Bello was taking care of my boys but I was thinking...deep down...what a youth! What adventures...

Darkia was sleeping peacefully next to me and Kate was doing the same.

We each had a child under our wings and Sarah proposed to adopt with Bello Grishka and her 2 sisters...

Tiamat had been taken to the temple, in the nave. She was also resting.

I was a scientist but I was not a king nor a politician, and I felt the weight of the crown... I had to delegate..but not to exhaust myself...

But tomorrow will be another day

And, as I fell asleep, I wondered what I was going to do with Tiamat.

In the morning, it was the ritual to kiss and pray to Enka for each day gained.

Then I heard a clamor in the square.

Tiamat was out sunbathing and making an offering to the sun and the stars, like a primordial goddess.

Her half-motorized tail and the plates in her long neck made her look like a cyborg dragon.

But her appearance was very frightening.

Then she turned to me and submitted. "Thank you Lord Hans!"

She still had her infernal aura but was no longer a demon.

"What will become of me?" she asked, "and when are you?

"In 5050, I think...on earth after the cataclysm...but not your earth..."

Tiamat: "I was on a mission to find the scattered dragons after the great cataclysm... Did you also get the comet or the crazy portal?"

"No.. A jump of Gammas rays... Everything burned down. I am the only survivor with Kate and my children and some others taken by the Ummites..."

Tiamat: "The Ummites... we are in their dimension????"

"Why? They scare you..."

"Their God Tyrant is very powerful...his sacred beast, the winged lion destroyed me.."

I took out Tyrant's sword from my inventory..

Tiamat: "How? "

"He must be being digested by Enka... I defeated him!!!"

"But his fleet was invincible! ...."

"Come... I will show you..."

Then we sat down in a kind of restaurant-bar on which movies were projected. And I asked that the images aboard the Repressior and the one of the shooting of the runic cannon be projected for my guest.

Tiamat: "You have built a celestial sword!

"There are more of them and they are mounted on the new Repressior and the Doom, a Vespalian ship..."

Tiamat "And what are they for?"

"The Ummite Empire will get its act together and we will defend our land this time and the Doom, as its name suggests will colonize the Ummite Empire.."

Tiamat: Vespalians??? "

Waspy introduced herself and bowed to another goddess, even a fallen one..

"Waspy is the Vespalian queen but also an emerald dragoness. And she prepares her ascension..."

Wapsy then took the monstrous form of a Vespalian queen. Her scythes claws, armor, and teeth had nothing to envy to a dragon. With its 8 meters height and 12 meters length, it was a formidable opponent. Not to mention its wings and stinger.

"There are thousands of them and they will swarm and form a space empire. They are friendly only with those of our planet and the humans... Who worship Enka...the others...no luck..

Tiamat felt a chill down her spine as she saw a swarm of millions of these monsters... also capable of using weapons and building ships and ... using magic.. The Ummites don't stand a chance...

Tiamat: "Why such a thing?"

"Because my name is Carnage! Carnage Carnivor! I devoured half the Ummite population on Earth and the Vespalians are doing the rest. In fact, they did the rest. Those who remain are...under the blessing of Enka and the other survivors...we had mercy...

Don't be fooled by our intentions... we are monsters! And the forces of light, be they paladins, clerics or others... they are our enemies.

We are not demons but natural carnivores and predators.

Here I have a handful of humans but it is purely for companionship and it does not prevent us from loving and being loved. They know their place, they are rare and endangered. One good reason among many to keep them alive.

I'm putting you back on your feet, out of sheer camaraderie, and I expect your teachings.

I think we got off on the right foot and if Mother doesn't like you, that's her reason. If she saw fit to release you and let me treat you, it's because she has her reasons too and I'm not going to argue about it."

Tiamat listened and followed me on the tour of the village and the reminder of the rules to follow especially with a body like this.

"It is your responsibility not to hurt or bruise any of the citizens. As for the rules of the road, they are "Weak" beings and you are responsible in case of an accident. It's up to you to justify yourself. Darkia is the judge and queen of the village. No one can escape her. Not even you in all your past glory.

She didn't ask any questions, for fear of provoking me.

She was all submissive and it was hard for her, a former goddess.

"I feel your frustration and your sense of decay... but I want everyone here to be happy. That's why I have forbidden any form of salic or democratic hierarchy. I am a teacher, like many other elite humans here, and I am also a Dragon God, son of a primordial Goddess. but I never use my titles or my position here. I only use it to defend myself or my friends and family without exception. and sometimes in formal meetings with the dwarf king and community representatives. And even then, it's only figuratively and I leave it to my wives..."

