Timeless Prominence

Mystrygon had his wife lovingly in a princess carry hold. The pair had been chased across the human realm they had just left, commonly referred to as the Fusion Realm.

His wife had the worst end of the deal. Firstly, his wife was a weaker advancer. Secondly, she was in the ‘dangerous’ outer advancer realm. Last of all, she was also pregnant with a child.

Currently, the two were surrounded in a darkness wrapped by bright lines of light as if someone had drawn and scribbled with light itself. The two were traversing the tunnel between two realms, protected by a blackish-purple sphere of aurae. Without this, their bodies would be corrupted by the void aurae.

The dragoness, Moonclypsae, looked up at her husband with a dark and dissatisfied expression.

 “Why didn’t you allow me to take his puny life and retrieve the bead? That bead was initially meant for you from the very start! All our trials and tribulations were because we recently received news of it in the Fusion Realm!”

She felt incredibly irritated, on the edge of exploding. If it wasn’t for her exhaustion, she would have leapt out of her husband's arms immediately.

Part of Mystrygon agreed with his wife. However, he did not follow those urges.

“The bead was already partially absorbed into that young human’s body. Even if we retrieved it, the bead’s efficacy would be minimal…And the human did end up helping us after all...”

The dragoness looked down at her pregnant belly, confirming her child’s safety.

“And yet,” Her voice cracked with increasing rage. “Were it not the humans who schemed to obtain it, back when you needed it the most as a child? If not for that mysterious expert, you would have been crippled for life as a child! Yet you gave that token to this human?!”

Mystrygon knew the conversation was about to take a turn for the worse. Justifying his choices to his wife, who was angry because of her concern for him definitely, would not be easy. In truth, Mystrygon had actually hidden a secret about his childhood from his wife. That secret certainly had an impact on his choice today.

He eventually decided it was a better idea to share this secret. Otherwise, her fury would not be quelled.

“To tell you the truth, my childhood aurae-deficiency was caused by poison. Me and my father suspect someone within our dragon clan plotted it. My father suspects that the humans that attempted to steal the bead only did so halfheartedly in assistance with the traitors. Their goal was to make my father feed me the bead in fear of enemies attempting to steal the bead again.”

These words made Moonclypsae silent. However, her eyes glowed sharply. No doubt, she did not appreciate having this information hidden from her.

Mystrygon continued quickly, hoping to finish before the inevitable explosion.

“Luckily, an unexpected human stole the bead, and my father could not use the bead on me. Eventually, that mysterious expert appeared before my father and resolved the poison within me. Apparently, the poison was somehow placed inside my body before my birth, and due to a newborn’s initiation with the world’s aurae, the poison had a slightly different presentation-- that of a child with aurae deficiency. All this was told to me by my father.”

“And if the bead had been forcefully assimilated into my body, it might have rapidly killed me-- as you know, the bead has the function of reforming the body. That mysterious expert said that the poison could have spread and grown throughout my body during the reformation process. It was this mysterious expert who treated the poison in me and gave my father a compass token to be used in a time of need-- though that mysterious expert blocked the usage of the compass when I sensed the device usable in this Fusion Realm...”

Mystrygon certainly found the compass resisting his aurae injection, odd. It was his sixth sense that influenced his choice of passing on the compass to the young human. 

Finishing his reiteration of his time as a baby, Mystrygon felt rather self-satisfied, his heart filled with a lofty sense of accomplishment. Even as a young babe, he had beaten the odds. Surely, his dignified admission would calm his wife’s anger. He was wrong.

“And you GAVE that important token to the human?!” A frenzied dragoness roar deafened his ears, causing him to turn his head in pain. “Even if it rejected your attempted usage during our escape, it might still be useful in the future!” 

Mystrygon swore inwardly at himself before wracking his brain to come up with a way to explain his sixth sense. This was not the first time he had acted relying on such intuition.

“The compass resisted my aurae at every turn. That mysterious expert likely didn’t want us to find him-- what’s the use of keeping the token? Said expert might have simply given that token to me, knowing that it would pass into the right hands. Aside from that, I also had a divination master who predicted that we would find an opportunity to escape at that pond, and was proven correct by this human’s presence there.”

“And you KNOW divinations are vague. His key role might be killing us just like many humans have done over our history! Those that do are even given the title, ‘dragonknight’! Haven’t you heard of all those idiots who had interpreted divinations inaccurately? Wasn’t there that tale of that… idiot who bought a garden of peaches based on a divination that doing so would make him rich? When he returned to ask the divination master years later why the land’s worth did not increase, the divination master told him that he was now rich in peaches! We dragons do not even eat peaches!”

