Rise of the Devourer-Chapter 2Book 4: — Information

Seriously?” Noah asked, unsure if he was being pranked.

“Yes, I wouldn’t joke about this,” Kaelan replied.

“Why all of a sudden? Did the Great Race thing really make such a difference? In fact, what even is a Great Race?” Noah asked.

“You don’t know what the Great Races are?” Kaelan asked.

“No, I don’t. I’ve just been on this world for… something like a year now maybe? If even that.”

“Right, you’re right, I forget how new you are to Erandir. Alright, so this is a long topic, but I’ll keep it simple. A Great Race is a race that is at the pinnacle of evolutionary lines. This means there is nothing above them. Once you reach that stage, you simply become older, but there is no further evolution. The most common example is Dragons. They simply go from young to juvenile to adult, and so on. They do not evolve. Many creatures do this, but they can still possess the capacity to evolve into something greater. Wyverns, for example, can sometimes—very rarely—become Dragons. It is rare, but it is not unheard of.

“There are multiple Great Races besides Dragons. Leviathans, Wyrms, Titans, Phoenix, Archfae, among others. But these races have existed since… since forever, pretty much. And most are no longer on Erandir anymore. A new Great Race being born is unheard of,” Kaelan explained.

Noah took in the information. So the Life Wyrm he had met had been one of the Great Races. It explained some of its vast power and abilities.

“Alright, okay, so this is a pretty big deal. Understood. I kinda figured, since everyone seemed to get a notification about it, which is pretty significant in itself. But… how does this affect the tournament?” Noah asked.

“I’m not sure. I have some guesses, but they’re just that,” Kaelan said, shaking his head. “Seph and Val went to grab Aurelia and Erwest respectively, so that we could meet up and discuss. There’s going to be an official announcement soon, but I figured I can let you guys know earlier without much trouble. Let’s head to the meeting room, and I can explain further,” Kaelan said.

Noah’s mind ran in circles as he digested the new information. If the trial was going to be tomorrow, then Noah would have to participate without four of his core abilities. That was definitely going to cause some problems.

He followed behind Kaelan, as the two of them made their way through the palace towards the agreed-upon meeting room. The meeting room was close to the training chamber—a relatively simplistic room meant to entertain guests of not particularly high importance.

Nowhere in the Drakonian Royal Palace was particularly decorated, but this room, like most of the others, was the definition of minimalist efficiency.

Stepping inside the room, he noted Seraphina and Aurelia already sitting inside. Seraphina glanced up at Noah, noticing his arrival, but soon lost interest and went back to the book she held in her hand. Ever since she had been told that she could not propose to Noah just so she could do magical experiments on their future kids, she had pretty much lost all interest in him.

Noah took a seat next to Aurelia, glancing around the chamber, surprised that it was Erwest who was late for once.

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A moment later, the door opened, and Valeria and Erwest walked inside together.

“Oh good, so the rest of you are already here.”

“Take a seat, and I’ll explain what my uncle has told me,” Kaelan said as Erwest and Valeria took a seat as well.

Noah glanced toward the two of them, wondering if they were a thing or not, before his attention returned to the topic at hand. He could ponder on his teammates’ relationships after he figured out this whole tournament thing.

“Alright, so as all of you already know, the tournament is getting preponed. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does take away the preparation time that we thought we had, and catches us a little off guard.”

“This caught you off guard?” Seraphina asked mockingly. “We had a world announcement by the Astral System. A. World. Announcement. That a whole new Great Race had just been born out of nowhere. I am about to lose my mind and couldn’t even care less about this whole tournament. So what if it’s a few days earlier? That just means we can get it over with sooner.”

“She isn’t being the most polite, but she isn’t wrong either,” Valeria said. “All of us are pretty much ready. A few weeks are not going to make much difference now.”

Noah tried not to fidget at that. It certainly would have made a difference for him, but he couldn’t exactly tell them that.

“Right. Val and Seph are correct. This ultimately does not change much,” Kaelan said. “What I am here to discuss with you is the format of the tournament itself. As you know, there tend to be three sections to the tournament. But the exact format and trial itself changes every year. I have information on what they’re going to do this year, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt for you guys to know.”

Everybody in the room, besides Seraphina, focused on Kaelan.

“The rough format is still the same. There is going to be the Dragon’s Breath trial, the Dragon Will trial, and a tournament between all those who succeed in these two trials. The title of Dragon Warrior will be awarded to anybody who completes the first two of these trials. But only the victors of the tournament get access to the Vault of the kingdom. And only the winner gets access to the Dragon’s Heart,” Kaelan said.

They all nodded at that. They knew this much.

