Brutus was playing with his cub. His lizard instincts, like a lizard, drove him to play hunting. Putting him with human children would be a disaster for humans. The cub would teethe and bite down on macrolon toys.

Brutus would have to pull the macrolon prey with feathers around it and the cub would squeeze with his powerful jaw and Brutus would lift him up like this.

The human part is awakened when he starts to use his hands and no longer his mouth.

Graah haaa.

Gnark

Hissa: "Brutuuss. Stop turning him on. One of these days we'll have an accident.

Then it clicked.

She went back to her cellar with a model of the two ends of the gate.

When she saw her son pull a rubber toy hitting him in the nose, she understood something.

What if the gate was elastic? Argentrix would have been propelled the other way... into the future...

...and she calculated the discharge and estimated they must be 10,000 years in the future.

But where?

We'd need more precise calculations.

"Brutus! Take care of the boy. I'm going to see Higgins and Sinistrar."

She was still working at the base, but in logistics. Being very smart, she'd passed her officer's rank. So had Brutus. He'd become a drill sergeant. And the pay that went with it.

They were saving up to buy a small ranch or a lizard-man style house. You know, so they could have a small community like the Indians did.

It was important for their children to know their culture and where they came from. And especially to watch and pray to their unborn little gods, the children of Argentrix and Auronne.

The lizard people worshipped and protected the dragons and dragonettes as their God.

She arrived at Higgins' office.

Sinistrar, and the whole family was there, reunited.

Hissa laid out her plans.

Sinistrar understood and Emerald translated into simple words for Higgins to follow the conversation in dracony.

Higgins: "If I understand correctly, we have Ivan and part of the army separated from us in Ethernia and on the other hand Fomalhaut, Tania, Argentrix and a whole expedition lost in the future, we don't know where...

What a tragedy.

Sinistrar added.

"The portals are destroyed. The scattered mana is colossal."

The Japanese have scuttled their portals and are unusable. So are the Russians.

Ethernia is isolated, or rather, it's our world.

The problem is time.

And the void between portals is energized. It's luminous, and that means one thing: Higher entities are at work. It's the work of one or more "Gods"...

Basically, they're locking down the portals, at least the temporal ones.

We're violating the laws of nature which somehow reacted to restore itself.

This energy is being released and could destroy a world like ours in other dimensions or destroy us.

We go back in time to the past on our way to Ethernia and there is a passage between Ethernia and Earth in 700 .

A paradox could occur and the catastrophic effects...

Furthermore, these forces unknowingly prevent any form of help or relief.

I'm sorry, but I can't go on, it's too hard..."

Tears streamed from his golden eyes. Darkia leaning against her husband...

Goldur and Emerald were crying and Aurona broke down in tears.

Hissa went to join her and they all huddled together. All of them had lost one or more loved ones.

Sinistrar: "You mustn't blame Ivan. He perished once and atoned...

But he set Argentrix free, and he was a good boy. He never thought of himself...

Even though he came back in the worst form, the goddess of pure evil... He continued to love and protect us in his own way..."

The sad reunion, the dragons and humans returned to the ruins of the portal and the dragons present, under the aegis of Sinistrar magically erected a gigantic monument.

They rebuilt the portal on our side and a copy of the portal on the Ethernia side.

And between a statue of Tiamat with the features of Ivan, At his feet, a statue of Ivan in black dragon, neck against neck with Argentrix, 2 eggs between them, And behind, Fomalhaut protecting them from his daughter's wing, eyes closed with sadness and tears flowing. Behind them, Tania and her adopted daughter and in the background, Zaar.

Below the statue, a commemorative plaque with the names of the dragons that disappeared with them and a huge plaque with the names of the soldiers who stayed in Ethernia and those of the 2 expeditions.

The monument was well 50 meters high, carved out of granite and the dragons and letters covered with gold.

In front of it, a huge pyrrhic basin recalling fire and life.

When inaugurating the monument, it would be requested that each family member or each person having lost a loved one would be asked to shed blood or offerings in the hole /tunnel under the front paw of the IVAN/TIAMAT Statue.

The dragons used the ritual of Tiamat but for Ivan... in the hope of an answer.

Perhaps only prayer could still connect them.

For my part, I felt an immense sadness growing inside me, but Hirrax kept me upright, gave me the strength to carry on.

I looked at the South and the East full of hatred. Never before had I felt so much resentment...

I was bitter from all the hardships and often I looked up at the sky, after the Boeing 737... I was tired of everything.

