Chapter 98: Flame Dragon
Ren stared at the letter, realizing that for the last decade of his life, he had hated himself for something he had no part in.
"He never hated me," Ren muttered.
"Of course he did. He hated you so much he pulled the trigger and then wrote you that letter to make you feel better," Mirage said.
"If it was true, where was the money that the letter promised?"
Ren looked at the letter again and then smiled. "Dawson was the one who paid for my school and helped me a bit. Sure, he did not give me everything that was mine, probably to keep some for himself, but that still means my father helped me."
Ren raised his head from the letter, wearing the widest smile he had had in all his life. "He actually cared. He actually did not hate me. I did not cause his death," Ren declared.
"Think about it properly. You are still the reason he shot himself," Mirage argued.
"Yes, I am, but not for the reason that I thought. He did it out of love, and that changed everything. Everything."
Mirage felt his grip on Ren loosen by the second and eagerly tried to make sure Ren did not break out of his control.
"Your mother. What about your mother? She left. She hated you."
"No, she did not. She was scared. Humans get scared. It’s fine. It’s alright. At least I know I was not the one who drove her away."
At this point, every fear that he had been feeling had vanished, and all that remained was a confidence that would shatter this illusion.
"Thank you, Mirage. Because of you, I finally got to see that I am not the problem. Haha." Ren’s gaze turned to slits. "Your game is over."
"No, no, no. This is not possible," Mirage thundered, but it was too late. The entire scene broke down, and they were back on the mountaintop.
"A letter? A letter is what you used to defeat me? I’ll not allow it!" Mirage thundered and rose to his feet.
"For some reason, your physical form does not scare me like the others did."
Ren said with a smile and then closed his eyes.
"I have not gotten the opportunity to use this properly yet, so you’ll become the first."
[Flame Dragon Activated]
The temperature rose massively as Ren returned fully to his dragon form. From his chest, flames erupted, red crimson flames, but they burned with more heat than even his dragon breath did.
The flames surged like they were liquid and then wrapped around his entire body until he was covered in flames so thick that his body could not be seen beneath them.
"What in the world are you?" Mirage asked in shock. He could feel the heat all the way from there, and it was already burning him.
"I am Ren Crimson Jr., the freaking Chaos Devouring Dragon."
His wings spread apart, and he shot forward faster than Mirage could react. He slammed right into Mirage like a cannonball.
BOOM
His flames surged from his body and proceeded to consume Mirage where he stood, burning so aggressively. Mirage roared in pain as he struggled to escape, but it was too late, and he collapsed, burned down to a crisp.
Ren looked down at the body of the mighty dragon that had fallen and then looked up into the sky. He decided to fly. He shot into the air fast, and almost immediately he could feel the forces trying to pull him down and force him to stay there.
He gritted his teeth and flapped even harder in the Flame Dragon form until he broke through it all and reached the top platform.
As soon as he flew onto the platform, he transformed into a human and landed on his feet.
"What is this presence?" he asked. He could feel it, almost like something heavy was pressing against him. It was not overbearing, but it demanded respect without asking for it.
He looked up but saw no one. The entire clearing was empty, save for a meter-tall rock pillar that stood there covered in runes.
[You have reached the top.]
[You have reached the Pillar of the Primordial Dragon.]
[Place your hand on the pillar.]
The system instructed Ren on what to do. He walked over without hesitation. Once he arrived, he noticed there was some sort of geometric pattern that formed a dragon-like head.
"Well, this is cool," Ren muttered before raising his hand and placing it on the pillar.
He placed his hand on the pillar.
The geometric patterns responded immediately, light bleeding into each line from the point of contact and spreading outward across the entire surface in a wave, every carving and symbol illuminating at once in a deep burning orange that turned the chamber around him the color of something ancient and alive.
Then his mind left his body entirely.
He was floating.
The space around him was not dark and not bright but somewhere between the two, thick with swirling gases that moved like slow flame, currents of orange and deep red drifting past him in every direction without source or destination. There was no ground. No ceiling. Nothing to orient himself against except the gases and the silence.
Then the eyes opened.
They appeared in the distance, two points of light that expanded as they revealed themselves, enormous and domineering, the kind of scale that made the word "large" feel completely inadequate. They looked directly at him with the particular focus of something that had been waiting for exactly this moment and had infinite patience for everything that had come before it.
The moment Ren saw them, something in his body responded before his mind had finished processing what he was looking at. A recognition that came from somewhere below thought. Something connected.
"So," the voice filled everything. "You are the one worthy of carrying my legacy."
A claw emerged from the surrounding gases. Massive. Unhurried.
Ren felt fear rise in him instinctively, his body reading threat before his mind could correct it.
The claw came closer.
Then it stopped.
One single claw extended, gentle and deliberate, the way something infinitely powerful chose to be careful, and it touched him on the top of his head.
Everything went black.