Capítulo 2: The promise between the dragon and the knight that turned the wheel of destiny
Narrator POV:
"Are you calmer now? Not that I mind waiting a little longer, your mood swings are indeed funny." Indeed, a few moments after assimilating both that he was still alive and that he had met a dragon, he now felt calmer.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Mikhael said with a bit of gratitude after getting up from the ground. After briefly inspecting himself, he realized that he was currently some kind of strange light in a clearly human form.
As he flexed his fingers, tightening his grip on his hand, he could feel as if his body was still there. But it clearly wasn't, it felt strange but natural at the same time.
"It must be strange for you, right? I guess it's not every day that you can directly observe your own soul, you should enjoy this opportunity~"
Was this his soul? Looking at his mercury-silver arms after hearing what the dragon said, Mikhael felt that it was an appropriate color for his soul.
"Now, let's begin with the introductions. My name is Kurma, a dragon known by the title of world king." The dragon introduced itself with her feminine voice, her gaze fixed on him with curiosity. "Little one, what is your name?"
"I am Mikhael Ascart, a human, for a title..." Mikhael brought his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "People called me by different names but I always prefer just one; Mercurius."
"Just a human, huh?..." The dragon seemed to ponder something for a few seconds before focusing her gaze back on him. "But still, Mikhael, huh? "God's Gift" is a good name, little one."
"Leaving that aside, I think it will be more comfortable for you if I do this." The dragon said as a blinding light enveloped her. The light seemed to pulse before it began to become smaller little by little, going from the original size of a mountain to one similar to that of a person.
"This way your neck won't hurt from looking up for so long, right? Oh wait, don't you have something like a neck these days... my bad, kahahaha"
Along with a playful sound echoing through the air as the light dimmed, revealing what was inside, what was in front of the young man was certainly quite a sight.
"How about it?"
It was a breathtaking sight to see such beauty. During his life, he had met many people, but nothing close to this. Or perhaps, this was to be expected from such a being.
"Am I not beautiful?"
Although she might sound conceited, Mikhael had to admit that she was right. With long white hair that flowed down her snow-white skin, and purple eyes with vertical pupils that looked at him complacently.
A divinely beautiful face that had a playful expression with the corners of her mouth raised. Two golden horns rose on her head like a crown. Definitely eye candy.
[Attempting to initialize operating systems... failure... power shortage... request to host about obtaining a power supply... success... a large power source detected in the vicinity... Request awaiting...]
Just as he was about to reply, a holographic screen suddenly appeared in his field of vision. Words intoned strangely, just like a toy that ran out of battery, surprisingly reached his ears.
As if taken directly from a novel, the message of a system was reflected on the floating holographic screen in front of the young man who felt his heart accelerate as it rarely did: with a nervous feeling full of uncertainty about something.
Not only because of the absurdity of the situation, but because of the surprised expression on the face of the woman in front of him. As well as the change in her gaze, which went from seeing him as an interesting toy to seeing him as an equal who could threaten her one day.
"This..." Mikhael smiled stiffly as he pointed with a thumb, asking a question that he knew would most likely be useless. "Can you also see this strange thing?"
"What are you talking about?" Kurma asked with bewilderment, one that seemed real, but before relief reached the young man's heart, she tilted her head with a somewhat sinister smile. "If you mean the thing next to you, no, I can't see it, but I can feel it, clearly."
"It seems to have an impressive ability to hide, but I assume it ran out of energy, right?" Kurma walked over, her long tempting legs that he would once admire moving as she walked right up to him.
"Now choose, Mikhael." Kurma smiled softly like a friend who had known him for many years, in stark contrast to the hand that was pointed at him like a gun, one that made the young man's instincts scream. "Become mine or die, what's your choice, little one?"
"Wow, shouldn't you at least invite me for coffee before that? Not that I care either, I'm just saying." Mikhael composed himself as he put on his signature smile again, teasing, which the dragoness didn't buy as she maintained her stance.