Mystrygon remained silent. Frankly, even he did not fully know what guided his actions-- he had always simply referred to it as his sixth sense. He simply felt a kind of connection to the young human that made him want to give that token to the young human. He felt that the mysterious expert would surely have helped that young human-- the mysterious expert saved his own life as a stranger and wanderer in the dragon realm.

And although the compass rejected his usage, he had sensed that it was active in the Fusion Realm-- meaning that the mysterious expert was in the Fusion Realm. All this made Mystrygon feel as if it was fate!

As for why he couldn’t use the compass? Mystrygon could only surmise that perhaps the treasure had conditions in order to be activated. Or perhaps it had a spiritual link to that mysterious expert, and as such that mysterious expert, through some godly power, prevented the compass from being used. That was why he was of the opinion that the mysterious expert did not want to be contacted by him.

Moonclypsae’s eyes grew blood red with Mystrygon’s momentary silence.

“We were betrayed by so many of our contacts here in the Fusion Realm! They definitely assisted our pursuers in tracking us down repeatedly! We should return to remove their heads. That young human will surely betray us once he comes into contact with all these traitors! Only my bloodsworn sister who gave me this protection pendant and encouraged me to…”

Moonclypsae’s eyes suddenly grew wide in realization and with shock! She withdrew a beautiful jade pendant of a dragon who’s form was of her own dragoness form before she gained the ability to transform into a humanoid.

When Mystrygon saw this pendant, his instincts told him something was off. Yet, even though he used his telekinetic sense to repeatedly examine the pendant, he could not identify any issue with it.

Mystrygon felt the aurae in his wife’s body become progressively chaotic to the point where her advancer powers might deviate or potentially collapse. He quickly summoned his own yellow lightning aurae and tapped a finger against his wife’s forehead.

Moonclypsae, in her angry and muddled state, felt a sense of tranquil relief as an electric brightness suddenly shook and cleared her mind. Her husband’s rousing and slightly stinging voice, “Remember how you were before this journey!” echoed inside her mind.

Her memories returned to how she lived before this horrendous journey through the Fusion Realm. She had always treated others with grace and kindness. She had never been one to needlessly harm others. Her aurae gradually returned to a stable state.

Moonclypsae now calmly reflected on her most recent state-- she would not have normally wanted to kill a human that had assisted both herself and her husband. Only, she had felt at a dead end after being seemingly betrayed repeatedly by their allies in the Fusion Realm, only to realize the likely and potentially worse truth in the end-- It had to be the pendant given to her by her bloodsworn sister that allowed their enemies to track them to the ends of the earth.

Additionally, most of their allies in the Fusion Realm will have been exposed, by now, to their enemies during their escape.

Moonclypsae suddenly convulsed for a heartbeat before giving a hacking cough to the side. She expelled dark and black wisps of aurae out of her scaled-framed lips that floated up and disappeared into the side of the inter-realm light tunnel.

Mystrygon breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the dark aurae being expelled, for both his wife and the child inside her belly. He too, had more than once experienced such a shock to his own advancer realm. Ironically, that shock had in the end, assisted him in climbing to his current realm, giving him a clearer mind than ever before.

This was why the outer advancer stage was considered ‘dangerous’. An advancer in this power realm is in the process of developing a soul-- it was the birth of this soul that allowed an advancer to have the magical ability of interacting directly with phenomena with telekinesis and advancer arts related to such powers.

A dastardly method to undermine an advancer in this advancer realm was to find ways to corrupt the process of the soul’s birth.

Anyhow, this initial expulsion was important, but Mystrygon knew that his wife would require further contemplation to overcome this experience. The earlier, the better-- allowing such dark aurae to remain in the heart, known to be borne from unresolved inner conflict or experiences, would increase the risk of ‘turning’, decrease future progress, and perhaps even a collapse of magical powers.

“We’ve arrived safely back home. Don’t destroy that pendant. It will be useful in the future.”

Moonclypsae nodded, even more drained after this episode, but her expression had become much more serene and determined.

Mystrygon maintained his silence for a while longer, trying to organize his thoughts. Eventually, he sighed and elaborated on his mind to his wife.

“Us dragons and a few others were once regarded as deity beasts worthy of worship during the Age of Gods… but that age collapsed. The intelligence of our race was supposedly a blessing from those fallen gods, and in our fear, we sought to use humans as our source of intelligence. The Age of Beasts, too, came to pass as the humans grew ever stronger across the eons. You know all of this. It eventually reached an all-out war-- the Age of Chaos…And now, the Age of Humans.”

