Draconic King of Shadows-Chapter 85: Pawns in a Bigger Game

Damion left together with Aspasia, both keeping their distance from the other. They knew the strength of one another, so they couldn’t outright attack themselves, lest they deal grave injuries to each other.

At least that’s what Aspasia thought.

She didn’t know that Damion had gotten much stronger since the last time they clashed.

Although he couldn’t completely overpower her, he could at least hold his own against her and come out on top, but he wasn’t going to do that.

Damion preferred to use simple or unhandled tactics to take her out. Tactics that wouldn’t leave traces behind and get him caught.

His mind was already swirling with multiple thoughts, and he was formulating one plan after another, plotting deviously, unbeknownst to Aspasia.

Aspasia on the other hand was quite carefree, walking ahead of him as if she didn’t fear an attack from behind.

They had reached deep enough into the jungle for them to fight to their heart’s content without anyone hearing the commotion. Both of them knew this, and this left Damion confused by her actions. Was she leaving herself wide open to lure him in?

Damion shook his head.

If she really was doing that, then she was in for a little surprise.

The duo pulled up their maps and began watching it with keen interest as they headed deeper into the forest silently. Until Aspasia broke the silence.

"So... how have you been?" She suddenly said, snapping Damion out of his thoughts.

Damion raised his gaze, his eyes narrowing as he peered at her deeply, his stare so piercing it seemed like it would bore a hole through her.

"Hey, hey, hey, chill!... I’m just being nice and asking about your well-being," Aspasia said, turning around and raising her hands up.

Damion stopped in his tracks, his eyes narrowing further and beginning to glow.

Nyx was floating behind him, invisible to Aspasia’s eyes and ready to be called by Damion to defend him.

Aspasia slowly lowered her arms, then sighed.

"I was just thinking..." she said. "Ophidia, Vorgath... we’re just discardable pawns dancing on their palms,"

"Why kill ourselves because two supreme beings have a beef with each other? Countless lives have been lost because of this long hatred for themselves, an..."

"And more would be lost if we don’t stop it," Damion cut her off, a sudden anger bubbling within him. "Do you really think you have a choice in this matter?"

Aspasia’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, her face turning more serious.

"Whether we want to do it or not, they would have their way even if it means killing innocent beings,"

"The weak have no say in the decisions of the strong, so we can do nothing but obey... unless you have a way to defy their authority that is,"

Damion looked Aspasia up and down, then scoffed. "Do you have such power?"

A vein popped up in Aspasia’s head, and she clenched her fists, unable to reply.

"Nice try, but I’m not buying your bullshit."

There was silence for a few seconds before Aspasia finally spoke again.

"So you’re telling me you feel okay being controlled?"

"We will always be controlled, be it by the Academy’s authorities, the world leaders, or the gods themselves."

"Pathetic fool! Have you gone insane?"

"I haven’t, probably never will either," Damion replied. "I don’t know what made you think of what you believe in, but trust me, it wouldn’t take you anywhere,"

"You might want to defy those above you and break free from their control and manipulation, but that can only be done with strength, and you clearly lack that."

"Oh really?" Aspasia’s voice suddenly turned dark.

"I don’t have the strength?" she said, the chill on her voice becoming more intense. "Do you want me to show you how strong I am? Do you want to see how..."

"Cut the crap, you’re weak as f**k, you couldn’t defeat me when I wasn’t this strong, so what makes you believe you stand a chance now?"

The vein popping up in Aspasia’s head throbbed. Damion was really getting on her nerves. This was the second time he had cut her off while she was speaking, and she didn’t like it.

She breathed out, calming her bubbling rage. Getting angry wouldn’t get her what she wanted from him.

"Let’s work together, and you’ll understand in due time what my aim in all this is."

"And what makes you think I’ll trust you?" Damion asked, raising a brow. "You can’t expect me to actually side with you, right?"

"No, I didn’t expect that from someone smart like you," Aspasia agreed. "Though I believe you’ll understand what I’m getting at soon enough, and you’ll be the one to approach me instead. Till then, let’s just complete our mission and return to the base."

And with that, she turned around and resumed walking, as if nothing had ever happened.

Damion meanwhile was thinking about her words. What did she mean by he’ll understand soon? Was she plotting something against him, or was she just bluffing to put him on edge?

Damion shook his head.

He was going to find out another time. All he needed now was to focus on the task ahead.

He signalled Nyx to continue his explanations while he watched the map.

Nyx proceeded and explained to Damion how he was supposed to feel his Mana and learn to control it. He had progressed in that area a little, but a little wasn’t enough for him.

Damion focused, splitting his mind two ways to multitask. He had learnt to do this much, which made him capable of doing different things at the same time.

As Damion tried to control his Mana, he remembered that time when he ventured into the forest by the Academy. He had caused his necklace to malfunction before he left his room, due to the curfew.

The feeling of his Mana pouring into Dragon’s Authority that time played in his head over and over, and he began to feel his Mana stir.

Damion’s eyes were wide open, one part of his consciousness focusing on the map while walking, while the other was trying to trigger his Mana from within.

Damion didn’t know how long it took, but he felt a little bit of his Mana pour into Dragon’s Authority, resulting in the subtle movements of the leaves in the surroundings.

’A success!’ Nyx suddenly exclaimed, disrupting Damion’s concentration.

The Mana dispersed, Dragon’s Authority effect stopping as Damion sighed, wiping a bead of sweat that had formed on his head.

’It’s harder than I thought,’ he mumbled. ’But that’s a good start.’

’You still have a long way to go,’ Nyx said.

Damion smiled after that, and he thought back to something. ’Come to think of it, that telekinesis power that Dragon’s Authority displayed on multiple occasions, did it come from my Mana working with Dragon’s Authority to do that?’

Nyx remained silent for a while before speaking:

’I’m not so sure, but if I were to take a guess, it’ll be something similar to that, but at the same time different.’

Damion tilted his head to the side, puzzled. ’Different in what way?’ He asked.

’I can’t explain it either, though what I do know is that you would need to become strong enough before you can truly understand,’ Nyx explained.

"Another reason to become stronger," Damion voiced out. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Without warning, the red dot on his map suddenly shifted, then began coming in his direction rapidly.

Damion’s gaze narrowed, and he immediately tuned out all distractions and focused on the red dot.

At some point Aspasia had ditched him behind and moved far ahead. She thought she had left his range of perception and was doing things secretly, but she had no idea of Damion’s perception’s range.

Damion could ’see’ her doing something through Dragon’s Authority, but he couldn’t tell exactly what, so he decided to play along.

Using Dragon’s Authority together with what he could see on the map, he could tell that Aspasia was close to their target’s location already.

It seemed to him like the sudden movements of their target wasn’t caused by a natural means, Aspasia had agitated it or caught its attention.

Damion’s eyes turned cold as he came to a shocking realization.

Aspasia was either luring their target towards him... Or she was working with the target.

Or maybe it wasn’t so shocking. Damion was already expecting something from her, but this definitely wasn’t among it.

He wondered how she had done it, but he didn’t have much time to think about that, an enemy was closing in quickly.

Nyx manifested into his hands shaped like daggers.

Damion took of swiftly and used the daggers to scale a tree.

The Jaws of Ophidia appeared on his face, and his coat appeared too, changing color immediately to blend in with the surrounding.

And then he waited.

Damion’s breath relaxed easily, his mind clearing of all distracting thoughts, and his concentration peaking.

His eyes glowed with a purple light, and Dragon’s Authority spread thin, crossing the 35 meters mark and extending further.

[Dragon’s Authority- Level 7]