Chapter 13: War of Dragons (1)

There were various reasons for the decrease in dragon birth rates, but the biggest cause was the dragons' arrogance.

When they were biological beings, their instincts would have whispered to leave offspring, but now they've become beings that are about 80% removed from being biological.

It's natural that sexual desire and the desire for offspring would decrease.

Still, since the dragons' lifespan has increased... even if the annual birth rate decreases, they should be able to maintain their population somehow.

But.

"It's lonely..."

These days, children rarely come to visit me.

Even the Lizardmen who used to visit occasionally now only come once a year to offer meat.

At best, only the seven children who received my scales visit occasionally. Is this how it feels to be a neglected old person?

If there's any consolation, it's that the overall environment has started to stabilize.

The number of dinosaurs that were on the verge of extinction is slowly recovering, and the friction between dragons and the resulting conflicts are decreasing... Well, they're not coming to me, so they must be decreasing, right?

The number of Lizardmen is increasing too. It would be nice if mammals diversify at the right time and primitive humans appear. Hmm...

As I spent time leisurely observing the overall situation of the world, I started to feel a bit sleepy.

There have been various tiring events after all. It's natural to feel sleepy. Yeah.

I wrote a note in the cave where I was staying saying I was going into hibernation for a while, then moved to the top of a high mountain and dug a large cave.

Here, I won't be disturbed by others.

And so, I started my first hibernation.

Well, even though I say hibernation, only my body was asleep while my mind remained awake.

I should take this opportunity to thoroughly browse the internet of other worlds. Time seems like it will pass very well.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

How long has it been since I fell asleep?

"It's war!!!"

Suddenly, a loud roar reached the top of the mountain where I was sleeping.

War? What war all of a sudden? Have aliens invaded? Or has some transcendent octopus-headed monster awakened from the abyss?

If not that... could it be?

I slowly moved my body, which had become stiff from sleeping for a long time, to loosen it up.

Ugh... How long have I been asleep? It's taking dozens of days just to loosen up my body.

Once my body could move smoothly, I rushed out of the cave I was staying in and flew into the sky.

"What is this?"

I witnessed the scene of numerous dragons flying in the sky, breathing fire at each other.

"No, what on earth. What's happening right now?"

A miserable sight of dragons not only breathing fire but also whipping with their tails or tearing each other's scales with teeth and claws.

The Black children were mainly being attacked, with Red, Gold, and Blue primarily attacking Black.

It was utter chaos. In the midst of such a situation.

Kwaaang!!!

A fireball from somewhere hits my face and explodes.

Hmm, it's slightly warm.

"A giant silver dragon...? Could it be?!"

"Could it be the Creation God Dragon that disappeared hundreds of years ago?!"

"Whether it's the Creation God Dragon or whatever! Don't stop the attack! This time we'll burn all the Blacks to ashes!"

"Creation God Dragon? What an outdated name!"

"It's just an old relic that's behind the times anyway! The world already belongs to us Black Dragons!"

Tsk. Why are these kids' manners so messed up? Such ill-mannered little lizards.

It's an unpleasant time to see how badly the seven children have messed up their offspring's education.

"What should we do about the Creation God Dragon?!"

"I don't know! Just counterattack for now!"

"Breath! Dodge it!!"

Once again, the Black children hurriedly dodge the fiery breath being spewed.

And the missed breath hits me once again.

Kwaaang!!!

A fiery breath that can melt rocks into lava in an instant. But to me, it's just a slightly warm breath.

But damage from such attacks isn't the issue here.

You dare. To aim. Your breath at me?

I looked at the Red Dragon that breathed fire at me.

A considerably large dragon. Not an immature young dragon, but one that has been an adult for a long time.

I slowly flapped my wings to approach that Red Dragon.

"Hee, heek?!"

The Red Dragon, seemingly frightened by my approaching figure, continued to breathe fire. But such lukewarm flames couldn't even make me feel a slight warmth.

