47

She found a majestic golden platform that was circular in shape. It was made of pure gold and there were numerous diverse precious stones on the floor of the platform serving as design. The baffling thing was that one had to climb six high stairs to get to it but the rest of the platform was levitating.

Lavana managed to ascend the first stair but she unexpectedly met with a mysterious pressure on her shoulders. This also made her unable to move further. She gritted her teeth and tried hard to move to no avail. In the process of trying hard again, she ended up spewing blood on the stairs. The pressure eased somewhat and she was able to climb onto the levitating platform. In the middle was a triangular spot with the design of dragon scales.

This must be the spot that Thora mentioned.

She stepped forward and found her body unable to move again. She became appalled. Was she gonna have to spit out blood again? If she spewed out blood for every step she took, how much blood would she have left? She retreated one step and noticed that her body no longer felt the heavy pressure.

Taking another step forward, she soon came into contact with that mysterious heavy pressure. She didn't want to spit out blood again. She suddenly had an idea. For each step she took, blood was needed.

She brought her left middle finger to her teeth and bit hard on it, causing blood to flow out. She pointed her injured finger at the ground and then cautiously took a step forward as blood trickled down her finger. She felt that the pressure had greatly lessened. As more of her blood dropped to the ground, she got closer to the middle of this platform.

A minute later, she finally reached the dragon-scaled spot and was about to sigh in relief, only for her to feel a force that made her put her hand on the spot. Blood seeped out of her injured finger at a fast rate until it covered all the dragon scale designs on the platform. Lavana was horrified and called out for Thora.

"Don't worry. It just needs to confirm you're a true dragon. After that, all pressure will be gone."

Thora's voice made Lavana feel some relief. Just as she said, the pressure vanished and she removed her hand from the scaled spot that was now painted red with her blood.

"So what do I do next?" she asked Thora.

"Sit on it and hug yourself with your eyes closed. No matter what, you must never stop hugging yourself."

Lavana detected that something crucial would transpire soon. She wouldn't escape from it anyway. Might as well obey and get this thing done with.

The discomfort in her stomach and neck had already dulled at this moment. Thora said her reverse scale has been formed but it would only be seen when she transforms into her draconic self. She sat on the scaled spot, cross-legged and then embraced herself tightly before closing her eyes.

"What next, Thora?" she asked telepathically.

Thora replied. "As a dragon who now has a reverse scale, you will have to face the final tribulation. Success means that your bones will reform and become stronger than iron. I will return during the tribulation's crucial moment. You have to hold on and be strong."

"What is this tribulation?" Lavana asked curiously.

"You will know at the auspicious time. I need to conserve the energy I have left. So for now, I'm going to sleep." Thora's voice faded.

Lavana tried to think about what the tribulation was. Thora's tone was quite serious. Before she could think again, she suddenly felt a strong headache. As much as she wanted to hold her head, she recalled Thora’s words. No matter what, she must keep hugging herself.

Her hands clenched into fists and she gritted her teeth as sweated heavily.

Her body began to tremble while she exhaled deeply. A red dragon tattoo appeared on her forehead. She opened her eyes which were now glowing with specs of lightning and let out a magnificent roar that caused the entire island to tremble. If not for the fact that she recalled Thora's warning, she would have punched the platform just now.

Five minutes later, the pain had greatly subsided and she let out a sigh of relief. All the new features on her body also receded.

But she still didn’t put down her hands. The design of the spot she was sitting on suddenly changed to that of a wolf. She stopped looking below and focused her gaze ahead of her while maintaining a determined look. However, the pain resulting from her backbone and several joints in her body was surprisingly more than she experienced on the day she first shifted.

She kept grinding her teeth as her black hair stood and lengthened.

Her body was increasing in height and she was increasing in body size too. Her hair turned red as it lengthened to the point of touching the platform. She suddenly felt an urge. Unable to resist it, she crouched and transformed into her wolf form, letting out a mighty howl.

Four red pillars with wolf carvings on them suddenly shot out of the four holes that appeared on the platform's floor. Each poured out fire at her. She had nowhere to run. She could only crouch and let out howls of pain. She didn't return to her human form coz she was somehow unable to.

...

After good 30 minutes of being scorched in the flames, the pillars went back in and another two blue pillars rose up from the platform and launched water at her, quenching the fire. Smoke lingered for another five minutes before the wind blew it away. She, now in her wolf form, managed to rise and let out an aggrieved howl that sounded ten times more impressive than an Alpha's.

