As the icy raindrops crashed heavily into the ground, the white dragon spread its wings and flew into the sky.

Exclamations of excitement, fear, or disgust were quickly tossed away along with the campfires in the plaza that were dying in the showers, and the ice dragon flapped its wings in the unusually fierce wind and rain, and swept towards the dark ruins to the east.

From time to time, an electric light would tear the whole world apart in an instant, and in the vision blurred by the rain curtain, the ancient buildings left by the elves not far away looked like the white bones of the forest washed by the rain.

The ominous feeling arose and made the ice dragon hesitate, but it was unable to fly farther, and it did not want to be the target of thunder and lightning.

It swooped to the ground and fell from the top of Miaz-Weiss outside the abandoned Temple of the Sun.

There's plenty of space here, and there's no room for eyes and ears...... Unless the sun god is still silently listening to the voices of the city that once belonged to him.

Scott leaps off the ice dragon's neck. In this short time, he was already drenched in rain, but it seemed that he did not intend to hide in the temple hall that remained on the roof, but walked to the edge of the square, looking down on the dark city in the night rain.

It was a lifeless darkness, occasionally illuminated by electric light, but only a hideous shadow under the eyes. Scott vaguely remembers the tranquility of the snow-covered ...... when he first came here Even if it was infested by the undead, the long-abandoned city still looked beautiful at that time.

Here he meets Ed and Naria...... Was the unexpected encounter that changed everything, or was it all meant to be?

“...... What do you want to say?"

After a long silence. He turned to face the ice dragon.

His voice was staccato and barely audible in the rain, but he knew that Iss could hear it.

The dragon shook the rain off its wings. I don't seem to know how to speak.

When its deep, deep sound reached Scott's ears clearly through the rain curtain, it was a somewhat inexplicable question.

"Do you know how this basin was born?" it asked.

Scott frowned slightly. He was not a very knowledgeable scholar, and he had only one simple answer to this kind of question - the gods created the world. But if a dragon suddenly asks like that...... That's probably not the right answer.

“...... I don't know. He simply replied.

"It used to be a mountain range, and from what remains of it today...... The place you call the Silver Tooth Mountains stretches all the way to the ice fields. ”

The rain seemed to wash away the ice dragon's wrath completely, and its voice was so calm that it almost felt strange to Scott...... It seems that it now controls the gigantic creature. It's no longer the soul with a human name.

"The highest mountain is there...... Further west than your temple, we call it Eustard, Blackthorn. The black rocks there are sharp and thorny, pointing to the sky, and between the rocks, hot lava often gushes out of the ground...... Then. This is the favorite habitat of the Yanlong. ”

The ice dragon looked to the west. It seems to be immersed in those memories that are long gone.

"At a time when giants were the darlings of the gods, and elves and dwarves were not yet born, an ancient dragon of fire invited many dragons to gather here from far away......," it continued in a low voice, "and our race was still numerous, but it was already threatened. Those whom you call gods, have made this world ours their domain. Occupy every corner little by little with the creatures they have created......"

The dragons were unimpressed at first. After all, the world is big, and there's nothing wrong with being lively—though most of those creatures are too weak. Weak enough to be their food. The only giants who were strong enough didn't seem to be interested in fighting the dragons, and most of the time, they were able to live in peace. But as tens of thousands of years passed, the dragons found that they began to weaken unconsciously. Reproduction is becoming more and more difficult, and the young dragons are getting smaller from generation to generation, and the magic power that was once powerful is gradually thinning...... Only then did they realize that the power of this world was being stolen little by little.

The creatures that live in this world should return to this world in order to maintain balance...... But those creatures created by the gods are not, and when their lives pass away, their souls take away the power of this world and dedicate it to their gods. Dragons as magical creatures are essentially one with the world that gave birth to them, and this slow but never-ending consumption seriously threatens their survival.

But they don't know how to stop it.