"I..."
Just when the young man understood that he would have to make his choice, with no options other than to accept, since he wanted to live, he wanted to see again those loved ones he lost.
At that moment, the sound of something passing through the air was heard for just an instant, as if something had appeared out of nowhere. The surprise was clear in the expressions of both.
The reason was the arm that had flown out, throwing a jet of blood that splashed on the floor. Mikhael's gaze trembled at the sight, not because of the blood, but because of the identity of what had cut off the arm of a being of such power.
On the floor next to the severed arm, there was nothing more or less than a sheet of paper without any impressive features. What had cut the skin of the strongest dragon in Little Garden was just a mere sheet of paper.
Then, the dragon woman didn't even blink at the pain that would have to caused as her arm regenerated, the whole process was smooth and quick. Rather, she seemed more focused as she looked up.
Following her gaze, he witnessed a memory that would remain etched in his heart. A chaotic whirlpool was in the sky above them, imperiously declaring its existence.
What looked like bookshelves swirled into a chaotic structure with no clear form or order, books emanating all kinds of auras were in them.
And amidst pages that flew freely, in a beautiful yet terrifying spectacle that was clearly a threat...
A woman's arm emerged, a pale one as if the owner hadn't sunbathed in a long time. Under the dragon's hostile and tense gaze, she simply shook a finger playfully, like an adult scolding a naughty child.
After that, as if it were the whim of a great being, that portal or whirlpool began to close little by little, taking with it the light that radiated from somewhere.
Mikhael would swear that he saw the thin silhouette of a woman before it closed, one who smiled at him when she noticed his gaze.
Her lips parted to say something, which he could not understand in any way no matter how hard he tried several times.
"..."
An awkward silence filled the place after the departure of the being that left as abruptly as it came. Mikhael saw how Kurma closed her eyes for a moment before turning around, apparently deciding to leave after considering it.
Normally, a normal person should be glad to be suddenly saved from having to join a stranger's group. Mikhael, however, was aware of how screwed up his current situation was; in the middle of nowhere without knowing anything.
"Wait...!"
The dragoness stopped at his call, without turning around to look at him. "What do you want? I have no intentions of starting a conflict I can't win." The dragon implicitly made it clear that whatever the portal was was stronger than her. But he didn't know any of them well.
"I can feel it, you're not some kind of evil existence that kills for no reason, my intuition tells me so," Mikhael said as he closed the distance between them that the dragon lady opened. "My intuition tells me so and it has never failed me even once."
"What the hell do you mean?..." Kurma turned around partially, showing an expression unsuitable for her cheerful and tyrannical character, one that looked a little weak as she bit her lips with her eyes a little watery.
The sight was certainly somewhat pitiful and to a certain extent, adorable, he suddenly felt like teasing her to see such a cute reaction that almost maked him want to bite her.
But leaving that aside, it seemed that the dragon hadn't taken well that her life was threatened. Mikhael understood, he wouldn't either, so technically they were even now with those two events balancing out.
"You need me for something, right? But you felt distrustful when you saw that I could become a threat to you, something like betraying you." Mikhael invaded the woman's personal space as he faced her face-to-face with a smile.
"And it turns out that I need someone I can trust to help me get out of this godforsaken place, what a coincidence, huh?" Kurma raised an eyebrow in response before putting her hands on her hips. "Do you need someone to trust? As far as I know, there's one right there."
"It's not the same, who could be more trustworthy than a beautiful and powerful dragon lady full of dignity and majesty." Mikhael placed a hand on his heart as he looked into her eyes, causing her to look away.
'Cough'
"Let's hear what you have to say then." Kurma coughed, turning around, and with a shake of her hand, the world in front of her seemed to distort before a table along with chairs and cups appeared in front of her.
(I have it~) Mikhael thought victoriously, the truth is that he had taken a risk since he did not know the character of the dragon at all, he only knew that she would not put him in mortal danger thanks to his intuition that warned him of such things.
