The dragon looked at Genesis with a baffled expression and started to cackle. The mere thought of a creature as insignificant as Genesis battling him was hilarious. The dragon laughed and laughed until he saw the look on Genesis's face.
"You're serious?"
Genesis remained silent. He breathed slowly multiple times. He then walked to the dragon, ready for what had to come next.
Genesis lunged at the dragon with speeds he was not capable of before. The dragon was stunned at the agility of Genesis, but it was too slow to harm a mighty beast like itself. The dragon simply swatted Genesis away. However, the dragon's paw was stuck against something. It was Genesis defending himself with his sword that shined brightly.
The dragon interest was peeked, but it increased it's strength and Genesis was snet tumbling backwards.
"That was just a light effort. Try once more and I won't be as delicate on you."
Genesis stayed silent once more and attacked once again. He charged at the giant beast, the beast looked irritated and swiped Genesis away once more, but Genesis slid under the talons. He lunged at the dragon and sliced at it. The skin was pierced like butter and the dragon looked surprised that its golden scales were cut through.
The dragon was curious and used its talons to try to stab through Genesis's armor, but the golden chestplate stayed strong. Although the impact of the talons knocked Genesis backwards, he avoided getting his back broken by the wall by sticking his sword into the ground. The floor was littered with cracks and cuts.
The dragon looked at Genesis with some sort of appreciation and let flames fly. The golden fire burned Genesis's skin off, his arms and face were riddled with burns and some parts of his skin were completely torn off. Yet Genesis stood strong, his sword in front of his body to divert the fire from himself.
Genesis pressed onwards, getting closer to the dragon with each step. When he was finally at striking distance, he attempted to hurt the dragon. The morning dragon used to it's wing to make a storm and it slammed Genesis against the roof and walls multiple times.
The dragon then let off a mischievous cackle as if the morning dragon had a despicable idea and wanted to actualize it. The dragon let off the anarchy once more, it's flames merged with the wind transforming into a beautiful display of storm and flame, golden flame.
Genesis burned and was left with pitch black marks on his face. His skin burned off and he holwed in torture. His skin was torn off his body and turned into ash. All that was left was his muscles, veins and eyes. The parts that were protected by his armor, though those were the parts that made him feel like death was a better alternative.
The golden armor refused to be reduced to molten slack, so it withstood the flames, turning a bright white. The skin under Genesis's body didn't burn instantly it took time. That was the worst part. He felt like the weight and heat of the sun were on his chest. He had hard times breathing, thinking and especially a hard time to keep his hand on his sword. His body was at temperatures no person should have to withstand in their entire life.
When the dragon finally got bored of Genesis's suffering, he stopped the continuous motion of its wing and stopped the assault of its flames. Instead, it found amusement in something else. It was as if the dragon realised that it was stronger and much, much bigger than Genesis and it took advantage of it.
It started to play around with Genesis as a toy. A single claw would tear up Genesis's exposed arteries and would leave him bleeding. It would leave him drowing in his own scarlet fluids. In one of the times the dragon played with Genesis, it juggled him over and over again. Hitting him against the rough rocks of the lair, it used it's tail to swat Genesis away, but the dragon was lost in pleasure and it swung at Genesis so hard that when his arm went against the rocks, the charred coal was left victorious.
Genesis cried as his arm was left on the ground beside him. It bathed him in his own blood once more, and Genesis was forced to use only his right hand for his survival. No matter how much Genesis wanted to cry and tell the dragon to stop, there were people he wanted to see and those same people he wanted to protect.
Genesis was overwhelmed with emotion, the emotion of courage, the emotion of protectiveness and the outstanding emotion of greed. Not the Greed that would consume a person whole, but the greed of want, to greed to want something so much you would do everything to get it and Genesis wanted to see his friends again and he was going to see them again. First, there were other problems in his way of a joyful reunion such as a golden dragon that was currently attempting to end his life, but there were always solutions to golden dragons trying to kill you were they not?
Even if it was Genesis's fault that the dragon was trying to kill him, he still hated it for trying to kill him. If a person wants to kill you, the logical thing would be that you let them kill you, especially if you are a dragon.
Unfortunately, that was not true for Genesis's predicament. He was faced against a relentless, outstanding and partly merciless dragon.
Genesis looked at the problem in front of him. It was insane. Even if this was not real, a person still could not hope to defeat a dragon, but Genesis was a person no longer. He was more than skin and bones. He was more than muscles and blood. He was a person with a purpose. It may be temporary. However, it was still something to hold onto.
He had something to live for, something to reject his purposeless nature, because he wanted to be himself, not what the Purposeless Wanderer wanted him to be.
Genesis stood up, skin nonexistent, hair all but there, but one thing that was there was the longing to see his friends again. He staggered to the dragon, thinking of a way to kill the ferocious beast.
