《The Dragon of Dreams》


 Chapter 1: The Mistake of Man

    <hr>


    IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:


    Everything in this story has a purpose, and every detail has an explanation, i.e. nothing is explained with ''it works cause it works''. The more questions you ask when reading this story, the more you will understand later on. If you just turn off your brain to read you won''t know why things are happening the way they are.


    Nothing is random. If something feels ''forced'' it''s meant to be, ask why and I guarantee you will enjoy the novel more.


    Also, the first 10-15 chapters are in the process of being rewritten, the longer you read, the higher the quality of the writing will get


    <hr>


    09 : 30 AM : 2/2/2026


    *Beep* *Beep*


    ��Uuwaahh..��


    Slowly waking up to the beeping of my alarm, I reluctantly turned over to look at the clock.


    It was 9:30 but I decided to just lay in the warm embrace of the bed sheets for a bit.


    After a few minutes, I finally got out of bed, my bedsheets falling off of me allowing for a wave of cold air gets blown across me.


    "Brrrr.." As the chill ran up my spine I was immediately woken up fully. -Did the temperature really drop that much?!-


    I looked over towards my window and saw snowflakes.


    "What a rare sight.."


    Finally jumping out of bed I quickly threw on some cold clothes and checked my phone to see if there was anything important and like usual there was nothing besides bots and spam.


    "Haaah.." Letting out a sigh I made my way down the hallway and hopped on my computer to see if any of the manga or novels I was following had updated.


    "Oh my.." -There''s more than usual!- With a smile on my face I quickly got comfy and read through them.


    After finishing the new chapters I realized it was time to go so I tossed on my shoes, grabbed my things, and left the house in a pretty decent mood.


    -Maybe I should swing by my parents after class..-


    Little did I know.. I wouldn''t have that opportunity.


    05 : 00 AM : 2/2/2026 : Darpa Labs


    - Kevin J. ~


    5 miles below the surface of the United States Pentagon were the Darpa Labs, the most secretive and advanced laboratory in the world.


    We were completely out of the world''s line of sight, doing experiments with technology that wouldn''t be seen by the public for nearly 5 decades. Even the president of the United States doesn''t have the authority to access some of our information.


    "How long until everything is ready?" I looked down at our experiment programmer, Jack N.


    Jack was fairly short but well built and pretty smart. "Everything is ready except for the capacitors. They are 7 hours from being fully charged, sir." His program controlled almost the entire experiment so he had the success of it solely on his shoulders.


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    "Good we are on time.." -After so many years we can finally peek into the 4th dimension..-


    The experiment was simply an attempt to send a metal ball to the 4th dimension by crudely using electricity to rip a hole in space.


    The metal ball also had several trackers in it in an attempt to gather as much information as possible about the dimension, the issue being that they didn''t know how to get the ball back, or if the trackers would even function while it was there.


    -But risk and failure are simply a part of science!-


    As I accidentally showed a crazed smile, I looked up at the baseball sized steel ball floating in the middle of the sealed chamber.


    My heart was beating out of my chest and my adrenaline was pumping. -Only 7 hours left..-


    - Jack N. ~


    "Sir, only 3 minutes remaining on the capacitors." I turned and looked at Kevin who was standing behind his desk not far from me.


    Kevins face suddenly warped to a crazed smile. "Good, good."


    A wave of anxiety washed over me seeing his smile. My stomach ached and my gut instinct was yelling at me. -Maybe we shouldn''t be doing this experiment..-


    After thinking for a minute, I turned back to my computer and looked at the countdown.


    ''2:05'' *tick* ''2:04'' *tick* ''2:03''


    I watched the countdown in a trance for a moment as I got lost in my thoughts.


    My gut was yelling at me to stop the experiment, I had the feeling that something would go horribly wrong if we went through with this experiment. -Maybe some things are better left untouched.-


    Of all the things my code controlled in the experiment, the most important and simple to change was the exact coordinates the hole would be opened.


    "Hahaha..." A muffled, psychotic laugh filled the room.


    -The closer we get to this experiment being successful.. the crazier he gets..- I glanced over my shoulder at Kevin once again to see his insane look.


    The sight of his insane smile made me grip my resolve. -Hooh.. I need to change it..- I quickly calmed my mind and turned back to my computer.


    As soon as I started hastily scrolling through the thousands of lines of code, a robotic voice came across the intercom. "1 Minute till Experiment #4021 commences."


    With the announcement, another crazed laugh echoed throughout the room. "HAHAHAHAHA, if this experiment works we will be able to make contact with higher beings! With GODS!" The maniacal laugh from Kevin made everyone in the room feel a sense of danger.. of premonition.


    Several thoughts passed through everyone''s heads.. some considering abandoning the experiment entirely while others were eaten away by curiosity.


    I was completely focused though. -Where is it.. come on, come on!-


    The robotic voice came back over the intercom again. "Commencing experiment in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.."


    *RUMBLE* *Crash*


    A massive earthquake-like shaking occurred as the countdown ended.


    Almost everyone in the lab fell over and several computers and papers were shaken off their desks..


    "Huh?" Even Kevin couldn''t hide his confusion as he stood back up.


    A small amount of black mist started filling the room from where the ball was, liquifying the meter-thick reinforced glass of the testing chamber.


    -What.. was that?- I slowly stood back up and noticed the otherworldly black mist floating towards them. -What.. the..-


    It wasn''t just me that was frozen, everyone in the room simply stared at it as it got closer, stunned from awe and fear.


    "AHHHHH!!!" A woman across the room screamed as she ran across the lab to leave, knocking over everything in her path.


    The woman''s panic incited everyone else''s as we all sprinted to the door, ignoring everything in our way.


    As I ran to the door with everyone else, I noticed Kevin was in a daze while staring at the mist.


    "That must be our GOD." He wore the face of a man who had lost his mind.


    -F*cking psyco..-


    I turned back to the door, but we couldn''t get out. The door was locked.


    As some of my colleagues tried to hack or break the max security lock, the mist finally made it through the glass and began to spread around the room, liquifying everything it touched.


    Not long after, it finally reached us, we all slowly, one by one, layer by layer [1], started turning to dust as the cloud slowly absorbed us.


    As an unfathomable pain rippled through my body, I heard Kevin yell out. "This is our Savior! Our Salvati-"


    His head disintegrated before he could finish.


    -Haah..- I calmed my thoughts as the pain started to disappear and memories played in my mind. -It was a good run..-

 Chapter 2: Death and Rebirth

    11 : 55 2/2/2026 : Kennesaw Georgia


    *Thump*


    Closing the door to my car after parking on campus, I started heading to class.


    -Only have a few more months left..-


    I was a 23 year old who nearly had a Masters in computer game design, it''s basically computer science except in the realm of games.


    I had always enjoyed coding, to have the freedom to create my own world in the form of a game let me realize at least part of my unrealistic wish for true freedom.


    It let me turn my dreams into something I could show to others, and it helped me realize my talent for visualizing things, even if they were super complicated.


    -Man if only I lived in one of those novel worlds with magic, I think id be pretty good at it.- As I thought about what Id do in a fantasy world, I let out a little chuckle with a smile on my face. -Haah.. if only..-


    Walking through the campus, I smelled the food trucks that made my mouth water and my stomach growl.


    -I wish I could grab something but..- I checked my phone and saw the clock display 11:59 on the screen.. -15 minutes till class starts..-


    I quickly tried to put my phone back in my pocket but I was froze.


    It felt as if time had been paused.


    Reluctantly looking up, I saw a baseball-sized black sphere a few meters in front of me.


    I never thought I had a fear of death, but looking at that black sphere made my legs go weak.


    But I didn''t fall over.. I couldn''t.. I was stuck, unable to move.


    After what felt like an eternity I managed to calm down some. I took deep breaths trying to not panic, to bring my focus back and process the situation but blurry memories started to flash in my mind.


    -Is this.. death?-


    Suddenly an unfathomable darkness encompassed everything. I couldn''t see, hear, taste, or feel anything.


    It felt like the air got sucked out of my lungs and I couldn''t breathe.. I couldn''t do anything except exist.. -what.. is happening...-


    Having no control over anything was horrifying to say the least.


    But before I got absorbed by my own fear, out of nowhere, a pulse of heat ran through me causing my body to scream in pain.


    It was a pain you couldn''t even imagine, it felt as if my very soul was being ripped apart and my body shredded. It was an incomprehensible pain.


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    Barely being able to hold onto my sanity I tried to just focus on something.. anything I could think of.. but my mind was blank.


    Just when I was about to lose the grip I had on my sanity.. the pain dissipated to an incredible, soothing sensation.


    Being able to ''breathe'' again was a miracle but I still couldn''t think of anything other than, -What the hell was that..-


    But as my mind calmed, something appeared in my mind.. something like a memory..


    It was a dragon-looking creature with snow-white scales and white horns. It had a layer of ice layering its horns and sharp and icicle-like protrusions from its tail and the back of its legs.


    It had some sparse feathers on its crown and along its back with two massive wings.. it was a truly beautiful creature with an indescribable air of majesty.


    As I got entranced by it, a voice appeared in my head.. a calm and sweet woman''s voice.. "You are, Vasilias Ragnarok"


    As the name was said, my head started to ache in waves of pain as seemingly random knowledge got shoved into my head.


    Unable to stop it, I simply passed out.


    Upon waking up, I felt like I was floating in a pool, but the temperature was just right so I couldn''t tell where it touched my skin.


    I tried my best to move around but I felt a wall of some kind around me.


    Pushing as hard as I could, I fell over onto my back. -But I''m.. rolling?-


    -Uh oh..- Worried I might roll off some kind of ledge or roll into something, I simply froze.


    After I came to a complete stop, I tried to stretch out on all sides, roughly getting a feel that I was something the shape of an egg.


    *Crack*


    -So I''m in something oval shaped.. is it an egg? I think I heard it crack-


    Winding up my front leg to break out of the ''egg thing'' I was in, I suddenly realized, -wait I have 4 legs and... are those wings and a tail?-


    Just as I was about to break out of the shell, some knowledge randomly surfaced in my mind.. -Ah right.. I''m a dragon now.. The dragon named Vasilias Ragnarok..-


    Breaking out of the shell, I was hit with a sudden yet extreme hunger and began eating the shell like it was muscle memory.


    After feeling a little satiated from eating the egg I finally took some time to look around.


    I was in an absolutely gigantic circular room with fancy gold trim and carvings on the various pillars supporting the freakishly tall ceiling. The entire room was white and gold, with a massive pile of gold and treasures in the middle.


    I was sitting on top of it with 2 other eggs next to me, a small bundle of feathers below each egg so we weren''t laying right on the treasure.


    It was truly beautiful but now wasn''t the time to be admiring it.


    Looking down at myself I noticed I had white scaled forelimbs with a very slight blue shade when looking at an angle. On my feet there were small, snow white nubs I assumed were supposed to be claws.


    I spread out what I hypothesized were wings, and surely enough, behind me were two large wings with the same bright white scales.


    Looking back by my butt I noticed I also had a pretty long tail.


    "Hehehe" -I''m beautiful- With a bright, childish smile, a sudden wave of confidence washed over me.


    I truly felt like I was the strongest in the world, it was a very euphoric feeling.


    Looking around the room again, I noticed something that had caught my attention.


    Slightly covered by the massive pile of gold was a purple and black cube, slightly bigger than me.


    Although it looked like a cube, it was fundamentally different. -A tesseract?- Although it was just a guess, it was the best I could think of.


    It didn''t make any noise even though it seemed to move in place.


    It had a very surreal beauty to it and after staring for quite a while, a deep desire started to surface. Everything in my body was telling me to touch it.


    Almost as if in a trance I slid down the pile of gold and touched it.


    The moment I did, a mechanical voice appeared in my mind. "Conditions Met: Activating Procedure ��??��????��???��??????????��???""

 Chapter 3: Change

    xx : xx x/x/xxxx (present) : Home


    "Conditions Met: Activating Procedure ��??��????��???��??????????��???""


    The cube immediately started shining a blinding purple light and it spoke in a completely foreign language.


    I once again found myself in a dark place without light. -What in the..-


    Cutting off my thoughts, the mechanical voice spoke again. "Severe damage and instability detected."


    It was a language I have never heard but I somehow understood it clearly.. -Instability?-


    "Damaged Soul of higher dimensional being resides weak 3rd Dimensional Body: Invalid"


    -What? A soul of higher dimensional bei..- My thoughts were quickly cut off by a series of errors.


    "-Error: Invalid


    Error: Invalid


    Error: Impossible


    Commencing Repairs."


    -Huh? What do you mean commencing repa..-


    An extreme searing pain coursed through my body again that made my mind go blank again.


    After an unknown amount of time passed, the mechanical voice spoke again. "Repairs and Modifications Complete. Experiment successful."


    "HAAAHH.." As I violently gasped for breath, my eyes shot open. -I''m.. I''m back..- I was back in the white room with the cube I touched being nothing more than a pile of fine powder.


    As I glanced around, I felt an inexplicable ''change'' in my body, but before I could move, I passed out from both mental and physical exhaustion.


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    Perched at the edge of a towering oceanside cliff, I looked out towards the setting sun and let out a deep sigh. "Haahh.." -I wonder if any of them have hatched yet-


    "It''s about time one of them hatch isn''t it?" It was the soothing voice of Osto Ragnarok, my husband.


    "Yeah, I was just thinking about that. They should hatch within the next few days." A gentle smile appeared on my face. -To think I''m about to be a mother..-


    As I was caught in my own fluffy thoughts, I noticed the air change. "It''s truly a shame I won''t be able to see them hatch.." Osto wore a slightly saddened look.


    "What?! Where are you going?"


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    "I was called to Bahamut. They called a meeting to discuss the preparations for the festival in 24 years.. the youth event.." A warm smile came to his face, but I noticed the thin layer of sadness behind it.


    "Oh.. right.." -He did mention that earlier..-


    Quickly lightening the mood, he gave me a familiar confident and goofy smile. "I have to make sure the island is ready for my strong children to come and have fun!"


    Immediately cheering up, a warm smile returned to my face. "Right, I''ll be sure to raise them as the strongest in the world!"


    "Hahaha, that''s my wife. Hopefully I''ll come back soon." He sat up confidently and overlooked the seemingly endless ocean in front of us.


    Knowing he was about to leave, I leaned into him.


    "You''ll be safe.. right?"


    "Of course! I may not be an elder but I''m still strong."


    "Haah.." I quickly took advantage of an opportunity to poke fun at him. "Don''t be jealous when you come back and find that our children are stronger than you."


    "Haha, I look forward to the day my children surpass me..." After a short moment of silence, he stood up and walked to the edge of the cliff, extending out his massive wings in the process.


    "Is it time already.."


    "Yeah.. I''ll be sure to visit when I get the chance.."


    "Okay.. just.. be safe."


    He flashed his confident smile and moved to the edge of the cliff before jumping off.


    After he left, I sat there alone for a while and watched the rest of the sunset, it gave me time to sort my thoughts.


    It wasn''t until an hour or so later that I finally got up and started flying home.


    The forest below me had a thick canopy. But, as I flew over, I could sometimes see some monsters through small openings.


    A slight look of concern appeared on my face seeing some of the larger monsters. -This forest is a dangerous place for the kids..-


    After a moment of thinking though, my concern shifted to confidence. -I''ll just need to protect them until they get strong enough to wipe this forest clean!-


    -Ah, right.. I should get something for them to eat..-


    After killing a small field bison for food, I finally landed in front of two massive white and gold doors.


    Not wasting any more time, I opened up the doors and walked in, carrying the dead bison with me.


    -Today, I''ll figure out what that weird cube thing is..- As the thought crossed my mind, I noticed that one of the eggs on the pile of treasure was missing.


    -Oh, it looks like one hatched.. but.. where are they?- I didn''t see anything out of the ordinary until, -Huh?- Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the cube had turned into a powder and laid just next to it was a small baby dragon.


    The dragon was laying completely flat against the floor as if to take up as much space as possible which made me want to laugh but something was wrong.


    -Its not white..- It was a small void-like black dragon, slightly bigger than what would fit into the egg. There was a purple and blue light flowing between the scales and it had black-purple horns and claws.


    There wasn''t a single trace of me or Osto in the child.


    -But..- When I leaned closer, I could clearly feel the connection between us. -its Vasilias.. but.. what happened to him..-


    A mix of confusion and anger started filling me. I thought someone might''ve tampered with his hatching process but looking around the room revealed that nothing else had changed except the cube.


    -The cube artifact.. thing.. turned into sand.. is that what tampered with my sweet baby?!- I glared at the small pile of sand but quickly calmed myself down, purely grateful that Vasilias seemed to have hatched successfully and looked healthy.


    I walked over and lightly picked him up with my mouth, moving him back up onto his small bed of feathers.


    I stood there and watched him sleep for a moment. The sight of his peaceful smile made me feel an unfathomable joy and melted away all of my stress and worry.


    After shaking myself out of a small trance I got caught in, I curled around the pile of treasure and fell asleep with him. -No matter how his appearance changed, he''s still my baby boy..-

 Chapter 4: My New Sister

    xx : xx x/x/xxxx (present) : Home


    *Cracking*


    Upon waking up I noticed I got a tad bigger, I was now moderately bigger than what could fit in the egg but that wasn''t my concern.


    *Crack*


    -Are one of my siblings hatching?- Just before I noticed the other physical changes I looked up and saw an absolutely massive, but familiar white dragon coiled around the mound of gold my siblings and I were on.


    As I looked over the huge dragon, a name appeared in my head. ''Zachari Ragnarok''. -My mother..-


    I couldn''t help but stare at her, I felt like I was in a trance. -How b.. beautiful..-


    "Oh you''re awake Vasilias." A soft smile appeared on her face as she looked at me


    Her smile made my mind go blank and gave me an inexplicable joy that made me subconsciously smile.


    After bathing in the childish joy for a bit, I finally took some time to look at myself with the first and most obvious thing being my change in color.


    My scales were a void-like matte black with a blue and purple glow flowing between them. -I look.. F***ING AWESOME!-


    From my human life, I always loved matte black, I thought it made things look majestic and powerful, so now that my scales had changed to that beautiful color, I was inexplicably happy.


    That joy was cut short though. After thinking about it for a moment, I became worried that Mother would think of me as a freak.


    Luckily though, those worries were washed away after looking up and seeing Mother''s pure motherly smile again.


    Finally calming down and going back to checking myself out, I noticed my wings had become a bit thicker and bigger. Now my wingspan was easily as long or longer than I was and I had grown some horn-like spikes towards the end of my tail.


    I felt pure bliss seeing my changes. -Thank the heavens I''m a good looking dragon..- An imaginary tear of joy fell down my cheek.


    After I finished checking myself out I sat up straight and held my head high with a childish smile on my face.


    Mother looked at me with a look of curiosity. "Vasilias, y.."


    *CrAcK*


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    She got interrupted by the sound of something cracking.


    Looking towards the source of the noise, a snow white foot (paw maybe, I have no idea) came protruding out from the side of one of the eggs.


    Upon breaking, the egg fell over and almost rolled down the pile of gold and treasure, luckily I quickly darted over and caught it before it started rolling. -Hey.. I''m pretty fast..-


    I looked up and saw mother looking at me in complete wonder -Whoops.. was that too odd... Well whatever, I saved my sibling so..- I puffed up my chest a little and gave a proud look.


    "Haha what an unusual child.." She continued to look at me in wonder, but her voice carried a soothing and gentle tone.


    *Crack*


    The shell continued to crack as my sibling somehow managed to look as inelegant as possible coming out of the egg.


    Upon shoving her head out of the shell she looked right into my eyes.


    It felt like her sky blue eyes were staring into my soul but it made me wonder. -I wonder what color my eyes are.. or even what my face looks like... By the looks of my body, I shouldn''t be too ugly..-


    After staring for just a short moment my sister finally crawled out of her shell and turned around to eat it.


    -She looks exactly like Mother, except far less mature and 20 times less majestic..-


    Once she finished eating, she turned to look Mother in the eye and just plopped down into a star shape and fell asleep.


    "Hehe.." Mother let out a giggle seeing her cute newborn just plop down.


    Unconsciously smiling again at the sight, I started thinking to myself. -Was I that inelegant as well?-


    It wasnt until I smelled something delicious that I snapped out of my thoughts.


    *Sniff* *Sniff*


    -What is that glorious smell..- It smelled so good it made my stomach growl.


    I froze hearing it growl but it made Mother let out a chuckle. "Haha, oh right.. Vasilias, would you like to eat while Krystallo is sleeping?"


    -So my sister''s name is Krystallo..- Her name was important but I quickly put that thought aside and vigorously nodded my head -Yes please mother, I''m so hungry I could eat a horse.-


    Mother stood up and walked into the hallway, dragging back a massive Bison-looking creature into the main room.


    My mouth started watering as the massive creature was dragged to me.


    I slid my way down the mound of gold coins and treasure just to be unprepared when I hit the bottom.


    Steadily speeding up while sliding down the mound, I completely neglected to put more strength in my front legs for when I hit the bottom.


    My legs folded under me, causing me to slam face first into the ground.


    *thud*


    Mother stopped and set down the bison just to see me face down tail up at the bottom of the treasure.


    "Pfft" She quickly put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.


    I quickly straightened myself up and stuck my head up with confidence, letting out a, "Hmph.." -You saw nothing!-


    As I sat there, my confident look slowly turned into a warm smile. -I''m just glad Mother seems to be really caring and loving..-


    I tried to think back to my past life on earth to reminisce but struggled to remember anything about my family.


    A sudden wave of sadness took over making me instinctively look back up at Mother.


    The sadness that felt like a dark and heavy blanket wrapping around me disappeared upon seeing her pure smile.


    A deep sense of gratitude surfaced from deep within me and a smile crept onto my face without me realizing it.

 Chapter 5: Exploration!

    xx : xx x/x/xxxx (present) : Home


    With a childish smile on my face, I happily trotted up to the huge bison.


    -Even though it''s uncooked it just smells... so good..-


    Standing next to the huge body, I looked at it questioningly, -Now how in the world am I going to eat this..-


    After going up to bite it I had to pull back.. I couldn''t figure out ''how'' to eat it, but mother seemed to believe I couldn''t bite through the hide


    "You want me to cut into the hide so you can bite into it?"


    -I guess I should just go for it..- Giving one more glance, I chomped through the hide as if it wasn''t even there and chewed on the soft, warm meat.


    A sudden gleam appeared in my eye.. -Oh my.. it''s so good-


    I immediately slammed my face into the huge bison and started eating my fill.


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    "Haha" I couldn''t keep myself from chuckling as I watched Vasilias go to town on the Field Bison. -That gleam in his eye is just like his fathers.-


    Seeing he was eating properly, I walked back and curled around Krystallo.


    I ended up laying down and watching him as he ate.


    "Pfft.." I had to hold back a laugh. Vasilias had chewed a hole big enough for his whole head and neck to fit in.


    Hearing me, he quickly popped his head out and gave me a curious look.


    "It''s nothing sweetie, you can continue eating"


    -He really is an odd child, I feel like he understands far more than he should for his age.. He hatched today yet by the time he woke up he had intent in his eyes.-


    While questioning his abnormal intelligence, my eyes slowly drifted to the purple sand piled where the cube was.


    -What did that cube really do other than change his appearance..- I took a while to try and sort my thoughts on the issue before giving up and laying down to just watch Vasilias. "Haah.." -I guess time needs to pass to find out what else it did..-


    Almost as if in a dream-like trance, I watched Vasilias eat the bison. -His scales are really.. beautiful..- Not long after, my eyes started to feel heavy and I drifted to sleep.


    - Vasilias ~


    After eating nearly the entire 6 ton bison, I feel great.


    -I have absolutely no clue where all that food went but man.. it was delicious..- It was a taste so heavenly that I would never forget it.


    After enjoying my satisfaction for a moment, I noticed that I didn''t feel heavy or sluggish, I actually felt super energized. -I feel like I can conquer the world!-


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    While I was acting like a hyper kid, I noticed that Mother had fallen asleep.


    -Well as long as I don''t wake her up, it should be fine to explore, right?- I convinced myself that she wouldn''t get mad unless I do something stupid like leaving the room.. -I''m sure it''ll be fine..-


    After walking a lap around the room, I failed to find anything interesting outside of the pile of treasure in the middle so I decided to walk a little ways down the hallway. -It can''t hurt to explore the hallway, just as long as I don''t go outside..-


    Glancing at the huge double door at the end of the hallway, I wasn''t sure Id be able to open it and leave even if I wanted to.


    The hallway was just as grand as the main room with a crazy tall ceiling and all white walls and floors with fancy carvings in the pillars and the door did not fall behind in extravagance.


    The issue was that just by looking at it, I could tell it was ridiculously heavy.


    As I turned away from the door, I noticed a few small fountains embedded in the edge of the hallway.


    -Water! Wait, now that I think about it, do I not get thirsty?- I thought about it for a moment before throwing that thought aside and dashing over to the edge of the fountain.


    Looking into the water, I could finally see my reflection. I could finally see what my face looked like. -Heyyy, I''m pretty handsome- I had two small horns protruding from the back of my head and, -my eyes are purple..- They were a vibrant purple that was incredibly bewitching.


    As I checked out my other facial features, I finally noticed the dried blood around my mouth from the bison and decided to hop into the fountain water to clean myself a little.


    "Haaah.." The lukewarm water felt so good that unconsciously let out a deep breath.


    After nearly falling asleep in the fountain I realized I probably shouldn''t do that while floating in the water. Even though I was around 50cm long, I could easily submerge myself in the fountain.


    Hopping out of the water I shook myself off and started to head back to the mound of treasure to fall asleep after a successful adventure around my new home.


    Upon entering the main room again, I saw mother awake and staring at me.


    This time it wasn''t her usual soft gaze, this time it was one that made me prepare myself for a scolding.


    -Uh oh..-


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    Suddenly waking up from what felt like a great dream, I realized Vasilias had finished his dinner and was walking around the room.


    Looking back towards the bison I noticed something unusual again. -What!? He ate the whole thing!-


    I was in complete shock as I peeked at him again. -He seems full of energy after that huge meal, maybe I should get more for him in the future..-


    After a lap around the room, Vasilias looked down the hallway and glanced back at me before walking continuing down the hall.


    -As long as he doesn''t go outside it should be fine..- I just kept an eye on him just in case.


    After a short while, Vasilias seemed to find something he liked.


    He started into a jog towards the side of the hallway. -The fountain? The water will probably be too hot for him-


    Thinking about whether I should get up to stop him, he arrived at the edge of the fountain and looked into the water.


    While looking into the water he started smiling. -Is he looking at his reflection?- Seeing him give a proud look after looking into the water, my question was answered. -He really was.. So that really was intent..-


    Although it was quite shocking, I understood it as him simply being a prodigy.


    While bathing in the wave of proud happiness that washed over me, I saw him jump into the water.


    My face paled and it felt like my heart skipped a beat. I failed to get up and save him before he landed in the steaming water, but it seemed fine.


    I laid there in awe as I watched him float in the hot water with a face of pure relaxation. His wings were totally stretched out to make it easier to float as well.


    -There was definitely more to that cube than just changing his appearance..- Although the water wasn''t considered hot for dragons, it was definitely enough to cause a newborn without their scales thermalized [1] to be extremely uncomfortable or even cause pain.


    -He looks so relaxed though..- Finally easing up, I released the mana I had ready to cast a freeze spell.


    After a few minutes, he jumped out of the water and started coming back to the main room.


    -I''m gonna need to give him a stern talk once he gets back.. I cant have him doing reckless things like that while I''m not watching..-


    As Vasilias rounded the corner he saw me looking at him and froze on the spot.

 Chapter 6: Bonding with my Clumsy Sister

    xx : xx x/x/xxxx (present) : Home


    I was completely frozen in place.. I came back to the room feeling great after my warm bath but Mother was staring at me.


    -Uh oh.. I didn''t do anything bad.. right?-


    My face had trace worry on it as I didn''t want to get scolded


    "Haah.." Mother let out a sigh.


    I finally started relaxing as her gaze turned away from me.


    "Vasilias, please don''t do something so reckless again.." Her voice was riddled with concern.


    -What did I do that was reckless? Maybe she was worried that I might drown..-


    "That water was hot you know, I was worried you''d scald yourself.." She looked back at me with a much warmer gaze this time.


    -Oh that''s what she was worried about... Wait, that water was hot?- I stood there completely confused as I thought it was just somewhat warm water.. far from what I would consider hot.


    Mother stood up and walked up to me, opening her mouth as she bent down towards me.


    Fear washed over me as I thought she was going to eat me or something, but she just gently picked me up with her mouth and carried me to where my sister was sleeping.


    -I really shouldn''t worry about getting eaten.. I guess I haven''t really accepted her as my mother yet..- Deep down I still struggled to accept the situation that I was actually a dragon and that I had already died as a human..


    I hadn''t thought about it yet, but my morals as a human had already been completely overwritten, I was steadily becoming a dragon more and more on both the inside and out.


    -I need to accept reality before it keeps me from moving forward.. this isn''t a dream and I need to accept that before it causes my family to get hurt..- Burrowing that thought deep into my mind a newfound sense of self surfaced.


    I had come to terms with myself and with reality.. at least more so than before. -I am a dragon now.. the superior race of this world.. the kings.-


    This was the start of my transition from the mind and soul of a human to one of a dragon.. little did I know, my soul was already far from human.


    After setting me down, Mother called out. "Oh you''re awake Krystallo."


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    Snapping me out of my thoughts I looked over and saw that the tiny white dragon was staring at the mostly eaten buffalo carcass.


    -Ah, she must be hungry..- I quickly slid down the slope of gold and motioned her to come with my head.


    She followed in suit and started clumsily walking to the edge of the slope and sliding down.


    Mother quickly moved her head over to catch Krystallo before she hit the bottom, giving me a little glare in the process. "Vasilias you should help your sister a little more, you''re strong enough to carry her right?"


    -Huh? Carry? Can''t she walk? Also aren''t I too small?- While my mind was sorting various thoughts, Mother walked up to me and set down Krystallo on my back.


    -Oh she isn''t heavy at all.. or maybe I''m just way stronger than I thought-


    "Now be a good brother and help her get something to eat" After setting her down on my back mother laid down to watch over us eating.


    -I will be the best brother!- Pitching my head up with a huge amount of confidence I brought my sister over to the bison and slid her off my back and onto the ground.


    -Hmmm.. now what- Krystallo was sitting next to the uneaten part of the bison and simply looked at it before trying to chomp down on it.


    But she couldn''t bite through the hide.. -Ahh.. my time to shine!- I reached up and bit off a chunk of hide and flesh.


    Krystallo looked up at me with the ''puppy eyes'' look as I set the piece of meat on the ground for her.


    When she threw her face down into the piece of meat, I looked up to see mother giving me a proud smile.


    A childish smile appeared on my face. -It feels good to make Mother happy..- After zoning out for a moment, I noticed Krystallo had finished her chunk of meat.


    She was looking up at me with a pure smile as if to say thanks.


    While basking in the happy thoughts, I reached up and bit off another piece of meat for my cute little sister.


    After a while of that, she finally finished eating.


    After she finished her last bit of meat, she simply plopped down just like after she ate her egg, completely satisfied.


    She ate significantly more than her own weight, but it was a far cry from even being close to the amount I ate.. or maybe consumed is a better word.


    As I looked at her sleeping, feeling a huge sense of accomplishment, a huge wave of hunger washed over me.


    The hunger was so extreme it made my instinct to eat take over and I walked back up to the bison.


    There wasn''t much left, only about 1/8 of the whole bison left, but after finishing it all I was still ferociously hungry.


    "Ahh you''re going to have your dragon sleep already?!"


    -So I''m going to step out of the newborn stage huh..- A dragon sleep is when a dragon goes into a very long and deep sleep to transition from one stage to another. I was currently going from the newborn stage to the child stage.. at least I thought I was.


    As much as I wanted to take my time to think about things, my stomach was dying for food so I couldn''t help but speak to mother for the first time, "Mother.. hungry."


    Mother looked back at me, completely stunned that I talked, before finally saying, "Right let me go and get you some food before your sleep."


    She instantly disappeared from where she was, appearing down the hall and opening the door before dashing into the forest.


    I looked back towards the bison that was now simply a pile of bones except for the head.


    As my hunger grew, my instinct started to take over. I walked up and grabbed a rib of the bison before chomping down, shattering the bone as if it was nothing.


    *CrAcKkK*

 Chapter 7: The Dragon Sleep

    xx : xx x/x/xxxx (present) : Local Forest


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    "Why now.." My mind was in a wreck. "He hatched yesterday, how in the world is he already having his dragon sleep"


    Trying to think of a reason, I approached a large opening in the forest where there was almost always a Field Bison or two. -Huh.. where is everything..-


    At last, I finally noticed things were too quiet, I thought back and realized that I hadn''t even seen a rodent since I left the cave.


    "Roaaarr!!" Off in the distance, I heard a roar I was all to familiar with.


    "Tch, a wyvern.." A monster race with the same intelligence as a small bird.


    To dragon folk, wyverns were considered an invasive species since they would wreak havoc to the ecosystems they were exposed to. Over time, dragon folk have come to kill them on sight. -I didnt think they were in this forest..-


    Quickly flying towards the source of the roar, I spotted a gray colored wyvern eating a field Bison it had killed.


    "My child is going to starve because of you bastards!" Letting out some pent up frustration, I slammed my feet into the head of the wyvern.


    *CRUNCH*


    Its head got completely pulverized and the bison it was eating turned into a pool of blood and meat.


    -Tch.. no time..- Running out of time and unable to find any high nutrient species since the wyvern pushed them out, I hurriedly picked up the 8 meter wyvern with my mouth and flew as fast as possible back to the cave. "Bleh.." The taste of the wyvern was awful but I didn''t have a choice. -I''m sorry Vasilias.. I cant let you starve..-


    On my way back, I thought back to Vasilias saying he was hungry. -I guess I wasn''t imagining it when I thought he could understand what I was saying earlier.. he really did have ''intent'' already..-


    Believing he might be an unprecedented genius, I felt truly proud. -But now isn''t the time for that..-


    Shaking the thought out of my head I finally landed in front of the cave, the door was still open but there was something odd.


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    There was an incredibly strong suction of mana into the cave as a freezing cold air was flowing out forming a thin layer of frost on the door. -What the..-


    Without the time to ask questions, I sprinted through the doors and threw down the wyvern.


    As I looked towards the center of the room, I saw Vasilias standing on a pile of small crumb-like pieces of bone where the bison used to be as he naturally absorbed a massive sum of mana from the air.


    It was like all the heat in the room was sucked into him, the usual purple glow from between his scales and eyes had turned to a sky blue, but that wasn''t what caught my attention.


    On the ground by his mouth were the crumbs of something brightly colored -That bison had a core..-


    As Vasilias had the ferocious hunger of the dragon sleep cloud his mind, he ate everything left of the bison including the bones, skull, and brain.


    But this particular bison seemed to have had a ''core''.


    They had a chance to form when a creature had a huge excess of mana in its body. The excess mana would accumulate in its brain and form a colorful sphere that worked as a storage for the surplus mana in the creature. [1]


    -He ate the core..- Worry immediately filled me.


    I quickly looked over at Vasilias in horror as the massive accumulation of mana for the core was being absorbed into the body of a dragon that was barely a day old.


    The amount of mana, even the smallest of mana cores contained, was far too much for such a young dragon to handle. That amount of mana would act like a poison.


    Worried he was going to get mana poisoning, I rushed over, but Vasilias began moving again and dashed past me to the wyvern body.


    -What is that speed?!- He arrived at the body nearly instantly.


    Once he bit into the wyvern, the nearly freezing temperatures in the room started to finally stabilize, the glow between his scales returning to its original purple.


    -Oh right, Krystallo!- I quickly whipped around in a panic to see Krystallo still sleeping soundly with a thin layer of ice around her.


    -Oh thank the heavens..- After nearly having 3 heart attacks, I finally took a moment to sit down and breath.


    A few minutes later Vasilias finished the wyvern completely, the only exception being the bones and the head. "What a ridiculous appetite.."


    Turning around, Vasilias had his eyes half closed, looking incredibly sleepy.


    -Looks like his appetite is finally satisfied..- Before he fell asleep, I walked up and brought him back over to the pile of treasure.


    As I set him down, he muttered. "Thank you.. Mother.."


    "Just enjoy your rest sweetie" With my reassurance, Vasilias finally closed his eyes and went to sleep.


    With a moment to myself, I started to think about the cube artifact that caused so many issues. What was that cube.. it would give me a headache whenever I looked at it closely... It felt as if I was looking into something I shouldn''t..-


    After pondering about the various possibilities, I decided there wasn''t anything else I could do besides help Vasilias grow even if I knew everything the artifact did.


    I slowly looked over at Vasilias in a peaceful sleep next to the mound of treasure. -No matter what changed.. Ill make sure he grows up strong..-

 Chapter 8: A Dream?

    PLEASE DONT WORRY IF YOU DONT UNDERSTAND THE DETAILS! [1]


    Time Error - �D?�D???��?��???????????��?��???�D�D??? : Location Error - �D?�D?��?��?????????��?��?�D?�D?


    *FLASH* *GASP* ��Hah.. hah.. Hah���� I jolted awake to the sight of a blue sky. ��Hah�� hah���� Finally calming my breath after feeling like I woke up from a nightmare, I tried to look around.


    But I quickly found that I didn��t need to. I could already see.. everything. -W..woah��-


    I was laying on grass, in a field I had never seen before. -But.. calling this grass.. might not be accurate��-


    The world I was looking at was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was made up of what could only be described as raw information, as something akin to math, and geometry.


    But although it looked so unfathomably foreign, I could understand it.


    Looking closely at one of the blades of grass seemingly inside of my current, cloud-like body, I felt like there was something I was missing.. something I couldn��t see, yet I could manipulate.


    -What if I��- Focusing on the single blade of grass, I pulled an intangible string and saw the grass slowly begin to multiply into hundreds, then thousands, then millions of versions of itself, each almost identical to the one next to it, yet ever-so-slightly different.


    It took a moment, but eventually, I understood what I was seeing.


    I was looking at everywhere that blade of grass had ever been, where it was, and where it would ever be.. all at once.


    It only took an instant for the amount of information flowing into my consciousness to grow beyond what I could handle. ��AAGHH!�� I let out a helpless wail as I panicked and let go of the intangible string connected to the blade of grass. *Vwop*


    In an instant, the world froze once again.


    ��Hah.. hah.. Hah���� The world around me looked exactly like it did before I touched the ��string��, with every blade of grass, every cell, and every atom around me being in the exact same spot it was when I first woke up. -Maybe it��s best.. that I don��t touch that again��-


    Taking a moment to catch my breath, I subconsciously lifted my cloud-like body off the ground, with seemingly no effort in the slightest.


    It was so easy it caught me a little off guard. -W..woah��- I moved without restrictions. There was simply no momentum, no inertia, and most of all�� -No gravity��-


    But even though I wasn��t being affected by gravity, it was still there. My surroundings, from the blades of grass to the dust in the sky, were still being pulled by it. -But why��-


    As I idly thought to myself, I slowly rose into the sky to look around, but only saw a world that would look familiar, had it not been wrapped in a blanket made up of an infinite number of invisible ��strings�� just like the one I manipulated earlier.


    A part of me felt like I could move the whole blanket at once, but another part of me was fearful of what would happen if I did. -Maybe.. I should save that for another time��-


    Finally turning my attention away from the ground below me, I looked toward the distant horizon and finally noticed some small floating islands.


    But unlike everything else that was frozen, the blanket wrapped around the islands looked like it was being pulled, ever so gently, to allow the leaves in the trees to blow. ��W..woah����


    Unable to continue holding back my curiosity, I started flying toward the flowing island, until I got close enough to see ��something�� leaning up against the tree on it.


    -W..who��- It looked humanoid, and from what I could tell, was the being ��pulling the blanket��. -But I should definitely.. keep my distance��- The last thing I wanted was to piss off whatever that figure was. -Yeah.. let''s just��- Quickly yet carefully floating back toward the ground, the island fell back below the horizon, and I felt my ease start to dissipate. ��Hooh����


    But that was the last breath I could let out before I noticed something appear, just above the horizon.


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    ��Huh?�� Somehow managing to make out detail at an absurd distance, I met eyes with a stunningly beautiful black-haired woman in a bright white dress that was.. smiling at me.


    I froze instantly, unable to think through the noise of my own consciousness screaming at me. -That thing.. IS DANGEROUS!-


    But I didn��t even have an instant to pull myself back together before the monster in the form of a woman vanished.


    "Y????o???????????????? ???????f????e???????????????l????? ????f?????a???????m?????????i????????l??????????????a???????????" A mature woman��s ''voice,'' if it could even be called that, echoed through the frozen, unmoving air as the ''woman'' appeared next to me.


    I was completely unable to move at all. I was simply frozen. But eventually, after what felt like an eternity, I managed to speak in a shaky ��voice��. "W..wh..where a..am I..."


    "o????h???? ????y????????????? ??????d????o????????t???? ?????k?????????o?????????????" I somehow managed to understand ''don''t know?'' from the chaos of indescribable noises.


    I immediately tried to shake my head even though I didn''t really have one as I reluctantly responded. "N..no..."


    "?????? ???t???h???i???s???.???.??? ???t???c??????? ???y???o???u???r???e??? ???o???��??t??? ???o???f??? ???t???i???m???e???" Her expression that looked at me like I was her prey, turned annoyed in an instant.


    -I''m out of wha...- Before I could finish my thought ''it'' said something I managed to understand nearly entirely.


    It��s annoyed expression shifted to a forced smile in a flash. "I? ?g?u?e?s?s? ?I? ?w?i?l?l? ?h?a?v?e? ?t?o? ?w?a?i?t? ?u?n?t?i?l? ?n?e?x?t? ?t?i?m?e?.?.? ?i?f? ?y?o?u? ?l?i?v?e? ?t?h?a?t? ?l?o?n?g?.?.?.?"


    A wave of fear washed through my mind instantly, blocking any rational thought before my surroundings returned to black.


    ��HAH.. Hah.. hah���� Slowly managing to calm myself down and catch my breath in a seemingly empty, dark space, I took a moment to try and sort my thoughts. -I think I��m.. still alive��- ��Hah�� Hah�� Hooh����


    Finally calming my mind once again, I set aside the troubling matter of the woman and tried to start from the beginning. -Where.. was I��-


    A nearly infinite number of ideas and theories ripped through my mind the instant I let them, letting me more easily sort them into their varying levels of possibility.


    Before I knew it, I had winded down to just a few theories that managed to each fill the gaps in my understanding, but none of them were things I believed were possible. -Could that have been the fourth dimension?-


    Immediately thinking back to the complicated and impossible to fathom theories I read back on earth, things seemed to connect in many places, but not all. -If something in the fourth dimension can manipulate the flow of the third dimension, it would explain why everything was frozen, and why physics wouldn��t apply��-


    But there was an undeniable hole in that idea. -It doesn��t make sense for a 3rd-dimensional being like me to even exist there.. but I not only existed in it, I comprehended and.. manipulated it�� Even if I couldn''t exactly move it myself.. time was.. tangible��-


    It was something that, in theory, pointed to a somehow even more impossible conclusion. -If I could manipulate time.. and time is the law of the 3rd dimension.. then that would mean I was��-


    But my insane chain of thoughts that accumulated after burning through billions of theories shattered like glass before I could reach the end of them. "Mom, Bwother is up!"


    The unfamiliar child��s voice ripped through my mind in a flash and jolted me awake. *GASP* With a cold sweat I looked around in a panic. -Everything is.. normal...- Although it took a moment, the familiar room I was in managed to calm my nerves. -But it feels way smaller than it used to be��-


    Standing at just over 6 meters tall, I looked down to see a small white dragon sitting down, and looking up at me like a curious puppy.


    It was around 2 and a half meters tall but she looked just like Mother. -Is this.. Krystallo? Why is she so big now.. and why am I so much bigger?- (She was around 35cm or so before the dragon sleep)


    "Big Bwother is awake!" A huge, childish smile came to Krystallo��s face as she ran up and wrapped herself around my leg.


    It was an adorable sight but was still unable to lessen my lingering anxiety.


    Unsure of what to say, I turned and looked at Mother, but she just wore a smile forced through worry and anxiousness.


    Finally piecing together everything I saw around me, I finally muttered a few words. "M..mother���� My voice felt unfamiliar, but I tried to ignore it. ��How long was my sleep?"


    Mother''s forced smile faded immediately. "It''s been.. a year and 2 months..."


    "WHAT?!" My no-longer-childish voice boomed throughout the room.


    Seeing Krystallo suddenly shrivel up and tighten her grip on my leg, I leaned down and gently rubbed my cheek against hers.


    ��Sorry, Krystallo���� I was nervous I accidentally scared her, but thankfully, a warm smile returned to her face after a short moment.


    Mother wasn��t so easy to cheer up though. Looking back over at her, I noticed her expression started to warp as she struggled to hold back tears.


    Gently creeping over to me, she lowered her towering body and laid her head on mine. ��Th..thank you���� Her voice was weak. ��Thank you for waking up���� Finally letting her pent-up emotions flow, she started crying without tears. [2]


    Feeling truly awful for causing her so much worry and stress, I tried my best to comfort her. "I''m sorry for making you worry, Mother..." But it was truly terrible timing.


    My mind was still in a knot after the ��dream��, so I could only let her lean against me and cry. I could only give her the chance to let it all flow.


    It only took a moment for Krystallo��s smile to fade again as well. *sniffle* "Whaaaaaaa..."


    Slowly moving my wing around, I gently pressed it up against Krystallo��s back and embraced her.


    But even with all of the things that needed my attention, a dangerous thought still loomed in my mind. -What.. was that world...-

 Chapter 9: My Brother...

    xx : xx x/x/xxxx (present) : Home


    After letting my mother and sister let out their tears for a while, mother finally calmed down and sister had fallen asleep.


    "So.. what all did I miss.." Managing to put my thoughts about the dream to the side for a moment, I tried to make sure nothing major happened.


    Mother stood up and started walking to the side of the room. "Well, Krystallo went into her dragon sleep a little over two months after you did, hers lasted 4 months, which was already much longer than average.."


    "Well she seems to have grown quite a bit, she can speak somewhat fluently now."


    "Haha.. she definitely didn''t change as much as a certain someone though." she looked back at me with a face of worry before continuing. "How long.. did you know how to speak."


    "Well..." there was a moment of silence while I was thinking about what to do before deciding to just be honest.. "since I hatched mother.." I held my head low, feeling a little guilty after deceiving my own mother.


    "You really are an oddball aren''t you.." A heartwarming smile reappeared on her face.


    But it quickly disappeared when I asked a question I shouldn''t have. "What about my other sibling? The 3rd egg."


    Her face was completely washed with sadness, it only took me a moment to realize what that meant.


    "Oh... I''m sorry I shouldn''t hav-"


    Mother interrupted me. "He.. never hatched.." Female dragons can only lay eggs once in their life, and even the luckiest of mothers can only lay 4 eggs.


    She was already proud to have my sister and I but not having the 3rd egg hatch brought her pain.


    Mother stopped walking and sat down in front of a large silver egg on a pedestal. -So mother has already made a memorial..-


    There was text on the base of the white pedestal, ''In memory of Fengari Ragnarok'' my younger brother.


    I leaned down and gave a small prayer that he was in a better place now. -I got reincarnated so anything is possible.. I just hope his future is a bright one..-


    Looking up I saw mother looking at the memorial and holding back tears. "If there is anything I can do to help.. please just ask me Mother.." I really wanted to comfort her but I was unsure of how to do it.


    After a quick thought, I decided to go up and sit next to her.


    She looked over at me and gave her motherly smile which shook off some of my dark thoughts. "Well you woke up, there isn''t more I could ask for"


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    Seeing her love made me subconsciously smile back with a childish innocence.


    Hearing some rustling behind me I turn around and see that Krystallo had woken back up even though it had only been a few minutes.


    "What are you and mom doing bwother"


    Mother replied before I could. "Nothing sweetie."


    She turned around and walked over to Krystallo with a smile on her face so I followed suit. -No reason to stay sad thinking about the past.. I''ve got a gentle and loving mother and a clumsy yet cute sister to make happy!-


    Mother and Krystallo were walking side by side back to the middle of the room when my sister dropped a bombshell. "Mom.. why is bwother so much bigger.. and a diffewent cowor than me?"


    I tensed up at the question since even I didn''t know the reason besides, ''I touched some alien artifact'', but Mother was fast to respond. "You will know in due time, just remember that he will be the strongest dragon in the world!" She dodged the question in a slightly childish fashion making me not take it seriously but she looked back at me with a proud smile.


    Unsure how to respond, I just went along with it. "I don''t know about the strongest but I promise I''ll be at least strong enough to keep you two safe.." A childish confidence reappeared on my face for the first time in a while.


    "Hehe, then I will be stwonger than bwother" As she said that I felt like I could see a competative spark in her eye.


    -My goodness she is adorable..- "Ah right, a little off topic, Mother, how long till I can go outside?" I asked the question without thinking much of it but Mother froze.


    "Uhm.." She stuttered immediately as she tried to think of a way to dodge the question, but she wasn''t able to think of anything. "Haah.. I will let you two take a look outside, but you must promise me to not stray too far from the cave entrance." She said the last phrase in a very serious tone.


    My eyes lit up, for the first time since I was born I''ll be able to see what the outside looked like!


    Walking down the hallway, filled with anticipation I looked over towards Krystallo but she seemed nervous.


    "Are you nervous Krystallo?" I tried asking in a normal tone but it sounded mocking.


    "Hmph.. why would I be nervous" She desperately tried to hide her nervousness now that I pointed it out.


    Turning back to the massive doors at the end of the hallway, my heart was racing, my eyes filled with curiosity..


    The doors slowly swung open. -It looks.. oddly beautiful..- Although I was kind of disappointed at the plain sight, my incredibly improved vision made the sight beautiful.


    I hadn''t had the chance to appreciate it since I have been inside this whole time, but my vision was genuinely incredible.


    Every bug on a tree, how many veins each leaf had, I could even see extreme details in the bark on the tree line.


    "Wow.." the words slipped from my mouth as I observed the beauty in the details of the forest in front of the cave, but my sister didn''t seem to share my enthusiasm.


    "Id wather lay on the pile of mothers tweasure.."


    Mother responded before I could. "If you want to go back in, you can, but I''m going to stay out with Vasilias a little longer."


    "Hmph, fine then, I shall stay here to pwotect bwother." A face filled with confidence as she sat in the shade of the cave entrance.


    I decided to walk out of the cave to feel the sun but as soon as I stepped out of the shade a wave of warmth and comfort washed over me, to the point where I just plopped down.


    Just suddenly plopping down without warning scared mother and sister though. "Vasilias!"


    "Bwother!"


    As they run over to me I just lift up my head. "I''m fine.. the sun just feels.. really good."


    Mother understood my words but Krystallo was still in panic, seemingly misunderstanding. "Bwother! Don''t you dare die on me!!!!"

 Chapter 10: The Desire for Adventure!

    Late Afternoon - Spring : Home


    -Ahh the sun is pure bliss..- I was feeling truly relaxed, until my Krystallo yelled at me, seemingly misunderstanding something.


    "Bwother don''t you dare die on me!!!!"


    -Huh?-


    I quickly jolted up and saw her flying towards my face.


    I thought about dodging but I was too lazy to move out of the way.


    *thump*


    "Krystallo, I think you''re misunderstanding something.." I try to explain a little and set her down.. "I''m glad you''re worried about me though."


    She looked up at me in surprise. "Hmph, I don''t know what youre talking about.." She was quick to calm down and avert her eyes.


    "Pfft" I nearly couldn''t hold back my laugh.


    "Haha, it''s nice to see you two getting along." Mother finally said something after enjoying the atmosphere for a moment.


    Seeing her good mood, I decided it was a good opportunity for me to ask a certain question. "Mother, when can I go hunting?"


    I was super excited, full of hope just to get completely crushed by Mother. "It''s tradition to take you hunting on your 15th birthday.."


    -What?! I''m barely over 1 aren''t I?- I was a bit sad, but I understood why. -But most dragons at 15 are barely even bigger than I am currently.- "So.. do I really need to wait 14 more years before I can go hunting?"


    Seeing the sad look on my face, Mother tried to comfort me. "Well with how fast you''re growing that date might change. Most dragons at 15 are only around 10 or 11 meters, and you''re just 1 yet nearly that big already.."


    As she talked, I noticed something a bit off about the numbers. "But isn''t Kystallo already nearly 3 meters long? She is only 1 as well.."


    "Yeah, both you and your sister are growing faster than normal dragons.." She spoke to us with a face of concern, likely worried we were growing too fast.


    An idea popped into my head as I looked back towards mother with a gleam in my eye. "So can I go hunting with you once I get big enough then?"


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    "Ill.. think about it."


    Her response, although not exactly what I was looking for, was one step closer to a yes! "Woohoo!!" -I can''t wait!-


    But my sister didn''t seem to share my enthusiasm. "Why do you want to go hunting so bad.."


    "I want to start getting stronger as soon as possible to make sure I can protect you and Mother."


    Mother was quick to disagree though. "Sweetie, you should know from your inheritance [1] that we dragons get stronger as we age.."


    "Yes, but experience is an important part of strength!"


    "Haah, I''ll think about it.. I''m going to go get you two some evening snacks, so head back into the cave."


    "But.. the sun feels sooo gooood.. and there is only a few hours left of sunlight.." Pouting a little, I tried to ''convince'' mother to let me stay outside.


    "Nope, not a chance. It''s way too dangerous to be outside without me around.." She was very serious as she destroyed my hopes of staying outside and sunbathing. "When I get back we can come back outside if it is still light out, how about that?" Her usual gentle smile reappeared on her face.


    After realizing I wasn''t gonna get better conditions I reluctantly walked back inside, waiting for Mother to return.


    After around an hour, she returned and we went back outside for the rest of the day.


    I ended up quickly falling asleep under the comfort of the sun.


    Night quickly enveloped the sky and, no longer feeling the warmth of the sun, I got up and noticed it was already dark. -I definitely fell asleep didn''t I..-


    As I got up, I saw Krystallo next to me, waking up as well, but as I looked up to the sky with curiousity my breath is taken away.


    "Its.. beautiful.." The night sky in this world was unbelievably beautiful, no pollution plus a dragon''s eyes made it an incredibly surreal experience. I was completely entranced by the stars. The sky I could see wasn''t a dark abyss that you''d see from a city on Earth, but instead it looked like a whole different world.


    While I was still human, I loved space. I would love to theorize about complicated concepts in my free time, and space was an easy way to think about those theories because space was as close as we could get to the concept of infinity..


    It was an unknown world full of mysteries that we struggled to explain since we couldn''t travel to experience them first hand. -We couldn''t even leave our solar system with the exception of the voyager satellites.-


    Shaking me out of my daze, Krystallo said something that caught me off guard. "It looks like bwother.."


    Completely confused, I turned around to see what she was talking about, but she was also looking at the stars. -How could I look like space..- I looked down at myself to see the void-like scales with the blue and purple glow flowing between them.. -I can kind of see the resemblance.. but only in color..-


    I may have had lots of confidence after becoming a dragon, but it was nowhere near enough for me to think I was even comparable to the beauty of space.


    Maybe it was because I came from a world where we were beginning to explore and understand space, but space was something special to me that very few people would be able to understand.. especially in this world being that likely hasn''t reached that frontier.


    Being reincarnated to another world had already rekindled my thirst for adventure, but seeing the night sky made me crave it.. -What is the outside world like.. how strong are the creatures roaming this world.. what are the main races of this wide.. new world..- My rekindled desire to uncover the mysteries of this world exploded, all caused by looking into the starry night sky.

 Chapter 11: Snow Fight!

    Early Morning - Mid Winter : Home


    Time ended up slipping away.. we spent our days sunbathing, star gazing, eating, sleeping and simply spending time together for just short of 2 years until my sister and I''s 3rd birthday arrived.


    There was a thin layer of snow (around 30cm) on the ground and I got a fun idea. "Hey Krystallo, there is finally enough snow for a snow fight, weren''t you arguing with mother the other day? You can finally settle that disagreement, and I''ll be the judge to make sure neither of you cheat."


    Krystallos eyes lit up. *Gasp* Catching up to pace instantly, she darted over to mother and quickly asked for a snowball fight.


    "Ho~ so what are the rules?" Mother seemed interested as well.


    "All is fair!'''' Hearing Krystallos response, Mother gave an unusual smile that Krystallo didn''t seem to notice.


    Seeing them both ready I let them start preparing. "Okay, go ahead and start preparations!"


    Krystallo quickly began building a snow fort in preparation for Mother''s onslaught.


    As Krystallo was building what she believed to be an unbreakable wall, she finally looked over towards Mother. "Moommmm, that''s cheating!" She cried out as she saw Mother create a gigantic snow fort using magic.


    "Huhu, you never said I couldn''t use magic, isn''t that right judge?" She looked over at me with a smug smile


    "Haah.. yeah, Krystallo you never said she couldn''t." I''m not sure how but Krystallo forgot the one necessary rule for her to have a chance at winning.


    "But brother! I have no chance if she uses magic!"


    -I don''t think you''d have a chance anyways..- I was quite pessimistic about her chances of winning, although she had grown to 4.5 meters over the past 2 years, compared to mother, she was tiny.


    I had also grown to a whopping 9 meters, my growth slowed down a bit but I was still over double the size I should be.


    "Well maybe you''ll learn to be more thorough with your rules next time." I give a blunt answer with a smile.


    She was going to retort but Mother interrupted. "Your brother is very smart, you should take his advice sometimes."


    "Hmph.." Not wanting to agree she just went back to working on her snow fort.


    After a few hours, the sun was high in the sky and Krystallo had finally finished her fort.. if it could be called that.


    She had built a wall just big enough for her to lay behind so she could throw snowballs towards mother, simple but effective.


    Mother on the other hand... -ahh poor Krystallo..-


    Mother had built a massive fortress of dense snow with magic with tons of holes in the wall just big enough for a snowball to fit through. -Is she going to use magic to throw the balls through the holes?-


    The more I looked at it, the more I noticed how serious Mother was taking this. "Mother isn''t this a little much?" I spoke out of concern for my poor little sister''s pride.


    "She needs to learn this lesson before she challenges dragons her age during the festival." [1]


    "Well I guess it''s good for her to learn when there aren''t consequences for losing." I nodded my head as I agreed.


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    "Brother you''re supposed to pick my side!" Krystallo shot me a harsh glare.


    "Believe it or not, I am on your side.. the fight shall commence in 5 seconds!"


    Hearing my announcement, sister looked at mother like an enemy, as an opponent, but mother on the other hand was looking down on Krystallo with a smile full of pity.


    -Ahh.. well Krystallo is dead- "5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. FIGHT!"


    The second I started the fight, Mother launched a few hundred snowballs in quick succession through the holes in the wall.


    "But moooom.." A noise of complaint came from Krystallo as she saw Mother go all out, followed by the sound of hundreds of snowballs burying the poor child.


    "Mother was that really necessary?" I was worried it might destroy her pride, but it seems my worry wasn''t needed.


    Krystallo''s head shot out of the mound of snow, "If you didn''t use magic I would''ve won!"


    She was a little upset, but I was simply glad she didn''t get discouraged.


    Mother gave her an encouraging smile as she dismantled her fort, but she decided to throw a snowball while Mother had her defenses down.


    *puff* The snowball smacked against mothers cheek, stunning her for a second before she looked back at Krystallo.


    "Huh.. that''s not fair!!!" Above Krystallo was a massive 6 meter wide snow ball mother created.


    *puff* The massive snow ball fell onto my poor sister''s face, burying her under the snow again.


    "Haha!" I couldn''t hold back from laughing at my sister.


    Krystallo popped her head out of the mound of snow, glaring right at me. "Since you find it so funny, how about you challenge me brother" a greedy smile appeared on her face.


    I was quick to respond. "Challenge accepted!"


    An hour or so later I finished my base with the leftover scraps from mothers fortress.


    I had made a simple but effective fort, the center was tall with steep edges to the left and right so I could throw snowballs without showing my body and a hole towards the bottom to sneak out some cheap shots.


    Krystallo on the other hand built the same fort as she did for mother, a simple wall.


    -Hehe, it''s my victory..- Feeling very confident, I was looking forward to the fight.


    "Okay the fight will begin, now!" Mother was the referee for this fight and started the match without even asking if we were ready first.


    "Hehe, brother, are you afraid of losing? Quit hiding behind your wall!" She tried to antagonize me while I prepared a secret weapon.


    While preparing it, I picked up a small snowball with my tail and launched it from the bottom hole.


    *poof* The snowball smacked Krystallo right under the chin, "WHATTT?!" being completely unaware of how I threw it, she decided to just throw her snowballs as hard as she can against my fort to knock it over.


    But sadly I had finished my preparations!


    I reach down and picked up the huge 3 meter ''snowball'', getting ready to lob it over my fort and onto my sister.


    But she started her barrage before I could throw it. *thud* *thud* *thud* *thud*


    The snowballs were peppering my fort, slowly causing my wall to crumble, -Oh.. should I give her some false hope-


    Wanting to give her a crushing defeat.. my competitive spirit took over a little bit.


    As the wall began falling towards me I laid down to let it bury me, grabbing a snowball with my tail beforehand.


    *poomf* The wall fell and Krystallo thought she won, "see!! I told you I''d win!"


    But suddenly my tail appeared from the pile of snow, hurling a small snowball at her face.


    "You only act tou.." *thud* The snowball landed in her mouth as she was talking. *Coughing* "What a cheap shot.." Finally looking back up, she saw my tail wrapped around a 3 meter snow ball and a grin on my face sticking out of the snow.


    The sense of victory drained from her as I hurled the massive snowball at her. "Never celebrate too early!"


    *poomf* The snowball engulfed my sister, burying her for the 3rd time.


    Her head quickly popped back out though. "Mother didn''t I win when his fort fell?"


    Mother was smiling looking at her. "You may have lost but at least you learned two good life lessons today."


    "Hmph" Krystallo looked over at me, upon seeing my head held high with my eyes closed she quickly made a snowball and threw it at my face.


    Moving my head just slightly, I dodged the snowball and opened one eye. "Missed me." A mocking smile appeared on my face.


    "Hmph, I refuse to lose to you.."


    "Haha, well I''ll always accept your challenge." I gave her a warm smile as I walked up and patted her lightly on the head. -How can I let the one I''m supposed to protect be stronger than me..-

 Chapter 12: A Little Friend

    Early Morning - Mid Winter : Home


    "Haah.." Mother let out a sigh seeing me poke fun at Krystallo "You should be nicer to your sister Vasilias.."


    "Awe, I can''t poke fun at her once in a while?" I continued in a low voice so Krystallo couldn''t hear. "She��s obviously competitive so poking fun at her will just keep her motivated to grow stronger."


    "What am I going to do with you.. well Vasilias won. Krystallo, it may have sounded like a joke, but you do need to remember the lessons you learned today.. okay?"


    "Haah.. fine mom.."


    I looked at Krystallo with a warm smile when I remembered a question I had been holding for over a year. -Oh right, I''m finally 3- "Hey mom!" I hopped over to her with a pep in my step "Can I go hunting with you now that I''m big enough?"


    Mother looked away trying to avoid the question. "No, you''re only 3 Vasilias."


    "But I''m nearly half your height now!"


    "Size isn''t the problem anymore, you can''t even use magic yet since you''re still in your child phase."


    -Ah right.. forgot about that..- A dragon can��t use magic until they enter their adolescent phase (after child phase) because their attribute nodes and reserve have not grown in yet. [1]


    "Krystallo still has around 10 years till her next sleep, but you''re an oddball so who knows. Dragon''s your age should only be around 3 meters tall.. and that''s on the larger side.." She looked up and down the 9 meter tall 3 year old in front of her, seemingly at a loss of words.


    "So once I reach adolescence I''ll be able to hunt?" Excitement washed over my face as I waited for her answer.


    "Haah fine.. but until then, no hunting!"


    "Woohoo!" A childish joy filled my soul as I looked forward to the day I had my next dragon sleep.. -I''ll also hopefully get to figure out if that dream world was real as well... I''m not looking forward to that part though..-


    "Brother, next time, don''t take so long to wake up from your sleep.. you worried mom.." Krystallo was clearly worried about me too, but she didn''t want to show it for some reason.


    "He doesn''t have control over that sweetie.. although I hope you don''t take too long either... In the meantime, you should start looking for a place to lay down for your next sleep since it might be early again." Mother was worried, but she still gave a good suggestion.


    As I glanced around, I remembered a spot I noticed earlier. "How about up the mountain some, it looks like there is a flat spot just a little ways above the cave."


    "That''s not a bad idea but I need to clear the mountain of monsters first before we go check it out."


    "Can we go now?!" I was full of enthusiasm to explore some instead of just playing around in the small field in front of the cave.


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    Mother��s face was riddled with worry. "Haah. Okay.. let me clear it out then, just wait a second for me. Remember, if you see ANYTHING on the tree line, go back into the cave immediately!" She was very serious, but it was something she has told us several times over the years.


    "Of course.. we''ve spent all this time outside and nothing has even come close, don''t worry mother."


    Before she flew up the mountain she said something under her breath. "Just keep Krystallo safe." She shot me a glance of worry before disappearing behind a huge gust of wind.


    Seeing she already left, I got up and walked over to Krystallo who was still sitting in the pile of snow. "Your safety is now my responsibility." I quickly sat down next to her and placed a wing onto the mound of snow on top of her.


    "Hmph, I don''t need you to protect me.." Although she didn''t want to sit there, all embarrassed like that, she also didn''t want to tell me that she was stuck and couldn''t get out of the snow either.


    Not even 5 minutes later though, something actually appeared at the edge of the forest.


    It was.. -a puppy?- There was a small, pure white puppy at the edge of the forest walking towards us.


    Once it got moderately close, Krystallo saw it and started to panic. "BROTHER, why aren''t you doing anything?! It''s getting closer!" In total panic she burst out of the snow pile and darted into the cave.


    Once inside she stuck her head back out and glared at me. "Brother hurry up, mother said to run in if anything came out of the woods."


    The white wolf was barely big enough for its head to be above the snow, it was no threat.. but if its parents were around that might be a different story. -The edge of the forest is empty though..-


    "Brother!! Hurry up!" Krystallo was still yelling at me to come back inside but I had other plans.


    "I''ll stay here and make sure you''re safe, just stay inside." -It really is freakishly cute.- As it got a little closer, I laid down to give myself a low profile in an attempt to not scare the puppy.


    It had pure white fur with golden irises. A truly beautiful creature that blended in perfectly with the snow.


    As it got closer, it looked into my eyes but unlike what I expected, it kept moving towards me at a steady pace.


    "Brother if you get eaten I''m not gonna forgive you!" Krystallo still insisted that I came back into the cave, but I just ignored her.


    After only a second longer, the puppy got right in front of my face. It was so small that its whole body was smaller than my head but it wasn''t the slightest bit scared.


    Once he got close, he smelled me a little and simply sat down. -What does this little guy want.. I��ll give up anything to have it as a pet..-


    While I was unsure of what it wanted, I just assumed it was food.


    Slowly standing up, so as to not scare it away, I carefully walked over to the field bison corpse Krystallo was eating just outside the cave entrance.


    "Brother, that''s my food, don''t feed it to that creature!" Krystallos face was a mix of fear, panic and jealousy.


    "Shush, I''m thinking of a name for it." Wanting to make it my pet, I was trying to think of a name for it while ignoring her complaints.


    Gently biting down into the bison, I cleanly cut off a leg before creeping back to the puppy, setting the bloody leg in front of it.


    As I got close, it stood up and walked to the leg, letting out a cheerful bark as it chomped down.


    I laid my head down next to it to watch it eat while I thought of a name.


    -It seems to be a boy..- "How about Ilios?" [2]


    As I said that, it stopped eating and looked at me with its tail wagging. "Huff!" It made an adorable attempt at a bark after hearing his new name.


    A proud smile quickly appeared on my face seeing he liked it. "Hehe, you like it?"


    As I was drowning in the adorableness that was Ilios for a moment, he ran over to me and hopped onto the top of my head before laying down.


    A pure and childish happiness filled my soul seeing him get comfortable. -Hehe, he is so cute..-

 Chapter 13: Sorry Mother

    Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : Home


    Seeing Ilios casually lay down on my head, Krystallo started to creep outside the cave again.


    "Brother, how could you just let that creature jump onto your head.." Her voice was a bit shaky.


    Hearing her nervousness, I lifted my head up and looked at her. "It''s not just a random creature, this is Ilios!"


    "You named it?!"


    "Of course I did! He''s adorable, plus he''s just a puppy so as long as the parents aren''t around, it should be safe." I was still occasionally scanning the treeline to make sure its parents weren''t gonna come kill me but it had been completely silent. -Did something happen to his parents?-


    Krystallo gave me a nervous look. "But mom said-"


    "I''ll explain to Mother when she gets back. Just don''t worry about it and come say hi to him!"


    Successfully convincing her, she slowly started creeping towards him but when she got close, Ilios opened his eyes and glared at her. "That glare isn''t normal brother!" She immediately retreated while shaking a little bit.


    "Haah.. how could you be afraid of something so cute?" I looked up at him sitting on my head with a warm smile.


    *Bang* Catching me off guard, the ground suddenly shook and a huge amount of snow was launched into the air behind me.


    Whipping my head around to see what it was, I accidentally knocked Ilios off my head.


    As the plume of snow fell back to the ground, I saw Mother with a huge, blood covered panther looking creature in her mouth. "Haah, I cleared the mountain, so you ready to go look.. up the.. mountain.." Her worlds steadily slowed as she looked at me, noticing the little puppy climbing up onto my back


    -Oh it''s just Mother..- When the ground shook so violently, I was worried it was Ilios��s parents.


    "Vasilias, don''t move!�� She glared at Ilios with clear killing intent but he didn''t seem to care at all as he finished climbing up onto my back before laying down again.


    "Oh yeah, this is Ilios. Can I keep him, Mother?" Trying to give in to mothers desires I give the ''puppy eyes'' look.


    But Mother didn''t seem to understand what I meant anyways. "Keep it? Like as a slave?"


    "No, as a pet. He''s super cute isn''t he?"


    "A pet? What''s the point of keeping it if you don''t put it to work? Plus compared to us it''s an extremely weak species.. it''s only a Frost Wolf."


    "It''s for emotional support, Mother." I tried to explain a little bit more, but she simply didn''t understand.


    "Haah fine, but you need to release it at the edge of the forest before night so its parents don''t come here to look for it." Seemingly worried for the safety of Krystallo and I, she made a quick rule that I''d have to send it home to its parents every night.


    I glanced at Ilios laying on my back. -That should be fine..- "Well, back to the original topic, can we go up the mountain now?" My eagerness to explore quickly returned when Mother returned.


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    "Yeah, let''s go.. you too Krystallo."


    Krystallo was still in the cave with only her head stuck out the door before reluctantly coming out after hearing Mother call her.


    She had a guilty look on her face but I couldn''t tell why.


    ��Leave your pet here Vasilias.��


    -Ah right..- After thinking what to do for a minute, I walked over to the bison corpse and used my tail to pull him off my back and set him on the ground. "Here, you can snack on this if you want while I''m gone. I''ll be right back though!"


    Right as I set him down, I turned around to see Mother and Krystallo jumping off the ground to fly up the mountain. -This will be my first time flying!- A pure joy filled me as I''d finally get to experience flight, but I was slightly nervous.


    I wasn''t too worried about whether I could or not since dragons knew how to fly from their birth (thanks to the knowledge inheritance), but I was nervous nonetheless.


    Walking up to where Mother took off, I spread my wings and followed my instinct. Finally mentally prepared, I flapped my wings down as hard as I could while jumping up.


    *Fwoosh*


    As I catapulted myself up into the air, I noticed the ground below me vanish and watched as I zipped past Mother and Krystallo.


    "WHOOPS!" Quickly noticing what happened, I spread my wings to slow down as fast as possible before diving back down to Mother��s altitude.


    Finally making it to Mother��s side, I noticed she was staring at me in shock.


    I was getting ready to say something to break the silence but Krystallo did it first. "Hmph, I could do that too ya know.."


    Even after Krystallo said that, we flew the rest of the way in complete silence.


    Finally making it about halfway up the mountain, we landed on a fairly large flattened area.


    -Is this it?- It was quite a lot bigger than I thought it''d be and was an area with lots of direct sunlight, and sheer cliffs on all sides of it, making it pretty safe.


    -Its honestly perfect..- It was exactly what I was hoping for, the ideal spot for my next dragon sleep, but my endless curiosity was quickly sparked. "Mother, can we go all the way to the top?"


    The mountain had a single tall peak, but I wanted to get a better view of the area since I didn''t get a good look earlier when I flew too high.


    Mother was clearly reluctant and wanted to dodge the question but she caved after a moment. "..sure.. But you must stick closely to me, there have been some pesky birds flying around recently."


    I didn''t think much of it and quickly followed her up the mountain.


    The peak of the mountain was also very flat, almost as if the peak got cut off by something, it was an unusually flat surface around 100 meters across.


    Getting a crazy idea I whipped around to Mother with a gleam in my eye. "Mother! Could I-"


    "No!" She harshly cut me off with a serious look, completely anticipating what I was going to ask.


    -Awe..- It was a bit disappointing but it was nothing to be sad over.


    Turning away from her again, I walked back towards the edge of the peak and finally noticed the stunning view.


    Looking down the mountainside, I could see the snow covered clearing in front of the cave and the edge of the bordering forest which stretched to the horizon.


    There was something odd though. -Is this mountain out on a peninsula?- I could see cliffs around the edge of the forest followed by an endless ocean.


    Walking along the edge of the peak to the other side, I noticed that the mountain simply dropped into the ocean.


    "Mother is where we live, a peninsula or an island?" I asked out of curiosity without thinking.


    "We live on a rather Isolated Peninsula. Since the cliffs are so tall and the forest has some dangerous creatures living in it, other intelligent species avoid it."


    Krystallo immediately became worried and scared as she misunderstood. "Even dangerous to mom?"


    "No sweetie, we dragons are the strongest of this world! Plus even though I''m.. older.. I''m also stronger than those my age, so you have nothing to worry about!" She leaned down and pressed her head against Krystallo to comfort her


    Then, letting my curiosity speak again, I asked something stupid. "How old are you mother?"


    She froze, giving me a cold glare before taking a deep breath and smiling. "Haah.. I''m a nice and ripe 98 years old!" Her demeanor changed as she lightly slapped me with her tail. "For future reference, never ask a woman her age. Okay sweetie?"


    A chill quickly found its way down my back as I shivered. -G..good to know..-

 Chapter 14: The Time has Come

    Early Evening - Mid Winter : Peak of the Mountain


    As we sat on the top of the mountain overlooking the ocean, we talked casually for a while until the sun started to set.


    As the sun approached the horizon, the sky slowly turned from a deep blue to a stunning light orange.


    -Wow..- The sunset was so beautiful that all three of us went completely silent.


    "It really is a pretty sunset tonight.." Even Mother seemed surprised how pretty it was.


    -So it''s beautiful even for this world huh..- I partially thought that this world''s sunsets would simply be beautiful more often since everything I had seen in this world so far had been far more beautiful than earth, but that was a thoughtless assumption.


    As we watched the sun set further below the horizon, I started to reminisce about everything that had happened since I got reincarnated.


    -It''s only been 3 years, but I already have so many fun memories with my new family. Krystallo is a clumsy mess sometimes but she is also my cute little sister, and Mother is always so caring for us, it even feels like she spoils us..-


    My mind was filled with happy thoughts, a loving warmth like no other filled me as I laid down.


    Once the sunset started setting below the horizon, my eyes slowly started getting heavier before I fell asleep.


    After that, time continued to flow. The next morning, Mother woke us up and we headed back down the mountain where I found Ilios waiting for me.


    Mother wasn''t too happy with him at first but overtime he had steadily become a part of the family. Both Mother and Krystallo loved doting and playing with him after a while, but he always stuck next to me and would never leave line of sight for some reason.


    After that, time kept slipping away. I spent all of my time either playing with Ilios or Krystallo, sleeping, or watching sunsets and stargazing with Mother.


    The time I spent was fun and peaceful, but before I knew it, 5 years had passed.


    It was Krystallo and I''s 8th birthday.


    I had grown to 15 meters tall and Krystallo had grown to 7 meters. We were both already significantly bigger than our ages but my next dragon sleep was just going to make that all the more extreme.


    Neither of us had experienced any dragon sleeps or growth over the 5 years that passed, but over the past few months, my hunger had been growing exponentially.


    Mother said it was a sign that my dragon sleep was coming and had been stockpiling huge amounts of food in preparation, but with how big I was now, that food was a massive pile.


    Ilios, who had grown to nearly 2 and a half meters long now, still stuck to me like a magnet and wouldn''t leave my side.


    Mother was a bit worried that he would get caught up in my dragon sleep but I kept telling her it would be alright. Little did I know, he would.


    We were currently on the top of the mountain watching the sunset which although beautiful, was nothing particularly stunning, but once it had fully set and night came.. my hunger hit like a wave.


    My pupils shrank and my body felt like it was eating itself. I needed to eat, and soon.


    "Mother, I think it''s my sleep!" As I jumped up, I did all I could to not lose myself to my instincts and looked towards Mother.


    Without hesitating she darted down the mountain and defrosted the pile of food (she froze the bodies to preserve them) by the area where we agreed to have my sleep.


    Speeding down the mountain, I slammed into the ground next to the pile of food and started devouring it immediately.


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    The pile was mostly field bison which tasted great and two of them even had cores, but I didn''t care. I was far too hungry to be able to taste anything.


    After eating nearly the entire pile of bodies, bones and all, I finally felt a wave of sluggishness and moved to the middle of the flat area. Figuring it was as good of a spot as any, I quickly curled up and let myself drift into a deep sleep.


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    "Haah, what am I gonna do with him..�� -That was enough food to feed an adult getting ready to become an elder but he ate nearly all of it..- Looking over at him with a smile of slight worry, I started to prepare myself for him to have another ''abnormally long'' dragon sleep.


    Krystallo was still sitting on the mountain peak looking down at the scene in awe.


    Figuring there was nothing else I could do for Vasilias, I flew back up the mountain to join up with Krystallo.


    ��Is Brother��s appetite normal?�� Krystallo looked up at me with her childish innocence.


    ��Haha, not at all sweetie, but that hunger means he will grow even bigger and stronger!�� Although I was anxious about it, it was also true that his abnormal growth and hunger would make his growth even more exponential than normal dragons.


    ��If I eat more, will I be able to be as strong as him?�� Krystallo looked up at me with an adorable gleam in her eyes.


    ��Of course sweetie!�� I lowered my head and rubbed my cheek against hers for a minute when I noticed something abnormal. -Mana suction already?-


    I quickly straightened myself up and looked down towards Vasilias.


    -We are nearly 2 kilometers away and he is still sucking it in..- I couldn''t help but watch the scene in awe. There was an absolutely monumental sum of mana being sucked towards Vasilias, far more than even a normal dragon moving to the elder stage could absorb.


    The mana concentration around him started increasing several fold to the point where even Krystallo realized something was wrong. "Is.. is Brother going to be okay.." Even though she didn''t know why, her intuition said it was a bad situation.


    "He will be fine.. you must not remember the start of his first dragon sleep since you were asleep but he sucked in a crazy amount of mana then too." -I highly doubt he will get mana poisoning.. Even from this..-


    Although Krystallo didn''t understand that she was feeling, her intuition told her it was something ridiculous. "What kind of monster is Brother.." She said it without thinking and didn''t quite realize what she said.. But I couldn''t really disagree.


    "Haah.. I have no idea.. but it''s not good to call your brother a monster Krystallo.."


    She immediately felt sorry after realizing what she said but her actions were interrupted as she saw a white creature dash down the mountain. "Wait Ilios!" She spread her wings and got ready to go stop him but I put my wing in front of her before she could move.


    "He should be fine, the dense mana accumulating around Vasilias should be somewhat beneficial to him.. he could even evolve if he is lucky." [1]


    After a short moment, Ilios finally reached where Vasilias was sleeping and curled up next to him.


    After watching for a while longer, Krystallo started to get anxious, but thankfully not about Vasilias. "Mom.. how long till I have my dragon sleep?" She looked up at me with determined eyes, not wanting to fall too far behind her brother.


    -How cute..- "I''m not sure, but likely before he wakes up from this sleep. If his last sleep is anything to go by, this one will take far longer than normal too.."


    While getting caught in my own thoughts, I glanced down the mountain and saw a sphere of mana forming around Vasilias, so dense that it could be seen with the naked eye.


    "Just what in the world.." I couldn''t help but freeze from awe.


    Just before the visible mana encompassed Ilios, he hopped up and ran out of the ball of mana, thankfully not getting caught up in it.


    -That''s enough mana to poison me.. and I''m nearly 100 years old�� Just what kind of monster will he be when he wakes up..-


    Finally snapping out of my thoughts, I was slightly ashamed that I thought of him as a monster but it wasn''t the time to worry about that.


    I quickly grabbed Krystallo and started moving down the mountain, being sure to use magic to keep the mana away from Krystallo since it was so dense it would be extremely poisonous even if she was exposed only for a second.


    Finally arriving at the entrance of the cave, I dispelled the barrier and Krystallo felt the massive change in mana density.


    "Mom.. can brother really handle that.." She was exceptionally concerned seeing me, who she believed to be the strongest, start sweating just from flying around it.


    "I hope so.. because if he can''t there isn''t anything I can do to save him..." Worry was written all over my face as I looked up the mountain at the ever growing sphere of mana.


    Looking back down I noticed the doors to the cave were slightly open. -Hm?-


    I quickly made my way up and opened the door to see Ilios collapsed and panting heavily.


    "Sh*t! He got mana poisoning!" I acted as quickly as I could, immediately coming to Ilios''s side and getting ready to cast magic but before I could, Ilios started sucking in even more mana.


    -What?!- Although nothing like the suction from Vasilias, it was nothing to scoff at.


    I couldn''t help but stare at Ilios in shock. -Is he actually going to evolve.. Just like that?-

 Chapter 15: What am I..

    Time Error - �D?�D???��?��???????????��?��???�D�D??? : Location Error - �D???�D???��???i???n???v???a???l???i???d???�D???�D???


    ��Mmmm..�� As I slowly opened my eyes, I found myself in a familiar, time-frozen field. -So it was real..-


    I looked over and saw that the floating island had moved much closer, but I don''t see the ''woman'' anywhere around it. I didn''t see any creatures for that matter.


    -If I could avoid running into anything that''d be great..- I just wanted to look around and explore some.


    Double checking to make sure nothing was around I checked myself out.


    My body was much more defined than last time but was still only in shape.


    My body was much more human shaped but I had two pointy things on the top of my head and a tail of some kind. -Are those horns or animal ears?- I tried to reach up and touch them but my hand simply phased through them.


    ��Haah..�� -What am I even made of..-


    Even though my body was somewhat humanoid now, it was still just an amalgamation of ''black lines'' so I had no clue what I was. -But.. if anything its an improvement from the last ''dream''..-


    After finishing checking myself out, I started moving away from the floating island as fast as I could. I simply wanted to avoid that ''woman'' at all costs.


    -I''m way faster now..- An odd feeling of euphoria filled my body as I was zooming across the open plain.


    I was moving far faster than a jet, the islands behind me quickly disappeared over the horizon and only a few minutes later, I found something new. It was a large forest with extremely thick trees, similar to live oaks except without the drooping branches.


    As I got closer to the forest though, time started to flow again. -What causes that.. Does it mean I''m approaching another being with greater control of time?- Although a complete guess, looking at my past experience with the woman, it was entirely possible.


    On top of that, the forest didn''t feel as dead as the field.


    There were definitely living things in the forest, I could feel their presences but none of them seemed dangerous so I didn''t hesitate to explore.


    As I was moving through the forest, time continued to speed up until it seemed to pass like normal.


    *CrAsH*


    -What was that?- It sounded like a tree fell in the distance but it was just a guess.


    To go check it out, I quickly flew up above the canopy and dashed towards the source of the sound.


    Only a short moment later, I found a collapsed tree and an opening in the canopy.


    As I flew back below the shield of leaves, I found a large black creature. -It looks similar to me..- It was made up of the same seemingly random black lines just like me, but it was in the shape of a big bear.


    I could also see everything in its body. Although it was made of the same black lines, I could see it had several familiar organs mostly only being vitals.


    The disgusting part was that I could see everything inside each organ all at once too. It was a surreal but disgusting experience.


    As I was trying to figure out what to do about it, it glared at me and let out a deep growl before lunging at me.


    -He feels really slow..- I easily moved to the ground to let it just slam into the tree but at the last second it turned and jumped off the tree towards me.


    It caught me a little off guard so I wanted to punch it, but my intuition told me that would be beyond overkill.


    Instead, I just tapped my hand on its head.


    *CRA-WHAM*


    The ground shattered and trees near us had all of their bark stripped off from the shockwave.


    The ''creature'' had been completely obliterated, the black lines that made up its body dissipated and its organs were all shredded and spread all over the ground.


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    I couldn''t help but stare at the scene wide eyed for a moment. The power of my hit was so far out of expectation it made me freeze but at the same time it felt truly incredible.


    -My god�� Now I know why all those villains in those stories would get drunk on their powers.. that feeling is.. addicting..-


    I ended up standing there for a moment longer trying not to get hooked on the incredible sensation that filled me but after a minute or so, I got moving again.


    -Was that the only creature here?- I had been looking around for several minutes and couldn''t even sense anything living nearby.


    -I guess I''ll look somewhere else..- Flying back above the canopy, I tried to look for anything interesting and flew around for a while before I stumbled across a small clearing a few kilometers away.


    As I got close to the clearing I could see a small building in the middle and sensed a couple presences. The hut looked like a simple small cottage, something like a witch''s hut.


    I flew around and looked at it from a few different angles before figuring it was best to leave someone else''s property alone.


    Before I could leave though, I felt the two weak presences nearby start approaching and heard someone talking.


    "Grandfather, did you hear that explosion earlier?" A distant youthful voice filled the air.


    -It sounds.. normal..- Thinking back to when the ''woman'' talked, it was a completely unknown language, but here, it sounded foreign but familiar.


    After digging through memories for a moment, I remembered. -It��s english!-


    With my interest and curiosity piqued, I got closer until I could see them. There, walking down a clear pathway through the forest was a young girl and an old Dumbledore looking guy.


    "Yes, it''s my first time feeling such a powerful shockwave, we should put up some extra barriers to help hide us... Whatever made that noise is on a completely different level from anything I can even think of.. it could probably destroy nations, let alone my old self."


    "But you''re so strong gramps!" The young girl''s voice was full of admiration.


    "Haah, you were from a world without magic so of course you''d think I am strong, but there are several creatures in this forest alone that could kill me like I was a bug." The old man casually glanced up in my direction but it didn''t seem to be able to see me.


    My mind got caught on several other things though. -Wait, ��the world she is from��?!- My mind was in a complete mess as I tried to think of the different possibilities.


    It wasn''t until I took a deep breath and calmed my thoughts that an idea came to mind. -Wait what if this is the same world that my actual body is in? What if the 4th dimension just layers the 3rd in an invisible blanket?-


    It was only a theory, but it was entirely possible.


    -But wait.. if this is the world I know of.. then what am I right now?- I was once again set back to a basic question I still couldn''t answer.


    -My body isn''t physical and I can''t seem to interact with things like the trees directly, but that creature I blew apart.. the shockwave from it being slammed into the ground damaged the trees and ground. It also clearly had momentum but I don''t.. Even when I let time flow..- The more I tried to answer questions, the more that surfaced.


    "Haah, whatever.." Letting out a deep and agitated sigh, I gave up on trying to think of answers for a moment and floated over to the hut.


    -I guess it can''t hurt to take a look, maybe I could get a clue.. to.. anything..- I was honestly desperate for answers of any kind but just before I got to the edge of the clearing again, time suddenly froze and I heard a voice I was all too familiar with.


    "A?r???e???n???t??? ???h???u???m???a???n???s??? ???i???n???t???e???r???e???s???t???i???n???g????" The mature voice resounded through my body, sending a chill down my spine and scaring the hell out of me.


    -Good lord.. I need to calm down..- As I tried to catch my breath, she started talking again.


    "I like the look in your eyes~ You look at them like ants, just like you should."


    -I guess I learned whatever awful language that is..- Finally managing to catch my breath, I decided to just play it cool as if I didn''t nearly sh*t myself. "What do you mean by that?"


    "You look at them as worthless beings, ones that are far inferior to yourself."


    The meaning in her words was simple, but a part of me resonated with it. "Of course I would, I''m a dragon after all." I had moved on from the mindset of a human many years ago, I had become a dragon through and through.


    "Oh? You should look down on dragons too though, they are inferior to you too~"


    -Welp you lost me..- "How could I think my own species is inferior to me. I may be a dragon but I''m not that self confident.." I was genuinely confused, my fear had already dissipated and now I was just trying to get some answers out of her.


    "That''s because you''re only a dragon on the outside cutie~, and unless you somehow modified your body to handle it, even a dragon''s body won''t be able to handle what you really are.�� She reached out and set her hand on my chest. ��Your vessel [1] would crumble before you could do anything since you''re a rather.. special existence"


    She just made me more confused, with every question she answered, she just raised 5 more for me to ask. "What does that mean?"


    "Well~, you''ll find out in due time. Here.. before you leave." She slowly moved her hand up towards my neck before a soothing sensation coursed through me as my body became stronger and more defined once again.


    The sensation felt heavenly but I was too nervous to enjoy it. "What did you just do.."


    "Hmm~ Let''s call it.. some repairs" She said it with an innocent smile, but it just made me all the more suspicious.


    "Why are you being so nice to me.. I know you''re strong enough to simply dispose of me.."


    "Well let''s say I find you interesting, how about that?" She leaned down and looked into my eyes with her void-like pupils.


    It felt like she was looking into my soul, they were so dark it was terrifying. I felt like I was going to be swallowed by the darkness in them but she blinked and broke the trance.


    "Well your growth was good, but it should be better, so I''ll leave you with one last present." She casually reached out towards my face but my body screamed at me to move.


    I was frozen though, I couldn''t move no matter how hard I tried until she grabbed my face and everything returned to black.

 Chapter 16: This Idiot..

    Early Morning - Mid Spring : Shelf On Mountain-side


    ��Ugh..�� I woke up with a sore body but I felt full of energy.


    Before I fully opened my eyes though, I took a minute to sort my thoughts.


    I tried to figure out what the ''woman'' did to me as well, but I felt nothing that stood out. There was definitely something, but I simply couldn''t put my finger on it.


    ��Haah.. whatever..�� -I''m sure I''ll figure it out at some point..-


    Finally looking at myself, I noticed that I had gotten significantly bigger. I was now around 23 meters tall and I felt incomparably stronger than before.


    I slowly stood up and started stretching before getting interrupted by an unfamiliar male voice behind me. "Get away from my family you bastard!"


    Feeling a threat, my instinct kicked in and I retaliated before seeing who it was.


    *CRACK-BANG*


    I whipped my tail around and slammed the creature into the side of the mountain.


    A loud banng resounded through the entire mountain.


    -The hell was that?!- Turning around as fast as I could, I saw a huge snow white dragon embedded a few meters into the wall.


    "Who the hell are you?" I got irritated since someone interrupted my stretch, the glow between my scales turned orange and red along with my irises as a rippling heat was exuded from my body.


    I was prepared for a fight but before I acted I noticed the dragon had completely stopped moving. -There is no way that he��s dead right?-


    As I stood there, unsure of what to do, Mother flew out of the cave at the bottom of the mountain.


    "Vasilias what''s going on?!" There was a look of concern on her face after feeling the slight shake of the mountain.


    "I don''t know, I just woke up and some random dragon tried to attack me."


    Mother��s anger quickly exploded as she prepared herself to kill whoever the dragon was.


    She quickly started flying up the mountain as fast as possible.


    "I''d like to see who dares hurt my-" As she got high enough to see the dragon embedded into the ground though, she froze and let out a sigh. "Haah.. Honey.. what the hell are you doing.."


    The white dragon started moving again, quickly popping its head out of the wall. "I should be asking that! Who is this?! Are you cheating on me!?"


    Mother visibly held back her anger before casually walking up and putting her foot on his head, driving it back into the wall with a stomp.


    *Crunch*


    "That''s Vasilias you dumbass! Your son!"


    I just sat there, stunned. My scales glow and my irises returned to their normal purple and blue as I watched the scene in complete confusion. -This idiot is my father?-


    "Mom! Can I come outside?" Krystallo yelled out of the cave, wanting to see what was happening.


    "Sure sweetie.." Mother answered Krystallo with her hand on her head, likely contemplating how to explain this situation.


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    Finally flying out of the cave, I noticed Krystallo had grown to nearly 9 meters and there were feathers on the back of her head on her wings that had started to grow in.


    -She��s starting to look more and more like Mother..- It was good to see her again, but there was an urgent question I needed to ask. "Mother, is this.. seriously my father?"


    "Sadly yes.. thank the heavens he came a few months late.." She glanced over at Father with visible irritation.


    "What? Why?"


    "If he came earlier and thought you were some evil dragon like that, he probably would''ve tried to attack you as soon as you finished absorbing that ball of mana which would have interrupted your sleep..." Mothers face was covered in worry.


    "Ball of mana?"


    "When you started your sleep, you started sucking in a ridiculous amount of mana, to the point where I could see it with my naked eye. It wasn''t until a few weeks ago that you actually managed to absorb it all."


    Father still hasn''t moved so mother reached down and dragged him out of the hole.


    *Crumble*


    "Mother, I know father was rude, but I''m uninjured.. you didn''t need to knock him out.."


    "He likes it when I''m rough, it''s fine."


    "Pfft Hahaha!!" I couldn''t hold back my laughter, but after letting it out for a minute I straightened back up to ask about a more pressing matter. "So how long was my sleep this time?"


    "Just over 2 years.."


    "Oh..�� My mood quickly darkened. ��Sorry if I made you worry again.." I felt a little guilty thinking back to how much she worried during my last sleep.


    "I was expecting it, although that concentration of mana was concerning, everything turned out well didn''t it?�� She looked at me with a grateful smile. ��You''re nearly as big as me, and after seeing what you did to your father, you''re stronger than your size too."


    Father was around 28 meters tall but my tail still completely overpowered him. "I guess that''s true, but I have a long way to go to get stronger... Oh right!! Magic!!" -How could I have forgotten!-


    "Haah, let''s bring this idiot down the mountain and figure out the situation before I teach you."


    Krystallo finally made it up to us just as we were about to leave. "Mom, is this Father?"


    "Haah yes Krystallo, I''ll explain a little better while Vasilias brings him to the bottom of the mountain." She gave me an odd look with her last statement.


    -Ah I guess that was her hint..- After moving over and picking up Father, I hopped off the ground and glided down the mountain. -He��s.. oddly light..-


    Once I reached the bottom of the mountain, I set him down in front of the cave.


    -Hehehe..- I stood there with a childish excitement, I was filled with anticipation while waiting for mother to come down the mountain and teach me some magic.


    "Ugh.." Groaning while getting up, Father looked at me in shock as I gave him a scornful look.


    "Good morning father.." My voice was no longer childish, it didn''t belong to a 10 year old dragon, but instead sounded like a young adult''s voice.


    "Are you really Vasilias?"


    "The one and only.."


    "What.. happened to you.." He spoke with a sense of worry, unlike what I expected.


    "No idea.. all I know is the day I hatched I touched a purple tesseract which made some.. ''changes''.." I considered saying ''repairs'' but I was unsure how he would react to that. [1]


    "Tesseract?"


    "A cube looking thing, it was towards the bottom of mothers mound of treasure."


    "Oh that artifact?"


    Finally getting a hint at what that thing was, I threw all bias I had against him away instantly. "Where did you get it?"


    "I got it from a large human kingdom north of the western continent when I was younger as payment for helping them win a war. I was disguised as a wandering adventurer at the time." [2]


    "Was there anything special they knew about it?"


    "They said it was an artifact of the gods. They found it in a heaven rock [3] and whenever anyone would look at it for too long, it would make them lose consciousness."


    -So it came from space. It''s not much of a hint but it''s a step in the right direction I guess..- "Haah.. whatever�� -I guess I''ll need to look into that kingdom more when I get the chance..- ��What was the name of the Kingdom?��


    "I believe the humans call it the Holy Kingdom"


    -Ah hell..- Hearing the name I knew it was going to be much more of a pain in the ass than I was anticipating.


    After a moment of silence, Father continued. "Well other than that, where is Krystallo and Fengari?"


    "Krystallo is up the mountain with Mother." I lightly motioned up the mountain where Krystallo and Mother had started flying down to us.


    A slightly saddened expression came to my face seeing his odd excitement. -He doesn''t know about Fengari.. Does he..-

 Chapter 17: A Rebellion..

    Early Afternoon - Mid Spring : Home


    "Brother are you okay?!" As soon as she landed, Krystallo rushed over to me.


    "Im fine, Im fine.�� I lightly rubbed her head a bit to comfort her a bit before realizing I was forgetting someone.


    -Oh wait, where is Ilios?!- I quickly looked around but didn''t see him anywhere, making me panic a bit.


    ��Where is Ilios?" I was worried something might have happened to him while I was asleep.


    "He��s in the forest.�� Mother walked over and glanced towards the tree line. ��After he evolved he started going into the forest but we don''t know why."


    -Wait what?- "Evolved?"


    "I''ll explain all of that to you later, just be patient for now.. we have a more important subject to talk about." She glared at Father with an annoyed look.


    Catching her glare, he quickly averted his eyes. Instead of looking like a mighty dragon, he looked like a mouse in front of a lion.


    There was a short silence before mother started her.. interrogation. "So after not coming to visit for 10 years.. you came and attacked Vasilias on sight. I know you''re not the type of dragon to make a rash decision like attacking before figuring out who the enemy is.. so why?"


    Father finally lifted his head a little except he wore a serious look this time. "Right.. About that. There has been a rebellion among the dragons.."


    Mother froze. "What? What group dared-"


    "The half breeds.." They were a race of dragons that weren��t pure.


    Put simply, they were a dragon race where one parent was a dragon, and the other was some other mixed race.


    More often than not, they were a male dragon and a female from some other race, with the birth of the child resulting in the death of the non-dragon mother. They were known as the Halfies, or the Half Breeds.


    They were not nearly as strong as pure dragons but their mating cycles were far shorter which allowed them to lay more than one batch of eggs in their life.


    Over time, this caused a huge population difference to develop which most pure dragons were not fond of.


    The Halfies were viewed in a distasteful light by pure dragons and were incredibly discriminated against, but they accepted coexisting anyways so they wouldn''t be pushed out of Bahamut and get wiped out by adventurers or other dragons.


    The discrimination against halfies was so deep that even I felt a bit of disgust just from my knowledge inheritance.


    Mother wasn''t much different. "So they��re just accepting their fate aren''t they.. Have they made any moves yet?"


    "Haah.. yeah. They seemed pretty confident about it too. They took the initiative to attack a few of the housing islands before spreading word of the rebellion. One of the elders even had to step in to make sure there were no casualties but a couple still died." Father showed a slightly annoyed expression.


    "Haah.. I guess that makes some sense of why you attacked Vasilias now... He looks vastly different from those dumb*ss halfies though. Just look at him a little closer, he is a truly.. beautiful dragon.." Mother glanced over at me with a trance-like look before changing back to her motherly smile.


    The way she sounded made me incredibly uncomfortable but her pure motherly smile soothed everything.


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    Seeing Father look at me closely, I sat up straight and held my head high to pose a little.


    As he looked at me, it seemed like he got stuck in a trance before he finally snapped back out of it. "I guess you''re right.. I.. I should''ve looked a little closer.." He looked away with a guilty expression.


    He was clearly sorry but Mother wasn''t going to let him go freely. "I''ll forgive you if you get me a nice dinner on the main island." She gave him a sly smile.


    "Of course!" Father looked up at her with a gleam in his eyes.


    It was a bit odd to see a massive dragon act like a young boy, but it was somehow cute.


    After enjoying the moment for a second, Mother got back to the more serious matter. "So what was the order from the elders?"


    ��Ahem..�� As if the previous scene never happened, Father snapped back to a serious expression. "They gave a kill on sight order for the Halfies involved in the rebellion, the ones with the elves and the ones in the western continent aren��t involved.. At least not currently."


    "Haah.. so this is a big deal isn''t it�� Are humanoid nations involved at all?"


    "There isn''t any hard proof yet, but it is suspected a few smaller human nations are backing them."


    Mother��s complexion darkened as she started getting more annoyed. "Those ants must think we (pure dragons) are the same as the halfies..." Mother quickly took a deep breath and calmed down before continuing. "Haah.. So when do you have to go back again? This news makes it seem like you just came to tell me about it.."


    "I��ll only be able to stay here for a year before I need to go back and help address the various issues with the Halfies as well as work some of the numbers out for the festival."


    "Haah.. that should be fine.." Mother seemed really disappointed but she didn''t have a choice but to accept it.


    During the short silence, a smile quickly overtook Fathers face.


    -What did he think of..-


    "So where is Fengari?" He asked with a cheerful look.


    Both Mother and I tensed up immediately.


    ��Hm?�� Father seemed confused for a moment before realizing what the look on mothers face meant.


    Her face was darkened and covered with a thick layer of sadness. Before Father could say anything, Mother got up and started walking into the cave. "Follow me.."


    Father��s face was washed with worry as he slowly got up and nervously followed her inside.


    Krystallo also got up to follow but I stopped her from going in. "Let them have a moment to themselves.."


    "Why?" Krystallo wasn''t reading the mood at all.


    "You''ll understand once you get older.." I gave a slightly forced smile.


    Krystallo went on to say something but I noticed something on the tree line.


    There was a huge white wolf, around 5 meters long, staring at us.


    Somehow though, I recognized his face. "Ilios?!"


    Hearing his name, he darted across the field and jumped on me, licking my face.


    "It''s good to see you too buddy." Trying to calm him down I just let him jump up and lick me for a moment.


    But he never stopped licking so I had to lightly push him away.


    "My goodness, you must''ve really missed me huh?"


    ��Woof!�� Ilios gave an instant confirmation.


    Krystallo sat next to me with a disappointed look. "How come Ilios never gave me kisses like that.."


    -Well he was unusually attached to me since the moment we met, so..- "I''m sure you''ll get there eventually." I tried to give a few words of encouragement before looking back towards Ilios.


    -So what actually happened to you..- Ilios had changed a huge amount in an extremely short time. [1]


    -Maybe it was that evolution thing Mother mentioned.- I sat there and looked at him from different angles for a bit before deciding to not think about it too much.


    ��Well, how about we play some?��


    Krystallos eyes instantly lit up as a childish excitement came to her face. ��Let''s play tag!��


    ��Haha, alright. So who should start as-��


    Before I could finish talking, Krystallo ran up and smacked my leg. ��You��re it!��


    ��Oh you little-�� I quickly chased after her, being sure to hold back a bit so as to keep it fun for her.


    We continued to play for a while longer before Krystallo got tired, but just before we stopped, the doors to the cave opened and Mother walked out with a saddened face. She looked as if she had been crying inside.


    She looked over towards me, while I was petting Ilios. "Osto.. I mean.. your father needs a moment to himself."


    -So fathers name is Osto..-


    "Haah.. what am I doing all sad..�� She lowered her head and rubbed her eyes before looking up at me with a gentle, loving smile. ��How about we start our first lesson, Vasilias."


    I immediately was filled with a youthful excitement. -Its time!!-

 Chapter 18: History and Magic

    Late Afternoon - Mid Spring : Home


    A wave of excitement filled my body upon hearing mothers words. -Its time!!-


    "Let''s go up to the top of the mountain for our lesson. Krystallo if you want to come up and tune in.. you can."


    Krystallo shook her head and started walking towards the cave entrance. "Ill wait for father"


    She seemed to want to bond more with father, but I was far more interested in magic.


    It wasn''t that I didn''t want to bond with Father, but to me currently, learning magic felt more important.


    I contemplated whether my lack of interest in bonding with Father made me a bad son, but I shook off the thought since it wouldn��t do me any good to dwell on it.


    Mother nodded after hearing Krystallos response, and started to fly up the mountain. "Bring Ilios, he might pick up a trick or two."


    Looking over at Ilios, I leaned down a bit and let him hop on my back before following Mother up the mountain.


    Once on the peak, my eyes were filled with anticipation. -I cant wait!- I quickly moved over and sat down, ready for mothers lesson.


    "You seem oddly interested in this, is it because you want me to take you hunting right after?"


    "No.. well.. partially..." The main reason was because I had been cooped up in one mountain for the last 10 years, and I wanted to stretch my legs some.


    I had started becoming increasingly bored as time passed and I needed to be able to move around a little more freely if I wanted to solve that boredom.


    -Magic simply seems really fun and cool too.- Magic was a great method to solve my boredom.


    "Huhu, well you seem to be looking forward to magic.�� She paused for a moment and gave me a sly smile. ��But first comes history!"


    In that instant, my hopes got crushed like an ant. "Aweee, come on!" I was pretty disappointed even though I was still very interested in learning some of the history of this world.


    "History is important, Vasilias. Just push through it."


    "Okay.. Let''s just start." I wanted to get to the new things as soon as possible.. I couldn''t wait any longer.


    "So let''s start with the main races of the world. The dominant intelligent races are the Dragons, Avians, Dwarves, Demihumans, Merfolk, Elves and.. Humans.." She said all the races with a joyous tone except for humans. "All of the non-intelligent species fall under the umbrella that is ''monsters''. They are simply animals but if they live long enough they can gain intelligence rivaling the other main races. This is only in extremely rare cases though, since most are killed by adventurers, other monsters or natural causes long before they can gain intelligence."


    -Hm?- "Adventurers? What races have adventurers?"


    Mother gave a slightly shocked and curious look. "They can all have adventurers, but a huge majority of them are human since they have the largest population. The other races usually have the advantage in terms of quality though." Mother showed a happy smile as she talked.


    "How strong are they?" I was curious about the strength of said adventurers since many stories from earth showed them as extremely overpowered more often than not.


    "They are ranked from F to S rank, F being the weakest, S being the strongest. Above S rank is Nation rank, the Nation rank is only home to a handful of adventurers in each of the major kingdoms. They are treated similarly to royalty and are almost always granted nobility and land in their respective countries."


    "What is their strength like?"


    "The strongest of them can rival an older elder dragon in strength, but they fall far behind in defense, stamina and most importantly, size. Even a single elder could kill several Nation rank adventurers."


    I nodded in understanding before she continued.


    "So let''s get back to where we were. The main and western continents are dominated by the other various species which mostly live together peacefully with ceasefire agreements but small wars over territory or borders are common. There are a few nations that are much more aggressive than others though, for example the Holy Kingdom is very discriminatory to any non-human races, considering them on the same level as animals. This causes the Holy Kingdom to be at odds with all of the non-human dominated nations.��


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    -Great.. They seem just as troublesome as I expected..-


    ��Nations that are the opposite exist as well though! There are a few kingdoms like Kaelallan where there isn''t a dominant race, and the various races live without discriminating against each other. This forms mostly good relations with the nearby countries."


    ��You seem to really hate humans..�� It was clear when she talked about either humans or the other races that the others were massively favored.


    ��Of course I do. How could I not hate those weaklings and their endless greed and confidence.�� Mother looked openly disgusted.


    "So if the humans are so weak and annoying, why don''t the dragons wipe them out, and why are they confident enough to back the rebellion?" I had long since changed from the mind of a human, to me now, a human life had the same value as an ant. Seeing those ants trying to fight dragons felt wrong because, at most, the humans would be moderately annoying to deal with, far from a challenge.


    "Well it''s a little complicated... I guess I''ll start from the beginning. Several thousand years ago, there was a major war, one between the dragons and the gods the humans were worshiping at the time.. it was a rather one sided victory for the dragons as our god Bahamut wiped the floor with most of them, allowing a few of the ancients to finish the others off. This overwhelming victory for us solidified our position as the kings of this world, but since we didn''t desire to destroy what was left of the non-dragon races, we gave a cease fire to the main continents and isolated the dragons to the continent of Bahamut. We agreed that we would cease interaction with the world on the national level. Single dragons could still travel around of course, but they were to never show their dragon form to humanoids [1]. As time has passed though, it seems the creatures of this world forgot who the kings are and started to move more aggressively, hence the human backed rebellion of the halfies your father and I were discussing earlier."


    -Ahh.. that makes a bit more sense..-


    I had originally thought that the humans simply managed to get strong enough to rival dragons, and that''s why they were getting pushy, but it was actually that the strength of true dragons was lost to history, the fear of that strength going along with it.


    "''Dragons'' are trophies to adventurers, most of them aim to be able to hunt a dragon in their life though most of them fail or never find a ''dragon''. Those that do manage to kill one, aren''t killing any actual dragons either. The creatures they kill are either halfies in their dragon form, or a wyvern.�� Mother visibly cringed. ��Their classification of dragons has been.. skewed over the years..."


    -Interesting.. but it makes sense that their classification would change after never even seeing any for several millennia.- "So.. what about magic?" Although the history of this world was really cool, I was dying to learn about magic.


    "Haah.. fine, we will continue history some other time. I need to explain about magic from the beginning though.."


    I felt a sudden wave of excitement wrap around me hearing her words. -Finally.. I can learn magic!-


    ��Hooh..�� Mother took a deep breath as she prepared for a long lecture. "Okay, are you ready?��


    I gave a hasty nod that was full of excitement.


    She smiled a bit more seeing my boundless excitement. ��Haha, alright. The world is filled with a type of energy called mana, it gives beings the ability to manipulate and change the world around them in various ways. Nearly all beings are innately able to control mana to some extent, but to make it usable you need one of two things. You either need an attribute node, or a rune because unattributed mana is far less useful. For example instead of forming a ball of fire, it would create a ball of pure mana that would simply dissipate into the air." As mother explained this, she used magic to show what she meant.


    I was so unbelievably focused on her lesson that I was unconsciously memorizing every detail. "So what are attribute nodes and runes?"


    "Good question! Attribute nodes are nature��s runes. They allow you to give an attribute to mana by passing it through the node and are something creatures are born with or acquire later in life. Not all creatures have attribute nodes, for example, very few humans will ever grow even one attribute node. Those that do though, have high potential to become strong magicians since they don''t need to use a rune to put an attribute on their mana. A rune is something humanoid species have developed that works the same as an attribute node, except it is far less mana efficient which causes their magic to be weaker. Luckily, we dragons are usually born with one or more nodes, all in various areas around the body." She said the last part while full of pride.


    -Man dragons really are born with a gold spoon..-


    "The closer the node is to your breath gland [2], the higher your affinity because it is easier to flow mana through it before moving it into the breath gland. For example, my best attribute node is water. For me, I pass mana through the node to give it the water attribute, then my natural affinity with the cold (ice) will freeze it in the gland. You could also mix a fire rune and water rune to create ice, but it is far more difficult and costly." [3]


    Trying my best to absorb the huge mass of information from the lesson I was put into a trance.


    After a moment had passed and I had finally digested most of the information, I raised my next question. "So how many possible attribute nodes are there?"


    "There are only 6 possible nodes: Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, and Light. There is also a 7th attribute, it can only be used with a rune. It is something that has been mostly lost to time known as the ''space'' rune. We dragons are the only species with access to space runes, but we can only use them along with a specific artifact in a specific location. Dragons use them all the time because flying tens of thousands of kilometers is rather inconvenient.'''' After she finished, she gave me a moment of silence to let me process the information. "So how many nodes do you have? You can check by controlling the mana in your body and moving it around. Think of it like a cloud you move through your body to look at it."


    Following her instructions I used the smooth energy flowing through my body (mana). -Hey.. This is pretty easy..-


    I quickly got control of a fairly sizable amount of mana and scanned myself from head to toe, simply looking for whatever might be a node.


    -What am I supposed to look fo..- Before I could finish my thought, I found exactly what I was looking for, but something was odd about them.


    They were all in a perfect formation around my breath gland. "I.. I have 7.. Nodes.."

 Chapter 19: I Nearly Killed Everyone..

    Early Evening - Mid Spring : Home


    "You have what?!" Mother was taken aback at my statement. "Are you.. sure?"


    I responded with a bit of hesitation. "..Yeah.. there are definitely 7.."


    She stared at me in shock for a moment before finally breaking the silence. "W..well where are they? What''s your main attribute?"


    -My main attribute node should be whatever node is closest to my breath gland.. but..- "Uhm.. I''m not sure.." I didn''t know what to say.


    "What do you mean?" She tilted her head, not understanding my response.


    "Well.. the 6 known attribute nodes form a perfect circle around my gland.. and the 7th is in the middle.."


    "WHAT?!" She was taken aback for a moment finding out that I was a multi-element dragon [1] of every attribute. "Haah.. my god what in the world did that cube do to you���� She took a moment to think before putting her thoughts aside. ��Well.. whatever.. Let''s just move on for now... I want you to do a basic breath now."


    Putting stray thoughts aside, I quickly got prepared for her instructions.


    "So let''s start with something simple, you can simply pass mana through the fire node and into the gland, from there your instinct will take over. If you want to try something a little more practical and fun though, you can make a simple explosion in your gland as you use that as your breath, this will have far greater power than basic fire, but it''s far more complicated and expensive." (expensive mana wise)


    -Just using fire is boring so..- "How do I do.. an explosion?" I understood the general concept, but was confused at the details.


    "You can do one of two things, put a bunch of mana into the fire attribute node, build up pressure then release it all at once, or, since you have the earth node, you can use it to create a fuel to cause the explosion. Most human mages use earth magic to create gunpowder as a fuel for explosion spells, but you can use whatever you can think of."


    Her words made a lightbulb go off in my head. -Wait so I can just create chemicals with the earth node.. then blow them up in my breath gland?-


    With this thought, I started to focus, pouring a huge amount of mana through my earth node.


    It took an incredible amount of focus to figure out how exactly to do it, but I quickly found a way to manipulate matter with mana.


    Using mana I could vaguely tell what each atom was and using my knowledge from earth, I could manipulate the atoms however I wanted. -As my control improves this should get easier too..-


    Once I finally figured out how to do it with at least a tiny bit of efficiency, I used earth magic to create two very special types of elements, plutonium and uranium, albeit in an extremely small quantities since it took a mind boggling amount of mana and concentration to unnaturally form them. -I also don''t want to blow my own head off.-


    After creating an extremely small quantity of plutonium surrounded by a little uranium, my once vast mana reserve only had around 1/5th left.


    After mentally preparing myself for a moment I walked over to the edge of the mountain, overlooking the ocean.


    Seeing my smile, Mother looked at me questioningly.


    "Mother please plug your ears and stand behind me.. also put a barrier around Ilios and use something to plug his ears. I don''t know if this will be strong at all but I don''t want to risk it."


    Although the amount of plutonium and uranium was hardly anything (about 1 kg), I didn''t know the specifics of how big the explosion was going to be or if I could even get it to explode, but I took some preparations to play it safe.


    Overlooking the ocean I focused on my breath gland once again.


    I quickly created an incredible amount of electricity using the lightning node and concentrated it into my gland and prepared a tungsten shell to clamp around the nuclear material.


    My plan was to not only utilize my mana to make a nearly perfect neutron reflector, but also use the electricity and more earth mana to compress the sphere. (The pressure helps force critical mass)


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    Looking down the side of the mountain, I opened my mouth and aimed towards the ocean.


    The glow between my scales and irises turned to a bright yellow as arcs of electricity bounced between my scales.


    Just before slamming the huge mass of lightning into the plutonium and uranium, I slammed the tungsten shell around it.


    I hastily braced myself for a huge explosion, flexing my legs and digging my claws into the ground.


    *CRRRAACCKK*


    There was a blinding white flash that engulfed everything in front of my mouth followed by a deafening explosion.


    My entire body recoiled back from the explosion, sending me dragging my claws through the mountain top.


    Once I finally stopped, I looked up and saw a huge plume of smoke rising into the sky.


    As I crept back to the edge, I noticed that the entire side of the mountain had melted. There was even a faint sizzle that could be heard from liquid rock that was falling into the ocean.


    Looking down at myself to make sure I was in one piece, I noticed that the ground I was standing had melted and that the glow between my scales was bright orange.


    -Just what in the..- I slowly started realizing how stupid of an idea it was, but my insides were completely fine.


    I didn''t feel hot either, at most I felt warm which was incredibly odd considering the ambient heat coming off of me melted stone.


    As I looked back up at the scene, I was completely stunned.


    The power was far beyond what I expected from the miniscule amount of plutonium and uranium (1 kg to a 23 meter tall dragon is barely anything). [2]


    Mother ended up breaking the silence that followed the extremely loud explosion. Her voice was excessively shaky. "A..are you o..okay.. V..Vasilias?" She sounded horrified.


    I looked over with a nervous expression. "I''m okay Mother.. I think.." I responded with a bit of hesitation since I wasn''t super sure myself.


    Father quickly sped up the mountain after the explosion and landed next to Mother in a state of panic. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"


    "T..that was.. V..Vasilias''s f..first breath.. he used s..some kind of explosion magic.." Her voice was still shaky but she had finally started to calm down some after seeing that I was okay.


    I felt awful having scared her so badly, but at the same time I had an indescribable feeling of power, it simply felt incredible.. addictive... It reminded me of my last ''dream''. [3]


    Snapping back to my senses, I shook the thought out of my head and looked over towards Mother with my head held low. "I''m sorry for scaring you mother.. I got.. a little ahead of myself..."


    My words weren��t lies, if I was thinking rationally I wouldn''t have done it since if I wasn''t such a freak of nature I would have blown up, not just myself, but also Mother and Ilios. Speaking of him, the shockwave knocked Ilios over the side of the mountain but he was fine.


    That aside, I was still astonished that the inside of my gland felt fine, there wasn''t any damage from the heat or the shockwave.. -I guess my insides are abnormal too..-


    While I was thinking to myself, Father tried to walk over to the edge by me, but wasn''t able to get too close because of the heat. "What in god''s name..."


    He was completely stunned, but instead of looking afraid like mother, he looked at me with a prideful smile. "My son must be Bahamut''s incarnation! But I need to set a rule first..�� He glanced down the side of the mountain before looking me in the eyes with a serious expression. ��Vasilias, be careful with that.. that kind of firepower could cause harm to not only you, but also your friends if you aren''t careful."


    It was my first life lesson from Father, even if it was common sense. "Yes Father.. I promise to be more careful in the future." I gave him a forced smile before I turned back to Mother.


    At this point the heat finally started to subside and the glow between my scales returned to its usual blue and purple along with my irises.


    I quickly made my way over to Mother to try and comfort her before I sat down next to her to apologize again. "I��m sorry for scaring you, Mother.." My guilt had finally started overtaking my shock.


    She was quick to respond seeing my guilt though. "No, no.. I wasn''t scared.. I was worried that you blew up your breath gland with that.. how damaged is it?" Her voice was far less shaky now but she now spoke with deep concern.


    "Well.. it doesn''t seem damaged at all actually.." No matter how thoroughly I looked at it with mana, I couldn''t see even the slightest damage to it.


    She looked at me in shock for a moment before lightly shaking her head. "Oh, well.. thank the heavens you''re safe�� Just promise me that you won''t use that power recklessly.." She looked up at me with a motherly concern.


    I felt a wave of relief after seeing that she wasn''t actually scared of me. -Oh thank goodness..- "Of course mother, that kind of power is meant to be kept away anyways.."


    As awesome as it felt, nuclear power was not something that could be used casually.


    What I used here was far from even partially optimal in terms of explosive power. Compared to even moderately optimal nuclear reactions, it was like a hand grenade.


    Slightly more optimized explosions could cause massive climate shifts and cause massive radioactive fallout. [4]


    It wouldn''t be a stretch to say that I would be able to wipe out entire nations in a single shot once I got bigger and could handle larger, more optimized explosions.


    In this case, I got lucky since the way the explosion was aimed and where it was fired sent nearly all of the radiation into the ocean.


    -What was I thinking..- I felt an extremely heavy wave of guilt again as I thought about what could��ve happened if I wasn''t as lucky. -I need to be.. far more careful with that..-


    -Hm?- Feeling Mothers hand lightly rubbing my head, I looked back up at her with a guilty look.


    She looked down at me with a warm, proud smile. "Let''s go ahead and go back down the mountain.. I think it''s time I take you hunting."


    As if my guilt was a facade, a child-like joy welled within me. -I can go hunting!-

 Chapter 20: The Hunt

    Mid-Evening - Mid Spring : Home


    After Mother told me she was going to take me hunting, I flew back down the mountain. She seemed to want to talk to Father about something.


    As I landed and let Ilios off my back, I saw Krystallo staring at me with a face of worry.


    "What''s with that look?"


    She was quick to respond with an anxious look. "What was that explosion�� It was so big it scared dad.."


    "Ahh.. sorry I happened to get a little too carried away.." I gave a slightly guilty look. -Man I really did just scare everyone in one go..-


    Krystallo looked at me, confused before realizing what I meant. "What?�� Her confusion slowly morphed to shock. ��You.. caused that explosion?"


    "All I did was use ''explosion magic'' for my breath, but got a little carried away.." -Im such an idiot..-


    We continued talking for a bit until she finally calmed down.


    It took a bit of explaining but once Krystallo figured out what happened, she relaxed again and laid down next to me.


    As she was falling back asleep, I took my time to fiddle with magic a bit.


    I started by creating a small fireball by visualizing a ball of fire with condensed hydrogen as the fuel.


    *pshhh*


    The fire burned a hot blue and sounded like a blowtorch. It was a truly beautiful color but I was more interested in how strong it was.


    To test its strength, I simply tossed the fireball towards the ground.


    As it hit the ground, it scorched the grass and charred the dirt, but the instant I stopped giving it mana, it dissipated.


    -So does it dissipate because of lack of fuel or because I stopped holding it together?-


    To test my idea, I formed a ball of clay and dirt to act like a sponge with earth magic, and filled it with a flammable oil before using fire magic to ignite it.


    *fwoosh*


    A yellow and orange flame quickly engulfed the ball.


    Throwing it at the ground, the, now hardened, ball shattered and spread the burning oil onto the ground surrounding it.


    It was a simple experiment and a simple reaction but it answered my question. -The fire didn''t go out this time.. So it really was just fuel related.-


    After getting lost in thought for a moment I looked up and noticed that the oil fire had started spreading. "Whoops!" Just before I created a ball of water to dump on it, I remembered that it would just make the fire worse.


    -Let''s try to use wind magic to create a temporary vacuum then..- My idea was to try and use wind magic to suffocate the fire.


    Entering a trance like focus, I visualized the cloud oxygen around the fire being removed.


    *puff*


    The fire was instantly extinguished.


    -Man that��s.. really convenient..- I was truly amazed but at the same time, I could already see several limits to it.


    The more specific or detailed I got with a spell, the stronger I could make it, but it would also use significantly more mana. [1]


    It definitely wasn''t an omnipotent power, but overall I was able to do what humans (on Earth) needed machines for with ease. -Just what will I be able to do in the future if I can do all of this now?- A childish excitement welled up in me.


    As I got lost in the excitement, I did a few more experiments.


    "You have a true talent for magic, Vasilias.. Putting your freakish breath aside, you''re able to use mana really efficiently even though it''s your first time." Father looked at me with a proud smile.


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    I tensed up hearing his voice since I was too focused to notice Mother and Father landing behind me.


    Finally calming myself down, I responded in a relaxed fashion. "Aren''t all dragons proficient with mana manipulation at a young age though? I mostly just relied on my instincts." Although my use of mana was certainly out of the ordinary, my control almost entirely came from instinct.


    Both Mother and Father looked at me dumbfounded before Father let out a deep sigh. "Haah.. it really is true that not all dragons are born equally.."


    "What do you mean by that?" I was slightly taken aback by his statement.


    "Well sure, all dragons have an instinct to manipulate mana, but they are a far cry from being able to do controlled spells like you were just fiddling with.. let alone your ''breath''.."


    -Ah.. So they were watching me play around..- "Well.. let''s leave that aside for now.�� I quickly hopped up with an excited smile. ��I wanna go hunting!"


    "Haha, yes, of course.�� She turned to Father with a warm smile. ��Honey, I''m gonna take Vasilias out into the forest to hunt something, just play with Ilios while we are gone."


    Father gave a confused look.


    Not noticing it, Mother turned back to me with a proud smile. "Well what are you waiting for? Let''s go!"


    Father was quick to keep us from leaving though. "Ilios? Whos that?"


    -Wait what? He hasn''t seen Ilios once the whole time he''s been back?-


    It wasn''t until I thought back on it that I realized how he had somehow avoided Ilios perfectly up until this point.


    -Well I might as well introduce him..- "Ilios is my pet wolf!" Ilios, who was sitting behind me, where father couldn''t see, walked around to the front of me and sat down. ��Isn''t he adorable?��


    As Ilios sat down and looked at Father, Father broke out into a cold sweat.


    Slowly leaning over towards Mother, he whispered something I couldn''t really hear. "Honey.. that thing isn''t just a wolf.."


    Mother responded under her breath as well. "I know.. but Ilios is loyal to Vasilias and is part of our family now so you need to get along with him.." Her smile was somewhat threatening.


    Father looked at Ilios with a look of defeat before reluctantly sighing and giving a nervous nod.


    Seeing their conversation had finished, I leaned down and told Ilios to stay here and protect Krystallo for a bit.


    With a light nod, he walked over to Krystallo and sat down.


    -He��s really smart huh..- After seeing that he understood, I spread my wings and launched myself into the sky. -Whatever, it''s time to hunt!-


    Once I got up high enough I stopped to wait for Mother and took a second look around. The forest stretched to the horizon, but since I had become a dragon, my sense of scale had been thrown out of whack.


    I was looking at an absolutely huge forest but it somehow felt small. As if it was something I could cross in no time at all.


    Interrupting my thoughts, Mother finally flew up next to me. "Alright, I''m not going to fly slow so be sure to keep up."


    Mother then dashed forward but it was nothing I couldn''t handle.


    I casually sped up and started flying alongside her, looking towards the ground for prey.


    Even though I was flying at an altitude of around 1 kilometer, I could easily see details on the ground. -A dragon''s vision really is something incredible..-


    After a short moment we heard a roar off in the distance. "Rooaarrr!!"


    "Tch, another wyvern.." Mother sounded incredibly annoyed before she glanced towards me like she had an idea. "Actually this could work. Larger wyverns are between A and S rank so give it a shot, that will be your prey." [2]


    ��So ��my prey is going to be able to fight back�� is what you''re saying..�� -Interesting..- An excited smile crept onto my face as I flew forward.


    It only took a second to find the source of the roar.


    There was a large 14 meter tall wyvern fighting another 12 meter one.


    Dashing towards the ground, I took my time to think of how I should start the slaughter. -I''ll use physical force on the bigger one and magic on the smaller one..- I couldn''t just let the chance to test my strength pass.


    Putting my front legs together, I slammed into the body of the large, unsuspecting wyvern.


    *CrUnCh*


    A cloud of bloody mist floated up around me as the body of the wyvern exploded from the excessive pressure.


    Glancing towards the smaller wyvern, I saw that it was looking at me while shivering, frozen from fear.


    -Hmm, what magic should I test..- I thought for a moment before a genius idea came to mind.


    I quickly used earth magic to create a rod of strengthened iron, then, using lightning magic, I decided to try and launch it like a railgun. (lightning magics magnetism*)


    After making sure everything was ready, I opened my mouth and aimed at the wyvern.


    *CRACK*


    The dart reached the horrified wyvern instantly and, as if the wyvern wasn''t even there, ripped a huge hole through it��s body.


    *Cr-cr-cr-cr-crackle*


    *Th-th-th-th-thud*


    A crackling noise from the dart slamming through everything it touched filled the air, followed by the noise of several trees falling over.


    I immediately jolted back slightly seeing how shockingly effective it was. -W..whoops.. maybe I should have.. aimed it more towards the ground..-


    - Bonus ~


    Little did I know back then, the metal rod got deflected into the air slightly by an old tree before traveling another 6,500 km south-west before embedding itself deep into the ground in front of the capital city of the Sinder Kingdom.


    The shockwave of it hitting the ground was so strong it collapsed several buildings in the city including part of the royal palace.


    The citizens ended up calling it ''a Message from Heaven'' and used it as an excuse to rebel against the tyrannical royal family.


    After the rebellion succeeded, the metal rod became known as the ''Heavens Message'' and remained as a priceless treasure of the newly appointed royal family for many years to come.

 Chapter 21: A Proud Mother

    Late-Evening - Mid Spring : Unknown Forest


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    As I flew over the forest with Vasilias, I was trying to think of what I should let him hunt. -What would be a good match for him..-


    Before I could settle on anything though, a distant roar broke my train of thought.


    "Roaaarrr!"


    "Tch, a wyvern.." Although it wasn''t too surprising, it was incredibly annoying.


    Over the past several months, I had been constantly slaughtering wyverns. For whatever reason, there were more than usual flying through or trying to live in the forest.


    "Actually this could work. Larger wyverns are between A and S rank so give it a shot, that will be your prey." -He is nearly as big as me so he should be able to handle a big wyvern no problem.. Even without magic.-


    "So ''my prey is going to be able to fight back'' is what you''re saying.." He looked back at me with an excited smile.


    ��Haha..�� I let out a chuckle seeing his smile. -I guess I shouldn''t be surprised..-


    Hearing me give him the go-ahead, he quickly darted forward. As he was about to dive down and fight, I finally got close enough to see the situation.


    It was a 14 meter tall wyvern and a 12 meter one having a territory dispute. -Its a bit more than expected but it might be nice for him to have more than one enemy to focus on..-


    Interrupting my thought, Vasilias dove and slammed into the larger wyvern completely mutilating it. -Welp.. so much for multiple enemies..-


    I felt a bit of pity for the wyvern as it��s body got mutilated beyond recognition.


    I was honestly in awe seeing his strength. -But what is he going to do to the other one?-


    He stood still for a moment before he opened his mouth in the direction of the other wyvern. -Is he using a breath?- I preemptively braced myself just in case.


    But nothing could have mentally prepared me for what happened.


    *CRACK* *Cr-cr-cr-cr-crackle*


    A deafening noise filled the air as a massive hole appeared in the wyvern. -What the..-


    *Th-th-th-th-thud*


    Behind the wyvern, several trees in a straight line started falling over.


    -Just what.. did he do..- I was completely speechless. I had never seen or even heard of magic that could do what he did.


    I couldn''t even see what happened to even be able to guess at how he did it. The only evidence of it ever happening was the deafening noise and the aftermath.


    I looked at the scene in awe before looking down more at Vasilias.


    An incredible and unfathomable sense of pride welled within me.


    To dragons, strength was everything, and there was no greater glory than having one��s child become the strongest.


    -A true prodigy..- An excited and goofy smile came to my face as I looked forward to showing him off to my mother in Bahamut. [1]


    -Maybe I''ll take them to Bahamut before the festival... Maybe once Krystallo reaches adolescence..-


    Finally deciding on future plans, I quickly made my way down to Vasilias with a proud smile on my face.


    - Vasilias ~


    After completely destroying the two poor wyverns, Mother came down and landed next to me with a beaming smile.


    "My goodness, Vasilias. Your strength is already- Ahem.. nevermind." Her excitement was extremely visible even after she tried to hide it some. "Well, since you seem to have more than enough physical prowess..�� She glanced at the pool of blood that was left of the first wyvern. ��We will skip the physical part of your lessons and go straight to magic and aura!"


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    "Oh!�� -Magic!!- ��So what can I learn first!" I quickly turned around and sat down.


    I may have already created some unfathomable spells but I had only scraped the surface of magic, I was incredibly eager to learn more.


    "I meant to teach you this before the hunt but I got a bit side tracked... First you will learn how to handle and use your aura." She turned around and motioned me to come along.


    We slowly made our way towards a clearing that was nearby before we sat down.


    "What''s aura?" I could assume what it was from stories in my past life, but when it came to magic I was completely in the dark.


    "Aura is something every ''living'' being has. It is the natural expulsion of mana from nearly any living creature. To most creatures, it is something that they can''t utilize, but we as dragons have more than enough of it to be able to control it." She took a prideful stance as she talked. "What I said earlier, about unattributed mana being less useful than attributed, well that wasn��t entirely true. For example, since our auras are mostly unattributed mana, we can control or we can read it.��


    She stopped for a moment to make sure I was following along before continuing.


    ��When I control my aura, I can change the distribution of mana to limit how much people can feel my presence, amplify it for intimidation or even use it to pressure people. When I read my aura, I can sense whatever it touches, this includes the aura of other living beings as well!" She spoke with such excitement that it was incredibly engaging.


    -So it''s a way to ''sense presences'' like in all those manga from Earth..- I was excited at the idea of being able to not get snuck up on, but as soon as I tried to read my aura, I realized it was easier said than done.


    Mother quickly noticed me struggling and tried to comfort me with a proud yet innocent smile. "Haha, It''s not as easy as controlling the mana from your reserve, Vasilias. It takes time to learn how to read and control such a large volume of mana [2] and it only gets harder as your aura gets bigger, even for dragons, so don''t worry if it takes a few years."


    -A FEW YEARS?!- I was taken aback by her statement. -It��s difficult, sure.. but it shouldn''t take that long to get the hang of..-


    After fiddling with it for several minutes, I finally found a way to at least read a small amount of my aura by thinking of it as one single mass instead of several small bits.


    Although it was far less detailed than I wanted, it did work.


    -What the..- As soon as I actually started reading my aura though, I felt an extremely familiar sensation. -The dream..-


    Reading my aura gave the same sensation that I had when I was in the ''dream''.


    I could ''see'' everything around me even when I wasn''t looking at it, the difference being that, in the dream, I did it all subconsciously.


    I also couldn''t see the ''time'' of anything like in the dream, but overall the sensation was similar enough to where I could get the hang of aura just by mimicking the sensation from the dream.


    Slowly expanding the area of the aura I was reading, I started feeling a headache coming on.


    ��Ugh..�� I winced a little as the headache continued to get immensely worse before I shrunk the volume of aura I was reading.


    After lowering the amount I was reading until the pain subsided, I could only sense things within 5 meters of me. It wasn''t a lot, but it was the most I could sustain at the moment.


    Snapping out of my focus, I noticed that Mother was looking at me, awestruck. "My goodness you really are a quick learner.."


    Although I wasn''t really happy since I thought it was a ''poor performance'', a slightly childish smile came to my face from Mother��s praise. "It''s just because Mother is such a good teacher!"


    "Well I guess now that you have the basics of that, we should head back. It''s nearly morning already."


    ��Oh!�� I looked up at her with a gleam in my eye. "Can I explore the forest on my own now?"


    She immediately tensed up before awkwardly responding. "Let''s go back and have a family meal first.." Not wasting any time, she immediately flew up into the air.


    My anticipation got completely destroyed by her dodging the question but I didn''t plan on giving up so easily. ��Haah..�� -I can''t blame her for being reluctant..- With a small sigh, I hopped up and flew after her.


    After a short moment of flying, I arrived at the field in front of the cave and saw father playing with Ilios. -It��s good to see that they��re getting along well..-


    As I landed at the edge of the field, Ilios stopped what he was doing and sprinted towards me.


    ��Haha, I was only gone for a few minutes.�� Ilios ran up and jumped on me, fervently licking my face.


    "Welcome back, how was your first hunt?" Father walked up to me with a bit of jealousy.


    "It was a little easier than I was expecting, but it was still super fun. I also learned about aura from Mother."


    Mother finally landed behind me since I had flown ahead. "He is an incredibly talented child, he was able to use complicated spells and read some of his aura on his first try."


    Father looked back towards me and expanded his aura to envelop me, curiously watching for my reaction.


    It caught me completely off guard. Sensing an aura as strong as Father��s made my nerves jump, but it wasn��t nearly as oppressive as I was expecting.


    Father looked at me in shock. "My goodness.. it''s so dense... How much mana do you have left in your reserve Vasilias?"


    "About a sixth. The breath I used earlier sucked up.. a lot of it."


    Fathers jaw hung open. "You mean that you only have a sixth left and your aura is that dense?"


    Mother chimed in before I could answer. "His total reserve is several times larger than mine, did you not notice his aura earlier when his reserve was full? It was honestly suffocating.. it was comparable to Mother��s.."


    "Asimi is one of the stronger elders though.." Father wore a look of disbelief. (Asimi is Mother��s mother and Vasilias��s grandmother)


    He slowly looked over at me in awe, but after a moment I noticed a gleam appeared in his eye.


    -What idea could he have come up with from this conversation?- I was genuinely confused since I had no clue what he could possibly think of so suddenly.


    But, once Mother spoke, he seemed to put his thoughts aside. "Well let''s eat!"

 Chapter 22: What are You Guys Worried About?

    Early Morning - Mid Spring : Home


    After Mother said we should eat, she gave us each large Field Bison that she had prepared earlier.


    They were simply divine. -So juicy.. so good..- The meat melted in my mouth and tasted more juicy than normal.


    Mother gave me a curious look as I was enjoying the food. "So Vasilias, what was that magic you used on the wyvern? I''ve never seen anything like it. Although I''m also curious about your breath from earlier, I think this will be easier to understand."


    Snapping out of my thoughts, I took a second to think about how to explain it. "Well, first I created a metal rod with earth magic, then used lightning magic to launch it out of my mouth.." I tried my best to word it in a way she could understand, but her not knowing what magnetism was made that a more complicated task.


    Mother sat up straight and looked at father in complete confusion. "Sweetie, can I get more detail? Like how does the lightning move the metal rod at all, let alone fast enough to do that much damage?"


    Father was confused about something else though. "What did he do?"


    "He completely eviscerated a large wyvern along with a few kilometers of forest behind it.."


    Father stopped eating for a moment and just froze. ��With a metal rod?��


    "Well it''s not that complicated.." I decided I would just try to explain the basics of magnetism. "So on a basic level, certain metals are known as magnetic." I created a small iron ball in front of me, and used lightning to make it float. "See? I can control how it moves by using the lighting because the lightning has charge."


    Mother still looked confused. "So you''re trying to tell me you moved an iron rod faster than I could catch a glimpse of.. by using lightning?"


    "By using magnetism, yes. See?" I quickly used magic to throw the iron ball into the side of the mountain.


    *Bang*


    Father was the first to break the silence that followed. "Vasilias.. Could you show me what you did to the wyvern earlier?"


    I lightly nodded my head and aimed at the iron ball embedded in the mountain.


    *CRACK*


    The metal rod instantly left my mouth and plowed straight through the mountain [1].


    Krystallo and Father''s jaws both dropped seeing a hole dripping molten rock appear in the side of the mountain.


    Silence encompassed everyone for a moment before Father spoke up.


    "Vasilias." He looked straight at me with a gleam in his eyes. "Would you like to come with me on a mission to a humanoid city?"


    Mother froze as if she was going to intervene but I spoke up first. "Mission?"


    "I have some business with the royalty in the Kingdom of Kaelallan in two months, it will only be a quick trip, there and back, but it might be a good experience for you."


    "But won''t I have to learn transformation magic first?" -I can''t just walk into a human city as a dragon can I?-


    I was super excited at the chance to see some more of the world, but my gut was telling me something like transformation magic would be extremely hard to learn especially on short notice.


    "You''ve already learned it! Every dragon is born with the ability to change to a humanoid form once they acquire enough mana. The one you will make will be your temporary form. You will only be able to use your ''true'' humanoid form once you awaken it around the elder stage, even your Mother and I are rather far from it."


    -Ah so it was in the inheritance..-


    Mother��s worry became more visible as she spoke. "Vasilias, remember you can choose whatever race you want for your ''temporary'' form.. just keep in mind that.. it might hurt some.."


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    -Hmm what should I be then.. a human form is too boring, merfolk and elves aren''t my style, so avians or demihuman..- After thinking for a short moment, I started to lean towards being an avian, but my instincts kept telling me to transform into something else.. something specific that felt incredibly natural.


    I glanced over at Ilios. -Well I guess going with what feels most natural is smart.-


    I started to exude a blinding purple light as my massive 23 meter body started to change shape.


    Unlike how I expected, it was nothing like a spell, my body just took a bit of my mana and did it on its own.


    -There isn''t any pain?- Although Mother warned me that it might hurt, I didn''t feel any pain, instead, I just felt extremely uncomfortable.


    After a short moment, the light subsided and I looked at myself with aura.


    I looked like a 10 year old kid. My hair was such a deep black it looked like the abyss but it was strangely beautiful. I also had two perky wolf ears on my head and a fluffy black tail that looked just like Ilios''s except that it was black.


    Besides appearance, I also felt weaker, but not nearly as weak as I had expected. It still felt incredibly uncomfortable being so much smaller and weaker than my dragon form though.


    Circulating my mana a bit, I quickly noticed my breath gland as well as all 7 attribute nodes were still there and my mana reserve was left untouched. -I thought my temporary form was supposed to be weaker..- (Will be explained next chap)


    As I was busy thinking to myself, Ilios ran up to me and bowed his head at my feet.


    -What the?- It was incredibly odd since Ilios had never acted like this, it was extremely out of character. "Mother, why is Ilios acting like this?" I quickly looked up to see Mother and Father completely awestruck and Krystallo staring at me as if in a trance. -What��s with that reaction..-


    Father broke into a cold sweat the second I looked at him.


    -What in the world.. wait.. maybe it''s an aura thing?- Even if I knew about the issue though, I simply couldn''t do anything about it. I still hadn��t learned how to control it properly.


    "V..Vasilias.." Mother finally said something although her voice was very shaky. "What race.. is that?"


    -Huh? Do I not look like a demihuman?- I decided it was best to just respond honestly. "I just followed my instinct." I glanced over at Ilios.


    Mother and Father noticed my glance and looked at Ilios. "Did you.. copy Ilios��s race? B..but that''s not possible.."


    -What?- "What do you mean? What race is Ilios? Isn''t he a frost wolf?" I was struggling to figure out what Mother meant.


    Mother looked like she was deep in thought. "Well.. we thought he was, but after absorbing a ton of your aura during your dragon sleep he evolved into an Ancient Fenrir.. [2] There are only 2 ancient fenrir that can exist at once, one black and one white���� She looked back and forth between Ilios and I before continuing. ��They are mythical creatures said to be stronger than the gods... Even dragons have to bow to them.."


    -COOL!- I looked down at Ilios with a proud smile.


    I thought it was incredible that Ilios was not only stunningly beautiful and adorable, but he was also crazy strong.


    "But what did you mean by I copied his race? I didn''t feel like I copied anything though..��


    Mother stiffened up and her face was covered in an inexplicable expression.


    Father was quick to take over for her. "Well.. when choosing your ''temporary form'', you would be able to mimic the appearance of any race.. but you.. actually changed races.." Father looked at Mother with a face of concern and worry.


    I wasn''t following what they were talking about. I had thought that I did something cool but seeing their reactions was a little worrying.


    After finally sorting some of her thoughts, Mother chimed back in. "So.. Vasilias.. how much of your mana reserve can you use?"


    "Huh? Uh.. all of it."


    Mother and Father both froze.


    "It''s not full at the moment but I do have access to all of it."


    "W.. wh.. what about your attribute nodes..." Mothers voice was getting a bit shaky.


    "I have all 7, even my breath gland is untouched.." I didn''t know how to react to their expressions anymore.


    "Are you sure?�� Mother looked at me in disbelief. ��Here.. aim at that tree and use a breath.. Just be very careful.."


    "O..okay.." I was a bit nervous but I was excited to experiment with my breath again. -This time, not nuclear..-


    I was thinking of what possible explosive I could use before I settled on ammonium nitrate, simple to make and moderately strong.


    It was a dirty explosive but it was SIGNIFICANTLY more affordable mana wise than anything else I could think of. -Maybe I should try TNT next..-


    TNT was cleaner, but it was crazy expensive compared to ammonium nitrate. (Ammonium nitrate is NOT toxic enough to harm dragons!)


    After creating a moderately substantial amount of ammonium nitrate, I aimed towards the tree mother pointed towards, and opened my mouth.


    *Crack*


    This time I used some wind magic to help keep the explosion together, focusing the blast into a beam that instantly reached the tree.


    *BoOm*


    The explosion completely obliterated the bottom half of the tree and stripped the bark from a couple trees nearby it.


    -Affordable with good firepower, a good combo..-


    I looked at the scene in satisfaction, somehow overlooking the tense and awkward atmosphere behind me.

 Chapter 23: True Form..

    Mid Morning - Mid Spring : Home


    Mother and Father were once again frozen in place with their eyes locked on the poor tree that was on the receiving end of my breath.


    Finally snapping out of her trance, Krystallo mumbled something under her breath. "Brother''s humanoid form is beautiful.." She was still staring holes into me until she suddenly shouted. "Wait, mother, isn''t his humanoid form supposed to be weak!? That breath could kill me!"


    Mother finally spoke up, still unable to take her eyes off the scene. "Y.. yea.. its supposed to be.. but that rule is different if.." She nervously turned her gaze to me.


    "If what?!" Krystallo was getting impatient.


    Father ended up being the one to respond. "If it''s his true humanoid form.." His voice wasn''t any less full of shock though.


    "But aren''t elders the only ones with them?" Krystallo was just as confused as me. "Also shouldn''t a dragon''s true humanoid form still be a dragon?"


    "Ah.. yes.. it should be..." It looked as if Father didn''t know what to feel.


    A moment of silence followed as Mother and Father sorted their thoughts.


    I was the first to break the silence with a bombshell question. "So lets say this is somehow my true humanoid form.. does that mean I''m not actually a dragon?"


    Mother jolted a bit before looking at me with a face of worry. "We don''t know if this is actually your true form or not, so please don''t jump to conclusions sweetie..." She forced a smile.


    Figuring I couldn��t just leave them to figure everything out, I fell into deep thought as well. -Okay so let''s start simple.. no need to worry about anything other than if this is my true form or not, and how I awakened it already if it is..- It was as I thought this that a realization hit me. -THAT''S WHAT SHE DID?! At the end of the ''dream''.. That woman said she left me with a gift�� That was awakening my true form wasn''t it!- [1]


    I was unsure of how, but I was confident that''s what she did once I thought about it. [2]


    Shortly after figuring it out for myself, Father confirmed my conclusion. "It is his true form.. he isn''t using mana to stay in that form, nor was his strength or mana reserve limited as much as they should have.."


    Mother pupils shrank and her face paled. "So.. h..he.. isn''t a dragon?" She couldn��t believe it, she didn��t want to.


    Seeing her expression, I felt like I got the wind knocked out of me. It became harder to breathe.


    "That''s not true.. Vasilias, you can still go to your dragon form right?"


    "Y.. yeah.. Why wouldn''t I?" Just before transforming back I suddenly feel like there is something other than my dragon form I can change into, but something kept me from transforming to it. -Maybe it''s best to take this one step at a time..- I quickly shook the thought out of my head.


    Trying my best not to think about it too much, I quickly changed back to my dragon form. A short moment later, I was back to my ''normal'' 23 meter dragon body.


    Mother mumbled something under her breath. "H..halfies.."


    Halfies were also a race with a dragon form, but their true humanoid forms would be of whatever race the other parent was. (like if the dad was a dragon and the mother was an elf, the halfies'' true form would be an elf).


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    "But that''s not possible..�� A dreadful confusion washed over her. After a few moments to sort her thoughts, she asked a question out of the blue. "Vasilias, do you remember what color you were before you touched the artifact?"


    "I was a bright white, just like Krystallo.." I just sort of awkwardly sat there as Mother and Father tried to figure everything out.


    It wasn''t until Mother came to an obvious conclusion that everything clicked. "So the cube changed your race.." Her anger started to boil as she realized the culprit.


    Father was quick to agree with her conclusion. "That would explain his freakish growth, strength, mana, color and even attribute nodes.."


    -Wait, so when the cube made those changes.. my race was changed to half dragon.. half ancient fenrir��- I turned to Ilios with a look of shock. -Is the reason he��s so attached to me because I��m part Ancient Fenrir as well? That doesn''t quite explain why he bowed to me just now, but.. It''s a step in the right direction..-


    Snapping out of my thoughts, I noticed Mother was still angry and tried to calm her down even if just a bit. "Mother, it''s fine.. I''m still your son right? Also, if I really am half dragon half ancient fenrir somehow.. wouldn''t that just make me a significantly stronger dragon?"


    Ancient Fenrir were not only stronger than dragons in physical strength, but also in pretty much every other way. In some sense, they were perfect creatures so I personally thought this was a good thing, even if there was a lot of descrimination against halfies.


    "Haah.. you''re right. No matter how much I hate halfies I can''t hate my adorable son!" She quickly ran over and wrapped me with her wings. ��I''m sorry I-��


    ��Don''t be sorry Mother, it''s not like we knew any better..�� I wanted to comfort her worrying as much as I could.


    "Haah.. you''re such a good son..�� She sounded like she was going to cry as she tightened up her grip. After enjoying the warmth of the hug for a bit, she finally let me go. "Go ahead and change back to your humanoid form again." Her warm smile finally showed itself again.


    Changing forms again, I felt a loving warmth fill my chest. -Hehe..- Her smile made me feel a pure and childish happiness.


    "Okay! So, your mana in your true form is basically untouched, but even if it''s your true form, your physical strength will be limited, so let''s see what your strength is like." She quickly walked over and pulled a huge rock from the mountain and brought it to us. "No magic on this one!"


    "Hmmm.." Looking at the huge rock I couldn''t help but think that punching it would hurt my hands.


    Finally bracing myself for some pain, I walked up to the rock and threw a punch as hard as I could.


    *Bang*


    The entire back side of the rock exploded causing the entire thing to collapse into a pile of rubble.


    *crumble*


    Both Father and Mother were looking at the poor rock, awestruck, but Krystallo was looking at me with a prideful smile. "I knew Brother would be the strongest!"


    I smiled in response, happy from the praise even though my hand had heat pulsing through it. -I hope I didn''t break something..- I slowly broke into a nervous sweat.


    Although the punch felt great and looked crazy, it was incomparable to my dragon form.. -I could do that amount of damage with a flick..-


    Dragons take pride in their strength and size, so being small and weak made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. I didn''t really have a choice though, since it''s not like I could waltz into a humanoid kingdom as a huge dragon. -I need to try and get used to the discomfort..-


    "Zachari.. you felt that too right?" Father glanced at Mother with a look of awe.


    "Haah.. yes.. that was basically peak A rank..�� (meaning his true form is on par with an adolescent in dragon form in terms of pure strength)


    Mother and Father continued talking for a moment as I made sure nothing was broken and enjoyed the feeling of having a proper hand for a moment.


    After a few minutes, Father finally calmed down and pulled me out of my thoughts. "Well.. I guess that settles it. In 2 months we will head to the Kingdom Of Kaelallan as father and son!" He puffed up his chest and wore a proud smile.


    -Oh, right, I forgot about that. Well it''s good that I''ll get to bond with Father some..- At the same time though, I was more interested in seeing what a humanoid kingdom in this world was like. "Mother, Father, can I see your humanoid forms?" I was curious what races they would pick for their temporary forms since they weren''t elders yet.


    "Oh of course sweetie." Mother was the first to start her transformation, but Father immediately followed suit.


    A short moment later, the light dimmed and I saw a beautiful Avian woman with large ''angel like'' wings on her back and a tall and handsome elf man who was very muscular.


    They looked like quite the perfect couple. Mother looked like she was in her early 30s and father in his mid 30s, but both were inhumanly good looking.


    Krystallo seemed to agree.. at least with Mother. "Mom is so pretty!"


    "Hehe, thank you sweetie.." Mother gave Krystallo a motherly smile as she extended her wings to show them off.


    -She really does look just like an angel..-

 Chapter 24: Aura Control

    Late Morning - Mid Spring : Home


    Mother looked over at me as she was rubbing Krystallo''s head.


    There was something so surreal seeing an angel-like woman rubbing the head of a dragon that I got completely entranced for a while.


    Once I finally snapped out of the trance, I turned to look at Father and saw him break out into a cold sweat.


    "Father, I noticed earlier but why is it that when I look at you, you start sweating?" Although I didn''t expect him to be all lovey like Mother was, not even being able to look at me was a little pathetic.


    "Ah, right..�� Mother wore a troubled look. ��Well, there is an old phrase I read in a book that was, ��even dragons have to bow before the Ancient Fenrir��. It seems like that phrase wasn��t just a metaphor.."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Well, as an Ancient Fenrir, your aura has a very special.. ��majesty�� to it.�� A bead of sweat slowly formed on her forehead.


    ��Majesty?��


    ��It just means that your aura enchants the weak and oppresses the strong." She finished with a proud smile before mumbling something under her breath. "I even caught myself staring at times.."


    -Oh.. so that''s why it sometimes felt like Krystallo was staring at me, but won''t that become problematic?- "Is there any way I can control that part of my aura?"


    "Well, to an extent. You can make it easier for people to resist but you can''t totally remove it unless you completely pull your aura away from them." [1]


    -I guess that''s good enough..- "How do I make it ��easier to resist�� then?"


    "The thinner the aura, the lighter it''s effects are. When we go to Bahamut I''ll see if mother knows anything more. But for now, Honey..�� She turned to Father. ��You just need to at least try and resist his aura.. don''t let it make you that uncomfortable. It didn''t bother you that much before, right?"


    "Well.. it did.. but I just used my aura to resist it." He looked incredibly uncomfortable.


    "So use your aura now.�� Mother wasn��t having it. ��It''s not like you don''t have plenty of aura to work with even if you''re in your temporary form. Plus I''m sure you''ll start to get used to it like Krystallo and I have." She looked away from father with a slightly annoyed look.


    After watching them have their little moment, I remembered something. -Ah, right..- "Father, you said you wanted to bring me along to a humanoid nation for something?"


    Father had started using his aura to resist mine but he still didn''t make much eye contact with me (he didn''t before either). "Ah, yes.. I have some business with the royal family in the Kingdom of Kaelallan. I need to be there in a few months at the latest."


    "What business do you have with them?" Mother gave a curious look.


    The Kingdom of Kaelallan was a kingdom run by people of all races, and the current royal family were avians that Mother and Father both had a long history with. They were old friends.


    "The elders told me to inform them about the halfie kill order.."


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    "Oh, right.. nearly forgot about that.." Her face momentarily filled with worry before she lightly shook her head. "Well it should be an easy trip there and back right? In that case it should be fine to bring Vasilias. It''ll be a good experience for him."


    "Yeah, he also has more than enough strength to protect himself if need be.." Father looked away just slightly, embarrassed that I was already stronger than him.


    "Well let''s plan for that, Krystallo seems to be showing some signs of her dragon sleep as well, it should line up with your trip. Before you even think about leaving though, Vasilias.. you need to learn to actually control your aura. I think humans would faint or die if they felt it unrestrained." She nearly laughed but stopped herself since she was only half joking.


    "Of course, Mother! I need to learn how to control my aura eventually anyways so it works out." I subconsciously smiled along with her.


    Father seemed more interested in Mother''s first statement though. "Wait, Krystallo is going to have her adolescent sleep already?! Isn''t she just 10?"


    "Well Vasilias had his at 8.."


    "I think we''ve already established that he��s an oddba- Wait, WHAT?! His sleep was 2 years long?!" Father��s mouth hung open as he slowly turned to me.


    Seeing him looking at me, I just casually shrugged my shoulders.


    "Haha, yeah. He isn��t alone though, Krystallo is also an oddball.�� Mother glanced back towards Krystallo with a proud smile. ��She is already much bigger than her age and her first sleep was also much earlier and longer than normal."


    "Haah.. well at least we don''t need to worry about their safety when they ''leave the roost''." Father looked towards Krystallo with a sigh of relief.


    A warm smile slowly crept onto my face as I watched the scene. -I was truly blessed to be born into such a good family..-


    After a bit more idle conversation, we all transformed back to our dragon forms and continued to talk while eating the rest of our bisons.


    Towards the end of us eating though, I felt something interesting with my aura.


    Walking over to Krystallo��s bison, I casually shattered it��s skull with a heavy flick and carefully pulled out a colorful sphere.


    -A mana core!- Seeing me casually grab the core, Father looked at me wondering what I was doing, but before he could ask anything I casually tossed it into my mouth.


    *Crunch*


    Father��s face paled seeing me eat the mana core. "Vasilias! Quickly spit that out!!" He was in total panic but before he could get up to force me to spit it out, Mother stuck her wing in front of him.


    "He��s fine, honey. He''s eaten several already. He even had one the day after he hatched.."


    Color slowly started to return to his face, but he was still in awe. "He did.. what?"


    He looked down at me in shock just before I cringed. "Blegh.. this one was bitter.." Instead of savoring the flavor, I just swallowed it like a pill and started absorbing it��s mana. I had to go take a big bite from my bison to try and wash out the bitterness in my mouth.


    After absorbing it for a bit and finishing my bison, I moved to the side and prepared to try and control my aura.


    Krystallo was still eating her bison and Mother and Father were talking about something I didn''t care to listen to.


    "So, Mother.. Do I just control my aura like a spell?"


    She quickly paused her conversation with Father to answer. "Yep! The only difference is that you don''t pass it through a node."


    -Simple enough..- As I sat there with my eyes closed, I focused completely on my aura.


    As soon as I tried to control it, more than half of it, spanning nearly 50 meters in all directions, stopped flowing.


    -Wow.. That was really easy..-


    Mother and Father instantly realized what I had done once they felt my aura stop flowing. They both just stared right at me in disbelief.


    "There is no way right?" Father was paying close attention to my aura.


    Controlling 50 meters of aura was an impossible task for someone controlling their aura for the first time, but compared to my nuclear breath, it was practically nothing.


    -If I''m going to be in a big city, I need to find a way to keep my aura off of people..- But I quickly ran into an unexpected complication with my ideas. I had no way to reabsorb my aura.


    At best I could compress it as much as possible to form a thin layer around my body. The instant I gave that a try though, I realized a major problem. -Ah..-


    I managed to compress nearly all of my aura into a 10 cm thick layer around my body but the mana density was so high that it became visible. -Well that''s a problem..-

 Chapter 25: With Every Answer, Comes Another Question

    Mid Afternoon - Mid Spring : Home


    -Well that''s a problem..- I just stood there and looked down at myself, watching the beautiful array of colors flow around my body.


    I quickly fell into a trance, but I didn��t stop pulling in my aura. It only took a couple seconds to reach my limit though.


    The layer of aura was around 5 cm thick which was quite thin, but I quickly realized an even bigger problem. -This is less than a quarter of my total aura when my reserve is full..-


    I tried as hard as I could to think of a solution but nothing came to mind. -Sh*t..-


    As I snapped out of my thoughts, I looked down and stared at the flowing colors again. -At least it''s quite pretty..-


    "What in the world.." Mother was the first to break the silence. "Vasilias.. is that your mana control?"


    The amount of mana I was controlling was completely out of the realm of a young dragon and would even be considered a lot for adults. Mother simply didn''t know what to think after seeing me control it so casually.


    As I looked over to her, she mumbled something under her breath. "Were Ancient Fenrir.. really such monsters?"


    Not paying attention to the awkward atmosphere, I decided to ask about my problem. "So, Mother.. I can''t seem to suck back in my aura, so what''s a different way for me to keep my aura off people?" Even though it was only a thin layer, it was still far too much to be able to walk around a town with, visible or not.


    ��Ah..�� She quickly snapped out of her trance. "Ahem. You can''t suck aura back in, sweetie. A better way is t-"


    Father stuck his wing out in front of Mother. "Don''t just tell him. Let''s see how long it takes for him to find a solution." He pulled his wing back and looked at me. ��If we give him all the answers, he��ll become too dependent on us.��


    It was a little frustrating, but he was right. -Plus, I''m sure I''ll figure something out eventually.. hopefully..-


    As I sat back down and started brainstorming what I could do, I remembered something I wanted to test. -Right.. what if I try to read that dense mana?-


    As soon as I went to read the mana, an incredibly detailed view of the space around me filled my mind. I could only really see what the 5 cm wide layer of mana touched, but what was there was freakishly detailed.


    I could see the dust in the air, the individual cells in the grass and anything from large molecules to singular atoms of whatever I looked at.


    It was quite a surreal experience seeing living cells with such detail, but at the same time, it wasn''t nearly as detailed as the dream. In the dream, I could see each part that made up atoms, and even what made up those parts themselves in extreme detail. (talking about quarks)


    But just because it was incomparable to the dream, didn''t mean it was a useless experiment.  -So the density of the mana I''m reading correlates directly to the amount of detail..-


    Although not solving my problem at all, it revealed a pretty useful detail.


    After a bit more experimenting, I figured it was time for a break and released my aura to relax my mind. ��Haah..��


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    Letting my aura spread back out, I looked up to see a sky filled with stars. -Was I really fiddling with my aura for a whole day?-


    I quickly looked around to see if anyone was around and saw Ilios laying on the ground nearby. I couldn''t see anyone else but I felt their aura emanating from the cave.


    As the wave of my aura flowed outwards, I accidentally woke up Ilios.


    ��Sorry to wake you up, buddy..�� I lightly reached down and rubbed his head.


    ��Mmmm..�� Not even opening his eyes, he walked over and curled into a ball next to me.


    -Oh right! I can do that now!- I quickly transformed into my humanoid form and laid into Ilios. His fur felt incredible. Simply laying back into the ball of fur and looking at the night sky felt amazing.


    "The night sky is still stunning.. no matter how many times I look at it.." As I laid there, I started to think about what possible adventures lay ahead of me. I knew it would be a path with its ups and downs, but I was truly looking forward to it.


    A warm smile came to my face as my eyelids started to feel heavier and heavier. Before I knew it, I had fallen into a comfortable sleep.


    *Liiiick*


    I suddenly woke up to the feeling of something wet and warm rubbing across my face. My eyes jolted open in a panic but I quickly calmed down after seeing it was just Ilios.


    "Good morning Ilios.." I reluctantly sat up and brushed off the layer of dust on my clothes [1] before I saw Ilios get up and start walking towards the forest.


    -Hm? Is he wanting me to follow him?- Deciding not to question it, I quickly transformed back to my dragon form and followed him into the forest. -Mother won''t get mad right?-


    After a few minutes of walking, we came across a small pond only a few meters across under the shade of the dense canopy.


    The pond was closer to the size of a puddle compared to my dragon form, but that wasn''t what made it so unusual.


    In the very center of the pond there was a red and pink lily that exuded a light, colorful aura into the surrounding area. The area itself was also abnormally colorful, with various different blooming flowers and even some fruits. It looked like something you''d see as a wallpaper.


    As we walked up to it, Ilios walked out into the shallow pond and lightly nudged at the lily.


    "What do you want me to do?"


    Ilios just stood there wagging his tail, splashing around water.


    Walking out to him, I dipped my feet in the water and leaned down to smell the lily. It had a very sweet smell similar to mana cores.


    Before I could think, I subconsciously opened my mouth and ate it.


    It had an incredible taste, similar to honey, but once the taste faded away, it seemed like that was it. -It had some mana but not nearly as much as I was expecting..-


    As this thought crossed my mind though, an extremely familiar soothing sensation wrapped around me.


    The sensation felt so good that my knees buckled and I nearly fell to the ground and passed out.


    After what felt like only a few seconds, the sensation started to fade and I slowly stood back up and gathered my thoughts. ��Hooh..�� -I really need to figure out what is causing that feeling..- On top of the enjoyment from the sensation, I also simply felt stronger, not physically, but mentally.


    My thoughts were significantly clearer and a bit faster.


    Out of curiosity, I closed my eyes and focused on my aura again. The instant I started reading it, I noticed a clear improvement.


    Unlike before, I could now read out to around 9 meters. -Its still not much but its an improvement.-


    A proud smile popped onto my face before a revelation hit me.


    -Man, I have no clue why that took me so long to think of!- It was an easy solution to my previous aura control problem.


    Since I couldn''t suck back in my aura, I had thought I had to layer it around my body. -But what if.. instead of pulling in, I just push it up..-


    Quickly taking control of my aura, I created a massive column of aura climbing several hundred meters into the air. -Wow.. even my control got a bit better..-


    As I was feeling proud of coming up with a solution, the mood was killed by another major issue popping up. -Wait.. what if I want to go inside a building?-


    My mind drew a complete blank as I tried to think of something. "Haah... Whenever I answer one question, 3 more pop up.."

 Chapter 26: The Sleep Lily

    Mid Morning - Mid Spring : Home


    After first seeing the effects of the lily, I laid down and did some general practice for what felt like several hours, but when I opened my eyes, something was clearly wrong. -It''s.. still morning?-


    The rays of sunlight that pierced the dense canopy were coming in at the exact same angle as they were when I first got to the pond.


    It would make sense if I was only here for a few minutes to not notice much of a difference, but it had felt like several hours. -Was my instinct.. wrong?-


    "Haah..�� I tried not to think about it too much as I shook the thought out of my head. ��Even if it really has been less than an hour, I should probably get heading back.."


    As I slowly stood up and stretched, I looked over and saw Ilios splashing around in the middle of the pond.


    *Splish-splash*


    -How adorable..- I ended up just sitting there watching him roll around in the pond for a bit before he finally noticed that I had gotten up.


    As soon as he saw me, he sprang to his feet and started happily trotting towards me.


    Although he was a massive 5 meter long Ancient Fenrir, to me he just looked like a puppy trying to show off to his big brother.


    As he got close, I leaned down a bit and he hopped up onto my back. He promptly found a good spot and laid down as well.


    After taking my time to make sure he wasn''t going to slip off, I started to head back home, carefully controlling my aura along the way. -There��s no such thing as too much practice right?-


    A few moments later I arrived back home where I saw father walking out of the cave with Krystallo.


    "Where''s mother?" I interrupted their conversation as I landed.


    "She said she was going to check on something and get some food to snack on."


    "Ahh.. okay.�� -So she didn''t panic seeing that I wasn''t home?- I took a minute to think to myself. -Maybe I have more freedom than I thought..- ��Anyways, when she comes back tell her I''m at the top of the mountain."


    "Sure thing, just be careful." He clearly wasn''t as overprotective as Mother was.


    Seeing Father wave me along, I didn''t waste any time flying up the mountain. -I wonder what Mother said she needed to check on..-


    A short moment later, I made it to the top of the mountain and carefully set Ilios down.


    Once I made sure he was comfortable, I went ahead and transformed to my humanoid form.


    ��Hooh..�� I took a deep breath as I tried not to think of the discomfort.


    No matter how uncomfortable my humanoid form was, I needed to get used to it if I wanted to go to Kaelallan with Father. On top of that, I needed to find a way to conceal my aura indoors. -But I''ll save that for later..- There was something else I wanted to mess with.


    -Lets do a deeper dive into magic!- I quickly dug up some excitement to keep my mind distracted.


    -But what should I try first..- My reserve had filled up to about half so I had plenty of mana to work with, but there was nothing that I eagerly wanted to try.


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    After thinking for a bit longer, I finally decided to experiment with what I felt was the most versatile, earth magic.


    At first I thought it was simply too good to be true. -Everything has pros and cons, and everything has limits..- But once I started thinking about it more, I realized that there was definitely one major con. -Mana cost..-


    Manipulating things on the atomic level was ridiculously expensive, on top of that, the cost seemed extremely inconsistent as well. -So, what dictates the mana cost then?-


    The reason the inconsistency was so apparent was because of the cost difference between the steel darts for my railgun breath versus my atomic breath.


    The cost of using a single atomic breath was incomparably more expensive than the railgun even though the steel darts had far more mass. Put simply, I moved far more protons and neutrons when making the steel darts as compared to the atomic breath, but the atomic breath was still more expensive.


    It got me thinking though. -Is the cost dictated by atomic stability, instead of atomic mass?-


    The more I thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. -It can''t hurt to test it..-


    The test I was going to do was simple, I was going to take a single atom, and make it more and more unstable while carefully watching the mana cost.


    To start, I found a simple, lone helium atom, and steadily added more and more neutrons until it was getting extremely difficult to hold together.


    ��Pfft..�� I nearly couldn''t hold back a laugh as I stared at my supid creation.


    It was a hilariously heavy, helium-63 atom.


    -Well, in any case, the experiment was a success.- With the results, it became clear that the more unstable and radioactive an atom got, the more mana it took to both manipulate and hold together.


    Before I properly released the atom though, a stupid thought popped in my mind.


    -I wonder if I can think of a use for crazy heavy isotopes..- It was a thing that felt completely useless, but oddly enough, it didn''t take too long to think of a use. -I could actually probably use them as a primer.- (A primer for fission)


    Such ridiculous isotopes were far too unstable to exist without my assistance, so when I released my hold on them, they just spewed out their excess neutrons. I figured that could those released neutrons to act as a primer to help force nuclear fission.


    It was a truly fascinating idea, but I wouldn''t be able to utilize it for a while because of the ridiculous mana consumption. At this time, my mana reserve simply couldn''t handle it.


    -Knowledge is never a bad thing though. Plus, just because I can''t currently think of any other uses now, doesn''t mean I never will.-


    A proud smile crept onto my face after the successful experiment. -Hmm.. What should I try next?-


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    -Where was it again?- I was flying above the forest looking for a small opening in the canopy. -Oh, there it is..- It didn''t take too long to find.


    I quickly slowed down and lowered my altitude before landing next to a small yet beautiful pond.


    "What.." -Where is it?!- The lily that was supposed to be in the middle of the pond was gone.


    I looked around in disbelief until I saw a dragon''s footprints lead into the pond. -How did they get that close?-


    For context, this pond was home to a ''sleep lily'', a priceless treasure that takes thousands of years to mature. [1] On top of that though, they were also nearly impossible to harvest.


    Around each and every sleep lily was a small bubble that kept anything from even getting close to it.


    It seemed as if everything within the bubble was simply frozen in time, unmoving and unchanging no matter what methods you used. Over time, the notorious barrier earned the name, the ��time bubble��.


    Dragons didn''t believe the barrier was truly unpassable though, because at one point in history, there was a creature who could harvest them.


    Adding fuel to the fire, dragons denounced the possibility that a creature could do something they couldn''t, so they assumed it came down to a specific method they needed to figure out, but their efforts were fruitless. Over the past ten thousand years, not a single lily had been harvested.


    Even still, dragons never gave up. Although very few actually tried seriously to harvest them, some that lived near one would occasionally try. Coincidentally, I happened to be one of those folk. Although I knew any efforts I put into it would be for naught, I couldn''t help but occasionally try.


    Today I had high hopes though. I wanted to try using the magnetism thing Vasilias mentioned, but once I showed up to test it out, the lily was gone.


    -What could��ve..- As I looked back at the dragon footprints, I couldn''t help but feel like they were extremely familiar. -There��s no way right?-


    Not questioning it any further, I sprang into the air and flew towards home as fast as I could.

 Chapter 27: A Caring Mother

    Early Evening - Mid Spring : Home


    I looked out over the ocean with a satisfied smile as the sun started to set. -That was a great session..-


    I didn''t manage to make any more major discoveries but I did manage to become far more efficient with my magic.


    Thanks to learning that the cost of manipulating materials was dictated by their atomic stability, my mana efficiency in those spells increased immensely. With just a bit of fine tuning, the mana needed for ��matter manipulation�� spells dropped by 25-30%.


    On top of that, the more I experimented with my mana, the more proficient I became. Instead of just being able to control the direction of my aura, I was able to control its shape to an extent. -Small steps!- (Similar to saying ��one step at a time��)


    I felt an incredible sense of accomplishment as I started to finally unwind.


