The Lord of the Seas - An Isekai Progression Fantasy [ Currently on Volume 2 ]

Lukas stood tall beside Jesse, hands folded behind his back and the weight of his presence drawing more than a few eyes. It had been some time since Lukas had felt this—the pressure of an audience, the thrum of anticipation, the way the silence between gasps and murmurs felt almost louder than a roar.

How could he forget this feeling?

It was the same feeling he had had in the octagon. The lights above almost blinding and the crowd roaring as he entered the ring. The hundreds—no, thousands—of eyes that had been on him.

In another life, it had been the fists that had done the talking for him. Now, it was Jesse who did.

Lukas activated the Crown without a sound, careful not to stir the flow of magic too intensely. Even a flicker of the Crown's full intensity would give him away to the more sensitive users in the crowd and that was not something he could afford; especially on with all the attention on him.

The Crown's mental tether connected to Jesse's mind, subtle and seamless. Just like that, Lukas could feel the waves of emotions that seemed to be raging within the young dragonborn. Jesse was calm and composed on the outside, poised and confident—but deep down, the boy was rattling like a kettle about to scream.

"Without further ado, lend me your eyes as I show you the answer to all those problems. Allow me to present to you...the Shard of Obedience!"

Jesse's voice rang clear, practiced and controlled despite the tremor that flickered beneath the surface. All the emotions Lukas felt through their connection reminded him of the younger fighters, all swagger and smirks until their names were called and they had to walk into the ring.

But Jesse wasn't like them. He was nervous, but he wasn't folding under the insurmountable pressure.

"Pull out the crystal, the one Magnus gave you." Jesse instructed Lukas through the link, speaking not through speech but through thought.

Lukas reached into his chest pocket and, slowly, dramatically, drew out the crystal. The light caught it just right, a shimmer of lavender and sea-glass green swirling deep within. It lay dormant in his palm. Lukas held it out for the crowd to see, letting the light catch its surface again. His movements were deliberate and theatrical. He didn't just show the crystal—he presented it with greatest dramatic flair he could muster.

The murmurs thickened. Some tilted their heads. Others folded their arms. But one thing remained constant, most of them wearing the same expression of polite disappointment.

This was it? Another glorified magic crystal?

Crystalline Technology had taken Hiraeth by storm when the young Prince, now King of Easthaven and Head Mage of the Magic Tower Magnus Elarion had presented it to the world. As decades passed, it had become an integral part of their everyday lives so they were used to seeing it.

The fact of the matter was that the crystal that Lukas now held out for the crowd to see looked like any other they all had seen before.

There was no time to question Jesse's intentions. The young dragonborn had asked Lukas if he trusted him. And Lukas did. So Lukas would do as instructed, even if he could not yet understand the meaning behind Jesse's commands.

"I know what you're thinking," Jesse said, reading them like an open book. "It doesn't look like much. Maybe even a little underwhelming."

Jesse smiled then—wide, bright, confident. And that smile, more than anything, got their attention.

"But what if I told you...this crystal doesn't just send messages. It doesn't just store memories or amplify one's voice. What if I told you that it was capable of control?"

The murmuring stopped. Like a switch had been flipped.

Jesse let that silence settle, just long enough for suspense to take root.

"You see that dragonborn over there?" he asked, gesturing to the exhausted figure held down by the marines—the same one who had broken free of his chains; now reduced to heavy, ragged breathing, his scales dulled with strain.

"He broke out of his chains. There is no iron that can hold down a dragon forever, for their strength is great and immeasurable. But that strength is purely physical. But what if we were to look elsewhere? What if...we could control their minds?"

There were gasps now. Wide eyes. A child clutched her mother's sleeve, and the older woman leaned in, unable to look away.

Lukas turned the crystal in his hand, angling it so that the light continued to reflect off of it.

"This," Jesse annnounced, "is the Shard of Obedience. Created by the Head Mage's assistant himself, Klein of the Magic Tower."

"Release him," Jesse commanded aloud, his voice cutting through the hushed crowd like a blade through silk, pointing towards the large dragonborn who remained pinned down by Nozar's soldiers.

The men hesitated. One of them glanced toward Serenya of the Morningeyes Clan. The Beastkin Admiral gave nothing away—only turned her head slightly to face King Daerion, her expression unreadable. For a beat, Daerion said nothing, then nodded once to give his approval.

"Let him go," Serenya ordered.

