Page 311
Story: The Dragon of Dreams
N/A - N/A : The Mallory Area | Lunar Derelict District
-----
*Vwowowowoom* Within the silent depths of my mind, all I could make out was the hypnotic hum of mana being ripped through a sea of matter. The sound of a vortex so strong it ripped the mana out of atoms, forcing them to decay into their most basic form. Pure hydrogen.
Without me knowing, it had become the melody of my unconscious mind, keeping thoughts from flowing and allowing my mind to listlessly drift through time as my body attempted to rebuild itself from nothing.
But it could only last for so long.
*THOOM* I instantly darted into the sky before finding myself looking over a vast empty crater of dust and rock hidden beneath a dense grey fog of hydrogen, leaving nothing but a potent mix of awe and confusion in my mind.
I was.. alive?
But the moment I looked down, I was met with the sight of my own body, mutilated beyond recognition as if having decayed over countless years, laying next to a conglomeration of unrecognizable flesh I could only assume was what was left of Ilios.
It instantly destabilized my mental state before plunging my mind into the depths of despair and agony without warning.
But as the light in my eyes faded and darkened, I noticed something. -H..huh?-
Within the unfathomable vortex of mana centered around my body, there was another. A suction that absorbed every drop it could grasp while resisting the pull of my dragon sleep in its entirety.
*FWOOM* Instantly darting to the ground, I looked over the unrecognizable mound of flesh with a mix of hope and heartache. -Is he.. alive?-
A part of me didn't believe it right away, but after looking more deeply into his full, flowing mana core, I saw a faint cloud flowing freely within the ever-growing sea of mana. -Is that his soul?-
It was a far cry from anything special, especially compared to the Fenrir that had previously possessed him, but while it was nothing more than a thin cloud, it felt familiar, and it felt warm.
After just looking at it for a moment, a subtle wag even found its way into my tail.
However, as my mental state began to stabilize, memories from before I passed out started returning to vividity, and the swaying of my tail was halted by a wave of anxiety. -Wait a minute... If I'm really alive.. what happened to...-
Quickly expanding my senses, I tried to find him, the Fenrir I could only assume was Dagr, fully expecting him to be in the air, watching over me like a cat playing with a mouse, only to find he was nowhere to be seen. -W..what? Am I dreaming? Where did he go? Why would he just.. leave us...-
At the time, the last thing I could remember prior to falling unconscious was the feeling of his cold gaze on my body after I failed to stand up and finish him off. Had he willed it, I would have been dead. -But not only is my dragon sleep still proceeding.. even my tether is untouched...-
Looking back down at the thin thread tying my soul to my reserve, I glanced toward Ilios's body and noticed his flesh was regrowing like mine. He was evolving, but no matter how I twisted it, it still made no sense. -What is he even evolving into? Wasn't he already an Ancient Fenrir?-
Slowly falling into thought, my gaze shifted to the ground, but after a moment, a set of large, ethereal wolf paws came into view, and after having my mind jolt out of my body for a moment, I found that they were mine.
The form my soul had taken upon itself, rather than remaining an amorphous blob as it was previously, was what could only be described as a Fenrir with a slightly elongated neck, massive furred wings, and a very long but fluffy tail.
A cross between a Fenrir and a dragon. -It feels weirdly natural. . but...-
Glancing over at my physical body, I watched as countless strands of flesh continued to weave through the web of divinity, tracing the figure of a dragon with every fiber of muscle and layer of bone before letting out a breath of relief. "Phew..."
Although the form my soul took felt truly comfortable, I much preferred the dexterity, strength, and, most importantly, appearance that came with the body of a dragon. -It looks like my body is going to grow quite a bit in size too...-
From what I could tell, all I needed to do was wait.
For how long, though, I didn't have a clue. -But even if it's just a few days, I will need to kill time with something...-
Yet, as I sat on the desolate lunar surface, watching my body absorb more mana than I could fathom for a moment, finding something to kill time became the least of my worries.
*Vwoom* Feeling a presence instantly appear behind me, I froze.
"Don't you look different..." His deep voice echoed through the fabric of space with ease while time around us started to slow. "I expected your soul to rip itself apart.. yet there you are, sitting as if nothing ever happened..."
