[VRMMO] Dead One

"I’ve went to the Kai’ku’dan clan to ask for the help, in the way of restoring my people’s memories." – said the dragon king of the Wumi clan.

"I went to their territory directly, specifically their main castle, the Dragon Horn city."

"They said that it could be possible to restore the memories of my people with maybe an artifact called [Crying Newborn], a somewhat demonic and holy artifact in origin with posses a power of cleansing negative effects in large area."

"The Kai’ku’dan clan didn’t really hesitated to lend me that artifact, since they would also want to find out the truth."

"However, something weird happened when I visited their treasure vault in order to secure the artifact."

"I couldn’t smell it."

"It was an artifact that was confiscated from the church of the heavenly dragon after its branch was exterminated."

"I remember that fucking artifact and its foul smell."

"But when I went there? I couldn’t smell that artifact at all."

"Something wasn’t right."

"Because the vault I visited was the value where the Kai’ku’dan clan keeps all of their confiscated and dangerous artifacts for the safe keeping."

"The [Crying Newborn] was originally artifact used by the mad dragon tribe to spread around corruption to drive the dragons mad."

"However, thanks to the adventurers, we found out about their conspiracy and stopped the mad dragons from spreading their own madness around."

"Didn’t you said the artifact had ability to purify people and things though?" – asked Oron.

"Yes, I did." – said the dragon king.

"But to be more precise, this artifacts absorbs the negative effects and turn it into the ammunition."

"They were planned on corrupting the artifact with madness as it was being loaded with ammunition, before then shooting it around."

"The artifact was purified, but it was just in case kept in the Kai’ku’dan clan’s hands for the safe keeping, since there was no telling what it could had been used for."

"But anyway, both of the artifacts I’ve told you about were stored in that secure vault."

"I remember the smell and how the artifact of the heavenly dragon church was."

"[The Glory Of The Heavenly Dragon]."

"I was there when the artifact was recovered and confiscated."

"Heck, I was helping out in searching for it."

"While nobody was looking around, I’ve looked up the list of the artifacts that was stored inside of the vault, asking if maybe there could had been an artifact of the similar power that brainwashed our people, saying stuff that maybe we could get a lead or something like that."

"Honestly speaking, I normally would had asked outright about where was the artifact... But then I remember one thing."

"The culprit could had been other clan."

"That is why I’ve asked for the list just in case... And I was right."

"The records of the artifact were gone."

"That is where I come into the play as well." – said the dragon queen of the Wo’won clan.

"This guy told me about the missing artifact and truth to be told, this artifact was heavily sealed up, so there was no way it could had been moved without Kai’ku’dan clan noticing or without other clan’s permission."

"He asked me if I gave permission regarding the artifact transfer."

"?"

"Permission?" - asked Oron.

"This artifact cannot be easily moved around, since it is just that dangerous." – said the dragon queen.

"This artifact, the [The Glory Of The Heavenly Dragon], it is artifact of corruption."

"Simple put, it infects dragons and turn them into pseudo angel dragons."

"The heavenly dragon planned on using that artifact on turning the whole dragon empire into his very own empire."

"..."

"Let me guess." – said Oron.

"The artifact also had some kind of mind controlling effect?"

"Yes." – replied the dragon queen.

"Then why didn’t you destroyed it?" – asked Oron.

"It is stupid to keep around the artifact of mass corruption like that."

"..."

"Honestly, we did tried destroying the artifact." – said dragon queen.

"But there was a problem."

"The artifact was overcharged with energy of corruption that the heavenly dragon left behind."

"Pretty much, if we would try to destroy the artifact, it could either explode or create a portal for the heavenly dragon to use."

"Obviously we had ways of dealing with both."

"But... Well, we wanted to use that artifact ourselves."

"Simple put, we wanted to turn it into the weapon against the heavenly dragon."

"We wanted him to swallow his own poison in case he tries ever again lift his finger against our empire."

