Chapter 114 - Farewell (3)

From my meditation inside the deeper parts of Animus, where not even Demon Lord Codrixas or Seraphine could enter, I opened my eyes to the strange surroundings.

A scarlet sea of pure blood. A sky of red-orange fire. And floating on the sea of pure blood were enormous plates of earth.

All of these combined represented the three elements this dragon body had—Fire, Earth, and Blood.

Using Aeris to hold myself in the air, I was sitting cross-legged above the calm sea of blood around me. Four months and a half had quickly passed by and there was only a week before the Inter-clan Tournament would start.

As for Aqua, she was nowhere to be seen. She had not foolishly followed me. In a way, I was relieved at that. It would be foolish of her to cut all ties to the inner sanctum of Asrai Lake where all her sisters and family were at.

I shook these unneeded thoughts free from their shackles.

In these four months and a half, I had improved my Ancient magic far more considerably than I would have thought possible. I had improved at an almost exponential rate.

I could now easily use fire magic up to an eighty feet radius circle quite easily, and half of that for my earth magic. My magic could now also reach up to a distance of 300 feet and I could sense incoming magic within a distance of 250 feet.

Due to being able to use more of the potential magic capacity I have, I could now use Aeris and Volarus to fly for about an hour straight before tiring. The Flames of Interitum, or the dark flames, could also cover my entire body at great intensity for two minutes before I became tired.

All in all, I suppose my magic had improved from three times its original state.

A few days ago, I had also finally perfected the two Ancient blood magic spells I had been learning in deep Animus state for the past month. The two spells were ideas that had come to me two months ago and the past month had been entirely devoted to learning the two spells, which had come into being in the form of these Ancient dragon words.

Sangius Descros—Blood Death.

Sangius Melos—Blood Song.

The two Ancient blood magic spells, especially the first spell, were ones I could only use under dire situations.

I inadvertently shivered a little.

There was just something strange about this Deep Animus place I was in. It was as if I could feel a pair of eyes staring at me from the corners of this place. Where the stare came from, I did not have one bit of clue. It could have come from the depths of the sea of blood, or from the sky of fire above. I did not know—all I knew was that I felt a pair of eyes always staring at me since two months ago.

The stare somehow felt familiar, yet fear-inducing at the same time. It was a familiar feeling I had felt before, but I just could not put a finger to it.

I did not bother to think about the stare any longer. It would remain a mystery for now, though I had my suspicions that it could have been due to the souls bound to me, or perhaps even Navra.

“Virdus Vict Sangius,” I said out loud.

Immediately at my words, the sea of blood below me trembled ever so slightly, before a geyser of blood exploded outward. The stream of blood reached toward me, surrounding my entire body, and cladding me in my Dragon Living Blood Armor.

Deep Animus was the best place to train. Your magic would never run out and you would never feel physically tired inside there. All the elements you could use were also at your beck and call. Fire, blood, and earth, all three elements I could use were within reach.

A few hours passed by as I used my entire arsenal of Ancient magic spells at my disposal. There were eight Ancient blood magic spells I could use, and a few other spells of the earth and fire element. Only a few spells that was a combination of earth and fire magic, however, could somewhat match up to the power of Ancient dragon blood magic.

Elder Kronos has shown the three of us the method to mix elements together. It was the next step above Aural Weaving, where you open multiple magical channels that connected to your Animus. It had taken weeks before I could even mix a small amount of my fire and earth element together through these magic channels.

To truly mix elements together, you would need to pour forth a mix form of transformed magic that consisted of two or more elements. For example, simply using earth magic in one hand and fire magic in the other hand was not considered a mixing of the elements. And even if you combine both hands to use earth and fire magic, it still would not be considered a mix of elements.

For magic to be considered a mix of elements, you would have to combine the magic channels of different elements into one channel of magic.

To make it clearer, I could create molten fire by separately using earth magic and fire magic, but if I use magic that mixes the elements, I could just outright create molten fire without resorting to separate magic elements.

