Draco's skin turned scaly and his form became less and less like a human's, looking more like a Dragon's. Still, he didn't have enough bloodline energy nor the skill to transform his whole body into that of a Dragon, even in the game, where he had a boost from the Dragon Soul.
He didn't transform into his full Dragonoid form as he had during his moment of climax with Eva. Instead, he resembled a half-human, half-dragonman.
Draco tried his hardest to regain control of his mind, but it seemed impossible. This was a direct result of the urges of his bloodline, so he couldn't resist it easily.
His new body had been re-forged with his bloodline as the base and even his brain had been modified to suit the black mass. It had given him endless benefits, but everything came at a cost.
It was just like how a human could not resist the urge to eat when hungry, no matter how they wanted to keep going on with their fast lest they die.
Draco approached the center of the meadowland with heavy steps, his body shaking with primal emotions that were too heavy for him to contain. Personally, he didn't see what the big deal was with this White Dragoness, but the Black Dragon had its reasons.
Since the Black Dragon was Draco and Draco was the Black Dragon, he understood why this was happening... in a way.
Draco reached the White Dragoness who hadn't moved a single inch since Draco had appeared. Her body visibly shook as Draco narrowed the distance, with her trembling now being obvious.
She was extremely sleek and beautiful in her Draconic form. Of course, to the eyes of a human, she would look like a monster, but Draco was a Black Dragon at heart.
As such, he could view Dragons and humanoids in the same light as a human or a Dragon.
Her shape was similar to the Black Dragon, in that she was quadrupedal and had long and thick wings of the long-soaring type. Her scales were a brilliant white color, looking like the purest substance in the world.
Her underbelly was creamy and very toned. She had no flab anywhere on her body, and she was half the size of the Black Dragon Draco summoned during the battle with the Metal Dragon.
She had a single horn in the center of her forehead that was short, possessing a light blue color. Her eyes were a light blue as well, combining with the coloration of her horns as well as her pure white scales to create a beautiful symmetry that Draco found very pleasing.
Draco stood before her large snout and roared in a very dominant manner.
It was almost comical seeing a human bellowing at a Dragon that could stomp him into paste with ease, but one would find themselves choking on their laughter if they could see the Dragoness lower her head subserviently.
Draco watched her coldly and seemed to regain some sense after she had submitted it properly. His transformation receded and his human form took shape, a sign that all his bloodline energy had been drained.
He folded his hands behind his back and gazed at her imperially. "Transform into a humanoid shape and explain how you got here."
Draco had never been the most genial fellow, but he had hardly treated any females in such a manner ever since he had reincarnated and let go of his anger. Part of his charm for women came from his calm and composed demeanor, which was mixed with a bit of gentlemanliness.
Even the slaves aboveground had been treated politely by him, despite their social standing being beneath his. Here, he spoke to this Dragoness as if it was her greatest luck to even lay eyes on him.
A white light surrounded the White Dragoness as her form minimized greatly. She eventually took the silhouette of a human woman during her transformation, the white light slowly dispersing as the change was completed.
Before Draco, stood the second most beautiful woman he had seen after Eva. In fact, he was sure that if the two stood side by side, others would struggle to decide who was more attractive.
However, Draco firmly believed Eva was better because his heart and soul belonged to her.
The White Dragoness, now in her human form, retained the same coloration as her Draconic form. Her hair was flowing white and looked like smooth strands of the most l.u.s.trous fiber. Her light blue eyes and her still present blue horn contrasted her very slightly tanned skin.
Her face was rounder and gentler than Eva's, which was angular and symmetrical. She looked to be around the age of 21 in human terms and her facial beauty was enough to cause a similar effect as Eva, though she lacked the mental effect.
Her body was also great. She was only very slightly shorter than Draco, and she wore a long goddess dress that displayed her huge and perky b.r.e.a.s.ts, her slim waist and her wide h.i.p.s.
She wore blue princess shoes that reached her mid-calf. Her arms were covered with blue elbow-length gloves that fit her perfectly.
(Author's Note: very similar to this - i.imgur.com/D2PKLnC.jpg)
"Speak," Draco commanded.
"My name is… Hikari. I am the last daughter of the Dragon God left in this world. I…" Hikari seemed to be unable to continue.
Draco doubled down and moved in closer, with a menacing undertone in his voice. "Have you pledged yourself to any other Black Dragon?"
Draco had no idea why he asked this, but it felt prudent. Hikari panicked slightly and shook her head vigorously.
"No! The reason I am still alive is that I was hidden in this small world made by my father. I have never met another Dragon in my life except for my own family…"
Hikari seemed to be throttled with depression the moment she mentioned her family, and Draco's coldness lightened considerably. His human half felt sorry for her and his Draconic half was pleased that she was unsoiled.
"Why you?" Draco asked what could be a rude question, but he needed to get to the bottom of her presence.
