57. Tachia Pilloy

—Boom!

My half-faded consciousness returned amid the consecutive explosions. Even for one hailed as the pinnacle of all creation, losing consciousness from a mere piece of flying debris would be a disgrace. But she was already so damaged that such shame no longer mattered.

—Ah, da.

Yet as one bound by the contract to test humanity, she could not simply rid herself of this power either.

Tachia furrowed her brow at the continued sobs of the 'means' created for that purpose—floating in the air—and opened her bloodstained mouth to speak.

"He's not your father."

—Daddy, daaaddy....

"Rampaging like this changes nothing. Unless that guy says he'll take you..."

—Waaaaaaaaaah!!

The ego had awakened far sooner than expected. Even so, it was still just an infant, barely two or three years old. The mana manifesting physical force through a tantrum was fierce and wild, utterly indiscriminate in its destruction.

—Kaboom!!!

Cracks spread across her body from the resulting shockwave. The powder that spilled through those gaps settled on the floor—

Normally it should have scattered into dust, but before long it drew back to her body, coalescing into droplets of blood. It was only natural.

For the pinnacle of all creation, even a single casual word carries weight, and so even a promise born from a whim must be kept. Though her lifespan had long since surpassed its limits, as long as the contract remained unfinished, the world would not permit her death.

"......As I thought."

But that innate nature now felt no different from a curse. From the lips of the transcendent being who had steadied her crumbling mind, something that could finally be called resentment began to leak out.

"I really shouldn't have raised something like a human. Just as I thought."

To a past mistake, unable to soothe even her own heart. Because she felt the disillusionment toward the curse created by her innate nature growing stronger by the day.

***

Dragon.

A supreme being who ruled as part of the world through their innate presence. A pinnacle of all creation that helped cultivate this world...

But the moment the world was complete, their descendants lost their purpose. No matter how much power they held, there was nowhere to use it. With nothing above them, everything in this world simply seemed trivial.

"Aw, m-mama...."

The Volcano Dragon — Tachia Piloi.

She, who had settled in a volcano, wandered the world beyond her nest on a whim born from the emptiness of such a life. Sick of sleeping, she thought it wouldn't be bad to experience and blend into whatever she encountered.

"Don't you have a mom?"

"Uwaaaaaaah!!"

So the beginning of everything was a cradle drifting down a river she encountered on her journey. And it was nothing more than picking up and raising that child on a whim.

"Goodness... How can a child not even a hundred years old have such a loud voice?"

But for the first time, the Decayed Dragon felt a simple, unknown emotion awaken toward that tiny life. Was it the thought that her life would end raising this child? Or curiosity about which would die first—the long-lived species with little time left, or the short-lived one just born? Whatever the case, the journey born from a whim gave way to a desire to watch over the life she had picked up.

"Well, whatever. It's my twilight years anyway. This might not be so bad."

Whatever the reason, the feelings that arose were sincere. Like an old person with little time left picking up an abandoned puppy to soothe their loneliness. The generosity born of her ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠twilight years was enough to evoke genuine 'affection' towards the being she would spend the rest of her lifespan with.

****

"Mama. What's wrong with your body......?"

But contentment in that simplicity was fleeting. The decaying existence was slowly acknowledging her emotions, but one day, the baby she lived with sensed her body's abnormalities and began to tremble.

No, not a baby anymore, but a girl. A span of time that was but an instant to the supreme being was enough for a newborn to grow into a young girl.

"Your skin is cracking, why is that? Why is sand-like stuff coming out of your body?"

The moment the child, who had only babbled before, gradually awakened her ego and could finally sense the anomaly in her caretaker's body... When those questions slowly turned into incomprehensible emotions, the dragon confronting it belatedly realized something she had overlooked.

She might have a lifespan akin to the girl she'd grown fond of, but everything the girl would witness as she grew up was merely 'the time of decay approaching death.'

Not a whole life, but fifty years of collapse.

From the moment this girl sensed the anomaly, she would have no choice but to witness only her breaking-down appearance.

