Chương 1185: 1215 - The Ancestor Gem

The gem was like an empty abyss, a vacuum that sucked up magic power uncontrollably. Leon's magic was ripped from his flesh, flooding his mind with such pain that he fell to his knees and let loose a hoarse scream. Lightning burst from his fingers, some flash of instinct or a side effect of the gem's hunger; with his mind so consumed by pain Leon couldn't tell which. Lightning heated the gem until it seared his fingers. His muscles locked as he fell to his knees.

He was vaguely aware that Anzu had rushed to his side, and he was barely able to groan, "Stay… back…!" Greedily did the gem take from him, and within seconds, numbness began snaking up his arm. This numbness, however, amplified the pain of the burns he'd given himself using black lightning even as little as he did, and as it crawled upward, he felt his mind growing fuzzy. Higher thought fled in the face of this advance, and darkness consumed him…

The chirping of distant birds greeted him when he awoke—chirping birds, the babbling of a nearby stream, and the creaking of trees in the wind. His bed was thick loam and soft grass, and the freshness of the air spoke of where he was: the Forest of Black and White. Leon's eyes shot open and he tried to spring to his feet, but his body was sluggish and heavy; his magic wasn't responding to him, and the strength that it gave him was nowhere to be found.

It took a surprising amount of effort to even sit up, and entire seconds to push himself to his feet. Had he his magic, such a feat would've taken him about as long as a flash of lightning. He found himself standing somewhat shakily in a clearing in a nondescript forest. The sounds and smells of the Forest of Black and White faded as he became more aware of himself, and vanished completely once he turned his gaze upward and saw the sky. The sky was no true sky as it might exist on a plane.

Rather, he saw endless banks of clouds—or rather, mist. He was in a soul realm. Certainly not his own given his lack of control, but he was somewhere… adjacent. Or such was his best guess. His fingers tensed and he felt something hard and sharp resting in his palm. The gem, shining now with eerie light.

The heart of the gem had darkened to a deep black, around which was a pale white halo, and no matter how Leon turned the gem in his hand, the core seemed static, as if the universe itself could only allow him to view it from this single angle. Closer to the edges of the gem swirled silver-blue and black with hints of red. It looked utterly and completely alien, and as Leon's golden eyes drank in its sight, he felt both comforted by the power within and almost overcome with instinctual aversion.

This gem wasn't something that should exist, or so his senses were screaming at him, though he wasn't sure what to do about that. The first thing he tried after several minutes of quiet examination was to drop the gem. Unfortunately, his fingers had locked around it, and even his most vigorous attempt to drop it only resulted him in flailing his arms around uselessly, the gem remaining stuck to his hand. He forced down rising panic, determined not to lose his cool.

He could still feel the gem sucking down his power like some creature dying of thirst drinking as much of a lake as it could, but the rate had significantly slowed compared to when he'd first held the gem. That was only mildly comforting, and Leon did his best to hoard his power and keep it from the gem's greedy grasp. In this, he wasn't as successful as he'd have liked, but his origin power, at least, seemed out of the gem's reach.

With another look at his surroundings and a failed attempt to summon and manipulate any of the Mists of Chaos surrounding him, Leon sat on a nearby rock. His magic senses told him that he was lost in an endless forest, though certainly not one of his making.

He suspected he was awake in his magic body rather than having been physically transported to somewhere akin to a soul realm, and he could still feel the presence of his proper soul realm and his connections to Maia and Xaphan, so he forced himself to relax and address what was clearly the source of this predicament. The gem. It was set in a simple gold clasp that held onto it at one end, and the golden chain of wolf heads spilled over his hand.

Leon could sense enchantments wrought into the metal, most of them extremely conventional and boring. He identified enchantments to ensure the pure gold didn't warp with wear or time; one enchantment was designed to raise the strength of the wearer by an amount a lower-tier mage might've sought but to Leon was hardly worth anything at all; and even an enchantment to make the wearer glow.