Still, this beautiful dragon lady was preferable to whatever the horror in that portal was, although he was extremely grateful for that thing. He did not trust in the slightest the beings whom he could not sense anything with his intuition, as if it were not even there to begin with.
It is not as if it were because of the hips that swayed temptingly in front of him as they both sat down on the chairs. "What is it that you propose, little one?" A certain satisfaction as well as a certain complacency was found on the dragon lady's face, who was drinking tea in front of him.
Did she feel smug because it seemed like he chose her over that thing in the sky and so she felt like she had gotten revenge for that?...
Simply adorable.
It was a little hard to believe that such a powerful being was so weak to compliments and so... Naive? No, simple. But thinking about it again, dragons in fiction were beings more on the instinctive side, perhaps she sensed his sincerity and lack of hostility.
"It's simple, you should have something like an unbreakable contract or some nonsense like that, right?" Looking at Kurma's nod, Mikhael took a sip of the tea before suggesting. "Then problem solved, based on that premise, we can fully trust each other, right?"
"The tea is delicious by the way." Kurma thought for a moment about his suggestion before nodding, pulling out a paper from nowhere, she wrote something down before passing it to him. "Using those words we can form a binding vow that forces us to abide by it or die, I swear on my title and pride as a dragon."
(Tsk, tsk, force people to abide or die? What a useful thing.) Mikhael's thoughts converged for a moment before he refocused as he finished reading the vow. "So what are we waiting for? Let's get to work."
After a relatively quick process where two chains were joined together, the vow was complete. The content was nothing complicated, just something like avoiding hostile actions against the other party until the agreement was broken by mutual agreement, which he hoped would be; never.
"So, what do you want from me? Kurma." Mikhael looked at the dragoness who had visibly relaxed with her cheerfully playful smile returning to her face. "It would be too tedious to explain everything so take this, it contains all the information you may ever need."
A strange golden card with an eye symbol was taken out from the dragon's neckline. Mikhael would never understand how women seemed to have a pocket dimension there...
Thinking about it now, perhaps he did know the reason after taking another discreet look at those two mountains. Coughing into a fist, Mikhael took the card, about to ask what he was supposed to do with it. At that moment...
Little Garden, Upper and Lower World, communities, Spiritual state, Gifts, Gift games, Binding Vow, Digit Division, Demon kings, 4 strongest species.
Floor Masters, Pantheons, Last Embryo, Another cosmology, Authorities of the sun and the moon, Historical transition period, Method of observation and attraction of worlds.
Paradox of the omnipotence, Candidates of origin, 4 truths and much more. A huge amount of information flowed into his mind as he touched the card.
All kinds and rarity, some being the common sense of the entire population and some other being secrets that shouldn't be known for most of the people. He understood that this was the sincerity of the dragon lady.
But at the same time, a feeling of pure disbelief made his heart beat rapidly. That feeling gave way to horror and subsequently to excitement. He knew some of that information, "Little Garden", that was from a world of ...
A Japanese light novel, which he had believed to be fiction when he read it back in his youth. "Mondaiji Taichi" The name was much longer than that, but honestly, no one remembered that kind of name one hundred percent.
Faced with the newborn prospect that a world he believed to be fiction was real, there was only excitement currently, that meant that it was indeed possible to revive his loved ones, there were many worlds with such methods.
He didn't believe that he had fallen into the second dimension or some such nonsense, at least, his heart and brain wished that it was something like the authors receiving inspiration in dreams about other worlds that really existed.
"Now you must understand everything, right? I want you to act from now on as my representative, 'my knight', as well as participate in the second war for the authorities of the sun."
Mikhael repressed his surprise and looked at Kurma, who probably thought that his surprise was caused by the information he received from her. Standing up, he walked around the table under Kurma's bewildered gaze and arrived in front of her.
