Legacy of the Dark Sage

Kyran continued forward while looking at the ancient paintings on the walls.

The first two paintings depicted scenes of how dragons came to the Human plane. The first painting showed a group of dragons discovering a golden vortex. The second painting showed the dragons on one side, with one of them, having half of its body going through the vortex in the middle, with the other half emerging at a place with lush forest trees and a few humans looking at it with frightened expressions.

From this painting, Kyran guessed the dragon had entered the vortex from the Dragon plane and emerged on the Human plane.

Intrigued at how the humans responded to the dragon's sudden appearance, Kyran moved to the next one.

Unfortunately, the next painting showed a different scene.

This time, it showed a dragon transcending what appeared to be a tribulation of fire.

Kyran remembered reading that dragons had to overcome tribulations when they moved up a level. He also read that failure would mean they would never have another chance to improve their magic.

Dragons were powerful because their way of moving up a level was very difficult.

Unlike humans who only had to increase their magic energy capacity to move up a level. Dragons had to go through tribulations to break through.

However, although it was easy for humans to break through, the spirit stones one would need and other materials that resonated with their innate magic to enable it, were astronomical Because spirit stones had magic energies humans could absorb to slowly improve their magic core's energy capacity. As for other materials that represented one's innate magic, it was necessary to strengthen one's compatibility with their magic.

Nevertheless, such a way of increasing one's magic level was boring in Kyran's opinion.

As long as one had resources, it would be easy for them to make a breakthrough.

For Kyran, he would rather experience transcending tribulations just like the dragons. Because only when a person overcomes a tribulation would he gain real enlightenment of his magic and genuinely get stronger through his experience.

Speaking of overcoming tribulations, Kyran thought of the Tower of Tribulations.

The training presented there was comparable to the tribulations a dragon must overcome, and he wondered once more who made the Tower of Tribulations.

Pushing these thoughts to the back of his mind, Kyran continued to look at the paintings on the walls.

The next few paintings depicted different kinds of tribulations that a dragon had to go through.

Kyran noticed that with each tribulation, the dragon participating was also different. There were winged dragons, land dragons, long-tailed dragons, and so on.

He had never seen such life-like depictions of so many dragons. Not even the Regis Archive had records such as these. This place was rich with early records of the dragons that would be beneficial to his clan.

'If I get a chance, I'll find a way to transfer this temple to the Regis Estate.'

Kyran was initially curious as to why a place like this, despite his clan having a relationship with dragons was far away from their land.

Their clan had connections with dragons after all.

Why would a place that had something to do with dragons be far away? More importantly, why did the Regis not have any record about the Shaiha?

It was said that the first Regis Ancestor, the Dragon Lord, did not keep any records from his time. This was the reason why they were unable to confirm many things from the past.

But the matter about the Shaiha was far too important, which made Kyran believe his ancestor definitely left records. It was likely his ancestor hid the records in a safe place because of how important it was.

As for why the Shaiha Ruins were too far from the Regis Estate; during one of Kyran and Zephyr's talks, the latter had explained that before the first war happened, the Regis Family lived near the Sacred Shaiha— that was the original name of the land before it became the Shaiha Ruins.

When the war broke, the Regis Family almost died out from an invasion of one of the demon generals. If not for Kyran's ancestor going up against the demon general even when the odds were against him, then they would have been wiped out.

The Dragon King, who initially did not want to meddle with the slaughter of the Regis Family, was impressed by Kyran's ancestor's bold 'stupidity.' In the end, the Dragon King decided to step in.

Unfortunately, the demon general managed to flee before the Dragon King could kill him.

Fearing the demon's retaliation by harassing Kyran's ancestor, the Dragon King decided to teach him Dragon magic.

That was right.

Kyran's ancestor was not born with a Draconic core. It had been bestowed to him by the Dragon King.

From this, Kyran realized his ancestor's innate magic was definitely different. As to what it was, he had no idea yet.

After the war, the remaining Regis members migrated to the central lands, where they took a small land and built a new home. A thousand years later that small land expanded and became what was known today as the Regis Estate.

The latter end had been Kyran's assumption from all the information and clues he received from everyone. As for Zephyr's explanation, it stopped at the migration part.

After that, the Dragon King followed the Dragon Lord, but the rest of the dragons with their servants, the quilins, remained in the Sacred Shaiha.

Kyran realized how much of the Regis's history had not been recorded because of this.

Nevertheless, what he learned from Zephyr proved that the clan history his people knew was incomplete.