“That poison that the mysterious expert found in me when I was a baby. That poison was created by a group of humans. I’ve long realized that within the dragon clan, some are definitely cooperating with certain human factions. They have a hand in everything.”

“Say, don’t you think today was a risk worth taking?”

Although Moonclypsae was still weak after having stabilized her condition, she immediately snorted in response. From her perspective, her husband’s move was a bit of a hail mary. Then again, if their opposition within the dragon clan had hidden support from certain human factions…

She mentally played out quite a few situations in mind. She had long developed a distrust toward the many human factions. The current age was regarded by most in the advancer world as the Age of Humanity-- was so named because of the slight but ever-growing dominance that human factions had across realms.

The dark aurae she had expelled? That, too, was rumored to be sourced from humans. At least, the annals of the dragon clan claimed that it was a group of mountain folk that dug beneath the mountains, that brought the darkness into the dragons’ hearts.

“My dear, don’t you remember how back in the day, when I had some disadvantages during my growth thanks to my disastrous birth, that you took a risk and stuck by me? Luckily, our opposition failed to realize that the poison had long been purged and I was able to secretly develop a strength and stabilize our faction’s situation at a critical moment.”

Moonclypsae was filled to the brim with pride at this mention, though she hid her emotions, not willing to give way to Mystrygon. Mystrygon had appeared weak back then, but her intuition always told her that he was much more-- in both mind and body. Having her perception proven right over the years felt incredibly satisfying, particularly in the face of hidden mockery that she knew once existed among her peers.

“Just as you took a leap of faith then. It is this… sixth sense that guided me to make my choice regarding that human.”

Thus, Mystrygon successfully calmed the storm.

Eventually, in front of the pair was a sphere with a distorted and curved image of their destination-- their clan, a place where it would be incredibly reckless for their enemies to act in any meaningful capacity.

Mystrygon could not help but put on a mysterious smile, before sticking his chin up in the air with renewed confidence, stating with dignity, “And so returns the dragon prince Mystrygon. A miracle beyond the understanding of his foes. An escape out of the net through mystifying methods…”

Only to receive a soft slap from his wife. However, the dragoness proceeded to wrap her arms around Mystrygon’s neck. Moonclypsae had fully readjusted her state of mind. She still looked a bit exhausted, but in her eyes was a newfound energy. Her hand tightly gripped that suspicious pendant given to her by her supposedly beloved bloodsworn sister.

Perhaps her bloodsworn sister was truly at fault. Or perhaps it was the craftsman. Regardless, she would be ready-- she fully understood what Mystrygon meant regarding the usefulness of this pendant.

There was one thing she knew about her husband that others were less aware of. Her husband had indeed created miracles beyond the understanding of his foes, to the point where sometimes, the opposition even wasted resources trying to find Mystrygon’s ‘hidden helper’ even when none existed.

Was it just luck…? Not even Moonclypsae knew. Mystrygon simply had a knack for playing a hand at critical moments that always flipped situations on their heads.

____________________________________________________________________________

At the Black Wolf Forest, under the rain, at a small pond below a waterfall, a group of black cloaked and hooded humanoids appeared. The group examined every blade of grass and every pebble on the side of the pond.

A sniffing sound could be heard coming from one of the humanoids, only for that individual to instantly vomit all over the ground.

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, the individual informed the other.

“They’ve used that disgusting trick again to put off my tracking scent ability!”

“That’s what you get for relying on the aurae-imbued nose of yours.” Another individual chortled before placing a hand against his chin in contemplation. “But this is truly odd. Why would they use that random skill again when it’s obvious we are likely relying on something else to find them?”

That second individual took out a small jade bead and held it between his thumb and index finger. He then stared into the small jade bead. He soon had an incredulous look on his face as he dropped the bead in shock.

“Impossible! He would have needed someone here preparing a portal for over a day in order to leave this realm!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” another hooded individual mocked. However, the scorn on his face was soon wiped off his face once he picked up and stared into the small jade bead-- the bead had indicated that the target had already returned to the dragon realm!

“Is it possible that Mystrygon knew someone in this Fusion Realm that could have opened the portal in a shorter time? For example, an advancer with a strong spatial affinity?”

“Even a telekinetic advancer with strong spatial affinity, would barely have enough aurae to open an inter-realm portal, and not to mention, it would still take at least half a day even with said strong affinity.”

