Liam shivered where he lay. His body pale and his mind in disarray. Whatever it was he had just seen in that darkness. It was terrifying. It was one thing to be in the presence of an entity that seemed godly but to have your very existence lost?
That was something else entirely. He had felt it first hand, the feeling of having the very essence of what truly made him…well him, start to slowly crumble away. Pieces eroded from his very being.
Liam still didn't know what that place was but he was sure that had he stayed there any longer he would have lost his mind…literary.
He shivered once more. His arms hugging himself and his fingers digging into his skin. It hurt but that was precisely what he preferred at this moment. Better to feel pain than to remember the sick feeling of erasure.
If he was powerless in front of the dragon then he was utterly helpless in that well of darkness.
What even was that?
"The Void" the dragon's voice rumbled once more.
Liam weakly looked up. His pupils trembling. For some reason the dragon didn't seem as imposing as it had before. Why was that?
"The…void?"
"Aye little one…it is where the Bringer of the End rests. A place where nothing exists, it is a plane that manifests only upon worlds drawing near their end"
Liam was shaken. This was the first he had heard of this. Something like that existed at the end of a world? Did that mean like when a world reached the end of its lifespan? Or did it mean when a world was close to destruction?
Liam doubted if it was the latter, if that was the case then Earth would have already encountered something like that and they'd have stood no chance at all.
"You have questions young one speak out your mind" the dragon said.
Liam's head almost shot up to the point of straining his neck. He couldn't believe his ears. What was going on with the dragon? Why did it seem more…accommodating that before? Don't get it wrong he could still feel the subtle pressure the dragon exuded but now it was more…welcoming.
Why was that?
As confused as he was Liam knew that this was an opportunity and one he did not want to waste.
"W-why did you bring me to that place?" Liam asked his voice slightly subdued. He didn't want to risk angering the dragon.
"I did not take you anywhere" he heard the dragon say and was about to interject but… "I simply projected your mind into one of my core memories and presented it as a trial"
"A trial for what?" Liam couldn't help but ask.
The dragon lingered. His gaze locked onto him for a few long seconds. Liam felt as though he was sitting on pricks and needles, one wrong move and it would be over.
'Did I say something wrong?' he wondered
"Tell me young one. When you look at me what do you see?" the dragon finally asked. Liam couldn't help but be confused.
What did the dragon mean by that? What did he see?
"A… An all-powerful being that can crush me without even touching me" he said.
The dragon froze and looked at him. Liam sweating once more before its head swung back and a booming laughter echoed in the cave.
Liam's ears stung from the soundwaves and the runes in the cave seemed to glow more fiercely as though in response to the dragon's amusement. Several minutes must have passed before the dragon's laughter finally faded.
The dragon looked at Liam once more and this time there was a glint of something other than pride within those draconic eyes.
Sadness.
Why would such a being be…sad?
"It is true little one that my current strength is indeed enough to crush you in a single strike. In fact just a slightest release of my aura would do the deed just well…" the dragon moved. Its body rising just a few meters off the ground.
'Its standing' Liam realized but...
Its movements were slow and a bit sluggish as though it was fighting against something.
Clink!
Liam's eyes widened at the sound.
The dragon was bound by chains. Its arms and leg were cuffed to a length chain that seemed to grow into the very ground itself. The chains were strange. At first glance they looked like an ordinary chain, with links the size of two men combined, they were an eerie dark color and they felt ominous in a way that reminded Liam of something…They glowed with a purple pulse periodically, a motion synchronous with the runes that covered the entire wall of the cave.
They warped around the dragon's neck as well as his wings.
"Do you see it now?" the dragon asked and only now did Liam understand what was truly happening.
The dragon wasn't in this Zone by choice. No, it was trapped here. Imprisoned against its will with no way to get out.
What could all of this mean? Who could be strong enough to imprison a being as godly as this dragon? And most importantly…How did they turn a Zone into the prison that bound it?
'Wait… I may be thinking about it from the wrong angle. What if this Zone was created specifically to imprison this dragon, and if they that really was the case then could they be connected to the Zones opening on Earth somehow?'
Liam wanted to scratch his head in frustration. The questions just kept piling and piling and yet the answers were nowhere to be found.
'Hmm?' Liam looked up only to find a black claw pointed at him. He flinched. Was this it, was the dragon finally tired of him?
"Now then care to tell me why your clan let your foundation destabilize to such an extent?" the dragon asked.
Hearing that question for some reason Liam's heart slowed to almost a crawl. What was the dragon suddenly saying? What was a clan? What did it mean by destabilized?
"I see" the dragon retracted its large claw and looked at him deeply. "You are not from my world then"