Chapter 6: Age of Dragons (1)

The first life forms that came out of the water were fish like mudskippers, using their pectoral fins as front legs to climb onto land.

These were creatures pushed out of the water by fierce competition for survival.

At first, they began to evolve to escape onto land for short periods during crisis situations.

Then, perhaps realizing that life on land was better than expected, they started evolving lungs instead of gills, and even began transforming the fins behind their gills into front legs.

Really, I did make them good at mutations and evolution, but I was shocked to see them develop front legs in such a short time.

These evolved creatures grew by eating various plants and slimes, increasing in number, evolving, mutating, and after some time, even developing hind legs. Some evolved into lizard-like forms, and some even appeared to be amphibian-like...

The evolutionary melting pot was truly chaos itself.

Well, anyway. As these creatures that came onto land continued to evolve and change in various ways...

For some reason, they started to grow larger.

At first, I didn't understand why, but as I observed more, I realized the reason...

Most of the issues stemmed from magical power.

Magical power, this strange force, had the characteristic of bringing about change according to one's will, and when this characteristic combined with the will of living beings, strange phenomena began to occur!

It was truly unexpected that it would cause changes that were physically impossible.

Small lizards grew rapidly and became huge dinosaurs, and the front legs of lizards that gazed at the sky transformed into small wings and began to flap.

Well, it's nice to see such diverse evolution, but... isn't this a bit too fast?

It's much faster than the evolutionary speed I had in mind. I thought these forms might evolve, but I expected it to take at least thousands of years, not just a few decades!

Dinosaurs have already appeared! Dinosaurs!

Originally, I was planning to watch the mudskippers with legs evolve into small animals, but suddenly dinosaurs appeared. It's something I never imagined.

"But it's fun to watch."

"That's true."

It is fun to see the large dinosaurs running around and fighting.

Moreover, since they're all evolving in different directions, there's a certain appeal in watching them fight with their various weapons.

Some fight with large jaws and sharp teeth, some use claws and agility as weapons, and some rely on horns or tough skin.

Thanks to this, these days I'm living for the fun of watching these fights.

"Seeing them fight so fiercely to survive makes me want to have a physical body too."

"A physical body... I'm not sure how you natural phenomena could obtain physical bodies."

"The others are thinking about the same thing. Especially Erebos. He says he needs a physical body to be your partner or something."

"Is that child still hung up on that? Sigh."

As I sighed, Sylphid added with a small laugh:

"Don't be too hard on them. If we were male, we'd all want to be your partner too."

"Isn't Ifrit male?"

"He's just a kid. It's been decades, but he's still like a child."

I nodded in agreement with Sylphid's words. That child doesn't seem to grow at all.

When I scolded him for burning life forms before... it was partly because the burned life forms were a waste, but also to educate Ifrit not to carelessly burn life.

If it was just about the wasted life, couldn't I have just turned back time and revived them?

No, should I have rewound time and stopped him before he burned the life forms and scolded him then? But that would have reduced the impact of the scolding!

Well, let's say it couldn't be helped. Yeah.

"If we had bodies like that, could we live as fiercely as they do?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think you'd live like that even if you had physical bodies..."

Originally, these children are massive natural phenomena, so they're in a completely different position from these big lizards.

Even Sylphid alone has the power to erode mountains with its massive winds.

If these children obtained physical bodies... they might become extraordinary beings in many ways.

Well, not as much as me, though!

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

After some time had passed...

"Mom! Erebos says he's found a way to create a physical body!"

"So that child finally found a way."

"Yes! But he says the method requires your cooperation, Mom. Shall we go together?"

"My cooperation?"

I wondered what kind of help was needed for the children to create physical bodies, but I headed towards Erebos's cave with Sylphid.

A long, deep cave extending far underground. A space of pure darkness where not a single ray of light shines.

There, Erebos, the darkness with intelligence, existed.

"You've come, Mother."

"You were calling me Mom until recently, and now you're calling me Mother. You can keep calling me Mom if you want."

"I'm not going to stay young forever either."

"I came too, Erebos! I brought Mom, so praise me!"

"Hmm. Good job, Sylphid."

Erebos, with his strangely dignified voice, welcomed us in the dark cave.