“How about a deity with strong spatial affinity?”

“That’s impossible! We would have known if there was such an existence here…?”

The group was considering the most likely possibilities. They had a superior to report to, and Mystrygon’s escape would not be well received if it came with a near impossible ‘birdcrap’ explanation.

They had prepared the current plan for many years to trap and kill the dragon.

“Perhaps it was a hidden advancer that came down to this realm to mess around with mortals. Or a unique treasure that the dragon might secretly possess?”

The black hooded individuals nodded their heads. This seemed most likely. An incredible advancer expert of the god realms-- a stage above the telekinetic realm-- with spatial affinity might have been here to fool around in the mortal world, to the benefit of Mystrygon.

Such a being might be able to open an inter-realm portal within a few thousand heartbeats. And such a type of behavior from these godly advancer was not uncommon. Across the ages, there have been numerous tales of these advancer playing jokes on the weaker ones that resided in mortal realms...

“Damn it! We’ve made so many preparations across the years! We’ve waited patiently to release the information of the draconic metamorphose bead at the right time so they would fall for the trap! Our superiors will definitely punish us!”

“But what about the draconic metamorphose bead? Do we know where it is?” One of the hooded figures that had been silent from the start slowly asked.

“There’s no point in thinking of this any further,” a hooded individual that was likely the leader of the group ordered. “We were only able to discover that the man who obtained the draconic metamorphose bead might be hiding in this realm through tracing his path through the multiple realm portals across decades. We could find the initial activity of that man in this realm, but he then completely disappeared from detection.That was the incomplete information we used to lure that dragon.”

“Will Mystrygon return to find the draconic metamorphose bead? Unless… he already found the bead?! It’s hard to imagine that they would give up on such an important treasure of their clan…”

“Our higher ups will have their own considerations and hand down orders. If you step out of line and cause a failure, your head will be first to drop. Stay in line,” the leader threatened, “and at the very worst, we might get temporarily demoted and receive a few lashings. At least we’ll still be alive.”

He then signaled with his arm and the group of black-hooded individuals vanished into the darkness of the forest.

________________________________________________________________________

Rein had naturally followed the dragon’s advice and immediately left the vicinity of the pond below the waterfall once the dragon pair had entered the black sphere.

He further understood from the blackish-purple bead that the dragon used before entering, that normally, traveling through spatial technique required a kind of protection-- though it seems that he himself did not require it.

That must have been why the scarred right cheek mercenary had his body corrupted by the blackish-purple aurae.

Anyhow, Rein had already traveled at least a few hundred kilofeet westward following the hand of the compass. Taking out the dagger, he reflected and thought of the two dragons he met at that pond. An indescribable feeling rose in his heart.

Although he did not know the exact details of their plight, he found himself refreshed when he thought of the whelp in the dragoness’ belly having a chance at life.

He then felt sorrowful as he remembered Blacksmith Tiehr having a soft spot for him and the kidnapped Jein. Perhaps, he shared a commonality with Blacksmith Tiehr, weak to children and newborns. If he didn’t have this weakness, he would not have to feel conflicted with killing the scarred right cheek mercenary and leaving his son an orphan.

Rein returned the dagger to the side of his hips. He looked eastward from where he had come, seeing a faint crack of light reflecting off the cloudy sky. The rain had ceased quite a while ago. The light danced, sending a purple hull shimmering across the underside of these white clouds as well as what little of the sky that could be seen in the occasional gaps between the clouds.

Rein suddenly took a knee as he felt his body heavy and a dark anger that threatened to consume him. He knew in his heart that the rage would give him the strength he needed, as it did during his killing spree in the Wolf Syrup Town. He instinctively struggled within himself to resist and control it-- the part of him that regretted orphaning that young boy who was the same age as Jein.

To his surprise, he felt an electrifying energy radiate from his abdomen to the rest of his body, completely removing the feeling of heaviness for the time being.

For a moment, Rein felt as if he couldn’t breathe, but then he coughed out wisps of black aurae. There seemed to be weak red lightning arcs that jumped within the black aurae as if attempting to burn it all away. He coughed again, but could not seem to get rid of a dispiriting sensation stuck inside his own throat. 

Rein frowned as he took a long deep breath, before shrugging his shoulders. He looked down at the light yet durable compass in his hand again, which continued to point westward.

Even if he felt guilty about that young boy... How could he tolerate the evildoers just on the condition that they might have a relationship with someone innocent?

He brushed off part of his regret and confirmed his resolve, then formed a circle with his hands, and transversed westward.