Chapter 21: A sudden change

I dipped him in a kind of cold water that is used to torture people in Eragon but I personally prefer to use it for tests. Everytime I selected disciples they had to go through my special tests. Ryan is somewhat special so I increased its intensity, if he does not survive here then he won't make it out of the training. 

It was hard to convince Selene that he would be fine. She has grown really close to Ryan in a very short span of time. Maybe this is the best outcome, after Endymion died she almost became an empty husk, she isolated herself from everyone.

I tried to find out how he died but no matter how much I tried, the reason for his death still remained a mystery.

Endymion was not the only one that died. Around the galaxy, deaths like these have turned into a rather questioned occurrence. 

The only clue we have is the war that took place in the vampire world, Trilight. According to the vampire king, the entity that joined the war at a very crucial point killed people in an almost identical way. Everyone he attacked died by their bodies decomposing even though they were alive. This has a striking resemblance with what happened to Endymion.

Death is a word that even gives fear to the most powerful being known in existence. It does not matter if you are an immortal or a mortal thriving on a young planet. No being is an absolute immortal.

A conclusion of war was drawn by the vampire king because his kingdom was mostly ruined. Even if he could fight for much longer, the same could not have been said about his subjects.

They were tired, broken, fearful, even if the king stood strong, nothing else was more sensible in that situation than retreat.

But I know him too well, he will not rest until he defeats his enemy.

Oh now that I think about it, a new ruler should have been chosen by now. His daughter must be the new ruler of that world.

It has been a while since I met Elena, her daughter must have grown into a fine woman. 

Suddenly, I felt some tremors coming from the body of water. Ryan must be suffering a lot, guess I should take him-

Nice, as expected from our blood.

*Booom* *Booom*

Multiple columns of black flames burst out of the freezing water, vapours surrounded the atmosphere. A humanoid figure appeared out of water, his body covered in obsidian scales, his hands looked like a mixture of dragon claw and a human hand. Black flames erupting from every part of his body.

"Ryan?" Something was really off putting about him.

"Was it you?" A rather weird voice came out of his mouth. Heavy and demanding for an answer.

"I certainly was, do you want to take a dip again?" I smiled at the wyrmling named Ryan.

"Will you fight me?I haven't stretched my body in years." Ryan said with a huge smile on his face, to some this smile might look scary but to me who has lived for more than a two thousand years, this was rather cute.

"Are you sure about it?I will not hold anything back." I accepted his proposal because I was curious about his voice.

"But to make it fair I will decrease my defence to your level. Now show me what you got." Taking this as a signal he opened his mouth wide and released a huge breath of black flames. The flames more violent than the natural orange hue rushed towards me with an intention to kill.

The flames spread out and blocked my sight, I instantly realised that this was just here to create a diversion. I felt killing intent from my side and who else could it be other than the kid who thinks this was enough to create a blind spot in my greatly weakened defence.

"Haaaa"

He let out a battle cry and threw a flaming punch at my restricted body. I blocked his punch with my bare hand, as it was more than enough to handle the impact.

"Got you!" A smile bloomed on his fair face. 

"Getting caught is an achievement to you?" I looked at Ryan's smiling face, his aura steadily diminishing. His body, which had not formed a core yet, was so thin on reserves that using his own ability was a hectic job for him.

"No, I was talking about how you just played right at my palm. Although I cannot fight you, giving you a little headache should be enough." His aura shooting up as he whispered.

[Concealment]

As if waiting for his command, black flames covered my body in an instant, not leaving any part of it exposed. The black fire conjured by him was not hot but rather cold.

Ok, time to burst his bubble. I tried to extinguish these persistent fires with my water ability but to no avail they raged even more. 

This raises a rather important question, will these still continue to burn if the caster lost consciousness?

I decided to test that by letting him feel a bit of pain, just enough to knock him out.

Booooooom.

I punched him with enough force to collide with the nearby mountains. His smile turned into a wide grin as he muttered again, but this time he actually did something.

[Switch]

The scene around my body changed, I was now moving at a very fast pace. My body which was supposed to be floating effortlessly was crashing on the ground. A soft smile bloomed on my face even though my body dragged through the ground as I collided with the mountain. Light pain was coursing through my weakened body as Ryan reappeared around me.

Ryan's face had no extreme expression, almost indifferent but if you looked close enough you would see an obscure smile on his face. 

A blazing fist extended towards my abdomen. There was nothing surprising other than the pattern they followed. Like it was a loop, replicating the same thing over and over. My skin was easily pierced through because of me putting up no resistance. 

Novice techniques, bad danger sense and even leaves too many gaps.

I kicked him away while barely using any strength. A sudden realisation hit me that my injured belly was not healing, or should I say it was looping to the time he hit me. 

This will be fun, finally someone who can land a hit on me even if I was not defending myself. Not many hold the title of actually making me bleed. A sudden vibration broke me out of my stupor, it was my communication amulet.

"Tia, you need to come back and also bring back your friend. Something is happening and it is not good." It was an audio message sent by my father, his voice hinted that he was really worried.

I flew away from the disfigured mountain base and realised that I didn't lower my strength enough. He would have been long dead if he crashed there.

Ryan on the other hand was in a crater of his own, standing still without any reaction. This was really weird, maybe he was taking a break while thinking about some things. I left him alone so he could take his time to rejuvenate.

Selene was sitting at the same place she was before I started my little test which was mandatory to gauge his strength and weaknesses. Selene's expression looked really ugly unlike her usual calm and collected demeanour.

"Father called us back, something unusual is happening outside." I couldn't help but be worried about it because he never involved me in any of the problems throughout history.

"I will not forget the torture he had to go through, you better prepare for what's coming your way my friend. That's all I want to say." I shook my head in confusion after hearing what she said.

