Chapter 108 - Three's a Crowd, but Four?

I looked upon the vast expanse of land, upon which I stood in the middle of. As far as my eyes could see, miles upon miles, leagues upon leagues, there was only a darkness covered desert land to the front of me. Behind me, however, the scenery changed into that of brightness, a land of fire. There were multiple volcanoes erupting and their subsequent fire flaring up into the skies, lighting the nearby surroundings. And irregularly dotting the land of fire were huge lakes of liquid fire.

The depths of my mind—a place that led to my soul—was a mess. A fiery land which suddenly cut off into a darkness covered desert land, a darkness which could only be seen due to the intermittent flashes of light from the land of fire.

And I stood in the middle of their borders, where these two lands met and blended together. To my front was a dark figure which looked entirely similar in appearance to me, except he had two glowing red eyes and black, feathery wings. Demon Lord Codrixas; in the integrated memories I have of him, his appearance was entirely different from mine. Here though, in the depths of my mind, he looked entirely similar to me. It was an intriguing prospect which I needed to consider.

I turned around, and immediately saw the Lesser Fire Elemental, a feminine figure made entirely out of orange-red flames. Pun intended, she cut a bright figure, especially her orange eyes which were rounded, but slightly upturned on the ends.

I let out a small sigh. I felt besieged on both ends, and soon I would be besieged by a third side—the Deathwalker, champion to Goddess Linara. He was slowly awakening as the seal on him decayed, becoming undone ever so slightly as time passed by. Without any troubles, the seal would last only a year. With the Deathwalker awakened, I would have three different lands bordering each other and blending together in the depths of my mind.

The depths of my mind was a place I had learned to travel into while learning Ancient dragon magic. This place was called Animus, and was the place to advance Ancient dragon magic. To enter Animus, a dragon would have to meditate for a short while, immersing himself through blood and soul, but since bonding with the Lesser Fire Elemental, I could enter Animus easily by following the bond I had with the elemental. The Lesser Fire Elemental was like a bright beacon lighting up the darkness in my mind.

I looked back and forth as the two figures, who resided in the depths of my mind, glared at each other.

“Foolishness, my other self,” Demon Lord Codrixas said to me while still glaring at the Lesser Fire Elemental. “Foolishness,” he repeated. “Why would you let this Lesser Fire Elemental bind to you.”

The Lesser Fire Elemental, Seraphine—she had finally named herself that after I had given her a list of names—answered for me. Her voice was like a crackle of flames, except there was an odd touch of femininity in it.

“That is because my host does not wish to be sullied by the likes of you,” she said.

I interrupted. “Your choice of word there, Seraphine, makes me sound like a virgin maiden that has been sullied by the demon lord.”

Seraphine turned her fiery head toward me, crackles of the more intensely orange-colored flames which made up her hair, following the motion. “Apologies, my host. Let me rephrase that.” Seraphine started again. “That is because my host does not wish to sully you.”

I didn't bother to correct Seraphine again. She was still learning how to structure her words, at least that was how it seemed to me, though I was unsure of how the mind of a fire elemental worked; rather, I think she had a fiery sense of humor.

We were all speaking in the very first language of the humans, the trade language that most human kingdoms adopted as their official language. Valian, this was the language I was most familiar with, so my mind itself reflected this language when Seraphine or Codrixas spoke. Interestingly enough, the continent was also named Valian by our human ancestors.

The people of Shail Kingdom, my human birthplace, for example, almost mainly spoke in this language. The language stems from the kingdoms in the Southern Region of the human lands since that was where humans initially started out during the Age of Reformation. And if the information in the historical books were correct, the humans then started expanding upward, conquering the wilderness, the monsters, and the unknown in what was known as the Age of Expansion.

