God-King Arising

"A travesty! A travesty!" Said the dragon, clutching at his bleeding chest where his heart was struck. "Oh! How to be defeated by the likes of you! It's impossible!"

"Oh great dragon! Bear witness as I, by my own power, have bested thee, and have undone all the evil's that you have committed in this world!"

Declared the knight, mighty and proud in his triumph over the dragon.

"No! Never! Nay, you will never see me fall! You will never see the end of me you dastardly knight!"

The mighty dragon spewed fire in the direction of the knight. He raised her shield high and tall, blocking the fierce flames that turned his steel into red. The flames stopped, and the dragon coughed feebly and raggedly with puff of smoke, he was weak, and he was in pain. 

In a moment of opportunity the knight leaped a great height, soaring the sky with his sword raised, ready to strike at the dragon with a final, strong blow.

He struck the dragons head, drawing dark crimson blood and cutting of a horn along with it, felling the dragon as his body slumped to the dirt. 

The knight declared his victory, raising his head above him in a victorious manner after finally ending the dragons evil tyranny, and proclaimed his victory atop the dragon.

And then peace was on the land once more.

Adaceus closed the book, and placed it on his lap as he finished his recital of the story. 

"Awww, is it over?" A girl chimed in, and it was Agie, tucked in to a thick blanket and buried beneath a very puffy pillow.

"Yep, and you know what that means don't you, its bedtime," Adaceus stood up and patted Agie's golden and orange hair.

"Do you really have to go brother? I want another story!" She said in a soft voice, almost sounding saddened.

Every night and every bedtime he would read them a short story before they slept, a sort of evening ritual, and this time he decided to read a somewhat lengthy book to read.

"We can read another one tomorrow okay, your starting to get tired and I know it, don't try to hide it."

"But, brooother...," she yawned, her eyes struggling to stay open.

They had started calling him brother for quite a while now, and it first started just as they were growing up and learning to talk. Adaceus let it go on because he saw no problem with it, strangely feeling a sense comfort in it, and it actually helped his case and the cover up for his identity.

"See?" 

And Adaceus continued to pat her head, sending her deeper into a comfortable sleep. 

"Thank you for taking the time to read for us, Elder brother." Another voice called, different from Agie and was smooth and cool in its tone. He turned to face Fiora, and she sat in proper posture at the other side of the room with where her bed was, with her arms laid together in her lap and a straightened back. He tucked in Agie, who was near to sleep and gave her a final pinch of her cheek before heading over to Fiora. 

"Thank you Fiora, now get ready for bed, you have to wake up bright and early tomorrow so get some rest," Adaceus also patted her head, and removed the greatly oversized glasses that she had on that made her eyes giant. 

"Of course Elder brother, is she asleep?"

"Yes, reading the longer than normal stories usually does that to her."

"Yes, I quite enjoyed the story as well, Elder Brother, especially the fight with the dragon very riveting." She said this in a strangely even tone, which showed no emotion that made it hard to believe what she said.

She looked up to him, her purple eyes in a blank stare, "May I ask something, Brother? Can you defeat a dragon?"

"Hmm, an interesting question, why that?"

"Well I see you much like the knight, dear brother, you wield a sword, I was curious if you could beat a dragon."

Adaceus then went close and tucked her into a cover of a blanket, laying her down and tucking her in even more as he sat beside her in bed.

"Well, I would wager that I could hold my own," he chuckled. "So yes, your brother could, probably and maybe even definitely defeat a dragon."

"You're saying it weirdly Elder Brother."

"Well you don't need to think about it too much."

And Adaceus continued to tuck her in.

"Brother may I ask another question? More of a request, really." She said, her body completely under the blanket.

"Okay, but this better be the last one."

"Can I, see your face? Just a glance, a quick on."

Adaceus stared at her in contemplation, seeing her eyes widen in anticipation at him, filled with actual emotion, made him answer with this. He slowly took of his mask, revealing his bare skull face at her but not taking it off completely.

Fiora's face remained calm at the terrifying sight of a skull, and she raised her arm out to touch it, the flames coating her fingers but not being burnt.

Adaceus gently swatted away her arm and put his mask back on.

"I just wanted to see it, Elder Brother, its was quite a while since i've seen it."

"It's time to go to sleep, Fiora."

"Alright."

# # # # # # # # 

Adaceus wandered across the compounds of the estate, enjoying the night breeze that billowed in the air, heading in the direction of the training grounds. He was headed to the draped entrance until a sound of metal and weapon swipes were heard in it. Adaceus lightened his steps, trying to sound quiet to peak into the building, and there he saw Lujah, going away on a single straw dummy.

He attacked with a large broad sword that was enhanced with aura, but something was different about it, it was sporadic, almost irregular as it coated the blade. He delivered a strong downward strike with the sword and it sunk deep into the dummy, but not cutting it completely. A look of frustration appeared on the boys face, restlessly trying to get it out of the dummy as it got stuck, and when he finally got it out he tried to attack it again.

Adaceus only watched as this continued to happen, and decided to make himself known.

"What are you doing here so late in the night, young master?"

