Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 11th day
Demenseria picked me up, it was very similar to how I picked up the Hiddle, he took me up to eye level. His eyes looked very familiar, where did I see them before? Visions flashed through my head, but they were all unintelligible and I didn’t understand them, a mass of gray Hiddle’s flashed through my mind. Another was a clump of cells in a test tube, they felt like memories of my own, but distant at the same time, as if they were memories from another world. The Drake looked me in the eyes, I felt a shiver crawl down my spine slowly, his eyes were dark and empty, I couldn’t glean anything from them.
Just as Demenseria planned to talk, I was booted out from the area and landed right where the mural was. I felt… very drowsy, yawning a bit, I curled up into a ball and started to doze off. I can afford a little nap, Demenseria was interesting… why could he have seen me? Ah, no matter, I will just have to figure it out when I wake up. I awoke in a very familiar manner as if I had slept in this same position and was woken up in this same position over and over. The rusted dome of this… underground city was what greeted me, a little piece of the metallic dome fell off and landed somewhere else with a soft thud. I stood up slowly, yawning a bit in the process, and looked around.
A Drake — Dragon? — scale, 4 people prostrating around it, and a ruined city. Foliage proliferated everywhere, as far as I could see, with the largest tree being right in the center that stretched from the ground to the ceiling of this place. There was something… off about this area, and while the temptation for the scale was right there, I didn’t feel like risking my life. An incomprehensible image flashed across my mind, it was of the tree in the middle breaking down because of some power. I shook my head to clear it, this was a weird place and I didn’t want to stay in it for too long. I looked around for a possible escape route and saw none. Sighing, I took the Hiddle in my hands and walked towards one of the walls, I could survive for months with no food or water, so this was my best bet on escaping this area.
When I arrived at a wall, the Hiddle woke up ever so slightly, he was still no better though, so I put him down and went to start digging. Hmmm, it would be best if I can make it farther away from that bird above me. When I lifted my hand to start digging, a gaze descended upon me and I froze. I could feel something coiling around me, a scaly creature clung to my right leg as it crawled all around me. A shiver ran down my spine, I looked back slowly and could see a white snake with red eyes slithering upon my back, it opened its mouth and I could see a small amount of its venom dripping off from its fangs. I still couldn’t move a single muscle, the snake proceeded to dig its fangs right into my back.
I prepared for immense amounts of pain, but… nothing happened, strangely enough. I didn’t wish to stay in the same place, though, even if nothing happened. I picked up the Hiddle and started to walk away from the small tunnel I started, I looked around and was suddenly inside a burning city. I looked down, only to see my hands empty and the Hiddle has gone from them, was this the doing of that snake? What was this place? I slowly crept around the burning city, a woman's clothes and skin were being clung to with scarlet flame. The odor of charred flesh hung in the air, I walked up to her slowly and could see parts of her skin crack and tear, her internal fat reserves were leaking out onto the floor. When I arrived there, she looked to be dead, an expression of horror upon her face.
Acrid smoke assaulted my nostrils, I sneezed a bit to rid my nose and started to search around some more. I heard the cry of a baby, turning around, I could see a small child running around the earlier woman and looking terrified. “Wa-Wake up, mother. Wake up!” it yelled, I backtracked to him — not caring to hide — he looked at me and then back at his mother. The deep black color of his skin contrasted heavily with the ruby-red flames that danced around the area. “You, You’re the one to do this. Aren’t you?” it said to me, my head was now tilted a bit, grief has different effects on everyone, I suppose.
He seemed to muster up some courage and started to charge at me with a pitifully weak battle cry. The two immature and undeveloped tentacles trailed behind him, as he reached me fairly quickly. I yawned a bit — I felt extremely drowsy — and my act only further angered the boy who was rushing at me. Tsk, this was a bit annoying, I stood up and stretched a bit, before rushing right up to the boy and knocking him down with my immense bulk. He was still just a child, with no chance of ever defeating me. His eyes were filled with terror, fear; a mild, and frankly annoying, amount of determination and spunk; along with a small amount of resignation. I didn’t want to prolong this for much longer, I snapped my jaws shut as he tried desperately to hit my arms, body, jaws, and legs.