I glanced at the Lesser Fire Elemental who had the figure of a shapely maiden with conservative proportions. I suppose one could call the figure beautiful if one found flames to be beautiful. She only looked similar to a human woman in terms of shape. If one ignored the shape, however, the Lesser Fire Elemental was far from human. Her body was made entirely out of fire. There was not one bit of physical human traits.

My observations only made myself more curious about the beings of the Elemental Planes. But as much as I was unsure of what she was exactly, I was, however, quite sure of the effects Seraphine was beginning to have on my emotions and my fire magic.

Demon Lord Codrixas did not bother to retort to Seraphine's words. “Time grows short. Soon, the third entity known as the Deathwalker will join us, my other self. The depths of your mind is already crowded enough with this Lesser Fire Elemental. I do not need another entity awakening.”

A few seconds passed by as Codrixas observed my face, looking for any signs of reactions. “I can see that you will not heed my advice to embrace indifference and abandon all unnecessary emotions.” A dark smile formed on his shadowed face. “No matter, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future for me to take over and obstruct the influences of this Lesser Fire Elemental.”

“What about Desini?” I casually asked, looking for any signs of reactions on the shadowy face of Demon Lord Codrixas.

I found none. There was not one bit of reaction on his face, not even a twitch. There was only his red eyes looking back at my own eyes, which had turned back into a pair of light green eyes due to the bond with Seraphine. But even though I could not find one bit of reaction from Codrixas, I felt as if he was somehow forcing control over himself.

“That name,” Codrixas said in an even tone, “I have long forgotten in my imprisonment.”

Codrixas disappeared, retreating back to the depths of his darkness-covered desert land where the sun did not even shine. It was a cold, barren desert with only darkness for company.

A lie, I thought to myself. It was most likely a lie. Desini was his long-dead lover and the cause of his mindset, at least that was what the memories I had integrated from Demon Lord Codrixas told me. I could remember the scene of her death vividly, her pale, bloody legs protruding from the corner of the Great Wolf's jaw. Fenrir had been a voracious eater, a powerful terror traveling around the world and indiscriminately killing creatures from both the Greater races and the weaker races.

In a way, I felt a strange kinship to Demon Lord Codrixas. We were similar, both barren of any strong emotions, though Codrixas was better off, or should I say worse off, in this regard. The time his soul spent in imprisonment by Navra also did not help this attitude.

“What is this third entity the both of you were speaking of,” Seraphine asked with a small amount of curiosity in her voice. It was a somewhat strange sound, a feminine crackling of flames that translated into the words of the very first language and trade language of the human kingdoms in Valian continent.

From the memories that Demon Lord Codrixas have of this world known as Elandria in the dragon's language, I knew that there were other human kingdoms in other continents of the world. It made me wonder where the very first humans started out from. Perhaps they were just created by some powerful god or perhaps they just came into existence at the very beginning of time.

There were just too many curiosities in the world. Too many secrets.

“The entity we were speaking of is the Deathwalker, champion to the Goddess Linara, who is the patron of the Devourers, a race that has greatly diminished since the Age of Residuum and after the humans continued hunting down the remnants of their descendants. As to what the Deathwalker truly is, even I do not know. Navra likes to keep me in the dark for his amusement, but I suspect that he does not know much about the Deathwalker either.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I will eventually know when the Deathwalker awakens from his sealed slumber.”

“Come to think of it, my host, I do feel as if there is another being residing in the depths of your mind.”

“Oh? What is it that you feel exactly, Seraphine.”

“I can sense a sort of—”

I felt myself no longer paying attention to what Seraphine was saying as I heard Aqua's voice in my mind, and as I felt my outside body shaking.

I nodded a farewell toward Seraphine, retracing the bond I had with her to quickly leave the depths of my mind.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself faced against the afternoon sun at the top of a mountain, and Aqua shaking my right shoulder.

“Verath, Verath! It's been an hour.”

“Thank you for waking me, Aqua.”

“You are very much welcome. I am your caretaker after all,” the small two feet tall Asrai declared.

