Legacy of the Dark Sage

The moment the young talents of the dragon tribes in the arena heard the start of the match, their magic pressure exploded.

The whole arena shook from the concurrent explosion of magic pressure. Its combined force threatened the destruction of the barrier that protected the audience from stray magic attacks or collision aftershocks once the match started.

Thanks to the enhanced array formation, any potential leakage of pressure was prevented, ensuring the safety of everyone outside the arena. The expansion formula, despite the overwhelming combined pressure, kept the audience at a safe distance from the arena's edges.

Before any young talents could fully adapt to the suffocating magic pressure that accumulated around them, they had already moved and dashed toward Kyran.

Kyran calmly watched the approaching talents.

The array formation's expansion formula increased the arena's size to ten times the normal, a fact not immediately apparent to the audience. However, the participants were quick to notice the change, as they had to cover a much larger distance to approach another participant.

Because of this, Kyran had enough time to assess the situation without being forced to defend right at the start of the match.

In fact, while Eissen was talking, Kyran was already observing the talents closest to him. Because of the pillar of light, he could not see them clearly, but because of his sensitivity to magic energies, he was able to glean their innate magic and guess which tribe they belonged to.

Now that the pillar of lights had gone and these talents had made their way toward him, Kyran confirmed his guess to be 95% correct. The 5% was a miss on his part for failing to discern the difference between two magic types with almost the same natures, such as Ice and Frost.

To briefly explain the difference between the two, Ice primarily utilized the water element's state, while Frost focused on the process. Nonetheless, both magic possessed the Water Magic's base nature, and thus, it was hard to discern their difference while they were still in their raw form.

Kyran watched all the dragons summon their defensive spells to the maximum while using the Draconic magic's influence to envelop their hands, feet, or even back with dragon parts. Though it only projected their original body, Kyran was well aware of their destructive nature.

Ambros and Dilitrio used that move differently— with the former using gauntlets and the latter using a tail to shoot off poison needles and fog— nonetheless, if any of those hit Kyran solidly, he would have been rendered motionless for a few seconds.

However, no matter how oppressive the pressure from the young talents was, making the audience mistake their hotblooded rush at Kyran for a show of strength, he knew better.

Rather than an attempt to deal him a joint attack on the onset of the match, they were only testing the waters. Kyran thought this because they focused their magic on their defensive spell rather than the initial attack they were about to launch.

'Since you want to test the waters so much,' Kyran thought while keeping his eyes on them. 'I'll show you something to think about.'

Kyran's eyes glowed silver as his pupils turned into slits. However, the color of his pupils was not dark gray. Nor were they reddish-purple as they appeared when he used Draconic and Void magic simultaneously, with the former being the main magic. Instead, his pupils shone with a myriad of colors that were almost similar to Cyneah's eyes.

'There is nothing to fear,' Kyran reminded himself. However, his words almost sounded like a prayer rather than an affirmation to oneself. 'I am in control.'

After muttering these words inwardly, Kyran circulated the magic energy in his Draconic core.

However, a color other than the usual silver tinge representing his Draconic magic energy was circulating inside his Draconic core.

The color had a grayish-blue tinge, yet bits and pieces like stardust mingled within.

This magic energy was none other than Coelus's that influenced Kyran. Because of this magic energy, he could not properly use his Draconic magic. Whenever he tried, this magic energy would go crazy inside his core. There were even instances when it attempted to seep into his Void core, obviously seeking to influence it as well.

Fortunately, Shaiha was there to prevent that from happening. It caused her considerable magic energy to contain Coelus's influence within the Draconic core. However, that was a small price to pay compared to the disaster that could happen if it succeeded in influencing Kyran's Void core.

Whiir!

Shaiha pulsated and whirred as she supported Kyran in circulating the magic energies in his Draconic core.

Huuum!

Shaiha hummed, and Kyran immediately understood what she was trying to say.

''You've gotten used to it,' is it?' he interpreted her words with a wry smile. 'Yes, I have.'

