Whether You Call Me a Guardian Dragon or Not, I’m Going to Sleep

Chapter 6: Age of Dragons (1)

The first life forms to emerge onto the water's surface were fish-like creatures that used their pectoral fins as front legs.

Driven by the fierce competition for survival in the water, these creatures fled to the surface.

Initially, they evolved to escape to the water's surface during emergencies.

Then, perhaps realizing that life above water was better than expected, they began to evolve lungs instead of gills and transformed the fins behind their gills into front legs.

Truly, I had made them capable of mutation and evolution, but seeing them develop front legs in such a short time was truly shocking.

Thus evolved, they grew by feeding on various plants and slimes, increasing their numbers, evolving, mutating, and eventually developing hind legs as well. Some even evolved into lizard-like forms, and some into amphibian-like creatures...

The melting pot of evolution was truly chaotic.

Anyway. Those that emerged onto land began to evolve and diversify...

And somehow, they started to grow in size.

Most of the problem started with magical power.

Magical power, a strange force that brings about change according to the will of others, combined with the will of living beings, caused bizarre phenomena!

Changes that were physically impossible were truly unexpected.

A small lizard grew rapidly, turning into a large dinosaur, and the front legs of a lizard looking up at the sky transformed into small wings, allowing it to flap its wings.

Well, it's good to see various evolutions... but isn't this a bit too fast?

It's much faster than the speed of evolution I had in mind. I thought it would take thousands of years for such evolution, but it was completed in just a few decades!

Dinosaurs have already appeared! Dinosaurs!

I was planning to watch the fish with legs evolve into small animals, but suddenly dinosaurs appeared. It was unimaginable.

"But it's fun to watch."

"That's true."

Watching the large dinosaurs run around and fight is indeed fun.

And since they all evolved in different directions, it's interesting to see them fight with their unique weapons.

Some fight with large jaws and sharp teeth, others use their claws and agility as weapons, and some rely on horns or tough skin.

Thanks to that, I've been enjoying watching their fights these days.

"Watching them fight so fiercely makes me want to have a physical body too."

"A physical body... I'm not sure how you, natural phenomena, would acquire one."

"The others are also pondering the same thing. Especially Erebus. He says he needs a physical body to become mom's partner."

"Is that child still unable to let go? Sigh."

As I sighed, Sylphid laughed softly and added,

"Don't be too hard on us. If we were male, we would have wanted to be mom's partner too."

"Ifrit is male, isn't he?"

"He's just a kid. It's been decades, and he's still like a little child."

I agreed with Sylphid's words and nodded. That child really doesn't seem to grow up.

I had scolded him before for burning life... Not only because the burned life was precious, but also to educate Ifrit, who recklessly burned life.

If it was just about the preciousness of life, I could have reversed time and revived them.

No, maybe I should have just rewound time to before the life was burned and scolded him then? But then the point of scolding would be diminished!

Well, let's just leave it at that. Yes.

"Would we be able to live as fiercely as them if we had bodies like that?"

"Hard to say. Even if you had bodies, I don't think you would live like that..."

After all, they are giant natural phenomena, so they are in a completely different position from those large lizards.

Even Sylphid alone has the power to carve mountains with great winds.

If these children were to obtain physical bodies... They would become quite remarkable beings.

Well, not as much as me!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

After some time had passed.

"Mom! Erebus found a way to create a body!"

"So, that child finally found a way."

"Yes! But he said he needs Mom's cooperation for it, shall we go together?"

"My cooperation?"

The children need my help to create a body, what kind of help could that be?

Curious, I headed to the cave where Erebus was, along with Sylphid.

A long cave leading deep into the ground. A space of darkness itself, where not a single ray of light shone.

There, Erebus, an intelligent darkness, was present.

"You've arrived. Mother."

"Just until recently, you used to call me mom, and now it's mother. It's okay to keep calling me mom."

"I won't always be a child, you know."

"I came too! Erebus! I brought Mom, so praise me!"

"Hm. Good job, Sylphid."

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Erebus, with a strangely dignified voice, welcomed us in the dark cave.

