Last Egg: Reincarnated as a Dragon in a Game

495  In The Void

As Vesuvius stood guard, the darkness around the black dragon silhouette didn't just sway—it pulsated, writhing like serpents. He poured more mana into the barrier and domain around him, reinforcing it against the encroaching void.

His voice, laced with pride, sliced through the oppressive silence. "Are you a void walker?"

Even with his caution, his voice brimmed with absolute pride and confidence, not betraying his inner turmoil as he refused to show any sign of weakness that was unfitting of a dragon.

The black silhouette slightly shifted its neck, and Vesuviuse's eyes were trying to discern the truth behind the doppelganger. A hypothesis immediately formed in his mind.

'How should the form of nothingness look? They probably don't even have their form, as they are nothing and are only imitating the existing form around, that's me.' At last, the silhouette responded. "Am I? I am. Wish to join us?" The voice that emanated from the darkness was soft, almost inviting, and devoid of malice. It was a question posed with a peculiar, unsettling patience and disinterest.

'Living in the void where there is nothing to do, without any gold in sight? Thanks but no.' Vesuvius snicked in his mind, and replied with a diplomatic calm, "No, thank you." Even as the dialogue unfolded, Vesuvius's senses remained razor-sharp and his mind vigilant. He probed the surrounding darkness, searching for any sign of magic, any ripple of power that might reveal the true power of the void walker. Frustratingly, the void offered nothing, a perfect vacuum that absorbed and never returned any of his probings.

"Pitty. Are you just passing by like that angel, or are you staying?"

The question hung in the air, laden with implications. Vesuvius's mind raced as he analyzed them, 'An angel? What dealings could they have with such creatures? ' The notion tightened the coils of tension within him, but then he dismissed it, 'No, it speaks of a single, specific angel that passed through. They aren't allies with them.'

"Neither; I am merely a messenger." His reply was steady, but inside, Vesuvius was a tempest of doubt and caution.

The being's sigh resonated through the void, a sound too human, too filled with an eerie semblance of sorrow. "Hmm, that is pitiful. It is lonely and empty here. We have only sleep here, endless sleep."

Their words, dripping with a melancholic resignation, began to erode Vesuvius's defenses. The voidwalker's tone, devoid of the zealotry of angels or the deceit of demons, seemed almost...relatable.

However, questions still burned in his mind: 'Why did the gods caution against them? Why was that mad god saying we would get stung too? There must be something wrong with them.'

Then, without warning, the atmosphere cracked like thin ice underfoot. "Uhh? Is that an invitation?" The pair of empty, eyes turned black like the surrounding void as they stared at the pulsing gem of darkness beside the dragon.

The tendrils, previously slowly swaying around the dark silhouette, now surged with a horrifying speed, reaching for the gem.

As the void's tendrils crossed the border of his domain, reality, and the void clashed. The energy and matter of his domain began to vanish, eaten away by the void's insatiable hunger, while the mana washed away the void, the tendrils growing thinner and thinner, the deeper they reached.

 "Can we leave the v—id? Can — f—ed the mother? M—r sleeps; maybe if we feed —, she will — up." The voice, now broken and distorted, was filled with a desperate, twisted longing.

Surrounded by the multiplying detail-absent black silhouettes emerging from the void—dragons, winged angels, and horned demons, each a dark mirror of the beings they imitated—Vesuvius grabbed upon the divine energy coursing through his body.

As the swarms of black, inky tendrils reached for the gem, like roots of plants reaching toward a source of water, eroding his domain along their path unleashed a torrent of divine energy into his domain on instinct.

Golden flames, lightning, comets, ice, sand, ash, stone, glittering metal, plasma, and stellar matter, erupted amidst the encroaching darkness in a chaotic, cosmic storm that clashed with the power of the void.

The void's tendrils recoiled as the two forces collided, annihilating each other in a blinding explosion that left Vesuvius gasping. Both the void tentacles and divine energy were gone, leaving only the silent domain surrounded by the endless void.

'They annihilated and erased each other...'

Silence fell, oppressive and thick. The dark silhouettes froze, their gaze upon Vesuvius void of emotion, lacking any signs of anger.

'Ohh no...' The longer he stood there, the more sure he was that what would happen wouldn't end well. The thought of unleashing some eldritch, shapeshifting, monsters upon the world made him regret taking on the god's request.

'I should have taken the longer path! That spell wasn't worth this trouble.' He could already feel the potential future beaches they would give him.

As the dragon's entire body radiated with an overwhelming surge of mana and divine energy, his star-like body searched for any intrusion into his domain. However, the silhouettes retreated, their tentacles not entering his domain.

"Isn't that for us? Give it to us. There isn't any reason to fight. We apologize for eroding your energy. We were too...hasty...impatient." The voices from the darkness, once more calm, resounded from every single direction in a chorus of whispers.

'Well, they are right... We were both hasty. I was supposed to give it to them anyway. Whatever, what is another group of monsters thrown into the mix? Lorenia is already fucked up.' Even though he felt a bit hesitant, Vesuvius felt that with his upcoming boost in power, everything would work out.

With a heavy heart, he nudged the gem towards the void with his massive claw, like a giant poking a tiny ant, propelling it out of his domain. The black gem vanished in the black emptiness. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Simultaneously, draft washed over the dragon, and a black crack in the void opened above him—the path back to where he came from.