The pages of the old journal trembled slightly in Lucas's hands, the words etched in neat yet weary script telling stories of blood, battle, and secrets. Each sentence had pulled him deeper into the life of the man he thought he knew, but by the time he reached the final word, Lucas's face was set, jaw clenched, and his knuckles white around the cover.
No grief. No tears. Just anger. Quiet, simmering, deep.
He closed the book slowly and placed it on the ground. Silence filled the room.
His eyes drifted toward the object he'd found earlier—the cold, black band resting on the floor beside the journal. It looked simple, unremarkable even, but somehow, it had gravity. He reached out, slid it onto his wrist, and let a breath slip between his lips. "Let's see what you are," he muttered, pressing a thin pulse of his energy into the bracelet.
The response was instant.
A cold current rushed up his arm, wrapping around his senses. A voice—not spoken, but felt—emerged in his mind:
"Suppression Bracelet. Energy limiter. Activate with controlled Qi. Limits user strength to two to five percent. Use in times of instability."
As the bracelet's knowledge settled, his thoughts wandered. Just how strong am I now? When he became the Chaos Dragon, a flood of ancient, primal memories had burned into his mind. The legacy of the dragon race—their cultivation, their strength, their pride—it was all there, sleeping in his blood.
He closed his eyes. False Core Realm. That's the realm he is in currently according to the memories.
Not a true Core. Not yet. He was strong—too strong for the mortal realm—but still far from what the memories described as the true might of a dragon. He needed control. He needed refinement. He reached toward the bracelet again—
And then he felt it.
A presence.
A weight. Cold and absolute.
Lucas's eyes snapped open. It wasn't killing intent. It wasn't even spiritual pressure.
It was... a gaze.
He bolted out of the room, his body tense, instincts screaming. The sky above had changed—unnaturally so. A dome, vast and shimmering like woven starlight, now blanketed the mountain. But the village below? Quiet. Peaceful. The people still walked, laughed, murmured about a passing sensation, unaware of the ancient power now watching their neighbor.
This dome... it's only covering me.
And then came the voice.
A voice that wasn't a whisper or a shout—it simply was. Majestic. Deep. Eternal.
"Looks like Eldrin has indeed succeeded."
Author's note: Eldrin Ashbourne is Lucas's grandfather's real name.
Lucas froze. Slowly, he raised his head.
And then he saw them.
Eyes.
Eyes vast as worlds. Eyes that held galaxies within their depths, as though the cosmos itself stared down upon him. The pressure of that gaze was suffocating, like the sky had decided he was too small to stand beneath it.
Lucas's knees began to buckle.
He gritted his teeth. No.
His bones screamed. Blood trickled from the corners of his mouth, the strain tearing through his body like wildfire. But something inside him—a defiant, primal pulse—refused to yield.
I am the Chaos Dragon, he thought, trembling.
The first and only. Born of no mold, bound by no chain. Even if the heavens descend, I do not bow.
That thought roared louder than any sound.
His knees steadied.
And the eyes above responded.
"Very well. So be it."
The pressure doubled.
Pain exploded through his limbs. His vision blurred. Bones cracked inside his arms, his ribs screamed, and veins burst across his skin, staining his body with streaks of crimson. And still, he did not fall.
A snarl escaped his lips. His vision flared with heat, and then—
Dragonize.
Two majestic horns curled from his head, black with streaks of silver. Scales rippled across his shoulders, hard as celestial steel. Wings tore from his back with a sound like splitting air, their span mighty and beautiful, catching the dome's light with shimmering chaos.
His half-dragon form had awakened.
His golden eyes, slitted like a predator's, burned with pride. He threw his head back and roared—a sound that shook the mountain, a declaration that reached not just the sky, but the stars beyond it.
Lucas stomped the ground, sending cracks spiderwebbing beneath his feet. He stood tall. Not bowed. Not broken.
A dragon.
A Chaos Dragon.
(He had not turned into his full dragon form—not because of choice, but because his current realm was too low to sustain it. That form required power he had yet to grasp.)
For a moment, silence fell again.
Then the eyes blinked. And the voice, this time softer, almost... respectful, spoke once more.
"You passed."
The eyes vanished.
The dome dissolved.
Lucas staggered, the transformation slipping away. His body trembled from the pain, from the defiance, from the sheer overwhelming test he had just endured.
As he collapsed to one knee, chest heaving, he felt the weight of something new in his mind—a location. A path. A hidden place not far from the mountain. The entrance to the Immortal Realm.
He looked at the bracelet still glowing faintly on his wrist. Without a word, he activated it. The surge of his energy was locked away, compressed. And immediately, the suffocating flood within him dulled. His body could breathe.
He could think again.
As the last light of the dome faded, Lucas stared at the sky where those eyes had once been.
"That was the Barrier..." he thought. "It came to test me."
But one thing still haunted him—cut deeper than the pain, deeper than the roar.
What did it mean by 'Eldrin has succeeded'?
Grandfather... what are you still hiding from me?