Invasion

--- Dragon Kingdom

It's been years since Arx forfeited his god status and gathered dragons that were formerly in solitude to create a kingdom.

This was only possible thanks to Lava, whom he surrendered his title to.

Thanks to her sacrifice, dragons were able to gain a reputation better than being assumed as dangerous monsters.

The legend of being raised by humans also helped to bury the prejudice from blood memories that humans were too weak or insignificant to associate with.

Now that other kingdoms wouldn't be too fearful to attempt trade, a kingdom was no longer an impossible dream.

But even so, whatever happened to Lava comes back to him every now and then, even if it might just be too hopeful to think she somehow survived.

Even if he gave up his title, he was still a top candidate for the title of 'Dragon God', so if she died he would have gotten it back by now.

The only explanations for why that hasn't happened were that Azgaroth survived, or Lava won.

The former is magnitudes more likely, but it's not something anyone wanted to think about.

Just when he was ready to stop dawdling in his thoughts and return to his job, he noticed the receiver of Lava's guild card he had cloned from the adventurer's guild.

It was only ever a fleeting hope that he would look over one day and see it active again, and today was that day!

But what should he do?! He never planned what to do if it actually happened!

But that's when it finally clicked.

The kingdom was still having trouble with relations for obvious historical reasons, but there's no way they would have any problems if the queen was the very savior dragon they know has close human relationships.

He quickly called for his aide to assign a very important job.

Jali was definitely loyal enough to entrust something like this to, and there couldn't be any mistakes here.

"Jali, you're to go to the Prazia kingdom and bring back a red dragon that you should find staying in a village right around here." Arx orders, marking a spot on the map in front of him.

"Ahh, but that's so far away! Don't you have messengers or something for this job?!" Jali complains and flings his tail irritably.

"This isn't something I can chance with anyone else," Arx says and finishes with an extra warning for good measure, "I don't think it needs to be said what will happen if you hurt any of the humans there. You would be lucky if I was the one punishing you for it."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be careful." Jali huffs and turns to leave with a brief flash of green scales.

Arx couldn't help but remember that he forgot to clarify who exactly he was looking for, he thought the location alone should have been enough for any dragon that's read a recent history book to figure it out.

Whatever, he'd figure it out soon enough anyway, it was time to celebrate today!

Now he just has to figure out how to dump his responsibilities onto a dragon that's only known how to receive cuddles from humans.

If it wasn't a well kept secret between gods that she was summoned from a different world it probably wouldn't be worth considering a leader whose only skills were hugging humans without crushing them.

--- Lava

Flying Ria around is as fun as ever even though now she thinks I'm obligated to give her rides as the 'little sister'.

I can't really feel the wind like she does, but she seems to find it exhilarating enough to scream joyfully as if I'm some kind of rollercoaster ride.

I can definitely give longer rides than I used to, but I still get tired and have to land eventually.

"I love you! No one has a better sister than me!" She squeals while sliding down and hugging my leg.

"Everyone knows that, there's no need to repeat it." I reply and nudge her away while moving back to the village.

My tiny and annoyingly devoted sister loves watching my tail flick when I get happy at something.

She offers me treats and hugs me every hour just to see that.

Ria wants to call me 'little sister' all the time, but I want to call her something too, it's not fair I have to be 'little sister' and 'dragon sister' without having any names to call her.

Some things come to mind, like 'little big sister', but then I came up with the perfect words to describe her.

"If I'm a little sister that means you're now 'tiny sister'." I blurt out suddenly to her dismay.

"What?! I'm not tiny!" Ria protests and tries to hammer on my scales to no effect, but I easily grab her in my claw and lift her up to show her how tiny she is.

"Ah, this isn't how you should treat your big sister!" She flails and tries to act like she's being crushed.

"Stop that. I know you're pretending." I command and she stops struggling in my grip instantly and reaches at me in a way that is definitely not in pain.

"Let's take you home, you little drama queen." I huff and continue without letting her go. I have no problem carrying her like this the entire way.

As I get closer, I hear a commotion gathering at the village.

Oh great, what now?

After placing Ria down and clearing the structure blocking my view, I saw a green dragon laying there with all the kids climbing and pulling on him.

He seems to be snorting at them and trying to push them away, but they keep coming back.

"Grr! You little pests, get off me! Stop pulling my scales off!" He tries to hiss at them and they ignore it.

It would be funny if I didn't think they were about to get themselves in big trouble.

"All of you stop that! Don't annoy dragons you don't even know!" I scold them all until they scatter.

