That time I was reincarnated as a snake (Tensura)

I dismissed those bizarre ideas from my mind before they escalated...

As I looked out at the scenery outside the wagon, memories of the past came flooding back. I thought of those days in my childhood, when my father would take me and my older sisters to explore the wilderness near our home and even camp out under the stars.

Whenever my father had a break from work, he would take advantage of it to take us away from everyday worries, immersing us in the tranquility of nature. Although my mother did not share our passion, she never stopped us from enjoying those moments, she only reminded us to be careful.

It was a simpler time, without internet or computers. If we were lucky, we all shared a television with a few fuzzy channels. We weren't poor, but we didn't have much money for luxuries either.

My favorite toy was a little wooden Tyrannosaurus Rex figurine that my father had carved for me. Although other children had more sophisticated toys, this figurine was special. I imagined it was me, squashing ants like I was Godzilla. Maybe that's where my fascination with large reptiles comes from.

Those were the happiest moments of my life. It's a shame they can't last forever. Time takes everything away.

"Hey, Mira, what do you think about the future?" I asked without looking at her.

"What do you mean?" she replied doubtfully.

"What would you like to do after you achieve your goals?" I continued as I looked out at the landscape.

Mira thought for a moment before answering.

"I don't know, I've never thought about it. I had almost given up, until I met you. What about you?" she said.

I sighed as I contemplated my thoughts.

"I guess I'm just like you. I've just been thinking about getting stronger, maybe to feel safe," I replied.

"Do you want to share your thoughts with me?" Mira asked with a hint of concern.

"Maybe in the future. For now, I'd rather keep it to myself. I hope you understand," I said.

"Okay, but I want you to know that you can talk to me about anything. That's what partners are for," she said firmly.

"I appreciate it... seriously, I appreciate it a lot."

Our relationship had started out as opponents, but over time, I was lucky enough to get to know her better. In proposing to work together, I admit it was out of greed, looking for a strong ally and, I admit, a future Nekomimi. Males have needs, and I am no exception. But over time, I have grown fond of her. Not on a romantic level, but I do consider her important to me. I hope to be the same for her.

Day gave way to night. Our driver decided to camp by a small river. After feeding and caring for Goliath the horse, he set about preparing his dinner. Mira and I moved away from the camp to move freely.

"How about a fight so we don't get rusty?" I suggested.

"Okay, but I'll give it my all, so take this seriously," she said with her eyes narrowed.

"Well, the battle ends when someone surrenders or we both recognize a winner," I explained.

With these words, our confrontation began. My first move was to charge at full speed towards her to close the gap. Knowing that I had the advantage in close combat, she quickly moved away, keeping her distance.

But I wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily. I fired a "water gun" at her, a skill I had perfected, reducing the casting time to three seconds. However, when the high-pressure water jet seemed to reach her and she showed no signs of dodging, I became worried. Only to feel an attack from behind me using mana perception, and I dodged it by sliding on the ground.

The Mira that had attacked was a shadow dispersing.

"A shadow clone? When?" I exclaimed in shock.

"Just before the attack connected. A small distraction can be fatal," Mira said from another direction.

It was true. Without mana perception, I would have lost.

"Thanks for the reminder. Let's continue," I said, using shadow movement to get closer. Unfortunately, she was more skilled and I couldn't close the distance.

"You rely too much on your robust body. You lack the means to deal with fast opponents. Individually they pose no danger to you, but in groups they would overwhelm you. Even with shadow movement, you would not reach them," she said dodging my attacks.

"What do you suggest? I know the ideal would be to limit your speed or immobilize you, but I don't have those skills," I replied while continuing to fire "water gun."

"Then develop them. You have a great capacity to imagine and create."

"Easy to say. The biggest problem is time. Do you know how long it took me to acquire hypnotic eyes?" I said, exchanging ranged attacks.

"Less than it took me to bind the shadows. And in that time, you were gathering information," she said, throwing a shadow blade at me.

I zig-zagged around her and counterattacked with a water gun aimed at her hind legs. She blended into the shadows to dodge it.

