Dreleon standing drenched at the river bank was thinking what to do next when suddenly he heard a voice.
"Hiss…," with a sharp hiss the voice resonated in all surroundings, "I thought you would take more time.
At least two more years to break that formation... Hiss... But who knew you would identify the illusion at the first sign of clarity?"
Dreleon, still drenched and shivering from his plunge into the black river, snapped his head around.
The mist was settling with time, revealing the emptiness where the Green Lion had once stood.
"Hiss... But it is laughable how easily you allowed yourself to be poisoned, pup.
Even I did not expect a Royal to fall for a common insect," the voice mocked.
Dreleon stood tall, his skeletal frame finally steady.
He understood that there can only be that devious snake who would say those things.
"I have completed the promise," he declared, his voice ringing out with the authority of his bloodline.
"The formation is broken.
Now, it is your turn.
Teach me, give me your Five Pillars of Knowledge."
For a moment, there was only the sound of the wind and silence.
Then, the ground beneath Dreleon's feet groaned, and hardened.
Without warning, the section of earth he stood upon disconnected from the swamp.
It launched, moving with an unmatched speed.
Dreleon was catapulted upward, the swamp floor becoming a floating platform that soared toward the endless sky.
The gravitational force was becoming immense.
Dreleon's muscles screamed under the sudden tension, and the air began to thin, turning cold and sharp.
But his Royal Lion genes—those savage genes built for extreme environments—began to adapt in rapid succession.
His heart slowed, his lungs expanded, and by the time the platform pierced through the first layer of the sea of clouds, his body had already adapted.
He stood at the edge of the floating stone, watching the waves of air and the endless white ocean of clouds below.
Then he saw, above him at an unknown point of time, a massive shadow began to blot out the sun.
At first, he thought it was a mountain.
But as the platform rose higher, the shadow gained a terrifyingly familiar shape.
It was a serpent, but its scale was close to impossible.
It was a titan of the sky, so massive that the Elder Turtle would look like a pebble beside its coils.
This was the Snake's true form—an ancient giant that could swallow ten Genbus and still be hungry.
Dreleon was just dumbfounded, even in his wildest dreams in the swamp where he thought to kill this snake he never imagined this size.
Unconsciously he began to adjust his behaviour in mind so at least the snake doesn't kill him on whim.
Its scales were a blinding, pure white with a faint, shimmering hint of a blue hue, like light reflecting off an iceberg. Blue gemstones, each the size of a palace, were embedded along its spine, pulsing with a rhythmic, cold light.
The creature was nothing like the red-mist devil he had seen in the grotto, this serpent was holy.
Suddenly, the clouds blocking his view of the snake's face parted.
A massive maw, large enough to consume the horizon, opened wide right in front of him.
"I am a Pacter of the Royal Line!" Dreleon roared, though his heart hammered against his ribs. "Have you thought about the consequences of attacking me now?" He said these words in panic thinking, the snake found out that he thought about killing it when he was in the swamp.
"Heh. Fool," the serpent's voice boomed, vibrating the very atoms of the air. "Do I need to attack when you have almost died from intimidation alone?"
The giant head lowered.
Up close, the snake was terrifyingly beautiful, even Deleon felt attracted.
Its eyes were twin oceans of sapphire blue, completely locked onto Dreleon with a gaze that felt like it was reading his DNA.
A long, pink tongue flicked out, hissing after every sentence.
"Human-Lion... as my promise mentioned, I will teach you five things that will ensure you never rot in a swamp again," the titan said.
Then, the space around the serpent began to warp and fold.
In a blur of white light, the mountain-sized creature vanished.
Standing on the floating platform beside Dreleon was a human woman, who appeared out of nowhere just as the serpent vanished.
She was slight and graceful, yet radiating the same cold, sapphire power as the serpent, with sapphire ocean eyes and snake-like tongue.
The figure looked at Dreleon's skeletal form and matted fur with a touch of clinical interest.
"Hiss... the first lesson," the figure said, and the air around them seemed to turn into a thousand invisible blades with coldness. "It is my greatest achievement from the ages of the Great War."
The Snake leaned in close, its pink snake tongue flickering with touch of past.
"The First Pillar: Assassination Knowledge."