Initially, Khan believed that reaction to be one of the Nak’s tests, a final trial challengers had to overco to prove themselves worthy of inheriting the mana.
However, Khan quickly dismissed that idea. He had Liiza would have sensed a deep-seated will in that pure energy. That reaction had to originate from sothing else, which wasn’t hard to find with the couple’s incredible perception.
Those dragon-like creatures were more than simple masses of mana that had taken a specific shape. They weren’t like Khan’s cloud spell or the strange lifeforms he had fought on Chuwei.
The mana didn’t just gather and condense. It built muscles, organs, joints, tendons, bones, and blood vessels, perfectly recreating actual living beings. Everything was still made of that energy, but each fake tissue perford a specific function.
That showed how flexible the mana could be. It wasn’t limited to imitations of air, ground, and mountains. It could give birth to actual life, albeit with apparent limitations.
All the dragons had four thick legs and two vast wings. All six of those reptilian heads featured two curved horns that pointed their sharp tips forward. Those mana beasts were also identical in size, being close to three-story tall.
Those identical details stretched to the dragons’ claws, eyes, facial features, and scales. They were individual mana beasts but were also perfect copies of each other, as if coming out from the sa mold.
The dragons breathed, waved, and moved independently from each other, boasting individuality, but their will was identical, coming from the very energy that had birthed them. They reeked of a primordial hunger that only the most basic and profound survival instincts could generate, drawing a clear picture for the married couple.
That instinctive hunger and the desolate state of the secluded environnt inside the arrangent of asteroids were probably connected. It was the exact reason why the supposed solar system was no more, only having its central planet left.
That place was dying and would seize any opportunity to restore so energy.
As for how the mana could create such lifelike creatures, Khan and Liiza couldn’t know for sure, but a reasonable hypothesis was easy enough to find.
The Nak had launched genocidal attacks far and wide, and the energy they had spread had probably committed those fearso beasts to mory, allowing the mana to rebuild them when necessary.
The dragons’ level was unclear. After all, they were mana beasts. They had no attunent to fill, and their energy reserves could very well be endless since the entire azure planet could probably refill them.
Nevertheless, Khan and Liiza didn’t experience an ounce of fear. They both existed beyond what sheer power could achieve. Their energy had surpassed the basic mana’s limits and carried wills that vastly outclassed that instinctive hunger.
The dragons’ artificial brains carried a version of their original survival instincts, making them wary of the two far smaller figures. The six mana beasts hesitated, but their hunger was too great, making one of them pounce forward.
The symphony moved alongside the pouncing dragon. Its vast wings and massive body displaced the azure air, reaching the couple in a single leap as its maw snapped downward.
The mana beast planned to end the fight in a single bite, wanting to crush both Khan and Liiza with its long, sharp teeth, but its figure slowed down when its head was about to reach its targets.
That unnatural slow motion intensified until the dragon crawled to a halt, stopping with its open maw right above the couple. Liiza only had to raise her hand to touch one of its teeth, which instantly froze, spreading its ice all over and inside the creature.
Everything from the dragon’s scaled skin, fake blood, organs, and its existence froze. The fearso azure creature beca a white ice statue, which stood above the married couple with its maw open.
Liiza’s swift disposal of that threat didn’t scare away the other dragons. Two more pounced forward, one from before Khan and another from behind him. Yet, he didn’t even look at them.
Khan raised his hands as soon as the two dragons showed any intention to move. Trails of purple-red mana escaped from his fingers as he casually pointed them at the incoming beasts. The latter were already upon him, rely a fraction of a second away from crashing on the couple, when a blinding light flashed in the area.
Vast black gaps had replaced the two dragons when the flash dispersed, and two joint thundering noises followed. Khan’s spells hadn’t only obliterated the mana beasts. They had also eradicated the surrounding air, removing its azure pollution in those areas.
That overwhelming show of strength didn’t discourage the remaining three dragons, which attacked together, forsaking any attempted cooperation to crush those tiny figures.
However, Liiza grew annoyed with those creatures’ inability to understand their position in the food chain despite the latest demonstrations. Her expression grew colder as she tapped her foot on the blue ground, unleashing a vast but instantaneous spell.
The world turned white. The surrounding azure color abruptly disappeared as ice covered the ground, creating a pure, cold landmass.
The spell didn’t only affect the ground, or rather, it didn’t stop at creating a new surface. Tall, sharp spikes had grown out of the ice, impaling the three dragons and spreading their life-extinguishing, freezing effects on them.
The dragons’ assault ended as quickly as it had begun, leaving them in the shape of white statues in the middle of their pouncing motions. Four of those now surrounded the married couple, but the latter didn’t even bother to inspect them.
Instead, Liiza glanced at Khan, and he nodded in a seemingly random direction. Of course, there was a clear purpose behind both of their gestures. The two were technically lost and stranded, but Khan still heard the Nak’s call, so he knew exactly where to go.
Liiza followed Khan’s gaze and tried to spot sothing in the seemingly ordinary horizon, but her senses failed her. Whatever Khan was perceiving, it stood beyond her range, aning that they had a long way to go.
That wasn’t exactly a problem, but both Khan and Liiza found it annoying, especially since stepping out of the frozen area triggered the surrounding mana’s hunger again, making it give birth to more replicas of grand beasts.
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