Legacy of the Dark Sage

On the second day of the Grand Gathering, the Main Palace, a majestic structure of unparalleled beauty, opened its gates and allowed others without a formal invitation to enter and watch sparring matches in the dome.

With Aillos's official acknowledgment of the Regis Family into the Dragon Clan in last night's banquet, there was no longer a need to hide them from the other dragons. It also meant they could watch all the sparring matches in the dome.

To maintain order and security in the palace, all paths leading to residential mansions, including the annexes and complexes and other official establishments like the audience chamber, training hall, and more, were declared off-limits.

Surprisingly, dragons were sticklers to the rules. Thus, no new visitors ventured on those paths, even if no array formation was placed on them.

Though the dragons were not entirely comfortable with the humans from the Lower Realm's presence, they had noticeably softened their stance. While they remained cautious, their hostility had significantly diminished.

But that did not mean the humans were safe around them. The natural pressure they exuded was still lethal to them. This was why Ames had to cast a protective spell on them to ensure they would not be affected by the combined pressure coming from the dragons.

For the record, Aron, Cade, and Jared were under the protective spell cast by Ames, ensuring their survival amidst the natural pressure exerted by the dragons in the Tempest Hall. Kyran, too, recognizing their vulnerability due to their low mage levels, further enhanced their clothes to shield them from the combined pressure of the dragons.

The dome where the sparring matches would happen was called the Disappearing Star Dome. It went without saying that its name came from the fact that the dome disappeared once the Grand Gathering concluded.

Approximately three hours before noon, the dome was packed with dragons, with some of the people from the Lower Realm gathered in one area.

Such a crowd was a first in the history of all the Grand Gatherings in the Dragon Clan.

It was to be expected because news of how almost all of the young talents invited to the Grand Gathering declared sparring requests against the new Dragon Lord had spread among the dragons like wildfire.

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Furthermore, all dragons who could not watch the sparring matches in person tuned in on their tablets for the live broadcast.

At the dome's top level were waiting rooms for all participants of the spar matches. These rooms were unique because instead of installing projections to show the arena below, the floor was made of two-way mirror glass. So everyone in the room could watch the matches in the arena from a bird's eye.

Meanwhile, Aillos, his aides, all patriarchs, and their second-in-commands would watch the matches on hovering platforms circling the dome, a few hundred meters from the arena's outskirts.

For the first time, all hundred and one platforms were occupied. This meant that all leaders of each tribe decided to watch the sparring matches.

It should be noted that few leaders came to watch the matches on the first day after the first couple of Grand Gatherings of the clan's founding. Most of the time, they would only attend on the days that their young talents participated or the tribes they were keeping an eye on had a sparring match.

From this, it could easily be interpreted that all of them were interested in seeing how the new Dragon Lord would fare against the young talents of their clan.

Technically, the new Dragon Lord's family was already part of the clan, but that did not mean they recognized their strength as essential to the clan.

This was because they had more or less grasped what humans in the Lower Realm were capable of after a similar event like this happened a few months ago. Back then, the sparring matches were more informal, and frankly, the young talents who participated then could not even call it a proper spar— if anything, the matches were only a light warm-up to them.

The tribes' leaders wanted to see if the new Dragon Lord was any different. After all, if they were going to read between their Lord's statements during the banquet, he insinuated that The Emperor pursued the new Dragon Lord, but he managed to escape.

Even if The Emperor's strength was significantly restrained in the Lower Realm, it was a considerable feat for a mage that could only utilize incomplete magic energy and magic laws to shake off his pursuit.

Not only that, the new Dragon Lord also succeeded in opening the route the dragons could use to enter between the two realms. That, in itself, was a testament that the dragon blood running in his veins was quite powerful.

That last part was actually a misconception of all the leaders. Since Aillos had yet to reveal that Kyran also possessed the Void Core, none of them knew that he entered the Higher Realm from the Land of Desolation.

On the hovering platform allocated for the Golden Dragon Tribe, Patriarch Ickle, and his second-in-command, Crei, talked about what happened last night.

Ickle, like Crei, had long, ash-blond hair. However, while the latter wore it down, the former had them braided neatly behind him. The horns protruding on Ickle's forehead were also two more than the ones on Crei's

Similar conversations could be heard among the tribes' leaders. However, because of Ladon and Thorn, only the Golden Dragon Tribe and the Water Dragon Tribe possessed some information about the new Dragon Lord.

Ladon and Thorn were sworn to secrecy about Kyran's identity, but only after Aillos accepted the Regis Family into the clan. After all, they were only asked to keep Kyran's identity a secret to ensure the dragons would not do anything terrible to him once they knew it.

Now that Kyran's family was officially accepted into the clan, there was no longer an immediate threat to him, even if they knew about his identity.

Nonetheless, Ladon and Thorn could not reveal other information about Kyran, especially his possession of the Void Core, what they heard from the Ancients, and the fact that he dared turn a couple of Blade Dancer Clan representatives into his spies.

If they revealed this, their patriarchs would likely be unable to stay still until the closed-door meeting on the last day of the gathering to confront Aillos about it.

This was because the recent events involving the Blade Dancer Clan and The Emperor would potentially be a big ordeal for them— actually, remove the 'potentially' from that statement because it would definitely become a big ordeal for their clan.

"... Is that what Thorn said about the new Dragon Lord?" After Crei finished telling him all the information he got from his nephew, Ickle asked.

Contrary to Ickle, who was already looking at the arena, he was looking toward the high ceiling of the dome. He could not see the participants there but could sense their presence with his naturally heightened senses. At that moment, he was mainly looking at a spot on the ceiling, which he guessed would be where the new Dragon Lord was observing the arena below.

"Yes," Crei replied with a nod. "Thorn did not personally see him in action, but the fact that he was sent to the same floor as them and how he managed to subdue the representatives of the Lacus Clan shows he has great potential, even among the beings born in the Higher Realm."

"As a human, he is a descendant of the Ancients' creation. That already shows how much potential he could have if he awakened as a mage," Ickle remarked. "But he also has dragon blood running in his veins..."

His voice trailed off as his brow furrowed in concern.

"I'm not sure if that combination is good."

If only they knew that that was not the only combination that Kyran possessed, they would probably flip over and demand their Lord to get rid of him as soon as possible.

"I do think so, too," Crei agreed and sighed. "He already possessed the Draconic core, meaning he could utilize real Chaos magic rather than specific elemental attributes it had."

"We still have little information about him," Ickle replied, looking toward the dome's ceiling. "Contact Anahita and tell her to make him use his cards as much as possible before ending the spar."

Judging from Ickle's order, it was not wrong to presume that he had already considered Anahita to win against the new Dragon Lord.

"I'll convey your instruction," Crei replied and took out his tablet at once.

"Will Thorn really not participate?"

"No," Crei replied, shaking his head. "He did not say why, but I suppose he is worried about hurting him and making a bad impression on that young human Sisi."

Ickle sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation, "I get why he is fond of her, but keep him in check. He should no better than form a friendship with beings that could die. Just take our Lord, for example. Remember how devastated he had been when his only human friend died."

"I will make sure to keep an eye on him."

"What about Ladon? I heard that he is not going to participate, as well."

"He seems to have the same dilemma as Thorn."

Ickle sighed again, "These younglings..."

From their exchange, it was evident that none of them expected that the real reason the two did not want to participate was because they were aware of Kyran's strength and not because they did not want to make Cyneah sad.