Slowly turning my head, I met eyes with the familiar, colossal fenrir, looming over me as if I were a human gazing upon a towering dragon.
"It seems you didn't lose your sense of self either..." His eyes carefully scanned my form as he lowered his head next to my body. "How impressive."
For that moment, I was simply paralyzed, my previous confusion about his absence now seeming foolish.
"I… What do you want?" I stammered, trying to maintain composure.
Whether I wanted to admit it or not, there was no way I could fight back if he really wanted to kill me, even if my body was untouched.
But thankfully, his hostility was nowhere to be seen. "Curious, are we?" His smile sent a chill down my spine as his massive eye gazed into the core of my soul. "Well, let's just say I decided to.. observe you for a little longer."
Slowly mustering up the courage to speak under his gaze, I muttered, "W..what about Ilios..."
"If I left him to reincarnate, we wouldn't be able to speak here so calmly, don't you agree?
" Finally pulling his head away, a flicker of interest appeared in his gaze.
"Although I was the one to initiate the connection between you two, I still find it fascinating how much the bond strengthened without my intervention.
" His tone wasn't condescending, but rather contemplative, like a researcher observing an interesting specimen.
"In any case, for now, I intend to watch you.
To see if you are still a fruit to be eaten or already a seed already laying in the ground. "
Each of his words seemed riddled with hidden implications, but before I a chill could even pass down my spine, my attention was drawn elsewhere.
*Vwowooom* "Hm?" As we heard a subtle disturbance in the hum of mana behind us, I felt a tingling sensation in the deepest parts of my core and turned around.
Around my physical body, there had formed a film of mana so dense that it flowed like a liquid, crushing and shredding the cells and atoms in my flesh to reach my reserve, even if it meant destroying my body in the process.
Back then, I didn't have a clue as to how bad such a thing was, especially during a dragon sleep, but thankfully I wasn't alone.
"How unfortunate.. I had hoped to speak with you a little longer, but it appears we are out of time for now..."
His tone quickly turned blunt as confusion filled my mind. -W..what does he mean?-
But before I could react, his figure appeared over my body, and he tapped his paw against my reserve.
The next thing I knew, my head was spinning, and I was looking straight down at the ground in a daze.
*crackle-VWOOOM* My reserve had exploded like a strained water balloon the moment he touched it, heavily straining my tether before I was forcefully pulled into the center of where my reserve once was.
Before I knew it, the unbelievably scattered senses of my destroyed body forced their way into my mind, numbing my thoughts and causing the light in my eyes to fade to nothingness until I once again woke up.
It was an endless cycle of remembering and forgetting that went on for an indescribably eternity.
Each time I woke up, I was presented with the horrific sight of our mutilated bodies before finally having my memories return, just for Dagr to appear and destroy my reserve right afterward, once again tasking my soul with repairing it before restarting the cycle.
But with each successive cycle, our bodies would repair themselves more and more, and my soul would become more and more defined until finally, rather than waking up in the form of my soul, I opened the massive, deep purple eyes of my physical body.
*GASP-VWOOOM* Jolting awake, the gate around me was shredded, sending a colossal surge of mana ripping through the dense air around me: a grey atmosphere of hydrogen that had formed around the moon during my sleep.
"Hah... Hah..." -I'm.. awake?-
Looking on the ground just in front of me, I saw a colossal fenrir still sleeping soundly with a faint mana suction still leading into his reserve, but I didn't exactly have time to even think about it.
At that moment, it felt as if I had just woken up from an eternal slumber, a dragon sleep that was extended over eons because of Dagr's actions.
But as my condition stabilized and a soothing sensation reminiscent of my reincarnation coursed through my mind and body, a number appeared in my mind, a number that couldn't be right.
-W..what?- It was supposedly the amount of time that my body said had elapsed since my sleep initially started. -But... No.. my body must have just.. made an error or something after being reconstructed so many times...-
But no matter how many times I tried to check it, the numbers never changed.
Each time my reserve was shattered, seven and a half years passed, with an additional thirteen years passing before I first awoke.
At the end of it all, it totaled almost exactly 103 years.
A number that did more than simply loom over my mind.
