(Hi, everyone. This is my first time writing a novel. If you have any suggestions or ideas, feel free to advice me. But please be respectful.)
(Shiro and Kuro will refer to themselves using third person perspectives only when talking among themselves, in narration, or when acting cute. They will refer to themselves together by their name or using we and its related pronouns like us or our.)
(This story is a real-time self-narration of Shiro.)
"Kuro, does Shiro look cute?" Shiro asks the almost identical dragon girl next to her.
Hearing Shiro's question, Kuro turns to look at her.
Reflected in Kuro's eyes is a figure comparable to a masterpiece sculpted by a god of art. The girl's pure white hair flows down to her waist, and her pure white, smooth, scaly dragon tail protrudes from under a plain, above-the-knee A-line mini-dress of the same color. Her delicate, fair skin and exquisite features make her appear extremely adorable. Her fair, small feet rest comfortably on the marble floor. Her clear, gem-like golden eyes stare straight ahead at the black-haired girl, eager to hear her answer.
Who exactly is she, you ask? Who else could she be but our cutest Shiro!
Kuro looks identical to Shiro, but with different hair, scale, and eye colors. She dresses in a mini-dress similar to Shiro's, but black in color. Her hair and scales are pure black, so black that they seem to absorb all the light landing on them, forming a sharp contrast with her fair and delicate skin. Her eyes are dark red, like the color of blood. Her face is almost expressionless, were it not for an almost imperceptible, gentle smile on her lips—a smile that belongs to Shiro alone.
As for our height... Ummm... We are only about 1.3 meters tall now, but we will definitely grow taller in the future!
"Kuro thinks Shiro looks very cute," Kuro replies, her voice flat, monotonous, and emotionless.
"Really?! Shiro thinks Kuro is also very cute too! Shiro believes that if we aren't a god of wisdom, we definitely will be a god of cuteness!" Shiro smiles happily and says in her energetic tone. "Since we are ready, let's go! Shiro can't wait to go to the main material plane!" Shiro runs off with Kuro's hand in hers.
We are really cute! If there were a cuteness score from 0 to 100, Shiro and Kuro would definitely score 100. And it's not because we could only score 100; it's that the maximum score is 100. This is just how cute Shiro and Kuro really are. The term 'cuteness' should have been redefined after us.
We have a secret that cannot be known to others. We actually share a single soul, and our soul actually comes from another world!
In our previous life, we seem to have been a human from a place called 'Blue Star.' In that world, there are no gods or magic, and dragons are but myths. It's a world dominated by its sole intelligent species, who call themselves humans. They seem to be quite similar to humans we read about in the stories, except humans on 'Blue Star' don't use magic or divine arts; they use something they call 'science.'
The reason we are here is because our previous life's self fell into a space crack and drifted in the void for an unknown period of time before entering this world and taking over a dying dragon egg, allowing it to barely survive. That dragon egg was us.
Due to the corrosive nature of the void, our soul was so damaged that many memories are missing, and even those that aren't are incomplete. Not even our previous life's name is remembered. The few things we remember are the fact that we seemed to be male in our previous life and a few fragmented pieces of knowledge.
Actually, the fact that we were male in our previous life is just our guess based on fragmented memories. The 'Blue Star' humans seem to be undergoing something they call 'information overload' from what they call 'internet,' which generates a lot of junk information. All this junk information causes us a lot of trouble piecing together fragmented memories, and it also greatly affects the accuracy and reliability of the information we piece together. Since we have no way to test whether we were really male in our past life, we can only leave it as an assumption.
Under the influence of the damage to the soul and the authority of wisdom, our soul divided into two parts. The part of the soul that bore the pains of being corroded in the void, combined with the destructive nature of the wisdom authority, formed Kuro. While the part that was filled with curiosity about the world and yearning for its beauty, combined with the positive nature of the wisdom authority, formed Shiro. This also reflects in our personalities.
Shiro is cheerful, energetic, and naturally optimistic, while Kuro is indifferent, or even cold, toward anyone other than Shiro. Kuro is also very protective of Shiro and very gentle toward her.
Maybe it is because our soul is one, or because of our authority, or perhaps a combination of both: our minds are connected. To put it simply, Shiro's thoughts and memories are completely open to Kuro, and Kuro's are also completely open to her. Our thoughts are transferred at the same speed as our normal thinking speed, regardless of distance and without any delay. We can also decide the order of transfer. When we are in physical contact, our information transfer rate increases exponentially with the area of contact, and we can connect our brains together. Of course, we still prefer to talk to each other, even if we already know what the other party is thinking before they even speak.
The place we are in now is called Dragon Valley. It is a place where the dragons collectively raise their young. It's located at the very core of the Dragon Domain. The security level of this place is second to none in the Dragon Domain. Word has it that if the Dragon Domain were to be destroyed, the Dragon Valley would definitely be the last place to fall. This shows just how much the dragon race values their young.
