Gamodren had spent a day and a half making his way to the Mount Telastaris. Evading the gaze of many birds and even getting the drop on a few. Having absorbed a large amount of what felt like Divine Energy, he could feel his draconic blood resonate and protect his body. Rainbow-colored scales covered his chest and extended to his elbows and knees.

From there, Gamodren had little trouble dispatching the easy-to-avoid foes swiftly while remaining unseen. The world around him bent to hide his movements.

As he continued forward, Gamodren found himself face to face with a man in silver armor with deep purple hair. Swirl-like patterns moved across his body constantly as he eyed Gamodren in return.

“Howdy young’un, why are you here? I know it isn’t a coincidence kin slayer.”

“I seek death.” Gamodren said with a stony expression.

“If you wanted to die then you would have let the serpent consume your soul. But no, you came to me.” The man stated patiently. As though he had all the time in the universe.

“You misunderstand. I come for your death. Not that I have much of a choice on the matter. You have met many of my clutch I imagine.” Gamodren’s body moved against his will.

“Oh, so you’re another blood bound. Strange to see one so powerful and old. The ones I fought previously were practically hatchlings.” The man smiled.

“Damn it!” Gamodren yelled as his eyes became bloodshot, and he charged toward the dragon mindlessly.

“I take small joy in putting you down.” The man snapped his hand to the right casually. The blow seemed deceptively slow as his hand left behind multiple after images. A crater of wrenched earth appeared where Gamodren’s head would have been.

The young half-dragon, however, appeared unharmed two feet from outside the range of the blow, his face sweating.

“Damn, you’re strong. Why give us such a suicidal task?” Gamodren muttered as he charged again, copies of his body appearing everywhere as the swarm of Gamodren began pounding away at the older man.

With a clap of the man’s hands, every single clone made from soul force shattered. “Strong, a dragon of creation. What a rare mutation. I can see how you survived into adolescence.”

“I’m an adult.”

“No, you’re the alpha of your clutch. That is apparent enough.”

“That’s not true in the slightest.” Gamodren looked wistful as his body appeared many yards away. Clones formed from the world around him, an endless army charging forward.

“Is that so?” The old dragon seemed even more interested. He casually knocked each clone that came at him about. Dispersing them swiftly and efficiently with each attack. A few clones, however, stayed far enough apart to avoid being wiped out from the area of effect attacks.

“Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t the biggest or the strongest, nor was I the smartest. No, I was the runt, the last to hatch. The one who had almost been forgotten.”

“Is that so? How does a runt kill an alpha?”

“All of my siblings are endbringers. When I showed little talent in destruction they looked down on me but didn’t go out of their way to kill me. No, I was a servant with the ability to summon gold from nowhere. A prize for their hoards, they didn’t see me as a dragon, or well, half dragon.” Gamodren began to circle the ancient dragon in human skin.

“Cunning isn’t always bound to intelligence. Did you betray your clutch mates?”

“No. While I was weak, I knew how to avoid the ire of my stronger siblings. Even if it meant watching as my own siblings were killed and consumed for the smallest of sleights.” Gamodren rolled to the side, avoiding a wave of force that turned a boulder behind him into powder.

“Are you going to say that you fought them fair and square?”

“No. When we were six years old, our mother sent us on our first mission. I went along with the alpha of our clutch and another sibling of mine. We were to poison a spring belonging to a small noble kingdom in some backwater. We were told that it was a simple indirect assassination, it should have been easy. I created the poison if you could call it that. It was a simple concoction capable of forcing someone to breakthrough into the stage after expert. One that made the target stronger by pulling mana internally into their core. A side effect being permanent infertility, with no known way to fix it. A forced menopause to most, and a near abortion to those who are pregnant.” Gamodren noticed that his opponent had stopped fighting after killing the remaining clones.

“Go on. You have my attention. Go on and continue your tale.” The dragon eyed Gamodren.

“We succeeded in poisoning the spring only for it to be purified neigh instantly by someone with a water affinity. A man with blue hair and dark eyes. He slaughtered my siblings when they attacked him, only he hadn’t absorbed any of their potential as they lay nearly dead, bodies dismembered and unable to move. No, this visage of death sliced me up with a bow, a violin bow, and made me a proposition.”

“And that was?”

“I’ll let you live for now, but you owe me, and one day I will collect it. Don’t worry boy. Your vial will get to your target. I’ll even leave the potential these children have for you to consume.”

“So you consumed them on your own?”

“No. Before I could react their cores had been shoved into my core, no pain, no choice of my own at the time. I had been forced into becoming a kinslayer. But I did not know what was to come. A supposedly dead noblewoman named Cordellia had slid the concoction without being the wiser. Her unborn child was forever changed by my actions.”

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“That’s where that fateless came from.”

“Pardon?” Gamodren seemed concerned.

“Carry on.”

“Right… Well a few years later I grew to be the strongest of my siblings and our mother forced us to all fight for survival. One by one my siblings were slain as I built more and more blood debts. Eventually I ended up alone. During a routine assassination mission however I came into contact with the man who was our biological father. He freed me from my mother’s grasp temporarily, and by a twist of fate, I met the child that I was supposed to kill with the poison, and do you know what he did?”

“If it’s the same brat I imagine he wanted to play a game. “

“He asked me to play a game… How do you know that?” Gamodren scowled as he was interrupted.

“I now know what you’re talking about, missing link.”

“I see years later, I ended up becoming his teacher until my mother set me up and called me back to her side through a bloodline debt. I still owe her a few, aside from collecting Tellestarium, I need to capture my student alive. The only thing I can offer him however is a swift death. The reason I have to fight you is another debt incurred from out birth. Killing the progenitor of dragons is our strongest order. We can sense your power and it draws us to you. I’m just used to a bit used to putting off orders for a bit.” Gamodren looked at the man with dead eyes.

