Ascension of the last Celestial

Deep in the Voidwoods, a place that normally no living being dares to make a sound, afraid of what they might attract, silence held reign.

The Voidwoods were thousands of kilometers across, and with every day, it would expand, devouring whatever dared to stand too close.

Over the thousands of years the Solaria Kingdom ruled over their territory, they have been in a fierce chokehold against the Voidwoods. All across the borders between these two regions were posts stationed to keep the ever-expanding forest at bay. In the last 500 years, they managed to not push back the forest, but stop its advance somewhat.

Now, in this dangerous forest that gave Helias a headache every time he thought about it, on a small clearing, the fabric of space warped and opened up. The gate had a purple-black glow to it, and walking out of it was a boy barely 15 years old.

Valerian stepped through the gate, leaving the safety and comfort of the castle behind, and entered the Voidwoods, one of the most dangerous places on Eldoria.

"Finally..."

Valerian let out a deep sigh, but instead of relaxing, his senses sharpened to a frightening degree because he knew just how dangerous this place was.

It was the day after Seraphine’s birthday. After the dance and accidental "kiss," nothing special happened that evening. There was no young master who wanted Seraphine’s attention or someone trying to create a problem out of Valerian’s presence.

After leaving the dance floor, they just walked to their parents, who acted like they didn’t notice their strange behavior of not looking at each other. They just continued to have a light, polite conversation, and so the evening ended smoothly, and Valerian and his family went home.

The morning, on the other hand, was extremely stressful for Valerian, as he had to somehow explain to his 10-year-old sister that he will leave for two whole months, and after that, he will go to the academy. But after trying to comfort her for about an hour, he somehow managed to stop her from crying.

Freya, on the other hand, was surprisingly mature about him leaving to the Voidwoods. She just gave him a hug that probably broke one of his ribs and a light kiss on the forehead. Helias just patted his shoulder and told him, "It would be uncool if you died." Just thinking about the look he gave him popped a vein on Valerian’s forehead.

For his trip to the Voidwoods, he wore a practical knight-hunter outfit that was built for pure speed and endurance instead of heavy protection. The base was a fitted black gambeson made of reinforced, enchanted fabric. Over it, he wore lightweight, matte-black armor plates that only covered his vital parts: his chest, shoulders, forearms, knees, and shins. The metal had a subtle, scale-like texture with clean, angular lines, and faint light-purple arcane engravings were running through it.

Flowing from his belt and shoulders was a long, split waist cloak. The inside of the cloak was lined with deep purple, which was only visible when he was moving, keeping it highly mobile but still elegant.

He finished the look with black leather gloves and high, reinforced boots. The entire color palette was matte black with deep purple accents and light-gold trim. It was minimalistic and functional, making him look like a mix of a master assassin, a wandering knight, and a celestial hunter all at once.

Like before, he formed all his clothes from Twilight, the weapon he got from his parents, who were royally shocked when Valerian told them about the "weapon." The ability to create anything as long as he had enough mana is just too amazing. And the best part is that it only takes mana to create and form the objects; keeping them materialized doesn’t take any mana at all.

Valerian stretched his spatial perception out to the max, feeling every being in his range, which has reached almost 5 kilometers. There were a lot of small and weak beasts hiding in the dark parts of the forest.

’Now that I think about it, I never went all out. I always had to restrain myself in the castle. I wonder how much destruction I can wreak if I use everything I have. Maybe I could even use that.’

The thing Valerian was thinking about using was something he had since he awakened but never used, since it would take too much attention and he himself didn’t know just how much destruction it could cause if he were to use it in the castle.

’Status.’

As the status window popped up, he focused on one part specifically:

[Description]

[Race: Cosmic Dragon (40%)]

[Cosmic Dragons are an evolution of the terrestrial dragons that walk the earth. They ascended from their fire-breathing lizard counterparts into a race capable of wandering the endless cosmos. They are among the strongest species in existence, standing just one step below the likes of the Celestials.]

