Astra desperately screamed as he fired waves of wind balls beneath him, attempting to use the momentum to propel himself upwards but it was no use. The battle had left him wounded and his mana pool drained.

Several moments later, Astra had forced out every drop of mana that he had and was completely out of mana.

“Is this it…? This is how my life is going to end?” Astra muttered to himself as he continued falling down the fissure.

Astra growled, “Heath Nightbend...If I don’t die here, I will definitely kill you!”

Astra’s eyes rolled backwards as he fell unconscious.

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

Heath heaved in anger as his plan was now ruined. He just wanted to extort several items from Astra. Who would’ve known that Astra would fight back like a cornered wolf? Heath looked around him.

Everyone stared at Heath as they didn’t know what to do next.

“Now what? What do we do about everyone who was killed?” Someone asked.

Heath sneered, “I didn’t force you guys to do this. You were all blinded by greed and couldn’t see the danger. Their deaths have nothing to do with me. If you want to blame someone, blame Astra Gale.”

Everyone’s eyes went wide with shock. If it weren’t for Heath telling everyone about what Astra got from Sloveus, no one would have even paid attention to him. This had nothing to do with him? Everything happened because of him.

“That’s not fair! You enticed everyone and instigated the group to attack Astra! The teachers won’t let you get away with this!” Someone yelled.

Heath grimaced, “Is that a threat? Are you threatening me? What family are you from? I’ll exterminate your entire family if you dare speak a word of this to the teachers!”

Everyone took a step back in fear.

“...Wh-What do we tell them then?” Someone asked.

Heath stood still for a moment, thinking of a clever excuse.

“Here’s what we say…” Heath began to tell the group their alibi.

…

..

.

Ascelyn Academy.

A teacher overlooking the academy gate was surprised to see the amount of students that came back and immediately told them to stop.

“What happened? Are there still students left in the dimension?” The teacher asked.

A young man spoke up, “A commoner by the name of Astra Gale screamed for help but it was actually a trap! He lured us to a fissure then conjured up an earthquake, instantaneously throwing us off the cliff! ”

To further cement the alibi, several people told the same story and even began crying.

“..I-I-I never thought th-th-that this would ha-happen…” A girl sobbed.

“We have never done anything to him nor spoken to him and yet he would be so devious! Taking advantage of our kind hearts to lure us into a trap!”

“These commoners have nothing to lose! No wonder they would do something as insane as this!”

The teacher frowned. A single or even a dozen commoners dying was no big deal. But when more than a dozen nobles die to a commoner’s trap, this would invoke the rage and fury from all the noble families. No way in hell that the teacher was going to try and meddle in something as serious as this.

“This should be reported immediately,” The teacher quickly turned around and continued staring over the academy walls.

Heath grinned. A death of a noble was a huge deal. It was no surprise that the teacher didn’t want anything to do with this.

“Well then, this is where we part ways,” Heath smiled at the crowd and headed back towards his manor.

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After an unknown amount of time had passed, Astra gradually regained his consciousness. His surroundings were a completely black world where he couldn’t see a single thing.

...Am I still alive?

Where am I…?

Astra stayed still and focused on recovering his mana. He began to recover his senses and was able to hear his own bated breath.

“I’m..still alive…” Astra whispered to himself.

Astra tried to clench his fist, but was only able to slightly curl his fingers.

As he began to regain his strength, he could feel that his entire body was wracked with pain.

Suddenly, Astra felt an earth-shattering stomp.

“Ugh!” Astra grunted. The vibrations from the ground was making his wounded body tremble with agony.

With each step that came closer and closer, Astra groaned in pain.

Suddenly, the steps stopped. Astra felt a huge figure looming over him. The aura coming from the figure was able to shake his soul but yet Astra felt his blood boiling which kept him conscious.

Astra was able to feel the warm breath coming from the creature. It felt like the first breeze of summer. The breath seemed to revitalize Astra as he managed to fully open his eyes.

