To cheer him up, David hurriedly explained in great detail to his Dragon Dad, "It's me! I've received the Quantum Dot Ink you developed. The shackles of dragon madness that were locked on our dragon heads are about to be lifted!"
"..." Attilicia remained silent.
Just as David was starting to worry that over twenty years of waiting might have caused some psychological problems for the other dragon, Attilicia, the Silver Dragon father—who had also finally reached adulthood during those thirty-two years—suddenly teared up. At first, the tears were the size of fists, but they gradually became a gushing stream, like water from a dispenser.
"Success... Finally..."
"WAHHH!" Then, he suddenly threw himself onto his Red Dragon son, who had grown a size larger than him, and wailed like a drowning man who, having lost all hope and on the verge of death, suddenly saw a clear blue sky again.
After a good while, David, now soaking in what had become a 'hot spring,' finally managed to soothe his Dragon Dad, Attilicia, who had been on the verge of an emotional breakdown.
Having calmed down, Attilicia seemed to feel somewhat embarrassed about crying like that in front of his son. He silently climbed out of the pit, and then, exhaling cold air, used his mouth to bite at the loosened, burnt Dragon Scales—which had been treated with the Regeneration Spell—and began the extremely rare process of shedding among dragons.
Theoretically, dragons as a species don't need to shed their skin; they only resort to this when their outer layer of scales suffers significant damage.
Initially, David watched the scale shedding with a sense of novelty, but as he continued to watch, he began to feel that something was quite off.
...I should probably get out of here. David felt it might be better for him to leave.
But he didn't manage to get out of the hot spring in time.
"Don't just stand there watching! Come and help me pull this off. A hundred-year-old dragon's hide is tough. We can use it to make a magical silver Dragon Scale breastplate for you and Tania. Remember? The engraving technique of that gang of red-robed bald heads from Toriel."
"Ah..." Hearing this, David suddenly felt as if, in a past life, he had seen some perverts making clothes out of human skin...
The restlessness in his body finally calmed a bit.
He stretched out his tail, like a construction worker peeling off adhesive tape.
SCHLICK!
With a ripping sound, the whole thing was torn off.
The pain made Attilicia's entire dragon body stretch out taut.
It took a good while before he twisted his head and glared at David, only then noticing David's awkward posture and his unusually bright red scales, which appeared extra vibrant from the hot spring soak.
For some reason, Attilicia's mind flashed back to when he was a young dragon on the Skanis coast, seeing Pafila's similarly bright, somewhat eerie, red scales...
The PTSD-like flashback made him reflexively leap up, like a white cat with its front limbs flat on the ground, tail straightened, and mouth wide open, ready to hiss.
However, before a low dragon growl could even emerge from his throat, his whole body suddenly froze.
What am I doing?! The one before me isn't Pafila or any other dragon; it's my own child! Attilicia, his own father, was actually wary of his own son!
A sudden sense of shame surged through him. He pretended as if nothing had happened and returned to the hot spring, saying, "Ahem, I still have unfinished projects with my students in Toriel that need follow-up. It's good to see you're okay. I'll head back first."
The exceptionally vivid scales and the clearly unusual emotional fluctuations all confirmed that his child was most likely entering his mating season...
As a Silver Dragon, I really have no experience with such matters. After all, I hadn't even reached my own mating season before Pafila... dealt with me. I don't quite know how to broach the subject. Pafila managed to endure until adulthood. David, with his strong will, can probably manage too... This sort of thing can wait until he finds a suitable partner.
As Attilicia plunged in, the hot spring, which was still steaming from David being inside it, visibly cooled down and began to freeze at a noticeable speed.
"Where are Tania and the others?" David asked, taking the chance before his father hibernated.
Attilicia lifted his tail and pointed upwards. "After the original plan changed, I had them go back to Evil Scale Fortress for training. They should be with your ancestor Ephelomon by now."
"Got it." David was just about to head to Evil Scale Fortress to settle scores with the Dragon Queen anyway.
"Oh, and remember to pick up the silver Dragon Scale breastplates for yourself and your sister when you return," Attilicia casually reminded him.
Tch, he still hasn't forgotten about that... Finding it hard to refuse this 'fatherly love vest,' David shook his tail without turning back.
It was not until a while after David had flown away that Attilicia, just about to 'return' to Toriel, suddenly broke through the ice layer and stood up.
In the midst of great joy and sorrow, he had forgotten to tell David something extremely important.
It was that, seventeen years ago, the High Elves—who had been steadily infiltrating and settling Skanis on the Old Continent—had already announced the re-establishment of the High Elf Empire there.
But by that time, David had already flown deep into uncharted space and was completely out of contact.
Perhaps for David, it had only been a few naps, but for Attilicia, a full thirty-two years had truly passed.
And to avoid unnecessary draconic casualties, he had already instructed Hiatt to have Nifadora and the others strategically retreat and take refuge on the eastern edge of The Dark Mountains.
I have no idea whether David, upon hearing the news that 'the rear was lost,' will burn with rage, or if he will... blame me, his father, for being incapable.
However, knowing his son, Attilicia thought that David might be enraged, but he wouldn't do anything unwise.
And by the time David reached Evil Scale Fortress, he would probably learn the news from Hiatt...
With these thoughts, their joy from successfully locating the Execution God Star seemed considerably diluted.
「Meanwhile」
David, eager to get away from his Dragon Dad, Attilicia, felt himself becoming 'not quite normal.'
It was as if a fire was burning in his chest.
Everywhere he went, he wanted to spray everything he saw with a couple of breaths of fire.
His lower abdomen was painfully swollen, and only by forcefully expelling some urine could he barely suppress the discomfort and the urge.
As a result, along his journey from the Sixth Hell to Avernus, the territories he marked all the way had drawn the pursuit of Devils.
How could David not know that, having entered his young adult phase, he was most likely in heat?
Even more bizarrely, whenever he saw any circular hole, his mind would automatically conjure images of the Green Dragon Nifadora's trembling buttocks as she used to pass by him, or he would fall into that same crimson dream of the Quintuplet Brides from his past.
And when he shook his head vigorously, trying to clear it—damn it!—he'd find himself already sprawled at the edge of some 'hole.'
The most terrifying incident occurred upon his return to Avernus, the first layer of Hell. After absent-mindedly passing a planar checkpoint, he came to his senses to find his claw already grasping a Succubus who was glaring at him angrily, yet her expression held a hint of reluctant invitation.
The fact that she could call him by name meant she had almost certainly recognized him as the infamous 'Red Dragon' who, thirty years prior, had carved a path of slaughter through a Blood War battlefield and even flooded seven armies.
Judging by the Blood Armor Demon guards who had turned their backs to form a living wall around them, if he accidentally 'slipped in,' he feared he would end up like his Red Dragon ancestor Christoph: married into the 'Glaciya' Succubus family on the spot.
Not even the Dragon Queen could save me then! These Red Dragon hormones are insane! I can't control myself at all! Only now do I finally understand why colossal dragons sowed their seed across the world. Practically everything looks like the dragon of my dreams!
ROARRRR!!!
Wrath
Greed