11 11-Draco Mortem

"..." - Speech.

'...' - Thought.

{...} - Magic casting.

[...] - Telepathy.

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Exploring, further, Noah and Fragil found nothing other than the labs.

Going through all the rooms, they decided to go back.

Going up the stairs, they heard an explosion. Noah and Fragil picked up the pace. Getting to the area, where they heard the explosion.

Arriving to a big round hall, Noah and Fragil saw a humanoid figure that was made out of fire. The figure was attacking Randall, While Leopold was trying to flank it from the side.

Sina was a few meters back, staying out of the way.

Fragil ran to Sina, "What's going on here?"

"We opened one of the rooms, and this creature started attacking us" - Sina

While the girls were trying to cast support magic from the back, Noah rushed to help Leopold.

Looking at the creature, Noah was able to tell that it was the minor spirit that was able to survive, but lost it's sanity. From the notes he read, it's a minor fire spirit that was captured by the elder lich.

Leopold sent a fire ball attack towards the spirit, Noah sent a ferrofluid ball next to it. The flammability of the ferrofluid helped the ball increase its power. It wasn't compound magic just yet, but it was a great combo.

Randall on the other hand was doing alright. He seemed to be able to handle the fire of the spirit pretty well. He was able to defend against it's attacks, he was even able to send a few attacks back at it.

"We can't keep attacking it with fire magic, the thing has high fire resistance" - Randall

Suddenly the room became many degrees colder. Looking behind them, the saw Fragil cast a spell with her snow magic.

"We'll create a chance, then Fragil, you will have to try and burry the thing in snow" - Randall

After that, Noah and Leopold, started to attack in a sequence. The thing was mindless, and whoever hits it, will attract it's attention.

Noah would charge up a big attack while Leopold would attack it. Once Noah has the attack charged, he would wait for Randall to hold the spirit in place then Noah would hit it as hard as he can.

Then the spirit would focus on Noah, and Leopold would do the same thing. He would charge an attack and wait for Randall to distract it for a moment.

Once the spirit was all beat up, Fragil sent a big snowball at the spirit. Snow was an opposite to fire, but it was on the loosing side. The snow would melt a little before even touching the spirit.

Just as the spirit was covered in snow, the snow started to melt. Noah took this chance and sent some of his ferrofluid into the water around the spirit, and caused the black water to bubble around the spirit and encase it. Once the spirit was surrounded, Noah willed the black bubble to harden.

Noah had massive reserves of mana. He put a lot of mana into the hardening, he could have used a lot more mana, but he felt like this amount is more than enough.

Now in front of the group was a black semi-transparent crystal with a human sized humanoid fire spirit.

Noah made sure to use the ferrofluid coffin as a way to drain mana out of the spirit and send it to himself.

"That was something" - Leopold

"Good work, everyone" - Randall said. And he meant it. They just fought a spirit, and not one of them got hurt.

After dealing with the spirit, the group kept exploring. On the third floor, the found a bunch of empty rooms, an office full of research paper and theories, and a library.

Noah, for the first time felt greedy. He wanted to take something for himself. The library was full of books about magic, runes, forbidden rituals, and more.

Even when he saw the gold ingots, he didn't want them. There are a few reasons for that actually. First, he grew up in the richest house in the kingdom. Second, he knew that the Silva house will get a nice chunk of gold, because of his presence, it will count as the Silva house directly helping the kingdom. The same will happen to the Vermillion house because of Leopold.

But he didn't want the gold. He can get more. As long as the kingdom is standing, the royal families will stay rich. He wanted what he couldn't get with money; high level knowledge.

'Maybe I should ask Julius to let me take some of those books. Even if I can't take them, at least let me read them' - Noah was planning on bringing this up with Julius

Once the Library was cleaned out, the team looked at the map that has been drawn by Sina.

"It seems like the whole castle is one level underground, and three levels above ground, but there also seems to be an attic above us. Let's explore that, then go home" - Randall

"Yes sir!" - All four responded

Looking around for a but, we found the entrance to the attic. It was a pull down ramp that we had to climb to reach the attic.

The attic was almost empty. There was nothing there but a small podium in the middle of the room with a rolled piece of parchment paper on it, with chains going over the parchment to hold it in place.

The paper was black in color like it was burned. It had purple writing on it from the outside

'What are the odds on this being something that is fatally dangerous. Let's see, the last thing in this place. Check. At the very top all on its own. Check. Looks ominous and deadly. Check. Has chains pinning it down like it's something dangerous. Check. Yeah I should totally go and check it out' Noah came closer to the parchment, but he didn't touch it.