A gigantic claw was inching closer and closer towards his chest. If the creature had wanted to kill Astra, it could have done it already. Astra laid there silently, calmly breathing.

Right as the claw was about to touch Astra’s chest, a soft clink was heard as the claw made contact with Astra’s jade pendant.

An intense blue light shined from the pendant and lit up Astra’s surroundings. The creature’s turquoise scales gleamed in the blue light. It’s teeth were bright and sharp. It’s eyes shimmered with a violet glow and seemed to contain all the wisdom in the world.

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A dragon!

There was no mistaking it, Astra had seen this creature in a children’s book before. Darcy had told him that dragons were once the kings of this world but went extinct thousands of years ago. So why was there one right in front of him?

Before Astra could ponder on the question, a fierce crackling came from his pendant as if summoning a divine deity.

Suddenly, a girl materialized above of Astra.

The girl looked to be the same age as Astra and wore a tattered azure dress. Her petite and dainty body was curled up like an infant. Below her dress revealed two slender pale legs and two naked feet. Her closed eyelids revealed her long and delicate eyelashes. They seemed as soft as cotton and light as feathers.

The most dazzling thing about the girl was her hair. It was as blue as the clear sky and was flowing like silk from the dragon’s soft breath.

The girl slowly descended and landed besides Astra’s battered body.

Astra took a deep breath. Under the glow of his pendant, the girl’s face appeared in his line of sight. Astra froze in shock as he looked at her.

“...Beautiful…” Astra let his thoughts slip out.

The dragon bowed down and put its head to the ground.

“Forgive this lowly one for summoning you, I had felt your presence and sensed your lack of vitality hence I imparted some of my life force upon you,” The dragon slowly spoke in a humble manner.

The girl nodded at the dragon, “Thank you.”

“But if it weren’t for this imbecile, my vitality would have never weakened in the first place,” said the girl in an arrogant tone.

Wh-What? Is she talking about me?

Astra opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out.

“Can you heal this idiot for me?” The girl asked the dragon.

The dragon nodded politely, “Of course.”

The dragon tapped its claw lightly on Astra’s chest. An immense amount of mana came surging towards Astra and immediately filled up his mana pool. Astra felt a warm yet cool feeling spread throughout his body. This feeling felt familiar to when Fausto had healed him but its effectiveness was much greater.

In a few seconds, Astra was fully recovered. He got up and clenched his fist and felt his strength return.

Astra glared at the girl, “Who are you? Why did you call me an imbecile?”

Suddenly a ferocious aura came from behind him and paralyzed his body. The pressure was so immense that Astra couldn’t even breathe.

The girl held her palm towards the dragon signalling for it to stop.

The aura was retracted in an instant and Astra began wheezing for air.

“You may call me Dahlia. As for why you’re an imbecile, it is because you are an imbecile,” The girl responded.

“H-Huh? You’re..not answering..the question,” Astra gasped for air as he spoke.

“This pendant...do you know what it is?” Dahlia asked.

Astra recovered his breath and looked down at his chest, “Don’t know, I’ve had it since birth.”

“Do you remember the ogre in the forest?” The girl sat down in front of Astra.

“I was the one who killed it.”

Astra’s eyes went wide with astonishment, “You? You killed that ogre? How?”

“I took over your body with the power of the pendant. Before that point, I only needed a little bit more time before I could fully materialize but no, you had to go get yourself into trouble and forced me to save you,” Dahlia scoffed.

Dahlia continued, “That little commotion in the classroom? That was also me. Without the abundant energy from the pendant sustaining me, my mentality was weak and I was easily angered by the words of several lowly beings. But you, you just HAD to reach out towards the ball of light after I told you not to. You almost killed me because of that.”

Astra sat down silently, he didn’t know what to say.

“That little battle earlier, I tried saving you but my energy was utterly depleted at that point. If it weren’t for this dragon here, you would’ve definitely died,” said Dahlia with a hint of anger.

Astra stared at Dahlia, “...Who exactly are you? Where did you come from?”

“I shouldn’t even bother but...Do you know of the Lightning Clan?” Dahlia asked with a tint of hope.

