[It was said that 500 years ago during the mythical age, each race fought for dominance. Elves, Dwarves, Gods, Demons, Humans and Demi-Humans alike all turned on one another, with no regard for the land]
Of course, Milo was already partly aware of this through the fairy-tale his mother told him.
*flip*
[The great race war was finally put to an end when a small group of impoverished humans made a deal with the proud dragon king. In return for guaranteeing the worlds prosperity, the dragon race would enter into a state of suspended silence for eternity]
'I saw plenty of dragons during my time. It doesn't make sense why they would sacrifice themselves for humans'.
The book he found himself reading was given to him the moment he arrived in the main residence. It was labelled as a secret artefact by Renny and was said to contain at least the part truth of the world.
When he first exited the carriage and laid eyes on the main residence, to say he was left bitterly disappointed was an understatement. The residence was made of white marble, but that was about as far as it went. Clearly it had been designed to house a noble family, but to say it was poorly maintained was accurate.
The walls were covered in moss and the main gate that once shone gold was patchy, having multiple parts of it chipped away.
Milo wasn't particularly bothered by his surroundings, as long as the promise to provide him everything he needed was kept, he was more than content. He continued to flip the pages.
[The dragons were a strong and noble race]
"A lie, they were selfish and full of desire", he said.
[A race with unlimited power]
"A lie, their power was limited, they just have a greater capacity for growth than ordinary humans".
[They were the greatest race, who everyone grew to admire and built connections with]
"Wrong again! Dragons are creatures of solitude who are forced to live alone from a young age as their natural inclination towards essence far exceeds everything and sticking together in groups slowly tarnishes the earth. Who the fuck wrote this shit!".
He had suspected from the story his mother told him that dragons may have once roamed this land as well, but he didn't expect them to have completely died out, or at least be suspended in time in a forgotten dimension …
*flip*
[Once the great race war ended, each race founded their own kingdoms. They entered into a peace pact shortly after, forbidding the act of war]
'Peace pact … that doesn't necessarily mean they are friendly with one another; it just means they tolerate each other. How annoying …'.
Beneath this sentence, a list of all of the kingdoms had been listed.
[Human Kingdom – Avalora]
[Demon Kingdom – Nyxahar]
[Elven Kingdom – Luminaera]
[Dwarven Kingdom – Eisenstein}
[Godly Kingdom – Thalassia]
[Demi-human Kingdom – Amoura]
He slammed the book shut and tucked it away inside his clothing. Without hesitation, he ran through the halls and bundled out into the poorly kept garden. He took up the meditating pose and began to draw on the mana surrounding him.
While nothing like an actual breakthrough had happened for him, he could feel it. The mana in his body was beginning to cry out. It was a sensation he had experienced once before as the Azure dragon, and it was something he couldn't let happen to him.
His core was about to rupture. It happened once when he was 5 in his previous life, thanks to his overwhelming talent for drawing upon the essence, he quickly found himself able to draw upon more than his core could handle. It was soon after that he went into a state known as overload. The core where the essence entered his body had cracked and it took him another 5 years before he was able to nurse his wound.
'Never again …'.
Just the thought of the event made his body shiver. How could he ever forget the past mistakes he made, even though he now had a chance to right his wrongs.
Following his pattern of mistakes, he knew what not to do. Do not try to compress the mana. Following this, he allowed it to freely escape from his core, whilst simultaneously drawing on it to ensure it didn't damage his surroundings.
It didn't take long for this seemingly remedial task to turn into one of his greatest breakthroughs.
His core had stabilised, and he had also unlocked one of his prior techniques, Cycling.
Cycling was a simple technique he had developed whilst using essence. Being able to use all 4 types of essence simultaneously took a toll on him despite his bodies adjustments. To get past this hurdle, he developed cycling, where in a repetitive pattern, one essence would be expelled throughout his body, then another would take its place. This repeated so each of the 4 essences could co-exist inside his body.
He hadn't expected it to work so well with mana though. He looked inward towards his core, his eyes widened as he continued to draw on the mana.
