Lyren could not forget this pair of crimson eyes that stared at him in his early endeavors in this region. It had left a huge imprint in his memory he was just getting over but here it was again to remind him that it had seen him before.
The pair of eyes seemed to only be focused on him. He watched as the rest started kneeling down one at a time until it was only he alone who was left standing. He did not know why they were kneeling and whether he should have also been kneeling but the thought of kneeling left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Something he did not know he had or maybe he had acquired in these ruins left him a bitter taste when he thought about kneeling. And so, his back straightened as he looked up towards the crimson eyes that stared at him boring a tremendous pressure that made his knees shake.
He felt a sudden wind blow at him that threatened to take him off his feet but as though stuck on the floor, he could not take a step forward nor could he be blown away.
But it was a different matter for his hair and robes which were clinging on him not wanting to be blown away. His white hair especially seemed to have stones at its edges as it left him feeling pain from the tug. Lyren for a second thought that he had to kneel but his gut told him that he would rather break than bow.
His new will seemed to give him some strength as he looked directly into the crimson eyes despite the harsh wind that made his eyes want to blow off. Tears were torn from the corner of his eyes and he did not even flinch or narrow his gaze as he suddenly noticed two whiskers that appeared few inches before the pair of eyes.
He could hear groans coming behind him and when he looked back, he saw that even the kids had fallen face first with a tremendous pressure falling on them. And then it happened. Lyren felt his shoulders droop and his neck bend forward as though some weight had been placed on his shoulders.
It was not just some weight but it turned to be heavier than what he had felt from the stairs at the 250th step. His knees bent slightly forward. He felt as though someone started pushing his head from up commanding him to kneel down. Lyren tried his best to push the hand on his head away but it appeared that the hand only got stronger the harder he tried.
"Well, that makes two of us…" Lyren forced the words through gritted teeth and the fact that he did not stammer meant that he still had more fighting spirit in him.
The harder they tried to make him bow, the harder he was going to go against their will. Yeah, he was stubborn and he was not going to bow just to any stranger just because they had red eyes and whiskers. Whoever they were, they needed to prove who they were so that he could bow to them and also that did not guarantee that he was going to bow.
As though reading his thoughts, the marble floor below him seemed to crack and his feet sank few centimeters deep. And he was surprised why he was able to withstand the pressure yet the floor marble and even the elders could not. It couldn't be that he was stronger than them, right?
And then it came, a pressure so intense that he felt his bones start cracking. He was forced to grit his teeth so hard that it left a salty taste in his mouth. He did not even seem to note the clenched fists that were drawing blood from his nails piercing his palms. He could not help but wonder.
Why was he trying so hard not to bow? He tried to reason because it was obvious he had to bow from the reaction of everyone. Yet, he was stubbornly trying to remain on his feet. What was his reason for not bowing to the ultimate power standing before him?
Then he chuckled… no, he laughed. His throat was hoarse and it appeared that it was also affected by the pressure. The laugh came out as a growl and for a moment it seemed to wash over the tension that resulted from the pressure and a thought rose up in his mind.
Why he was not bowing was not of concern as why was he supposed to bow. This thought was reason 100 times more than enough for him not to bow. Yes, he had become arrogant and this is what these ruins taught him. Even the students who were on their knees seemed to have forgotten about their arrogance but he was not going to.
He roared as he raised his head and looked upwards but the next sight seemed to invade his mind as he saw a full head had appeared. It was a very intimidating sight and even his bloodline seemed to be telling him that he had to bow now. He couldn't believe it. It was bloodline suppression.
The head he had seen was a dragon's and it crimson eyes seemed to want to burn everything even his will and arrogance. The dragon head had red scales that seemed to reflect with flames that were hidden beneath them. A sudden heat suddenly assaulted them and he realized that the wind was probably from the heat that followed.
This was probably a flame dragon and the fact that it was making its full appearance now meant that this was some sort of a test and it appeared that those behind him had already succumbed to its aura. If he was not wrong, dragons were arrogant creature of the myth and the fact that he was seeing one here really validated this myth.
They stood out because they had the strength and also the capacity to be arrogant. He was just an ant or fly it could swat away yet he was here acting all arrogant with no strength to show.
How he was standing while everyone was kneeling or lying on the floor was a mystery but if he looked around, he would see the girl behind him standing as though there was no pressure at all.
He glared at the dragon and this time there was hostility in his eyes. So, this creature which was probably already dead dared to come and try to wipe out his will. The dead had to remain dead and he who was alive was not going to lose to some dead creature which no longer existed.
His eyes suddenly glowed with a crimson glow as for the first time, his attributed element made its appearance known. It should have been obvious after he had awakened but he had barely been unable to sense Elyria in the first place so how was he supposed to know which element he was attributed to.
But in this state, he had suddenly felt some deep rage he did not know he was capable of feeling and that rage had fueled the awakening of his fire element. What did it mean to have a fire element? If he was asked, he would say that it was supposed to burn everything that stood in his way.
Be it fear or be it his enemies, he was going to burn it all away. His eyes smoldered with flaming torches in their depths as he made eye contact with the crimson eyed dragon.
At his current state, he felt like he could burn anything and everything that stood in his way and even the dragon that stood before him would suffer the same fate if it tried to take another step forward.