Pov Magnus:
Soon after all my brothers left to fulfill their respective objectives, I stayed behind thinking about training these people, they all have talent from what the Hero of Justice said and that was the reason they were taken by the Church of Light, but there was no time to develop your strengths in a normal way.
I needed them all to become strong as quickly as possible, we have many enemies and we don't have years to prepare, most likely Father will recover in the next few weeks or months and we will resume the fight.
"How are they?" (I)
"Awake, none of them are heavily injured, but not all of them understand what you were doing, some of them are still children." (Mabel)
"The moment they decided to take part in this training, everyone will be treated equally, I didn't force any of them to come." (I)
"I understand older people, but children still don't have it..." (Mabel)
"Mabel, those left behind have no place to return to, their cities, families, and in half cases their planets have been washed in blood by the Church of Light, Lady Natasha told me about this." (I)
"These children you say need this more than their elders, their hearts are filled with anger, sadness, and hatred." (I)
"..." (Mabel)
"Let's start the second training." (I)
As soon as the first one overcame the training and the others saw it was possible, everyone began to try harder until one by one they all passed the weight of my Aura, a proof of their will and the first mark of their steps towards achieving true strength.
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I was in an open field in which I drew a circle just big enough for one person to stand inside, they each had to step into one of the circles before I could begin to speak.
"Training now is about resisting physical pain, your bodies will be continually hit with no real harm to your body, but the pain will be real." (I)
"You can give up if you want, not everyone has the determination to be an immovable mountain in the face of adversity." (I)
I look at each of them, some have doubt in their eyes while more than half have a determined look, and only a few of them have calm eyes.
"Lord Rakan, activate the magic." (I)
"< Magic Curse: Torment of Pain >" (Rakan)
I asked Rakan, who is a specialist in magic, to take care of this magic, so everyone is safe, if someone loses consciousness the magic loses its effect on that person.
"I know you don't agree with this, you don't need to look at me like that." (I)
"If we're going to subject them to that kind of torment, how are we different from the Church of Light?" (Rakan)
"I'm not forcing them to do anything, they're doing it of their own free will and that's the main reason for this training." (I)
"Do you want to harden their minds?" (Rakan)
"This is one of the effects, but no, what I seek is to show them the strength of their will, this is something that is built with each decision and experience we have." (I)
"Yesterday was the desire to move forward regardless of the pressure." (I)
"Today is the will to resist regardless of suffering." (I)
"Why do you have to do it like that?" (Rakan)
"Because the next test will be combat and if they can't withstand that kind of pain, then I won't have time to train them." (I)
I lift the sleeves of my shirt showing my arm slowly burning, these flames appeared suddenly and are getting worse little by little, when I got close to where my Father was the flames grew much more as if responding to my proximity to him.
"Sir, you must…" (Mabel)
"I'm fine, Mabel." (I)
"..." (I)
I look at those doing the training, spheres of energy constantly form in their bodies at different rates and always in different places on the body, some are enduring the pain with ease while those younger ones are having trouble resisting.
"(You must resist, the Awakening Ceremony is not something easy for the weak, I am not my Father, I do not have such great control over a power like that.)" (I)
"I won't stay here and watch this, the magic will last until nightfall as agreed." (Rakan)
"Thank you for your help." (I)
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It's been several weeks and this Starfire has been burning my body more and more, yet I don't let others see it.
The combat training began and ended as expected, I put them in pairs of approximate level and made them fight until they lost consciousness without using fatal blows, a combat of pure determination where they must fight regardless of the level of wound they have.
In the first week, it was difficult to make them go all out against those they considered companions, but now dismemberments happen almost daily as any wound can be healed with our magic.
"How are you?" (Mabel)
"I'm fine, it feels like my body is being remade by the flames, but the pain is greater every day, I'm sure my Father is the cause." (I)
"I saw him fighting Lady Natasha outside the Dungeon, they seem to be doing the same type of training as them." (Mabel)
"She wants to strengthen Father's body?" (I)
"I don't know, but their combat was much more brutal and destructive than what we're making out." (Mabel)
"(My Father seems to be trying hard, I can't let him do everything alone again.)" (I)
"Everyone stop!" (I)
With my words they all stopped moving immediately and regardless of the wounds or pain they moved closer to me.
"Today I am completing the general training, in 2 days you will have to choose the path you want to take." (I)
"Those who follow me will be Dragon Knights, receiving my power in the future, those who follow my sister Silvia will be Dragon Mages receiving her power in the future or you can choose the third path, receive my Father's power, which will change you permanently." (I)
"In addition to these 3 paths, you can choose to leave already having a clear path to becoming strong on your own." (Mabel)
"Acquiring the power of a Dragon for yourself is not something you can take back later, choosing this is an oath of loyalty that you cannot escape." (I)
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Weeks later.
I was facing Mabel, my body no longer burned like before, but now I face another problem.
"You must, now." (I)
"Yes." (Mabel)
Mabel, following my orders, opens the doors that sealed me for weeks, the Star Flames that burned my body are making me lose control of my power, if this continued it could have led to the death of many of those who follow my Father.
"How are you?" (Mabel)
"Better, much better." (I)
I raise my hand seeing that my scales changed when I concentrated my power, the Starfire made great changes to my body.
"How have they been while I was gone?" (I)
"They made their decision, I'll explain..." (Mabel)
With that Mabel told me about the decision if each one, it seems that they started their own training too.
"(It seems like everything went well.)" (I)
"I should also say that your brothers and the others have started to come back." (Mabel)
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Pov Selene (Goddess of Blood):
I was on the planet where I was in my Divine Kingdom looking at the Goddess of Death, as always she appears wherever she wants.
"What are you doing here Kalistos?" (I)
"I assume you know about your son, are you going to allow him to make a deal with that thing?" (Kalistos)
"Still in dispute? Stop these past memories and my son has to fly with his own wings." (I)
Zenos can take care of himself and that creature will never give up on his goals, this may be our only way to have some control over his plans.
"If you just came to tell me that, then you can go away, I still have to prepare." (I)
"You won't catch him." (Kalistos)
"At least we're trying, better than you who could actually kill him and chose not to interfere." (I)
"I can't kill him any more than I can do the same to you, you know the promise I made." (Kalistos)
"He is no longer the man he once was, he is just a twisted creature of pure hate." (I)
"My promises are current, I am powerless to take them back once they are made, but your Soul can still be Destroyed." (Kalistos)
"What do you really want, Kalistos." (I)
"You didn't come here to talk about our failure to defeat him or to talk about my son's life, what do you want?" (I)
"I want you to create a weapon, a Death Core is already on its way to where your Saint is, Mavis will also help." (Kalistos)
"Do you know what you're asking me? Who is this weapon for?" (I)
"A fallen Universe is coming." (Kalistos)
"..." (I)
"Not that..." (I)
"I want something in return." (I)
"Don't be greedy when it helps us all." (Kalistos)
"I want you to stop them from dying, if you do that I won't need to interfere." (I)
"The chance of their death is small, that won't be a problem." (Kalistos)
"You'll have to wait until I have all the materials and have recovered from the last battle." (I)
"We still have time, no problem." (Kalistos)
With that she actually dissolves her return, leaving as suddenly as she came while I go back to rest.
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