Leon woke from his dream slowly. He was calm; he may not have spoken to Artorias himself, but even exchanging words with his father in a dream had soothed his soul more than he ever would’ve thought. He momentarily thought about Jormun and panicked, thinking the pirate was still out there somewhere, but before he could even sit up off the cool stone he was laying on, he remembered everything that happened during the battle.

It was a lot to take in; he wasn’t exactly conscious during that battle, but he wasn’t unconscious, either. Rather, it was more like he couldn’t remember himself while he was in that state and was operating almost entirely upon animalistic instinct.

But he remembered killing the Great Horned Serpent that Jormun had transformed into, so he relaxed and decided to take just a few more minutes to relax his mind before he opened his eyes. There would be much to do when he did; he remembered his sword falling into the sea, and he’d have to figure out a way to retrieve it. There was also the issue of the state of the fleet, and that of his retinue.

Most of all, he thought of Maia and Elise. The faces of his two lovers flashing through his mind, and that of Valeria, was what finally prompted him to open his eyes.

The entirety of his vision was a deep grey, and he reeled in confusion for a moment, until his mind kicked into gear and he realized he was staring up at the sky of his soul realm. All of that grey was the Mists of Chaos, thick and billowing at the edges of his soul realm…

… Which he swiftly realized was much farther away than it was the last time he was consciously aware of himself within his soul realm. Back then—hopefully only a matter of hours ago, but he couldn’t begin to estimate how long he’d been out—his soul realm had been about twenty miles in radius. Now, it was more like two hundred.

That made him an eighth-tier mage by a wide margin.

He lay there, stunned at what he could sense. He could store so much more power within himself, and it meant he’d likely live at least up to half a millennium if he chose to stop ascending in magical tier. Having that much more power was… difficult for him to immediately wrap his head around. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t seem he was going to get time enough to do that, as after a minute or two of him staring up at the sky of his soul realm, a figure entered his vision, standing imperiously over him, his red-orange eyes blazing in his skull like hot coals.

This was his soul realm, so that made this man an invader; Leon, the memory of Nestor’s invasion, and that of the Primal God, fresh in his mind, sprang to his feet and instinctively summoned his power.

Only when he heard the familiar authoritative tones of the Thunderbird in her human form shout, “Wait, Leon!” did he take a moment and look around. Even then, lightning still danced across his body; he wasn’t going to relax entirely with an unknown figure in his soul realm just yet, even with the Thunderbird shouting for him to stop.

Leon took a few steps back. He’d been lying down on his throne platform in the center of his Mind Palace. The figure now stood between him and his simple black throne. Between him and waking up in his physical body.

And it didn’t look like he’d be able to get past this man easily, either. The unfamiliar man stood at least seven feet tall, if not more, easily head-and-shoulders above Leon. His figure was so heavily muscled that Leon estimated he would’ve been probably double Leon’s weight at least if they’d been in the physical world, with arms filled with corded muscle, chest and core rippling with strength, and legs like ancient tree trunks.

Most of that muscle was put on display, for the man wore tight leather shorts that barely reached mid-thigh, over which hung a long loincloth of brown animal hide trimmed in white fur that almost reached his calves. His feet were clad in thin leather sandals that covered less than they didn’t, though they wrapped quite tightly around his ankles. Covering some of his torso was a sleeveless vest that looked like two strips of bear fur sewn together, open at the sides so that it covered only his front and back, while his midsection beneath was wrapped in what looked like cloth strips.

The man looked almost like a stereotypical barbarian, and the rest of his appearance matched; long, thick, black hair, wild and tangled, only lightly tamed by tying into a perilously loose braid which reached his lower back. Thick black eyebrows that greatly enhanced the severity of his threatening gaze. He had a wide jaw and long chin, though both were devoid of hair and slightly angled, skewing his looks more pretty than rugged. His nose was long and proud, while his fairly thick lips were curled into a deep scowl of judgment as he coldly regarded Leon’s threatening posture.

All of these details faded into the background as Leon took in more about him, though. The man was dark-skinned, with skin darker even than the Thunderbird’s bronze hue, which made the more inhuman aspects of his appearance take a moment for Leon to notice—in long vertical strips along his bare arms and legs and surrounding his eyes so completely that they stretched all the way into his temples, were glittering scales darker even than Xaphan’s obsidian skin. Most of all, though, were his red-orange eyes, glowing brightly enough that they almost seemed like magical lanterns unto themselves.

“What is this?” Leon demanded, though he already had enough of an idea who this was after taking in his appearance that his tone wasn’t nearly as commanding as he tried to make it. In fact, his hands began to shake, though from both fear and anger.

