Daniel Dalton, the first son of the former emperor of Riverdale. The one who had been wronged by his own father, the one people turned into an epitome of bad luck in history books.
His name had long stopped being associated with legacy and had instead become a cautionary tale whispered among people. To the public, he was a symbol of failure. Only his close aides knew how sinister his heart really was.
"Trash!!"
Daniel sat in his carriage that paced towards the western gate of the capital city; he looked at the ring on his right hand and sneered.
The ring was etched with a blue azurite stone; the stone was not common. If one looked carefully, a striking crack ran through it in the middle, filled by a white resin material, as if it were deliberately joined together after someone mistakenly broke it.
The repaired crack was not just physical damage; it was a reminder of something that should have remained whole but was forcefully put back together for appearance alone.
Looking at the cracked Auzerite, memories of his father flashed in Daniel’s brain, bringing only disgust and a feeling far greater than hate.
A single wrong decision on his part and the seat of Riverdale, an empire whose boundaries were said to join the east and west of the Aris. The major controller of trade and influence in the northern part of Aris.
He brushed his hands on his face, remembering the slap on his face that day, the slap that had changed him forever. The jarring sensation of it refused to leave him.
The slap that forced him on a path he never imagined. A path that now led him far beyond redemption.
Boom!!!
Suddenly, out of the blue, an explosive attack landed on the carriage, taking Daniel off guard. The carriage shattered, and the driver’s body split apart into pieces, raining down a few meters ahead where the carriage crashed.
Daniel, meanwhile, having divine authority in the realm of cultivation, was unscathed for the most part. The force still pushed him back, but his body endured it without breaking.
He came out of his earlier thoughts and now looked around; his carriage had come far away from the capital’s gate, yet he had not arrived at the edge of the forested area where he had planned to fly from.
The enemy must have been tailing him, and this location was deliberately chosen to isolate him from witnesses and reinforcements. Since Daniel had been travelling to the cult’s headquarters, he had come alone without any imperial guards or hounds to protect him.
After all, everyone worked for Aurelius, and having them would just be inviting more witnesses.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of hooves striking the ground from a distance. Daniel turned around only to see a small cavalry marching towards him, being led by Rizwell Draconis.
Daniel’s blood boiled in frustration. Of all possible attackers, this was the last one he expected.
"Rizwell!!!" he shouted. "Are you courting death!!" How dare a noble touch someone from the imperial family? The punishment for such a crime was not mild. His outrage came not only from the attack but also from the violation of hierarchy.
The small cavalry battalion of Rizwell stopped at a distance while Rizwell, as well as Adam and his other knight commanders, slowly approached the crash location.
"You are advised to give up any resistance and let us take you into our custody," Rizwell spoke. His voice was steady, but beneath it lay tension that even he could not fully suppress.
"Son of a bitch, are you out of your mind!!!" Daniel shouted, confused by what was happening. "Are you trying to start a resistance against the emperor??" he shouted again. From Daniel’s perspective, this was not just an attack but a declaration of rebellion against the rule of the imperial family.
Several emotions passed through Rizwell’s eyes as he saw Daniel’s figure; his expectations were completely shattered. He had expected a minister in that carriage at most, but someone part of the imperial family made the situation even more complicated.
Well, now that he had gotten himself into the mess, he could only follow the plan. The realization tightened his resolve rather than weakening it.
Rizwell pointed his spear towards Daniel. "You are a traitor colluding with demonic cults, and I don’t need to explain anything else to a traitor." The accusation he was voicing left no room for negotiation.
With that, Rizwell dismounted the horse.
His hands rose in the air and clenched into a fist; slowly, he gritted his teeth, and traces of blood leaked from his mouth. The strain of what he was about to do was already taking a toll on his body.
Silence spread across the clearing. Daniel watched Rizwell with wide eyes; meanwhile, Rizwell’s commanders watched in awe as a strange transformation started happening. The air seemed to grow heavier, and everyone sensed a surge of power.
"Oh, Tiamat, the mother of the draconic lineage, bless your descendant!!" he shouted, and suddenly his body started shivering uncontrollably, his eyes turned bloodshot, and draconic scales started appearing all over his upper torso.
The transformation was violent, forcing a dormant bloodline power to the surface.
Adam watched in awe; it had been 15 years since he had seen his lord use the ancestral powers. It seems like the Lord wanted to end this as soon as possible.
Adam was true in his assumption; Rizwell had realized that stretching this would only cause trouble for him. Daniel was a pseudo-divinity realm cultivator, while he himself was only a divine authority, so to bridge the gap and to end the impending, undeniable fight, he had no choice but to activate ancestral transformation.
Dark red and black draconic scales covered Rizwell’s body, and now he looked more like a dragon kin than a human.
His presence shifted entirely, carrying an oppressive aura that pressed down on everything around him.
Small horns appeared on his forehead while the edges bled due to the forced transformation; his cultivation realm jumped from divine authority to pseudo-divinity in an instant. The blood loss was a cost he accepted without hesitation.
Rizwell generally controlled the fire element, but right now, he was controlling the element of Tiamat to some extent as well, and that was destruction.
Sadly, there were no techniques or spells based on the destruction element that Rizwell or even the whole Draconis family had; the only way Rizwell could use it was rough control.
But still, even with the raw, unfiltered use of the destruction element, even if it was for a minute, it was enough to defeat most enemies that Rizwell had sent to the afterlife till now.
Rizwell’s spear was now laced with destructive elemental mana, and seeing this, Daniel gulped hard before erecting several multilayered barriers of mana. His main element was water; he used it to form thick barriers around himself, although he was unaware of what the duke’s attack might result in.
He had never seen the duke use these powers with his own eyes. The unfamiliarity made the threat even greater.
"Wait!! Let’s talk!!" Daniel tried to calm things down as he realized that he couldn’t put up resistance now that Rizwell’s realm had elevated. And almost a hundred soldiers of Draconis were waiting, even if he managed to defeat the duke somehow.
But his pleas were ignored; Rizwell launched the spear towards him. Daniel braced for the impact, layering dozens of barriers, yet the destruction element wasn’t so simple.
The spear exploded as soon as the impact occurred; the dozen water elemental barriers dissolved like nothing, and the explosion huddled Daniel several feet back like a rag doll.
"Kheuk!" A mouthful of blood escaped Daniel’s mouth.
Rizwell stepped forward and appeared in front of Daniel’s collapsed figure; he drew a sword from his storage and rested Daniel’s chin on the blade, raising Daniel’s head to look in his eyes.
"Don’t make it difficult for me; if you surrender, you might have a chance to see the sun of coming days, but if you die here, you die forever."
Rizwell spoke, making Daniel look at him with contempt before he raised his hands above his head.
He needed to stay alive right now; he was sure Rizwell had no proof of his collusion with the demon cults, and once his loyal men knew about his case, they would uproot the entire Draconis family from existence.
Even Aurelius wouldn’t have a reason to save the Draconis family then.