~ Chapter 71: The reason behind everything ~

[Kronius’ point of view]

 In this battle against the former human Alkelios, my job and duty were simple. All I had to do was help master Draejan get a better position so he could land the good strike on his foe. It was a combo attack I was forced to learn while traveling around the Dragon Continent to raise my level, see important strategic location, and to fight against various terrifying monsters. It was highly unlikely there was a dungeon I had yet to set foot in either Albeyater Kingdom or Embryger Empire.

When I first awakened to this ability, my master immediately ordered me to train it until I had complete control over it.

Now, I could do it with my eyes closed and thanks to a levitation spell and a wind one, I could position myself up in the sky where I had a perfect view over the battlefield. It was not real flight like the dragons had, but if I combined these two spells with my teleporting skills, I could easily move around faster than any of them.

Watching the battle down below, I noticed how calm I was in the middle of this battlefield, and I was reminded how much of a coward I was back then, when I was brought to this planet.

Almost two years ago, ten million humans were kidnapped from Earth and then cast off like disposable waste in a primitive world with a technological level no more advanced than what could be seen during the Middle Ages of Europe. I completely failed to see the use in expanding such a huge amount of energy for sending us here, but more so, I failed to see how I was going to be of use to this world which I didn’t want to be a part of.

As a human, I was born in the beautiful and great England of the United Kingdom. My parents were commoners, but during these modern times, it was rather useless to distinguish between classes, although, it was widely known that noble folk tended to be of a different standing and mindset than the rest of us.

The way I saw it, their way of growing up, their principles and life lessons were all different from the commoner’s ones from various point of view, especially when it came to the matter of who was entitled to rule over whom.

During my youth, I tended to be more interested in going out with my friends and watching a good game of soccer on the telly. I always thought gaming in general and business interests in this industry to be rather boorish and unbecoming of someone who grew up in the United Kingdom. No matter what, I failed to see its use in our great society.

When it came to studies, I wasn’t the brightest bulb in the classroom, but I tended to stand out in classes such as economy or history. It was a simple matter to get a passing grade as long as I made sure to memorize whatever was written in those silly books.

Later, I got admitted the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow for the Entrepreneurship Undergraduate classes. I finished with average grades and immediately got onto starting a business together with some friends I met at the hall of residence. Then, not long after we signed our first big contract, the God-like kidnapped me and sent me to this backwater world.

Indeed, I was robbed of my good fortune and cast off in this God forsaken world where the imbecile rate was as astounding as their use of magic.

The first problem I encountered was the ridiculous status system the God-like cursed us with. It was impossible for me to understand. I did not see the use in assigning these points. It was utterly useless and moronic to even think it could have any sort of effect, but contrary to my beliefs, reality was rather cruel. Every point placed in the right attribute could mean the difference between life and death.

The first thing I saw when I arrived on this planet was a cruel battle between a battalion of humans and a squad of dragons. The latter lost and were swiftly executed without a second thought. I could speak the language of the humans just as well as I did English, but I could not understand how that was possible. It felt rather ridiculous that I could do it without proper study and practice.

The humans took me under their wing and used my ability, [Pika Boo Blink], in various tactics. I had no choice but to follow the chain of command, otherwise, those backwater primitives would kill me just as they did with the dragons. Fleeing was out of the question as I couldn’t get far even with my power.

Then, one week later, another squad of dragons intercepted our battalion, but this time, we lost completely, and all the humans except for me were executed. When one of the dragons aimed his sword to cut me down, I teleported a few feet away and avoided the blow. Seeing this, their leader, Draejan Andrakaryus Doesya decided to spare me in exchange for me becoming his personal slave.

I had no choice but to accept, but although I was left alive, my life had turned into a living hell. Unsatisfied with the extent of my power, my new master ordered me to train until I fainted or couldn’t move anymore.

