"Evacuate the city! Now!"

  Flourishing River City, a mining town whose glory lies in copper extraction. This has brought them so many benefits that, in terms of wealth, it is second only to Lakeleaf City, the kingdom's capital.

  "How could I leave my home? My whole life is here!"

  The citizens still do not understand what is happening, as the army suddenly appeared in the streets ordering everyone to evacuate.

  "A dragon has established its territory nearby! This city will be attacked by demonic beasts at any moment! Human life here is impossible!"

  The territory of a dragon is always desolate, not necessarily because it wishes so, but because all living beings nearby enter a frenzy state and do not stop until there is no life left, even their own.

  The citizens begin to tremble after hearing this news, now understanding why their memories of yesterday were fuzzy. Many of them pack their bags intending to leave the city, while others are unwilling to give up their home.

  "Reminiscent Euphony, the evacuation is being carried out by the army. You promised we would leave as soon as this goal was achieved."

  Two people stand on the city walls, one is the princess and the other her betrothed, Doneire Fable.

  "I am the only one capable of appeasing the wrath of a dragon, my ability may not reach its true potential against an existence that surpasses me in levels, but my Gentle Aria will not displease it either."

  She smiles solemnly and seeing her, Doneire Fable feels his heart beat. He coughs and then looks into the distance, where the dragon currently resides.

  "Princess, movements have been detected near the dragon."

  A royal knight brings this information.

  This stirs their thoughts instantly, if the dragon becomes enraged, how many deaths will they have to mourn? Reminiscent Euphony takes out ten long golden needles and takes flight.

  "Take me there."

  She and the royal knight fly towards the dragon's mountain, Doneire Fable for a moment thought about stopping her but refrained. He will take care of this place, knowing she will not act recklessly, for the next queen is a wise woman who has overcome endless challenges to consolidate her throne.

  Upon arriving at the site, looks of astonishment and anxiety appear on her.

  "Who is that man? Why did they let him get close to the dragon?"

  A man is stopped in mid-air a few meters from the golden dragon.

  The royal knight wanted to apologize for this error, but then... the worst-case scenario happens. The dragon unleashes its most powerful and malevolent attack, a Dragon’s Breath.

  "Why...? Why did you have to enrage him?!"

  The sky seems to tear apart, an aura as warm as the sun fiercely rushes to claim the life of the man and all living beings in its path.

  "It's impossible for him to survive, now it's my turn to appease its wrath as much as possible."

  But her needles stop before she can even use her innate ability.

  "A... A ranker?"

  +++

  Lawrence opens his eyes wide, what are the odds? Was their meeting truly fated?

  The Dragon's Breath heads towards him, but instead of dodging, Lawrence smiles.

  "Don't you have eyes, you damned lizard?"

  Mana surrounds his hand in large amounts and collides with the Dragon's Breath.

  "We both are wielders of sacred magic."

  Lawrence feels a connection with the Dragon's Breath and diverts it towards the sky. The glow temporarily restores the lighting to that of noon, seconds later the reddish sunset returns.

  Immediately, Lawrence counterattacks, but with a different motive in mind.

  Celestial Firmament sees hundreds of sacred chains encircle its body, tightly constraining it, but instead of doing anything about it, it marvels at the warmth and brilliance of the chains.

  'Is his sacred magic as pure as mine? But how can a righteous hunter despise the lives of others with so much scorn without becoming corrupted?'

  Again it looks at the human, his expression of contempt and mockery no different from a dark magic hunter. Never in its life as a dragon has it seen a sacred magic user express the six emotions so easily.

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  "Just as you can control my magic, I can do the same with yours."

  The sacred chains weaken their compression, allowing Celestial Firmament to escape them in just an instant.

  Lawrence is not surprised by this, on the contrary, he is pleased that it happened. "Our meeting was destined, you will be my dragon mount!"

  "I prefer death before humiliation."

  Hundreds of sacred swords appear behind Lawrence, all aimed at Celestial Firmament.

  "You will be, whether you like it or not! Go after him!"

  Celestial Firmament takes flight and agilely dodges the attacks, but the difference in levels still exists. On more than one occasion, the swords destroy its scales.

  "In darkness we are the light, but you are the night in the day. The principle is different, sacred magic is one."

  "You are like the rumors, mutual understanding is impossible."

  Lawrence frowns after not understanding a damn thing. Celestial Firmament shakes its head, but does not deign to explain. Because now it's its turn to attack.

  The breeze uproots trees, Lawrence feels discomfort in his scalp. Looking up, he opens his mouth in astonishment.

  "Stupid dragon! If you want to spend all your mana on one attack, I'll join you!"

  Lawrence clenches his teeth and attempts to replicate the large-scale magic appearing in the sky, but unlike Celestial Firmament, he will make it come from the ground.

  At that very moment, two giant hands appear. Both index fingers are raised, as if intending to kill an ant with a single finger.

  When the two fingers collide, it becomes noon. The uprooted trees re-root in the ground, all injuries on the animals heal, the warm air causes nostalgia to those who feel it.

