Rise of the Devourer

Book 3: Chapter 43 — Wyvern Cliffs Pt. 13

Noah rested in the dimensional chamber, lying on the comfortable day. It had been a bit over a week since he’d begun going out on nightly hunts with the nightshade wyvern and today was their break day, as the wyvern had needed some time to recover, not having Noah’s level of crazy regeneration.

He didn’t mind the rest, though in truth, he also hoped he could find a better use of his time. Their hunts lasted through the night but given Noah’s relatively low need to sleep he still had a decent amount of free time with not much else to do. He spent most of his time planning or preparing and sometimes he’d go out by himself to fight some creatures on his own, but the experience was not as rewarding. Both literally and in his levels. Working together with the wyvern they were able to find and cover much more ground and take out many more creatures together, such that even though being alone gave more experience per battle, his levels went up more during his hunts.

It explained why Zax had had them go through all of this to get here and do this. The growth had been rapid fast and Noah was pushing level 160 already.

Finding himself without much to do, Noah got up from his bed, ready to head out and see if he could find somebody when, to his surprise, he spotted Vion in the chamber, seated on one of the tables with her head slunk down.

“Hey, is something wrong?” Noah said to the dragon princess, walking up to her. Despite this being her own chamber, Vion was rarely seen in here, preferring to stay with the wyverns. She certainly seemed to be enjoying her freedom out here and it was mostly Aurelia and Noah who would use this dimensional chamber.

Vion raised her head, seemingly having not realized Noah was here, as she fixed her expression. “Nothing. Just tired.”

“Really? I feel like I have so much energy that I don’t know what to do about it,” Noah said, taking a seat next to the woman on a chair of his own.

“That’s nice. Glad to see you’re enjoying yourself,” Vion said.

“Oh come on, don’t be like that. Tell me what’s wrong, talking about it will help you,” Noah said, before using Identify at the woman.

[Path: Magma-mancer (Rare) - lvl 154]

Noah’s eyes widened in surprise as he realized the woman had almost shot ahead of him in regards to her path, and she was starting to close in on her first evolution on her race as well.

He paused, realizing something.

“Is it your racial levels or whatever?” He asked, looking at her.

“No… well, sort of,” Vion finally admitted, slinking onto the chair in front of her. “It’s just… I still don’t know how to transform. I’m getting stronger, yes, I’m getting better, yes, but… am I truly a dragon even? I know that’s stupid but… sometimes it really doesn’t feel like it.”

“Don’t be silly, of course you are. And the point of being here is to learn how to control your powers better anyway isn’t it?” Noah asked.

“Yes, but… what if I can’t?” Vion said. “I always thought that as I grew older, one day I’d just suddenly be able to. That one day I’d just automatically unlock my dragon magic and then I could be free and do whatever I wanted to, but… what if I don’t? I’m not a full dragon after all. I’m a draconian humanoid. That’s… not a dragon.”

Noah frowned. He knew this was just her fear talking, her argument was pointless, she had, in front of his own eyes, become a dragon and fought Zax. But he understood her fear nonetheless.

“It’s not just that. It’s… everything. I’m getting older and they can’t keep me hidden forever, or protect me till I magically one day gain powers. I need to become capable on my own. Draxius has done a lot, but all of that hinges on me learning how to be who I’m meant to be. I still don’t know why it has to be me, but he says that it does. That I’m the hope this kingdom has, its heir, and that only I can bring the dragons back to their home. But… why not Zax? If he’s here now, why can’t he do it? He’s so old and strong and wise, why does it still have to be me?” Vion said, clenching her fist.

“I just don’t know what to do. I don’t know who I am, or what it even means to be me. I don’t know what I want to do with my life. And most of all… I feel afraid. Afraid that if I win, if I reach the thing lying in what’s supposed to be the corpse of my father, I’ll find it, and it’ll reject me.”

Noah paused. He hadn’t realized so much had been going on with Vion. He’d always known her life was complex, and so was her history, but this was certainly a lot to have on your shoulder. He understood, somewhat.

Standing up, Noah walked up to Vion and patted her shoulder.

“Get up,” he said.

The princess looked up at him, confused. “Why?”

“Because you and I are going to spar till you figure out your dragon transformation thing,” Noah said with a smile.

***

The two of them stood outside the hive, in a clearing within the forest without that many predators around. The second sun peeking over the horizon in the distance, marking full dawn’s rise for the world.

Noah stood opposite to Vion, the dragon princess acting uncertain and nervous as she remained there.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked for the tenth time, glancing down at herself. “I appreciate you wanting to do this but you really don’t need to, nothing says it’s going to work and if it did… I’m not sure I’d be able to control myself and not hurt you.”

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“It takes a lot nowadays to hurt me,” Noah said with a cheeky grin.

He’d been noticing the princess had become a lot less self assured when they’d arrived here, and Noah assumed there were a bunch of things involved within that. She’d just met another dragon for the first time ever, lost in combat, felt Zax’s aura head on and touched upon her own true self, then immediately afterwards she’d been thrown out of her comfort zone and had to fend for herself for the first time.

Even with her prior excursions outside, given how old she was and how comparatively low her level was, Noah had to assume she had rather little in the way of actual experience. Especially seeing how fast she had grown once she’d actually been allowed to roam free.