Hikari took a deep breath before speaking. "My father was the Dragon God of Elements, and he was one of the rare few Dragon Gods who was born non-elemental."
Draco's eyebrows rose. He knew from his own Black Dragon that every Dragon was aligned with an element or a 'color'. Dragons born without colors were rare, but were highly sought after because they were sort of like the Homines race that Eva had purchased from The Bazaar.
"As is the custom among dragons, my father was presented with one female of every element to reproduce with in order to propagate. My mother was one of the rare unclaimed White Dragons, so I was born eventually."
Hikari continued with a somber tone: "My brothers and sisters perished in the God's War. All slain by that most accursed weapon, leaving my severely injured father to sacrifice his lifeforce to hide me here."
She lowered her head greatly. "I swore to him I would never come out until the war was over."
Draco listened to the short story silently and sighed at the end. It was clear that there was a lot more to it that had been either skipped or summarized, but this was good enough for now.
Draco had learned from the Black Dragon that all Black Dragons were males and all White Dragons were females. Draco naturally wondered how she could be born otherwise if she claimed to have never met another Black Dragon.
After all, when these two apex Draconic races copulated, the child would either be 100% White Dragon female or 100% Black Dragon male. There was no in-between.
On top of that, due to bloodline evolution, the genetic compatibility between Black and White Dragons was highest, while it was extremely low with other Dragon types.
Draco considered it for a bit before bringing out the Dragonlance.
When Hikari saw the lance, she screamed with intense fear and horror as she fell on her back and crawled away. She burst into tears and shivered strongly as she gazed upon the lance, like it was the worst thing in the universe.
Draco's face turned sour when he saw her reaction. He had brought it out to confirm if this was the weapon that she referred to, and her reaction had more than simply confirmed that, but her current demeanor made him feel like a monster.
After all, this was the damn weapon that slaughtered her family and race, forcing her to live her life trapped in this small realm due to fear and worry. To suddenly bring it out would naturally shock her greatly.
Draco immediately used his Dark Angel Inheritance as best as he could to make his voice enticing and soothing.
"Do not worry, the lance is now in my possession. As a dragon myself, why would I want to harm you or our kind? I have tamed the weapon for my use, so it cannot bring harm ever again."
Draco approached her gently, placing the weapon behind him and stretching his hand out to her.
"Take my hand and rise to your feet, Hikari. The War of the Gods is over and all of them have receded into heaven. All they left behind is a few of their remnants, like these eyes."
As he spoke, Draco displayed the Subservience passive skill of the Eyes of Caelo, which struck Hikari strongly. It didn't make her bow as her State of Being was too high, but she did feel the might of its prowess.
When dealing with someone suffering from an intense episode, one of the best means to help them was to distract them long enough that their intense episode would be forgotten. The next best - and most common - way was to coo them until they calmed down.
Draco used a mixture of the two to achieve this effect. As such, Hikari temporarily forgot about her intense fear, allowing Draco to approach her eventually. He took her palm and pulled her to her feet.
Even though his Draconic side wanted to do very… rough… things to her, in the end, he was primarily human. His human side wanted to comfort her and alleviate her pain.
"Touch the lance for yourself. Feel its subservience to me. It cannot harm you unless I want it to." Draco whispered gently as he presented the Dragonlance to Hikari.
She naturally flinched and almost ran away, but Draco held her tightly, preventing her from escaping. If he was going to claim her, she needed to overcome her fear of this lance first, since he would be using it quite often.
After a short struggle lasting 5 minutes, Hikari eventually settled down when she noticed that the lance wasn't doing anything to her at all. It just lay in Draco's hands like a dead piece of metal.
Once her fear lessened, in came the perennial enemy of any sapient race, the one thing that killed many or brought them success.
Curiosity.
Hikari was extremely curious as she stared at the lance. She had naturally seen it in action before but it looked so normal and unremarkable as it was right now.
She reached out and touched the spear lightly, flinching away as if she expected to be shocked or burned by it. When nothing of the sort happened, she naturally became braver and touched it again, this time her finger lingered.
She ran her fingertip along the shaft, marveling at how sturdy and warm the weapon felt, despite being stationary. After seeing that it couldn't do anything in truth, she took the spear from Draco and held it in her hands.
All she felt was a calm and composed energy from the Dragonlance, as if it would slay all the enemies of its wielder without failure. It gave Hikari a strangely comforting feeling that conflicted with her memories of the terror this weapon wrought to her kind.
Draco walked up behind her and grabbed her waist, bringing her back onto his chest. Hikari froze for a second and then blushed deeply. It had nothing to do with Draco's charm, but all to do with his Draconic Source Origin.
Draco brought his lips near Hikari's ears and spoke softly. "You see? The weapon is ours to control and tame. It cannot bring harm to us anymore. With me as the owner, nothing will hurt you."
"The Dragonlance is not the cause of our race's downfall. It is the fault of the wielder who held it. Never blame the weapon, but the hand controlling it. A weapon has no will to harm unless the wielder pushes it to."
