WHITE DRAGON

The sounds of the rattling carriages echoed through the forest as the convoy of Grand Duke of Leviathan carved a path in this vast creation of nature.

The forest the convoy is passing through is the outskirts of the capital of the Regulus Empire. The lush forest has thick towering trees that was 20 metres tall.

These enormous trees acted as a defense from attacks that came from either their neighboring counties from the west or star beasts coming from the south.

The inhabitants in this vast forest are star beasts that have low levels of danger. Their levels are classified from weakest to strongest as:

[Yellow Rank], [Green Rank], [Blue Rank], [Black Rank], and

[Red Rank]

Their rank increases as they accumulate gracia in their core and condense it. The star beasts in this forest have ranks of the first three, making the [Blue Rank] beasts the strongest here.

The tall trees serves as their source of gracia due to the trees absorbing the energy in the air.

"Grandpa, aren't there many monsters here in the outskirts? Why are we travelling here instead of the main road? Can the guards defeat the beasts that attacks? Can YOU beat them?", the cute girl with a red ribbon on her yellow hair bombarded the Grand Duke questions as she peeks through the windows of their carriage.

The Grand Duke was happy seeing her being energetic now as she heard the news of her father is going to take her to the Desolate Zone.

"Your grandpa here can of course take care of them. Even your father can kill this monsters with a flick of his finger.", the old Duke flick his finger to her forehead as she giggled to his gesture.

"Umm, then, who is stronger? You or Daddy?", the girl said, eyes wide, as she stared the old Duke for an answer.

The Grand Duke put his right under his chin, trickling his short grey beard. "Hmm, I think your father will win if I fight him on land but, I can defeat him if we fight on the water."

"But who will win in the end? I think you won't beat him even if your on water. I believe in Daddy! Daddy will win!", the cute girl raised her right hand up in the ceiling while standing.

"Hoho, who knows? Maybe you will be stronger than us if you grow up faster. You and Feng will beat me and your daddy to the ground.", the Grand Duke rubbed her head as she giggled again.

He then looked through the window, the convoy is now out of the forest and making its way to the borders, heading south.

The view of barren desert filled their eyes.

Grand Duke left out a sigh as he thought of his own grandchildren, Feng and Mizu.

'I wonder how are they now? I'm sure they grew up well.', he thought as their carriage stop at the soft sand they can't travel in a carriage in this desert.

There's so much risks. The star beasts here are commonly in [Green Rank], even in the outer ring. There's so much more powerful beasts farther in the Desolate Zone, some stronger beasts even maid their own lairs and laid their treasures there.

The adventurers and soldiers often go to the outer zone to gain battle experience or go hunt for cores suitable for their paths.

They got out of the carriage and was immediately met with searing heat of the sun.

"Hey Old Dragon, you should've brought an umbrella, you better not go drying on me now, haha!", they heard a gruff voice calling out to the Grand Duke between the commotion.

The other people in the carriages also got out, most of them are soldiers and adventurers, they are carrying everything that can be carried.

The convoy's purpose is to bring people that have a grudge on the Imperial Family. Orders are being shouted at everywhere.

"It's nice to see you as well, my friend. How's the other job that I gave you? Are they all carried out?", the Grand Duke approached the masculine man a few feet away from them, holding the cute girl's hands.

"Daddy!", she ran towards the man who opened his arms to hug her. But, the girl didn't gestured a hug to greet her father.

Instead, she performed a flying kick to the face of her old man. "How many times did I tell you to write me a letter that makes sense and no hearts filling it?! I can't even see you what you wrote because of the heart!"

"I'm sorry, Mir. I just can't get rid of the thought of you writing me a letter. You were just so cute! So I just put few hearts in mine.", the masculine man said while blocking the barrage of punches that his cute 7 year-old daughter was throwing at him.

That made the Grand Duke let out a chuckle. He then cleared his throat, making a coughing sound to get the attention of the loving father who is now trying to kiss his cute daughter but, was being blocked by a fist.

"Oh, I'm sorry Duke Levi. Ahem! What I am trying to say is, the job is done. The children are in my tent and being taken care my soldiers.", he said, with straight face.

The Grand Duke pondered for a moment and thought about what he said. It gave him shivers thinking about masculine soldiers, wearing an apron and tending to the kids of the heroes.

"Well, as long as they are safe, I will be rest assured.", Duke Levi said, confirming the information.

"We will wait here for that MAN. I heard he woke up this morning and now exiting the capital. He should be here after an hour or less.", the old Duke said to the masculine man.

