When he arrived on top of the mountain with vast winds encircling, the purple-scaled clan lord awaited him. Atop the flat stone peak, she alone sought him out for some urgent matter. Most likely, a personal matter.

While her eyes remained a lustrous red and her claws were akin to black holes, her wings very clearly changed from stary scenes to simple, purple sheaths like any other regular dragon. Because she previously arrived whilst merged with the True Will, he never actually learnt what the Clan Lord’s wing colour was.

On the platform, he just bowed his head slightly and spoke with a hint of formality, “I arrived as soon as possible, Clan Lord. Have there been any recent problems?”

Her head shook a few times listening to his words, a stark difference to his more casual or abrasive tones. Lightly, she replied, “No need for that, I haven’t invited you here with my title. There is an urgent matter, but this is entirely personal. Take your time to consider if you wish to do it or not.”

“Can I at least know what this is about before reaching a decision?”

“My daughter, Adromalet. She requested aid but I lack the reason why.”

“Why am I here then?”

He asked a question comprised of two matters, but the simple-sounding response he received answered them both instantly. Albeit through the revelation of something troublesome.

The Clan Lord, troubled by the matter, replied, “She asked for you by name, and is stuck in the lunar realm.”

“Lunar– Why is she there?” His voice suddenly broke as the words came out too quickly, earning a response. But the Clan Lord’s visibly raised eye, for a fraction of a second, came from surprise on what he focused on. A child not maintaining pitch hardly roused her thoughts.

“That’s where she was born after all,” she replied so nonchalantly that it garnered an ever more astounded response.

“Who places an egg in the lunar realm of all places? No reason she grew up with so much dependency…” It took a few seconds for him to calm down, but it really began a round of internal questioning for the Clan Lord at that response.

Was she being judged as a parent by a six-year-old dragon?

How… quaint. Though not too surprising, many dragons appreciated the familiar relations other species held. Yet those dragons still maintained the old ways to ensure their race’s success. She didn’t put too much energy into these criticisms, in the end, she protected her child the best she could through this relatively underused realm. Just as his parents placed him somewhere safe.

Barely hiding a smile, she focused on the conversation and asked, “Will you go then? Naturally I will return this favour.”

“If you aren’t there to help… Will I not constantly be under the threat of attacks? I escaped last time because a warrior attacked, but a Great Sage just destroys my Soul instantly,” his reply contained some apprehension, but for the most part he almost accepted it on the spot.

A favour from a demigod-level dragon! He’d be stupid to reject such a thing!

“The lunar realm is highly protective of its children. And as you are below cornem, we can extend that protection to you. As for lunar elves, they would never harm their own for such reasons,” she resolved all his worries. And since Akevorax nodded along without any response, her words continued, “Natives are primarily passive since they don’t have to hunt for food. Anything else?”

With enough consideration, he replied, “I’ll go… And I’d imagine having you follow me into the later stages of this war isn’t allowed?” A few ideas for useful favours already sprouted, but he already heard the agreed upon stance taken by the dragons. A leader acting against these plans massively weakened their diplomatic power in the future. And as expected, she shook her head gently, but another idea already escaped his lips, “Can you help me gather as many of these bones from around the world as possible? I don’t know how many exist, but ideally thousands.”

In front of him sat a bone no larger than a human thigh coated in Divinus runes, almost immediately drawing both intrigue and confusion from the Clan Lord. She even opened both eyes wide after just a few seconds of staring.

“You too are searching for this– Of course, your divinity. I cannot directly enter the lunar realm, so whilst you help Adromalet I will gather these.” That confusion snapped to enlightenment, taking a short while to make such a link. Most at the highest rungs of power slowed down their thoughts just to maintain a ‘normal’ conversation with weaker beings.

The negotiations ended almost immediately. His request took up some time but hardly implicated the Dragonlands, a deciding factor for her. Which also meant that it was time to send him off.

“Is there a separate teleporter for movement to far realms then?” He looked around the central mountain’s platform momentarily, pointlessly to be more precise. Every glance with Eye of Truth confirmed long ago that no secret arrays stayed up here.

“Just stay beside me, I’ll move you there,” she said, head tilted to indicate the space beside her.

As a young adult, it was impossible to compare with a fully grown dragon who stood over three times taller than himself, and it was at such close distances where this became apparent. Like a child, he was puny and appeared so delicate.

As he walked, he wracked his thoughts for an answer though. Only asking once beside her, “The lunar realm is about a light-minute away though?”

“Akevorax, a spatial dragon wouldn’t even be qualified to be an elder if this exceeded their normal range,” her words were kind and sweet, but contained that faint passive-aggressiveness which caused most to quiver.

Much like his Fabric Warper bloodline, the fabric of space around him bent freely and completely enveloped him. Under greater and greater pressure it quickly tore and opened to the frighteningly silent world between realms, but immediately a tunnel extended outwards at incredible speeds. This tunnel was not visible, and merely included a distorted, stretched space as its existence.

Still, that was all she needed. Akevorax fell into the tear immediately, travelling away from the main universe towards his target. As he left, the Clan Lord released a short sigh with stressed words, “I hope it all ends well.” The words barely carried through, but he heard and understood her worries.