Her wolf size had increased. She was now bigger than an Alpha wolf and the lower part of her nine new, meter-long tails, her ears and paws had turned red. Her eyes had turned a pearl river grey and the rest of her fur was pearl white and made one want to touch it as it sparkled.

Lavana walked out of the platform and started running around the island. This was what she did subconsciously like this was the right thing to do. Her speed indeed was 7 times faster than an Alpha's and she bet she was stronger than an Alpha now. Ha, she even had a better ranking. She was an Olmpha. Pamela, who awakened 20 minutes ago, was the one encouraging Lavana while the fire roasted her earlier.

Olmphas seldom appear in werewolves. But when they do, even the entire werewolf council have no choice but to bow their heads! Even if she had two tails, no Alpha can intimidate her and now she had nine. Olmphas are said to have carried a boon from the moon goddess herself and their powers are something that makes one's knees quaver.

The good part is, she can still show her smaller one-tailed wolf form to others when needed. Only when she deems it crucial, will she show this majestic form. Who was the first person she wanted to show this current look to? Phoenix's face suddenly appeared in her mind. He was her mate after all. He deserved to know but she won't tell him yet. Until he appeases her. Hmph! She'd rather just show Beatrix.

How was the little one doing now? Earlier, when she first arrived at this island, she asked Thora to do something about the blood seal between her and the little one. Since she was experiencing pain, of course, Beatrix would know. She didn't want her to escape from the palace and use her powers unnecessarily.

Thankfully, Thora had a solution and cut off the blood seal between the two of them. The little one would not feel anything and would think she was fine or maybe Phoenix was now with her. She internally sighed. Whether there was the blood seal or not she and the little one are still sworn sis plus they were in-laws too. It's best Beatrix doesn't find out about this and it's good for her even. She wouldn't want Beatrix to be constantly worried about her.

Oceana at this point had awakened.

"You need to work on your voice. You are a disgrace to the siren race."

"Eh?" Lavana asked in shock. This was the first thing her mermaid spirit said to her upon awakening from her slumber?

"Girl, you can't sing at all." Oceana continued.

"If I'm a siren, shouldn't I have a nice voice from day one?"

Oceana sighed. "It's not something a spirit can give. You need to have some talent first then the spirit will do their best to enhance the voice to the highest degree possible so it can enchant people. But you, I'm helpless with your voice. What is there to enhance?"

"Oceana, I talk very well with a nice voice. Why is my singing voice not good then? I recall when I was younger my mum praised me for having a good voice. Why can't I sing?” she asked while thinking. All those years she wasted in that Ralton pack, she cried a lot and barely talked. That could be the reason.

She wore a casual look and added: “Forget it, a nice voice won't take me anywhere. Power is what people respect. They can only praise an enchanting voice." Lavana said this to comfort herself.

"Listen to yourself, girl. Who told you a siren's voice has just the purpose of enchanting people? It's a weapon too!"

"Oh. It's good at sending cupid arrows to everyone who hears it?" she asked.

"It's able to mess with someone’s mind. It can make them go crazy. At such a state, any words you tell them to do, their body will obey against their will."

"Oh," Lavana nodded her head in understanding. "So that's the use of Siren's voice."

"Well, the rest of your siren powers will come to you after the final merging. If your voice slightly improves after that, then I'll do my best to make it better."

"No, don't worry. I don't need it."

"Don't eat your words later," Oceana said with arrogance.

"If I do, I can count on you to help me," Lavana replied with a small smile.

She shifted back to her human form and Oceana told her to get into the water. So she ran to the shore of the island and once more saw the boiling water.

"Oceana, you want me to get into this?"

"Jump in, my friend. You already survived being roasted by fire for over 40 minutes and you're afraid of some boiling water?" Oceana scolded.

"This water can turn any living thing into boiled meat!"

"The fire should have made you roasted meat but it didn't. Don't make excuses again."

Lavana sighed in defeat and jumped into the water. Unexpectedly, the water did not hurt her skin. In fact, she only felt it was warm. She became puzzled.

"Oceana, I don't understand this."

"The water is indeed boiling hot and can kill anything thrown into it, but your body has been refined by the fire so it's like an itch to you."

"Oh," Lavana nodded in understanding.

"Now you're underwater and still in your human form. I need you to reach the bottom of this sea and find the cave that leads to the island. Don't worry, there are only 13 caves for you to choose from."

Lavana's eyes widened in disbelief.

"13 caves?" she exclaimed.

"Well, you have just one chance. Whichever one you choose will determine to what extent the merging will be and of course, a few sea monsters will motivate you if you make the wrong choice."

"Sea monsters?"

"The type never seen nor recorded in books."

