Volume 3, Chapter 11: The Oldest Dragon

Death. Destruction. Domination.

Those were all terms I was deeply familiar with.

I put my head down, eyes closed for a while, before opening them. Then I laughed softly as I reached deep inside me. Almost instantly, I felt the turbulent forces of my power, a deep, dark raging pool of magic located inside the abyss that was part of my soul.

My head raised, my whole body held aloft in the air with the force of my magic-reinforced wings of black feathers, I watched my army of undead march through the town, slaughtering every human. Man and woman, child and adult. None of them were spared.

Blood dyed the stone-cobbled streets red, at the same time, also seeping into them. I eyed a family of humans trying to run away from the tide of liches, undead warriors, dread knights, death knights, misshapen undead beasts, and various other creatures.

The family did not escape.

A fireball had rained down upon the family of four, and I could see their opened mouths screaming in agony as the all-consuming fire burned them, branding and searing their very hearts. They fell, lying still on the ground as the fire still blazed on, as if dancing and laughing atop their unmoving corpses.

A winged creature, its upper body of a rotting male, human corpse and it lower body two stumps where the furry legs should have been, approached me.

“Great Lord,” it said in a croaking voice, a voice which was somewhat restricted by its rotting state. It was only natural, for the winged creature was just one of my weaker creations, a mere lower minion only suitable for scouting. “We have succeeded in destroying over half of Balik Kingdom. The few people who escaped have retreated behind the humans' defensive line, holing up in their forts.”

The humans were not too shabby. I had been expecting them to have fully reacted only after I had taken over more than three-fourths of their kingdom.

“Return back to your division,” I ordered.

“By your will, Great Lord.”

I did not even bother to watch the winged creature leave before turning around, my back faced toward the retreating minion. Lined up before me were all thirteen commanders of my army, seven of them females and the other six males. Most of them were Revenants while a few of them were liches. I had chosen only those who were competent enough to be a commander. And out of these thirteen commanders, only one of them was a dread knight, a winged female wearing a skull-emblazoned armor, and a horned helmet.

Dressed entirely in her usual black armor, the dread knight was known as Levia. In the line of commanders before me, she stood hovering in the central position. Levia was the only one out of the thirteen commanders who could not use magic. But even handicapped with such a disadvantage, she was the strongest out of the thirteen, only directly below me.

I watched with impassive, indifferent eyes, measuring their faces, their expressions, their subtle nuances.

“Great Lord Codrixas, let me handle the human king and queen who have holed up inside their castle,” Dread Knight Levia said with confidence, as if the conclusion was a sure-gone thing. An inevitability.

“What was that, you bitch! Don't you dare take all the glory. It is I who will win our Great Lord's affections and carry out his will,” the Revenant just to the immediate left of Levia shouted with a competitive edge in her voice. Dressed in a black spiderweb dress, she was a purple-haired Revenant with two small black , rounded horns that could just barely be seen protruding from the top of her head.

“Back at you, useless living maggot,” Levia retorted, quickly turning her head around to look toward Revenant.

“Who are you calling maggot! I will kill you and use your skull as a piss-stained chamber pot for humans!” the purple-haired Revenant replied. Known as Elphina, she was the second strongest commander.

“Enough,” I said, neither anger, nor any other inflection in my voice.

I was always in control. It had been ages, centuries, since I had lost control of my emotions. Even when I had been warring with my enemies, I had never once lost control over myself. Only as a child, weak and vulnerable still, had I lost control.

And in this continent at the southern edges of the world?

Impossible.

With just hearing one word, Elphina and Levia returned into their original positions, a look of discipline instantly replacing their previous expressions. They looked straight ahead at me, waiting for my order.

“Elphina, you can go handle this.”

A small smirk came over her face, and her whisper toward Levia almost went past my ears. “Hah, my win!”

A twitch of her eyebrows was all the reaction Levia showed at her whisper. Most likely, she was fuming at Elphina inside her mind.