"Then, from now on I will be your faithful knight, My lady." Mikhael immensely enjoyed the slight blush that the dragoness tried to hide when he knelt and kissed the back of her hand while keeping his gaze focused on her.
"Enough of banal formalities, tell me, what exactly do you want in return?" Kurma asked once she coughed and looked at the young man who had sat down in front of her again, looking at his silver features with curiosity.
Mikhael glanced out of the corner of his eye at the holographic screen that was practically begging him to ask the dragon for energy, the corners of his lips twitching. "I need energy, like, a lot of it, for you know what."
"Alright, as my knight, as long as it's something possible to me, I don't mind fulfilling some of your requests." The dragon nodded at the simple request, stretching out a hand as a colorless light formed in it.
After a few seconds, the compressed quantity and quality of energy could be clearly felt in that sphere, Mikhael thought that she might have exaggerated, but he wouldn't turn down free benefits from his new boss.
Letting the sphere float, they both watched as it seemed to be devoured by something that was positioned next to the young man. Even a bit of embarrassment appeared on Mikhael's expression as a belch resonated from nowhere.
[Beep]
[10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...99%...]
[Ding]
Under Mikhael's gaze, a loading bar quickly rose on the holographic screen before he stared blankly as fireworks, applause, and whistles resonated from it, a female voice now beginning to speak.
[THE GREATEST SYSTEM IN ALL OF CREATION IS ONLINE, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!] Kurma didn't interrupt the young man who stared into the air with a lifeless gaze.
[This is the dimensional achievement system! Do you want some good shit? Complete a few achievements, get a ticket for the gacha, and let your luck decide your fate!]
[Just as we also have extraordinary functions like inventory, dimensional travel, quest list, gacha, status, and the title hall, bow down to the greatness of the system!]
For a moment, the thought of calling the dimensional customer service appeared in Mikhael's mind as he saw the troublemaker who was assigned to be the system's conscience.
[No, no, no, wait, wait, wait! What kind of nonsense are you thinking of? Look, this great system kindly forgives you and leaves this gift package for you.]
(Is this thing bribing me?...) Mikhael thought absentmindedly as he looked at the beginner's gift package on the side. (Well, I'll accept it, not for nothing, it would be rude of me to reject her sincere kindness.)
"Are you done talking to that thing yet?"
Putting aside the Tsundere system, Mikhael once again fixed his gaze on the dragoness who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "If I didn't know there was really something there, I would think about whether my knight had some mental problem."
"...I appreciate the concern, but I don't have mental problems..." Mikhael felt his eye twitch at the sincere expression of the powerful being, that was the kind of insult that hurt the most, the sincere ones that didn't seek to harm. "...I think."
"Leaving that aside, we need to talk about something more important, my knight." Kurma put on a more serious expression as she leaned forward with her hands together. "The reason I took you as an enemy is only one: the seed of authority within you."
"Seed of authority?"
A system was something, that was literally the most basic thing about transmigrators, but a thing that caught the attention of a being like Kurma and even made her want to eliminate or subjugate him preemptively was another thing entirely.
"Yes, you don't need to know this yet because you'll know naturally when that seed blooms." Kurma looked at him with those purple eyes, her childish behavior gone. "But there is a kind of competition between special beings where they must eliminate or subjugate the others."
"I, the world dragon, am part of such a competition, as you might have guessed from your expression, the requirement to participate in such a competition is a special authority."
When did I get my hands on such a thing and why didn't I know about it? That was the summary of Mikhael's current thoughts upon learning of his seed of authority.
"Just out of curiosity, what would be the prize that could attract beings of your level to lower themselves to fight each other like this?" Mikhael asked with genuine curiosity, to which Kurma responded with just one word. "Everything."
After chatting for a while about various topics as well as getting to know each other a little about each other, Kurma stood up to leave, making the tables and everything disappear with a snap of her fingers under the young man's still surprised gaze.