“Is that so? That one was always the most ruthless of my descendants. Now, are you sorry for what you’ve done?”

“The guilt has been eating away at me for years, to the point in which I made sure my students knew how to take me out should things come to blows.”

“I need to hear the words.”

“Yes. I am sorry.” Gamodren sighed.

“Good. Then I release you from all draconic blood debts.” The ancient dragon clapped his hands.

A red chain tore its way out of Gamodren’s soul, taking something inside that faded into raw energy before dissipating.

“All dragons come from my blood. All draconic oaths are tied to me. You being forced to attack me is usually a way to get me to put you down quickly. As you may have noticed, you can’t lie in my presence. You’re compelled to answer my questions truthfully.”

Gamodren scowled before sighing. “Did Kyrion plan this?”

“Yes and no. Haven’t you figured this out yet?”

“Figured out what?”

“Half of Kyrion’s original soul has been here since the beginning.”

“What?” Gamodren scowled.

“More like forty percent if I’m being honest. You old lizard, quit telling my secrets.”

A shaggy man with short red hair, a red goatee, green eyes, and a wiry frame walked forward. The man was shorter than the student he had known, but they shared the same facial structure. Only this man’s face held imperfections that Kyrion wouldn’t have gained. He was wearing a green tunic, brown pants, and flip-flops. Unlike Kyrion or the others, his body wasn’t green; his form was solid and fully visible.

“Who are you?”

“Kyrion’s original counterpart, before time had been altered so much. I’ve been here since I made a sacrifice to keep my family alive. I was satisfied with my death and chose to stay here in place, I separated myself from the newborn Kyrion. Now I watch him from afar and give him guidance every now and then, mostly indirectly. Thing is, for him to reach his potential he will need the rest of me integrated. Not my memories, no all he needs is the power of the soul that I have been training along with the secret to planeswalking.”

“His space affinity is that strong?”

“When he reaches the realm past expert, the multiverse will be nothing but an open door. Space and magic are our natural affinities. I just happened to pick up quite a few tricks in life, and while I’ve been here.”

“Why do you want to disappear?”

“I’m tired, Gamodren. So tired of fighting for survival. So tired of this universe taking away those I love. Tired of being alone due to outliving those I love. I lived a very long time and my end was satisfying. At least to me. My sacrifice didn’t go as well as planned, as a bigger monster was groomed in my place.”

“Why didn’t you just stop me then? Why allow me to live?”

“Not my decision. Charles didn’t know about your involvement in the second loop. A lot of innocents were hurt in that stunt. The food that grew from that tainted water destroyed many family lines and drastically altered the timeline. Due to certain laws of time at least one person needed to suffer the effects to prevent an Arbiters audit. Which would have resulted in the village being turned into fertilizer along with all the food.”

“That does sound like you. The younger Kyr is trapped here and decided to go on a training adventure?”

“Ah, so he must have met her then. That’s pretty early, just how much has changed?”

“Fine. How are you going to get to your body anyways?”

“I’ll send for him after he’s done playing around. From there my shard will integrate with Kyrion’s mind as his memories overwrite mine for a bit. I will be him but with slightly less personality. I can say that I matured a bit.”

“Wait. You’re going to take his life.” Gamodren scowled. “Not quite. Kyrion is going to be busy in the near future. He needs access to our mind without the limitations my abcence created. But you will need to betray us one more time.”

“I’d sooner die.” Gamodren seemed ready to fight at that moment, as the other two hadn’t moved.

“Fine, a different favor then. When you return, I need you to check in with the necromancer you know as White Fox. From there, you will organize a meeting between him and Kyr. Not a formal one, mind you, just a meet-up; you don’t need to physically appear. White Fox will then lead you to my mother, where a few things will finally be revealed.

“What do you mean by finally?”

“The Kyrion you know has a potential for planer travel. It’s a potential that gets stronger when his soul gets stronger. This is where he will train his soul and master that potential. From here he will need to take a trip to a place called Earth. Said trip will leave him a bit disorientated and limit the speed his mind will fully return.”

“Like the affinity? Are there no deities there?”

“It had other names a long time ago. The Sovereign in charge learned something important a long time ago and decided to be more hands free with that sector of their universe. Due to the lack of miracles humans have progressed much in their absence.”

“So humans in that world lost access to mana?”

“Natural mana dried up in most places due to the lack of mana coming in. The exceptions are leylines and areas where people are summoned. The world, however, is full of artificial life mana and magic I don’t understand.”

“So you want to strand Kyrion in another universe and hope he can get back on his own?”

“Yes. He’ll have to be fast though. Time flows much slower there. He may have around three months to get back if he’s quick. So long as he doesn’t break the world then he should be fine. When he finds our sister, He’ll need to form a dimensional gateway to get back. Doing so will probably result in the Sovereign’s attention meaning a massive influx of mana will flood the world in either an attempt to help or destroy.”

“That’s insane. Millions of people dead in an instant.”

“Tens of millions in a worst-case scenario. Yes, it is insane. Although it is going to happen around a year if we don’t shock the system anyways, and when it does happen, the casualties would be apocalyptic.”

“Kyrion wouldn’t agree to sacrifice innocent lives for his own agenda.”

“Is that so…” The shaggy Kyr looked towards a tower and scowled as white flames had shot upwards like a beacon.

“All that from an incomplete manifestation and it isn’t fully his. What kind of monster are you turning us into?”

“I did not teach him how to use fire magic. I must assume he’s quite angry for some reason.”