Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 898: Dragon Binding Ceremony

CH898 Dragon Binding Ceremony

***

“The Sword Emperor’s sword is made from dragon parts? How? This is a fully metal sword.” Alex looked at the Skywalker Sword in his hands, confused.

Uthvaazgol waved his hand, and the Skywalker Sword levitated from Alex’s hand to come just before the Ancient Dragon’s face.

The sword seemed to struggle to resist at first, but a small, controlled burst of Uthvaazgol’s aura leaked out, and the sword stood, levitating docilely before the dragon.

Once again, Uthvaazgol’s gaze seemed to look beyond the current spacetime to a location and time far away.

“The sword was made from the ulna of a Metal Dragon,” Uthvaazgol said. “In fact, it is likely this weapon is a twin. The sword was made from the ulna, while another weapon was made from the radius—likely a blade.”

Alex found it strange. Uthvaazgol’s words sounded both like a deduction and a statement of knowledge.

‘It makes sense if he deduced it, but why does he sound like he actually knows what it was at the same time? It’s not like he has been to Verdantis before.’

“How are you so sure, Master? Besides, what is a Metal Dragon?” Alex inquired.

“A Metal Dragon is a rare variant of Elemental Dragons, found only in relatively few planes. They are similar to Gold Dragons, but rather than simply controlling metal with their Mana, Metal Dragons give up their organic flesh and literally turn themselves into dragons made of metal,” Uthvaazgol revealed.

“Like a metallic form of petrification?” Alex asked.

“Essentially,” Uthvaazgol replied, amused by the analogy.

He looked back at the sword. “As for how I know, the sword was made from the Dragon’s free will. It was a part of themselves they freely sacrificed so that a part of their Will and Ego would persist within the sword.

“As an Elder of all Dragons in existence, peering through the memories of the Ego is child’s play.”

The Ancient Dragon waved his claw, and the sword flew back to Alex.

“However, I could be wrong. The sword was created such a long time ago, and it had been neglected for such a long time, that its memories have faded,” Uthvaazgol commented.

“Whatever the case, the sword has now chosen you as its user, and is now yours to keep. Once you complete the binding ceremony, it will become fully yours and will begin a history with you,” he added.

“Binding Ceremony?” Alex asked.

“It is a ceremony that makes a Draconic Artifact one with its user,” Uthvaazgol revealed. “Don’t worry, I will walk you through it. It just so happens that you have the Dragon Essence to make it work.”

“Drip your blood onto the weapon. Don’t worry about consumption and push as much Dragon Essence into the blood as you can. Then, say the secret vow in Dragon Tongue,” he instructed.

Alex nodded.

Without a shred of doubt, Alex used the Skywalker Sword to cut his palm, then squeezed his hand over the sword to drip blood onto it.

Soon, a few drops of blood dripped onto the flats of the sword’s blade.

The blood was thick, almost like richly condensed liquid. Even an ordinary person without any cultivation knowledge would be able to tell that these few drops of blood were extraordinary.

Alex’s countenance visibly dropped as his face bleached out, seemingly due to the loss of blood.

Alex chanted the vows Uthvaazgol had told him in Dragon Tongue, and the sword reacted visibly by absorbing the blood drops like a sponge, turning a deep crimson.

[One in blood—one in body!]

As Alex chanted the last sentence, the sword in his hand suddenly ‘melted’ into a floating ball of crimson molten metal.

The crimson ball of molten metal shot forward, hitting Alex’s chest and sinking into it through his sweat pores.

Alex was stunned initially, but then he felt another entity occupy his Mana Heart.

Inside his Mana Heart, a diminutive version of the Skywalker Sword floated quietly over the gaseous Mana that occupied the heart.

The Dragon Essence he had sacrificed for the binding ceremony returned to his body and his countenance returned to normal.

In this moment, Alex felt an impulse.

“Move your Mana with the intent of the sword revealing itself to you,” Uthvaazgol instructed from the side.

Alex did as his Master instructed, and a familiar Skywalker Sword reappeared in his hand.

“From now on, the sword will grow with you. Its durability against everything below Class 8 remains, but its other attributes, such as its sharpness, attack damage, energy absorption, and so on, will all increase with your rank,” Uthvaazgol informed Alex.

Alex nodded in understanding.

He willed it, and the sword returned into his body.