Among his spartan training routines, which consisted of me being beaten up by his troops over and over again, I was to go to various dungeons and find my way to its core. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to keep any items for myself, but he didn’t interdict me to do research on my own with my skills and such. In fact, he encouraged this sort of thinking because the stronger I was the better he could use me in his campaign to conquer Albeyater.

Speaking of which, master proved to be quite wise in regard to how he approached this entire war. When I became his slave, he had already set his plan in motion for more than forty years now. It all started with the last invasion of the human army. At that time, right after General Brekkar  Draketerus won his battle against the human Breakthrough-er, master Draejan, although rather young at that time, left the capital and gathered the fleeing nobles from those lands. By offering them shelter, he put them in his debt, which he planned on collecting later.

Although still Unawakened, the others were impressed by his actions and earned him great favors among the higher ups in society. Seeing how he was also of royal blood, his grandmother being the respected Queen, master Draejan was able to pull strings which otherwise would have been out of his reach.

Using these favors and under the pretext of establishing a good connection with the neighboring kingdoms, master Draejan traveled in the following years around the world in order to secure the fighting force he would need for this battle. Of course, he never told me these things, but those he made deals with tended to remind him of them even when I was around. Putting two and two together wasn’t that hard for someone with my education.

My job in his plan was of another kind. I was to act as a messenger at first, teleporting around to bring his precious messages to those he saw as allies or pawns. The chances of me being caught were rather low.

When I had free time, I was sent to visit various locations around the kingdom, so I would know where to teleport in the future.

Pertiko Village was my first real job where I acted independently. My mission was to cause a large enough distraction to force the Kingdom to move a bunch of troops to this small village and offer my master the perfect chance to enact another part of his plan. I had no idea what it was exactly, but I had a feeling it had something to do with the Brekkar Army, which was recalled to the capital.

Near Pertiko was a small undead dungeon where I first trained to reach a decent level. Now that I had returned, I knew exactly where to teleport, so what I did was casually send all of the undead monsters spawned inside the dungeon outside, near the village. I kept doing this for a while until a great number of them was amassed on the surface. To make things easier for me, I threatened the Dungeon Core with its destruction if it did not obey me. All I had to do now was wait and witness the slaughter of the dragon troops sent here.

Unfortunately, that was when HE made his first appearance... Alkelios Yatagai, a hero from Earth just like me. The difference between us, however, was not only in age but in strength as well. He proved to be far more powerful than me, at a ridiculous level even.

I barely escaped with my life, but when master Draejan heard my story, he did not seem impressed at all, or rather he found it hard to believe my words. Alkelios was already a very outrageous individual having grown so powerful in such a short time without going through any hellish training like I did, but thinking that he could grow far more powerful than that sent a shiver down my spine.

That night, I decided that within my plan to escape the clutches of Draejan, I should include a few methods to get rid of threats like Alkelios if I were to ever encounter them in the future. Unfortunately, planning was a far easier job than actually doing it. I had no idea of the extent of that man’s abilities, and there was still the mystery of what sort of skills he had gained from the God-like. Above all, I was facing a lack of useful skills myself.

Up until now, I had barely received any combat worthy abilities. Whatever I gained from the God-like’s skill list felt like runner up prizes in a store lottery. Most of them simply helped me around with my daily life, like the [Drowned Cat] skill, which was basically a body cleaning spell. I couldn’t even use it on others and spending over 10 skill points for that felt like a complete rip off.

It was around the time when Alkelios arrived at the capital that I was training in a dungeon somewhere in the Embryger Empire. I leveled up as usual, but this time, I received a useful new skill, although the name left much to desire.

The skill was called [Goddess’ Period]. It allowed me to create droplets of crystallized blood, which then could be infused with the life force of monsters. Unlike natural absorption, this one consumed even the body of the monster, leaving no body behind. The advantage was that once I used the blood crystal, it would grant me double, and recently even triple the normal amount of life force.