…

Just two minutes later, he arrived there. The lunar realm.

Not too far above the grassy ground, he appeared and fell faster than usual. The increased gravity meant nothing for a half metre drop though, and he looked around at the world around him. To some degree it was oddly normal.

Fields of grass created plains in several directions, rows of trees branched out into sprawling forests, and a quick flight upwards revealed hills and mountains in the distance. While some rockier, lifeless geography also existed, most of the lunar realm lived in this rather primordial landscape without the touches of civilization. A handful of cities existed, but Akevorax didn’t care to seek them out as the map provided instead pointed out Adret’s true position.

About a thousand kilometres to his south, nothing to gawk at with his upgraded speeds.

However, one would probably care to notice a huge difference between the lunar realm and the main universe. And it was not the strangely gigantic moon hung perpetually in the sky.

The colours of this realm stood out, as everything existed in one of three types.

Grey, green, or more grey. There was just so much grey, it replaced all colour and light except for those hints of green.

And this wasn’t a questionable lime green, or a darker, murkier sort like moss or seaweed. But a pale, minty sort which drew itself towards a spiritual colour instead of the inherent psychic powers of the lunar element. This light minty green showed up around the place and diffused light throughout the grey-ridden world, but still left so much to be desired.

This colouration extended to the plane’s very laws, as it forcibly reduced all colour to greys with the occasional green. The golden brown scales he’d possessed for years changed, as did the ruby eyes and chocolate coated tail.

Furthermore, the nature of this realm pushed away all other dimensions unrelated to silver lunar energies. They appeared as grey and green in this realm, a funny choice as silver matched the landscape well enough.

On the flight southward, as he glanced down to the rare grey beasts who lived in the lunar world, it sparked a question of this plane’s power. The Nexus stated that ‘large planes’ reached the requirement for tier 10, but never gave an explicit definition on that. Did large refer to sub-realms in comparison, or against the main universe itself?

A question cleared that up. Interestingly this actually fit within his Authority level still.

[This is a rather small plane and only tier 9 if the planar will took direct action. The stability does mean that after some hundreds of millions of years it might grow to tier 10]

He wondered what counted as indirect action, but didn’t care enough to ask. Rather, he spent most of his time focused on the lifeforms below who glanced up in curiosity to his passing but showed little fear or aggression in those moments.

Things changed immensely as soon as he crossed a couple hundred kilometres though.

From the woodlands and fields, the environment quickly lost the flavours of life in exchange for wetlands and swamps. The waters worsened and the only life he occasionally saw were elemental creatures formed purely of green lunar energy. Mostly critters as well since the energies in these unlively places fell to a low point.

After just a few hundred more kilometres, the scenery changed once more, but things shifted even more. Lunar energies did in fact grow considerably, leading to an explosion in green light as the elemental lifeforms were no longer limited to small bugs and rats. Some pup-like wolves and sparrows even appeared, all containing a pure innocence as they played with one another but refused to kill or eat their brethren. However, while these creatures who required no food to survive lived happily, in the barren desert, perpetually sub-zero, only such things willingly stayed.

Some magical plants sparsely grew, but many creatures without Crystal Bodies wasted large amounts of nutrients in digestion.

And unlike the swamps, forests, plains, bogs, fields, and wetlands… This freezing cold desert continued on for miles and miles. So far he travelled the full thousand kilometres and still only saw desert for ages to come.

“She placed an egg here? It is safe but…” He didn’t even need to finish that sentence, the landscape only dotted with green spots of light told him every reason for Adret’s development.

Her memories and instincts told her to kill and fight, but this land was almost devoid of such necessity. Perhaps the Clan Lord presumed any dragon child would immediately move outward to seek food in the form of edible beasts, but instead she remained here. It did best explain things, and why of all the places in a planet-sized realm, a dragon of her power came to this decrepit desert filled only with naive lifeforms.

With a sigh, he found his overall attitude towards her a bit harsh. But only a bit.

She willfully made those decisions after spending a few years in the clan, why was it anyone else’s fault that she stagnated and refused to grow? Should an adult be allowed to cling to child-like responsibilities without repercussions?

“So annoying. Just deal with her problem and return, it really shouldn’t take that long,” Akevorax clicked his tongue in furthered dismissal of such thoughts. They were not overwhelming by any degree, but it offered so many solutions and nuances that anyone could realise why philosophy was its own school of thought. Unable to answer, or even obtain such a thing from the Nexus, he descended on the ice cold grey sands as the map given to him clearly indicated this position.

She very clearly sent it from this spot, and so he activated the Eye of Truth to peer through space in every direction.

But as the beam of light touched the sand, penetrating through with ease, an incredulous mental pressure swept over him and strangled the Mind Palace like a wet sponge. From gliding in mid-air, he plummeted to the ground like a rock.

And as he laid on the desert sands, unconscious, his body vanished. Space lightly shook as they stabilised near instantly from the rapid, precise teleportation.

Just like that, no one knew he vanished.