It seems that you are entering the second step of Dragonification, young half-breed. → Ignatius
Suddenly, inside his head, an old powerful and calm voice boomed.
Master Ignatius! → Ignatius
Ryu remembered instantly the owner of this voice. After helping him become a full dragon and sharing his own life essence, Ryu felt a huge amount of respect for Ignatius and took him as his master from the moment he said he’ll make him stronger.
It is indeed I. You are awake now, good. → Ignatius
The voice answered back with the same calm voice.
W-wait, master! What do you mean the second step? What does it have to do with this pain? → Ryu
Ryu asked while feeling his entire body as if being crushed.
“GRAGH!”
He roared in pain and collapsed from his chair on the floor.
The door suddenly opened and Bonny shot out towards him. Without speaking a word, she carried him on his bed then looked at him through her Soul Eyes. She was able to see inside him the silhouette of a dragon, wreaking havoc inside his aura.
It’s this an internal demon? How dare you! → Bonny
She furiously started to attack it with her own mental waves, making the dragon slow down his movements.
“Huff, Huff… Bonny?” → Ryu
Ryu was able to open his eyes and observed how Bonny touched him on the chest, stomach, heart, then back to chest, chasing the movements of the dragon inside him.
“Wait, Bonny! That’s Ignatius…” → Ryu
He felt what she wanted to do and tried to stop her by grabbing her arm.
“Huh?”
Bonny stopped then looked at Ryu confused.
“Who is Ignatius? And why are you stopping me from taking this lizard out?” → Bonny
Lizard… Since when have I been called such by another race? A branch race of us, no less. → Ignatius
“W-who?!” → Bonny
Surprised by the sudden words inside her mind, Bonny turned around and stared everywhere, searching for the one who talked.
The name of mine. It is Ignatius and I am the legendary dragon of light and balance. I am helping your loved one to reach dragonification with no danger for his life. → Ignatius
Ignatius explained calmly, not angered in the slightest for having his mental form attacked by Bonny or being called lizard.
“?!”
At first, she was startled to hear a foreign voice in her head, then she heard the voice’s words and was surprised.
Huh? Dragonification? And a legendary Dragon?! → Bonny
Bonny suddenly remembered something from what Bernard reported to her after she got back with Tara and Khalid.
Are you the dragon that brought Ryu back? → Bonny
Bonny asked again with suspicion.
B-Bonny… Please show a little bit more respect… He did save everyone here after all. → Ryu
Ryu entered their telepathic conversation and felt a little bit embarrassed by how blunt Bonny was today.
Ah!
Bonny then understood her own mistake and bowed her head.
Please excuse this foolish one, Legendary Dragon Ignatius. I was not aware that I was talking to our benefactor. → Bonny
Do not mind it. → Ignatius
“Gragh! Guh…”
Ryu then roared again. His eyes turned into slits while his canines became longer.
S-sir Ignatius. I’m still not aware of what is happening, so mind explaining if it’s not too much trouble? → Bonny
Bonny asked anxiously. Seeing Ryu in so much pain made her heart sting.
This cultivation technique thou all calls “Dragonic Materialization”, it is in truth, “Bestialization” used for Dragonification. → Ignatius
Ignatius explained with a serious voice and continued.
‘This young mortal gave free-way through his circuits to primordial energy, giving it the command to “transform into a dragon”. This cultivation was created for those who forsake their original race and wish to possess a superior body and power. → Ignatius
Ignatius then started to shatter Ryu’s organs and rebuild them back.
Cultivation?! Not just a spell? → Bonny
Bonny asked confused.
No spell has such side-effects over the body. And no magic gives access to mortals over such primordial energies. → Ignatius
“GROAGH!”
The pain was insupportable and made Ryu struggle in bed while growling and shouting.
All his transformations until now were just “Materializations”. As the name implies, the primordial energy would take the form of a dragon and bring forth powers comparable to a young dragon. But that dragon was just a fake. The claws, the fangs, the wings and scales, everything was just materialized primordial energy. No flesh, no blood, no bone. Only essence. Now that the ‘Bestialization’ started to activate, his entire body will transform into a true dragon, hence the name Dragonification. → Ignatius
B-but didn’t he already transform when he woke up? I mean, just look at these horns. They are real! → Bonny
Bonny tried to understand but couldn’t comprehend how such a thing as completely transforming into a dragon was possible.