What Shaiha meant about Kyran getting used to it was his circulation of Coelus's magic energy.

How and when it happened?

It happened in Somuli while Kyran consolidated everything he learned during his spar matches. During his meditation, he realized that the influence of Coelus's magic energy did not act up when he tried to use Draconic magic to recreate Avrum's Poison magic.

At first, Kyran did not notice it because he was too focused on understanding the difference between Draconic and Chaos magic. Soon, he saw that whenever he recreated Avrum's Poison magic, the circulation of Coelus's magic energy inside his Draconic core changed.

It was very subtle and almost impossible to notice, but the moment he did and deciphered its flow, he realized it was actually the one creating the Poison magic's base while using Draconic magic.

That was when Kyran finally understood why Draconic was compatible with Void— or rather, why Chaos was compatible with Void. Both magic had the capability of creation.

Chaos, which was fundamentally created from a combination of several other forms of magic, could form the base of any of these magic. On the other hand, Void could create anything because it was fundamentally born from nothing.

However, there was a significant difference between the two. Chaos was limited to creating the base of magic it was made from. In contrast, Void could create anything and everything, even magic. Except, any magic it recreated would have the Void's property as its base. Thus, that magic turned into a new type of Void rather than a complete recreation of the magic it was based on.

This was the case with all the Servants under Kyran. After they underwent rebirth from the Void, their magic's fundamental property were already that of the Void rather than their original innate magic. They could still use their innate magic and produce similar effects as before. That had been the case with Gael, whose innate magic was Shadow.

However, his magic was no longer just Shadow magic because the Void had already absorbed its property and reconstructed its nature.

After Kyran discovered Chaos's nature, he decided to change how he dealt with Coelus's magic energy. He stopped trying to win control of his Draconic core and allowed Coelus's magic energy to combine with the Draconic magic energy within.

Shaiha almost went ballistic, pulsating non-stop and humming loudly inside Kyran's sea of consciousness when he allowed Coelus's magic energy free reign in his Draconic core. However, she soon realized that rather than spreading its influence and destroying Kyran, Coelus's magic energy was guiding the Draconic magic energy.

It seemed to have enhanced it so it could attract genuine Chaos magic energy in the surroundings rather than its simplified Draconic one only.

The moment Kyran stopped fighting Coelus's magic energy, he no longer experienced the excruciating pain whenever he did so. That was when he realized that he should have studied Coelus's magic energy and accepted it instead of seeing it as an enemy or an external opposing force. Because at the end of the day, the magic energy that entered his body from Coelus's corpse was simply pure Chaos magic.

It did not have a will of its own. It was only attracted to Kyran because he had the Draconic core, which was initially a Chaos core. A magic core that allowed Chaos magic energy to circulate without obstruction.

Whoosh!

Kyran's magic aura, which Shaiha usually concealed, exploded. His magic pressure then erupted and shook the whole dome.

The moment his magic pressure became discernable, the faces of every older generation dragon watching the match in person or remotely darkened.

"This pressure...!"

"I-It can't be!"

Most of the patriarchs and their second-in-command were from the generation after the older ones. Thus, only a few recognized Kyran's magic pressure.

Velctor shifted uneasily on his seat as he leaned forward, his eyes focused on Kyran.

Ickle also felt uneasy. However, he tried to act as unaffected as possible.

On the other hand, one of the few matriarchs, Asherah from the Water Dragon Tribe, narrowed her crystal silver blue eyes, showing a considerable contrast to her delicate features. Her light ocean-blue hair, which matched her scaled-long dress, seemed to flow amidst an imaginary river. Like the other matriarchs and patriarchs, she had five horns, albeit they looked like beautifully sculpted ice art.

"Mother is right... rather than the new Dragon Lord possessing another innate magic, what he showed yesterday is probably related to the true nature of Draconic core," she said almost in a whisper.

Enki, a dragon that bore similar features to Ladon, except he had three horns, was the second-in-command of the Water Dragon Tribe. He did not comment on Asherah's words and only started at Kyran in the arena.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om