Two dragons hung in the skies above, one within a gigantic incarnation of gold, the other donned silver scales but released unrestrained flames. Neither of the two impacted by the ordinary spatial restrictions within the palace grounds. The powers infused within their bodies already exceeded regular master tiers. Icy intuited that his current power could fight face to face with the progenitor in an unsealed state.
Of course, he died three minutes later as this unbearable divinity ruined his ice cream body.
Silver liquid escaped his body and created a small chestplate on his wafer scales, deep within the divine incarnation. At the same time, a layer of golden apparel appeared on the incarnation as well, an unknown script glowed white on its surface. Added protection for his heart, just in case.
Lostradus moved. With time against him, a quick victory mattered so much more.
A fervent gaze to maul and ruin the incarnation continued into his every action, every last thought intended to kill Icy. Every last desire wished for the ruination of divinity and its owners.
Few below kept track of what happened without magic, but most filled in this gap through spells which enhanced their vision, or directly recorded the events to play back at a reduced speed.
For every second, the two dragons moved at speeds uncanny to their race, more akin to agile monkeys with instantaneous bursts of speeds above cheetahs. Every claw swipe released shockwaves as they broke the sound barrier without effort, but the dynamics hardly amounted to true power.
Icy’s incarnation suffered severe damage, as every lash of those flames seared through with ease or transformed into a blade which cut through. However, Lostradus’ limited control over such fire failed more often than not, but made up for this flaw with far better melee skills than Icy. However, numerous tiny holes pierced his body, and hundreds of wounds littered his exploded body.
“There aren’t any words that can describe my disgust for you,” Icy spat out as his tail flexibly knocked into his fiery foe’s side.
Every part of him felt sickened just by seeing the silver-scaled dragon in front, and even though they grabbed his tail with a hand composed of flames, his Divinus claws ignored how they ate away at the held appendage and slashed down. Defensively, the flames let go of his tail, only able to destroy a few inches of the incarnation at that held place, and the two separated once more.
Lostradus gladly stood in place to respond though, simply because the fire within him demanded that he taunt the carrier of divinity. Grinning, his voice arrogantly replied, “I could say the same about a failure who depended on the gods to reach his current place. How much does a mishap have to suck up to the dragon god just for this bit of power?”
Icy’s already enraged divinity couldn’t really grow any madder in its current state, but the insults against him now actually took effect on him too. As cynical as he usually behaved, right now those words got to him. The power he obtained came through struggles and brushes with death, some luck kept him alive in some cases, but he never once depended on a god.
All this time, the only ones worth mentioning was himself, and the humans below that he proudly called his friends.
Icy rushed in. The dark orb beside him flashed ahead first, but Lostradus dodged it and condensed flames into a spear. The invisible weapon stabbed towards Icy’s chest all the while, his jaw clamped around the tinier dragon’s neck. Origin Force enhanced his teeth and crunched through vertebrae like a burnt twig. Meanwhile, his body shifted as the spear stabbed through his incarnation, the strike aimed at his heart instead cut off a whole leg.
He discarded the limb as it regrew in seconds, scales wrapped around the sorbet innards as no damage occurred. The damaged incarnation did not regenerate, though.
The orb from above charged towards his opponent’s heart, but flames exuded into his mouth and pried open the incarnation’s jaw, barely escaping the orb’s strike which penetrated a wing.
He ran out of time in just a few seconds, which meant the dragon opposite must be in a far worse state.
All it took was a flash of white eyes with a golden hue to confirm this. Icy now took his chance to mock, “Looks like you’re about to run out of steam. You could always admit your failures and give up against a miserable mishap.” The way Lostradus’ face morphed at the mere consideration of loss filled him with such immense happiness that nothing else possibly compared.
The two-minute mark ended, and a heavy sensation deep within his heart appeared. Not a literal burnout, but rather an increasing failure of that critical organ.
Since attrition failed to win, then he may as well throw everything into the last chance!
The silver armour returned to his soul and in its place came a stopwatch. Just wound up to 20 seconds but given an acceleration of almost 50 times, only limited by the pitiful reserves of soul power and mana given his incarnation’s outstanding power.