I didn't mind their rivalry with each other, since their rivalry increased their competitiveness and their determination. There were no negative effects to speak of other than some time lost as the two rivals fought and argued with each other. But had their rivalry truly negatively affected me, I would have killed the both of them without even a second of hesitation.

“As for the rest of you, I want four evenly split groups to attack from all four directions while Elphina attacks their main stronghold.”

“By your will, Great Lord,” the call resounded among the thirteen commanders.

I stayed silent, still hovering in midair, watching the thirteen commanders leave for their assigned tasks.

Death. Destruction. Domination.

Those words were all that I know of.

And vengeance.

I live solely for the sake of this one goal, nursing the centuries old wounds that still fester inside me, like rotten maggots, like a dark bile, eating away at me.

I would kill Fenrir, the Great Wolf, the one who had murdered my love and many of my demonic brethren out of nowhere, the one who had left this gaping hole inside my heart.

For that, I would sacrifice everything and everyone to obtain enough power. Even if it took thousands of human souls.

It was for this purpose that I had left the Demon Continent centuries ago, traveling to the southern edges of the world, where the reputed Fenrir habituated, slowly biding my time and increasing my power.

And if need be, I would kill every being of this world...until all that is left are indifference and death.

Years passed by as I conquered the four human kingdoms in this southern continent, waiting for Fenrir to show up. My army had grown stronger from all the human sacrifices, and I had also grown stronger from absorbing the magic capacities of human mages.

Magic from different souls, however, were just not meant to be mixed. My lifespan grew shorter and shorter, yet at the same time, my magic grew stronger. It was a strange relationship, the opposite of what was natural—magic usually increased your lifespan.

When the Great Wolf finally did show up, I battled for two whole days with the monstrous beast, thousands upon thousands of my undead army dying. All of my thirteen commanders died facing it.

Finally, only the Great Wolf and I were left upon a field of destruction, corpses all around us. .

“Foolish demon, know your place. You should never have challenged me. I applaud your perseverance, however. You can die well knowing that you at least accomplished in giving me a light wound. ”

Pain wracked my whole body as I spurted out blood. My chest was hammered, and a lung had caved in. My organs were a mess, my wings of black feathers severed ruthlessly, and my legs were bleeding stumps.

I coughed out some more blood, too weak to reply to the Great Wolf, who stood more than a hundred meters tall.

I watched as the Great Wolf slowly lifted an enormous paw, the four claws sharpened into fine points, fine points which would soon end my life.

Then I stared at the descent of the death-dealing paw, feeling the rush of wind caused by the paw.

I closed my eyes. There was nothing I could do. I could only die knowing that I had not achieved my vengeance.

A few seconds passed by, but death had still not embraced me.

Curious, I opened my eyes and saw the Great Wolf bleeding even more heavily from its light wound, which had turned into a serious wound. It was the wound my thirteen commanders and I had dealt on its right hind-leg. There was a smell of burnt fur and flesh.

“Who dares!” The Great Wolf, Fenrir, turned his head toward the sky.

I followed his gaze, and saw a white-haired human with an amused smile on his face.

“A human? A mere human injured me? IMPOSSIBLE!” Fenrir howled into the skies.

The Great Wolf suddenly took to the sky, ignoring me who was lying on the ground slowly bleeding to death.

Up above the skies, I saw the Great Wolf battle the white-haired man, who had suddenly changed into a humongous red dragon that could almost match the Great Wolf in size. They were each covered in their own colored aura. Their magic shattered mountains and the ground rumbled with their power.

Blows were traded and the very air trembled in fear. Shock waves exploded outward, creating whirlwinds and tempests.

Fenrir howls resounded across the land for miles.“Dragon? How dare you! You are just a mere creature!”

The battle went on for hours and I watched as the red dragon and the Great Wolf exchange blows and feats of magic which destroyed whole mountains. One blast of magic hit far away, more than a mile from me, yet I felt the impact from where I laid.

Both scales and fur were torn as the two enormous creatures battled in the air.

I felt myself growing weaker and weaker, only using the last remnants of my magic to stem the blood flow. This close to death, even a demon's regenerative ability could not help me.

