Chapter 182: Exodus of the Five Dragons 『 Part One 』
The Lightscreen was nothing but pitch-black emptiness, until a voice broke through the silence.—young, elegant, and cultured.
「 "I have traveled from afar, seeking only a fragment of history. A history concerning… the Dragon." 」
「 .....」
〜Journey To The West World〜
"Oh? Concerning dragons?"
In the Purgatory of the Deep Sea, Ao Guang instantly stiffened his posture. He threw his head back, staring unblinkingly at the Lightscreen, terrified of missing even a single detail regarding the history of the 『 Permanence 』 Dragon.
"Big Brother, this is merely the history of otherworldly dragons; what does it have to do with us?"
Ao Qin asked, perplexed. Every time his elder brother saw the word "Dragon" mentioned on the screen, he seemed desperate to use his arts to slow the footage down tenfold for a closer look.
"Heh… Otherworldly dragons?"
Ao Guang let out a cold laugh.
"Have you truly not realized it yet? The world we inhabit is but one among billions in this galactic river. The Xianzhou may be a distant, alien realm to us, but to the 『 Permanence 』 Dragon Ancestor who holds dominion over the myriad dragonkind of the cosmos, we might very well be…"
"Descendants of that Dragon Ancestor?"
Ao Run instantly grasped his brother's meaning and finished the sentence.
"…Precisely."
Ao Guang nodded.
"That is why I seek clues regarding the Dragon Ancestor within this Lightscreen—to see if they might aid us in leading the Dragon Clans of the Four Seas out of this purgatory."
—
「 An old man appeared within the Lightscreen, a brush suspended over paper. A single drop of thick ink fell, gradually blooming across the Xuan paper.
"Regarding the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Dragons of the Celestial Abyss(Progenitor of All Dragons), even I know nothing."
"Long before the birth of history, the Dragon Ancestor roamed the Primordial Chaos, seeking the answer to existence."
At first, the paper held only chaos, but then it gradually unfurled, transforming into a winding dragon's spine.
The final stroke manifested as the coiled body, ink splashing down like a cascading galaxy. The colossal dragon leaped from the surface of the paper; amidst surging waves of ink, it swam into the starry sky.
In the vast cosmos, stars were but grains of sand. The Ink Dragon wound its way through the galaxy, its scales reflecting the brilliance of a billion stars, flickering in and out of sight.
Finally, it coiled itself around a star. As its body encircled the celestial sphere, that burning sun appeared impossibly insignificant beneath the dragon's shadow. 」
「 .....」
〜Record of Ragnarok World〜
"Wait?! That is a dragon?"
Odin's single pupil constricted violently. The moment the dragon's shadow manifested, the raven Huginn on his shoulder began to shriek in panic. This cacophonous chaos made the already heavy atmosphere within the Gods' VIP Lounge even more oppressive.
Odin's gaze turned instantly grim.
Compared to this dragon… Jormungandr, the "World Serpent" he had once cast into Midgard with his own hands, was as insignificant as an earthworm in the dirt.
Beneath the claws of this colossal dragon, the world they inhabited was no more than a trinket to be held in one's palm—something that could be reduced to fine powder with a casual touch.
The sudden clatter of a golden goblet hitting the floor shattered the dead silence of the room. The gods turned to the sound, only to see Zeus, the King of Gods, standing with a rigid expression, his beard trembling.
"Haha… Impossible. This is impossible… Even in the abyss of Tartarus… I have never seen such a monster. It must be a lie! Nothing on this Lightscreen can be trusted!"
The only response to his hysterical, impotent fury was the silence of the gods.
They all knew clearly… everything displayed on the Lightscreen was real. And seeing the terror on the face of Zeus, the supreme ruler of the cosmos, only deepened the unease in their hearts.
"Buddha, is this dragon even more terrifying than Phantylia?"
The Valkyrie Brunhilde whispered to the fashionably dressed man beside her.
"Bu-bu, isn't that obvious?"
Buddha crunched the lollipop in his mouth.
"If this dragon were to casually blow a breath, not only would the entire world… but even this room full of gods would be finished."
—
「 "Upon the Path, the revelation of the 『 Permanence 』 solemnly manifested. And thus… came the birth of us, Long's Scions."
The Ink Dragon, coiled upon the star, suddenly raised its head. Its burning eyes and trembling whiskers seemed to sense something, and it leaped up to spiral through the sea of stars.
In an instant—
Dragon claws curled, dragon tail encircled; the majestic shadow that spanned the galaxy collapsed and condensed into a mere square inch. In a flash, the ten-thousand-foot dragon form vanished completely, leaving only a sphere of swirling black light, which quietly shattered.
"I once visited Leyaris, a world orbited by five suns, where the Supreme Dragon sat enthroned upon a Star Vortex. It governed the cycle of day and night, rotated the seasons, and sheltered the sentient beings of the galaxy." 」
「 .....」
〜OVERLORD World〜.
"A… Ainz-sama…"
Shalltear's beautiful face turned deathly pale in an instant.
Whether due to excessive terror or profound shock, her teeth began to chatter audibly. Beads of cold sweat rolled down her forehead, dampening the white hair by her cheeks.
She looked up at the sky within the Lightscreen, which had been totally usurped by the giant dragon. Merely glimpsing a corner of it made her knees tremble and give way.
She was forced to clutch the railing before her just to hold herself up.
Was this excitement? Witnessing a supreme power even greater than Ainz-sama… no, a power that made even Phantylia seem unreachable?
It wasn't just Ainz-sama. Even if the power of everyone in the Great Tomb of Nazarick were combined… before these five colossal dragons, they would appear insignificant and pale.
Although her emotions refused to accept it, refusing to admit the truth, her body had reacted first.
…Because it was simply too, too, too magnificent.
In the Star Vortex displayed on the screen, billions of stars were torn into a spiraling river of light, falling endlessly toward the center. And above this vortex, five Supreme Dragons sat enthroned like deities.
It felt as if a mere closing of their talons would cause countless worlds similar to their own to disintegrate at their fingertips. Shattered stars poured from between their claws, transforming into a waterfall of brilliance.
This power… Could it be a Star God? Or was this merely a manifestation of the 『 Permanence 』?
We are truly too insignificant.
The phenomenon before his eyes forced Ainz to internalize this fact more strongly than a thousand words could.
Previously, when observing Phantylia's battle, the Guardians had required mental-affecting magic to force a state of calm. But upon witnessing this scene, everyone had shut their mouths, ceasing to make a single sound.
—
「 Then, the refined young voice asked: "Could the revelation of the 『 Permanence 』… signify the timeless nature of one's greatness?"
The old man spoke slowly: "Eternity that ends with the individual leads only to abominations of endless growth. That is—the fallacy of the Plague Author."
As the old man spoke, a giant dragon within the Lightscreen opened its eyes. In those vertical pupils burned the terminus of countless lives—wars, the hoarse, exhausted screams of entire races—all compressed into a fleeting flash of crimson.
"So then… Does the 『 Permanence 』 represent the continuance of the bloodline?"
The young voice continued: "I have also visited the homeworld of the Infernals. In the Lands of White Embers, the endead dragon Typhon rained down fire, causing its offspring to flourish and molt, burning ceaselessly." 」
「 .....」