"They need some time to rest. Your Majesty and Ruler of Earth has suffered serious injuries, fortunately those injuries are far away from their Cores"
One of the staff members of Laviosa Medical Centre explains their conditions to Frost and Kevin.
"As for your younger sister, Ruler of Ice, she drained a lot of her Ice energy in an instant and thus, she now suffers Energy Deficiency which will restrict her from doing vigorous activities for 2 weeks"
"..."
"No sweat over it, Frost. This place has been here before the Sacred Conflict, these three are in good hands"
Kevin comforts Frost as the latter is worried for the three, especially Daydrine.
"Say, this medical centre is somehow preserved until this day, how is this possible?" Kevin asks the young staff as the Sacred Conflict could have destroyed the medical centre.
"I'm quite new here but it was said that this place is also part of the sudden rejuvenation…could it be your doing, Ruler of Light?"
"Sudden rejuvenation…? No, it wasn't me but…never mind that, let's go, Frost"
Kevin leaves the medical centre with Frost and just as they're about to do so, the staff questions himself
"Strange, who could it be?"
...
"HA!" Whoosh Raika clears out the Crimson Thunder enemies and deactivates her Imaginary Blade.
"Your Majesty" General Crane, the general of the Thundranian fort, calls out Raika from the top of the fort.
"What's wrong, Crane?"
"The influence of the Crimson Thunder is getting stronger as time passes. Our team has done multiple search, but found nothing related to its source"
"...I'll go and see it by myself"
"Are you sure, Your Majesty? While among the reasons of the Thundranian's establishment is to eliminate the Crimson Thunder, many of us has lost their lives throughout the years despite your predecessor's guidance"
"..."
Raika hesitates knowing that she'll confront a threat that has lingered for decades. However, she gathers up her courage and responds to General Crane's question
"Don't worry about me, Crane. I can't let this danger stay any longer" Raika says as she is about to set her foot into the Crimson Thunder"
"As you wish, Your Majesty. The Thundranian will provide support when needed"
...
Few minutes have passed, and Raika wanders around the area where the Crimson Thunder energy is at its densest.
While Raika's visibility is lowered due to the dense energy, she is still able to identify the details of her surroundings.
"..."
One of which is a dragon's massive footprint imprinted on the ground, which she immediately knew where she currently is: Her own pet dragon, Rastrina's Lair.
Ten years prior…
"Fly higher, Rina!" young Raika shouted as her pet dragon, Rastrina, ascended higher above the skies. At the time, Raika was a disciple of the former Ruler of Thunder, Rosaline, as the latter had seen Raika's potential as her successor, with Raika having a pet dragon further strengthening Rosaline's assumption.
While Thunder users are mostly cunning and perhaps the least merciful out of all element users, Rosaline was completely the opposite. She was known as the kindest Thunder user of all time despite wielding immense Thunder powers at the time.
As Rastrina reached the top, it rapidly thrusted downwards, ramping up Raika's thrill.
"HELL YEAH!" Raika shouted on top of her lungs until Rastrina landed smoothly on the ground, which was known as Rastrina's Lair.
"Raika" Using her gentle voice, Rosaline calls out her mentee as night time is nigh.
"What is it, Master?"
"It's getting late now, you should get some rest"
"B…But I wanna keep playing with Rina"
"Now now, young one, Rina also needs some rest too, just look at her"
Both Rosaline and Raika turn their gazes into Rastrina, who has already fallen asleep.
"Aw…Alright then, Master, I'll rest" Raika says before she leaves Rastrina's Lair and heads to her dorm.
However, just as Rosaline was about to leave as well…
Shssh
"?" Feeling something wasn't right, Rosaline quickly checked around the lair, but she found nothing
"Well…must've been my imagination" Rosaline leaves Rastrina's Lair shortly after.
Six hours later…
"..."
Rastrina slept peacefully, none would dare to interfere with the dragon's slumber since it was under a Ruler's care.
But…that only applies to the followers of the Light Branch.
"Time to wake up…"
"!"
Rastrina was awoken
Two minutes later…
Trmmm…TRMMM…
"!" It was midnight, and Raika's sleep was heavily disturbed due to ground trembling before the trembling worsened.
"W-What's going on?!"
Raika quickly exited her dorm, arrived at Raikiri City's main plaza, and heard Rosaline's shouting.
