“Impressive. He’s taken it upon himself. To set things in motion.” A furry Dragon rumbled curiously as he stroked his grey chin hairs. “Hmph. I do not see a flicker of divinity in his light. Only pride and-” the arrogant golden eyed Dragon was silenced by the sight of Kenpachi’s wound healing quickly.

“That attack only harms my enemies. It seems you have had a one change of heart after another.” The Black Dragon rumbled happily. “I do not mean to sound arrogant, but you cannot defeat me on your own. Our traitors lie elsewhere. If you wish to bring them to justice, then you must overcome the mountain before you!” Kagiso rumbled threateningly. He increased his energy output to its maximum and projected his aura.

The Black Dragon’s energy signature illuminated the darkness. The bright white giant emitted a rainbow of colours that formed a stained-glass painting. The Black Dragon wore a golden suit of power armour. He wielded a black staff in his right hand and a golden grimoire in his left. Thousands of purple starts twinkled in the night sky behind him, and a tree of light sprouted from the ground behind him. The elders and the Dragon folk marveled at the young recruit’s aura.

“Hmm. Divinity, I know nothing of, but I am certain now that my King has chosen a fine Heir. Well done, Victor. You have raised an excellent son.” Admiral Granger confided, and the Dragon Guard General perked up proudly. “Aye, all he needs now are the correct merits and decorations. Perhaps then, we will recognise the Divinity he speaks of.” A Dragon resembling a horned doe whispered. Everyone fixed their gaze on the five-hundred-meter-tall recruits, that had circled the eight-hundred-meter tall Black Dragon, and the three to five-hundred-meter-tall recruits behind them.

The titanic animalistic figures spread their wings and their eyes glowed different colours. They watched the Black Dragon carefully, while their Astral bodies’ hands hovered over various dials, knobs and levers. Kagiso relaxed his body and closed his eyes. He left himself wide open and adopted a neutral stance.

“Cocky little-”“-wait. My brother is no fool. Approach carefully.” Duke rumbled stoically and Raymond closed one eye. He saw a black fist and the Black Dragon landed the second strike. An explosion of Mana burst out of his body, and he nearly crushed his brother’s head. The Three Horned Wyrm’s skeleton cracked and Kenpachi’s sword came barreling down at Kagiso’s neck. He ducked, stepped aside, spun and danced out of the way. The circle closed instantly, and the rear guard took to the skies. They circled the Black Dragon and waited for any opening to land a shot.

Duke stomped his right foot, and glittery cracks fanned out. The stasis field ballooned, and Domanique was trapped inside somehow. The enraged Dragon’s katana stopped millimeters away from her neck and he looked up. A heel crushed his nose bone, before an elbow cracked the back of his neck.

“You rely too much on your family’s heirlooms and your swordsmanship. It makes you predictable.” Kagiso rumbled confidently. He spun around, clapped his hands and secreted a glittery dome. The sparkly swarms of fiery birds and glittery stampedes of lightning constructs shrunk mysteriously, while the hail of Dragon bone bullets, arrows and spears orbited the dome.

“Did you see that?” Laurence asked his sisters. “Aye. He’s toying with us.” Gloria replied. “And we’re insulting him! We are supposed to kill someone that Demi-Gods couldn’t, and this is the best we can muster?” Mei snapped, and the other two felt her terror. “What are you doing? Retreat!” Raymond rumbled angrily and black magical circles appeared on dozens of titanic bodies.

Kenpachi slammed the hilt of his sword against his chest, before he nicked the back of his neck. The two Death Spells shattered, right before Kagiso snapped his fingers. The Three Horned Wyrm shielded himself and those near him. However, nothing happened for a few moments. Suddenly, two dozen recruits crumbled and turned to ash. They left behind titanic watery bodies that inspected their hands curiously, before a violent force sucked them into the sandy ground and raised glittery granite tombstones in their place.

“Return to the Void-Become nothing- and be re-birthed-by The Universe.” The Black Dragon prayed, and a light guided the confused souls wandering the ashy dunes. They saw the tree of light over the horizon and migrated towards it. The shaggy-haired Admiral smiled at the bewildered expression on his commander’s face. She leaned in closer and the golden eyed Dragon sitting behind her scowled.

One by one, the elder Dragons and the clan members gave in to their curiosity. They closed their eyes and their Astral bodies blinked. The audience dropped their shoulders and clenched their fists furiously. Many of the Golden Eyed Dragons rumbled the Chosen Heir’s prayer, and the audience erupted. The recruits glanced at the elders that had risen to their feet silently, before they locked onto Kagiso again.

“I thought you had left your rebellious nature behind. Do you know what praying for their souls means?” Raymond rumbled furiously. “Yes. I took their lives. It is my responsibility to guide them back to their bodies.” The Black Dragon rumbled with a mixture of regret and hope. The Dragons frowned, scowled and snarled at the contradictory emotions he had shared.