'I can't believe it. I've broken through the Creation 2 already …'.
It would usually take a person at least 4 months to grow through the first stage, even with elixirs provided by their families. Milo had accomplished this feat in a mere 3 weeks.
Peeking out from a second-floor window, Renny's face could be seen emerging from behind a curtain, carefully watching Milo. He closed the curtain before Milo could notice his presence and turned around, facing his wife.
"It would seem that my judgment about him was correct".
"Do you intend to make him the heir, dear?", Enalise asked, looking across at a photo of a young child, "I don't think Pavlor would like that".
Renny pulled out a chair and took a seat, he withdrew two small sheets of paper from his pocket, "I don't intend to make Milo the heir if he doesn't wish for it, I only intend to support him. Do you disagree with my decision?".
"…". Enalise remained silent.
"I'm well aware of your concerns as Pavlor's mother, but I am the family head before his father. This title that was bestowed upon me by my very own father despite having an elder brother. I shall not let it crumble", Renny spoke with a weight that made Enalise tremble.
"… Do you …", Enalise hesitated.
"Do you not believe Pavlor has what it takes?".
"It's not about whether I believe if he has what it takes or not. It's about whether Pavlor has shown any signs he has what it takes, which thus far, he hasn't".
"Isnt that unfair?", Enalise inquired, "He's still only 6 after all".
"Yes, but we have a child in the residence who is 2 years younger than him, and yet has displayed far greater talents", Renny said, sending a sharp look towards Enalise.
Enalise started to recall the moment she saw Milo fighting with bandits, goosebumps covered every inch of her skin as she wondered how a small child could display such brutality.
"Who's to say Pavlor won't awaken that same kind of power at some point?", Enalise asked.
Renny responded with a shrug, "Nobody is to say and that's what makes it interesting. However, my role is not to wait and see, my role is to decide the best course of action for the family as soon as humanly possible".
He turned to face his wife with a sincere expression, "And right now, Milo gives us the best chance at regaining what we have lost".
It wasn't Renny's plan at all to make Milo the family head, what he knew he needed more than anything else was a way to contain the catastrophe waiting to awaken. He hadn't told Milo, nor his wife, but what he saw during his premonition was much more than the Azure Dragons final moments.
His power that it seemed nobody could detect, was found out during the premonition. Even though he had watched the tail end of the bout, in that single moment the Supreme Deity had sent a small, knowing smile towards the far corner of the meadow, where the gaze from Renny settled.
He was faced with 2 problems that he could have never imagined he would have to deal with, and both were far beyond his capabilities to handle.
The first, an all-knowing God that even someone like Azure Dragon struggled against, had turned his sights and was aware of Renny's presence. The second, someone with the power of the Azure dragon had reincarnated into his family and wasn't being discreet about trying to regain his power.
It was laughable to Renny, their small little baron family now housed perhaps the greatest talent and the greatest threat. It was something he couldn't discuss with Enalise, but he needed to make her understand how dangerous Milo was somehow.
He peeled back the curtain, his face dripping with sweat when he saw no sign of Milo.
Milo was bouncing through the rolling hills behind the residence. It wasn't anything spectacular, but he was more than capable of finding monsters back here. He perched atop another branch and peered down at the wet floor below. It wasn't an ideal condition for hunting, but at this moment in time he felt he had no choice if he wanted to grow his power.
After his initial breakthrough with the cycling technique, it quickly became apparent to him that not only were his past experiences a major advantage for him, his body, even though it was a different one, seemed to retain the movements. It was yet another blessing that would make his life easier.
He watched as a small, bat like creature scampered along the floor. Its wing clearly wounded and one of its eyes missing from the socket. Blood continued to pour, leaving a trail behind the desperate animal. He dropped in front of it, peering down with cold eyes.
*Squeak! Squeak!*
The creature frantically flapped its wings around despite being wounded.
Milo pointed to himself confused, "Are you … trying to tell me something?".
