I Received System to Become Dragonborn

Something that could terrify even the Time Dragon. Ssomething so powerful that even he could not see a future where they were victorious, was perhaps the worst thing Erend and Eccar had ever heard.

The air felt heavy. They looked at each other while sharing the same suffocating dread as if the despair itself was closing around their throats.

Erend swallowed hard. "First of all... we need to know what the Praetoris are."

Krono exhaled slowly, his expression looks difficult. "You may be surprised, but they are... just like us."

Erend and Eccar both frowned in shock.

"You mean…?" Eccar asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Krono nodded. "They are also Dragonborn. But unlike us, they evolved into something more. They found a power source deep in the cosmic void. It changed them, strengthened them, but also twisted them. Gave them powers that go beyond natural laws."

Erend's voice came out quietly. "What kind of powers?"

Krono's eyes flicked toward Maelric's broken form.

"Some can inflict direct psychological damage and influence the minds of others. Like what happened with Maelric. Some can copy your abilities. Others can create anything from pure imagination. One of them eveen possesses the power of decay. Just standing in the same world as him causes things to rot and die if he wanted to."

The silence that followed Krono's explanation was worse than the ash-covered battlefield.

Erend and Eccar didn't speak. They didn't even move. The weight of those powers that was too strange and impossible pressed down on them.

Even Erend, who have the power of the System within him and wielded the power of Fire, Lightning, and Water Dragons, even he felt like it might not be enough.

Krono saw their silence and could only remain quiet himself. The fact that he, a being who could see through time, was forced to step out of his seclusion and appear before them said everything.

He was afraid too.

"So we don't have any hope at all?" Eccar asked, turning his gaze between Krono and Erend.

Krono then said in a low almost bitter voice. "Like I said, I can't see a single future where we defeat the Praetoris. That's why I came now. I can't speak of hope. I can only share what I know."

Erend took a long breath and looked at the ruin around them. They were standing in the middle of a broken memory, in a dead forest, with a crying Dragonborn who had killed a god because of influence and a time-walker Draagon who also afraid.

The threat before them was beyond anything they had ever imagined.

Just the three of them...

"Wait, three?"

Erend's eyes lifted. He said, "Are there any other Dragonborn left? Besides the three of us… and the Praetoris?"

Eccar perked up at the question, a flicker of something like hope flashing in his gaze.

"At first," Erend said slowly, "I thought I was the only one. Then I met you, and Eccar. Then there was Kaaelor the Ashen Tempest Dragon. And now… Maelric. That makes five of us, even if one of them is…" he glanced at the broken form nearby, "lost."

Krono met their eyes with difficulty. "There are more. But they hide themselves well. Some have been reincarnated so many times, they've forgotten who they truly are. They live ordinary and peaceful lives now. To seek them out would be dangerous and also bring them hardship."

"But that's the only thing that even looks like hope," Erend said firmly. "If we can't beat the Praetoris alone, then we find the others. We bring the Dragonborn together into one unit."

Krono said nothing for a moment. But then finally, he nodded.

"I think that's the best thing we can do now," Krono said. "But… I need to warn you. I've seen some futures where the Dragonborn we try to recruit become hostile. Not all of them will want to work together."

"But we should try at least," Eccar replied.

"Right," Erend agreed. "I know they won't like it when we disturb their peaceful lives. But if we don't do it, the Praetoris will find them first and then their peaceful lives will vanish either way."

Krono nodded again. He looked like he was thinking about something deeper, something heavier, but he didn't speak it aloud.

A moment passed before Erend turned back toward Maelric's broken form. "But that's not our only problem. The mad god is still out there, rampaging. I need you to help me deal with him."

Krono exhaled, slow and tired, then gave a nod. "That god… wasn't truly in the wrong, anyway."

Erend and Eccar both nodded grimly. They understood. Thar'Zul-Vekar was a god twisted by grief and torment, forced into madness after losing everything. But that didn't change what needed to be done.

Then, without warning, the suspended moment began to break apart.

The golden light that Krono had summoned flickere and the world around them began to burn silently, like paper catching fire from the edges.

