(Shiro and Kuro will use '...' for the terms they know but are not familiar with and when quoting things up. For example, 'gravity' - they knows that what pulls them downward is called gravity but they don't know why or how it works.)
"Hmm~ Nice sleep," Shiro opens her bright-gold eyes, only to see a pair of blood-red eyes staring straight at her. Our hands are still held together.
Shiro isn't startled at all. She had long been used to such a scene. "Good morning, Kuro. When did Kuro wake up?"
"Kuro woke up yesterday," Kuro replies in her usual emotionless, flat monotone.
Shiro has been sleeping for a week this time. Shiro knows this because, as a dragon, she is able to instinctively perceive how much of her own time has passed.
(The Observer's Interludes: To put it simply, a dragon's perception of time is objective. Of course, what they perceive isn't standard time, but the time their bodies experience.)
Don't think a week of sleep is long; it is already considered relatively short, as Shiro and Kuro are still young. The perception of the meaning of time blurs for us dragons as we get older. To us, the difference between decades, centuries, and even millennia isn't significant. It is normal for a dragon to sleep for decades or even centuries.
"Shiro is ready to set off. Is Kuro ready too?" Shiro stands up.
"Kuro is also ready." Kuro follows behind.
Our divine kingdom summons its gate at Shiro's command. In a blink of an eye, a gate appears before our eyes. It is a double-door. Unlike a normal gate, it stands alone in the middle of our divine kingdom. The doors are completely smooth except for the metallic casing on hinge stiles and top and bottom rails of the doors. The side of the gate that faces us is pure black in color with blood-red metallic casing, the same color as Kuro's hair and eyes. The other side is pure white with bright-golden metallic casing, the color of Shiro's hair and eyes. It is obvious who designed these doors. That's right! It's Shiro!
The doors are completely hingeless, which means that they can only be pushed. The side that faces us, which has the same colors as Kuro's pure black hair and blood-red eyes, is the side we have to push to leave our divine kingdom. The side that is away from us, which has the same colors as Shiro's pure white hair and bright-golden eyes, is the side we have to push to enter our divine kingdom.
"Let's go!" Shiro grabs Kuro's hand, pushes the gate, and jumps out without hesitation.
"Shiro finally knows why this planet is called 'Lazuria'!" Shiro says, looking down at the blue planet beneath her while free-falling.
(Whispers from the Void: Bad news, they are in the exosphere layer of the atmospheres. good news, they are stationary relative to 'Lazuria'.)
(Whispers from the Void 2: This is why you should look at what is in front of you first before stepping forward.)
(Whispers from the Void 3: Shiro, Kuro, congratulations! You get a free chance to experience atmospheric reentry firsthand!)
As we accelerated by the 'gravity' of 'Lazuria', Shiro uses divine power to create a big spherical cone divine power construct around them. She also fills its interior with cotton ball-like divine power constructs.
As for why she does this, it is because she knows very well what happens to the 'meteors' that enter the 'atmosphere' and doesn't want to risk her and Kuro becoming one of them. So she tries to recreate the conditions of 'Helios mission's reentry capsule' as much as possible, even if some of our memories about it are missing.
(The Observer's Interludes: The Helios mission is the Blue Star equivalent of the Earth's Apollo mission.)
The big spherical cone divine power construct completely isolates the inside environment from the outside. Shiro does this because we don't want to know how it would feel like to be a 'meteor'. As for the cotton ball-like divine power constructs, she doesn't quite remember why the 'Helios mission's reentry capsule' needed cushions for, but since they were there, there must be a reason, so she decides to just create them first. Better safe than sorry!
"Shiro can't remember how big a 'parachute' has to be... Does Kuro remember?"
Kuro ponders, "Kuro also doesn't remember either."
A few minutes have passed at this point. We have been floating around inside the divine power construct. We seem to be falling at an increasing speed.
"Wah!" Shiro exclaims as she is startled by a sudden impact. Although Kuro is also startled, she shows no further reaction.
(The Observer's Interludes: This impact and the subsequent downward force were caused by decelerations as Shiro and Kuro entered the thicker layers of the atmosphere.)
Shiro finally knows why the 'Helios mission's reentry capsule' needed cushions now. Just now, she and Kuro suddenly got pushed against the floor of the spherical cone divine power construct. Even now, it is difficult for us to move. Fortunately, with the cotton ball-like divine power constructs, which are both super soft and can absorb impact, we are not hurt at all.
Because our spherical cone divine power construct is transparent, we get to see a spectacular scene. The world outside seems to be on fire from our perspective, but we know this isn't the case. It is us, or rather, our spherical cone divine power construct that is on fire. Even so, we don't feel any heat at all.
(The Observer's Interludes: It isn't actually fire that's burning outside; it is a layer of superheated plasma caused by the compression of air. But Shiro and Kuro don't know this.)
The force that pushes us against the floor gradually subsides. A minute later, we can now move around like normal, although we still feel a force pushing us against the floor.
