Orbis Online
235. The Truth of the Dragon Nation

   "[Yo, are you guys alright after feeling the Dragon Aura from a Dragon King like me?]"

The words of a reptilian creature as big as a backpack, four-legged, scaly white and equipped with a pair of wings raised his chin to greet Reus and Ikshan.

The two humans stared for a moment at the creature called Bahamut by Ibane before turning their eyes towards Ibane while pointing at Bahamut.

   ""You're sure this creature is the Dragon King? More like a Winged Dwarf Lizard King to me.""

   "[Hmm.. Now I understand why you always sound upset when responding to the words of those who are either joking or not, Ibane.]"

   "really, right? They're more annoying than they look."

Ibane nodded his head fully and saw Bahamut understand his feelings in response to the words of both of them that were very annoying for him all this time, especially when they put on an innocent face in the slightest.

The Draconian cleared his throat once before continuing his explanation.

   "Of course Bahamut is not in prime condition. There was a certain reason why he looked dwarfed and weak like this."

   "[Hey, I became like this not because I wanted to.]"

Ibane explained that he met Bahamut in the depths of an unnamed Dungeon in the Avalon Kingdom region.

At that time, Ibane was just an ordinary player who like most players intended to find something that could increase his strength or be sold but he unwittingly entered too deep to finally enter a certain room like a room bosses.

He immediately prepared when he realized he had entered the boss room but not a single enemy came out—more precisely the nameless Dungeon had almost no monsters to fight.

Ibane probed the boss' room deeper and apparently managed to open a hidden room like Reus on the Ruin of Seven Dragon Kings but Ibane was luckier, though, he found quite a number of treasures and equipment without the presence of the Hidden Boss while collecting the treasures.

As he gathered various treasures, he found a small altar that emitted a faint golden white glow.

He was attracted to the altar and then tried to open it in the hope that there was a kind of treasure Ultra-Equip or even Relic in it and as if endowed with the luck of the sky, he got something better than all that.

   "When I opened the altar it knew I was possessed by this one baby dragon."

   "[If I get my adult form later the first thing I do is tear your body apart.]"

   "Heh, go ahead but as an Immortal Being and your master, I won't be able to kill you."

Reus and Ikshan could hear Bahamut growling realizing he couldn't do the thing he wanted to do but he could do something else that was more in line with his current size.

Bahamut bit the arm of Ibane until the Draconian screamed in pain and tried to hit the Dragon King, unfortunately Bahamut had flown and terrorized Reus' shoulder so that Ibane just hit his own arm.

Both Reus and Ikshan laughed dryly watching the light comedy between Draconian and the Dragon King this did not understand what kind of a master and animal relationship this couple contracted.

   "Ehm, then what does Bahamut, the White Dragon King have to do with Arshwind? You're both dragons but I didn't know you had a relationship."

   "[Hmm? The Arshwind I knew was the Red Dragon King, The Anarchy Lord. Your Dragon Aura feels like his. Are we talking about two different dragons?]"

   ""Huh?!""

   "[What? I said something weird?]"

Upon hearing Bahamut's words, Reus and Ikshan could not help their shock and spontaneously screamed. It never crossed their minds that Arshwind was one of the seven Dragon Kings founding Bailendra Kingdom!

Ibane burst into laughter when he found out that Reus and Ikshan were unaware that the Arshwind they had known was one of the seven dragon kings, the Red Dragon King.

   "Haha! I can't believe they know Arshwind but not his title!"

Reus and Ikshan's forehead twitched slightly at Ibane who was laughing so loosely that he couldn't stop.

The two of them did not recognize Arshwind as one of the dragon kings but it was only natural that Reus had met the mighty dragon directly in the depths of Chaos Lair, plus Reus had not studied the dragon nation in depth at that time.

He had only found out a few things regarding the dragon nation after receiving the unreasonable Quest from Arshwind.

Even though Bahamut said that to comfort Reus, it was a little embarrassing for Reus. Especially being laughed at by the person before him who he considered an idiot.