Noah was certain that he can absorb whatever will try to come at him. Even if it's a living thing, he can drain it. Besides, he's fully energized. His mana is at full capacity because of all the mana he got from the fire spirit.

After looking at the parchment for a little longer, that gut feeling that he felt at the castle entrance, came back.

He reached out his hand and grabbed the parchment. His hand sank a little into the parchment like it was sinking through water.

After a moment, Noah tried to take his hand out, but it wouldn't let him budge. Noah didn't panic, he started absorbing all the mana inside the parchment.

'Damn! There is as much mana in this piece of paper as the wizard king has' - Noah was full, and he couldn't take anymore mana, so with a little finesse on his part, he was able to redirect the mana to his grimoire.

He decided to store the extra mana inside his grimoire. After a few seconds of draining, a new spell formed in his grimoire.

Looking at the page with a surprised look on his face, Noah saw a symbol drawn at the top right of the page, then there was writing in a language that Noah had never seen. Unlike all of the other spells that Noah has, this one doesn't have a magic circle.

"What the hell?" - Noah asked himself aloud

"What are you doing?" - Randall walked towards Noah

"I'm trying to free this thing" - Noah

"If you can't take it out, or if it's dangerous, then leave it. We already explored the whole place, we know there are no more traps, some experts will be sent here after we report back" - Randall

"It's ok, just give me some time. I'm working on it" - Noah

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It took Noah an entire hour to finish absorbing all the mana.

Once the last drop of mana was taken by Noah, the room suddenly became black, like he was transported to another room.

Looking around, Noah saw nothing else, until he heard the sound of chains clinging coming from behind. Looking behind him, he saw a big black dragon with sharp scales and purple eyes and purple mist leaking from its nostrils as it breathed.

(A/N: Image of the dragon.)

Looking at the dragon, Noah can feel a powerful aura around it. The energy inside that dragon is massive. But from the energy, Noah can feel some sadness and depression

"What are you?!" - Noah was baffled

*RAWRRRRRR* a powerful rawr sounded, The ground under their feet caved in a little and cracked like a spider web. The pressure from the rawr threw Noah back a dozen meters.

Noah stood up, and the dragon swiped at him, but the chains held back the dragon, so his claws weren't long enough to reach Noah.

Noah paused and looked at the black dragon in front of him. "Are you trying to get me to kill you? Cause that won't work. I'm not stupid, you know. You used your rawr to push me away, then pretend to want to slice me with your claws. C'mon, at least try to make it more believable" - Noah

Hearing what Noah said, the dragon stopped its rawring and looked at the human in front of it.

"I heard that humans like to kill whatever threatens their lives, but you didn't. What are you anyway?" - The dragon said in a deep voice

"I asked you first" - Noah said as he walked closer to the dragon. Noah can feel the emotions inside the dragon. This wasn't magic, this was a gut feeling. The dragon is scared, hurt, and wants to end it all.

"You're not scared of me?" - The dragon

"Who are you?" - This time Noah asked the right question this time

"My name is Draco Mortem" - The dragon

"My name is Noah Silva" - Noah responded to the dragon

"I'm not sure how you did it, but it seems like you trapped me inside of another object" - Draco Mortem

"How did you end up like this?" - Noah ignored the comment.

"It's a long story, and I really don't want to talk about it. But since you figured out my earlier intent, I'll ask you right away. Will you please kill me?" - Draco Mortem

"No" - Noah

"Why not?" - Draco Mortem

"Tell me your story first, then I'll decide" - Noah

The dragon straightened up, like it was ready to do something. It took a deep breath with a very sad look on its face. The dragon's purple eyes locked with the boys silver-purplish eyes for a second.

"As I already told you, my name is Draco Mortem. I was born as a Divine dragon" - Draco Mortem

Noah looked at the dragon, there is nothing about it that looks Divine at all.

"I know what you're thinking, I don't look Divine do I? But that's not what I looked like before. You see, Divine dragons are the strongest and purest of all dragons. There can only exist one to two at a time. 15 years ago my mother laid two eggs. Generally speaking, when dragons lay two eggs at once is considered a bad omen. Twins means that either booth will be weak, or one will be strong and the other is going to be very weak. My case was the latter. My older twin sister was stronger than me.

But my mother, was loving, and even as I was weaker compared with my older sister, my mother never mistreated me. She always looked after me. But sadly, she died when I was around 4 years old. After her death, my older sister kicked me off the mountain peak we used to live on.