'Facing an assassin without terrain control abilities or debuffs is annoying.'

"It was necessary to gather information about upcoming events and share it with you," I said, dodging an attack.

"True, but there was no need to create your organization," she said after his attack failed.

"What do you know? That organization will bring us benefits."

I created two spheres of water to fire. Bewildering Mira, they lacked power. She dodged one, but was hit by the other without taking damage. We both stopped.

"More benefits than getting strong as quickly as possible?" she said sarcastically.

She was right. But I didn't know how difficult it was to get stronger even for me. I grew fast, but it was no use. It's not the body that needs to grow, but the mind. Only the mind can evolve abilities to their ultimate level, abilities that bend the laws of the world.

Only when you acquire one of those ultimate skills can you truly consider yourself strong. No matter how many skills you have, no matter if you possess as many magicules as Dagruel; without an ultimate skill, to those who have them, you are no different than a fly: a simple snap and it's over.

I'm scared! I'm… very scared. I'm afraid of dying… because of those guys who are stronger than me. As someone who has felt the despair of death and the fear of disappearing, I've begun to see life differently.

I always preferred to believe that there would be nothing after death, maybe… I wished there was a cycle of reincarnation for souls, like in isekais. But even then, upon death, souls would be stripped of their memories… What is someone without their memories?! Even if our egos were intact, we would be completely different beings in my opinion. What would be the difference with dying?!

I'm afraid of dying! Not because I care much about this life… hell, no. I haven't even created many bonds in this world. Maybe… I'd just regret leaving Mira behind. I'm afraid of dying because it would mean losing my beautiful memories with my family and loved ones in my previous life!

I may have already died in that world, and I should leave that life behind, let go, forget, but… I can't! I am who I am because of what I lived there. I am afraid… of dying in this world and not having another chance, of the memories I treasure… being lost in nothingness.

I know I'm a coward! A paranoid bastard who keeps thinking about the consequences of every damn action he takes, who doesn't take the most direct and stupidly dangerous route to get stronger! I'd rather take a damn century to get strong… if it means my chances of dying are minuscule! Because… I don't want to forget the times I spent with them.

Every time I've felt on the brink of death in my battles, I've been afraid, afraid that it will all end there. I know I don't have the mentality of the strong, I know I'm not ready to be at the top, at least not now. If I'm not ready, there's no point in getting too strong, that will only draw the attention of those guys. It would be better to be a big fish in a small pond. At least that way I could survive longer.

I lowered my head at Mira's words, not saying a word. Seeing me like this, Mira refrained from saying more, giving me a worried look. She knew her question was related to what I didn't want to talk about, so she dropped the topic.

"At least promise me that if your secrets start to hurt us, you will tell me everything," she said seriously.

Seeing her tone, and considering that she always trusted me, even when I hid things from her, the least I owed her was to tell her everything if it were to hurt her.

"Okay, I promise, Veldanava will kill me if I break this promise," I said resolutely.

"Veldanava?" Mira looked at me doubtfully.

"Veldanava is the god of this world, the creator, the Star Dragon King and the first True Dragon," I said with a smile to ease the heavy atmosphere.

To which Mira was left speechless.

"The creator god was born as a True Dragon?" she said with a numb face.

"Yes and no, he is not a god because he was born a True Dragon, the True Dragon race was born because he was a god. True Dragons are the embodiment of a concept of the universe in the form of a being, and Veldanava was the concept of Creator. He created the universe, as well as the concepts that would give birth to other True Dragons," I said mockingly.

"Was it? Is it not anymore?" Mira said in a doubtful tone.

Looks like Mira caught my slip there… well, since I'm not telling her about myself, I owe her at least this.

"Yes, he was, because he is already dead," I said directly.

"Didn't you say they were absolutely immortal?" she said doubtfully.

"It's a long story," I said.

"I have time," she said curiously.

" Aaa … well, do you know the cost for a monster to give birth to a child?" I asked.

