Mythology: Ragnarok

Chapter 183 Leaving the Nest

six years later

Agred has finally awakened from his slumber once more. This time, he has grown even larger, making even an adult red dragon seem small and insignificant in comparison.

The Flame Dragon Mother was also shocked by Agreed's savage growth, and she was so frightened that she immediately went out to worship Tiamat again, thanking her for her protection that allowed such a great talent to be born into the red dragon race.

Meanwhile, Izar's growth is also astonishing. Although he is still a child, he is already larger than a red dragon in its youth. Coincidentally, on the very day that Agred awakens, Izar and Aurellia bring a large amount of fresh prey to the Flame Dragon Mother's lair.

The Flame Dragon Mother glanced at the prey they were offered, which included Lava Boars and Fire Salamanders, top-tier magical beasts that were already at the top of the food chain in the Flame Mountains.

Lava boars are distant relatives of wild boars and are also an extremely ferocious species. They are highly adaptable to harsh environments and are actually quite similar to rhinos in size and appearance. It's just that for some reason, they are still called 'lava boars' by the people of this planet. They are omnivorous, eating both meat and plants, and sometimes even consuming lava for survival. In addition, their gregarious nature makes many species keep their distance from them.

The Fire Salamander is a dragon-blooded magical beast that lives in magma. It is said that the Fire Salamander is actually a new species that bred from a dragon beast with red dragon blood and a salamander. This statement is indeed true. Although it is a hybrid, it is worth mentioning that they have perfectly inherited the red dragon's terrible resistance to high temperature and have also developed a self-made 'magma breath'. The principle of the breath is that they use their body's high temperature resistance to store magma in their body and spew it out when fighting enemies to catch them off guard. Therefore, Fire Salamanders generally live in the depths of the earth near magma or in volcanoes. These special skills have allowed the Fire Salamander to withstand the harsh selection of nature and have passed on its bloodline to this day.

The Flame Dragon Mother knew that even adult dragons hunting these two social creatures alone would likely not fare well. However, the two young dragons before her were unharmed, which made the Flame Dragon Mother look at them with even greater respect. If it was Izar who did this, it would be fine, since he was a genius. But if it was Aurelia who did it, then the Flame Dragon Mother had to consider whether she should break her promise and kill her, regardless of her reputation. Hybrid dragons were not allowed to live, let alone those powerful hybrids who had inherited all the best genes.

"Are these all the prey you hunted?" the Flame Dragon Mother asked, pointing to the prey in front of her.

At this moment, Aurelia very sensibly replied, "These are all prey that my brother hunted himself. I was only responsible for processing and cooking them. Actually, we caught much more than this, but we were so hungry that we ate half of them."

The Flame Dragon Mother couldn't help but glance at Ize. This little guy, whom she had high hopes for since birth, had indeed lived up to her expectations and become a top hunter.

Then the Flame Dragon Mother turned around and went into her lair. After a while, she called out.

After thinking for a while, the Flame Dragon Mother called out again, "Agreed, Izar, all three of you come in."

Aurellia trembled with excitement upon hearing the Flame Dragon Mother's call. Banished by the Flame Dragon Mother, she had long been forbidden from entering her lair. Today, the Flame Dragon Mother's unusual summons of her meant that the Flame Dragon Mother had finally accepted her existence!

Thinking of this, Aurellia felt a sense of relief after suffering, and a tear involuntarily welled up in her eye. However, she quickly calmed herself down and followed Agreed and Iz to the lair of the Flame Dragon Mother.

Upon entering the dragon's lair, the Flame Dragon Mother's body became shriveled and hunched, like a deflated balloon, and even her body length had noticeably shrunk. However, this was perfectly normal, as she should have died long ago, since this year marked the fifty-fourth year of the Flame Dragon Mother's twilight years.

Dragons are near-perfect creatures, theoretically capable of infinite evolution. As long as they sleep, their physical attributes continue to grow stronger. They do not weaken with age. The older the dragon, the stronger it is often. Some ancient dragons are even comparable to low-level gods.

However, only a few dragons are able to break through the limits of life in the extremely old dragon stage. Once they pass this hurdle, they can achieve a sublimation of their life level, but if they fail, they will quickly enter the twilight period of the dragon, just like the Flame Dragon Mother.

The twilight period is the only time when dragons become weaker rather than stronger. Generally, a dragon that was incredibly powerful in life will die after about twenty years. However, the reason why the Flame Dragon Mother has lasted so long is probably because Tiamat is secretly prolonging her life. After all, the Flame Dragon Mother has a positive impact on the development of the five chromatic dragons. Unfortunately, a few years ago, Argrede personally killed Tiamat's avatar, which means that Tiamat will need at least several hundred years to re-establish contact with the prime material universe.

In other words, Agreed indirectly caused the death of the Flame Dragon Mother, but there was nothing that could be done about it. As the saying goes, when gods fight, mortals suffer. Who cares if their fight affects the ants around them?

But as the proudest of the five dragons, the Red Dragon Queen did not want to die in obscurity. She would rather leave in a spectacular fashion amidst the blazing flames of war! She craved battle and wanted to leave her mark on this world, to prove that she had been here.

And so the three young dragons witnessed this scene: the Flame Dragon Mother was opening her abyssal maw and swallowing her life's treasures into her storage stomach. Dragons are such stingy creatures; they would rather die swallowing their treasures than leave them to their offspring or to human adventurers who come upon hearing the news.

The Flame Dragon Mother was heartbroken. She didn't know why the evil dragon mother who used to visit her every twenty years had suddenly disappeared without a trace for the past twenty years. The Flame Dragon Mother knew that her current physical condition would not allow her to last another twenty years, so she decided to go out and settle her past.

After swallowing all the treasure, the Flame Dragon Mother slowly said, "I'm about to die."

The three young dragons did not reply, because they had already guessed the gist of it without her saying so.

The Flame Dragon Mother continued, "After I leave, this dragon nest will be left to the first red dragon I adopted, 'Bresta.' I discussed it with her, and we agreed that after I leave, you can still grow up under her protection until you become young dragons before leaving the nest."

Ize shook his head and exclaimed, "I've already made up my mind, Mother. I'll take Aurelia and leave this place. I don't want to waste my time on 'meaningless' things like sleeping. The world is so big, I want to go out and see it."