She hated me for being loved even as a weakling. During the fight she broke one of my wings, so I couldn't even fly away. But later I found out, that I'm weak compared to Divine dragons, but compared to other creatures that lived in the forest, I was considered one of the strongest.

I spent a year in the wilderness, I was able to hunt for myself, but I couldn't heal my injured wing yet. As a Divine dragon I have healing powers, but I couldn't use them. I decided to train on my own, and improve my healing ability so that I can heal myself.

After months of training, I was finally able to heal my wings. I was proud of myself. Even if my older sister was able to use all of her abilities from birth, I was still proud with my improvement. After I was healed, I decided to fly to a further location, away from my sister. Once I got near this area, I was captured by the elder lich who used to live here."

Draco Mortem kept telling Noah about the torture that he went through because of the lich.

It turns out that Noah was wrong. The three labs he saw before, weren't three different experiments, it was one experiment with three different steps.

The first step was to fill the creatures the elder lich captured with drugs and other concoctions that opened up the magic pathways inside the creatures. Then the Elder lich would torture them for a few years, making them feel nothing but hatred, malice and negative emotions. Draco Mortem had his scales ripped off of him one at a time, he lost his eyes, then the lich healed him, just so that he can pluck them out again. Once the creature would be in a constant negative state of mind, with nothing but malice, then the elder lich would inject negative/corrupt mana. This third step is the one that either kills them, or turns them mindless.

"When it was my turn, the elder lich injected me with negative mana. For an entire day, I felt nothing but my entire body getting torn apart. I felt like I was about to burst. Then I was on the brink of madness, but the picture of my gentle and loving mother kept me from losing it all. I held on, until I "evolved" to what I am now.

My white and pure body is gone, my holy aura is gone, and my holy golden flame magic has also been taken away from me. I was only left with these disgusting black scales, this rotten and foul air around me, and these ugly hell-flames. After my "evolution" I attacked the elder lich while he was celebrating his success. I was able to fight him for a little while.

The fight was hard, but because of my initial attack, I was able to get the upper hand at first, but he was more experienced than me. During his dying breaths, he cast a spell that trapped me in this place for the last five years.

I lost everything. That's why I want to die. The chains on me prevent me from killing myself, but you seem strong enough to kill me if I let you" - Draco Mortem

Listening to the story Noah felt sad for this dragon. Unlike Noah, this dragon didn't have the power or talent to defend himself against his older sibling. But both shared the feeling of loosing the first person to love them unconditionally. No, maybe it was better for Noah, since he had Noelle with him at all times. He knows he can trust her, and depend on her if ever needed, but this dragon was all alone.

Focusing on the chains, Noah freed Draco Mortem.

"Listen Draco Mortem-"

"You can just call me Draco" - The dragon said

"Listen Draco. I won't kill you. I just took the chains off of you. You can go ahead and kill yourself. Or you can come with me. I plan to become the strongest in the world. And if that bitch sister of your is as strong as you say, then I'll have to beat her up at some point" - Noah

"You see Noah Silva-"

"You can just call me Noah" - Noah added

"Well Noah. You see, I can't live with myself anymore. I lost the only thing that connected me with my mother. My mother was strong, beautiful, but I was weak, and unable to do any of the things she does. The only thing that proved a failure like me was her son was my looks. Thanks for the offer but I really can't live with myself" - Draco said in a very sad voice. He really was ready to let go of his life.

"Is that all you are? Would your mother want you dead like that. Use your disgusting black scales to shield others, use your ugly hell-flames to do good things and fight. You can't just give up!" - Noah was frustrated. Because Draco was inside Noah's grimoire, he can feel his emotions. This feeling of complete hopelessness was a terrible feeling for Noah.

Draco can feel the sincerity in Noah's voice. Noah was a positive kid by nature. He always looked for the good in things, and the dragon felt that.

Noah reached out his hand towards the dragon, "I'll be the strongest, you can come with me and accompany me on my journey, or you can die on your own"

Draco hesitated for a moment, "What if I come with you? What will I gain?"

"Nothing! I promise you nothing. But it's better than dying" - Noah

A little while later, Noah can be seen walking outside the castle with a smile on his face.

'Suck on that Asta and Yuno. So what if you have a devil or a spirit, I have a fucking dragon!'

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I had enough of the evil inner demon who wants to do something grand or use the MC or full of hatred and wants revenge, and the MC has to befriend them (Sylph is annoying so I didn't even consider having something like that). So I decided to give the MC a depressed dragon-a loyal depressed dragon. There will be a lot of character development for Draco, and some badass abilities.

I purposely didn't explain Draco's power. That will be for later!

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