When Dying Tashī Dalāi Called Out Every Force - Ch. 1.1 (2)


    .


    “?ri’vera.”


    The voice—low, soft, and impossibly familiar—drifted toward me from behind.


    I turned, breath catching in my throat.


    Drakos stood there, but not the same Drakos I had known.


    As he moved, the air seemed to shift with him. His fur—still fluffy and warm—rippled with iridescent hues, catching the remnants of light in strange, shifting patterns. Shades of jade, gold, and the faintest twilight blue traced the curves of his body, undulating like light dancing across water. His movements, slow and deliberate, left trails of shimmering color in the wake of each step, like the lingering echoes of a dragon’s wings.


    Amber eyes—once steady and simple—now flickered with something more, something ancient. They held the same devotion, yet behind them was an unmistakable knowing, a quiet, secretive depth.


    He wasn’t monstrous. He wasn’t draconic either.


    He was something in between—something unfinished, as though he were a masterpiece caught in the delicate tension between creation and completion.


    Yes, he looked like one of those dragon-looking Avatars, white, soft, yet somehow fierce at times.


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    “Drakos?” I whispered. My knees felt weak as I took a shaky step toward him.


    He stood tall, his head reaching my waist, his presence commanding yet calming. The snow swirled around us, though not a single flake landed on his shimmering coat.


    I thought of how he’d shielded me from the avalanche. I thought of the energy that had erupted from the mountain, the brilliance that had seared the skies.


    “You can hear me,” he said, his voice like a faint bell carried on the wind. He wasn’t speaking aloud. I felt his words deep in my chest, resonating.


    “What happened to you?”


    My voice trembled, swirling like me without ears.


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    ******


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    .


    He tilted his head slightly, as if considering his answer.


    “I’ve become... what I was meant to be. A Cosmic Vehicle of the Enlightened Path. A guide for what lies ahead—for you, and for me. And with the change, you can understand these concepts now. You are sixteen.”


    “Who sent you?”


    “A Cosmic Vehicle of the Enlightened Path. You’ve seen some of them.” He answered lightly, as if he was grinning.


    “And you may be surprised that they needed us—rather, our consciousness energy—to make our deaths not happen. And that the call of Tashī Dalāi’s dying energy also played a role. And as far as I can fathom now—before my rank reaches theirs—last but not least, the space and time, you know, the Mandala eons of neon, protons, and electrons churning and churning…”


    His words landed strangely in my ears, yet they felt natural, as though I’d always known what they meant.


    As they shifted as softly as snowfall, leaving me in a silence so weighty I thought I had gone deaf, Drakos approached and nudged me gently, snow cascading from his newly transformed figure.


    “Cosmic Vehicle?” I repeated, still grappling with the idea. How could I, a fourteen-year-old—a wanna-be celestial wand shooter of the Universe Destroyer—grasp it overnight?


    My fingers brushed his fur—warm, solid, real.