Within his mind, a shard of a battle that took place ages ago appeared.

Two giant creatures were seen facing each other in the middle of a burning, incandescent scene that would be the living embodiment of hell, sealed off from the outside world by a massive barrier that spanned over hundreds of kilometers in radius.

They were evenly matched in size and shape, scaled, tailed, and winged. Mountains were trampled under their massive weight, and the earth was split open by their breath.

Facing each other were creatures known as the first dragons ever born and made.

On one hand, Rena, the first dragon, and on the other, the two-headed dragon, appear.

The remanence of recollections that weren’t even Mon’s suddenly stopped.

His eyes slowly opened, revealing the blue radiance in his eyes. Looking at himself, he was wearing old armour that had been left unwashed for years. In his arms, Mon saw in his hands his old and rusted shield that had been by his side since his tender infancy and his sword, which had been his since his fifteenth birthday.

Through thousands of battles, countless were the ones who, by his sword, were destroyed; countless were the ones, by his shield, that were saved.

Today, once again, a battle awaited him, one that he knew neither his shield nor his sword would be of help in, one like he had never been through before. A battle that, he knew, must be won. Today, there was no confidence in him, but determination was something he didn’t lack.

With the sun reaching midday and the sky fully blue, he took a deep breath, upon which he started what he knew he had to do.

Mon spreaded his arms and engulfed the area within one of his barriers, confining his shield and sword within two of his bubbles.

The barrier he sent spread out by hundreds of kilometers and finally ended its expansion upon reaching another layer that Mon had already settled on beforehand.

Still not satisfied with it, Mon sent out yet another barrier, again and again, until eight layers were added on top of the first one.

This time, pointing forward, several meters away, from a strange altar protected by a thick layer of watery blue translucent barrier, eight differently-shaded orbs emerged from the altar, then merged together, allowing a strange golden orb to form in their place, using yet another of his magical abilities.

Within the golden orb, even more golden radiance was to be found. It behaved as though it were somehow alive.

Though reluctantly, the golden orb floated its way toward Mon, casually passing through the watery barrier around the altar.

Once it was within his grasp, he spread a final barrier that, unlike the others, did not stack upon one another, but instead transformed the entire surrounding area into a starry and void-like reality. There was no earth, no sky; there was only Mon and the golden orb.

An orb, which a few seconds later grew in size at an alarming speed. In reaction to the occurence, Mon simply stepped back. In a single breath, he easily traveled several hundred meters away from the orbs.

Even from how far he was, he still saw it growing in size, until upon reaching its limits, it burst into golden light.

Soon, an enormous shadowy figure emerged from the light, a golden and blue majestic dragon, which made, in comparison, Mon look like a grain of rice.

The dragon, upon being freed, looked around, clearly confused about what was going on, but then her eyes stumbled upon Mon.

That dragon, Mon knew, was the same one as the one he had just experienced the remembrance of, Rena, the first dragon.

"Human, what is this place?" A voice, which upon hearing made Mon’s heart skip a beat and his back stiffen, came from the dragon.

At that moment, upon hearing that voice but also the meaning of her question, Mon realized that what had been told by the eight Primordial Dragons about Rena was true. He also realized that if this was the truth, it was most likely also the truth about them, the two-headed dragon.

Mon took a deep breath once more.

Discarding his armor magically, Mon levitated upward without getting closer to the dragon, and said, "This is another dimension, entirely separate from Rene, the primordial dragon." "There is only you and I." He took a short pause before once again continuing, "And there is no way out, for both of us, but death."

"I am Rena, Mother of the Dragons, and you, human, dare to imprison me!"

Mon didn’t say a word, but instead released eight blue orbs from his body, in search of a cure for his daughter. Starting from the moment he lost a battle against Minerva, the Chaotic Light, Mon had, diligently, for more than a hundred years, by using a strange technique, stacked his mana.

For what purpose?

Back then he didn’t know yet, but the moment he tasted the first loss he ever faced, he knew that his strength was nowhere near enough.

So, for hundreds of years, he accumulated mana, and the day he realized who he was, he knew exactly what purpose his mana would eventually serve.

"What are you?!"

"I am merely the one who inherited a magic shard from you, a failure of both a man and a dragon."

The blue orbs grew in size until finally, just like the golden one exploded, he spread his mana in every corner of the void-like reality they were in. The place, in its entirety, was filled with his mana, his presence, but it wasn’t all the mana. He spread out, and was also seamlessly infused with a little bit of both his aina and soul itself.