"What if I make the right choice?"

"They'll still motivate you. The only difference is that 12 of these caves don't lead back to the platform on the island. Only one does. I'll give you a hint. The one that looks the most dangerous." Alright, I'm retreating to slumber." Oceana's voice faded.

Lavana thought for a short while before transforming into her merform. If she was to reach there in time, she needed her tail, especially since sea monsters would chase her no matter which cave she took.

…

10 minutes later, she arrived at the spot where she could see 13 different caves lined up before her. Oceana had said she should pick the one that looks most dangerous. She thought it'd be easier to find. How come all of them looked safe to get into?

At the entrance of the first one was just a small organism. The others had nothing at the entrance. The caves weren't too dark either.

"What should I do now?" she thought.

After spending another 5 minutes deliberating on which cave to enter, she finally decided to enter the last cave.

The gemstone on her forehead illuminated the cave as she swam slowly. Suddenly she stopped and covered her mouth. Ahead of her was a pile of skeletons that reached the top of the cave. There was no space to see what was behind these things.

Was this the most dangerous cave? Or was there a chance that there was one that was scarier than this and that was the real cave that led back to the island?

In any case, she was already here and she could not go back as a magical, glowing rune serving as a barrier was at the entrance of the cave.

She slowly put down her hands and turned around so as to once more see the cave's entrance but instead of that, she saw something else. Seven huge fishes that looked so ugly that she wanted to vomit were baring their huge, silver teeth at her. She couldn't even see their eyes!

"Ahhh!" she screamed while also launching ice chains at them but it didn't last long before vanishing.

"Eh?" she looked at her hands. Could that magical rune at the entrance be the reason? So she could not use her powers in this cave? Then there was only one thing she could do.

She turned around and swam forward, diving into the pile of skeletons with her eyes closed. She soon broke out from the pile of skeletons and she opened her eyes to the same 7 fishes waiting for her with their mouths wide open. They were coming at her!

She was baffled as to how these fishes appeared here.

"Could it be... these monsters teleport?" she thought. This race would be a tough one if that's the case.

She had a lot on her plate then.

Behind her, was the pile of skeletons. She turned around and dived into the pile. The fishes immediately teleported. Contrary to what they thought, Lavana did not appear at the starting point. Lavana who was peeking from inside the pile, upon seeing that they indeed teleported with the almost invisible gemstone on their heads, used the chance to come out and swim faster. Sure enough, after the fishes noticed she wouldn’t be coming out, they teleported and reappeared at the other side of the skeleton pile and started chasing the mermaid.

Lavana saw how fast they were. She immediately increased her speed and launched ice chains at them whenever she could even though she knew they won’t last long. At least the chains served the purpose of slowing them down a bit but not by much.

At a point, she decided that if she continued like this, she would run out of strength without reaching the cave’s end.

She just focused on swimming even faster and the fishes followed suit.

30 minutes later.

She suddenly stopped. Ahead of her was a wall. Her face paled. She really made the wrong choice? She turned around and saw that the fishes had caught up. Her fire couldn’t work her. She didn’t know if there was enough energy to spit out any lightning. There was no way forward. Or…

She transformed into her human form and then smiled.

She launched an ice chain at the biggest fish in the middle. It did not wrap around it but moved forward, wrapping around its tail. It became enraged but she launched more ice chains at it while swimming closer to them. Then she turned invisible.

The fishes were dismayed that their prey had disappeared. Suddenly they saw all their tails were tied together by the familiar ice chains. Lavana who had now reappeared in her mermaid form used her tail to hit the bound tails hard, sending the fishes forward to hit the wall.

The so-called wall immediately cracked and crumbled.

The fish who were trying to register what had just happened saw the annoying mermaid in front of them waving.

“Bye losers!” she giggled before turning around to swim forward at a higher speed. The fish just remained in that spot for a reason best known to them.

Lavana who was elated that she actually chose the fight way became stunned and stopped swimming. The way forward was blocked by a super gigantic red fish with black fins and yellow eyes that were glowing.

Its open mouth was enough to swallow 30 people at once! What should she do now? Even if she turned invisible. There was no space to pass.

The fish wasn’t moving from its spot to chase her either. Was there really no way forward from here?

She looked behind her and saw that those fishes pursuing her earlier were gone. They must have known what was here that’s why they gave up! And a magical rune had appeared which means she couldn’t head back. She kept looking at the fish and an idea came to her. This fish was blocking the way. Since it wasn’t gonna move from its spot, why not just go through it?

She transformed into her human form and swam slowly into the mouth of the fish. Surprisingly, there was a hole. So this was not a real fish? She swam out of the hole and saw a door that was above the water level. There were no stairs to get to it.

Wings sprouted from her back and she flew to the door. It had no handle for her to turn. But there were several patterns of a dragon’s scales designed on it. She quickly bit her middle finger and touched the door with it. As she expected, blood began to flow out of her bleeding finger at a fast rate. Soon the patterns were all dyed with her blood. She wanted to take back her hand but to her dismay, she could not. Blood kept trickling from her middle finger at an even faster rate.

She nonetheless kept trying until her hand finally got free.

Her injured finger immediately healed and she sighed as the door finally opened.

She saw some golden stairs and the familiar scene of losing blood with each step reappeared in her head.

The stairs were numerous and so high! How was she to get past all of them and still be alive?

Behind her, another magical rune had appeared, blocking the way back. No other option for her than climbing the stairs!

She slowly ascended the first staircase but surprisingly felt no pressure. She ascended the second stair, it was the same thing. She increased her pace and ran up the stairs with a serious expression. Upon reaching the last stair, she saw a dead end. But there was a hole above her. She flew upwards out of the hole and saw the platform once again.

She watched as the hole below her closed. She flew onto the platform and sat cross-legged in the middle which now had various sea shell designs once again.

“Oceana, I made it,” she said with a giggle.

Oceana had now awakened. “Congratulations on making the right choice and passing the test.”

“Thank you,” Lavana replied happily.

“Don’t be too happy. Prepare for your tribulation. I’m going to slumber.” Oceana’s words faded.

Lavana sighed while wondering what the tribulation was like. Was it some super difficult test? Or was it…

She got interrupted from her thoughts when seven white pillars shot out of several holes that suddenly appeared around the platform.

They were all 3 meters tall and they joined together at the top. Lavana did not understand what it meant. Before she could think of something else, a bolt of lightning from the joining point of all seven pillars hit her left shoulder. She gasped in shock and stared at her shoulder. Although there was no mark on it but it felt hot and painful. She looked upwards and opened her mouth in shock.

A huge ball of lightning was levitating just below the joining points of the pillars. So this was the so-called tribulation? She’s a thunder dragon after all so it only made sense for her body to be further tempered by lightning bolts. But how many bolts would she receive from that rotating lightning ball?

She subconsciously hugged herself and shut her eyes. These actions of hers initiated a series of lightning bolts being launched at her without stopping. She gritted her teeth for the first five minutes but could not bear it anymore and let out a scream as her body trembled. Still, she did not stop hugging herself. Her fingers curled into fists and blood was flowing from them.

Suddenly the series of lightning bolts reduced to just one at random intervals. Lavana’s body was already swaying but she was determined to collapse. She opened her eyes and saw the lightning ball that was rotating fast. As it did so, a lightning bolt hit her and she grit her teeth. Her entire being was in so much pain. She felt that the pain of the transformation back at Ralton pack was not even worth mentioning.Breathing had become a hard task now.

The entire island suddenly turned cold and a few tiny holes opened around the platform. They soaked her with water before closing. Lavana knew she was toast. If any blot of lightning hit her now, would she still be alive. The rotating lightning balls grew larger and suddenly split in half. Before Lavana could comprehend what was happening, both parts of the split lightning ball descended at her. She screamed in fright but had no strength to move fro there. The split parts joined together before enveloping her. A bloodcurling scream was heard.

…

Meanwhile, Phoenix who had been feeling pain in his chest suddenly lacked the energy to stand. His knees gave as he clutched his chest and grit his teeth. He was in another forest in V country in search of his mate.

“Lavana, my love, where are you? Where are you please? You’re eating so much pain in some place that I don’t know. How can I help you now? Moon goddess, you surely won’t watch both of us suffer like this. Please show me any sign that can lead me to her. I’ll do anything.” he thought as the pain circulated around his body.


His eyes suddenly glowed red and he tried to take off his clothes to no avail. They ripped off as his bones cracked and reformed. Soon, a majestic black Alpha wolf appeared. He shook his fur and stretched his legs. Then he turned east and began sprinting.

“Lavana, wait for me. Your Phoenix is coming. You must hold on.” he repeated in his heart.

“Don’t you worry. The moon goddess has shown us a sign. We will rescue her from the hands of death.” his wolf said.

“I don’t want her to be in pain anymore. It’s breaking me, River.”

“Me too, Sullivan. Me too.” his wolf replied with a sigh. No more words were heard from him as Phoenix chased after the glowing butterfly that the moon goddess had provided.

He must not lose track of it as he would never find his Lavana.