10x Rewards: Becoming Invincible With My Sign-in System

Chapter 292: First Flight In The Sky

Dragon riding was much different than riding any other creatures. One didn’t have harnesses or reins in this. They were simply like passengers sitting on the dragon’s back, so there was little they could do to guide the dragon.

Voice commands were also useless when one was gliding high in the air.

That was why Dragon Riders used the safest and easiest method. They kept connected with the dragon in the Spiritual Plane, telling them everything they wanted.

Aegon took a moment to appreciate the feeling of sitting on a dragon, then lightly tapped on her scales with his dangling foot. A silent command issued in the Spiritual Plane told Virginia what he wanted.

She raised her head, the long neck filled with red scales rising along with it, as she roared, alerting the skies of her flight. Then, she flapped her giant wings, raising strong winds.

Aegon increased his grip on Elara’s waist and said, "Get ready!"

Virginia took a few steps forward and then kicked the ground with full force, which sent her soaring above the mansion. With a quick flick of her wings, she ascended higher and higher, as her narrow but long tail swished behind her, giving her balance and guidance.

The world fell away beneath them.

Elara’s breath left her in a sharp, involuntary scream or a gasp... something caught between the two... as the mansion shrank below, the vast backyard becoming a small green square, the maids who had gathered to watch turning into tiny figures that waved upward.

The wind hit them with full force the moment Virginia levelled her ascent, rushing past in a roar that drowned every other sound in existence.

Elara’s golden hair tore free of its careful arrangement instantly, streaming wildly behind her, the pearls catching the last light of the dying sun like scattered sparks.

Aegon tightened his arm around her waist.

He hadn’t quite expected this either, the sheer enormity of it. He had known, in theory, what dragon flight was supposed to feel like. After all, he was excited to ride a dragon, so he had read manuals on dragon riding.

He had also read accounts, heard stories from riders of old. But none of them had ever thought to mention how alive it felt. How every part of him felt scraped clean by the wind, like something unnecessary was being stripped away and only the essential remained.

Virginia banked gently to the left, her massive wings cutting through the air in long, powerful strokes, each one pushing them higher. The sky around them had deepened into that particular shade that existed only at this beautiful hour of Twilight.

Stars were beginning to appear ahead of them, shy and tentative, as though they too were watching, witnessing the last Valerian take his first flight in the sky.

"Aegon—" Elara’s voice barely reached him over the wind.

He leaned closer.

Her hand had found his, the one wrapped around her waist, and her fingers curled tightly around it. Not from fear, he realized. She just wanted to make sure he was still there.

Aegon smiled, finding it cute how she was usually so calm and composed, as expected due to her status, but she let out her true feelings before him.

Just like him, this was also her first time flying on a dragon. No experience could compare to this. He knew it well now as he was connected with Virginia.

He could feel much more than what mundane senses could tell him. He truly felt alive, as if he was the one gliding through the winds and clouds under the beautiful tapestry of stars.

’Thank god I didn’t sit on aeroplanes. I doubt that experience matches this one.’

He let mana well up in his throat, using a very basic and common technique to increase his voice using mana, and asked, "Awesome, right?"

"I can’t describe my feelings, Aegon," Elara said, her eyes following the dance of Virginia’s neck.

It was long, perhaps the same length as her tail. Quite unusual for a dragon, but then again, dragons didn’t come in the same features. Her neck was dancing in the wind as she flew freely among them.

Through their connection, Aegon could feel how happy she was to be with the winds again. She loved it too. Probably the reason for her dance.

’A dance in the sky!’ Aegon inhaled deeply, letting the fresh air fill his lungs. ’This is the best.’

To make the moment even better, he had the love of his life before him, enjoying the ride freely.

He looked down, only to see tiny patches of greenery beneath them, the winding rivers catching the last of the light like scattered silver.

The dusk region sprawled in every direction with its familiar amber glow, the one that never changed no matter the hour, as if Dusk City had simply made a deal with time and refused to renegotiate.

He also saw the famous Dusk City, still as big as ever. From up here, it looked different. He noticed there was a pattern to it, but he didn’t have time to study it properly. Not like he had any intention of doing that now.

’It is for later.’

He had promised Elara that the day was for her, and he would make sure of that.

Aegon also saw the God’s Hand not far from the city, its scale looking even more horrifying from above. It felt as if some giant god was trying to catch them from the sky.

And it seemed entirely possible.

Perhaps, the giant god really hunted dragons in the past. Aegon felt a chill thinking of that possibility and hurriedly shook off the thought.

’Damn it! It is hard not to think about them,’ his gaze softened as he turned back to Elara. ’But I have a reason to stop that.’

Virginia carried them further out, and Aegon watched with idle curiosity as the region’s edges began to thin, the amber slowly losing its hold on the sky, bleeding into something lighter and fresher the further they flew, until the horizon ahead was just... morning.

Clean and bright and unhurried, like it had been waiting there patiently for them the whole time.

The morning was upon the outside world.