"My name is Mon, but most of your spawns refer to me as Mon, the Lonesome Dragon."

Without announcing himself, Mon unleashed an orb at the dragon. Upon reaching the dragon, the orb grew in size, and engulfed her body whole .

"Unforgivable!" The dragon roared.

With a powerful fire and light breath, Rena's attack breached through Mon's barrier and flashed toward him.

He made no effort to avoid the breath coming at him, but just as it was about to engulf him. Mon teleported to a safe location nearby, leaving behind, where he was just a second before, an orb that completely absorbed the dragon's breath.

The breath having stopped, Mon immediately lashed the fire and light-enhanced orb onto the dragon.

A powerful blast reverberated. The explosion soon gave way to an enormous mushroom cloud.

A mushroom cloud appeared, which in the next instant was dissipated by the mere wing flapping of the dragon, revealing how unscathing the enormous dragon was.

"You dare to use my fire against me, human. You have forgotten your place! "

"Mother of Dragons, I have not, I, as a mortal, know my place, know my limits, which is why I brought you to this place. "

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Mon knew very well that even compared to this version of Rena, the Mother of Dragons, he stood no chance of winning.

He didn’t have the scales or the blood of Rana, nor did he possess a power equivalent to theirs, he was merely a human born with the magic of a dragon.

But it was not enough to discourage him. This is why he came up with this parallel.

Mon knew very well that there was no possible way for anyone to beat a primordial dragon. This planet, considering what it really is, would never allow the death, and therefore the defeat, of a primordial dragon. He experienced it firsthand against Minerva, the Chaotic Light. Only dragons like Rana or divine beings like the goddess Mana, or even Aina herself, would be capable of utterly defeating a primordial dragon.

Mon knew that if he wanted to defeat this dragon, he was left with only this option.

Defeat this dragon somewhere that is not in this world, a place far from the Primordial Dragon. The first thing that crossed his mind when he realized that he was going to fight Rena, was space. But then, as he thought of the limitations it would put on him, he came up with this one, creating a world completely shut off from both the planet's influence and the Eight Primordial Dragons, for he knew that if they were to know what he was up to, they would never allow it to happen.

Once, he had betrayed humanity, and today, once again, he was perpetrating the sins he was hated for by his fellow humans onto the dragon that had accepted him despite his freakish nature.

"I do not know what you wish to accomplish, but if you believe that trapping me away from Rene would be enough for you to overpower me, Eight giant golden orbs appeared on Rena’s side, "Then you are utterly wrong."

From the orbs, a stream was fired at Mon. Each of the orbs unleashed a different elemental attack.

Mon, in a similar fashion, summoned eight blue identical-size-wise orbs, each to unleash an appendage-like stream.

Both the blue and golden attacks raced out and crashed into and intercepted each other. With the absence of physical objects in this void-like place, the sound of the thunderous and deafening clash of both attacks simply roared and echoed, to ultimately die in silence and obscurity. Nonetheless, the two streams of energy continued to try to swallow each other, like tidal waves colliding with the sole purpose of destruction.

"I will not be defeated." The dragon roared, spreading her wings wide, and increasing at least ten-fold the input of her attack.

Mon immediately, upon Rena’s action, felt and saw his attack being consumed. Overwhelmed, he felt like the weight of a mountain was suddenly put on his body.

He immediately realized that if he didn’t do anything immediately, the defeat would be his. Which is why he resorted to using his two most powerful attacks. He had planned on using them on her, but the ideal would’ve been for him to take this dragon off first, then finish her with these attacks, but now he was left with no other choice.

Though he called it an attack, the first one was mostly just a very raw strategy: using every fiber, essence of mana, or aina, his body could muster to savagely overpower his opponent.

Cracks, and blue light seeped through his body. Roaring with the might of a dragon, blue radiance seeped through Mon’s eyes as he dedicated all his power to his attack. Rena's elemental streams, which had clearly overpowered his just moments before, were now being stopped and devoured by Mon's blue ones.

Mon’s attack encompassed and overpowered Rena’s eight shaded ones, the same way water would leak free from its glass recipient, and made its way viciously toward Rena’s. Upon contact, they all exploded, along with Rena’s shrieks.

Her body was blasted away. She flew with no sign of being stopped by anything on the horizon, but before her body could fly off too far away, Mon sent off another orb that went to seal Rena’s body.

She was not dead, just hurt, just like Mon's, whose body’s state was that of shattered glass,

"I will not be defeated." The dragon roared between its weak breaths, "Not again," "Not by you!"

