Legacy of the Dark Sage

"Y-Young Master..." Raya’s voice quivered nervously as he looked at Kyran. "A-Are you serious about this?"

Kyran smiled at him wryly and asked, "Why do you think, otherwise?"

"N-No... But, you see... right?" Raya shook his head and exchanged nervous glances at the other Regis members looking at the new array formation that Kyran had drawn after reviewing the incomplete draft of the seal’s formation they tried to recreate.

"It is not that we think creating it is impossible but the materials..." Shimon, the vice leader of Raya’s squad started to voice his opinion.

Before he could finish speaking, he and Raya exchanged looks again.

"Actually, it is not the materials..." Shimon slowly corrected himself. "But..."

"I don’t doubt your Array Knowledge, Young Master," another member spoke up.

Kyran looked at him and remembered the member’s name was Jettson. He could be considered a distant relative now because he was the son of his fourth cousin.

"But I think the concept of the array itself is..." Jettson’s voice trailed off because he could not bring himself to say the word that crossed his mind.

"Impossible?" Kyran tried to supply.

"Insane."

"Unprecedented."

"Inconceivable."

"Mentally ridiculous!"

The rest of the members, Aubrie, Davion, Jair, and Zoll also supplied their impressions about Kyran’s array at the same time.

Kyran chuckled despite himself. But his laugh turned to a grimace halfway as his core trembled in pain.

"Y-Young Master!"

All of them rushed to his side at once. In the end, they stopped, not knowing what to do.

Cyneah also reacted. But instead of shouting her concern, she could only grit her teeth and reign in her concern. She could worry all she wanted but nothing would change. Even if he was not using his domain to stop her from using magic, she would not be able to help him. She already realized that after Shaiha explained that she was expelled from Kyran’s sea of consciousness.

The influence of Coelus’s corpse’s magic energy was far too potent for Cyneah’s meager Soul magic to affect. Moreover, her soul magic was borrowed only and could not even be considered hers.

From the side, Aillos’s brow furrowed slightly upon seeing Kyran’s pain. His barrier could not completely block off Coelus’s corpse’s influence, but the magic energy that managed to bypass his barrier should not affect Kyran that much. If the latter was grimacing just by the act of laughing, it meant he had been enduring a much grievous pain even before they arrived.

Before Aillos could open his mouth and demand Kyran to tell them his true condition— because even Aillos could not see through it with his Divine Sense— the latter raised his hand and said, "I’m fine. I only strained one of my core a little."

Aillos’s eyes narrowed at Kyran’s words. He seemed to have underestimated the influence Coelus’s corpse had on Kyran’s Draconic core. Just as expected, being near the corpse was putting a lot of strain on Kyran. Even with Aillos’s barrier, the mere fact that there was still a small amount of the corpse’s magic energy slipping inside was enough to aggravate Kyran’s condition.

The only reason Kyran managed to look fine up until that small grimace, was because he was doing something to prevent that magic energy from making contact with his Draconic core.

If Aillos had to guess, Kyran must be using his Void magic energy to cover his Draconic Core. But doing that would require a tremendous amount of focus and stamina. For Kyran to actually achieve that while still reviewing and even drawing a new formation for them to work on, was a testament to his mental fortitude.

The more Aillos observed Kyran, the more he was reminded of Zane. It was a bit annoying, but he did resemble him more than that annoying sissy who only knew how to read and interpret runes.

Moreover, the array formation that Kyran proposed was truly incredible. Aillos already had an idea of what Kyran wanted to do while writing down the array calculations. His boldness was unprecedented since he considered taking advantage of Coelus’s corpse to improve his people’s levels.

The Energy Assimilation Array that Kyran came up with was not a new concept, but arrays with similar objectives used natural magic energies in the surroundings as their source, not a corpse from the most dangerous dragon, the Harbinger of Chaos.

The expressions on Raya and the other Regis members darkened slightly after realizing Kyran’s condition was not getting any better. He brushed it off as if it was nothing important, but they knew how painful it was to strain one’s core.

