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Late Afternoon - Early Summer : Southwestern Holy Kingdom

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*flash* The blinding white light of the antimatter thrusters continued to follow me around in silence as I circled my way up the mountain.

It had been around seven hours since I first started my search, but while I was still yet to leave the mountain, it had been far from a fruitless venture. -How fascinating...-

The mountain, as I had previously noticed, was completely covered in massive fissures and ravines that stretched anywhere from a few hundred meters to several kilometers, but inside of these cracks were essentially completely isolated ecosystems that had likely existed for millions, if not billions, of years, and held life unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Blue, purple, and even violet-colored vegetation was common in these little ecosystems, with a huge variety of sizable insects, and even a 'jellyfish out of water'-looking slime being visible as well. -But how do these creatures even survive and continue to grow here?-

While the cracks were very large and even had tiny atmospheres in them, it was also true that the molecules in the air were simply too scarce to support any kind of population.

My only reasonable guess was that many of the creatures and vegetation in these environments were like me, and used the shockingly dense mana encompassing the top of the mountain to make incredibly efficient use of resources.

But while I was truly curious about the countless new discoveries I was constantly stumbling across, I still had to focus. -I'm finally nearing the top...-

Not seeing any more fissures between me and the peak on my final circle around it, I finally turned up and made my way to it.

It only took me a few seconds to get there at the speed I was traveling, and even less to notice the large, but broken, pillars sticking out of the edge. -Antimatter generators, huh...-

Assuming I had found something worth investigating, I started to slow down before eventually cresting over the edge of the peak and noticing a massive, but mostly destroyed black cube laying there.

Just like on the laboratory, there were symbols along the outside, but they were nearly impossible to read with how damaged everything was.

With a bit of effort, however, I got there. -Con..tain-? Is it 'Containment'? Is it another dungeon core?- It was a bit of a guess, but it's not like it really mattered since I was going to investigate it regardless.

*rrrrumble* Finally slowing down and landing, I walked over to the structure and went to poke my head through some of the massive holes in its side, but didn't see much of anything different from the containment center in the dungeon.

-I don't feel any auras either... Did whatever this was containing end up dying? -

It was a more than likely possibility, with no atmosphere and several huge holes in the side of the structure, the conditions inside were equivalent to those of space.

But even though something could have still been living in there, that wasn't the case this time.

Finally poking my head through one of the holes on the back side of the structure, I came face to face with an absolutely colossal dragon that likely once stood well over 160 meters tall.

But while it made me jolt back almost instantly, it had been dead for eons.

Huge, deep blue scales littered the floor of the room, half buried under the powdered rock from outside and pieces of its own, half-mummified body.

But while it was a sorry sight to see what would have been an incredibly majestic dragon lying dead and being eroded away, its head looked essentially untouched.

With a streamlined facial structure and long, flowing horns, the dragon was more beautiful than any other I had ever seen, but I couldn't help but feel curious. -Its face looks like.. it hasn't decayed or mummified at all...-

I immediately started moving to widen the hole in the structure so I could climb in and get a closer look, but before I could do anything, I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"~I never thought I'd have visitors...~"

*WHAM* Instantly jolting back, I slammed my head into the top of the hole and caused the whole structure to rock. *THUMP* As it came silently slamming back down, a massive cloud of dust and rock was ejected out from under it, immediately surrounding Ilios and me.

"~You.. heard me..? I apologize if I scared you...~" The faint, but beautiful female voice came once again from the dragon head within the structure, but it hadn't moved.

-Am I going insane?- The voice was clear, but it spoke in a dialect I had never heard. *flash-FWOOSH* Using a tiny amount of antimatter to blow away the dust, the area around me cleared instantly.

That was when I once again looked at the head of the dragon through the enlarged hole and noticed a faintly glowing cloud above it.

It had no defined shape and looked closer to Tyr's scattered remains in the void than a god, but it was.. 'something'.

"~I never thought I would see another living being.