-If that number is right... Just how long has passed in the outside world...-
Read up to 5 chapters ahead of schedule, and get early access to artwork on My Patreon!
(In case Embedded Link doesn't work: /TDOD )
-------------
Also, please feel free to check out our new discord! https://discord.gg/Dv7G5bQD4v
All are welcome!
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192
- Page 193
- Page 194
- Page 195
- Page 196
- Page 197
- Page 198
- Page 199
- Page 200
- Page 201
- Page 202
- Page 203
- Page 204
- Page 205
- Page 206
- Page 207
- Page 208
- Page 209
- Page 210
- Page 211
- Page 212
- Page 213
- Page 214
- Page 215
- Page 216
- Page 217
- Page 218
- Page 219
- Page 220
- Page 221
- Page 222
- Page 223
- Page 224
- Page 225
- Page 226
- Page 227
- Page 228
- Page 229
- Page 230
- Page 231
- Page 232
- Page 233
- Page 234
- Page 235
- Page 236
- Page 237
- Page 238
- Page 239
- Page 240
- Page 241
- Page 242
- Page 243
- Page 244
- Page 245
- Page 246
- Page 247
- Page 248
- Page 249
- Page 250
- Page 251
- Page 252
- Page 253
- Page 254
- Page 255
- Page 256
- Page 257
- Page 258
- Page 259
- Page 260
- Page 261
- Page 262
- Page 263
- Page 264
- Page 265
- Page 266
- Page 267
- Page 268
- Page 269
- Page 270
- Page 271
- Page 272
- Page 273
- Page 274
- Page 275
- Page 276
- Page 277
- Page 278
- Page 279
- Page 280
- Page 281
- Page 282
- Page 283
- Page 284
- Page 285
- Page 286
- Page 287
- Page 288
- Page 289
- Page 290
- Page 291
- Page 292
- Page 293
- Page 294
- Page 295
- Page 296
- Page 297
- Page 298
- Page 299
- Page 300
- Page 301
- Page 302
- Page 303
- Page 304
- Page 305
- Page 306
- Page 307
- Page 308
- Page 309
- Page 310
- Page 311 (Reading here)
- Page 312
- Page 313
- Page 314
- Page 315
- Page 316
- Page 317
- Page 318
- Page 319
- Page 320
- Page 321
- Page 322
- Page 323
- Page 324
- Page 325
- Page 326
- Page 327
- Page 328
- Page 329
- Page 330
- Page 331
- Page 332
- Page 333
- Page 334
- Page 335
- Page 336
- Page 337
- Page 338
- Page 339
- Page 340
- Page 341
- Page 342
- Page 343
- Page 344
- Page 345
- Page 346
- Page 347
- Page 348
- Page 349
- Page 350
- Page 351
- Page 352
- Page 353
- Page 354
- Page 355
- Page 356
- Page 357
- Page 358
- Page 359
- Page 360
- Page 361
- Page 362
- Page 363
- Page 364
- Page 365
- Page 366
- Page 367
- Page 368
- Page 369
- Page 370
- Page 371
- Page 372
- Page 373
- Page 374
- Page 375
- Page 376
- Page 377
- Page 378
- Page 379
- Page 380
- Page 381
- Page 382
- Page 383
- Page 384
- Page 385
- Page 386
- Page 387
- Page 388
- Page 389
- Page 390
- Page 391
- Page 392
- Page 393
- Page 394
- Page 395
- Page 396
- Page 397
- Page 398
- Page 399
- Page 400
- Page 401
- Page 402
- Page 403
- Page 404
- Page 405
- Page 406
- Page 407
- Page 408
- Page 409
- Page 410
- Page 411
- Page 412
- Page 413
- Page 414
- Page 415
- Page 416
- Page 417
- Page 418
- Page 419
- Page 420
- Page 421
- Page 422
- Page 423
- Page 424
- Page 425
- Page 426
- Page 427
- Page 428
- Page 429
- Page 430
- Page 431
- Page 432
- Page 433
- Page 434
- Page 435
- Page 436
- Page 437
- Page 438
- Page 439
- Page 440
- Page 441
- Page 442
- Page 443
- Page 444