[Richter's POV]
I slumbered peacefully, perhaps due to my immense power I never had to worry again about being attacked in my sleep, but regardless... there would be experiences and memories inside preventing me from letting my guard down completely.
That never happened with Ether... or Destiny as much as I hated to admit it.
With them, I felt peaceful.
When my eyes opened from a dreamless slumber, she wasn't there.
"I knew you wouldn't stay." I sighed, knowing it would be like this. Her essence spreads through the whole multiverse, creating new matter as Crush destroys it. She's unable to leave her consciousness in a single spot for too long.
'Sorry' she answered me with sadness, but I couldn't reproach her, regardless of our circumstances, I loved that dragoness.
After yawning a little I opened my eyes wondering why I woke up all of the sudden. The realisation struck me in the form of several powerful individuals on the surface; they were a Dragon Emperor and two Dragon Kings.
'Oh? Such a lineup, it has been a while since I got such visitors' I nearly licked my lips. Let alone the pitiful Dragon Kings, a Dragon Emperor was a sight to behold. They'd make such wonderful sculptures and the number of Dragon Empresses and Emperors petrified all over my realm is in the two digits, not nearly enough what I desired for it to be.
I wanted hundreds, but sadly... they're not stupid enough to leave the progress of hundreds of thousands of years to become a sculpture in my realm.
Dragon Emperors were the strongest beneath Dragon Gods and Primordials Dragons, they weren't pushovers in the slightest. There were even instances of Dragon Emperors defeating Dragon Gods... rare cases but existent nonetheless. They could easily destroy a city, with the strongest of them being able to turn a planet into dust.
I decided to give them the honour of witnessing my true body before perishing; appearing above them with a blink I witnessed something astounding.
*BAAAANGG!!*
A crimson beam of flames impacted against a mural of ice, obliterating it and sending the demoness of eight wings flying into the distance, burned and injured until she blasted into the ground creating a cloud of golden dust.
Her silhouette drew a line of destruction for several miles before finally stopping.
I frowned at the sight, 'What is she doing here?' admittedly I lost sight of her, she was so pitifully weak that in front of the dragons I couldn't notice her with my senses.
"Never thought there would be a Demoness here, moreover, she has the strength of a Demon Duchess and doesn't seem to be affected by the Dragon God's curse." One of the Dragon Kings said, not wasting time as his body was beginning to feel the toll of the corrosion.
Even after assessing the silver-haired demoness race, I still thought she was beautiful.
Those two were perhaps so focused on their objective that didn't catch a glimpse of my gigantic body hovering above them together with the clouds, however, I also wasn't in a hurry to disclose my presence, 'Why is she fighting them?'
***
***
[Grayfia's POV]
I don't know why I still fight, why I choose to continue struggling instead of going back to the war in which I belong.
But when I recalled that Golden Dragon, and also… the peace that I'm fighting for, I couldn't give up. Going back in surrender would be giving up on a prosperous future for my race. I knew even if I returned my family was likely to perish for their traitorous sin, there is no good outcome for us.
My body was heavily injured after a single attack. It is my first time fighting a Dragon, let alone this is not like the other dragons I have seen in the underworld. This is apparently… a Dragon King if their words are anything to go by, for some reason they loved boasting.
There are two Dragon Kings and one abyssal black one further away which I'm sure is way bigger and stronger than the other two. Not only that, concealed in the distance another two entities are awaiting. It is a trap. I saw them all and heard their plan before they discovered me.
They're trying to ambush Dragon-sama but even if I want to stop them, I'm not powerful enough. I never thought that my strength of an Ultimate Class Devil would end up being so pitifully powerless in here.
'I'm going to die here after all?'
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As the hopelessness of my endeavour sank in, I stood up and looked at the sky agape, there he was but the dragons didn't seem to notice, how could they not notice that gigantic dragon far in the skies!?
'P-Please, go away, it is a trap!'
**
**
"Carry on with the plan, he should be coming soon. In the meantime... I should bring this demoness to my Kingdom… it has been a while since I saw a demoness this beautiful, not even the Seductress Minerva from the Lusty Blaze can compare~"
One of them said deviantly; it was a big dragon red in colour with shining crimson scales.
Richter looked at him and frowned, his aura portrayed his title loud and clear.
[Dragon King Mortafal of the Blazes]
[Dragon King Melestrom]
'So one of them has a Kingdom, the other has merely stepped into that realm, a pair of weaklings' Richter gauged before his gaze focused on the last one.
[Abyssal Emperor Joethum Barckslow, Monarch of Dusk]
'A lower realm's monarch, what is he doing here?' Richter thought suspiciously, existences like this wouldn't usually be causing a ruckus in the Primal Universe, they were top dogs in their own realms, why come out to seek trouble? if they came out they'd usually do it in a low-key manner, especially Dragon Emperors that had high wisdom.