    -You know what..- Right before I sat down on the edge of the mountaintop, I backed away from the edge of the mountain and changed back to my dragon form.


    ��Haaah..�� -Much better..- The stuffy and weak feeling I had dealt with all day vanished immediately.


    ��Mmmmm..�� A muffled groan interrupted my stretch.


    -Hm?- As I looked towards the noise, I saw Ilios laid on his back with his feet sticking in the air.


    His paws were moving a bit as if he was running in his dream. ��Huff..�� He let out a muffled bark.


    The scene simply made my heart melt. I wanted to run up and love on him, but at the same time I didn''t want to wake him up. -I should let him sleep..-


    A warm smile crept onto my face as I walked back to the edge of the mountain.


    The sun was steadily approaching the horizon, bathing the sky and ocean in a beautiful orange as a cool, steady breeze flowed up the mountain side.


    *Deep Breath* A familiar scent of the ocean filled the air. ��Hooh..��


    It felt incredible to be able to finally slow down and simply think of nothing after being in deep focus most of the day.


    There was still a lot to think about, but I simply cleared my mind and relaxed.


    It only took a second for me to get sleepy, but as I went to lay down and fall asleep, I felt an incredibly heavy aura flying up the mountain.


    Even though I knew who the owner of the familiar aura was, my instinct still jolted me awake. -Why is she in such a rush?-


    As I turned around, I was met with a shiny orange dragon giving me a serious look. -Mother?- (Her white scales reflected the light from the sunset)


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    After flying nearly as fast as possible for a few minutes, I finally made it back to the cave.


    *Bang* My hard landing cracked the ground a bit but I didn''t care.


    ��What��s the-��


    "Where is Vasilias?!" I cut off Osto since I was in a rush.


    He gave a confused look but was fast to respond. "He went up the mountain a while ago, why are you in such a hurry? Did he do something?"


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    "I''ll explain later." Not wanting to waste any more time, I leapt off the ground and zipped up the side of the mountain.


    A few seconds later, I got to the top of the mountain and gently landed.


    "Vasilias, when you went into the forest this morning, where did you go?" I got straight to the point.


    His face showed a mix of nervousness and confusion. "Uh.. I just followed Ilios till we came up to this really pretty pond.."


    "Did the pond have a lily in it?"


    He looked as if he didnt know how to respond. "Uh.. yeah, it did."


    I tensed up a bit as my nervousness became more apparent. -Wait..- "What do you mean ''did''?"


    "Well, it smelled good so I ate it."


    My heart ached hearing his nonchalant response, but deep down, I oddly felt a bit proud. -I probably would have given it to him if I got it anyways..-


    ��Hooh..�� -Wait that''s not what''s important though�� How did he get it in the first place?!-


    I looked up and saw him nervously sitting there, wearing a slightly guilty look on his face.


    "Please relax, Vasilias. You didn''t do anything bad, sorry if I made it seem that way..�� I felt a bit of guilt until he finally eased up. ��I do need to ask though�� How did you eat the lily?"


    His face was quickly washed with confusion. "What do you mean? I just bent down and ate it.."


    My mind simply froze. I thought I was prepared for any response, but I clearly wasn''t.


    ��Is something wrong, Mother?�� He tilted his head slightly with a concerned look.


    Still slowly piecing my mind back together, I threw out the first response I could think of. ��Ah.. It''s nothing!��


    My emotions were conflicting in my mind, to the point that I didn''t know how to feel. Thankfully though, after a few moments, one completely overpowered the rest and my thoughts slowed.


    ��Haah..�� As my emotions steadied, a proud smile crept onto my face and a single thought echoed through my mind.. -How long will it take me to get used to his surprises..-


    - Vasilias ~


    The silence that encompassed us was suffocating. Mother seemed to be deep in thought though, so I didn''t say anything for a while.


    ��Haah..�� Mother broke the silence with a deep breath.


    "Mother?�� I had a question but I didn''t know if I should ask yet.


    ��What is it sweetie?�� She wore a proud smile as if her serious expression earlier was just a facade.


    ��I''m not sure if now is a good time to ask, but what was that lily?" I felt a bit guilty after I saw her reaction to me saying I ate it. -It clearly had more worth than I thought..-


    "Haha, don''t look so guilty, it''s actually a good thing you ate it.��


    Her words let me ease up a bit, but I still had a lingering nervousness.


    ��That flower was known as a sleep lily. If a dragon eats one they are given a slim chance of being able to survive the ancient dragon sleep. That''s how it got its name!" [1] She seemed incredibly happy to tell me about it.


    -Wait, is that it?- Its effect sounded incredibly underwhelming at the time, but it was just because I didn''t fully understand what she meant.


    ��It may sound simple, but the effect is truly priceless.�� Her expression quickly turned more serious. "Just promise me that you''ll NEVER tell anyone that you''ve eaten one."


    I tensed up a bit, but I was more confused than anything. "O..okay. But.. why?"


    "Those lilies take thousands of years to bloom and are near impossible to harvest. If news gets out that there is someone who can harvest them, a revolution will start among the dragons."


    I still didn''t quite understand but the more I listened, the more concerned I got. -Is the effect really that great?-


    "In any case. I''m glad you were the one to eat it..�� Her serious look slowly faded again which allowed me to relax a bit.


    There was a short and awkward silence that filled the air before she changed subjects.


    ��So, anyways, how is your aura control and reading coming along? Any progress?"


    "It''s coming along well, I can read out to about 10 meters and can control the shape of my aura to some extent."


    She seemed fairly shocked hearing my improvement, but her proud smile only grew. "Well.. since you seem to be progressing so quickly on your own, I''ll just leave you with a small tip. A dragon''s eyes are incomparably more sensitive to mana than humanoid species, so if you really need to layer your aura around you, you can." She gave an encouraging smile.


    -Well, I guess that''s a temporary fix for restraining my aura indoors..- It definitely wasn''t a solution since I could only compress it into a layer for a bit before my aura would start to overflow, but it at least gave me some head room. [2]


    Noticing I was deep in thought, Mother slowly got up and walked back to the edge of the mountain top. "Well, I''m going to head down first..�� She paused and glanced back at me as she spread out her wings. ��If you want to sleep in the cave again.. there is plenty of room."


    Her gentle voice pulled me out of my thoughts just fast enough to see her glide down the mountainside.


    -Maybe I should find a way to spend more time with them..-

 Chapter 28: I am Speed!

    Mid Morning - Late Spring : Home


    After mother left, I spent a fair while stargazing before falling into a refreshing deep sleep.


    My nap lasted around 2 days but I woke up feeling alive and energized. "Uuwwahh." As I woke up, I stood up and stretched. "Mmmm.." -That felt good..- My muscles were a bit tight, which made the stretch feel that much better.


    As I sat back down, I circulated my mana to check for any changes. Thankfully the only change was that my reserve had filled up. -Sweet, I got a full tank to work with!-


    After making sure nothing else had changed I gleefully walked to the edge of the mountain and looked over the extremely calm and glass-like ocean.


    *tap-tap-tap* "Woof!" Ilios walked up behind me and rubbed against my leg.


    "Haha, good morning Ilios!" I leaned down and nuzzled against him before turning back to the ocean. "Alright! Now, what to practice today.."


    -Offense? Unnecessary.. Defense? Also fairly unnecessary..- After a few minutes of thinking though, a good idea came to mind. -Maybe I could make some kind of magic to make me faster..-


    Speed was something I hadn''t really touched on since my current top speed had been incredibly overkill till now. -But, if I''m going to go to Kaelallan, I should get faster so I can come home quickly if I need to..-


    Currently my top speed was just shy of Mach 2, which, although very fast, was far from satisfactory if I needed to cross several thousand kilometers quickly.


    -What could I try first�� I could create a vacuum around my body and the top of my wings to reduce drag, maybe..- Although a plausible option, it would only increase my speed by so much. -I guess it can''t hurt to test though..-


    ��Stay here for a bit Ilios, I''m going to do some tests.�� I lightly rubbed his head before leaping into the air.


    Once I got to a decent altitude, I leveled out and got up to speed. -Alright.. let''s give it a try..-


    I quickly created a thick vacuum around my body, shaping it with a long and sharp front to give me nearly perfect aerodynamics and make me completely silent even when supersonic. The vacuum simply acted as a buffer to allow my wind magic to move the air out of the way before it hit me and created drag.


    As the blissful silence of the vacuum wrapped around me, I once again started accelerating and instantly noticed a huge decrease in strain on my wings. -Wow.. To think that issue was so easily fixable..-


    Previously, when I flew and forced myself past Mach, the amount of drag on my wings would increase exponentially. Although it was manageable below Mach 2, the strain on my joints kept me from being able to go much faster. -But that��s no longer a problem!-


    As I realized I was getting a bit too far from the mountain, I turned around and tried another experiment. -What if I push all the air I''m pushing up above me, below my wings as well?-


    It sounded a little crazy, but I tried it anyway.


    With a bit of tuning, although my speed stayed the same, it massively affected my ability to glide and climb in altitude. -Wow..- It felt like I could glide forever.


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    Once my speed started steadying out again, I was just shy of Mach 3.0. My couple additions increased my speed by more than 100%.


    -That''s not enough though�� Now what..- Thankfully it didn''t take long for another  crazy idea to come to mind. -Why don''t I try making magic thrusters?-


    That was much easier said than done though, since I couldn''t just strap thrusters to myself. -Difficulty has never stopped me though!- An excited smile came to my face.


    Thinking back to the potassium nitrate breath I used, I used wind magic to focus the explosion and felt recoil from it. -So could I use wind magic to act as the shell of a thruster then?-


    To test the idea, I quickly created small quantities of liquid hydrogen along the back of my wings and ignited them.


    *Psh-Fwoosh*


    -It worked!- Even though it was very minimal, I could feel the recoil from the blast! As long as the wind mana I was controlling to direct the truster came into contact with my body, I was able to transfer force. -So I could use that principle to not only help me relieve more strain from my wings, but also get much faster!-


    It was a genius idea, and one that would help me become the fastest creature in this world by a massive margin.


    -Now let''s just make it bigger!- I quickly connected the wind magic more securely to my wings and massively increased the amount of liquid hydrogen I was creating. -How perfect..-


    Unlike what I thought, liquid hydrogen was incredibly cheap to make since there was already hydrogen everywhere. All I had to do was isolate the hydrogen from the air I was already flying through, and let it condense to a liquid before igniting in the thrusters. [1]


    Using this method, the faster I went, the more fuel I had! (He still needs to actively make the hydrogen from other atoms at low speeds)


    Steadily increasing the amount of fuel, I flew to the horizon and got ready for launch.


    As I flew, I quickly noticed that the amount of different magic I had to constantly control and keep track of was nearly too much. -That should get better the more I practice though..-


    After only a minute or so, the mountain had reached the horizon and I turned around and took a deep breath. "Hooh..�� -3.. 2.. 1..-


    *Psshh-FWOOOOSH*


    ��Ughhhh!�� The acceleration made my entire body feel like it was getting crushed and didn��t ease up as the spot in the ocean below me vanished. -Too fast!-


    I instantly cut off the thrusters as I reached a whopping Mach 14 (4,802 m/s) in a matter of seconds.


    As I finally stopped accelerating, my thoughts could finally free up. -God, that is WAY TOO FAST!- Although there was practically no air resistance, going that fast was nearly impossible to control in my current state.


    Quickly catching my breath, I noticed that the mountain that was once on the horizon was no longer that far away.


    -SH*T!!- I quickly tried to slow down some but at this speed it was useless to try and slow down normally.


    In a panic I created a huge amount of liquid hydrogen in my mouth and used my breath as a reverse thruster.


    *Pshh-FWOOOSH*


    The sound of the flame rumbled through the air like a rocket and the thrust from it felt like it was crushing my neck but I was slowing down extremely quickly.


    The issue was, it wasn''t fast enough. The mountain that was once all the way on the horizon, was right in front of my face. -Ah sh*t.- I folded in my wings as fast as I could before I hit the rocky mountainside.


    *WWHHHAAAAAAMM*


    Although the reverse thruster helped a ton, I still slammed into the side of the mountain while supersonic.


    *crumble*


    The feeling of rubble falling onto my back was a good sign. -Well, I''m not dead.. I don''t even seem to be that badly hurt for that matter..- I tried to look around, but couldn''t see anything other than rock rubble in the darkness. -Am I embedded in the mountain..-


    Although I was strong enough to freely break my way out, I was nervous it might make something worse and instead just cranked up the temperature around me and melted away the stone.


    The glow between my scales turned to a bright orange as the stone around me liquified.


    -Much better..- Finally able to move more freely, I turned around and saw a short tunnel with light at the end. -I must have broken something and I just don''t feel it yet..- I was embedded around 60 meters into the mountainside.


    Thankfully the tunnel was just big enough for me to walk through so once I cooled down a bit, I started making my way outside.


    The glow between my scales quickly returned to its original purple and blue as I finally made it back outside.


    Looking up the mountain, I saw Ilios looking down at me.


    "Phew.."-Thank goodness I didn''t get him hurt..-


    Before heading back up the mountain, I did another quick scan of my body in disbelief. -How.. how is nothing broken..-

 Chapter 29: Dangerous Emotions

    Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Home


    -How.. how is nothing broken..- I couldn''t believe it.


    *Crumble*


    The collapsing of the tunnel entrance quickly pulled me out of my thoughts. -Right.. I should head back up.-


    *Flap*


    With a strong flap of my wings, I threw myself up the mountainside.


    Once I landed, I was greeted by Ilios jumping up and licking my face.


    ��Haha, I''m alright buddy.�� Seeing that he wasn''t going to calm down any time soon, I sat down and just gently rubbed his head. ��Sorry I made you worry so much..��


    A short moment later, Ilios finally started to calm down and Father flew up and landed next to me. "Vasilias, what was that bang?" He seemed slightly panicked.


    "I was just testing out some new spells to let me fly faster, but when I tried to slow down, I lost altitude and slammed into the side of the mountain.."


    His nervousness was quickly replaced with confusion. "How fast were you going when you crashed to cause the entire mountain to shudder?"


    "Well, ��too fast�� to say the least... Probably close to Mach 1.5 or so." I responded honestly, not thinking much of it.


    "Mach?"


    -Ah..- I had totally forgotten that this world was one that obviously wouldn''t know what Mach was. -It��s odd enough that they use the metric system in all honesty..- "Mach is just a unit that quantifies the sound barrier. It''s around 340 m/s, I think 343 to be exact."


    He paused and just blankly stared at me for a moment before letting out a deep sigh. ��Haah.. it''s not good to exaggerate things like that, Vasilias.��


    -I didn��t though..- "I can nearly reach Mach 2 without magic, as for with it, well.. I''m not sure where the limit is.�� I figured it was best to leave the speed limit of my thrusters to the imagination.


    ��Huh? Y..you''re not exaggerating?�� It looked like his mind froze, as if he didn''t know how to react.


    ��No? Is it not normal for dragons to be able to fly that fast?��


    ��W..well.. Older dragons can, but they''d need to at least be old elders or ancients.�� He stared at me with a mix of emotions, but unlike Mother, he ended up letting his negative emotions get to him. (Things like jealousy) "Haah.. whatever."


    His reaction made my heart skip a beat. It felt like a huge ball of anxiety was building in my chest.


    Seeing my reaction, he quickly forced a smile. "In any case, I just came up to check on you and make sure you were alright. I''ll be down the mountain with Krystallo if you need anything." His voice lacked the concern and care I was used to.


    "A..alright�� I''ll be down later.." I gave a reluctant response.


    As father flew down the mountain I just plopped myself down and pet Ilios until my mind settled down.


    -Maybe�� Maybe I should hide my strength a bit..- The instant the thought came to my mind though, I felt a tingling sensation wash through my body.


    When I looked down at the source of the sensation, I saw Ilios looking at me with a serious expression.


    ��Haah, what am I thinking..�� Whatever the sensation was, it cleared up my thoughts. -Hiding strength is never a good idea..- A warm smile crept onto my face seeing Ilios��s expression turn back to a happy smile. ��Thanks Ilios..��


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    As I sat there petting Ilios, it felt like time started to pick up the pace again. The next month and a half passed in a blur.


    I spent all my time playing with magic and aura, or learning from Mother, with the only thing undergoing any large change being my aura control.


    At the end of the month and a half, I finally reached the point where I felt somewhat comfortable about being able to enter a humanoid city.


    It was truly perfect timing since there was only a couple weeks till we needed to leave.


    But, little did I know, there would be a slight change in plans.


    ��Mmmm..�� It was the middle of the night when I woke up to a rough, uncontrolled aura leaking from the cave. (he was sleeping in the field)


    -Wow, Mother actually called it.- It was Krystallo��s dragon sleep.


    Not wasting any time, I hopped up and grabbed one of the two mid size bison laying outside the cave.


    Using my wing to open the door, I headed inside and saw Father dash past me.


    "Is something wrong?" I asked in case there was some kind of problem since he looked unusually panicked.


    "No, Krystallo just lost control of her instincts." Not stopping to talk, he hastily made his way outside to pick up the other bison.


    Catching onto his urgency, I continued making my way down the hall and into the main room.


    Just inside the room, next to the mound of treasure, I saw Mother pinning Krystallo to the ground with her foot.


    -She really lost herself, huh..- I didn''t like seeing her in that state, but I knew it was just part of the process and simply set down the bison as needed.


    "Haah.. thanks Vasilias.." Mother let out a deep sigh of relief as she lifted her foot off Krystallo.


    As soon as she could move, Krystallo shot out from under Mother��s foot and ripped into the bison like a feral animal.


    "It''s part of my job as her big brother to take care of her." I showed a half forced, proud smile.


    *Thud*


    Behind me, Father ran into the room and threw his bison down next to Krystallo as well.


    Not long after that, Krystallo finished off the first bison and started on the second.


    After a while, I started getting worried that it wasn''t enough food, but just before she finished the second bison she slowed down and came to a stop.


    -Is that it?- I didn''t know what to expect.


    *thump* Her body went limp as she fell asleep.


    "Phew..�� Mother wore a look of relief. ��I was getting worried.." Gently picking her up, Mother carried her to the middle of the room and set her down.


    "I was getting nervous that I was going to need to leave before she entered her sleep.." Father spoke with a refreshing fatherly joy seeing Krystallo safely enter her dragon sleep.


    -She did cut it down to the wire..- We were due to leave within the next couple weeks, whether Krystallo entered her dragon sleep or not. -If she didn''t start her sleep in time, I would''ve had to stay here to help Mother.-


    Although I wasn''t against staying home to help Mother, I was definitely excited to finally see what this world''s human civilization looked like.


    Father was also aware of my anticipation. "Well now that she has gone into her sleep, it''s time we start getting ready to leave..�� He turned to me with a sly smile.


    -Huh? Are we leaving early?!-


    "Before we go though, it''s time for your test Vasilias." Father quickly flashed an unusual smile that made me a bit uncomfortable.


    "What? Test?" I hadn''t heard about this so-called test so I was totally caught off guard.


    "Before we go, I want to test the strength of your humanoid form!" Although he knew what my strength was like, even in my humanoid form, he never saw me fight in it. Even if I had a freakish amount of strength, without any technique, fights in my humanoid form would not be one sided. Unless I relied on my magic of course.


    "So.. are we just gonna fight in our humanoid forms?"


    Fathers grin widened. "Nope! I''ll be in my dragon form!"


    -EXCUSE ME?!- I tensed up and looked towards Mother for help.


    She was looking at Father with a look of shock, seemingly objecting to the idea like me. "Honey, don''t you think it''s too extreme to have him fight your dragon form.."


    "I''m not allowing any objections, he needs to experience a real fight with someone strong while there aren''t consequences." He puffed up his chest a bit as if proud that he came up with the idea.


    -Oh you have to be kidding..- "Father, I''m just gonna get destroyed.." My enthusiasm was draining by the second.


    "Maybe you''ll naturally learn some techniques if I push you to the limit."


    What he was saying was that I was going to get bullied by him until I figured out how to fight back.


    -Why don''t you just teach me techniques then?- "Mother.." As I turned back to her, she dodged my eyes. -OH YOU TOO?!-


    My one and only ally here decided to sit on the sideline.


    "Haah.." As I realized I wasn''t going to get out of the predicament, I slowly accepted my fate. -This is gonna suck..-

 Chapter 30: The Thrill of a Fight

    Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Home


    ��Haah..�� -This is gonna suck..- As I walked down the hallway, I changed to my humanoid form and desperately tried to think of a way to beat Father.


    -How am I gonna do this..- I walked outside while rubbing my head. -I guess I''ll actually hav..- My thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of something huge coming at me from behind.


    -WHAT THE?!- I instantly threw myself to the ground, barely dodging the massive tail.


    -THAT''S NOT FAIR!- "CAN��T YOU GO EAS-" As I turned over, I saw a massive dragon foot falling towards me.


    In that split second, my instinct took over and threw a punch into the side of the foot.


    *Bang-CRUNCH*


    Barely managing to redirect the stomp, I took the opening to create distance.


    Turning back to him, I saw Father standing on newly shattered ground. -Is he seriously trying to kill me?!-


    Leaning down a bit, I tried to slow my heart rate. -I need to calm down..-


    But Father wasn��t going to give me a chance and dashed at me, throwing a heavy kick.


    *Wooshhh*


    I barely dodged again, but it''s not like he''d give me time to breathe.


    The next thing I knew, I saw his mouth open towards me with an orange flame growing in his mouth. -SH*T!-


    *Psshhh-FWOOSH* *Crackle-Fwooooosh*


    I blasted thruster magic to get away from it, managing to launch myself into the air just before the ground got covered in an orange blaze. -This psycho..-


    While I was falling towards the ground, my stomach was met with his tail. *Crrraack*


    *FWOOSH*


    The instant before I hit the ground, I used thrusters to blast myself across the clearing to make more distance.


    -Sh*t..- My ribs were broken, but my heart rate had calmed and my mind had cleared. -I have a slight speed advantage.. It''s possible..-


    Although only barely, I was more nimble and quicker than him. It wasn''t much, but I was going to have to abuse that difference if I wanted to have a chance. -I just need to throw him off his rhythm..-


    *Wooshhh*


    Charging at me again, he tried to bite me. -It''s a feint..- My gut told me he''d swipe his leg at me.


    *Psshh-FWOOSH*


    Abusing the mobility given by my thrusters, I dodged his attack and channeled my momentum into a punch to his chest.


    *WHAM*


    My goal was to knock his breath out but it felt as if I just punched a steel wall. -OW!- The force from my punch channeled back into me and further cracked my ribs.


    While I was stunned, Father grabbed me with his tail and hurled me into the forest.


    *Wham* *CRACK*


    The tree I hit was blown apart and splintered.


    Without knowing it, a smile started to creep onto my face. -You think that''ll stop me?!-


    I sprang out from the splintered tree and dashed towards him at full speed.


    As I got close, he tried to bite me, but this time I jumped up onto his head and held onto his horns. -Try this!-


    *FWWWOOOOSH* *CRUNCH*


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    I used my thruster magic to slam his head into the ground with excessive force.


    The ground shattered into a spiderweb as I drove his face into the ground, but while I was distracted, he pulled his tail around and slammed it into me.


    *CRACK*


    ��UGH!�� Although I got my hands up in time, they both broke under the force of his tail.


    *CRRUNNCHH* *crumble*


    Without time to even think, I was launched all the way across the opening and into the mountainside.


    Although his attack broke my hands and knocked my breath out, I was still smiling. -It''s possible!-


    As I cranked up my thrusters again, the stone mountainside behind me instantly melted and I was launched back towards Father.


    *FWOOOSH*


    "I think that''s enough!" Mother''s voice filled my ears as I braced myself to hit Father.


    -Oh come on!- I got ready to slow down when I saw a massive rock flying at my face. -WHAT?!-


    In the split second I had to react, I made a steel cylinder and shot it through the stone.


    *CRACK-Crruuncchh*


    The cylinder completely blew apart the stone, but the debris continued flying at me.


    *Fwip*


    With a wave of my hand, I used wind magic to slice through the debris.


    -If he can attack after Mother called it off, so can I!-


    I swiftly moved my foot over his nose but before I could do anything, a white foot appeared next to his face. -Huh?-


    *CRACK* *Cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-crack*


    Mothers kick slammed into his cheek and launched him back into the forest, plowing through several trees before slowing down.


    I froze from awe as Mother''s wing moved up and caught me.


    ��Are you alright sweetie?�� Her face was covered in worry.


    ��Uh.. yeah.. I think so.�� I was too awestruck to respond properly.


    ��Hooh.. thank the heavens.�� She wore a look of relief as she gently set me on the ground. Turning towards the forest, she shot Father a look of contempt. "Why were you taking that even remotely seriously?!"


    Father''s face was covered in guilt. "If I didn''t, he wouldn''t have actually had a challenge."


    ��That doesn''t allow you to nearly kill him and even try to hit him after I said to stop!��


    "S..sorry." Father was clearly guilty, but something about it didn''t sit right with Mother.


    Her anger steadily became more obvious. ��Don''t give me that sh*t�� You were just too jealous and envious of your own son to let him win or let it end as a draw.�� Mother looked like she was going to beat Father into the ground.


    Father looked so guilty he didn''t even know how to respond.


    ��I felt the same sh*t you did, but instead of falling victim to it like you, I instead felt proud.�� Mother gave him a look of disdain. ��Our son will become one of, if not the strongest dragon to ever exist, and here you are nearly ruining that for the sake of your stupid pride.��


    Quickly catching on to what was happening, I changed back to my dragon form and walked over to Mother. ��I''m fine for the most part, Mother. Can you try to look past his mistake for now? I think we both just got too absorbed into the fight�� Plus.. if he went easy on me, it wouldn''t have been as fun..�� Although I didn''t lie, the main reason I stepped in was to stop their fight. -It hurts to watch..-


    Mother quickly caught onto my intentions and calmed down. ��Haah.. sorry sweetie..�� She leaned over and rubbed her cheek on mine.


    Suddenly remembering what started everything, I looked over at Father. "So, Father. Do I pass your test?"


    "Ah right, I nearly forgot about that. You passed easily." He tried to force an uncomfortable smile.


    "Well, in that case, I''m going to go lay down and start healing..�� I glanced towards Mother as I walked past, her agitation was still clear. ��I can''t really blame him for getting absorbed in the fight, so.. at least don''t punish him too harshly..��


    ��Haah.. alright..�� Mother reluctantly gave in.


    Continuing past her, I walked up to the outside of the cave and laid down. -Thankfully these injuries shouldn''t take too long to heal in my dragon form..-


    As I got ready to close my eyes and fall asleep, Ilios darted out of the cave and started licking me.


    "I''m fine, I''m fine.." Even though I tried to motion that I was fine, he didn''t stop licking me.


    -Arent ancient Fenrir supposed to be like.. gods? Why does Ilios act like a golden retriever?- Although I was curious, I wasn''t complaining. Ilios acting like a puppy was incredibly cute after all.


    After petting Ilios for a while, Father walked up behind me. "We don''t have much time before we are going to make our trip so be sure to heal up."


    "Ah right, what about Ilios? He can come along, right?" Ilios managed to brighten my mood and make me forget about Mother and Father''s fight.


    "Of course! Why wouldn''t he?"


    "Well I just don''t know how he can get into the city.." -He''s huge.. there is no way they''d let him through the gate..-


    "He can use transformation magic to make himself smaller, so there shouldn''t be any issues."


    -Excuse me?- I turned to Ilios. "Can you actually shrink down?"


    Ilios quickly nodded his head before a white light exuded from him.


    Once the light cleared he had shrunk down to around 1.25 meters, still very big for a dog, but it should be enough.


    "Wait, so does that mean I can change my size too?"


    "Well yes you can control your size and age, you just can''t go bigger or older than your full size and it''s fairly useless."


    -Simple enough..- "Well, since we have that figured out, what all do I need to do before we leave?"


    "Be sure to eat a lot.. humanoid food is quite expensive when you have the appetite that we dragons do."


    Although he seemed to be joking, it got me thinking. -I wonder what the cuisine is like in this world...- My expectations were honestly at rock bottom since, from what Mother had taught me over the last month, the kingdoms were barely into the middle ages.


    -As long as it''s ��alright��, I''ll be happy..- Although I loved food, to me, most of it was either terrible, ��alright��, or absolutely heavenly with very little in between.


    While I was lost in my thoughts, Mother walked up behind Father. "Well in that case, how about we have a family meal? It''s been a while since we��ve had one, and I have a surprise prepared.��


    I couldn''t help but feel like the way she said it was ominous, but it made me curious. ��That''s fine with me.��


    ��In that case, I''ll go catch a good bison for you." Mother flashed an excited smile before quickly leaping into the air and flying into the forest.


    -What kind of surprise will it be..-

 Chapter 31: Final Preparations

    Mid Evening - Late Spring : Home


    While waiting for mother to come back, father and I sat in complete silence.


    -God this is so awkward..- The silence was simply deafening.


    ��Hey.. Vasilias.�� Father awkwardly glanced over at me. ��Im.. sorry about earlier..��


    Hearing his guilt filled apology, I looked over and saw Father wearing a look of defeat. ��Mother is the one you should be apologizing to, not me.��


    He quickly lowered his gaze and stared at the ground.


    -Did he seriously think saying sorry to me would do anything?- ��For future reference though..�� I gave him a serious look. ��If you said sorry to a broken sword would it piece itself back together?��


    Glancing back up at me, his face showed a bit of surprise.


    ��Haah..�� I gave him a judgmental look as I took a deep breath. -Just what did Mother see in him to bear his kids..-


    The silence quickly wrapped around us again, but thankfully not long after that, Mother returned.


    -What is that?- Cresting over the treetops was Mother with a huge creature in her grasp. It was a giant bison, the biggest I had ever seen by a huge margin.


    *Thud*


    The bison shook the ground as Mother dropped it in front of me.


    "Where did you even find this thing.." Although I didn''t explore the forest too much over the past month and a half, at the very least I figured I knew what the largest creatures in the area were.


    Mother gently landed next to me, brandishing her warm, motherly smile. "This guy was someone I found on the far edge of the forest a little while ago, I was saving him for a special occasion."


    As I enjoyed the warm feeling I got from her smile, a heavenly scent reached my nose.


    Looking back at the bison, my mouth slowly started to water.


    Something I had come to realize recently was that the larger the bison, the better their meat. Their muscles would be much denser and since my jaws were so strong, the tougher meat gave a better texture. Instead of feeling like I was biting through pure fat, it felt like I was actually biting into a steak.


    Desperately keeping myself from biting into it preemptively, I leaned back and looked back at Mother. "So how are we going to divide this?"


    "Well, I was saving it just for you to have so.." she leaned down and nudged the bison towards me.


    -I can really have all of this?- I looked back down at the bison with greedy eyes, but I quickly suppressed it. -It feels a bit wrong to have this all to myself..- "What are you guys going to eat?"


    "Well there are some other bison that your father and I will have, so don''t worry about us and enjoy the feast."


    Mother quickly moved and carried two smaller bison from the cave entrance that I hadn''t seen previously. -Where did those even come from?-


    "Well, let''s eat!" She gave a quick cheers before biting into her bison.


    -Well..- My eyes slowly drifted back to my bison before slowly biting down into its tender flesh.


    ��Mm..�� The taste was simply divine. Its texture wasn''t chewy but was instead closer to a tender steak. -W..wow..-


    My face was washed with satisfaction, I even closed my eyes to further savor the flavor of the bison.


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    Mother was watching me with a proud smile. "Is it to your satisfaction?"


    Her voice quickly brought me back to reality. "Of course it is!" After giving a bit of thought, I leaned down and bit off a large chunk to give to Mother.


    As I set it in front of her, she just stared at me, completely bewildered. "It''s all yours sweetie. You don''t need to share.." Selfishness and greed of a dragon was something to be expected, especially from young dragons, so me giving Mother meat shocked her.


    "Well.. I''d feel bad if I monopolized this delicious meat from you, so.." For whatever reason, it felt a bit embarrassing to do.


    Seeing my genuinity, she gave me a gentle smile. "Then, thank you sweetie." Not wasting any time, she leaned down and bit into the meat. "Mmmm, it is quite good.. if only we were in Bahamut though. I could''ve gotten some spices to make it truly incredible."


    -Spices? Maybe this world''s cuisine is a little more developed than I thought..- I only hoped that what she meant by spices was beyond just salt or pepper. -Although salt would indeed make this meat better..-


    She quickly finished the chunk I gave her so I quickly leaned down to get her more, "Well to shift topics, how long is the flight going to be?" Although I didn''t want to seem pushy, I really wanted to get to the city quickly. My thirst for adventure was swelling.


    "Well, it''s a little over 15,000 km to our west, so if we really book it.." Father took a moment to crunch the numbers. "It should take around 12 hours.."


    -Oof.. that''s quite the flight.. but I guess it is a really long ways..- "Is there anywhere we need to stop on the way?"


    "No, but we can stop to take a breather if you need it."


    "Would it be possible for me to carry you and Ilios so we could.. make a better pace?" I had the idea to use it as practice for speed control with my recently tuned thruster magic to get there far faster.


    "I don''t see anything wrong with that.. as long as you can control the flight and not fly us into a mountain." He wore a joking smile.


    ��Haah.. that was over a month ago, Father.�� Although a bad joke, I couldn''t help but smile a bit.


    ��Haha, I know, I know. I was just poking fun.��


    Seeing Ilios walk up and bite into the bison, a question popped into my head. "So, will you just shrink like Ilios?"


    "No, my temporary form is much stronger than my shrunken form at that size.."


    -Ahh well.. I guess I just need to be extra careful then..- "Okay then. Let''s plan for that."


    After that, we continued to eat for a while and casually discussed things like directions on how to get there and a bit of magic theory.


    It wasn''t long before we had all finished eating. -My lord, that bison was heavenly..- "So when are we going to leave?"


    "Well since you''re the one flying, whenever you feel rested enough to make the flight.. as long as it''s within a few days."


    "In that case, I''d like to get there somewhat soon so let''s-"


    "Hold up Vasilias.." Mother quickly interrupted my plans. "You need to change your.. attire for your humanoid form first.." She spoke with an unusual urgency.


    Her urgency stemmed from the fact that dragons in their humanoid form would always make and use clothes that looked luxurious, even for nobles, but not me. I wore grey sweatpants and a casual shirt in my humanoid form. -It''s what''s most comfortable..-


    But comfort in clothes didn''t seem to matter in this world since it was all about functionality or appearance. The examples Mother gave for what I should wear, although they looked quite good, they were very stiff and rather uncomfortable looking. -Could I just change around the materials to make them more comfy though?-


    To test my idea, I picked the best looking one that looked like assassins creed clothing. It was white with purple accents which went well with my black hair and purple eyes. [1]


    I wanted to wear black, but according to Mother, that made me look ��too much like an adventurer��, so instead of arguing, I just went along with it. -It''s not like it looks bad.. just a bit flashy for my taste.-


    As I changed to my humanoid form and made the clothes on myself, I changed around the materials to mix in cotton and polyester. It simply made the entire outfit 1000x more comfortable. -The tight fit is quite nice but.. I should probably strengthen it if I can..-


    To fix the issue of it ripping if I moved too quickly, I wove in thin, unnoticeable threads of titanium. -That should work..- "So is this everything I need before we go?"


    "Ah! One last thing!" Mother quickly ran into the cave before returning with a tiny platinum coin in her hand. "This will be your allowance for the trip, so spend it wisely."


    Although it was only a single coin, it was a platinum coin that was something worth around 100 gold. (around $1,000,000 USD)


    I froze for a moment seeing the coin. -THIS IS MY SPENDING MONEY?! What am I going to do.. buy a mansion?!- It was a sum of money I could barely fathom, be it in my past life or this one.


    -Well I guess dragons have a different sense of wealth after all..- I glanced towards the cave entrance and envisioned Mother��s giant pile of coins and treasure. The pile was a conglomeration of gold, platinum and royal gold coins and countless treasures.


    Even though it was part of my instinct as a dragon to desire a hoard of treasure, Mothers pile was incredibly intimidating. -How many billions of dollars would that even translate to..-


    ��Haah..�� I glanced down at the small platinum coin laying in my palm. -Can I even call this being born with a gold spoon anymore?-

 Chapter 32: The Untouched Night Sky

    Mid Evening - Late Spring : Home


    After receiving mothers generous ''allowance'', she flushed out warnings and ��life lessons�� that I figured were common knowledge until morning rolled around.


    Once the sun came up and I could finally relax in silence, I took a short nap. When I woke up though, I got another earful of Mothers lectures until it was finally time to leave.


    ��You know to stay away from strange people right?��


    ��Yes, Mother.��


    ��If some man comes up and tries to lure you into his carriage, you know not to follow him right?�� Although it sounded like a joke, her face was serious.


    ��Haha, yes Mother. I still remember everything you said last night so please don''t worry.��


    ��Have you been able to heal some?��


    ��Yeah, the only things left to heal are small fractures.�� -The healing capabilities of dragons are truly frightening..-


    ��Haah.. good.�� She took a deep breath as she calmed herself before looking back up at me with a relieved smile. "Well, it seems like I can''t stall any more.." Her smile turned warm as she walked up for a hug.


    The warmth of her hug was incredible so I couldn''t help but enjoy it for a moment. "Don''t worry mother, I''ll be safe."


    "I know you will but I can''t help but worry.." Her hug tightened before she let me go with a kiss on the cheek.


    Finally physically, and mentally prepared to leave, I turned to Ilios and Father. "Alright, Ilios, Father, go ahead and shrink down."


    Once the light faded I sat up and used my arms to form a seat for them. "Sorry if it isn''t very comfortable.. I haven''t thought of a better solution yet."


    Father looked at me questioningly before reluctantly climbing on. "Come on Ilios.�� He patted his lap for Ilios to jump up, but Ilios ignored him and sat on the edge.


    Father wore a dejected look that nearly made me chuckle before I looked back towards Mother. "Well, it seems we''re off.."


    "Yes, just please be safe." She still had a bit of worry on her face, but she was suppressing it.


    "I will, Mother, I promise." I gave a confident smile to see if I could ease her worry before leaving as I spread out my wings. ��I''ll be back!��


    Seeing her lightly nod and give a wave goodbye, I leapt into the air.


    The flight started slowly, but I remembered to mention something important before I started really speeding up. "Father, if you or Ilios need something, tap my stomach a few times. I won''t be able to hear you no matter how much you yell at the speeds we will be going."


    He seemed confused but just went along with it. "I don''t really understand but okay.."


    -It seems supersonic flight isn''t well known...- "Well, I''m going to start speeding up slowly but it will still pull quite a lot, so be ready!"


    Seeing both Ilios and Father nod, I started to speed up and climb in altitude.


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    Once I got a bit above the clouds, I got myself situated. -Time for the thrusters..-


    Starting small, I slowly started the thrusters and steadily picked up the pace.


    Not long after, I got up to around Mach 14 again and eased my acceleration. -This should be good..-


    Although Mach 14 used to be my speed limit, over the past month and a half, I practiced enough to be able to control that speed quite well. -Im not comfortable to go any faster with Ilios or Father on board though..- Anything beyond Mach 14 was risky territory.


    Now that I was up to speed, I could take a breather and admire the scenery.


    -Wow..- The clouds below us looked like fluffy balls of cotton and the night sky looked like an ocean of colors.


    It had such a surreal beauty that I couldn''t take my eyes off of it for the entire flight.


    Before I knew it, I felt a light tap on my underside and looked down to see a dim glow through the clouds on the horizon. -Oh, that''s probably the city.-


    After double checking to make sure that was the reason for Fathers tap, I started to slow down.


    It had been an incredibly smooth flight up till this point, and Father and Ilios both seemed to be doing well.


    As I continued to slow down, we finally got below the clouds and could see a large city on the horizon with a towering wall surrounding it. -That must be Kaelallan..-


    It was quite pretty with a dim, aura-like glow peeking over the walls.


    Below us was a forest Father had told me about beforehand. It was the place where we would land and change to our humanoid forms to keep our dragon forms out of sight.


    Once I got just above the treetops, I continued to glide until I approached a clearing that looked like the perfect landing pad.


    At this point we were only around 12km from the city, but according to Father, this forest was fairly desolate so we didn''t need to worry about anything.


    Once I landed, I quickly set down father and Ilios and made sure they were alright.


    Father quickly jumped off and stumbled on his feet. "Maybe.. a little more gentle.. with slowing down next time.." He was a little out of breath from the somewhat aggressive deceleration.


    Ilios on the other hand seemed totally fine, trotting up to me with a joyous smile as I changed to my humanoid form.


    "Haha, do you feel alright Ilios?�� I couldn''t help but reach down and pet him as he nodded in response. ��Well, we have quite a walk so let''s get going shall we?"


    Father stopped me with shocking urgency. ��Give me one second.. Before we go..��


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    It was late at night when I was in the Kaelallan Adventurers Guild, hearing some long awaited words.


    "Michael, head to the royal palace in the morning to finish your promotion. Again, congratulations on becoming Kaelallan��s 3rd Nation rank!" My personal receptionist, a young demihuman named Ellen, gave me a warm smile as she slid a paper across the desk.


    ��Haha, it''s not totally finalized yet.�� I still had to meet with his majesty and receive his approval and gifted nobility before it was finalized.


    ��You know that''s all just formality. I wouldn''t be giving you this paperwork if I wasn''t confident that you would be okay.�� Her bright smile was as joyous as ever.


    "Thank you for your confidence, Ellen." I wore a thankful smile as I picked up the paper listing my national merit and achievements that were ��of note��. ��Well, its getting late so Ill be heading out.��


    ��Alright, be sure to rest up before you go to the palace!��


    ��Haha, sure thing.�� Waving Ellen goodnight, I walked out of the guild with a deep warmth in my chest.


    As I walked up the road, I started to reminisce about the past. -Ahh how far I''ve come..-


    I reminisced of the days that I was just an average peasant boy saving up money to apply to the guild, the days of making my first friends, and even meeting who I believed to be the love of my life. -I hope she��s doing well..-


    Shaking the thought out of my head, I looked up and quickly noticed I had already made it to the inn I was staying at in the noble district.


    Walking inside, I made my way up to my room and got a drink before walking out onto the balcony.


    ��Haah..�� I tried to clear my mind as I looked over the bustling city streets. -Now that I''ve reached the top of the mountain.. Where do I go?-


    Before I could think too much though, I saw a strange blue light falling through the clouds before disappearing behind the horizon. -What was that?-


    After thinking about what it could be for several minutes, I was interrupted by a bright orange flash that came from the edge of the forest.


    -What an odd color..- It was a shade of orange I had never seen from an explosion before, but before my curiosity could take over, I stopped myself and turned to walk back inside. -Right.. I just need to focus on resting up for tomorrow..- I couldn''t risk missing the meeting tomorrow to settle my curiosity.


    I gave a reluctant glance back towards the edge of the forest as I walked inside. -If it''s anything new, I''m sure the guild will let me know..-

 Chapter 33: Aura Problems

    Mid Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    A couple minutes after we landed, Father finally finished gathering himself and we started making our way out of the forest.


    As we walked, Ilios was glued to my side. A part of me expected him to wander around to explore the new area like a dog from Earth would, but it was just me continuing to forget what kind of creature he was.


    I glanced down at Ilios with a curious look before he looked back at me with a smile. -I sometimes forget how smart he is..-


    As we continued out of the forest, we eventually came up to an empty road leading to town.


    As we walked onto the road though, an arrow came flying from somewhere behind us.


    *Woooosh*


    With a slight tilt of my head, the arrow zipped past me. -We haven''t even gotten to the city, how is there already trouble..- I glanced up at Father as if to ask what to do.


    Noticing my gaze, he glanced back and let out a sigh. "Haah.. they''re probably bandits, just use some magic to dispose of them."


    Glancing back through the darkness, I saw a small group of 3 guys crouched in the bushes and sensed 2 more behind them with my aura.


    -Well they''re close enough together I guess..- I planned to try something new with my ammonium nitrate breath.


    With a casual movement, I faced my palm towards the group and formed and compressed the same amount of ammonium nitrate that would fit in my (currently human sized) breath gland.


    *BANG*


    A blinding flash filled the area as a thin beam left my hand before expanding and vaporizing the bushes and bandits. [1]


    -Maybe that was a bit much..- Although the test was successful, it was extremely overkill for the bandits.


    The entire area of forest in front of where I released the focus of the blast was burnt to dust or unrecognizably blown apart.


    -In any case though.. I don''t sense anyone anymore..- There was a short moment of silence as I slowly realized that the detail of my aura was abnormally high.


    -OH WHOOPS!- As it turned out, I hadn''t been controlling my aura at all. -Glad I caught that before we went into the city..-


    Quickly redirecting all of my aura up into the air, I left only a thin cloud around me so I could sense my general surroundings. -I need to make sure to remember to layer my aura when I''m indoors too..-


    ��Well..�� I turned back to Father. ��Let''s get back on the road shall we?�� With the bandits no longer in the mortal world, we could finally get back on the road.


    Thankfully, beyond that point it was smooth sailing. We even ended up getting to the gate with a couple hours remaining until sunrise, when we would go and meet with the royal family.


    "Identification please." A tall and burly man donning silver armor was looking down at us with a frown on his face.


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    Father reached into his pocket and pulled out a card of some kind, showing it to the guard.


    "Okay you may pass, what about the kid and dog?" He gave Ilios and I a condescending look that made me want to vaporize him.


    ��Haah..�� I quickly took a deep breath to relax my nerves.


    But before I could say anything, Father spoke up. "He is my son and that''s his pet." Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out and tossed the guard a silver coin. ��I''m guessing the policies haven''t changed?��


    The knight gave a greedy smile as he flicked up and caught the coin. ��Actually, the policy has changed to 2 si-��


    Before he could finish, a larger, older man set his hand on the knight''s shoulder. ��It is still the same, sir, it seems my student here remembered incorrectly. Would you like change?�� He wore a warm and pure smile as he spoke.


    ��Haha, no thanks. Please have a good day, sir.�� Fathers mood quickly brightened.


    "You too, just remember to go to the guild and get an ID for him."


    "Of course." Father gave the knights a polite smile as we walked through the gate.


    As we walking through the gate, I glanced back towards the guards with a look of curiosity. "What was the silver for, Father?"


    "That was money for temporary entry. It''s usually 100 copper but I don''t carry anything less than silvers, so.."


    -I guess a silver isn''t really anything to us..- I still couldn''t get over how much money Mother and Father had.


    As I turned back around, I was greeted with a main street lined with light artifacts and beautiful buildings that lead all the way to the palace. It was all quite beautiful and reminded me of earth, but before I could bathe in old memories, Father set his hand on my shoulder.


    "Well, we have a few hours to kill so feel free to explore some, I''m going to go to the bar to check on someone. Just be sure to go by the guild to get an ID before sunrise."


    "Okay, just don''t drink too much." I said it in a half joking manner.


    "Haha, I''m not going to drink, it''s to talk to the bar owner. He''s been a good friend of mine since he was young so I''m going to check up on him."


    -Oh, whoops.- I felt a bit bad since I jumped to conclusions. "Well, I''m gonna go to the guild first, do you know where it is?"


    He pointed up the street. "You see that building with the star on it? (a compass star) That''s the guild. Just be careful with the adventurers, they aren''t dangerous to you but they can be stupid sometimes." He wore a playful smile as he lightly patted me on the back.


    "Sure thing. Well, be safe! Ill see you in the morning." I gave father a smile and a light wave before heading up the street.


    The streets had quite a few people still walking around. The majority seemed to be human, but there were some elves, avians, and demihumans among them. -There was even a dwarf by the gate.-


    The liveliness of the city was quite refreshing and it was quite clean, but there was at least one major problem.


    -Ugh.. everyone is staring at me..- Everyone around me, especially demihumans and elves were staring holes into Ilios and I.


    -It must be the ancient fenrir part of my aura..- I quickly tried to think of a way to fix it but after a while I decided I just needed to get used to it.


    Thankfully though, it didn''t take long to get to the guild building.


    As I walked onto the porch, I sucked in my aura and formed it into a thin layer only a few centimeters thick and sat Ilios down. "Ilios, you stay right here for me okay? I''ll be quick."


    I ended up sitting there and petting him for a bit before eventually taking a deep breath and walking into the guild.


    - Ellen ~


    It was late at night and I was incredibly tired, but at the same time, I was limitlessly happy. -Today is a good day.-


    The adventurer I was contracted to was being promoted to Nation Rank. That meant I was due for another promotion and even a hefty pay raise. In other words, my life was set beyond this point. -And Michael is the one to thank for it.- I wore a wide smile as I thought happy thoughts. -I wonder if he has a woman..-


    *Creaak*


    My thoughts were interrupted by seeing a new face walk into the guild.


    It was a young boy, only around 12 or 13, but he was beautiful to the point that I didn''t think was possible.


    He was moderately tall for his age with a strong build, black hair and purple eyes, but above all, he carried an air of strength and majesty that made me feel the need to kneel.


    It was at that moment that a single word popped into my head. -God..-

 Chapter 34: Identification

    Late Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    As I walked up to the mid-western tavern-like doors, I could hear several conversations.


    "What quest should we take.."


    "Is there an orc quest up?"


    "You spent HOW MUCH ON THAT?!"


    "Can I make a deposit?"


    The noise was a bit refreshing but I knew what was going to happen as soon as I walked inside.


    *Creaak*


    With a light push, the doors swung open and everyone in the room looked at me.


    "Haah.." Silence encompassed the entire guild. -At least I''m starting to get used to it..-


    Scanning the room, I quickly found a few booths with some receptionists behind them. -I guess I''ll go with her..-


    The receptionist at the booth I walked up to was staring at me with a look of awe that almost looked like worship.


    She was a dog demihuman with floppy ears and was fairly cute but I was still too young in this life to have developed any ''desires'' yet.


    "Hello, Miss." *tap-tap* I tapped the desk to try to snap her out of her trance.


    "H..huh? Ah yes.. wh.. what is it you need?" Her voice was quite shaky.


    "I need to get an ID, it''s my first time in town."


    "Ah.. okay, sure thing.. ju.. just give me a second!" She quickly turned around and ran to a table in the back of the room before shuffling through papers and running back to me.


    It was a basic forum asking for things like my name, birthdate, magic aptitude ect. -Pretty basic stuff..-


    "P.. please take your time.. the ID w.. will be 500 copper when you finish.." Her breathing was heavy.


    -Sweet..- "Can I get change for a platinum while I''m filling this out?" I casually took the coin out of my pocket and set it on the desk.


    *Clank*


    The noise echoed through the silence as I felt nearly everyone in the room focus on the coin.


    Even the receptionist didn''t immediately know how to react. "Y.. yes... Please give me a moment!" She quickly grabbed the coin and ran into the back room.


    After she left, people finally started talking again, but that came to an end as soon as some bandit looking man stood up and walked towards me.


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    "Hey kid.." He was towering over me. "Where''d you get that coin?"


    Not even bothering to turn around, I gave him a nonchalant response. "From my mother."


    A devious smile appeared on his face thinking I''d be easy prey. "How about you give me one?"


    I rolled my eyes at his confidence. "Why would I give you one?"


    "Well, if you give me a coin, I can.. show you around town." The way he looked at me gave me a visceral disgust.


    *BANG-fwoosh*


    Channeling my disgust into a punch, I sent him flying out of the guild doors and into the street.


    "Creep.." My voice echoed through the minds of everyone in the room.


    Not long after I sat back down, the receptionist returned. "Sir.. would you like to.. um.. open a bank account with the guild?"


    -This world has banks for the common folk?- It was quite a shocking discovery. "How do banks work here? Also please feel free to speak comfortably."


    The shakiness in her voice didn''t go away though. "W.. well.. we will get you a card that will ''hold'' your gold.. so you can carry just that card instead of a bag of coins. You can also deposit coins with us for us to hold onto.."


    -Wow.. they even have cards?!- I was instantly intrigued. "How does the card work?"


    As she sifted through papers, she gave a short explanation. "Ahh.. well.. put simply, its an artifact that uses light magic to keep track of the balance.."


    -Couldn''t that be manipulated?- I was quick to think of a few exploits, but figured it was just because I didn''t know the details. "I guess I might as well get one then."


    "Alright then.. please give me a moment.." Without hesitation she went back to a table with an artifact on it.


    -Well I finished the form..- It didnt take long for me to finish the form, of course limiting certain information about my strength since it would just cause problems if I was truthful.


    I also didn''t use the last name Ragnarok either, according to Father, it would cause more problems so he told me to use the last name Whyte. -Does the name Ragnarok mean something special in human society?-


    As I was thinking, the receptionist came back. "Are you done with the forum, sir?"


    "Ah, yes. Sorry, I was just thinking about something."


    "Please don''t apologize." She quickly took the forum and set in on the artifact she moved to her desk.


    Almost immediately after, a small card popped out that she handed to me.


    "This will be your ID and your bank card, this light in the top means the card is active and its color determines your criminal record.. if you want to see your balance, please place your thumb here.." She pointed to a blank corner of the card.


    Pressing my thumb on it, a number was displayed at the top of the ID. ''99,999,300.00c'' (copper)


    -So it was 500 copper for the ID and 200 for the account�� How cool..- It was truly amazing to see just how advanced and cheap the artifact was.


    "Is there anything else you need?" The shakiness in her voice finally started to subside.


    "Actually yes, do you know of any good restaurants around here?"


    Her eyes instantly lit up. "Yes! If you go out, take a left then take your first right, the 3rd building on your right will be a nice bar, it''s a little expensive but the food is good."


    "Okay, thank you!" Standing back up, I got ready to leave. "Well if that''s everything, I''ll be going."


    "Y..yes, please enjoy yourself! If you ever come back and need anything, my name is Ellen." She gave a polite bow.


    -Ellen�� She was quite helpful..- I made a mental note to help her if the situation arose as I left. "Thanks for your help."


    The instant I walked outside, chatter erupted within the guild.


    "Who was that?!"


    "He absolutely DESTROYED Iron Bull!"


    "He was quite dreamy.."


    "You like guys?!"


    -Pfft..- Their conversations caught me a little off guard.


    "Haahhhh.." Letting out a long sigh Ellen leaned back into her seat and looked down at the ID form. "I wonder how much of this is even real.."


    Trying to ignore the commotion inside, I picked up Ilios and started heading to the bar. "How about we go get some food?"


    Following Ellens directions, we ended up turning onto a narrow and dimly lit road. It was a bit sketchy but was also quite beautiful.


    As we continued down the road, we eventually came up to building with a sign of a fork and wooden mug on it. -That must be it..-


    *Creaak*


    I enthusiastically pushed open the doors and walked inside with Ilios. -Lets see what this world''s cuisine is like!-

 Chapter 35: Hows the Food?

    Late Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    *Creaak*


    The doors to the bar opened with a creak.


    There was various chatter inside, but just like with the guild, everything went silent as soon as I walked in.


    "How do you order food here?" I asked bluntly to try and break the atmosphere, and it seemed to have helped. A few of the people started talking again, if only a little.


    "Have a seat over there, would you like anything special?" The man behind the bar had a lean but muscular build with a good face, but it was clear he wasn''t just a bartender.


    -No normal bartender has so many people guarding him..- Using my aura, I could roughly make out how many people in the room were hiding weapons, all of which were staring holes into me.


    "I''ll just have whatever��s the best." I called out to the barkeep as I sat down at the table he pointed to.


    ��Alright, I''ll bring you something special here in a moment.�� He wore a bright but slightly forced smile as he set down the mug he was cleaning and walked into the back.


    As I tried to pass time by petting Ilios, the unkempt man at the table next to mine tried to start a conversation. "What''s a noble��s kid doing here?"


    "I just asked for a place with good food and the receptionist at the guild told me to come here."


    A sly smile slowly crept onto his face. "This isn''t a place where just anyone can come into, kid."


    He tried to sound all ominous but it just made me roll my eyes. "It''s a bar.. anyone with money can come in, quit trying to sound cool."


    The small chatter in the bar became a deafening silence once again.


    "I like your guts kid." Coming out of the back room was the bartender.


    In his hands were two plates. One had a bowl with some kind of soup and the other was a plate of meat.


    -I guess it was too much to expect vegetables, but the meat looks seasoned with something and it seems cooked well. The soup also seems to use actual broth..- Needless to say, the quality of food was exceeding my expectations so far.


    "So are you new around here?" The barkeep was quick to try to figure out who I was.


    "Yeah, I''m visiting since I have some business with the royal family."


    As if momentarily breaking character, he flashed an odd look before shifting back to a smile. "Ahh so you''re a big shot, huh�� I guess that explains why you''re so calm."


    "The reason I''m calm is because no one in this room can touch me, not that."


    As I turned to the food, the man at the table next to mine stood up. "How about you bet on that?"


    My ears twitched a little as I paused before chowing down on a chunk of meat. "What kind of bet are we talking about?"


    "How about a gold?" He stood up and flicked a gold coin out onto the table.


    *Cling*


    The ring of the coin attracted the eyes of everyone in the room.


    -Is this guy an idiot?- It was almost like he was trying to say he was the strongest here. -Maybe this''ll be interesting..- "Sure, why no-"


    Before I could finish talking he pulled out a dagger and swung at me.


    *Fwoosh*


    Using wind magic, I swept his legs out from under him and grabbed his head. -You dare interrupt me!-


    *CrAcK*


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    Without bothering to hold back, I slammed the man''s head through the floorboards and crushed it against the ground.


    I gave his lifeless body a look of disgust as I pulled my blood covered hand out of the hole in the floorboards. ��Coward.��


    The room was completely silent with everyone staring at me in complete awe.


    ��Haah..�� -I couldn''t hold myself back..- As I started cleaning the man''s blood off my hands with water magic, I confirmed my assumptions about the barkeep. "How much do you want for repairs and cleanup?"


    Quickly breaking away from his look of shock, his previous smile returned. Just this time, it wasn��t totally forced. "A few silver will do. Would you like me to get you change?"


    -He��s definitely some underworld big shot..- "Keep the change, and feel free to take whatever he had on him. Just consider it as the payment for the food and the tip."


    His smile brightened further as he happily swiped the coin off the table. "I like you already, kid!"


    With a light wave of his hand, a masked man from across the room walked over and picked up the body.


    With a quick glance at the bartender, they exchanged nods and the masked man disappeared into the back of the bar.


    -Just like that, huh..-


    Turning back to me, he showed a smile of satisfaction. "You took care of a trouble maker, gave me an excuse to redo the floors and gave a very generous ''tip''. You''re welcome to come by anytime, no matter what you need."


    I gave a slight smile seeing that things weren''t going to get troublesome. "Whether I come back or not depends on the food.''''


    Finally having a moment to eat, I repositioned my chair and dug in.


    -Wow.. it''s quite good..- The spices were decent, something similar to basic steak seasoning with some salt, but it worked quite well. -The meat is still juicy and flavorful as well..-


    Next was the soup, something I had extra high hopes for.


    *Slurp*


    ��Mmm..�� -That.. is really good..- It was far better than I expected, using something similar to beef broth with some bits of meat, and what tasted like potato and rice inside.


    "How is it?"


    "Surprisingly good actually.." Although not quite as good as the big bison I ate before the trip, it was definitely good enough to take note of.


    As I glanced up at the bartender, I felt as if I could see money signs in his eyes.


    -A man driven by money... I guess it couldn''t hurt..- "My name is Vasilias Whyte."


    He hesitated for a moment before responding. "Lewis Rowe.. it''s nice to meet you sir Whyte.��


    We gave a quick handshake before I continued eating.


    ��So what kind of dog is that?"


    I gave a reluctant response as I handed a chunk of meat to Ilios. "He��s a frost wolf.."


    "He��s quite imposing for a regular frost wolf.." When he glanced under the table at Ilios, Ilios glared at him and he immediately broke into a cold sweat. "H..he has a very similar aura to you.. are you related?" He sounded like he was half-joking.


    "I guess in a way..." There was a short and awkward silence that followed until I finally finished eating and stood up. "Well, I think that''s enough for tonight. I''m not sure how long I''ll be in town but I''ll be sure to come back if I get the chance."


    Seeing me get up, Ilios hopped up and stuck to my side.


    "Well, I guess I''ll see you around Sir Whyte. Good luck with your business."


    "Thanks. Have a good night!"


    "You too." He put on a friendly smile and mumbled something under his breath as I walked outside. "Maybe it''s my turn to have a kid.."


    Although I heard his mumble, I didn''t think much of it and continued outside.


    Feeling the cool evening breeze blow down the street, I hopped up onto a nearby roof and looked out over the walls towards the horizon. -Still an hour or so till sunrise huh..-


    After thinking of a way to kill time, I decided to walk around and explore the city some. -It''d be boring to sit and do nothing for an hour..-


    To my disappointment though, the city was more bland than I was hoping.


    Most of the city was composed of slums that I didn''t have any desire to walk through, the smell was atrocious and the streets were dirty.


    The upper district on the other hand was much cleaner. The layout of the buildings was understandable as well, with upperclass markets and trade centers at each compass point. (north, east, south, and west)


    Of all the sections though, one caught my eye.


    The red-light district.


    It was extremely clean with many wealthy looking people strolling the street alongside women in skimpy clothing. -That''s to be expected though..-


    "For such a cute kid to be alone in this area... Young boy!�� A curvy human woman called out to me. ��You need to be extra careful in this area, one of those other vixens might try and eat you up.." She showed a shockingly genuine concern.


    "Haha, I''m confident in my strength. Thank you for your concern though." I gave a confident look to try and ease her worry.


    "Well your wolf does look strong, but that doesn''t mean you should be alone... How about I give you a little tour of the place? I''d feel bad if I left you all alone.."


    -Man did she really need to raise a flag like that?- But at the same time, I thought she might lead me to something interesting. "I guess I don''t mind."


    Her face instantly lit up. "Okay! Give me one second though, I just need to tell the miss that I''ll be gone for a moment.." Quickly running back to the building she walked out of, she poked her head in and yelled. "Emma! I''m going to head out for a little, it won''t be too long!"


    The voice that responded carried a motherly tone. "Okay, be safe! Don''t drug any cute young boys like last time!"


    "Haaaaahhhh..." It was at that moment that I facepalmed harder than I ever had in my entire life.

 Chapter 36: A Questionable Relationship

    Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    "Okay, be safe! Don''t drug any cute young boys like last time!"


    "Haaaaahhhh..." My face felt like it got heavier as it sunk into my hand.  -She can''t be serious..-


    After getting completely exposed, the woman turned around with an ashamed look. "S..sorry.."


    "So uh.. What did she mean by that?" I was more curious than anything.


    "Umm.. uh.. I didnt drug them.."


    "So what did you do?"


    "I like kids.. a lot.. NOT IN A SEXUAL WAY, just.. if they ever ask for something I can''t simply say no.." She wore an incredibly embarrassed look like she expected my pity.


    -Yeah.. sure..- I gave her a scornful look. "So what does that have to do with them being ''drugged''?"


    "Well.. all the boys around your age ask for alcohol.. So.."


    -Ah.. well.. I guess that could count as drugged..- "Haah.." -I knew it was a bit odd for her to be a child abductor since she wasn''t carrying any weapons or drugs..-


    "So.. can I um.. give you a tour?"


    -God I hate this tension..- She was acting all cutesy and embarrassed which just left a bad taste in my mouth. "Sure, whatever, I still have half an hour to kill." There was finally some light on the horizon.


    "Where are you going, maybe I can walk you there." Her eyes had quickly started to lighten back up.


    "The royal palace, but..�� I gave her a judgemental look. ��I''d be surprised if they let you even get within viewing distance.."


    "I actually know the royal family so I can atleast get through the gate." She quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out a gold token with the Kaelallan crest on it.


    -How the hell..- To see if it could be real, I checked what it was made of and it turned out to be genuine gold and platinum, not something just anyone could make a fake of. "I stand corrected.." -But what kind of people are the royal family to give that to someone in the red-light district?-


    But before I could think much about it, she spoke up. ��So does that mean you''ll let me give you a tour?��


    ��Haah, yeah I guess..�� I figured that having company would at least make things a bit less boring.


    Quickly stuffing the medallion back into her pocket, she straightened up her clothes and turned to me. "Okay I guess I should start with my name, my name is Sarah Clere, I''m 32 and I''m a.. gold prostitute." She gave a complicated look.


    "Gold?"


    "Yes, it''s a term used for.. high end prostitutes..." There was a short pause before she continued. "I get to pick my clients, what to do and the price... I''m good with-"


    "Okay you can stop.. I don''t need to know everything. Can we just start the tour.." I quickly cut her off before she could go into detail.


    "Y..yeah.. Let''s get going" It wasn''t long after she started showing me around that she asked for my name. ��So what''s your name?��


    "Vasilias Whyte." I gave a quick response, not thinking much of it.


    "Oh so are you Osto''s kid? I guess that would explain your confidence.." She spoke so casually that it made my mind stutter.


    Immediately stopping mid stride, I glanced up at her in pure confusion. -Excuse me?!- "H..how do you know my father?" Jumping to conclusions, I got a bit mad thinking father had cheated on Mother.


    She started to panic the instant she saw my look. "O..oh u..um, we have b..been friends for a long time. We used to adventure together as a party."


    -What? So that''s how they know each other?- I quickly calmed back down, but I was still a bit suspicious.


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    As I was thinking, Sarah gave me an awkward look. "H..how about I just walk you to the palace.. there isn''t really enough time to finish the tour anyways.."


    Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked towards the horizon and saw the sun starting to crest it. "Huh? Ah, right.. sure that''s fine.."


    It wasn''t long after that, that we arrived at the gates to the palace. The sun was finally cresting the horizon and father was sitting on a bench by the walkway.


    "Oh there you are! I was getting a little worried.." He looked calm but his heart was racing.


    "It''s been a while Osto!" Sarah yelled out from behind me.


    Immediately jumping to conclusions, Fathers face paled slightly. "She didn''t do anything to you did she?!" He ran up and started patting me down like airport security.


    I didn''t quite understand his worry which didn''t help. "Father.. she couldn''t do anything even if she was Nation rank.."


    "Hooh.. that''s not what I was worried about�� In any case, go on ahead and explore the garden or something while we wait for them to get ready, I''d rather not rush them after not seeing them for so long."


    As a warm smile came to my face and I walked towards the gate, I decided to leave father with a little message. "Just remember that you have a wife.."


    "Haah.." Even though I was quite a ways from him, I could still hear his sigh clearly.


    - Out of Earshot ~ [1]


    "He has quite the tongue towards you.." Sarah was quick to voice her opinion


    "I can''t blame him.. I wasn''t with him for nearly the entire time he''s been alive.. then to top it all off, I���� He watched me walk away with his guilt covered face. ��I''m surprised he even calls me Father.." His head quickly turned to the ground.


    "I won''t ask what you did to cause that reaction but.. from the short while I talked to him, I could tell that he��s at least trying to accept you.."


    "He''s my son by blood.. we are stubborn creatures by nature which makes it harder to form relationships.. especially with someone who they dont trust.."


    Trying to comfort him, Sarah gave a slightly forced but comforting smile. "He feels different.. he feels more.. ''reasonable''.. I''m not sure how the others besides you are though.."


    "He isn''t a pure breed.. that probably has something to do with it."


    "What''s that supposed to mean? You didn''t cheat on Zachari did you?" She gave Father a scornful look.


    "No, of course not.."


    "So what''s the deal with him not being pure then?"


    "Well.. you remember that artifact I got from the holy kingdom?"


    "That weird purple one?"


    "Yeah.. well it seemed to change his race.."


    "What? That shouldn''t be possible.." Concern washed over her face.


    "I know.. Vasilias seems to know more of what it did, but no matter what I asked him he never explained it to me.."


    "Well just give him some time���� She casually glanced around to make sure no one was near. ��So what did his race change to?"


    Father did the same. "He changed to a halfie.. half dragon.. half Ancient Fenrir.."


    "Fenrir?!"


    "Not just Fenrir, Ancient Fenrir.."


    Sarah''s face of shock turned to one of confusion.


    "I''d be more surprised if you knew what they were since you��re human, but.. they are the creatures the elves and demihumans used to worship.."


    "So Ancient Fenrir are gods?" Her eyes went wide and her face paled slightly.


    "We don''t know the details of them either.. just that there can only be 2, one white, one black."


    "Don''t tell me.."


    "Yeah, that dog with him is the other one.." He slowly glanced up towards the palace.


    "I thought he was just a really abnormal frost wolf.."


    Turning his gaze back to the ground, a look of disbelief crept onto his face. "According to Zachari, he was at first.."


    There was a short pause as Sarah sorted her thoughts. "I think it''ll be better if we just don''t think about it.. that sounds like a rabbit hole we shouldnt peek much into.."


    "Agreed..."


    There was a short moment of silence before Sarah started a new conversation. ��So do you have any others?"


    "Yeah I have a daughter and I would have another son but.."


    Quickly realizing what he meant by that, she decided to avoid the topic. "How''s your daughter?"


    "She''s great, she is still far more immature than Vasilias but she is coming along quite well.." A warm and thankful smile crept onto his face.


    "Yeah, how old is Vasilias again? He is more mature than most humans in their late 20s.."


    "Yeah, he was 10 as of a few months ago."


    "Gosh he is just an all round oddball.."


    "His oddities don''t end there, but if I decided to say them all we''d be here for ages... Well, let''s continue inside. I should at least let Oliver know I''m here. If you want to stick around, feel free to join us. We will probably spend a while socializing."


    With a bit of hesitation, a refreshed smile came to her face. "I guess I''ll adjust my schedule then, I wasn''t doing much today anyways."


    Finally getting up off the bench and turning towards the palace, the knights opened the gate and stepped aside.


    "It''ll be the first time I''m seeing them since they had the ''princess''.."


    "She''s adorable, you''ll love her." Sarah wore a pure and innocent smile.


    Father didn''t seem to believe it though. "Haah.. of course you would be the one to say that.."

 Chapter 37: The Princess

    Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    The garden of the palace was not far from the gate but it was still well out of sight, thankfully though, it was massive so it wasn''t hard to find.


    It was full of a variety of brightly colored flowers and even had some that reminded me of ones from earth.


    The scent that filled the air was incredible as well. -Is it just that my sense of smell is better as a dragon or do the flowers of this world just give off a stronger aroma..-


    The smell in the air was quite heavy, but it was soft enough that it was still quite appealing.


    Other than that though, there wasn''t much else. -Not sure what I expected to be honest..-


    There was a fancy fountain, some brightly colored birds and a small hedge maze, but none of that was really interesting.


    To pass time, I decided to look towards the palace and look at its beautiful carvings and gorgeous architecture. -Whoever built this was both an artist and a genius architect..-


    Although there was nothing too unbelievable, it had such integrity and detail, it��d put Rome to shame.


    As I looked around though, I locked eyes with a young avian girl who was out on a small balcony on the 3rd floor.


    She was a kid, only 9 or 10 years old but her features were flawless to the point that saying she looked like a doll would be an understatement. -She��ll be a killer when she grows up..- [1]


    The instant I locked eyes with her though, her bright skin lost its color and she disappeared behind the railing.


    -Whats with that reaction?- She was quite far away and was well outside of my aura. -If it''s not an aura thing what is it? Maybe she thinks I''m an intruder?- As unlikely as it was, it was a possibility.


    -Well whatever.. if that''s the princess I''ll probably meet her soon anyways.-


    Turning back around I started heading towards the entrance to meet back up with father and Sarah.


    - Lucy Kaelallan ~


    "Ughhh.. huh?�� As I woke up, I looked out the window and saw the sun still just below the horizon. ��Why''d you wake me up so early?" It was a very early morning for me.


    As the only heir to the throne I was always quite busy, whether it was being taught politics, mathematics, history, or even magic, I always had something on my plate, but that didn''t mean I always woke up early.


    In fact, I was usually able to sleep in quite late.


    "The missus said you need to be ready for something very important in an hour.." It was my stunningly beautiful, elven maid, Martha. She was 73 years old at the time, but looked like she just turned 30 because of her elven blood.


    Although I was still extremely young, I was always jealous of it. "Hmph�� What could possibly be so important that it needs me to get up so early?"


    "Haha, I''m not entirely sure either, the missus just told me it was someone extremely important and that you needed to be dressed well."


    -This must be one of those ��important meetings�� Father is making me attend..- "Why do I have to be at those meetings now.. I don''t like them.."


    Martha gave me an encouraging look as she tidied up the foot of my bed. "Well, you need experience... If you are to take the throne after your father, you will need lots of experience so it''s better to start young. You''ll be thankful later in life."


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    "Hmph.." Being unable to think of a way to retort, I just pouted.


    After a bit more idle chatter to try and see if I could worm my way out of the meeting, I smelled something absolutely heavenly.


    Looking around to see what it was, I finally noticed a plate of egg toast covered in honey syrup on my bedside table. -Egg toast!- (French Toast)


    Throwing off my sheets and springing out of bed, I ran over and sat down at the small table by the wall.


    Martha gave me a warm smile seeing me finally get out of bed. "Please try and finish quickly. Knock on the door when you are ready to change."


    Seeing my vigorous nod, Martha left the room and I devoured my breakfast.


    *Clink*


    I lightly rubbed my flat stomach as I set down my fork. -Man.. that hit the spot..-


    Glancing behind myself, I saw the sun finally climbing above the horizon. -I should probably start getting ready..-


    Although I was young and didn''t like them, I took national affairs and politics very seriously. -Plus.. Mother might get mad if I''m late..-


    Finally standing up from the table, I turned to the balcony with a refreshed smile. -It feels great outside..-


    The open doors to the balcony let in a steady breeze that brought the scent of flowers with it.


    Not thinking much about it, I walked out to the edge of the balcony and overlooked the garden. -I wond..-


    My thoughts came to a screeching halt as I quickly noticed two gigantic columns of dense aura climbing into the sky.


    My thoughts froze and my legs started to shake. -Just wha..-


    Wondering what kind of beings were creating the aura, I followed the columns to the ground and saw a demihuman kid standing next to a small wolf that seemed to be his pet.


    He was turned away from me so the only features I could see were his perky wolf ears, fluffy tail and his abyss-like black hair.


    As I stared at the boy, I felt a deep fear, but I couldn''t look away.


    I had seen the aura of various incredibly strong people over the years, including several nation rank adventurers, but nothing even came remotely close to this.


    -I.. need to warn someone..- Eventually squeezing out a rational thought, I tried to move but my body was simply frozen in place with my eyes locked on the boy.


    It was at that moment that the boy turned around and looked at me.


    His features were flawless beyond reason, a beautiful face with a well built body, but my awe was quickly squashed.


    His vibrant purple eyes were truly stunning just like the rest of his figure, but they made me feel a sense of inferiority unlike anything I thought possible.


    It felt as if the boy could see everything about me with a glance, I felt like an open book that he could read through at any time.


    It was a feeling that caused such a deep and instinctual fear that it clouded my mind and made me limply fall to my knees.


    I had seen kings, adventurers known as monsters and even priests said to wield the strength of god, but the beings on the other side of the railing.. they were rulers.. ones that not only me, but everyone would have to submit to for their own survival.


    After what felt like an eternity passed, the door to my room opened. "Young miss, have you finished ea-" The instant Martha saw me, still slouched by the railing, her face paled. "Young miss!"


    As she rushed over to my side, I glanced up at her with a pale face. "W..wh..o.. w..as.. t..th..that.." My voice was impossibly shaky.


    "Miss what happened?!" Martha quickly reached down and picked me up in a panic before bringing me over to my bed.


    "J..just w..who is m..mee..ting us.. t..to..day.." I tried to calm my shaky breath as I spoke.


    "Young miss, please calm down and take smooth breaths�� Please try to calm down and breathe.." Martha��s face was covered in sheer panic as she darted to the door and yelled into the hallway. "Someone go get the missus, tell her to hurry!"


    It was only a moment later that Mother finally got here. "Lucy, this is a very important meeting you can''t ski-" As she walked through the door, she saw me shaking in bed with a deathly pale face and instantly broke into panic. "What happened?!"


    "I think the young miss saw someone in the garden.." Martha gave an ashamed look as she backed away to let Mother come next to me.


    "That was probably Osto.. but why.." There was a short pause before she looked like she suddenly understood something. ��Did you see a big aura?��


    I gave a nervous nod as I forced myself up. "I n..need to go to t..that meeting... I h..have to.." As I swung my legs off the side of the bed, Martha tried to stop me.


    "No, young miss, please lay down. Your health is far more important than the meeting.." Her worry was genuine, but I didn''t care in the slightest.


    "N..no.. no, no, no. Y..you dont understand.." Lightly pushing Martha away, I got up and shakily ran into my wardrobe.


    As I scanned through my clothes in a panic, I overheard Mothers worry-filled voice. "Did Osto do something?"

 Chapter 38: An Innate Ability

    Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    After exploring the garden some and catching a glimpse of the princess, I returned to the front of the palace where Father and Sarah were waiting for me.


    "Welcome back!" Sarah gave an innocent smile and a small wave.


    Ignoring her, I quickly turned to Father. "So how long till the meeting?"


    "30 minutes or so, but we can wait for them inside now, there were some security issues before.."


    Following Father after he got up, we walked up to the entrance to the palace, it was a very extravagant door but wasn''t anything crazy.


    Walking inside, we came into a long main hallway with a fairly tall ceiling.


    "It''s quite well built.." I couldn''t help but voice my admiration towards the architect.


    "Yes this palace is quite beautiful, not enough gold though." Father held his head high in confidence.


    -Of course you want more gold, you''re a dragon..- But, although I retorted in my mind, I couldn''t help but agree with him.


    After following a young maid down a few hallways, we came out onto a low second story porch with a very fancy round table.


    "This is where the meeting will be held, the Lord and the missus will be out shortly. Please feel free to make yourselves comfortable." The maid that guided us gave an elegant bow before quickly leaving the area.


    -Why is she in such a rush, did something happen?-


    Turning back towards the table and finding a place to sit, I decided to try one of the cookies that were placed in a basket on the table. Although I was never a fan of sweets, I figured it couldn''t hurt to try one.


    -Hey.. it''s pretty good..- The cookie had a very home made taste to it, something that was hard to find on earth, but even though it was quite good, I only had one.


    On the other hand, Father was munching them like he had been starved for a month and Sarah.. well she was eating a slice of cake so fast I couldn''t tell if she was even chewing.


    "Ahh I miss Helens sweets so much.." Father looked like he was gonna cry.


    "She''s gonna make me gain weight again.." Sarah pouted as she looked down at her flat stomach.


    As time passed, the sweets steadily disappeared, but before Father and Sarah could totally finish them, someone gently opened the door.


    It was a tall avian man with blond hair and a short but thick beard wearing a very shiny crown.


    He was dressed incredibly well, but I could help but wonder how much he was sweating. -That can''t be breathable..- Although he wasn''t exactly wearing a ton of clothing, it was more than one layer and it was fairly warm outside.


    "Oh how great it is to see you again Osto!" The man''s voice wasn��t too deep but was smooth, and very nice to listen to.


    Fathers face immediately lit up once he saw the man. "Haha, you''ve grown a beard since the last time I saw you!"


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    "Well it''s been nearly 10 years! How could I possibly hold my youth like you do?"


    "Haha, right, right. So how''s Helen doing?"


    "Oh she is doing fine, she should be joining us soon.. apparently something happened to Lucy���� A look of worry quickly flashed on his face before he turned to me. ��So who is this young one?"


    He looked directly into my eyes as if to try and test me but I could really tell. "My name is Vasilias Whyte, I am Ostos son." I gave a polite bow before sitting back down.


    He gave a short look of surprise. "Ah, I should also introduce myself. My name is Oliver Kaelallan, the current ruling king of this beautiful nation. My wifes name is Helen and my daughter''s name is Lucy. Lucy is the heir to the throne but she is very doted on by her mother so please forgive her if she does something you find rude when she comes out later." He gave a deep bow, unfitting of a king.


    "It''s fine, don''t stress about it. I don''t think a king should bow so easily though." I gave a slightly judgmental look as I tried to figure out what kind of person he was.


    "Well, how could I not show respect to a mighty dragon." He gave me a proud smile.


    -How does he know.. and he even said that in front of Sarah..- I looked towards Father to try and get an explanation since he was totally calm. "Father?"


    "Oh right, I forgot to tell you. Everyone in my old adventuring party knows my real identity. They are some of the very few humans that know about true dragons." He said it so nonchalantly that it didn''t make sense.


    Even Sarah spoke as if it was normal. "He hasn''t told you that story?"


    "N..no? We have only been together for a little while so we haven''t talked about too much.."


    Oliver walked over and sat down at the other side of the table as we talked. "Oh that''s a shame. Well, after this meeting we should tell it to you.. it''ll be Lucy''s first time seeing dragons too, so we should tell a few stories."


    Father was quick to change the subject though. "So how is Lucy''s personality as the heir?"


    "She is more mature than her age.. at least when it comes to her political duties. She is also quite smart, learns very quickly and is easy to manage. She''s practically a complete copy of Helen.. You can probably imagine what she��s like." He gave a warm smile similar to Mothers. "She also has a very helpful innate ability."


    -Does she have an attribute node?- "What can she do?"


    "She has the ability to see some people''s aura."


    Father and I froze the instant we realized what that meant. -What�� If it was seeing denser mana I could understand, but aura?!-


    The reason this was so shocking was because humanoid beings couldn''t see dense mana even if it was so dense it could kill them, but she could see a low enough density that I found it hard to believe. [1]


    Father slowly turned to me with a look of worry. "Uh�� That''s a problem.."


    Oliver didn''t seem to understand. "What do you mean? What''s the problem?"


    Fathers aura wasn''t an issue because he was using his temporary form and his reserve and aura were greatly limited, but I on the other hand had a full, unrestricted reserve.


    To add to that, my reserve was massive even for dragons, so my aura was far beyond the realm humans could reach.


    "Uhm.. Vasilias''s aura is uh.. a lot.."


    Fathers worry went unwarranted though. "She has already met our Nation rank adventurers, so I don''t think there will be any problems."


    Although he gave a confident smile, Father and I knew better.


    "Well I guess we will find out shortly.." Father��s voice was filled with worry and pity.


    It was only a second later that things finally started to make more sense. -Sh*t.. was that why she looked so scared earlier?-


    - Lucy Kaelallan ~


    After hastily getting dressed and calming down, I finally came out of the wardrobe. "Mother, how long until the meeting?"


    She gave a look as if she didn''t know how to respond. "Um.. they should be waiting for us at the eastern patio.. Oliver went down there a few minutes ago."


    -Crap.. Already?!- I felt an indescribable mix of fear and anxiety. "We need to hurry.."


    As I turned to the hallway, Mother looked at me with a deep concern. "Why are you in such a rush?"


    I quickly glanced back at Mother with a completely serious face. "We need to do everything to please them, we can''t make those ''beings'' wait.."


    Mother and Martha followed me with a look of worry as I walked down the hall, but I didn''t expect them to understand what I was talking about.


    -If they saw what I did.. they''d understand..-

 Chapter 39: An Uncomfortable Meeting

    Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    Things calmed down as time went on. Oliver, Father and Sarah happily chatted and munched on sweets while I played around with mana.


    It wasn''t too long after that though, that the doors to the balcony opened again.


    Standing in the doorway was a well dressed, mature and voluptuous avian woman with sky blue eyes and blond hair. -That must be Helen.. the Queen.-


    "Sorry for being late to the party. Did I make you guys wait?" Her face showed a bit of worry.


    "Not at all." Father gave a comforting smile, likely assuming she was worried about making us wait, but that wasn''t the case.


    Standing just behind her was the young avian girl from earlier. Her face was still a ghastly pale and her legs were shaky.


    -What''s with this reaction? Is my aura that imposing?- Truth be told, it was a bit of a jarring reaction. "Miss Lucy, I''m not sure what I did to scare you, but I didn''t mean to. There is no reason to fear me.." I tried to speak up to calm her down, and it seemed to work if only slightly.


    Her legs stopped shaking as much and she finally started walking out to the table.


    Finally seeing the state of her, Oliver looked towards Helen in a panic. "What happened?!"


    Immediately tensing up, Helen glanced at me and Ilios. "I thought she originally saw Osto, but I guess it''s that boy''s aura that she��s afraid of.." Her face was covered in a motherly concern.


    As Lucy went up to sit down at the table, she turned to Father and I and gave a shaky but polite bow. "M..my name i..is.. Lucy K..Kaelallan.. it''s an h..honor to m..meet you sirs..'''' There was a short moment of silence as she sat down. "F..father.. w..we can b..begin.." Her voice was incredibly shaky.


    -Maybe I can lessen her stress by layering my aura..- I figured lowering the profile of my mana might help subside the fear.


    As soon as I layered it, Lucy��s shaking slowed and her eyes changed from fear to shock. -Well.. I guess that''s a bit better..-


    As I leaned back in my chair and relaxed a bit, Oliver finally started the meeting. "Okay.. um�� So, Osto. What did you need to inform us about?" His eyes darted back and forth between Father and Lucy as he struggled to stay formal. (noble formality stuff)


    But it wasn''t just Oliver who was uncomfortable. "R..right, I guess I will get straight to the point. The half breeds on the main continent have started a rebellion, and the elders have initiated a kill order for all of those involved."


    Helen, who just sat down, was caught by surprise. "Wait, doesn''t that just mean all the halfies on the main continent will be put to death?"


    The truth was that, although half breeds were already hunted by adventurers, it wasn''t uncommon for some kingdoms or cities to secretly house half breeds in their humanoid form to act as guardians of sorts.


    Usually this would be a win-win, but in dragon society, it was extremely illegal for someone to use their identity as a dragon to gain merit or benefit. If someone was caught, they would be executed. But, this of course didn''t stop everyone. [1]


    "Please don''t worry about a human war sparking from this. Bahamut is quite thorough when it comes to stuff like this." Father had a serious look in his eyes. "Alright, now I need you two to be honest. Is Kaelallan housing any halfies.."


    Both Oliver and Helen broke into cold sweats. "At the very least, we don''t personally know of any."


    -Are they just nervous or..- They didn''t seem to be lying, but I did find their reaction odd.


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    Father seemed to believe them though. "Alright, good. Just be sure to write an imperial edict just in case."


    "Of course.." Oliver''s face was covered in anxiety.


    ��Haah..�� Taking a deep breath, Father broke his formal front and laid back. "That''s all I was told to relay to you, I would have just sent a message but it was the elders orders that I came in person."


    ��������Phew..�������� Everyone other than Father and I let out a collective sigh of relief.


    Finally able to change from the role of the king to the role of a father, Oliver quickly turned his attention to Lucy. "Now that everything is done.. Lucy, what''s wrong?"


    She gave Oliver a nervous glance before turning back to me. "Sir.. may I humbly ask for your name.." She quickly hopped out of her chair and gave me a deep bow.


    -Ah, I haven''t introduced myself to her yet.- "My name is Vasilias Whyte, its nice to meet you Princess." As I stood up from my seat, I put on a friendly smile and stuck out my hand for a handshake.


    She flinched as I stood up but held her bow until I held out my hand. "T..there is no reason for formality with me.."


    Seeing her nervousness start to build up again, I decided to do an experiment. -Maybe the effect of my aura could help her calm down..-


    Releasing the aura I held back around her, a thin layer of it quickly washed over her.


    As she grabbed my hand, she looked up and into my eyes and the shaking completely stopped. Just this time, she was staring at my face as if in a trance.


    Giving a light shake, I released my grip but she kept holding on until Oliver spoke up. "Are you alright Lucy?"


    As if jolting awake, she glanced around in a hurry before calming down. "Huh? Ah.. I''m fine, Father.." She looked a bit embarrassed as she hopped back up in her chair. "Sorry for causing a ruckus.."


    -Success!! To think I can use my aura like that!- I felt an incredible sense of accomplishment even though no one else seemed to realize what happened.


    Oliver still stared at Lucy with a deep worry. "What made you so scared?"


    "It was Sir Whytes.. aur..a.." Her voice slowed as she looked back up at me.


    Although relieved it wasn''t anything serious, Oliver was still confused. "How does that make sense.. when you saw nation ranks you weren''t anything more than a little surprised, right?"


    She curiously looked at my layered aura. "He is far.. far beyond them.."


    Helen and Oliver glanced at each other as things didn''t add up. "How does Osto��s aura compare to the nation ranks then?"


    "His is similar to Mothers.."


    Helen''s eyes quickly locked on Father as if wanting an explanation.


    Father just found the whole situation funny. "Haha, you guys must have forgotten that not only my physical strength but also my mana reserve and aura are limited in this form." His laugh quickly lightened the mood.


    Lucy��s face was washed with confusion though. "Uhm.. excuse me�� Um.. what did you mean by that?"


    Seeing an opportunity she couldn''t let pass, a sly smile came to Helen''s face. "Sweetie, you remember that story I used to tell you about my adventures with a dragon?"


    "Yes?" Lucy wasn''t quite following.


    "Well those stories were true, and Osto over there is the dragon in it."


    As if her world blew apart, she blankly asked a question without thinking. "So you two are.. dragons?"


    Father and I both nodded, but Lucy didn''t even react. Her gaze just slowly fell to the ground as she tried to think things through.


    Giving her mind a moment to catch up, Helen brought up a good question. "So why is Vasilias��s aura so.. ridiculous compared to yours?"


    "That''s because of the form I''m using, Vasilias awakened his true form whereas I have to continue using a temporary one."


    She tilted her head slightly as if to try and remember something. "What''s the difference again?"


    "A true form is a dragon''s true humanoid transformation. They can''t change their race or appearance unlike with temporary forms but it comes at the cost of limiting our mana and physical strength far more than true forms. To be fair though, even the mana in my dragon form can''t compete with Vasilias.."


    Slowly breaking out of her own thoughts, Lucy finally looked back up at us. "W..wait.. so what determines a dragon''s race in their true form then?"


    "Well if they are a true dragon, they have a dragon humanoid form, if they are half breeds, it''s the race of the non dragon parent."


    Lucy nervously turned her gaze to me. "So is Vasilias not a true dragon?"


    "Well, he was born one.." Father gave an awkward response. "Long story short, because of an artifact he activated when he was a newborn, his race was.. altered." Father gave me a guilty glance.


    Stepping in for Lucy once again, Helen looked at me. "So what''s his race then?"


    "Half dragon, half ancient fenrir."


    An awkward silence ensued as everyone stared holes into me


    After that, Father and I continued answering everyone''s questions until Lucy��s mind finally started catching up.


    It wasn''t until things finally started calming down that I got bored and said something that would lead to a deep rabbit hole. "So how about you tell us some of the stories from when you all were adventuring together, Father.."

 Chapter 40: Fathers Adventures

    Mid Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    "So how about you tell us some of the stories from when you all were adventuring together, Father.." I casually asked without thinking of the rabbit hole it would lead me down.


    Each of the adults ended up taking turns telling stories, all about general adventures they had in the past.


    Father was a swordsman, Oliver was an archer, Sarah was an assassin along with a man named Lewis, but the most surprising of all was Helen. She was a brawler.


    Even though the makeup of the party seemed odd, it worked out quite well with Father and Helen as the vanguard, Sarah and Lewis as rear guard and Oliver as the ranger.


    But I was far more concerned about something else.


    I simply couldn''t see the elegant woman in front of me as a brawler. -Is that what Oliver was talking about when he mentioned her personality? She seems.. normal..-


    After a bit more thinking, I shook out the thought and continued listening to the other stories.


    It wasn''t for a decent while that they finally got to telling the story I had been waiting for.


    The story of the fight that exposed fathers identity as a dragon. It was quite a long story but an interesting one nonetheless.


    It all started when they were on a private ship to the Kingdom of Elynnor when a strong sea serpent strayed out of its normal path and ran into the ship.


    The fight took several hours before the ship got damaged enough to where it was about to sink.


    They couldn''t let it sink the ship at all costs since they would be sitting ducks in the water and were already over 3,000 km offshore.


    But even with this urgency, both Oliver and Sarah were knocked out by the serpent and the fight turned for the worst.


    The serpent''s next attack was a strong one that finally broke past Father and blew a hole into the hull.


    The ship was going to sink and they were all going to die, but Father couldn''t continue to hold back and let that happen.


    In a flash, he transformed back into his dragon form and one sidedly beat the sh*t out of the serpent.


    As the water filled with blood, Father quickly swam around and put everyone on his back with all the rations he could find.


    The silence following a fight didn''t last long though.


    "That was a long swim.." Father looked down, as if traumatized about something.


    "Of course it was, it was a few thousand kilometers."


    "That''s not what made it long, Helen�� It was all of your questions since everyone else was too tired to worry about it."


    "Hmph, you''re just weak willed, you should''ve told us you were a dragon earlier."


    They had been adventuring together for several years before this incident, going through near death scenarios more than once, but father never exposed his identity.. -I don''t think I''d be able to do that..- I wouldn''t be able to hold back if my friend''s life was in danger. It''s a reason I''ve vowed to myself to not get attached to humanoids.


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    "I couldn''t, exposing my identity was only possible because we were in the middle of the ocean, you guys were the only ones who saw and you''re all tight lipped.."


    Helen gave him an eye of scrutiny. "Yea, yea. Well let''s leave that in the past."


    Lucy, who had looked like she was waiting for something, finally took the opportunity to jump into the conversation. "Can I see your dragon form?!" Her enthusiasm was mind boggling when compared to earlier.


    Although Lucy was looking at Father, Helen was looking at me with a peculiar look. "I''d also like to see it."


    Trying to ignore the odd feeling in my gut, I turned back to Lucy. -I guess her wanting to see Fathers dragon form is kind of like her seeing the character of a novel she loves, since Helen told her stories of him as a kid..-


    Father wasn''t so keen on the idea though. "Haah.. it''s not that simple.."


    Wanting to eventually see my form, Helen gave a suggestion. "How about we go to the shelter? It should be comfortable for you to be in your dragon form there."


    -What? A ��shelter�� is big enough for a dragon to stand in?- "How tall is it''s ceiling?"


    "80 meters." She wore an innocent smile as she said the outrageous number.


    "Haaahh.." Father let out a long sigh. "Is this the thing you said you were building for me all those years ago.."


    Helen held her head up high. "Mhhmmm, I told you I wanted to make you a room so you could ''stretch'' in when you visited, but this is the best I could do."


    "Well, I don''t think-"


    "Can we go?" I was quick to interrupt Father.


    I wanted to take the opportunity to go to my dragon form to ''breathe'' some, even though it had only been a half a day since we arrived.


    -It''s already so stuffy.. just how did father stay in this form for over a year at a time..- I gave Father a look of admiration which made him cave.


    "Haah.. fine.."


    Hearing his agreement, Lucy and Helen had wide smiles on their faces, it was just that something about Helens felt ''off''. "Well, shall we get going?"


    Trying not to think much about it, I got up with everyone else and followed Helen inside.


    There was an elven maid that looked very nervous as we came through the door.


    "Young Miss!" She ran over to Lucy, not seeing her beaming smile. "Are you okay?!"


    "Of course I''m alright, you know me better than anyone." Lucy just went along with the embrace of her maid, letting her calm down some.


    "Martha," Helen called out to the maid. "Please clear the Main Hall."


    Martha gave a shocked expression before nodding and quickly leaving the area.


    Making our way down several hallways, Helen and Oliver would periodically touch the corners or edges of paintings.


    Although I couldn��t exactly see what they were doing, I didn''t question it much.


    After several minutes, we finally came into the main hall, a massive hallway-like room with a fancy throne on top of several stairs at one end.


    The room was devoid of people which made it feel very empty. -Its quite a beautiful room though..-


    Quickly making our way up the stairs, Oliver leaned down and touched something on the underside of the throne.


    *Click*


    As the switch was flipped, the area behind the throne lowered to form the top of a staircase.


    -To think those paintings were really the password..- Although I thought that might be the case earlier, I figured if it was, they would''ve been more sneaky about it.


    Looking over at Father, I noticed he wasn''t very surprised either. "That''s a pretty secure secret passage."


    Helen puffed up her chest with pride. "Yeah, it took a very.. very long time to set up."


    Following Helen down the stairs, we eventually made it to a small room.


    "This is where we will take the lift down." She spoke like a tour guide.


    -What? She can''t mean an elevator right?- "A lift?"


    "Mhm! We use a very strong artifact for wind magic to let us go up and down long distances, we''ve started calling it a lift."


    -It really is.. an elevator-


    Walking out onto the floating slab of stone, it shook slightly. -Oh lord.. that''s a little too unstable isn''t it?- But as I looked around, no one was worried.


    Everyone casually walked out onto the lift, not paying mind to the shake before we started our descent down the dark ''elevator shaft''.


    It was an odd sensation being lowered into the ground on a primitive, shaky platform. -This is so sketchy..-

 Chapter 41: A Deep Discomfort

    Mid Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    *hmmmmmmm*


    As we descended, no one spoke and we were left with only the hum of the artifact below us as company.


    Although it was quite a nice hum, the lack of conversation made my mind wander. -It really seems like Helen is the one who runs the relationship.. doesn''t it..-


    Although Oliver was the king, I couldn''t help but notice Helen was always the one walking in front and taking the lead with things. -Maybe it''s just my imagination..-


    Pulling me out of my thoughts, I could finally sense an opening below us. -Man.. this is like 200 meters down�� How did they even manage to dig this?-


    I found it hard to believe that they could dig out a room with a tall enough ceiling that a dragon could stand in, let alone one that was this far under the ground.


    -Well, I guess I''ll find out soon enough..- Needless to say, my expectations were quite low.


    Finally making it to the bottom, a faint glow flowed into the elevator shaft through a decently sized door.


    -It''s about time we made it to the.. bo..ttom..- My thoughts slowed down as we finally got to the bottom and looked into the room.


    As Helen walked out, she wore an unusually confident smile. "It took our small group of mages nearly 8 years just to dig all of this, I hope you will be able to use this space to relax some."


    It was an absolutely colossal room with an 80 meter ceiling and openings to 3 other similarly sized areas.


    The area to the right had a small cottage-like house and a large stone shelter of some kind and the one directly ahead of us was something resembling a bedroom with 4 massive cushions, each easily big enough for me to lay on in my dragon form.


    But the area that caught my eye the most was the one to the left, it was a hot spring! It was quite deep as well, being deep enough for me to submerge myself with plenty of room to spare.


    Outside of the pool, the ceiling of that room had a ring of white lights and ice artifacts that would cause the steam from the spring to condensate and fall back into the pool. -So those artifacts keep the air outside of the spring cool and keeps the moisture in.. how smart..-


    As I was thinking to myself, Ilios walked out behind Helen and Oliver and quickly transformed to his normal size.


    Everyone''s eyes immediately went wide seeing his size change.


    "Oh.. why did I even think he would be a normal wolf.." Both Helen and Oliver were taken slightly aback.


    Not paying mind to them, I turned to Father. "Well, you first I guess." I figured it would be better to let Lucy have her moment before I changed forms.


    And my decision was a good one, Lucy''s eyes lit up as soon as I spoke.


    Not taking any extra time, Father walked out and quickly changed into his majestic dragon form.


    "Wooooowwwww.." Lucy had eyes of admiration and wore an ecstatic smile even though she started breaking out into a cold sweat.


    "You got bigger.. didn''t you.." Oliver sounded a little dejected,


    "Well of course I did!" Father puffed up his chest and posed a bit as Lucy looked on in awe.


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    "So how old are you now? Would it be 164?"


    "A nice and youthful 163 years old!" Father proceeded to give a youthful and out of place smile.


    Although it both looked and sounded weird, I couldn''t help but understand why he felt that way. -I guess it''s fair to say he''s still young for a long living dragon..-


    As my eyes drifted away from Father, I saw Helen staring at me.


    "And now the youngest~" Her smile seemed innocent but something still felt off.


    Trying not to think too much about it, I stepped out of the elevator and transformed back to my dragon form.


    As I did, I sat down and unknowingly let go of my control on my aura.


    Once the light cleared everyone''s eyes were locked on me.


    They were all caught in a trance with the exception of Helen.


    Unlike the blank face of everyone else, Helens eyes were filled with a bottomless confidence and she wore a sly smile with flushed cheeks.


    It was a look that both made me confused and extremely uncomfortable, but I was too busy trying to control my aura to worry about it just yet.


    Nearly instantly, I created bubbles around everyone and isolated them from my aura again. "Sorry everyone, I lost control of my aura.." Trying to break everyone out of their trances, I lightly shook the ground with magic.


    Almost immediately, everyone flinched and zoned out for a moment, with the exception of Helen of course.


    Her look didn''t change much at all, she just gave me an out of place proud smile. ��No no, it''s fine to release your aura down here. That''s what this place was made for so please feel free to relax and do as you please~"


    It felt as if she was an entirely different person from the person at the meeting, from the way she talked to the way she held her head, yet I couldn''t help but feel it was a tad familiar.


    Before I could think much about it though, the others finally came back to their senses.


    "Huh.. why wa- Ahh right�� Sorry if my staring made you uncomfortable, Vasilias.." Oliver quickly apologized after finally sorting his thoughts.


    "Haha.. it''s alright.. I''m starting to get used to it.." I gave an awkward laugh to try and lighten the atmosphere, but it didn''t seem to help much.


    "Your son is quite the charmer isn''t he?" Sarah was quick to try and help lighten the atmosphere as well.


    Father took her seriously though. "It''s something with his aura, it happens with Ilios too so we''ve just assumed it had something to do with Ancient Fenrir."


    A joking smile crept onto her face as she looked Father in the eye. "That''s cool and all, but does he have any women yet?"


    As Father got ready to smack Sarah, Helens face paled and shifted to the blank stare everyone else wore earlier.


    -What the..-


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    *Yawn*


    I woke up extra early to give myself more time to prepare for the meeting. -But I ended up waking up a bit too early..-


    As I looked towards the rising sun, I took a sip of a warmed cup of tea. -Maybe I should go by the market�� Maybe I can catch up with ��him�� some..-


    After thinking a bit more, I finished off my tea and walked back into my room to get ready.


    Once I finished, I didn''t waste any time making my way to the slums.


    -What a nostalgic place..- As I walked into a rundown bar, my nose was assaulted by the smell of alcohol and my mind was filled with old memories.


    ��I don''t see many new faces around here..�� The barkeep gave me a threatening look.


    But my smile remained unchanged. "Well that''s a shame, this is a great bar. Can I get 6 beer and 4 shots on the house?"


    The man''s face quickly eased up as he waved me to the back. ��To think there would be a VIP I didn''t know.��


    ��Well, the world is always full of mysteries.�� As we walked into the back, the barkeep lifted up a trapdoor that revealed a stairwell.


    ��Please have a good day, sir.�� He bowed his head as I walked by.


    Giving the man a small nod, I started making my way down the path. -Haah.. it''s been a while... The last time I came here, I was barely S rank.-


    Walking down the dirty staircase, I came into a large and open plaza-like room with stalls around the wooden pillars and beams that supported the dirt ceiling. The market was deep enough underground that the dirt ceiling was compact like sandstone, but it still required immense amounts of support.


    -To think it hasn''t changed over the years..- As I walked around, I found a stall with a small orange cloth on it. "Do you know where Udalls stall is?"


    The large demihuman man behind the stall gave me a forced but friendly smile and pointed down the street. "He is 9 stands down that way."


    "Thanks a bunch." Casually flicking the man a gold coin, I turned to head down the street. -If I dont give these greedy rats some money they''ll just give me more trouble..-


    The man''s smile quickly became more genuine. "Thanks for business sir, if you come again I''ll give ya a discount."


    With a light wave, I continued down the row of stalls.


    It only took a minute for me to come up to one of the only buildings in the entire market. -So he upscaled a bit, huh..-


    Walking into the building I could hear the clanging of metal and the sizzle of boiling water.


    "Who is it now.." A raspy deep voice came from the back of the building.


    "It''s been a while, Udall!"


    An extremely muscular elven man pushed aside the curtains to the back and walked up to me with a refreshing smile. "Michael! It really has been a while!"

 Chapter 42: An Unusual Reunion

    Mid Morning - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    Seeing my old friend, I quickly walked over and gave him a hug. "So how have you been?"


    "Ive been great as you can see! I retired as an adventurer and finally settled down, using my fame to make a big blacksmithing shop here in the market." Udall had previously been an S rank adventurer, one of the best in Kaelallan, but the fate of an adventurer wasn''t made out for everyone.


    "Udall! The hell are you doing?!" A female voice radiated from the back room.


    It was an extremely familiar voice. "So you tied the knot, huh?


    Udall awkwardly scratched his head. "Haha, it''s a long story, why don''t you come in, we can talk for a bit."


    Being one who couldn''t refuse an offer from a friend, I quickly made my way into the back.


    Behind the curtain was a moderately large room with everything you could possibly need for blacksmithing. The equipment was completely abnormal though, with each tool having a level of quality I didn''t think possible.


    -How beautiful..-


    Quickly snapping me out of my thoughts, I turned to look at the young looking elf woman with defined muscles staring at me over her anvil.


    -To think she''s even prettier than she used to be..- "How are you doing Mollie? It''s been a while!" My smile spread cheek to cheek seeing another old comrade.


    Before responding though, she launched her heavy blacksmiths hammer at me.


    *Thump*


    *Thud*


    With a casual motion, I caught it and tossed it on a small table by the door. "How rude. It''s been 3 years and this is how you greet me?"


    "Hmph, you deserve it! You left us without even saying goodbye! We figured you went and got yourself killed while experimenting with magic."


    "Mollie, give him a break. He did tell us that he would be gone for a few years, you probably just weren''t paying attention."


    Mollie crossed her arms with a youthful pout. "I still don''t believe you."


    -Good to see they haven''t changed..- It was a scene that triggered several old memories. "Well I did leave one last message to you guys even if it wasn''t enough.. sorry about that."


    "Don''t worry about it man, all that''s important is that you came back." Udall walked up and put his arm around me. "So what do you want to drink? I''ve got some strong stuff you''ll love."


    Although a tempting offer, I couldn''t accept. "Sorry but I can''t drink right now. Maybe later though."


    Udall looked a bit dejected. "Hm? Why is that? You got a meeting with royalty or something? Haha!" His sarcasm was palpable.


    "Pfftt-Hahaha, I do actually." I couldn''t hold back my laughter.


    But Mollie was too curious to laugh. "What possible business do you have with them? Did they give you a mission or something?"


    Although it wasn''t common, sometimes S rank adventurers would be directly ordered by the Royal Family for a specific mission. -But that''s not the case this time..- "It''s actually for my promotion."


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    "WHAATTT?" Udall couldn''t believe it, his old friend, who he figured was just a crazed mage had broken through the S rank wall. "Isn''t that even more reason to drink?!" He quickly grabbed a bottle of some kind of liquor and started pouring a glass.


    "No no no, I''ll get drunk and party with you after I meet with them. It''d be rude to meet the Royal Family while drunk."


    "That''s a promise then! I paid a few gold for this liquor, you better be here to savor it."


    "You paid WHAT?!" Mollie quickly shot up from her seat and ran over to him.


    Udalls posture immediately lowered and he awkwardly held his head low. "Umm.. I meant silver"


    Immediately snatching the bottle out of his hands, Mollie looked at the bottle. "Eth..ie..tram.." (One Word) She stared at the name on it blankly for a moment. "I''ve never heard of it�� Where did you even find it?"


    "A merchant that said he was from Sinder sold it to me, they said it was Sinders trademark alcohol." Udall looked like a mouse in front of a lion.


    -Maybe I should help him out a bit..- "It is indeed Sinders trademark. I had some when I was over there. It''s very similar to Viliwyr but a bit stronger and has a really good sourness to it."


    Mollie quickly started calming down. "Isn''t Viliwyr 2 gold a bottle though?" She looked at Udall with scrutiny before taking a moment to think. "Your punishment is that you can''t drink any of it, otherwise you''d drink the whole thing." Putting a cork back in the bottle, she reached down and sipped the small glass Udall had poured. "Oohh.. that is some good stuff~"


    Udall looked all sad and dejected that she drank his alcohol, but I just found it funny. "Haha, you two really haven''t changed, have you.."


    ��Haha, you''re one to talk..�� Udall finally started standing back up. "So what all did you do over the past 3 years? Did you finally find a woman other than ''her''?"


    It was a question I knew was coming. "No.. and we haven''t talked since I split up with you.."


    His eyes carried a look of surprise as if he couldn''t believe it. "Really?��


    I gave a reluctant nod. -It''s not like I didn''t want to..-


    ��She should be arriving in town in the next few days, she said she gained the favor of a city lord up north. You still love her don''t you? You just need to go for it. She��s always been head over heels for you.."


    "Well.. yeah, but that was before I wanted to settle down... I don''t know if she will still have that interest anymore."


    "I can''t promise you anything but I''d be quite surprised if she doesn��t.."


    "But she was a monster when it came to both magic and martial arts.. and to top it all off, she still looks like she''s in her late 20s.. what guy wouldn''t fall for her.." I had quite a pessimistic look on my chances.


    "You know how picky and stubborn she was, quit sulking and just ask her when she stops by."


    A long silence filled the room as I fell into thought. "Haah.. alright, I''ll give it a go�� In other news though, I need to give a commision, are you still doing those?"


    Mollies eyes quickly lit up. "Of course! What are you wanting made?"


    "I need a new staff, I''ve got the crystal and the mythril for it, I just need you guys to make it.


    "Okay, what kind of crystal are we talking about? A core?"


    "Yes, I''ve discovered a way to take a monster''s mana core and use it as an external storage for mana."


    Udall and Mollie''s eyes immediately went wide. "Isn''t that a huge deal?! Like wouldn''t that allow people with small mana pools to become strong magicians?"


    But I was quick to shut them down. "Not quite, you can''t go straight from the core to a rune, you must take it from the core, and then into you first.. so it just works similar to a really big and refillable mana potion."


    Although they calmed down a bit more, they were still shocked. "Ohh, that''s still pretty groundbreaking though, have you told the tower yet?"


    "No, I split from them a little over a year ago now. They started asking for a little too much..."


    Mollie was quick to try and pry some more information out. "What were they asking of you?"


    "They tried to use me to gain the favor of the royal family here and let them set up a tower, and since I was so close to Nation rank, I didn''t want to ruin my chance by making the royal family mad. They ended up getting a little too heavy handed when I rejected them too."


    "What?! But they let you just leave after that?"


    "Haah.. of course not, I had to force my way out. They only left me alone recently once I made it to the capital where they don''t have free reign."


    Mollie looked appalled. "Just what is the tower thinking?"


    "I have no idea, but they''ve been making some pretty aggressive moves on other nations recently.�� There was an eerie silence that followed my ominous words. ��In any case, I need to get going again. I don''t want to be late."


    "Alright well, just leave the materials for the staff here, we will start working on it today." Mollie motioned over to a table in the middle of the room.


    "Alright, sure thing.�� I quickly walked up and set everything down. ��Well, I''ll be coming back later tonight so be sure to save me a drink!"


    Giving a short goodbye, I made my way out of the smithy and started calming my mind.


    It was time for the meeting that would determine my future, but instead of anxiety, I felt an unusually deep excitement. -If I make a good impression, maybe I can become friends with them..-

 Chapter 43: Preparations

    Mid Morning - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    Seeing Father and Sarah arguing about something, I turned to go and explore the rest of the room but was stopped by Oliver.


    His forced smile looked a bit uncomfortable. "So how about I give you a little tour while they''re.. doing that."


    -He sure has good timing, huh..- "Sure, that''d be nice."


    "Alright, well, let''s start with the house and storage then." Seeing me casually agree, he finally started to ease up.


    As we walked, I decided to ask a question weighing on my mind. "Isn''t this place a bit too secure to just be a shelter? Is the vault or treasury here as well?"


    The question caught Oliver a bit off guard but he still answered without much hesitation. "Yes, although this place was mostly built to give our family a place to come if something major happens above ground, it also contains our vault. It''s in that building over there along with a few years worth of food supply." He casually motioned towards a crude stone building not far from the cottage.


    -Isn''t that a bit crudely built compared to the house?-


    The storage was crudely cut out of stone, compared to the gorgeous 2 story wooden cabin. -They''re both sturdy but man is that storage ugly..-


    "Out front we have a small grass area, and in the back we have a basic garden. The ''real'' garden is in the stone building over there though."


    -Im sorry, what?-


    As I was thinking, Oliver turned around and looked at me like he was waiting on me. "Do you want to take a look inside?"


    -Oh whoops..- Quickly turning back into my humanoid form, we made our way inside.


    The layout of the house was simple, with a large open area by the entrance, an office, full size kitchen, and 4 bedrooms with 2 baths. It was far beyond what I was expecting considering the era this world was in. Everything even had running water, albeit using artifacts.


    Next was the storage building, although it was simply stone on the outside, the inside was rather intricate.


    The building was divided into 3 sections, with the largest being a solid farm, easily enough to sustain a family.


    It used artifacts to regulate everything from temperature and humidity to light cycles to simulate time of day.


    -Wow..- "This is quite the feat of engineering.."


    "Engineering?"


    "N..nothing."


    As we walked back into the main hall, we peeked our heads into the next area. Simply put, it was a massive produce freezer, using artifacts to keep everything frozen.


    It was filled with everything from quality meats, to various sauces, vegetables and even juices and alcohols.


    But although it was interesting, I was more curious about something else.


    "Is there a reason why it''s just made of this stone?" -Or was it just you guys being lazy..-


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    "Of course! This stone has extremely good properties for regulating things like temperature, humidity and light cycles, allowing us to simulate any conditions we want on the inside of individual rooms without it escaping."


    -So.. It''s just rock with good insulation?- It took a minute for my mind to realize this language didn''t have a word for insulation. -I guess that''s why his wording sounded so.. unusual..-


    As I finished thinking, we arrived at the end of the hall where the vault was.


    "And this is the vault, but we should save the inside for another day. It seems I''m running out of time." Oliver was trying to be formal, but I felt as if he was just making an excuse.


    "Do you have another meeting?"


    "Yes, I have to promote a new Nation rank adventurer."


    -Oh, that could be interesting!- "How about I go with you? You never know when something might happen."


    As we walked outside, he looked towards the other sections of the shelter. "Are you sure you don''t want to check out the other rooms?"


    "I can always explore them later, it''s not something that only comes once in a while like seeing a Nation rank." I was dying to see what the ''peak'' of adventurers looked like.


    "I mean, you could just�� Nevermind, feel free to come along if you want to. Just please don''t make a scene.." As he turned around, he motioned at Helen and headed to the lift. She seemed a bit disoriented but mostly normal.


    "Father, I''ll be back shortly." I wore an excited smile as I followed Oliver and Helen.


    He glanced over nonchalantly. "Where are you going?"


    "I''m going to see the new Nation Rank that''s being promoted."


    "Oh okay, just don''t scare them too much." He was quick to turn his attention back to Sarah and continued to let Lucy closely examine his scales.


    "Lucy.. do you want to come with Vasilias?" Helen lethargically extended the offer even though Lucy was thoroughly enjoying herself.


    "Huh? Oh��" She sounded reluctant before giving it some thought and sliding off of Father''s leg. "Okay, I guess I should probably see who it is��" She looked fairly disappointed.


    Helen was quick to give her some reassurance though. "We won''t be long, you can sit on Osto more when we get back."


    Lucy''s face was quick to light back up. "Then let''s get going!"


    Lucy was quick to dash up to us as we stepped onto the lift.


    -I wonder what kind of person he will be�� Or maybe it''ll be a she..-


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    Finally making it to the palace, I was stopped by the guards at the gate. "Sir please show your ID and reason for being here."


    Already having them out, I handed the knight the meeting notice from the guild and my ID. "I have a meeting with his highness to actuate my promotion."


    "Hm. Sir Cotorel, please wait a moment while I confirm this information." He showed forced formality as he walked inside the gate and called over his superior.


    The man he handed the papers to gave a harsh glare before handing the ID back to the knight.


    "You''re free to pass, congratulations on your promotion sir Cotorel." The knight handed me back my ID as he opened up the gate.


    "Thank you." Putting it back in my pocket, I quickly made my way inside. -I wonder what kind of person the king is..-


    For the citizens of Kaelallan like me, the king was not seen very often and had even earned the name ''Hidden King'', but that didn''t mean people didn''t like him.


    It was actually quite the opposite, the citizens absolutely loved him. Not only was he a king who was a strong leader, but he was also someone who loved his people, and went as far as to give policies and opportunities for peasants to climb into the middle class. It was something almost never seen elsewhere.


    He was a king I could take pride in serving so I wanted to make the most of this opportunity. -I need to make a good impression at all costs..-


    "Sir Cotorel, his highness is getting ready. Please wait here for a moment." The maid I followed inside motioned me into a room just inside the main door.


    As I sat down, I reached onto the table and grabbed myself a bit of buttered white bread. -Wow.. That''s really good..-


    Truly fluffy white bread was a rarity even for royalty in other kingdoms so to be able to have any at all was bliss.


    But my enjoyment quickly came to an end. "Sir Cotorel, his Highness will see you now, please follow me."


    Quickly wiping my mouth, I set down my plate and cup of tea to follow the maid. -Alright! I need to look good, feel good, and sound good. I got this!-


    It didn''t take long to arrive at the room.


    "This is the meeting room, his highness will be with you shortly." She gave a polite bow as she opened the door for me.


    Behind the door was a simple room with two couches facing each other and a table between them. The table also had a small basket of sweet pastries on them but I dared not touch them. -They''re probably for the royal family and not me..-


    As my nervousness started to build up, there was a long and eerie silence that filled the room.


    It made my gut feel like something bad was going to happen but I was quick to suppress it. -Now isn''t the time for doubt.-


    *Click*


    Hearing the door open, I quickly fixed my posture and calmed my nerves. -There''s no reason to be worried..-

 Chapter 44: An Unconventional Meeting

    Late Morning - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    Finally making it back into the throneroom, Oliver reached over and flicked a switch to close the trapdoor behind us.


    Peeking my head around the throne, I saw the same elven maid from earlier as the only person in the room. -She must be pretty high up the hierarchy, huh..-


    "Martha, has our guest arrived?" Oliver called her over as we walked down the steps.


    "Yes, he is in the waiting room."


    "Okay, go bring him to the meeting room, we will be there shortly."


    Giving an elegant bow, the maid quickly disappeared down a hallway and in her place, two younger maids walked in, both keeping their heads low.


    Helen was quick to call one over. "Could you get us a few drinks while we wait? Would you like anything Vasilias?" She seemed like she was still a bit lightheaded but since she was acting normal enough to not seem out of place.


    "Uh, no thank you.. I''m alright. Why don''t we just go and meet with him now though?"


    "Well if the king was seen waiting on someone that wasn''t extremely close to him, itd cause some political problems."


    -I guess that makes sense..- Seeing me nod in understanding, Helen turned back to the maid and whispered in her ear.


    "Well we have a few minutes left so how about I give you two a little overview." Oliver casually turned to Lucy and I. "This meeting is going to be very simple, I''m going to look over his adventurer log and make sure everything is alright, and if it is, he will be promoted to nation rank. Along with his promotion I will grant him some territory and nobleship as well.��


    -Simple enough..-


    ��Vasilias, I know I can''t make you act in any certain way, but if you could, please refrain from anything unnecessary."


    Oliver bowed towards me which made the maids�� eyes go wide, but they didn''t dare say anything.


    "I only plan to act as an observer unless something happens, then I''ll be a bodyguard."


    "Well, we will be in your hands then!" There was a short pause as he took a sip of tea before he handed his cup back to the maid. "Alright. He should be there by now, let''s start heading over."


    Excitement welled in me as we started heading over and, although it may sound bad, deep down I was hoping something would happen. -Does that make me a bad person? I mean it''s not like there is much I can''t handle. I''m a dragon after all!- An excited and prideful smile came to my face as I thought about it.


    As we finally made it to the room though, my expression turned serious and I quickly moved in front of everyone. -That''s suspicious��- Within the room, I clearly felt the aura of the nation rank, but my aura that I let naturally flow in the room wouldn''t flow in certain spaces. It felt as if there were three bubbles my mana couldnt naturally flow into.


    This simply meant that the mana density in those areas was significantly above normal, but considering it was in a meeting room, it could only mean one thing. -People..- ��Let me go in first.��


    Hearing my clear and serious demand, the maid froze and backed up to let me open the door.


    *Click*


    Inside there was only one visible person, a middle aged man in a nice robe sitting in the middle of the couch. -To think people would actually sneak into a meeting like that..-


    Although I was able to tell where they were, I decided not to force my way into their aura since I didn''t want to alert them.


    Sure, what they were doing was already something akin to treason and I could kill them now, but it would be more fun to let them reveal themselves first.


    -Their concealment is quite impressive in all honesty though..- Their aura was contained in a moderately dense bubble and they used light magic to conceal their bodies and coincidentally their aura. Basically, as long as they didnt move, they would be almost completely invisible.


    Deciding I would let things roll for now, I finished opening the door and walked inside.


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    The instant I walked in, the man on the couch got up and kneeled.


    "Raise your head, Michael Cotorel." Oliver walked past me and moved to sit on the opposing couch.


    As Michael raised his head to look at us, his eyes met with mine.


    Casually looking him up and down, only one thought came to mind. -How underwhelming..-


    Maybe it was because he didn''t like my look of disappointment, but he had a slight look of annoyance in his eyes.


    It was a look of resistance I wasn��t fond of, to say the least.


    *Creak-crunch*


    The couch��s joints creaked and the floor cracked slightly as I pressured him with some of my aura.


    It only lasted for a short moment, but it was more than enough for his face to pale and for him to break into a cold sweat.


    Lucy glanced up at me with a look of awe which I just gave a friendly smile in response to.


    Oliver didn''t seem to notice though as everyone else sat down. "I hope you did not wait too long, let us begin quickly."


    Everyone sat down at the couch across from Michael except for me, since I decided to stand behind them.


    But even with the suspicious people hiding themselves, the meeted progressed quite smoothly. He was swiftly granted the promotion and nobility and Oliver seemed to take a liking to him.


    "Your territory will be the city of Oakmoor just north of here. The current city lord will receive a letter soon informing him about his new superior. I assume you can handle that?"


    "Of course." Michael wore a subtle smile.


    "Now to finalize the transfer of lordship of the territory, I''m going to need you to sign this paper."


    As Oliver reached out to push the paper forward, I saw the light warp around one of the people hiding. -They''re moving..-


    In the next instant, one of them threw a small dagger at Oliver and wrapped it with a crude and visible wind magic.


    -It''s much slower than I expected..- Nonchalantly reaching down in front of Oliver��s neck, I caught the blade that was coated in an ominous liquid. "To even coat the knife in poison. How ruthless."


    The assassins quickly stopped moving and hid themselves once again. -Do they really think I don��t know they''re there?-


    "Haah.. I quite liked your personality too.." Oliver gave Michael a disappointed look, being sure to keep calm as a king should.


    But Lucy wasn''t so calm. "You dare try to assassinate my father?!" She jumped up but I quickly used wind magic to throw her back into her seat.


    For whatever reason, everyone including Lucy thought Michael threw the dagger. -But..- "He wasn''t the one who threw that, calm down."


    Everyone in the room froze hearing my words, with Lucy being the first to respond.


    "No.. I saw the mana he used to throw it, it came from that man.." She pointed at Michael with a vicious look a young girl shouldn''t have.


    "No no, calm down, it wasn''t him."


    "There isn''t anyone else in the room though.." Helen immediately jumped onto high alert.


    "There are actually a few people, they''re just quite good at hiding."


    Finally exposing them, I released my aura in the room, just being sure to create a bubble around the royal family.


    *CRUNCH*


    The entire floor and all of the walls cracked under the pressure.


    As for the people, not only Michael, but the 3 people who were hidden all exposed themselves and fell to their knees while struggling to not get crushed and breathe.


    Michael glanced over at the three in shock, but he was far more worried about himself. -Either he is a really good actor or he really isn''t with them..-


    "You guys were really disappointing, I thought you would be more interesting." As I walked up to them, I probed their insides with my aura to make sure they couldnt commit suicide.


    As I glanced back, I saw Oliver staring at the three people in shock.


    Although I really wanted to kill at least one, I figured Oliver wouldn''t want me to do it in front of Lucy. "What do you want me to do with them?"


    Finally snapping out of his shock, Oliver yelled out into the hall. "Please bind them, guards!"


    Hearing his call, guards quickly opened the door and entered. By now I had already layered my aura once again so as to not scare more people than necessary.


    Not seeing the three extremely suspicious looking guys on the ground behind the couch, the first knight to enter swung his sword at me.


    "How rude."


    *Tink*


    Seeing the opportunity to blow off a bit of steam, I swiftly caught the blade and threw a punch into his stomach.


    *Crunch-WHAM*


    Zipping past the other two knights, he was launched through the doorway and embedded in the opposing wall.


    The other knights froze from fear after watching their comrade fly past them, but before it got out of hand, Oliver solved the situation. "HE ISN''T THE ENEMY!"


    Finally taking another moment to get a grasp of the situation, the knights finally noticed the three black robed men passed out on the floor.


    The knight who was now embedded in the wall outside of our room quickly realized what he had done. (Drew his sword on someone with a close relationship to the king)


    The pain he felt throughout his entire body vanished in an instant as panic arose from the deepest parts of him.


    Various thoughts shot through his mind, ''Am I going to be executed?'' ''Will I be exiled?'' ''What about my family?''


    But those thoughts didn''t last long before he finally passed out.


    *Thud*


    Hearing something fall in the hallway, I peeked outside and saw him lying face down on the tile floor.


    ��You, the maid over there.�� I pointed to a maid staring at him and not knowing what to do. ��Take him to a medical ward or something, and when he wakes up tell him not to panic about anything.�� -As thanks for being the one to let me blow off steam, I''ll make sure you get something nice..-

 Chapter 45: Shattered Pride

    Late Morning - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    ��Take him to a medical ward or something, and when he wakes up tell him not to panic about anything.��


    Although my words were meant to calm down everyone by showing I wasn''t mad, it seemed to have an adverse effect.


    Immediately dropping to their knees, the other two knights started begging. "I''m very sorry sir! I have failed at my job and am prepared for whatever punishment Your Highness gives me." The man was trembling a little bit, but we had far bigger problems than dealing with him.


    "You''re fine, just take a deep breath and get back to your job. These three attempted to assassinate the king so please deal with them. Get general information from them like what they wanted to accomplish and such.�� I gave laidback orders but my gaze quickly stiffened up. ��Just keep in mind, if one of them dies, so will each of you. If you can''t get information out of them, I will personally take over."


    The guards, both still kneeling, were trembling as they gave fear driven nods.


    Seeing they understood, I turned back to the royal family. "Sorry Oliver and Helen, I didn''t mean to take over your job of ordering them but I''d rather let you sort two things out first. Also give the knight that attacked me a decent bit of gold and don''t punish him."


    Hearing my demand, the guards, maids, Michael and even the assassins all froze.


    The same thought shot through each of their heads, ''did this kid just give an order to the king?!''


    Oliver, though, simply nodded. "Thanks.. so how long did you know those three were here?"


    "Since before we walked in, they probably followed Michael inside."


    Everyone in the room immediately gave Michael a death stare as I spoke.


    His demeanor quickly changed as the pressure was turned on him.


    Things didn''t end there though. Walking over to him, I squatted down and looked him in the eyes. -He��s still thinking too much..-


    *Crunch*


    The ground beneath him cracked as I increased my aura pressure even more.


    He immediately fell to his elbows as he tried to fight the pressure with only surviving still on his mind.


    "Ill let you live if you tell the truth, no matter what the truth is.�� I eased up my pressure a bit so he could shift his focus to my voice. ��Did you know about them?"


    His pale face immediately shook side to side.


    "Do you know who they are?" I glanced back at the men being tied up by the knights. Their faces were bloody from nosebleeds, but their hoods were off and still easily recognizable.


    As Michael looked over at them, his expression did not change and he shook his head again.


    -People will always bend before death.. that''s just how humans evolved.- Releasing the pressure on him, I stood back up. "I''m fairly certain he isn''t with them, but do as you may."


    Finally managing to sort out his thoughts, Oliver spoke up. "Michael, I''m sorry to disappoint you, but I will have to delay your promotion until after this incident gets cleared up. I wont jail you because I believe you are innocent, so please head home. Milton!"


    Hearing his name called, a handsome butler appeared in the doorway.


    "Please walk Michael out."


    Milton quickly bowed his head in understanding before waiting for Michael.


    Finally managing to stand up with his shaky legs, Michael gave a bow to Oliver and I. "T..thank you S..sir and Y..your Highness for y..your mercy.."


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    "Please go home and get some rest, we will send a messenger once things have settled."


    "T..thank you.." Giving one final bow he slowly made his way out of the room.


    There was a short silence that filled the room after that but Oliver quickly continued. "Guards please take these three to the jail, I will be over to give more specific orders shortly.."


    Not having the authority to question the situation, they simply continued following orders.


    "Ah, before you all leave. This one here is Vasilias Whyte, he will be staying here for a bit so please treat him the same as me."


    They all paused before reluctantly nodding and carrying the assassins out of the room.


    The room was finally empty except for us and Lucy��s personal maid.


    "Vasilias.. let''s have a talk for a bit. Martha, please fetch us some bread and tea."


    ��Right away Miss.�� Giving a quick nod, she left the room in a hurry.


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    After hastily being walked out of the palace, I was left alone again.


    Alone, anxious, and shaking. -I feel no different from a stray dog..-


    -I should meet back up with Udall and Mollie..- All I wanted at the moment was company and comfort along with enough drinks to make me sick.


    I simply wanted to forget everything that just happened. -Ive never felt so helpless infront of anyone or anything..-


    As the memory of that monster in the form of a kid surfaced in my mind, my face paled again.


    As I started walking back towards the slum market, people started giving me weird looks, but I couldn''t care less.


    Winding my way across the city and into the slum market, I made it to the smithy and pushed aside the curtains.


    Udall seemed to know it was me before even looking. "Welcome ba.." Looking up from his work, he finally noticed my sorry state. "W..what happened?!" He immediately ran up to me and helped me sit at the table.


    "Haah.. just get me a drink, it''ll take a minute to explain.."


    Immediately pouring me a glass, Mollie came over and sat down as well. "So I''m guessing the meeting didn''t go well.."


    "It was actually going great for the most part.." Casually reaching out to Mollie, I grabbed my drink and took a large gulp. "Haah�� Thank you.."


    "So what do you mean by ''it turned terrible''? Were you not able to be promoted?"


    "Well I would have but.."


    "But what.."


    "There was an attempted assassination of the king just before I could sign the last paper."


    Both Udall and Mollie froze, immediately understanding the implications of my statement.


    "I''m guessing you stopped them?"


    "No.. they concealed their aura to an incredible degree.. I had no idea they were even there.."


    "Then.. what happened?"


    "The meeting was going fine until his highness gave me the forum for the transfer of territory and granting nobility. As I reached for it, one of the assassins threw a poison coated knife from behind me at his highness''s neck. Thankfully there was that ''thing'' otherwise things would have been worse.."


    "��That thing''?"


    "It was a young looking wolf demihuman boy with black hair and purple eyes�� At the start of the meeting when I looked at him, I felt like I was being swallowed up by the void.. like an endless abyss was going to swallow me up if I didn''t listen to him." My face paled once more as the memory surfaced in my mind.


    Silence filled the room as I washed away the fear with alcohol.


    *Slam*


    Slamming the empty mug down, I continued. "He caught the knife and exposed the assassins I had no idea even existed before that.. pressure returned. I felt like I couldn''t breathe, my legs went weak and my heart started beating out of my chest. When I looked up, I saw the assassins on the ground in the same situation."


    "A person with that kind of pressure can.. exist?" Mollie struggled to believe me.


    "Those two instances were not even the worst part, after another series of events he walked over to me and stared into my soul with a pressure so immense I felt like I was literally going to get crushed�� Finally easing up the pressure, he asked two simple questions, simply asking if I was involved with the assassins before letting me go.."


    There was a moment of silence as Udall and Mollie processed the information.


    Udall was the first to speak up. "If he could ask the king to let you go he must have some authority too.."


    "Ah.. about that.. I think he is actually above the king in authority.."


    Everyone froze again. "Excuse me?"


    "After the assassination attempt, the guards came in and one swung towards him. The ''kid'' just grabbed the blade and sent the man flying into the wall. After the guards realized what was wrong though, the ��kid�� gave them orders and even demanded the king forgive the knight who swung at him. His highness just nodded in compliance after that."


    Mollie and Udall went silent and stared at me with wide eyes.


    Pushing another drink towards me, Udall decided to move on. "So what comes next for your promotion?"


    "His highness said he would send a messenger once this incident blew over.." Immediately grabbing the mug, I took another large gulp.


    "Well at least you should still get promoted." Mollie quickly tried to put on a comforting smile.


    "Yeah.. we can only pray.."


    "Well, how about we play cards like we used to.. to ease the mood some."


    Feeling warmth came back to my cheeks, whether from the alcohol or my improving mood, a much awaited smile came to my face for the first time. ��Yeah.. lets do that..��

 Chapter 46: My First Commission

    Early Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    Hearing Helen call the maid for drinks and bread, I was expecting a long and arduous talk about why I didn''t do anything about the assassins earlier.


    "Vasilias, please take a seat.." Helen leaned back on the couch, stretching out and taking a deep breath. "I''m not sure what the reason you wanted to come to this meeting was.. but thank you... Sincerely.. from the bottom of my heart, thank you.."


    Hearing her words, Lucy looked like she was about to start crying.


    -I guess she is finally realizing the gravity of the situation..-


    "Ah right, are you okay?" Helen had a face of worry as she looked at my hand.


    -Ah right, I still have poison on my hand- "Im fine as far as I can tell" Quickly accumulating some water, I cleaned the poison off my hand and created a small aluminum vial to store it in. -Well it shouldn''t be corrosive.. hopefully..-


    Seeing my display of magic, Lucy''s urge to cry subsided. "How did you.."


    "How did I what?" I casually responded as I made a little stand to keep it from spilling. "I''ll set this here for you to examine later, maybe it''ll give a hint on who they were."


    Lucy wasn''t the only one stuck with a look of awe though. Helen couldn''t understand either. "How did you use so many attributes so swiftly.. and how did you make that container out of nothing.."


    "Well I have attribute nodes of every attribute, and I created the vial by using earth magic on the air. Just think that I took the materials to make it out of the air."


    "Huh? W..what?�� Lucy looked like her whole world was turned upside down. Her expression was truly priceless.


    Helen didn''t try to understand it though and was much better off. ��Haah.. I guess dragons are just blessed by the heavens, huh.." Helen let out a deep sigh, finally easing some stress from the incident.


    -Well, I can''t deny that..- "I''m not normal even for dragons though, so don''t feel bad." I tried to put on a comforting smile.


    Thankfully Helen was quick to move on. "That doesn''t change the fact you made such a beautiful vial out of nothing so quickly.." Carefully picking up the small vial, she admired its shine.


    A smile slowly crept onto my face from the ��compliment��. "Thank you for the praise."


    Finally returning to the room, Martha set a plate of bread and several cups of tea on the table and Helen gave her some more instructions. "Martha, please get the alchemist to come in and look at this vial of poison. See if he knows anything about it." Seeing her give a quick nod and leave the room once more, Helen handed me a piece of bread.


    "Thanks.." Even though I had lost my preference for it when I became a dragon, I decided not to reject it. -Its not bad, I guess.- It tasted pretty similar to white bread from earth, just less fluffy.


    "Well now that we have some food, I feel like I need to ask something.." At long last, Oliver finally finished sorting his thoughts.


    -Is he going to ask for a favor?- "Go for it."


    "I heard from your father that you two planned to leave in a few days, but I was wondering if I could be so shameless as to ask you to stick around a little longer.. I could really use your help in this.. ''case''."


    Although I was curious about the situation myself, it wasn''t much beyond that. "What''s in it for me then?"


    Hearing my response, Lucy snapped out of her existential crisis and gave me a shocked look.


    -I guess she didn''t expect me to be so upfront.-


    "I will let you take any single artifact from the vault." Oliver understood what dragons wanted from father, treasure, money, or something interesting.


    -He really knows how to rope a dragon in, huh..- "Alright sure, I''ll help you out."


    A humble smile quickly came to his face. "Thank you... Well let''s go inform your father of the situation, by then our knights should''ve gotten some information out of the assassins."


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    I simply nodded my head as we decided what to do next.


    As we were walking in silence, I noticed Lucy was pouting at me.


    ��What is it, Lucy?��


    "Why did you wait so long to deal with the assassins.." Her eyes narrowed like she was going to be very judgemental about my answer.


    But that didn''t change my answer in the slightest. "I waited to see if things would get more interesting, which they did, if only slightly."


    Seeing Lucy getting mad at my response, Helen interrupted. "we gained some useful information from him waiting for them to attack.. don''t get mad at him sweetie."


    As if not expecting Helen to take my side, Lucy just gave an annoyed pout and looked away.


    Immediately after, a few maids passed us and Helen leaned over to one of them. "You two can have the leftover bread and tea since we left a lot."


    A youthful smile instantly appeared on the young maids face as she nodded. "Thank you!"


    The maid bowed her head nearly to the floor, but Helen just gave her a warm smile as we left.


    Although it seemed a bit odd to ��let�� them have the leftovers, I figured it was like that because they were royalty. -I guess in this era, that kind of treatment isn''t common..-


    After that, it didn''t take long to make it back into the shelter.


    -Where is he.. ahh..- Looking around it only took me a moment to see father and Ilios laying in the shallows of the hotspring.


    "Oh, welcome back Vasilias." Father looked over for a moment before closing his eyes again. "How was the meeting? Seeing that everyone''s faces are a little pale, I''d assume not very well."


    "Ah, there was a poor attempt to assassinate Oliver, that''s about it though." I spoke casually as I changed to my dragon form and stepped into the hotspring with Father. -Mmmm.. that feels nice..-


    "That sounds quite extreme.." Fathers interest in what happened instantly rose.


    "Ah, speaking of Oliver, I made an agreement with him that I''d stay a little longer than we originally planned to help him with this case."


    Finally opening his eyes again, Father took a moment to look me up and down. "That''s fine but we need to inform your mother first, she''d get worried if we took longer and said nothing."


    -That''s a good point..- "Alright, I can fly back tonight and let her know tonight or something."


    "No, I''ll do it, you need to stay here for your agreement and I also have some other things to talk to her about.." His tone was very serious which made me wonder what he needed to talk about, but I decided not to question it.


    -If it''s something I need to know, I''m sure he��ll tell me..-


    After that, we idly chatted for a while until I needed to get back to business.


    This time, when I got up to leave, Ilios hopped up with me.


    Oliver was quick to give me some instructions. "Go on ahead with Helen, she should be in the throne room. I have some things to discuss with your Father first." It sounded like an excuse as he uncomfortably shifted around and mumbled under his breath. ��Helen is better with that kind of thing anyways.��


    "Alright, I''ll do my best to get all the information I can. Is there anything specific I need to know beforehand?"


    "Helen will tell you all you need to know.."


    "Alright, well, I''ll be back in a bit then. Let''s go, Ilios." Quickly turning around I made my way onto the lift and left the vault with Ilios.


    - (out of earshot) ~


    "So what did you give him for payment?" Osto gave Oliver a curious look.


    "I told him he could take one thing from the vault."


    "Hm.. I guess that''s a fair payment.."


    "Did you expect something else?"


    "Haha, I figured you''d try to hit him with gold first."


    "Haah, Im not dumb enough to try and take advantage of his barely even existent childishness.."


    Ostos demeanor quickly changed. "Yeah.. his maturity isn''t normal.. but to be fair, if he wasn''t mature and had that kind of strength itd cause some major problems.."


    "He has a good personality for his strength as well.."


    "Mhmm.. I still can''t believe he had the thought to keep the assassins alive to get information from them... A 10 year old who hasn''t even seen the world shouldn''t know things like that.."


    "He is still your son though, no matter what kind of oddities he possesses."


    ��Haah..�� A warm but complicated smile crept onto his face. "I can''t wait to see how he will grow.."


    Understanding his words from a fathers perspective, Oliver showed a similar smile. "Only time will tell how he turns out, especially since he brings a new definition to the saying ''blessed by the gods'', haha."


    Oliver spoke with a bit of sarcasm but Osto took it seriously. "The gods would never bless a being such as Vasilias.."


    Oliver''s laugh was cut short by Ostos somber statement. "Huh? Why is that?"


    "They wouldn''t bless something more perfect than themselves.. they are too selfish.. they hated Bahamut for the same reason..."


    Deciding he was in above his head, Oliver just gave an awkward nod.


    The room fell into silence except for the two girls hollering behind them, causing the guys to look over.


    ��"Oh look at how you''ve grown!"


    "Sarah, don''t touch me there!!"��


    Oliver watched the scene with nervous eyes. "Haah.. a part of me wishes Lucy would mature like Vasilias. She is mature when it comes to politics but with people.. I''m still too nervous to even let her go to school..."


    "When is she supposed to start?"


    "In a week. Helen wants her to go and I also think it''ll be a good experience for her but I''m too nervous currently.."


    "She needs to meet others.. as a royal heir she needs to be good at dealing with people."


    Turning back to the girls, the two fathers both wore warm smiles. "She reminds me of Krystallo.."

 Chapter 47: Real Torture

    -----Mild Gore Warning-----


    Mid Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    Finally arriving at the top of the lift and walking into the main hall, I saw Helen leaning up against the back of the throne. "Sorry if I made you wait."


    Still seemingly a bit lethargic, she took a second to respond. "Ah.. no worries. Are you ready?"


    With a light nod, we started heading towards the upper prison.


    We didn''t talk too much as we walked, but thankfully it didn''t take too long to get there.


    As we walked in, I finally got back to the topic at hand. "So is there anything special I need to know before this?"


    "Not that I know of, but, just a heads up.. this isn''t something a kid should see. I''m sure you will be fine, but if you ever need to step out, please do so." Her smile was a bit awkward but I could understand where she was coming from.


    Walking past several guard posts and through several gates, we finally entered the main building.


    "The farther down, the stronger the offender. We would normally go down to the 7th floor since those assassins were around S rank, but they are being kept on the 2nd for, ahem.. ''interrogation.''"


    As she said the word interrogation, an out of place smile appeared on her face, but I didn''t think much of it.


    Going down a stairwell we came into a long hallway lined with several metal-barred jail cells, each made of smooth stone. -They sure gave this place a lot of attention huh..-


    As I was admiring the craftsmanship of the cells, the people inside gave me disgusting looks. I didn''t pay them much mind since they might as well be insects but Ilios didn''t take kindly to them and pressured them with his aura.


    As he pressured the entire room except for where Helen walked, everyone simultaneously paled and turned their gaze elsewhere.


    Ilios quickly trotted up next to me, holding his head high as if expecting praise.


    Seeing his adorable confidence, I couldn''t help but lightly rub his head some. -Hehe�� He''s so cute..-


    Finally coming to the end of the hallway, there was a large metal door with a certain, extremely oppressing ''stench'' coming through the small window.


    It was so strong it caused my instinct to go on guard. -My goodness�� How much blood does it take for it to smell that strong..-


    Assuming I shouldn''t bring Ilios inside, I was quick to sit him down. "Ilios, you stay here and guard the door, alright?"


    ��Woof!�� He puffed up his chest as he sat down.


    Being unable to hold myself back again, I reached down and gave him a few more pets before walking inside.


    Behind the door was a room divided into 5 parts, with each part having a chair and several torture devices lining the walls. Of those chairs, 3 of them were seating the assassins.


    They each seemed to be rather roughed up and were bleeding quite a bit, but there was nothing too extreme.


    Next to the one that was least beat up though, was a knight cleaning some bloody tools. "Ah your grace. Welcome!" He quickly set down his things and gave Helen a deep bow.


    Helens face was serious, but she seemed to be suppressing a smile. "You may rise. So have you gotten any information out of them yet?"


    "Nothing of note yet..." He looked a little ashamed. "It seems they''re rather tight lipped."


    "Alright, in that case, you try and get information from the one on the left, I will take the right. Vasilias, would you like to give it a shot on the middle one?"


    "Sure, I don''t see why not." Looking at the man, his glare was sharp and his face was full of arrogance. -I guess he''s confident I can''t pry information out of him.- I took his glare as a challenge.


    "Alright, well if you can''t handle something, feel free to step out." Her serious look was slowly replaced with an excited smile as she spoke.


    -Whats with that look..- I couldn''t help but feel like she seemed a bit too excited. "I think I''ll be alright, but thanks for the reminder."


    ��Huhu, in that case I will get started first.�� With an ominous chuckle, she turned around and made her way into the right stall.


    Something about her demeanor made me extremely uncomfortable but I was quick to shake off the feeling. -Im probably just imagining things..-


    Turning back to the man in the middle stall, I walked up and gave him a good look. "That look in your eyes.. I''m not too fond of it... I''ll give you the benefit of the doubt though.." I bent down to get to his eye level and increased the pressure of my aura some. "If you tell me everything right now, I might leave your body in one piece."


    His face paled some, but the look in his eyes didn''t change.


    Quickly using his tongue to move the rag out of his mouth, he spat at me. "F*ck off you noble b*stard."


    I used wind magic to block the spit, but the look in my eyes turned dark. "Haah.. so you wanna take the hard route. That''s fine. So what''s your name?"


    "As if I''m going to tell you sh-"


    *Crack*


    I casually broke his thumb to start easy.


    The man just gritted his teeth as his arrogant glare got sharper. "Tch.. weak bi-"


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    *CRACK*


    A gut-wrenching sound echoed through the room as I used earth magic to break everything in his left arm.


    The bones instantly turned to a powder of razor sharp shards that shredded everything they touched, from flesh to nerves.


    "ARRRGGHH-AAAHHHHHH" He could only grit his teeth for a moment before the pain got to be too much to bear.


    -Ahh.. much better..- I felt an odd satisfaction seeing his arrogant glare turn to one of horror. "So what��s your name?"


    "Haah.. hah.. its.. Torr." He could barely speak through the pain of his nerves being shredded.


    "Hmm, what about your family name?"


    "As if.. I''d have.. something.. like that.." His face slowly turned to a ghastly pale as he spoke.


    "What do you mean by that?"


    "We were.. raised to kill... They''d never.. give us names.."


    "So youre something like a slave?"


    "You.. could say that.."


    "That''s a shame." My voice didn''t carry an ounce of compassion.


    "We had.. no choice.."


    "That''s unfortunate, so where are you from?"


    "Falloak.. a small town outs-ARGHH" He shifted a little causing another surge of pain to course through him. "A tiny town.. in the Holy.. Kingdom.."


    "So were you sent by the Holy Kingdom?"


    "Not.. quite.."


    There was a short silence while I waited for him to continue. "You should spit out who sent you before I feel like taking your leg."


    His eyes went wide in panic. "We were.. sent by the.. Tower�� I was just.. raised in.. Falloak.."


    "Hm? What''s the Tower?"


    "A conglomeration.. of mages.. with the sole motive of.. pursuing magic.."


    "Why the hell would they make you assassinate the king?"


    "I can''t tell-"


    *CRUNCH*


    "ARRGGHHH F***CCCKK!"


    "I did your other arm instead of a leg, be grateful."


    "ARGGH.. Haah.. hah.." He looked like he was going to pass out from the pain, but I couldn''t let that happen.


    "Don''t pass out or else I''ll wake you up by pulling your spinal cord out of your ass."


    His eyes went wide from fear. "Yes.. yes.. I w..won''t"


    ��Now then, you can continue.��


    "The tower.. w..wanted to frame.. that mage.. from the meeting.."


    "Ah, Michael? For what reason?"


    "Im.. not sure.. they said.. he was in the way.."


    -So Michael really was implicated with the assassination..- "Was that the only reason?"


    "N..no.. they never liked.. the king either... He banned.. the tower from.. entry.. to the kingdom.."


    "So to dispose of an unwanted and an opposising variable huh.."


    "Y..yes sir.. as far.. as I know.."


    "I''m guessing you dont know what their big plan is either then?"


    "N..no sir�� I was.. just a pawn��"


    -Hm�� What could they be planning?- "Is there anything else you know about their plan?"


    "All.. I k..know.. is that they��re.. ARGGH.. t..trying to gain.. c..control of.. as many.. nations as possible... They say.. they have an.. unopposable power.."


    -How ominous..- Even my thoughts carried sarcasm. "Okay. So how about the tower itself now, what''s the hierarchy like."


    "They are divided.. by strength..."


    -Simple enough- "Where is their HQ?"


    "The Kingdom.. of Deacia.."


    After asking a few more questions, I ran out of things to ask and wrapped things up.


    -This guy was nice and compliant after I broke his pride and arrogance..- "Alright, that''s all I''ve got for questions. You were pretty easy to work with, so do you have any last wish?"


    The man didn''t give much thought before responding. "I wish to live.."


    "You know that''s not possible." My eyes were cold, and he seemed to notice as despair washed over his face.


    "In that case.. can I make an oath?"


    -Hooh?- An ��oath�� was a type of magic that simply made it impossible for someone to do something without dying. For example if the rune made it so you could never say a name, if you then said it, the oath magic would go off and kill you on the spot.


    Although I didn''t know exactly how it worked, Mother told me it was very risky since they would sometimes misfire and just randomly kill the person under oath.


    -This could be a good opportunity to see it in action though..- "Alright, I''m listening."


    "The tower will never see me again, I will change my identity and I will live quietly as a simple citizen."


    "Okay. Add on top of that, that you can never injure an innocent person."


    Although to me it didn''t matter if he died now or killed 100 innocent people, I was more interested to see how the oath magic would try to abide by a condition like that.


    He quickly nodded before gritting his teeth from pain again. "A..absolutely.."


    "What about your arms, you sure you wanna live without arms?"


    "Well.. my muscles are.. still there.. only the bone is gone... I think.. I can repair or.. heal some of it.."


    His statement made me look at him like he was insane. -I don''t know how the hell you could heal that man, but if that''s the case..- Cutting off my thoughts, I used wind magic to slice off his left arm before using more magic to stop the bleeding.


    *Splat*


    As the arm hit the ground, the skin and muscle desperately trying to contain the mix of bone powder and blood ripped open and splattered everywhere.


    "Aaargghh, w..what was.. that for.." Although it still hurt him, it was nothing compared to earlier.


    "Getting away alive is already asking for too much, let alone with both arms."


    He couldn''t refute as he held his head down, likely just grateful he was alive.


    I didn''t care to wait on him though. "You ready?" My curiosity was making me impatient.


    ��R..right, sorry.�� He quickly closed his eyes as a bright rune was illuminated in front of his head. Simply put, it was the combination of earth and water runes that would trigger a lightning rune if triggered. -So it uses lightning magic to kill them but earth and water to check if they break it?-


    It was an incredibly complicated rune even for me, but I could vaguely get the idea of it. -How fascinating�� What psycho came up with this though? It must''ve been a dragon..- I simply couldn''t imagine a human having remotely enough understanding about runes to create something so intricate. ��In any case, you can make the oath now.��


    As I said that, thousands of small characters wrote themselves on the runes before engraving the entire rune into his skull.


    -How intricate..- The characters that were written were barely understandable and were closer to math than an actual language.


    After a short moment though, it finished and vanished from the air, now being completely engraved into his skull. "Alright, you stay there for a little, I need to discuss some things with someone first."


    Seeing him give an exhausted nod, I turned around and walked around the divider towards Helen��s area.


    As I rounded the corner, I was met with quite the odd sight.


    Helens wings and clothes were covered in blood and the man she had been torturing looked dead.


    Gashes in his flesh were everywhere and he had too many missing parts to count.


    -How in god''s name is that guy alive..-


    It was a scene that would cause anyones stomach to churn, but to me it gave the same feeling as seeing an insect''s guts on the wall after killing it, a little gross but that was it. -Ive truely become a dragon huh..- But my lack of sympathy was the least of my concerns at the moment. -She looks like she''s enjoying that a little too much..-


    Feeling my presence, the queen turned around, shining her white teeth with a somehow innocent looking smile. "Ah, are you done already?"


    The crimson blood on her face and wings gave her the look of an angel that just slaughtered a bunch of demons, but her smile made her seem like more of a demon herself.

 Chapter 48: A Corrupted Leader

    --Mild Gore Warning Again--


    Mid Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    - Shir ~


    My name is Shir, the leader of an elite assassin group within The Tower.


    We had a record of never failing a single assassination over the years, but things were currently looking bleak


    I was sitting in a secluded bar in the lower district at the time. "Have you heard back from them?"


    Sitting across the table from me was a newer and younger member of the group. "Nothing yet sir."


    "Has anyone seen them since they went in?"


    "No sir."


    ��Tch..�� -Are those incompitent bast*rds really going to mess up our record..-


    The face of the man across the table paled slightly and his posture lowered. As a newbie he still had the fear of getting killed by his superiors on their whim, it was simply how the assassins branch worked.


    -Its crude but it raises them well..- As I tried to get my mind off the topic of the mission failing, another man in a black robe walked in.


    Seeing his signal to leave, the young man at the table traded seats with the person coming inside.


    ��I have a report on the assassination squad, Captain.�� He was quick to get to business.


    ��I''m listening.��


    ��The ��three�� have been spotted being moved into the imperial prison.��


    ��And what about the mage?��


    "He is on his way to the slum market, Captain."


    "Hm���� Unlike what I expected, hearing that they actually failed didn''t change my demeanor and I kept my calm. ��Go deal with that mage personally and order the others to meet up. We need to clean them up before one leaks anything."


    The atmosphere quickly darkened as the man understood exactly what I meant. "As you order." With a light bow of his head he disappeared from his seat.


    As I finally stood up from my seat, the deep uneasiness in my gut only got worse, but I didn''t pay it mind.


    With a bit of stretching, I tossed a silver onto the table and made my way outside. ��Haah..�� -Why am I always the one that has to clean up..-


    - Vasilias ~


    "Are you done already?"


    "Y..yeah.." I started feeling awkward seeing Helen acting so happily while covered in blood. "You seem to be enjoying yourself.."


    "Why of course, they dared to try and harm my Oliver." Her smile that I thought looked innocent contained a slight craze.


    -Well then..- "Ahem, in any case, I got the information I needed.."


    "Ah right, sorry I got a little sidetracked." Helen glanced back to the poor man she tortured as if expecting him to say something, but he wouldn''t respond.. well, it was more like he couldn''t.


    "I''ve gotten plenty of information out of their leader and I plan to leave him alive so you can question him later, so feel free to do whatever you''d like with the other two."


    She quickly turned back to me with wide eyes. "You want to pardon him?"


    "Yeh, he has the potential to redeem himself." I put on a light smile even though it was an open lie. I fully expected the oath to trigger and kill him the moment I looked away, but I did think it''d be interesting to see if he could do it.


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    Helen didn''t seem to agree though. "We can''t leave him alive, it''s the law." Her crazed behavior finally settled a bit.


    "He is under an oath and is crippled. If he makes a slight mistake in his wording he��ll die, so.."


    She simply stared at me for a moment as she thought to herself before finally giving in. "I''ll.. see what I can do.."


    "Sweet, in that case I''m going to step out for a bit, feel free to take your time.�� But just before I stepped out, I glanced back at her. ��Ah, one last thing.��


    ��Hm?��


    ��The one who threw the knife at Oliver was the guy over there." I pointed to the section the knight was in.


    Seeing Helen start oozing a crazed bloodlust I quickly made my way outside and made a mental note to never hurt Oliver. -That''s a type of crazy I don''t want to be involved with..-


    Closing the door behind me, I fell into a daydream about sitting in the warm hot spring in the shelter. -Alright, shall I head back for a..-


    *BaNg*


    An explosion that blew apart the door on the opposite end of the hall cut my thoughts short.


    Dashing through the cloud of dust and smoke were three black robed men, they weren''t what caught my eye though.


    Behind them was a fourth with a comparable aura to Michael.


    -Oh, to think someone so interesting would appear!- Almost immediately, I felt a deep warmth and excitement. I had to hold myself from jumping straight into it though.


    Trying my best to suppress the urge to start the slaughter, I turned to Ilios. "Do you want to fight at all this time?"


    Almost immediately he shook his head and sat back down.


    "Alright, well if you wanna join in, feel free." I gave him a warm smile and a pat on the head before turning back to the intruders.


    They had already killed most of the prisoners on the far side of the room before they noticed me.


    "Hey kid, get out of the way or else." The man in the front showed a clear hostility.


    "Oh? Or else what?" I couldn''t help but smile from excitement.


    Seeing my clear intention to fight, he quickly stopped trying to be peaceful. "Haah.. kids these days.."


    Immediately springing at me, a bright fire rune appeared on his palm.


    "Awe come on, don''t use such boring magic!"


    Before he could cast anything, I kicked him in the stomach, grabbed his head and slammed it into my knee.


    *Crunch*


    His skull instantly caved in as my knee was driven through it, covering my leg and hand with his smashed-apart brain. -How unsanitary..- It was a grotesque sight but I only felt a little grossed out.


    Pulling what was left of his head off my knee, I tossed him to the side and looked up to see the other three looking at me, wide eyed.


    "Wow you just let your comrade die like that? What awful people."


    At my slight provocation, the two other weak ones charged at me, one with a lightning rune one with a light rune.


    A blinding light filled the room immediately after. -To try and blind a dragon!-


    Sensing the one with the lightning rune reach for my back, I took a step to the side and grabbed his arm, then moved it to intercept the poison coated knife flying at my face.


    *Shink*


    The knife cleanly passed through the man''s hand and got stuck in the bone.


    "Uh oh! Watch out for friendly fire!" Taking a step to the side, I let the light fade and let the assassins realize what happened, but they didn''t pay it mind and lunged at me again.


    Mid lunge, they both activated earth runes to strengthen their muscles for hand to hand combat.


    -You can do that?!- "Why didn''t I think of that before?!"


    With my new realization, I immediately strengthened the muscles in my arms and back.


    *CrAcK*


    With a heavy punch into the poisoned man''s forehead, his skull shattered and his neck snapped like a twig.


    As his body went limp and fell to the floor, I couldn''t help but feel a bit disappointed. -Hmm.. it''s not as much of a strength improvement for me as it is for them..-


    As I was thinking, the other weakling threw a punch that I casually caught.


    ��To interrupt my thoughts, how rude.�� As my smile grew, a ball of liquid hydrogen formed around my hand.


    *pshh-FWOOOOSH*


    Connecting the back of the thruster to the walls behind me, the entire room simultaneously shattered.


    A dense and hot fog filled the room before I used wind magic to make it vanish.


    Standing there at the end of the hall was the nation rank aura I felt before the fight.


    It was an older man with a very tempered attitude but I couldn''t help but notice the beads of sweat on his forehead.


    It filled my mind with confidence as I got excited to continue playing around. "How could there be such a heartless man to let his subordinates die like that."


    "They were nothing but slaves." His voice wasn''t totally calm, but it carried quite a bit of confidence.


    "You make it sound like you''re different, do you maybe know something about what the tower is planning? You seem strong enough to have some actual authority."


    His eyes immediately went wide.


    -So he does know something..- My playful smile quickly turned sly. "I''ll give you a chance just like I did to the guy inside. If you spit everything out, I''ll let you live."


    "Sorry kid, but you''re not the one to decide that." A sudden swirl of mana appeared around his hands, on one hand an earth rune, on the other a fire rune.


    "Hooh? Two runes at once?" A grin slowly crept onto my face. -You''ll be a fun mouse to play with!-

 Chapter 49: A Beating

    Late Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    - Shir ~


    *Thud* *Thud*


    Two guards limply fell to the ground as my group and I removed our cloaking magic.


    "So does anyone know exactly what floor they will be on?"


    "The second floor has the secure torture rooms, Captain." Number 3, the youngest of the group, was quick to respond.


    ��Alright, don''t hold back and leave no witnesses."


    "Yes sir."


    Immediately making our way down to the second floor, we were met with a huge metal door.


    *Pshhhh*


    We used fire magic to heat up the edges of the metal before kicking it in.


    *Bang*


    Inside was a hallway lined with prison cells that my group was sweeping through, being sure to kill each prisoner. -The rooms must be at the end..-


    When I looked to the end of the hallway though, I saw a young demihuman boy.


    His facial features were simply perfect, beyond what could be considered human but above all, I could feel the ''child''s'' presence.


    Although it wasn''t too heavy, it felt more tempered and controlled than anything I had ever felt.


    Somehow though, I seemed to be the only one to notice.


    "Hey kid, get out of the way or else." Number 3 was totally oblivious to the ��child''s�� presence.


    "Or else what?" Although his demeanor was calm, his voice carried an overwhelming confidence.


    "Haah.. kids these days.." Likely annoyed by the ��child��s�� confidence, Number 3 sprang at ��it�� full of the intention to kill.


    Seeing the ��kid�� not even reacting, I started second guessing myself. -Maybe I just misunderst..-


    Before my thoughts could finish, ��he�� finally moved. "Awe come on, don''t use such boring magic!"


    *CrUnCh*


    Number 3''s head was crushed like a grape on the ��kid''s�� knee.


    The scene sent a massive chill down my spine. -To kill an S rank.. so effortlessly..-


    "Wow you just let your comrade die like that? What awful people."


    As Number 3''s lifeless body was tossed to the side, I did my best to calm my nerves. ��Hooh..�� -I can''t lose my cool in a fight like this..-


    But the others in the group couldn''t do the same. The other two immediately sprang at ��him��, blinding him and taking him out together.


    "Uh oh, watch out for friendly fire!"


    The light subsided and revealed a poison coated knife stabbed into one of their hands. -These idiots! He is playing with them like toys..-


    "Why didn''t I think of that before?!"


    *CrAcK*


    Number 8��s neck snapped like a twig as the ��kid�� hit him in the face.


    Although most people would likely mourn the loss of their comrade, my thoughts were elsewhere.


    -If I made him a slave.. how much would I be able to sell him for?!- Although he was physically strong, it wasn''t nearly enough to give me a challenge.


    As I was lost in thought though, ��he�� caught number 9��s punch. "To interrupt my thoughts, how rude."


    Almost immediately after, a clear liquid formed around ��his�� hand.


    -Wait.. He can use magi..-


    *psh-FWOOOOSH*


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    My thoughts were cut off by a blinding blue flame that vaporized number 9��s upper body.


    Seeing such ferociously strong magic, my previous uneasiness that I couldn''t get rid of suddenly became more pronounced. -This might.. Be troublesome..-


    In a flurry of thoughts, I quickly made a change in plans.


    -He needs to die here.-


    - Vasilias ~ (skips their small convo)


    "Hooh? Two runes at once?"


    Lunging at me, the assassin reinforced his body with earth magic.


    -Close combat with fire magic? I guess I''ll play along!-


    Helping close the distance, I darted up and threw a kick into his side, completely smashing through the stone he used to shield himself.


    *Crunch*


    Seeing an opening, he grabbed my leg and swung his heel around to clock my face.


    -He��s pretty quick!- As I casually leaned back to dodge, I noticed a decent bit of powder on his shoes. -Oh..-


    *Crackle-Bang*


    An explosion erupted out from his foot, but I managed to push his leg up just enough to make it miss and make him lose his footing.


    Before he could rebalance himself, I pulled him into a heavy punch.


    *WHAM*


    The impact from the punch shook the whole building and knocked him out of my grip, but he didnt fall over.


    That didnt mean he was okay though, his breathing was already heavy and he was gritting his teeth from pain or frustration.


    "Really? One exchange and you''re done?" A little disappointed, I relaxed my shoulders. -How underwhelming..-


    Seeing another opening he lunged towards me and stomped the ground.


    *Crunch*


    The ground shattered as a wall of blazing fire was lit around us. "Now you can''t run" A crazed smile appeared on his face as he believed the flame could keep me in.


    -Its a hot flame but for a dragon it might as well be a candle..-


    While I was thinking, he threw a punch followed by a blast of flames which I dodged with a back handspring. In the same motion, I threw a kick into his wrist to dislocate it, but he pulled his hand back just enough for it to miss.


    His smile turned crazed as he gripped onto my ankle. "Got you!"


    Getting serious for a moment, I used thruster magic to reinforce a kick with my other leg.


    *RUMBLE-CrAcK*


    Feeling his forearm get blown to pieces, he let go and jumped back.


    Not giving him a chance to recover, I got back to my feet and threw a thruster-backed punch into his chest.


    *RUMBLE-BANG*


    His rib cage shattered as he got launched through the wall of fire and into the opposing wall.


    -Tch.. I didn��t let it heal enough..- I gritted my teeth a bit as I refractured my hand. -What a mood killer�� At least he should be out of commission now..-


    *Crumble..*


    -He''s alive?!-


    Falling out of the wall, he took a wide stance and cupped his remaining hand, using a fire rune on each finger to create a small ball of light.


    I knew it was stupid to let your enemy charge up their trump card, but at this point I was more curious than anything. -What a resilient human..-


    Just as I finished my thought he repositioned his feet and threw his hand forward.


    *Bang-WOOOSH*


    A ridiculous beam of fire left his hand and blasted towards my face.


    It was both several-fold hotter than the wall of fire earlier and was too big for me to dodge. -Uh oh.. this one could actually hurt!-


    *FWOOSH*


    The flame blasted past me and melted everything it touched, only sparing the area it couldn''t reach because of my vacuum magic.


    -That was a little too close for comfort..- The flame from his magic was so fast I could barely get my vacuum magic up in time.


    *crackle*


    As the blaze died down, the room was left filled with smoke.


    "Is he.. dead?" The man spoke to himself as he staggered to his knees.


    *tap* *tap* *tap*


    Hearing me walking across the still nearly molten floor, his face paled further.


    With my now released aura, I made all of the smoke vanish and looked the man in the eyes.


    ��That was a good final attack. You can take pride in it being your last.��


    His eyes went wide as I picked him up by the neck and set my other hand on his stomach.


    *tink-CRACK*


    Using a huge amount of mana, I blasted his reserve and blew it apart.


    ��Ugh-blugh..�� He immediately threw up blood as I dropped him to the ground.


    Reading my aura I could still sense his heartbeat, albeit faintly. -Count your lucky stars that I''m leaving you alive..-


    Although I wasn''t able to get any information out of him yet, he seemed to be high up the ladder so he was a good source.


    "Awoo!" Ilios let out a joyful howl as he ran up to me with a wagging tail.


    "Haha, thank goodness you''re alright." I was quick to lean down and pet him.


    I was a little worried that the beam of fire hurt him but it was a needless worry.


    Where he was sitting was the only other spot on that half of the room where the floor looked untouched.


    "Uhm.. is everything alright now?" Helen peeked her head through the now slightly melted doorway, being sure to keep herself cool with a temperature control fire rune.


    -Thankfully she��s alright as well..- "It should be fine now."


    "Phew.. so what happened?" She carefully walked out, being careful to not step on any of the still molten sections of the floor.


    "Well there were some people that, I''d assume, came to rescue the assassins we captured but the 4th managed to put up a decent fight so I took my time to enjoy it.."


    Although it didn''t look like it, I was totally fine with the exception of my hand. -All the blood on me isn''t mine after all.-


    Helen��s worry was aimed elsewhere though. "Where are all the bodies?"


    "Well.." As I looked around, the only corpses on my half of the hall were scorched prisoners who got caught in the crossfire. "I think that guy''s last attack got rid of the bodies of the other three." I casually pointed to the guy covered in blood on the floor.


    "What?! Was he a Nation Rank then?!"

 Chapter 50: Memories

    Late Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    - Udall ~


    ��Haah..�� I sighed deeply seeing Michael finally pass out at the table.


    Mollie��s face showed a similar concern. "You think he��ll be alright?"


    "Yeah it''s odd seeing him drink so much, but I guess his lifetime of work and effort could be destroyed so I can''t really blame him.."


    "Haah.. yeah. I just haven''t seen him so stressed since ��she�� almost died.."


    "There��s nothing we can do besides letting him sleep and giving him company. Go turn on the muter for him so we can get back to working on the staff in the meantime."


    Walking over to the table, Mollie tapped a small sphere and activated a small barrier that formed around the table. "This artifact has really come in handy."


    It was an artifact that created a very thin barrier around itself that allowed objects and people to walk in and out, but people on the inside couldn''t hear things outside and vice versa. (it''s a silencing artifact)


    It naturally wasn''t perfect, but it was enough to act like ear plugs to let Michael sleep.


    "Yeah, although it was crazy expensive, it was worth it compared to the ever increasing cost of privacy around here."


    "Haha, it''s been a while hasn''t it.." Mollie gave a small chuckle, ignoring Udalls rambling.


    "Hm? Since what?"


    "N..nothing.. I was just thinking that it''s probably been a while since he''s slept so soundly."


    Looking over at him, I finally noticed just how knocked out he was. "Haha, you might be right. In any case though, let''s try to finish up his staff. It''ll be a nice surprise for him when he wakes up." A gentle warm smile came to my face as I glanced back at Michael again. -Ill make sure to show you how much I��ve improved from last time!-


    With a newfound excitement filling my chest, I made my way to the forge and got started.


    Just as I put the mythril in the forge though, I heard someone knock on the front desk.


    *knock-knock*


    -Ah.. I bet that''s him..- Setting down the clasp holding the red hot mythril, I turned towards Mollie. "I''ll leave the start to you, this might be what''s-his-name coming for his sword." As I walked towards the front, I tried to think of the man''s name but gave up halfway through. -Ill just look at the commission sheet..-


    Walking into the front room, I saw a man in a large black coat waiting at the desk.


    -Well, it''s not him..- "What can I help you with, sir?"


    "I was wondering if Michael was here? I need to speak with him."


    -Is this guy the messenger Michael talked about? This feels far too fast..- "He is sleeping currently, can you leave a message or letter if you''d like, or you can come back later."


    "Ahh, you see this is fairly urgent so I''d like to see him now." The man''s voice was quite rough and lacked formality.


    -Well, he''s too pushy and sketchy to be the messenger..- "Sorry but I can''t wake him, please come back later."


    Feeling like something was off about the man, I quickly tried to send him away, but he didn''t take kindly to it.


    "Sorry but I need to see him right now.�� As he spoke, a heavy, S-Rank aura filled the room. ��Please don''t make this more difficult than it needs to be."


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    The man''s eyes were vicious but mine were calm. "This isn''t a place you can just walk into." My confidence was dense and unwavering, successfully planting a seed of worry in the assassin. -How dare you try and target my sworn brother while I''m here.-


    In the next instant, the man drew a knife and dashed at me, throwing a punch before swinging the knife at my neck.


    As I leaned back to dodge the swing, I reached back and grabbed a shortblade behind the desk. -I shouldn''t waste time on this guy..-


    Swinging it around, I tried to slice off his arm but he moved just enough for it to only graze him before jumping back.


    "Man, I��ve gotten that much slower since I retired?" Jokingly swinging my blade in the air, I acted distracted.


    Lunging at me again, the man pulled out another blade.


    *Clang-Clang* *Chink-Clang-Clank*


    The exchange was extremely fast and contained dozens of attacks each, but I was clearly on top.


    The man also noticed. ��Tch.. to think I''m losing to an old veteran.�� Quickly backing away, he looked down at the several gashes along his arms. ��Is a shame such a strong man has to die he-�� *Crack*


    Cutting off his words, a heavy smithing hammer flew through the doorway and shattered several bones in the man''s hand.


    *Clank-thump*


    Completely caught off guard, the man broke into panic. "Sh-"


    Before he could resituate himself, I lunged at him and picked the hammer off the ground.


    *CRACK*


    The man''s shoulder shattered and caved in from the hit, before he finally fell to the ground and passed out.


