Reincarnated As A Dragon With A Godly Inheritance

They nodded. It was the truth and they hadn't forgotten that they promised something for the Castle's inhabitants if they won the candidate's trials.

When Thalso was satisfied with their answer he bade them to stand. "We have done all we can to get you ready in these two and half months and you have progressed more than you should. We have stretched you to your limit without breaking you. Too much. And the fact that you are in peak Pawn rank was a poof of that."

"Of course, we don't know what the trials will be about. Even our master didn't tell us what it was, only that it made fool of his power," Thalso chuckled. "We have prepared you as best as we can...the rest lies in your hands."

They bowed. And Kaedros's throat closed up. Human emotions! His Demon self scoffed at him but he was glad for his instructor's help.

No one had ever taken their time to train him before after all.

Nyra then gave a solemn talk about how they had provided her with something to do these past months and thanked them again for waking her up.

Chef reminded them that those who didn't pass the trials won't be seen again. Their flesh was taken by the crowns or the Castle. She hadn't been sure.

Gold watched them from his place, his hand was clenched and he had to force himself to relax before he made a mistake, like going to Kael and his companion and demanding that they forget the trials. Instead, as Thalso started leading them forward, Gold bowed deeply to Kael.

Thalso led them close to the throne then he fell back and told them to continue to the raised stone platform where the throne sat, covered.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Taria asked as soon as they were standing on the stone platform. She was controlling her panic with a calmness she didn't know she could summon. Her heart was beating to the rhythm of her spinning thought.

She could die. Her mind told her. Never to see Kael again. Never to see him arrogantly lift his brows and speak with authority on what he wasn't certain of.

Wild laughter wanted to crawl its way up her throat but she kept it down with sheer force of will. She would go with all the dignity of Kael's warrior.

On reflex, she looked at Kael's collected form, with his depth blue eyes and black hair that flowed behind him like the essence of the night. Taria took strength from that and she calmed down. She would either die or come out as an Eldritch.

Rauk was sweating. Not the one where his face would be covered in salty water but this one was beneath his black robe. It ran down his neck and his back, tracing the bones of his spine.

He shivered, suddenly cold. What was he doing here? Momentarily he felt like that sheltered weak Prince who had walked into the halls of Ruinlight wide eyes and with fear-filled body.

He felt like that Prince who had watched his father tell him to his face that he was a bastard who couldn't be accepted. His legs turn to jelly as he felt those old fears.

He remembered what his father was to him even with all his flaws, his father who might be dead by now, probably killed by his son.

Rauk snapped to attention with that thought and slowly, he firmed his will. He was not that weak Prince anymore and he would never be again.

He had come here for power because he wanted to help his father. Because he wanted to be King. He would behave like one, so he relaxed and his eyes turned half-closed of laziness.

Inside, Kaedros was blazing. Excitement flowed in his veins and his heart was adrenaline made solid as it beat in his chest. He didn't let it show on his face though even though after all this time, the illusion of the human he was wearing suddenly felt too tight and he wanted nothing more than to roar and rip it off and spread his wings.

This was what could finally tip the balance of power in his favor for life. He was the Dragon Prince. Weakest of them all but he wanted that to change, he wanted to add a new title.

Kaedros, Dragon Prince. Eldritch. Kaedros Eldritch.

His smile was quick. "What do you say, guys? Do you want to die for the chance of even greater power? To challenge this trial and come out as Eldritch. Let's make their rank seven again."

Kaedros could see the fears in them but it was their strong will, their courage that shone the brightest and he acknowledged that. These people are strong.

His Dragon Prince instincts flared and he felt what he hadn't felt before in his life, a different kind of warmth. Clan. These people are his Clan.

His.

Every Dragon Prince has a Clan. They are made up of people they trusted the most, people who would have their back when they weren't watching.

Well damn, Kaedros thought. He hadn't been expecting this but he wasn't surprised either. Before he could think more about how a change had happened again to his life again Thalso began to speak.

"What we do know about the trials is that you will be grouped into the numbers of Crowns available. Let's say there are four Crowns available then a group of four candidates will be made to take it together...."

"Why you ask? Because the Eldritch are made to fight as a team. I've told you not to feel special, Ruinlight always has hundreds of candidates to group from."

"Don't think your assessment will be grouped since after passing some doors you will be separated and you will take the rest alone."

Then the Castle's inhabitants wished them luck but not Chef, what she said was that their skills would speak for them. Or not.

Then the Castle shuddered and this time when they felt its presence, it was different than ever before.

The Castle's presence was cold and hard with a vastness that almost knocked them off their feet as it enveloped them.