"...Mama, are you okay?"

The eons spent in meaningless solitude became a curse as the end approached, endlessly exposing that ugly demise to the one she held in her heart....

The moment she realized this, the little girl's eyes no longer felt pleasant.

The moment she felt those emotions would intensify, her heart began to pound violently.

—Thump, thump.

There was no way to calm it. No way to remain composed.

Because for a being born empty, emotional turmoil like this was far too alien.

"Mama, where are you going!? Mama!!"

Without even realizing how rash it was, she fled to her lair—hidden from the girl—and hid herself. She turned her back on the girl who had grown up looking only at her, focusing solely on calming an emotion she'd felt for the first time in her life. If she grew more disturbed, she would reveal her true form. If she did, she might see an expression worse than the one she'd seen before.

—Thump, thump.

But no matter how much time passed, the throbbing didn't subside. The confusion only grew larger because she couldn't grasp it. Why did that child's expression cause her such great confusion?

For a ten-thousand-year-old immortal, understanding emotions that blossom from living a limited, mortal life was no easy task......

"Here! The dragon is right here!"

Without even the leisure to realize it herself, those who had followed her traces came to interfere at every turn.

Humans.

Unlike that child who retained a pure heart knowing nothing, they were a race steeped in arrogance and vanity.

"It was true. It did fly this way."

"Ooh! A dragon thought to be mere legend truly exists!"

As the species whose reproductive instincts had faded in their empty lives vanished one by one, these beings began to reveal their ambition to place all existence beneath their feet, as if they themselves were the pinnacle of this world.

A generation that ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had forgotten the status and fear of beings like herself had arrived, and they began to flaunt their pathetic majesty.

"Dismantling a dragon would surely fetch a fortune!"

"I shall offer this head to the king to make my homeland greater!"

"I will prove my strength by beheading the ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dragon!!"

Wealth, fame, proof of strength....

Just watching them attack while spouting such trivial things, she felt a surge of irritation.

Insects she wouldn't even glance at normally. They were getting on her nerves while she was struggling just to control her own emotions.

—Whoooosh!!

Chasing the incessant buzzing in her ears, she lashed out with her breath. Feeble beings turned to dust just from the heat that swept the area.

The gap between a dragon and a human was so overwhelming that they died in droves from that alone. Yet the insects who didn't witness that majesty kept swarming, becoming a nuisance.

Without gauging that innate difference, not knowing their place, they kept rushing in like moths to a flame. Unless she taught them their place properly, it would keep repeating.

"Uwaaaaah! It's a dragon!"

"A dragon has appeared! Everyone, run away!!"

So she would leave her lair and wipe out their kind. Otherwise, she could not secure the peace to calm her confusion. Even if her body was crushed by its limits, she would accept it as her fate, and annihilate every last human on this land.

—Rumble, rumble.

Thus, humanity's battle against the provoked Decayed Dragon shifted from ambition-driven attacks to a defensive war for their very existence.

And the dragon, who mercilessly shattered even that, finally defined the emotion stirring inside her after destroying several nations.

'It was humans.'

It was humans. She'd gotten entangled with them from the start, and this was the result. She realized it was humans who had made the end of her life so chaotic—more than just an annoyance—and robbed her of that peace.

"Tachia Piloi."

Relying solely on the contempt awakened at the end of her life, she advanced, burning her body. What blocked her path was a being who possessed a particularly special power among such insects.

"...Do you remember me?"

She noticed right away.

That this person possessed a dragon's power just like herself.

But even that was infinitely insignificant compared to a true dragon. Even knowing this being's power resembled her ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠own, the Decayed Dragon ignored her, trying to force her way through. In the end, if the opponent was human, they were no different from those complicit in burning her. She believed that flame would never extinguish until the very moment it consumed her entirely.

"It's fine if you don't remember. I didn't come here to leisurely chat with you either."

The woman who blocked the path of the dragon who chose to reign as a calamity. Channeling her inherited power into her sword, she murmured in a low voice.

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