Eisen closed his eyes with a squint as he stepped into the room, but soon, he got used to the bright light and managed to see properly. And what he saw then was the figure of a huge, truly enormous Dragon laying in the center of a giant hall.
The Dragon's crystal scales reflected the light that shone in through the roof of the crystal tower. At first, he seemed to be glowing similarly to the Dragon of Life, but this dragon here wasn't a source of light like Lirgtur was.
Trygan was sleeping there, relaxing in the sun. It seemed like sleep was the one thing that all Dragons enjoyed equally, at least Eisen had a tendency to meet Dragons that were asleep or at the very least tired. The old man approached Trygan with a smile on his face. Since Eisen's size was completely increased, Trygan actually wasn't all that huge compared to him.
It was something along the lines of the size-difference between Eisen and Fafnir while Eisen's height was normal. Well, maybe Trygan was still a bit bigger than that, but it was still pretty close.
And so, Eisen squatted down in front of the Crystal Dragon King with a slight grin on his face. He stretched his hand out toward Trygan's maw, but before he was able to wake his own son up, he felt something sharp being pushed right into the base of his hand.
It was incredibly painful, as if a needle was pushed into your veins along the flow of the veins, which was basically exactly what was happening right now. And since the old man did start feeling pain here, albeit not the full amount, this was an experience that he didn't particularly enjoy.
"What do you think you are doing, you filthy, lesser being?" One of Trygan's Angels yelled out, and it seemed like he was excactly the one that stabbed the old man's hand just now. Eisen deeply grumbled to himself and pulled his arm away. The spear was still stuck in his hand right now, so Eisen just quickly pulled it out after activating his Draconic Demon King form to make it a bit easier and less painful, reducing the size-difference between Eisen and Trygan even more.
However, it seemed like the Angels didn't particularly like seeing Eisen tower over them even more, and so a lot of them readied whatever weapons they had on them in order to attack the old man, but before they could, their God woke up.
"I think I am the one that should ask what you think you are doing!" Trygan exclaimed, "Do you even know who this man is?!"
All of a sudden, the Angels stopped and tensed up after hearing the tone of absolute authority in Trygan's voice, before the Dragon slowly turned toward Eisen, "I apologize for their rude behavior, Father." The Dragon King said while practically bowing in his Dragon form, but the old man just shook his head without a moment's hesitation.
"It's fine, I get it. I mean, I was planning on holding your mouth and nostrils shut so that you can't breath to wake you up, and I guess that's not something you usually do to a god, huh?" The old man laughed quietly as he deactivated his Draconic Demon King form so that Trygan could see him a bit better. The rock-like skin and glowing golden crystal veins did kind of distort his image a little bit.
Eisen pressed his palm onto his bleeding wound, although it wasn't all that serious. It would heal in a little bit, so the old man would just wait a little bit for that to happen. But then, Trygan took a deep breath himself and his eyes slightly started to glow as his maw opened up with a similar glow behind it, and crystal flames practically poured out of the Dragon King's mouth, enveloping Eisen's hand.
The small wound that was there practically healed right away, before Trygan just smiled, "Once again, I apologize. But somehow, I can't stop myself from being a bit happy. You did not change too much after you lost your experience. You would always wake me up in that way whenever I slept too much." Trygan pointed out with a slight laugh, and Eisen just crossed his arms.
"I figured. I just had the subtle urge to do that, and those are usually things like memories from my time before then." The old man pointed out, and then remembered something else to mention, "Ah, speaking of... I started recovering some of my former memories. So far, it's only been three, but I think when I sleep tonight, I will remember whatever memories I have about heaven, or at least this part of it."
"...Is that so? Do you have a rough idea how long it will take you to recover even more memories than that?" The Dragon King asked, and Eisen immediately frowned. Somehow, that response was a bit too... quick, too expected. And all of a sudden, it felt like the old man really did have to reach a certain number of recovered memories to get something else to happen.
Eisen stared at the Dragon King in front of him and deeply sighed, "I'm working on it. It shouldn't take more than a few weeks."
"I see. That is good. And how about that puzzle box you mentioned to me? Do you have any further clues as to what you need to do to unlock it?" Trygan asked. Eisen replied bluntly, "For now, I have to become a True Demon, and then I have to meet the current Grardour in the Giant Country. I don't know anything beyond that."