Astra raised an eyebrow, “Lightning Clan? What’s that?”

Dahlia sighed in disappointment and mumbled, “What did I expect…”

“Forget it, if you don’t know then there’s no point in talking about it. Let’s focus on the present,”

With Dahlia’s attitude and the dragon behind him, trying to force Dahlia to talk about it would be a very bad idea. Astra kept his mouth shut and sat in silence.

“What now...What now…” Dahlia murmured to herself. She looked up and felt that something was wrong.

“This place...It’s crumbling soon! We have to get out of here!” Dahlia exclaimed.

Astra quickly got up. Sloveus’ Dimension only lasted for seventy hours! How long has it been since he fell down?

Dahlia looked towards the dragon, “Can you bring us out of here?”

The dragon flapped open its wings. It was tattered and full of holes. Blood spurted from its back as it tried to forcefully flap its wings.

Dahlia looked at the dragon and felt heartbroken. The dragons were a proud race famed for their fighting prowess and wings that would allow them to soar throughout the skies. A dragon who had lost their ability to fly was no longer a true dragon.

“Enough, we will find some other way,” Dahlia said sternly.

The dragon dejectedly put its wings away as a puddle of blood formed beneath him.

“This lowly one truly is useless...even in your time of need, I could not help,” The dragon whimpered.

Astra looked at the dragon, “How did you survive here? Doesn’t the whole dimension close?”

“This fissure is enchanted with inscriptions that only allows me to survive the collapsing of the dimension,” The dragon gloomy replied.

What kind of joke was this? Wasn’t this basically trapping the dragon here? A creature as powerful as this dragon was trapped here? Who would be able to do something like this?

Dahlia stared at Astra’s pendant. The dragon had replenished her vitality but not the energy of the pendant. This pendant was no ordinary pendant, it was an accessory that would be able to gather divine energy and allow the user to do whatever they wished with it. With divine energy severely lacking in this realm, Dahlia would not be able to take over Astra’s body in a long while.

Astra sighed and faced Dahlia, “You should save yourself. With your power, you should easily be able to get out of here.”

Dahlia stared at Astra like he had said the stupidest thing in his entire life.

“Our souls are connected...if I stray too far from you, I’ll disappear,” Dahlia said.

Astra was shocked once again, “Wh-What? Souls? What do you mean by that?”

“Enough, let me think,” Dahlia stared at the sky in silence.

Astra sat down and began thinking as well.

The dragon was of no use, its wings were brutally torn apart and was bleeding profusely with every flap. Dahlia apparently had no more energy so taking control of his body was impossible. The fissure was way too tall to climb. Even with Astra fully recovered, it wouldn’t make a difference.

“If only I could enchant some flying boots...if only I could’ve learned it from the enchanting master…” Astra mumbled.

Dahlia immediately turned towards Astra, “...What did you say?”

Astra was afraid of saying something stupid again, “N-Nothing…”

“No, not nothing. Say it again!” Dahlia commanded.

“I-I was just saying...that if I learned how to enchant flying equipment from the enchanting master, I could just fly out of here…” Astra responded meekly.

“That’s it!” Dahlia smiled.

“Really? We’re going to fly out of here?” asked Astra.

“No, you idiot. You’re so incompetent that I forgot that you have the bloodline of the Lightning Clan,” Dahlia said haughtily.

Dahlia’s smile faded as she looked at the sky, “...Even if you are the most talented genius our clan has ever seen, you’ll never be able to learn it in the amount of time we have left.”

The dragon’s ears perked up, “Time? If you need time...I am willing to give you time.”

Dahlia looked at the dragon and grimaced, “...Are you sure?”

“With all these years that I’ve spent trapped in this fissure, it has to be fate that you have appeared before me today. If I just stay here, I’ll eventually rot away sooner or later. I would be honored to use what little time I have left to help you,” The dragon said proudly.

Dahlia sighed, “Fine. Whenever you are ready.”

The dragon nodded and closed its eyes.