Tokyo, imperial headquarters.

The emperor, having regained his senses after the death of Hakumen, called a meeting of his military leaders and summoned his Russian, English and Chinese allies.

"The situation is grave... We have awakened a giant.

The United States, thanks to the dragons who became their allies, have managed to defeat our Demon Lord and also a part of ourselves.

Centuries and millions of souls would allow one of us to be elected the new Emperor Yamato and become the new Demon Lord, the new Hakumen.

But America and her allies would not allow it. We have numerical superiority, more portals, but the Riquains have a demon lord with them.

According to our latest information, he perished with Hakumen.

The legions are leaving, but the troops have reorganized and retaken the strategic points.

Moreover, the technological backwardness is compensated by their draconian magic.

They have mana but we don't, just artificial mana for the portals...

The Americans won't negotiate peace and will retaliate in a dazzling way.

All our simulations indicate that the allies and even our allies forced by psychic waves will turn against us and in a few months at best, we will be crushed.

Russia, Japan and China will be slaughtered...

Within the next week, a huge counteroffensive will be unleashed across all the territories of North, Central and South America.

And in a month's time, they'll be in London, Paris and Africa..

We have about 60 legions left, the United States has 30 but boosted by the dracosires.

We have to abandon the land and take refuge in overseas.

With only one portal, they will have a bottleneck and we will be able to contain them, or even close the portal.

From here we will rebuild our empire and integrate magic with our allies in Magestia and other countries. Our main base will be the Dragon Palace.

Let's lay low, integrate with the Dwarves and the dragons' enemies, the unicorns.

High Elves and Grey Elves have appreciated our culture and way of life and we will make powerful allies out of them."

He moved to the screen and showed the following :

"In blue you have the position of the US troops.

We are still strong and victory is uncertain. Yes, we could risk winning, but if the dragons have defeated Hakumen, we are lost!"

And so all the troops withdrew to the gates and arrived overseas to establish their empire.

Thousands of soldiers were entering amphibious hovercraft.

Within a few hours, they had fled the land, abandoning everything, civilians, wounded and unusable equipment.

-----------

Marville and Higgins were watching their screens.

It was a total victory!

Argentrix had not one egg, but two.

She was incubating them like her greatest treasure at the bottom of a military base.

She didn't want to go out and stayed in the dark all the time.

She wanted to drown in the darkness, which was, as she said, "a blanket like Ivan's wing."

Slowly, but surely, she was falling into grief-induced madness.

She was being fed by transfusion.

Nothing had any flavor left for her.

She was empty. Only her eggs kept her alive.

Hissa had a little lizard with Brutus. It looked nothing like them, but after a few moults the features would grow larger.

Birthdays were celebrated with each shedding of skin.

Hissa cried and looked at a dark corner every time she held her cub. He was too small to determine his sex. She called him Tristan in memory of my black scales.

She had kept one of my scales as a pendant so she would never forget me.

Sinistrar had regained control of the armies and the infernal legions, after a long farewell greeting, fizzled and flew to the stars in a fine golden mist, as when I had left to join the plane.

Sinistrar received the representatives of the defeated nations and decided to establish the draconian peace as in his former empire.

The armistice was signed and the dragons were given the mission to dismantle the entire political system of the nation states.

There were no more nation states.

There was only one empire.

Months passed and when all the troops were demobilized and the work of reconstruction resumed, Sinistrar appeared at the congress level, in human form.

All the dragons that could, were human.

"Dear fellow citizens... We have ended this war that should never have been.

I don't speak of victories because people on all sides suffered. Our losses are countless and we have all lost at least one loved one.

He shed a tear.

In our world, I set up a system where no one was starving or deprived of care or work. We tried to make our world a better place.

Yes, there was no democracy around us and there were only lords and kings quarrelling all the time.

That's why we banned politics and built the foundations for social engineering.

But here I am tired and I hope I do not make the same mistakes as in the past.

We will replace the draconian law with a parliament, but we are banning nation-states under any pretext. This will force humans to live together.

We'll help them as best we can."

The crowd, all over the world, shouted with joy.

The poorest and most abandoned saw a saving paw in the dragons.

Surprisingly, there were no protests or demonstrations. The people themselves were tired of their system and their chosen ones.

After a long break, in front of the TV, the cameras and his family, Argentrix being absent, lying in the ranch, the doors closed, to remain in the dark, Sinistrar, supported by Goldur and his 3 faithful Dracosires, resumed the speech.

"Let us not rejoice too soon... If the victory is total, the war is not over yet.

Our piece of the American empire, a draconian ex-worlder, is still under pressure from the Japanese empire and its henchmen.

They have rallied around the enemy nations and the mighty kingdom of Magestia.

They will certainly reinforce their troops with magic and even try to revive their demon-god Hakumen.

Even now, we hesitate to close the portals hoping to isolate ourselves once and for all or to reinforce our positions.

I would choose the latter."

There was a hubbub in the crowd, and many journalists asked different questions and asked what the greatest danger was.

Goldur echoed his grandfather's words.

"The greatest danger is time!"

Crowd noise,

"A hem!.... I mean, they're getting stronger every minute. If they left with 60 legions and all the material to rebuild an empire, later they'll be stronger and more numerous, but there's still a greater danger....

Magestia is in our past! Suppose they pass into our past and rewrite history? Let them slaughter our ancestors?

That's why we must all prepare for the worst and above all we must now beat them overseas.

But neither I nor the dragons want to go back. All this land that has rejected and slaughtered us represents nothing but suffering and misery. There are only a handful of us left and many have disappeared, even here in the war effort. We must now fight for the survival of our species so that we don't disappear once and for all."

In these last sentences, humans could see that the dragons were sincerely crying and were, in fact, just refugees like all other refugees after conflicts.

They were uprooted and were trying, like the surviving Indian tribes, to save what was left of their culture.