Legacy of the Dark Sage

[Do you find me useless now that you have a powerful human by your side?]

Zephyr continued to pester Kyran.

Kyran shook his head.

‘No. I don’t have a fix destination once I leave. I might end up entering a very dangerous plane and would not be able to look after—.’

[You could use a better excuse than that.]

Zephyr cut him off with a snort. His glare hardened further.

[I’m your Sigil. What’s the point of looking after your own Sigil? If you found me useless, discard me. Use me as a meatshield and escape. That’s the real use of a Sigil.]

Kyran frowned at Zephyr’s depiction of a Sigil. Nevertheless, he could not refute it because the Dragon King taught the use of Sigils to the Regis Clan. Zephyr’s depiction might very well be the truth of the Sigil’s existence.

Sensing Kyran’s conflicted emotions, Zephyr’s expression softened. He then added.

[You humans are truly weak. I’m not saying physically, but emotionally. Getting attached to a mere Sigil will be your undoing. You understand how Sigils benefited from their master, right?]

‘I know, through a blood connection.’

[Then you have to understand, if something were to happen to you, then we Sigils would also be doomed. However, if something happens to a Sigil, the master might not necessarily be affected. Unless the master grants a certain degree of blessing to a Sigil, it could happen.]

Zephyr paused, recalling how potent the Sigil’s effect they received during the last part of the war, where he and the others had to explore outside the estate’s vicinity.

[You don’t hold back when you give us that blessing. If something happens to us, you will also suffer a backlash. Although nothing happened last time, if the war did not end and instead escalated, that could have put you in danger, especially when you were engaged in another life-and-death battle.]

Kyran frowned, ‘This is the first I’m hearing such a thing.’

[As you know, I’ve been asleep for at least a thousand years, and my memories are unreliable. Of course, when I say my memories, I am talking about the memories of past predecessors that I inherited. I’ve been regaining clarity of some of those memories. And one of the things I regained is about Sigils.

[Anyway, you can’t just relinquish my mark just because you feel like it. If you find me annoying, then by all means, let me stay here and guard the Human plane like them.]

Kyran did not respond. He did intend for Zephyr to stay behind with the others after he removed his Sigil.

Kyran did not want to keep him as a Sigil because of how invested Zephyr had been in accomplishing his task. Zephyr almost died twice. That was something Kyran would never allow to happen again.

[But if you let me go with you, with your blessing, I can train better and grow strong faster. See Tritus over there? You might have arranged for him to absorb magic knowledge from the enemy, but he could do that because of the Sigil’s effect. He absorbed other mages’ knowledge like a sponge would when contacting water. The logic behind this is simple. Since that is your special ability, we also benefit from it.]

Kyran raised his brows and looked at Zephyr. His innate ability was indeed understanding the theories behind things, which enabled him to learn faster. But he did not expect the Sigil’s effect could share it with his Sigils.

[There are more things you don’t know about Sigils. If I have to compare, the Sigil your family uses only touched the threshold of what it could do. Apart from this, they only used it on beasts.]

Zephyr smiled while recalling something.

[As a matter of fact, some lesser dragons use it on each other if one is about to break through.]

What Zephyr said immediately piqued Kyran’s interest. At the same time, he more or less guessed why it was helpful.

Before breaking through to the next level, one must accumulate battle experience and improve their innate magic understanding. That was how Tritus managed to break through.

However, after that, he had to consolidate what he acquired. If not, it could destroy his foundation or strain his body. When the latter happened, he could end up as a Legendary all his life, with no hopes of breaking past it anymore.

But if Tritus used a Sigil to help gather those battle experiences and magic knowledge, it would be easier for him to break through to the next level.

Basically, the other one would help gather and then shoulder the burden from the other through Sigil.

[But none of the royal ones did. Noble dragons are prideful in their own way. They had to experience the battle themselves, or they will never see it as an accomplishment.

[Besides, those noble dragons usually end up serving the Dragon King. Thus, accumulating battle experiences by themselves was something they had to do.

[Going back on the main subject though. Please consider taking me with you. I will definitely be of help. Besides, I’ve been around the mistress almost all the time. I can recognize her even if she is in disguise.]

Though Zephyr did not say it, Kyran sensed the latter’s feeling of regret. Only then did Kyran finally realize that, like how Cyneah was fond of ‘Zephy,’ Zephyr also grew fond of her.

With a slight smile, Kyran said, ‘Neah might have ended up in a plane where the difference in time is years apart. You might not recognize her that easily.’

𝔫𝞸𝓋ℯ𝓁𝗇𝗲xt.𝕔𝒪𝑀

Zephyr snorted.

[I am a Quilin. We don’t look at people’s physical state to recognize them.]

Kyran chuckled. Giving up the idea of keeping things from Zephyr, he added, ‘Finding Neah is only one of the reasons I’ll be leaving. I also want to find a way to revive your brethren.’

Zephyr fell silent. He initially wanted to reprimand Kyran, thinking he wanted to ‘meet up’ with a few of his other mistresses outside the Human plane. Instead, his next words left him speechless.

[W-What are you talking about?]

‘Remember I took the array formation of the temple?’

[Yes.]

‘I found all your brethren’s souls in there.’

[W-What— H-How— More importantly, why are you only telling me this now?]

‘I didn’t think I could revive them. So there is no point in mentioning it. But after seeing what the Macabre Glacier could do… and since Neah is now the Soul Emperor. Maybe… just maybe, it can be done.’

Zephyr was silent for a few seconds. He agreed that the Macabre Glacier’s ability to take in souls was terrifying. Usually, if a body loses its soul, its body would slowly show signs of decay because it could be considered ‘dead.’ However, that did not happen. The Macabre Glacier could also return the souls it took back to their bodies.

‘I don’t want to give you false hope,’ Kyran continued when Zephyr still remained silent after almost a minute. ‘The Macabre Glacier might be able to house the souls inside the formation, but without a body, they could return to, they might end up stuck inside.’

[It is more than enough. If I can see them… No. Even if I can’t see or even talk to them. If their souls are intact, I can bring them home one day. That is more than enough.]

Kyran’s attention was drawn to the last part of Zephyr’s statement.

‘Bring them home one day…,’ he repeated in his head.

Obviously, Zephyr was talking about the Dragon plane in the Higher Realm. Though Kyran wanted to help Zephyr fulfil that part, he did not know how to get there.

Although the Regis Terram— which is part of the Dragon plane— was inside the Regis Estate’s Inner Walls, Kyran felt it could not be used as a transmission point.

He even had an inkling that only Ames had the ability to manifest in that place coming from the Dragon plane.

Kyran shook his head inwardly. There was no point dwelling on this subject because they had to find Cyneah first for everything to happen. Besides, although he told Zephyr about his brethren being stuck in the mirror because they no longer had a body they could return to, he was thinking of making new ones for them.

A body similar to the trident Tritus was using.

Of course, Kyran was not planning to place them in magic weapons. He was only interested in how it was made so it could house a sea serpent’s soul.

‘Do you know how one could go to the Higher Realm from here?’ Kyran asked.

[There are not many routes that lead to the Higher Realm from the Lower Realm. There is one route called the Land of Desolation. It is said that it borders the Higher and Lower Realms. But no one managed to enter from there. No one lived to tell what was truly inside there. Then, there is the Tower of Chaos. But finding that tower is not easy. Finally, there is the winner of the War of the Sovereigns.

[Once a winner has appeared, a path from the heavens will open and one can go to the Higher Realm.]

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