Timeless Prominence

Rein dared not to take more than shallow breaths in the immediate vicinity of  the onyx black-scaled dragon wrapped in smoky wisps of dark aurae.

He prowled as a hunting tiger to the side of the chasm. His best efforts, though, failed to prevent the crunching of the many limpite and lumite coins underneath his boots. Luckily, the dark dragon had no signs of awakening.

He sat down with his back against the rough chasm wall, internally relieved that the dark dragon seemed to be in deep slumber.

He could sense a calling from his heart that indicated a vision from the remnant will of Gent within.

Rein initially considered it too dangerous to engage with a vision in such a situation, but he quickly realized his response to be irrational.

The visions of Gent always lasted only a blink of the eye in real life, and would not place him in any difficulty provided he wasn’t in some sort of high-paced combat.

More importantly, he needed knowledge of this place, of the dark dragon. This knowledge might prove useful against the devils and the Great Sects!

He closed his eyes and opened his heart to the calling. The blank canvas of his vision rapidly filled with the color of life.

Rein found himself hovering in the sky as Gent. Most curious was the oscillating sensation of his shoulder blades. Gent turned his neck left and right as if searching for something, and Rein conveniently saw his ‘own’ draconic wings flapping behind him.

Gent then deftly contracted the many muscles around his shoulder blades, accelerating towards the southwest of a set of mountains.

Rein tracked ‘his’ flight over a lush rainforest with a thick canopy that normal vision could not pierce. As Gent, Rein could however identify the various creatures roaming under the cover, through what must be divine sense.

As the wind whistled past his ears, he originally assumed the place to be some unknown realm. Rein’s heart soon pounded when his eyes came across a strangely familiar river. For the water of this river had the very same appearance as that of the Demon Ink River he had crossed in the Western Wilderness!

The only difference was that this river flowed on top of the land, while the one he had crossed sank deep into a canyon.

This singular geographical feature caused Rein to meticulously analyze all that Gent scanned his sights across.

If this is the Western Wilderness of an age long past, then the thick rainforest must have been destroyed and reduced at some point before his time, so Rein thought. 

It was a rather surreal feeling. Though some features no longer matched, the Demon Ink River certainly seemed familiar, as did the somewhat stubbier but just as expansive Endless Mountains. Then, there’s the vast starry seas far into the southern horizon. Far more visible with Gent’s height in the air.

Rein’s heart began to pound as Gent approached two forms battling out in the distant skies. No. It was one delivering a complete beatdown on another. A human knocking a pearl-gray dragon about in the sky!

The pearl-gray dragon was wrapped in wisps of dark aurae. Rein instincts told him that this pearl-gray dragon must have eventually transformed into the onyx-black-scaled dragon within the chasm.

Gent approached like a diving hawk.

“Cease your actions, human!” Rein could feel Gent’s anxiety, concern and anger as his throat rumbled harshly.

The human ignored Gent’s warning and instead accelerated his movements. A flat silvery disc hovered behind the human and glowed a heavenly golden halo.

A variety of weapons were unsheathed from each slice of the metallic disc. A sword, a saber, a spear, a hook, a metal rod, a dagger, a hammer, a chain with a metal ball, a three-sectioned staff.

And in the human’s hand was a minimalistic scepter with a single large jadeite on its tip, controlling all nine weapons with a flick of the wrist.

The nine weapons each had their own strengths, and the human controlled them with perfect mastery. The heavier weapons smashed into the struggling dragon’s body to crush scales and bones, the hook to immobilize a limb in coordination with the slice of a bladed weapon to a vulnerable underside.

The swinging weapons moved in a different rhythm and added further complexity to his attacking patterns.

Gent raised a hand which transformed into a muddy-scaled dragon claw as he approached the human. By then, the pearl-gray dragon had already fallen out of the sky under the human’s relentless attack, its weight flattening a whole section of the thick rainforest below.

Rein was astonished to recognize the man before him as Xane, supposedly the Allfather. What he did not know was, when in the past this vision might be.

Xane’s body shifted with a flicker just in time, barely avoiding the ray of light that is Gent.

