As the Dragon slowly weakened, Dei saw glimpses of its decaying soul in the swarm, and realized his little spirits were eating through the shell. Now that they were in the Union Realm, something of his personal creation, they were both physical and spiritual, dealing damage to both.

'Can I do that?' he briefly wondered, 'Well… yea probably. Void lets me punch intangible things. Could I… punch a soul while it's still inside a body? Hmm.'

With the Dragon dying, Dei found it high time to step in- he did, after all, want its Potential.

Something he'd discovered about his Class and Profession were how they leveled up after he left the System. His Profession had some kind of fourth dimensional storage "Creature" that held all the potential residing within the Profession node. Whenever he did something to level up his Profession, it cut pieces of itself off, feeding them to Dei through the lens of his Profession which shaped it into his Stats. It was a terrifying thing to witness, but upon closer inspection, the "Creature" was little more than an artificially intelligent construct. It was a computer given… not a soul, but unique conditions. If he tried to force it to expend its potential before the conditions were met, something told him it'd fight back.

His Class was a bit different in that it had no little AI creature inside it. It had no stored Potential, that was up to him.

If Dei wanted to level up his Class, he needed to find a way to steal the Potential of other creatures- and this brought him back to the Grief users of Earth. They, for whatever reason, had strangely high Potential, and he thought it might've been because their affinities let them steal the power of the Grief monsters they created in their nightmarish hallucinations.

'Magic has such strange routes to power sometimes,' said the man who could give himself a fever to gain fire powers.

Nevertheless, he had to feed the Dragon to his Class if he wanted it to level up any more. Giving the entire corpse to the now-unions following him around would do little, so he offered them a deal instead.

He summoned Wild Chains, which exited his soul and journeyed down the lines of Connection to get closer to Cralok. "One mile" of slack felt like less and less with every passing day, and at this point it was not enough. 'I've really gotta lock in and make more of that'

"Little unions," he addressed them, and he felt like most were at least paying attention. "The dimension you sit within now is not stable, and it will collapse shortly. Instead of letting you perish, however, I wish for all of you to enter my soul. There, you will be able to survive and grow on a more… stable food source than the temporary corpse of a Dragon."

Wild Chains swirled around them, and he got countless different emotions from them- hesitance, greed, curiosity, suspicion. Most did not want to leave the corpse behind though.

Dei sighed. Gesturing to Wild Chains, he said "This greater union is also about to devour the entire corpse; should you stay near it you, too, will be consumed."

That seemed to get most to cooperate and, with a bit of poking and prodding, the swarm entered his Harmonic Sanctuary- after he'd informed the elves.

"We will finally get animals here?" Loraine asked with faint excitement.

"You didn't before?" Dei asked, surprised.

"No. We only grow crops for food, which is… strange. It has been so long since any of us have felt hunger."

Either way, the infusion of reptilian unions would serve as another part of his burgeoning ecosystem, even if he did make sure to spread them out some- away from the elves as well. He didn't want them rushing the new settlements. Dei had rescued around thirteen million elves, but that was nothing compared to the trillions of Unions coming in now.

Most of them would die quickly, devoured by their brethren, but a lot would survive or adapt.

He kept an eye on them, and found that the concepts within them somewhat changed the terrain, creating rocky or volcanic areas, though not much went on to reflect the Duplication halves of them from what Dei could see at a glance.

It wasn't a total change though, even if they were far more. The elven concepts both carried more weight, and had been imprinted on his inner world for longer, making them more stable.

Dei mentally split a part of his mind off to observe how the new unions would adapt to the scenery, while the rest of him focused on fixing things in the outside world. The remaining unions were those that'd ignored him in the first place, and were generally the most feral or aggressive, bordering on mindless in the same way that plants usually did- these unions had only one purpose and no instincts at all, choosing only to kill. That was… kind of understandable considering the creatures born from their fight had little ancestral memory to fall back on. They were simple, and Dei didn't feel too bad about letting Wild Chains feast on them as well.

Cralok held on by a thread at this point, but only technically. His entire soul was riddled with holes, and he was no longer conscious, instead wasting away rapidly.

Wild Chains quickly dove into the monster, repeating the process it'd undergone with The Mother, though simpler considering Cralok didn't have a Mind Realm inside him. In moments, the Dragon's soul was snuffed out, and it re-emerged.