In the end, they did not show their concern because it would be pointless. They knew their Young Master’s tendency to hide his pain. So instead, they decided not to strain him further by spouting trivial concerns.

"I get that you think the array is... crazy and that’s fine. At least, you did not think it was impossible," Kyran continued to say as if he did not notice a change in their attitude.

"Well... I’ve seen an array that can do something similar in the tower," Aubrie admitted.

Since all of them had trained in the Tower of Tribulations, they were not afraid of disclosing information about their experience inside.

"I did, too," Zoll agreed. He looked at the array formation laid on the ground and continued, "It used different calculations because the distribution, the source of energy, and the target are all different. Besides, the runes used in the calculations are also different, because they used the four elements, air, fire, earth, and water."

Aubrie looked at him and wryly said, "Yes. I think we’ve seen the same one."

Kyran looked at them in surprise. He had actually seen the formation. It was among the complex array formations written on one of the many tablets about Array in the Tower of Tribulations. Nonetheless, Kyran was surprised that Aubrie and Zoll saw that because he remembered reading that formation only after acquiring about 50% of Array Knowledge.

"Hm... so you two have chosen Array when you were in that room," Davion said.

"Yes," Aubrie and Zoll answered, honestly.

"Let’s continue reminiscing about our time in the tower later and get back on topic, alright?" Raya clapped his hands to stop the three from veering the discussion out of track.

"S-Sorry," the three apologized and laughed uneasily.

"Young master?" Raya looked at Kyran. "I get that we wouldn’t need to worry about the materials since you can simply conjure them up out of thin air, but the target of this formation... While I am grateful for how much you think of us, we cannot possibly endure that amount of magic energy by ourselves."

"You guys will only be the first batch," Kyran explained with a small smile. "If you look at this part of the formation..."

He pointed at one of the calculations drawn on the outer edge of the central formula.

"...This calculation will control the amount of magic energy that you will assimilate. After that, the next ones will enter the formation."

"The next ones?" Raya and the others looked at Kyran in confusion. But then they felt like slapping themselves as they thought of the other dragons in the Dragon Clan.

Continue your saga on m|v-l’e m,p| y- r

Of course, since Coelus’s corpse practically belonged to the Dragon Clan, they could not possibly hog the benefits by themselves. Once they finished assimilating enough of its magic energy, they had to surrender it to the dragons.

"No," Kyran suddenly said, cutting off their train of thought. As if sensing what was going on in their heads, he explained, "I don’t plan on sharing Coelus’s magic energy with them."

To prove his point, he even pointed in Aillos’s direction, making Raya and the others break out in cold sweat.

"Besides, the formation will only work on humans I acknowledged."

"But..."

"Lady Ames and Myst will work on this side to open a path for the Lower Realm to enter," Kyran explained with a small smile. "To be more accurate, they will use the Regis Terram as a bridge in opening that path."

"!"

Raya and the rest were speechless.

Aillos, Auto-one, and Cyneah were the only ones whose expression remained calm since they were already aware of Kyran’s intentions.

"At this moment, Lady Ames is trying to convince the rest of the Dragon Emperor’s aides to help in creating that path. An array formation is not enough to do that, after all."

"But would they really help? They are not exactly a very... welcoming lot," Jair said, looking over at the Dragon Emperor uneasily.

"If there is one thing I understand about the Dragon Clan, is their desire to protect their people," Kyran told them. "I am not saying Lady Ames is trying to convince them that we are one of them, but that... the only way for them to overcome the situation is through us."

"’Through us?’"

They repeated while looking at each other in confusion.

"The Emperor has all the information about every clan in the Higher Realm. The Dragon Clan is not an exemption. It is probably not complete, but I’m sure he knew all the powerful dragons, at least, and already had countermeasures against them."

Raya and the others widened their eyes as they were struck with realization.

"They don’t have information about the Regis Clan!" Raya exclaimed.

Kyran nodded with a small smile, "Exactly. However, we are still at a disadvantage because of our low level. Thus, in the next few months, I’ll make all of you break through to Sovereign or higher."