At the Summit of the Mountains

"Since the gods appeared, all things have blossomed. With birth as mother and death as father, they command the sky, roam through thought, shape the elements. All glory belongs to the gods, all creations are offered to the gods. Through endless reincarnation, this shall never change..." Tishalar, Lord of Dragons and Sovereign of All Dragons, screamed from the summit of Timirora Peak, the source of all things and the highest of all mountains.

Mighty, surging divine power flew from the cloud-shrouded mountaintop into the depths of the Sacred Sea. Whether they were the Ralierman Dragons born of the elements or the Lulolinge Divine Dragons swimming through the Sacred Sea, such a voice echoed in their minds. The divine power of the Lord of Dragons was not something Common Dragons could resist. Countless dragons of flesh and blood flew toward the mountain where the Sovereign of All Dragons resided.

"Has it begun again... The tyrant of dragons is howling again. Death will arrive as promised. O Sacred Sea, exalted above all things! Tell me, how can I escape this cruel destiny? How can my people break free from these shackles of fate..." Raslin'er, bathed in the pure light of the Sacred Sea, slowly opened his eyes and prayed as though singing.

This sacred and majestic dragon gleamed with the magic of souls. Hope clung to his golden scales, the flames of thought surged within his clear eyes, and his white, translucent wings symbolized the noble dignity of the Lulolinge Divine Dragons.

"My beloved Father of Sacred Dragons—" In the unfathomable abyss at the center of the Sacred Sea, the phantoms gave Raslin'er's pleas and questions their due response. As products of the Mind Divine Realm, the Lulolinge Divine Dragons possessed knowledge beyond ordinary imagination, while even more powerful and ancient beings lurked within the sea abyss.

"The decayed evil god shall awaken from death. Yet the cruel tyrant remains ignorant and unaware. From the summit of the mountains comes the howl of a wild dog. The coming end and former glory begin to intertwine. The decayed Child of Destiny shall slumber alongside the hero. A new era slowly emerges. All that remains is to wait..."

Thus did the phantoms of the Sacred Sea answer Raslin'er, Father of Sacred Dragons, and the Lulolinge Divine Dragons behind him. The summons of the Sovereign of All Dragons began to fade from the minds of the Lulolinge Divine Dragons. Though the summons had temporarily ended, Raslin'er knew that the shackles binding him and his kin remained unbroken. Unless the future foretold by the phantoms came to pass, they would forever remain slaves of Tishalar, Sovereign of All Dragons, and the Northern Old Gods.

Pain began—

The voice of the slave master echoed in his mind—

Neither flame nor stone could block such pain—

Mara'an, born within the earth's crust, twisted his body in the magma. A frenzied swelling sensation crushed his body, while pain in his thoughts linked to his soul far surpassed the suffering of flesh. The divine power of the Sovereign of Dragons could not be resisted. Mara'an wailed and cried out.

"Who—who will save me?!"

Flames poured from the dragon's mouth, blackened rocks were smashed to pieces, and crimson magma began to flow backward. His tail wings were dazzlingly vivid, his eyes fiercely terrifying, and his gray scales were covered in charred, cracked corpses.

The Ralierman Dragons born of the elements were creations of the Old Gods. In the beginning, they were born in flame and grew in rain and dew. Wind gave them the power of flight, and lightning was the weapon bestowed upon them by the ancients. Yet as time passed, the bloodline of the Elemental Dragons became corrupted.

Dragons that should have been born in flame were instead born in the sea. Dragons that should have ridden the wind now needed the aid of lightning to race through the skies. The power of the elements began to scatter, and kin who should have been as close as brothers turned their fangs and claws upon one another.

"No—no—"

Mara'an roared, unwilling to move forward, but his descendants pressed on without hesitation, following Tishalar's voice in their minds toward the summit of Timilora, highest of all mountains.

At the summit of Timilora, Tishalar, Sovereign of All Dragons, gently folded her wings. Her enormous tail wings and claws transformed into armor, and her orange-yellow eyes turned gold. She spun, howled, and then the black-and-gold dragon assumed human form.