"So, how do you create a physical body?"

"To be precise, it's not about creating a body. It's more like borrowing one."

"Borrowing a body?"

At that moment...

Thud.

A small footstep sound was heard from the darkness.

"Hm? Footsteps? Erebos, it seems a lizard has entered."

"It's not a lizard."

Something is approaching. Something is walking towards us in the darkness where we can't see an inch ahead.

"Erebos. I'm sorry, but I'm going to light a fire."

I gather magical power to create light. Then, the figure of something walking from the far end of the dark cave comes into view.

Unlike other dinosaurs, it was a small dinosaur with pitch-black skin.

However, the aura emanating from that dinosaur was... an infinitely deep darkness. In other words, identical to Erebos's.

"Erebos?"

"As expected, Mother. You recognized me at a glance."

"Whoa? What's this? How did you do it? Did you steal a body?? Amazing! How did you do it???"

"Steal? I wouldn't do such a barbaric thing. I just borrowed the body of a creature that starved to death while wandering in the cave."

Borrowing the body of a starved creature... Isn't this something like necromancy?

"Of course, since it's already dead, I can't prevent the body from decaying, and it can't fully withstand my power, so it won't last long... But it's usable as a temporary body."

"Decay... Now that you mention it, I think I can smell something rotting a bit."

Is the skin dyed pitch-black because... Erebos is inhabiting it?

"Anyway, thanks to this experience of borrowing a body, I've found a clue. In the process of filling the body's losses with my power, I've discovered a way to create a body in the desired form using my power."

Since these children's power is mostly magical power, creating a body using magical power... shouldn't be impossible.

Magical power has the property of trying to realize will. Maybe it's acting on the children's desire for a body.

"But because our power is too strong, most bodies won't last long. That's why I think we need special materials."

"Hmm... Ah, perhaps the help you need is... to borrow my body?"

I already have a lot to do maintaining the balance of creatures while traveling around the world, so it might be difficult to lend my body to the children.

"If we have to borrow Mother's body, I object! I want to fly together with Mother! Not become Mother and fly!"

"I didn't intend to do that in the first place."

"So it's not about borrowing my body?"

The black dinosaur inhabited by Erebos nodded slightly and said:

"We don't need your entire body, Mother. I think just one of your scales would be enough."

"One of my scales?"

"Yes. If we use your scale as a core and materialize it with our power, I think we can obtain a body similar to yours."

A body similar to mine... Does he mean a dragon's body, different from a dinosaur's?

"It's not difficult to give you one scale, but is that enough?"

"Yes. Your scale should be more than enough to contain all of our power."

Hmm. Giving one scale isn't difficult. The scales grow back anyway.

I removed one scale from under my neck and handed it to Erebos in his black dinosaur form.

"Is this enough?"

"Yes, it should be sufficient."

"Mom! Give me one too! Me too!"

I removed another scale and gave it to Sylphid as well.

"So how do we do it? Do we just put our power into it?"

"Rather than putting power into it, it's more like imbuing it. You should do it with the feeling of putting your entire self into it and wishing for a body to be created."

After saying that, Erebos held the scale in his hand. Then, a pitch-black aura started to seep out and gradually imbue the scale.

As this happened, the black color of the dinosaur's body started to fade, and my silver scale began to turn pitch-black.

When the dinosaur's black color completely disappeared and my scale turned completely black, the dinosaur collapsed to the ground with a thud.

"Hmm... Mother's scale can contain all of me and still have plenty left over. But I think it's definitely possible."

With Erebos's words, a pitch-black mist-like substance began to seep out of the black scale, and it started to form a body shape very similar to mine.

A long neck and scaly skin. A long mouth with sharp teeth. And horns protruding here and there on the head.

Slightly short front legs and large wings. And strong hind legs with a long tail.

"Wow! Amazing! It's Erebos who looks like Mom!"

"Though much smaller."

The overall shape was similar to mine, a dragon's form... Although the size was considerably smaller and there were slight differences in the details...

Erebos was creating the body of a black dragon.

"I've succeeded, Mother. Now I have a body like yours."

Under the neck of Erebos, who had become a black dragon, my scale, which had returned to silver, was attached upside down.