He scooped it into his arms, the bat like creatures appearance changed, its yellow eyes healed and were replaced by a deep red. Four fangs, two from the top and two from the bottom, jutted out from its mouth. Its dainty feet sprung claws like a cat, it turned its head back down the trail of blood.
*Squeak!*
The creatures body started to shine in a deep red hue, his eyes lit up and his head snapped towards the blood trail again. It's eyes turned and met Milo's, the same red glow enveloping his own eyes.
'HUMAN! RUN!', a squeaky voice probed into his mind.
Milo held the creature in front of his eyes, 'Hold on … you can talk?'.
'No wait, this is telepathy'.
He had no idea why he decided to help the small creature, but he started to get the sense he had just stumbled on something amazing. Instead of running, he leapt up to another branch and placed the creature down, before dropping back towards the blood trail.
*Bang*
Milo was sent flying before he had time to react.
"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!", he screeched, reaching down towards his stomach. He patted it, noticing his clothes weren't torn but a faint burning sensation was taking place. He lifted his shirt whilst slumped on the floor, noticing 3 stripes in the shape of a claw, oozing a thick black aura.
He lurched over, the burning sensation worsening.
"A CHILD", A croaky old voice called out in front of him.
He lifted his head, his face dropped into a deep frown and beads of sweat began to form along his brows. Before him, a cloud of pure black floated seamlessly a good foot above the ground, two beady yellow eyes stared back at him from within the smoke. The eyes narrowed, clearly checking him over.
'An apparition of some sort? No, that's not quite right …'.
Milo wasn't sure exactly what he was looking at here, his first thought was a spirit of some sort, but that couldn't be the case, it had physically harmed him after all. To his knowledge, the only spirits capable of doing such a thing were high spirits, ones that thanks to their vast power could still manifest forms from their past life.
It was only logical to assume that this … thing, was far beyond his current abilities. No, he didn't need to assume, it was clear as day. The aura surrounding this floating mass was so fierce it threatened to tear apart the space.
"What exactly is it doing here?", he accidentally muttered allowed.
The mass dropped in front of Milo's chest, "You …".
It floated back to its usual height and appeared to fall into thought before saying, "Are you … a dark magician?".
Milo scratched at the side of his head, "I – what is a dark magician?".
"So you aren't?".
"No".
"I see", the mass flung Milo through a tree, he tumbled for another 5 feet before coming to a stop, "Too bad, if you were one of them … then maybe …".
*Squeak!*
"You!?", the mass muttered watching the small bat like creature fly in to protect Milo.
"What business does a creature of darkness have protecting a measly human such as he?", the mass demanded an answer.
Milo pushed himself up shakily, blood dropped from the corner of his mouth and he struggled to place weight on his right arm.
'Not broken, maybe a fracture … but …'.
He was able to overhear the words the mass spoke, and in a split second devised some type of plan to avoid the worst possible outcome.
He stripped of his shirt and displayed his emblem to the mass. When it laid eyes on the emblem, it became visibly nervous and began to tremble in fear.
"Soul harvester …", a solid figure emerged from the smoke. A man dressed in butler clothing, with sickly pale skin and deep black eyes that focused intently on Milo. His pointed ears jutted from the side, failing to be concealed by his long jet-black hair that nestled just beneath his shoulders.
"Tell me, why do you possess an emblem that was thought to be lost in ancient times …".
"T …", Milo tried to respond.
"No that's not quite right. I suppose what I really should ask", the aura burst from his body, suffocating Milo, "Is why a human child possesses a demonic emblem!?".
'OH FUCK THIS GUY!'.
Milo groaned internally. The man was trying to get answers but refusing to let Milo speak. He understood straight away what he was trying to do, he was sending a warning to Milo. If he gives the wrong answer, he dies, it was as simple as that.
Although he was alone, in a weakened state and staring down a being 10x stronger than he was currently, Milo still refused to back down.
"I'll tell you, if you tell me who you are".
The man's eyes narrowed, but finally, he retracted his aura.