Below Timilora's summit, dragons of every color crawled like lambs. Common Dragons, Elemental Dragons, and Lulolinge Divine Dragons who foresaw the future all did the same. Looking down at those dragons, who should have been arrogant and untamable yet now submitted at her feet, Tishalar, Sovereign of All Dragons, burst into deranged laughter from the depths of her heart.

"Ah—dragons!"

Seeing the dragonkind gathered atop Timirora Peak, Pervi could not help trembling in astonishment. Only dragons could emanate such an overwhelming presence. Gazing at the dragon on the mountaintop, young Pervi asked his father:

"Why have those dragons come here? Aren't they cold?"

"Silly child, they are dragons. They do not feel cold at all." Pervi's father, Pipapengpa, explained, "It is said that every hundred years, dragons from all over the world come to Timirora's summit to receive the gifts of the gods. Those chosen will fly to the divine halls of the gods and serve the high gods, basking in immortal divine light."

Holding young Pervi in his arms, Pipapengpa slowly walked toward his tribe's encampment. The vast snow on the mountain covered the footprints they had left behind. As a member of the Dragon Tooth Tribe, Pipapengpa worshipped Tishalar, God of Dragons. This high god provided shelter and food for him, his wife, and his child. In return, he offered his small measure of strength to Tishalar's divinity.

Pipapengpa raised the divine fang bestowed by Tishalar, God of Dragons. The endless snow was turned into vapor by the scorching rays emitted from the dragon fang, and a path toward the tribe gradually became clear.

Pipapengpa set Pervi down and headed toward the tribal encampment. Tents made from boiled dragonhide were impervious to weapons, while the light emitted by dragon jade from within dragon bodies illuminated the entire tribe. The flesh of dead dragons was dried by the wind and snow for food, and weapons forged from dragon fangs and bones glimmered with elemental light. In the northern Bikasoya Empire, such weapons would fetch an excellent price.

"Hey—Pipapengpa, have the dragons the priest spoke of arrived?" The burly man approaching them was Kayisi, chief of the Dragon Tooth Tribe. He first bowed to Pipapengpa, and Pipapengpa returned the gesture.

"Ah, the dragons have arrived. They are worshipping Tishalar, Lord of Dragons, right now. Once the ceremony is over, we can go there," Pipapengpa said.

"Are dragons really big?" Kayisi's daughter, Li Laar, who was under ten years old, hid behind Kayisi and asked shyly.

"I saw them! Dragons are really, really huge—" Pervi ran out from behind Pipapengpa, waving his arms as he showed Li Laar the dragon's size. "That dragon was this... this huge!"

"Were you frightened by the dragons?" Kayisi asked with a smile.

"Of course not!" Pervi said, patting his young chest. "When I grow up, I'll ride on a dragon's head and become a great hero like the Sovereign of All Dragons!"

"What a lively little clever boy—" Kayisi said with a laugh, rubbing Pervi's head.

The dragons' pilgrimage lasted several days before it finally ended. At the moment it did, tens of thousands of dragons flew away from Timirora's summit together. In mere moments, the skies over Timirora were covered by the dragon horde. The polar day became night, sunlight could not pierce their wings, and the daytime snow turned into the wind of night.

Only about half an hour later did the snowflakes turn white again.

"Looks like the dragons have flown away. Everyone, set out!" Kayisi led his people toward the sacred land of the Dragon Tooth Tribe—the Hall of Dragons.

"Me! Me! Me! I want to go to the sacred land too!" Pervi broke free from his mother's embrace and ran toward his father, Pipapengpa. "I want to be a warrior! I want to become someone like Father too!"

"No—" Pipapengpa refused. "You are still too young. You cannot go to the Hall of Dragons. It is not safe there!"

"But..." Pervi wanted to argue further, but Pipapengpa rejected him even more firmly.