“Have you lost your-” Raymond vanished and dodged the black crystal bolt his brother had fired from his fingertip. “I have pondered and argued for a thousand lifetimes. If you wish to oppose me or change my mind, then find the strength to force my hand.” Kagiso rumbled apathetically and his Astral bodies appeared before every recruit. The nervous recruits turned and raised the dials, knobs and levers that controlled their energy output.

The recruits’ bodies grew heavier and hotter. The world became brighter and more colourful, before everything moved at a snail’s pace. The Black Dragon stomped his foot, and a stasis field swallowed the coliseum. He locked onto his Astral bodies and the distance between them contracted. Kagiso folded the world upon itself and reached out to mark everyone.

Duke gave Domanique a look, and she vibrated her short tail. The Four-Armed Dragon’s bell resonated with the glittery tuft of hair, that resembled a paintbrush. The Minotaur Dragon shaped her tail hairs like a bell, and a strange ringing grew louder. The stasis field vibrated as well, and the recruits slipped free from it and the Black Dragon’s grasp.

“Who got hit?” Laurence asked frantically. He vanished immediately afterwards, and Kagiso’s fingertips narrowly missed him. “I knew it. You can read our minds.” The Eldest of the Golden Eyed Sisters deduced, and Kagiso reached out without answering. He clapped his hands and Laurence frowned. He scanned the battlefield and noticed that everyone had finger shaped dents in their necks. The Golden Eyed Dove Dragon swallowed his head, before his limbs shrunk and his wings grew.

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Laurence shone and rose slowly. He flapped his wings and fanned a glittery cloud at the Black Dragon. The Dove Dragon screeched, and the cloud of Mana amplified his voice. The interdimensional sound waves shook Kagiso’s nano-cities. The walls cracked and bled. Laurence stopped and stared.

“He has stitched his own flesh to…where would he have learned such a thing? How many times have you lost yourself? How many times did you find yourself again? Madness…genius? Are you sharing this with me?” the Dove Dragon wondered as he inspected the walls.

Laurence entered the building and explored every passage. He followed the deep thumping to an underground chamber. The Dove Dragon approached the balcony and marveled at the titanic heart hovering hundreds of meters above a dam filled with glittery blood. He looked up and scanned the hundreds of thousands of cables attached to the magical heart.

“He can read our minds. That is how he calculates every probability. You need to share what you know. We cannot defeat him as we are.” Laurence said to the recruits, and he showed them what he had discovered in Kagiso’s cells. Raymond’s eyes bulged. His shoulders dropped and let out a small chuckle. He gave it some thought, and it struck him like a bolt of lightning.

“This entire time…I thought I was being guided. Is it true?” The Three Horned Wyrm rumbled, and Victor clenched his fist. He clenched his teeth, looked away and turned to face his eldest son. A distraught Raymond turned to the Black Dragon for an answer. However, his brother was still in a disoriented state. He raised his right hand and pressed his middle finger and thumb together.

“Kenpachi! Tell them!” the Dove Dragon rumbled, and the recruits felt the desperation in his plea. Kagiso snapped his fingers and Laurence turned to ash. His soul plummeted to the ground, and another Keystone rose from the sand. “No!” Mei and Gloria screamed in unison. Their energy output skyrocketed, and their energy signatures flared. The elders stopped arguing, when they received notifications of an energy spike nearby.

The two Golden Eyed Sisters pounced immediately. The Penguin Dragon’s drones appeared above, behind and next to the Black Dragon. She screamed her lungs out at one and they all blasted interdimensional sound waves at him. The Parrot Dragon placed her palms together and pried them apart slowly. She revealed a watery orb, with a bright ball of glittery light in its center. The orbs of Mana wrote four, six bracket spells that flipped and revolved in opposite directions.

Gloria fired the orb at the sun. She raised her arms, and the spells stopped suddenly. The Parrot Dragon glared at Kagiso. She looked through the center of her spell, like a telescope, and locked onto him. Gloria lowered her arms. The magical circles expanded instantly, and the orb pried open a portal.

The one-hundred-kilometer-long Whale Ship fired a sparkly Dragon bone shell from its horn. The glittery warhead passed through the portal at the speed of light. The glittery beam crashed into the coliseum and the recruits bunkered down. They crossed their arms, placed their palms together, or stomped their feet.

The ships traveling between their nano-cities projected their shields simultaneously and the recruits erected powerful barriers of crystalized light and Mana. The seams between the crystal bricks disappeared, and the barriers sparkled. The coliseum trembled, and the elders watched with bated breath. They waited for the dust to settle and a few noticed.

“It’s too quiet.” Admiral Granger said, and he peered through the shaggy hairs in front of his eyes. “Impossible.” Vice-Admiral Mokoena whispered, and his golden eyes shimmered. The Peacock Dragon felt his daughter’s presence disappear for the first time. The absence, the suddenness and the grief washed over him.

