Dwarves: Dragon's Ruin -3-
“Umu!!”
—Squeeze!! Lexi hugged me fiercely, pressing her firm tits against my body and letting me feel their lewd, taut bounce.
“Yeah, you did great. This'll make for some fine material.”
I praised her in response to her asking if she'd done well, then inspected the dead ancient dragon's corpse.
“Definitely an ancient dragon, alright.”
Its massive body looked nearly ten times larger than the old dragon I'd used for Dena. No wonder people said dragons and ancient dragons were entirely different species—the difference was obvious.
'As an ancient dragon that lived here, it must know all sorts of things.'
For example, the exact location of Volcanus's heart. That heart's position was known only to the dwarf king and heir among the royals, so even Lexi's original, Scaletta, only knew it was somewhere in the royal palace underground—not the precise spot.
But as an ancient dragon that had lived for ages, extracting its memories would clearly take a long time.
'Good thing I researched with Mari and figured out how to pull only the memories I want with Memento Mori.'
The backup plan came in handy.
Memento Mori
At that moment, the ancient dragon's memories flooded in.
“Hmm... so that's where it is...”
Thanks to them, I now knew exactly where Volcanus's heart was.
It was in Kajandrack, the royal palace—a massive treasure vault storing the dwarf royal family's assets, off-limits even to other royals without the king's or heir's permission. Deep inside that vast vault, in an enormous safe.
'And only those acknowledged by Volcanus can enter...'
Honestly, I wondered if an undead like me could even get acknowledged by Volcanus, but screw that hassle—I'd just blast my way in.
The moment I tried to end the spell—
“Hm?”
I spotted something in the ancient dragon's memories.
'Beautiful ancient dragon... taxidermied...'
It was a memory of a stunning golden ancient dragon that Parnil—the one whose corpse lay before me—had killed and stuffed during the Demon King's invasion of the ancient dwarf kingdom.
And at the same time, I saw her in human form...
“Lexi.”
“Umu?”
“I'm gonna go make a new comrade. Wipe out the rat bastards.”
“Umu!!”
Lexi nodded at my words, signaling she understood, then grabbed her hammer with a feral grin and headed off to hunt the remaining ratmen.
There were so many that my Living Death servants were still slaughtering them. Being underground, they'd held back on big spells too.
—Shrrk.
The instant Lexi left, I stored the ancient dragon's corpse in the corpse repository.
'Time to move.'
Volcanus's heart? What's that? Living Death servants are way more important to me!! The heart could wait.
—Vmmm!!
The dimensional gate activated once more, this time linking to a room in the royal palace from Parnil's memories.
Stepping through, what appeared before my eyes was a lavish, massive chamber in the palace—well-preserved despite the ages, thanks to diligent maintenance unlike the ruins outside.
And there, I saw—
“Hooh...”
A gigantic dragon that looked forged from pure gold.
Even in its non-humanoid form, it transcended species to feel breathtakingly beautiful. Only the lifeless aura, the magic used to preserve the corpse from decay, and the missing eye from battle slightly marred its perfection.
“Perfect. Absolutely splendid.”
Recalling her human form from the memories, she was more than worthy of becoming a Living Death servant.
'Above all, the supreme undead you can make from dragons are among the strongest even compared to mass-produced fodder undead by players.'
They had incredible versatility for both aerial and ground combat.
—Shrrk.
Living Death [Masterpiece Undead]
Create Immortal
With my mind made up, I activated the skills at once while chanting the undead creation spell.
The undead I aimed to create was a Draculich—one of the ultimate undead, fusing a dragon with a lich, the supreme undead mage.
Undead made from dragons boasted extreme performance with no middling options, depending on the creator's skill. You could end up with trash like zombie dragons or bone dragons, or supreme ones like the Draculich I was making, progenitor dragons, or death knight dragons.
Progenitor dragons required vampire lineage, so off the table. Between Draculich and death knight dragon, I chose Draculich.
Death knight dragons specialized in melee, while Draculich excelled in magic.
I picked Draculich because it had a hidden ace up its sleeve.
'Dragons guarantee base physical prowess, but it's pathetic compared to the original. However...'