According to what we know, the Dragon Domain is one of the four sub-main planes attached to the main material plane. In this world, there is a main plane and countless planes attached to it. These attached planes are collectively known as sub-planes. They are called a secret realm (if they are born naturally or are artificially created by non-gods) and a divine kingdom (if they are created by a god).
A sub-main plane refers to a plane that is comparable to the main plane but cannot exist independently of it. Other sub-main planes are the Underworld, the Subspace, and the "Shell." The Underworld is a place where most souls in the main plane go to after death. It is a place that breaks down and recycles souls. Subspace is an imaginary space that overlaps with the main material plane. It is the foundation of most space magic and reality-bending magic. The "Shell" is a layer between the outer dimensional barrier and the inner dimensional barrier of the main material plane. These barriers envelope the main material plane very much in the same manner as the outer and inner membranes of an egg.
Dragon Domain is a plane that belongs only to us, dragons. Only dragons can enter it. Like the Dragon Domain, other sub-planes also have their own entry and exit conditions. If these conditions are not met, the only way to enter and leave the sub-planes is to force one's way in or out.
Sub-planes also have their own set of laws. Sub-planes of the fire element, for example, have a suppressive effect on non-fire-related powers, especially water-related ones, and an amplification effect on fire-related powers. This is also why sub-planes are considered to be the foundation of a force.
Therefore, the Dragon Domain being a sub-main plane demonstrates the sheer scale of our dragon race's foundation.
Our Dragon Domain is a construct of countless secret realms and divine kingdoms joined into a single plane. In it, the amplification effect on dragons is so huge that it allows us to unconditionally improve our realm by a level without side effects. In it, however, non-dragons will be suppressed by a realm. This means that in the Dragon Domain, dragons are capable of fighting a being two realms higher than them.
An adult dragon is comparable to beings in the demigod realm. The realm below demigod is called the mortal realm. The demigod realm and higher are collectively called the divine realm. The realm higher than the demigod realm is the low-rank god realm. Then, the medium-rank god realm and the high-rank god realm, respectively. Finally, the highest realm is called the main god realm.
(The Observer's Interludes: This is just Shiro and Kuro's understanding of this world's power system, not how this world's power system actually works. This understanding, while true for most cases, isn't entirely correct.)
This information is what we pieced together from what the books say. It should be quite reliable; after all, we, dragons, are already powerful enough. There seems to be no need to further exaggerate our deeds.
"Here we are! Hi, Aunt Phyllis!" Shiro waves excitedly with one of her hands while her other hand holds Kuro's hand. Kuro only respectfully nods at Aunt Phyllis.
Aunt Phyllis is a dragon god of life. Dragon Valley was once her divine kingdom. She is the one who is in charge of raising young dragons. She is very gentle most of the time. As long as we don't do something outrageous, like doing something that may be life-threatening or intentionally causing trouble repeatedly even after she warns us numerous times, she will patiently and gently reason with us. Everyone here loves her. Although calling it everyone, there are actually only about 5 dragon cubs here, including Shiro and Kuro.
Word has it that in the distant past, there was never a period when the number of dragon cubs here was lower than a hundred. If this rumor holds true, does that mean something that happened in the past caused our numbers to drastically decline, and, even to this day, they still have not recovered? We didn't ask Aunt Phyllis this question, though. She is said to be one of the eldest dragons that are still alive today. She has been raising generations after generations of dragons. It can be said that almost all existing dragons today are raised by her. So if there is something in the past that caused a large number of dragons to die, she must be very sad because of it. We don't want her to recall it, so we decided not to ask her. We believe we can find out the truth ourselves. We are the dragon god of wisdom, after all!
Speaking of which, there is a rumor about Aunt Phyllis we heard from an adult dragon some time ago. Rumor has it that Aunt Phyllis was once in the main god realm, but she used some kind of divine art to grant some blessings to an entire dragon race. Her realm fell to the high-rank god realm as a price of this divine art. We don't know how true this rumor is, but if it is true, we believe this event must have happened after that event that caused our number to significantly decrease. After all, falling into the high-rank god realm and being completely unable to advance to the main god realm again doesn't seem like a small matter.
If we assume that our hypothesis is correct, we believe that the blessings Aunt Phyllis granted to our dragon race should be our ability to reproduce regardless of gender. As for how to do it, we don't know either. We have not yet reached the age to learn about that kind of stuff yet. We are only 50 years old this year and still have 50 years to wait for our bodies to mature enough. We only learned about this ability from a few sentences in the books.
But this isn't what's important right now! Now, we should focus on going to the main material plane!
"Aunt Phyllis, let's go! I can't wait!" Shiro jumps up and down excitedly while Kuro remains expressionless as always. When Shiro jumps, she also drags Kuro's arm up and down with her.
"Alright, calm down, Shiro. If you can't concentrate, it will not be easy to construct your own divine kingdom... But no need to be too nervous; I will guide you two every step of the way." Aunt Phyllis's tone is as gentle as usual. She also gives Shiro and Kuro a headpat each! She is right! Shiro has to calm down.