Chapter 2

In a place far away from the hustle and bustle of the cities, a calm forest spread as far as the eye could see. In were myriads of organisms, some animals, some birds, many insects, and the ever quiet trees.

If one moved northward, they will come across a wide open area, in which the most attracting feature will be a tall, majestic fort, surrounded by high walls and a deep moat. The area around the fort had been razed clean of trees, giving way to a strip of barren land around it, having width of about 500 meters.

The fort itself was also massive - with its 20 meters high walls, and 30 meters height, it was a sight to behold. Not to mention its practicality, having windows in the walls for cannons, sentry towers allowing one to stand 50 meters above the ground, and with the thousands of personnel stationed to defend this place, one would have to think twice before attacking it. This also made the people living behind the fort, in the eastern region of Kingdom of Arcadia, feel safe and secure.

But like everything, this also had an exception – as the normally quiet scene at the fort was nothing short of a pandemonium today. The reason – a creature even the bravest will dread, a Dragon.

The quadrupedal figure was gigantic, it's frame bigger than the walls of the fort, making the normally unbreakable, trusty walls appear as light, flimsy wooden boards erected by a child in the hearts of soldiers.

Its bat – like, leathery wings, thought thin, were tough as steel, and could block even the heaviest cannonballs like pebbles.

It claws and fangs, famed for their reputation of being able to tear through anything, did not do its legends injustice, and easily tore apart the stone walls of the fort, as could be seen from the broken pieces of wall.

However, the dragon was being held back right now, by the exquisite coordination and teamwork of humans, centered around a man, who was fighting the dragon while wielding his longsword.

Aizen, though extremely prideful, was no idiot. Through the experiences in his life, and his innate gift, he had long been able to separate the analytical part of his mind from his emotional self.

Currently, his heart was beating feverishly, his body was working to its optimal state, bringing about ever ounce of power it could muster in his every movement, and his mind was more focused than the tip of a spear, all for the sake that he doesn't make a mistake, and this plan of his which he had been working on for so long, end up in a failure.

Right after he had dodged a tail attack from the behemoth, a claw came flying towards his position, which he again dodged by jumping backwards. While in the air, he shouted his orders to snap the soldiers out of their depression, and lead the dragon to the nearest point of the inventory of the fort, all the while staying outside its walls.

"Continue the cannonfire! Its scales are weak at the point where wings connect with the shoulders!"

Hearing the orders, the guards who had given up all hope and were just waiting for their death, habitually stared following it – a trait of military training. The dragon's gaze which had been growing annoyed and angry by the second, focused on the soldiers in charge of firing the cannons, but it did not dare go towards them, not after one such action before had earned it a mana filled stab at its backdoor by the pest in front of him.

Folding its wings, while ignoring the pain in its joints, it used the membrane to defend its weak part of scales from the cannonballs of the fort.

Lifting its claws again, the dragon swung at Aizen, but he dodged again, ignoring his now screaming body, he forced himself to stay alert, while still moving unnoticeable towards his goal. His decision was once again proved to be correct as the dragon snapped his head at him, which he dodged by jumping above its head, and slashing at the dragon's eye, which was defended by it just by closing its eye.

Aizen, still airborne, was thrown away with a swing of the dragon's head, and then the dragon opened its mouth, sucking in the surrounding air to prepare for the attack which induced despair in the hearts of many – the Dragon Breath.

However, Aizen's face twisted into an ecstatic grin as he finally got near his objective, and the dragon was preparing for the next part of his plan, without being prodded to.

Though excited at the prospect of success, Aizen did not let his emotions get to his head, as he calmly utilized his tier 1st soul ability – hypnosis, to completely turn down his sense of pain and touch, making him feel as if he was just floating in the air, even though he was falling down towards the ground.

As he turned his head back after looking at the worried faces of soldiers, he saw a bright beam of fire travelling towards him. Immediately, he started reciting a spell while manipulating his mana and forming a specific pattern with it.

Soon, the fire hit him, and the body he had constructed with the descent scroll was burned away to nothingness, and his soul was exposed to the scorching flames, that could, and were, burning his soul.

His soul immediately cracked, and the yellow fire started seeping into its inside, making his now silvery blue and somewhat transparent figure resemble a stone which had lava flowing through its cracks. Then came the pain. It felt similar to how one would feel when they leave their hand over fire for too long, just, he felt it all over his body.

It would have been a whole lot worse if he hadn't turned down his pain receptors or its soul equivalent, but that was not the point. Even through the pain, Aizen continued weaving his spell, and it was finished very soon after the fire hit him, before he reached the ground in fact.

As soon as the spell activated, a wave of abnormally high frequency mana radiated outwards from Aizen, making the dragon, who had been advancing towards the terrified soldiers after it thought it had finished Aizen, stop in its tracks and turn towards him.

The armory of the fort was a place where almost all the supplies of the fort were kept. Canonballs, swords, spears, bows, arrows and the like were placed all around the hall in different rooms.

In one room, which contained a few things at most, an ordinary looking box was sitting on a shelf. When the wave of mana arrived, it passed through the security arrangements of the room, and even the box itself, and activated the five descent scrolls which were contained in it, with their target – Aizen himself.

Immediately, the scrolls lit up and Aizen's soul, which was having a staredown with the dragon, felt a strong feeling tug on it. Utilizing the mana which he had left, Aizen stuck to the ground, and soon, from inside the fort, five balls of light flew towards him.

As soon as one of the balls touched him, the immense amount of mana contained in the scroll created a temporary body out of nothing for him, same as the one he had when he had been fighting the dragon.

The other balls came into contact with him as well, but due to him already having a body, the mana contained in them was permeated Aizen's body and soul, oversaturating them both.

Like dry earth soaking in water and becoming mud, his cracked soul sucked in the mana and the cracks on it repaired itself, but like a work of haste, his soul felt loose, like a bundle of wool not properly wrapped.

Not paying heed to it, he deposited the mana he had into the third tier of his soul ability, instantly fulfilling the required amount for its use.

By now, the dragon was looking at Aizen with a wary and serious gaze, as the mana he was radiating was enough to make the dragon feel like a child. However, what Aizen did next, surprised everybody there.

He swung his sword twice, sending out two sword slashes through mana – one towards the dragon, with a string of mana closely behind it, and the other – towards the fort.

As soon as the slash touched the dragon, its left front leg was cut apart from its body, and soon after, the string of mana attached itself to it as well. The dragon immediately felt immensely angry at being injured by a pest, especially when it saw that after those two attacks, Aizen's mana was back to normal.

Right after the attacks, it saw that Aizen turned around and ran into the gap it had created in the fort through the sword attack. Roaring, the dragon followed after him, not even looking towards the other soldiers who had been frozen in fear.

Aizen saw all this happen, but did not chase after the dragon. His tier 2 ability, Illusory world, had activated perfectly, and the dragon had been deceived into thinking that he had run away, when he had in fact, moved behind it.

Utilizing the newfound strength his body was feeling, he disappeared into the forest. When he was certain that no one was following him, he stopped, and utilized his tier 3 ability for the first time.

"Deceived world," Aizen muttered, and immediately, he felt the mana he had stored in the ability's fuel tank, be consumed in an instant. Along with that, his vision went dark and he went unconscious, his descended avatar disappeared, and his real body, in the capital of Kingdom of Arcadia, disappeared along with it.