20 Chapter 19 - Minori's Notes III

~The dragon emperors gave me advice as to how to use my new abilities by transferring their skills to me, I was able to harness the power of all the Dragon Emperors through the mark on my arms namely 'dragon mark' but not all their power as they would need it to stay in physical form, also due to the purity of this power, it would lengthen my clan's lifespan by over a thousand years.

I thanked them extravagantly and set off to my clan, I was stopped as they told me that whoever touched the meteorite would be able to use the power of the dragons and that was what needed to be done in order to be permanently free. With that final word of advice, they left my presence after which I created an updraft of wind for flight and flew off to rescue my clan.

The happiness I felt eradicated my need to sleep and I ignored the darkening sky, flying at full speed to my former slave house. I arrived at the house of the giant near midnight where I witnessed a heartbreaking scene: my mother, who was already of an old age, was stopping to rest from the tiring work of farming massive plants.

I landed in a tree watching attentively as the giant came to apprehend her, saying that she shouldn't slack off or else her food intake would be cut down but my poor mother couldn't even find the strength to speak and this angered the giant. He shouted out for her to get up while he raised one of his four large hands in a position to strike downwards; I hesitated for a while but my brother realized the situation instantly a jumped in front of her, time seemed to have stopped for me as the many mixed emotions ran through my body.

I was brutally brought back to my senses with the sound of a wet clap, I stared at the giants hand which was smudged with the blood of my family as he lifted himself saying that this was the punishment for slackers. There was no place for sadness in my heart as the rage exploded and my hasty reaction moved my body to throw my sword at the giant piercing his stomach, he spotted me as he turned around scratching the wound that had as much effect as an insect bite but I could care less.

I jumped from the tree and charged at the giant with him beginning his own charge, as we etched closer to each other I leaped from the ground, using the power of Ashrock and turned his body to ashes in a single strike.

My people had witnessed this mighty feat and let out a cheer, they ran towards me with looks and sounds of pure hope and comfort for my family; the love I felt from each of their souls was enough to heal my broken heart, I told them of my findings and after a short memorial for my mother and brother, I carried them on a movable range of earth to the meteorite.

Most of them had fallen asleep along the way and I decided to stop for a while since we all deserved a good night's sleep.

We all awoke very late in the day and continued along our way, we eventually reached the desert and the contrasted purple and orange light beautifully showed the meteorite's position, we dismounted the rock and I explained what needed to be done. They formed a line in an orderly fashion in front of the meteorite and each pressed their hand against it.

Hours passed and every human had inherited the power of the dragons, their life span increased and they gained the power to rival the other species, even though they didn't receive the immense power of sun and moon which I did, they were pleased when each of them alternated between receiving the power of the other four dragons, we were uncontrollably elated and this called for a celebration.

A flurry of singing and dancing in the desert ushered the night in, we partied until the night got too dark to continue.

The next morning arrived and we were renewed, no longer would we be afraid of the other species and we were finally able to take care of ourselves. Our numerous numbers slowly reduced as more of us departed to take on the challenges of our new life and after a couple weeks, I was the only one left. I set up a home right there in the desert both to keep an eye on the meteorite and because I had become accustomed to the loneliness.

I spent the days hunting stronger beasts, developing my powers and even finding a special ore which I called 'drakonite' that could be used to channel the power of the dragons through weapons formed by using a fraction of a dragon's power to create a spirit to inhabit the weapon and after discovering this I created another sword and shield from it; the dragons kept my company and also gave me information on how my clan was getting along, we pooled intellect to further advance the power of dragons and thus we came up with the 'dragon realm' which was a dimension created using the moon dragon's domain over space that allowed them to monitor any human who held the power of a dragon, everything was going smoothly.

All that changed a month later when I was visited by a ghost of my past; Kotsukuo had returned, with a broad smile he gave off an eerie force as he stood at my door with a halberd across his back in the evening, he had grown quite a bit and was almost taller than I but sadly he still hadn't given up on his quest for vengeance.

