The Vermilion Bird crossed mountains crusted in ice with his enormous wings, then flew over snowy plains threaded with lava and a sea filled with drifting ice.
At last, a white world containing nothing but glaciers unfolded before him.
It was the end of the world.
The starting point of the barrier that divided dimensions.
[Oh… Noble Dragon.]
But what awaited him at the end of the world were beings from beyond the universe, the dragon’s claws that slew them, and the dragon itself, now infinitely close to death.
A curse flowed endlessly from the gaping cavity in the dragon’s chest, splitting like the branches of a tree as it seeped into the earth.
[Who did this to you?]
After helping the claws briefly sweep away the beings from beyond the universe, the Vermilion Bird folded his wings and rested his chin upon the sleeping dragon’s head.
His friend, robbed of a heart, no longer possessed any warmth.
The Vermilion Bird did not care.
He was one who remembered just how noble and devoted this dragon had been.
[Who ruined the duty you devoted yourself to?]
Since the sky first opened and the earth was born, the dragon had never once left this place.
It had sacrificed itself to stop any invaders that might come from beyond.
[Who in the world did this to you…….]
Its scales became a wall.
Its horns became thorns.
Its teeth became gatekeepers.
And its last remaining claws became soldiers.
It had sacrificed its freedom to construct such a barrier, and yet now it lay sleeping with its heart torn away.
How could the price for fulfilling a duty it would have been allowed to refuse be this empty?
[…It could not…