    -Was he really a mage? The dumbass didn''t even use magic..- "Someone this weak really wanted to kill Michael?"


    "It feels wrong�� That felt far too easy.." Mollie poked her head out into the lobby, making sure everything was alright.


    "Yeah it was. I''m sure more will come so lets be a bit more careful now. Go activate a few of the triggers, I''ll close the shop and clean up."


    Giving a quick nod, Mollie quickly disappeared into the back.


    "What was that crack? That sounded brutal!" A joyful young woman''s voice came from outside.


    It was a voice I instantly recognized. -Why her..- "Some dumbass assassin tried to pick a fight."


    "Oh what a shame.. was he hot?"


    "No idea, but his right shoulder is basically destroyed so he''s a cripple now."


    "He may not be much use as a labor slave, but that doesnt mean he doesnt have a use." A well dressed young woman appeared in the doorway with a joyful smile.


    "It''s been a while, Aurie." My voice was drained of energy just from seeing her.


    "It has indeed! I''ve been up in the upper district selling my ''goods'' and been busy establishing a few new checkpoints in nearby cities. Sorry I haven''t been able to visit!" She winked as she looked me up and down. "I still wish a hottie like you wasn''t so loyal though."


    "Ah, truly a shame." My sarcasm was palpable.


    Thankfully, Aurie was quick to get to business. "Well putting that aside, if you don''t want to do anything with this guy, I''ll take him!"


    "I''m not sure if you should.. this one could become complicated."


    "Hm? What makes you say that?"


    Seeing her ��shy and quirky look��, I cringed so hard it felt like a part of my soul crumbled. "Haah.. pretty sure this guys friends just tried to assassinate the king, I cant go into detail but I wouldnt recommend making this guy a sex slave."


    "Awe that''s a shame.. he''s quite good looking.." There was a moment of silence until a smile slowly crept on her face. "Wait, if the royal family is looking for him, couldn''t I just sell him to them for even more?!"


    I immediately facepalmed at her conclusion. -Why do I even care if it causes her trouble..- "You know what.. you do you.. he''s all yours."


    Motioning Aurie to take him, I turned and walked into the back. -If she wants that responsibility, it''s all hers.-


    "If you ever get tired of your wife, let me know!" She gave him a gleeful smile as I left.


    -My lord, just how annoying can one woman be..-


    As I pushed aside the curtain door to the back, I reached over and turned over the sign.


    ''Closed''


    As I walked back inside, I made my way over to the forge and sat down. -Something doesn''t add up..-


    "I heard that whores voice�� I thought she finally gave up." Mollie looked at me like she was suppressing the urge to kill someone.


    It made me shiver slightly. "She wanted to take that ''assassin'' as a slave so I let her."


    "Ah, so she didn��t come to try and reach into your pants this time?"


    "Thankfully no.." I cringed as I thought back to my past experiences with Aurie. "Man I could use a drink.."


    "Not now, we need to make sure no more ��messengers�� come. If you''re drunk and another guy shows up-"


    "I know, I know. Let''s just get back to the staff, I need a distraction. The mythril is ready too.."


    Mollie��s face finally started relaxing before a smile crept onto her face. "To think we would get hunted again�� It reminds me of the old days.."

 Chapter 51: Accumulating Annoyances

    (Continues directly from Chapter 49)


    Late Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    "What?! Was he a Nation Rank then?!"


    "Uhm, I think so? His aura was around Michaels."


    "So he was then.." She took a moment to think as she walked across the no longer molten floor. "Did you figure out what force sent them? To be able to send a Nation rank as a backup.. they must be pretty big."


    -W..what? She didnt get information that basic from the guy she tortured?-


    Noticing my look of disbelief, she quickly realized what I was thinking. ��The man I was ��interrogating�� was just really tight lipped.�� She crossed her arms and pouted slightly.


    Immediately giving up on trying to understand, I just went along as if she knew nothing. "Haah�� Their captain was from The Tower."


    Helen didn''t seem too shocked by my answer though. "I guess they''re finally making a move, huh.."


    Her nonchalant response threw me off a little, but I didn''t let it weigh on my mind. -Its probably not important anyways.- "Well, since it seems my job here is done, I''m going to go back and report to Oliver. Would you like me to escort you back to the palace?"


    "No, I''ll be fine. The knights will escort me once I finish everything here, so go ahead and head back if you''d like, make sure Sarah isn''t getting too touchy with Oliver if you could as well.�� As she spoke, an unreadable smile came to her face.


    "Haha, okay.�� I gave a nervous laugh since I couldn''t tell if she was joking or not. -What a scary woman..- ��Alright, let''s go Ilios."


    "Woof!"


    Hastily making my way out of the room, I started heading up the stairs, but immediately ran into a group of knights.


    Without taking time to ask questions, the knight in the front thrust his spear at my face. "Die, intruder!"


    *Tap* Catching the spear just before it hit my face, I felt tempted to retaliate.


    Just before I could do anything though, Helens voice echoed through the stairwell. "HE''S NOT THE INTRUDER!"


    The knights, immediately recognizing her voice, froze in their place and paled slightly.


    ��Tch..�� With a click of my tongue I let go of the spear and started walking around the group.


    As I walked past them, one of the knights bowed. "We are very sorry sir, please forgive us!"


    His bow was deep and his voice carried a mix of sincerity and fear but I quite literally didn��t care. "Don''t bow and just go help the queen."


    "Thank you sir!" His face quickly lit up as he gave one final bow and continued down the stairs.


    -Man I could really go for a nap right about now..-


    Quickly making my way up the stairs and outside, I had the joy of getting stopped by every knight group between the jail and the palace before finally making it inside.


    Inside the main hall was a lone maid, Martha.


    She froze and gave me a look of bewilderment seeing my blood covered clothes as I walked past her.


    Assuming I should let her know, I gave her a heads up about Helen. "Helen is going to take a bit, she has some things she needs to take care of in the jail."


    ��Oh, okay�� But, Young Master, do you need anything? Are you hurt? Would you like me to call a priest?" Concern was written all over her face.


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    -Why does she seem more worried about me than Helen?- "I''m fine. Thanks for your concern though." With a light wave, I walked past her and into the throneroom.


    Inside, the hall was completely empty. -Is the door even going to be open?- Finally arriving at the throne, I immediately noticed the door to the shelter was closed. ��Haah..�� -Of course it isn''t..-


    Thinking it might just need the single switch under the throne, I flipped it with my shoe but the door didn''t budge.


    Without noticing, I was quickly getting annoyed. -I just want to take a nap, man..-


    Realizing what I needed to do, I spent the next several minutes walking down various hallways, pressing the corners of paintings and getting weird looks from all of the maids.


    -Well at least they aren''t stopping me�� I guess the information about who I am is finally circulating.-


    Finally finishing flipping every switch in order, I made my way back into the throne room and flipped the main switch again.


    *Click-(stone sliding)*


    ��Haah.. finally..�� Making my way inside, I made sure to close it from the inside and took the lift down into the shelter.


    Quickly looking around, I couldn''t find Father or Oliver anywhere, but after a moment of looking, I overheard them talking in the cottage.


    "So what ever happened with your parents? Are they still doing well?"


    "Ah.. My father passed away just after we split up, and my mother passed somewhat recently to an unknown illness." Oliver''s voice was drained of energy.


    "Oh, I''m sorry to hear that���� The atmosphere was heavy, but Father was quick to lighten back up when he noticed me. ��Oh, welcome back Vasilia..s.." His voice slowed as he noticed my clothes though.


    Noticing his odd reaction, Oliver also turned to look at me but froze and went wide eyed immediately. "W..where''s Helen..."


    I was quick to calm his worries though. "She''s fine, no one touched a hair on her body."


    Immediately feeling a wave of relief wash over him, he relaxed a bit and took a deep breath. "Hooh.. thank goodness..."


    Giving him a chance to calm his nerves, Father was quick to take over. "So.. what happened?�� Worry was written all over his face.


    "Well on my way out, I ran into another group of assassins. They were probably there to prevent information from leaking."


    "And they were strong enough to leave you like this?"


    "What do you mean ''like this''? I''m completely fine except for the broken wrist and that one was mostly your fault."


    Noticing my slightly annoyed attitude, Father gave a look of guilt and hung his head a little lower.


    Finally managing to catch his breath in the silence, Oliver spoke up again. "So how strong were they?"


    "It was a group of 4, the 3 weakest were just a little stronger than you and the 4th was around Michael from earlier."


    "So, 3 S rank and a Nation Rank?!"


    "Yeah, that sounds about accurate. Is there something wrong with that?"


    "Yes, very wrong. I dont know of anyone capable of sending a force like that�� Unless it was a nation.." His eyes went wide for a moment as he quickly made his own assumptions.


    -Man.. Is it just a human trait to jump to conclusions?- "It was the tower, not a nation."


    ��Ah.. that would actually.. make sense..�� His expression quickly darkened as he fell into thought. "So did you manage to figure out why they tried to assassinate me?"


    "They wanted to kill you and frame Michael for it. They saw you two as ��in the way�� for some grand plan they have."


    "Do you know what that plan is?"


    "No, the assassin just said that they were trying to gain control of as many nations as possible."


    His face quickly became more troubled. "Just what are they thinking.."


    There was a long silence that filled the room as he tried to piece things together, but after about a minute of waiting, I got bored and tried to leave. "Since it seems like that''s all the information you needed, I''m gonna go take a bath and take a nap. If you need me for anything else I''ll either be in the hot spring or resting on one of those glorious cushions in the other area."


    Oliver stopped me. "Alright, that''s fine. Before you go though, what happened to that Nation rank you fought in the prison?"


    "He''s alive but just barely, I did a number on him. Helen is there to make sure things go smoothly though, so if all goes well you should have quite a good source of information."


    "Oh, good, thank you for that. Thank you for protecting Helen as well.." He gave me a warm smile as he bowed his head.


    "It''s just part of the contract so don''t get all emotional."


    "Ah, sorry... Well, go enjoy your nap. Feel free to make yourself at home.."


    Not wanting to waste any more time, I quickly opened the door and walked outside. *Click*


    The instant I walked outside, Father and Oliver quickly started up on a new conversation.


    ��Why would the tower be trying to gather the force of several nations... Just what are they trying to do?" Oliver was clearly still distressed.


    "I''m not totally sure, but it is definitely suspicious that they sent such a powerhouse to kill you specifically. It just feels like there are some pieces missing."


    "Yeah I feel the same.."


    "In any case, Vasilias left the Nation rank alive so let''s just go ask him tomorrow. I''ve got some.. ��questions�� for him." Unable to continue to suppress it, Fathers bloodlust started oozing out into the room. His eyes had a slightly crazed look to them. "I really wonder where he got his audacity from.."

 Chapter 52: Long Awaited Rest

    Early Evening - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    As I walked out of the cottage, I changed back to my dragon form and stretched. "Ahhh.. mmm.."


    A wave of sleepiness started overtaking me before something caught my attention.


    -Oh.. My ID melted..- While fighting the assassin, I never regulated the temperature around me since it was unnecessary, but it seems like it was still too much for my ID.


    -Oh well..- Although it was definitely an inconvenience, I wasn''t too worried about it -Maybe I should ask Oliver if I can get one made out of a material that won''t melt so easily..-


    Finally making it to the hot spring, I tossed my ID to the side and hopped in.


    "Haah.. that''s nice.." A wave of nostalgia washed over me as I floated in the warm water. -Although I only did it once, it was nice to swim in that little fountain..- [1]


    As I layed there and bathed in the memories for a moment, a suppressed desire crept through. -I really wanna take a dip in the ocean.. Mother would probably freak out though..-


    Growing up, Mother would give me countless warnings and tell horrifying stories about the vast abyss called the ocean, but somehow I still wanted to explore it for myself.


    From what I pieced together through Mothers lessons about it, the oceans were filled to the brim with dangerous creatures that only got stronger as you went deeper.


    It was a simple principle that was even visible on Earth with the exception of larger fish struggling to sustain themselves on food, but for whatever reason, I put way too much faith into it. -Even with the help of mana, I find it hard to believe fish can live in water as deep as what Mother talked about..-


    According to what I assumed to be an outlandish exaggeration, Mother would always mention that some parts of the ocean could get down to well over a hundred kilometers deep, with some parts being too deep for even the oldest of dragons to handle.


    There was still an ounce of doubt lingering in my mind though. -What if the ocean really is that deep..-


    Almost immediately, a chill went down my spine and a mix of curiosity and anxiety filled my gut.


    ��Haah..�� Quickly trying to ease the conflicting emotions, I tried to calm my mind and sank into the water.


    I ended up floating in the water for the next several hours, simply getting lost in my thoughts as I used water magic to float weightlessly.


    It wasn''t until I heard an unusual hum that I finally came back up to the surface. *Quiet humming*


    -Huh? Oh, it''s just the lift..- Not paying mind to it, I laid my head back down on the surface of the water and closed my eyes.


    "I''m glad you enjoyed your shopping trip Lucy.." Sarah��s voice was drained of energy.


    In contrast, Lucy was the complete opposite. "Of course! Thank you so much Auntie!!"


    "Hah-hah.. No worries Lucy, it was fun.�� Her voice was so drained, I couldn''t tell if she was being sarcastic. ��Next time though, I think you should be a little more conservative with your spending.."


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    "Hm? What do you mean? I haven''t gone shopping in months, so I only spent my saved up allowance."


    Sarah tensed up a bit as Lucy mentioned her ��allowance��. "Sure.. but you bought so much stuff I had to call someone to help deliver it all to the palace.." Casually looking around the shelter, she noticed me and gave a light wave before turning back to Lucy. "Well, let''s go inside first, it seems everyone is inside."


    "Alright, I want to give father a gift too!"


    They continued to talk as they made their way up to the cottage and walked inside. *Click*


    ��Haah..�� With them gone, I was once again left to the silent hum of nearby artifacts and fell into a light sleep.


    I hadn''t been able to relax at all since I arrived in Kaelallan so I planned to take advantage of the peaceful silence.


    But sadly, it didn''t last long.


    *Click*


    Walking out of the cottage less than a few hours later was Sarah wearing something similar to a swimsuit.


    Waking up to the click of the door, I looked over and took a second to look her up and down.


    -Swim suits in this world look quite.. good..- It was a bikini similar to what you''d find on earth, but gave a bit more coverage. The material was also high quality and had some frilly designs making the bottom seem similar to a skirt.


    As she got close, she noticed my look but didn''t say anything and just blushed slightly.


    "I didn''t know the humanoids had swimsuits."


    She looked over as she slowly got into the water. "They are pretty rare actually, very few people have the luxury to swim. Bathing itself has only recently become more common with the newly discovered ��water source�� artifacts."


    "What''s considered recent?"


    "I guess around 50 years it finally reached most areas around the continent."


    "So what are they? Do you know how they work?"


    "Yes, it''s quite common knowledge nowadays, at least outside of the slums and backwater towns. All it is, is a monster core with a water rune written on it. We haven''t quite figured out why, but if someone sets it out in the open, it will produce water on its own. It doesn''t usually work well indoors though so how it works is still unknown."


    "You seem to be quite well informed, you knew more than I expected.." -To think the science of this era is this young though..-


    "Well that''s to be expected.. gathering information is one of the biggest parts of my job." She looked down and awkwardly played with the water as she spoke.


    "What''s the other big reason?" -That cant be the only reason she chose to be a prostitute..-


    She stopped swirling around the water before her expression darkened slightly. "..money.."


    -What?- "Weren''t you an adventurer? Don''t they get paid really well?"


    "Well I wanted to settle down just like the rest of our group since adventuring without a party is a death wish, but I had no where near enough funds saved up to retire and I didnt have a talent like cooking so I decided to make a prostitution company in the red light district."


    "Oh so you''re the owner?"


    "Yes, technically. A close friend of mine does most of the managing though."


    "Well even so, it''s quite commendable that you were able to make a successful business. What''s the money like?"


    "Thank you.. the money is quite good actually. I make several times what Lewis does from his bar, but that''s been changing in recent years."


    "What''s been happening?"


    "There��s been a huge influx of immigrants. People have been coming from the Kingdom of Sinder and our surrounding towns in droves recently."


    -Hm.. I wonder why�� Is it the Tower��s doing?- "Do you know what happened in Sinder?"


    "I''m not entirely sure, people just keep saying something about ��the rod of god''."


    -Pfft... If that''s the Tower��s doing, that''s hilarious...- "What about nearby towns though?"


    "Well, bandits have started becoming more and more of a problem and there has been a huge spike in extremely strong monsters appearing recently."


    "What''s considered extremely strong?"


    "Haah.. I guess around S rank? I''m not entirely sure... They''ve been causing some major problems and have been killing a huge number of adventurers though. Kaelallan has already lost a few S ranks.."


    -Ah.. That could be something..- Although it was only a gut feeling, I felt as if there was some sort of connection between the bandits and the monster wave. -Maybe I should look more into that..-

 Chapter 53: Word Spreading

    Early Morning - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    Sarah and I talked for quite a while before she finally had to leave. Although mostly idle chatter, it was quite refreshing to casually talk with someone outside of the family even if they were human.


    Once she left, I was once again left alone with Ilios and decided to play with him in the spring before drying myself off and moving over to the cushions in the other area.


    As I walked up to the cushions, I couldn''t help but feel like they would be too soft for my weight, but as I stepped onto them, my worries were washed away. -Ahh.. that''s the stuff..-


    For the first time since I reincarnated, I could lay on something that wasn''t either rock or ground.


    "Come lay down Ilios, it''s nice."


    Ilios, who had laid himself next to the cushion, quickly hopped up and instead of climbing onto the cushion next to me, climbed up onto mine.


    A warm smile quickly appeared on my face as he positioned himself so I was curled around him. ��Hehe..�� I truly felt at peace seeing him slowly drift to sleep, and followed him shortly after. -He��s so cute..-


    - Ellen (the guild receptionist) ~


    "Did you feel that shockwave last night?"


    "Yeah does anyone know what that was from?"


    "Oh, I thought it came from somewhere near the palace. Did something major happen?"


    Questions were being raised about the situation everywhere throughout the city and the guild was no exception.


    ��Haah..�� -This.. is gonna be a long day..- My face fell into my palms as I thought back to last night.


    Since then, I had been busy filling out a massive amount of paperwork and crunching numbers for new quests with no time for rest. Before I knew it, the morning light was already shining through the doors.


    Each and every morning, I, along with the other receptionists, would pin a few dozen quests to the quest board within the guild that adventurers would come and pick up.


    These quests could be anything from helping clean someone''s street and helping in bars or restaurants to exterminating monsters or guarding towns.


    The issue was that there had been a huge influx of more dangerous quests recently, leaving too few strong adventurers to handle the other quests.


    In a way, it felt like Kaelallan was running out of stronger adventurers even if we had more than ever before.


    -We already sent people out yesterday to check on that explosion the other night, but they haven''t come back yet... Don''t tell me something happened again?- A deep anxiety filled my heart the more I thought about it. -I haven''t heard from Michael yet either..-


    Just as I thought about that though, a very well-dressed man walked into the guild.


    Wearing a clean black suit with a golden emblem on his chest and collar, I knew exactly who it was. -A royal messenger! It must be about Michael!-


    Feeling a wave of refreshment wash over me, I ran up to the counter. "What can I help you with, sir?"


    Gently pulling a letter out of his pouch, he held it delicately in front of him. "I need to give this to the guild master."


    "Sure thing, I will giv-" As I reached for it, the man pulled the letter away.


    "He must receive it in person. This is a very important matter, Miss, please don''t make things difficult."


    Quickly pulling my hand away and giving a nervous nod, I gave a reluctant reply. "Y..yes sir."


    Immediately running into the back, I quickly got the guild master who was an extremely strong and muscular dwarven man.


    As he walked to the front, he only showed the necessary formalities to the messenger. "I''m Voddog Orebane, the guild master of Kaelallan��s Capital."


    The man didn''t seem to mind though. "Pleased to meet you, sir Orebane. This is a letter directly from the royal family. Please understand that it is of utmost importance that you read this in private."


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    "Sure thing." Before walking away again the guild master tossed the man a gold coin, "here��s a little bonus. You are much nicer than the last asshole they sent over."


    A smile appeared on the messenger''s face as he caught the coin and gave a polite bow before leaving the guild.


    "Guildmaster! Read out the letter to us!" The adventurers within the guild were all curious beyond belief.


    "Sorry but I''d rather not lose my position." He looked down at the letter and thought to himself for a moment before getting serious. ��If it''s anything interesting, there will be an announcement about it later.��


    Seeing the guild master''s unusually serious expression as he walked into his office and closed the door made me feel oddly uneasy, but I decided not to think about it too much. -If it has to do with Michael, he��ll let me know..-


    - Voddog Orebane ~


    Walking back into my office I closed the door behind me and hopped in my chair. ��Haah..��


    Feeling like it was going to be something troublesome, I reluctantly broke the wax seal and read through the letter.


    It only took a second for my face to lose a bit of its color. -This could be used as a declaration of war.. what country would dare try to assassinate our King?!-


    I quickly tried to think of who it could be before continuing to read the letter.


    But things only got worse as I read about Sir Cotorel��s involvement and the incident that occurred in the prison. -Good lord..-


    After thoroughly reading the letter several times to make sure I had remembered every detail, I casually burnt the letter with fire magic and got up from my desk.


    -I should probably let her know..- Walking up to the door, I opened it and looked towards Ellen. "Ellen, I need to speak with you for a moment."


    Almost immediately, she sprang up with a pep in her step like she was expecting good news, but her face quickly darkened when she saw my expression.


    Following me back into my office, she quickly sat down with a nervous look on her face.


    As I sat down at my desk, I casually turned on the silencing artifact and got to business. "You can not leak any of this information to anyone yet. If you leak something it''s the same as going against the royal family."


    Ellen''s face was filled with anxiety.


    "Yesterday morning, there was an attempted assassination of the king."


    Her face lost all color as she immediately assumed the worst.


    It only took a second for me to assume what she was thinking. "Relax, Michael wasn''t the one who tried to kill the king, he was just present. According to this letter, he is not directly involved with the attempt but ''his qualifications for the promotion may be reconsidered''."


    Some color slowly started returning to her face but she still looked anxious. "So.. he won''t be executed?"


    "No."


    "Phew.."


    Seeing that she was finally calming down, I continued. "Although the letter didn��t go into much detail, it was a failed attempt and the king is, thankfully, unharmed."


    "Did the letter contain information about that shaking we felt last night?"


    "Haah.. yeah, it did. According to the letter, it was because of a fight between two nation ranks, with one of them being a part of the assassin group."


    Ellen immediately fell into thought. "So is that what the wave of construction labor requirements was for?"


    "Yeah, the royal prison is going to be completely rebuilt."


    "What about the prisoners? Will they be moved to the slum prison?"


    "No, all of the prisoners from the second floor to the sixth were killed in the crossfire and the stronger ones on the bottom floors will probably be ''cleaned''."


    "Haah..�� There was a moment of silence as she leaned back in her seat and looked up at the ceiling. ��So what about other things? Are we changing any policies?"


    "Actually yeah, we are going to send all of Kaelallan into lockdown, even backwater towns will be searched for the assassins'' accomplices."


    "So a full border lockdown as well?�� Her face turned grim seeing me nod. ��So.. what do I need to write for the announcement?"


    "I''ll do that today, you haven''t slept since the day before yesterday.�� The bags under her eyes were clearly visible. ��Just go get some rest. I''ll lend you the loft."


    Thankfully, she started cheering up once I gave her some rest time. "Yes sir. Thank you very much!" She gave a somewhat lethargic bow as she stood up.


    Tapping my desk and deactivating the silencing barrier, I casually motioned her out of the room and got to working on the announcement. -This is gonna be a real pain in my ass..-


    - ~~~ - [1]


    As the day continued, adventurers continued to flow into the guild waiting for the early morning quests and announcements to be posted, but there were far more than normal.


    After the receptionists pushed through the crowd of people and posted the quests, the idle chatter only got louder.


    "Damn, just what happened? ''300 D rank or above needed for rebuilding royal prison.''"


    "Did you not feel that weird shaking last night? That might''ve been the prison collapsing."


    "I doubt it.. my father was sent there for work once and he said that even a Nation rank couldn''t destroy it."


    "Haha, who knows, it doesn''t matter to me though, look at that pay!"


    ''50-100 Silver per person per day depending on the amount of work done.''


    Before long, word of the unusual quest along with an announcement about border control spread like wildfire.


    Adventurers quickly lined the streets in an attempt to join the ��build quest�� with most not thinking much about the announcement at all.


    Although they all read the announcement, they didn''t think much of it. Immigration and border control mattered to very few of them.


    Most had lived in Kaelallan all their lives and had no plans of changing that, but news of it still spread quickly and gathered the attention of the regular citizens and merchants.


    Rumors quickly started to spread as people started coming up with explanations for everything, but not a single one was correct.


    To be fair though, who could have guessed the prison collapsed because of a fight between a kid and a Nation Rank?

 Chapter 54: Ominous Information

    Mid Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    *clang* *clank*


    ��Uwwahh.. Hm?" With a yawn and a stretch, I woke up to the muffled noises of hammering metal. -Oh, it''s a silencing artifact..- Finally coming to my senses, I reached over and turned off the artifact.


    *Clang* *Clang*


    "Oh, you''re up!�� Udall noticed the artifact turning off immediately. ��How''d you sleep?"


    -He seems to be in a decent mood..- "I slept pretty well actually, I feel a little better."


    "That''s good to hear." Although he was slightly turned away from me, I could still see his warm smile.


    "So what time is it?"


    "Some time in the afternoon. You��ve been out for quite a while.."


    -Damn.. I guess I really needed some sleep..- "Did anything happen while I was knocked out?"


    There was a bit of hesitation in his response. "Nothing worth worrying about."


    "You know you can''t hide a lie from me, we''ve known each other for too long."


    There was another short pause, likely from Udall thinking about what to say before he just let out a deep sigh. "Haah, well.. they sent an assassin to clean you up." Although subtle, there was a hint of a smile that had crept onto his face.


    "Considering your expression, I''ll take a wild guess and say they weren''t strong enough to do anything?"


    His smile slowly became more pronounced as he turned back to look at me. "The dumbass didn''t even make it through the door!"


    His bright smile wasted no time in cheering me back up. "Haha, it''s good to see your blade is as sharp as ever."


    "Well of course, how could I let myself fall behind you? Just because I''ve settled down doesn''t mean I grew old and weak!" As he pulled up his arm and flexed, I was instantly reminded of the good old days of our adventures together.


    ��Haha..�� A thankful smile quickly came to my face. -It''s good to see that time hasn''t gotten a hold of him yet..-


    We continued to chat and mess around like that for quite a while after that, but once sunset rolled around, I remembered the mountain of things I needed to take care of.


    "Alright, well, I need to go by the guild to give an update to Ellen. Thanks for cheering me up."


    "Haha, of course! That''s what I''m here for!" Udall��s youthful smile radiated a contagious joy.


    I simply couldn''t help but smile as I finally left for the guild, but once I got outside, that joy slowly turned to worry.


    "Did you hear about what happened?"


    "Yeah, I heard some Nation rank got into a fight in the prison."


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    "I heard most of the prison was left unrecognizable!"


    ��Yeah, a lot of people are saying it''s a sign from God, just like what happened in Sinder��s capital!��


    -What are they talking about?- Hearing the worrying chatter of those around me, I hastened my walk to the guild.


    Finally arriving, I noticed the abnormally large number of adventurers inside as if they were gathered for a quest. -But isn''t it too late for a quest this big? Just what happened?!-


    As I quickly walked up to the receptionist''s desk, Ellen noticed me and showed a beaming smile. "Welcome Michael!"


    "It''s good to see you in high spirits, but what happened?" I couldn''t help but speak nervously.


    Ellen didn''t notice it in the slightest though. "Hm? What do you mean?"


    "Like whatever happened to the prison. I kept overhearing people talking about it."


    Ellen, seemingly caught off guard, spoke with some hesitancy. "Uhm.. I can''t say what it really was right now, but the common theories going around are that it was a fight between two nation ranks or something about a descended god.."


    -Excuse me?!- Although the theory regarding a god sounded simply outlandish, a fight between two Nation ranks was entirely possible. "Who were the nation ranks?"


    Nervously looking around the room, Ellen quickly noticed the adventurers'' looks. "Here, come to the meeting room with me, I can give you a little information since it involves you directly."


    Her statement, although spoken quietly, still caught the attention of everyone in the guild.


    The silence that filled the guild was deafening and their gazes were sharp, but thankfully none of them did anything rash.


    Finally making it into the meeting room, Ellen securely locked the door and went to sit on the couch. "Haah.. Alright, I''ll get straight to the point. This whole situation is related to you. We received a letter from a royal messenger this morning giving some explanation of the situation but it just left us more confused. Thankfully though, they believe you aren��t involved, but they did mention that your eligibility for the promotion would be reconsidered."


    Although my heart ached to hear the news, it was also a much better situation than I expected. -Getting away with only a ��reconsideration�� as punishment is already generous enough..- "So what happened at the prison."


    "There was a fight that broke out between a group of assassins and someone who the king is hiding the identity of. I thought it was you, but.. based on your reaction.." She looked both disappointed and worried at that reality.


    "Yeah.. I wasn''t involved in that, but I do think I know who it was.. I feel bad for the assassins honestly.."


    "What?! Why?"


    "Well, considering that.. ''being''.. could squash me like a bug, I''d be surprised if someone on this half of the continent could put up a fight.." I shivered slightly as I thought back to the moment I was pressured by ��his�� presence. (aura)


    Ellen''s face was simply blank as if she didn''t believe it. "Who could possibly.."


    -I probably should say anything since the king is hiding his identity but..- "I can''t say much besides the fact that ��it�� looks like a demihuman kid."


    "It?"


    "I refuse to believe that that.. thing.. is actually a demihuman." Without knowing it, my face had lost a bit of color.


    Ellen gave a nervous response. "Was it a black-haired wolf demihuman that looked 12 or so?"


    I gave a subtle nod without questioning how she knew. "Please keep this under wraps."


    "O..of course.."


    There was a short and awkward silence that quickly filled the room before she changed subjects.


    "So have you gotten any additional information on your promotion?"


    "No, nothing yet. They will probably send the messenger to you though. I don''t think they know where I''m staying currently."


    "What? Where are you staying?"


    "With some old friends in the slum market."


    "Oh���� Without me noticing, a rosy color had come to her cheeks. ��You know, I''ve got a few extra rooms if you need one.."


    Although a tempting offer, something felt morally wrong about it. "No, I''m alright, thank you for the offer though.." I ended up giving a somewhat awkward rejection.


    Looking a little dejected, Ellen held her head low and tucked in her shoulders. "Well if you ever need a place to stay, just let me know."


    Trying to escape the awkward atmosphere, we ended up chatting in that room for quite a while. She went and updated me on all of the happenings in the kingdom and I tried my best to sort things out and understand them.


    -No matter how I think about it though.. something about this whole situation just feels wrong..- A deep sense of foreboding filled my stomach the more I thought about it.

 Chapter 55: A New Guest

    Late Morning - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    - Oliver Kaelallan ~


    "Haah.." Leaning back in my chair, I looked out the window and took a breather.


    I had been working all night trying to figure out how to handle the whole situation around the tower but was yet to come up with anything concrete. -It''s been 2 days and I haven''t made an announcement.. people are going to want an explanation for the border and security control changes too..-


    After spending the last few days dealing with some intrusive nobles, I needed to come to a decision, and fast.


    -Since I can''t declare war on the tower since they aren''t a country, should I declare hostility? Hopefully, I can get the backing of those in the Bay Alliance..- [1]


    I had already discussed the situation with Helen and had even gotten another Tower Assassin through an extremely stingy slave trader, but there were still too many gray areas.


    The assassin Vasilias ��subdued�� in the prison had ended up being one of the higher-ups of the tower, but somehow he still didn''t know all of the details about the plan. -At least he knew more than the regular assassins though..-


    According to him, should his information be accurate, nearly all of the smaller nations near Kaelallan that were in neutral standing with us had been taken.


    Finally deciding it would be best to just declare hostility through a simple public speech, I did my best to shake off my nervousness.


    That nervousness still lingered though. -I made a deal with Vasilias, but he''s been sleeping for a few days now... I know Osto said it was normal but I''m nervous something might happen while he��s asleep..-


    According to Osto, I couldn''t wake up Vasilias under any circumstances and that, should something major happen, he would personally give some assistance. -It''s nice to have some reassurance but��-


    ��Haah..�� With a deep sigh to shake off the remaining uneasiness, I reluctantly pulled out a piece of paper to start thinking of what to say during the speech. -It''s gonna be a long day...-


    - Maria ~


    ��Haah..�� -What an annoying trip...- At long last, I had made it to the Capital of Kaelallan.


    As I finally made it to the gate, I was met with an extremely unhappy guard. "ID please."


    -Such a rude guard...- I was still quite annoyed from the trip but didn''t want to make a scene and just showed him my ID.


    ��Name: Maria


    Age: 24


    Height: 162.5 cm


    Hair Color: Silver


    Eye Color: Silver


    National Residence: Kaelallan


    Adventurer Rank: S''


    As he looked me up and down, the man''s whole demeanor changed. "Oh, I''m very sorry Ma''am, please enter."


    Seeing nothing went wrong, I let out a light breath before walking into the city and making my way towards the slum market.


    As I walked, I could overhear various conversations but most of them revolved around the same topic. -The king is going to give a speech? I wonder what it''s about��-


    I didn''t dwell on that curiosity for too long though since I quickly arrived at a specific rundown bar.


    The familiar man behind the bar was as tall and muscular as ever. "I''m trying to get to the market."


    The man didn''t even look up at me though.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    -This bast*rd��- "Do you really not recognize me?!" With an attitude, I walked up and shoved my ID in his face.


    "No, and I don''t care to know, you can''t enter." The bartender firmly stood his ground which only made me more annoyed.


    "I need to get in to see some old friends, their names are Udall and Mollie. They told me to use their names to get in."


    The bartender finally set down the glass he was cleaning, but as I hoped to get in, he just picked up another one. "Go to a different entrance girlie. Everyone here knows those names."


    Pinching another nerve, I wanted to just kill the man but held myself back. -Ugh.. I can''t cause trouble here��- Reluctantly reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a gold coin and tossed it into the cup he was cleaning. ��How about that..��


    With a smile quickly coming to his face, he finally set down the glass and looked at me. "Right away Milady."


    His sarcasm just pushed all the wrong buttons, but I finally got what I needed as he took me into the back and opened a trapdoor.


    Before totally disappearing under the floorboards, I glanced back and gave him the stink eye. "I''ll remember you, ya bast*rd."


    His smile didn''t break though. "Sure you will." *Slam* The instant I got below the boards, he slammed the door shut.


    -What an asshole.. I should kill him later..-


    Hoping to be able to finally shake off some steam, I picked up the pace until I got to the market plaza.


    "Missy, this isn''t a place for people like you." A muscular dark-skinned man called out after looking me up and down.


    "I''m here to see Udall, do you know where he is?" I held my head high, not feeling intimidated in the slightest.


    "Everything here has a price miss, I''m just curious how you''re going to pay it." His look quickly turned lustful.


    -How blatant��- Reaching into my pocket I pulled out another gold coin and tossed it to him.


    A smile instantly appeared on the man''s face. "Perfect! Udall is in that building down there."


    Without even bothering to say thank you, I quickly turned and walked away. -At least they''ll do anything for money down here...-


    Thankfully, it didn''t take much longer for me to arrive at the smithy which doubled as Udall and Mollies second home.


    *Clang* *Clang* *Clang*


    -What a nostalgic sound..- *Ding* *Ding*


    Hearing the light ring of the bell, a muscular elven man with a youthful smile walked out through the cloth doorway. "It''s been a while, Maria."


    Even his voice was refreshing to finally hear. "Likewise, how have you been?"


    "I��ve been alright. There has been a bunch of chaos recently with some things that happened relating to Michael though."


    "What? What happened to him?"


    "He was involved with an assassination attempt on the king."


    -Oh sh*t..- "Is he alright?"


    "He''s fine, he got away without much of a punishment thankfully. He actually should be coming back sometime soon."


    "Oh, good. it''d be nice to see him again." -I wonder if he��s changed��-


    As we walked inside, we made our way over to the table and sat down.


    "Would you like a drink?" Udall casually continued talking as he started cleaning off the table.


    "Sure, what are my choices?"


    Seeing him casually point to the side of the room, I looked over and noticed the shelves lined with alcohol and even a few juices.


    -Oh they have fresh juice?- Feeling a bit excited to try it fresh, I reached for the bottle of grape juice. "I guess I''ll have one of these."


    Udall just gave a warm yet conflicted look as he looked me up and down.


    ��Mmm..�� -That''s some really good stuff��- After cooling the juice with some magic and taking a sip, I walked back to the table and sat down. "So where''s Mollie?"


    "She had to run some errands. We got a seriously important commission and were running low on materials."


    There was a short yet awkward silence as I didn''t know how to respond. "So how''s the shop been?"


    Seemingly too busy to sit and relax, he moved back over to the furnaces and started prepping one. "Oh, it''s been quite good. We''ve gotten pretty famous in recent years too, even the royal family just gave us a commission."


    "That''s good to hear... So have you and Mollie had a kid yet?"


    Udall froze and didn''t seem to know what to say.


    As the silence filled the room, it was broken by a voice coming through the doorway. "No, it''s hard to have a child with how good smithing is right now."


    It was a voice I instantly recognized. "Hey, Mollie!" I immediately sprang up from my seat to give her a hug.


    "Oouuhh�� You��ve gotten stronger again and you somehow look younger!" Mollie groaned from my bear hug.


    "Well of course I got stronger! I can''t fall behind you guys!" I held up and flexed my arm which lacked toned muscle.


    "Haha, Michael is the strongest in the group now actually."


    "What rank is he?"


    "Well he is still technically S rank but he is just waiting for some formalities for his Nation rank promotion."


    "Oh, that''s awesome! I knew he had that potential!"


    "Haha, yeah, he should be back soon, I saw him at the tavern getting a bite to eat.�� Seemingly distracted, she quickly turned to Udall. ��Actually, honey, the king is going to be giving a speech tonight and I think it''s best if we attend this one."


    "Right, it can''t hurt to go. Plus there might be something important mentioned with all the chaos happening recently."


    I just sat and sipped my juice as I saw Mollie and Udall hug and give each other a little kiss.


    It made me feel like quite the third wheel. -Maybe I should look for a guy��-

 Chapter 56: A Royal ID

    Late Afternoon - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    After running a few errands around town and getting lunch at the tavern, I was finally on my way back to the market.


    I felt refreshed and although not totally at peace with how things turned out, my anxiety had settled enough for me to be able to deal with it. -I need to go to that speech though��-


    Although unlikely, I was hoping the king would announce some sort of conflict I could earn some reputation back with. -It couldn''t hurt to attend though��-


    Continuing to idly think about my plans for the future, I arrived at the smithy before I knew it.


    *Clang* *Clang* "So where are you staying?" Udall''s voice could be heard as I walked into the reception area.


    -Who��s he talking to?-


    As if to answer my question, another, instantly recognizable voice responded. "Up north, remember? I gained the favor of the lord up there."


    "Ah right... Oh, welcome back, Michael!" Udall was the first to notice me.


    Lightly pushing aside the cloth doorway, I immediately locked eyes with Maria. "It''s been a while, Maria. You''re even more beautiful than I remember." My voice was soft and warm, but it seemed to go straight over her head.


    "Well of course! We, women, get better looking with age." She gave a familiar youthful smile as she glanced over at Mollie.


    ��Haha���� -That''s not what I was talking about��- "In any case, it''s good to see you doing well, Maria."


    Finally reading the atmosphere, Maria got up and gave me an unexpected hug. "Likewise�� I heard about the whole situation with the king from Udall, I''m glad you''re alright."


    I wasn''t too sure how to react but decided to just enjoy the moment. "It was thanks to someone else that everything worked out... I couldn''t even sense the assassins in the room..."


    Maria gave me a shocked look as she started pulling away. "Someone better with aura than you? Who could that be?"


    "Ah.. it''s a black-haired demihuman.. ��kid��..."


    Seeing my awkwardness, Maria got curious. "Oh, a kid strong enough to make you scared? I''d like to meet him."


    Although sure that wasn''t a good idea, I assumed she wouldn''t do anything stupid. "Well you might see him during the speech, but I doubt you''ll be able to talk to him."


    Maria gave a slightly bothered look. "And what makes you say that?"


    "Well I think he has more authority than the king, and to make things worse, he is strong enough that if he wished to destroy the entire capital, no one could stop him."


    She looked a bit surprised before seemingly brushing off my warning. "Then I''ll just have a talk with the king."


    Her confidence seemed to get on Udall''s nerves. "You can''t do that here Maria. This isn''t that tiny city you''re living in, it''s the royal capital. The king isn''t someone you can just talk to."


    "Hmph, well see about that."


    Although it took a bit longer to notice, I couldn''t help but feel like her old, beautiful confidence had turned to arrogance. -Just what happened to her��-


    We ended up talking there for several more minutes before finally getting ready to leave for the king''s speech with everyone in a good mood.


    It was great to walk through town as a group for the first time in years, but deep down I could shake off this odd feeling of premonition.


    - ~~~ -


    In an isolated building in the slums, a meeting was being held between several men in black robes.


    "So what did the higher-ups say?"


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    "They said to finish off any of Shir��s subordinates if any were left and to wait for the king''s response."


    "So we need to attend that boring speech huh��"


    "Sadly. They said ��the treat should have arrived�� though�� Whatever that means."


    "Why are they so damn vague about that project?"


    "No idea, it''s really annoying though. They just keep saying it''s an ''untouchable power''. They''re starting to sound like those ��messengers of god�� people."


    "Do you think they could have roped ''him'' in?"


    The man gave the other a dumb look. "The Tower is influential but nowhere near enough to rope that freak in��"


    The others in the room nodded in agreement.


    "So what''s the plan after hearing the king''s response?"


    "They said to only move if ''they'' move."


    "Who are ��they��? Why are the higher-ups trying to be so mysterious."


    "No idea, they said that we will just know if they make a move."


    All the guys in the room looked dumbfounded.


    "It''s their orders, we just have to follow them... even if they seem stupid."


    There was a short silence before one of the leaders spoke up. "Haah, I''m starting to wish I was put in the intelligence division now��"


    An awkward silence followed as the man next to him gave him a stupid look. "You ARE in the intelligence division, dumbass."


    - Vasilias ~


    "Uuuwaah." With a big yawn and stretch, I finally woke up from my nap. -My goodness I slept well��- As I relaxed again, I was immediately entrapped in the wonderful comfort of the cushion.


    "Humph��" With a little stretch as well, Ilios hopped up and started licking my face.


    "Haha, yes, yes, I love you too buddy." I ended up laying there and rubbing his head for a bit before finally getting up and stretching again.


    -Well, now what. It''s probably been a few days.-


    Looking around, it became abundantly clear that no one was in the shelter beside me.


    Near the lift though, I saw a small table with a note and a metallic blue metal card with a golden crest on it.


    The note read:


    ''Sarah told me about your ID. Whenever you wake up, feel free to go to the guild to activate this one. I talked to Oliver and got it made by some good blacksmiths. The crest on it is one specific to Kaelallan royalty and will allow you to be treated like foreign royalty wherever you go. Even I don''t have one so take care of it and try not to melt it again!


    I''ve been taking care of the royal family while you slept but hurry up a little, I have a hunch you''ll be needed soon.


    Anyways, go ahead and get a new ID and get back to your commission! Dragons must stick to their word!


    -Love Father''


    A warm smile appeared on my face as I tucked away the small card.


    -Well, I guess it''s time to get a new ID.- Quickly transforming to my humanoid form as Ilios got smaller, we started making our way to the guild.


    Unlike how it had been in the past, things went much smoother this time. As I walked out of the palace, I got a lot of bowed heads, be it knights, maids, or butlers. -I guess Oliver��s word has started to spread.-


    Continuing out of the palace and across town, it only took a moment for me to get to the guild. -It''s pretty empty today, isn''t it?-


    No one other than a single receptionist was in the room.


    She quickly sat up straight once she saw me. "What can I do for you, sir?"


    "I need to get a new ID." I tossed up my old one on the counter. "This one melted."


    The receptionist paused to look at it in disbelief for a moment before replying. "So... you just want a new ID card?"


    "Well, I have the card, I just need it initialized." Not really thinking about it, I casually set the card on the counter.


    The receptionist just froze in place and stared at it with wide eyes. "Ah.. yes.. one moment please, sir..." Her voice was a bit shaky as she ran into the back and brought a muscular dwarven man up to the desk.


    -His aura is actually not bad...-


    "What''s the situation? Someone wants a royal ID? We can''t do th-.." His voice was cut short as he finally noticed the card on the counter. It only took a split second for his whole demeanor to change. "Oh, I''m very sorry sir, please wait one moment while I verify and initialize it for you.��


    Nervously reaching up and pulling it off the desk, he examined the card and set it in a different artifact on the desk.


    A short moment later a green light lit up and the card popped out.


    Quickly examining it again, he carefully set it back on the desk and pushed it towards me.


    "Thank you." -That was nice and easy��- "So how much do I pay?" I casually tapped my thumb on my ID and noticed it was the same balance that I had before.


    "Oh no sir, I couldn''t dare charge someone of your majesty for something so simple." He spoke incredibly formally.


    I couldn''t help but feel shocked. -I guess I was wrong to assume dwarves were all going to be unmannered blacksmiths��- "You didn''t need to do that, but thank you."


    With a short exchange of farewells, I made my way out of the guild but couldn''t help but read the announcement board. -So Oliver is giving a speech soon?- Figuring I should attend it, I set a change of course for the central plaza with Ilios in tow.


    - Voddog Orebane ~


    "Why were you so overly polite to him? He was just a kid." The newbie receptionist looked a little troubled.


    *Bonk* "You''ll really lose your job if you call people like him ''just a kid''." -A royal ID for someone who isn''t in the royal family and someone with that suffocating of an aura... That must be ��him��.-


    The newbie receptionist rubbed her head where I bonked her, simply assuming that the kid was someone she needed to treat like a noble and not quite understanding the gravity of the situation.


    "Haah�� Thank goodness I didn''t leave for the speech yet." My head unknowingly fell into my hand as I walked back into my office. -I should probably get going��-

 Chapter 57: A Dangerous Declaration

    Early Evening - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    Finally leaving the guild, Ilios and I were on our way to the plaza in the upper district, but it ended up being much closer than I expected.


    -Man, he has quite the audience��- The plaza was absolutely full of people from all walks of life. Merchants, adventurers, mercenaries, knights, nobles, and peasants could all be seen in the plaza, but the part I found most surprising was how happy most of them were. -To think even the nobles are eager to be here��-


    It was truly odd seeing even the corrupt-looking nobles smiling and idly chatting with each other or the women they came with. -Now he��s got me interested in how he leads the country��-


    Finally deciding I should go meet up with him, I made my way around the crowd and started walking up the stairs to the memorial.


    "Who''s that child? He dares walk up those stairs before an important speech? Impudent." A chubby and corrupt-looking noble in the front gave me a look of distaste. ��Guards, stop that child!��


    A few of the guards around him immediately started moving toward me, making me pause my step.


    "Since you haven''t been informed, I''ll just brush off that remark." Deciding not to execute the guards in front of the huge crowd with children in it, I just used earth magic to weld the knee joints in their armor together so they couldn''t bend or straighten their legs.


    As I glanced at them, the three guards simultaneously stumbled and fell to the ground. *Thud-Clank-Clunk*


    A wave of silence washed over the crowd as they heard the noise.


    "What did he do?"


    "I don''t know, I think it was some kind of magic."


    "Wow, to think such a young boy can use magic so effortlessly.��


    ��It''s a shame that he will just get caught by the royal guards����


    Like clockwork, 2 more knights brandishing the royal crest on their armor walked down the stairs towards me.


    "Kid you can''t get past here, the king is preparing for a speech. Please retu-"


    Trying not to get any more annoyed, I pulled out my ID and flashed the golden crest towards the knights. -I can''t believe I''m having to use this already��-


    Almost immediately after seeing the ID, both knights took their hands off the hilt of their swords and knelt down. "I''m very sorry sir, please excuse us. We apologize for failing to recognize your majesty."


    Casually walking past them, I tapped one on the shoulder. "You knights are too uptight."


    The crowd immediately erupted with chatter after a moment of silence.


    "Did the king have a bastard son?"


    "That can''t be, we would''ve known about him.��


    ��Is he foreign royalty?��


    Everyone was looking at me, asking themselves countless questions they would likely never know the answers to.


    The chubby noble who sent his guards at me broke into a cold sweat when I glanced at him but instead of making a scene, I just made my way inside.


    Gently pushing open the huge door, the chatter of the crowd became muffled and almost completely disappeared.


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    Once inside the memorial, I made my way towards a room with light coming from it and walked inside.


    Inside was a table with the royal family and Father sat around it.


    "How''d you sleep?" Father seemed to be in a good mood.


    "Really well actually, those cushions are bliss. Ilios liked them as well." I couldn''t help but lean down and pet Ilios as I talked about him. "So what are you all doing? I heard you were going to give a speech?"


    Oliver''s face turned a bit serious as he nodded. "It''s mainly just to update the citizens on the situation."


    "About what? The Tower?"


    "Yes. I plan to declare hostility with them. I��m hoping I can get the reinforcements of some allies with it. We even have reason to believe the various abnormalities around the kingdom like the ''monster waves'' are because of the Tower as well."


    I showed a look of shock without realizing it. -So they really were connected...- "Well I''m here in case the Tower makes a move. By the way, I noticed your security was a little lax for having just nearly been assassinated."


    He hesitated a second before smiling. "I have you and Osto here, so what is there to worry about?"


    His confidence in us was immense. "Father can''t do much more than you can, Oliver. He is still in his temporary form, remember?" Although Father''s use of aura was still considerably better than humanoids, in terms of actual combat strength, he wasn''t too far into nation rank.


    "Ah, right. I do have you though." His smile remained undisturbed.


    "Haah���� -He sure is confident in me��- ��So when does your speech start?"


    "Here in a moment, I''m just finalizing a few things."


    Giving a small nod, I stood back up and turned to the door. ��I''ll be waiting outside then.��


    Making my way back outside, I immediately saw Michael with a group of friends towards the front of the crowd, just behind the nobles.


    They all seemed to be in high spirits, but one person in his group caught my attention. -What is a halfie doing here?-


    At the time, I wasn''t entirely sure how I could tell, but it felt as if I could see her dragon form even though she had taken the appearance of a human.


    Almost immediately, she looked up at me and frowned.


    "What''s wrong Maria?" Michael quickly spoke out to her.


    "N..nothing, I just really don''t like the look in that kid��s eyes." She seemed a bit annoyed.


    Finally looking on stage, Michael noticed me and froze in place.


    "What''s wrong Michael?" The man next to him showed a concerned look seeing his pale face.


    "N..no..nothing-"


    *Bbwwaa* Cutting his words short, a knight on stage blew a horn. "Our great King Oliver will now be speaking, please show your respect!"


    At that moment, everyone in the crowd paid their respects. The nobles stood and bowed, the knights kneeled, and the peasants put their heads to the floor.


    Everyone in the crowd was showing their respect with the sole exception of the halfie woman.


    -It seems halfies still have a dragons pride...-


    Although she was on the very edge of my range for magic, I was going to use wind magic to make her bow, but Michael beat me to it.


    He reached up and pulled her shoulder down, forcing her to bow.


    She looked incredibly unhappy to the point that it nearly made me laugh. -Poor girl got her pride crushed!-


    They didn''t hold the bow for too long though, since after a short moment everyone stood back up or sat back down.


    As they did so, they each looked up to notice Oliver now on stage. "Thank you everyone for attending my speech. I know you all have important things to be doing so I shall make this quick.


    As many of you know, a few days ago, there was a huge amount of money used to ''rebuild'' the royal prison. No matter what your speculations may be, I will be clearing that up now.


    The damage to the prison was done by a Nation rank assassin. A few days ago, there was an attempted assassination of me. With their failed attempt, they were taken captive. Little did I know, the group of S-rank assassins was led by a Nation rank.


    To be able to send such an oppressive force, many of you may be wondering who it was that sent them.


    I wish to publicly announce that the Magic Tower has attempted to assassinate a king within the Bay Alliance! I now declare that the magic tower is to be eradicated and would like to request the help of the other nations in the Bay Alliance!


    We will not wait patiently as the Tower does as they wish. We will no longer allow them to push others around. The Tower has pestered Kaelallan far too much over the years, from interfering with trade to destroying our towns and killing our people. If they wish for war, we shall bring it to them!"


    As Oliver threw his fist into the air, cheers rang out from the crowd, but not everyone was cheering. The halfie towards the front and a few black-robed men who were spread throughout the crowd remained silent and straight-faced.


    A smile of excitement crept onto my face seeing their hostile eyes. -It looks like I''ll be able to have some fun!-

 Chapter 58: The Towers Move

    Early Evening - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    *Loud Cheering*


    -She��s an impatient one, isn''t she.- Seeing my condescending smile, the halfie started pushing her way through the crowd with clear hostility.


    Looking just past her, I noticed the several other men in black robes moving as well. -So they aren''t going to wait�� I expected them to at least report back to their superiors before making a move, but I guess the methods of this era are a little behind.-


    With a slight shrug of my shoulders, I walked up to the edge of the railing and looked down at the halfie.


    It only took a second for my smug smile to push her over the edge.


    "You dare look down on me like that!" Her yell quickly silenced the crowd as everyone assumed she was talking to the king.


    ��Guards! Detain this woman!�� The chubby noble from earlier was the first to move.


    ��You pesky rats! I''m not fighting you!�� *Clank-Crunch* *Clunk* In an instant, she mercilessly slaughtered the knights charging at her and lunged toward me.


    Before the crowd could even erupt into chaos, she closed the distance and threw a punch at my face.


    *Tap* She didn''t even have time to react as I grabbed her by the face. ��How underwhelming���� *WHAM-Crackle*


    Slamming her down into the floor, the stone platform shattered.


    ��Tch���� -To think I got my hopes up for nothing��- As I clicked my tongue, I kicked her limp body through the stone railing and onto the plaza. *Crumble-Thump*


    The scene of me mercilessly kicking her body off the platform was instantly etched into the minds of everyone present.


    Some stared at me in awe, some with reverence, and others with fear.


    Although on Earth, I would have felt incredibly nervous having the attention of so many people, now that I was a dragon, I simply felt nothing. -I guess the attention of ants doesn''t mean anything anymore��-


    As I thought to myself though, one of the black-robed men appeared next to Oliver.


    -Right on time, huh��- *CrAcK* The noise of bones shattering filled the air as my fist plowed through his skull.


    But before his limp body could even fall to the ground, two throwing knives aimed at my head entered my aura.


    *Clang-Clang* Casually stopping them mid-air, I turned around with a slightly crazed smile.


    "Nice throws, you were just a bit too slow!" Dashing over to the two men before they could react, I grabbed one by the leg and slammed him into the other.


    *Splat* Their bodies simply exploded from the impact.


    "Alright, who''s left?" Standing back up with a refreshed but slightly crazed smile, I turned back towards the crowd to find the other black-robed men but noticed a serious problem.


    There was a blinding light coming from just below the platform. -She dares?!-


    Throwing everything else aside, I jumped in front of Oliver and threw up a thick vacuum barrier between the light and him.


    *fwwooOOSSHH* A wave of fire immediately blasted by us as my barrier just barely made it in time.


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    Once the blaze finally settled, I looked through the smoke to see a 15-meter gray halfie standing tall with anger-filled eyes.


    The crazed smile on my face immediately became more pronounced before I launched myself forward and threw a bunch into her nose.


    *WHAM* The entire plaza shook as she was launched back into the crowd, immediately killing several people.


    At long last, the crowd finally fell into chaos.


    "Run!!!"


    "It''s a Dragon!!!!"


    ��Brother!!��


    The people screamed and started running away, but even though they didn''t have enough time to get away, I had already tunnel visioned.


    Dashing at her again, I dodged a few of her crude melees before getting under her and slamming a thruster-reinforced kick into her belly.


    *CRUNCH* The plaza shattered as my kick launched the gray dragon several meters into the air.


    Not allowing her to catch her breath, I hastily jumped up onto her head and used thrusters to drive her back into the ground.


    *RUMBLE-WHAMMMM*


    The entire exchange only took a moment, and most of the people had yet to even leave the plaza.


    Hearing the sudden silence, the citizens turned around to see me standing on the head of a defeated dragon with the sunset behind me.


    Those who saw it were immediately entranced, simply staring at me instead of continuing to evacuate.


    My extreme display of strength gave a spark of inspiration to many in the crowd, but to the others that noticed the several civilian bodies on the ground next to me, it caused fear.


    After a short moment to make sure the halfie was knocked out for good, I hopped off. -That felt a little too one-sided�� I guess she was pretty small though...-


    Over towards the front of the plaza, Michael and his group were frozen.


    They each felt mad that their friend was beaten to a pulp, but none of them could move.


    Their faces, instead of being covered with fear or awe like the rest of the crowd, was covered with a look of betrayal.


    Michael had tears coming to his eyes as blood started to ooze out of the halfies mouth, but even though he looked like he wanted to jump in and save her, he did nothing.


    A moment later, he fell to his knees and an assassin appeared behind him with a blade in hand.


    -As if.- Sticking out my hand, a marble-sized metal ball formed before completely vanishing.


    In the next instant, the assassin''s head exploded and the stone platform behind it shattered. *CRACK*


    The sound of the sound barrier ripping apart quickly brought everyone back to their senses.


    "Knights don''t let anyone else out of the plaza!" Oliver shouted his order to the knights in an attempt to contain the remaining spies within the plaza.


    ��Haah�� That was pretty refreshing-��


    *Clang* The metal clang of metal came from within the memorial.


    -Did an assassin go inside?! They must��ve gone for Helen or Lucy!-


    *Rumble* Immediately blasting thrusters I threw myself into the building.


    The inside was in shambles. -I missed a fight,- but there was nothing to worry about.


    On the scene was a black-robed man squirming to get out of Helen��s tight grip.


    "Vasilias, are you okay?!" Father ran up to me in a panic seeing the blood all over me.


    "Of course I am, but come outside, Oliver probably needs help with cleanup and I need to know what to do with something."


    Back outside, Oliver had already rounded up everyone who was still in the plaza including Michael and his crew.


    "Haah�� Sorry to everyone for this inconvenience, but I will need to screen each of you to make sure you aren''t with the assassins. If you aren''t, then you have nothing to worry about. Thank you for cooperating." Oliver spoke up with confidence to calm the crowd, but he clearly wasn''t calm.


    As he turned away from the broken railing, his face fell into his hands.


    Seeing the opening, the final assassin dashed forward and swung his knife towards Oliver. -Sh*t!-


    Unable to kill him with magic without hitting Oliver I cranked up a thruster, zooming forward to grab his leg before the knife could hit Oliver.


    -Got ya!- With his leg in hand, I used the momentum from the thruster to throw him across the plaza and through a wooden building. *Crackle*


    "Sh*t, sorry for letting him get that close Oliver..."


    After having a second to process what happened, Oliver comforted me. "Please don''t apologize. I''m alright, aren''t I? Plus, I should be thanking you instead of accepting an apology."


    Oliver gave a deep bow causing everyone nearby to tense up, but they all understood why.


    The kid in front of them just beat the hell out of a dragon and killed several assassins.


    Following Oliver''s lead, all of the nearby knights gave me a deep bow as well.


    As I was looking around to make sure there were no other assassins nearby, a huge demihuman man came up and groveled next to Oliver and me.


    "I''m sorry my liege!!"


    -Who is this guy?-

 Chapter 59: Fearful Gazes

    Mid Evening - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    "I''m sorry my liege!!" A young and youthful voice unfitting the man''s body rang out.


    -Who is this guy?- Looking him up and down, he was clearly quite young, but his body was toned like a top-notch bodybuilder and his aura was tempered and calm.


    "Lawton, please stand up." Oliver gave an embarrassed look as he pinched the bridge of his nose.


    "I''m sorry my lord." Finally standing up, he wore a shy look.


    "How many times have I said you should just call me Oliver."


    "I wouldn''t dare call my benefactor so casually!"


    -Benefactor?- Seeing how Oliver wanted him to speak casually, I started getting curious about who he was. "So, who is this?"


    "Oh right, you haven''t met him. This is Lawton Keen, Kaelallans strongest and youngest Nation Rank adventurer."


    -Yeah, I''m not too surprised...- Although the amount of aura he had was significantly less than Michaels, it was immensely more ��worn and tempered��. -It''s really impressive for a humanoid...- ��But what are you apologizing so aggressively for?"


    "Because I failed at my job to protect the lord... again." Lawton��s face was washed with guilt.


    "Again?"


    "Well, the last time you were the one to protect him, it was during the meeting with that�� mage." He glanced over at Michael with a distasteful look.


    Oliver was quick to ease Lawton''s anger though. "We have confirmed that Michael is uninvolved, so try not to hold a grudge. Plus, aren''t I fine?" Oliver showed an oddly fatherly smile to Lawton before turning away. "In any case, now isn''t time for small talk. Since you were missing during that fight, go order the knights to start screening everyone in the plaza."


    "Yes, sir!" His shyness instantly vanished as he gave a deep bow and turned to the group of knights. "Alright! Everyone sift through the civilians and question them. If something seems off about their answers, put them into one group, if they are clean, let them go!"


    The huge contrast from his shy personality around Oliver to the one he used with the knights was like night and day, reminding me of a certain someone. -At least his alternate personality isn''t a crazy one...-


    Finally realizing I was getting off-topic, I turned back to Oliver. "So where do you want me to ''lock up'' and interrogate the halfie?"


    "Ah, I assumed it was too hard to move and figured we would just tie it down here."


    -I mean, I could just drag her somewhere else, but that works too..-


    "I have already sent knights to retrieve several artifacts to tie it down so-"


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    "Don''t worry about it." I was quick to cut him off when I saw an opportunity. "I have a... ��more secure�� method."


    Oliver looked at me quizzically as I hopped off the platform and walked towards the halfie.


    Without bothering to delay it, I gripped onto her jaw and pulled, but her body barely moved. -Damn�� I forgot how heavy dragons are��- After casually using a mix of earth and wind magic though, I got her moving.


    *Skksshhh*


    The sound of the halfie being dragged over the rubble caught the attention of everyone in the plaza.


    Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch me nonchalantly drag the huge and heavy creature across the plaza until I finally got to the middle and set her down. -Now for the fun part!-


    Although it was going to consume a huge amount of mana to create, I decided to use steel to clamp her to the ground. -It''s really overkill, but I need to move some mana around after using all those small-scale spells recently.-


    My plan was to create a few U-shaped rings to clamp her body to the ground and connect them to a mesh of steel underground. -So if she wants to break out of it, she has to either break through the thick steel rings or rip up the entire plaza!-


    As I started moving mana to make it though, everyone who could feel mana nearby paled.


    The rubble covering the ground and dust floating in the air steadily disappeared as colossal amounts of metallic metal seemed to sprout out of the ground.


    It was a sight that could make even the most naive of people jump to conclusions about my identity.


    Just by the looks people wore, it was clear they thought I was either some monster or some deity with no in-between, but their assumptions meant nothing to me.


    After taking around an hour to finish my little setup, I backed away with a look of satisfaction.


    It felt genuinely incredible for my reserve to have room to flow.


    The thing was, when my reserve was full, my body would still continue to naturally absorb mana which created a slightly uncomfortable pressure in my reserve.


    It was nothing I couldn''t get used to or ignore, but with my reserve at around 90% full, that pressure was completely gone. ��Haah���� -That feels much better��-


    Quickly double-checking to make sure I was completely done with my steel contraption, I made my way back over to Oliver who was now comforting Lucy.


    Seeing Lucy''s pale face, I assumed she got scared by my mana and covered her in a bit of my aura, but Oliver got caught up in it as well.


    After a short moment, their heart rates started to level out, and the color returned to Lucy''s face.


    "Do you feel a bit better now?"


    Although I was talking to Lucy, Oliver was the one to snap out of his trance and respond. "Ah yes�� Sorry for staring��" He was quick to bow his head.


    "Haha, it''s alright, I''ve gotten used to it."


    Although at first, I resisted my draconic instincts in favor of my past life��s human morals, as time passed, my entire psyche shifted. At this point, humans had fallen to be as low as animals, with very few being placed above them. -To think I used to have sympathy for such weak creatures��-


    Feeling something brush against my leg, I looked down to see Ilios looking up at me with a proud look.


    During the fight, he was sitting on the railing and watching, but no one seemed to notice him since I stole the eyes of everyone around.


    "Sorry for stealing the spotlight, buddy." Leaning down, I gave a little apology and scratched his head.


    "Hhoouu.." He let out a noise of satisfaction as I scratched behind his ears.


    -Hehe��- Feeling the warmth in my chest grow, I couldn''t help but smile. -He''s so cute...- Finally realizing the tense atmosphere, I stood back up and looked at Oliver and Lucy. "Sorry for scaring you two."


    Almost immediately, Oliver broke into a slight panic. "We were not scared of you! Please don''t think that!"


    "Haha, it''s fine. It''s fine. It is totally normal."


    My words of comfort were followed by a short silence before Sarah''s familiar voice rang out from behind us. "My goodness, just what did I miss?"


    As I turned around, I saw both Lewis and Sarah walking up together, staring wide-eyed at the dragon pinned to the shattered plaza.

 Chapter 60: A Crumbling Plan

    Mid Evening - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    "My goodness, just what did I miss?" As Sarah walked up, her eyes were glued on the halfie pinned to the plaza.


    "The assassins tried to kill me again, I guess that was their backup this time."


    "No kidding..." Slowly turning towards Oliver, the bartender I met right as I entered the city, Lewis, noticed me. "Oh, it''s you!"


    Seeing how close he and Sarah were, I immediately connected the dots. -So he really was the same Lewis from Fathers adventuring party��- "Hey Lewis."


    Sarah��s face instantly washed with a mix of confusion and disappointment. "You two already knew each other?"


    "Yeah, when I first arrived in Kaelallan, I stopped by his bar and got a bite to eat. It was actually a pretty good experience too."


    A smile appeared on his face from the compliment, but it didn''t last long. "So what exactly happened here? Sarah was just telling me about what happened over the last few days, but��" As he looked around and got a closer look at the several mangled bodies, his look of concern worsened.


    Oliver was quick to try and explain though. "Well, to say the least, the Tower really wants me dead."


    "So Sarah didn''t just mishear it, huh��" His face looked troubled as he fell into thought. "Wait, so how many assassins did they send? I only see 4 bodies here, and I heard from Sarah that there were 7 previously, but that only totals 11��"


    "Well, there are 3 others with one in the monument, one over in that collapsed building, and the last technically being the ''dragon''.�� I immediately tried shooting down his concerns, but they all fell short.


    ��That change much.�� His face was still troubled. ��For some context, most real assassination groups run in teams between 15 and 20, but for a huge association like the tower, they are likely closer to 50 or even more.��


    ��So? What are you getting at?�� I wasn''t quite picking up what he was putting down.


    ��What I''m saying is that this wasn''t all of them. In groups that big, they leave a few stragglers to report back to their leader even if the assassination attempt fails.�� Lewis was still deep in thought, but I quickly shut down his worries.


    "You��re worrying way too much about it.�� It was clear he was already trying to find a solution. ��Things have escalated a bit beyond the point of just involving Kaelallan." I looked over towards the halfie in the plaza with an odd look. -Depending on what I learn from her, the entire Tower may just disappear��-


    "Man, we have the whole gang!" Ripping me out of my thoughts, Father walked out of the monument with blood-covered sleeves.


    ��Hm? Oh, hey, Osto.�� Lewis gave a light wave as he tried to shake off my ominous words. ��Where is Helen?��


    Father��s enthusiasm immediately dried up. "Well, she''s.." He glanced in other directions, clearly wanting to avoid the question.


    It only took a second for Lewis to notice. "Ah-AHEM!" Understanding what Father meant, Lewis cleared his throat and tried to change the subject.


    Oliver��s look of confusion deepened as he clearly wasn''t understanding.


    -Wait�� There''s no way he doesn��t know�� right?-


    - ~~~ - (Omnipotent)


    "Hah.. hah.. hah.." Breathing heavily as he ran out of the capital, a stray, black-robed man was making a mad dash for the forest.


    His steps were heavy and his thoughts were foggy, but the fear of death kept pushing him past his limits. -How can a monster like that exist?!-


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    The scene of the child mercilessly slaughtering his comrades without a hint of hesitation flashed in his mind. It was a scene that both didn''t make sense, and made him feel sick.


    Countless thoughts shot through his mind as he tried his best to focus on running, but eventually, his fatigue caught up to him.


    ��Huek���� *Thump* As his legs finally gave out and he fell face-first into the dirt, a feeling of desperation filled his heart. -Ugh, just�� a little bit more!-


    He was already at the edge of the forest, with only a kilometer or so more till he could notify the others, but his crawling was simply not enough.


    "Oh, you seem to be in bad shape, where''s everyone else?" The oddly familiar voice stopped every thought in the man''s mind.


    -It couldn''t be��- Slowly looking back, he noticed the tall black-haired man standing over him. -An executive?!-


    "Are you going to talk or will I have to force it out of you?"


    "No no no, I''ll talk..."


    "About time. Now spit it out."


    "We were told to move when ''someone special'' moved from the higher-ups. They never said who that person was but when we saw who we assumed it was, we moved as ordered. At first, everything seemed to be fine�� but... everyone including that dragon�� ended up being culled by that monster��"


    "Excuse me?" A mix of anger and shock filled his voice. "So you mean to tell me everyone was killed by one person?!" -Was it Lawton Keen?- The executive tried to think of all the possible people that could beat everyone so one-sidedly, but no one other than Lawton came to mind. -I thought he was still on that expedition...-


    "It was a monster that looked like a kid... he looked like a-"


    *Crack* Unable to hold back his anger, the executive crushed the skull of the low-ranked assassin.


    "You dare lie to my face like that?!"


    Slowly standing up and wiping the blood off his hand, he started heading back towards the cave.


    -How did they manage to lose with a f*cking dragon?! It wasn''t even a weak one.-


    Although he was still in the dark about most of the details, the fact that the young assassin clearly stated that the 6 S ranks and dragon sent to kill the king were killed was something he couldn''t overlook. -Maybe he was calling that ''Knight Keen'' a kid? He looks young sure, but he is far from a kid..-


    Not being able to come to a decent conclusion, he simply calmed himself down and made his way back to the hideout.


    Finally coming across a familiar marked tree, he noticed the presence of someone above him. "I need you to go into Kaelallan and see if they have a dragon captured alive. I need you to be quick."


    Giving a quick nod, the man in the tree darted out of sight.


    ��Haah���� From there, the executive continued back to the hideout. -If that dragon is alive, it will leak our plans to save itself...- Although the man had minimal knowledge about dragons, he clearly understood that they were very selfish creatures.


    -I''m impressed the higher-ups managed to win them over��- Over the past couple of years, there had been some huge advancements in the tower''s plans because they were able to gain the help of a large group of ��dragons��.


    The Tower was able to take control of several nations exceptionally easily due to their support. Simply put, dragons were creatures humanoids stood no chance against.


    ��Haah���� Finally making it back inside the hideout, the executive sat down at an empty table and started flicking around a gold coin. -I wonder how much they spent to win ��em over..-


    - Vasilias ~


    Back in Kaelallan, things had steadied to a calm.


    Father, with everyone in his group, moved back into the monument to chat while I sat by the railing with Ilios, waiting for the halfie to wake up. -I wish she would wake up faster��-


    "It''s a little chilly tonight..." Lucy��s voice was quick to pull me from my thoughts.


    -What is she doing out here?- "I thought you were inside."


    "I got bored�� They were talking about things I didn''t care to talk about."


    "Well, there is no need for you to do anything else out here. I''d honestly recommend staying inside in case more assassins show up." I really wanted to just send her away so I could do other things, but my kind suggestion fell short.


    "Am I not safer with you if one showed up?"


    "..." I couldn''t refute her words.


    "Well, anyway, you want a drink or snack?" She stuck a piece of white bread towards me as she sipped her water.


    "No thanks.�� My rejection was blunt. ��By the way, where did that other nation rank go? That knight, Lawton Keen."


    "He was just going around giving orders to knights, I think he went to the barracks for something though."


    "Ah..." -That''s a shame.. now would be a good time to ��chat�� with him...-


    Looking back over the plaza, I laid back and got lost in the sea of stars.


    After a while, Lucy got bored and ended up going back inside and I was once again left alone with Ilios under the starry night sky.


    After a while, Ilios shifted over and laid his head on my stomach.


    As I ran my fingers through his fur, my mind got lost in an ocean of thoughts and memories.


    ��Haah���� -To think I miss Mother already..-

 Chapter 61: A Very Large But Very Sneaky Man

    Late Evening - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan


    - Andre Pinero ~ (The ��Executive��)


    *Shink* *Shink*


    "Sir Pinero, the scout has returned."


    -Took him long enough..- Setting the blade I was sharpening down on the table, I looked up at the messenger with a serious expression. "Bring him in."


    It had been several hours since I sent the scout to Kaelallan to check if the dragon was still alive, but the scout had taken far too long. -I wonder what kind of problem I''ll have to clean up this time��-


    Right as I started to get annoyed, the scout finally came in and gave a deep bow, being sure to hold the position until he got permission to speak.


    "You look a little pale.�� Assuming things really did go wrong, my agitation started to worsen. ��Don''t tell me you failed?"


    The boy immediately broke into a cold sweat. "No sir, nothing of the sort. It was just my first time seeing a dragon." Although my gut told me he was telling the truth, his body language said he was lying.


    -He isn''t dumb enough to lie that blatantly, right?- "So what did you find?"


    "T..the plaza, w..where the king gave his s..speech, was devoid of people besides the royal guard, but in the middle was a dragon''s body that was pinned to the ground.�� Likely noticing my unhappy mood, he immediately broke into a cold sweat. ��There was also a pile of 5 bodies on the monument''s platform, likely belonging to the assassins that were sent last week."


    -Did one survive?- I took a second to think about it before assuming they were just being kept alive for information. "So what about the dragon? Was it alive?"


    "I believe so since it was pinned to the ground, but it was in rough shape."


    My eyes immediately went wide. "What do you mean by ''rough shape''?"


    "Well, its nose was crushed and it had a rather large wound on the top of its head from something blunt. It had blood coming from its head, nose, and mouth..." The scout''s voice had become slightly shaky.


    -What?! It wasn��t damaged by a sword but instead by something blunt?- Lawton was, although extremely strong, someone who relied on their sword, blunt force just wasn''t his style. -But to be able to damage a dragon so severely with blunt force... Just who��- "You said it was pinned down?"


    "Yes... Uhm..."


    "Spit it out." Although I tried to suppress it somewhat, my agitation started to show.


    The scout��s face only continued to lose color. "Its head, legs, and wings were pinned to the ground by huge refined metal rings."


    -What?!- Although up to that point, I had been steadily piecing together and visualizing what happened, that singular piece of information destroyed it all.


    The scout had no reason to lie about something like this, and even his body language told me it was the truth, but it was something I simply could not believe.


    Several questions flew through my mind before I finally decided to try and move around it. "Did you end up figuring out who fought the dragon?"


    His face immediately lost its last remaining color. "Ahh, yes actually-"


    *Shing* His voice was cut short by the sound of a sword slicing through the thick stone door.


    ��Hm�� Are you the boss?" Standing there in the cloud of dust was a massive demihuman with a heavy metal greatsword.


    It was a man that was immediately recognizable. -This dumba*s scout was getting tailed?!-


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    - Lawton Keen ~


    Going back a couple of hours, I was on his way to the royal barracks to get my ID. -I can''t believe I actually left it in the barracks again��-


    I was in the plaza playing cards with a few subordinates when I lost a bet, but to pay out the 20 silver I lost, I needed to have my ID. But thankfully, the barracks were not far and I got there quite quickly.


    After scouring through several rooms for a few minutes I finally found it lying on the ground next to the chair at my desk. -This is the third time this month��-


    Starting to get slightly annoyed with myself, I quickly made my way back out of the barracks and made my way toward the plaza.


    On the way there, I decided to stop and get the boys some drinks at a nearby tavern, but right before I walked in, I noticed someone in a very familiar cloak walking down the road. -There was another?!-


    The person might have just been a random citizen wearing the same cloak since it was a basic black one, but my intuition told me that wasn''t the case.


    -Around S rank maybe�� I can make it quick.- Reaching for my greatsword, I thought of simply slashing the assassin down but decided against it for a slew of reasons. -let''s wait and see what he wants...-


    For the next hour or two, I followed the man around town. He ended up taking a long route to the plaza but was also asking several people on the street various questions along the way.


    Once he eventually got to the plaza, he only looked at it from a rooftop for a moment before hastily leaving.


    From there, he took the main road out of the city before getting outside Kaelallans walls and running into a nearby forest at full speed. -Is he running to their hideout?-


    Seeing the golden opportunity, I was extra careful while following the man before eventually making it to the outpost.


    From what I could tell, it just looked like a rather small cave entrance, but the inside was spacious and lined with various rooms.


    The main room I came into had a few tables with various drinks and coins scattered about, but no one was in sight. -Their security is pretty light��-


    Assuming everyone was in the side rooms, I figured it was my time to shine. -In any case, it is time to help the lord!-


    Not wanting to waste more time than I already had, I quietly opened the closest door to the hideout entrance.


    The man on the inside was half-naked and staring at me with wide eyes.


    -Hm. Wrong room.- *Shing*


    Cleanly and silently slicing the man in half, I left and moved to the next room.


    Things progressed like that for quite a while before I finally started getting agitated. -How many damn rooms does this cave have?!-


    I had killed about 15 people in rooms and about 6 in the main area at this point, but none of them were stronger than S rank, but then, I finally made it to the last door. -This must be the boss''s room, right?- It was the only room with a thick stone door, as all of the others were just made of cloth or wood.


    -Well, it''s not like it matters too much. If he isn''t here, I just need to wait for him to come back.-


    *Shing* Cleanly slicing the thick stone slab in half, I looked into the room and saw two people staring at me, one of which had a considerably strong aura.


    "Hm�� Are you the boss?" Although I could see them, I couldn��t see any details through the dust. -What a dusty ass room...-


    - Vasilias ~


    *distant chatter*


    Slowly opening my eyes, I noticed the night sky still hanging over me.


    Feeling Ilios still laying on my chest, I looked down to see him looking at me with his tail wagging. -You are the cutest thing!-


    Feeling the wave of warmth overtake my heart, I reached down to rub his head but was cut short by some loud noises


    *THUD* *THUD*


    -Well, I guess she��s finally awake...- slowly sitting up, I looked into the plaza and saw the gray halfie trying to break itself free


    *THUD* *THUD*


    "Uwwaaah�� I''d recommend you stop making so much noise, you''ll wake people up..." I let out a nice yawn as I hopped off the platform and walked toward her.


    The entire plaza fell into silence following my voice.


    "Who-"


    Hearing her attempt to speak in her dragon form around humans, I immediately darted up to her and threw a hammer kick down on the top of her head.


    *Crunch* The plaza cracked as her mouth was forced shut with immense force.


    Her pupils dilated and locked onto me, clearly absolutely furious, but that anger vanished the instant I looked her in the eyes and spoke.


    ��If you say a single word before I put up silencing magic, I''ll skin you.��


    Her face immediately washed with fear as she clearly understood it wasn''t a hollow threat.


    -That''s a better expression.- "I think it''s time we have a little talk. What do you think?" *Crackle* The cracks in the plaza spread as I pressured her head with my aura.


    She vigorously nodded her head the instant I finished talking.


    "Good, that makes things easier."


    In the next instant, a 10-foot wall of stone and a thick vacuum barrier formed around us.


    "I��ll get straight to the point�� What is a halfie like you doing cooperating with the tower?"

 Chapter 62: A Na?ve Dragon

    Chapter 62: A Na?ve Dragon


    Late Evening - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    "I''ll get straight to the point�� What is a halfie like you doing cooperating with the Tower?"


    Her eyes went wide with shock and fear. "How do you know about half breeds?"


    -She hasn��t connected the dots yet, huh��- "That''s because I''m a dragon."


    "..." She didn''t quite know how to respond as she broke into a cold sweat.


    "Alright now answer my question, why are you helping humans?"


    Even though she still had a touch of disbelief on her face, she clearly understood that I could kill her and ended up caving. "My father told me to assist the tower in whatever way they asked when I was young, and ever since then, I did just that."


    -So she was basically sold into the tower. Do they know she''s a ''dragon'' though?- "What were they asking you to do?"


    "Um... Over the past few years, it was mostly to find and retrieve strong mana cores, through hunting or stealing, but recently they wanted me to use my identity as a ''dragon'' to take over Kan from the inside����-So they really did know...- "You do understand how illegal that is, right? Not only you but everyone connected to your identity will be executed."


    Her anger suddenly worsened as I spoke. "How so? Wasn''t that aw of the pure dragons? We��ve already split from those jerks. Plus, do you think I''m the only half-breed helping the tower? There are too many of us for you jerks to handle." Her arrogance had started to show again, and it just pushed all the wrong buttons.


    -You must be kidding, right?- Getting closer to her, I increased the pressure from my aura severalfold and looked deep into her eyes. "You seem to be gravely underestimating the strength of real dragons."


    Her face paled once again as every ounce of arrogance drained from it.


    But that was when something suddenly clicked. -Wait�� If there are that many halfies assisting the Tower, they obviously wouldn''t be doing it withoutpensation, so��- It was a bit of a stretch, but it made several stray dots suddenly connect. -Is the Tower the human organization funding the rebellion?-


    The theory was a missing puzzle piece that made everything suddenly fit together, but no matter how good it was, it was still a theory with no real evidence backing it up. -But if I do manage to find evidence, my job with Oliver will get immensely easier.-


    As things were currently, I was on my own against the Tower, and although I wasn''t too worried about fighting an organization of humanoids by myself, with the halfies and rebellion involved, things were bound to get dangerous, but things didn''t need to stay that way.


    Now, all I needed was to find some concrete evidence connecting them to the rebellion and then simply let the elders do the dangerous part for me.


    -But as for you...- Turning back to Maria, I decided to ask something from a different angle. "Do you know anyone in the Tower rted to the rebellion?"


    She stopped moving for a moment and hesitated before speaking. ��Will you let me live if I answer honestly?�� She wore a pleading look, but I didn''t really care.


    ��I''ll think about it depending on your response.��


    There was another short moment of hesitation before she spoke up again. "At the bare minimum, my superiors tell me the harder I work, the more I''m supporting the rebellion��"


    -Well then!- Immediately confirming my theory of them being connected, I fired off several more questions, the answers of which just steadily reinforced my theory.


    But eventually, I ran out of questions to ask and finally let down the silencing barrier and called out to Father.


    "What is it, Vasilias?" He wore an odd look, but I didn''t pay it mind.


    "I''d like you to try and question her. She seems to know some really important information, but I''m not sure what exactly to ask that could help us look for evidence����


    Although he was a bit confused, he seemed to understand the gist of it. "Okay, but what information should I aim to get out of her?"


    "She''s a halfie with the Tower, and the Tower knows she��s a halfie. I also have reason to believe the Tower is connected to the rebellion."


    Father''s face immediately turned serious as he wasted no time jumping over the stone barrier.


    Seeing him disappear behind the wall, I let out a sigh of relief. ��Haah���� -Even if she doesn''t know enough to draw any concrete conclusions, she might be able to give us hints on where to look for it��-


    - ~~~ - (Omnipotent)


    *ng* *ng* The noise of des shing filled the dusty air in the cave, but it quickly mixed with the rage-filled screams of a certain man.


    ��You think Kan can face the Tower?!�� *nk-Shing* ��AAAGHH!�� The executive let out a gut-wrenching scream as he fell to the ground after having his legs cut off. When he looked up, he noticed Lawton''s massive sword looming over his head.


    ��Even if we can''t... WE WILL STILL FIGHT!�� *Shing-Crack* Lawtons greatsword cleanly cut off the man''s head before continuing into the ground and shattering the floor.


    *Rustle-Thud* As he fell onto his back in the middle of the room, Lawton let out countless heavy breaths.


    It had been a long and arduous fight, but at longst, Lawton managed toe out on top. ��Hah.. hah..�� Lawtons strength was by no means low, he was actually quite a monster, but this executive gave him a real run for his money. ��That was.. too close����


    They were fairly evenly matched throughout the entire fight, each dealing significant damage to each other before Lawton finally got through an opening and chopped the executive''s legs off, but this also left Lawton with several serious injuries.


    ��Sh*t�� I need to make it back to the city!�� Forcing himself up, he looked around the room and ripped arge piece of cloth off the wall to bandage the huge gash along his arm.


    Just before wrapping it up though, he grabbed a bottle of booze from the table and drenched the cloth in it.


    -Okay.. 1.. 2.. 3..- "Aaarghh!" Gritting his teeth as the alcohol seeped into his deep and open wound, he hastily finished wrapping it and tied off the ends with a bit of rope.


    The cloth didn''t take long to start filling with blood, but now it had be a race against time.


    Turning to the door he dashed out and started heading back to Kan in a hurry.


    He was already exhausted from the fight, so the running started pushing his fatigue beyond its limit. Every muscle in his body was screaming at him to the point that he even ditched his priceless armor to lighten up.


    Thankfully, it didn''t take too long before he arrived at the castle gate, but he was immediately met with resistance. "Halt sir!"


    Seeing a huge demihuman man sprinting towards the castle was bad news to the gate guards.


    But as the knights drew their weapons and prepared for a fight, their captain yelled out. "That''s Lawton Keen! Let him through immediately!" -How is he so heavily injured?!-


    Immediately realizing the severity of Lawtons wounds, the gate captain cleared a path for him, letting him into the city without issue.


    But Lawton didnt stop to thank him at all, he simply sted through the main gate and sprinted all the way to the royal barracks, leaving a trail of blood the whole way there.


    Throwing open the door to the medical ward by the training grounds revealed a few other knights that got caught up in the prison incident and a couple of doctors.


    The doctors each recognized Lawton immediately, but their looks only took a moment to turn to shock. "Sir Keen, what are you-Oh goodness!! Get some alcohol and stitching equipment quickly!"


    Seeing his pale face and the blood-drenched cloth on his arm, they knew he was in trouble, but before the doctors could evene to help himy in a bed, he copsed to the ground.


    *Thud*

 Chapter 63: Complications

    Chapter 63: Complications


    Early Morning - Mid Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    *tap* *tap* *tap*


    Hearing Father��s footsteps, I turned around to see him walking away from the stone wall. -That was fast��- ��You were qui-��


    ��Can you raise up the wall some?�� He interrupted me with a clearly unhappy voice.


    ��Y..yeah, hold on for a second���� Immediately understanding what he wanted to do, I moved over to the wall and took my time increasing its height to about 30 meters.


    Not long after I finished, while I was fiddling with magic not too far away, the entire za shook so violently that the wall nearly copsed. Thankfully, I noticed and fixed it before having to worry about Father''s dragon form being revealed.


    After another hour or so, Father eventually came out and I started breaking down the wall which quickly revealed Mariaying there with a defeated look.


    The ring around her neck was buckled and the top of the ring was smashed in, clearly showing where Father tried to drive the massive steel ring further into the ground.


    -Dragons really are some insane creatures��- Turning back to Father, I noticed his oddly indifferent expression. "So.. I''m guessing you want her to stay there?""Well, I damn sure won''t let her go. She still has some useful information. I just figured we would leave her here since there is no chance she can break out of that ring..." As he spoke, he nced at the bent ring with a suppressed look of awe.


    "Well, if we want, I can just remove and rebuild that ring wherever."


    Father looked at me with wide eyes for a moment. "No, she should be fine here. She knows what will happen if she attacks someone�� Anyways, where''s Oliver and the others?"


    "Lewis and Sarah went to the bar a few minutes ago, and everyone else should still be inside."


    "Hm, Okay. Do you have any ns for the next few days?"


    -Why the odd question?- "No, I was just nning to practice some magic or explore the city a bit."


    "Oh alright, in that case, do you mind staying here on your own for a few days? I need to go back to Bahamut to report my.. unusual discoveries with the elders."


    "So you came to the same conclusion as me, huh?"


    "Probably.. I think that the tower and the rebellion are connected somehow..."


    -Somehow?- "I thought that the tower was the one funding the rebellion."


    As if a light bulb went off, his eyes went wide and a smile came to his face. "Oh, wow... That would actually make perfect sense!" He ended up standing there, deep in thought for a moment before looking like he needed to leave.


    But I had no ns in stopping him. "You should pay Mother a visit while you''re out."


    Father��s smile immediately turned warm. "Haha, alright. I''ll stop by there on my way back from Bahamut. In any case, this information is pretty time sensitive so tell Oliver where I went, I''m going to head out."


    I couldn''t help but smile seeing Father��s oddly proud look. "Alright, have a safe trip! Tell Mother I miss her!"


    After pausing for a moment, he smiled and gave his farewell. "I will, but please be careful while I''m gone! If something happens to you, your Mother will kill me."


    His slightly nervous look made me want tough, but I held it in. "You don''t need to worry, Father."


    Hearing the confidence in my voice, he quickly disappeared down the road and left for Bahamut.


    After he left, I contemted what to do before walking back out to Maria who wasying there frozen from horror.


    Casually putting up a vacuum barrier, I leaned against her nose. "So how was your ��talk�� with my father?"


    Her frozen eyes slowly shifted over to me as she struggled to utter a single word. "Horrifying..."


    Something about her horrified gaze made me smile, but I wasn''t sure what. "Well, it seems like you aren''t in the mood to talk so I''ll let you rest for a while. Just before I go, let me leave you with a warning. If you try anything," As I looked into her eyes, I pressured her as much as I could with my aura. "I��ll show you what horror really is."


    Seeing her immediately shrivel up and lose any remaining desire for escape, I disabled the barrier and made my way back into the monument where the Royal Family was.


    But once I got inside, I only saw Helen and Lucy sitting at the table. "Where did Oliver go?"


    Helen wore an indifferent expression as she spoke. "I''m not sure. He said something major happened to Lawton, the captain of the Royal guards. I''m not sure if you''ve met him yet."


    "Yeah, I saw him for a bit right after the incident." -What happened to him? He was not weak by any means��-


    Helen was quick to change the subject though. "Where did Osto go? I thought he''d be with you."


    Casually throwing up a crude barrier to keep the sound from escaping, I continued. "Father and I decided that the tower is likely connected to the halfie rebellion. We aren''t entirely sure how since we have no evidence, but I at least, think they are one of the groups funding it."


    Lucy and Helen both looked at me, wide-eyed, finally understanding that the situation was far beyond what Kan could handle on their own.


    "Don''t worry, if anything it should take Kan out of the picture. If the tower is truly connected to the rebellion, it''ll be crushed and nothing will be left so don''t worry.."


    "..." Neither Helen nor Lucy made a single noise.


    "Well let''s change the subject. Is anything interesting nned for the next week or so? I''m going to be alone so I''m looking for things to do around the city."


    A gleam instantly appeared in Lucy''s eyes. "I have school starting in a few days, would you like to enroll wi-"


    "Absolutely not."


    She looked disappointed at my harsh response, but I was a little bored so I decided topromise.


    "Here, how about this? I think it might be cool to explore the campus or sit in on a few sses, but I, under no circumstances, will enroll." -Why would I ever want to spend so much precious time with humans��-


    Thankfully, Lucy didn''t notice my slight look of disgust and responded happily. "That''s okay! You can work that out, right, Mother?"


    "Sure, sweetie." Helen''s smile was warm and pure, causing me to think of Mother.


    ��Haah���� -I hope she is doing well��-


    - Oliver Kan ~


    Making my way into the medical ward, I quickly noticed Lawtonying on a bed covered in bloody bandages.


    But as much blood as there was, I let out a deep sigh of relief. "Phew..." -It''s nothing too serious...- Although it was a gruesome gash, it was nothing that wouldn''t heal when given time, especially for a Nation Rank.


    "Sorry I''mte, I came as soon as someone told me you were injured, it just took them a while to get through the security in the za."


    Lawton lethargically looked up at me. "Please don''t apologize, my lord, I''m simply happy that you''vee to see me."


    "Well of course I would. I''m just d to see that you''re doing alright."


    After I spoke, a young nurse walked in to rebandage his wounds. "Greetings your highness.�� She gave a short but elegant bow before starting to take off Lawton��s bandages. ��He got quite lucky since none of the major veins in his arm were severed even with such a deep wound. He should be out of the ward in a few days, but he won''t be able to fight for at least two weeks."


    -Two weeks to fully heal... Nation ranks really are incredible...- "Right, who was it you fought to end up like this? I thought you were in Kan, but I heard some people say they saw you run down the main road dripping blood."


    "R..right�� Let me just start from the beginning.."


    We spent the next several minutes talking about everything that happened before I was finally up to speed.


    "So did you manage to get any information out of them? I''d assume they were part of the tower."


    "Yes, they were. They were the top group within the assassin division of the tower. Their boss, whom I killedst night, was the current leader and executive of that division."


    -If just a branch manager was that strong, how strong are the tower leaders?- I tried my best to ignore the ominous feeling in my gut when I thought about it. -I''m sure we will be fine.. hopefully...- "Haah, go ahead and get some rest. Once you feel healed enough to leave AND the doctors agree,e report to me. Lucy starts ss in a few days so I''d like you to look over the academy at that time. It should give you a good bit of time to work with the kids and recuperate."


    His eyes seemed nervous though. "What about defending the city?"


    "It will be fine, you just need to rest up. I have a n to handle the tower and protect the capital, so don''t worry."


    Finally managing to ease some of his worries, he finally started to rx. We sat there in silence for a moment before he continued in a soft voice. "I know I say this all of the time, but thank you, my lord�� If it weren''t for you, I would''ve died in that dungeon all those years ago..."


    As the memory shed in my mind, I felt my chest tighten up slightly. "You shouldn''t thank me for that. Just.. get some rest..."

 Chapter 64: A Receptionists Strife

    Chapter 64: A Receptionists Strife


    Mid Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - Ellen ~


    It was a beautiful, sunny morning, and the guild was packed like usual, but the crowd was lingering far longer than normal.


    Instead of dispersing after the few dozen quests were ripped off the board, they stuck around and gossiped.


    But it wasn''t just the adventurers. Today, even regr citizens gathered to question Sir Whyte��s identity, be it through gossip or relentlessly questioning the receptionists.


    "Who was the kid who beat the dragon?"


    "What family is that kid from?"


    "How old was he?"


    "What kind of demihuman was the kid?" They were all questions I had been asked countless times that day, and eventually, I just got tired of it."Haah.." As my head fell into my hands, I finally gave up trying to politely turn down everyone who came to ask me questions. -I should just make an announcement...-


    Standing up on the receptionist''s desk, I quickly grabbed everyone''s attention.


    "Attention everyone! If you are here to ask about the identity of the man who beat the dragon in the zast night, please leave. We cannot release any information about him without the Royal Family''s permission. If they decide to tell us anything, we will be sure to post an announcement."


    The chatter in the room was immediately subdued.


    "Phew.." I let out a deep breath as I sat back down and enjoyed the silence, but it was only temporary.


    Shortly after, the chatter in the room erupted again.


    "Who is he?"


    "Could the king actually have a bastard son?"


    "No, there''s no way. I''ve never seen a demihuman with such ck hair, even in all of the nations I''ve been to."


    "He was really enchanting."


    "Since when were you attracted to kids? He definitely wasn''t of legal age."


    "You know what I mean! You can''t tell me you weren''t enchanted as well."


    "Haaah��" -Maybe I should just head home early today��-


    "Miss, are you alright?"


    Hearing the unfamiliar voice, I looked up to see a man wearing a brown mask and robe leaving only his eyes clearly visible.


    "I��m doing okay. Thank you for your concern." Looking him up and down, his attire screamed ''suspicious'', but after looking a little closer, I noticed he only had one arm under his robe and the way he held it made it seem like it was broken. -He must have been in an ident��- "So what can I help you with, sir?"


    "I''m looking for a home. A ce to settle down outside of the capital." His voice was as calm as water in the morning.


    But it didn''t make me ignore the unusual request. "Um, sir, it might be better for you to go to the respective viges for that."


    "I''m simply looking for suggestions. I want to ''live low'' somewhere. Somece with a close and happymunity where I can settle down for the rest of my life..."


    Feeling the genuine warmth in his voice, I felt my suspicions of him fade significantly, but they didn''t totally disappear. "If you''re looking for a nice remote vige, there is one by a river 80 kilometers southeast. It''s the vige I came from. It''s a poor vige, but it''s quite beautiful and everyone there is weing." -If he does actually go there and turns out to be a runaway, Dad can ''take care'' of him.-


    "Thank you, miss.. I''m truly grateful. Are there any specific directions I need to know?"


    "If you follow the southern highway and stick left, you''ll eventuallye to a huge spider oak. Once there, stay right for two turns and then stay straight. You''lle to a river and just follow it downstream for a couple of kilometers."


    "Amazing, thank you again.. this helps more than you can imagine. Please take this as a thank you."


    The man positioned his body weirdly before dropping two gold coins down onto the counter.


    "Sorry, my arm is pretty destroyed..." After giving a small bow with an apology, he quickly disappeared into the crowd of people again.


    -What an odd man..-


    *Bang* The door behind me was thrown open as I was ripped out of my thoughts. "EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!" The Guild Master��s voice ripped through the air and made the entire guild go silent.


    "Pfft, hahaha! Is this little dwarf really the great Guild Master of Kan?" A young man with a scuffed appearance spoke up through the silence.


    In a heartbeat, the Guild Master appeared in front of the man and grabbed his face.


    "Oy oy, let go of my fa-"


    Completely ignoring the man''s voice, the Guild Master dragged him outside and threw him into the street. "If anyone else has any problems or has work to do here please stay in line for the receptionists. If you are here for news about the event in the za, please leave! The news bulletin is outside!" Turning away from the crowd with an agitated look, he tapped on my shoulder and motioned me to follow him.


    Quickly hopping up from my seat, I followed him back into his office.


    Once we got inside and closed the door, I finally asked him. "So what is it this time? Is it more stuff for the announcement?"


    "No, this is different. Lawton Keen nearly died. He is currently recovering in the medical ward."


    "So that rumor really was about him.." -To think Sir Keen could actually get that seriously injured��-


    "The Royal Family said to give the public an exnation, but they didn''t tell me what actually happened. Any ideas?"


    After taking a moment to think, I managed to gather a few ideas. "How about we say it was an assassin from the tower?"


    "Hm�� That could work, but for a mere assassin to hurt Lawton..."


    -That''s true...- "But what if we said it was a tower executive? Wouldn''t that also help rile support for the iing war?"


    "Well��" He took a moment to think about it. "I guess that could work... By the way, have you heard from Michael since the whole dragon incident? I heard he was at the speech, but didn''t see him do anything about what happened."


    "No actually.. I''m not sure what happened to him�� He didn''te by the guild this morning as I expected either."


    "He should be fine. It''s only been a single night. He doesn''te every day anyway."


    But even though the Guild Master managed to casually brush off his worries, I couldn''t quite do the same. "Right.. I really shouldn''t be worrying about him." Anxiety built in my gut the more I thought about it.


    "Haah�� Well, that''s all for now. I need you to go out and help the other receptionists now. They sound like they''re having a hard time."


    Outside the door, I could still hear the endless chatter of people mixed with the pitter-patter of the receptionists running around.


    "Haah. Okay��" Although a little disappointed that I needed to go back into the chaos, I figured it was for the best. -Hopefully, it can get my thoughts off of Michael��-


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    "Good morning Michael." Udall''s voice was the first thing I woke up to.


    "Uwwah�� Good morning��" As I rubbed my eyes, I tried to remember what happened before I fell asleep, but my mind drew a nk. "What happenedst night?"


    "You don''t remember?" He looked at me like I was crazy.


    "No, not really..." No matter how much I thought, I couldn''t remember anything other than an awful feeling in my chest.


    *Clink* The clink of ss bottles pulled me out of my thoughts as I looked over to see Udall setting two empty liquor sses on the table.


    "My goodness, did I drink that much?" I gripped my head as I felt a headacheing on.


    "Yeah.. all by yourself." His face looked a bit worried.


    "So... What happened?"


    Udall immediately cringed and hesitated before speaking. "Well, we were in the za for the speech and, uh.. Maria.. ahem.. ��turned into a dragon�� and tried to kill the king�� She then proceeded to get beaten up by that demihuman ''kid'' you mentioned the other day..."


    Almost immediately, a wave of memories from the event washed over my mind. "Oh.. right��" Remembering it made me want to shrivel up in a corner and cry. "Maybe I do need another ss..."


    But Udall''s face turned stern. "No, you need to try and face it�� Maybe you can go talk to her. I''m sure she has a good reason... Hopefully..."


    "R..right... Is she still in the za?"


    "Y..yeah, she''s still pinned there..."


    "Haah, in that case��" As I stood up, I nced around the room and noticed Mollie wasn''t anywhere to be seen. "Where did Mollie go?"


    As I said that, the curtain door behind me was pushed open. "I''m up here sorting contracts. Are you going to head up to the za?"


    "Yeah... I need to try and talk to her. If I''m honest, I don''t think I''ll be able to think about anything else until I clear things up." My heart was in turmoil as countless contradicting emotions fought within my mind.


    Mollie seemed to notice it as well. "I think I know how you feel... I think we all have some things to clear up with Maria, but.. you should take your time."


    Her smile was warm, but I couldn''t help but feel like my heart was oddly cold. -Maybe... no, I shouldn''t think that...- Quickly shaking the dark thoughts out of my mind, I tried to put on a smile. "Well, let''s see if we can even get permission to see her first..."

 Chapter 65: Complicated Emotions

    Chapter 65: Complicated Emotions


    Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    "Hooh.." Finally turning onto the street that looked into the za, I had to take a deep breath to calm my nerves.


    Slowly looking up, I noticed I could finally see Maria.


    Her eyes were closed and her head was lying in a pool of dried blood.


    It was a sight that made my previously subtle emotions rush forward.


    That horrible cocktail of emotions ravaged my mind, but it only got worse when I went to sort it out and calm down.


    I felt sad, worried, and even scared, but those feelings wereparatively easy to suppress. Deep down, in the deepest and darkest part of my soul, the scene made me feel an out-of-ce, yet instinctual happiness. The happiness of seeing my betrayer in pain.


    It was only a subtle feeling, but it was more than enough topletely destroy my mental state."W..why..?" Before I knew it, my face drained of color and my legs went weak. -She was someone I was closer to than family�� So, why do I feel..-


    "Are you alright?!" Seeing me copse, Udall immediately broke into panic, but Mollie was quick to get under my shoulder and lift me back up.


    "Are you sure about this?" Her voice carried a familial worry.


    "HooOoH.." Even my breath was shaky. "I''m.. fine..." Using Mollie''s voice as a foothold, I somehow managed to calm down fairly quickly.


    As a mage, I had very fine control over my mind, so once I actually got a grip, I could at least hold it together.


    "Hooh��" -I just need to talk to her... I''m sure she didn''t mean to betray m.. us...- "Let''s.. just go try and talk to her.."


    Still being supported by Mollie, I continued down the road.


    Once we got close to the za, a knight rushed over to see if we needed help. "Are you okay, sir?"


    "I''m.. fine... I need to go speak with that dragon. "


    "T..talk?" The knight immediately froze in ce and looked at me like I was crazy. "Sir, we were told to not let anyone other than the royal family or our superiors through here, so please understand."


    Immediately reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my ID and handed it to the knight. "Here, sir.."


    "What are you giving me this for?"


    "I have lots of contribution points, I''d like to spend some to be allowed to see her.." Looking at my card, I still had ''1,173,650'' Contribution Points, 173,650 more than needed for my Nation Rank Promotion. -That should be more than enough��-


    But things didn''t go as I expected. "Sir, I don''t think you understand. This isn''t the same as the prison, you can''t spend contribution points to get past security here.."


    Seeing me simply freeze from the knight''s response, Udall stepped in. "So is there no way we can get in? What if we asked the royal family?"


    "You can try it, I guess... Can you all hand me your IDs? I can give them to a messenger."


    Udall and Mollie quickly grabbed their IDs and handed them over.


    "Please wait here. Just know that it will take a few hours."


    Seeing us nod in unison, the knight turned and ran back into the za.


    There was a short moment of silence that followed his leave before Mollie broke the ice. "How about we grab a quick bite to eat��"


    The next three hours passed in a sh as we ate lunch on the sidewalk before the knight finally returned.


    Finally, having calmed down after eating and talking with Mollie and Udall, when I saw the knight, I hopped up with a hopeful heart.


    But I couldn''t help but notice his slightly gloomy expression. "Here are your IDs. We sent a messenger to the pce, but your request was denied. I apologize for the inconvenience." The knight was quick to give a polite bow.


    I felt the still recovering vitality in my face start to drain once again, but instead of losing thest bit of hope I had, I thought of an idea. "W..what if I wrote a letter that one of the knights delivered to her?"


    "Hmm�� That might be doable. Give me one moment please." The knight quickly disappeared into the monument, just to return right after. "Your request was approved. Please just write a letter and my superior will deliver it to.. ��her��."


    As if I suddenly rose from the dead, my ghastly pale face started to warm back up.


    In a hurry, I borrowed a piece of paper from a local food stand and used Udall��s quill to write all I could.


    After a few minutes passed, I finally finished while suppressing my tears and handed the paper to the knight.


    He was quick to skim-read the letter''s contents and make sure it contained nothing malicious, but he only cringed while reading it. "Alright, I will give this to ��her�� now�� Although you must stay here, you don''t have to watch if you don''t wish to."


    Both Mollie and Udall looked at me to see what I wanted to do.


    "I.. want to.. see her reaction��" My voice was drowned out by nervousness, but I couldn''t help it.


    Both nodding with my choice, we stood and waited until a different knight walked out of the monument with my letter in hand.


    -Please��-


    - ~~~ - (Omnipotent)


    The knight steadily approached Maria with a sword in one hand and a letter in the other before gently setting the note on the ground and slowly backing away.


    Finally opening her eyes, Maria quickly read through the letter before looking up and scanning the surrounding area.


    When she eventually noticed Michael''s unusually pale face, her mind washed with grief and sadness. She couldn''t stand the fact that her friends looked so heartbroken and betrayed, but to a humanoid, those saddened eyes looked cold and heartless.


    That seemingly cold nce at Michael pierced his heart with the force of countless des.


    Unable to continue looking at him without breaking down herself, Maria closed her eyes and blew a small me at the letter, immediately turning it to ash.


    That scene alone was enough to rip Michael��s heart apart, but it only got worse when Maria nced at him once again before turning away and closing her eyes.


    Maria did it to keep herself from crying and protect her pride as a dragon, but even her prideful heart ached.


    Almost immediately, Michael fell to his knees. -There''s.. no way.. right?- It felt as if his heart was copsing in on itself, as he watched his worst nightmare finallye to light.


    Udall and Mollie could only watch the scene in silence, even they didn''t know how to react. They couldn''t believe their eyes either.


    On the other hand, Michael''s heart nearly stopped.


    He did his best to stay calm up until this point because he wholeheartedly believed in the fact that her feelings over the years were real, but seeing her cold, heartless eyes as she burned the letter broke the dam.


    As Michael''s eyes drained of vitality, a huge amount of mana began to channel into him. His mind, trying to deal with the massive surge of emotions, converted everything into rage.


    Feeling the huge mass of mana, the knights immediately broke into a panic. "Get the Captain!!"


    But before the knights could do anything, Udall snapped out of his shock and instinctually threw a heavy chop into the base of Michael��s skull.


    *Thud* As Michael��s body fell limp to the floor, the mana started to subside, but it was already toote.


    The knights had already rushed over and surrounded them with weapons drawn. "Please cooperate, sir!"


    The knights were brandishing their weapons at the group of 3, but Mollie lowered herself to the ground and took a closer look at Michael.


    "Michael?!" Her eyes went wide when she set her hand on his head. "He has mana poisoning!" Finally looking around at the situation, she quickly realized how bleak it was.


    "You knights are here to protect the people, right?! So help this man or he''s going to die!" Udall was starting to let his emotions get to him.


    But even with his angry words, the knights didn''t budge until their superior arrived. "What is the situation?"


    "Sir, that mage there was going to attack us-"


    "He needs to go to the medical ward or he will die!" Mollie was crying in panic. She could easily run with him to the clinic, but they''d never make it with the entire royal guard on their backs.


    Thankfully though, her plea made it to the captain''s ears. "Escort them to the clinic, and keep a close eye on them. They need to answer some questions once their friend gets treated."


    Grasping the dim ray of hope, Mollie picked up Michael''s limp body. "Thank you, sir. Truly, thank you..." After giving a quick thanks, she started dashing to the clinic across town with several knights in tow.

 Chapter 66: Advances

    Chapter 66: Advances


    Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Byria (7,000km SW of Kan)


    - ~~~ - (Omnipotent)


    In the Noble district within the Kingdom of Byria, two people were speaking in a well-lit office lined with bookshelves.


    "Come again?" The well-dressed nobleman at the desk clearly voiced his annoyance at the ck-robed messenger kneeling in front of him.


    "The entire hideout was destroyed without a single survivor left, but the confidential letters sent to him were confirmed to have been disposed of and were not leaked." The messenger was clearly afraid of the noble, but he did all he could to hide it.


    "Who was it?"


    "It was likely Lawton Keen, my lord."


    "Hm, that would make sense, but how do you know it was him?"


    "We found a trail of blood leading from the hideout to the city, and on the same night, he was seen running through the streets while dripping blood.""Have you sent anyone to finish him off?"


    The man hesitated before speaking. "No, sir."


    "Why not?" The nobleman squinted his eyes with suspicion immediately.


    "T..there is not anyone left to order, sir��"


    "So every person I gave to Audre (Pinero) to kickstart his branch is dead?"


    "That is correct, sir."


    The noble''s face twitched as if he wanted to kill someone, but he held himself back. "Have you found Shir''s body yet, or is he still missing?"


    "We believe he died within the prison after being tortured."


    "Tsk��" *shatter* The ss cup in his hand shattered, spilling the alcohol all over the floor.


    The messenger immediately paled slightly before opening his mouth again. "My lord, what if I went to personally kill Lawt-" *CrAcK* His voice was cut off by the noble shattering his corbone with a kick. "AAAGH!"


    As he fell to the floor, the noble gave him a look of contempt. "Not only is Lawton not the only problem in Kan, but Audre was the only human I had control over that was capable of killing either Lawton or ''her''. You seem to be grossly underestimating those damn Nation Ranks..."


    Worried that saying another word would get him killed, the messenger stayed silent. "..."


    As the noble walked back to his desk, he quickly settled on the n going forward. "Tell the messengers and scouts to pull out of Kan. Only leave the best spies we have stationed there. We have already wasted too much time and resources on Kan trying toy low."


    "A..as you wish." The messenger winced and grabbed his shoulder before disappearing with light magic.


    After making sure the messenger was gone, the noble sat back down at his desk and poured himself another ss. *sip* "I think it''s time we moved to a more aggressive n��"


    - Oliver Kan ~


    "Uwwaaahh��" I let out a long yawn as Iid my face down on my desk, wanting to do nothing more than nap under the warmth of the sun, but that was not an option currently. -Why am I procrastinating so much��-


    I had a massive stack of papers I needed to sort through today, and I hadn''t even started looking at them yet. -But maybe.. a 30-minute nap would be alright��- But before I could fully close my eyes...


    *Knock* *Knock* A maid knocked on the door. "Your highness, Lucy is here to see you."


    "Hmm?" -Oh right..- "Let her in.." Quickly shaking off my drowsiness, I sat up at my desk and tried to put on a warm smile.


    *Click* With a polite bow, the maid opened the door to let Lucy through before closing it on her way out.


    "You called, Father?"


    My mood was brightened by seeing her pure smile. "Yes, it''s about your new sses."


    Lucy quickly sat down and poured a cup of tea, looking very elegant as she did.


    -It seems her etiquette lessons are going well��- "You will start tomorrow. Do you have all of your things together?"


    "Yes, of course! I''m excited to finally meet people my age." Her smile exuded a contagious joy.


    "Does Vasilias not-.. never mind actually." I ended up cutting myself off since it was a stupid question, but somehow Lucy still knew what I was going to say.


    "..yeah. It''s just that.. when I talk to him, I feel like I''m talking to an adult..." Her head lowered as she started thinking to herself. "Are all dragons like that?"


    "Haha. Osto told me that Vasilias was an oddball even by dragon standards, so I would assume so."


    "That''s not what I.. never mind." She quickly looked away and sipped her tea again, simply wanting to change subjects.


    -Hm?- I thought her reaction was odd but decided not to dig into it. "Well, in any case, I got your schedule from the academy."


    Lucy''s eyes immediately lit back up as she hastily set the tea on the table and dashed over to his desk.


    I couldn''t help but smile after seeing her enthusiasm. "Here you go."


    But to my surprise, the enthusiasm started draining from her face. "I''m going to be at the academy for 5 hours a day?"


    Her reaction reminded me of my own when I was young. "Haha, that includes breaks, sweetie. I promise it won''t be a bad experience."


    "Y..yes Father.."


    "Well, I called you here to give you that, so is there anything else you wish to talk about?"


    "Ah, yes... What about Vasilias?" She gave me a pleading look.


    -Oh.. about that��- I immediately became hesitant. "He will do whatever he feels like doing��"


    A disheartened look immediately came to her face. "So he won''t being with me to the Academy?"


    "I have no idea, sweetie. I can''t control a dragon, let alone one that''s my two-time savior."


    She paused to think for a moment before reluctantly nodding. "If that is all, then I will be in my room."


    Although it wasn''t clear by her voice, she was a little saddened. "Alright, dinner ising up, so go light on the sweets."


    "Haha, yes Father." Finally warming back up to a smile, she stood up and gave a polite bow before leaving.


    *Click* As the door closed behind her, I felt every bit of motivation to do the paperwork leave my body, but I currently didn''t have a choice.


    "Haah��" -Maybe I''ll find some motivation once I get going��- Finally moving over the quill, I reached for a paper, but was immediately interrupted.


    *Click* "Honey, we need to talk." Helen''s voice carried clear agitation.


    -Uh oh..- "What about?"


    "Vasilias."


    "What? What about him?" I couldn''t help but raise my eyebrows in confusion.


    "I think it''s time you adjusted your contract with him."


    Her statement made me freeze. Although I didn''t want to pay more than I needed to, it was also true that the situation had escted beyond the terms in the initial contract. -But that''s not such a simple task...- "What makes you say that?"


    "The public saw the fight in the za. If you don''t put out a public statement saying you rewarded him, no one will want to serve you in the future."


    "..." I couldn''t refute her words.


    "Adding another trip to the vault on the contract couldn''t hurt. Most of the stuff in there is useless to us, and nothing in there is worth more than your life. He saved you twice now... Come on, I know he''s a dragon, but he is also a kid.. your best friend''s kid... Can you not try and use him without considering the risks he must take?"


    The was a short moment of silence as I fell into thought. "Haah.. how about this then... I''ll take him into the vault once I finish these papers as personal thanks." I looked at her as I set my hand on the tall stack of paperwork.


    "That''s fine, just don''t miss dinner."


    "Haah�� Alright, I''ll see you then."


    Seeing me finally give in, she trotted over to my desk and gave me a quick kiss before leaving.


    "Hooh.. alright. No more procrastinating!" Giving myself a bit of pep talk, I sat up straight and finally got to work.


    - Vasilias ~


    In the shelter, I had just finished roughhousing with Ilios and was busy repairing the floor and walls while he napped. -Maybe we got a little too rough today.-


    Although we were solely using physical strength in our y fight, it was still more than enough to shatter the simple stone walls and floors.


    -Hmm.. maybe I should think of a way to spruce up the ce while I''m at it...-


    With a quick look around, it was immediately apparent that the rooms were all made of regr stone andcked any kind of carvings which, although made it easy to repair, made the entire ce just feel like a big, lifeless cave.


    As I finally finished the repairs and sat down though, I nced towards the spring and figured I could at least make it a little easier to look at. -I''ll at least give it a little makeover...-


    At first, it started as just a few minor changes, like smoothing out the edges, but after getting caught up in the process, a couple hours passed and I had unknowingly redone the whole area. The outside edge was now lined with a white stone and gold trim, and the inside was cut into two separate areas.


    There was now an extra shallow area for humans, where I added ledges to sit down on and stairs to get in and out, and a deep area for Father or I to enjoy that was about 50 meters deep.


    There were not a whole lot of changes, but I truly felt satisfied with it after finishing. -Now I can actually try swimming!-


    Although I was an incredible swimmer during my life on earth, swimming in my dragon form waspletely new to me, so I had no idea what to expect.


    And it went about as well as I thought it would. -My lord, how does this even work?-


    But, although I was slow at first, it didn''t take too long for me to figure out the basics ande to really enjoy it. -The water resistance is a good workout!-


    It was at that moment that I subconsciously set my sights on the next hill I would climb.


    ''Learning to fight underwater!''

 Chapter 67: The Vault

    Chapter 67: The Vault


    Early Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - Oliver Kan ~


    *Thump* *Bang* The entire lift shook from the distant vibrations as I descended towards the shelter.


    -What in the world is happening down there..-


    *Thump* Once I finally got to the bottom of the lift, I heard the sound of a mass of water hitting the ground. *Wshhhh*


    *Thump*


    -Just what..- Looking over towards the source of the noise, I saw a huge pir of watering out of the hot spring. -What is he doing?-


    Making my way towards the spring, I wanted to look into the water to make sure everything was alright but got distracted by the new white and gold trim along the edge of the spring.


    -Gold?- It took a moment for my mind to process what that gold really meant. -He can make gold too!?-At the time, I assumed he could only make basic, silver-colored metals, but that assumption was destroyed just as easily as it was made.


    As I looked around at the rest of the hot spring, I noticed that the amount of white stone and gold were not small. -It can''t be real gold, right? That much could make several gold coins��-


    Continuing to get closer, I knelt at the side of the pool and pressed my nail into the gold trim. -Oh my lord�� Its rea...- *BANG*


    Cutting my thoughts short, a massive plume of water wasunched out of the spring,pletely soaking me in the process.


    *Wshhhh* Through the pitter-patter of the water hitting the ground, a youthful draconic voice met my ears. "Oh, wee back Oliver."


    - Vasilias ~


    I was sitting at the bottom of the spring ying with implosion magic when I faintly felt someone��s presence outside. -Oh someone��s here. Is it Oliver?- But when I pulled my focus away from the spell I was holding to reason who it could be, the spell set itself off.


    *Bang* The water around me instantly vanished as it was all thrown into the air. -Dammit, again?!-


    After letting the water eventually crash back down, I finally swam back up to the surface and started sucking the moisture out of the surrounding air to return it to the spring.


    As I did that, I finally noticed Oliver standing there with soaked clothes. "Oh, wee back Oliver." Not bothering to apologize about getting him wet, I moved my magic over him and quickly dried him off. -There, good as new��-


    But even after drying him off, he just stood there, frozen with a look of awe.


    "Hello? Oliver?" I lightly nudged him with the back of my nail to try and snap him out of his thoughts.


    "Ah right sorry. I was just.. shocked is all." His voice was a bit shaky but I didn''t pay it mind.


    -It''s probably nothing��- "So what do you need? You wouldn''t have juste down for a bath, right?"


    "No, of course not.�� His normal, noble air started to return as he calmed down and brushed his clothes. ��I came down to give you a bonus reward for saving my life again."


    It was as if money signs appeared in my eyes as I hopped out of the spring and changed to my humanoid form. "Lead the way!"


    "Okay, but first of all, how did you get that gold?" His eyes were still locked on the edge of the spring.


    -Hm? That?- "Well, I thought the spring looked a bit dull so I made it."


    It was clear he didn''t believe me though. "What do you mean, ��you made it��?"


    "Like I used earth magic and made it." I casually held out my hand and created a small gold ball in my palm.


    Oliver just stood there in awe, but it was an understandable reaction.


    Humanoids were simply far toocking in not only mana and scientific knowledge but also the brain power to be able to create any moderately pure material using random particles floating in the air. The best they could do was manipte the attributes of an already existing material, like coal or stone to make gunpowder with alchemy.


    But even then, alchemy was rarely seen in this world in recent decades. Once mining operations increased and nations were able to supply good cksmiths with quality materials, alchemists were shifted out of relevance.


    But it was clear just by seeing the subtle greed on Oliver''s face that he was reconsidering their potential uses. "Do you think you could make a gold coin with that?"


    "Yeah." I molded the ball in my hand to a near exact replica of a gold coin with Kans crest.


    "Ahem, how about Imission you to tea-"


    "No." I already knew what he nned to ask. -You think a human can learn how to do that?-


    But even with my blunt rejection, he still wore an odd smile. "Why not?"


    "Let''s say theoretically, a human with twenty times as much mana as Michael somehow knew how to do it, he still wouldn''t be able to even make a gold nugget."


    Oliver��s smile slowly faded as he realized what I meant.


    "Humans fundamentallyck more than just mana and method to be able to do it, Oliver." Without knowing it, I started to get annoyed, but thankfully, my point was finally driven across.


    "Haah.. I guess that''s fair.�� As his head fell with a disappointed look, he pulled himself back together and changed the subject. ��Well let''s go to the vault."


    Quickly making our way into the stone warehouse, we walked all the way to the end of the hall where we were met with a massive metal door with a crank handle on it. (Like ones on a submarine hatch or a bulky safe. Couldn''t find the actual name of it.)


    But although the handle looked like the obvious way to open it, Oliver tapped certain spots of the metal wall like they were buttons.


    -So it has a passcode?-


    Once he finished pressing buttons, a loud metal ng was heard and the door slowly swung open by itself.


    -He didn��t touch the handle at all?- "What''s that big handle for?"


    "It''s just a distraction, that handle doesn''t actually turn much, it just activates a failsafe and is there to stall for time."


    -Hm�� That''s quite smart��-


    With the door finally open enough to let us into the room, I looked back to notice it was significantly smaller than expected but waspletely full of treasure that was all neatly organized around the room.


    But even with the innumerable chest filled with beautiful gems and the countless perfectly crafted weapons lining the walls, one thing, in particr, caught my eye.


    At the very center of the room, on an extremely gaudy golden pedestal, was a monster core.


    It was nearly half a meter wide and was an extremely deep, flowing blue.


    My mouth instantly started watering as I imagined how it tasted.


    "You seem to like that core��" Oliver''s voice carried a bit of difort.


    Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked over at him. "Are you reluctant to give it up?"


    "Well.. it''s the royal family''s heirloom. We don''t have any uses for it and I won''t go back on my word if you want it though."


    "Hmm�� I''ll look around first."


    I spent the next hour or so looking through the various chests and thinking about what I really needed currently.


    -Don''t need a weapon. Don''t need the gold. Don''t need any of the artifacts��- But as I was looking through everything, I noticed a small ck rectangr ��thing��ying on the ground.


    -Hey, that looks like a phone!- A smile came to my face as it brought back a wave of nostalgia.


    Picking it up, I looked around for buttons but couldn''t find anything.


    -Haha, imagine if it had a home button.- As a joke, I tapped my thumb on the bottom of the screen. *Beep*


    Both Oliver and I instantly froze, letting the noise of Ilios walking down the hall echo through the silence.


    -This thing.. might actually be a phone��- Following the beep, an unfamiliar symbol formed on the screen before disappearing and disying ��0��. -Is that, its charge?- An instantter, the disy returned to ck.


    In a desperate attempt to try and give it life, I scanned through its insides to look for a battery I could charge, but every bit of technology within it was insanely foreign. -What am I even looking at?-


    I ended up spending the next several minutes just trying to find something that even resembled a battery, but to no avail.


    But that didn''t mean I gave up on it. "I''ll take this." -I''m sure I''ll eventually figure something out��-


    Oliver just stared at me with a confused look. "That''s an artifact we found quite a while back. It came from the sky along with a bunch of unusual scrap. We ended up selling and reusing the scrap but we kept this since it was still intact."


    -So this came from space just like the cube, huh��- "Yeah I''ll take this." Although the core was very enticing, I assumed it would only expand my reserve. I couldn''t just pass up the opportunity to get a step closer to finding out what that cube was.


    "Alright, well I hope you don''t regret it." Oliver was humble on the surface, but under that facade was joy. A joy that I took something seemingly worthless over his family heirloom.


    As we eventually walked out of the vault, we didn''t talk at all. I was busy inspecting the ''phone'' and Oliver didn''t care to interrupt, but once we got out of the warehouse, Oliver looked like he wanted to speak up.


    "What is it?"


    "Ah, I was just wondering if you could do onest thing for me." He seemed a bit awkward as he spoke.


    -Sounds troublesome..- "And that would be?"


    "Could you go with Lucy to school tomorrow? She seemed down when I said you probably weren''t going to go at the same time as her."


    "How about you get me a decent-sized monster core as payment?" The huge core in the vault made me hungry for one, even if it was small.


    "A..alright, I''ll see what I can do."


    Although I could see he wasn''t super happy with it, he still epted so Iplied. "Well, I guess I''ll see her tomorrow morning then."


    "Haah..." Letting out a deep sigh, Oliver walked back over to the lift and left the shelter.


    ��Well then, what now?�� As I nced back to Ilios, who sat next to me, I saw him let out a big yawn. -Hm��- "How about a nap?"


    "Ouu-Woof." With a lethargic nod, he looked up at me with a wagging tail.


    -Haha, I''ll take that as a yes.- Seeing how tired he was, I made my way over to the cushions and curled up to let Iliosy in my embrace.


    Seeing his adorable smile as he closed his eyes made me move my head over and nuzzle against him. ��Haah���� -Petting his fur is true bliss��-

 Chapter 68: The Academy

    Chapter 68: The Academy


    Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - Lucy Kan ~


    *Shing* "Good morning Princess." I woke up to Martha opening the blinds and filling the room with morning light.


    "Ugh.. hmm?�� I sat up in bed with a disheveled look. ��Oh good morning. Uwwaah��" I was incredibly groggy after having a rough night''s rest.


    "Did you not sleep well?"


    "I slept okay, just.. had an interesting dream." I felt my cheeks warm as I remembered what I dreamt of.


    "Want to exin what the dream was about?" Martha spoke without really thinking, simply wanting to chat.


    But it just made my cheeks flush even more. "I''d rather not��"


    "Hooh? Was it about a boy?""No, of course not!" My face was red as a tomato.


    "Haha, in that case, I''ll take your word.�� It was clear that she didn''t believe me, but I was too young to recognize it. ��Well, what would you like for breakfast?"


    Thankfully, I was quick to shake off my embarrassment and make a decision. "Egg Toast!"


    Martha��s smile turned warm. "Haha, alright. Go ahead and get ready then, you have school today. Want me to send in the maids?"


    "No, no, I want to dress myself today."


    "You''re quite daring for your first day of school."


    "Hmph��" Unable to retort because of my nervousness, I just pouted.


    "Well, let one of the maids know if you need help. I''ll be right back with breakfast.��


    Seeing Martha leave the room, I finally suppressed my nervousness and hopped out of bed, feeling ready to conquer the day.


    -I wonder if Vasilias is going toe...-


    - Vasilias ~


    "Mmm.." Although my nap wasn''t really a nap for a dragon, onlysting a few hours, I felt fairly refreshed when I got up. -I guess I should probably get going...- As I stood up and stretched, Ilios did the same. "Want toe along and see the academy with me, Ilios?"


    "Woof!" He gave a strong nod as his tail wagged.


    "Haha, alright then, shall we?"


    Quickly making our way up the lift and out of the shelter, I found two maids cleaning the throne room, one in her early 30s and one who looked to be in her teens.


    -They must be pretty high up the hierarchy��- "Where should I go to meet up with Lucy to head to the Academy?" I spoke bluntly.


    The maids paused for a moment before the older one spoke up, "She will be out front in a few minutes where she will take a carriage to the Academy, Young Master."


    -So the maids are referring to me as ''Young Master'' now?- "Alright, thanks." Quickly heading out of the throne room, I decided I would just wait by the carriage.


    "The Young Master... Isn''t he the one who saved the Lord in the za? Is he truly the Lord''s bastard son?"


    "Ah right, I nearly forgot you weren''t working here a few days ago. He is the son of a close friend of the Lords. The Lord gave him his authority in the pce so be sure to treat him like you would his highness in the future.��


    The young maid gave a quick but nervous nod as she nced back at the door I just walked through. ��I wonder what Nation he is a noble of����


    Back outside, I was sitting on a bench and ying with hydrogen to kill time, but thankfully, Lucy didn''t take long.


    *Click* The door to the pce quickly swung open revealing Lucy walking out in her school uniform.


    It was a short and simple, ck and gold one-piece dress that didn''t look too fancy but it still looked good.


    -The uniforms on Earth were a little more to my taste though..-


    "Vasilias! Are youing to The Academy with me?" Her eyes lit up the second she saw me.


    "I''m just going at the same time as you. Once we are there, we will split up."


    She looked a little down before a gleam appeared in her eye. "What if I give you a little tour?"


    "I''ll have to pass, sorry." I gave a quick rejection. -I''d rather just go to the library by myself...-


    She looked saddened by my harsh response.


    "I just want to go to the library for a bit, but I might sit in on your sster." -I am still curious what they will learn about though��-


    Light was quick to return to her eyes. "Okay!"


    "Miss! It is time for our departure!" The man sitting on the carriage called out seeing that Lucy was outside.


    ��Hm, okay!" She wore a bright smile as she climbed into the carriage.


    -I wonder how bumpy it will be��- Following Lucy into the carriage, she sat on one side and I sat on the other with Iliosying on myp.


    Once we got going, I was quick to realize how surprisingly smooth the ride was, but we weren''t in the carriage for long enough that it would matter.


    The Academy was on the adjacent side of the noble district from the front of the pce so the carriage didn''t have far to travel.


    Lucy and I didn''t talk the whole ride, but when we stopped, I noticed that Lucy looked anxious about something.


    "Don''t stress over school, I''m sure you''ll like it once you get used to it."


    "Ah.. right. Mother and Father have been telling me the same thing.. that it''ll be easy or fun, but I''m still nervous."


    "Just take a deep breath and rx."


    "Ahh, hoooh.." letting out a few breaths from the depths of her chest, she slowly managed to rx.


    She looked a little shocked at how effective it was even though she didn''t realize I assisted her with my aura.


    "T..thanks for the advice..." She gave an awkward thanks.


    "No worries."


    *Click* "We have arrived Miss." The well-mannered carriage driver opened the door with a bow.


    Looking through the door, I could see a tall,vish building made of white stone with gold-ted statues and details.


    It was truly a beautiful piece of architecture, but it felt out of ce as an academy. -It��d be more believable if you said this was a church��- But as I looked around, I noticed everyone was well dressed. "Where do themoners enter?"


    She was a little taken aback by my question. "They enter on the other side where they are washed and dressed so they can blend in with the nobles."


    Her response was incredibly unexpected. -A ��non-discriminatory against social standing�� school in this setting?- I was genuinely impressed, but that positive impression was shattered when we walked inside.


    Inside the building, there was a significant change in how people looked.


    Most of the noticeably less well-kept ones wore frowns, whereas the ones who were tidy wore smiles.


    -So it''s still nobles versusmoners here...- The ones I presumed to be nobles picked onmoner students around every corner, and the teachers simply ignored it.


    The inside of the building was still beautiful, but the bullying ruined the atmosphere. -I should give Oliver some tips... Maybe they can impro..-


    "Hey cutie, your face is new around here." A well-kept noble boy, maybe 15 or 16, interrupted my thoughts as he walked up to Lucy.


    She was quick to give a formal curtsy. "Yes, this is my first time here."


    "Oh, well how about I give you a tour?" He wore a lustful look that just made me ufortable, but I didn''t do anything about it.


    "No thank you." Lucy''s responses were cold and blunt, so I assumed the kid would leave her alone, but that didn''t happen.


    "Look, I tried to be polite. Be my girl and I''ll let you roam The Academy where no one will be able to look down on you. Pretty good deal, eh?"


    -What does he mean by that? Is there an in-school mafia or something?- Although the boy was rude, it was understandable. Almost any 15-year-old with power or authority would let the power go to their head.


    "No, I''ll have to refuse." As Lucy refused, she inched closer to me.


    "Listen girlie, hiding behind that pip-squeak with his dumb pup-" *CRACK* His shin immediately turned 90 degrees as I casually kicked it in.


    "Whoops, my foot slipped." As he fell over, I gave him a look of disgust. -I would have just scared you away with my aura if you didn''t insult Ilios.-


    "AHHH!" His scream filled the halls and quickly grabbed everyone''s attention, but I couldn''t have cared less.


    "Well, shall we head to ss?" I gave Lucy a satisfied smile after being able to vent my frustration and disgust a little.


    Lucy had likely half expected it since she didn''t look too shocked, but she was definitely queasy seeing the boy''s shin bent in the middle while it bled profusely.


    She did her best to avoid looking at his leg and tone her voice before responding. "Y..yes... I will lead the way."

 Chapter 69: A Rough First Day

    Chapter 69: A Rough First Day


    Mid Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    "Y..yes... I will lead the way." Lucy nervously turned away with a slightly pale face.


    *tap-tap-tap* As we walked down the hallway, the group of people in front of us moved to the side to make way.


    Although most of the kids couldn''t think straight because of the overload of emotions, a few of them could be heard whispering amongst themselves.


    "No uniform? Who is he?" It was a question that everyone was asking themselves, but several of them already knew the answer.


    "The dragon yer��"


    It was a nickname I had gotten after the incident in the za that I was toozy to voice my dislike for.


    It was truly ironic how I got the name, even when I was more of a dragon than the one I subdued. -I guess it��s not like they would know that though��-


    Continuing further down the hallway, the panicked voices of the adults could be heard behind us. The knights and teachers had finally arrived."Oh, you poor child... Knights, take him to the clinic!" The loudest voice was that of the middle-aged woman crouched next to the kid''s side. Her face turned pale, as if she was sick, whenever she looked at his leg. "Do you mind telling me what happened?" Trying her best to not throw up, she managed to ask the boy on the floor a question.


    "I was j..just t..alking to some..one when s..some kid came up an..d did this!!" Tears were flowing down his face as he struggled to form the sentence.


    -What an ugly cry.- He had one of the most inelegant crying faces I had ever seen. -It just makes his face look even more punchable...-


    "Who is the kid you are referring to?"


    "It was him!!" He pointed his finger straight at me.


    The teacher didn��t waste any time the instant she saw me. "Knights, detain that child!"


    In the next moment, a few of the knights charged down the hall at me and one even pulled out their sword, but just like during the za incident, when I welded the armor on their knees together, they all fell over. *nk-nk-nk*


    But in the end, I left one standing. The one who brandished a sword and was looking at Lucy with an indescribably disgusting, lust-filled expression. -He shouldn''t be a knight.-


    *tap-tap-tap* As I turned and walked toward him, he didn''t hesitate to raise his de. -Are you serious?- "Knights exist to help protect all citizens." As the de came crashing toward me, I closed the rest of the distance and grabbed his head. "Not just bratty nobles."


    *CRUNCH* The back of his head exploded as it was driven into the floor, immediately creating a cobweb of cracks spanning several meters.


    The room wentpletely silent. The boy even stopped screaming as he looked at me in horror.


    But not everyone was scared. Some of themoners showed gazes of aspiration, while others looked sickened, but a few girls had expressions that stood out.


    They each gave me a look as if they wanted to thank me.


    "Who dares kill a knight of Kan?!" A huge demihuman man appeared on the scene as I pulled my hand out of the hole in the ground.


    His appearance made color return to the faces of the teacher and nobles in the room, but it didn''tst long.


    "Hey, Lawton. Go get the other knights toe and clean this up."


    He froze once he saw me and immediately changed his entire demeanor. "At your order, young lord!"


    Just before I turned back to continue following Lucy, I could tell Lawton was questioning my act so I gave a short answer. "He shouldn''t have been a knight. He was dumber than a bandit and had some.. unsettling eyes. The other two are fine." -But for most of the kids to recognize me, yet not the teacher or the knights? Something about that feels.. wrong��-


    Before I could finish thinking, a look of disgust and anger appeared on Lawton''s face. "Thank you for sparing the others. Although they are not my direct subordinates, I will make sure to give them proper guidance."


    With a single nod, I turned back to Lucy, who had her face shoved into my back. -Maybe it was a little much to kill that knight in front of so many kids.. but at the same time...- When I looked around the room and saw the mix of fearful gazes, I simply feltplete indifference, as if I were looking at a group of chickens. -To think the hierarchy in my mind has shifted so much��-


    "Sorry if that grossed you out." I unknowingly spoke with a cold voice as I set my hand on Lucy��s head and wrapped her in my aura.


    But she didn''t seem to notice before color rushed back to her face. "T..thank you again��"


    Quickly realizing my actual feelings were showing, I put on a slightly forced smile. "No worries, you can lead the way now."


    "R..right.."


    As we walked out of the hall, the knight''s body was hastily covered up, and the teacher finally got a knight to carry the noble kid to the clinic.


    But as she stood up, she immediately turned towards Lawton. "Sir Keen, who was that child?"


    "You must not have been at the Lord''s speech." He got closer and leaned into her ear. "He is the dragon yer."


    Her mind was immediately washed over with millions of thoughts, each making her face pale further.


    "I would not worry too much about it, Miss. He is kind to those who are respectful to him and far more forgiving than nobles."


    Although Lawton helped ease her worry, she was clearly still anxious. "Haah... At least he is not a student��" As she let out a sigh of relief, Lucy, Ilios, and I finally left the hallway.


    The next several minutes passed quite quickly as we wound our way down a few hallways and eventually came to the door of a ssroom. -Theyout of this ce is honestly awful...- It felt like something closer to abyrinth than a schoolyout, but I tried not to dwell on it.


    *Click* Walking inside the room revealed arge, lecture-hall style room with about 30 seats that sat 2 per table.


    There wasn''t a teacher in the room yet, and only around half of the desks were full, but it immediately reminded me of sses on Earth. -The resemnce is uncanny...-


    After quickly scanning the room, Lucy walked up to the back middle desk and sat down. "Uhm.. I guess you can sit here.." She shyly pointed to the seat next to her.


    "I''m only going to sit in for a bit, so I''d rather stand."


    Thankfully, she picked the back desk, so I could simply lean against the wall behind her and be out of the way of the ss. But while I waited for the ss to actually start, I leaned down and petted Ilios until he drifted to sleep. -Hehe... He''s so cute...-


    Wanting to let him sleep, I stood back up and just fiddled with magic.


    Most of the people in the ssroom were staring at me at that point. Whether it was my aura or simply them watching me y with magic, they all had their eyes locked on me.


    But while I had my head down and focused on my aura, a young girl walked up to Lucy. "Hey, do you mind if I sit here?"


    Lucy nced back at me before turning to her. "Yeah, of course. My name is Lucy."


    "I''m Viviana. Nice to meet you." She wore a childish and youthful smile, a sharp contrast to everyone else in the room.


    "So is today your first day too?"


    "Yeah, I just turned 9 a few weeks ago... I barely managed to make the cutoff."


    As the conversation continued, they each steadily spoke morefortably, and even managed to be friends in a matter of minutes.


    -She truly has royal blood... She''s great with people...-


    *Click*


    "Sorry I amte, ss. I ran into a..plication."


    The middle-aged woman came in and set her books on the desk.


    "Nice to meet you, everyone. I will be your teacher for the next few years. My name is-" Before she could finish introducing herself, she met eyes with me and paled.


    She stared at me with fear-filled eyes, but I just gave her a look of indifference. -Oh, it''s her again.-

 Chapter 70: A Massive Source of Information

    Chapter 70: A Massive Source of Information


    Late Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    "Nice to meet you, everyone. I will be your teacher for the next few years. My name is-" She froze the instant she noticed me, but after a short pause, she managed to continue with a shaky voice. "A..hem, s..sorry. As I was saying, my name is Judy Casas, and I will be your teacher for the next few years. I hope we can all get along!" She put on a forced smile as she finished her introduction.


    Surprisingly, she seemed to quickly gain the liking of most of the ss, themoners included. -Even if she favors nobles, she still takes pride in being a teacher, it seems��-


    "So how about we start with some introductions? Just your first name and a cool talent or hobby you have." Seeing everyone''s joyful expression, her smile slowly turned more genuine. "Well, let''s start in the front."


    The introductions went smoothly, with all of the students wearing beaming smiles.


    Thest two to go were Viviana and Lucy.


    "My name is Viviana, and my hobby is alchemy!"


    "Wow, that''s one I haven��t heard in a long time. Maybe I''ll have you teach the ss one day!"


    Viviana immediately got embarrassed. "W..well, t..that''s not-""Haha, it''s okay. I won''t make you do anything you aren''tfortable with." Seemingly managing to ignore me, she seemed to be in an improving mood.


    "T..thank you��"


    "Haha, andst but not least��" As the teacher moved on, the entire ss''s attention turned to Lucy.


    "My name is Lucy, and I have a talent for magic, and as for my hobby��" There was a short pause that filled the room with silence. "I like reading about d..dragons..."


    "Oh.. another interesting one. Maybe I should have a history lesson about themter in the year." She paused as Lucy��s cheeks became flushed. "Haha, now that our introductions are out of the way, I will start ss."


    Some people looked back at me, maybe wanting me to introduce myself, but I didn''t remotely care enough to give an introduction.


    "So for everyone��s first ss, we will start with history from all the way back to the Great War!"


    For the next couple of hours, she lectured about very general information regarding the great war and the influential figures on the human side.


    She kept the lecture decently interesting and engaging for the students, but.. -Mother already taught me all of this without any human bias��- I was getting unreasonably bored.


    After another few minutes, I just gave up thinking that anything I didn''t know woulde up and decided to just go to the library.


    Casually walking up to Lucy, I leaned down and whispered to her. "I''m going to the library. You''ll be able to find me there if there is anything urgent."


    After she nodded in response, I walked out of the ssroom. Miss Judy even stopped her lecture to stare at me, likely thinking I wasing for her because she let out a deep sigh of relief as I walked out.


    - Lucy Kan ~


    *Click* The moment the door closed behind Vasilias, the teacher let out a deep breath of relief. "Phew.. sorry about that everyone."


    "Miss teacher." A young boy in the front raised his hand.


    "Yes, Johnny?"


    "Who was that boy?" It was a question on everyone��s minds.


    "He was..." Before Ms. Casas could say anything, she thought of something that made her face lose a bit of color. "He was an administrator sitting in on the ss."


    Although administrators did asionally sit in on sses, they were never so young and wouldn''te around until a few months into the year. -Isn��t that a bit too much of a stretch?-


    "Are all administrators as strong as him?" A young girl spoke up this time.


    "What do you mean, Anne?"


    "He was the one who, um.. handled that b..bully earlier."


    "..." The room filled with silence as Miss Casas��s face paled further.


    "Miss teacher?"


    "Right, ahem, sorry, I just got lost in my own thoughts. He is the strongest administrator here."


    "Woahh! Even stronger than the grandmaster?"


    "I''m not sure now that you mentioned it." The grandmaster of the academy was Kan''s other Nation Rank besides Lawton. A monstrous ranged mage with an insane amount of mana for a human, even if she couldn''tpare to Vasilias. "Well anyways, let''s get back to ss. As I was saying before, the next 100 years after the Great War..."


    As she continued once again, my boredom returned.


    *tap* As I set my head on the desk, I wanted to fall asleep. -Why did Father make me have a tutor for history when I could have just learned it now��-


    ncing at Viviana, I noticed she was still happily paying attention, leaving me with no one to talk to.


    -Even if I couldn''t talk with Vasilias, at least I could pet Ilios to pass time�� I wish I could''ve gone with them..-


    - Vasilias ~


    *Click* As I walked out into the hallway, I looked around until I saw a patrolling knight.


    "Kid, you should be in your ss. Do you have a pass from your teacher to be out here?"


    Not wanting to go through any hassle, I just pulled out my ID and showed it to him.


    "Oh right, you''re him. Please forgive my rudeness just now. Is there anything you may need?"


    I was slightly taken aback by his formality. "Actually, yeah, do you know where the library is?"


    "Yes sir, go down the hall, take a left and go all the way till it dead ends. Take one more left and you''ll see the cafeteria on the right. The library is across the hall from it."


    -Man, that would��ve taken me a while to find without help...- "Thanks a bunch."


    "No worries. It''s a bit of a hike, but you should find it pretty easily. If you need more directions, just ask another knight. Sir Keen has already informed us all about you."


    "Sweet thanks. Here, have this." Feeling generous, I pulled out the gold coin I made to show Oliverst night and gave it to him.


    "Thank you very much, sir! Please have a good day!"


    He gave a deep bow as I left and made my way towards the library. -What a good knight.-


    Quickly winding my way down the halls, I was, thankfully, not met with any resistance and managed to get to the library quite quickly.


    *Click* As I pushed open the door, I noticed it was quite heavy and nearly 10 centimeters thick, but as I closed the door behind me, the extremely loud chatter from the cafeteria across the hall vanished. -To think the library has soundproofing��-


    Turning back to the inside, I noticed the room was also gargantuan, with six floors each lined with 5-meter tall bookshelves.


    "Hm?" An old-looking elven man gave me an odd look from behind the desk. "A new face�� Are you a newly enrolled student?"


    Quickly turning my attention away from the endless shelves, I made my way up to the man''s desk. "No, I''m just visiting for a bit."


    "Hm, that would exin you not being in uniform."


    "Yeah, so, I''m just gonna take a look around." Noticing howid back he was, I turned to walk towards the lowest level of books, not expecting to be stopped.


    "Visitors and new students must stay on the first floor."


    I immediately stopped in my tracks. -Well, that''s not going to work...- Quickly reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my ID and showed the man. "How about now?"


    "Oh, a royal ID." His face quickly lost a bit of color. "Sorry I failed to notice earlier, sir."


    "You can speakfortably. I n to spend a lot of time here in theing days."


    "I would not dare address your majesty without honorifics." He started to break out into a cold sweat.


    "Do what you want, I guess." Not caring what he did, I turned back to the walls of bookshelves.


    "I will always be here in case you need anything, sir." His voice carried a bit of disparity like he was desperate to get on my good side.


    -I''m really not sure whether he''s suspicious or just smart...-


    As I walked out of the line of sight, he fell back into his chair. "Phew.." But after a short moment to catch his breath, he hastily pulled out a piece of paper and started writing with a slightly worried look.


    -Hm... Maybe I should keep my eye on him...-


    Finally moving away from the front of the room, I took my time looking around, but quickly found out that most of the books on the bottom floor were for entertainment, with only a very small number being informational. -I hope the upper floors are better...-


    Before I continued upstairs though, I pulled out a few of the fairy tales and skimmed through them.


    One was of a hero that, through many trials and hardships, became a god''s apostle and killed a tyrannical king to take his position. Another was a simr story, except with a female lead, and another was just about a man''s adventures with his dog.


    There were countless others as well, far too many to read, but it was genuinely surprising how developed the literature of this world was.


    I originally expected the prince charming style of stories, just super basic and clich�� but still enjoyable, but was pleasantly surprised by therge variety.


    -But that''s not why I''m here.- Quickly tossing aside my desire to look through other stories, I decided to move on to the second floor.


    Looking up at the several other floors, I couldn''t help but be hopeful that I might be able to find some of the information I was looking for, even if the fact that it was a human library destroyed those chances.


    -Well, it can''t hurt to look around, right?-

 Chapter 71: Words of Wisdom

    Chapter 71: Words of Wisdom


    Mid Afternoon - Late Spring : Northeastern Bahamut


    - Osto Ragnarok ~


    *Knock* *Knock*


    "Who is it~?" A warm, mature woman''s voice rang out as I heard several heavy footsteps on the other side of the door.


    *Clink* As the heavy lock was released, the door swung open to reveal a 43-meter-tall white-silver dragon looking down at me.


    "Hey Asimi, it''s been a while." I gave her an awkward smile as I tried to anticipate how she��d act.


    "Oh, wee back! Come on inside, I was just getting ready to eat." She motioned me in as she happily spoke. "So how''s my cute son-inw doing?"


    "Haah��" -There it is��- "I''m doing well. I''ve been on that ��business�� trip with Vasilias in Kan recently."


    Asimi''s eyes lit up upon hearing the name. "Oh! How are my grandbabies doing? Zachari hasn''t even written home once since they were born." She stared at me with a deep eagerness."Uhm.. Krystallo is doing quite well, she''s in her Adolescent Sleep right now. As for Vasilias, well.. he''s an oddball."


    "Wow, so Krystallo is already such a fine gem. That''s good to hear, but what do you mean by Vasilias being an oddball?"


    "Well.. I think it''d be better for you to see him in person.." I really wanted to avoid exining the situation to avoid a misunderstanding. -She won''t understand unless she sees it anyways��-


    "Hmm��" She took a moment to look me up and down. "In that case, I''ll just have to take your word for it. It''s just a shame that I can''t just visit myself because of the Elder Hall��s pestering��"


    "Is it because of the rebellion?"


    "Haah, no, it has to do with Siratha. You remember them saying their God had returned? Well, we just got word from Amphitrite saying she talked to a ��wandering god�� that confirmed it."


    -There is still a wandering god left?- "It''s fine that you can''t visit though. Zachari said she was going to bring the kids down here once Krystallo wakes up."


    "Oh, really?!" Her spirit immediately brightened. "So how''s Fengari doing? I still believe he will be one of the strongest dragons in Bahamut one day! That''s only to be expected from the child I named!"


    "Ah.. about that..."


    Seeing my off-putting stance, she froze in ce. "Don''t tell me something happened to him..."


    The mood continued to darken as I carefully thought about how to say it. "ording to Zachari, he.. never hatched..."


    Asimi��s face immediately lost its color and her pupils dted.


    Feeling my heart tense up slightly, I tried to think of how to possibly cheer her up and settled on Ilios. "Although he never hatched, Vasilias found us a new family member that, somehow, doesn��t fall behind him by much."


    "Right.. I shouldn''t be crying. Fate just works in mysterious ways... Plus I still have two perfectly healthy grandkids that, ording to you, are diamonds, so I can''t cry!" She gave herself some pep talk as she looked up at the ceiling to hold back tears. But that was when she finally thought about what I said. "Wait, WHAT?! HE FOUND A WIFE AT 10 years old?! Is that what you meant by him being an oddball?!"


    "No no no, nothing like that. I can''t give too much information on him right now since I''m not too sure about it myself, but he��s a Fenrir named Ilios."


    "Oh.. so a dog?" Somehow she seemed disappointed it wasn''t a wife.


    "N..not quite�� It''s actually a little moreplicated than that."


    Seeing that I really didn''t want to go into detail, she gave me a curious look before deciding to move on. "Well, I won''t prod anymore as long as I see him when theye down. I assume he''lle here with everyone else, right?"


    "Of course! He''s constantly glued to Vasilias, so." -Even if I tried to separate them, I don''t think I��d be able to��-


    "Alright, in that case, let''s get to business. I assume you didn''t juste to visit your poor old mother-inw, did you?" She showed an exaggerated frown like she was trying to poke fun at me.


    "You dare call yourself old? You''re only 243. You still have well over a millennia to go."


    "Hey!" *Bonk* "I��m only 242. Also, how do you know I''ll make it through my ancient sleep?"


    As I rubbed my head where she bonked me, I gave her an unbelieving look. "You and I both know that you''ll make it through that sleep just fine." -Not a single one of your ancestors failed to live through it��-


    "The future is always changing, so you never know. Putting that aside though, what did youe all the way back to Bahamut for?" Her face turned serious.


    "I would like to both give some information about the rebellion and request for ��assistance��."


    "I''d normally just send you to Myles, but he''s.. out of town... Have you not talked to any of the elders?"


    "No, no one was in the Hall when I passed by there."


    "Ugh, of course, there weren��t��" She rolled her eyes. "So what information did you want to give?"


    "I''m going to need you to hear me out first."


    Asimi immediately raised an eyebrow in skepticism.


    "While in Kan, a bunch of things happened. There were several assassination attempts on the king, all made by the Magic Tower."


    "And that has to do with the rebellion, how?"


    "Well.. a halfie was a part of one of the squads that attacked."


    "Okay? How does that rte to us? You even fought alongside the Holy Empire for a while; that shouldn��t be odd."


    "The issue was that the halfie used her dragon form, and not only did the people with her not react too oddly, when we questioned her, she said it wasmon knowledge among her peers that she was a dragon."


    Asimi��s face started to darken once again. "Continue."


    "Well, after taking the several events and piling together the information we gathered, Vasilias and I have a reason to believe that the tower is the one funding the rebellion."


    "But we can��t intervene unless you find actual evidence of the funding. Just because humans knew she was a dragon doesn''t mean we can eviscerate a random organization, you know that. I know where you''reing from though, it does sound usible."


    "So is that a no for requesting military assistance?"


    "Haah.. I can''t send anyone without the other elders'' or Myles''s approval, and the elders would never agree to such a grand assumption." As she nced at a maid in the corner of the room, she seemed to have an idea. "Do you know where the headquarters is?"


    "Deacia."


    "Haah.. I''ve got an idea, but I''m not sure how you''ll be able to pull it off." She looked a bit troubled as she thought through other possibilities.


    "I''m all ears."


    "Although we aren''t supposed to intervene too much in the human world, that doesn''t mean we can''t. You either need to manage to lie low and get some physical evidence so we can intervene directly, or.." The atmosphere in the room darkened significantly. "Leave no witnesses."


    I couldn''t help but break out into a cold sweat and hang my head towards the floor as her aura filled the room. -She got this much stronger?!-


    Forcing myself to look up at her, I noticed her devious smile. "It''s not a crime if you aren''t caught."


    - Vasilias ~


    *Thump*


    Closing the book I was looking at, I set it back on the shelf on the third floor. -How the hell has this world even gotten to the medieval era...-


    The book I just finished discussed the mathematics of this world, something I had wanted to see ever since I came to this world.


    The issue was, after extensively looking through the books, the most advanced math I found was moderately advanced algebra called, ��The Language of Merchants��.


    I had originally expected that there would be some precalculus since the structures were so well built, but it seems I was wrong.


    Somehow, this world managed to build huge medieval pces and academies without the help of advanced mathematics.


    -It must be because of magic.. right?- There was simply no other possibility that I could think of.


    Continuing to look around, I couldn��t find anything really science-based besides some biological logs talking about different species and how they acted.


    -Maybe magic is the science of this world�� It wouldn��t be a grand assumption to think that they sum chemistry up to ��it��s just magic��.- It was also entirely possible that what I ssified as science was just integrated into magic, but at the very least, I couldn''t find anything beyond the extreme basics.


    "Haah.." Closing yet another book and setting it on the shelf, I looked up at the other floors above me. -I still have 3 more floors to go�� The upper floors have magic theory, so maybe the more advanced stuff is in there��-

 Chapter 72: A Grand Plan

    Chapter 72: A Grand n


    Early Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    Several hours had passed since I nned to go up to the fourth floor, but I was yet to actually do it, simply because I found a bookshelf giving me a much better idea of where this world was at. -Entry-level physics, and even some pretty advanced algebra, but it''s all marked as ��theory�� even though it''s correct��- Quickly flipping through the book once again, I made a few corrections before hearing some noise below.


    "Uhm.. sir?" It was a young girl''s voice.


    "Excuse me, Miss, what can I do for you?" She seemed to be talking to the librarian.


    "I was wondering if someone named Vasilias was still here." Her voice carried a slight nervousness.


    -Lucy is still here?- Thinking I could use a short break anyway, I put back the book I was reading and started making my way downstairs.


    "Ah yes, he is. He is on the upper floors though. Would you like me to get him for you?"


    "Ah no.. if he is busy, I shouldn''t bother-"


    "It''s alright, I''m done for today anyway." I came walking out from behind several bookshelves with Ilios in tow.Lucy��s nervousness quicklypounded once she saw me. "Are you sure? I don''t want to pull you away from whatever you were doing."


    "It''s fine, I could go for a bite to eat anyways."


    As I nced at Viviana, she tensed up with a look of aspiration.


    -What''s with that look?- Trying not to make my displeasure apparent, I turned back to Lucy. "So is sheing home with you?"


    "Y..yes, we got permission from her parents to stay with us tonight."


    -So that''s a thing in this world too��- "It''s good to see you making friends."


    Lucy immediately got embarrassed. "W..well, let''s just head back."


    "Alright, lead the way." Before I left, I nced back at the librarian. "I''ll be back tomorrow, Mr. Librarian." With a light wave, we quickly made our way outside.


    It wasn''t until we got all the way into the noble gate courtyard that Viviana finally voiced her worries. "Wait, this is the noble gate, I think you went the wrong way."


    But what she said made me jolt slightly. -Wait, what?-


    "No, this is the right way?" Lucy tried to give her some reassurance with a look of innocence.


    "You''re a noble?!" Viviana started to freak out.


    I wanted to facepalm, but held it back and just yed along. "What made you think she was amoner?"


    "Well.." She started getting more nervous as she took extra caution to make sure to not offend Lucy or me.


    "You can speak clearly, we won''t judge." Lucy gave her some reassurance.


    Viviana looked a bit hesitant to speak, but after a bit more of Lucy��s reassurance, she finally spoke. "Well.. your bow is tied wrong.. and um.. your hair.. is uh.. a little messy.."


    I tried my best to hold back myughter, but I couldn''t help but leak it a little. "Pft-Ahem, so how does that make you think she''s amoner?"


    "Uhm.. usually nobles have maids dress them, so.. everything is perfect... No offense to the maid who dressed you though��" Viviana started getting nervous that Lucy was going tosh out at a maid.


    "I dressed myself this morning... I figured I could do it.."


    -Oh don''t get all distraught.- Lucy started taking Viviana''sment to heart. "Well, now you know what you can do better, right?" -I might''ve been the one to identally mess up her hair though...-


    "Right�� In any case, let''s go ahead and get in the carriage.."


    The carriage that picked us up was a more low-profile onepared to this morning. There was no gold and no Royal crest on it.


    The entire carriage ride was silent; no one even talked until Viviana finally broke the ice. "So um.. if it''s not rude of me to ask, what''s yourst name?" The carriage came to a halt as she finished her question.


    *Click* As the carriage door swung open, the massive door to the royal pce was revealed.


    Ilios and I were the first to step out, followed by Lucy.


    As we turned around, we noticed Viviana still sitting in the carriage, simply paralyzed.


    "Come on, Vivi! I need to introduce you to Father!"


    Snapping out of her trance, she shakily got up and out of the carriage. "Y..yeah sorry... Just.. I feel like I need to ask again.. what is yourst name?"


    "Kan. My name is Lucy Kan."


    Viviana''s face paled as she lost her bnce and fell backward.


    Thankfully though, the carriage driver happened to be next to her and caught her. Lucy immediately broke into panic, but the man just calmed her down. "She''s fine. She just passed out."


    "B..but!"


    Quickly walking over to the man and taking Viviana from him, I gave Lucy a casual remark. "Let''s just go inside and let her rest, she��s fine."


    Lucy acted like she was going to say something else, but stopped herself as we started walking inside.


    Thankfully though, as we walked inside, we were met with Martha, Lucy��s maid. "Oh my! What happened?!"


    "I made a friend, so I brought her by to spend the night, b..but when we got here she fainted!"


    Martha still looked confused, so I rified. "Lucy didn''t even say she was a noble until we left, and Viviana is amoner, so��"


    Finally calming down after realizing the situation wasn''t serious, she gently took Viviana from me. "It''s great that you made a friend, Lucy, but you need to give them some warning about the fact that you are the Princess�� For now though, I''ll bring her to a room and tend to her until she wakes up. What is her name?"


    "Viviana. I''m not sure if she had ast name" I nced at Lucy, assuming she would know.


    "It was Zidek, I think��" Her voicecked any confidence, and Martha definitely noticed.


    "Haah, in that case, dinner will be ready soon, so be ready soon. Young Lord, if you''d like to join them, the Lord said you are wee at the table."


    "Ah��" Although I was actually fairly hungry, the food I had a slight craving for was something far more substantial than a human meal, but even still, I figured it couldn''t be a bad idea. -He might need to tell me something��- "Then I will take him up on that offer. Have them bring out somerger portions for me."


    Lucy��s eyes immediately lit up as her anxiety quickly vanished.


    "I will do my best to notify the chef, young Lord. I will be busy tending to Miss Viviana here, so please have a good night."


    "You too."


    And with that, Martha left down the hall, and I followed Lucy to the dining room.


    -I wonder what��s on the menu��-


    - ~~~ - (Omnipotent)


    Meanwhile, around 7,000 km southwest of Kan, within the Kingdom of Byria, a certain noble finally started to push ns forward.


    The man was standing in his office, staring out the window and looking towards the sunset.


    "Sir, your orders are-"


    "I don''t think you have the right to question my orders." He nced at the robed man kneeling behind him with agitation.


    "Y..yes sir.. I will carry it out to the best of my abilities."


    The noble immediately showed his teeth. "If it''s not done, you''re dead."


    Giving a scared nod, the robed man immediately vanished.


    Turning back to the window, the sun finally started reaching the horizon, turning the sky to a beautiful gold.


    But, even though it was a stunning view, the color reminded the noble of something unpleasant. -Just how much are those greedy dragon bastards going to ask for..-


    As he sipped his tea, he gave a disgusted look.


    "I can''t even enjoy my tea anymore because of them��" But his look of displeasure quickly turned to a crazed smile. "Soon enough, I��ll show them that humans cannot be looked down on!"


    His n was nearlyplete; he just needed to clean some unnecessary variables and butter up the dragon onest time.


    "Haah, to think I was such a genius strategist all along!" -They think they can just use me so freely?! I''ll show them. -


    *Shatter*


    He crushed his ss in his hand, identally spilling the tea on his new, white shoes. "Oh, dammit... I liked these shoes too..."

 Chapter 73: Looming Danger

    Chapter 73: Looming Danger


    Mid Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - Viviana Zidek ~


    "Mmmm.." Slowly opening my eyes, I looked up at a pure white ceiling as if it was normal.


    "How are you feeling?"


    As the mature woman''s voice entered my ears, my mind finally realized how out of ce everything was and jolted me awake. "Ah!" Hastily sitting up, I looked straight at the unfamiliar elven woman. -An elven maid?- "W..where am I?"


    "This is the guest bedroom of the Royal Pce."


    I felt my heart skip a beat as memories of the carriage ride with Lucy resurfaced in my mind. "S..so that wasn''t a dream." My voice was a little shaky.


    "Would you like me to get you anything to help you rx? Any tea or snacks?"


    Looking over at her, I noticed a tray of tea and white bread, unlike anything I had ever seen. "N..no I wouldn��t dare ask-""It''s alright, you''re Lucy''s first real friend. How could I not show some basic hospitality?" The maid quickly turned to the bedside table and poured a ss of tea. "So where are you from?"


    "Um.. the inner edge of the lower eastern district."


    "Oh, so you don''t live in the slums? That''s good to hear." She casually walked over and handed me a cup of tea as we talked.


    "T..thank you��" Reluctantly taking it from her, I took a sip and felt warmth fill my body. -Wow��- "It''s.. really good��"


    "Haha, I''m d you like it. I will prepare some for you to take home."


    But even though it was a wonderful thing to be gifted tea by the royal family, I couldn''t help but feel sad. -So they are sending me home...-


    It only took a moment for the maid to notice my mood. "What''s wrong? Is there an issue with me sending some home with you?"


    "Oh, no! It''s not that!" I panicked slightly as I jumped to conclusions, but quickly calmed down. "I was just excited to finally make a friend, is all.."


    "Hm?" The maid only looked confused. "Why do you look sad then?"


    "Well, because I passed out and ruined the date�� Now I have to go back home..."


    "Oh? I thought you were staying the night?"


    "Huh?" The sadness on my face vanished in an instant. "Are you not sending me home?"


    "Haha, no, of course not. What made you think that?"


    "Uh.. well... Nevermind�� I''m sorry��" I immediately threw out an apology when I realized how grand my assumption was.


    "It''s alright, darling." The beautiful maid then came over and rubbed my back tofort me, and it worked like a charm.


    It only took a moment for me to calm down once again. "So, where is Lu- I mean, the Princess?"


    "Haha, she should be having dinner right now."


    "Oh. So, I missed it?"


    "I''m sure they won''t mind if you show up a littlete."


    "A..are you sure?" To be honest, I was incredibly nervous about meeting the Royal Family and genuinely thought it might have been better that I missed it.


    But the maid immediately destroyed that possibility. "Of course I am. As long as you are feeling well enough to go, I think you should join them."


    I sat there, frozen in ce for a moment, before eventually managing to pep myself up enough to swing my legs off the bed. -I can do this. I can do this. It''s only the king and queen... I got this. Come on me! I got this!-


    The maid showed me an oddly motherly smile as I patted my cheeks and forcefully gave myself some confidence. "Since you seem ready, I will lead the way-"


    "W..w..wait!"


    "Hm? What is it?"


    "Shouldn''t I change?" -I look like a mess!- I was still in my school uniform, but it was all wrinkled and disheveled fromying under the bedsheets.


    "Hmm, you will be fine. Let��s go, shall we?"


    With a slightly ufortable look, I reluctantly followed her down the hall and tried to tidy myself as best as I could, but we arrived at the dining room much faster than I expected.


    - Vasilias ~


    Upon arriving at the dining room, we walked inside at took a seat.


    It wasn��t too long after that, that Helen arrived as well. "Good evening, you two."


    "Hello, Mother! How was your day?" Although still feeling guilty, Lucy cheered right up when she saw Helen.


    "It wasn��t bad. Could have been much worse, but thankfully I only had to do some extra paperwork to resolve the issue. Anyways, how was your day, sweetie?"


    "Ah, it was.. pretty good as well."


    Helen''s mood quickly darkened as she assumed the worst. "Oh, what happened? You weren''t picked on, were you?"


    "No, nothing like that. I just made a friend, her name is Viviana, and after spending the day talking, I asked if she wanted to spend the night, and her parents agreed.. but.."


    "But, what?"


    Seeing Lucy''s guilt, I spoke up for her. "Viviana is amoner girl, and Lucy never even mentioned that she was a noble, let alone the Princess, so..."


    Helen��s look turned to one of disappointment as her face fell into her hands.


    "Sorry mother��"


    Unlike what Lucy was thinking though, Helen wasn''t disappointed in her at all. "Don��t say sorry, sweetie. That''s my fault. I should have taught you about that before you went to school��" There was a short pause as she fell into thought. "So where is she?"


    *Knock* *Knock*


    Before I could answer, the door opened and revealed Viviana nervously standing there.


    -She woke up quickly��-


    "I have brought Viviana Zidek to attend dinner." Martha gave a deep bow before leaving and closing the door behind her.


    "S..sorry if I''m interrupting!" Viviana''s nervousness was obvious as she threw herself into a grovel.


    The first to say anything was Helen, as she got up from her seat and walked over to the shaking girl. "You know, not showing your face when meeting the queen is poor etiquette."


    Vivana hastily looked up to see Helen wearing a warm smile.


    "You are my daughter''s friend. Please speakfortably."


    I felt like I could hear the cogs turning in her mind as Viviana tried to think of what to say, but her mind eventually ran out of ideas and she simplypiled. "O..okay��"


    Helen''s smile grew after confirming that Viviana wasn��t trying to take advantage of Lucy. "Much better." With a light tap on Viviana''s head, Helen turned and sat back down at the table. "So tell me about yourself, Viviana."


    "Well... I am amoner. My family lives on the inner edge of the lower eastern district, and we have lived there for several years now."


    "Oh? Where did your familye from?"


    "Sinder. We were lucky enough to leave before the chaos.."


    "Ah right, nearly forgot about Sinder''s situation. So why did you end up moving?"


    "My parents are merchants, so we moved here for better business."


    Their idle chatter continued for a decent while before the subject shifted once again. "So I heard there was an incident at the academy this morning."


    Lucy tensed up.


    "I heard a knight was killed and a student''s leg was.. ording to the medical report, ''unrepairable''." She looked over at me like she wanted a response.


    Not backing down at all, I looked her right in the eyes. "I''m sure you would��ve done worse if you saw the way they looked at Lucy."


    Her serious look immediately disappeared. "Haha, true! Thanks to you killing that knight, several youngmoner girls finally came forward and exposed some of his.. vile crimes.." Her face shifted to one of disgust. "On top of that, we might have gotten a lead on a moneyundering noble. That one might be a false lead though-"


    *Click* Interrupting her voice, the door to the dining room swung open and Oliver came charging through. "Sorry for beingte, but, Vasilias, I need to make another request.."


    -What is it now?- "I''m all ears."


    Quickly ncing around the room, he noticed Viviana staring at him. "Miss Viviana, sorry for not being able to greet you yet, but could you please step out for a moment?"


    Not questioning anything, Viviana hopped out of her chair and quickly made her way to the door.


    "Do I need to stay?" Lucy gave a guilty look after seeing Viviana leave the room.


    "No you can join her, I just need to talk with Vasilias privately for a moment."


    Giving a nod, both the young girls disappeared out of the door.


    "Okay now that we are alone.." He slid a silencing artifact onto the table before quickly activating it. "I need to request your help."


    "Okay? What do you want me to do."


    "I want you to save Kan.."


    -Talk about a grand request..- "Sounds heavy."


    "If you wish to decline, Ipletely understand."


    "Well, tell me the details first."


    "Right. So, an hour or so ago, I got news from a messenger in the western part of the main continent. A week ago, a new alliance was created. They''re calling it the Great Alliance, and it''s made up of nearly 60 nations,rge and small. The only nations that were left untouched were those allied with the Holy Kingdom, the Bay Alliance, and various other smaller alliances."


    "So what makes you think they will dere war?"


    "I got a list of nations from that nation rank assassin from the tower, and nearly every nation he listed is in the alliance. The alliance is also centered around Deacia, a country far too small to lead such a massive alliance."


    "So you''re saying that it''s the towers doing?"


    "Yes." His eyes were filled with determination.


    "The Bay alliance is fairly strong, so how much will I actually have to do if they dere war?"


    "I just want you to assist Lawton in protecting the capital. I will not ask you to assist beyond that, even if the Bay Alliance falls back."


    "Hmm.." -No matter what he wishes to give me as payment, this request is a bit much...- "Father should be back tomorrow or the next day. Do you mind waiting to let me ask him?" -He might get help from Bahamut if he can convince the elders..-


    "Of course."


    "Alright then. So, what were you thinking of giving for payment?"


    "You can have anything you want from the vault. Even if it''s dozens of items, including the family heirloom."


    Silence fell across the table immediately.

 Chapter 74: What is Real, What is Fake

    Chapter 74: What is Real, What is Fake


    Mid Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    "You can have anything you want from the vault. Even if it''s dozens of items, including the family heirloom." Although Oliver kept a serious face, I could tell he was reluctant to speak.


    But even still, I felt my mouth start to water. -I wonder what it��ll taste like��-


    Looking over at Helen, I assumed she was going to object to it, but she seemed to be in agreement. "So how long is the contract valid?"


    "I''m not too sure."


    "So, if I went on the offensive, and destroyed the Tower myself, would the contract end?"


    "Yes."


