Sometimes what you wish for comes along a little quicker than you expect it to. The last three days had gone by pretty quickly. There were 188 dragons left on Gemma. Well, 190 if he counted Adaline and himself. Adam had shored up the security around each of the sanctuaries while Fenris had spoken with everyone who had remained behind. Adam had converted the portals that led to the Amphitheater of Neutrality on the Plains of Talinbar so that those in the sanctuaries could travel from sanctuary to sanctuary without ever leaving the safety provided there.
After speaking with Queen Seraphina, Adam had added a third gate to the sanctuary closest to Athens that opened into the hills overlooking the vast plains. It was recessed into a mountainside so the animals there couldn’t make their way back through the portal easily. This allowed the Dragons to travel to travel to and from the Sanctuary zone on Gemma to a mountain overlooking the hills and Plains of Talinbar. It opened into an area that was well within the neutral area as decreed by Queen Seraphina and King Zepher. Individual fights were permitted so long as the forms were kept and once one party yielded, the fight was over. Those that broke the rules, well, the rules hadn’t been broken since the last great dragon war when The Ancient One had gone just a little insane when his daughter had vanished and he thought her dead. Since then, none of the dragons wanted to have anything to do with the Ancient One so they followed the rules. Besides the rules kept them from killing each other so they all adhered to them.
The dragons that stayed on Gemma had seen Ajax through the portal when the other dragons were leaving. Even so, when the rules were being explained by Fenris a couple of the younger dragons were somewhat disrespectful and rude. That’s why Fenris had called all the dragons to a single amphitheater, roughly 50 miles in diameter, though the arena at the center was only about a mile in diameter. It allowed those who wished to spectate to do so from the center of the desert. Currently, all the dragons were sitting in their humanoid forms listening to Fenris.
Adam had watched Fenris explain how the portal would only open for 10 minutes each hour to prevent other animals from coming through and why the dragons needed to follow the rules when going through. Adam had been monitoring Fenris while he prepared the sanctuaries and the nine new leaders that would be taking over, as almost every dragon that remembered their place of origin had returned. As he understood it, the old leaders were settling into their new, old, home without issue.
Adam portaled into the common area where Adaline, Mom and Dad, his human ones, were talking about what they could do in this new world.
“What does Johnathan…I mean Adam, want us to do in this new world, it’s not Earth?” his mother asked.
“No, it’s not Earth, nor is it like the world I grew up on, Primore. It’s more like an amalgamation of both. There is magic here, as well as the other races, such as elves, dwarves, gnomes, and such. But, there is also technology as you had on Earth, Planes, trains, and automobiles. In fact, Adam’s nanites seem to work here as well which is a real boon for us,” Adaline said.
“How does that help up,” Adam’s father asked.
“I’m sure once we all get out of this bunker and start meeting people we are going to notice things that would make life here much easier here. Little inventions that your world had or magical knowledge that Primore had that could be useful. With nanites active, you’ll be able to create whatever you can think of and then get the patent and make a killing,”
“Why would we need to do that, if we need money we just have the nanites create something precious and see it,” Adam’s father said.
“We could do that, but then we’d destabilize the economy which we would then have to help fix.”
“Which brings me back to my question about what Adam wants us to do?” Adam’s mom said again.
At that moment a portal opened and Adam stepped through as Adaline came in from the hallway, “I want you to do whatever makes you happy Mom, that’s all,” Adam said.
“I thought you had some big plan?” his mother said questioningly.