The dragon at this time had some sort of pity. It was done playing with Genesis as a toy, and now it wanted to end his life. When Genesis was close enough, the dragon threw a swipe, talons outstretched, face unburdened, killing Genesis was a simple task. Too simple, in fact, yet the one who had a purpose to see refused to give up.
Genesis jumped over the talons of the monster and landed in its paw. The dragon quickly closed it's hand and Genesis was confined in the walls of gold. The dragon kept getting stronger with each second, but it only fueled Genesis's resolve to live.
While inside the walls of the golden beast. Genesis wondered if this was even worth it. If he would just let the pressure crush him, then it would all be over. He would get to rest. A peaceful end. An end too easy for Genesis to take. Through all the bad things in his life, Genesis knew how he wanted his grandiose adventures to end. He wanted to be off in a tropical beach, celebrating with his friends that they defeated the prime evil. He wanted that to be his end, not dying in the palm of a beautiful dragon.
'I want to live!'
That was the first time Genesis ever thought that, sure, he had known that life is precious, but he did not particularly enjoy it. He never really wanted to live, nor did he want to die. He was just in the middle, not fueled by purpose. Not crushed by the escape of death.
But now he had a purpose, one he wanted to see through, one he was going to see through.
His soul was a tsunami of emotions. His sword was a messenger of pain. Both the sword and soul together would outshine the golden scales of the dragon and overpower it.
He sliced through the hand of the dragon, its blood mixing with his own
He used the tsunami of emotions in his body and channelled them through his sword, his soul was overflowing with power and he was ready for a battle.
He escaped the terrible clutches of the golden dragon. He ran up the its long hand, each stepping blood was being poured out, turning pure gold to ruby. He reached ever so close to the neck of the monster before getting, whipped by its tail.
Genesis was sent tumbling down, his head was spinning. When he reached the ground, he coughed up his precious blood and he painted the rocks red. Yet he wiped his face with one hand and was ready.
He kept going at the beast whenever it made any form of attack he nimbly evaded. He ran and ran, his legs were filled to the brim with so much pain. His body was really starting to fell the repercussions of having no skin.
He was once again close to dragon until it screamed.
"Enough!"
It started flapping its wings violently, creating another storm. This time was filled with more hate than the last. The dragon purposely gathering dust and other forms of dirt and Genesis was clouded in them. The dragon was trying to get Genesis infected.
He had to end the battle quickly, he had been fighting this beast for too long. What if his friends were already dead. What if all he was fighting for was now a pool of blood. Then there would be no point, but Genesis had to have more faith in those he named comrades.
After all they suffered a similar torture as he did and they made it out alive. He had to give credit where credit was due. His comrades would not die easily and neither would he.
As Genesis was being blown into the air and rubble, he hid inside the dust storm. Using his sword and mouth he sneakily evaded the dragon's eyes and its gaze. He stood right above the dragon. He did not really stand as he was hanging from the roof with his golden sword. His sword was etched into the making of the ceiling, keeping him from falling down onto the dragon's head.
Genesis waited until the dragon was tired, it stopped forming storms with its wings and he then let himself drop from the ceiling. While falling Genesis let his emotions run rampant, his sword was more powerful than ever, because of the fact that he had so much feeling in him. He successfully raised his sword and prepared.
The dragon was obviously confused. Where had Genesis gone? If he had died there had to be at least a body right? It was not until it felt drops of blood on its head, that it looked up and saw a bright light. Genesis's sword was blinding at this point, so much so that even when the dragon knew Genesis was raining of him, he could not react as his eyes had seen something so bright.
Genesis successfully managed to cut off the dragon's head. The head hit the ground with a sickening thud. Genesis thought it was finally over until, the ground was shaking, it had seemed like the impact of the dragon's body had made the ground unstable.
Genesis could barely react as he was sent tumbling downwards. The fall to the bottom, was not too treacherous, as he landed safely on the dragon's soft neck. What was treacherous were the other golden dragons. They were smaller in size as the one he had slayed, but they were still absolutely massive. There were 6 in total. Six golden dragons trying to kill him.
However, Genesis saw some form of an exit. While the dragons, were distracted by the corpse of their mother. Genesis ran and he saw a treasure chest, there was nothing inside. Absolutely nothing. Genesis stuck his hand into the chest and he could not feel the bottom of the relatively medium sized chest.
It was only until, the dragons put their eyes on Genesis that was not safe. They immediately spewed flames out of their mouth. The fire approached Genesis, it was hot and bright. Genesis had one option to survive. He jumped into the bottomless chest.
***
When Genesis opened his eyes, there were a few things he noticed. One was that he was back in the White Room. Another was that all his injuries from the dragon were not there. The final was that, his hair was longer. That was strange hair only grew, millimeters each day, yet his hair was extended by inches. Genesis never paid attention to how long his hair was, but this was too obvious. It was like it grew inches and hair only grows half an inch each month. How long had he been under the effect of the Heart.
Genesis calculated and estimated, that his 19th birthday was spent slaying a dragon.