[1st POV—Ethan]

'This is nighttime...well, here, the night is all the time....hehe..sigh.'

Okay, no more jokes about the night. However, I can't honestly explain to you how gorgeous this place is. I must admit I miss the day; the sun and its bright, light, blue sky and clouds, but the night sky here is also truly breathtaking. There's no denying that.

At the moment, I'm sitting on the balcony of Tiamat's castle gazing and the starry sky admiring the wonders of this magical world.

Looking at the smooth, black sky resembling black oil paint and the numerous shining stars looking like jewels flickering in the dark. There are stars with various colours, not all stars are white or silver, you can see some that are red, blue, green, orange and many other colours.

Sometimes I wonder, can I someday go to any of those stars? What kind of world will it be? Will it have magic like this world or technologically advanced similar to my previous world? I even thought of a possibility that maybe one star between those infinite numbers of stars can be the sun of my previous world…. Well, I don't exactly miss my previous world and I quite like the present one. So they are just fleeting thoughts nothing more.

My journey of visiting every four nations my aunt's lord over has met its end a little over six months ago, I have returned to my usual uneventful albeit peaceful and comfy lifestyle. I've turned six years and my physical appearance developed close to fourteen years, my face has begun to look more defined and handsome rather than cute. Moreover, my body started to grow broader as well.

As a dragon, I should be able to fly but I haven't manifested my wings; it's more difficult than I have thought. 

Just when I was lost in my thoughts, I felt a certain feeling, like I could fly if I wanted to and then I felt a horrible, sharp pain in my back. It was as if my skin was tearing apart, I gritted my teeth trying very hard to endure the unbearable pain. I bit so hard that normal human teeth would have broken apart. But the pain only increased, I heard a crackling and ripping sound on my back. ‘Are they bones?!’

Unable to hold anymore, I screamed to the top of my lungs. However, the scream was unlike a human—it was a beast howl… No…

It was a dragon roar...

"ROOOOAAAARRRR!"

[Warning...

You have triggered the first stage of maturity..

Your wings are manifesting...

It is recommended to endure the pain and stay conscious; if you lose consciousness your wings will stop growing.]

"ROOOAAAAARRRR!"

I heard the system's voice in my mind in between my screams of pain and dragon roars. My multi-tasking ability kicked in and I was able to understand what the system advised. So my first maturity stage has begun. Dragons have three stages of maturity before they are adults. First, wing manifestation; second, horns and third, tail manifestation. Then can they truly transform into their dragon form.

The process was extremely painful; the bones in your body grow out from your back tearing through flash, and you couldn’t lose consciousness in the process or the wings would stop growing. That's why the maturity stages have another name: The trial of the dragon.

I could feel the bones spreading outside, making the structure of my wings. The tearing of flesh stopped, but the cracking and expansion of the bones were more painful than the tearing of flesh.

Blood began to leak from the corner of my lips since my jaws couldn’t handle the force of my bite. Minutes became like hours to me, the pain never stopped. The bones on my back stopped expanding, the building of the main supporting bone that connected with my back was finished. I felt relieved when the pain stopped, but it was just the beginning…

Just when my mind relaxed, another round of pain struck me, the bones were now growing like branches. This time the pain was a lot worse, and my concentration began to crumble and my mind become blurry.

[Warning!

You are losing consciousness...]

‘Looks like this is my limit...?’ The haziness increased and the surrounding darkened. I was losing consciousness...

(Little Ethan, come on! You can do it!)

I heard a faint voice in my mind. It wasn’t the system but a familiar voice I've spent four years hearing on a day-to-day basis. It was Tiamat’s, I know she was watching; she could see everything here. But it seems she wanted to see my willpower, so she didn't come here.

(You can do it! Granny knows...my Ethan is strong. Come on, hold off just a bit more...)

My sexy grandmother cheering me on made me happy and it gave me all the fire I needed to bear the pain...

So I did what my draconic instincts told me to do, endure...since the embodiment of pride was a dragon, I should never give up, I couldn’t give up! This was a new life, and I was going to push through!

The blood inside my body began to boil and I endured…

And Roared...

"RRRROOOOAAAARRR!"

Soon, the pain faded away and everything returned to normal with now a pair of black draconic wings attached to my back. The wings were made of flesh and shining black zodiac shaped scales covered it. I could tell they were very strong and beautiful.

