Cosmic Peak

At this time, Two beings were floating high in the sky and sat on the cloud with a table in-between them.

One of them was Rosflin's father, Tarrox! The Gentle Terror.

While the other person sitting across from him had a turquoise blue icy crown and feathered robe of the same color with many colorful gems that enhanced the turquoise blue robe even more. His appearance looked like a young man in this late twenties.

Both of them were looking down at the clouds in the same direction.

With his gaze still down, Tarrox spoke, "Pherizel, Did you select a human for your bloodline?"

Pherizel smiled and nodded, "Yep. She is quite good." After saying that, he waved his hand as a hazy bubble appeared, which showed a middle-aged woman with a magical fan weapon in her hand.

Tarrox looked at the man and nodded, "Not bad. It seems that only I am left in our group."

"Hahaha, we all selected some talented individuals in the first two days and gave them the chance to get our bloodline. Only you Red Dragons have yet to choose one individual. But...it seems that you already have a target."

Tarrox nodded.

Both of them have been observing Aren and the group since they entered the hidden dungeon.

"He is not bad," Pherizel said with a smile.

Tarrox nodded again before he frowned, "He is not bad, but...he has a weakness that I don't like."

Pherizel raised his eyebrows and said, "What you call his weakness is currently his strength as well."

"I know, but...he is constrained by them," Tarrox spoke unhurriedly, "If he is alone, he will progress even faster, and he has yet to realize that."

Pherizel agreed with a nod," He instinctively wants to stay with his group because he thinks they can progress faster that way, but...if he moves alone, he can bring out his full potential indeed.."

Pausing, Pherizel chuckled and said, "Well, then you should not help him when his mother uses your dragon scale. Don't let your scale activate its ability. Reto plans to kill others in Aren's group first with his trump card, putting Aren in despair. Once that happens, Reto will kill Aren as well, but before Aren is killed, you can make your appearance and save him."

"That idea is good, but...," Tarrox shook his head, "I can't predict Aren's decision and his mentality once his close ones die. He already did two things out of my expectations since I started observing him."

"Well, whatever you want to do, do it fast because that Reto is going to kill them soon," Pherizel spoke in a nonchalant voice.

Tarrox nodded and spoke unhurriedly, "I've decided to isolate him and give him hope with despair. Hopefully, he won't disappoint me and become one of the pillars of his world after three years."

...

"BRAT!" Reto shouted as he took out the scroll and cut his finger before dripping some of his blood on the scroll.

Aren frowned seeing that, and without wasting time, he threw his chakrams towards Reto.

His chakrams were imbued with powerful Sunfire due to his blessing while he was flying on his sword Articule gear since he didn't have wings like Reto.

Unfortunately, even though his chakrams became powerful due to blessing, they were not fast enough, and Reto easily dodged them.

Aurora Fish blessing only provided defense and attack buffs. His attacks could partially ignore all defenses, and his defense would reduce incoming damage by absolute half.

'My chance to kill him is only one, and that's with Longinus spear. ' Aren thought, and he was glad that he got this blessing as it was different than other blessings.

Longinus spear blessing is different as it doesn't have deactivation time. Instead, It simply disappears after all three spears are thrown. If a spear hits and kills the monster, the spear will reappear by Aren's side, but it will disappear if the target dodges the spear or he tries to strike a boss with it since the spear won't hit a boss monster.'

He had already told his mother, Quinn, and others to get away from him and Reto as far as possible, but if he went close to Reto, he wouldn't be able to protect them in case Reto suddenly attacked them.

There was an exit portal, but it was at Reto's side, so Lorain and others couldn't go there and leave this barren land.

Aren continued to attack Reto with his two chakrams while controlling them from afar, but Reto was easily dodging them while dripping his blood on the scroll.

Aren had an ominous feeling seeing that, 'I don't know what he is doing but...I have to stop him.'

He had already activated all of the skills and was attacking with <Wind Slash> as well, but Reto was dodging them easily.

Reto dodged many such attacks due to his support blessing that provided him with enchanting agility that increased his senses and all types of speeds.

Though even if he didn't have this support blessing, he could dodge Aren's attack.

But with this blessing, it became a breeze for him to dodge Aren's attack.

"Hehehe, you thought you could match someone far more powerful than you with the blessings?" Reto sneered as he was finally done with his thing.

At this moment, the scroll in Reto's hand was oozing out a mystical red aura.

The red aura was moving towards Reto and completely covered him.

"Hahaha, brat! Try to stop me if you can!"

Right after saying that, a loud sonic boom resounded as Reto dashed towards Lorain and others.

"Nooooo!" Aren shouted as he flew towards his mother's group as well.

Aren--"Mom! use the dragon scale! Fast!"

Reto was behind Aren two seconds ago, but after two seconds, he overtook Aren and even looked at him with a sneer while passing by with his fast senses and speed.

Suddenly, Aren saw Reto blocking his path and looked at him with a grin, "Watch them die, brat!"

Right after he finished speaking, a ten-meter radius giant blue fireball with red sparks appeared on top of him before it shot towards Lorain and others with breakneck speed.

Aren wanted to rush towards his mother and others, but Reto waved his hand as a red burst aura released towards Aren in a large slash shape that threw him a kilometer away in this barren land.

Lorain hurriedly took out the dragon scale and infused her spirit energy in the scale since Aren told her, but nothing was happening.

"It's not working! Aren, It's not..."

