Chapter 119 - First Monster (2)

Xalanth's pair of torn wings began to grow out, reforming into its original span of twelve feet, and the injuries and cuts on his faces and body began to instantly close.

Suddenly, the pair of brown, leathery wings twitched with a jerk and solid brown eyes were seen as Xalanth awoke with a startle. “Elder Kronos,” he said, dropping to the floor with a light thud. “How long was I out?”

“Less than about half an hour,” Elder Kronos replied.

“I see.” Xalanth faced the white-antlered Driad. “I thank you for healing me.”

“You are welcome, dragon.” A pair of bright, green eyes with hints of brown in them settled over me. “You are next, I suppose?” Elder Jarukir said with a smile. “As usual, you dragons are quite brutal, even to each other.”

The words of the Grandfather Driad were surprising. My eyes quickly looked toward at Elder Kronos for his reaction, but he only wore his usual, calm demeanor.

Xalanth turned toward me. “In hindsight, I regret not dodging that blood magic you used to surround me with. I was too confident of my defenses. It shall not happen again.”

“You fought well,” I simply said.

When my turn came to be healed, I felt a warm glow over me and my wounds and cuts healing at an extremely fast rate. It took only about ten seconds before the warm glow stopped, and I was fully healed.

I was about to thank Elder Jarukir when I felt a hand grab at my vest from behind, and my whole body move backward.

“What—” I heard everyone shout.

Then my surroundings instantly changed.

I found myself underneath a night sky with countless stars and one moon. Looking around, I saw that I was standing in the middle of a huge, circular grey stone platform with circular patterns, and around me were empty, similarly-fashioned thrones encircling the perimeter.

What was surprising, however, was not the fact that there was only one moon to be seen in the night sky. No, what was surprising was the tall, beautiful human woman in front of me, and the two armored males on her left side, and the two armored females on her right side.

“Verath,” Navra said from behind me. “Meet Sabria vral Lethios, the leader of the Slayers, one of the Greater Races.”

“How did I get here?” I asked, turning around to meet Navra in his human form.

“I just dragged you through a quick portal I made. It uses quite a lot of energy, so I did not have much time to warn you. No worries though, I made sure Elder Kronos sensed my magic in time.”

“Who is this suppose to be?” the lead human woman said in a commanding voice.

“Sabria, this is Verath, a dragon who is under my temporary keepsake.”

“He is weak,” Sabria stated, her eyes of orange glowing with an unnatural light.

“Pitifully so, I will have to agree,” Navra added.

I was unsure of what was going on around me, so I kept my silence, waiting for further clues. I only knew that the five beings around me were unimaginably powerful.

“I shall be taking my leave now, Navra Bloodseeker, second Astlan Dragon King.” Saying that, Sabria vral Lethios, the leader of the Slayers, and the four people beside her disappeared into thin air. I did not even sense the magic they had used. It made me ever the more sure that they were more powerful than me.

“Where am I?”

“You are in Nilfloria.”

“The realm you told me about?”

“Indeed, Verath. This is the realm in which the Greater Races and the leaders of many other races meet.”

I gave my surroundings another cursory glance, but there was no one here but Navra and me. I wasn't too sure, however. It could have been that there was some powerful, strange magic involved.

“It is just you and me in this place known as the Unity Conclave, Verath. All of them have left. Sabria and her commanders were the last ones to depart.”

“Why did you call me here, Navra?”

The white-haired human form of Navra showed a smile that looked out of place with his impassive eyes.

“Do you wish to know the true reason behind why I reincarnated your soul into the dragon body that you now hold?” Navra said in an evenly measured voice.

Hearing those words, in this strange land, underneath this night sky with only one moon, and in this Nilfloria realm which I had not one jot of clue about, there was only one word with which I could answer his question.

“Yes,” I said.

Navra formed a small grin that showed off the points of his elongated teeth, which were sharpened into fine points that could tear through flesh oh so very easily. “Then let me begin from the very start.”

At that moment, Navra's voice almost seemed to be a whisper, a reminiscent tone of long forgotten memories, memories which were buried by time, and covered in ancient cobwebs.

“You see, before the Ages of the Warring Gods began, there was only one true God. That is, before the true God splintered into many pieces, creating a pantheon of seventy six Gods and Goddesses. With the Splintering, many Realms were formed in addition to Nilfloria, the Elemental Realm, the Ethereal Realm, and the Mortal Realm which we now live in. And in these many Realms, many other races were created, including what is now known as the human race.”

I was shocked. A one true God? And seventy six Gods and Goddesses? It was too mind boggling to comprehend. I could have believed in ten Deities, but seventy six? It was a shocking number.

“Before the Splintering, the one true God had already created the Greater Races, the Ancient beings, and the Mortal Realm, which was originally known as the Golden Realm, a long-forgotten age where all creatures lived in prosperity and in immortality. The Splintering, however, changed everything. A great piece of the true God splintered into what is now known as the Dead Realm, a realm in which the souls of all living beings depart into. There was no more immortality with the advent of the Splintering. There was no more prosperity, nor peace. There was only war, a war between the seventy-five Gods and Goddesses that engulfed all the new Realms and the Golden Realm itself. Only the Goddess of Death, the largest piece of the True God, remained unaffected by this.”

I was greatly intrigued with the history Navra was speaking of, but what exactly did this have to do with my reincarnation. Thoughts and suspicions formed inside my mind, but there was no telling if even any of these suspicions held a grain of truth. I could only wait for Navra to continue.

“It was thus that I was born into this war-torn Realm, in the late period of the Ages of the Warring Gods. The sky crackled with magic and fire, mountains shook, and the oceans themselves were sundered apart. Every living being less powerful than the Gods and Goddesses ran, hiding in dark, underground caves and isolated places where we fervently prayed for salvation. None came.”

Navra closed his eyes, most likely reminiscing of the ugliness of the time period he had been born into. When he finally opened his eyes, there was a sadness in it that was quickly gone the next second. “Only death came,” Navra whispered in a soft voice, so low that I could barely hear it.

“And by death, I mean that the Goddess of Death, the largest piece of the True God, descended into the war-torn Golden Realm, or should I say, the Mortal Realm. She held an absolute power over the other Gods and Goddesses. None of them could even hope to go against her. Imagine! The Goddess of Death herself had grown tired of all the dying, so much that she herself would willingly participate in the Warring. It was too late though. By the time a peace was forged between the remaining Gods and Goddesses, many of the populations, and most of the Ancient beings were dead or dying.”