It wasn’t until I woke up to the feeling of a gentle warm breath rushing across my face that I realized I had fallen asleep without realizing it. There was something strangely rexing about sleeping next to the dragon. He seemed to exude a sense of calmness and peace around him. I realized it was this aura that attracted all of the animals that had made this pce their home.

  Something about the agelessness and ancientness of this dragon seemed to cause the entire air to vibrate. It gave me the impression that if I just waited and pondered on the world a bit longer, I would glean some secret. I could imagine that had it not been for the drakes and wyvern, monks would have lived on this mountain, spending their lives emerging themselves in this feeling in the hopes of obtaining some enlightenment. Even I felt tempted to remain another night or two, and that wasn’t just because I knew what would happen next.

  When I left, this pce of peace and order would be destroyed. With the single strike of a bde, this entire little world would fall apart. All these animals that lived here peacefully would be preyed upon by the countless drakes and wyvern. The dragon’s body would be ripped apart and the parts divided. I’d like to say that this savage act was unique to this wyrm pteau, but I was pretty certain that if he had fallen within the human world, the only difference would be that it would be humans tearing him apart to advance their strength and wealth.

  “Baby, are you ready to go?” Mother asked.

  I looked down and had to double-take as I saw Mom standing among a small prairie of flowers. She had found a spring and cleaned up the previous night, and seemingly managed to repair the rips and tears in her clothing. She had used a few flowers and incorporated them into her look as well, giving her the feel of a nymph or natural goddess. She seemed to have been affected by this atmosphere as well, and it took at least five years off her age, not that she was old looking to begin with.

  “Mother… you’re stunning.” I decred unashamedly.

  Sometimes, Mother could be a bit much to handle, but when a woman deserved a compliment, I wouldn’t shy away from it. Mother gave me a gorgeous smile, which caused her charm to explode. For a moment, I felt my resolve weaken just a bit.

  “I’m not the only one.” Mom decred. “Daughter, show yourself.”

  “Daughter?” My eyebrows rose, and then they rose even farther when I saw Lucille step out as well.

  Mother had never shown any interest in any of my sisters, but the feeling had always been mutual. Supposedly, Mom was a replica of their Mother just as my as mine, so it stood to reason she has at least some maternal feelings for them. While I was asleep, Mother had done up Lucille’s hair. She had simirly been cleaned up and had flowers sewn into her dress. However, where mother had a robust maturity, Lucille’s youthful beauty was staggering.

  “Is this okay?” Lucille asked, her cheeks blushing slightly.

  “Well… um…” I found myself unable to come up with the proper words to say.

  “Stunned to silence?” Mom caught on immediately, puffing out her cheeks. “I’ve never stunned him to silence.”

  “I-I’m sure it’s because he’s just more used to seeing you…” Lucille tried to alleviate my pouting mother.

  “Are you saying I’m ordinary?” Mom teared up.

  “Not at all! Mother is very beautiful!” Lucille cried out.

  I lifted the bag that I had filled with various treasures the night before. It seemed almost more of a tease to take that little amount when it was compared to the sheer mass of treasure that had been gathered and tossed at the dragon, but if I grabbed any more, I’d risk ripping the bag open. As was, the weight would have been nearly another person, but thanks to the special properties of the back it felt like nothing.

  “Where is the little dragon?” I asked, breaking into their silly routine.

  Mom blinked, and then looked around. “I swear I had just seen him nearby…”

  “Where is he?” Lucille echoed.

  The girls looked around cluelessly, but that’s when I noticed the slightest shift in the ground under them. The ground seemed to be textured in such a way… I reached down and grabbed a rock, and then chucked it at a spot just between my mother’s legs.

  “Grraaa!” A sound of pain let out.

  The ground shook, and Mother let out a noise of surprise, as she fell back, Lucille was right next to her. The ground she had been stepping on had been none other than the little dragon, who had his eye open and was peaking up their dresses. He had buried himself in the ground and allowed two women to walk all over him just for the chance of a peak.

  “Oh, there you are!” Mom ughed, holding out her hands, completely oblivious to his profane acts.

  The dragon sat up, shamelessly shaking off the dirt and ground covering him before nudging into my mom, making sure his nose rubbed specifically within her cleavage. Mom only giggled cluelessly as it took every advantage.

  I looked over at the ancient dragon with complete disbelief. One dragon gave off a feeling of peace and serenity, while the other peaked up girl’s skirts and licked them. The difference between their temperament was far too great. How could I acknowledge this little one was a dragon at all after seeing his shameless and perverted nature?

  Whether the ancient dragon was ashamed by this behavior or even cared, there was no indication either way. I couldn’t bring it in myself to mention it either. How do you tell the st dragon alive that their child was a pervert?

