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I Finally Got Isekai’d (LITRPG)
Chapter 36.5 (Motherly Instincts)

Chapter 36.5 (Motherly Instincts)

My first child was a spitting image of myself. She was just as perfect as I was, which is to say that she is deeply flawed. There were aspects of reality that she would never quite grasp because she was born as an existence that lives independent of those factors. She was powerful from the moment I created her from my own essence. She knew not what hunger was, she did not know what it meant to struggle either. It wasn't her fault that she was as close to perfect as I was. I loved her nonetheless because she was my own child. My first child.

My second child was nothing short of a failure. I engaged with another life form to birth this one and I made a poor decision. I decided to mate with another dragon, but his bloodline was lacking. My son was unable to reconcile the two energies within him and subsequently lost more and more of his rationality whenever he tapped into the dormant power within him that came from my lineage. I loved him like I did his elder sister, but his lack of ability further multiplied his irrationality.

My third and fourth children were twins. I thought that, if I could dilute the potency of my lineage, I could lessen the drawbacks of such power intoxicating the brain. They were born incomplete. Together, they are whole, but individually they amount to even less than their elder brother. Regardless, I still loved them.

My fifth child was abducted. I took everything I learned from my previous attempts at rearing children and created him in such a way that he would have to develop his own strength over time, but it was all the same strength that was in my first and I. He was a true dragon, but he would have to struggle like any other living being. I left him as a hatchling in the Blue Moon Forest, the perfect location for him to slowly and safely build his strength. He knew not of my existence, but I watched over him carefully.

It was one solemn day when he went to go challenge the Blue Moon Warchief that everything changed. On his way through the forest, I lost him. He disappeared so completely that even I couldn't begin to track down a trail to follow and get him back. Whoever had done this to him was an entity even beyond myself. I wanted to be angry, I wanted to go on a blind rampage, but I was faced with an experience I had never felt before. For the very first time in my life, I felt hopeless. I was powerless.

I holed myself up in a cave for a decade before I one day received a visitor. I had abandoned all of my responsibilities and resigned myself to a life of seclusion, but this trespasser brought with him an energy I thought I would never experience again. I knew he wasn't my son, there was no way he could be, but I could see the energies that wove his fate were interlocked with that of my fifth. This was the closest thing I had to a clue and I wasn't going to squander it.

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I searched his memories against his will, he had no mental defenses. This child was going to help me whether he wanted to or not. What I found when I did my search was... sobering. This child had lived a life of pain, of struggle, of adversity. Yet, despite all of that, he never once stopped grasping for happiness. He did everything he could with the pitiful amount of power he had even by his home world's standards, and once he'd finally carved out a place for himself in society with his own blood, sweat, and tears... He was taken away from it all. He was a victim to the whims of powers beyond his comprehension, just as I was, but he hadn't let that send him into despair. I could see the sadness deep within him, but he acted as if it wasn't there. He didn't even know who he was, nor did he have any memories of all the trials and tribulations that had shaped him into such a resilient young man. All he knew was that he had a family waiting for him, and that was enough for him to keep pushing forward in a world where he was truly alone.

I learned a lot from this chance encounter. I initially tasked him with slaying the last foe that my son had set off to go against, to see what would happen if their intertwined fates followed the same path, but he showed me that there was joy to be found even in the darkest depths of depression. I couldn't just send him out unprepared. He was a talented human, but it would take more than talent to survive in the Tower. I knew that very well.

I decided to take him as my fifth child. I wasn't all too sure why I did this. Was it because I had a soft spot for lost children now? Was I trying to fill the void left by my son? Did I genuinely grow attached to him? Was I simply investing in my best choice of a pawn to enact my revenge on those that brought me sorrow?

Whatever my true motivation was, the decision had been made. I rebirthed him with my blood and magic, making him a true dragon just like Juno and my original fifth son. Since he had no dragon blood in him to begin with, there wasn't even any trouble like there had been when I'd tried to refine the bloodlines of my previous three children.

I was thankful for him. I'd lost one son and gained another, and this one was everything that I could hope for. He had all of the qualities that would make him a fully realized person, as well as the potential to grow stronger than even myself if he applied himself. When he finished my task and brought home a servant, I was overjoyed. My son was truly my pride!

I helped to prepare them for the Tower, I knew it was going to be an arduous and perilous road, but I had faith in him. He would find himself. Even if I didn't find any further clues to my other son's fate, I found comfort in knowing that my child would change the course of history.