    -So if Father manages to get Bahamut��s support, I can get that juicy mana core for free...- Although I didn��t want to show it, I made my decision at that moment. "I still need some time to think about it, but consider it valid unless I say otherwise."


    The serious expression on his face slowly shifted to one of relief. "Take your time." After discussing a few more minor details, he eventually tapped the silencing artifact again and had everyonee back in. "So Viviana, I heard about you from Martha, but tell me a little about yourself."As the conversation progressed, the joyful and caring family atmosphere steadily filled the room and caused a distant, blurry memory to surface in my mind.


    It was simply the scene of me sitting at a small wooden table with three people around it.


    At first, I felt nostalgia and loving warmth from the memory, but after another moment, it shifted to unfamiliarity and difort. -Is this really my memory?-


    "Are you alright Vasilias? Is something wrong with the food?" Oliver��s voice was drowned with anxiety.


    "Ah, I��m fine�� I was just reminded of.. something." Silence filled the room as I reached for the silverware to finally eat. -When I was first born in this world, I was so confident that I was that human on Earth, but as time passes.. those memories feel so.. unfamiliar��-


    Not wanting to think about it too much after that, I started eating and sparked some idle conversation among everyone.


    Thankfully, my mind got sidetracked with the discussion, and I ended up actually having a decent evening after that.


    The food was only moderately good, but more importantly, there was a lot of it. I ended up eating over a dozen tes. -I could really go for a field bison right about now...- "So, Oliver, are there any big field bison around here?" I leaned back in my chair to enjoy my temporary satisfaction.


    "Field Bison? Ah, you must mean War Bison. We don''t have them around here, thankfully. If they weremon, towns would be destroyed constantly."


    -Were field bison really that strong?- Struggling to believe that, I thought back to how Mother would bring them back like they were a couple fruit she, ��stumbled upon��. -I guess dragons are just on a different scale��- "Maybe I should fly home and grab one..."


    Oliver immediately tensed up, likely thinking I was going to leave. "What are you looking for?"


    "Something big to eat. I''m just used to field bison."


    Viviana''s face was covered in confusion, but she didn''t open her mouth to ask about it.


    "The biggest monsters nearby are bluefin in the deep part of the bay."


    "Oh? How big do those get?"


    "20 meters on the big side. They live really deep though, so I can''t rmend going after them yourself."


    "How deep is really deep?"


    "A few kilometers at least. We do asionally catch some if you want me to see if I can get one for you though."


    Although I wasn''t exactly scared of deep water, I couldn''t say I wasn''t nervous. -I''m not sure whether I want to confirm the validity of Mother��s stories just yet��- As I felt a shiver pass down my spine, I tried to put on a smile. "If you could check, that''d be great. Anything else that''s big, like 10 meters or more, works too."


    "I''ll be sure to take a look. In any case, thank you for joining us for dinner, Vasilias and Viviana. I need to get back to work, so I will take my leave first." On his way out he gave a shallow bow, making Viviana freak out a little, but things quickly calmed back down.


    "I''m gonna take my leave as well. I want to go stretch my wings some. I''ll still be close enough to help should a problem arise though."


    Viviana was, again, incredibly confused, but was too nervous to ask about it.


    "Ah, when youe back, I''d like to speak with you, so pleasee by my office." Helen stopped me as I pushed my chair back in.


    "Are you not going to sleep tonight?"


    "Haah, no matter how much I want to, I have too much paperwork given by the nobles making a fuss over the incident in the academy for me to do so."


    "Ah, sorry about that. If there is anything I can do to help, just let me know."


    "Don''t worry about it, thank you for the offer though." She put on a caring smile as I stood up to leave. "If there is anything else you would like for payment, please just ask." She stood up and gave a humble bow.


    "That mana core will probably be more than enough, so don''t worry. In any case, I''ll be back before sunrise."


    She was quick to straighten back up and put on a smile. "See you then~"


    Giving another nod, I finally left the dining room and made my way to the za for a short pit stop. -I might as well check up on her, right?- But, honestly, it went about as well as I expected.


    "Hey bastard, when are you going to let me out?" Maria red at me with anger-filled eyes as I walked up to her.


    -Thank goodness I put up a silencing barrier beforehand��- "Maybe if you told me where the halfies you know are, I''d consider it."


    "I''ve told you already, I have no idea about them. They could be dead for all I know."


    "Then that sucks for you." Noticing a bit of deterioration on the metal, I reached up to repair it. "You��ll be sitting here till things get figured out, so you might as well nap or something."


    There was a short pause before she looked away from me. "If death is the only thing waiting for me, just kill me now."


    The eptance of her demise was honestly quite impressive. "The thing is, death may not be what is waiting for you. You never know. You might end up being a ve though."


    Her fiery eyes immediately locked on me again. "I''d rather die than be a ve to a damn dragon like you-"


    *DING* The entire za sank a few centimeters as I drove the ring into the ground a bit more. "Your tongue is really sharp for the situation you��re in."


    "Eck.." She groaned as the ring pressed her neck to the ground.


    "I''ll be back in a day or two, so don''t get toofortable." Hopping off her back, I noticed her eyes were full of resistance, but I couldn''t really me her. -I''d be upset if I was in her situation too...- "Alright, let''s go Ilios."


    We left quite quickly after that, not wasting any time leaving the city and heading into a nearby forest.


    We ended up scaring away just about everything in the vicinity as we got there, but it didn''t really matter. -I think hobgoblins are the strongest thing in this forest anyways.-


    ncing down at Ilios after changing to my dragon form, I noticed he was looking up at me with unbridled joy. "Haha, you can hop on, Ilios!"


    Almost immediately, he leapt onto my back and climbed up to my head.


    Usually, dragons would never let anything ride on them, and I was no exception. To dragons, letting a creature ride on them was equivalent to saying you were below them, but to me, Ilios was a different story.


    Instead of feeling inferior like most dragons, I just felt like I was letting him have a fun time, simr to how I would let Krystallo ride on my head if she asked.


    "Well, if you sit up there, you need to hold on!" As my wings spread, Ilios casually sat down and looked up at the sky. *FWOOOSH*


    Getting above the clouds in a few seconds, we finally looked up into the clear night sky and over the world around us.


    "No matter how many times I see it, it''s truly beautiful isn''t it.."


    "Woof!"


    "Haha!" Looking down, I could see the city with stunning rity. The various markets, homes, and even people walking along the streets gave the city a special type of beauty.


    A small part of me was reminded of cities on Earth, but as I reminisced about them, an odd thought crossed my mind. -Does it really matter if I was that human on Earth?-


    Quickly sifting through the countless memories, I couldn''t find a single reason to return to Earth.


    To me now, it was simply a world I had no attachment to. -But maybe... Maybe one day I''ll find it to see if my memories are really just illusions...-

 Chapter 75: A Surprise

    Chapter 75: A Surprise


    Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    It wasn��t until sunrise that I finally headed back to the pce. I had spent nearly the entire night just flying around and stargazing, but also took some time to get they of thend. -Although there isn��t much other than forest here��-


    At present, I was winding my way down a few hallways in an attempt to get to Helen��s office.


    Thankfully though, it didn''t take too long to find. -This should be it.-


    *Click* As the door swung open, I came into a room lined with bookshelves with two couches, a coffee table, and a desk in front of arge window. -I wonder what these books are about��- "Good morning Helen."


    "..good morning��" Hearing her lethargic greeting, I turned back to see Helen sitting at her desk with bags under her eyes.


    "You should really get some sleep."


    "I will, here shortly��" *Yawn* "So I called you this morning to inform you about some things. It should only take a second, but if you��d like to sit and have some tea, feel free."


    "No thanks, I''m heading to the academy library right after this, so��""Alright. In that case, I��ll be quick. First things first, the librarian at the academy is a top rank information broker. If you need any information about this half of the continent, he can get it for you. Just be aware that, on top of the information being absurdly expensive, he only answers the bare minimum, so be very careful what you ask."


    -I knew something about him felt off��- "Alright, good to know."


    "Second, please keep your eye out while you are at the academy. If you see anything suspicious, please at least report it." Her lethargy vanished as she spoke. "Since the attempted assassination of my husband, we have found several spies among knights and nobles. I feel bad to ask more from you but-"


    "No, it''s alright. It''s not like it''s anything major."


    "Phew... Thank you��"


    "Haha, no worries."


    We continued talking for another moment after that before Helen��s sleepiness eventually caught up with her.


    *Tap* As sheid her head down on the desk like she was going to take a nap when we finished the important stuff.


    "Want me to call in a maid to get you a pillow?"


    "No, it''s alright��"


    "Haha, alright then... Well, have a good nap."


    "Mmm.." She let out a lethargic groan as I walked out of her office. *Click*


    I made my way out into the courtyard after that to wait for the carriage to the academy but ended up casually ying with Ilios to pass the time.


    ying made time pass quicker than I expected though. "Good morning!"


    -Hm?- Stopping just short of Ilios, I turned to see Lucy and Viviana walking out of the pce with beaming smiles. "You guys must''ve had a good night."


    "Well of course!" Lucy seemed to be in an especially good mood.


    -Seems like Viviana got used to everything after all.- It took her a while to warm up, but things eventually worked out.


    After that, we quickly boarded the carriage and made our way to the academy.


    The ride was filled with Lucy and Viviana��s gossip about ss and ssmates, but I simply muffled their voices with magic until we finally arrived and I could head to the library.


    "Do you n to be in the library all day again?" Lucy stopped to look at me as I reached for the handle to the library door.


    "Yeah, at least that��s the n." She gave me a disappointed look before I finally opened up the door. *Click* -No one��s here again?-


    Although I found it odd, I didn��t really question it. -It''s not like it matters to me anyways.-


    Quickly making my way up to the librarian''s desk, I gave a short greeting and leaned over the desk. "Good morning."


    "G..good morning�� Is it necessary to lean over the desk like that?"


    "Do you happen to have any information on the Tower''s movement?"


    The man immediately mmed up. "H..ow do you know about that?"


    "Wow, asking questions about the client already? How unprofessional. So what cost are we looking at for that information?"


    "That request is too general." He was clearly awkward about the information but was trying to hide that fact.


    -Let��s see how long you can keep acting then.- "Then how about what the tower is nning to do with their new alliance."


    "More than you have, even the royal family can''t afford that kind of information."


    -So the alliance really was the Towers doing.- "How about I trade information for it?"


    "What kind of information?"


    "How about the fate of the tower?"


    "Alright, you''ve got my ears." This time he used a silencing artifact. Even though no one was in the library, he didn''t want to chance someone walking in on it.


    "Within the next week, the tower will cease to exist."


    He was looking at me like I was some crazy kid. "And how could you possibly know that?"


    The instant he finished talking, I looked him in the eyes and let my aura loose, only keeping it from escaping the room. "Because if ites to it, I will destroy it myself." -If Father can��t get Bahamut��s support, I''ll just find the city their executives are in and level it.-


    The man''s face paled as he realized it wasn��t an empty threat.


    "How about now? You willing to trade me that information?"


    "O..f course.." He shakily reached into a drawer and pulled out several papers.


    Quickly retracting my aura into ayer, I gave him a moment to catch his breath.


    "Please forgive me, my collection of information regarding the tower is rather limited, but I have made some recent connections regarding the movement of wealth between nations allied with them."


    "That''s good enough for now."


    The next hour passed in a sh as he exined innumerable political concepts and told me everything he knew of the Tower��s recent movements, but it all led up to a single theory. "The tower is going to attack the Bay alliance without dering war, and Kan is the first target."


    All of the countries near the Bay Alliance had been gathering their troops and building armies with the help of the alliance over the past few days, and even received several Nation Rank mercenaries in the process.


    The most tant case of this was the Kingdom of Zan, now being home to more than 12 foreign Nation rank adventurers. This was far more than enough topletely destroy Kan before the news could even reach the rest of the Bay Alliance.


    -To think they��re already nning to attack...- "So do you know how long it will be until they move those Nation Ranks?"


    "My best guess is tomorrow night or the day after."


    -Damn, that quickly?- But even though it was a bit shocking to actually hear, it made sense. -They��ve had this nned for a while��- "Alright onest thing."


    He let out a deep breath, likely happy that I was going to leave him alone.


    "What does theposition of the 12 nation ranks look like?"


    "Ah�� Let me check." He immediately went rummaging through his drawer again before pulling out a fairly thick stack of papers. *flip-flip-flip-flip* "Uh.. 4 mages, 3 archers, and 5 melee fighters."


    -Damn...- They had a goodyout on top of the fact that, even without counting their teamwork, I would need to actually be somewhat careful. -Even for me, 12 Nation ranks at once is too much...- "Alright, that��s all I need to know for now. Thanks for the information."


    Although I wanted to continue looking through the library after that, the information I got was a bit too urgent. -I need to talk to Oliver ASAP��-


    Immediately leaving the library and dashing across rooftops to get back to the pce as quickly as possible, the scenario finally started to weigh on me. -I''m sure I could take care of them quitefortably in my dragon form, but it��ll be troublesome for my humanoid one��-


    The only thing I could think of was the consequences of letting Kan get destroyed. -I think Mother and Father would actually disown me��-


    Finally making it to Oliver��s office, I watched as a maid opened up the door with a carefree expression, reminding me of the librarian. -Wait.. Wasn��t he a bit too carefree even after knowing that information?-


    But before I could think much about it, the door swung open. *Click*


    "Oh, you''re still here?" Oliver likely thought it was odd seeing me enter his office just a couple hours after leaving for the academy.


    But now wasn��t the time for small talk. "We need to talk, now."


    His face immediately turned serious as he set aside everything on his desk.


    "I''m going to need the payment for the contract early, or else Kan will be in one hell of a predicament." In all honesty, my confidence against all of those Nation ranks wasn��t low, but it wasn��t high enough either.


    Oliver furrowed his brow seeing that I wasn��t joking. "Those are some rming words. Where are you getting the information to make that conclusion?"


    "From an information broker Helen rmended me." -The more I think about him, the more suspicious he is, but I don''t think spies are what I should be worrying about right now.-


    "Oh, him��" Oliver cringed slightly. "You can take whatever you��d like when you feel like you need it, but I need you to exin just how Kan will fall without it. We aren''t weak enough to fall so easily." He seemed quite unhappy that I implied Kan would fall without me.


    So I quickly gave him a quick overview of the information, but he immediately got nervous.


    "T..twelve? How did I not hear about any of that?"


    "I don''t know if my father will make it back in time, but I don��t want him fighting alone anyway. I n to go out tonight and either catch them off guard or intercept them so we can fight without eyes around."


    "In that case, I will get the academy grandmaster and Lawton to go with you-"


    "No, they can''te."


    Oliver paused for a moment. "And why is that?"


    "If things go south.. I don''t want any allies in the area."


    Likely assuming what I meant, he finally agreed. "Please take anything you may need from the vault.."


    "Thanks. I''ll be sure to stop them, so don''t worry." I gave him a confident smile as I turned to the door and left.


    *Click*


    - Oliver ~


    *Click*


    As Vasilias left the room, I turned and looked out the window. "How could I possibly agree to let you go alone."


    I knew deep down that Vasilias wanted to be alone so he could simply wipe them out in his dragon form, but.. -12 Nation Ranks is simply too much...- Finally working up some determination, I called in an older butler.


    "Greetings to your highness." He gave a deep bow as he walked in.


    "Summon Lawton Keen and the Grandmaster please." -Two people knowing you��re a dragon is just a cost that must be paid to save your life, Vasilias.-

 Chapter 76: Failing to Think Things Through

    Chapter 76: Failing to Think Things Through


    Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    *tap-tap-tap-tap* As I walked down the stairs behind the throne, I continued to think about what my n was going to be, and, although I actually had quite a few options, I was in quite a troublesome predicament.


    Currently, my best idea was to simply abuse railgun magic, but that idea had a.. uniqueplication. -Will they even be able to react to it? It��ll be no fun if I just ughter them when they can��t fight back...-


    Even though it was a fight that could even get me killed if I charged into the situation carelessly, I still somehow felt excited.


    The more I thought about the thrill of a kill-or-be-killed fight where I had to use everything I had, the more my heart fluttered.


    But before I knew it, I had arrived at the vault and needed to halt my excitement for a moment. -Alright, let''s see if I can remember the code.-


    Just looking at the vault, I couldn''t actually see the buttons, but that changed with a quick aura scan. -To think someone could make a button that precise in this era�� It puts machinery to shame��-


    *click-click-click-click-CLANG*


    -Sweet, first try!- Quickly making my way into the vault, I eyeballed the massive mana core for a moment, but turned to the few dozen weapons lining the wall first. -Maybe I could use one of these?-They were all masterfully crafted weapons, but they were a little big for me.


    There was one weapon that really caught my eye though. It was a massive greatsword that looked like something straight from ��Monster Hunter��.


    It was definitely too big for my body, but I at least had the strength to wield itfortably with two hands.


    -I just have no experience with any of these weapons..- "Ugh..." Scratching my head while trying to think of what to do, Ilios brushed past my leg and picked up the sword. -Hm?-


    As he pulled it off the wall, the sword started to glow and became slightly smaller, just enough that it wouldn��t be too inconvenient for me to swing. "Woof." As if it was nothing, he turned around and set it in front of me with a smile on his face.


    "You can do that?!" Quickly reaching down and patting his head, I reached for the de and picked it up. "Oof..." -It''s heavier too?- Although I could still wield it with two hands, its weight was not as minor as it previously was. -It does feel nice in the hands though��-


    I ended up contemting whether I should take it for a couple more minutes after that before eventually going, ��might as well�� and setting it outside.


    "Now��" -Time for you��- As I walked up to the mana core, I finally realized something important. -How am I going to absorb this?-


    It was a little too big to realistically swallow, but I didn��t have the time to absorb it slowly.


    -Should I just try to force it down?- Finally picking it up off the pedestal and bringing it outside, I changed to my dragon form and examined it a little more closely. -It might actually fit��-


    Although it was close, I figured I could actually swallow it. -Even if it gets lodged, I can just crush it a bit and swallow it then��- "Well, here goes nothing!"


    *tink* As I carefully put it in my mouth, an indescribable yet heavenly taste spread through my mouth. -If only I could take my time to enjoy the taste��- *Gulp*


    Immediately forcing it down my throat, it quickly made it to my stomach.


    "Alright, time to control the mana-" *Shatter* My thoughts came to a screeching halt as I heard a sound simr to ss shattering in my stomach and had my instinct scream at me.


    *Vwooom* A wave of mana, thousands of timesrger than I expected, exploded from the core as it disintegrated in my stomach.


    Before I could even react, my reserve absorbed too much, too quickly...


    ..and exploded. *VWOOOM*


    The colossal wave of mana that erupted within my body instantly shredded my organs and shattered my bones, sending a nearly unfathomable pain through my body.


    *Thud* I copsed to the floor before a single thought coulde to mind, but right as I passed out, I felt an all too familiar, mysterious energy wrap around my body.


    -Is this.. Death?-


    - ~~~ - (Omnipotent)


    "Haah.." -I should bestow that sword to Lawton just in case��- Oliver had a lot on his mind while he waited for Lawton and the Grandmaster to arrive, but whether fortunately or unfortunately, they arrived before he expected.


    *Click*


    -They��re here already?- Dragging him out of my thoughts, he looked up towards the door. "Pleasee in, you two."


    Standing in the doorway was Lawton Keen standing next to an average-height, mature-looking elf woman. "Sorry, we arete my Lord."


    "No worries, please speakfortably." Putting on a serious expression, Oliver sat up straight at his desk. "I need you two to take a seat. We have something very important to discuss."


    Both nodding their heads, they quickly made their way to the couches and went to sit down.


    Right as they sat on the cushions though�� *VWOOOM*


    Everyone in the pce simultaneously paled from fear, whether they could sense what caused it or not.


    The mana within the pce had turned unfathomably suffocating, now being easily dense enough to cause mana poisoning, but the suction that caused it was far too strong to allow that.


    Mana flowed through walls, floors, and even people as if they weren��t there before being forcefully pulled through the thick stone below the pce.


    The first person in the pce to break from their fear-driven stun was Oliver when he finally noticed where the mana was flowing. -The shelter? WHAT DID HE DO?!-


    Although his body was screaming, telling him to run away, he instead got up and started running towards the throne room.


    Seeing Oliver dash out of the office, Lawton finally snapped out of his panic and he followed after him.


    The only one to not move at all was Eulia Coletti, The Grandmaster.


    She sat there, frozen from fear like everyone else, but the horror she felt wasn��t from her instincts.


    She was simply the only one proficient enough with mana to notice just how wrong things were.


    As she wracked her brain to figure out what could possibly cause the suction, she felt a horrible sensation in her chest.


    That was when she finally looked at her reserve and noticed it was emptying itself.


    Without even bothering to try and escape or prevent the suction, she eventually copsed onto the couch, forced into a deep sleep by mana exhaustion.


    But she wasn��t the only one.


    People in the pce copsed one by one, with Oliver being no exception.


    *Thud* As his body fell to the floor, Lawton sprinted up to his side in a panic.


    "My Lord!" But before he could even think of what caused the phenomenon, Lawton��s mind was wrapped in a fog. *Thud*


    - Maria ~


    Outside the pce, within the za of the Upper District, I was in a deep sleep. I had nothing else to do, after all, but that day, I was woken up by an unusual flow of mana.


    -What the��- Quickly opening my eyes, I looked towards the pce to see it mostly epassed by a dome of mana.


    Just the thought of what could possibly cause the phenomenon made me shiver, but that awe quickly turned to fear when I noticed the bubble grow evenrger.


    My face continued to pale as the sphere grew and the immense suction of mana finally reached me.


    The thought of escape was nowhere in my mind as I couldn��t even muster the strength to prevent my reserve from being drained. *thud*


    Minutes ticked by like hours as all the energy was sapped from my body. Eventually though, I, just like the countless humanoids around me, ran out of mana to be drained and passed out.


    -In front of the strong.. I guess we are all the same��-


    - ~~~ - (Omnipotent)


    On the opposite side of the upper district, Lucy was enjoying her lunch with Viviana when she noticed something odd.


    People''s auras, instead of simply exuding in all directions, were being pulled in a single direction.


    "Is something wrong, Lucy?" Viviana gave her a worried look.


    Quickly turning back to Viviana, Lucy tried to put on a smile. "Ah, n..no everything is f-"


    "Hello students of the Academy, the school is going into lockdown." An old male voice resounded through the cafeteria through a transmission artifact. "An anomaly has urred within the royal pce, causing people in the vicinity to copse on the spot. Please stay calm and find a ce to rest your head until you are instructed otherwise."


    Lucy''s heart dropped the instant she heard the first part of the announcement. -People are copsing in the streets.. and the source is the pce��-


    Her mind immediately jumped to conclusions as she hastily got up and ran outside, managing to get around the knights standing at the door. *Click*


    After mming her way through the door, she looked up towards the pce and noticed that it had beenpletely enveloped in a gargantuan hemisphere of mana.


    The mana bubble had stopped growing and even started to shrink, but the suction was still just as strong.


    "N..no��" Lucy''s legs went weak as her mindnded in all the wrong ces.


    It was only a short instantter that she passed out from shock.


    *pat* Managing to get to Lucy just in time, Viviana caught her as she fell over. "Lucy!" The scene of Lucyying limply in her arms made her break into a panic. "GUARDS! PLEASE, ANYONE!"


    Hearing her yelling, a couple of young knights came rushing over. "What is it, miss?!"


    "My friend! She started freaking out inside and ran out here, b..but-but then she just copsed!" She was crying incredibly heavily, being unable to keepposure any longer.


    The knight quickly reached down and took Lucy from Viviana��s arms. "Please follow me miss, we need to bring her to the clinic immediately."


    Viviana shakily got up and ran after the man, but that was when the students began dropping like flies, and children''s screams could be heard through the entire building.


    Viviana could do nothing but try and resist the encroaching feeling of exhaustion as she ran down the hallway. -Please�� Just a little.. more��- *thud*

 Chapter 77: Impossibility

    Chapter 77: Impossibility


    Time Error - <em>�D?�D???��???i???n???v???a???l???i???d???��???�D�D??? </em>: Location Error - �D�D???��??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????�D???<em>�D???</em>


    *Gasp* "Haah.. Haah.." I woke up in a panic, gripping my chest after having my reserve blow apart my insides, but an instantter, I realized the pain was gone.


    *Heavy Breathing* -Am I dead?- Hastily looking around, I noticed I was in a small clearing in a forest next to a familiar hut.


    -So.. I''m here again��- As Iid back to catch my breath I idly checked to make sure everything was as I remembered, which it was. -That should mean I''m alive�� Hopefully��-


    I ended upying there for a couple more minutes to sort my thoughts before eventually sitting back up and taking a look at myself. -I��m not sure why I��m even surprised by the changes anymore��-


    My body was actually quite simr to my true form, but I was much taller and less childish, with a much longer tail and ears. -I look to be around 15 or 16 as well.- It was quite a jump from the 12-year-old body I was used to, but it was a wee change. -Such a small body was really inconvenient��-


    But that was when I subconsciously controlled a part of the energy around me like mana and noticed some more concerning changes.


    Inside my body, there was not a single thing that looked even remotely familiar. No reserve, no organs, no bones. I was simply made up of what felt like an infinite number of tiny ck tubes, too small for even the nucleus of a hydrogen atom to fit into.


    -Am I actually dead and just dreaming of all of this? What are these tubes even made of?- I struggled to wrap my mind around the abysmally tiny scale of them, but things only got worse when I finally noticed that the energy I was controlling wasn''t even mana.��Wait.. what.. is this?�� Although it felt extremely simr to mana whenparing the energy of individual particles, the particles themselves were hundreds of millions of times smaller.


    They were so small in fact, that if I was more proficient at controlling it, I could look inside of singr particles of mana and even manipte whateverposed it. -But currently, I can''t even look at mana with any detail...-


    It was quite disappointing seeing that I couldn��t answer many of my long-standing questions about what mana was, but nheless, I was excited to have discovered the new energy itself.


    But even though I felt like I could spend decades simply experimenting with the energy, I stopped myself before I got carried away.


    -Alright, I need to stop before I waste all my time here...- Remembering back to my previous experiences in this ce, I figured it was safe to assume that my time here was limited. -I need to make the most of what time I have left��-


    Finally pulling myself from my thoughts, I hopped up and looked around with haste. -Let''s start by exploring this cottage, shall we?-


    Quickly moving inside, I found a table full of unusual equipment made of both ss and metal, with dozens of books thrown about.


    It honestly looked like some mad scientist��s den, but even though it sounded like a joke, I couldn��t deny that possibility.


    Looking down at an open book on the edge of the table, I read:


    ''Step 24: Pour sk in b and c with equal proportions.


    Step 25: Add powder 2a to sk b.


    Step 26: Heat sk b until contents match orange 1d. The sk should glow slightly.''


    -Hm�� It really is quite scientific��-


    Deciding I probably shouldn''t touch any of it, I continued to look around but didn��t really find anything of interest.


    As I walked back outside to continue exploring though, I felt something ��call�� me.


    -It''s just like back then��- Although it was only vaguely simr, it immediately reminded me of the attraction I felt towards the tesseract I touched right when I hatched, but even after having previously experienced it, I couldn��t resist it in the slightest.


    After another moment, my mind simply went nk and I started idly floating toward the source of it.


    As I flew, I steadily lost track of time and even passed over countless cities, kingdoms,kes, and oceans without even noticing.


    But eventually, the fog in my mind finally started to dissipate. -Huh, where am I?-


    Looking around in a lethargic manner, I noticed I was hovering above arge city. -Is this.. Kan��s capital?-


    Looking down into the streets, I noticed everyone was frozen in time and either wearing a panicked expression or simply unconscious. -Am I toote?-


    Continuing towards the pce, where the source of the attraction was, I noticed innumerably more people lying on the ground, unconscious, but kept my mind from making any preemptive assumptions.


    By the time I actually got to the pce though, I couldn��t hold back anymore.


    Everyone in the pce, without exception, was unconscious, be it butlers, maids, or knights, but none of them were injured besides minor bruising like they suddenly fell over. -What''s going on?-


    Looking more closely at the mana around a nearby maid, I was quick to notice that the mana wasn��t actually being absorbed by her reserve at all, instead, it was just being pulled into the ground through her body.


    -What the hell...- Deciding to check it out for myself, I thoughtlessly flew through the ground before eventually popping out of the ceiling in the shelter.


    Looking towards the source of the suction of mana, I saw my dragon form lying next to Ilios while wrapped in arge ck bubble.


    Although it was a bit troubling to see, it let me let out a breath of relief. "Phew..." -I thought Kan was already attacked...- But that feeling of relief didn''tst long. -To think I''m really having a dragon sleep right now...-


    I honestly couldn''t believe it.


    Not only was I not due for another one yet, but it was also just about as untimely as it got. -If I don��t wake up in time, Kan will fall��-


    But as I lowered myself towards my dragon body, that dwindling hope was revitalized. -Woah��-


    Looking into the ck sphere, I noticed that time was moving iparably quicker than the rest of the world. -Does time pass faster inside this barrier?-


    But before I could fall into thought, an all too familiar voice met my ears. "To think you unconsciously made this kind of thing."


    The woman''s voice ripped me from my thoughts and sent a chill down my spine immediately. -Why do I always run into her?!-


    Not wanting to show how startled I was, I tried to y it off like I knew she was there. "What kind of barrier is this?"


    "You''ll figure it out eventually." As I heard the voice, a familiar woman walked out from the other side of the bubble and looked up at me with lustful eyes.


    I couldn��t hold back my look of disgust seeing her expression.


    "Awe~, don''t look at me like that, you''ll love me soon enough~."


    "I doubt that."


    "Ohe on~." As if she teleported, she appeared behind me and wrapped her arms around me. "I spent so much effort to find your physical body so I could watch over you and you end up nearly killing yourself. How do you not feel sorry for me at all?" She tried giving me ''puppy eyes'', but it just made me cringe further.


    "What''s wrong with you all of the sudden?" The first time we met, she looked at me like I was food, the second she looked at me like I was a toy, but now she treated me more like she was my mother. -What could even cause that kind of change...-


    "Oh, so am I supposed to be emotionless even after seeing the person most important to me almost kill themselves?"


    "It would��ve made me less ufortable at the very least..."


    But as I spoke, her exaggerated expression turned warm. "You don''t believe me, do you?"


    It felt so genuine that it caught me off guard, but I didn��t let myself get convinced that quickly. "Of course not. How am I supposed to believe that the person who has only ever treated me like a toy, suddenly became super attached to me?"


    She simply hesitated before pouting. "Hmph, you wouldn''t understand."


    "That''s not an answer... Haah..." Feeling her slowly pull her arms out from around me, I tried to slip away. "I''ll just do what I came here for." Quickly managing to escape her embrace, I made my way to the ground and mindlessly reached for my dragon body.


    Right before I could reach it though, the woman grabbed my wrist. "You can''t do that yet!" She spoke with a slightly panicked voice.


    Although a part of me knew I could force my way past her, something instinctual stopped me. "Why not?"


    "You''ll die if you try to do that now!" Her worry felt concerningly genuine.


    I was honestly taken aback by it. "Do what?"


    "If you touch your body now, you will die. Your physical body simply isn''t ready to merge yet..."


    -Merge?- "What do you mean by merge?"


    She jolted slightly like she had a slip of the tongue. "I.. can''t say that yet..." She looked like she was racing to change the subject. "Anyways, your dragon sleep is about to finish so your time is up!"


    -Already?!- Before I could even react, her hand gripped onto my face.


    "You''ll understand more next time... Please don''t despise me too much." She gave me a guilty look as my consciousness cked out once again.


    *tap* As she set her feet on the ground after dissipating my consciousness, she looked at my body with a look of worry.


    "Your soul would destroy your body before you could even react..."

 Chapter 78: A Very Long Yet Very Short Nap

    Chapter 78: A Very Long Yet Very Short Nap


    Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    "Ugh��" *lick-lick-lick-lick* Before I even opened my eyes, Ilios was showering my face with his tongue. "Hey, Ilios�� I hope I didn''t make you wait long��"


    Finally looking up, I noticed he had grown a ton, now being nearly 14 meters long and no longer wearing a puppy face.


    -He''s still so cute though...- Wanting to take a second to enjoy the moment, I went to rub my face into his fur but was hit by a wall of soreness all over my body. "Mmmm��" I couldn��t help but groan when I tried to move. -What the hell? Why am I so sore?-


    Nervous that the soreness could be from something serious, I hastily readied my aura and started to scan through my insides, but it wasn��t until I actually saw my reserve that I remembered it should have exploded.


    -Did I somehow form a new reserve?- Quickly examining the unfamiliar sphere of mana in my body, it was immediately apparent that my new reserve was immenselyrger and changed on a fundamental level. -Woah�� This is possible?-


    I could only watch in awe as I thinned and thickened the walls of my reserve, controlling not only the ease of extracting mana, but also the amount of aura I emitted. [1] -It��ll take some time to get used to it though��- Although it was convenient, it gave me a moderately ufortable sensation simr to being in my humanoid form.


    As for the rest of my insides, they were unrecognizable from before. Simply put, my entire skeletal structure had been rebuilt, from bones to muscles and organs. -I wonder how this will affect my movement��- Although I was a little nervous that the difference in weight distribution would affect my ��techniques��, it''s not like worrying could change anything.


    As for the outside, I had gone through aplete metamorphosis, growing all the way to 29 meters tall in one fell swoop, and instead of being sleek and skinny like before, I was more rugged and adult-like with various protruding horns and more muscle.But, although it was significantly more intimidating, I somehow kept the air of majesty from before with my matte ck scales and purple glow. -Somehow I think my scales got even darker..-


    I continued looking at myself for another few minutes after that, simply to make sure nothing was seriously wrong before I finally stood up.


    "Ack��" I was so sore that I struggled to stand up. -Just how long was I asleep?- But the instant I asked that question, my biological clocks gave me the answer. "I was asleep for 8 years?!"


    "Woof!" Ilios was quick to confirm.


    -I.. I left him here alone for 8 years...- Looking back at his innocent smile, I felt a wave of slightly exaggerated guilt wash over me. "I''M SO SORRYYYYY!!!" As I rushed back over and coddled him, he licked my face as if tofort me, but I still coddled him for several more minutes.


    As that guilt eventually faded though, I finally realized something that didn��t add up.


    -If 8 years passed in this bubble��- "Have we not eaten anything this whole time?!"


    I felt genuinely awful thinking that I starved Ilios, but not only was he not skinny, he looked well fed.


    -Did he eat something?- But that was when I noticed I wasn��t the slightest bit hungry either. -It''s not like I ate a lot before the dragon sleep, so�� is it possible that we could just live off mana?-


    The idea made me genuinely baffled, but I couldn��t just stand there in shock forever.


    -Whatever, I''ll figure it outter. Right now, I need to focus...- Looking around, I looked at the bubble still encapsting us. -How do I get out of this..-


    After taking a moment to think and not having any good idease to mind, I reached up and tapped the bubble with the tip of my w.


    *Vwoom* The instant the bubble popped, my pent-up aura flooded into the room, causing an extremely satisfying noise.


    Casually looking around, I tried to find anything out of ce, but everything was the exact same as it was before the sleep. -How much time has even passed�� And how did I just instinctively create that kind of barrier? It''d be awfully convenient to have control over.-


    Finally taking a moment to walk around, I quickly noticed just how much lighter I felt, even though I was significantly heavier.


    *Crack* If I stepped down a little too hard, I actually cracked the stone floor now. -As satisfying as that is though, I need to figure out how to not do that.-


    The next several minutes after that were simply dedicated to me figuring out how to walk without destroying the ground, but eventually, I got the hang of it and figured it would be worthwhile to check out my humanoid form as well. -I''m sure it changed too��-


    Not knowing what to expect, I quickly changed forms with Ilios and took a moment to examine myself.


    Whether surprisingly or unsurprisingly, my humanoid form looked just like it was in the dream, just with actual bones, muscles, and organs instead of the weird ck tubes.


    -I really do have a nice body though��- I only looked to be around 16 but my body was extremely toned. -I wonder how much stronger I am now��-


    Quickly looking around for something to test my strength on, my eyes settled on the greatsword outside of the vault building. -That''ll work��-


    Casually making my way over to it, I reached down and picked it up like it was a feather. -Holy sh*t�� It''s almost too light.-


    I ended up casually swinging it several more times after that before eventually getting the hang of things. -Swinging the sword is actually pretty fun��-


    Nonchntly remaking my ''noble clothing'' I went with ck and purple instead of white and purple. -If Mother yells at me, I''ll change it back but I honestly think the ck looks better...-


    While I was making the changes though, I added a small sling to mount the greatsword on my back and turned to Ilios. "Shall we?" I gave an excited smile to him as he came trotting up to my side. -Hehe, he��s so cute��-


    Quickly making it back up into the throne room, I was quick to notice how lifeless and cold the pce felt. Not only was there no one around, but even with my aura that now extended well over 100 meters in all directions, I couldn''t sense a single aura.


    Simply to make sure nothing changed from the dream, I walked around a bit to make sure people were alright, which they were.. sort of.


    Although I was super far away from them, I was able to roughly scan their bodies and figure out that there were no injuries besides some minor bruises and an emptied reserve.


    -They should all be fine once their reserves refill naturally.- Although I could have, I ended up deciding not to refill any of them myself. -They��ll be fine without me anyways.-


    Ignoring the rest of those knocked out, I hastily made my way out of the pce and into the empty courtyard.


    Looking toward the horizon, I could see the sun steadily setting, and decided it was finally time to go.


    Using light magic to cloak myself, I got to the open area of the courtyard and changed to my dragon form. "Hooh��" Although I was trying not to show it, my excitement was starting to boil over. "I might need your help with this one, Ilios." But I''m curious how much stronger I''ve really be... -


    "Woof!" Quickly climbing up onto my back, Ilios let out a confident woof.


    "Haha, I''m d to see you''re excited too!" After double checking to make sure Ilios was secured, I spread my, now evenrger, wings and through them towards the ground. *FWWOOOSH*


    With just a single p, we wereunched several hundred meters into the air, the backdraft cracking the stone pathway in the courtyard.


    After seeing that Ilios handled the hardunch without much effort, an excited smile came to my face. -I should let him fight some this time�� I''m sure he could use the exercise.- Turning back towards the horizon, a fire of excitement filled my mind. "To battle!"

 Chapter 79: An Untimely Disaster

    Chapter 79: An Untimely Disaster


    Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - ~~~ - (Omnipotent)


    *VWOOOOM* The instant the disaster began, every single person capable of sensing mana noticed it.


    At first, quite a number of them tried to run out and help those who may have fallen to mana exhaustion, but before long, those numbers thinned out.


    Very few of the original group could withstand the horrible, nauseating sensation created by mana being forcibly ripped out of their reserve.


    But still, somehow, some forced themselves through it. Whether it was the idea they would receivepensation or simply out of a good heart, a few persisted.


    And among them just so happened to be Michael, Mollie, and Udall.


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    After having my heart shattered a few days prior, I had spent my days drinking my problems away and drowning them in alcohol, but thankfully I didn��t stay like that forever.When I finally felt the immense suction of mana towards the pce, I finally recognized just how much time I had been letting waste away. -I��ve gotten this far with my own sweat and blood, so what am I doing letting the result of that effort go to waste?!-


    As that thought ripped through my mind, I leapt up from the table and darted out of the smithy behind Mollie and Udall.


    Throughout the afternoon, while the suction in the upper district was still too strong to withstand, we ran around the lower districts and saved all those we could.


    Once the suction finally started to subside, we worked our way towards the upper district, leaving the areas behind us to the knights and rallying as many people as we could to sweep through noble estates and heal those that needed it.


    Not long after the suction subsided enough to allow it, we ended up running into multiple people who were trying to steal from the huge, unguarded noble estates, but thankfully, most of them were caught or killed before they could harm the nobles themselves.


    The whole situation was horrifically chaotic, but it worked wonders on my mind.


    For the first time since I returned to Kan, I could finally turn my attention off of Maria and back to myself. -How long has it been since I��ve felt this free?-


    After continuing to cover the rest of the upper district, the suction finally vanishedpletely. -Time for the royal pce!- Although it was definitely considered trespassing on royal property and there was a chance I would get charged for it, I couldn''t let myself leave the chance that one of the royal family was severely injured in the air.


    After secretly breaking off from the group, I hastily made my way toward the pce but had to stop at the closed gate first. "Hey, are you guys alright?" The guards by the gate were slowly waking up as I ran up to them.


    "Huh, what happened?" They held their heads like they had headaches, but they looked alright for the most part.


    -They might be able to help��- Thinking they were awake enough to maybe understand me, I tried to exin a little. "There was a disaster in the pce that made people pass out from mana exhaustion. I need you two to get up ande help me. The royal family could be hurt and almost no one in the upper district has awoken yet."


    "We can''t let you in the pce, sir��" The knight, not realizing the severity of the situation, turned around to his buddy. "Hey, go inside and see if everyone is alr-"


    Before he could finish, the doors to the pce mmed open. "The king is injured! Please, someone,e help!" A maid stood dizzily in the doorway with blood dripping down her face.


    Seeing the blood flowing from her forehead, the knights immediately broke into a panic. "Okay, we''ll let you in. Just stay with us at all times!"


    As we ran into the pce, the knights lethargically stopped to help the maid and find out where the king was before continuing into the pce.


    "That maid said he should be around here��" Quickly rounding a corner, we saw Sir Lawton Keenying on the ground next to King Oliver who also had blooding from his head.


    "Okay, sir mage, I need you to help move Sir Keen there. I will take care of the king." Mustering up all his avable strength, the knight bent down and turned the king onto his back whilst taking out a small number of bandages.


    Giving a quick nod, I tried to y my part and reached down to move Lawton, but was immediately stopped by a mature woman��s voice.


    "Wait, take my husband to his room. I found a maid that will take care of it from there." Queen Helen lethargically walked around the corner with a very young maid next to her. "Follow her, she will show you the way to his room."


    "Right away, your grace." The knight acted quickly on her orders, gently picking up Oliver and following after the young maid, but that left me alone with the Queen and Sir Keen.


    "Michael, I need you to try and wake Lawton. He shouldn''t be hurt so give him some of your mana."


    As a Nation rank mage, waking someone up from mana exhaustion wasn''t a big deal, but I was yet to do it to anyone since it could cause some major problems. -But orders are orders-


    Quickly reaching down and setting my hand on Lawton��s chest, I injected quite a considerable amount of mana into him. Thankfully though, he seemed to be close to waking up naturally, so it didn��t take much mana.


    *Gasp* Vividly remembering the incident before he passed out, Lawton awoke in a panic. "What about the lord?!" He looked around in a hurry without noticing Helen.


    "He should be okay. Lawton, I need your help."


    Realizing he failed to notice her presence, he shot up onto one knee. "Order me as you wish, your grace."


    "I need you to find the grandmaster. She should be around here somewhere, and she might have a better grasp of the situation than most of us." As she spoke, the Queen��s lethargic look steadily vanished.


    -She��s strong enough to recover that quickly?!-


    Before I could give it much thought, Lawton gave a strong nod and disappeared down the hall. "Right away, your grace."


    The Queen gave me a harsh look the instant he left our line of sight. Her eyes simply didn��t belong to someone who just woke up from mana exhaustion. "I don''t like you but you can be helpful. I need you to find an older elven maid and bring her to my office for me. Can you do that?"


    I hesitated for an instant as her eyes felt like they pierced into my soul. "O..of course, your highness." Following her orders, I immediately started heading down the hall.


    Elves were far more resistant to mana exhaustion since they had far better mana absorptionpared to other races, but nheless, when I found her, she was still dizzy enough to need the wall''s assistance to walk.


    "Huh?" Seeing me at the end of the hall, she jumped to conclusions and pulled out a knife from under her apron.


    "Miss, I was sent by her highness to find you. She asked me to bring you to her office." I put my hands up to show I wasn��t armed.


    Finally realizing I wasn''t a threat, she lowered her knife. "Alright, I can.. walk there myself��"


    To keep her from losing bnce, I quickly ran over and supported her. "You probably just woke up from mana exhaustion, just let me lend you my shoulder."


    With a bit of reluctance, she finally moved off the wall and onto my shoulder. "T..thanks��"


    After supporting her down the hall for several more minutes, simply following her directions, she finally managed to recover enough tofortably walk on her own.


    -I always knew elves were fast with recovering mana, but my goodness��-


    Finally getting to the hallway the office was on, the elven maid turned to me and gave a polite bow. "Thank you for your assistance during all of this chaos."


    "No problem, Miss. Please be careful in case you haven''t recoveredpletely." I gave a formal bow as well.


    "Thank you, but your concern is unnecessary." Before even letting me respond, she turned away and disappeared down the hall.


    -I wonder if she is married��-


    - Helen Kan ~


    "Haah.." I was sitting at my desk, simply trying to slowly piece together the situation.


    *Knock* *Knock*


    "Come in." Looking towards the door, I saw a young human maid in a deep bow.


    "I have put the lord in his bed, I''d also like to inform you that the princess has returned."


    -Already?!- Deep down, I wanted to go kill whoever let her leave the academy right after the incident, but I held myself back. -At least I can confirm her safety��- "Please bring her in."


    "As you wish." Giving another bow, the young maid left the room again.


    It wasn��t even a few minutes after that though, that the door opened again.


    As expected though, it wasn��t Lucy.


    Martha gave a deep bow as she finally came through the door.


    "Hey, Martha... I called you in to ask a favor. Could you head down to the guild and put up an announcement saying people who keep track of the injured will be rewarded? I need to see the scope of this incident."


    Martha gave a nod and paused before reluctantly turning to the door.


    -A reward for only a select few isn��t enough��- But that was when a good idea came to mind. "Add to it that anyone who lost a family member will bepensated depending on the family''s total contribution points." This way, hard-working families that lost family members will be greatlypensated, and the ckers wouldn''t.


    Giving yet another bow in understanding, Martha finally turned to the door and left the office.


    *Creak* I leaned back in my chair once she was finally gone, with a look of anxiousness all over my face. -Just what in the world happened��-

 Chapter 80: Running Out of Options

    Chapter 80: Running Out of Options


    Early Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - Oliver Kan ~


    ��Ugh���� Slowly opening my eyes, I immediately realized I wasying in bed. -Huh? What am I doing here?-


    Feeling something weighing on my chest, I looked down to see Lucy dead asleep.


    I immediately noticed something off about her face though. -Was she.. Crying?-


    Finally trying to move her down to myp so I could sit up, a piercing pain shot through my head. ��Argh���� Quickly reaching up to grab my head, the pain continued to worsen but eventually subsided when I stopped moving.


    But the amount of noise and movement I made was already too much. ��Nnngh.. Huh?�� Lucy looked at me with wide eyes for a moment before the tears started to flow again. ��You''re awaaake!" She immediately mmed her head into my chest and started crying again.


    Not really sure what to do, I simply moved my arms and embraced her for a moment. "I''m sorry I worried you��"


    She continued to cry for a couple more minutes after that, but eventually, she stopped and sat up next to me. -I should sit up too��- But when I tried to move, the sharp, needle-like pain shot through my head again. "Ack!" Although I tried not to show it, I gritted my teeth and immediately caught Lucy��s attention.


    "Please justy down Father, you''re hurt�� Sir Doctor said you shouldn��t be moving at all for a while."


    -Sir Doctor?- It took a second for me to figure out who she was talking about, but I eventually justplied with her and rxed again. "Where is your mother, sweetie?"


    "Mother is doing some work. She was one of the first to wake up."


    -First to wake up?- "What happened?"


    "Well.. all I know is that it has to do with something within the pce sucking mana out of everything, including people... When I finally managed to get back to the pce, there were still people unconscious everywhere, but their injuries were minor."


    "A mana suction that sucked mana out of people?" I honestly couldn��t wrap my head around the idea.


    "The suction was pulling mana out of people and making everyone pass out from mana exhaustion.�� She paused before noticing me trying to remember everything before I passed out. ��I''ll go get Mother, just stay still, Father. You hurt your head really bad."


    "Alright.. thank you, sweetheart."


    As she slid off the side of the bed, she moved over and patted me on the forehead before running out into the hallway.


    With some time alone, I quickly tried my best to piece together my memories to figure things out as best I could.


    -A mana suction so strong that it pulls mana out of people... How is that even possible? Could it have been.. a dragon?- Using memories of Vasilias in Kan as a stepping stone, I quickly pieced together my memories and got to a point where I could remember most things.


    But that was when one memory came to mind. -OH HELL, WHAT ABOUT THE TOWER?!- Suddenly remembering the situation with the Kingdom of Zan and how Vasilias was nning to stop the 12 nation ranks on his own, I broke into a panic.


    -Right.. I called Lawton and Ms. Coletti to my office to send them after him, but...- Finally managing to recover the memories of right before the disaster, I tried to think of what to do, but nothing came to mind.


    *Click* That was when the door opened again.


    "How are you feeling?" As she walked through the door, Helen looked at me with a face of concern.


    Urgently trying to figure out how to tell her about the situation, I averted my eyes. "Could be better."


    *tap-tap-tap* Quickly walking up next to me, she threw her arms around me. "T..thank goodness you''re alright..." She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.


    "Thanks for your worry, honey. But putting aside myself for a moment, what''s the condition of everyone? I need to talk to Lawton and Ms. Coletti urgently."


    As she pulled away, she quickly mmed up. "They.. aren''t great�� Lawton is not the worst possible situation, but.. Coletti is not in a great state. We think it might be more than just mana exhaustion for her."


    "What do you mean?"


    "She is still super pale and she hasn''t said anything since she woke up."


    "Haah�� Sh*t��"


    Helen immediately fell into a panic when she heard me curse. "What''s the matter? Are you hurting somewhere?"


    "No, no... It''s not that..."


    "Then what is-"


    Realizing there was no need to hide it, I quickly exined the whole situation regarding the towers ��under the table�� moves to her, and took extra care when mentioning Vasilias, but little did I know, it didn��t help alleviate my worries at all.


    "I remember calling Lawton and Ms. Coletti to my office to give them a n to help Vasilias in the shadows, but I can''t remember what happened after that."


    Helen''s face was pale. Likely realizing how grim the situation was, and realizing how only one n had the slightest chance of sess.


    The only viable n was for Vasilias to win the fight cleanly without being heavily injured or killed, but in our eyes, that was nothing short of a miracle.


    "Vasilias is too young to fight that many Nation ranks no matter how much of a freak he is��" As she started feeling lightheaded from anxiety, she moved over andid herself down on the bottom of the bed.


    I wanted tofort her desperately, but I couldn��t move a muscle. "I know�� I don''t know how I��m going to face Osto when he gets back.."


    When I said that though, Helen jolted up. "What if we asked that halfie in the za for help?"


    To her, it might have sounded like a decent idea, but I could only shut it down without the slightest bit of thought. "You didn''t see them fight, did you? It wasn''t much of a fight at all, and Vasilias never even entered his dragon form��"


    As the hope drained from her face, she quicklyid back down. "Well.. maybe he will be alright then��"


    "All we can do is hope and pray that Osto can get back in time��" -Even if he gets mad at me, at least he could maybe save Vasilias��-


    Turning my head to the side, I looked out of my window towards the sunset. -It really is beautiful tonight��-


    - Osto ~


    ��Haah���� I took a deep breath to shake off the difort from my humanoid form as I turned to run out of the forest.


    It had been several hours since I left Bahamut and it felt good to finally be on the ground, but at the same time, I couldn��t dally. -I need to get back and tell Vasilias about the situation��-


    But as I starteding up on the gate, I noticed that everyone''s auras felt a bit weak, but after another moment, I figured it was just my mind ying tricks and continued into the city.


    But thatck of worry didn��tst long.


    As I passed through the lower district, mostly everything seemed normal but the knights were all frantically running around with medics, a sight normally only seen during times of crisis or invasion. -But considering the knights at the gate acted normal, that shouldn��t be the case��-


    Quickly continuing all the way to the pce, my concern only continued to grow.


    "We can''t let you in sir." The knight at the gate stopped me as I got close.


    "Why not? I''m Osto Whyte, I used to party with the Kan family." Quickly holding up my ID, I showed my Kan crest and expected to be let in, but the knight didn��t budge.


    "We were told not to let anyone in, sir. It was an order." The knight seemed exhausted but I didn��t question it.


    "Then how about you send someone in to tell the royal family that I''m here." Getting annoyed with the knights''ck ofpliance, I contemted forcing my way in. -I need to figure out what happened..-


    But thankfully, a short momentter, a young maid ran out of the pce and came to the gate, "Please follow me, Sir Whyte."


    Quickly making my way inside, I noticed the maids and butlers frantically carrying around piles of papers and some rarely seen calction artifacts, but before my worries could grow too much, we finally made it to Oliver��s bedroom.


    "Your Majesty, Sir Whyte has arrived."


    "Pleasee in.."


    Quickly opening the door, not knowing what to expect, revealed Olver and Helenying on the bed.


    I honestly didn��t know what to even think of the situation. "What happened?"


    But Oliver was reluctant to talk, and even spoke with a sense of anxiety in his voice. "Haah.. it''s a long story I''d rmend you sit down for..."


    Instinctivelyplying, I sat down and looked at him with a worried look.


    "Hooh.. where should I start���� Oliver spoke for quite a while after that, exining everything that happened and the entire situation in extensive detail, but there was one thing he forgot to mention at all.


    "So, what about Vasilias?" -He didn��t run away did he?-


    But as I looked at Oliver, he just averted his eyes. "He.. left to go fight the 12 nation ranks alone.."


    My whole world froze immediately. -He did what��-


    "I was getting Lawton and the grandmaster together to send them out to assist him, but the mana suction I talked about earlier happened and derailed that n."


    As the realization that Vasilias could die finally came to mind, every other minor worry on my mind turned to dust, and my eyes filled with bloodlust. "You said the kingdom of Zan right?"


    Oliver��s face was extremely pale as he tried to look at me. "Y..yes.."


    Quickly standing up and walking out onto the balcony, I nced over my shoulder and gave Helen and Oliver a look of fury. ��If he dies, you��re dead.��


    As their faces paled further, I leapt off the balcony into the garden before changing into my dragon form once again, not caring enough to make the light magic cloaking me any good. -It��s not like it��ll matter anyway��-


    *Fwoosh* With a strong p of my wings, I hurled myself into the sky and started making a mad dash for the Kingdom of Zan.


    -Please, Vasilias! Hold on until I can get there!-

 Chapter 81: A Quick Stop

    Chapter 81: A Quick Stop


    Mid Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan


    -Wow.. I''m already here?- The flight was shockingly short. I wasn��t even able to get up to speed before I passed the Kingdom of Zan and Kan��s border and saw the city I was looking for. -That merchant had one hell of a sense of direction..-


    After taking my leave from the pce, I flew westward for quite a while, but eventually, I figured the ancient-looking map I found in the library wasn��t really adequate for directions and had tond and ask an old merchant on a lone road.


    Although it was a bitplicated to get him to understand exactly what I wanted, I eventually got him to point in the direction of Zan��s border fortress city and flew straight there. -I''m honestly more impressed by just how on-the-money his directions were than anything else��-


    Quickly giving the city and its surroundings another scan to make sure the Nation Ranks hadn��t already left yet, I found a decent spot tond and tried to touch down somewhat lightly.


    *Crunch* The ground shattered like ss.


    "Haah��" -I guess it��s gonna take some getting used to with this weight��- Not wanting to deal with it, I changed to my humanoid form and started making my way to the city, casually optimizing my movements as I ran.


    Seeing the knights at the gate, I figured it would be too tedious to enter the city legally and simply cloaked myself and walked on through.


    But once I was inside, I noticed there was quite a lot ofmotion. -Why��s everyone rushing around?- Walking over to a nearby food stall, I decided to try and ask about it. "Sir, do you know what thismotion is all about?""Hm? Are you not from around here?" Seeing me shake my head, he continued casually. "Well, long story short, the king gathered several Nation Ranks for a dungeon subjugation mission. They are expected to leave in a couple hours, so most people are preparing their seats to see them as they depart." He paused for a moment to watch the countless people frantically running around. "They were originally going to leave at sunset but they met someplications."


    -So they just told the public that it''s a subjugation mission, huh...- I honestly wasn��t too surprised. "Hm, I should try and find a spot too."


    "It might be difficult, but it��s a rare opportunity to see some of the strongest people on this half of the continent."


    -Does that mean they''re all big names, or just that Nation ranks, in general, are ��the strongest����- Figuring it wouldn��t really matter, I turned back to him with a curious look. "So, what are you selling?"


    "Ah, it''s just some meat dried over a fire. They''re quite good if you''d like to try one." Before checking if I even wanted it, he handed me a piece of the dry and stiff meat.


    Thinking it couldn��t be that bad, I reluctantly nibbled a bit, but it made my eyes light up. -Beef jerky! To think it��d exist in this world too.- "Do you have a payment artifact?"


    "Actually, yes." Quickly reaching into a drawer behind the bar, he pulled out and pushed forward a small, rock-looking device.


    Assuming how it worked, I casually set my ID on it.


    "The number on the artifact, which says 0 right now, is how much it costs. How much would you like to buy?"


    "I guess I''ll take half a kilogram." Although I wanted a bit more than that, I was toozy to carry it.


    "That''ll be one silver then." He paused as he pulled out a stack of three cards and set them on the back side of the artifact. "Sorry that it''s a little pricey."


    -Do those cards tell the artifact how much to charge?- "No not at all. Could I actually give a little extra?" Although I was by no means wanting to just give away everything, I saw an opportunity. "Maybe I should call it an investment."


    The man immediately raised his eyebrow. "You would like to invest in me?"


    "Yes, actually. What are your thoughts about it?" As I asked him, I mmed several strips of jerky into my mouth.


    "Well, sir, this is just a small stall. Even with your investment, I don''t think it will go anywhere great."


    -To think he knows his limits��- "Well, how about this. I''ll give you 20 gold, but in return, you need to expand this business as best you can and put aside 20% of the business''s sales for me. Also, you should call it beef jerky instead of dried meat. It''ll sell better."


    The man''s eyes nearly bulged out of his head as I spoke. "Sir I''m not sure why you believe in me so much, but-"


    "So, you��re going to refuse?" -Even if I invest 100 gold and he loses it all, I could just make a tinum coin to get it back. It''d take a lot to cause intion anyways.-


    But the man didn��t seem to think it was a small sum, like me. "I''m not sure what you see in me, sir, but��" He was incredibly reluctant. "I will humbly ept."


    "Good decision." As he stood up from his bow, I reached out to shake his hand. "My name is Vasilias Whyte."


    He gripped my hand immediately. "I''m Hugh Denys." After finally pulling his hand away, he frantically looked for a piece of paper and ink. "Here, please write the conditions for the investment on this. I will go to the guild for a proper contract right away."


    "Alright." I paused as I was writing. "What are you going to call the business?"


    "Well, going off of your suggestion, how about ''Hugh''s Jerky''?"


    -A little in, but I guess it works.- Quickly getting back to writing the outline of the contract, I wrote:


    ''Contract between Vasilias Whyte and Hugh''s Jerky Business


    Investment: 20 gold


    Return: 20% of allpany sales. Money is held as liquid until Vasilias Whyte ims it.''


    After adding a few extra details to close the legal loopholes I knew off the top of my head, I handed him the paper.


    Hugh quickly read the paper without missing any details. "S..sir Whyte, if you don''t mind me asking��"


    "Hm? What is it?"


    "I..I was wondering what the money being held as liquid means?"


    -Ah, I guess that��s something only merchants would really know��- "Just think of it as money that you can still use and spend if needed, as long as it gets returned with interest."


    "Ah, that makes much more sense." Surprisingly, it seemed like he actually understood what I meant.


    "Anything else catch your eye?"


    "No sir, it''s perfect." Gulping down some saliva, he set down the ��contract�� and added several cards to the artifact until the disy showed 20,001,000.


    Not seeing anything wrong with it, I casually set my thumb on the corner of my ID to confirm the ��purchase��.


    *Click*


    "Thank you, generous sir, for your investment. I will make sure to use the money wisely and effectively!" After checking his own ID to check his bnce, he walked around the bar and gave me a deep bow. "Thank you!"


    I couldn��t help but smile at his excitement. "I look forward to seeing how your business grows, Hugh."


    "Of course!"


    Thinking that was everything, I got up from my seat, but stopped almost immediately. "Ah, before I leave, is there any sort of thug group that would hamper you?"


    He paused for a moment before speaking. "No sir."


    "Does your hesitation mean there is?"


    "No sir, there are people to watch out for, but they aren''t a group of thugs."


    "Who is it?"


    With a careful nce around, he leaned toward me. "It��s one of the local nobles. He tries to crush those who are rising in ss." He started to break into a cold sweat the more he talked.


    "Is he the only one?"


    "Yes sir."


    "Which estate does he live in?"


    "T..the one just in front of the satellite pce."


    "Hmm��" Quickly thinking back to the view of the city from the air, I took a good guess at what he meant. "Alright, I''ll take care of that real quick. You don''t need to worry about him anymore."


    "Sir!" Before I could walk off, he called me back. "I was nning to just move."


    "No, it''s alright. It''s easier if I just take care of it. Have a good night, Hugh! I expect good things from you."


    Seeing that he couldn''t change my mind, he gave me another deep bow. "Thank you again, Sir Whyte!"


    -He��s got a talent for reading the room as well, huh��- With a smile on my face, I turned away and made my way up the street.


    But before I knew it, I arrived at the estate.


    -This city is smaller than I thought...- Casually putting on my hood, I quickly got myself ready. -Time to get used to this body.- "Ilios, just follow me from a distance for a bit." *pat-pat* Seeing him sit down with his usual smile, I finally reached for the greatsword on my back and started walking towards the gate. *tap-tap-tap*


    The guard was quick to try and stop me. "Sir please stop right th-"


    *Shing* Before he could finish talking, the sword cleanly sliced through the knight''s body. *nk*


    "AHHH!" A woman walking along the street behind me screamed as the body sttered against the ground.


    -Welp, let''s make this quick!- *fwoosh* Using my aura as I ran, I scanned the entire estate and mercilessly ughtered those who showed any kind of hostility.


    It took less than a minute for me to rip through the entire estate, leaving only a trail of sliced-apart bodies in my wake, but once I turned onto thest hallway, I came face to face with arge double door covered in gold and beautiful velvet cloth.


    -How gaudy��- *BaNg* Kicking in the door without a second thought, I scanned the room and saw a chubby man covered in jewelry and fancy clothes behind a thick wooden desk.


    His confidence was genuinely mind-blowing. "You really do have some audac-" *Shing-CRUNCH* With a nearly instantaneous sh from the ceiling to the floor, his body was blown in half and the stone floor was shattered.


    "Haah��" -Talk about a pig��- But as I went to sheath my sword, my aura felt something move in the corner of the room. -Someone hid from my aura?!-


    Thinking it was someone skilled, I whipped around and jumped back onto the broken desk.


    But instead of seeing a skilled knight standing in the corner like I expected, my eyes were met with a young, white-haired fox-demihuman girl.


    -I couldn''t have missed her when I scanned the room, right?- Looking through my aura again, I noticed a bubble around the girl that my aura couldn''t naturally enter.


    -She''s controlling her aura to that extent?- Not wanting to take any risks, I forced my aura into hers and scanned her body.


    She was fairly roughed up, covered in grime, and wearing rags, but didn��t have any weapons. -So this little girl learned that kind of control on her own?-


    As I walked up to her and idly thought to myself, I realized I had shown her a really gruesome scene, but just by looking at her eyes, that worry vanished.


    Instead of wearing a look of fear or disgust, she was staring at me with a look of awe.


    -Thank goodness I didn��t traumatize the poor girl.- Although I wasn''t sure why at the time, I was unusually caring to the girl.


    Casually leaning down, I undid her bonds with magic and took off my hood. "Are you alright, young girl?"


    Instead of saying anything though, she just looked me in the eyes and lightly nodded.


    "Haah... Do you have any family I could bring you to?"


    The gleam in her eyes disappeared when I mentioned her family. "I..I''m.. o..kay.. on my.. o..own..." She seemed to have trouble speaking.


    "Hmm... Let''s get out of here first then. We can talk about what to doter. How does that sound?"


    She nodded her head immediately.


    "Haha, alright." -She really is quite cute��- With her agreement, I reached down and gently picked her up. -This should work��-


    Quickly walking back over to the shattered window behind the desk, I used some earth magic to break down the wall and jumped out.


    The next minute or so was simply spent running away from the estate. I only stopped once I got to an alleyway not far from the main road.


    -No one is nearby.. this should work... I should have a bit of time left too��- "So what do give you for you to be alright?" -Why did I ask that like she would know...-


    But as I tried to think of my limited options, she spoke up. "A.. sword..." She pointed to my greatsword with a gleam in her eyes.


    "..." -With that kind of talent for aura.. maybe��- After taking a moment to think, I failed toe up with a better idea and caved. "Alright, I''ll make you one really quickly then."


    The gleam in her eyes only grew brighter when I said that.


    "Haah��" -How is giving her a weapon the best thing I can think of��-


    The next several minutes were wrapped in silence as I tried to make a sword she could use currently as well as in the future.


    It took quite a while to really figure it out, but at the end of it all, I made a titanium rapier with a ck, grippy handle, gold-trimmed hand guard, and metallic de. -This is definitely too eye-catching, but damn, it looks good��-


    For some finishing touches, I added several runes to it, all efficient enough to run off the wielder''s aura alone.


    Theirbined effort worked simrly to strengthening and sharpening runes. Basically, over time, the more the sword was used, the stronger and sharper it would get. -But is this really enough?-


    Figuring it was still basically just a really good rapier, I decided to add a small, movable cover that hid aplicated wind rune. Put simply, when supplied with mana, the rune would activate and let the user create des of wind to attack from a few meters away.


    *fwip-fwoosh* With a quick swing in the air, I watched as the de of wind traveled a few meters before losing strength and dissipating. -Perfect��-


    As I lowered the de, I gave it a simple sheath and wrapped it in a considerable amount of cloth to hide it. -I really should have made it look in��- But even though I thought that, I also felt proud to have made it.


    "Hooh, alright." Looking down into the girl''s eager eyes for the first time in nearly 45 minutes, I took a deep breath and gave her a lengthy exnation about everything it did and how to use it all.


    Surprisingly, the second I handed it to her, she held it properly with form simr to the way I held my greatsword.


    -It''s a bit of a wide stance, but for her to be able to follow what she should''ve only been able to see for a split second...- With just a few more corrections after that, she honestly held it shockingly well and could even swing it properly. -Maybe leaving it to her isn''t the worst idea...-


    After taking a few more minutes to make sure she actually understood everything, I finally leaned down and gave her a very serious warning.


    "Never show this to anyone unless you know you''re strong enough to beat them, alright?"


    She gave an excited nod without the slightest hesitation.


    "Haah��" -I really hope she understands��-


    *distant cheering* Hearing the loud cheersing from the front gate, I finally realized I was out of time.


    "I''m sorry I can''t do more for you but��" Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a bag I snatched off the noble from earlier with several silver and gold coins in it. "This shouldst you for a while."


    She wore an amazed look as she stared into the leather bag.


    "Ah, I can''t leave you in rags if you have that kind of sword, can I..." Thinking she was more likely to get robbed if she looked like a peasant, I used magic to clean her up and give her some new, multipurpose clothes that, most importantly, looked expensive. -This will keep most people from asking any questions, and with all the runes, it��ll act like armor too...- "Do you have a name?" I asked her as I added a few finishing touches, but she just shook her head.


    "Give me.. a name��"


    -A name?- Although I wanted to give it some serious thought, a name popped into my head immediately. "How about Katherine?"


    Her eyes lit up as she heard the name. "Ka..ther..ine.." She slowly sounded it out before a wide smile came to her face. But that was when she pointed at me. "Name?"


    It was honestly adorable. "My name is Vasilias Whyte." Her pure nature made me smile, but I was already out of time. "Well, I need to go for now. Please be careful!"


    She looked sad for a moment, but her eyes shifted to those of determination after a few seconds. "I will.. grow strong!"


    "Haha, I hope so." I patted her on the head with a satisfied smile on my face. "Grow strong for me!"


    "Mm!"


    Seeing her determination, I felt at least partially more confident that she��d be alright. -Plus, with that talent.. I''m sure she''ll be fine��-


    But as I stood up to leave, I decided to do onest thing. *pat* Setting my hand on her head, I sent some aura into her body and imprinted a few strengthening runes on her bones.


    "This will help you get strong, okay?"


    "Hm!" She gave a strong and confident nod that reminded me of Ilios.


    -They really are quite simr, huh...-


    Finally pulling my hand away, I gave the girl one final wave and farewell before dashing away to meet back up with Ilios. -She was really cute.. especially for a humanoid��- Even as I ran to meet with Ilios, I had some lingering warmth in my heart.


    But not long after I left, the girl pulled the rapier close to her chest as if to hug it and mumbled something to herself. "Katherine.. Whyte.."

 Chapter 82: Blinded By Pride

    Chapter 82: Blinded By Pride


    Late Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan


    "Sorry I took so long, buddy..." Standing on a random rooftop a few hundred meters from where I left Katherine, I leaned down to pet Ilios. "You ready to finally do something fun?"


    Almost immediately, Ilios��s tail started wagging even faster. *nod-nod-nod*


    "Haha, alright. Let��s get going then!" Finally standing back up, I darted towards themotion, casually hopping from roof to roof as I crossed the city.


    As I started getting close to the front gate though, I started sensing several strong auras.


    But even though they were all quite strong, one still stood head and shoulders over the others. -That��s an aura that puts Father��s dragon form to shame��-


    Questioning what monstrosity of a human could have such an aura, I quickly got to a rooftop that overlooked the main road and looked down towards the crowd.


    Down in the street was a convoy of 12, all riding red racers, a type of domesticated monster that looked like a red feathered lizard and was known to be exceptionally fast.


    Most of the people in the group were fairly strong, but 3, in particr, stood out. -So that aura wasn��t from a humanoid at all, huh...-Looking over the three halfies, smiling and waving to the humans around them, a bad taste came to my mouth. -How old does a halfie even need to be to have a true form with that kind of aura��-


    Although it was a little worrying to see that a few of my targets were far stronger than anticipated, it only made me more excited. -I wonder how much of a fight you can give me��-


    But as a slightly crazed smile came to my face, the strongest, bear-demihuman-looking halfie whipped his head towards the rooftop I was on.


    "Huh?" His hostile look quickly turned to confusion.


    "What��s up, Pello? Did you sense something?" The panther-demihuman-looking halfie next to him gave him an odd look.


    "Hm? Oh. I just thought I sensed someone�� I guess it was just my imagination."


    As he turned back towards the gate, I looked down at him from the top of the city wall with a wide smile on my face. -Oh, this��ll be fun��-


    The next couple minutes felt exceptionally long as my anticipation for the fight only grew, but eventually, the group of 12 finally finished waving to the citizens and left through the gate.


    -Alright! Time for some fun!- Casually turning around and walking to the other side of the wall, a knight came running up to me.


    "Sir! You cannot be up here without permiss-" *Poof-crack* Before he could finish, Ilios and I vanished, only leaving a crack in the ground where we once stood.


    Quickly plummeting towards the ground after leaping off the wall, I nced toward the group of Nation ranks to see them finally crack the reins of their red racers. -So they''re finally speeding up, huh��-


    But I quickly found myself needing to speed up significantly more than expected.


    -I knew they were quick, but dang...- Although still far slower than me, the red racers would put cars on earth to shame. -Now I''ll just wait for them to stop for a break��-


    But going against my expectations, even after nearly two hours of running, they didn��t seem to show any signs of stopping.


    -Are they seriously going to make it to Kan without stopping at all?- Giving my n some additional thought, I figured we were about as ''in the middle of nowhere'' as we could get, and decided to change the n a bit. -If they won''t stop on their own, I''ll just give them a reason to��-


    Quickly dashing far in front of them, I pulled Ilios to my side and drew my greatsword. "Ilios, when I decide to go in myself, you take care of the unmanned racers. You can use your full size as well." Seeing him nod and change to his towering, full form, I rested the tip of my greatsword against the ground. -Before I do that though, let''s see if they can react to this��-


    Forming a moderately sized metallic dart in my palm, I stuck out my hand and set my eyes on my first victim, the young elven mage on the far left. -With the dart shaped like this, there won''t even be a sonic boom��-


    Quickly taking an extra second to make sure I was on target, I let the dart fly. *crackle-FWIP*


    As if the dart teleported, it closed the couple kilometers between us nearly instantly.


    The unfortunate elf on the other end of the dart wore a bored expression, but as the dart ripped through her, her head and torso simply vanished.


    *St-th-thud* As what was left of her body fell off the racer and onto the ground, the rest of the group finally noticed something wrong.


    "We are under attack!"


    Seeing their panicked reaction, my excitement grew more. -No wonder cats like ying with mice!-


    Getting into a ready stance with my greatsword in hand, I flexed my back leg and set my eyes on the one man who wasn��t in anyone''s field of view. "Let''s go, Ilios!" *CRACK*


    Closing the distance with the caravan in under a second, my heavy greatsword plowed through the man''s body. *Crunch* But before the sound of his death could meet the ears of the rest of the caravan, Ilios appeared in front of the other unupied racer with his paw above its head.


    *WHAM* The racer''s head simply exploded from the excessive force of the smack before Ilios moved to the one left by me and did the same. "WHAM*


    By the time the rest of the caravan could react to the noise, Ilios was already hidden in the woods and I stood confidently behind them with my sword resting on my shoulder.


    Everyone in the group stared at me with looks of shock or anger as all but three hopped off their mounts.


    "Mark, Susan, and Jack stay back." The strongest halfie, Pello, gave orders to three of the seven who hopped off their mounts.


    "But, sir Pello-"


    "Now isn''t the time for you to object, Susan." The Halfie looked down at the poor mage like she was a pest.


    -What is he doing holding so many people back? How is a halfie old enough to have a true form not able to read the room?- "You guys are really stupid, especially you in the back." I looked at the leader to provoke him as I pulled my hood down to show my face.


    Almost immediately, anger washed over his face, but instead of him telling everyone to just charge forward as I had hoped, a tall, blond-haired man with a goldennce walked ahead instead. "You dare be so confident to show yourself after only killing two of us?!"


    The pretentiousness in his voice was sickening to the point that I wanted to just shut him up.. permanently. "If you think you can take me, then try it." With my sword still on my shoulders, I rxed my body.


    His face scrunched up immediately. "Hmph! The rest of you stay back! He��s mine!" Taking a wide stance, he pulled back hisnce and thrusted it toward me.


    -What is he..- *CRACK* Before I could finish my thought, a thin beam of supersonic air was fired from the tip of hisnce.


    But even though I didn��t expect it at all, it was far too slow to pose any threat. "An artifact weapon?" *fwo-OOOSH* Casually redirecting the beam of air around me, I gave the man a smug look.


    Unable to handle the simple provocation, he finally lunged at me and tried to drive hisnce into my chest. "You confident brat!"


    But just before hisnce could pierce my body, I finally lifted my sword off my shoulder. *CLANG* The de of my sword mmed into the side of hisnce with such a ferocious force that thence snapped in half and wasunched into a tree not too far away. *CLUNK*


    His gaze was stuck on thence lodged in the tree as my sword fell over his head. "Nice try." *Crunch* *thud*


    Casually stepping back to not get blood on my shoes, I looked up towards the rest of the group.


    "Next!" Although the fights so far were a bit underwhelming for me, I still felt excited. -The fun ones are yet toe!-


    "Trio, you handle him." Pello gave a look to the group of three he didn��t previously hold back and they moved forward without questioning the order at all.


    But even though they didn''t object, the other three regr humanoids seemed to dislike the idea. "Oy, Pello." The one to speak up was Jack, the swordsman. "Shouldn��t we all gang up on him to minimize our losses? He��s clearly stronger than we thou-"


    Not taking kindly to his objection, Pello looked at the swordsman with a heartless re. "Those three are just weak pests. It��s better to shake off the deadweight now anyways." Whether he was blinded by pride or was just in stupid, he was still insanely confident he and his halfie buddies could take me. "Just us three alone are enough to destroy the whole bay alliance, let alone this brat."


    Finally turning back to the trio walking toward me, Jack wore a grim and guilty expression.


    -You know what, I might spare him��- Although I wasn��t exactly sure why I liked him at the time, I at least liked how rational he was. -If he��s strong, it might not be a bad idea to bring him back to Kan��-


    Turning to look at the trio myself, I noticed it was a group made of up two fairly attractive women, a mage and an archer, and a single attractive swordsman.


    -What sort of isekai harem protagonist is this guy?-


    Seeing my judgemental look, the women readied themselves, but the swordsman was still somehow calm. "You know, if you back down now, I will consider letting you under my wing. When I inevitably take over the continent, you��ll be showered in riches!"


    He wore an expression like he was both confident in his delusion and actually expected me to take his offer. "Pfft-hahaha!" I couldn��t hold back myugh. "I think you have a screw loose, man."


    "Haha, well, don��t ask for forgivenesster!" As he finally readied himself, he gave a sign to the archer behind him.


    *Fwip* The arrow on her bow zipped off the string immediately, firing right towards my shoulder.


    -Are they serious?- *tap* Casually catching the arrow, I looked up at the archer in disbelief. "You aren��t going for the kill? Are you insane?"


    Her face paled immediately, but her fear-filled expression only made me more excited.


    -Should I m her to the ground with aura?-


    But while I thought about how to y with them, the swordsman finally got angry. "Don''t you dare look at her like that!" He charged forward after jumping in front of my gaze.


    -So they do have that kind of rtionship��- An evil smile crept onto my face before I knew it.


    *nk* *ng* *nk* *Wham-Crunch* *ng-crunch* We had a short but fast exchange of blows, easily shattering the ground beneath us as we moved, but it was only another moment before the archer and mage tried to catch me with my guard down.


    *Fwip* *Crackle-Fwoosh* The barrage of arrows and spells seemed like a lot to manage at first, but after another second I started liking it. -To think I could improve my movements so much with this!-


    Falling into a handspring, I threw my foot up into the chin of the swordsman. *crack* The noise of teeth cracking echoed through the air before his rage-filled eyes could turn back to me.


    Like he was lost to rage, his form started deteriorating. "You think.." *ng* "..I''d lose.." *shing* "..when I��m the one chosen by god!"


    Casually deflecting his de over and over again, my evil grin only grew. "How did you even get to nation rank? You''ve got the emotional stability of a toddler!"


    Deciding to finally retaliate, I pulled back my sword, but that was when he backed off. -Oh?-


    Looking to my side, I saw the young mage girl with a big glowing rune on her palm.


    *BOOM* The explosionunched a huge wall of mes at me, but I just sliced through it with wind magic.


    "That was even weaker than that assassin''s spell, how underwhelming."


    As I casually brushed the dust off my clothes, the swordsman charged at me again. "You overconfident bastar-"


    Seeing the archer fire another arrow to divide my attention, an evil idea came to mind.


    *tap* Casually smacking the sword out of his hands, I grabbed the head of the swordsman and moved him slightly.


    *Fwip-Crack-tap* The arrow flew through his headpletely before I caught it in front of my face.


    -Damn, that had more power behind it than I thought!- Dropping the swordsman to the ground, I looked up at the girls�� pale faces. "It seems the so-called chosen one was abandoned by god. What a shame."


    *Fwip* With a casual toss, the bloody arrow in my hands zipped across the street and reunited with the archer. *Crack*


    "It''s a shame two fairly talented women had to follow such a delusional man." With a casual nce into the woods, I just rocked my head to the side slightly.


    As I did that, the mage, with tears running down her face, readied a huge amount of mana. "EVEN IF I DIE.. I''LL BRING YOU WITH ME!"


    She was clearly pulling out her trump card. "Do you really think I''ll just let you do that?" Setting the top of my sword on the ground again, a white blur shot across the road and turned the girl into a cloud of blood. *CRACK* *BOOM*


    Ilios shot across the road so fast that even Pello, the strongest halfie there, couldn��t catch a glimpse of him. He could only stare at the bloody mist with a look of wonder. "How the��"


    Seeing the halfies finally realize they would have to get involved, my excitement finally started showing again. "Are you all really just going to stand there while I kill you all one by one?! Come on! If you don��t gang up on me, it��ll be no fun!"

 Chapter 83: Scum

    Chapter 83: Scum


    Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan x Kan Border


    As I nonchntly grabbed my sword after dropping it to catch the arrow, I looked at the remaining six people with a wide smile on my face. "Are you all really just going to stand there while I kill you all one by one?! Come on! If you don��t gang up on me, it��ll be no fun!"


    The only humans still remaining, consisting of two archers and a swordsman, wore looks of nervousness and fear. But surprisingly, they kept themselves quite calm even after watching theirrades get ughtered like cattle.


    But something about the situation was so out of ce that even a human child would notice.


    The three figures on their riders behind the humans still wore confident, angry expressions.


    The expressions that had remained unchanged and indifferent as their subordinates were ughtered, finally started to bend. "Haah�� I really can��t believe it." The bear-demihuman halfie��s voice ripped through the silence surrounding us before a blinding light blocked out my vision.


    -So, they��re finally gonna make a move themselves, huh?- As the light finally faded, I found myself looking up at tworge, dark-grey halfies, both standing a little over 20 meters tall.


    Lowering my gaze, I saw their riders crushed beneath them with the oldest halfie still sitting between them in his humanoid form. -Is he serious?-


    "To think a mere demihuman would cause us so much issue���� He gave a casual nce to the two archers who stood in front of him without fear. ��Mark and Susan, please assist from the back."Giving quick nods, they turned around and gripped their bows.


    Jack, the grey-haired knight-looking swordsman, gave the halfies hostile nces before turning to the archers. ��So you two knew all along, huh���� He was shockingly fearless considering the situation.


    But as he reached for his sword, the leader spoke up again. "Jack." He gave him a heartless re. "If you wish to go against orders and try to fight us, I will dly send you and your family to the afterlife."


    As the halfie��s aura flooded forward, Jack hesitated and started to sweat.


    It was a sight that left a bad taste in my mouth. -Those halfies really piss me off more and more, huh��-


    Feeling pity for the man, I spoke up before he could do anything stupid. "I''ll send you off like a warrior,e on. Pick up your sword ande at me." -If he��s really as strong as his hostility implies, he might be worth bringing to Kan��s side��-


    As he turned to me, his hostility slowly disappeared. ��To still be unfazed after seeing them turn into dragons�� I guess I''m the only one who hasn��t seen the peak beyond the clouds. Hooh���� Taking a deep, controlled breath, he unsheathed his sword with a surprisingly content smile on his face. "Before we begin, may I have the honor of hearing your name?"


    A smile came to my face the second he asked. ��Vasilias. Vasilias Whyte.��


    ��Haha, I will engrave that name on my soul, young man! My name is Jack Annora, I hope we can have a good fight!��


    Seeing he was excited to fight as well, the sour taste in my mouth started to disappear. ��Haha, of course!�� As I set my sword on my shoulder, I nced back at the archers and halfies with a surging bloodlust. ��If any of you butt in, I''ll kill you.��


    ��Alright, Sir Whyte, may the victor send the other off with honor!�� As his smile grew, he leaned forward and lunged straight at me with enough force to crack the ground. ��Hyuup!�� *crack*


    He reached me almost instantly, but it was still far from being fast enough.


    His first swing was meant to sh across my body, but before it could meet my flesh, my sword came off my shoulder. *nk*


    But instead of losing his grip as I expected, he used the recoil from my hit to swing again. -Oh sh*t!-


    *nk-ng-Shing-tink-ng-Shing* Our exchange of nearly 20 swings took less than a single second, but with every collision, I unknowingly started to develop my own swordsmanship. -To think fighting a strong swordsman could be so fun!-


    But as I pulled back to give him a chance to breathe, a dark-grey dragon foot came mming down on my head with an apanying arrow.


    -They dare interrupt!- Swiftly swinging my sword up through the arrow and into the halfies foot, I let go of my sword and jumped up over its head. "I told you.. NOT TO INTERRUPT!!" Using thrusters iparable to what I used with Maria, I drove my fist into the area between the halfies eyes.


    *CRACK-WHAM* Its skull shattered and its brain turned to mush before its head was driven into the ground fast enough for its neck to snap.


    *THUMP* As its standing body went limp and fell to the ground, Inded and casually pulled my sword out of its foot. *shiiing*


    But before it coulde all the way out, another arrow came zing towards my face. ��Tch����


    Forming a tiny metal marble in the air next to me, I nced at the archer watching their arrow fly with confidence. -Impudent bi*ch��- *CRACK* The marble sted through her arrow before zipping through her head faster than a neuron could fire.


    Setting my sword on my shoulder again, I moved towards the underside of the dead halfie and used thrusters to throw it out of the road. *pssh-RUMBLE* *THUD*


    "Sorry for the interruption, Jack. It seems like some people just can��t follow a single rule."


    ncing at the other halfies, I noticed their rage-filled expressions, but right when I got excited, the leader suppressed the rage in his eyes again.


    -He��s going to make a move soon�� He��s just waiting for the right moment, isn''t he��- "Haah, shall we continue?"


    Turning back to Jack, I expected him to look discouraged but instead, he looked like he had already epted fate. "Yes. But before that, let me thank you for letting me take a warrior''s way out." He gave a small bow before getting back into stance.


    Seeing his chivalry, my smile returned. -I really like this guy��- ��What are your thoughts oning back to Kan with me? If you agree, I will at least guarantee your life.��


    He gave me a confused look before showing me a grateful smile. ��Thank you for the offer, but I believe losing my life to a warrior as strong as yourself is simply my fate.�� Tightly gripping his sword, he gave me a determined look.


    ��Haah���� I was a little disappointed he didn��t agree, but I was also excited to continue our fight. ��In that case, I will send you off with honor.��


    After closing his eyes and taking another breath, his expression turned serious and he lunged at me. ��HYUP!��


    *nk-Fwip-ng-ng-crunch-WHAM-crackle* It was another flurry of blows, each faster and more powerful than thest until the ground started to shatter beneath us.


    After several dozen swings, his swords started struggling to handle it and started to crack, but he only swung harder. *Crackle-tink-WHAM-Fwip*


    -To think a human could reach into the realm of dragons!- Getting a little too excited, I identally ended the exchange with a heavy downward swing.


    *FWOOSH* Immediately understanding he couldn��t block it, he angled his de above his head to attempt to redirect my de.


    His stance was perfect, and he still had just enough strength to perform it, but no matter how great everything else was, his sword had reached its limit.


    *tink-shatter* Before he couldpletely redirect my de, his sword shattered, and my de sliced through his corbone,pletely cutting off his arm.


    But instead of screaming from the pain, he only fell to his knees and hung his head toward the ground. He already knew what was going to happen.


    ��Thank you for the fight, Jack. I will remember your name as long as I live.�� As I raised up my sword, I noticed he was wearing a look of contentment. -It was a good fight, Jack.- ��I wish you luck in your next li-�� But before I could give him a warrior''s ending like I wished, a massive brown tail swooped through and smashed apart Jack''s body.


    The tail then hit me with so much force that when I tried to block it with my sword, the de shattered and left nothing else to dampen the blow. *WHAAAM* The next thing I knew, I wasunched several hundred meters through the forest and was embedded into a rock.


    *Gasp* *Cough* *Cough* -What the f*ck was that?!- Looking up as I gripped my chest, I saw a massive, 46-meter brown halfie looking at me like I was an ant.


    Quickly trying to stand up, I got extremely light-headed and nearly fell over.


    Millions of thoughts passed through my head in an instant, before my mind finally recognized something I hadn��t seen since I reincarnated.


    Fear.


    But my pride as a dragon didn��t allow that. -How could I fear this bast*rd?!- Looking up at his towering dragon form, a flood of emotions came barreling through my mind, but before they could cause problems, they were all funneled into rage.


    ��How dare a weakling like you make me feel fear���� My pupils dted as I finally stopped controlling my aura. *vwooom* Just on the edge of my aura, I saw Ilios looking at me like he wanted directions. ��Ilios, I got the big one����


    The halfie still had no idea of his existence though. ��Haha, did I hit you hard enough for you to lose your mind?�� He wore a smug smile that I simply wanted to rip off his face.


    Seeing Ilios run away to reposition, I let my bloodlust flow. ��I''m gonna ughter you like a pig����


    In the next instant, a blinding purple light lit up the night sky and the surrounding forest.


    -There is a special ce in hell for people like you��-

 Chapter 84: Making The Planet Tremble

    Chapter 84: Making The Tremble


    Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan x Kan Border


    *Crunch* The ground shattered beneath me as I stopped using magic to distribute my weight.


    It was a noise that made the halfies�� expressions darken and turn serious, but it was already toote. -Now you''re really f*cked��-


    Once the light finally faded to reveal my dragon form, the younger halfie


    turned anxious, but unlike him, instead of getting nervous, the leader''s expression washed with confidence.


    "It seems my eyes have gotten worse as I have aged. To think I wouldn��t recognize a fellow dragon in their human form. In the 400 years that I have lived, I have never run into someone like you, so I hope you will forgive me for my mistake."


    His endless confidence made me feel sick to my stomach. "You must have lost your f*cking mind��"


    "Woah there, man. Look, I have a good offer for you." His smile grew even smugger. "Seeing how dark your scales are, you must be a half-breed, right? So why are we fighting? Once Kan inevitably falls, those pure-dragon bast*rds won''t be able to continue to suppress us! All that''s left is to kill that pesky royal family, so why don''t you join me?"


    As the walls of my reserve thinned and my aura rushed forward, the leader twitched. -This f*cker��- Having already toned out his insane ramblings, I looked him in the eye with eyes of rage. "Since you don��t seem to understand your ce, how about I show it to you��"


    Having lost a bit of confidence after sensing my aura, he responded with a tad of hesitation. "What are you-"


    *sh* Cutting him off, a wall of blue mes appeared behind my spread wings.


    *ZIP* I closed the distance between us almost instantly, smashing through the sound barrier severalfold before opening my mouth to mp onto his neck.


    *crackle* The sound of his scales shattering under my teeth was like music to my ears. -But I won''t give you such an easy death��-


    Without turning down the thrusters, I drove him through a kilometer of forest and mmed him into the ground. *Cr-r-r-r-rack-WHAM*


    Feeling my teeth puncture through his scales, the dense bast*rd finally realized the kind of situation he was in and tried to dig his ws into my body.


    But seeing his ws couldn''t puncture my scales, Ipletely ignored him and flew into the air.


    His face finally started to wash with fear as the ground grew smaller and smaller before I finally turned around. -How does the fear of death feel?-


    *FWOOOOSH* The atmosphere looked to catch fire as I darted back toward the ground, and the halfies fearful expression only grew.


    *WHHHAMMMM* The ground shattered for hundreds of meters in all directions as my teeth were driven even further into his neck.


    All I needed to do was bite down, and I would kill him. -But you don''t fear me enough��-


    Before he could catch his breath, I reactivated the thruster magic and spun myself to hurl him at arge rock I saw from the air.


    *RUMBLE-fwip-CR-R-R-R-R-ACK* *CRUNCH-crumble* The sound of him smashing through countless trees before finally hitting the rock quickly brought me a smile of satisfaction, but even though I wanted to enjoy it, I didn��t want to give him any time to think.


    *pshh-FWOOOOSH* Launching myself at him again, I lowered my head and mmed it into his chest.


    *CRUNCH* The first thing to break was his ribs, but.. *crackle* The rock he was embedded in couldn��t handle it either.


    *BANG* The rock, spanning nearly 100 meters in all directions, was hopelessly blown apart after attempting to absorb some of the impact.


    *THUD* *THU-UD-D-D* As the halfie limply ragdolled through the forest, crushing trees and continuing to break his wings, I finally thought he might be dead.


    -A copsed chest, crushed organs, shattered limbs, and bleeding everywhere�� What a pitiful sight��- But even though I thought that, my eyes were devoid of pity or mercy.


    *cRaCk* A sonic boom rang off in the distance as I finally walked up to his body and looked down at his face with an unamused expression.


    But then, thinking I didn''t notice, he turned his head to look at me. "C-CAUGHT YOU!" A bright orange spark could be seen when he opened his mouth.


    But even though I had plenty of time to dodge, I didn��t move a muscle.


    *crackle-FWOOOOSH* A colossal amount of fire, hot enough to melt steel instantly, enveloped my body in a nket offortable warmth.


    Seeing the confidence still lingering in his eyes, my smile widened. "Was that really something you took pride in?"


    The instant he heard my voice, his eyes lost their will to fight.


    But that didn��t make me hesitate in the slightest. "You know, I''ve decided..."


    Deep within my chest, a colossal amount of mana began to move.


    It was an amount bigger than everything contained in most dragon��s entire reserves, but I moved it as if it was nothing.


    As the halfie''s breath slowly ran out of juice, I moved over and mmed my foot down into his neck.


    *crunch* "Ack!" His face paled and washed with fear as I lowered my face toward his and looked him in the eye.


    My smile widened before I finished adding to what I made during the fight. "I��m going to make you disappear." With a crazed look in my eyes, I opened my mouth over his face.


    The next instant likely felt like an eternity for the halfie as the purple glow between my scales turned yellow, and a heat fundamentally different from anything he had ever felt filled the air.


    It was the instant I forced the 5 kilograms of plutonium and uranium within my breath nd to critical mass. [1]


    *sh* As if a new sun was created, the sky, previously orange from the sunrise, turned blue, and every tree within a kilometer instantaneously turned to dust.


    *BAAAAANGGGG* The shockwave that followed the st of heat decimated the trees of ash, smashed apart the melting rocks, and mercilessly took the lives of every living being it touched before traveling another 5 kilometers, leveling everything in its path.


    But the wave of destruction continued to travel even farther, with people in nearby towns, some 50 kilometers away, seeing the sh over the horizon and feeling the tremble beneath their feet.


    It was a scene that made thousands tremble from fear and start to worship the gods they previously abandoned but little did they know, their prayer could onlynd on deaf ears, as even gods would have watched the scene in awe.


    "Hoooh..." Letting out a deep breath while waiting for the dust to settle, I looked down at a 30-centimeter wide mana core that was slowly sinking into the molten ground. -Not even a bone left, huh��-


    Still unable to shake off my lingering anger, I bent down and plucked the core off the ground, before throwing it down my throat without a second of hesitation.


    "Blegh��" I cringed from its horrific, lingering taste before eventually leaning down and taking a mouthful of theva to try and drown out the taste. -He really was disgusting inside and out��-


    But at the end of it, I figured it would help refill my reserve so I pushed past the taste, but instead of feeling like a cup was poured into a bucket, it felt like a drop fell into ake. -To think my reserve expanded so much��-


    As I idly thought about it though, I finally remembered something insanely important.


    -WHAT ABOUT ILIOS?!- In a flurry of panic, I leapt out of the several-dozen-meter-deep crater and scanned the area.


    But that was only a few seconds before I saw Ilios staring at me while wagging his tail a couple kilometers away. -Oh, thank the Lord, he''s okay-


    Quickly flying over to him, I finally noticed a blood-covered, and half-charred halfieying behind him that, surprisingly, was still alive. -Did Ilios identally tank the st for him?-


    Finallynding in front of them, Ilios wasted no time getting up and jumping on me,pletely ignoring the ground-melting heat still being exuded from my body. -He��s just as much of a freak as I am, isn''t he��-


    As I thought that, Ilios somehow got more excited and jumped up on my neck to lick my face.


    His excitement was so contagious it finally made my lingering anger melt away. "Haha, I''m d you��re alright too, buddy!" Unable to get an arm around to pet him, I just moved my head over and rubbed my face into his fur. "You really grew quite a lot, didn��t you?" Just a day ago, before my dragon sleep, he looked like such a puppy, but now he had grown to be a big grown wolf. -I guess I don��t have to worry much about him anymore then��-


    I felt a bit nervous as I thought of the possibility that he would eventually leave me, but as if to give some reassurance, Ilios gave me a serious look before giving a single strong lick against my cheek.


    It made me want tough, but it made my heart melt first. "Damn, you��re so f*cking adorable!!!"


    Quickly losing track of time, I spent several minutes just loving on him.


    It wasn��t until I heard a groan that I finally stopped myself.


    "Ugh��" The halfie that was shielded by Ilios let out a groan as he tried to move.


    "You''re really resilient, aren��t you?" Thankfully, my anger had long since melted away, so I was able to walk up to him with a clear mind. "Since you''re alive, how about we have a little chat? If you answer all the questions I ask, I''ll let you live. Maybe..."


    Scared sh*tless by my slightly crazed grin, he hastily nodded with a pale face.


    "Alright, then I''ll get straight to the point." Looking him in the eyes, I pressured him with a bit of aura. "Is the tower the one funding the rebellion?"


    "..." Without responding, he stared at me with a look of surprise.


    Thinking he just didn��t want to talk, I slowly raised my foot over his head for a little extra ''encouragement''.


    He cracked immediately. "YES! YES, THEY ARE! PLEASE SPARE ME, MIGHT ONE!" He closed his eyes and braced himself for my foot to crush his skull.


    -Oh, someone who actually knows something?- Enjoying the pleasant surprise, I looked down at his pitiful state and thought about what to do with him. -Would he count for the concrete evidence Father needed? Unlike everyone I��ve talked to so far.. He actually seems to know some details��-


    But while I was thinking about it, I saw something silver crest the not-so-distant horizon. "Huh?" Looking up at it, I had a gleam appear in my eye. -What perfect timing!-

 Chapter 85: A Field of Ash

    Chapter 85: A Field of Ash


    Early Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan


    - Osto Ragnarok ~


    -Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t��- I was in aplete panic after hearing that Vasilias ran off on his own in an attempt to save Kan. -I''d rather have Kan burn to the ground than have Vasilias die��-


    It had been a little over an hour since I left the capital at that point, but I was still struggling to shake off my lingering, unwarranted aggression toward Oliver.


    The longer I thought about it, the more I realized how futile Oliver��s attempts to stop or protect Vasilias were, but I was still upset nheless. -Even if he got Eulia and Lawton to follow after him, Vasilias would have been over the horizon before they could find him��-


    I knew firsthand just how fast Vasilias was, and to put it simply, it was a speed unattainable by any being other than him.


    A flight that would take me over an hour, even at full speed, he could do in a couple of minutes. -And I''m sure the speed I experienced then wasn��t his limit��-


    I felt aplicated mix of emotions when I thought back to his rxed and unbothered expression when he carried me to Kan. -He really is a monster, even among dragons��-


    Realizing I was getting sidetracked again, I quickly cleared my mind and looked down to see a road with a sign indicating I was at the border with the Kindom of Zan. "Alright, I need to focus��" Assuming he was likely somewhere along the border, I quickly turned to fly along it and started to scan the area below, being sure not to miss a single detail.But aggravatingly, I struggled to find any signs of a fight anywhere.


    The area below me was just an endless forest, with only the asionalrge monster or dungeon beneath the canopy.


    -Sh*t�� Where is he��- The more time that passed, the more my anxiety grew.


    But that was when I finally saw something.


    Well over the horizon, I saw a blinding blue light, like a shooting star, dart toward the ground. -That must be him!-


    Rushing toward the light as fast as possible, I quickly came up to a dpidated road with several mutted bodies scattered along it, but that wasn''t what made me worried.


    Stretching into the forest was a wide path where trees had been destroyed as if a dragon was plowed through them. -There��s no way Vasilias was knocked hard enough to clear that, but that would mean��-


    Feeling my heart sink, I looked into the forest in a rush, just to have my worries confirmed.


    Lying there, just inside the forest, was a halfie not much smaller than me, with an unrecognizably destroyed head and a snapped neck. -Some of those Nation Ranks were dragons?!-


    Immediately breaking into panic, I gained altitude and flew toward where the blue light was, still some 20 kilometers away. "Please tell me I''m not too-" *CRACKLE*


    A massive plume of fire erupted from the dust-filled area before I could even ease my worries.


    The fire turned the surrounding, tall-standing trees to ash and lit the foliage on fire immediately, but the most horrifying part about it was that the me was unfamiliar. -That��s not Vasilias��s breath��-


    It was a realization that made my heart tense up. "VASILIASSSS!!" I yelled his name at the top of my lungs as the fire slowly dissipated.


    My previous worries and anxieties were immediately reced with a blinding, uncontroble rage.


    Not a single thought entered my mind other than how I was going to ughter the bast*rd who shot that me.


    But before I could get remotely close enough to do or see anything��


    *sh* A light brighter than the sun exploded from the area, and an instinctual fear, deep enough to wipe away my rage in a sh, made my mind go nk.


    I was still nearly 15 kilometers away from the source, but I still felt the air around me heat up almost instantly. *fwoosh*


    Sumbing to my instincts without thinking, I dove toward the ground, but I was far from fast enough.


    *BAAANNGGG* A deafening noise met my ears as a shockwave plowed through my body. "Ugh!" Although it was nothing unmanageable, it made me feel quite light-headed and made my senses fuzzy. "Ahh..."


    Quickly trying to recover my senses, I spread my wings just above the treetops and glided in whatever direction I happened to be facing.


    It actually took a few minutes after that for my senses to return enough for me to realize I was gliding the wrong way. "Ah�� Sh*t��"


    Hastily turning around and gaining altitude again, I couldn��t help but look over the scene in awe.


    The forest that seemed endless and undisturbed before, had turned into a field of ash over 12 kilometers across.


    -What the hell��- I could only hover there in awe as the dust and ash started to settle, but after a couple minutes, I noticed a white wolf sitting in the open. -Is that Ilios?-


    But only once the dust settled enough for me to get a better look, did I notice it was too big to be Ilios. -It couldn''t be one of Ilios��s parents, right?-


    As if it heard me, the wolf turned around and red at me with a mix of hostility and confidence.


    -Sh*t!- Dropping my altitude once more and assuming the wolf was the one threatening Vasilias, I broke its gaze with the treeline and devised a quick n of attack. -I need to pick up the pace.. even Vasilias wouldn''t be able toe out of that explosion unscathed��-


    But it was only a short momentter that I peeked my head over the tree line again to see the wolf sitting on the back of a massive, 29-meter-tall ck dragon standing over a smaller, charred dragon body.


    For an instant, I thought the charred body was Vasilias, but before my world could shatter, I noticed it wasn''t ck beneath the char.


    But the ck dragon didn''t look like Vasilias either.


    Its body was well defined and mature, nothing out of the norm for adult or elder stage dragons, but I couldn��t help but feel as if I was looking at something too perfect to exist.


    The only aspects it really shared with Vasilias were its abyssal ck color, and the air of majesty around it. -But there''s no way that another dragon with that kind of surreal beauty can exist�� It has to be him...-


    But even after thinking that, I could only continue to rationally deny that possibility. -Vasilias was only 23 meters when I left for Bahamut a few days ago�� This couldn��t be him��-


    But as if he noticed my gaze, the dragon looked up at me and gave a familiar look. -What... It really is him��-


    Continuing closer with a bit of caution and uncertainty, Inded not far from them on the superheated earth.


    *puff* I kicked up a cloud of ash as Inded, but my eyes were still locked on Vasilias. -How did he grow so much in a few days? Just what kind of monster is he��-


    - Vasilias ~


    Wearing a warm smile, I walked a bit toward Father, but when I took a closer look at him, I noticed how on edge he was.


    My face switched to one of concern immediately. "Are you alright, Father?!"


    His face showed a mix of anxiety and worry. "Y..yes, I''m fine, but more importantly�� What happened to you, Vasilias?" He looked both Ilios and I up and down with an anxious expression.


    -Ah right.. How do I exin this...- Looking at his still somewhat fearful expression, I felt my heart ache. -Telling him the details will only make things more difficult��- "All I can really say is that I entered a dragon sleep after doing something incredibly stupid."


    He stared at me with wide eyes. "You had a dragon sleep? In just a few days?!"


    "Kind of? But not really... Now isn��t a good time to exin..." I felt bad about hiding something like that from him, but I knew exining it wouldn��t help our already brittle rtionship. -I can tell he''s been trying to improve his side of our rtionship after Mother spoke with him... I don''t want to ruin his effort...-


    Thankfully though, without me getting too involved, Father��s fearful expression started to fade. "Haah�� I won''t pry as long as you just promise to tell your mother and me about it eventually, alright?" His voice was oddly caring and warm.


    "O-of course. It''s just something that would be.. troublesome to exin currently."


    Father��s expression slowly started to warm up after I spoke. "In that case, it��s fine��" As if finally easing his mind, he let out a quick breath. "Well.. since we have that out of the way�� WHAT WAS THAT EXPLOSION?! ARE YOU STUPID?!" He quickly ran up to me and bonked me on the head.


    "Haha, you didn''t like my little firework?" A smile found its way onto my face as I saw him acting like his normal self again.


    "LITTLE?! IT LOOKED LIKE YOU RECREATED THE SUN! If your mother finds out you did this, she''ll kill me!"


    "Haha, I''ll take the me, don''t worry. Since I didn''t get that hurt, I''m sure I''ll be able to find a way out."


    Hearing me mention I was hurt, worry returned to his face. "Right, where are you hurt?" He quickly got closer to examine the various scratch marks all over my scales.


    "I''m fine, I''m fine. The worst thing is just a couple of broken ribs, but those will be healed in a couple days."


    He paused and looked up at me before finally stepping back. "Haah, how am I going to exin this to your mother��"


    "If you don''t want to, I can." -As long as I''m careful, I can at least avoid getting scolded��- "How is she doing, by the way? Did you stop by?"


    "Ah, yeah. She''s doing good. Since we left, she has just spent most of her time sleeping by the door, guarding Krystallo. While I was there, I made sure to get her plenty of food, so she wouldn''t have to leave at all."


    Thinking she sounded lonely, I had the sudden urge to go home, but I knew that wasn''t possible right now. -I��ll be sure toe home quickly, Mother!- "What about Krystallo? How��s her sleep going?"


    "So far, so good, but you never know what will happen during them, so it��s best if I don''t say anything..."


    -Right.. It��d be best not to jinx it��- "All we can do is pray to Bahamut that nothing happens, right?."


    "Right..." There was a short moment of silence before he continued. "Well, anyways.. Is this guy really still alive?" He looked behind us at the halfie ying dead on the ground.


    -To think a dragon could have such a rat-like instinct...- Quickly shing him with my aura, he tensed up and turned to us with a look of fear. -That''s better...-

 Chapter 86: A Golden Opportunity

    Chapter 86: A Golden Opportunity


    Mid Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan x Kan Border


    "Have you asked him anything yet?" Father gave the half-breed a look of spite, not even bothering to hide his aggression.


    -That expression�� Did the meeting not go well?- "All I asked was if the tower was the one funding the rebellion."


    "And his answer?"


    "He said they were."


    Father''s demeanor changed instantly, allowing a wide smile to creep onto his face. "How perfect." His eyes were full of greed.


    "So, what did the elders end up saying?"


    Getting pulled back out of his thoughts, he backed up and looked at me. "Ah yes, sorry. I forgot to mention it." He paused as he turned to face me. "I was just told the other dragons can''t move until we get some ''concrete evidence''." He uncaringly rolled his eyes. "I was basically told that we were on our own."


    -How stingy��- "But if that''s the case, couldn''t you use this guy as evidence now?" I gave the halfie a look of disdain."It''s possible. It just depends on whether he actually knows the information we are looking for or if he��s just lying to save his own neck."


    -I''ma lose it if he''s lying...- Although I felt somewhat confident that I could cleanse the Tower myself, I didn''t want to act on it since a part of me believed my confidence wasing from naivety. "Either way, do you want to talk to him here? Should I move him? What do you want me to do?"


    "Ah, I need to think about that, actually." His face turned troubled. "I will likely have to bring him back to Bahamut, but I need to figure out if he��s usable first... Just go y with Ilios or something until I finish." He paused for a minute as he nced at Ilios. "That is Ilios, right?"


    "Haha, of course! Who else would it be?"


    "I was just.. checking." Father was still struggling to believe the reality of the situation.


    -But I''m sure he wille to ept it eventually��- "Hooh..." Letting out a quick breath to shift gears, I looked back at Ilios with a yful, butpetitive smile. "Hehe~!"


    As if he knew what was about to happen, his tail started wagging and kicking up a massive plume of ash behind him.


    -This''ll be our first time ying after dragon sleep... Let''s see how much you''ve grown, Ilios!-


    *Crunch* The ashen ground cracked beneath my feet as I leapt after Ilios.


    I closed the distance between us almost instantly. -Got ya!- But as soon as I reached out to tag him, he disappeared. *fwoosh*


    -Huh?- I couldn''t believe my eyes for a second. "You got that much faster?!" Seeing him confidently dashing around me, apetitive gleam appeared in my eyes. -I don''t need to hold back now!-


    "Woof!" Ilios stopped for an instant to give me a happy hop, showing both his excitement and confidence.


    "Oh, you think you can win this time, huh?" Lowering myself to the ground and spreading my wings, I disappeared from where I was and appeared behind him. "It seems I''m still faster!"


    Getting cocky, I slowed down at thest second, which gave Ilios just enough time to escape. *fwoosh*


    A huge wall of ash was created as he darted across the clearing.


    "Woof!" He sounded like he was provoking me with his bark.


    -Oh? Do you really think you��ve already won?- My adrenaline finally started to flow as I got ready for the real chase. "Don''t get toofortable!"


    *FWOOOSH*


    - Oliver Kan ~


    "Haah.. what are we going to do..." I could do nothing but stare at my bedroom ceiling as sharp pains in my head kept me in a daze.


    "I''m sure they will be fine�� Don''t worry..." Helen was trying tofort me as she sat on the edge of the bed and reapplied the ice artifact to my forehead.


    "Thank you..." My voice was slow and lethargic even though I had been resting all day. -It must be the stress that''s eating away at me...- Thinking back to when Osto came by, I felt a shiver pass down my spine. "You saw the look in his eyes, didn''t you? What if something bad really happened to Vasilias?"


    "Either way, we aren''t in the position to worry about them..."


    I gave her a desperate look for a moment before turning away. "I guess.. that��s true..." The image of Osto''s rage-filled eyes popped into my mind again. "I just can''t help but worry after putting myself in his position..."


    "But there is a difference between us and him�� If he was taking care of Lucy, he would have the power to stop her... There was nothing we could do once Vasilias set his eyes on those Nation ranks." She clenched the bedsheets as a look of guilt came to her face.


    A mix of sadness and guilt filled my mind when I looked at her, but there was nothing I could do. "Would a father care about that?"


    "..." Helen''splexion darkened as she couldn''t refute. "All we can do is pray that they are alright�� We need to trust Vasilias''s confidence."


    The room went silent for several minutes before I decided to change to a less depressing topic. "Have you checked on the shelter yet?"


    "Yes, I have��" She paused to let out a deep breath and calm her nerves. "It was aplete mess. The vault was still open, the ground and walls were cracked, and most of the artifacts and weapons within the vault were more fragile than ss��"


    "Ah.. I didn''t even think about that... To think the mana suction was strong enough to pull out the mana used to strengthen them..."


    "It was indeed quite an experience to see a sword crumble like sand with a slight touch..."


    Although I grimaced as I thought about the ridiculous expenses that just popped up, that was the least of my worries currently. "So, what did he end up taking?"


    "Just the core and that old greatsword."


    "HE DIDN''T BRING AN ARTIF- Ack!" When I tried to yell, an awful swelling-like pain filled my head. It felt as if my brain was being crushed.


    Helen''s face drained of color immediately as she used ice magic on my chest and forehead. "Please just rx..." Her face was washed with fear. "We have already talked about this. You can''t make any sudden movements until you get better�� I don''t want your condition to get any worse than it already is, so..." Tears started to well in her eyes. "Please don''t do that..."


    A pang of gut-wrenching guilt filled my stomach when her tearnded on me. "I''m sorry, honey. But please don''t worry... I might be in a little pain, but I''m sure it''ll heal with enough time. We just need to be patient."


    She gave me a look of fear before taking a deep breath to try and calm down. "Haah... R..right."


    There was another moment of silence before I decided to continue. "Back to what I was saying... He didn''t bring any artifacts?"


    She quickly shook her head. "No, not that I noticed at least... At least he brought a sword though.. at the very least, it''s better than nothing..."


    "I.. guess..."


    "I''m not sure whether he just doesn''t like them, or doesn''t know how to use them, but when I took him into the vault before, he didn''t even bat an eysh towards the stronger artifacts..."


    I could only nod my head slightly in agreement. "He��s 10.. That should be expected."


    "Yeah, but even though he''s 10, he''s a dragon with more mana than half this citybined..."


    "..." Thinking that dwelling on the issue wouldn''t do us any good, I just remained silent.


    Helen gave me an odd look for another moment before eventually standing up. "I will take care of all your work, so please rest... No matter what happens, I will still be supporting you in any way I can..."


    I wanted tough, but I knew it would hurt. -When was thest time I heard that...- Before I could finish reminiscing, I turned back to her. "Thank you, sweetie..."


    Helen gave me a light kiss before she finally left the room, turning off the light artifact on the wall as she left. *Click*


    Looking up at the dark ceiling, I let out a deep breath. "Haah..." Once again, I was left alone, with only my thoughts to keep mepany. -We can only choose to believe Vasilias now.. there''s no use in continuing to worry...-


    In an attempt to ease my stress, I thought back to all of my interactions with Vasilias.


    We never really talked that much, but during our limited time together, it was made abundantly clear that he wasn''t an ordinary child.


    Whenever I would talk with him, I felt like I was talking to some sage with a mountain of knowledge I''d never understand.


    At first, I summed it up to him just being a dragon, but the feeling was far beyond what I felt whenever I talked to Osto.


    -I just need tomit. If he dies, so will we; but if he manages to win, it''ll create a massive opportunity��- Giving the idea a bit more thought, I eventually decided to advance some old ns and take advantage of the possible golden opportunity.


    -All I can do at this point is trust Vasilias, so I guess it''s time that I prepare the military for a trip to Zan.-

 Chapter 87: Improvement

    Chapter 87: Improvement


    Late Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan x Kan


    *CRUNCH* The brittle ground shattered as I finally pinned Ilios to the ground.


    "Haah.. haah... I.. win..." After nearly 3 hours of an aggressive game of tag, I had finally managed toe out on top, but I felt exhausted.


    *Thud* Copsing to the ground next to Ilios, I nced over to see him equally exhausted.


    "Hah-hah-hah-hah��" He was panting quite heavily.


    "You alright buddy? I didn''t push you too much, did I?"


    "Hah-hah.. woof!" He gave a cheerful bark as he rolled over and crawled next to me.


    "Haha, good��" -I knew he got faster.. but I didn''t think it was to that extent��-


    *thump* *thump* *thump* As Iid there, some heavy footsteps came up from behind me. "How did you two go at that for 3 whole hours?" After Father finished talking with the halfie, he just sat down, not far away, and watched as Ilios and I yed without any regard for our surroundings."Haha.. it''s all thanks to a wonderful thing called adrenaline��"


    "A..drena..line?" He tilted his head as he sounded it out.


    "It''s basically what makes you hyped up and feel like you could conquer the world."


    "Ah! You mean fighting spirit?"


    Seeing his enthusiasm, I couldn''t bring myself to say no. "Kind of��" -It''s not quite the same, but it''s close enough.- "Anyways, did you get any good information out of that guy?"


    His previously enthusiastic smile turned serious the second I asked. "Actually, yeah. He was pretty high up the chain ofmand so he could call out the big shots by name. The only bad part is that now I need to fly him all the way to a space rune to get to Bahamut again."


    -Ah right.. I nearly forgot about those.- "So what will Bahamut do once they get evidence connecting the Tower to the rebellion? Will they just send reinforcements to help us wreck their headquarters?"


    "Pft-haha! Not quite." Father seemed to think my assumption was funny. "Bahamut is iparably stronger and smarter than you think, Vasilias. They will simply cleanse the Tower and all its connections on their own." He spoke with an out-of-ce pride.


    But I was too preupied to think much of it. -If they''ll do it all on their own, does that mean my job is done?- "How sure are you that the halfie will be enough evidence?"


    "Extremely." His voice was heavy and decisive. "Although I will still need to meet with the elders to exin everything, even if they don''t believe that guy''s word, they can just put him under a truth oath to check if he''s lying."


    -So I was right to assume lie detection magic exists...- Although I found it fascinating and really wanted to theorize about how it worked, I shook my head a bit to keep myself from getting distracted. "So, since Bahamut will handle everything once you report everything, does that mean we''re going home when you get back?"


    "Hm?" He tilted his head with a look of curiosity and confusion. "Do you not like Kan?"


    Realizing my true intention had already slipped out, I just told the truth. "Well.. it is a little stuffy��" A gave him an awkward smile before coating it with some sugar. "I''d also just rather spend my time with Mother or watching over Krystallo." -There''s only so much I can gain from staying in Kan for much longer��-


    Giving an awkward nce at Father, I expected him to look a little disappointed, but he seemed to have a joyful memory on his mind instead. "Haha, in that case, we will head back as soon as we can."


    -Let''s gooo!!- "So when are you going to leave?" I didn''t even bother to hide my excitement at that point.


    "Haha, well, I will leave here in a moment." He seemed to be enjoying the warm atmosphere. "I don''t want to procrastinate and let the tower make more advances on Kan. Plus, I can''t let you get implicated more than you already have."


    "Haha, you don''t need to worry about that, Father." My excitement quickly shifted to confidence.


    "Hm? What do you mean? I know you''re strong but-"


    "Father, I just one-sidedly destroyed 9 Nation Ranks, and 3 halfies, one of which was over 400 years old, and their mutted bodies on the road over there are the evidence. If that doesn''t send a message to the Tower, I don''t know what will."


    Father''s eyes slowly widened.


    It felt a little nice to brag a little. "If the tower seriously sends more people after losing that badly, I might as well waltz into their headquarters myself since it seems their leader is a toddler." I held my head high as I continued to think about the whole situation.


    Losing 9 normal Nation ranks alone was already a ridiculous loss, but with the addition of the three half-breeds well outside the realm of humanity, the Tower would be stupid to not hesitate and send more people toward an unknown enemy. -But regardless, it makes me wonder why the Tower wants Kan so badly��-


    A few secondster, Father finally let out a deep breath. "Haah��" His look of shock turned warm again. "In that case, I can leave without worry.. just��" His look had a trace of worry in it. "If not for me, please don''t do anything rash like that for your Mother��"


    -Does he really still feel guilty?- "You should know me by now, Father." I gave him a confident look. "I don''t act on things unless I''m confident about the oue."


    "Haah, I know... You''re really smart and freakishly strong, but your mother and I can''t help but worry sometimes. Just.. be careful." He was quick to try and suppress the lingering worry with a warm smile again.


    I couldn''t help but smile back. "I will, as long as you promise me you''ll be safe as well. If something happens that could put your life at risk, just drop the halfie and run."


    "Haha, don''t worry. Even if the tower does learn about this incident, by the time they could get a message to Bahamut, it''d be toote. In any case, I''ll be extra careful if it eases your worries."


    Before turning to the halfie behind him, he shed me a caring look that reminded me of Mother. -Maybe.. He''ll eventuallye around��- "If you get hurt even after promising, I won''t forgive you!"


    He paused for a moment before letting out a lighthearted chuckle and walking toward the halfie who had changed to his humanoid form. "Vasilias.. I know you won''t understand why I''m saying this, but thank you." Father nced at me with a thankful expression while spreading his wings. "Also.. thank you for being lenient with me��"


    *Fwoosh* Before giving me a chance to respond, he pped his wings and threw himself into the air with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.


    It made me want tough, but instead, I just sat there and watched as he steadily flew back over the horizon again. "Haah..." -The first step toward fixing something is finding out what''s wrong with it.- I felt a little proud seeing Father''s prideful demeanor improving, but that onlysted so long. "Uwaahh��" A deep yawn escaped my body before I noticed how tired I was.


    -Well, my job here is done�� I guess it''s time to head back��- ncing over at Ilios, I noticed he was about to fall asleep as well.


    "Let''s go back to Kan so we can nap, alright?" Lowering my wing to make a little ramp, I let Ilios up onto my back where he promptlyid back down. "I''ll make it a quick trip so hold on."


    Seeing him nod and use his mana to cling to me, I wasted no time sting the thrusters and hurling us both over the horizon. *FWOOOOSH*


    Thankfully, after Ilios''s growth spurt, he could handle the ridiculous eleration of my thruster magicfortably, letting us make it back to Kan in a matter of minutes. -I''m here already?-


    Looking down at the city, I felt a bit too tired andzy to take the proper route through the gate and just adjusted my speed and changed to my humanoid form while still in the air. -I''ll have to repair the courtyard but I''m sure it''ll be fine��-


    "Ilios, can you shrink down and brace yourself in my arms?" Reaching back for him, I used my aura to pull him into my grasp, where I securely held onto him. "Be sure to brace yourself."


    Seeing the courtyard in front of the pce quickly approaching, I used thruster magic to slow us down well below Mach. -Eh, that''s probably enough.-


    *Fwooosh* We zipped over the city''s outskirts in a sh before the stone courtyard eventually met my feet. *CRACKKLEE* The courtyard caved in and shattered for a few dozen meters in all directions, even after using mana to lessen the impact.


    *crunch* Casually crushing a piece of rubble into power as I stood up, I quickly let Ilios down and brushed the dust off my pants. -Wow.. My legs really handled that well��- I hit the ground far harder than I had expected, but it was a pleasing surprise to find that I didn''t break or even strain anything.


    -Well, no reason toin��- Before finally walking toward the pce, I used some earth magic to level the walkway again and help make repairing it a bit easier. -Sorry in advance, Oliver!-


    Finally turning toward the pce, I saw a middle-aged maid staring at me with a look of awe that could be mistaken for worship. I called out to her as I walked toward the door to the Pce. "Miss?"


    "Y..yes?!" She jolted and straightened up as soon as she noticed I asked her something.


    "Where is Oliver right now?"


    "T-the lord is in his room, young master." She threw herself into a bow as I nonchntly walked by.


    -Am I really just imagining that look of reverence I see in some people?- I gave it a quick thought before simply shaking it off my mind. -It''s probably just my imagination��- "Thanks, miss."


    Finally walking inside, I spread out my aura as far as I could and quickly sensed where Oliver was, but he wasying in bed, dead asleep.


    -If he''s napping, I''ll just go to Helen��- Although I needed to talk with him fairly urgently, I knew firsthand how aggravating it was to be woken up during a good nap.


    Scanning around the rest of the pce as I walked around, I finally sensed Helen''s aura on the edge of mine and made my way to what I assumed was her office. -Is she having a meeting?- As I got closer, I could sense another aura.


    -They''re quite strong��- Their aura was fairly impressive, but from what I could tell, they were still rapidly absorbing more. -Who could that be?- Not thinking much about it, I probed their aura with mine to see a short elven woman sitting on a couch. -An elf, huh?-


    Finally making it to her office after pulling back my aura some, I reached for the doorknob.


    *vwoom-BANG*

 Chapter 88: A Stressful Operation

    Chapter 88: A Stressful Operation


    Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    "Uwwaahh��" I let out a yawn as I reached for the doorknob. -Hm?-


    *vwoom-BANG* *Fwip* Instinctually creating a de of wind in front of me, I redirected the wooden shards flying at us around Ilios and I.


    *Clunk* As I dropped the brass door knob to the floor, I stared at the elf on the other side of the empty doorway with an unamused look. -Are you serious?-


    Her face was full of hostility. "Stay back your grace! I''ll kill this foul monst-" *WHAM* Before she could react, I threw her into the wall with my aura.


    The impact was strong enough to make the entire castle shake, but surprisingly, except for being knocked out, she seemed fine. -How resilient��-


    Finally walking into the office, I sat down on the couch with Ilios and grabbed a small piece of buttered bread. -Not bad��- "How''s it going, Helen?"


    Finally turning to her, I noticed she was standing behind her desk wearing a frozen look of shock. It took a moment for her to finallye to her senses. "V..Vasilias?!"


    "Who else would it be?" Using my aura again, I pulled the elven woman out of the wall andid her on the ground. *crumble* "So, who is this?""Ah.. that''s the uh.. grandmaster of the academy. The strongest mage in Kan..."


    "Ha-ha, very funny..." I spoke with palpable sarcasm.


    But Helen just gave me a confused look. "..."


    It took me a minute to notice. "W..wait, you''re serious?" The elven girl looked like she was younger than me.


    "She''s actually 110.. despite her.. childish appearance..."


    I could only show a look of awe. -To think I just threw an elderly woman into a wall...- Although I did feel a slight bit of pity, at the same time, she was the one to attack first so I felt no remorse. -Maybe she��ll learn to be more careful next time...-


    "T..that aside.." Helen awkwardly looked me up and down before simply letting out a deep breath. "Haah... I won''t ask about what happened to your appearance since I probably wouldn��t understand it anyway, but��" Finally sitting down at her desk again, she gave me a nervous look. "What happened to the nation ranks?"


    "Ah, they''re all dead." I leaned back with confidence. "No witnesses and no survivors."


    Although I expected her to finally rx after hearing the news, her face was still covered in anxiety. "You met up with your Father already, right?"


    -What is she worried about?- "Yeah, he just left to go to Bahamut again. If all goes well, the Tower will be cleaned out pretty soon, so you shouldn''t have to worry about a big war anymore." Giving Ilios thest piece of bread, I gave Helen a moment to speak before casually standing back up. "Well, I''m tired, so I''m going to take a nap. If there is some kind of emergency, you can wake me up."


    Giving a light wave as I walked back out through the empty doorway and passed by several panicking maids. I used my aura again to make sure there wasn''t anything else that needed my attention.


    But unlike what I expected, instead of everything being the same, I saw Oliver with his hand on his head. Although I wasn��t using enough aura to see it in detail, it looked like he was grasping his forehead. -Does he have a headache or something?-


    Thinking it couldn��t hurt to be cautious, I made my way into the neighboring section of the pce and up to the royal bedroom.


    -I''ll just check his condition from here for now��- Flooding the room with my aura, I did a quick scan from his feet to his head.


    At first, I couldn��t see anything serious, with only some minor bruising and a broken finger, but when my aura finally made it to his head, I noticed a very serious problem.


    -What the��- His skull was only slightly fractured, but the whole front section of his brain was bleeding and swelling significantly.


    -Sh*t! Won��t that kill him?!- In a hurry, I mmed the door open and rushed to the side of his bed. It was only then that I started to question what I was doing. -How the hell am I going to do this?-


    I had almost no actual medical knowledge or practice whatsoever, but I at least had some confidence that I knew more than the people of this world. "Hooh.." -I''ve got magic... Something like this isn''t impossible for me anymore...-


    Reaching over to him, I set my hand on his swollen forehead. -Okay, first.. I need a much closer look��-


    As my aura flooded his brain, an insanely detailed image of his head appeared in my mind, letting me easily highlight the problematic areas. -Alright, I need to stop the bleeding first...-


    Using a mix of my aura and extra mana, I slowly started to take control of the blood in the front portion of his brain, forcing it to flow through the normal channels as if they weren''t torn and tattered.


    But that could only just barely give the cells a chance to heal themselves. -It''s not enough��-


    Needing to move my attention elsewhere, I brainstormed until I decided to just use earth mana and strengthening magic to ''stitch'' the holes shut.


    Although it was quite amateurish and definitely wouldn''t hold for too long, it seemed like it would work. -With how fast he��s healing, it should only need to hold for half an hour or so...-


    Finally turning to the swelling, I racked my brain to try and think of a solution, but nothing came to mind. -Sh*t.. his brain will crush itself if I leave it as is��-


    Digging through my memories from Earth, I tried to think of any possible solution to the problem. -I could forcefully cool it all down, and try to quell it that way, but that has its own risks... Sh*t, what other options do I have?!-


    But right when I was about tomit to it, thinking I had no better options, a story I heard on Earth suddenly came to mind.


    -Wait.. I can shatter the front of his skull to give it room to swell...- It was a mind-blowingly risky y, but... -With magic, I can minimize the risk, so.. here goes nothing!-


    Using earth magic, I shattered the front of his skull as cleanly as I could to give his brain room to naturally swell. *CrAcK*


    It was a gruesome noise, but the cracks were so clean I barely had any bone fragments to get rid of. -Good.. the riskiest part went well��-


    Not wasting any time, I quickly got rid of the few fragments I could find and cleaned up the internal bleeding as best as I could.


    It wasn''t until several minutester that I finally finished with beads of cold sweat forming on my forehead.


    "Phew..." I made sure to still keep an eye on his condition as I pulled myself away to catch my breath. -How in the world did surgeons on Earth do sh*t like that for hours?-


    Although what I was doing was far beyond the mental capabilities of a human, I still felt a sense of awe that someone could work under such stressful conditions for so long.


    "Haah... I''m really looking forward to my nap now..." -But I guess it''d be stupid to just leave him here...- Deciding it��d be better to make sure the swelling was handled properly, I put off my nap for a few hours to watch his condition. -I��m in too deep to let him die now...-


    - Helen Kan ~


    "Haah.." I let out a deep breath as I leaned back in my seat and watched the maids start to clean my office. -We somehow avoided, not one, but two disasters��-


    Looking down at the diplomatic papers spread across my desk, some untamed ideas starteding to mind. -The nation ranks are all dead, and the dragons are going to wipe out the Tower...-


    At first, I tried to quell the stray, oundish thoughts, but the more I thought about it, the more I sumbed to them.


    -If the tower gets destroyed by the dragons, then the war will be stopped before it even starts... But wouldn��t that also create a golden opportunity?-


    12 Nation ranks dying without a trace left an absolutely massive opportunity for Kan to grow by swallowing nearby nations, but at the same time, it would definitely start a war.


    -But without the Tower, those countries are left with no effective allies and disheveled leadership��-


    A greedy smile slowly came to my face. -Wouldn��t that just mean they��re free food?-


    Standing up and turning to look out the window, I overlooked the city below with a slightly crazed look. -I guess it would be shameful to not make use of an opportunity dropped at our feet, right?-

 Chapter 89: The Endlessness of Magic

    Chapter 89: The Endlessness of Magic


    Mid Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    *tap-tap-tap-tap* "Haah��" -What am I doing��-


    It had been about an hour since things started calming down, a whole day after the disaster.


    I had been one of the leading figures of a group that carried people to medical wards, helped treat the wounded, and arrested thugs that broke into noble estates, but even though I was absolutely exhausted, I was still walking around the city.


    But I wasn��t walking around to help people. Instead, I was walking around trying to solve my own mental dilemmas. -Just what am I missing�� Is acknowledging it not enough?-


    Deep within my mind, I was staring at a pair of broken, rusted shackles.


    It all started several years ago, a few years after my progress in magic theory turned stagnant. At the time, I was unable to ept the reality that I, a man who dedicated his whole life to the pursuit of innovating and improving magic, had simply run into a roadblock.


    To escape that reality, I came to convince myself that I was actually at the peak of magic, the apex of humanity. But even still, deep down I knew there was another peak within the clouds.Regardless, the idea that I had reached the limit of mankind only further suffocated my thoughts, leaving me to mindlessly grow my reserve with no end goal in sight.


    But that''s when the false reality I''d created for myself came crashing down around me.


    Just a few days prior, I had seen a child use spells that were unheard of and use mana to seemingly bend the rules of the world.


    It was a scene that opened my eyes wider than they ever had been before, allowing me to set my sights on a peak within the clouds whilst reinvigorating my intrigue and excitement to develop magic.


    But I was once again left with a conflicted feeling. -I thought I resolved my problem... Why do I still feel.. drained��-


    The world in my mind steadily grew darker and darker the more I questioned myself and my choices.


    But that was when a calm voice pulled me out of my mind. "Sir, are you alright?"


    -Huh?- Looking up, I saw a knight donning silver armor giving me a worried look. -Oh.. I wandered to the za...- "Y..yes, sorry. I guess I just got lost in my thoughts."


    "Haah, alright. Just be sure to pay attention to where you are walking, you could cause an ident."


    His voice was oddlyforting. "Thank you, sir. I will keep that in mind." As I gave a polite gesture to the man, he moved back over to his post at the entrance to the za.


    Unable to keep my eyes from wandering, I quickly found myself staring at the dragon lying unconscious in the middle of the za.


    Over the days since the speech, whenever I saw her, my heart would ache, but somehow, at that moment.. I felt indifferent.


    *click* It was at that moment that I felt like I heard a shackle unlock.


    -Huh?- My thoughts instantly started to be clearer as the fog that had hovered in my mind for years started to dissipate.


    -T..that was it?- I had an odd mix of feelings start to well up in my stomach the more I thought about it. -The shackles I couldn��t find no matter how hard I looked, were hiding in in sight��-


    *nk-thud* The sound of shackles falling to the ground echoed through my mind as I looked around at the world around me in a new light.


    I saw the dark clouds on the horizon sh with lightning, and saw a birdnd next to me to pick up breadcrumbs.


    I looked around the street and saw an apple break open after being blown off a stand by the wind, and saw a gold coin in a noble''s hand glimmering in the sunlight.


    I kept seeing all these things.. these normal, easily exinable things, but somehow, I could only question myself. -Is it really all because of mana?-


    For the first time in my life, I started to question the foundations of nature and magic. -Is mana really what causes these phenomena?-


    As I finally left the area around the za, I continued to look around and question everything I was seeing.


    It made a part of me feel stupid, but at the same time, I felt intrigued. It was truly a refreshing feeling.


    Countless what-ifs ran through my mind as I continued to walk through town, and before I knew it, I found myself walking into the smithy with a youthful smile on my face.


    *ng* *ng* *Clunk* The sound of metal being hammered echoed through the air with a methodical rhythm.


    *fwip* Pushing aside the coarse cloth, I came in to see Udall hammering at a refined piece of metal.


    "Wee back, Michael." His voice sounded exhausted before he turned to look at me. "You seem to be in a good mood. Did you finally sort out your thoughts?"


    *creeak* The chair creaked as I turned it around to face Udall. "I guess you could say that." Finally sitting down and letting my legs rest, I felt relief fill my body, which only further fueled my curiosity.


    *fwip* The cloth in the door made a noise as it was pushed aside. "You��re finally back! I''m surprised yousted that long, oldie." Mollie��s voice was surprisingly energetic.


    "Haha, you��re calling him old?" A smug smile came to Udall��s face. "He''s only 47. He''s literally 23 years younger than you."


    "So what? My youth is eternal!" She put her hands on her hips and held her head high like a confident child.


    Udall��s smug look didn��t go anywhere though. "Uh-huh�� Suureee-" *CLANG* His voice was cut short by a soft metal te being mmed into his face.


    The te had molded to his head perfectly, so when he pried it off, he was left with a rough mold of his face.


    Finally turning it around, the te only showed the general contour of his face, but nheless, he looked back up at Mollie with a sly smile. "At least one of us is aging well-" *CLANG*


    "Pfft-hahaha!" I couldn��t hold back myughter as another te came mming into his face.


    My thoughts were light, nimble, and youthful, and although I was physically exhausted, my mind was still full of energy. -When was thest time I felt this young?-


    - Vasilias ~


    "Uwaahh��" I let out a deep yawn as I ran my fingers through Ilios��s fur.


    It had been a couple of hours since I finished my procedure on Oliver, and thankfully, his condition was starting to look better.


    His internal bleeding was the first thing to heal, with the bruising disappearing quite quickly with a bit of my assistance.


    As for the swelling, it only increased for quite a while, even causing his skin to break open and bleed on his forehead, but once the swelling finally started to return to normal, his condition greatly improved.


    Thanks to mana and the incredible healing ability of humans in this world, it wouldn''t scar, and once his skull healed back, it would look and feel as if nothing happened.


    -Humanoids are surprisingly resilient considering how fragile their bodies are... - Looking at Oliver and seeing him start to move and wake up again, I reached over his head and nullified a few neurons that were firing, making his movement stop immediately. -Man�� Maybe it''s just him, but his mind is like clockwork...-


    Over the few hours prior, I had been watching his mind very closely in an attempt to learn about it, and I did actually discover how to do several things.


    After studying how the pain receptors, nerves, and mind allmunicated, I learned to quell the pain from his shattered skull so he would only feel a slight headache, but this quickly led to me finding a way to put him back to sleep when he was in the process of waking up.


    Shockingly, it wasn��t tooplicated either. As I kept a close eye on his brain, whenever he initially started to wake up, a set of about 6 neurons were triggered by a chain of neurons that led to where the nervesmunicate with the brain.


    Putting two and two together, I made the assumption that the 6 neurons were something akin to an emergency wake-up response, and as expected, when I nullified the neurons fired from them, he would stop waking up and fall back to sleep.


    -To think magic would make something like this even possible...-


    *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* As I was thinking to myself, I noticed someone sneaking down the hallway outside.


    I was still letting my aura loose at that point, filling the room with so much mana that if I didn��t have control over it, it would be deadly to humans.


    But before I could even bother restraining some of it, the door opened. *Click*


    My aura immediately washed out into the hallway like flood waters.


    Lucy, who was the one in the hall, still stood at the door,pletely frozen with a slightly pale face. -She probably came to check on Oliver��-


    "I''m doing something important, so I need you to stay out of the room for a bit. Oliver is fine." Not wanting her toe inside and give me any kind of distraction, I closed the door without any more thought.


    Silence filled the hallway for several seconds before she finally backed away from the door and sat down against the wall. *tap* *tap* *thump*


    "Haah��" -I guess I can''t me her for being worried...-


    *rustling* "Mmmm��" Ilios shifted around some at my feet, getting extrafortable as he rested.


    "Lucky��" *pat-pat* -I could really use a nap right about now, too��-

 Chapter 90: Emotional Naivety

    Chapter 90: Emotional Naivety


    Mid Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - Lucy Kan ~


    "Mmm��" I groaned as I rolled onto my back and looked up at my bedroom ceiling. -I wonder how Viviana is doing��-


    It had already been hours since I woke up, but I couldn''t muster the motivation to get out of bed. -I have nothing to do today besides taking care of Father��-


    Looking over towards the door, I saw Martha giving me a worried look.


    It wasn''t a good sign. "Is Father awake yet?"


    "Miss..." She took a moment to think about what she was going to say before continuing. "Haah... He is still resting. I will tell you the moment he wakes up."


    "What''s the big deal though�� I''ve walked in on him sleeping before so why not now?"


    "Because he was hurt, his current rest can not be interrupted."I paused to think of a rebuttal but just gave up with a pout. "Hmph..."


    Looking in the other direction, I looked out through the balcony doors and took a moment to enjoy the nice warm breeze carrying the scent of flowers.


    It calmed my mind quite quickly. "Has Vasiliase back yet?"


    Martha''s look of worry quickly shifted to curiosity. "I haven''t heard about him si-"


    *Rattling* The doors and windows rattled as the entire pce shook.


    "What was that?" My voice became worried instantly as I looked toward Martha.


    But she was already across the room, closing and locking the window to the balcony and pulling the blinds.


    Her urgency quickly worsened my worries. "What''s going o-"


    "Lucy, I need you to stay quiet for a moment��" With a serious look on her face, she crept across the room and tossed me the silencing artifact on the bedside table.


    It was something only to be used during emergencies, which only worsened my panic.


    The next minute or so was wrapped inplete silence, but it didn''tst forever. *Rattle-THUD* The entire room shook, but unlike before, the rattling was quickly followed by a distinct shockwave.


    -What was that?!- Looking toward the door again, I saw Martha holding her de, a dagger she only used when she was serious.


    "Miss, please stay here for a moment." Her expression was devoid of positive emotion. "Lock the door after I leave and only open it if it''s me or your parents."


    I gave a nervous nod to her before she disappeared into the hallway.


    Being sure to follow her words, I ran up and locked the door with the silencing artifact in hand.


    My heart was racing as my mind began to wander and make assumptions.


    -Ever since he came.. there has been nothing but disaster...- My worry, anxiety, and stress quickly turned into anger as I thought back over the past few weeks. -Ever since Vasilias came to Kan, nothing but awful things have been happening.-


    With several assassination attempts on both Mother and Father, a huge city-wide disaster, Father getting injured, and mother being so overworked she looked sick, I could only feel contempt for the only variable that I knew changed. -If Vasilias never came, none of this would have happened��- It was a childish assumption, but sitting on the bed in the dark, motionless room let my emotions fester.


    It wasn''t until half an hourter that I heard a single noise other than people running up and down the hallway.


    *Knock* *Knock* The noise startled me. "Princess, you may open your door now. The situation has been resolved." It was an unknown but moderately familiar maid''s voice.


    Setting the silencing artifact on the bed next to me, I swung my legs off the bed to get the door but quickly stopped myself.


    -Wait, what am I doing��- Looking towards the door again, my uncertainty turned to fear. *tap* Hastily grabbing the silencing artifact, I quietly moved to the other side of the bed, ready to hide beneath the bed if the door was to open.


    "Young miss, Martha is quite busy and it will take some time for her to return. She sent me to tell you that everything is alright."


    My heart began to race again as I assumed the worst. -I can''t open the door�� I can''t open it unless it''s Martha or Mother��- I crouched behind my bed with only my eyes peeking over.


    My heart was beating out of my chest, but there was nothing I could do about it.


    The person behind the door called out to me several more times after that before leaving.


    I thought it was over, but then less than half an hourter, another person came, each time trying to entice me to open the door with different incentives, but I never caved.


    Before I knew it, minutes had turned into hours, and I was beginning to question myself, wondering whether they were really telling the truth.


    But once I was about to sumb to their enticement, another knock came.


    *Knock* *Knock* It made my heart sink, but the voice that followed changed that.


    "Miss, sorry I took so long." It was the voice of Martha!


    *Puft* Immediately throwing the artifact onto the bed, I darted to the door, undid the locks, and threw the door open. *click-cli-click*


    *Click* As the door swung open, I was met with Martha''s worried look.


    She quickly broke into a panic when she saw me though. "Miss, are you alright?! Did you really lock yourself in this whole time?!"


    Without waiting, I ran up and hugged her waist with teary eyes. "I thought something bad happened again!"


    Martha''s worry slowly turned to quilt. "I''m sorry... I should have been quicker or at leaste to tell you myself. I''m sorry." She reached down and embraced me as I struggled to hold back any tears.


    It took several minutes for me to calm down, but eventually, I found myself sitting back on my bed.


    Finally able to think straight after letting my pent-up emotions out, I went ahead and asked what was constantly on my mind. "So.. what was that shaking from?"


    Martha was sitting on the bed next to me, gently rubbing my back. "ording to the Missus, it was the Grandmaster mistaking Vasilias as an enemy and attacking him."


    -Hmph�� he deserved it...- In my heart, I cursed him and still believed him to be the source of all the disasters that struck Kan recently.


    To Martha, I likely seemed upset. "Sorry again for taking so long�� I had to take the Grandmaster to the medical ward, and-"


    I jolted up from my rxed pose. "W..what?"


    "Yeah, the first thing we heard was Vasiliasnding in the courtyard, but the explosion after that was the Grandmaster. The impact that followed was the Grandmaster being thrown into the wall��"


    -Is she alive?!- I had never seen Nation ranks fight, so the only thing I had topare it to was seeing some of Lawton''s training sessions and feeling the ground shake when Vasilias beat the dragon in the za.


    "In case you''re worried about her, she should be fine. She seems to have had a barrier artifact on her that kept her body in decent shapepared to the wall. At most, she will only have a couple broken bones."


    But instead of letting out a sigh of relief like she probably expected, I just sat there, staring at her. It took several seconds for me to think of what to say. "S..so where is Vasilias now?"


    "Hoh?" Her expression turned slightly smug. "Not long after talking with your Mother, a maid saw him go into the Lord''s room."


    My heart skipped a beat.


    "Id assume he''s still in there if you-"


    I sprung up from the bed and dashed to the door, but froze when I reached for the handle.


    "Where do you think you''re going?" Martha''s voice sounded a little threatening, but what held me in ce was her hand on my shoulder.


    It felt like I was stuck in quicksand. "I just need to make sure he isn''t hurting father!" No matter how hard I tried to get out of her grasp, I couldn''t make her hand budge.


    "Miss, please listen to yourself. If Vasilias can deal with the second strongest nation rank in Kan without even trying, why would he wait until his highness was hurt to do it."


    I paused as couldn''t refute it. "I.. I guess..."


    "Haah��" She let out a disappointed sigh. "What am I going to do with you..." She slowly dragged me back into the room and set me on the bed without any effort. "Would you like anything to drink or snack on?"


    "I''ll have.. one of Mother''s pops please..." (Basically a cake pop)


    "Alright, I''ll go grab one. Please stay here." As she was about to close the door behind herself, she gave me a serious look. "If you are to seed (the throne), you need to think carefully before every decision."


    It sounded like a warning. "O..of course..." Trying to act normal, Iid back on the bed and spread out to rx.


    It wasn''t until a few minutes after she left that I got up and checked the hall. -The coast is clear...-


    Father''s room wasn''t far down the hall, so I was able to get there quickly and sneakily. -I just need to check before I go back to my room��-


    Reaching up for the door knob to the royal bedroom, I cracked open the door with a slightly hostile expression. -He better not...-


    But before I could even finish my thought, a wave of mana so thick it made my mind go nk flowed through the crack and made me stop in my tracks.


    It could only be described as a wall of mana.


    My piled-up emotions, including the anger and frustration towards Vasilias, vanished in an instant. -I.. really.. let myself get mad at that kind of being��- I couldn''t believe myself.


    As the aura finally wrapped around me, it felt like a cold nket wrapped around my body, but it felt oddly soothing. My heart stopped beating out of my chest, and my breathing steadied.


    The dreadful knot of fear forming in my stomach vanished as if it was never there.


    But that was before a calm and majestic voice filled the air. "I''m doing something important, so I need you to stay out of the room for a bit. Oliver is fine."


    It sounded a little unfamiliar, but I still instinctivelyplied with it like I was under hypnosis.


    *Click* Closing the door, I walked across the hallway and sat down with a nk expression.


    It wasn''t until a few minutester that my mind finally cleared up.


    -What.. was that��- I still couldn''t really think straight, but my emotions were finally leveling out.


    After another minute, instead of being worried about Martha''s inevitable return, I found myself looking back towards the door to Father''s room. -You know�� That actually.. didn''t feel too bad...-

 Chapter 91: The Simple Complexity of the Brain

    Chapter 91: The Simple Complexity of the Brain


    Mid Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    -


    "Uwahh��" I let out a deep yawn as I leaned onto the edge of Oliver''s bed. -The brain really is quite fascinating, isn��t it��-


    While waiting for the swelling to go down, I spent my time watching and studying Oliver''s brain, connecting his countless neurons to countless reactions.


    After enough time, I actually found myself with a rtively decent map of what actions or senses were stored where. -Its more organized than I thought it would be��-


    To my surprise, it was very simr to a very intricate and efficientputer program, with different actions, senses, or memories being stored in various distinct sections while still being able to ovep and intertwine to form a web.


    To put things simply, everything was connected to everything. There were few, if any, dead ends, and even if you started with the same neuron, you could achieve a plethora of different oues.


    The only exception to this was memories.


    Although Oliver was deep asleep and I couldn��t exactly confirm what he was seeing each time, every time a neuron fired in the memory section of the brain, it would follow a very consistent and repeatable path until it got to a different section of the brain.-It really is no wonder why people on Earth said the brain is infinite�� Figurative or not, they weren��t far off��- Slowly pulling away my focus, an incredibly detailed image of Oliver��s of neurons came to mind.


    *flicker-flicker* What I assumed to be the memory and senses sections were lighting up like fireworks. -I wonder what he��s dreaming about��-


    I ended up watching the light show for a couple minutes after that, but as I felt my curiosity starting to build again, I finally stopped myself. -I need to stop before I touch the wrong button��-


    Sitting up and pulling away most of my aura again, I did a more general scan of Oliver��s head to see what his condition was.


    Thankfully, things looked good. The bruising was gone, the arteries were all healed, and the swelling had lessened enough that the pieces of his skull had settled back into ce. -Looks like my job is finallying to an end��-


    At that point, it had been several hours since I started the procedure on him, but at longst, he was at a point where the rest would heal naturally and as long as he didn��t jerk his head, he wouldn��t experience too much pain.


    "Haah��" -It''s about time��- It took a bit longer for the swelling to go down than expected, but I couldn��t say my time was wasted. -Either way, let''s finish this and go take a nap��-


    Setting my hand on his head, I aligned all the shattered chunks of his skull and used the atoms from the cells in the area to create small, barbed titanium needles that would hold everything together. -Hopefully, he won''t even notice them��-


    Finally feeling like I was finished, I stood up and stretched before leaning down to gently wake up Ilios. *pat-pat* "Let''s move downstairs, buddy��"


    Seemingly waking up from a deep sleep, he took a moment to finally wake up and stretch, but once he was finally moving it looked like he had been awake for hours.


    -That must have been a refreshing nap��- I was a bit jealous as I squatted down and loved on him for a moment, but that jealousy just turned into motivation to take a nap myself. "Let��s get going."


    Seeing Ilios happily following along as I walked to the door, I wasted no time opening it up and walking into the hall. *Click*


    On the wall opposite the door, I saw Lucy sitting on the ground, asleep while wrapped in a nket. Standing next to her was her maid, Martha, wearing a mix of emotions on her face.


    -She looks stressed��- *Click* Nonchntly closing the door behind myself, I turned and walked past Lucy and Martha toward the throne room. "He��s fine now. Tell him not to jerk his head or make any sudden movements for me when he wakes up��"


    Martha wore a surprised look as she watched me walk down the hall, but she never muttered a single word.


    I wasn��t really sure how to interpret it, but regardless, I was too tired to care.


    Continuing down the hallways, I got all sorts of odd looks from the maids and asional butlers, but none of them showed it to my face and none of them stopped me. -It''s about time that everyone knows about me��-


    It was honestly amazing to be able to walk around without a single interruption. At least until I got to the throne room.


    *nk-creak* Opening up the big door to the throne room, I looked inside and saw a single young maid polishing the gold trim on the stairs around the throne.


    That in itself wasn��t an odd sight. "Miss, I need you to step out for a moment." I spoke casually, expecting her to quickly follow my instructions like the rest of the maids, but instead, she just sat there and twitched slightly.


    -Is she having a seizure or something?- *creaakk-nk* Closing the door behind me, I started walking down the red carpet toward the throne, but that was when she moved.


    *pat* Dropping the wet rag in her hands, she slowly turned and looked at me with a grin on her face. -Uh�� What?- It was oddly creepy. -Is she possessed?-


    "You know, each time I see you, you somehow manage to amaze me more than before." Her voice was calm and smooth.


    It made me raise my guard immediately. "I''m not sure you could have purposefully sounded creepier��" -She��s not the young maid usually around here, is she��-


    "Haha, well, sorry. With how weak you are currently, this is the only way I can say hi~." She was oozing confidence but didn��t have an ounce of hostilitying from her.


    -Weak?- Although I knew I was far from being truly strong, I was confident that I wasn��t weak by any means. "Who are you��" I gave her a threatening re, but she didn��t shy away at all.


    "Hm?" She just looked confused. "I guess having fuzzy memories is to be expected��"


    -What?- "Fuzzy memories?" -Wait.. now that she mentions it��-


    "Don��t worry about it�� Anyways, I just wanted to say hello~. I look forward to seeing your growth~!" She casually waved to me with a smile on her face as her calm confidence faded into nothingness.


    It only took another moment for her look to turn disheveled, anxious, and worried as she hastily lowered her hand, picked up her things, and darted out a side entrance. *Click-Click*


    As she closed the door behind herself, I was just left with a mix of worry and confusion in my gut, but thankfully, Ilios nudged me on the leg to snap me out of it. -Huh? Oh��- "Thanks Ilios��"


    As I continued up to the throne, I kept my eye on the door the maid came out of with only a single thought resonating in my mind. -Why did her mannerisms feel so.. familiar��-


    The next several minutes were wrapped in silence as I finally walked behind the throne and down into the shelter.


    Once I eventually got to the bottom of the lift, I walked out into the shelter to see that everything looked like it had the life sucked out of it.


    The ground was brittle and cracked, and the storage area looked simrly damaged, but above all else, every artifact I could see was either broken or barely functioning. -I guess my dragon sleep did more damage than I thought��-


    I took several seconds to think about what to do after that but eventually decided that I would just fix it after I woke up from my nap. "Uwaah��" -I should also think about whether I want to make another weapon for myself as well��-


    Although I loved the way it felt to swing the sword I got from the vault, I wasn��t exactly sure whether I wanted a real weapon at all.


    "Haah�� Whatever��" -I''ll just think about itter��- Quickly turning and walking to the hot spring, I changed into my dragon form and dropped myself into the water. *SPLASH*


    Quickly sinking into the water, I let myself getpletely submerged before spreading my wings to float weightlessly.


    The water wasn��t exactly warm, but it felt quitefortable and embracing. -It honestly reminds me of when I was still in the egg��-


    Thinking back to my first moments in this world, I tried not to let my mind wander, but couldn��t stop it once it started drifting.


    Eventually, I started asking myself countless what-ifs about things I could have done differently, but it just led to a rabbit hole. -Where would I be if I never touched that tesseract... Would I still be alive?-


    Looking at Krystallo, I could assume what kind of limits I would have, but it was quite pitiful. -If I came to Kan with her level of strength I would have definitely died�� But at the same time, I wonder if I would have had morepassion for humans if I was that weak��-


    As I slowly opened my eyes and noticed I was on the verge of sleep, I finally made my way back up to the surface and closed out my train of thought. -I should ask Father why he became an adventurer even though he��s a dragon at some point��-


    *Blub* Finallying to the surface of the water, I looked towards the shallow end to see Iliosying on his back, half underwater.


    His look of pure satisfaction and joy caused the memory of when I first met him to surface in my mind again.


    As I floated over to him, I took a moment to relive the memory, but eventually, he rolled back over and shook himself off. *shake-shake-shake*


    His pure, untainted joy quickly spread to me as he happily hopped out of the spring. "Haha��" My smile turned warm immediately. -He really is just so adorable��-


    Following him, I got out of the spring, dried myself off, and made my way over to the cushions to lie down.


    *Puff* As I curled up on one of the cushions, I looked over to see Ilios giving me a look of expectation. -Hm?- "What��s up, buddy? You don''t want to sleep on one of the other cushions?" I looked over to see the several other giant cushions that were empty and untouched.


    But Ilios confidently shook his head.


    I took a moment to think about it before eventually just setting my head back down and closing my eyes. *puff* "In that case, I guess you can sleep wherever you want��"


    But as I started slowly drifting to sleep, I felt something big and fluffy curl up next to me so my body was wrapped around it.


    A lethargic and warm smile immediately came to my face, but before I could think much about it, I fell into a much-needed deep sleep.

 Chapter 92: Smart, Yet Lacking

    Chapter 92: Smart, Yet Lacking


    Mid Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - Oliver Kan ~


    "Ugh��" I let out a groan as I woke up and tried to sit up, but was stopped by a pulsating sensation in my head.


    "Why do you keep trying to sit up when you know it��ll hurt..." Helen looked worried as she came to my side and helped mey back down.


    "Ah.. t..thank you��" As I set my head back on the pillow though, I noticed that it didn��t hurt nearly as bad as before. -Did my condition really improve that much on its own?- "I.. think I��m a bit better today..." I spoke with reluctance since I didn''t really believe it myself.


    Lucy''s eyes lit up as she jumped onto the bed. *pouf* "So, he really did heal you!"


    Her excitement only made me confused though. "Who��s he?"


    "Vasilias!" She responded immediately with a childish smile.


    -What? Vasilias healed me?- I quickly turned to Helen."ording to Martha and a few other maids, Vasilias was in here for several hours earlier." She looked a little stressed as she sat on the edge of the bed.


    Noticing her bodynguage, I carefully nced around to make sure no one besides us were in earshot. "So, Vasilias dide back?"


    Helen��s expression looked conflicted as she let out a sigh. "Haah.. yes, thankfully�� Right when he returned though, he came by my office to give us a mix of problems and opportunities."


    My face was quickly washed with a mix of anxiety and curiosity. "And what do you mean by that?"


    "W..well, he destroyed my office and nearly killed the Grandmaster. Then, to top it off, while she was unconscious in the medical ward, one of her artifacts identally exploded and made even more of a mess�� Outside of that though, Vasilias did give us quite an opportunity."


    Ignoring the note about the Grandmaster, I noticed a subtle joy on Helen��s face. -Is it an opportunity in regards to the war? I think it''s too early for Lucy to hear about that...- "Lucy, could you step out for a moment? Your mother and I have-"


    "It''s fine." Helen quickly cut me off with a slightly irritated look. "This will be a good lesson for her." She got up and walked to the nearby desk as she talked.


    Lucy, who was still lying across myp, just looked confused.


    "Haah... Are you sure this is alright?" I felt warmth fill my chest as I saw Lucy��s childish innocence. -She��s done well in all her subjects. Is it really that bad to try and protect that lingering purity?-


    "Yes." Helen��s expression was more serious than normal. "She is getting to an age where she needs to start thinking like a queen instead of a princess." *tap* Casually tapping the artifact on the desk, an eerie silence wrapped around the room. "Now, where do I start��"


    Bing slightly nervous after hearing her ominous words, Lucy turned to me. "W..what��s going on?"


    But Helen didn��t give me a chance to talk. "There have been several assassination attempts on us recently, and, as I''m sure you know by now, the Tower was behind all of them. You have learned about them in your private lessons, right?"


    Lucy gave a reluctant nod.


    "I��m sure you were told they were a fairly weak group that could only be considered a big group of researchers, but that is not the case anymore." She gave Lucy a stern look as she sat down in the chair next to the bed. "As of a few weeks ago, the Tower finished creating a massive alliance with a majority of the smaller nations on the western half of the continent. This alone was a bit worrying, but a few days ago, we received word that 12 high-nation rank adventurers had gathered in the Kingdom of Zan toe and destroy Kan."


    Lucy��s expression quickly turned fearful. "But they can''t attack us without dering war!"


    Helen looked like she wanted tough at Lucy��s purity. "Sweetie, those rules are akin to chivalry. At the end of it all, if one is strong enough, they��re.. optional��"


    "S..so are we just going to sit here and be destroyed?! The Grandmaster is hurt, Lawton is still recovering, Uncle (Osto) is still gone and Vasilias is sleeping!" She got more upset the more she spoke.


    But Helen quickly shut her down. "Lucy, do you know why Vasilias is sleeping?"


    "Huh?" Lucy was slightly taken aback. "Is he not just beingzy?"


    "Haah��" Helen gave a disappointed look but remained calm. "He��s sleeping because his job is done."


    But even though it seemed to go away, her anger returned instantly. "So he��s going to let us all die because he��d rather nap?!"


    "Lucy!" Helen raised her voice and made Lucy��s aggression vanish instantly. It took a second for Helen to calm herself again. "Hooh�� Lucy, what evidence do you have to prove that Vasilias is simply beingzy?"


    With a slightly scared expression, she reluctantly responded. "I.. I don��t know��"


    "If you didn��t have any, then why did you assume he was leaving us to the wolves?"


    "W..well��" She carefully sat herself up with a slightly ashamed expression.


    "Vasilias just got back after killing those very nation ranks, Lucy."


    Her eyes widened immediately.


    "Do you now understand how bad the situation would have be if you were in my position and made such an assumption?" She reprimanded Lucy with a firmer hand than usual. "I have told you before, sweetie, assumptions are not something people like us have the luxury to make��"


    Seeing Lucy��s ashamed look as she fell into thought, I let out a sigh. "Haah��" -I guess she needs to grow more than I thought��- Trying to pull attention off her and give her a chance to sort her thoughts, I turned to Helen. "So, did you receive any other news from Vasilias?"


    "Haah, yes, but I��m not sure how I feel about it." She let out a sigh as she calmed back down and sat down.


    "Hm? What do you mean?"


    "ording to Vasilias, the conflict in the ��dragonmunity�� is somehow tied into all of this."


    I looked at her with wide eyes, "So are the dragons going to interfere?"


    "Most likely... Vasilias said that the dragons were probably going to destroy the tower themselves if things went well, which would end the war before it started."


    "But at the same time, it would give us an opportunity��" My eyes quickly lit up.


    "Precisely. If the tower falls, their alliance will fall apart too, leaving those nations as easy pickings."


    But even though the situation looked so incredibly favorable, my feelings were still conflicted. -It��s true that this is a massive opportunity...- "But it would just incite more war..."


    "Correct..." There was a short moment of silence that followed her confirmation before she turned to Lucy again. "So, Lucy."


    She immediately stiffened up.


    "What do you think we should do, without assuming anything, and only using the information you can recall with certainty."


    "Uhm..." Her voice was shaky from the pressure, but she seemed oddly determined to redeem her earlier mistake. "W..well.. I think it''s worth the risk..."


    Helen didn��t seem very satisfied with the answer though. "And why is that?"


    "Well, Kan has been building its military since the war 6 years ago, so we are the strongest we have been since our founding��" She looked up to look for Helen��s reaction, but only shriveled up more when she noticed there was none. "To make things even better, the nations that were a part of the alliance now have no allies. We could simply take over as many nations as we could before they formed another alliance without worrying about a continent-wide conflict."


    Helen stayed serious and didn��t change her expression at all though. "And what is to gain from taking such a big risk?"


    "C..currently, what is holding us back is ourck of stone and ore mines. If we took over surrounding nations, we would immediately solve that problem while simultaneously being able to make more from tax whilst lowering the tax rate��"


    Helen simply nodded to approve her statement, which seemed to spark a bit of confidence in Lucy.


    "The lower tax rate would attract more people from outside, and give citizens an easier time climbing in status. As long as we don��t take a misstep, we will grow immensely in just a few years."


    "And what will happen if we misstep, and how could we avoid it?"


    Lucy started to m up again. "W..we as a nation will either be abandoned by the Bay Alliance or drag them into a war that.. could destroy uspletely�� As for avoiding it��"


    Silence filled the room as she struggled to think of how to respond. "What are the three things I have taught you to always avoid?" Helen��s tone was a tad warmer than before.


    "Uhm.. greed, overconfidence, and jumping to conclusions?" She looked a bit nervous, but Helen just smiled.


    "Exactly. Being level-headed, and being able to make good use of all avable resources will make avoiding those things easy. You just need to be able to recognize them when they arise." As she stood up, she reached over and rubbed Lucy��s head. "I know you are trying really hard to live up to everyone''s expectations, but you can��t let yourself get reckless��"


    Lucy��s cheeks turned rosy from embarrassment as she thought back to getting reprimanded earlier. "I''m.. sorry��"


    "Haha, it��s alright, sweetie. Just be a bit more cautious in the future, okay?"


    Lucy gave a reluctant nod after a short moment.


    There was a moment of silence that followed as Helen continued to try andfort her, but it was eventually interrupted by Lucy��s stomach growling. *growl*


    Her cheeks turned bright red immediately, but it only made Helen and I smile. "How about you guys go get some dinner, I''ll have Martha bring me a bite to eat before I go to bed."


    Lucy just gave me an embarrassed nce as she hopped off the bed though. "We wille to eat with you, Father�� Please wait for us��"


    She quickly made her way out of the room without letting Helen or me say anything.


    "Haah��" I let out a deep breath as I looked at the door. "Please try and get her to eat in the dining room, and send in Martha. I need to look through some papers and have some time alone to figure out what to do about the whole situation."


    "A..alright�� Please just call me if you need something��" Before turning to the door, she gave me a quick kiss. "You know I will always follow your will��"

 Chapter 93/94: Overlooked Oddities

    Chapter 93/94: Overlooked Oddities


    Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    "Uwahhhhh��" *rustling* "Uuugghh..." I woke up with a yawn and a stretch before slowly opening my eyes to see that everything was exactly as I left it. -Damn, for onlysting a few days, that nap was heavenly��-


    Casually ncing around the room to look for Ilios, I found him nowhere to be seen, but before I started to panic, I felt something move around on my side. -Huh?! Oh�� I forgot he climbed up with me to nap��-


    Seeing him still asleep but about to roll out of his spot, I gently repositioned myself to make him a bit more secure.


    "Mmmgh��" He let out a muffled groan as I shifted him slightly.


    -My god he is so f*cking cute��- The bliss his adorable self made me feel was simply unparalleled, but eventually, in an attempt to pass time and let him wake up naturally, my mind started to wander.


    Before long, my mind got onto the topic of my dragon sleep, where I finally remembered there were some changes I hadn��t looked much at. -Now that I think about it, I never really looked at my organs with much detail before leaving for Zan, did I��-


    Idly thinking back to when I was looking at my new skeletal structure right after my dragon sleep, I finally took a moment to look more closely at the image my aura painted in my mind at the time, but I quickly started noticing several.. anomalies... -What the�� Am I just remembering things wrongly? That can��t be right��-


    *Vwoomm* Thinning my reserve to let out more aura, I did my best to get a more detailed look at things, but I was left more confused than anticipated.-How did I just.. gloss over this? - Although I was well aware that my organs had been ��repositioned�� a little bit after my body was reconstructed, I had no idea it was to such an extent. -How was I so caught up in my appearance that I didn��t even question this��-


    My vitals were not even remotely recognizable, with my lungs, stomach, and breath nd being the only proper organs remaining. -This.. isn��t normal for dragons, is it��-


    Even my heart was simply gone, with only a web of veins that wrapped around my lungs before spreading to the rest of my body and taking its role.


    But the oddest part was that it was actually consuming some of my aura. -I''m not imagining that, am I?- Looking at it closely, I could see a microscopic amount of mana being used to simte blood flow, and split the atoms and particles collected from my lungs into the necessary chemicals.


    -To think even my body itself would adapt to utilize my mana...- Thinking back to my dragon sleep, I remembered not eating anything for nearly 8 years and yet I didn''t starve or even get hungry.


    At first, I just thought my body was just being extremely efficient at not creating waste and making the food I did havest a long time.


    This theory wasn��t unfounded either, since I never had the need to go to the bathroom after the dragon sleep that I awakened mana, but when I looked at things on a more cellr level, I found that my body was actually constantly recycling what would be considered waste particles into its base chemicals to then be reused.


    Those chemicals would then meet up with the chemicals dropped off by my blood to make everything the cells needed to not only sustain themselves but grow.


    In a way, I was basically sustaining myself with the particles in the air and my mana. -I really am a freak of nature, aren��t I��-


    For several minutes, I sat there totally speechless and just watched as my cells utilized my exuding aura like I would use mana, with mind-blowing precision.


    -How in the world is it so urate? - I wracked my brain for a while to try and figure out how it was doing it since it was so far from possibly being natural, but the only thing I could think of that was usible was that my subconscious was doing it.


    But that idea itself was quite farfetched. -Even if I focused everything I could on it, I wouldn��t be able to keep track of even a tenth of these reactions�� But I guess the information my brain processes when I read aura is a lot too��-


    I continued to have the internal dilemma for another moment after that, before eventually just giving up with a deep breath and shifting my attention elsewhere. "Haah��" -In any case, this means I don��t produce waste that I can��t just exhale through the lungs, so��-


    Shifting my attention down my body, I quickly found that I was simply missing everything rted to waste management. -I''m not sure what I expected��-


    After finding out I no longer had a heart, learning I had no dder, pancreas, liver, kidney, or intestines was like nothing. -But now that I think about it, could it be an Ancient Fenrir thing?-


    Thinking back over everything since Ilios awakened as an Ancient Fenrir, he hadn��t used the bathroom a single time either. -That would make some sense��-


    I looked over at him as he slept soundly and briefly considered using my aura to look through his body before deciding against it. -It''ll probably wake him up if I do...-


    Turning my attention back to my abdomen, I looked at the huge amount of muscle and cartge that took up a lot of the otherwise empty space, followed by my reserve that sat in the middle of it all.


    -It''s a bit weird for it to be there, but it does feel really natural��- Usually, creatures would have their reserves in their most protected areas, with most animals having it in their heads, humans in their hearts, and dragons in their upper chests, but my current reserve simply couldn��t function properly if it was in such ces.


    Instead of being a solid, hard-sphere, my reserve had be something akin to a water balloon where I could control the rigidity of the rubber.


    By weakening the rigidity of my reserve��s wall, the wall would thin and my reserve would physically expand, and by strengthening it, it would shrink, letting the walls thicken once more.


    It was a bit odd when I first noticed it right after my dragon sleep, but after giving it some time, I found myself getting more used to it.


    -It''ll still take more time to be superfortable with it, but it''s pretty handy, especially for bigger spells...- Compared to before, using arge-scale spell like the nuclear breath was iparably faster and easier to prepare. -Previously, I was limited by the tap on my reserve, but that''s no longer a problem��-


    Although there was still a limit to how much I could pull out at once, it was such a high ceiling that I didn��t have to worry for the time being.


    -At the end of all this though, for how many organs were either changed or wholly removed, these were some wee changes��- It sounded a bit crazy at the time, but I could no longer die from a single hit unless it was to my head or strong enough to break my reserve, and I no longer needed to worry about most of what sustained life, like food or water.


    -At least I didn��t lose my stomach, so I still have the option to eat or drink though��- I couldn''t simply give up the delicious taste of juicy meat so easily.


    Just thinking about the taste of a big field bison made my mouth water, but I was promptly interrupted by Ilios moving around. "Hm?"


    Looking over, I found Ilios staring at me with his earsid back while innocently wagging his tail.


    It was so cute I wanted to cry. "Did you sleep alright, buddy?" Unable to resist, I moved my head over to let him lick me a bit.


    "Hoooo!" He let out a short, excited howl before jumping up onto my face.


    "Haha, I''ll take that as a yes." I took a short moment to give him a chance to let some energy out before pulling myself away. "Are you ready to head to town?"


    "Woof!" He barked with no hesitation."


    "Haha, alright. In that case, let''s not waste any more time!" Carefully hopping up off the cushion with Ilios, I did another stretch, transformed, and made my way onto the lift. -I honestly feel like every time I take a nap, I stray further from being a dragon��-


    But as if he knew what I was thinking, Ilios moved over and rubbed his head against my side.


    Almost immediately, an irresistiblefort wrapped around my mind. "Huh..." Feeling that the conflicting feelings simply vanished, I looked down to see Ilios wagging his tail with a smile on his face. "You�� Haah, never mind�� Thank you, Ilios." Instead of questioning him, I just leaned down and petted him until we got to the top of the lift. -How did he even do that.. it wasn��t with aura or mana, so.. what could it have been?-


    But the more I thought about it, the more confused I got.


    It wasn��t until I walked out through the pce gates that I finally gave up though. "Haah, whatever��"


    Finally pulling myself out of my thoughts, I started walking down the main street that had a cool breeze blowing up it, carrying the smells of food with it. -What a refreshing scent��-


    As I walked down the street, I took my time to look around and enjoy the warm sun and cool breeze, but quickly noticed that there weren��t many knights. -I guess there really is stuff I missed while I was asleep��-


    Curious as to what could have happened, I continued just a bit further down the street before turning into the guild. *creakk*


    But the inside of the guild was nearly empty as well. -If it''s just adventurers and knights, is there some kind of conflict going on?-


    Nonchntly walking up to the desk with a familiar receptionist who was on the verge of sleep, I lightly tapped the desk to wake her up. -Her name was Ellen, right?- *tap-tap* "Miss Ellen, did something big happen recently?"


    The receptionist jolted up immediately. "Ah, y~yes s..sir!" She slurred her words a bit as she spoke.


    -Does she ever have time off to sleep? Every time I��ve been here, she��s been dead tired��- "What did I miss?"


    "Hm?" She looked a bit confused before remembering what I said. "Oh! Kan dered war on the Kingdom of Zan. They sent out the march this morning."


    "Huh?" -Isn''t that a little too hasty?- "Did any Nation ranks go with them?"