Making a mental note to reeducate his clan once he saved them, Kyran went further into the temple.

After a few minutes, he reached an enormous floor-to-ceiling golden double doors with a painting of a group of quilins kneeling in front of a floating golden tablet. Ancient Draconic writings were carved on the surface of the tablet that Kyran barely understood.

Kyran stood in front of the door and read the few phrases he understood, "Highest order of the Dragons... decreed by the Imperial Council... Guardians of the Shaiha..."

'This must be when Zephyr and his fellow quilins were appointed to guard the Shaiha,' he guessed and carefully looked at the kneeling quilins. At the far end on the right side, he saw the smallest among the quilins and sensed something familiar about him.

A smile tugged at the corner of Kyran's lips as he recognized the smallest quilin as the young Zephyr.

The color of his horn was a lighter shade, meaning his magic level was still low at that time.

Compared to the rest of the quilins on the paintings who were bigger and had darker horns, it was easy to guess Zephyr was the youngest to have been called to guard the Shaiha.

'Right, he did say he was the youngest...'

Kyran had been unconscious the first time Zephyr had shared his story with Anette and Nolan. He only learned of his story when they left to get Cyneah.

Recalling Zephyr's story, Kyran's expression turned grim.

Learning how Zephyr woke up alone in the ruins with no clue as to what had happened to his fellow quilins resonated with Kyran. It was the feeling of suddenly facing the world alone, with no clue as to why it happened.

In any case, Kyran found the disappearance of Zephyr's brethren, suspicious. Unfortunately, there were no clues and he could not draw any conclusion.

A flash of inspiration crossed Kyran's mind as he thought of his new connection with the Templar Code.

'The Templar Code invested a lot of their time and resources in exploring the Shaiha Ruins,' Kyran thought. 'There might be other places Zephyr had not gone to because of the Templar Code's presence.'

Thinking of this possibility, Kyran was convinced the Templar Code might have found some records or clues that explained what might have happened.

'I'll have to ask Tritus to show me everything they have on record about the Shaiha Ruins,' Kyran decided.

Without further ado, he took a step toward the center of the enormous doors and opened them.

Bright golden light filled the surroundings as the doors opened.

As Kyran stepped inside, the first thing he saw was a gigantic multi-colored sphere that strangely resembled a magic core.

He guessed the sphere was the Shaiha.

It hovered and emitted an almost blinding gold light above a bleeding Quilin.

"Zephyr," Kyran's brow furrowed when he saw the pool of blood on the ground, completely forgetting the Shaiha.

Zephyr opened his eyes and looked at the door. His lips slightly tilted upward as he replied telepathically.

[Master...]

Kyran took a step, and in an instant, he was in front of Zephyr. His movement instantly made the latter gape in astonishment.

'Dragon Steps!' Zephyr thought in both awe and nostalgia.

It had been far too long since he had last seen that movement.

On the other hand, Kyran did not notice Zephyr's expression because he was too focused on the pool of blood and the latter's wound.

"M-Master—."

"Don't move. Stay still," Kyran cut Zephyr in mid-sentence before the latter made any move that would aggravate his wound.

Kyran moved closer to Zephyr and touched his snout, before checking his condition using his magic sense.

Zephyr felt something like a rush of cold breeze fill his body. He knew at once that Kyran was checking his condition.

After a few seconds, Kyran's eyes glowed silver as they turned into slits. Then overlapping dragons appeared on the back of his hand as the number two appeared in the middle.

Silver-white energy seeped out from Kyran and transferred into Zephyr.

This was one of the Sigil's capabilities, where a master can heal his Sigil by transferring his own magic energy.

"M-Master! Please do not waste your own life energy!" Zephyr exclaimed in fright. He was not aware of the Sigil's capabilities and thought Kyran was transferring his own life energy.

Kyran shook his head, "Don't worry. I'm not using my life energy but Draconic energy."

As the Draconic energy fill Zephyr, his chest wound started to heal. Even the pool of blood on the floor slowly seeped back into his body.

"This...!"

"Your blood is precious," Kyran simply said. "Don't waste it."

What he said was true. Since Zephyr was the offspring of a real dragon and a unicorn, it could be considered a treasure.

Many Saint-grade or even Transcendent-grade potions and pills required his blood. And most of the effects of those potions or pills were heaven-defying. Even some were rumored that could bring back the dead to life.

Of course, making such a potion or pill would require a high-level Alchemist. And the chances for its success was close to impossible.

"Yes, master," Zephyr answered after a short pause, feeling a little emotional from Kyran's concern.