[The Celestial Screen was pitch black, but soon a refined, youthful voice emerged.]
["I have come from afar for a piece of history… about the history of dragons."]
——
"Oh? About dragons?"
In the Underworld of the Sea, Ao Guang immediately straightened, staring intently at the Celestial Screen, unwilling to miss a single detail about the [Immortal] dragons' history.
"Big Brother, this is just the history of foreign dragons. What does it have to do with us?" Ao Qin asked, puzzled. Every time dragons were mentioned on the Celestial Screen, his brother acted like he wanted to slow it down tenfold to scrutinize every detail.
"Heh… foreign dragons?" Ao Guang sneered twice. "Haven't you realized yet? The world we're in is just one of countless worlds in this cosmic galaxy. The Xianzhou may be a distant realm to us, but to the [Immortal] Dragon Ancestor who reigns over myriad dragon clans across the universe, we might even be…"
"Descendants of that Dragon Ancestor?" Ao Run instantly grasped his brother's meaning, finishing his sentence.
"…Mm." Ao Guang nodded. "That's why I seek clues about the Dragon Ancestor in the Celestial Screen, to see if they can help us lead the Four Seas' dragon clans out of this abyss."
——
[An old man appeared on the Celestial Screen, holding a brush over paper. A drop of thick ink fell, gradually spreading across the rice paper.]
["Of the Dragon Ancestor of the Celestial Abyss, I know nothing."]
["Before history was born, the Dragon Ancestor roamed the primordial chaos, seeking the essence of [Existence]."]
[At first, the paper was a chaotic blur, then it slowly unfurled, forming a winding dragon's spine.]
[That final stroke became a coiled dragon body, the ink splashing like a galaxy pouring forth. The entire dragon leapt from the paper, its ink waves surging as it soared into the stars.]
[In the vast cosmos, stars glittered like sand. The ink dragon wove through the galaxy, its scales reflecting the brilliance of countless stars, appearing and vanishing.]
[Finally, it coiled around a star, its dragon form encircling it. Under the dragon's shadow, that star seemed impossibly small.]
——
Record of Ragnarok——
"Wait?! That's a dragon?"
Odin's single eye narrowed sharply. The moment the dragon's shadow appeared, his raven Hugin began squawking frantically on his shoulder, adding to the already heavy atmosphere in the gods' VIP lounge.
Odin's gaze darkened instantly.
Compared to this dragon… the Midgard Serpent, Jörmungandr, which he had cast into Midgard, was as insignificant as an earthworm.
In the claws of this dragon, their entire world was but a trifle to be grasped, capable of being reduced to dust with a mere flick.
A sudden clatter of a golden goblet hitting the floor broke the room's deathly silence. The gods turned to see Zeus, king of the gods, his face rigid, his beard trembling.
"Haha… impossible, this can't be real… Even in the depths of Tartarus, I've never seen such a monster. It must be fake! Nothing on the Celestial Screen can be trusted!"
His hysterical, impotent rage was met only with the gods' silence.
They all knew… everything shown on the Celestial Screen was real. And Zeus, as the supreme ruler of the world, his fear only deepened their unease.
"Buddha, this dragon's even scarier than Phantylia, isn't it?" Valkyrie Brunhilde whispered to the stylish man beside her.
"Bubu, isn't that obvious?" Buddha crunched the lollipop in his mouth. "This dragon could wipe out not just our world but this entire room of gods with a single breath."
——
["On the path of the Way, the revelation of [Immortality] shone forth. And then… came the birth of us dragon descendants."]
[The ink dragon coiled around the star suddenly raised its head, its eyes blazing, its whiskers quivering as if sensing something, soaring and circling through the sea of stars.]
[In an instant—]
[Its claws curled, its tail coiled, and the colossal dragon shadow spanning the galaxy collapsed and condensed in a mere moment. In a blink, the towering dragon form vanished, leaving only a dark, glimmering ink orb that quietly shattered.]
["I once visited the world of Leifal, where the supreme dragon sat atop a stellar vortex, cycling day and night, shifting seasons, sheltering the beings of the star system."]
——
Overlord——
"Lord… Lord Ainz…"
Shalltear's lovely face turned deathly pale.
Whether from overwhelming fear or profound awe, her teeth chattered. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead, soaking the white locks by her cheeks. She stared at the Celestial Screen, where the dragon dominated the sky, but even glimpsing a fragment of it made her knees tremble.
She had to grip the railing in front of her to steady herself.
Was it excitement? Witnessing a power greater than Lord Ainz… no, even beyond Phantylia's reach, an utterly supreme might?
Not just Lord Ainz—even the combined strength of everyone in the Great Tomb of Nazarick paled before these five dragons.
Though her emotions resisted accepting it, her body had already reacted.
…Because it was far, far, far too grand.
The stellar vortex on the Celestial Screen showed countless stars torn into spiraling rivers of light, endlessly falling toward the center. Above this vortex, five dragon heads loomed like deities.
As if with a slight clench of their claws, countless worlds like theirs would crumble in their grasp. Shattered stars spilled from their claws, forming dazzling cascades.
This power… could it be an Aeon? Or was this merely a manifestation of [Immortality]?
It was too insignificant.
The sight before Ainz drove home this truth more than words ever could.
When watching Phantylia's battle, the Guardians had needed mental magic to stay calm. But now, seeing this, they all fell silent, not uttering a sound.
——
[Then, the youthful, refined voice asked, "Is the revelation of Immortality… the eternal preservation of power?"]
[The old man replied slowly, "Eternity confined to an individual only leads to endlessly proliferating monstrosities—this is the delusion of the Plague Ancestor of Longevity."]
[As the old man spoke, a dragon on the Celestial Screen opened its eyes. In its vertical pupils burned the end of countless lives—wars, races' desperate cries, all compressed into fleeting blood-red moments.]
["Then… is Immortality the continuation of bloodlines?"]
[The young voice continued, "I also visited the homeland of the Infinos, in the Land of White Ash, where the Dead Dragon's Wailwind brought fire and rain, ensuring its descendants flourished and were reborn, ever-burning."]