Chapter 120 - First Monster (3)

A loud laughter resounded throughout the night sky. It sounded almost hysterical. When Navra finally stopped laughing, he continued with a glint in his eyes. “By the time the Ages of the Warring Gods ended, my whole family and my mate had died...long, long ago. I was around 2000 years old back then, hiding in the depths of the world, in deep, dark, lonely tunnels, hoping to see the sunlight again. When I no longer felt the power of the Gods and Goddesses shaking the world above, I finally came out of hiding from the lonely underground place I was living in, and onto the surface world, to bathe in the ephemeral sunlight, which I had not felt in years.”

“I came out onto the changed world alone, wondering if there were even any survivors left of my race. My first glimpse of the surface world was of a desolate land and only a deep, dark forest far away. I headed for that forest, and upon getting closer, I could see that the trees of the forest were gigantic, taller than what my eyes could even follow. They were possibly more than thousands of feet tall. The forest was encompassing beyond imagination.”

“But that was not the most surprising thing. No, the most surprising thing was the magic emanating from the center of the forest. It was a magic so powerful that it could be felt for miles. I followed that magic liked a docile lamb to the slaughter, and when I finally found myself at the center of the forest, the magic was so strong that it drove me to my knees. At the center of that forest was a beautiful, unmoving body. Though unmoving, there was an unnatural grace to the body which had the appearance of a human. The body was of a piece of the True God, a male God.”

Navra paused his words there, staring at me, before finally showing a small smile. “Then I ate that God.”

I did not know what I could say to that revelation. I could only question Navra. “Did you become a God then?”

“No,” Navra plainly stated. “My body and my very soul itself could not withstand the power of that dead God. I fell to the forest floor, my dragon form contorting into its human form. It seemed to me that I laid on that forest floor for an eternity, inch by inch of my body eaten away by the power, turning into ashes. It was then that I met the Goddess of Death, who had come to collect my dying self.”

“She laughed at me, saying, 'Impressive, dragon. To think you would get as far as devouring half of a God's body before dying.' I was surprised at her words. Had the Goddess of Death been watching me?”

A silence came over Navra who had closed his eyes in reminiscent.

“What happened then,” I urged a little.

“You see, I had thought wrong. The Goddess of Death had come for the body of the dead God. She had not come for me, who was but a lowly creature in her eyes. No, she had come to collect the bodies of the Gods and Goddesses who had died in the Mortal Realm. The magic of the dead Gods and Goddesses were still strong enough to interfere with the land itself and to interfere with the magic of the Goddess of Death, so she had no choice but to search and collect the bodies herself.”

“I can still remember the mind-echoing words she said to me before departing with the half-eaten body of the dead God.”

'I applaud your insolence, dragon,' she had said, her voice striking the very depths of my soul. 'So I shall let you live. But your soul shall never be reunited with your brethren in my Realm. Now watch the world for perpetuity until you choose to die a death of your own making. We, the Gods and Goddesses, will be in a higher plane, slumbering away, and never interfering with you mortals again. Consider it my gift to you and the rest of the realms.'

“The Goddess of Death left me then, taking away almost all of my excess magic power and restoring my body to its original condition, before finally transforming my soul. I was to live forever! At first, I was daunted, yet somewhat bedazzled by the lure of true immortality. Thousands of years passed by in a blink of an eye as I roamed the lands in what was known as the Age of Residuum. It was in the late period of the Age of Residuum that the soul which was known as Demon Lord Codrixas was born. Then the Age of the Four Great Beasts came.”

“The Four Great Beasts were originally the favored creations and pets of the Gods and Goddesses; they were the only surviving beast pets after the many wars. They were made strong, far stronger than any of the Greater Races and the Ancient Beings. They terrorized the populations during the Age of Residuum for thousands of years, and the four Great Beasts became so infamous that the time period eventually became known as the Age of the Four Great Beasts. Back then, my magic and strength were still improving. I could only cower in the shadows of these Four Great Beasts. I could only hide, developing my strength through means which could have killed me had my soul not been immortal.”

“Then, after a few more thousand of years, I finally challenged all four of the Great Beasts. Uraza, however, I kept alive. She had devoured many of the dwindling members of my race, and many members of the other Greater Races. She was a terror, the most tyrannical and most powerful out of the Four Great Beasts. I kept her trapped underground for thousands and thousands of years as punishment.”

Navra showed a large, disconcerting grin. “The irony is that I became somewhat fond of Uraza. She was the only being left in this world who could live as long as I. You could say she was my companion throughout the ages. As for Demon Lord Codrixas and the Deathwalker, I had preserved their souls in carefully fashioned time-decelerated prisons. This was why they could live for such a long time.”

“So how old are you now?” I carefully asked in an even tone that betrayed none of my emotions.

“I forget...I believe I am somewhat a little over fifty thousand years old.”

Insanity! The ancient dragon in front of me was insane! There was no doubt about it. His mind had become eroded by time.

“I see,” I said carefully. “What happened next?”

“When the Age of Mortals came,” Navra continued, “the populations began to expand again, and families gathered around each other. That lasted another few thousand years, before the Age of Divide washed over the world. I forget the cause exactly, since I had not been paying attention during that time. After all, what was time to me, a dragon who could live forever. Perpetuity was nothing to me.”

“It was during this time, the Age of Divide, that the whole Mortal Realm became embroiled in conflicts. Other races and beings from Nilfloria, the Fae from the Ethereal Realm, and creatures from other far away realms crossed into the Mortal Realm. For a long time, I did nothing about these conflicts. I merely spectated with Uraza imprisoned beside me, and the soul of Demon Lord Codrixas trapped in a time-decelerated prison.”

“I had long grown tired of everything and everyone, even my dragon brethren, though they could no longer truly be called my brethren. For what was I? A dragon? Perhaps. I no longer felt like one though.”

