Dragon Genesis: I Can Create Dragons - Chapter 418: Please, call me Kael.
Chapter 418: Please, call me Kael.
“As I said, once given enough time, my Ants will be able to produce enough food that the Velmourns wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.”
Imperia answered confidently.
Kael exchanged a quick glance with Lavinia; their shock was clear. Imperia’s confident words echoed in their heads; they even forgot to blink at the otherworldly sight in front of them.
“This is… good.”
Lavinia spoke in a low voice, a small smile appearing on her face as endless possibilities started playing in her mind.
Kael nodded at her words.
Imperia, on the other hand—
“Let’s move forward.”
She patted Kael’s head, wanting him to continue their exploration.
“O-Okay.”
Kael nodded and moved forward.
At the next passage, the ground trembled faintly. Brimback Ants stood in rows, massive as boulders, their shells ridged and glowing faintly with inner heat. Steam curled from their resin-coated bodies, and Kael felt the warmth spill across the tunnel.
“As mentioned before, these guard every entrance,”
Imperia began.
“No beast, no storm, no enemy soldier can come in if they do not want them to enter. Their bodies are walls, their resin becomes gates.
And of course—
It isn’t just about defense…”
The Ant spoke as she looked up.
Kael and Lavinia followed her gaze and, in the shadows above, Crybleed Ants crawled silently across the walls, their pale bodies blending with the ice. Their fangs glowed with frost, dripping venom that steamed against the stone.
“These are my hunters,”
Imperia said.
“They will stalk whatever threatens us. Beasts, men, or worse. While the Brimbacks defend, they will pile on the enemy and kill them slowly, turning them into their food.”
Imperia then waved one of her limbs and suddenly, another ant appeared before them.
The Hallowtracer.
Its movements were ghostlike, its glowing eyes blinking in and out. If it weren’t for Imperia calling it, both Kael and Lavinia would have missed it.
“They are the unseen.
They map this entire place, constantly giving me all the information I need to know; they can also sense danger and mark every path.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that they are the first line of defense before the Brimbacks and the Crybleeds; after all, nothing can get close to the Empire without them knowing about it.”
Imperia spoke proudly.
And Kael…
He just smiled in disbelief.
“It… it is a complete Empire.
A perfectly functioning Empire that grew food, mined riches, built defenses, hunted threats, and scouted dangers all at once.”
“An Empire beneath the snow…”
Lavinia commented in a low voice, her purple eyes reflecting the faint lights of the colony.
Honestly, while Imperia did say all of this was possible, hearing and seeing it with their own eyes was completely different. Even though Kael had almost blind trust in his daughter, seeing all this built within a week was… far out of his expectation.
Seeing her father’s reaction, Imperia nodded to herself, satisfied.
There was a reason she never once told him anything about how things were going here; she wanted her Father to see everything himself and make this face he was making right now.
It was worth every instruction she passed to her ants to make things how she wanted them.
In the end, Imperia, with her being now filled with pride and satisfaction, glanced at her Father and—
“Now, how much food do you need, Father?”
At that question, Kael turned towards Lavinia. The woman was still busy looking around; as a mage, seeing such an otherworldly sight made something inside her stir. She wanted to study it all and get inspiration to do something similar.
Of course, her excitement didn’t mean she forgot what she came here for. When both Kael and Imperia turned towards her, the Mage nodded and—
“We cannot come to this place every single day, so give us everything the thirty farms have produced so far. My Sanctuary is empty, so I will be able to store everything in there.”
“I will have it all prepared.”
Imperia nodded.
The group then continued the exploration.
This was one of the biggest mountains in the region—it was about 7,000 meters tall, and its base area was about 350 square kilometres—yes, the place was huge.
The Ants here had tons of space to do whatever they desired; of course, because of the lack of time, more than 60% of the space was still not covered, but even then, the Colony was already the size of a small city.
Along with more than five hundred farms that were each already as large as a football field, there were about fifty mines where the Deepmaws stayed and mined minerals to fill their bellies, different areas designed for different types of Ants, huge ones for the Brimbacks, Hunting Corridors for the Crybleeds, Tunnels for the Hallowtracers. There were also Incubation Chambers for each Ant Queen, each storing thousands of future Ant Eggs.
