Chapter 126 - The Dragon World

— Leon Anemoi Greyrat —

"Tch. Fucking annoying," I muttered as I cut through another black core, the monster disintegrating into nothing a moment later.

As it turned out, the Void monsters were a bigger problem than I initially thought.

Not that I had any issues with fighting them, but as I continued heading towards the place my instincts were leading me to, I had encountered larger and stronger variants of those monsters, to the point where I decided to actively avoid them to not waste too much time.

Even this one right here was around the size of a small town, with multiple legs and a distorted jaw that fired off beams of concentrated mana.

That would definitely be an issue if it appeared in my original world, and anyone who wanted to fight it would need to be an Emperor rank at least.

But past that, thankfully, after travelling for what I could only assume was a month or so… I had reached it.

I didn't know exactly 'it' was, but having followed my instincts, I had found myself gazing at a large monument that towered over the land, a giant pyramid standing tall that reminded me of the Pyramids of Giza.

The Pyramids of Giza… that was another memory of Kento's, and I had slowly been receiving more of them after having locked them away, but still… I remained myself, so there was no issue there.

Although… as more conflicting memories entered my head, I had a feeling it would get confusing, if it hasn't already.

But either way, ignoring my impending identity crises… let's just hope this was the place.

Thinking that, I made my way towards it, my form racing across the land at supersonic speed as I leaped through the barren lands below me, the ground having turned from dark purple into a blood-red colour.

Fuck… it hurt.

I wasn't injured, despite all the fighting.

And I had long since gotten used to using mana to breathe, as well as taking in the ambient mana while cleaning it, so it wasn't a pain caused by the corrupted mana either.

No… I was just really, really hungry.

I knew this was going to happen, as none of the nutrients that I generated with magic could fill an empty stomach, but still… I was hoping that I would have gotten used to it at this point.

Actually, I somewhat had, as there were moments where the hunger pains went away, but during those times… I got incredibly tired, to the point where it would affect my abilities in combat.

Either way, that didn't matter right now.

Not when I had a pyramid to investigate… if I even could.

Please be something useful…

Arriving at the base, I looked up the jagged steps, narrowing my eyes as a large door came into view.

Okay… that was a good sign.

Heading up the stairs, to what I could only hope to be the entrance of whatever this monument was, I soon found myself in front of a large door, one that could easily fit my house.

So large… I suppose the inhabitants that built these could be reasoned to be large as well, unless it was only built for grandeur rather than practicality.

And now for the test…

Walking up to the door, I pressed my hand on it before pushing forward.

It… did not budge.

I pushed harder.

Yet still, it did not move.

Dammit… it must be locked, or the way to open it is something foreign to me.

Then… I suppose the only way to get through would be to knock it down.

Let's just hope there isn't anything valuable in there-

My thoughts were interrupted as I noticed the mana fluctuate around me, or more specifically, around my wrist, where the sacred treasure was currently attached to.

And… it was glowing.

…What?

And even weirder, with a light thud, the door in front of me opened a moment later, the large doors grinding against the stone floor as they revealed a long, dark hallway, to which the end I could not see.

Again… what?

Was this… some sort of key to the door?

I looked down at the bracelet once again, watching as the subtle glow subsided.

What… the hell was with this place?

But even if I was a bit creepy out… it didn't change the fact that I needed to go forward and investigate.

As soon as I stepped past the door, my extremely worn shoes pressing against the stone floor beneath me, I felt a sharp pain in my mind.

It was… similar to when Kento's memories flowed into my head, but much milder, and more importantly, I didn't feel anything trying to overwhelm or take over me.

What… was that?

First the sacred treasure opening the door, and then that… this place really was confusing as hell.

With the light from the red sky outside doing nothing to brighten the inside of such a place, I extended my palm, imagining the photons generating from my mana as I maintained a small ball of light above my hand.

Imagining the scientific part of things seemed quite easy now, with the actual memories of the subject in place, and not some random information that pops into my head.

Another boon of Kento and I's merging, and now that some time had passed… it seemed… natural.

As if a missing part of me had become whole.

I guess the two of us really were connected, huh?

Anyway, I should focus on this weird place first.

This place… it felt damp, but dry at the same time… how peculiar.

I then heard the sound of the door behind me creaking closed, causing me to turn around as the light of outside was slowly blocked off.