Is she that protective towards him?. This is an obvious red flag. I can see a crazy woman in the making.

I didn't reply and opened a portal leading to my father's castle. The concentrated mana filled air of the dragon world permeated through the surroundings. As we passed through the newly formed portal, I felt my restrained body finally realising the power it should. I couldn't help but curse "Shity laws."

"Shitty?, do you even realise that this planet is only safe because of these laws that bind each and every being in this universe." Selene's displeased voice could be heard as we finally reached my home.

"So annoying." These were the last words heard before the opening ceased to exist.

Back on earth something unique was happening. The entire world was facing an earthquake of a really high magnitude which caused infrastructure to fail all around the world. The earthquake lasted for just a minute but it was enough to cause Massive destruction around the globe. Soon connections were established with numerous countries as they had an emergency meeting.

In the White House, persistence of America was conducting a meeting with numerous government officials. All of their faces were grim, some even lost their family members but were still committed enough to take part in today's meeting.

Important information was being shared between different countries about the sudden earthquake which occurred everywhere, not leaving a single place untouched. 

"As I believe that soldiers of your respective countries are on the move to save people who are trapped in the debris. We should not forget about the unknown land which appeared in the Pacific Ocean. Our satellites have found it to be the size of Sumatra, the second largest Island." An aged man said in a firm tone. He was the president of America, Rutherford Cleveland.

It was a shocking revelation as most of the satellites stopped working when the earthquake started so almost everyone was surprised. Almost every representative had a dumbfounded expression on their faces leaving only a few who actually knew about this but wanted to keep quiet about it and see if others were aware. Among them were Germany, Japan, and Russia.

"What?, a new island?, this is something unheard of." Most of them were confused yet also excited to hear about it but the time was not suitable for it because every leader had a huge pile of responsibilities to fulfil.

"We all are suffering from the same circumstances, so we all should understand that we shall refrain from our curious behaviours and focus more on the citizens of our respective countries." The President of America replied in a calm tone but actually he was more worried about the island than others were excited because he and the other three leaders saw the island and that island was far from normal.

He decided to reveal some of the photos to make sure the greedy leaders get attracted to the newly appearing land.

"These are the photos we got from the island." As he finished his words, all the leaders saw a few images appearing on their screens. There were three in total and in each of them the size of the land was increasing at a speed which left them flabbergasted.

As if this was not enough to scare them, Rutherford dropped a bombshell which further shook the leaders. 

"Some of you might have already noticed this but this island is not barren and has its own different types of flora and fauna. This is not very clear but this land might cause more trouble than anything good it provides." The American president revealed things which should have been kept a secret but he was not worried much about it because the island was actually protected by an invisible barrier like thing. 

He was just trying to test these varied leaders and their reaction and he finally found some geese who were already aware of it. A slight smile appeared on his face as he looked at the representatives of Germany, Russia and Japan who will soon try to enter that island. 

He did not want to send his soldiers inside because he already made that mistake and he learnt from it. After the earthquake he immediately found out about the new wilderness. As every president would do, he sent a special forces team to explore it but that did not end up well. The team which was assigned for this job was slaughtered the moment they stepped on that island. They were not attacked by anyone as they just died by simply stepping on it.

The president only revealed this information because he himself was not sure about the new land and wanted to collect data from the mistakes of other people while also trying to find a way inside as he ran missions to save people. 

He will definitely try to reign over the new land but not before he strengthens his country because things are about to get dirty.

The meeting ended with a distrustful note as many leaders did not listen to the warnings and went ahead to prepare exploration teams of their own. Some even tried to act sneaky by hiding their intentions but nothing was out of spectrum for the American president.

"We will prepare a special team of our own, which will not set out until we find a way to bypass that barrier." A firm voice which belonged to the president rang out as everyone in the room became dead silent.

"Sir, I have some suggestions about the team." A man who looked older than the president said. He was the vice president of America.

"Oh, proceed!" The president exclaimed while crossing his hands as a slight smile was present on his face.

"Sir, I think we should prepare John and his personal team for this mission because his team was the strongest when he was active and is also small in number which will not create notable ripples in this somehow crocodile infested waters." Vice president started cleaning his glasses before wearing them again.

"I thought John Miller retired after the last mission in Antarctica years ago. How will you convince him to do something like this again?" President knew that John was not going to lead a team even if you threatened him, it would just not work. The previous president who was on the seat tried doing something like that but it did not end up well. 

"We can still try because he is our best option right now. No other teams will be able to work like him because they were never trained for such intricate missions." Vice president affirmed with a sigh. His fingers were slightly trembling but it was too hard to notice.

"Prepare a meeting with the monster. I will meet him personally." The President stood up from his seat as he knew that convincing someone like him will not be possible for the Vice president so he needs to do it himself.

Somewhere deep inside the earth a cute figure of a girl could be seen, she looked really angry and was stomping on the floor.

"No No No, why did the barrier disappear now?, this should not be happening for at least a thousand years. He promised me that it will keep veiling my planet until my children increase their strength." This girl had glossy green hair and deep blue eyes.

She was none other than Gaia, the entity people called mother Earth. She was currently trying everything to make her children evolve fast so they can prepare for what is coming their way. The mysterious island was just one of the measures she took but forbade anyone to enter it for now.

"I can already feel the fate of my children turning dim." Her words were followed by tears rolling off her child-like face.

"I will not lose, my children will not die like this." She said with a firm expression before wiping her face.

A bright green glow was surrounding her as she was doing something she wanted to delay for at least 500 years but the situation demanded this change.

This was a change many were not ready for. She was releasing the trapped mana from the core of this world.

Mana which was trapped since her creation.

She wanted a sanctuary of peace but that would not be possible anymore.