  This was fine. The dragon was still young. Once the ancient dragon was gone, I’d have plenty of time to put this one in his proper pce. If he still acted up, there was always neutering. If the ancient dragon had known I was considering neutering his final progeny, he might not have been able to remain as calm.

  “It is time.” A deep, soothing voice resonated through the air, a call that was just as much a death pronouncement.

  “Do we have to do this?” Lucille asked, her voice filled with regret.

  “All things live and die.” The dragon answered. “Perhaps, I should feel blessed with the fortune that I may choose the manner and time of my death. If we could all be so lucky…”

  His hand came out and nded nearby with a woosh of air and dust. Both girls looked at me as if expecting me to come up with an answer that would stop what was about to happen. I didn’t want to be the one to fell such a magnificent beast. Had it been someone like him who had summoned me from another world, perhaps I would have accepted it better and not given him as much grief as the god I had met. I could only give the girls a reluctant shake of my head, and then a nod to his hand.

  The girls grew teary-eyed once more as we all moved up onto his hand. Only one didn’t board his hand. That would be his son, who remained on the ground, looking up with hesitation and confusion.

  “It is alright, my child. It is time for you to go out in the world and discover it for your own.” The dragon decred.

  The little dragon looked around one more time, and then slowly skulked onto his grownups palm, almost like he was going somewhere he knew he shouldn’t be. The hand slowly lifted into the air. I forced myself to look one st time out over the massive cavern formed around his body. Countless meadows, pins, forests, and rivers stretched out for miles in every direction. It was truly a beautiful sight, and the st time anyone would ever look upon it.

  The movement of the hand stopped, and then every so slowly I could feel a rumbling sound. It was coming from deep within the dragon, and I realized he was inhaling a deep breath, slowly building himself up.

  “We… might want to hold onto something,” I warned, sitting down and grabbing onto his palm the best I could.

  There was a roar, a booming sound that immediately had all of us covering our years. This was the call of a dragon, one that could likely be heard over half the continent. Then again, that was probably the idea. The dragon pushed up with his legs, his head moved first as he broke out. The mountain sitting on his back was pushed back, and it tilted at an angle and colpsed behind him as the front portion of his body exploded out from the ground. He emerged from the mountain peak, upending and destroying it.

  Any drake or wyvern that had been even remotely close turned and fled with all of their might. The ground rumbled and roared as every movement of the dragon created small earthquakes. His lower body was still buried underground, but he was now in a sitting position, his upper body out of the ground. It was at this point I could truly gather the pure scope of his size. His arms and upper body already put him as tall as the mountain.

  He let out one more roar, and then his hand carefully pulled us out of the cavern and to the ground on the surface of the pteau where it still seemed to be stable. The group of us jumped off of his palm, the movements and actions seemingly putting us into a state of panic, even though very little had happened. The dragon locked eyes on us, and as calm as he felt down below, one couldn’t help but feel anxiety and fear when those eyes were locked on them above. He lowered his head down to us.

  “Right now, they flee, but once they feel my lifeforce waning, the opposite will be true as well.”

  I nodded and then turned to my mother and Lucille. “Go, I’ll be right behind you.”

  “H-honey… you don’t need to…” She stopped herself, not quite sure how to get the words out.

  “I don’t want him to have to see…” I spoke without looking at him, but it was obvious who.

  Mom nodded, even as tears fell down her cheek. Putting one hand on the dragon, she began to lead him away. It wasn’t clear how much he understood about what was going on, but he seemed to grasp enough that he went along quietly with Mom, his head down and his tail drooping. Did he understand this was the st time he’d see his parent? He had to know that much at least.

  Lucil remained for a few moments longer watching us, but eventually, she turned away and raced after Mother. It was just me and the ancient dragon now. I forced myself to look up at him, steeling myself for what was to come.

  “I don’t believe I even got to hear your name, or what name you wish to pass down to the child. Before we do this, I would like to know.”

  “I have not given the child a name. I will leave you to the task.” He responded. “As for my name, it has been a long time since anyone has asked me for that. I doubt few in this world would remember it.”

  “Humor me,” I responded. “How could I cim I killed a dragon without a name?”

  He chuckled softly. “My true name cannot be pronounced by your talk. However, the humans once had a name for me. They called me Astaroth.”

  I nodded to myself. “Astaroth… yes, I suppose that makes sense. In the ancient myths of my world, devils, demons, and snakes were all linked. In this world, I wonder if there was a time when dragons and devils fought alongside each other.”

  “Perhaps, such a time will return soon.” The dragon decred, his hand moving to his chest. “This is my reverse scale. Strike it well and earn me a swift death.”

  He pulled open a scale and then leaned down, revealing a small golden scale. Compared to the rest of his scales, it was extremely tiny. It had been completely overshadowed by the other scales. If he wasn’t spreading them open, it would have been impossible to strike. He had truly become invincible, but age had become a prison, and even this dragon yearned for an escape.

