Kojo opened his eyes and got to his feet. His mind was a blur, and he couldn't quite comprehend what was happening to him. The last thing he remembered was going to bed. Anything after that was a blur. He glanced around.
"How'd I end up in a cave?" he wondered.
"That's what I wanna know," a girl's voice said. It sounded oddly familiar. He turned and saw Nefaria slowly backing away from the scene.
"Uh, who are you?" Kojo asked her. She looked at him, then looked straight ahead at something that was behind him. Kojo turned to see a little girl who looked to be 13 years old with red hair so long it flowed onto the ground around her. She was naked but seemed unbothered by the fact.
"The seals finally been broken, huh? It felt like an eternity over there. I know it's only been 7,000 years, but..." She stretched her limbs and yawned. Kojo stared at her. She looked oddly familiar. Blurry images flashed in his mind, and his head ached. The girl walked up to him and sized him up.
"Uuh..."
"So you're the one with that arcane power. Hmm. Seems to have diminished your power greatly. But I'm surprised," she said, walking around him.
"You're not a half-blood, so where did you get dragon wings from?" she said, looking at Kojo's silver wings.
"What's up with this chic?" Kojo wondered as the headache intensified.
"Oh, you're a demon. A Progenitor, in fact. I can tell by your smell. What are you doing here?" The girl addressed Nefaria.
"This was not supposed to happen," she said to herself. She looked over at Kojo, who seemed to be in pain, and clicked her tongue.
"Tch. I've been able to fully unlock the information within the Babel Archive within him, yet he hasn't fully integrated. He was only able to use Time Dilation because I was regulating the flow of information. This is a very dire situation," she said, looking at the girl and bracing herself for a possible confrontation.
"Who are you people?" Kojo managed to ask as his nose began to bleed, as the information overloaded his brain. Kojo's vision dimmed, and he collapsed on all four limbs.
Sysia activated the skills Accelerant and Split Psyche in order to arrange them to match Kojo's brainwaves. Sudden images flashed across Kojo's mind as all this happened within a fraction of a second. Kojo underwent an instantaneous evolution in his mental capabilities. He saw a vision of a very distant past.
A great armada surrounded a nation full of dragons. A war was about to begin as both sides prepared to face off. Some of the dragons had allied themselves with the opponent for a final assault. At the center of the country was a city with a castle at the center. A red-haired girl in a nightgown walked sleepily out of her bedroom. She yawned as she passed through a huge throne room to the balcony that overlooked the battlefield. She was the same girl that was in the cave with Kojo.
She looked on with disinterest and a small sign of annoyance at being woken from her slumber. She was, however, surprised that the humans had gathered an army large enough to surround the entire country and had even convinced some of the Dragonkin to switch sides. Still, the outcome of the battle was already decided. All that was left was to do away with the biggest leech in this whole scheme.
An elderly man walked in. He had long hair and a few scales on the sides of his face, as well as a rune above his right eye. Aside from the Dragon Queen, all Dragonkin had brands on their bodies.
"Your Majesty," the man said.
"Speak of the devil," the queen thought.
"Galaxy, what is all this racket? Can't I even sleep in peace now?" she demanded.
"My liege, it is an attack by the Army of the kingdom of Nytr," Galaxy replied.
"And so should this be a cause for noise-making? I honestly can't understand these humans. The only two kingdoms on the continent, and you can't think of anything better than conquest. So self-centered, these things. Heard they started calling themselves the First Ones, as if they're something special."
"Normally, we wouldn't have to deal with this. But the Nytrians have come out with a new weapon capable of killing us dragons," Galaxy responded.
"You're boring me," the queen said with a yawn.
"We had our spies—" a glare from the queen shut him up.
"You had time to find out about a weapon and no new delicacies for me to try?" she said.
"Pardon?"
"I haven't been awake for long, and I'm already hungry," she said.
"Do the incoming invaders not concern you?" Galaxy said but was silenced by the queen.
"Watch your tongue, boy. I am taking this matter seriously. That's why I'm going to eliminate you myself."
"Your Majesty?"
"I sensed the dark soul within you. I practically saw you receive the brand on your soul. Nothing escapes these eyes. You're the one who set all this up."
Galax laughed menacingly and got to his feet as he changed into his dragonoid form, growing horns and an extra pair of arms and wings, as his body was clad in green scale armor. A barbed tail extended outwards, and he grew three other eyes, giving him five in total. He floated with his arms crossed, a green aura surrounding him.
"I would expect no less from our foolish queen," he said as he released a devastating aura of arcana that destroyed part of the balcony. That was the signal for the Nytrians to attack.
"I mentioned that the Nytrians had acquired a weapon. I am that weapon. I have watched with displeasure your rule. Instead of using the light of the Dragonkin to conquer the world, who are inferior to us, you'd rather sleep and laze around. Well, no more. Now, I too have acquired the power of the gods and have become stronger than you, a demon lord with no dark soul. Now beg for your life, and I'll consider giving you a painless death," Galax said with a smile. His smile instantly vanished as he felt an intense pressure press him from all sides, as if he'd been ensnared in the fangs of a great beast.
His mind was only telling him one thing: death.
"You made a mistake. Let me tell you something. Restrictions were placed on me so I wouldn't have a dark soul. You wanna know why? Even without that silly mark, I am still the strongest Demon Lord."
The fear Galax felt was so great that his heart ruptured in his chest, and he coughed out blood. Fearing for his life, he transformed into a full dragon and attempted to fly away, but the Queen made an arrow with her crimson flame and fired it at him, shattering his mind and soul. His body fell just as the invaders were nearing the walls.
She pointed skyward and compressed a ball of red energy, no bigger than a marble, and fired it skyward. Once it disappeared above the clouds, there was a spark that flashed before it exploded, firing massive beams of energy to the entire area beside the walls around her country. There was a blinding flash of red light. When it cleared, all that remained was a massive crater in the planet where the continent used to be, with the dragons' nation floating above it. Water from the ocean around the continent began to rush in to fill the massive hole.
"Seiro did need a makeover," she said, yawning. She noticed the dragons flying around.
"What are you dimwits flying around for? Start repairing the damage and get me some food. I'm starving," she yelled.
"Yes, ma'am," they responded and started away like their lives depended on it. As their nation mingled with the vapor from the blast and disappeared into the clouds, what remained was the dragon nation of Seirodragann, which would later be known as the dragon continent that floated around the planet of Gaia.
Kojo awoke and looked up at the girl. She noticed him staring at her.
"What?" she asked.
Kojo instantly made a smoke screen and flew away as fast as he could, creating shockwaves as he broke the sound barrier and approached the speed of light.
There was no doubt about it.
This was the Dragon Queen. Descendant of the Demongod and Daughter of the Dragonking Val Tharxus. The Strongest Demon Lord.
Demon Lord Dona Crimson.