The illusion cracked and fell away like ash in the wind. The vision of the past collapsed. The memory was gone.

And suddenly, Erend and Eccar were back in the real world. They back in the present with the real Thar'Zul-Vekar standing before them.

The god of the forest stood broken, but still alive, their eyes burning not with vengeance but with hollow despair. The scent of fire and rot still clung to the air.

The truth had been seen but this predicament wasn't over.

Another ripple passed through the scorched air. The golden shimmer of time's fold pulsed once more. Krono had followed them back.

The Time Dragon stepped beside Erend and Eccar, his robes trailing over the ashen ground without leaving a trace.

He looked around at the devastation then set his eyes on the true form of Thar'Zul-Vekar.

The god of the forest noticed him at once.

Their head jerked toward Krono and a rumble rose in their throat. Their twisted body tensed with hostility. They took a step back with eyes wide with raw confusion and rage.

But Krono didn't flinch. He immediately raised one of his hand.

Golden threads of light extended from his palm and spiraled outward like strands of memory.

The air shimmered and before Thar'Zul-Vekar's eyes, the truth unfolded again. This time was not the illusion Erend and Eccar had witnessed but something deeper, clearer, preserved by Krono's power.

It showed Maelric as he had been.

The rampage, the sorrow, and the moment of his collapse. His broken form sobbing in the ashes of a world he hadn't meant to destroy.

Then it showed the corruption. The presence Erend and Eccar hadn't seen before. It looks like a dark shape coiling behind Maelric's actions and whispering commands, leaking poison into his thoughts.

A force that was not moving by hatred but just by their design to manipulate things to their own liking. The force showing some cold and careful manipulation on Maelric's mind.

Thar'Zul-Vekar watched and keep watched. Until their legs trembled beneath them.

With a sharp breath, the god fell to their knees. Bark and vine cracked under the weight of their body and their hands sank into the earth.

They didn't speak but just immediately wept.

Long, jagged sobs erupted from their throat. It was not the roars of a god in anger but the cries of a soul that had been seeing their closest friend being deceived and broken after being manipulated to destroy their world.

They had carried hate for so long. Held on to vengeance like it was all they had left. And now it shattered.

Erend and Eccar stood frozen. The sound of the god's sorrow filling the ruined air. The sight was more painful than any explosion of rage could have been.

Thar'Zul-Vekar curled inwards, their massive form folding as their vines loosened and leaves fell like dying embers.

They weren't a monster anymore but just a broken god that just seeing the truth they had never known.

After several long minutes the god's cries began to quiet. The tremors in their shoulders faded though the sorrow did not leave their eyes.

Thar'Zul-Vekar slowly straightened and rising from the cracked ground with heavy movements.

The vines on their arms sagged and their bark dulled. But the madness in their expression was gone.

They looked at Erend, then Eccar, then Krono.

"Thank you," the god said, their voice raspy and thick with emotion. "If you hadn't shown me that… I would have kept hating Maelric forever. I would have died with that hatred, never knowing he… he didn't choose to become what he did."

They exhaled, their breath carrying with it centuries of fury finally gone.

"I thought he destroyed everything because he turned against us. But it wasn't his will. He was used. I see it now. I… I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize. You were grieving. What you felt wasn't wrong. But now… now you know the truth. And that means you still have a choice. You don't need to keep destroying everything," Erend said.

Eccar added, "Don't let those bastards who did this to Maelric win by dragging you down too."

Thar'Zul-Vekar lowered their head for a moment. Then they gave a slow nod.

"You're right. I nearly destroyed more than I ever intended. I would've killed more. For nothing." Their voice dropped, soft and hollow. "This forest, what's left of it… it's all I have now. I don't want to lose more."

Their body relaxed for the first time, as if some invisible weight had finally been pulled away from their chest.

"I don't know what I'll do next," Thar'Zul-Vekar said, "but I won't try to attack that other world again. I swear it. I will also… bring back the soul that they had sacrificed for me."

Erend gave a small, tired smile. "That's good to know."

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