Chapter 23: True Form..

Sorry for the long wait! But I'm back!

Mid Morning - Mid Spring : Home

Mother and Father were once again frozen in place with their eyes locked on the poor tree that was on the receiving end of my breath.

Finally snapping out of her trance, Krystallo mumbled something under her breath. "Brother's humanoid form is beautiful.." She was still staring holes into me until she suddenly shouted. "Wait, mother, isn't his humanoid form supposed to be weak!? That breath could kill me!"

Mother finally spoke up, still unable to take her eyes off the scene. "Y.. yea.. its supposed to be.. but that rule is different if.." She nervously turned her gaze to me.

"If what?!" Krystallo was getting impatient.

Father ended up being the one to respond. "If it's his true humanoid form.." His voice wasn't any less full of shock though.

"But aren't elders the only ones with them?" Krystallo was just as confused as me. "Also shouldn't a dragon's true humanoid form still be a dragon?"

"Ah.. yes.. it should be..." It looked as if Father didn't know what to feel.

A moment of silence followed as Mother and Father sorted their thoughts.

I was the first to break the silence with a bombshell question. "So lets say this is somehow my true humanoid form.. does that mean I'm not actually a dragon?"

Mother jolted a bit before looking at me with a face of worry. "We don't know if this is actually your true form or not, so please don't jump to conclusions sweetie..." She forced a smile.

Figuring I couldn't just leave them to figure everything out, I fell into deep thought as well. -Okay so let's start simple.. no need to worry about anything other than if this is my true form or not, and how I awakened it already if it is..- It was as I thought this that a realization hit me. -THAT'S WHAT SHE DID?! At the end of the 'dream'.. That woman said she left me with a gift… That was awakening my true form wasn't it!- [1]

I was unsure of how, but I was confident that's what she did once I thought about it. [2]

Shortly after figuring it out for myself, Father confirmed my conclusion. "It is his true form.. he isn't using mana to stay in that form, nor was his strength or mana reserve limited as much as they should have.."

Mother pupils shrank and her face paled. "So.. h..he.. isn't a dragon?" She couldn't believe it, she didn't want to.

Seeing her expression, I felt like I got the wind knocked out of me. It became harder to breathe.

"That's not true.. Vasilias, you can still go to your dragon form right?"

"Y.. yeah.. Why wouldn't I?" Just before transforming back I suddenly feel like there is something other than my dragon form I can change into, but something kept me from transforming to it. -Maybe it's best to take this one step at a time..- I quickly shook the thought out of my head.

Trying my best not to think about it too much, I quickly changed back to my dragon form. A short moment later, I was back to my 'normal' 23 meter dragon body.

Mother mumbled something under her breath. "H..halfies.."

Halfies were also a race with a dragon form, but their true humanoid forms would be of whatever race the other parent was. (like if the dad was a dragon and the mother was an elf, the halfies' true form would be an elf).

"But that's not possible.." A dreadful confusion washed over her. After a few moments to sort her thoughts, she asked a question out of the blue. "Vasilias, do you remember what color you were before you touched the artifact?"

"I was a bright white, just like Krystallo.." I just sort of awkwardly sat there as Mother and Father tried to figure everything out.

It wasn't until Mother came to an obvious conclusion that everything clicked. "So the cube changed your race.." Her anger started to boil as she realized the culprit.

Father was quick to agree with her conclusion. "That would explain his freakish growth, strength, mana, color and even attribute nodes.."

-Wait, so when the cube made those changes.. my race was changed to half dragon.. half ancient fenrir…- I turned to Ilios with a look of shock. -Is the reason he's so attached to me because I'm part Ancient Fenrir as well? That doesn't quite explain why he bowed to me just now, but.. It's a step in the right direction..-

Snapping out of my thoughts, I noticed Mother was still angry and tried to calm her down even if just a bit. "Mother, it's fine.. I'm still your son right? Also, if I really am half dragon half ancient fenrir somehow.. wouldn't that just make me a significantly stronger dragon?"