Hirrax: "Stop daydreaming! We're under attack!"

Thousands of men, more terrified of me than the 13 dragons around me, were waiting for my orders.

"All able-bodied pilots are to assemble near their planes. The rest of the wounded will be treated by the dragons and I invite them to come too."

All men able to fight will be with Hirrax."

After a while, I took over.

"We are the infernal army now.

If a demon takes a life, or my legions appear to kill, there will be a counter-reaction from the Celestial armies.

They have already responded by sending Magestia's troops marching on the base.

We'll have to change headquarters and build a fortress of chaos further north in the mountain ranges, full of caves and impregnable by tanks or infantry and protected from bombardment. There's the volcanoes and a huge source of energy, mana and everything you need to set up the infernal forge to counterattack."

Then, cutting short, we went to the runway where the fighter planes, bombers and awaks were parked.

After a quick glance, I recognized my wingmen who were stationed here!

"My friends, what are you doing here?"

My friends from the hangar ran up and hugged me, against all odds from the other dragons.

I was happy and angry to see them.

"Listen, Ivan, don't be angry, but we're glad to see you alive. You don't know how much we missed you. We don't have any family on earth, so we took a chance here... The Kajit women, you know, their soft fur. We've dreamed about them since we were kids..."

I was blushing about it.

"Well, you'll be my escort. We'll fight together, and I've learned a few more things."

Then, resuming my distance and seriousness, I removed the sunglasses so that everyone could see my slit pupils.

"You're the best pilots in the US air force! The elite of the elite! But today will be a battle you can't lost.

Basically everyone here will have 10 enemy aircraft, better prepared, more modern and equipped with artificial intelligence to assist in precision fire.

You are capable but while your back is turned, others will not hesitate to kill you even if they have to sacrifice their own to have a victory.

The army of darkness is disbanded and the infernal army is too backward in technology but not in magic...

We master the magic of chaos and we will transform your planes into conscious dragonoid beings.

Your planes, will be pseudo dragons made of steel, magic and flesh. They will be conscious and you will be their master and their parent. Think of them as your children and a bond will be established between you and them.

The zodiacal dragons then cast a chaos spell

"Dragonomicon [email protected] Caput Draconis"

They invoked a God of chaos to bring life to these structures of steel and organic matter.

The planes had a red aura around their structure.

"Now, pilots, spill some of your blood on your plane and it will become one with you."

Astonished, frightened, the pilots executed themselves. They knew it was to live like this, in crazy chaos or to die in the salt mines.

As soon as the blood was absorbed by the planes, a purple flash of lightning struck the pilots between them and their planes.

A red flash sent everyone to the ground, and when the red dust and smoke faded away their planes had taken on a monstrous appearance.

Moreover, they were moving.

They were no longer airplanes, but dragon planes, all made of metal and structures reminiscent of their scales.

Some were orange, others red, blue, green, purple, but they all looked the same.

The wings were pushed forward,

the landing gear of the legs and claws.

the guns and cannons in their wings and mouths.

They still had their engines, but their wings were like scissors.

It really had nothing to do with F35s and F16s or F22s anymore.

Everything about them looked like a flying chopper.

TERROR

The pilots were scared.

They wondered how they were going to do it, but it was a terror to them.

The brave ones put their hands on the creature of metal and chaos that presented itself to them.

Their Dragonoid began to purr and a telepathic connection was made between them.

"Hello Master, I am... oh, I have no name..."

A mental conversation developed between the creatures and the first pilots.

Seeing the joy manifest and a form of love born between the pilots and their mounts broke the most hardened ice.

All were against their mounts as if they were hugging a friend they hadn't seen for a long time.

Quickly, the first ones climbed on the backs of their new friends and greeted me with smiles, as if I had given them the greatest gift in the world.

They opened the top of their headshells and the pilot slid down into the dragon's head.

They were at eye level and their minds synchronized with the dragon.

They were the dragon and soon, they reached the sky to train.

The performances were unbelievable and the dragonoids were twisting in the air, doing maneuvers that were impossible before.

A flexibility never before seen in an airplane.

Moreover, they felt the powerful magic, the shields and the powerful weapons, tenfold and they felt like they were in a flying tank.

Everyone asked me if they would keep their companion after the war, and I answered in the affirmative.

With the air support problem solved, the beach had to be bunkered.

After a thorough inspection, there was a lot of ammunition and missile launchers, but there was a shortage of men to use them.

I was thinking back to an old strategy game I used to play and you had to fend off waves of enemies.