The boy found himself trapped once again in a potentially harrowing realm.
But this place was different from the Abyss.
The Abyss was a place of madness, corruption, and unspeakable horrors—a realm that seemed to thrive upon suffering.
The Dragon Realm was different.
Here, the dragons were the ones suffering.
This was the final remnant of a once-mighty race, a dying sanctuary desperately clinging to existence.
The Abyss flourished.
The dragons were nearly extinct.
Perhaps, the boy thought, escaping this place wouldn’t be too difficult.
He looked toward the horizon.
A dense forest stretched across the landscape ahead of him.
“Alright…”
He scratched his chin as he studied the surroundings.
“I remember it being around here.”
His eyes traveled deeper into the forest.
“The description matches.”
He could see the strange bark of the trees, each trunk covered in overlapping scales.
“And that giant tree…”
Far in the distance, an enormous tree towered above the forest.
“It holds the key of old.”
The boy began walking toward the forest.
As he traveled, he occasionally glanced toward the heavens.
Drakes.
Wyverns.
Massive dragons.
They filled the sky.
But something else caught his attention.
Hovering far above the landscape was a shattered silver city.
Its remains floated silently in the heavens, broken towers and ruined structures hanging in the air like the corpse of an ancient civilization.
Dragons inhabited the area around it.
But these weren’t ordinary dragons.
They were ancient.
Powerful.
The boy could feel their immense presence.
Yet strangely, they seemed to be suppressing their wills and killing intent.
The boy narrowed his eyes.
Why?
Perhaps they were deliberately restraining themselves so their overwhelming presence wouldn’t kill the weaker drakes and dragons living below.
He continued forward.
Eventually, he entered the forest.
The trees immediately surrounded him.
Their bark resembled enormous dragon scales, each one larger than the boy himself.
He looked upward.
And upward.
And upward.
The trees were gigantic.
They weren’t built for humans.
They were built for creatures far larger than him—creatures that could probably stand beside giants without looking out of place.
The boy stared in awe.
“Man…”
He smiled.
“This is so much better than the Abyss.”
He continued deeper into the forest.
Then he saw it.
A tree.
No—
A monstrosity disguised as a tree.
It towered over everything around it.
Nearly three kilometers in length, its enormous trunk stretched toward the heavens while jagged branches spread outward like the limbs of some ancient beast.
An oppressive, almost malevolent aura surrounded it.
And yet there was something strangely sacred about that aura.
It was holiness.
Not human holiness.
Something far older.
Something that belonged to the dragons.
The boy stared at it.
“That has to be it…”
He continued walking.
Then—
“Hey, kid!”
The boy stopped.
“Yeah, you!”
“Come over here!”
The boy looked around.
His eyes finally settled on someone standing directly in front of him.
A child.
He had bronze-colored skin, brown hair, and striking yellow eyes.
His lower body was covered by a pair of ripped black leather pants.
The boy stared at him for a moment.
Then he tilted his head.
He knew exactly what he was looking at.
A descendant of the dragons.
A dragon-man.
The boy chuckled.
“You know…”
He pointed at the child.
“You’re the kid here.”
The dragon child grinned mischievously.
“Hehe.”
He scratched his head.
“I knew that wouldn’t work.”
The child cleared his throat before adopting a more serious expression.
“Human, I am in desperate need of your assistance.”
The boy raised an eyebrow.
The dragon child leaned closer.
“But…”
He lowered his voice dramatically.
“It’s a secret.”
His grin returned.
“You’ll have to follow me.”
The boy stared at him blankly.
“Why should I follow you?”
He crossed his arms.
“I’ve got bigger things to worry about.”
The dragon child burst out laughing.
“Hahaha!”
He looked the boy up and down.
“What could you possibly have to worry about?”
The boy smiled.
“I need to escape this place.”
The dragon child’s laughter stopped.
“I pissed off one of your dragons, and it threw me into this realm as punishment.”
He shrugged.
“Which is pretty dumb, honestly.”
He looked around.
“Because this place is actually kinda beautiful.”
The dragon child’s expression immediately collapsed.
“You…”
His eyes widened.
“You managed to anger one of the Kings?!”
The boy blinked.
“Kings?”
The dragon child began speaking rapidly.
“Only the Dragons of Old can enter and leave this realm whenever they want!”
He pointed toward the sky.
“They’re the only ones capable of teleporting people into the realm from outside!”
The boy’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“So…”
He stepped closer.
“Tell me more about these dragons.”
His expression became genuinely interested.
“Maybe I’ll help you.”
The dragon child’s grin returned.
A mischievous glint appeared in his yellow eyes.
“Heh.”