Not long after I used the [Goddess’ Period] skill to increase my Power Level, I noticed that I didn’t receive any more Skill Points. It was the cost I had to pay for quickly leveling up with it. Instead of using the blood crystals on myself, I mostly gathered them for master Draejan. He didn’t acquire any new Skill Points like I did, thus, they were best used on him.

Looking at him fighting against Alkelios, I could tell that without that ridiculous skill of mine, master Draejan would have been nowhere near powerful enough to even land a decent hit on that flying monster.

Actually, just calling that former human a monster would be wrong... All of these dragons were nothing but monsters and brutes. If there was anything that I learned while journeying throughout the Dragon Continent, that was the fact that the only good dragon was a dead dragon. The humans had every right to fight and try to exterminate them. Not only were they different from us, but they also held no remorse towards those weaker than them either. If they appeared friendly at first, the moment you turned your back, they jumped on you like wild hyenas.

Bloody monsters they were, all of them.

“No matter if Alkelios wins or not, I will kill him...” I said in a whisper.

There were a few ways to accomplish this, I just had to be prepared, that was all. It wasn’t like I didn’t do anything while master Draejan leveled up. If I didn’t do anything, I was sure to die sooner or later. For me, it was a battle for survival, not a simple stroll through the park as it was for Alkelios. Being the loved protegee of those powerful dragons granted him a quick path to success. Even his loss against Draejan more than one year ago was nothing but an unfortunate accident.

[Pika Boo Blink] and [Goddess’ Period] weren’t the only special skills I obtained from that infernal lottery. I managed to acquire a bunch of combat class ones as well. They were nothing extraordinary or outrageously powerful, and they were too few in number when compared to the others similar to the [Drowned Cat]. But out of all of them, two of them stood out.

[Flying Bull Drink] was a skill which allowed me to absorb the life force of killed enemies at double the speed and quantity as I naturally did. After improving this skill, the rate went up from double to triple to quadruple and then octuple. I was leveling up like crazy thanks to this skill.

Two months ago, while finishing the seventh floor of a dungeon in Novarak Kingdom, I finally gained a new useful combat skill...

[Grandpa 10 yo] was its name, and it allowed me to capture monsters which I had weakened through combat. All I had to do was point at it and then shout ‘I will catch them all!’. It was ridiculous, but it worked. The monster would end up shrunk and trapped inside a transparent ball with a diameter of 4 centimeters. I could see it inside in a miniature form, growling and trying its best to get out.

It was impossible. Unless I shouted ‘Unleash the (monster name)!’ while throwing the ball away, they wouldn’t be set free. If I tossed it at an enemy, the monster would then end up being compelled by magic to attack my foe. When the battle was over, the monster would return by itself to its ball.

I never told master Draejan about this skill of mine. It was a secret and also my Ace in the sleeve in case anything unexpected happened, after all, even he couldn’t win against several dungeon bosses who attacked him at the same time.

For now, I was watching over their fight while also planning how I was going to take out the winner. After all, getting out of the slavery collar wasn’t such a hard task anymore. The only reason I kept it on was because I still needed Draejan to kill or at the very least weaken Alkelios enough for me to land the finishing blow.

It wasn’t going to be long now... At the rate things were going, I would soon make my move and then... nothing was going to stop me from going to the Human Continent and raising a force powerful enough to exterminate the dragon species. The riches I had gained from my exploits here on the Dragon Continent would surely allow me to achieve my goals. After all, master Draejan ordered me to bring back any useful items, but what one understood by useful could be interpreted in various ways.

As they say: one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

Huh? Did he just use a skill to create illusion clones of himself? I thought when I noticed several of them flying my way.

[Alkelios’ point of view]

 The battle was finally over.

Draejan had fallen and his army was pushing for a retreat now that all of their Breakthrough-ers had been slain. The one who had the toughest battle was probably Kataryna, who had to deal with two of them on her own, but thanks to my armor and weapon, she came out victorious.

Thinking about it, maybe even Legendary rank armor and weapons would have been enough, but unlike the Godlike ones, they would have had far worse side effects from using their powers. They were also attuned to their elements and skills.