With it officially dead, Dei compressed its body down significantly, allowing for Wild Chans to eat the entire planet in one bite- though he found that the raw material gave him absolutely no Potential. He'd already taken that from the Soul, Dei was just removing it so there was no chance of a loose astral body causing asteroids to rain down on Caps. True, they were at the edge of the solar system, but a planet breaking apart so close causes a lot of debris.

When the cleanup was finished, Dei turned to look at the planet he'd just saved, barely seeing it as a speck in the distance, and smiled. They almost definitely kept surveillance on Cralok's planet 24/7 with how afraid they were of it, so they likely saw at least some of the fight, and watched him now.

He waved.

Jacob and Thadria were also approaching him by now, so he reached out with Void and teleported back to Earth's dimension, both to shrink and get a few more questions from The Champion. They had a couple more days to burn before Caps held their funeral, and Dei would make an appearance to explain everything then.

* * *

Back in front of the sun, but on the opposite side from Earth, Dei signaled The Champion and received the mental bond.

"I take it the hunt went well?" The Champion asked.

"Yea, but you're a total liar! You said Cralok would be weak! He would've torn me to shreds if I hadn't pulled something out of my ass."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Oh? I do not recall saying Cralokragora-T'zthitinit'ia would be weak. No, I said he would be weaker. Weaker. As in, weaker than other Dragons, because he has a focus on attacking large populations and wide-area attacks, while your attacks are like needles that punch through most everything. I will be honest, I assumed your battle would take many days to complete as you dodged and whittled him down repeatedly, harrying him with brief skirmishes. It is a surprise to see you back here so soon."

Dei's face scrunched when he realized his mistake, and he couldn't even be mad. It was clear that The Champion genuinely did not mean to trick him, it was just Dei's misunderstanding. 'Still, he could've been a bit clearer… also, I was definitely a lot more impatient than he expected, which I suppose is kinda on me.'

"Alright alright, well it worked out, but I have a lot of questions about the fight which I'm hoping you'll answer, so a quick recap is in order and then maybe a lesson on Dragons, if you're up for it."

The Champion shrugged, so Dei took that as an agreement and started talking.

* * *

"...Then I just deleted the planet by feeding it to Wild Chains, and most of the unions were caught in that as well and destroyed. Those that weren't… I'll just assume they are going to starve to death, because there is no way for them to feed anymore, and they're way too far from Caps to be an issue."

"Oh? How many were left?"

"Not many, perhaps… four? Or five?"

"I agree, then. Unions don't normally have an issue with existing in the Physical world, but Caps is a concept-deadzone, antithetical to magical beings, and likely has different laws of reality. Starvation will not get to them, they will swiftly be extinguished by the natural laws."

"I think I knew that, I just didn't have a way to put it into words."

"Such is the nature of those with the Knowledge of the Leviathans. Now then, what were your questions?"

"Well, it's mostly about how Dragons work, and what my unions were feeding on in the first place. Aloran said that Dragons move through space using only their physical muscles but like… Cralok definitely did not do that. His wings didn't even move. The star on his back would pulse, and he would do some strange hovery thing. The only time he did anything for physical movement would be after he merged with his planet and started using thrusters to get around."

"Ah, I see, you misunderstand, and Aloran likely does as well with incomplete information. Dragons don't have mana, but they do have magic, just… a different brand of it. The mana that exists everywhere utterly rejects us, so we must make our own using one of our Rights: Power. Are you familiar with the four fragments of Right of the Dragon?"

"Yea, they were Incinerate, Pressure, Power, and Authority. The first two can be used by anyone, the second two are only available to those on the path already."

"Correct. Power is… Well, Power is what we inherited from our predecessor."

"The Sun Primordial?"

"QUIET!" The Champion roared, and Dei flinched. After a beat of awkward silence, The Champion said "I apologize for my outburst… and it was unnecessary. There are no other Primordial Children in this realm to hear you, but do not speak of events at the beginning. Many get… sensitive about them. About what We, the Dragons, as well as the Lunar Spawn lost."

"I see… then that verifies that Leviathans are of… um… The Primordial's blood, then what are Titans?"