He identified many more enchantments in that line, even including one to protect the wearer from poisons, but in the end, all but one of them were typical of a piece of jewelry designed to hang around the neck of a powerful monarch—such as the one Leon took it from. That last enchantment that he couldn't immediately identify, however, was small, and incorporated an extremely intricate ancient rune he was unfamiliar with.

'Is that the source of the gem's power?' He poked at the enchantment with his magic, hoping to make it do something noticeable, but all it did was flare in his magic senses, the pittance of magic he fed it lost. He sensed no change within the gem itself, nor was it enough for him to figure out what it did. As methods of testing the gem ran through his mind, a shadow passed over him from behind, and he shot to his feet and spun around, ready to fight whatever had approached him.

He was confronted by a giant of a man, dark of skin and eyes the color of burning coals. The Great Black Dragon in human form. Leon's less favored Ancestor glared at him like he was an ant who had dared to bite him. Leon glared back, the surprise of seeing him temporarily turning his tongue to lead. As the seconds ticked by, however, Leon realized that his Ancestor's aura was being subtly pulled toward him—or rather, toward the gem… Confusion and possibilities flashed through his mind.

He wasn't able to voice any of them before he felt the arrival of another presence, this one far more familiar to him.

"Aren't you two adorable?" the Thunderbird said mockingly as she strode into the clearing, an almost manic grin nearly splitting her face in half.

"How long would you have stood there staring at each other without me to direct your attention to a matter of more pressing concern?"

"Spare yourself the words, upstart," the Great Black Dragon responded dismissively.

"If we still walked the planes, I would've hung your skull in my palace long ago." The Thunderbird only grinned as she walked over to Leon—he noticed her aura bending toward the gem, too, but she didn't seem bothered by it. She pulled him down a bit to give him a tight, motherly hug.

"What luck has the universe given you to have me as an Ancestor? I suppose it was too much, for it gave you him, too! Why, it's almost enough to regard it as a curse!" The Great Black Dragon glared at them and said nothing more. After disentangling himself from his favorite Ancestor, Leon shot the other one a complicated look before simply addressing the matter at hand.

"What is this? How are we here?"

"Pretty," the Thunderbird admired as she raised his hand that had been stuck holding the gem.

"Also the source of this phenomenon. And what a phenomenon it is! Communing with the dead is rare …"

"The Ancestral Harts seem to do it just fine," Leon murmured.

"And few others," the Thunderbird responded. She glared at the other one.

"Are you going to help or are you going to stand around waiting for us to do all the work?" He snorted.

"My aid is not rendered lightly."

"Right, right, right." The Thunderbird waved dismissively at him before returning her attention to the gem.

"It's soaking up our power. I think it sent your magic body here to better absorb our unique power…"

"So I am here as my magic body?" Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Yes, my boy. This thing is one of the most unique items I've ever seen—it exists simultaneously in the physical world and here, in the Chaos! This is no Universe Fragment, but it could almost fool me!"

"That is no great feat," the Great Black Dragon growled. Ignoring him, the Thunderbird asked, "That rune at the center… do you see it?"

"The ancient one? Yes."

"Of course you did, such a diligent boy!" Her smile and praise were unnerving, and Leon snuck a look at their third wheel, who looked annoyed at the whole performance.

"I've never seen it before, but it's clear that it's creating some kind of path into Chaos. It's…" She paused, her eyes going wide for a moment, sparkling avariciously.

"… full of potential …" The Great Black Dragon finally strode over and glared down at the gem.

"This profane thing must be destroyed." His red-orange eyes focused on the gem, but Leon pulled it away, not willing to lose his hand over whatever he was going to do. Besides, magic bodies were fragile and he wasn't keen on being killed over this, either.

"I'll guess that it'll return you to your physical body once it's full," the Thunderbird stated confidently.

"Or it will kill us all, rendering our bloodlines inert," the Great Black Dragon retorted.

"If you believed that, you would've destroyed it already, you overgrown lizard! Don't try and fool me, old man, I know you can feel what's happening, too!" Leon interjected, "What? What's happening?" The Thunderbird smiled at him.

"Guess. I think you'll figure it out."

"Playing with your Descendant," the Great Black Dragon growled.

