The painting of the river rippled as It absorbed father's flames. This continued for a while as cosmic mana descended upon us. 'This presence feels like that of the king!' I inwardly noted, remembering my time back in my naming ceremony.
Father had his eyes closed in concentration, the cosmic mana slowly began to surround him causing a faint dark blue hue to appear. I tried to reach out to It, yet to my disappointment, the mana ignored me completely. I was able to sense a presence guiding it, hence with my nonexisting control over It, I was unable to form a connection with the mana.
'So It's the king that's wielding the mana?' I wondered as I watched over the entire ordeal with undisguised curiosity. After what seemed like a few minutes, the mana suddenly moved towards me. I didn't feel any sense of danger from It so I remained put while waiting to see what would happen.
The cosmic mana slowly flowed inside my body and moved straight towards my soul space. Seeing that I panicked, grandfather had said that soul space is a Dragon's greatest strength, but also his greatest weakness. And with the pain of mine collapsing before still fresh on my mind, I was not willing to take any risks.
Father must have sensed my anxiety as he spoke in a reassuring tone. "Fear not Aether, accept the King's blessing," He said causing me to pause momentarily. Despite my nervousness, I forcefully refrained from doing anything rash as I followed after the mana.
Once inside my Soul space, the previous desolate blue world shook as the cosmo mana began to gather right in the middle, forming a sculpture of a dragon, or at least what should be a dragon. The sculpture was unfinished with only the lower part created while the rest was missing.
I was confused as I saw that, at first my guess was that the statue was that of the King himself, yet taking a closer look at It, It strangely seemed to resemble me more than anything. Although only the lower part was created, I was pretty confident that It depicted me and not anyone else.
With a frown, my eyes blinked back to reality as I turned my gaze towards my father and asked. "May I ask what Is the meaning of this father?" I asked while trying to sound respectful to which he answered with a nod. "That is the blessing bestowed upon you by King, It helps you strengthen your soul space, and In rare cases where one has a second affinity, yours, in particular, is an extremely rare one, an affinity with one of the pillars of existence! The blessing will help you create a bond with the mana, though you will have to succeed in your rite of passage to get the entirety of It, for as It is now still incomplete," Explained father to which I nodded with a serious expression.
"The rite of passage, what sort of trial is It father?" I nervously asked. "Did the King inform you of It?" added. A hearty laugh escaped father's mouth as he looked at me with an amused expression. "The King? Haha! Who do you think you are little one? The King can not be bothered by simple matters such as these, he is busy with more serious ones, we only came here to get his blessing before we depart," He said with a grin.
"Eh? Then does that mean the one that will pick my trial is—" Not allowing me to continue, father interrupted. "That's right, the one to pick your rite of passage is me!" He confirmed with an ominous grin causing a shiver to run down my spine.
"Then, If I may ask father...My rite of passage, what is it?" I nervously inquired to which father's grin further widened. "That would be to destroy the puny land the humans call the Piya kingdom!" He said causing my eyes to widen in shock.
"T-To destroy a kingdom?" I muttered. "What's wrong Aether, It's nothing but a bunch of lower lifeforms. They brought this upon themselves," He said with a frown. I was not bothered by the fact that my mission was to exterminate an entire kingdom for humans, my conscience was clear, to me that was a dragon, they were the enemy.
Though I would be lying If I said I had no concerns. During my last fight against them, the humans were unexpectedly weak, though they did hold some interesting abilities, I could not ignore the fact that I held the absolute advantage at sea. Perhaps things might get trickier at land, maybe I would even find some strong opponents.
"Yes, father!" I nodded in confirmation to which my father seemed pleased as he continued to explain. "Listen well Aether, currently the humans are the ones ruling over the lower continent, they divided the land into six countries, the Piya kingdom which Is located at the south, the Tinada and Rimor Kingdoms directly above it, the Yadour, and Lumia empires to the north, with the Zasal dynasty to the east. Though we do not meddle with the affairs of the lower continent, we are nonetheless aware of everything that goes on! The Piya kingdom had been sending their men in search of our land for years now, and although by pure luck, they did manage to kill our younglings years ago," He said as his frown deepened.
I gulped facing my father's piercing gaze, a dangerous aura was surrounding him as he spoke. "Remember well Aether! A dragon never forgets! The humans have grown arrogant with our disappearance, It's time they learn that their actions have consequences, your rite of passage trial is to teach them a lesson, make sure the Piya kingdom is gone from the face of this plane!" Ordered father as his bloodlust sky rocked.
With my back drenched in cold sweat, I raised my head high and replied. "Yes, father!" He seemed pleased with my answer as he nodded and continued. "Good, then let us move, I will guide you to your destination, how you take care of the humans will be up to you," He said and then lowered his tail in front of me.
