“Eh? Really? I haven’t heard such a story…”
“Well, it’s not exactly a good story.”
A lot of people often misunderstand and think that Dragons and Spirits are close.
Even if they’re not particularly close, many believe they share some sort of connection.
It wasn’t entirely wrong.
Just as Spirits possess abilities corresponding to elements like water, fire, wind, and earth, Dragons are also born with various attributes.
Because of this, there are people who perceive the difference between Dragons and Spirits as merely whether or not they have a ‘shape.’
However, fundamentally, they are completely different beings.
“First of all, Spirits are ‘inorganic’ beings that arise from the collection and transformation of ‘nature.’ In contrast, Dragons are clearly living creatures. They are reptiles that are born through a reproductive process.”
“Ah, I see?”
“While they may have similar attributes, you could say they are fundamentally different. Moreover, the most important thing is the ‘magical wavelength.’”
This is the fundamental reason why Leo cannot become a Dragon.
The ‘wavelength’ possessed by Spirits is quite unique.
Even the lesser Spirits possess a structure of magical power that humans struggle to understand, and to properly use the power of the Spirit King, one must understand a ‘world.’
It’s not for nothing that the exceptionally talented Leo is having a hard time with Spirit Ascension.
Even if he became a Spirit-friendly Nymph, he’d still struggle; the problem is that the wavelength of Dragons is equally formidable.
“The mana wavelengths of Spirits and Dragonkind are antagonistic. If Miss Yena put airplane wheels on a bicycle, then Lord Leo would be putting a giant donut on his bicycle.”
“That doesn’t even make sense…”
“But it’d taste delicious, though.”
[Hahahahaha!!!]
[Donut bicycle, lol]
[Leo is sulking]
[Let Lily just eat it]
[Give it to Sre]
[So why aren’t the two getting along?]
Leo, with a sulking expression, plopped down.
Then he quickly turned his head to look up at me.
“Why aren’t they getting along? Did they have a big fight?”
“…Well. It’s not so much that they fought. There’s a complex story behind it.”
In reality, Spirits and Dragons didn’t have that bad of a relationship.
Spirits were beings born from nature itself, while Dragons preferred bountiful nature.
The more Spirits multiplied, the less it would hurt them, so while they might not live closely together, they could coexist fairly well.
According to Plgurr, the Thunder Dragon, he once exchanged ideas with the Lightning Spirit King a long time ago. “He wasn’t someone who couldn’t communicate,” he said.
The problem arose from the other side.
“The other side?”
“There was an incident where Dragons were backstabbed. Countless Dragons perished.”
There was an incident, you see. Countless dragons perished in droves.
‘Dragon of Chaos.’
The betrayer of dragons who ripped apart one of Dragon Lord Sharurodo’s wings and sent them plummeting beneath the cradle.
And they were the chaotic beings that were subjected to the experiments of the demon race, eventually leading to their extinction.
■
Tap. Tap.
Having extracted darkness from the high mountain, I combined the Fragment of Darkness and a piece of my Earth, gathering all the attributes into one.
The high mountain emitted seven types of power, creating a small road that led underground.
From the fact that the reward hadn’t come yet, it seemed I had to check down below to finish things.
“The Dragons of Chaos were beings born from the experiments of the demon race. I can’t say exactly when, but one thing’s for sure: their leader surrendered voluntarily.”
“Whoa…”
“Surrender?”
“Yes. The leader of chaos at that time was the number two who got shoved aside from the road by Dragon Lord Sharurodo. Craving strong power, he ultimately took the hand of a forbidden being.”
The result was the destruction of everyone, but…
[Whoa whoa whoa]
[History, what?]
[Omg]
[So the dragons were like, ‘No thanks’ then?]
[Crunch]
[Demon problems, huh]
[It’s deep here]
[How does Lily know all this?]
[? LOL]
[Truly an alien]
“Of course, even if they hadn’t reached out first, the demon race would have made the dragons their test subjects. Demons are merciless beings. It was only a matter of time.”
“Hmm…”
“As expected, Arkmada…”
The leader of chaos, after being experimented on by the demons, defeated Sharurodo and boldly declared himself the lord.
However, no dragon except for the Dragons of Chaos recognized him as lord.
Instead, they desperately searched for Sharurodo, who had lost a wing and fallen, labeling the Dragons of Chaos as betrayers and starting to oppose them.
No matter how much the position of lord is determined by power, that standard applies only when it comes to the ‘dragon race.’
Even if you seize the position with the strength of a bizarre and evil being like the demons, no one would acknowledge that.
From then on, a long struggle began between the Dragons of Chaos and the other dragons.
“Many dragons died and were injured. Ultimately, due to the ongoing experiments and side effects from the demons, the Dragons of Chaos all perished, but the damage to the dragon race was quite severe.”
“Wow…”
“They’re totally the bad guys.”