A howl resounded across the sky as the dragon pierced through the neck of the Great Wolf with a sharp blade of red colored magic.

“I CURSE YOU DRAGON WITH MY LAST DYING BREATH!”

It was the last howl of Fenrir, the Great Wolf of the South, before its white furred body fell from the sky, slamming onto the ground with a loud thud, along with its decapitated head.

As for the red dragon, both of its wings had been torn off and more than half of the scales on his body were ripped apart. One arm was also cut entirely and its stomach had a gouging bite that had most likely been caused by the Great Wolf biting it.

The red dragon descended toward the ground, relying on its magic, since both of its wings had been torn off. With a light thud, though it was still loud due to its enormous size, the red dragon landed just beside me.

“Thus, the Age of the Four Great Beasts end with the death of Fenrir, the Great Wolf of the South.” said the red dragon in its deep, rumbling voice. “Ah, how long time has passed by. I can still remember the Age of the Warring Gods and the Age of Residuum.”

There was a small pause.

“Hmm, it seems I have been cursed by that wolf.”

Saying that, the dragon finally deigned to look down, craning its long, scaly neck a little, its deep, dark brown eyes staring impassively at me.“The Age of the Four Great Beasts have ended and now the Age of the Mortals begins. And you, demon, will serve a purpose in the future.”

I summoned the last of my strength to croak out a question. I had been holding on to my life using my ebbing willpower. It was all to see the end of the battle between the red dragon and the Great Wolf. The result was satisfying to me, who had been craving vengeance for centuries. Yet my heart felt hallowed out. Death and indifference were all I could understand, and my vengeance had not even been carried out with my own two hands.

“Who are you?” I asked, swallowing the blood in my throat.

That one question took the entirety of my strength and I felt my vision turn darker, death having come to embrace me.

The last thing I saw before my eyes closed was a wave of red-colored magic washing over my whole body.

And the last thing I heard was—

“Navra Bloodseeker, Son of—”

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When I woke up, I found myself lying in the middle of Navra's chambers, the stone against my naked back a cool sensation. On my chest, Aqua was sleeping peacefully and looked as if her constant worrying had made her tired.

Softly, I said, “Wake up, Aqua.”

As expected, Aqua did not budge from her sleep with just that alone. With an index finger, I nudged at her body, careful to avoid any misunderstandings.

Aqua rubbed her eyes with the slender fingers of her two small hands. When she was done, she stood up and in the next moment, she was flying, her delicate silk-like wings instantly unfolded. Her light aquamarine eyes peered at me with a shimmering excitement, her white dress-like attire billowing.

“Verath, You are awake!” she said excitedly. I nodded to her words.

I looked around the room and the dark figure at the end of the chambers instantly caught my eye. I stood up and walked for some time, coming to a stop before the black throne, upon which Navra sat as still as a statue. Beside me, Aqua was flying nonchalantly, happy to see me awake.

“What are the Four Great Beasts,” I asked, my voice more blunt than a hammer's.

With hair that would have made snow the darker color in comparison, and skin that was lightly bronzed, Navra showed a small smile at my question. “Out of all the memories you would integrate from Codrixas, it had to be that one. Nonetheless, I was expecting it. No doubt, that memory must have been the most regarded in his mind.”

I was tired of these mind games and the withheld information as to what Navra had planned for my future.

“Hah, could you answer my question?” I said, coating my voice with a slight exasperation.

“The Four Great Beasts are the only surviving existences from the Age of the Warring Gods. They were, for the most part, the strongest entities after all the gods, goddesses, and the Ancient beings passed away or fell into deep slumbers not of this world. They were the most feared beings during the Age of Residuum and the Age of the Four Great Beasts.”

“And you were cursed by Fenrir after you defeated it?”

“I suppose you could put it that way. The fact that I am unable to have proper descendants is just one part of the curse on me.”

“What are the other parts?

“That. You need not know, Verath.”

There was no mistaking the tone in Navra's voice. It was hard and cold, colder than a thousand winters. The tone told me not to ask anymore questions about the curse.