"That's all for now, since you said you can travel between worlds I suppose there won't be a need for me to take you." Kurma put on a soft smile as she looked at him, no longer as a toy or a rival, but as a her knight, someone that she could trust.
"By the way, my dear knight, the next time you try to subtly manipulate me..." Kurma said turning her back as wings came out of her back, not seeing the young man's frozen expression. "I'm going to use those hips that you eat with your eyes so much to make you paraplegic."
Watching as Kurma's distant back flew off the planet before transforming into an even more colossal dragon than before after another blinding light, Mikhael stood there stupefied in the wasteland of that planet.
"What a wonderful woman..." Mikhael came back to himself before smiling happily as he realized that it wasn't that he tricked her but that she let herself be tricked by him. "You're just tempting me to keep trying by telling me that."
"It seems that I got rusty, my secret technique of the discreet glance failed. Or maybe it was futile to try to sneak a peek at a dragon." Mikhael looked around before turning his gaze to the holographic screen. "System, open the gift package, I want to see how far your kindness goes."
He only did it for the sake of trying but he could effectively see without knowing whether to laugh or cry as a female hand slid not so discreetly across the screen before leaving something in the gift package and running away like a criminal.
[Ding]
[Opening Beginner Gift Pack!, Admire the majestic and generous me, little host!, By the way, the rank of the items varies from D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, or finally EX depending on the usefulness, power or potential of the item]
[Gift Pack:
-Universal Translator:So you can understand what the natives of other worlds are saying, otherwise you'll just be left as a fool until you learn the language.
«Rank: S»
-Inheritance Opportunity:This great system contacted a powerful human existence that is willing to leave you his skills, experience and bloodline in exchange for a "small" favor.
«Rank: S»
-3 Gacha Lottery Tickets:Muahahaha, welcome to the gacha hell, enjoy the salt that awaits you!
«Rank: - »]
Well, the universal translator would definitely be useful, he didn't want to waste time learning the language of every world he went to. The chance of inheritance looked good, but that small favor wouldn't be so small, his intuition told him.
Finally...
"Let's start with the gacha." Mikhael opened one of the tabs on the screen with his finger before bringing his hands together, rubbing them together, and tapping on using gacha tickets.
[Ding]
[Rewards obtained:
-The mark of the outsider: The mark of a certain special existence that resonates with those who share their feelings, inscribe this into your soul and gain the power to protect.
(Warning: You might get a BIG surprise)
«World:The last story»///«Rank: C to S»
-Future sight: The power given by a certain existence to the candidates to answer their question; In whose hands should fate be, mortals or gods?, Someday you will have to answer that question.
(Warning: You might get a surprise now and one bigger later)
«World: Xenoblade chronicles»/// «Rank: SSS»
-Artemis Agnós: The innocent love of the goddess of the moon: The noble phantasm that represents the love of all the goddesses of the moon for their respective Orion, good luck surviving with this after having this blessing full of love.
(You will definitely get many surprises, this is not a fucking warning, it is literally a prediction of your future)
«World: Fate series»///«Rank: S»]
Mikhael put his hand to his chin as he looked at everything, going through his current inventory. He was certainly very lucky, as usual, he always had good luck in gambling.
The mark of the outsider seemed like something useful, well, everything that had a high rank surely would be, but those words about the power to protect touched something in him.
He recognized where future sight came from, as well as who granted it and how. He also knew what to expect from that power to a certain extent, the ability to foresee the future for a few seconds during combat and the ability to receive important visions about the future at "random moments".
Finally, a strange expression appeared on Mikhael's face when he saw that last prize of the gacha. That noble phantasm was the materialization of Artemis's heavy love for Orion, he could already foresee problems even without using future sight.
[Wait...wait...wait, what's with this shameless luck as if it were that of a child of destiny blessed by the very heavens?!, And the salt?!, And the suffering and prayers to the great system?!]
"What can I say, I was born like this." Mikhael shrugged with a smug face. He could almost hear the sound of envy manifesting right next to him, on the screen.
