Chapter 148: Essence of Eternal Flame
"No... not again! Don’t tell me you’re going for another evolution upgrade?" Auren flinched as the flame mana in his chest flared without warning.
He fought to steady it, fingers whitening as the heat pulsed through his limbs, but the surge of mana would not be stopped and continued to gather into the newly formed egg.
The golden egg that had been Bigbird’s last form shivered in midair, light trembling across its shell.
For a moment its familiar luster held, then the color shifted—gold deepening into a darker, richer hue.
SWOOOMB~
Red veins crawled across the surface like molten glyphs, and a crimson, serpentine symbol curled around the shell’s crown.
Auren watched as the emblem stamped itself into the shell: the sigil of a Ugha’s true form, a Red Serpentine Dragon, ancient and powerful.
He felt something inside him tighten, some private possession slipping away. He wanted to call out, to demand explanation, but all he could think was,
’This better be worth it.’
The sky itself seemed to bow to the change.
Far above, where clouds normally drifted lazy and thin, the air folded into a clearer, darker blue. From that vast vault descended a shape so enormous that at first Auren could only register it as shadow and movement—a living mountain coiling through the heavens.
A serpentine dragon, scales like polished obsidian stitched with molten veins, traced lazy arcs across the firmament. Its body swallowed stars and exhaled a wind that smelled like singed cedar and old storms.
Outside the ring of onlookers, Akhub’s usual swagger collapsed in a single, quiet fall.
He had been all cocky smiles and sharp words, but now he was a small, rigid thing beside the other Primordial who possess his true power.
The dragon’s presence drained the bravado from him, left only the keen, naked fear of a man who had just met something that reminded him of how small he was.
"If only I had that other half," he muttered under his breath, glancing at Bonbon with a look that was half envy, half plea.
Bonbon’s tiny face was split by a lazy grin as he continued to pick at a banana-shaped fruit, unbothered by cosmic displays.
They were on good terms, these halves; that was clear. Akhub’s mouth curled into a vain attempt at composure and he failed.
Before anyone could recover their wits, Emperor Romeov stepped forward.
He dropped to one knee with the ritual clatter of armor and crowns, a sudden, humbled figure in the dragon’s shadow. He bowed his head to the great serpent as if the creature could slice him in two for insolence.
To lose Akhub’s favor entirely would be to watch the empire slip like water out of fingers, and Romeov had no appetite for that disaster.
"Please forgive him, Lord Ugha," Romeov pleaded, voice low and earnest.
"He is arrogant but he makes mistakes. He—"
"I know."
Ugha’s voice cut through like a warm current.
He shifted without warning into a middle-aged man in desert robes; the sky brightened as if a curtain had been drawn aside.
The dragon’s face was suddenly nearly friendly—if a primordial engine of destruction could be friendly—and Ugha smiled with deliberate ease.
"Don’t worry.," he said, and the word carried the power of a promise and a threat at once.
"I was only teasing. I have no interest in taking my fellow Primordials’ lands. Unlike those two bastards."
Romeov’s mouth opened and closed.
Words dissolved into thought.
Greg, his internal advisor and Spirit Beast, offered a dry, impressed comment:
’All it took was a flick and a show of power to humble that man. Romeov only nodded inwardly, feeling the truth of it in his bones.’
Ugha turned then to Bonbon, who was busy devouring his fruit as if the world were unchanged. The small, cheerful oracle made a face and swallowed in one heroic gulp.
"Alright, you hungry bastard. I think I deserve payment for disciplining your other half. What do you think?" Ugha rumbled.
Bonbon blinked, unimpressed. "Did I ask for your help?"
"You did, you just don’t want to admit it," Ugha teased.
Bonbon rolled his eyes and made a little popping sound of exasperation. "Alright. What do you want in return?"
"You already know," Ugha said, as if the answer were written into the air. "Best booze from the Wha-lah Empire. Ten years’ worth."
Bonbon pointed at Emperor Romeov with the tiny, decisive finger of a creature that had eaten more than one god for breakfast. "He will take care of that."
Romeov nearly toppled under the weight of surprise, as if the sentence alone could break him.
Wine for a Primordial Beast? He had access to the Emperor’s vaults, the empire’s entire cellars. The idea felt ridiculous and yet possible in the same breath.
"I—I should be able to manage," he stammered. Already planning to order his best wine maker in the kingdom to get Ugha’s favor.
"Good," Ugha said, clapping a titanic hand on Romeov’s trembling shoulder.
His laugh rolled like distant thunder. "Now on the bigger issue."
He sat on a nearby rock and crossed his arm. "If you really want to settle your beef with that kid , don’t you think you should wait until you’re on the same footing?"
Romeov’s head nodded, more out of reflex than conviction.
The smile on Ugha’s face was not a suggestion but a command. He was the kind of being who could rearrange time with a shrug; the idea of defiance made Romeov sick with anxiety.
"Am I right, kid?" Ugha asked, turning his enormous, intelligent gaze toward Auren.
Auren nodded so fast he nearly snapped his own neck.
This was his chance to leave the altar of danger alive. He swallowed and let the wind of consequence brush his skin. Romeov watched him with the predator’s patience of a monarch plotting a long game.
"How about we make a deal," Ugha said, "and while we’re at it, make it more interesting."
Auren and Romeov looked at him, unsure whether they should be flattered or terrified.
Ugha conjured a goblet of wine from thin air, and downed a mouthful as if it were mere water. He set the empty cup aside with a dramatic flourish.
"Ten years," he said, then took another swig.
His eyes flicked to Romeov with steady amusement.
"Ten years you are not allowed to touch this kid. Not directly, not through men, not through contracts. I know what you’re thinking, and I can take you out any second if you make me regret this."
Romeov swallowed hard.
His thought, He can read my mind?
"Oh damn, well I can," Ugha admitted, and the confession landed like a stone.
Romeov bowed lower still. "My apologies!"
Ugha waved the apology away, then grew serious.
"In ten years, you two shall duel to the death at the capital. The winner shall take the throne of the Wha-lah Empire."
The words exploded through the gathered crowd.
"You better prepare and tell your people." He told the emperor.
Romeov’s expression shifted from shocked to furiousa single heartbeat.
’If its against that kid, I can easily win this.’
Greg inside him did not speak; he simply let the thought of victory bloom between the emperor’s ribs.
"But, don’t you think it’s too unfair on my end?" he asked.
"Why? Afraid of a kid? Do you really want to beat a child?" Ugha barked and the sound was enough to silence the murmuring.
Romeov found himself oddly mute in the dragon’s presence.
"Alright, let’s put it this way. To make this duel more interesting," Ugha continued, "I will give the winner my greatest blessing: the Essence of Eternal Flame!"