. -If mother yells at me, I'll change it back but I think the black looks cooler.-

Mounting the greatsword on my back, it was time to head up.

"Shall we?" I gave a childish smile towards Ilios as he came trotting up to my side.

We took the lift up and entered the throne room.

Looking around, it felt a little too empty. Not only was there no one around, but even with my aura, now extending well over 100 meters, I couldn't sense anyone's aura.

While scanning the palace I noticed people who were laying on the ground, -So did my dragon sleep cause all of this?-

Although I was super far away, I was able to scan their bodies and noticed that there were no injuries besides some bruises and an emptied reserve.

-Well they should all be alright once they naturally refill their reserves..- I decided to not try and refill them all myself since I didn't want to accidentally give a little too much mana and kill them.

Figuring it was best to just leave them alone, I walked all the way outside of the city, not managing to find a single person awake between the upper district and the palace.

In the lower districts there were still people who had collapsed but far less so. Some had returned to their daily routines already with people working their food stalls or bars.

I felt a little implied to help since I was the cause of the problem, but -it's only mana exhaustion, they'll be fine.-

It was the late afternoon, the sun wasn't too far from the horizon, so it was time I started heading towards The Kingdom of Zan.

Once I got well outside of the city and into a forest, I transformed back to my dragon form.

"I might need your help with this one Ilios.." Although I was far more confident in winning now, I had a small amount of doubt deep within me.

Nonetheless, instead of nervousness, what I felt was excitement.

"Woof!" Climbing onto my head, Ilios let out a confident bark.

"Haha, I'm glad to see you're excited too!" Who wouldn't be excited to test out a new found strength!

With Ilios secured on my head, I spread out my wings. -Oh they're bigger too.-

*VWWOOOSH* With a strong flap of my wings we were launched several hundred meters in the air, the backdraft knocking over several trees.

After seeing that Ilios handled the hard launch without much effort, I gave an excited smile. "To Battle!!!"