After a few seconds, Lilith’s lips finally parted, and she gave her answer.

“I want to get rid of the demon king, for good, so our family can be safe.”

Figured that was the case. She wants to kill the demon king, which means our interests aligned, at least temporarily. Lilith was powerful; there wasn’t any doubt about that. She would be the perfect shield for me.

Whether I would come to see her as a mother, I wasn’t sure. Right now, my feelings toward her were mixed. On one hand, I felt a strange connection to her, and on the other hand, I was naturally wary of her. After all, she was the one who sent the demon slayer after Khalissi, and I killed her son.

Could a normal mother-son relationship even be formed after all that has happened?

Plus, the way she looks at me like how a starving lion looks at meat didn’t help much to ease my suspicion. She seemed like an over-compassionate mother. I bet she was the same way with her other children too.

But I could even tell that she was holding herself back so as not to scare me off. Her affectionate nature must’ve also been amplified by the loss of her son Theon.

Lilith wore a worried expression on her face as if she was scared that I would suddenly back out at the last moment. She fiddled with her thumbs and held her head down as if waiting for me to reject her.

Sighing to myself, I stepped forward.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Lilith immediately looked up at me, a look of disbelief etched across her face until her expression softened into a smile.

I stood beside her at the rift as we both prepared to enter, but just then, she grabbed hold of my hand.

“Traveling through a rift can feel unpleasant, especially if it’s the first time,” Lilith smiled bashfully as she explained.

And without wasting any more time, the two of us stepped through the rift. All around me, the world twisted and turned into various shapes and sizes. My senses disappeared for a brief moment until everything finally settled.

Immediately as I arrived, I was hit with a force that caused my knees to bend. Opening my eyes, a completely new world unfolded before me. Firstly, everything felt massive. The trees towered above me in the sky, at least ten times bigger than the regular trees from Earth.

Looking at Lilith, she had a small smile on her face.

“You’re stronger than I thought,” she said as I gasped for air.

“Why is the air so thick, and my body feels so heavy?”

“That is to be expected. The gravitational pull of Dracanis is actually 30 times stronger than that of Earth, and the air is thick because of the abundance of mana.”

Reaching out for support, I grabbed one of the trees. It felt hard. Harder than a tree should feel. Looking up at the tree, I noticed that the leaves were growing specially small crystals on them. These crystals refracted the light of the sun creating a kaleidoscope of different colors.

“The crystals on the leaves are what absorb the mana from the air similar to ho the plants from your world absorb sunlight.” Lilith explained.

Just then, I pressed down the rest of my weight on the tree, but my hand slipped off, almost causing me to fall. Looking at my hand, it was covered with slippery oils.

“The trees also use the mana they absorb to create a special oil to protect themselves from the heat of the sun.”

At her words, I finally directed my gaze toward the sun. My mouth opened in surprise as I took a step back. The sun was just out of the planet’s atmosphere, towering over the entire planet. It seemed massive and felt as if it was going to collide onto the planet.

“With the sun so close, the entire planet should be burning up.”

Lilith chuckled at my amazement.

“Your draconic bloodline is the reason you don’t even notice the heat. And as for the rest of the planet, it is protected by mana.”

“How could someone even survive here?” I asked as I remembered the so called adventurers.

“The awakeners from your world cover their skin in the oils from the tree and create armor made from special magic crystals to keep themselves protected,” Lilith explained as she walked over toward me. “There are some things to note about Dracanis. Firstly, this planet is on a 72-hour day cycle with 60 hours of daylight and 12-hour nights.”

So the days are much longer than back on Earth. I bet for a dragon, creatures who lived for hundreds of years, this difference seemed minuscule.

“During the day, there is rapid evaporation of most liquid on the planet, and at night is where the planet cools off.”

“Cool off? Wait, you don’t mean…”

“Storms,” Lilith completed my sentence. “Far more powerful than anything your planet has ever experienced. That is why the adventurers from your planet tend to leave before nightfall to avoid this.”

It makes sense; with the heat of the sun fully concentrated on the planet, coupled with the abundance of mana, this place is practically a giant thermal bomb. Especially if the core of the planet was to reach certain temperatures.

But to cool this entire planet in the span of 12 hours, no less, these storms must be immensely powerful.

“How big is this planet?” I decided to ask.

Lilith rested her index finger on her chin as she thought up the answer.

“I’d say, roughly 4 times bigger than your planet, and that brings us to what we’ll be doing while we’re here.”

Her words caused me to slightly raise an eyebrow.

“What?”

“I’ve already told you how harsh this planet is, but it gets much worse. In order to make full use of your draconic bloodline, you must immerse yourself in this harsh environment. You will grow by passing through terrains that make you think this planet might actually be hell itself.”

The smile on Lilith’s face made me feel a sense of foreboding.

“You’ll also go up against beasts that can destroy entire planets and see some of the most diverse ecosystems in the entire world. And as someone with a draconic bloodline, you are at the top of this ecosystem, the apex predator. But not yet. You see dragons have many stages in their development. Just like how humans, go from infancy, to early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence. Right now, in the dragon’s stage of development, you are still considered a newborn.”

Just then, as she said those words, the image of Khalissi came to mind. I remember her saying the same thing repeatedly.

“What will I have to do exactly?” I asked.

Lilith had this strange air around her. She almost seemed overjoyed as her smile widened.

“You and your mom will travel around this entire planet until we arrive back in this very spot.”

[A/N: I apologize for my slow upload rate. I’ll get back on track with regular updates]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep