First Legendary Dragon: Starting With The Limitless System-Chapter 51: Light and Darkness

The group continued traveling throughout the day, crossing rivers and villages while talking and laughing. They stopped at a place to eat lunch together as well.

Before quickly leaving on their journey again. As the Neruthal City came closer and closer, the atmosphere started to turn somber and quiet.

Orion looked out at the road and realized that fewer and fewer pedestrians were walking in that direction. ’Looks like the aftermath of that battle was worse than what I read,’ he thought.

They passed by a few quiet villages until only the ruins of villages started to appear in their line of sight.

It should still have been morning—birds chirping, insects making noises—however, something along the way had changed quietly, before Orion and the others could recognize.

"Felt something different?" Eldric asked, looking at Orion with a half smile.

Orion focused on his surroundings, "No... I don’t hear any—" His eyes slightly widened as he realized, "All the noises are gone..."

"Exactly. No birds, no wind, no sign of life." Eldric heaved a deep sigh. "Those demonic bastards did this here. Not leaving a sign of life."

Orion looked out of the window, and he could still see green trees in the surroundings. "Then how come there are still these alive trees?"

"The kingdom asked for help from the Holy Church. Those with the Light Affinity can purify the Darkness of the Demons," he explained while looking at the lush greenery outside. "Even though the Church Priests did their best and even restored the majority of this place, signs of life are still missing."

"Even if we bring insects, animals, or birds, they would either die after a while or just run away. The kingdom asked for advice from the Holy Church again but all they said was that it would take time for this place to heal naturally." He finished saying in one breath.

Selene placed a hand on his shoulder, "We tried to purify this place ourselves, but we couldn’t come up with anything. The dead bodies of demons and humans once filled this place—maybe this issue rose from that time."

Orion became silent, focusing on Eldric’s words. ’Darkness element brings corruption? Is my Darkness Element the same? But... I—I thought darkness was the absence of light, not the corruption of everything else.’

Eldric noticed Orion’s deep contemplation ever since he mentioned Darkness. He decided to expand on it. "The Darkness element is the opposite of Light. Where one purifies, the other corrupts. The demons are mostly born with Dual Elements, with one being the Darkness and the other being one of the other elements."

"They corrupt the natural element with their Darkness and make a fused Demonic Element—Abyssal Flames, Nether Water, Hell Wind, etc. But this doesn’t give them that big of a boost against normal elements. It gives them a corrupting power which eats away at the mana of their opponents. That’s why fighting with them always leads to a pyrrhic victory."

Orion looked at Eldric in surprise. ’No wonder I didn’t find many details about the Darkness element in the library. It’s something like a forbidden element to the Humans.’

"Are there any Darkness affinity users in this kingdom?" he asked, ignoring the demons for a second.

Eldric raised an eyebrow, "Brat, you aren—" Then his gaze landed on Rina and Fiora, who were looking at him curiously. He held back on asking whether Orion wanted to master the Darkness Element as well.

"Yes, there are Darkness Element users in our world as well. But they are mostly the outcasts of society, as the Darkness Element corrupts them, too. There are only two ends for them—either getting killed by their own Darkness or being hunted down by those they offended."

Selene took over, understanding Orion’s curiosity. "It’s not that they are hunted on sight," she sighed, "but most don’t want to associate with Darkness Affinity users, since they are very volatile."

"...What about Light Element? Since both are the polar opposite of each other, shouldn’t Light also affect the mentality of practitioners? Albeit not to the same type as Darkness, but it should still affect them, right?" he asked, wondering about the workings of these two weird elements.

Eldric nodded in approval. "It’s good that you caught on so quickly, and the answer to your question is yes. Light element also affects the user. However, it doesn’t affect them like Darkness. It only amplifies the positive traits of users, unlike Darkness, which amplifies the negative traits."

Orion frowned. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like this one bit—that both Eldric and Selene hadn’t told him about this before.

Selene gently patted his head. "We didn’t tell you about this before because we wanted you to make your own choice once you reach the academy and learn more about this stuff. That’s why I didn’t give you the Affinity Rune book."

His expression eased slightly after hearing Selene’s explanation. He asked, "Is there any way to break free from the element’s influence?"

Eldric shrugged. "You know, all elements subtly affect us—or rather, they are the embodiment of our emotions, so they perfectly align with our true selves. That’s why those with Fire element have fiery personalities while those with the Water element have calm personalities. Now you only have a single choice—your will needs to be strong enough to ignore the element’s influence, since your case is rather... special."

He finished saying, looking deeply at Orion, who fell silent at his words. The remaining resentment in his heart dissipated as he thought, ’Can Light or Darkness corrupt a True Dragon Emperor? Hmm, fuck it. I’ll just master both elements and create a balance between them.’ He decided and felt a burden lifting from his shoulders.

Fiora and Rina looked at each other. They finally realized that Orion had the Light element. They couldn’t hide the shock and a hint of pride in their eyes.

After all, having the Light element is considered Holy and Divine in their world. Only the righteous people with pure hearts can awaken with Light Element. That just proved the Master they were serving was the correct one.

Alas, if they knew he also had Darkness affinity, then who knows what they would have done?

They continued chatting while their destination neared. The carriage grew silent as after a while, Lucan finally stopped the carriage and dismounted it.

"This is as far as we can go, boss. We would need to head the rest of the way on foot," he said, gesturing at the dark zone ahead. It was some distance away from the outskirts of the city.

Eldric and the others dismounted the carriage. Looking around, they saw an empty outpost with dark bloodstains.

Orion came forward and read the words written at the outpost: ’Neruthal City’s Outpost.’

"So, we are finally here?" he said, looking at the burnt banners hanging on top of the outpost.

Selene nodded her head. "Yes, this is the outpost. From here on starts the Neruthal City."

"Lucan, you stay here and tend to the horses with Edgar. Helena, Selene, and I will take care of the kids," Eldric said before turning back toward the post where Orion and the others were looking.