If Kael and Lavinia actually wanted to explore the entire place, it would take 3 to 4 days to do it; they were obviously in no position to do that, but still, Imperia wanted to show them the main things, to which both of them agreed readily.
The exploration took a few hours; by the time it ended, the Mornmelts had already packed the food for Lavinia to store it all in her Sanctuary.
“Should we leave?”
The Mage questioned when she was done. After hours of exploration, she had finally spared Kael and started walking on her own.
“Mhm, move forward.”
Imperia nodded at her words and pointed in a direction, something that made Lavinia frown.
“This isn’t where we came from…”
The Mage spoke in a low voice and the Ant laughed,
“There are more than a hundred entrances and exits in this colony, Lavinia. If we try to return from where we came, it would take us hours to get back there.”
“Right…”
Lavinia decided it was better to stay silent and follow Imperia’s instructions.
After about a 10-minute walk, the group finally reached the exit guarded by two Brimbacks.
When the Brimbacks noticed their Mother, they bowed lightly. Imperia nodded before she tucked herself inside Kael’s pocket and—
“Be prepared.”
She spoke.
“What do you mean…?”
Lavinia frowned, but instead of saying anything, Imperia gave the signal and the Brimbacks moved away, opening the exit, and in an instant—
The horrifyingly cold winds slapped their faces. Even though Kael didn’t feel very cold, the change from the comfortable warmth to the sudden strong storm was quite uncomfortable; even keeping his eyes open in the frosty storm seemed like a task.
He quickly extended his arm towards Lavinia; the Mage slowly walked towards him and once again hugged him like before, feeling his body heat.
Kael stepped out of the colony into the complete storm, the Brimbacks inside bowed as they sealed the gates again and, in the end, Kael jumped in the air.
It was time to return.
…
By the time Kael and Lavinia returned to the mainland, it was already dark, but their work wasn’t yet over.
“Where to now?”
Kael questioned as Lavinia climbed down from his back. The Mage looked around; the snow had finally stopped, the temperature here seemed much less harsh than in the mountains, so for a moment, she took a deep breath.
Then, she glanced at Kael and nodded silently.
Kael understood what she wanted and nodded back. The two of them walked towards a comparatively outer region of the area and knocked at one of the houses there.
“Coming.”
An old, crisp, and exhausted voice was heard, followed by slow footsteps. Both Kael and Lavinia waited patiently. After about a minute, the door opened, and Kael greeted the woman with a gentle smile on his face.
“Grandma Maela.”
“Dragon God…?”
Maela blinked in surprise.
“Please, call me Kael.
God is too grand of a word for a human like me.”
Kael answered with the same smile. Maela, however, shook her head,
“To us, your actions are no different than a God’s, Dragon God.”
Kael opened his mouth, wanting to say something but—
“Please let us have this.”
Before he could say anything, Maela interrupted.
“It is the nature of people to want to believe in something, especially so when they are in a situation like ours. Believing that the very God lives with us gives power to more people than you would think.”
Old Maela then looked into Kael’s eyes and—
“I do not know whether you are truly a God or not, what I do know is that people who believe you are one have become braver.
They are no longer people who just survive because they do not wish to die, they now look forward to living. In their hearts, they now truly believe that their situation will get better.
They… look forward to living now.
And that is something we Velmourns desperately need.
Do not take it away from us.”
Kael stared into Old Maela’s eyes, her words echoing in his mind.
For a moment, everyone turned silent. Kael continued to think about Maela’s words, while Maela just stared at her ’God’.
And then—
“I give up. You can believe what you want to believe in.”
Kael chuckled softly.
Maela smiled back but then—
“However, since you now believe I am a God, you need to realize that I am the embodiment of perfection. Because of that, I cannot have an Elder calling me God, that will be too arrogant.
Please, call me Kael.”
“…if you cannot have an Elder calling you a God, how can I, a normal human, call a God by his name?”
Old Maela questioned back, but Kael just shrugged with a light laugh,
“Humans are bound to make mistakes, aren’t they?
You are not the embodiment of perfection, you simply need to do what your God tells you to.”
Maela laughed. Then, with a slightly exhausted sigh, she nodded her head.
“I will call you Lord Kael then,”
She spoke.
“Still better than Dragon God.”
Kael smiled and finally, Maela asked the question she had been meaning to ask for a long while.
“So why are you here, Lord Kael?”
Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com
