While Tiamat was discussing with Yggdrasil, Kiyohime was looking at Sol with a complicated expression.
Sol was floating in a bubble of blue water, and his body was going through slow changes.
Her healing powers weren't as incredible as those of Hathor from the phoenix clan, but they were still extremely good. Even more so since her healing skill favored more self-growth.
By the end of this training, Sol would find that he was at a completely different level.
But this wasn’t why she was looking at Sol like this.
‘This is what it feels like to meet a Blessed.’
All Blessed were people favored and cursed by destiny and the fight between two Blessed generally meant the death of one.
Tiamat had always told her to never be surprised whenever she met a Blessed, but even now, she could only gasp in surprise and bewilderment when she remembered the fight she witnessed.
Initially, she hadn’t been keen on following Sol. She had decided to wait for him at the safe point because she believed he should be able to deal with one or two Lords alone.
But, after feeling the movement of those Lords, she had hurriedly rushed to save him.
After all, at the end of the day, Sol wasn’t a Duke yet. Even for a Dragon Duke, facing such an ordeal would be dangerous.
…How wrong she had been.
Not only had he managed to fight back 6 Lords alone, he even managed to kill three of them.
Though he didn’t manage to kill the other three and had to use some tricks at the end, it was mainly because he still wasn’t used to the environment and didn’t have the mana reserves of a Duke to maintain his War Form.
Indeed, there lay the problem.
Sol wasn’t a Duke yet. Furthermore, he hadn’t even awakened for a year yet.
Not even Mars had shown such a monstrous growth rate. Even less so such a fighting prowess, and Mars was without a doubt one of the most talented mortals she had ever seen in her life.
Only Anubis came close to him in her opinion.
At the same time, Blaze had been one of the most talented divine beasts of her time.
Kiyohime chuckled helplessly.
Should she say that he had good genes?
Sol would only become even more frightening once he became a Duke.
After all, she knew that Tiamat wanted him to become her inheritor. She would help him obtain the domain in the same branch as her [1] and once that was done, he might even be able to face a King rank without dying instantly.
“Would it be better to stop here?”
While he could still grow a little more if he continued training here, she was wondering if it was worth it.
After all, that child was imprisoned on the 5th circle.
“Why do you want to stop it?”
Kiyohime looked up at Sol and saw him walking out of the healing bubble.
“*Cough* Put some clothes on now.”
No matter how one looked at Sol, it was impossible to see his true age. He was tall and had a well-structured body. His features were streamlined and well defined.
His short golden hair and his beautiful blue eyes were eye-catching. Not only was he pretty handsome, but after all those days in Tartarus, the faint childishness that could be seen between his brows had vanished completely.
While he wasn’t cold and silent, anyone experienced enough could feel the killing aura surrounding his body.
‘Hum…Once this ends I should help him relax. Perhaps I should send some Nymphs to him?’
Taking care of the mental health of her student was as important as helping him grow stronger.
Sol shrugged at Kiyohime's words. He was so used to being seen naked or being observed that he honestly didn’t care much.
It wasn’t like he had anything to be ashamed of. He might sound a little narcissistic, but his body was a true work of art. Still, he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable so he did as was told and changed into another set of clothes.
After that, he gorged himself with the food Kiyohime had specially made and asked once again.
“So…Why do you want to stop?”
“Because you showed way more talent than I thought and I am wondering if the risk is equal to the gain.”
Kiyohime was pretty blunt with her words. They lived in a realistic world.
Why did Tiamat love Blaze so much?
There were hundreds of reasons. But at the end of the day, no one could deny that the fact that Blaze was a Chaos Dragon played a huge part.
There was nothing wrong with it. Love could not exist without a reason. If Sol had been a normal hybrid. He would have been welcomed, but Tiamat would have simply given him a few flying Islands the size of a kingdom and a few powerful servants as well as a territory on the 6th and 7th heavens.
She would have most likely also sent him a huge harem of beautiful elves and nymphs as well as charm spirits but that would be it.
Nothing much.
Sol wasn’t surprised by Kiyohime's bluntness. Though, if he knew what she considered as ‘nothing much’ he would have some curses to throw.
“Is there something or someone dangerous in the 5th circle?”
“There...”
Kiyohime hesitated a little before sighing. There was no need to hide it since she could feel that Sol would still continue no matter what she said.
“You remember what’s the difference between the 4th, 5th, and 6th circle?”
“Of course, even though only Duke levels are imprisoned in all of them, the level, number, and their identities differ completely.”
