A quiet and dark room enfolded and echoes of footsteps chimed in—Soon-Tung walked along the dark hallway navigating through the darkness with ease, his severed hand in his free hand. He shook his head, he had been careless to allow the dragon to get a jump at him, even though his aptitude was disappointingly weak, that moment when he went to attack him; Soon-Tung felt something, primal in nature and made him hesitate.
"Well it seems like you almost failed Drakeen."
Soon-Tung stopped and closed his eyes, he knew the owner of the voice and without turning around to face them, he replied. "I told you, not to call me by that name, Krypton."
A loud thud fell next to Soon-Tung and a chuckle followed suite. "You are no fun, always uptight, loosen up a bit."
The hall lit up—and the royal palace look unveiled, connecting to the hall Soon-Tung was standing in, extending to the furthest end was a single corridor that was bare lit. Soon-Tung looked at Krypton with a stern look. "Mind your tongue."
Krypton ignored him and focused on the hand Soon-Tung held—her Crimson eyes sparkled seeing it and she attempted to reach out and grab it, only to get repelled by an aura from Soon-Tung, she stuck out her tongue and folded her arms. "You are no fun. On a side note, dragon was that strong to draw more than blood from you? Should elder be worried about his development?" She shot a series of questions as she took the arm and helped him reattach it.
Soon-Tung rubbed the back of his head while keeping a close eye on Krypton. "No, he simply lucked out and managed to cut my hand, there's nothing elder should worry about, the prophecized dragon is nothing but a weak piece of filth, I'll handle it myself."
Krypton hummed. "I hope so, cause you know how elder is when it comes to someone like Dragon." She finished up stitching the hand with her aura and took a step back.
Soon-Tung flexed his hand for a few minutes then placed it at his side—he pocketed his hands and resumed his walk, with Krypton trailing behind him in silence. Soon-Tung kept stealing glances at Krypton, he was not ready to admit that there was a likelihood that the dragon would progress as much as the prophecy had said or even further, the might of the dragon was something not even the elder could stop, that's why the tower with the dragon seed kept being suppressed but this time it managed to slip by and he failed to kill it; the thought of failure made Soon-Tung grind his teeth, had he not been in the lesser world too long, the dragon wouldn't have been a problem.
"Welcome back Venus, you too Mars."
A powerful, feminine voice said as Krypton and Soon-Tung walked into the larger room—the room was lit up by a single red flame at the center, it had no windows to see the outside and the roof showed a moon instead of the sun hinting of a cross dimensional plane of existence where the castle was located. Soon-Tung nodded and took his seat at the round table that hard the marking of the nine planets.
"Good everyone is here!" The woman said as she stepped out of the shadows—her eyes gleaming in the darkness as the flames revealed her form. She had long brown hair with hair ornaments decorating them, a light shade of red lip stick; she wore ancient anthens linen that covered her chest and private areas while leaving her smooth, porcelain skin visible on all angles. She sat down and snapped her fingers, six other ethereal forms appeared on the remaining seats.
"The elder informed that the dragon seed has reincarnated successfully on earth, and from what the prophecy states, the dominator of the universe is born and you can understand how that does not bode well with the elders at all. Heaven is a mess, and we need to do something about it, Venus anything to report?" The woman informed, as she said the last part, her eyes moved across the table and landed on Soon-Tung.
Krypton without waiting for Soon-Tung to reply to the question chimed in. "Well Drakeen here met Dragon!"
Gasps flooded the room from the revelation—Soon-Tung facepalmed and the brown haired woman settled her gaze harder on Soon-Tung, Krypton seeing the tension in everyone, chuckled and clapped her hands, enjoying how they were regarding the dragon.
She placed her finger on her chin and perked her lip. "And he managed to fight dragon, but he said dragon was disappointingly weak." She continued while winking at Soon-Tung who was glaring at him with murderous intent.
"If Dragon has been born, wouldn't it make sense we kill it? I can do it! Just lift the limiter of us going to earth and dragon can be dealt with mistress." One of the ethereal beings said.