It had been a month since Navra Bloodseeker had supposedly left for the Nilfloria realm and since I started training with Elder Kronos, along with Kiara and Eden.

The place where we were training was inside a valley surrounded by chains of mountains. It was to the south of the Amphitheater of Dominance. There were, of course, other amphitheaters in the Arkanan territory, but the closest one near Navra's home took a few hours of flying eastward. This eastern Amphitheater of Dominance was the place where I had the Dragon's Duel of Dominance with Eden.

I said toward Aqua, “Let's start heading down to the valley.”

Then out of nowhere, I sensed the formation of magic inside my two hundred feet sphere. Instantly turning around to face the source, I saw a huge whirlwind of snow mixed with sharp blades of ice, a second layer made entirely out of fire, a third layer of blades of earth, and a fourth layer of blades of wind. It was a whirlwind made entirely out of the four common elements, and large enough to swallow one-fourth of an average adult dragon's body, which was usually more than one hundred feet tall.

“Aqua, get behind me!” I shouted, quickly summoning my magic to form a shield of fire and earth all around me. As soon as the shields were up, the whirlwind smashed into them, tearing the shields apart like thin silk.

'Virdust Vict Sangius!'

I said those Ancient dragon words in my mind, immediately feeling the words shape and influence my magic more effectively. Dressed in my Dragon Living Blood Armor, I blocked the whole whirlwind of four elements with barely a scratch afterward. The scratch which could not even be called a scratch was so miniscule that my armor did not even see the need to repair it.

“Are you uninjured,” I calmly said toward Aqua who was behind me.

“I am fine, Verath. Thank you,” she said with a smile, coming out from behind my back.

I looked up at the hovering, black-attired figure who had attacked me. Dressed in a loose black doublet that was not buttoned up, revealing his muscular chest and stomach, and in a dark blue leggings, the figure was of a male dragon in his human form. He had hair that looked as if all the colors had congregated together to form a dark black. His eyes, however, were contrary to the color of his hair—they were half-closed eyes of a bright yellow, and even half-closed, they felt piercing.

“I had thought you would be stronger than this, black dragon, being the brood of our Astlan Dragon king,” the male said lazily with a half-smile on his face. With a sharp, strong jaw and a high-set nose, the face would have been handsome had it not been for his lazy expression and half-closed eyes.

“Who are you?” I asked with indifference, though in truth, I was curious.

Ignoring my question, the male continued speaking. “Ever since Navra Bloodseeker, the Eldest of your Arkanan clan, has been crowned, your name has spread to the other clans. The first black dragon and to top it off, an Eldest who is our current second king is your broodkeeper.”

“Oh. So you are just feeling envious then?” I said, hoping that my provocation would elicit some more information. I pretended to turn around and said toward Aqua, “Let's go. Elder Kronos will be dissatisfied if I am late.”

“Running away?” the male dragon said with a slight disgust in his lazy voice. “I wonder how you even survived your first tribulation with that kind of mindset.”

I ignored his words, forming my wings almost instantly. There was no pain or any discomfort at transforming. It felt natural.

“I am disappointed at this sight, black dragon. I had thought that you would be more powerful than this. To think that you would need your Ancient armor to block my magic.”

Slightly turning my head to look at the flying figure, I casually said, “For a dragon, you sure are dressed up quite fashionably. How intriguing.”

“Ah, this?” he replied while fiddling with his black doublet. “It cannot be helped, for the dragons in my clan are fanatics about clothing.”

“You look stupid in that,” Aqua spoke up while standing atop my right shoulder. “I think Verath would cut a much more striking figure in it.”

His lazy smile instantly changed into the smile of a predator. “It looks like your little aquatic fairy is asking for trouble. I should rip her wings out for such an insult.” His threat was in the dragon language, but Aqua still understood the words, since a dragon's gift for communication naturally translated the words. It was quite a useful gift.

“You can try,” I simply said.