‘This was only the first step of ‘Bestialization’. This young mortal turned into a dragoon, but now it’s time for him to be more than that. My life essence was the trigger of his transformation. For one full week, he has to meditate and circulate my life essence through his entire body so he could transform without any side-effects.’ → Ignatius
‘Side effects?’ → Bonny
Bonny asked while her complexion palled.
If the transformation goes wrong, he might turn into an abomination with his body parts deranged or have his organs shattered from the pressure without being able to rebuild them again. This might end either in death or in him turning into a monster. → Ignatius
Ignatius explained with a heavy voice.
T-this… Ryu, did you know about that? → Bonny
Bonny asked, confused as to why Shen would give such a dangerous ability to his best friend.
…
Ryu said nothing at this question and simply tried to resist the pain. Of course. Shen prevented him numerous times to use this ability only in critical moments and also explained the consequences. He knew this all along, but couldn’t bring himself to explain such things to Bonny.
“Ryu!” → Bonny
Bonny shouted at him with tearing eyes. She felt incredibly hurt because Ryu kept such important information, secret from her.
“Hah, hah…” → Ryu
Ryu breathed heavily, unable to speak, but he still sent her his thoughts.
Bonny… Please tell me, what would’ve you done if you knew about this? → Ryu
Ryu asked with a pained voice.
“I would’ve stopped-… It’s this your reason… ?” → Bonny
Bonny suddenly understood why Ryu kept this as a secret, but couldn’t accept it.
Yes… If you made me promise to stop cultivating the ‘Dragonification’, I would’ve not been able to save at least the ones who survived the last wave. And for sure, I would’ve not been able to keep you safe from the demonic beasts… I need you to believe me when I say… that the first reason why I accepted to be king, why I accepted to build a kingdom… and why I strengthened my resolve on killing anything and anyone in my way; was so we could have our own little, peaceful world… Just for the two of us, later in the future… → Ryu
Ryu said telepathically while looking at her with his blood-shot eyes. His pain forbade him from even letting out a sound. In his mouth, he was tasting blood while the only thing he could smell was the blood from his orifices.
…Please leave… Remaining here will only make you feel more pain… → Ryu
“…”
Bonny’s eyes were red from the tears that were overflowing on her cheeks. Blood was flowing from her bitten lip and clenched fists, trying herself to calm down.
“I… Will do as you wish but… Don’t forget that to have such a future, you first need to stay alive and healthy… you fool.” → Bonny
She got up from her chair while trembling, then left the office after closing the door shut.
[Miss Bonny, is there a problem?] → Ken
Ken who was guarding Ryu’s office, gazed at Bonny which was kneeling on the floor with her face in her palms. Because Ryu’s room was surrounded with sound-proof magic, his screams weren’t audible to the outside, even so, she was able to see that something wasn’t right the moment she wished to enter after using her [Soul Eyes], every time to know if the spells of Sound Proof were still active inside the office.
“… I’m all right… Ken.” → Bonny
Bonny then got up and looked at the golem with resolution.
“Whoever wishes to see Ryu, send them my way. If they ask why just tell them King Ryu still needs to recuperate from his injuries. Whatever requests or complains should come straight to me, I will deal with everything while Ryu it’s bedridden.” → Bonny
[Understood.] → Ken
Kenaz3KenazAn Elder Futharks rune which, in this novel represents only \"torch\" and \"vision\". Appearance: Looks like a < and is normally written on stone, wood or even bone. nodded and did exactly as he was told.
While Bonny was busy in doing Ryu’s job of organizing the residents, finishing with the funerary plans and teaching the children under her about being a Soul Seer, another day ended and the ten heroes with the other ten elites reached the opposite chain of mountains from the one where the war against Thanatos’ wave of demonic monsters took place.
Blood.
The one from the further back named Yuri instantly reacted after feeling the slight smell of metal and rotten meat. He activated his Soul Eyes and was shocked to see that a huge amount of red mist rose in the sky from behind the Eastern mountains. He saw how almost all the tips of the mountains were burnt or collapsed.