He turned around.
“Walk with me, human.”
The boy followed.
As they traveled through the enormous forest, the dragon child began explaining.
“Long ago, the dragons were a thriving race.”
His voice carried a strange mixture of pride and nostalgia.
“We had cities floating through the skies.
Beautiful dragons flying between them.
Great civilizations stretching across entire realms.”
He gestured toward the distant ruins.
“We had three realms connected to one another.”
“The first was the realm of the Dragon-Men.”
He pointed toward the surrounding forest.
“Dragon-Men are pretty much what you’d expect.
They’re the descendants of dragons who can take humanoid forms.”
His expression became more serious.
“They were the core soldiers of our armies.
They fought against the forces of madness and corruption directly.”
“The second realm belonged to the drakes, wyverns, and pure dragons.”
His grin returned.
“They were the heavy hitters of the army.”
The boy listened carefully.
“And then…”
The dragon child’s expression became almost reverent.
“There was the third realm.”
He paused.
“The Divine Realm.”
The boy’s attention sharpened.
“That was the home of the Dragons of Old.”
His voice lowered.
“The true gods of the dragon species.”
“They weren’t limited to one form.
Some appeared as enormous dragons.
Others manifested as blinding lights.
Some even created avatars to interact with lesser beings.”
The dragon child pointed upward.
“The third realm held the strongest dragons in existence.”
His eyes gleamed.
“The Draconic Angels.”
He paused.
“They stood directly beneath the Dragons of Old.”
The boy remained silent.
The dragon child continued.
“We were once one of the strongest species in existence.”
His voice slowly became bitter.
“Then the Deities of Madness came.”
The boy’s expression hardened.
“They destroyed our realms.”
His voice became quieter.
“They tore apart everything we had built.”
“The cities.”
“The civilizations.”
“Our homes.”
“Everything.”
“And as if that wasn’t enough…”
The dragon child’s eyes darkened.
“The World War was approaching.”
“So the Dragons of Old gathered whatever remained of our people.”
He clenched his fist.
“And they went to war.”
“To fight until the very end.”
Silence followed.
The boy had been listening intently.
Finally, he spoke.
“What do you know about the war?”
The dragon child glanced at him.
Then he smirked.
“Hahaha.”
He folded his arms behind his head.
“Why?”
He glanced sideways at the boy.
“You got some kind of goal?”
The boy’s expression remained calm.
“No.”
He looked toward the horizon.
“I just want to know what happened.”
His voice became more serious.
“Why is everything dead?”
The dragon child said nothing.
The boy continued.
“Who were the gods?”
“Who were the Great Gods?”
“Who were the angels?”
“What was the world like back then?”
His eyes narrowed.
“What was it like before everything died?”
The dragon child stared at him.
Then he burst into laughter.
“Oh boy…”
He shook his head.
“You’ve got a lot of questions.”
His grin widened.
“And I’ve got all the answers.”
The boy looked at him.
“But first…”
The dragon child pointed ahead.
“You’ll have to help me.”
The boy smiled.
“If I find out you’re lying…”
His smile disappeared.
“I’ll kill you.”
The dragon child froze for half a second.
Then his mischievous grin returned.
“Looks like I don’t wanna get on your bad side.”
He extended his hand.
“My name is Zuko.”
He tilted his head.
“What about you?”
The boy froze.
“…Huh?”
“What’s your name?”
The boy stared at him.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then—
“Uhm…”
He looked away.
“I don’t have one.”
Zuko’s crooked smile faded.
“What?”
He tilted his head.
“You don’t have a name?”
The boy remained silent.
“Why?”
The question struck him like a bomb.
Something inside the boy suddenly cracked.
Confusion.
Depression.
Anger.
Loneliness.
Memories he couldn’t fully understand.
Emotions he had buried so deeply that he had almost forgotten they existed.
They began rising.
Slowly.
Then faster.
Like a bomb whose fuse had already been lit.
Yet the boy refused to let them escape.
He swallowed everything.
Every emotion.
Every memory.
Every painful thought.
He forced it all back down.
And as those emotions continued to build within him, so did something else.
His body began to grow.
Slowly.
Almost imperceptibly.
But the boy didn’t acknowledge it.
He couldn’t.
All he knew was that he had to keep moving.
He looked back toward Zuko.
Then smiled.
“Man…”
He scratched his head.
“You’re really getting into the personal stuff, aren’t you?”
Zuko stared at him for a moment.
Then chuckled.
“Alright.”
He raised his hands.
“I’ll stop.”
He turned around.
“But we still need to move.”
Zuko began walking.
“Come on.”
He glanced back at the boy.
“Walk with me.”