“For the trial that’s going to happen tomorrow, there are going to be three sections. I’m hearing that this year has the largest number of people that have applied—over two hundred. So they are splitting the entire thing into three parts. But the trial itself is going to be exactly the same. For the first one, there is going to be a chamber that generates dragon flames. It is going to target everyone and everything that goes through this chamber, and your goal is to navigate through this section and reach the end. The first 25 to cross will qualify. The tough part is not crossing the chamber itself. The flames are difficult—and dragon fire, even fake dragon fire, burns like nothing else—but it will not kill you or even hurt you too badly. There are precautions in place to avoid that. The tough part is the others going through the chamber with you. They are going to attack you and try to hold you back. Many people who participate in the first trial often make groups. It increases their odds of succeeding,” Kaelan said.

“Isn’t that seen as cowardly? I thought a society of Draconian warriors would find attacking others reprehensible,” Noah asked.

“Not particularly. We are warriors, not knights. There is no cowardice in war or in hunting. Simply survival. The trials reflect this as well. There is no rule saying that you cannot sabotage everyone else to win. That too is a victory earned.”

Seraphina mouthed something and rolled her eyes.

“Anyways,” Kaelan continued, “the first trial is going to end with seventy-five people in total. The second one is simpler, but also harder. There is going to be another chamber. But this time, everyone is going to go in one at a time. The goal is simple: walk across the chamber and reach the end, then take an item at the end and bring it back.”

“What’s the challenge?” Aurelia asked.

“The challenge is that every step forward that you take is going to increase the pressure of a dragon’s aura onto you. And the item that you must bring back? If you stop channeling mana constantly into it, then it will teleport right back to where it was. So you cannot let your focus slip for even one second. There is no time limit on the trial. You only lose if you give up, if you faint, or similar.

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“Anybody who can complete this trial is considered worthy, and awarded the title of Dragon Warrior. And afterwards, the victors participate in a tournament in front of the entire kingdom and the king himself. And the king opens his Vaults to those with the most stellar performance in the tournament.”

“The second trial is going to be in three days. And the tournament is going to happen in a week,” Kaelan said.

There were nods from those around the table. Noah couldn’t help but nervously tap his feet.

Aurelia glanced toward him, before a message popped in front of him from his communication bracelet.

Aurelia: “What’s wrong with you? You seem a lot less excited than I expected you to be. Is something wrong?”

Noah read through her message, taking a moment before he decided to reply to her.

Noah: “I used my skill points to upgrade some of my main abilities, and they’re all on cooldown now.”

Aurelia: “What?!”

She shot him a look, her eyes doing the talking for her, as if asking him whether he was truly being serious.

Aurelia: “We’ll talk after this.”

She sent the message before returning her focus to the conversation at hand.

“Since we are all here already, and since the princess has already given us permission, why don’t we use the training chambers here and spar against each other? With this little time left, that seems to be about the only course of action that is reasonable.”

“Sounds good. You guys should break up into pairs and spar,” Kaelan said.

“I’ll go spar with Noah,” Aurelia said, standing up from her chair as she grabbed Noah’s hand.

“Someone’s enthusiastic,” Seraphina said, before glancing toward Valeria. “I guess I’ll go with Val.”

“Actually…” Valeria said. “Sorry, Seph, but I’m gonna be with Erwest today.”

“What!” Seraphina exclaimed. She looked at Valeria in disbelief, then toward Erwest, who sat with his ever-stoic face.

“You betrayed me for this guy?!” Seraphina exclaimed.

Valeria rolled her eyes. “Grow up, Seph. No one betrayed you. Just go spar with Kaelan,” Val said.

Noah stopped paying attention by this point, having been pulled outside by Aurelia. The two of them headed into a sparring chamber before Aurelia finally let go of Noah’s hand.

“Explain how bad it is,” Aurelia asked.

“Bad,” Noah said. “It’s all my main abilities. Wyrmblood, Astral Step, Void Annihilation. Tony.”

Aurelia facepalmed. “Why did you have to go ahead and do that? Couldn’t you have waited a little bit? Or, I don’t know, maybe only upgraded one or two abilities at a time?”

“Well, I thought I had a couple of weeks. And upgrading abilities sequentially would only make it take longer, because it’s not like one has to be completed for the others to start, so it makes sense to upgrade them all at once.”

“Right. No, you’re right,” Aurelia said. “It’s just unfortunate that they moved up the date like this. You couldn’t have predicted this. No one could have, really. It’s so weird that they moved so suddenly and with zero warning. Given that people come here for this from quite far away, some of them might not even be able to participate because of this. So it is a very strange thing to do. Then there is that Great Announcement too. Do you think it has something to do with…”

“Almost certainly,” Noah replied.