  I reached into my bag and pulled out the Masamune. The bde seemed to shiver excitedly as if it could taste the blood of its enemy nearby. It yearned not just to kill the dragon, but to take some of its strength too. It was a bde that was nearly sentient, but not quite. Perhaps, once it felt the blood of the dragon, I would truly gain a mind of its own.

  I held the bde up and looked up at the dragon. “Do you wish to hear the name I’ve decided for the little one?”

  “Tell me.” He replied.

  “I will name him Aster.”

  I had already considered a few names for him, but after hearing Astaroth’s name and confirming he had no specific decision on the name, I decided to go with Aster.

  “Aster…” The dragon closed his eyes and let out one st breath. “A strong name.”

  I allowed the will to grow inside me. I had also used what I knew of shadow magic, pouring it into the Masamune bde to initiate an even more powerful strike. Astaroth moved down even more, bringing his reverse scale as close to me as possible. This was a strike that I couldn’t afford to fail. The survival of my family, my friends, and even Aster were dependent on this. I unched forward, and the bde struck out.

  A booming roar shot across the pteau like a trumpet. It was a sound that seemed to carry out from the pteau, even reaching the pce where the Celestials made their trek south. It passed across the pace of the fairies, resonated over the natural city of the elves, and bludgeoned through the high towers of the human capital. The sound seemed to st for several minutes, but when it was gone, it seemed to take with it the very sound nature. Everything quieted down. There wasn’t a single bird or insect that made a sound.

  However, on a certain pteau, other roars began to rise in pce of that death bellow. Drakes and wyvern of countless numbers began to roar and wail excitedly. They might not have had the intelligence of a dragon, but they could certainly tell what the cry of a dragon sounded like.

  “Come on! No! Don’t turn back. We have to keep going!” Mom begged as tears fell down her cheeks and she urged little Aster to keep moving away and not return to where his parent had given their final bellow.

  “We need to move faster.” A voice nearly caused her to colpse.

  The two women looked back to see me standing there. The bde had been put away, and I had washed myself clean of blood. There was little point in killing the dragon to attract the drakes and wyvern to him if I was then going to leave a clear trail to myself. Mom gave me a look. It was filled with worry and fear.

  “David…” Lucille spoke quietly.

  “Let’s get going. He’s not dead yet, but he will be soon. These skies are going to be filled with wyrm soon.”

  I wasn’t wrong. The dragon’s sacrifice wasn’t just to die. Even hitting his reverse scale with my strongest hit, it’d be some time before the dragon truly died. The thing that would kill him wouldn’t be me, but the drakes. They would descend on him in his weakened state, intending the finish him off. He would fight back ferociously. Perhaps, he’d kill half of them. If there was any luck, he would kill all of them. However, he’d eventually succumb to his wounds as more and more came to test the waters.

  There was no telling how long this could take. Astaroth could be dead in a few hours or could be dead in a few days. That’s why we had to move at such a rapid pace. I urged the girls and the dragon along, although we still moved far slower than I would have liked. The women weren’t used to travel on such a brutal ndscape as this. Even in the canyon, we were protected by the sun to an extent, and the ground wasn’t too rocky due to innumerable previous people passing through. The boiling and unprotected top of the pteau was in many ways worse.

  As we went, the sounds of more and more monsters could be heard, and we even saw several wyverns or drakes flying off in the distance. Their destination was all heading to the dying dragon. Occasionally, there would be a distant boom or a tremor as the dragon fought off his assaints. The longer we traveled, the less these tremors occurred. One could almost feel his waning strength as he slowly passed on, fighting to give us a bit more time.

  Just because he was fighting didn’t mean we were safe. If any drake saw Aster and recognized what he was, they would attack immediately. That’s why we hid every time a drake came by, as much as was possible. It was our luck that the drakes were usually quite a distance away, and Aster would only look like a wyvern at a distance. As for the girls, they were even more forgettable when it came to the promise of a dragon and his horde.

  “I can see the edge.” I decred. “We’re almost there. Just another hour or two-”

  As I was announcing the good news, a sudden thwap of wind, and the horrified expressions of the girls told me that our luck had finally run out. I spun around to see what I had feared most. Right between us and our way off the pteau, a drake had nded.

  He gave a smile. “Well, well, it looks like my gamble paid off after all. The dragon really did give his life to try to smuggle the little bugger away.”

  AnnouncementHey Readers! I have recently done a redesign and overhaul on my website. You may prefer reading there now. At the least, check it out, and consider becoming a member. This was all done with the help of my Spanish transtor, Kokoadict. He posts many transtions, among them my work at https://gao-nn.com/. You can support him at https:///GAONN. Either way, check out my site, https://whatsawhizzerwebnovels.com/ and become a member if you're interested. Have a great day.

  If you're like to read: https://whatsawhizzerwebnovels.com/ensved/ The rest of the volume is here.