What in the… was it some sort of automatic door?

Quite advanced for a place completely devoid of life…

Shaking my head, I returned my gaze forward, beginning my trek down what seemed to be a giant hallway.

At least… that was before I noticed the drawing to the left.

"The hell?" I muttered, enhancing my ball of light as it illuminated the wall, revealing a large mural that spanned all the way to the ceiling, which again, was about the height of my house, causing me to crane my neck in order to see the top.

And damn… this hallway really was large.

Hesitantly, I reached out to touch the grated, worn paint, tracing my hand across the odd writing from left to right, the shadows of five people standing tall above the words.

Weird.

This writing… it was completely foreign to me.

And yet… incomprehensibly… I could understand it.

"The Holy Dragon General Szilard… the Armoured Dragon General Dora… the Mad Dragon General Chaos… the Dark Dragon General Maxwell… and the Steel Dragon General Crystal… These Five Dragon Kings were entrusted by the First Dragon God with the sacred treasures of the Dragon Tribe to traverse the Six-Faced World… and were given the task to protect it," I said, reading out the words that were painted before me.

How could I read it?

Was it the memories from Kento?

No… I don't think so.

Ah… but that pain earlier… maybe it was that?

Had it implanted knowledge into my mind through some method?

Either way… this mural practically confirmed it.

This place… it was the Dragon World.

How lucky.

Honestly, this was the best place to be, at least in terms of the different 'faces' of the world, as there would hopefully be an answer to how to get back home, and judging by this mural mentioning travelling the world with the sacred treasures… that was a high possibility.

To have led me here… I was really thankful for my instincts.

Or… perhaps, that subconscious draw towards here wasn't due to my instincts, but rather the sacred treasure wanting to return to this place, as from how it unlocked the door, they were definitely connected.

I then continued looking at the mural, walking down the hall as I surveyed the land in the picture next to the five shadows, who I could only assume were the 'Dragon Generals' that were mentioned before.

And the land… or rather, if I could even call it that, was very weird.

At the top, where one would expect the sun and sky to be, were mountains that jutted down, like stalactites in a cave, while on the bottom, instead of the relatively normal ground I had seen outside, there was what looked to be a light blue sky, although the colours were long since faded.

And below the sky… was that a giant snake?

Creepy… I wonder if that was simply a myth, or an actual thing, but either way, if this is supposed to be an accurate depiction of the Dragon World… then what the hell did I see outside?

It was completely different.

Could it have something to do with the corrupted mana infesting the place, alongside those Void monsters?

Or perhaps, the change in the land is what Orsted meant when he mentioned that the Dragon World was 'destroyed'.

I wasn't sure… and to be honest, while I was a little curious, such a thing was the least of my problems at the moment.

Continuing down the mural, I soon came across a mountain that stood out among the others.

It was still coming down from above, just like the rest of the mountainous land, but this one was large enough to where it nearly touched the bottom, and on the inside, quite a bit of it was hollowed out, with what looked to be a city taking up the space, lined with multiple houses, and the faded drawing of what looked to be a palace in the centre.

This city even had a name…

Kayos… the capital of the Dragon World…

How amazing, to have a singular capital of an entire world… did this place not have nations?

But either way… I wonder if this pyramid was meant to be part of this capital, since it seemed pretty important.

Or maybe it was something else entirely… again, I didn't know.

While I knew that the Dragon World I had been travelling for the past month or so was very different from the land depicted here, I would have expected to see something that stood out if the mountain was meant to be as large as this, at least, if it wasn't a complete overexaggeration.

I had seen a few mountains, and quite a bit of hills, but nothing particularly interesting of note.

Odd.

But again… those were curiosities that I didn't have the leisure to investigate.

Perhaps, once I got back, I could talk to Orsted about everything here, but for the moment… I needed to see if there was a way back, or at least a clue as to how.

Continuing to walk through the dark halls, I concentrated my ball of light to brighten the path in front of me, revealing that the corridor was just as long and large as I had initially thought.

And then… I noticed that I was feeling weird.

Not anything to do with my memory, no… instead, I noticed that the concentration of mana here was… normal.

It was still a higher concentration than anything I had encountered on earth, but at least now, it wouldn't blind me if I set my demon eye to a normal sensitivity, and more importantly… the mana here wasn't corrupted.