Draco's words resonated with Hikari slightly. After inspecting the lance herself, she realized that even though she was a pure Dragon, it didn't try to harm her. It only lay in her hands quietly, waiting for her to push it into action.
Realizing that, her fear bled away slowly and was replaced with a strange feeling of maturity and understanding. She felt like a veil that had covered her eyes had been removed, and she could see the world in a much more detailed manner.
Draco smiled and came to her front. "Hikari of the White Dragon Lineage, do you swear to be my Dragobonded mate for all eternity?"
Draco asked this as his Black Dragon spoke the traditional words through him. As he did so, two horns appeared on either side of his head and his eyes became serpentine slits.
In the time he had spent helping Hikari overcome her fear, his bloodline energy had recovered slightly.
Hikari paused for a split second before bringing her blue horn to press against one of Draco's pitch-black horns.
"I swear to be the Dragobonded mate to Draco of the Black Dragon Lineage for all eternity."
With that solemn vow, the black aura that surrounded Draco when he lost his temper emerged from his body, while the white aura that surrounded Hikari when she was a Dragon also emerged from her form.
These two miasmic entities mixed and intertwined, covering Draco and Hikari within as the Dragobonding ritual went on. After more than ten minutes of this, the mists dispersed, revealing Draco and Hikari who hadn't moved an inch.
Nothing had visibly changed about them either, so one was left wondering about what exactly the point of these theatrics was.
"How did you know my name?" Draco asked with surprise.
Hikari laughed lightly. Her previous shyness and reticence to deal with Draco disappeared greatly as she began to feel comfortable around him.
"I can see your status."
Draco was flabbergasted by this. It was a fact that NPCs could see the nameplate of players if they had no disguise on, but Draco had Richmond's Herald's Cloak.
Otherwise, why would he have to introduce himself manually whenever he met someone?
Draco decided to scan Hikari with the Eyes of Caelo.
｢Name: Hikari – Rank 1 Dragonling
Level: 1
HP: 100,000/100,000｣
Draco was stunned, but not in a good way. He could not understand how a true Dragon could be so low level. Even if she went around merely thwacking creatures, she could reach Rank 3 in merely three months.
In human years, Hikari might be 21 years old, but in Dragon years, the equivalent would be at least a few centuries. How could she still be at level 1?
Draco asked her this and Hikari seemed a little amused. "How much do you know about White Dragons, Draco?"
Draco could only firm his expression and thicken his skin as he said. "I know everything of course. I would just like a refresher as seeing your beautiful face has greatly confused me."
Hikari blushed deeply and smiled. She might have matured a little earlier, but she was still a greenhorn in the ways of social interaction with the opposite s.e.x. Draco's cheap lie and weak flirt worked on her like a charm.
"Well, just like how Black Dragons are quantified by Destruction Energy, White Dragons are quantified by our Creation Energy. That means that while your kind possesses the strongest fighting power, we possess the strongest healing and supportive power."
Hikari opened her arms in an 'I can't help it gesture' as she said: "I cannot perform any offensive skill at all. Even my true form has very little attack power, as my hits are more likely to heal than destroy."
Draco couldn't help but laugh, which made Hikari feel a bit embarrassed.
"Then it makes sense. The destruction and creation combination of Black Dragon and White Dragon must be truly the strongest one, ordained by the universe." Draco commented lightly.
Hikari nodded in agreement. "This is true. That is why there are only a handful of us at any given time, even when the Dragons populated the sky. The highest count of both Black and White Dragons at any given time never surpassed 10. It is usually less and, in our generation, there should only be the two of us left…"
Draco's laughter cut off as he felt Hikari's melancholy. He also felt a bit sad that almost all of his kind got wiped out during a war he never even saw. After all, the lore of the game world existed long before they came in.
He hugged her tightly, but had an awkward look on his face. Hikari seemed to notice this and could only blush.
Draco coughed a spoke lightly. "Hugging you a bit hard because your chest is so… full."
Hikari turned another shade redder. "I can't help how I'm built, you know? You're not the one having to deal with the back pains too."
Draco nodded and ended the embrace. "Let's leave here. I want to take you out to the surface world so we can talk in detail and I can show you the world."
Hikari paused a seemed a little hesitant. "Are you sure…?"
Draco smiled gently and grasped her hand, softly pulling her to walk through the mental barrier.
"You are my Dragon mate, Hikari. I'd die before the slightest harm befalls you in any way."
His words gave Hikari some measure of reassurance and strength, as she slowly walked with him to the barrier. She was a c.o.c.ktail of chaotic emotions, realizing that she was approaching the real world after so many years of hiding away.
A new beginning – change – was always extremely terrifying and hard to accept in the early stages, but once one crossed through that barrier, it felt like they were reborn.
Hikari walked through the God-Ranked Mental Barrier her father had left behind and finally stepped into a new chapter of her life.