Chapter 263: The Consequences of Being a Sun Dragon

To everyone, Kelvina Bradley was an S-Rank ability holder. To the world, her ability was Draconic Strength. And they weren’t wrong because she possessed superhuman strength and could even summon a manifestation of a dragon to empower her.

Even she, at one point, believed that she had just awakened Draconic Strength, despite what she saw every single night in her dreams. And she understood her dreams. They spoke to her.

She hadn’t awakened an ability, but had rather inherited a legacy, a power, a divinity. She wasn’t an S-Rank. No.

She was an SS-Rank, and her ability was Xiuhcoatl’s Child.

What or who was Xiuhcoatl?

According to Aztec mythology, there was a sun god by the name of Huitzilopochtli. Huitzilopochtli was also the war god. Xiuhcoatl was the spirit form and weapon of the sun god, which he used to kill his sister, Coyolxauhqui, the Moon, and his four hundred brothers, the Stars.

Another myth from the Aztecs says Xiuhcoatl was also used by the god of Fire, Xiuhtecuhtli, and that "it" was the sun’s heat and fire itself.

These are just summarized versions of what Xiuhcoatl is more conceptually. But from what Kelvina saw in her dreams, Xiuhcoatl was a massive serpent with turquoise-blue scales, a yellow belly, a burning turquoise snout, and a star-like tail that looked like a weapon.

This serpent had small horns that projected the presence and heat of the sun.

But that wasn’t all that she was shown. In some dreams, Xiuhcoatl appeared as an energy serpentine dragon, with its body burning with solar energy. It brought drought, solar fire, and a scorching heat that even divine water couldn’t cool.

Other times, Xiuhcoatl appeared as flames that couldn’t be quenched by water. These flames burned and burned, till she woke up with her hair in flames and scales covering her face, hands, and legs.

Even at one point, Xiuhcoatl appeared as a beautiful woman with long, flaming blue hair, golden eyes, dark, sun-kissed skin, and small draconic horns, and she smiled at her... like a mother.

That was when she understood... Her ability, as the machines had detected, wasn’t Draconic Strength. Draconic strength was just a passive perk she’d gained from whatever power she’d inherited.

Her true ability, or rather, divinity, was the power of a Sun Dragon, and not just any Sun Dragon, but Xiuhcoatl.

And what made it even more strange, incomprehensible, and amazing at the same time was that she was, technically and through inheritance, the child of a mythical being.

But despite all the power, Kelvina understood one very important thing: Humans were monsters. Humans were evil. Humans were demons.

Kelvina appeared to be hot-headed and childish, and even her stature did justice to her outward character. But she had experienced firsthand how people could change abruptly and instantly when something didn’t conform to their norm.

Her own elder brother had been turned into a cripple just because he couldn’t awaken an ability based on the affinity of the Bradley family. That wouldn’t have been a "sin." But he had unfortunately awakened as a D-Rank.

Her parents had called him a failure, and the family had referred to him as an embarrassment. And the sentence for a Failure and an Embarrassment was No Ability.

The reason being that it was better for you to be a normal human, with no ability that was barely seen in the world, than to be a D-Rank ability holder who didn’t even have an ability relating to the family’s Water affinity.

Kelvina would have experienced the same fate if she hadn’t been an S-Rank, or rather an SS-Rank.

If she had awakened as anything below B-Rank, her so-called loving parents would be the first to disown her, then sentence her to a life of misery, torture, and depression, and she would beg for death every single time.

That was the world she lived in.

Just an awakening had changed the life of her brother for the worse. That was when she understood that humans were just demons and devils in beautiful coverings. Go contrary to what they find normal, and they will destroy you.

That was why she only revealed her insane strength and dragon projection.

She was powerful. She could easily become the strongest person in the whole of City AF, considering Ezra wasn’t in the equation. But she didn’t choose that path.

Why?

She was afraid. She was scared. If there was one thing she feared the most... it was Earth and its inhabitants. People thought she was childish. People thought she was a mad person, a crazy girl with no morals apart from the basic "good morning," "good afternoon," "good evening."

People thought she was a battle maniac who would rather have brutal conversations with monsters using her huge swords.

What they didn’t know was that she was just a little girl who had been traumatized deeply by the very people who worshipped her. And she was aware... if there came a time that someone else in the Bradley family awakened as an S-Rank ability holder with an affinity for Water, she would be discarded.

Maybe they wouldn’t cripple her, but she would lose all her rights to call herself a Bradley. And honestly, that name gave her the creeps.

Kelvina Bradley wasn’t a mad woman. She was a scared girl trying to live in a dream that everything was good, but that illusion she’d kept herself in was going to break very soon.

***

Sitting on the couch of the resting place they’d been granted in the tower, Kelvina couldn’t help but think of three people: Ezra, Chloe, and Silas, especially Silas.

’They are just like me... No, Silas is beyond all of us. He feels like a god...’

Kelvina could sense it. The way Ezra fought, his power, his presence... It was just like hers, though different, considering his power. She could tell that Ezra wasn’t an S-Rank, but an SS-Rank just like her. And she knew why he had kept his true ability a secret.

He was just like her... He was afraid of humans.

But Chloe... her power was on the same level as hers, but she was different. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t scared. And the reason was always beside her... Silas.

He was her beacon, her shield, and her protector.

She could feel it. Silas was the most powerful person in the world, and...

’I must find him... I must get close to him...’