The Villain's Story

"What, are you surprised?"

Her voice pierced my body itself and sent a strange feeling throughout, a feeling that made me want to bow, or succumb in other words.

"Ah..."

I groaned, as my knees started to buckle. In a place where there was no ground and I always seemed to be floating, I felt as if my knees touched solid ground in this vast expanse.

"Oh, I forgot."

She said, as she brought her fingers to her lips, hiding a small laugh. She did it with such elegance that it was like it was a queen in front of me.

"I apologize for that, darling."

...

'Peculiar choice of words...'

I thought, as the pressure that bound my body was released, and I was finally free, I opened my mouth to say.

"You can mani-"

But my mouth remained open, as I fully gazed at her looking down on me. She was taller than me, by quite a lot as well.

A head taller than me, perhaps even a neck included.

She had a smile on her face as she noticed my stupidity, and 'kindly' explained.

"I am a supreme, did you expect I would be a dwarf? Furthermore, Dragon's are naturally superior to other races, even if they polymorph to the form of that species."

"... Sorry."

I apologized for my rudeness, I had expected her to be shorter than me, to be honest. I thought I was special due to my height somewhat.

"Anyway, when could you manifest yourself here?"

I asked her, confused. This had to be something she could do only recently, or else she would have visited me in my previous attempts at training here. Surely, I must have reached a new level so this was possible.

"I could do it whenever I wanted."

Her response threw me off guard, if she could always do it then why didn't she? Was there something stopping her?

Thankfully, she gave an explanation.

"It's because you would have died if I did show myself, You were too weak then. Your body simply could not have handled my divine presence."

'So there was a reason...'

It made sense...even now I was too weak, and she had to reduce her presence, so I wouldn't bow down consciously, And I could still sense that she was holding a lot of herself back. And even then, I could still feel the power undulating from her.

In a calm and peaceful manner. It was like a dam she had constructed to prevent it from leaking too much. If it did...maybe my entire being would be reduced to nothing but ash.

Thinking about this made me realize just how insignificant I was in the grand scheme of things. I was a mere B-rank, one of many on Earth...which was a bad planet in terms of ranks.

"Sigh..."

I sighed, knowing full well that the reason for my weakness was my own self, limiting myself to this rank because Master told me to do so, just so my awakening of Aura would be more powerful.

If I can awaken it...that is. The only reason I haven't advanced, which I could do easily, is because I want to unlock Aura, I want to know what I can do with it! It's like a gut feeling, a premonition that is telling me I must do it.

But I don't know how, All the methods that exist, I probably have tried them. Even those that Alexander and Lucas were subjected too... I have been in those situations more times than I can count, if it was that easy, I would have already unlocked that power.

But I still can't. And at Terra Damnum, whenever those three trained Aura, I could only watch. And those bastards could give me a good fight if they used it. I was on the brink of losing many times.

I want to unlock it... I hope I can unlock it. Perhaps me being a dragon may affect it.

"About that planet..."

Lanesha's voice shook me from my thoughts, waking me up. I knew where she was going with this and decided to explain in as much detail as possible.

I told her everything I had seen in that planet, about the statues, the mana ravine, and even the patterns of the grass and the gravity of that place. I didn't know if she needed all the details, but it didn't hurt anyone to do it. I told her the details from the direction I went to scout.

About everything we had encountered, she had a lost look on her face as she was trying to recall something from her memory.

"It's definitely a planet that belonged to giants if they had statues and cities... But which one?"

She mumbled, small snowflakes dropping from her lips, dropping towards the expanse of space and becoming stars.

"Hmm... Have you seen the wildlife there?"

She asked. I didn't go into the direction where the forest was, but I did hear someone say something about it...what was it...

Ah. I remember now.

"There were trees that had metallic needles for leaves."

"Was there a sea as well, in the west of this world?"

"Yes."

I confirmed, and she smiled.

"You don't have anything to worry about. That planet was a colony...but It was destroyed."

"Destroyed?"

"Yes, the giants that lived there...how do I explain this."

From her expressions and her struggle to form the sentence into words I could have an easy time understanding made me think that it was serious.

Was there a massive war?

"Sigh... The giants there stole the egg of a Fire dragon...and grilled it."

"... And?"

"Agri went there and annihilated every giant by turning them to ash, Quite a large bit of that planet was burnt to a crisp, perhaps nature recovered after a few millennia."

I stood still, frozen.

"What?"

I could only say that, as I 'failed' to comprehend whatever she just said.

"Alone?"

"Yes."

"Aren't Giants the enemies of Dragons...?"

"We have many enemies, but that does not mean they are 'worthy' enemies. The only ones that we can call our rivals are perhaps the God beasts, and our relationship with them is...diplomatic."

"... So Giants are nothing?"

If they were something...surely one dragon wasn't all it would take. Granted, Agri was the supreme of fire...but still.

To annihilate an entire colony?

"You're thinking too much, Sure, some giants, like the Asgardian giants, are great adversaries, but most aren't. We dragons are simply too powerful."

She said, with pride in her voice.

....

At this point I figured that at this point, it was better to stay quiet. There was some sort of happiness within me, the origin of which I didn't really know...but I just stayed quiet, not expressing it.

"So...do you mean that planet is safe?"

"It should be, unless some other species evolved to take their place, but if it did, it would have already attacked you. So you don't need to be worried too much. But do exercise caution. It's been quite a while, so something's might have changed."

She said, as she casually referred to a multiple millennium as quite a while. The nonchalant attitude did throw me off. She was talking in periods of time I couldn't comprehend.

She really was old, ancient even.

But I knew better to not say that, She may not even care she was my guardian dragon and may remove me in an instant.

There was a part of me that thought she would never attempt such a thing, but there was a bigger part of unwilling to test it.

"Alright... So I can leave?"

"This is your inner world, darling, you can leave whenever you want."

She had manifested a fruit which was like an apple but rugged and began to eat it, all while lying down...or rather floating in this emptiness.

"Thank you for your help."

I said, as I prepared to leave.

"My pleasure."

My figure disappeared, but she remained.

All of a sudden, her calm and nonchalant demeanour changed, and she stood upright, the smile on Lanesha's face disappeared, and she looked at the place where Alan once stood.

She turned her head to gaze at the Frost world in this realm, and her expression said she thought it was just too subpar.

"What did you do...? James?"

She talked to herself in this lonely place.

"His aura...is different and the power of chaos is like a seed now...not non-existent like before...

What did you do?!"

She almost threw a fit, angry that all of her and her kins efforts were in vain. Her fury was not something that ordinary people could understand.

'Why did I fall for such tricks.'

She thought to herself, as she imagined the sight of repulsive place he called home, his domain where his only companion was himself.

"What are you planning, even as your soul is drifting away, being erased by the second?"

She could never figure him out. She, a dragon, could not determine the thoughts of a mere human.

Wasn't that a disgrace.

He truly was her biggest mistake.