The men obeyed. Slowly and reluctantly. They peeled off of the dragonborn one by one, wary hands still hovering near weapon hilts as if half-expecting the beast to explode again in a frenzy of violence.

For a moment, it looked like he would.

The dragonborn surged upward, casting off the last of the restraints. His chest rose and fell in heavy, labored breaths. Steam curled from between bared fangs as his pupils shrank to pinpricks. He stepped forward. One massive claw raked the stone beneath him. A low, guttural snarl rolled from his throat. Then he moved—straight toward Jesse and Lukas.

Lukas didn't flinch. Any sane man would have. The dragonborn was larger than most, madness still flickering in his eyes, muscles trembling with violent intent. But instead, Lukas tightened his grip on the crystal and exhaled quietly as Jesse's voice filled his mind; waiting for his orders.

"Use the Crown. Now. Channel it through the crystal." And there it was.

The Crown surged with power. Lukas funneled it through the crystal, careful to keep its divine intensity buried deep beneath the surface, masked from the few skilled eyes watching.

The glow of the crystal intensified, humming with resonance as a thread formed—invisible to the crowd, but stronger than iron.

A thread between Lukas' mind and the dragonborn's. And just like that...everything changed.

The dragonborn stopped mid-snarl and his eyes widened. For a breathless second, his lips parted in confusion—and then recognition. The aggression from the dragonborn's body melted away. his shoulders dropped. His claws lowered and the trembling ceased.

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Slowly, without needing to be told, the dragonborn bent low and bowed his head toward Lukas, his eyes closing as if unworthy to meet Lukas' gaze.

Gasps rippled through the courtyard. The nobles stood frozen, stunned by the sudden pacification. Murmurs buzzed like insects. A woman dropped her goblet in shock as the dragonborn knelt without resistance or leash.

Jesse stepped forward with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"We have all been thinking about this the wrong way," Jesse explained, addressing the crowd. "We have been trying to bind dragons with chains and spells. But there is no iron strong enough to hold them. No cage that can truly contain them."

He paused, letting the weight of his next words settle like smoke in the air. The silence was absolute.

"Dragons, for all their size and power, are still animals. Intelligent, yes. But they are still nothing but savage beasts. Their minds are not as great as their physicality. Their minds are much...much more easily susceptible to control."

Lukas said nothing. He kept his face perfectly still, even as something cold twisted in his gut. Jesse's words stung, even if they were an act. Even if this was all part of a greater plan. He felt the crystal grow warmer in his hand as Jesse's next command echoed through their mental bond.

"Connect with all of them. Use the Crown to connect to all of them here."

Lukas hesitated but only for a breath. Then he nodded and pushed the Crown further.

The crystal flared to life.

Lukas's mind reached for them all—silently, invisibly—and one by one, the draconic kind responded.

Dragonborn. Dragon. Wyvern. Their minds brushed his like ripples across still water. The Crown touched them gently, not as a conqueror, but as kin and as a protector.

Shock bloomed in each and every one of them. Then awe. And then peace.

All at once, they bowed. Every single dragon in the Citadel of Saint Helen bent the knee. To the crowd, it looked like magic. It looked like submission. It looked like victory. True victory, presented by complete dominance over these beasts that had nearly drove the human race to extinction.

Thunderous applause erupted. The nobles stood taller now; clapping, cheering and some even laughing in disbelief. Even the most cynical among them leaned forward, eyes wide with admiration—or hunger. The handlers let their grips loosen. The chains slackened.

For the first time, the dragons weren't trying to run or fight. They knelt. And they did so willingly, without question.

"To those of you gathered here," Jesse called out, his voice ringing proud, "this may look like obedience. But what you're witnessing is the future. A world where dragons are no longer wild and dangerous, but controlled. Tamed. They can be useful to us in ways that we could not have imagined before."

Lukas clenched his jaw but nodded at Jesse's mental nudge, stepping forward to complete the illusion and holding the crystal up as high as his arms allowed. But the dragons here were not kneeling to some Shard of Obedience.

No.

They were kneeling to him.

They were kneeling to Lukas Drakos, a Dragon Lord of Linemall, the Ruler of Linemall's Seas.

Though the crowd believed they were witnessing the triumph of mankind, Rosalia and Velena truly understood—for they who knew who Lukas truly was, and who Jesse truly was—and they saw something else entirely:

Not subjugation. But allegiance. Not a potential weapon that could now be forged for humanity. But a people returning to their Lord.