“By coincidence and a pure stroke of luck, a group of Devourers led by the Deathwalker showed up before me, fleeing from the Fae. I slaughtered them all. But the Deathwalker, I preserved, for he was a unique being. For some strange reason, I could sense a tiny power similar to that of the God I had half-eaten inside that forest. It was only later that I learned that the Deathwalker was a past remnant of the Goddess Linara. He was the descendant of a long line of forgotten champions to the Goddess Linara, who was still worshiped by the race of Devourers, though they went by a different name back then.”

“As I conversed with the soul of the Deathwalker, I learned many things of his past history. His incessant pleadings for me to help out the Devourers and their Matriarchs brought up a past memory of my long-forgotten life. I felt a small pity, perhaps even sympathy, for the Deathwalker, who half-looked as if he wanted to kill me, and half-looked as if he wanted to beg me. It was somewhat amusing to me, who had become jaded by the passing of time and the many rise and fall of kingdoms I had seen. I had seen such uncountable deaths that I no longer felt anything for the dead, and the dying.”

“I accepted the Deathwalker's plea, setting out from the isolated forest I had been living in. Then I began slaughtering the Fae, the beings and races from Nilfloria, and many others alike. I plunged the world into further chaos and division, escalating the Age of Divide. I killed the leaders of the conflicts without a single thought. Of course, all the while I was doing this, my identity remained a secret. I had long ago learned transformation magic to its limits.”

Navra let out a small chuckle. “It was not long before I became known as the First Monster, a being of unimaginable power, a God unto itself. The irony made me laugh out loud, for I was nowhere near as powerful as a God or a Goddess. They had long forgotten the Ages of the Warring Gods, which was a blight in their histories, a time of darkness—the Dark Ages.”

“Conflicts soon ended with some shadowy guidance from my hands; and of course, records of me were manipulated. It was then that the Age of Unity came to be. Borders were made, divisions were united, and each realm became separated unto itself. The Greater Races made treaties among themselves and inter-realm treaties were also made. This was also how the first Astlan Dragon King came to be, uniting the seven major Astlan dragon clans. Traditions were formed, among which included the First Tribulation, which is somewhat similar to what a few other Greater Races impose on themselves.”

“Thus, a few thousand years later, we are here, young Verath. This was how you came to be. You see, after being called the First Monster, and with the curse of Fenrir on my soul, I decided to create an offspring with Uraza. For the past few thousand of years, I have been tinkering with methods as to how to move the body of a soulless dragon. Many combinations were made, before I finally found that a suitable human host soul linked with a soul of a member of the Greater Races, and the soul of the Deathwalker, worked.”

Navra's words shook the depths of my mind, spinning it around like a small child would a round ball. I felt frightened. There was now no more doubt in my mind that the ancient dragon was insane. All semblance and traces of doubts in my mind had been blown away, erased by his words.

Insanity.

Time had eaten away at Navra's sanity. It was no wonder that he switched between so many forms and was as fickle as the wind.

I could only wonder what Navra planned to do with me. Dare I ask him?

“What do you want, no, have planned for me then?”

There was an amused smile on his face. “Nothing much. I merely wish to see how far you can grow.” His smile grew wider. “I have grown bored of everything and everyone. I can sense, smell, feel, hear, and know that you think me insane, trapped in a prison of perpetuity.”

I felt nervous...even a little frightened. Navra's smile was like death itself, his words like the soft footsteps of approaching death.

“And you are right. I know well myself that I am insane. My soul and body does not decay with time, but my mind is an altogether different matter. I stand on the border between life and death, balanced dangerously. I want to die, yet I want to live. Is it not strange?” Navra let out an echoing laugh that struck the stone floor of the Unity Conclave. “Perhaps this was what the Goddess of Death meant when I would die of my own making.”

For the first time in my life, I felt truly speechless. No words would come to me. What could I even say to this ancient dragon in front of me, who had reincarnated me on a whim.

“Do not worry...my son. I would not kill you after all the troubles I went through to create you. It would be such a shame, a perversion of my nature. Just like me, you are a unique being.” Navra frowned a little, before letting out a small laugh, his eyes becoming wilder and wilder. He almost looked deranged.

Then a blue fire.

I could only see fire all around me, yet they did not harm me. To my front, to my right, to my left, to my back, the blue flames covered the entirety of the Unity Conclave, yet they did not burn anything.

A scream shattered the silence, breaking through the silence of the blue flames, which did not even crackle nor let out any sounds like a normal fire.

When the scream ended, the blue fire all around me was instantly gone.

“What was that?” I asked, my voice louder than what I had intended. Control over myself had slipped, and Seraphine was loudly chattering inside my mind, having come out of Animus. She had been doing so since the middle of Navra's speech.

“Nothing. Just an insect,” Navra said. His arm moved—a blur—and in the next moment, a hand was on my right shoulder. The movement was so quick that I did not even realize what had happened until his hand was on my shoulder. “You see, Verath. I have many things planned for us, and for a few...shall we say, companions?”

I met Navra's stare. His eyes had become its usual impassive and ancient-looking state, not even a sign of insanity in them, yet his words were fickle and contradictory.

“What things?”

“Time will tell. We have plenty of it.”

I could not tell what Navra was thinking, nor guess at his intentions, though many thoughts and suspicions formed in my mind.

“If you say so.”

“Here, I will send you back to Elder Kronos. I have some other things I must attend to.”

Navra's magic instantly surrounded me, and this time, I could sense its power. No doubt, he was allowing me to purposely sense it, as if he was making a statement. The teleportation, this time, was also theatrically slow—it served a purpose and also added to the statement.

“I will see you at the Inter-clan Tournament, dear Verath,” Navra said with a small, mysterious smile.