"Parents lose a part of their magicules to form the new monster," Mira said confidently.

"Exactly. Normally, when a monster gives birth to a child, its maximum magicule capacity decreases, sometimes permanently. But that only happens to semi-material and semi-spiritual life forms," I said.

"What about spiritual life forms?" Mira got the point.

"Being beings of pure energy and will, when they try to give birth to a child, they practically give up almost all of their existence to that new being. That is what happened to Veldanava. He had a daughter with a human. As a result, all of his strength was inherited by his daughter, and he practically became an ordinary mortal, and you know what happens in this world when you have no strength," I said, waiting for the answer.

"Someone with strength can kill you," she said.

"Yes, he and his wife died in a terrorist attack on the kingdom they lived in over three hundred years ago, I'm not sure exactly when," I said hesitantly.

"And what happened to his daughter?" Mira asked curiously.

"For a time she lived peacefully with the dragon brother that Veldanava had created for her, as a friend so that she would not be alone, and being in the care of her mother's brother, she did not have many problems."

"And what happened next? You said for a while," she said.

"Well, you know how humans are, always fighting over stupid things like territory. An enemy kingdom wanted to kidnap Veldanava's daughter to use as a weapon. Brother Dragon didn't allow it and died defending her. It should be noted that at that time the daughter hadn't activated the powers she inherited, so she was weak. But when she saw her friend die, her fury awakened that power and she ravaged the entire kingdom responsible without stopping. She even unintentionally revived her friend, but he was reborn corrupted, he only knew how to destroy everything in his path, while she continued to ravage and destroy everything in her path."

"It was only with the intervention of First Demon Lord Guy Crimson and Spirit Queen Ramiris that they were able to stop her rampage. Seven days and seven nights later, one-sixth of the continent had been razed to the ground. You should remember the map I showed you, that territory was Dagruel's and they only contained her, not defeated her."

Mira opened her eyes wide.

"She is worthy of being God's daughter, aren't you?" I said jokingly.

To which she just nodded mechanically.

"As for her dragon friend, she sealed him away to prevent him from continuing his rampage. He was sealed in the Canaat Mountains north of the Jura Forest, where he would continue to release his dragon factor and magicules," I told him mysteriously.

Mira caught my tone, and after a bit of thought, she knew.

"Dragons, dragons were born from their magicules?!" she asked, although she knew the answer.

I nodded.

"Yes, all the common dragons were born by the tainted magicules of Veldanava's daughter's friend, whose name is Milim Nava, the Destroyer, one of the first three Demon Lords," I said.

"Why is her last name Nava?"

"When Veldanava lived as an ordinary human he adopted the name Velda Nava, he was not very creative."

"Since you're answering all of my questions, what are the other True Dragons' names?"

"In order of appearance in the universe, they would be Star King Dragon Veldanava, Frost Dragon Velzard, Scorch Dragon Velgrynd, Storm Dragon Veldora."

"Who is stronger among them?" she said curiously.

"Without Veldanava, Velzard and Velgrynd would be tied, as they master opposite concepts, neither can defeat the other. Veldora is the weakest, he is constantly being killed by Velzard and brutally beaten by Velgrynd, although Milim is stronger than them, but she is not a True Dragon."

"Veldora is the weakest? Killed every now and then?" Mira asked in an astonished tone.

"Yes, you know Veldora, he likes to destroy all the time, that is not to the liking of his sisters. Velzard thinks that killing him and waiting for him to be reborn without memories might be calmer, while Velgrynd thinks it is better to beat him until he leaves him half dead so that he learns his lesson. And as you can see, none of them have succeeded, they have only left him traumatized" I said laughing.

"Never speak of this to anyone, or we're both dead, understand?" I said in as serious a tone as I could muster.

Mira nodded seriously, she understood that no one liked to be laughed at for their misfortunes.

"Anything else you want to ask?"

Mira thought for a while this time.

"If you had to rank the strongest in this world, in what order would you put them?"

I stood there thoughtfully for a while.