“Gent,” Xane spat, his golden blonde hair a mess. He certainly seemed less controlled compared to the version of him in the vision of Xune’s birth. “They say you are the most noble of beings. Your despicable son! He has taken the life of my wife!”

Rein could see the same rage within the man’s eyes, identical to his own when he lost his family.

“He has taken the life of my son! My daughter!” Xane’s voice quivered as it rose in volume. “I may be a weak human, but his life is mine! Do not interfere! They say the dragons were once noble! And you, the noblest of them all!”

Xane waved his scepter, and the nine weapons arced towards the fallen pearl-gray scaled dragon in an attempt to deliver a final set of blows.

“Father!” The pearl-gray dragon’s form warped into a half-dragon half-human form to decrease the size of the body while maintaining some draconic features, such as the protective scales, for defense.

Gent immediately reacted. Rein could feel all sorts of what can only be described as odd sensations as ‘his’ body shifted repeatedly from human to half-dragon to full-dragon while Gent protected his son.

In full dragon form, a flick of his gargantuan tail easily sent Xane’s bladed weapons spiraling into the thick canopy without a single dent to his scales. As for the heavy weapons, Gent had no fear of their weight as he warped into a half-dragon form to catch the metal ball before flinging it like a toy back at Xane.

He then warped into human form, caught hold of the three-sectioned staff, and forcefully wrestled control of the weapon from Xane before using it to deflect an approaching hidden dagger.

By now, Rein very much assessed this to be a much younger, less powerful Xane. The Xane in the current vision simply did not have that… aura of power and control around him.

Rein certainly felt a degree of confusion-- the visions occurred under specific triggers, and were not provided in chronological order. 

If his suspicion is correct-- this being a much younger Xane-- then Xane must have had a family before partnering up with Dragonknight Zelli to produce Xune.  Dragonknight Zelli did say that Xane was desired by many women…

“Darkendusk. Third child. I have failed you. I should not have given you so much freedom.” Gent sighed as he flicked a finger, sending a spatial totem into the injured dragon’s claws. “Leave!”

“I should be stronger! This ant’s life will eventually be mine to take! I promise you, father!” Darkendusk croaked.

“Just… just go…your mother is waiting.” Gent muttered as he sighed once again.

Darkendusk cracked the totem with his half-formed claws and he immediately warped into a single point and vanished to safety.

“You demons…” Xane muttered under his breath as he recalled and reassembled the nine different weapons behind his head in a circular arrangement.

“Hmph!” he spat with derision. “Not even you, noble Gent, have the heart deliver true justice unto your son. Yet you corner us within this realm, like food in a farm, believing yourself to be the rightful Gods?”

“As his father-- his punishment will be decided by myself,” Gent calmly but firmly stated.

“And what punishment might that be?” Xane mocked with a half-mad chortle. “He has taken the lives of three closest to me. Will you… take the lives of the three closest to him? Or his own life?”

“An absolute farce!” Xane raged. “We both know that you will not. You are but demons masquerading as gods. And you, Gent, the grandest pretender of virtue! For that is the very core of your being! Created by the asurans in defiance of the fallen gods!”

“Only when serving the fallen gods were you of benefit to the realms!”

These words triggered a hidden ire within Gent.

“Human child,” Gent snarled. “I do not know your name, but it is of no consequence-- To me, you are but an ant. You speak many words but know nothing of the Age of Gods.”

“Allow me to enlighten you! The fallen gods are but earlier beings born during the birth of the myriad of realms, and thus absorbed the very essences of the world. This gave them each an instinctual understanding of specific rules in the universe! Nothing more!”

“Do you know of the wars that those fallen gods waged? In my time? In a time before the human race gained self-awareness?”

“You had best kill me today, Gent!” Xane roared, completely disregarding the dragon’s words. His nine flying weapons arced towards Gent. “Otherwise, you would have wasted your time descending to this realm! Do you feel the sparseness in the air eating away at your strength?!” Xane began laughing maniacally.

Gent, seemingly downhearted, nonchalantly dealt with Xane’s weapons as he did before. His form morphed repeatedly, easily deflecting all of Xane’s weapons, cannoning all into the far distance once again.

