Chapter 04: Dragons
Dragon calendar: Year: 1,001,000 M.A, Argyris (March) 01st
It has been two months since Kyriaki has been reborn in a world full of uncanny.
Although at first, she seemed very puzzled and dumbfounded, her recovery was quicker than a lightning descending the earth.
The reason?
Well, her mission, which was to twist the original timeline had been successfully achieved to some extent.
Why? one might ask.
Kyriaki Elpis Eleftherios never existed in the original timeline.
In original Kyrios' memories, his twin sibling was never hatched. The egg rotted and turned to mana short after he was hatched. But Kyriaki, with the help of the mysterious entity, was able to twist the timeline from her birth.
And that was something pleasing for her.
—No, I hate it!— A young, adorable voice brought Kyriaki back to her senses.
She glanced at the baby hatchling besides her with no expression on her face. Sensing her gaze, the hatchling turned to her with tears in his eyes.
—Ria! Tell him! I hate thunderlion hearts! I hate tempest mushrooms too! Waaahhh… I don't want it!—
Kyrios, with his tiny paws, clinged to her in an instant, directly communicating with his mind so that only she could hear him.
Kyriaki sighed.
This adorable hatching, who was dazzling like the incarnation of sun, was telling the truth.
Perhaps because they were twins, for some reason Kyriaki could feel his strong emotions even while they were inside the egg. The presence she felt back then was his.
In addition to that, she recently discovered they could use telepathy even before their awakening, something even their grandfather whose rank was L with his Great-grandmage and Great-grandmaster status couldn't sense.
Right now, he was truly hating said food to the point that he had to request help from her telepathically.
—Father, You must've already deduced he was showing strong dislike for thunder related elixirs anyway, so please refrain from forcing experiments on Kyrios—
Her large eyes locked on to Elysium, who was trying to push a dish made of Thunderlion hearts towards Kyrios. Her voice came directly from her mind instead of her mouth. That was the way dragons talk when in their true form.
"Eh? Y-you noticed?" Elysium grinned, scratching his cheek, like those fool characters she'd seen in anime back on earth.
She sighed again as Endymion laughed out loud in the background. He seems to enjoy the family drama alone as a bystander.
—It was obvious, given how this is your first time parenting— She replied calmly, chewing a piece of golden rabbit meat in her mouth.
With each bite, she could feel mana gathering inside her body. It was refreshing and serene. Like an evergreen forest after rain, welcoming warm sun rays that mischievous clouds struggled so hard to hide.
She took a quick glance at the dining table. With so many different dishes, it simply looked colorful and luxurious, befitting the royal bloodline of the dragons.
Boiled Dawn-duck eggs, mint potato salad, cotton jellyfish stew, sunberry pie and so on, all of those were foods made of rare elixirs, something that did not exist in her previous world.
With different attribute properties and different balance of mana, cooked with much more rare elixirs like oil of golden fox, holy water of dawn, purification flames, the purpose of this dining system among dragons was simple; To gain mana.
Simply put, mana was the main source of energy used to permeate all things in this world, to fuel magical abilities and weapon arts mana was much needed.
However, that was not the only usage of Mana.
To Dragons, mana is something exceptionally necessary for nutrition reasons.
Similar to how humans eat snacks, mana is a snack for them.
For example, just as the weight of the name suggests, Dragons are a different race from humans. Breathing air wasn't necessary for them to sustain their body as long as mana can coexist inside them.
And eating too, was not something dragons dwell on if not for elixirs which contain high purity of mana.
Although some elixirs are poison for humans, to dragons, they are a source of energy to boost their prowess and strengthen their body—albeit so little.
Kyriaki watched Elysium eating ambrosia fruit sprinkled with red star crystals, mumbling something about how getting exposed by kids feels weird. To him who has the Fire attribute, those elixirs with fire and magma properties are a delicious snack.
Now, this doesn't mean they couldn't eat human food.
Although the food of other races doesn't have any effect on dragons except for the taste, just like breathing air, eating was also something dragons could do if they so desire.
It depends on each dragon's preference. For a close example, in Original Kyrios' memories, he was addicted to human sweets and candies like a little kid.
To simply put, dragons have a freedom to choose whether they want to breathe and eat or not.
Then that leads to another question.
Could dragons live without Mana that replace air and food for them?
The answer is clear.
Even if they don't breathe mana or consume elixirs, they can maintain their body to some extent. Because their body itself is made of mana.
Their blood.
Their bones.
Their veins and flesh.
Even their sweat and tears.
Everything is made of Pure Mana.
Furthermore, the dragon heart, just like recorded in mythologies, has a tremendous amount of mana stored inside from birth.
