Legacy of the Dark Sage

The explosion had left an enormous crater on the ground and filled the surroundings with a thick cloud of smoke.

About 5,000 meters above the crater, a man wearing full-body gold armor with blue accents, complete with a helmet and a visor, hovered in midair. He was seven feet tall, and he exuded an air of regal, especially in how he looked down on the scene below.

This man was none other than Tritus, the Commander of the Templar Code.

He had arrived precisely ten minutes after replying to Freya's coded message. But he was still late.

"Freya... five seconds... If she had held on precisely ten minutes then..." Tritus gritted his teeth and shook his head. "No, it is I who failed to come five seconds early."

When he had received Freya's coded message, Tritus was in the middle of reading through Evan's special report.

Going back to more than a week ago, after Evan, Max, and Jason heard the Research Department's findings on Owen and his team's death, Evan had left to do some research on his own.

Evan might not look like it, but he used to be a magic researcher from the east. If not for his potential in magic combat, Tritus would have assigned him to head the Templar Code's Research Department.

What prompted Evan to do his research was because he recalled an ancient record from the east which detailed the truth of the Quilins.

It was said that genuine Quilins were born between the union of a pureblooded dragon and the mythical beast unicorn. As for the Quilins found in the south, they were only called 'Quilins' because of their similarities to the real ones. The Quilins in the south were not even born from a real unicorn but a mutated horse that had the semblance of a unicorn.

Because Freya's team was not part of the team handling the Shaiha Ruins, they were not privy to all the information inside. It was to prevent any leakage of the truth about the rare stone. For this reason, Evan only knew Owen's team was also after a Quilin that seemed to have mutated because of the ruins' unique environment.

Evan did not think much of it. But after the Research Department said that Owen and his team were likely killed by a 'human,' he began to have some doubts, especially when they had not detected other magic signatures apart from the Quilin within Owen and his team's body.

When Evan went to the Templar Code's Archive, he could not find materials to proceed with his research.

And then, before he could request to do his own research, the Royal Family issued an emergency meeting that involved all faction leaders in the empire, and Tritus made every member of the Elite Team return to the headquarters.

But Evan felt the matter about the Quilin and Owen and his team's deaths was important, especially if they wanted to continue harvesting the rare stone. So he went straight to Tritus and requested a few days of leave to return to the east and gather some research materials.

Tritus was against it at first, but after Evan told him his initial assumption about the Quilin's identity, the former granted him leave. But Tritus told Evan not to tell anyone, not even his team leader, Freya.

Matters about dragons were a very sensitive topic.

Unbeknownst to Evan, Tritus already guessed that the Quilin in the Shaiha Ruins was not just a mutated beast. He was also a person looking for clues about the dragons' disappearance. Because of this, he did everything to win the rights to excavate the Shaiha Ruins. Because Max was fascinated with dragons, Tritus recruited him, and he planned to make a special team that would include Max to uncover the truth about the dragon's disappearance.

Unfortunately, a lot of things were happening at the same time that Tritus had lost control over the situation.

Tritus did not intend to have the Templar Code be the 'leader' among the Royal Family's Elite Force. But since the emperor seemed to be suspicious about the Templar Code's activity, Tritus was forced to split most of the Elite Team members and lead the Royal Family's initiative.

All except for Freya and Evan.

Freya was someone Tritus had raised himself to become the Templar Code's new Commander, so he let her focus on the Shaiha Ruins.

Then he had Evan go to the east for a few days to do his research.

Finally, Evan had sent his special report on this day, and Tritus had been busy reading through them.

What Tritus found in Evan's report left him feeling excited.

But then Freya's coded message came.

Tritus' excitement turned to fear but almost instantly turned into rage.

His reason for finding clues about dragons was not because of fascination or reverence for their kind. Instead, he wanted to find a clue to where they were now because he needed their heart!

Because only by consuming a dragon's heart would he be able to take that last step into becoming... a Legendary!

A Quilin's heart was far inferior to a dragon's, but since it appeared there were two of them and the other one could already transform into a human, it was possible!

Tritus stretched his hand, and from within the thick cloud of smoke, his nine-foot-long gold and diamond trident flew up and returned to him.

As the trident flew up, it stirred up a gale of wind, clearing some clouds of smoke in the surroundings and revealing the crater below.

"Hm?" Tritus's eyes narrowed as he noticed a three-meter radius piece of land at the center of the crater.

His trident must have landed there, but where was the human-form Quilin?

Just as he was thinking this, Tritus sensed an incoming danger.

His eyes glinted, which reflected from his visor as he whirled his trident.

'Above!' He thought and, without pausing, looked up and flew toward a figure in black a few meters above him.