"So, how do you create a body?"

"Strictly speaking, it's not creating a body. It's more like borrowing one."

"Borrowing a body?"

At that moment.

Thud.

A small footstep sound came from the darkness.

"Hm? Footsteps? Erebus. Seems like a lizard got in here?"

"It's not a lizard."

Something is approaching. Something is walking towards us in the darkness where you can't see an inch ahead.

"Erebus. I'm sorry, but I'm going to need some light."

I gathered magical power and created light. Then, something walking towards us from the far end of the dark cave came into view.

A small dinosaur with black skin, unlike other dinosaurs.

However, the aura felt from that dinosaur was... an endlessly deep darkness. That is, identical to Erebus's.

"Erebus?"

"As expected of mother. You recognized me at a glance."

"What? How? Did you steal a body?? Amazing! How did you do it???"

"Steal? I wouldn't do something so barbaric. I just borrowed the body of one that wandered into the cave and starved to death."

Borrowing the body of one that starved to death... Isn't this like necromancy?

"Of course, since it's already dead, I can't prevent the body from decaying, and it can't withstand my power for long... But it was usable as a temporary body."

"Decay... Now that you mention it, it does smell a bit rotten."

The skin being dyed black... Is it because Erebus is inhabiting it?

"Anyway, thanks to borrowing this body, I've caught a bit of a clue. In the process of compensating for the body's loss with my power, I figured out a way to create a body of the desired form using my power."

Since most of their power is magical, using magic to create a body... wouldn't be impossible.

Magic has the nature of realizing will. It might have acted on the children's will to have a body.

"However, our powers are too strong, so ordinary bodies won't last long. That's why I think special materials are needed."

"Hmm... Ah, by needing my help, you mean... borrowing my body?"

I already have plenty to do, maintaining the balance of life forms around the world. Lending my body to the children might be difficult.

"If it means borrowing Mother's body, I'm against it! I want to fly with Mother, not become Mother and fly!"

"I never had that intention in the first place."

"It's not about borrowing my body?"

The black dinosaur possessed by Erebus nodded slightly and said.

"It's not the entirety of Mother's body that we need. Just one of Mother's scales should suffice."

"One of my scales?"

"Yes. If we use one of Mother's scales as the core and utilize our power to manifest it, we believe we can obtain a body similar to Mother's."

A body similar to mine... Are they talking about a dragon's body, different from dinosaurs?

"Giving one scale is not difficult, but will that be enough?"

"Yes. One of Mother's scales should be more than enough to contain all of our power."

Hmm. Giving away one scale isn't hard. After all, they grow back anyway.

I plucked one scale from beneath my neck and handed it over to Erebus, who was in the form of a black dinosaur.

"Will this be enough?"

"Yes. It should be sufficient."

"Mom! Give me one too! Me too!"

I plucked another scale and gave it to Sylphid as well.

"But how do we do it? Do we just infuse it with power?"

"Rather than infusing it with power, think of it as inhabiting it. Feel like you're putting all of yourself into it and wish for a body to be created."

Erebus said this and held the scale in his hand. Then, a black energy began to seep out, slowly inhabiting the scale.

As this happened, the black color of the dinosaur's body started to fade, and my silver scale turned black.

Once the dinosaur's black color completely disappeared and my scale was fully dyed black, the dinosaur collapsed to the ground with a thud.

"Hmm... Mother's scale contains far more than all of me. But it seems entirely possible."

Along with Erebus's words, a black mist started to seep out from the black scale, gradually forming a body very similar to mine.

A long neck and skin covered in scales. A long mouth and sharp teeth. And horns protruding here and there on the head.

Slightly short front limbs and large wings. And sturdy hind legs and a long tail.

"Wow! Amazing! It's Erebus resembling Mom!"

"Though it's much smaller."

The overall shape resembled me, a dragon... Although it was significantly smaller and there were slight differences in the details...

Erebus had created a body of a black dragon.

"It's a success, Mother. Now, I have obtained a body just like Mother's."

Beneath the neck of the black dragon that Erebus had become, my scale had returned to silver and was attached upside down.