The next thing that happened was incredible, and Damian was not expecting it! Hymot turned into a tiny dragon form, but not like an alive dragon, but more like a spirit.

She flew toward Damian's body, entering inside his chest! Damian felt a weird sensation, something he had never witnessed.

'What's happening?'

Damian heard from her something about merging, but he did not know it was literal.

'Can you hear me, Damian?' a female voice echoed inside his mind, one that Damian knew.

'Hymot? Yes, I can. What's happening?'

'For now, I will have to remain inside your body to fully recover, but soon I'll be able to leave,' she said.

After that, Damian did not hear her voice anymore, only a few words. 'I need to rest.'

She was still weak, therefore, time was needed for her to fully heal. Damian understood that, and despite feeling a little weird about having a dragon spirit inside of him, he tried to not think about it.

"Is she okay?" the old dragon asked the moment Damian left the training room.

Damian hoped the dragon did not hear the things they yelled inside the training room during their sex, but seeing how concerned the dragon was, he must have no heard it.

"She's fine. Hymot and I merged, and she is resting for now."

"Good, good. Now, we need to leave this place. Do you have any idea where to go?" the old dragon asked.

Damian shrugged his shoulders. "You are the one living here. Why should I be the one with that information?"

"Ehhh."

They needed to find a way out, but before doing that, Damian and the old dragon took everything of value from the dragon king's secret room, the books, and a sword Damian found.

'This sword looks cool, but old.'

A rusty sword, Damian could no longer see the original color, but the handle looked like a dragon's mouth, so it looked cool. Damian took it even if the sword turned out to be useless.

'I can take this rustiness away and use the sword as decoration or something.'

There was another door, one Damian and the old dragon had yet to open, and what was behind was unknown to them.

"Should we open it? What if there're traps or something?" the old dragon asked.

Damian already knew that geezer's personality, and he was like a scared mouse.

"It's probably safer than outside with that many specters flying around, right?"

"You're right."

They pushed the double door, and out of the many things they needed, the one behind that door was the most precious.

"A portal! It must be the way out of this place!" Damian said.

"Who goes first?" the old dragon asked.

"I go. Damn it, you are a freaking dragon, yet so scared?"

Damian had no way of forcing the dragon to test the portal first — he was too scared to go, so Damian had to. And so he did, walking toward the portal and hoping for the best.

He passed through the portal, and what awaited him on the other side was an unfamiliar cave, but the feeling Damian had there reminded him of the dungeon, so he guessed it was inside one of its levels.

"Come, old man!"

The old dragon passed through the portal after he was certain it was safe.

"What's your name, by the way?" Damian asked.

They had been traveling together for some time, and the dragon had saved them back inside the royal library, yet Damian did not know its name.

"I don't remember anymore. I lost almost all of my memories and my strength…"

"I'll name you. Let me see… Frederic."

"Frederic? Where did you get that name?"

"I don't know. It just feels like the name an old dragon with thousands of years would have."

"…"

Frederic had no choosing in it, and that was his name. Despite the initial denial, he liked the name. It was way better than not having one, right? That was the start of his new identity, and his new life in an unknown world.

Damian could not even start thinking of how to explain Frederic to the technologies like the Internet, laptops, cars, and so on.

'I will leave that to Vanessa…'

They looked around, trying to find anything that would help them know where they were, yet it looked just like an ordinary cave, nothing special about it.

Way different from the cave where Hymot was, which was at the top of a snowy mountain, and there were strange crystals inside. That one Damian and Frederic went after passing through the portal? Only rocks, bats, and bugs.

"What's this sound? Water?" Frederic said.

"I'm not hearing it. Even a deaf dragon has a better hearing than me…"

"Deaf? Who's deaf? Deaf my ass!"

Damian and Frederic kept moving toward the water sound. Frederic went first as he was the one hearing it — and after a few minutes, they saw the source of the noise.

"A waterfall! A cave behind a waterfall, yet no one found this place? No way."

It was the most generic way of hiding something, and no one found it. Damian couldn't understand it.

"What level of the dungeon do you think we are in?" Frederic asked, as he knew Damian had more knowledge of it than him.

"No idea. We will have to find a human settlement or any other race that does not attack us and ask. Let's go."

Damian activated his Telekineses, making not only him but Frederic fly, too! It felt good to finally do that again — the city of dragons restricted his flight.

They passed through the waterfall, wetting their clothes, but there was no other way around it, so both just accepted their fates.

A forest, one with thick trees, as high as buildings. Damian liked the atmosphere of the place, the fireflies flying around, the moss, and the sound of the forest. It was a peaceful place.

"I like it here. It feels safe, so why no one found that portal?" Damian said.

Frederic was about to answer when many people appeared from the trees, some aiming their bows from the top of the trees. Others had jumped and were on the ground.

"Stop right there!"

The people who appeared out of nowhere had green clothes, and most of them had blond hair. What instantly caught Damian's attention was their pointed ears, and he instantly knew who they were.

eαglesnᴏνel 'Elves!'

It turned out that the cave they appeared in was in fact inside an elven forest, and that was the reason no one found the place: elves hated outsiders who entered their land without an invitation.

"Calm down, we appeared here by teleportation. We are not enemies!" Damian said.

"Bullshit. There's no way you can teleport to this place. This is a sacred forest, therefore all teleports are locked!" one elf said.

Damian knew it would be impossible to reason with them without proof — but he couldn't show them the portal. The dragon city was not a place for everyone to know its location.

So what could he do? Fly away? That thought crossed his mind, and sure as hell crossed Frederic's mind too, but it wouldn't work. The elves surely had a top security all around the forest, and Damian did not even know what direction to choose.

Also, flying away would make them look suspicious — more than they were already.

"Take us to your leader. We are not enemies," Damian said, placing his hands up high.

Damian descended from the sky, followed by Frederic, who was being controlled by him, so he had no option but to accept it.

"Tie them."

One elf went close to Damian and used a handcuff, one that was made of special vines, and it was so powerful Damian would have to use a lot of strength and time to break it.

The elves kept aiming their weapons at them, and that lasted the entire way back to their village, which was near to that area where they found Damian.

Their village looked exactly how Damian pictured it: houses on top of the massive trees, bridges connecting the houses, fireflies everywhere and other animals, as well as a crystal clear river with frogs jumping around it, some moss, and Victoria plants.

It looked like it came straight from a book, but despite the magical and peaceful feeling the place brought, that was not what Damian and Frederic felt at that moment.

All the elves were staring at them, and outsiders were a rare occasion — no one dared to enter the elven forest — so Damian was feeling tense, not knowing what to expect.

Of course, if things went to shit, he would use all of his power to leave that place with his life, but he hoped that the elven leader would be merciful.

"Be respectful. We will meet the Queen now!" one guard said, pushing Damian and Frederic toward the biggest and most well-designed building in the village.

The first thing Damian saw when they opened the door was a gorgeous elf, staring at them with lovely eyes.

'She's a goddess!'