Zera and Ava were waiting in another room.
Ava continued to pace around anxiously while Zera drank her tea.
“You look impatient, right now.”
“I’m just worried about Eliza… Ahem, Neo.”
Zera raised her brow when Ava corrected her words at the last second.
The young dragon saw Elizabeth as her role model. Elizabeth was strong, aloof, and beautiful.
While Neo was a good match for her, Ava hoped Elizabeth remained the untouched flower she was, not some love-struck woman.
“I don’t think you need to worry about Neo. Elizabeth will support him properly,” Zera said.
She had given quite a few pieces of ‘advice’ to Elizabeth before she sent her to talk with Neo. However, she kept it hidden from Ava.
It was her way to help Neo and Elizabeth relieve them of their stress.
A day went by, but there was no sign of Neo and Elizabeth leaving their room.
Zera didn’t think much of it. They were both high-rank awakeners. With their physical stats, it was no wonder they were busy.
Another day went by, then another, and another.
Ava lost all hope after there was no news of Elizabeth and Neo for a week.
When several weeks went by, Zera became quite flustered.
“Isn’t it time they come out? What the hell are they doing for weeks?” Ava said irritably.
“Yeah….” Zera muttered. “Neo needs to start training for the championship. There isn’t much time left for it.”
“Right? Let me go and call them out—”
“Don’t.”
Zera stopped her swiftly.
“You do realize Neo might have an ancient dragon bloodline, right?” Zera questioned.
“What about it?”
Zeus, Poseidon, Nyx, Apollo. All of them were humans and had human bloodlines. Their bloodlines later grew into the God bloodlines known today.
Similarly, dragon bloodlines could be grown by their users and enhanced.
Zera believed Neo was one such case, and he had an Ancient Dragon Bloodline.
Her reasoning was simple.
His bloodline came from his parents, and Hades was old. Very old. He was one of the oldest known entities in the cosmos.
If Hades had a dragon bloodline, it was highly likely he was an ancient dragon, which made Neo one too.
“What do you know about Ancient Dragons?”
“They are creatures born during the inception of the cosmos. There is not much known about them since all of them have disappeared over time.”
“What about their personality?”
“Why are you asking questions like this?” Ava said, and still answered, “Dragons are known for their prideful, lustful, and power-hungry nature.
“However, no dragon born in the current era is like that.
“These qualities actually belonged to Ancient Dragons.
“According to the books I read, it was said this was a genetic nature of Ancient Dragons, which appeared due to the harsh nature of the Universe Creation Era.
“Pride to make sure no one looked down on them and tried to trample them, lust to make new generations were born and their race did not die out, and hunger for power to be strong enough to protect themselves and their families,” Ava explained.
“Exactly,” Zera nodded. “How many of those traits can you see in Neo?”
“He is prideful. I never saw him ask for help or try to run away from your sadistic training. He is also quite power-hungry. All he cares about is growing stronger.”
“Indeed, Neo is prideful and ambitious. But he is not lustful. Not yet, at least. Until a few weeks ago, he was like a child who never tasted a sweet, and thus didn’t crave sweet things.”
“But that would change now. He tasted sweetness.” Ava completed Zera’s words, and sighed. “You are right. I shouldn’t disturb him. I would rather not piss him off.”
“What the fuck are you guys talking about?”
The door to their room opened, and Neo entered.
“You are done?” Ava asked not so kindly.
“I’m training with Elizabeth. She has the same elements as me, and it helps a lot. I’m not busy fucking around.” He clicked his tongue.
“You ‘are’ training?” Ava questioned.
“Yeah, my real body is training with her. The one in front of you is my Intent Clone that I’m currently controlling. I was using it to patrol the area since the moment we came here, and it found something today. I took over its control to show the finding to you guys.”
It was a headache to split his focus between two places.
But Neo was used to it after years of training.
“Come with me.”
He beckoned them.
The two followed Neo and reached a cross-section corridor.
Neo pointed at the door.
Ava’s eyes widened, and Zera became serious. The door hadn’t been there until yesterday.
Ava moved forward to check the door, while Zera stood behind with Neo.
“Do you know what it is?” Zera questioned.
“I think the world of nightmare is changing now that Tyr is slowly overcoming his Nightmare. The defeat against me must’ve changed something in his psyche.”
“How did you find the door?”
“I felt a presence. There is something behind the door that is calling out to my bloodline. That’s how I found it. I can’t open the door, though.”
The two became silent, and Ava continued to check the door and tried to open it.
“How is your training with Elizabeth going?” Zera questioned suddenly.
“It’s going fine.”
“Are you training right now too?”
“With my main body, yeah.”
Zera smiled and leaned towards Neo. She whispered,
“I have quite a lot of diverse Spells.”
“….?”
“One of them tells me the number of times a person took a tumble in hay.”
Neo froze.
He turned his head towards Zera like a creaking door that hadn’t been oiled in ages.
By then, Ava joined the two of them. She noticed the smile on Zera’s face and Neo’s frozen face.
“What happened?”
“I was just praising Neo. He has been training nonstop for weeks without any sleep or food.”
“Is that surprising? He has always been a hard worker.”
“Yeah, he is working quite hard, and putting his all into it.”
Neo almost wanted to groan.
Maybe it would’ve been better if he didn’t try to lie in the first place.
He could only ignore Zera’s coy smile, and send his Intent clone back to patrol before Zera could comment again.
“How much more time will your training take?” Ava questioned as Neo was leaving. “I wanted to ask for pointers for Water Affinity from Elizabeth.”
“….It will take some time, I think.”