Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

- A story from Rise Online: The Story of a Red Dragon and the Honorable Prince.

Long ago, there was a ruthless young warrior in a faraway kingdom who could wipe out entire fleets of enemies in the blink of an eye and topple mountains, but who still needed to prove to the people of his kingdom that he could become better, a feat so great that he would proudly become their king.

Seeking provocation, this young man chose two of the greatest challenges possible: to find and slay a dragon.

Legends arose about those who had once achieved such a feat, and these people were never forgotten in history.

Rumors circulated the nation about a dragon living on a distant mountain, and even with the low possibility of these rumors proving true, the warrior clung to his faith and made his way to the far mountain kingdom.

To his surprise, he actually found what he was looking for when he reached the mountain. A great red dragon was inhabiting the mountain's interior and everyone who approached it was astonished by the tornadoes of fire it spewed out of its mouth.

For the ruthless warrior, this was nothing, because his shield was his main weapon and was able to protect him from everything, even the hottest ember of fire.

Even so, the warrior lost the first time he tried to advance against the dragon and came close to meeting the valley of death. However, the dragon had the chance to kill him, but did not.

The young man then decided to retreat strategically to recover from the burns he suffered. The next time, he prepared himself better and returned to fight the dragon, but once again he was defeated by a scratch that cut open his chest from shoulder to navel.

Once again, after spending six months recovering outside the great cave that was the dragon's dwelling, the warrior returned for what was to be his last clash with the dragon.

This time, thanks to his shield and the movement he had trained for months, he managed to get close enough to the dragon to deliver a precise blow to the creature's throat. This would be able to kill the dragon and turn this young man into a legend of humanity. However, at this moment the warrior realized why the dragon never left the same place, why it hid inside such a tight mountain and why it would not fly out of the cave even to hunt while it had the power to destroy an entire village.

The dragon was injured and there were huge holes in its wings, not to mention that it probably hadn't eaten anything for a long, long time.

For the warrior, striking the last blow meant that he could have fame all over the world, but he knew that this would not provide the proof he sought, not only for his people, but also for himself, that he could be a king. Killing this wounded dragon would destroy his honor as a warrior.

When the dragon saw that the once young man, now a man, hesitated to deliver the final blow, he asked:

"Why didn't you do it? Why didn't you kill me?"

At first, the young man was amazed that the dragon could speak, but he replied:

"There is no honor in finishing off a weakened enemy. I will help you recover and then we will battle to the death one last time..."

However, as I mentioned earlier, this battle was the last they fought between them.

Since the dragon could hardly move, the warrior began to go down and up the mountain daily to fetch water and food to feed the dragon, and so they continued together for two years.

The dragon gradually recovered from his wounds and became extremely powerful again, but the time the dragon and the warrior spent together brought them too close to even consider fighting one more time. This was a mutual feeling.

Although hesitant, the day the dragon was finally able to fly again, he landed in front of the warrior and said what he thought, what he felt.

To his surprise, the man felt the same way about the dragon... Companionship, affection, love...

The dragon told the man that they had three options:

The first was for them to part at that moment and suffer the tragic life of never seeing each other again.

The second was for them to fight to the death and the winner would live the rest of his life normally, as in the beginning, denying the feelings they both felt and what had happened in the last two years.

Finally, the third option was for them to use the last wish a dragon slayer could grant, which had an almost omnipotent power, like a genie of the lamp or a djinn.

Such a last wish could only be granted at the time of death by two types of dragons: golden dragons and red dragons. These were the only kinds of sentient dragons, that is, that could speak and think.

Obviously, such a wish could only be granted when the dragon was about to die, but now the red dragon was fully recovered and choosing to kill the dragon was no different than the second option. However, two years ago the warrior defeated the dragon and only didn't kill it because he had more honor than greed within him.

That was more than enough for the spirit of the dragon to grant the would-be king such a last wish.

At the moment of the request, the man could have asked for anything. Mountains of gold, unmatched strength, the best of swords or the most powerful shield, anything was possible, and yet he only asked the dragon for one thing:

"Form a family with me, no matter what."

The dragon was unconditionally happy and complied with the first, and last, request that he would grant for the rest of his sight.

After granting such a request, the dragon was still alive and therefore had its race demoted as a punishment from the Dragon God, becoming a mere human. However, the punishment was like a gift to the couple, because the red dragon became a human, and the warrior's last wish came true, because his beloved was pregnant.

Both were very happy and determined to take the best possible care of the fruit of their impossible relationship.

After they returned to the kingdom where the warrior had previously lived, to take care of their child with all the best that could be found on Midgard, the man was received with parties and celebrations, because everyone already thought he was dead.

Even when he said that he had not succeeded in killing the dragon, no one humiliated him for it, after all it was practically impossible for a single man to defeat a dragon, even if he was a hero of the kingdom.

The king and queen were very happy to hear that their beloved son, who had left home so young, was now married, and that they would soon have a grandchild. However, when the child was born, the doctors saw that although the little baby looked mostly like a human, it also had black horns on its head and a small scaly tail.

The first thing everyone thought was that the prince's wife had given birth to a demon, only this was actually just the first living being of the descendragon race, the genetic descendants of dragons.

The prince and his wife explained to the queen and the king what had really happened, how they had met. The two were slow to believe, and when they finally did believe their son, the pressure from the people at the castle gate became unbearable. They were incessantly calling for the death of the next prince in the royal line of succession, because they believed him to be a demon.

Left with no options, the king and queen covered up the escape of the prince, his wife and newborn child, but days later both rulers were hanged by their own people for the accusation of "helping the devil".

Kaizen discovered all this after reading a book of tales while practicing some runic language reading in the Library of the Magi.

The fact that every random book he picked up on a random shelf was unique amazed him and interested him enough to make him read several books, but "The Story of a Red Dragon and the Honorable Prince" was by far the tale that interested him the most, not only because it told the origin story of a race original to Rise Online, but also because it reminded him of human cruelty to things other than the ordinary. In real life, he felt it in his own skin in high school.

'Um... The descendragons race has a sad origin. I wonder if that woman was from that race. Her name was Xisrith if I'm not mistaken, right?' Kaizen wondered after closing the account book, remembering the woman with black horns, tail and red sword he helped a few weeks ago when crossing the Silver Mountains. 'I've never seen anyone else like her.... Nah! I guess there's no way, because those people probably don't even live on Midgard anymore!'

However, the day Kaizen was pushed out of the carriage by Yokoso Ferris, he knew he was wrong about his earlier conclusion about the descendragons, because the <Analyzing Eye> did not err, the men he encountered in that dark forest were definitely legitimate descendragons.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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