After a few sharp cracking sounds echoed through the truck, the surface of the blackish-red egg began to fracture.
Cracks spread outward like spiderwebs, glowing faintly. Then, with one final snap, the shell split apart.
Aleron held his breath.
From within the smoldering fragments, a creature slowly emerged. It looked fiery red and glistened with a thin sheen of ethereal fluid.
It pushed aside a shard of eggshell with a trembling claw, lifting its head as light flickered across its armored body.
Aleron stared at the creature in front of him, momentarily stunned. 'Is this… truly a dragon?'
He squinted his eyes, unable to look away from the little creature.
The creature had four solid legs, each ending in obsidian-black claws that tapped against the metal beneath it.
Two backward-curving horns, which looked sturdy and slightly rigid, crowned its skull. Meanwhile, the dragon's snout was short and blunted.
The creature growled softly, then spread its red wings, which instantly covered more than half of the truck's interior.
Its size is increasing? Aleron noticed. Before his eyes, the dragon's body began to expand and its bones began to stretch.
In a matter of seconds, the dragon grew to the length of Aleron's knee.
After that, the dragon opened its crimson-gold eyes and locked onto Aleron with startling intensity; it could sense its connection to this human before it.
Aleron's heart pounded, feeling the gaze of the dragon.
This was the first time he was seeing a dragon in both his lifetimes, a true dragon!
Just then, a voice echoed softly in Aleron's mind. It sounded like a five-year-old child.
"Are you… my father?"
Aleron was stunned by the voice, the voice didn't feel as ancient or terrifying as he had expected.
He didn't know how to respond at first. A dragon, one of the forbidden twelve, just asked him if he was his father?
But as Aleron stared into the dragon's crimson-gold eyes, he felt a mysterious sensation.
He felt that the dragon wasn't just a summon; instead, it contained some similarities to him.
According to the system's words, the dragon was forbidden, just like Aleron's parents had sold him to the genesis coil.
They had both been thrown away by the world they previously belonged to...
In that case, why don't I become the sovereign of the world? Aleron! The father of dragons!
After all, only i awaken the forbidden sss ranked dragons!
These thoughts appeared in Aleron's mind and then he replied calmly...
"Yes," Aleron said quietly in his mind. "I am."
The little dragon paused staring at him deeply, before nodding softly.
"...Okay, Dad."
After that the dragon moved forward and rested its head lightly against his leg.
Aleron didn't speak but just stood there, letting the warmth of the dragon's body press against him as rain poured outside the truck.
Just as the two were about to get familiar with each other, a loud voice cut through the air.
"What the hell are you doing?! What… what is that creature?!"
…
Far away, in a forgotten temple deep within a mountain range, a stone altar cracked for the first time in over ten thousand years.
Inside the temple, seven elders, each clad in robes etched with ancient runes, were meditating beneath the eternal flame when the sound echoed across the chamber. All of their eyes instantly snapped open.
Their gazes turned to the altar at the center, where a hairline fracture had now apeared on its flawless surface.
"This… this isn't possible," one of the elders muttered, rising to his feet. "One of the Forbidden creatures has awakened."
"But which forbidden creature?" another elder asked, his voice was low and heavy, filled with dread. "An Abomination? An Apparition? or…"
No one spoke the name they feared most.
Until one of them voiced out their thoughts…
"…Could it be… a dragon?"
At this words the chamber fell into silence.
"That's impossible. Dragons vanished during the Calamity War and none of them survived," another elder voiced their thoughts.
The seven quickly shook their heads simultaneously as well, not believing a dragon could stop being a forbidden creature. They knew that dragons had stopped existing a long time ago so there was no way a dragon could come to life.
"We should inform our forces and check out for any abnormalities. I don't want what happened back then in that calamity war to repeat itself again," one of the elders said solemnly.
The memories of the calamity war involving humans, apparitions, and abominations resurfaced in their minds, and they shivered slightly despite being at the peak of human strength.
After coming to the decision, they all set off to their respective forces to warn them of the undercurrents, which were surging.
…
Aleron was unaware of this; instead, he was currently in a predicament. He stared at the two young men standing before him, momentarily dazed.
He had been too focused on the dragon to notice how much time had passed.
A flash of lightning lit up the sky, illuminating the truck. In that instant, the men saw the creature beside him.
"A dragon?" one of them exclaimed. He had once seen a drawing of a similar creature in an ancient book which had been passed down for generations over ten thousand years.
'But dragons aren't supposed to exist anymore…' Just as the thought formed in his mind, his companion cut him off.
"What do you mean by a dragon? Are they some kind of unique beast?" he asked urgently.
"Dragons are…" the first man began, but another crack of thunder drowned out his words. Lightning streaked across the sky again, revealing a figure approaching them through the rain.
"1317?" they gasped in shock. They had been certain 1317 was dead before throwing him into the waste arena.
"How are you still alive?" the younger of the two asked. 'Could it be… because of the dragon?' A theory began to form in his mind. He had access to some ancient information, after all.
Aleron paused in his steps and didn't respond. His mind raced with thoughts as he ignored the system's prompts and frantically calculated his chances against the two.
He didn't know the exact strength of the men before him, and there were two of them. The odds were already against him from the start.
"Summon Frost Wolf!" seeing the hesitant look in Aleron's eyes and the will to fight, the younger man immediately shouted, not letting his guard down in the least bit.
Although he was just a Rank 1 Summoner, he was still more than ten times stronger than a normal human.
The ground beneath him glowed pale blue as a chilling wind swept the air. A silhouette emerged and soon, a wolf, slightly larger than average, appeared faintly, its form solidifying in an instant.
Sensing his master's will, the wolf growled and turned toward Aleron.
Feeling that his coworker could handle everything, the slightly older man didn't bother to summon his beast and just watched to see how Aleron would defend against this.
However, the little dragon who beside Aleron frowned. Sensing the trashy bloodline of the wolf, it was angered immediately, and its heart was filled with wrath.
It felt as though they were challenging its pride… the pride of a dragon!
Without warning, a strange sensation surged through its body and with a roar that shook the heavens, it unleashed a blast of incinerating flame from deep within its throat…