by SlyOkami
The Dragon Within by SlyOkami
Category: Original
Genre: Action, Adventure, Anti-Hero Lead, Fantasy, Magic, Male Lead, Reincarnation, Secret Identity, Strong Lead, Tragedy
Status: Completed
Warnings: Gore, Profanity
Chapters: 96
Summary:Meeting his fate at the hands of seven great heroes, the wicked drake now stands in Death’s hall. Met with the Grim Reaper itself.
Defeated and its pride broken, the drake doesn’t beg or grovel, it simply awaits judgement. It waits for the God of the afterlife to send it on its way, to either the heights of bliss and peace or where it knew it would be sent. The depths of agony and torture, the halls of Tartarus, the father of monsters.
Grim looked up from its oaken desk and down at the creature that would have otherwise, if grown wiser and older, matched the reaper itself in power. Its faceless guise, hidden by a black hood and whirling shadows, it briefly stared at the drake.
“You are unfit for the sky yet also too fit for the abyss,” Grim spoke, its voice a cracking whisper.
“Your time came too soon, the actions you have taken will lead your world to ruin…Be reborn, pitiful serpent. Yet remember what you have done, see what your actions have made that realm into. Let me show you, how your greed and gluttony have warped such a wonderful place and time.”
Grim raised its black-feathered pen towards the beast “Be reborn, as the weak pitiful creature you should have been born as. Take this both as a punishment and…a learning experience. For failure, can be the best teacher.”
The drake took a step back, hoping to escape this cruel fate. Yet none escaped Death, less so its embodiment. Screaming shadows engulfed his form, ripping away at his body and shape. Fangs of darkness sinking deep into his draconic flesh, warping it, changing him into something else…
Opening his eyes, the wicked drake felt none of its power, none of its magic and none of its might. As it stood at the edge of a cliff, looking down upon a ruined valley of rot and miasma. It glanced down at itself, seeing none of its sturdy scales or sharp claws.
The drake had been reborn…
As a Human.
Prologue; A…Human!?
Rage, an emotion that burned so much brighter than anger, yet fiercer than the coldness of hatred. It filled his heart as he stood staring down at his now human hands. “Curse those heroes…” he clenched both hands into fists, as he ground his teeth with one another. “How could…A human? Me?”
With a clear tone of disbelief, he fell to his knees. “No! This can’t be true!” he shouted. “I am Erikathyr! The White Drake! I shall not stand for this!” He fell even lower, holding himself up with shaking arms, his fingers digging into the dry earth “I who burned cities, I who bathed armies in fire and turned them to ash, I am now a human!?”
His eyes shook as he stared down at the ground. He noticed a sudden shift in the soil beneath him, forming hollow eye sockets and a mouth. “That you are, Erik.” Grim’s voice came out with the moving lips made of dirt, “A human male, age 19, 5’6 tall to be exact. No tail, no fangs, no claws and no scales. And no wings will be growing out of your back anytime this millennium.”
“Erik?” He asked in a rage, confused and insulted “You dare humanize my draconic name!?”
Grim chuckled, “You are no longer dragonkin; your ancestors disowned you for your weakness and foolish acts. Your very blood look away in shame when they look upon you now.” The ground rose, forming a head and a neck, “Look at what your actions have caused to this world.”
Erik’s gaze rose with the earth, as he now noticed the scenery before him. A valley of death and rot lay beneath the cliff he stood on. Dried up trees, ashen greenery, barren earth, and wisps of violet energy he knew too well to be miasma.
“You, Erikathyr of the White-Blood Dragons. You, who failed your blood-line’s oath to safeguard the nature of this world!” Grim continued to speak as the face of dry earth moved in front of Erik’s face to stare at him accusingly. “You did this.”
Erik shook his head, “No…No, the heroes and their people did! That’s why I purged their lands! Burned their factories! The dwarves! The humans! Even the elves! They betray the nature that created them! I sought to burn that betrayal!”
