Magma Dragon's Heir

41st of Season of Fire, Year 556 AL

Newt’s eighth realm was complete, fully sculpted, and fully expanded on nothing but the mana from his celestial baptisms or trickles of ambient mana purified by them. Visiting Magmin’s eighth realm would shatter the barrier, all the impure mana flowing into the next realm.

Then, once he ascended, he would enter Magmin’s ninth realm, expanding his realm to the seventh or eighth layer, maybe even the ninth, depending on how much he would gain. He had planned to enter the secret realm four days before the celestial alignment of extreme flame, so that he could use all of its energy to purify his own mana.

The only problem was Magminion. The dragon had unfortunately followed him to the Salamandra clanhold, and he would no doubt observe Newt even in the depths of the mine.

“Magminion,” Newt said seriously, the two of them floating above the Dragon’s Rest mountain. “Will you stay here and be a good boy for one week, or do we have to do things the hard way?”

“If you’re about to advance your realm, I’m obliged to report it to my mother. You’re smart, and you already know the moment you reach the tenth realm, she will attack and devour you. Your only choice is how hard you resist and how painful your death will be.”

“Magminion, Magminion,” Newt shook his head. “I’m about to enter the ninth realm, not the tenth.”

The dragon’s pupils narrowed as he scanned Newt, but found no hint of eighth realm mana about Newt.

“The pillars of flame striking me don’t expand my realm, not unless I want them to. I’ve been using them for ages to purify my mana and increase the amount I can wield. I am at the peak of the eighth realm now.” Newt smiled, showing teeth. “So, tell me, do we have to fight, or will you submit?”

Magminion appeared resigned, thinking for a breath before speaking.

“Unfortunately, I can’t believe your words.” He shrank, and once more Newt let him.

Then the python-sized dragon lunged at Newt. Instead of drawing a weapon, Newt clenched his fists and leaned back, Magminion’s claw swiping where his throat was a moment ago. Searing light appeared on Newt’s fist and he smashed it into the dragon’s face.

Scales cracked, and flesh burned as Magminion roared in pain and drew his head back, but Newt pressed the attack and slammed another brilliant fist at the base of Magminion’s arm. The enraged dragon that had never suffered a burn before bellowed, and struck with his tail, breaking Newt’s ribs and sending him flying.

Newt jumped back, the tail capable of shattering mountains missing him and exposing another weakness. Decades spent sparring with various exalts had helped Newt greatly. He didn’t even need to think, his body moving on its own as another glowing fist struck the base of Magminion’s tail.

It’s not even a fight. Newt thought as his body moved with practiced ease, dismantling the dragon’s defenses and disarming him one blow at a time. I’m pummeling a dragon above my realm, and yet it feels like a chore.

Newt remembered the time when he feared having a real fight with Magminion, but after centuries of refinement, it wasn’t even a fight.

Magminion flared with mana, and Newt activated his Magma Skin. A white sheet manifested all around his body, not just coating the top of his fists. Molten rock exploded in all directions from Magminion, revealing the lacking technique and overwhelming mana.

The pyroclastic wave passed, and Magminion received a fist to his chin as a reward for his magical display. He staggered, and Newt dove in, smashing fist after fist into his head until the dragon shot towards the ground like a meteor. Newt dove after him and kicked with all his might, sending Magminion away from his ancestral castle and towards the overgrown ruins that had once been Harthrow.

Dust rose, following the clap of thunder from Magminion slamming into the ground, and the dragon grew to its full size, covered in massive injuries.

“If you lose against Mother, tell her you killed me,” Magminion said, slowly coiling into a position that hurt the least. “As you can see, I’m in no state to rush to her and inform her of your plan.”

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“I won’t lose, Magminion, and you really could have just coiled there without getting hurt first.”

“Perhaps,” Magminion hissed, “But I wouldn’t have trusted me if I was in your place, and better injured than dead.”

Newt shook his head. “In that case, stay there. We’re going to have a little talk about that technique of yours that reduces your body; it’s fascinating. You’re somehow interacting with your realm on a physical level, aren’t you?”

