With a single roar coming from both dragons, a slight tremor was caused to shake the floating islands.
As such, it caused some sort of horrifying cry towards Heinz, who stood quietly on the highest floating island.
"What is this? Why is my body shaking?" Heinz muttered, staring at both of his hands that trembled continuously.
Such roars could inflict damage on my mentality." Heinz mumbled in his head, defying the impulse to want to run and escape.
Heinz, who was fazed beyond repair, controlled his emotions and his thoughts and started walking slowly. Enduring the battle roars that caused him so much fear, as if he were on death's doorstep.
"Even before, when I was in the forest, I never felt something like this." he mumbled, walking further towards the tree and standing behind it, quietly peeking at what was going on above the sky.
There were two large dragons: Greyskim, the red-scaled dragon, and the other one, a black-scaled dragon that had similar size to Greyskim, who was awfully large, reaching over forty meters tall.
Behind the black-scaled dragon were small dragons with lighter-scale colors. And after both of the superior dragons roared, silence occurred.
Only the flapping of their wings was heard; as such, the silence broke after the black-scaled dragon uttered
"Greyskim, I am here to warn you that you should return to the sacred lands and leave this place."
Greyskim looked at the black-scaled dragon intimidatingly, giving no signs of fear as he confronted such a being.
"I am Greyskim; I do not follow any orders coming from underneath me." he said, referring to the black-scaled dragon below him.
"As expected, you always take pride in your rank. But these words do not come from me; these are his majesty's orders. A dragon such as yourself should not be living in this place, especially when we are not allowed to interfere with the inferior races." the black-scaled dragon said, stating that Greyskim should return to their homeland.
"I have no thoughts of following his majesty's command; therefore, leave before I eradicate your men along with you." Greyskim said in a more ferocious manner that made the smaller dragons falter.
"I see. If that is your decision, then you leave us no choice. We will return." the black-scaled dragon uttered, slowly rotating around while the smaller dragons followed. "For now." he said, before flying further and further away from Greyskim's location.
Greyskim wore an angry expression as he stared at the backs of his fellow dragons, who were flying away from him.
He then turned around and returned to where Heinz was hiding.
"Human, come out now." Greyskim said, knowing that Heinz was hiding behind a tree.
Heinz peeked, noticing that the atmosphere around Greyskim suddenly felt gloomy.
"What happened?" He asked.
"None of your concern." said Greyskim, who did not waste any second to reply.
"Why were there so many dragons? And that black-scaled dragon really gave me goosebumps." Heinz said, hugging himself as he got reminded of the black-scaled dragon's roar.
"Many dragons? Don't compare those wyverns to us, dragons. That black-scaled dragon is my younger brother, Teranium. He is also an Obsidian Dragon like me."
"Obsidian? So you have the same title?" Heinz uttered, scratching his head from behind.
"What title are you talking about?" asked Greyskim, who was completely confused about what Heinz was talking about.
"Wasn't your title Obsidian Dragon?" said Heinz; his voice sounded somewhat convincing, as if he was trying to place facts.
"Listen here, kid, Obsidian Dragons are beings entitled to being amongst the top ten Primordial Dragons. And I am one of them; I am the third Obsidian Dragon, Greyskim." he said with his head high, praising himself like some sort of worthy being.
Well, he is a being worthy of praise, since he's totally out of my league." Heinz mumbled in his head as he watched the prideful actions of Greyskim.
"Well, why did your brother come here? It looked like you were having an argument." asked Heinz, who was somewhat curious about their conversation since he could only see them from afar.
"It is none of your business, and aren't you going to leave? You should be thinking of something right now since I won't be helping you go to the surface." Greyskim said in a serious demeanor.
"Ehh? Why? Can't you just let me ride on your back? How am I going to go down to the surface? If I jump right from here, I can't even imagine what I might look like after crashing onto the ground." said Heinz, who tried convincing Greyskim that he needed to help him in any way possible.
"Why should I? I'm not some sort of transportation for you to use, and even his majesty can't order me; why should I bother listening to your atrocious request? A dragon that'll let an inferior species ride on his back? Such blasphemy!" Is what Greyskim said, but here I am now, riding at his back as my mouth blurted openly and could not be closed due to the pressure of the wind gushing through me at a terrible speed.
"Can't you fly down a little slower!?" I shouted, while my voice stuttered continuously as the wind pressed me like a pancake.
"Shut up, human! I'm only taking you to the gate." Greyskim said, hovering his body downward while evading the floating islands that we've passed through.
It was a beautiful sight to behold, especially the islands that floated and were connected with chained rocks as if they were one with another. They looked completely pristine from my perspective.
But only if Greyskim would slow down, that is...
The fact that he agreed after countless hours of convincing and that we spent almost an entire hour just to persuade him from letting me ride on his back was such a hassle, but that was the only thing that I could've come up with. There was no way I'd be jumping over floating rocks that could somehow end my life if I were to make a single mistake.
Now that we're here, it's totally unexpected. Just by looking at the floating islands, we've passed over a dozen now. And yet I can't seem to see what lies beneath us. It's as if a steam of clouds covers the floating islands; is this what they call heaven? Since it's beyond the limitations of the sky?
But after looking closely at the floating islands, there were several creatures that had horrifying appearances.
"I'm sure this isn't heaven."
If dragons exist, I'm sure monsters do as well. But the fact that I'm here right now, riding on a dragon's back, is still an unbelievable phenomenon. After that bright light shone in front of me, who was nearly dying, it gave me such experiences that I could not completely believe, even when I'm currently experiencing them.
I have this system-like helper that helps me, but after telling Greyskim, he somehow doesn't know about statuses. Is it just me? Was this some kind of privilege for me, who got transported here without my consent? Well, thinking about it now is meaningless; I should just be happy and accept the fact that I've been given another chance to live my life.
"Yeah, relive my life."
Heinz, who suddenly remembered his past, paused. He was completely thinking about the past he had lived through—those horrible and unpleasant times.
In public, he was known as a brave soldier who fought for his country, but behind that facade, he was just a mere tool for the higher-ups of the country.
A man who was forced to do military service without his consent just because he was an orphan.
But even with those unpleasant times, he encountered happiness, and that was when he got to meet his former comrades.
Members of the Granger squad who had fought alongside him
But now that they're gone, I feel empty yet happy, for I am free from the responsibilities that were thrown to me by the higher-ups." Heinz pondered, mumbling inside his head while wearing a sad expression on his face.
Greyskim continued flying downward, glancing at Heinz, who somehow looked distorted to him, knowing that it was still unbearable for him to get transported like this and be turned into a child.
Chapter End.