"However, then rift between clans started spreading and what not, resulting in the project being halted unfortunately."

"After I’ve heard about that the artifact had went missing, we connected the dots with the fallen angel dragon."

"Okay, but that still doesn’t connect it with the heavenly dragon though." – said Oron.

"Actually, it does." – said dragon queen.

"That artifact can only be used by the beings who share the direct blood connection with the heavenly dragon."

"Meaning his real children and their grandchildren."

"This artifact requites the god of angel dragon’s blood, or the blood of his children."

"And that means, that the fallen angel dragon that we had spotted, must be without doubt related if not be themselves the direct descended of the angel dragon god."

"..."

"Still, again, can you confirm IT?!" – asked Oron.

"We already established that this guy is a proper scum, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he was hypocrite who would work with the demons if he has to."

"I think he would straight up slaughter his own children if they ever became fallen... But then again, considering what kind of being he is, would it really surprise anybody if he himself corrupted his children?"

"He could had made it look like it wasn’t his doing and what not?"

"..."

"You seems to know a lot about that dragon god." – said dragon queen.

"..."

"But still, you are right." – said dragon queen.

"But at the same time, you are wrong."

"As of right now, there are no demonic dragon gods in the hell."

"It need the blood and divinity of the dragon god stored within to use that artifact."

"In other words, it is physical impossible to use that artifact unless you are dragon yourself and extremely powerful one at that, while also being a being of divine origin."

"Only the heavenly dragon falls in that criteria."

"He may had lost his position as one of the greater gods, but he is still powerful and ancient being."

"..."

"Hm..."

(Honestly speaking, their entire story feels like extremely stretched out bullshit that was made up on the spot.) – thought Oron.

(Still... Some of the parts of their stories do somewhat check out.)

(I would need to confirm some things....)

"..."

(Not only that, there is also my own theory.)

(The enemy is already somewhat strong enough, but not strong enough to take on the empire.)

(They would need to weaken the entire empire, but even so, even the strongest clan alone wouldn’t be able to take on all divided dragon clans.)

(Unless they would have some kind of secret weapon.)

(And if that story is true... Then that means their secret weapon is that artifact of corruption.)

(Still, I didn’t heard anybody about that artifact before... They must had kept information about it a secret, because it was just THAT dangerous.)

"..."

(What do I do?)

(Honestly speaking, their whole story could be true.)

(But then again, this begs another question.)

"Why the hell did you made your own investigation? Or more exactly, when did you realized that something was off?" – asked Oron.

"Dear, you shouldn’t be looking down on me." – said the dragon queen.

"I have ears and eyes everywhere throughout the whole empire."

"And once one of my people caught once in their sight that woman, I instantly realized that something wasn’t right."

"..."

(She just revealed the fact that she has her agents spread throughout the whole empire... Just like that?) – thought Oron.

(It is saying same thing as "I’m spying on all of the clans".)

(If anybody heard that, her clan’s whole reputation would had taken somewhat critical hit.)

(And yet... Here she is, revealing it to me?)

"But why?" – asked Oron.

"Why were you having your agents everywhere?"

"Are you fucking with me now, boy?" – asked dragon queen.

"Do you really think I’m not foolish enough to see how things are turning more and more chaotic each day?"

"It honestly matter of time before something big happens."

"And I wanted to know what and where."

"Simply put, I knew that the disaster would struck sooner or later, with our empire current state of being."

"..."

(Proper answer. I would had done the same thing.) – thought Oron.

"Fine." – said Oron.

"You win."

"I will tell you what I know and what I’ve found out."

"Oh? That means you trust us?" – asked the dragon queen.

"Fuck no." – replied Oron.

"You are still suspicious as fuck and you know it."

"But so am I, in your eyes."

"But based on the current circumnutates, we really have no choice but to bite it, if we want to suck out any juicy information from each other."

"Don’t you agree?"