Chapter 77: The goal

The painting of the river rippled as It absorbed father's flames. This continued for a while as cosmic mana descended upon us. 'This presence feels like that of the king!' I inwardly noted, remembering my time back in my naming ceremony.

Father had his eyes closed in concentration, the cosmic mana slowly began to surround him causing a faint dark blue hue to appear. I tried to reach out to It, yet to my disappointment, the mana ignored me completely. I was able to sense a presence guiding it, hence with my nonexisting control over It, I was unable to form a connection with the mana.

'So It's the king that's wielding the mana?' I wondered as I watched over the entire ordeal with undisguised curiosity. After what seemed like a few minutes, the mana suddenly moved towards me. I didn't feel any sense of danger from It so I remained put while waiting to see what would happen.

The cosmic mana slowly flowed inside my body and moved straight towards my soul space. Seeing that I panicked, grandfather had said that soul space is a Dragon's greatest strength, but also his greatest weakness. And with the pain of mine collapsing before still fresh on my mind, I was not willing to take any risks.

Father must have sensed my anxiety as he spoke in a reassuring tone. "Fear not Aether, accept the King's blessing," He said causing me to pause momentarily. Despite my nervousness, I forcefully refrained from doing anything rash as I followed after the mana.

Once inside my Soul space, the previous desolate blue world shook as the cosmo mana began to gather right in the middle, forming a sculpture of a dragon, or at least what should be a dragon. The sculpture was unfinished with only the lower part created while the rest was missing.

I was confused as I saw that, at first my guess was that the statue was that of the King himself, yet taking a closer look at It, It strangely seemed to resemble me more than anything. Although only the lower part was created, I was pretty confident that It depicted me and not anyone else.

With a frown, my eyes blinked back to reality as I turned my gaze towards my father and asked. "May I ask what Is the meaning of this father?" I asked while trying to sound respectful to which he answered with a nod. "That is the blessing bestowed upon you by King, It helps you strengthen your soul space, and In rare cases where one has a second affinity, yours, in particular, is an extremely rare one, an affinity with one of the pillars of existence! The blessing will help you create a bond with the mana, though you will have to succeed in your rite of passage to get the entirety of It, for as It is now still incomplete," Explained father to which I nodded with a serious expression.

"The rite of passage, what sort of trial is It father?" I nervously asked. "Did the King inform you of It?" added. A hearty laugh escaped father's mouth as he looked at me with an amused expression. "The King? Haha! Who do you think you are little one? The King can not be bothered by simple matters such as these, he is busy with more serious ones, we only came here to get his blessing before we depart," He said with a grin.

"Eh? Then does that mean the one that will pick my trial is—" Not allowing me to continue, father interrupted. "That's right, the one to pick your rite of passage is me!" He confirmed with an ominous grin causing a shiver to run down my spine.

"Then, If I may ask father...My rite of passage, what is it?" I nervously inquired to which father's grin further widened. "That would be to destroy the puny land the humans call the Piya kingdom!" He said causing my eyes to widen in shock.

"T-To destroy a kingdom?" I muttered. "What's wrong Aether, It's nothing but a bunch of lower lifeforms. They brought this upon themselves," He said with a frown. I was not bothered by the fact that my mission was to exterminate an entire kingdom for humans, my conscience was clear, to me that was a dragon, they were the enemy.

Though I would be lying If I said I had no concerns. During my last fight against them, the humans were unexpectedly weak, though they did hold some interesting abilities, I could not ignore the fact that I held the absolute advantage at sea. Perhaps things might get trickier at land, maybe I would even find some strong opponents.

"Yes, father!" I nodded in confirmation to which my father seemed pleased as he continued to explain. "Listen well Aether, currently the humans are the ones ruling over the lower continent, they divided the land into six countries, the Piya kingdom which Is located at the south, the Tinada and Rimor Kingdoms directly above it, the Yadour, and Lumia empires to the north, with the Zasal dynasty to the east. Though we do not meddle with the affairs of the lower continent, we are nonetheless aware of everything that goes on! The Piya kingdom had been sending their men in search of our land for years now, and although by pure luck, they did manage to kill our younglings years ago," He said as his frown deepened.

I gulped facing my father's piercing gaze, a dangerous aura was surrounding him as he spoke. "Remember well Aether! A dragon never forgets! The humans have grown arrogant with our disappearance, It's time they learn that their actions have consequences, your rite of passage trial is to teach them a lesson, make sure the Piya kingdom is gone from the face of this plane!" Ordered father as his bloodlust sky rocked.

With my back drenched in cold sweat, I raised my head high and replied. "Yes, father!" He seemed pleased with my answer as he nodded and continued. "Good, then let us move, I will guide you to your destination, how you take care of the humans will be up to you," He said and then lowered his tail in front of me.

I hastily jumped on top of It and swiftly moved to stand on his head. Father then steadily made his way out of the temple, passing by the King's statue once again, as we both gave our respects. Once outside, father nimbly jumped to the sky and made his way further north towards what I assumed to be the edge of our continent.

Our flight proceeded smoothly with no problems, the large grassland disappeared as we left the temple and Dragon road behind, only to be replaced by the familiar sight of a dense forest. We continued on our way for almost a day before we reached the edge.

The sea appeared before my eye, extending towards the horizon. Father did not stop as we swiftly flew past the land, the scenery below changing from a dense forest into an endless sea. Turning my attention back, I was surprised by the sight of the continent from this side, It appeared as If It had been cut cleanly off by something, or someone.