### Heartguard Dragon Scale
After a heart-to-heart chat with Noia, Leon felt like a heavy stone had finally rolled off his chest.
For the next while, he focused on accumulating magic power and practicing the Nine Gates of Hell. Thanks to Aurora’s guidance, his speed picked up significantly. However, his magic storage was still stuck in a slow-motion scene, with the Dragon Pattern and some unknown “thingamajig” inside him splitting the resources like a frugal landlord—so progress was painfully sluggish.
To this day, Leon had no clue what was going on with his body. He’d asked Aurora if she had any brilliant ideas.
His little daughter regretfully shook her head, saying her research mainly revolved around magic arrays and wasn’t really well-versed in human anatomy stuff.
With no other choices, Leon had to go old school—gradually accumulating magic power in the Dragon Pattern, bit by bit.
The four of them—father, daughter, and the awkwardness of being a secret underground family unit—kept an eye on Roswiser, practiced their skills, and waited for Aurora to finish her research.
Three months later.
Aurora decided it was time for the first test of the reversal magic array.
They all gathered in Roswiser’s crystal room, where Aurora activated the magic array on the ground.
The array was a chaotic mess of intricate patterns. Even the professors specializing in magic arrays would gasp, “This is a major undertaking!”
After all, this was the result of ten years of Aurora’s research. What she was trying to reverse wasn’t just any old magic—it could change the course of everything!
Aurora approached the array and waved her hand to start it up.
Light burst forth, and the magic array slowly began to respond.
The other three started to sweat bullets.
Whether Aurora succeeded or not would dictate the future of their family!
The array’s light became blinding, and the whole chamber began to tremble.
Leon instinctively raised his arm to shield Noia and Moon behind him. “Little Light, are we okay?”
Aurora, with her back turned, waved her hand dismissively. “No problem.”
Leon raised an eyebrow.
Something about her tone felt off. It didn’t have that victorious energy; it was more like…
In the blink of an eye, the magic light snapped like a broken string, vanishing without a trace.
The chamber fell silent again.
The magic array’s markings on the floor looked like they’d been roasted, leaving behind dark charred marks.
Aurora slowly lowered her hand. After a moment of silence, she whispered, “Failed.”
A short and sweet assessment, but her tone betrayed her disappointment.
Ten years of dedicated research, and she still came up empty-handed. Talk about a punch in the gut for someone who had dreamed of being a scholar since childhood.
The worst part? They had less than three months left before Mom slipped into coma mode.
If they didn’t nail the reversal magic before then, Leon would be stuck in the past, and Mom’s fate would be just as grim.
Nobody wanted to deal with that conclusion.
But the harsh taste of failure was like a dagger lodged deep in Aurora’s heart.
“Little Light—” Moon opened her mouth, hesitating to offer her sister a few comforting words, “It’s… it’s okay, this was just a test.”
But Aurora didn’t respond.
Her shoulders sagged, as if a heavy invisible burden was about to crush her.
After a moment of hesitation, Leon stepped forward, standing beside Aurora as they both looked down at the remnants of the magic array.
“What do you think caused the failure?” he asked.
Her pink pupils trembled as she replied in a shaky voice, “I… I don’t know.”
Leon looked at his little daughter, and her face screamed “panic” louder than any alarm.
In that moment, he understood: her biggest fear wasn’t failure—it was the thought of not being able to save their family.
“Little Light, have you heard the saying?”
Silence.
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
Leon continued, “My master taught me this saying for ages, and eventually, I realized it could also make sense in reverse.”
Aurora blinked and slowly lifted her downcast head to look at her dad.
“The larger your responsibilities, the greater your capabilities.”
“Everyone believes in you, so they’ve entrusted this task to you.”
“But don’t let responsibility feel like shackles holding you down. Remember what Noia once told Mom about accepting yourself?”
“Accepting yourself is important, but accepting failure is equally crucial.”
“If a person can’t handle a setback, then they don’t deserve success.”
Leon reached out and gently rested his hand on his daughter’s shoulder.
Though her shoulders had just been weighed down by invisible discouragement, the moment his warm hand settled on them, she felt a wave of grounding reassurance.
“Try to kick those dreary thoughts about failure out of that little head of yours, Little Light. You’ve been working on this reversal magic for ten years—believe in yourself, you got this!”
Mom once mentioned that the thing about Dad that fascinated her most was how he always made her feel solid and secure.
As long as he was around, she felt an endless supply of courage.
Back then, Aurora didn’t quite grasp what kind of power that was.
But in this moment, she seemed to understand what Mom meant.
Behind her glasses, her pink pupils regained their calm sharpness.
She furrowed her brow, turned her head, and set her eyes back on the dormant magic array.
After observing for a while, Aurora slowly said,
“The array’s flashing light proves it can be activated, at least the first stage is fine.”
“The problem must lie in the subsequent phases.”
“For an array to complete its mission, there are four stages:”
“Start, Operate, Maintain, and End.”
“We were just at the operating phase. In the majority of magic arrays, to ensure they function properly, you need sufficient power.”
“I knew that, which is why I prepared plenty of energy crystals in advance, but it seems they didn’t work.”
As she spoke, Aurora walked over to the energy crystals, picking up a few for a closer inspection.
“The energy inside them hasn’t decreased, which means these crystals didn’t participate in the array-run earlier.”
“But why…? I’ve tested this type of crystal in many setups, and they usually work for any kind of reversal magic, except for this one that reverses Rave’s spatial magic.”
“If the array doesn’t have enough energy during the operating phase, we’ll flop in the maintenance phase as well.”
“So we have to tackle the issue of why the energy isn’t feeding into the array…”
Leon squatted down to join her in examining the energy crystals.
After thinking for a moment, he said, “You mentioned Rave’s spatial magic… right?”
“Yep, because Dad, you were brought here using his spatial magic.”
Leon added, “But Rave’s magic went wild back then, didn’t it? And the reason for that outburst was Rave’s Heartguard Dragon Scale—”
“Heartguard Dragon Scale!”
Aurora snapped her head up, excitement dancing in her eyes like she discovered a treasure map.
“The reason the energy crystals didn’t take effect is that their energy properties aren’t compatible with Rave’s spatial magic!”
“When they teleported you over, the spell had the power of Rave’s Heartguard Dragon Scale.”
“So we must use a Heartguard Dragon Scale similar to Rave’s to successfully operate the current reversal magic!”
Leon smiled in relief. Kids these days were sharp! Still, he had to toss out a pressing question.
“Where on Earth do we find a similar Heartguard Dragon Scale…?”
Aurora paused, scratching her head. “Normally, dragons need at least a hundred years to gather Heartguard Dragon Scales, but the three of us haven’t even hit a hundred combined…”
“And if we’re going by what you said, even if we did have a Heartguard Dragon Scale, its energy properties would still differ from Rave’s.”
Noia chimed in, “We’re Silver Dragons, and Rave belongs to the Star Dragon Race—they’re fundamentally different powers.”
“Yep, big sis is right.”
Aurora sighed deeply, her fingers tangling in her messy pink hair, “Ugh~~ where on earth do we even get a Heartguard Dragon Scale like that? Especially one from a Dragon King like Rave!”
“I did hear some reliable intel a while back.”
Noia said casually, “At that place, we might just find the Heartguard Dragon Scale we need.”
Leon raised his eyebrow, “Where?”
“The Empire.”