“What was the Age of Mortals?” I was curious about that time period. I knew from reading the historical texts and as a merchant meeting many people of various trades that human records only went up to the Age of Reformation, the Age of Expansion and the Age of Prosperity, the age we were in. We were in Year 1120.

“The Age of Mortals was a time period in which the Greater Races were the most prosperous. Dragons, of course, were included among this race. After that was the Age of Divide and the Age of Unity. With the Age of Unity, humans and the weaker races were finally able to come out of hiding and were able to advance.”

The revelations were startling. Navra's words shattered the human history I knew of.

“Just how old are you?” I asked with a little wonder in my voice.

“Older than you first thought,” Navra simply replied.

I paused a moment, unsure of whether I should reveal the suspicion I had in my mind. A few seconds passed by and I decided.

I asked the question I had been wondering in the back of my mind after meeting Navra. “Are you even a dragon?”

“Of course I am, young Verath.” There was no hesitation in his words. “I am just a very old dragon, as old as sin. Even the Eldests of the other six major dragon clans do not know of my exact age. They merely suspect that I am a little older than themselves.”

Navra Bloodseeker, the second Astlan Dragon King, formed a wide smile that was not reflected in his ancient, dark brown eyes. “After all, I am the only survivor of the oldest generation of dragons dating back to the Age of the Warring Gods. I am far older than even the original Astlan Dragon King. None of the Astlan dragons here, of course, suspect what I truly am. If the Astlan dragons are known as the older generation and the Xieth dragons are known as the less intelligent and separate new generation, then you can group me into the oldest generation.”

“So you are the oldest dragon in the world?” Aqua asked from beside me. She had been listening intently for the past few minutes.

“I suppose you can say that, little Asrai. That said, let us move on from this tedious conversation. I grow tired of your questions.”

Aqua and I both nodded silently. We had no words to say. We were both dumbfounded by his words.

“The Lesser Fire Elemental will take some time to fully bind to you, so expect about two to three weeks before you are able to speak to her.”

“I didn't think the elementals had a gender...”

“Why would I say there was a King and Queen elemental then?”

“True. I had forgotten about that,” I admitted.

Navra let out a small laugh. “Now then, let me show you a secret I have kept hidden.”

In less than a blink of an eye, we were all teleported into a dark, underground place. That was all I could gather from my initial observations, since there were only rocks around us. There was also the feeling of all my senses on edge, the smell of dank, wet air, and the smell of earthy minerals.

Then a glowing light was emitted from behind me and I turned toward the source. Upon turning around, I saw softly glowing, blood red seals of magic drawn everywhere on the walls and on the naked, dirty body of the human female bounded by black chains sprouting from the walls surrounding her.

On each link of the chain, there was a small, intricate blood red seal drawn, making each link of the chain glow with a soft, red light.

“This here, young Verath and little Asrai, is one of the Four Great Beasts. She is known as Uraza, the Black Serpent of the East, and the Devourer of Dragons.”

I glanced at Navra to my right. On his face that was dimly lit by the soft red glow of the seals was a small smile. “And she is your mother.”

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Author's Note: To make the history of this world clearer from the information Verath currently has:

Ages of the Warring Gods:

-Navra Bloodseeker was born near the end of this age.

Age of Residuum:

Age of the Four Great Beasts:

-Uraza, the Black Serpent of the East, the Devourer of Dragons- (female)

-Fenrir, the Great Wolf of the South- more than one hundred meters tall and with white fur.

Age of Mortals:

Age of Divide:

Age of Unity:

(Human's Point of View)-

Age of Reformation: The weaker races, including the human race, come out of hiding in fear from the Greater Races.

Age of Expansion: Human Kingdoms, and other many kingdoms of the weaker races expanded in the many continents of the world.

Age of Prosperity: We are in this time period at the moment. Right now, it is Year 1120, and in Year 1124, it is when Verath is explaining his story to the halfblood vampyre.

Volume 3 (Chapter 12)