This further proved Rein’s belief that this was a much younger and weaker Xane.

Indeed, Xane’s weapons were of no threat to Gent’s tough body. Gent even allowed a hammer to smash into his back, and Rein, inhabiting Gent’s body, only felt like he had bumped shoulders against another on a busy Green Trout City street .

Xane flashed from position to position in the air, hoping to avoid Gent’s approach. However, Gent’s eyes filled with lightning, and Rein, inhabiting Gent’s body, could see the whole world slow in motion. Xane’s movements became trackable, and Gent easily caught up to Xane.

With a push of the palm against the chest, Gent sent Xane tumbling into the thick canopy below.

“You are no noble dragon!” Xane's voice roared as his form rose skyward through the thick canopy despite having been flicked away like a flea. “If you do not kill me today, I will one day hunt down you and your son! I will flay your son, dismember his body limb-to-limb and feed him to the crows!”

Gent, tired of dealing with the relentless madman who seemed to not realize he was outmatched, morphed into a humongous dragon turtle, with a shell a thousand plus feet in length.

Its size casted an endless shadow over Xane as Gent ceased controlling his flight and simply allowed gravity to pull his heavy dragon turtle form towards the ground.

Xane attempted to escape, pushing himself forward in a straight line towards a chosen direction. He discovered that his flickering form could not escape the shadow. He then opted to attack the dragon turtle above him, but his weapons and magic bounced off the turtle shell harmlessly. 

A thunderous rumble sounded as the earth shook upon Gent’s landing, flattening Xane alongside a vast portion of this rainforest.

Gent transformed back into winged-humanoid form, and stood tall in the sky as he gazed down upon an unconscious Xane, whose body was half-buried in the soil with a stream of blood leaking out the corner of his lips.

Surprising to Rein, Gent chose to now leave after demonstrating his strength to Xane.

“Human child.” Rein could also feel a deep sorrow within his chest. “Consider yourself lucky that you are not facing the ancestor dragon on this day. If not for me… and my promise to your ancestor, Yirn… Humans may have long ceased to exist in these realms.”

“Then again… if not for Brother Yirn… we dragons would still be carrying the weight of the fallen gods upon our backs.”

Gent sighed once again as he cracked a spatial totem in his hand.

He, too, warped from the realm, and the vision ended.

Rein found himself returned to the present, and knew for certain that this onyx-black dragon wrapped in this dark devilish wisps of aurae must be Darkendusk, Gent’s third child!

He had initially wished to draw attention to the bottom to give his allies an opportunity to escape. Now… that has become much more dangerous, if a necessary risk.

The vision he experienced was an era long past, highly likely to be during the Age of Demons.

Darkendusk must have since long recovered from his injuries, and become an incredibly powerful dragon over the eons.

Rein recalled Xane taunting Gent regarding the sparseness of aurae in this realm. It made sense-- Rein had never heard of someone above the telekinetic realm residing in this realm.

Xane had even stated that ‘the sparseness of aurae in the air can eat at one’s strength’. Perhaps in the current era, with Xane the Allfather on top, Darkendusk had chosen to hide himself here for this very reason, even if it meant his body weakened.

“Hey, youngling.” A sudden whisper belonging to a man filled Rein’s mind.

At first, Rein thought the dark dragon had awakened and might pursue him due to Gent’s familiar presence. However, he had just experienced the vision, and he knew Darkendusk’s voice to be of a different quality.

“Come over here… I’ll tell you if you’re going the right direction. Just crawl along the wall away from the dark dragon. I’ll help you escape and use the dark dragon against those above.”

Ridiculous. Rein’s mind could feel a sort of mesmerizing quality within the voice in his head, but it was not particularly effective. Though telekinetic advancers could manipulate one’s mind, it required the suggestions to somewhat align with the target puppet’s own heart.

Rein certainly wished to escape, and using the dark dragon was his intention, if risky. However, why would he crawl along the wall with the rope back to the top beside him?

“Just kidding. Hah! You never had a choice!”

