Yue felt strange as he walked through the temple. Like his body was more sensitive to the mana in there all of a sudden. He had felt weird ever since he changed into his current form. He had yet to try out any of his possible new powers and he had planned to start trying it all out now that he returned to the temple but he wasn’t so sure now that he assessed his own condition.

 

‘None of the teachings of the past incarnations can help me anymore…’

 

He touched the pearl for a second as he walked by. He no longer felt the slight urge to absorb it or it’s power but he felt very calm as he touched it. It actually stopped him in his tracks.

 

He sat down next to the pearl and hugged it, wondering why it soothed him to the point where he felt he had no control of his body. He fell asleep there in seconds, curling in on himself as he rested on the pearl.

 

—

 

“Other than the lord’s prophetic ability…perhaps you’ve also gained his advance control of wind and nature?” Jinghua asked Viktor as she walked with him through the temple.

 

“…Perhaps…I almost forgot about those powers really, He almost never uses them.” Viktor murmured.

 

“Hmm? That’s a bit strange? That should be what’s most comfortable to him.” Jinghua murmured with a confused expression.

 

“Well, I don’t think he would choose something simply because it came easily to him.” Viktor chuckled a little.

 

Yue actually didn’t use magic very often. When the stakes were lower maybe he’d slip in a spell or two but not counting his innate abilities as a dragon he rarely used anything but his sword to fight. Actually, out of the 3 couples who went to the island realm, Viktor was one of the two people who relied on magic the most. He was probably only second to Andrei.

 

Viktor quickly realized why that was. Even people like Yue and Elena ran out of mana. Though the four could absorb mana from the air it wasn’t quite like Viktor and Andrei. 

 

Because they both inherited the mana constitution that marked the Ivanov family head, they were constantly absorbing mana without even thinking about it. Compared to everyone else they could afford to bet on their magic instead of their swordsmanship.

 

Of course, Viktor’s mana wasn’t unlimited, in ruined areas it was difficult to absorb the mana in the air because of its density so if Viktor used up mana quickly enough, he could actually reach a mana deficit just like anyone else.

 

“…I should try it on my own.” He said to Jinghua and glanced at the vines decorating the temple.

 

“Hmm? I’m sure the Lord would be fine teaching you even though he rarely uses it.” Jinghua murmured.

 

“No, He probably needs to do some training on his own as well. I won’t disturb him.” Viktor said and smiled a little before waving goodbye and walking off.

 

Truthfully he’d been thinking of training on his own since returning from the island realm. Not being able to use magic and being forced to endure the Ivanov Island was more than enough to get him to think about just how weak he was. It was kind of driving him insane to think that he couldn’t do much but wait around to be saved.

 

He had one goal. He couldn’t steal the satisfaction and closure of killing Zhao Zhihao from Yue, he had no intention of doing that. But he would definitely kill the man with black scleras. In order to do that he would need to improve his swordsmanship and his magic as well. They were pretty evenly matched but if he couldn’t push past that and overpower him completely then he wouldn’t be satisfied.

 

—

 

Right before he could reach the door to the bedroom Viktor felt himself being pulled out of his body, a feeling he got often now that he had prophetic abilities. While Yue rarely had random unsolicited prophecies, Viktor got them all the time.

 

The area around them was completely barren and war-torn. Viktor couldn’t make out their location or even the time of day as the sky was full of smoke and soot. 

 

He was laying on his back facing the sky. His arm moved and he lifted his broken sword so he could look at it.

 

His sword snapping was truly unfortunate but what Viktor—both the Viktor in the prophecy and the Viktor watching the prophecy— was focused on was the letters that had been carved onto the blade.

 

‘YUE’

 

Viktor kind of laughed. He had hit himself on the door because of the prophecy but he really didn’t feel it much because of his scales. He was chuckling because he had a feeling he didn’t carve that onto his sword. He had a feeling a certain fiancée of his did.

 

He chuckled and walked into the bedroom. As he looked inside he immediately couldn’t laugh anymore. He was completely breathless.

 

He wanted to say something like “Yes!” Or “Finally!” loudly but he knew that would cause the moment to end.

 

He couldn’t get over it though. 

 

For half a second he wondered where Yue went and then his eyes immediately caught him. He was curled up around the pearl. His form had shrunk, probably because he had accidentally willed it that way.

 

Viktor didn’t know what to do as he stared. Should he touch him? Should he just watch from afar and pretend it never happened when Yue woke up?

 

He definitely decided on the first option. How could he not? Yue was laying in front of him in his dragon form for the first time ever!

 

Yue wasn’t snake-sized, he was pretty large but when he was coiled up around the pearl he only reached around Viktor’s knees at the moment. He figured Yue was doing something about his size and appearance because…well how could a dragon look so cute and small.

