In a random spot across the sprawling black sand desert, a large array placed not too far below ground created a visual distortion. Its effect very simply caused anything from a distance to see through what laid within, but did nothing against other methods of sight. At a close distance, one could even hear a silent buzz from within as well. The array’s only purpose: to avoid attention at a range.

Within this massive visual distortion, another array sat on a black surface formed of black glass. Carefully, channels and runes carved into this glass screen contained a silvery metal to form an array, and Icy sat above this. The array seemed pointless, it glowed from a faint grey light, but nothing actually happened. Icy quietly sat within and repeated the same single spell, all the while, he focused to a delirious degree. Every little change around his soul, tracked.

All around the speck of white, a smooth sphere of mist covered the soul. At a distance, it was impossible to pick out any significant detail, but up close, its true appearance explained the vague appearance.

Rather than a ball, thousands of tiny veins wrapped around each other to form a tight knot. Veins of purples, blues, blackened-yellow, and pure white. All the while, strange gaps proceeded all throughout this knot, gaps formed entirely from an invisible vein mixed in.

Returning to the blackened-yellow veins formed of lightning elements, if one waded through the sea of veins, they might eventually find part of it unfinished. With every repetition of his spell, lightning elements appeared and flowed towards his soul, but also merged with the faint grey emission of the array. These elements did not fly into his soul, but rather stabilised within the knot of veins and slowly moved according to his will.

It gently drifted to the unfinished vein and furthered its growth. Over and over, he repeated this for days now.

Psychic, Space, Mana, Ice, Light, Origin Force, and finally, the blackened-yellow lightning.

The final veins finally filled in the last bits of space, and the first step completed. He barely slept, and tired himself from the endless casting, but on the sixth day of his time here, the knot was finally completed. On its own, no one looked twice at the disgusting construct, but this heavy procedure set up things perfectly for the next. However, that had to wait, since it required objects filled with massive quantities of corresponding elemental power.

With one day to spare, Icy collected the grey array’s metal and replaced it with a simple barrier. Sleep reigned, as he truly hadn’t rested in almost 30 hours by now, every last moment of it spent focused on his soul and forming those endless veins.

…

At the same time, back in the Dragonlands, albeit stuck in an unknown cave deep below the earth, Lostradus’ body released a warm orange flame which coated him much like the invisible flames. However, these flames responded to his commands at all times, not to mention, its lively glow actually caused numerous mosses and mushrooms to sprout constantly within the chamber.

Every bone and hole in his body healed completely without even a single scar, every scale reattached and now contained a slightly whiter lustre as opposed to their dirty grey in the past.

And the hole in his chest completely closed. Heart fully intact, and pumping with boundless energy.

Finally, the flames went out and plunged the room in darkness. But Lostradus just smiled as a larger dragon entered the room once more, the second time since he received this opportunity.

“23 days to control the flames, not bad, but not good. You aren’t a fire-element dragon though…” The shadowed dragon gave up on the contempt in his voice and just sighed unhappily. His voice turned heavy, “Just 7 days left.”

“The two fires are extremely compatible, master. I cannot control the Divinus-wrecking flames with these ones, but I can draw on its power… It’s like the flames can stick together,” Lostradus respectfully gave his analysis, but quietened down when stating a guess. He truly couldn’t understand what allowed the invisible flames filled with destruction to merge with fires which brought such vibrant life.

But his master scoffed, not as an insult but because he too, remembered the days when this matter confused him. Then answered vaguely, “Of course they do. It’s a transparent creation; they all merge with other elements perfectly. What colour is the result?”

Rather than say what he saw, Lostradus ignited the orange flames of life and forcibly drew on some of the transparent fire. As soon as the two touched, he felt the orange flame mutate. Once released, the room plunged into a golden light as though a bundle of divinity lit it brightly.

“Excellent. A power between boundaries. Do not show off this fire easily, and if possible, learn to combine fire spells with the Divinus-wrecking flame… Forgot about that. You’ll be able to do it at will so long as you kill that dragon,” his master revealed a bit of a flustered tone as he got ahead of himself. However, what was meant by ‘power between boundaries’ went completely over Lostradus’ head.

He knew and understood colour theory pretty well, but nothing ever talked about that sort of thing. However, given that his master hadn’t explained it, chances are he wouldn’t receive any meaningful answer.