His blue blood spilled onto the paved road of the city, a faint “No-no…” was heard from the charred woman. She wasn’t dead? Interesting, I walked up to her and looked into her eyes, she still had some life in her as she stared at me right back. Her eyes bore a deep hatred, I could see it clearly as she barely moved her head to me. I left her quickly, I felt a bit… bad for depriving her of her child, even if she was close to death regardless. I shook my head quickly, I shouldn’t feel too sad over this, we weren’t even closely related. I was a Dragon, I shouldn’t care about other races that were beneath me in all regards, but… she was a mother that lost her child. Tsk, this was distracting me, I put it at the back of my mind and kept walking. Eventually, I came across a gigantic white scale with a red line at the center of it, it instantly felt familiar, yet different. The scale was gigantic, almost as large as mine, what creature did this scale come from?
A vision of a fang falling out from something came to mind, but it was just a hazy image of something I didn’t understand. Whose memories were these? I was sure that I wasn’t the one to harbor these, so whose was it inside my mind? I could faintly see a slight dollop of purple blood next to where the fang — which looked like a snake fang — dropped. I could hear some sounds in the distance, I walked around a bit and saw a child gorging on the dead body of what looked to be its parents. The tentacles of the adult were in the mouth of the child, the stench of blood hung in the air, a blue tinge was in the air.
“DON'T LOOK AT ME!”, he yelled at me. He was a proud little individual, I could tell that immediately. A look of horror flashed across the face of him, he went back to devouring the body; nothing was left of it after a few minutes, the crunching of the bones and the squishy sounds of organs was what I heard. Interesting, they were this desperate? I walked out of the area, he didn't matter much to me, there were probably other things here that mattered more. A cry of pain came from a house near me, it was barely touched by the scorching heat. Near the house, I peeped through a window, a man, and a woman were fighting one another with their tentacles.
“Come on now, just let me do it once. We are all going to die anyway.”, the girl shuddered a bit and doubled the intensity of her attack. Eh, none of my business, I moved away from the window and came up to a broken-down plaza. The fire scorched close by, but it wasn't close enough to feel. Something about this place felt odd, the center fountain was broken and torn apart for some reason. Now that I think about it, why does this feel so familiar, yet different? This experience of being transported here felt so, so, familiar, but I feel like it’s weird I can interact with the people here. I should have remembered being forcefully teleported, but I have no such memory, and I just come up blank. Tsk, this wasn't helping me, I need to find a way to leave this place.
I left after wandering around a bit, nothing came up anyway, and soon I noticed that the entire area around me became silent. Even the flickering noise of the raging flames was gone, only an empty void of sound remained. Was it my ears, or was it this area? I immediately became alert and started to slow down in my search for… something. There was a certain stench as well, it was eerily familiar to the smell of the scale at the center of the city. I couldn't describe the smell in the air, it was otherworldly, yet familiar. It stunk of my… egg?!
A dark shadow descended upon the area in front of me, I looked up to see what was causing it, and instantly froze. Something inside me told me that it… that shadow was… my father. He descended slowly, and gently, like a father returning home, no wait, he was my father. Father…, finally, someone to guide me. It felt weird to admit it, but I was scared of this world. Really, really scared. I have so many questions, why me? Why was I the chosen one? Why. Why, why. I can't have a normal life, is there something greater to it? Finally, someone to give me advice, something I've longed for, ever since I came into this world.
A humongous dragon came down, Nitherir… my father. I couldn't look at him directly, something pushed my gaze away. “Father, father! It’s me, your son.” I yelled at him, he looked down, and his purple eyes stared back at me. When I went up to him, to touch him, to feel the warmth of my father, he disappeared into dust… right in front of my eyes. No, no, NO. This can't be happening to me, I can't lose him, NO. “Father, FATHER,” I yelled out once again, nothing happened, my worst fears came true. An illusion, WHO DARES TO TRICK ME. No, no, no, no, no, why?! WHY. WHY ME. I don't want to live in this world anymore, why should I? No, no, I can't die yet. What the fuck was I thinking, this illusion, this absolute spit on the face of everything I am. I need to avenge it, I have to kill — torture endlessly — the person that did this. If they were dead, I will find a way to revive them. This insult to me, and my race, will have to be rectified eventually.
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As for what to do next, tsk, I have no idea how to leave this place, but I will have to. For now, I just wanted to lay down for a bit and contemplate all this, an illusion. Thinking about it hurt my soul immensely, my father was the only bit of my heritage I could really latch on to. The system was inanimate, the Primordial Dragon was just a Dragon I knew that was the strongest of our species, but even then, I didn’t even know its name. As for my mother, heh, they could be any Dragon for all I know, no name, nothing. Nitherir, my father, was almost the same, yet I have something to attach to, a name, that almosanguine. Heh, I did say I would kill her if given half a chance, but that was just my impulse at the moment. No, subjugation sounds good, yes, subjugation.
