For beings who live in eternity, a moment is fleeting.
It was only towards the end of the battle, when something akin to calm had finally settled, that she realized the adopted daughter she had raised now harbored hatred towards her birth mother for being unable to contain her emotions and fleeing.
"With such power, you could have simply fled."
Yet, the battle was relentlessly brutal until the very end.
"The race you sought to protect is one that doesn't need saving. They are fools, tired of living, who, by merely disappearing, believe themselves to be the rulers of this world—a foolish and arrogant race!"
In the end, the so-called hero gasped for air, having exhausted most of her innate power by burning her entire physical being.
Even the remaining strength was more than enough to annihilate humans.
Even if not all were killed, crumbling their proud civilization would plunge them into despair, never to rise again.
"Do you think they will be grateful to you for protecting them?"
She resented her own daughter for obstructing this.
The one who caused confusion and stood in her way, sword drawn.
Those she sought to protect began to seem as despicable as her daughter.
"Those selfish ones who gave you nothing but the title of a hero and eagerly await your killing me... do you truly believe they are worth protecting to this extent?"
She pleaded for her to step back.
In a cry filled with desperation for the first time, the hero answered.
"I believe it is. Because I, raised by such a being, am the same as them."
Despite appearing to crumble at any moment, her gaze still held strength.
She did not hesitate to assert her beliefs.
"I realized they have dignity, beliefs, and lives. Despite fighting due to different thoughts, humans are capable of understanding such differences."
"All of that is meaningless to me."
"But I thought you were no different from them."
It wasn't the last of her fighting spirit but her sympathy that halted her advance.
"...What do you mean?"
"I felt love from you, just like the people who took me in and raised me afterward..."
Having lived in emptiness, she tried to comprehend the clumsiness of her last whim through a human who had grown close to her.
"...The reason I fled back then was just because I was clumsy and immature. Even after living for ten thousand years, it was my first time raising a child."
Hatred towards the mother who abandoned her was also a first.
In the place where the last flames of her life had risen, what remained was understanding and forgiveness towards her.
"As a human, I believe I understand you."
The fallen dragon merely listened to those words.
"Maybe one day, you... the humans you've trampled on... will understand you too."
Even though her lifespan had reached its limit and she was only days away from burning her last flame.
She felt her mind engulfed by the words of the only human who could restrain that impulse and stand in her way.
YOU ARE READING
I Became a Foreign Worker Loved by Transcendents
Action[the i do not own and fanfic that is heavily inspired by the original work][Author(s)글로벌레[dark fantasy] Description [Unique Trait - Those you meet will remember you. No matter what happens, they will remember you forever.] In a world on the brink of...