  All these favorable effects happen to bystanders, except for the involved parties.

  "If you survive, I'll make you my mount!"

  The giant hand created by Lawrence is unstable, because it is a cheap copy of dragon magic, but the two hundred levels of difference grant him the victory. The giant hand of Celestial Firmament is destroyed, broken like a crystal glass.

  The repercussions cause internal damage to its dragon body.

  "I have lived without regrets, if this battle causes my death, my race will only see a flourishing new day."

  Celestial Firmament falls to the ground and coughs up large amounts of blood. Using sacred magic, it heals much of its wounds, but it will take time to return to its best state.

  "Be my pet!"

  "No. My existence is just a temporary lapse, clinging to it will prevent me--"

  "Be my pet!"

  Lawrence is not willing to listen to a lengthy speech, he directly attacks with spheres of light, trying to damage the exterior of its body, but not the interior.

  "No. Thoughts are eternal, just like knowledge, we exist beca--"

  "Be my pet!"

  "No. Feelings cloud those who become intoxicated, preventing them from seeing the true--"

  "Be my pet!"

  A strange battle takes place, dragon and human fight using a variety of sacred affinity magics, while also doing so with their words. While one insists on imposing his will on others, the other tries to expand horizons ensuring that there is a world beyond that only dragons can see.

  The night quickly arrives, Lawrence could have ended this battle long ago, but subduing the will of a dragon is difficult to carry out.

  "Alright! I'll give up the idea!"

  Lawrence does not have much time, tomorrow he has to work and must get up early to arrive on time.

  "Be the guardian beast of this place and we will have an agreement."

  Celestial Firmament looks him in the eyes and then moves its paw eloquently. "No. The idea of wanting something is nothing more than a terrestrial attachment by--"

  "Damn dragon! Don't worry, I still have a few more hours to keep beating you!"

  Hours later, a wounded dragon and a human with some gray in his hair are seen. Having a conversation is much harder with this dragon than with the dragon bitch. At least one of them is direct, the other beats around the bush.

  "Alright, alright! Stay on that damn mountain, but reduce your aura and size. It bothers me to have such a troublesome neighbor! Can't you see how the demonic beasts act in your presence? Listen to them!"

  "..."

  Celestial Firmament looks him in the eyes and then moves its paw, Lawrence has seen that posture so many times that his eyes simply inject with blood just thinking that he will hear a new speech.

  "I can do something about it, but answer me one thing... What is the Divine Plane like?"

  Lawrence clicks his tongue inwardly. 'Tsk, a dragon is a dragon at the end of the day.'

  "Mana is abundant, all beings can easily reach level 300. That an inanimate object gains wisdom is not an unusual event, the goal of all sects is to reach level 999..."

  There is still some time before he has to leave for work, so Lawrence explains relaxedly what the world beyond this pit is like.

  "It's as I imagined..."

  Lawrence mocks, "The wisdom of dragons is truly astonishing, to be able to imagine a world without--"

  "No, I'm not talking about that. You are the one who managed to survive the Forbidden Area Cloudsea."

  Lawrence holds his breath, could it be that this dragon's real goal was to meet him? But how did it find out?

  He quickly explains: "I only entered the outermost part, I didn't dare to continue. By saying survive you are aggrandizing me, I do not have the capacity."

  "The fact that you were able to return surprised nature, their words reached me, asking me to judge your identity."

  "Nature? Do you mean that the plants of this plane have consciousness?"

  He looks around trying to discover the inanimate object that has gained wisdom, but no matter how hard he tries, there is no such living being in this place.

  "No, the wisdom you expect will not be found. Their will is even something complex for me to explain, they simply used an emissary that transmitted the message to me. Nature has no feelings, they gave me the criterion to discern your existence."

  Lawrence tries to calm down and then asks for the result.

  Celestial Firmament responds: "You are not in absolute good, but your sacred magic is sincere. You are not the calamity of this world, you may cause damage, but none irreparable. That is the conclusion I have reached."

  Trying to contain his smile, he thinks: 'This dragon is about to kick the bucket, huh. Hahaha! That my sacred magic is pure has nothing to do with my disposition. If it weren't for the sacrifices of thousands of innocents, it would have been corrupted a long time ago!'

  For the first time in his life, he is glad that this misunderstanding occurred, not only that, he is relieved that he did not kill this sacred dragon. Because it is likely that the judgment would have changed at that moment.

  "As we agreed, I will diminish my presence. The lesser demonic beasts should come to their senses in the next few hours. As for the size... this is the most I will concede, beyond this you will be damaging my pride."

  The fifty meters in length decrease to ten meters, this measure does not include its tail.

  "I will isolate myself in the mountain until I heal my wounds, I wish to speak with you by then. My curiosity about the Divine Plane is far from over."

  "Tsk, just don't make too much noise when you modify the mountain."

  Celestial Firmament flies with a clear destination and Lawrence watches it leave. It's a shame he wasn't able to turn it into his pet, but at least he managed to escape the gaze of an invisible entity like nature.

  The Will of Nature.