"Hector, let your men rest for now. Arrange all the things we will bring with us.", Duke Levi let out a long sigh after ordering the masculine man.

Hector bowed and left the Grand Duke that was now staring at the forest, hoping that MAN will come quickly.

"Let's go, Mir. I will take you to my tent. There are kids there that you can play with.", Hector said to his daughter away with him.

"Yey! Is Feng and Luke in there, too?", Mir asked happily.

"No, they're not in my tent. But, soon you will see them and Mizu and the others too.", Hector reassured Mir to not make her sad.

"Okay! I will just play with them, Daddy!", Mir happily said while skipping and holding her father's hands.

As the pair of father and daughter make their way to the camp, the Grand Duke can be seen still staring at the forest behind them.

'The Desolate Zone's outer and middle ring is not difficult for me, Hector and his soldiers to pass through. But, the inner ring is filled with [Black Rank] beasts and having a large number of people behind our backs while we fight them is not a smart thing to do. Luce must come with us to push our way in. He said he knows where to get in.', Levi thought.

After an hour of waiting, the Luce is still not on sight. The desert is becoming more hotter by the time. They have to move or else the environment of the outer ring will punish them and worse as they have kids along the camp.

The Grand Duke is getting impatient. If they don't now, the children will suffer. He started to walk back to the camp as they need to move and not wait for Luce. Then suddenly, he felt an enormous presence behind his back, it was suffocating.

He turned back to the forest and released all his cores. There were seven cores, the size of a fist floating beside him, all glowing brightly with a carving in their surfaces.

Two of them have a green glow, the other three is blue, and the last two near Duke Levi's head is glowing black.

[6TH STAR CORE - DRAGON'S CLAIRVOYANCE]

One of the two black cores glowed brightly as he activated his core, Duke Levi's eyes turned into that of a dragon and shone a white light.

All the things that caught those eyes can be seen through, their veins, their bones, their blood flow, even the gracia in the air. Duke Levi's eyes can see them all now. He focused his eyes where the immense pressure came from.

What he saw shocked him. He saw Luce is now stronger than ever. His aura has become condensed, even the gracia in the air can't compare to it's hue. But, seeing Luce is not the thing that shocked him, it's the person behind Luce!.

'This.. This is not possible, how can a human have this kind of aura. I must be getting old.', sweat trickled down the grand duke's face.

The aura is produced by accumulating gracia in the air and condensing it to your core. Your aura is gracia oozing out of your body. That gracia oozing out is just excess energy absorbed, it means that, your cores distinguish if the gracia you accumulate is nourishing or not.

The auras' color is determined by how high your level are and what rank of cores you have. The Duke has indigo aura, Luce has scarlet, but the man that Duke Levi saw has a blood red aura. It was possible if your level is at the peak of Demi-god Rank which is level 99.

There's almost a little divinity mixed in the man's aura. The Grand Duke perceived it through his eyes.

'That guy is dangerous. I must help Luce.'

The Grand duke hastily got back to the camp to find Hector. They must help Luce to escape this predicament. And Hector has the one thing that can help Luce.

"Hector! Enemies at range! Luce is being tailed! Help me!"

Levi opened Hector's tent abruptly and saw Hector already putting on his battle armor.

"I know, I sensed Luce got strong too. I also sensed 11 other pursuers. They are hiding their auras well."

They both immediately ran back into the forest to help Luce. Maybe their level were not as high as Luce, but their abilities can help him get a little boost on strength.

"I'll go flank them on the left. You help Luce."

Hector released his cores, 2 green, 4 blue, and 1 black. Then the 4 blue cores glow simultaneously.

As they glow, changes began to happen to Hector's body. His skin became brick red and his limbs bulged, a tiger head tattoo formed on his back and blue runes came out of it.

In that single moment, he became a giant red man with claws on his fingers and runes all over his body. He was about 8 feet tall now.

[ IRON TIGER'S PATH - RED TITAN ]

As soon as Duke Levi saw Hector transform, he headed straight to where Luce is going. As he saw Luce, he's mood became grim. He gasped as he saw the bloody face of the man who he has deemed as the strongest Man in the empire.

"What are you doing here, old man?! Stay away, you can't beat this guy!", Luce screamed in rage as he saw the old man running towards him.

'Why are you still here?! You could've waited for me in the middle ring!', Luce thought, full of regret and anger, he's angry at himself as he underestimated the opponent.

"Wow, what a display! The Marquis Velfort of Iron Mountain is here and as well as the Grand Duke of Leviathan, the uncle of the Emperor?! I can't believe you're together with this man, I will deem as a traitor as well, then."

