NOVEL WEB Chapter 15: The Story Of A Dragon.
Chapter 15: The Story Of A Dragon.
"Okay. Now that we are all good, I should find a way to get out of here. Mom must be worrying herself to death right now. You said I was in a coma, right? How long have I been like that?" I asked Luxara, who was now lying flat on her stomach to match my eye level. I still had to look up to see her, with how massive she was, even while lying down. Her head alone was nearly twice as tall as me.
Looking at her now, she seemed truly majestic. A majestic idiot, but still majestic. When she was hunched over and curled on herself, she still looked big, but now, with her body fully spread out, she was easily two hundred feet tall, snout to tail. And if she stood up, I imagine she would dwarf a hundred-foot-tall building.
"Well, you haven't been in the hospital for long—a day or two at most. I couldn't tell the exact time because I was busy trying to wrestle back your conciseness into one piece," She said apologetically.
"I... see. That's not too bad, actually. How do I wake back up?" I asked.
Luxara shifted a little and hesitantly spoke.
"Well, uh... you can't. As you are right now, your body would try to transform again the moment you went back to your body, but you are so drained of power that if you tried to do so, you would just end up back here." When she saw my brows creasing into a frown, she quickly added. "But don't worry! All you need to do is learn to control my power, and you will be fine. You will be able to cancel the transformation and wake up normally.
"Learn to use your power, huh. And how long would that take?" I asked skeptically.
"Well, it would take a few weeks, maybe a month, but don't worry about the time outside passing. Time here passes differently than when you are outside. I don't know the exact rate between your soul and the outside world, but your entire stay here lasted less than a minute outside."
I hummed in contemplation. That was... useful. Insanely useful. I have been here for more than forty minutes, for sure. Half of it I spent just walking to get here. That means a nearly forty-fold increase. I could spend days here studying magic if I wanted to, and only a handful of hours would pass outside.
"Okay, I get it. So less than a day would pass outside, that's acceptable. But that still means we are stuck here for a month together. You already read my memories, so you know about me, correct?" She nodded at that.
"And about my other set of memories, too?" She nodded a second time.
"Alright then. You already know this, but for the sake of it, I'm Milo. Milo Ren." I tried my hardest not to cringe at the reference but failed, and by the fit of snickering she was having, I'm assuming she had the time to unpack all my memories and understand the dumb reference. "Previously Milo Brown, but that was in my previous life. As for you, I only know your name, Luxara, so tell me more about you." I said with a small laugh, joining her in snickering at the silly joke.
"Anyways, like I was saying, tell me your story."
Her laughs died down after a few seconds, and she stayed silent. A few seconds more, and she was still silent. A minute passed by, and a thousand-yard stare filled her eyes.
"Uh, Luxara, you don't have to tell me if it's too hard for you," I told her softly, walking up to her and placing my hand atop her snout. When she didn't seem to mind, I gently petted her.
A few more seconds of this before she sighed sadly. "No. I already saw your memories without even asking for your permission, and it caused you lots of pain and problems. You deserve to know. This is the least I could do to repay you for the wrong I did you." She said this, steeled herself and told me her life story.
"I'm Luxara, the Dragon of Evolution. When I was born, I had been one of the weakest among the dragon hatchlings of my generation. But that didn't last long. I'm, by nature, ever-changing, ever-adapting, ever-growing. My body doesn't accept weakness, so it transforms to become better, to rid itself of its imperfections. When I was a baby, only five decades old, I surpassed nearly all of those in my generation.
Not long after that, when I was a mere century-old youngling, I was hailed as a prodigy among prodigies. I had become stronger than those centuries older than me." She said with no hint of pride in such a feat, only barely hidden grief.
"When I reached 5 centuries of age, barely an adult, I was on the bar with some of the mightiest dragons, only being eclipsed by the likes of the two heavenly dragons, Ddraig and Albion, and the few Dragons stronger than them. I started noticing them by then; the looks.
Those who knew of my strength no longer looked at me with awe and wonder... But fear. Fear and hatred."
She choked back a sob as she said. I tried to tell her she could stop, but she just looked at me, and I knew she needed to get this off her chest. It was weighing her down too much. I shut my mouth and listened.
"Dragons are known for being solitary creatures, but in reality, that only applies to the ageless monsters who have been alive for hundreds of millennia. Younger dragons congregate together, forming families, communities, and friendships. I was the same, of course. But that changed before I even reached my first millennia. By then, I was on par with the two heavenly dragons. But by then, I had no community to belong to. No dragon to call a friend...and no one to call family. They all feared me. I didn't know why. There were beings still vastly stronger than me, so why were they scared of me? Why did they abandon me? Shun me out?" Her sobs were no longer held back as tears slowly dripped from her eyes. My heart clenched in sympathy, I tried to say something, to offer support, but nothing came out, so I just hugged her. It must have looked comical from an outsider's point of view, tiny me hugging the massive dragon by her snout, but it didn't matter to her as she nestled further into the hug and sobbed harder.
"I was exiled from my covenant. The thing that hurt the most about it? My own mother, the one who laid my egg, was the matriarch. She was the one to banish me." At some point during her tale, she started subtly glowing. The glow intensified as time went on, and by this point, it overtook her entire body. I could no longer see anything other than her silhouette. Still, I didn't care and continued to hug her, only breaking off from her when she gently nudged me. When I let go of her, she stood up to her full height and suddenly started shrinking. She continued speaking during this.
"After my exile, I found out what happened. Albion, the Vanishing Dragon, has come to the idea that I'm a threat to him. to the Dragon race. To the world at large. I don't know why he thought that. I was never the violent type to begin with, only fighting off those who challenged me. But it didn't matter. By the time I was exiled, he had convinced not only the Dragons, but all of the other factions too." Her size has changed from a towering 200 feet long to just shorter than me, at 5 feet tall. Her shape also changed during this time, and now, she looked distinctly humanoid.
"One year later, after my exile, I was beset upon by hundreds of dragons, among them the two Heavenly Dragons. But not only them. Tens of Ultimate-class devils were among the attacking force, along with dozens of twelve-winged Angels, both fallen and not."
Her glow started to fade slightly, but I still couldn't identify any of her features.
"They... couldn't defeat me. I was on the verge of death, but I had already killed half their numbers and heavily injured the other half. They were cowards. None of them wanted to approach at the end of the battle, lest they be the last victim before my death. And we reached a stalemate... Until one dragon approached. I was so stunned by her, I didn't even notice her claw sinking into my heart." Her words choked, and she could no longer speak as her cries reached a new level.
Her glow receded. What appeared was a teenage girl, looking no older than fifteen. There were no clothes on her body, which caused the large scar right in the middle of her chest to be fully visible.
Her eyes were red, tears of grief and betrayal running down her face as her body shook and trembled. I couldn't hold myself back as I hugged her, and a jolt went through me when I did. I... saw her memory. I saw her memory of the event. Of the fight. Of the person who killed her. I don't know how I knew this, but I knew the identity of the one who killed her.
While viewing the memory, I felt what Luxara did during that moment. It was such intense feelings of betrayal and grief that I could do nothing but crumple to the ground along with her and cry my heart out.
In the memory, I watched as Luxara's mother looked at her with eyes full of disgust and hatred and pulled out her blood-coated claw from her own daughter's heart.