Rein suddenly felt a ring wear itself onto his index finger! The ring must have been hovering in the dark, waiting to latch itself to a passerby!

“Thank you for your body, youngling.”

His mind was filled with the face of a being-- Blood God Hahrn!  A piercing ache sent pain through his skull, and it was identical to when a devil had attempted to possess him during the burning of the Golden Desert Town!

Through the pain, Rein wondered how this devil had survived. This devil should have been consumed by the Endflower!

Anyhow, this time was different. For the will of Gent is within him!

A dragon’s roar sounded within Rein’s mind.

“No! This cannot be!” The image of Blood God Hahrn’s eyes filled with fear as his form within Rein’s was shattered into smithereens.

Rein’s mind cleared. He surmised that Blood God Hahrn must have known his impending demise against the Endflower, and sent a part of himself away in a ring. Somehow, that devil had discovered this place and hidden himself here!

What did not make sense was how Blood God Hahrn could do this. To Rein’s knowledge, only a telekinetic advancer had such ability. Blood God Hahrn must have some secrets. Perhaps within the ring now on his finger?

He will have to examine the ring’s contents in detail after escaping, for the voice of Beincen and Naohr now sounded down the pipe into the chasm. 

“There’s actually another route down here!” No doubt, Rein’s removal of the grate made this obvious.

“Don’t let him escape!” Beincen’s desperate voice echoed in the chasm.

Scraping metallic pipe sounds could be heard. Rein’s mind spun to determine the necessary action for achieving his goals. He needed to save his allies. He needed to save himself. And he needed to kill Beincen without a fight. Combat would awaken the dark dragon and complicate matters. If possible, he preferred to escape this chasm upon the dark dragon awakening.

On that note, he had long identified the direction of the whistling wind. Luckily, he did not need to go past the dark dragon to reach the source of that opening.

A devious idea formed within his mind. Its success was, however, contingent on the behavior of Naohr and Beincen. Based on his knowledge of Beincen, Rein believed that his plan should work.

“There’s a rope… is it safe down there?” Beincen’s whispers floated down into Rein’s ears.

“Your uncle will descend first. He will not be able to take my life even if he ambushes me. Perhaps the man is already dead, or escaped.” He, too, noticed the soft whistling of the wind.

For Rein, that was perfect. If Beincen descended himself, that would have been troublesome-- Rein knew he would not be able to kill the noble quickly, and thus their conflict would awaken the dark dragon close by.

Luckily, Rein’s guess proved true-- Beincen’s priority was to protect himself.

Now was the time to use the shifting mask he had received from Baejenh quite some time ago. He had rarely employed the mask so far, primarily because no situation demanded it, and he also preferred not to reveal this treasure to his enemies.

Rein activated the shifting mask, and his whole body was covered by an illusion of the same texture as the chasm walls. If Naohr examined his spot closely, he would be able to tell that something was off. Rein was betting that the man would not shine a light onto his spot. The surrounding darkness certainly helped.

So it was that Rein watched as Naohr’s feet landed before his eyes. Naohr, too, employed the common light orb to illuminate the chasm.

Upon seeing the piles of limpite and lumite coins underneath his feet, he immediately crouched down and began collecting them into his magical storage ring, his eyes darting furtively left and right in the darkness!

Rein did not quite expect this, internally squirming in fear that the clinking noise of said coins would immediately awaken the dark dragon.

Perhaps he should not be surprised by this. Rein’s primary objective was to seek an exit, and thus when his eyes came upon this treasure hoard, he was able to control his greed.

Naohr, however, had other objectives. Although Beincen desired to take Rein’s life, that was not Naohr’s primary goal. Noahr’s heart yearned for the rise of House Larne. That was why he willingly assisted the scion, Beincen, despite being a generation older.

Upon seeing the treasure hoard, his first thought was to obtain as much of it as possible for House Larne before the Great Sects and Devils above discover the place. In Naohr’s mind, once Ailehr falls in combat against Bienze, they would soon discover her storage equipment to be empty. And upon searching the ruins, they will discover the downward pipe to this location sooner or later.

