A billion years isn’t that long if you are with people that you care about, I know this because I just spent a billion years touring a planet with the dragons and Ragnarok. Eventually their relationship got better, the dragons started looking at them like parental figures, somehow Zariel had ended up being the mother but he didn’t mind.
He kept teaching the dragons about maths and science, they all had an advanced understanding of it all after a billion years but they all decided to stop after learning to that level except Taevarth who had decided to study on his own.
Ragnarok taught them more physical stuff, he basically put them through army training but much harsher, Taevarth hated it more than anything. All this time though, Rag never could grasp the concept of magic which frustrated him to no end especially when Zariel showed off with fancy magic shows.
And that brings us to how Zariel had improved, his magic had surpassed Master level and even Grandmaster level and had reached Primal level which in most worlds is only a level Old Gods can get to, Zariel had even discovered new forms of magic along with the dragons and could feel the presence of magic in the air.
Of course Zariel hadn’t become a god but you couldn't judge him by a system due to his rapid development. The dragons were equal to a low-level god and Ragnarok.. well who knew what system could judge his strength which didn’t rely on mana but pure body functions.
By now all the dragons had reached the sizes of very large horses, even saying that was a bit of an understatement but too much of an overstatement to say they were the size of a house.
They had each gotten more mature, Lyth was less shy around them and Nerreth with her oriental dragon body had become longer and larger, she was disappointed she could no longer curl around Raggy when he was in sphere form.
Medreth looked much meaner. Somehow, he had gotten a permanent frown on his face even though he had a reptilian build and wasn’t that grumpy of a person to get it, but he looked much more dangerous with his body becoming more lean thanks to Ragnarok’s training which Medreth was more dedicated to than the rest.
Varenth had a mini forest growing on his back now, Zariel thought about how pretty it would be if Varenth became massive and had a real-life sized forest on his back with wildlife and birds.
Taevarth was slightly smaller than the rest and had dedicated himself to helping Zariel create an alphabet for their language, he was a complete bookworm still, after their alphabet was finished Taevarth said he would write books like the ones Zariel had told him about.
If you line the dragons up they would look incredibly intimidating considering their size and… well everything. But if people knew their personalities they probably wouldn’t freak out like the primitive species wandering the earth had when they see they dragons flying overhead, yes flying! The dragon’s wings had all grown, except Nerreth who had remained wingless but through her magic she had found a way to condense a pillow of water to take her anywhere she wanted.
That leads us to the present, where right now the group of seven are watching the tree’s sway in the wind and the primitive lifeforms wander, there were beasts of many kinds. Even primitive humanoid species were living in caves and hunting, not taking any notice of them through one of Zariel’s newfound magics he called Mind magic because it directly affected mind
None of the dragons could completely grasp this method, even Taevarth struggled. Mind magic relied upon knowledge of the mind and through Zariel’s 4 degrees in psychology and experience in being a brain surgeon he had no problem grasping it.
“Zar, what are we going to do now? It’s been a long time since we started exploring” Said Lyth, her pearl white scales glittering in the sun while she moved towards him. They were sitting on a very luscious green him shaded by one of the first trees to grow in the world.
“I don’t know, we do have some uncompleted things to do like you guys need to finish Ragnorok’s training-” Zariel heard Taevarth groan in the background “-And I need to implement myself into the humanoid communities to find a way to teach them magic”
“But why, they are all such weak races and nowhere near as strong as us, shouldn’t they just die out?” Chimed in Medreth, as helpful as always with his pessimistic and ruthless opinions.
"You will never find a girl with that attitude Smokey” Nerreth yelled out to him, she even woke from her nap just to say that. Zariel was impressed.
“And you’ll never catch a guy with your frigging laziness Bubbles” Retorted Medreth, Zariel sighed, regretting ever teaching them any languages. He also wondered what they were talking about when they said ‘catch a guy’ or ‘find a girl’, as far as he knew they were no other dragons on this planet and they were all siblings…
“Ah, remember Raggy when they were just tiny little dragonlings with wide eyes and cute faces, such innocence” Said Zariel leaning back on hands on the hill with his legs splayed out in front of him. He addressed Ragnarok with a happy manner, he had lost all resentment towards him after the first 500 years of wandering this planet. A billion years was too long to resent and not trust someone.
“Ho ho, yes I do, it makes beating my training into them so much more pleasing when you compare them from then and now” Said Raggy, with a glint of sadistic joy in his eye and his arms crossed over his chest, he was standing up and watching the tribesmen work.
Zariel had lent him the stick he used when educating them and they were unruly, he still hadn’t found any other metal like it and nothing harder than it except the dragon’s scales. The only ones not pleased by Zariel handing over the stick was the dragons.
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“What fun days they were, I remember they all used to snuggle up on my bed even after I had put in the effort to make them their own room”
“Oi, don’t talk like we aren’t here, also we were young then that’s embarrassing…” Said Medreth
“Exactly Zariel even I’m blushing, also quite down a bit the tribe is getting suspicious” Said Varenth was participating in the conversation for the first time.
Zariel sighed wondering what happened to those cute children, what Varenth was talking about before was the fact that although Zariel’s magic hid them from sight he could not halt the could waves they generated.
At least not yet, he was close to finding a way but honestly the waves were fast and hard to catch and stop.
The tribe that was nearby the hill they were sitting at was an odd one, they all had skin like lizards with varying colours and scale patterns but they were human in shape with 2 legs they stood on and 2 arms they used for manual labour. It was mesmerizing just looking at them with all their scale colours and patterns which is why they were the groups favourite race because they looked like a cross between a human and a dragon.
