The Birth Of A Legendary Genius? I

Bleeding through his eyes, ears, nose, and even his mouth, Draneil, the last dragon and guardian of the four-dimensional gates, staggered away from the battlefield.

He had just fought the last battle and was nowhere near fit to fight another battle.

His red-scaled armor was in ruins and bloody cuts covered both his body. Only the hilt of his sword was left in his hand. It had been damaged during the battle that just ended."Those bastards had snuck in and we're waiting for me to get here." As his deep, growling voice escaped his mouth through gritted teeth, the huge portal in front of him rippled as though something was trying to make its way through it.

"Damn these bastards!" He grumbled as he did his best to approach the portal.

But he was one step too late.

Boom!

The portal shook and a huge black ball came out of it, striking Draneil head-on and throwing him into the distance.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood and slowly rose to his feet. His body was utterly damaged but with enough willpower, he still managed to rise and hastened his steps as he once more walked toward the portal that was growing larger as two hands tore through it.

He had a simple job. Guarding the gates and preventing anything from getting through them.

Boom!

The portal exploded into what seemed to be a huge black hole that easily exceeded the size of a mile, but this hole didn't suck in anything. Instead, creatures poured out of it. Creatures of all shapes and sizes, most with black skins and others with black scales.

Soon, they easily numbered in millions as they kept pouring out.

Thud.

The earth quivered at the arrival of the new creature.

A humanoid monster the likes of anything he had ever seen on any battlefield.

Jagged teeth and long claws. The heat emanating from this creature made even Draneil, a dragon feel hot.

"Hehe… They failed and so have I. I let them down." The moment the beast arrived in front of him, he knew what it was. 

There was only one such creature that could inflict terror in his heart. A demon so legendary its story was known around the world and beyond. This was the same beast that made the dragon race mobilize the entire race to fight against it and its underlings.

The Primordial Demon… Tazoth.

If Tazoth was here and the dragons were yet to return, then it meant one thing. They were dead. He couldn't understand how, but somehow, the dragon race had failed to eliminate this beast.

A dragon never feels fear but right now, Draneil could only feel fear. Nothing but fear. A single attack from his entity would erase him from existence.

Tazoth turned its head as it stared at Draneil.

A dragon, king of all beasts, felt like prey to another beast at the moment. He could only quiver in terror. Although Draneil's talent was unrivaled in the entire race and being the son of the king, he was extremely lazy.

Draneil opened his mouth to speak but a hand bigger than his held his neck and lifted him in the air. As if struck by lightning, his eyes widened as he stared at Tazoth's second hand which had impaled him.

Thud.

He was tossed to the ground. Everything happened so quickly.

"You call yourself prideful beasts yet some of you bowed to me." Tazoth turned away from him and walked away.

These words struck Draneil like lightning. That's when he saw some of the elders and warriors of the dragon race, standing side by side with the other beasts.

"I knew something was up." Draneil sighed as he closed his eyes. Slowly but surely, he was dying.

Then, a spell he had once seen in a book appeared in his mind. Although he was lazy with training, Draneil spent most of his time reading all sorts of books found in the royal library and as such, he read all the books at least twice.

"What could a spell do?" He had chosen to give up. Nothing could save him at this moment.

He opened his eyes one last time to have a good look at the faces of the betrayers of the dragon race. He could see over five of them. His rage was overflowing but nothing could be done.

He closed his eyes once more, ready to leave for the afterlife. The spell still kept appearing to him.

With a sigh, he began reciting the words of the spell.

" चܫक्षܐшфܗܛजेजे।…" As he continued the spell, mana began condensing around him.

Tazoth turned to look at Draneil, his eyes filled with shock. Before he could attack Draneil…

Boom.

Another portal opened forcefully and a man appeared. He seemed ordinary but Draneil was well aware of this man's existence. He was a Transcendent.

The only ones who could ward off the demons in the absence of the dragons and this man was their leader.

"See you in hell…" Draneil smiled as he finished reciting the spell and his body went limp. He had died.

*****

"Waaaaah…"

"Waaahhh…"

A baby's cry resounded through the entire room lit with luminous orbs orderly placed around the walls.

Even though the moon was barely visible and the stars were missing from the night sky, the room was as bright as day.

"It's a boy! My lady, it's a boy!" The midwife made sure to repeat the gender of the child for her mistress.

"Of course, I'm a boy. How can I, Draneil, the last dragon, be a girl?" Was what the child wanted to shout but all that came out of his mouth was more crying. 

"This isn't hell…" The lady holding on to Draneil was a human but she seemed bigger than normal or was he just smaller than normal?

Well, the latter was the case. Draneil quickly found out he was nothing more than a baby at the moment. "Well, I was the last dragon. Now, I'm nothing more than a tiny little human."

The midwife wrapped the newborn Draneil in a white piece of cloth and handed him to his mother, her mistress. "At long last. The gods have heard me and have given me a son." The woman said with a tired smile hung on her face.

Although she was tired, she was just as excited. Her smile was genuine.

"Yes, my lady. The gods have finally granted our family our only request. The Lord will be pleased with this news when he returns."

As they continued to exchange words, the baby's cry seemed to intensify.

Draneil seemed to only remember what happened to him a while ago. "No! This can't be! The gate! What happened to the gates and the demons?!" He tried shouting but it resulted in more cries.

His mother hugged him tighter in her embrace and patted him. She placed him on her chest and lay down to rest. Draneil refused to go down without a fight as he wriggled like a worm in her embrace. "Ariett, I'd like to have a rest now with the child. Please prepare the bath for when I wake up." She ordered the red-haired midwife who had just taken her delivery.

"Yes, my lady." The woman named Ariett walked out of the room.

"A boy… Seth fits just perfectly." The mother of the newborn said with a smile on her face as she fell asleep.

"Who the hell names their child Seth in this era?"

"Either way, if humans still live, then the demons definitely retreated. Luckily the Transcendents arrived at the right time." Draneil sighed with relief. The demons would not leave a single human alive if they had successfully invaded this world.

If humans were alive right now, the only plausible conclusion was that the Transcendents chased back the demons.

Then he remembered the faces of those dragons he had seen among the ranks of the demons and his rage welled up.

The mana in the surrounding seemed to answer his rage as it drew closer to him.

"What the?" Draneil immediately noticed. Gathering mana immediately after birth was something not even dragons let alone humans could do.

Draneil smiled. "I guess this is what they call a legendary genius that only rises once a thousand years." A wretched but determined smile hung on his face.

This time, he wasn't going to sit around and be lazy. He would strive to grow as strong as he could and get back at the demons for what they had done.

Draneil the last dragon, now a human would be hitting his enemies harder than ever.