Vesuvius felt like his whole body levitated, submerged in black liquid. Everything around him was dark. A massive neon red orb levitated before him with black oil-like tendrils rotating around it, some of them moving into the infinity depth of the void, vanishing and new ones forming. The time felt slow as if it almost didn’t move.
With his innate knowledge, he immediately knew what it was, ‘Soul plane, a plane where only souls exist.’
Vesuvius moved his gaze to his body. His dragon body was replaced by a giant dragon of golden flames, lightning, magma, wind and other elements, all flowing and mixing in what should be his body, its size dwarfing the red orb.
Glowing golden strings were split from his body, going down to the void, some brightly shining, with others being dim, lightless strings of gold. He instinctively recognised what they were, ‘These should be everyone I transformed with my blood.’
Behind a stream of numbers and letters made of green light, looking like straight from Matrix connected to his body, six golden strings were woven around it, leaving his body and vanishing into nothingness.
‘This must be my connection to the system and the players I changed.’
From the black nothingness about him shone bright, pure golden light, forming a massive ray that connected to the dragon’s golden body. The energy radiating out of it felt the same as the golden statue of the dragon god.
‘Link to the dragon god.’
‘Then what is this connection?’ Vesuvius looked at an eerie yet familiar ray of colour that made no sense, his soul hurting just from looking at it, his mind unable to comprehend such a colour. Its surface kept twisting and changing, one time looking like a light and the next like a thick smoke or liquid.
It was a bright ray, vanishing into nothingness like the connection with the system and his players.
No matter how many times he looked at it, he couldn’t identify what it was.
Suddenly, the red orb flashed. Its whole shape changed and malformed, slowly twisting into a large beating heart made of thick black liquid with neon-red light radiating out of the gaps.
Thousands of black tendrils erupted out, blending with the black background as they launched towards the golden dragon, all of them whirling and stretching as if to reach the dragon himself.
His draconic instincts awakened, and the bright golden flames of his soul blazed out, forming a spherical dome of fire around him. The golden glow illuminated the black space, the golden strings connected to the dragon trembling like spider webs in the wind.
The black tendrils bashed against the golden barrier, striking and pounding against the wall of golden flames, the loud banging echoing through the emptiness.
With just his thought, the golden flames moved to expand even further from his body, pushing against the black tentacles.
It was different from the physical world, where he couldn’t freely control the elements outside his body and do whatever he wanted, but now he felt like everything was different. As if someone removed all limitations.
With the freedom he felt for the first time, more and more golden flames flared up from the golden body, joining the barrier and forming a sun of golden flames around the dragon.
The black tendrils kept striking, again and again, burning and evaporating as they kept hitting the flaming barrier.
Pain stabbed through the dragon’s mind as if needles stabbed his body from all directions at once, his mind trembling. He ignored it, euphoria from his newly found freedom pushing away every bit of his worry.
“Grah!” the mighty growl resounded through the black space, the dragon’s golden brilliance rising up as his pride awakened within him, “As if some curse could stand a chance against a soul of a dragon!”
The arcs of golden lightning flared up from his horns striking towards the black heart, every tendril in its path vanishing under the golden brilliance. The elemental storm was unleashed around the dragon, lightning and flames whirling around in a growing element vortex, shredding the black tendrils.
The heart pulsed, with red light and a dome of red transparent light formed around it. The lightning struck against it, cracks spreading through its surface with red glass-like fragments falling like leaves from trees during autumn.
The golden dragon moved without even moving his limbs, with the force of his will. Each meter he moved felt hard, his soul aching as he pushed against the invisible pressure of the black space around him that pressed against him.
More and more black tendrils erupted out of the sphere, bashing and slashing against the elemental vortex around the dragon, the golden flames around him gradually weakening, drowning under the black flood. His energy was vanishing under each slash and stab of the tendrils. The sphere of golden flames grew smaller and smaller, closing towards his body under the unending onslaught of the cursed strings.
Vesuvius felt his energy being sapped out of his body, his golden eyes growing in panic as he noticed that the red light radiating out of the heart brightened up, making him realise that he had made a mistake. ‘This thing is stealing my own energy!’
The rage as never before woke up within the dragon. To steal his hoard was terrible but to steal from his soul was almost as bad. His whole soul shook as he looked at the unending flood of golden light.
“Ooo, mighty dragon god, give me your power to protect my treasure!”
The golden string coming out of his body towards the black sky vibrated, and a massive wave of golden energy soon descended down, flowing along the string and flooding the dragon’s whole soul.
The flames around the dragon blazed anew, pushing back the black tentacles, and giving him the time he needed to think, his inexperience with soul space showing up.
‘This thing feeds on my energy. I should be winning, my soul was brighter and bigger, but the curse existed the whole time in this space, giving it more experience. It tricked me, slowly growing stronger while I wasted my energy.’
The pitch-black tendrils kept getting thicker and thicker, their numbers multiplying with red light starting to flash around them, their black mass obscuring the dragon’s vision. The golden flames shrank back towards his body, the tentacles eating his energy bit by bit.
Vesuvius felt despair creeping into his soul as the black mass closed towards him, feeling like his doom was getting closer with each passing moment.
Hushed, cold and distorted voices entered his mind, their tone quiet as if they were whispering.
“Join us!”
“Become one with us!”
The golden flames around the dragon’s body were dimming, his energy seeping out of his soul, and the whispers were getting louder, slowly turning into shouts. The tendrils were already eating his elemental body, wrapping it in black strings.
“You are not a dragon!”
“You are weak!”
“Join us and become stronger!”
Suddenly as if something enlightened him, the hope reawakened in the dragon, ‘Yes, I am a dragon. Why was I fighting like I wasn’t one? This freedom to use my powers however I wanted has blinded me!’
The dragon opened his mouth, and the next moment, bright golden light pierced through the black tentacles, all of them vanishing as a massive wave of golden flames blasted out. The golden flames spread through the black tentacles, igniting them as if they were just dry wood.
Vesuvius felt as if there was no limit, the golden flames surging out at an impossible rate, flooding everything with the golden brilliance, pushing away all of the black tentacles and finally revealing the large black heart that was beating, creating pulses of red light with each beat.
As Vesuvius observed the flaming inferno before him, he became even more confused, realising how much he lacked knowledge about the soul plane, ‘What is the difference? Why were my flames so powerful when released from my mouth when it shouldn’t even matter, as the soul doesn’t even have breath glands.’
Vesuvius flapped his massive golden wings of flames and lightning, his whole body launching forward, moving towards the black heart. The flames rushing out of his mouth kept blasting forwards, burning waves upon waves of black tentacles bashing against him.
‘Again, why are my wings working here? This almost makes no sense…’
The dragon ignored his confusion, his body surrounded by golden flames moving like a golden bullet through the black swarm of tentacles. His body smashed through the red barrier that shattered as if made of glass.
He turned his head to the heart and unleashed another massive wave of flames against it. However, the heart stood between the fire, slowly pulsing without any apparent damage.
The dragon pushed more of his energy, the flames blasting out of his mouth, turning even brighter, harmlessly washing around the heart.
‘Why?’ deep in his mind Vesuvius already knew the reason, ‘Destroying soul can’t be so easy… I have to become one with it.’
The wave of flames stopped, and the dragon’s mouth widely opened as if to devour the pulsing black heart in front of him. His whole mind was like entering a trance, thinking just about devouring the sweet candy in front of him.
The golden mouth surrounded the black heart, and then it closed.