A strange, soothing sensation spread from the spot being stroked, traveling along some newborn bond and warming him all over.
Body: Mmm… that feels nice… a bit to the left… no, not there!
Mind: Impudent! Remove your hand, insignificant creature! I am the King of Monsters!
He sensed the little thing's thoughts echoing in his mind, automatically rendered in words he could understand—telepathy?
Interesting.
The tiny creature was quite the tsundere, stirring his long-dormant mischievous streak.
Aegon watched with amusement as the little fellow's body relaxed under his palm, even nuzzling him involuntarily.
Yet all three faces struggled to stay fierce; unfortunately, at this pocket size they only looked comical.
"Fine," Aegon chuckled, giving the other two snapping heads a casual rub. "You're useless for now, but as a pet you'll keep me entertained."
He withdrew his hand. Ghidorah exhaled in relief, then gave a slightly forlorn shake of its heads before lifting them high again in an aloof "this king is magnanimous" pose.
"Hah, still so proud." Aegon clapped his hands. "You need a name. Ghidorah… Ghidorah…"
Chin in hand, he surveyed the trio of tiny heads striving for dignity—and the devil in him awoke.
"From now on, you'll be called Xiao Laki," he announced solemnly.
"Guh?! Gah?!"
All three heads froze.
Six golden eyes bulged to their limits, brimming with disbelief, bewilderment, and a nuclear-grade shattering of worldview.
Xiao… Laki?
Xiao! La! Ki!
The name that had terrorized Titans across its universe, the symbol of ruin and conquest, the proud title "King Ghidorah"—in this bizarre creature's mouth had become… "Xiao Laki"?!
"Ao—!!!" The middle head loosed a shrill, grief-stricken shriek, like a kitten with its tail stepped on.
It flailed its stubby claws while the other two heads whipped about in frantic protest.
Aegon merely smiled: Objection overruled; the name sticks.
All three heads drooped; the pale golden scales seemed to dim.
It glanced at its bench-sized body, then at the towering "giant" before it.
A tide of frustration, resignation, and a hint of despair drowned its newborn, out-of-place consciousness.
Before its sovereign majesty could even unfold, it had been saddled with a nickname.
Its monster career, from the moment it was bound to this world, felt as though it had stepped onto some indescribable wrong path…
The storm clouds on the horizon faded; the dreadful sky and pressure that had heralded Ghidorah's arrival vanished, leaving only the eerie silence of the ruins.
Aegon returned from the memory of meeting "Xiao Laki," a playful glint in his violet eyes.
He looked down at the "bench-sized" Ghidorah gazing up with six pleading golden eyes.
The "triple-headed dragon shadow" that had just forced Dead Dragon to bow stemmed from this trans-dimensional seed of concept.
Though world rules compressed its power and reshaped its form, preventing it from wielding planet-shattering might,
its inherent rank and natural suppression of lesser beings did not vanish with its size.
Like a star sealed in layers: even lightless, its core mass and gravitational field remain.
The instant he awoke the system and bound Ghidorah, Aegon had sensed that link.
Facing Dead Dragon moments ago, it wasn't so much that he released Ghidorah's aura;
driven by mortal crisis and fierce will,
he had tried for the first time to "borrow," to resonate with a sliver of Ghidorah's sealed, higher-order Presence.
He had shared a thread of Ghidorah's rank.
The sensation was bizarre—not gaining raw power, but briefly acting as the very "concept" of Ghidorah, projecting the perspective and pressure that stood above this world's creatures.
Like an ant suddenly grasping the grandeur of a mountain and borrowing its Presence to cow another beetle.
"Rank-sharing, huh…" Aegon savored the strange, fleeting feeling.
For an instant he had embodied an ancient titan overlooking all life, with power to spare over life and death.
That dominion was cold, vast, alien to human emotion—and fatally addictive.
"Never imagined you, little thing…" He studied Xiao Laki, eyes conflicted.
If it truly "unzipped" itself, adapted and merged with this world's rules and grew to fullness—what then?
Dragons that could sweep Westeros would be no more than gnats before it.
At that moment he clearly felt a thought from "Xiao Laki."
Curiosity, inquiry, and a carefully maintained kingly pride.
Essentially: "You felt that power, didn't you? I let the 'Xiao Laki' thing slide—so what should you call me now?"
Aegon's lips curved. The proud little thing had sensed the borrowed power and wanted its due respect—yet still pretended magnanimity.
He squatted and unceremoniously stroked the cool, smooth golden scales again.
This time the three heads only shrank slightly, their minds wavering between "Again?" and "Well… a little longer is fine…"
"Call you?" Aegon grinned, deliberately sending the thought "Xiao Laki" back.
All three heads stiffened, scales bristling. "I think 'Xiao Laki' sounds great—unique and friendly. Don't you agree?"
A mournful whimper echoed through the mind-link; the middle head tried to nip his finger with tiny budding fangs, managing no more than a tickle.
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