Thirty years later, Kangerweian once again stepped into the Seventh City's council hall—the place where this "dream" had begun.
It was here that he, the dignified thirty-seventh heir of Dark Ember City, had gone from captive to the even more humiliating status of hostage, becoming the tool dragon his mother used to safeguard the city-state's trade contracts.
And the source of it all was that—cough cough—great Silver Dragon, Lord Tibilus!
It was he who had taught him that, as a dragon, one must not only learn to be independent, self-reliant, self-loving, and strong, but also learn to protect oneself when in an unfamiliar city-state.
After thirty years of tempering, he felt that he had thoroughly turned over a new leaf and become a new dragon. He had even learned advanced prowling techniques and the essentials of stealth from his teacher, Kike Marido, enough to handle any assignment the city-state gave him.
After finishing this round of self-hypnosis, Kangerweian cautiously raised his head. When he saw that "lifelong nemesis" he had been almost incapable of resisting, his pupils first contracted sharply, and then he instinctively rubbed his dry, overworked eyes.
Ah, this...
Though the colossal creature before him had not changed much in size from what he remembered, the scales covering its body had become increasingly dim and obscure. Not with the sense of withering decay, but rather—
Like the stillness and unfathomable depths beneath an iceberg in the heart of the Astral Plane. Every so often, a glistening faint light flowed through those brilliant golden rune-lines, making it seem all the more mysterious.
When Kangerweian's gaze finally focused on the other's pupils, his body gave an involuntary tremor.
What exquisite, unfathomably deep eyes these were.
They were as clear and empty as silent Chardalyn, yet also like a magical prism