By the time I woke up, the sky had already turned dark, the sun was nowhere to be seen as a blanket of stars cast a gentle glow on the world below. A yawn escaped my mouth as I glanced at my surroundings. Essie was curled up by my side peacefully sleeping, while Immy was nowhere to be found.

'I guess she retreated to the cave,' I inwardly mumbled, after which I gently held Essie in my arm and carried her inside as well. Her eyes fluttered open as a yawn escaped her mouth before she asked.

"Hmm, older brother?"

"It's okay, just go back to sleep," I replied with a smile, to which she simply nodded and snuggled closer to my arm.

Once inside the cave, I was momentarily surprised to see that mother and father were both missing. 'Hmmm, they must be busy,' I noted. Ynos was peacefully sleeping next to his small pyramid of fairy skulls, while Immy was resting under an opening in the ceiling, from which faint moonlight seeped inside lightly illuminating her white scales.

Sidus on the other hand was playing with dark mana in the corner of the cave, as the shadows seemed to envelop him within, giving him a sinister feel. Sensing my presence, he raised his head in my direction and gave a slight nod before turning back to continue playing with the mana.

I strode forward to my usual spot and gently laid Essie down before I turned to scan the cave. I was not sleepy anymore, quite the opposite. Now that I woke up, my mind subconsciously drifted back to the dilemma I was facing.

A sigh escaped my mouth as I made my way outside. 'Maybe a walk will help me clear my mind,' I mumbled. The trail down the mountain wasn't very hard to trek, as I leisurely made my way down to the foot. A small forest with sparse trees greeted me.

Though it was dark, It wasn't a problem for me to see almost as if it was the day. I slowly continued all the way towards the edge of the floating mountain, my mind still a mess. Standing a the ledge and staring at the world below, I found myself thinking about various things.

Though what I did was bad, I admit that there was no honor in killing sinless, and helpless people who cannot even fight back, I, unfortunately, did not feel that much guilt about it. I could only attribute this to the fact that I had allowed my dragonic senses to overwhelm my rational side for far too long.

Still, although most would consider it selfish, or even hypocritical, I did not want to turn into a mindless emotionless killing machine. I was already on the borderline of that, though most of my affection and feelings were towards my siblings, I did not want to treat the other races as disposables.

Grandmother had a point, we don't get to decide on whether or not an entire race should live or die, that should be left to them, our job is to simply protect the balance and defend the plane.

"But for that to be done, I still think someone should explain to the humans that the way they are handling mana is wrong, else I don't think they'll ever learn, which means there will come a time where another dragon might just outright annihilate them," I mumbled as the gentle night breeze tickled my scales.

'The problem is, I'm sure I'm already quite well known in the human continent after I destroyed Piya, so me teaching them is not going to go well,'

Just as I was thinking about that, my mind subconsciously drifted back to Immy who said she was interested in learning more about the humans, "That's right! We can do that," I muttered as a plan began to formulate in my mind.

Immy in more ways than one had the appearance of a holy messenger, with her shining white scales, elegant demeanor, and undeniable presence that commanded respect. I was sure that she could easily play the part of a messenger sent to teach the ignorant humans.

“Hmm, the problem is that Immy is at the end of the day a dragon, and considering how a dragon (me) destroyed a country, all the other kingdoms should be on full alert against us, hence why there is no guarantee that they won't launch a full-blown attack against Immy the moment she appears,”

Now the question was, how to make the humans trust and respect Immy. The answer came to me relatively easy, that was to give them a common enemy, a grin slowly made its way across my face as I thought to myself, ‘And what better enemy than the blue dragon that destroyed the Piya kingdom?’

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The idea obviously still needed a lot more planning, and I still needed to get Immy to agree on to the whole thing, still, I was quite confident. I will try to help the humans, this will be my way of trying to redeem myself after all that I had done.

For their sake, I shall become the devil, while Immy will become their shining light, their beacon hope. I’ll make sure of it. ‘Still, we will have to be swift, although destroying Piya was not that hard, I couldn’t be arrogant if the whole human realm was to gather under one banner to fight me, I wasn't sure I’d be able to get out of It unscathed, hence why the best way to handle this was to take them by surprise,’

“I’ll have to ask mother or father about more details of the human realm and their kingdoms,” I inwardly noted. Who knows, maybe I’ll even end up learning more about my goals and what I want to do.

I sighed and shook my head as I tried to rid myself of the depressing thoughts of the past that threatened to swallow me once again. ‘That was then, and this is now, everything is different, I’m different, I'm no longer alone this time,’ I mumbled to myself as the cute figure of Essie flashed through my mind followed by the proud figure of Sidus, the headstrong Ynos, and the graceful Immy.

‘Yes, I’m no longer alone,’ I took a deep breath before launching myself off the edge of the floating mountain and into the darkness below.