The Age of Dragons (1)
The first lifeforms to crawl up onto land were fish like mudskippers, using their pectoral fins as front legs. Driven out by the brutal survival struggles underwater, they started evolving to flee briefly to the surface during crises.
Then, realizing land was actually pretty livable, they began developing lungs instead of gills and transforming the fins behind them into proper front legs. I mean, I designed them for solid mutations and evolution, but seeing front legs pop up that fast? Total freak-out moment.
Those evolved critters munched on plants and slimes, grew, multiplied, mutated, and evolved further. Before long, they sprouted hind legs too. Some turned lizard-like, others amphibian-ish... Evolution was a chaotic melting pot, pure pandemonium.
Anyway, the land-dwellers kept diversifying and changing... and for some reason, they started getting huge. At first, I had no clue why, but after poking around, I figured it out.
Most of it traced back to mana. That mysterious force has a knack for reshaping things according to someone's will, and when it meshed with the creatures' own drives? Weird stuff happened—like physically impossible changes. Totally unexpected.
Tiny lizards ballooned into massive dinosaurs, ones staring at the sky sprouted tiny wings and flapped off. Fun to watch all sorts of evolutions, sure... but isn't this a bit fast? Way quicker than I figured.
I'd imagined this kind of progression, but thought it'd take millennia. Nope—decades! Dinosaurs already? I was planning to watch mudskippers-with-legs turn into small critters, and boom, dinosaurs crash the party. Unthinkable.
「But hey, it's fun to watch, right?」
"True enough."
Watching giant dinosaurs rampage and brawl is entertaining. Plus, they're all evolving in different directions, so each fights with unique weapons—massive jaws and fangs, claws and agility, horns or tough hides. Lately, I've been living for the fight spectating.
「Seeing them fight so fiercely for survival makes me want a body of my own.」
"A body, huh... Not sure how you natural phenomena could even get one."
「The others are pondering it too. Especially Erebos—he says he needs a body to be Mom's mate.」
"That kid still hung up on it? Sigh."
I let out a groan, and Sylphid chuckled softly before adding,
「Don't be too hard on him. If we were male, we'd want to be Mom's mate too.」
"Ifrit's male, isn't he?"
「He's still a little kid! Decades later and he's the same baby.」
I nodded in agreement with Sylphid. That one's not growing up anytime soon. Back when I scolded him for burning up life... it wasn't just pity for the lost life. It was to teach him not to torch life willy-nilly.
If it was only about the waste, I could've rewound time and revived it. Or better—rewind before he burned it and scold him then. But that'd dilute the lesson! Whatever, water under the bridge.
「If we got bodies like that, could we live as fiercely?」
"Doubt it. Even with bodies, you kids are on another level from those overgrown lizards."
Sylphid alone could erode mountains as a massive wind. If they got bodies... they'd be something else. Not quite my level, though!
Some time passed like that.
「Mom! Erebos found a way to make a body!」
"He actually did it?"
「Yeah! But it needs your help, so wanna come see?」
"My help?"
What kind of help could they need from me to make bodies? Puzzled, I followed Sylphid to the cave where Erebos lurked.
A long, deep tunnel into the earth. A space of pure, lightless darkness. There dwelled Erebos, the darkness with intellect.
「You've come, Mother.」
"You were calling me Mom until recently, now it's Mother? Mom's fine anytime."
「I'm not a child forever.」
「I'm here too! Erebos! Brought Mom, so praise me!」
「Well done, Sylphid.」
Erebos's oddly dignified voice greeted us from the dark cave.
「So, how do you make a body?」
「Not exactly making one—more like borrowing.」
"Borrowing?"
Then—
Thud.
A small footstep echoed from the darkness ahead.
「Hm? Footsteps? Erebos, did a lizard sneak in?」
「Not a lizard.」
Something approached. In the pitch black where you couldn't see an inch ahead, something walked toward us.
"Erebos, sorry, but let's light this up."
I gathered mana to create light. Then, from the dim cave's depths, the approaching figure came into view.
Unlike other dinosaurs, it was a small one with jet-black skin. But the aura it gave off... endless, profound darkness. Identical to Erebos's.
"Erebos?"
"As expected of Mother—you see right away."
「Whoa?! What? How? Did you steal its body?? So cool! How'd you do it???」
"Steal? I'd never do something so barbaric. I just borrowed the corpse of one that wandered in, starved, and died."
Possessing a starved corpse... isn't this necromancy?
"Of course, being dead, I can't stop decay, and it can't handle my full power for long... but as a temporary vessel, it works."
"Decay... yeah, I smell a bit of rot now."
The skin dyed pitch black... probably from Erebos inhabiting it?
"Anyway, this experience gave me a clue. While compensating for the body's losses with my power, I realized I could shape a body of my desired form using my power."
Since their power is mostly mana, crafting a body with it... not impossible. Mana manifests will, after all. Maybe it responded to their desire for bodies.
"But our power's too strong for ordinary bodies to last. So we need special materials."
"Hmm... ah, is that where I come in? Lending my body?"
I'm already busy globe-trotting to balance ecosystems—lending my body to the kids might be tough.
「If it means borrowing Mother's body, I say no! I wanna fly with Mother, not become her!」
"Never crossed my mind anyway."
"Not borrowing my body?"
The black dinosaur nodded slightly and replied,
"Not your whole body, Mother. Just one scale should suffice."
"One of my scales?"
"Yes. Using one of your scales as a core and manifesting with our power should yield a body much like yours."
A body like mine... a dragon's, not a dinosaur's?
"One scale's easy to give, but will it be enough?"
"Yes. Yours could hold all our power and more."
Hm. One scale's no big deal—it'll grow back. I plucked one from under my chin and handed it to the black-dinosaur Erebos.
"This enough?"
"Yes. Perfect."
「Mom! Me too! Me too!」
I peeled off another and gave it to Sylphid.
「So how? Just pour power into it?」
"Not pour—infuse it. Put your everything into it, wish for a body, and it should form."
Erebos gripped the scale. Black energy seeped out, slowly seeping into it.
The black dinosaur's body faded lighter, while my silver scale turned pitch black.
As the dinosaur's black fully vanished and my scale blackened completely, the body collapsed with a thud.
「Hm... Mother's scale holds far more than my all. But it should work.」
With Erebos's words, black mist oozed from the scale, shaping into a form eerily like mine.
Long neck, scaled skin. Elongated snout, sharp teeth. Horns sprouting here and there. Slightly short forelegs, massive wings. Sturdy hind legs, long tail.
「Whoa! Amazing! Erebos looks just like Mom!」
"Much smaller, though."
The overall shape mimicked mine—a dragon. Smaller, with subtle differences... but Erebos had forged a black dragon body.
"Success, Mother. Now I have a body like yours."
Under the neck of that black dragon Erebos hung my scale, silver once more, embedded upside down.