Chapter 3 – Azriel Everton

No I was never able to get over it. The death of my precious daughter. I regretted that as a father I couldn't save her. I Azriel who was hailed as the greatest weapons master ever couldn't do anything to prevent it. And I wasn't even able to console my depressed wife. What was I supposed to say to her. When I knew she was researching 'time' to get a second chance I was excited?. I wanted a second chance after all. So I encouraged her. But what I saw was terrifying.

The circle that scratches time took an entire dragon heart to activate. We found that one in an ancient ruins in the western deserts. Even apex predators of the desert avoided that place. Even with our little instincts we could tell what rested there was something terrifying. Still we braved it and scoured the place. We found many treasures and the greatest of them all was this crystal. We don't know how many millennia it had been resting there, but still it emitted power beyond ordinary. Eva was fascinated by it so it was gifted to her. I told her to be careful with it as it contained too much mana.

We were part of the circle so I understood that what was shown was the future. Two choices, that will happen according to our decisions. We wanted to go to the past and we were shown the future instead. When I saw the peaceful future I was happy. But the second vision was terrifying beyond measure.

Igniz was the Emperor of Dragons. He was an upper tier elder dragon. I have never seen an upper tier elder dragon, But I have seen a 'normal' upper tier dragon. The mere presence of that thing was enough to send chills into my heart. I never believed in human boundaries or limits. I always thought that humans could push past their limits. But it was proven false in all aspects. That dragon didn't even consider us as a threat. It could have easily destroyed us if it wanted. But luckily we survived it.

That Igniz, the greatest of all dragons was losing against some.... 'thing'. I didn't know what it was. It looked humanoid, but it was burning in black fire. It felt different. Igniz gave the aura of power, raw unadulterated power. But this thing gave no feeling at all. It was existing but at the same time not. It might have been a stone. That was scarier than anything else. It seemed familiar. The way it was fighting using magic reminded me of Eva. I was shocked when it killed igniz and my heart stopped when it said it's name was 'Lucas Everton'.

We both never talked about this at all and destroyed everything related to the circle. Our life continued, but now instead of pain and regret it was fear and confusion. How could he be an Everton. I mean I was kind of sure I am the last living Everton. Maybe he is someone I didn't know. Yes that should be it, somebody made his last name Everton. I made myself content with that explanation. But deep inside I knew that it was not true. From the little time inside the circle we knew that what we saw was something related to us.

Life continued on until that fateful day. I was pondering on my weapons and Eva was reading besides me outside of our house when we detected numerous presences heading towards us. There were two weak presences chased by numerous strong ones. We went out to meet them. There was a beautiful girl running with a bundle. Her dress were torn and she looked pale. She was being chased by assassins. Eva went to help her and I went to dispose of the assassins. I barely took any time to do that. They might have never known how they died. When I came back Eva was tending to the girl. She was deathly pale. Eva said, “It's a deadly poison and it had spread all over. I cannot save her”. The girl pushed the bundle to Eva. It had a healthy looking boy with black eyes and black hair. He should be around 2 months old. The girl was taking her dying breaths and just before dying said, “Name him Lucas”.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I was feeling like my worst nightmare was coming true.

Alzier: “Eva this boy”

Eva: “Don't”

After saying that she wordlessly stood up and went to our house. She made him sleep and came back out.

Alzier: “Eva I think he should die”

Eva: “No he shouldn't. He's just a child.”

Alzier: “But what about we saw”

Eva: “There was two possibilities there Alzier. I am sure if we raise him the right way the disaster could be avoided. How can you even think about killing an innocent child.”

She was right, I was so caught in the prophecy that I forgot about the fact that it was just a small innocent child.

Alzier: “You are right, I am sorry”

Eva: “It's alright, lets raise him responsibly so that something like that never happens”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lucas was an intelligent kid. Perhaps a little too much. He understood everything with minimal effort. As a child sometimes he would be silent and sometimes very mischievous. But I always felt he was very mature for his age. When I started teaching him weapon mastery and physical enhancement he started on it without any complaints. And he just baffled me with his understanding. He could do everything told with very little effort.

He was born with a colossal mana pool. So it was decided that Eva would teach him about magic. One day she told him about the basic theory of mana and he could understand it the very first time and he was only 6 at the time. I remember my first time learning about mana. My father arranged a mage as a private tutor for me. That guy tried his very best for years to make me understand mana and magic. But I was too stupid to understand it and not interested enough to care.

Eva told him to close his eyes and sit cross legged to meditate and feel his mana core and mana channels. The most genius of the mages would take at least a week to fully detect their cores and channels. It would take at least a month to properly channel the mana thoughout their body. Eva detected her core in 3 days which should still be the record. But this boy did that in five minutes.

I couldn't believe what I was sensing. The boy not only detected his core but he also started properly channeling mana through his body. And the most astonishing part was that his cells started to absorb the mana and they started changing. This was not possible unless you are highly proficient in mana absorption and assimilation. You need years and years of work behind it. Now I understood the fact that why it is possible for him to be a calamity.