〚No record of experiments based on the following conception found〛
〚Result Unknown〛
For a while, Lucas pondered over different scenarios. If his fire helped the eggs meet the conditions required for hatching, then what kind of creatures would get born.
Suppose normal wyverns hatched, then free food. Surely, newborns could do him no harm.
But, the problem was if, through his fire, his traits got passed.
Lucas currently did not have any unique and distinguishable physical traits. Even wyverns could breathe fire, as shown by the fire-breather. But, what he did have was potential. He realized his tremendous potential, but he did not fear his potential getting passed on right now. High Potential is helpful in the long term, and if Lucas sensed any form of hostility from them, then he could kill them right away.
The traits he feared getting passed on were the psychological ones. If the eggs were hatched through his flames, then he would be a parental figure for the hatchlings. It made him ponder about what kind of person he was.
Was he a good person? No
In no way did Lucas considered himself a good man. As an assassin, he had committed heinous crimes from killing big-time gangsters to politicians to killing the wife and children of his father's rivals. He had done it all without being forced to.
Lucas was born with a particular set of skills—he felt no guilt using those skills, honing those skills and enjoying the thrill he got as a consequence of those skills. He was born with a dark nature, and one of his friends from middle school taught him to embrace that nature.
Was he a loyal person? Yes.
He was loyal. And loyalty got him killed. But that's who he was in the past. Right now, the only things on his mind were vengeance, loathing and rage. All of those emotions pointed towards his parental figure. Now, should his hate towards a parental figure get passed down onto those eggs. Then, in no way would they be loyal.
But would they? Or would not they? Only one way to find out.
The temperature in the air rose. Air currents screamed as Lucas spread out a trail of fire, engulfing all three of the eggs.
The three eggs, which were encoated in blue and red stripes, started to morph.
With each breath, Lucas attempted to pass on a will.
The fire enveloping the first and second egg carried the will of a predator. The red and blue stripes on the first egg morphed into fiery scarlet stripes. The stripes on the second egg morphed into colourless stripes.
The fire enveloping the third egg carried the will of an adamant protector. The stripes on the third egg morphed into uneven golden rope stripes.
The size of the eggs had also increased.
Thump!
The rain of fire stopped after Lucas heard a heartbeat. The beat was not too loud, but Lucas's could pick even the slightest of sound with his ears.
Thump!Thump!Thump!
Lucas could hear light heartbeat's from all three eggs. The eggs had madly increased in size. In fact, they looked just a little smaller than Lucas's entire frame. He did not expect such an outcome. The creatures born through that egg would no doubt be of the same size as him.
He walked near the golden egg. It had the most robust heartbeat among the three.
Caressing the outer shell with his claw, he found the shell to be extremely hard and sturdy. Breaking the shell from inside won't be a cakewalk for them.
〚Scanning the eggs〛
He reckoned it would take at least 2-3 weeks before they hatched.
〚They wyvern eggs have gone under abrupt metamorphosis〛
〚All three of the eggs now possess thriving 'Dragon Heart'〛
〚You have created a new aberration— 〘Half-Blood〙〛
〚The new aberration has now been recorded under the 〘Hell Sovereign's Registry〙〛
Lucas slightly flinched as he heard the term 'Half-Blood'. It's was not a unique name or anything particular, but it reminded him about the myths he had read about vampires. Especially from a book, he read during one of his assignments. He was tasked to eliminate the Secretary of State and his only family member—a 10-year-old boy.
The boy had desperately clung to a book when Lucas passed a bullet through his head. At that time, Lucas wondered what kind of book it was that the boy so desperately clung to, even in death. Turns out it was an incomplete book—one that the kid wrote himself. A book about vampires and fairy tales: Lucas found the book to be a pleasant read.
The next thing that slightly piqued his curiosity was the term 〘Hell Sovereign's Registry〙. But after little thinking, he reputed what it was and did not ponder much over it.
Swoosh!
Like a flicker of wind, he turned back and went near the parent wyvern's corpse. Unlatching his broad jaws, he let out a storm of red fire.
The stoned skin, in contact with Lucas's flame, started to loosen up. The flames spread like wildfire through the wyvern's tail to soon its entire body.
Lucas had two reasons to do this. One because throughout the entire cave, the ideal place to rest seemed to be here, where the giant wyvern's corpse rested.
The following reason being, the half-blood eggs were too big. When Lucas was born, he was small. So, he deemed his egg also to be small. But, that was not the case for the half-bloods. Hence, he was not sure how powerful they could be. So, he had to grow as much as he could before they hatched. And the wyvern's corpse served as free food.
The skin was entirely damaged and inedible, but the inner muscles were still edible even though slightly rotted.
His expression soured as he bit a part of its tail. The flesh tasted disgusting. Disgusting but edible. He didn't complain about the taste and kept munching.
The fire helped soften the outer skin, which helped him carve into deeper flesh and devour.
The taste of blood was abhorrent. The only savoury part was the bones. But even they were extremely sturdy. Chewing them constantly was getting tiresome. He had many complaints but still continued devouring.
The wyvern was extremely big. So, it took him a very long time—one and a half-day, to be exact. The cave temperature shifted during night and day, which helped Lucas to keep track of time.
As for the golden shaft, it fell onto the ground when the flesh around it burned. Lucas later spread soil over it with his claws and buried it without ever touching it.
〚You have consumed a mountainous amount of flesh〛
Right, now, Lucas hadn't grown even by an inch. He needed to hibernate in order to grow. Neither had his power increased. But he was in a dilemma. The eggs had not hatched yet. He feared, what if the eggs hatch when he's asleep. He also could not stay awake all the time and wait till the eggs hatch.
It was a weird feeling, but when his flames had spread around the eggs, he felt a bond form. It was strange, but deep in his heart, he knew the hatchlings would not direct any animosity towards him. It was like an assurance in his mind. And that very assurance prevented him from gathering up enough willpower to resist the urge to hibernate.
〚Your body will now enter hibernation to evolve from a 〘Hatchling〙 to an 〘Infant Dragon〙〛
His vision slowly faded as he curled up and rested on the ground.
------
Red. That was the very first colour he saw. For a while, it was the only colour he saw. Of course, he didn't know it was red at that time. He only realized it after the redness disappeared, that it was red. The colour brought warmth. It was cozy. It felt like home.
Now, the only thing he saw was emptiness. The colour was gone. Suddenly, it was cold and lonely. He didn't know what being lonely was but did not like how it felt.
Escape!
He struggled.
Twitch!
He felt something. Something long. Something was covering him. It was his tail wrapped around his body.
Twitch!
He flexed his body and felt other limbs. It was congested, and he could not move well.
The feeling of his tail touching his body was strange. He felt like he was wrapped up in some form of slithery liquid.
His wings struggled to open. There was something hard blocking his way. He let out a small cry. It was dark, and lonely, and confining. He struggled with his tail, with his wings, with his tiny paws, with his head, yet to no avail.
It was hard, but not for once did he remain still. He knew he had to struggle if he wanted to escape this darkness. So, he struggled. He knew he had a purpose outside this strange confinement. So, he struggled.
Little by little, he struck the shell with his head, abraded it with his claw, and pressurized it with his tail.
He felt no sense of time, yet he kept struggling. Until finally one day,
Crack!