Suddenly, a dark red blur flashed out of the cave entrance and ascended into the air at an unfathomable speed, but they weren’t so stupid that they would be oblivious to its identity, of course they knew it was Aeshma. However, although they now feared him, they were curious about his new appearance. Would he gain new dazzling scales? Would he change colours? A longer and more flexible tail? Spikes? Serrated teeth? Sun-like eyes? Or even an elemental body like those 2 weird Phoenixes? Clearly his evolution was a pinnacle one, so what would it look like?
They were not prepared for the sight of 6 crimson eyes, an extra pair of horns, an extra pair of wings and even an extra pair of legs. No other Dragon with such abnormal features had appeared before. The spikes trailing down his back and tail were more normal, including his much bigger size and the completely different scales that were an interesting mixture of dark and light red colours that shimmered as he moved, almost like a chameleon but much more interesting, but that was where the normalities ended.
Four horns, four wings, Six legs and SIX EYES? What was the meaning of this? Had his evolution been inspired by a spider? Had-wait… had… had he somehow gotten his hands on the [Evolutionary Blood Beast Technique]?! The illustrious technique that allowed a Beast to steal the genes of another?!
…Impossible!
172 years had passed and there were many cases of Beasts using the Evolutionary Blood Beast Technique, causing it to be well known. But even if it wasn't as famous as it was, the Dragons would definitely still have known of it. After all, it was because of this very technique that those false Dragons in the east exist.
However, although the technique was definitely amazing, they quickly wrote it off as the cause of Aeshma’s new form. It was really impossible, for a multitude of reasons too. But first and most important of all was that Dragons could not use it.
Their goddess had told them that it was because they were the perfect species and didn’t need to steal other genes, which they could definitely understand, but some of them were still envious. It was truly a great technique.
But more than that, even if Aeshma DID get his hands on the technique, there was no way they could use it. All great techniques had many limitations and this one wasn’t exempt.
Since they didn’t possess the technique themselves, they didn’t know all the information, but from what they did know, there were 2 restrictions that prevented Aeshma from using the technique even if he did have it. And that was the incompatibility between a Dragon like him and something like a Spider, and the apparent fact that the technique could only be used when breaking through the Magic Beast Realm (Realm 1) to the Spirit Beast Realm (Realm 2).
It had to be known that not all Beast would evolve because of a breakthrough, normally they would only get bigger and stronger. Evolutions were a special phenomenon that only occurred rarely, and that was putting it nicely, but the Evolutionary Blood Beast Technique triggered it every time. Of course, the technique could only be used once. It wasn’t possible to break through to the Spirit Beast Realm over and over, but once was definitely enough.
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Aeshma was far above the Spirit Realm, so it was really and truly impossible for him to have any relations to that technique. However, his evolution was just that astonishing.
…But wait.
Something suddenly dawned on them. Something that Gaia had already been worrying about for some time now. Before all of this, Aeshma had been close to the peak of the 3rd Realm, the 8th or 9th stage to be a bit more specific, so this evolution, no matter its cause, should have been tied to his breakthrough to the next realm.
However, in such cases, the 3 Tribulations lights were supposed to strike first.
Sometimes an evolution and a Tribulation could occur at the same time, but that was only when an irregular evolution or mutation triggered an upgrade in strength that pushed them over the threshold of the 4th Realm, instead of them getting a normal upgrade in power, causing the evolution and the Tribulation to take place at the same time. Very similar to what was happening to Aeshma.
But there was not a single Tribulation light to be found at all. What was the meaning of this? On top of that, everybody knew that after each Evolution to the 4th Realm, they would be compelled, almost forced into taking the form of their Enlightened Body. Very few people could resist this compulsion, but why do so? An Enlightened Form was something to take pride in, why ignore it? It didn’t make sense.
The Crystal Dragon King looked at Aeshma, whose aura seemed to still be growing, and a thought crossed his mind. ‘Could it be…?’ His eyes constricted into thin lines and his heart jumped.
‘Has Aeshma not yet entered the 4th Realm?!’
It was just as he was thinking this that Aeshma let out another horror-inflicting roar. His aura which had been growing steadily began to fluctuate as its growing speed jumped by many times, his 6 completely-red-eyes that looked like they were about to leak blood glowing even brighter than before.
At the same time, a cloud so impossibly white that it could have only been formed by the heavens began to materialise in the sky above Aeshma’s body, and at the centre of this cloud was a very, very familiar circular formation.
The Tribulation Circle.
Never in their wildest dreams could they have predicted that Aeshma had not yet entered the 4th Realm, but was about to do so now, which would grant him another massive increase in strength…
Apparently, he was not finished growing.
The Tribulation cloud and circle greatly expand, revealing it to be none other than a White Tribulation, causing great waves of shock to crash through their hearts. Previously, only Gaia had received a White Tribulation from the very 1st light. Even Jörma’s White Tribulation had only started from the 2nd, not the 1st. Essentially, a sequence of Gold-White-White.
Did this mean that Aeshma and their goddess were on the same level?!