All of that had likely contributed to a lot of emotional turmoil and self doubt. He could’ve been like that, had things been different. In some ways, he already was. He knew the parts of himself that he was willfully ignoring, and the parts of him that he did not feel like he had enough control over.

“Just think of it as a spar. We’ll push each other to our limits, and grow together. Don’t worry about any kind of transformation or anything, just show me what you’ve got.”

Clenching her fist pressed against her chest, Vion took a deep breath before nodding. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

Noah summoned his spear, taking a stance.

Heat washed around the dragon woman, her red hair flowing as the world around her began to distort. Noah felt the pulse of heat wash over his skin.

Kicking her foot down, Vion melted the ground underneath her, turning the earth to lava. The lava moved upwards, forming a flaming earth ball of fire as she shot it towards Noah.

With Arcane Step Noah easily moved out of the way, appearing closer to the woman. To the side, a giant explosion melted the ground, leaving a massive pool of magma behind.

She turned around rapidly, lava forming and rising from the earth in a wall that tried to pour over Noah. he teleported again, moving closer still. Vion growled and heat erupted from all around her, the ground beneath her turned to lava in all directions, rising up in the air like a tidal wave, balls of magma began to swirl around her, flaming hot streaks rising from them she shot them towards Noah.

Noah dodged the strikes, using Arcane Step to move behind the woman. He thrust his spear, stopping it just before hurting Vion, pressing it against her spine.

Vion pursed her lips, then huffed as she raised her hand in defeat. Noah lowered his spear.

“I don’t know how to fight,” she said a moment later. “I’ve always just… blasted things away. But if you can dodge it then I’m not sure what to do.”

“I can see that,” Noah replied. He scratched his chin. “To be honest with you, the only way I know how to do this… is by example. There’s… this feeling that kicks in when you’re in danger. When the threat is real. It’s like, you stop thinking before you act, and you just do the things instead. I’m not sure how to explain it, but it’s this point where I feel, almost at peace. The thing in front of me, the enemy I need to vanquish, it is everything in my mind now, it is all I can think of, and it requires my full attention or it will kill me. I need to keep going, keep moving, faster, strong, better,” he said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Vion said.

“What were you thinking when fighting Zax?” Noah asked.

“I was… angry,” Vion said, pausing. “Angry and… afraid,” she added.

“Yes, but those are emotions. What were you thinking?”

“I…” the dragon princess trailed off. “Nothing. I wasn’t… thinking anything.”

“Precisely. And, I think the whole problem you have, the entire reason that you can’t control yourself is because you are thinking. You are thinking when instead you should be feeling.” Noah said.

Vion bit her lower lip in frustration.

“There’s something I want to try. I think it’s the fastest way to do this, but you’ll need to be ready for it,” Noah said.

“What are you talking about?” Vion asked.

“I’m going to come at you with the intent to kill,” Noah said.

Vion just blinked, looking at him in surprise.

“I’m going to try not to kill you if I can, but I won’t hold myself back, so if you’re careless… you might die,” Noah said.

“I’m… not so sure about that,” Vion said. “Do we really have to?”

“We don’t. You can also just give up. Or you could slowly work at it on your own terms. This is hard, it will likely hurt, but if you want to fight in that tournament, if you want that title, or to seek your father’s legacy or whatever it is, then I would do this,” Noah said.

Vion clenched her fist, looking down at her feet. Closing her eyes, she took a long breath, before letting it out. When she opened her eyes, Noah saw a glimpse of the princess underneath, proud and confident.

“Okay. I’m going to fight you.”

Noah nodded. Then, he felt himself peering at his own soul. The words he’d said to Vion… they applied to him too didn’t they? The thing he’d been ignoring, whether intentionally or just subconsciously, he was aware of it now.

He felt the shard he’d absorbed from the abyssal rift inside his soul. The way it shaped him. The way it changed him, and the things it created.

He had to give it his all here. To give all he had. How could he help Vion if he was holding back?

And that was the thing, wasn’t it? Noah, from the very beginning, had been holding himself back. Because he was afraid. So very afraid of what he may find, should he allow his true self to appear.

I hate this… and I hate the fact that I’m going to do this now.

He closed his eyes, and began to dig deep into himself.

The tattoos on his arms manifested, as he felt his magic flow freely, the ability of Arcane Body getting to truly shine here.

Next, Noah felt Tony permeate through him. He felt the wyrmblood’s lifeforce surging inside of him, flowing like a tidal wave. He let it all go, seizing control over it all, as the lifeforce burst forth.

Metamorphosis triggered on its own, his body starting to change. His skin turned obsidian black, his modified muscles shifted, tensing and turning like steel. Dark void energies swarmed his body, his visage shifting to turn into a demonic creature of the abyss standing in flesh.

Next was his aura, his draconian aura that rose from his new lineage, her focused that, using the techniques Erwest had taught him, and he focused it, into a razor sharp blade, and pointed it at Vion.

But there was more, more still, the deepest part of him that he kept caged at all times. That he’d had ever since the very beginning, but had tried to deny. He felt at his aura, at his soul, at the core inside of him which contained those shards, like puzzle pieces that had been missing when he’d first awoken, but now, a part of him was reclaimed.

He looked at that monster inside, and then, he let it out into the world.

The [Devourer] has awakened.

Hunger dominates your spirit.

Power rises within your soul.

Infinite potential burns through your veins.

All abilities increased by 100%

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