The boy turned surprised and wide eyed but the freight only lasted for a moment as upon seeing him walking by, he went straight back to the dummy.

"Young master, I think you should get back to bed, it is really late at night."

He was ignored, keeping to continue the pace of his.

"Young master," Adaceus reached out her hand, touching his shoulder.

He stopped abruptly, and turned to him with and angry and furious look.

"Don't try to stop me Ada, leave me be and go away!" And then he swatted his arm away.

"Lujah, please, I know your angry, but forcing yourself to train like this isn't the way."

"NO! You don't understand, Ada," he turned to him, angry and with drops appearing at the corners of his eyes. "You have no idea what its like!" He screamed, his voice filled with frustration and irritation. 

Adaceus looked at the boys face, struggling to keep the tears from flowing, but they did, and he gritted his teeth. 

"You have no idea what its like! To have this stupid, broken core that I have, I hate it Ada, I hate that I'm weak, I hate that I can't do the things you do, I hate that I can't do thing's my mother does!" There was a pause, and him taking deep breaths as his mask of anger slowly faded.

"I was supposed to be a prodigy, but I've never come close, I don't know why I was even called that."

And he let out a soft cry, drawing his eyes to the floor where tears fell like raindrops.

Minutes went by, a silence fell on the surroundings, with gentle and quiet sniffles like whispers could only be heard from Lujah. All the anger, frustration, finally let out, giving way to disappointment over himself. He was dealing with a lot, that much Adaceus knew. Expectations, and not meeting the standard of peers, the feeling of being Inadequate, and the unknown complication if his core, it all weighed heavy on the young boy, but Adaceus was .

Adaceus stepped closer and placed his hand on his shoulder. 

"Lujah, It look's like you are really determined to power through this, and against my better judgement, and my better knowing, I'll help you out."

Lujah in a moment of surprise raised his head like and arrow let out of a bowstring, wide eyed.

"What?"

"You heard me, you want to spend the night busting your butt of slashing away at a sword, then let me help you, come."

Adaceus guided him to a proper pose, directing him toward the line of dummies, holding on to his shoulders to guide him. He stepped back.

"Alright, since you already now how to produce aura, show me a simple air slash."

He did as he was told, unsure as this impromptu training was abrupt, and he still hadn't gotten in his mind that they were doing this.

He gathered aura onto his sword, and with a downward strike he sent a compressed slash of aura straight through the dummy, where it tore through with ease.

Adaceus witnessed this in befuddlement, that was in actuality a very powerful attack, that was until he saw Lujah who's breath was ragged and heavy, and the hands that held the sword trembled, shaking and barely holding on. 

Adaceus quickly ran and supported him up, keeping him from falling.

"Lujah, are you alright? That was quite the move for just a simple slash."

"I'm fine Ada," he gasped, catching his breath. "It's always been like this, anytime I try to do a move using aura I get weak and my body hurts."

"You know you can't use aura techniques to that level of power here, stay still, let me check something out."

He then placed his hand on his body, and begun injecting into him pure and unprocessed mana in a frantic way to figure out what was wrong. He was performing a technique called Mana Perception, a sort of way to glance at the inner state of the person by putting mana into their bodies and making it circulate all around, creating a map of the person's body.

Adaceus used it to see directly the state of his core, travelling a dark and empty space until he reached it.

Unexpectedly, it was weak, which Adaceus found as a surprise. It flickered and flashed with dim lights, only spurting out a strong torrent like solar flares every once in a while.

This really and truly was strange, one would expect an early awakener to have an exemplary core, one that had a surplus amount of mana within it, but this was far beyond what he expected for him to have.

Suddenly a roaring pillar of mana burst out of the core, bright and powerful that left Adaceus speechless as to how it appeared.

That single eruption was as strong as his very own core, and his was developed with years of training. In another moment another of this powerful eruption appeared out of the core that overwhelmed his sights, only to disappear in another moment in a blink of an eye.

This truly was a unique core, and was probably the reason why he had trouble meditating aura because of its unpredictable, unstable state.

Adaceus exited out of the perception state, out to the open and helped Lujah, who was in his arms, stand up properly, and he saw in his hand the sword he had.

"Lujah, are you using this sword," he said, taking it from his hands.

"Y-yeah?"

He waived about and saw that it was heavy, even for him, and with a couple of motions it was hard to even balance the thing. 

"It's quite heavy for someone like you to be wielding, why have you been using this?"

"I-I guess I just found it easy to use, it was the first one I had and I just kept using for forever now, why? Is there something wrong with it?"

So, this was the problem. Eureka.

Adaceus brought it closer and knew immediately that this word was incompatible with Lujah's core. Weapons to an aura user are a very important aspect in their development and how effectively they can use it to its fullest potential. Like the essence users Magical Equipment, they use it for a myriad of purposes but more so in situations of combat, that's why it is important for and aura user to have a weapon that helps compliment their cores because they rely heavily on them. Their training session even requires a specific weapon. 

And in Lujah's case this massive sword wasn't fit for him to use, he needed an alternative, he needed a new weapon to suit his unique core. 

Looking at the sword, an idea came to him.