They gasped as they were slowly lifted off their feet, their legs firm in the air as if standing on solid ground instead of hanging halfway down.

Kaedros's first reaction was to throw it off but instead, he relaxed. He could almost feel the others doing the same. The Castle grumbled in approval, then without warning, they disappeared.

Gold watched with a frown as one moment they were there and the next they weren't. That's it? The candidate's trials had begun? Just like that?

He almost felt jealous that he didn't get the chance to challenge it himself, but he was a Ferron and his path to glory lay elsewhere. Something that might not be possible if Kaedros didn't return.

"They'll be back. Don't worry." Thalso was calm as a cold chunk of metal. He said it as if Gold's train of thought was easy to follow.

Gold straightened and made his face smooth. He bowed and almost nodded his head, but his mouth opened and he found himself asking, "What if they don't? Hundreds... thousands die because of the trials. How can you sound so sure?"

He couldn't see Thalso's eyes behind that smooth helmet, but Gold could easily see his smile. "Because I trained them."

Chef snorted as she dropped her bottle after taking four sips. "You didn't train them alone, you walking pile of old metal. We did it together, and they will come back because they fear me. And because of my fruits."

Gold fought to control his expression, so it was Chef who looked worried. Seems her grumpy behavior was just a cover.

Nyra frowned. "Their chances are fifty-fifty since the mortality rate of the trials was always high. And for all the training we gave them, they might not get to fight at all. They might be given a different kind of challenge that doesn't match the training we gave them. Say, maybe a riddle or som—"

They were all staring at Nyra now as she rambled on until Thalso spoke, tone soft. "It's alright, Nyra. We know. Let's just trust in the training we gave them."

Gold was stunned. He couldn't believe he was watching the nervousness of two Captains under Overlord Thalso, who served the Blood Star himself.

He looked to the throne and wished nothing would go wrong.

---

Kaedros blinked his eyes open. The first thing that came to his mind was that the room was too big.

"Where is this place?"

The others were looking around in surprise, same as him. They were in a room—if it could be called that. Everything here was huge, and not just because the room was large. No, this room was made for beings the size of castles.

A table with broken legs lay beside them, but each leg was the size of towers, and the shattered plate would have been enough to put a ship in and sail.

"Some kind of giant house?" Rauk mumbled as he stared at the hanging torch attached to the sky. But it wasn't the sky—it was the ceiling.

"If this was a giant house, then it hasn't been taken care of. Everything here is broken. And there's no sight of such beings." Taria was looking around, drinking in the pillars that spun upward like mountains.

"Weird. Have the trials started?" Kaedros studied the room and, apart from the oversized things, it was a normal throne room. But he couldn't guess the reason behind it. To show them how insignificant they were?

"See that?" Taria pointed to the massive stone throne that was the size of two mountains stacked on top of each other. Below it, at the edge near the floor, was a door.

"Let's get closer to it."

Kaedros had just taken a single step when he stopped. A sense of wrongness overcame him and his gut tightened. Something was wrong. Not with the room—but with himself.

"What's wrong, Kael?" Taria asked with a frown.

Kaedros raised a hand to stop them, then quickly stimulated his core with the Flow. Only he couldn't—because he had no core.

"Well, this is bad." Kaedros's eyes were as flat as his tone. He looked at his companions and told them to check their cores, and the way their expressions sank was all he needed to know.

"I feel just like when we use mana-restricting cuffs," Taria said in irritation.

Rauk's mood soured. Were they supposed to do this trial without their cores? On instinct, he raised his right hand and was glad his spatial rune still glowed. "At least we still have our storage space."

They started walking, getting closer to the door. Even as they prodded with their minds where their cores used to be, low in their stomachs, there was no reaction. No rush of arcane essence filled their bodies.

Kaedros inhaled and called the silver stone. His body tingled with familiar warmth while his insides stiffened with cold strength. "We still have our silver stone. Since we have our storage space too, that means the trials intentionally targeted our cores. Don't use the silver stone unless you have to."

They nodded, and Kaedros released his hold on the silver stone, letting it disappear in his mind's eye back into his chest.

It was a door, but what covered it was a glowing blue light shaped like a cloth that acted as both door and barrier.

"Are we supposed to enter?" Rauk asked.

"Only one way to find out," Kaedros said, moving closer to the door. But Taria's sharp words stopped him cold.

"At least take out your weapons!" She glared at them, and with a huff, withdrew her own spear.

Kaedros shared a sheepish look with Rauk and brought out a short sword from his storage space. The sword made a whooshing sound as he tested it. "I haven't held a real sword in a while."

Then, with his left hand, he slowly parted the light, marveling at how fine and thin it was on his palm. "Let's go." And with that, he jumped into the room.