Inside the cave, Xuekui followed Morax's human form with bored ease. He even had time to tease a lizard on the wall.
When Morax stopped, Xuekui halted too and peeked around him. Ahead was a dead-end rock wall.
"Oh! This is it!" Xuekui brightened. "Don't be fooled—it looks like a rock, but it's actually a big guy's horn."
He lifted both index fingers to his forehead, mimicking horns. Morax studied the rock wall.
"It is a rock. And everything beyond it is rock." "Huh?"
Xuekui frowned. In his memory, a powerful elemental creature should be there. "What did you see back then?" Morax asked.
"A huge rock-element thing with horns. Kind of like a dog? Or a lizard?" Morax flicked Xuekui's forehead, cutting him off.
"Neither. It is stone, and it is an unfinished dragon."
As he spoke, Geo energy formed into solid characters drifting through the air, then sank into the rock wall.
Xuekui grinned wickedly. "You're doing that, it'll get mad."
"It won't," Morax said evenly. "I just greeted it very politely." The cave shook violently.
Xuekui spread his hands. "See? Mad."
But no attack came. Instead, a heavy voice rolled through the cave.
"Who… has awakened me?"
"A thing neither stone nor stone, neither dragon nor dragon," Morax replied. "How interesting—abandoning the light above to sleep in the earth for so long."
The voice turned bitter.
"If I could see the sun, why would I lament in this lightless rock? Since you see my state at a glance, you know my plight—spare me the mockery."
"You have the might of a god and such sight… Can you help me walk upon the surface?" Hope crept into the voice.
Xuekui tilted his head. Something was very wrong.
Why were they talking peacefully?
When he woke it before, it beat him senseless.
"Hey! Big guy! That's discrimination!" Xuekui shouted from behind Morax, emboldened by having a god as cover. "When I woke you up, you didn't sound like this!"
The voice paused as if recalling him.
"Oh. You're the brat who chipped my horn that day. That was waking me? You weren't waking me—you were disturbing me."
Morax glanced back at Xuekui. Xuekui's face reddened.
"…Then why didn't you ask me if I knew how to get you out? Why attack first?"
"You were weaker than you are now," the voice said bluntly. "A newborn that struggles even against my method of driving away nearby creatures—what ability or knowledge could you possibly have to help me?"
Honest words hit hardest. Xuekui felt his face burn.
Morax, however, found himself admiring this honest stone-that-would-be-dragon. "I can let you see the sun," Morax said. "But all things have a price."
"Of course."
"Then agree to three terms. First: you may not harm those I protect. Second: you will obey the laws and order of human society. Third: when I require your strength, you may not refuse."
"Agreed."
"Before that, there is something I should not hide from you." Morax's tone turned solemn. "Even without me, in thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of years, you would eventually reach completion and emerge. Even so, would you trade some freedom for the chance to see the surface now?"
The voice carried self-mockery.
"For a being with awareness… this dark earth is a prison." Morax nodded.
"Then our contract is made. Break it, and you will—" He paused, remembering Xuekui's earlier outburst. "—return to the darkness beneath the earth."
"And how will you do it?" the voice asked. Xuekui stared, fascinated.
"Yeah—how?"
Morax glanced at him. "Watch carefully. Learn."
Golden radiance gathered around Morax. He clasped his hands, and dense "principle" surged outward. In the cave—aligned with his resonance—the stone trembled and answered with deep, ringing echoes.
From the stone dragon, a flood of Geo poured out—its "principle" thin, but its elemental power vast enough to compensate.
Xuekui's jaw fell.
Even a thousand of him—ten thousand—would be blown apart by that force. So even without being a god…
You could possess power that immense. The child's eyes shone.
The two Geo forces met, tested, then joyfully intertwined—finally merging into the surrounding strata.
Stones rained down. Morax didn't forget to hook Xuekui closer. Then came the moment of opening.
The cave ceiling split.
No—more accurately, it was moved aside.
Under Morax's "principle" and the stone dragon's force, the very layout of the earth shifted. Xuekui stared up at the revealed sky, gaining a deeper understanding of Morax's might.
Among gods, this one was surely near the top.
Morax rose slowly, bringing Xuekui with him. And the stone dragon was dragged out of the ground—forced into the open.
Ripping earth and excavating living stone was only the first step. The true promise was "seeing the sun."
A creature born in darkness didn't truly need sight—and had no ability to see. This living stone was the same.
Xuekui floated up to the mountain-sized, lizard-like stone dragon and waved a hand in front of where its face should be.
"It can't see at all."
"That is why it is still stone," Morax said, "and not yet a dragon."
He motioned for Xuekui to step back. Golden characters swirled around Morax, then flowed into his outstretched finger, turning it into something like golden jade.
With eyes faintly glowing gold, Morax pressed that finger to the stone dragon's forehead. Golden light surged into the cracks.
After a brief hush—
Two beams of gold burst forth where eyes should be. When the light faded, a pair of amber, dragon-like eyes opened, filled with living spirit.
Ancient presence rolled off its body.
It had become a dragon.
The stone dragon lifted its head.
Morax stood before it, backlit by the sun—radiance competing with the blazing day itself. He moved the heavens. He reshaped mountains and seas.
He made stars from barren land. Brilliant as the sun.
Watching, Xuekui rubbed his chin. What had he wanted again?
How did this turn into something so… harmonious?