The Champion sighed, "We may speak of the Earth Primordial, I do apologize. It is… a habit of mine to silence people that speak of this, to help extend their lifespans. But you are partially correct. None of the Children are genetically related to the Primordials though, we were… favored soldiers. Well, the Leviathans and Titans are something else, but Sun and Moon spawn are little more than that- no matter how much others of our blood refuse this fact. I am more… realistic. I know of my place in the world, or what it would have been had the Earth Primordial not won. Though I am not of her kin, I heretically believe her victory to be for the best. I have seen the machinations of the Sun, and they are antithetical to all I am."

'...Her? The Primordial was a woman? Okay, he probably didn't mean to let that slip, so I just won't mention it.'

"What about Titans?"

"Not my place to say."

"Drats… In that case, back to Dragons, you were making some point about their rights?"

"Ah, yes. Power is very literal in its name, in that it powers us. It is our 'Mana,' the energy we use for magic. When Aloran says we move using our bodies though, he is very close to accurate considering the Physical Realm interacts differently to us. Most Dragons use their wings to push off the fabric, their wings imbued with powerful concepts. When we fly, it is closer to… us grabbing reality, and pushing off it. Like climbing a mountain, in all directions."

"Okay, makes more sense. I take it Cralok changed that some though? Cause he did no flapping."

"Cralokragora-T'zthitinit'ia utilizes a combination of Pressure and Incineration to propel himself in any direction he chooses, though it is an expensive and ridiculous way to travel. He does it for performative reasons."

Dei laughed. Looking back, it would be a bit silly if the Dragon intentionally used mana to move around when flying would get him the same place just as quickly- kind of like if you saw someone hovering down the street with magic at a walking speed. To someone new to magic, it might look impressive, but someone like Dei? The person would just seem nuts.

"In that case, what about how he could use Duplication mana? And how the spirits seemed to feed on it."

"May I answer this one?" Perumah spoke up, and Dei looked at her, surprised.

"You can hear him?"

"I'm perpetually utilizing your senses."

"Okay, invasive, but I don't really care so it's whatever."

"My way of perceiving things may be skewed, I encourage you to share your findings with Dei, as he is one of your level of existence."

"The Dragon didn't emit mana, and neither were you. Caps has all its mana stored in inanimate materials, which the dwarves use for their magics. Remember when we first showed up on Earth and I said magic was different? That we didn't burn mana, but used its concentration? Caps is the same. Mana is a carrier of information, and when you try to use it in these universes it seems to leave something of an echo of power. It does what the affinity commands, but is more fragile without the structure of mana. Considering everything is more fragile though, it's hard to notice the difference. Also… you don't use magic outside of your body anyway, so you remain unaffected. It is like you're constructed specifically to exist in these different physics which, considering your first life on Earth, I suppose you are.

"Essentially, affinities leave behind more than just a magic type. They scar reality itself, which both you and the Cralokragora-T'zthitinit'ia utilize in following the steps of. Doing something after an ascender has already done it becomes easier, which must be why Cralokragora-T'zthitinit'ia followed Duplication, even though he was unable to actually use Duplication mana, and these echoes of power are also what the unions fed on- the runoff, the magical warmth of expended concepts."

Dei nodded, as he kind of got what she was saying. Mana came in two parts, information and energy. The information was so strong that it left effects even without the energy.

"This is also why there are affinities in the Mind Realm, despite there being no actual connection to them," Perumah continued, surprising Dei. "The Ascenders have left scars which ring out through everything, including Realms unconnected. That's also why Gods still take on the domains of affinities, because it's easier to advance through a path well-tread than to forge your own. Gods cannot use affinities, but they can use the remnant domains of them to empower their own messages."

"...Damn, that's a lot."

"And very close to accurate… far closer than you expect. Wounds are an especially apt way of describing affinities."

"How come?" Dei asked curiously.

"This, I am able to tell you, however I will not- It will do you well to discover on your own."

He tsk'd, but wasn't really mad. The Champion knew what should or shouldn't be given to him, and meant well.

Speaking of The Champion…

"What's up with your name by the way? That other Dragon had some incomprehensible combination of consonants and vowels, but you've just got a title. I don't believe you don't have a name. So I mean… What is it?"

"...You wish to know my true name?" The Champion asked in an ominous tone, with some undercurrent Dei struggled to read.

He was headstrong though, so he ignored it. "Absolutely."

"It is…

"...

"...Dave."

"REALLY?!"

"No."

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