Time crawled to a stop, Lostradus already grasped the change in his speed and moved the flames as quickly as possible to defend. For every second he spent accelerated, only the incredibly small span of 20 milliseconds passed, and in that time, Icy not only covered the gap between them, but a slew of brown vanilla extract clouded the flames entirely. Furthermore, within some of the brown, sticky substance, a shine of gold coated hundreds of droplets.
“I suggest you pray to survive.” Icy relented to the divinity’s will and threw out a one-liner before a spell flowed out. The orb as well now flew through Lostradus dozens of times, every single penetration slower than the last as the supply of Origin Force finally came to an end.
But Icy’s spell cast as well, the visage of a snowy mountain appeared above his head as mana surged into the countless rings which formed this Draconic spell.
He slowed down to a semi-reasonable speed, everyone already took note of the substance which somehow stuck to Lostradus’ flames and rendered them immobile. The dozens of holes through his body destroyed practically every single muscle and bone, only the wings of invisible flames kept him afloat now. But with a heavy, unexpected mental pressure, the cannon of psychic power fired directly towards his head.
Within his mental space, the wall of his largest palace collapsed instantly, and this damage only opened up further pathways for the illusory descension above Icy, but he did not submit.
So, Icy took matters into his own hands. A foot of Divinus came from above, claws bared, and stabbed directly into Lostradus’ body as the flames still struggled. They knew no strategy, and this enhanced form of his breath required more than just a mithril tier’s mana to remove. Unable to escape, block, or cry out for help…
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The claw penetrated through and crushed his heart. In a single move, over half the finely compact crystals shattered to a pile of shards or fine dust. The rest of his heart somehow still beat but cracked further, as though on his last breath.
And finally, while unwilling to accept defeat, a merely average dragon fell to the ground. Inches from the palace’s sandy ground, a sudden force caught him and laid him slowly, but the grounds stood in silence.
In fact, no one talked for the last three minutes straight. Firstly, Icy’s words proved true. Lostradus held a power which put the currently best amongst them to shame, a rarely seen power that he never used as the silver-scaled dragon never received its recognition.
And then he won. Icy, with a body of ice cream, sorbet, and scales of literal biscuit… Beat that sort of opponent.
He dropped down as well, the divinity rapidly receded as its foe laid defeated and near death. That sensation in his chest lightened as well, but not immediately, and he looked to Mala nearby immediately. “Flame, heart, blood,” his three words met with a nod, and she quickly collected what she could. Icy hardly moved a step after landing, but he still withdrew the dart and quickly flung it into the flames, Mala could only extract so much, and perhaps this helped even a little.
However, without any soul power or mana, a few wisps of fire within the crystal dart’s chamber almost blacked him out.
Meanwhile, she chose the heart first, those shattered bits within the dying Lostradus extracted hastily, but she left anything intact within. Blood could wait, as she agonised over a method to take more of the flame. Some ideas came to mind immediately. For example:
Raccelline’s necklace to draw it out and then–
Too late. A roar vibrated the stitched realm itself and Lostradus’ body suddenly teleported away, Mala could only utilise the ridiculous quantities of blood still in the sand around them in hopes it met Icy’s needs. But without enough of the flame itself, his prospects reduced greatly.
“I’m tired. Let’s head back,” Icy once more spoke whilst surrounded by dragons stricken in silence. But as all four legs struggled to lift off the ground, he also turned to Kalmiktar and asked pensively, “Elder Dreisetno sent you all?”
“No, most were informed separately, by all the elders.”
Icy followed up, “Which elder is he related to then?”
“Lostradus has followed multiple elders for years now, perhaps they all realised that special power long ago,” Kalmiktar replied honestly and cautiously. He understood the implication that Icy gave, and since their dispute was already resolved, he hardly furthered the previous animosity toward a dragon who proved his power.
The younger ones generally behaved like this. If you were strong, they respected you, as how many beasts followed through with things. Icy understood this concept well too, and may have grown attributed to it if not for his leader being a self-absorbed wyvern with trust issues. No matter though, the fact these young dragons, all at least three times his age, now respected him only benefited him in the long run.
Icy nodded as Mala helped move his unresponsive body towards a teleportation array behind the palace. Usually used by those who completed the dragonstone trial and wished to leave, the group required it today as things went from bad to… Bad?
Actually, on a grander scale, nothing too horrible happened. But only on account of Icy’s array of abilities utterly dwarfing what most others considered normal.
