Morfinael

Towering over them with a nonchalant expression, the leaders felt the weight of their loss.

They are earth's last hope, but here they fail hopelessly, their pride of being the strongest of their race dashed against the rock by a single being.

Who took them down without breaking a sweat, it was as if he could predict every move before they made it and had countermeasures in place.

"Was that a battle or a deliberate attempt to amuse me, cause if it is, you guys did a terrible job," his eyes glowing with power as he spoke with an uninterested tone.

"Amuse you, your head," these were the replies begging to fly out of their mouths at his words.

How is beating them black and blue considered an attempt at amusing someone who likes to be beaten?

All in all, these replies lived and died in their heads alone, as they were too weak to even argue with him at the moment.

"This world has regressed so much, it has become a laughing stock of its former glory.

Weaklings parading themselves as powerhouses when they are nothing but farts in the face of true power from times past."

His gaze lost in the horizon as if reminiscing old times.

"Luckily I'm back to fix that, to right the wrongs those old hags had created and bring this world to a greater glory than the old era."

The leaders could feel the determination and deadliness in those words, a tingling feeling crawling under their skin as they tried to fathom what he had in mind to do with this world.

Adriande mustered a bit of strength, forcing half her body up from the crouched position she was in, "what do you intend to do?"

Umbra brought his gaze down on her like a god looking at his subject and a snare appeared on his lips.

"Bring the world to its knees," everyone's eyes shot wide open, they expected this reply but still, it's a different thing hearing it straight up.

"Only when the world is at its knees, will it truly rise again," Umbra added, his face wearing a complex expression as his eyes landed on the sword in Morphis' hand.

"I've been wondering why I felt the energy coming off from these swords and that one is familiar, now I recall.

Only through death can one truly appreciate life," he spoke like one missing a lost love.

"Now that I think about the annoying words of that bastard, I realized he is damn right.

The cycle of life and death is the most beautiful thing ever."

Saying that, thorn vines sprouted out from the ground, wrapping and crushing Morphis' hands holding the swords as he lost his grip on them.

While another wrapped around his groaning figure, suffering from the pain of having his hands crushed.

Raising him up to Umbra's face level, "you are such a fascinating one, being marked by one while using a marked weapon of another."

He took the sword brought to him by the vine as he assessed it with a fascinated look.

The others were lost as to what is going on or what is being spoken about but they held their peace wanting to get to the end of it all.

"Tell me, how is that bastard doing, you must be a disciple of his if you are having something of his

Or did you betray him for another?" Umbra raised his eyes from the sword towards Morphis as he could feel a different energy inside him.

"What are you ranting about, you bastard? I'll kill you, I promise you that," Morphis rumbled like a lunatic, which quietly took the others unaware.

Umbra sighed, "weak minds that can't handle the expanse of great power."

He wanted to say more but suddenly stopped and frowned, lifting his gaze to the further horizon away, his purple eyes seemingly giving off a slight glow.

His countenance took a drastic change, "seems like our little party would come to an end for now. I bet the next time we meet, I'll be standing over your corpse."

With that said, he grabbed Morphis, took to the sky and with a speed faster than a sonic boom, disappeared into the horizon, fading away from sight.

Almost immediately he disappeared from sight, a deafening roar rang out in the sky, shaking the whole place.

When the others raised their heads towards the sky in fright, they beheld a sight that shocked them.

Especially Vyraghast, whose eyes almost fell out of his sockets.

High above in the sky, a figure was hovering, so large and magnificent that it seemed to blot out the sun. Its eyes were bright with a terrible fire, and its wings were spread wide, casting a long shadow over the world below.

It was a dragon, a being of immense power and ferocity.

The dragon's body was covered in shimmering golden scales, and its wings were like a canopy of flame, blazing with a light that was both beautiful and terrible. Its eyes were deep pools of molten gold, and its fangs were like daggers of purest diamond. Its roar was a sound of thunder and fury, shaking the very foundations of the world. Its claws were like talons of the deepest night, and its tail was a living whip.

The dragon's wingspan was immense, stretching across the sky like a storm cloud. From wingtip to wingtip, it must have been at least a mile wide, and its body was easily the size of a mountain. Its scales were like molten gold, shimmering in the light of the sun, and its eyes blazed with a light that was both beautiful and terrible. Its fangs were like daggers, gleaming in the sunlight, and its claws were like the talons of a giant eagle.

It was a sight that would strike fear into the heart of any who saw it, and the leaders were frozen in fear, unable to move or speak.

This was a creature beyond their comprehension, a being of power and wrath that they could not hope to defeat.

They were nothing more than insects before it, and it seemed even more so for Vyraghast.

He is a dragon and would be considered the strongest as far as the dragon race is concerned, but here, he is nothing more than a mere ant.

The colossal dragon swooped down, its size rapidly shrinking, morphing to take a human form.

By the time it gently landed on the ground soundlessly, it had transformed fully into an aged man with white hair and a long white beard reaching down to his waist.

The man was dressed in robes of purest white, and his eyes were the same shade of molten gold as the dragon's had been.

He was tall and imposing, and his presence filled the air with a sense of calm and peace.

As he looked at the gathered leaders, he had a complicated look on his face, a look that soon turned into a calm and caring one, and they felt a strange sense of comfort in his gaze.

He raised his right hand, a soft glow spread out from it, rejuvenating the leaders, returning them to their peak in an instant.

He scanned the wreckage Umbra had created and the dead mutilated bodies everywhere and couldn't help but sigh helplessly.

"I see you've met Umbra," he said, his voice deep and resonant. "I am Morfinael, the aspect of dragons, and there is a lot we need to talk about, much you all need to know."

The leaders were still in a state of confusion but could feel the seriousness in his tone and could only nod to his words.

Morfinael looked over to the castle of ice the morning sun couldn't deal a dent to and frowned.

Just like Umbra, he could feel an energy signature buried within the ice.

Not wanting to explore that energy at the moment, he ignored it, pushing it to the side of his mind while gesturing for the leaders to join him at the clear area a little distance away from all the wreckage.

Once they are settled down, he spoke slowly and deliberately, as if choosing his words carefully.

"Umbra is a daemon, not just any daemon but the king of daemons and hopefully the last of his kind at the moment."

The first info dump shocked everyone down to their core; it's nothing they ever expected to hear and didn't know how to deal with it.

It wasn't Umbra been a new race that's what shocked them, been leaders of their respective race.

They were aware of the loss of a race through history books, the reason and how that race was lost were never spoken as it looks like a forbidden tale.

What shocked them is that the race thought to be lost is still around and this powerful.

If all their brains are working, they need no telling the reason as to why and how this particular race got lost.

From the look of things, the other race had hands in it, and thus the reason for the Guy's resentment towards them.

"But there is something even more important that you need to know," Morfinael continued.

"It's the reason why I still exist in this declining world, why like the other aspects, I haven't gone extinct and the reason why Umbra is this weak."

The leaders were listening intently now, hanging on to every word that Morfinael said.

They were curious to know more about this figure and Umbra who for some reason with all his strength is said to be weak.

Most importantly, how all this is connected and how many more secrets are hidden under their nose and what it had to do with them.