'What was that?'
Dominic's mind was hazy, he had a pile of information to dig through and the more he thought about it, the more questions he came up with.
"Was I a dragon in my last life? Who was that woman? Am I somehow related to Domizair?"
Dom couldn't process most of the information, so he decided to put everything he deemed unnecessary to the side and focus on what's important. As he stood up he walked to a nearby mirror because he felt like something about him had changed physically. He glanced up and gasped in shock at his face and overall appearance. Not only did he lose some weight, but his eye color changed! It had shifted in hue from a dark brown to a striking royal purple.
"What happened to me? Wait... how long has it been!?"
He dashed back to his bed and looked on his nightstand, it looked very old and worn. On it was a single picture of a woman in military uniform. To the left of the picture was a wooden box with a medal, and on the right was a small silver ring. It had the potential to have once been very Shiny and advanced, Now however, it looked very beat up and old, with a small cylinder at the top and a glowing blue stripe in the middle. the stripe's glow faded in and out, the cylinder had a small blue light on the top, it also faded in and out. Dom put it on in a hurry, and he said,
"Time."
The ring lit up and after flickering for a moment as though it was about to break, a holographic projection appeared from the cylinder, and it showed '12:30 AM'.
'12:30? so i slept for a few hours...'
Dom slumped onto the bed and began thinking over all of the events from his dream...or was it a vision?
'So if I'm not wrong, I either was (or was related to) a dragon at some point, but some kind of attack happened to Domizair...whoever he was. His mentor died... and for some reason, my instinct that told me to gather mana is telling me now to do what she taught Domizair... but I can't make fire... or can I?'
Dom was surprised by how she created a fire without uttering a single word in the first place, because as far as his knowledge went one couldn't use magic without saying a spell first. Suddenly a smirk appeared on his face as he sat up and extended a hand. With one thought in mind he focused on creating a fire just like that girl did.
'If I can guide magic through my body without a Magicore, I should in theory be able to use magic without casting a spell! Please work!!!'
After focusing for a few moments, a small faint purple spark appeared, and soon it flickered into a flame of the same color. As he concentrated the purple flame began to grow in size until it was about as big as a baseball. Dominic watched with amazement the entire time, his smile growing wider and wider with his success. He watched as the purple flame danced in his palm, swaying to a soothing melody that only it could hear. It was very calming for him.
'Well... I guess I better try 'Dragofying' my skin...'
He began spreading his mana through his forearm but when he was about to, he realized a potential problem.
'How do I get that energy from my soul and mix it with my mana?'
Just like before, his instinct kicked in and he immediately thought of putting mana into his eyes, and when he did, a whole new world was opened up to him. His eyes glowed brightly, and they perceived things he never thought he could. Dom began seeing mana everywhere in the air around him, there were faint outlines of people through his wall, and each one had a small mist like ball in the center with a Magicore just underneath. Seeing a Magicore was nothing special, after all as long as you could wield mana and had some degree of skill anyone could see them. But those mist-like energies...those were something only Dom could see. He decided to examine himself next. As he looked at his hands he could see his veins exploding with mana, but his chest was filled with misty energy as well.
'Is this... my soul? But...why is it so different?'
Dom's soul was a black orb with golden tiger-like stripes and a purple mist surrounding it. All the other humans he could see had only one solid color for their orb and mist, so what could this mean? Was he a dragon after all? Not wanting to devolve into what he saw as unnecessary information, he decided not to focus on that. Instead he focused on the mist. When he did he was able to draw some of it out, merging it with his mana and fusing it into the skin on his forearm. Sighing deeply he began using the purple fire on his arm, but to his surprise it wasn't doing anything!
'Am I doing it wrong? What am i missing?'
Dom began thinking back to the mysterious mentor. He remembered everything so clearly, from its color, to the expression on her face, and he could even feel the heat!
'Wait... heat...? Do I need to make the flame hotter maybe?'
He looked at the flame intently, and he began raising the heat to as hot as he could make it. He was extremely nervous, but somehow felt like this was exactly what he needed to do. Before he could change his mind he gritted his teeth and immediately applied the flame to his skin. It felt as if someone had just used a blow torch on his arm, torturing him with endless licks of fire. The pain he felt was extreme but he refused to stop. After what felt like days (but was probably only minutes) the pain subsided, and he looked at his forearm.
Despite the pain he felt, nothing had happened to his arm! It wasn't burnt, there was not a trace of soot, even his arm hair was intact!
'What changed? I was expecting scales or something'
As he stared in both disbelief and disappointment, he began focusing as hard as he could on his arm. He even tried to use his new 'Dragon Sight' to see if anything changed on a molecular level. While he did so he was inadvertently thinking about scales.
Suddenly, as if in response to his thoughts, deep black scales appeared. They each had an incredibly sharp edge that contrasted the rest of the scale with a bright golden color. Dom recoiled in surprise. He wasn't even sure how he transformed his arm!
'Does the transformation trigger because of concentration?'
He felt curious, so he focused on the scales becoming skin again. Just like that, the scales softened and his arm returned to normal. Dom was now sure he could control his transformation with relative ease. He had been really worried at first that he might transform without being able to control himself, so this was a huge relief. He celebrated for a moment before realizing a terrifying thought.
'I'm going to have to do this... EVERYWHERE... even my...oh boy this isn't going to be fun...'
If he truly wanted to keep going on this path of seeking strength he would have to burn his entire body. While he was nervous, even a little scared for his future children, he was prepared to do so. With a deep breath and without thinking too much about it, he reignited his flame.
"Here we go..!"