“Leorio.” → Yuri
Yuri whispered to the soldier in front of him.
“We must keep our guards up from here. Behind that mountain, huge clouds of blood essence it’s rising in the sky. A war must’ve broken out there, other than that, I can’t explain why such huge clouds are rising.” → Yuri
“Understood. Should we take a detour and observe what happened there? Or continue in front?” → Leorio
“…What do you think we should do? Sir Leorio.” → Yuri
“I recommend to go and see what happened there. In the worst case scenario, if we go forward we might be surrounded from East and even North-East. Just in case, I think it would be for the best to at least see what happened there.” → Leorio
“Agreed.”
Both Yuri and Leorio nodded then tried to convince the rest. They, after finally convincing the others to make a turn of a day, walked toward the mountainous chain from which Yuri was able to see the cloud of blood.
After half a day of walking while trying not to use magic or chi as to not be detected, they reached the peaks and stared around and search for the cause of the mist.
“Kyaa!”
“Ah f***!”
“W-what happened here!?”
“Blugh!”
“…”
Everyone had different reactions: some screamed in terror, some shouted agitated, some cursed out loud, some remained muted with dark expressions on while some even threw up instantly after finally detecting the plunged smell of blood. Behind the mountains, the soil, the rocks, the trees, and even the air seemed completely reddish-brown. The air was chilly and humid, while a strong smell of blood and rotten flesh permeated the air. Everything was succumbed in silence, letting only the eerie sound of the cold wind blowing through broken branches, to be heard for an area of two kilometers around.
The mountains were covered in claw-marks, craters, and spikes. If one looked closely, they could see that the most Southern mountain had the walls extremely neat, steep and mostly filled with iron spikes and spears pointing in all directions. But what was the most terrifying was how the entire mountain was completely painted in a red blood color which was still slowly flowing in tiny drops here and there.
From the hero party, nobody could say a word. The heroes from Vestria felt their knees weak. They were used with killing monsters by now, but even war-veterans would break down in cold sweat after seeing such a bloody scene up-close, let alone young men and girls of age between 15 to 25, with combat experience of not even half a year.
“This is madness… Had the beasts started a war between themselves?” → Leorio
Leorio whispered while observing the bloody scene with wide eyes.
“O-oy… what should we do now?”
The handsome dragoon asked while covering his nose. The smell was so strong, it made everyone’s stomachs to revolt.
“I don’t care what we do as long as we won’t join these guys.”
The lion-man from the hero-party pointed with a sick face at the hellish valley, filled with corpses or body-parts from different kinds of monsters.
“I, uh… Yuri, what do you think? You normally have the most logical ideas.”
A bear-man from the hero’s party asked with a tired face.
“Kuma! Why are you asking him? Can’t you believe us for once?”
The blonde woman asked with a frown. She then glanced at Yuri as if to tell him to shut up.
“Exactly. We don’t have to hear a thing from that exiled. The court priests told us to be wary of him, didn’t they?”
A red-haired fairy commented with spite.
“…”
A green-haired fairy, a brown-haired dragoon woman and a white wolf-man said nothing while shaking their heads at the women’s comments.
“You bastards! You really love to talk s*** about him when you don’t even know who he really is!”
“That’s right! Can’t you think for yourselves? Do you really believe everything you hear? Can’t you judge for yourself at least a little?!”
The human twins from the elite party shouted back, talking one after the other with spite.
“So are you telling us you’re turning against the court’s priests?”
The blonde woman reprimanded them with sharp eyes.
“Alright, stop this.”
“Quiet down both of you.”
From the hero party, a middle-aged man said with a serious voice, while from the elite party a wildcat woman scolded the twins.
“Thanks, both of you.” → Leorio
Leorio made a step forward and bowed his head to the man and the wildcat woman.
“Hmph!”
The three girls and one boy who got scolded harrumphed then turned their heads away.
Damn brats.
The middle-aged man from the hero party massaged his temples a little bit annoyed. He did not like to be in the same group with brats that would start a quarrel over every little thing but this time he simply had no choice.