He played around with summoning the sword from and returning it into his body a few times until he got a sense of things.

Uthvaazgol just watched him practise, amused.

Eventually, the Ancient Dragon soon got bored.

“Let me see that Broodmother of yours. What did you call her… AVA?” he said.

Alex nodded.

“Fortunately, I brought her along from Verdantis,” Alex said.

He waved his hand, and a portal appeared before him.

Soon, AVA walked out of the portal in her humanoid form.

“Admin.” She bowed to Alex.

But then, finally sensing Uthvaazgol’s presence, she turned in the Ancient Dragon’s direction.

Her body trembled instinctively. Before she could comprehend why, her body moved backwards in primal fear.

Alex watched the scene with genuine shock.

‘How is this possible? Fear? But AVA should be incapable of fear,’ Alex thought to himself.

Just as Alex was wondering what was happening, he suddenly heard a laugh from Uthvaazgol.

“Fascinating.” The Ancient Dragon grinned, exposing his savage teeth. “An entity which is both a living being and an artifact—a creature and a product. A duality which defies common sense. No wonder it attracted a powerful tribulation.”

Uthvaazgol turned to Alex.

“Don’t overthink it. My [Dragon Fear] is something which invokes fear in all living creatures—whether they be capable of thought or not, fear or not. My [Dragon Fear] is a Law that inflicts fear in all,” he said.

Alex could only nod in acceptance.

Uthvaazgol turned his intrigued look back to the Nest Queen.

Once again, he gazed down with a look that seemed to bypass all boundaries of spacetime, seemingly staring down into the very essence of AVA’s being.

“What?!” Uthvaazgol shot to his feet.

“What is it, Master? Is something wrong?” Alex inquired.

He was shocked that something within AVA could elicit such a reaction from Uthvaazgol—an ancient being who seemingly had seen everything possible. Yet, such a being had reacted with shock after gazing at AVA.

Uthvaazgol stood for a moment, staring at AVA blankly. It was clear the Ancient Dragon was lost in thought.

Unfortunately, this did little to ease AVA’s condition as her body shivered. Her body struggled as she seemingly tried to make herself smaller. Unfortunately, she had reached her hard limit of about three metres.

AVA instinctively moved behind Alex and crouched her body, seemingly trying to hide herself from Uthvaazgol.

It was as if her instincts from when she was a Spindlecarve Mite—a prey on the food chain—had returned, and all she could do was hide herself.

Before this being standing before her, she couldn’t even assume her combat mode, which was adapted towards escape.

The thought of escaping didn’t even cross her mind.

The fear was so great that some of her systems began shutting down. The Hive Mind began shrinking, which Alex immediately felt thanks to his connection to the Hive Network.

“Master!” Alex quickly called out.

Uthvaazgol recovered from his thoughts and pulled his [Dragon Fear] back. Only then did AVA settle down.

She lay on the floor and silently lost consciousness.

On his part, Uthvaazgol lay back down on the ground as he had always been, still staring with intrigue at the strange being ‘birthed’ by his disciple’s shenanigans.

Uthvaazgol chuckled.

“Master, what is going on?” Alex inquired.

“This creature of yours is indeed special,” Uthvaazgol said. “I believe I understand now why the Natural Order of the Universe took interest in ‘her’. She is a physical manifestation of a culmination of coincidences. Coincidences brought about by the magnified Providence around you.

“To call her an anomaly wouldn’t be doing what she is justice. In fact, if I were not seeing it with my own eyes, I myself would doubt it if anyone told me something like her exists, and all from the hands of a mere Class 3.

“Fascinating… Truly fascinating.” Uthvaazgol laughed.

His ageless, savage appearance made his laugh look almost maniacal, which made Alex fear that AVA might lose consciousness again—well, had she been awake, anyways.

Alex took a breath and looked back to Uthvaazgol.

“Master, what is going on?” Alex asked.

“What is going on is that you serendipitously peered into and achieved something many at my level have been seeking for eras immemorial. And that AVA of yours is the physical representation of what you brought out from that world,” Uthvaazgol said.

“I don’t understand, Master. Can you speak clearly?” Alex said.

“Very well.” Uthvaazgol nodded, then settled down.

“For you to understand what you have stepped into, perhaps I should introduce you to the final known rank—the one you refer to as Class 9—

“Realm of Mythos.”

***