Jokes aside, Mikhael smiled and tried to confirm a hypothesis that had been forming in his mind. "By the way, just by chance, just out of curiosity, Dear system, you're not that figure who opened that portal and defended me, right?"
[ ... ]
[The system doesn't know what you're talking about, it asks the Host not to talk nonsense, the system wouldn't be such a beautiful, powerful, and-]
"And majestic, right?" Mikhael said with a raised eyebrow along with a "who are you kidding" expression as he nodded slowly several times. "Yes, yes, I totally believe you."
[ ... ]
"Well, it's time to get started on this." Mikhael left the nervous system alone, turning his attention to the inventory with the prizes. He used the outsider's mark first.
At that moment, a blue light flashed, shining with such impressive force that it enveloped Mikhael. A beautiful, soft, kind, and compassionate voice reached his ears.
"You can hear me, right?"
Mikhael had no idea that accepting the skill would trigger such an event, perhaps he should have felt nervous, but the voice was too reassuring.
"Your heart is like mine... full of loneliness and sadness."
The voice spoke with companionship, like two birds of a feather, as if she saw through his hidden feelings and everything he wanted to avoid; his past.
"Kind young man..."
A pain like no other went through his body, although he went through all kinds of hardships when training with his master, he had never felt anything like it. As if a mark was being engraved with a hot iron on his skin, no, in his soul.
"To protect those you care about, you must pray for them with all your heart and soul."
A few moments later, Mikhael found himself lying on the floor, looking at his right hand, it had a cross-shaped mark engraved on it with mystical blue chains sticking out from it that seemed to exist and not exist at the same time.
"...I think the pain I went through is roughly equivalent to how good this damn cool mark looks..." Mikhael looked at the mark with appreciation, his mind feeling a distant connection with some being. "It was worth it."
With the curious thought of whether this was what women felt when giving birth to their children, Mikhael turned his attention to Artemis Agnós. Fortunately, nothing special happened when accepting that power, it was just... there.
"Now finally..." Deciding to finally accept the future vision, Mikhael pressed accept on the holographic screen with his finger. It was naive of him to expect nothing special to happen when he did that.
Because the second he accepted that power, the world seemed to fall apart on itself as the surroundings turned gray, as if time stopped, at least that was what Mikhael seemed to see as his eyes shone with a dazzling blue light.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you... heir."
Unlike the planet that remained unchanged, Mikhael looked as if he was in some kind of strange jungle that he recognized after a few moments. In front of him was a woman with silver hair who turned to look at him.
"Did you really use this moment when we first met to greet the past me, through time itself, just when I got that power? I have to admit, Alvis, your shamelessness far exceeds mine."
Mikhael seemed to hear his own voice speaking, but his mouth did not move. That voice sounded more mature, firmer, and above all... more powerful. The woman smiled mysteriously, her silver eyes seeming to look at the current Mikhael.
"Of course not, I'm just telling the truth, my dear driver."
At that moment, the vision abruptly cut off as Mikhael fell panting to the ground. His eyes looked around to make sure he had returned to the desolate planet. Indeed, he had.
"System, is that what you meant by surprises?" Mikhael covered one eye with one hand as he smiled stiffly. He really didn't expect to suddenly activate a vision, if that was who he thought she was, where was his Monado then?
[This great system left a warning in that prize, besides, danger comes with opportunity and the opposite is also true, little host]
"I don't want answers, geez, can't you see that I'm just complaining a little to let off steam?" Mikhael shook his head, shrugging. A few seconds later, his fingers went straight to the inheritance option. "Although I appreciate the lesson."
With that, a multi-colored portal appeared in front of him, probably the one that would take him to where the being who would impart the inheritance was.
"Let's do this!"
Moving forward, Mikhael entered the portal, leaving behind a desolate planet without any purpose. That same planet that had only been created by Kurma for her meeting with the young man she liked in the end.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
ZaelKliz
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