“Nope nothing like that, but I need to grab Adaline and we need to go make a point to some of the evil dragons that decided to stay behind,” Adam said as he held out his hand to Adaline. “We’ll be back shortly, while we’re gone, look through the files to see what you’d like to go visit or see. After I release the announcement about dragons we’ll all go sightseeing together,” Adam said as Adaline and he stepped through the portal next to Fenris. The portal closed as 188 sets of dragon eyes looked at them. Adam felt some aura’s try to intimidate him and Adaline and ignored them. Without raising his voice Adam projected so that everyone in the stands could hear him easily, “Hello everyone. I am Adam and this is my mate, wife, however you want to think of her, Adaline”
One of the more boisterous juvenile red dragons called out, “Know your place human…
Adam watched as Fenris put out a hand to stop the youth with a look of shock and fear on his face. Everyone who could see Fenris’s face wondered why he had such an expression on his face until Adam and Adaline flickered. Before anyone could do anything, Adam had moved to the stands, grabbed the juvenile by the scruff of his neck, and dragged him back center stage where he flung him gently into the air above him.
The red dragon juvenile, shocked by the rough handling reacted quickly and began the transformation into a red dragon as he brought his head around to look down and breathe fire on the human that had grabbed him and shown him such disrespect. That was his plan until he looked down to find a mature Umbral Dragon looking up at him as Shadows exploded from her maw and enveloped him.
The other dragons all watched as Adam moved and the rowdy red dragon was suddenly being flung up into the sky just about 100 feet as if Adam was casually tossing a ball into his yard for his dog. Then as the man flying into the air transformed into a red dragon. Adaline, the woman with Adam transformed into an Umbra dragon and looked up and waited. When the red dragon had turned its head to bring its breath weapon to bear, the Umbral Dragon used its breath weapon on the red dragon who then vanished.
Fenris looked from Adam to Adaline and then at the place where one of his kin had vanished, “Did you kill him, Adam?” Fenris asked.
Instead of answering Fenris Adam moved over a little and then transformed into his Adamantium Dragon form before he said, “I am Adamantadine, Son of Adjra, Daughter of The Ancient One. Your friend is currently in the Shadow Realm where my mate will be talking with him later after she beats some sense into the boy, if necessary.”
“What gives you the right…” A female near the front row started to say as Adam released 1% of his Aura which shut down everyone including Adaline.
As Adam retracted his Aura, Adaline stood frozen as his aura had also affected her. Adam looked around and noticed that everyone was frozen in shock. Maybe next time he should only release an equivalent aura to twice what someone with maximum attributes of 100,000 could?
Well, supposedly Adamantium Dragons could tap into Space-Time on an intrinsic level. Maybe he could reverse time a few seconds. No sooner had he thought about doing it than a message popped up.
You have chosen to activate Adamantium Dragon Ability - Malleable Time. Malleable Time may be utilized one time per day. Malleable Time allows the Adamantium Dragon to undo, or redo events. Your consciousness may travel back in time up to 12 seconds, 1 second for each age category. Wyrmling – 1 second, Young Adult – 2 seconds, Young – 3 seconds, etc…
To prevent paradox’s The Adamantium dragon will relive that time with the ability to alter only one thing. Once the adjustment is made the ability ends and time and your interaction with it, resumes as normal.
In addition to the once-per-day limitation on use which resets each morning at 6 a.m. on your internal clock, or once every 24 hours if in a location that has more than 24 hours in a day, be warned that while utilizing this ability to alter the Adamantium Dragon’s fate and destiny will not cause a paradox, utilizing this ability to alter another's fate or destiny can have dire consequences.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
As a Mature dragon, you may travel back in time 7 seconds.
Would you like to utilize the ability Malleable Time, Yes or No?”
Adam chose “Yes”
Immediately Adam’s Point of View was taken back 7 seconds and he began living through that time as if an onlooker without conscious control. When he came to the point when he chose to use 1% of his Aura he willed himself to change that value to 200,000 points which was twice what Thor said the new maximum attribute level would be. The ability faded and everything started anew. Adaline was unaffected by his aura. Her attributes were over 89 million after all. Everyone else staggered as they were hit with something that doubled the current SYSTEM Limit of 100,000 in each attribute.
