At the far end of the path stood an enormous gate of white stone veined with gold, its twin doors left slightly ajar. Upon their surface was an intricate carving of a mountain range beneath a blazing sunset sky.

  “Why does this look so familiar? I must have seen it somewhere.” Aaron frowned. “Oh, I know. It looks kinda like Solstice, but it’s impossible...”

  “Solstice?” Luther asked.

  “It’s the mountain range that encircles Mount Kynthos, at the heart of the sacred island Delos,” Aaron explained. “But the whole island was moved to Lumenos in the Era of Weeping, and the one on earth now is just a replica. This place can’t be Solstice.”

  They slipped through the gap in the gate and entered. Inside was a magnificent, grand palace. Towering throughout the hall stood colossal guardian statues, each at least twice the height of the Statue of Liberty.

  The boys saw something that made them freeze in place. The rear wall of the palace had collapsed into a massive opening, and there was an enormous head peering in, almost blocking the entire hole.

  Once they calmed down, they realized it was the white skull of some gigantic creature. It had seven empty eye sockets, and within its mouth were sharp teeth that had been broken and shattered. Its lower jaw had also been smashed to pieces.

  “Good grief, it’s so freaking huge! Just the head alone has to be at least a thousand feet tall!” Aaron estimated. “It might have reached the epic rank when it was alive.”

  “It’s been dead a very long time,” Luther said.

  They kept moving forward. Gold and jewels were scattered everywhere, piled into small hills. Aaron picked up a ruby the size of a watermelon, but it crumbled to ash, the dust slipping through his fingers.

  “This used to be a high-grade blood-type magical gemstone. Looks like everything here’s been corroded and completely destroyed by some immense force,” he concluded. “What a shame. Just a small stash of this treasure would’ve made us filthy rich.”

  At the center of the palace stood a white marble altar, split down the middle. Resting upon it was a creature lying still, eyes closed.

  Aaron stared, his eyes widened, and his jaw slightly dropped.

  “This is the thing calling to me. It… it is a…”

  The creature had a sturdy body with four powerful legs and three pairs of massive wings, spread wide to cover the entire altar and even the ground beneath. Its scales were rough and ridged, colored in a blend of fiery gold, deep red, and orange, like the clouds of a blazing sunset.

  Thirteen horns crowned its head and formed a majestic crown.

  In some ways, it resembled a mutated armadillo girdled lizard.

  Following the split along the altar, the dragon’s body had been cleaved in two, golden liquid blood covering the stone slab and seeping into the cracks. Though smaller than the skeletal beast outside, the dragon still stretched on for hundreds of feet.

  “… a Hemerian dragon!” Aaron blurted out.

  “Hemerian dragon?” Luther asked.

  “It’s a unique solar-type dragon species of Delos. Orpheus had one too, his name is Auresol, and he may still be alive.”

  Looking at the dragon’s body, Aaron felt an unexplainable sorrow well up from the Everbright Heart within him.

  Only when they climbed up the altar did they truly grasp the scale of the beast. Just its head alone was as tall as a six or seven-story building.

  “It was just a baby,” Aaron said with a sniff.

  He reached out his hand and gave the dragon a gentle stroke. At his touch, the entire body of the creature dissolved into a swirling storm of golden dust, scattering until nothing remained but its glowing skeleton. Resting in the hollow beneath its ribcage was a large egg, about the size of a basketball.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Aaron stepped forward, lifted the egg carefully with both hands, and examined it.

  “So this Hemerian dragon used its own body to protect this egg,” he murmured. “Such a shame. It’s dead. It must have gone too long without care.”

  The egg was like a piece of art made from pure gold. Scales covered it from top to bottom, and intricate, cloud patterns in shades of sunset ran along its surface, reminiscent of a medieval cathedral mural.

  All of a sudden, a deep roar echoed through the palace. “Aroooo!”

  From the opening in the wall, a monstrous fish squeezed past the massive skull and darted into the palace. It was one and a half times the size of Inkshadow, with a gaping mouth that took up half its entire body and a sharp, bladed, long tail. Seven deep violet eyes glared at the two boys.

  “An elder beast… almost reaching prime-rank. This will be troublesome. We need to get out of here,” Aaron said, frowning. “Damn it, we can’t cut off the summoning spell!”

  Something was stopping them from teleporting. Or to be more precise, something was sealing the entire place.

  “This palace,” Luther concluded.

