Seed of the Sovereign

Luke eyed the spear without a smile.

"Oh, c'mon. You can't even take a joke." Zenberg said as the spear leaned back to stand straight "No. this soul isn't doing something as simple as usurping you and neither are you usurping it. And that's why it's a miracle. Every soul is unique and a person can only have one soul... Well, there are always exceptions. But because of that, two separate unique souls can never be wholly unified. But this... You're almost doing it. Almost."

"Can you be clear? What do you mean it isn't usurping me? What is happening then? Why do I feel those foreign emotions? What does it mean for me? And what do you mean by almost?" Luke replied with a storm of questions.

"Oh, look. I don't have all the answers okay. I'm not some library on souls and your situation isn't exactly the usual. I can only see somethings because I'm a spirit body myself," Zenberg said. Luke could almost hear him rolling his eyes. "All I know is that it can't be reversed. And your worry about usurpation is invalid. From the moment both souls bonded, you were no longer the original soul you were. You've already morphed into something else. Luke Phlego is dead but isn't dead at the time. You only feel like it's foreign sometimes because the bonding isn't complete yet. Like I said It's "almost" complete. And I really feel that's what you should be worried about."

"What?" Luke asked flabbergasted.

"Yes," Zenberg continued. "What you are is already a mix of both parties. If you compare your behaviour with your past self you might notice something discrepancies already."

Hearing that, Luke staggered back, his face turning blank. His sense of identity felt like it was on the verge of collapse, his mind fogged with confusion.

Noticing Luke's reaction Zenberg hastily spoke.

"Hey, look. Like I said, you're not dead at the same time. It's still you. Else you wouldn't be scared of losing your identity. It's just that you're already something else.

Look! I don't know how to explain it proper but whatever you're worried about is really useless. Just think of it like you grew up a bit, got some more memories and became a more experienced person, but you're still fundamentally you!" At the end of the tirade, Zenberg was shouting to get through to Luke who had his head in his hands as he muttered things to himself.

In the end, the spear had to pierce Luke a bit in order to get back his attention. Luke stood stilly for a few minutes and Zenberg could only watch nervously.

Normally, he wouldn't care about some random boy, it was just that this 'random boy' was different. No one had managed to touch the central pedestal for a long time now. Not even those much more stronger than he was. And it was because of the crazy requirements needed to reach it.

And a pure red dragon blood and a spear seed.

Purity of bloodline ranged from person to person and over time there had been a few patriarchs with pure bloodlines. A spear seed... That requirement was much more stringent. Weapon seeds were already crazy but they needed awaken one particular weapon seed. But even then, with the long family history of the clan, one of the matriarchs—that crazy woman—had managed to awaken it.

But to awaken both at the same time.. that was just impossible. . And yet, that was the condition his previous master had set, even sealing his memories to prevent him from understanding why.

Now that he finally found someone with that potential. Potential enough to actually inherit him... He couldn't let them just break themselves.

After a few minutes Zenberg couldn't help but speak.

"You really shouldn't stress yourself too much. You're still Luke Phlego." He reassured. "In any case, this space is going to come undone soon. I am no longer as powerful as I once was and because of that I've been asleep for a long time. I spent my last energy to drag you into this space, I'd be going back to sleep. You'd need to get stronger to actually use me. For now, master your spear seed and completely awaken your bloodline." Zenberg said and the white space started collapsing.

Luke looked up before closing his eyes.

***

Luke woke up in the ancestral hall where he had fallen.

He had fallen under the central statue so waking up, he immediately saw the statue and was dumbfounded.

The central statue, twice the size of the rest was that of a red dragon. It's wings were spread out widely, it's jaws opened wide like it was about to breath out fire but instead of flames, a golden spear with red tassels came out from it's mouth. It radiated regality and superiority, like all life forms should bow to it. It's imposingness made the previous statues look like common people.

Luke looked up at the statue with awe and a hint of worship in his heart.

He has suspected it. From the visions and the words of that spear spirit, but the statue confirmed his suspicions.

The progenitor of the Phlego clan was an actual dragon.

Dragons and other mythical beasts were, as their names implied—myths. Many believed them not to exist or to be extinct because there was no evidence of them.

Others believed they existed but they were just so powerful that they didn't know about them.

Whatever it was, the legends of mythical beasts were passed down from generation to generation, every child knew about them and no one knew why there was always so much fervor behind them.

Now, seeing that his clan's progenitor was a mythical beasts and remembering the ice phoenix from his the vision, Luke suspected that maybe they had a more active hand in the events of Latiara than most knew.

Luke was shocked out of his thoughts and bewilderment as the spear in the dragons mouth shot out towards him.

He made to dodge but the spear halted on getting closer to him.

It eventually stood on the ground, it's tassels flying.

It was an exact replica of the one he saw in that weird space.

The spear glowed with a golden sheen, it's red tassels flying Images of dragons curled around it's shaft giving a life-like illusion. The spear looked like a weapon made to kill gods. A creation of pure domineeringness.

But the next moment it fell apart like an illusion.

Luke hastily caught the golden spear that instantly turned into a wooden stick as it fell towards the ground.

It almost felt like he was dreaming. The new spear in his hand—if he could call it that—looked like a wooden stick taken from the jungle. It's only resemblance to a spear was it's lightly sharpened head shaped for stabbing.

"What the?" Luke looked at the spear, his face scrunched in perplexity. He stared intently at the spear, as if willing it to return to it's golden state but after a few minutes of silence, he could only acquiesce that indeed the spear was now a stick and he wasn't dreaming.

'What do I even do with this? Will this even be solid enough for a battle. What if it breaks when I'm fighting?' he thought to himself as he moved the spear around testing for it's durability and endurance.

The results of his test extinguished the last bit of hope he had. It really was just a normal sharpened stick. With his expertise with the spear, he could tell that this spear might not be able to able to resist a full powered strike by a normal human, much less an awakened seeded.

The thought of leaving the stick crossed his mind but he immediately discarded it. With the memories of all the webnovels the other soul had consumed, he understood. This spear was likely a powerful treasure but it was just dormant. The spear spirit had also told him that it had extinguished all it's energy. He'd just have to look for a way to wake it up.

He looked around the hall, only now noticing that the previous imposing pressure had vanished. A sense of ancient withering caused by time filled the hall, now all the statues just seemed like aged stone in the midst of deterioration.

He took one last look at the dragon—the only statue that still maintained it's imposing might—flashes of the weird vision crossing his mind before he left the ancient ancestral hall with the sharpened stick.