While they were recovering, Adam noticed that they were at least moving this time so he continued, “Your friend has currently been sent to the Shadow Realm, or Shadow Plane, of this Universe. What gives me the right to do what I am doing, I can. Now I’m going to let Fenris continue talking with all of you while Adaline pops over and recovers your friend. You will do what Fenris asks because we all know that he can kick all of your asses and now that you’ve felt my aura and seen me act you know that I could kick all of your asses at the same time. So pay attention, follow the rules and you’ll do just fine.”
Adaline fell through her shadow while Fenris laid out how the portals were set up and described how the portals between Sanctuaries were permanent while the one that opened to the Plains of Talinbar would be intermittent and only open for 10 minutes each hour. Though it would open in the same location each time. They could all go through to hunt and fly to their heart's content on the plains but they were to stay out of the mountains except when using the portal. There was a hill directly under the portal where they could land and wait if they found they had had a little time before a portal opened.
A couple minutes later a sheepish-looking red dragon juvenile reappeared out of a shadow and made his way to his seat without saying a word. A moment later Adaline appeared in her dark elf form and came to stand next to Adam as she stepped out of his shadow. His perception was so good that he’d felt the fluctuation in the shadow before she did so. That was good to know.
As Fenris paused Adam said, “Fenris has chosen to look after and help all of you that are staying behind. If you have any issues, get with him immediately. Otherwise, pay attention to what he says and limit your activities while in dragon form to the Sanctuaries and the Plains of Talinbar. I will be releasing the history of the Dragons and what happened to the Metallic dragons momentarily.”
Adam opened a portal and Adaline and he stepped through to the training facility. Specifically, they stepped into the Office where Instructor Telgard had been enjoying his very expensive, bland lunch.
“Adam!” he exclaimed “Who do you have with you?”
“This is my wife, Adaline, how have you been?” Adam asked.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Adaline,” Officer Telgard said. “What brings you to my office Adam?”
“I just wanted to let you know that the information about the dragons and the sanctuary cities will be going out in one hour,” Adam said.
“One hour? Has that been cleared with those in charge…”
Adam held up a hand to interrupt Officer Telgard. When he calmed down, Adam continued. I’m letting you know so you can let Captain Peater know. Also, tell the captain to open a file in his downloads called “Dumbasses” It contains a list of every individual in the United Defense Coalition (UDC) that was part of the crime ring and used it. Captain Peater is the highest-ranked individual in your chain of command that wasn’t a dumbass. Not everyone helped coordinate the crimes but everyone listed knew about and participated in the black market betting,” Adam explained.
“If there’s that many, how are you going to stop them from sweeping this under the rug? There is no way they’d allow this information to get out,” Officer Telgard asked.
Adam smiled maliciously, “You’ll see. Just get with your captain and utilize troops that are not on the list to prepare to deal with them.”
“Very well, Anything else?”
“Yes, I’ll be taking on my dragon form above the city right before the announcement. For the next hour, Adaline and I will be flying over all over the globe making sure to let as many people see us before the announcements are made.”
“The Airships will shoot you down,”
“When the announcement comes out, you’ll understand why that’s impossible, just tell your people we’re friendly so they don’t try wasting time chasing us. First, it wouldn’t do any good, and second, they won’t be able to anyway.”
“Okay, I guess,” Officer Telgard said.
Adam nodded as a portal opened a mile above Athens and Adaline and him stepped through, separated, and shifted to their dragon form as they went for a “stroll” around the planet. Adam watched through the nanites officer Telgard looked through the portal after them and shook his head as he muttered under his breath, “Either that fool is as powerful as he thinks he is, or he’s going to piss off a lot of people and get himself killed.
Just to mess with Officer Telgard, Adam had the words, “The first call was correct!” appear in the air on the other side of the portal as it shrunk and closed before him. Then for the next hour, Adam and Adaline flew around the globe and close to Mach 20 only slowing down as they came into the visual range of large cities. He made sure that people sighted both of them before they moved on. Little tricks, like creating a sound that caused people to look up when they were in range or creating something that flickered to draw their attention.
