I was following mom into her room, which was opposite mine on the second floor. She’d said that we’d need a more appropriate place to test out my casting, and that indoors or the front lawn weren’t the right place to throw magic around.

“Isn’t casting magic on the second floor an even worse idea?”

“Patience, darling. You’ll see for yourself soon enough.”

As we reached the top of the stairs and turned left, mom opened the door and turned on the lights.

Unlike most homes where even candles and torches were a luxury, magic lamps were placed all over our home. Everything was made for convenience, from the water heating and creating bathtub to the self-cleaning floor, which made it an outlier.

Since it was all most likely mom’s handiwork, I shouldn’t have been surprised that she had a little something for our purposes today.

The room was fairly simple, with just a bed, a closet, a window opposite of the door, and a dresser. On the dresser was a mirror of room-temperature ice, and in front of it were three items. The first two were small, handheld-sized pictures in a transparent, decorated ice frame.

One of the pictures was of me, diligently assembling a magic circle in the office room. It looked like I was so focused on the attempt that I hadn’t paid attention to anyone else, including whenever and however she captured that moment of me on the frame.

The other picture was of a young man I’d never seen before, who I presumed to be my late elder brother, Azzid – if we could even be considered to be siblings.

Azzid seemed similar in age to Anbu, though his features were much gentler, to the point where I’d almost mistaken him for a girl, only to remember that mom’s only other child was a son. He was wearing what was clearly well-made and expensive clothing made from monster materials, though it seemed inconspicuous enough that you would only take notice on closer inspection.

Unlike in my picture, both Azoth and Aunt Ighir were also present next to him. The three of them seemed to be sitting around a campfire in a forest clearing, a pig roasting on a spit over the fire as the sun was setting in the distance. The boy was holding a weird stick-like instrument with holes in it at his mouth, some of the fingers covering them while others left them exposed. Aunt Ighir was eating skewer after skewer of food while mom was sitting down with a gentle smile on her face as they listened to the music.

Mom’s hand moved past the two pictures and reached for the third item, a black orb with glinting white dots over it that looked kind of similar to the arena’s dome, yet a little too different to be the same.

Seeing my curious gaze, mom explained.

“This item is called a domain field, a dragon-exclusive artifact. As a creation of our dimension mages, it’ll serve as today’s playground – you’re welcome to wreak havoc to your heart’s content.”

She took the tiny marble-sized sphere and casually funneled an obscene amount of mana towards the item, more than several times my entire mana capacity’s worth.

My eyes widened in surprise as the sphere shook violently, and for the briefest moment, shrank into an infinitely small point. In the next, the sphere had already expanded past me, the rest of the world having disappeared.

Instead of the regular darkness of the cosmos and the brilliant, colorful ranges of galaxies and nebulae rushing past that I was familiar with, mom and I immediately found ourselves within a thick, blinding blizzard, snow covering absolutely everything as it blew violently at us.

My draconic eyes’ mana perception showed that the ceiling, the walls, and the floor were all made of magic ice, not unlike the water-attributed draconic isle, which was a hollowed-out glacier made of the same material.

“That’s a little too intense, let me tone it down a little.” Mom said, chuckling as the blizzard faded, revealing a pristine, untouched snowy landscape in the middle of a hollow mountain of magic ice.

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I gasped at the implications and the sheer tyranny such an artifact could bring. Changing the terrain itself to your advantage was an obscenely oppressive advantage.

“Settle down, dear. We’re not here to learn about this artifact – you’ll have plenty of time to do that when you ascend to rank S. Just focus on assembling the magic circle and transforming yourself for now.”

That shook me out of my stupor, as I hurriedly began working to create the magic circles.

I started with the intent-collecting circle first, sculpting it into the shape I wanted with excruciating detail. I weaved elementary-grade magic circles one after another, before connecting them with mana lines and covering them with a border.

When the intent circle was finished, I moved on to the logic circle, careful to make sure that every word, line, and border fit in place within them.

“That’s right, Kiara. Like we practiced, finish the internal structures first before connecting the circles together!”

With the internal mana lines for the two spheres finished, I finally moved into the mana funneling circle, creating its few magic circles and connecting them, before finally starting to connect all three spheres with a large number of external, directional mana lines.

Once I was done, I drew a border around it and held the structure in place.

Mom started clapping.

“Well done! All that’s left now is to activate the spell.”

I nodded and funneled mana into the spell, intending for it to transform me into a [Rainbow Dragon], the evolution that I had ended up leaving behind in favor of [Dragon Shifter].

Slowly, my body began transforming from Nisos’s form into the familiar quadrupedal form of a dragon, my scales gaining a shifting kaleidoscope of colors as they became infused with elemental mana. I felt my body shifting so as to circulate the elemental mana throughout the rest of my body as well, granting it even stronger magic resistance and serving as an instant pool for spells at the same time.

When my transformation was complete, the large, three intermediate-magic-circle-spell shrunk and embedded itself within my chest, ready to be dispelled at a moment’s notice.

I gasped in amazement, feeling the sheer amount and variety of mana at my disposal. With this much base element mana to play with, was the restriction on branch magic really that crippling? Perhaps I made the wrong choice.

In any case, I quickly took my attention away from this what-if to see if casting this spell had unlocked my supreme rarity evolution, and I wasn’t disappointed.

…

[Juvenile Sorcery Dragon]

Secret Evolution Requirement:

* Is a Dragon.

* Is a Rank C creature.

* Can speak, read, and write fluently in an Akashic language.

* Possesses a minimum of high affinity for all attributes.

* Possesses at least five divine shards.

* Successfully cast a spell using at least three intermediate-grade magic circles.

* Has not gone through more than one class advancement.

* Possesses a limit breaking skill or title.

Rank B creature. Sapient race. Some races are born with no talent for magic, while others possess it in spades. And yet, they are all equally pitiful in the face of this child of magic. Beloved by mana, they also have an ocean of mana to draw upon. This dragon was born to weave mana, and their sheer future potential promises to send shockwaves through the world.

…

“Don’t leave me in suspense, Kiara! Did it work…?!” Mom said, clearly anxious and excited in equal measures for me.

I nodded, feeling incredible catharsis.

Finally, after a long, long time, I was going to evolve again, and into such a perfect evolution as well.

I dispelled my magic circle, transforming my body back into Nisos’s form, after which I reverted back to my base humanoid form.

“Okay, mom. Do we need to do anything else, or should I evolve straight away?” I asked.

“Go ahead and brace yourself. Your evolutions from this point onwards are going to be agonizing. While only the rank S evolution is usually life-threatening, all bets are off with this one.” She answered.

My mind went back to the pain from my dragon shifter evolution, and I shuddered at the memory.

“…Let’s get this over with.”

I slapped my face lightly and shook my head as I triggered the evolution. How bad could it be?

Less than an instant later, I was already choking on that thought. Having been maimed, burned, frozen, smashed, and torn apart more times than I could remember, I thought I knew pain.

I didn’t.

The sheer anguish left me breathless as my body began to change, though both it and the rest of the world faded as I drowned in what felt like more suffering than I had experienced in my life, put together, several times over.

I fainted, only to be woken up once again by the pain, with nowhere to run.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, the pain began fading away. As I came to, a voiceless scream echoed on my face, tears and snot covering it.

Just like the last time, I was held in mom’s arms, and this time, even she had a shaken, powerless expression of despair as tears streamed down her face.