 

Viktor stopped holding back and stroked the blue-green scales on Yue’s head. Yue actually opened his eyes almost immediately after feeling that. His eyes were even more striking in this form.

 

Viktor froze, he thought Yue was probably going to get embarrassed and switch back but that wasn’t the case at all. Yue…didn’t seem to realize that he was in dragon form.

 

He nudged his head back into Viktor’s hand, signaling for him to keep stroking his head.

 

Viktor cautiously continued but then he stopped and looked Yue in the eye. He decided to just come out and tell him.

 

“This form is cute. I don’t know why you tried to hide it.”

 

Yue had closed his eyes when Viktor started petting him again but the. He opened his eyes and gave him a look that Viktor couldn’t decipher because…dragon faces and human faces aren’t very similar.

 

Viktor could assume that it meant something along the lines of “what?”

 

Yue then raised his hand up a little. He stared at the claw for a second and then immediately panicked and threw himself away from the pearl. He immediately transformed back as he stopped touching the pearl. 

 

Yue noticed he switched back and immediately covered himself with the blue-green overcoat he got from his transformation in the island realm. It actually became invisible after a while when he didn’t transform for a few hours.

 

“F-Forget you ever saw that!” Yue exclaimed with bright red cheeks.

 

“How could I forget seeing THE azure dragon?” Viktor teased and laid down on the floor right next to Yue, chuckling as he watched him.

 

Yue whimpered a little, embarrassed that Viktor actually saw him in that form.

 

“You’re so beautiful…I wanted to touch more but I knew you’d be embarrassed.” Viktor giggled, sliding his body so his head was right next to where Yue was hiding his.

 

“…Why’d you suddenly transform if you didn’t want me to see?” Viktor asked and kissed Yue through the hanfu.

 

“I-I didn’t want to transform! It just happened!” Yue exclaimed.

 

“Hmm? That’s weird.” Viktor was not actually in the least bit concerned, he was more focused on getting Yue to show him his face. He got a chance while Yue squirmed and he grabbed Yue’s waist and pulled him so he was laying on him.

 

Yue froze up and Viktor used the chance to push Yue’s Hanfu away from his face. He looked at Yue's bright red cheeks and ears and he laughed.

 

“You’re so cute, Yue.” He said before kissing him.

 

—

 

Before he got Prophetic eyes, Insight, and all of the other little special abilities in Viktor’s perfect little head often caused him headaches. So other than bumping into things once in a while when he was focused on his prophecies, he could literally work through them pretty easily. Yue had been pretty impressed by this when he saw it. Viktor was very clearly having a prophecy but he didn’t stop his writing. It took Yue a few years to get used to that. And even now he struggled when he got shocking prophecies.

 

He saw Viktor starting to learn this right before they returned. And now Viktor was actually putting it into action….in the most embarrassing place possible.

 

“A forest…?” Viktor murmured, having not a care in the world for how he was in the middle of thrusting his hips.

 

Yue was very confused but he quickly realized what was going on. He was going to tell him to focus on one thing at a time, hoping to get a break from their current exercises but suddenly he was pulled into a prophecy as well.

 

Just like Viktor said it was a forest, one with a carriage trail running through it. It seemed to be somewhere north of the temple, still in China but closer to the Yellow Sea.

 

Yue’s perspective was different from Viktor’s. Yue was in a carriage that had stopped. He watched Viktor—who wore a hanfu and a veiled hat— fight off bandits. The bandits didn’t seem to have been attacking them though. They seem to have been attacking a young boy and his father who were in a different carriage.

 

Yue forced the prophecy to end as Viktor's seemed to end a bit quicker. He was thinking of seeing the prophecy out but it was pretty clear by the way Viktor pulled his hips to meet his thrust that he wanted Yue’s attention.

 

“Y-You gave me your prophecy..” Yue moaned, pretty embarrassed by the idea that if they were tangled up like this then they could have the same prophecies at the same time.

 

He looked at Viktor and noticed a slight pink on Viktor’s cheeks.

 

“I kind of liked that.” Viktor chuckled and captured Yue’s lips.

 

Yue grumbled a little but kissed back. He was still anxiously waiting for the day he could fully top Viktor but it seemed unlikely at the moment. He thought about it more as he looked up at Viktor’s pretty face though.

 

“What’s wrong? You’re so quiet suddenly?” Viktor asked and looked over at Yue, a bit worried that he was hurting him.

 

“Nothing’s wrong,” Yue smirked a little as he looked at Viktor's worried expression, “Just admiring the view.” 

 

Yue touched Viktor’s chin as he watched his expression change to a red-tinted look of surprise.

 

“I see why you like teasing.” Yue chuckled and then took his chance to flip Viktor over. His big ambitions would take a back seat for now but he wanted to have a little victory after having Viktor see him in dragon form earlier.