Before that, I have to become stronger, right now, I’m just a scared little wyrm that can’t really do anything. If not for my race, if not for my mother, and not even for my father, just… for me, a reason to not be scared anymore. Though no one but me will ever know, I can’t have others take me for anything less than I am, a Dragon. Yes, definitely…
Ah, no matter, I’ll just sleep here a bit and try to find a way out later. Yawning a bit, I closed my eyes, father, don't worry, I will avenge us. I woke up, startled a bit, yet fine. Shit, that Osprey did a number on me, didn’t it? I looked up and around the place, an abandoned underground city, I yawned a bit and saw a drop of water fall below me. Weird, I lifted my hand and realized, I was crying? Why, why was I crying? Why did I feel so sad? What was this? That was when a sudden influx of memories came to me, a mural seen by me four times in five different times, yet it was the same time all the same. A genetic anomaly alive in a tube, and two different times when I killed it instantly and killed it later on. Tiflis…, and finally, THAT ILLUSION. NOW I REMEMBER, NO, I WILL NEVER FORGET IT. THAT FUCKING SNAKE.
I cooled down a bit, though I was still simmering right underneath my thin veil of calmness. I don't understand why these memories came rushing back to me now, weird. Has the system stayed the same, or has it changed? I mentally uttered it, and the information came up, interesting. The new quest system came up, even without the Drake scale accommodated. I don't plan on trying for the scale, at the moment anyway, it was inconvenient for me to try to risk it. Even if this… time loop did seem to be pretty linear with the pieces of that snake, that snake died at the hands of Demenseria a long, long time ago, and I don't trust the remnant power held inside that mural.
That being said, I should go down to that mural and try to see if I can interact with Demenseria. That eye in my third reboot — oh by the Primordial Dragon, this situation was weird. — should be Demenseria. He likely became a Dragon, and even if he is dead, I'm sure that someone like him should have some revival contingencies. The problem is, they haven't revived, so whatever hunting us is strong enough to stop all the contingencies, or at least suppress them, that's the scary part. This whole reboot business was nonsense, but this wasn't the time to be hung up on the weirdness of it. I sighed a bit and looked at the Hid-Tiflis on the ground. He wasn't in any shape, but if I stay in there for too long, he will become a shriveled corpse or be scared out of his mind.
I picked Tiflis up and took him with me, even if my senses told me it was a horrible idea to go into the administration building, I still did it. Down the stairs, I walked through the hallway to find the genetic anomaly in that office building, I wouldn't let it live. Tsk, that revolting thing makes me disgusted no matter how much I think of it. I could hear its small voice inside the case, and injected some mana into my claw, followed by sticking it through the case and into the anomaly. It died instantly, next would have to be that one in the cold storage. I walked there, Tiflis still in hand, and saw the squirming mass of cells. With Tiflis in my claws, I ended the life of the anomaly quickly and ran towards the mural.
Inside the room with the mural, and the 5 rows of files, I laid down Tiflis and walked over to the mural. With a deep breath, I rubbed off the dust upon the wall and saw the full mural. Like every other time, I was transported over to another world, this time it was that same burning city now being rebuilt. I hid inside a broken-down building as a gigantic shadow fell upon the center of the city and that Drake, Demenseria, descended rapidly onto the center of it. He flew swiftly down, leaving behind after images, but no shockwave happened. He gracefully landed and tucked his 2 gigantic wings behind his back. It was hard for me to even have a sense of scale with the Drake, he dwarfed all other things in the area, including the houses.
The purple scales were entrancing, and he exuded majesty by just standing there. He leaned down and extended his neck down to meet the people. His arms, previously lifted, were now on the ground to support his entire weight as he leaned forward. A person of the race that looked to be their leader walked slowly up to Demenseria and prostrated underneath him. A small breath of hot air escaped Demenseria's mouth, I saw the entirety of the small group shiver a bit as Demenseria lifted his head back up. The Drake nodded, and then lifted his right arm to his wrist and gently pulled a scale and a single droplet of purple blood out of the 'wound.'
Without a word, he transformed his blood into a very familiar altar and put the scale upon it. Miraculously, the entire city started to slowly repair itself, new materials were made from thin air and fixed the homes perfectly. The people, who were shocked beyond reason at this point, prostrated immediately before Demenseria. At this point, I walked out a bit and noticed the gaze of Demenseria on me the moment I did. He likely already knew I was here, the eyes of the gigantic Drake turned to slits, and before I could even react. Demenseria was suddenly right in front of me and picked me up, he was so fast, I couldn't even see when he started to move. Shit, he slowed down back then? In a stance so reminiscent of when I pick up Tiflis, yet the difference in size was much, much larger.