"Kids these days... have no manners. Carelessly breathing fire at their elders."

As I approached, the Red Dragon panicked and tried to escape by flapping its wings. But.

"Too slow."

I was much faster at grabbing its face than it was at escaping.

"Ifrit has done a terrible job educating the young ones. What a miserable sight."

"Kuh, kuhek!"

The Red Dragon struggled to escape from my front paw, but its weak resistance couldn't do anything against even one of my claws.

"Do you want to die?"

"Grrrr..."

A sound of something twisting is heard from within my grasp.

And the Red Dragon's groans slowly lose their form and flow out.

I sigh softly at the Red Dragon and open my front paw that was grasping it.

Then the Red Dragon, its head covered in blood, falls helplessly.

"......"

Silence falls over the battlefield. A situation where all eyes are focused on me and not even a slight noise is heard.

I spread my wings and headed elsewhere.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The place where I used to stay. The cave where dragons would come if there was a conflict. The base where I stayed before hibernation.

That cave was completely blocked due to the aftermath of the mountain collapsing from the war.

The Lizardman temple that was located near the cave had already become ruins.

The temple that small Lizardmen had worked hard to build by piling stones had now turned into a pile of collapsed rubble.

I let out a small sigh and lifted my head to look at the sky.

A chaotic scene of giant dragons engaging in aerial combat and attacking each other. As a result, the ground was being destroyed.

Giant trees burning and collapsing, countless dinosaurs and animals losing their habitats and meeting death while trying to escape, small animals desperately digging burrows to survive - a hellish sight.

In the midst of such a scene, I let out an irritated sigh and said in a low voice:

[Stop.]

Magic unknowingly imbued my sincere words, and the dragons touched by my voice stopped moving and fell helplessly.

I'm getting slightly irritated. What on earth happened for these immature beings to be waging war?

"Th-this?!"

"My body won't move...!"

Looking down at the dragons that had fallen to the ground creating dozens of large craters, I swallowed my irritation and said:

"What happened while I was asleep? You there. Speak."

I spoke to a Black Dragon that was groaning in pain after falling into a crater, and the Black Dragon looked up at me and said:

"Cr-Creation God Dragon...! Please withdraw your killing intent!"

"I didn't particularly imbue any killing intent though."

"Then why can't we move our bodies?"

Well, I wonder why?

Could it be because I woke up from a good sleep due to loud noises only to witness the world I had been nurturing being destroyed in the chaos between these grandchild-like beings?

Well, it's probably because of the sincere word I spoke.

I spoke sincerely once again.

[Move.]

Then, the dragons who couldn't move and were groaning became free.

"Explain slowly why this happened."

"W-well... It's a very long story..."

"Summarize it briefly."

"Those ill-mannered Gold Dragons attacked our hatchling! One hatchling was sacrificed!"

What? A hatchling? When birth rates are already devastated and each individual is precious?

"You there, Gold. Is that true?"

"W-well..."

"Speak properly."

"It's true that we attacked the hatchling... but Black excessively expanded their territory and invaded our area first!"

So Black messed up the territory first, and Gold, angered by this, attacked the hatchling?

Then why did the others get involved?

"You there, Red. Blue. Why did you join the fight?"

"Because Black was wrong! We couldn't stand by and watch Black cause trouble just because they have numbers!"

"Black even extended their reach to the sea. This is unfair!"

Hmm... So it's a territory issue in the end.

I let out a small sigh.

[Erebos. Shamash. Ifrit. Tethys. Sylphid. Sagarmatha. Yggdrasil. Appear before me.]

I called the names of my seven children, and the children whose names were called were summoned before me.

"Ugh?! M-Mother?!"

"What is this...? Mom?!"

The suddenly summoned children are startled to see my appearance.

"Explain. What happened while I was asleep?"

Faced with my very angry appearance, the seven children couldn't easily open their mouths.