The man answered, speaking in a rumbling voice that seemed enough on its own to put Leon’s soul realm in danger of shaking apart, while his unblinking eyes stared at Leon with blatant hostility, “You know who I am, bastard. You cannot mistake me for anything but what I am: the greatest of all beings birthed from the universe; the mightiest of all those that live in the light of the sun and even those who do not; I am the Great Calamity; the Living Night; the Black-Winged Terror. I am the eldest of my brothers, the First and Highest of all Divine Beasts. I am the progenitor of my Clan, the most feared in all the universe, whose wrath shakes the Nexus, and whose power outmatches all who dare to oppose them.

“I am the Great Black Dragon.”

The man spoke with immense pride, though he didn’t emote that much. His overt hostility softened slightly by the end of his overlong introduction, and Leon could see that he was one who greatly valued his titles and honors.

But he found it kind of ridiculous, and the only thing that kept him from bursting out into laughter at the pomposity of it all was the man’s radiant aura—to Leon’s magic senses, it was like the sun itself had found its way into his soul realm and now stood in front of him, listing off its various accolades.

Still, some of his attitude showed, and the man’s hostility returned, but Leon’s fear was gone by then. The Great Black Dragon was one of the most powerful beings in existence, but that introduction, and the way the dragon himself now stood in Leon’s Mind Palace like he owned the place, really irritated Leon like few things ever had.

This place was his, it was not the property of this old dragon. But Leon did his best to hold himself in check. He didn’t immediately set himself off on his new guest, such a thing would be terribly rude, and he figured such behavior would play right into the dragon’s hands.

But it was damned difficult to hold back, and only grew harder the longer this man stood in unwelcome territory.

Before he responded, he cast a brief look at the Thunderbird, standing nearby, an unfamiliar look of mild apprehension on her face. As they made eye-contact, though, he saw her subtly smile and nod, then take a quick step back.

And like that, Leon understood what was going on.

He turned back to the Great Black Dragon, still towering over him, aura still resplendent, body still coiled and primed for violence in what now seemed to Leon less like the act of a powerful man who was in control and had the resulting confidence, and more like a salamander posturing before an anaconda, trying to make itself seem bigger and more threatening than it was.

‘This is some kind of test,’ Leon thought to himself, and his anger grew, banishing the last of his instinctual fear.

He straightened himself up to his full height, let his aura spill out of his body unhindered, and locked his golden eyes upon those of the Great Black Dragon.

“I am Leon Raime, and you stand in my Mind Palace,” he said, and he said no more. This was enough. He had no need for titles and to precede himself with flowery words. He’d gone for years without his true name, and now, no matter what might come in the future, no matter how far he might get, his name would always be more than sufficient for him.

He didn’t back down as the Great Black Dragon stepped closer, enflaming Leon’s anger. He’d never given this man permission to enter his domain, yet here he still was. This was Leon’s place, his home, his lair, the center of all of his power, and here, he would not be cowed by anyone. He stood firm against the dragon, somehow ignoring completely all the weight of the dragon’s aura settling in around his shoulders.

After a long, tense moment, the Great Black Dragon stepped back with a contemptuous look. “Youth,” he growled, “always impetuous. And none more so than those born outside the proper rites.”

“Rites or no,” the Thunderbird countered, “blood is blood, and power is power. This boy is your descendant, by blood and right!”

The Great Black Dragon turned to coldly regard the Thunderbird, before his gaze momentarily softened. “Such naivety was always your—”

“Shut the ** up!” Leon roared, his anger starting to boil over, and his soul realm went silent, save for a solitary gasp of fear and surprise from Nestor’s ruby. He wasn’t supposed to speak like this to such powerful and ancient beings, he knew that, but ancestor or no, Leon wasn’t going to just allow the Great Black Dragon in here to talk ** to him and then leave like an absentee parent. “You are unwelcome here,” he growled to the dragon, his voice dropping in pitch until it almost matched that of the dragon’s. “I don’t care for your power, I don’t care if you aided me recently, I don’t care for you as a person. Begone.”

Leon’s eyes darkened for just a moment, flashing a dull orange, and his soul realm shook in response.

The dragon, however, as well as the Thunderbird, barely even responded, aside from turning in his direction. When Leon’s soul realm stopped shaking, the dragon smiled derisively, and said, “The bastard whelp thinks himself a true dragon.”

“Are not all descendants of yours true dragons?” the Thunderbird retorted.

“All those trueborn,” the dragon replied.

Leon’s eyes flashed again, though he cared not at all for the dragon’s words. Rather, he could feel his heart beating ever harder as some new instinct tore through his mind. He had an intruder in his territory. No matter how strong, this could not be accepted.

This instinct grew stronger, and it took Leon to the point of taking a threatening step in the dragon’s direction before he forced himself to calm down. Instead, he focused inward. He was supposed to have powers over his soul realm that made his Lordship over this space more than a mere claim, and this interloper had put him into the mood to test them out.

