[Roughly 100 years later]
A lot had happened in this time but 1 word could be used to summarize the entire century that would later on be named as the [Lifeless Century]. And that word is…
All across the World, all types of factions waged war against each other for authority over the territories and treasures.
The time for banding together with your species and allying with others had passed. There were Kings, Chiefs and Clan Head’s everywhere. Now was the time to monopolize territories and increase their strength.
The neighbouring territory was already occupied by others? No matter, kill them all!
But how could the other side just patiently wait for death with smiles on their face? Were they sheep? NO! Even the sheep would run you down if you dared to cross them, talk less of the vast majority of predating species.
And so they fought back with no hesitation!
Both sides would ferociously attack each other with zero regards for life, not letting the other side go unless they ran far away. After all what they wanted was territory, they weren’t specifically targeting lives, just the obstacles to their goals… which just so happened to be lives.
Unfortunately, most of the species on the planet had no understanding of morals and as a result, they had no qualms about reckless murder. In fact, they considered it a glory to kill for their respective factions, most even being rewarded for it.
The rewards were mainly things like food and essence-rich treasures. Unlike other Worlds, Women were not treated like objects to be gifted or used by the leader anyhow he wanted (If the leader was even a male in the first place).
Although females were indeed weaker physically, cultivation existed and so the difference in strength was vanquished.
Every other World was naturally a Low World once upon a time and that’s when the residents developed customs of objectifying or being overprotective of Women. No matter how much a World evolved after that, the instincts of Man to Woman were already there and they would not change. Only the way in which they achieved their goals changed. For example, it was now impossible to demand a Woman to serve you or carry your babies, you would just get a hot slap. You would have to go through the process of ‘courting’ and sometimes marriage.
But things would be different in Eridel’s World which could be considered to have been a Mid World from the beginning. There was true equality and it was interesting to see how mannerisms in a Man to Woman relationship would progress.
Well, there was actually one race that still had the Male hegemony mindset and it was the Dragon race, the last race on the Planet before Eridel’s arrival.
Speaking of the Dragon Race…
There were now 2 of them. The Western Dragons (aka True Dragons) and the Eastern Dragons (aka Divine Dragons). And you would do well not to get them mixed up.
This was something that happened around 90 years ago.
As previously mentioned, the Snake Clan had been exploring the rest of the continent, sometimes occupying a territory to make a Branch Clan. Content orıginally comes from novel~fire~net
Eventually, they found the Western Forest.
The leader of the voyage into the Western Forest was naturally Drako. Only he would be dumb enough to run up on a Forest that was as big as the one he came from and fail to understand that it could similarly be of the same level in terms of strength.
As a result, he got his ass whooped and nearly killed, only living to see another day because Lily came and helped him escape.
This was the first clash between the Snake and the Dragon clan and the dawn of a war that would last many, many years.
As a matter of fact, Drako did a lot of damage in that encounter by killing a few Dragons. He was a Law Beast after all so killing any kind of life form was lightwork to him. But when they grouped up to deal with him, Drako could only flee.
{ 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡’𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞: A Law Beast is a Beast who had formed his Mana from Laws.}
Obviously, the Dragons became vigilant and informed their King. Ruining the best chance the Snake Clan ever had in making a sneak attack.
On the other hand, Drako and Lily made sure to inform Jörma and the rest of the snakes of the dangers of the Dragons.
Lily’s message was focused on preventing the Snakes from having any interactions with Dragons in the future. In contrast, Drako’s message was more on rallying the Snake Clan for revenge, maintaining the dignity of the Snake Clan, blah blah blah.
Unfortunately for him, Jörma’s verdict was for the Snake Clan to never enter the Western Forest and not antagonize the Dragons unless attacked first. At the time, Jörma was way more interested in something she had found in the center of the Continent so she didn’t have time for some whatever ‘giant flying lizards’.
But Drako was too angry. This was the 1st time he had suffered such a big loss and it was eating at his soul. He didn’t count his encounters with Dodo because the Elk had 3 Laws and a higher cultivation, it was only right that he lost. But losing to scum like these? He couldn’t take it!
So he used the techniques that he had learnt from his good old friend Raiko, sneak attacks!
He would frequently sneak into the Western Forest and kill any lone Dragon that he could find. When the 11th Dragon died, it caused a panic that finally caught the King’s attention.
As the Dragon King, what kind of face would he have left if he allowed his race to suffer such injustice? Did those pesky Snakes think that the Dragons were prey? Did the Snakes think of them as herbivores with no fangs?! NAY! They were the apex predators, the Dragons!
So he rallied all the Dragons and attacked!
The look on Drako’s face when he saw a sky full of thousands of Dragons descending on his territory outside the forest was quite comedic.
He honestly thought he wouldn’t be caught. But the dumb snake failed to realize that whether he was caught or not, the Snakes were the only possible enemy. This wasn’t like the Eastern Forest where there were 3 other equally powerful forces to guess from.
In the Western Forest, the Dragons had no enemies. So only the newcomer Snake Clan was the culprit. Whether the fiery Snake from earlier was the actual culprit or not, they would hold the whole Snake Clan accountable!
That day, the Snake Clan suffered a devastating loss.