"What are you doing here?" I question the dragon immediately.

"Looking for you, I think. I expected you to be older, though." He answers.

"What business do you have with me then?"

"I'm here to bring you back to the dragon kingdom, the king has personally invited you." He says.

I suppose it might be fun, and I guess it wouldn't hurt to see how the dragon I got my 'Dragon God' status from is doing.

At least I assume he's the king, since he was previously a god I can't imagine how anyone else would be the king.

"I can make a quick visit." I agree and instantly feel a sharp force on my wing.

"NO! You can't go anywhere without me!" Ria yells and tries to scorn me as if she has any authority over me.

"You can come too, tiny sister." I sigh and accept that I'm never going to be able to go anywhere without her following me.

The others don't seem bothered that I look like I'm ready to go somewhere, they look preoccupied with the green scales they managed to get off the visitor.

Before we could even make it outside the village, we were interrupted by a literal army outside.

This doesn't look good...

"There it is! The demonic dragon that will take our world from us!" The leader of the army shouts to pump up the soldiers behind him.

Excuse me, what?! How the hell do they know about me already? And I haven't done anything!

"I don't want to take over anything! Who told you that nonsense?!" I demand.

The green dragon that's supposed to be escorting me gets hit with a nasty blade of magic from the leader's sword as soon as he tries to move.

I would have blocked that if I could see where it was going to hit, but I'll just have to heal him after I deal with these idiots.

I could easily wipe them out with a single spell, but I don't know how to do that without killing all of them.

It sounds difficult, but then I realize I'm overcomplicating this. All I need is a simple gravity spell.

Their leader tries to attack me the same way, but unlike that other dragon, I'm not limited to how fast I can finish a spell.

Instead of hitting me, I just create a barrier to block the attack. This alternate magic is amazing.

"That's impossible without a spell! You truly are a devi-" He tries to insult me by calling me a devil, but I shut him up with <Gravity >.

Since he couldn't stop me from using it, neither him or his army can move anymore.

"All of you better go back where you came and tell whoever sent you that they got the wrong idea. If you come back again I'll have to do worse than just immobilize you!" I roar at them and send them away.

They aptly listen and flee, but I'm not sure how long that will last. They seem to take it as a threat instead of a warning.

"Stop blocking me with your wings, I have to incinerate them!" Ria cries angrily and gets stuck behind me.

They are lucky I kept her back without even noticing or they would be toast.

Just as I'm getting done with healing the unlucky dragon, yet another army shows up, headed by a young man dressed well enough to be a noble.

He also looks somewhat familiar, but I can't place a name because of how everyone in this world has aged up while I was gone.

"Chase those Cerullian bastards, they dared march an army into our lands! Don't allow them any escape!" He commands loudly and sends them after the other army.

His own army lets out a battle cry and speeds off to catch up. I'm not sure I need to know what they're gonna do once they catch them.

Maybe I'm too soft, still trying to avoid killing anyone for any reason even after I had no choice but to kill those two demon lords.

They say it's easier after you've done it once, but that's only true for a serial killer.

If I solve all my problems with murder because it's easy I would just become a monster. Not even Ria would want anything to do with me if I went too far.

The noble turns to me instead and examines me carefully.

"I can't believe your return was true! Wow, you really are as beautiful as Ria always boasted about." He says as if admiring some piece of art.

"Am I supposed to know you?" I ask blankly with no idea where that comment is coming from all of a sudden.

"It's me, Litz! You helped me so I could use magic, remember? Of course I now know you just sent a spirit to assist me, but we work in harmony now, thanks to you!" He explains, disappointed at my lack of recognition.

Ria fights and struggles to get past me and include herself in this 'conversation'.

"Hi, Litz!" She greets forwardly and then bonks my head, "Say hi, little sister!"

I didn't know she wanted a little sister so bad that she would start treating me like this as soon as she got the chance.

"Hi, Litz..." I parrot spiritlessly and play along with it just to make her happy.

"So you're a little sister now? The size difference makes that dynamic look funny." Litz snorts to suppress the comedic images of a dragon having to listen to a human big sister.

"Maybe for everyone else." I mumble under my breath, "I'll return after my visit to the dragon kingdom, then I can figure out what I'm supposed to do about my new enemies."

"You won't have to worry about that. Marching an army into our territory is already an act of war, regardless of what their goal was. You don't have to care what they think, you're a hero to this country, and many others!" Litz informs, "It's Prazia's turn to protect you!"

"We'll see how competent it is..." I dismiss while getting Ria on top of me. She is excited about going on an adventure with me.