Inside Solara

Inside her own domain Lumina felt a portion of her divine power being sapped, an amount that was minuscule for the goddess that governed the light of creation but even that was enough to cause a flicker of fury in her radiant golden eyes that seemed to hold the shine of a thousand suns within. She could feel where the stolen power was channeled into or more specifically into who, facing such a transgression from the Ira, the race she had been shielding from the ploys of much younger and weaker gods of the other races she was livid. 

“Seems that no matter what my creation may be their arrogance gets the better of them and they thread a path of betrayal. So be it, just like those who came before seems that the reign of Ira has run out of time.” This was not the first time a race of her own creation had dared to offend her nor would it be the last time. She still remembered how her first creation Rhlar, a kind of immortal spirits in their arrogance headed by the progenitors of their respective kins had offended her by claiming they were better than their maker. Which led her to create her beloved daughter Alatrealis and traitorous son Falatreon whom were tasked with driving them out. To their credit the two primordial dragons did achieve their task, albeit creating new problems for the goddess’ more fragile future creations such as Ira in the form of their offsprings: dragons. 

First benevolent and willing to nurture the Ira to achieve the greatness they eventually would, many dragons would in time give into their inherent greed for power and enslave many Ira, leading to a war between their own parents as Lumina had decreed that dragons were meant to be guides not rulers. Alatrealis in her devotion to her mother siding with the Ira would drive her own children into near extinction and her own partner away from the light of creation just as they had done to Rhlar eons ago, an act Alatrealis paid a hefty price for by losing her immortal nature due to the nature of the breath weapon which both the primordial dragons shared.

Now the race she had benevolently shielded from all dangers they faced since their infancy merely thirty thousands years ago dared to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors, she was disappointed in them but took solace in the fact that they had done a decent job in mentoring the younger races of Elves, Dwarves and humans. 

Each of these races possessed an affinity for different aspects the Ira possessed, for example dwarven craftsmanship was the only one comparable to the Ira’s capabilities whereas elves similar to Ira enjoyed longer lives than the others even though not as long as Ira themselves as well as their inclination to the understanding of the arcane arts. Humans on the other hand had the adaptive talent of the Ira as well as their tendency to have ambitions of achieving even grander feats. These races now were the dominant population across Erandar as even though they had shorter life spans they procreated at a pace much faster than that of Ira.

Her mind was made up, from this point on Ira would stand alone against the younger races and their gods. She had been the sole goddess in charge of the natural order of things within the material plane bathed in her light of creation and was tired of it, thus she welcomed the idea of a fresh pantheon of minor gods born from belief their followers had in them instead of existing since time immemorial like herself and her siblings.

On Erandar

Athra felt the surge of divine power he had stolen channel into him, his mana reserves now filled to the brim started to overflow and expand to accommodate the overwhelming presence of Lumina’s essence. Something inside him had tried to resist the change but soon gave way due to the comparatively larger amount of the stolen essence compared to itself, especially in its still dormant state.

 Athra’s physical appearance started to change as well, his hair and eyes now resembled that of the goddess herself albeit not even to close the radiance hers possessed. After a few painful moments Athra’s entire existence was made anew, his image no longer matched the other D’loras, his mana reserves and spellcasting capabilities no longer bound to the realm of mortals he had become an anomaly once again.

Athra however did not pay attention to the changes, his mind was fixated on helping his brother and exterminating the dragon standing in his way. He let his mana flow outside of his body and envelop Brythionyx’s own, soon the mighty creature feeling the ever increasing gravity of the overwhelming mana pressing on him struggled to even stand up.

Perhaps if Brythionyx was not drained from fighting Desta prior he could have stood a chance to match Athra’s mana and retreat successfully but in the state he currently was that simply was not a possibility, he channeled breath after breath to make Athra drained of mana once again in a desperate attempt spurred on by the inherent pride of his kind. To his dismay all of his breaths were met with an unwavering force field that Athra withheld without any signs of struggle.

Athra’s only struggle was keeping his power in check, had it not been for the experience of going through something similar when his mana reserves were expanded to match that of a D’lora he would have lost control by now and be consumed by it. Even when he was expanding his mana reserves with experimentation the change was not this drastic, it had felt like augmenting his own mana whereas this felt as if his very own essence was remade, also last time he had a century to work on his control. What he had now was mere moments so he made a drastic choice, he would use up as much mana as he could and try to better his control as it refilled which was the reason why he was instead of casting the spells ‘gravity control’ and ‘force field’ as efficiently as he could in terms of mana usage was doing the polar opposite and being as wasteful and overwhelming as possible. 

“Let’s step away a bit.” Desta’s authoritative tone ringed in the ears of Athra’s conscious teammates who were staring at him in awe of the power he was displaying. Like them Desta was also in awe of the strength displayed by his brother, furthermore he was proud to see him come such a long way but he also could see the struggle Athra was going through with his newfound power hence the cautionary order.

Athra thanked his brother in his head and let go of his restraints even further, focusing everything around himself and Brythionyx he cast a spell he remembered seeing the inscriptions of inside his grandmother’s grimoire.  His old self knew he did not possess what was necessary to cast it even after his increased mana reserves but now he could feel he had the monstrous mana required if not more. The cast was instant, chantless and movementless a sign of the ridiculous amount of mana he was now deploying, the spell of unknown level  ‘field of end’ took effect immediately.

Brythionyx’s instincts went into overdrive as he sensed his own demise fast approaching, a feeling no descendant of Alatrealis felt unless their soul was about to be rendered out of existence which was something only the primordial dragons and that accursed woman could do. Desperate he tried his best to get away or fight back but it was futile, anything inside the spell’s area would meet its end except the caster or anyone with the ability to overpower the said caster’s mana. Soon Brythionyx the once mighty dragon ceased to exist, not a single trace of his existence was left behind except the areas affected by his destructive behavior and memories of others had of the creature.

Athra collapsed on the ground, his appearance reverting back to what it was before his image was remade and the divine essence within him turned dormant for the time being, something his new body did to ensure he would survive. Power stolen from a goddess could not be used continuously without consequences unlike power gifted by one, he laid there unconscious and unaware of the potential risks of the power he now was a host to.

Desta with his renewed mana reserve turned to face Athra’s two conscious teammates and wiped their memory of Athra’s transformation, he knew what had happened here had to remain a secret, he had seen Diarra during her practices to know the change in physical appearance was a byproduct of channeling Lumina’s strength, a feat only her holy sword dancers could do. Thus he had an inkling of what his brother had done, the heresy he had committed. 

“We are returning home, the hunt has concluded for your group” Desta proclaimed to the duo of young Ira whose memories he had tempered with earlier as he created a portal back to the academy grounds. Not daring to defy the crown prince they went through the portal, not as if they had any desire to stay there any longer with three unconscious teammates, they undoubtedly had the highest score due to the dragon slain by their team leader anyway.

Athra was in deep sleep in the following week, due to the effects of over usage of mana much like his two drained teammates were. His group, despite withdrawing five days earlier than others had, indeed was the top scoring one, a feat that became overshadowed by the claims of Thalon and Tyrian on how it was achieved. As the week concluded Athra awoke inside the royal manor, unaware of his newfound fame as a dragon slayer.