"Watch your tone with me boy! Even you believe it. Deep down you the prophecy to be true, seeing as how you don't try to remove me from this shrine, not that you could." Aeneas released an aura around his body as soon as he finished speaking.
His aura instantly clouded the room and suffocated the air out of it. Rathgar had immediately put on a serious face, he knew he wasn't a match for his uncle, not now at least. He was still injured from even his match against his brother, and he was poisoned.
*Hmph* "How do you know it's true or not Aeneas, there's no proof that the legends are true. Those stories all come from over 3000 years ago, nobody alive today is from that era. You yourself are only 280 years old." Rathgar quickly retorted back at Aeneas.
"You aren't privileged enough to know the history of this clan. only we elders and the true patriarchs of the clan are allowed to know them. You, who usurped your power through unhonorable means, have no right to the clan's privilege to be patriarch. Just because you're the now strongest amongst us, outside of this shrine that I cannot leave, doesn't make you the leader. It makes you a thief and an ill-begotten child who bullies the weak to stay in power. Your brother knew better, and my brother failed to teach you properly." Elder Aeneas berated Rathgar for his past actions and for his ineptitude as clan leader.
Since Rathgar's reign as clan leader, the clan's strength has dwindled, living within the forgotten woodlands is by no means an easy feat. There are constant threats to the clan from the outside.
Demonic creatures frequent the woodlands in a crazed manner, oftentimes attacking the clan in hopes of an easy meal. However, humans are crafty and well-prepared creatures. Humans live in social manners that never leave others behind.
On the other hand, where the demonic beings plighted by mana corruption, though strong in savagery, are more often solitary than being in groups.
Aeneas continued to ridicule Rathgar, "you can't even protect the people you wish to lead from their problems. You've become a danger to our own society because you cannot see past your own fear of being removed from power and your status of the main family stripped from you. You say the legends have no meaning, yet you live in fear of them."
Aeneas was referring to the legend that has been handed down to every dragonkin generation since the time of the last Dragon King.
The legend had foretold of the destruction of the world through mana corruption and the spreading of demons bent on soughing death and destruction in their wake. However, when the time of this era begins, a new dragon king will be spawned into the world.
The new dragon king would be the inheritor of the dragons' full might and abilities and to re-establish the connection the dragonkin had to the goddess Tiflos.
However, as thousands of years passed, the story had long since faded into myth, only becoming a legend used to temp children to sleep. No one outside of the elders and patriarch knew the truth. That the legends of old in their clan were based in reality.
The genesis flames created by Tiflos contained such a power that if not for the bloodline of the dragon king within the dragonkin clan, they would all have been corrupted by its power.
The mana radiating from such a pure source of power could be a useful tool for people, or it could be a curse. The line that the power balanced on was a precarious as a tight rope. Strong enough to hold you at amazing heights, but one wrong step, and you plummet into the abyss.
The corruption that mana could cause to people and creatures of Alterra stemmed from the laws of the universe Septimus and Seraphimus instilled into it. There was to be no light without dark. There was to be no benefit without detriment.
Cause and effect was the prevailing law of the universe. Should one action have a benefit, there would be a detriment elsewhere. Though through the use of cultivating practices, the detriments have been able to be warded to a different time.
The cultivation of mana in one's body to improve upon their souls and aptitudes for elemental affinities, was to gain impurities within their bodies. Should the impurities be ignored, the body would slowly wither and corrode away.
Cultivation began the practice of buy now, pay later. The rebound of cultivation was most notable in the form of bodily impurities. However, as people removed their impurities from their bodies as they grew, the consequences became more severe though predictable.
Every time a creature was to advance to a new stage of cultivation they would incur the wrath of the heavens. The backlash of benefiting too often Alterra resulted in thunder tribulations. Though average creatures avoided the tribulations as they only appeared once one enters into the noble rank and above.
Not many creatures had the aptitude nor the will to continue past the realm of sages. The heavenly tribulations were by no means simple matters to cross through. The detriment that tribulations could cause has literally altered the course of human history.
Reaching the realm of the emperor had been the cause for entire cities of the past to be obliterated from the maps and every soul that was contained within them. As such, most humans were ever willing to go through one tribulation, let alone many.
Aeneas was one of these few people in the world who'd successfully crossed through the thunder tribulations, he was of the king rank and he could proceed further and attain a higher realm, but it would incur another tribulation, and in his current state, he knew he wouldn't survive it.
Rathgar was just a mere sage realm cultivator who was too weak-willed to proceed with the thunder tribulation unlike his brother had. Roland was a true born leader and prodigy of the clan, he exemplified strength and honor, but ever since being betrayed Aeneas has grown concerned about the legends of old.
Aeneas feared the legends would hold true, but he could never find out the trigger of such an event. And because of this, he was too afraid to proceed with his advancement of cultivation.
He was originally only able to cross his previous tribulations because his connection to the dragon's bloodline was so strong, giving him partial immunity to thunder and lightning as dragons had.
Another reason was due to his surroundings. Being in the forgotten woodlands krosis trees offered a sort of natural barrier to thunder strikes. It was like the god Duranas who created the earthly landscapes and natural growth were teases towards his father's lovely invention of detriment to all things good.
The trees could prevent a portion of the tribulation's strength, but not all of it. Even Duranas had to adhere to the laws of the universe his parents created. But due to his mischievous nature, he created a great many things that could help ward off those detriments in Alterra.
Aeneas had grown old. Even if he had wanted to proceed with his tribulation to cross into the realm of emperors, he had since bound himself to the shrine to keep the genesis flame within the dragonkin clan's sanctuary.
If he started his tribulation now, he would wipe away his clan from existence. Aeneas felt he would be absolutely needed to ward off the calamity his clan faced but knew not how to stop it. Aeneas only took solace in the fact that the calamity would also signify the birth of a new dragon king.
'Will the legends start to come true' Aeneas thought to himself, 'if there is to be a calamity of demons to appear we will at least be reconnected to Tiflos through the dragon king.'
However, unbeknown to Aeneas, the trigger that causes the calamity in the old legends the dragonkin feared would soon be tripped.