Lumiere stopped at a tree branch and watch the situation unfold. Luce is now leaning on grand duke Levi and Hector fighting the Zodiacs that has lost their memories, they changed completely.

"We will get you out of here, Luce. I promise you! Even if one of us has to die, you must come back! Ack-!"

Hector shouted at them but took a blow to his stomach and was sent flying to the giant trees.

"Your too noisy, can we just finish this and go home, I don't have time for this useless fighting."

Mu, the Martial King said as he brush of the dust off his robe. His the one who sent Hector flying.

"Lumiere, let them go. They have no part on this. They just wanted to escape from the Empire.", Luce said, panting. He was exhausted due to bearing the combined attacks Lumiere and the Zodiacs.

He had no choice but to run at the moment he saw them chasing him, he won't kill Lumiere, not with the Zodiacs together with him.

"Hector, do me a favor this time. Please live.", Luce said.

"I'll try my best. Maybe if I had a better breakfast this morning, I'll be able to beat the shit out of them."

Hector got up and released his cores, then his aura glew indigo. It means, it's time he got serious.

[ 7TH STAR CORE: MANIFESTATION - IRON TIGER]

Suddenly, the tattoo on Hector's back became alive and used it's ethereal paws to touch the grout. A moment later, a huge black tiger, was standing with it's hind legs beside it's master.

The two were both equal in height and released the same color of aura.

"Hahaha! Let's go!!!", Hector shouted as he and his tiger attacked at both sides, gaining control.

'Tch, that muscle for brains finally got serious, huh? I might as well join them to finish this mess.', Lumiere thought, clicking his tongue as he watched the battle at his right side, not worrying about the two in front of him.

"Where are you looking at? I'm still alive here, you garbage with a glass."

Luce said staring furiously at Lumiere, he's in front of Lumiere now.

Lumiere didn't have the time to react as Luce released his cores.

[6TH STAR CORE - CHRONOSTASIS]

[8TH STAR CORE - WARP]

A black and a red core simultaneously glowed and Lumiere was dragged by Luce together with Levi in the open waters.

It took a moment for Lumiere to realize where he was. He's warped into the ocean where the Grand Duke Of Leviathan is most powerful at.

'Find them! Find where they are now!', Lumiere thought, while looking everywhere he can perceive at the deep blue ocean.

As Lumiere looked for someone releasing his cores zealously at that single moment, he finally saw someone.

It was Levi who released 7 seven of his cores. He stared wide eyes at what he saw. It's not that he cannot react to it, he was just restrained by the water as he furiously struggled to break away.

'I hope my 1st star core ability can buy me some time.', Levi thought before concentrated again and activated his cores.

[WHITE DRAGON'S PATH - LEVIATHAN]

The path activation is a high levelled technique where you activate a number of your cores to transform in the best way your core will get you. Transforming paths are for those warriors that have a beast soul. Just like Hector and Levi.

[2ND STAR CORE - AQUA RULER]

The dragon form of Levi heightened his perception, regeneration, and control of water.

He blasted all the water he condensed using his gracia directly to Lumiere.

That created a whirlpool in the ocean as a large amount of water suddenly moved in a single part. Lumiere's body was seriously injured by that attack. And Grand Duke was exhausted.

'I hope that did him some damage. It's time to go back.', Luce thought, he was outside the range of the attack and he helped binding Lumiere. Luce slowed down Lumiere's brain, to make it hard for him to move his own body.

Luce activated his 8th core again and they were immediately sent back to the forest. It was a convenient ability but, it decreases his gracia by a grate amount everytime he uses this ability.

Levi looked around and found Hector on the ground, frustrated or more like angry at himself.

"What happened to you guys, you just vanished suddenly. My opponents run away after you left.", Hector said, both arms opened wide as he lay on the ground, disappointed.

"At least you're alive, right? Mir must not lose his Daddy. That cute girl will be sad.", the grand duke offered a hand to help him stand up.

"We should go back to the camp. I'm exhausted. I never had a fight like this for a while."

Levi stretched his arms and walked back to Luce, Hector behind him.

"Hey Hector, you should've seen the old man transform again. It was great. He destroyed this guy here in one shot."

Luce was sitting in the corpse of Lumiere and slapped him while he talked to his two friends.

"That was one hell of a move, even if I didn't see what exactly happened.",

Hector tapped Luce's shoulders while they are running back to the camp.

