Above Paradise Mountain.
Jarius gazed down at the mountainside, where two massive pits, each spanning a hundred meters, were nearly complete.
Three days had passed, and for the eaglefolk who had thrown themselves into the task, digging two pits was a trivial matter.
Seeing everyone bustling with fervor, Jarius descended, joining in to finish the final steps.
The eaglefolk, sensing his familiar aura, hesitated to recognize him at first.
Before, Jarius bore some resemblance to an eaglefolk, but now, the difference was stark.
If one had to describe him, he looked like a winged Titan giant, shrunken a hundredfold!
Among the eaglefolk, an elderly one spoke up, his voice weathered.
"Jarius… is that you?"
"Len, it's me!" Jarius nodded.
The friends he'd grown up with had aged. In the ancient era, ordinary eaglefolk lived only about fifty years. Those who couldn't ascend to the extraordinary withered with time.
"You've grown stronger again! We're one step closer to our vengeance!"
Len laughed heartily.
The other eaglefolk beamed with pride and joy.
"Yes, it won't be long now,"
Jarius replied, addressing the crowd with a commanding voice.
"But I can't topple the Sky Mountain Court alone. Now, I've found a way for our people to grow stronger alongside me!"
"How?"
"Can it work? Our tribe doesn't have a single eaglefolk with extraordinary potential!"
Doubts rippled through the crowd.
Jarius's voice boomed with conviction.
"I evolved and grew stronger through the blood of Titans. Now, that blood is within our grasp."
"My people, I had you dig these pits not just to bury the fallen Titan and dragon, but to use their blood to transform our tribe!"
"I will build a pool here, where every eaglefolk can bathe in the blood of Titans!"
"But legend says the Titan's blood is untouchable—those who touch it burn to death!"
A tribesman questioned.
"I have a way!"
Jarius declared firmly.
-----------------
One day later.
Two enormous pits, large enough to hold a Titan and a dragon, had been carved into the mountainside.
Jarius led all the tribe's able-bodied members on a journey ten thousand miles away, dragging the colossal corpses back and laying them to rest in the pits.
After the burial, Jarius declared the pit containing the ancient black dragon a forbidden zone. Above the grave of the radiant female Titan, he constructed a hundred-meter-wide pool.
He crushed bluestone into fine powder, spreading it evenly across the pool's base. Then, he made a small incision in the Titan's corpse, allowing a steady trickle of golden blood to flow into the pool.
With preparations complete.
He gathered the entire tribe to bathe together in the pool.
The first bath in the Titan's blood brought changes to only a few eaglefolk.
But Jarius instructed the tribe to return and bathe every seven days.
And so.
Time passed.
Their feathers began to fall, their beaks gradually vanished, and their gray-black plumage turned white. Their hands and feet started resembling those of humans.
Yet, none awakened the extraordinary.
The extraordinary was simply too elusive.
Twenty years later.
At the peak of Paradise Mountain, Jarius stood tall, overlooking the sprawling tribe below.
With snow-white wings folded behind him, silver hair framing his violet eyes, and a strikingly handsome face, he resembled a miniature Titan.
The Paradise Mountain tribe now numbered five thousand, their appearance vastly different from the eaglefolk of old.
Jarius estimated that within a century, before the Titan's blood ran dry, his people would all resemble him.
By then, his winged tribe would no longer stand alone!
Gazing at the growing settlement below—now more a town than a village—Jarius sighed.
"Such a pity. Len, Soren, Lirien… none of them reached the extraordinary. Time is cruel. All my old companions have passed away."