Tiamat: "And here I am what? Tiamat: "And here, what am I?" flatly.

"You will live here from now on, but no one and I will not prevent you from going wherever you want. The only rule is not to harm those who saved you. Everything can be forgiven except ingratitude and betrayal.

You are a dragoness and you may or may not become a hydra again in time, so you belong to the superior caste of beings, a bit like the nobles, but this is only figurative.

This will be important in the future, if the races multiply faster than the dragons. It will be up to us to educate our descendants to live in harmony with humans and races.

We must also teach them that we were once wiped off the face of the earth by making humans and elves our enemies.

I think you know what I'm talking about, right?"

Tiamat lowered her head and remembered the devastating surprise attack that put her at death's door.

Tiamat: "And you don't sleep on gold?"

"Considering your wounds, I don't think you'll be sleeping on it again anytime soon... and then for what? It's only valuable in a capitalist economy... and here, it's a planned economy with runic coinage that turns to dust after a few years. The dwarves invented the perishable currency... so there is no debt or capital. Gold is a means, not an end."

Then we arrived at the Repressior construction site.

It was gigantic and the dwarf technicians were working together with the Vespalians using their incredible strength.

The structural work was almost finished and the finishing touches were starting.

Tiamat: "But ... it's gigantic! They are bigger than my son's ships!

And... what an armor!!!"

"It's designed to withstand a sea of meteors and is nearly impossible to crush, twist or crush.

The interior is tiny and the batteries and tanks are molded into the armored structure, adding strength and rigidity.

Tiamat: "But why? Force fields, anti-matter fields?? like in my inter-dimensional sphere. "

"Against the Behemoth... it didn't resist much, considering your condition..."

The alloy used here has an extreme resistance to any form of transmutation and its structure, even if contaminated, does not allow a diffusion of corruption. The alloy here is a form of condensed chaos. A bit like a black hole without mass collapse. It is Enka who has provided us with the material directly from the heart of a massive black hole.

The blast and attacks of the behemoths would do nothing to this ship.

Tiamat: "And to go from one dimension to another?

"No need... It's Enka who guides us and takes us where I have to go..."

Tiamat: "You are" but Tiamat refrained from saying slave so as not to irritate me. And she just sniffed with sadness that we were only pawns and not free of our actions.

"Professor Hans...if I may... Could you disobey your mother?"

I smiled at this trick question

"My dear Tiamat.. One is free here to do what one wants but..never have I disappointed mother and I obey her on my own initiative. I love and adore her and I owe her everything! She also protects us from a deeper evil than you can imagine. I don't know how much you've observed her but I'm not fooled. She has horrible hidden scars and I can't imagine who or how she was affected. But I assure you that they are not promordial gods. Yes, I obey her and also for all our sakes. I don't think she would punish us but I would be ashamed and I wouldn't want to set a bad example for my children or our community. Besides, every action provokes a reaction."

Tiamat remained pensive and what she had taken for tribal tattoos were only lacerations, burns and sufferings...

She bowed her head.

"I'm sorry I doubted you... I mistook the scars for ritualistic tattoos... sorry.."

I raised my face to him.

"No.. but also thank you for observing these details.."

We continued our walk and some of the Kobolds and Dragokobolds were walking along following us and playing just to enjoy our company and out of curiosity. They wanted to know about the red dragoness and if she would play with them like Kate did.

They all feared Darkia and she was unhappy about it... thankfully she had human friends.

"Tiamat, you see these smiles everywhere I go... It is a form of paradise for me and I will give my life and my flesh to preserve this joy of living...

Let them have a chance for themselves but especially for you. They will help you to open up and heal your worst wounds just as they did for me."

Tiamat : "I have many demon dragon children but none of them have truly loved me. They love the goddess of suffering but not the real me. But it's my fault... I got lost.

Yet I adopted a half demon, half golden dragon. And I miss her. I also miss my son, well, my two black dragon sons...Tenebrion and Ivan and my adopted daughter Tania. They are lost in time and space."

Then we arrived at the base and my new laboratory.

And we entered.

Then Tiamat could see an island surrounded by lava.

"When I want to have peace and when I am afraid, I come to take refuge here. In a lava bath. I burn my toxins, worries and problems and I can think clearly.

Tiamat smiled and wanted to enter the lava but stopped while looking at his cybernetic prosthesis.

"One thing at a time. "

But Tiamat looked at me with an envious eye. She loved lava as much as I did... and she could already imagine herself bathing in it with me as her companion... It was more fun with two...