Perhaps it was that newfound will to kick the dragon out, or maybe it was his new power, but after several seconds of trying to force the Great Black Dragon out of his soul realm through sheer willpower, the dragon was suddenly cut off in his dismissive remarks as a plume of the Mists of Chaos appeared around him, surrounding him, and beginning to obscure him from view.

But with a flash of red-orange light from his eyes, the mist vanished, and he turned back toward Leon, his gaze a little softer than it was before. He strode over to Leon, got right into his face, but didn’t lay a finger upon him.

“Listen here, bastard,” the dragon rumbled, “I have done much for you these past couple days. But as far as I’m concerned, you are unworthy of bearing my power. You are nothing, just a lowborn half-breed without meaningful name, title, or power. You lack even a hoard. The benefits you receive of my actions are incidental, I did what I did for me, not for you. So I will leave you with a warning: never push against me again, never seek for my power within your blood. You will never wield my power and will never wield my name. Nothing has changed here.”

Leon stood against the dragon, still not giving an inch against him. He felt extremely territorial right now, and he began to feel like the salamander posturing against the anaconda, now. Or maybe an eagle before a dragon.

Still, he flared back at the Great Black Dragon, and said, “I want nothing to do with you. You are a blight upon my lineage, and an eyesore upon my soul realm. You’ve spent the last twenty years silent in my soul realm—perhaps you would be so kind as to spend the next twenty in a similar state? Or, if it’s not too much for a bastard to ask, even longer than that?”

The two had drawn so closely together, that their foreheads were practically pressing against each other, though Leon was still forced to look up, and the dragon down, due to their stark height difference.

The tension between them was thick; neither were going to back down. It was only when the Thunderbird began to thunderously roar with laughter that the tension was cranked down a notch.

“You… two…” she said in between almost theatrically overdone guffaws, “are ridiculous! You’re acting like children with more pride than sense! This is why you lost to me, you know!”

The Great Black Dragon’s eyes flashed with light again, and he responded, “I am, and shall always remain, undefeated!”

“Repeating it won’t make it true, no matter how much emphasis you place upon it!” the Thunderbird retorted. “And you seem a mite dead for an undefeated being!”

Leon rolled his eyes, and pushed past the Great Black Dragon, not bothering to be careful. He thought he got his intent across, but he almost stumbled and ruined the whole thing, for the dragon was as steady as a mountain, and Leon wasn’t in the best state. But he made it past with his dignity mostly intact, until he stood between the dragon and his throne.

The dragon spared him a contemptuous look and said, “I’ve wasted enough time with you two.” To the Thunderbird, he said, “You did not win that time, and you will not impugn my honor by saying that you did!” To Leon, he said, “And you, mongrel! I don’t care what you get up to, but you are not and never will be one of mine!”

With that, the dragon’s form burst into black flame, and rose up into the air, where it grew and grew, only to suddenly dissipate into nothingness.

After several long seconds of staring up into the sky, Leon, confused, asked, “Is that it? He’s just gone?”

“He’s just gone,” the Thunderbird said with a smile of triumph on her face. “Honestly, that went about as well as I could’ve ever hoped for.”

Leon took a few deep breaths, biting back all the caustic and completely unproductive insults he was more than prepared to shout after that dragon.

“That didn’t go well at all,” Leon murmured as he glared up at the sky, his strange territorial instinct only now dying down. “What the hells was that all about? And was that really the Great Black Dragon? He seemed…”

“Petulant? Childish? Close-minded?” the Thunderbird helpfully offered.

“All of the above,” Leon replied.

“That’s about right,” she said. “He was never the most patient of his brothers, or the smartest, or the more charismatic. But he’s undoubtedly the most dangerous. Of course, you can’t really expect such beings, who were around before humanity, to act in line with how you might expect, can you? He’s not human himself, so acting as a human Lord might is hardly the most reasonable thing to expect of him.”

Leon shrugged, silently conceding the point to the Ancestor that he held mor respect for.

“Despite everything that he just told you, that you lived long enough to be so disrespectful to him is a testament to how he really thinks.”

“I don’t care how he really thinks,” Leon bitterly growled, the territorial instinct dying down, but still very much wracking his mind with indignant anger. “If that’s the Great Black Dragon, then he can keep his worthless power! I’d rather have nothing at all to do with him!”

“I think the ship for that has sailed,” the Thunderbird said as she walked over and wrapped an arm around Leon, giving him an oddly proud look that was so plain that Leon’s anger almost entirely dissipated in a matter of seconds.

“Why are you… Why do you say that?” he asked.

“Feeling a little strange?” she asked. “A little defensive? A little angry?”

Leon scrunched up his face in a terrible scowl and glanced into the distance, not looking at anything in particular. But he slowly nodded; he did feel those things, though he hadn’t had any time at all to figure out why.