It must be due to the door keeping it out… though, I think there was something more that allowed the corrupted mana to not seep through the building.

But either way, after noticing this change in the atmosphere, for the first time in nearly a month… I took a normal breath.

"Kaagh!" I gasped, quickly filling my lungs with generated air as I hacked up a cough.

Gah… that was disgusting, and also… a little dangerous.

Right… even if the mana in the air wasn't corrupted, that didn't mean that the air was good.

This land had no plants, and thus, likely had no oxygen as well… or, at least not in this place.

That would have been quite pathetic, to die in a place like this just because I wanted to try breathing normal air… so let's go back to my normal breathing with magic.

At least now, with the ambient mana being safe in here, I didn't have to continuously cycle and clean the mana I took in, so that was a good thing.

In fact, I could probably get some sleep now, right?

Millis knows that I needed it.

Shaking my head, I summoned another ball of mana with my free hand, and with a flick of my wrist, I sent it flying down the corridor, illuminating the vast hall as I spotted a few doors spaced sporadically along the walls.

Well… I guess I should get started with those.

Heading up to the first door on the right, I slowly pressed against the door, feeling it move as it soon opened.

I guess I didn't have to worry about it being locked, which was good.

As I summoned another ball of light to shine and reveal the room, I noticed that it was completely empty, save for a large stone desk in the middle of the room.

Actually… that wasn't a desk… it was more like a cube, cut into slices.

What the hell?

Walking up to it, I noticed that there was writing on the top of the stone.

Was… was this some sort of book?

I grabbed the top slice, slowly turning it over, only to reveal a large mural with writing across the two slates.

So it was a book… and the murals must be how the Dragon Tribe communicated through writing… interesting, but very weird.

Having fully turned the… page?

Yeah, page should do… even though it was more like a slate.

Anyway, after turning the page, I then began to read what was written, my eyes scanning for any useful information.

Hmm… so the Dragon World contained 122 different villages, with the capital being Kayos, the city I had seen in that giant mountain before.

Flipping through the other pages, I quickly realized that there wasn't anything of note that would help me with my current issue.

With one page describing the founding of one of the villages, and another noting the ores found in a certain mountain range, I guess this 'book' was about the geography of the Dragon World?

Either way, it seemed to be useless to me at the moment… so let's move on.

Going back into the hallway, I made my way across the corridor to the door that was opposite where I had just been, opening it to reveal a similarly shaped room, but this time filled with multiple, smaller slate books.

Interesting…

Opening the first book, I realized after a few words that this one seemed to be about the techniques of the Dragon Tribe.

The Wing Technique, Fang Technique, Dragon Battle Aura… they were all interesting techniques, but I decided to quickly ignore it, as I already knew about them from Orsted.

Unfortunately, as he had told me during our training, I would never be able to use these techniques of the Dragon Tribe, as they were all based on the dragonfolk physique… which I didn't have.

If this room was based on such techniques, then it was probably a dud too… but I should check the others to make sure.

And so, making my way to a second slate, this one resembling a book a bit more than the rest, with a bound rim and smaller slates, I opened it to see a bunch of writing, with only a few diagrams here and there.

I guess it wasn't all murals for the Dragon Tribe, huh?

Shaking my head, I lazily read through the writing, hoping to see anything that would pop out.

And indeed… something did.

'…the lifespan is intricately connected to one's mana and battle aura, for not only dragonfolk, but from my observations, for all species seen across the worlds…'

Jackpot.

And reading through a bit more, it was quickly revealed that this was some sort of research report, and from the abstract, it was apparently done by the Armoured Dragon General Dora, as she wished to develop a magic to alter the lifespans of dragons, even if only temporarily, to make the Dragon Warriors that she trained get stronger more efficiently.

Hmm… so according to this, dragonfolk had a lifespan of thousands of years, and while that was great, it made their time move slower, making their training much more inefficient compared to other races… interesting.

This… this was what I had been waiting for, although I was planning to wait until everything regarding the Man-God had been dealt with.

Lifespan sharing magic… I still had that dream in mind.

In order to ensure Sylphy and Roxy wouldn't end up alone in their later years, and even worse, be forced to watch as their children died from old age… I had hoped to find something like this, where all of us could grow old together, without the pain of witnessing our children die.

