It has been a few… years, maybe? In here it was quite hard to tell.
I took a deep breath and tightened my grip on the chains for a moment. It would not take long for time to take my place now.
Both time and space had visited me multiple times. But they had a tougher time holding out against the void. Apart from that they had been busy making sure that the disappearance of the gods would not have consequences for the mortal worlds to the point where they had basically replaced them.
Due to this they simply could not afford to take my place. But now things were finally going back to normal again. And I could leave this prison consisting of nothing for a few days.
Eventually the being of smoke and shadows let time in again. It never liked her presence as much as space. But despite this it still let them in equally.
The moment time took the chains from me I immediately rushed rough the window that held the world that I had been paying the most attention to.
I landed somewhere on a grass field. A fresh blow of wind ran trough my hair and filled my lungs. It had been way to long since I had been in a physical world. But it was amazing to feel that even tough this was not my original world I was not being pulled back into hell since I did not come here via a summoning ritual.
I had not really an idea where I was, it seemed like I just appeared in a random place in this world. And that greatly bothered me. I did not have long to move around in the worlds anyways. So, it was truly bothersome that I had to waste time to find the people I was looking for.
However, I suddenly felt something like a connection in a certain direction.
The scale that I had filled with my magic!
I grinned, exposing my long sharp fangs. With the scale acting like a beacon of some sorts my problems were immediately solved.
I spread out my six wings and took to the air. With speed almost reaching that of light I soared trough the clouds to reach my location.
Manny creatures looked up in confusion as they sensed something huge passing by. Yet none could even bare a glimpse.
Eventually I reached a small town that was built around a massive churchlike structure and slowed down. There were a few people there that I had never seen before. But scattered in the crowd I could recognise the figures of the people that I had helped to escape Atlantis.
I frowned as I saw that it this point, I was probably too large to even walk trough the streets. the last time I had been to the void I gained a blade on my tail even though I had not been there for long. So how could I not have changed after being there for such a long amount of time?
I had gained two extra wings and a third eye. Along with this I grew to roughly fifteen meters tall without counting my horns that were now a lot more curved than before. Like this I looked like some sort of demon king or God while towering over everything near me.
But to my luck Alice had managed to teach me a few tricks when she visited me. Tough I could not alter the flow of time or move rough it I managed to reverse my appearance. I could basically alter my form to what I looked like a few years ago.
For this I decided to appear the same as when I last saw them. Four meters was still way too tall to walk around humans, but altering my appearance was extremely uncomfortable. Almost as if I curled myself um and tried to walk around like that. The feeling would always get worse the further back I went. Tough the point where I first appeared as a demon seemed to be my limit.
I slowly descended and when I finally reached the ground a group of all too familiar people had gathered around me.
At first, I was scared, that even though they had been offering sacrifices to me they would be angry that I left them behind to seal the gods.
The first to greet me was the bird Quetzalcoatl. The green creature immediately tried to climb up my legs. But its claws kept slipping on my scales. So, like usual I piked the bird up and placed it on one of my horns.
"Look who finally decided to visit us after leaving for seven years. I thought we agreed that you wouldn't disappear for years " Allenya spoke while trying to punch me in my stomach. Only to be left disappointed that she could barely reach me and thus could not use all her strength.
At this point Alex decided to help her by trying to dropkick me. But that went about as well as one would expect.
Eventually Noah and Beatrice were done with their idiocy and pulled them away.
"Don't mind them." my father spoke after giving a disappointed glare at the two hyperactive idiots. "Ware all glad that you could finally make it back."
"Well, I'm not!" The dwarf yelled out. "Do you know how many crystals you let explode simply by setting foot in this world? And they're a lot harder to find here than where we came from. So that is a huge pain in my ass."
Leonor raised her eyebrow at the dwarf. "Oh really? Come on, we all know that you would have dropped them sooner or later. You just want someone else to blame."
The dwarf just shrugged after hearing her response. "I mean it is not every day that he comes back. if I don't blame him for something now, when do I get the next chance?"
Suddenly the bickering between these two was interrupted by a soft voice. "Can we stop this now? there are some people that would like to meet him."
Elisa and Nathan stepped aside and behind them were two seven-year-olds holding hands. I immediately recognised the boy as Zosimos. But I had never seen the girl with the slightly pointed ears before.
I kneeled down so that I would not tower over the children as much.
"Hello Zosimos, long time no see. And you little girl. You must be the child of Elisa and Nathan. Tell me, what is your name?"
Both of them remained completely silent and the girl nervously looked at her father.
"Her name is Ester." Nathan answered in her pace.
"Alright then." I smiled. "Nice to meet you Ester."
Leonor placed her hand on the shoulder of Zosimos. "Sweety don't be shy. I know you don't remember it, but you have met him before. He didn't hurt you back then, so he won't now."
I nodded. "Yes, now you are way too big to swallow in one go."
I was immediately faced with a disappointed look from my father who did not entirely approve my joke.
But luckily the child didn't mind it as much. "I really like your claws mister. They look sharp and shiny!"
I slightly wagged my tail as this comment from Zosimos reminded me of when he always tried to grab my claws when he was still a baby.
The few days after I arrived, they even showed me the town that they had constructed and introduced me to a few people.
But the things that I enjoyed the most was just talking and having fun with my friends and family.
Truly my greatest pleasure was a simple one. It was being around the people that I loved the most, that I was no longer alone and that I whenever I came back, they would greet me with open arms.
Eventually I had to take my place in sealing the gods again. But this time I at least knew that they would truly be waiting for me. And I looked forward to the day that I could leave the void again.