At this time, Lorain, Quinn, Luna, and Hemila revealed despair in their eyes seeing a giant fireball coming towards them.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.....*

A giant blast occurred as a fifty meters radius crate appeared at the impact point, leaving absolutely nothing behind.

Aren coughed blood as he stood up before calling his sword back and once again flew forward to check on his mother and others, 'They should be safe. Yes, with the dragon scale, that large fireball can't do anything do them.'

Aren was contacting his mother right as he stood up, but she was not accepting the spiritual call, 'She...must be shocked because of the blast. It was really loud.'

At this time, he finally arrived there as dust and smoke settled.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Brat, how was my gift? Good, right? hahaha." Reto's maniac laugh resounded.

On the other hand, Aren's mind blanked out seeing no one at the giant crate.

'Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?...'

'Why the scale didn't work? Why didn't he help? Was I wrong? Did I do wrong to rely on that life-saving item? But I could see all its effects after getting my Astral-x eyes, and it should have protected them. And this much shouldn't trouble that dragon considering that he is such a powerful being..then why? WHY?'

"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??!!!!!!" Aren shouted with bloodshot eyes.

"Brat! I would love to see you in despair more, but...I am fucking itching to kill you! So...DIE!"

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhh....I"LL KILL YOU!" Aren started attacking Reto with bloodshot eyes.

His battle instinct peaked as he attacked Reto with both of his chakrams and his wind slashes while perfectly predicting his movement on where he would dodge. He had captured Reto's dodging pattern when he was attacking with all of his attacks previously, and he used them as a basis to create a net to one-shot Reto with Longinus spear.

All of this, he was doing with anger and despair inside him while his brain was in overdrive mode.

Reto sneered as he quickly dodged the attacks and also the chakrams that arrived at him and started attacking him from all angles while moving around him.

"Your attack's can't hit-"

Suddenly, Reto's eyes popped out as he saw Longinus spear right at the place where he was going to dodge the next chakram attack.

The spear appeared right..at the left side of his head, 'Why I didn't see it? Wait..low-alt ground, he was using his chakrams around me to block my sight of it while attacking as well? Fu-.'

He thought he was a goner, but the spear...didn't hit him.

It stopped before touching the red aura that was covering his whole body.

The Longinus-spear trembled for a moment before it went poof...destroyed.

"Haha..hahaha...HAHAHAHAH, brat! You scared me for a moment! Hahaha," Reto laughed while internally wiping the sweat. He didn't know why that spear didn't hit him.

But Aren knew as his eyes revealed despair, 'Boss-status...the spear considered him as b-boss. Why? T-that red aura? that scroll?'

'Is this the end?'

Aren kneeled before he despaired while thinking about the scale.

'Why didn't the scale work? With my Astral-X eyes, I could see more of its ability, and the moment one infuse their spirit energy in it...it should conjure a large dome with absolute defense. WHY DIDN'T IT WORK? WHYYYYYYYYY?'

"Time to die, brat!" Reto appeared in front of Aren with a grin as he conjured a red-blue flaming sword.

But suddenly, Reto stopped as his whole body trembled. His eyes popped out, seeing a person that stood in front of Athan.

Intense fear and dread welled up inside him, and then...He directly kneeled down and started begging!

"Pl-please spare me! Please don't kill me..." Reto started begging with his head down and in a kneeling position. He didn't even dare to look up.

Hearing the begging of Reto, Aren looked up and saw the back of Tarrox with his majestic wings spread out.

Between the gap of Tarrox's legs, he saw Reto begging for his life, but...a tiny red wisp dropped on his head before he was lit up in flame.

Reto turned into ash in just two seconds, but the ash was still on mystical red wisp fire as not even his ash remained by the end.

Aren had no expression on his face except for despair in his eyes and no will to live.

He was living and working hard to get his and his mother's life better, to become powerful so that he could protect those around him, but...there's no one around him right now.

He knew he couldn't survive against Reto and gave up...but a strange man who looked like a dragon-man appeared and killed Reto. Why? to save him?

Aren saw the man turning around and looked at his face that was laced with a smile and surprise.

"Aren! Stand up and continue with your journey! Become powerful and survive the despair after three years. If you can do that...then all your wishes will be fulfilled. Even your mother and others who died can come back to life if you wish to..."

Hearing those words, Aren felt as if he had returned from the abyss.

A fire burned inside him while his fist was clenched so tight that blood dripped out. He looked straight into Tarrox's eyes and spoke in a voice filled with longing hope, "Is that true? Will they come back to life if I become strong and survive the despair after three years? IS THAT TRUE?!!"

Tarrox revealed a solemn face as he nodded, "It is true!"

'Well, they are not dead in the first place as I just sent them to a faraway place to be trained under a stubborn human empress. Let's just hope that they do not die there...'

Tarrox waved his hands as he lifted up Aren before stretching his hand towards Aren and giving him a glowing red orb with crimson and dark orange sparks.

"Aren...this orb is a chance, so don't waste it. It will help you in your journey to becoming stronger at a faster speed," Tarrox said with a smile before he floated upward before disappearing with smoky red sparks.

But his words reverberated, "I have created a portal here that will take you out of this dungeon. Go and start your true journey!"

Aren looked at the portal and then at the red orb that had already entered inside his inventory.

Aren stayed silent for one whole minute before a gleam passed through his now cold eyes.

...

Will everything go according to how Tarrox thought or....something entirely out of his expectation will happen?