Ancient Fenrir were not only stronger than dragons in physical strength, but also in pretty much every other way. In some sense, they were perfect creatures so I personally thought this was a good thing, even if there was a lot of descrimination against halfies.

"Haah.. you're right. No matter how much I hate halfies I can't hate my adorable son!" She quickly ran over and wrapped me with her wings. "I'm sorry I-"

"Don't be sorry Mother, it's not like we knew any better.." I wanted to comfort her worrying as much as I could.

"Haah.. you're such a good son.." She sounded like she was going to cry as she tightened up her grip. After enjoying the warmth of the hug for a bit, she finally let me go. "Go ahead and change back to your humanoid form again." Her warm smile finally showed itself again.

Changing forms again, I felt a loving warmth fill my chest. -Hehe..- Her smile made me feel a pure and childish happiness.

"Okay! So, your mana in your true form is basically untouched, but even if it's your true form, your physical strength will be limited, so let's see what your strength is like." She quickly walked over and pulled a huge rock from the mountain and brought it to us. "No magic on this one!"

"Hmmm.." Looking at the huge rock I couldn't help but think that punching it would hurt my hands.

Finally bracing myself for some pain, I walked up to the rock and threw a punch as hard as I could.

*Bang*

The entire back side of the rock exploded causing the entire thing to collapse into a pile of rubble.

*crumble*

Both Father and Mother were looking at the poor rock, awestruck, but Krystallo was looking at me with a prideful smile. "I knew Brother would be the strongest!"

I smiled in response, happy from the praise even though my hand had heat pulsing through it. -I hope I didn't break something..- I slowly broke into a nervous sweat.

Although the punch felt great and looked crazy, it was incomparable to my dragon form.. -I could do that amount of damage with a flick..-

Dragons take pride in their strength and size, so being small and weak made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. I didn't really have a choice though, since it's not like I could waltz into a humanoid kingdom as a huge dragon. -I need to try and get used to the discomfort..-

"Zachari.. you felt that too right?" Father glanced at Mother with a look of awe.

"Haah.. yes.. that was basically peak A rank.." (meaning his true form is on par with an adolescent in dragon form in terms of pure strength)

Mother and Father continued talking for a moment as I made sure nothing was broken and enjoyed the feeling of having a proper hand for a moment.

After a few minutes, Father finally calmed down and pulled me out of my thoughts. "Well.. I guess that settles it. In 2 months we will head to the Kingdom Of Kaelallan as father and son!" He puffed up his chest and wore a proud smile.

-Oh, right, I forgot about that. Well it's good that I'll get to bond with Father some..- At the same time though, I was more interested in seeing what a humanoid kingdom in this world was like. "Mother, Father, can I see your humanoid forms?" I was curious what races they would pick for their temporary forms since they weren't elders yet.

"Oh of course sweetie." Mother was the first to start her transformation, but Father immediately followed suit.

A short moment later, the light dimmed and I saw a beautiful Avian woman with large 'angel like' wings on her back and a tall and handsome elf man who was very muscular.

They looked like quite the perfect couple. Mother looked like she was in her early 30s and father in his mid 30s, but both were inhumanly good looking.

Krystallo seemed to agree.. at least with Mother. "Mom is so pretty!"

"Hehe, thank you sweetie.." Mother gave Krystallo a motherly smile as she extended her wings to show them off.

-She really does look just like an angel..-

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[1] - referring to the end of chapter 15 where the 'woman' grabs him by the face and does 'something' to him at the very end.

[2] - What he means is like, when you cant think of something all day then at some random point through the day it just sort of dawns upon you. (not sure if that made any sense tbh)

-

Id also like to point out something important, DRAGONS DONT LIKE HUMANOID FORMS. They feel stuffy and uncomfortable even if its their true form for a slough of reasons.

One last thing, SIZE MATTERS BEYOND COMFORT.

;) jk