Slowly, after hearing Eisen's response, Trygan just started to smile, "I see. Then that is good to hear. If you are to become a true demon, then you must be here for my acknowledgement, right?" The God looked deep into Eisen's eyes, and the old man nodded his head, "Yes, that's exactly why I'm here. I figured you'd know already though, since you gave me that Quest about getting your acknowledgement."
"Ah, that is... My power permeates this realm. I manage everything as if they were retractions of my muscles. They are not things that you usually control all too actively. They just happen as I live my life." Trygan explained, "That includes things like that, which are meant for people that wish to be acknowledged. That is a choice I made long ago, whoever wished to receive that from me will have to do something good for ten of my people."
"Hm..." Eisen crossed his arms and closed his eyes in a bit of thought. That would probably be the case amongst all the other realms as well. The tasks are probably related to the god directly. If it was the same in the underworld, the old man didn't particularly want to know what kinds of things he had to do there, considering that the underworld was representative of the chaotic, more vile side of him.
But for now, it seemed like things were getting a bit too serious, and Eisen kind of wanted to have a bit of 'bonding time' with Trygan. Sure, he felt close to him somehow, but that was just because of his internal feelings. Feelings that didn't come from memories that Eisen himself had. Sure, that didn't mean that those emotions felt any less real, but Eisen simply wanted some proper memories related to his son that he could link up with those emotions.
"Actually, speaking of 'your people'..." The old man said with a light smirk on his face, and Trygan slightly tilted his head to the side, seemingly unsure of what exactly he was speaking of. It seemed like Trygan wasn't omniscient of everything that happened inside of his divine realm, otherwise this probably wouldn't have had the same kind of effect, "Lirgtur's a cutie, huh?"
Suddenly, Trygan completely tensed up and stared back at Eisen, "F-Father, how do you-"
"Oh, I met her. She's one of the people I helped out. But nevermind that, this is about you. What happened to those children of yours, huh? Are they here as well? Can I meet them? And do they have children as well? I wonder what level of Grandfather I truly am." Eisen laughed slightly, and Trygan slowly turned his head away. Eisen's attempt at lifting the mood a bit apparently didn't work out all that well.
And considering the information that Trygan revealed to him, he understood why this really worked out in the completely wrong direction, "Two of them lived until they reached the Great Wyrm stage, the last stage before a Dragon's natural death... They have been reincarnated once already, both of them only quite recently. They're dragons again, but they're just younglings. Although they are younglings that are living around their... their sister." Trygan explained.
"The third of those children is Kotam, the 'Evil' Dragon Queen. While the other two were merely suspect to the aura that Lirgtur's body gave off as they were about to hatch, Lirgtur's body fell onto Kotam's egg. Her flesh and blood fused with the egg, and Kotam soon hatched, feeding on the remains of her mother. Of course, this was not an inherently evil action... Kotam simply didn't inherit her mother's ability to live off of the life energies of nature. Most other Dragons are omnivores, although we usually still prefer meat over anything. We are born with sharp teeth and the full ability to do so, after all." Trygan explained.
"But due to all these actions, Kotam soon changed into a being that was capable of living for an incredibly long amount of time. She grew quite powerful, but for the vast majority of her life, she had spent her time in deep slumber, and only recently awoke again. Under the control of a... of a being that I cannot forgive for doing such a thing to my child, and a being that forced me into a war that I never wanted to fight." Trygan said, and Eisen immediately started to grind his teeth.
His fingernails dug into his palm so much that they might have ended up drawing blood soon if Eisen wasn't careful. The old man stared deep down at the ground, and said, "That goddamn Samuel... I swear, I���m going to make him regret all of this."
Eisen looked back at Trygan, and then started to slow down his breath. He tried to think about what he should say to calm Trygan down a little bit. But in the end, there was only one thing that he had to tell Trygan, "Don't worry. I'll take care of this."
Slowly, Trygan looked back at Eisen, "I know you will, I trust you, Father. But I don't know how well we can truly save my Kotam..."
"As I said, I'll take care of this." Eisen said, and Trygan slowly raised his brows, "What do you mean?"
"Nobody ever said that we're only allowed to join one side of the war between Dragons, right?"