   "Sorry, but can we go back to the original topic? I think we've been a little off our language."

Ikshan who realized the discussion was getting here more and more away from clapping his hands to attract attention all hoped this would be finished quickly. He wanted to take a quick rest considering today's agenda was quite draining his mental energy.

Ibane had just finished laughing when Ikshan wanted to speed up this discussion. He obeyed Ikshan's wishes because he understood today was a tiring day for Reus and Ikshan.

Ibane continued his interrupted explanation briefly that the reason Bahamut was in this form was due to his death.

   "Death? The Dragon King can also die?"

   "[Of course, what do you think we are?]"

   "If according to the view of humans in this world the dragon is like the strongest, immortal, and invincible nation."

   "[Hmm, it seems like our strength is too exaggerated in this age.]"

Seeing Reus who was curious about how he was, the White Dragon King was able to die Bahamut told of his past experience.

Thousands of years ago after the dragon nation finished their battle against the invaders who wanted to seize the dragon power in Bailendra Kingdom they migrated to a continent west of Plainfest. They built new habitats on the continent so that the dragons could settle in peacefully.

Hundreds of years passed peacefully as the kings of the dragons had hoped, but in a certain year there was news that Arshwind, the, The Red Dragon King left the people and the continent to adventure with a group of mortal beings like humans.

Hearing that the dragon kings including Bahamut immediately came to Arshwind to question his decision and Arshwind instead invited his dragon king friends to come with him to crush the recent ruthless organization called the Order of Chaos rise up.

Bahamut and the other dragon kings instead of helping just laugh at Arshwind's decision. Just to crush an organization that threatened the human world to the point of requiring a figure as powerful as the Dragon Monarch? That's a ridiculous thing.

Dragons were existences that were arguably the strongest in the world deciding not to interfere with the matter of mortal beings outside of their surroundings.

If they decide to help humans then they can be divided into several camps according to the group of assisted humans and war between dragons can occur, then when this war occurs then the world can be certainly destroyed.

Arshwind did not take the words of his friends but did not change his decision to help people. The dragon kings also did not hinder Arshwind any further as long as it did not cause trouble for the dragon nation.

After Arshwind's departure there was no significant change in the dragon world but the peace lasted only a few hundred years.

One day the dragon continent is attacked by a large army of an organization that turns out to be the Order of Chaos that was once ignored by the dragon kings. Arshwind and his friends failed to finish off the organization and they managed to bounce back with even more force

The power of the Chaos Order at that time was not something that could be considered trivial. They can kill a dragon and absorb its power as easily as their invaders did in the past.

After the first attack of the dragon kings, it is only realized that the Chaos Order is not only an enemy of humans, but can also threaten the dragon world. They once again united in leading the dragons against the Order of Chaos for decades.

Unfortunately because the Chaos Order grew too strong and received help from some wild dragons who did not follow the dragon king, the nation said to be the strongest suffered a major defeat for the first time.

The dragon kings who are touted as the strongest among the dragons though do not escape defeat. In the great war several dragon kings including Bahamut died while the rest went into hiding all over the world.

Only a small percentage of the young dragons managed to survive and escape from the dragon continent. All of them scattered without direction or purpose and made them as wild dragons.

   "So, the dragon nation is really extinct in that battle?"

   "[As the nation that was once called the strongest, yes. But as a species, we dragons are not completely extinct.]"

Bahamut confirmed Reus' understanding of the extinction of the dragon.

Dragon nations or civilizations used to exist but were destroyed by their own arrogance but for their own race and species, dragons were never completely wiped out. As long as there were dragons in this world then dragons could not be said to be extinct.

Reus and Ikshan fell silent trying to understand everything Bahamut said. They concluded that the Dragonreign fairy tale and the relief Reus found on the Ruins of Seven Dragon King were true but did not fully describe the life of the dragon nation.

Neither Dragonregin nor the relief carvings only tell of the dragon nation while still with humans and other races in Plainfest, as well as these two stories are only based on the view of mortal beings against dragons so that the remaining half of the story is lost buried by the dragons themselves.