Page 16

Early Morning - Mid Spring : Shelf On Mountain-side

“Ugh..” I woke up with a sore body but I felt full of energy.

Before I fully opened my eyes though, I took a minute to sort my thoughts.

I tried to figure out what the 'woman' did to me as well, but I felt nothing that stood out. There was definitely something, but I simply couldn't put my finger on it.

“Haah.. whatever..” -I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point..-

Finally looking at myself, I noticed that I had gotten significantly bigger. I was now around 23 meters tall and I felt incomparably stronger than before.

I slowly stood up and started stretching before getting interrupted by an unfamiliar male voice behind me. "Get away from my family you bastard!"

Feeling a threat, my instinct kicked in and I retaliated before seeing who it was.

*CRACK-BANG*

I whipped my tail around and slammed the creature into the side of the mountain.

A loud banng resounded through the entire mountain.

-The hell was that?!- Turning around as fast as I could, I saw a huge snow white dragon embedded a few meters into the wall.

"Who the hell are you?" I got irritated since someone interrupted my stretch, the glow between my scales turned orange and red along with my irises as a rippling heat was exuded from my body.

I was prepared for a fight but before I acted I noticed the dragon had completely stopped moving. -There is no way that he’s dead right?-

As I stood there, unsure of what to do, Mother flew out of the cave at the bottom of the mountain.

"Vasilias what's going on?!" There was a look of concern on her face after feeling the slight shake of the mountain.

"I don't know, I just woke up and some random dragon tried to attack me."

Mother’s anger quickly exploded as she prepared herself to kill whoever the dragon was.

She quickly started flying up the mountain as fast as possible.

"I'd like to see who dares hurt my-" As she got high enough to see the dragon embedded into the ground though, she froze and let out a sigh. "Haah.. Honey.. what the hell are you doing.."

The white dragon started moving again, quickly popping its head out of the wall. "I should be asking that! Who is this?! Are you cheating on me!?"

Mother visibly held back her anger before casually walking up and putting her foot on his head, driving it back into the wall with a stomp.

*Crunch*

"That's Vasilias you dumbass! Your son!"

I just sat there, stunned. My scales glow and my irises returned to their normal purple and blue as I watched the scene in complete confusion. -This idiot is my father?-

"Mom! Can I come outside?" Krystallo yelled out of the cave, wanting to see what was happening.

"Sure sweetie.." Mother answered Krystallo with her hand on her head, likely contemplating how to explain this situation.

Finally flying out of the cave, I noticed Krystallo had grown to nearly 9 meters and there were feathers on the back of her head on her wings that had started to grow in.

-She’s starting to look more and more like Mother..- It was good to see her again, but there was an urgent question I needed to ask. "Mother, is this.. seriously my father?"

"Sadly yes.. thank the heavens he came a few months late.." She glanced over at Father with visible irritation.

"What? Why?"

"If he came earlier and thought you were some evil dragon like that, he probably would've tried to attack you as soon as you finished absorbing that ball of mana which would have interrupted your sleep..." Mothers face was covered in worry.

"Ball of mana?"

"When you started your sleep, you started sucking in a ridiculous amount of mana, to the point where I could see it with my naked eye. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that you actually managed to absorb it all."

Father still hasn't moved so mother reached down and dragged him out of the hole.

*Crumble*

"Mother, I know father was rude, but I'm uninjured.. you didn't need to knock him out.."

"He likes it when I'm rough, it's fine."

"Pfft Hahaha!!" I couldn't hold back my laughter, but after letting it out for a minute I straightened back up to ask about a more pressing matter. "So how long was my sleep this time?"

"Just over 2 years.."

"Oh..” My mood quickly darkened. “Sorry if I made you worry again.." I felt a little guilty thinking back to how much she worried during my last sleep.

"I was expecting it, although that concentration of mana was concerning, everything turned out well didn't it?” She looked at me with a grateful smile. “You're nearly as big as me, and after seeing what you did to your father, you're stronger than your size too."

Father was around 28 meters tall but my tail still completely overpowered him. "I guess that's true, but I have a long way to go to get stronger... Oh right!! Magic!!" -How could I have forgotten!-

"Haah, let's bring this idiot down the mountain and figure out the situation before I teach you."

Krystallo finally made it up to us just as we were about to leave. "Mom, is this Father?"

"Haah yes Krystallo, I'll explain a little better while Vasilias brings him to the bottom of the mountain." She gave me an odd look with her last statement.

-Ah I guess that was her hint..- After moving over and picking up Father, I hopped off the ground and glided down the mountain. -He’s.. oddly light..-

Once I reached the bottom of the mountain, I set him down in front of the cave.

-Hehehe..- I stood there with a childish excitement, I was filled with anticipation while waiting for mother to come down the mountain and teach me some magic.

"Ugh.." Groaning while getting up, Father looked at me in shock as I gave him a scornful look.

"Good morning father.." My voice was no longer childish, it didn't belong to a 10 year old dragon, but instead sounded like a young adult's voice.

"Are you really Vasilias?"

"The one and only.."

"What.. happened to you.." He spoke with a sense of worry, unlike what I expected.

"No idea.. all I know is the day I hatched I touched a purple tesseract which made some.. 'changes'.." I considered saying 'repairs' but I was unsure how he would react to that. [1]

"Tesseract?"

"A cube looking thing, it was towards the bottom of mothers mound of treasure."

"Oh that artifact?"

Finally getting a hint at what that thing was, I threw all bias I had against him away instantly. "Where did you get it?"

"I got it from a large human kingdom north of the western continent when I was younger as payment for helping them win a war. I was disguised as a wandering adventurer at the time." [2]

"Was there anything special they knew about it?"

"They said it was an artifact of the gods. They found it in a heaven rock [3] and whenever anyone would look at it for too long, it would make them lose consciousness."

-So it came from space. It's not much of a hint but it's a step in the right direction I guess..- "Haah.. whatever” -I guess I'll need to look into that kingdom more when I get the chance..- “What was the name of the Kingdom?”

"I believe the humans call it the Holy Kingdom"

-Ah hell..- Hearing the name I knew it was going to be much more of a pain in the ass than I was anticipating.

After a moment of silence, Father continued. "Well other than that, where is Krystallo and Fengari?"

"Krystallo is up the mountain with Mother." I lightly motioned up the mountain where Krystallo and Mother had started flying down to us.

A slightly saddened expression came to my face seeing his odd excitement. -He doesn't know about Fengari.. Does he..-