"Prepare to die!" Tritus roared and summoned a massive whirlpool of water magic.

The whirlpool circled him and rose to his outstretched trident, shooting straight at the figure above.

A smile tugged at the corner of Kyran's lips as he watched Tritus's incoming attack.

There were two things that he found interesting about him.

First was Tritus's magic.

It would be Kyran's first time facing a mage using water magic in the Human plane. For other Ylfaen Empire mages, dealing with a mage with water magic would be hard to deal with. It was not because water magic was superior to other magic but because they had little experience dealing with it.

After all, water magic was rare in the empire. However, in the northern nation, it was common.

Kyran had dealt with mages using water magic in other planes. To him, they were no different from other mages who use fire, wind, earth magic, or any other type of magic for that matter. They would never pose any threat to him, as long as the level of these mages was below a Sovereign.

That was right.

The only ones that could pose a threat to Kyran right now were the Sovereigns.

On that note, the second reason why Kyran was interested in Tritus was his magic level. If he was right, then Tritus had long been able to break through the barrier of being a Magus.

He was already an Arch Magus, the level above a Magus!

However, Tritus was not an ordinary Arch Magus. Most likely, he was already at a juncture where he could step to the next level any minute.

'So why haven't you?' Kyran thought.

The distance between him and Tritus's attack was now only twenty meters.

It was then that Kyran spread his arms as silver-white energy burst out from him, covering at least fifty meters of his surroundings from behind.

Then the silver-white energy shifted, turning into an illusory silver-white dragon with Kyran at its core.

When Kyran stretched forward his right hand, the illusory silver-white dragon's right arm also moved. Then, as Kyran opened his palm toward the incoming whirlpool, the dragon's hand also opened, its claws glowed with silver light. It looked like a colossal maw ready to swallow the incoming attack.

As soon as this scene unfolded before Tritus, his eyes widened in shock and excitement.

"You are not a high-level Quilin! You... are a dragon!" He shouted and, in an instant, increased his magic output, adding momentum to the whirlpool.

The whirlpool increased in size, and the air crackle around it. Then, bolts of Lightning appeared within, transforming the whirlpool into a huge tempest.

BOOOOM!

A vast explosion reverberated above the Shaiha Ruins, and multiple shockwaves followed, instantly clearing the nearby clouds.

The explosion was too conspicuous that the towns heard it at least a couple hundred thousand kilometers away. Most of the people there all turned toward the direction of the ruins.

Even the soldiers standing guard at the Noser City's sentries felt the aftershock, and they all looked up in the direction of the ruins.

In the middle of the forest, at the cottage, Cyneah, who was busy making dinner, also felt it. It caused her heart to skip a beat because she recognized one of the magic energy that came with the explosion.

'Nar...' She thought as she turned toward the shockwave's direction.

Back to the Shaiha Ruins...

Right after the explosion occurred, Kyran did not stop moving.

He willed the illusory silver-white dragon to reform its destroyed arm, and he sprang toward Tritus!

Kyran had heard what Tritus said and also sensed his 'excitement.'

Kyran now had an idea of what the Commander of the Templar Code was after from that one sentence.

Tritus also sped forward. He whirled his trident and summoned its spirit.

"Come out! Sea Serpent spirit!" He called, and a blue sea serpent emerged from the trident.

RAWRGH!

The Sea Serpent roared, growing in size as it circled upward to meet Kyran in his illusory silver-white dragon form.

Kyran's eyes squinted. He sneered and said in a low voice, "A lowly sea dragon spirit, actually dares to act brazenly before me?"

He unleashed 5% more of the Regis Blessing as he said this. In an instant, his blood surged, and dragon scales covered his skin.

The illusory silver-white dragon turned more corporeal as it let out a thunderous roar.

RAWRGH!

The two dragons, one sea serpent and the other a silver-white dragon, clashed.

BOOOOM!

White and blue colored magic energies that represented each dragon exploded, blotting the sky above the Shaiha Ruins.

They might be few thousand meters above, but the shockwave bore on the land below, filling more cracks in the already fissure-filled land.

The cave where the temple was located also shook. The ceiling would have already caved in if not for its defensive array.

Zephyr looked up weakly. His eyes glinted with mixed emotions.

'Master... I am ever grateful for you coming here...' He thought, feeling an intense emotion welling up inside him.

'But please... control your power. Remember that you're supposed to help me reinforce the temple's defensive array. Please don't accidentally destroy it!' Zephyr added while he looked at the cave's ceiling worriedly.

Kyran told him to stay put because he would come. But hearing the commotion outside, Zephyr wondered if his master planned to literally make him 'stay put' in the cave by burying him alive!