The soul born from love

The Seraph’s Wings wasn’t the most magnificent of Morinith’s works but Hale still considered it his masterpiece. Because it was the only one that had a soul. There was no evidence but he wanted to believe in some of the ancient texts which said that the reason inanimate objects gained life was because they received a lot of love.

Hale didn’t know if the airship’s creators loved it, but their son sure did.

The sky was covered with a blanket of darkness, devoid of the usual radiance of stars and moonlight. Amidst the darkness, the mangled ship was a beacon of light, guiding those who seek solace. But the light was weakening and flickering, threatening to give out at any time.

The golden mass that was Hale’s soul flew above the mana core, above the quivering soul. He sucked in ether and acted as a funnel, channeling it to the soul and strengthening it. Like a mother bird carefully feeding its chick, helping it grow, spread its wings and leave the nest.

Hale wasn’t just sucking on his thumbs these years.

The Tenebris family had a long history dating back to the start of the empire. Even though the title had dropped to an earl by this generation, it still had the prestige of being one of the forefathers and was mentioned in every phasm history book. That prestige was the main excuse the swordmaster Amon gave for choosing the Tenebrises and the main reason why four other knights were willing to serve a poor and declining family.

And this prestige was built upon the first Tenebris’ ability.

It wasn’t clearly written in the history books but records passed down in the family stated that Oliverius Tenebris could enter the dark, manipulate the light and rewrite existences.

Honestly, it all sounded like a load of hogwash to Hale but that didn’t stop him from exploring this power with the vague hints from the records. A sword that wasn’t honed regularly would eventually become a blunt stick. Hale wasn’t dumb enough to not look a gift horse in the mouth. Since he was born with this weapon, it was his role to sharpen the blade.

When the damage to the soul healed, the physical ship that was connected to it was also affected. The crack in the mana core closed at a pace visible to the eyes and it was only a matter of time before the barrier recovered.

Before returning to his body, Hale caught a familiar face. It took a while for him to recall where he saw her but the purple cloth on her right arm jolted his memory. The woman was at the top of the Guild’s wanted list and they’d been dying to catch her. It was Nightshade Fellowship’s Spider. Some nerve they had, coming after Katharin again.

Since they boarded the ship, they were already ants on a heated pan. Whether they stayed on the pan and died a slow death or jumped into the fire and burned into ashes, there was only one ending for them.

The lights in the secret room blinked as Hale returned to his body, perhaps triggered by some kind of electromagnetic field interference as he crossed dimensions.

Seeing that Hale had awakened, Orifil confirmed the parameters a final time and activated the warping protocol. The airship had limited energy and the warp was still in its experimental phase so Orifil chose to go to the closest and safest node, at the Drakos Dominion.

To the dragons.

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The Dominion was covered with tall spires of buildings, like stalagmite in an ancient cave. The tallest two were joined at the tips by a roaring dragon sculpted from stone. Serrated teeth lined the open maw and two pairs of curved horns crowned its scaly head, exuding an aura of regality.

The very air seemed to hum with an unknown power, and the presence of the mythical creatures was felt long before they were seen. Small, scaly snouts popped out from the buildings, curiosity and wariness dwelling in equal parts within their eyes. Although most of the adult dragons vacated their home to close the rifts, with the ancestral memories teaching them how to wield the power they were born with, even a 5-month old hatchling was a formidable opponent.

Having the strongest anima species on their side, the academy expedition quickly repelled the intruders and Katharin spent the following week healing the injured with reinforcement priests from the temple, earning another wave of fanatics.

Several bigwigs, including Spider, who were within the airship and thus warped to the Dominion, were captured. Hale didn’t place much hope on getting useful information out of them but losing so much manpower was sure to deal a heavy blow to the Nightshade Fellowship.

As for the rifts, more than half of the students continued the expedition after they recovered.

They weren’t about to lose those extra credits after coming so far.