Those beings who are called gods are cunning. They themselves, no matter what form they are, are always outside this world, and the occasional incarnation that appears in this world in a certain form is only a separate, insignificant part of them, and even if that part is destroyed, it will not do them much damage. Killing the creatures they created would only allow them to take their power away faster, perhaps to vent their anger for a while, but ultimately to hurt the dragon himself.

In a fit of rage and desperation, the assembled dragons accepted the dragon's suggestion to make one of them one of the gods.

It was a whimsical plan...... At the time, it was not impossible to succeed.

The long life of the dragon gives it a high level of intelligence. Until then, they have managed to capture a god...... Or at least a part of him, though the gem that imprisoned him soon exploded with a bang because it couldn't withstand his power.

A violent explosion leveled a forest, leaving the bones of a dozen dragons behind...... But it also gives them a better understanding of their overly powerful enemies.

To put it simply, it's just some kind of soul with power...... or possess the power of the soul, which is so powerful that it does not need to be attached to any entity to exist.

And whether it is "soul" or "power", the dragon has a self-confidence in himself that can be described as pride.

Even so, that plan took them thousands of years...... They are proud, but they are not blind to the disparity between them and the gods.

But it was also a dangerous plan...... No one could say what went wrong, and they ultimately failed.

On one night, with Austad as the center, the surrounding mountains suddenly collapsed and contracted, as if sucked into a bottomless abyss, and the dragons that tried to escape from the collapsed mountains, or hovered nearby, could not resist the force at all, and disappeared into them like fragile birds caught in the whirlpool.

That terrible defeat had taken away hundreds, the most powerful dragons, and they no longer had the courage and strength to make the same attempt.

"At that time, I ...... My ancestors were lucky enough to survive in a lair farther away as a young dragon, only to watch the mountains disappear from afar in a terrible sound that seemed like the whole world was going to be shattered and destroyed...... Then it began to rain, heavier than tonight, for a long time...... Until it turned into an ocean and drowned everything. ”

The ice dragon retracted his gaze a little dazed, not knowing where he was in a trance, and he didn't even know why he was talking about these things that no one remembers, a past that is more distant than legends.

"That was the beginning of all my memories. It bowed its head and told the humans in front of it, "Until then, when the dragon dies and returns to the earth, the soul will disappear and the flesh will rot, no different from a flower or a bird...... That's the only way we can stay strong......"

But it is still going to destruction step by step.

"It's turned into a huge lake. "After a long time, the lake gradually dried up and became flat...... The elves came here, named it Schindland, and built their own city...... Later humans called it the Sidney Basin. ”

It looked at the human who had been silent, and Scott just looked back at it calmly.

“...... You can understand. It said.

Scott was stunned for a moment before he realized—at some point, the ice dragon had been in his own language. Dragon ...... Even the most knowledgeable people know only a few words of it, and even clever words can't make the caster master this language.

The muscles in the corners of his eyes jumped unconsciously, and Scott remained silent.

"So, we were mistaken, were we?" the ice dragon asked him in a low voice, "that plan didn't fail...... You know what your god really is - at the cost of countless lives of his kind, the flame dragon has achieved its purpose...... Although it does not seem to protect its kindred, as it promised. ”

-- Or maybe when it has enough strength, there is no one of its kind to protect.

Scott began to shake his head.

"Do you want to deny it?" the ice dragon grew irritated, "I've seen the power it bestows on you, a flame hotter than lava...... I also know what the 'altar' in your temple is. Because the power of a single dragon is not enough, many dragons have voluntarily or involuntarily sacrificed themselves to give their power to it. Even when it becomes one of the gods, the ritual will continue until it is strong enough to devour the other gods......"

It involuntarily paused before it could continue.

"Is that for me?" it asked him, "...... After all, I'm probably the last dragon in the world. ”

The thunder had faded away, the rain had become lighter, and the last question was too soft for Scott to hear.

But this is the only question he can answer with unwavering certainty.

(To be continued......)