"Deploy all troops! Do not let the Corruption minions into the city!"
"ROAR"
"Tch…"
"YOUR MAJESTY"
Rosaline withstood a beam attack with her Silicon Thunder shield for quite some time, but due to the sheer size of the beam, she can't see who was unleashing it.
"Corruption…?" Raika turned her gaze towards the source of the sounds and witnessed something that she should not have seen
Her own pet dragon, Rastrina, was attacking her own mentor and Raikiri City.
"How…How can this be…Huh?"
Raika almost jumped to conclusion until she noticed a red scar on Rastrina's face, which Raika realised that it wasn't the dragon's fault; someone else was at it.
"This can't be good"
Fwoosh
"Raika?!" Rosaline was flabbergasted as Raika arrived by her side and withstood the beam with her.
"Master, Rastrina was manipulated by an unknown energy! It was her that fired this beam! "
"The one behind this beam…is a manipulated Rastrina??" Rosaline was again shocked, as she never expected a dragon to unleash an immense power that was on par with hers.
"Yeah Master, we have to deal with it somehow!"
"Hmm…follow my lead, alright?"
"A-Alright!"
BOOM!
Rosaline, through her Silicon Thunder shield, releases a Thunder beam attack to cancel out Rastrina's own beam.
"MARCH FORWARD!!" Rosaline chants, followed by everyone from Raikiri City and the Thundranian.
Rosaline's war cry echoed throughout the Thunder Region, unifying everyone in the region while Rosaline underwent her transformation.
…
Two semi-transparent, massive claws made out of Thunder energy emerged from the back of Rosaline, and she too wore a semi-transparent helmet which has a similar design to her ground troops' helmets.
Rosaline was cloaked with dense Thunder energy to the point that Raika, who was observing her transformation from below, cannot even see Rosaline clearly.
"Rastrina…you really are a fascinating creature" Rosaline smirked as she entered her strongest form: the Thundertremble state.
"..."
The manipulated Rastrina stared at Rosaline fiercely, but the latter had so much confidence that she already started taunting the dragon.
"Come at me then"
Rastrina, being completely opposite from her original demeanour, became furious and attempted to ram Rosaline head first.
BAM Rosaline, with her claws as additional defense, took the attack head on.
"Raika!"
Raika, using her raw strength, knocked Rastrina up into the sky from below before continuing with a downward slash from above using her Thunder-imbued trainer sword.
Fwoosh The dragon was sent flying to the ground but eventually controlled her flight and remained slightly above the ground.
"Tch…" Raika, with reluctance, decided to do a plunging strike using her maximum travelling speed, which rivals half the speed of light, towards Rastrina.
And just as Raika thought she could put Rastrina into slumber again…
"ROAR!!!"
"!"
Fwoosh Rastrina swung her tail towards the charging Raika, who was caught off guard.
"Crap!"
DAM Using her hands to guard her left side, Raika was hit with full force from the left, sending her flying straight towards the Unity Region.
"RAIKA!" Rosaline exclaims as she witnessed Raika being unable to control her flight post-impact.
Rumble Rastrina, under manipulation, transformed her purple-coloured appearance into crimson red. While this signified heightened powers, Rosaline wasn't intimidated at all, instead…
"Fine then…I'll give you a fight" Forging a scythe imbued with Thunder within a short time, Rosaline pointed it towards Rastrina and challenged the dragon.
"..."
Fwoosh Rastrina made the initial attack by swinging her tail towards Rosaline, but the latter used her enhanced Silicon Thunder ability to defend herself.
"My turn" Using her claw as a fist, Rosaline attempted to punch Rastrina head-first before the dragon responded with a head butt.
BAM The impact of the clash sent shockwaves throughout the Thunder Region, causing earthquakes that aren't meant to happen.
"Tch" But the impact rendered one of Rosaline's claws useless, leaving her frustrated.
But Rastrina wasn't done yet; she charged up a massive beam attack using her breath and the unknown crimson energy.
"Well…this isn't something the Silicon can withstand"
Rosaline ditched her Silicon Thunder and most other abilities, as the beam attack was way too strong for the said abilities.
She looked at her scythe and thought of a devastating attack…
But she didn't know what it'll cost her…
"..." Using both of her hands, Rosaline lifted her scythe up until it reached above her head, and Rosaline herself closed her eyes.
