The Solaris Empire buzzed with fervor, its streets alive with the clamor of anticipation as preparations for the "Rising Star" tournant swept through Darkos, the capital of the Darkan lands.
The city’s cobblestone paths thronged with rchants hawking wares, blacksmiths forging ceremonial blades, and citizens stringing banners of crimson and gold across the avenues.
For the Darkan family’s people, the event was a source of pride, and they threw themselves into the preparations with unbridled enthusiasm, polishing arenas and erecting viewing platforms under the radiant spring sun.
The influx of visitors was staggering. Young warriors, their eyes gleaming with ambition, poured into the city, their armor clinking and their voices filling the air with tales of prowess and dreams of glory.
Amid the excitent, articles flooded the empire’s broadsheets, each speculating on the tournant’s true purpose. The sharpest minds connected the event to Jin, the enigmatic hero of the Darkan lands, whose teoric rise had drawn the empire’s scrutiny.
The rewards: 10,000 gold, first-grade armor, and the coveted Sun Pill for the victor only fueled the speculation.
Whispers of controversy swirled like wildfire: so claid the winner would be conscripted into the Imperial Army, others insisted the tournant was crafted to showcase Jin’s dominance, and a few daring voices suggested it was a ploy by the imperial successors to secure their influence.
Yet, these rumors did nothing to slow the preparations; if anything, they hastened the city’s fervor, as all eagerly awaited the tournant’s comncent.
Unfazed by the chaos, Baines followed Smallfoot toward the Dragon’s Pit, his scarf draped loosely over his shoulders, shielding his face from curious gazes.
Smallfoot, in her human form, moved with confidence, her fiery red hair, a hallmark of the Darkan bloodline granted her unquestioned passage through the bustling streets.
The tournant’s distractions ensured no one stopped to question the pair, their steps purposeful under the blazing midday sun.
The pit’s entrance lood ahead, a jagged maw carved into the mountainside, its guards relaxed yet vigilant.
The sanctity of the Dragon’s Pit was unquestioned, as who would dare trespass into a dragon’s domain without cause? It was a foolish try.
As they crossed the threshold, a wave of heat washed over Baines, the air thick with mana and the faint scent of sulfur. The interior opened into a vast, otherworldly expanse, a cracked landscape of scorched earth and molten rivulets, dominated by a towering volcano in the distance.
Dragons soared overhead, their scales glinting like molten tal, their roars echoing through the cavernous space.
"Isn’t this a ruin?" Baines asked, his voice betraying a rare flicker of curiosity.
Smallfoot shook her head, her red hair catching the light of glowing lava. "No, this is our holy land," she said, her tone reverent.
Baines’s thoughts drifted; he recalled the strange space he’d entered when consuming the Dark Sun pill and wielding the Slave God’s weapon, the realm that felt eerily similar to this one.
’Was that their holy land?’ he wondered. There was no divine power here, unlike that otherworldly plane, but the resemblance nagged at him.
He thought of the old man, whose own domain had mirrored this one’s vastness. ’Did they also reach deity level?’ Only such power could craft a space so detached from reality, he reasoned, filing the thought away.
"Let’s go," Smallfoot said, her form shimring as she morphed into her draconic shape. Where she once stood three ters tall, she now towered at six, her red scales thicker, glossier, exuding a palpable pressure that pressed against Baines’s soul.
’Dragon’s Fear,’ he noted, recognizing the subtle aura of intimidation. It was negligible to him, given her relative weakness, but its presence was undeniable. He leaped onto her back, and with a powerful beat of her wings, she launched toward the volcano, the wind howling around them.
-Wick
Baines called.
-Yes, master
-I told you to create a teleportation circle.
-It is here, master.
-Good.
The circle would spare him the effort of sneaking back later.
As they neared the volcano, its imnse silhouette dominated the horizon, and Baines spotted a gathering of dragons waiting at its base.
Even with her restored heritage, Smallfoot was still dwarfed by these dragons, their scales shimring with power.
Their eyes locked onto Baines, curiosity and suspicion mingling in their gazes.
How could he restore us?
Why is he taking such a route to help us?
Who is he?
However, their silent questions would remain unanswered.
Smallfoot reverted to her human form, her voice steady as she addressed the dragons telepathically.
-I brought him because he wants proof.
-Proof?
The second-largest dragon’s thought was sharp with confusion.
-Yes, proof that we can’t open the lair without our heritage restored.
Smallfoot clarified.
The dragons exchanged glances, their plan was clear, they would feign an attempt to open the lair, staging a struggle to convince Baines they needed their heritage to fully open it.
The largest dragon nodded, gesturing for them to follow. They traversed the scorched terrain, the heat intensifying as they approached the volcano’s foot.
Up close, its sheer scale was staggering, its surface radiating a blistering heat that forced Baines to cloak himself in an aura to ward off burns.
Even then, the protection felt inadequate, the air shimring with oppressive energy.
At the lair’s entrance, a colossal dragon’s maw carved into the volcano’s base with intricate circular lockets adorned with glowing magic circles awaited.
Smallfoot stepped forward, her expression solemn. "To open it, we need the blood of Lady Darka’s descendant or the combined blood of her kin," she explained and sliced her palm, letting crimson droplets flow, and the other dragons followed, their blood pooling into a single stream.
Smallfoot guided the gathered blood toward the lock, her focus intense, but after several minutes, the lock remained inert.
She let the blood fall, sizzling as it hit the molten ground, and turned to Baines, panting. "Do you see now?"
At that mont, a notification flashed in Baines’s iris.
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE...]
He nodded, his face impassive, but inwardly, Eye’s analysis confird the lock’s complexity.
Without a word, he stepped forward, extending his hand. Wick, ever vigilant, placed the teleportation magic tablet in his palm.
Baines knelt, clearing a space on the ground to set it down.
"W-What are you doing?" Smallfoot asked, her voice tinged with alarm.
"This lair is now mine," Baines said, his tone flat as he worked on the tablet.
"D-Didn’t you hear ? We can’t open it without restoring our heritage!" Smallfoot protested, her composure fraying.
"Wick, begin preparations to move the lair," Baines commanded.
"Yes, master," Wick replied, its voice echoing from an unseen source.
The dragons froze, their heads snapping around, searching for the speaker.
The aning spoke loud, if Baines wanted to kill them now, he only had to speak it.
"H-Hey, this wasn’t the deal!" Smallfoot rushed forward, her voice trembling with fear and frustration. Their carefully laid plan was unraveling.
Baines rose, his eyes blazing with cold anger. "YOU agreed to give the lair. Now I want to take it, and you’re stopping . Don’t annoy ."
He had initially considered sneaking in, but Eye had told him, the lock’s activation would alert the dragons, and he would eventually be caught. And that wasn’t all.
[ENERGY CONTAINED CAN ONLY BE WITHSTOOD BY A SAINT LEVEL]
aning a 9th star or 10th star.
Hence, the reason he took a direct approach.
But the dragons couldn’t go unpunished. They had to pay for tricking him.
"No, half—that’s all we can give," Smallfoot pleaded, shaking her head.
Baines exhaled, a slow, deliberate breath.
’Have I been too nice?’ he wondered.
His acts of rcy, like saving the kidnapped, defeating villains, had dulled his edge, made him seem approachable.
In the first place, he shouldn’t have negotiated with Smallfoot at all, he shouldn’t have entertained her sches.
In that mont, his resolve hardened.
Regardless of anything, he would steal the entire lair, and if they ca to him after that, he might chain them.
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