Adam watched as chatter on the internet increased about dragon sightings all over the world until he was interrupted by Adaline, “Are you sure you want to waste time on this world?”
“For better or worse this world is the world that I was born on, so yeah, I probably need to waste some time on it. Also, there were some evil assholes here. Not Syndicate level but bad enough that they could develop into something that could resemble that organization. Better to end that possibility right now,” Adam says.
“Okay, where do you want me?” Adaline asks with a wicked smile.
“Beside me, always beside me,” Adam declared happily.
They flew back into Athen’s airspace with a minute to spare. The UDC had tried to get its carriers and fighters to follow and harass them but simple counter-programming and minor modifications to the fighters allowed Adam to take them over remotely and none ever came close. The same is true when the Mayor of Athens issues an order to shoot down the dragons whatever the cost and every single projectile fired or launched evaporates before it even gets 10 feet away from the weapon that fired it.
Those who use magic are transported to the other cities via portals that appear in their paths which prevent anyone who tries to use magic or natural flight powers from getting close to the pair. Adam still hasn’t had the nanites infiltrate biological creatures, save himself and his family and friends. He still doesn’t know how the gods here would react and with the SYSTEM being a smart ass at least some of the time, Adam doesn’t want to piss it off either. So, he utilizes portals and limits his use of nanites to take care of any threats to his plans.
Once they were above the city Adam used Molded Chaos to create a place for Adaline and him to land on that is clear as he has the nanites transmit what he’s about to say to every adult on the planet. If they’re not near a monitor, nanites form holographic screens in front of them so they can see what he’s about to say. In his Adamantium Dragon Form, he begins.
“Greetings to the peoples of Gemma. Your eyes are not deceiving you, A dragon is talking to you through a monitor, TV, or the air in front of you from above Athens,” The angle shifts as Adam transforms to his human form and has the Camera zoom in on his face with Athens in the backdrop below him as he looks up into the camera.” This message will be very short. Dragons never left the world. In a moment a file will start playing and will also be downloaded to every computer in the world. Who was ultimately to blame, how the Religion of Aeris was subverted and a graphic video of her death by my hand will be part of the video. Additionally, of the dragons that still existed on Gemma most have returned to their ancestral home that exists in another dimension. Those that have decided to stay behind will be keeping to themselves while the governments of the world deal with those that committed the atrocities they have, or not, what happens will depend on the government.”
Adam paused for a moment, as he considered what to say next then pressed on, “I expect the UDC to be busy in most of the human and elvish settlement helping bring criminals to justice. In the orcish, goblin, and dark elf settlements, as well as others I won’t name. In those settlements, I expect it will be business as usual and you should know that you should still be able to reach out to your contacts within the Sanctuaries, a subject that will be covered in the video.”
Adam Laughed at the camera, “Without the knowledge from the video there is no way to get context from anything else I might say so I will close with this. I am Adam, Son of Adjra, Daughter of The Ancient One. Dragons never left, here is the proof,” Adam said as he ended the feed from him and Adaline and started the information package.
“That’s going to cause some turmoil?” Adaline observed.
“Not as much as you think. Anyone that the lawful forces of Athens go after that is named as complicit will not be able to use weapons against their fellows. If they do, the weapons and items will evaporate. If someone uses magic, I may have to get involved but I doubt it. I’ve been reviewing what my nanites have seen since they spread out and there are a lot of competent good mages in Athens,” Adam said as as he paused thoughtfully. Honestly, that doesn’t matter for us though,” Adam said as he opened a portal to their residence in the bunker.
“Why doesn’t that matter?” Adaline asked coyly as she transformed into her dark elf form and walked through the portal.
“It doesn’t matter because they’re going to be busy for a while which means you get my undivided attention,” Adam said with a grin.
As the portal closed Adaline said, “I like the way you think.”