Chapter 1
Ishitar's POV
He felt slight fluctuations coming from the summoning circle.
It’s time he thought to himself. Out loud his voice boomed, “places everyone! Remember the plan and stick to your role! The moment the soul arrives we must power the soul snare array to prevent as much dissipation as possible!”
“Yes, yes we know!” someone responded, giving voice to what everyone in the crowd of dragons was thinking.
Of course they know, I personally drilled the plan into each and every one of their heads!
It's just that he could not help his excitement. This is the culmination of 6 centuries of research, planning, and material gathering all coming together under his genius to change all of their lives for the better.
The mana flowed out of the summoning circle and along with it came one of the smallest souls his eyes ever laid upon, finished seeping out before the circle started powering down.
Was this all that made it through?
“Is that it?” again someone voiced out what everyone was thinking.
“Hurry up with the array! This still might be salvageable! Do not waste any time!”
The array flags were quickly set in place, and as long as the dragons continued to manually power it or power it with mana stones, it would continue to run.
Ishitar looked over to his clanmate and said “Malos, try and talk to it”. Malos gave him his signature dead-fish look and held eye contact for 10 seconds before sighing heavily.
Malos lowered himself to get as close as he could to the soul and initiated the spell
Ishitar noticed a flash of surprise pass through the eyes of Malos before it shifted to another dull expression. “It seems like you’re in luck, Ishitar. The spell connected and I can even hear it speak sort of.”
Excitement coursed through Ishitar once more, “What do you mean ‘sort of’, what is it saying?!” He demanded
Malos shrugged, “I can’t dual cast soul communion and a translation spell, and I haven't yet, nor will I ever imprint a translation spell on my soul. I talked to it, it made noises back. We talked. Sort of.” Malos explained as if talking to a dull child.
Ishitar nodded his head fully understanding while also ignoring Malos’ tone. “Alright, so we need to imprint the translation on the soul. It has to be done anyway since we need to get his or her consent for the blood kin ritual either way. They are a dragon after all, even if their soul is incomplete.” Ishitar stated righteously.
Malos just rolled his eyes, “This soul is probably mostly all there. My spell wouldn’t have connected if too much of it was missing. This species has either gone through a soul compression of some sort or is a miniature dragon subtype. It is from another realm after all.” Malos said while inspecting the soul.
Ishitar frowned at Malos “Malos. There will be no more talk about subtypes. This potential clan mate is an equal. A full dragon with the rights of a full dragon, no matter how bright or dull their scales shine or how small their wingspan is.”
Malos leveled his dead-fish look at Ishitar and replied, “Is that how you’ll comfort them when it's time for them to find a mate? You should start working on what you’ll say starting now because so far, it sucks. ”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Damn, he has a point.
He thought while replying aloud, “Whatever, let's just start already.”
Malos brought out a soul quill from his spatial device, delicately guiding his mana into the hollow shaft, moving it up the rachis, and letting it spread throughout the vane. “I’m ready, construct the spell formula.”
Ishitar did just that, formula ready, he nodded at Malos. Malos dabbed the tiny soul with his soul quill and immediately the soul began to dissipate.
Both dragons wore panicked expressions, “Stop! Stop!” Ishitar screamed.
“I already did, I stopped the moment I noticed the dissipation start!” Malos replied, glaring at Ishitar.
“Velestrya! Velestrya come quick! Begin the blood kin ritual! If they decide they do not want to be a part of the clan, we’ll fix it later.”
Velestrya stood up from her position in the formation array, sending Malos to take her place.
Ishitar's panic-stricken voice spoke quickly, “Vel, you need to use the smallest sliver of your soul for the ritual. We DO NOT need a soul puppet! And don’t forget to imprint the translation spell on your soul sliver! That's what started this complete mess in the first place!”
Velestrya’s sharpened gaze landed on her older brother and said. “Ishitar, I am neither a novice nor your apprentice. Last I checked I was still clan matriarch, so do not presume to tell me what to do and give me space to work”
Velestrya took out her own soul quill and began imprinting a sliver of her soul with the translation spell formula. Quickly and efficiently she finished the inscription and sliced off the newly imprinted soul sliver.
Wasting no time, she began the blood kin ritual. Using mana as both the needle and thread, she attached her soul sliver to the dissipating soul.
“Give me the mimic meat” Velestrya commanded, looking toward Ishitar.
Ishitar immediately pulled out the mimic meat from his spatial device and handed it over without saying a word.
Velestrya then bit her thumb and willingly let a single drop of blood essence land on the mimic meat. She then brought the mimic meat close to the soul and again, with mana acting as both the needle and thread, she attached the mimic meat to the soul.
With her part of the job done, she turned to Ishitar “set up a healing array outside of the soul snare array. I need to rest .”
Having said what she needed to say, Velestrya then walked out of the array and launched herself into the air, heading toward her cave-dwelling.
Kai POV
Kai felt confused.
I died. I died and now I’m here.
He looked down on to his ‘body’
I’m a blob of light now? How do I even see? I can’t feel anything.
Kai tries to speak out loud, only to find out he could not.
I guess it could be worse.. Is this what it’s like to be dead? Is this heaven?
Kai slowly took notice of his surroundings, starting with the glowing floor.
Hm. The floor glows here.
Kai tried to bend down and touch the glowing floor.
Ah, right. No body.. This is gonna take some getting used to.
Kai turned his attention to what was beyond the glowing floor and froze.
The sky is red, and I’m surrounded by dragons.. These are definitely dragons. Gigantic lizards with arms and legs and wings. Resplendent scales that seemed able to shine all on their own.
Feeling both horror and awe simultaneously was a new experience for him.
Kai just stood there, watching the dragons.
Do they look like they’re talking to each other, maybe?
Suddenly, a dragon with black scales so dark that could only be described as deep bends down and gives me an up-close and personal look to its giant purple-irises.
The eye begins to glow and Kai can feel a vague connection form. Kai then hears the same sounds that the dragons were making at each other, but this time the sound was coming from within him.
“Holy crap, are you talking to me?! Can you understand me?”
His only response came as more guttural sounds.
“Listen, Mr. Dragon, please don’t eat me. I’m a blob of light and I couldn’t possibly taste good, or be filling in any way. Look, no meat! So please don’t eat me!”
Kai was practically begging by the end of his sentence and to his surprise, the black stood back up and seemed to start a conversation with a maroon-scaled dragon.
I don’t need to feel so scared right? I’m already dead, I can’t feel anything. That’s one positive about not having a body, no pain! But I guess that means no pleasure either, not that I have much experience there. Do I need to eat? What do light blobs eat? Maybe I’m like a plant now and can survive sunlight?
Kai began looking for the sun in the bright red sky when he noticed the black dragon put a clawed handout, and out of nowhere, a giant feather appeared in its claws.
These dragons are magicians! No pockets, no sleeves and it pulls out a freaking feather as big as I am!
The show did not end there, slowly the feather began to glow. Once the feather was fully lit, the black dragon bent down again and as if he were about to write on me, he touched me with the feather.
Kai could not make a sound but he was screaming on the inside. The pain was not something he could bear. With no body, he could not lose consciousness. At the place that the feather touched, he could see a tear, and the light he was made out of seeping out of him.
His whole world narrowed down to that pain. He did not know, nor did he care about what was going on beyond his pain. He lost all sense of time, and he was begging to die, or whatever happened to light blobs to hurry up and happen so this pain could end. His mind was breaking and still, the pain did not end.