Chapter 26 - 24-Imperial Dragon

Dragons were gods.

At least, that was what the oldest stories claimed.

Long before kingdoms were built, before humans walked the earth, there was nothing but a shapeless void. The other gods had abandoned it, seeing no purpose in a world that held nothing but darkness and silence.

But four dragon brothers remained.

They were creators, destroyers, and protectors. Their power was said to be beyond anything the mortal races could comprehend. Yet despite their strength, the four brothers were kind. When they looked upon the empty void, they did not see something worthless. They saw something beautiful waiting to be created.

So the eldest brother gave himself to the creation.

His body became the land, vast and fertile, so that living creatures could have somewhere to grow. His limbs became mountains, his bones became stone, and his blood flowed beneath the earth, becoming rivers and springs.

The second brother loved the first dearly and wanted to remain close to him. So he became the sea, stretching around the land and filling the empty spaces between them. His breath became the tides, forever moving toward and away from his brother.

The third brother, however, had grown bitter.

He had watched his brothers leave without considering them. Angry and hurt, he rose above them, moving higher and higher until he became the sky itself.

His great wings became the clouds, and his breath became the wind. Whenever his temper flared, storms would tear across the world. Whenever he was at peace, the skies would remain calm.

That left the youngest brother.

He had been left behind to watch over the world his brothers had created.

At first, he did not mind.

He guarded the land, watched over the sea, and tried speak to his brother in the sky whenever his temper became too fierce. He was content simply knowing that his brothers were still there.

But eternity was a long time to spend alone.

Eventually, loneliness began to consume him.

He wanted someone who could stay beside him. Someone who could speak to him, laugh with him, and look upon the world he had been left to protect.

So the youngest brother created humanity.

They were small and fragile compared to the dragons, yet they were curious. They walked upon the land of the eldest, sailed across the sea of the second, and looked toward the sky of the third.

The youngest dragon loved them dearly.

They began to worship the dragons, building temples in their names and offering them gold, blood, and prayers.

Then the Fourth Brother took their form.

He descended among humanity and walked among them, hiding the true nature of what he was. He lived as they did, spoke as they did, and eventually took the throne as their God Emperor.

He ruled over humanity not because he desired power, but because he wanted them to have order. He created laws for them to follow and taught them how to live within the world his brothers had created. Some feared him, others worshipped him, but there were those who simply came to know him as a ruler.

He even befriended some of them.

And then, according to the oldest stories, he fell in love with a mortal woman. It was a love that should never have been possible.

A god and a mortal.

Yet they wed, and from their union came children.

Children who inherited their father’s immense power. They were the first children of the Imperial bloodline.

For generations, the blood of the Fourth Brother remained strong within his descendants. They could take the form of dragons, bend parts of creation to their will, and wield abilities that no ordinary human could ever hope to possess.

But blood never remains pure forever.

As the generations passed, the dragon blood slowly weakened.

Their descendants could no longer shift into their true forms. Their ability to bend creation faded. The great powers that had once belonged to their ancestor became little more than legends whispered within the Imperial family.

Yet they remained upon the throne.

They still protected the creations of their divine ancestors, ruling humanity as the Fourth Brother once had.

And then came the Codex Draconis.

It was said to have begun with the Fourth Brother himself.

Before he disappeared from the world, he began writing down everything he knew about his kind. The secrets of dragons. The nature of their power. The ways they could shape creation and the limits of what even a god could accomplish.

He wrote until the day he vanished.

And his descendants continued where he had stopped.

Each generation of the Imperial bloodline was said to have added their own knowledge to the Codex, recording abilities that had been passed down through their blood, secrets discovered through centuries of study, and powers that humanity was never meant to possess.

Some entries were harmless.

Others were not.

By the time the Codex was completed, it was no longer simply a record of the Imperial bloodline.

It had become a collection of everything the descendants of the dragons had learned about their divine inheritance.

It was said that whoever uncovered its secrets would become the Dragon Supreme.

But the book had been lost long ago.

So long ago that the whole story sounded more like a collection of fairy tales than anything that could possibly be real.

It sounded ridiculous.

...

...

...

Darian looked up at Hartley, his expression hardening as the pieces continued to fall into place. "It seems my uncle wants to know the powers of the universe," he scoffed.

Hartley raised a brow. "But isn’t it all a myth? The Codex Draconis?"

Darian shook his head, letting out a quiet sigh as he leaned back in his chair.

"To be honest, I am not sure."

His gaze drifted toward the dark window, his thoughts returning to Erik’s strange behavior, the question about the dragon token, and now the Codex.

"But if my uncle is looking for it..." Darian’s eyes narrowed. "... We must too."