"But doesn't crimson mean red?" Henry responded, realizing he had spoken out loud. He quickly covered his lips.

"Sigh. I didn't pick that title myself. I wasn't even a monarch while I was alive; I was just a Duke," the Crimson Emperor replied with a sigh, disdain evident in his voice.

"Hmmm. How come?" Henry asked, slowly starting to feel more relaxed. "Wait, did you say while you were alive? Meaning you're dead now. Am I dead too?" Henry panicked.

"Well, no, of course, you're still alive. The humans from this world named me that because of the many of their kin I slayed," the dragon answered.

"Uhuh," Henry affirmed. "But if I'm not dead, then why am I still here?" he asked, sitting with his legs crossed.

"You really are lucky, aren't you?" the dragon responded, leaving Henry unsure of what to say. "When you fell here, you landed in a pool of my blood. Us dragons are the pinnacle of magical beings here. And by landing in it, no matter how close to death you were, my blood kept you alive and healed you. But you fell again," the dragon explained.

"Oh. But what about that spear and heart?" Henry nodded, asking further.

"My heart and a lance," the dragon corrected. "That lance is what was used to kill me, and that heart... well, you can piece that together," it answered. This shocked Henry a little, but it wasn't the answer he was looking for.

"But I was also stabbed, and what is this place?" he asked.

"He who inherits the power of a dragon comes to this place. Think of it as my mind space and me as a lingering memory of my original self," it answered.

"Real words, please," Henry mumbled in his mind.

"Haa. By coming in contact with my blood and having it enter your system, and by luck, may I add, you were turned into a dragon-kin. From your memories, I'd say it's something like what you call a vampire making subordinates by biting them. Then you fell here, coming in contact with my heart, with your blood splattering all over it. To make things simple, you, my only dragon-kin subordinate, absorbed my heart, making you my sole heir. More or less, this means you are now the descendant of the great white dragon Lord Alaric Valen," the Crimson Emperor explained.

"Woah," Henry responded in a sarcastic manner.

"This is the part where you're filled with joy," Alaric said, seeing Henry not reacting as he had expected.

"I mean, I am excited. It's just... don't you think it's a little bit weird to call myself a descendant of a white dragon when, you know, I'm black? I mean, will people even believe me?" Henry asked as he sat there.

"Fret not, child. When I say you're my heir, I mean it. You now possess my heart within you, which not only will give you access to all my magic—of course, if you learn it—but it also serves as a form of identification. My kin will view you as if they see my own child, and all my possessions protected by a special barrier that only responds to me will respond to you as well," Alaric explained, continuing to elaborate on various details.

"Oh, I see," Henry nodded after all the explanations.

"Good. I bid you farewell," Alaric said as he began to vanish.

"Wait, I'm not done! You didn't give me a chance to ask que..." Henry cried, but Alaric was already gone. Regaining his senses, Henry found himself flailing on the lance that still pierced him, but he didn't feel any pain.

"So, I'm a dragon now," he remarked. "A white dragon," he said sarcastically. He hadn't noticed that the only thing that had changed about him was his eyes, which were now sky blue, and his hair, which had also turned sky blue to match his eyes. His skin, however, remained the same ebony color.

"I can see perfectly now," he noted, feeling the strength flowing through his body. He grabbed the lance, and as he applied force, it broke, setting him free. He fell to the ground, and the hole in his body healed as if it were nothing. Looking above, he could see far into the distance, up to the exit hole where he had fallen in. Without thinking, wings sprouted from his back.

"Woah," Henry mused. With a leap off the ground, he flew.