When I began to forge them, I was a bit hesitant as to whether or not I should consume so many precious materials, but in the end, I was glad I wasn’t greedy and instead poured everything I had in them. Right now, I probably only had enough to make a pair of gauntlets of Godlike Rank, but after this war, I would have enough time to go grinding for materials.

Looking at the fleeing enemy army, I noticed that their numbers have been reduced by more than half. All of their commanders laid dead on the ground, and a lot of the participating nobles surrendered.

All that’s left now is to do the cleanup. I thought as I descended to the ground.

I landed at about 20 meters away from where Draejan crashed and approached him while keeping my guard up. Who knew what sort of tricks he had laying in wait?

“K-Kill me...” he groaned.

I stopped and looked at him.

The cut off wing was several meters away from him. Red blood was flowing out from his wounds, he was spitting blood from the internal damage I had caused him. A normal human would have been dead, without a doubt, but he was not a human, he was a dragon. Even so, without proper healing, he was certain to go to the other side in an hour or two.

The Legendary Rank sword he used to fight me with was far from here, stuck in the boulder on which it landed tip first. The Legendary Rank armor he was wearing wasn’t emanating even a single spec of Magic Energy now, and it was nothing more than metal junk. The enchants were gone, and the crystals used to store Life Force had been shattered.

Because of the way he had used his gear, Draejan could not even move a single finger now. I wanted to, I could kill him with utmost ease, but I didn’t.

“No.” I told him and then searched him for any other dangerous items, but I could only find a small dagger of Master Rank and two [Purse] rings. I took them off just in case. “No necklace?” I asked.

“Keh... Plundering a dead dragon’s body? Have you no shame?” he spat.

“I’m not plundering, I’m making sure you can’t fight back.” I said and checked again.

This time I noticed a small ring around his left horn. With a quick appraisal, I found out that it had a telepathic ability, but it was inactive now.

“What are you going to do with me?” he asked with a groan.

“Not kill you for starters.” I replied and then took out a red potion from my [Black Hole].  “Drink this. It’s a healing potion.” I told him.

Draejan opened his eyes in surprise.

“Are you letting me go?” he asked.

“No. But I can’t have you dying or fainting on me now, can I?” I told him and then pushed the bottle against his lips. “Drink.” I ordered him.

He looked away and clenched his jaw.

I gave him a punch in his wound, causing him to spit out blood and open his mouth from the pain. I grabbed his jaw and forced it to stay open as I poured the liquid down his throat. A few drops went the wrong way at the end, and he started coughing.

“What did you make me drink?!” he questioned furiously.

“A healing potion that has the side effect of numbing your body from the neck down. You’ll be able to stand up, but your strength won’t be any different from that of a dragon of Power Number 10 or below.” I told him as I took out a rope.

“What?” he glared at me, but the effects of the numbing agent were already showing.

After I tied his hands at his back, I lifted him off the ground and then pulled him towards the Queen’s camp while keeping my hand on his shoulder. The teleporting human’s power only worked if Draejan wasn’t touching anyone else, and I was half certain of this because he was never teleported away after I managed to land a clean strike on him, only before or after.

A few minutes later, we arrived at the camp. When the soldiers saw his face, they started booing and cursing him, calling him names and casting hateful glares at him.

“You traitor!”

“Coward!”

“Murderer!”

“Bald wolf!”

And these were the only non-colorful ones. Yet, no matter what they were tossing out at him, Draejan didn’t even flinch, he kept walking as though he was merely listening to the wind and not a mob of angry dragons.

By the time we arrived in front of the Queen, Feryumstark and my friends were already by her side.

“Kuku. So, all of you bastards have joined up to see my demise?” he asked with a smirk and then looked back at me “Is this why you brought me here? To give me a public execution in front of them?” he asked.

I did not listen to him and simply told the Queen “Your Majesty, I have captured the leader of the enemy army.” I made a bow before them and forced Draejan on his knees as well.

