Magma Dragon's Heir

46th of Season of Fire, Year 72 AL

Everything unfolded according to Newt’s plan. Magminion had come for him late in the night and took him to see his mother. The man and dragon hadn’t exchanged any words aside from simple greetings.

As he flew, held in Magminion’s claw, to face the dragon exalt, Newt had to consider his plan one more time, searching for flaws under pressure.

The plan was simple. Once he entered the eighth realm, his aura would surge to the ninth. The dragon exalt would no doubt want to see him one more time when that happened, and she would find Magmin still at the initial layers of the eighth, where he would remain until Newt visited Magmin’s secret realm again.

It was a precarious game he planned to play, expanding his eighth realm with standard resources rather than relying on Magmin’s realm. He would visit it only with a fully sculpted eighth realm, and instead of breaking through with the help of sunflames, he would do so with the surge of mana Magmin’s secret realm would provide.

Then, Magmin within Newt’s realm would reach the ninth realm, and Newt would emanate the aura of an exalt. But before anyone could do anything about it, he would enter the secret realm again. Magmin would reach the tenth realm, and the surge of mana should push Newt all the way into the late layers of the ninth realm, hopefully giving him the strength needed to overpower the dragon exalt. And for the best effect, Newt would time it a day or two before the summer solstice and the celestial alignment of extreme flame, just so he could benefit from the greatest purification before facing Magmin’s daughter.

The plan had its weak points. One of the basic assumptions was that the dragon exalt wouldn’t eat Magmin before he was at least at the ninth realm, since he would offer no sustenance. Then there was no guarantee Newt could win the fight against the dragon exalt, but the alternative seemed like a bigger risk both to him and Magmin.

If Newt did as he had done before and headed for the secret realm as soon as he entered the eighth realm, the dragon exalt would know Newt could leap nearly an entire realm in power. She would probably raise her guard against him because of that. Not to mention a ninth-realm Magmin would be a much more tempting meal, while at the same time safer to consume than one at the tenth realm.

It was a life and death game of risk assessment and pushing their luck, with the decisive factor through it all being Magminion.

If Newt managed to keep his progression slow and non-threatening, if he managed to portray the baptism of flame he received from heaven and earth as something that made him valuable as a resource faster than it made him powerful, he could hope for an extension.

The dragon exalt hadn’t summoned him in over seventy years, delegating all human-related work to Magminion. And if she made a single false assumption about his growth, he might buy himself more time to grow strong, perhaps even entering the tenth realm for real before battling her.

Now that’s wishful thinking.

The problem was, there would be no fooling Magminion. They met at least once per year, and most years they met at least twice for the purpose of cooperation between the species.

Once Newt appeared with the aura of the tenth realm, he would have to slay the dragon, buying himself at most a year and probably the dragon exalt’s enmity.

“He will be on our side,” Magmin hissed in Newt’t mind. “He only has two hopes for the future - eat her, or flee before she eats him. Sneaking into another exalt’s territory is the way I’d do it, since he’ll never stand a chance at defeating her. She will eat him before he becomes a threat.”

“Are you saying I can trust him?” Newt thought without a shred of hostility towards Magminion. In fact, he liked the dragon more than he liked most humans. He was easy to get along with and had a no-nonsense mentality when it came to their dealings.

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“When you have the power to fight his mother, you can trust him completely. Until then, he is blindly loyal to the one holding his life in her claws, which makes sense. To harbor any other feelings would mean death.”

Newt agreed to a point, but how far could he trust Magminion? He would eventually have to report to his mother about his progress and about him reaching the power of the tenth realm.

“I’m not sure we can trust him.”

“As I said, we can’t now, but time will tell. If he’s the kind of viper I believe him to be, he holds his own well-being above everything else. Especially above the well-being of the one planning to devour him.”

Newt and Magmin chatted a bit more, the human’s face expressionless the entire time, but soon Magmin went back to practicing sculpting inside Newt’s realm while they soared through the night.

It was close to dawn, the sky slowly brightening up with the promise of light, when they arrived at the foot of the volcano that was the dragon exalt.

She didn’t even open her eyes to look at him, despite Newt sensing the surrounding mana paying great attention to him.

“I wish to change the deal,” she informed him, the hisses also artificial and created by the world around him. “From now on, you will pay for twelve summers in advance. That way, you will know you are safe, and my sweet little Magminion will be free for other duties.”

Newt didn’t argue. There was no point in doing so. The dragon exalt had ordered Magminion to bring him before her not for that proclamation, but to see the benefits he had reaped from his baptism.

“As you wish. The next tribute will be for twelve years. Is there anything else you wanted?”

“That was all. Leave.”

Newt turned around and left, Magminion picking him up after a mile.

“I apologize,” he told the dragon, “I didn’t know we were wasting that much of your time. You should’ve told us sooner.”

“Not at all. The occasional accidental devourings have become less frequent with you always bringing ransoms to buy back your life. And your approach to dealing with those breaking the rules has been effective.”

Public executions of people caught killing saurians in means not approved by the accords had been kind of frequent in the first two decades, but once the general population saw there was no leniency to be had, all but the most desperate or insane had stopped.

In all honesty, Newt thought that just telling people that they valued their lives less than the promise human exalts had made to a dragon exalt, who had granted them sanctuary, was more than enough. From his perspective, it was so logical there was no coming up with a counterargument.

The first executions should have made it clear, but apparently, a lot of people grew old and powerful by believing the rules didn’t apply to them.

A fourth realm imperial, a distant descendant of the Grand Scholar, was the last one they had, and she was executed by her ancestor in person, just to hammer the point home to all those too entitled to understand written and spoken word.

“I’m honestly surprised your side caused less trouble in the start, but while humans have learned not to do it, lower-realm saurians still struggle with the concept.”

“Why?” Magminion hissed with surprise. “The accords are clearly against our instincts. Even with the ransom, if you gave it to me once, why not give me more now? And if you don’t have anything, why shouldn’t I eat you? That’s perfectly understandable logic for those who can’t think long-term.”

Newt didn’t agree, but still nodded.

“When would you say you started considering matters long-term?” he asked.

“Since I hatched.”

“And at which realm did you hatch?” Newt knew the topic wasn’t taboo, and since Magminion could think rationally since birth, that meant—

“First.” The hiss wasn’t loud, nor spoken with pride, but it still rang like a bell in Newt’s mind. “Mother had laid millions of first realm eggs over thousands of summers, and I’m the only one who ever evolved as far as I did.”

The numbers didn’t shock Newt, neither had the scale of the dragon exalt’s endeavor. But the fact that she had successfully reared the highest tier of manabeast was shocking. The rise from the first realm meant Magminion was on the same level as Magmin.

“Isn’t she just rearing you to devour you?” Newt probed, but Magminion showed no hint of admitting anything.

“Mother’s plan had become obsolete, and she raised me as a subordinate. She would naturally devour me if I made enough mistakes. Then again, ever since I’ve reached the fourth realm, I’ve had those above me who just waited to devour me.”

His meaning was implied, but not spoken - nobody has succeeded, and I don’t plan on making an exception now.