“Do not be afraid to mourn, even if she will return to us. This ritual is for all who are about to send their children across the stars and to battle. The first loss is always the worst, so mourn. There is no shame in that.” The Terrier Dragon rumbled, and the Golden Eyed Dragons rumbled the Chosen Heir’s prayer between sobs. Their wails grew louder, when the second of Theo’s daughters died mysteriously.

Mei’s energy signature flared once more, and the Black Dragon tossed Gloria’s lifeless body away. The Parrot Dragon slid hundreds of meters, before her body turned to ash and her soul fell. The Keystone rose where she had perished, and Shen punched through Kagiso’s Astral body. The Black Dragon’s head jerked forward, and he stomped his left foot to halt his momentum.

The Azure Dragon roared and danced to the next ghostly figure. He punched, kicked, elbowed, kneed, clawed, palmed, bit and tail swiped ferociously. Kagiso’s smile grew with each delayed impact. He tried to move his Astral bodies out of the way, but Shen was mysteriously quicker than he had foreseen.

Duke, Kenpachi and Domanique did not waste a nano-second. The trio pounced, vanished and launched a coordinated assault. The Black Dragon looked up, and they all had an enrage Penguin Dragon at their backs. He ducked, dodged, side stepped and leapt out of their way. A blow struck his left cheek and the Minotaur Dragon’s hammer shattered against his right cheek. Another struck his lower back, and the Four-Armed Dragon palmed his chest. He amplified the slapping sound, released a powerful pulse of Mana and broke his hands in the process.

“Since when have I ever made the same mistake twice? Laurence told you what you needed to do. Will you let his death be in vain?” Kagiso rumbled arrogantly. His Astral body detonated, and the powerful explosion blew off Shen’s right arm. The Elders frowned when they received the notification. “That’s it. Fight your fate. Struggle until the end of time. Find your own path.” Victor rumbled proudly, while the Three Horned Dragon stargazed.

“I don’t understand. How could I have been so blind? All these possibilities…and I just ignored them.” Raymond thought as his Astral bodies wandered the aisles of his mind palace. They relieved old memories, looked up and used what they knew then to see the choices the Three Horned Dragon had never even considered. The psychic ghosts laughed, cried, wandered aimlessly and threw fits of rage.

“How did you break his spell? What do you know about Black Magic?” Raymond asked, but Kenpachi ignored him and coated his blade with a layer of fiery Mana. “Oy! You heard me! Tell us or we’re all going to die!” The Three Horned Dragon barked impatiently. “I refuse.” The Slack-Jawed Dragon replied calmly. “Please.” Mei whispered, and he felt her rage and pain.

“Only if you will share all that you know of drone warfare.” Kenpachi replied, and Raymond snarled at the bubbles he was looking at. He had convinced the Slack-Jawed Dragon himself in each one.

“Tainted as soon as I touch them? Ruined by the observer? Something adjacent to the truth. I have always had to interpret my visions, while he fought to change them. Even when you were blind, you saw more than I did. Yes, that is why you will be King. I am content with the role of decorated general. Yes, brother. Excuse me, if I stray from time to time. Forward, no matter what lies in front of me. I will always move forward. For our people.” The Three Horned Dragon vowed, and a sense of relief washed over him. He inhaled deeply and his relief turned to pride.

Raymond increased his energy output just as the Penguin Dragon shared what she had just learned with them. Kenpachi sucked his teeth, when he saw how long it took to produce a single magical drone. He glanced at the Minotaur Dragon, and she exchanged a look with Duke. They shared what they had learned in the library about breaking and escaping stasis fields with Mei, and she passed it on to the other recruits. The elders and clan members gasped when more notifications came in.

“What in the Universe is happening?” Commander Buchu whispered when the darkness lit up. “Some will say that our prayers have been answered, others will call it the second singularity. Your son has succeeded where our generation failed, Victor. I will accept the role of Fleet Admiral, only if I may sail with His Majesty’s Heir.” Admiral Granger rumbled proudly. The elders and clan members watched the two Wyrms carefully. The duo led the remaining recruits into battle and suffered mortal wounds for their role in the charge.

“What say you, Abu? Will General Creed lead our people’s armies once more?” Victor rumbled stoically and the remaining recruits launched everything they had at Kagiso. They bypassed his defenses and dealt a deadly blow to his left side. Kenpachi drove the sword deeper, and it pierced the Black Dragon’s Heart. The heterochromatic man stared at the portal the sword had cut open to reach his Seat of Power. He ran his fingers along the glittery steel and the pattern changed.

“I will accept the role of General of the Armies under one condition. The Chosen Heir is to be terminated, if he ever poses a threat to society or the Universe. I will not allow a Draconic invasion force to become a crusade. I have slain enough tyrants to know some wield kindness as a weapon.” A colossal iron scaled Dragon rumbled sternly and Victor stood up. He chuckled in disbelief.

Every Dragon in the audience rose to their feet, at the sight of the Black Dragon resurrecting himself. His Astral bodies paged through the choroninomicron and time wound back slowly. The blade slid out of his body and his wounds healed before their eyes.