Rein had no intention to launch any attack right before the dark dragon’s snout. He instead began climbing up the rope. The sound of his movements were easily obscured by the sound of rattling coins.

Naohr’s mind had long concluded that Rein must have already escaped. He very much believed that the young man must have been so filled with fear that he ignored the treasure hoard!

“Uncle Naohr. Did you find him?”

“Dear nephew. All is well! Do not worry!” Naohr dared not even communicate his discovery, fearful that his voice might travel to the topmost level of the dwarven ruins.

As Rein climbed, he controlled his shifting mask to give him the appearance of Naohr! He lacked the ability to imitate Naohr’s body shape, nor his voice, and could only hope that Beincen would be too foolish to notice these details.

When he reached the top, he intentionally adopted a hoarse throat to obscure the nature of his voice.

“Dear nephew,” Rein’s voice cracked with excitement as he climbed back onto the ledge with the appearance of Naohr. “The treasure hoard is actually down there!”

Beincen’s eyes widened, failing to notice that the Naohr before him was an extra two feet or so taller.

“Really? Hah!” Beincen leaned forward and looked over the ledge.

Rein smiled as he lashed out with his right leg. The foolish Beincen was sent down into the dark chasm! As he fell, he screamed and he flapped his two arms in an attempt to fly, with a flabbergasted expression on his face.

Rein immediately began pulling the rope up to trap both Beincen and Naohr in the chasm below. These two are just shell advancers, unable to take flight. Still, it was unlikely that Beincen would die from this fall, and the two might be able to escape with some method to climb the vertical chasm walls.

His primary concern was whether Darkendusk could sense Gent within himself. He reasoned that the necklace provided by Master Yirn should completely hide the draconic metamorphose bead’s effects. He convinced himself that It must have been coincidental-- Gent’s presence within the dragon’s dream. A necessary risk, he told himself

Thus, Rein stuck his head into the pipe, inhaled a chest-full of air before clenching his throat muscles.. “I’ve found the dwarven treasure hoard!” His words echoed up the pipe and the ruins. Unsure if these words would travel high enough, he then controlled his upper body to imitate the dragon roar that Gent had used quite a few times in his visions.

Despite not being able to control external aurae, Rein’s activation of his internal energies still gave his baby dragon roar an ear-rumbling quality that cascaded to the highest heavens!

Unfortunately for Naohr and Beincen, Rein’s baby dragon roar also awakened the dark dragon.

Darkendusk’s eyes opened wide. Unlike humans, most beastkin have decent sight even in the darkness.

Upon rising from his slumber, Darkendusk was initially confused, having sensed some presence of his father. His mind soon cleared and he remembered that his father, Gent, had passed countless years ago.

The feeling he had felt was also just a weak tugging of heartstrings. Darkendusk thought it to be ridiculous, and soon chalked it up to an imagination of the mind. After all, his father was of heavenly strength in his heyday, and his very presence made other beasts cower in servitude. The weak presence he felt must be his imagination borne of his yearning after years of suffering under the Allfather’s hunt!

He still remembered how he once mocked his father. That grew into hatred-- he blamed his father for not taking Xane’s life when the human was weak. It was only later, with the death of the ancestor dragon that he began recalling many of his father’s words, and came to wish that his father had remained around.

Since then, he hid himself, comforting his heart upon a bed of riches and fortune.

And… before his eyes was a thief, attempting to gather a hill of limpite and lumite coins!

His neck snaked forward, and his jaws opened wide, displaying rows upon rows of jagged teeth.

Naohr never bothered exploring his surroundings, obsessed as he was with enriching himself and House Larne. 

He did not even have the chance to scream before his death, only noticing the row of gleaming teeth as jaws crushed his body. Blood burst out of his body like a fountain and bathed the coins around him in a sea of blood, only to be washed away by the gentle flowing stream.

Beincen was only in the process of getting back onto his feet, groaning in pain having fallen onto a hill of metallic coins, when he spotted jaws shredding his uncle’s body.

His mind and body froze in fear.

Then a voice entered his head.

“Do you wish to live…? I’ll save your body!” Beincen felt a ring slip itself onto his right index finger.