Of course, there were also complications involved in elements that were simply not compatible. Blood and fire just did not go well together. I was still having trouble making advancement with that regard.

With one final attack, I separated a huge wall of earth with Sangius. The wall was sliced perfectly into two, almost without any rough edges in the slice I made.

Finally, I woke myself out of Deep Animus.

Opening my eyes, I found myself on a chain of convex-shaped ridges at the middle of the mountain. The place was an isolated place in the chain of mountains that surrounded the valley where the three of us trained with Elder Kronos.

The sun had long gone down and it was nighttime.

Silence was in the air and all around me. There was not one sound to be heard, not even from an insect.

There was only a week left before the Inter-clan Tournament would start. And tomorrow, I would have to meet with the other two dragons that would participate as the representatives of our Arkanan clan.

The Inter-clan Tournament would take place in the territory of the Astlan dragon Scorchgrasp clan. The Scorchgrasp clan was one of the seven major Astlan dragon clans and had the largest territory out of the seven clans. The original Astlan Dragon King was also from the Scorchgrasp clan.

It was there in the heart of the Scorchgrasp clan territory that the Inter-clan Tournament would take place with thirty five total dragons, all of them under the age of 5, all of them who had passed their second tribulations.

It would be a battle that would be closely spectated by all the Elder and Eldest dragons in all seven major clans. The winning team and the individual winning champion would be hailed as the strongest young dragon with the most potential.

The pride and strength of each Astlan dragon clan was invested into the representatives, and Navra had basically commanded me to win the tournament, including the higher tournament where the Greater Races would participate.

And I would have to win all those battles without resorting to the Flames of Interitum or devouring a dragon. None could know of the soul of Demon Lord Codrixas and my true heritage as the son of Navra Bloodseeker, and Uraza, the Black Serpent of the East, the Devourer of Dragons.

Malia, my fake mother, after all, had disappeared, and she had been the only one to know of this secret. There was no doubt in my mind that Navra had killed Malia and erased any traces of her existence.

It was just too suspicious to think Navra would have nothing to do with Malia's disappearance after I was adopted by him. Elder Kronos himself had even confirmed Malia's disappearance.

I would have to remain vigilant of Elder Kronos, for he was already suspicious of Navra and me. But thankfully, there was no dragon alive other than Navra who knew of the existence of the Devourer of Dragons, so blood magic and a strange, black-colored dragon that had never before been born before could only be a result of luck, or perhaps some sort of fate. No one would think that the black-colored dragon was the son of the Devourer of Dragons. They would just think that I was like the rare white colored or violet colored dragons.

I let out a small sigh.

'Feeling troubled, Verath?' Seraphine asked.

'Quite so. I wish I could just get away from all of this. I feel as if I were a puppet controlled by the strings of Lady fate, or perhaps I should say Navra.'

'Peaceful is boring. The fires of battles and war are the most interesting, especially to fire elementals.'

'Somehow, I think Eden would agree to that,' I replied with a slightly amused voice.

'Ah, that blonde-haired dragon? I have a feeling we would get along. It is a shame I cannot show myself before her though.'

'For that, I am somewhat thankful. I have a feeling that the both of you would be too much for me to handle.'

I let out another small sigh.

'I can only think that secrets and mysteries will be my downfall. Navra is an irresolute and secretive dragon. I can only blindly grope around in the dark, picking up the pieces of information he deigns to tell me. I fear someday the strings with which he holds me up will break.'

'You will still have me though.'

'A strange black-colored dragon and a Lesser Fire Elemental, eh? How fitting indeed.'

'Fire knows fire.'

'If I did not know any better, I would think that you, a fire elemental, are professing love for me.'

At that, Seraphine only let out a fiery laugh. 'Fire goes well with fire, obviously,' she said in a tone that would make someone think that was the most obvious statement in the world.