    "Yes sir. Sir Keen is leading the charge." She said his name with a sense of pride.


    "Was he the only Nation rank that went?" -I guess they don''t really need much more than that since I cleared the path already though...-


    "Unfortunately, yes. The Grandmaster is still recovering in the academy."


    "Ah.. right��" -I forgot about that...- "Well, besides that, were there any other big events?"


    "N..nothing of note, sir." She spoke a bit awkwardly, like she purposefully left something out, but I didn��t bother digging into it.


    -I''ll just ask the librarian if there��s anything else��- "Sweet. In that case, I''ll be on my way. Have a good day!"


    "Y..you too sir!" She got flustered when I gave a hasty goodbye, but it was nothing out of the ordinary.


    -It seems I��m finally getting used to how awkwardly people talk with me��- *creakk* Walking out of the guild, I nced around before turning back up the street. -Let��s see what the upper levels of the library have to offer, shall we?-

 Chapter 95: An Enticing Offer

    Chapter 95: An Enticing Offer


    Mid Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    "ID please, sir!" A guard at the Noble Gate of the academy gave me a suspicious look as I walked up.


    -I guess it was too much to expect a random knight to recognize me��- Pulling out my Id, I went to hand it to him but he immediately pulled himself back.


    "Ah!" His demeanor changedpletely. "I apologize for not recognizing you, Sir Whyte. I hope you will forgive my rudeness."


    "Y..you��re fine." I was a bit surprised at how he recognized me without even looking at the information on my ID, but decided not to question it and walked on in. -I guess people who��ve only heard rumors of me can still recognize me fairly easily��- *Click*


    Walking inside, I started winding my way through the maze of hallways to get to the library and quickly noticed that things were a bit too quiet.


    The students were few and far between, and they spoke with fairly hushed voices if they were talking at all. -Isn��t it a bit too quiet? Even if this is between sses, I feel like I''m in a totally different academy��-


    I tried not to question it at first, but once I got to the library and reached for the door, I overheard a conversation from within the lunchroom across the hall.


    "Can you believe the noble kids got a whole week off because of the disaster a few days ago?""No! Like, why do they get a whole week off? They don''t even have to make up any of their missed work!" The young boy sounded quite upset.


    "Yeah, I really don��t like it�� When I was sickst year I had to make up everything, and making it all up was worse than the sickness itself��"


    "Right?! It��s so annoying!"


    -That.. makes more sense��- I continued eavesdropping for another moment after that before the students eventually moved to a more private topic of conversation when I finally pulled my attention away and went into the library. *Click* -I guess it was too much to expect this ce to change so quickly��-


    Quietly closing the door behind me, the chatter from the lunchroom was steadily muffled until it became almost inaudible. -How peaceful��-


    *tap-tap-tap* My calming thoughts were quickly interrupted by the librarian nervously tapping his desk, seemingly too deep in thought to notice my presence.


    -He looks stressed��- Silently walking up to the desk, I abruptly spoke out to him. "How''s it going, Mister Librarian."


    "Hm? The old man immediately raised an eyebrow. "Have we met?"


    I paused to think about something before showing a sly smile. "You know, I was sure that someone like you would recognize me..."


    *VWOOOM-creaaak* His chair creaked as it struggled to hold itself together under the pressure of my aura.


    His face turned ghastly pale in an instant as he lowered his head in a sh, whether voluntarily or not. "I..I��m sorry I failed to r..recognize your majesty, sir Whyte."


    Nonchntly throwing up a silencing barrier, I leaned up against the desk. "Hm��" ncing at the papers he was anxiously staring at, I tried to see if there was anything suspicious, but it seemed like a normal book log. -So what is he so anxious about? I��m not just imagining things, right?- But when I used my aura to casually nce at the countless papers in his desk, that question was answered. "Ah�� So, you are a spy��"


    He tensed up instantly but kept a straight face. "I��m.. not sure what you mean."


    His acting was actually fairly solid, but�� "So the letter telling you specifically to relocate to Bluefield (the city just north of the capital) until the capital is destroyed, isn��t for you?"


    His face paled and his eyes widened immediately. He couldn��t continue the act.


    -I''m honestly impressed�� He hid really well.. right under Helen��s nose too��- Although I saw an opportunity, I decided not to jump on it yet. "So, do you want toe clean, or will you continue to deny it?"


    "I��" He awkwardly nced around to make sure the students reading books not far away couldn��t hear through my silencing magic before continuing. "I am indeed a spy." His body stiffened as he spoke and braced himself.


    -To think he��d say it with his neck out��- Just by looking at his bodynguage, I could tell he was expecting me to kill him. -But that��d be too much of a waste��- "How about I give you another chance?"


    His tightly closed eyes opened immediately. "W..what��" He looked up at me with a desperate look on his face. "What do you mean by that?"


    "Well, instead of killing you or turning you over to Kan for torture, I��ll give you a little escape route." My smile had turned slightly greedy.


    And the librarian seemed to notice, but he still continued. "If it means I can survive, I will grasp at almost any string you give me��"


    -Perfect!- "Then how about you be my personal information broker for this continent? You could even make a huge amount of money by selling information to people or even just publishing newspapers about international affairs."


    Color slowly started returning to his face as I talked, but he was still quite anxious. "P..please detail what you want me to do��"


    "Well, to put it simply, I��d like for you to cut ties with the tower and expand yourwork around the continent so you have ess to any kind of information I may eventually need." -Talk about a golden egg��- "I��ll even talk to the royal family to get you some funding at the cost of you giving them information priority over other people or nations. Outside of that, you can do as you wish as long as it doesn��t negatively affect me."


    He just stared at me in awe for a moment before mumbling. "W..what��s the catch?"


    "Well, you will work under me, so you will have toply with anything I ask, no matter what it is."


    The librarian seemed to pick up on what I meant immediately. "So basically a ve with some freedom, huh��" There was a moment of silence as he wore a look of indecision, but the silence ended faster than expected. "Okay�� I will do it."


    I was a bit taken aback by how fast he decided, but didn��tin. "Perfect! In that case, I will leave you to do your thing. What is your name?"


    His slightly ufortable look quickly turned to one of confusion. "My name is Frode Birger, but.. What do you mean you��ll leave me to do my thing?"


    "Hm? I��ve already told you what I want, so I''m leaving you to make it all work." I didn��t understand what he was trying to get at.


    "N..no, what I meant was.. you aren��t putting oath magic on me?"


    "I simply don��t understand the magic deeply enough yet, and don��t want to risk you identally killing yourself." After another short moment of silence, I dispelled the silencing magic and turned away. "If you want to run, you can try, but I promise you it won''t end well��"


    My voice resonated through the library as I walked over to the stairs, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, but no one made a peep.


    I got odd looks from everyone as they saw the slough of conflicted emotions on the librarian''s face, but none of them spoke up.


    The library quickly fell back into silence, without even the sound of pages turning to interrupt it.


    But my mind was too preupied to care about the attention. -To think I��de to explore the library and have such a golden egg fall into myp.- I wore a smile of satisfaction as I walked up the stairs.


    As I made my way up through the floors though, I casually thought back to my original purpose ofing here and had my expression darken slightly. -I guess it won��t be a waste of time if I find nothing now��-


    My original purpose of going there was to go to the top floor and sift through the books to try and find information regarding gods, religion, or the Ancient Fenrir, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how slim the chances really were.


    The Ancient Fenrir were beings that even Mother didn��t know much about, so it was quite unlikely, if not impossible that I would find any information on them in a random, mostly human nation of all ces. -Maybe a demihuman nation would be better, but even then��-


    Just like the other various gods, as far as Mother told me, they all vanished during or shortly after the Great War, requiring any decent information regarding them to be almost 10,000 years old.


    -It��ll be like looking for a fragile, rusted needle in a haystack.. but it''s worth a shot�� Hopefully, I can at least find some information on lingering religions��- But when I finally made it to the top of the stairs, I was pulled from my thoughts by someone else''s familiar presence.


    -What the��- Quickly looking up, I saw a short elven woman with arge white robe covering her body and face. -What is she doing here?-

 Chapter 96: Flipping An Invisible Switch

    Chapter 96: Flipping An Invisible Switch


    Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    -


    Finally walking up thest few steps and making it onto the top floor, I noticed a short elf,pletely absorbed in her book. -Why is she here?-


    It was the Grandmaster, the head of the academy, but she somehow didn��t seem to notice me. -I guess I didn''t hit her that hard after all��-


    Not wanting to stir up more trouble, I quietly walked past and disappeared behind a bookshelf. -Alright.. Let''s see what this floor has to offer, shall we?-


    So far, each floor had a different subject.


    The first floor was mostly books and novels for entertainment, the second floor was ��recent�� history, the third was math, and the fourth and fifth floors were both mixes of magic theory and some of magic��s darker history as well.


    I was hoping for something on religion, the gods, or maybe some hints on how they work or who they are since Kan was once a religious nation, but the shelf I was looking at only had advanced magic theory.


    -Oh,e on...- Although I could have found something that could expand my knowledge of magic, from what I had skimmed through, the ��advanced magic theory�� was far behind my level. -I always preferred figuring things out on my own as well, so it works out��-*fwip-fwip-fwip* I casually skimmed through books as I walked around, but after clearing entire shelves, time slowly started slipping away, and I was still left empty-handed.


    -How is there nothing that can even rte to religion��- Everything I had looked through on my half of the floor was either magic theory or moderately interesting tidbits of Kan��s ancient history. -But besides the church being asionally mentioned in a few of those, there was nothing!-


    It was genuinely upsetting to be left with so little information. -The church still existed only 800 years ago. How is there nothing on it? Is it just on the other half of the floor��-


    Coming out from around the bookshelf, I started casually walking towards the Grandmaster to look at the back of the bookshelf she stood at.


    "Only a handful of people cane up here, kid. Just walk back downstairs and don''t make it hard on me..." She spoke without even turning around to see who I was, likely only sensing my thinned presence.


    "And why would I need to ask for permission toe up here?"


    She paused in the middle of flipping a page. "Haah.. I don''t know what noble family youe from, but just lea-" She slowly turned around before her voice was cut short.


    "How are you healing?" I gave a sarcastic smile as I tried to hold back augh.


    She was wearing some sort of cast on her arm, but it was perfectly wrapped around her staff so she couldn''t let it go.


    -Pffft.. how does she sleep with that thing?!-


    Although I wasughing inside, she clearly didn''t find anything funny. "Not wearing a uniform, trespassing in the library, and taunting a teacher... To think a student would dare get so many vitions in one go... Haah.."


    My yful smile immediately disappeared upon hearing her response. -Wait, what? Does she seriously not remember anything?- "You actually don''t recognize me?"


    "No?" She quickly looked me up and down, but showed no sense of recognizing me. "Why would I remember you? You''re really cute, but..."


    "Damn, I didn''t think I hit you that hard though... To think you''d lose your memories."


    She froze the instant I spoke. "As if someone as weak as you could hurt me."


    My pupils instantly contracted as I instinctually thinned the walls of my reserve.


    *VWOOOM* The entire library was immediately filled with a suffocating amount of aura, making everyone, including the Grandmaster, fall to their knees.


    I was quick to stop myself and pull the aura back though. "Haah��" *Vwooom* -How can I actually let myself get mad at something like that...-


    For whatever reason, her condescending tonebined with her words flipped a switch I didn��t even know I had. -I guess it��s good I know about it now though��-


    *Gasp* The Grandmaster was gasping for air while on her hands and knees with a ghastly pale face.


    "In any case, maybe you remember me now��" Having taken a deep breath and calmed down, I squatted down and looked at her with an unbothered look.


    "Y..you monster..." She struggled to speak and even started shivering.


    "So what if I��m a monster? You were the one who attacked me before I even opened the door to Helen��s office." I reached down and pulled up her chin so she would look me in the eyes. "At least I''m a monster with more manners than you..."


    *Thud* Letting her go, she fell to the floor with a nervous shake that stopped shortly after.


    "Haah.." -For an old nation rank, she has the mind of a child...-


    After doing a quick scan of her body to make sure she wasn''t dying, I casually created a mediocre nket andid it over her. -Might as well give her something to remember me by this time.-


    Turning back around, I figured it was time to actually look through the rest of the books. "Haah��" -Just one book on any religion would suffice��-


    -


    - Lucy Kan ~


    It waster in the afternoon when Viviana and I finally got lunch, but since the martial arts ss instructor was still recovering from injuries, we had plenty of time to talk.


    But it didn��t start off the best.


    "Is the ki-.. I mean.. is your dad doing better?" Viviana was in incredibly low spirits that day.


    "Mhmm!" I had tried to be extra enthusiastic to help cheer her up through the day, but it didn��t exactly work as intended.


    "I''m d." She still wore a half-forced, awkward smile.


    "I..is your mother still not feeling good?" I asked slightly awkwardly.


    Viviana��s family, much like countless other folks, especially in the middle or lower ss, were affected quite heavily by everything that had happened and during the whole disaster a few days ago, Viviana''s family caught the brunt of it.


    Her mother, being the maid of a noble in the upper district, was one of the first to sumb to mana exhaustion outside of the pce, but instead of being found and treated fairly quickly, she passed out in the entrance to a closet with cleaning equipment and wasn��t found for several hours.


    "The clinic said she is just sick from extended mana exhaustion, but.. it��s already been a few days and she is still really sick..."


    I knew from my studies at home that the longer someone went without mana, the more likely they were to sumb to a conventional illness, but I couldn��t bring myself to tell Viviana that since it would just make her worry more. "Do you want to take her to the royal clinic or want me to send someone out to look at her? We have artifacts that can help ease her symptoms��"


    Viviana gave me a hopeful look before pulling herself back."No.. I don''t want to burden you guys any more than I already have."


    "Come on.. you should know by now that you''re not burdening us.. maybe the doctor, but not us." I tried to crack a joke and smile a bit to cheer her up, and thankfully, it worked


    "Haha.. alright... I''ll try to get in and talk to mom about it." Although normally she would have just consulted her father, he was a knight in the military and was currently heading toward the Kingdom of Zan.


    "Alright, please keep me updated��" I tried tofort her a bit before thinking of a way to make it so she couldn��t refuse, but before I could finalize anything, a wave of mana blew across the lunch room.


    *Vwoom* It was nothing insane, but easily noticeable with my mana sensitivity.


    At the very least though, it was immediately obvious who it was.


    -Did something bad happen?- I quickly hopped up from my seat and set my hand on Viviana��s shoulder. "Follow me quickly.. I think Vasilias-" But before I could finish, the mana that suddenly shot into the lunchroom started getting sucked back toward the library before returning to normal.


    "Huh? What did he do?" Viviana looked at me, concerned.


    "I..I��m not sure.." I looked around the lunch room and noticed very few people seemed to have noticed anything. -The floor didn��t shake so.. Maybe everything is alright��-


    But that didn��t really sit well with me.


    -I should check just in case, but��- Seeing Viviana still eating her food, I forced myself to sit back down.


    "Hm? Are we not going anywhere?" Viviana looked like a confused puppy.


    "Haah, we will goter. Let''s just enjoy the rest of lunch, alright? You want a few berries?" I reached out to hand her a few small, dark blue berries.


    "Yes please!" She immediately swiped them out of my hand before munching on a few with a face of satisfaction.


    It was quick to bring a smile to my face and ease my worries. -My worry is probably unnecessary anyways��-

 Chapter 97: Lost History

    Chapter 97: Lost History


    Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    *fwip-fwip-fwip* It had already been several minutes since I knocked out the Grandmaster, and I had been flipping through books the entire time, but I was still left empty-handed. -How is this even possible?-


    Because I came from Earth, a world where religion was everywhere, not being able to even catch a glimpse of anything about it here was a bit agitating. -I only have one bookshelf left��- "Haah��"


    But just when I started losing sight of my ever-thinning ray of hope, I walked around to the back of the shelf I was on and saw something. -Hm?-


    In the corner of the very bottom shelf, there was a book titled ��The Goddess of Harvest.��


    The title made my eyes light up, but the condition it was in made me worried. -Good lord.. how old is this thing?- It was practically half dposed, to the point that I was too nervous to touch it with my bare hands. -Will this even be readable?-


    I quickly surrounded it in a thick vacuum to not give anything foreign a chance to damage it as I carefully pulled it off the shelf with my aura. *vwoom* -Well, time for the moment of truth��-


    Gently opening the front cover with my aura, I looked inside to see a slightly damaged strengthening rune engraved into the back of it.


    I could only guess that the rune was there to help prevent dposition, but even the rune itself had be too aged and damaged to sustain itself. -I guess being stored in a ce that isn''t climate-controlled really did a number on it��-Proceeding as carefully as possible, I turned through the next few dposed pages with unreadable text until I found something I could read. -Please have what I''m looking for...-


    The book started like a novel, like a fictional story, but the more I read, the darker and more real things became.


    At the beginning of the book, the author detailed extremely ancient history and how it revolved around a being known as the Goddess of Harvest.


    Simply put, she was praised and worshiped all throughout the continent because she was a Goddess that would actively bless thend of those who prayed to her.


    I found it a bit of an odd blessing at first since I thought it could easily be a coincidence, but shortly after thinking that, the author went on to exin that even if two crops were right next to each other, the one nted by the man who worshiped her would grow strong, while the one nted by the man who didn��t, wouldn��t even sprout. That was something that supposedly happened without exception as well.


    -I guess she didn''t want her existence to be questioned like the gods on Earth��-


    The author then continued shouting praise for her and even went as far as to say that her making food more readily avable was what let the scattered humanoid poption on the main continent actually develop.


    The previously barbaric tribes that struggled for survival started toe together and develop intorgermunities which eventually formed towns and inevitably nations that hailed the Goddess as their savior.


    But then, even after tens of thousands of years of immense and almost endless development and prosperity, the Goddess of Harvest disappeared, and everything fell apart.


    Almost overnight, the blessings ceased reaching people, crops started wilting, and not a single prophecy was given to the countless priests across the continent.


    But the sudden wave of famine and chaos wasn''t the worst part of it. Following her disappearance, a wave of incurable gue and illness created by those who resorted to eating monster meat in hopes of avoiding starvation washed over the continent.


    But their lingering hope was all a facade.


    People of all races were indiscriminately culled and the continent fell into the ��Dark Age�� without warning.


    At first, people prayed to not only the Goddess of Harvest but also the various other gods that people prayed to over the years, but there was never a response from any of them.


    As time continued to pass, the situation only worsened, and people''s anger finally turned into hatred toward the gods for abandoning them.


    But throwing hatred at something people weren''t sure still existed didn''t work for long.


    During the wars that arose between nations in the desperate fight for edible food and agricultural technology, the countless intermingled races within the nations began ming each other for everything that was happening.


    The massive empires built and strengthened over thousands of years crumbled like crackers in the face of the civil wars that erupted within their borders.


    And following the copse of the governments, people began splitting up again, once again forming towns just big enough to be sustained by the scarce supply of edible food.


    Before long, without the poorly managed cities to run through, the sicknesses and gues that ran rampant through thend sizzled out and let people finally return to normal ways of life.


    After enough time passed, some towns eventually started to figure out what was necessary to grow healthier crops on their own without the need for blessings and started to grow, but others still endlessly prayed to the absent gods until their lives were inevitably imed by the passage of time.


    The overall poption continued to thin out as years passed, but eventually, only the prosperousmunities remained, and conditions began improving once again.


    But the resentment and hatred between races still lingered in many of these new towns, with only a few of them bing known as Race Havens, where anyone was wee as long as they pulled their own weight and didn''t fight with the others. -It sounds a lot like early Kan...-


    These race havens were spoken of quite fondly by the author, as he was personally a part of one.


    But that was when I flipped to the next page and saw it was only partially full. -Is this thest page?-


    The text read:


    [They have been working well together so far. The poption of Kurush is only around 1000, but the town has been growing quickly. The civilians have managed to mostly put aside their differences and are working well together so far.


    If all goes well, Kurush will growrge enough to re-upy the Lost City of The Bay, allowing for better defense from the monsters and letting us catch fish for food and fertilizer.


    Things are looking good for us.]


    The text ended abruptly, but there was still something written at the very bottom of the page in sloppy handwriting.


    It read:


    [I am nearing 66 years old now. As a human in this era, I am fairly long-lived, but I, just like many, am nearing the end of my time in this life, so I will leave my one final wish here.


    At some point in the future, I hope this ount of history can reach someone it can inform. I wish for what I have written to serve as a warning to the people.


    Bing too dependent on the strong will only lead to disaster. We must strive to survive and grow on our own, or else we will copse the instant we are abandoned...


    *illegible scribbles*


    If I do not continue after this page, it means I have passed on to the other side, but before that, I wish to engrave a name into history.


    Grace Kurush. Long Live The Queen.]


    I slowly flipped through the remaining nk pages with thoughts racing through my mind. -So that''s the end, huh...-


    I gently turned over the book and examined the back cover in an attempt to find the author''s name, but couldn''t find anything.


    -Well...- I closed my eyes and lowered my head for a moment. -Whoever you were, I hope you were blessed with many good reincarnations...-


    Although my little prayer was a few thousand yearste, it was genuine. -I hope your soul has found peace...-


    After finally opening my eyes again, I stood there and contemted whether to refurbish the text or not.


    Although I would personally never need to reread it since I had already memorized itpletely, I was tempted to make a copy with better runes to once again preserve the detailed history inside of it.


    -I guess it couldn''t hurt...- With a shrug of my shoulders, I casually created a new book made of thin titanium alloy with the text engraved into the metal.


    The sheets were still flexible and, although it looked odd, with a simple strengthening rune, it would far oust even the most resistant of materials.


    "Hooh..." I let out a deep breath as I carefully moved the rotting book back onto the shelf where I found it and backed away. -Thank goodness I finally found something...-


    It was truly frustrating to not find any information on religion up until now, but that book was packed full of so many juicy details that I couldn''t be mad. -This might be a decent gift to give the royal family, and honestly.. with Oliver''s recent reliance on Father and I, it could also serve as a warning.-


    Once I finished making it, I slowly stood up and woke Ilios up from his nap. "It''s getting a littlete, buddy. You ready to go?"


    "Huff!" He hopped up with a determined huff immediately.


    -Hehe.. he''s so cute...- Seeing his happy trot quickly strengthened my already improved mood, at least until I walked past the still-unconscious elf.


    -Still asleep, huh... She must like my nket...- As I turned onto the stairs, I quickly ignored her and started thinking about other things. *tap-tap-tap* -I wonder how Father is doing... I hope his meeting is going well...-

 Chapter 98: Presenting Evidence

    Chapter 98: Presenting Evidence


    Mid Evening - Late Spring : Bahamut


    - Osto Ragnarok ~


    *Vwowowowoom* I felt my stomach churn as I was finally released from the space rune. "Ugh..." -Shouldn��t I have outgrown rune sickness by now? I''m not even that far from bing an elder��- [1]


    "To think you��d be so old yet still get rune sick." The humanoid halfie I had tied up on the ground next to me spoke up to try and get on my nice side.


    But it just soured my already mixed mood. "Don''t act friendly with me..." *Vwoom* Not wanting to make a scene, I just shut him up with my aura and wrapped my ws around his fleshy humanoid body. -Obnoxious bast*rd��- "I rmend you start thinking of what you��re going to say. Because the elders won��t give you much time to think��" Dulling my nails so they wouldn��t cut through him, I tightened my grip on him and leapt into the air. *Fwoosh*


    The next couple minutes passed in a sh as I flew to the Elder Hall inplete silence, but I wasn��tining. -The silence is quite rxing��-


    But as I finally started to get close, I had to shift gears. "Hmm��" Looking down over the area around the Elder Hall, I saw dragons in various forms rushing around the courtyard and doing all kinds of tasks. -They''re really busy today��-


    Finally arriving, I gentlynded and nced at a younger blue dragon near the entrance to the Hall, holding a stack of leather books. *Fwoosh-fwoosh* *Thump* -He looks new...- "Are the elders busy?"


    The boy gave me a suspicious look at first but didn��t make it too obvious. "Y..yes, they��re in a meeting currently.""Ah." -It''s probably a general meeting��- Not wanting to waste any more time, I walked over to the door and went to push it open with my wings. *creaaak*


    But I was stopped before I could walk through. "Sir, the elders are in a meeting." The one to stop me was a dragon, slightlyrger than me, donning thin metal armor. "You cannot enter right n-"


    Pulling out my ID with my aura, I wasted no time showing him the Ragnarok insignia.


    He mmed up immediately as he backed away. "Ah, I-I apologize for not recognizing you, Sir Ragnarok. You may enter." *creeaakk*


    The moment the nearly 70-meter-tall door finished opening, I walked through and made my way down the long hallway.


    *thud-thud-thud-thud* After walking past the countless statues and memorials, I finally came up to another 70-meter-tall door and let out a deep breath before pushing it open with my wings. "Hooh��"


    *creeeakk-VWOOOM* A wave of mixed auras mmed into me like a wall as I walked through the doors and came into the center of a colosseum-like room. -They still haven��t renovated the inside, huh��-


    *tap-Thump-sh* Tossing the halfie forward into the center of the room and letting him transform, I lowered my head momentarily. "Osto Ragnarok greets the Elder Hall."


    Up on the raised tform around the sand-covered floor were eight massive dragons, ranging from 43 to over 60 meters tall, staring down at me with mixed expressions. -Where are the other four?- [2]


    The moment I raised my head to look at them all though, Asimi called out with a slightly annoyed tone. "You know you aren''t supposed to just barge in like that, Osto..."


    "If this was a less urgent situation, I would have been more courteous, so I apologize." I gave the scarred and pale halfie a look of contempt as I spoke.


    It was quick to shift everyone''s attention. "So what have you brought here?" A huge dark blue dragon with a deep and aggressive voice left his seat and hopped off the tform to get up close with the halfie.


    -To think Eugene is the trial lead today�� How unlucky��- [3] He was an elder that was always against me, even when I was just a kid, so having to mainly deal with him was less than ideal. But nheless, I tried to hide the way I felt and spoke confidently. "I brought the requested evidence."


    "Hm? Of what? I don��t remember any of us requesting anything."


    -He��s just as arrogant as always��- "It��s the evidence that finally connects the Tower on the main continent to the rebellion."


    "Hooh? Now that you mention it, I do remember Asimi mentioning something about that a few days ago." His smile widened as he spoke, before finally turning back to the halfie. "But regardless, I can��t help but be curious. I��ve never seen such horrific burns or such unusual injuries on a dragon�� Just who-"


    "You know I''m not obligated to tell you that��" I gave him a slightly threatening look as I finally sat down.


    "Hmph��" He blew a small me out of his nostrils as he faked a disappointed look before turning to the halfie with a smug smile. "Since you don��t have anything else to say, let''s begin the interrogation."


    "I think we should begin as well, but I can��t say I��m not curious as to who you reach out to for help, Osto." A mature and flirtatious woman��s voice filled the room in an instant.


    Casually looking over toward it, I met eyes with a sleek and beautiful sky-blue dragon around 54 meters tall, giving me a seductive look.


    Her name was Basilia, and ever since we first met when I was around 90, she would try and tie the knot with me.


    Even after I got married to Zachari and the news of the marriage became public knowledge, she simply refused to give up. -What a troublesome woman��- "You will all meet him eventually. He wille to Bahamut with my wife and I when my daughter reaches adolescence."


    "Hooh?" A gleam appeared in her eyes immediately. "How many concubines does this mysterious, strong man have?"


    "None, but don��t get your hopes up." After a very short moment of silence, I jumped at the opportunity to shift the discussion away from Vasilias. "Shall we begin the interrogation now?"


    "Well of course, we shouldn��t let ourselves get sidetracked any further." Although it looked like Eugene was being courteous, I knew he simply nned to ask for details about Vasilias from the halfie.


    But I was confident. -That halfie doesn��t know my rtionship to Vasilias, so it should be fine��-


    The next hour passed quite quickly as the interrogation progressed.


    As expected, we managed to get all of the evidence we needed to act aggressively against the Tower and several humanoid nations almost immediately, but the elders wouldn��t let their ever-building curiosity go unsatisfied.


    "So you said you weren''t the only halfie in the assault team, right? Who was the strongest?"


    "Th-the strongest was our leader. He was an ancient half-breed that went by Pello."


    Everyone''s eyes widened immediately. "And how was he killed?"


    "Th-th-that m-monster��" He started shaking as he started stuttering and bing hard to understand.


    I then used the following silence to pull myself away. "Since you all seem to be busy dealing with your curiosities, I will take my leave. Before I go, I would like to request the elders to mobilize military force on the Tower as quickly as possible."


    "Hm? Are you trying to hide something? Why are you in such a rush?" Eugene showed a smug smile as if he thought I was cornered.


    "I simply wish to return to my son as quickly as possible. I do not wish to waste more time than necessary." I nced around to make sure my reasoning was received by the elders before standing up.


    But I was only interrupted. "You left Vasilias alone in Kan again?!" Asimi was obviously unhappy.


    "You know I don��t have a choice with that. Anyways, I must return quickly in case the Tower tries to make another move while he is alone."


    "Hm��" Eugene��s annoying look quickly turned serious again when I mentioned the Tower moving. "In that case, we will finish up for now. If anyone has any objections, just keep your hand down, I n on using my executive decision for this." [4]


    The hall turned silent as everyone waited to see if someone would try and overturn it, but no one stood up.


    -Then that��s that.- Assuming my part of the work was finished, I finally turned for the door. "Since it seems we are finished here, I will take my leave. If you all wish to continue interrogating, you may do as you wish. I don��t want custody of such a ragged thing anyways��" [5]


    *Creaaak* As the door swung open, I could still feel a few suspicious gazes on my back, but at the very least, it was less noticeable than earlier. -They may doubt me because I''m hiding a name, but it��s not like they can do anything to figure it out��-


    Although Asimi likely already knew Vasilias was the one who killed the ancient halfie, I was confident she wouldn��t share that information.


    But that also raised a certain problem.


    *Bang* The m of the door closing behind me echoed down the hall as I let out a sigh. "Haah��" -How in the world am I going to introduce Vasilias to them��-

 Chapter 99: A Monster Beyond Monsters

    Chapter 99: A Monster Beyond Monsters


    Mid Evening (Next Day) - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan / Zan Border


    -


    - Lawton Keen ~


    "We have finally arrived at the border, let��s stop here and get some rest!"


    ""Yes Sir!"" Everyone responded in unison before immediately spreading out and throwing up their tents.


    -It��s good to see they��re still enthusiastic about finally taking part in a real fight.- It had been a couple days since we left at that point, so I expected them to be a bit tired, but they all seemed ready to go. -I guess their training is going well.- "Scouts, scan the area for monsters and report any unusual findings. We will be here until sunrise!"


    *Thump* Casually hopping off my horse, I reached into my satchel and pulled out a ration and water before looking for a ce to sit.


    -That should work��- Walking over to one of the countless half-dead trees nearby (Trees with Yellow Leaves), I pulled out my sword and sliced through the bottom without thinking much of its state. *Shing-rustle-THUD*


    When I finally took a seat on it, I let out a deep breath and started to munch on my snack.-Everyone seems to be working well together��- I was trying to look around to find people who were cking or simply not being a part of the group as I ate, but everyone was pulling their weight.


    Before I knew it, the camp had finished being set up, and people were waiting around their campfires, snacking on rations and waiting for orders.


    -Now, all that''s left is for the scouts to return so everyone can rest��- Slowly standing up and putting away my remaining food, I turned toward the captain��s tent to discuss tomorrow''s ns, but was interrupted by a messenger.


    "Sir Keen! We found something we believe you need to see." The scout looked quite panicked, which made me all the more curious about what he found.


    "What did you find?"


    "It''s a huge circr clearing around 10 kilometers ahead, directly south-southwest. We couldn''t poke our heads in too much because of several strong monsters in the area as well."


    -I knew things were going too smoothly��- We hadn''t hardly run into any monsters besides some goblins and orcs on our way here, so we were due for something that would put up a fight. "Alright, I''lle with you, let me do something first." *Whistle* "Captain Coleman! Come here for a moment!" I called over Coleman, the second inmand for this expedition.


    "What is it, sir?"


    "I''m going to investigate something with the scouts up ahead, I need you to takemand while I''m gone. Also, save me a bowl when they make soup, I should be back before it gets cold."


    "Right away, sir!" Giving a shallow bow, he turned back and jogged towards the middle of the camp.


    Looking back at the scout, I set my hand on the hilt of my sword. "Shall we?"


    With a light nod, the scout dashed out of the camp and into the woods. -As quick as usual, huh��-


    I was quick to follow after him in a good mood, but it didn��t take long for that to sour. -What the��- Before we even got halfway to the supposed monsters, I could see major changes in the environment.


    Unlike before, the trees didn��t look like they justcked a bit of water but instead had entire branches falling off and revealing the dry and crumbling wood thatposed them.


    It looked as if the tree hadn��t seen water in years, but things only got worse from there.


    As we continued to run, the litter on the ground only grew in volume. Before we knew it, we had to slow down to traverse over the thickyer of leaves, branches, trees, and even dead forest critters that covered the ground.


    -What in the world..- My positive mood was nowhere in sight as I gripped the hilt of my sword more tightly. -Just what kind of monster could do this��-


    Quicklying up to the edge of a clearing, a majority of the trees only had their trunks left or werepletely uprooted.


    But what was behind the wall of copsed trees in front of me was something I couldn��t have prepared myself for. -W..what��-


    I could only stand there, stunned and speechless, as I looked out into the clearing.


    "Sir Keen, this is the area I mentioned. It''s around 12 kilometers to the other side, but we couldn''t get too far in before we caught the attention of the monsters toward the middle."


    Although the scale of the clearing was mind-boggling, the most horrifying part was that the ground was covered in ash or hardened dirt as if it was melted and cooled. I couldn''t even see any stumps or roots left from any trees. -Something just.. turned a whole forest to ash...-


    Something of this scale was far beyond what I could handle, but at the same time, it was even further beyond what anyone else could.


    "Hooh.." -I can''t let the fear grip me, otherwise I''ll get caught off guard...- Although the ash was cool, there was still a chance the monster that did this was still there.


    "Sir Keen, would you like us to call up some of the S ranks?"


    "No, I''m going to run up and scout the monsters before deciding what to do. If there is something I can��t handle, then there is no need to waste energy fighting."


    Unsheathing my greatsword, I started lightly running forward into the ashen field.


    Towards the middle of the clearing, there were a couple of huge monsters coiled around, their tan-colored scales glistening in the moonlight.


    -Some Great Cobras, huh...- Although they usually only reached A or B rank, sometimes they could push into S rank. The issue was that the ones up ahead were nearly 2 meters in diameter, and likely around 60 meters long, making them some of the biggest cobras I��ve ever seen.


    -And to think there��s more than one...- Great Cobras were actually fairlymon in areas with extremely abundant wildlife, mainly swamps and rainforests, and would asionally be kept by smaller nations to help control an unruly dungeon��s poption, but not only were they not native to this area, but we also hadn''t seen so much as an insect for several kilometers.


    -But I guess why they��re here isn��t my problem to figure out��- Locking my eyes on the closest cobra, I managed to dash up to it inplete silence, and without alerting it at all.


    -Ash really makes my footsteps quiet.. doesn��t it��- Leaping into the air over the coiled cobra, I tightly gripped my sword with both hands and mmed it down into the top of the snake''s head.


    But my sword, not sharp enough to cut through its skull, hit it like a hammer. *Crack-CRUNCH*


    The ground shattered simultaneously with its skull, killing it instantly.


    But its body still contracted and attempted to retaliate.


    *WOOSH* The huge snake body zipped right past me at a speed I could barely match, making my eyes go wide. -These things��-


    Backing away as fast as possible, I set my sight on the other sleeping cobra and darted to it. -I need to kill it before it can wake up!- After seeing the horrifying strength and speed of the other cobra, I decided I couldn��t let this turn into a proper fight.


    But I was too slow.


    *Gleam* The glimmer of the other cobra��s ruby-red eyes was imprinted in my mind at that instant.


    -Sh*t��- Seeing its head rise high above its body, I felt a sense of intimidation I hadn��t felt for many years.


    But that only sparked a me deep in my chest.


    *fwip* Raising my sword toward my shoulder and pulling my arm back, I drove my front foot into the ground and channeled everything I had into hurling my sword like ance. *Crunch-FWOOOSH*


    The de practically teleported to the head of the cobra, but it still reacted just in time.


    *Shing* The de ripped through the cobra��s hood, just missing its skull and leaving behind arge wound, but no vital damage. -Ah, sh*t��-


    In the next instant, the cobra''s mouth opened, revealing its two massive, white fangs.


    Assuming its bite would be undodgeable, I hastily allocated my aura to my arms and braced myself.


    And I was right. *CRACK* (Sonic Boom)


    With my instinct barely managing to keep up, I somehow managed to grab hold of its fangs, but the force behind them drove my legs into the brittle ground. *CRUNCH*


    "Ngh! Not.. TODAY!" Letting go of one fang, I hastily reached over for my greatsword, still embedded in its hood, and gripped it tight.


    *Shing* Its light-red blood glistened in the moonlight as I finally pulled it out.


    "GOT YA!" Raising my sword, I promptly mmed it down into its head with as much force as I could muster. *Shi-CRUNCH*


    Its head was brutally sliced down the middle, making it go limp, but its body still put up a fight.


    *fwip-THUD-WOOOOSH* I barely managed to dodge a flurry of strikes from its body as it spasmed and threw itself about, but thankfully, I managed to get away without getting hit after a short moment.


    Once I managed to back off and look back around the field though, I felt a gaze that made me feel like death itself was looming over my head.


    Just a couple hundred meters away, in the center of the clearing, was another colossal snake, iparablyrger than the other cobras, that had raised its head out of a deep crater.


    But even ignoring its size, it was far from normal.


    Its scales glowed orange like red-hot iron and exuded a heat that rippled the stars and moonlight around it, but most horrifying of all, its crimson, ruby-like eyes stared into mine like those of a sentient being. -W..what is.. that..-

 Chapter 100: A Detour

    Chapter 100: A Detour


    Late Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan


    - Lawton Keen ~


    *silent breeze* The air turned frigid as the cobra stared into my eyes. -I can��t beat that��-


    I stood there, paralyzed for several moments before it finally turned its gaze away to look at the iling cobras.


    And I wasn��t going to let that chance slip. *Fwoosh* The instant it looked away, I sprinted to the edge of the clearing as fast as I could.


    I only slowed down once I got to the edge of the clearing and noticed it wasn��t following me at all.


    -Huh?- Looking back into the center of the clearing, I saw it nce at me before casually lowering its head back into the crater. -It''s.. ignoring me?-


    At that point, I was already sweating bullets and could feel my heart beating out of my chest. My breathing was rough, and I felt drained of energy, far beyond what I felt after fighting the cobras.


    Now that I was a safe distance away and it was ignoring me though, I stabbed my sword into the ground and sat on a copsed tree to catch my breath. "Hah�� Hah�� Hah��" -Well.. I guess we need to find a way around��-My original n was to run and clear all the monsters out so we could cut straight through the clearing and avoid a long detour, but now we didn��t have a choice.


    Idly ncing back at the middle of the clearing, I could see an ominous orange glow radiating into the air. It sent a chill down my spine just looking at it. -How long has it been since I felt like I could die at any moment...-


    That snake, although definitely not what made the clearing, was the strongest monster I had ever seen, and needless to say, it was something I simply could not handle. -To think I��d see a real Nation Rank monster out here��-


    Nation Rank monsters were actually so rare thatmon folk would only hear about them through old folklore or childish tales of heroes saving a kingdom, but even the royal families who did know of their existence just considered them the same as unstoppable forces of nature. -They really are horrifying...-


    *CrUnCh* Hearing the distant noise of bones being crushed, I looked up to see the colossal, glowing snake biting into one of the spasming cobras.


    It bit through the cobra''s iron-like scales and bones as if they weren��t even there, slicing through the flesh and cutting the cobra in two with almost no effort.


    It was chilling to witness, to say the least. -Well, I guess I should thank my lucky stars that I''m alive...- Had it not ignored me, I would have been in its stomach already.


    "Are you alright, Sir?!" The scout that led me here came running out of the forest the moment he saw me.


    "I''m fine. I just had a close call." I slowly stood up, realizing I needed to have more urgency about letting the convoy know about the change in n. "Let''s head back to camp quickly. I have got some less-than-ideal news to tell everyone."


    Noticing the way I spoke, the scout assumed things didn''t go well and wore a look of concern. "R..right away, sir..."


    Hastily following after the speedy scout, we quickly made it back to camp, where I noticed that the tents were mostly empty.


    It gave the camp an eerie vibe at first, but unsurprisingly, everyone was just socializing or eating around where they were fixing the soup for our evening meal.


    Quickly making my way over, I looked around for the other scouts or captains and didn��t see any of them.


    Not wanting to bother looking for them myself, I quickly made my way over to the chef. "Do you know where the other scouts and captains are?"


    I seemed to have startled him, but he quickly straightened himself up. "Wee back, Sir Keen. The scouts went to the intelligence tent to eat with the captains. They said they were old adventuring buddies."


    "Oh, I didn''t know they knew each other. Do you mind if I get a bowl, by the way?"


    "O..Of course, Sir!" He hastily picked up a bowl before carefully pouring a few spoonfuls of soup into it.


    "Thank you." Giving a light nod as a courtesy, I quickly walked over to the intelligence tent just a couple dozen meters away.


    But just before I walked in, I noticed someone running up behind me. "Hm?" Quickly ncing behind myself, I saw a young, blond hair blue-eyed woman running up to me.


    She was incredibly good-looking, with a bright smile to boot. "Sir Keen!" The moment she got up to me, she threw herself into a deep bow. "I''m sorry to interrupt your business, but.. would it be possible for me to help you by cleaning your armor for you?"


    -Clean my armor?- Unsure why she asked it, I looked down at my armor and finally realized that I was still covered in blood. "Ah��" -I guess I shouldn��t walk into the intelligence tent like this...-


    Although I was slightly worried about something happening to it, the armor I was currently wearing wasn''t my armor in the first ce. It was actually just armor I was told to wear because it signified rank, it was a shiny silver metal with a golden royal crest on it, but the royal crest was currently covered in blood.


    Figuring it''d be best if I at least cleaned the chest piece to show off Kan''s crest, I drove my sword into the ground and took off a majority of my armor.


    Once I finally got it off I looked over at the female knight and noticed her face waspletely flushed red. "Are you alright?"


    "Y..yes sir!" She stuttered as she nodded fervently.


    "Here you go then��" Figuring it''d be best not to question it, I gently handed her the fairly heavy armor, which she handled as if it were made of leather. Seeing her handle it so casually, I got a little flustered but tried not to show it. "I..I will be in the intelligence tent for a bit, so you can take your time with it." -She��s a lot stronger than she looks��-


    "Right away, sir! Please enjoy your meal!" She quickly bowed again before looking up at me with a gleam in her eye.


    -Uh��- "Ahem��" Picking up the soup bowl I had bnced on the hilt of my sword, I grabbed my sword and pushed aside the cloth to the tent. -I��ll never understand women...-


    Inside the tent, everyone was staring at me in silence.


    -Were they expecting me?- "So, what did all of you scouts find?" While waiting for a response, I walked to the end of the table and sat down.


    "Well.. nothing actually, a concerning amount of nothing."


    "Yeah, we didn''t see so much as a rodent for nearly 10 km in any direction generally southwest of us."


    "Haah.." -Great.. That means we��re the only food source in the area...- "I''m sure you all have been told about the clearing, correct? Well, in the clearing were two pretty huge Cobras, which I took care of, but I couldn''t take care of the other monster there."


    Everyone was too nervous to say anything in case they just heard me wrong, but they all thought the same thing. ��A monster Sir Keen couldn��t handle?��


    The only one to break the silence was Captain Coleman, who didn��t question me at all. "So what''s our n moving forward then?"


    "We will need to take a detour around it. Any suggestions?" I looked around, hoping people would give their opinion, but no one spoke up. "Scouts? You were the ones to check the surrounding area, right? What do you think we should do?"


    One of the scouts with a young and small build finally spoke up after a few moments, albeit nervously. "S..sir.. if I may?"


    "Go ahead." I took a sip of my soup as he talked.


    "I..If the monster was something even Sir Keen couldn''t handle..." He nervously nced at me when he paused. "Then I think we should take a long detour to be extra careful. I..I think it''d be smarter to dy our arrival ns by a few hours rather than risking the safety of the whole convoy."


    The other captains and scouts looked at the boy in awe after he mentioned that the monster was far stronger than me, as it could be considered ��questioning my strength�� which in some parts of the military is a punishable offense.


    But not in my divisions. "I like the way you think." I paused to see if anyone would object before smiling. "We will go with that n for now. We will leave before sunrise, so everyone go get some rest! Ah, and before you go, be sure to make the necessary preparations within your battalions. We won''t be making any more stops until we hit Zan��s fortress city."


    ""Right away, sir!"" Coleman and the others responded in unison before getting up and leaving me alone in the tent.


    After a short moment of silence, I leaned back in my chair and sipped on my soup again. -I should head to the clearing again to make sure it doesn��t move till morning...-

 Chapter 101: The Long Path Of Growth

    Chapter 101: The Long Path Of Growth


    Late Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    - Eulia Coletti ~


    *Snoring* *Snort* "Huh�� Hmm..." *tap* I rolled onto my back as I slowly woke up to an incredibly refreshed feeling. -Wow.. I slept really well...- But while I was enjoying the blissful warmth underneath the nket, my hand touched the wooden floor beneath me. -Huh?!-


    Jolting myself awake, I jumped up and threw the nket off me. -Where am I?!- Thankfully, with a quick nce around, I found that I was still in the library, but that fact only made me more confused. -W..why am I sleeping here?-


    Looking down at the unfamiliar, simple gray nket, I tried to remember what happened before I fell asleep but drew a nk.


    Looking around again, I tried to see who was nearby, but oddly enough, I couldn��t sense any auras at all. -Well��- I contemted a bit before finally reaching down and picking up the nket to fold.


    Once I finished, I gently set it on a table nearby, next to a few books I wanted to take home.


    But I felt a bit conflicted. -It��s a really soft nket�� Would someone really just.. give it to me?- Although I wanted to keep it, I felt too guilty to just run with it, so I sat down and took a moment to sort my thoughts.


    But even after a couple hours passed, when my memories started slowly returning, no one hade to im it. -If that is the case��-*puff* Finally setting it onto my stack of books, I nced around again to see if anyone was around before picking it all up and turning to the stairs. -If they wanted it back, they probably would have left a note.. right?-


    But as I walked down the stairs, I slowly started realizing the library wasn''t just silent, but empty as well.


    "Huh?" -Where is everyone?- Even the librarian was gone, meaning I couldn��t log the books I was taking home. -It''ll probably be fine... He probably won''t even notice��-


    Pushing open the door to exit the library, I came into a long, silent, and dark hallway, with the window at the end of the hall not showing anything on the other side. -Is it.. nighttime? How long did I sleep for?-


    Finally arriving at the end of the hall, I noticed a warm light emanating from one of the faculty offices and decided to pop my head in. *Click*


    "Hm?" The girl behind the desk gave me a confused look as I opened the door and walked in.


    It was my apprentice, Catlin Friedkin, a 24-year-old cat demihuman who was both a mage and a teacher at the academy. "What are you doing in your office thiste?"


    "Master?!" Quickly throwing aside the things on her desk and fixing her sses, she straightened her slumped-over posture.


    -She looks.. stressed...- "Calm down. I''m not here to make you do anything. I only came to ask about something."


    "A-and what would that be, Master?"


    Seeing her so overly nervous and stressed, I wanted to ask her what she was doing but gave priority to a different question. -I feel insane for asking this, but...- "When was thest time we talked? That was yesterday, right?"


    But her reaction was a little unexpected. "N..no. That was the day before yesterday, Master..."


    I felt like I mmed into a wall the instant I took a step. All my thoughts simply went haywire. -I SLEPT FOR A WHOLE DAY?!- With wide eyes, I nced down at the nket. -This nket... Is it a gift from god?-


    Catlin was quick to pull me back out of my thoughts though. "Did something happen? You seem a bit spaced out..."


    Finally looking up, a blissful joy filled my mind. "I guess? I think I just.. slept really well, is all."


    As if her eyes were light artifacts, they filled with energy at the flip of a switch. "I''m d to hear that!"


    Her reaction caught me a bit off guard, but it was nothing unexpected.


    Ever since I first took her as a disciple, she hade to believe that the harsh training I gave her was because I vented my aggression from my consistentck of sleep on her, but although that wasn��t the case... -Since she��s so busy.. I''ll give her a break tomorrow��-


    "Haah�� We will pick back up our normal training routine day after tomorrow." As I was getting ready to leave, I nced over at the high stack of papers on the side of her desk. "Send some of that paperwork to Judy Casas. She took a bribe from a noble brat again."


    The stress in her eyes eased up almost immediately. "Again? Why don''t you just fire her?"


    "She is actually a pretty good teacher even if her personality sucks." -I should probably talk to her about it though.- "Well, anyways.. I''ll be back sometimeter tomorrow. Feel free to rx until then."


    Her face brightened the moment she noticed I was giving her some leeway. "Okay! Be safe! Don''t take any sweets from strangers!"


    I paused as I reached for the door. "Since you have enough energy to make such a joke, maybe I should resume the training in the morning��"


    I gave her another nce to see herpletely stiffened up with her lips sealed.


    "Haah��" She reminded me of my younger self. -Her innocence still makes me jealous sometimes��- "Just.. don''t be stupid with how you use your time off�� I��ll see you tomorrow." *Click* *Click*


    After closing the door behind me, I finally started the trek home in the middle of the night.


    Thankfully though, the streets were quite peaceful, so I managed to get home quickly after an enjoyable walk. -It''s really peaceful with most of the adventurers gone...-


    *creaaakk* Pushing open the gate to my small estate, I made my way inside, set down my things, and started taking off my shoes.


    "Wee home, Miss!" A refreshing young voice filled the room as I looked up to see a beautiful young elf showing her usual bright smile.


    Her overwhelming joy was simply contagious. "Haha, thanks. Sorry it took me so long toe back."


    Quicklying to my side, she helped me take off my robe and fold it over her arm. "Did something happen while you were out?"


    "Haha, let��s just say I had a really excellent nap... Also, take these books to my reading room, when you get a chance."


    She continued after a quick nod. "It''s good to hear you finally got some good sleep!" Reaching down to pick up the books, she paused and stared at the nket before giving me a smug look. "Did you find a man?"


    *Bonk* Her smug look vanished as soon as I bonked her. "Don''t get the wrong idea."


    "Haha, alright, alright." After letting me take the nket off the stack of books, she stood up and got ready to take them to the other room. "What else would you like me to do?"


    "If you could, start fixing breakfast. I''m just going to put this nket away before I head to the kitchen.


    "Hehe~, right away, Miss!" She shed me another smug look before finally leaving.


    "Haah..." -She''s always so energetic..- With a subtle smile on my face, I pulled the nket close to my chest and finally headed to my room. -If only the person who left this nket, left a note as well��-


    -


    - Oliver Kan ~


    After another day of rest to guarantee I was fully healed, I was finally out of bed and moving again.


    But while I was resting, the amount of work I had continued to pile up, so once I got back to it, I was cooped up in my office, working extrate.


    The problem was that the massive stack of paperwork that piled up while I was bedridden was sorge that it was demotivating to even look at.


    "Haah..." -Maybe I should do some of it tomorrow...- "Martha, are Helen and Lucy in bed yet?"


    "Yes my lord, they both went to sleep right after dinner."


    "Haah.. good..." Trying to get myself to stop procrastinating, I thought about what needed my attention most urgently before locking my eyes on one specific paper. -I guess I need to at least deal with this tonight...-


    The piece of paper showed the strength index of the new coastal dungeon that appeared a few months ago.


    It showed countless numbers and statistics, but the overall index stood out greatly. ''8.1'' [1]


    It was actually so bad that I could only sit there and stare at it for a moment. -Sh*t...-


    Although dungeons were cash cows for nations like Kan, when they got too strong, they became serious problems.


    "Haah..." After a bit more contemtion, I set it aside again and decided to use it as motivation and deal with itst.


    The next few hours felt like they drained my life force, but the stack of papers steadily disappeared until I was finally on thest few sheets.


    The only issue was that the only papers left were extremely important. -What a pain...-


    The papers basically required me to know what I wanted to do with the nobles asking forpensation after the disaster, how much funding the guild would need to hire adventurers for general monster poption control, and what to do with the dungeon on the coast, but I simply wasn''t sure.


    *creak* Leaning back in my chair, I turned around to look out the window and see the beautiful orange sun rising over the horizon.


    It was morning already. The night had passed before I could get a chance to rest.


    -I guess.. I have some time to think about it still...- "Miss, can you get me some cold.. east-leaf tea?"


    The maid at the door, who had swapped ces with Martha, quickly nodded before walking out of the room.


    -The dungeon problem will hopefully fix itself once I absorb Zan and its neighbors since it will give their adventurers ess to it.. but maybe I should send Coletti to clean it out just in case...-


    *Clink* The sound of ss touching pulled me from my thoughts as the maid set a cup of cold tea on my desk.


    Reaching back and picking it up, I put the fine ss to my lips and took a sip. "Mmm..." A slightly refreshed smile came to my face as I thought about the long road in front of Kan. -It will take a lot of work.. but it is necessary for Kan''s growth...-


    Although my n was a bit greedy, I couldn''t help but look forward to it. -I wonder how much we can grow...-

 Chapter 102: The Cost of Growth

    Chapter 102: The Cost of Growth


    Mid Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    "Haah..." I let out a deep breath as I nced over at Ilios sleeping soundly. -It feels like time has sped up again...-


    After returning to the shelter after my stop by the library, I set the metal book I made on the pedestal in the vault before spending several hours idly thinking about its contents.


    But then, time started to pick up the pace again. Before I knew it, several days had passed, and the day Father was meant to return, came and passed.


    I started to get a bit worried at first, but after a couple more days, he finally returned bearing good news.


    In short, he got confirmation that Bahamut would cleanse the Tower without any more intervention from us. This meant that we just needed to wait for the fall of the Tower to be confirmed before we could finally go home.


    It was exciting to hear, but unlike what I had hoped, its destruction took longer than anticipated.


    Over the next several days, Father and I lounged around the shelter chatting and telling stories, but the royal family worked their asses off.


    Kan sessfully managed to capture both the Kingdom of Zan and its neighbor, the Kingdom of Byria, in only ten days.It was good news, but it caught me by surprise since, although Zan being walked over was expected, Byria should have been quite different.


    From what I knew about the nation, they were a massive trade hub for the eastern half of the Main Continent and had ��undercover allies�� all over the ce.


    To put it simply, it meant that there were nations that supported Byria in military efforts even when they weren��t allied.


    When I heard Kan was going after Byria regardless of this fact, I honestly thought Oliver had gone crazy.


    But to my surprise, not only did Byria''s neighboring nations not move against Kan, they even tried to curry their favor.


    This didn��t make much sense at first, but when I eventually asked Oliver, his answer was pretty simple: "They��re all just using good judgment."


    In short, nearby nations didn��t have the means to handle Lawton, and the army he led in their current state, so instead of picking a losing battle, they were trying to gain favor and avoid their own demise.


    This kind of attitude was even seen inside Zan''s borders after the first few cities were destroyed. By the time Lawton got to the capital, Zan''s knights had already surrendered the city and abandoned the royal family.


    Many people in surrounding nations thought such a disy of cowardice was against the Knight''s Code of Honor, but it was actually the opposite. Zan''s upper echelon wanted to fight to the bitter end, with no regard for the citizens within their borders, while the knights only wanted to protect their friends and family.


    But just when I thought Oliver would lose his grip on the situation, once Zan was inevitably captured and absorbed by Kan, the ensuing displeasure of the people was promptly calmed down by lower taxes and increased influence for the respected local noble families.


    Following the immense shift in people''s sentiment, the King of Zan lost any lingering support and was executed for foul judgment, while his family was stripped of nobility and all assets.


    Continuing through Zan and into Byria, Kan was met with a simr situation. Instead of fighting, Byria gave up and let Kan march straight to the capital without resistance.


    After a bit of peaceful negotiation, the royal family of Byria managed to quell their citizens'' unrest by having Kan promise favorable conditions to the people before finally surrendering.


    Shortly following that, the royal family of Byria was put into the position of District Lord, where they would continue to govern the cities they originally had but instead, report the more pressing matters to Kan itself.


    At the end of it all, they became something akin to a satellite royal family, with extremely favorable conditionspared to the royal family and even nobles within Zan.


    -I wonder if that will set an example for other neighboring nations as well��- Knowing Oliver, I already knew he was going to get greedy and not leave the other helpless nations trying to garner his favor alone. -But I guess that��s for him to figure outter��-


    In the days following Byria and Zan��s capture, Oliver and Helen couldn��t even leave their offices. Work continued to pile up, and theplications of suddenly absorbing two nations and nearly doubling their poption in a few days started to arise.


    But shockingly, things were going fairly well. Most cities made a clean shift in management, and there was minimal bacsh from the citizens, thanks to lower taxes, and more citizen-orientedws regarding sanitation and city cleanliness.


    -It��s honestly hard to believe things have gone this well��- But things didn��t end there.


    Amidst the chaos, the librarian showed up at the royal pce to propose the contract I exined to him.


    He did eventuallye clean about being a spy for the Tower, but with a bit of encouragement from me, and the ever-growing need for fast and reliable international information, both Helen and Oliver agreed to overlook it.


    A couple more days after that, he left for Zan��s old capital, where his new headquarters would be, and departed after meeting with me in a tavern to discuss the n going forward.


    In short, I just told him that I would asionally visit him, and wanted to avoid having a hard time reaching him should I ever need to. -But I guess I was worried about nothing��- He already had a n for it by the time I got there. -Maybe he will be a better asset than I thought...-


    Then, another week and a half passed, and the chaos within the pce became routine.


    "Haah��" -I warned Oliver not to get too cocky��- Out of boredom, I rolled onto my back next to Ilios, and right as I did, I sensed an approaching aura.


    Looking over toward it, I saw Father walking out of the lift giving me an odd look. "You seem like you''re ready to go home."


    "Of course I am. I was expecting to be home,ying next to Mother, by now..."


    "Well, in that case, I have some good news for you."


    "Hm?" Looking back over at him, I saw him holding a paper covered in writing and went ahead and read it. "Pfft, haha!" To my surprise, it was a newspaper showing an announcement regarding something that happened within several nations spread across the Main Continent.


    In short, nearly two dozen royal families vanished and hundreds of nobles were found dead, all in the span of a few days, with the Tower announcing that they would disband at the same time.


    ording to the paper Father was holding, almost every person with any sort of power within the tower was either dead or missing, with only the researcher''s branch remaining untouched.


    To others who read the announcement, they might think it''s incredibly odd and hard to believe such a scenario could ur, but it made perfect sense to both Father and I.


    -Bahamut was really thorough.. weren��t they��- It was honestly a bit scary to see how precise their work was as well.


    "I haven��t been able to confirm this through official channels just yet, but ording to Oliver, the total number of deaths, plus those still missing, is close to 1,200."


    My eyes went wide immediately. "Good lord��"


    Father just seemed to find my reaction funny. "Haha, yeah. I didn''t expect it to be so many people either, but I wouldn��t be too surprised if the number is inted a little."


    -That''s still a lot��- "So will we get a full story from Bahamut?" As funny as the newsletter was to read because of humans'' cluelessness, I also wanted to hear what really happened behind the scenes from Bahamut.


    "When we go there, you can ask your grandmother. She is one of the elders in the Elder Hall, so she should be able to tell you the specifics."


    -Okay, I should make note of that��- "So now that the tower is gone, when are we going home?"


    Father changed to his dragon form as he walked over to the hot spring. "Unless Oliver has something for us to do before we go, it will be soon."


    "Woohooo! Does that mean tonight?"


    "Haha, yeah. I''d like to have dinner with them tonight before we go though."


    "Alright, that''s fine." -Until then, I should probably wrap up what I need to��- "What should I do with that halfie in the za?"


    "You can do whatever you want with her. You could even make her a ve for... Nevermind." He showed me a smug look as he stepped into the shallow end of the spring. *ssh-ssh*


    But I could onlyy there, stunned for a moment. -He doesn''t mean what I think he does, right?- "I''m 10 years old, Father."


    "Mhm, I know. You''re just maturing so quickly that I might need to.. have a certain talk with you sooner than expected."


    -Lord, please no��- Although I didn''t mind the idea of exploring that side of myself at some point, I knew now wasn''t the right time. "I don''t think I''ll be venturing into that territory anytime soon, so... I''ll pass."


    "Haah..." Father let out a sigh of worry and relief as heid down in the shallow water. "Alright, if that''s the case, just do what you want with her. I trust your judgment."


    -Phew��- "Okay, I''ll go ahead and do that now then." Finally rolling back onto my feet, I hopped up and changed to my humanoid form. "Do you n to stay down here for long?"


    "Yeah, I am going to just rx here until it''s time for dinner."


    "Hmm�� Alright, I��ll be backter then."


    "Be safe!"


    Finally making my way out of the shelter, I wound my way out of the pce, down the main street, and to the za. It was a route I hade to frequent recently.


    Once I got there, I was greeted by a knight who looked like he hadn��t slept in weeks. "Wee back, Sir Whyte. Please let me know if there is anything you need while you are here."


    "Thanks." Making my way into the za, I nonchntly walked toward Maria while thinking of the countless things I could do with her.


    -Do I really need a ve?-

 Chapter 103: An Odd Girl

    Chapter 103: An Odd Girl


    Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    -Now, what should I do with you��- Nonchntly walking up to the dragon sleeping in the za, I put up a silencing barrier and lightly smacked its nose. *Thump* "So, how are you feeling?"


    "Mng��" She gave me a look of disdain as she slowly opened her eyes. "Who are you? Are you that bastard''s older brother or something?"


    I paused as I considered ying around with her misguided thoughts before continuing normally. "Sadly, I don''t have a brother."


    Her expression soured immediately. "Oh�� So what are you here for?" Her voice was provocative and sarcastic.


    -She''s pretty energetic today��- "Well, I''m going to be heading home soon, so I need to decide what to do with you."


    She paused to look at me again before turning away like a child. "You should just kill me then."


    "Hmm�� I can''t say I haven''t already considered that." -She hasn''t really done a whole lot wrong when I think about it though..-


    She was naive and stupid, sure, but she was sold into the tower by her father and was likely groomed to mindlessly follow orders. It made me somewhat pity her even though I wasn''t too fond of her personality."I''m toozy to decide on my own, so I''ll give you a choice." Immediately grabbing her attention, I gazed into her massive, draconic eyes.


    Her provoking demeanor had turned submissive as she turned to me. "W..what are my choices?"


    -She might actually have some potential...- "You can die now, and I will make it quick and painless, or you can be a ve. But if you be a ve, I will give you the option to pick your master."


    There was a long silence that wrapped around us before she finally spoke. "Will I be able to work my way out of very, or will it be permanent?"


    "It''s entirely up to whoever your master is."


    She gave me a look of surprise before falling into thought. "In that case..." She reluctantly nced at me as she thought to herself. "Who are my options..."


    -To think she didn''t spit out a name immediately...- "Your first option is to be a ve of the royal family, and another is for me to sell you to the highest bidder." She gave me a disgusted look the moment I paused, but I continued before she could say anything. "Your final option is my sister and I, but since she''s so young, and I don''t want to show her anything as disgusting as an unkempt ve, you would be a maid."


    Her eyes widened immediately, revealing a hopeful yet distressed expression. "I..." She paused as she looked away to think again.


    "I can give you some time to think about it if you want. I don''t n to leave until tonight." Seeing her not react or say anything for several seconds, I turned away to leave. "I''ll be backter-"


    "W-wait! I''ve already decided..." She looked worried, uncertain, and panicked as she stopped me. "I will choose you and your sister!" Although she sounded worried and concerned, she didn''t seem too reluctant.


    -That was fast��- "Alright, then." Casually walking back over to the metal ring around her neck, I flicked it and used earth magic to turn it into a pile of metal shards. *Tink-cling*


    After doing the same thing to several other rings, I stepped back and watched her get up and stretch. -I wonder if she''ll try running��-


    But once she finished stretching, she just sat down and looked at me like a lost puppy. "Should I transform now?"


    Her suddenck of worry, anxiety, and panic made my thoughts trip over themselves immediately. -Is she incapable of holding a grudge?!- She actedpletely normal, as if I wasn''t the one to trap her in the za for weeks and force her to be a ve. -Is she crazy?-


    "I..is something wrong?" Her worry started slowly returning the longer I stood there and stared at her in silence.


    "Haah�� No, go ahead and transform." *vwoom* Using light magic to block the light from her transformation, I pinched the bridge of my nose and questioned whether taking ownership of her was a good decision.


    After another moment, when she finished her transformation and made a new set of clothes, she walked up to me, and I released the light magic.


    "Hahh..." -I guess it''s toote now...- "Whatever... Follow me." Turning to leave the za, I called over the highest-ranking knight I could see.


    "W..what is it, sir?"


    "You guys will get new orders once I let the king know about the situation. Until then, feel free to take some time to rx. Just make sure you don''t let people try and scoop up those metal shards over there unless they''re cksmiths." -The cksmiths would probably die to get their hands on steel that pure��- "Do you understand?"


    "Y-yes, sir!" He quickly straightened his posture before bowing.


    "Alright then, be sure to use your time wisely."


    "T-thank you, sir!" The knight''s bow deepened as an excited smile came to his face.


    -I guess they''re excited to finally get some decent rest.-


    From their perspective, a dragon might as well be an unstoppable force that could escape at any time. -And with them having to rotate shifts and sleep in the monument right there�� It''s no wonder some of them looked so tired��-


    Quickly making our way out of the za, we turned onto the main street and started walking toward the pce.


    Thankfully, no one happened to recognize Maria as we walked, so we got to the gate without interruption, but as we walked in, I heard her mumble under her breath.


    "Such a beautiful pce��"


    "It''s good to hear you like it since it will be your home for a while."


    She immediately jolted. "Huh? Didn''t you say you were leaving for home soon?"


    "Yeah, but that doesn''t mean I''m going to bring you with me."


    "W..what does that mean?" Her anxiousness from earlier returned almost immediately. "A..are you going against your word and giving me to Kan?"


    "No, I just don''t want a maid who has no clue what she''s doing." -She really is like a naive teenager��- "I''m going to leave you here for ''maid training''." I''ll pick you up once we get ready to go to Bahamut in a few months. You better work hard."


    Her worry once again dissipated as I spoke. "Y..yes, I understand.


    "Haah..." -What an indecisive girl��-


    *ng-Creak* Finally opening the door and entering the pce, I called out to the first maid I saw. "Miss, do you know where Martha is?"


    "Yes, she should be in the dining room, Young Master." Her response was fluid and concise, and she gave a very polite bow right afterward.


    "Awesome, thank you." It made me a bit curious about how Maria would turn out after being taught. -If Maria can capture even half of this girl''s vibe, it''ll be great...- But I couldn''t say I was too confident in her.


    Quickly making my way to the dining room, I wasted no time opening the door and walking inside. *Click*


    My ears were met with orderly chatter as I saw Martha ordering around some other maids. -She looks like she''d be a good teacher too�� How perfect.- "Martha, can youe here for a moment."


    "Yes." Hastily setting down the tes in her hand, she greeted me with a formal bow. "What is it, Young Master?"


    "Would you happen to be able to train a maid for a few months?"


    She nodded without hesitation. "If it is your request. Who will be the lucky missus?"


    Tilting my head slightly, I pointed back at Maria, who anxiously stood right behind me.


    "Oh~, she is truly a diamond in the rough. I will do my best to polish her up for you, Young Master." Martha''s expression quickly turned excited.


    "She might need a bit more than polish, but I think you can make it work." Turning back to Maria, who was mming up, I set my hand on her shoulder. "This will be your teacher for a while. You need to listen to everything she says and work to be an actual maid unless you want to just pass to the afterlife as soon as Ie to pick you up." I gave her a threatening smile as I firmly pressed on her shoulder.


    Her posture straightened up immediately as she broke into a nervous sweat. "Y-yes, M-m-master!" She looked away with a flushed face as she struggled to call me master.


    -Now for security...- "Let me do onest thing before I leave you to Martha." Quickly moving my hand up in front of her neck, I created a steel cor with strengthening and lightning runes.


    Although it was nothing special, it was a cor strong enough to resist her transformation and, if supplied with mana, would function like a shock cor.


    -This should be fine...- "You understand what will happen if you transform, right?"


    Maria vigorously nodded in understanding.


    "Good, then I''ll leave her with you, Martha. My only rule is that she doesn''t leave the pce without a knight escort. And for your reference, if she deserves punishment for something, just inject a bit of mana into the cor. It won''t cause any damage but will help bring her back to her senses."


    Martha gave a slightly evil smile before bowing again. "Understood, Young Master. We will be sure to whip her into shape."


    "Good." Seeing that she understood, I turned to the door. "Ah, right. How long until dinner?"


    "It will be a few more hours. I apologize for the wait."


    "Alright, then, I will see youter." With a light wave, I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me.


    "Hooh... Alright, what next..." But as I walked down the hall, my mind started to wander. -I wonder how she''ll turn out..-

 Chapter 104: & 105: A Long-Awaited Reunion

    Chapter 104: & 105: A Long-Awaited Reunion


    Early Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kan


    -


    *tap-tap-tap* It was only a couple hours after Martha told me dinner would be a while that Father came to get me from the shelter.


    I was a bit disappointed by his timing since Ilios, and I were in the middle of roughhousing when he came down, but at the same time, I was excited to start heading home. -I could really go for a juicy field bison right about now��-


    Finallying up to one of the doors to the dining room, Father didn''t waste any time on formality and walked in. *Click*


    Everyone in the room looked over when they heard the lock release.


    But to my surprise, everyone at the table was a familiar face, with everyone in Father''s adventuring group and Lucy and Viviana present. It was honestly quite lovely seeing everyone together.


    "He''s finally here!" Sarah cheered with a half-empty ss of wine like we were celebrities.


    -How much has she drank already?- But as I was shooting Sarah a judgmental look, Lewis got up from his seat."Took you long enough." He quickly walked over and gave Father a hug before looking over at me with a wide smile. "It seems like the talk of the town has changed some since Ist saw him."


    "Haha, just a few changes." I gave a slightly forced chuckle before averting my eyes.


    Then, likely noticing I didn''t want to talk about it, Oliver got up and motioned Father and I to the two open seats. "Well, how about you two take a seat so we can talk a little morefortably. We got a spot for Ilios toy next to you as well, Vasilias."


    ncing at the seats as we rounded the table, I saw a white cushion lying next to one of the seats. "Oh." -Wow, that''s really considerate of them.- "Thanks for that!" Quickly pulling out my chair and sitting down, I motioned Ilios over onto the cushion.


    "Huff!" He gave a muffled bark as he walked up with a happy trot and plopped himself on the cushion.


    -I should make a cushion like this for him at home��- Idly looking back up as I thought to myself, I noticed Viviana staring at me in a trance. "How are you doing, Viviana? Do you need something?"


    Her face turned red instantly. "N-no, I just thought that your dog was really smart."


    "Of course he is! Even among Fenrir, his intelligence is unrivaled." Ilios held his head high with a smile as Iplimented him.


    My statement made Viviana''s eyes go wide though. "F-f-fenrir?! You mean one of those huge scary wolves?!"


    "They''re not all scary." I unknowingly started petting Ilios after being unable to resist his adorableness as I spoke. "Just don''t walk up to one assuming it will be nice."


    Hearing her suddenly go quiet, I finally noticed that Ilios moved some of his aura onto Viviana, making her fall into a trance and stare at him. -His intelligence still catches me by surprise sometimes��-


    Continuing to pet him, I tapped him with my aura and got him to pull his off Viviana. "See? Nothing to be scared of."


    She snapped out of the trance immediately. "R-right! Sorry for staring so much..."


    "Haha, you''re fine. So how has everyone else been?" Starting the conversation for the night, everyone got the chance to talk about how their days were before finally devolving into reminiscing over the past and telling stories. But I didn''t mind it.


    Eventually, after much discussion, dinner and desserts came out until everyone had eaten their fill.


    But just like how the food was unlimited, so was the alcohol.


    This didn''t affect Helen or Oliver much since they had to go right back to work after eating, nor Lewis since he had alcohol toleranceparable to Father, but Sarah got absolutely hammered.


    Thankfully, Lucy and Viviana had already left to go outside by the time it got really bad, but I ended up catching the brunt of her drunken flirtatiousness. -At least Lucy and Viviana aren''t here to see such a sorry sight��-


    But eventually, after several more drinks and even more conversation, the conversation started winding down to a close.


    Maids started slowly funneling into the room to clean things up as Oliver set down his small ss of liquor and looked at Father. "So you''re still leaving tonight?"


    "Yeah, unless Vasilias has other ns." Father nced at me for confirmation.


    "I want to leave at some point tonight since I''d rather fly at night, and I think I have everything I need to do wrapped up already."


    Sarah, whoid her face on the table, turned and nced at me with an exhausted look. "How long is the flight?"


    "If I want to get there fast, I could do less than an hour, but I''d like to take my time tonight."


    "Hm? Why?"


    "I love space, and there should be a full moon tonight, so I''d like to take my time to enjoy it during the flight."


    "Space?"


    "Space is what gives the night sky its beauty. All the tiny lights that litter the sky at night are distant stars or gxies floating around in the endless abyss known as space." A smile came to my face as I stopped myself before I got carried away.


    Sarah didn''t understand any of it anyway. "I''m too drunk to understand what you just said..."


    -I''d honestly be surprised if you understood that sober��- "Maybe I''ll bring you up to get a better look at it one night-"


    "Make that a promise." Her determined look caught me by surprise.


    "A..alright�� I''ll take you on a little flight at some point in the future, then." I reluctantly agreed since I was too worried about what she''d do if I rejected her. -She''s so drunk she will probably forget it anyway.-


    Regardless of my thought though, the moment she heard me agree, an excited smile crept onto her face. "Hehe~..."


    "Haah��" Letting out a disappointed sigh, Father finally stood up. "Well, I think that''s our signal."


    "Haha, right. You''lle to revisit us before 10 years pass this time, right?" Oliver looked over at Father with a taunting smile.


    "Haha, of course. I''ll try to find time to visit once a year." Walking to everyone around the table, Father gave them each a hug whilst saying his goodbyes.


    "Thanks for everything recently, everyone. You all made it a truly.. unique experience." My smile turned warm as everyone gave their goodbyes.


    "I''m d you enjoyed your time here, Vasilias. In any case, sorry about not being able to walk you to the gate..." Helen motioned toward Sarah, who had fallen asleep and was drooling on the table.


    "Haha, it''s alright, don''t worry about it."


    There was a short pause before Father gave his final farewell as well. "Well, we''re heading out. Thank you again for taking care of us while we were here."


    Helen''s smile quickly turned warm. "Of course. Vasilias, please think of Kan as a second home. You are always wee here."


    "Haha, alright. I''ll be sure to visit whenever I get the chance."


    "Well, have a safe flight! Tell Zachari we said hi!" Oliver gave a light wave as we turned to the door.


    "We will! Be careful not to overwork yourselves!" *Click*


    Finally leaving the dining room and, subsequently, the pce, I spent some time reminiscing about everything that happened on the trip while enjoying the cool evening breeze.


    Before I knew it, we had arrived at the same clearing we initiallynded in when we came here.


    *sh* Immediately changing to my dragon form, I let Father into my paw. "Well, shall we?" A childish excitement filled me as I helped Father get situated, but once he gotfortable and tapped hisp for Ilios to sit with him, Ilios didn''t budge.


    "Come on, Ilios." *tap-tap* Thinking he wasn''t understanding, Father called out to him, but he just sat there and looked up at me.


    "Haha, he''s going to ride on my back, Father."


    Almost immediately, Father gave me a sad look like he was just betrayed before reluctantly mumbling to himself. "Alright..."


    After another moment, Ilios changed to his full size, hopped on my back, and finally gotfortable.


    Making sure my mana held him somewhat securely, I finally got ready to fly. "I''ll be a bit easier on the eleration this time; just remember to tap on me if you need something, Father."


    Seeing him reluctantly nod in understanding, I spread out my wings and used a mix of pping and thruster magic to lift us off the ground smoothly.


    Although it took a while since I was being easy on the thrusters, eventually, we got above the clouds, where I started leveling out and speeding up.


    After once again checking to make sure Father and Ilios were doing alright, I finally looked up toward the sky myself.


    Just as I had expected, the full moon shone brightly, with the colors of the countless minerals on its surface being clearly visible. -This''s moon is.. really stunning...-


    Although the moon was simr to earth''s in size, it had far more texture and variation in colors.


    Tall mountains of iron and copper, low valleys carved by a reflective brown liquid, and massive ocean-like reservoirs that filled several of the craters were sights I had grown ustomed to over the years, but this time, something else caught my eye.


    One of the fewrger craters on the moon simply looked.. too perfect. Too circr and uniform.


    The crater had huge cracks starting from the epicenter, but they all looked like they were there for a purpose and weren''t simply random, massive cracks in the moon''s surface.


    But sadly, even after looking at it for well over an hour, I couldn''t quite make out anything decisive. -I guess I can only wait for my vision to improve to get a better look at it��-


    After somehow suppressing my ever-growing curiosity about the moon, I spent the rest of the flight looking up into other parts of the sky to enjoy the stunning view. -This will never get old��-


    As I had grown since I reincarnated, my eyes got significantly better, not just with detail but with color as well. Before I knew it, I could see more vibrant, indescribable colors that painted the countless nebs, gxies, and star formations that littered the night sky.


    -It''s truly a beautiful spectacle...- Before I knew it, I hadpletely lost track of time only to have Father eventually tap my paw and point toward the ground.


    -Huh? Oh!- It was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.


    Slowly turning to descend with a corkscrew dive, I gently used thrusters to slow our descent.


    By the time we got close to the ground, I was simply gliding, making thending nice and gentle.


    *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh-Thump*


    Finallynding, Father hastily jumped out of my paw and changed to his dragon form.


    But he seemed nervous as he walked up to the doors of the cave and gently opened them.


    *Woooosh* A strong breeze of freezing air blew out of the hallway the second there was a crack in the door.


    "How.. uh.. are you holding up?" Father nervously looked down the hall at Mother.


    But she just slowly turned her head and looked him in the eye. "You''re sleeping outside."


    "Haah... I figured you were going to say that..." Not even taking time to question her, he turned around and walked away with his head held low like a defeated man.


    -Did they fight or something?- I gave father a confused look as he walked by, but Mother called out to me before I could get too distracted.


    "Wee home, sweetie!"


    With a warm, childish smileing to my face, I turned back around to see her familiar motherly smile, but I couldn''t help but notice that she looked unusual. -She looks exhausted...-


    Quickly making my way into the hall, I walked over and gave Mother a long hug before eventuallyying down and letting her rest her head on me.


    "Hey, Ilios�� How have you been?"


    Ilios nced farther down the hall and saw Krystallo sleeping soundly before responding with a muffled bark. "Huff!"


    "Haha, that''s good to hear." She slowly turned to look at me as her expression became worried. "So... What happened?"


    -Father must have told her something��- "Well, after a uh.. bad ident.. I happened to trigger and have another dragon sleep."


    Mother looked at me like I had gone insane though. "H..how�� Wait, just.. start from the beginning��"


    Seeing her look of concern, I quickly trieding up with a way to ease her into what had happened. "So Kan had an heirloom that was just a massive monster core."


    "Okay? What about it?" Her worry only grew the more I talked.


    "Well, after following through with my part of a deal we made, I ate it and uh.. my uh��" -How do I put this without making her worried.- "My reserve may have.. exploded��"


    The air stopped moving instantly as I reluctantly looked over to see Mother staring at me with wide eyes. -Uh oh��-


    Unable to even consider saying anything more, I simplyid there and braced myself for the worst.


    But instead of panicking or yelling at me, she just let out a deep sigh. "Hoooh��"


    Thinking I was safe, I reluctantly opened my eyes but had a taile crashing down onto my head. *THUMP* -Ow.. there it is��- Slowly looking back up at her, I saw her wearing a slightly angered expression.


    "For how smart you are, I thought you would have at least remembered me telling you that could happen."


    Like an epiphany, the memory of her exining how my reserve could be destroyed suddenly surfaced in my mind. -Ah�� I forgot about that��- ��S..sorry, Mother����


    "Haah�� I''m just d you''re home, alive and healthy." She paused as she gently rubbed her cheek against mine. "In any case, I can still feel your aura, so what happened with your reserve? Did it somehow repair itself?"


    Feeling warmth fill my chest, I responded quickly and honestly. "I''m not entirely sure, but I think it waspletely destroyed before it reformed itself to make a new one. My new reserve is in my abdomen."


    Had I said that to anyone else, I would have been called insane, but Mother didn''t even question me. "So that''s why your aura is a bit weaker than before you left��" She immediately fell into contemtion, but I was quick to correct her.


    "N..no... My aura seeming smaller isn''t because of that." I stopped talking for a moment to think of how to exin it. "To put it simply, my new reserve gave me the ability to control how much aura I exude.. at least to a certain extent."


    A gleam formed in her eyes immediately. "How fascinating! So how much would you naturally exude?"


    "Uh..." I quickly nced back toward Krystallo, lying behind the pile of treasure. "Do you minding outside for it?"


    "Hoh? It''s that much, huh?" With an excited look, she slowly stood up and stretched.


    "Ilios, stay here and watch Krystallo for us. If something happens, get our attention somehow. We will be right outside."


    "Huff." Giving a determined woof, he quickly walked over and sat by Krystallo.


    -I doubt his aura is enough to do anything��-


    Quickly walking outside and closing the door behind us, I turned to see Mother wearing an eager smile. "Alright, now show your mother how much you''ve grown." She immediately flexed her legs like I was going to pressure her.


    "Wait, you want me to pressure you with it?"


    "Of course! I wouldn''t be able to really understand how much it was if you just released it into the air."


    -Well.. I guess she has a point��- "If that''s the case, you might want to brace yourself more than that��"


    Taking my word seriously, she flexed her legs and took a wide stance.


    "Haah��" -She should be able to handle it, right?- "Well, here I go��"


    *vwooOooOOOMMM* Like a volcano of mana, the air around me turned to a bright and beautiful blue before flowing over to Mother.


    A smile crept onto Mother''s face as she saw iting toward her like a tidal wave.


    *crunch-CRUNCH-VWOOOMM* The ground beneath her paws shattered like brittle sandstone under immense pressure, and her head lowered toward the ground as she struggled to keep it held high.


    *VWOOooOooom* I immediately pulled my aura off her after noticing she was struggling. "S-sorry!" I immediately darted over to support her, but instead of copsing like I anticipated, she hopped up with a pure smile on her face.


    "WOOHOO! I haven''t felt that kind of rush in years!"


    "Hooh��" I let out a breath of relief, seeing that she was okay.


    *FWOOSH* She darted up to me instantly before throwing her neck around mine. "To think my son would get this strong so quickly!" She looked like she was about to cry. "I don''t know what I did to deserve such a strong son, but thank you!"


    In that instant, it felt like an unfathomable weight was lifted off my soul.


    The countless thoughts racing through my mind were silenced, leaving only the incredible warmth of Mother''s embrace to fill the void.


    My mind had be silent, with the exception of one thought. -What did I do to deserve a mother like this��- With a warm smile, I finally lowered my head and took my time to truly enjoy the moment. "Th..thank you, Mother��"

 Chapter 106/107: A Black Cat

    Chapter 106/107: A ck Cat


    Mid Morning - Late Spring : Home


    -


    ��Uwahhh���� *crackle* I let out a long, refreshing yawn as I woke up and broke apart the ice that crystallized over my body while I slept. -Wow, what afortable temperature��-


    It had been a few days since I returned from Kan at that point, but a majority of that time was spent sleeping in the cave alongside Mother since, not long after I showed her my aura, her sleepiness caught up to her. -She looks like she��s sleeping soundly though��-


    Slowly standing up, I quietly stretched and nced at Ilios, whoid next to me. ��Hey, Ilios.�� I made sure to keep my voice as hushed as possible. ��Stay here and guard them while I go get some breakfast for us, alright?��


    He gave a lethargic nod as he repositioned himself and closed his eyes again.


    It was really adorable, but I kept myself from bothering him more and made my way outside.


    *clunk-fwooosh* A wave of warm air sted across my body as I hastily got through the door and closed it once again. ��Haah����


    It was the middle of the morning, with clear skies and a steady, warm breeze blowing through the field outside the cave. -What a beautiful day��-Then, after taking a moment to finally shake off my lingering drowsiness, I spread my wings and took to the skies. -Let''s see if I can find a bison for Ilios and I��-


    But the next several minutes were simply spent looking.


    *fwoosh* *fwoosh* *fwoosh* It was a calm day, with a slow, steady breeze and clear skies, but oddly enough, there was still a low fog covering the ground in the forest.


    This sight was nothing too unusual for that time of the season, but it meant that my job of finding a bison would get a little troublesome. -Hopefully, the fog makes them more confident toe out into some of the clearings��-


    Quickly heading to the fields routinely known to have bison or deer grazing in them, I dove toward the ground and pped my wings just above the top of the fog. *FWOOOSH*


    The fog in the clearing got sted away as if there was an explosion, immediately revealing a few deer grazing along the treeline and a huge bison in the middle.


    My mouth started to water immediately.


    *Thump* Promptlynding next to it, I nudged it with my wing and tipped it over.


    *snort* It tried to kick me as it went to stand back up and run off, but it was toote. *Shink*


    With a quick sh of a w and a bit of help from earth magic, I went to cut through the bison''s spinal cord but instead cut off its entire head. *Thud*


    My eyes went wide as its headless body fell limply to the ground. -W..what��-


    Taking a closer look at the cut, I noticed it was smooth, even at the cellr level. -T..that was THAT effective against flesh?!-


    It was a simple spell I used to shave down things I made, like steel darts, so I could be a bit sloppier when making the objects themselves. It increased the amount of mana I needed to properly make things, but at the same time, it gave me an insane level of precision without the extra time or the mental drain that would normally follow it.


    -But for it to cut all the way through like that��- Looking closer at the opposite side of the bison''s neck, it was clear the spell lost some of its effectiveness as it passed through.


    But without the eyes of a dragon, it would simply look like a wless cut. -It makes me wonder��-


    Sticking my other leg forward, I started using the spell and shed the top of my paw.


    *Chink* As if I hit it with a de, a sizable sh immediately appeared in my scales, but it looked more like a deep scratch than anything. -I��m.. not sure what I expected��-


    Considering how I normally used it in other spells, (like insanely effective sandpaper) the result made sense. -Regardless.. this could make cutting things precisely pretty easy. I just need to be careful controlling its length��-


    But even without much to think about, I ended up spending the next couple of minutes fiddling around with it before finally putting my thoughts aside and flying back to the cave with the bison in hand. -It''s a shame this bison didn��t have a core��-


    Quickly making it back home, I gentlyid down the bison and got to cleaning it.


    In the past, Mother would have been the one to remove the stomach, intestines, and a few other organs, since they were considered ��waste meat��, but today, I wanted to prepare everything myself.


    But before I knew it, I had cleaned out the necessary organs and even hung it up on a thick metal pole to shave off the fur and topyer of hide since it had a bitter taste. -This magic is really handy��-


    *fwoosh* *fwoosh-thump* Hearing someone behind me, I nced behind myself and saw Father staring at me with an eyebrow raised.


    ��What are you up to?��


    -Was he sleeping on the mountain?- ��I��m just fixing breakfast. You want to try some?��


    ��Sure! It smells pretty good.��


    Quickly cutting him out a decent-sized rib, I created and put a bit of salt on it and handed it to him. ��Here, try that.��


    He immediately tossed it into his mouth and shattered the rib with his teeth. *CrAcKle* ��Mmm�� That��s pretty good. It''s nice and tender�� You find this guy in the eastern field?��


    ��Yeah, I think the fog gave him enough confidence to stand in the middle of the field. I was pretty lucky though, it was the first field I checked.��


    ��Nice!�� He paused for a moment as he eyeballed the bison I was still cleaning before eventuallyying down and rxing. ��So I''m guessing Zachari is still asleep?��


    ��Yeah, she looked like she was sleeping really well when I woke up���� Idly shaving thest bit of the bison, I thought back to the night we got home. ��She was really tired when we got here, so I hope she can get some good sleep.��


    Father��s expression slowly turned a bit guilty. ��Y..yeah�� She��s still.. paranoid after what happened with Fengari�� She didn��t let herself sleep much at all while we were gone����


    ��...�� I could only stare at Father nkly for a moment as I paused what I was doing. -So.. she didn��t actually get over losing him��-


    ��She��s just scared to lose you or Krystallo as well, and.. well.. my attempt to reassure her sort of backfired����


    -Ah.. that��s why she was upset with him��- Not wanting the conversation to get any darker, I tried to give some advice. ��Well, maybe you can treat her to something nice and get back on her good side when she wakes up.�� -I should probably do the same��-


    ��R..right. Sorry for getting all gloomy.�� Trying to quickly change the subject, he put on a forced smile and stood up. ��Do you mind if I go get a bison myself so we can eat together?��


    It was an odd request, but it was nice to hear. ��Sure! I can help you clean it when you get back.��


    His smile slowly warmed up as I spoke. ��A..alright! I won''t be too long!�� Finally mustering some enthusiasm, his smile turned genuine, and he took to the skies.


    -I wonder what we��ll talk about��- But as I looked forward to having some Father-Son time, I looked back at the bison sitting on the metal spike and noticed it looked a bit pale. -Ah hell, did I bleed it too much?-


    Quickly making a pan at the bottom of the spike, I tried my best to save what I could before eventually epting fate. -I guess I''ll have to take some of the blood from Father��s bison and just use it like a dipping sauce��-


    Finally finishing up the shaving and skinning of the bison, I reached down and cut off a decent-sized chunk and brought it to the cave.


    *clunk-fwoosh* As the warm air around me rushed into the cave, I poked my head in and set down the chunk of meat, motioning to Ilios as I did.


    *tap-tap-tap-tap* Seeing him quietly trot over and pick it up, I lightly patted his head and closed the door again to keep the temperature from changing much. *clunk*


    ��Haah���� I let out a breath of relief as I gently repositioned the ''lock''. -It''s good to see Mother is still sleeping well��- Walking back out into the field, I took a moment to enjoy the warmth of the sun.


    But that was when I suddenly felt the edge of an unusual aura. -What the��-


    Immediately looking toward it, I met eyes with a small ck, panther-like creature no bigger than arge house cat.


    But unlike its feeble-looking body, it had a massive aura, easilyparable to an A or B-rank monster. -It��s controlled too��- Something about the cat gave me an odd feeling, but I simply couldn��t recognize what the feeling was. -Was it.. drawn by the smell?-


    But the instant I even questioned it being anything other than a monster, it darted into the forest, and I lost sight of it.


    -Why did its eyes feel so.. human��-

 Chapter 108: A Beautiful View

    Chapter 108: A Beautiful View


    Early Evening - Late Spring : Home


    "Haah.." As Iid in the field sunbathing, the day steadily continued to pass.


    Before I knew it, the sun had started to set so I got up from my spot and stretched, Ilios following suit. He came out of the cave andid with me earlier in the day when Father said he wanted to watch over Mother and Krystallo for a while.


    I looked over at the doors of the cave. -It should be fine..- Figuring it was alright for me to leave, I flew up to the top of the mountain to enjoy the sunset with Ilios like we used to.


    Once we got to the top, I walked to the edge of the peak andid down.


    As the sun set, the sky shifted from its usual deep blue to a beautiful orange.


    Mirroring the sky, the ocean looked as if it had turned to gold.


    -I wonder what the ocean is like in this world..- I shifted my head and looked directly down the mountainside towards the ocean.


    I watched the massive waves m up against the mountain, filling the surrounding air with mist and listened to the distant but soothing sound of the crashing waves.Back when I was alive on earth, I adored the ocean, but in this world I had some mixed feelings.


    When I was still taking lessons from Mother, she would always reinforce the fact that the ocean was this horrifying ce with creatures that would eat me everywhere.


    -But on earth.. life in general in the oceans was pretty sparse.-


    Life was everywhere around reefs, coastlines or thermal vents, but around 90% of the ocean was just t sand and open water. Almost all of the creatures in those areas were only there because they were passing through.


    As I contemted going for a swim or messing around in the shorebreak, I decided to put it off for a bit. -Swimming at night is never a good idea anyways..-


    By the time I escaped my own thoughts, sunset had already passed and the starry night sky had enveloped everything.


    Enjoying the ocean breeze blowing up the mountain, Iid there on the mountain peak and overlooked the ocean.


    With the beautiful view of the moon reflecting off the ocean, I reminisced about some old memories and drifted to sleep.


    My days continued to pass just like that.


    I just slept, ate, maybe practiced a little magic then slept again, the routine of most dragons my age.


    After 4 days like that, Mother finally woke up, feeling energized and refreshed.


    As soon as Father said she was awake, I darted down the mountain to see her. "Good morning Mother!" I peeked my head into the hall with a childish smile.


    "Haha, good morning Vasilias. What''s got you in such a good mood?"


    "Well you''re awake and seem healthy."


    She slightly tilted her head. "Why would I not be?"


    "Well, it was you resisting my aura that made you fall asleep in the first ce.. I was worried I did something."


    She looked at me with shocked eyes before letting out augh. "Haha, how could you think a little aura would hurt a mighty dragon!" She held her head high with confidence.


    I subconsciously smiled. "Ahh yes, how could I have been so na?ve.." I quickly walked up and gave her a hug. "So how''d you sleep?"


    "Incredibly. Maybe it was because I knew I was being protected by my big and strong son." She looked at me with a warm and proud smile. "You''re already both smarter and now stronger than your father.." She looked over at Father who was behind me in the hall.


    I slowly sat down in the room contemting whether to ask something before figuring I might be able to mend the situation some.


    "Why are you mad at Father, Mother?"


    She looked over at me in shock before lowering her head. "I.. It''s nothing.."


    "You can tell me, Mother. I might be able to help the situation some.."


    She looked at me as she contemted before finally breaking the silence. "When he came to visit, he told me about the things you did."


    -Whats that supposed to mean?-


    "He was supposed to be watching over you, but instead he let you get involved in something you shouldn''t have even been close to.."


    When she first woke up today, Father went ahead and told her all about the situation with the tower and the rebellion before telling me she was awake which didn''t help her, already sour mood towards him.


    "Mother.. I can take care of myself now. You don''t need to worry so much about me.." Although her anger was aimed solely at Father, I felt incredibly guilty and at fault for causing the situation.


    "I know.. but it doesnt change the fact that if you weren''t so strong you would''ve died.." She held her head down and bit her lip to hold back tears. "You still almost died too.."


    "Please don''t me father for that.. He was in Bahamut taking care of things far more important... Plus the only reason I nearly died was because of my own negligence." I looked over at Father whose face was covered in guilt. "Father wouldn''t have given me the freedom to get into those fights if I wasn''t so strong either.. so.. please forgive him.." Although I wasn''t too sure how much itd help, I walked up and sat next to her to try andfort her.


    "Haah.. what am I doing.." Mother moved over and leaned into me as she took a deep breath. "Thank you Vasilias.." She looked down towards the ground and leaned into me more.


    "Hm? What for?"


    "You''re the best son we could''ve asked for.. I think your Father would agree with me on that." She looked back up at me with a familiar, loving and motherly smile.


    The sight warmed my heart as I was reminded of just how blessed I was to be born into this family.


    A short momentter, she looked back over at father with a look of contempt. "But don''t go thinking I''m going to let you off the hook so easily." She pulled away from me and sat up straight.


    Father, seeing her change posture, immediately lowered his head.


    "Until Krystallo wakes up and we leave for Bahamut, you must give me a massage once a week, and once we get to Bahamut, you owe me a nice and expensive date."


    Father had an odd look on his face hearing the conditions. It was the mix of defeat and happiness.


    Seeing that the mood lightened up and Mother was acting more like herself, I decided to ask something I had thought about the past few days. "Mother.."


    "Hm? What is it sweetie?"


    "Can we keep star gazing each night like we did before the trip still.."


    "Of course! I wouldn''t dare break such an amazing tradition."


    Although mother called it tradition, it was just something I got in the habit of doing and over time Mother started joining me until it became routine. Nheless, hearing her agreement, an excited smile came to my face as a childish joy filled my heart.


    -I wish the sun would set a little faster now..-

 Chapter 109: Extreme Tag

    Chapter 109: Extreme Tag


    Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Home


    After socializing with Mother for a while after she woke up, she ended up asking me to step out for a bit so she could talk to father privately.


    -I wonder what they''re talking about..- Although I was curious and had the ability to eavesdrop, I honestly felt no need to and just continued out into the field. -Plus, privacy is important..-


    Walking out into the field I sat down and started thinking about what I wanted to do.


    Although I wanted to nap like I had for the past few days, it was time I snapped out of myziness and did something productive.


    There was always a ton of things rted to magic I could improve on, but I wasn''t in the mood for magic today.


    It was at that moment that a lightbulb went off in my head, it was something I desperately needed to work on.


    -My movement!-


    As mundane as it sounded, my movement and agility in my dragon form were horribly inefficient and bad.Sure, I could fly ridiculously fast and could control my momentum with thrusters giving me at least above average agility and speed in a fight, but there were tant downside to doing that.


    -Plus it''s bad to depend on one thing too much..- I was currently relying far too much on my thruster magic in fights for speed and I needed to change that.


    "Hooh.." I looked up at the dense forest in front of me. -How do I even go about training agility..-


    I turned back and looked at Ilios who was behind me, a smile creeping onto my face.


    "Hey Ilios, want to be my training partner?"


    Ilios looked up at me and tilted his head.


    "I want you to attack me like you do when we roughhouse, but you need to focus on speed and you can''t hold back otherwise I won''t be able to improve."


    Ilios sat there and thought for a moment before nodding and getting into an agile stance.


    "Alright, you fir-"


    *BANG*


    Before I could finish, Ilios appeared in front of me and mmed his head into my chest.


    *Cr-cr-cr-cr-crack*


    The hitunched me into the forest, smashing through several trees before I stopped myself.


    Excitement immediately started to boil in me. -Its time for a real challenge!-


    I spread my wings and closed the distance but Ilios did the same.


    He darted up to my side and stuck out his tail, swiping my legs out from under me.


    *THUD*


    I mmed my face into the ground but immediately recovered.


    Lunging back towards Ilios, I tried a new technique so I would be able to slow and turn faster but it didn''t change the fact that I was still mind blowingly slower than Ilios without magic. (Ilios is using magic, Vasilias isn''t)


    As soon as I got close, Ilios would just disappear, dart away or break my ankles and make me fall face first into the dirt.


    -But it''s working..- My footwork was steadily getting better and I was closing the speed gap immensely.


    As the day went on, I continued to improve and get faster and faster, but before I could actually close the gap..


    "What are you two doing?!" Father yelled over at us as he walked out of the cave.


    Both Ilios and I paused to look over. "Hah.. hah.. What''s wrong?"


    "What do you mean whats wrong?! You destroyed so much forest!"


    -Huh?- Finally taking the time to look around, I noticed we were standing in the middle of a newly leveled section of forest a few kilometers wide. -Man.. I really got absorbed in that..-


    I was so tunnel visioned on Ilios for the past several hours, I not only failed to watch the time, I didn''t even notice that we were deforesting the area.


    "Sorry.. I got a little too into our game."


    "Haah.. what were you even doing?" Father raised an eyebrow as he looked over at Ilios who wasying down panting heavily.


    "We were having an agility based spar but I couldn''t use magic."


    "W..why?" Father looked at me with genuine confusion.


    "Well.. my agility in my dragon form without magic was.. not optimal to say the least."


    "Haah.." Father put his hand up to his forehead. "Have you managed to improve at all yet?"


    "Of course!" Giving an excited smile, I dashed up to him.


    *Bang* The ground shattered beneath my feet from my abrupt stop.


    "See? It''s far from perfect but I should be atleast average." Not stopping there, I decided to dash around the area to show off a little beforeing to a stop next to him again.


    Father stared at me like he was looking at some alien. "You polished your footwork that much in a few hours?"


    "Hm?" I gave a na?ve smile not understanding what he meant.


    "Haah.. I should stop trying to apply logic to you... Well anyways, I''m going to go swap ces with your mother so you can go watch the sunset with her."


    I looked over to the side of the mountain and saw the sun starting to near the horizon. -Oh lord, it''s that time already?- "Alright. Ilios and I will uh.. clean up then."


    Seeing Father turning back to the doors, I turned back to Ilios and used magic to clean us off.


    By the time we finished cleaning up, Mother was alreadying out of the hall.


    "Sorry about that sweetie.. your Father and I needed to have a.. private talk."


    "Haha, don''t be sorry. It''s not like I need to know everything.. Sometimes ignorance is best."


    She looked at me with wide eyes. "Who''d you learn that from?"


    "It''s.." I thought for a moment about how to word it. "It was just an observation I made.."


    Seeing how reluctant I was to say anything, she decided to change topics. "So what did I miss? Did some big bad monstere by?" She looked behind me towards the destroyed section of forest.


    "I got a little too into my agility training with Ilios.."


    "Oh? What did you need to train your agility for? Your Father wouldn''t stop talking about how mind bendingly fast you are."


    "That''s only when flying in a straight line from point a to b. What I practiced on with Ilios was my agility inbat!" I held my head up high and wore a confident smile.


    "Haha, I guess even though your appearance changed and you got so much stronger, you''re still you." She walked up and rubbed my head.


    "Haha, what''s that supposed to mean?"


    "Well lets just say, your Mother is very~ proud of you."


    "Hehe.." I wore a childish smile, unable to hold back my joy after being praised by Mother.


    "Well how about we head up the mountain. I don''t want to miss the sunset afterall."


    With a strong nod and a joyful smile, I started to follow after her up the mountain.

 Chapter 110: An Unexpected Question

    Chapter 110: An Unexpected Question


    Early Evening - Late Spring : Home


    "Well how about we head up the mountain. I don''t want to miss the sunset afterall." Mother gave me a warm smile and started flying up the mountain.


    Getting ready to follow after her, I leaned down and had Ilios jump up on my back.


    -Alrighty.- ��Hold on Ilios.��


    *Fwoosh*


    With a strong p of my wings, I caught up to Mother andnded on the peak with her.


    The sun was just about to hit the horizon and the sky had already changed to a light orange so I didnt want to waste any more time.


    Once Mothernded, she walked up to the edge and sat down, tapping the ground next to her for me to sit.


    As I sat down and started getting situated with Ilios, she looked over and asked, "So how did you like Kan?""It was alright. The library was the best part." Truthfully it was those glorious cushions in the shelter but I couldn''t say that.


    "Oh really? What made you like it so much?"


    "Well.." Finally getting situated, I looked out over the ocean that was steadily turning more and more golden. "I just found some information that will help me going forward."


    "What was the book about?"


    "It was some in depth history about things that happened just before and after the great war rted to a goddess called the ''The Goddess of Harvest''."


    As soon as I mentioned the great war, Mothers demeanor changed.


    "What is it?"


    "Once Krystallo wakes up, I need to talk to you two about something that has to do with the great war. When you mentioned the great war, it just reminded me of that, is all."


    "Ah.." Noticing it''d be untimely to dig any more, I turned back to look over the ocean and changed the subject. "It''s beautiful isn''t it.."


    "Yeah.. it sure is.."


    It was a beautiful sight, -its even more beautiful than normal..- I looked over at mother sitting next to me. -Maybe its because I''m with Mother..- My cheeks slowly warmed up as I turned back to the sunset with a grateful smile.


    -Wait what was that?- I quickly turned back to mother, noticing something out of the corner of my eye.


    -A.. ship?-


    On the horizon was a giant galleon waving an unfamiliar g.


    "Mother?"


    "What is it sweetie?"


    "Ships aren''t normal around here right?"


    "No, where we live is extremely isted so there aren''t any trade routes that pass by. Why do you ask?" She looked over and saw me looking over towards the horizon and looked where I did. "A ship?"


    "Yeah.."


    "Can you see the g by chance?"


    "Kind of.." I strained my eyes a bit to try and see the design but it was useless. -Its too far..- "It''s blue with white and green details by the looks of it."


    Mother took a second to think. "Maybe Toria? But they were forbidden froming here.. Can you tell what direction the ship is going?"


    "It''sing straight for the mountain."


    "How troublesome.."


    Seeing the troubled look on Mothers face, I decided to present a possible solution. "Can I try to sink it from here?"


    Mothers eyes widened.


    "I don''t want it to cause us trouble in the future so if we just sink it over deep water.."


    Mothers mouth slowly turned to a smile. "How about this, if you can hit it from here in 3 shots, when we go to Bahamut I''ll get you something extremely~ tasty."


    My eyes immediately lit up as I turned and looked at her with a childish smile. "Really?"


    "Do you think I won''t stick to my word?" She gave off an air of confidence.


    "Hehe, that''s a promise!"


    With a happy trot, I moved over to the side of the mountain andid down, perching my jaw on a rock. -Alright.. how am I going to do this..-


    In my breath nd, I readied a long metal dart with fins and a ton of electricity.


    -For the first shot I''ll aim right at it, and I''ll adjust for drop on the second one..-


    Slowly opening my mouth just enough to let the dart out, I took a deep breath and fired.


    *CRACK*


    The shockwave kicked up a bunch of dust but it didn''t impede my sight too much.


    After around two seconds passed, the dart blew through the main mast of the galleon.


    -What ridiculous speed..- Since I didn''t ount for the ship moving, the dart only dropped a few meters even though I fired it to the horizon. -That ship is also moving really quickly too..-


    "Is that your breath that uses that maism magic?"


    "Haha, it''s science, not magic mother. But yeah, this is my improved version of that."


    "How ridiculous.."


    "It''s pretty wild isn''t it?" I quickly started lining up my next shot when I decided to make a bet. "If I sink it on this shot, how about you get me 2 tasty things."


    "Haha, alright. I think you might hit it but I doubt just a dart will sink it."


    "You''re right, if I just used a dart the damage would be fairly minimal, that''s why I''m going to be using something a little special." I looked towards mother with a smug smile.


    She looked at me quizzically as I lined up my next shot.


    -Alright, lets see if my hypothesis will work.-


    This time, instead of making a simple tungsten carbideyered iron dart, I made it of a special material and gave it a special twist.


    I made it of depleted Uranium and made it much bigger, creating a hollow space that I filled with water inside of it as well.


    -Hehe..- After taking the time to make the dart, I finished lining up the shot. -The ballistics won''t be the same as the iron dart, but if Iunch it with a little more juice it should still fly t..-


    I quickly readied more electricity this time and fired.


    *CRACK*


    After around a second passed, there was an orange firework-like explosion in front of the ship.


    -It worked!- Millions of red hot balls and shards of the dart continued flying after the explosion, sting the ship like a ridiculously upsized shotgun.


    As the projectiles hit, they kicked up tons of water and pulverized everyone and everything on board, leaving an eerie, bloody mist hovering around where the ship was.


    By the time the mist cleared, the ship was nowhere to be seen with only wood and bloody cloth scraps remaining on the surface of the water.


    I sat there, stunned at how well it worked.


    Mother watched the scene in awe as well, she was just staring at the area as if in a trance. "What.. did you do?"


    "I just utilized the power of science!" I held my head up high as I was proud of my experimental sess.


    Mother looked towards me with a look of fascination. "Can you exin what you did.. in detail?"


    "Well, like you said, just a dart likely wouldn''t have sunk the ship, so I came up with a crazy idea."


    I quickly created a depleted uranium dart on the ground to give her a better example.


    "So to start, I changed the material of the dart. The original dart would stay intact and stay strong until it hit, but this one I made, would melt from the air resistance."


    Although she was struggling to follow because of my use of some unusual vocabry, she managed to get the gist of it. "But why did it explode?"


    I reached down and cut the dart down the middle. "Well you see this small empty area in the middle?" I pointed to the sliced dart on the ground. "I filled this with water. When water changes temperature too quickly, it can cause a small explosion. That explosion was more than enough to make the now brittle and red hot dart blow into millions of pieces."


    Mother looked up at me in shock, speechless.


    Seeing her reaction, I started to get a little nervous. -Was it too much..-


    Mother looked back and forth between me and the dart on the ground, a childish and joyful smile that I had never seen on her creeping onto her face. "So you said this is what you call science?"


    "Kind of, yeah.."


    Mother looked at me like a curious child. "Could you teach me?"


    -...what?-


    Bonus POV:


    - Unknown Captain ~


    "So what are your ns for the city here, Mister city lord?" I perched my feet up on my desk as I eyed up the well dressed, chubby noble man.


    He grimaced as he looked up at me. "I n to keep my word.. once we get the town going, I will build you a trafficking hub."


    "You know, I''ve been thinking.. I''m taking you on this journey too. I''ve given you and your knightsfortable beds and supplied them with food for this trip so how about a tip?" I looked at the noble with a greedy smile.


    "What kind of tip.."


    "Hmm, I wonder.. How about a night with that young maid girl you brought with you.."


    "Tch.. disgusting bastard.."


    "If that''s a no, I''ll just turn the ship around. Thanks to a shiny new artifact, we are far quicker than traditional ships so I have no qualms about turning around."


    "You know you can''t do that, the royal family would execute you on the spot."


    "But they''d get you first." Giving a devious smile, I mmed my ss of alcohol on the desk. "So?"


    "Fine.. she''s yours for the night.."


    "Good, good. I hope you dont mind me giving her to my crew after I finish right?"


    The noble looked at me with an indescribable disgust.


    -Yeah yeah, act like you haven''t alreadyid your fat hands on her..-


    *BANG*


    My thoughts came to an abrupt stop as the entire ship shook like we mmed into a rock.


    The fatty was to first to run out. "What is going o-"


    "My lord!" A knight in full armor tackled him before he got out of the door though.


    *Bang*


    The top half of the mast fell right over where they were, if the fatty wasn''t moved he would have been crushed.


    The noble manid there in shock but I didn''t waste any time and started to move. "The hell happened?!"


    "We aren''t sure, captain!"


    "Well f*cking figure it out!" I ran up to the front of the ship and looked in the water. -Theres.. nothing..-


    Looking up at where the main mast was broken, the wood wasn''t just blown away, but it was burnt.


    -Just what..- I quickly shook my head. "Well, we aren''t far away. We will repair it once wend." I looked back towards the fatty who was stillying on the ground. "Get your ''oh so powerful'' knight toe up here and guard from whatever that was."


    "R..right! Jeff, protect the ship with your life! If we sink, we will all die!"


    "..sure.." Coming up from the lower deck was a muscr, sleepy looking man in loose armor.


    -Haah.. I shouldn''t depend on that idiot..- "Everyone else, help move the mast so it won''t slip into the water and check for other damages."


    The crew and knights quickly started moving to my orders as I walked up to the helm. -I cant believe those royal bastards decided to send me out after those sh*tty mercenaries came back empty handed... If they didn''t offer me a hell of a lot of money and give me that water artifact to make this trip faster I would��ve just left to a different country..-


    Finally at the helm, I looked up over the sea something caught my eye.


    A red dot appeared between us and the mountain peak that was just above the horizon.


    -What.. is tha..-


    Before my eyes, I watched as millions of red balls and shards of light silently ripped my ship and crew to shreds.


    I watched the scene as if time had slowed, I even watched as my own body was blown to shreds along with my ship in total silence and without pain.


    The scene made my mind go nk with the exception of one thought.


    -This must be.. Gods.. wrath..-


    *B-b-b-b-b-b-bang*

 Chapter 111: A New Routine

    Chapter 111: A New Routine


    Mid Evening - Late Spring : Home


    "Could you teach me?" Mother looked at me with an unusual gleam in her eyes.


    I stared at her for a moment, simply speechless not knowing what to say.


    Even though dragons are far better learners than even the most talented humans, teaching her something as general as ''science'' was a big ask, not just for me but her as well.


    For someone to learn science in this world, they would have to abandon the ways they thought things worked which can be a very hard pill to swallow.


    Most of all though, it felt weird being Mothers teacher.


    I looked up and saw the eager look in her eyes. "Haah.. I guess.." -Its not like I can say no to that..-


    With a smile of excitement, Mother quickly turned to me and sat up straight. "So when do we start?"


    "Whenever you want to.""Can we start now?"


    "Haah.. sure." I looked back over the ocean and looked at the moon reflecting over the water. -Where do I even start..-


    I took a moment to think to myself about what order I wanted to take things in.


    -I guess I''ll go with the most basic of basic first.- "Alright, to start, I''ll tell you what science is." Mother sat there staring at me with gleaming eyes. "Science, in basic terms, is the study of how the <em>physical</em> world works and functions. For example, things like how it rains or what causes wind can be exined with science."


    Mothers face changed dramatically, looking less childish and more mature like her usual self finally. "So.. science is the study of how things work.. isn''t that just magic?"


    -Ahh hell.. I knew this question was gonnae..- To be honest, I had no idea how to exin it since technically mana and magic would massively tie into science, but I hadparatively minimal knowledge of how it all tied in currently. "In short, no. Although mana and magic can be arge part of science, I won''t be exining too much of it.."


    "Why is that?"


    "Because the world can functionpletely without mana, and by learning how it does that, you''ll be able to figure out ways to better utilize your mana and magic like I did just a minute ago."


    Mother tilted her head quizzically. "Without.. mana?"


    Noticing she was already getting caught on something she didn''t need to worry about, I quickly shifted her focus. "Don''t worry about that just yet. Once you get at least a decent understanding of the basics, it will start to click."


    "O..okay.." Mother reluctantly nodded.


    "Okay, I guess I should start with the basics." -Newton''sws..- "There are 3 extremely crucial and basicws to understand first. First off, is that an object in motion, will stay in motion..."


    And just like that, Mothers first lesson started.


    It went surprisingly well for most of the night, she stayed engaged and asked tons of questions.


    By the time morning hade around, she had a pretty decent grasp on Newton''sws and started to ask more in depth questions but after sunrise, I stopped the session.


    She wasn''t too happy with it since she wanted to learn more so badly, but with a little reasoning she managed to agree with it.


    The reason I wanted to give her breaks between sessions was so she would be able to think about it on her own ande up with questions I''d answer in the next session.


    It would help give her knowledge more depth and give her time to y around with it to learn some of the finer details on her own.


    After the first session, Mother went back down the mountain to watch over Krystallo for a bit but ended up using all of her time experimenting with various ideas she had for the entire day.


    As soon as she noticed it was getting close to sunset, she would swap out with father and fly up the peak, ready with tons of ideas and spections she had.


    And with that, our new routine was born, every evening we would meet on the peak and I''d give her a lesson on science.


    The lessons were all on physics since I figured it would be the best way to ease her into the idea of how the world works without mana but even after nearly 5 months, we were still on fairly basic physics.


    -I guess even dragons have a limit to how fast they learn..- But in Mothers defense, the depth of her learning was incredible.


    Although she was only scraping the surface, she was alreadying up with ideas to make her mana and aura more efficient.


    To my surprise, instead of getting tired of it after a few lessons, she just became more eager,ing to me with more and more in depth questions every day.


    After a while, she ended up watching Ilios and I''s agility spar that had be routine as well. She would watch us intently, watching how I was improving my footwork utilizing physics knowledge anding to me asking why I changed or did certain things.


    In a way she became somewhat obsessed with physics, but I saw it as something great.


    It gave her something she enjoyed doing, it was something that made her look forward to every evening lesson, but most of all, it was amazing to spend more time with mother.


    The lessons truly gave us great bonding time and being able to spend time with Mother every day was something that was priceless and that I looked forward to.


    On my side of things, teaching Mother gave me some small insights into loopholes I could utilize with mana but most of all, my improvement in agility was astounding.


    After the first few weeks of sparring with Ilios, I ended up catching up to his speed and agility.


    The wild part was that once I caught up to his speed, his rate of improvement started to increase as well.


    Over the span of the past 5 months of sparring, our speed and agility increased by leaps and bounds and had be iparable to before.


    We even managed to start pushing the sound barrier in our recent sessions. -That''s gonna be a hard wall to break though..-


    Currently, I was sunbathing in the field trying to rx after an intense session with Ilios.


    "You alright Ilios? I identally hit your nose a bit hard at the end there."


    "Woof.." Panting from exhaustion, he let out an exhausted woof saying he was alright.


    "Haah.. good.."


    I slowly closed my eyes, enjoying the soothing warmth of the sun when I felt a fairly strong suction of mana into the cave.


    -Is it finally time?-

 Chapter 112: My Sister

    Chapter 112: My Sister


    Mid Afternoon - Late Fall : Home


    -


    *Vwowowooom* The noises of the mana rippled through the air as the suction pulled on my aura like a toddler trying to pull a car. -Is it finally time?-


    It had been close to 7 months since she began her dragon sleep at that point, two months earlier than expected. -But that could just mean she��s a fast grower...- With a smile finallying to my face, I started standing up, with Ilios following suit.


    *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh-THUD* Landing next to me as I stretched was Father,ing down from his daily nap spot on the side of the mountain.


    He gave me an odd look as he turned to the cave''s entrance. "Are you noting to see your sister wake up?"


    "I��m going to wait for the suction to stop first; my aura might cause some problems."


    "Oh, right. I forgot we talked about that�� Regardless,e inside the moment it stops. I''m sure she��ll want to see you." With an excited smile, he finally ran over to the door and swung them wide open, revealing a hallway lined with frost and ice. "Come hold these open if you can; we need to make sure she gets all the mana she can."


    Promptly running up to the doors, I created two small metal rods and used them like door stops. -That should do��-The next several minutes passed in a sh as we all eagerly waited for her eyes to open, and sure enough, after the suction started to ease up for a couple minutes, it finally stopped. -Is she awake?-


    But before I could even peek my head around the edge of the door, I heard an unfamiliar, yet recognizable voice. "Mom! Where��s Brother?!" Her voice was full of boundless excitement.


    "Pffft!" -Of all the things she could have said first.- Finally peeking my head around the edge of the door, I met eyes with a nearly 13-meter-tall snow-white dragon.


    Her horns, now no longer nubs, were all covered in a thinyer of ice, and her body was quite significantly more built while still remaining fairly sleek. Her scales glistened like snow in the sunlight, and her bright blue eyes looked like a clear winter sky.


    But most of all, there was a stunning aura of snowkes that glistened in the air around her, making her look a bit surreal.


    But that feeling didn��tst too long.


    "Brother!!!" Charging down the hall like a bull, she jumped up and mmed herself into my chest, promptly clinging to me like I was going to abandon her.


    It made me feel a bit awkward for a moment, but it quickly turned into a caring warmth. "It��s good to see you awake again."


    But as she finally looked up at me, I noticed her pout. "I don��t like that ck-haired sister! You should stop talking to her!"


    Feeling that Mother''s gaze had turned to me, I immediately got flustered. "W..who?"


    "I talked to a pretty, ck-haired sister in my dream! She said you two were close!" She spoke like it made her upset.


    But although it was adorable, it made the air around me freeze. -She talked to Krystallo?!- "Don��t believe anything she said. She didn��t do anything to you, did she?" I was a bit panicked, but Krystallo was quick to calm my nerves.


    "No, we just talked."


    "Phew��" I let out an immediate breath of relief. -I''ll kill her if she touches Krystallo��- Quickly expunging any lingering anger, a smile came back to my face. "So what did you two talk about for you to dislike her so much?"


    But she just looked at me in surprise before turning away, as if she was embarrassed. "I can��t tell you." She spoke oddly quietly.


    -Hm?- "Why not?"


    "I promised not to tell you!" She yelled it out like she was a bit flustered. "Just know that I don��t like her, and you shouldn��t either."


    -Is she��- "Are you.. jealous of her?"


    Although her face didn��t actually change color, I felt as if her cheeks had reddened. "Of course not!"


    I was truly at a loss for words. "Haah��" -Just what did they talk about?- But although I was a bit worried, I decided it��d be best if I tried to look past it. "Regardless of that, it��s nice to see you awake and healthy again." Lowering my head a bit, I gently nudged it against hers.


    "Ahem��"


    Hearing Father��s ��noise��, I nced over to see him wearing a look of expectation.


    But Krystallo didn��t pick up on that as she finally let go of me and ran to Mother. "Sorry I didn��t give you a hug first, Mom!" *thump*


    "Haha, don��t worry about it, sweetie." Quickly embracing Krystallo with her neck and wings, a warm smile came to Mother��s face. "I do hope you''ll tell me about this woman Vasilias seems to know about though." She gave me a quick smug look before turning away.


    -How will I ever exin that woman to them��- "Haah��" Finally sitting down as Krystallo finally ran over and gave Father his long-awaited hug, I decided to change the subject. "So, Krystallo. What kind of attribute nodes do you have?"


    "Hm?" Slowly pulling away from Father after enjoying his embrace for a moment, she nced over at Mother. "How do I look at that?"


    Like a lightbulb went off above Father''s head, he quickly jumped in. "Take a deep breath and search around for a ball of energy in your chest, you should feel a mist-like energying from it. Try to control that mist and move it around. You should have an imagee to mind as you do."


    Krystallo stared at him nkly before putting on a slightly nervous look. "O-okay." Slowly sitting down, she closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. "Hooh��"


    Both Mother and Father watched her intently.


    But she didn��t stay like that for long. "Woahh�� This stuff is cool!"


    Mother and Father immediately grew excited as they silently cheered.


    "So what do I look for exactly? What are attribute nodes?"


    -Oh boy�� How do we even exin that?- "The attribute nodes are the small and round-"


    But Father quickly interjected. "Just blow that fog through your body and see where the fog gets sucked into a small sphere."


    "Hmmm��" There was another short moment of silence as we all watched Krystallo intently. "I have four! Two are right next to this weird thingy in my throat, and the other 2 are a bit farther away, at the base of my neck."


    "Haha, that ��weird thingy�� is your breath nd, sweetie." Mother looked like she was having a great time.


    But Krystallo just turned to me with a gleam in her eyes. "Does that mean I can do what Brother did now?!" (Refer to Chapter 23)


    *Bonk* Mother lightly hit her on the head. "Absolutely not."


    Krystallo lightly rubbed her head with her wing as she pouted. "Why not?"


    Seeing Mother��s conflicted expression, I stepped in for her. "Krystallo, it is just a bit too early for you to learn something that advanced. Once you get stronger though, I promise I will teach it to you."


    Her saddened expression immediately brightened up. "Can you teach me to be stronger than Mom and Dad?"


    "Haha, that all depends on how well you learn what I teach."


    But although I was trying to brush it off, her enthusiasm only grew. "Can we start now?" Her expression was all too familiar.


    -Like Mother, like daughter��- A warm smile came to my face as I saw the striking resemnce. -I guess it couldn��t hurt to teach her about science as well though��-


    After that, Mother and Father started their short, more child-friendly lesson about mana and aura before leading her outside for some hands-on practice.


    But as I followed them, I got Mother��s attention. "What''s with the difference between teaching styles?" I gave her a sarcastic smile.


    "Well, not long after I taught you everything, your Father and I had a long talk where we realized just how abnormal the way we taught you was. Some dragons can''t even control their mana the day they wake up, let alone immediately control aura outside of their body. You even created new spells on your first day with mana."


    -Ah, so that''s why they looked so excited when Krystallo had a little control over her aura.-


    "The way we taught you was very gung ho and we didn''t even exin half of the things we should have. As you saw, most dragons don''t even know what their breath nd is at first, but you figured out what it was without even asking."


    "Haha, I thought most of it was self-exnatory, but I definitely think the slower and.. more child-friendly approach will be better for Krystallo."


    Mother was quickly taken aback. "I''m surprised you recognized that��"


    I felt a bit offended that she was surprised though. "Of course I��d know! I''m very well aware that I''m far from the norm now." Looking into the field as we walked outside, I saw Krystallo coddling Ilios. "I think she will be a fast learner though."


    Mother��s smile quickly turned warm. "Haha, even if she only has a fraction of your talent, she��ll still be unrivaled in Bahamut."


    Looking back up at her in the field, I saw her trotting out toward Father, just to trip over herself.


    "Aaah!" *thump*


    "Haah��" -I guess her growing didn��t affect her clumsiness��-

 Chapter 113: My Sisters First Try at Magic

    Chapter 113: My Sisters First Try at Magic


    Late Afternoon - Late Fall : Home


    "If she��s anything like you, I''m sure she''ll catch on quickly."


    "Does that mean I''ve been doing well?"


    "Haha, yes. Very well."


    We continued down the hall, eventually making it outside.


    "Ilios, you''ve grown so big!" Krystallo quickly ran up to Ilios and started fluffing his fur.


    "Haha, before long he might get bigger than you."


    Krystallo looked back at me. "Well.." She paused as she tried toe up with aeback. "Hmph.."


    Failing to think of anything, she just pouted. -How cute..- "Well don''t worry, size isn''t everything. Even if he''s bigger, you can still be stronger!"Her mood immediately brightened. "Right!" She quickly turned to mother and plopped herself down. "Can we start now?"


    "Haha, yes sweetie. First, we need to figure out what attribute your nodes are."


    Krystallo was staring at Mother as if in a trace, already in an incredible focus.


    "So let''s start by pulling out some of that energy from your reserve and dragging it through any attribute node, then move that energy from the node to the palm of your hand." Mother put out her hand and created a small fireball. "Like this."


    Giving a reluctant nod, Krystallo closed her eyes and moved her hand out.


    *Blub* A small ball of water began to form in her hand.


    Mothers face was filled with excitement like a kid opening gifts on Christmas. "So your first node is water, which one was that?"


    "One of the two next to my breath nd! Does that mean I have a really good water affinity like you?"


    "Yes! Now try the other node next to it."


    "Alright!"


    Even after watching for a moment, it looked like nothing was happening, but my aura noticed it. "It''s wind!"


    "Awe.." Krystallo wore a slightly saddened expression.


    "What''s wrong sweetie?" Mother looked a little worried.


    "I wanted fire.."


    "Well you still have two other nodes, and it''s not like they''re bad affinity either." She had a node in her mid chest and one in her upper abdomen, which are by no means bad affinities.


    Seeing her looking a little sad, I decided to give her a little motivation. "Wind isn��t weak if that''s what you''re thinking."


    "What do you mean? So what if I can create a weak breeze."


    "Who said you could only do that? Wind is far more versatile than you''d expect." I turned to Mother. "Mother, hit me with a really hot breath."


    She was caught off guard by my request but followed through anyway.


    *Fwooosh*


    "Mom isn''t that too hot even for him?!"


    Almost immediately after, Mother stopped the breath revealing me sitting there, unscathed.


    Krystallo looked at me with wide eyes.


    "See? All I did was create a small barrier around my body with wind magic and I was immune to the heat!" (A Vacuum)


    Krystallo''s mood immediately brightened. "So cool!"


    -Mission aplished.- I wore a proud smile since I managed to cheer her up. "So let''s see what your other two nodes are."


    "Right!" She quickly sat back down with enthusiasm and held out her palm.


    *Crackle*


    A small ball of orange mes appeared in her hand.


    Mother''s prediction was right on the money.


    Krystallo looked around with an unbelievable amount of excitement before locking eyes with me and giving me her attempt at an intimidating look. "I shall surpass you in no time!"


    "Pffftt." I tried my best to hold in myugh, but her pure confidence was just too funny.


    "Hmph, you just wait!"


    "Haha, calm down sweetie, let''s see what yourst attribute node is, then we can get onto magic."


    Krystallo immediately straightened up and focused again.


    Almost immediately, a small ball of light appeared.


    "Its light attribute!"


    Although Mother acted all excited, even I thought light magic''s use was minimal. -I guess it has a few uses though..-


    "Well I got fire so I''m happy!" The ball of light in her hand quickly changed back to a ball of fire.


    "Alright.. since you seem so enthused to use fire magic, let''s try a breath. Gather fire attribute mana in your breath nd and blow it out."


    "Hehe, you should stand back in case you all get caught up in it!" She quickly readied herself and bent her knees.


    She slowly opened up her mouth and..


    *puff*


    A tiny me popped out of her mouth for a moment before quickly dissipating.


    I had to hold back augh with every fiber of my being. -Hooh.. it''s not funny.. I cantugh..-


    "Don''tugh!" She quickly looked back at me like she was about to cry.


    "Haah.. Here, let me give you a tip. The more youpress the mes in your breath nd, therger your breath will be."


    Her expression quickly calmed down as she changed to a serious expression again, looking far less cocky this time.


    After she prepared for a bit, she let out a much bigger me.


    *puufff* But it still dissipated nearly immediately.


    -It still wasn''t big or hot enough..- "See if you can weave some wind magic into the me. If you can pull it off, not only will the me be bigger, but it''ll be hotter."


    Krystallo sat there as if in a trance and did her best to follow my instructions. "I''m not sure I can-"


    "Just try. You got this!" With a little motivation andmitment, she could do it.


    "O..okay.." She got serious again and took her time readying her mana.


    *Fwooosh*


    A me several times bigger and twice as hot as thest one came out of her mouth.


    It was a me nearly as big as Ilios and hot enough to char the ground, leaving a fairlyrge burn mark in the field.


    "See! I knew you could do it!"


    A wave of excitement washed over her as she looked towards Mother. "Did you see that!! That was AWESOME!!"


    "Great job sweetie! To think you can use two attributes at once already!" She ran up and gave Krystallo a big hug. "I knew you were going to be talented with magic!"


    "Hehe.." Krystallo wore a smile of excitement and confidence.


    "I can give you one more tip if you''d like." I gave her a smug smile.


    Immediately tensing up, she got out of Mothers grasp and ran over to sit in front of me.


    "With your breath this time, instead of just weaving the wind magic into the inside of the mes, spin the wind around the mes as well."


    "That''s too.." Mother quickly chimed in with a worried expression before she stopped herself.


    "Whenever you''re ready, aim for that tree over there." I pointed to a tree on the treeline not too far away.


    "That''s a bit far.."


    "Come on, have some confidence! You''ve got me guiding you. Try to use the wind topress and spin the mes."


    "Hooh.." After being in a deep focus for a bit, she kept her eyes closed and opened her mouth.


    *Fwoo-oosh* *Crackle*


    Like apressed beam, the me crossed the opening and hit the tree.


    The me wrapped around the tree and once the smoke cleared, showed a small hole that was burnt into the tree.


    Both Mother, Father and Krystallo sat there stunned at the sight.


    "I.. I did it.." Slightly out of breath, Krystallo''s face filled with excitement. "I DID IT!!"


    "See? I told you to believe in yourself." I walked up and lightly patted her head.


    She looked up at me with a childish smile. "Hehe"


    Her smile truly melted my heart. -She''s so cute..-

 Chapter 114: Family History

    Chapter 114: Family History


    Early Morning - Early Winter : Home


    After continuing Krystallos first magic lesson for a while, the sun quickly set.


    As usual, Mother was on the peak ready for the lesson but that day we had a special guest.


    Krystallo was interested since she saw Mothers enthusiasm for it and came up to check it out.


    Father thought it was mildly interesting but decided to just sleep like usual.


    -He should really join us though..-


    And just like that, a few more weeks passed.


    Krystallo started joining us for evening physics lessons and would be taught history, magic and aura by Mother and Father during the day. At first she struggled a bit, but once she got used to it she started finding more enjoyment in it.


    For me, my schedule didn''t change much. I trained with Ilios and slept during the afternoons and taught Mother and Krystallo at night. It was a perfectly bnced schedule, but today was going to be a day where we had to postpone the routine."So we are nning to leave for the space rune tonight, so we need to pack. Both of you go find a few really high end valuables from the treasure to take with you." Mother started giving us our rules for packing.


    "Why don''t we just take everything?" It was quite a lot of treasure, but it was nothing I couldn''t carry if I just made a really big tarp.


    "Well, for a reason I will exin in a second, once we arrive there, some dragons will be sent out to move it all for us. We just need to take the really high end stuff just in case."


    -Oh, so they''re movers basically..- "How can we trust they won''t take any of it?"


    "Well.." Mother looked away like she wanted to change subjects. "Haah.. I guess I''ll need to say it before we leave anyways.."


    Krystallo and I both looked at each other, a little nervous.


    "Please take a seat, this talk might take a bit.."


    Quicklyplying, I sat down but I was still wondering. "What''s this talk about?"


    "Our family name.."


    I tensed up a bit realizing the significance of that but Krystallo stayed rxed.


    "So our family name is Ragnarok.. but that isn''t a normal name. Vasilias I think you know that it''s a touchy name since you had to use the name Whyte in Kan."


    I gave a reluctant nod.


    "Well the reason it''s a touchy name is because.. in both human and dragons culture, the event of the fall of the gods during the great war, was collectively called Ragnarok."


    Although I had thought about the connection between the events while reading ''The Goddess of Harvest'', I had no idea what the actual connection was. -But the way she said that means..- "So how is that event connected to our family?"


    "Well, during the battle between the gods, there were 3 ancients that assisted Bahamut. Of those 3, only 1 made it back. His name was As, a living legend. When he came back alive, he was given the family name Ragnarok to engrave his contribution into history. Sadly, only a few yearster, he fell into his ancient dragon sleep and never woke up."


    Both Krystallo and I were stunned speechless as we slowly started figuring out where she was taking the talk.


    "To pass the name down, the name of Ragnarok was given to his first and strongest son and his youngest daughter since she was the second strongest." She looked up at us with a grateful smile. "Since then, it has be tradition to give the name Ragnarok to the 2 strongest of the next generation, but we won''t have to worry about that." She shed a warm smile at us. "Now for the important part.."


    -What?! That wasn''t the important stuff?-


    "Those with the name Ragnarok are praised highly and known by every dragon. We are something akin to royalty, but that doesn''t mean you can be cocky." She gave an intimidating look towards Krystallo. "You are to <strong>never</strong> lean on the family name. Outside of our home in Bahamut, you must <strong>always </strong>use the name Whyte.. at least until theing of age festival in 23-ish years that is."


    Seeing Krystallo give a stressed nod, Mother eased up on her aura.


    "The only people who connect our faces to the name are those in the elder council, close friends, and the ancients." She looked at us to make sure we understood before shifting to a warm smile. "Something to add. Just because I say you can''t use or lean on the family name, doesn''t mean you need toy low. You should have fun and enjoy our time in Bahamut. If you get into a fight, just be sure to win... If you lose, just be sure to get stronger and ughter them like cattle in the next fight."


    Ignoring her out of character aggression, I slowly raised my hand.


    "What is it sweetie?"


    "Where does the name Whytee from?"


    "Ah, good question! It''s actually your Father��s original family name. When he married me, a Ragnarok, his family name was changed as well since we are the stronger family."


    -Oh so that''s why it''s not odd to use that name..- "So if two people get the name Ragnarok each generation, does that mean there are more young Ragnaroks?"


    "No.. my parents'' generation had multiple but they were killed before they hatched or reached adolescence, and as for my Brothers.."


    I noticed how Mothers mood quickly darkened and figured it was a touchy subject. To change the subject I looked towards Krystallo. "How does it feel to have the weight of the family name on your shoulders?" I gave a smug smile as I poked fun.


    She quickly puffed up her chest and held her head high. "That just means I need to be the strongest!"


    "Haha, that''s a good mindset." Mother looked at her with a warm smile. "I''ll go over the other rules once we get to Bahamut so for now start packing what you want to make sure to keep for now."


    "Ah, Mother, can I go pick up Maria now?"


    "Ah right, I nearly forgot about her. Go ahead and bring her here, when you get back we will leave."


    "Who''s Maria?" Krystallo gave me an irritated look.


    "You''ll know soon enough." I walked up to Krystallo and pat her head. "She''ll be useful in the future so don''t hate her too much yet."


    "Hmph.."


    I looked over at Ilios who wasying down next to me. "Do you want to stay or co-"


    Before I could finish, he jumped up onto my back andid down. -I guess that answers that..-


    I turned back to everyone and gave a little wave. "Well, I shouldn''t be too long!"


    *Fwoosh*


    With a strong p of my wings I started my flight to Kan.

 Chapter 115: A Snowy City

    Chapter 115: A Snowy City


    Mid Morning - Early Winter : Kingdom of Kan


    It was a beautiful morning to fly. Just below the clouds it was lightly snowing which made it a truly beautiful sight but I was in a bit of a rush.


    Quickly getting above the clouds, I cranked the thrusters.


    Several minutester, I figured I was getting close and dove below the clouds once again.


    The snow was incredibly thick now, even impairing my vision quite a bit but my gut told me where the city was.


    I steadily dove more and more towards the ground until the top of the pce slowly came into sight.


    -Wow, a dragon''s memory and intuition is truly incredible..-


    Quickly finding the area in the courtyard tond I changed to my humanoid form and grabbed Ilios.


    Using thruster magic to ease the fall, Inded in the front courtyard with some grace. -Unlikest time..-I hastily let Ilios down and started walking into the pce once Inded.


    Behind me were a few pce guards by the gate that didn''t seem to notice me. -Poor guys are out in this cold wearing metal armor..-


    Although they seemed to be wearing heavy clothing underneath the armor, they looked like they were freezing.


    -That''s not my problem though..- Continuing forward, I headed into the pce.


    As I walked in I blew the snow off my clothing and called over a maid.


    Thankfully she seemed to remember who I was and acted politely. "What can I help you with, Sir Whyte?"


    "Do you know where the king or queen are?"


    "The king is currently in the ry city of Zan and her highness is in her office." (Kingdom of Zans old Capital)


    "Sweet thanks."


    Continuing down the hall, I got some odd looks from a few maids and butlers but nothing out of the ordinary.


    Finallying to her office, I gave a light knock and walked in.


    "Who is i-"


    *Click* "It''s been a while. Have you been well?" Although Father visited several times over thest 6 months, I hadn''t.


    "Vasilias!" Helen quickly hopped up from her seat and came up and gave me a hug. "Kan hasn''t been better since we received your help."


    "That''s good to hear. I was originally just swinging by to pick up Maria but it might be good for me to catch up on the news too." I looked over at therge pile of papers on her desk. "Did anything major happen?"


    "A few things but nothing too significant. We recruited several new Nation ranks with the absorption of Zan and Byria including Michael. After things started to settle down, we called him up to give him his nobility and territory but he rejected them saying he wanted to explore the countryside like he did in his younger days."


    "So doesn''t that mean he rejected his nation rank promotion?"


    "No, the nobility and territory are just the sugar on top, the formalities so to speak, and since he helped so much with the mana suction incident, he stacked up a pretty ridiculous amount of contribution points."


    "How about Lawton? What''s he up to?"


    "He''s doing well. After he suppressed the dungeon to the east he went with Oliver to Zan. Other than that he seemed to be holding up well."


    "That''s good to hear. Hows Lucy?"


    "She''s doing good. School has been a.. <em>new</em> experience for her but she''s making friends and getting limated."


    *Knock-knock*


    "Who is it?"


    "It''s me, Miss." Martha''s voice came through the door.


    "Can you give us a moment?"


    Seeing Helen was going to send her off, I spoke up. "Can you go ahead and bring Maria over? I''vee to pick her up."


    "..Right away young lord."


    -Wow she remembered my voice..-


    "I heard you guys are moving."


    "Yeah, we are going to a ce that we will live in for quite a while."


    "Well I hope you enjoy it."


    "Haha, it''s quite exciting.." I looked up and saw a pure and genuine smile on Helen''s face. -This ce was definitely worth protecting..-


    Our conversation continued for a while, talking about general things like news and simple small talk until Martha returned.


    "I have returned with Maria, young lord."


    "Alright, I''ll be out in a moment." I looked back towards Helen. "Well it seems like it''s time for me to head off. Sorry I''m in a bit of a rush and couldn''t stay to talk more.."


    Getting up once again, she gave me a hug as if she was my mother. "Please don''t worry about it, it was good to catch up. Tell your Father I said hi."


    "Haha, I will. I''ll be sure to visit again sometime soon."


    "Alright, no worries if you can''t, just remember that you''re always wee here."


    With a light wave of my hand I walked out of the office.


    As soon as I closed the door behind me, I was met with a familiar face giving a polite bow. "To think you polished up so well.."


    "She is still a little clumsy and rough around the edges but she should have a strong foundation to be able to improve on her own now."


    "Awesome!" I looked down towards Maria. "How do you feel?"


    She lifted her head slightly but didnte out of a bow. "I feel great M..master.."


    I could tell she was nervous but I couldn''t tell why. "Well you can rx a bit now." I looked up at Martha. "Thanks for training her on such short notice."


    "No problem, Young Lord. Your wish is ourmand."


    "Well I''m gonna head out, Thanks again for everything."


    Giving a small and polite bow, she gave her farewell.


    As we walked out of the pce through the snow, I started some small talk. "How did you like your training?"


    "It was nice.." She reluctantly looked back towards the pce. "T..thank you.."


    "Hm? What are you thanking me for?"


    "Thank you for that experience.. it was truly.. enlightening.."


    I looked back at her with wide eyes. "You��ve changed quite a bit since Ist saw you."


    She quickly tensed up. "Is that a bad thing?"


    "Haha, no, not at all. I actually like this new temperament of yours better."


    Staring at me nkly for a moment, she quickly looked away. "So where are we going?"


    "Home first. Before we make the flight though, is there anything you want from Kan?"


    She looked at me, not really believing my words. "Haah�� no.. Lets just get on the road.."


    -That''s a lie..- "Are you sure?"


    She looked around before looking at the ground with a warm smile. "Yes, Master."


    "Then I''ll pick up the pace a bit." Walking through the snowy city was beautiful but quite ufortable so I moved over and picked her up.


    She looked up at me with wide eyes.


    "Ilios, just follow me until we are outside of the city then you can hop on."


    "Woof!"


    Looking up towards the wall quite a ways in front of us, I hopped onto a roof top and dashed to it.


    Once I made it to the base of the wall, I flexed my legs andunched us over the wall, Ilios doing the same behind us.


    Landing on the other side of the wall I made a short sprint away from the city until I couldn''t see it through the snow anymore.


    "Well, we should be far enough away now." I quickly cleared the area of snow and set down Maria.


    She looked at me with a red face.


    -Are halfies that susceptible to the cold in their human forms?-

 Chapter 116: Final Preparations

    Chapter 116: Final Preparations


    Early Afternoon - Early Winter : Home


    "Are you alright? If the cold is getting to you just let me know."


    "I..I''m okay Master.."


    -Ahh while I''m thinking about it I should fix that..- "Look up towards the sky for me."


    Reluctantlyplying she looked up and closed her eyes.


    *nk*


    Using earth magic, I shattered the cor she had on her neck.


    -The new one needs to actually look good and be able to stretch..- After thinking for a bit, I came up with an odd idea. -I wonder if I can make a sticity rune..-


    I quickly made a thin but strong steel ring and fiddled with an earth rune on it.Maria looked at me quizzically. "If I may be so rude to ask.. what are you doing Master?"


    "Making you a new cor. One that wont kill you if you change to your dragon form."


    "One that.. changes sizes?"


    "Yeah.." After a short moment I figured something out that worked.


    -Wow that''s such a weird feeling..- It was a steel choker looking cor but it could stretch quite a lot, easily enough to handle her current dragon form. -Ill need to change it eventually though..-


    The rune was incredibly inefficient since I just invented it in a few minutes but it did the job well enough.


    I turned back to Maria. "What is your favorite flower?" I reached up and started making the cor on her neck, giving it a strengthening and sticity rune.


    "A.. rose.."


    -Oh cool, didn''t know roses existed in this world..- As soon as I finished the runes and base cor, I covered the runes with a little insignia I made of a ck wolf with purple eyes and gave the cor a rosebush design.


    -Its honestly quite pretty..- I sat there and looked at it for a moment, feeling quite proud of myself. "Well that''s good enough for now, I''ll let you look in the mirror once we get to Bahamut."


    As Maria touched the cor, feeling its texture, I changed to my dragon form and let Ilios up on my back.


    As soon as she noticed I changed form, Marias face paled.


    "I''ll be gentle on the take off, just tap me if you need to tell me anything because I won''t be able to hear you."


    She gave a nervous nod as she climbed onto my hand.


    Spreading my wings, I gave a strong p and lightly used thrusters.


    Since I had to be cautious about my eleration with her, the flight took a bit longer than expected. We ended up getting home in the mid afternoon with extremely overcast weather.


    -Its not snowing yet though..-


    After a few minutes, I descended below the clouds again and followed the mountainside to the ground.


    *Thud*


    "Welco-.. Who is she?" Krystallo called out as soon as Inded.


    "This is Maria, she will be your personal maid or attendant or.. whatever you want her to be."


    "She''s quite cute.. what''s this cor though?"


    "Its a ve cor, I just figured it couldnt be ugly and went a bit overboard."


    "Its.. quite beautiful.."


    "You two go ahead and get limated. Maria, Krystallo is your other master so treat her better than you treat me." I gave an intimidating look and shed my aura at her.


    She quickly paled and gave a nervous nod.


    Seeing she understood, I turned around and walked into the cave.


    "Wee back Vasilias. That didn''t seem to take long." Mother looked up at me with a warm smile.


    "Yeah, I made up time on the flights." I looked around the room and saw Mother making some kind of box to carry Fengari''s memorial and Father in his humanoid form carefully cing coins into a small treasure chest. "What are you doing Father?"


    "Just making sure we have all of our Royal gold in the chest.."


    -Royal gold..- I slowly looked down at the chest. -WHAT?!- Although it was a small chest, norger than a small keyboard, it was packed full of royal gold coins.


    -How much money..- I stood there for a moment, marveling at the ridiculous sum of money.


    "So what are you going to bring, Vasilias?" Father looked over at me gawking at the sight of the chest.


    "J..just this little ck artifact.." I quickly walked over and picked up the artifact from Kan. "Do you think I should carry Maria or should she fly with us?"


    "She probably won''t be able to keep up so you''ll need to carry her. Where is she?"


    "She''s outside talking to Krystallo."


    "So you decided to make her a ve, huh?"


    "Yeah, I figured itd be good for Krystallo to have a ''personal attendant''."


    "She has a cor right? What owner insignia did you use on her cor?"


    "I just made one for myself."


    "Which is?"


    "Just a ck wolf with purple eyes."


    Father looked at me with some surprise.


    "Well anyways, is there anything else I can help you two with before we go?"


    Mother looked over at me. "Could you help me for a second.."


    "Sure, what''s up?"


    "I''m trying to make a container to carry Fengari''s memorial but I don''t know what to do to keep it from breaking.."


    "Ah, well let me do it then.." I walked up to it and got a closer look. -I guess that''ll work..-


    I quickly made a small box around it of metal, using the metal to mp and hold the stone pedestal still and filled the rest of the box with a general foam to hold the egg still.


    Although it wasn''t a ton of work, it took a bit to make since I had to be so careful about it. By the time I got the cover on it and made straps to make it easier to carry, the sun was nearing the horizon.


    "Haah.. finally done.." -Its as secure as its gonna get..-


    Finally, I picked it up and carried it outside.


    "I finished, Mother."


    Quickly setting down her things, she ran over and looked at the metal box. "So it''s in this?"


    "Yeah, this should keep it nice and protected during the flight, always be careful just in case though." I lifted up my hand I had weaved into the strap. "This is how you can wrap it around your hand to carry it a little easier as well.."


    Seeing she understood, I quickly let go and looked over to Krystallo and Maria.


    -They seem to be getting along well..- They were just chatting but even Maria was wearing a pure smile.


    *Thump*


    "So is everyone ready?" Father spoke up as he closed and locked the doors to the cave.


    I looked around and noticed everyone seemed ready. "It seems like it!"


    "Well let''s not waste any more time and take to the skies!"

 Chapter 117: A New Settlement

    Chapter 117: A New Settlement


    Early Evening - Early Winter : Old Home


    "Well let''s not waste any more time and take to the skies!"


    Quickly lightening the mood, Father walked over to Krystallo and I.


    "We will be flying at your pace Krystallo so if you need a break just let us know. It''ll be a fairly long flight."


    The way Father said that made me wonder just how far it was. "Aren''t we just going to the rune? It shouldn''t be too far right?"


    "It''s only a little over half the distance to Kan but we will be flying far slower than your ridiculous pace."


    "Well let''s get on the road then, it''ll be nice to watch the sunset above the clouds." I looked over at Maria. "Here, I''ll carry you."


    I called Maria over, but before she climbed into my hand, Krystallo stopped me. "I''ll carry her, Brother.."


    I raised my eyebrows at her wondering why but figured it''d be fine. "Alright.. just let me know if you want me to carry her.""Okay." She quickly lowered her hand letting Maria climb in.


    Father asked once again. "Is everyone ready now?"


    "Wait, Mother.. Do you want me to carry the memorial for you?" I figured since I wasn''t going to be carrying Maria, I could carry the memorial.


    "It''s alright, I''d like to carry it myself.." She gave an unusual look at the metal box before looking back at me.


    "Alright.. just let me know if you want me to carry it then."


    Giving me a warm smile, she looked around and noticed everyone looking ready. "Well let''s not waste any more time."


    "Right, Krystallo, just be sure to let us know if we are going too fast."


    "Okay!"


    *Fwoosh-fw-fw-fwoosh*


    With Ilios hopping on my back I followed after Father and started the flight.


    After flying for a bit, we finally got above the clouds where Father, Mother and I could just glide but Krystallo still had to p her wings quite often.


    -Maybe I should help her a bit..- I could always try and use vacuum magic to make the flying easier, but I figured she could use the exercise. -Ill help her once she starts getting tired..-


    Although she was pping her wings quite often, she seemed quite rxed.


    "Are you holding up alright, Krystallo?" Mother called out after noticing me looking at her.


    "Mhmm!" She looked up at Mother with a childish smile.


    -Haah.. Needless worries..- Looking away from her, I looked at the sunset on the horizon.


    It made the bright white clouds below turn orange, making the scene truly stunning and surreal.


    Flying above the orange, fluffy looking, clouds felt like heaven but it didn''tst too long.


    Not long after, the sun fully set leaving just a rainbow colored night sky.


    The rest of the flight we just had some small talk and I yed around some with magic. Even though the flight didn��t feel like it took too long, it was around 7 hours.


    We were flying a bit below Mach most of the way but crossing nearly 6 and a half thousand kilometers was fairly time consuming.


    At some point I just started mindlessly flying. It wasn''t until Fathers voice broke the silence that I even remembered we were in the air. "We should be getting close.."


    Snapping out of my trance, I looked up from the ocean. Just on the horizon was a small ind. "Is that ind where the rune is?"


    "Yes, it is. There is also an old temple from the great war there."


    -Oh, maybe I can explore it some..- But as we got closer, I noticed something wrong. "Is there supposed to be a ship on the ind?"


    "Uh, no? Can you see ships up there?"


    "Well, there is 1. It''s pretty big though."


    "That might be a problem.." Father grimaced as he thought of various possibilities.


    "Can I go up ahead and take a look?"


    "Yeah, don''t kill them all though, I atleast need to talk to their leader."


    "Roger that!"


    Quickly dropping a hundred meters or so, I sted my thrusters and zipped forward.


    Maria who was sitting in Krystallo''s hand watched me in shock. "What a monster.."


    Mother looked at her with a proud grin. "You should feel proud to have such a ''monster'' as your Master."


    As if something in her resonated with Mothers words, she watched the blue light from the thrusters get smaller and smaller. "I.. am.."


    - Captain Abbie Lassar ~


    "Haah.. At Least I have you to take my mind away from those idiots."


    I reached down and slowly started petting Muffin.


    "Captain!" A loud shout came from the shore.


    "What now?!"


    "Are you sure we should set up here? That temple gives me a bad feeling."


    "Yes we are setting up here. This will be our new home for a while so get used to it!" -It''s just an abandoned temple, why is the crew so nervous around it.. We were already lucky to stumble across this ind in itself. They should feel thankful..-


    This was an extremely secluded ind that was across a fairly deep stretch of water so it was perfectly isted for us.


    Although this deep water was avoided by trade routes, it was nothing like Death��s Gape, which was so deep it was a death wish to even think about crossing. That istion frommon routes made the ind perfect for pirates though.


    -Not only do we not have to travel far for resources and money, Sinder is near by so we have ess to several huge trade port cities..-


    I slowly turned back to pet muffin for a bit more before I figured I should probably go help my crew.


    I quickly perched muffin on my shoulder and hopped off the side of the ship and onto shore.


    Following a path through the forest I came up to arge clearing bordering a huge freshwaterke.


    We were nning to just set up camp here for now, but eventually I wanted to make it a pirate city.


    -I''d need to call some of the other groups up north but this would give us more control over them than we already have..- Plus it was a perfect way to get a steady source of resources, trade and money.


    -Hell, settling a Kingdom of Pirates, like Elynnor was originally, is even possible.-


    Although Elynnor had be a proper nation now, it was founded by pirates with the current royal family being descendants of pirates themselves.


    -Now isnt the time for that.- Quickly shaking the extravagant thoughts out of my head, I looked up at the group of tents and simple shelters, a pure smileing to my face.


    -One step at a time!-


    "T�� think the capt��n can make a face like that." One of my crew who was helping set up a tent next to me spoke up.


    My face quickly darkened as everyone in the surrounding area stared at the man with wide eyes.


    "I thought our capt''n was just a stuck up boss like one of those nob-"


    *Bang*


    Sick of his bbering, I gave him a strong punch to his face sending him flying.


    The surrounding crew watched as if it was normal. "T'' think the newbie got a beatin'' already.."


    -Bast*rds..-


    *THUMP*


    Interrupting my thoughts, a massive shockwave shook our part of the ind.


    I quickly whipped around to look down the path towards shore with a pale face. -WHAT WAS THAT?!-

 Chapter 118: A One Sided Deal

    Chapter 118: A One Sided Deal


    Late Evening - Early Winter : Northeastern Space Rune


    *Vwoosh*


    Dashing forward ahead of everyone, I quickly made it to the ind.


    As I got close, I changed to my humanoid form and grabbed Ilios.


    "Brace yourself Ilios, it''s gonna be a hardnding!" -Sh*t.. I''m going way too fast..-


    *WHAM*


    mming into the beach, the sand beneath my feet turned to ss and shook the entire ind.


    -Ow..- I meant to slow down far more than I did so the impact ended up hurting my knees a fair amount.


    -But nothing is broken! It should be fine.- I quickly set down Ilios and brushed myself off.Looking over at the ship, I noticed it was in rough condition and had a tattered ck g with a white cat insignia.


    -That''s definitely a pirate ship.. But what''s with the g choice..-


    Although I was a bit curious about the inside of the ship, with a quick scan with aura I noticed there wasn''t anything interesting. Most of the valuables and resources have already been taken.


    -But.. Where are the pirates?-


    I quickly looked around the beach and saw nothing except some tracks leading down a trail into the forest.


    "Well, let''s see where it takes us!"


    Darting down the trail, it didn''t take long till we came up to arge clearing full of tents and bandit looking people.


    Of those people, there was one that stood out.


    It was a tall, lean-muscr woman with messy brown hair and an oddly familiar ck cat on her shoulder. -I must be imagining that though..-


    Of the bunch, she was definitely the cleanest and most good looking by far. -She''d turn out really good with a bit of polish..-


    As soon as she saw me, just like everyone else in the clearing, she froze.


    "So are you the captain?" I looked at the woman.


    Snapping out of her trance, she stiffened up and pulled out her sword. "Y..yes.. Who are you?"


    "Ah I guess it was a bit rude for me to intrude so abruptly." I slowly gave a small gentleman''s bow. "My name is Vasilias Whyte, and I''ll give this warning now. If you don''tply with me, you will all die."


    I quickly flooded the entire area with aura making everyone fall to the ground or pass out.


    Seeing they all understood, I moved away my aura and let everyone breathe. "Now that you all understand, I''d like you to exin.." I walked up to the captain and lightly pulled her chin up so she''d look at me. "What are you doing here.."


    She looked at me with a fear filled face and spoke with a shaky voice. "W..we are just.. t..rying to se..ttle here.."


    "Oh interesting. So who are you?"


    "A b..and of pirates.. sir.."


    It was at that moment I got an odd idea. -Hey I can make use of this..- "So how about a deal. I''m not only toozy to kill you all but I''d like to take advantage of this opportunity."


    She stared at me with horrified eyes as she violently shivered.


    "If you can truly settle here, I won''t stop you, but there are some conditions you need to satisfy."


    Seeing where I was going with that thought, she spoke up. "A..anything you want.. is yours.."


    "How about this? The temple on this ind is off limits and you must protect it once you get the power to.. also.. if you ever get to the point of collecting taxes, I want 10% of it." -Is there anything else I should add?- "Ah, I will have the power to change anything I wish at any moment I wish as well."


    "Of c..ouse.. that is fine.."


    "Sweet. Ah right, I haven''t asked for your name yet."


    "C..captain Abbie Lassaar.."


    "Well then Abbie, since it seems like we havee to an agreement, I will take my leave for now, my Father will be here in a bit though. He is just going to ask some simple questions like I did so don''t panic. Ill step in and keep you guys alright if I need to."


    Not questioning my words, she gave a nervous nod.


    "Onest thing before I go." I looked her up and down. "I wille by every once in a while to see how you''re doing, if you need something, ask while I''m around. I want you to seed too." I quickly shed a pure smile at her before heading back down the path to shore.


    Not long after I got back to shore, everyone finally made it to the ind.


    "So did you find the pirates?" Mother was the first to ask.


    "Yeah, they''re just in the forest. I had a short talk with them. They seem to want to settle here."


    Father grimaced.


    "I figured it was a good opportunity so I said they could as long as they followed some conditions."


    "What conditions did you set?"


    "That they protect and not touch the temple, give me 10% of taxes once they get there and give meplete power to control them if I wish."


    Father looked at me with unbelieving eyes. "Haah.. Vasilias.. settling a nation is much harder to do than just proposing the idea. The chance that a band of pirates will be able to do that is.. unlikely at best."


    -I honestly don''t see them getting that far either.- "But! If they do manage to do it, I will make a huge profit. Even if they don''t and they die trying, it doesn''t matter to us."


    Father looked at me with wide eyes. "I guess that''s sound logic.."


    "Of course it is! Did you think I was stupid?" I puffed up my chest and showed confidence.


    "Well how about you take me to them, I''d like to talk to their leader to rify some things." He turned back to Mother and Krystallo. "Go ahead and go to the rune, I will meet up with you there."


    Giving a light nod, Mother took off again with Krystallo following suit.


    After that, I took Father in his humanoid form to meet Abbie.


    Their talk went alright.. Abbie was still terrified of me and was shaking while she talked to Father, but they seemed to get things worked out in the end.


    At the end of their talk, Father gave an intimidating look and said, "Just a little advice. If you betray my son, no one will be able to save you."


    Pushing away Father, I looked down at her. "I don''t like to rule in fear so I tried giving some favorable conditions. I''m not that scary so long as you don''t make enemies with me. I''ll pay a visit in a few months to see how you all are doing so.. be ready then."


    Abbie looked up at me and gulped hard.


    Seeing she understood, I turned around again and dragged Father away. "I''ll take care of it, Father. You don''t have to help me with this.." I looked at Father with a grateful smile. ��I''m very thankful that you want to help though.��

 Chapter 119: A Lost Gods Temple

    Chapter 119: A Lost Gods Temple


    Early Morning - Early Winter : Northeastern Space Rune


    After dragging Father away from the pirates before the situation got moreplicated, we quickly made it to shore and changed back to our dragon forms.


    "Follow me closely, although this is an abandoned temple, the traps protecting the rune are still active. They are meant to even kill dragons so don''t think you''ll be able to just set one off without repercussions."


    -I knew the dragons wouldn��t just leave an old relic like this out in the open but dang..- "Isn''t that a bit excessive? What if someone identally sets one off?"


    "If a dragon knows the path they won''t set one off. Plus, just grazing a trap wouldn''t kill a dragon, it would definitely injure them though."


    Putting pause to the conversation, we finally got off the ground and started heading to the temple.


    As we were flying away, I looked back towards the ground and noticed that I could see the clearing where the pirates were. -She saw me..-


    Although it was only for a fraction of a second, the captain nced in my direction.


    But before I could think of anything, Father grabbed my attention again. "The traps are made so that dragons that want to get past have to work their way through something akin to a maze that they need to have memorized and can''t go down a single wrong path.""So what if there is an emergency and a dragon needs to go through quickly but they don''t know the route?"


    "Sucks for them then. They either take the right path or die."


    -I guess tight security makes sense but..- "Why does Bahamut want the traps to even kill dragons?"


    "Because not all dragons are the same.." Fathers demeanor darkened instantly. "Some aren''t wee.." He looked back at me with anger filled eyes.


    Although it wasn''t fear, his eyes made me feel uneasy.


    "It seems I showed you something I shouldn''t have.. sorry.."


    "Haha.. it''s fine Father.." With a nervousugh, I quickly tried to change the subject. "So what was this temple built for?"


    "Originally?" He looked back and saw me nod. "Well, before the great war, this ind was quite special. It was known as a ''ce of Descendant'' to the humanoids. Inyman''s terms, a ce that humans believed a god had ''graced the world with its presence''.."


    "You don''t seem to view them in a positive light.."


    "Of course not. The god they believed descended there was Tyr, the god of war. To humans he was also known as the god of the skies, a title we dragons don''t take kind to."


    -Ah..- "So was he against Bahamut?"


    "We have no idea. Some people believe he is still around since he stayed out of the fight with Bahamut during the great war, but he has been quiet for a few thousand years now."


    "So he at least survived Ragnarok?"


    "Yes.. although some older dragons think he died from old injuries."


    -Just how many gods were there..-


    After flying for a short moment longer, we finally starteding up on the temple.


    It was absolutely massive, towering a couple hundred meters into the air and spanning over a kilometer to either side.


    Even as a dragon with my warped sense of scale, it simply felt gargantuan.


    "How in the.." I could help but stare at it in awe.


    Although it was huge and beautiful, with incredible stone carvings and gold and gems everywhere, it was clearly unbelievably old.


    Vines had overtaken a huge portion of the temple with entire trees growing out of some cracks and it had a very clear amount of weathering.


    The rooftops of the building had beenpletely weathered away leaving tons of holes into the building that gave the temple a strange abandoned beauty.


    "I grew up being told it was built by humanoids but I don''t believe it. Its too simr to old dragon architecture.." Father looked at the massive and beautiful building with a face of indifference.


    -Is that indifference because he''s seen it so many times or..-


    "Well, follow me closely, and exactly. If you see me step somewhere, step in that exact spot behind me."


    Giving a light nod, Father quickly dove down andnded on one of the outer towers of the building.


    -Can this support my weight?- But before I couldnd, father jumped down into the temple. -Well.. I guess I don''t need to..-


    Deciding it''d be best if I didn''tnd, I simply hovered and dropped myself into the hole.


    Once inside, I looked down and noticed I couldn''t see Father. -Ohe on.. he seriously didn''t even go a little slower..-


    But this left me with a huge problem. -How do I get through..-


    Looking forward down the huge hallway, I could see the general path that Father took since the dust and dirt on the ground had moved around from his movements but the exact spots to step weren��t readily noticeable.


    -Well.. I guess I''ll take it carefully... That seems like a spot Father stepped actually..- It was a spot where the dust was especially disturbed.


    Hopping forward onto the spot, I bnced on one hand since I didn''t know where else to put my feet.


    -Well at least I was ri..-


    As soon as I thought that, a giant rune lit up beneath me.


    -Sh*t..-


    *FWOOOSH*


    A ridiculous ze lit up around me, so hot it could melt metal like it was nothing.


    -Thankfully I''m in my dragon form..- I was pretty much unscathed even without the use of vacuum magic because of my ridiculous natural heat resistance. -If I was in my human form I would have.. not had a great time..-


    After the ze continued for a bit, it finally subsided.


    -Well.. if Im just gonna set them off, I might as well just speed through them..-


    After observing how long it took the rune to actually activate, I figured I could just dash down the halls and follow Fathers path to get to the space rune.


    -Welp, here goes nothing!- "Hold on Ilios!"


    I quickly made sure Ilios was holding on and..


    *Crack*


    Immediately breaking the sound barrier, I disappeared from where I was.


    Abusing the eleration and mobility given to me by thrusters I flew down the hall at a ridiculous speed.


    The hall wasn��trge enough for me to spread my wings but I was going so fast it didn''t matter.


    -Strength is like a drug..- The feeling of obliterating strong traps head on felt truly incredible.


    A short instantter, I finally came up to a huge room bigger than anything I had seen up until now.


    On the ground, there was a rune nearly a hundred meters wide and a small ck sphere on a pedestal in the middle.


    Standing next to it was Krystallo, Mother and Father.


    I quickly mmed on the breaks at the edge of the room, identally shattering a huge chunk of the floor with it.


    "There he is!" Mother ran over and hugged me like she thought I was dead.


    "Is something wrong Mother?"


    "Haah.. your numbskull of a Father didn''t even go slow to show you the path.." She looked back at Father with eyes of anger.


    "Calm down Mother. I''m sure it was an ident. Plus, I''m fine aren''t I?"


    "Hmph, if I didn''t have to hold myself back to not break the temple I would have hit him through a mountain."


    "Hehe.." The next to run up to me was Krystallo with a childish smile. "I knew you��d make it Brother!"


    "Haha, I''m d I didn''t worry you." I reached down and lightly patted her on the head.


    After putting Father in time out, Mother took the lead. ��Haah.. now isn''t the time to be gloomy..�� She quickly red at Father before looking back at Krystallo, Ilios and I with an excited smile. "Well, I believe it''s time we go to Bahamut! Shall we?"

 Chapter 120: A Realm of Nothingness

    Chapter 120: A Realm of Nothingness


    Mid Morning - Early Winter : Northeast Space Rune


    -


    "I believe it''s time we go to Bahamut! Shall we?"


    "Yaay! Let��s go!" Krystallo was extremely excited.


    -Thend of the dragons, huh�� I wonder what it will look like��- Following Mother to the center of the room, my excitement steadily continued to grow.


    But as we approached the pedestal with a void-like ck orb on it, my excitement slowly turned to curiosity. -What.. Is that?-


    As I stared at it as if in a trance, Mother walked up to it and gently set her nail against it.


    But it made no noise at all. "We want to go to central, right? Or do you want to go by the Elders Hall?" Mother continued like it was normal.


    "Well, it��s not like we can really introduce Vasilias to any of them, so��" He paused to nce at me before turning back to her. "What residence are we staying at?""My mother��s old one."


    "Alright, then let''s go central. We should avoid the north for the time being."


    Mother was quick to nod. "Good call. Central it is." Finally turning back to the orb, she scraped her nail across the orb, leaving behind a thin blue line simr to a scratch. "Kids, you might feel a little queasy when we arrive, but don��t worry, it should go away fairly quickly. And don��t move too much once the artifact is activated."


    "Okay!" Krystallo gave an enthusiastic confirmation as she sat down and heldpletely still.


    "Haha, alright, is everyone ready?" She quickly nced at me and waited for my nod before finally injecting mana into the orb.


    The instant she did though, an all too familiar scene was reyed in front of me.


    *vwoop* The orb grew and engulfed everything in a terrifying darkness in an instant, with a terrible listless sensation following it.


    Almost immediately, a horrific, paralyzing fear overtook my mind, but this time, it wasn��t the fear of death.. it was the fear of losing everything.


    -N..no�� Am I really.. going to die again..?- I already knew there was nothing I could do, and it made me feel sick to an unfathomable extent.


    Everything I had worked toward, everything I had achieved, and everything I had experienced�� vanished before I could even think��


    But as my mind started to fall into despair, I felt a familiar yet foreign energy begin to fill my body. -H..huh?-


    It filled my body like a uniform ocean of energy, but oddly enough, there was one ce it didn��t go.


    My 7th attribute node.


    Not taking a single second to question what it was or what was happening, I took every ounce of mana I could from my reserve and flooded the node.


    *wWwwWWWOOP* Hearing the unusual noise, I lessened my focus on the flow of mana and opened my eyes.


    But this time, I didn��t see a void-like darkness that epassed everything.. Instead, I saw a nebulous space of ck and red with countless clouds of blue and purple flowing through it like a uniform liquid.


    A realm of infinity, but also a realm of nothing. -W..what the��-


    Still not sure whether what I was seeing was real, I looked around and quickly noticed a web of ck, yet somehow transparent tubes that were generally wrapped around an absolutely colossal sphere where the colors were focused and formed a gradient.


    -What.. are those?- Looking around and trying to see if anything was in them, I eventually found a tube with something moving through it. -Huh?-


    Moving through one of the tubes was Mother, Father, Krystallo, Maria, and Ilios, motionlessly floating through the tube as if they were frozen in time except for Ilios who nced in my direction before looking forward again.


    I wasn��t sure what to even think about the situation, but I knew one thing. -I need to follow them��-


    Quickly spreading my wings, I gently pped, expecting to be thrown through the unusual space, but I didn��t budge at all.


    Not thinking much of it, I quickly tried to use thruster magic but immediately ran into a major problem.


    There wasn��t a single atom in the air around me.


    A hint of panic immediately started to form in the back of my mind, but thankfully, I managed to quickly calm myself. -I seem to be fine just floating here.. and I have plenty of mana still so I have time��-


    Attempting to think rationally, I worked through my senses and absorbed as much information about my environment as I could. -Clearly, there is something in this space.. I just need to find out what it is��-


    But I wasn��t getting anywhere, even after several minutes. My mana simply felt like it was moving through mud. -My seventh node has something to do with it.. so��- Once again dumping mana into the node, a dark red haze filled the air around me, but I still couldn��t hardly feel anything. -I just feel like I��ve been surrounded by an intangible cloud��-


    Deciding to take a shot in the dark, I tried to control the cloud, and treat it like my aura.


    It was an attempt to read the cloud like I would aura. -But I can barely even feel the cloud or the energy of this.. realm��-


    But sure enough, after several minutes of trying to decipher the mountain of information that flooded into my head, an interesting picture was painted.


    -What.. Is all this?- With the help of the cloud that surrounded me, I could finally feel the dense-liquid-like particles that filled the air around me, but the thing was, the individual particles were so small they felt like specs of static or errors, especially whenpared to a single particle of mana from my aura, that felt like a colossal, uniform oval egg in the cloud.


    -Is this stuff.. space mana?- It was an educated guess at best, but it was a guess I had to make before I could even start figuring anything out. -So that node is a space mana node?-


    Although it was an assumption based on a guess at the time, it seemed to make sense. -That would exin why I never felt what came out of it��-


    Back when I used to experiment with it to try and figure out what it was, I could never feel anythinge out of it, as if my mana was just being sucked into a ck hole. -But it was just because I didn��t know what to look for��-


    The presence of the energy was so faint that even then when I waspletely surrounded by it, I could barely sense it.


    -But regardless of that.. I need to figure out how to move��- Quickly pulling myself from my thoughts, I tried to form the cloud of my space mana into a paddle and pull myself through the ambient space mana.


    But instead of moving me, my mana simply brushed past the mana that I didn��t control.


    I got the same result after attempting to try many other things as well, but nothing seemed to work.


    -I refuse to believe there is nothing I can do�� There must be something I''m missing��- Deciding to take yet another shot in the dark, I allocated every single bit of brain power into aputer-like focus.


    But it wasn��t so simple, what I wanted just wasn��t working.


    But after an unknown number of hours, and billions of failed ideas and methods��


    -No.. Way��-


    I had managed to create a quark with nothing but space mana.