“You have done well, Duke Yatagai.” Elliessara said with a nod and then looked at two of her royal guards. “Hold that traitor down.” she ordered them.

The dragons nodded and secured Draejan in place, allowing me to walk over to the other side and act from now as a simple witness to his judgment.

“Before we proceed, I would like to ask... Why did you do all of this, Draejan? As your grandparents, we are entitled to know, so speak!” Feryumstark ordered him.

“Hahaha! Grandparents?! You two?! Yes, maybe we are connected by blood, but that isn’t worth a straw of grass to me!” he spat at the King’s feet and glared at him.

“What made you think this way?” the dragon asked.

I could see that this wasn’t easy for them, even if they put up a strong front. In the end, Draejan was their grandson, and I had already seen how much they cared about their family. I was also curious about why he turned out like this. Inside my heart, I feared that I was to blame as well for this dark change of his.

“Let me make one thing clear, grandfather...” he said in a tone of mockery towards the one in front of him “I’ve been planning this little war ever since I was twelve. It’s not something that came up all of a sudden after I had bad dream. Do you really think I could have even gathered an army of 364000 dragons in such a short time?” he laughed. “This army has been building up steadily for the past twenty years...” he said and showed him a smirk “To be more precise, it gained strength from the moment I poisoned dear grandmother.” he laughed.

“What?” the King was shocked, and so was everyone else here.

With his authority within the palace, sneaking in the poison shouldn’t have been so difficult, after all... by all accounts, Draejan was never thought of as someone who would dare to conspire against their Majesties. There were too many reasons for him not to do so... his entire family from his mother’s side, the fact that his entire career couldn’t have gotten him closer than a general’s role, the lack of nobility support or high improbability to grab the throne for himself, and there was also the fact that he had yet to become a Breakthrough-er. I thought, and just like everyone else here, I couldn’t make heads or tails of what he wanted to achieve with this.

“You didn’t hear? Let me say it again, the one who made it possible for the human assassin to sneak inside the palace was none other than myself! Rather, I was the one who came up with that plan in the first place. You see, those foolish humans kept believing that in our society the dragons were the ones who ruled not the dragonesses. Personally, I would have preferred if it was that way.” he looked with eyes filled with disgust at the Queen “Why shouldn’t dragons be the ones to rule? After all, it was Feryumstark who raised the army when he founded Albeyater.”

“Foolish whelp! Watch your tongue or else...” the King growled as he used his Authority element to cast a mental pressure on Draejan.

“Keh... Or what? You’re going to kill me?” he showed him a smirk although he struggled to raise his gaze from the ground.

I don’t think I can use my Authority in this way... I thought as I witness a true master at play.

“You are not even going to beg for your life?” Elliessara asked in a calm tone of voice.

“Beg? HA! What for? Not like it will change my fate. I have nothing to win and nothing to lose.” Draejan scoffed.

Releasing the pressure of his presence, Feryumstark let out a sigh and shook his head.

“Hahaha!” Draejan laughed and fell back on his behind. He raised his gaze towards the sky and then spoke in a changed tone of voice. “When I was twelve...” he began to reminisce about his past, and their Majesty allowed it “I followed mother on a trip to one of the border towns... It’s gone now, burned down during the invasion forty years ago... I met there the one the humans called ‘Hero’, an Awakened, a Breakthrough-er, whatever you want to call him. He’s the one General Brekkar killed on the battlefield.”

“That fellow? Hm, he was strong.” the old dragon commented as he knitted his brows.

“Yeah, he was strong... He also mistook me for a human child back then. Maybe if he knew I was a dragon, he wouldn’t have ever talked with me. Maybe luck was on my side? Hahaha!” after he stopped laughing, he kept looking up and continued to speak after a short pause “He told me about the beauty of war and surprisingly... the fact that he didn’t hate draconians. In fact, he was grateful to us because through our confrontations, he was able to reach his current Power Number.”

