"My name is Damien Void, future ruler of everything. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Damien respectfully bowed his head and greeted the entity before him, but his words were as arrogant as they could be.
When he first encountered this shadow not long ago, he hadn't been able to sense anything from it and could only gauge its importance by its abilities.
However, after devouring a whopping 777 dragon souls, the situation was different.
Damien felt an inherent reverence that stemmed from the very core of his being, from his Legend.
The memories he devoured from those dragon souls were still being digested, but from what he understood already, he could estimate the status of this blue dragon shadow.
Its gargantuan universe-eclipsing size and aura were one thing, but they could only attest to the fact that the Dragon had definitely reached Divinity in its lifetime, and not to a small degree either.
The effect on Damien's Legend, on the other hand, was unprecedented.
The Legends that merged into his own were practically forcing him to his knees, attempting to destroy his ego when he refused.
He was able to tame them easily since they were now his property, but their reaction indicated a single fact more than any other:
This dragon soul was a true Godbeast.
As Damien learned long, long ago in the First Dungeon, beasts had multiple evolutionary paths.
It wasn't rare for a beast to change its species entirely by the time it reached the peak of its power, but regardless of how it evolved, its growth paths would always stem from Godbeast blood.
Every single beast had Godbeast blood, but for most, this blood was diluted and muddled until its existence lost any meaning.
When a beast grew into its power, its Godbeast blood would also grow and evolve, merging with its own blood and enhancing its state of existence.
And finally, at the final step before Divinity, beasts are offered a choice:
Their first choice was to follow the growth path of their Godbeast Ancestor. This path was safe and relatively stable. As long as one possessed the appropriate potential and was able to stay alive long enough, they would eventually reach the Godbeast level, even if it took a million years to do so.
Along with that, since these Godbeasts were already well-established, their bloodline memories existed to aid their descendants forward, supporting them and granting them compatible techniques to use.
The second choice was much riskier. This choice meant to forgo the ancestral path and carve one's own path. Following this path didn't guarantee success, and in fact, most who chose it ultimately failed and died without achieving anything monumental.
However, for those who were able to succeed in their attempts and rise to the status of Godbeast with their own power, sheerly through devouring other bloodlines and refining one's own, their power would far exceed those following the ancestral path.
And even greater, their Legend would morph, granting them immense prestige on the same level as those primordial Godbeasts who established the paths that most currently follow.
It was a huge risk that most weren't willing to take since it concerned their futures.
But this blue dragon shadow was not one of them.
Not only did it take the risk, it succeeded with flying colors.
Damien didn't know what kind of Godbeast it was, but he was sure that the path this dragon shadow built brick by brick during its lifetime was currently guiding countless dragons to their own peaks.
It was only right for the residual emotions of the devoured dragon souls to feel inherent reverence for this being.
Even Damien felt immense respect for its achievements.
Yet, he maintained cautiousness.
He didn't know this being's intentio—
[Must you be so wary? If this Emperor wished to slay you, would you still be standing?]
The dragon shadow's booming disconnected voice interrupted Damien's inner thoughts, making him cringe slightly.
"You know, most people find it rude when you read their thoughts without permission," he muttered.
[This Emperor does not care for the grievances of mortals.]
"Is it still called a god complex if the being in question is actually a god?"
[Child, you must be wondering why this Emperor summoned you here.]
Damien's quip was entirely ignored by the dragon shadow, who easily swerved the conversation into its main objective.
Damien sighed to himself and nodded, not saying anything.
'I mean, I'm definitely curious, but I don't like this feeling of losing the momentum… anyway, this guy is already dead and I doubt any dragon clan geniuses are making it this deep, so I might as well just listen. Let's consider it granting an old man his final wish.'
As Damien entertained himself with some devious thoughts, the blue dragon shadow began telling its story.
[The time of this Emperor's beginning…is lost and unattainable. A matter of millions cannot possibly describe it.]
The dragon shadow's words were accompanied by a change of scenery. The entire hidden realm morphed to follow its words, giving Damien a visual accompaniment.
It was a dark sky that light simply didn't exist with enough strength to penetrate.
There were a few thousand stars total, and while the blackness looked ever-expanding, the truth was that these few thousand were the only worlds in all of existence.
[This Emperor was born Qi Long, a lizard in the 9th Water Tribe. We were not beasts, however, we developed sentience through the Blessing of Water and worshipped it in return.]
The surroundings zoomed in on a single planet, and on that planet, a single small lake that was home to a group of roughly 80 monitor lizard-like creatures.
Among them were 30 adolescents, one of which was Qi Long.
The tribe lived and died together, fighting off threats from nearby tribes and growing until they conquered the rest of the 41 Water Tribes in the world.
When they achieved sovereignty, most of the clansmen became content and lived in peace, but Qi Long was different.
[In this Emperor's 50th year, the joys of life provided by peace became dull. This Emperor lusted after higher peaks that the 9th Water Tribe could not reach.]
Eventually, he decided to leave.
He broke through the bounds of the world and traveled, eventually learning about "power" and the means to gain it, something the Water Tribes never came in contact with.
And through these same travels, he realized that the "Blessing of Water" was actually a curse that limited and siphoned his tribe's potential.
Enraged by this fact, he trained harder and encountered several opportunities, not only becoming an expert, but creating a path for himself and his people to follow that wouldn't be affected by the external curse of the Blessing of Water.
This was one of the very first instances of beast evolution.
And while this achievement was one unknown to him at the time, his repertoire was still growing by the day. He left his mark in every world he visited and even brought several hundred under his umbrella.
[After 500 years, this Emperor returned to the 9th Water Tribe and confronted the water itself, revealing its schemes and defeating it after 100 days of unending combat.]
Qi Long, who was now in human form, stood above an expansive sea. Its water curled around his feet in worship and danced around his body in joy.
The water of his homeworld was not normal water, but a portion of the heavens manifested as water. Its significance was far greater than anything Qi Long could imagine.
[Through victory, this Emperor ascended. From a mere nameless lizard, this Emperor became a True Dragon. The waters branded my soul and body, forever attaching me with a title.]
"Azure."
Azure like the ocean waves, azure like the sky above. Qi Long was a being who came from the starry sky to force the Seas of Heaven into submission, and through this feat unlike anything that had been accomplished in history thus far, he gained a control over water that was almost godly.
Damien's eyes widened in shock.
'Don't tell me…'
Looking at the way this story was going, Damien could already guess this dragon shadow's identity.
The legendary Azure Dragon.
A Godbeast whose influence was so unbelievably widespread that even Earth, so far removed from the true universe until a few decades ago, had several religions that mentioned him.
'Holy shit.'