He could understand the two Dragon Kings that were likely lucky strikes that managed to attain that realm with luck, but one doesn't become a Dragon Emperor with luck.
That was the reason why there were so few Dragon Emperors petrified in his realm, most of them came here seeking revenge over a grievance rather than trying to plunder treasures, and even those that tried to plunder treasures did so looking for a specific treasure that they needed rather than their own greed.
Grayfia noticed the Dragon King approaching her as she panted, cleaning her bleeding mouth and holding her ribs that had received a great shockwave from his attack.
'I haven't injured him at all… this individual is at the level of Dragon King Tiamat!' She thought, as her gaze focused on the gargantuan golden dragon in mid-air who those people seemed to not have noticed yet, he was hovering high above, looking at everything without making a single noise.
Grayfia noticed, that his gaze was fixed on her.
'A-Are you going to help me?' She wondered, not bearing many hopes.
The first thing Richter directed his gaze to was the silver-haired demoness who was severely injured but regenerating, the Dragon Kings and Emperors were being turned into gold at a way slower rate than most creatures, the same spell used by the gryphons was being used by them now... even so, they noticed how the corrosion process sped up, but didn't pay it any mind.
The senses of the Dragon Emperor and the Dragon Kings finaly caught up with his aura and the first one to growl in guard was the Dragon Emperor.
Noticing that he was finally discovered, Richter released his aura, his gaze fixed on the Demon Emperor.
"Richter! My name is Wellygorn! we... we come-!" The Dragon Emperor couldn't finish his words because he literally pissed himself.
*RUMBLE!*
[Primordial Golden Dragon God - Richter Magnanimous Golden-Haze, The Strongest Dragon, Emperor of the Haze Dynasty, Owner of the Primal Treasury...]
His aura kept overflowing, showcasing more and more of his noble self as he floated high above, regarding them like ants.
"GIVING AWAY A FAKE NAME? PATHETIC, DO YOU EVEN HAVE HONOUR AS A DRAGON EMPEROR? MY DISAPPOINTMENT IS IMMENSURABLE AND YOU HAVE RUINED MY DAY, JOETHUM"
Ruining a primordial's day? was there a quicker way to die?
The three Dragons immediately became apprehensive but they had a role to play 'Everything according to the plan. With this, we can get the Egg of Sinfall!'
"Prepare the teleportation array!" There was only one way for them to flee now that the Dragon God had shown himself, as long as his attention was on them, they were winning.
That shameless proclamation of their thieving intent caught all of the Golden God's attention away from the demoness; he turned his head in confusion at their performance.
"Is this some sort of joke?"
"Dragon-san! It is bait! They're distracting you from some other two Gods who are concealing themselves!"
One of the Dragons spat some plasma at Grayfia to shut her up but she managed to avoid it just barely by flickering away; the beam melted the golden soil away.
"You need to believe me! I listened to everything!" She insisted.
The dragons decided to stop wasting time and began attacking Richter while the array began forming, as long as they survived until the array was completed, they'd win. They were confident enough to last until then.
Plasma, Crimson fire and abyss were the laws used by those Dragons.
Richter heard Grayfia's words as the many attacks impacted his body creating gargantuan explosions, however… to him, it was as if a fly just crashed against his body.
Listening to the woman's words he decided to spread his senses further, being unable to sense any gods nearby, when his senses finally bypassed their camouflage, he noticed they were leaving one of his caves with a treasure in hand!
Those gods were looting a particular golden egg; they weren't preparing for an ambush, these three dragons were being a distraction!
"BASTARDS, YOU DARE TRY TO PLUNDER MY EGGS?!"
Grayfia's eyebrows twitched slightly at the way that sentence was pronounced, nevertheless, his might and killing intent was obvious, the Dragon God was enraged.
Meanwhile, the Dragons looked at how their attacks didn't do shit in awe.
Those dragons, those gods, the whole entourage… they had severely underestimated a Primordial's might.
*BOOOMMM!!!--
Grayfia witnessed that from his mouth shot a gigantic beam, different from the one last time. The beam shot and petrified anything in its path, even space itself, the Dragons got covered in it and they were no more, the beam continued to shoot forward, petrifying the whole path in its way and carefully avoiding an awestruck Grayfia; rumbling the nearby stars as Richter sank it into the golden soil below.
Far away, more than a two dozen kilometres away, a pair of gods were greedily fleeing after having obtained what they wanted!
"What about the Dragons!?"
"Hmph! Let those bastards die, in any case, we only need to give this to Lord Hong and get our payment, their lives don't matter!"
Sadly for them, a golden beam shot from the horizon in their direction; petrifying them that very instant, egg in hands. Before they even knew what happened, they began to fall like electrified flies.
After a second of amusement, the Golden Dragon God's intent shot forward, grasping the golden egg and storing it back where it was.