Fafnir had told me about his plan to take out the Ruler Of Dragons. It made a lot of sense and all, but it was seriously disturbing. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to pull it off to be honest. But for now, that was irrelevant. I really needed to get a grasp of "Spiritual Energy" if I wanted to do anything against the Ruler Of Dragons.
For context, let me explain what Spiritual energy is. Basically, it's an internal energy that all Dragon Dukes and Dragons have. It makes you go big and strong, to put it simply. Oh, yes. Dragon Dukes. That's what Fafnir and I are. The people that have suffered the same fate as me and had their timeline eradicated, and are driven only by the desire to destroy the Ruler Of Dragons. It goes a bit deeper but I'm way too lazy to explain all that to you. I will, though, someday.
The Aura that I keep going on and on about is Spiritual energy that is let loose from your body. And the more Spiritual energy you have, the higher the pressure is when you release it. However, I couldn't control mine yet. I had quite a bit of it, apparently, but I couldn't make any use of it. Fafnir could. He was crazy strong. I would go as far as saying he was comparable to the Ruler Of Dragons, but I hadn't seen either of their full powers. The point I'm trying to make is, I had a lot of potential. Not bragging or anything, because I had pretty much no talent at all.
I was lying on the ground gasping for air. My days consisted of the following: fight against Fafnir, eat, fight against Fafnir. Neither of us could sleep. I didn't feel sleep deprived though, even after several weeks of no sleep. The reason I fought Fafnir so much was that there was no real way of training your spiritual energy mastery. It's more like an instinct, though it can be forcefully strengthened by breaching your limits and coming close to death. Fafnir had killed me sixteen times today alone. Nothing had changed, though. I was still powerless. Occasionally I would subconsciously release my Spiritual energy, but it didn't really amount to anything against a powerhouse like Fafnir.
Ah yes, about the "You will die, kid"... It was true. As far as I could see, that was inevitable. It was the only way al right. I wasn't really hot about dying or anything, of course I wasn't. I couldn't really grasp it though. I had died many times, though I had come back every time so far, due to me being a Dragon Duke, but I had never experienced Death. Maybe it wasn't even all that bad. Nothingness after life, that is. I didn't know what comes after death, no one does really, not in this world at least. If I died I would know.
The reason I wanted to get so strong was, well, obviously, to kill the Ruler Of Dragons. But I also needed to fight Incarnations. Incarnations... That's a lot of explaining. Us Dragon Dukes have a limited amount of time. This does not apply to all Dragon Dukes, but the hatred for the Ruler Of Dragons is imbued into us Dragon Dukes the moment we first see him. It's a curse. The Curse of the Dragons. There is basically nothing you can do about it. However, you are probably wondering what the relation between Dragon Dukes and Dragons even is. Dragon Dukes are meant to dominate and reign over Dragons. However, if the hate towards the Ruler Of Dragons consumes Dragon Dukes, they descend to Dragons. Beings whose only purpose is to destroy everything they come across consumed by their hatred. Dragons can only Exist because of Dragon Dukes. Thats how the Dragon Dukes got their name in the first place.
Now. An Incarnation. Before a Dragon Duke descends to becoming a Dragon, they undergo an Incarnation phase. In that phase, they do anything the Ruler Of Dragons commands, because of the Curse of the Dragon. It's a condition to keep the Ruler Of Dragons alive. See, the stronger a Dragon Duke grows, the bigger the Hatred towards the ruler of Dragons gets. That way, he can always reincarnate himself in one of the Incarnations. What that means is that every single Dragon Duke and Incarnation had to die for the Ruler Of Dragons to be fully eradicated. Which meant I had to kill every single one of them myself. All of them, including Fafnir and myself. That was the one and only way to kill the Ruler Of Dragons. That was why I had to die. All of the other Dragon Dukes had to die. Fafnir and I were most likely the only ones who knew about this. All of the innocent Dragon Dukes and Incarnations, they had to die. The only way for me to kill the Ruler Of Dragons was to become a cold blooded murderer who would eradicate any hindrance to his plans without hesitation. I didn't trust myself to manage that. I expected Fafnir to kill the Ruler Of Dragons. I wouldn't be able to do it. I was too weak. Fafnir on the other hand... I had to trust him. he was the main hope I had.
I got up. I held up the sword Fafnir had given me for practice. He saw my sign that I was ready and instantly dashed at me. He was holding back, obviously. I tried parrying. I kind of managed, too. I felt every bone in my arm breaking from the impact, though. It didn't hurt as much though. Fafnir found it strange too. It's still supposed to hurt though, breaking your bones, that was. He charged at me again. I tried parrying. This time I wasn't so lucky. He cleanly separated my hips from my torso. I was used to it. It was frustrating, though. I had zero mastery of my Spiritual energy. It flowed out of my wounds, I couldn't stop it. I was supposed to infuse my limbs with it, to win strength and mobility. I didn't manage, though. There is no special trick to it. You can either do it, or you can't. You just had to keep trying. There really wasn't another way.
Though. I felt weird. I started getting scales on my neck. I also had some strange back muscles. They felt out of place. I didn't care much in the beginning, but they started growing. They didn't bother me though. they were useless, was all. I hadn't told Fafnir about any of those things yet. I didn't want to make him worry. I didn't hate him as much anymore. I didn't hate him at all anymore. He was very quirky though. And hard to talk to. he was everything I had, though. He was like an older brother. It was four weeks since I first met him.
He approached me. I was still lying there with no legs. Usually when I die, my mid goes blank and I wake up fully healed again. It was convenient, really. Dying hurt though. But it was endurable. This was all for the greater good, really. I kept telling that to myself. It was all to kill the Ruler Of Dragons and keep him from erasing more timelines. Though, really, all I wanted was revenge. I couldn't care less about this world or any other. My world was destroyed. So was my family, so were my friends. So was everything I once knew. I didn't care if this world suffered the same fate. I just wanted to wipe the Ruler Of Dragons off the face of this universe. That was all.