Chapter 187: Cause and Effect

"I didn't come back specifically to pick you up, but I can take you with me. I am a very powerful Mage, after all," the White Dragon Lord said.

"Ooh! Really?!"

The young brass dragon, Sanibel, instantly perked up as if injected with a stimulant. It threw its head back, wide-eyed, and stared at the White Dragon Lord with desperate anticipation.

The White Dragon Lord proudly puffed out his chest. Channeling his internal magic, he traced a complex, arcane array in the air.

"Of course! I am not just a Mage, I also have exact planar coordinates."

The white dragon wasn't exaggerating in the slightest. As a Level 19 Half-Step Legendary Level Mage in possession of the planar coordinates for the Nordhill Continent, he only needed enough Elemental Crystals and a prepared magic array to take someone away from this plane.

Teleporting away on his own would be simple enough, but taking a hundred or so dragons with him would require an astronomical amount of Elemental Crystals!

Sanibel stared at the profound array of ice-blue magic hovering in the air, its eyes filled with infatuation.

Then, remembering it couldn't cast magic like the white dragon, the young brass dragon instantly wilted.

The White Dragon Lord looked at the dispirited young dragon in complete confusion.

Suddenly, the young brass dragon jerked its head back up, staring at the White Dragon Lord with desperate hope.

The White Dragon Lord stared blankly.

'Little guy! What's with these sudden mood swings?!'

"Ooh! Mighty senior, please take me as your apprentice!"

The White Dragon Lord finally realized what the little fellow was after, but his heart screamed in refusal.

He felt that spending too much time with this kid would definitely drive him insane.

Sure enough, bratty kids were the absolute worst!

"Hmm, this world has no magic elements, so I need to use them sparingly," the White Dragon Lord said, quickly changing the subject. "By the way, what exactly is going on with this world? Where did all the elements go?"

His masterful subject change successfully diverted the young brass dragon's attention.

"Mighty senior, for tens of thousands of years, our Dragon Race and the Titan Race fought endlessly," Sanibel said. "Both sides suffered disastrous casualties. Finally, when neither side could take it anymore five thousand years ago, the two races negotiated and decided to determine the ownership of this plane with one final battle."

The White Dragon Lord frowned. The Titans again.

In Nordhill, the war between the dragons and the Titans had ended long ago in a narrow victory for the Dragon Race.

But in this plane...

The White Dragon Lord looked at the young brass dragon, who practically had 'Hurry up and ask me!' written across its face. Feeling a bit speechless, he decided not to bicker with a child and played along.

"And then what happened?"

Mimicking a weathered tone, the young brass dragon answered with the cadence of a storyteller.

"And then, the battle between the Dragon Race and the Titan Race raged until the stars shifted, until Heaven Collapses and Earth Tears, until the seas dried up and the rocks rotted away..."

The White Dragon Lord's face darkened.

"Stop, stop, stop! Just get to the point," he interrupted. "What was the result, and what does this have to do with the elements disappearing from this world?"

The young brass dragon, Sanibel, licked its lips, looking as though it hadn't quite finished its performance.

"The result was that there were no winners. The tremendous destructive power of magic nearly annihilated the entire Madilan World, shaking its very foundations. To save itself, the will of the plane sealed off the elemental conduits. Both the Dragon Race and the Titans became prisoners here."

From the brass dragon's words, the White Dragon Lord deduced the general situation of this world.

This had originally been a minor plane with an extremely high concentration of magic elements. Neither the Dragon Race nor the Titan Race were willing to give it up, which sparked their war for control of the plane.

But not all worlds were as robust as Nordhill, capable of withstanding a battle of that caliber. To prevent the plane from being reduced to cosmic dust in the void, the will of the plane took the self-mutilating step of sealing off the elemental conduits.

Having grasped the general sequence of events, the White Dragon Lord spoke up.

"And then what happened?"

The young brass dragon shrugged.

"Then, all the dragons capable of leaving did so. Only a few pitiful souls without enough strength remained, lingering in this prison."

The White Dragon Lord didn't know what to say to comfort it. He was reminded of his past life, of the poor in certain oil regions who lacked the money to flee from war.

The young brass dragon continued.

"Even though many dragons and Titans left, far more stayed behind, and the fighting only grew fiercer. In the beginning, our Dragon Race relied on our innate Dragon Breath to beat the Titans so badly that they fled underground."

The White Dragon Lord nodded in agreement. A dragon's Dragon's Breath was a hybrid of magic and biology; although magic elements were involved, they were not strictly necessary.

Even with its power drastically reduced due to the loss of magic, a breath attack was still far superior to anything the Titan Race had.

That was because the Titan Race's Spear of the Titans relied entirely on the elemental forces in nature.

"In the beginning? And then?"

"And then, the Dragon Race reigned supreme over the entire Madilan World. But compared to the vastness of the world, our population was still too small. To better develop this plane, we chose the robust Orc Race to serve as servants to the dragons."

Sanibel slipped right back into the storyteller role.

"But the good times didn't last. The Titan Race that had fled underground used the abundant minerals of the subterranean world to forge massive quantities of Dragon-Hunting Crossbows and launched their revenge."

"And our Dragon Race was defeated just like that?"

"Of course not. We drove our vast armies of servants forward and launched a counterattack, forcing the Titan Race to retreat step by step. As they gradually realized that even tiny creatures could play a massive role, the Titans incited a rebellion among the slaves of the Orcs—the humans."

"The Titans taught the humans how to use weapons, forge tools, and fight. Then, relying on superior weaponry and countless crossbow bolts, the humans defeated the Orcs, and our Dragon Race was driven south of the Mokun Mountain Range."

"Later, the Dragon Race's Council of Elders discovered that the number of True Dragons was decreasing year by year. While part of this was due to natural causes, the attacks from humans and Titans also played a significant role. So, the elders led the Dragon Race in a retreat to the Overseas Dragon Island, where neither the Titans nor the humans could reach us."

"To avoid completely losing our interests on the continent, the Council of Elders decided to dispatch Adult Giant Dragons to the mainland to shelter the Orc Race, preventing them from being exterminated by the humans."

Adult Giant Dragons?!

The White Dragon Lord shot a sidelong glance at the runaway brat and spoke.

"So, you're saying the Titans are the ones calling the shots in this world now?!"

The young brass dragon shook its head.

"No, no, no. The Titans played themselves. They taught the humans far too much. Using the knowledge they learned from the Titans, the humans forged the Giant Slayer. Crossbow bolts pierced the Titans' chests, and raging fires burned their palaces to the ground. The surviving Titans fled back underground, never to set foot on the surface again."