Those aspects are enough to live a few thousand years without even glancing at mana around them. The drawback they'd get in return is that it's common to have a significantly weakened body. Since muscle and blood loss is unavoidable to survive.
'What an overpowered race.' Kyriaki smirked in her mind.
She had made so many plans, thinking she would be reborn as a human. But with this rare and unexpected opportunity, she had to start from scratch, analysing all the foreign memories and making a few hundred plans in case something went wrong.
A Dragon.
The most knowledgeable and mighty being in all five planes belong to Mitherr-ge. Noble, mysterious and powerful, with a pride as high as Zephyr mountain peak and a calculating logical mind as sharp as the holy sword Durandal.
Some blindly worship them, some unreasonably fear them and some scoff them off as mere mythical creatures from fairytales.
Either way, dragons and humans cannot be compared.
Like the endless sky and vast ocean.
'Humans.'
Kyriaki's smirk vanished. In the memories of her previous life, she was certainly a human. However now, the self-awareness of being a prisoner of time for a long while and reincarnating as a dragon had erased that identity of hers. She couldn't even remember her previous name or face.
It was an odd feeling for her to recall her previous life memories, only to see a blurred face with no hint of her name to find anywhere. It was as if this world and her dragon ego was telling her to forget the past and embrace the present.
"Huh?"
Kyriaki was again dragged out of her mind palace by a sudden low exclamation. She looked straight at Endymion, who was sitting in front of her.
Endymion was staring at Kyriaki with curious eyes, the kind you'd get from a curious cat inspecting what kind of snack you're having. Kyriaki narrowed her eyes, chewing elegantly on a unicorn horn.
Then he muttered under his breath; "Was it my imagination?"
Kyriaki, who was already paying attention to him, quickly picked up his words and tilted her dragon head in an adorable manner.
"It was for a brief moment, but I saw the ancient aura of time within her eyes." Causing her to narrow her eyes further, he muttered again.
—Grandfather?—
"Hmmm?" As if she broke his trance, Endymion blinked his beautiful eyes, his long eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings. Kyriaki put a slight smile on her lips.
—Would you like to have some tea with me after this?. Sir Ezekiel brought some dried rainbow leaves yesterday—
It was an excuse. Since it seemed Endymion didn't mean to speak out loud, it was not her place to question his words. It could even put her in trouble.
Endymion, oblivious to her thoughts, smiled gently.
"Only if you call me grandpa without formalities."
Kyriaki went silent in an instant at Endymion's playful demand.
"That's right! My sun blossom is so cold and detached from her family. Call me Dad too!!" Elysium also joined their conversation with great enthusiasm. His graceful and mysterious aura was nowhere to be seen.
—Me too! Call me Rio too!— Kyrios, adorable as ever, jumped in from the middle.
Kyriaki, genuinely dumbfounded, stared at them blankly.
'They are telling me to abandon my respectful tone and responses? But why? They've only known me for two months.'
There was a strong urge for her to ask that question, but she backed away from asking since it would sound strange coming from a baby hatchling who was showered with love and affection from the moment of her birth.
Kyriaki mustered a small smile.
—Well, if you insist—
She surrounded, making the three most handsome people in the room beam with stars in their eyes. As she was about to sigh once again, a knock echoed through the large and cozy dining hall.
"Your Majesty, please excuse my rudeness."
A handsome man in his mid-twenties, dressed in a black butler outfit with white gloves walked in. His long plum purple hair was tied into a lower ponytail, without a single strand of hair out of place, complimenting his tanned skin the tawny hue. As his navy blue eyes quickly glanced over the dining table, there was a half a second pause as they made eye contact with Kyriaki.
"I greet the 49th Monarch and The Dragon King Elysium, The Pillar of Dragons and the 48th Monarch Endymion, The Glory of Dragons; Prince Kyrios and Princess Kyriaki."
Very smoothly, as if he was an incarnation of wind, he knelt before them, his left fist and right knee tightly connected to the floor, right palm over his heart.
There was a slight smile on his handsome lips as his long pointy ears twitched. His overly cheerful tone was somewhat comical.
Kyriaki nodded in acknowledgement, following her royal family.
This man—the personal assistant of Elysium—was called Ezekiel.
A Dark Elf.
Not just any dark elf, he was also of a noble status as he was a higher being called a High Elf. Seeing those types of dark elves together with dragons is quite common in this world, it seems.
"Stand and speak." The air around them slightly turned cold as Elysium's entire aura changed. His facial expressions, formerly cheerful and childish, now looked as cold and ruthless as a tyrant from a horror tale.
He seemed outright displeased—almost sensitive—for being disturbed while spending time with his family.
