The whole valley shook, clouds of dust and smoke spreading around with tremors passing through the soil as the huge dragon landed.
His golden eyes shone under the clouds of smoke, a confusion brewing within his mind.
‘What the?!’
Vesuvius looked at the stone structure before him. It looked the same as before, its smooth yet plain stone pillars rising above the dragon, supporting the massive circular roof made of a single stone slate.
The one golden statue of a dragon in its centre reflected the sunlight passing through the gaps between the stone pillars on its polished, mirror-like surface.
It looked all the same as before, and that was the problem, ‘I grew in size, yet it all looks the same even though from the sky it looked like it covered the exact same area.’
His head was spinning when he thought about the supernatural reality-bending shenanigans that had to be behind it.
Yet what disturbed him most was something else.
There was no magical energy radiating out of it that could explain it. It all was plain and mundane even though something weird was happening, ‘Is this even magic? If yes, how advanced must it be to accomplish something like that? To think that there are such mysteries even in the world of magic…’
The dragon stepped forwards, the temple-like structure getting closer and closer. His eyes were locked on the large golden stature, his claws scratching on the stone floor under, only for the scratch marks to fix instantly.
Suddenly the statue’s eyes blazed up in a bright whirl of red and golden lights that were spinning. An oppressive aura spread through the whole temple, making the huge dragon’s body flinch, feeling like he had a giant mountain on his shoulders.
His legs were trembling, his claws digging deeper and deeper into the stone slate under him, accompanied by loud cracking sounds.
The golden statue turned red, the golden scales changing into unknown shiny red metal, shadows devouring all of the light, submerging the dragon and the temple into darkness.
Something fast moved in the darkness, the dragon’s eyes only darting around, trying to spot it. The eerie howling of pain and anguish reverberated between the stone pillars.
He couldn’t see even with his dragon eyes causing his danger sense quickly rise as he realised that it wasn’t regular darkness. It wasn’t just the absence of light. It was like some thick black liquid flowing around him.
‘Is this part of the trial?’ Vesuvius felt strong doubts, feeling the energy washing over his body being similar to that of the dragon god yet different. It felt draconic yet also demonic at the same time, the two flavours perfectly blending together.
His consciousness expanded out of his body, trying to feel and touch the darkness.
The next moment the energy from the glowing statue intensified, crushing his domain and violently pushing it back all the way towards his body, leaving only a small bubble in the darkness.
An unexplainable anger woke in the dragon’s heart, ‘I will smash it!’
He opened his mouth, a purple light flickering inside, circuit after circuit forming inside, the magical symbols appearing almost immediately, spinning and rotating. The next moment a stream of flames exploded, flooding everything in front of the dragon, the purple light unable to illuminate the dark space.
The flames licked the stone pillars, the floor and the statue, bright purple light mixing with vile crimson red light radiating out of the sculpture and the blackness of the sprawling darkness.
The flames kept blasting, flickering in the darkness and hitting the stone and statue. To the dragon’s anger, the stone was turning only slightly red from the heat, the flames harmlessly flickering out of existence before they could even touch the red statue.
Vesuvius felt his anger grow even more, his aura and domain trying to push against the darkness to no avail.
“Hahaha!” a burst of laughter resounded from the statue, feeding his flames of anger even more. He wanted to smash everything. He wanted to destroy and annihilate all of his enemies. No, he wanted to annihilate even his potential enemies.
Something was moving and whispering around him. Its poisonous words feeling like poison, “Feel the power of my master! Feel it. Let it devour your heart! Let it give you more power!”
‘It is right!’ Vesuvius felt both his breath, his domain and his aura grow stronger with each second, his flames turning red with the unreasonable anger burning within his heart.
The whispering was getting louder and louder, quickly turning into shouting in a bone-chilling, distorted voice, “Remember all these arrogant and ungrateful mortals?! They used the mercy of dragons and then abandoned their masters!”𝒪𝗏𝔩xt.𝗇t
Ancient memories belonging to long-dead dragons were flashing right before his eyes.
He saw shadowy figures move right before his eyes. The shadows were forming into images, slowly gaining colours and details.
They were humans, the first humans, fighting against a terrifying monster looking like a mass of toothed tentacles, wiggling and swirling like chainsaws, cutting through the humans armed with simple stone spears in droves.
The image shifted to the same humans working and building their settlements, small houses popping up in the jungle. The humans knelt, offering their gold to an enormous red dragon as a tribute.
The time quickly moved, turning the image into blue as the years flew by.
The humans quickly grew in numbers, growing stronger under the protection of the dragons. The settlements quickly grew, quickly growing into villages, then towns and then cities.
“Remember these traitors that betrayed their masters for the new ones!”
The anger grew even stronger as an image of humans kneeling before blurry statues passed before his eyes.
Vesuvius couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it was obvious to him that they were bowing their heads, begging for power.
“Remember the thieves stealing from their masters!!”
It was the image of humans again, sneaking into a dragon’s cave after the dragon left, grabbing the exact same gold their ancestors offered as a tribute.
The shouting was getting louder and louder, with the images becoming more distorted, “Remember traitors turning against their natural masters!!!”
More and more images passed before the dragon’s eyes, the darkness around him deepening with the anger in his heart growing stronger, seeping all the way into his soul.
The humans stood, facing a dragon, each holding a weapon radiating immense power. The image was blurry and dark, obscured by a mist, making it impossible to see any details.
Still, Vesuvius shook, feeling the power radiating out of each weapon. It was a similar feeling to that of when he faced the dragon god.
The images kept flickering, turning darker and darker with each picture.
Finally, they stopped, Vesuvius opening his eyes. He was back in the temple, submerged in the darkness. A flame of anger was brightly burning in within him.
“Accept this power! Use the anger as your power!!!!”