. let alone a dragon...~" The cloud slowly descended off the dragon's head before floating to the edge of the room.

"~But I suppose I could be imagining things after being imprisoned here for so long.

..~" The hope in the being's voice faded as I stared at it in silence.

*vwoooom* Hastily moving some mana to create a huge amount of hydrogen, I filled the air between the being and me, being careful to contain it and not let it touch the corpse.

It pulled back slightly as it was surrounded by the gaseous hydrogen, but thankfully stayed mostly still.

That was when I could finally speak. "Who.. are you?"

-

- Amphitrite Ouranós ~

*FWOOOOSH* *FWOOOOSH* *FWOOOOSH* The flaps of my wings were the only thing to fill the silence as I flew toward the Elder hall from the space rune in Emporio.

Just a few hours prior, I was speaking with my daughter, Zafeíri, about the situation related to Holcyon's trial against me when 'she' appeared and told me to head toward the Elder Hall immediately.

I didn't have a reason to object, as she had done nothing to cause my trust in her to waver and I was getting a bit bored of holing myself up in my secret estate, but this time it felt a bit odd. -Is she finally planning something?-

Although we talked fairly regularly for the last few hundred years, I still didn't know much about her besides that her name was Grace, a name I had never heard before, and that she was a goddess of some kind. She was simply an enigma that I had come to accept as a friend.

But around fifteen years ago, she started becoming more active, spending less time idly chatting with me and instead only occasionally giving me some sort of job like finding some obscure, tiny, and impossible-to-find artifact, then telling me I needed to give it to some kid in the middle of the ocean because that kid could kill Magni, a god Grace and I both despised.

Of course, I believed that reason to be a lie at first since I considered myself to be one of the strongest beings alive and still could never finish off Magni before he could run away, but after meeting that child, I couldn't help but be somewhat convinced.

-According to Grace, he even followed through with the deal and already killed him (Magni). .. I wonder what he's up to...-

But the time for such thoughts quickly came to an end as I noticed the blackened land on the horizon. -W..what the...- It was the place where I expected to see a massive colosseum standing over a large town, but instead, I saw flattened, charred ground.

Hastily speeding up, I quickly approached the area where the elder hall should have been and noticed Myles Kalfas standing near the edge of a crater that emitted a light-rippling heat.

-Who did he even fight...- I was simply in awe seeing the scale of destruction, but after another moment, once I was coming into land, I noticed something odd. .. -Is that.. a human?-

A normal, black-clothed human was sitting on the edge of the destruction, peering through a pile of rubble to keep watch on Myles.

He was very well hidden, but his uncontrolled aura made him stick out like a sore thumb. -He seems like the only one around too...-

*fwoo-OOOSH- WHAAAAAM* Promptly diving down, I slammed down right behind him and threw away the rubble surrounding him with my aura. *crumble-crackle*

He stood there, completely paralyzed from fear, as I lowered my head next to his body.

Under his black clothing, I could clearly see several hidden weapons laced with a liquid death poison, but it was still far too weak to deal any damage to a dragon beyond the adult stage.

But the poison weapons weren't what caught my attention.. it was the band around his arm. -The Holy Kingdom, huh...- A spark of rage immediately formed in the back of my mind. -They must not realize the kinds of beings we dragons are...-

*CRACK* The sound of bones cracking echoed into the air as several bloody teeth floated out of the man's mouth. "I hope you didn't expect that to work."

The man immediately started shivering from pain and fear, seemingly understanding what I said even though I spoke in draconic, a language humans can't learn even if taught.

*Shik* As the tip of my wing impaled his stomach and lifted him off the ground, I looked toward Myles, who had finally noticed me, and motioned toward the man.

But he just shook his head.

"Damn..." -So he already has captives...

- "That's unfortunate..." *blub* Almost immediately, a large ball of water formed in front of the man on my wing before instantaneously disappearing to form a huge red mist behind me.

-And here I was thinking I could have Myles owe me a favor.

..- "Haah..." -I guess that was wishful thinking. ..-