“What was his Power Number?” Feryumstark asked.

“I have no idea, but it was high... Higher than what I have... well, had.” he looked back at his Majesty “That man also taught me that war means strength and peace means weakness... You see, I kept in touch with him afterwards. One letter every few months or so was more than enough for me to learn the things my father and mother would have never told me. He spoke about how vast the world was and how our own isolation was akin to a sin.”

“Did you have anything to do with the invasion?” Feryumstark asked.

“I may have told him the location of the army, the locations of our forts, and I believe I also let him know about a possible chance of attack. It wasn’t that hard to find out when the general’s beloved granddaughter was going to take her knighthood exam.” he showed him a smirk “I never expected him to win the battle, and neither did he. All we wanted was to start a war, but the Queen managed to prevent that. All of our efforts went up in flames... That’s why I changed my focus then.” he looked at the Queen “By taking you out of the picture, starting a war with the humans would have been a cinch, but...” he then looked at me “I never expected that a monster like you was going to show up.” he laughed.

“What do you mean?” I asked furrowing my brows.

“What do I mean? Don’t play the fool, Alkelios Yatagai!” he shouted “Every single one of my plans went down the drain the moment you stepped in! It was like you had all the luck in the world! Always at the right moment and at the right place! I even started to believe that you are somehow managing to read my mind or keep track of my actions!” he shouted and glared at me.

“Not really, I just wanted to sleep with my redhead dragoness.” I shrugged “You were just in the way?” I tilted my head to the left.

“WHAT?!” he shouted in anger.

Seryanna blushed and looked at me with a love-filled gaze.

“You’re telling me that all of your interference was because of a dragoness?! Couldn’t you have went to a brothel if you couldn’t keep it in your pants? Or I don’t know rape someone on the street? How about her sister or that silver-scaled one?” he glared at me.

“You do know that rape is a crime, right? Also, Seryanna’s my dragoness, as long as I get to hold her in my arms, I’m not even going to bother trying to sleep with someone else. Hm, maybe Kataryna, but definitely not someone from a brothel or her sister.” I nodded to myself.

“You are an idiot. What’s so special about one dragoness? Ha! This was what I was talking about, dragons need to rule over dragonesses not the other way around. Ending up like this fool is a shame, a disgrace!” he spat.

“Maybe, but I still got the dragoness in the end and even won the war.” I showed him a big grin.

He growled.

“Enough of this!” Feryumstark roared “You have already given us more reasons than we needed to put a sword through your chest, but I still wish to hear one last thing... Were you behind the deaths of the recent noble assassinations?” he asked.

“Yes. Of course. I ordered my slave to use his teleportation ability to send the assassins groups all over Albeyater at roughly the same time. It was an easy attack, and no one expected it. I also payed the bandits to destroy the caravans of the merchants coming from outside. I bribed the local lords in each port of Albeyater to raise the prices and interfere in any way they saw fit with the foreign merchants. I even caused the Pertiko incident. Hahaha! You all thought it was some unfortunate Dungeon going wild, but it was my slave who caused it to go wild!” he confessed.

“But I stopped the Dungeon.” I reminded him.

“Yes, thanks to you, the Paladins that were supposed to have died back then lived and I lost a precious contract. If they died, I would have had at least 380000 troops today. You also ruined my deals with the Twin Daggers. Do you have any idea how much gold I lost because you destroyed that organization?” he asked glaring at me.

“I don’t know, but I did convince the leader of the organization to become my friend and disband it!” I said with a smile.

“An organization as powerful as that with deals throughout the entire Albeyater was disband because of you? It’s hard to believe.” he laughed.

“Was it that powerful?” I asked Kataryna.

“Meh, who cares.” she replied with a shrug.

The dragoness never held any regret over her decision. The Twin Daggers organization had always been just a hobby for her, which she never really took seriously. If she didn’t meet me, maybe she would still be in that cave of hers, letting time pass by with nothing ever changing.