"We found suspicious activities of a band of intermediate demons near Great Umidum swamp. House Sokratis requests authority to observe the situation for now."
Elysium glanced at Endymion from the corner of his eyes.
"How many demons?"
"Eight, Your Majesty." Ezekiel immediately answered.
"Wealden continent seems to struggle without your presence, father." Elysium turned to Endymion, abandoning his secret peeks.
"Nonsense. Although House Sokratis guard the world's biggest continent alone, you shouldn't underestimate their powers, Ellie. The young patriarch, Kairos, is better than that baxtard in every way."
Endymion shook his head left to right. His voice, though calm, carried the weight of centuries—no, millenniums beyond doubt.
"Hmmm… is that so?" Elysium extended his hand, sounding aloof.
Ezekiel immediately summoned a document with a quill pen made out of a silvery grey feather.
As Elysium signed the documents in silence, Kyriaki's attention was stolen by the quill pen.
'Is that…an angel feather?'
She was eager to know what rank the owner of the feather belonged to, but the utter silence kept her from even chewing down her food. Her father's focus was that sharp. She felt as if even her dragon scales would be cut deep if she even dared to make a sound.
"Ah! It's been a while since I saw something like this?" Realizing her curiosity, Endymion let out a soft chuckle. Contrary to his gentle expression it sounded like a lion's low growl before a prey.
"This, Ria, is called a quill pen. A new trend among humans these days. Although they'd never find a quill made out of an archangel anywhere other than among The Angel Slayers; Dark Elves." That caught the attention of both Ezekiel and Kyrios.
—Are dark elves on bad terms with angels?— Kyrios asked innocently.
Ezekiel merely smiled, there was no change in his cheerful expression.
"Yes, Your Royal Highness. We have an old grudge. You'll get to learn more in history classes, look forward to it." He winked as if nothing was wrong.
Kyriaki, who already knew what that old grudge was, made an amused face at how Ezekiel phrased the source of elven-dragon betrayal one million years ago in such a casual manner.
Feeling her gaze, Ezekiel locked his eyes with Kyriaki. His expression slightly shifted to a rather sharp edge, as if he was evaluating and measuring something. As fast as it appeared, it vanished in an instant as a swift breeze in late autumn.
"You can use it instead of bolt pens or texting outright to write. Human inventions are fascinating, isn't it?"
The next moment, he summoned a modern looking bolt pen out of thin air, cleverly changing the conversation topic. Kyriaki frowned, her gaze still lingering on the quill pen on Elysium's hand.
From the adults' perspective, the two hatchlings don't know what a quill is, let alone a bolt pen. But hearing it as a former human of the 21st century felt a bit awkward to Kyriaki.
"Just as destructive as they are born to be, humans are a fast developing race."
Elysium handed over the documents and the quill to Ezekiel, looking at Kyriaki with softened eyes. His lips curled into a beautiful and affectionate smile.
"I couldn't agree more." Endymion nodded. " If my memory serves me right, they had this same technique 3000 years ago, before the 4th demon war destroyed almost all human civilization. This too will be lost in time once again and be resurrected, like a phoenix in the cycle of rebirth." He then added solemnly.
Kyriaki straightened her back. Because she caught so much information from this conversation, it indeed helped her to learn a lot.
While humans were entangled in an endless cycle of beginning and end of all; from their lives, appearance and minds to their tools, language and culture, the wise ones were different.
The dragons seemed to observe that endless cycle and filter out the best and most valuable things for their own use.
Despite the fact that some might protest saying dragons were selfish for stealing technology, to Kyriaki it seemed reasonable and rational.
She knew dragons were capable of making this whole world look like a world out of a sci-fi novel instead of a fantasy one if they weren't too lazy and didn't care for anything else other than their duty and kin.
The term "Stealing" put together with the noble name of dragons sounded absurd and contemptuous.
If dragons wanted, commanding multi-dimensional spaceships to conquer worlds like Earth from a different multiverse wasn't that difficult.
A bolt pen was just the tip of the iceberg. If one looked closely, the dragons lived in a world of advanced science the 21st century earth could only dream of in novels.
∆ ∆ ∆
After the meal was over, Kyriaki slipped away from her supposed-family. Knowing she couldn't endure the awkwardness for a long time, Kyrios stayed behind, making the two dragons busy.
Kyriaki was grateful for her pushover twin brother for once.
Thinking she should treat him better, she walked through a massive corridor of excellent architecture in silence. Her gaze fell on the reflection of herself on the well polished floor. Suddenly, her eyes sparkled as if she was enchanted.
Dragons have a beast-like appearance, yes, but they never felt like beasts at all.
There was something mysterious that prevented those who had seen dragons from referring to them as mere beasts.