“Well, Zax should be back soon, hopefully. And to be honest with you, Noah, I think that given how strong you are and your abilities in general, you might just be able to complete this trial anyways, even without all your abilities available to you. And by the time the tournament starts, you will have some of your abilities back with their upgrade, right? The level 50 upgrade is a pretty significant one. So this may not even be such a bad thing.”

“Well, the other option was that I would have all my abilities upgraded, and I would have time to get used to them a little bit. So I would argue that it is a fairly bad thing.”

“I was trying to cheer you up,” Aurelia said, shaking her head.

“Right, sorry, thanks. I appreciate your confidence in me. To be honest, I agree. Maybe that’s me letting it all get to my head, but I think I’m fairly strong now. So I don’t think I will have that many difficulties winning.”

“If this was anyone else, I would be calling them arrogant. But no, I agree with you. You’ll be just fine,” Aurelia said.

“And since we are here already, maybe you can help me train and get more used to fighting without some of my key abilities,” Noah said.

Aurelia grinned.

“You know, I really was starting to feel a little frustrated about how quickly you had caught up to me. Even surpassed me, truthfully. So, I’m going to be using this chance to have as much fun as I can, bullying you,” she said, slamming her fists together as embers exploded out of her hand.

***

The world swirled around in Vion’s mind, as awareness returned to her. She felt like she had woken up from a long dream. The kind you woke up from and forgot where you were, and possibly even who you were.

Because in this moment, Vion did not understand who she really was. She had been something before, but now, she felt as if she was something else entirely.

She opened her eyes, finding herself in a dark chamber of stone. Or… was it stone? It felt different now. Something more complex than stone, but she couldn’t quite tell what. She looked around, wondering how she’d gotten here, before memory returned to her at last.

A myriad of thoughts assaulted her at once. She had dreamed… of so many things. It was as if she had slept for a week. Or perhaps even a month, but she had thought more than she thought possible to think inside a dream. She had seen… her father. Not Draxius, no, her biological father. The one who she had never met. Even though she had never seen him before, somehow he had appeared in her dream.

And so had her mother.

Both of them had said something to her, but the words of the sleeping mind slipped like sand as she became more and more awake.

After that dream… there had been so many others. Dreams of freedom, of flying unrestrained through the sky. Of playing with Draxius. Then… there had been nightmares. The fear she had felt for the first time, the sensation of being trapped.

And… that thing. That terrible terrible thing she had seen that day when she had finally fully gained control of herself. She had met that thing too, in her dream. And then… someone else. A person who she couldn’t recall. But meeting them had given her a sinking feeling in her stomach.

But besides the nightmare, there were… other dreams too.

Vion blushed as the memory of them returned. How could she have dreamt of such things? But somehow, for some reason, she did not push the thoughts forcefully away out of shame. There was a strange sense of… possessiveness and fierceness inside her.

What was hers, was hers, and she would not deny it to anyone, especially not herself.

It took her a moment to notice Zax standing near her.

“How do you feel, child?” Zax asked.

Vion looked up at him, then down at herself. From the outside she felt no different. She was still herself. Perhaps she was more herself now than before, but there was not too many differences. Those with a keen eye would note her muscles were far more lean and toned now, and that she was a smidge taller, and that the fierce red of her hair had not only increased, but also turned a shade darker. But Vion did not have a mirror, and so she did not notice these changes. But what she did notice, was what changed inside.

“Good,” Vion said, smiling. “And no rampage too, which is nice. Would not have been cool to become a big scary dragon and thrash this place.”

Zax laughed at her words. Vion, perhaps for the first time in her life, thought that the older dragon looked tired. She couldn’t tell why, but she knew that he was, and that he’d done a lot for her in this moment.

“Thank you,” Vion said, a moment later. “For protecting me.”

Zax looked at Vion, and then his smiled turned gentler, as he put a hand on her head.

“Always, child. Always. Especially now. The entire world is trying to find you right now— the birth of a Great Race is… certainly a big deal,” Zax said.

“Well, they’ll have the chance to find me soon enough. I’m going to be participating in the tournament after all,” Vion said, flashing a cheeky grin.

“Indeed. You will have your chance to show off. But first, you need to get a little practice with your new abilities. And unfortunately we do not have much time, and must start immediately,” Zax said.

Vion nodded.

Her eyes glanced towards the exit, and a part of her wanted to leave. Through her dreams, many things had become evident to her. But more than anything, it was how she felt. About herself, the world, and others. And she wanted to put those things off her chest at this moment.

But no, she would not run out there this instant. This wasn’t how she wanted to do it.

She was a Dragonborne, and so her declaration needed to be equally flamboyant.

After a moment’s thought, she set her mind.

She was going to win this tournament.