In my opinion, she got a better deal by disbanding that organization. This way she got to meet new people, make friends, and spread her wings a bit more.

“Now you’re going to tell me that you also had a hand in stopping the spread of the Dragon Flu in Toros?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

“Erm, no. I just helped a merchant there make a bunch of Virlullian potions and told him the extra conditions needed to cure it besides the Rotiqus Potion.” I shrugged.

“Why am I not surprised? I spent a lot of coins to get it started and spread until it became like that. It was the perfect way to stall for time and force the Brekkar Army’s commanders from reaching the capital before I managed to reorganize the ranks. Because of you, I had to spend more gold and bribe more dragonesses to get the dragons I wanted inside the army.” he let out a sigh and shook his head.

“Coincidence?” I asked tilting my head to the left.

“I refuse to believe it was so. If it wasn’t for you, I would have been forced to leave the capital like I did! You stole everything for me!” he growled.

“I still don’t understand. What did you plan to obtain with all of this scheming?” I asked him.

“Internal destabilization of the country and a decrease in the quality of external relationships. This way, the King would have been forced to spread his army thin. If everything would have went according to plan, then right now there would have been countless nobles rising up against the royal family. The Human Coalition Army would have faked an attack, pulling most of the army in a defensive position on the Western Islands to stop a possible human onslaught. If I had married Seryanna by then, I would have used her name to get even more nobles on my side and then I would have acted all surprised when the massive invading army knocked on Drakaria’s door unexpectedly. Heh! I even managed to send a message to the insectoid Queen and have her send a part of her army as well to attack Albeyater from the North. A triple attack...” he smirked “It would have been wonderful!”

North? Insectoid Queen? Could it be? I thought as I remembered a certain insect army I squashed when I had nothing else better to do in the Northern Desert.

“But Alkelios put a stop to all of this. He helped gather the rest of the army, saved important nobles and even helped reveal most of the traitors on your side. Right now, most nobles are on my side rather than yours. The army from the North never came and you never got to marry Seryanna. She took Alkelios as her husband instead of you and Brekkar recovered as well, allowing me to put him back on his rightful general seat. As for the Queen, you never did expect that Alkelios was going to find the cure for her too, right?” Feryumstark summed up everything.

I don’t think I ever intended or wished to be the one who stopped his overly complex strategy... I thought and when I gazed back at Seryanna, I remembered my countless wishes, among which, the most powerful one which I desired to come true from the bottom of my heart was the one in which I wanted to become her lover.

I do not think I ever stated it in words, but from the very first time I met her, I thought that it would be nice if I could become her lover, her boyfriend, but... wasn’t that one of the best ways to make a wish? It was honest, pure, and came from depths of my soul... Considering how my Luck worked, it was highly likely that I was unknowingly pulling myself towards events and situations, which if left as they were would have eventually led to me and Seryanna walking on separate ways.

In the end, it was true, he was just a nuisance in the grand scheme of bringing me and my beautiful dragoness wife together. If he had not intended to make Seryanna a part of his ploy, then he might have had a chance of winning.

“No, I never expected him to do that.” Draejan replied shaking his head.

“Then, I’m going to ask you one more time... Why did you do it?” Feryumstark asked as he unsheathed his sword and aimed it at Draejan’s neck.

“Because there’s no honor in being peaceful. There’s no glory without a battlefield and no future without death. The Human-Draconian Wars made us strong and powerful, both of our sides, while peace will only do the opposite. We need war just as much as war needs us.” he stated in a firm tone of voice as he looked into Feryumstark’s eyes with an unwavering gaze.

“Then, as much as it pains me to do this as your grandfather, your crimes bear too much weight. May the gods have mercy on your soul, Draejan.” he said and pushed the blade through his grandson’s chest.

The dragon received the cold sword with his eyes closed, and with one final twist of the handle, Feryumstark ended his life.

After he pulled out the sword from his chest, he cleaned it with a piece of cloth.