    Although it may sound like nothing crazy right away, it showed that something I believed to be impossible, was possible. -I can.. create matter��-


    Quickly running through several other ideas I had, I found a slightly more efficient method of going about creating matter and started to slowly increase the scale.


    Eventually, I was left with a small ball of hydrogen.


    -I really.. broke physics��- I wasn��t sure how to even feel, it was something I had never even considered being a possibility.


    With the use of space mana, I now had the ability to create and destroy matter, and energy. -I wonder.. What its limits are��- Getting excited, a slightly crazed smile came to my face.


    But thankfully, I caught myself. -Right, I need to focus on leaving here first��-


    Finally moving the ball of hydrogen to my back, I took a moment to slowly ignite it and ever-so-slowly begin to move forward. -It works!-


    Although I was quite literally moving slower than a snail, I wasn��t confident in my ability to slow down to go any faster.


    -Now.. Where do I need to go��- Looking back toward the web of tubes, I quickly noticed the tube I had previously seen everyone moving through waspletely empty. -Did they go through that other sphere?-


    At the end of each tube, where the tubes intersected, there was arge ck sphere which I assumed to be the space runes. -So should I just fly into the one at that intersection?-


    Quickly fiddling with the positioning of the small ball of hydrogen, I got myself pointed and moving in the right direction and released my containment of the hydrogen.


    *psff* An odd noise momentarily met my ears as the ball of hydrogen turned into a gas and expanded, but in the next instant, the hydrogen was reced by a cloud of space mana with a slightly blue hue, as if the space mana had devoured the hydrogen itself. -Woah��-


    Deciding to y around with it while I ever-so-slowly floated toward the ck sphere, I quickly found that the space mana devoured any kind of physical matter I tossed into it. -It doesn��t devour me though�� I''m not sure whether I should be worried about that��-


    The next half-hour or so passed quite quickly as I continued to idly experiment with the mana, but eventually, I got closer to the ck sphere and had to pull myself out of my thoughts.


    I quickly ran into a problem though. -Uh�� That''s not good��- The sphere waspletely solid and unlike the frictionless-liquid-like mana around me, it was crystalline to form a perfect sphere with no gaps for even my own space mana to enter.


    -Well.. I guess I need to find another way out��-


    Immediately deciding it was too risky to try and cut a hole into it, I floated just above it and tried to make a simr crystalline sphere of space mana around myself.


    And sure enough, the instant Ipleted the sphere, it copsed inward on me and I felt a massive wave of air m into me. *FWOOSH* -Haha! It worked!!-


    -


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    "Haha, alright, is everyone ready?" Quickly ncing at Vasilias, I waited for his nod to inject mana into the rune. *vwooom* -I wonder if Vasilias will get an upset stomach from this..-


    As the surrounding area quickly turned to darkness and my body became weightless, I remained calm with happy thoughts.


    -I can''t wait to show off Vasilias to Mother��- But before I could even finish my thought, the darkness started to split apart and fade, revealing a bright blue sky and the sound of crashing waves. *crash-ssh* *crash*


    "Haah��" The noise brought back many good memories. "Home, sweet home.-


    But the pleasant memories quickly came to a halt as I looked toward Krystallo and saw her hanging her head toward the ground. -Well, I can��t say that was unexpected��-


    "Zachari!" Hearing Osto yell out, I turned to him in an instant.


    "What?" I was still a bit upset about what happened at the temple, but those feelings quickly became trivial.


    "Where is Vasilias?!" His face was washed with panic.


    I didn��t even recognize what he said at first. -Huh�� Vasil..ias?- Slowly looking around, I immediately saw Ilios, but Vasilias was nowhere to be seen.


    A sickening nausea and anxiety filled my chest in an instant.


    I could only look around with a pale face, hoping I just missed him, but it only worsened. -N..no��-


    *VWWOOOOOMMMM* Cutting my panic short, a deafening noise ripped through the air making us all look up to see a colossal ck sphere appear in the sky.


    Then, in the next instant, a huge ck dragon fell out of it. -VASILIAS?!-


    I was still in a panic, but it didn��tst long.


    The instant he exited the sphere and it disappeared, I noticed something.. Different about him.


    His body waspletely covered in a ck cloud full of nearly invisible specks of light, making it look as if a night sky had formed around him.


    Without even realizing it, I had fallen into a trance, and my worries and anxieties melted away like they never existed in the first ce. -How.. beautiful��-

 Chapter 121: Our New Home

    Chapter 121: Our New Home


    Mid Morning - Early Summer : Bahamut


    -Haha! It worked!- A wave of excitement washed over me as I fell.


    Looking up at the sphere, it quickly disappeared and a clear blue sky overtook my vision.


    I turned over and spread out my wings, looking over the area to get my bearings.


    Not far away was what looked like a small town with a market and some houses. -But they''re human scale..-


    Starting to second guess where I actually was, I looked all the way down and noticed the huge stone pad with 3 dragons looking up at me.


    -So I did actually make it!-


    I quickly dove down andnded, not wanting to waste any more time. "I didn''t make you wait long did I-"


    *Wham*Krystallo immediately ran up to me and tackled my face. "STUPID BROTHER!"


    -Hm?- Seeing Krystallo''s tears, I finally noticed the somber mood. "Did I miss something? What''s with the gloomy atmosphere?"


    "I THOUGHT I''D NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!!!" Krystallo started balling while she mped my face.


    "I''m sorry I scared you.." I spoke in a soft voice and rubbed her head to try andfort her some.


    She continued crying for a bit before finally calming down and hopping off.


    As shended, she looked back up at me with a grumpy pout.


    "So what caused all of this?" I looked back over at Mother.


    "Haah.. well, we went into the space rune and you didn''te out the other side, of course we would panic and assume the worst.."


    "Oh.. sorry.." Finally realizing their distress was entirely my fault, guilt washed over me.


    "Haah.. don''t be sorry sweetie. All that matters is that you got here safely.." She quickly walked up and gave me a light but long hug. "Well since everyone is here, let''s head to our new home!" She looked towards us with a forced smile as she tried to lighten the mood.


    -Man I really ruined this whole experience for them..- As I drowned in guilt, I let Ilios back up on my back and followed after Mother.


    Luckily Krystallo''s mood was quick to lighten back up. "So what''s with that humanoid town down there? I thought this was Bahamut.." Before I could ask, she ended up asking the question I was wondering as well.


    "Haha, sweetie, those humanoids down there are all dragons, at least most of them are."


    "But why are they all in their humanoid forms then?"


    "Well, as you''ll see here soon.. structures for dragons in their full form are gigantic so only the super wealthy can have full size homes with most people only owning a bedroom that can fit their dragon form. It''s also a thing of convenience. Unless you live in the mountains to the west, it''s far more convenient to spend most of your time in your humanoid form."


    -Wait so does that mean that there are full homes meant to house massive dragons?!-


    With the wild visual appearing in my mind, I zoned out until I realized something odd. "Wait, what did you mean by ''you''ll see here soon''?"


    "Haha, you''ll see in a moment. Have patience sweetie." She looked back at me with a smug smile.


    -What''s that supposed to mean..-


    After flying for a bit longer, we flew over a small section of the ind wended on and a wide channel before reaching the maind.


    To my surprise, on the maind, the scale of everything there was abnormal besides the human sized towns.


    As if thend was meant to house huge dragons, everything was massive.


    Everything from trees, bugs, foliage and even mana density on the maind was tailor made for dragons.


    ording to mother, Bahamut even had bigger mountains than the main continent with the western mountains housing several thousand middle and high ss dragons.


    Before I knew it, I ended up getting lost in my imagination again. -How big of mountains would you need for that..-


    After continuing to fly for a bit, a massive building started to crest the horizon that made my mind go nk.


    "Oh you can see it now!" Mother looked towards the horizon with a joyous smile.


    "What in the world is that building for?!" It was a gargantuan building that spread several hundred meters in each direction and towered nearly a hundred meters into the air. -I knew buildings meant to house full size dragons would be big but what the f..-


    "That''s our new home!" Mother looked back at me with a smug smile.


    "WHAT?!"


    "Hm? What''s wrong, Brother?" Krystallo looked over at me as if she didn''t see anything wrong.


    -Right.. she doesn''t understand how ridiculous of a building that is..-


    "We are royalty so isn''t it obv-"


    *Smack*


    Quickly pulling back, Mother lightly hit Krystallo on the head. "Remember our talk earlier?"


    Krystallo immediately stiffened up and gave a nervous nod.


    I looked at Mother and tried to voice my thoughts. "I expected that since we were hiding our names that we would live low.. you know, with the name Whyte?"


    Mother, after finally letting Krystallo go, looked over at me. "Ah, I forgot to mention.. The Whyte family aren''t low prestige either. Staying here won''t look too odd." Mother looked forward again with an excited smile. "Plus, this is the home I grew up in."


    -So Mother grew up with a diamond spoon just like Krystallo and I..-


    As we continued to fly towards the huge mansion, I finally decided to ask a question that was dwelling on my mind. "Where are all the dragons?"


    "Most of the poption is to the west and northeast. The big cities are congregated around the mountains. Once Krystallo learns her transformation magic we will go on a trip there, Krystallo will have school after all." She looked over at Krystallo with a proud smile.


    -I guess it''s still a massive continent.. even if the inhabitants are giant and there are a bunch of them, they won''t be everywhere..- ��Wait, you only mentioned Krystallo with school. Do I not have t-��


    ��We will figure that out over the next few weeks.. You will at least need the formality of going even if you only take the final tests.��


    By the time Mother finished talking, we made it to the estate.


    Just outside the extravagant wall surrounding the building were two fairlyrge dragons guarding the gate.


    They were the first real dragons I had ever seen besides my family.


    One was a sky blue 34 meter dragon, and the other was a blue-ish white 21 meter one. Around their ankles were small, white-metal, bands with a snow white dragon insignia that looked like Mother.


    As wended, they both held formal stances until the sky blue moved over to give a polite bow and open the gate. "It has been a while mydy."


    "Indeed it has. I hope you''ve polished up some since I saw youst, Alistair." Mother was quick to poke fun at him.


    -Are they close?-


    Slightly breaking character, he cracked a small smile. "You can rest assured, My Lady."


    "Good. We will have a meeting in 30 minutes to introduce everyone to you all so gather everyone to meet us in the main hall by then."


    He quickly nodded. "We won''t bete, My Lady."


    With him bowing his head once again, we finally walked through the gates.


    Continuing into the estate, I couldn''t help but gawk at the sheer scale of everything.


    "Are we really living here? That guard looked really strong.." Even Krystallo seemed a little nervous.


    "Haha, you''ll get used to it sweetie. Alistair is a softie for kids and is especially loyal to our family. He was even my personal knight escort when I was growing up."


    Realizing I should mention a certain forgotten someone, I interrupted them. "So, where should we take Maria?"


    "We will pass her to the head maid, Antonia, once we get inside."


    As she said that, an odd thought came to mind so I had to ask. "Are all the maids and such going to be in their dragon form too?"


    "The young ones in training, yes. Some of the maids and butlers are trained from young and are like Krystallo where they can''t use a humanoid form yet. The other maids and butlers are all in their humanoid forms though."


    "How do they clean such a huge house in their human forms?"


    "A mix of magic and the fact that the upper floors are all humanoid sized. Only the downstairs arerge enough for a mid-size dragon to walk through. The reason the ce looks so big is because of the 50 meter tall hallways on the bottom floor and the massive bedrooms meant to have enough space even for elders."


    As Mother finished talking, we made it to the front door.


    She quickly opened the door as if it was muscle memory and walked in.


    Inside, the main hall was absolutely massive and ridiculously extravagant. The ceilings were crazy high and the floor was a beautiful white tile with fancy gold trim everywhere. I was honestly nervous to even step in it.


    -Maybe I should..- Quickly transforming to my humanoid form, I hopped onto Ilios who was still full size.


    Noticing my transformation, Mother looked at me in surprise. "You can stay in your dragon form Vasilias."


    "I''m nervous I''ll crack the floor with my weig-"


    "I''m very sorry for not getting the door for you mydy!" Quickly interrupting and grabbing our attention was a beautiful, mature looking woman in a maids outfit giving us a polite bow.


    "Haah.. how many times did I have to tell you that it''s fine.. I''m not a kid anymore.." Mother turned around, slightly embarrassed.


    "Sorry..." She quickly nced over the rest of us. "Well it seems like we will have a full house for a while! Shall I get someone to take the ves to their rooms first?"


    "ve<strong><em>s</em></strong>?" Mother tilted her head slightly.


    The maid looked at Mother with a questioning but pure smile. "The maid here, the demihuman and the fenrir, My Lady."

 Chapter 122: A Grave Misunderstanding

    Chapter 122: A Grave Misunderstanding


    Late Morning - Early Summer : Bahamut Estate


    "The maid here, the demihuman and the fenrir, My Lady." The maid looked up at Mother with an oblivious look.


    A deafening silence filled the room as everyone stared at the maid in shock.


    "Hm? Did I saw something wro-"


    *BANG* *WHAM*


    Before she could finish talking, Mother appeared behind the maid and threw a kick with her whole body behind it.


    Not being able to react at all, she was kicked all the way across the room and through the giant front doors we just walked through.


    I sat there in shock at the scene.


    The floor Mother was standing on shattered from the kick and the door was blown to bits.-Welp, guess she''s dead.- "Mother, that was a fairly easy misunderstanding so you didn''t need to do that.." I wasn''t too offended since it was an easy assumption but it seemed like it pushed the wrong button on Mother.


    As if she didn''t hear me, she looked over towards the door with incredible bloodlust.


    Realizing the situation was going to escte even further, I transformed to my dragon form.


    *Crunch* -Well.. I was right about that at least..- The floor shattered under my weight but it didn''t matter since the entire entryway floor was destroyed.


    I quickly moved in front of Mother and gave her a hug. "You can calm down Mother.. That maid just didn''t realize the situation. It was just a misunderstanding.."


    Finally calming down a bit, she finally took a deep breath and leaned into me.


    "Intruder!" A new unknown voice rang from outside as a small orange 20 meter dragon charged in at me. "Let go of her you beas-"


    *CRACK* *BANG*


    Not letting go of Mother, I smacked the impudent dragon with my tail and sent him flying back out the door and through the outer walls surrounding the estate.


    Even though Father was furious at the situation like Mother, he still winced at the sight of me smacking the daylights out of the dragon.


    It was only once he came back to his senses that he realized he needed to intervene.


    He released all of his aura and used wind magic to amplify his voice. "THERE IS NO INTRUDER! EVERYONE ASSEMBLE IN THE MAIN HALL, NOW!"


    After hugging for a second longer, Mother finally pulled away. "I''m sorry Vasilias.." She looked down at the ground as if disappointed in herself.


    "It''s fine Mother.�� -I think her emotions from this morning piled up and overflowed with the maids misunderstanding..- ��You didn''t do anything wrong.. I do think we should try to clear that misunderstanding quickly though."


    "Hooh.. right.." Mother took a deep breath and collected herself. "You, the maid over there." She pointed at a young looking maid who had fallen to her knees watching the exchange. "Go find Antonia''s body and bring her to the medical ward. I hit her pretty hard but that''s not enough to kill her.."


    Giving a violent nod, the young maid jumped to her feet and ran over to the pile of rubble where the door was, eventually pulling out the maid from earlier.


    She was covered in blood with several visible broken bones and a piece of stone lodged in her stomach.


    "Is she alive?" I quickly scanned her with my aura and noticed her vitals seemed fine. -Wait.. did Mother say Antonia? Like the head maid Antonia?!-


    Noticing my aura, the maid carrying Antonia quickly paled and picked up the pace with shaky steps.


    -She talked to Mother like they were close but..- The visual of Antonia getting kicked through the giant door resurfaced in my mind. -There''s no way..-


    Not too long after that, mostly everyone had finally assembled in the main hall.


    There were around 60 people, a mix of maids, butlers, chefs and knights but they were all in their humanoid forms kneeling or bowing in front of us.


    Noticing everyone was here, Mother finally stood up. "Sorry for the short notice everyone, I originally wanted to get situated before introducing everyone to you all but it seems like that isn''t possible.."


    Everyone in the knight order including Alistair immediately broke into a cold sweat seeing Mothers obvious annoyance.


    "To start the introductions.. for those of you who are new, my name is Zachari Ragnarok and I hope we can get along well."


    I nced over the maids and noticed they were all acting normal, some even looking at us with excited eyes. -So they knew we were Ragnaroks already..-


    "Here with me is my husband, most of you who were here before already know who he is but for those who don''t, he is Osto Ragnarok, your lord." She nced down and Krystallo and I with a motherly smile. "As for the new faces, this here is Krystallo, my adorable daughter and next to her is my son, Vasilias."


    Looking over the group of people, almost all of them were eyeing me, all wondering the same thing.


    "For those of you wondering if he is a true Ragnarok, he is. Not long after he hatched he happened to touch an ancient artifact which.. changed some things�� In other words, he is a special child and I wish you all to treat him with the love and care you gave to me all those years ago." She looked towards an old, assassin-looking, butler with a warm smile.


    Some of the people in the group gave me looks of pity while most of the younger ones got caught in a trance. -I''m barely even letting aura touch them.. they can''t be that weak right?-


    "For thest two introductions, we have Ilios, a fenrir that Vasilias keeps. Please treat him as if he was one of us, he is both smarter and stronger than most of you. Then over here is Maria, a halfie ve that will be serving us along side you all. I don''t think I need to mention it but if you haveints, you are free to leave at any time. Just keep in mind thews regarding the confidentiality of information said in this estate."


    A few maids that were looking at Maria in disgust quickly stiffened and changed their expressions and the old assassin-looking butler spoke up with a smooth voice. "It is our honor to devote our lives to the Ragnaroks, My Lady."


    "Good to see you''re doing well Galen. I wish to talk to you personallyter soe to my office once things settle down."


    Galen quickly gave a light bow.


    Seeing he understood, Mother continued. "Now that the introductions are out of the way, it''s time to set some rules!"


    Immediately after that she started listing off tons of standard rules I thought were to be expected, but ended off with an odd one.


    "Vasilias will haveplete freedom to do as he wishes and no matter what he says, you must follow his orders!" Mother puffed up her chest and wore a proud smile.


    Scanning the room, she checked to make sure everyone understood the rules.


    "Then, to wrap things up.. Galen, please show Kystallo and Vasilias their rooms, Alistair go ahead and get people to fix the damages here and.." Mother quickly scanned over the maids and picked out one that looked to be a simr age as Maria. "You there, take Maria and show her the way things work here. Other than that, you all can return to your normal duties."


    With Mother''s dismissal, everyone quickly started returning to their jobs and started cleaning up.


    As everyone dispersed, Galen walked up gaving Krystallo and I a warm smile. "Well, Young Lord and Young Miss, shall I show you to your rooms?"

 Chapter 123: Infinite Possibilities

    Chapter 123: Infinite Possibilities


    Early Afternoon - Early Summer : Bahamut Estate


    "Well, Young Lord and Young Miss, shall I show you to your rooms?"


    Looking towards Krystallo, I made sure she was ready before nodding.


    "Then please follow me."


    As they started walking away, I changed back to my humanoid form and hopped on Ilios. -I really need to strengthen the floors in here so I can walk around normally..-


    Although I didn''t find my humanoid form nearly as ufortable since myst dragon sleep, it definitely wasn''t totallyfortable.


    Noticing me change forms, Galen nced back at me with a curious look. "Do you prefer your humanoid form?"


    "No, it''s just if I walk around in my dragon form, I''ll shatter the floors."


    "You should be alright, young lord. The floors are meant to handle the weight ofrge elders!" He held his head up high with confidence as he boasted about the home''s resilience.-Well.. maybe it was a coincidence that it shattered in the main hall..- I lightly hopped off Ilios and changed to my dragon form.


    *Crunch* Nearly instantly, the floor shattered and sank down several centimeters.


    Galen looked at the ground beneath my feet in shock.


    "See.. I''m a bit heavier than I seem." Worried that I''d identally destroy the house, I quickly changed back to my humanoid form.


    With me changing forms, Galen quickly snapped out of his shock. "I will have some peoplee by to strengthen it. In the meantime, shall we continue?"


    "Sure.." -It''ll be easier for me if they just get someone else to strengthen it anyways..- I was originally nning to strengthen the floors in my free time but with the space rune incident, I was left with far more important things on my te.


    We continued down the hall for a bit till we came across two huge doors on either side of the hall.


    "Young Lord, your room is this one on our left, and Young Miss, your room is here on the right. If either of you need anything, some maids will being by shortly."


    "Sweet, thanks."


    Seeing we understood, Galen immediately started heading back down the hall.


    "I don''t like him.." Krystallo watched him as he walked down the hall.


    "Haah.. I''m sure it''s just because we don''t know him yet... Well, Ima head into my room, just knock if you need something."


    "Okay!" She looked over at me with a childish smile.


    -Well.. lets see what it''s like inside..-


    Hopping off Ilios I walked up to the huge door.


    When I was getting ready to push it open, I noticed there was a human sized door for the maids. -How convenient..-


    Opening up the door, I let Ilios in first before following right behind him.


    Inside, the room was absolutely massive.


    At the center of the room, there was arge, circr stone tform, presumably where I would be sleeping but.. -After what I experienced in Kan, just stone doesn''t cut it..-


    I quickly made my way onto the tform and took my time to strengthen everything in the room.


    Once I finished that, I changed to my dragon form and started trying to mimic the cushion from Kan.


    After a bit of trial and error, I finally found something that was simr andid the cushion onto the stone tform.


    Getting it centered properly, I sunk the center of the tform down some so the cushion would be held in ce and hopped onto it to make a few final changes.


    "Haah.." -This is bliss..-


    Iid there, nearly falling asleep from the incredible wave offort that washed over me.


    "Haah.." -Right.. I need figure that out before I sleep..-


    I slowly got back up, it was time I addressed a far more pressing matter.


    Not procrastinating any more, I pulled out some more space mana and read it like aura again.


    -Haah.. so I wasn''t imagining things..-


    Looking through my space mana revealed a massive crystalline structure that had no end.


    It looked as if an extremely tight 3d grid was just built through everything.


    -Now what if I..- Out of curiosity, I used space magic to push away the grid-like mana from a specific spot.


    To my surprise, as I pushed away more and more, the crystalline grid I pushed away started to form a familiar crystalline sphere.


    Almost immediately, a familiar ck sphere appeared, getting bigger and bigger until immediately contracting and reverting to the grid when I released it.


    -So that''s how the space rune worked..-


    On a basic level, the space rune stretched this crystalline grid out so the sphere would epass everyone, then released its influence which made the sphere contract and squeeze the people in it into that.. realm.


    -How weird..-


    After figuring out the uttermost basics of how it worked, I wanted toy down and nap, but there was onest thing I needed to check before that.


    -So.. I could create matter in that realm.. I wonder if I can do that here..-


    Following the same process as in that realm, I quickly managed to create a small block of aluminum. -Okay.. now lets see if it disappears when I stop holding it together..-


    Pulling my aura and mana away, I expected the cube to just disintegrate like before but it didn''t.


    -Did that liquid-like space mana break it down?-


    Although I was curious as to why it didn''t disappear, I was too excited that it worked and tired to really care.


    Having the ability to create matter opened the door to quite literally infinite possibilities! -But thats for a different day..-


    My drowsiness fromying on the cushion started to catch up with me, so I went toy down again.


    As I closed my eyes, I thought to myself. -I need to give those things names too.. that realm and the grid..-


    Luckily not long after I started thinking about it, two fitting names surfaced in my mind. -Ill call that realm the ''Void''.. and I''ll call this grid the ''Fabric of Space''..-


    Feeling satisfied with the names, I finally allowed myself to slowly drift to sleep with a satisfied smile on my face.


    - Antonia ~


    "Uggh.." I slowly opened my eyes when I noticed I was looking at a white ceiling. -Huh? What.. happ..-


    "Please stayying down Antonia.." A familiar voice rang out from next to me.


    "Sister?" It was Anfisa, my sister who was a doctor that worked in the estate with me.


    "Yeah, yeah. Calm down and don''t think too hard.. you got beat up really badly.."


    I felt a cold air wrap around my body. It was something I''d usually find ufortable but it helped numb the pain I was in. "What.. happened?"


    "Haah.. Do you remember Zachari Ragnarok?"


    "Y..yeah.. that young girl I trained all those years ago?"


    "Yeah, her. Well she is the one who put you in this state."


    "To think she.. beat me in a f..fight.."


    "Actually, it wasn''t a fight. You just called her son a ve and she hit you so hard you nearly died."


    My entire body tensed as I heard her words. Pain coursed through my body but I didn''t care, the fear that filled me numbed it.


    "Please calm down.. the Ragnaroks have already made it clear that the damage sustained to your body is enough punishment. Thankfully the son you called a ve convinced them it was just a simple misunderstanding so she eased up the penalty."


    Although what my sister spoke about was good news, I felt awful. "Im.. sorry.." If things had happened normally, not only I but also my sister would have been executed.


    "Haah.. just rx, you''ll be fine. I''m sure the memories of the incident wille back to you after some rest. Once you feel better you can go apologize to them yourself."


    As I pushed through the pain to turn my head, I looked up at my sister who was using magic on me. "T..thank you.."

 Chapter 124: A Newbie

    Chapter 124: A Newbie


    Late Afternoon - Early Summer : Bahamut Estate


    - Chloe ~


    My name is Chloe, a dragon from southwestern Bahamut.


    When I was a newborn, my parents were pressed for money and had piled up debts so they tried to sell me off somewhere.


    Luckily, instead of being sold as a ve since I was so young, I was sold to a noble family. Although I was told it was the Ragnarok family at the time, when I was younger I had never heard of them.


    It wasn''t until several yearster, once I started my maid training, that I finally learned about them.


    -I still remember not believing myself when I learned about them..- After all, what were the chances that an abandoned orphan would be picked up by such a huge family with bottomless money and influence.. -I still struggle to believe it..-


    But once I turned 13 I had my adolescent dragon sleep and awoke my mana.


    With 3 attribute nodes all with great affinities, I was given the choice to have a career change to be a knight but I decided to stay as a maid. -I didn''t want to make those 10 years of training go to waste..- Plus I never liked the idea of fighting, I was a pacifist of sorts.Well, to continue, 2 years after I finished my dragon sleep, I could finally leave the academy and head to the estate I would actually be working at.


    When I arrived, I couldn''t help but be shocked.


    I remember thinking to myself ''How could people live in such a huge building..'' but to my surprise, after getting used to theyout, I no longer thought of it just as a workce or a huge building, but instead as my home.


    The next 3 years were incredible. Although the Ragnaroks weren''t in the home, we still kept the entire building spotless and practiced constantly to be able to handle emergencies and take care of them once they arrived.


    But one day we got caught off guard by an unexpected visitor. Her name was Asimi Ragnarok, an absolutely gorgeous white dragon with an incredibly oppressive aura.


    She just swung by for the day to let us know that her daughter would being here soon and since then, we had been making sure everything was perfect.


    Last night, I was sent out to town to change our order of food and supplies because something was wrong with it but it took longer than expected.


    They made a big deal about it since they were already trying to get the order but half a day and nearly 20 goldter, I finally got it worked out.


    Currently, I was on my way back to the estate, thinking happy thoughts and looking forward to the Ragnarok''s arrival.


    -I wonder when the Ragnaroks will arrive..- I had always wondered what kind of people they were, and I was truly excited to finally serve someone, to finally put my practice in reality.


    -Hooh.. I shouldn''t be so nervous..- My heart was beating quickly with excitement but I needed to calm down.


    After flying for a bit longer, the estate finally came into sight.


    But something was very wrong. -What.. happened..-


    My heart sank as I saw the door and outer wall blown to bits with a pile of rubble in the center walkway but as I got closer, I noticed there were knights still at their posts by the gate.


    -Did someone attack the estate?- I quickly picked up the pace andnded in front of the gate.


    "Identification please."


    I lightly held up my front right leg that had a metal band around it with a white dragon insignia on it.


    "Thank you, you may enter."


    Quickly making my way through the gate, I changed to my humanoid form and went inside through the gaping hole where the door was.


    "Ah you have made it back, Chloe."


    I looked over and saw Galen talking to me. "Yes, I got the order fixed as Antonia asked." -He never talks to me.. did something happen to Antonia?-


    "Great, we need all hands on deck currently. You said you could resist aura well, correct?"


    "Yes, although it''s been a while since I''ve felt something strong."


    "Well lets hope you can handle it.. I need you to go to the son''s room and check on him. Everyone I''ve sent to check on him can''t handle his aura and it''s bing a big problem, even the oldest of us struggled.. His name is Vasilias Ragnarok, in room 2."


    I quickly nodded and started heading down the hall before getting stopped by Galen again.


    "Chloe, please wait a moment."


    "Sorry, sir.." I instinctively apologized from habit.


    "Some important information before you go.. When he was a newborn, he touched an artifact that changed him in.. a few ways. He also has a pet Fenrir so be careful. Also, please keep in mind that he is a Ragnarok."


    "Yes, sir." Giving a light bow, I turned away and made my way down the hall.


    As I was walking, my mind started to wander. -Why did Galen look so flustered..-


    He was an emotionless man I could never understand, but seeing him that stressed was a little nerve wracking.


    "Hooh.." -Im sure it will be fine..-


    Once I made it to the door, I took a deep breath and gripped the door knob. -I got this!-


    *Click* *VWOOM*


    As soon as I opened the door, a wave of aura washed over me unlike anything I had ever felt before.


    I wanted to feel calm, but the sheer quantity was suffocating.


    As I walked through the door, I finally looked up and nearly forgot to breathe.


    At the center of the room was the familiar stone tform but on it was some kind of cushion with a massive ck dragonying on it.


    The dragon was a void-like ck with a dark haze that mimicked the night sky wrapping around it.


    -Such a.. beautiful dragon..- I stood there in a trance for a while before realizing something was incredibly odd. -Wait.. this can''t be the right room..- I nervously nced back towards the door and saw ''2'' on it. -No.. it''s.. right..-


    -This is more than just ''a few changes'', Galen!!-


    As I stood there, trying to sort my thoughts, a strong wind blew past me from behind.


    *Sniff*


    -A.. breath?- My heart sank and my mind went nk. -Am I.. dead?-


    *Sniff*


    Once whatever it was got a good smell of me, it stopped, but I was still frozen from fear.


    As I stoodpletely still, unable to move, a massive pure white wolf casually walked past me.


    It watched me with its golden irises as it walked towards the tform, jumping into the middle of the cushion andying down to bepletely epassed by the dragon.


    -THAT''S NOT A FENRIR EITHER!- As my fear started to subside, my mind started clearing up.


    -He��s sleeping anyways so I shouldn''t wake him..-


    After taking time to collect myself, I sneakily made my way back out into the hall, firmly closing the door behind me.


    Finally escaping the aura, I put my hand on my knees and caught my breath. "Hah.. hah.."


    "So you weren''t able to do it either huh.." A young colleague of mine was standing next to the door.


    "No.. I can handle it.. it''ll just.. hah.. take some getting used to.."


    "Oh that''s good to hear. So what do you think of him?"


    "He''s truly.. stunning.."


    "I know right? Isn''t he dreamy.."


    "Haha.. I cant deny that.." -Although he is truly beautiful.. I''m simply happy to serve someone so strong..- A smile full of innocence and genuine joy slowly crept onto my face.

 Chapter 125: An Elders Past

    Chapter 125: An Elders Past


    Early Afternoon - Early Summer : Bahamut Estate


    "Uwwah.." With a yawn, I looked over at Ilios who was still asleep next to me. -I should check on Mother..-


    It had been a few days since my nap. I spent most of my time sleeping or fiddling with space mana but I hadn''t left my room at all yet.


    Not long after I woke up, Mother came by my room to check on me but other than that, I was just left alone.


    When Mother came by, she mentioned that she had been busy with paperwork but after a few days we would figure out our new routine for the science lessons.


    -I hope we can get back into that routine soon..-


    Figuring I should do something productive and move around, I slowly stood up and changed to my humanoid form.


    ��Come on Ilios, let''s head out.�� I quickly started towards the door with Ilios next to me.


    *Click*As I walked out, I noticed the floor still hadn''t been strengthened. -Haah.. I wonder if they''ve even fixed the door yet..-


    -Well I guess I''ll find out now..- Figuring I would walk through the main hall to get to Mothers office, I started walking down the hallway.


    Once I made it to the main hall, I noticed the area had been cleaned up and mostly fixed. The floors were no longer shattered and the pile of rubble was gone but the doors seemed to just be ceholders. -I guess they have to get doors that big specially made so it''s taking a while..-


    Figuring it was nothing I should worry about, I quickly made my way up the stairs and towards Mothers office.


    -This should be it..- It was a fairly normal looking door with a familiar white dragon insignia on it.


    *Click*


    "Who is i-"


    "Hi, Mother!" After scanning the room with my aura, I entered without knocking.


    "Oh good afternoon sweetie!" Mother immediately shot up from her desk and gave me a strong hug. "So, what all did you do in your room?"


    "Just slept a lot and yed with magic a bit."


    "Oh good. I''m d you''re getting enough sleep."


    "Haha, so how''s your working along?"


    Mother finally let me go and walked back to her desk. "It''s going well, luckily most of the family paperwork got filtered through Mother (Asimi) while I wasn��t in Bahamut so the quantity left over wasn''t a whole lot."


    "Oh, so are you getting close to finishing?"


    "Yes actually, we should be able to figure out our new schedule now."


    An inexplicable joy suddenly surfaced in my mind. "So I noticed the back of the estate has a big field, how about we do our lessons out there every other night."


    Mother looked at me with curiosity. "Did someone tell you I would have more work here? I expected you to want to do it every day."


    "It''s not that I don''t want to, I just figured that every day only worked because we weren''t busy with other things, but now that we are in Bahamut, you and Father have responsibilities beyond taking care of Krystallo and I."


    Mother stared at me with wide eyes. "Haah.. sometimes I forget how shockingly knowledgeable you are about these things.." Mother looked at me with a grateful smile. "Well, how about we start that routine tonight. If Krystallo isn''t up for dinner, I''ll go wake her up and let her know."


    "Alright. Where is Father by the way?"


    "Ah.. he uh.. left this morning to finally inform the elders of our arrival.."


    "You don''t seem too excited about that.."


    "Haah.. I''ve never liked most of them.. Plus Eugene has an.. <em>extreme</em> hate for halfies which makes me worried about you meeting him."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Haah.. the reason most dragons hate halfies is because they are weak and inferior to pure dragons. Most dragons see halfies as something that smudges the reputation of the dragon race, but that doesn''t mean they hate all halfies... There have been many times in history where there were halfies that made great contributions to the dragon race, and they were exalted just as much as pure dragons were because of such, but Eugene is different." Mothers mood darkened as anger surfaced on her face.


    "Why does Eugene have such a deep hatred for halfies?"


    "I''m not entirely sure but it has something to do with the death of his parents and siblings. My mother said it had to do with how his whole family was killed by a halfie, but.. I''m not entirely sure how true that is. Ever since he gained power in the Elder Hall though, a dark side of Dragons has formed, one with extreme hate of halfies."


    "And the rebellion just made it worse.."


    "Incredibly so... If he meets you and finds out you''re a halfie, I''m worried he will try to.. test the limits.."


    "Even if he does, I''m half dragon half Ancient Fenrir, I''m confident I can kill anyone Ie across if I needed to!"


    "Haah.. your abnormal strength can only close the gap so much when ites to size and age.." Mothers face was covered in worry. "Hopefully your father can dy the arrival of the eldersing to greet us but I''m not sure how long they can be dyed.."


    Her worry quickly filled me with anxiety. -Do I really need to get stronger..- As she looked at me with worried eyes, I shook off my nervousness to give her a childish smile in hopes of cheering her up.. "I have a few tricks up my sleeves! Just believe in my strength."


    "Haah.. You wouldn��t understand... Just promise me this.." Her expression turned serious and even a bit threatening. "Never show your humanoid form to visitors.."


    Slightly saddened that I couldn''t at least partially cheer her up, I gave a quiet response. "I.. won''t."


    "Hooh.."


    As Mother tried to calm herself down, I decided to stop interrupting her work. "Well, I''ll be in the backyard. I''m gonna y with some magic I cant use indoors so.."


    "Alright, well, be safe! I''ll be out at sunset."


    "Okay.." I gave an awkward smile seeing her forced cheer and quickly made my way out of the office with mixed emotions.


    Mothers worry and nervousness made me feel uneasy and filled me with anxiety. -How much stronger do I need to get for her to feelfortable..-


    Not wasting any more time, I made my way down the halls and out the back of the house.


    "Haah.." -Time to get off myzy a*s and be productive.. I guess I''ll start by figuring out how those void gate things work..-


    - Chloe ~


    "Chloe!"


    Hearing my name called I quickly made my way across the room. "Yes?"


    "Vasilias woke up and left his room, what are you doing?" The agitation in the older maid''s voice was apparent.


    "I''m helping Galen with contracts like he asked."


    "Your Vasilias''s personal maid and you haven''t even seen him awake since he arrived. Don''t you think now that he is up and moving that you should do your job?!"


    "Yes Ma''am.. I''m sorry, I''ll get right to it." Realizing my negligence, I quickly set down the papers I was working on and turned to head out the door. "Wait where is he?"


    "He just left the Missus office, he was heading out back, towards the garden."


    "Okay, I''m sorry again!"


    After giving the older maid a quick bow, I made my way down the halls and out the back door in a panic.


    -Im such a bad maid.. it''s been 3 days and he still hasn''t even seen me!-


    As I made my way outside, I quickly scanned the garden. -Where is he?-


    After a few minutes of looking, I finally noticed that there wererge footprints in the field (backyard) but the trail just abruptly stopped.


    -Did he fly off somewh..-


    *Vwoom*


    Interrupting my thoughts, an incredibly unfamiliar noise filled the air and a huge ck sphere appeared just above the ground.


    "Ah, so that''s how it works.. how fascinating.."


    As the ck bubble dissipated, I saw Vasilias casually sitting there with his Fenrir perched on his head as if everything was normal.


    I could only stand there, nkly staring at the scene. -W..wh..what?-

 Chapter 126: A Gate to the Void

    Chapter 126: A Gate to the Void


    Mid Afternoon - Early Summer : Bahamut Estate


    "Haah.." -Time to get off myzy a*s and be productive.. I guess I''ll start by figuring out how those void gate things work..-


    Making my way through the garden, I came up to the field and sat down in the middle of it. -This is as good of a spot as any..-


    "Hooh.." -Lets get started..-


    Pulling out some space mana, I did the same as earlier and pushed away the fabric of space to create a sphere around me.


    *Vwoom*


    As soon as I released it, the sphere just broke apart and returned to the usual grid.


    -It didn''t pull me through?- I was stumped right off the bat.


    I was at a loss for words but that didn''t mean I stopped trying.After several minutes, once I was starting to run out of ideas, I finally found a method that worked.


    My vision was quickly wrapped in darkness before fading to mesh with the familiar nebulous sky of the void.


    -It worked!-


    This time, instead of just releasing the sphere, I forcefully copsed it inwards.


    -So what is the void then?- As I figured out how to get in at my will, I started to question what the void actually was. As I was thinking, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. -Its the tubes..-


    It was the same web of tubes that I saw when we first arrived in Bahamut, the only difference was that I was a bit farther away this time. -But it''s not that far..-


    As I tried to piece together some sort of theory about what the void was, I came up with a few decent ideas but I wasn''t confident in them.


    It wasn''t till several hourster that I snapped out of my thoughts and realized I should probably go back. -I don''t want to miss the lesson with Mother after all..-


    But now I had the problem of figuring out how to make a gate to get out.


    -Last time I got out, I just created the sphere around me and it worked..-


    Once again creating the sphere around me, I quickly finished and released my influence on it.


    *Vwoom*


    The moment I released it, I watched as it was ripped apart by the crystalline fabric of space trying to forcefully get back to its correct position, it destroyed the sphere I made and dispersed my space mana in the process.


    "Ah, so that''s how it works.. how fascinating.." -I wonder if it actually needs to be a sphere..-


    Although I got lost in my thoughts again, I quickly snapped out of it. -Ah right! The lesson!-


    But as I nced around I noticed it was still day. -Its.. still the afternoon..-


    The sun was still high in the sky and even a butterfly that hadnded on a nearby flower when I went in was still there.


    -Is time.. stopped in the void?-


    As the possibility came to mind, I just froze. The decently solid theories I had thought of previously were all shattered beyond recognition.


    My mind simply nked.


    "Sir Vasilias." An unfamiliar young woman''s voice came from behind me.


    -Hm?- Snapping me out of my thoughts, I turned my head around to look over towards the voice.


    Behind me was a formally dressed maid giving me a deep bow.


    She had pale white skin with elf ears and pink hair that nearly looked white.


    "What is it?"


    Stiffening up after hearing my voice, she kept her head low and held the bow. "Uhm.. My name is Chloe, I was assigned to be your personal maid."


    "Hm, it''s a bit ill mannered of you to introduce yourself without showing your face."


    Immediately standing up straight and looking at me, he face filled with worry and anxiety. "I''m very sorry, Young Lord!"


    "Calm down.. I just wanted to see your face." She was quite pretty, her cerise eyes gave an odd ascetic but it matched her hair quite well. "So what did youe by for?" (Cerise is a shade of pink)


    "W..well I just came by to introduce myself and to see if you needed anything.." Her nervousness was like a childs.


    "Well I guess I should introduce myself as well."


    "Th..th..that''s not necessa-"


    Interrupting her, I changed to my humanoid form and walked up to her. "My name is Vasilias Ragnarok, I''ll be in your care." I stuck out my hand to try and give her a handshake.


    She just stood there and stared at my hand as color started returning to her cheeks.


    -Does she not know what a handshake is?- "It''s called a handshake, it''s something people in the human world use as a formal greeting or to solidify agreements."


    Hearing me, she nced up at me before grabbing my hand. "S..sorry.. I know what a handshake is.. I..I just.."


    "Alright calm down, you''re getting too flustered." I quickly covered her in my aura which made her calm down again but it caught her in a trance.


    She just stared at me until I pulled my hand away. Her face immediately turned red as she realized she was staring.


    "Well I don''t need anything for now, I''ll let you know if something pops up." As I walked back into the field I changed back to my dragon form. "Ah, actually there is something."


    Snapping out of her thoughts, she regained a formal pose, her cheeks now flushed red. "What is it, Young Lord?"


    "Can you ask Galen when the floors will be strengthened for me?"


    "Right away! Is that all?"


    "For now."


    Hearing my dismissal she quickly left the yard and went inside in a hurry.


    Turning back towards the field, I looked back at the fabric of space. "Now, where was I.."


    - Asimi Ragnarok ~


    "My Lady!" The joyful voice of a newly hired maid rang out from behind me.


    "Hm? What is it, Doris?" I turned around to see a young and beautiful elf with blue and white hair and eyes.


    She looked up at me with a vibrant smile full of childish innocence. "Sir Osto is here to see you!"


    My eyes immediately lit up as I dashed to the front door.


    *Crack*


    mming open the door so hard it broke, I was met with Ostos shocked face. "Did my sweet babiese to Bahamut?!"


    "Y..yeah, just ca-"


    Ignoring everything after his confirmation, I ran out the door and leapt off the ground. -Its time to see my beautiful grandbabies!-


    But right as I got off the ground I felt something bite my tail. -You dare!-


    *BANG*


    I was immediately mmed into the ground.


    Upon getting up to my feet I whipped around and looked Osto in the eyes. "Why did you stop me.." I covered him with all of my aura, but his serious expression did not change.


    "You can''t go see them yet, don''t make this more of a problem than it needs to be.."


    "And why can''t I see them?"


    "That''s literally why I''m here.. now can we.." He nced around some and lowered his voice. "Can we talk somewhere private?"


    I was caught off guard as I tried to figure out what he was scheming. "What are you nning.."


    "If you would just take us to a private ce, I could tell you.."


    After sorting my thoughts for a moment, I took a deep breath and calmed myself. "Haah.." -I shouldn''t get ahead of myself.. If it wasn''t incredibly serious he would not have stopped me..- "Follow me then.."

 Chapter 127: Her Humanoid Form

    Chapter 127: Her Humanoid Form


    Mid Morning - Early Summer : Bahamut Estate


    After Chloe left, the day progressed pretty smoothly.


    I spent all the time I could trying to make my space magic more efficient and trying toe up with some theories but none of them went anywhere.


    Once night rolled around, Mother and Krystallo came out back for the lesson.


    It went pretty well with Mother improving my leaps and bounds as usual and Krystallo, well.. she was slowly getting there.


    We ended up talking until sunrise when we ended the session and split up again.


    After that, time started to slip away. My days weren��t too exciting with almost all of my time being dedicated to training my magic and learning more about space mana.


    Although there weren''t any huge discoveries, I did be more efficient in using space mana, albeit only slightly.


    Chloe would spend quite a lot of time outside with me as well. As time passed, she started to ease up and not get as flustered but that doesn''t mean she didn''t have her moments.I would sometimes try to bounce ideas off of her, thinking that I could get a new view on things from someone who wasn''t super knowledgeable on the subject but more often than not she was a little too clueless.


    After a week or so of my new routine, Father returned saying he had convinced Asimi to dy the elders some but we honestly weren''t too sure how long that wouldst.


    A couple months after that, Krystallo and I''s birthdays came up. Although I just thought of it as ��another day��, to Krystallo it meant a lot so I spent the day with her.


    Towards the evening Mother and I gave her some personal lessons on transformation magic instead of our usual science lessons and it paid off greatly.


    Only a week after that, the fateful day of Krystallo using a humanoid form for the first time arrived.


    "Brother, Brother!" Krystallo ran out to me in the field. "I think I can do it!"


    As I turned around I noticed Mother and Father behind her wearing proud smiles.


    My eyes immediately lit up as I realized what she was talking about. "Haha, see? I told you that you''d be able to do it!" Seeing her eager smile I couldnt help but pat her head some.


    "Hehe." She gave me a childish smile from the praise.


    "Alright, now go for it. If you need help just ask." Quickly changing to my humanoid form, I got ready to help her once she transformed.


    "Mmm.." Giving a slightly nervous nod, she sat down and closed her eyes.


    Not long after, she started moving quite arge amount of mana and a bright white light shined out. -She did it!-


    Once the light faded, I looked over at a small child that looked around 9 or 10 with snow white hair, perky wolf ears and a bushy tail.


    "H..how cute.." Although Chloe was the only one to say it out loud, we all thought the same thing.


    As Krystallo opened her eyes, she started checking out her new form before touching the wolf ears and giving me a proud smile. "Hehe, I look like Brother now!" She quickly tried to hop up but lost bnce and fell back.


    Quickly moving over and catching her, I gave her an encouraging look. "Haha, calm down Krystallo.. it''ll take some time for you to get used to moving around in this form."


    "Then howe Brother used it right away?" She looked at me with a pout.


    "Well.." I looked around and noticed Mother and Father giving me curious looks as well. "I just caught on quick. I''m sure you''ll get the hang of it soon as well so don''t get discouraged."


    "Hmph.."


    "Here.." I quickly straightened her up and grabbed her hands. "I want you to just try and walk to me. I''ll catch you if you fall so don''t worry."


    "Sweetie, try to lean forward a bit and fall onto your other foot like this." Mother quickly changed to her humanoid form to show her what she meant.


    "O..okay.." Reluctantly agreeing she leaned forward a bit and fell into her foot. "Hey this.. isnt too bad actually.." It looked a bit goofy but it was a pretty incredible start.


    "There ya go!"


    Before we knew it Krystallo was able to walk, albeit a bit awkwardly, on her own!


    "Haha, I knew my cute little sister would be talented!" With a proud smile I walked up next to her and rubbed her head again.


    "Hehe.." Krystallo looked up at me with a proud smile.


    Seeing us have a bit of bonding time, Mother gave us a warm smile. "How about you help her once a day until she can move naturally, Vasilias."


    "I''m fine with that as long as she is." I looked down at Krystallo.


    Hearing mother, a gleam appeared in her eyes and she gave a strong nod.


    "Haha, alright, that''s a deal then. Whenever you want to, you cane out and I''ll help you practice a bit."


    "Okay! Can we start now though?"


    "Sure. Chloe, if you want, you shoulde with us. You might be able to provide some better advice than me."


    As I asked, Krystallo shot an intimidating look towards Chloe making her shrink back a bit. "I think it would be best if I did not.. sorry.."


    "Haah.." Noticing what Krystallo did, I didn''t bother forcing it. "Well in that case how about you go get some sweets. Now that Krystallo has a humanoid form she can enjoy the pleasure of human pastries."


    "Haha, right away!"


    As she was leaving, Mother left as well. "Well I think we will leave you two alone for now. I''ll be in my office if you need anything." She gave us a warm smile as she left with Father.


    After they left, I looked towards Krystallo with an encouraging smile. "So I guess we will start with the basics!"


    And just like that, a new part of our routine started.


    We continued like that for another month. She made incredible improvements in her movement and was even able to run quite quickly and naturally now.


    On top of that, although it took some extra time, I also taught her some basic ways to use wind magic for aerodynamics to make her a bit faster.


    Before I knew it, she was able to use basic vacuum magic with decent efficiency and even while she was moving.


    "To think you improved so much in a month.." Mother watched as Krystallo ran around in her humanoid form while simultaneously using wind magic.


    "Hehe, it''s all thanks to Brother!" She shot a proud gaze over at me.


    "Chloe helped too, don''t give me all of the credit."


    Looking over at Chloe, she immediately got flustered. "I..I didn''t do anything. It was all because of Sir Vasilias and Lady Krystallos hard work."


    Over thest month, she helped me more than I could imagine. As I had expected, my ways of teaching were a bit much for Krystallo to understand sometimes so I had Chloe asionally step in and help out.


    She was great at tranting my.. <emplicated</em> instructions.. into more child friendly ones which ended up being a huge help.


    -She also helped me realize just how out of the norm Krystallo and I are..-


    As I grew up, what I assumed to be normal was skewed so far to the side that I just assumed Krystallo was the norm. -Oh how wrong I was..-


    ording to Chloe even Krystallo was a freak of nature in terms of strength, talent and mana capacity for her age.


    -I guess the Ragnaroks are known for their strength for a reason..-


    Pulling me out of my thoughts, Mother chimed in again. ��Well, now that Krystallo has gotten better at moving in her humanoid form, how about a trip?��

 Chapter 128: Trip Preparations

    Chapter 128: Trip Preparations


    Early Morning - Mid Summer : Bahamut Estate


    ��Well, now that Krystallo has gotten better at moving in her humanoid form, how about a trip?��


    -Hm?- "Where to?"


    "Well, I feel like my mother will kill me if I don''t bring you guys to see her some time soon."


    Krystallo looked up at Mother. "Won''t us visiting alert the elders?"


    "She just cante to us, that doesn''t mean we cant go to her."


    Before anyone else could speak up there was something I needed to ask. "So when are we going to leave?"


    "This afternoon or tonight, there are only a couple things I need to finish before we go."


    "Alright, in that case I need to go check up on the pirate settlement by the temple so I''ll be back in a bit."Mother looked at me with wide eyes. "Pirate settlement? This is the first time I''ve heard of it.."


    I nced over at Father with slight disappointment. -Seriously?-


    "Sorry.. I got a bit preupied.."


    "Haah.." -I guess I can''t me him..- "Well you can exin to Mother while I''m gone. I won''t be too long."


    As I turned to the field, I got stopped by Mother again. "Ah, before you go.. should I send someone with you to show you how to activate the space rune?"


    A confident smile slowly crept onto my face. "I won''t be using the space rune so I''ll be fine going alone."


    "Wait what? How are you going to get there without the space rune? YOU ARE NOT FLYING THERE!" Mothers face immediately got serious as a wave of worry washed over her.


    "Haha, calm down Mother, I won''t be flying either."


    "Then.. how?" Her face was filled with genuine confusion.


    "Haha, I guess it''s time to show you guys what I''ve been learning to use!"


    Everyone immediately gave me a weird look.


    "Well.." I casually walked out and sat in the middle of the field. "I''ll be backter!" With a small wave, a gate epassed Ilios and I making us vanish.


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    "Well.."


    -What is he doing?- I looked at him with an odd curiosity.


    "I''ll be backter!"


    -Hm?-


    *Vwoom*


    A ck sphere suddenly appeared around him before instantly disappearing, leaving no trace of Vasilias or Ilios behind.


    My entire body and mind froze.


    Maria and Chloe both broke out into a cold sweat with pale faces and Osto was just as shocked as I was.


    "Did he just.." Osto slowly turned his head to me and stared at me with wide eyes.


    -He used space magic..- Slowly turning to him, my look of clueless surprise started to change to a smile.


    As we stared at each other, our shock and awe quickly turned to excitement.


    A feeling of pride like no other quickly filled us.


    I puffed up my chest and held my head high. "I told you I''d raise him to be the strongest!"


    Osto couldn''t help butugh in the good atmosphere. "Haha, I remember saying he was the next Bahamut as a joke several years ago but now its seeming possible."


    "No.." I looked at him with a confident smile. "Vasilias will far surpass Bahamut!"


    Although it was incredibly taboo to question Bahamut''s strength, we didn''t care.


    We were simply proud to be raising the one who we believed would be the strongest dragon in existence.


    - Vasilias ~


    -Hehe.. I wonder how they reacted..-


    Once I got into the void, I looked around to find the node of the temple space rune and found it fairly quickly.


    -I''ve gotten more efficient using both space mana and my thruster magic.. lets see if I can use them in here now..-


    Not wasting any time I created a small amount of hydrogen and lit the thruster.


    -Hey.. that''s way more efficient than I expected..- Although I wasn''t moving fast at all, I didn''t want or need to.


    Not only was I not traveling very far, the faster I went, the more effort I''d need to put in to slow down.


    -Oh shoot!- After only a couple seconds I realized I was passing it and slowed down. -I almost passed it already..- I quickly noticed my sense of scale was a bit off now that I was right next to it.


    It was incredibly shrunk downpared tost time and was only the size of the physical space rune artifact. -Is it tiny because the rune isn''t activated?-


    After thinking about it for a moment, I lightly shrugged my shoulders and made a new gate right above it. -I''m sure I��ll figure it all out at some point..-


    -I guess I should make the gate a bit more above the node than that actually..- I really didn''t want to have to run through all the traps again and was honestly too nervous to find out what would happen if I created a gate that was under the ground or in a wall.


    *Vwoom*


    As the sphere faded, I found myself in the very top of the upper atmosphere.


    -What the?! The gate was still only a bit above the node.. Just what is the ratio of distance in the voidpared to the physical world..- As I thought about it, I finally started to realize just how ridiculously short the distances in the void werepared to normal.


    -I need to.. be more careful about that in the future..- I was quick to realize how bad that could''ve been if I went a bit too far and it sent a chill down my spine.


    As I fell through the upper atmosphere, the temple steadily came into view and the nearby coast line could be seen, which quickly snapped me out of my thoughts.


    -Hey, they really followed through with their word..-


    On the coast there was a fairlyrge dock with severalrge ships currently docked at it.


    "Well, hold on Ilios. It''ll be a hardnding!" Since it would be the first time most of the people here would meet me, I figured I''d make an entrance.


    Changing to my humanoid form and grabbing Ilios, I used some thrusters to help me reach the ground.. a tad faster.


    *CRACK*


    *BANG*


    Hitting the ground with excessive force, the sand beneath my feet turned molten.


    -Hey, I guess I did get a bit stronger sincest time..- Although I hit the ground quite a bit harder thanst time, my knees weren��t strained as badly.


    Letting down Ilios, I casually walked out of the puddle of molten ss and started checking out the port.


    -For only starting a few months ago, this is a pretty good start..- The port was fairly simple, looking just like arge raised dock but it was pretty well built.


    The joints where the support beams met each other were actually cut to fit just right into each other, making the dock really quite sturdy.


    -But no one is here..- Although it was pretty cool to see the improvement, I was here to look for Captain Abbie. -They''re probably in that big clearing.-


    Figuring there wasn''t anything else to see here, I made my way down the, now widened, trail through the forest.


    As I got closer to the clearing I could hear the noise of several footsteps and some chatter.


    "What was that?"


    "I have no idea, it was too loud to be a cannon."


    "I hope it''s not a sea monster.."


    "Calm down man, I''m sure whatever it was won��t bother us."


    As I came around the corner I saw a group of 4 guys, all well armed with armor and swords, making their way towards me. -They havent noticed me yet?- A yful grin slowly crept onto my face. "Would you guys happen to know where Captain Lassar is?"

 Chapter 129: A Growing Settlement

    Chapter 129: A Growing Settlement


    Mid Morning - Mid Winter (Hemisphere change) : Northeastern Space Rune


    "Would you guys happen to know where Captain Lassar is?"


    Immediately freezing, they all paused and stared at me.


    "Is that a no? What a shame.. I was hoping finding her would be easy." Ignoring them, I casually walked by.


    "Oi!" The strongest of the group pulled out his sword and pointed it at my back. "You can''t just walk in here like that!"


    "Says who? As far as I know, I own this ce. If little miss Abbie tried to change that then she needs to be given a reminder.."


    "Who are you to say you own this ce?!" One of the guys behind him drew his sword and swung it at me. "Let me teach you your ce!"


    "Man.. speed, strength and even your form all sucks.." Just moving enough so he barely missed each swing, I dodged his flurry. "I at least expected you weaklings to rely on some technique.."


    Appearing in front of him, I reached out to set my hand on his shoulder."Now how about you guys.." *CRACK* "..give me some directions.." I put a tad too much force into the motion and ended up blowing the guys shoulder off.


    As the man limply fell to the ground in a pool of blood, I nced back towards the strongest of the group and pressured him with a bit of aura.


    His face immediately paled and he dropped his weapon. "We are happy to answer any questions you may have!" He turned to me and gave a deep bow.


    "I just want to know where Abbie Lassar is."


    "She is in the tavern, sir!"


    "See? Was that so hard?" As I walked past, his shaky knees finally gave out and he copsed to the ground.


    The other two guys in the group were simply frozen from fear and didn��t intervene.


    -I''m surprised they didn''t try to fight me when they saw me blow their friends shoulder off..-


    Continuing down the trail, I came up to a small town that was built on stilts, presumably for storms and extra high tides. (Formon flooding)


    Although the town was small, only consisting of a few buildings, they were each fairlyrge, thergest of which having a hanging sign with a wooden mug and a fork on it.


    -That''s probably the tavern..-


    Walking up the ramp I made my way across the little vige and past several groups of people.


    -For pirates, some of them are pretty decent looking..- A few of them didn''t have the appearance of bandits but instead just looked like hard working folk.


    Walking up to the tavern, I reached up and opened the door.


    *Creak*


    The chatter inside quickly stopped as they looked over to see who came in and saw the unfamiliar face.


    Seeing Abbie sitting at the bar having a drink I paid the others no mind.


    A few of them even tried to talk to me. "How did you even get here kid.."


    It wasn''t until I walked right up behind Abbie that everyone stiffened up and broke into a cold sweat.


    Abbie nced to her side. "Hm? What''s with the sudden silen-"


    "How have you been Abbie?" My voice filled the tavern.


    The instant Abbie heard it, she froze and paled, slowly turning her head to look at me.


    As opposed to her shock, I just gave a yful smile since I was in a good mood. "The settlement has trulye a long way but I couldn''t help but run into a group of guys telling me I wasn''t wee. Do you happen to need a reminder?"


    Immediately throwing down her drink she turned around and gave a deep bow. "I''m very sorry! I will have those men killed! I promise that you are and will always be weed here, Sir Whyte!"


    All the people in the tavern, men and women alike watched the scene with a mix of fear and awe.


    "It��s fine, you don''t need to kill them. You should have as many usable workers as possible when building a settlement like this. Plus, whether a few rats think I''m wee or not doesn''t matter to me.��


    ��Thank you very much for your forgiveness and gracious generosity!�� You could hear the anxiety and fear in her slightly shaky voice.


    ��Alright you can stop with the bootlicking, I just came by to check on how things were going. Is there a private ce where we can talk around here?"


    "Yes, one moment please." Keeping her head down low, she used magic to amplify her voice. "ALL OF YOU BAST*RDS GET OUT OF THE TAVERN!"


    -That''s one way to do it..-


    As if they were waiting for the order, it was only a few seconds before the tavern cleared out with the exception of Abbie, the bartender and me.


    "You can look up at me Abbie.. I''m not here to kill you or anything so why are you so tense?"


    Slowly breaking into a cold sweat, she straightened up. "Fear, sir.."


    "Pfft-hahaha.. I like your honesty. There isn''t a need to fear me though, at least as long as you follow the deal of course.��


    Abbie looked up at me and gave a nervous gulp.


    ��Well to start, how is the development going? Do you need anything?"


    "No sir.. Development has been progressing smoothly with people being the biggest issue.."


    "What do you mean? There were 4 big ships at the dock, it seems like you''ve expanded quite a bit."


    "Well.. yes.. but those are just the smaller local pirate crews. We want to try and absorb some of the bigger groups up north and expand our fleet but we are running into some problems with that.."


    "So is the problem strength?"


    "Gear and management.. A lot of our gear is starting to get old and worn so it''s limiting our strength and I need to stay here and manage everything in the settlement, leaving my crew without a captain. I��m too nervous to send my crew out alone since I make up such a huge portion of our strength.."


    -She��s pretty smart..- "So how much money would fix all of your problems?"


    "Haah.. too much to acquire quickly.."


    "So.. how about 10 tinum? Would that be enough?"


    "I mean.. yeah.. but, that''s way more than what we need and is far too hard to-"


    *Clink* I casually set down a small stack of tinum coins on the bar counter.


    Not only Abbie, but also the bartender just froze and nkly stared at the money.


    "Think of this as.. an upfront investment of sorts." -It''s money that I just made so even if I don''t make it back, it''s fine..- Plus, I wasn''t worried about money, I was mostly doing this for fun.


    Abbie slowly turned to me with a look of disbelief.


    "See? I told you I''m not scary!"


    After that, we talked for a bit longer about some details moving forward along with me giving her a few tips that would help the settlement grow.


    Overall it was quite a good talk. By the end, she stopped looking at me like I was a monster and more as if I was her savior.


    "Thank you very much sir Whyte!"


    "Food and Drinks are always on the house for you here!" Even the bartender was acting like he owed me.


    -I can''t me him though..- Well, since we have wrapped up here.." I leaned down and picked up Ilios. "See you in a few months!"


    *Vwoom*


    As soon as I went through the gate I changed to my dragon form and let Ilios onto my back. "Time to head back and get ready to meet grandmother!"


    Bonus:


    - Abbie Lassar ~


    "See you in a few months!"


    *Vwoom*


    With his goodbye, a mysterious ck sphere appeared around him before disappearing along with him.


    As if my brain had short circuited, there was only a single word that resounded through my mind. -What..-

 Chapter 130: Smooth Flights

    Chapter 130: Smooth Flights


    Early Afternoon - Mid Summer : Central Bahamut Space Rune


    After splitting up with Abbie, I traveled through the void back to the central Bahamut space rune.


    A problem I ran into was that I had no clue where anything was while I was in the void with the exception of where the runes were so I had to go to the only other rune I knew how to get home from.


    Once I got out of the void and was back in Bahamut, I started my flight back to the estate.


    -I could just bump the thrusters and get there super quick but.. I''m gonna take my time today..-


    For whatever reason, I felt like taking my time and enjoying the view and the wind.


    "Doesn''t the wind feel nice, Ilios?"


    Ilios was holding his head up high to enjoy the air. His fur being blown around by the wind was truly beautiful. "Woof.."


    Seeing him agree, I couldn''t help but feel happy. -He''s just so cute..-After flying for a bit longer, I flew over the wide channel between the central ind and the maind.


    Once I got close to the shore of the maind, my aura noticed something. -What kinda idiot..-


    Flying up towards me quite quickly was a small, meter wide, block of ice.


    Below the block, I could see a group of 4 young looking dragons, around Krystallos age looking up at me with devious grins.


    -Haha, you guys picked on the wrong dragon!- Once it was about to hit me, I reached out and caught it then used ice magic to increase the size of it a good bit.


    Too nervous that if I actually threw it, I might kill one of them, I ended up just letting gravity do the work.


    -Have fun dodging that!-


    Paying the group of kids no mind after I dropped it, I continued to the estate in high spirits.


    - Kostas Aetos ~


    "Truth or dare?" A group of noble and non-noble friends in our group were ying truth or dare.


    "Dare!" It was finally my turn and of course I wasn''t going to be a wimp and choose truth. -I��m a noble Aetos after all!-


    "The next halfie that flies over us, I want you to hit with your ice magic." A close friend of mine, Romano, was the one to give me the dare.


    "Hehe, challenge epted!" -Its not like halfies can dare offend me after all!-


    "Haha, I feel a bit bad for the next halfie toe by. So who''s next?" Peter, one of the non-nobles of the group, had a look of excitement as we continued the game.


    It wasn''t till quite a whileter that we finally saw one fly overhead.


    "There''s one! He''s pretty high though."


    "You dare doubt my abilities?! I''m a great Aetos, there is nothing I can''t do!"


    "Haha, well go give it your shot then." Romano poked fun at my confidence.


    "Hmph.." As I walked out into the shallow water, I looked up at the halfie. -He is really high.. but.. I think I got it..-


    Swimming to the bottom of the shallows, I turned over and created a decent sized block of ice.


    -Hooh..- Calming my mind, I used earth magic to strengthen my muscle and used extra water magic to try and give the block a bit of extra speed.


    "HYUP!"


    *Fwoosh*


    The block zipped through the air and was on track. -Its a hit!-


    "Haha, I told you I would hit hi-" As I was getting ready to brag, I noticed the dragon caught it. -Wait.. he''s a lot bigger than I thought..-


    Although I got a little nervous, I didn''t worry about it. -Who am I kidding, a halfie can''t touch me! I''m a great noble dragon!-


    Confidence welled up in me until the sun vanished and the area around us became dark. -Huh?


    "RUUUUN!!!" Romano was the first to yell.


    -What is he..- Slowly looking up, I noticed the problem.


    A massive, mountain sized chunk of ice was falling towards us.


    "AHHHH!!" Peter and the others started screaming as they ran.


    As they ran, I just sat there, floating in the shallow water and watched as the massive chunk of ice fell towards my face.


    -Is this.. the end?-


    *BANG* *CRASH*


    - Vasilias ~


    Finally making it home, I talked to Chloe and Maria for a bit to pass time before Krystallo, Mother and Father were finally ready.


    "Is everyone ready?" Mother was the one to do the final check up.


    "I believe so. Well, Chloe, Maria, if we need to slow down, just let us know."


    "Okay!" Chloe, who was in her pale pink dragon form, gave a joyous nod.


    Although Maria stayed quiet, she shared the enthusiasm.


    "I think we''re all ready Mother."


    "Alright! Well, follow me then!"


    Once we got up in the air, it was a fairly smooth flight, but the direction we were going was interesting.


    "Are we going to the central space rune?" We were heading north east.


    "No, we are just flying over it. Your grandmother''s estate is just a tad south of the elders hall."


    -Ah, so that''s why we are going this way..- (The elders hall is at the northernmost part of the maind)


    As we kept flying, we eventually started getting close to the space rune and a massive chunk of ice slowly crested the horizon.


    "What the.." Mother audibly expressed her confusion.


    "Is that all ice?!" Even Father looked shocked.


    "I.. think so.. What a ferocious amount of mana that must''ve taken.." Mother was simply awe struck. As an ice affinity dragon, she had a special understanding of the difficulty it would take to make something like that.


    I simply stayed quiet, nervous that if I said anything I might expose myself.


    As we flew over it, I looked down and noticed severalrge dragons around the base talking to a much smaller, sky blue dragon.


    -Hey that''s the kid that threw the ice at me.- He was incredibly pale but from the looks of things seemed uninjured.


    A smug smile slowly crept onto my face. -Hehe.. Hopefully that taught him a lesson.-


    After that, we kept flying for a while. It wasn''t until a huge estate evenrger than home came over the horizon that we got close.


    The scale was otherworldly. Our estate waspletely iparable to it. -What the actual f..-


    "Well, that''s where we will be staying for a bit."


    Everyone except Mother and Father stared at the estate in awe.


    "Oh, I should give you two a fair warning." Mother looked back at Krystallo and I. "Your grandmother has always wanted grandkids so.. be careful.."


    -What is that supposed to mean..-

 Chapter 131: Grandmother Asimi

    Chapter 131: Grandmother Asimi


    Late Afternoon - Mid Summer : Asimi''s Estate


    Not long after Mothers ominous message, we finally made it to the estate.


    "It has been a while, Young Miss." A massive light orange dragon towering nearly 52 meters tall was guarding the gate.


    "It''s been a while, Orion. Sorry I left you alone with Mother that whole time.." Oddly enough, Mothers face had a bit of guilt on it.


    "Haha, it seems like you haven''t changed." Orion looked at her with a warm and oddly fatherly smile.


    "Hey, I''m a grown woman now. I even have my kids with me. How could you say nothings changed?" She gave him a smug smile.


    Orion looked over and checked me out before walking up to me. "My name''s Orion Cirillo, nice to meet you." He pressured me with his aura with his greeting. It was quite oppressive but honestly far less than I had anticipated.


    Understanding what he was trying to do, I looked up and gave a smirk. -He doesn''t know who I am, huh..- "The name''s Vasilias Ragnarok. Don''t you think it''s a bit rude to look down on me like that?" Using my aura to pressure him, his knees buckled and the ground shattered.


    (Aura pressure is basically using aura to simte increased gravity on someone (it isn''t actually changing gravity**))Although he copsed down and lowered his head, he managed to hold it off the ground.


    Once he got the message, I eased up on my aura and he shifted around to a proper kneel. "I''m sorry I failed to recognize your excellency."


    "Hoho~, to think you''d kneel in front of my son on the first day.." Mother looked at the scene with satisfaction. "I figured you would at least wait a couple days."


    Orion immediately broke into a nervous sweat and stood up. "Sorry, I couldn''t help myself."


    -He definitely didn''t know who I was..-


    "Well in any case, I think if we make any more noise, Mother wille out and tackle me.."


    "Haha, right. Please head in, everyone. If any of you ever need anything, please just ask." He gradually moved over and opened the gate for us.


    Inside the walls of the estate were several beautiful statues of dragons and two veryrge flower gardens.


    -Those two dragons feel.. familiar..- Although I couldn''t tell why, I felt an odd familiarity with two of the statues. One was a smaller statue of an ice dragon and the bigger was.. -What kind of dragon even is that..-


    The dragon was covered in scars and simply looked like a monster. Even though it was just a statue, it felt intimidating and oppressive just looking at it. -Why does it feel familiar though..-


    "Ah did you notice our beautiful statues?" Mother started to brag a bit. "The outer few are the dragons that assisted Bahamut, with the statue in the middle being of Bahamut himself!"


    -That exins why that small statue looks familiar.. but why is..-


    *SLAM* Immediately grabbing my attention, the huge door to the estate was mmed open.


    Behind the door was a huge 43 meter dragon that looked just like Mother.


    "My sweet grandbabies!" She darted down the walkway and stopped right in front of Krystallo and I. "You two are so cute!!" After hesitating for a moment and looking us up and down with a warm smile, she pulled us closer and gave us a big hug.


    "M..mother.. be careful.." Mother looked a bit nervous.


    "Oh! Sorry. Did I use a bit too much strength?"


    "Hehe! I like your strong hug!" Krystallo��s face was covered with pure childish joy.


    "Oh you cute little thing.. just let your grandmother know if you want anything. I��ll be sure to get it for you!"


    *Gasp* "Can I get a cookie then?" Krystallo��s eyes lit up.


    "Of course sweetie!" Asimi reached out and patted her on the head as she nced back towards a young maid by the door.


    Giving a strong nod, the white and blue haired maid ran back inside.


    "So." She slowly turned to look at me. "Just like your Father said, youre a truly stunning piece of art�� Although I''d love to have a serious talk about what happened, we can do thatter. For now, let me just spoil you two kids." She reached up and rubbed my head like she did to Krystallo.


    -Man that feels.. pretty good..- Something about her touch made me feel an odd sense of security, simr to when Mother would praise me. "Hehe.." I gave a childish smile as I enjoyed the head rub.


    "Gosh you two are so cute!" She quickly reached out and hugged us once again. After what felt like a few minutes, she finally let us go and noticed Ilios. "So who is this little guy.."


    "That''s Ilios. He''s pretty special but we will need to.. be behind closed doors to talk about that."


    Asimi slowly looked up at me. "Haha, how ominous... Well, it seems like you brought two maids with you as well." She looked back at Maria and Chloe. "You two can go ahead and go inside, my maids will show you around."


    After that, Chloe and Maria went inside and we followed behind them not long after.


    We got a short tour of the massive estate, showing us our rooms and where we would eat as well as a massive living room that we could rx in our dragon form in.


    The room was arge but cozy wooden room with several huge cushions and arge firece that used artifacts to turn on and off.


    -Its really cozy..- The nice warmth andfortable cushions made me even more sleepy than I already was but it was a bit too early for that.


    After we finished the tour, Asimi, Mother and Father left to talk privately for a bit. I took that time to explore a bit on my own but there wasn''t anything too interesting besides a fairly decent sized library. -Ill check you outter..-


    After finishing my exploration I walked back into the living room andid down on a cushion.


    As I curled up, Ilios hopped in his signature spot and I nearly immediately started to doze off.


    -Man this cushion is.. reallyfortable..-

 Chapter 132: A Child Full of Surprises

    Chapter 132: A Child Full of Surprises


    Early Evening - Mid Summer : Asimi''s Estate


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    The mood quickly changed as Mother closed the door. "So how about we finally address the pressing matter. I talked to Osto a bit but it seems like he was fairly clueless."


    "Haah.." I nced over at Osto. "To be honest, I''m not entirely sure either. Vasilias seems to know something but he is keeping quiet about it."


    "How would he know what happened on the day he hatched?"


    "Well.. he had intent when I saw him the day after he hatched and a while ago when I asked, he said he was fully conscious even before he hatched.."


    "..." Mother just gave me a nk stare. "H..how though.."


    "Haha, that''s what we are wondering as well.."


    "Haah.. so what do you know about the changes made to him by that artifact?""Well, it changed quite a lot.. it likely partially changed his race as well."


    "That''s not..." She gave me a troubled look as she tried to figure it out. "So do you know what color his scales were before touching the artifact?"


    "He said they were white like mine."


    "Hooh.." Mother quickly sat down and tried to sort her thoughts some. "Any idea what race he was changed to?"


    "Y..yes.. We believe he is half dragon, half ancient fenrir."


    Her demeanor immediately changed, bing far more shaky. "S..say again?"


    "We think he''s half ancient fenrir.."


    She stared at me with wide eyes. "So then Ilios is.."


    "Yes.. he is the other ancient fenrir."


    Slightly losing bnce, she caught herself and lowered her head. The room was wrapped in silence for a while while she tried to think through it. "Osto told me he awaked his true form already as well.."


    "Yeah.. He awakened it after his second dragon sleep, then during their trip to Kan, he had another one. He hasn''t told us any of the details of that one though.."


    "Haah.. I don''t even know what to think. It feels like my thoughts just got clogged."


    "Osto and I have stopped trying to exin it ourselves and just started going with the flow. You''lle to realize it in a few days but when ites to Vasilias, nothing is impossible.."


    - Vasilias ~


    "Uwahh.." As I started waking up from my nap, I felt a familiar soothing sensation wrap around me. "Mmmm.." -I wonder what causes that..-


    As I shifted around, I identally woke up Ilios as well. He gave me a face full of tongue as soon as I opened my eyes.


    "Haha, good morning Ilios.." Although I didn''t want to sleep very long, I ended up sleeping for nearly 2 days.


    Finally sitting up and stretching, I made my way out into the hall. -I should ask to see if there is a ce to spar with Ilios..- I wanted to get back to my old training routine.


    Just outside the door to the living room was a familiar blue and white haired maid. "Miss.."


    "Ah, you''re awake Sir Vasilias! What can I do for you?"


    "I was just wondering if there was a big clearing or open area nearby that I could spar someone in. It needs to be quite big though."


    "Hm? Not that I know of but there is a knight training facility a bit south of here you could use. You should also be free to spar the knights-in-training there. Let me send a knight with you, to show you the way."


    "Sweet, thanks."


    After the maid left, I ended up walking back into the living room and fiddling with magic for a bit.


    Thankfully, it wasn''t too long before she returned.


    "Sir Vasilias, this is Knight Captain Orion Cirillo, I think you two might have met already. He has some business at the training center as well so he will bring you there."


    "Sweet, I''ll be in your care Orion."


    He gave a slightly nervous nod. "Likewise... Well, please follow me, Young Lord."


    Following him down the halls, we quickly made it outside and got up into the air.


    As we were flying, he turned back to me. "Sorry about the other day.."


    "Haha, you''re fine. I''m used to people misunderstanding who I am.."


    "Still, I''m embarrassed beyond belief that I did that and I''d like to apologize."


    "Apology epted then."


    The rest of our flight was wrapped in silence. It wasn''t until wended that he said anything else. "The training grounds are in the clearing we saw up in the air. Please feel free to use it as you wish. My father owns this training academy so if you need anything please just let me know.. I''ll be in this building for a few days."


    "Sweet. Thanks in advance."


    "Anytime, Young Lord." Giving a deep bow he changed to his humanoid form and walked into the fairly small building.


    His humanoid form was an incredibly muscr draconic human. He looked mostly human except the horns, wings, tail and a few trace scales on the back of his arms and neck.


    He looked like the peak body builders from earth with basically no fat and ridiculously defined muscle.


    -How does a dragon even build muscle like that though..- Unlike with humans, traditional ways to grow muscle like working out with weights didn''t work or was too inefficient, dragons were simply too strong and diet simply doesn''t matter to them.


    -Maybe there will be something in the training area..-


    Quickly making my way up to therge clearing, I noticed that there were somerge dragons sparring in the field.


    "My money is on Otis!"


    "Mine is on Rhodes, you think Otis can win?!"


    "New bet ratio is 4:3 Rhodes!"


    There was a huge group of knights watching and taking bets on the spar. The ones fighting were two 52 meter tall dragons, one orange like Orion and the other was dark blue. -Are they other captains?-


    *Bang* *Thud* *Th-th-th-thud*


    Their sh was shaking the ground. Each of their strikes had a ferocious amount of strength behind it.


    "Hmph, how much longer do you think you can hold out?!" *BANG* The blue dragon mmed the orange one into the ground.


    "Long enough to beat your ass!" The orange one quickly got out of the others grasp and threw a heavy punch. *THUD*


    Before I knew it, I got enveloped in the fight as well. Something about watching two huge dragons have a slug fest was extremely entertaining.


    As I watched, I got curious who was who so I walked up and tapped the shoulder of a spectating knight near me. "Hey, so who is fighting?"


    "Hm? Ah, you must be new. Rhodes is the orange one and Otis is the blue. They''re the teachers of the knights here. Overtime, we (the students) made some bets on who would win in a spar amongst the teachers and eventually they heard about it. The best part is that instead of being like those annoying academy teachers and getting mad at the students, they actually set up this spar."


    "Haha, sounds like they''re some awesome teachers."


    "They really are. Do you want to make any bets?"


    "Hmm.. I''ll put a tinum on Rhodes.. that''ll juice the pot a bit."


    The knight looked back at me in shock before double checking. "You sure?"


    "Yeah, it should spice things up." I handed him the newly created tinum coin.


    "Haha, I like your style!" He walked over to the bet stand and ced the bet.


    The knight behind the desk yelled out. "Hey Rhodes! Someone bet a tinum on you!"


    Rhodes immediately looked over. "WHICH ONE OF YOU DUMBA-"


    *CRACK*


    While he was distracted, Otis whacked him with his tail.


    "For you to rely on a cheap shot.. I thought you were all about a knight''s honor Otis.." Rhodes looked up with visible bloodlust.


    "Uh oh.." Otis immediately pulled back and hesitated.


    Taking advantage of the opening, Rhodes moved up and grabbed his head.


    *BANG*

 Chapter 133: A Mistake in Judgement

    Chapter 133: A Mistake in Judgement


    Late Morning - Mid Summer : Cirillo Knight Academy


    -----


    *CRACKLE-BAAAANG* The ground shook violently as Rhodes mmed Otis��s face first into the ground.


    "Alright! The winner is Rhodes!" Almost all the knights started cheering immediately, with the ones who lost seemingly not caring, while taunting Otis for losing.


    It brought a smile to my face to see such a nice atmosphere.


    "Hey man, I can get you your winnings if you want." The knight who ced my bet nced back at me with a wide smile on his face.


    "Ah, I don''t need it. You can just distribute it to the other knights that won."


    He gave me a nk stare for a moment before smiling again. "What rich family did youe from?"


    "Haha, I ced the bet for fun. I don��t want to take away from anyone else��s winnings.""I like the way you think! In that case, I won��t reject it!" He happily turned away and trotted over to the dragon dishing out the winnings with a gleeful look on his face.


    It wasn��t much longer after that that the dragon handling the bets made a little announcement saying each knight who bet on Rhodes would get some extra gold.


    A mix of chatter and cheering spread through the knights like wildfire, but even though they were eager to figure out who gave up their winnings, I was already out of there.


    Just after sending the knight to redistribute my winnings, I walked out to Rhodes.


    He was helping Otis up as I made it to him. "Hey, you��re Rhodes, right?" He gave me an odd nce as I spoke. "I was wondering if I could use that other half of the clearing for a bit."


    He tilted his head a bit as he looked me up and down, likely looking for an insignia band that was present on all the other knights. "That should be fine, but.. are you new here?"


    "My name is Vasilias Whyte. I got permission from Orion Cirillo toe here and train with my Fenrir." Ilios popped his head up when he heard his name. "Regardless, I figured I should still ask you if I could take up such a huge section of the field."


    "Ah, you know my brother?"


    -I knew they looked simr...- "Yeah, although you��ll have to ask him for the details, we happen to know each other. He''s in that little office building just inside the entrance if you''d like to talk to him."


    "Oh, alright. Well, in any case, you''re free to use the field. The training I''m giving the knights today shouldn''t take up much space, but I apologize in advance if you catch some gazes."


    He gave me a look with a bit of pity, which quickly pushed the wrong buttons, but I justughed it off. "Haha, I��m used to it, don��t worry. Thanks in advance for letting me use the field!" Giving him a quick farewell, Ilios jumped off my back and trotted out into the clearing before turning around and taunting me.


    -Hoh, you��ve got a lot of energy today!- It was the spark I needed.


    Not wasting another second, I dashed out into the field and started the chase. -I��m gonna win today!-


    -----


    - Rhodes Cirillo ~


    "Oh, alright. Well, in any case, you''re free to use the field. The training I''m giving the knights today shouldn''t take up much space, but I apologize in advance if you catch some gazes."


    "Haha, I��m used to it, don��t worry. Thanks in advance for letting me use the field!" Vasilias gave a quick farewell as his massive Fenrir hopped off his back and ran out into the field, with him quickly following suit.


    -Wow, he''s pretty quick...- But I didn��t think to pay him much mind before turning back to the knights. "Alright you rich dumba*ses, finish distributing the bet winnings and get in line!" -I wonder what idiot put a whole tinum on that spar...-


    As I was thinking to myself and waiting for the knights to finish up, the ground started shaking a bit.


    *Th-th-th-th-th-th-thud*


    -Huh?- It felt like two dragons were limit sparring, a spar meant to push dragons to their limit, where they couldn''t hold back at all, but when I turned to the noise and expected to see two knights fighting, I was met with the sight of the dragon I just met having a seemingly casual agility spar with his so-called ��fenrir��.


    It made my eyes go wide. -That''s almost as fast as Nero! And she focuses entirely on speed!- It was honestly incredibly intriguing to watch.


    He was constantly getting tripped up and falling over, but he recovered nearly instantly and sprung back faster each time.


    It was immediately obvious that the person we were watching was way out of our league. Even in just about 10 minutes, he got noticeably faster, and his movements were noticeably smoother.


    "Since when was a monster like that around?" Otis was watching the spar in awe as well.


    "I''m.. not sure..." -That seems to be his top speed�� But to think he would evene close to Nero��-


    After watching for a bit, the other knights, wondering what we were doing, started watching as well.


    Only a few knights even spoke, and when they did, it was quiet. "Can you guys even follow them?"


    "No..."


    "Nah."


    "Not even close..."


    But even though they couldn��t follow along, they all watched in a trance.


    *Thud-CRACKLE* The sound of the ground cracking ripped through the air as Vasilias came to an instantaneous stop, with his Fenrir pausing as well.


    -Huh? What is he doing?- He was simply standing there, inspecting his paw. -Did he hurt himself?-


    But long before I could even try to run out to check on him, his nk look turned into a smile. "Wait, couldn��t I just do that?" He mumbled to himself as he set his paw back down and moved his weight around it. "I CAN!"


    *fwip-FWOOOOOOSH* He quickly disappeared from where he was, almost instantly jumping back up to the speed he was previously at.


    But this time, his speed didn��t totally stagnate.


    -Wh..what?!- As I watched him progressively elerate more and more, an opaque white shell started to form around him.


    It was a phenomenon I had only ever seen from Nero, one of my colleagues who was known as one of the fastest elders in northern Bahamut. -But even she can��t go any faster than that��-


    Yet it seemed like Vasilias didn��t care. Before my very eyes, the opaque shell grew in size, and a deafening noise started to fill the air.


    I watched intently as it grewrger andrger, and the noise grew louder and louder.. before eventually��


    *CRRRRAAACK* The shockwave was mind-boggling, to the point that many of the knights had to put up ayer of silencing magic, but I was simply in awe.


    -He really did it��- A man I had never even seen or heard of was doing what I truly believed was impossible right in front of my eyes.


    But such a feat was impossible to achieve with only talent. -A half-breed would never be able to aplish such a feat�� But if he is a pure dragon, why are his scales so dark�� He wasn��t using light magic��-


    I gave him a skeptical look as he finally started slowing down to his previous top speed, this time with a rxed smile. -What a monster...-


    We all continued to watch him for quite a bit longer before I eventually managed to snap out of it and started our training. -If we don��t start now, we will fall behind schedule��- Turning back to the knights, I saw them all watching Vasilias in a trance as well. "Alright!" My voice quickly snapped them out of it. "How about a challenge?"


    Some of the knights'' demeanors visibly darkened, with ��oh no�� written all over their faces.


    -They��ll be all smug about the bets if I don��t wear them out��- "How about we do some limit sparring until he finishes over there? I��ll give 5 gold to everyone whopletes it!" Although we normally didn''t do endurance sparring for more than an hour or two, I figured that was a safe bet. -Seeing how casual he is at that speed, he should be able tost an hour...-


    Hearing that gold was going to be a reward for the challenge, the mood quickly lightened up; after all, we all assumed even an hour was an impossibly long time to spar so intensely.


    But oh how little we knew��


    The quick ''challenge'' that I figured would make for an easy and rewarding training day would very quickly turn into one we would never forget.


    After around an hour, the guys were starting to get pretty tired, but they managed to keep their pace up. Vasilias had yet to slow down at all.


    After another hour, when we would normally stop the training, the guys started to get a bit sluggish and stopped talking so smugly about the easy challenge.


    Over the final hour, everyone started to run out of stamina one by one, with several simply giving up, and many others pushing through, redefining their limits.


    But while it would inevitably be good for them to be pushed this hard, I couldn��t say I wasn��t worried. -I should give 5 gold to those who hit their actual limit and 10 to those who finish... If there is anyone��-


    Looking over at Otis as he sparred with one of the knights whose partner tapped out, I could visibly see some strain on his face.


    He had only been sparring with the knights who lost their partners while waiting for someone else to tap out, and even he was starting to show a bit of fatigue.


    But eventually, one of the knights by me halted their spar and pointed behind me. "Ca-cap..tain.. he.. hah.. stopped..." As soon as he finished, he copsed andid down.


    Turning around to face the field, I saw Vasilias sitting next to his Fenrir, both of them only lightly breathing, as if it were nothing but y time.


    It was a sight that made me feel a mix of awe and intrigue. -Well.. he definitely isn��t a half-breed.. but he definitely still lied about his name...- I gave him an odd look as all the rumors about connections between the Whyte family and Ragnaroks came to mind. -I.. wonder��-

 Chapter 134: Grandmothers Love

    Chapter 134: Grandmother''s Love


    Early Afternoon - Mid Summer : Cirillo Knight Academy


    "Hehe.." After finishing our training session, I felt truly great.


    I managed to have a major breakthrough in my footwork technique to actually push past the sound barrier halfway through the spar.


    -To think I would stumble across it like that though..-


    The discovery was aplete ident, but a very wee one.


    "How are you holding up Ilios?"


    *Panting* "Woof!"


    "Hah.. good.." I couldn''t help butugh seeing Ilioszily roll over.


    As I was petting him, I looked over towards the knights and noticed they were in shambles. -Man they must''ve had some crazy training..-Half of them were copsed from exhaustion and the others seemed to be gasping for breath.


    -I wonder what they were doing..-


    After a couple more hours, the knights gradually left the field and went to arge building near the gate, leaving me alone in the field again.


    Thinking of what kind of training I should do for the rest of the day, I simply settled on magic.


    Once I started practicing, the rest of the day started to pass and night started approaching.


    -I guess I should start heading back..- But instead of flying straight home, I figured it was best to at least tell Orion I was leaving so I stopped by his office building.


    Just inside the building was a small receptionist desk with a young looking draconic woman behind it.


    "Young man, you aren''t supposed to be in here. The younger knight training grounds are east of here."


    "I''m not here for that, I just came by to let Orion know I was heading home."


    The receptionist who had her head buried in papers looked up with a confused expression. "Why would you need to tell Sir Cirillo that?"


    "Because he was the one that escorted me here." -For a receptionist, she''s pretty nosey..-


    She looked at me with wide eyes for a moment. "Well, he is busy at the moment so you can leave a name and message for me to give him when he is done if you''d like."


    "Sure, that works. Just tell him ''Vasilias went home already''."


    "O..okay, Ill give him the message as soon as I can." She was acting a bit odd but I didn''t question it too much.


    "Thanks, well I''m off then." With a light wave of my hand I quickly made my way back outside and got up in the air.


    As I was flying away, I felt like I was being watched and nced back to see a couple of the knights from earlier ring at me from their rooms.


    -What are they mad at me for?- They seemed genuinely upset but I didn''t have the time to waste on them and left the training center.


    Once I got back home, I flew straight over the gates andnded in the back yard.


    The knights guarding the estate all gave me odd looks as I flew over but none of them stopped me. -How surprising..-


    As Inded, I saw Chloe run out to me and give a deep bow. "Wee back Sir Vasilias! If I may be so rude to ask, where is Knight Cirillo?"


    "His receptionist said he was busy so I left him a message and came back on my own."


    "Ah.." Chloe immediately became a bit nervous.


    "Is something wrong?"


    "No sir! Nothing of the sort."


    -..sure..- "Well in any case, did I miss anything?"


    "Nothing serious but Miss Asimi was looking for you this morning."


    -Ah..- Now that I had a moment to think about it, I realized that right as I got here I fell asleep, then immediately after waking up I ran off to the knight training facility. -I should probably work in some time to spend with her..- She was my grandmother after all. "Do you know what she wanted me for?"


    "No sir.."


    "Do you know where she is? Ill go pay her a visit."


    "I think.. nevermind. She is in her office. Would you like me to guide you?"


    Although I knew the way, I figured it wouldn''t be bad to have her walk me there. "Sure, please lead the way."


    We quickly made our way inside and up the stairs in the main hall. On the way, I ended up changing to my humanoid form since her office was both upstairs and human sized.


    "This is her office Sir Vasilias." Chloe gave a slight bow and motioned to the door as we walked up on it.


    "Awesome, thank you."


    *Knock* *Knock*


    "Pleasee in." Asimi''s voice radiated out from behind the door.


    *Click*


    As soon as I opened the door I was met with a stunning, snow white draconic woman. She was standing right behind the door with a joyous smile.


    -What the..-


    "Oh your true form is adorable too!" As soon as the door opened enough, she darted out into the hall and gave me a strong hug.


    "Ugh-" -What kind of strength is that?!- Although my humanoid form was weakpared to my dragon form, I always assumed it was incredibly strongpared to other true forms but her hug felt crushing. Her true form''s physical strength was simply monumental.


    "Oh I''m sorry sweetie! Did I hug a bit too tight?" Her face immediately filled with worry and concern.


    "Haha no. I''m fine Grandmother. I''m pretty strong you know!" -I guess my humanoid form is still young..-


    "Oh good.. I was worried for a moment. Well, how about youe inside for a bit." She lightly pushed me inside and closed the door behind me.


    "Sorry for not paying you a visit after I woke up.. I got a bit sidetracked."


    "Its alright sweetie, I heard you went to train at Cirillo''s training center. Was it fun?" She quickly tidied up a small couch in the room and sat down.


    "Of course it was. I did some agility training with Ilios." I walked over and sat down next to her as she motioned me to sit down.


    "Oh? Did you make any improvements?"


    "Actually yeah, I managed to break through a prettyrge bottleneck."


    "That''s great to hear!"


    "Haha, it was only a matter of time for me to break through... Well, a bit off topic, but I heard you were looking for me this morning?"


    "Ah, yes. There was something Id like to talk about." She reached up and rubbed my head a bit while wearing aforting smile.


    "Please feel free to ask anything."


    "Well lets start simple. What is magic to you?"


    My ears twitched a bit hearing the unexpected question. "Well.. I think magic is simply a versatile tool you can use to manipte the world."


    "So not as a weapon?"


    "Well sure, but any tool can be a weapon."


    "Hm.. okay. I heard from your parents that you like to experiment and y with magic quite a lot.. is that not in the pursuit of strength?"


    "Not entirely, no. Its also in the pursuit of discovery."


    "Haha.. to think Id ever hear a young dragon say that.." She gave a proud smile as she looked at me. There was a short moment of silence before she continued. "Well, it seems like you need to get going. Your mother will get mad at me if I hold you here any longer."


    -What? Already?- I nced over at her, totally confused.


    She looked over at me with a warm smile and kissed me on the forehead. As she pulled away, she gave an ominous bit of information. "Once you get strong enough, travel to Siratha. Its an elven and demihuman nation on the Western Continent.. you will be able to learn more about the Ancient Fenrir there.." Her face had a bit of worry on it.


    "O..okay." It caught me a bit off guard since her demeanor changed so much but it was a hint to where I could find information I had been yearning for.


    "Haah.." She leaned over and hugged me tightly again. "Now go and have a good time with you Mother and Sister."


    -Ah right!- It was already sunset outside, meaning I waste to the science lesson. "Sorry to have to leave early Grandmother! Ill be sure toe by more often.."


    "Haha, I hope you do.." She walked up and gave me onest hug before finally letting me go. "Now quit lollygagging and go teach your Mother something useful."


    "Hehe.." I couldn''t help but smile as I made my way outside for the lesson. -She''s.. different than I expected..-

 Chapter 135: ―?????―?????∴????????≠?????????????????├??????????????????????????????∝???????∮??????―?

    Chapter 135: �D?????�D?????��????????��?????????????????��??????????????????????????????��???????��??????�D?


    Time Error - �D?�D???��?��???????????��?��???�D�D??? : Location Error - �D?�D?��?��?????????��?��?�D?�D?


    - ��???????G?????r????????��?????????��?????????e???????????��??????? ~ (Girl from the dreams)


    "Haah.." With a brush of my hand, I paused time and looked down at a ck haired fenrir demihuman running down the hallway with a childish smile.


    Flying down to him, I looked into his eyes. -Too weak.. too na?ve.. too.. childish..- I gave him a look of distaste. "To think you change so much when around them.."


    I red through the walls at the draconic woman sitting at her desk and the two white dragons who were outside. -They don''t matter though..-


    I flew up and looked over the estate, a happy smile slowly creeping onto my face. -Its time for you to grow into the monster you''re meant to be..-


    "My my. How long has it been since I''ve seen you show emotion.."


    A chill instantly went down my spine as a familiar man''s voice filled the still, frozen air. "So you guys finally came out of your burrow.." I nced back towards the voice and saw a muscr man in a white robe looking at me with an irritating smug smile.


    "It was only a matter of time. Now that I''m finally out I was looking for something fun, but thankfully I didn''t have to look too hard." He nced at the estate below me.An immediate anger started surging in me. "You know what happens to people who touch what''s mine.. don''t try it old man." As I shot the man a threatening look, an ingenious idea came to mind.


    "You seem to have forgotten.. who.. I.. am." As soon as he finished, his fist appeared in front of my chest. *Tink*


    The next thing I knew, I was on the other side of the with only my head remaining. A slightly crazed smile started creeping onto my face. -I''m gonna use you and you won''t even realize!-


    I quickly reformed my body and appeared back in front of him.


    "To think you''d be so rude to not only try and steal what''s mine, but even try to kill me."


    "Even though you''ve gotten a bit stronger, it seems you''ve forgotten who has the more influence down there.." He nced towards the ground. "You can only watch as I destroy the only thing that keeps your emotions intact."


    "You da-" *Tink* He smacked me across the again. Although I looked furious to him, I felt an odd sense of satisfaction and had to hold back my greedy smile. -You will be his next stepping stone and you won''t even realize it..-


    - Vasilias ~


    "Brr.." As I ran down the hallway, I felt an unusual chill go down my back but I didn''t think much of it.


    Not wasting any more time, I quickly made my way outside and taught Mother and Krystallo the science lesson.


    After that lesson though, time started to slip away.


    Over the next 3 months, I spent all day at the knight training center sparring with Ilios or the knights, and all night teaching Mother and Krystallo science.


    It was a very peaceful 3 months, I didn''t think much of it at the time either. Peace had simply be the norm.


    Things were looking up, I was getting stronger bit by bit and my training was finally paying off.


    I also managed to make a couple discoveries with the void and space mana, the biggest being that I could create markers in the void that worked like waypoints to create gates on.


    On top of that, the pressure from the elders eased up. Oddly enough, they eased up and sat back at Asimi''s request.


    Things were on the up and up, to the point where I just epted the uneasy calm that had overtaken everything.


    Looking back now, I can''t believe how I was so na?ve..


    At the end of the 3 months.. the storm finally arrived.


    *BANG*


    -What was that?- I wasying in the living room when I felt the entire estate shake.


    A couple minutes after, I slowly sat up and got ready to go check it out, but a ridiculously loud voice came out of nowhere.


    "Vasilias Ragnarok,e outside now!" It was apletely unfamiliar mans voice that was filled with aggression.


    -What? Who is that?- I quickly sprung up and made my way outside, fully prepared for a fight.


    As I walked outside, I saw everyone, Mother, Father, Krystallo and Asimiying on the ground with odd looking artifacts on their heads.


    Standing over them was two huge dragons, a dark blue and a sky blue dragon, towering 61 and 54 meters respectively.


    The dark blue one stood there with 1 foot on Orion''s unconscious head and looked at me with a greedy smile.


    "To think she didn''t lie.. the almighty Ragnaroks really gave their name to a halfie!"


    Asimi was the first tosh out. "He''s not a halfie! Don''t associate him with them!"


    "Oh? Says who?" He confidently walked up to Asimi and looked down on her. "To me, he looks like just another ugly.. weak.. half breed." He nced back up at me with a sh*t eating grin.


    Mother nced over with a defeated look. "What did youe here fo-"


    I quickly cut her off. "You seem to want me, right?"


    "Ah, so you aren''t mute. For a halfie, you seem to have some brains huh?"


    "Under what terms do you dare arrest the Ragnaroks.." I used my aura to pressure him as I walked closer.


    But as if my pressure did nothing, he simply looked down at me. "To walk up to me fearlessly and even ask a question... You seem to not understand the situation."


    Not giving me time to react, he mmed his foot down onto the top of my head.


    -Sh*t..- *CRACK*


    Unable to dodge, it felt as if an entire mountain was mmed down on my head. The ground under mepletely shattered and I even had to move mana to strengthen my legs and neck.


    Barely managing to keep my head off the ground, I looked up at him with a deep fire raging within me. "So what are you arresting them for.." No matter how angry I was though, my intuition told me to act carefully.


    "How do you think the public would react if they heard that the great and all mighty Ragnaroks gave their name to <strong>a disgusting halfie</strong>?"


    As if a nerve was struck in Mother, she shot up and tried to hit the dark blue dragon. Right before she reached him though, the sky blue dragon moved.


    *CRACK* She mmed Mother down into the ground, pinning her there. "Don''t make this harder than it needs to be, Zachari. You can''t use magic so good luck beating me, let alone Eugene."


    The scene of Mother getting hit made my blood boil but I needed to stay calm. -I cant lose myself to my emotions yet..- Holding back my anger and burying my pride, I looked up at the dark blue dragon whose foot was still on my head. "Then how about a deal.."


    "Hoh? And what could you mean by that?" Eugene looked down at me as if I was a joke.


    "How about I bear the weight of it all and you keep them out of it."


    Everyone around me froze including the two elders.


    "Hahaha!" Eugene let out a hardyugh, breaking the silence. "To think you want to be the hero and sacrifice yourself!"


    Mother, Father and Krystallo all looked at me with eyes of fear and concern. In response I simply shed them a warm smile.


    "Well that would defeat the whole purpose of this, wouldn''t it?!"


    -What?!-


    "You think that what you do in this situation will change anything?! Laughable!" *CRRRUNCH* He pressed his foot harder on my head. "With your identity as an excuse, I can finally tear down that hideous wall guarding the halfies that is the Ragnarok family!" A crazed smile slowly came to his face. "To think you would drag your strong and ancient family name through the mud for me! To think you would make this so easy!"


    As he said that, things started to click and a bone chilling sense of guilt filled me.


    He red at Asimi. "With you gone, the halfies won''t be able to resist anymore, even the ancients will be on our side!"


    Everyone around immediately felt an incredible sense of despair as if a dark and heavy nket was draped over them.


    Understanding what he was nning, Asimi tried to reason with him. "Then how about I step down. Would that make you happy?!"


    "Oh but that wont work.."


    "At least leave my family out of this Eugene. You know Myles will kill you the second he finds out what you''re doing to us."


    "Well that''s a shame then. By the time he gets back.. you all will be long gone."


    Finally taking his foot off my head, I weakly fell to the ground. My mana was being sucked into an artifact that was on my head at a ridiculous pace.


    As I tried to think of what to do in a panic, Eugene walked over to Asimi and raised up his foot. He held it there for a moment and looked down at her with a crazed smile. "Today.. is the day the Ragnaroks fall."


    *CRACK*

 Chapter 136: A Bloody Brawl

    Chapter 136: A Bloody Brawl


    Late Afternoon - Late Summer : Asimi''s Estate


    As I fell to the ground, the artifact stuck to my head started violently sucking out my mana.


    The mana being forcefully pulled out of my reserve caused all of my senses to blur. My vision, hearing, and bnce all became significantly worse and mixed into an awful sensation.


    Iid there, not in my right state of mind until I heard a few words.


    "Today.. is the day the Ragnaroks fall."


    -Like hell it is!- Quickly snapping back to my consciousness, I thinned the walls of my reserve and forcefully mmed a massive wave of mana into the artifact.


    Unable to handle the volume of mana, the artifact crumbled and released the pent up mana.


    With my senses slowlying back to me, I felt the ground shake and looked over to see Asimi as she got mmed to the ground by Eugene.


    "Oh? How did you manage to break the mana lock?" Eugene looked over at me with a confident smile, stopping his foot just short of Asimi��s neck. "Well, not like it matters."In an instant, he appeared in front of me and threw a heavy kick. *CRACK*


    With my senses still in a mess, I couldn''t dodge and gotunched through the estate.


    "Hmph, I guess a halfie is a halfie." Eugene turned back around to the other elder. "Go clean him up."


    Giving a quick nod the sky blue dragon ran into the cloud of debris and smoke that arose from the destroyed estate.


    "Kid, just stay dow-"


    *BANG* *CRUNCH*


    "Hm?" Hearing her voice abruptly cut off and feeling the ground shake, Eugene turned back around and looked towards the half destroyed building.


    *Thud*


    *Thud*


    *Thud*


    The vibration from my heavy steps filled the air.


    As I came out of the smoke, I met eyes with Eugene and threw forward the huge dead dragon that was in my mouth.


    Her body was fairly intact but her unrecognizably crushed head was only hanging on by a bit of flesh and skin.


    Everyone that saw the scene froze and didn''t move a muscle.


    I stared right into Eugene''s eyes, my mouth covered in blood and my eyes filled with rage.


    Eugene''s crazed smile slowly returned as he looked over the dead elder. "To thi-"


    Using thrusters, I instantly appeared in front of him and threw a kick surpassing the speed of sound several times over.


    *CRR-RACK*


    The ground around me shattered from the shockwave and Eugene gotunched out of sight along with a chunk of the gate and forest behind him.


    "Shut the f*ck up.." My leg nearly broke from the kick and my body felt like it was on fire, but my anger numbed most of it.


    As I turned around, I saw Mother try to yell out to me with a horrified and panicked voice. "Vasilias! That''s not eno-"


    "That was pretty good!" Eugene''s voice interrupted her.


    -What?!-


    *CRUNCH*


    Catching me off guard, he stomped and dug his ws into the base of my wings, shattering several bones and slicing into my flesh.


    "Ugh!" Trying to ignore the broken bones and the pain, I tried to whip around and used thrusters to get him off me.


    *FWOOSH*


    "Hah.. hah.." -Sh*t..- The base of my left wing was totally shattered and now I had 3 huge gashes down my side from trying to turn over with his ws dug into me.


    "Oh? Are you at your limit already?" Eugene seemed fairly alright but he had a bit of blood dripping from his mouth and some exposed, broken bone on his chest where I kicked him.


    -Who said I was at my limit?!- Channeling my anger, I opened my mouth and aimed at his chest to fire as fast as I could.


    *CRACK*


    The steel rod met his body nearly instantly but my jumbled senses made me miss by a couple meters.


    "ACCKK.." Although I missed my intended target, it still blew a massive hole down his side, gouging out flesh and plowing through bone.


    Eugene''s eyes were quickly consumed by rage as he caught his bnce and saw some of his own organs hanging out of his body. "You.. YOU HALFIE BAST*RD!! YOU DARE-" Finally pushing him over the edge, Eugene got consumed by his anger and quickly charged at me. (Something like a berserk mode)


    -Got you!- As he lunged at me, I jumped up and bit into his neck.


    His ws quickly dug into my sides as he tried to m me into the ground but it was toote.


    *CRACK*


    A single white dot quickly flew up into the sky as Eugene''s body fell limply to the ground, no longer in one piece.


    As his massive ws slipped out of my side and his body fell to the ground, I finally realized how bad my condition was. As temporary repairs, I used metal to reinforce my broken bones to at least let me move a bit better.


    Once I finished, I took a second to catch my breath. "Hooh.." But that didn''tst long.


    -What the!?- As I was rxing, I noticed a massive dragon that was using stealth magic right behind me.


    I quickly tried to turn around but before I could attack, something else did.


    *Sizzle-CRACK*


    A sh of light zipped past me and almost immediately after, the stealth magic around the huge dragon faded.


    *Thud*


    Falling limply to the ground was a huge 51 meter tall dragon missing the back of its head.


    -What the..- As I looked over to see what the source was, I saw Ilios running up to me. -Ilios did that?!-


    Ilios quickly ran up to me and jumped up and licked my face. "Haha, I''m alright buddy.. thanks for saving me.."


    Although I was still bleeding quite profusely it was nothing fatal, luckily. -That was too close though..- In Eugene''s final attack, his ws managed to break my ribs but they were luckily too short to hit anything vital.


    "Ah, right.." I looked over and noticed everyone still had those mana locks on and walked up to each of them. "Stay still.." Lightly tapping the side of each artifact, they each shattered and released the contained mana. -Everyone seems to be alright.. Thank the heavens..-


    "Vasilias.. please..e here." Mother shakily tried to stand up even though her senses were still in a mess.


    I quickly came to her side and gave her some support. "Please rx Mother..y back down and absorb some mana."


    "You''re so badly hurt.. let me.. treat you.." Her face was covered in worry as she looked down at the pool of blood forming below me.


    "I''m fine.. the bleeding is slowing down so I''ll be alright." As I slowlyid her down, I noticed Asimi was staring at the corpse of the dragon Ilios killed with visible bloodlust. "Do you know them, Grandmother?"


    "Who? The ones you just killed? Yeah.. Eugene was the big blue one, the other was Basilia.. she was another elder."


    -Sh*t.. that''s not good..- "So who was thatst one.. were they someone from the elder hall as well?"


    "No.. that was Antonia.. an old maid who used to work under me.."


    Hearing the name, I immediately remembered back to the head maid Antonia nearly getting killed by Mother. -Why is she.. here..-


    "I think she was the one that informed Eugene about you.. I was being too tight on information leaking for it to be anything else.." Asimi was deep in thought as we talked.


    -So that was the ''<strong>her</strong>'' Eugene mentioned..- "Well.. they''re all dead.. what do we do next?"


    Asimi��s face quickly morphed to one of worry and frustration. "Don''t say ''we''. Just go focus on healing.. I''ll deal with the legal issues.."


    "Are you sure you can? Eugene seemed pretty confident in his n.."


    "His n needed me to die for it to work. He broke severalws to get here and since I''m still alive, he will actually get charged for them.."


    -But what about..-


    "There will be someplications with that but.. I''ll.. pull some strings.." She looked worried but it didn''t seem too bad which eased my worries just slightly.


    *Crumble*


    -Hm?- I looked back to see quite a few dragons making their way out of the rubble.


    The first toe out was Chloe. She immediately rushed over in her dragon form with a look of pure panic. "ARE YOU ALR-"


    "I''m fine, I need you to get some maids to take care of my Krystallo, Father and Mother. Father and Krystallo just passed out from mana exhaustion, but Mother''s senses are still scrambled and she has a bit of bruising.." When I scanned their bodies as I broke the artifacts, both Father and Krystallo were basically untouched, Mother was mostly unharmed with the exception of minor bruising on the top and bottom of her head and as for Asimi.. Well, I couldn''t scan her since her aura caused too much interference but she seemed alright with the exception of some bleeding from a small gash on her neck. "Phew.."


    My anxiety finally started subsiding as Iid down and tried to heal some.


    I nced over at Eugene''s mangled corpse in the courtyard as I tried to stop the bleeding.


    Wanting to be able to helpter, I tried to think about the mound of legal issues a bit as well. -I originally didn''t want to kill Eugene since Id get executed for killing an elder but if he broke a bunch ofws I think I can get away with it..-


    Looking over at Basilia and Antonia, I quickly realized where the problem was. -If there isn''t evidence of themmitting the crimes.. can I talk my way out of it?-


    Although I was fairly certain we would be able to dig up something for Basilia since she worked in politics and yed a prettyrge role in this event, Antonia caused the biggest problem. -But.. I shouldn''t get too bad of a charge for killing her even if she is found innocent..-


    At the end of it all, my minimal political knowledge didn''t help, but things looked good enough for me to rx, if only for a bit.


    "Hooh.." Getting rid of the metal I used to hold my broken bones together, a wave of pain washed over me, but it wasn''t too bad.


    I nced over to Krystallo who seemed like she was in a peaceful dream. -Maybe.. Maybe it''s time..-

 Chapter 137: Political Struggle

    Chapter 137: Political Struggle


    Early Evening - Late Summer : Asimi''s Estate


    After finally getting situated after the fight, I did all I could to treat my own injuries.


    My bleeding was pretty extreme but with a little bit of mana and focus, I could make it slow down.


    As for the broken ribs, I simply used some mana to reposition them and temporarily wrapped the breaks in small metal rings so I didn''t have to worry about the bones moving while they healed.


    -My wing is going to be a project though..- Before I could get started on it, I looked around to check and make sure everything was alright.


    Mother was starting to finally have her senses cleared up, Asimi was getting her neck and other injuries treated and Father and Krystallo were still asleep.


    "Is there something you need Sir Vasilias?" Chloe walked up to me with a face full of worry.


    "No, I was just seeing if I was going to be needed for anything before I did a pretty difficult surgery."


    "Surgery?""Just fixing some broken bones and my wing." I motioned back towards my wing that was limplyying on the ground.


    "Are you sure you don''t want me to-"


    "I''m fine, my treatment will be far better than whatever the ''professionals'' can do, but I need you to keep people from interrupting me for a bit though."


    "O..okay. If you need anything please just ask.."


    "Thanks." Turning away from her, I closed my eyes and focused on my mana once again.


    -Oh man..- I was quick to find out that the injury in my wing was much worse than I anticipated.


    The bone was practically pulverized and the cartge was absolutely shredded.


    Normally this would be a really bad situation, but using the base of my other wing as reference for how things should look, I had quite a bit of confidence.


    -Now time to find all of the bone fragments and cartge..-


    It wasn''t a fun process but after several hours, I managed to allocate all of the bone fragments into their original spots and reposition the shredded cartge like a ridiculous puzzle but quite a few chunks were missing.


    -They''re probably somewhere over there..- I nced over towards where Eugene''s destroyed body wasying.


    There were huge trails of blood and shredded flesh spread throughout the courtyard leaving an extremely gruesome scene.


    "Haah.." -It could be anywhere..- Figuring it was too much effort to try and find the fairly small chunks of bone, I instead tried something I had never done before.


    -I guess it wouldn''t hurt to try..- I was going to try and simply recreate the missing chunks by mimicking patterns and copying my other wing but it turned out to be a serious project.


    I ended up spending the next several hours just trying to create small amounts of bone and piece the ball of fragments into an actual bone.


    Thankfully, as I was doing that, the cluster of fragments and cartge had started to actually heal back together.


    Once morning started to roll around, I had done about as much as I could. My wing still wasn''t maneuverable and the bone still had thousands of tiny cracks, but at least it was in one piece and healing properly again.


    "Holy sh*t.." I was mentally drained beyond belief. -I knew it''d be hard to recreate something asplex as bone but holy sh*t..-


    "Are you okay Sir Vasilias?" Chloe quickly ran up and looked at me with a face full of worry.


    "Is something wrong?" My voice identally had a bit of irritation in it.


    "You just haven''t said anything in several hours and even stopped breathing for a while so.. I.. got worried.."


    "Hm? I stopped breathing? When?" I was genuinely confused.


    "While you were focusing on your healing."


    -Did I get so focused I forgot to breathe?- "Well, I''m fine for now. How is everyone else doing?"


    "Your father and sister are still asleep and your mother has been pacing back and forth waiting for you to finish your treatment."


    -Hm?-


    I looked back behind me and noticed Mother was looking at me with eyes full of worry and concern.


    Feeling guilty for her worry, I slowly stood up to go andfort her.


    Before I could even stand up all the way though, Mother came running over. "Please stayying down so you can treat yourself sweetie.."


    "Haha, I''m fine Mother. I''m mostly healed now." I looked at her with a warm smile as she moved up and lightly hugged me.


    Her loving warmth quickly spread to me and eased up my pain a bit.


    A warm smile quickly came to my face as I enjoyed the moment.


    - Asimi Ragnarok ~


    *Creak* I leaned back in my chair with a smile on my face.


    It had only been a month since the big event and things were already going extremely well.


    News of the event still had not reached the public but some people started to raise their voices towards Eugene and Basilias sudden disappearance.


    Thankfully though, I managed to uncover a whole slough of charges for both Eugene and Basilia and since Antonia had no direct rtives and worked under me (the Ragnaroks), I was able to bury her existence all with rtive ease.


    "Haah.." -It feels truly wonderful having him gone..-


    Eugene was someone who had always hated the Ragnaroks. He always viewed us as an obstacle between him and his radical endeavors.


    His final goal was to use his authority to ughter the halfies in Bahamut, innocent or not and we Ragnaroks had always opposed it.


    The Ragnarok family was also full of connections and had close family rtions to many of the ancients which made it a nearly insurmountable wall.


    The issue was that with the recent halfie rebellion, there was far more opposition to us.


    Eugene had nned to use that increase in opposition to finally tear us down.


    Once he learned about Vasilias''s identity, Eugene was likely nning to barge in and kill us off and then frame Vasilias for it. It would have been the perfect n to not only tear down the Ragnarok family name but also bring the Ragnarok family supporters onto his side.


    But, thanks to Vasilias obliterating his n, I was able to catch him for some monumental crimes, some of which also involved quite a few of his followers and supporters which made this event a double win for us politically.


    Things were going extremely well, but there was still one issue I hadn''t figured out what to do with. -How am I going to handle Vasilias''s identity..-


    If we released any of his information with this event, it would, at a minimum, raise some skepticism.


    The only way around it would be to not include his name at all and say Eugene and Basilia were killed by me and Orion.. -But the nobles will never believe that..-


    "Haah.." -How troublesome..-


    *Knock* *Knock*


    "Come in."


    The one at the door was Doris, my newest personal maid.


    "Is there something urgent?" I looked up at her over my desk piled high with papers.


    "I just thought I woulde to report an.. observation."


    "Which is?" I was pretty curious what would make her act so ufortable.


    "I believe Vasilias is hiding something." She looked nervous but seemed confident.


    Myplexion quickly darkened. "What do you mean.."


    Noticing my irritation, she quickly stiffened up. "Ever since he supposedly healed, he has been spending every waking moment with his family."


    "What''s wrong about that?"


    "Well.. nothing.."


    -Why is she acting so nervous..- "So you think he is hiding something since he is spending more time than usual with everyone?"


    It wasn''t until after I said that, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized his unusual change in routine after the fight.


    "Haah.. If he wants to tell us, he will. Until then, it''s better to not suspect anything, okay?" I shed a somewhat motherly smile at Doris.


    "Right.. I''m sorry."


    "Well it''s a good learning experience for you, no need to be sorry." I quickly hopped up from my desk and patted her on the head. "How about you take a break for the rest of today, you''ve earned it." A warm smile came to my face seeing Doris''s face immediately lighten up. She reminded me of Zachari when she was young.

 Chapter 138: Elder Hall Reforms

    Chapter 138: Elder Hall Reforms


    Late Afternoon - Late Winter : Asimi''s Estate


    It had been nearly 7 months since the event, and Bahamut''s political realm waspletely unrecognizable.


    About a month after the event, Asimi finally spread the word of Eugene and Basilia��s ns and started exposing some of their crimes.


    At first, many of them discredited it and considered it simple nder but once Asimi released news of the trial along with the announcement of Eugene and Basilia''s deaths, people quickly realized it was far more serious than they had thought.


    Some people were quick to ask who killed them, but Asimi responded that she and Orion worked together and used artifacts to kill them. ording to Asimi though, some nobles and the other elders continued to question her, but her public response at least silenced the masses.


    The trial progressed smoothly after that as Asimi continuously released more and more evidence and even wrapped Eugene''s top supporters into it when they tried to defend Eugene.


    The trial turned out to be a political ughter with nearly 60 of Eugene''s top supporters getting sentenced to death along with him.


    At the end of it all, Eugene and Basilia''s deaths were officially justified by the trial and the Ragnarok''s political power skyrocketed.


    On top of that, the elder hall underwent a massive change as well.Halfies that rallied in support for the trial ended up rallying behind two half breed leaders. Those two halfies ended up jumping through a few political loopholes and managed to get elected into the, now open, elder hall positions as well.


    Bahamut had started to enter an era of bnce between the half breeds and pure dragons although the tant discrimination was still seen everywhere.


    -Its a step in the right direction though..-


    As for me, over those 3 months, I spent all of the time I could with my family.


    I spent my days ying with Ilios and Krystallo, doingbat training with Father and teaching Mother science.


    I had a lot on my mind as time passed, but after having a couple months to think and sort out my feelings, I believed I hade to a conclusion.


    "Haah.." -How am I going to tell them though..- I nced across the garden at Krystallo who was absolutely exhausted after ying with Ilios and I for several hours.


    Over the past few months, she had gotten iparably stronger and far better at using mana. I was truly proud of how well she was learning everything but, although she didn''t know yet, the time for her to go to the academy was steadily approaching.


    Tonight was the night that Mother broke the news to her, and the night I voiced my thoughts to them.


    "Sir Vasilias! Miss Krystallo! Your parents have called you!" Maria came out to call us in while wearing a wide smile.


    -She must be happy with the changes from the trial..- Quickly hopping up to my feet, I let Ilios hop on my back and went to get Krystallo up. "Are you alive?"


    She wasying on her back on the grass. "Of course I am.. I''m just.. catching my breath."


    "Well Mother and Father called us so let''s go."


    "Ah.. right.." She reluctantly rolled over and followed after me.


    We quickly made our way back into the estate and down the hall to the living room.


    "They are inside." Maria motioned towards the door and gave a deep bow.


    As I walked in, I noticed Mother, Father and Asimi were all waiting for us.


    "Did you guys have fun?" Mother watched Krystallo walk over to a cushion and plop down.


    "Haha, she went a little harder than she normally does." I couldn''t help but chuckle.


    "Hmph.. if you and Ilios weren''t so stupidly fast I would''ve won!"


    "Haha, you''ll get there soon enough, sweetie." Mother showed her motherly smile. "Well, the reason I called you two here was to tell you something important."


    Krystallo reluctantly looked over but was too exhausted to actually turn.


    "Krystallo, in a couple of months you will be taking the admissions test for As Academy."


    Krystallo immediately stiffened up and her expression darkened. "Do I have to?"


    "Yes, you don''t have a choice. It will be a good experience for you though, I promise you''ll have fun there." Mother wore a slightly threatening smile in response to Krystallo''s resistance.


    "That means Brother is going to go too right?" She looked over at me.


    "Well, not exactly." Mother quickly shifted her attention to me. "Since you are.. well.. so far beyond your age group.. we, as your parents, have decided to let you choose if you wish to go or not. Another option is for you to choose to enroll at a higher year."


    "Well, about that.." -How do I phrase this..- "So I''ve been thinking a lot over the past several months, and I think it''s time." I stood up and lowered my head. "I would like to ask for permission to ''leave the roost'' for a few years."


    I spent thest several months spending so much time with everyone in preparation for this, but it didn''t make it any less awkward.


    It felt like the air around me froze when I asked.


    "Haha, you don''t have to act so worried Vasilias." Asimi looked at me with a proud and loving smile. "We knew this question wasing for a while now."


    -What?-


    Mother nced at Father before turning back to me. "Although we are a bit worried to let you off on your own while you''re so young, you''re not only far bigger, but also far smarter and stronger than any of us were when we left the nest." She looked at me with a proud smile.


    "Brother you can''t leave me!" Krystallo ran up and hugged me in a panic.


    "Haah.. I didn''t say I was nning to leave forever did I? I just want to explore some of the world for a few years.."


    "Still!"


    "I''ll be sure to visit a lot as well if that makes you happy." I reached down and lightly rubbed her head.


    "Hmph.."


    "So, what made you want to leave?" Father finally voiced his curiosity.


    "Well, at first it was because I was worried about the issues my presence and identity would cause the family but after the trial passed it changed to me simply wanting to explore.." On top of wanting to genuinely explore the world some, the main reason I wanted to leave was that I had far too many questions and far too few answers to just about anything.


    Over the past several months I went and explored the Ragnarok library but most of the books were unnecessary to me or were things I already knew so the only other thing I could do would be to leave the nest and look for the answers elsewhere.


    To go along with that, with how much stronger the family name got after the trial, I didn''t have to worry as much about everyone''s well-being after I left as well.


    "Hoho~, he truly does resemble you." Asimi poked fun at Mother.


    "Oh shush.." Mother looked a bit embarrassed before she looked back at me with a proud but slightly worried smile. "Well, we have no reason to keep you from doing as you wish, just promise me something�� Please be careful.."


    "Haha, of course. It''s not like I''m going to be gone forever, plus I won''t be leaving for another month or so." It seemed like Mother was a bit sad so I had to rify that I wasn''t leaving right away.


    Krystallo''s eyes were fast to light back up. "Then you will y with me every day until you leave as payment!"


    "Haha, alright. I promise." I couldn''t help but give a warm smile towards Krystallo, but my emotions felt a bit conflicted. -I wish I could stay but.. I have too many questions that I need answered..-

 Chapter 139: Leaving The Nest

    Chapter 139: Leaving The Nest


    Mid Afternoon - Early Spring : Asimi''s Estate


    After discussing my request to leave the nest, we continued to talk for a bit.


    We eventually moved from the living room to the dining room and had a good family dinner as well.


    I waspletely prepared to talk about and discuss some of my future ns but to my surprise, not even my ns on leaving were mentioned after that small talk.


    Over the next month, I continued to spend as much time as I could with family.


    During mybat training, I managed to reach the limit of what both Orion and Father could teach me in terms ofbat for both my dragon and humanoid form. (They''ve been training together since the incident)


    I was able to easily pick up on their martial arts and even tweak them to fit my style a bit better after a while.


    Even after that though, I continued to train with Father, just instead of him giving me pointers, it was the other way around.


    It turned into an oddly fun bonding experience.At first he denied my advice and said, ''how could I be taught by someone who I taught a week ago?'' while holding his pride high as a kite but after a while of losing to me in spars, he started actually taking some of my tips.


    He managed to improve quite a lot once he started taking my advice though, it turned out that Father had a pretty impressive talent for martial arts.


    Outside of training, I spent quite a lot of bonding time with Krystallo as well.


    We would spend most of our time ying something like tag where I would try to slowly teach her some footwork or technique.


    Although she was far from catching Ilios or I, towards the end of the month, she had surpassed Mother. Her growth was truly mind blowing.


    She herself didn''t realize just how fast she was moving when ying with Ilios or I though. It wasn''t until Mother came by to y one day that it came to light.


    Krystallo was disappointed to lose to her at first but once Mother exined how ridiculous her speed was, she became incredibly confident and tried to rub it in my face by challenging me again. She got destroyed.


    She never actually managed to win against me before it was time to leave but she never got discouraged. Herpetitive spirit and constant improvement kept her looking forward to the next game instead of dwelling on the losses.


    It was a good experience for her but I couldn''t help but be a bit worried with howpetitive she got at times. I felt genuinely bad for her future ssmates.


    On the opposite side of things, every evening turned into a teaching session for science and magic.


    Both Mother and Krystallo had finally learned enough of science to where they could implement it in their magic so the sessions became far more hands-on.


    After a while, I was able to finally teach them the way my railgun breath worked and taught them how to do it.


    As it turned out, the way I did it didn''t quite work for them. Not only could they not casually create a steel dart, but they couldn''t fire it straight from their breath nd or mouth because their mouth would get cut by the shockwave.


    With a bit of trial and error though, we managed to perfect a system that worked for them!


    To fix them being unable to make the darts, I ended up creating a massive steel cube in the back yard that they could use to create ammo for themselves.


    It also helped Mother experiment with maism since she could use earth magic to create any shape she wished and experiment with it.


    As for Krystallo, I was personally working with her to try and teach her how she could use a small scale version of it in her humanoid form to give her a self defense weapon for when she left for the academy.


    It was a bit of an excessive precaution but I wanted her to have an actual weapon that wasn''t as obvious as a sword or knife.


    Towards the end of our time together, both of them got extremely proficient with it, they each got new trump cards.


    I felt a special sense of aplishment seeing them both seed with it, especially since it was their first shot at implementing science into magic.


    I had truly be the teacher of the family with the only person I hadn''t taught being Asimi.


    Although a bit saddening at the time, Asimi was constantly busy dealing with family and political matters so we weren''t able to spend much time together until thest couple weeks.


    We spent a fair amount of time together but we didn''t talk about much besides a bit of magic theory or history.


    Most of the things she discussed were things I already knew but it was fun to spend time with her nheless.


    I had a truly incredible time with everyone for that matter, but the day of my departure arrived faster than any of us expected.


    "Brother.. I''m gonna miss you.." Krystallo walked up to me, holding back tears.


    "Hey, don''t be all sad." I reached down and rubbed her head. "Instead of being sad that I''m leaving for a while, you should look forward to when we can y again. Who knows.. maybe you''ll surpass me while I''m gone!"


    Krystallo lightly shook her head and looked up at me with apetitive smile. "You better not ck off of your training either then!"


    "Haha, I won''t." I lightly rubbed her head for a bit longer before she backed away.


    Walking up to Mother, she gave me a tight hug. "I know you''re a strong boy but please.. be careful.."


    "I will Mother.." I wore a grateful smile as I enjoyed the warmth of Mothers hug.


    Father and Asimi were the next two to give me hugs but Father didn''t tell me anything. He simply gave me his confident and proud smile.


    As I gave Asimi her hug though, she gave a friendly reminder. "I know you know already but be sure to at least send us a letter every couple years. You know your Mother would get worried if went quiet for too long."


    "Right.. I''ll be sure to keep in touch."


    "You know where we will be moving right?" Mother quickly voiced her worry.


    "Yes, of course Mother." For Krystallos schooling, they nned to move to their estate in western Bahamut near the academy.


    Although I didn''t have a marker there or know exactly where it was, I was sure I could find it by asking for directions.


    "Well, I think it''s time.." I looked up at everyone with a warm smile.


    "Be safe!" Mother was holding back tears.


    "I will!" I motioned to let Iliose hop up on my head. "Well, we''re off!"


    I quickly stood up and with a strong p of my wings, I threw myself into the air.


    Looking towards the horizon, I bathed in the memories of the past 11 years for a moment before gripping my resolve.


    "Haah.." -Its time to get some answers..-

 Chapter 140: I Might be Lost..

    Chapter 140: I Might be Lost..


    Late Afternoon - Early Spring : Above the Ocean


    It had only been a few hours since I left home, but I was already lost.


    -Am I going the right way?-


    Before I left Bahamut, I asked a dragon I saw to point me in the direction of Siratha.


    After a bit of hesitation, they pointed me in a direction but once I looked in the void, I didn''t see any space runes even close to the direction they pointed.


    The only thing I could really do was to simply fly in the general direction and hope to find something.


    I had been flying over the ocean for a couple hours already, asionally flying below the clouds and looking into the water but there was simply nothing.


    -Hm?- Ilios had been asleep for most of the flight but suddenly he tried to grab my attention by tapping on my back.


    ncing back at him, I noticed he was trying to point me just slightly to the right.Following his suggestion, I turned to the right a couple of degrees until heid his head back down.


    -What was that all about?- Deciding not to question it, I kicked up the thrusters and continued flying straight for another 30 minutes before finally seeingnd crest the horizon.


    -Damn.. it''s about time..- Although I wasn''t hauling it then entire way, I was by no means going slow.


    Quicklying up on thendmass, I noticed a small group of 3 people sitting outside of an unnatural-looking cave next to the beach.


    I was originally going to simply continue flying over them, but I was a bit curious what the cave was. -I guess I can ask them where this is too..-


    Turning a bit towards the ground I started slowing down and changed to my humanoid form.


    Holding tightly onto Ilios, I braced fornding. "Welp.." -Im gonna hit the water..-


    *CR-BANG*


    As Inded, my feet plowed through a crashing wave and vaporized it.


    As if the water wasn''t even there, my feet mmed into the sand with some ridiculous force.


    Letting Ilios down, I noticed there was a thick mist that filled the area from mynding.


    Before I could walk out though, I heard a deep man''s voice yell out in front of me. "SEA MONSTER!"


    -Hm?-


    *Fwoosh*


    A meter long dart made of ice quickly zipped at my head but I casually dodged by tilting my head.


    "Don''t enter the mist! It''s probably poison!"


    "Keep back I''ll barrage it with magic!" A woman''s voice was next.


    "Haah.." *Snap* With a snap of my fingers Ipletely dissipated the fog.


    *Fw-w-w-woosh* A barrage of ice darts flew towards me with considerable force, but using just a bit of aura, I applied enough pressure to the darts that they practically turned to dust.


    I silently stood there with a look of annoyance as a sparkly cloud of ice filled the air around me.


    The people up the beach just stared at me whilepletely frozen.


    They were all human except one female, mage elf.


    "Kid, are you.. okay?" The youngest, innocent looking human girl looked at me with worried yet fearful eyes.


    "Don''t move!" The big burly man that yelled out earlier kept her from walking forward. "It''s probably some unknown sea monster that is using illusion magic or something."


    "That''s definitely just a kid! He��s probably younger than me!" The girl spoke up again.


    "Would a kid his age be able to make the entire dungeon shake, plus survive Sam''s magic?!" He was pretty clearly agitated.


    I just stood there and watched them make assumptions for a moment, it was pretty entertaining honestly.


    "Kid, can you speak?" The nervous elf woman spoke with caution.


    "Awe, I was hoping you guys were gonna keep making stupid assumptions." Brushing a bit of sand off my pants, I walked up towards them. "Sorry to intrude, I''d just like-"


    Out of nowhere, the big burly guy lunged at me with his shield in front of him.


    *DIII-iing* *Cr-cr-cr-crunch*


    My punch rang his shield like a gong andunched him up the beach and through the forest.


    "How rude.."


    The two other girls were frozen with pale faces.


    "Ahem.. As I was saying, I just wanted to ask where this is. Do you guys know?"


    The first to snap out of their fear enough to talk was the young girl. "T..this is the d..dungeon of Christopher.."


    "That doesn''t tell me anything.. What city am I closest to?"


    "W..we are just south of Springarrow.." (NOT the capital)


    The name didn''t ring a bell at all. "What kingdom?"


    "E..Elynnor.. sir.."


    -Ah.. So I''m between the Main and Western continents..-


    "I..is there anything else I can h..help you with sir?"


    "Hmm.." -I should check out this dungeon since I''m here I guess..- Although I had learned of their existence long ago, I had never seen one. -This could be a good opportunity..- "So you said this was Christopher''s dungeon?"


    The girl had finally started to rx a bit seeing that I wasn''t a threat but the elf was still staring at me, pale faced. "I..it''s just called the Dungeon of Christopher. It was named after the S rank a..adventurer that discovered it."


    "Hm.. interesting. So what rank are the monsters in it?"


    "Well.. no one has ever gotten to the bottom of it and it''s very old so likely peak S rank towards the bottom."


    "So do all dungeons incrementally get stronger as they go down?"


    "Y..yes.. in most cases at least." The girl still wore a nervous, forced smile.


    "Interesting.." -I wonder what causes that..- "So why were you guys just sitting outside of it?"


    "We were just going to camp out to let night pass and go in in the morning.."


    ncing over my shoulder I noticed the sun was setting. "Is there a reason to not go in at night?"


    She gave an awkward look. "..Well.. dungeons are basically monsters.. and at night, they absorb the mana from the dead corpses inside.. if we were to kill something that had a mana core, we wouldn''t be able to find and get it before the dungeon absorbed it.."


    I looked back at her with wide eyes. Her statement piqued my curiosity. "Hmm, well. You seem like a good girl, Missy. What is your name?"


    She immediately stiffened up. "It''s.. Hannah.."


    "Well then, Hannah. How would you like toe with me to the bottom of the dungeon in the morning?"


    She immediately froze and broke into a cold sweat. "E..excuse m..me?"


    "Well I need a local so I don''t get lost." That wasn''t true at all, the reason I wanted her toe was because I figured she''d be useful inside the dungeon. -Not like she needs to know that though..-


    After a moment of thinking, she gave an extremely reluctant nod.


    "S..sir!" Finally speaking up, the elf woman tried to get my attention.


    "Yes?" I nced back and looked her in the eyes.


    My re made her freeze up but she managed to shakily get out a question. "W..what about m..me.."


    "Do whatever you want." With a light wave of my hand I created a small cushion and sat down.


    Ilios quickly walked up andid down next to me.


    As I petted him, I thought of what to do to pass time. -Now.. what to practice until morning..-

 Chapter 141: A Dungeon

    Chapter 141: A Dungeon


    Early Morning - Early Spring : Dungeon of Christopher


    During the night, Hannah and her elf friend couldn''t sleep. They both sat there in total silence for the beginning of the night.


    A couple hours after the sunset, the elf woman finally asked if she could go tend to Jack, the dumbass from earlier.


    Not long after, she came back, dragging a muscr man with an extremely broken arm and chest across the sand and dirt.


    -Wow, he actually lived.- He was truly lucky that his shiny and expensive looking armor absorbed most of the impact.


    Once she started treatment though, I stopped paying attention and focused more on my magic.


    After that, the night passed in what felt like a mere second. I ended up getting pretty absorbed into my magic and lost track of time.


    Once sunrise came around, I got up and brushed the sand off Ilios and I.


    ��Good morning Ilios..�� I lightly petted him as he stretched.Looking over at the group of adventurers, I noticed that Jack had woken up.


    His arm and entire torso were heavily bandaged but he was still in pain. He kept wincing from even the slightest movements, but that wasn''t surprising.


    The part I found most shocking was that he was still angrily ring at me.


    Seeing my look of disappointment, he went to say something but the elven woman quickly covered his mouth. "Sorry sir.. he still isn''t in the right state of mind.. please forgive his arrogance.." Her face was pale and covered in worry.


    "You know you��re free to leave right?" My irritation started to show a bit.


    I was sick of seeing Jack''s face, his angry re made me want to punch him but I held myself back. -Without armor to save him, a tap would kill him..-


    Looking away from them, I noticed Hannah wore an anxious look. "Haah.. Well, Hannah. Shall we go?"


    She immediately hopped up to her feet hearing me talk. "R..right away.."


    As we walked towards the cave entrance, Jack and the elven woman finally stood up and started leaving in the opposite direction.


    As they walked away, I noticed that Hannah gave Jack a look of disgust.


    It was so genuine that it caught me off guard. -Aren''t they adventuring in a group together?- "What''s with that look?"


    Slightly shocked that I noticed, she turned back to me a little embarrassed. "Sorry.."


    "What are you apologizing for?" My confusion was genuine.


    "Sorry.. it was just out of habit.." She looked down towards the ground out of embarrassment before continuing into the cave.


    As soon as we walked in, she mumbled something to herself and formed a small ball of light in front of her.


    "So, what do you know about the monsters in this dungeon?"


    She quickly tensed up a bit. "Well.. this dungeon is one known for its quantity of monsters so they only start around B rank but they are inrge quantities.."


    "And you said towards the bottom they are likely S rank?" I nced back at her.


    "Y..yes.. at least we assume so.."


    -Sounds fun..- "Do you have a map by chance?"


    "Ah, yes actually!" Her anxiousness faded for a moment as she pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper.


    "Do you mind if I look at it?" I reached over as if to say it wasn''t an option.


    Almost immediately, she set the rolled up map in my hand.


    Taking a moment to look at it, I noticed it was really quite huge.


    It was mostly just a single long pathway, but it had tons of short side passages. "What are these little offshoots?" I pointed at a short passage on the map.


    "Those are called camp sites.. sometimes adventurers will take several days to explore a dungeon so they need a safe ce to camp out and rest. Instead of camping in the open, they dug out these small rooms andyer the outside with light magic to camouge the opening or close it up with earth magic."


    -Ah.. makes sense I guess..- Turning back to the front, we quickly continued down the dark cave.


    Several minutes quickly passed and we still didn��te across a single monster.


    -What is going on..- There were signs of monsters all along the floor and walls but we hadn''t seen a single one.


    Even Hannah was getting noticeably more antsy and on edge. "Where are the monsters.."


    "Are there normally monsters by now?" I nced back to see her nervously looking around.


    "Y..yes.. We are well inside the first section.. we should be in rock lizard territory.."


    As she said that, I sensed something up ahead with my aura. -Is that a rock lizard?-


    It looked like amon lizard, just gray with stone-like texture and around a meter long.


    "So what rank are rock lizards? B?"


    "Yes.. they are each B rank.." She didn''t seem to notice the lizard but she was still anxious.


    Walking closer to it, I noticed it started keeping its distance from me. -Is it afraid of me?- "Hey Ilios, go kill that lizard."


    Ilios quickly shot me a happy nce and trotted forward.


    Watching through my aura, I watched as Ilios ran up behind the lizard and bit into its tail.


    *Squeal* *BANG*


    The lizard wailed in pain before Ilios threw him into the wall.


    The impactpletely obliterated the lizard. Its body simply exploded when it hit the wall.


    To my surprise the wall didn''t shatter, but instead stayed firm with only a few of the lizard''s bones digging into it. -That''s some really sturdy rock..-


    Coming back up to my side with a happy trot was Ilios wearing a look of satisfaction.


    ��Haha, good job buddy.�� I reached down and patted his head for a second.


    He gave me a smile as his tail continued to wag.


    -He��s so cute..- A warm smile slowly crept onto my face till I noticed Hannah.


    Behind us, her face waspletely pale and covered in fear.


    ��Is something wrong?��


    She immediately stiffened up as if she didn''t expect me to say anything. ��N..no s..sir..�� Her voice was shaky.


    ��Good, let''s continue then.��


    Not long after that, we finally started seeing other monsters, the issue was, they were all dead.


    There were simply hundreds of mangled monster corpses lining the ground of the cave.


    As I stepped over a mutted corpse, I raised a question. "Is it normal for monsters in dungeons to fight each other?"


    Hannah''s face was covered in anxiety and worry. "Well.. yes.. but not like this.."


    Pretty much all of the monster bodies on the ground were covered in simr, random wounds meaning they fought each other in huge groups.


    It made less sense the more I thought about it, but as we got deeper into the dungeon, I started noticing a pattern.


    The big piles of corpses were at the back end of each ''section'' on the map.


    ording to Hannah, these sections marked the territory boundaries of each type of monster.


    What seemed to be happening was that the monsters in each section tried to run deeper into the dungeon, entering other monsters'' territories and getting killed before the monsters in that section did the same.


    -What were they running from then?- It wasn''t until I thought back to the rock lizard from earlier that it clicked.


    -Are they running from Ilios and I?- It felt like a bit of a stretch but it was entirely possible.


    Continuing further into the dungeon, we were finally approaching the end of the mapped sections.


    The mana density had been steadily increasing as we walked deeper, but as we entered the unmapped section, there was an extremely sudden increase in it.


    -Are we finally getting to the bottom?- I was honestly getting sick of stepping over endless corpses and wanted something interesting to happen. Luckily though, through the dense mana, I sensed several fairly strong auras.


    A smile slowly crept onto my face as I noticed more and more. -Great timing..-

 Chapter 142: A Living Boss Room?

    Chapter 142: A Living Boss Room?


    Mid Morning - Early Spring : Dungeon of Christopher


    As we continued into the unmapped section, the mana density just continued to increase and the cave started to get wider.


    After a few more minutes of walking, we came into what seemed like just a massive room. -This is totally a boss room.-


    As we walked in, I finally got close enough to see what the auras I felt earlier were.


    At the center of the room there were 4 massive snakes coiled up, with hordes of unrecognizable monster corpses around them.


    "Hey Hannah.." I put out my arm to keep her from walking any closer.


    "Yes?" Her reply was full of anxiety.


    "You mind making that light brighter and giving me a bit of info on those monsters in the middle?" Although I could see around the room with aura perfectly fine, her light wasn��t cutting it.


    She looked a little confused before brightening the light and realizing what I was talking about.Her face instantly paled.


    "So? What are they?"


    She jolted a bit as if she didn''t expect my voice. "T..they''re named Great Cobras.. they are usually between A and S rank but.."


    "But what.."


    "Those are massive.." She was staring at the cobras in awe.


    Each cobra was somewhere between 4 and 5 meters in diameter and ridiculously long. "So.. S rank?"


    "Uhm.. at the very least.." She gave me a nervous yet curious look.


    "Hoho, sounds fun. Ilios, you stay here and protect her from any stray rocks or monsters." I reached down and petted him before turning back to the cobras.


    Hannah just looked at me in disbelief. "You aren''t going to fight them are you?!"


    I looked back with an excited smile. "Of course I am! I need to stretch my legs a bit." -I wish I made a greatsword now though..-


    Seeing Ilios sit down next to Hannah, I walked out towards the cobras and stepped over the piles of bodies.


    It took a second for me to notice but once I got close, I felt some kind of auraing from underground. -Is that what I think it is?!-


    It felt like a mana core, a big one too.


    My mouth instantly started to water as my desire to ughter the cobras increased.


    "Hissssss.." As I was lost in my thoughts, a cobra woke up and was hissing at me.


    "How dare you hiss at me!" A slightly crazed smile came to my face as I thinned the walls of my reserve.


    Before I could move though, the cobra tried to bite me.


    *CRACK*


    Its bite well surpassed the speed of sound but I was still far faster.


    As its massive open mouth got close to me, I jumped up and threw a hammer kick onto the top of its head.


    *CCCRRACCCKK*


    A deafening noise echoed through the room.


    The cobras head waspletely destroyed and the floor had a cobweb of deep cracks running tens of meters away.


    -D..damn..- I was stunned at my own strength.


    It was the first time I used any martial art I learned from Father at full strength.


    -That felt.. incredible..- While bathing the euphoric sensation, I looked up and saw the other cobras all looking at me.


    The crazed smile on my face only got wider. -Lets start the ughter!-


    Cranking up my thruster magic, I instantly appeared in front of the head of one of the cobras.


    *Pshhh-WOOOSH*


    Without turning the thrusters off, I used all of my built up momentum and threw a punch into the cobra��s raised neck.


    *CCCRRACCCKK*


    The impact from my punch was so hard that the shockwaveing out of the back of the snake''s neck continued all the way to the wall with enough force to shatter it.


    *FWWOOOOSH*


    Being dragged by its neck, the entire cobra wasunched across the room and embedded into the wall.


    Before I couldnd, the other two cobras bit at me. -Not today!-


    Using thrusters to whip around, I gripped onto a fang from each cobra and mmed myself into the ground.


    *CRUNCH*


    The ground cracked as I drove the cobras'' fangs into the ground to try and immobilize them but..


    *Crack*


    The continued motion from their attack broke the fangs at the base.


    -Sh*t..- *BANG*


    One of the cobras was fast to react and hit me immediately after its fang broke.


    I was sent flying all the way to the wall but I managed to hit it feet first.


    Instantly jumping back off the wall, I used thrusters to throw a punch into the snake''s nose with as much force as I could muster.


    *CR-RRRAAACKK*


    Nearly instantly, its skull caved in and exploded out the back of its head.


    The shockwave continued down the cobras back, blowing off its scales, gouging out its flesh and smashing apart its bones.


    It looked as if I had shot it with a railgun except somehow more gruesome.


    Not giving me any breaks, the other cobra rammed his head into my side, sending me flying into the ceiling.


    *CRACK-BANG*


    "Ackkk.." I winced a bit as the attack cracked a few ribs, but my adrenaline mostly numbed the pain.


    Right before hitting the ceiling, I sted thrusters to slow down and retaliate.


    *Pssshhhhh-WOOOSH*


    Cranking the thrusters once again, I threw myself from the ceiling down feet first onto the cobra''s head.


    It couldn''t dodge at all.


    *CRRR-AACKKK* *BBAAANNGG*


    The cobras head nearly detached from its body when it impacted the ground.


    The entire floor of the massive room was caved in a few meters and sprouted cracks that instantly spread up the walls and to the ceiling.


    -To think my strength would be so excessive now..- A part of me still couldn''t believe it.


    Each cobra was huge and easily peak S rank, if not Nation rank, but I had dealt with them while only receiving a couple fractured ribs.


    *Crumble*


    Snapping me out of my thoughts, I looked up and finally noticed the ceiling was going to copse.


    -Sh*t!- I immediately whipped around to go grab Hannah and Ilios but I felt an unreasonably dense wave of mana wash past me.


    It was such arge amount of mana that it sent a chill down my spine.


    As the wave passed it, the stone started to move around like a liquid and steadily started repairing itself.


    Looking towards the source of the mana, I saw an exposed shiny blue orb peeking out from one of the deep cracks in the middle of the room. The sight of it instantly made my mouth water.


    As if the stone floor was trying to bury the core again, it slowly started molding around the orb.


    Before I could even think about what I was doing, I transformed to my dragon form and plucked the core out of the stone.


    It acted like it was alive when I picked it up. Mana was shooting out of it as if it was trying to kill me but once I tasted it, it was toote.


    The core''s taste was heavenly. It tasted like a really good sour candy.


    Unlike usual, I let the orb sit in my mouth so I could savor the vor, the core trying to fight back just added to the intensity of the taste.


    But after a short moment of enjoying the vor and slowly absorbing the mana bit by bit, I finally thinned the walls of my reserve and swallowed it with a face of satisfaction. -Damn.. that was really good..-

 Chapter 143: A Jolly Old Man

    Chapter 143: A Jolly Old Man


    Early Afternoon - Early Spring : Dungeon of Christopher


    *Thud*


    -Hm?- I heard something fall to the ground behind me as I finished savoring the taste of the core.


    Laying there on the ground was Hannah,pletely unconscious with a pale face.


    -Ah.. forgot about her..-


    Doing onest scan through the room to make sure there wasn''t anything else dangerous, I changed back to my humanoid form.


    -Thankfully the roof isn''t caving in anymore..- Luckily, just before I plucked the core out of the ground, it managed to repair enough of the room to keep the ceiling from copsing.


    As I walked over to Hannah, I contemted what to do with her.


    "Here, Ilios. Carry her for now." I lightly picked her up and tossed her onto Ilios''s back. -I guess I can drop her off in Springarrow before I leave..-Once I got her situated, we quickly made our way outside and started following a trail along the top of the beach.


    After around 10 minutes of light jogging, we finally made it to a main road and slowed down.


    -Bandits?- I felt several aurasing from the bushes at the intersection.


    "To think you would be dumb enough to take the main roads!" Arge man-child with a heavily bandaged arm and chest was the first to walk out.


    "Haah.." -Are you f*ckin serious..- "I spared you before since I was toozy to kill you, why did youe looking for more trouble.." My mood worsened immediately.


    "You thought you could offend me and get away with it?! Laughable! I am the mighty-"


    I quickly hopped off Ilios and appeared in front of Jack. "Would you shut up already.." I grabbed onto his neck.


    "Kuek.. you think.. I came alone?!" He gave me an annoying, confident smirk.


    Almost immediately after, the people in the bushes all slowly walked out.


    "Haah.. I just want to get back on the road.." I wanted to start heading west again soon since staying in one ce for too long would just get me wrapped up in troublesome things. -Like this..-


    "Let go of the young master and we will let you go kid.." An older man dressed in ck spoke with a raspy voice.


    I looked down at Jack, contemting what to do until he spoke.


    He still had that irritating smile as if he was someone who could down on me. "After I kill you.. I''ll ughter that ugly do-"


    *Pop*


    I watched as the life drained from his face with cold and merciless eyes.


    The feeling of his neck snapping in my hands gave me an odd sense of satisfaction, but I was too irritated to enjoy it.


    The people with him all stopped moving as if they couldn''t believe it.


    *Thud*


    I tossed Jack''s dead body towards them.


    "So do you guys wanna join him or not?" I was ready to take out some extra pent up aggression.


    "You dared to kill him?!" One of the younger hooded guys yelled out as he leaned forward to take a step.


    *CRUNCH*


    Before he could even set his foot down, I moved in front of him and blew his head off.


    "Alright, who''s next.." I looked back at the others but none of them moved.


    The only one to do anything was the older one with the raspy voice. "It seems we no longer have a reason to be here."


    "Hm?" -Are they really gonna just..-


    "Well, you killed the man who hired us, so we are no longer obligated to fulfill the contract." The man put his hands together and gave a deep bow. "Sorry for the inconvenience sir."


    The others were quick to bow as well before they disappeared using light magic.


    I was a bit taken aback by how straightforward they were. -They didn''t even take the brats body..-


    I nced over at the bloodstain on the grass from the assassin I killed. -Did they take his body for burial or so they wouldn''t get associated with the death of this kid..-


    ncing back over at Jack''s body, I let out a deep sigh and walked up to him.


    I lightly set my palm on his chest.


    *Pshhh-FWOOSH*


    I activated thruster magic to instantly vaporize his body. -I hope you be a better person in your next life..-


    Hopping back on Ilios, I made sure Hannah wasn''t going to fall off and got moving again.


    As we jogged down the road, I spotted a carriage and ran up beside them.


    "Sir, do you know the way to Springarrow?"


    The carriage driver looked at me a bit suspiciously and nced at Hannah who was still unconscious. "Just stay straight on this road and you''ll get there.."


    "Sweet, thanks." I lightly flicked him a gold coin.


    Seeing he caught it, Ilios and I wasted no more time speeding back up.


    Continuing for around 15 more minutes, a city wall finally came into view. -I thought it would be a port city.. Why is it so far from shore?-


    Coming up to the city, I got suspicious looks from everyone around. The knights at the gate were no exception.


    "Sir.." The young knight looked at me as if he didn''t know what to do. "Is she with you?"


    "Nope. I found her unconscious in a dungeon south of here. Can I leave her with you guys?"


    The young man looked slightly relieved but seemedpletely unsure of what to do. "I don''t think there will be an issue with that but please wait a moment." He nervously ran into the room built into the city wall.


    After a couple of minutes, he finally came out with a much taller man that seemed like an old timer.


    "What can I do for you young man?" He wore the smile of a grandfather.


    His smile and tone of voice were oddly refreshing. "I found this girl unconscious in a dungeon, I was wondering if I could leave her with you guys? She isn''t injured or anything, I just don''t want to carry her around till she wakes up." I spoke very nonchntly.


    "Haha, good to see that chivalry isn''t dead among the young''uns yet. She''s quite a beauty so she''s lucky you were the one toe across her."


    His happiness was simply contagious. A smile slowly crept onto my face as I hopped off of Ilios and gave Hannah to him.


    He quickly called over some other knights and medics that took Hannah away before turning back to me. "Do you have ns to enter the city?"


    -It can''t hurt to get a snack before I get back on the road..- "I guess I might as well since I''m here. Do you know any good food spots?"


    "Ah yes, the adventurers guild here shares its building with a tavern that has some really good meats. It''s a bit pricey though."


    I gave a slightly warm smile. "Price isn''t an issue for me." I tossed him my ID for him to look at.


    Almost instantly, he stiffened up but it didn''tst too long. "To think you were such a bigshot. I apologize if I''ve been rude." He gave a light bow.


    "Haha, you''re fine, sir. You managed to fix my bad mood."


    "Haha, I''m d I could help... Well anyways, I wish we could talk longer but there are those waiting that I must tend to. Please be careful with your wolf as well, he might scare some people." He nced back at the ever increasing number of people waiting behind me. "Well, please enjoy your stay in Springarrow, Sir Whyte."


    -What a nice man..- After dealing with Jack, I was left in a bad mood yet somehow that jolly old man cheered me up. "Here.. Thanks for the chat." I tossed him a tinum coin before walking into the city. As we walked in, Ilios finally shrunk down to his smaller size as well.


    The old man just stared at the coin dumbfounded before looking up to see Ilios changing his size.


    The pure confusion on his face was truly hrious.


    "Haha.." -Now.. shall we head to the guild?-

 Chapter 144: A Tasty Meal

    Chapter 144: A Tasty Meal


    Mid Afternoon - Early Spring : Springarrow City, Elynnor


    Inside the city walls, Springarrow was quite pretty.


    It seemed to be fairly smallpared to Kan''s capital but it didn''t fall behind in beauty at all, in fact it was a bit ahead of Kan.


    The city was incredibly clean and didn''t even seem to have slums. -Maybe it''s just because Kan is a huge capital city that its slums were.. so rough..-


    Another huge difference from Kan though was the amount of greenery.


    To my surprise, there were actually trees nted along the main road with some kind of greenery nted outside of each building.


    The greenery mixed with the fresh air made strolling through town quite enjoyable.


    Not long after I just started walking around though, I found the building I was looking for.


    Next to the road was arge two story building with two signs. The bottom was a simple tavern logo with a mug, fork and knife, and the other had a bow and arrow in front of a leaf and flower, the same insignia that the knights wore.-That must be it!-


    As I walked up to the doors, I heard music, singing and people talking andughinging from inside.


    A wave of nostalgia washed over me as I pushed open the doors.


    The atmosphere reminded me of many memories that I thought I had forgotten from earth.


    The air was full of the smell of delicious food and music that made me want to sing and tap my foot along.


    "You seem new!" A man next to me tried to yell over the noise. "Do you need help with anything?" He was arge and muscr man that was covered in scars but he wore a bright smile.


    "Do you know where to order food?"


    "Of course! Feel free to pick a table and a prettydy wille take your order!" His genuine happiness was contagious.


    "Sweet! Do you have any food rmendations?" Looking around the room I saw several different foods on each table, and they all looked delicious.


    "Ah, you need to try their ''Pirates Special''! It''s a bit pricey but ites with some heavenly meats, soups and booze!"


    "Alright, I think I''ll give it a try! Thanks for the rmendation!" My excitement to try some of the food was mounting.


    "Any time!"


    Walking towards the section with the tables, I found a table and sat down.


    As I waited for a waitress toe out, I enjoyed the music and atmosphere.


    Not long after, a muscr but beautiful woman came up to my table. "It''s rare for such a beautiful man as you toe by~"


    "Haha, I''m truly ttered."


    "Well, what can I get for you this evening?"


    "I heard that something called the pirate��s special was good, I''ll go with that for now."


    She paused with a look of shock for a moment before shifting back to her smile. "I dont normally say this, but that special is quite expensive.. I''d hate to see such a good lookin'' man fall into debt here.." Her concern seemed genuine.


    It was amon thing in this era for bars and taverns to not mention the bill of the food and drinks till after they were all finished, so they could catch more people in debt.


    If the tabs were left unpaid for too long or the debt couldnt be cleared, then they would either be forced into very and sold or forced to work under the tavern in the ck markets. Long story short, it was an easy way for bars and taverns to make more money as well as get more people to grow their power in the underworld. (in ck markets)


    "Money isn''t an issue for me, but thank you for your concern." I gave her a warm smile seeing her concern.


    Her cheeks immediately became a bit rosy. "Ho~ Well, I''ll bring out your food, young lord." She winked as she gave an exaggerated bow.


    As she walked away, the young man sitting behind me tapped me on my shoulder.


    "Hm?" I nced back and saw a young, blonde adventurer with donning white and gold armor.


    "To think you managed to make the Pirate Queen flustered." He looked like a stereotypical isekai hero character, the type to get summoned to kill some demon lord and save a princess. A Prince Charming of sorts.


    I managed to overlook his out of ce looks though. "Who��s the Pirate Queen?" -The waitress?-


    "Haha, you must be new in these parts. She''s pretty famous around here for constantly breaking the hearts of guys that hit on her." He nced over at her as she walked into the back room.


    "Why is she called the Pirate Queen?"


    He quickly turned back to me. "Her father is the leader of a massive pirate group around here known as ''The Skulls''. They''re a ridiculously strong bunch with unimaginable strength and influence, but as long as you don''t mess with them, they won''t mess with you."


    "Thanks for the warning. So how''s life around here?"


    We continued to talk for a while after that, about anything from some of his adventures to how it was to live in the cities around Elynnor.


    From the sounds of his stories, Elynnor seemed to give its satellite cities tons of freedom when it came to theirws and regtions as Springarrow was not only the cleanest but was just simply the best to live it by far.


    Springarrow was what he called ''an adventurer city'' where nearly all of the poption was adventurers as well. This made it so there weren''t really anything that could truly bepared to the slums in other cities and capitals.


    It was an amazing conversation and I learned quite a lot, but once the food came, I remembered why I was here.


    -Oh.. my.. goodness..- The food hadpletely filled the table and looked absolutely divine.


    "Wow, someone actually had the balls to order the Pirates special?" There wasmotion around the tavern but I didn''t pay attention to it.


    I wasted no time and quickly dug into the food.


    The good atmosphere, good music, and good food made for a wonderful experience. The alcohol was also not super strong and tasted sweet and fruity.


    "Haahh.." I let out a satisfied breath as I finished off the mug of cooled alcohol. -Making it cold was a game changer..-


    "Would you like a refill on that drink sir?" A man that looked like a waiter walked up.


    "Sure!" I leaned back a bit to let him refill the drink. "Thanks!" As soon as I took a sip, I noticed the smell was vastly different and instead of tasting fruity sweetness, it was more sour.


    It only took a second for me to realize what it was. -Poison..-


    I paused my sip and scanned the room to notice the guy I thought was a waiter had sat down at a table and blended in with the crowd.


    After a second of thinking what to do, I tilted up the ss and threw the alcohol down.


    -It honestly doesn''t even taste that bad.. the sourness is actually kinda nice..-


    As I mmed down the empty mug, the man who gave me the refill wore a greedy smile.


    As the day passed though, along with the food on my table his greedy smile steadily disappeared.


    It was a great night, I struck up conversations with the people at neighboring tables and ended up talking to them untilte in the night.


    It was honestly a st to just talk and have fun with everyone, some of them even turned out to be some big name adventurers as well.


    "Well, I think it''s time we get going." A beautiful elf woman I was talking to slowly picked up her dead-drunk boyfriend.


    "Haha, no worries. It was good talking to you!" I gave a small wave as she walked out the door.


    "Sir, would you li-" *Bonk* *Thud*


    I smacked the ''waiter'' in the head with my wooden mug, knocking him out as he offered me poisoned alcohol for the 7th time tonight. "How have you not noticed that not only alcohol, but also that weak ass poison does nothing to me.." I looked down at him with a look of disbelief.


    -I guess I should thank him for the free drinks though..- I nced over at Ilios who was by my feet. ��Did you get enough to eat, Ilios?��


    His tail was wagging as he gave me a light nod before he rolled over.


    ��Haha, good.�� I leaned back in my chair with a look of satisfaction. -That was some good food..-

 Chapter 145: The Pirate Queen

    Chapter 145: The Pirate Queen


    Mid Evening - Early Spring : Springarrow City, Elynnor


    I rubbed my stomach as I leaned back in my chair.


    The musicians had long since left, leaving just me and a small group of adventurers that were dead asleep in the silent room.


    "Did you enjoy the food?" The mighty pirate queen, Emelia, sat on the edge of the table. We got fairly familiar with each other as the night passed.


    "Well of course I did! I wouldn''t have eaten 3 whole specials if I didn''t." I gave her a satisfied smile.


    "I was starting to get worried that we were gonna run out of food. The cook in the back told me that he refused to cook anything else." She showed her pearly white teeth with afortable smile.


    "Haha, you know what? I''ll take another!" I raised my dented wood mug into the air as I looked back towards the door to the kitchen with a smug look.


    "NO!" *Crash* I heard a wild cry from the back. "PLEASE NO!" *Crash* *Thud*


    There was a serious racketing from the kitchen until I saw a middle aged man''s head pop out around the corner."I''m so tired.." He looked at me with desperate eyes.


    "Pfft-Haha, I was joking man. Come here and let me give you a tip before you leave though." He had already started cleaning up the kitchen earlier so he was about to leave.


    "A.. tip?" He looked a bit confused.


    "Here.." I nonchntly pulled out a gold coin and tossed it to him.


    "Huh?" As he caught it, he just stared at the coin in disbelief.


    "Think of it like a bonus reward for all of your effort." I held up my mug and looked over at Emelia. "I will take onest refill though."


    She gave a little pout. "How are you gonna let him leave but not me?"


    "Are you not the owner of this ce?" I propped my feet up onto the table.


    "My father is.." The air quickly became awkward.


    Figuring it was a touchy subject I decided to veer away from it. "Well in any case, what''s keeping you from closing the tavern and making me leave?"


    "I can''t make you leave because this area is shared with the adventurers guild which never closes. That''s why those guys over there who''ve been dead asleep for over an hour are still there." She pointed over her shoulder towards the group of drunk, sleeping adventurers as she picked up my mug.


    "So why are you pouring me another ss for instead of leaving?" I watched as she slowly filled the mug with Orange Death, the type of booze I had been drinking all night. (Its called that because you can''t really taste the alcohol content)


    Her demeanor changed as soon as I asked. "I don''t know.." She turned around and walked back over to me. "Maybe it''s because I feel like I can squeeze more money out of you~" She gave a sly smile.


    -That''s a lie..- Her smile was forced. -But what is she plotting..-


    As we talked throughout the night, one of the many things I learned about her was that she was extremely smart and always spoke carefully. She was the scheming type.


    I reached up and carefully grabbed the mug from her. "I feel like I''ve given you more than enough to cover everything even if I were to ask for another 500 refills." I took a small sip.


    "You said the extra was my ''tip'' though~" She hopped up on the table.


    *Thud* I tossed my ID up next to her. "Just charge it on that, I''m toozy to make more coins."


    She raised her eyebrows not understanding what I meant by making coins before looking over at the ID. "To think you were a bigshot~" She spoke yfully as she gently picked it up.


    I casually took another sip of my drink and petted Ilios as she carefully examined it.


    "You even have royal insignias that Ive never seen before.." She rubbed her thumb across the back of the ID.


    -Hm?- "Have you never been to the Main continent?"


    "No, I recognize Kan.. its these other two.." She paused as she looked incredibly closely at the other two insignias. "A ck wolf.. and a white dragon.." She reluctantly looked up at my ears. "I must have had too much to drink.." She lightly tossed me back my ID.


    -What is that supposed to mean?- I quickly moved my drink and caught my ID. "Wait, you aren''t going to charge anything?" I was a bit shocked she didn''t go empty my bnce.


    "You already paid way too much, I''d feel guilty if I took more." Her unusual nervousness finally slipped through.


    "Haha, making money is just good business. Nothing to be guilty of." I set down my mug and put my ID in my pocket.


    We sat in silence for a moment before sheid back across the table.


    "Are you alright?"


    "Of course!" She responded with conviction but her bodycked her previous confidence.


    "Is there something on your mind?"


    "Haah.." She thought to herself for a moment before ndly responding. "No.."


    Everything about her response made me want to leave. My gut told me I''d get wrapped into something troublesome if I stuck around any longer.


    Finishing my drink, I pulled my feet off the table. "Well, it seems like I''ve gotten toofortable." I casually tidied my clothes and got ready to leave. "I''ll get out of your hair."


    But as soon as I went to stand up she pressed her hand on my shoulder. "Could you.. stay a bit longer?" She wore a forced smile as her face lost a bit of color.


    -She''s scared of something?- It was thest kind of reaction I would have expected. "Is there something you need me for?"


    She quickly jerked her hand back and sat up. "It''s nothing like that.."


    "So? Why do you look scared?" I looked her up and down. Her entire demeanor of being a strong willed and untouchable woman from earlier hadpletely disappeared. She looked like a dog with its tail tucked under it.


    "I know it''s probably too much to ask for.. but.." She reluctantly nced over at me. "Can you stay here for just a bit lo-"


    *Creak*


    The door to the tavern creaked open making her facepletely drain of color.


    At this point, I had given up on trying to escape whatever trouble wasing. I was more curious about what could make her iron will crumble. -She''s strong physically and mentally, and is the daughter of a ridiculously influential pirate captain..-


    As the door opened, a tempered aura easily surpassing Lawtons flowed into the room. -Who the..-

 Chapter 146: Uncomfortable Family Relations

    Chapter 146: Ufortable Family Rtions


    Late Evening - Early Spring : Springarrow City, Elynnor


    *Creaak*


    *Tap-step-Tap-step*


    Walking through the door was a tall and unkempt man. He wore all ck clothes covered in holes and wore a fair amount of solid gold jewelry. His beard and hair were ck, long and frizzly, and he had a peg leg starting below his ankle.


    He carried a heavy air of oppression, to the extent that my instinct told me he was strong, extremely strong.


    He quickly looked around the room as he walked in and locked his eyes on Emelia. "Emelia.." His deep voice filled the room.


    Emelia was frozen, sitting on the edge of the table with a face devoid of color, seemingly unable to even look at the man.


    -How can the daughter of a pirate captain fear a pirate..- I knew the situation was moreplicated than it seemed, but it piqued my curiosity.


    "I''m not here for what you think." His face looked angry but his voice sounded oddly caring.Emelia slowly started to ease up. "Then what are you here for.." She nervously looked over at him.


    "She''s dead... You were right.." His voice sounded cold but had a hint of guilt in it.


    Emelia''s pale face was instantly washed over with a mix of sadness and suppressed anger. "I told you not to trust that bi*ch but you didn''t listen.."


    "I know, I... I''m sorry.." His face was covered in guilt.


    "Do you know.. how many years I suffered because of her?! Do you know what she did to me?!" Tears were slowlying to her eyes. "Do you remember how many times you came to try and drag me back?!" She was gritting her teeth as she talked.


    The man''s face darkened a bit as he spoke in a gentle tone. "I don''t have any excuses.."


    -Ah.. That''s what this is..- Although I was still in the dark on basically the entire situation, I managed to piece together enough to where it made me ufortable.


    To shake off the difort, I tried to slip away to the bar to get a drink.


    As I started refilling my mug though, both Emelia and the man stared at me in confusion. "Just act like I''m not even here." It was clear that I was interrupting their emotional moment.


    "Do you know him?" The grizzly man turned back to Emelia.


    "Ah.." She wiped her eyes with her shirt as color slowly returned to her face. "He''s-"


    "My name is Vasilias Whyte." Wanting to simply get out of the situation now, I just walked up and held out my hand. "Sorry for interrupting."


    The man''s expression quickly turned serious as he reached for the handshake. "I��m Adrian."


    He quickly mped down on my hand with a ferocious strength.


    ��Haah..�� -Is he seriously trying to test me? In this situation?-


    Just as I was about to crush his hand though, Emelia came over and broke us up. "STOP! What are you doing, Father?!"


    He quickly yanked his hand away as soon as I released my grip. His face was a bit pale but I didn''t think much of it.


    -So, he really is her Father.- I cringed a bit as it reminded me of a feeling I had on earth, but I couldn''t figure out why.


    I wanted to just leave, but after seeing how scared Emelia was of her own father, I felt like I should at least follow through and help her like I originally nned to.


    Trying to shake off the difort, I walked over to a table in the corner and called over Ilios. "You two can continue."


    Emelia quickly noticed Adrian''s expression and assumed the worst. "F..father.." Her previous ''scared dog'' look started to show itself again.


    "Haha.. what am I doing..." He let out a nervousugh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What is there to drink here.." He made his way over to the bar and grabbed a mug as well.


    -He''s picking Orange Death as well?- I had expected a pirate like him to pick something stronger.


    "Thanks for not crushing my hand.." As soon as he finished filling his cup, he chugged it and refilled it.


    "Thank your daughter, not me."


    He paused for a minute before sitting down at the bar. "Are you some descended god or something?" His voice was somehowpletely devoid of sarcasm.


    "Haha.. I''m just a bit outside of the realm of <strong>humans </strong>is all.." I gave an awkwardugh and a vague answer to try and dodge the question.


    "Sorry.. I was rude." He lowered his head slightly, finally dissipating the oppressive air he carried.


    "Seeing such a strong man as yourself bow your head so easily, it makes me wonder if you''re really as strong as you seem." I gave him a judging look as I probed him with my aura.


    Although I was being sneaky, he clearly felt it since he instantly broke out into a cold sweat.


    There was a short silence before he finally said anything else. "I don''t mean to be rude but do you mind stepping out for a minute? I''d like to talk to Emelia.. privately..." He awkwardly nced over at Emelia who was nervously standing in the middle of the room.


    Although not clear by the way he acted, he seemed genuinely scared of me. -I doubt he''ll try anything stupid.- Plus, from what I could tell, he was also quite smart and had impable instincts to back it up.


    I nced over at Emelia to see what she wanted and she just nodded.


    "I''ll be out front. Just yell out if you need something." I walked out with a light wave.


    Walking outside, I looked for a ce to sit and found a stool next to the announcement board. -That should work..-


    As I sat down, Ilios ran up and sat in front of me.


