(Author's Mini-Note - This chapter contains a lot of information and not an actual story progression. This chapter is for the sole purpose of setting up future events. I hope you all do not mind me just shoving so much backstory on you guys now. )
The story of Daren truly starts in a grand empire that is located at the center of the Dragon Realm. This empire is known as the Demonic Dragon Empire that stretched over a land spanning over 55 billion square miles.
It is a beautiful land filled with luscious forests, scenic mountains, and calming rivers. Animals and magic beasts of all kinds roamed these lands freely and without care.
This created one of the most sought-after environments and locations in existence as it was perfect in every way.
Everyone who knew of these lands would want to live here but they could not as they feared the inhabitants of this land.
The Demon Dragon race ruled over this vast and practically endless stretch of land. This beyond powerful race lived without anyone that could threaten their lands as they numbered in a population around 950 trillion.
With the legendary power of one of the strongest dragon races in existence and their overwhelming numbers, no one on the continent of Averon could ever threaten their rule so their people lived in undisturbed peace.
At the very center of this great empire was a city named Dracon. Here, Darem Dracon was born within the empire's imperial family.
The Dracon family had many branches and he was lucky enough to be born within one of the more prominent branches that had good ties with the main family.
Emily and Gordon Dracon are the parents of this lucky boy. The parents had the title of Duke and Duchess.
They also had 6 other kids. 4 sons and 2 daughters that came before Daren. He was their 7th child.
Daren was raised in an environment where power was everything. Whether it be political, financial, or physical strength, power was strived for by every single person within the empire.
To be specific, the fight is only between the royalties, nobilities, and the extremely wealthy. Having power in this world meant access to more and better resources.
The more resources one had, the longer they could live. The longer they could live, the more resources they could acquire. This was an infinite loop of greed and desire.
Who wouldn't want to live longer and have fun doing all sorts of crazy shit? If you want to have the best chance of living a fulfilling life, you needed resources.
About 95 percent of all people within the Demonic Dragon Empire could cultivate force. The 5 percent that couldn't be the ones that the most menial labor.
Daren was a child that his parents had high hopes for as he was born with exceptional talent in cultivation.
He had been tested at the age of 1-month-old for his cultivation talent, that is where they found out that his talent was one of the best that they had found.
Not only could he reach the Divine Aura stage but he had also awakened one of the most powerful force elements.
The element of Blood. It is the element considered by all demonic races to be the best due to how versatile and dominating it is on the battlefield.
Daren was considered to be within the top 3 in terms of talent in his generation as there were only two others within the entire empire that had anything close.
One of these would be a commoner who had awakened both the same talent and element while the other was the 3rd imperial prince.
This 3rd imperial prince had also awakened the same level of talent as the other two and also had the Blood element. Along with that though, he also had awakened a second element, the lightning element.
This what made him be the number 1 as lightning was also a good element on the battlefield that could wipe out large sections of enemies at ease.
The prince is named Vivatos Dracon and the commoner was Lilian Carmine.
All three were ordered to live, eat and train with each other until the age of 16. When this order was given, Vivatos was 3 years old, Lillian was 2 years old and Daren was 4 years of age.
The order would not be carried out until Lillian was 6 years old. This was to make sure that all the kids had enough time to gain a basic understanding of their situations and the world around them.
The emperor had created a new school that was specifically for the three geniuses and he had ordered a decree that this school would only admit those with at least talents similar to the three.
Within the school was a dormitory where all of the student's families would live like neighbors.
This would make it to where there would be no chance for the children to ever hold any grievances towards them in the future.
An empire as powerful as the Demonic Dargon would never have an idiot emperor as anyone who had reached its throne was someone who had to create an ungodly amount of schemes to even have a chance.
Even if by some miracle, a retarded emperor takes the throne, they would be disposed of before they could do any damage as there were systems in place that made this elimination possible.
Now, back to what happened in the school that was promptly named the "Dragons of Blood Academy".
The family of both the prince and Daren were considered royalty and had no problems getting along as they knew each other well.
The two families prompted the two boys from their family to get along and become good friends. They succeeded in doing so with ease as the two boys had similar personalities and spent lots of time together.
The whole reason for doing this was to keep the one commoner in check.
In the empire, many factions fight over power and resources. One of these factions was known as the Common Folk's Sanctuary.
This organization used its funds to train and nurture commoner talents that were overlooked by the private and noble academies.
Public schools run by the empire also did not allocate enough resources to their students as most of the resources were held by those with wealth and power.