“The bigger problem is that with the Dragons of Chaos as the starting point, the speed of experiments surged wildly. A significant number of dragons started getting abducted too.”
The betrayal of the Dragons of Chaos became the catalyst for the destruction of the dragon race.
Ultimately, the ambition of the Dragons of Chaos to rise to the highest position of the dragon race led everyone to ruin.
As I walked deeper into the underground, Leo and Yena, who were seriously listening to my story, nodded their heads.
Their focused listening was quite adorable.
Leo mumbled, “Such a thing…,” then suddenly tilted his head and asked, “But why don’t spirits get along? So far, it’s just been about dragons and demons fighting.”
“The experiments weren’t just for dragons.”
“…!”
“Seriously?!”
[LOL!]
[This is so funny!]
[Great reactions, haha!]
[Why are they reacting so well?]
[Seriously, is this for real?]
[Lily, are you like a walking history book?]
[LOL]
[Demon-grade level]
[When you think about it, Lily really does seem like an NPC!]
[For real, haha!]
“That’s right. Spirits were experimented on too. For the demon race, every living being was a subject for experimentation.”
Whether dragon, spirit, elf, or human, nearly all life forms were included in the demon’s experiments—only the scale and numbers varied.
Even the progenitor, Lasty, was born out of the demons’ experiments, and some races were outright created by demons.
Naturally, there was no reason for spirits, found everywhere around the world, to be excluded from the subjects of experimentation.
“By the side of the Dragon of Chaos was the corrupted ‘Spirit of Darkness.’ They were quite a headache for the dragons.”
As mentioned earlier, dragons and spirits had different ‘waves.’
It was already tough facing the Dragon of Chaos, and dealing with the ‘waves’ of a corrupted spirit that continuously brought chaos or attacked made it almost impossible to persist.
Eventually, the dragons, who kept being pushed back, thought, “If they have the spirits’ help, why can’t we?”
If the corrupted spirit was a problem, then they just needed the help of the non-corrupted spirits.
The dragons sought help from the spirits, but the response they received was pretty bleak.
“Please don’t tell me… they said no?”
“Close. They couldn’t exactly help.”
Since spirits were beings born from nature, most of them lacked selfhood and intelligence unless they were high-tier spirits.
The lower-tier spirits couldn’t understand the dragons’ plea for help, and even the upper-tier spirits who came forward refused to help.
“It’s dangerous. That.”
“Does anyone think we don’t know it’s dangerous? We’re all dying here; we have to at least fight…”
“Sorry.”
The upper-tier spirits avoided the fight.
Instead, they fled with the lower-tier spirits, and those known as the Spirit Kings scattered their bodies into nature or hid them in places unreachable.
The leaders once known as the Spirit King scattered their bodies into nature or hid them in spaces that could not be found.
At first glance, one might think of the spirits as “cowardly beings only looking out for themselves,” but they had their own stories to tell.
“Stories?”
“Spirits are non-living… unlike the clearly defined subjectivity of dragons, they are extremely vulnerable to external changes. They can transform into anything in nature, meaning they ‘can be changed.'”
“Birds of a feather flock together.”
The saying means that the more you associate with the black, the darker you become, and spirits were no different.
“The longer an ordinary spirit comes into contact with the Spirit of Darkness, the more it begins to corrupt. Here, contact isn’t just physical; even being nearby can change you.”
No matter how much they wanted to fight, the situation wouldn’t allow for a battle to happen.
If there was a spirit that could endure, it would be a Spirit King who had created a ‘world’ to secure its subjectivity, but even they had countless subordinate spirits.
For the Spirit King to venture into battle would be akin to abandoning the many spirits under their protection.
“There was also the issue of spiritual resonance.”
“Due to differences in position, the dragon eventually turned away, filled only with disappointment. Even after the Dragon of Chaos was dead, the bitter feelings between spirits and dragons remained.”
“……”
“Dragons and spirits cannot coexist.”
[Oh no!]
[Is it like looking into the abyss and the abyss looking back at you?]
[But running away was a bit…]
[Both sides are understandable, though…]
[Hmm]
[The spirits were in the wrong, huh?]
[Arcma, you rascal!]
[Hahahahahaha!]
After hearing my entire story, Leo’s shoulders drooped.
It seemed Leo’s character was more gloomy about the troubled relationship between dragons and spirits than being envious of the Dragon Heart.
Leo’s thinking had transformed through long nymphification and now resembled a nymph.
I raised my voice slightly, speaking lightly.
“The conclusion is that the Celestial Race and the Demon Race are the problems.”
“That’s true, meow…”
“That’s right. Certainly, the Celestial and Demon Races are the issue… Hmm? The Celestial Race too?”
“Of course.”
I say this repeatedly, but the Celestial Race is more vile than any demon.
If I had to choose between one Celestial and ten demons to kill, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the Celestial without a second thought.
“They’re definitely wicked beings.”
“……”
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