Ethan didn't put his power away right away.
Instead, he took a step back.
The newly fused force inside him started turning again.
The air vibrated.
Even the deep-sea currents seed tugged by sothing invisible, slowly spiraling around him.
He didn't attack.
But his presence alone was pressure.
His eyes locked onto the draconic elder.
That aura—
he wouldn't mistake it.
Dragon.
And not just any dragon.
A dragonline tied to the Phoenix Empire.
"The power on you," Ethan said slowly, voice low and even, "cos from the Phoenix Empire's dragon bloodline."
The sea went silent.
The Thalaryn didn't dare make a sound.
"Who are you?" Ethan pressed, his gaze sharpening. "And what's your relationship with Drake?"
The instant the na left his mouth—
the draconic elder's body stiffened.
His pupils tightened slightly, like Ethan had brushed a past he didn't want to touch.
Ethan didn't miss it.
His voice went colder. "You're a remnant of the Phoenix Empire?"
The energy in the water turned unstable, like it could erupt at any second.
The draconic elder's breathing grew heavier.
Then he slowly raised a hand and drew a gemstone from his robes.
A blue-green stone.
It wasn't flashy.
But the energy inside it was unnaturally steady.
It didn't feel like a weapon.
It felt more like—
a vessel for inheritance.
The mont it appeared, the dragon power inside Ethan resonated.
Not hostility.
Sothing older than that. A connection.
Ethan's expression shifted slightly.
The draconic elder took a step back.
Still no attack.
He only gripped the gem tighter.
"I don't know the Phoenix Empire," he said, voice hoarse.
There was no fear in it.
Only exhaustion.
"But I know Drake."
He paused, and his eyes went distant—
like he was looking across an age that never really ended.
"Because I once belonged to the Drakar Empire."
The sea seed to freeze over.
Ethan's brow furrowed.
Drakar Empire.
He'd heard the na.
But that part of history had always been blurry.
"I am an ancient dragonkin of the Drakar Empire," the elder continued.
"And Drake—"
His voice dropped.
"—isn't a na."
"It's a title."
Ethan's pupils narrowed.
The draconic elder spoke slowly. "Every generation's ruler of the empire is called Drake."
"They inherit power."
"They inherit authority."
"And they inherit war."
His hand trembled faintly.
"For a power they could never truly control, they kept starting wars."
"The empire expanded."
"People died."
"And they—"
He closed his eyes.
"Never stopped."
The silence was terrifying.
Ethan didn't interrupt.
Because he could feel it—
this wasn't a lie.
It was mory.
"So," the draconic elder said, opening his eyes again, "I left the empire."
"I took so of my people with ."
"And I destroyed the empire's final energy core."
Ethan's breath caught.
He understood what that ant.
That wasn't betrayal.
That was an ending.
"After it lost its energy core," the elder went on, "the Drakar Empire began to collapse."
"And in the end, it was swallowed by the Phoenix Empire."
Ethan finally understood.
The "Drake" the Phoenix Empire's Phoenix Queen Ignara had killed before… wasn't just so traitor.
He'd been the last ruler.
The one who ended an empire.
The draconic elder stepped forward slowly.
Then—
he offered the gemstone to Ethan.
This ti, there was no guard in his posture at all.
Ethan didn't take it imdiately.
But he could feel it.
The gem was calling him.
He reached out.
The mont his fingertips touched it—
a stream of energy slipped into his mind.
Not power.
Information.
A complete energy-circuit blueprint.
A map.
A route leading to an empire that was supposed to have vanished long ago.
Ethan's pupils tightened.
The Drakar Empire…
hadn't truly disappeared.
It had only—
fallen asleep.
Ethan didn't speak right away.
All his attention was on the blue-green gem resting in his palm.
It didn't radiate violent energy.
Instead, it gave off an incredibly stable pulse.
Like it wasn't made to fight.
It was made to guide.
Ethan closed his eyes.
The system automatically began to parse it.
Invisible streams of data poured into his consciousness.
Soon, a full energy-path diagram unfolded in his mind.
It wasn't an ordinary map.
It was a route hidden in the deepest part of the sea.
At the end of that route—
a na was marked.
Drakar Empire.
Ethan's breathing stalled.
Not because of the power.
Because of the location.
That empire's position—
was at the end of the Nether Sea.
At the edge of the world.
The system rapidly generated projections:
If the Drakar Empire's energy core were restored, that region could be reactivated.
If that region could be brought under control—
Erald Castle's sphere of influence would expand exponentially.
Ethan opened his eyes slowly.
Deep in his pupils, sothing shifted—subtle, but real.
He understood what it ant now.
The Drakar Empire wasn't a ruin.
It was a key.
A key to a much larger world.
From the residual information inside the gem…
the world's edge wasn't empty.
A special group lived out there.
Beings with a natural affinity for the ocean—
able to manipulate the sea itself.
They didn't belong to any empire.
Any faction.
They belonged only to the ocean.
They sailed.
They drifted.
They were free.
No kings.
No rulers.
And yet even so—
so existences still chose to build territory.
They gathered their own kind.
Built fleets.
Drew borders across sea-regions.
Becoming "kings" of the ocean in their own right.
Ethan's fingers tightened slightly.
If the Drakar Empire was reactivated,
it would beco a stepping stone into that area.
And that ant—
the world's power structure would be rewritten.
Erald Castle would no longer be just a land power.
It would beco—
an empire that spanned the seas.
The thought had barely finished forming when—
RUMBLE—
the entire sea-region began to shake.
Not a normal tremor.
A deeper energy disturbance.
Far-off water churned violently, like sothing was closing in.
Thalorien's face changed instantly.
"Everyone—" For the first ti, his voice carried fear. "Level-one alert!"
The Thalaryn moved at once.
The energy barrier began to reassemble.
Guardians snapped into battle positions.
The pressure in the water thickened.
The next second—
space tore open.
A figure stepped out through twisted lightning.
A towering man.
His body was wrapped in thunder.
But it wasn't ordinary thunder.
It was three different forms at once—
gold lightning.
blue lightning.
and—
ghost-blue lightning.
That ghost-blue current carried an ancient, dangerous aura.
Ethan's system scread a warning imdiately:
[Nethora Power detected.]
[High-tier existence detected.]
[Assessnt result: Tier 32 (Early Stage)]
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