"For this city and region I love, I shall protect it at all costs"
Rosaline channeled all her Thunder energy into the scythe, and combining with the beam attack Rastrina was preparing, an illuminating crimson purple radiance was formed.
The radiance spreaded through the entire Six Regions and caught everyone's attention, including the ground troops, the minions, and Raika who was still stuck on a wall in the Unity Region.
The beam attack had reached its maximum destructive potential and without any hesitation, Rastrina fired it with full force.
"..." Rosaline exhaled
"Now"
With a swing using her scythe, Rosaline created a crescent-shaped Thunder energy wave, her strongest response towards Rastrina's beam attack.
BAM As the two attacks clashed, space-time rippled throughout the Six Regions, causing unknown dimensions to appear out of nowhere.
Rastrina, seeing Rosaline's struggle, went further beyond and increased her power output to the absolute fullest, causing her beam attack to be enlarged significantly.
"Tch…" Rosaline knew she couldn't enhance her energy wave, so instead she prepared her scythe for another wave attack.
Rosaline inhaled deep, and…
"HAAA!!!" She swung her scythe horizontally, creating a horizontal Thunder energy wave that went straight to the vertical energy wave.
"Crap" Rosaline experienced pain near her chest where her Core of Definition resided; she had Energy Deficiency, but it was irreversible.
The horizontal energy wave acted as a support to Rosaline's vertical Thunder energy wave, thus creating a cross-shaped wave attack against Rastrina's beam.
The immense power of the wave attack successfully repelled Rastrina's beam, returning the latter to the sender and thus…
BOOM
"ROAR!" Rastrina screamed in agony as both her beam attack and Rosaline's wave attack hit the dragon. Afterwards, Rastrina started to fall down to the ground…but so did Rosaline.
At the same time, the minions that the ground troops were holding against vanished into thin air
"MASTER!" Raika, while injured, flew and caught the falling Rosaline and smoothly landed on the ground.
"MASTER, MASTER, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"
Raika yelled, begging for her mentor to wake up.
"Ugh…Raika…?"
"AH! *sobs* Oh thank the Sustainers…" Raika slowly lifted Rosaline up
"Rastrina…where is she?" Rosaline asked Raika before the latter pointed at the direction where the weakened dragon was at…
But there was a woman accompanying the dragon
"Still fallen, huh?" The woman, with long black hair and a completely black outfit, gently touched Rastrina.
As Raika and Rosaline, alongside their large groups of ground troops, approached the woman and Rastrina before Rosaline asked using her weak voice.
"Who…are you…?"
"...I'm Serevia, pleasure to meet you all, slaves of the Light"
"You…what did you do to Rina?!" Raika was angered, but that took her nowhere
"Rina…? You mean this dragon here? I only did a bit of tweaking so she can be mine instead, nothing special. But since there's many of you here, I might as well take my leave"
Serevia knew that starting a fight would only draw unwanted attention from other regions, so she casted a spell that surrounded herself and Rastrina.
"Oh no you do-" Rosaline tried to pursuit Serevia, but her chest acted up again
"!!" The pain held Rosaline on her knees, and Serevia teleported away with Rastrina, leaving no traces behind.
"No…" Raika became desperate, not only did she fail to protect her mentor, but she also lost her pet dragon.
Despite that, Rosaline gave Raika an offer that aligned well with her current condition
"Raika…I can't battle anymore…"
"Master…"
Rosaline's Core was mostly deteriorated, and she experienced immese fatigue at the same time
"In my eyes, you're the most worthy to take on my place as a Ruler…but you need more training"
"..."
"Under my training, your Thunder energy level will be heightened and when it's high enough, I'll show you how to forge the Core, while also bestowing my Ruler Authority to you"
"But I…"
"You have potential, Raika. You just need to believe in yourself!"
"...Alright!"
With a time span of 5 years, Rosaline gave all the knowledge she had to Raika and trained her to use Thunder efficiently.
After that, Raika effectively became the Ruler of Thunder, transitioning the Thunder Region to the Current Era and allowing Rosaline to retire.
Currently, Rosaline is still alive and remains as the Raika's personal advisor, but she likes to roam around the Thunder Region, so Raika only meet her occasionally.
Back in the present day…
Screech
Rastrina, now standing before Raika, stares at Raika with killing intent.
"Still remember me…Rina?"