#640 The Primordial Dragon Awakens

Um...

Why...

...is the ancient monster awake?

It crawled up from the crater of Mt. Eternity, spread its wings, and soared into the sky.

It looked just like a dragon.

I know this because I’ve already seen a lot of dragons. There’s no way I’m mistaking it for something else.

The monster sealed in Mt. Eternity and destined to destroy the gods along with the world is a dragon!

But why did it suddenly come back to life?

I think I have an idea why.

It’s my Hand of Supremacy!

The gift from the gods in my hands draws out the maximum potential of anything I touch.

With it, I seem to have awakened the slumbering monster deep within Mt. Eternity.

But you see...

Junior was taking a tour around the crater, and I was picking up and removing rocks from the ground in case he tripped over them.

So...I touched the ground and stuff, you know?

I guess that was a bad idea.

It seems that the Hand of Supremacy affected the monster through the ground, and that triggered its resurrection.

What have I done?!

“Guff, guff, guff...! I am the first and most powerful dragon...! Typhon, the Proto-Geyser Dragon...!”

The dragon that came out of the crater spoke!

“You have allowed for my resurrection, which means the gods have finally become so arrogant as to have done the irrevocable. Did they also eliminate my replicas and mistakenly came to believe that they are the masters of the world, to the extent that they manipulate and destroy everything with such extreme wickedness? I have returned to punish them for their actions...!”

Who is it talking to?

The giant dragon that emerged from the crater continues to recite its soliloquy in a tone of explanation.

“This world was created by the gods. And those gods were created by Gaia, the Mother of All Creation. Gaia had her concerns. She feared that one day her own creations would become too reliant on their immense power and succumb to arrogance.”  

I’ve heard of that story somewhere.

Ah, I remember now.

Al Gor, the previous Geyser Dragon, said something along those lines.

The reason why dragons were created has something to do with their relationship with the gods.

“It’s the dragon’s duty to punish the gods when they become too arrogant or something.”

And that’s why the dragons were created, right?”

“Correct. All creatures on this earth were created by the gods, whereas we dragons were created directly by Gaia, Mother Goddess of All Creation. That is why we dragons are special and equal to, perhaps even greater than the gods.” 

Looks like a conversation has started.

This ancient, monstrous dragon sure likes to talk, huh? Did it miss people because it was sealed up for eons?

“However, the true meaning of invincibility lies only with me, the primordial dragon and direct creation of Gaia. Other dragons are but imitations of me—mere copies of my strength.”

Copies degrade when you copy them again.

If you keep making copies of the copies, it becomes even more distant from the original and turns into something else entirely. 

Or worse, it becomes inferior to the original...!

“Thus, the replicated dragons continued to deteriorate, and there may come a time when they are unable to restrain the gods and are overpowered. For this reason, Gaia decided to preserve the ultimate origin, the true first dragon that is I, and to prepare for the worst.”

“That’s why you were sealed up in Mt. Eternity’s crater...?!”

“You catch up well, it seems! I am the true executor of divine retribution, of the arrogant gods. The ultimate and unique being. That is me, Typhon, the Proto-Geyser Dragon and Primitive Dragon Emperor!!!”

This is the first dragon to ever live?

And it was directly created by the goddess Gaia?

But she didn’t say a single word about such a thing when we met face-to-face a few years ago!

Why didn’t she tell us something so important?!

Did she forget all about it because it’s been so long?!

It’s possible, considering how irresponsible deities are!

“Now... this world has already been overrun by the gods who have lost their moderation, and it is no longer beautiful as it once was. That is the trigger for my resurrection, after all.”

“Sorry, but that’s not it.”

The gods are generally moderate, and sure, they run amok sometimes, but the world is so beautiful right now, you know?

Your resurrection was but a mistake.

This divine rampage was the consequence of a slipup with my Hand of Supremacy.

“The world has become a mere consolation for the gods and has lost all value. It would be a mercy to erase it in one fell swoop. Let this ultimate, supreme, and singular existence, the Proto-Geyser Dragon Typhon, bestow upon you the mercy of destruction!!”

