Chapter 366: The City Guards arrive

'[Look at it again. Go closer, don't just look at the surface, see behind it!]'

Confused by what she meant, Aiden looked at the central star, representing his most powerful and most important form to date, the Ancient Dragon again.

It was a colossal, huge star, radiating the powerful golden hue, the same warmth, the same ancient, dominant, proudness that he was all too familiar with.

However, as he kept looking at it, focusing on it, he could feel something else… something more. Under the outer layers, he could feel another source of power, another small, unfamiliar seed of energy.

Surprised to feel the presence of another source inside the large star, he looked shocked, turning towards Enya as he asked.

"Is… Is that… that…" Unable to come up with words, he stuttered, eventually pointing at himself instead. "…Me?"

—

Time passed slowly, and while Aiden was still engulfed in the depths of his very own inner world, on the outside, Drake's ears suddenly twitched. Sounds of heavy footsteps from the direction of the city reached his ears, he jumped up in the sudden realization.

As he turned around, whilst he could not see anything at the moment, he was still assured that he wasn't just hallucinating; Lily's two dogs, the two large war hounds were already standing at attention, growling towards the city's direction.

"What is it, brother? Is something wrong?" Seeing as how her brother was suddenly acting, she unsheathed the dagger once again, turning around, and following Drake's gaze. 

As she turned around, and squinted her eyes, although he couldn't see anything she suddenly felt multiple presences approaching, her face turned somber.

"We need to go." She muttered, immediately turning around once again, and walking with fast, hurried steps to Lily.

She placed her right hand over her right shoulder, gently squeezing it and grabbing her attention.

"Lily, we need to leave. A group of soldiers from the city are coming and it would be best if we wouldn't be here when they arrive."

"Uhm." Lily nodded, grabbing Scarlet's hand with her own and giving it a light squeeze, before turning towards her still meditating brother. For the first time since she sat down next to him, her cheery smile was replaced with a serious, slightly worried look. Reaching out with both her hands, she clutched her brother's gently, she looked into her brother's closed eyes before closing his own.

"I hope this works…" She mumbled to herself before focusing on a specific thought, something that she never tried before consciously, but did manage to do once when she felt the lowest.

Her thoughts focused on that feeling, the familial love, the adoration, the devotion she felt towards him. That other, bubbling feeling that she still couldn't completely grasp… That strange, weird, but at the same time, undoubtedly the best sensation of all. She hoped, she wished that she would be successful, that he would be able to hear her, would feel her connecting heart, her wish…

With her eyes closed, she leaned against him, their foreheads gently touching, she called for her protector, her brother in her mind.

—

Inside his own core, Aiden was still lost in the unique sight. With his memories of his previous life now regained, he couldn't help but think that what he was seeing was vastly similar to how humanity envisioned and depicted their universe.

At the center of it all, acting as the heart of everything, pumping life towards all the other orbiting celestial bodies, the sun, his own Primal Seed surrounded and protected by his Golden aura, the Ancient Draconic form radiated the warmth of life with its golden rays, empowering all the other smaller planets as they circulated, orbited around it eternally.

At the closest, the smallest but still, one of the most memorable moments of his life, the dark orb of essence, his Mushroom Bug form, floated. The other orbs growing gradually in size and varying colors went further on, eventually reaching the large body of a dark green giant, the one before his newly formed Sahuagin Champion form, the one he created through fusion, the Primal Goblin Dragonlord. 

What was different about it, compared to the rest, was that this orb felt hard. As if it wasn't purely made of energy anymore but if it consisted of its own solid body. As if was truly turning into a new world, a true planet in itself.

Amidst the dark green that covered its surfaced, small dots of vibrant red, brown, and even parts of azure deep blue could be seen every now and then, confirming his first assumptions that something peculiar was happening with this one.

Aiden wanted to dive even deeper and explore it in-depth, but before he could do so, the bright white dot of his guide, Enya spoke up with a gentle, kind but at the same time serious tone.

'[Aiden, you should go back now. What we wanted to accomplish we did. You successfully assimilated and formed your newest form, and you didn't even need the system for it. You will still need to train with it, but at the very least you are not forced into it any longer. You should-]'

Suddenly she turned silent, and flew higher above, a distant voice, a whisper called out to her, or more precisely, to him.

Her brightness flared up, her white light reached out to the thread of the other's call. Confused at Enya's action at first, as soon as she gave more energy to that other one, Aiden snapped towards the distance where the familiar voice could be now clearly heard. 

Without saying anything, in the next instant, his spiritual self vanished from its spot. His consciousness returning to reality, his eyes snapped open a moment later, only to be met with Lily's blue eyes up front, closer than ever.

Still, he didn't show any signs of surprise, instead, he gave her a wide, loving smile, he spoke with a tender whispering tone.

"Lily… Is everything okay?"

Feeling his breath on her face and on her ears, Lily's elongated ears twitched as they swiftly changed color into a deep tomato red, signaling their rapidly rising temperatures. Her cheeks also turning pinkish with shyness, she meekly stuttered.

"W-we… W-we n-need to g-go. S-soldiers… c-coming…" She spoke, rapidly losing herself in her brother's golden eyes and bright smiling face.

"Right." Aiden smiled, giving them another single moment before gently pushing his sister away, withstanding her emerging pouting look with a bitter smile of his own, and stood back up.

Turning around, he looked towards the city, following the other's gazes, he instantly recognized the incoming potential danger. 

With hurried steps, he walked over to Drake and Scarlet while Lily gathered Sam and Biggy.

A minute later their figures rushed towards the south, just in time to escape the sights of the approaching battalion of city guards.

As soon as they arrived at the scene, a stoic, heroic-looking, silver-bearded man stepped at the front. Riding atop the only horse in the battalion, he was clearly above in rank to the rest. His piercing gaze, slowly scanning across the bloodied battlefield. No word could be heard, neither from him nor from the couple dozen soldiers behind him.

Every single member of his group stood at attention, not daring to utter a single word, waiting for this veteran's command. Despite the gruesome sight, their eyes showed with reverence, bordering worship as they looked at the robust back of this legendary figure.

As his dark green, emerald eyes sailed across the horizon, he gruffed from time to time. The sight of mutilated, limbless torsos, charcoal-looking carcasses burned to crisp, the pungent smell of death lingering in the air… This was all-too-familiar to this old man. 

He, who was now acting as a simple, single captain of the many in service of this backwater town, wasn't like the others. He wasn't tainted with corruption, nor was he blinded by the light of justice. 

He was a veteran, a retired leader. Once a proud member of the royal army, the circumstances reduced his legend, his myth, his legacy to this crumbled state. 

Despite this, he never wavered, he never surrendered to injustice, to corruption. He remained steadfast, a bastion of everything he stood for.

Even though it wasn't necessarily true anymore, everyone still referred to him as the 'General'. 

Eventually, his hardened, piercing gaze landed on a spot, slightly behind the sea of burnt monsters, closer to the riverside.

A deep frown creased across his forehead as he looked at the particular spot. He got off the horse, throwing the reins to the men behind him, and stepped over the bodies, walking towards the spot he felt something different.

As he got closer and closer, he could feel the change, the shift in the air around him. He felt an emptiness, a lack of life, a void of energy. Even if he could never put his fingers on it, he could always feel it, sense it. 

Arriving at the spot, he crouched down. His eyes squinted, and although he was looking at the empty shallow ground in front of him, in his mind, he was assured.

His frown deepened as his conjecture was now confirmed he scowled as he muttered with a disdainful tone.

"A mutant…"