(Note)

(You are a hybrid created by the union of a pure-blooded Celestial and a pure-blooded Cosmic Dragon. While the Celestial portion slightly overpowers the Cosmic Dragon side, they have fused into something never before seen in the history of the universe.)

’Since I’m part Cosmic Dragon, shouldn’t I also have a dragon transformation? But how does a Cosmic Dragon even look? Well, there is only one way to find out.’

Valerian wanted to use it. The smartest thing to do would be to keep a low profile since he didn’t know just what waited for him outside his perception range, but honestly, he was absolutely confident in his strength, and if the need arises to run away, he still had the best mode of transportation at his fingertips.

Deciding to announce his entrance with something the beasts around him won’t be able to miss, he turned his focus inside.

Shutting all his senses out beside the spatial perception, he reached deep into his soul. What he felt were two halves deep inside him. One of them slightly overpowered the other, but it wasn’t that part he was focusing on; it was the smaller one.

Once he focused on the Cosmic Dragon part of himself, he felt a presence that made his entire body feel weightless. He was floating in what seemed like the endless cosmos; stars and galaxies were filling up this endless void.

In this world of absolutely nothing—no ground, no wind, no heat—to most, this would cause a deep dread to seep in, but for Valerian, existing in the vastness of deep space felt comforting, like this is where he was meant to be, like home.

Just as he began to revel in the feeling of space, he felt a warmth from behind. It was the warmth of a body hugging him from behind. When he turned around, which was surprisingly easy and intuitive considering there was nothing to push off, he saw nothing, but the person clinging to him from behind was still there.

Through the touch of the person, he could feel that it was a woman, since there were two soft mountains pressing against his back. The touch of the woman should alert him, since this was the inner world of his soul, his very being. But the hug from the woman caused his shoulders to relax, and he instinctively leaned back into the touch.

The hug from the woman felt like the tender and loving touch only a mother has for their child. A soft whisper broke the peaceful silence in the void of space.

"My star, my son, my Valerian..."

Valerian’s eyes flew open, but before he could turn around to the woman hugging him in the attempt to just see her once, a warm feeling spread through his body. It started where his core was located but moved quickly along his body.

He felt his body grow larger and limbs extend in places there normally shouldn’t be limbs.

As the warmth reached its zenith, Valerian instinctively opened his mouth, which now resembled more the jaws of a world devouring dragon. He let out a roar that shook the silence of the cosmos and made reality creak in protest.

Back in the outside world, as Valerian was standing still in the forest and this warm feeling spread through his body, a small black dot appeared on his chest over his core. This black dot grew fast and began to resemble a black hole, bending the light around it. Just where the event horizon was, a deep purple hue appeared, and silver dots resembling constellations began to orbit the black hole.

It rapidly expanded until Valerian’s whole body was swallowed by it, even though the surroundings didn’t seem to be affected by the appearance of a black hole.

For a moment, the world stood still. Nothing dared to move or make a sound, like reality itself was paused to witness this moment.

Breaking the silence was the heaven-shaking roar of a Cosmic Dragon taking its form for the first time.

From the black hole, a single, massive black claw pushed its way out of the rift.

With a brutal surge of mana, the rest of his body followed, expanding rapidly until Valerian’s transformation into his cosmic dragon form was complete. He was huge now, easily reaching the size of a two story house. His appearance was a perfect, dangerous mix between a traditional Eastern and Western dragon, possessing a long, elegant, snakelike body, but with the powerful, muscular build and sharp posture of a western apex predator.

Sprouting from his back were six massive, majestic wings that looked like they were woven from the night sky itself. His entire body was covered in pitch black scales that seemed to absorb the light like the endless void of space, and jagged, cosmic-purple lightning crackled continuously along his spine, his horns, and the edges of his six wings.

He hovered slightly above the ground, his slitted, glowing purple eyes looking down with absolute arrogance. Instead of regular scales on his underbelly, it looked like a literal window into the cosmos, filled with swirling nebulas and distant star systems. As he unfurled his six wings and moved his long, powerful tail, the air hissed from the pressure. He didn’t look like a normal beast; he looked like a primordial force of nature that had just crawled straight out of the void.