Grim’s earthen smile twisted into a grimace “Fool. You passed through their creations like a maddened beast and brought destruction upon what they, as younger races, would’ve learned from, growing from what those mistakes taught them. You almost brought extinction to the elves. You sent the dwarves hiding under ground. You made the humans see your kind like monsters!”
“Shame.” Grim hissed, “you bring shame upon your blood. If only your kind weren’t so proud of their blood, another drake or dragon would’ve slew you before you made the first step.
“Dragons do not kill other dragons unless they fall to Chaos, do they?” he spoke with amusement. “Ironic, as your actions brought Chaos to the entire world.”
The head of earth moved out of his view, showing him the dead lands once more. “You who looked upon the other races, thinking yourself a God, thinking destruction upon them was a mercy. The hatred you created in their hearts, birthed the heroes that slew you in the end. But it did not stop there.
“Look closer…what do you see?” Grim urged him, as Erik rose.
He looked at the barren land more closely…
Noticing a shape, an outline. “No, no, that’s…” His jaw dropped, his eyes opening wide in utter bafflement at the sight.
“Zyndreth the Black’s carcass, the last to be slain by the Slayers a thousand years ago. Her bones still remain, marking her fall.” Grim spoke grimly, before turning back to face him. “You ignored the wiser words of your elders. You sought destruction upon Man, Elf, and Dwarf. You, Erikathyr, White Drake! You started the Dragon Wars!”
Erik looked away from the ancient body, closing his eyes as he pained for the death of someone he knew “D-Dragon Wars?”
“I’ll spare you the details. You can imagine them either way. Erikathyr, no…Erik, you brought war between your kind and the rest, creating the Great Draconic Extinction where humans, dwarves, elves, lizardmen, mer and even fae, hunted your kind down to the last.” Grim explained.
“I…Did I do this?” Erik asked in disbelief.
“Oh, and it doesn’t end there,” Grim chuckled as a wicked smile formed on his face. “With the fall of your kind, the most powerful singular beings in this world, a path opened for something else to seek it for their own.”
Erik did not have his draconic senses anymore, but the scent was something even a human could smell, a vulgar and intoxicating whiff of miasma. “Demons.”
“Worse!” Grim raised its voice. “The Devil Kings themselves walk this earth now, warring with the other races.” The head of dirt began descending back into the ground. “This is your punishment. No matter how many times I must revive you, you shall experience what you have caused to the very last.
“Enjoy this world, human… Erik.”
Ch 1 - Born Hunter
Starvation, that sense of emptiness filled Erik’s stomach as he traversed the deadlands. His body feeling weak, his legs wishing they could give away. For three days Erik walked, sheer will power forcing him forward.
“I won’t die like this…” he promised himself, a dragon’s pride burning within his human heart. He tread forward, dry earth beneath him while he moved about the dead trees.
The land all around him had wasted away, not a drop of water or rain, not a smudge of green in sight. Black, grey and brown were the colours of this land, joined by the intoxicating violet miasma. The demonic toxin filled his lungs with every breath, sapping his strength.
Erik’s mind though stayed
strong, although he might have the body of a human, he still had the soul of a mighty drake. And nothing was more resilient of spirit and mind than dragons.
And dragons were, once, also the greatest of predators.
Erik followed whatever tracks he could find, footprints in the ashen dirt, damage to the not so lively terrain. He wasn’t just moving in a random direction, nor following memory and trying to get his bearings. The terrain had changed too much for him to remember this place.
(“How long?”) He asked himself, (“How long has it been?”) indeed he recognised what kind of trees once lived here yet he could not for the life of him remember the place. Which for a dragon, meant that he hadn’t been around here for a very long time.
Moving such thoughts aside for a moment, he continued following the slight tracks. Damage marks over the trees, strange messes in the earth alongside small, clawed footprints. He knew he was stalking some kind of demonic creature, small as it might have been, anything could be of use at this point.
(“Fiend? No, smaller…”) he tried to guess, as whatever it was it couldn’t fly and neither was it too large. His mind arriving on a conclusion just as he noticed the creature in question, quietly moving behind a fallen dried-up trunk while keeping his distance. Erik glanced over (“Imp.”), to see the little demon lying about.