“Wah, wait!”

That won’t do.

This world is actually doing really well, and it has so much more to give.

Don’t abruptly end the future that’s connected to people’s hopes.

“My breath of demise will annihilate you! ...Huh?”

At that moment, the first dragon finally realized the abnormality of the situation it was in.

“What is this? Has my body shrunk? Where am I? A valley? A maze? Outer space? I don’t understand, where am I, for heaven’s sake?!”

The resurrected primordial dragon was immediately trapped in a subspace and wandered through a distorted path with no way out.

We were observing its situation through a monitor-like thing floating in the void.

“Jiuqu Yellow River Formation.”

“It’s one of the dimensional Adeptus arts used by the Sage, meow,” explains the Professor to us. “When you’re thrown into this alternate dimension, your abilities are reduced to a tenth of a fractio,n and you’ll wander in an endless loop with no way out. Not only that, you’ll be exhausted at a rate several times that of normal space just by being inside it. Even for an amazing dragon, there’s no way to escape this wicked space, meow.”

And just like that, a Lifeless King overpowers a dragon once again.

Poor Proto-Geyser Dragon. Surely, at the beginning of the world, there was no counter to the enigmatic dimensional magic, so it must be mystified.

“Guoooooh! I’ll use my dragon power to forcefully pry open this dimensional space! It’s no useeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”

“I shall return you to heaven’s decree.”

It seems that the Sage was in charge of holding the monster down in case it revived due to a blunder like this.

A dual-purpose safety device.

Has there ever been such a tremendous accumulation of events like this at Mt. Eternity?

“All right, now that the Proto Geyser Dragon has been considerably weakened, it’s time to deal the final blow. Grinzel Dragon Veil! The spotlight’s all yours, meow!”

“In the end, dragons are just being led around by the nose by these pseudo-corpses...”

Even though Veil was chosen for the task, she seems uneasy about the fact that dragons only repeat the history of being beaten around by Lifeless Kings.

“Don’t let it get to you. Lifeless Kings can use secret arts to seal away dragons with their wisdom and experience, but that’s as far as it goes. When it comes to raw power, we can’t match a dragon head-on. That’s why we want to entrust the final blow to you, meow.”

“Even if Lifeless Kings have a way to incapacitate a dragon, they still don’t have the power to kill it.”

Therefore, if a Lifeless King and a dragon were to fight, it would end up in an inconclusive stalemate.

There is no absolute superiority or inferiority between them.

So there you have it, Veil. Don’t lose heart.

“Yeah, sure. I have a feeling that flattering me like that is also part of their strat. Ugh, I’m so not up for this...”

“Good wuck, Sis Veillll.”

“Uoooooh! That’s it, I’m going to show Junior my cool sideee!”

Junior’s cheering suddenly motivated Veil.

She quickly reverts to her dragon form and leaps into the Jiuqu Yellow River Formation’s dimension laid out by the Sage.

“Is it safe for Veil to enter the other dimension?”

“It can distinguish between ally and enemy, so don’t worry, meow.”

Talk about convenient.

The strongest class of Lifeless Kings is certainly on a whole ‘nother level.

The Proto Geyser Dragon has already been weakened to a few hundredths of its total strength by the effects of being in another dimension.

There’s no way it can resist Veil, who dived in with vigorous momentum.

“Oh...? What are you, a duplicate of me? ...Guooooh?! What is this overwhelming dragon power? Not to mention, it’s hard for me to move in my weakened state inside this dimension! No, wait! If you’re also a dragon, would you be really satisfied winning in a despicable way? What happened to your pride as the absolute strongest...?!”

“No matter what method I use, all that matters, in the end, is that I winnnnnn!”

After deciding her signature phrase, Veil smashed the Proto Geyser Dragon’s knee joint with her special dragon screw and sealed her victory.

A copy surpassed the original.

This is what people call evolution.

I tried summarizing things by saying something witty.