The Astral Race

Demion POV

'He was weaker than I thought nevertheless you did a good Job.' lord said and I thought the same thing. He was different from the beasts which lord has introduced us in our meeting. They were trained hunter but this beast in front of us was overestimating his abilities.

'Please spare my life, if you want I will never bother natives of this land and run away far from here.' He started pleading for his life.

'First turn off your ability or whatever it is.' I said and the astral stone on his head returned back to normal exuding white light.

'Tell me about your astral race.' Lord asked him and it was the topic in which I was also interested.

'I was the king of astral race when our planet was flourishing but one day a comet struck our planet and our planet crumbled to pieces. Many people of our races died from the aftermath while some scattered all over the universe, I was able to cling onto the piece of land and survive.'

'I had forgotten how much time has passed since I was drifting in the space but i was lucky enough to find a planet brimming with life and didn't die in the crash.'

'Naturally I was the strongest here so I started ruling here as king and passed down my knowledge and teaching to the native of this land and helped them evolve.' I could see the twitch on the corner of lord's face when he said that.

'Tell me more about the stone on your head.' Lord asked.

'Every native of our race is born with the same stone on their forehead, they grow bigger as the person evolve, the stones has the ability to absorb any type of energy or force and convert it into astral force which can only be used by us, it is also because of this reason that I was able to survive in the space.' So that is how it is, no wonder if we inject excess mana into it, it blast because the energy converter is the beast himself.

'What will happen when I remove the stone from your head?' Lord asked.

'I will die, please don't kill me, If you want I can follow you like a slave, I may be the last person alive from my race so please don't kill me.' His attitude changed 180 degree from a king to a slave.

The moment he said those words a Purple portal appeared some distance ahead of us, declaring the completion of task. So the consent of owner to tag along with us can also be presumed as acquiring the astral stone.

***

Alex POV

I thought about his proposal for few second the portal was in front of us and we did need as much help as we can. But can he be trusted if he is holding some grudge against us for disrupting his leisure life and backstab us at some critical moment our losses will be irreversible due to my wrong judgement.

Waving my hand a beast appeared in everyone line of sight, he was also an X ranked beast with a huge head and two shining golden eyes his hairs were floating in the air defying gravity. The rest of his body was covered in expensive looking robes and he was floating few feet's above ground.

'Read his mind, whether he can be trusted and taken with us?' I told him.

'Yes my lord.' The beast named psyche replied and stared at Theris who was incapacitated on the ground.

The eyes of Theris turned golden and returned to normal in few second.

'He holds a deep grudge against you my lord and plan to take revenge against you and everyone here once he is strong enough.' He spoke and doubts in my mind cleared, it's a pity an ancient race will be wiped out by my hands but nothing can be done, I hope somewhere in this vast universe someone from his race should be alive.

The reason I was trusting the psyche's ability this much because he was one of the beast whom I have trained from the time he was just an A ranked beast. Nobody was more aware of his power than me. He could use mind manipulation, telekinesis and many other useful abilities.

'Psyche give him a painless death and retrieve me the Astral stone.' I said and looked towards the natives.

The beast was at his weakest and suddenly the red eyes of beast became dull and lifeless. The astral stone floated out of his head and landed in the palm of my hand.

'All of you are free from this moment onwards to live the life the way you desire.'

'And Let me give you some advice, don't start any new civil war for power and supremacy over the other clan, help each other and fill the gap which this beast has left in your life in past hundred years.' I said ready to walk out toward the portal but the natives approached me.

'Lord, can't you live with us?' The scorpion leader asked me.

'No.' I replied with straight face.

'Don't think I have killed him because I wanted to free you, I just needed the astral stone and now that my purpose is fulfilled I will be leaving.' I cleared their doubts.

'We understand lord but could you please join us in our celebration today for few moments. It is the moment which will be recorded in our history for ages and we want you to be the part of it.' Damn they are persistent, I looked at the retainer and beast behind me and they turned their heads in different direction.

'Very well, I can spare few hours.' I said teleporting all of us inside the city beneath the desert which was mostly intact.

They started to make preparation for banquet, while some started to sing and dance in their own way. It was a very peaceful scene, without caring about how big the world is, what lies in the unknown, they were powerless but happier than me.

Not for very long I thought, I will snatch my own freedom very soon. Suddenly a thought came to my mind that I had promised them some reward if they proved useful to me. Because of them I was able to acquire not only the astral stone but also discover an extinct species and clear the floor in less than an hour.

Thinking for some time I decided on the reward I would give them as gift and momentum to remember with.

We enjoyed the festival for few hours the beast named psyche was by my side all the time and Demion was mingling in the natives and I was overlooking the city from the palace holding astral stone imbuing the mana into it checking its limit. It was consuming the mana like an endless black hole. Sometime later we ate food in the banquet with them and i prepared to leave.

'The information you natives gave me has helped me achieve my goal much sooner and therefore I will be rewarding you as promised.' I said and retrieved a clear white crystal inside of which a Rune was engraved.

I looked around and saw an empty fountain in the middle of the city. I engraved some protection runes on the crystal and threw it in the middle of the fountain. The crystal then activated and started to draw the mana from its surrounding and the fountain was started to get filled with water.

It was one of the utility based runes we dragons have discovered which provided us the necessary amount of water whenever we desired. water was very common thing for us but for these natives it was Elixir of life.

I had inscribed runic instruction into it to always produce water whenever the vessel becomes empty. I also inscribed the protection rune over it so that it doesn't get stolen and if someone tries to steal it, let say the ending won't be good for them.

Behind all this charity I also had my own motive I was going to embark on the most difficult mission of my life and needed to accumulate as much as positive karma as possible. The feeling of satisfaction I got from helping others was also the reason I liked to help those in needs and that is what set me apart from other dragons those power and status hungry beast or I think I was different because I already have power and status.

I told psyche to engrave the instruction in the minds of every native about how to use the water crystal. I also told him to engrave the basic instruction of how to utilize mana and some other useful thing, which will help them leap the learning curve by hundreds of years. after some greeting and gratitude session we left the underground city.

Before entering the portal I used [Quick seal] and stored Demion and Psyche into the space pocket and stepped into the portal ready to face whatever challenge tower has stored in for me.