"Break the connection. Do it gradually, Lukas. But put the Crown to rest."

Lukas grimaced inwardly, knowing what would come of it. Still, he obeyed. His fingers tightened on the crystal, and slowly, he drew the Crown's power inward. Not severed, not yet, but carefully dulled, like dimming a lantern wick.

The glow within the crystal began to fade. Subtle, but visible.

Draconic heads lifted. Eyes snapped open. Confusion painted across every face as they stared at Lukas—their connection to Lukas thinning like thread stretched too far. Their peace, the stillness they had only just found, began to unravel. They looked to him again, unsure, as though silently asking what they had done wrong. And it broke his heart as Lukas withdrew the Crown's power, withdrew his connection to them.

Gasps came from the nobles now not from awe, but concern. Murmurs rose, tinged with hesitation. A few nobles sat forward, lips pressed tight.

Jesse turned to the crowd, perfectly timed.

"As you can see," the young dragonborn announced, raising his voice slightly, "this power…it is real. It is absolute. But," and here his voice dipped just enough to draw their full attention, "it comes at a cost."

He let those words breathe. Let their imaginations race.

"This restraint," he continued, gesturing toward the confused dragons, "is not an illusion. But neither is it simple to maintain. The source of this power—as Klein has requested—is to remain confidential. It would be his right as the mind behind the Shard of Obedience to do so."

Faces tightened. Some narrowed their eyes, already trying to calculate what secrets were being kept from them. But Jesse pressed on, graceful in the turn.

"What I can tell you though," he followed up before they could begin to protest, "is that this is a power that demands resources. Energy. And constant maintenance. It is not a spell that you can cast once and forget about it. It is a living system. And to maintain that system—to perfect it into the best product it can possibly be—we need your support."

Jesse stepped forward, spreading his hands out towards the audience before him.

"I stand here today to ask not just for your admiration, but your trust. Sponsor us. Donate to our research. And in return, when the product is complete, you—and only those of you who stood with us from the beginning—will have access to the Shard of Obedience. Others will have to pay a much hefty price to buy in."

A pause. Then the pitch.

"All we ask for is a fair and reasonable monthly sum. Not for ownership. Not for exclusivity. But for participation. What you are paying for is access. The opportunity to use this product—time and time again until the last of your days. This is to ensure that we have the resources to keep this power running."

Whispers followed. Heads nodded. A few already leaned toward their attendants, murmuring instructions.

All this time, dragons had been kept in slavery simply for trophies of battles won by their ancestors. But with the Shard of Obedience?

They could control these dragons. They could possibly wield the power of the dragons. And with that power came possibilities not yet known.

Territory. Labour. Weapons. Profit.

Lukas stood there, silent. He heard Jesse's words. He even admired how he said them but none of that held his attention anymore. Because Jesse was showing him something through their connection that remained. There were no words to describe what Jesse was trying to get Lukas to see. Disjointed, scattered visions. Impossible to define at first. But then, one by one, they sharpened.

A sea of dragons, unshackled, their wings blotting out the sky.

Lukas gasped sharply.

Jesse didn't turn, but his voice landed firm in Lukas' mind. "Cut off your connection to them. Now."

And so he did. The Crown's magic retreated like a tide pulled back to sea. The crystal dimmed completely, the connection severed.

Immediately, the dragons stirred. Their muscles tensed and their growls returned. Some even bared their teeth—though they did not lunge, not yet. But the calm that came from their connection was gone. What remained was the crackling pressure of held-back fury.

The crowd watched in fascination. To them, this was only further proof that the dragons were beasts, that without the crystal, they were nothing but rage. They cheered again. The applause returned, louder this time, more frantic.

The performance was now complete. Jesse smiled and bowed his head—the picture perfect example of modest brilliance.

But Lukas remained frozen.

He did not clap nor did he bow. He did not even speak.

Because in that moment, Lukas had seen something no one else in the courtyard could've seen. Not just an invention. Not just a lie dressed in gold and spectacle.

Lukas had seen a future. A future where their freedom was inevitable. And if Jesse's plan worked—if the vision buried in Jesse's mind succeeded—then this Shard might not just be clever or dangerous or ambitious.

The Shard might be their only chance at true freedom. It might very well be the guarantee that Magnus had asked of him.

The guarantee of Linemall's true victory over the Kingdoms of Humanity.