A lanky humanoid creature with crimson skin, only about two feet tall with hooked black claws and two rows of just as pitch-black fangs. He watched it closely, it seemed to be asleep. (“It knows I’m here.”) but Erik was smarter, knowing how these little tricksters worked.
Imps preferred tight, hidden spaces to fall asleep. To Erik this only meant one thing, this was a trap, meant to lure him in and kill him. (“But why use itself as bait?”) He asked himself, reasoning out the answer through his vast knowledge over these creatures.
Erik guessed it wasn’t alone, somewhere out there more Imps were watching him as he watched it. (“A jest of Imps would contain…3? 4 Imps?”) he strained his mind to remember his teacher’s lessons, dragons having lived for so long had details over so many creatures…
(“They’re distracting me with the one, seemingly asleep, to then ambush me in force.”) A simple, yet effective plan. He decided he’d ruin it, for Erik did not want to fall to some measly demonic runts.
Quickly he looked around for something to use as a weapon, seeing only dry sticks and stones about he picked up the two largest rocks he could carry per hand. Erik doubted he could throw it and hit, he was too tired for that, (“Mauling it with a stone in the head should do the trick.”).
He rose from behind the trunk, keeping his ears peeled for any sort of noise while making use of all the information his puny human eyesight could provide. There was no backing off now, the imps would simply follow him.
He needed to deal with this while he knew where at least one of them was. Using its position, taking in the terrain around it and then surmising where the others were probably hiding…Erik made his move.
Dashing from behind the trunk (“Bash the sleeping one’s head in, turn to deflect the ambush from the one inside the trunk on the left and then deal with the possible other two watching fr-”) He began planning it all out in his head, before suddenly tripping over his own feet.
Erik rolled and tumbled forwards, coming to a stop, he groaned in pain and annoyance while reopening his eyes. Meeting the hungry and amused gaze of the black-eyed imp. He immediately moved to back away from it, confusing his feet’s movements once more, he only fell back and onto his ass.
The imp pounced, a hissing screech filling his ears as the creature grappled onto his left arm. Erik moved to stand while waving the creature about, as it clawed at his weak skin and bit into his soft flesh. He screamed in pain and rage, turning just as another leapt at his right leg.
They ravaged his limbs, frenzied at the taste of blood. Their black fangs and claws oozing out liquid miasma, infecting each wound.
Erik flailed about before kneeling down and bashing his left arm into a nearby pile of stones. The sound of cracking bone resonated with the imp’s scream of agony, causing the second one to back off from his now miserably clawed at leg.
But Erik did not stop there, now having one imp within his grasp he mercilessly began beating the creature. He grabbed it by the neck and sunk his other fist into its face, over and over he punched it, putting every bit of strength he had behind each hit.
Infusing his every attack with the raw rage and guilt that filled him, blinded by the pain he barely noticed that the imp was dead. Its skull had long caved in from his relentless attacks, yet he continued, the sound of his fist sinking into brain matter going ignored as it reached his ears.
Then the other imps re-joined the attack. One pouncing over his back and putting its arms around his neck, it began to choke him. A second returned to biting away at his already injured leg, ripping off more skin before digging into his flesh and muscle.
Erik screamed out, falling to his side as his leg gave away. Enduring through the pain he began slamming his leg onto the ground, bashing the imp over and over. He then reached back with both hands and grabbed the other imp by its arms, pulling it off his neck which only caused it to grip onto his shoulders.
He felt the other imp let go of his leg, having taken enough of a beating to give up. Yet the one on his back wasn’t letting go, its claws digging deeper into his flesh. Erik also didn’t give in easily though, continuing to pull even as its claws ripped his skin. He pulled it off, raising it above himself he briefly glanced at it.
Its empty black eyes open as wide as its salivating black maw, as it screeched and screamed, clawing away at his hands and arms while trying to escape his grasp.