Instead, the golden wisps vanished, and the orange flames receded into his body once more. Lostradus replied, “Thank you, master. I will continue my training.”

“In a few days, I will provide you methods to overcome his strange breath, but that orb still exceeds my knowledge. Without its true form, I cannot acquire any counter for it,” with some final words, both calm and solemn, his master left him once more through teleportation.

Not even a month ago, he felt as though all hope had been lost. But now, the rate of his growth even astounded him! It was too bad he lacked the time to undergo resurrection, just one resurrection and none of the younger dragons ever stood a chance of catching up.

Orange eyes filled with spite closed once more as he continued on.

* * *

Through the ancient palace’s gates, Icy walked forward towards the front doors directly ahead. Several dragons happened to be here at the same time, but he ignored their eyes. Most looked towards him with high expectations though, a far cry from the scorn and derision he endured for two weeks while outside this stitched realm.

The large palace made use of flat walls with sharp edges for its main body, while some massive domes covered various sections of the massive building. As well as domes, there existed some towers and spires too, their purposes only partially known unless he asked about the history of this place.

Meanwhile, the doors in front were made of black wood which stood out from its stone border composed of a bright yellow like dandelions or buttercups.

Both opened on approach, and opened at a speed relative to his own such that no dragon ever had to slow down and wait. Such an unnecessarily advanced array, and all it did was avoid seconds of downtime as dragons stood outside. He stepped inside the surprisingly well-lit interior even though it lacked any windows or lights formed by arrays.

A floor formed of cream-and-peach-coloured tiles, the former made up an easy majority whilst the latter added detail in the form of small diamond shapes bits placed at regular intervals. As Icy stepped forward, the doors behind closed and revealed three more such black wood doors in three directions.

However, before he approached, a large array activated, and a selection of gold tier beasts appeared. In the form of illusions as well, they all collapsed as his Auric spirit dealt with every last one. The three doors opened, and he picked a direction.

The walls, ceiling, and structural supports all appeared barren in this place. The architecture and designs were simplistic, without a touch of ‘realism’. As though created for pure efficiency instead of an appealing design. When he stepped into an adjacent room, its appearance as bleak and empty as the previous, a new set of illusory monsters appeared for him to destroy. Humans, wolves, spiders, giant bats, eagles, tigers, and so on appeared in each room. Their limited power made it a breeze to pass through, and soon he found a final room with a staircase at the other end.

Within stood a burly minotaur, already enraged and ready for battle. Some metal plate covered its vitals, and it wielded a greatsword at least twice the size of Korridan’s, this weapon so large that it actually compared to the height of his full body. Furthermore, its power finally took a step up, as it sat at the cusp of gold and mithril tiers.

The final challenge of this floor, and what marked the completion of this trial. If he reserved his right to take the stone, it would be handed over by default as soon as it died, but his agreement meant he now had to continue past the second floor, perhaps up to the third.

Things turned for the worst after that too, but few dragons talked about things beyond the third floor as the challenge at its end required one to fight a monster on the cusp of master tier.

“Just a minotaur then. I should be fine with Blood Explosion, or Luminescent Guillotine, or Blue-fire Sol… How many spells did I even learn?” As he flicked through a bookshelf inside his Mind palace, he only now realised that over time he amassed a library of usable spells in the range of a thousand.

At least 100 Adept true spells, almost 400 Intermediate ones, 300 Apprentice, and 150 Beginner. Lastly, 50 Basic tiers in the form of incantations. Not to mention he also measured its damage against similar spells with the help of Mala, testing the boost to his stats with such a method.

More spells than he reasonably knew what to do with. It made him want to throw out a random offensive one for the fun of it.

“Psychic Reversion? That doesn’t really work on the less intelligent ones… Oh! Spatial Bisection!” He rummaged through the hundred available spells until he decided on a very fun one. Icy practised its phrasing for a few minutes and headed in with complete confidence in this battle. Merged with his spirit who barely kept up with this enraged beast at the peak of gold tier.

Spatial Bisection, 197 words compressed down to 102, first teleported the caster and left a tunnel which connected the two points. However, rather than a usual tunnel as leftover by normal teleportation spells, it modified this one to literally half anything within.

The gold tier minotaur charged right into the spatial tunnel and ended the fight easily for him. The two halves of its illusory body collapsed to the ground and disappeared as he won.