"A bad habit."" Some of us understand the value of our Descendants! They are our legacy, our last connections to the physical world! If they are all gone, then so are we!"

"That is no problem for those of us who have fostered strong Clans. Your Clan failed."" My Clan is doing fine!" The Thunderbird clung possessively to Leon's arm.

"You can have the bastard; I have no need of him." Anger blazed within Leon momentarily, and though he suppressed it as best as he could, he still grumbled, "And he has no need for you!" The Great Black Dragon didn't even twitch, and feeling emboldened with his other Ancestor present, Leon just kept going.

"You are an arrogant, small-minded ghost. I want nothing from you, save for silence." He didn't spare the Great Black Dragon another look—or such was his intention, until the enormous Divine Beast suddenly strode right up to him, eyes ablaze, towering over him.

"And you are a spiteful, ungrateful bastard, undeserving of my power! Had I the ability to, I would've abandoned you, leaving you to deserved fate! Instead, I lowered myself, offered you a chance at recognition as I have done for no others! Who are you to turn me down?!"

"Who are you to even approach with that attitude?!" Leon shot back, flickers of red-orange marring his eyes as his and the Great Black Dragon's auras began to clash.

"The progenitor of your line, deserving of your respect and reverence! Through me, you have a direct connection to the birth of the universe! Whereas you are nothing!" Heat blazed in Leon's heart and rose quickly. He'd endured insult and injury before much better, but with the Great Black Dragon, he simply couldn't help himself. That heat continued to rise, his cheeks going red, his eyes darkening further. A high-pitched whine rang in his ears and red crept in at the edges of his vision.

"…eon!" He wanted nothing more than to stomp the one that offended him so, to cast him down into the dirt, where he belonged. Such arrogance, such insult, could not go unanswered. Leon's aura spiked in intensity as the Great Black Dragon's probed and wrestled with it. The Divine Beast's eyes remained locked on his, mocking, challenging, demanding to know if he would act on his pride and fight back or if he would back down.

"…old of yourse…!" Leon's heart beat like a war drum, heavy beats sounding the call to battle. Red expanded in his vision, drowning out all the rest until all he could see was the Great Black Dragon's eyes, burning red-orange.

'Do it,' they seemed to say.

'Use my power. Show me what you can do. Prove your worth as a descendant.' Leon instinctively pressed against that feeling, sensing power there. It felt… familiar. He'd walked down this path before, though under different circumstances. He'd been guided by terror then—terror and desperation. Now, it was anger and pride that took his hand and placed it upon the door; all he had to do was push, and it would open. Power gathered in his eyes. His surroundings were lost to him, but he knew he was staring at his target.

His blood demanded that he push open that door. Leon gave it only a moment's thought before he did. This metaphorical door opened a crack, the hinges groaning and screaming in objection. That crack was enough, Leon felt power flare outwards, and then all of a sudden, everything went dark. Pressure was on his eyes… Someone had closed his eyes … Leon was barely able to realize this before pain bloomed in his eyes.

It felt like someone had scooped them out with a dull, rusty spoon, and he flailed around, forcing the hand over his eyes away. When he opened his eyes again, blood flowed like tears, vanishing as soon as it dripped off his face. He could still see, but whatever he'd done had been damaging.

He was lying down, having fallen at some point, and the Thunderbird was cradling his head while the Great Black Dragon just regarded him with a cold smile, both of which he could only see through a bloody haze, like someone had covered his eyes with red glass.

"Foolish boy, rising to such taunts," the Thunderbird groused.

"You almost blinded yourself!" Leon could only groan in response.

"He acted as a dragon should, even if only for a moment," the Divine Beast said, just a hint of appreciation in his voice. His eyes flickered to the gem still stuck in Leon's hand, and he snapped his fingers. A candle's worth of black flame appeared in the air and sank into the gem before Leon could so much as twitch. The gem's light intensified, but nothing else happened.

"We will speak soon, Leon Raime. Prepare yourself." With that, the Great Black Dragon vanished, leaving Leon and the Thunderbird alone in the quiet woods.