  “Must be. Everything still worked before we got inside,” Aaron said through gritted teeth.

  Luther activated his cloak to max strength and also used Veil of Lies.

  In an instant, both boys vanished from sight, startling the fish monster. Its seven purple eyes twitched, then each began to emit a beam of violet light, scanning the area. When one of those beams swept over the spot where the boys stood hidden, the fish roared and lunged toward them.

  “It’s not fooled,” Luther said.

  “How can just an elder beast see through your cloak?” Aaron asked in confusion.

  “I can feel that. It’s a follower of some great being.”

  Aaron hurled a solar blast toward the fish. Then, he lifted Luther onto his shoulder with one arm, clutching the egg with the other, and started dashing toward the palace gates. The water pressure significantly slowed their speed.

  “Boom!”

  An explosion struck the fish. The blast dislocated part of its body and knocked away some of its scales, but that only made it more furious. It roared and charged at them even faster.

  “Pylōrodiogēsis.”

  A swirling portal opened right in front of the monster, just a few feet away. The fish couldn’t stop in time, and the immense suction from the vortex pulled it straight through. The swirling gate then shrank and vanished within a blink.

  …

  High above, in the skies of Thymos.

  A portal dozens of feet wide ripped open, and from it poured a massive column of water carrying the ugly fish monster, which plummeted straight into the thick, bloody marsh below.

  From beneath the dark crimson muck, enormous leech-like creatures burst upward and sank their teeth into the fish, tearing it apart.

  “Mmm, so delicious! I wonder which kind-hearted reaper blessed us with such a gift,” one leech said, chewing on the fish’s bones.

  “May the Flow bless that great one!” another cheered.

  Within just a minute, the fish was completely devoured, not even a single bone left.

  “You fuckers eat so fast! I only got a scale!” One leech barked. “I wish that great one would send a few more our way.”

  The moment it finished speaking, dozens of swirling portals appeared in succession, each spitting out another ugly fish.

  “What the Flow!” the leeches shouted in delight.

  Countless more leeches rose to join the unexpected feast, until the entire marsh rippled with their writhing forms.

  …

  “I’m running out of magic,” Luther panted, struggling for breath.

  He had sent a whole swarm of fish down into hell, yet hundreds more were still chasing them. Seeing the monsters closing in, and, through the gap in the wall, a massive shadow beginning to emerge from far away, Aaron clenched his teeth.

  The Noon Armor surrounding their bodies flared bright, and a radiant halo appeared behind them.

  Aaron pulled Luther and the egg into his arms, shielding them with his body, then unleashed the blazing sunburst at his back.

  The shockwave from the explosion hurled them toward the palace gates like arrows loosed from a bow. The moment they crossed the entrance, the two boys vanished.

  “Gahhhhhhhhh!”

  A monstrous roar shook the entire mountain range that stretched along the corridor.

  Far away, Inkshadow, who had just seen the boys disappear and the massive beast approaching, lifted its tentacles and fled for his life.

  …

  On the beach where they had first set out, Luther and Aaron reappeared mid-air before being flung forward, hitting the sand and tumbling over several times.

  Acher and the pumpkins came rushing toward them.

  “What in the world happened to you two?” he asked.

  “We ran into a whole swarm of monsters. Shit!” Aaron gritted his teeth.

  The back of his shirt was torn to shreds, exposing a big bleeding burn.

  “Talk later! Going to the hospital! Right now!” Luther shouted.

  “No need, I’ve got high burn resistance; this will heal super fast…” Aaron started to mumble, but the words died on his tongue when he caught sight of Luther’s red eyes.

  …

  Mariana Medical Center.

  This is the oldest magical medical facility in the entire Boston region, its roots traced back to a small clinic founded by the healer Mariana herself.

  Inside an emergency room, Aaron lay on his side, his back now neatly bandaged.

  “It’s a light injury,” the seagull-headed nurse said. “Just apply the ointment for a few days, and he’ll be good. But he needs to avoid spicy food, alcohol, sour dishes, fried food, and sweets.”

  “Thank you,” Luther replied, already jotting down every single restriction into the notes app on his phone.

  “What do sweets have to do with burns?” Aaron grumbled.

  “Be good. It’ll heal faster,” Luther said. “I’ll buy you. A lot of candy after you heal.”

  “Ugh… alright.” Aaron sighed. “You'd better keep your word.”

  Acher cut in, “Now, can you two finally tell me what the hell happened?”