"From strongest to weakest, I'd say: Milim Nava, Guy Crimson, Rudra Nasca, Velzard, Velgrynd, Ramiris, Dagruel, Dino, Veldora, Luminous Valentine, Gorake. There are some who could be on the level of Luminous or Gorake, but I don't know their true strength, so I'll omit them," I said.

"I know the Demon Lords because you mentioned them to me before and the True Dragons, who is that Rudra?" Mira asked curiously.

"A tall human, the current emperor of the Nasca Empire, sworn rival of Guy Crimson, former apprentice of Veldanava, as well as his brother-in-law, uncle of Milim Nava, possible mate of Velgrynd. I would say the guy with the longest background in this world," I said.

"What the hell are those relationships! Three of the top five can be considered family, doesn't that mean they could rule the world?"

"Not exactly, Veldanava commissioned Guy Crimson a long time ago to be the mediator in this world, to prevent the races that inhabit it from self-destructing. Likewise, Rudra proposed to unite all the races under one government to avoid continuous wars, but the death of Veldanava and his sister Lucia affected him greatly."

"Guy Crimson, to cheer him up, proposed a game: both of them would try to rule the world, but since they were both equally strong and both had a True Dragon on their side, they established the rule that they couldn't interfere, they could only use their subordinates. While Rudra grew the Nasca Empire, Guy formed the council of Demon Lords, and to a certain extent they can be considered his subordinates. As for Milim, she doesn't actually know or doesn't want to know about her relationship with Rudra, as far as I know, Rudra, although he had her taken care of, never revealed to her that they were family, perhaps out of guilt or because she reminded him of his sister."

"You can consider this game to be Guy Crimson's way of maintaining balance.

"Because even if Rudra could manage to unite the entire world, it would mean the death of countless living beings, perhaps even the extinction of several races. Even if he succeeded, no one can guarantee that everything would remain peaceful. Look at the humans, they are the weakest race but they are always fighting each other. Imagine if the entire world was part of an empire, there would be infighting after infighting, as a mediator Guy could not allow this."

"In addition, he occasionally sends his demon subordinates to cause chaos in the northern kingdoms of the west, so that humans see him as a greater threat that they must face together and not kill each other out of greed."

"I can tell you that it's because of Guy Crimson that I'm careful in doing my things, I don't want to draw his attention too soon. Although he may not kill me out of curiosity, being a daemon, he likes to play with beings that attract his curiosity, but I'm not sure I'll survive his games" I said with a cold sweat.

"Aren't you a little paranoid?" she said.

"A little? I'm very paranoid! I prefer paranoia to stupidity. Just look at those guys who joined the Demon Lords council, and who are now dead. Some killed each other, some did the stupid thing of angering the six strongest, or messed with Rudra's interests.

"I prefer to be slow and steady, we have a couple of centuries, what's the rush? You may have lived for more than a century, but I haven't even been in this body for a year.

"I'd like to see what this world has to offer. At least if I die along the way, I can leave without regrets" although I wasn't entirely honest about the latter.

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Author's Notes:

After realizing that Kazalim should have become a Demon Lord two hundred years after the current period Kai is in, I decided to correct this mistake by creating a new Demon Lord, the pig lord Gorake I already corrected in chapter 16.- Ruined plans.

As we can all see, the translation I do into English has gender errors, it's because of the AI ​​as I already mentioned, thanks to some good Samaritans who point out the errors to me, I can correct them later, I understand that this affects the experience of the people who read the chapter before making the corrections.

You know, it's annoying for me too, when I write the chapters, when someone speaks, I have to point out that it's a he or a she, this to minimize the translator's mistakes and still certain errors occur.

I originally wanted to publish the fanfic in my native language, which is Spanish, but I had to opt to publish it in English, because the page didn't allow me to attach some search tags, apparently, many of them can only be attached if it's something in English.

So I ask you a serious question:

Do you want things to continue as they are now? Or, I change the language settings of the fanfic and start uploading the chapters in Spanish, and whoever doesn't understand Spanish can read it with the translator of the browser that each person uses.