This is why many organizations like the Common Folk's Sancuatary were formed. They would pool together whatever resources they could to produce stronger individuals.
These individuals would then work hard to give back the sanctuary and their commoner brethren. This was the way that commoners would have the most luck in achieving longer life spans.
The royal families and factions did not like the pitiful commoners as much since they would always be trying to cut into each other's precious resources.
This why they filled the minds of both Daren and Prince Vivatos with hate and disgust. As children, they were easily manipulated by their families.
The result of this was the two boys either always bullying or undermining Lilian and her family. This was the intended purpose of the royals as it would affect the little girl's mindset.
Having a weak mindset and a negative environment made it many times harder for a person to increase their cultivation. By making her life a little bit hard, the royals would suppress Lilian's growth.
This would make it easier for them to keep more resources to themselves rather than letting her become powerful enough to siphon theirs and spread them to other commoners.
After 10 years in the academy, there had been no there students added to the academy since a talent like the 3 was not found anywhere within the nation.
These three years were like hell for Lillian and she was finally happy to leave the capital and go off somewhere quieter with her family.
With the help of an organization that funds commoner talents, she had found a peaceful city to live In with her parents and 3 siblings.
Unfortunately for her, due to some friction between commoner organizations and noble ones, she was sent to a battlefield to the north of the empire.
There she struggled against countless mobs of a never-ending alliance of dark elves and demons trying to take her life in every way.
Lillian had built up a very strong mind in those years of torture as her family had always been there to support her build up her mind so she could get through her bullying. This would help her live a more relaxing life when she could leave school.
This was one of the reasons the emperor had decided to house her family there in the first place and also why he ignored the obvious bullying,
He did not want a good talent to be wasted so he had to let the midset be strengthened by hardships. He did not want a soldier who could not even take s single life as Lillian was originally a timid girl.
That is why, with a perserveering mindset and tough victories, Lillian came back to the empire 15 years later. She was grandly victorious on the battlefield and had destroyed the alliance of opposing nations in the north.
When she returned, the emperor held a grand feast for her as he wanted her to understand that the main reason she was sent to the battlefield was due to him.
He wanted her to know that all these years, he had been watching over her. He had wanted her to get stronger and stronger so she could provide an easier life for herself and her family in the future.
He also wanted her to know that the main reason he had sent her to the battlefield was so she was ready to defend herself from the incoming war between princes for the emperor's throne.
This did not go as planned as on the day of the party, the entirety of Prince Vivatos and Daren's closest family members were assassinated on their way to the palace.
The Prince and Daren were both at certain parts of the southern battlefield/border as they had matured over the years and now held great military responsibilities.
When they heard the news the next morning. they prepared to go back to the capital and find out what happened. On their way out, the forts they guarded were ambushed with an overwhelming force.
The two, now generals, were able to fend off the enemies but were very weakened due to a gritty and time-consuming fight.
To their surprise, as they were healing in their forts and making preparation to go back to the capitol, they were both ambushed again.
This time, Lillian had shown up at Daren's fort without any warning and engaged him in a duel. Due to her experience, superior strength, and Daren's weakness, she cut off his head with ease.
She then did the same for Prince Vivatos who did not fare any better.
"Cloe and I survived the slaughter of our families as we were at the imperial place ahead of time to meet the empress for certain reasons. After all of you were dead, Lillian fleed the country and is who knows where.
I was distraught and practically crumbling on the inside but I decided to stay strong for Chloe. I wanted to raise her in the stead of you two but then I was approached by the system.
Th system told me that it would revive both of you and keep Cloe safe as all I had to do for it was give up my material existence. I agreed to do so.
It sucked away every inch of my body but left my soul intact. It sent me to where my big sister's soul was being held.
I talked to you there and acted like I was confused as that was what the system had ordered me to do. Now, after what has felt like years, we have reunited with the systems guidance."
Chanela had recounted their past events while trying to include as many important details as possible but had a sullen face when she realized that she only knew surface facts about those horrid days.
(To clarify, Chanela is Celina's younger sister. She is the one who just came out form the black hole Chloe is the daughter of Daren and Celina. We previously know Chloe as the transformed wyvern who called the two her parents.)
"That doesn't explain why we don't remember anything or what my soul was doing in a whole different world." said Daren.
[ That's where I come in! ]
The newfound voice of the system sounded very enthusiastic and cheerful. This disrupted the depressing mood that Chanela, Daren, and Celina were in due to the nature of the tale.
At least it was not a monotone robotic voice and had some personality in it. Having a mindless system would make for a boring life after all.