Magminion gave him a weird look, then seemingly realized something. “You should understand once you’re at the ninth realm.”

Newt frowned. He knew plenty of people at the tenth realm, and none of them could change their size or interact with their realm the way the dragon grandmaster could. Certainly all the secret talks he had with Gatemaster Greenthorn would have been more private had he drawn Newt into his realm.

Another mystery.

“Will you explain if I don’t?”

“Yes. Now, I need to heal.”

Newt nodded and went to the mines. There, the twin stars waited for him, dancing and twisting, eager for him to touch them and join their energy with his.

Newt paused, frowning.

“Magmin?” Newt summoned the dragon, not just into his body, but condensed a body of mana for him. “What do you see?”

“An empty cave,” Magmin hissed in what humans would call a flat tone. “But I saw the cores through your eyes as I passed through your body.”

Newt nodded and recalled Magmin back into his body. “Remember. If you have full control of the realm and your body, come find me. We can check it out for inspiration, but I doubt there’s anything I can use anymore; my path has deviated from yours.”

Newt touched the twin stars and once more found himself on the slopes of a familiar volcano. Compared to his intricate realm, it was boring. Fires burning without order, but with some natural charm, which might be considered proto-runes. The lakes of lava and flames reaching into the sky were fierce, although mundane.

“I’m disappointed in you, Magmin.”

“Yeah, you’re not the only one,” the dragon said, flying down from the high heavens. “It’s nice, and I can feel the power gathering in the realm, so it’s certainly not weak, but compared with what I have now, it’s… underwhelming.”

“What about your memories? Any sign of my kind in them?”

Magmin shook his head. “I have all the memories from my eighth realm, but you are still alien to me. I’d never seen a member of your species before the ninth realm. Although…”

“Although?” Newt asked, but didn’t push as he let Magmin gather centuries or millennia of memories.

“I think,” he started slowly, “that diverging from the path I once walked and from my realm blueprint is creating some dissonance. My original will that was stored in the secret realm is pushing against me. Treating me like a foreigner.”

“Will that be a problem?”

Magmin took a moment before shaking his head. “I don’t think so.”

“In that case, dispel this secret realm, and let’s enter the next one.”

Magmin hesitated for a fraction of a second, then nodded, and Newt was back in the mine.

“How are you feeling? Everything all right?”

“I’m fine. Your realm’s a storm, though.”

Newt closed his eyes, and as soon as he appeared in his realm, the barrier burst, flying outward and expanding until it covered nearly the entirety of the ninth realm’s first layer. The brilliant nature of Newt’s previous realms was still there, but dimmer, the glow tainted.

Just looking at it made Newt feel dirty, even if it was countless times purer than back when he had first set off on his path and formed his volcano.

“You look a lot like Magminion,” Newt said, after regarding Magmin.

“It should be the other way around, my descendant looking like me.”

Newt shrugged with a teasing smile. “I don’t know. I saw him in the ninth realm first, so you look like him.”

Magmin stared at him flatly. “I’m not going to dignify that with an answer. Any thoughts on your new realm?”

“It’s gonna take a lot of purification.” Newt looked around, but there was nothing for him to do at that point. “Shall we move forward with the plan and check out your ninth realm?”

Magmin hesitated again, but nodded. “Let’s.”

“We don’t have to if it makes you uneasy.”

Magmin didn’t reply immediately. “I have an instinctive fear of entering the next realm immediately. I don’t know why. The sharpbeak is gone from the realm. I had freed myself of heart demons, so it shouldn’t be that. Perhaps it’s that I haven’t had enough time to internalize my memories and make them a part of myself.”

Magmin gave a pretty good shrug.

“But those same instincts tell me you have a much better chance of defeating my daughter if we go through with this now. So, even if both roads are perilous, I think we should proceed with the plan.”

Newt wondered whether his friend was choosing to endanger himself rather than endangering them both. It was a distinctly non-saurian way of handling dangerous situations, and Newt appreciated it.

“Fine, let’s meet your version just before you became an exalt.”