"… Arrogant twit," his favorite Ancestor spat, glaring at the spot where the Great Black Dragon had just been standing. She then turned back to Leon and asked, "Are you feeling better?"

"Mildly," Leon responded, his natural healing ability already kicking in despite his magic body being so far away from his soul realm. He sat up but didn't rise to his feet just yet.

"What… was that?"

"You… it… I think I'll let him explain," the Thunderbird stated, disappointing Leon greatly.

"You'll have more opportunities, I think, to speak with him; that thing summoned us here." She nodded to the gem.

"Right. So… what in the hells has happened?"

"That stone, my boy, is tapping into your bloodlines, absorbing our power. But… the process isn't complete without the Ancestors in question aiding the process. It requires our consent to operate, which makes some sense, I suppose. It also means that we'll have… well, I won't get too into the possibilities yet, you need to wake up first." She pressed her thumb against her middle finger and snapped as loud as thunder.

Half of the gem was thus illuminated with silver-blue, and the light only shone even brighter as the energies within the stone whirled about beneath its surface.

"You'll be able to use this to call us," the Thunderbird said as she tapped the gem's largest facet.

"Do so when you have some time. For now, the rest of your servants are panicking. See to them." She, too, disappeared, leaving Leon feeling like he'd missed nearly all of what had happened so far. Regardless, he felt feeling returning to his arm as his vision slowly cleared. His fingers loosened slightly, and after several minutes, he was finally able to let go of the damned gem. At which point, he woke up.

The vision that greeted him upon opening his eyes was the red-tinted sky. It was still extremely overcast, but he remembered still being in the throne room when he'd lost consciousness. For a moment, he thought he'd been moved until he saw that he was staring out of the ceiling of the throne room—or what remained of it, anyway, as nearly ninety percent of the ceiling had been cut away so cleanly that it looked like it had simply disappeared in place. Then Anzu appeared over him, his bright red eyes wide with worry.

Clear appeared only a second later, concern etched into his aged face.

"King Leon!" Clear called out.

"Brother!" Anzu added.

"Give him some space," Marcus' voice resounded from nearby, and Anzu was pulled away.

"Just follow my finger," Clear said as he slowly moved his finger in front of Leon's face. Leon dutifully followed it with his eyes.

"Good, good," Clear whispered.

"You gave us quite the fright, Your Majesty, but it looks like the damage to your eyes has healed. The power of a twelfth-tier mage is nothing to scoff at, is it?" Leon grunted softly as he struggled to rise despite Clear's attempts to stop him. He gestured at the ceiling and asked, "Did I do that?"

"You… did," Clear confirmed.

"Anzu had laid you down and was trying to get you to wake. I was about to do the same when your eyes snapped open and red light poured from them. I heard a strange sound that sounded like… like nails screeching across a writing board. It only lasted a moment, but everything that light touched…" He paused, searching for the right words. Leon's heart raced in anticipation, panic, and wonder. Clear finished his statement with a dour and serious, "Everything that light touched vanished. Or was destroyed.

Same thing, really." Leon slowly nodded as he stared at the edges of the ceiling where the rest had been cleanly severed. He tried again to rise, but the presence of something hard and sharp in his hand stole away his attention. The gem remained in his hand, though he'd regained all feeling in his hand and control over his fingers. The gem glowed radiantly, silver-blue lightning flashing within it through waves of black fire.

The black-as-the-Void core remained, though the pale white halo had been replaced with one of a more golden color, hints of red-orange gleaming at the point where the halo met the edge of the core. He released the gem with a whispered, "Fuck…" As if in response, the gem suddenly radiated spectacular lightning magic and all of Leon's team readied themselves to fight… something.

However, that lightning magic coalesced into a familiar form, made of translucent white light and downsized considerably—the Thunderbird herself stood before them, about half again as tall as Leon instead of being about three or four times larger. Though her feathers lacked their usual coloring, Leon could recognize his Ancestor's demeanor.

"Well…" she whispered, her beak not moving despite the understandable words.

"This is… new …" Leon's mouth fell open in shock, and he gave voice to the only thing on his mind.

"By the Ancestors…"