A week later, I stood in front of a huge ancient-style palace, made of white marbles, shining in the bright sunlight like diamonds.
I had been preparing for a whole week for this day. Now, when I stood in this place, I felt hesitant. This hesitation isn't anything new, but whenever I felt hesitant to do something, it always went wrong.
My gaze was fixed on the main entrance while I was thinking about my next step. At that moment, a figure appeared at the gate, a boy with red hair, whom I had met at the cafeteria. His name was Ray.
He walked up to me, standing in front of me, and said, "Follow me." In a flat tone.
I silently followed behind, passing through the grand entrance, stepping on the red carpet. As we walked forward, we passed through many guards and maids. This whole place was like some ancient palace, with ancient culture in complete contrast to the modern city in which it exists.
Finally, after passing through another gate, we appeared in a grand hall filled with hundreds of people dressed in luxurious clothes; some were chatting, some were having snacks, and a few were just sitting lazily. These lazy people were the first to catch my eyes because among them sat the old man, whom I met in that theme park, talking with a few other old men.
When I was looking at him, he sensed my gaze and turned towards me. Our eyes met, but I didn't engage with him and turned towards others.
As I was looking here and there, I saw a group of people approaching me. I know a few of them. In the front was Rayan, the person who invited me here, and beside him was Iris, a green-eyed girl, whom I saw with Ray that day.
They were coming towards me, among them a golden-haired boy stood out, who was leading the way like their leader.
"So, you are the Black Dragon King." The golden-haired boy said to me. His eyes pierced through my soul, forcing the dream beast to hide even deeper in the darkness.
"You?" Instead of denying him. I just asked for his introduction because denying wouldn't be of much use.
'If they believed I am the black dragon king. So, be it.'
"I am the Golden Dragon King, Aurelion." He said in a prideful voice. His eyes scrutinised me.
"My name…" As I started to speak. A punch almost hit me in the head.
Bang!
A loud sonic boom echoed in the hall, breaking all the glass crockeries, and even throwing away all the tables and chairs.
Luckily, I reacted in time using shadow transfer and barely avoided that punch. I appeared 10 feet away from him because my teleportation range was still a bit low, but before I could even breathe, another fist glowing in golden light was almost at my face again.
I again dodged one after another. This guy was like a madman and continued to attack me without even pausing. I looked at others, Iris, and Ray, they just stood there watching as this guy continued to destroy the hall.
In less than a minute, the whole grand hall has turned into a mess, and most of the people have already left, except a few who continued to watch without any thought of stopping this guy.
As I dodged his attacks, my eyes were locked into his golden eyes. They were burning in golden flames. After a few more seconds, I decided to go with full-scale war.
'If I can't avoid it, then I won't. Let's see the difference between this dragon king and the nightmare cultivation, which is stronger.'
I stopped in my place, no escaping, as the golden fist again instantly came at my face without letting me breathe. My eyes were locked on his golden eyes. As his fist was about to hit my face, less than an inch away from my face. The light vanished; the whole palace plunged into darkness.
Absolute Darkness, nothing could be seen. Everything had disappeared as the world of darkness took over. The grand hall, and majestic palace, everything, everything lost in darkness.
Just when I got a few moments to breathe, a golden light tore through the darkness, creating a small dot of gold in the blank world, coming straight at me.
I didn't dare take him lightly, quickly merging with darkness, but his golden light seemed to be the nemesis of my nightmare realm. As I tried to escape, his golden light illuminated the hundreds of metres of darkness. Almost destroying my nightmare realm. Fortunately, he didn't maintain this level of intensity for a long while, or this battle would have already ended.
When the light dimmed again, the nightmare realm quickly healed itself, forming all those thousands of nightmares for this guy, which I had cultivated for a decade. These nightmares had caused enough suffering to make a number, but when they hit this Golden Dragon, they were like the dust particles blown away by the air.
This time, he didn't move, letting nightmares surround him completely, until there were none left. At that moment, a loud dragon's roar resounded in the world, breaking the whole dream world into pieces just like glass fragments.
Once the nightmare realm shattered, I was left with no escape, and those golden eyes locked me, making me almost freeze in my place.
'The difference between us is huge, just like before when the world ended. I was a powerless spectator, and till now nothing had changed. I am still a powerless spectator. Who isn't even qualified to watch the end.'
That boy was standing in front of smashing his fist at my chest. The time seemed to slow down as my eyes observed everyone standing there. There stood that old man, Iris, and other people watching this guy go berserk like an audience. Their gazes didn't even contain a slight bit of emotion if they already knew about this from the start.
'These blank eyes remind me of myself, not as the same but as different. This difference I can't point out, but it is there that I am sure of.'
In the next instant, everything turned blank, and everything fell into darkness. A familiar place, or the world in which I belong. My thoughts were drifting into the void.
As my body was floating in the sea of darkness few black chains came from the depths of the sea of darkness. They wrapped around my soul, dragging me deeper into this dark world. As my thoughts became hazy, I then completely blanked out.