“You, you're quite the specimen, I see.”, said the Drake, it was the only thing he said before I was instantly kicked out from the scene, just like last time, yet he did get to say one thing. Even before I could orient myself, a gigantic rip in space opened up before me. I ran instantly to Tiflis, Demenseria is probably going to try to bring me out of this area with some method. That was my only method, but I wasn't going to abandon Tiflis. An arm, extremely similar to Demenseria's I saw in the murals, except there was something… darker about it. The purple was subdued, and a writhing mass of black tentacles formed around and restricted the hand, but he picked me and Tiflis up and went back into the void.
Once we were inside, I could feel Demenseria's grip on me lessen, and I gained back some of my freedom. With Tiflis in my hands, I looked around the area and noticed that it was nearly pitch black except for a squirming clump of tentacles around a titanic body. Demenseria's hand was subdued by those black tentacles, a small slit opened up in the mass and I could see his eyes look at me distinctly. They looked weird, different from the one I saw in the mural, more insane, and mentally mad. I could do nothing but wait and see what would happen, Demenseria slowly woke up, and the giant started to move a bit. A gigantic slit in the area, with a seemingly normal area beyond it, opened up. The hand of Demenseria picked me up and threw me out of the slit. Before I left, I saw a girl with black hair, black eyes, and extremely amazing-looking robes descend in the area and the mass of the tentacles looked to go into a frenzy.
The aftermath of her descent was not something I could witness, the split quickly closed up, and the only thing left was me, and Tiflis. A small forest was behind me, and a small town full of 30 houses at most in front of me, and the worst part of it was I could hear around five people walking my way. Hmmm, they were likely from the village, I wonder if I can get them to help me into the town. I wasn't exactly the most appealing-looking thing, but the appeal to a child should work if I make myself look injured. Of course, I didn't plan to be injured, if none of them were to help me, I could always try to kill them. As for Tiflis, tsk, Tiflis was problematic, but perhaps I can make it look like I defended him from something? Yes, this should work.
I made little scratches all around my skin, drawing a lot of blood that made me look much more injured than I was. With a bit of force, I made some bruises across my body and put Tiflis near my stomach as I laid on my side, facing the direction they would come from. Invoking my best acting skills, I emitted a pitiful cry that alerted them. They came upon my position pretty swiftly, but I could sense they were slower than me, good. In their group, there were 3 girls and 2 boys that looked to be normal humans. They were young adults, at most, and looked at me. “Look at the poor thing.”, said one of the boys, and he slowly started to approach me. A girl, who looked a bit like him, stopped him and said, “Stop, stop. What do you know about monsters? What if it’s dangerous?”
“What do you mean?” He replied, this guy was not experienced, and by the looks of everyone else, neither were they except this girl. “We should all back away slowly, it's a monster.” The boy shook his head and started to approach me again, softly saying, “It's an ok boy, you're going to be fine.” It made me a little sick, but I just emitted another pitiful cry and looked at him with fake fear. The girl now pulled out a little gun, and another one started to call someone. Technology advanced people? Interesting, maybe this would help me. The boy was now only a few meters from me, “It's ok, It's ok. You're fine, you're going to be okay.” he kept repeating, it only made me angrier every time, but I held it in and laid motionless.
The boy didn't say anything, yet took out a few bottles of what looked to be liquid medicine out from a patch. It contained mana, I could sense that, a small container for healing magic? He opened one, and slowly poured it over my wounds, healing them instantly. He, still keeping his eyes on me, did the same thing for Tiflis. I started to slowly stand up a bit, “It is ok boy, you're fine. I'm just helping you.”, he said. The next thing disgusted me, but it had to be done, I came up a bit to him and licked his face, and started to muster up all I could in my eyes to portray being thankful. “Good, you healed them. Now, let's go.” — said the girl, backing up while still looking at me with weariness. It went better than expected, the boy said, “Sister, can't we just take him with us?”
Interesting, good, I looked at his sister with all my acting skills to make me look meek. The sister, who was still young and inexperienced, just nodded and started to slowly walk away. Good, I trialed behind for a bit with the boy. It was surprising how naïve they were when they should have the technology to know it's not a good idea, but oh well, this is a great thing for me. After a few minutes, we were near the town and I could see a map, a small town on the border of Iabrun and Gawain? Interesting, a map was always nice to have, and I could finally get some reference points to where I was. I looked around for a bit and could see a father, father, father…
Father…