There were other races too like the demonic race that were human except for their odd rich brown skin and weird hair colours plus the horns that grew out of their foreheads, they had absurd strength too. Ragnarok favoured this race the most because of their fighting spirit.
And beastman race which contained very human like figures with feathered and furry animal traits like cat and dog tails, dog snouts, bird wings or beaks or fur and maybe even feathers covering their whole bodies. It wasn’t just cat and dog traits that they had, there were foxes and wolves, oxen, and tigers, all derived from animals that Zariel thought were just on Earth but seemed to populated this world too, obviously not every species from Earth was on this planet but the basic ones were.
But it seems this planet has done something to the animals, they soaked up the mana in the air and gained variant or elemental forms. Like foxes fur turning white and lightly being able to manipulate the wind, he once saw a tiger sleeping and it’s fur turned green and when it woke up it could control the grass it lay upon.
Zariel decided to call the infected, mana beasts.
Then there were the humans and their 2 variants. The humans were exactly like what Zariel had in his previous world but there was a variant he named the elves from the fantasy book he read and he named them this because they fit the description.
The elves did differ a bit from normal stories, their skin was tinted green but everything was the same, long pointed ears with lean bodies designed for stealth. In fact, whenever the elves hunted for food they stalked their prey and waited until the right moment unlike the humans who used sheer numbers to overpower prey.
The 2rd human species variant was the dwarves, a very short species who focused on muscles and strength or character, the dwarves had tinted red skin which made them look permanently furious. They were, unsurprisingly, the first to figure out how to make weapons but didn’t tell the other tribes, it seems they were petty and secretive by nature. They were also on a completely different continent than the other races, in fact all of the races were on different contients from each other.
“What we have found out is that the planet had split into six continents, I say that after I have finished my job of informing the species about magic is we split up and choose a continent to look over and take care of so we can all have some space, and Nerreth shall have the ocean” Said Zariel after a long silence, they were all doubting him but nodded at the idea that Nerreth would take the ocean, she was the only one who could breathe underwater except for Zariel and Raggy. Technically Zariel didn't need to breathe and Raggy never gave a specific reason why he could breathe underwater but Zariel just assumed that he probably had some chip implant.
“Hmmm, I agree a billion years is too long to be together without a break. Remember how many fights we have had recently?” Said Raggy, always the voice of reason.
“I agree too, I need some space and silence to finish my books” Said Taevarth
“I agree, I want some peace and quiet to sleep” Said Varenth with an odd determination, Zariel sighed. It was completely against the point to sleep the whole time away.
“I want a break from all this too, you all annoy me... at times” Said Medreth in his normal pissed off voice, Zariel was glad for the added ‘at times’. Believe it or not it was progress.
“I dunno what I would do if I was separated from you all but I would like some time alone” Said Lyth in a soft voice
“I just wanna curl up and just sleep, preferably in water so I think it’s a great idea” Said Nerreth.
“I call dibs on the demon continent, I wanna teach them martial arts they seem like good and enthusiastic pupils unlike a certain someone” Ragnarok’s eye’s drifted over to Taevarth who was sleeping in the shade of the old tree.
“So it’s agreed? As soon as you finish Raganrok’s training and I complete my task?” Asked Zariel, his tone sounded almost relieved. He wasn’t exactly looking forward to separating from the children he had raised and one of the only friends he’d ever had but he thought they would put up a fight. Then he wondered… why didn’t they put up a fight?
“Hey…” Started Zariel, they all stiffened, “What did you guys do?” He asked, they all looked around about to flee when Lyth spoke up.
“We’re so sorry! We… burnt all suits, accidently, but you have to believe it was a complete accident!” cried out Lyth.
“Yeah! It was Medreth who lost control of his flames!” That was when Zariel stiffened, he didn’t like the sound of that, he turned to Medreth with his eye twitching.
“Oi Medreth, you want to explain yourself?”
“Hey teacher it was an accident all right? I was just doing a small competition with Varenth-“
“HEY! Don’t drag me into this it wasn’t my fault!”
Medreth and Zariel ignored the panicked Varenth.
“And my flames went a bit out of control” Said Medreth, Zariel frowned. He had thought himself lucky that maybe the vision Timera had seen hadn’t some true but Medreth’s magic going out of control was a warning.
“Maybe you just need some re-education, Raggy you still have The Stick?” Said Zariel, still furious his beautiful suits he had made Rag slave away to make were burnt to ashes and his students were about to flee before they even told him about it.
“Yes, so you aren’t going to punish me?” Said Ragnarok, handing Zariel The Stick.
“Why? Did you have something to do with it?” He pointed the stick at Ragnarok.
“HE DID” Shouted Taevarth from across the hill, obviously very amused his siblings were about to get punished for their idiotic actions.
“How so Tae?” Said Zariel affectionately, knowing Taeravth would never participate in these kinds of things
“HE WAS THE ONE WHO TOLD VARENTH AND MEDRETH TO FIGHT AND MADE BETS WITH LYTH AND NERRETH” Zariel turned to them all and used earth magic to trap them in a shell of hardened mud..
“Sounds like you all need some re-education” A pissed off smile was creeping onto Zariel's lips.
“W-wait Z-Zariel I c-can explain” Said Ragnarok, he dreaded The Stick even more than the dragons for he did not have their hard scales.
“No need” Said Zariel lightly, he had become so calm it was scarier than when he was furious.
The next out was filled with the shrill screams of those 6, some lizardmen villagers aware very confused by the screaming coming from an invisible source but just shrugged it off, they were not a very smart species.