    A warm smile crept onto my face as the difort finally subsided. "Sorry I haven''t yed with you since we left Bahamut... I''ll make it up to you, I promise." Time quickly passed as I petted him.


    "H..hey.. you''re still here.." After about an hour, Emelia peeked her head out. She looked as if she had let out quite a lot of pent up tears.


    "Did you and your father get everything resolved?" I used my aura to scan the room and saw Adrian refilling his drink with a warm smile on his face.


    "Y..yeah..." She awkwardly leaned against the open door. "T..thanks for sticking around.." Her cheeks were a bit rosy from crying.


    "No problem... Well, I''ll leave you two alone now that things have settled. I should be getting back on the road." I stood up and brushed off my clothes.


    "Ah, about that. You said you were going to the Western Continent right?" She wore a hopeful smile. "We can give you a safe ride across the strait if you need." (The channel between Elynnor and the Western Continent)


    "Ah, that''s not.." Although I could easily just fly across it and not waste any time, I figured it could be a good chance to learn a bit about the oceans. "Haah, alright." -Pirates are definitely my best bet to learn about it without going into it myself so..- "When are we going?"

 Chapter 147: A Sprouting Friendship

    Chapter 147: A Sprouting Friendship


    Late Morning - Early Spring : Springarrow City, Elynnor


    Emelia and I continued to talk outside for a while before we ended up going back inside and spending the night socializing with Adrian.


    Emelia was in high spirits the rest of the night which was a good sight and, although they still had their moments, for the most part they seemed like a normal father and daughter.


    Adrian was a bit special though, simply put, he was the opposite of the rumors I had heard.


    From what I could tell, he was a simple minded man that was just living for the fun of it. He constantly wore a smile and cracked jokes with his incredibly contagiousugh. He honestly seemed like a giant teddy bear to me.


    After his talk with Emelia, he also looked like he had taken a heavy weight off his shoulders which made the rest of the night a good one for him.


    Although I never asked what their situation was myself, after a dozen or so sses of booze, they did let out a hint.


    From what I could tell, it seemed like the woman Emelia hated so much was actually her mother. Neither of them ever revealed why she was killed but I obviously wasn''t going to ask.


    On top of not wanting to ruin the good mood, something about the topic made me incredibly ufortable.Besides that though, the night was great.


    Once morning rolled around, we finally discussed our ns to leave and stopped drinking.


    After a couple more hours of casual talk and letting Adrian sober up, people started to flow into the guild to get their morning quests and we left.


    As we walked out of the guild, I overheard some whispers among the adventurers.


    "Who is that guy?" It was two female adventurers whispering to each other.


    "No idea.. but he''s walking in front of the Pirate King.."


    "He''s kinda cute.."


    "Y..yeah.. he is.."


    "I was talking about the demihuman you dumb*ss!" *smack* The sound of the smack echoed through the quiet room.


    I had to hold back myugh to not cause a scene.


    Once we got outside though, Adrian couldn''t help but joke. "Hey, that adventurer girl back there was pretty cute." He turned to Emelia with a sly smile. ��What are your thoughts about having a stepmother?��


    "Father! She''s younger than me!" Emelia didn''t find it as funny as we did.


    After joking around a bit more and gathering the attention of everyone around us, we made our way out of the city.


    Once we got outside, we picked up the pace a bit. By my standard it was still slow but it was far faster than even a fast mount.


    That speed couldn''t be sustained forever though, after several minutes, Emelia started to get tired and Adrian let her up on his back.


    With it just being Adrian and I left running, we picked up the pace again.


    "Hey Vasilias!" Adrian looked over at me with apetitive smirk. "I bet I''m faster!" He lightly resituated Emelia on his back before picking up the pace again.


    "You think you''re fast?!" I quickly kicked it up a gear and instantly zipped past him. Once I got a decent lead, I nced back to taunt him a bit. "How sl-" *Crack*


    The second I looked back I mmed into a tree. -The one time I let down my guard..-


    "Hahaha!" Adrian wasughing his ass off as he ran by. "Watch where you''re going!"


    "Haah.." I got up and brushed the dust that covered my clothes.


    "Woof!" Ilios jumped up on me.


    "Haha, I''m alright buddy." I rubbed his head a bit before he got down. "Let''s catch back up, shall we?"


    Ilios and I quickly caught back up to Adrian and ended up goofing around with him a bit more before the ocean came into view.


    The beach had beautiful white sand and the water was crystal clear, but just up the beach, there was a massive galleon anchored.


    The wood that made up the hull was a dark red that was almost ck and looked fairly worn and weathered. It was on the big side for a pirate ship as well.


    "Is that ship yours?" I nced towards Adrian who was looking over at the ship.


    "Yep, that''s my baby." He lightly set down Emelia.


    "H..how do you guys.. run so fast.." She seemed out of breath even though she wasn''t running.


    "Haha, are you alright?" I looked over at her while I was petting Ilios.


    She was hanging her head down with her arms propped on her knees. "Yeah.. totally." She gave me an unenthusiastic thumbs up.


    "Well, let''s quickly get on board! I''m sure the crew is dying to see you again." Adrian did a few stretches before waving us along.


    "I doubt any of them even remember me, Father. It''s been over 10 years."


    "You''re in for a surprise then. You made quite the impression when you were younger."


    As we walked closer, the voices of those on board filled the air. They sounded like they were doing apetition of some kind.


    "Vice wins that round! He''s 5-0! Who can stop his monstrous streak?!" The distant voice echoed out of the ship.


    As we got to the part of the beach closest to the ship, Emelia raised a question. "How do we get out to the ship?"


    Adrian twitched a bit before looking back with a bit of worry. "You don''t remember?"


    Emelia just looked confused.


    "Haah.." He walked over and picked her up, princess style.


    "What are you-"


    "Hyup!" Bending his knees, he jumped all the way out to the ship andnded on the bow. *Thump*


    -I guess I should do the same..- *Pshh-fwoosh* Instead of taking the effort to jump, I just picked up Ilios and turned on the thrusters for a second.


    *Thump*


    Thankfully the wood that made up the ship was exceptionally sturdy. Mynding didn''t seem to break anything but it did rock the ship pretty hard. "Sorry for the hardnding Adrian."


    "Haha, you''re fine! This baby is made of 500 year old, mana reinforced redwood. Even monsters struggle to even bend its nks." He said it like he was bragging, it was clear that he was proud of it and I honestly couldn''t me him.


    The ship, although mostly wood, was covered in beautiful metals, carvings and to my surprise, even artifacts.


    Although I didn''t know their purpose, there were artifacts just about everywhere that had something for a crewmember to do, like hoist the sails or drop the anchor, so I could at least make some assumptions. -Are they there to reduce the workload of the crew?-


    *t-t-t-t-t-t-t-tap* The noise of footsteps echoed through the ship.


    Hearing the peoplee up from below deck, I quickly moved up to the bridge deck so they wouldn''t see Ilios or I. -Emelia should have the spotlight..-


    A momentter, a bald man stuck his head up out of thepanionway. "Captain is back with the Young Miss!" He cheered out as he sprung above deck.


    Following behind him, there were around 25 guys and around 5 women of varying ages. -They''re all quite strong but isn''t that too few crew?-


    The auraing from the group was quite impressive, most of the crew seemed to be at least S rank if not low nation rank, but the galleon was not small.


    "We greet the young miss!" The crew all lined up and bowed in front of Emelia on the deck.


    "Uhm.." She just awkwardly stood there, unsure of what to do until she looked up at me sitting on the railing next to the helm as if to ask for help.


    In return, I just gave an encouraging smile. -To think it hasn''t even been a day since we first met..-


    Although I wore a smile then, my gut told me something was going to happen on this trip across the ocean. A strong sense of premonition. -I doubt it''ll be anything I cant handle. Plus..- I looked up at Adrian who was introducing Emelia to the crew with a proud smile. -He''s quite a monster himself..-

 Chapter 148: An Unreadable Boy

    Chapter 148: An Unreadable Boy


    Mid Afternoon - Early Spring : Strait of Western Elynnor


    "To think the young miss has grown so much!"


    "You have truly grown into a gem!"


    "To think you have reached S rank at such a young age. You truly are the captain''s daughter!" Emelia was getting showered in praise by the crew, none of which she knew how to respond to.


    Emelia looked around for help as a muscr woman walked up from below deck. "Hey, you old farts, back up and give her some space!"


    Emelia''s face lit up as soon as she saw the woman. "Auntie Lynn!" Darting through the crowd of people, Emelia jumped into Lynn��s arms.


    "Haha, to think I was worried that you wouldn��t remember me, it seems like that was a needless worry." She gently rubbed Emelia''s head with a motherly smile.


    ��How could I possibly forget Auntie Lynn?!�� She looked up at her with a childish determination.


    ��So..�� Lynn''s smile turned smug. ��When did you get a boyfriend?��Emelia didn''t understand though. ��Huh? I.. don��t?��


    Lynn twitched a bit at the unexpected response. "So who''s the new kid?" She slowly turned around and looked up at me. "Did you have another kid, captain?"


    "Hahaha, I was wondering how long it would be before someone noticed him!" Adrian let out a hardyugh. "He��s a friend I met in Emelia''s tavern."


    Lynn didn''t believe him at all. "You want us to believe you actually made a friend? And a noble kid, at that."


    "Very funny Lynn. You''lle to like him soon as well, don''t worry." He wore a yful but provoking smile.


    As Lynn looked back at me with a curious look, I just gave a gentle wave. "I guess now that Emelia has had her moment, I can introduce myself."


    I lightly jumped off the railing down onto the main deck. Most of the crew wore cautious, untrusting looks, but I couldn''t me them.


    "My name is Vasilias Whyte, and that good boy up there is Ilios." I pointed up towards Ilios who was sticking his head through the railing. "I can''t say anything about where I''m from, but it''s a pleasure to meet you all." As soon as I finished my introduction, no one moved or said anything.


    Silence just filled the area until Lynn walked up and set her hand on my shoulder. "Just about everyone here has a sensitive past so don''t worry about it. The only thing that determines how you''re treated here is your strength!" She wore a friendly smile.


    "How do you all test each other''s strength? Do you just fight it out?�� I originally nned to peacefully ride across and learn about the ocean, but by the looks of the crew, learning anything from them would be difficult.


    "Haha, we are pirates not barbarians! We determine strength with arm wrestling! It helps keep the damage to a minimum when some of the crew members are well into the nation rank."


    -I guess that''s a decent idea, but mages are at a total disadvantage..- As I looked around though, not a single crewmember looked even remotely like a mage.


    Seeing me look over the crowd, she tried to encourage me a bit. ��You don''t have to beat everyone to get the crew''s recognition, you just need to do the best you can!��


    -Hmm..- I wanted to try it but at the same time didn''t want to make a scene. -If I hold back a tad it should be fine..- "Well, in that case, I''ll give it a try." I wore a rxed smile.


    But it seems the crew just got provoked by my rxation. "I noble brat dares to be so arrogant on this ship?!�� Grabbing everyone''s attention, a random crewmember stood up and pointed at me. ��I''ll be the one to test and challenge you!"


    -Who does this guy think he is?- Him provoking me definitely fired me up though.


    As I got ready to respond, Lynn whispered to me. "His name is Vice, he��s currently one of the strongest crewmembers besides me and Adrian so don''t feel bad about yourself and just decline his challenge. If you don''t think you can challenge anyone, don''t worry and just rx. I''ll at least make it so you aren''t bothered too much.." She seemed genuinely worried for me.


    Her worry went unregarded though. He piqued my interest too quickly. "Haha, don''t worry. I''m more than enough to deal with some delusional pirate."


    ��You little..�� Vice showed clear and visible anger as he walked back below deck with me following behind him.


    Back above deck, Adrian looked over at Lynn with a yful look. "If you want to see something hrious, you shoulde below deck."


    Raising her head from her palms, she gave a look of confusion and curiosity.


    As we walked down the stairs, we walked onto a floor of the ship that was full of supplies, beds, and cannons. -It''s quite spacious down here..- Even with all of the supplies and cannons, there was plenty of walking room.


    Continuing across the deck, towards the bow, there was a small open area lit by an artifact, with one huge wooden peg acting like a table. (It��s just a strong peg that reinforces the bow by connecting it to upper decks)


    "Hey kid, I hope you don''t mind your arm being broken." Vice was oozing confidence as he walked up to the table.


    A crewmember who seemed glued to his side whispered in his ear. "Man, shouldn''t you be more careful? You saw how the captain introduced him, right?"


    "You''re just paranoid. Cap probably liked him because the kid gave him money or something." Vice casually brushed off his friend''s warning.


    "Haah�� You should really listen to your friend''s warning."


    Vice��s friend slowly nced back at me. "He.. heard that?" His face was covered in anxiety.


    "Demihumans are known to have good hearing, I''m sure it''s nothing." Somehow ignoring yet another red g, he finally sat down at the makeshift table with an unbothered, confident grin.


    -This guy loves brushing off warnings huh..- I was genuinely in shock.


    *tap-tap*


    As I sat down I tapped on the wood to double-check its hardness. -I need to hold back a bit to not break it but.. it should be fine.-


    - Lynn ~


    "If you want to see something hrious, you shoulde below deck." Adrian had an excited look.


    -How long has it been since I''ve seen youugh and smile so much..- Although I knew I could ount for some of his joy and excitement with Emelia, I knew there was something more than that. -Is it really because of this kid?- I turned back and looked at the demihuman named Vasilias with curiosity.


    As we went below deck, the crew was talking up a storm.


    "There''s no way that kid is going to beat Vice right?"


    ��No, his presence is practically non-existent.. It feels like he��s a normal guy..��


    "Yeah.. but that kid''s demeanor is.."


    "Is what?"


    "Something about it feels off.. it doesn''t feel like arrogance."


    "You''re probably just imagining it."


    I couldn''t help but agree with them. The kid''s presence was the same as a normal person,pletely iparable to any of the crew. -Something about the way that kid acts worries me though..-


    As I looked over at Adrian, I saw him grinning cheek to cheek. "I''ll bet 2 tinum on Vasilias!" He lightly tossed 2 tinum coins onto the table.


    *C-chink*


    The entire room wentpletely silent and everyone instantly rethought who they wanted to bet on.


    But since it was a bet that didn''t make sense, someone gave a possible reason for it. ��Is Cap just trying to pay us in a fancy way this time?��


    *thud-clink* "I''m all in on Vice." One of the younger crew members tossed their entire coin punch next to the table, wanting to get more of a payout when he wins.


    -What the f..- I couldn''t help but watch the scene in disbelief.


    "25 gold on Vice."


    "20 gold on Vice."


    "23 gold on Vice."


    One after another, the crew continued betting huge on Vice.


    I couldn''t believe it. -Are they insane?-


    Among the crew, I had been around Adrian for the longest by far. He was someone I grew up with and was constantly around, but I had never seen him so genuinely confident in someone winning. -And the crew is going against that confidence?-


    I couldn''t help but watch the scene in disbelief as everyone threw entire pouches of gold next to the table.


    "What''s your vote, Master?" My (26-year-old) apprentice, Mary, was waiting for my vote.


    I leaned down and whispered so no one could hear. "Put every penny you have on Vasilias, this is a chance to win big."


    She seemed a bit taken aback before walking up and dropping her pouch down. "353 gold on Vasilias."


    Everyone in the room paused and stared at us with greedy smiles, but I didn''t care. "2 tinum on Vasilias." I tossed my ID into the pile. I was one of the few crewmembers that used bank artifacts since I didn''t like carrying coins.


    "So what''s the final bet tally?" Vasilias looked a bit curious, but his confidence didn''t fade at all, and he wasn''t the slightest bit nervous.


    -How rich must you be to look at the pile of coins totally unfazed..-


    Vice looked back over at Vasilias with a greedy smile. "Should be 13:4, me."


    It was a bet with thousands of gold on the line, and the crew simply didn''t think it was unusual.


    "Haha, to think I''m going to make so many people go broke in one sweep." Vasilias looked over the crew with an unreadable look.


    Vice didn''t notice it as he set his elbow down on the table and got ready. "Don''t cry if your hand is broken after this, kid."


    Vasilias didn''t even respond to him, he just rolled up his sleeves revealing an extremely toned forearm, and grabbed onto Vice��s hand.


    -And here I was thinking he was just a noble pretty boy.. even his form is pretty good..-


    As they both got ready, Phil finally walked up to the table. He was the crewmate in charge of bet distribution and finances on the ship. Simply put, he was the best with numbers among any of us there.


    On top of being the ountant, he was also the judge for things like this. "Okay, are you both ready?" He lightly set his hand over theirs to make sure they weren''t starting before the countdown. "Alright. 3.. 2.. 1.. Go!"


    *Crrreeeaakkkkk*


    The creaking of the boat echoed through the silent room as people couldn''t believe their eyes.


    Vice''s face was steadily getting more red as veins started bulging out of his forearm. Vasilias, on the other hand, seemedpletely rxed.


    -What a monster..- He withheld Vice''s full strength totally casually.


    The entire crew watched them in silence and awe.


    Vice couldn''t believe it either. "That''s.. impossib-"


    *pop-Crack*

 Chapter 149: A Tense Crew

    Chapter 149: A Tense Crew


    Late Afternoon - Early Spring : Strait of Western Elynnor


    Vice''s face was red as a strawberry, it looked like he was gonna pop a blood vessel. -Man, he��s really putting his all into this..-


    "That''s.. impossib-"


    *pop* His wrist popped as I felt his hand go limp.


    -That''s unfortunate.-


    *Crack-creaak*


    His hand cracked and the ship rocked as I mmed it into the table. -Whoops.. I definitely broke his hand with that..-


    "AARGGH.." His groan echoed through the silent room.


    -That was a bit underwhelming..- Although he was stronger than I expected, I couldn''t help but be underwhelmed. "Well, while I''m here? Anyone else wanna give it a try?"As I scanned the room, everyone wore looks of disbelief or fear, the only exception being Adrian who wore a wide smile.


    "You want to give it a try, Adrian?" I was quite curious to see his strength first hand.


    "Haha, I think I''ll pass. Although I''d love to challenge you, I think the ship would give out before the victor is decided." He pointed towards the massive peg that was acting like a table


    -Hm?- As I looked down, I noticed an indentation from my elbow and a small crack that formed where I mmed Vice''s hand down. -Oh.. whoops.. I tried to hold back but still ended up damaging it..- "Well, that''s a shame. I was looking forward to seeing how strong you were.." I was genuinely disappointed.


    "Haha, well, if wee across any sea monsters I''ll give you a good show, how about that?��


    A smile quickly formed on my face. ��Haha, I''ll look forward to it!��


    ��Well, if there aren''t any other challengers, how about Phil distributes the winnings?" I quickly realized Adrian''s wide smile was from winning the bet.


    "R..right.." Phil nervously walked up to the table and started sorting through the coins. *chink-chink*


    The noise of coins being moved around filled the silence. No one moved, and no one talked.


    -Are these guys antisocial or something?-


    Adrian also quickly noticed the awkward atmosphere. "What''s with the tense atmosphere guys? Just because most of you lost all your money doesn''t mean you can''t get it back."


    "Cap.. we can''t win against him�� Even Vice got folded by him." The bald pirate from earlier spoke up in a halfhearted manner.


    "Who said you needed to fight him?" He quickly caught everyone''s attention. "Boys! We are setting sail for southern Nerrania and the top 5 crew that give the best performance on this voyage will get a ''special bonus''." He wore a confident smile.


    Although I didn''t know what that bonus was, the crew seemed to have an idea.


    "Top 5?!"


    "That means I have a chance!"


    "I''m gon'' destroy ya all!"


    "Haha, bring it!"


    Adrian quickly managed to repair nearly everyone''s shattered spirits.


    Of course not everyone could just be satisfied though. "How is that fair?!" Vice was angrily holding his broken and dislocated hand.


    The crew didn''t take kindly to his disagreement. "Oh shut up Vice, don''t ruin this for us!"


    "Just because you lost, you think you can drag us all with y-"


    Adrian interrupted their arguing. "What is the problem, Vice?" Adrian walked up and looked down at him.


    Vice immediately hesitated feeling the pressure from Adrian, but to my surprise, he didn''t back down. "I have a broken and dislocated hand! How can Ipete with them?!"


    "Hmm, that''s a fair point." Adrian sarcastically nodded his head, but the crew didn''t seem to see the sarcasm.


    They all froze up thinking that Adrian was actually going to change the rewards orpetition.


    Before anyone could respond though, I decided to step in. "So if your hand wasn''t dislocated would you be in agreeance with everyone?"


    Vice jolted a bit, not expecting my voice. "Of course!"


    "Then how about this?" I looked at him with a yful smile as my aura umted around his limp hand.


    "Wha-" *po-p-pop* "AAARRGGHHH!* He let out a loud scream as I used my aura to forcefully pop his hand back into ce.


    "Now everything''s fair!" As I stood up from the seat, I looked towards the crew and noticed their mix of expressions.


    Just as I was about to say something, Adrian yelled out. "What are youzy asses doing just staring?!" Everyone tensed up hearing his booming voice. "Get above deck and get to work! We need to get going!"


    There was a short pause before everyone responded in unison. "Aye, aye!" Quickly dispersing from the group, they all spread around the deck and started working on various tasks


    "Sorry if they gave you a bad impression, Vasilias." Adrian seemed to notice that I wasn''t a fan of the tense atmosphere around the crew.


    "Haha, you''re fine. I''m sure they''ll ease up around me soon enough." Looking around, I noticed I was getting more curious looks from some of the crew instead of fear and awe like earlier. -I''m sure they''ll warm up once I talk to them a bit..-


    "They''re all fun people to be around, we just haven''t had any visitors besides family in several years." He wore an oddly loving smile as he watched the crew run around below deck.


    -He really does care about the crew, huh..- "Well anyways, I''m going to go and rx above deck for a bit." I looked down at Phil who was counting coins. "Just give my winnings to Emelia if you could."


    Phil paused for a moment before a warm smile came to his face. "To think the missus found such a gentleman."


    Emelia��s face immediately flushed red. "That''s-"


    As I was walking towards the stairs above deck, I gave a light wave. "Just think of it as payment for hospitality." -I shouldn''t create any misunderstandings with things like that..-


    Above deck, the crew were all hard at work, dropping the sails and pulling up the anchor.


    To my surprise though, none of them were using any of the various artifacts that were built into the ship. -Are they not there to ease the workload on the crew?-


    To ease my curiosity, I walked up to a crewmember who was hastily tying off the rigging to the railing. "Sir, sorry if I''m bothering you, but what are all of those artifacts for?"


    "Hm?" Not expecting a voice, he paused what he was doing and nced back at me. "Ah. You mean these?" He reached over and tapped the artifact on the peg he was tying the rope to.


    "Well, yeah. I''d assume they all have different purposes though, right?" Although several were on rigging pegs, those weren''t the only ones.


    "Haha, yeah. They each have their own use, but most of them are simple strengthening artifacts, they''re part of the reason why the ship is so sturdy!" He puffed up his chest as he bragged about the ship''s strength for a moment.


    "So what are the other uses?"


    "Well, these here.. on the pegs, have a fancy new rune that hase around recently called a tension rune!" He seemed proud of his knowledge. "Basically what it does is make things shrink in length but get fatter. It''s great for the pegs since the rune makes the rope tighter and that tighter knot that is needed to hold the mast steady!"


    In short, unlike how a strengthening rune increases the strength of crystalline bonds, the tension rune strengthens things with sticity.


    -How fascinating..- "Can tension runes snap the rope if it gets too tight?"


    It looked like I popped his bubble of confidence with my question. "Well, I don''t quite know all of the details yet, but Lynn should be able to give you some insight. At the very least, we have only had ropes snap to monsters yankin on em so far."


    "How would monsters be able to yank on these ropes?" For a second I forgot about all of Mothers warnings about the oceans. I had somehow forgotten the horror stories about monsters the size of mountains existing.


    "Well, some of the bigger creatures like octopus or krakens will sometimes reach up on board and if a rope is in the way, it''ll snap." He turned around and finished tying off the rope before tapping the artifact making it give off a faint glow. "There��s nothing to worry about on this ship though, so don''t worry! You''re perfectly safe here." He showed a confident smile with his few missing teeth.


    "Haha, it''s reassuring to see your confidence."


    "I''m d I could give you some reassurance.�� He quickly nced over at another crewmate who was calling him over. ��Well, I should get back to work so we can get going. Be sure to ask Lynn or Cap if you are curious about anything specific, they''re both real smart."


    "Alright, thanks for your help!"


    "Anytime!" He happily ran across the deck and talked to another crewmember before tying more rigging to a different spot again.


    -Maybe my impression wasn''t as bad as I thought..-


    Continuing around the deck, I carefully observed everyone''s actions and asked a few other crewmates some questions I had.


    After a while of asking around and chatting with the crew, I saw Adrian finally came up from below deck but unlike when I saw him earlier though, he seemed to be in a bad mood.


    -Did something happen?- Quickly wrapping up my conversation with one of the crew, I made my way up to the bridge deck. "What''s wrong, Adrian?"

 Chapter 150: The Abyss Called The Ocean

    Chapter 150: The Abyss Called The Ocean


    Early Evening - Early Spring : Strait of Western Elynnor


    "What''s wrong, Adrian?"


    "Ah, it''s nothing major, just an inconvenience popping up." He was deep in thought as he reached up and turned the helm.


    We immediately started moving and steadily picked up the pace until we were faster than what the wind should''ve allowed. -Does this thing have a motor or something?-


    "So, Vasilias." Once we were heading away from shore, he tapped an artifact on the helm that locked it in ce. "I know we said we would get you there safely, but an unexpected variable popped up."


    -If it''s a major slow down, I can just fly the rest of the way..- "What happened?"


    "We''ve gotten word that a few big monsters have popped up in the strait and they''re all mid to high nation rank so we might run into trouble on this trip." His face showed both worry and disappointment.


    -That''s it?- "That''s fine. If it reallyes to it, I can just kill it myself." I motioned my hand to tell him not to stress.


    He looked a bit shocked before the worry returned to his face, clearly not believing my confidence. "I don''t feel like I''m in a ce to be able to assume your strength, but without a weapon of some kind, it will be hard to even reach them."On top of making a good point, he reminded me of something I had needed to do for a while. -I need to stop procrastinating with that..-


    Although I was confident I could beat nearly anything in my humanoid form, it was also true that I still could get killed if I got caught in a bad situation. Not having a weapon just increases the chance of that situation happening. -Its not like Im invincible..-


    -I should make one here soon..- "I have my ways, just don''t stress over it." There was a short pause before I asked a question that weighed on my mind. "By the way, how is the ship going so fast? Does it have a propeller?"


    "A propeller?" He just looked confused. "Do you mean a gust artifact? It''s an artifact that uses wind magic to blow wind into the sails even if we are going against the wind, it''s extremely expensive but a major time saver." He pointed up to a fairlyrge blue orb on the central mast.


    -Ah, there''s one on each sail.- Although I barely felt it with my aura, the artifact also redirected the wind in front of the sails to lessen the wind resistance. -So that''s why we can sail into the wind..- "What other gimmicks do you guys use?" I asked simply out of curiosity, but it spiraled in a conversationsting a few hours.


    Once night rolled around, Adrian and the rest of the crew went to sleep, leaving just a few guys on the upper deck watching over things.


    With things calming down, I walked out onto the jib of the ship andid down. It was incredibly rxing to listen to the ship slice through waves while looking at the night sky, but I decided it was best to go ahead and start making my new weapon.


    Although I originally nned on just making a temporary greatsword that I could break or destroy, I ended up getting lost in the process and went all out.


    As the night progressed, I continually made prototypes before testing on them and throwing them into the ocean. -I wonder if anyone will ever find one of those des..-


    After several more hours of testing and dozens of prototypester, I found something I was proud to say I made. It was truly a work of art.


    The de was a mix of hyper strengthened, perfect grade steel and titanium. It originally looked bright white but was strengthened so much it gained a slight blue tinge reminding me of Mothers scales.


    As for the handle and detailing along the de, I used a simrpound to what my scales were made of and detailed it to give it the same texture.


    After adding a bit more detail, I couldn''t help but hold up and stare at the sword glistening in the moonlight. -Now for a sheath.-


    But that was much easier said than done. The sword was hriously heavy even when considering that the de was several times denser than tungsten. It was too heavy to be held by leather or cloth straps, they would simply rip from the weight.


    ��Haah..�� -What can I do..-


    With a bit more thinking, I settled on making a simple sheath just using leather straps and a bit of metal to cover the de. The leather was strengthened with strengthened steel and titanium wires without letting them be visible. -That actually looks pretty good..-


    Even with the de sheathed, someone could still see the piece of art I was so proud to make.


    "You didn''t go to sleep?" Emelias voice quickly traveled across the ship and interrupted my thoughts.


    "No, although I do like you and your father, it doesn''t mean I totally trust everyone here." Fully sheathing my sword, I turned around and saw her leaning against the railing.


    She slowly nced back at me as if getting ready to say something, but familiar footstepsing from the captain''s cabin interrupted her.


    *step-tap-step-tap*


    "You''re up earlier than I expected." I gave a curious look, wondering what Adrian was doing fully geared up in the middle of the night.


    "Ah, you''re up as well? Maybe that''s for the better." He nced at the handle of my sword for a moment but didn��t question it. "We are getting close to a dangerous spot, where one of the sea monsters was recently spotted."


    "Is there a reason we aren''t going around them?"


    "We could try, but with how much they''ve been moving, it''ll likely be safer if we go straight through the center." Adrian seemed conflicted.


    -Well if we meet one, I can test out my new sword..- Deep down I was hoping one would show up. "So you''re up to check for the monster?"


    "Yeah, it''d be bad if I wasn''t awake when something as strong as a kraken popped up." As he walked up, he pulled an extra apple out of his pocket and tossed one to Emelia. "Why are you awake?"


    She looked surprised as she caught it. "I uh.. just couldn''t sleep."


    "Any particr reason for it?" With an apple in hand he walked up and leaned against the railing next to her.


    Figuring they were going to have a private talk, I vanished from where I was and moved up to the crows nest with Ilios following suit. -What the.. no one''s up here?- I had expected someone to be on look out, but the crow''s nest was empty.


    *creaaakkk* The boards in the crowsnest creaked under the weight of my sword.


    -Well.. I guess even if anyone was up here they wouldn''t be able to see anything anyways.- At night, the sea was a void-like abyss even when the moon was out. Normal people would only be able to see the white foam from waves at best. -Well, thankfully I can see fine..-


    To me, the ocean was well lit by both the moon and the stars in the sky. The reflection of the sky even made the ocean look like a sea of stars, but I still knew that under the water was a bottomless abyss.


    "I wonder what creatures are down there.." As I thought about it, a chill went down my spine. Although I hated to admit it, Mothers oundish stories of the ocean were bing more believable the more I talked to the pirates. "Haah.." I quickly calmed my lingering anxiety. -In any case, just like space, the ocean isn''t something to be feared..- It was a vast abyss, but just like space or the void, it had a unique beauty.


    As I thought to myself and lightly petted Ilios, I noticed something on the horizon. -Ships?-


    Towards the horizon was a group of 3rge ships, but I couldn''t make out any details. -I should probably tell Adrian regardless..-


    Sliding down a rigging, I made it back onto the deck.


    "Sorry for running you off, I didn''t mean to." Adrian motioned to see if I wanted an apple but I denied it.


    "You''re fine, besides that though, I was just up in the crows nest and saw a group of 3 ships on the horizoning our way. Is that anything you know of?"


    "N..no. If it''s 3 ships, it''s probably some big merchant convoy." A distressed look came to his face. "But why would a merchant convoy be this far out.."


    "Are we not on a trade route?"


    "No, we are a few hundred kilometers south. We made a pact with Elynnor that we would leave the merchants on that route alone but if they''re this far south we could rob it.." He was deep in thought.


    "Although I''m not suited to give an opinion, it does seem a bit suspicious." Something about the situation sounded off to me. "Could it maybe be a group to subjugate the sea monsters before they reach the trade route?"


    "You might be right, but even they don''t normally go this far south.." He pinched the bridge of his nose as he fell deep into thought.


    *step-step-step-step*


    -Hm?- Looking towards the noise, I saw Lynn slowly walking above deck while rubbing her eyes.


    "Uwaahhh.." She lethargically looked around before finding us. "What are you guys doing up?"

 Chapter 151: Just Like Old Times

    Chapter 151: Just Like Old Times


    Late Evening - Early Spring : Strait of Western Elynnor


    "What are you guys doing up?" Lynn casually walked up once she saw us.


    "Well I got up to watch over the ship since we are getting close to the pocket, but Vasilias said he saw 3 ships towards the horizon from the crows nest."


    "What, are you sure they were ships and not just your eyes ying tricks on you in the dark?" She didn''t seem to believe me.


    I couldn''t me her though. "Yeah, two big ones with a smaller one in the middle."


    "Could it be 2 merchant ships and an escort?"


    Adrian took over as he leaned up against the railing. "We think it''s either that or a subjugation team."


    "Whatever it is, I think we should check it out. If it''s merchants, we rob them, if it''s a subjugation team, we just leave. It''s not like they''d be able to catch us if we run either way."


    Adrian slowly turned to me. "Vasilias, how far out were they? Could you tell?""Probably 40 or 50 kilometers."


    "Damn, okay. We need to get moving then. Lynn, go wake up the rest of the crew and kill the lights." A wild grin spread on his face as he turned towards the horizon. "Let''s see if we can get paid early!"


    Within the next few minutes, every light on deck was turned off and all the crew were up and getting ready.


    The ship was wrapped in a shroud of silence as soon as the lights went off. Everyone on board started to move around like ghosts, silencing their footsteps and not talking at all, but they all wore the same ominous, excited smile.


    As time passed, the ships proceeded to get closer until their well lit decks came into view.


    "The two big ones are definitely merchant ships, but that small one definitely isn''t an escort.." Adrian was whispering to Emelia as he stood at the helm.


    "So what''s the n?" Emelia anxiously gripped the handle of her sheathed sword.


    "Well since they��re merchant ships, we will take it from whoever has control of them, mercenary group, or pirates." A greedy smile appeared on his face.


    "Are you gonna join the fight Emelia?" She had changed intobat gear with the rest of the crew, but I couldn''t help but notice her nervousness.


    "Y..yeah. I feel like if I want to stay here, I should pull my weight.." She was slightly shaky.


    Adrian rolled his eyes when he heard her. "You already know that''s unnecessary. Not all the crew participate in robberies anyways so you not attacking isn''t a big deal."


    His words didnt fade her nervousness at all. "But they have at least all killed someone, and wouldn''t hesitate if they needed to.."


    -Oh.. she''s nervous about killing..- It wasn''t a subject I could truly sympathize with since, as a dragon, killing a human felt about the same as killing a fish, but I could at least understand her struggle. -If she needs an extra push, I can influence her with my aura.-


    ��Just.. don''t push yourself too hard..�� Adrian wore a fatherly worry as heforted her.


    A few minutes after that, we started getting close and somehow, the people on the enemy ships either couldn''t see us, or just didn''t notice us. -To be fair, this ship blends in with the darkness ridiculously well..-


    *Tap*


    Adrian tapped the railing by the helm and everyone on board nodded in unison.


    *Tap-Tap*


    *Creeaaakk* The entire ship creaked as Adrian whipped the helm around.


    Emelia, who wasn''t holding on to anything, nearly got thrown across the deck but was caught by Ilios. "Thanks Ilios.."


    "Hey, did ya'' guys hear that?" A somewhat distant voice sounded through the night as I saw a few guys walk to the edge of the merchant ships railing.


    I nced over at Adrian to see how he''d react, but his expression didn��t change. -Does it not matter that they heard us?-


    "Enemy ship, port side! Closing quickly!" The guys that heard the noise quickly noticed us once they knew where to look.


    Everyone on the merchant ship hastily ran about, likely preparing for battle, but Adrian didn''t give them time for that.


    *CRRUUNCHHH* The sound of wood breaking filled the air as our ship mmed into the port side of the merchant ship.


    "How about we make some money boys!" Adrian yelled out as he locked the direction of the helm and jumped onto the main deck with the rest of the crew. "Let''s have some fun!"


    - Lynn ~


    *CRRUUNCHHH*


    "How about we make some money boys!" A deep excitement welled up in me hearing Adrian yell out those fateful words. "Let''s have some fun!"


    He dashed forward with my following in suit.


    As we boarded, we were met with several bandit looking guys with a few heavily armored knights pointing their swords at us.


    I nced over at Adrian. "With her gone, we can finally fight together like the old days!"


    "Haha, how long has it been?!"


    An old memory of his younger self shed in my mind as he showed a smile full of excitement. "Haha, too long! Well, shall we?" I reached out to give Adrian a fist bump.


    "Haha, just like old times." He quickly reached out and lightly tapped his fist against mine.


    *tap* *Fwoosh* The instant our knuckles touched, we disappeared from where we were and began the ughter.


    -Its a shame none of them are strong..- I nced at Adrian as I unsheathed my dual dao des. -It should be good to leave some strong ones for him to let loose on.-


    "Get ready!" A tall knight in the middle started to give orders as I darted forward.


    Quickly appearing in front of him, I used the tip of my de to flip up his face shield. *tink* "Hmm, if you were a bit cuter I might have spared you."


    His face instantly washed with anger. "You da-"


    *Shink*


    The noise of my de slicing through his armor cut off his voice.


    *Thud-Clink*


    As his sliced body limply fell to the ground, the others around him were either too stunned to move or were already charging me.


    I swiftly dodged all of their attacks while taking my time to enjoy the fight.


    *ng-Clink-ng*


    The methodical ring of des colliding filled the air like music.


    *Shink-nk-ng-Shink*


    Under the barrage of attacks, I couldn''t help but ughter two of the pirates.


    ��You slick bi*ch!�� The other armored knight in the group charged at me with his greatsword.


    ��Heyyy, that''s rude.�� As he swung at me, I moved over and cleanly cut off his hands.


    The de flew over me and sliced through the pirate behind me. *Crunch* His bones shattered under the weight of the greatsword.


    The knight looked from his hands to the pirate with a fear filled, pale face.


    ��Wow, to think you''d attack yourrade. What a shameful man.�� I gave a joking smile as I swiftly swung up and cut him in half. -It feels good to be back..-


    ncing over at Adrian, I saw him grab thest knight from his group by the cor and throw them overboard.


    -Pfft..- I nearly burst outughing seeing how easily Adrian threw him. "Maybe it''s time I wrap things up as well." I gave the man behind me a smile that struck fear into him.


    ��AHHHH!�� He blindly charged at me as he was washed over with fear.


    I casually ducked under his de and went into a hand stand, kicking his weapon out of his hand in the process.


    *Clink* *Shing*


    As he lost his bnce and fell on me, I jumped out of my hand stand and cleanly sliced him in half. "It was fun guys!" I casually stood there and looked over the group of sliced and ughtered bodies.


    Looking towards Adrian, I saw him rinsing off his hands in a water barrel and walked up to clean off with him.


    "Should we help the others?" I nced towards the other merchant ship while cleaning the blood off my des.


    "No, they''ll be fine. We should look for their leader in the meantime."


    "Well.. if he isn''t on the merchant ships, wouldn''t that just leave the 3rd ship?"


    Adrians face paled slightly as he heard me. "Wait, where''s the third ship?!" He instantly darted to the railing in a panic, finally noticing the third ship wasn''t where it used to be.


    I hastily jumped up to a lower mast and looked around, the issue was that it was such a dark night. -Where is it.. Where is it?!-


    "Looking for me?!" A voice boomed out from the darkness in front of us.


    As soon as I looked towards the voice, I saw the outline of a ship that was broadsided with ours. My heart sank as I saw several small orange glows in the darkness. It was the glow of cannon wicks burning.


    Looking back at our ship which was about to be bombarded, I saw someone still casually sitting on the railing. -Vasilias!- "NOOO!"


    *B-B-B-B-B-B-BOOOM*

 Chapter 152: Beyond The Realm of Humans

    Chapter 152: Beyond The Realm of Humans


    Late Evening - Early Spring : Strait of Western Elynnor


    - Vasilias (Back several minutes) ~


    *clink-ng-cl-ng-Shing*


    There was a methodical and music-like rhythm of swords shing that filled the air. All the pirates fought separately but it sounded as if they fought as one.


    -Its truly beautiful, but.. where did Emelia go?- I nned to watch her fight and help if she needed it but when I looked over the deck to watch, I didn''t see her anywhere. -Did she go below deck or something?-


    After looking over the deck a bit longer, I figured she was probably fine and turned back to watch Adrian and Lynns fights. -They''re both quite something.. aren''t they..-


    Lynn''s desmanship was absolutely beautiful to watch. Instead of looking like a martial art, it looked closer to a dance or a performance.


    Adrian on the other hand simply fought like a monster. The people he was against, although quite strong, stood no chance.


    "Aah.. AAAHHHHH!" A gut-wrenching scream rang out as Adrian grabbed a knight by the stomach.His fingers cleanly punched through the armor and into the knight''s abdomen, ripping and cutting apart his organs.


    The other knights and pirates did not idle by either. They all charged at him together but it was simply useless. *Ding-Crunch*


    The sound of a knight helmet ringing against the ground as his head went flying off echoed through the night.


    -Its just a ughter..-


    Just as the fight started, it was already finished. Adrians crew had managed to take over both merchant ships with no casualties and only a couple minor injuries.


    There was still one clear issue though. -Where is Emelia? Did she get captured on that third ship or something?- I nced to my side and saw the smaller pirate ship moving through the darkness next to me.


    People on its deck were bustling around but I didn''t see anything that could signify they had a hostage. -She''s probably just below deck..- The instant I turned and looked back over the ships though, I saw blood dripping onto the sails out the corner of my eye. -What the..-


    Looking up towards the crowsnest, I saw a few brutally sliced open bodies lining the railing and a blood covered woman standing next to a young child in the middle.


    -What the hell happened?- It was clearly Emelia, but the more I thought back to her nervousness from earlier, the less sense it made.


    Before I could properly think it through though, my thoughts were interrupted.


    "Looking for me?!" A booming voice radiated from the ship in the darkness.


    "Tch.." Something about his voice immediately annoyed me.


    "NOOO!" Lynns scream rang out across the ship.


    *B-B-B-B-B-B-BOOOM*


    Before the noise from the explosions even reached my ears, I felt a barrage of cannon balls enter my aura.


    Most were simply flying into the ship, but there were two not with the group, one aiming for me and one for Ilios. -YOU DARE!-


    Whipping around, I shot the one going for Ilios with a steel marble, blowing it apart before vaporizing it with a thruster.


    *CRACK-FWOOOOSH*


    As the other cannonball approached my chest I pulled up my arms and braced myself to catch it.


    As the cannonball entered my grip, I was thrown through the railing and across the deck.


    *Cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-Crunch*


    As I came to a stop, I looked back up at the ship with palpable bloodlust. "To think you''d aim for Ilios.." The cannonball glowed red from the friction it made against my hand, but I didn''t care.


    Quickly getting into stance, Iunched it back into the cannon it came from.


    *Crack*


    The cannonball glowed red as it flew through the air before perfectly entering the barrel of the cannon.


    *Diiing-st*


    Ringing it like a bell, the entire cannon barrel was blown out of its mount andunched across the deck, plowing through the crewmember in its path like they weren''t even there.


    The fighting still happening on the merchant ships came to a screeching halt as they all heard the ring.


    In the abrupt silence, the same pirate on the enemy ship yelled out again. "You seem quite strong, kid! How about we fight?"


    -He''s still smiling?- His greedy and arrogant smile pushed the wrong buttons on me. "Sure, but you won''t even know how you die." I slowly reached back and grabbed onto my new great sword.


    "A mere demihuman boy dares to be so confident?!" Seeing me reach for my weapon, he reached for his. "You seriously thi-"


    The world paused as I used my thrusters to throw myself over the edge of the ship and onto the surface of the water.


    The surrounding water turned to ice from the pressure of my feet as I used the surface tension to transfer all of my momentum into my sword.


    The de glowed white and radiated heat as it sliced through the atmosphere. -Try and survive this!-


    *CRRRAAACKCKKKK-CRUUNNCHHH*


    Amplifying the shockwave from the de with wind magic, the air became a dull de and smashed its way through the entire ship.


    The shockwave was so strong, those that managed to survive the direct damage and shrapnel, were burnt beyond recognition and had their brains and organs turn to mush.


    Before the ice below me thawed from the pressure returning to normal, I quickly froze it all, letting me stand on a makeshift iceberg.


    *Crackle-Crunch*


    The ice I made cracked and shattered from thermal shock caused by the superheated atmosphere around me.


    "Hooh.." A smoke like fog left my mouth as I breathed out. -What a damn good sword..-


    - Lynn ~


    "NOOO!" I screamed as I watched the cannon fuses shrink into the cannons.


    *B-B-B-B-B-B-BOOOM*


    *Cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-cr-Crunch*


    The next thing I saw after the cannons fired was a bright sh and Vasilias appearing several meters across the deck.


    I didn''t know what to feel. -How did he get there..-


    "To think you''d aim for Ilios.." Vasilias''s distant and quiet voice echoed through the silence that filled the air.


    I watched as Vasilias winded up as if to throw something when I saw a dimly glowing cannonball in his hand. -HE CAUGHT THAT?!-


    *Crack*


    My thoughts were interrupted as he threw the cannonball faster than I could catch a glimpse of.


    *Diiiinnng*


    A distant ring filled the night as a massive cannon was thrown across the deck of the enemy ship, plowing its way through an unlucky man in its way.


    I couldn''t help but wince seeing the man turn into a cloud of blood.


    No one could do anything but stare, including Adrian until a voice shot out from the darkness. "You seem quite strong, kid! How about we fight?"


    The voice sounded familiar. -It can''t be..- Looking up to the ship''s crows nest, I saw an, all too familiar, insignia.


    A deep and visceral anger welled within me as I gripped my des. -Im gonna kill that f*cker today..-


    As I got ready to run over and jump on his ship, I was stopped by Adrian. "What.. why?" It wasn''t until I looked up at him that I noticed his pale face.


    "Just watch.. I have a grudge against him just like you, but this is an opportunity to see a level of strength beyond the realm of humans.." His voice was slightly fearful.


    -What is he..- It was at that instant that I felt a sense of oppression unlike anything I had ever thought possible.


    It was such a dense aura it made me want to vomit. Looking towards the source, I saw Vasilias standing there and slowly reaching back for his sword. "Sure, but you wont even know how you die." His voice carried a deadly confidence that struck a deep fear in me.


    "A mere demihuman boy dares to be so confident?!" Although I heard that wrenched voice again, my anger and rage were instantly squashed. "You seriously thi-"


    The next thing I knew, I saw Vasilias standing on an ice tform with a white, glowing sword.


    *CRRRAAACKCKKKK-CRUUNNCHHH*


    I couldn''t hear anything, I simply felt a shock wave pass through my body and watched my vision blur.


    *Thud* *Gasp*


    I fell to the deck and gasped for breath as the shockwave blew the air out of my lungs and made my body feel weak.


    I could only see the blurred wooden deck of the merchant ship and couldn''t hear anything over a deafening ring in my ears.


    There wasn''t a chance for a coherent thought toe to my mind before I started to feel light headed and fell to the side.


    I could vaguely make out what looked like othersying on the deck before my eyelids started feeling heavier. -What.. ha..ppened..-

 Chapter 153: An Odd Instinct

    Chapter 153: An Odd Instinct


    Early Morning - Early Spring : Strait of Western Elynnor


    *Crackle*


    The noise of ice cracking filled the night as I watched the pirate ship sink into the deep.


    Turning back to Adrians ship, I saw several holes in the side with a few letting in water. -I��ll at least fix the urgent ones..-


    Using Ice magic to raise the ship out of the water, I used my aura to find and reposition the splinters of wood from the holes and patch them up. (like how he repaired broken bones.)


    -That should be good..- "Hey Ilios, you alright?" Once I finished, I looked up to see Ilios''s smiling face poking between the railing.


    "Woof!" He was wearing his familiar and characteristic smile.


    ��Phew..�� A mix of relief and joy filled my body, but I had a lingering uneasiness. -Its too quiet..-


    Once the ice quieted down, there was simply no noise at all, neither the voices of people on the merchant ships nor the waves of the ocean. The ocean had turned ssy. -Is that a phenomenon caused by the shockwave?-After thinking about it for a second and not figuring anything out, I tossed away the thought and hopped up onto Adrians ship.


    I slowly squatted down to pet Ilios. ��Hey, buddy. Sorry if I made you wo-�� My words were cut off as I felt a massive conglomeration of uncontrolled aurasing from the merchant ships. -What the..-


    Quickly standing back up, I darted up to the bow and overlooked the merchant ships. The decks were covered with unconscious bodies, both dead and alive.


    -Sh*t.. I forgot to muffle the shockwave.- It was a gruesome scene that would make any human feel a deep shame or guilt, but I felt indifferent to most of them.


    As I hopped onto the merchant ship, I quickly ran over to Adrian who was on his hands and knees with a pale face.


    "Are you alright Adrian?" He didn''t move at all, as if he couldn''t hear me. -Well that''s not good..-


    Spreading out my aura once again, I did a low detail scan of everyone''s bodies.


    Of the several dozen people on the ship, over half were dead, but none of them were apart of Adrians crew. Although some of the crew had stab wounds or cuts, they were all alive and their lives weren��t threatened, that didnt mean I was going to just leave them be though.


    Including Adrian, everyone had damaged retinas and had muscles all around their body that were ripped apart, with only the weaker or unluckier ones having concussions. -But.. to think none of their eardrums ruptured..- It wasn''t till I looked closer that I noticed why.


    -How fascinating..- They all had umtions of mana in their ears that they subconsciously used to lock their eardrums in ce. This made them temporarily deaf, but once the mana dissipated they would be able to hear like normal. -To think they all did it too.. is it a part of human instinct in this world?-


    Quickly snapping out of my thoughts, I turned back to Adrian. -Right.. Ill have time to think about it after I treat everyone.- I lightly set my hand on the back of Adrians head. -You first..-


    "Huh?" Adrian mumbled in a lethargic voice.


    "Sorry Adrian, but you don''t want to be awake for this.."


    *Thump*


    His body limply fell to the deck as I started working on fixing his retina. -It would hurt a little too much if I left you awake..-


    Around 30 minutester, I finally finished treating not just Adrian, but everyone else as well. -It''ll take them some time for everyone to fully heal but at least there won''t be any permanent damage..-


    I nced across the deck towards where I had Emelia and the young girl she was protectingid down. -It still doesn''t make sense how unharmed they were though..-


    When I went up to the nest to give them treatment, I found Emeliaying over the young girl with neither of them majorly injured. The only injuries I could see were bruising and some minor cuts from the previous fighting.


    The only exnation I could think of was that the bodies lining the floor and railing significantly muffled the shockwave. -They''re incredibly lucky if that''s the case..-


    "Ughh.." Adrians groan echoed across the ship. "Where.."


    "You''re finally awake?" I casually walked up and squatted next to him.


    He seemed startled by my voice but quickly tried to calm his nerves and rolled onto his back.


    "Do you feel alright? How''s your vision?" Although I repaired everything I thought was damaged, just like the brain, the eyes are incrediblyplicated so I wasn''t sure if I did everything right.


    "Huh?" He struggled to lift his arm into the air to look at his hand. "I think everythings fine.."


    "Phew, I was a bit worried." I nced around the deck to see if anyone else was getting up, but no one moved. "I gave everyone treatment so no one''s life should be in danger, and there shouldn''t be much, if any, permanent damage among the crew."


    "Treatment? What hap-" His voice cut off as he remembered something. "R..right.. How could I forget.." He paused for a moment before ncing up at me. "How are Lynn and Emelia?"


    "They''re both fine, you three were the least injured of everyone by far, so don''t worry." I gave aforting smile seeing his anxiousness.


    "Haah... Thank goodness.." A look of relief washed over his face as he rxed and looked up towards the night sky. "You know.. my memory of everything before I passed out is still a bit foggy but.." He nervously looked up at me. "What.. are you?"


    I paused for a minute to think of how to respond before letting out a chuckle. "Haha, that''s a good question that even I��m looking for the answer to.." Although I knew what I was in-name, my knowledge didn''t go much beyond that.


    "S..sorry.. It was insensitive of me to ask.." He quickly averted his eyes before changing the subject. ��How''s the ship?��


    "It''s fine, I patched up the holes that needed it, but there is still some significant damage." I looked over at the ship, still raised slightly out of the water.


    "Thank you.. as long as she doesn''t sink, she can always be fixed."


    "It''s my fault that you''re all hurt in the first ce, so that''s the least I could do. Don''t thank me for it."


    ��Haha, well in that case, I''ll thank you for showing me that I''m still not at the top of the mountain.�� His face showed a fresh determination.


    A bit of relief and thankfulness filled me. -To think my strength didn��t discourage him..-


    We continued to idly talk after that until Adrian��s muscle soreness faded so he could walk again.


    As soon as he was able to get up, he headed straight to the captain''s cabin to look through information about the merchants. -How has no one else woken up though..-


    As I sat on the railing overlooking the ocean, time steadily passed, and people finally started waking up.


    After a few hours, Emelia and Lynn finally woke up but neither of them could move much.


    "Ughh.." Emelia forced herself to sit up against the side of the ship. "Is this... Where is this?"


    Seeing she woke up, I quickly made my way over to her. "Do you remember anything?"


    She held her head with her hand like it was hurting her. "It''s a little fuzzy.."


    "You probably have a tension headache so don''t try to move much. Justy down and rx." With one hand, I casually made a makeshift ice pack. "Justy this on your head or anywhere hurting, it should help a bit."


    She looked a bit confused before reluctantly setting it on her forehead. "Will this really help?"


    "Yeah, just try toy down and rx.." I carefully moved her away from the edge of the ship andid her down again.


    Right as I was about to set her down, she jolted her head to the side. "Oh right-Ackk!" She gripped her head as her headache worsened.


    "I told you to rx.. What made you jolt like that?"


    "That little girl, where is she?" Her face looked panicked.


    I moved to the side and pointed right behind me. "She''s right here, and she isn''t hurt so don''t worry."


    She didn''t seem to believe me though. "If she''s fine, why is sheying down like she''s dead.." She nced around at how I had people lined up whileying down on the deck.


    "I lined them up like that when I treated them, everyone on the deck is alive so stop panicking.." As Iid her back down and repositioned the ice pack, I waved Adrian over to let him and Emelia talk.


    As I got ready to walk away though, I was stopped. "Vasilias.." She hesitated and turned her head away from me. "T..thank you.."


    Seeing Adrian get close, I decided to let them have a moment to themselves. "No worries. If you need anything just let me know."


    As I walked away, I headed up to the bow and looked over the ocean. It was still unnaturally calm without as much as a ripple being seen in the water around us.


    The scene made me feel a deep unease. -Just let my instinct be wrong for once..-

 Chapter 154: A Horrible Feeling

    Chapter 154: A Horrible Feeling


    Mid Afternoon - Early Spring : Strait of Western Elynnor


    It had been several hours since Emelia got up and at this point, pretty much all of the crew had awoken.


    Everyone on deck was bustling around organizing and collecting all of the treasure from the merchant ships as well as giving some temporary repairs to our ship as well.


    "Captain, these merchant ships were loaded! It''s our lucky day!" The crew all wore smiles of limitless excitement as they carried gold and artifacts up from below deck, barrels at a time.


    "Haha! As a reward for everyone''s hard work, each of you will get half of a barrel of your choosing! If there are any conflicts, you know what to do!" Adrian was enjoying the moment as well, but after a few more hours, that excitement turned to anxiety. "Quit lollygagging everyone! We need to get going!"


    We had been sitting in the same spot for several hours at this point, and to make it worse, we were right over the pocket where the sea monsters were spotted.


    -Im sure we''ll be fine..- I tried to shake off the bad feeling I felt in any way possible.


    Before that feeling could disappear though, I felt 3 distinct, slow and creature-like rumbles shake the entire ship.


    *Wooom* *Wooom*


    *Wooom*


    Everyone on deck froze the instant they felt it but Adrian quickly yelled out orders. "EVERYONE GET BACK TO THE SHIP! NOW!"


    With the rumbles stirring my anxiety back up, I hurriedly jumped back to our ship with the overly calm crew.


    "Dammit, we only had a few barrels left.."


    "Right? It''s a shame we all passed out, it ran our clock down."


    "We got mostly everything though, right? I think the only barrels left were food, tools and weapons so we should be fine."


    "Yeah, hopefully. It''d be a shame if we missed a barrel of gold."


    "I got my half barrel so even if we missed one, I''m still happy."


    "True, true."


    They were all incredibly casual as they walked across the deck, but Adrian and Lynn both darted to the helm as soon as theynded.


    To try and see what the fuss was all about, I followed them up as well.


    "What are youzy bast*rds doing?! We need to get moving!" There was a mix of anxiety and anger in Adrians voice as he yelled at the crew.


    They all instantly started running around, tying off riggings and getting us moving.


    As they all bustled around the deck, I turned to Lynn and tried to ease my curiosity. "What was that noise?"


    She looked a bit shocked hearing me ask. "That was a ''warning'' of sorts from a pretty big Colossal Crab."


    "What? A crab?" -Why would we need to fear a crab as a huge ship..- Although my logic told me to not worry, Lynn and Adrians looks made me feel otherwise.


    "They''re massive monsters that usually dwell on the seafloor, but will asionally swim to the surface to destroy ships that stay in their territory too long. They usually hang out around 20 kilometers down but it seems like this one came towards the shallows." She hastily tightened and moved around some of the rigging as she spoke.


    After waiting for her to finish what she was doing, I couldn''t help but ask another question. "How deep is it here?"


    Her anxiety from earlier had steadily died down, easing my worries a bit. "12 Kilometers or so." She casually walked up to the railing next to me as if waiting for something.


    "What? If it''s that deep, then what was the ''warning'' for? Was it a warning that some other monster is in the area?" I figured with how deep it was, that there was no way a crab, no matter how big, could swim to the surface.


    "Nope.. not quite.." She looked out towards the merchant ships with anticipation. "You''ll see what it was for here in a moment."


    -What is she..- Just as I started to wonder what she was talking about, the water around the merchant ships became ssy and calm. -What the..-


    The next thing I knew, a horrifically big, ship-sized crab w broke through the surface of the water and mped down on the ship.


    *FWOOOSH-CRUNCHHH*


    The w had such ridiculous strength behind it that the ship simply crumbled and broke apart like a bundle of twigs.


    The other ship didn''t make it out unscathed either.


    As the colossal w started to slowly fall back into the water, it came crashing down onto the other ship.


    *SPLASHHHH*


    Under the weight of the w alone, the ship waspletely obliterated, with countless pieces of wood and metal being flung hundreds of meters in every direction.


    It was a scene I could barely fathom, even as a dragon. -THAT''S A CRAB?!-


    As the crab w fell back below the water, the surface, lined with debris, quickly turned ss-like again.


    -What the..-


    Lynn''s face wore a childish surprise like she was watching a show. "Wow! There''s going to be a territory dispute?!"


    Her words caught mepletely off guard. "A territory dispute? WITH WHAT?!" I couldn''te to terms with the fact that the crab''s strength wasn''t aplete abnormality in the ocean.


    "I''m not totally sure yet, probably a kraken though. They are known to be around he-"


    *BBBAAANNNGGGG*


    A deafening explosion rang out as the water around where the crab was, was blown into the air andunched several kilometers away.


    Within the huge cone of water was millions of massive chunks of familiar crab shell and meat.


    -It.. died? Just like that?- I couldn''t believe my eyes.


    "To think I''d see one in my lifetime.." Adrian slowly walked up to the railing next to us with a look of awe.


    "W..what is it?" My eyes were locked on the plume of water.


    "A <em>real</em> Sea Dragon.." As he said it, a massive dragon, nearly 3 times the size of my dragon form came bursting out of the water.


    -It really is an actual dragon..- Unlike what I expected, it wasn''t a halfie. -Is that.. an ancient?-


    Unlike most of the dragons I had seen, this one was extremely sleek and had 4 wings, 2rge ones in the front and 2 more smaller ones behind it. -How beautiful..-


    As I stared and admired the majesty and beauty of the massive dragon, its eyes moved from a chunk of meat in the air to me.


    My positive feelings were erased as its stare pierced directly into my soul. Its stare alone felt so suffocating I struggled to breathe or think of anything.


    "Found you." It was a gentle and enchanting female voice with faint hostility.


    It sent a chill down my spine but before my thoughts could settle, the dragon dove back into the water.


    *Ssshh*


    "What a beautiful sight.." Adrian was totally calm, seemingly enjoying the moment.


    Lynn wasnt any different. "Was that really a real one?" Her face was covered in a childish awe.


    "Yeah.. just look at its destructive power.. it must be."


    As they casually talked, I was frozen by the railing, watching a massive dark spot quickly get closer and closer.


    A deep and instinctual fear filled me as the dark spot got close enough for me to feel it''s unfathomable aura.


    "W..what is.." Both Lynn and Adrian copsed to the ground as they felt it.


    *Ssh-Fwooosh*


    Hearing a ssh, I snapped out of my thoughts to see a massive tail smash through the railing and into my chest. ��Ack!��


    *Fwoosh*


    I waspletelyunched off the ship and into the water.


    As the sensation of sinking into the water filled my mind, my instinct for survival kicked in and I changed to my dragon form. -I NEED TO RUN.-


    Right as I transformed and thinned my reserve though, something grabbed my tail. "To be so strong when you''re so young.."


    Looking behind myself, I saw the ancient tightly gripping my tail. The dragon''s mind bending beauty was beyond anything I thought possible, but its strength struck a deep fear in me.


    The fear of being powerless.


    "Calm down kid, I''m not here to kill you." Her gentle voice reminded me of Mothers, but my instinct didn''t care who it reminded me of.


    My mind wanted to flee, not from the dragon, but from the awful feeling of being weak.


    The instant I tried to move though, the dragon just tightened her grip. "I''m here to make a deal."


    Her words quickly pierced through my instinct and into my consciousness before filling my mind with a deep and distracting confusion. -W..wh..what?-

 Chapter 155: A Horrible Sensation

    Chapter 155: A Horrible Sensation


    Early Evening - Late Spring : Strait of Western Elynnor


    "I''m here to make a deal."


    Piercing straight through my instinct, her words filled my mind with a deep and distracting confusion. -W..wh..what?-


    I stared at the ancient with a look of bewilderment.


    Seeing me stop fighting back, she slowly let go of my tail. "Sorry if I scared you. I got a bit excited after finally finding you."


    It was as if my brain was stun locked. I simply didn''t know what to say. "W..why were you looking for me?" As much as I hated to admit it, I was inly inferior to such an overpowering and domineering dragon. The difference in our strength was so vast that I wasn''t sure if even nuclear would work. -What could she possible need me for..-


    "Before I can get to that, let me do something." Quickly closing her eyes, she started moving a disgusting amount of mana to create a brutally inefficient space rune. It looked like she tried to copy one of the space runes left by Bahamut through pure brute force.


    -She wants to iste us?- Although the rune she was making was extremely crude, it did indeed create space mana, just instead of making a gate, it made a cloud that just warped our surroundings.


    "Here, let me do it.." Finally snapping out of my mental stun, I dissipated her rune and created a gate, just instead of sending us to the void, I kept us inside the gate."How did you.." She looked around in awe as our surroundings vanished into a pure darkness.


    "Hooh.." I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before I spoke. "If you wanted to kill me, Id already be dead so..."


    "R..right. An old friend sent me to make a deal with you." She turned to me with a determined look.


    "Why didn''t your friende themselves?" -And who is that friend to be able to send you?- I was already skeptical.


    "Well, it''s not that simple... In any case, let''s get down to business." Her face quickly became serious. "I need you to kill someone."


    There was a short and painful silence that wrapped around us. "Excuse me?"


    "I know it sounds crazy, but my friend said it was someone that threatened her life that even I can''t kill." The desperateness and worry in her voice felt genuine but it just threw me off.


    -If its someone that even you can''t kill.. then the f*ck am I supposed to do?- "You must be mixing me up with someone else. I''d be killed by you in a heartbeat, let alone someone even stronger."


    "Well, I felt the same but after seeing you in person, I''m starting to think it''s possible. You��re <em>fundamentally different</em> after all."


    -What�� How does she..- Questions ran through my mind, one after another, but I couldn''t think of an answer for any of them.


    Before I could finish thinking, she opened her mouth and pulled out a weird looking purple sphere with trillions of ck, moving tubes inside of it. -A hypersphere?!- It instantly reminded me of the tesseract I saw when I first reincarnated. The color, and design on its shell was the exact same.


    As I was staring at it, she casually threw out another bombshell. "The fact you recognize this is proof that you''re the person she told me to look for."


    The instant I realized what she said, I felt a shock of electricity course through my body. -The only people that know about that are Mother and Father..-


    "The man you need to kill is named Magni. I don''t know too much about him either, but ��you''ll know him when you meet him��."


    -God.. I wish she''d stop throwing up red gs..- Under no circumstances was this a deal I should take. The request was too oundish and vague, and the contractor was someone who knew far too much about me. -But I really need that artifact..-


    As I eyeballed the hypersphere, I tried to rify something. "So.. that artifact.."


    "This is the downpayment."


    -Sh*t..- Whoever I was making the deal with was someone that knew I couldn''t refuse the deal in the first ce. "Fine.. I''ll do it... Whats my time limit?"


    She showed a look of relief once I agreed. "She said to just do it once you get the chance to."


    -What kind of time limit is that?- It was once again, too vague to make sense of.


    ��But let me make something abundantly clear, Sir Ragnarok.�� She gave a threatening re as she pressured me with her excessively heavy aura. ��If you fail thismission, and my friend dies.. I won''t stop with just killing you..��


    It felt as if the world stopped turning for a moment. My entire body stiffened up and I broke into a cold sweat.


    ��Haah..�� With a deep breath, she eased up her aura and lightly tossed the artifact to me. ��Here..��


    -Oi!- Instantly breaking into a panic, I tried to catch it as gently as possible.


    The instant it touched my palm though, it shined a bright purple light and moved right in front of my face.


    -WHAT THE?!-


    As I was shbanged, an all too familiar robotic voice appeared in my mind.


    "Clearance: Approved


    Authorities: -Error-


    -Update Impossible-


    -Update Dyed-


    -Please reconnect to a server at your earliest convenience.-


    -Assuming Temporary Authorities-


    Authorities: Approved


    Conditions: Met


    Activating Procedure: E?????p???s???i?????l????o???????n???? "


    -W..wha..- The voice was mostly clear and understandable, but before I could process what it said, a horrible pain, as if my brain and eyes were being ripped apart, shot through my head.


    As I lost control of my mana and the gate dissipated, I heard the ancient''s voice again. "My name is Amphitrite, if you really do seed, I will forever be in your debt."


    The genuinity in her voice dissipated the anger that built up from the pain, but even if I wanted to do something, I couldn''t move.


    Before long, my vision faded to ck and my stomach was filled with that gut-wrenching sensation.


    Even today, I can vividly remember the feeling of powerlessness mix with the feeling of sinking into the ocean..


    What a horriblebination that was..


    Once I finally woke up, I could only feel cold, dry sand beneath me. -Huh.. w..where am I..- Looking around, I noticed I wasying next to Ilios in some kind of underwater bubble, but even though there wasn''t any light, I could see extremely clearly.


    -So my thoughts have sped up, and my vision got better..- I was quick to notice the two obvious changes, but I didn''t take the time to think much about it. There was something much more urgent weighing on my mind. -How long has it been?-


    Normally, my internal clock (instinct) would tell me how long it had been even if I was in a dragon sleep, but this time, I waspletely in the dark. -Sitting here and thinking about it wont do me any good though..-


    As I slowly sat up, I identally woke up Ilios.


    *lick-lick-lick-lick*


    Without even seeing him wake up or move, I got assaulted by his licks.


    "Haha, I''m alright, I''m alright." I tried to calm him down by petting him before things got out of hand. Once things finally calmed down, I mumbled under a guilt filled breath. "It doesn''t help that I don''t know how long you were left alone this time.."


    As if understanding what I said, Ilios casually backed up and wrote in the sand.


    ''IIIIII IIIIIIIIIIII'' (6 and 12 tallies) He sat down and gave a proud look when he finished writing.


    -Gosh.. so it''s been 6 months... WAIT WHAT?!- Although just two sets of tallies, it quickly reminded me about how smart he was. -I guess he is an Ancient Fenrir...- "Did anything major happen while I was asleep?"


    Ilios tilted his head slightly.


    -I guess that question was a bit..- Before my thought could finish though, Ilios created a bright spotlight and illuminated everything outside of the bubble. -What is he..-


    Outside of the bubble was the seafloor, an endless and dark abyss of sand and rock, but around a hundred meters away, there were several massive tentacles, lining the ground.


    Not quite understanding what happened, I looked down at Ilios to see him puffing up his chest. -Haha.. why is he..- It took a moment for everything to click. "YOU KILLED THAT?!"


    A broad smile came to Ilios''s face as he gave a strong nod.


    I sat in awe for a moment before a pure pride washed over me. "Good job, Buddy! To think youre so strong now!" I excitedly leaned down and rubbed my head against him. "Next time there is a big fight, it might be you protecting me!"


    But Ilios didn''t seem to like that idea. "Arw.."


    Hearing the odd noise he made, I pulled away from him a bit. "Hm? What''s wrong?"


    Casually lifting his paw, he pointed to me and swirled his mana around the bubble.


    -What is he..- "You want me to use magic?"


    He gave a strong nod before giving a look of anticipation.


    "A..alright... What kind of magic d-" I cut myself off as soon as I started controlling and reading my aura. -What.. the..-

 Chapter 156: Outdated Directions

    Chapter 156: Outdated Directions


    Late Afternoon - Late Fall : Strait of Western Elynnor


    -What.. the..- As soon as I went to control my aura, I noticed something amazing. -What did that artifact do to me..-


    Unlike usual, the slight mental strain I felt when controlling and reading my aura waspletely gone.


    -What if I..-


    *VWWOOOMM*


    Completely thinning the walls of my mana reserve, I flooded the area with aura and tried to read as much as I could.


    -Wow..- Although the amount I could read and control was the same as before, the mental strain I felt waspletely gone. -Its almost like its my calctions for everything that''s too slow now..-


    It was something I could improve on, unlike before. -To think that artifact broke me past the wall..- Although I called it a wall, it wasn''t quite that simple.


    With all the practice with magic I had done over the years, I had reached a limit that couldn''t be passed with training.The volume of mana I could control and the volume of aura I could read, had simply hit a dead end.


    I tried everything to break it, from training my limit until my head felt like it was splitting apart, to trying extremely risky and experimental magic to speed up processes in my brain, but simply nothing worked.


    It eventually got to a point that I had to give up and ept that letting myself age was the only way I could increase the limit. -But now that limit is broken.. at least for now..-


    Although this was something incredible since it massively increased the limit on my magic, I still had mixed feelings about the whole situation.


    I simply had too many questions without having an inkling of a single answer.


    "Woof." Ilios snapped me out of my thoughts as he held his head high with a proud grin.


    "Haha, is my mana control what you wanted me to see?" I moved over and lightly rubbed his head.


    "Hmph!" He gave an exaggerated nod.


    A warm smile crept onto my face. "Thanks buddy.." As I rubbed his head, I cleaned out the questions dwelling on my mind and figured out my current n. -Right.. I just need to take one step at a time.. Sirathaes first..- "But for now, let''s get off the bottom of the ocean."


    As Ilios hopped on my back, the bubble we were sitting in copsed, and we were directly exposed to the crushing water pressure.


    -Oof..- Although nothing I couldn''t manage, the pressure caught me a bit off guard. I quickly got used to it though. -Well.. let''s get going!-


    *Rumble*


    As I kicked on the thrusters, a deep and satisfying rumble filled the area, but it didn''tst too long.


    *Ssh-FWOOOOSH*


    The instant we broke through the surface of the water, we wereunched past mach and thrown high into the atmosphere.


    "Haah.." I took a deep and refreshing breath as I enjoyed the new found feeling offort and freedom within my mind. -To think this is what it''s like to not know my own limits anymore... I can finally grow again!-


    The next thing I knew, an hour had passed andnd came into sight. -Alright.. let''s see where we are.-


    As I flew along the coast though, I eventually stumbled across a familiar ship sitting just off shore with a familiar face standing by the railing. -Emelia?-


    Flying closer, I cloaked and silenced myself so no one could see or hear me.


    "Haah.." She took a deep breath with a guilt covered face.


    *Tap*


    "Hm?" She casually nced back after hearing the footstep. As she looked at me, her face lit up for an instant but quickly darkened again. "Why does my mind y tricks on me.."


    "Who said your mind is ying tricks?" I tried to give aforting smile but it was a bit forced.


    "V..Vasilias? Y..you''re actually alive?!" She looked like she was going to cry as she ran up and hugged me.


    -We weren''t this close, were we?-


    The instant I thought that though, she pushed herself away and looked towards the ground with a flushed face. "I''m sorry! I thought I was still imagining things.."


    Although I felt a deep difort from the hug, her reaction was quite funny. "Haha, do I not seem real?"


    Although I was joking, she gave a shockingly genuine response. "Well.. a bit.."


    -Hm?- "What''s different about me?" I was genuinely curious since, although the artifact changed me quite a bit, there weren''t any visible changes.


    "Well.." She fidgeted a bit as she walked back to the railing. "The air you carry around yourself is a bit different and.." She nervously nced back at me. "Your eyes.. um.."


    -What is she..- Quickly using light magic to make myself a little mirror, I quickly realized what she was talking about. -Oh..- My eyes were draconic.


    Without much time to think about it, I nonchntly used illusion magic to make them look as they did before.


    Emelias face was a mix of shock and awe.


    "How about we keep what you saw as a secret between us?" I gave a slightly threatening smile to drive my point home. -That could''ve been bad..-


    After that, we continued to talk for quite a while.


    Once evening rolled around, Adrian and Lynn returned to the ship and we spent a while socializing.


    It was nice and rxing to casually talk, but I still had a lingering sense that I needed to get on the road again, so I wrapped things up early.


    "Well, it''s been good fun to sit down and chat, but I should get going." I casually swigged the rest of my drink before setting the empty mug on the table.


    "Awe, I was hoping to talk a bit more, I won''t try and hold you back though." Adrian set his mug down and walked over to me. "Let''s meet again in the future!" He reached his hand out for a handshake.


    "Well of course! You know where to go." Gripping onto his hand, I gave a firm handshake and turned to the door.


    "Vasilias!" Emelia called out right as I stepped into the doorway.


    "Yes?" I nced back to see her with a slightly worried face.


    "Be safe.. please.."


    Her genuine worry made me want tough, but instead, I just gave a light wave.


    The instant I stepped outside of the captain''s cabin, I picked up Ilios and vanished.


    Once a decent ways away from the ship, I changed back to my dragon form and took to the sky. -Next stop.. Siratha!-


    Or so I thought..


    The next 3 months would be a painstaking mix of me practicing magic while flying and getting incorrect or vague directions from everyone I asked and to top it off, only a select few people even among nobles and royalty had even heard of the nation Siratha.


    I ended up bouncing between cities and countries all the way across and around the western continent until I gave up and just started flying around to look at myself.


    -Its the same f*cking forest..- I was starting to get genuinely mad. Everyone I got directions from that said they knew about where it was said it was ��to the west in the Great Forest��.


    The issue was that every time I flew to the west, I''d find a pretty big forest bordering a wide strait with an endless desert on the other side, but never find any nations, cities or even viges.


    It was a predicament that was steadily driving me insane.


    But right as I was about to justunch myself into space to look that way, I saw an elven halfie in the forest. -Perfect!-


    Zipping towards the ground, I didn''t even bother slowing down.


    *BBANNGG*


    The forest around where Inded was blown away and the ground shattered.


    Standing on the edge of the newly made clearing was the now pale faced halfie.


    *Fwoosh*


    Appearing right in front of him, I leaned down and looked him in the eyes. "Where is Siratha from here.." I didn''t even bother hiding my irritation.


    "U...uh..uhm.. to t..the west?" He was clearly terrified but his response didn��t help the situation.


    As I lifted up my foot to kill him, I stopped and asked again. "Just point in the direction of Siratha."


    With a shaky hand, he pointed straight behind me. "I..its across the s..strait and a..across the B..Banv?nn desert.."


    His response sounded like heaven''s oracle as my anger quickly turned to joy, but it only took a second to notice something off. -Wait..- "Isn''t this forest known as the Great Forest though?"


    "No.. this is the Gray Forest not the Great Forest.."


    His words instantly pinched a nerve. -To think I let that old hag''s word override my instinct..- I thought back to an older woman I asked for directions from and felt the need to go and vaporize her, but held myself back. -If I do that now, I''d just be wasting more time..-


    ��Haah..�� -I knew the descriptions of the forest in those books seemed too different..- Slowly lowering my foot to the side, I looked back down at the halfie. "Thanks.."


    *Pshhh-FWOOSH*


    sting my thrusters once again, I disappeared from in front of the halfie and took to the skies again. -Lets just hope and pray I don''t have to deal with that bullsh*t again..-

 Chapter 157: An Endless Search

    Chapter 157: An Endless Search


    Late Afternoon - Late Winter : Banv?nn Desert


    Just after getting directions from the stray halfie, I took to the skies and hauled ass to the west.


    Cruising through the atmosphere at Mach 20, I watched as the wide strait of ocean under me steadily moved to the horizon behind me. -Now.. lets see if we can find this damn ce..-


    I quickly got lost in thought as I set course for the horizon.


    Although the past few months had been painful, I didn''t let them go to waste.


    With my biological limits on my mana control being removed, I made great strides in both casting speed and volume control, with only my aura reading barely improving. -If only reading it was as systematic as controlling it..-


    But training wasn''t the only thing I did in my spare time, I also made sure to stop and spend a couple hours in the libraries of each city I passed by.


    The libraries were all fairlyckluster, but I did asionally find rotting books about Siratha dating back several thousand years.


    Although I found it odd that the only books and information I could find on Siratha were super old, the more I flew over the desert, it started making more sense. -They''ve just isted themselves from the rest of the world for thousands of years..- All they had to do topletely stop interaction with the rest of the world was to stop trade and sea travel.It was pretty incredible to think about, but it was a quick reminder that I needed to take the information I learned with a grain of salt.


    But even though I knew the information was probably inurate, I still gave myself a short refresher.


    From what the books stated, the nation was divided into two regions, a north and a south, with the south being elf, treant and dryad dominated and the north being mostly made of demihumans.


    Each section wasposed of solely independent ''cities'' and towns but ording to most of the texts, the way everything was constructed and how it all functioned wereplete guesses.


    That wasn''t the only section that was inconsistent though.


    There were all kinds of rumors jotted down in the texts ranging from things involving surprisingly urate depictions of dragons, to gods and religion but none of them went into any extensive depth or detail.


    It was a bit of a shame and a missed opportunity to get some juicy information but it was about what I expected. -But even rumors can sometimes be true..-


    As I continued to fly, I continued to sort through everything I knew about the nation but, before I knew it, a massive forest crested the horizon.


    -Holy sh*t..- The trees lining the horizon were absolutely massive, being even bigger than those in Bahamut by a considerable margin.


    It was truly a sight to behold.


    -So that''s where that saying originated..- There was a phrase that I heard all around the western continent from the folk who I got directions from, that clearly originated from Siratha. ''The bigger the trees, the bigger the monsters.''


    It was a phrase that definitely held some truth to it, but I couldn''t help but question it. -I''d be astonished if any other region in the world couldpete with Bahamut in terms of creature sizes..-


    As I continued to fly closer and lowered altitude, I felt the mana density steadily increase.


    It wasn''t quite as excessively heavy as Bahamut''s mana, but for a ce that wasn''tposed of several thousand dragons, it was ridiculously dense.


    Flying around, about two kilometers above the treetops, I tried to look down through the canopy but couldn''t really see anything. The canopy was simply too dense and there wasn''t a single clearing in sight. -Am I really gonna need to change to my humanoid form and move under the canopy?-


    It was basically myst resort since, being asparatively slow in my humanoid form, I could go months or years without finding anything in the forest.


    -Lets just stay in the air for now..- I wanted to check for anything on arger scale first.


    That was wishful thinking though.


    I ended up spending the next two weeks flying just above the treetops, using light magic on the edge of my aura to show me what was beneath the canopy, but, although I ran into tons of monsters, I didn''t find anything humanoid.


    It was the middle of the night when I started second guessing myself. -Do I need to go south?- But right as I thought that, I looked up and saw a very faint glow beneath the canopy.


    As I flew closer, I changed to my humanoid form and plummeted through the canopy.


    *Smack-Crunch-Russle-Crack*


    After getting pelted by branches and leaves for a second, I finally got through and got beneath the canopy.


    -Wow..- The area under the trees was well lit by light artifacts and spotless with the exception of a few rocks. The wild brush that grew around the tree''s bases had all been cut to the point that it just looked like grass.


    -What.. is this ce..-


    *Thud*


    Finally making it to the ground, I looked up at the towering trees and noticed the rope bridges spanning between branches with entire buildings built on them.


    -But where are the people?- As I wondered where the people were though, an arrow came zipping towards my thigh.


    *Fwip*


    Casually catching it, I lifted up my hand and got ready to fire a steel marble at the assant, but I stopped myself just prior to firing. -Its probably best if I try and be friendly first..-


    Lowering my hand, I red at the archer who was hidden by basic light magic. -Now that I know what to look for, you can''t hide from me..-


    "If you stay hidden like that, I might really kill you." Seemingly not responding, I got ready to use force against the archer but was stopped when I felt someone sneaking up behind me.


    *Shing*


    My de rang out as I unsheathed and pointed it at the person sneaking up on me. "Is that any way to receive a guest?"


    Immediately releasing their cloaking magic, the person sneaking up on me turned out to be a female elf with a whip-like rope and a dagger in her hand.


    She was quite attractive, but her strength was what I found most fascinating. -A low nation rank right off the bat�� This''ll be fun!- "Much better, now how about you get everyone else to do the same."


    Pulling my sword away from the woman''s face, I casually stabbed it into the ground. *Shing*


    Almost immediately though, another arrow was fired at me.


    Being unable to fully hold myself back for a second time, Iunched a steel marble through the leg of a different archer.


    *Fwip-CRACK*


    Their cloaking magic instantly dissipated and they fell to the ground before they even realized what happened. "Ah.. AAHHHH!!" The male elf let out an instinctual scream as a majority of his leg was relocated across the forest.


    "Whoops, my hand slipped." I turned back to the woman next to me with a moderately annoyed look. "You want to get your people to uncloak themselves now?"


    "Tch.." With an angry look, she gritted her teeth and dropped her weapons.


    Almost immediately, a group of nearly 40 elves and demihumans uncloaked themselves.


    -Are these just the warriors?- I nced up to the treetops. "Are the people up there cloaked as well, or are they just hiding?" I asked with a genuine curiosity, but none of the warriors took kindly to it. -They can understand me right?- "Can you guys understand me?"


    Once again, there was no reaction.


    Walking up to the elf woman, I lifted up her chin and made her look me in the eyes. "Oi, just shake your he-"


    Interrupting me, she grabbed my arm and tried to use martial arts to throw me to the ground.


    To her surprise though, my arm didn''t even budge.


    "You really have a death wish huh.." Unable to hold back my irritation, I tightly gripped her neck and lifted her off the ground.


    "Forgive her.." A mature woman''s voice rang out from behind me.


    ncing towards the voice, I saw a mature elven woman likely upwards of 100 years old. "She attacked me first, twice. Why should I forgive her."


    "Because she is but a child who knows not of the outside world." Her way of speaking was extremely formal and old-timey, matching the style of the older books I had read.


    -An older dialect?- "Could you say something in your nativenguage for me?"


    ��Sir, but why?�� She looked quite troubled.


    ��Just say something.��


    She gave a judgemental look. "B?u?t? ?t?h?e?n? ?y?o?u? ?w?o?n?''?t? ?u?n?d?e?r?s?t?a?n?d? ?u?s?.?.?" Thenguage was a bit different from what I knew from my knowledge inheritance, but it had the same framework.


    -Not like it''d take long to figure it out even if it was a whole newnguage anyways..- Trying to quickly adjust to the dialect, I gave a short response. "How about this?"


    The woman''s face immediately paled with a mix of awe and fear. "H..how.."


    Seeing she understood, a slightly crazed grin came to my face. "Good, now that we can understand each other.." I slowly turned back to the elf in my grasp who had a pale face. "How about I start with a few questions."

 Chapter 158: A Deep Rabbit Hole

    Chapter 158: A Deep Rabbit Hole


    Mid Evening - Early Spring : Syashara, Siratha


    "How about I start with a few questions." I turned back to the elf in my grasp with a slightly crazed smile.


    Her face simply paled as I tightened my grip.


    "OI!" A deep man''s voice rang out through the night. "GET YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF HER!"


    Looking up towards the voice I saw arge man falling towards me with a long ive.


    "DON-"


    Interrupting the elven woman''s scream, I used wind magic to smack the man across the forest.


    *CRACK*


    The elven woman watched with tear filled eyes as the man wasunched hundreds of meters away.*Fw-Fw-Fwip*


    The instant I turned my head away to watch the man fly off, another 3 archers shot at my chest.


    -Still?!- Getting more agitated, I swung the elf in my hands around and used her body like a shield instead of dodging.


    *Sh-Sh-Shink*


    Piercing cleanly through her armor, the arrows got lodged in her abdomen.


    "Ack.." She gritted her teeth as she looked down to see metal arrowheads poking out of her stomach.


    "It seems like some of you didn''t get the message.." But the instant I created 3 steel beads in my palm, the older elf finally figured out the situation.


    "EVERYONE DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" She wore an ashamed look.


    "B..but, E..elder.." The woman in my hands struggled to voice her objection.


    Almost immediately, the elder gave her a threatening look. "No objections."


    *nk-thump-thud*


    The noise of weapons falling to the ground filled the air.


    -Took you long enough..- At this point, I was more annoyed than anything else.


    Giving a deep bow towards me, the elder held her head low. "Oh mighty being. We apologize for our prior impudence, if there is any way we can earn your forgiveness, we are willing to do anything."


    -She''s a fast thinker..- "About damn time.." Casually releasing the elven woman in my hands, she fell to her knees and gasped for air. "Let''s start with some questions."


    After that, things finally started deescting and I ended up asking several questions to figure out where exactly this town was.


    As it turned out, this was a ''suspended town'' known as Syashara in the far northern part of Siratha. [1]


    ording to the elder, this was a fairly average town for Siratha, but the town still had around 10,000 residents with the weakest of them being around D rank and the average being B rank.


    Compared to human nations, this was an astonishing difference in strength, but when considering the environment, it wasn''t too shocking.


    Later on, I asked what the structure of Siratha was like, but it turned out to be the one theory I figured was just a blind assumption in the texts I read.


    The entire country turned out to actually beposed of a bunch of towns that all operated independently with only the big cities sharing the same management,ws, and rules as the capital.


    It still sounded oundish to me, but ording to the elder, most of the towns still shared simr rules since they all participated in mass pilgrimages to the capital.


    -How big must the capital be to hold that many people though..- By now, the situation had calmed quite a bit, and the elder had escorted me to a private room. (Her office) "What is the pilgrimage for?"


    She gave me a shocked look as I asked. "It used to be for simple prayer for the revival of our gods, but.." Her face quickly lightened up as a wide smile crept onto her face. "At thest pilgrimage, 12 years ago, instead of a prayer for revival, it was a prayer for return."


    I wasn''t quite following what she meant. "So does that mean the gods you worship, revived?"


    "Correct! Our great gods have revived!" She seemed to be quite ecstatic about it.


    -How do they know they''ve been revived though..- But even though I was skeptical, I decided to roll with it. "So what gods do you worship?" I casually stroked Ilios''s head as we talked.


    Her bright mood darkened slightly once again. "You know, we usually aren''t too fond of telling outsiders that.."


    Her slightly judgmental look pinched a nerve.


    As I started pressuring her with my aura, I gave her a threatening look. "It seems my generosity has made you forget the situation you were in."


    Her face quickly paled as she broke into a cold sweat and hung her head low towards the ground. "I''m very sorry! Please forgive my impudence!" Her terrified look from earlier quickly returned.


    Although things deescted when I started asking questions and makingckluster demands, things between us were still far from peaceful.


    It was a shame that even though I wanted to try and be nice, the town''s seemingly innate hatred of outsiders made it impossible.


    -If you guys would just rx, I wouldn''t try to force it on you..- "So let me ask again. What gods do you worship?"


    "W..we worship the gods Dagr and N��tt.. The gods of Day and Night." She had to take a deep breath to rx as I eased up the pressure.


    "What makes you such a devout follower of them?"


    "T..they are the gods responsible for elven longevity and demihuman strength.." Her face showed a bit of hesitation as she spoke.


    "Haah..�� Deciding not to question it further for now, I changed the topic. ��So how often are the pilgrimages?"


    "Once every 15 years.. the next one ising up soon."


    A slight smile crept onto my face hearing the good news. -Great timing..-


    After that, we continued to chat for a while until I left and moved up to a quiet spot at the top of the tree.


    I spent practically all my time practicing magic and exploring the town, but there honestly wasn''t too much to see besides admiring the general beauty of the area.


    After a few days of practicing magic and loitering around, I ended up getting bored and asking the elder for directions to the nearest city, but, since the route was too ''dangerous andplicated'', I was provided a guide.


    The issue was that this so-called ''guide'' wasn''t in town and wasn''t going to be back for a bit.


    Thankfully though, they didn''t take too long.


    "Are you Vasilias?" A crude woman''s voice with a clear hostility rang out from behind me.


    She was tantly impolite but thankfully for her, my irritation from a few days ago had calmed down. "Yeah. Who would you be."


    Giving an angry and disgusted look, she skipped the formalities. "My name is Thyra Haraldson. You can call me Captain.."


    -What an unfitting name..- "Well then, Miss Haraldson. When are we leaving?"


    As I casually stood up, she pulled out her sword and held it to my neck. "Keep my family name out of your mouth." She wore a furious look, like she had to hold back to not kill me.


    It was a look I wasn''t too fond of. "Have you ever experienced death?" I nced back at her as I brushed dust off my sleeves.


    "What are you-"


    *Shing*


    With only the noise to signal anything happening, my greatsword appeared just over the top of her head.


    Her face quickly paled, but her aggressive look didn''t fade. -She''s still holding up that facade?-


    It was clear that she was practically sh*tting herself, but instead of running away, she further pressed the de of her sword against my neck.


    "Wow, you''re more tenacious than I thought." I gave a provoking smile that she didn''t seem to like.


    Gritting her teeth and tightening her grip, she tried to cut through my neck.


    *DING*


    With a heavy flick, the sword wasunched out of her hands and lodged in the building on the branch over from us.


    Not quite realizing what happened, she just stood there, stunned and speechless.


    As I walked past her, I sheathed my sword and set my hand on her shoulder. "Let me know when we''re leaving, I''ll be at the top of the tree."


    She copsed to her knees the instant I pulled my hand off her shoulder.


    -Maybe you''ll learn to be more respectful next time..-


    Quickly making my way back to the top of the tree where it was nice and quiet, Iid back down to take a nap.


    When I woke up, around a day had passed and I sensed a muscr demihuman man climbing up to me. "What do you need?"


    "You are Sir Whyte, correct?" He wore a surprisingly polite and formal smile.


    "Yes? Are you in the group that''s guiding me to the city?"


    "To Morva Asari, yes." He gave a shallow but polite bow.


    -I quite like him so far..- Being put into a slightly better mood, I patted Ilios to make sure he was up. "Are we leaving now?"


    "Within a few minutes, Sir."


    "Alrighty, then." Casually rolling off the branch I was on, I fell past the man and onto arger, lower branch.


    *thud*


    With a quick look around, I found Thyra talking to two other elves that were all geared up. -There they are..-


    Nonchntly walking up to them, I could overhear their conversation.


    "So we''re bringing that guy, and that foreigner kid?"


    "It was a direct order from the elder, but how are we going to deal with him if two people are around?"


    "Cap said she��d exin through sound magic as we ran. We should at least keep himfortable to not raise any worries at first."


    "Right, I don''t have a problem with that but.."


    Both the elves nced over at Thyra who was oozing bloodlust.


    "Please just put up with it until the time arises, Captain."


    "Neither of you understand.." She wore the face of someone ready to kill.


    Neither of the other elves seemed to pay it mind though.


    As they were staring at her, I walked up without them noticing. "Yo. Are you the guide team?"


    Immediately jolting from my unexpected appearance, the elves looked at me like I was a ghost.


    "Yes!" Lightly pushing the other two out of the way, Thyra walked up to me and gave an extremely deep bow. "I''m sorry for my prior disrespect, Sir Whyte!"


    The other two in the group watched the scene in awe at her seemingly fear driven apology.


    Although it��d usually feel good seeing someone bow so deeply, this time it just left a bad taste in my mouth. -She''s quite a good actor..-

 Chapter 159: Live Test Subjects

    Chapter 159: Live Test Subjects


    Early Morning - Early Spring : Syashara, Siratha


    Not long after Thyra apologized, things calmed down and we got to the road.


    "So how long is this route?" I spoke up to break the ice as we ran through the canopy and jumped between huge branches.


    But even after I broke the ice, the demihuman man was the only one to seem interested. "If we keep this pace, we will make it to the city in 3 days. If you stay on this path through the city though, in around 2 weeks you can make it all the way to the northern coast."


    "Oh, we''re that close to the coast?" It was far closer than I thought.


    But just because I thought it was close, didn''t mean everyone would agree. "Y..yea.. s..sure..��


    Completely ignoring his awkward response, I tossed out another question. ��So are there coastal cities and towns along the beaches?��


    There was still a bit on hesitation still in his voice. ��Y..yeah, actually. Although the elves usually aren''t too fond of the sea, quite a few demihumans enjoy the warm and shallow coastlines."


    -Warm and shallow? Like the Bahamas?- Although I wanted to say the elves were missing out, I couldn''t help but think their worries were extremely well founded. -That colossal crab was big enough to traumatize people for generations..- "So are those towns built on the ground?"This time, one of the elves finally spoke up. "Sometimes, but they are almost always stilted if they are near the coast. I''m still not too sure why they don''t just build in the trees like regr people." She showed a clear dislike of the idea.


    Her reaction just reinforced my curiosity. "What don''t you like about stilted towns?"


    "Ugh.. don''t even get me started, I could list out reasons for days.." To me, it seemed like an overreaction, but it was so genuine I couldn''t really tell.


    -Now you got me interested..- A sly smile crept onto my face as we continued to chat.


    After a few hours though, the idle chatter had quieted down and a slight fatigue could be seen on everyone''s faces. -It''s pretty impressive they''vested this long.. but.. why are we stopping?- We had slowed down in the treetop and made our way into what looked like a supersized bird nest.


    In the middle of the nest, there was a small and dim light artifact illuminating a sign that read, ''rest area''.


    -What is this ce..- "Why are we stopping here?"


    "Shh.." Thyra looked back at me with a serious expression. "There''s a few wyvern right below us.. some pretty big ones too." After peeking over the edge of the branch, she pulled her head back in and ''rxed''. "Hooh.. lets just take a break here. If we continue, we''ll get caught in a bad spot.."


    Although what she said was reasonable, it didn''t totally make sense to me. "What do you mean we''d be in a bad spot? Couldn''t we just kill them?"


    Everyone in the group looked at me like I was crazy. "Not only are we not strong enough to take on three, fighting wyverns is far too risky in general."


    -Seriously? You guys are that weak?- Although my scale of strength was a bit warped, considering their auras, they should��ve been able to take a couple wyverns without too much issue.


    "Haah.." I let out a deep and disappointed sigh as I thought about what to do next.


    As I did though, Thyra''s face filled with an unusual amount of confidence. "If you are so confident, why don''t you just kill them yourself?"


    -You''re finally showing your true colors huh..-


    "Don''t you think that''s a bit much?!" The muscr demihuman man, Bj?rn, quickly voiced his objection.


    The elves didn''t seem to care though. "If he thinks he''s strong enough to go kill those wyverns, why don''t we let him?"


    "Yeah, if he wants to jump to his death, who are we to stop him."


    Bj?rn nced at me with a distressed look. "But.."


    -Is he defending me because I''m a ''demihuman'' like him?- Although I was a bit curious, I didn''t think too much about it. "It''s fine Bj?rn. Thanks for your concern though." As I slowly stood up, I nced towards Ilios. "Stay here for just a moment okay?"


    "Woof!" Quickly sitting down, he gave a determined nod.


    "Haha, alright, alright. I''ll be right back." -Ill leave it to you buddy!- As I turned to walk out of the big, nest-like ''rest area'', I noticed Thyra secretly reaching for a vial of ck liquid on the back of her belt loop.


    Slowly getting more excited that something fun was going to happen, a happy smile crept onto my face. -Lets see what you can do, miss actor!-


    As I jumped off the nearly two hundred meter high branch and finally got a good look at the wyverns, I didn''t even reach for my sword. -I won''t even need it for you guys!-


    Quickly changing course of action, I decided It was time to test out my improved volume control on a live target.


    -You first!- I started with the smallest of the group, a 14 meter tall gray wyvern. -Lets see if this magic works like it does in theory!-


    Before it even noticed me, I threw an incredibly heavy punch into the top of its head and amplified the impact shockwave as much as I could.


    The shockwave that came out of the bottom of the wyvern''s head turned the air into a solid pir and smashed apart the ground on impact.


    *BBAAANNGGG*


    As Inded on the rubble and blood covered ground, I felt a ridiculous sense of satisfaction and excitement. -It worked.. IT WORKED SO WELL!-


    Although it was much harder and far more inefficient to control mana inside a dense solid than a gas (like the atmosphere), my increased volume control let me control mana in solids on muchrger scales than before.


    -What if I did that in my dragon form..-


    As I fantasized about the possibilities, one of the wyverns mustered up the courage to breathe fire at me.


    *Chik-fwoosh*


    -Wow..- It was so weak I didn''t even need much vacuum magic. "That doesn''t even deserve to be called fire.."


    Walking forward, through the fire, I reached up and gripped onto one of its horns and stuck my other arm into its mouth.


    As it stopped its breath to chomp down on my arm, I gave the creature a crazed smile. "This is real fire!"


    *Psh-FWOOOSH*


    Not even bothering to channel the st like with thruster magic, the me got sted straight down the wyverns throat and out the side of its mouth which ended up grazing me before I could react.


    "Tch.." I gritted my teeth slightly as the scorching me instantly charred part of my stomach. -I got carried away..-


    Immediately halting the spell, I jumped back and gripped my stomach. -Sh*t that stings..- It wasn''t anything that hurt too bad, but the stinging was just enough to be irritating.


    ncing up at the wyvern I saw that its neck waspletely blown off its body and was covered in charred holes.


    -Now then.. only one left..-


    Too agitated to care about testing anything else out, I got ready to mercy kill thest one.


    The muchrger, nearly 20 meter wyvern was shaking from fear as I walked up to it, but I couldn''t me it.


    "Curse the world for reincarnating you as a pest." I gave an agitated gaze as I touched its chest and used earth magic to instantly shred its brain.


    The instant I did it, the horrified eyes of the wyvern lost their light and its body came crashing to the ground.


    *Crash*


    -To think I really got hurt in a fight with a lowly wyvern..-


    Looking down at the small charred area on my stomach, I used magic to cut off the charred cells and clean up the area to let the cells heal easier. -That should be fine... If only I could go into my dragon form for a bit..-


    As I patched up my clothes and fell into deep thought though, I felt something enter the outside of my aura.


    Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked up and saw an arrow coated in a ck liquid zipping towards me.


    It was a scene that filled my mind with confusion. -She still shot even after seeing me ughter the wyverns?-


    Looking past the arrow, I saw Thyra''s rage filled face that oozed bloodlust, but before I could think about how to y with her, a blinding white cone shot out of her stomach and my ears were met with an indescribable yet beautiful noise.


    *BRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMM*

 Chapter 160: A New Use

    Chapter 160: A New Use


    Late Afternoon - Early Spring : Northern Siratha


    - Bj?rn ~ (Back a few minutes)


    We were making our way along the path to Morva Asari and making great time, but I had a bad feeling in my gut. -What is this uneasiness..-


    Right as that thought crossed my mind, I nced towards the ground ahead of us and saw three massive wyverns walking towards the base of the tree we just hopped to.


    -Sh*t.. what are the odds..- As I cursed my worriesing to light, I looked up and saw Thyra holding back anger. I couldn''t tell what it was, but something about her anger seemed odd. -What is she..-


    But before I could think about it, we got to the next tree and climbed into the rest area.


    "Why are we stopping?" Vasilias was quick to voice his curiosity.


    "Shh.." Thyra quickly shushed him with her now suppressed irritation. "It''s a few wyvern.. some big ones too... Hooh.. lets just take a break here. If we continue, we''ll get caught in a bad spot.."


    Once again, something about the way she was acting was unusual. -Just what are you nning..-Vasilias didn''t seem to believe her either. "What do you mean we''d be in a bad spot?"


    -Right? We could definitely outrun them through the canopy..-


    "Couldn''t we just kill them?"


    His voice was filled with a bottomless confidence that just made my mind stutter. -W..what?!-


    Not only me, but everyone in the group looked at him like he was crazy. "Not only are we not strong enough to take on three, fighting wyverns is far too risky."


    "Haah.." Vasilias''s sigh was full of disappointment.


    Almost as if expecting it, Thyra gave an immediate and provoking response. "If you��re so confident, why don''t you just kill them yourself?"


    -Are you insane?!- "Don''t you think that''s a bit much?!" -Are you seriously going to send an overconfident kid to their death?!-


    Sadly though, it seemed like I was the only one in disagreement. "If he thinks he''s strong enough to go kill those wyverns, why don''t we let him?"


    "Yeah, if he wants to jump to his death, let him."


    I couldn''t believe it. "But-"


    "Its fine Bj?rn. Thanks for your concern though." I was cut off by Vasilias as he turned to his wolf. "Stay here for just a moment okay?"


    "Woof!"


    Almost like he understood what the wolf said, a seemingly unbreakable smile came to his face. "Haha, alright, alright. I''ll be right back."


    His smile was pure like an angels and reminded me of my nephew. -I need to jump down and save him..- I steeled my courage as he walked outside.


    Just after he left though, the entire tree shook.


    *BBAAANNGGG*


    It was such a violent explosion that it cleared my mind and knocked me to my ass.


    -What was that?!- Breaking out into a panic, I hopped up and tried to go outside, but as I did, I was tripped and pinned to the ground by one of the elves in the group.


    "What are you-" Instantly filled with a mix of panic and anger, I turned my head to the side to see Thyra pouring a vial of ck liquid onto a metal arrowhead and oozing killing intent.


    As she looked up at me, she gave a threatening look. "Stay out of this Bj?rn. This doesn''t involve you."


    *Crackle*


    *Rumble*


    The distant noise of the fight could be heard clearly, but my thoughts were too distracted by a sharp pain in my back to recognize it. -W..what the?!- My head quickly started getting dizzy and my thoughts became slower. -P..posion!-


    Doing my best to hold the poison at bay, I watched Thyra walk out of the rest area. No matter how much I wanted to save Vasilias, my own life came first.


    Just as Thyra walked out though, Vasilias''s wolf stood up and did a little stretch.


    To keep him from messing up their ns, the other elf got up to stop him.


    She gave the wolf a look of annoyance. ��Damn do-��


    *thud*


    Without making a single sound, her head turned into a bloody mist and her body fell to the ground next to me.


    "What th-" The voice of the elf on my back rang out before getting abruptly cut off.


    *thud*


    Feeling the weight on my back lighten up, I felt a mix of pure horror and admiration. It was aplicated feeling to say the least.


    Hastily pushing that feeling to the side though, I tried to crawl to the entrance of the rest area to look outside.


    Standing there on the edge of the limb with her bow drawn was Thyra, oozing a crazed bloodlust.


    *fwip*


    Seeing the arrow vanish off the string, I felt a mix of emotions, but they were immediately erased.


    Walking up behind Thyra was Vasilias''s wolf.


    -W..what is it..-


    Before I could finish thinking, a horrific tingling feeling washed over my body and a massive wall of white light appeared in front of Thyra.


    But before even a single thought or feeling coulde to mind, the world turned to a ck and abyssal darkness.


    - Vasilias ~


    *BRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMmmmmmmmmm*


    Slowly quieting down, the cone of light thinned and dissipated.


    Finally being able to see behind the cone of light, I saw Thyra with a massive, cleanly cut hole in her torso and blown off arms.


    In the next instant, her facial expression eased and she copsed at the stomach before falling to the ground.


    -What.. was that?-


    Looking back up towards the edge of the branch, I saw Ilios looking down at me with a proud smile.


    -W..what did he do�� Was that.. light magic?!- Although at first I thought it was lighting magic, too many things didn''t add up for that to be the case.


    *Crunch*


    The crunch of Thyras dead body mming against the ground snapped me out of my thoughts.


    -Right.. I need to go up and figure out the situation first... It''d be bad if I don''t have a guide anymore..-


    *Pshh-Fwoosh*


    Tapping some low power thrusters as I jumped, I wasunched all the way back up to the branch.


    Ilios was sitting there with a look of anticipation as Inded.


    ��Good job buddy!�� Unable to hold myself back, I petted and fluffed him for a moment before turning back to the rest area.


    -Oh good, Bj?rn is still alive.- Not paying mind to the elves with missing heads in the rest area, I walked up and did a scan of Bj?rn.


    His condition was alright currently, but he had been poisoned. -It shouldn''t be lethal, but I''ll break down some of it so he can heal faster..-


    It only took a few minutes to break down most of the poison in his system, but I was toozy to try and find the rest. -I''m sure he''ll be fine.-


    Standing back up, I moved over and nonchntly tossed the dead elves off the branch.


    *thud-thud*


    ��Haah..�� -Now that everything is done and I have time to kill, let''s get to figuring out how Ilios did that!- I nced over at Ilios with an inspired look.


    The next two days ended up passing in a sh.


    I spent every waking moment experimenting with light magic and photon maniption but didn''t make any remarkable progress.


    To put it simply, everything I tried was incredibly inefficient and consumed far too much mana to be usable.


    That doesn''t mean it''s totally unrealistic though.


    In theory it would be more efficient to create new photons on top of using those already in the atmosphere to use in a beam spell, but I still hadn''t figured out exactly how to create them in any efficient manner.


    -I''m sure I''ll figure it out eventually..- Finally taking my first break since I started experimenting, I walked out of the rest area and looked towards the ground.


    -They''re still there huh..-


    There was a huge flock of monsters still fighting over the wyvern corpses, with most being above A rank.


    Most of the monsters looked like weird supersized hybrids of forest creatures like bears, jaguars and fishers, but they only shared resemnce at a nce.


    The closer you looked, the more you realized was different and the more that didn''t make sense.


    Among the group, there was one with long brown fur and razor sharp horns sprouting from its joints. Its body resembled a deer, but it had carnivorous teeth and reptilian eyes.


    -How does that monstrosity even appear in evolution..- It looked both disgusting and beautiful, like a bad car wreck you couldn''t look away from.


    *Cough-Cough*


    Hearing coughing from inside the rest area I slowly stood back up and headed inside. -Its about damn time he woke up..-

 Chapter 161: The Depth of Mana

    Chapter 161: The Depth of Mana


    Mid Afternoon - Early Spring : Northern Siratha


    *Cough-Cough*


    "You''re finally up?" I gave Bj?rn a slightly forced smile.


    *Cough* "H..huh?" He coughed and gripped his chest as he forced himself up. "W..where am I?"


    "We are in a rest area between Syashara and Morva Asari." -Don''t tell me he forgot everything..-


    "Ah.. right, I remember now.." He spoke with a slightly forced confidence. "So, what happened to the rest of the guide team?"


    -Well.. I guess remembering that much already is a good sign..- "They''re all dead."


    His face paled slightly. "What.. happened to them?"


    "They tried to kill me so I killed them, they even poisoned you so don''t feel bad." I casually pointed towards the ground behind him where there was a bit of spilled ck poison.��That crazy bi-�� *Cough* He tightly gripped his chest and winced as he turned back to me. "Why would I pity them.."


    Unlike what I expected, he gave a cold response. "Were you notrades?"


    "Of course not.." Looking back towards the vile, he looked at the blood stains with cold eyes.


    Getting a bit curious about what his situation was, we continued to talk for quite a while.


    As it turned out, Bj?rn wasn''t actually a resident of the town, but was instead just a contracted messenger working in Morva Asari.


    Wondering what a contracted messenger was, I asked him about it and figured out he was basically just a high-end mailman with extra steps. [1]


    While we were talking though, his coughing continued to get worse and he asked if Thyra''s body and gear were still around.


    "Do you need something she had?" I couldn''t help but be curious. -What could he possibly need from her?-


    *Cough* "Y..yeah. On her belt loop, next to the poison, there should be an antidote.�� His face was slightly more pale than earlier. ��Although I don''t think I''ll die thanks to you, the antidote could get us back on the road faster.."


    It was a good idea, and something I didn''t really consider. "Hm�� In that case I''ll go check her body."


    ��Sorry for the inconvenience..�� As he rxed against the side of the room, I went ahead and jumped down.


    As I fell towards the ground, I quickly spotted Thyras body and moved over tond next to it. -Thank goodness the monsters have been upied with the wyvern bodies..-


    Although Thyra''s body had been eaten a fair amount and she was crushed against the ground, her leather equipment was mostly intact. -Except for her stomach..-


    *Wham*


    Doing a quick scan over her body as Inded revealed several interesting things.


    Around her waist was not only the vial of ck poison, but also several other vials, most of which I couldn''t identify. -They look like potions�� Lets just bring it all up, I''m sure Bj?rn can tell me what some of these are..-


    Casually pulling the belt off her nearly unrecognizable corpse, I nced back to see the monsters around the wyvern corpses not far away. They all stopped fighting and sat down when I jumped down. -Animal instinct is a wild thing isn''t it..-


    Not sticking around much longer, I tightly gripped the belt loop and tapped my thrusters tounch me back into the canopy.


    "Here''s the antidote." I lightly tossed Bj?rn the ss vial with a green powder in it.


    He looked a bit panicked as he struggled to catch it, but didn''t say anything.


    "Now.." I walked in front of him and sat down. "While you''re doing that, I''d like you to exin what these other vials are."


    He paused before pouring some of the green powder into his mouth and giving me a look like I was crazy.


    I instantly knew what he was thinking. "I''m not from Siratha so I''ve never seen these before."


    His look of disbelief didn''t fade. "The outside world doesn''t have potions?"


    Although I had heard about ��famous elixirs�� on my journey across the western continent, the only ones I ever saw were fakes. -These on the other hand.. have some potential.- "Just exin what each of them do.."


    "R..right.. give me one second please.." He quickly tilted back his head and poured a bit of the green powder onto his tongue. "Ugh.." He gritted his teeth as he forced it down with a few gulps of water from his sk. "Haah.. haah.. no wonder it��s called.. the killer''s antidote.."


    "You done?" I gave him a cold look.


    He gave a slightly surprised look before wiping his lips and clearing his throat. "Ahem.. yeah."


    "So let''s start with this side." I pointed to the side of the belt with the darker colored liquids.


    "Those are all poisons. Usually the darker they are, the more deadly."


    -Easy enough..- "What about these brighter colored ones?"


    "These are the potions. The more vibrant the color, the stronger they are, but they each have different uses even if they are the same color." He slowly pulled out each of the potions and sorted them in a seemingly random order. "These over here are strengthening potions, and these over here are frost and fire potions."


    -I''m sorry, what?- "I can assume what the strengthening potions do, but what are the frost and fire potions?"


    "Well, they are used by strong mages to strengthen their magic."


    -What? How does that work?- Gently picking up the light blue potion, I gave it a closer look. Off the top of my head, I couldn''t think of a single way to strengthen magic with a potion. -How <strong>could </strong>this even be possible?-


    Although the chemicals that made up the potion werepletely unknown to me, the chemicals hadrge amounts of ice mana umted around them like condensation


    -It just looks like a really awful attempt at strengthening it..- "Do I drink it?"


    "Yes, you might want some water to wash it down though." Bj?rn set his sk in front of me.


    "Thanks, but I''ll be alright." Pulling off the cork, I leaned my head back and drank the potion.


    Almost immediately, a wave of cold spread around my body that stopped at the skin.


    My breath quickly became foggy, as the air around me started to cool.


    "Wow.. how did it work so fast for you?" Bj?rn gave me a look of shock.


    "What do you mean, is it not supposed to be immediate?"


    He lightly shook his head. "No, it usually takes around an hour or two for the full effect to take ce."


    Taking into ount what Bj?rn said, it only took a second for me to realize what was happening. -So the potion relies on the body to move the chemicals in the potion to where they need to go in the body..- ��It''s.. genius..��


    Although it was a bit tedious to watch, the chemicals of the potion were transported up into my chest while slowly ''decaying'' the ice mana.


    -How fascinating..- I watched intently as the decayed ice mana slowly started trying to umte around my reserve.


    Although my reserve let out far too much aura for the mana to actually umte, I was able to get the general idea of how it worked.


    -That''s actually so cool..-


    The loose mana that ''decayed'' off the chemicals, would umte around the persons reserve and form a shell of sorts.


    Then, when the person would then use mana for a spell, it would be pulled through the shell and bring a fairly substantial amount of ice mana with it. In turn, this would strengthen their spell by a linear amount depending on how much of the shell they pulled from their reserve.


    -The potion itself is useless to me.. but..- Even though it was less than useless to me, the method the potion used was enlightening.


    -Do strengthening potions use the same principle just with strengthening spells?- I quickly scanned through the other potions and saw lots of recognizable andmon minerals and vitamins, but simrly to the ice potion, there was a bunch of earth mana clung to it.


    "Do I just drink this one as well?" I nced over at Bj?rn to see him give a light nod. -Well.. bottoms up..-


    Just like with the ice potion, the nutrients and minerals spread around my body, but this time, the earth mana umted around my muscles.


    -But.. Now what..- It didn''t do anything besides umte a bit of earth mana around my muscles. "Is there something I need to do for this potion to take effect?"


    "Ah, yes. You need to circte a bit of mana through your body."


    -Really? Will that actually do anything?- Circting mana was not a new idea for me. The issue with it was just that, after a while, the strengthening effect of it wore off. -I guess it can''t hurt to try..-


    As I did it, I watched the umted earth mana straighten up like mas and crystallize with one another. [2]


    It was a beautiful disy that filled my mind with ideas. -Wow.. what a smart way to do that..-

 Chapter 162: A Colossal City

    Chapter 162: A Colossal City


    Mid Evening - Early Spring : Northern Siratha


    After experimenting a bit more with the potions, time quickly passed and Bj?rn finally finished fighting off the poison.


    "You about ready?" I nced back at Bj?rn who was mping the spare potions to his waistband.


    "Yes Sir! Are you really sure you don''t want these potions though? You could sell them for quite a bit." He was actually quite nervous about actually taking them.


    "I''m alright, I don''t have any need for small sums of money." Although I did have ns to actually earn money in case I needed to buy something expensive, as long as things cost a few gold or less, I didn''t feel bad about just making the coins with magic.


    "Haha, alright, well.." Likely thinking I was joking he chuckled a bit and finished packing his things. "Shall we get to the road?" He looked oddly excited.


    "Lead the way!" I was in a great mood after the cluster of fascinating discoveries. -I have so much I can experiment with now..-


    I was smiling cheek to cheek as we finally got back on the road.


    -Thank goodness I didn''t let him die..- The path wasplicated and genuinely awful, it would have taken a crazy amount of time and luck to find the city on my own.But after several hours of running non stop, morning rolled around and Bj?rn started looking extremely fatigued.


    "Let''s stop here for a bit, you need some rest." I waved away his worry as he propped his hands on his knees and let out heavy breaths.


    "Haah.. Im.. hah.. sorry for being so tired.. hah... It seems.. the poison isn''t totally.. gone.." His face was pale and with beads of sweat rolling down it.


    -I''m impressed yousted this long, whether you''re poisoned or not..- "Take your time and rest up, I''ll stand guard so sleep all you like."


    "I... How could I let my.. hah.. benefactor do that..�� He looked a bit guilty.


    "Just sleep man, I don''t need to rest like you do." -I��m a tad tired but if I nap, I''ll be KO��d for several days so..-


    After staring at me with a face of guilt and confusion for a while, he finally calmed down and dozed off.


    -These rest areas are pretty convenient..- As I walked back outside, I hung my legs over the edge of the branch and listened to the melody of tweeting birds. -Maybe I should take a break from practicing magic for a bit..-


    Laying back on the branch, I thought back to everything that had happened over the past few months.


    "Haah.. right.." -I nearly forgot about that weird contract�� I probably shouldn''t bezing about in that case..-


    After a bit more contemtion, I fell into a deep focus and lost track of time.


    Before I knew it, night returned and Bj?rn woke back up.


    "You all rested up?"


    "Yes! Thank you, Sir Whyte!" He gave a deep and exaggerated bow as he walked out of the rest area.


    Although I wanted to reply with some enthusiasm, my mind was taking a moment to shift out of my deep concentration. "Please calm down, let''s just get back to the road." I gave him a slightly forced smile.


    Getting back on the road, we finally finished out the final stretch of the journey after several more hours.


    -We made some really good time.. much better than the 3 day estimate..- Once we got within a couple kilometers of the city, we ran into a few signs saying we were close.


    "This.. should be the edge.. of the city." He looked forward where we could see some distant buildings and rope bridges.


    -Its just like the town?- "How big is this city?"


    "Ah, about 600,000 natives I believe." He said it so nonchntly but it was a number that broke my mind.


    -WHAT?!- It was a number that was big for cities on earth, let alone a world barely into the middle ages. -Even with magic.. how is it possible to sustain that many people..-


    Getting lost in thought, we quickly made it to the edge of the city.


    It didn''t look much different from the town, but was much more lively and instead of just stretching across a few trees, it extended as far as I could see.


    "Is the whole city like this?" As I looked around, I struggled to believe that a colossal city could exist with just small buildings that could be built on or around trees.


    "Ah, no. The real city is a few kilometers further inward, this is just the outskirts. Would you like me to escort you there?"


    -Oh, so this is like the suburbs..- "Yeah, if you could, that��d be great."


    Thankfully, with a bit of idle chatter as we walked, it didn''t take long to get there.


    "Hm?" -There''s a clearing?- Although just barely, I could see some daylight through the trees in front of us.


    At the time, I figured it was just a mid-sized hole in the canopy, but I couldn''t have been more wrong.


    -What the..- "Holy sh*t.." I was inplete awe as I finally looked into the several dozen kilometer wide circr clearing.


    Towards the ground, there was a tall and circr mesa that took up nearly all of the clearing, but on top of it there was a colossal city with immense amounts of farming on the outskirts.


    "Beautiful isn''t it?" Bj?rn wore a warm smile as he overlooked the city. "It''s said to be a city built on the stump of the old world tree."


    -A.. stump..- Looking down at the mesa, I could see the resemnce but it was clearly just rock and stone, at least that''s what I tried to convince myself. -But.. could it just be petrified wood under some dirt?-


    My mind kept bouncing back and forth to try and keep my understanding of the world from shattering.


    It wasn''t until the feeling of Ilios licking my leg snapped me out of my mental trap that I finally calmed down.


    -Right... It''s a fantasy world.. anything is possible..- Although I still didn''t believe it, I tried to convince myself that I did.


    "So, how do we get down there?" All around the clearing there were wide and heavily strengthened rope bridges, but the boards were all idly hanging. -Are they all broken or something?-


    "Oh, this must be your first time in a city." Casually reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a shiny gold medallion. "This is called a city-pass. There are several different types that determine things like weight limit, the size of the tform and the number of people. It sounds crazy, but the artifact engineers here are geniuses when ites to runes." He spoke with an odd amount of pride.


    -What? It uses runes to be that specific?- Assuming it was just coincidental conditions, Bj?rn walked over and held his medallion on the railing.


    Almost immediately, two runes appeared and the boards in front of him snapped into ce and formed a bridge.


    *Sm-sm-sm-sm-smack*


    -So it is just that.. It''s quite smart though..- Simply put, what determined the weight limit and size of the tform was the strength of the connection between the runes. The stronger the connection, the higher the weight limit and size of the tform.


    It was a simple but genius way to do it. -I should probably increase the weight of the boards I walk on though..- I was still concerned my sword would turn out to be too heavy for the bridge to support.


    "Youing?" Bj?rn waved me on with a bright smile.


    "Ah, y..yeah." Quickly thinking of a way to increase the weight limit of a single board and not activate the entire bridge, I started following him.


    -Gosh.. this bridge is incredible..- I was instantly filled with ideas of artifacts I could make as I walked, even if most of them weren��t practical or useful.


    While I was lost in thought though, Bj?rn nced back and got my attention. "Watch your step up here, there is a board that''s damaged."


    -Hm?- Looking forward again, I saw a board hanging with a broken rune. "It''s fine, I can fix it."


    "You can wha-"


    *Smack*


    The boardunched into ce the instant I repaired the rune on it.


    "How did you.." He turned to me with a look of awe.


    "What''s with that look? All I did was fix the rune on it." I spokepletely nonchntly.


    Stopping walking for a moment, he turned around and looked at me like I was insane. "F..fix the rune on it?!"


    "Yeah, it''s not like it was thatplicated." -Let alone copying it from a different board, I could make a better version from scratch..-


    Bj?rn''s look didn''t disappear though. "Are you sure we are the same race?"


    Holding back a light chuckle, a yful smile crept onto my face. "When did I say we were the same race?"

 Chapter 163: An Odd Reaction

    Chapter 163: An Odd Reaction


    Early Afternoon - Early Spring : Morva Asari, Siratha


    As we continued down the bridge, Bj?rn gave me an odd look but never said anything.


    Unlike what I expected, he didn''t take what I said as a joke at all. -I wonder what he��s thinking..-


    Only a short momentter, we finally made it to the bottom and were met with an older demihuman man.


    "Are you strong sirs new around here?" His intentions seemed pure for the most part.


    "Ah, no. I live here so I don''t need a tour. Thank you for the offer." Bj?rn gave him a blunt rejection before walking right past him.


    The man was quick to turn to me though. "How about you, young Sir?" He seemed quite desperate but it just made me ufortable.


    "Ah, I''m alright. I''ll be able to figure things out on my own."


    With my denial, the man looked a bit dejected. "Ah, no worries. Pleasee tell me if you would like a guide at any point. I will always be here..""S.sure�� Thanks for the offer.." Making my way past him, I quickly met back up with Bj?rn. "Are people like thatmon around here?"


    "Hm? Oh. It''s not umon. He''s one of the unlucky few who got down here but didn''t have enough money or have a pass to get back up." He nced back at the man with a look of pity. "Good guides here do make quite a bit though, so I can understand why he''s doing it instead of manualbor."


    -Does that mean tourism ismon here?- It seemed a bit odd since there weren''t roads connecting towns to the city, but I decided not to question it much. "So where are we headed to now?"


    "The Morva Asari Hunter Guild. You need to get a medallion to use the bridges. Plus, you need some identification."


    -Sweet, I should grab a regional map if they have one too..- Not being able to find my way around on my own was a real pain.


    As I was thinking to myself, we made it to the edge of the actual city.


    Itsyout was quite simr to cities from Earth with family homes on the outskirts,rgemerce districts a little farther in, and a bustling downtown with arge town hall at the center. But even beyond generalyout, the city itself felt as if it was designed by someone who seriously knew what they were doing. -There��s even plumbing for sewage�� Was this city��s designer someone who reincarnated for earth or something?!-


    Continuing deeper into the city, we finally got to the edge of themerce district and made it to arge wooden building with the character meaning ''explorer'' on it.


    "Do you mind if I head across the street to grab a bite to eat while you''re inside?" He pointed across the street to a restaurant of some sort.


    "Yeah, go for it. I can handle everything from here. Thanks for showing me around!" A gave a friendly nod as I turned to walk inside.


    "Ah, if you ever need me for anything, you can find me at a messenger center on the north side of the city!" Quickly straightening up, he gave a deep bow. "Thank you for everything, Sir!"


    His voice caught the attention of everyone in the area but I didn''t pay it mind. "Haha, dont worry about it." -You saved me so much time that I should be thanking you..-


    Turning back to the guild building, I pushed open therge wooden doors and walked inside.


    The massive room behind the door was bustling with people, but I couldn''t deny that it felt weird seeing only elves and demihumans around. -It''s more simr to some of those western guilds than I expected though.. (Ones on the Western Continent)-


    Within the room, there were several tables for a tavern section and then receptionists area with a billboard for quests.


    The board was divided into sections as well,beled ��Vige��, ��Town��, ��City��, ��Cleric��, ��Priest��, and ��Apostle�� from the bottom up, but every single quest was city rank or below. [1] -So these must be the adventurer ranks... But why are there 3 whole ranks without a single quest in such a huge city?-


    Although it seemed extremely abnormal, I didn''t think much of it. -Its probably just that those quests were already taken.. right?-


    After second guessing myself for a second, I shook off the thought and continued towards the front desk.


    Walking past people and between tables, I winded my way towards the receptionist desk where a woman with a forced smile sat.


    -She''s quite strong for a receptionist..- Her aura was quite strong and tempered, not nearly as much of a monster as Lawton or Adrian, but nheless, she was well into the nation rank.


    "What can I help you with sir?" She acted polite but it was clear she didn''t want to be there.


    "I''m new around here so I''d also like to see if I could use this as an ID and if not, get a new one." Pulling my mythril ID out of my pocket, I casually set it on the table.


    Her whole demeanor changed and eyes widened as she saw it. "W..where are you from?" She shakily reached out and turned my ID over, revealing several nations crests. "Ahem.. Please forgive my prior informality." Her posture immediately straightened up and she wore a bright expression.


    -Whats with this sudden change..-


    "If you could, could you wait a moment for me to speak with my superior?" She seemed both excited and oddly nervous.


    "Y..yeah, sure. That''s fine."


    Thankfully, it only took a moment for her to return with an older gentleman.


    "Is this the young man you spoke of?" He spoke fairly formally. "I find it hard to believe that-" His voice stopped as he looked at my ID on the desk.


    It was the same look that the woman made. -Is there something special about my ID?-


    Hastilying up to the desk, the old man activated a silencing artifact and leaned in. "Sir, would you happen to be.. from the <em>outside</em>?"


    "Uh.. yeah. This is my first time in Siratha. Why?"


    A pure, yet ecstatic smile immediately popped onto his face as he gave a deep bow. "Please forgive my prior rudeness, it seems I failed to recognize your majesty." His voice was calm and smooth even though he was practically shaking from excitement.


    -What is wrong with these people..- "That''s fine and all, but can we finally figure out the situation with my ID?" Everyone in the room was watching the scene with curious looks even though they couldn''t hear us.


    A gleam appeared in the man''s eye as he heard my request. "Right away sir!"


    After that, I ended up spending quite a while gathering general information and getting the situation figured out.


    As for my ID, they told me to carry a specific crest, but instead of taking their medallion, I just carved it into my mythril ID like the other insignias and carved the rune for the brides as well. -This ID is one hell of an artifact now, isn''t it..-


    As for what they were freaking out over, when I asked, they only nced at the insignias on my ID and didn''t say anything. -Could they have recognized one from somewhere?-


    It was totally possible but I wasn''t totally sure. -It probably doesn''t matter anyways...- "Do you guys happen to have a map of the surrounding area?"


    "A city, town or region map?"


    "Region."


    "Yes, please give me one moment." Quickly getting up from the desk, she ran to the back table and rolled up a piece of paper. "Here you go, Sir Whyte." She handed it to me with a bright smile.


    "Sweet, thanks." -This''ll make things easier..- "I think that will be all for now. Thank you guys for helping me learn the ropes."


    "Haha, it''s our pleasure. Please keep in mind that you can use your crest to pay for general pleasures like inns, food, or anything in the.. ''eastern market'' including personal pleasures."


    -Man.. isn''t that a little too convenient?- Although something felt off about the mountain of privileges I was receiving, I just rolled with it. "Awesome, thanks for everything!" As I got Ilios up and left the guild, I wore a wide smile.


    Not wanting to waste any more time, I hastily made my way outside and started exploring some of the city. The instant I left the guild though, I noticed people following me.


    -3 decent A ranks?- It was clear they didn''t have good intentions but I was in a good mood so I acted as if I didn''t know they were there.


    After a decent while of them not making any moves though, I turned down a dark alleyway.


    "Uwaahh.." Trying to give an opening, I let out a big yawn.


    Almost immediately, the strongest of the 3 following me uncloaked himself right behind me and gripped onto my sword. "HAHA, maybe next time you''ll stay on gua-" His voice was cut off as he tried to unsheathe my sword and noticed it wouldn''t budge.


    His face slowly paled as I showed him a yful smile. "Pfft.. you''ll need to be a bit stronger to pull that out."


    He was frozen in ce as I turned around and set my hand on his shoulder.


    "You and your two friends over there aren''t quite fit for crime, you should really find new upations." As I pulled away from him, I nced back at his friends and turned to walk out of the alley.


    The man quickly fell to his knees and his ''friends'' disappeared shortly after


    As I walked back out into the street, I wore afortable and satisfied smile. "Hmm.." -Lets see what this city has to offer shall we?-

 Chapter 164: Proper Friendship

    Chapter 164: Proper Friendship


    Late Afternoon - Early Spring : Morva Asari, Siratha


    As I continued exploring the city with a smile on my face, the blue sky steadily faded to ck and time started to pass once more.


    From intricate runes being everywhere to just about everymon civilian being as strong as low to mid rank adventurers, the city was full of interesting things.


    Most interesting among them though, were carvings of the sun and moon representing the two gods they worship but no matter how hard I looked, almost all of the information I could find about the gods themselves was very basic.


    To sum it up quickly, the gods represented not only the sun and moon, but also yin and yang, life and death, and light and darkness.


    From my knowledge of the concepts, I expected these gods to be in constant opposition, but ording to the few people who actually responded to me, the gods were known to never oppose one another.


    It was a fascinating concept that made me hungry to learn more, but I quickly hit a wall shortly after that. For the most part, any additional information I could find was more on the ��mighty doings�� of the gods rather than who they were or how they acted.


    ording to a wonderful older elven woman though, if I traveled to the capital during the pilgrimage, I would be able to get those questions answered. -So what should I do in the meantime then?-


    Under no circumstance did I want to stay in the city longer than I needed to, but that changed when I ran into a pure dragon around Mother��s age. Although her personality was a little questionable at times, it felt good to actually let myself form a rtionship with someone and not have to constantly remind myself of their inevitable death.Her name was Amara Chalkos, a strong and youthful dragon who started traveling the world after the unfortunate loss of her younger brother. She was quite the cheerful type but as I got closer to her, it became more obvious she took care of her younger siblings growing up.


    She was always the one to try and take the lead in things, and acted like a motherly sibling. This side of her became even more well defined when I met her current travelingpanion, a halfie named Ynda who, coincidentally, was one of Bj?rn''s only friends and strongly reminded me of Maria. [1]


    But, even with their odd quirks, they were a group that was very careful with each other''s identities so I fit in well.


    It felt good to finally get close with people outside of my family, but after a few months of small-scale magic practice and general socializing, I started feeling like I needed to break away and be alone again.


    It wasn��t that I didn''t enjoy spending time with them though, instead, I just felt an odd sense of urgency building deep in my gut. It was this feeling in my gut that told me I wasn''t getting stronger and making progress fast enough.


    Although the ''gift'' from Amphitrite gave me tons of headroom to grow, being in a highly popted city and in my humanoid form was more than limiting.


    What I nned to do was fly into the desert to the east and do some more aggressive training with magic and with Ilios. Before I could finalize what I was going to do though, Amara came to the inn I was staying at.


    *knock-knock*


    -What is she doing here?- I wasid out on the bed ying with magic while Ilios cuddled my tail when she arrived. "You cane in."


    *Click* "Sorry for intruding, Vasilias.." Amara, although close to Mother in age, acted much younger.


    "You''re fine. So what did youe for?" Pausing the experiment I was doing, I looked down and saw her giving me a warm smile.


    She slowly walked over to the table and sat on the edge. "I noticed that you seemed to have more on your mind than usual the past week or so.."


    Epassing the room in silencing magic, I continued casually. "Yeah, you could say that."


    "So what''s up? Are you nning on leaving?"


    My ears twitched a bit as she hit the nail on the head. "Yeah, although I can''t really say why, I need to get stronger and my growth rate here is pretty constraining... I love spending time with you guys but now just isn''t the right time for it."


    "Haha, I think I know what you mean..." Herugh somehow didn''t seem forced at all. "Do you know exactly where you''re going yet?"


    "No, I was thinking of going to the desert to the east though. If its there, I can mess with some reallyrge scale magic without worry." -Being able to y with nuclear in a safe environment would be great..-


    "That would work, but there are some pretty strong monsters in there that even I would struggle a bit with..."


    "You already kn-"


    "I know, I know. I just figured I''d give a downside to it no matter how insignificant."


    -What?- "Why?"


    "Well I have to give a downside to be able to provide a better solution, right?" She wore a yful smile that piqued my curiosity.


    Before long, she managed to convince me of a better spot and gave me some pretty detailed directions, but she made me promise something in the process.


    "All I ask is that you keep the ce somewhat clean and that youe back for the pilgrimage. I''d like to go with someone I can really enjoy talking to. We can go with Bj?rn and Ynda, I''m sure they''d appreciate it as well."


    "So I just need toe back in 3 years? That should be fine.." Although my original n was to train and practice for a while then go straight to the capital, I figured it couldn''t be a bad idea to travel with others.


    "Good. So when are you nning on leaving?"


    An awkward look came to my face as I sat up and swung my legs off the side of the bed. "I nned to leave as soon as I figured out what I was doing, so.. I''ll be leaving after meeting up with Ynda and Bj?rn."


    "Haha, now that''s a look I''ve never seen on you!�� Her smile was innocent yet mocking before turning sincere again. ��There��s no need to be awkward, it''s not like you''re leaving forever. I''m just d I finally found a way to help you out after all this time." Her bright smile showed off all her bright white teeth.


    Before long, a smile ended up creeping back onto my face. "Haha, I told you that you didn''t need to worry about that." As I stood up, I released the silencing magic and walked to the door.


    Amara quickly ran up and hooked her arm around my neck. "And I told you that I was going to repay you no matter what!"


    There was a short silence as I reached for the doorknob. "Haah, you really are stubborn."


    "Hey, you''re a dragon yourself, you don''t have much room to stand on!"


    "Since when was- Ah well, maybe you have a point, haha." With a smile on my face and a bit of friendly banter, we walked out of the inn and headed down the road to meet with Bj?rn and Ynda.


    Although I wanted to give a quick farewell and get to the road, Bj?rn didn''t have any active jobs so we ended up going to the bar across the street.


    It wasn''t until things started to slow down that Bj?rn finally mentioned the topic at hand.


    "So you''re finally leaving?" He wore a look of content as he leaned back in his seat.


    *Thump* Setting down the wooden mug, I gave him a look of surprise. "You knew?"


    "Yeah, Amara mentioned it to us a few days ago."


    -So that''s why they were acting a bit differently recently..- "Haha well, that makes things easier. I''m going to be heading to the west for a few years."


    "A few years? So that means you''re actually going toe back?" Bj?rn��s look of joy caught me a bit off guard.


    The way he spoke sounded as if he knew I was a dragon, but I knew that wasn''t possible. -Amara probably just told them it was a possibility..- "Yeah, Amara convinced me to travel to the capital with you guys for the pilgrimage."


    "Woohoo!" Ynda looked ecstatic. "In that case, when youe back you owe us all drinks!"


    "Haha, alright. I''ll buy each of you something tastey on my way back." -Maybe I should head to the east and get something really good..-


    There was a short silence as I thought to myself.


    "Well, in any case, we''ll stop holding you back." Bj?rn slowly stood up and reached his hand across the table.


    A smile came to my face as I gripped onto his hand. "The past few months have been fun, I''m d you guys were nice enough to give mepany."


    "It''s the least I could do for my savior!" Bj?rn puffed up his chest.


    ncing behind him I saw Ynda looking at me with a warm smile as if to tell me thank you.


    -Haah.. to think she really fell for him..- I tried to convince her out of it, but nothing I said changed anything. -Maybe I should develop a magic to increase humanoid''s life spans.. maybe to be on par with the elves...-


    As I fell into thought, Bj?rn let go of my hand and Amara turned to me. "Well, I guess this is farewell for a bit." Unlike Bj?rn, her face was a bright smile.


    It was quite refreshing and quickly lightened my mood back up. "Yeah, I''ll be sure to take care of the ce!"


    In the next moment, Amara used wind magic to whisper to me. "I''ll be sure to keep them safe while you''re gone so don''t worry." She shed me a warm smile before turning back to Ynda.


    "Hah..�� I chuckled a bit as she misinterpreted my worries. ��In that case, I will take my leave. Be safe everyone!"


    "Haha, we will!" Bj?rn gave a smile and a wave as he sat back down.


    "You too Vasilias!" Ynda wore a bright smile as she sneakily hung her arms over Bj?rn''s shoulders.


    "Don''t make too much of a mess!" Amara shed a smile at me before moving to pull Ynda off of Bj?rn.


    -Haha, it''s good to see that everyone is in high spirits.- A warm smile came to my face as I looked down at Ilios who was perched up against my leg. "Well, shall we go?"


    "Woof!"


    "Haha, alright!" Giving him a quick head rub, we turned for the door and started our trip to the west.

 Chapter 165: A Sickening Scene

    Chapter 165: A Sickening Scene


    Mid Evening - Late Fall : Northern Sirathan Mountains


    -What a beautiful night..- I took a deep breath of the cool night air as I flew to the west.


    So far, things were progressing smoothly and from what I could tell, Amara''s directions seemed to be extremely good. -Hopefully I should get there pretty soon!-


    Just after I thought that, the colossal western mountains finally crested the horizon and I turned to the south.


    It was only after a few minutes of flying above the mountain tops that I finally found a massive doorway built into the side of a mountain.


    -That must be it!- It was Amara''s childhood home. It was a ce she said hadn''t been touched for nearly 60 years and simply functioned as a ce she could use if she ever wanted to.


    -It''s in a really beautiful spot..- With a nce to my right, I was enraptured by a beautiful view of the ocean and night sky, it was only once I got close to the doors that my attention was pulled elsewhere.


    As Inded, I saw the familiar crest of Bahamut and felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me but it didn''tst long.


    -Didn''t she say this ce hasn''t been used in like 60 years? And didn''t she say it was in good condition?-The door was full of cracks and the colossal metal beam used to keep it locked and closed was crudely moved just enough to allow a humanoid in or out.


    But, as if my worries weren��t concrete enough, the instant I went to take a deep breath, my nose was assaulted by the scent of rotting flesh.


    -So much for it being an abandoned family home, huh..- Assuming the worst, I set Ilios down and peeked my head inside. My instinct was on edge from the stench, so I was proceeding carefully.


    Inside, it had a simryout to my own childhood home with a single long hallway leading to arge rotunda and, even though itcked a single light source, I could see clearly.


    The walls and floor were all cracked and charred, the old statues were all broken and the light artifacts built into the wall were missing as if they were removed. -Just wha..-


    My thoughts were cut off as I looked further down the hallway and saw the rotting corpse of a young halfie (less than 10 meters long) without any scales, teeth or eyes.


    It was clearly taken apart for parts but it made me feel an incredibly deep disgust and instinctual anger. -To do that to a mere child..-


    As I got closer, I could finally look around the rotunda and noticed a rotting humanoid arm, a set of destroyed armor, a bag of the missing body parts of the halfie and a ripped open satchel scattered around on the ground.


    Using my aura to take out the contents of the satchel, I found a few half empty but extremely high grade potions, and a notebook.


    Quickly flipping through the pages, I hastily read the contents.


    It was a diary belonging to a Cleric Rank adventurer named Yrsa Helvig. Simply put, she was an elven prodigy who grew up with a golden spoon in Siratha��s capital city, Valtivar.


    As she grew up she was always the top of her ss and was even expected to be a priest, a position sought by everyone in Siratha, including nobility, but fate seemed to have other ns.


    Just after she turned 36, she decided to go on a long journey through the mountains to explore areas said to contain ancient runes and formidable monsters, all in the pursuit of strength and knowledge.


    It was a journey that she expected to take around 5 years, but around 3 years into the journey, she stumbled across a massive gateway with an insignia she was familiar with on it. She simply referred to it as ��the insignia of the strong��.


    Driven crazy by curiosity, she forcefully moved the massive lock and entered, but was soon met with a ��small but mighty dragon��.


    Assuming it was the blessing of the gods, she swiftly ughtered it and took her time taking it apart to stuffing everything she could into her bags.


    The next pages in the book were half burnt and covered in blood.


    They simply read:


    ''Why have the great gods forsaken me?


    What have I done to incur such wrath?


    My arm is gone and my body is charred. Potions have long since lost their effect.


    It has been nearly two weeks now. My mind has started to slow and my body is losing to fatigue.


    I cannot continue.


    This will be where I die unless a true miracle happens, as my screams and prayers will likely continue to go unheard.''


    The next several pages were nk before continuing once again with barely legible scribbles.


    ''I''ve started to lose track of the days. My memories are fading and my vision is blurring, I barely even remember who my family are.


    I will attempt to venture outside again tomorrow if it stays quiet.


    It was waiting. The instant I got close to the door, I was met with another facefull of scorching fire.


    I can barely write anymore, all of my remaining limbs have gone numb.


    It has been quiet for days now. I believe the creature may have finally moved on.


    This could be an opportunity.''


    Thest line of the page was still scribbled but was far more legible.


    ''Incase these are my final words, whoever reads this, please pray for the mighty gods to forgive me in the afterlife.''


    "Tch.." It was a line that only just tossed fuel on the fire burning within me. -You dare ask for forgiveness after mercilessly killing and dissecting a child like an animal?!- At that instant, my mind was full of dreadful thoughts but I quickly quelled my anger.


    Turning to the rotting corpse, I decided to at least give the child a proper send off.


    Moving it onto a small metal te with the bag of its harvested remains, I dragged it outside and overlooked the ocean.


    "Although you may have been abandoned by your parents and by fate in this lifetime, I wish you luck in your next."


    Mixing hydrogen I pulled from the atmosphere with some I made with space mana, I created a colossal and instantaneous hydrogen explosion.


    *CRA-BOOOM*


    By the time the sh dimmed, the corpse of the halfie was already gone and a massive cloud had formed in front of me.


    "I wish you luck on your journey." Lowering my head just slightly, the slight ocean breeze returned and blew the cloud up past me.


    It made me feel oddly satisfied seeing the cloud move beyond the mountains, but it didn''tst forever.


    As I walked back into the cave that used to be a home, I finally started cleaning things up. Thest thing I wanted was to be med for the damages.


    ��Haah..�� As I cleaned, my thoughts about the incident I read about wandered. I started to wonder what really happened.


    In the end though, my thoughts didn''te to any conclusions and my 3 year stay in the mountains had officially started.


    Over the next couple weeks, I spent my time repairing the cave and adjusting to my new training regiment with Ilios, but as usual, I got adjusted quickly.


    Being able to solely focus on my training and theories made my strength in terms of both physical and magic increase even further, but there were also problems that arose.


    Around a year after I first started, I started really noticing changes in my mental state and demeanor. It wasn''t a huge change and could simply be attributed to natural changes in maturity, but it seemed to be changing far faster than normal.


    -Could it be because I''m constantly thinking of things at full speed, that my brain is perceiving time slower?- In concept it was simple. All the time I spent outside of rest, which was almost never, my mind was throwing around not only calctions but also general thoughts at full speed, so over time, my brain started to mature faster than my body.


    This was something that was fine currently since my body''s maturity was already a bit beyond my mind��s but it was something I couldn''t overdo and needed to fix immediately.


    Thankfully though, there was a fairly ''easy'' solution. I simply needed to set a subconscious limit to only use the full speed of my thoughts for calctions, with some exceptions of course.


    This was much easier said than done but eventually, things worked out. I was able to more freely control the speed of my thoughts without feeling as if my mind was sluggish and, although my thoughts were ''slower'', they were mostly more well thought out which in turn made my magic theory training both more enjoyable and rxing.


    I did still make many.. many mistakes though.


    "Ilios, if this works I''ll-"


    *sh* *BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM*


    Needless to say, having an explosive bigger than most nukes go off when I didn''t expect wasn''t exactly the most fun, but at least it helped increase the size of Ilios and I��s training area! [1]

 Chapter 166: Unusual Disturbances

    Chapter 166: Unusual Disturbances


    Mid Evening - Mid Spring : Central Sirathan Mountains


    It''d been a little over 2 years since I had left Morva Asari now and, although there have been some mishaps, things had been going well.


    I spent every waking moment training with Ilios or experimenting with magic, and my effort was really paying off.


    But it wasn''t just general strength and mana usage that improved. Through a tremendous amount of trial and error, I hade up with a far stronger and far more efficient explosive than anything I had made previously.


    On earth, it would likely be ssified as a cubane explosive as it uses an 8 carbon molecule as the base, but that was where the simrity ended. The variant I made was far stronger and more unstable, making it aplete monster in terms of explosive yield.


    In short, it acted generally simr to Octanitrocubane from earth, but instead of nitrogen and oxygen to spark thebustion (the nitrogen carries the oxygen to keep it stable), I used oxygen and hydrogen and I would make the cubes interlocked with one another when I made it.


    It required quite a bit of space mana to interlock them, but it let me stuff a horrific amount of explosive potential into a tiny package.


    But I, of course, didn''t stop there. Once the cubane was all made and interlocked, I stuffed the space in and around it with more hydrogen.


    At the end of it all, I had created a non-nuclear explosive with a simr explosive potential to non-fusion nuclear weapons, but that didn''t necessarily mean it was practical.At the end of it all, it was still both quicker and more efficient to just use regr fission nuclear magic if I wanted to go that big. On top of that, after a lot of risky practice, I could nowpress a watermelon sized clump of uranium or plutonium down into the size of an apple, which, through an unintentional discovery, increased its yield further.


    The denser I made it before pulling away my mana and letting it go supercritical, the more violent the explosion. -It''s still nothingpared to fusion but I''m still too scared I''ll blow my own head off with that..-


    It was a reasonable concern, but for whatever reason, I took it to the extreme. Whenever I got deep enough into practice and thought about trying it, I assumed I was at my mental limit and forced myself to take a break.


    Although I can''t say it was a good habit, it at least ended up working out. Whenever I got too nervous to continue experimenting or simply I needed a mental break, I just shifted gears and trained with Ilios!


    Eventually though, that training started to lose its effectiveness even with handicaps like artificially ��increasing gravity on ourselves�� [1].


    Put simply, we couldn''t handicap ourselves enough for the training to actually be difficult on anything other than our stamina.


    But that didn''t exactly mean I had no options. -Is it finally time?-


    When leaving Morva Asari, Amara convinced me toe here to train, saying it would be better than the desert, but even though I was skeptical at first, the more I thought about it, the better the idea sounded.


    - shback ~


    "I know I said earlier that the monsters in the desert were quite strong, but wouldn''t they still be too weak for you?" Over the months we spent together, Amara hade to think I was an older elder that just regressed my human form''s age a bit and used illusion magic to look demihuman.


    It gave her a decent ballpark of my strength, even if it was still a bit low. "Yeah, but it''s better to have a punching bag than nothing at all."


    "But what if you actually fought monsters that would give you a bit of a challenge?" Her smile turned sly.


    -What could she..- "Where would that be?"


    "Although its very dangerous, it isn''t unheard of for dragons to fight sea creatures in the shallows." [1]


    Her idea hit my mind like a sledgehammer. -Wait, that''s actually.. really smart..-


    The monsters in the ocean were simply iparable to those onnd in terms of strength, and to add to my disadvantage, underwater was their home turf.


    I had aplete and utter disadvantage in the water. -But.. couldn''t I use aura pressure to make the ocean feel like really really dense air?-


    - End of shback ~


    Although it seemed like an odd way to word it, I thought that I could use the pressure from my aura to counteract my buoyancy and have it feel like I was just fighting in thick air.


    Currently though, it was just a theory I hadn''t tested, but, since I hit the bottleneck in my training, it seemed like that time hade. -Lets try it in a couple weeks, after my mana and magic training session.-


    Although I was excited to finally give it a try, I was still in the middle of a spar with Ilios that had been going on for several days.


    *Wham-Crunch*


    Narrowly dodging Ilios��s attack, I pulled back. ��Haha, missed m-��


    Cutting off my voice, I saw something unusual in the distance.


    As I abruptly stopped the spar to look in a different direction, Ilios redirected his paw from my face into the ground.


    *CRUUUNCHHH*


    The strengthened stone training area simply couldn''t handle the impact and shattered, but I still didn''t turn my head to look at it.


    My eyes were locked on something in the sky.


    -What.. is that?- It was something flying in the air with massive feathered wings, but it definitely wasn''t a bird.


    Getting a bit too curious, Iunched myself into the air and quickly got much, much closer.


    -What is that monstrosity..- With the body of a deer, it had panther legs and ears, a bird''s beak, griffins wings, wyvern tail and dragon horns sticking out around its body.


    It was a monstrosity beyond myprehension that I wouldn''t believe existed if I didn''t see it for myself.


    -Do I just kill it?- Clearly it was a creature that shouldn''t exist from evolution but after some deep thought, I decided to leave it alone and turned back to meet back up with Ilios.


    As I did though, a streak of light crossed the sky in an instant and cleanly vaporized the upper body of the creature.


    It was so fast I couldn''t follow it, but it was something I recognized immediately.


    -I guess Ilios didn''t want to let it go, huh..-


    After watching its lifeless corpse fall to the ground, I made my way back to Ilios and resumed the training as usual.


    At the time, I didn''t think much of it, simply assuming it was some wild animal and moving on.


    That wasn''t quite the case though.


    "1st Squadron, push forward and be prepared for battle!" There was a distant yell I heard while between experiments about 2 weekster.


    -What are people doing here?- Feeling like killing them all would cause issues down the road, I was quick to change to my humanoid form and make my way to the edge of the training area.


    "2nd Squadron, halt and ready your weapons! Wait for my orders! The Mystic Beast was said to be staying here."


    -Man this guy''s voice is really obnoxious..- Getting a bit impatient, I walked up to the edge of the teau and saw around 250 people climbing towards me, with half of them readying bows.


    It only took a second for them to notice me. "Officer! There''s a person!"


    "A what?!" Instantly looking up, he met eyes with me. "What is a lone hunter (adventurer) doing out here?!"


    His demanding tone coupled with his awful voice just pressed all the wrong buttons. "This is where I live, so I''m gonna politely ask you to leave."


    "This is the military of Spiall. Pleaseply with us!" He was yet to halt his troops at all.


    "Uh, no. If you continue up this mountain, I will take in upon myself to kill each and every one of you." I spoke with a palpable confidence and some of the soldiers felt it.


    The instant I said those words, around half of the soldiers halted with paled faces.


    Their leader didn''t seem to care though. "You dare have the audacity to say you will harm the cities military?!"


    "Tch.." *CRACK* *Crunch*


    The man''s head exploded as a steel dart flew through it.


    *Thud*


    Everyone who was still following orders immediately stopped to watch their leader''s lifeless body fall to the ground.


    "Okay, so who''s the second inmand here?" I was quick to scan the group of soldiers to find the strongest person, which was when I noticed a woman staring at me with curious eyes.


    -That''s an odd look for someone who just watched their leader get ughtered..-


    "Sir!" She spoke the instant I noticed her gaze. "Did you by chance already kill the mystic beast?"


    "Mystic beast?"


    Her eyes were full of energy. "It was a deer mystic beast that evolved extremely often, taking certain attributes from each of the creatures it killed. It waspletely destroying nearby towns and wreaking havoc on cities so we were ordered to subjugate it."


    "Oh.. that thing? Yeah it''s dead. What''s left of its body is about 9 kilometers that way."


    Every soldier immediately looked in the direction I pointed.


    The girl''s stare didn''t budge though and her eerie smile only grew wider. "Great Lord, could you bless us with your name?"


    -Great Lord? What kind of cheesy ass name is that..- "I''ll tell you if you guys leave me alone afterwards."


    "We will immediately leave you alone and be sure to never bother you again, Great Lord!" She immediately turned to the people climbing the mountain with a threatening smile.


    "Right away Cleric-, I mean Captain!" The soldiers all had a slip of the tongue as they slid back down the cliffside and started making their way back down the mountain.


    -Cleric? As in the cleric rank of adventurers?- Seeing how fast everyone reacted to her orders, it seemed like her authority was far beyond just a high ranking adventurer, but I couldn''t be sure.


    In any case, the way she was acting was odd. "May you allow me toe up to talk with you, Great Lord?"


    The name made me cringe, but I was too curious about her to care. "Sure."


    Almost immediately, she disappeared from where she was and appeared next to me. -Wow, she''s quite fast..-


    The instant she stopped though, she lowered herself into a kneel.


    -What is she..-


    "Cleric Liv Sigmond greets noble dragon!"

 Chapter 167: Draconic Influences

    Chapter 167: Draconic Influences


    Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Central Sirathan Mountains


    "Cleric Liv Sigmond greets noble dragon!"


    The air turned cold and my pupils dted the instant she spoke.


    *Cr-r-r-r-r-r-rACK*


    *CR-R-R-R-R-UUNCH*


    The eavesdroppers who I had been ignoring were instantly turned to clouds of blood as they were each barraged with dozens of steel marbles.


    *Crumble*


    Hearing the noise of someone moving I turned to see someone darting down the mountain in a panic. -There''s the other one..-


    Casually raising my hand, several steel marbles formed in my palm before instantly vanishing*Cr-r-rACK*


    *CR-R-RUNCHHH*


    Although the cleric didn''t get to see what happened to the eavesdroppers on the mountainside, she got a front row seat to this one.


    Her calmposure was quickly washed over with fear and panic as she watched the remnants of the person''s body tumble down the mountain.


    Seemingly frozen from fear, she didn''t budge as I reached down and grabbed her by the neck.


    "Ack!" She grabbed my wrist as I lifted her off the ground but quickly stopped fighting.


    My eyes were oozing with the intention to kill. "How did you know that?"


    Her eyes were filled with pure fear. "Y..your eyes.. g..great.. lord.."


    I instantly knew what she was talking about, but my intention to kill her didn''t change. -Even if she knew my eyes were a dragon��s though..- "How did you know dragons could take humanoid forms?"


    Just before she could answer several beams of light were shot past us and into the forest.


    *BRRRMMM-BRRM-BRRRMMM*


    Each beam cleanly incinerated everything it touched leaving nothing where it passed through.


    -I guess Ilios found a few other eavesdroppers..-


    As if not even noticing the beams, she was quick to continue. "It ismon- ugh.. knowledge t..that dragons can c..change their f..forms.."


    My body instantly filled with a deep disgust before I could continue. "If that''s the case, then why do hunters hunt dragons?"


    "Ack... It is.. p..prohibited.. to hunt t..the.. intelligent.. ones..."


    -The intelligent ones?- Confusion quickly mixed in with my disgust. -So that means..-


    *Thump*


    Dropping her to the ground, I squatted and looked her in the eyes. "In that case, do you know what this insignia is?" I pulled out my ID and pointed to the Bahamut Insignia.


    "Hah... Y..yes.." She held her throat as she caught her breath. "It''s the i..insignia of t..the strong.."


    -It''s the same thing that the notebook said..- "And where did you learn that from?"


    "W..while in schooling.. within the capital.. m..mighty one.."


    -What? Is it like one of those legends school kids learn about?- "Tell me everything you learned about it."


    "It wasn��t.. a lot... We were just told to t..treat.. those who carried it.. with utmost respect and honor. We were told those who h..eld it were the s..strongest in the world.."


    -What? Did dragons sneak in those rules?- Although I couldn''t bepletely sure, it made sense as to why they would do it. -With adding just a few vague parts to the schooling curriculum, they could make a safe haven for dragons and halfies�� But why would dragons need something like this when there��s Bahamut?-


    ncing up the mountain towards the cave, my chest tensed up with disgust again. -It clearly didn''t change much either..- "Tch.. alright that''s enough."


    As I reached down and set my hand on the back of the woman''s head, she broke into a panic. "MIGHTY ONE, PLEASE SPARE ME!" As she finally looked up, her pleading gaze was met with my cold and uncaring look.


    "Why should I?"


    Her eyes lost a bit of their vitality after my heartless response. "No one will ever know what happened here! I will take anything other than death!"


    "Anything?"


    "Yes, anything!!" Seeing a spark of hope, her pleading, tear filled eyes lit back up.


    "Hm..�� There was a short silence as I thought to myself. ��Alright, in that case you''ll be my guinea pig."


    Almost instantly, a yellow glow emanated from her head. "H..huh..?" Her concern deepened once again before the light finally faded. "What did-"


    "Dont worry too much about it!�� Without noticing, a subtle smile crept onto my face, but it didn''tst long. ��Just know that if you go to tell anyone I am a dragon, you will die. As long as you don''t, you <em>should</em> be fine."


    To Liv, my subtle excitement probably seemed terrifying, but she simply gave a quick nod in response.


    "If you understand, you can go ahead and leave."


    As she shakily stood up, she gave a deep bow. "Thank you.. for sparing me, mighty one! I''m sorry for causing you trouble!"


    "It''s fine, things ended up working out." Seeing her get up and get ready to dart off, I gave her onest message. ��Before you go, remember to note back here.��


    Her once horrified eyes were now just slightly more rxed. ��Of course!�� She continued standing there for a moment longer before finally darting off.


    ��Haah..�� I felt an unusual anxiety as she ran off. -If that spell doesn''t work and her experience with me gets out, I''m in trouble�� Thankfully I didn''t tell her my name though so even if it does, I should be able to escape implication somehow..-


    Watching her dart down the side of the mountain, I considered simply killing her but I let her off in the end.


    After she finally made it to the bottom and darted into the forest, I double checked to make sure no one else was around and changed back to my dragon form.


    Ilios was quick to uncloak himself next to me as I did.


    "Haah.." As I leaned down to rub my head against him, thoughts raced through my mind. -To think the cleric in that notebook still killed the halfie even with all that knowledge..- As I thought more and more about it though, something Liv said kept reying in my mind.


    ''It''s prohibited to hunt the intelligent ones.''


    It was a statement that weighed on me more than it should have. -The halfie that was killed was clearly old enough to have intelligence so.. why did she kill it..- It made me feel curious but disgusted at the same time, a truly odd sensation.


    But, much like everything, it didn''tst forever.


    With a bit of help from Ilios, I quickly got distracted and turned my focus to more productive things.


    "Well, shall I finally go for a swim?"


    - Liv Sigmond ~


    It had been several hours since I split up with <em>him </em>at this point and I was stillying in my tent about 5 kilometers away,pletely unable to sleep.


    *rustling*


    Looking down towards the entrance, I saw a familiar hand push aside the cloth entrance. "Are you doing alright now, captain?" It was a demihuman man named Sten. In short, he was the newly appointed vice-captain after I became the captain.


    "Hah.. what constitutes ''doing alright''?" It was refreshing to see his face, but it didn''t make the ufortable sensation go away.


    "What''s wrong then? Didn''t the medics say there was nothing wrong?" His concern was deep, but it didn''t help.


    "Y..yeah, but just because they didn''t see anything doesn''t mean nothing is wrong.." What I felt was a nearly indescribable fuzziness in my head.


    It didn''t hurt or feel good, but was instead just this ufortable fuzz that I felt whenever I thought of anything rted to dragons which, currently, was all I could think about. -Was this what he did to me?-


    ''If you go to tell anyone I am a dragon, you will die.''


    It was a threat I assumed meant he woulde kill me if I said anything, but the more I thought about it, the less it made sense. -Did that threat really have to do with the magic he casted? It wasn''t an oath rune but that''s what it sounds like..-


    Although I was tempted to test it, if it really was a type of oath magic that I simply didn''t recognize, I would die on the spot.


    -In any case, even if this sensation never goes away.. It''s better to be alive�� I should just think of this as my punishment for being so uselessly confident...-


    "Captain?" Sten gave me a worried look as he closed the entrance to the tent again.


    "Huh? Sorry, what did you say?" Without noticing, I had zoned out for quite a while.


    "Haah.. Squadron 1 leader is outside wondering what our ns are to find the mystic beast corpse."


    -Oh, right.. the mystic beast..- It was the sole reason we came all the way out here but I had already forgotten about it. "That man said it was 9 kilometers southeast from where we were, so we will go find it in the morning... Tell everyone to getfortable for the night."


    "Haah.. alright. I''ll let you know if there is anything else." As he stood up, he carefully set down a bowl of hot soup on the table next to my hammock and walked back outside.


    Although I would normally be thankful for the kind gesture, it somehow made me feel irritated.


    "Haaah..." Sitting up in my hammock, I picked up a bottle of wine and used it to flush out my thoughts and numb my mind. As I sat there with the half empty bottle in my hand, a single thought resonated through my head. -Why did I think that was a good idea...-

 Chapter 168: Sinking Into The Depths

    Chapter 168: Sinking Into The Depths


    Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Central Sirathan Mountains


    *Ssh-Crash*


    The sound of waves mming into the side of the mountain filled the air as I made my way down to the shore.


    "Hooh.." I took a deep breath as I looked over the edge of the cliff and into the abyssal-blue water. Although I was excited to explore the unknown and to try something new, I couldn''t deny that I was nervous. -But.. there''s no point in hesitating..-


    *Ssh*


    Quickly sinking into the water, I extended my wings and glided along the slope of the mountain.


    As I made my way deeper and deeper, my surroundings got darker and darker until I could barely see the cliffside just a few meters below me.


    For a while, I saw nothing other than extremely small fish and rocks, but once I got about 3 kilometers down, I stumbled across a small ledge with a massive skeletonying on it.


    The bones were still somewhat intact with cartge still holding it all together, but even without that, I would have recognized what it was immediately.-A dragon..- It was the skeleton of a dragon that would''ve been around 40 meters tall if it was alive and to go along with that, it had died in the midst of a fight.


    All of the ribs had been broken along with two of its legs, it was missing a wing and its tail, but above all else, the top of the skull was totally caved in.


    -This is directly down the mountain from the cave... There''s no way right?- Although it sounded crazy, the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.


    Not only did the skeleton still have cartge, but the bone marrow and the few scales left behind weren��t that aged. -The time this dragon and that halfie died is simr..- Although not exact, they were close enough to be linked together.


    Continuing to inspect the skeleton for a while after that, there wasn''t much else I could figure out. Nearly all the conclusions I came to were assuming too many things and I was still left in the dark about too much to fill in the gaps.


    -Assuming this was that halfies parent.. it probably died before that hunter found the ce.- My assumption was mostly based on the fact that the monster noted in Cleric Yrsa''s notebook, never broke through the entrance or forced its way in at all. -If this dragon was worried of its child dying, that heavy door might as well be a piece of paper..-


    But just because that sounded most usible didn''t make everything else make sense and even added more questions to the pile. -Just what could kill such a big dragon like this..-


    Question after question arose in my mind until I finally forced myself off the topic. -Haah.. if I continue to try and figure everything out with just this much information, I wont get anywhere��-


    Finally calming my curiosity and quelling my anger towards the cleric, I finally turned away from the skeleton and continued making my way into the abyss. -I hope you have better luck in your next life, whoever you may have been..-


    The next several minutes were filled with silence as I continued going deeper and deeper.


    Eventually though, I started questioning that motive to go deeper. -Just how deep is this ce..- I had already swam enough to be around 15 kilometers down but there was no sign of the steep cliffside leveling off in the slightest.


    My nervousness only piled on as I continued to sink further and further into the abyss, thankfully though, not long after, I found a fairlyrge shelf that was home to arge coral reef. -Im at what.. 18 kilometers deep? How is there coral here..-


    Without even the slightest bit of light from anything other than me, bioluminescent fish and nts, the coral seemed to be thriving.


    -How odd.. how does it stay alive?- As I got closer though, that question was quickly answered.


    Each coral had a small pile of fish bones in a small bowl-like divot on its body, and it looked as if the coral was eating them.


    But the oddities didn''t end there, every now and then, a part of the coral would open up and spit out a pea sized marble that a smaller fish woulde out to eat. -Was that a small mana core?-


    After eating the core, the fish swam to the bottom and picked up one of the millions of bones littering the ground and set it on the coral.


    It was the perfect symbiotic rtionship, the fish would give the coral bones and the coral would provide it shelter and give it small mana cores.


    -To think that''s the solution evolution came up with�� To use the umtion of bones as sustenance..- It was fascinating to watch, but after a few minutes, I decided to move on.


    Swimming across the shelf with water magic, I started noticing that there weren''t any reallyrge fish or creatures in general. Almost everything was less than a meter or two long and everything was skittish. -For how many fish are here.. there really aren''t many predators huh..-


    As I thought that, something huge entered my aura.


    -WHAT THE?!-


    *BANG*


    Something massive hade out of nowhere and mmed my head and neck down into the coral.


    ��Ugh..�� Trying to jump back up and retaliate, I quickly realized it was already gone.


    *Crunch*


    The coral and bones on the ground crunched like ice under my weight as I looked around in a panic. -What the hell was that thing?!-


    Eventually looking up again, my light magic illuminated a colossal, grouper-like fish as big as me.


    Without being able to use my honed magic trump cards, the fish was more intimidating than it should have been.


    *Fwoosh*


    Charging at me once again, I narrowly dodged and dug my ws into its side, but the fish was quick to retaliate.


    *WHAM-CRUNCH*


    In a flurry of movement, it mmed me back into the ground with its body and darted off into the darkness again.


    -Ugh..- I groaned as I pulled myself out of the pile of rubble.


    Quickly looking around to find it again, I simply didn''t see anything. -Did it swim off?-


    After another few minutes of looking around, my nerves finally started to calm down again. -My god.. fighting in the water is just awful..-


    I felt slow and sluggish, and couldn''t use most of my magic. I felt incredibly weak. -I didn''t think this would be so diffi-


    Cutting off my thoughts, I noticed the giant fish charging straight at me. -YOU''RE BACK?!-


    As I tried to think of how to kill it, its mouth opened wide and sucked my head and neck into its mouth.


    In the next instant, I swung my body around and dug my ws into it.


    -Got ya!-


    *Siiiizzle-blub*


    The water around us boiled for a short instant as I discharged a huge amount of electricity into the fish��s head.


    *Thump*


    Finally sinking to the bottom again, I pried open the fish''s mouth and pulled my head out.


    The water was filled with blood but instead of being nervous about it attracting more monsters, I felt a deep excitement I hadn''t felt for a while.


    It was the thrill of a challenge, the thrill of a real fight! -To think fighting with so many disadvantages would be so fun!- My body was already the most strained it had been in months, but I was too excited to pay it any mind.


    With a crazed smile on my face, I dragged my ws through the fish to chum up the water.


    -To think they''re here already!-


    With my senses having adjusted, I could feel the gaze of several creatures peering at me from the darkness.


    ncing towards them, my pupils dted and my stance changed slightly. -Lets try that again!-

 Chapter 169: A Brawl Fought in Blood

    Chapter 169: A Brawl Fought in Blood


    Early Morning - Late Spring : Central Sirathan Mountains


    *CRRUNCH* I felt my ribs finally give way and fracture as I got mmed into the mountain by what I came to call Lurkers.


    They were fish that looked like longer versions of goliath grouper, but they were incredibly smart and hunted in groups numbering in the hundreds.


    But on top of their sheer numbers, they ranged anywhere from 20 to 65 meters long each and were extremely fast.


    At first I questioned why such a strong fish hunted in a group, but the time for questions like that didn''tst long.


    *CRUMBLE* The side of the mountain crumbled around me as I was pummeled by a smaller group of them.


    "Ackkk-" *shik* Sinking my hind ws into two of them, I blew them apart with cubane. *BANG*


    But even though those two had been turned to mince meat, the third continued attacking my head.


    *CRUMMBLE* My face was repeatedly smashed into the stone shelf until it finally tried to run off and regroup. As if waiting for that moment though, I darted out of the hole I was drilled into and dug my ws into the lurkers side.


    *RUMBLE* A deep and violent rumble echoed through the water as I blew off the lurker''s tail with a thruster.


    As it flopped around wildly without a tail, I dashed over and smashed open its skull, being sure to rip out and eat its mana core.


    Quickly absorbing all the mana I could from it, I shifted my attention back to my surroundings and prepared for the next group.


    Paying extremely close attention to the currents, it only took a moment for me to find the next aggressor. -A quick one this time, huh?!-


    Moving just enough to dodge its colossal body, it mmed into the stone mountainside. *CRUNCH-crumble*


    Without giving it time to recover or run away, I dug my ws into it and bit a chunk out of its head.


    *CrUnCh* Its skull crunched like ice under the immense strength of my jaw, but it took just enough effort to pull my attention away for a moment.


    In that short instant my attention was pulled away, my instincts yelled at me. -SH*T!- Mustering as much of the strength in my legs and wings as I could, I lunged back. *Fwoosh*


    The instant I backed away, three more huge Lurkers mmed into the opposite side of the corpse and crushed it against the ground. *CRUNCHH* Before I could catch my breath though, they realized I had moved and charged at me in unison. *fwooOOOOSHHH*


    As I prepared magic to make quick work of the charging lurkers though, I felt the currents shift again. -SERIOUSLY?!- "Uggh-RAH!" Swiftly dodging an attack from my blindspot, I smashed my paw through the bottom of its mouth and got a good grip on its tongue. -GOT YA THIS TIME!-


    Using its own momentum as a weapon, I immediately darted towards the charging lurkers and mmed its head into the middle one.


    *CRRRRUUNNCHHH* The two lurkers exploded as they mmed into each other, but the other two kept charging.


    In a sh of movement, I darted between them and set the tips of my wings on their heads. *CR-RACK*


    The area around where my wings touched them instantly vanished as two huge pre-prepared steel darts wereunched through their brains.


    Continuing the motion, I pped my wings andunched myself above the field of blood and corpses to check for more lurkers but none were visible.


    I still felt the current traveling in a circle so I knew there were at least a few more, but then, out of nowhere, it came to a screeching halt.


    A deep sense of anxiety instantly filled my body as I darted back to the bottom and squatted in a crater. -Its not a predator is it?-


    Out of caution, I was trying toy low in the thickly chummed water where I could hide easier, but my body was shaking so much from exhaustion that it likely didn''t matter.


    I had been in a constant brawl with the school of lurkers for nearly a week and my body had already passed its physical limit. Every muscle in my body screamed at me when I moved and my reserve only had 10% capacity left even after all the cores I ate.


    Although the situation wasn''t currently life threatening, if something strong enough to hunt a school of lurkers showed up, I''d be in deep sh*t.


    -To think Id be pushed so far by some f*cking fish..- My pride was barely keeping itself intact as I tried my best to feel for even the slightest changes in current.


    But there was simply nothing. The water was simply dead and concerningly still for several minutes.


    After about 30 minutes though, I finally felt the current return just slightly. -There it is..- Something big had been trying to sense my movement with currents like I was for it.


    Feeling the current suddenly change direction, I looked up and braced myself.


    *fwooooOoOoOOSHHH* Charging at me out of the darkness was a lurker nearly 90 meters long.


