I wasn't sure how much time had passed since then. The only thing I knew was that when I opened my eyes, still dizzy and groggy, the light of Estalyrion pierced through the holes in the cave's ceiling with such intensity that it almost blinded me.
- "...W-what... happened?" I murmured, trying to understand where I was.
I covered my eyes with my hand, trying to block out the light that seemed to mock my weakness.
- "...Tsk... L-like this... I'm going to end up blind… I said"
As my mind slowly awakened, flashes of memory began to return.
- "...Ugh… I had... killed the creature... and then... collapsed from exhaustion…" I said, rubbing my temples in a futile attempt to organize my thoughts.
- "...And then... that other thing appeared... but... the Wyverns... they destroyed it…" I said, as I sat up again. The effort made my ribs scream, but I ignored the pain. I turned my head, trying to locate something — anything — that would confirm my memories.
- "...Wyverns... where are they?" I said, as I once again struggled to stand, leaning against the cave's uneven wall.
However, as I looked around, I found absolutely nothing. Neither the Wyverns nor the remains of that monstrous creature. Only the nest with the dragon eggs remained untouched.
- "What... happened here?" I asked
With a heavy heart filled with uncertainty, I dragged my aching body to the nest, ignoring the feeling of carrying tons.
- "...Huff... damn... my body is wrecked..."
When I finally reached the dragon eggs, I fell to my knees and placed my hand on one of them, feeling its vital warmth.
- "Thank the gods... you're alright... even better than I am…" I said jokingly
As I examined the eggs one by one, something strange began to happen. A searing pain erupted suddenly, as if my skull were splitting in two. A high-pitched sound and deafening static exploded in my mind, like thousands of needles piercing my ears.
- "...Ha... your mother would love to know you're strong since ago" I was saying, but the sentence was cut off, replaced by a scream of agony.
- "...AAARRRGHHH! WHAT THE HELL... IS HAPPENING?!" I screamed
I fell to the ground, writhing, trying to muffle the sound with my hands, but it was useless.
- "...Hey…" Said a voice, amid the static and high-pitched sound, which were still there
- "..D-DAMN… WHAT IS THIS.." I said
- "..We came to warn…" The voice continued
- "..Warn that he is coming.."
- "....warn the one who saved us from infinite pain that his world is in danger.." The voice said
- "..W-WHAT THE HELL.." I continued to scream in pain as I listened to what the voice was saying
- "....Warn… that the one who is coming… also brings… the omen of the end" The voice said- "...Be careful… for even destiny… has a limit on how many times it can help you.." The voice ended, before finally disappearing, along with the pain and sounds.
- "...Huff... what... the hell... was that…" I asked myself, now without the pain and sounds from before.
After all this, I lay there for a while, trying to understand what had happened. Those sounds, that voice warning me, what was all that? Why all this? And my world is in danger? Why? There were many questions to which I couldn't get a satisfactory answer that day. However, at that moment, while repeating to myself what those voices had said, I realized something.
- "...My world is in… danger? Warn that he is coming? Who is he?" I said, still lying on the ground but now feeling better.
- "Tsk… damn… what was all that?" I said, turning my head to the side and clearly seeing the dragon eggs.
As soon as I looked at the dragon eggs, I remembered, by a stroke of fate, the first and last time I was with Ignarion and how he, too, like that voice, had warned me of something that might happen.
- "There is a legend among dragons that says: someday in the future, a being similar to the demons of ancient scriptures will begin an era of hunting and extermination of dragons, seeking our hearts. They say that only our hearts have enough power to open the gates that connect the world of these demons to ours. When that happens, a great snowstorm will cover the world, paving the way for the destruction and death that these demons will bring…" I remembered Ignarion saying, the time I met him in my dream.
- "Ignarion also warned me about something like this…" I said, placing my arm over my face and continuing to think.
- "Snow… era of blizzards and great death… where have I heard this before?" I asked myself, remembering hearing something similar when I was younger.
- "...Wait a minute…" I said, managing to remember where I had heard it before.
- "...Thinking about it now, these wars... even the death of my parents… Were all... caused by an ancient prophecy that said a great era of death and destruction, coming with a snowstorm, would arrive… and that, at that moment, all who were unprepared would perish." I said, recalling what my father had told us.
- "Ignarion, on the other hand, told the same story but added more information. The snowstorm will come, but it will be the result of opening the portals from the demonic world to ours. For that, those who want it must first obtain dragon hearts so that the opening process works…" I added.
- "If I think about everything that happened up to now, along with the more frequent attacks, everything points in one direction…" I said, turning and looking at the dragon eggs.
- "Of course… ha… the dragon eggs… they need more hearts to open these portals… And that Wyvern creature might have come here exactly because of them." I said, piecing it together.
- "As for that creature I saw in the forest, and which appeared in my vision before I fainted… Perhaps it was directly linked to what happened to those Wyverns, which would explain the pentagram, something related to the occult and demons, even in this world. When it saw they couldn't fulfill their objective, it decided to come here itself and take the dragon eggs. But it didn't expect to be destroyed, did it?" I thought, increasingly surprised at how the information fit together.
- "But… how do they know there are dragon eggs here?" I asked myself.
- "The only people who knew about this place were Elyndra and me…" I said, thinking of something that could answer that.
- "Damn… something's missing… Tsk…" I said, frustrated.
At that moment, I realized something interesting. The fact that all this information was related was no mere coincidence. If what I thought was true, it was possible that the opening of such portals was closer than I imagined, and that, to me, would be catastrophic.
After some more time thinking about something that could explain how that creature obtained information about the eggs, I ended up giving up, as I couldn't figure it out.
- "Tsk… there's nothing to indicate how they knew there were dragon eggs here…" I murmured.
- "DAMN!" I said, frustrated.
Then, I stopped for a while, ran my hand over my head, and took a deep breath.
- "Tsk… sigh… okay, I can't think of anything that helps me understand how they knew this… but one thing is clear… I will redouble my vigilance on this place now that I know they're trying to attack my base and take the dragon eggs." I said, seriously.
- "If those damn demons think they'll take what's most important to me just to come to this world and cause death and destruction, they're completely mistaken… because the one who will cause destruction and death to humans IS ME!" I said, this time, furious.