“It’s over.” Seryanna said.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“This war... To think it had been orchestrated from such a long time ago. Sigh... Am I getting old?” the Queen said and then rubbed her temples with two fingers.

“I doubt it, my love. This dragon simply managed to outsmart us. He was good, but too bad he used his talents to instigate chaos and death.” said Feryumstark.

“True... but I’m still worried about that slave of his.”

Just as Elliessara said this, a loud laughter caught our attention. It was coming from above us.

Looking up, I saw the human Hero who had that annoying teleporting ability. He was wearing a gothic black duster with a hood pulled over his head. With his hands on his stomach, he was laughing like a madman.

“To think he would die like this! Spilling out everything! What did he try to do? Was he an idiot?” the man laughed.

Our eyes were on the flying man, while our hands rested on the hilts of our swords. For now, we did not know what his intentions were, but without his master, he was technically free. If he fled to the human kingdoms, we probably would not have given chase, but if tried anything, we were all prepared to jump in and finish him off.

“Ah! I honestly wasn’t expecting to feel SOOO good when I saw him die! Ah... that was lovely.” he then laughed again.

When he stopped, he looked down at me and said “It’s a shame you gave up on being human. Now you won’t be so welcomed by our comrades in arms. After all, we’re here on this crappy planet for the sole purpose of keeping Earth alive! Did you forget that? Are you an idiot as well? Hahaha! Now then, time to get rid of this annoying collar!” he said and then simply teleport it off of himself.

“I made my choice, and I am happy with it!” I declared.

“Too bad though.” he said as he grabbed the collar before it fell on the ground “I’m going to keep this. Safekeeping? No, just a memory of my time in Hell, that’s it!” he laughed. “You know? I could have gotten rid of the collar ages ago, but I really wanted to see how that bastard was going to die! I really really wanted to see that, and now that I did, I feel like I am finally free!” he laughed again.

“What are your intentions, human?” Feryumstark asked.

“My intentions? Hm... Hm? Hmmm.” he pretended to think and ponder hard about it, but then he vanished from our sight.

CLANG!

When I turned my head, I saw the man standing behind Feryumstark. He tried to kill him, but the dragon’s armor was far too tough to be pierced by such an attack.

Out of reflex, Feryumstark turned around and slashed at the one he now perceived as an enemy. Before the blow hit, the man jumped back and teleport a few meters away from him.

“Oh! That was close!” he laughed and then looked at his sword. The blade was chipped, “I should have expected this won’t do, he is a king after all.” he shook his head and tossed it on the ground. “One moment, please!” he said with a smile and then pulled out something from his [Purse] ring.

It was Draejan’s Legendary Rank sword.

“Why did no one retrieve that thing?” I asked.

“It was already gone when I got to it.” Seryanna replied.

“He must have taken it not long after I grabbed Draejan to bring him before their Majesties.” I said.

“Now then! There was a lot of things that useless dragon forced me to do but lies and deceptions are a must when you are willing to walk among these savages! You see...” he lifted the sword to his eye level and then pulled out a big red crystal from his pocket. “Draejan always assumed that these little things can’t be used to charge up this monster. Well...” he smirked and a strange energy in the form of red lightning mixed with a red fog passed from the crystal into the sword. “he just wasn’t using it right.”

When the charge up was complete, he slashed the sword at the ground and a crack appeared there. The weapon was back to its full potential, but this time without the unpleasant side effect of its user losing his sanity. At this point though, I was starting to doubt if he had any left.

“Now then! Alkelios!” he pointed the tip of the sword at me. “I’m going to have you die here!” he declared.

“This guy is nuts!” I said as I unsheathed Heaven and Hell and then raised them above my head “Chaos! Reveal yourself!” I shouted, although it was not needed, and the two swords merged into the powerful two-handed weapon I was most familiar with.

From within the [Black Hole] I took out another two-handed sword, which only use was so I could activate my dual wielding skills.

It was time for the true final battle... and this time, against a human from my own world.