Azmakul finally retracted his finger, Alan had long since given up on trying to get [Gáe Bolg] out, he hadn’t felt this useless in a while.
“So… What were you doing?”
Alan asked, collecting his breath. Azmakul looked down at him, and was silent.
It was kind of hard to maintain eye contact when the butt of his [Gáe Bolg] was right in front his face, Azmakul’s unusual appearance didn’t help at all.
There was a brief period of silence between the two, Azmakul didn’t speak, and Alan didn’t know what to do, should he talk about the spear he himself lodged in the dragon’s eye? Or bring something else to the table, avoiding it?
A cold sigh escaped Azmakul’s abhorrent goat like mask, one that made Alan feel cold, and the dragon turned to face the sky.
“It… was all true.”
He muttered, looking up to the distant sky as if missing something, he finally took Gáe Bolg out of his eye, and gave it back to Alan, complimenting him.
“Good work on the final attack, young prince.”
Azmakul gestured for Alan to follow him, as he leisurely began walking on the bridge, opposite to the palace. He was a bit big, so Alan had to hurry a little to match his pace.
Alan put Gáe Bolg in his inventory, a bit sad that there was no blood on the tip of the spear. Azmakul noticed it, and said.
“Be thankful, young prince. I do not know how you came to possess the other part of that spear, but had it hit me whilst I hadn’t intentionally lowered my defense, it would be in splinters.”
Azmakul was planning to avoid any attacks Alan used with a weapon, since his natural defenses were so robust, any weapon below his own rank would be turned into dust. He knew that many dragons valued their weapons, though he didn’t if Alan had the same thoughts, since his upbringing was different.
He only decided to deal with the last attack since the unique magic Alan used intrigued him. Not only that, but he had, after all, never ever seen a dragon with the affinity of space after all. Even in his bitter long life.
“Since you know about Gáe Bolg, do you know where the other part of the spear is? I want to complete the spear.”
Alan asked, expecting a great deal of information. The Gáe Bolg he had was subpar, it was apparently a legendary weapon forged with the bones of a titanic monster, but it was only half. The spear was broken into two, and he only had one.
He wondered how Gáe Bolg would look when whole. Well, he was going to feed it to the Ame- No-Sakahoko the moment he completed it.
“That spear? It’s a treasure from a world long-lost, it was an interesting case on how such a world disappeared all of a sudden, but I believe it is not yet time for you to go look for the other half of it.”
“Why?”
“Well, it is in the hands of a God beast, I believe. If you want to take it yourself, you have to grow a bit stronger.”
Alan had to say he was a bit dejected, if the spear was simply stuck in an asteroid or on another planet, he hoped he could get it soon and feed it to the Ame-No-Sakahoko. Now that it was in the hands of someone else, he had a feeling it would be especially hard to get it.
Though he would welcome the challenge. He just had to get a ‘bit’ stronger after all… though he had no idea what a ‘bit’ meant to an Ancient Dragon.
Azmakul noticed his expression, and asked.
“If you would like, I can order one of the dragons or our servants to make a request to the Clan that God Beast belongs too, asking them to give us the other part of the spear.”
The tone with which he spoke those words irked Alan a bit, he didn’t know why it was, though. “I don’t think they would give it that easily, though?”
If he was being honest, he didn’t prefer using Gáe Bolg as a spear at all. The spear could only pierce, not cut at all. It could only be used for stabbing and was useless for cutting and slashing. But the skills it possessed were astounding, and absolutely spine-chilling. It made it extremely valuable.
He hoped the Ame-No-Sakahoko wouldn’t solely become a spear for piercing if it absorbed Gáe Bolg… he liked the design of his unusual spear a lot. It was very versatile too!
“So what if they don’t just give it to us? Another war wouldn’t hurt. I have been itching to get some action ever since I woke up.”
‘Ah… so that’s why I was beginning to feel irked…’
Though he wasn’t as kind as Elijah, the man who tried to abstain from killing as much as possible. He wasn’t necessarily keen on starting a war between Shivalkulan and the God beasts… and the fact that Azmakul casually mentioned another ‘war’ sent chills down his spine.
“My prince.”
Azmakul suddenly stopped, Alan wondered what the slightly deranged dragon had in mind this time.
He turned around to face Alan, and spoke with absolute authority palpable in his voice. “Since I am now charged with your education, I must ask of you something.”
“Which is?”
“Foremost, I must say, you are an unusual case. Not only have an affinity to an element no dragon has ever had, but you are also the first dragon to possess the power of the God beasts,
Aura.”
Azmakul paused for a while, took a deep breath and continued.
“You have, right now, two choices. You can choose to receive the normal education related
solely to mana that the heirs of the houses are entitled too, or…”
Alan didn’t have a good feeling about this, He thought Azmakul would tell him to stop using aura at all, or propose something entirely preposterous.
“… you can choose to give my old bones a hard time coming up with a new method to train
you.”
“Huh?”
He was… surprised. That was completely out of his expectations.
“Did you think I would tell you to stop using that power, despite the absurd difficulties you went to obtain it? Goodness, I am not that cruel.”
He continued.
“Though, it will be a new experience for me. I have killed enough God beasts to know enough about their strengths, but this is new! I am excited.”
He massaged his cheek, and let out a hearty laugh. Alan gazed at him, a bit shaken. The laugh of this dragon made it hard for him to keep standing.
“What is the education you were referring too?”
He did have the right to ask what Azmakul would be teaching him. If one were to ask him, Alan was pretty much set. He had one of the strongest…and especially the most destructive martial technique, a unique element no one else had, and had a pretty solid foundation.
Arken’s teachings weren’t that bad, after all.
“Many things, and allow me to correct myself, but you are quite the unusual dragon, so your training will be different. You are the first in something else too, my prince. The fact that you can transform into different forms. Normally, almost all dragons have only one true form, one that is a mixture of the affinities they are born with. But you are different…”
“You have the ability to transform into a dragon that is solely one of your elemental affinities. Ice, Chaos, Space, Darkness, Shadow, and Death.”
Alan flinched at the mention of ‘Chaos’ but then realized that it wasn’t that surprising that Azmakul found out all of his affinities.
He just hoped that ‘Chaos’ could be excluded in the education. He had to leave the convincing
part to Lanesha, though.
Likewise, he had a feeling that the dragon in front of him only listened to her.
“Not only that, The queen has not taught you her own sorcery, I wonder why.”
At the mention of sorcery, his ears perked up and he said.
“It was because of… grandmother, she wanted me to learn my own sorcery.”
Azmakul stopped suddenly, Alan wondered if he should have addressed Ariel with a title,
instead of just addressing her as grandmother…
Then again, he didn’t know what title she really had in the eyes of the dragons. Queen of Death? Or simply Primordial of Death?
“It seems her highness is as strict as ever. Though I can see why she did that.”
“Why?”
“Young dragons are very delicate, and must be handled with care. I assumed her highness
ordered you to learn and create your own sorcery at such an early age so you could develop your unique spatial. That must also be why she stopped the Queen from teaching you her own techniques. Had you learned from her, a whole new set of problems would have been created. In addition to the one you have with your forms.
“… What kind of issues are you talking about? And what is the problem with my forms?”
His face paled as Azmakul began to explain.