Lillian held her hand over her eyes, shielding them from the beaming sun. They had reached the waterfall, and she had to say... It looked much better in real life rather than on a screen.
She stood at the edge of a cliff that gave her a great view of a humongous crater that made it look like a meteor had crashed there long ago.
It wouldn't be entirely wrong to think that, however, for a gigantic stone skull with two towering horns laid at the centre like the remains of a long-forgotten meteor.
Its horns rested on the side of its head, curving 90 degrees up. Even reaching the clouds themselves. However, that can only be said for its left horn, for its right was completely broken off.
It had three holes for eyes, the third being in the centre of its forehead. Along with it was a nasty groove etched across it, horizontally. But despite it having no eyes, Lillian couldn't help but shiver at the feeling of being watched.
The stone skull was bare — without any sort of vegetation on it at all — despite its most likely ancient origins. However, this mystery was soon answered, for around this skull was a breathtaking moat.
Lillian turned her gaze to the side, staring at the other cliffsides of the crater, which were the waterfall she came here to see... That is what most would think.
The waterfall stretched and curved around the crater, just behind the skull.
At the edge, right before the water fell and flowed into the moat below, a wall of white foam bubbled, mixed in with a mysterious fog that shrouded the entire lake behind it.
As the water fell and crashed into the moat below, the lake that surrounded and made contact with the skull suddenly exploded into steam. It then travelled into the air before magically clinging to the horns, crawling up it in a spiral and reaching the clouds.
Once the steam had been collected by the sea of clouds, the air suddenly began to shake. The clouds above the ancient skull turned a dark grey. It looked as though it was going to rain very soon.
But it didn't...
Instead, the clouds that hovered above the fog covering the lake took on the grey, sucking it out of the ones floating above the crater. The fog then became a lighter shade as rain fell over and passed through them.
The rain then became heavier. The clouds became even darker.
Eventually, the light rain miraculously turned into a falling pillar of water. It became a waterfall. Sёarch* The Nôvelƒire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
Lillian's eyes widened as she sat on the edge, swinging her legs. This was the waterfall she had come here to see. The one that fell from the very heavens themselves.
She grew goosebumps at the sight. She turned to Reph to find him admiring the sight as well.
"Pretty cool, isn't it?"
The Second Prince was leaned back, his arms placed behind him on the ground as support.
"It is... And so is its history."
Before Lillian could respond to his statement, he began to rant a tale to her.
"35 years ago, February 28th 1999, the first Tier 6 Mage appeared in the world." He tilted his eyes towards the sky, "Closely following his appearance, a fierce some monster appeared, as if awaiting his arrival."
He then went silent before continuing:
"It was said to have formed all 7 Mana Shells and had reached S-rank—..."
"An Apex Dread." Lillian quietly muttered, getting a nod from Reph, who continued.
"The Mage was immediately tasked with dealing with the threat, as soon as he exited his Trial, with no time to prepare or adjust to his newfound power. If it was any other situation, he would most likely been able to, as other Mages can hold off the threat."
He then shook his head.
"But this was, of course, not an ordinary threat a regular mage below Tier 6 could handle easily. Even in groups. And at the time, there weren't many Tier 5s either. This was due to the fact of a new-found theory at the time. For each certain bottleneck broken that would allow Humanity to remain at the top of the food-chain, the average strength of monsters escaping through gates increased."
Reph turned to the side, patting the ground beside him, and clutched a small rock in his hand.
He chucked it up and down before tossing it over the edge.
Splash...
After a several dozen metre drop, they heard it splash into the moat.
"The Apex Dread was said to be 300 metres tall. Had scales, harder than any man-made material that wasn't created by the Jester. And a regeneration factor, so fast that it left the land charred by the heat produced by its body.
"The story also depicted it as a bipedal bull crossed with a dragon.
"It was also capable of creating shockwaves of pure heat. Capable of ripping through the land and scorching it in a sea of flames. That was to name one of its key abilities."
Lillian listened keenly. She was aware of the story, but since she had just skimmed through it in the game, she didn't really know what went on.
"How did the mage kill it?" She asked, then added, "And what was his name? Did the monster have a name as well?"
"... The mage's name was Zama Macro... And the name we gave to the monster was 'Dread lord'." He then smiled, "But in the face of fear, they changed it to 'dready'."
Lillian tilted her head, "Dre... ady?" She repeated, "Why did we change it to something so... underwhelming?"
"Because it was for that exact reason. Us humans have different ways to cope under high-intense stress, but the most common one would be to... laugh it off... So, they gave it an adorable nickname as a joke."
He then went into deep thought, recalling what happened in the story, "As for how he defeated it..."
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