Beating a wielder of Divinus-wrecking at the same level was something many demigods considered impossible, but here Icy actually managed it. He owed far too much to his Origin Force and soul armaments.
Back in the central mountain just minutes later, the group helped Icy into one of the caves on the Dragonlands’ outskirts, for some reason the dragon’s gaze weakened as though he obtained a thousand-yard stare. Once inside, he became oddly quiet for a while. Minutes passed before he finally said, “Colours… They’re colours.”
“Get some rest, your heart looks like it’s about to explode,” Jaren did his best to pacify the dragon, but Icy hardly listened. He just repeated that word over and over, to the point where it became more than a question but some sort of forced obsession.
“What colours?”
“But they’re not colours? They… are? But that was colourless, but then why is that a colour? Nexus? Nexus!” Completely in a daze, Icy could only holler to himself and rattle on for several more minutes. Until that point as his body finally gave away, the exhausted dragon put to sleep. But even in this mindless state, the word still came through as quiet mumbles.
“Colours…” And Mala truly couldn’t piece together what exactly he meant.
* * *
Lostradus breathed heavily, each breath forced spasms of pain through his body, and mana leaked from him continuously. The flames which previously supported his body returned to their inert state, and all the injuries accumulated over that battle now washed over him. Still, he did not cry or whimper, instead the broken dragon looked at another with rage no lesser than the one directed at Icy.
He immediately shouted out, “Why did you save me? WHY NOW?! WHY NOT BEFORE HE DESTRO–” A power descended over his half-shattered jaw like a muzzle, the dirty silver dragon forced quiet.
“What a useless thing you turned out to be. You were already stronger than him, and he gave you the perfect chance for the stone. Now, look at you! How could you possibly lose!?”
The muzzle released, but Lostradus knew that a single word out of line and it’d return. “That fucking orb! The information was wrong, he had another armament. And its power is incredible, it pierced through my body like paper. His sticky breath can’t be removed so easily too, the progenitor used condensed mana to remove it at that time. And… he is not a coward.”
He gagged from that compliment, physically repulsed by a holder of divinity, but that hardly lasted long as he coughed heavily and remembered the literal half-missing heart.
“Be happy I saved you before that wizard took your flame. I could see she was close to a method,” the other dragon’s words sent a shiver up Lostradus’ broken back, he hardly believed it. But if his master said so, then he believed it. “Be happy though. You have one more chance.”
The half-dead dragon suddenly looked up with hopeful eyes, moments ago he readily accepted his end, but now came a sudden chance at survival?
“I won’t fail again, master. We know his strongest means now, I can prepare for them and ensure his death.”
“SHUT UP! You will stay here and train for one month, someone was kind enough to sponsor you, on the condition we owe them a few favours in the future and that dragon must die. Understood? This is a soul contract,” his master spoke warily of the matter, but in these last moments what other choice existed? He might have even willingly signed a slave contract if it gave a chance to kill Icy…
“I agree! Please, allow me to live!” With the contract accepted, a brocade box appeared between the dragons. Of course, only his master saw this at first, but as its lid opened, a bright light finally filled this dreary cave. With the box sat a flame which burned endlessly without a source. Just its shine on his injured body already closed some wounds and replenished his outward condition.
“The heart flame of a supreme tier phoenix, you don’t know how lucky you are. You’ll be working for years to repay this favour, so you best not regret it… Take it. Bath in the flames of nirvana, undergo a rebirth. Once you’ve created a mixture of the two ultimate fires, then you can go fight him again.”
And while anyone would literally jump with joy at this opportunity, Lostradus’ loss gave way to caution. He asked back, “I don’t have to undergo resurrection?”
“If you do that, then you’ll never catch up with that freak,” his master's critical words implied a secret he had no way of knowing. But too weak to think deeply on the matter, he carefully pulled the brocade box closer and moved the flame towards his heart. His secretive master left the dreary cave, returning to their own well-lit one at the top of a mountain peak, they now had to act like they hadn’t saved Lostradus just now.
A small matter. With the phoenix’s heart flame and a dragonstone, the kid reached a potential so great it dominated those of demigods! So what if they owed a few favours?
To transform his disciple into something which rivalled a clan lord, what else could be better?