Dragons were that breathtaking, that mesmerizing…like a divine dream.
Kyriaki blinked her golden yellow eyes that resembled the sun in blissful summer, ready to take its' deep sleep in the evening sky.
Her dragon scales glitters in golden hue, so much so that it felt as if she was made of the purest and most mesmerizing form of gold.
Her claws, sharp and steady, had the confidence to cut swords and crush diamonds. Two little pairs of horns, like a crown, embellished her dragon head proudly like a halo.
But what made her unique was neither her twinkling eyes nor sharp claws. It was what was occupied under her eyes.
A black scale, below each eye, made her stand out among her family of pure golden dragons.
At first they seemed as if black tears, enhancing her already beautiful appearance. Regardless, the reality wasn't that enchanting.
Those black scales held what they call a stigma drawn in the same color as her regular scales.
A stigma; a symbol of something peculiar.
If you stare at her black scales a little too hard, you could pick up and separate each symbol that was tattooed on the black background in gold.
The circle of Ouroboros, symbolizing the never-ending. Followed by the Cretan labyrinth inside it, symbolizing inescapable and challenging life. At the center of it all in a very small line was a spiral symbolizing the winding and chaotic journey of one's inner self.
Peculiar, indeed.
Kyriaki knew the true meaning behind these black scales.
The Stigma of Chaos.
Well, even dragons have obstacles that hold them back, they are not omnipotent. That's the law set by The Will of The World at the beginning.
Once in a while, among dragons, babies with The Stigma of Chaos hatch. They are called mutated dragons, and have to pay special attention to them.
As most already know, dragons are powerful enough to destroy a continent without much effort. Their cold rationality and logical mind is what holds them back from drowning in emotions.
But for mutated dragons with the stigma, rationality is somewhat of a hard topic. The stigma's duty is to bind the dragon's mind to a specific emotion. The kind of emotion also varies from dragon to dragon.
The more stigma scales one has, the more it is difficult for them to find reason in their daily life.
'And I have two.'
Kyriaki nonchalantly reminded herself.
'Well, whether I'd be bound to a negative emotion or positive emotion, I have to find out on my own.'
She wasn't very worried. For now, there were more important problems for her to worry about. She directed her gaze at her surroundings curiously.
As a baby hatchling, she was only one meter long. Hence, it was unavoidable that she felt this entire dragon lair looked unnecessarily huge.
Well, for Arch-Dragons, who grow over 100 meters, the size of doors and corridors should be like this.
Her short paws that elegantly brought her forward paused in front of a huge sculptor of a majestic dragon.
She had been reborn as a dragon, a higher race and one of the strongest.
Indeed, it was all good and fine…
'But where the hell is my system?!'
No no, she wasn't whining about something she expected after reading countless fantasy novels. She wasn't hoping for some privilege as a reincarnator. She was complaining because she was unable to access something people in this world take for granted.
Although other races might have to awaken their attributes to access the system, for Dragons it was an authority that was granted from birth.
However strangely, she didn't have one.
'Is it because I'm not supposed to exist? Is the will of the world rejecting me?'
When Kyrios easily activated his system and status window, Elysium and Endymion looked so proud. She knew from his original memories that Kyrios already possessed extraordinary stats, enough to rival the First Dragon Monarch.
But what about her?
Although both her father and grandfather comforted her saying it would activate when she awakened her attributes, as a dragon it truly hurt her pride.
She even created her first dark history by exclaiming things like status, system, Siri, Bixby, Jarvis and so on.
There was nothing.
Not even a hint of the beautiful sky blue holographic screen she was hoping to see, much to her dismay.
—Sigh…should I just go on a rampage until the will of the world acknowledges my presence and grants me my rightful system window?—
She flapped her tiny wings, startling nearby Elven guards. The word "Rampage" coming out of a baby hatchling's mouth seemed both adorable and terrifying to them.
Dragons are still dragons after all.
At the same time as the guards immediately left the hall leaving her alone—either from fear or boundless loyalty to Elysium—Kyriaki got the greatest surprise of her dragon life.
[Ding!]
Yes, the sound she was waiting for her entire dragon life—albeit it only has been two months.
[The authority has been activated]
∆ ∆ ∆
"Mutated dragons present a significant change in the dragon society. Whether it would be positive or negative will depend on the individual dragon's thought and growth process. Thus, the royal family Eleftherios came up with Project Black Mask; a mass collection of red files containing all information and constant monitoring of mutated dragons, be it alive or dead."
—By Endymion Nectar Eleftherios I, 3rd monarch of dragons.
From the Forbidden book "100 secret projects of the royal family: 40,000 P.A - 35,000 M.A"—