No… I would never allow that, and this might just be a clue to developing that magic, if this Dragon General hadn't already done it.

But while this was wonderful… it wasn't the most important thing right now.

I needed to get back home, and now I only had around two months to do it in order to keep my promise.

…I'd definitely keep note of this, and perhaps even bring it back, but I had more important things to focus on.

So, closing the book, I then made my way back to the hall, continuing my walk down the incredibly long corridor, only accompanied by the faint sound of my feet scuffing against the ground as I continued.

And then… I came across yet another mural. Those one having the depiction of a giant cube with a hollow centre.

No… this wasn't any cube.

My eyes traced the different sides, each one having words written next to them.

"Dragon World, Beast World, Human World… this must be the Six-Faced world, right?" I muttered to myself as I eyed the drawing.

And at the centre… it was hollow, with the faint white shadow of a man, and a title above the figure.

The Man-God.

I see… Orsted mentioned that the Man-God was the enemy of his people, so I suppose something like this was natural.

And then, at the bottom… there was some more writing.

But this seemed… different from the others.

It was messy, and the red ink was faded, as if it had been hastily written by someone in a rush.

But… I could make it out.

'Having assimilated with the Creator God, despite him being our people's greatest enemy, we must not kill the imposter 'Hitogami', for his death shall bring the death of the world. If you have returned here, o warrior, may the fortunes of war be with you, and may fate dictate that the revenge of our Dragon Tribe is sought with justice rather than destruction.'

That was what it said.

The Creator God?

The hell was that?

And Hitogami… that was another way to say the Man-God.

I was confused, but if this information was true… which I had a feeling it was…

Haa… I remember Rudy mentioning the Man-God explaining that his death would destroy the world, but I thought he was lying in order to save his skin.

But with this… maybe there was some truth to that.

To defeat him and prevent him from ever hurting my family again, yet without outright killing him… I guess sealing him would be the only option.

I should probably ask Shizuka and Roxy to look into a possible sealing spell once I get back, since those two are geniuses at that sort of thing.

Perhaps Zanoba and Cliff as well, now that I thought about it.

As I crouched down to trace my fingers across the faded words, I realized that the ink had dripped down the wall on the last letter, going all the way to the floor.

And on the floor… there were numerous splatters, appearing almost like…

"Blood…" I muttered, activating my demon eye.

And sure enough, there was mana in the 'ink', both on the wall and the floor, and quite a lot of it too, at least for blood that seems to have been untouched for many years.

Whoever had written this… or at least whoever this blood came from… they must have been quite powerful.

But what… what happened here?

Getting back to my feet, I looked down at the trail of blood, noting that it continued down the hallway into the darkness.

Well… I guess I should follow it.

Heading down the hallway, I passed quite a few doors as the trail of blood I followed stuck close to the wall, almost as if the person that had made the trail was leaning against the wall as they made their way towards wherever they wanted to go.

Whoever made this trail must have been injured… and pretty badly at that.

How long ago was this? And why?

And they were the ones that made that earlier message… just what were they talking about with the 'Creator God' and 'imposter'?

It was all very confusing.

My thoughts were interrupted as the trail of blood suddenly turned into the wall, and pressing my hand against it, it soon gave way to a large staircase.

A secret staircase.

This looked… quite ominous.

Taking a hesitant step forward, I narrowed my eyes before continuing downward, keeping my senses sharp as I walked down the stairwell, and soon enough, the stairs stopped to reveal a large room.

The stone walls on all sides were cracked, showing their age, while there were stone books and various desks strewn hastily about, eerily reminding me of Shizuka's laboratory, especially from before she had Rudy and Cliff helping her out.

And at the centre of this basement laboratory, there was a large stone monument, and even with my demon eye in its passive state, I could see a large concentration of mana in the centre of it.

The hell?

Narrowing my eyes, I walked towards it, hesitantly wiping off the dust that had accumulated over the giant stone, only to reveal a complex networks of lines and symbols.

No… these weren't just lines and circles, but rather, they were magic circles… complicated ones… and a lot of them.

Heh… I couldn't be sure, but I had a feeling this was it.

This was my way to return home.

But first…

I then looked around the room at the numerous books, some even being made of what seemed to be paper, strewn messily about.

Yes… first, I would need to read.

And from the looks of it, I would need quite a lot.