Now, when the pain stopped assaulting and everything was over, my consciousness blanked, strength left my body, and I fell on the floor tired.

The system was sending a lot of notifications but I couldn't care less. However, just before I fell asleep, I felt a pair of soft and warm hands holding me and brought my head towards something soft and squishy.

[1st POV—Tiamat]

I was in my room sitting on a chair with my eyes closed leaning my back. People would think I'm taking a nap or thinking. But the truth was my mind was roaming around my territory, being omniscient has its perks; I can see anything while just staying in my room. 

I'm currently looking at the sea where many people were working, doing their job to earn money. The main source of income in my territory is the near-unlimited resources deep inside the sea. Many rare and unique monsters are only found here, the meat or their monster core can be sold for a lot, so the majority of the people work as sea monster hunters.

Another type of job many people do is treasure hunting. This group of people dive deep into the sea to search for rare treasures that can be sold for money. 

There are some blacksmiths living on the island under Nuri, my fourth daughter, some healers, and alchemists on the island under my second daughter, Leviathan, but they are small in numbers.

Just when I was having fun watching the captain of a ship tie one of his crew members to use as bait because he had burned the captain's beard instead of his cigarette, I felt something happen to Ethan, moving my magic sense, I saw him laying on the floor screaming in pain—no, roaring. 

I panicked, what happened with him? Why is he in pain? Then I saw his back, the bones of his back were coming out, he was manifesting his wings? But he’s still not old enough, it’s still very early. How is this possible... but I didn't dwell on the thought for much longer. This was a good thing; he could start to train after his horns came out which looked like it would be soon. I was preparing to go into his room when suddenly an idea come to mind; see the limit of his willpower. I decided not to go and only observe with my senses, I would only teleport there if necessary. But my heart felt like it was being stabbed by a knife, watching my cute little grandson bleeding from pain and hearing his painful roars were a lot more difficult than I’d expected.

I realized the blow I got when my beloved son died was a lot more serious than I happened to admit. No matter what he was my child, my one and only son, I watched him grow up, cause trouble, get beaten by his sisters, and at the end of the day come back to me while sulking.

Unconsciously, tears appeared in my eyes. But I managed to stop myself from moving and continue watching while biting my nails. The process only took about a maximum of five minutes, however, the pain numbs the mind making you feel like time was passing slowly. 

Like I had thought, it only took him about three minutes to complete the process and now he had a beautiful pair of black wings. But it looked like he was too tired and was only using willpower to stay awake. A few moments later, now that the pain was gone, he had lost consciousness.

I heaved a sigh of relief and teleported beside him, embraced him and let him fall asleep...

[1st POV—Ethan]

'Looks like I lost consciousness, huh...'

I open my eyes and found myself looking straight at the impressive milkers of my sexy grandmother, head against her juicy thighs. Yes, this is the legendary lap pillow. It's not my first time since the five women I'm currently living with like to spoil me and when they found out I liked resting on their laps, they gladly let me rest on their lap.

'Sigh... it's good to be a child...and it's better to be a cute child.'

I thought and bowed inwardly to the god or goddess of luck whoever it is.

"Ohh, looks like you woke up…!"

I heard Tiamat's voice, the same voice that I heard before falling asleep. So she came at last.

"Hmm... I woke up. Grandma, what happened? It was too painful and I heard your voice inside my mind..."

I feigned ignorance, she never explained anything about the three manifestations. 

"It's all right, that was a test and you pass, you even got a gift, wanna guess what it is? It’s mental communication, you can also speak in my mind when you grow up and become stronger."

Tiamat didn't want to explain the trials, looks like she was worried that I’d be scared of the pain and wouldn't train, however, she did tell me about the mental communication. And she even tried to change the topic by mentioning gifts, nice move though

"Really? What gift, where is it?"

I acted excited about the gift and didn't ask more about what had happened, making her believe I forgot about it.

Tiamat smiled charmingly. From her expression, it was clear she believed that I had forgotten about what had occurred.

"Now you have wings just like me and you aunts. You can also fly."

Saying that she spreads her wings. They’re like mine just that her wings are silvery in colour the same as her hair.

[Like my story add to your library.]