An array lit up on the tiled floor in front of the staircase, an exit now that he completed the palace’s basics, but Icy continued up to the second floor, the steps of this palace designed for a bipedal race of large stature. The wide staircase, like one might expect in the entrance of a mansion, parted at the wall to split off in either direction.

Fortunately, the corridors on the second floor counted as this same room, but on either side a separate door existed.

Just before he could open a black door though, something spoke out in a tense, deep voice, “Completion rate from hereon changes ranking.” Its voice lacked intonation or emotion, proof of its static nature as some array created it. But more annoyingly was the fact that it only stated this one fact instead of all the additional rules that came with the higher floors.

Ready for a series of dangerous battles, he merged with the Auric spirit and pushed open the left-hand black doors to another room.

Once the doors closed, the lights were snuffed, and four figures appeared in the darkness. Mithril tier chalgars, a species of giant rats with toxic fangs no worse than some highly venomous snakes. Specifically, dark element ones which blended into the already dark room, their innate abilities even further hid their presence and mana.

Too bad their faint footsteps still reached him. Icy never even activated his Elder eyes by the time all four dropped dead.

Then came the next room. Another battle.

Then another, and one more, endless battles against mithril tiers of countless species. Very occasionally, the room he stepped into created an offensive trap which blocked his way, these were easy to pass through with the pocket watch and spirit in tandem.

After clearing all 54 rooms on the second floor, he finally beat the final challenge on it. This time, a massive serpent glared with a murderous gaze from the moment the two locked eyes, thankfully the array trapped it inside its room. On sight, Icy recognised it as a hydra head, one from an adult hydra at that.

“It’s lost its master tier power… But part of its head is still imbued with great languages. Am I missing something about it?” Both eyes flashed white once more to deeply peer into the serpent’s body once more, but nothing stood out beside the tail which clearly formed as a result of separation.

The illusion very realistically mimicked a real hydra head which a powerful being tore out and preserved. Naturally, the loss of its kinship left a beast forlorn and frightened, which inevitably transformed to rage towards those who caused it.

“This is ridiculous. Additional items are only meant to appear from the third floor… And I'm already meant to kill something like this! Is someone changing the trial?” Icy looped around the 54 rooms in a rush, but returned to the half-open doors a minute later. Only able to stare directly into this hydra head’s room.

He found nothing. And now actually had to kill this monster with power no less than his own... If it were intelligent and well-trained. The difficulty spike caught him off guard, but the trial contained an automatic mechanism to reward dragons caught in this exact situation.

“This head excels in fire as well as the shared poisons across them, I should be fine against either in a direct attack, so just need to dodge as much as possible,” Icy’s spoke his calm analysis, but outwardly revealed some trepidation. The hydra spat out with a globule of purple spittle towards the doorway as though intimidating him, and the purple gunk released a hearty sizzle on contact with the ground, but failed to damage the tiles.

Why was he overthinking this? Kalmiktar absolutely reached the third floor, if he stopped there, it guaranteed the loss of his dragonstone.

And Lostradus… Icy never received an experience prompt even after so many weeks. And by all accounts, no dragon could survive long with half its heart destroyed, regular healing methods only elongated their suffering as well. That unknown dragon saved him, no one across the Dragonlands refuted such a thing. A very powerful enemy which even the elders couldn’t trace pointed their blade towards him. Not to mention the living Lostradus who healed the damage to his heart somehow, Icy now regretted more than ever that he hadn’t asked for a few more months to grow even more.

But he would find a way, just as he always did. No storm threatened him this time too, so Lostradus’ existence clearly lacked sufficient impact to create that sort of fateful effect.

When Icy finally entered the hydra’s chamber with a scornful gaze from an emotional shard of divinity within him, not a single ounce of this resentment transmitted to the oversized, idiot snake in front of him.

“If he somehow grows enough to beat me… I will be forcing you to merge with those flames,” Icy’s voice immediately drew the hydra’s attention, but the mindlessly angry beast could not make heads or tails of such words. Not that he sent them to the thing in front, rather, hidden within his body, a tightly compact shard of divinity pulsated.

It pulsated in disgust, abhorrence, rage, disbelief… But mostly fear. Who in the endlessly vast universe wished for their worst enemy to be glued right beside them?