He informed me that he had found a way to gain immortality after visiting a mountain named 'Shisui' which involved embedding a piece of a jem called 'jade' in the demon core which would give him immortality since he was the first to inherit it but grant a lesser power to his clansmen who he had already gave this power that would give them eternal life force unless the scarib stayed intact.

I was absolutely astonished to see him but the dragons who had connected to my mind were intrigued, they warned me of the evil energy Kotsukuo gave off but I already knew of this and asked him what was his true purpose.

His eyes squinted as he began to laugh, this continued until I interrupted him with the same question, it was then he told me that he found out about the power I received and deemed that my clan was too powerful and needed to be erased. His voice darkened as he released a massive surge of demonic energy that brought down my dragon force as he further explained that the power of the jade was to destroy the dragons and from now on they would be called 'jade demons', he then challenged me to a deathmatch to determine which clan would survive.

We found ourselves on an open area where we each drew our weapons, we took the battle to the skies with a massive leap, his jade energy was still decreasing my dragon force as he took many thrusts at me with his halrberd, which I skillfully deflected with my shield.

There were no bodily attacks exchanged, our weapons clashed creating sparks that lit up the sky; I decided to use only the power of the moon and sun dragon to further increase my chance of victory but one thing gave me doubt: his immortality, each time I managed to make a wound it would just heal over like it was nothing, the fight went on and on with no sign of end on the horizon, I had to make use of my own perspiration to use the healing powers of the water dragon just to stay on my feet and the dragons and I were both running out of energy, the task of constantly giving me energy which was being siphoned continuously by Kotsukuo was taking a toll on them all.

After many hours of endless fighting, we took the fight back to lower ground where he seemed to be gaining the upper hand; the dragons had almost no power left to give and I noticed that, my faith had reached a very low level as my chances of victory were ever more decreasing.

The dragons had completely run out of power and the measly unlimited dragon force the meteorite provided was nowhere close to keep up with Kotsukuo and pretty soon I was disarmed and forced to the ground, he stood over me pointing his halberd to my neck, completely unscathed he rubbed the loss in my face, by now I lost all hope and began to cry and that made him laugh even louder.

I was ready to give up my life when suddenly a pulsing sound came from the sky, a comet came flying down to our position and Kotsukuo jumped backwards to evade. It landed right on me but strangely I suffered no damage but instead a dagger, looking like it was made from a heavenly material floated in front of me; the celestial dragon emperors told me that this weapon was the solution to Kotsukuo's immortality as it was made by them to trap his soul in a hellish prison but held a downside: it would take almost all their power to pull off and they would have to remain a spirit inside the dragon realm for the rest of eternity.

I tried to argue against this but they insisted that it was the only way so I took the dagger, drew on my physical strength and ran towards him; he looked confused but still put up a guard, I pressed on and put all my remaining power into it and finally I came into his range, dodged his guard and dug the weapon into the demon core.

He let out a deafening shriek as the weapon began to glow, the area around us became uneasy and the skies roared with thunder. His entire body showed cracks of light as his shrieking grew louder, a tornado, magically comprised of all the dragon's elements along with that of the celestial dragons formed around us; Kotsukuo's body was now completely covered with the cracks.

This event went on for a minute until the tornado rose to the skies before finally flying down into the dagger, Kotsukuo let out rants of pain and anger as his entire body began to deteriorate into sparkles of white light until finally, he was gone and the dagger was on the ground, I saw it's light disappear signaling that the jade demon king was trapped and my clan was saved. The body destorying effect had already reached the dragons as I felt their spiritual presence comending me for my bravery, now we may have peace.

***

I have stopped writing here for a while and I will stop writing after this last entry, I set out to gather my clanmates I could find and come up with a new future. Many years have passed since my battle with Kotsukuo and we had made peace with the other species, the dragons have gotten used to being spirits so we were still able to use the power freely.

I have created a dimension for my clan and placed the meteorite inside to power it, I referred to my current clan members as 'gaikotsu' (skeleton) for we will be the backbone where all other dragon hosts will come. Our lives have been enjoyable since then, we are in need of no assistance from other species and are able to build up our own race, all is well, but…I fear there is more powerful evil on the horizon.~