But Erik wasn’t letting go, as he changed his grip from its arms over to holding it by both legs with only his right hand. The creature being lanky enough to be held as such. He then rose, hearing the third imp prowling about him, hissing ferociously.
As he rose back to his knees it pounced once more, Erik meeting its attack by flailing the imp in his grasp at it like a mace. Both imps collided, both briefly gripping onto each other in surprise and confusion before letting go.
The third imp was thrown aside, rolling through the ashen earth before regaining its balance. It stood up and hissed at him, its hiss being cut off mid-way as another sound resonated louder.
The sound of bone and flesh being crushed, as Erik bashed the second imp’s head in with a stone he picked up from nearby. Knocking it out on the first hit, he turned to the last imp. The creature seeing both its pack mates taken out of the fight, turned tail to escape.
Dragons did not let prey escape.
The creature spun about to run but Erik had already pushed himself onto it with his one good leg. He grabbed its left arm, clenching tightly as it turned and hissed at him. Erik pulled it over, grabbing its other hand he held it down beneath his body’s weight.
He stared down into the imp’s black eyes, as it hissed and struggled. A fruitless effort, although Erik was weak from hunger and thirst it still had no chance to match a human’s weight and general strength.
He took a deep breath, calming himself from the adrenaline before suddenly pulling at each of the imp’s arms as he spoke “End your pitiful efforts, you vile demon spawn”. Yet it continued to struggle, even spitting in his face from anger.
Erik met its anger with his own wrath, “Cease your struggling, puny vermin!” he roared out, his voice vibrating with power as the sound wave blasted down into the imp’s face. Shutting it up entirely.
The imp stared up at him in absolute terror now, as he looked down upon it with surprise. (“My voice? If I kept my voice then…”) Erik was surprised he had kept some of his identity as kin of dragons, he now wondered what else he could still do.
(“Putting aside that Grim even left me with my powers, I don’t have control over them or this damn body. I need a safe place, somewhere to…hide out for a while”) Erik thought, as he stared down at the now t
rembling demon.
“You speak, do you not?” He asked, controlling his voice to remain active but not blow out the imp’s eardrums.
The imp nodded its head quickly in response “Y-Yes! Yes!” it croaked out, stuttering from fear. Imps were smart creatures. Minor demons with little magical power, but cunning, and with a silver tongue.
“Good, then tell me. Where are we right now? What continent, what land and under rule of which kingdom.” Erik asked, gripping more tightly onto its arms with each word spoken.
“D-Druvia on the main con-continent!” The imp spitted out, “The-The Whispering w-woods!”
Erik drew closer to its face, growling “Under who’s rule?” The imp looked up at him in confusion, to which he pulled onto its arms once more before asking “Orc? Human? Demon? Who owns Druvia!”
“Both! B-Both! Humans own! Demon kin take half!” The imp quickly responded, fearing for its life if it did otherwise.
“Huh.” Erik dropped his draconic voice, (“So the pitiful humans actually lasted a thousand years against the Devil King’s armies? Would’ve never guessed. Although I guess they did survive me…”). He chuckled, weary and amused.
He returned to the demon, “You’ll show me to the closest human city.” his voice returned to draconic, he ordered the creature.
Who nodded repeatedly, “I shall! I shall! I point great master to near humans!” assuring him frantically.
Erik didn’t believe it, imps had a knack for lies. “You will, else I’ll be killing you.” He said, before moving his left hand over and onto the imp’s neck. It thought he was threatening it…but Erik was only making sure it wouldn’t move about as he grabbed a nearby stone with his right.
Raising it high, before slamming the stone down onto the imp’s left shoulder. Violet blood splattered onto the ashen dirt beneath them, as Erik crushed the creature’s shoulder. Bashing it with the stone over and over, the imp screamed and hissed in agony throughout.
“Those pesky claws of yours will have to go though.” Erik said, before he switched hands and began bashing in the other shoulder. “While I’m at it, the legs too.” He said, moving onto crushing both the hips too.