Supreme Magus novel Chapter 4066

Chapter 4066: Alone in the Dark (Part 1)

Lith respected Ajatar’s wishes and never so much as spoke to him.

Aran and Leria visited the Drake together with Lith, yet they had ambivalent feelings about what they saw. On the one hand, they admired Ajatar’s resolve and found it exciting to witness his progressive transformation into a Dragon.

On the other hand, seeing their friend alone and trapped in a glass tube was upsetting at best and creepy at worst. Aran and Leria wanted to support Ajatar, but they had no idea how.

"Is that really necessary, Uncle Lith?" Leria asked. "Isn’t there an easier way?"

"No Lesser Dragon ever became a Divine Beast, Leria, so there’s no way at all." Lith replied. "That’s why the answer to your first question is yes, Leria. Whenever you choose to walk a path no one has ever trodden before, you have to take many risks and make as many sacrifices as needed."

"But at least it will be worth it. Isn’t that right, Big Brother?" Aran said. "Once Uncle Ajatar gets out of that thing, he’ll be a Dragon."

"No." Lith shook his head. "He’ll still be a Drake. Everything he is doing in there will allow him to take a single step forward. Maybe more, if he’s lucky, but right now it’s impossible to tell."

"Did you ever do something similar, Uncle?" Leria stared at him, hoping for a no.

"Plenty of times." Lith thought back to the time he had repaired Protector’s core, when he had struggled to control the Void, then the blue flames, and then to the long procedure that had saved Zoreth’s life. "Sorry, kids, but in life nothing worth having comes easy."

"Is there something we can do for him?" Aran asked.

"Yes." Lith replied. "When Ajatar comes out, he’ll be cranky, and his temper might flare easily. Yet I want you to treat him as always and contact me as soon as he does or says anything that worries you. Do I have your word?"

"Yes." They both nodded.

***

During his stay in the gene-tank, Ajatar received regular infusions of Life Maelstrom from Valeron the Second, which he used to stimulate the still-unknown areas of his life force.

He discovered more imperfections and atrophied mana organs, triggering the activation of the latter multiple times, each in a different order, to identify the most stable path to Dragonhood.

Once repeating the experiments no longer provided new information, and the device warned him that further modifications would compromise his life force, Ajatar reversed the process.

It took him days to go back to being an Emperor Beast, and every minute of it was torture. As the Origin Flames died, a deadly cold made him shiver despite the warm liquid in which he was immersed.

As the Dragon Eyes faded, things that had been glaring and obvious became complex and abstruse. He felt as if his brain were slowly withering. His thought process slowed down, and many brilliant ideas slipped out of his grasp like grains of sand.

As his body weakened and his energy faded, Ajatar understood why so many Hydras had chosen death after experiencing full Dragonhood just for a few days. Being a Drake was akin to being alone in a dark cave.

Mogar had much more to offer, but as the proverbial frog in the well, Ajatar knew nothing about it and was content with his life. Now, the frog had been brought out into the light.

He had experienced colors, the warmth of the sun, and the taste of many delicacies he had never suspected existed. After experiencing so many blessings, he was forced to return to his dark little cave.

’What’s so hard about giving me some space? I need to decompress, it’s not like I’m going to-’ Then, the thought of everything he had lost and might never get back hit him like a truck.

’I’m not going to do anything stupid, but the gods know if I want to.’ He thought. ’I knew this would be hard, but not this hard. It’s like someone turned off the sun and tainted every good memory I have.

’All my past achievements, everything I was proud of, now feel hollow. All I can think about is getting back inside the tank and being a quasi-Dragon just for one more second.’

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