(The Observer's Interludes: The G-force they experience at this stage is immense. In fact, the G-force they are experiencing is actually lethal to even trained humans.)
A few minutes have passed, and the force that was pushing is gone. The fire outside is also gone. And Shiro thinks our speed seems to stop changing now.
"Shiro thinks it's time for us to deploy the parachute now. Does Kuro think so too?" The parachute is a semi-spherical in shape when fully expanded. It is a divine power construct that resembles a Blue Star 'parachute'. It has only two functions: first, to pass through other divine power constructs and second, to be very tough.
"If Shiro thinks it's time for deploying the parachute, then, let's deploy it." Kuro deploys the parachute without hesitation.
"Wah!" Shiro exclaims yet again as she falls to the ground due to the sudden impact. Kuro, who also falls, still does not exclaim and her face still remains expressionless.
A sudden impact hits us once again, and a subsequent, continuous force pushes us against the floor, but it is much less intense. We have no problem moving around under this amount of force, just a little uncomfortable. But then, we are suddenly swung around violently.
(The Observer's Interludes: The sudden impact and subsequent downward force were caused by deceleration after the parachute was deployed.)
After a few minutes of swinging, the spherical cone divine power construct lands safely on the water. Shiro immediately stops supplying all the divine power constructs with divine power except the floor part of the spherical cone divine power construct.
When spherical cone divine power construct lands, our eyes are already spinning. "Shiro doesn't want to experience that swinging again..." Shiro says, and Kuro nods rapidly, clearly agreeing with her.
(Whispers from the Void: This is what you get for deploying only one parachute instead of multi-stage parachutes.)
(Whispers from the Void 2: Atmospheric reentry is very dangerous. Without specialized spacecraft and equipment, appropriate training, and professional guidance, it can be fatal. Please do not attempt it at home.)
Around us is only water, with no land in sight. We also don't know where we are on 'Lazuria', let alone which direction we have to go to find the religion we plan to take over. This is what 'Blue Star' humans call 'plans cannot keep up with changes', right? So we can only choose a random direction and prepare to take off.
Shiro unfolds her pure white dragon wings, which are of the same color as her hair and tail, to appear on her back. Her wingspan is about 3 meters, more than twice her height of 1.3 meters, with a chord length of 1.5 meters. Kuro also unfolds hers, which look identical to Shiro's but are pure black in color just like her hair and tail. Our wings are normally kept hidden for convenience as they are way too big.
After Shiro stops supplying divine power to the floor, we take off just before it completely dissipates. We maintain some distance from each other, but not too far apart, just far enough to flap our wings comfortably without interfering with each other's flight. Up to this point, we have spent 5 units of divine power in total, which means we only have 25 units left.
After a few hours of flight, we finally see a coastline. We decide to land in a hidden cave as to avoid being spotted. As for why we don't use draconic arts to turn invisible, this is because our draconic arts consume too much draconic power. The reason for this is that both of us are hornless. Because we are twins, our bodies' development was not quite complete when we hatched, causing us to not be able to use some abilities of the dragon race.
Horns are very important to dragons. Their function is to allow dragons to precisely control the flow of their draconic power, allowing it to resonate with the magic power that exists everywhere, thereby, achieve hundreds if not, thousands of time the result. Without the horns, dragons can only use their draconic power to cast their draconic arts.
Draconic power is magic power with extremely high energy density, which is normally find in dragons. That's where its name comes from.
Another ability we don't have is [True Form Transformation]. It isn't accurate to say we don't have it at all. Rather, it is more correct to say we can only partially use it.
[True Form Transformation] is an innate draconic art that allows us to transform between a complete dragon and our current half-dragon form. In half-dragon form, we look quite similar to humans or elves, but with pointed ears resembled those of the half-elf, dragon tails, and dragon horns. As for wings, it is optional for us whether we want to make them appear or not.
A complete dragon form is our strongest form. It is not that being in this form provides us with any boost; rather, only by being in this form can we exert our full strength. In fact, most offensive and defensive draconic arts are designed to be used in a complete dragon form.
Our problem is that we can't access our dragon forms. We are not sure whether it is because we don't have them at all or just simply because we can't activate the [True Form Transformation] to return to our complete dragon forms.
"Here we are!" Shiro says cheerfully after she and Kuro finally land on solid ground once again after a long flight. A long flight is extremely boring especially when everything around us looks the same no matter how far we fly. Shiro is almost bored to death even with Kuro beside her. Though, Kuro doesn't seem to care much. Her exact thought is, 'As long as Shiro is with Kuro, even if we sit still, Kuro won't find it boring at all.' Shiro really can't understand her. How can sitting still be fun?
Suddenly, we hear the sound of someone stepping on rocky ground. We turn to look at the source and find a green-skinned humanoid creature about the same height as us, but very ugly. According to the book we read while we were in the Dragon Valley, it is a kind of monster called a 'goblin'. Weird! Shiro is pretty sure no one was in the cave before we came inside.