She prepared herself to unleash yet another breath attack, yet before she could attempt anything fancy, Mon, despite his exhaustion, sprung into action, and unleashed his second attack.

All the mana he had earlier unleashed upon this void-like world finally worked toward its purpose. The endless void-like world finally unraveled its sphere-like boundaries and shrank upon itself.

"I am the one whose power should've been yours. The divine dragon must rise from their slumbers. That is the natural course of things. Even as an immortal human being, I agree with this, but I can’t allow that to happen just yet, and for that, I sincerely apologize. "

The void-like sphere shrank to finally wrap entirely and solely around Rena, who, upon seeing what was happening around her, abandoned her attack.

With a clear teary and sad voice, "-but if I were to choose between you and my daughter, I would always choose her."

Without much resistance on Rena’s part, Mon snapped his barrier, and the Mother of Dragons was no more.

Mon returned to the real world and immediately fell on his knee. Blood was gushing from every part of his body.

Coughing blood, laughing, and crying, he realized the gravity of what he had done. While doing so, he finally realized the presence of a glowing golden orb floating at his side.

This one was completely different from the one from earlier. This one had a pure and untarnished presence about it.

"Aaaaah, what am I doing? This is not the end yet, "

Glancing up toward the altar, he stood up and made his way toward it, limping. He simply passed through the barrier. When they arrived at the altar, it was revealed that a little girl was sleeping on top of it, inside a crystal-like matter, immobile as if frozen in time.

Mon simply reached his arm around his daughter. His hand casually passed through the crystal-like matter as if it were made from non-physical matter.

Holding Nia, his daughter, in his arms, he summoned the golden orb to his side. He grabbed, then, with a glance at his daughter, proceeded to insert the orb into her chest. Her body shone with a golden radiance, exuding similar golden particles into the air.

Mon waited and waited, but nothing else happened.

Though all that happened was spectacular, what happened was not what he had envisioned, which was to see his daughter wake up.

"We were so close... I guess I was way too optimistic to expect it to go this smoothly. "

Without a single moment of hesitation, he thrust his arm into his chest and pulled. A sky-blue orb seeped through and through with crackles, but one clearly saw that within the orb a living blue radiance could be seen.

Yet, Mon’s next action died down the blue radiance within the blue orb. The moment he did it, he felt his spirit vanish away.

That blue radiance was what made him, the one he was, and by his actions, he erased himself from existence. The only reason he was still conscious was because he still needed to be conscious to process what had to be done.

Once again, just like he did with the golden orb, he injected the now purified orb onto his daughter's chest.

This time, both golden and blue radiance and blue particles seeped through the air.

Mon waited and waited once again. Nothing came close to what he had envisioned.Instead, in a few instants, her daughter's body vanished into the same tiny blue and golden particles.

It was not what he had expected; it was very far from it. But, this time, a smile finally took shape on his face.

***

A little girl traveled, all alone, memoryless and destinationless, through a dream-like world, an ersatz of reality.

No humans, no animals.

There wasn't a single living soul in sight; it was just an endless scenery.

She traveled a world completely empty of anything alive, except for her.

For how long has she been doing this?

She didn’t know, he didn't know, and no one else did either.

For how long will she be walking?

She didn’t know, he didn't know, and no one else did either.

All she knew was that it was all she'd done since waking up in this vast and empty world.

She was all alone, or at least, she thought so until, from the void, a sky-blue floating bubble emerged.

The little girl's first reaction was to back away from the strange commotion. She went to hide herself behind a nearby tree.

The thing that happened next, completely took her by surprise, "This is..." a voice from the bubble mumbled.

"It spoke!"

Her fascination with the strange, speaking, bubbly being quickly overcame her fear of it.

"You spoke?"

"... Euh."

"You spoke, didn't you?"

"... I… I think, yes I did. "

A giant smile appeared on her face.

"Ni-"

"Hey! What’s your name? I’ve never seen anything like you before. I’ve always been all alone here. What’s your name? "

"My name?"

"Yes!"She nodded.

"... Mo-"

"Mo?"

"... It’s nothing. Soros. "

"Soros?"

"That’s it. My name is Soros. And yours? "

"... I don’t remember. I can’t recall my name. I know! Can you find me a name? I’m sure you will find a nice one. "

"You want me to find you a name?"

The girl nodded vigorously.

"... Then, what do you think about Princess? "

"Princess?"

"Yes, Princess. How is it? Do you like how it sounds? "

"It was weird at first, but I like it," she said, with a smile.