I hastily jumped on top of It and swiftly moved to stand on his head. Father then steadily made his way out of the temple, passing by the King's statue once again, as we both gave our respects. Once outside, father nimbly jumped to the sky and made his way further north towards what I assumed to be the edge of our continent.
Our flight proceeded smoothly with no problems, the large grassland disappeared as we left the temple and Dragon road behind, only to be replaced by the familiar sight of a dense forest. We continued on our way for almost a day before we reached the edge.
The sea appeared before my eye, extending towards the horizon. Father did not stop as we swiftly flew past the land, the scenery below changing from a dense forest into an endless sea. Turning my attention back, I was surprised by the sight of the continent from this side, It appeared as If It had been cut cleanly off by something, or someone.
it is satisfying to see the dots come together little by little. I am referring to the "clues" left in the previous verses with Aether's events / perspective.
Knowing that this Kingdom is the one that killed the Dragon Jobenes (also mentioned in one of those history / record fragments) and also the one that commanded the expeditions.
The story is taking shape and meaning, well, at least for me, it gives the feeling that the world "forms" and expands even more, with dragons as its "core" and its "exterior".
ps:Well, sorry if I'm not too clear, when I try to explain something through metaphors, I think it confuses more ...
Funny thing about humans. . . Almost all their population centers are located by or very near large sources of water.
very true.... but on the up side....that makes them perfect dragon toys :)
@Bree all of the environment makes them perfect dragon toys, existence itself wants to help dragons, well... The 4 pillars of existence need to acknowledge you but the others help you unconditionally.
The last two days felt like eternity and im already waiting for the next chap.
TFTC
I wonder if he will crush the kingdom with pure strength or if he will use another method.
not that important anyway TIME TO KILL
@Ojmt Are the humans even aware of the dangers they cause (messing with mana stream = planar/planetary collapse)? Do the elves and demons know (I recall an excerpt from an elf survivor wondering what they did wrong when they were fighting for their deity and ended up this way to be hunted by humans? What did the deities fight for?)? Would it matter if they did? Dragons don't seem very chatty with inferiors so I wouldn't be surprised if no dragon has ever given a verbal warning about endangering the mana stream. Maybe Aether will be the first and the survivors can spread it.
I wonder if the land looks sheer due to the King cleaving it apart or something (curb stomped the demon and elf deity ended up separating the continents or maybe lifted a landmass into space?)?
@Ediav42 Well what the elves and demons did wrong seems pretty clear to me: Trusting the wrong entity
and about the humans knowing what they do: I think they dont really mess with the mana stream. From what i know the way they control mana is extremely forced and unnatural, but not that harmful to the world(if not the dragon king/dragons would probably start a genocide). Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what i know the only real danger to the world/mana stream are shades.
@Ojmt It might have an effect on the mana, but even if it does, it's not to an extent they would get annihalated for. (Though if they ever managed to make a magic industrial revolution they might get blasted back to the stone age)
The Dragons might have told them, but if they did they likely forgot with time. Time which probably was long for them, but short for dragons. So for the dragons it might just be that they gave up on 'constantly' reminding them, because they just forget right away anyways.
It's also possible that they are entirely unable to use mana the right/dragon way, or they just don't know better. Might be interesting to see the mc try to teach that to humans.
@Al93we If I remember correctly, one of the lore-texts at the beginning of the earlier chapters said something about dragons being born with magic, so I think humans are simply uncapable to use mana in a natural way and thus have to use chants to force their will onto the mana or something like that. From what I remember, Aether thought of the way Allat uses water-mana as wrong so I imagine humans using mana like that but about 100 times worse because Allat has at least a water affinity and is a dragon.
@Ojmt Just 'cause they don't have an affinity that lets them use mana on instinct like dragons do, doesn't mean the can't use it like them.
For instance they might be blind and or deaf to the mana (at least compared to dragons). And their affinites would likely be too weak (if the have them like dragons) for the mana to gladly do their bidding. So that might mean even with affinity they would have to coax the mana into helping them, but 'cause they cant sense it properly they don't see a difference between it helping and them forcing it. They might just be able to tell whether it activated or not.
It's also possible that their way only feels wrong, but is just different from how dragons do it. (Though that seems unlikely)
@Al93we Well as long as the auther doesnt make it clear we can only guess about the details. But we do know, that the way humans use mana is something they had to invent and werent born with and that the way they use mana is inferior and feels unnatural and repulsive to dragons. Of course thats only if I didnt misunderstand or forget something important.
@Al93we it was said before that dragons can bless humans and them the mana starts to help them use magic making them heroes and things alike, humans may be able to make the same power as a dragon but only young ones, for them to make the effect of mountains and alike they would need to make a lot of preparation or force the mana, disrupting the balance it holds.