"We should hurry, we got no time to lose. The outer ring has a harsh environment at noon. The kids can't travel that heat.", Levi said, while he ran ahead of them. The old man is running faster than the two younger boys behind him, he felt proud of it.

They got into the camp and quickly left. They are heading for the inner ring. Luce said that his wife has a place prepared for them there.

The grandchildren of Levi is also in there. They made their plans even before the emperor was crowned. His grandchildren were very talented and strong kids.

They are living together with their mother, who is a native woman in the inner ring just like Luce and Luce's wife is said to be their matriarch in there.

They made their way into the middle ring in just an hour of running. Of course, there are beasts that they encounter but, they fended them off easily.

"We will rest here for tonight! Set up camps, the guards will shift teams every two hours! We will then start running again at dawn!"

Hector barked out commands to the guards as they rest and camp here for the night. Luce watched him carrying his daughter back to his own tent and let out a sigh.

"You will see your son soon, Luce. Only a little more running."

Grand duke Levi comforted him as he gave a bowl of curry to Luce.

"Will you believe me if I say, "this journey will only take us 3 days while the Zodiacs did it for 8 years"?", Luce asked old Levi, sipping some curry in the bowl.

"We're doing it right now, right? Why ask something that you know the answer for?", Levi answered him.

Luce thought for a moment and looked at the stars.

"The first time I woke up in this world, my body was covered in blood and the moonlight shining upon me. There were altars around me, with headless humans and beasts on top of them, blood dripping and flowing to the center, from where I am and a dagger."

"They rejoiced that I was summoned here in the brink of death. They nourished this body by using humans and beasts. I feel no pity to the weak, I loathed them. But, those weaklings brought me back to life and gave me purpose."

Luce gripped the black dagger on his waist and looked at Levi.

"Tell Lily I will always protect her and Luke. I have so much to tell them but I think I can't do it anymore.", Luce's serious tone confused Levi.

"What do you mean?! You should tell them yourself. We're almost there!", Levi stood and raised his voice.

"I will take you to the inner ring where you can find the Sanctuary. But, I will part with you after that. There's something I must do, and I can't have you with me.", Luce's voice was still calm and serious, he looked up to see Levi's eyes, worrying about him.

He was like a son to him, like Hector. Levi lost his real son in the war with the demons but, he introduced Luce to him before he died.

Luce is the one who said that his son fathered two children from some girl at Luce's tribe. He met them because of Luce and he saw that they both resemble their father. They both have bird type beast souls, the first born, Feng, has a flame affinity bird beast soul, while Mizu has water affinity.

The two kids both get along with Mir as she was of the same age as them.

"Tell them it would take a while but, I promise I will come back.", Luce pleaded him.

"Just don't come back old, I may not recognize.", Hector's voice joined in.

"Yeah, you may be even dead before I am able to come back.", Luce teased him and the three laughed at each other. They talk about their lives for the whole night. They also made their plans to get through the inner ring.

Their journey continued the next day and rushed through the middle ring like a hot knife on a butter. They faced several [Black Rank] beasts and get their cores inside their spirit rings.

It was a rough 3-day journey because they had to hurry up and get away from the grasp of the empire.

The nobles that were with them and their soldiers levelled up and had absorbed high quality cores. This men will be needed for the Sanctuary as they are a work force and bachelors for the women in there.

There were a total of 5 nobles that were able to go with them. They are also together with their families. They the Grand duke, Marquis Velfort, Marquis Rain, Viscount Solon and Baron Perez, who was a merchant that bought a noble title.

Luce had give them his last goodbyes and parted with them. He vanished quickly into thin air as he waved them goodbye, he seems to be up to something really important.

They entered the barrier of the Sanctuary and suddenly bombarded with an enormous presence.

'The ones who are giving off this pressure seemed to be higher level than me.', Levi lowered his head to show that they mean no harm.

"Who are you and how did you come here?!", a female voice suddenly rang.

"We came here for shelter. We mean no harm, please. Just lower your presence, we have children back here."

Levi said while kneeling and but, the only one tangible there is the enormous presence they felt the moment they entered the barrier.

The pressure subsided, that gave a sigh of relief to Levi.

"Who are you?!", the voice said again.

Then Levi took out a ring that was once given by him by Luce and threw it away to the ground, hoping they could see it.

"Lord Luce helped us get here and said to give that ring to whoever is guarding the barrier. I am Levinous Regulus de Leviathan...", there's a sudden pause to his introduction as Levi is quite shy to speak of his title, despite being a prince once and a Grand Duke currently.

"The White Dragon..."