"All right, all right..." Kayisi mediated. "You are still too young to go to the Hall of Dragons. When you grow up, we will take you there, all right?"

"Then how old do I have to be to count as grown up?" Pervi asked.

"Eighteen, perhaps..." Pipapengpa and Kayisi exchanged knowing smiles.

The journey to the Hall of Dragons was extremely long. As a nomadic people, the Dragon Tooth Clan only came from the lush grasslands to the frigid Timirora Peak once every hundred years. That was because the dragons' pilgrimage began every century. The pilgrimage route was exceedingly difficult. Some dragons died along the way, while others died during the process of ascending into gods. The Hall of Dragons was the graveyard of those dragons.

Two days, three days... The journey to the Hall of Dragons was just as distant for humans. Pervi watched the wind and snow draw closer day by day, but his father and the warriors of the Dragon Tooth Clan never returned. In his heart, Pervi silently prayed that Tishalar, Father of All Dragons, would bring the warriors who had gone to the Hall of Dragons back safely, even if only his father returned.

Pervi's prayer seemed to come true. On the seventh day after the warriors had left, a familiar figure emerged from the snow. The man had long hair and a full beard. His broad, imposing back looked exactly like his father's.

"Pipapengpa—" the priest of the Dragon Tooth Clan shouted. "Where are Kayisi and the others?"

Pipapengpa did not answer.

The priest called again, "Pipapengpa—"

Pipapengpa still did not answer, but his footsteps grew heavier.

"Dad—" As Pervi saw the approaching figure resemble his father more and more, he dashed out of the tent and ran toward Pipapengpa.

"Wait—don't go over there!" The priest grabbed Pervi's hand and shouted, "That guy is not—your father!"

"How could that be?! That is my dad!" Pervi twisted his body, trying to break free from the priest's grasp.

Yet when Pipapengpa entered the bounds of the Dragon Tooth Clan's barrier, his disguise vanished in an instant. Huge black wings burst from Pipapengpa's body, and a decayed body surged out from within the corpse. A rotten dragon appeared before Pervi.

"That... that... isn't my... father..." Pervi fainted on the spot.

The priests of the Dragon Tooth Clan, together with the remaining Dragon Tooth Clan warriors, fought against the terrifying enemy. Green flames erupted from the dragon's body, while decayed, rotten energy roamed throughout the Dragon Tooth Tribe.

"Death! Death!" the dragon wailed as green sludge gushed from its body. "In the name of Rosa Kevin, the Elder Evil God—the Demon King who devoured seven worlds! I curse! I curse! I curse you parasites of dragons! Your clans shall die one by one, until the last person!"

"In the name of Tishalar, God of All Dragons! I block, I repel, I protect! Let immortal divine light defend our people! Let the curses of demons fail! Let eternal souls never decay—" Bright yellow magic surged from the priests' staffs, resisting the dragon's curse.

"How tragic..." The dragon's body decayed completely, while its final words repeated endlessly from its mouth. "Rosa Kevin's Curse... shall pass through your bodies and spread across the entire world..."

"What is happening..." Pervi's mother cried while holding young Pervi. "Why is something like this appearing on Pervi's body?!"

Black markings slithered through Pervi's body like snakes. The wandering decayed energy quickly seeped into the snow, and the white flakes turned blackish brown.

"Rosa Kevin's Curse..." The eldest priest slowly spoke as he stepped over the Black Snow. "A curse from the beginning... a curse that will disappear only when the world is destroyed..."

On a mountain peak far away, two dragons were celebrating their good fortune. Just moments ago, all three dragon eggs they had laid had hatched into hatchlings, and the newborn dragons played amid the treasure Rosa Kevin had left behind.

"We really are lucky..." the father dragon, Li Laar, said. "Thanks to the treasure Rosa Kevin left behind, we were able to narrowly escape Tishalar's summons..."

"Yes..." Mimilar leaned against Li Laar's shoulder. "I only hope our lives can remain peaceful forever."

Outside the dragons' nest, the windmill that maintained the barrier continued to turn...