The brown haired woman tapped the table and the room went silent again. "We shall do nothing in the meantime Pluto, if Venus said that dragon is weak, that means he hasn't discovered his primordial nature just yet, we shall watch and when it shows he's getting stronger we shall kill him, that understood?"
Everyone nodded and she snapped her fingers again dispelling everyone from the table with the exception of Soon-Tung and Krypton who were there physically. She turned to Soon-Tung and pointed her finger at his forehead, projecting her ability to him—Soon-Tung slumped forward, and her eyes glowed before it ended and the former regained consciousness.
"Why did you lie Mars?" She asked turning to Krypton.
"Well you see mistress!"
¡
Alaric stood at the entrance of the gate that had recently opened in Daejoen, safety patrol officers, and the association personnel flocked in the city sealing off blocks from the public—Black watched the group of hunters gathered there and took hold of the microphone that one of the agents had. "Listen up, this is a SSS+ tower that is beyond this entrance, caution is of the utmost importance. Clearing the tower before it becomes disaster level is a priority, so Hunters! Goodluck."
With the qeue given; each and every hunter gathered there entered the entrance and the tower clearing timer above the entrance started ticking. Alaric fixed his cloak and entered the entrance—his displacement in the tower shocked him, he was in the upper floors where stronger monsters flocked. The terrain was that of a dense swamp, everywhere he stepped felt uneven and sloppy—he continued on his path, he knew that to make it to the last floor, towers that were SSS had less than 50 floors and given by the amount of aura this flood had, he was around the 35th floor. He sighed and opened his inventory, releasing the twin blades and he held them in his hands cautiously walking across the mash.
[Beneath you!]
Alaric saw the warning from Sentinel but was late to respond to it when a pair of webbed hands grabbed him by the ankles and pulled him under, submerging him within the moss and heavy grass of the swamp. Through quick thinking, Alaric covered himself with his aura, prolonging his ability to breathe under the surface—He looked at the culprit that had taken him under and saw it swimming away from him, only to be hit from the back by something hard. Alaric quickly turned around, swinging his dagger only for him to miss the attacker who ducked underneath his wide swing and kicked him in the abdomen knocking the air out of his lungs.
Alaric's eyes twitched, the assailants he was against were quick, they darted around extremely quickly for him to catch—they had terrain advantage, him moving was difficult underwater with no foot hold; another attack hit him from the side sending him a good distance from his last position, another one hit him from the front cutting through his reinforced jacket with ease. During the unyielding assaults, he kept an eye open, tracking the movements of the attacks and his pupils being under the draconian aura influence turned to reptilian slits and motion slowly started slowing down— he brought his dagger to his mouth and stretched out his empty hand, primordial fire ignited from the palm and he clutched his hand causing the fire to become a blaze which burned through the portion of the swamp around him letting him have enough room to jump out from underneath the swamp and onto the trees.
He knelt on the tree and scrutinized the area beneath him, when the tree he was on have out—Alaric was forced to jump to another tree which suffered the same fate as the last one and midst changing trees he saw the darting shadows from beneath the murky waters; with a celebratory smirk, he took hold of the dagger in his mouth and threw it with all the force his muscles could generate. The dagger pierced through the shadow figure and it screamed in pain, the scream gave him where it was and he raised his finger above him, pure white flames gathered into a sphere and he threw it at the murky waters.
Then everything went silent.
A few seconds lapsed before the murky waters started to bubble from being boiled and a column of fire exploded from underneath the surface, revealing a burnt mermaid monster of the floor and sticking out from the mermaid was a gem. Alaric jumped into the flames, passing through them with ease and he collected the gem.
[Eye of Water — Water affinity]
[ Grade : Rare]
[ Eye Of Water: a powerful mystical gem holding the sirens affinity for water—the magical aura condensed within the gem has the properties of granting affinity for water to the holder]
The reward from the monster was amazing, but he knew that there were two of them and he needed them both.
Thus began his hunt.