The bold declaration of the dragon who sacrificed himself for his own ideals and comrades shook Karna to his core. Before coming here, he had believed that he might be facing an old curse or perhaps a random dragon trying to take over Laxus—one that was making him take foolish decisions that could have ended his life.
But right now, Karna was able to see the dragon for who he truly was: a true king who did not wait around while others placed their hopes in the future but did his best to aid those who acted.
Karna then felt the modified Milky Way spell activate within him.
"Guess it didn't take that long, huh," he thought as he saw five mountains appear adjacent to the thunder dragon mountain that had stood before him earlier.
The spell, Modified Milky Way, also had the effect of connecting to other dragons in their soul form. And since he had not specified which dragon he wanted to see when he used it, the magic had connected to the soul realm that hosted the dragons collectively, making them appear before Raijin.
For a moment, there was stunned silence as the dragons took in the presence of another dragon within their soul realm—they had never expected another to appear. And when they saw who it was, they were even more stunned, as it was an acquaintance they thought they had lost years ago.
The first to break the silence was Igneel.
"Raijin, you bastard, how the hell are you still alive in this era?!"
"Hahaha! Unlike you bastards who took a shortcut using that Eclipse Gate, I survived even as a soul inside a Lacrima all these years, you bastards!" the thunder dragon roared back, excitement filling his voice.
"I never thought I would meet you again, Lord of Thunder," Grandine greeted him respectfully.
"It is a pleasure to meet you again as well, Maiden of the Sky. If not for your creativity in spell creation, we might not have met today after so long," Raijin responded warmly.
Seeing that one of them is the Sky Dragon and the other controls thunder in the sky, I guess it's pretty normal that they're friends, Karna thought.
For a moment, Karna felt like a third wheel as the group started reminiscing about their lives. But since it had been centuries since Raijin had met the others, he decided not to interfere and let them have their fun.
After 2 hours.
Karna knew these dragons hadn't seen each other in a long time, but he hadn't expected them to talk this much. And the useful information among it was nil, as most of the discussion involved politics—something Karna had always tried to avoid in the Fiore Council unless absolutely necessary. He felt like digging a hole into the mountain he was sitting on and burying himself in it.
The main problem was that Karna couldn't exit the soul dimension. Grandine hadn't taught him how to do it, and he couldn't exit by cutting off his magic energy either. After entering the dimension, his magic had been cut off, as the realm was powered by the souls of the dragons presiding within it.
So he had to endure the discussions the entire time. But thankfully, they were coming to an end, and he was finally able to hear what had happened to the Thunder Dragon in the end.
"So here I am, destroyed by that asshole dragon—trying to make sure he was distracted enough not to notice the fluctuation of the massive magical energy your Eclipse Gate released when you travelled," Raijin started, complaining about a comrade who had helped him. "Do you know what happened? That ice dragon tried to explode himself to trap the Apocalypse Dragon for a few years. From what I know, he was trying to mimic that Iced Shell spell those human Maker Magic people use."
Karna was intrigued by the mention of an ice dragon that had existed during those times. If that dragon had taken part in the battle against Acnologia, chances were he was also a king dragon—or at least close to that level.
"Who was the ice dragon?" Karna decided to voice his thoughts this time.
"Oh wow, didn't know you were still here, kid," Raijin replied. The words almost made Karna want to jump up and beat the crap out of him, but he calmed himself.
"Ah, well, his name was Frostborn. He was actually a special dragon who was born naturally from a high concentration of ice magic donated by dozens of snow and ice dragons. Before him, the other dragons included ice and snow magic, but he was special—he embodied the power of coldness itself," Raijin sighed, and the others also seemed a bit saddened.
"The truth is, the kid wasn't even a century old when he fought by my side. With the lifespan of us dragons, the kid hadn't even reached puberty at that time. But he had a good heart and wasn't ready to escape to the future while the dragons that gave rise to him died in his place. So he fought the battle. And at the end of it, seeing that both of us were going to die, he decided to sacrifice himself to save me. Stupid idiot. He should've saved himself," Raijin said, his voice full of sorrow and anger.
"Frostborn actually had the potential to be the strongest Dragon King—even surpassing Igneel," Grandine said from the side, and even Igneel seemed to agree. "Plus, we were all glad that he had such a naturally kind nature, one that made him protect both humans and dragons he considered comrades. If nothing had happened—if he had hidden—he would've easily grown strong enough to stop Acnologia in time. But he didn't want to hide while his comrades died."
The dragons were silent as they reflected. Even Karna said nothing—he had never imagined hearing about someone like that, especially since it had never been mentioned in the original story.
Jason had told him that this world would be an AU, but for Karna, it felt more realistic now—and the differences were formed because of each unique individual within it. The world was not different because of added characters, it was different because now he was seeing everything with his eyes while living in it instead of seeing only a part of it from an author's perspective.
"What happened in that battle in the end?" Karna asked.
A/N- hope you like it and every 100 powerstone gets extra chapter of Jason.