“That's right. The 4th circle only has a few Lords. But these numbers increase greatly on the 5th. Furthermore, on the 5th circle, some of the traitors are imprisoned there; Dukes, not Lords.”
Sol understood what she meant. Dukes and Lords were equivalent in terms of the power scale. But there was one great difference. The upper level a Duke and Lord could reach was totally different.
A Lord could only use [Assault] i.e. they could only influence the physical world.
But a Duke had the [Zone] and some [Zone] were downright scary since they could affect concepts. Like Lilin’s Zone or Milia’s Zone. If one such Duke had been present in the previous brawl, Sol didn’t think it would have been so easy.
He still remembered how much a pain Rio had been just because she could absorb energy with her metal.
But...
“That isn’t all, is it?”
Kiyohime sighed, sadness clouding her features, “There is one particular traitor in the prison. Her name is Nabu, an ice dragon. Back then, her father, Marduk, rebelled against the goddess alongside a man named Apsu[1]. A powerful demi-god who might have become mother’s mate if things had been different.”
“What was the result?”
“Since they came from our territory, it was our mess to deal with.”
Kiyohime shrugged, “Mother killed Apsu with her own hands and I killed Marduk.”
Her voice was calm without any visible changes. But Sol could only imagine how sad she was.
At the same time, he couldn’t help but become speechless. He wondered if the dragons were cursed.
Marduk was the first King rank dragon outside of the four original ones, and he was killed by Kiyohime.
Ladon, son of hydra, also became a King, making a contract with Jupiter, and he got killed by Siegfried.
Finally, his own mother, Blaze, became King rank after contracting with his father and she died fighting Echidna.
One is an Accident. Two is a Coincidence. Three is a Pattern.
“What about Nabu? Why is she still alive?”
Tiamat and the other dragons weren’t the merciful kinds. There should have been no mercy for the girl.
“Mother spared her. Even when she betrayed us, Nabu never changed her faith to Chaos and she had never killed anyone from our side. Her sole crime was to have followed and helped her father. As long as she purges her sentence, she will be released.
“Unfortunately, she had become quite vicious and whenever a dragon tried to pass the trials here, she would do her best to kill them and I would be forced to interfere and save them. Do you remember how I mentioned Kaiser reached the 6th circle after nearly dying? And how no one ever got past the 5th circle? It was her fault.”
Of course, Kiyohime knew that there was another more important reason. But Tiamat never shared it with her so there was no need to mention it here.
Sol was once again left speechless.
If he remembered correctly, the age of gods had been more than ten thousand years ago.
‘I would be cranky too if I had to serve such a long time in a prison filled with Chaos energy.’
"Either way, you should be careful–her domain is quite tricky."
Sol frowned when Kiyohime explained Nabu's skills in more detail.
This could become quite tricky.
[5th Circle]
In the depth of the 5th Circle, on a large ice boulder, a massive white dragon was observing her handicraft with frustration.
She had been sleeping soundly when this coalition of Lords had tried to kill and eat her. Sadly for them, those new Lords didn't know why no one came close to her territory.
"This was quite fun."
All around her, an innumerable number of ice sculptures were littering the ground.
Even in this large army, five of them were clearly different from the others. They had all been powerful Lords.
Sadly, their end was the same as the others.
Frozen to death.
Nodding to herself, the dragon moved her massive wings and flew away from the scene of carnage.
The only thing she could do now was sleep. Sleeping was the only way she could somewhat keep her sanity.
She wanted to sleep for one or two hundred years.
It was only in her sleep that she could see that woman.
Her one and only teacher. The one who taught her everything she knew about Ice magic.
'Teacher…'
Grief oozed out of her body as she reached her nest and forced herself to sleep.
She hoped that no one would disturb her sleep and dreams this time.
(AN: I wonder if anyone can guess who is the Teacher of Nabu. I would be honestly surprised if anyone could.)
[1]: No two domains can be exactly the same. But they can have the same basis. Like how Lilith trained Lilin in her style. Giving the two of them the ability to affect space
[2]: Apsu was briefly mentioned in the Special chapter: Dragon.
In Babylonian myth, Apsu is the husband of Tiamat and was killed by Ea who was kinda his grandson ( Apsu tried to kill his children first because he feared they would dethrone him.). Tiamat tried to take revenge but was killed by Marduk( her great-grandson and son of Ea) then we have Nabu (Son of Marduk). In a different iteration of the myth, it’s Nadu who killed Tiamat.
This myth is the one that inspired the Greek origin myth. Basically, Apsu is Ouranos and Tiamat is Gaia and Ea is Chronos.
[3]: Ladon story was explained in CH 196
