Teyvat——
"Eh? Kaeya, why'd the sky go dark?"
Inside Mondstadt's Knights of Favonius headquarters, Klee was scribbling a dragon with crayons in her notebook. Suddenly, the sky darkened completely, as if the sun had been swallowed whole by a giant dragon.
"It's a black dragon…" Albedo murmured softly.
He had never seen such a dragon… Even Durin, a creation of his master, was less than a thousandth of this black dragon's might.
Its body spanned the heavens, each scale gleaming with molten darkness. Jagged bone spikes rose like mountain ranges from its rugged hide, and its red heart in its chest seemed to set the clouds ablaze with every beat, boiling the air with every breath.
And when it flapped its wings—
Countless burning meteors rained down from the gaps in its wings, as if to set the entire world alight, while drawing countless smaller black dragons toward it.
"A dragon a hundred times bigger than Dvalin!" Klee's eyes widened in awe.
"Heh… a hundred times?" Albedo gave a faint smile, pointing to a tiny black dragon in the corner of the Celestial Screen, barely visible to the naked eye. "Little Klee, I'm afraid Dvalin isn't even as big as that little black dragon."
——
[The old man sighed leisurely, "Dragon descendants are scattered across the realms, dispersed through the silver sea, with no connection between them. Compared to the universe, the rise and fall of a single clan is insignificant."]
["But it is said that the Vidyadhara allied with the Xianzhou, and five Dragon Sovereigns descended to guard the traces of the Plague Ancestor of Longevity, unceasing for eons."]
["Could Immortality… be this grand cause of protecting the cosmos?"]
[An ink dragon plummeted from the heavens, its slender body tearing a trail thousands of miles long through the clouds.]
[The divine tree, a manifestation of the Plague Ancestor of Longevity, had long since withered. The ink dragon rose from the waters, roaring and circling, guarding the dead tree's remains.]
[The old man let out a wistful sigh, "But Imbibitor Lunae has long broken his oath, causing great chaos… Even a Dragon Sovereign has mortal flaws. The heavy duty they bear will one day become their shackles."]
[With the old man's words, the Dragon Sovereign's once-proud head gradually lowered, bowing beside the Ambrosial Arbor.]
——
Emiya Household——
"So there's not just Imbibitor Lunae, but four other Dragon Sovereigns?" Cú Chulainn's eyes widened. "Then when Phantylia came to stir trouble on the Xianzhou Luofu, why didn't the other Dragon Sovereigns show up?"
"…If they had, it would've been quite a show."
"Heh, Lancer, have you forgotten that the other Xianzhou ships have their own traces of the Plague Ancestor?"
Saber said calmly, holding her teacup. "Back then, it wasn't clear if only one Lord Ravager was targeting the Xianzhou Alliance. If the other Dragon Sovereigns had come to the Luofu, leaving the traces on the other ships vulnerable, the consequences…"
…They'd likely have needed the Reignbow Arbiter to manifest again.
——
["Then, in your view, Elder, what exactly is the revelation of Immortality?"]
["The sun and moon cycle, and worldly affairs are ever-changing. In a universe of constant flux, immutability holds no meaning. Only by deeply aligning with all things, in harmony with the Way, can one attain eternity."]
[With the old man's words, four giant dragons appeared one by one on the Celestial Screen.]
[First, the clouds parted for miles as a dragon with twin wings coiled around a crimson moon, its breath stirring wind and thunder.]
[This was the first, the Verdant Dragon Sovereign—Lord Skywind! Heir to the legacy of the Yinglong, master of wind and thunder, guardian of the moon of gestation.]
[Next, a red-bodied dragon appeared, clutching an ancient cauldron in its claws. The cauldron's molten flames roiled, their heat seeming to radiate through the Celestial Screen, stirring unease.]
[This was the second, the Crimson Dragon Sovereign—Lord Flamecourt! Heir to the legacy of the Qiulong, wielder of celestial fire, guardian of the Primordial Flame Emperor.]
[Then, a snow-white dragon emerged, as if carved from mystic ice, its scales reflecting a ghostly blue light. Its chill cooled the earlier heat to the bone.]
[This was the third, the Fanghu Dragon Sovereign—Lord Frostabyss! Heir to the legacy of the Jiaolong, tamer of icy tides, guardian of the Sea of Mists.]
[Finally, a black-green dragon rested silently among the mountains, its body blending with the peaks. Its head hung low, its gaze calm, exuding a heavy, grounded aura.]
[This was the last, the Jade Gate Dragon Sovereign—Lord Earthridge! Heir to the legacy of the Earth Dragon, contemplative and still, guardian of the Abyssal Stone.]
["Merging with the morning star, coexisting with it—when one dragon falls, all things are reborn. For us Vidyadhara, this is the true meaning of Immortality!"]
——
Dragon Raja——
"Maybe I should be glad the dragons we're dealing with aren't these ones."
Caesar poured himself a glass of champagne, taking a rueful sip. "If we'd faced even one of these back at the Three Gorges, we probably wouldn't have made it out alive."
"Dragon Kings and Dragon Sovereigns aren't on the same level."
Chu Zihang shook his head. "Take Lord Flamecourt from the Xianzhou Zhuming, for example. His power seems similar to Norton, the King of Bronze and Fire, but that cauldron he wields radiates heat intense enough to affect us through the Celestial Screen… His mastery of 'fire' far surpasses Norton's authority."
"If Lord Flamecourt used his power, he could probably make an entire river boil and evaporate," Chu Zihang speculated.
"To guard the traces of an Aeon for millennia, the Dragon Sovereigns' power, even if not equal to an Emanator's, likely isn't far off."
——
["And in this endless cycle, every endpoint becomes a new beginning."]
["For him, it is no different."]
[The scene shifted, showing Danfeng seated cross-legged, bound tightly by six chains, yet he sat calmly, guided by the breeze.]
The Celestial Screen went dark once more.
——
One-Punch Man——
Hero Association Headquarters.
"Hey, didn't you notice? When the last four Dragon Sovereigns appeared, Tornado seemed oddly relaxed," Child Emperor said to Bang as the meeting adjourned.
"You didn't observe closely enough. She was already relaxed when the five dragons first appeared," Bang said calmly. "As for why… it's not hard to guess."
"Why?"
"If the opponent is a powerful monster, Tornado would definitely want to fight. But if it's a monster that could casually destroy Earth, she'd have no interest at all."
"…No desire to fight?"
"Simply put, there's no point in fighting," Bang corrected. "Those dragons can easily annihilate Earth. Tornado probably knows that in the face of such an absolute power gap… resistance is meaningless."