Using dragon material for enhancements via the Corpse Sculptor's Corpse Carving skill when creating the undead let you retain the dragon's physical abilities while gaining the Draculich's signature powerful magic—an ultimate undead.
It fell short of the death knight dragon's raw physical boosts, but in overall stats and performance, it was unmatched.
And right now, I had an ancient dragon corpse of the same grade to reinforce this beauty with.
—Grind.
Parnil's corpse from the repository was consumed, and customization windows for this undead's appearance popped up in my mind.
'Make the dragon form cool and undead-like...'
As expected, I could customize not just the dragon form but also the human form via Polymorph magic.
'In the game, high-rank dragon monsters could all use Perfect Polymorph, which outright changed their species beyond mere transformation.'
Obviously, high-rank dragon monsters included Draculich.
'Guess this world has polymorph-like appearance change magic too.'
Anyway, for the human form, I applied Sollenira's original golden dragon humanoid appearance exactly, and set her outfit to my tastes.
“Now...”
“Get horny.”
Sollenira, heir to the golden bloodline and among the youngest of the ancient dragons left in this world.
During the gods' war, ancient dragons split by their patron deities, slaughtering each other. Most grew disillusioned with kin-slaying.
By Sollenira's time, the few survivors had mostly gone into seclusion, serving no gods.
But the golden lineage, created by Goddess Luminus from the beginning, held fierce loyalty and pride in serving her.
Sollenira wasn't that fanatical, but her sense of justice and duty toward the world's lives bound her to the goddess's service.
And that led to her doom.
During the ancient era—when the Demon King invaded the ancient dwarf kingdom via a southern bypass unknown even to the dwarves—they were ambushed and faced extinction.
Luminus, freshly recovered from the gods' war scars, panicked and deployed her strongest surface asset who heeded her: Sollenira.
On that battlefield—
“Hah, to think such a beautiful kin existed... How about it? Become my rain queen.”
“Fallen one!! How dare you defile me like this!!”
She received a proposal from some old bastard. Furious at the mockery and belittlement, Sollenira charged Parnil, igniting battle.
The ancient dragon clash razed several dwarf underground cities. Her stalling saved the dwarves from total extinction, but—
“Cough!! Damn it...”
“Tch, you should've just accepted my offer.”
In the end, she lost an eye and fell.
Her foe was primordial, arguably the strongest ancient dragon. She was a newbie by comparison.
Her talent was remarkable to last that long; with more time to bloom fully, who knows? But it remained hypothetical—she died unfulfilled.
Yet—
“Hmm... so it ends like this. Such a pity.”
Her suffering didn't end in death.
“You shall remain eternally unrotting and beautiful.”
—Vmmm!!
Parnil forced magic into her flesh, halting the natural decay back to earth. Her soul fled to the goddess, but—
'Kaaaaah!!!!!'
Residual thoughts screamed in endless agony from the vile magic.
'I'll kill you!!! Kill you!! Parniiil!!!'
At first, fury and hatred fueled vengeful cries amid the twisting pain.
'Kaaaaah!!'
But time passed. Her existence faded from memory; even dwarves forgot their ancestors' footsteps. Eras turned ancient.
'Egokgugabao@#@#!#!#!#!!!!'
The writhing remnants devolved into meaningless, pain-filled shrieks.
Ages later, as even those neared dissipation—
“It's okay now!! Why, you ask!!”
A voice pierced the pain-only void in the remnants' mind.
The torment vanished. A great being cloaked in death emerged in pale, beautiful light.
“I've come!!”
His voice was heavenly harmony, salvation.
She felt an essential pull, his will desiring her.
'Uhegeoegage$!#%!#^^@!@#!!'
Gathering shattered intellect fragments, she barely formed meaningful words.
“Maste... Master!!”
Her final consciousness snapped.
And born was—
“KuoOOOOOOH!!!!”
“Oh, impressive.”
The mighty golden undead dragon.
“Now, transform to human form.”
—Pop.
—Shrrk.
“Grrr!! Snort!!”
'Master! Owner!! Master!!'
“Huh?”
Her speech, actions, and thoughts were simplistic, innocent—beastly, almost animalistic.
“Is this right?”
—Flop.
“Kiiing!! Kiiing!!”
'Owner! Belly!! Pat pat! Good good!! Master!!'