“I think that what happened to you after activating that enchantment array might’ve jostled those restrictions that he placed on you, the ones preventing you from using the power you inherited from him. Going along with the transformation, I think you might’ve awakened to more than just my instincts, but also some of his.”

Leon’s scowl deepened slightly. “Is this something I’m going to have to get used to?” he worriedly asked. He knew his flaws—he wasn’t the most patient, or the most thoughtful person, and if these draconic instincts were going to push him more towards the behavior of the Great Black Dragon, then he was not going to be happy.

“I don’t think so,” the Thunderbird said. “I don’t think those restrictions are going to be repaired—you’re much too old for that, and blood can’t be made to ‘go to sleep’, so to speak. When blood is awakened, it’s awake forever. However, I think that after a few days, your body will stabilize with all of its new changes, and you should start feeling a little more normal by then.”

“Speaking of…” Leon muttered. “I noticed my soul realm has grown a little.”

“Just a bit,” the Thunderbird said with a playful smile. She was in an exceptionally good mood, which Leon guessed might’ve had to do with how the Great Black Dragon was received and sent off. “The transformation was… strangely designed, though I can hardly argue with its results. It stimulated your blood to the point of forcibly transforming you into an image of me. Well, a hybrid image of me and that old grump, but your body was still transformed.”

Leon’s scowl finally dropped, only to be replaced with a look of deep worry. “What…”

“Don’t worry about that, I don’t think it’s a permanent change. If anything, I think that that enchantment can be adapted to allow you to transform as you please!”

Leon glanced at his Ancestor, his worried look morphing into one of surprise, and as he saw that the Thunderbird didn’t seem to be saying this just to mess with him, an expression of excitement began to creep over his face.

“It’ll take some work, but I can say with quite a bit of confidence that this has been nothing but beneficial for you!”

“Can it turn me back immediately?” Leon asked. “I don’t know what’s going on outside, though…” He couldn’t sense much out there, but now that he had some time to stop and think, he could feel his connection with Maia again. He almost reached out to speak with her, but he refrained until he could get a better idea of what was going on within his head, first.

“You’re still in that form, but it should be quite easy for you to turn back,” the Thunderbird said. “Come with me, we’ll need some space.”

She transformed in an instant into her avian form, and Leon marveled at the change. If what she was saying was true, such was a power that he now possessed… That meant he could now properly fly under his own power, and with that thought, he almost felt like his blood was singing in joy. He was a descendent of the Thunderbird, and there were few things he’d ever wanted more than to fly with his own power.

With a quick invocation of his power within his soul realm, Leon followed the Thunderbird into the sky, and then deep into the mountains of his soul realm. The island floating in the Mists of Chaos was showing some damage, so as he took in the sights, Leon realized that he’d have to return to make some repairs, but for now, it seemed like everything was about as fine as he could reasonably expect. He could take a day or two to figure out what the situation was in the physical world before coming back in to get back to work.

There was just so much to do, now, and he was glad the Thunderbird had at least given him a place to start.

They flew deep into the mountains, until they stopped at one of the larger mountains that Leon had built. There, with the Thunderbird giving him instruction, Leon carved a deep cylindrical pit right through the center of the mountain, a near-identical copy to the pit where the transformation enchantment had been, though much smaller, only about five hundred feet deep rather than many miles.

Once he’d built the pit, the Thunderbird then, in an impressive display of power, created a copy of the enchantment in a matter of seconds, carving thousands and thousands of runes upon the stone floor of the pit and along its sides. Once she was finished, Leon heard her say, “Marvelous. Much better than what I’d been working on.”

From his perspective, Leon couldn’t even begin to unravel the complexities of this enchantment, but he took the Thunderbird at face value; if she was impressed with the enchantment, then he figured his reaction wouldn’t be overblown if he fell to his knees in awe. He didn’t do that, but he felt his appreciation for this enchantment array grow.

“Now,” the Thunderbird said as she turned her avian head back in his direction, “we can get started on turning you back into a human.”

—

Far away from the Bull Kingdom, or the Serpentine Isles, in the very center of the plane of Aeterna, deep within a titanic stone tower, the Grave Warden slept. He’d been sleeping for a couple years, now, but his apprentice wasn’t worried; he was beyond ancient, and sleeping for centuries at a time wasn’t uncommon for his master to do.

Usually, the apprentice just let his master sleep as long and as deeply as he wished, but this time, something important had come up, something that couldn’t be ignored. So, the apprentice made his way through the innumerable halls of the tower with great haste.

The enchantments on one of the Graveyards had been disrupted, and his master had to know immediately before anything could slip out. If even a single individual that they were guarding managed to escape, then all the universe could be imperiled.