The air within the blazing hot palace of black stone rippled with magic as a large surge of mana shot into the distance, vanishing through the walls and space.
The dragon, fully submerged in the blazing hot magma of molten metal, stirred, sending a large tsunami of lava spilling over its edge on the vast floor of the polished black marble.
A spell formed in the dragon’s mind, and an invisible connection opened, heading far, far away, sucking his mana like an unsatiable blackhole.
The connection pulsed one single time, and then there was silence. Evil, corrupted energy, and heat of unimaginably hot flames on its other end.
“Your Draconic Majesty…” Vesuvius hated to bow his head, but the being on the other side was much more powerful, standing on top of the demonic and draconic hierarchy.
A distorted voice entered directly into his soul and resonated through his mind, “Speak…”
He didn’t dare to delay, already knowing the dangers of getting in touch with the monster on the opposite side of the connection, “Space affinity…”
Before he could finish his words, an immense force and energy blasted against the barrier of his soul, sending a sharp pain through his entire existence, “Impossible, it is not part of the deal. It wasn’t given to us. It doesn’t belong to us.”
Vesuvius flinched, but he kept the connection open, cracks quickly forming in the spinning and glowing magic array as the mana flowing through it slowly dissolved it like water dissolving paper.
“What if I take it anyway…”
The anger and irritation crawled through the connection reaching Vesuvius’s soul, “You should first ask who it belongs to before trying to snatch it… even if you convince them. It would anger many more.”
There was a pause of silence, and the evil dragon spoke again with calm, “Why do you think the dragons had to die? Think, before you make it even worse… Think, before you make even more enemies for us by encroaching powers that don’t belong to us.”
A surge of pure mana gushed through the connection, carrying an encoded message like data flowing through an internet cable. The next second, the connection cut off and shattered, leaving only the dragon submerged in the magma and the message behind.
The mana melted in his brain, the new knowledge making his neurons flare up.
He saw it all as complex ideas and thoughts spilled over his mind, brain, and soul. The lightning crackled between the crystals decorating his body as he finally got closer to the answer. The pool of magma was crackling with all the electricity flowing through it.
‘Elemental gods… We have our domains over natural elements, senior dragons have almost god-like power. They can control and rule over their respective domains with a ferocity and power that even the gods to which the elements belong can’t do anything about it.’.
He saw it. He saw the truth. The truth of how the gods struck down the four races and the gods that they descended from, taking the world for themselves.
His eyes finally opened as he found out why the dragons went extinct, the demons were banished into the nether world, and the angels were enslaved.
‘We are all innate divine beings, having powers that gods want for themselves.’
Only one of the four races could freely exist and walk in the mortal world. They were reapers, and their only luck was their powers didn’t cross the authority of any god.
The god of death was one of their own in the same way the dragon god was a dragon.
All other balance races were punished and reduced to the empty shells of what they used to be as their powers, domains, and affinities encroached upon the power of gods.
‘The gods are petty, they would never tolerate us, dragons. However the angels had an even worse fate, they lost their free wills, turning just into the puppets of the god of light.’
It was all much worse than he had imagined. He thought his current enemy deity was the god of light and their aggressive dogma of human purity. The potential enemy would be mysterious and potentially not even the real god of space.
‘Dragons are hated by all the natural and elemental gods due to our affinities and domains.’
He also finally understood why the dragon god, the progenitor of the dragons, hid it all, ‘It is all about pride. They failed, they were beaten back by the sheer amount of gods hating their kin. They were humiliated while being forced to watch as their descendants were killed one by one.’
He felt his scales shiver in primal anger, thinking about how he wanted to ask for the alliance with the church of fire, ‘That would never work… No, it isn’t so simple, the gods are likely bound by their own rules binding their hands. I would even bet that with their arrogance they didn’t even notice my existence or consider me a threat. The world is massive and lots of events are happening at once all around the globe, there is no way they would notice or care about a single dragon.’
Now, he knew why the space element was like a giant looming trap, ‘Even if there is no god of space, then me a dragon lord encroaching upon even more powers would be like a giant red flag for all the gods. If I take space for myself, what would be next? I would face their anger. Their armies of fanatics and zealots. Their holy spirits and maybe even their avatars and divine weapons.’
He shuddered, knowing that taking even more powers from the gods by taking the space element for himself would be like a declaration of war and spitting into their faces.
‘It would be even worse, if there is no space god as that would make the highest authority of space element, giving me absolute control over it. They would never allow it.’
However, the dragon shook his head, stirring the smoke in the magma, ‘It would be foolish to fully believe Satanael.’
The longer he thought about it, the more discrepancies he found. The connection spell opened a channel between souls, and it was impossible to lie through it. That made him sure the first part was true.𝑂𝑽𝐿xt.𝗇t
‘But why did they cut off the connection and instead sent me this packed knowledge? To make it more comprehensible? Maybe. But it is also likely they tried to hide that they lied about at least a portion of it.’
Vesuvius even saw why the demonic king of hell would have wanted to sour his relationship with the gods, ‘They are at war with most of them. Souring my opinion of them would be advantageous to them.’
The dragon was sure he was getting closer to the root of the problem, but he still missed more pieces of the puzzle, ‘Should I visit the reaper? Maybe they can offer something more. If nothing else they are trustworthy and able to offer another point of few, from the neutral side. But I would have to be more careful on how I formulate it.’