    A slightly crazed smile came to my face seeing it charge straight at me. -I got a present for you!- Bracing my legs as much as I could, I threw my paw out and mmed it into the lurker''s forehead.


    The impact sent a shockwave through my body that ripped apart muscles and fractured bone, but in return I heavily amplified the shockwave going into the lurker.


    *Crumbl-CRUNCHH* As my feet were driven into the ground, the amplified shockwave blew apart and shredded everything behind the lurker''s face, leaving nothing but blood and shredded organs floating in the water.


    "AAHH.." Unable to continue to keep my calm, I fell to the bottom and used mana to repair the bones in my arm as best as I could. -Will I really need to run?! FROM F*CKING FISH?!- Before I could do anything rash though, I felt a familiar current return to the area.


    For the first time in a week, I felt the cold water from the depths wash over my body.


    It was a sensation that nearly brought tears to my eyes. -Its.. over?-


    Still not quite believing my senses, I stayed on edge for another hour before finally easing my body.


    "Ugh.." As I finally sat down, I looked around through the blood filled water and took a good look at the hundreds of lurker corpses littering the ground of what used to be a reef. -Just what kind of predator feeds on them to require such huge schools..-


    It sent a chill down my spine just thinking about it, but my body was too exhausted to shiver.


    "Ugh.." Driven by my need for rest, I forced myself back up.


    With a casual look around, it quickly became clear that this wasn''t a good ce to sleep, so I made my way over to the mountainside, pushing aside the lurker corpses in my way.


    Setting my paw on the rocky mountain slope, I used a considerable amount of mana to carve out a small cave.


    Once it was mostly finished, I crawled into it and sealed a majority of the entrance, leaving only a small area open to let some fresh water flow in and out.


    -Haah.. done..- Feeling at least moderately satisfied with my hole in the wall, I finallyid my head down and immediately fell into a much needed deep sleep. -I hope.. Ilios is.. doing.. well..-


    - Liv Sigmond ~


    "Captain Sigmond. The Head Commander has called for you." A young man gave a slight bow as he delivered the message.


    -Is it that time already?- "Alright, I will be there right away." As I stood up and made my way towards the Command Hall, I straightened up my uniform and tried to calm the fuzzy feeling in my mind.


    *Click*


    Walking into his office, I held my head high with confidence.


    "Please have a seat Captain Sigmond." Motioning me to my seat was the Chief Commander, Njal Dolph, an incredibly tall and beautiful elven man.


    He was the second highest ranking military official in Spiall, and was the brains of Spiall''s militia, a real man with both strength and political power. Most people would be intimidated by such a figure, but he was just a man who wore a tough mask.


    Behind the mask, he was a weak willed and greedy man who would do anything to please his selfish desires.


    Whenever the lower squadrons would recruit new members for example, he would personallyb through them, looking for the children of nobles or those blessed with attractive faces in order to groom and exploit them.


    Although I never personally saw him do things as bad as some of the rumors, if it was him, they were quite usible. -What a disgusting man..-


    The only reason I was even serving under him at the time was because of an assignment given to me in the capital. I was told to join Spiall��s militia and climb to the Squadron Captain position within 5 years but even though it was technicallypleted when the Great Lord killed the previous captain, my position was still being processed.


    -I really can''t wait to leave and never see this clowns face again..-


    As I sat down, my head never bowed and my eyes never lowered. "So what have I been called for, sir?"


    Clearly not liking myck of elder��s formality, he snickered slightly. "Captain Sigmond, you are aware of the moral code in this city''s chain ofmand, correct?"


    -What? Where did this questione from..- "Of course, I was taught well within the capital."


    "Then you would know that lying in a report is a criminal offense, correct?"


    Instantly connecting the dots, it felt like a nerve was pinched. -Which bastard leaked it..- Anger quickly welled within me but I tried my best to stay calm and act normal. "Of course."


    Seemingly noticing my slight change in demeanor, his smile turned sly. "I like to think you''re a smart woman, so I''ll give you a chance."


    I immediately ran through the options of how to get out of the situation but it all became useless when he pushed a report across the table in front of me.


    "The report I received from the second squadron leader directly seems to be quite different from yours and the one you ��turned in for her��. Do you care to exin yourself?"


    Looking down at the report, I quickly read the title. ''Expedition 31: Report''


    It was the report of what happened from the perspective of each squadron leader.


    -That bi*ch gave me the fake..-


    As I stared at the report, desperately trying to think of a way out of the current situation, a slightly crazed smile crept onto themander''s face. "What I read in that report was quite interesting, not only did you not make note of the adventurer killing the captain, you simply listed the casualties as ''killed by unforeseen hazards''." His smile only got creepier. "To think there''s a ��wandering adventurer�� strong enough to casually kill the captain and make the ''all-mighty Cleric Liv Sigmond'' stay quiet about it. Now I''m really curious."


    I was caught red handed and could only sit there in silence, not because I didn''t want to say anything but instead because the fuzziness in my head had increased in strength several fold.


    Although it was just my instincts telling me, I felt as if I would die if I made so much as a peep.


    -..Sh*t...-

 Chapter 170: Endless Self-Confidence

    Chapter 170: Endless Self-Confidence


    Early Morning - Late Spring : Central Sirathan Forest


    - Njal Dolph ~


    I wore a wide smile as I marched through the forest with over two thousand soldiers in tow. -To think she really tried to hide such a beautiful gem from me..-


    My smile widened as I thought of all the possibilities. -Even if he doesnt want to be my soldier, I can just capture and torture him till he bes an obedient ve..- My smile turned crazed as I thought about it. -Actually, I like the sound of that better�� Maybe I can use him for.. <em>other things</em>..- Although I put my hand over my mouth, my crazed smile was still slightly visible.


    "Commander, are you alright?" The voice of the 4th squadron leader, Trygve, quickly snapped me out of my daydream.


    Quickly jumping back into character, my crazed smile returned to normal. "Ah, of course. I just got a bit excited thinking about the elixirs for when I return." My mouth water slightly as they suddenly came to mind.


    "Are you talking about those made from the mystic beast? I heard a single one is going to be dozens of times stronger than evenrge wyvern elixirs and to make it even stronger, they''re adding top grade wyvern powder to the mix.��


    ��Ah, yes. I heard it will be the ultimate culmination of this era of alchemy.�� A sly smile crept onto my face as I was reminded of something I had nearly forgotten. -The scale<em></em>I bought all those years ago can finally be used..- It was a scale of unparalleled beauty and durability and could be used to make a nearly indestructible dagger, but I wanted to mix it with a high end elixir to guarantee its sess in pushing me past the bottleneck known as the ��Cleric Wall��.


    -I wonder what riches I will be able to obtain as a priest�� And if I can get my hands on this hunter, I''ll be simply unstoppable outside of the capital!- A feeling of greed unlike any other filled me in an instant.But before I could truly bathe in the anticipation, Trygve continued. ��It''s a shame the beast''s body was so damaged, they''ll likely only be able to make a couple of the elixirs."


    -It''s a shame they couldn''t make more for me to sell on the dark market, but at least I will get mine..- "It is indeed a shame, I was looking forward to sharing them with everyone." I forced some sincerity into my voice to disguise the lie.


    "Haha, don''t worry about it Commander, it''s just how fate turned out.��


    The smile on my face turned dark for a short instant. -Yes. Sadly fate only blesses a few of us.-


    After that, we idly chatted for a while until we finally found a good spot to camp for the night.


    "Commander, the perimeter is secured. No monsters or unusual hazards were found." A young scout kneeled as she gave the report.


    "Thank you for your hard work, young miss." Without noticing my grin had turned just slightly lustful. -You��ll be mine soon enough..- "I''ll be sure to put in a good word for you when I talk to your captainter."


    Her face quickly lit up. "Thank you Commander! I am eternally grateful!"


    Seeing how well my intentions were hidden, I couldn''t help but chuckle. "Haha, don''t worry about it. Those who do their job well get rewarded!" Realizing I nearly broke character, I quickly corrected myself and sent her away. "Go on and rest up for tonight, tomorrow will be a big day."


    "As you order, Commander!" Without batting an eysh, she immediately darted away and climbed back up into the canopy.


    Watching her dart off, I couldn''t continue to hold back my lustful smile. -Ah.. I can''t wait to corrupt that pure innocence..-


    "To think there was really nothing nearby.." Snapping me out of my thoughts, the 3rd squadron leader, Toke, leaned back in his seat and sipped his light alcohol. "Didn''t this ce used to be a wyvern hot spot?"


    "Yes, around three years ago now, we lost nearly all of squadron 8 to arge group of wyverns that stayed here." Trygve was also gettingfortable.


    "They probably got pushed out by the mystic beast if I had to guess. That''s the only way to exin the generalck of monsters around here recently."


    Finally walking over and sitting down with them, I hopped in the conversation. "It''s possible but quite unlikely."


    "What makes you say that?" Trygve tilted his head a bit.


    "The issue is that the wyverns in this area were not only massive, but also fought and hunted in a pack of 5 making them arge threat to single creatures like the mystic beast." -Things just feel wrong..- I felt a deep unease the more I thought about it.


    "Isn''t it more likely that they just moved to a new spot then? Backe, you know a lot about wyverns right? How likely is that?"


    Everyone at the table immediately turned to the 5th squadron leader, Backe, who was pouring himself a drink.


    "Do you want to hear the reality or what eases your worries?" He spoke with a sarcastic tone until he noticed everyone was serious. "Haha, it was just a joke guys."


    *nk-k* The sound of his metal spoon hitting the side of his cup as he stirred his tea filled the tent''s awkward silence.


    After taking a sip, he finally continued. "It''s entirely possible they just left the area, but I also think that''s pretty unlikely. Wyverns usually keep the same hunting ground until they are pushed out or run out of food. It is possible that the mystic beast scared off their food and made them move but at that point it''s just another guess."


    Toke was immediately skeptical. "So are you saying it''s more likely they were killed?"


    "Yes. If what the Commander has told us about the ''monster in the mountains'' is all true, it is quite possible that it killed them."


    "Do you really think that wild rumor about a monster blowing off the top of the mountain could be true? That''s enough power to wipe Spiall off the map and make that mystic beast seem like a baby." Backe spoke jokingly. "I just find it hard to believe a creature like that can exist."


    Trygve was quick to agree. "I also think the rumors are a bit oundish but the mountain top being blown off is an undeniable fact. That was confirmed by both squadrons 1 and 2."


    -Thankfully for us though, that monster is long gone and in its ce is a lone shining gem..- A mix of uneasiness and uncertainty grew in my stomach before quickly turning to excitement. -No matter how strong he is, he is only one person!-


    After that, we discussed our ns for the morning and I gave them a rundown of my fabricated n of attack on the ''monster''.


    It was a n so well thought out, that even if there was a high-priest level monster, we would be able to take it down so no one even second guessed its legitimacy.


    -To think I''ll get my hands on such a beautiful gem tomorrow!- I almost couldn''t fall asleep from all the excitement I felt.


    I spent all night fantasizing what I was going to do once I got my hands on <em>him</em> and only managed to fall asleep a few hours before sunrise.


    *ding-ding*


    As the morning bells rang out and the soldiers awoke, I made my way to the vanguard to meet up with the squadron leaders.


    Once the soldiers were all ready and finished packing their things, we started heading to the mountain again.


    Everyone''s confidence was through the roof as we walked, to the point that we were already discussing the distribution of elixirs from the ��monster�� we were about to subjugate.


    Once we finally made it to the bottom of the mountain, the squadrons each spread out and formed arge semicircle around the area that the squadron leaders and I would lure the ''monster'' into.


    -It''s a shame that such a grand n will be used on a lone hunter, but it must be done..- An endless greed filled me at that very moment.


    I felt endlessly confident, like nothing could go wrong, but that was when things turned for the worst.


    Quickly making our way up the side of the mountain, we made it to only a few meters away from where Captain Sigmond saw the hunter, but then a gigantic white wolf peeked its head over the edge and looked at us.


    Its stare alone made me freeze in ce. Its pupils ck like the void stared into my very being.


    For a short instant, it felt as if I had be a book, open for the beast to read, but that feeling left as fast as it came


    Assuming it was just my imagination, I quickly tried calming my nerves but it was futile. -Did the hunter get killed?!-


    Before I could do anything besides think though, Toke jumped up and drew his sword at the beast.


    -Right! We can just proceed with the mock n!- With my confidence quickly rebuilding itself, I watched the scene with deep intent.


    *tink* Just like my hope in the situation, the de of his sword shattered on impact.


    Everyone immediately paled as we watched the beast nce at Toke.


    Before he could even fall back to the ground, the beast''s paw was lifted over him with a clear liquid umted around it.


    -What is it..-


    *spark*


    *RUMBLE*


    It felt and sounded like the air around us was being ripped apart as a blue me, as bright as the sun, descended.


    Reaching the ground in an instant, the me immediately melted the stone it touched and turned Toke into something less than dust.


    It was a scene that caused an instinctual fear within me, but somehow, deep down, a sense of reverence and worship appeared.


    -To be able to meet a descended god..- "I REALLY MUST BE THE ONE FATE CHO-"


    Cutting my words short, the beast darted up to me and threw its paw into my chest at a speed far beyond what I could react to.


    I truly couldnt even get a thought toe to mind before my body was eviscerated.


    *CrUnCh*

 Chapter 171: Descent into The Abyss

    Chapter 171: Descent into The Abyss


    Mid Morning - Late Spring : Central Sirathan Mountains


    "Nnngh-AHH!" As I jolted awake, my instincts were screaming at me.


    Before conscious thoughts could evene to mind, I felt a slight warp in the fabric of space behind me and threw a colossal breath spell at it.


    Utilizing space mana to instantly create the huge amount of cubane, there was tons of excess, but instead of pulling it out before firing, I left the dense cloud around the cubane.


    *crackle-BBBBOOOOOMMM* The roof of the cave instantly vanished as the st removed a huge chunk of the mountainside and ripped apart the fabric of space in its wake.


    As the holes and tears formed, countless crack-like gates opened up and sucked in everything nearby before quickly vanishing once again.


    *Ssh-Blub* As the water came crashing back into the area, the fabric around me finally finished healing, now missing the warp I had previously felt.


    Finally having a moment for my nerves to calm and for my consciousness to kick in, a deep anxiety and difort filled my chest. -J..just what did I dream of..- In search of what kind of event could cause such a violent and instinctual reaction from me, I tried to dig through my mind to remember what the dream was about.


    But it was a futile attempt. I simply couldn''t remember anything besides the indescribable feeling I woke up to. -What an awful way to wake up..- Looking back out towards where the fabric was ripped apart, my anxiety worsened. -That could have been.. really.. really bad..-


    Quickly making sure all of the fabric had healed itself, I sat back down and let out a deep breath.


    ��Hooh..�� Trying to desperately pull myself back together, I nced down the mountainside and noticed the thick blood that covered the shelf had been washed away.


    Peering through the darkness, I saw that what used to be a reef had be a lurker graveyard with half eaten corpses and bones being everywhere.


    But, to my surprise, you could see the bone eating coral growing on the bones like fungi.


    -Those things sure do grow fast..- Seeing something that could distract me from what had just happened, I was quick to hop up and make my way down to the shelf.


    As I walked, I quickly realized just how much stronger I had gotten. Although still extremely restrictive, the water was far less annoying to move in. -To think fighting down here would be so effective at building strength�� Now I understand why some other crazy dragons do it.- Although I did think that, I waspletely overlooking just how abnormal my ��training�� had been.


    -Strength aside though..- Finally looking at my physical changes, I quickly realized that I not only put on a little muscle mass, but my horns and the spikes all across my body had gotten longer as well. -Hm.. I thought I already hit puberty for dragons since Im <em>adult stage</em> but maybe not..-


    Half joking with myself, I finally got my mind off the way I woke up and started walking across the shelf looking for things to fight. -At this point, Id even fight lurkers again..-


    To my disappointment though, the only things around were small fish and some medium sized scavengers trying to capitalize on the opportunity to eat the meat of lurkers.


    Still desiring a fight, I started contemting going even deeper. -Considering how rough it was fighting those lurkers, I really shouldn''t go any deeper but..- As if there was an angel and devil on my shoulders, there was a battle in my mind between my rationality and my nigh endless curiosity.


    Although I''m not sure if it was expected or not, it didn''t take long for me to give in to my desires.


    -Alright, to the depths I go!- Walking up to the edge of the shelf, I looked down into the abyss with a growing excitement. -If lurkers were that strong, just what��ll be even deeper?!-


    Extending my wings, I hopped off the edge and started gliding down the mountain slope once again.


    Somehow, time felt as if it passed extra quickly this time, since before I knew it, I got to about 30 kilometers deep and met a huge and extremely bulky octopus-like creature that sat in arge cut out in the side of the mountain. -That must be a kraken... To think they really exist in this world..-


    The instant it saw me, it attacked with its full force, but the fight didn''tst long.


    Setting my paws on its bulbous head, I fired a shotgun of railgun darts into the creature.


    *th-th-th-thoop*


    The sonic booms of the darts made unusual noises because of how deep I was, but that wasn''t what caught my attention. -Isn''t this thing a bit too weak?-


    Although its tentacles were extremely strong, they were incredibly easy to cut through and it was overall quite slow which made it a rather one sided fight. -I guess the lurkers would get destroyed by it though..-


    Its soft body, that was nearly impervious to blunt attacks, would have been the perfect counter of the lurkers. -Plus this thing has a huge size and strength advantage..- Coming in at around 130 meters from tentacle to tentacle, it was the biggest creature I had seen to date by a huge margin.


    Watching it sink back to the bottom, an excitement built within me. -Now lets see if I can find its mana core!-


    Quickly sinking down to it, I glided over the body in search of a heavy aura.


    Thankfully it didn''t take too long, but there was something unusual about its location. -Where is thating from?-


    Casually brushing aside the colossal corpse with water magic, I looked down to see a giant mana core that was coated in eggsying on the ground. -Ah.. that''s why it was super aggressive yet wouldn''t follow me when I backed off..-


    The kraken was nesting and protecting its hundreds, if not thousands of eggs that were wrapped around what I assumed was its own mana core.


    -Well, life''s opportunities can��t be given to everything..- With a short ��oh well��, I casually brushed off the eggs and popped the core in my mouth.


    Considering the core was as big as the one I ate in Kan, I was extremely careful not to break it and was instead just slowly sucking the mana out of it.


    The volume of mana was still not small though. My reserve quickly topped itself off and started stretching itself out before I knew it.


    Although having the walls of my reserve as thin as possible would allow me to absorb mana more quickly, I kept it at about half thickness.


    This was to allow it to stretch morefortably, smoothly and safely, at the expense of the time needed to absorb it. -But time isn''t an issue currently..-


    Since I didn''t want to continue to explore or go any deeper with the giant, vtile core in my mouth, I just sat down and thought of ways to kill time.


    Eventually, I settled on doing simple exercises to try and adjust to the depth again. -I��ll be happy as long as I can move somewhatfortably..-


    And with thatckluster excitement, I started my training to pass time while I absorbed the core.


    Things ended up taking longer than expected though. About 4 days into the training, I realized the core was only about a quarter the way absorbed. This didn''t end up being much of a problem though, since my training was also far less rewarding than I had hoped.


    The next day though, somerger creatures finally starteding out of the depths to eat the kraken corpse I had pushed into the corner.


    The creatures were each bordering the strength of adult dragons and were quiterge on their own, but for some reason, they weren��t attacking me.


    Over the next couple days, the number of fish gathering to eat the kraken had increased, but so did my disappointment of not having anything to fight.


    -Even though there are so many over there, not a single one wants to tussle?- As I thought that though, I noticed what could only be described as a literal sardine swimming towards me.


    -How the hell are you alive down here..- Although big for a sardine, being around a meter long it was as weak as could be.


    -Just what..- The instant I moved, it vanished from in front of my eyes. -W..whut..-


    Quickly looking around, I found it around 100 meters away, still staring at me.


    It took my mind a second to catch up and realize what happened. -h..hoLY F*CK YOU''RE FAST!-

 Chapter 172: The Insanity of Evolution

    Chapter 172: The Insanity of Evolution


    Early Evening - Early Summer : Downtown Spiall


    - Liv Sigmond ~


    "Haah.." I let out a deep sigh as I leaned back in my chair. -I''m not sure whether to count myself lucky or unlucky..-


    At that point in time, I was on temporary probation. Put simply, I was forced to stay at the headquarters and work on regted paperwork, all while under the attention of the current head probation officer.


    For what I did, this was an extremely light punishment, but it wasn''t without reason.


    After learning about the existence of the lone ''hunter'' in the mountains, the Commander got extremely greedy. -Although I''m not too sure what he is nning, I''m sure it has to do with ��<em>him</em>��..-


    But for whatever reason, he didn''t want what actually happened during myst expedition to be known to the public or the other squadron leaders and decided to give me a punishment that didn''t require a formal reason or a mark on my criminal record. -Just what did I get myself involved in..-


    Before I could give it any deep thought though, a knocking came from the door. *knock-knock*


    "Who is it?""The guild master. He says it''s an emergency." The voice was the probation officers.


    Immediately tensing up in my seat, I sat up straight and tried to quickly tidy my desk. -An emergency from the guild master?! Why now?!- "Please send him in."


    *Click*


    As the door swung open, my eyes met with a tall and intimidating demihuman man. "You are Captain Liv Sigmond, correct?"


    "Yes, sir." Although I tried my best to hide it, I was incredibly nervous.


    "Alright, let''s get straight to business then. As I''m sure you are aware, several days ago, the Commander and squadrons 3 through 7 left and headed west."


    "Yes, I am aware." Not quite sure where the guild master was going with it, I just followed along.


    "Well about an hour ago now, I received a report from some mercenaries that weremissioned to scout that area for a noble-looking to settle a new town.


    "Okay?" I raised my eyebrows as he walked up to my desk. -What is he doing..-


    *p* Setting a stack of papers in front of me, he backed up and crossed his arms.


    He continued to speak as I quickly read through it. "In this report, it is stated that they came across a field of mutted bodies, all unrecognizable, and specifically stated that they didn''t stick around to check for survivors. They said quite explicitly that the chance of a single survivor was basically 0. They also left before confirming what city or town they belonged to, but I don''t think that''s much of a question currently."


    I couldn''t help but nkly stare at the report as all the dots connected. "So are you saying the Commander and all of the soldiers were killed?"


    "Although I didn''t want to believe it either, it was reported by extremely reputable mercenaries. I do find it hard to believe there is a monster strong enough to do all that without the capital knowing though."


    -No.. it''spletely possible.. all too possible...- I shivered as I thought back to the inexplicable feeling of inferiority I felt when I kneeled to the dragon. "Haah.." I let out a deep sigh in an attempt to ease the weight off my chest but it didn''t help. -I guess this marks the end of my probation..-


    Continuing to discuss the matters with the guild master for a moment, he, as someone withparable political power to the duke, called for ''military y'' and promoted me to the position of Commander until the state of the current Commander is identified. [1]


    But a military y promotion was beyond just a promotion in name since it sets who is to be the next Commander in stone. -I''ve really be the Commander of Spiall while still in sses in the capital..- Although I felt a bit nervous about taking on such arge responsibility, I was excited to now be considered as one of the ��prodigies�� in my ss in the capital.


    As he finalized the military y promotion, the guild master started telling me some smaller details he knew of that weren''t in the report and I gathered squadron 1 with a few strong scouts from the guild.


    -Well.. I think that''s everything.- With everything in ce, it was time to embark on the trip that would decide the fate of not only me but the entire city of Spiall. -Sh*t.. well, here goes nothing..-


    - Vasilias ~


    It had been a little under 3 weeks since I started absorbing the Kraken''s mana core now, and I finally finished it, but I was also currently in the middle of an intense battle.


    "Hah.. hah.." My muscles were burning from exhaustion and I was struggling to continue.


    I had been in a fight for about 10 days at this point but had nothing to show for it, I was yet tond a single hit.


    -oh.. my god.. HOW MUCH STAMINA DO YOU HAVE YOU LITTLE SARDINE BI*CH?!-


    Lunging at the fish with all my might, I got as close as a few centimeters before it darted away. *Ploop*


    Whenever I would get close, it would simply dart away again, but was beyond what could even be considered fast.


    -HOW DOES YOUR TINY FU*KING BRAIN NOT GET SQUISHED FROM THAT ACCELERATION?!- I genuinely couldn''t believe it. The fish would simply wait till I got close, and wait till I had hope of catching it, then dart away at half-mach.


    It was a speed I simply couldn''t reach while underwater with how much drag my body produced, but the little sucker would let me get so close, that I truly believed I could catch it without magic.


    After 10 straight days of an intense game of cat and mouse though, I was yet tond a single hit and my body had reached its limit.


    -Ugh..- Finally realizing I was slowing down from exhaustion, I stopped the fight and just sat down.


    As if to mock me, the little sardine swam up right next to my face and just stared at me.


    -Are you trying to get me to attack you again?- Although I previously had no evidence, it now became a bit more clear why it was letting me get so close.


    -It''s having fun?!- Something about that idea was upsetting but instead of using magic to kill it, I justid down. -In any case, the core is fully absorbed and I''ve long since adjusted to this depth��s pressure..- As I contemted going even deeper, I looked over towards the now mostly eaten Kraken corpse and noticed that most of the smaller scavengers had been reced withrger predators.


    They mostly minded their own business, with each taking a tentacle or two, but they were each getting to the main body now. -They''ll probably start fighting here soon..-


    As I gotfortable and prepared for the show though, all but one of the ''predators'' eating the corpse simultaneously swam off.


    -Did the others give up to that guy? Is there something I''m missing?- The smallest and what I saw as the weakest of the predators was the only one left.


    Just as I started to think the little predator had a trick up its sleeve though, I turned and looked out into the abyssal ck water and saw the outline of something big.. really big.


    -Is that.. a whale?- Finallying close enough for me to really see it, I locked eyes with a massive, nearly 150-meter-long whale with 4 front fins and two tails.


    Immediately looking away from me, it made it clear that it didn''t want to fight and instead turned to the Kraken''s corpse.


    But, as if not even knowing the whale was there, the fish eating the corpse simply continued.


    -To shove his mouth full of good food before it dies.. I respect that.-


    Almost as if my instinct predicted it, the whale quickly charged at the fish and bit down on it.


    *Crackle-Cruunch* The fish could only squirm for a moment before it was crushed and ripped apart.


    -..man.. is this what aliens would think if they looked at earth? Everything on this damn is a freak of evolution..-


    I continued to watch it for a while after that, observing its countless other abnormalities before it finally swam off and left the scavengers to clean up its scraps.


    Seeing that the bigger and more interesting predators weren��t going toe back, I slowly lost interest and turned to practice magic before quickly losing track of time.


    Before I knew it, a few more days had passed and I feltfortable enough to go even deeper!


    Looking back now though, I can say with confidence that it wasn''t the best idea.

 Chapter 173: Monsters Dwelling in the Depths

    Chapter 173: Monsters Dwelling in the Depths


    Mid Afternoon - Early Summer : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)


    It had only been a few minutes since I left the Kraken''s nest but I was already distracted from my nervousness.


    -Evolution... How do you evene up with this sh*t?-


    In front of me was a spider-like crustacean that looked like something between a crab and a squid and was nearly 80 meters long from leg to leg.


    I cringed a bit as I swam past it and noticed the giant circr mouthced with sharp teeth on its underside.


    It took every bit of willpower I had to leave it alive since it didn''t do anything wrong, but that was only the beginning. The deeper I swam, the more nightmarish the creatures got.


    At a depth of around 55 kilometers, the creatures were already consistently on par with older adult and younger elder dragons and were simply made of nightmare fuel.


    -Mother''s oundish stories about the deep ocean are starting to sound awfully usible now..- I started feeling a bit anxious as the stories I had previously assumed were just meant to scare me as a kid became more and more realistic.


    But I tried not to dwell too much on those worries. -If anything too strong for me is down here, I can always resort to nuclear or even escape through the void..-Not long after suppressing it though, I came across a sudden cutoff in the amount of life in the area and the anxiety washed over me like a wave.


    The fish and crustaceans I had consistently seen as I went deeper had vanished, with even the tiny shellfish that littered the bottom being nowhere in sight.


    -Something feels.. wrong..- But with my curiosity still blinding my rationality, I ended up continuing even deeper until I got to around 70 kilometers down.


    At that depth, although I could handle the pressure without much difficulty, I was by far the most restricted I had ever been, but even that was far from the most concerning thing.


    At just beyond the 70-kilometer mark, the slope of the mountain, which had nearly remained linear the entire way down, simply ended.


    I was simply standing on a huge ��overhang�� that just looked into the open ocean. -What the..-


    Out of curiosity, I sted an incredibly focused beam of light to try and test the depth, but couldn''t see the ocean floor or the base of the overhang at all. -It''s like the mountainside is just.. floating over an abyss..-


    I ended up standing there for several days, being sure to keep a close eye on the currents to make sure nothing big could sneak up on me, and keeping my eyes peeled for anything living.


    But in the end, there was simply nothing. Thergest lifeform I saw was only a few cells clumped together, and nothing big had evene remotely close to me. At least not that I knew of.


    -But things still aren''t adding up..- Although at first, I assumed theck of life was because of the depth, the longer I sat and thought about it, the more unlikely that reality became.


    To put it simply, the amount of life was far too low and the cutoff on its volume was far too steep for it to be natural. -There must be something down here keepingrger creatures away..-


    The more I thought about it, the more my curiosity ate away at me, and the more I wanted to try and swim to the bottom, but that urge could no longer blind my instinct.


    My entire body was screaming at me to the point that it was nauseating. There were simply too many red gs for me to ignore and it had gotten to a point that my curiosity was finally getting overpowered.


    Just as I was about to start making my way to the surface though, a sound pierced through the silence.


    *C..R..R..E..E..E..A..A..A..K..* The warped yet familiar creak of metal filled the water.


    Immediately setting off even more red gs, my body did everything it could to try and get me to leave, but I stood firm as if I didn''t notice. -Is there.. a metal structure down there?-


    With my curiosity nowunched through the roof, I prepared myself to jump off the overhang and swim towards the noise, but I stopped myself just short. -Wait.. if I haven''t heard it before, then.. what made it creak?-


    A mix of realization and horror kicked in as I felt the currents shift entirely.


    Finally looking down I noticed that, just beneath me, was a boney and hardened snake-like body, nearly 60 meters in diameter, moving around in the darkness.


    -O..h..- Although I couldn''t feel its aura, my instinct told me all I needed to know.


    ''That creature can kill me.''


    As I stood there,pletely frozen, I watched the small section of its body slither through the darkness. All of my previous questions were immediately answered.


    -The reason nothing is down here.. is because of that thing..-


    - Liv Sigmond ~


    *Distant Vomiting*


    I could hear vomiting among the soldiers behind me as we finally made it to the field of mutted bodies. -The guild master''s report wasn''t an exaggeration at all..-


    The dense smell of rotting flesh filled the air to the point that it was nauseating even for the most resilient of soldiers


    "C..Commander, several soldiers have passed out already with some others'' eyes burning and visions going blurry." A medic ran up to me in a panic.


    -Sh*t..- Finally piecing a course of action together, I turned to the soldiers with an unwavering look. "Alright, attention everyone! I know some of you are struggling to handle the stench and others are worried about the loss of friends or family, but this is an official mission we cannot back out of!"


    Hearing my voice, everyone turned to look at me but their expressionscked trust and faith.


    I couldn''t me them though. The first mission I sent them on after bing their leader was to check if their fellow brothers and sisters are alive, but theirck of faith wasn''t something I could just leave be. "This will be the course of action! Those who can''t handle the sight or the stench will scour the perimeter to check for traces of those who ran away, injured or not! We must find survivors if there are any!" Seeing the expressions of the soldiers start to change, I felt some confidence build within me. "As for those that can handle it, we will be looking through the bodies in hopes of recognizing as many as we can. Everyone who correctly recognizes one will receive a reward that will increase depending on the rank of the person you identified!"


    Although the expressions of every one were still mixed, it was much better than before.


    "Whenever you find someone you can identify, immediately report it to the medic team! If you purposefully lie in order to get a reward, you will be punished, do you all understand?!" I spoke with a strict attitude and held my head high.


    """Aye, aye!"""


    With most of the soldiers responding in unison, I felt a small sense of aplishment. "Alright! We will meet back up at the camp tonight and pay respects to those who have fallen! If you understand, you are dismissed!"


    With my dismissal, the soldiers quickly split up and spread out, with each focusing on their own task.


    Thankfully, the idea of getting rewarded for each body they could identify helped push most of them through the horrid stench, but it still wasn''t enough for everyone.


    About a third of the soldiers decided to walk the perimeter with the rest following me into the field of dismembered limbs and shredded organs, but it didn''t take long for us to notice some unusual patterns with the ��bodies��.


    Although they were all practically piles of shredded meat, arge majority of the corpses still had their IDs perfectly intact without as much as a scratch on them.


    Although I assumed it was a coincidence at first, the more bodies we looked at, the odder it felt.


    Nearly everybody had an ID, with only about 1 for every dozen missing one.


    But, as weird as it was, it allowed for things to progress extremely quickly and smoothly.


    Before I knew it, we had scoured the entire field and documented everyone left recognizable but to my surprise, we were still missing the Commander and top squadron leaders. -Could they have really survived?-


    The more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed, but their bodies not being found left an undeniable possibility.


    By the time the end of the day came to a close, I was still left empty-handed and had no choice but to head back to camp and see if anyone found them among those who ran away.


    -They weren''t insane enough to sacrifice the soldiers to run away, right?- The thought crossed my mind as I reached down and picked up thest ID I could find at the very base of the mountainside.


    As I turned it over to see who it belonged to, I felt as if I saw something in the reflection of the ''faith'' insignia and jumped to the side.


    *Thump*


    Landing right next to where I was standing was a blood-covered and half-broken ID tablet with a name on it.


    ''Njal Dolph''

 Chapter 174: Mysteries in the Deep

    Chapter 174: Mysteries in the Deep


    Mid Morning - Mid Summer : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)


    *Crumble* Finally moving for the first time in over a week, I felt the ground beneath me crumble slightly.


    Carefully watching the small stone that broke off fall into the darkness, I held high hopes. -Did that thing really move on?-


    Once the stone vanished into the darkness, I decided to just cross my fingers and wish for the best.


    -I''ll take my chances..- Very carefully moving more towards the edge of the overhang, I did everything I could to minimize my presence and effect on the current. Predators at this depth, although having eyes, mostly relied on aura and currents to determine where prey was.


    -Well..- Looking back down into the dark abyss, I felt a deep unease but quickly shook it off. -If that really was a metal structure that was creaking.. It''ll make for one hell of a discovery..- My curiosity had been eating me away for the past week as I waited for the serpent to swim off. -And it''s finally time..-


    With a serious look, I dumped my focus into controlling the currents and minimizing my presence as much as possible. -Here goes nothing..-


    With a light push off the ledge, I glided out into the open water and started carefully controlling my descent to the bottom.


    As I sank, I took careful note of the currents and came to realize that the overhang I had been standing on was actually the top of the entrance to a huge cave. -This must be where that serpent is living or nesting..-Continuing to sink, the ledge above me faded into the darkness and I officially couldn''t see anything but open water.


    There was an unusual feeling of hopelessness that I felt as I floated there, but before I could chicken out, the sandy bottom finally came into view.


    From what I could tell, the ''cave'' was a little over two kilometers from top to bottom and had a strong inward current on the bottom and outward on the top.


    At first, I questioned how that would naturally be possible but the more I thought about it, the more likely the possibility of it not being natural became.


    Before I knew it, a deep anxiousness started to build in my stomach, but I didn''t waste any time on it. -Now isn''t the time for uncertainty..-


    Quickly swimming along the bottom, I made my way towards where I thought the sound came from. -It should be right around here..-


    As I got close to where I thought it might be, I felt a weird warp in the fabric of space beneath the sand and probed it with my aura.


    -..I''m sorry, what?- Quickly moving aside the sand covering it, I came face to face with a huge jet-ck cable made of a material that simply couldn''t exist without a deep understanding of atomic structures.


    The cable used a mix of insanely intricate mana strengthening andyers of carbon that were woven within one another for the sole purpose of increasing the max tension of the cable, the cable was clearly made by someone who knew as much or more science than me.


    Unsure of how to feel or think about it, I looked up and followed the cable through the sand until I came up to a fairlyrge rectangr pir with the top sticking out of the sand.


    Although also made with woven carbon, the pir was woven differently to be stronger against perpendicr breaks, but that, although quite fascinating, wasn''t what caught my eye.


    On the top of the pir was a carving that had an odd flow of mana around it. -Is this really.. a rune?-


    It was a runepletely unlike anything I had ever seen,cking every part I thought was necessary, yet somehow feeling wless.


    Quickly trying to see what the rune did, I attempted to make a copy but quickly ran into problems.


    Every time I tried to make the rune, it would simply dissipate before I could run my mana through it. -Why though..?-


    I was at a total loss on how to get it to work. -There must be something I''m missing..-


    Hurriedly scanning over the rune on the pir on an atomic level, I noticed something I didn''t expect. -Wow.. to think that is actually causing issues..-


    All around the carvings of the runes, the seemingly perfect carbon bonds had broken and stuck out into the rune just slightly.


    Although this wouldn��t usually be a problem, since those little imperfections normally barely snag any mana, over time, it had clogged the entire rune. -For so much mana to umte on that�� just how old is this thing?-


    Taking an even closer look at the clogged mana, I quickly noticed some oddly crystalline mana in the mix almost as if something had been strengthened. -Wait.. is that not just coincidentally clogged mana?- Quickly copying it into my rune, I ran a bit of mana into it with halted breath.


    -Okay.. it''s not dissipated yet.. that''s an improvement..- Continuing to give it a bit of fuel, I watched as it intricately moved the mana around and mixed attributes before taking a single proton and inverting it.


    -W..what.. is that..- Although it looked like a proton, it felt like an electron.. sort of. -What.. are you?-


    Unable to reallye to a conclusion on what it was, I moved back over to the pir, cleaned up the rune, and unclogged the mana.


    *Brm* Almost immediately, it lightly hummed and started glowing an ominous light blue color.


    -To put off such a horrific amount of radiation.. that weird particle must be used for power..- I was still confused but was starting to piece things together. -But what''s that power used for?-


    Going against my better judgment, I decided to give the rune a good bit of my own mana.


    *brrrr-RRRMMM* Instantly kicking up a gear, the hum grew louder and the glow got brighter.


    Closely watching the inside of the pir, I watched as the unknown particles were made along with a huge amount of electricity and transported down tubes made of insanely charged wires. These wires would keep the particles from touching anything, since, as soon as they did, they would destroy themselves along with the matter it touched and release a genuinely horrific amount of energy.


    That was the first time in my life I felt genuinely scared of something science-rted, but at the same time, it made me unreasonably excited.


    I couldn''t help but watch in a trance as the particles were transported out of the pir and into another cable that progressively lit up as the particles passed through it.


    Unable to keep up with how fast the particles traveled, I stayed near the pir and simply supplied it with as much mana as it could handle.


    The cable quickly extended beyond the point where I could see it with light magic and lifted off the ground before fully disappearing into the darkness.


    Just when I thought I''d have a moment to sort my thoughts though, a very faint but massive blue glow stretched out from the darkness.


    *hummmMmMMmmMMMMMMM* As if warming up, a violent hum apanied the glow.


    -What the..- I barely had time to get a thought out before blinding white lights sted out from the darkness.


    Unable to continue holding myself back, I immediately darted down the cable towards the lights and came up to a massive kilometer-tall cube-like structure floating in the water with dozens of cables tying it to the ground.


    The building was covered in sediment and looked as if it hadn''t been powered on in several millennia, but that was the least surprising aspect.


    Written all over its sides were symbols of anguage I had never seen. Anguage that didn''t feel familiar in the slightest. -Anguage that''s not from this world..-

 Chapter 175: Foreign Identities

    Chapter 175: Foreign Identities


    Late Morning - Mid Summer : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)


    Quickly moving around the structure to look at the symbols and find a way inside, I almost immediately found what looked like it could be an entrance facing the open ocean. -But how do I open it?-


    Not wanting to break it, I swam up to the closed entrance and looked inside the material with my aura, but before I could find anything, arge tform started extending out of the building.


    -Do I stand on this?- Setting myself down on the tform, I expected the building to sink or shake slightly, but it didn''t budge. -I guess I''m underestimating whoever built this..-


    As I idly thought to myself, a small ck tube extended from the structure.


    "???????????????????????? ?????????????????." A somewhat robotic yet glitchy and distorted voice came from it, speaking anguage thatcked a single strand of familiarity.


    -Does it want me to touch it?- Reluctantly reaching up to it, I tapped my nail against it.


    "???????????????????????????? ??????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????." It spoke again before pausing for a moment.


    -Oh sweet, that must have been what it wanted...-"?n???? M?n?." My ever-building excitement immediately halted after hearing the distorted voice again, this time speaking anguage I could actually recognize. -The ancient draconguage?- It was an ancient dialect used by dragons before and during Ragnarok, back when dragons casually dominated the world.


    To describe it quickly, it was a more noble, formal, and slightly convoluted dialect, simr to what people on earth thought dragons would talk.


    "?n???? M?n?." My thoughts were quickly cut off by the voice repeating itself.


    -Right, I should probably do it before it does something else...- Trying not to overthink things too much, I injected mana into the sensor until it closed itself off and retracted back into the structure.


    Before I knew it, a different yet all too familiar monotone voice radiated from within my head.


    {"Authorities: -Unknown Error-


    -Update Impossible-


    -Attempting to Connect to Servers-


    Unable to Connect: Low Power Mode Initiated: Please Fully Charge Batteries in Order to Attempt Long Range Reconnect


    -Ignoring Remaining ''Non-Critical'' Errors-


    -Granting Temporary Authorities-


    Authorities: Approved


    Wee to Laboratory 4856A"}


    -This is aboratory?! For what?!- I felt unusually deep anxiety quickly fill my stomach as the doors opened to reveal therge ship docking area.


    There was a thickyer of salt buildup on the floor, but it was being cleaned up and pushed outside as I walked in.


    Quickly scanning the room, I noticed several doors, each with unknown symbols above them, but one door was significantly taller than the rest and just so happened to be perfectly lined up with the entrance.


    As I got close and the door opened though, I finally realized it was still too small for my dragon form and had to create a bubble around myself. -I need to be extra careful with my humanoid form around this kind of water pressure...-


    Once I finished transforming though, I quickly got distracted by a few changes.


    -Did all these changes really happen since I went underwater?- I looked to be a tad taller with the scales that used to be isted on my back now visible on my arms and the base of my neck, but most noticeable of all, there were nubs of dragon horns poking through my hair right next to my wolf ears. -There''s no way I just didn''t notice those before, right?-


    Although I found it a bit weird for them to pop up out of the blue, I decided not to question it just yet. -Those questions can be saved forter��-


    Continuing into the building and walking through an extremely strong vacuum barrier, I came into a long andpletely dry hallway with pure white walls and floors.


    The hall was quite long but was also lined with doors I could open by tapping a half-working panel.


    The inside of each room had dozens of ss cases showcasing anything from fossils to ''preserved'' samples of now rotted flesh or eggs, but the most amazing thing of all, each case had a panel, some working, some not, with tons of text and information on them.


    Being able to immediately recognize the mathematics and chemical forms among the information, I quickly figured out how to read the more scientific information, but that was still far from enough to actually learn thenguage or understand everything on the panels. -For now, I''ll just memorize everything and sort through itter..-


    Finally getting into a systematic rhythm of memorization, I started to pick up the pace moving through rooms, only sometimes taking extra time to look at certain specimens.


    But it didn''t take long for me to reach thest door.


    -The final one, huh?- Lightly tapping the touch panel on therge double door a few times, I finally heard the quiet click of a lock before the doors opened to reveal a dark room.


    The room was simply massive, spanning nearly 150 meters in every direction, and was packed full of scientific instruments andputer screens, but only a single one of them was actually lit. -To think aputer is still working when even their basic touch sensors for doors were faulty...-


    Walking up to it, I noticed it disyed a slightly broken lock screen with several visible glitches. -As long as it works a little�� Just maybe..-


    Grabbing hold of a ball I assumed was the mouse, I quickly learned how to move around the cursor and click, but I was still at a loss for how to get past the lock screen.


    -Maybe this scanner will do something..- Looking at a small, thumb-sized scanner, I noticed it looked simr to the one I saw outside and injected a bit of mana into it.


    Almost immediately, the screen updated to show a window with thousands of little boxes, each showing a different, unrecognizablenguage. -Holy sh*t..-


    Scrolling through the list to try and find something I could recognize, I quickly came across Ancient Draconic and selected it.


    Almost instantly, the screen updated again with a small box appearing.


    ''Language Change Confirmation: Proceed - Return (10.. 9.. 8..)''


    The phrasing was a bit odd since it was the old dialect, but the most important thing was that I could understand it.


    I felt a deep and almost limitless excitement as I clicked ''Proceed'' and was met with a desktop full of icons I could actually understand the names of, but it did notst long.


    Almost immediately, countless errors popped up on the screen.


    (disy text)


    ''-Offline Mode Initiated-


    -Current Emergencies: Low Charge: 0.07% - Security: Disabled - Life-Scans: Disabled - Server Connection: Disconnected''


    Quickly realizing I likely had less time than I thought, I moved the warnings to the side and scrolled through the innumerable icons to find helpful information about this ce, but only after digging through thousands of files rted to research did I find a gold nugget.


    ��Trantion Bank��


    Opening it in a rush, I was met with a list of about 40nguages, each being the name of an ancient dialect from thousands of years ago, and immediately picked Ancient Draconic, thenguage I knew best among them.


    Inside that folder, I was met with a long document detailing how the ancient draconguage worked in the foreignnguage''s terms.


    In short, it was a trantion dictionary. -I can actually learn thenguage!-


    Almost immediately, my focus was ripped away from my surroundings and poured into learning thenguage.


    Before I knew it, several hours had passed and I had memorized the entire file.


    -For such aplicatednguage.. it''s really efficient...- Thenguage contained an unreasonable amount of different words with 35 different base ''letters'', yet somehow thatplexity wasn''t even slightly noticeable when reading or writing. Words each had their own concise meanings and although it made learning it more time-consuming, once everything was memorized, the beauty of thenguage came to light.


    -To think anguage that doesn''t allow incorrect interpretation can exist..-

 Chapter 176: Missing History

    Chapter 176: Missing History


    Late Afternoon - Mid Summer : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)


    After memorizing the entirenguage trantion file, I spent quite a while bouncing through my memories and reinterpreting all of the texts I had memorized in the other rooms.


    Although not a ton of important information was actually contained in them since they just described what was on disy in the case, quite a number of them mentioned something known as ''4856''.


    -Isn''t 4856 the number of theb though? Why do some of the texts talk about it like its a person?-


    {*Beep*} The instant I thought about it, a beep that sounded like it came from within my head and halted my thoughts.


    Looking down at the screen, I noticed arge window had appeared.


    ''Batteries at 5% ; Attempting to reconnect to District Base.''


    My gut instantly sank as I thought about the countless horrible scenarios that could ur if I somehow alerted such an advanced civilization, but before I could find a way to stop it, it finished.


    ''Connection Failed''"Phew." I let out a deep sigh of relief. "Thank the lord-"


    ''Attempting tounch <strong>Dungeon Research Intelligence ''4856''</strong> in ''Offline Mode.''''


    -WHAT?!- Like a mental shbang, everything I was idly thinking about vaporized into thin air.


    I simply couldn''t do anything but watch as countless errors and colossal volumes of information washed over the screen.


    ''WARNING: Power Below 4%''


    ''Charge Rate is Insufficient : Charge Towers Require Immediate Repair''


    -That... can''t be good...- There was a short pause before the next message popped up.


    ''Dungeon Research Intelligence ''4856'' Activation Sequence Initiated''


    The instant the message popped up on the screen, I just nkly stared at it. I simply just didn''t know what to do and was too curious to try and find a way to stop it.


    ncing towards the center of the room, I noticed the huge ck tube was starting to light up.


    A light vibration apanied the glow as it got brighter and brighter before forming a dimmed ball of light in the center.


    {*Beep* "Please Provide Instructions."} The familiar voice quickly pulled my thoughts back together.


    -Why is it always the same voice?- "Who are you?"


    {"I was named 4856. I am a Dungeon Research Intelligence."} The voicecked even the slightest hint of emotion.


    -I didn''t mishear it earlier.. this colossal cave is actually a dungeon... Yeah that''s totally not horrifying...- I tried to make a joke to shake off the anxiety in my stomach but it didn''t help much. "Could you exin what a Dungeon Research Intelligence is?"


    {"I am something akin to an artificial brain with the sole purpose of researching dungeons on A-ss, Div-4856."}


    -To name this like that... They really weren''t from this world...- "What was the purpose of your creatorsing to this world?"


    {"Unknown. Attempting to connect to servers to retrieve answers." *Crackle* "Ping Tower Damaged ; Connection Impossible."}


    -Damn.. so I can''t just ask it anything...- "What was the race of your creators?"


    {"In the era of atomic engineering, theycked a collective race, but called themselves the Acardi."}


    Although not an exact match, the name Acardi took parts of the words ''explorers'', ''discoverers'', and ''maniptors'' from thenguage I had just learned. -They sound more like a knowledge-seeking race��- The instant I thought they could be a peaceful race though, my instinct shot through the roof.


    It made me feel a sickening mix of emotions but it only made my curiosity deepen. "What kind of race were they?"


    {"They were a high-humanoid race."}


    Although my mind was overflowing with questions I wanted to ask, I had to think carefully. ��What is a high-humanoid race ssified as?��


    {��Information Loss Detected. Retrieving alternate answer: A ��high�� race is ssified as a race that has evolved to the pinacle of its species.��}


    -What? Does that mean they were a humanoid race that could evolve originally?- For a short instant, my visualization of the race altered in a very nightmarish way before changing back. -I''m probably just overthinking it��- "Did they have hostile intentions against this?"


    {"Unknown."}


    "Were the Acardi on friendly terms with the sentient life on this?"


    {"Unknown"}


    -Dammit...- They were too questions that, if the AI were to respond like I thought it would, would reinforce a few of my theories, but with them both shot down I had no choice but to move to more obvious questions. "How old is the Acardi race?"


    But it didn''t change anything. {"Unknown."}


    -Ohe on...-


    I ended up firing out several more questions to try and learn more about the Acardi, but was constantly hit with the word I woulde to dread or an ��information loss detected��.


    After about 20 questions in a row went unanswered though, I took my time to think of what the AI would be more likely to know. -If it doesn''t know about much of anything other than itself like when its creator came here, then...- "How old is thisboratory?"


    Although I somewhat expected to get an ''unknown'' immediately, it hesitated for a moment.


    -Maybe?-


    {"Unknown."}


    "F*CK!" I couldn''t help but want to blow apart the structure at this point. -What''s the point of having such a stupid f*cking AI?!-


    As I cursed it, the voice continued. {"Clocks Require Synchronization.


    Attempting Sync: Sync Impossible.


    Searching for other methods... Method Found.


    Attempting Carbon Dating."}


    With a glimmer of hope, my eyes quickly lit back up.


    {"Inuracies Found."}


    -Oh, COME ON!- With my hope mming back down into the ground like a tungsten block, I assumed things couldn''t get worse, but...


    {"Attempting Alternate Methods.


    ERROR: Damaged Systems Detected: Attempting Immediate Repairs. Repairs Failed.


    WARNING: Power Below 1%


    WARNING: Extreme Radiation Leaks Detected"}


    -That can''t be good...-


    {"WARNING: Lacking Electrical Charge in Antimatter Batteries Detected: Attempting to Fix"}


    -Wait..WHAT?! ANTIMATTER?!- All of a sudden, everything I had idly wondered about the rune outside and the particle it created made sense. It was something that made me incredibly excited to experiment with, but that excitement immediately conflicted with an ever-building worry. -Isn''t a problem with batteries storing antimatter like.. a serious problem?!-


    Almost immediately after thinking that, the entire structure turned silent with only an extremely faint hum filling the air.


    But then, out of nowhere, I heard an odd buzzing sound. *Bzzz*


    {"Critical Error Detected: Initiating Active Protocol." *BEEP* "Intelligence 4856 Causing Instrument Inuracies: Powering Down."}


    *CLUNK-THUD* The entire building shook as the huge tube in the middle of the room instantly turned off.


    {*BEEP*} Another deafening beep shot through my head before I could make sense of what was happening.


    Looking back at the screen with wide eyes, I read the ck text in arge red window.


    ''Attempting Controlled Battery Discharge in 10.. 9.. 8..''


    Not trusting the word ��Controlled�� in the slightest, I immediately thinned the walls of my reserve and threw up the thickest and most controlled vacuum barrier I could.


    ''3.. 2.. 1.. 0''


    As the counter finally hit zero, the structure''s constant light vibration disappeared, but it onlysted an instant.


    *h-h-h-hhhhmmmmmmMMMMMMMM* A deep thruster-like rumble shook the entire structure and continually got louder and more violent.


    The screens and equipment in the room started breaking and falling off their mounts from the vibration, even causing several huge robot armstched to the ceiling to fall and smash through other equipment, but that was only the beginning. Things continued to get worse for the next few seconds, but eventually, things finally calmed down and I was left to the eerie and unnaturally quiet silence in the room.


    -Fu*k...- Although it felt like just about everything that could''ve gone wrong, had gone wrong, I stood there for a few minutes to see if the power would somehowe back.


    But, as expected, nothing happened.


    -Well... I guess I should be thankful I didn''t have to deal with an antimatter explosion or something...- Finally releasing the barrier, I looked around the room and took in just how serious the damage was.


    Thankfully theputer I had been using was protected, but it wasn''t the only thing I needed to be intact to use it. -I really hope its data is stored locally��-


    Wanting to try and find a way to return power to it, I looked for any kind of switch or intersection of the room''s power cables but the only one I could find was for antimatter.


    But even though I knew it was the main power cable for the room, I couldn''t bring myself to try and give it any juice. ��Haah, f*ck���� -I should probably explore the rest of the structure before I risk blowing it apart trying to power this room... shouldn''t I...-

 Chapter 177: Damage Assessment

    Chapter 177: Damage Assessment


    Late Evening - Mid Summer : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)


    -I should probably explore the rest of the structure before I risk blowing it apart trying to power this room, shouldn''t I...- Wanting to check out the rest of the building even if the power was off, I thought about what to do before making my way up to the door. -How should I try and open this?-


    Figuring I should just cut open a hole, I set my hand on the door but quickly noticed a very serious problem. -Uhhhh�� Why is the hallway full of water?-


    Unable to think of a better n, I cleanly cut open the door and carefully held the water back with a vacuum barrier.


    *nk-Thunk* As I pulled away and set the heavy door to the side, I looked out into the water-filled hallway.


    -Well... That is a problem...- Walking through the doorway, I steadily pushed the water back and resealed the control room, making sure it could handle the water pressure. -That should be good enough...-


    Continuing down the hallway, I passed several massive ruptures leading into the research disy rooms. -The water pressure really did a number on this ce...-


    Trying to resist the urge to go and explore the rooms now essible through the ruptures in the disy room walls, I continued forward and got around a third of the way down the hallway before having to stop.


    But it wasn''t because there was debris blocking my path. Instead, the hallway had simplye to an end. As I stood there looking out into the debris-filled water, I sent my aura out as far as I could to see if it was just a really big rupture, but my aura found nothing but more debris and water.


    -Well.. It''s big enough for my dragon form at least��- Wanting to get a better look at things, I changed to my dragon form and released the barrier holding back the water.


    *Ssh-Crash* *Blub*


    Taking a moment to adjust to the pressure, I swam out and expanded my aura back towards the hallway.


    It only took me a moment to notice the several other rooms that were now exposed, but the damage caused by the water pressure was simr to the disy rooms. Most of the exposed rooms didn''t have walls that could handle the pressure, causing them to rupture and fill neighboring rooms with water as well.


    "Haah..." Trying not to dwell on my ever-dwindling chances of powering the control room back on, I swam down and followed the damage.


    Before long, the edge of the damage curved inward and I came up to a huge block made up of an array of antimatter cables seen in the charge pylon outside. -This must''ve been the battery...-


    It had been almostpletely destroyed with only the very outside still being recognizable, but looking through the hole in its center, I noticed that there was nothing below it. -Is this the very bottom of the structure?-


    Although not entirely sure, I assumed the controlled discharge was meant to aim the st of energy downwards, minimizing damage to the structure. -But that clearly didn''t work as intended...-


    Just from what I had seen with my aura as I swam down, I could paint a pretty good picture of what the structure looked like now. (A cube with a huge paraboloid taken out of it) -Even though not much of it is left though... I should probably still look through it.-


    Deciding to test my luck, I spent the next day or so looking through every possible room in hopes of finding anything of use, but it seemed like my luck was running out.


    As I looked around, I found countless interesting things, from bedrooms and cafeterias to massive destroyed experimentation and specimen rooms, but nothing necessarily useful.


    Just when I was starting to lose hope though, I found a small ��server room�� filled with, not water, but non-conductive cont.


    -Oh my god.. what are the chances?- Making my way inside and taking a closer look at the suspendedputers themselves, I noticed there was almost no corrosion or damage of any kind within the parts. It was as if the cont had protected it from all-natural forces over the countless millennia that it sat here.


    -It''s possible!- With my hope revitalized, I wanted to immediately try to power and turn the power back on, but I had to hold myself back. -Now that I know it''s possible, I need to be extra careful��-


    Carefully heading back out of the room and into the destroyed area, I looked around through the now mostly clear water.


    -To think the battery at 1% charge did this... Just what kind of st would it have created if it was full?- It sent a shiver down my spine just thinking about it but at the same time it brought along a wave of excitement that piled on top of my newly rebuilt hope.


    -Maybe I should test my luck and explore the dungeon before trying anything here.- Although I was quite nervous about it, I left a marker in the void to pinpoint the location of theboratory and tethered it to the space runes so it wouldn''t move. -That should be good for now.-


    Coming back out of the void, I swam up and out of the structure, being sure topletely mask my presence as I left. -Even though the chances are slim, I may just find something left by the Acardi like thisb...-


    The next few hours passed by in an instant as I continued to swim further into the dungeon and sneak past the asional colossal monster. -To think this dungeon is still alive though...- Although it was faint, I could feel the dungeon��s steady suction of mana into the cave. -I wonder how strong the core is of a dungeon this old and thisrge...-


    Continuing deeper, I came across arge formation of eight antimatter charge pylons, each with heavily damaged and clogged runes, but the cables leading from them just went straight into the ground and out of sight. -What? What are these for?-


    Unable to hold back my curiosity, I hastily cleaned up and fixed all of the runes, but as I did, a rogue thought came to mind. -What if these cables lead back to theb...- I stood there, frozen for a moment before doing my best to shrug it off. -If the Acardi got to the point that they can utilize antimatter power, I''m sure they have safety measures in ce.-


    As that thought passed through my mind, I remembered the ''controlled discharge'' and felt a shiver pass down my spine.


    - Liv Sigmond ~


    It had been a few days since we confirmed the deaths of Commander Dolph, the squadron leaders, and the soldiers now, and we were finally making it back to headquarters.


    *Creaak* The metal gate creaked as we lethargically made our way into the base.


    "Commander... Can we.. f..finally rest?" Quite literally everyone but the squadron leaders and I werepletely out of energy after running for nearly 3 days straight.


    "Yes, you are all dismissed except for those I already spoke to! Please take the day to rx. There won''t be any training today!" -They��ve earned some break time��-


    As I yelled out the information, they let out a collective sigh and fell to the ground.


    Under normal circumstances, I would chuckle since it reminded me of my early days in the military, but today I felt nothing but a mix of anxiety and the urge to sleep. -If only Dolph wasn''t such a dumbass, I wouldn''t have been put in this situation...- "Squadron Leaders, I need you all to write a report by lunch tomorrow. I know it isn''t much time but we don''t have a choice."


    "But-"


    "This situation could easily jeopardize the safety of the entire city so I won''t be taking anyints. Also, those that don''t get the report submitted in time will be subjected to a month of tier 12." [1] Seeing that they all understood the urgency of the situation, I double-checked to make sure I had everything done and ran across the base to my room. -I need to get cleaned up and changed quickly!-


    mming open the door, I ran into the restroom and cleaned up as fast as I could. -Alright, next I need a fresh uniform...-


    Dashing over to my closet, I threw on my formal uniform and fixed the newly delivered rank badge to it. -This is good enough!-


    Quickly throwing it all together, I dashed back out into the hallway, sent a messenger to retrieve the guild master, and hastily made my way to the Duke''s estate. -Great Gods, please grant my prayer for this meeting to go well!-

 Chapter 178: A Large Step

    Chapter 178: A Large Step


    Mid Morning - Mid Summer : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)


    *hmmm* A faint hum filled the water as the final antimatter rune activated for the first time in thousands of years.


    -But now what...- From what I could tell, nothing had changed. The antimatter created by the runes just followed the cables straight into the ground. -There must be something down there that needs power, but how do I get to it?-


    As I genuinely considered sting a hole straight down and following the cables that way, I noticed the suction of mana into the dungeon increase several-fold without any immediate change in current. -What the��-


    It was clearly something unnatural but was also something that immediately piqued my curiosity. -Did whatever I just gave power to, trigger it?-


    Quickly making my way further into the dungeon, I followed the flow of mana and winded my way through the maze of huge caves until I came into an absolutely colossal circr room too big to tell the size of. -This has to be the final area...-


    Swimming further into the room, there was a steep but steady increase in the mana density.


    Although at first, this wasn''t too bad, as it continued to get denser, my mana reading started turning fuzzy, making it difficult to sense more than a meter off my body with any rity.


    But as if that wasn''t enough of a red g, hidden within the room''s dense umted mana, I could feel a faint aura of some kind.Although it didn''t initially cause any concern, the deeper I went, the stronger it got. -This is definitely not one of my best ideas��-


    Continuing to sneak further into the room, I traveled another 3 kilometers before noticing an eerie blue glow in the darkness. -It''s a structure! But��- The excitement I felt was immediately shot down by the feeling of suffocation from the monster nearby. -That aura is.. disgusting��-


    Although my aura was nothing to scoff at, the creature in the room made it feel like nothing. -But I can always run, right?-


    Although I was usually extremely confident in my abilities to escape. That day, I somehow felt like it was inadequate.


    Going against my gut and better judgment, I continued forward, eventually getting close enough to see a fairly small cube-like structure about 200 meters tall, but something seemed off about it.


    Coating the entire outside of the structure was a crystallization of mana a few centimeters thick.


    To describe it simply, it looked like the entire structure was a massive mana core. -What the hell...-


    The only exnation I could think of was that, as mana was sucked through the walls of the structure, over time, it got snagged simrly to how the runes clogged, just on a muchrger scale. -But what''s inside that''s drawing all the mana in?-


    Making my way up to the side facing me, the structure noticed my presence and tried to stick out a tform for me to stand on, but it was immediately stopped by the shell of mana. -Ah, that''s a problem... How do I get through this...-


    Before I could even starting up with a solution though, the tform tried to force its way through the shell. *Tink*


    -Oh sh*t...-


    As if it was an actual mana core, the instant a crack formed in it, the entire shell exploded, sting all its contained mana outwards. *VWOOOMM*


    The mana wave was so dense I wanted to vomit, but I didn''t have the time for that.


    *Woosh* The currents spontaneously changed direction beforeing to aplete halt. -You have to be f*cking kidding me...-


    I stood as still as possible before finally noticing the tip of a tentacle without suction cups illuminated beneath me. -Why did it have to wake up...-


    I could do nothing but cosy a statue until its attention moved elsewhere, but just when the currents started returning and I thought I''d be able to get away, a small snake arm with a sensor stuck out from the structure.


    "?ns??? m?n?."


    My pupils dted as a gut-wrenching mix of fear and anxiety ripped through my chest. -WHY NOW?!-


    Almost immediately the currents froze again, but this time, I felt as if I was being looked at.


    The awful sensation sent a chill down my spine that only worsened when I noticed several thin, whisker-like tentacles with glowing tips dangling next to me.


    My eyes widened as the whiskers crept closer before I felt a small, breath-like current brush across my neck.


    "?ns??? m?-" Interrupting the voice of the structure, I noticed countless sharp and needle-like teeth enter the aura around my neck.


    As if instinctually, I instantly gathered a massive amount of hydrogen and sted it behind me. *blub-FWOOOSH*


    *CREEAAAKK* The entire structure creaked and tilted as I sted the thruster magic towards the creature, but it didn''t seem to care in the slightest.


    *Shik-Crunch* As ws the size of my legs wrapped around my body and razor-sharp teeth smashed through the scales on my neck, my instinctpletely took over.


    Instantly coating the horns on the back of my head with steel, Iunched several darts at the monster. *CR-R-R-R-RACK*


    The creature immediately released me from its jaws, but a cord of fear was struck within me as I nced back to see the minimal damage.


    In a panic, I tried to dash away, but the ws wrapped around my chest only gripped tighter. "SH*T-"


    Immediately trying to reach toward the gigantic ws to free myself, I felt my body get crushed against the structure. *WHAM* "Ack!" My lungs ruptured, and ribs cracked from the impact, but I had so much adrenaline pumping that I couldn''t feel it.


    With my instinct once again taking the helm, I didn''t reach for the ws and instead used earth magic to shatter everything my body was touching. *CrAcK*


    The creature immediately ripped its paws away as its bones were simultaneously shattered, finally giving me a chance to run.


    -GET ME OUT OF HERE!- Launching myself away from the structure, I noticed dozens of massive tentaclesing after me, but I promptly created arge gate and jumped into it.


    *Vwoom* The familiar sound of a mana wave echoed in my mind as I made it to the world of nothingness. To the void.


    As I floated there, I took a moment to finally calm down and catch my breath. -Sh*t... What the f*ck was that thing...-


    Although I never got a proper look at it, from what I could tell, it had the general frame of a dragon, the face of a shark, and the lower body of a squid, all while being at least 5 times bigger than me.


    But it didn''t just have the size advantage. To put its strength into perspective, it was a creature a touch below Amphitrite, arge ancient, in terms of both physical strength and aura. -If it could use real magic, it would truly be a creature I couldn''t mess with, but...- ncing back at my side, I noticed that the cuts in my scales from the creature''s ws weren''t too deep. -If my scales can handle everything but its jaws... Just maybe��-


    With my nervousness suppressed by an instinctual craze for strength, I set down a gate marker and made my way back to theboratory.


    As I swam down into the destroyed area of the structure, my eyes were lit with determination. Although it was definitely a lofty goal, I decided to aim for the horizon.


    -It may be strong, but without the ability to utilize its disgusting mana pool, it will just be a big stepping stone for me.-

 Short Delay Notice

    Short Dy Notice


    Hey guys! I hope everyone is doing well this weekend!


    I''m sorry for the odd timing of this little upload, but I felt it was necessary and more appropriate to let you guys know that the chapter meant to be released tomorrow will be dyed to Tuesday. Nothing is wrong, I am just at my grandparents for the 4th of July weekend and am really struggling to stay focused and write.


    In any case, I''m super sorry I have to dy another right chapter after a different one but I really want to avoid forcing myself to write like I had done previously and upload incredibly mediocre or boring chapters. Everything will return to normal after the dy and you can expect more consistent uploads in the future!

 Chapter 179: Risky Descisions

    Chapter 179: Risky Descisions


    Early Afternoon - Mid Summer : Spiall, Siratha


    - Liv Sigmond ~


    Standing just outside of the duke''s office, I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself. "Hooh..." -I got this...-


    Quickly triple checking I had all the correct medical reports, I finally reached up and knocked.


    *knock-knock* "Commander Liv Sigmond here to report on the mission assigned by the guild master."


    There was a short pause before a deep and mature voice responded. "Pleasee in."


    "Hooh." *Click* Opening up the door, I was met with the gazes of both the Duke and the Guild Master. -He''s already here?-


    Trying to keep my calm and not look too stressed out, I walked over to the couch and sat down with the stack of reports on myp.


    "Wee Commander Sigmond." The Duke''s voice was sultry and smooth, which helped ease my nerves just slightly."Thank you for your hospitality, Duke Spiall." Quickly reading the atmosphere, I noticed I should probably begin. "Shall I start with my report?"


    "If you could." The Duke''s posture looked rxed but felt incredibly intimidating.


    It made me a bit ufortable, but I tried my best to ignore it. "In that case, I''ll jump right into it. Commander Dolph and the 5 squadrons he brought with him on his most recent expedition were all killed without a single survivor, with only 20 people��s deaths going unconfirmed."


    The Guild Master seemed fairly shocked by the news, but the Duke looked rtively unphased. "Do you know who those 20 are?"


    "Yes." Quickly flipping through the casualty report, I found the right page and handed it to him. "All 5 squadron leaders were all missing without as much of a trace left, but I do feel it is necessary to say that not a single body was recognizable. Almost every corpse looked closer to a pile of random organs and flesh than a person."


    The Duke casually took the report and scanned it before looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "If they were all mutted to such an extent, how did you identify so many? Quite a few of the names on this report even have condition reports..." (stating the condition of said person''s body)


    He was clearly a bit skeptical, but I couldn''t me him since it was normal for close to a third of the bodies to go without identification on most battlefields. -Yet somehow in this fight, almost everyone''s fairly-fragile guild card was perfectly intact��- "Most of the bodies still had their medallions or guild cards intact."


    "Hm... How odd."


    There was a short moment of silence as the Duke handed the report to the Guild Master for him to look at.


    Once he received the report, it only took a moment for him to reveal his skepticism. "So what was the condition of Commander Dolph''s body? How does he not have a corpse condition report but those of the lowest rank do?"


    "We aren''t totally sure. His medallion was the only one that we didn''t find alongside some sort of corpse. Although it may sound odd, right towards the end of the day, I was at the bottom edge of the mountain and his medallion simply fell from the sky."


    Quickly raising his eyebrow in concern, the Duke gave me a somewhat stern look. "Do you happen to have that medallion with you?"


    "Ah, yes. Here." Pulling it out of my pouch, I set it in front of him.


    He immediately went wide-eyed. "It.. broke?"


    "Yes, sir. That is how I found it." I was a bit unsure why he seemed so shocked, but he was quick to borate.


    "This was a medallion made from a dragon''s scale. The smiths who made it said it was nearly indestructible." He paused for a moment to take a good look at the break. "I''m guessing you didn''t confirm the identity of what killed everyone?"


    "That is correct. As to not jeopardize the safety of squadron 1, I did not go up the mountain."


    The Duke pinched the bridge of his nose as he leaned back in his chair. "Haah... Do I really need to ask for assistance from the capital again?"


    There was another moment of silence before I felt the need to speak up. "May I suggest something?"


    The Guild Master looked at me wide-eyed before the Duke leaned forward in his chair. "You may."


    With his change in posture, I felt as if his aura got slightly heavier, and broke into a cold sweat. "I have reason to believe that the creature in the mountains isn''t a threat to Spiall."


    "And why is that?"


    "The creature blew off the mountain top there a couple months ago now, and it hasn''t moved at all in that time. I believe that creature has made a home there and will leave us alone as long as we don''t antagonize it further." I wore a serious expression and spoke with confidence even though my thoughts had be fuzzy.


    "Hm... Not a bad suggestion. How are squadrons 1 and 2 looking?"


    "Squadron 1 still has 249 and Squadron 2 has 435. Between both squadrons, we lost 8 members on the expedition prior to thest one."


    "The expedition to investigate the mountain in the first ce, right?" Setting his hand on his chin, he seemed to fall into deep thought. "Is it safe for me to assume squadrons 8 through 10 are in good condition?"


    Quickly thinking back to the paperwork I memorized during thest expedition, I was able to respond with confidence. "That is correct sir."


    "Hm... Alright then, now that I have a general idea of the situation, let''s discuss the n going forward."


    Giving a quick nod, I felt a knot of nervousness grow in my stomach. -Just a little further...-


    We continued to talk for a couple hours after that, discussing the ns going forward before settling on a decent n of attack.


    The main idea was to cover up the incident and loss of the squadrons until the pilgrimage, where everyone would travel to the capital and all cities and towns would enter a one-year ceasefire.


    Waiting for that moment would not only give us a chance to repair our numbers but also strengthen existing troops and lower the amount of panic the incident would normally incite. -If all goes well, we should be able to brush past this incident... somehow.-


    "So is there anything else either of you wish to add?" The Duke seemed quite satisfied with the n and seemed to like me, but his eyes still carried a bit of scrutiny.


    -I''m sure it''s just him gauging my ability...- "Nothing here, sir!" I spoke with a considerable amount of confidence.


    "In that case, I have nothing more to discuss. Thank you for your time, Commander Sigmond."


    Excited to finally get some rest, I felt a smile creep onto my face. "Thank you for letting me partake in this meeting, Duke Spiall!"


    Seeing my deep bow, a small smile came to his face. "Congrattions on your promotion."


    "T-Thank you very much! Please have a good day, Guild Master and Duke Spiall!" Giving a short and formal farewell, I made my way outside and carefully closed the door behind me.


    *Click* The instant I heard the click of the door, the exhaustion I had been suppressing during the entire meeting hit me like a wave.


    "Hooh..." I nearly fell to the ground on the spot but held myself up with sheer willpower. -I can''t pass out right outside of the Duke''s office!-


    Suppressing my exhaustion once more, I made my way out of the estate and somehow all the way back to my room.


    *Click* Closing the door behind me, I used myst remaining energy to stumble over to the bed.


    *Pouf* Falling onto the feathery cushion, I almost immediately fell asleep, but as I looked to the side, I noticed a bronze-colored liquid in a fancy ss vial on the bedside table.


    -Huh? W..what is.. an elixir.. doing.. h..ere...- *Pouf*

 Chapter 180: Unforeseen Changes

    Chapter 180: Unforeseen Changes


    Early Morning - Mid Summer : Spiall, Siratha


    - Liv Sigmond ~


    "Nnnngh..." Slowlying to consciousness, I sat up and noticed my bed sheets and pillows spread all around the room. -Mmm... I slept really well...-


    After continuing toy there for another moment, I finally got up, fixed the room, and got a change of clothes.


    -It should have only been a day or so... I should have a couple more days to rx.- As the thought of going back to sleep crossed my mind, I looked over at the bedside table and noticed the bronze-colored elixir still sitting there with a note under it.


    Moving it to the side and pulling out the note, I noticed it was an elixir from the mystic beast. -But weren''t they supposed to be silver-colored?-


    As that thought crossed my mind, I read thest line on the note: ''The ��ingredient�� was added solely to yours.''


    -��The ingredient��? What did they add?- Although I was a bit curious, I decided not to question it too much and popped the lid off the elixir.


    *Sniff* -It smells like honey...- Without much reason to continue to hold myself back, I tilted the vial up and drank all of the contents."Mmmm... It was tasty, but for an elixir from that mystic beast, it feels a bit wea-" *Vwooom*


    Out of nowhere, a violent wave of mana came crashing into my body, and I felt every muscle in my body rip simultaneously.


    As I fell to the floor, I could do nothing but question if death would be better before finally passing out.


    *GASP* Jolting awake with a gasp for air, I rolled onto my knees and vomited everywhere. *St*


    My vomit was ck and smelled worse than rotting corpses, but once I got it all out, I suddenly felt like a totally different person.


    -I feel.. stronger...- Slowly standing up to my feet, I noticed I not only felt physically stronger, but I also felt arge amount of mana moving around in my abdomen. -Just what did that elixir do to me...- But as I looked down at my abdomen, I noticed that my hands looked a bit unfamiliar.


    In a slight panic, I darted in front of my mirror and finally noticed that it wasn''t just my hands that had changed.


    My irises had turned bronze with my hair bing a deep silver, and my facial features and skin adjusted to make meparable to the most stunningly beautiful elves.


    As I touched my face and stared at myself in the mirror, I started to question if what I saw was even real, but that was before I noticed the dirty-orange scales on the back of my neck and scattered around my ears. -I must be dreaming...-


    I stood there for several minutes to try and make sense of everything, but nothing even came to mind. -What.. did I do?-


    I tried to think back to before I fell asleep but I couldn''t remember anything after stumbling into my room after the meeting with the Duke.


    Quickly scanning the room for any possible information, I noticed a small note on my bedside table and immediately moved over and read it.


    -Right... The elixir from the mystic beast.. but...- Although physical changes were not umon with high-end elixirs, my case was a little extreme. -Its almost like I evolved��-


    But before I could think through that possibility, my thoughts were interrupted. *knock* *knock*


    The sound made my mind go nk. -HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DEAL WITH PEOPLE WHEN I LOOK LIKE THIS?!-


    In a panic, I dashed over to my closet to look for clothes that would cover the scales on my neck, and jewelry to hide those on my ears.


    *knock* *knock*


    *rustling*


    "KNOCK* *KNOCK*


    "Please give me a moment!" As I spoke up to let them know I wasing, I heard my voice and noticed how much smoother it sounded. -I really feel like I''m in someone else''s body...-


    Finally getting some clothes, putting on some gold earrings I had for banquets, and cleaning up the vomit from when I woke up, I nervously moved over to the door and partially opened it.


    *creak* Looking through the crack in the door, I locked eyes with a beautiful and mature elven woman. -Who is this?-


    She gave me a surprised stare for a moment before noticing the symbol on my uniform showing my rank. "Are you Commander Sigmond?"


    She didn''t sound too sure of herself, but I couldn''t me her. "Yes, that''s me. Who are you?"


    "Well, you can call me Verdandi." As she spoke, she started to ease up. "All you need to know is that I am a Low-Priest from the capital. Can I speak with you for a moment?"


    Her voice was smooth and deep for a woman but was oddly satisfying to listen to. "I can, but could you give me a moment to finish preparing?"


    "You may."


    *creak-click* Carefully closing the door and looking back into the room, I felt my heart start beating out of my chest. -WHAT IS A PRIEST DOING HERE?!-


    Taking a moment to breathe and piece together any possible reason she was here, I assumed it had to be something rted to my ss in the capital. -But a priest named Verdandi... Maybe she was just recently promoted.-


    Trying to shrug off my suspicions, I turned back to the door, took a deep breath, and opened it up. "Hooh���� *click* ��Shall we move to my office?"


    Making our way down the hallway, we finally came up to a simple but skillfully carved door with a new name written on it. ''Commander Liv Sigmond''. -They changed that fast...- Although I thought that, I didn''t quite realize how long I had been knocked out.


    *Click* Walking inside, I noticed the office was exactly how Commander Dolph left it. -I really need to give it a makeover...- Although I wasn''t sure why something about the room felt.. wrong.


    *Ding* Ringing a bell for a maid toe to bring bread and drinks, I finally sat down on the couch and motioned Verdandi to the other side of the low table.


    "Were you just promoted to this position?" She asked while looking around the room, likely understanding that it wasn''t my style at all.


    "Yes, I apologize if you find this room unpleasant. The previous Commander was killed while on a very recent expedition so I haven''t had the chance to remodel this room just yet."


    "What? Was he that weak?" She seemed quite shocked.


    "Not at all. He was actually quite strong, it was just that the.. monster in the mountains was far out of his league." As my thoughts started to blur slightly, I tried to shake it off by thinking of other things.


    "Oh, so he was killed by the being in the mountains?" Her face was quick to light up, showing that she knew something.


    -Being?!- The instant she said that word, the fog I had been trying to shake out of my mind thickened.


    "..Sigmond? Miss Sigmond?!" Her panicked voice was quick to bring me back to my senses.


    "Hm? Oh, sorry... My mind wandered a bit..." Seeing her concerned look, I tried to brush off her worries but it didn''t help.


    "Are you sure that was just your mind wandering? Your face is quite pale."


    "Y..yes, sorry. In any case, can we move on to the topic at hand?" Wanting to quickly change the subject, I tried to move on.


    "Right, sorry." She looked a bit guilty but was quick to shift gears. "I was sent by Miss Leif Vilulf to discuss a few things with you."


    -Wait�� V..Vilulf?!- Hearing the name immediately sent a shiver down my spine and made my mind stutter. -What could one of The Great Apostles want with me?!- "W..what is it she wanted to discuss?"


    "Well actually, it is about what happened on thest three expeditions. The ones to the mountains." She cringed slightly after bringing up the topic I just tried to avoid. "I was told to hear your first-hand ount of the being you saw ''in the mountains''."


    Hearing what she wanted me to talk about, I instinctually thought about what to say, but that was a grave mistake.


    The fog hovering in my mind vanished, but my face immediately lost all its color.


    ��I�� I can''t-�� Although I sat there,pletely safe in my office, I felt death blow down my neck. I could only speak with a shaky and stuttery, fear-filled voice as tears ran down my cheeks. ��I can��t.. s..ay.. a..anyt..hing.. about it����

 Chapter 181: Familial Concern

    Chapter 181: Familial Concern


    Early Morning - Late Summer : Valtivar, Siratha (The Capital)


    - Liv Sigmond ~


    "Uwahh..." Sitting up on the unfamiliar bed as I woke up, I felt groggy and exhausted. -Oh, right... They finally gave up on trying to question me...- *Pouf* Falling back onto the bed, I looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling and thought back to everything that had happened over thest month.


    It was a chain of events that could only be described as hell, and it all began when Verdandi assumed I was under some sort of oath magic and brought me to the capital for it to be nullified.


    The trip to the capital itself was quite smooth, we made it there in about 5 days at a steady pace, but once I got there, things started really going downhill.


    When we first arrived, we immediately met with a well-known professor from the Academy who was very adept in oath magic.


    He was quite a nice man that was extremely gentle when trying to nullify the spell I was under, but at the end of it all, it ended in failure, and I cried my eyes out in front of him the instant he asked me a question rted to ''him''.


    But just when I thought I would die from embarrassment, I was sent to a different, even more famous mage just to repeat the process.


    Things happened like that for about 3 weeks before they finally escted to the point that we met with one of the strongest mages in Siratha, and finally got some decent advice.His exact words were: ''Whoever put you under this oath magic was disgustingly strong, but they also knew what they were doing. The fact that you have undergone so much testing and felt like a single wrong thought would kill you without actually dying is proof of that. It doesn''t seem to be regr oath magic, and it also seems to give lots of warning before it triggers, so my best advice is to either stop messing with it or somehow get one of the Great Apostles to try to crack it.''


    I can still remember the wonderful feeling of relief that washed over me after hearing those words since it meant the awful experiments and interrogations were over, but Verdandi didn''t react the same way as me. To her, those words made her face pale and hands tremble.


    I was quick to try and make sense of the odd reaction once I noticed it, but before I could draw any decent conclusions, she dashed out of the room without saying a single word.


    -And that was thest I saw of her...- I still wasn''t entirely sure what happened even after the fact, but I wasn''tining. "Haah..." -But now what...-


    I was now left alone in the capital with no official obligations. -Maybe I should pay Grandmother a visit.-


    Finally settling on a decent n for the day, I got out of bed with a stretch and put on some moderately casual clothing and jewelry to continue hiding my scales, even though people were bound to notice them.


    Oddly enough though, none of the dozen mages I met with over the past few weeks said anything about it even when they clearly noticed it. -I wonder if they just assumed I was a dragon or something...-


    Finally finishing getting ready, I made my way out of the inn and across town towards the bustling Main Market District.


    As I got there, the chatter of people and creaking of wooden carts filled the air with an oddly nostalgic noise. "Haah..." -To think it has already been nearly 15 years... Maybe I should get her some flowers.-


    Quickly heading to a nearby stall and grabbing a beautiful bouquet of flowers, I made my way towards a less busy street not too far away.


    Finally making it onto the right road, I followed the directions from my memories and finally found it.


    ''The Dragontooth Tavern''


    The name alone brought a warm feeling to my chest, so when I pushed open the door, I had nothing but happy thoughts. *creak* But those thoughts came to a screeching halt as I finally looked inside.


    The main area of the tavern was full of flipped tables and broken chairs, with the only visible person being an old elven woman asleep at the bar.


    *Rustle* The flowers in my hand instantly fell to the floor as I darted to the woman. "Grandmother!"


    Coming to her side, I quickly noticed an unusual bruise and a broken forearm that looked like someone had tried to grab her. In a panic, I checked for other injuries, but thankfully, there was nothing severe or life-threatening.


    But just because she was seemingly alright, didn''t mean I was okay with whatever happened.


    Filled with rage and worry, I gently picked her up and took her to the old bedroom in the back of the bar.


    As I walked in, I noticed the room was the same as thest time I visited, with everything of value still visible. -So she wasn''t attacked by thieves?-


    *pouf* Gently setting her on the bed, I double-checked that her vitals were alright before turning back to the main area and doing some cleanup.


    Before I knew it, several hours passed, and the tavern was as clean as could be with everything that was still fixable, once again in working order.


    I mainly had done all the work to kill time and let Grandmother wake up, but the more time passed, the more anxiety I felt that she might not wake up even though her vitals were fine. -No matter what, I''m going to make the bastards who did this experience a fate worse than death...-


    But as I was dwelling in my furious, anger-filled thoughts, I heard some rustling from the back room. -Is she up?!-


    Immediately sprinting into the back room, I threw open the door and saw Grandmother staring at me with wide eyes.


    Without even thinking that she might not recognize me, I darted to the side of the bed and threw my arms around her. "Thank goodness you''re okay..." Although I tried to hold it back, I felt tears start to well up in my eyes.


    "L..Liv?" Her voice shook as she spoke.


    Finally hearing her voice, a flood of memories flowed through my mind. "Yes, it''s me, Grandmother!" Pulling away slightly, I looked her in the eyes with a warm smile.


    Almost immediately, she pulled my back into her chest. "To think you''d grow into such a beautiful woman since Ist saw you. Thest time I saw you, you were still a child!"


    Hearing her joyful voice, I felt my mountain of anger melt away just slightly. "Well, of course!"


    Trying to enjoy the moment as much as I could, I stayed in that position for quite a while and idly talked to her, but eventually, my need to understand what I saw when I first arrived came through.


    "So, what happened?" Pulling myself away from her, I looked into her eyes with a worried look.


    "What do you mean?" She didn''t quite follow the shift in mood.


    "When I first got here, the tavern was mostly destroyed and you were unconscious with some injuries."


    Almost immediately, an unreadable look came to her face.


    "Just tell me who it is, and I''ll take care of everything. I''m easily strong enough to handle-"


    "Hahaha, to think my beautiful granddaughter is finally strong enough to worry about me!" The dark atmosphere around me immediately dispersed as I heard herugh and noticed her overflowing confidence.


    "But then why-"


    "Well, there was a new group of city rank hunters that came by and refused to pay after ordering quite a bit. When I told them they had no choice but to pay, one of them grabbed my arm here and cracked it." She pointed to the part of her forearm that was purple. "That was as far as they got though. Once Ivar noticed what was happening, he stepped in and took care of them."


    Finally hearing that the perpetrators had been dealt with by Uncle Ivar, my anger started to subside. -But I should really check and make sure he did it all the way...-


    As I nced away, still dwelling on the grudge, Grandmother reached over and gently touched my ear.


    -Hm?- Turning back to her, I quickly noticed her concerned look. "What is it, Grandmother?"


    But her voice showed hesitancy. "What.. are those scales?"

 Chapter 182: Self-Reflection

    Chapter 182: Self-Reflection


    Early Afternoon - Late Summer : Valtivar, Siratha (The Capital)


    - Liv Sigmond ~


    "What.. are those scales?"


    My stomach immediately turned into a knot when I heard her worried voice. "I''m.. not sure either..." I hung my head as I spoke. "It all happened when I took an elixir and passed out on the floor... By the time I woke up, I was just.. like this.." I looked at the porcin-like skin on my hands as if it was foreign. -I still haven''t gotten used to it...-


    Grandmother''s eyes widened. "Could it have been an elixir from.. an Evolutionary Beast?"


    I immediately turned to her with my eyebrows raised. "Evolutionary Beast?"


    Her surprised look turned calm as I asked. "It''s an exceedingly rare type of Mystic Beast that only appears once every several hundred years." Her voice had a calming tone. "Although it may simply be a myth, when I was young, I was told that drinking the elixir from one could evolve regr elves to high-elves."


    "But even then..." Thinking back to the image of myself in the mirror, I couldn''t get over the scales. "I clearly evolved to something other than a high-elf..."


    Seemingly ignoring my gloomy mood, her smile grew wider. "But what''s wrong with that?"Her words immediately cleared the conflicting thoughts in my mind. -Wait... What is wrong with that?- Looking back down at my hands, I clenched them a couple times and felt the incredible strength that surged within my body. -Why did I reject it so much?- Looking back at Grandmother, I saw her familiar proud look from my childhood.


    "Are you feeling better now, sweetie?" She reached out and gently rubbed my head, quickly pulling me out of my thoughts.


    "Y..yeah... Thank you, Grandmother..." I couldn''t help but feel embarrassed as she treated me like she did when I was a kid, but that childish embarrassment didn''tst for long. "But, if I didn''t evolve into a high-elf, what am I?"


    "Well, that''s for you to figure out as time passes, isn''t it?"


    "Y..yeah..." Turning towards the end of the bed, I finally looked into the mirror and took a close look at myself. -Why.. did I reject myself so much...- As I thought to myself, tears had unknowinglye to my eyes.


    *pat-rub* Feeling Grandmother''s hand gently rubbing my back, the tears started to rush forward.


    Scooching up next to me, she spoke in a gentle and soothing voice. "If you need to cry, I can lend you my breast."


    Without even thinking, I turned and dropped my head onto her chest.


    Feeling her arms wrap around me, I felt an unusually deep warmth in my chest, causing the pent-up fear, anxiety, and self-hate that had built up over the past month to flow like a waterfall.


    The next thing I remember, I was looking up at the ceiling whileying down in bed. -Huh? What happened?- Sitting up in bed with my hand on my forehead, I could hear the chatter of various folk from the front of the tavern. -Did I fall asleep?-


    Swinging my legs off the bed, I nced in the mirror and noticed just how disheveled I looked. -Ah.. right... I probably fell asleep after crying...-


    Finally standing up, I fixed my silk-like hair into a ponytail and straightened up my clothes. "Hooh..." With a deep breath to try and calm my unsettled nerves, I reached for the doorknob. -Let''s see how I can help Grandmother today...- *Click*


    As the door swung open, my ears were immediately met with loud chatter, and my mind was washed in nostalgia.


    *Sniff* The air was filled with the aroma of delicious food I remembered from my childhood that made my mouth water instinctively. -To think I was nervous that this ce would change...-


    Walking down the hall with a refreshed smile, I turned into the kitchen and saw Grandmother flipping arge cut of meat. *sizzle*


    She was quick to notice my presence. "Good morning, sweetie. How did you sleep?"


    My smile immediately turned warm. "Quite well. I think finally letting out all the feelings that had umted made it for an extra good nap."


    "Haha, I''m d to hear you slept hard enough to lose track of time. So what would you like for breakfast, sweetie?" Her smile contained pure joy.


    -It''s morning?!- Almost immediately, a deep craving for a few dishes came to mind, but I immediately tried to shake them off. -I can go without it, I''m sure she could use my help...- "I''m alright for now, so how can I help?"


    But she didn''t seem to want it. "I''m sure you''re hungry, so go find a seat, and I''ll bring you something special."


    "No, no, no, I''m not too hungr-" *growl* My voice was cut off by my stomach rumbling.


    "Haha!" Herugh was deep and youthful. "You can help me after you have a bite to eat, how about that?"


    Embarrassed by the absolutely terrible timing, I simply nodded with a red face and made my way into the front of the tavern. -What are the chances...-


    Walking out of the kitchen, I came into the dining area and noticed only one table was empty before making my way over and sitting down.


    "Hey, prettydy. Do you mind if I sit here?" A muscr demihuman man set his hand on the chair at the other side of the table I chose to sit at.


    "I''d like to sit alone, sorry." Although he was fairly good-looking and could even pass for some kind of noble, my gut told me something was off about him.


    "Awe that''s a shame, I thought I''d get to sit with a beauty." His smile was cocky, and his voice was arrogant, quickly grabbing the attention of everyone around.


    "She really is quite stunning..."


    "Right?"


    "Where did shee from?"


    "I''m not sure. Someone of her stature should be well known around these parts..." The entire tavern started chatting up a storm, with me as the topic, but oddly enough, it didn''t bother me.


    As a newly appointed Commander who practically skipped an entire rank after the ''untimely deaths'' of both my superiors, everyone in the City of Spiall gave me suspicious gazes. -But it''s not like I can me them...-


    As I dwelled on the issues that those suspicions would cause once sses resumed in a few years, I suddenly felt a knot of anxiety in my stomach.


    But thankfully, that knot was immediately untied by the therapeutic smell of freshly toasted white bread, meat, and soup.


    Immediately looking up, I saw Grandmother personally bring out several dishes and set them in front of me. "Here you go, sweetie."


    It was quite a lot of food, but somehow I felt like I could eat all of it.


    "You can go ahead and dig in. Once you finish, you cane to help me in the back, alright?" She patted my head a bit before walking back into the kitchen without saying a word to anyone else.


    Everyone else in the room stared at me with curious gazes, but I didn''t care in the slightest.


    -She remembered my favorites!-


    Not dallying any further, I picked up the beautifully fluffy toast and dug in.


    The taste of the food caused a wave of nostalgia to wash through my body thatpletely blotted out my surroundings.


    Once I eventually finished everything in front of me, I neatly stacked up all the dishes with a look of pure satisfaction and brought them back into the kitchen.


    "I''m happy to see you enjoyed your meal. I have more if you would like." Grandmother wore a proud smile, but I couldn''t tell why.


    "Hehe, I''m alright, Grandmother. Now it''s my turn to help."


    As I made my way over to the small closet in the kitchen, I pulled out a small and dusty half apron I had long since outgrown, but with a casual motion, the rest of it unfolded. [1] -To think I can fit into a full size now.-


    Casually tying it around my waist, I turned back to Grandmother and got to work.


    As I carried several tes out from the kitchen for the first time in nearly 15 years, I felt a deep and pure joy fill my body. -It feels good to be home...-

 Chapter 183: Continuous Trial and Error

    Chapter 183: Continuous Trial and Error


    Mid Afternoon - Late Summer : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)


    *WHAM-CRUNCH* As my head got mmed into the ground, I stuck out my wing and set the tip of it on the underside of the monster.


    Almost instantaneously, a tiny sphere of clear gas formed around the tip. -GET OFF ME!- *BANG*


    With a blinding sh, my wing wasunched back into my body, driving me further into the ground, and the creature was thrown out into the water.


    Climbing out of the rubble, I took a wide stance and opened my mouth towards where I assumed it was. -Suck on this!-


    *sh-BUURRRMMM* The space around me was instantly lit up as a wide beam left my mouth.


    The ground around me shattered as the water in front of me instantly turned to sma, causing a secondary explosion of water pressure.


    The damage to my surroundings and the cave was nigh-unfathomable with the nearly three-quarter gram of antimatter detonating with a force greater than the earliest nukes dropped on earth, but even that wasn''t enough to really hurt the monster in front of me.


    -The water weakens the explosion so f*cking much!- Getting agitated, I spread my wings andunched myself up through the tunnel of sma left in the wake of the st, but instead of colliding with the creature like I expected, I mmed into the ceiling.*WHAM* Getting embedded deep into the rock, I used earth magic to shatter the stone and threw myself back out, but the instant I expected to hit a wall of water, several giant ws mmed into my back and shattered countless scales and bones.


    "Ackk-" *CRUMBLE* Immediately realizing the situation was getting out of hand, I hastily made a gate and disappeared into the void. *Vwoom*


    *crackle* The stone rubble that followed me through the gate was instantly devoured by the space mana as I floated and tried to calm my nerves.


    -F*ck fighting that bast*rd is annoying...- Althoughpared to when I first met the monster, I fought far better and was iparably stronger, I was still unbelievably far from killing him. -To think that I still can''t kill it even after a month of fighting it nearly every day...-


    With a bit of agitation, I finally took a close look at my body and noticed the countless cut or shattered scales along with the several fractured bones all around my body.


    It was quite a bit of damage and looked quite extreme, but it would all heal in a little less than 24 hours and would only help my skin, bones, and scales to grow even more durable. -I really wonder just how durable I ampared to other dragons now...-


    Compared to when I first started fighting the monster, I no longer had to fear its jaws snatching my life away should it decide to ignore my attacks and bite all the way through. By now, although its teeth could still get through my scales in one bite, they would get stopped by my skin and muscle. -But it still hurts getting bit...-


    Quickly finishing my self-damage analysis, I floated over to the marker for theboratory and left the void.


    *Vwoom-blub* Immediately letting the water crash into me, I sank into the middle of the structure and swam to the control room, this time, remaining in my dragon form. -Those changes were really worth it...-


    During my off time between fights, while I let myself heal and recover, I spent my time studying either antimatter or the power management of the structure.


    At first, when I was just trying to learn what cables led where, I expanded a majority of the hallways to amodate my dragon form. -It was truly a convenient change...-


    Finally making it to the end of the hall, I pushed back the water and cut arge hole in the wall. *ng-Thud*


    Walking into the dark control room, I quickly resealed the wall and let out a deep sigh. "Haaah..." -What should I work on today?-


    Looking around the room, I tried to find something I was yet to look at in detail, but there was nothing that immediately came to mind. -I feel like I''m at a dead end in terms of figuring out this damn electrical grid...-


    Although I hated to admit it, I was stumped.


    Without being confident enough in my theories to risk the integrity of working equipment like theputer, my progression towards figuring out anything was excessively slow.


    There were simply too many missing pieces of information I needed to figure out before I could take a single step beyond the basics. -High-sensitivity electronic currents are just not things I can guess at...-


    Feeling demotivated, Iid down in the middle of the room and got ready to y with antimatter. -If only I had an example to look at...- But that was when a lightbulb went off. -Wait.. the structure at the bottom of the dungeon has been powered for nearly a month now. If everything has worked for that long, maybe I could use that as a model...-


    At the time, I figured I would be able to kill the monster within the next month, giving me another month to y around with the alien electrical grid before I needed to meet up with Amara.


    But that was well before I noticed that I wasn''t the only one getting stronger with the continuous fighting.


    Before I knew it, two more months had passed, and I was still sitting in the control room trying to think of ways I could kill the creature. -To think I genuinely believed I was close to beating it two months ago...-


    Simply put, the chasm of strength between the monster and I turned out to be far wider than I initially imagined.


    All things considered, it was a monster I would not normally be able topete with. -But, thankfully, it can''t use advanced magic.-


    It was the one singr advantage I had over the monster, and it helped close the vast chasm of strength between us, but that seemingly massive advantage was less impactful than expected.


    The routine spells I hade to rely on over the years were renderedpletely useless. The monster''s durability,bined with water''s annoying properties, made it almost immune to everything I threw at it, including railguns, thrusters, or even city-busting nuclear sts.


    But this didn''t mean there was no way to damage or kill it. In reality, I had already dealt quite a bit of damage over the previous three months, going as far as slicing off a few tentacles or eviscerating an arm with a point-nk antimatter explosion.


    But themon denominator to everything that dealt damage was that it needed to be used point nk. It exposed my magic''s weakest link, by far, as everything I hade to adore back on the surfaceparably struggled when used underwater.


    Eventually, to ovee this difficulty, I started spending more time developing new spells and managed toe up with a brutal but effective wind and earth magicbination.


    All I needed to do wase into contact with an area with bones, then I would use earth magic to shatter part of it like normal, but then I would amplify the shockwave of the cracks, causing an insane chain reaction that shattered the entire bone the crack originated in and left millions of razor-sharp shards embedded in the creature''s flesh.


    "It''s really gruesome magic, but I don''t have the strength or time to show mercy." Sadly, I had almostpletely run out of time. -I have five days left till I need to meet up with Amara, so I need to make this fight count.-


    It was a little down to the wire, but as I swam down the hallway, I felt a little more confident than usual.

 Chapter 184: Overcoming The Wall

    Chapter 184: Oveing The Wall


    Late Afternoon - Late Fall : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)


    *Vwoom*


    As I popped into the void and made my way toward the marker at the bottom of the dungeon, I calmed my mind until it waspletely clear of idle thoughts. "Hoooh..." -It''s time...-


    *Vwoom-blub* Dropping into the massive room, I did all I could to leave the currentspletely undisturbed by my appearance and carefully sank to the bottom.


    Quickly getting my bearings, I made my way towards the structure until I could just barely see the blue glow and started circling it. It only took a second for me to see the glow flicker. -There he is...-


    Slowly creeping towards the structure, I finally got close enough to see several scarred tentacles hanging off its top. -To think he would be so vulnerable today!-


    As predator-like confidence built within me, I created about a gram of antimatter and aimed my mouth at the underside of the tentacles, its weakest point. -I think it''s about time you lost a few more!-


    As the immense volume of energy started to release within my body, the deep purple glow between my scales grew brighter.


    *Vwoo-BUURRMMM* The abyssal-ck surroundings immediately lit up as I watched the beam m into the beast''s aqua-blue tentacles.Almost immediately, the other tentacles twitched and started moving, but it was already toote for the ones the beam met with directly.


    -Time to begin!!- Spreading my wings the instant the recoil subsided, I pped down andunched myself into the several million-degree tunnel of sma left by the explosion.


    In an attempt to slice off one of the remaining 5 colossal tentacles, I darted back into the water as I was about to pass them and dug my ws and jaws into the first one I came to. *Shikk*


    But before I could actually get a good grip, the creature tried to dart away. -Oh no you don''t!-


    *Crunch* Chomping down as hard as I could, I dug my teeth into the top, scaly side of the tentacle and amplified the shockwave as much as I could,pletely blowing apart everything under the scales and filling the water with dark crimson blood.


    "Ptoey.." Spitting out the shattered scales still in my mouth, I focused on the currents and noticed the huge creature circle me before darting at my back.


    Utilizing high-power thruster magic as much as possible, I narrowly dodged the bite and threw my ws up into the creature''s neck.


    But even with the help of insanely high-powered thrusters, my ws couldn''t dig deep enough to deal any critical damage.


    -Damn!- Hastily trying to pull my ws back out to reposition myself, the creature reared up its still mostly undamaged paw and swatted me to the side.


    *Crack* Just before its massive arm could smash into me, I shattered my ws stuck in its neck and sted thrusters to lessen the impact. *WHAM*


    Somehow getting away without any major broken bones, I darted back at the monster and dug my remaining front ws into the exposed flesh where its other arm used to be.


    -Let''s see if there''s anything vital around here, shall we!- Driving the palm of my paw into the exposed bone, I created an immense, amplified shockwave that eviscerated the bone and shredded the flesh.


    As if instinctually, the colossal creature forced its ''wings'' closed,unching us through the water and mming us into the ceiling.


    "Ack..." As I got crushed between its wing and body, I channeled the impact into my paw and drove it even deeper into the beast''s shredded flesh.


    With my entire arm embedded into the creature, I moved around my ws and felt a bone. -A rib!-


    Hoping I could shatter one of its vertebrae, I immediately sent a shockwave through the bone, instantly pulverizing it and shredding nearby organs, but that wasn''t before I noticed the monster trying to m me into the corner of the structure.


    -Sh*t!- In a flurry of movement, I shifted to the side and braced myself for the pain of having my side gouged out, but instead...


    *WHAMM-CRINK* *brrRrRrRrMmm* The entire structure shifted slightly as the corner crumpled against my back.


    But my surprise about the strength of my scales didn''tst long. -This stupid f*cker is gonna break something!-


    Filled with sudden rage, I coated my ws in steel and fired off several railguns inside the beast''s body. *Cr-r-r-r-rack*


    Although I couldn''t see how much damage it did with my aura, the monster reacted immediately, pressing the back of its arm against the structure and forcing it over a few meters.


    The next thing I knew, I felt huge, cold ws grip onto my tail.


    "Ughhh!" As it ripped me off itself, my arm, still embedded in its body,pletely dislocated, but before the pain could even set in, I was hurled towards the ground.


    *WHHHAAMM* The ground was obliterated as I was driven several meters into the stone.


    But even though I was in pain, I eased my nerves slightly. -Now he will back off to recover, and I can prepa..-


    *Blub-CRRUUNNCHH* The feeling of the scales lining my underside shattering as the creature used the ground to drive its teeth deeper into my body deafened my thoughts and blinded my mind.


    The feeling of possible death caused my instincts to immediately take over and set off the gram of antimatter sitting in my breath nd. But instead of firing it like a beam, my mouth stayed closed. *BBBANG*


    As the immense shockwave passed through my body, I felt a colossal wave of heat follow it.


    The instant it sted out of my body, everything remotely near me turned to sma, with the creature''s teeth being no exception.


    In the next instant, I pointed my onest mana-strengthened-steel coated w at the creature''s eye and let it fly. *CRACK*


    Before the creature could even react to the heat, the dart smashed its way into the creature''s eye.


    "Grrah!" A deep and guttural groan shot through the water as the monster finally pulled away and darted back into the darkness. *Bang-Crumble-Bang*


    The ground violently shook as it mmed itself into walls to try and get the foreign object out of its eye, allowing an opportunity I couldn''t miss.


    Darting out of the hole I was driven into, I swam under the structure and stoodpletely still.


    Almost immediately after, the currents came to aplete halt.


    -Now you''re mine...- Instead of standing still like usual, I simted movement right next to the corner of the structure, only a few meters away.


    *Rumble-CRUNCH* Before I could even notice it approaching with the currents, the entire area was turned into a cloud of silt and rubble.


    Giving up control of the currents around my body to tell it where I was, I felt a crazed grine to my face. -Nowe at me!-


    Before my thoughts could finish, the wall of silt and rubble was broken through by the scar-covered, bleeding beast.


    It furiously charged at me with its mouth open,pletely expecting to kill me with it, but it was exactly what I wanted.


    Charging straight forward, I stuck my entire neck into its mouth and dug my few remaining ws into its tongue.


    Feeling what was left of its teeth try to dig into my back only made my eyes light up with an insane craze. -Let''s see the water nullify this one!-


    As I opened my mouth towards the creature''s throat, the five grams of antimatter in my breath nd finally met the five grams of hydrogen next to it in perfect unison. [1]


    *sh* The beam that left my mouth after that sh was something I grossly underestimated the power of. *BBBBBUUUURRRRRMMMMMMMM*


    The barely controble mass of energy that left my mouth in that instantpletely devoured everything in its path, returning theplicated atomic structures that made up everything in front of me back into hydrogen before continuing into the water and causing several secondary explosions of immense magnitude.


    *Rumble-Crash* Distant rumbling could be heard as huge sections of the dungeon copsed in on itself from the sudden change in pressure, but thankfully the main area where I was remained in one piece, and the structure remained mostly undamaged.


    When things eventually calmed down a few secondster, I forced my head out of the jaws of the still-biting creature.


    Even with its entire body reduced to atoms, its brain still told it to fight, but that onlysted so long.


    To try and fix my dislocated arm, I drove it into the creature''s head and amplified the shockwave into my shoulder. *pop*


    Feeling it pop back into ce, I took a moment to move it around, but that was when the creature''s brain finally ran out of juice.


    *Thump* As its mouth closed for the final time, I looked over to see its dead eyes still staring at me with pure rage.


    -To think I actually killed it...- As my nerves started to settle, the realization of my aplishment finally started setting in, but it wasn''t only pride that I felt. For some reason, the feeling of pity was mixed in with it. -To be able to get so old and so strong, yet still,ck sentience...- "Haah..." -Just what happened for it to be excluded from such a concrete rule of evolution?-

 Chapter 185: Intricate Technologies

    Chapter 185: Intricate Technologies


    Early Evening - Late Fall : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)


    *Sizzle* The sound of water boiling the instant it got close to my body filled my ears as I sat down under the corner of the structure.


    At the moment, I was trying to let myself cool down so I could go inside the structure, but I wasn''t letting that time go to waste.


    While I sat there next to the lifeless head of the monster, I was doing everything I could to appease my curiosity.


    -A creature with strength and manaparable to an Ancient, yet it stillcked sentience?- It was a troublesome predicament since the creature was excessively far beyond every requirement that Mother had taught me, yet was still even farther from sentience than the lurkers. -So, why?-


    Not allowing myself to believe it was simply an evolutionary anomaly, I used magic to crack open its skull and take a closer look myself. -This would be so much easier if the ambient mana didn''t make reading my aura so damn blurry...-


    Carefully pulling away the razor-sharp shards of bone, it became immediately apparent that the creature''s brain looked massive, to the point that it was pressed tightly against the inside of its skull. But even though it only made things more confusing, something else unusual caught my attention. -The aura is so strong here. Is its mana core under its brain?-


    Although not umon for a majority of monsters, for one of this level, it was incredibly out of ce.


    *Crackle* Carefully breaking open more of its skull, I quickly got to the point that I could pull its brain out while keeping it mostly intact.-Well, here goes nothing...- It was at that instant that all of my questions were answered. Instead of pulling it out and looking at arge, solid brain, I pulled out a thin, bowl-likeyer that masked the colossal mana core beneath it.


    I genuinely couldn''t believe my eyes at first.


    -What the f*ck... How did its mana core get big enough to crush its own brain?!- It was the discovery that made the creature''s abnormally low level of intelligence finally make sense.


    -Is this why dragons and other strong creatures evolved to have their cores in the upper chest instead of their head?- But before I could really dig into that question, I was pulled out of my thoughts by the feeling of ice-cold water finally touching my body. *quiet-sizzle*


    -Oh, I''ve cooled down that much already?- Quickly moving around a little bit, the residual heat in my body quickly vanished, and I got ready to go into the structure.


    But as I turned in that direction, I nced at the colossal mana core and felt my mouth water.


    It was a core that was too big to fit in my mouth and too big to absorb before the pilgrimage, but I couldn''t bring myself to just leave it there at the bottom of the ocean. -M..maybe I''ll just hold it in my hand and absorb it whenever I get the chance...-


    Quickly changing the course of action, I swam back over to the head and carefully pulled the core out before setting it down on the ground. -I''ll pick you up once I finish exploring the structure...-


    Slowly moving away, I swam to the front of the structure and stood on the extended tform.


    Almost immediately, a small, snake-like sensor extended from the wall.


    "Insert Mana." The voice was as robotic and monotone as always.


    -Thank goodness it seems to still be normal...- As I idly injected some mana into the sensor, I looked up at the corner of the structure and saw the ttened corner. -I really hope nothing serious got damaged...-


    {"Authorities: Approved"}


    -That was fast...-


    {"Wee to ss B Containment Center 4856A1"}


    -Huh? This isn''t aboratory? Wait, CONTAINMENT CENTER?!-


    *Click-VWOOM* As the doors slowly opened, a disgusting amount of visible mana started oozing out, but that was only the beginning.


    Once the door finished opening, a simply unfathomable amount of mana poured out. -Good lord... What the actual f*ck am I looking at.-


    Not wanting to risk walking into a ''containment center'' that screamed danger while in my humanoid form, I squeezed my way through the door and came into a tiny docking area only big enough for one or two small ships with a singlerge door on the opposite side. -That must be the entrance...-


    But as I walked toward that door, I had an indescribable realization. -Wait... this isn''t ambient mana, is it?- Paying extra close attention to the flow of it for a moment, I quickly realized it was actually an insanely dense aura, unlike anything I believed possible. -What the hell...-


    At that point, I started questioning my life choices and genuinely wondered if dragons were really top of the food chain, but quickly calmed down after my gut told me what it likely was. -I still might be wrong, but if it''s what I think it is.. I at least don''t need to fear it killing me.. maybe...-


    Finally getting to the other door, I gave another sensor some mana and was let into a massive room lined withputers and equipment simr to those in theboratory. -Wow...-


    It looked as if it was all untouched time without a single speck of dust anywhere to be seen and no visible damage at all.


    To make things even better, almost everyputer was still operational, the only issue being that, when I tried to log in, I would get a fairly simple error: ''Cannot Establish Connection To Local Database 4856A''


    "Haah..." -Damn, I was really hoping one of theputers wouldn''t need a connection...- Finally backing away from the finalputer with a sigh, I looked around the room again and noticed a set of stairs leading to a door above the docking area, but this time, the door was far too small for my dragon form.


    But oddly enough, I didn''t hesitate too much when changing forms. -Worstes to worst, I''ll just change to my dragon form at the expense of what''s in the room... If whatever this structure is containing somehow isn''t what I think it is and breaks free to kill me.. the equipment in the room is the least of my worries...-


    Finally finishing my transformation, I quickly walked up the stairs and gave yet another sensor some of my mana.


    *Pshhh* The sound of a hydraulic filled the air as the half-meter-thick door was pulled into the wall.


    -Holy sh*t...- Behind the door was a room the size of the docking area with walls lined with screens, buttons, lights, and dials simr to nuclear reactors on earth yet somehow unfathomably moreplicated, but something else caught my attention first. -What is that?-


    On a screen that took up an entire wall, I could see a video of a different area that was cluttered with countlessplex devices and cables, all floating in some kind of liquid around a massive tube that emitted a familiar blue glow. -Is that the antimatter reactor?-


    It was exactly what I had been looking for, the key to returning power to theboratory, but instead of feeling joy, I felt incredibly burdened. -How the f*ck am I going to recreate that...-


    With a quick nce at the hundreds of dials and levers, it immediately became clear that the project of returning power to theboratory was going to be a much more time-consuming effort than I had hoped. -But I guess I was just being hopeful thinking it would be easy...-


    After finallying to terms with the effort, I spent a couple hours trying to get the gist of what the control panels were for before finally taking a step back when my mental exhaustion started catching up with me. "Hoooh..." -I should just save the details forter...-


    Finally managing to pull myself away, I looked around the room again to check for anything broken and make sure none of the sensors were in the red before finally walking back into the ''main'' research area.


    But once I got there, I only felt more troubled. -This ce is a containment center, so where is the containment area?- Just from taking the size of the structure from the outside and subtracting all of the areas I knew about, I was still left with an area about 40 meters wide and 80 meters tall that I had no knowledge of.


    -I''m sure that the remaining area is the containment area, but where is...- *vwoooom* My thoughts were cut short by an immense suction of mana through the wall next to me.


    "Oof.." As the mana tried to get pulled through my body, I felt my reserve thin and start absorbing everything it could as if there was a mana core. -It feels like dungeon breathing... Is this structure really containing the dungeon core?-


    As I thought that, I looked down into the research area and noticed a small but out-of-ce lever on the wall just under the edge of a desk.


    -What does that do?- Without seeing any warnings or safeties signifying it was a dangerous lever, I casually walked down the stairs and flipped it.


    *Pshhh* The noise of hydraulics filled the air again as the four separate panels that made up the wall were retracted. -Oh, it''s ss behind the panels...-


    Realizing how stupid I was for not thinking there was anything unusual about the seemingly empty wall, I face-palmed and let out a deep sigh. "Haahh..."


    But when I finally looked back up and into the containment room on the other side of the ss wall, I started to question if my eyes were ying tricks on me. -WAIT, THAT''S THE DUNGEON CORE?!-

 Chapter 186: A Stunning Night Sky

    Chapter 186: A Stunning Night Sky


    Late Evening - Late Fall : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)


    -WAIT, THAT''S THE DUNGEON CORE?!- My jaw fell to the floor as I looked through the 35-meter wide and 70-meter tall ss wall. -The room must just be filled with some insanely dense ambient mana�� It can''t be that big, right?-


    Not believing my eyes, I set my hand on the ss and sent my aura through it.


    But the instant my aura finally got to the other side, my eyes widened. "It''s actually.. a core..."


    Stumbling backwards, I looked all the way to the top of the window and noticed the uniform wall of mana that made up the core was not only pressed up against the ss and adjacent walls but also the ceiling.


    Just thinking about how much mana could possibly be contained in such a disgustingly massive core made me want to vomit, but some part of my instinct made me feel an endless hunger, a greed for strength unlike anything I had felt previously. -What if I absorbed it?-


    Thankfully though, before I could do anything rash, the rational side of my brain finally caught up and squashed the thought.


    But even still, that temporary, senseless greed I felt was so immense that it caught me off guard. -Why did I even consider that?- ncing back at the core, my face paled slightly, and a shiver passed down my spine. -Even with how stupidly dense my reserve is.. that much mana would make it too big to even fit in my dragon form, let alone my humanoid one...-


    But as I stood there, dwelling in my thoughts, the greed I thought I had suppressed peeked through again. -Maybe I could just absorb everything I can when I''m here...-As that thought passed through my mind, I subconsciously changed back to my dragon form and thinned the walls of my reserve as much as I could.


    *vwooom* It was a bit surreal to visibly see the dense mana flowing around me start to bend into my body, but at the same time, the pressure I felt in my reserve ruined the moment.


    "Ugh..." -I can never get used to that feeling...- But that ufortable pressure from absorbing as much as I could without rupturing my reserve just reinforced the fact that such a colossal dungeon core, although containing an unfathomable amount of mana, also umted more mana around it than I could actually handle. -To think I can absorb so much and barely even affect the ambient mana around this thing...-


    But as I sat there, focused on the mana around me, I heard a noise so quiet and subtle, that I almost passed it off for random ambiance. The issue was that I somehow could understand it as if it was a voice. A woman''s voice. "~?? ?????? ????? ??? ????????? ????????? ??? ?????? ??????~"


    Before a conscious thought coulde to mind, my pupils dted and locked onto the source of the sound, where the fabric of space was abnormally warped.


    Although it could have been my eyes ying tricks on me, for a split second, I felt like I could see a humanoid silhouette, but by the time my consciousness caught up, it hadpletely vanished.


    Still in fight or flight mode, I expanded my aura several-fold and paid close attention to the fabric around me.


    But even after several minutes of intently watching it all, the warp never returned.


    Once I eventually calmed back down, I sat down and took a deep breath. "Hooh..." -Just what was that thing...- Although I didn''t want to believe it, the voice was too clear to be simple mind tricks, and the unusual warp was something I had encountered previously. -To think I really wasn''t just imagining thingsst time either...-


    Falling deep into thought, I sat there and tried to make sense of everything, but my thoughts were cut short by the structure suddenly tilting several degrees. *Creeaaakkk*


    -What the?!- Understanding that the only thing that could move it so much was another monster, I hastily made my way into the docking area and outside, before darting up above the structure.


    Almost immediately, I came face to face with a massive crab-like creature with a tall body and thick ws and legs trying to climb onto the structure. -Oh, it''s one of you...- It was a type of crab that liked to lurk just outside the entrance to the dungeon, and a type I was very familiar with.


    -How did you even get here...- I was more shocked it made it this far into the dungeon without dying than I was mad or annoyed. -In any case, I can''t risk you damaging something in there.-


    Immediately darting over to its massive 40-meter wide body, I dug my ws into its face and stretched out my wings tounch me towards the ground.


    *Crackle* The crab''s hard carapace cracked from the insane change in momentum before getting smashed against the ground. *CRUNCH*


    As I pulled my arm out of the pile of shell, meat, and rubble, I couldn''t help but nce back at my wings in awe. -To think they''ve gotten that much stronger in the past few months...-


    Turning back towards the structure, I started thinking about the warp and voice again before finally setting it aside and taking a moment to think of the n ahead.


    But in the end, there wasn''t much to think about. -I guess I''ll meet up with Amara for the pilgrimage and juste back here to try and figure out how it all works whenever I get the chance...-


    Although I wanted toe back right after the pilgrimage, I knew that if I found the things rted to the Ancient Fenrir like I hoped,ing right back would be difficult. -But thankfully, all of the devices in the control room seemed to be in working order, so it should be safe to leave this ce for a while. I should definitely check the corner before I go though...-


    Quickly making my way back to the top of the cube, I tried my best to scan inside the walls of the structure and thankfully didn''t find anything that looked too damaged.


    Although the exterior damage to the corner looked quite significant, there was not too much actually in the wall aside from a few small sensors that just barely survived and some misceneous cables. -It''s not even leaking water somehow...- Although the corner was crinkled quite a lot, it still remained watertight. -But, I''ll add anotheryer to it just in case...-


    Not wanting to risk water getting in the walls, I did my best to patch it up enough to not need to worry about it.


    At the end of it all, the corner became the strongest part of the entire structure, and I was finally confident that I could leave the structure alone for several years without worry should the worst-case scenario happen. -But hopefully, I won''t need to wait so long to get back to work on theb...-


    Finally feeling content with leaving, I swam back under the structure and picked up the massive mana core. "Hoooh..." I had to take a deep breath to shake off some of the difort as I started absorbing it. -Well, time to head back to the surface!- *Vwoom*


    As I hopped into the void, I felt unusually excited to finally return to the surface and see how much progress I had made. -I''ve grown a lot stronger since I first came down here... I honestly feel like I grew more in the past 4 months than in the whole two years on the surface but it may just be my imagination...-


    *Vwoom* Popping back out of the void over the Laboratory, I turned for the entrance and started making my way to the surface.


    *Rumble* The rumble of the thrusters was as loud as ever as I slowly but surely made my way back up through the 70 kilometers of water pressing down on me.


    But, the longer I swam, the less the water pressure there was and the faster I started going.


    After just a couple hours of sting thrusters, I could finally see some light. -The surface!- *Ssh-RUMBLE* As the thrusters threw me into the air, I stopped using them and closed my wings to ''lightly'' p them, but the force I used was the same as when I was at the bottom of the ocean.


    *CRAAACK-FWOOOSH* I ripped through the sound barrier immediately, traveling nearly a dozen kilometers into the air in a single second. -Holy sh*t, I forgot to adjust my strength!-


    Immediately straightening out my wings and sting thrusters, I tried to slow down as fast as I could, but by the time I actually slowed down, I was just shy of 20 kilometers into the cold dark sky.


    "Hooh..." I could see my own breath as I exhaled to calm my adrenaline, but my attention was quickly dragged away when I looked up into the unusually clear, and unbelievably colorful night sky. "W..wow..."


    I felt like I lost my breath for a moment as my mind drowned in the beauty of the countless stars, massive nebs, and distant gxies dancing and twinkling around one another, with a rity and vibrancy, unlike anything I had ever seen. -It''s so.. beautiful...-

 Chapter 187: A Quick Pit Stop

    Chapter 187: A Quick Pit Stop


    Early Morning - Late Fall : Central Sirathian Mountains


    *deep inhale* "Haah..." As I casually hovered in the upper atmosphere, I simply couldn''t take my eyes off the night sky.


    Although I wasn''t sure why my vision was so much clearer and more vibrant than before, I wasn''tining. The added beauty it gave the night sky made for an experience that simply healed my mind and soul.


    The bliss my mind felt at that time was immeasurable, making me immediately forget about the slight achiness I felt around my body and putting me into a deep trance.


    It wasn''t till a few hourster that I was eventually pulled out of it by the orange glow of the sun as it peeked over the distant, slightly curved horizon. -Huh? It''s morning already?-


    ncing towards the horizon, I saw the warm orange glow of the sun and felt its warmth finally hit my body. "Haah..." -It''s been four months since I felt that warmth...-


    Without realizing it, I had grown so ustomed to the cold water in the depths that I had nearly forgotten how good the sun felt.


    But after basking in the sun for a short moment, I looked back towards the ground and saw Ilios sitting on the mountain top, wagging his tail.


    As my chest filled with warmth and a warm smile came to my face, I folded my wings and dove towards the ground. -Haha, it''s good to see that not much has changed...- But as I thought that, he stood up and bent his legs a bit. -What is he doing?-In the next instant, the ground beneath him shattered, and a white shockwave rippled through the air. -Wait, WHAT?!-


    Immediately spreading my wings, still nearly 4 kilometers off the ground, I tried to slow down as much as possible, but it wasn''t fast enough.


    *WHAMM* Immediately bringing me to a halt in the air, Ilios mmed into my chest with immense force.


    "Oof..." I quickly lessened the impact as much as possible to try and minimize the strain on Ilios''s legs.


    But my worry about him getting hurt was needless. "Woof!!" The instant he mmed into me, he climbed up on my neck and started licking my face.


    -Thank goodness he didn''t hurt himself...- "Sorry for not visiting over the past few months, buddy." As we plummeted towards the ground, I nuzzled my head against him and spread my wings to control our descent.


    *lick-lick-lick-lick-lick* His tongue was simply relentless until we finally made it to the ground a few secondster, where he hopped off my back and darted into the cave.


    -What is he...- Before I could finish my thought, he came trotting back out with my greatsword in his mouth.


    I couldn''t help but chuckle a bit as he held the greatsword in his mouth like a toothpick. "Haha, you already knew it was time to leave, didn''t you?"


    He gave a strong nod as he trotted back to me.


    "Well, in that case, let''s not linger!" As he hopped onto my back and set the sword under my wing, I spread my wings and threw us into the air. -Now, where should I go first? I told Amara and them that I''d bring alcohol, so I guess I''m crossing the Banv?nn (Desert)...- But as I turned in that direction, I remembered that it had been a while since I checked up on Captain Lassar and her settlement. -Actually, that works out. It''s about the same distance either way, but pirates probably know their alcohol better than some random tavern in the middle of the western continent...-


    Quickly changing destinations, I turned around and made my way over the ocean, but it wasn''t long before I hit a stump. -What direction should I be flying in exactly?-


    I knew the general direction I should go, but the mental map of the world I currently had was split between the continents, making my estimation extremely inurate. -Since I took the space rune to get to Bahamut, my sense of direction to find the main continent is all out of whack...-


    But that was when I realized I was just being dumb. -There is a space rune marker in the temple there, so why don''t I just go through the void?-


    But as I nced back at Ilios, I started to question whether he could even survive in the void before deciding not to risk it. -I''ll just pop my head in to get my bearings.-


    And that I did. With a light toss, I threw Ilios up a couple of meters, jumped in the void, figured out where I needed to go, then came back out and gently caught him.


    *thump* As hended on my back again, he casuallyid back down and closed his eyes, seemingly not caring about what just happened.


    -Alright! Now that he seemsfortable and I know where I''m going, it''s time to cruise!-


    The next couple of hours passed rather quickly since I fiddled with antimatter to pass the time, but since I decided to just cruise instead of sting thrusters, it still took a bit.


    Nevertheless, we arrived before we knew it.


    -Hm?- Looking up from the ocean, I could just barely see the green tropical treetops cresting the horizon. -Oh, we''re here already?- Turning just slightly, I started following the coast around the ind until I got to the north side and saw the familiar, massive, overgrown temple. -Man.. it''s just as big as I remember...- But it wasn''t all the same.


    All around the bottom of it, trees had been cleared out and a small wall had been constructed, with several people patrolling it. -To think she kept up with her promise...-


    Feeling a tad more optimistic about the visit, I cloaked myself and flew closer to the ground before continuing a bit further around the ind.


    Not long after that, I came across arge port with several massive ships docked. -Here we are!-


    Quickly finding an isted ce tond, I finally touched down and took a moment to hide the massive mana core I was still absorbing into the ground. *pat-pat-pat* -That should be fine, right?- I ended up burying it a couple meters down and coating it in steel, so even if someone managed to dig it up before I got back, they wouldn''t be able to damage or move it. -Yeaaah... It should be fine.-


    Casually changing to my humanoid form, I reached down and picked up my greatsword to sheath it, but froze when I saw my reflection in the de. -Huh?-


    With even a simple nce, it was apparent that my wolf ears and stub-like horns had gotten a tad longer, and my hair was well past my shoulders, making me look quite unkempt. -I''ll just cloak the horns but...- For a split second, I contemted cutting my hair but ended up just tying it back and trimming the front after a bit of thought.


    -Heyyy.. that doesn''t look half bad!- Enjoying the new look, I casually sheathed my sword and carefully cloaked my horns and visible scales.


    *Brush-Brush* Giving my clothes a quick pat down to make sure everything was in ce before finally turning towards Ilios. "You ready?"


    He gave an exaggerated nod while he trotted up to my side.


    I couldn''t help but lean down and rub his head since it was so cute, but after a short moment, we made our way out onto the beach and down towards the port.


    As we got there, I avoided contact with the several pirates unloading a ship and made my way down a wooden pathway into the trees. -This should be the right way...-


    As we walked down the path, we passed several people, all of whom gave me odd looks, but surprisingly, none of them stopped me. It wasn''t until I got to the outskirts of the town that I was finally interrupted by a group of guys ying cards on some barrels next to the walkway. "Hm? That''s a new face..." The muscr man gave me a suspicious look. "Kid, di'' ya break out of someone''s brig er somethin''?"


    I gave the man an indifferent look as I spoke. "No, I''m just here to pick up some good alcohol."


    There was a short moment of silence as everyone nearby locked their eyes on me. "Pffftt-hahaha!! I didn''t think a noble-looking guy like yourself would know where toe for that!" His suspicions disappeared before I even did anything.


    -Well, it looks like I came to the right ce...- "If you could point me in the direction of a tavern or bar, that would be great."


    Almost immediately, the man''s smile widened. "Haha, a tavern er bar? This is the alcohol capital of the east, The Eastern Oasis! There''s one on every corner!"

 Chapter 188: The State of The East

    Chapter 188: The State of The East


    Late Morning - Late Fall : The Eastern Oasis


    "Haha, a tavern er bar? This is the alcohol capital of the east, the Eastern Oasis! There''s one on every corner!" The man''s voice was drowned in drunken happiness.


    But oddly enough, the guys ying cards with him did not carry the same joy. "Hey, dumb*ss. What are you thinking?!" They looked at the man like he was insane.


    "Come on you two, use ya brains. Ya think someone that came here for alcohol would rat us out to Sinder, er somethin''? They''re in shambles from what''s happened recently, and Toria can''t touch us after Captain Lassar cleaned ou�� their Navy."


    My ears twitched a bit as he spoke. -She''s gotten that strong?-


    "In any case..." He slowly turned back to me as he put another smile on his face. "Since ya came here looking for somethin�� good, I''ll just say that the Crystal Tavern by theke has the highest quality stuff. Just don''t hit on thedies servin�� food n'' drinks there. The crew they are a part of is one of the strongest in this ce..." I could see beads of cold sweat forming on his head as he spoke.


    "Hm, alright. Good to know." -Well.. I guess I know where my next stop is.-


    I continued talking with the man for another while after that, simply trying to see how far Lassar''s colony hade, which, to my surprise, greatly exceeded expectations.


    The settlement now had an active poption of about 12 thousand, with 2 thousand of them being pirates that either used the settlement as their trade hub or worked directly under Captain Lassar. -But that still leaves 10 thousand regr folks that have decided to live here�� Isn��t that a lot to just stumble across?-At first, I found that number quite astonishing, but things started to make a bit more sense after hearing the man exin that a considerable number of those people were refugees fleeing from an internal war in Sinder.


    Supposedly, there was a war among the people because of an oracle received by their god that had been silent for over the past thousand years, but sadly he didn''t know many details. "I just know it has something to do with some sort of impending disaster and the death of their god itself."


    -How ominous...- Although at first, I thought it could possibly be connected to the gods Siratha worships, that possibility didn''t really make much sense after a bit of thought. "Do you know what god they worship there?"


    "Ah, they call her the Goddess o�� Oracles er Fate er somethin''. I can''t remember ''er exact name."


    -The Goddess of Oracles, huh...- The name didn''t ring a bell at all. "Hm.. alright. Well, I think that''s all I need to know for now, thanks." -Maybe this ce is a better ce to get information than I thought...-


    As I casually flicked the man a gold coin, I turned back towards the stilted town and spent the next several minutes figuring out my way around before eventually finding the tavern I was told about.


    -This must be The Crystal Tavern.- From the outside, it didn''t look like anything special, but it was thergest building in the area by a decent amount. -There''s quite a lot of chatter inside as well...-


    *Creakk* Pushing open the door, Ilios and I finally made our way inside.


    Although I wasn''t sure what to expect, it was just like any other tavern, with the only differences being the number of people and the number of barrels behind the bar. -The bar looks just like Emelia''s back in Elynnor... I wonder how she and Adrian are doing.-


    Slowly weaving my way through tables to get to the bar, I found a ce to sit down and made room for Ilios toy down at my feet.


    While I was leaning down to make sure Ilios wasfortable, I heard a somewhat familiar voicee from across the bar. "It''s not often we see new faces around here."


    -Huh? Is that..- "Mary?" Sitting back up, I looked across the bar to see a familiar woman in herte 20s. -What is someone in Adrian''s crew doing here?- [1]


    "Hm? Who ar-Wait, Vasilias?!" She seemed just as shocked as I was. "What are you doing out here? I thought you were exploring the Western Continent."


    "I finished doing that a while ago, but that aside, what are you, someone in Adrian''s crew, doing here?"


    As those words left my mouth, everyone in earshot turned and looked at me like I was crazy.


    It even made Mary start to m up. "Ah, w..we arrived here about a year and a half ago." She spoke with a bit of nervousness. "Cap�� said this was a ce you told him about. Was that not the case?"


    -He actually came all the way out here because of that?- Immediately thinking back to when I chatted with him off the coast of Nerrania, I remembered telling him he coulde here if he ever wanted things to do, but at the time, it was meant to be a joke. "I did tell him, but that doesn''t mean I told him he had to stay here." -Pirates staying in one ce for a year and a half is really unusual, unless...-


    "Oh, getting settled here was just how things happened to turn out. When we first arrived, we were met with some hostility, but after a while, the Cap�� found himself being the top inmand alongside Captain Lassar." She spoke as she awkwardly cleaned a wooden mug from someone else at the bar. "Cap�� was actually the one to suggest we settle down here."


    -Adrian was?- I struggled to believe it. "So where is the ship? I didn''t see it at the docks."


    "Ah, the Cap�� and Lassar left just recently to discuss some trade route-rted things with the Kan Empire."


    -What? Kan Empire?- "Since when were they known as an empire?"


    "It''s only been a few years. Although I''m not sure how they have managed to take over nearly a dozen countries on the eastern half of the main continent with both insane efficiency and almost no resistance."


    -Damn... Oliver must be on a rampage.-


    Before I could say anything, someone next to us at the bar chimed in. "I heard they had some mage there that had some kind of epiphany and broke through some big bottleneck. A mage buddy of mine went crazy when he heard it, so it must be something impressive."


    But that man wasn��t the only one to chime in. "I also heard that a young girl was traveling around and destroying S and Nation rank dungeons in that part of the continent as well. I''m sure that helped Kan since they could move their soldiers away from the dungeons."


    "You think that''s real? Ain''t the rumors saying she''s like 13? How could someone be strong enough to do that, let alone someone that young?"


    "I don''t know, man. I have seen stranger things in my lifetime."


    -Is she a dragon?- "What is the girl''s name?" I asked it simply out of curiosity at the time.


    "Ah, I think people are calling her either Snow White or The Blizzard. No one knows her actual name."


    "Hm..." -She must be a dragon... If I didn''t know better, I would have thought it could be Krystallo...- Immediately slipping into the rabbit hole and thinking about paying the family a visit, I zoned out for a moment until a mug was set in front of me.


    "So what is our great savior doing here?" Mary wore a thankful smile as she pushed the mug filled with amber liquid towards me.


    -It smells like beer...- Casually taking a sip, I quickly noticed that I didn''t hate it. -Hm.. not bad.- "I''m here to get some alcohol to share with a friend. Do you have any rmendations?"


    "Hmm, what kind and what price range?"


    Taking a moment to think back to what Amara usually drank, I was quick to answer. "Anything strong with a bit of sour or sweetness, and price doesn''t matter."


    "Hmm, for top-quality drinks like that, we have Viliwyr, Turtleshell, Blue Wake, or Pi��tita. Do you want to try any of them?"


    Almost immediately, one of the names caught my attention. -Pi��tita�� That sounds awfully simr to ''Poi��tita''... (meaning ''Quality'' in Draconic) There''s no way it''s a dragon-made drink, right?- "Could I try some Pi��tita?"


    "Yeah, just keep in mind that it is really hit and miss with people. Most people find it kind of bitter, but then I''ll have people like the guyst week who bought the entire stock." With a casual nod, she turned around and picked up a small, shot ss-like cup that she filled with a bit of clear liquid. *Tap*


    As she set it in front of me, I immediately smelled a sweet rose-like fragrance and noticed that the liquid had a bit of mana infused into it, almost like an elixir. -This must be made with a simr method to elixirs, I can''t be crazy for thinking it''s not human-made...- Gently picking up the ss and setting it to my lips, I took a sip.


    Almost immediately, a warm but cold, sweet but sour mix of vors permeated my mouth. "Wow..."


    "Are there any others you want to try?" Mary spoke with a happy smile, but I didn''t notice nor care.


    I was simply entranced by the taste. -There''s no way a mere human could make something like this...- "I''m not sure I need to try any others... Can I have a full ss of this one first, please?"

 Chapter 189: A Bombshell

    Chapter 189: A Bombshell


    Late Afternoon - Late Fall : Sky Above North Sirathan Mountains


    *Fwooosh* "Hehe..." I couldn''t help but let out a happy chuckle as I zoomed across the sky and sipped on a barrel of Pi��tita. -I''m so d I decided to get alcohol there... This is literally perfection in the form of a drink...-


    Although I wasn''t too sure why, something about it was simply addictive. There was just some kind of subtle taste in the drink that was indescribable yet heavenly. -Whatever it is though, it''s making me reluctant to share...-


    Not long after that, when I eventually finished the barrel I got for myself, I looked towards the horizon and noticed arge opening in the canopy. -I''m here already?- Quickly realizing I was a few days early, I tried to think of ways to kill time until I nced down at therge mana core still in my grasp. -Well.. I guess I could just focus on you for a few days...-


    After taking another moment to think through some other options, I turned around and flew away until the city was back on the horizon.


    -No one will wander out this far towards the mountains, right?- Quickly thinking back to the town map I got from the guild in the city, I double-checked to make sure there weren''t any paths nearby before diving toward the ground.


    *Crash-Crackle* I smashed my way through the canopy until I finally got to the underside and slowed down. -This should be a fine ce tond...- *Fwoosh-Thump*


    As my paws sank into the soft soil, I looked around for anywhere with decent cover and found some dense 10-meter-tall brush around the base of a nearby tree. -Perfect...-


    Quickly making my way over to it, I padded down some of the weeds, set down the extra alcohol barrel, andid myself down.*tap-tap-rustle* As Ilios hopped off my back, he walked straight into the brush and disappeared, but I didn''t think much of it at the time.


    Finally getting moderatelyfortable, I shifted all my focus to the mana core. "Haah..." -This is going to be an ufortable few days...-


    Although it was already considerably smaller than it was when I first got a hold of it, the core in my paw was still a tad too big to fit in my mouth. -But even if I can''t absorb it all before the pilgrimage, I can try!-


    As I finally shifted the rest of my mental capacity away from everything but my reserve and the mana core, the rate I absorbed mana increased several-fold.


    Before I knew it, my attention was even pulled away from my surroundings, and time started to tick by faster and faster until finally... *tink* A satisfying noise permeated the air as the core crumbled in my mouth.


    "Hooohh..." As I let out a deep breath and took control of my aura once again, my surroundings were washed by a nket of visible mana. -To think my aura has gotten this excessive...-


    Although I didn''t really pay much attention to it when I visited Lassar''s settlement, now that I was actually carefully controlling it, it was apparent that my aura was starting to get out of hand. -Even with my reserve as thick as it''ll go, my aura is still more than it used to be at its thinnest...-


    But those thoughts quickly vanished when I idly asked myself how long I had been lying there. -WAIT, IT''S BEEN A WEEK?!-


    Immediately hopping up off the ground, I looked around for Ilios, only to find himying right next to me.


    He tilted his head as if confused about why I was in such a rush, but without exining anything, I leaned down and threw him up onto my back. "We''rete!"


    Not wasting a single second, I picked up the alcohol barrel, spread my wings, and threw us up through the canopy. *cr-r-rack-RUMBLE* The instant I got above the dense branches, I sted thrusters and closed the few dozen kilometers to the city in a matter of seconds.


    As Morva Asari came into view, I changed to my humanoid form and got ready to slow down andnd quietly, but noticed there wasn''t a single person out on the streets. -They must have all left already. But if that''s the case...-


    *RUMBLEEEE-tap-tap* Finallynding and setting down Ilios in the middle of a wide street, I quickly got my bearings and got ready to dash around town to check for anyone''s aura, but I noticed one before I even moved.


    "Talk about a loud entrance." The woman''s voice carried a familiar warmth.


    "Haha, I figured a loudnding would get your attention if you were still here." Rxing my nerves, I turned to see Amara leaning up against a nearby building. -She got stronger...- Her aura was considerablyrger thanst time.


    "Well, it worked. In any case, you''ve changed quite a lot, haven''t you?" She looked me up and down as if she wasn''t sure what to think.


    "Haha, is that not to be expected after 3 years of training?"


    "I guess you have a point, but..." Vanishing from where she was, she instantly closed the distance between us and threw a kick at my chest.


    *tap-CRACKLE* The ground behind me shattered as I nonchntly caught her foot.


    "Isn''t that a bit excessive?" She looked at me with a mix of fear and awe, as if she didn''t believe it.


    It was an expression that nearly made meugh. "I told you I was out of the norm, didn''t I?"


    Finally noticing my yful expression, a smile returned to her face and she pulled her foot away. "Hah. No kidding."


    We continued talking casually for a while after that, simply getting me caught up to speed on everything that had happened while I was gone, and giving me a decent understanding of our ns going forward.


    The main idea was to get to the outskirts of the capital and meet up with Bj?rn and Ynda before trekking another few days to get to the ''Tree of Prayer'' at the center of the city.


    It was a decent n that I had noints with, so we managed to get on the road quite quickly, but it didn''t take long for Amara to ask a certain question that reminded me of something I had nearly forgotten about.


    "So, how was the ce I grew up in?"


    My idle thoughts came to a screeching halt the second she asked. "Ah, right. About that..."


    Seeing my awkwardness, she got a little nervous. "Could you find it alright? Was it too dusty? It wasn''t weathered or damaged too badly, was it?"


    "N..no. None of that. It''s just..."


    "Just what?" She tilted her head with innocent nervousness.


    "I, uh.. found a dead half-breed kid in it when I arrived."


    Immediately losing all joy in her expression, she gave me a deadly re. "That isn''t something you should joke about-"


    "You really think I would joke about that?!" Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a small, dirty-bronze scale sitting next to my ID. "I sent off what was left of its body already, but I kept this around to show you."


    She stared at the scale inplete silence for several minutes.


    "Of the other things I found, there was a bag left by the hunter that killed it with a journal in it." I continued as I handed it to her. "I also found an adult dragon skeleton in the water down the mountain. I''d assume it was the kid''s parent, but it wasn''t a totally pure dragon either."


    It wasn''t until I nced at her that I noticed her oozing bloodlust. "To think my brother''s only friend would follow him to the afterlife..."


    Immediately realizing I made a mistake by just dropping the information on her, I zipped my lips and stayed quiet. -Sh*t... Maybe I should have.. eased her into that...-

 Chapter 190: Colossal Beings

    Chapter 190: Colossal Beings


    Early Afternoon - Late Fall : 150 Kilometers South of Morva Asari


    It had been about half an hour since I unknowingly dropped the news on Amara, and we were still barely talking to each other.


    After I handed her the notebook, she read it through several times and asked me various questions about the condition of the ce and the scene I was met with when I arrived.


    It wasn''t till she finished her tenth read through the notebook that she finally closed it up and put it in her bag, seemingly suppressing her anger. "I''m not sure I can even be mad at the hunter..."


    She was clearly still dealing with conflicting feelings, but I couldn��t understand her reasoning at all. "W..what? How?" -I have no rtion to that halfie, yet even I am upset about it...-


    "Honestly, from everything you��ve told me, plus the information in the diary, I think that child would have died regardless. In some convoluted way, that hunter gave it mercy�� Even if her intentions were.." Her anger immediately became more apparent. "..a bit skewed."


    "But.. how? How could killing, and skinning it possibly be mercy?" I was starting to get a bit upset with her.


    And she noticed. "In the diary, some creature on the outside of the cave kept the hunter inside and tried to kill her. By the way it''s described, I think it was a wyvern attracted by the smell of the kid''s body... Dion was strong enough for wyverns to naturally avoid him and his territory, so he must have passed to the afterlife before the hunter even showed up."


    "So you think the kid would have died on his own and that dying to the hunter was better than getting eaten alive?""No.. if it could get outside, it could probably live long enough to run into an older half-breed somewhere, but I can say for certain it wouldn''t have been strong enough to break the lock on the door to get outside. Dion probably locked the poor kid in there to keep it from getting involved with whatever ended up killing him, but instead, it just served his child the death sentence."


    -So it would have starved to death...- Finally seeing part of her reasoning, I hung my head slightly. "But how did Dion actually die, then? From the sounds of it, it seems like a monster, but��" -There was nothing remotely strong enough to kill a dragon in the area��-


    "If I had to guess, it was probably that mystic beast that destroyed Ravndal, that city southwest of here. It was definitely capable of killing a dragon in the mid-high adult stage as long as it got a lucky hit or two."


    My whole body twitched as she spoke. -That monstrosity was that strong?!- But after another moment of thought, I concluded it must have been a different beast she was talking about. -There��s no way that flying amalgamation of creatures was that strong��-


    We continued in light discussion for several more minutes after that until Amara finally calmed her emotions enough to change the subject.


    "What''s in that barrel you''ve been carrying? I''ve been wondering since earlier..." She gave the barrel on my back an odd nce as we ran.


    "Ah, it''s a drink I got to share with you, Ynda, and Bj?rn. I did promise you guys I would get you all some alcohol while I was gone, didn''t I."


    "Oh, it''s an alcohol barrel? I thought it was perfume or something."


    "Haha, it does sort of smell like that, but it''s just an alcohol called Pi��tita." I tried tough off the awkward atmosphere, but Amara immediately overlooked it.


    "What? Pi��tita?! You actually managed to get some of it?!" Nheless, she seemed to cheer up.


    "Y..yeah? Have you heard of it before?"


    "Of course I have! It''s a liquor made by dragons, specifically for dragons. It sells for nearly 5 tinum a barrel in Bahamut, so most dragons try to buy it through human markets, but it''s still incredibly hard to get a hold of."


    "What? If it sells for that much, why is it in the human markets at all?" -I got it for a few gold per barrel��- "Plus, ording to the person I got it from, most humans don''t even like it." -Are the people selling it just bad at business?-


    "I''m not sure, to be honest, but it does keep money moving."


    -Huh... I guess that would be a decent way to move draconic wealth back into human markets...- As I slowly sank into my thoughts, I nced over to see Amara eyeing the barrel again. "Do you want to try some?"


    As thest of the subtle look of anger and sadness disappeared from her face, an untainted smile appeared. "C..could I?" She looked like a shy child asking for a piece of candy as her previously suppressed rage finally disappeared.


    "That is what I got it for!" With a warm smile, I pulled out the cork along with a small sphere of liquid umted with mana.


    "Your control is really something, isn''t it..." She watched intently as I moved the sphere of liquid in front of her face, where she quickly snatched it out of the air. But the instant she closed her mouth around the liquid, her eyes widened.


    "It''s good, isn''t it?" I couldn''t help but smile seeing her react just like I did.


    "That''s.. freakishly good..." She looked at me in awe.


    "Haha, you want another one?"


    She vigorously nodded before I even finished talking.


    "Haha, alright, alright." Even though her reaction would seem over the top to outsiders, I knew firsthand why she reacted that way. -I just hope she can pace herself. We have a whole day of running left.-


    The next several hours ticked by quickly as half of the barrel was drained, and Amara started to crave the drink more and more. -If she wasn''t a dragon, she''d have cked out already...-


    Thankfully, with a bit of convincing, she could muster up the willpower to save the rest for the others, but the entire time we ran, she eyed the barrel.


    It wasn''t until several hourster that she finally moved her attention away from it.


    "We should be getting close to treant territory, so we will need to go up soon."


    "What? ��Go up��? Like, fly?"


    "No, that''s not what I mean." She went silent as we wrapped around the center of the tree to continue running along its branches, but this time, instead of jumping from the branch of one tree to another, there was a rope bridge that seemingly climbed up through the canopy.


    -What is that for?-


    "We need to slow down here. This rope bridge will snap if we hit it too hard."


    Immediately slowing down to a walk, we started climbing up the rope bridge through the canopy.


    The leaves were extremely dense and the bridge was incredibly overgrown, so we couldn''t see much in front of us, but once we finally got above the canopy, I was met with a view I waspletely unprepared for.


    "Woah..." In front of us was a distant wall of oak-like trees that were each 4 to 500 meters tall,pletely dwarfing the ones we had previously been running along. "What.. are those?"


    As Amara nced back at me, a wide smile came to her face. "Haha, those are treants. Is this your first time seeing them in person?"


    I could only nod in response as the memory of Mother describing them came to mind. -THESE ARE WAY BIGGER THAN ''fairlyrge'', MOTHER!-


    After several more minutes of climbing, we eventually made it up onto the branch, where I noticed a familiar flow of mana. -For Mother to describe them as dungeons in the form of trees... Talk about a perfect description...-


    All around me, I could feel the slight suction of mana, as if the tree was breathing. -But if they''re like dungeons.. why are there so many?- "How are there so many of them here?"


    Not expecting the question, she paused to turn to me. "Hm? What do you mean?"


    "I can feel it breathing like it''s a dungeon, but if they formed simrly, why are there so many?"


    She tilted her head slightly before a lightbulb went off. "I think you''re thinking about it wrong. Instead of thinking of them as dungeons, think of them as monsters." Seeing me not following, she continued. "You see those trees down there?" She pointed down the bridge we had juste across. "Those will eventually be treants as they age, grow, and umte enough mana from the ��Tree of Prayer�� to form a mana core."


    -So are they the same as dungeons, where they''re just a mana core with enough sentience to be able to manipte its surroundings? Do treants actually have any instincts or are they still just nts?-


    Quickly falling into a deep rabbit hole, we continued walking along the branch until I was pulled from my thoughts by some distant chatter.


    -Huh?- Looking up, I was met with the sight of several buildings lined around the base of the massive branches. "What town is this?"


    A yful smile slowly came to her face as she nced at me. "Haha, technically this is the very outskirts of the capital, but the locals call this ce the Northern Sunset. This is one of the countless ��treant towns��."


    With how nonchntly she spoke, I almost overlooked it at the time. I didn''t quite realize what she said until several secondster. -Treant towns? They couldn''te up with a better name-Wait, the edge of the capital?- "I thought we had another 5 or 6 hours to get to the inn? Didn''t you say that it was on the outskirts of the city?"


    "Hm? That��s why I said this is technically the edge. Most people consider the actual city to start with the Northern Market District, where our inn is, but the actual border of the city covers the entire treant territory and all of the countless ��treant towns��."


    I felt my jaw hang open as the size of Valtivar, the capital of Siratha, finally came into perspective.

 Chapter 191: A Forest That Lives Off Mana

    Chapter 191: A Forest That Lives Off Mana


    Mid Afternoon - Late Fall : North Valtivar


    Hours began to tick by like seconds as we ran through treant territory, winding our way through the countless smallmunities and climbing up the ever-growing treants.


    After a while, their branches were each dozens of meters wide and had extremely t tops, as if they were meant to be roads, but the thing I found most surprising was how therger, central branches conjoined with those of other treants to form smooth bridges between them. "How does that even happen?"


    "Hm? How does what happen?" Amara seemed to be in an excellent mood, but I couldn''t tell why.


    "Why do therger branches have t tops, and how do they form such neat connections with neighboring treants?" I nced around as we dashed across the connected branches of two treants.


    "Well, as they grow, they recognize the support humanoids give them, and change parts of their bodies to amodate them."


    -What?- "What possible help do the humanoids give them?" I was a bit confused and struggled to understand her reasoning at the time.


    But Amara was quick to exin. "Treants, like all living beings, need nutrients to survive, right? But instead of water and good soil like regr trees, they take in mana."


    "But isn''t the ambient mana they absorb supplied by the Tree of Prayer?" -What does that have to do with humanoids?-"Well, yes, it is, but almost all of that mana is unattributed. You can think of it like giving a tree water when the tree cannot pull the nutrients from it." A smile crept onto her face as she seemed to enjoy teaching me something. "The way humanoids help is by giving treants runes which they can use to supply themselves with whatever type of mana it may need to grow!"


    -So treants can live purely off of mana?- I paused for a moment as it reminded me of myself. -I wonder if treants actually create their own nutrients like me though, or if it''s simply a coincidence...- "So can they live without the runes then?"


    The prideful look on her face only became smugger when I asked. "Of course, they can! But they will not grow nearly as big or as fast, since they will have to make do with the random assortment of attributed mana in the air."


    -Huh...- Although the exnation made sense, at the same time, it made me question their intelligence. -They really are an odd mix of nt and animal, aren''t they...-


    The next half hour was wrapped in silence as I got lost in my thoughts, but I was pulled back into reality when we crossed onto the biggest treant yet. -Good lord, this thing is massive...-


    We were about 700 meters off the ground, with the branch itself being nearly 70 meters wide and lined with buildings, ranging from restaurants and item shops torge armor and weapon smiths.


    "Pretty beautiful, isn''t it?" Amara wore a proud look, like a kid showing off a toy.


    "Is this the northern market?" With a casual nce around, it was abundantly clear that this ce wasn''t like the other treant towns. -The store owners are all surrounded by strong people, and.. there really are a lot of half-breeds, aren''t there...- Just in that small stretch of the market, I could see nearly a dozen of them. "It''s quite an interesting ce..."


    "It sure is!"


    Deciding the abnormal number of halfies was likely just a coincidence, I tried to look past it. "So, where is the inn?"


    "It''s a little farther in, but before that, let''s get a bite to eat!"


    -Huh? Why?- "You''re hungry?"


    She immediately stopped in her tracks before turning to me. "Yeah, thanks to a certain someone''s alcohol, I feel like I could eat a house."


    "Haha, alright, fair enough. Do you have any ces in mind?"


    "Nope, not at all. I''ll just ask around real quick. If you want to look around, feel free." She nced above me before a bead of sweat formed on her head. "You''re pretty easy to find."


    "Hm.. Alright then. I''ll be around here then."


    As she nodded, she turned around and disappeared into the crowd, so I climbed up onto a nearby roof to pet Ilios and pass the time. -I wonder if she can see my aura...-


    Slowly getting lost in thought again, the next few minutes passed in a sh and Amara quickly returned.


    "Hey, I found a spot to eat. It was a ce an elder half-breed down there rmended, so it should be good." She pointed towards a bakery just down the street with a middle-aged man behind the counter.


    "Alright, lead the way then." As I stood up with Ilios, Amara hopped back down onto the street and motioned us down. -She seems awfully excited... Is she that hungry?-


    I thought of it as a joke at the time but little did I know, she was indeed <em>that</em> hungry.


    "Haaaah..." *Thud* Amara mmed down her empty mug after chugging its contents.


    "Are you alright? Have you not eaten in a few months or something?" I couldn''t help but ask as I looked at her over the table full of tes and dishes. -She''s eating like she just came off a fast...-


    "If you hadn''t let me drink that devilishly good alcohol, I wouldn''t be like this!" She gave me a slightly angry nce before digging back into the food.


    "Come on, how are you going to me me for that? You didn''t need to drink almost the entire barrel."


    "You''re willpower is just as freakish as your strength. Being able to resist the urge to drink it makes you the odd one..."


    I wanted tough at her, but she wasn''t wrong. -To be fair though, if I hadn''t had a barrel and a half beforehand, it would have been far more difficult...-


    "It has been a while since I have seen such a beautiful woman eat so much." The kind, olderdy serving us the food nced at me with a worried look as she set down another te. "Is she okay?"


    "She''s just hungry. Sorry for making a scene." I nced around to notice everyone''s eyes on our table. "We will pay extra for the trouble."


    "Ah, that''s not necessary, sir." The poordy started getting nervous when I mentionedpensation. "If you would like anything more, please just tell me, and I will prepare it for you."


    Almost immediately, Amara pulled her head out of the chunk of meat in her hands. "In that case, do you have any tiger thigh left?"


    "I believe so." The woman slowly started to break into a nervous sweat. "Shall I check for you?"


    "If you could."


    As the poordy walked back into the kitchen, I got ready to say something but was interrupted by a door in the hallway next to the kitchen opening. -That aura... Is it another halfie?-


    At that point, I wasn''t too surprised since there had been dozens of them outside as well, but when the person in the room finally walked out, a massive mix of shock and confusion built up instantly.


    It was an unfamiliar pale-skinned woman with scales scattered all over her body, but she had a very specific, aura-like manaing from her head. -To think she would be here, what happened to her?! Wait before that, SHE''S ALIVE?!-


    For the next minute or so, I watched as she talked to the olderdy in the kitchen before eventually picking up a few dishes and getting ready to bring them to the tables, but as she finally came into the main area, she froze.


    *clunk-st* The bowls of soup and cups full of alcohol in her hands came crashing to the floor as her whole body tensed up.


    As I thought about what to do with her though, Amara finally nced over. "Hm? What was all that noi-" But the instant she saw the waitress, her pupils dted and a palpable bloodlust filled the air around her.


    The anger that she had been suppressing throughout the day rushed forward like a tidal wave. A tidal wave she couldn��t control.


    In the next instant, she vanished from the table and dashed across the room, reaching for the waitress''s neck.


    -Aye!- Jumping up from my seat, I quickly caught up to Amara and caught her wrist. "I''m not sure why you''re attacking her, but I can''t let you kill myb rat." But as I tightened my grip, my gut told me something felt off. -This isn''t like her...-

 Chapter 192: Control Over The Mind

    Chapter 192: Control Over The Mind


    Late Afternoon - Late Fall : Northern Market District (Valtivar)


    "I''m not sure why you attacked her, but I can''t let you kill myb rat." I gave Amara an intimidating re, but she didn''t back away from it.


    Instead, she hastily jumped in the air, rotated, and mmed her foot down into my corbone with the intent to kill me.


    *CRACK* The wooden nks lining the floor simultaneously shattered when I spread the impact around the room, but the shift in my attention caused the light magic disguising my eyes, horns, and scales to fade as well.


    *silence* Looking at her in the eyes with thin draconic pupils, I tried my best to suppress my anger. "I''ll give you one more chance to exin what you''re doing before I knockmon sense back into you."


    The anger on her face finally started subsiding after I spoke, but instead of a familiar look taking its ce, her eyes simply looked lifeless.


    -Something''s wrong...-


    But as my mind raced to try and figure out a solution, a tall and muscr elven man ran up to us. "Hey, what do you think you two are doi-" *CRUNCH* His body was mmed through the floorboards before he even got close.


    "Don''t interrupt." I gave the man a death stare but was promptly interrupted by Amara swinging around again before throwing another kick into the side of my head. *pat-CRACK* As I caught her leg, I noticed that she was kicking with more force than her body should have been able to naturally exert. -That''s not Amara...-Thinking she could have been under the influence of magic, I sted some aura through her head, but nothing seemed out of ce.


    -F*ck!- It wasn''t until after I caught several more blows that my instinct finally took over and umted space mana around my palm without the thought of repercussions.


    *WHAM-Vwoom* Arge ripple was sent through the fabric of space as her head recoiled back from my palm, but the wave wasn''t alone. Within the shockwave was a tiny circr warp.


    Without thinking, I reached out and created millions of microscopic gates where the warp was, shredding whatever caused it and scattering its remnants in the void. *Crackle* There was a momentary bright sh as countless atoms were ripped apart by the gates, but it vanished before anyone could react.


    *Thud* As Amara''s body limply fell to the floor, my mind finally caught up to speed and broke into a panic. -SH*T! I didn''t kill her, did I?!-


    Hastily lowering myself next to her, I did a deep, full-body scan of her, and noticed that, shockingly, she looked fine. -There''s some broken cartge in her neck, but that''s it...- "Phew..." For a dragon, the injury might as well be a bruise. -Thank goodness...-


    As I let out that breath of relief though, I finally noticed just how many people in the room were still awake.


    -To think this many were strong enough to not pass out from this much of my aura...- While casually thinking of ways to make sure this incident would stay under wraps, I had one idea that stood above the others. -Hmm...- ncing to my side, I looked at the elven girl with the exposed dragon scales. "Liv Sigmond was your name, correct?"


    Immediately breaking from her fear-driven trance, she looked at me like an emotionless dummy.


    -Did the magic turn on?- *Tap* Setting my hand on her head, I used my mana to halt the effect of the oath magic I put on her.


    Almost immediately, the fog behind her eyes disappeared. "Huh? What am I-AH!" She jumped back when she saw me.


    "It''s been a while, Miss Sigmond. How have you been?" I gave a friendly smile when I asked, even though I didn''t care in the slightest.


    "P..please spare me and my grandmother..." She fell to a grovel immediately. "No one knows what happened in the mountains, and they never will!"


    She was clearly scared that I came to kill her, but that wasn''t the case. "I''m not here to kill you, I just want to hear about the effects of my little spell."


    As she looked back up at me with the eyes of apliant puppy, I noticed an older man in the room shift towards the door.


    "Maybe it''s best if I take out the lights for a moment..." *th-th-th-th-th-th-thud* Everyone still awake in the room simultaneously copsed as I forced them to sleep. -Much better...- Turning back to Liv Sigmond, I gave her a curious look. "Now, how about you tell me what your experience with my magic was like?"


    The next several minutes were wrapped in conversation as she exined every detail about how she felt when thinking about the incident and things rted to it.


    To my surprise, the magic worked far better than I expected and gave much more warning as to when it would be set off than anticipated. -A part of me thought it would be too sensitive.. but to think it''d be spot on...-


    By the time we finished talking about the magic, I managed to get a good idea of what needed to be improved and what didn''t, and even managed to figure out a way to make the runes deteriorate slower and work more efficiently. -To think a singleb rat would be so inciteful...-


    "So.. you''re letting me live?" She was still unsure about the whole situation.


    "Did I say I was going to kill you? You''re quite a valuable test subject now, so don''t worry about that. Plus..." -I still have more information I need to dig out of you...- I nced at the dirty bronze scales on her ears before turning to the rest of the room and raising an arm. -For now, I''ll just make sure this incident stays under wraps...-


    *vwooom* A wave of mana washed through the room before umting on everyone''s heads and quickly disappearing. -That was smoother than expected...-


    After taking a moment to make sure there weren''t any defects in any of the runes, I reached down and picked up Amara''s body. -They should be knocked out for a while. In the meantime...- "How about you follow me back to the inn, Sigmond. I have some more things I need to ask you about."


    She immediately broke into a nervous sweat as she nced toward her grandmother, lying unconscious in the kitchen. "May I at least tend to my grandmother before we go?"


    ncing in the kitchen, I saw several exposed mes and burning food and figured it''d be better to avoid a big fire in a town made entirely of wood. "Sure, just make it quick."


    In a flurry of movement, she dashed around the kitchen and tidied up most of it before putting her grandmother in the back room anding back out with a forced smile on her face.


    "You ready?"


    "Of course." She hesitated for a moment before throwing herself into a bow. "T..thank you!"


    -What is she thanking me for?- I took a moment to think about it before giving up and just looking past it. "Don''t worry about it."


    Quickly hiding my draconic features with magic once again, I tossed a few gold coins onto the table and made my way outside with Amara in my arms and Ilios in tow.


    But, once I got outside, I quickly came to realize that I had no clue where the inn even was. -Sh*t... I forgot to ask beforehand...- Slowly turning to Sigmond, I shot out another question with no expectations. "Do you know where an inn called the Golden Lotus is?"


    Almost immediately, she gave a fast nod. "Would you like me to guide you?"


    "If you could." I felt a bit awkward asking, but there was nothing I could do about it.


    Quickly making our way down a few roads and wrapping around the center of the treant we were on, we eventually came across a tall, three-story building with a golden lotus on the front. -How gaudy...-


    *Click* We quickly made our way inside, where we were met with a young elf halfie woman with a concerned look on her face. "Sir, we don''t endorse kidnappings." She looked like she didn''t even know what to do.


    "Very funny." My sarcasm was palpable. "I''m here for a reservation under the name, Amara Chalkos." As I pulled out my ID and set it on the desk, I gave the receptionist a look of genuine curiosity. -Did Amara really make a reservation 15 years in advance?-


    "Ah.. yes. I see that name here." She nervously looked at my ID before looking at Amaraying unconscious in my arms. "Would that happen to be Amara?"


    "Yeah. She ended up getting a little too drunk and passed out. Sorry for the inconvenience."


    After nervously ncing back and forth between my ID and me, thedy reluctantly handed us a pair of keys. "Room 304. The second room on your left, on the top floor."


    -Sweet.- "Thanks! If you''d like, I''ll send her down to confirm everything when she wakes up."


    A bead of cold sweat started to form on her head. "I..f you could, that''d be great."

 A Rouge Professor

    A Rouge Professor


    Hey guys, sorry to be doing this right after I said there wouldn''t be a break or dy for a while, but there won''t be a chapter today. I didn''t want or mean for it to be dyed, but things just didn''t go ording to n.


    Long story short, my sses started back up yesterday, and unlike what I expected and nned, my ss schedule didn''t allow me to finish my rewrite or the new chapter as I expected. I''m currently changing the schedule so this kind of dy doesn''t happen in the future, and I once again apologize for theck of a chapter today.


    Thank you everyone for your understanding, and an extra thank you to all of you whoment! Yourments are genuinely what keep me going and I cannot thank you all enough for it!


    In any case, I hope everyone has a good day, and I''ll see you all Saturday!

 Chapter 193: Divinity

    Chapter 193: Divinity


    Early Evening - Late Fall : The Golden Lotus, Northern Market District (Valtivar)


    *Click* A click echoed down the silent hallway as we opened the door to our room.


    -Hey, not bad...- The room was quiterge, with the main area and several different bedrooms, but to my surprise, not only was there a kitchen, but also a bathroom with proper running water. -It reminds me of hotels on Earth, just with a generally lower build quality...-


    But now wasn''t the time to explore the rooms. Instead, I quickly set Amara on the bed in the first room next to the front door and made my way back into the living space.


    "Haah, alright. Back to you." As I sat down on a nearby cushion and patted my side for Ilios toy down next to me, I looked up at Sigmond with a serious expression. "I want you to exin everything rted to those scales all over your body."


    She tensed up the instant I asked but took a deep breath and quickly calmed back down. "Haaah.. where do I start?"


    The next hour felt like an eternity. My mind raced to make sense ofplicated exnations and apply logic to illogical situations, but that difficulty only umted the more she spoke.


    "My grandmother mentioned that the mystic beast was also likely an evolutionary one, which is a type of beast that evolves extremely frequently based on what it eats." Even though we had been talking for quite a while, she was still nervous. "Elixirs made from their body parts are usually what helps elves and demihumans evolve and be closer with the gods."


    -Closer to the gods? Wait, first of all...- "Demihumans and elves can evolve? What do they evolve into?" My curiosity shot through the roof immediately."Y..yes. They evolve into high-elves or high-demihumans, respectfully. They are known as races with bodies capable of obtaining ''divinity'', simr to dragons. Although I only have my Grandmother''s word for the dragon part..." There was not an ounce of confidence in her voice.


    -''Divinity''? ''Simr to dragons''?!- My mind stuttered the more she spoke. It wasn''t till after several more seconds of silence that I finally spoke again. "What do you mean by ''obtaining divinity''?"


    "Well..." She nced around the room like she was struggling to think of what to say. "In school, we were taught that you needed two things to be an apostle. You must not only be a ''high'' race to have a body capable of handling divinity but also have unparalleled devotion to either Dagr or Nott. (The two gods the Sirathan religion worships) I''m.. still not sure how obtaining divinity really works."


    -''A body capable of handling divinity'' and belief in a god...- "Is divinity a type of energy like mana?" -But if that''s the case, what does prayer have to do with it?- I identally said what I was thinking out loud, but I still looked toward Sigmond to see if she knew.


    But she just tilted her head like she didn''t understand what I meant.


    -I guess I was expecting too much from her...-


    As I leaned back and wracked my mind to try and think of any other mysterious energies I knew of that weren''t mana, a foreign yet familiar voice met my ears. "~It''s a bit moreplicated than that...~"


    Immediately tensing up and locking my eyes on the source of the voice, I red at a fairlyrge warp in the fabric of space not far from me.


    "~Not again!~" The warp vanished the instant I set eyes on it.


    -Is this thing different from what caused the first warp I saw?- I thought back to the spine-chilling hostility I felt when I woke up after fighting the lurkers. -This one looks smaller too.. like the one I saw in theb...- Frantically scanning the room, I tried to find the warp again but found nothing.


    "Is there something wrong?" Sigmond''s voice was a bit shaky as she gave me a confused look.


    -Huh?- "Did you not hear that?"


    "Hear what?" Her head tilted like a confused puppy.


    -She really couldn''t hear it...- I was at a loss for words, but that was when the voice returned.


    "~Wait, you can finally hear me?!~" The warp appeared in front of me instantly as if it teleported. "~I really thought you would take longer to be able to hear me.~"


    As I turned back to the warp, this time with less hostility, I felt like I could see the faint outline of a person, but their body was just made up of a cloud-like fog. -Why does that voice sound familiar though...-


    "~Finally... Only one more step before your body is prepared...~"


    -What does that mean?- I felt a chill pass down my spine as I thought of the meaning behind those words. "Who are you?"


    "Huh? Me-"


    "No, not you." I looked at the warp in space once again. "I''m talking about you."


    "~Awe... Have you really forgotten me? It has only been a few years... Or are your eyes just not as developed as your ears?~"


    -What does that even mean...-


    "~Well, it doesn''t really matter anyways. We will meet again soon enough.~"


    "Can you at least tell me what or who you are?" My hostility against the voice at that point had already been reced by curiosity.


    "~Just think of me as your personal guide!~" Almost immediately, two cloud-like shapes extend from the back of the figure like wings. "~In any case, you shouldn''t attack me, unlike ''him''.~"


    "What? Who''s ''him''?" Ideas and theories raced through my mind as my thoughts continued to speed up.


    "~Hmm. I''ll just say its the guy you have dealt blows to more than once already.~"


    -What?- The image of the small warp I knocked out of Amara immediately came to mind. -Was whoever ''he'' is, controlling Amara''s actions somehow?!-


    "~Although I can''t tell you why right now, he is after your life and will use every opportunity he can to take it.~" The figure vanished for a second before immediately returning. "~I''m all out of time. Just know it''s easier for a being like ''him'' to control someone who has lost themselves to their emotions. If he takes control of someone, handle it like you just did unless you don''t value their soul.~"


    -Like I just did?- Although I''m still not sure where my trust in the figure''s words came from, I immediately thought back to what I did to Amara andmitted the act to memory.


    But even though it only took an instant for me to memorize it, by the time I finished, the figure was already gone.


    -Damn... I still had so much more I needed to ask...- Trying to control my curiosity and slow my thoughts back down, I looked around the room and noticed Sigmond showing me a look of concern. "Haah.. so you really couldn''t hear any of that?"


    She quickly shook her head.


    -So what could that figure even be then...- Countless ideas or theories passed through my mind, but none of them made any sense. "Haah.. it really feels like I just talked to a ghost." As things finally calmed back down, I moved back over to the cushion and went to sit down. -How do I even make sense of all that...- I felt like I had a clump of raw information mmed into my brain that I still couldn''t make sense of. -So Amara was being controlled by some supernatural being that is after my life...- It was a hard pill to swallow.


    But while I was hastily sorting the information, I heard an odd groan from Amara''s room. "Ugh..." *rustling*


    -She woke up already?!-

 Chapter 194: The Flood Gate

    Chapter 194: The Flood Gate


    Mid Evening - Late Fall : The Golden Lotus, Northern Market District (Valtivar)


    Quickly getting back up from the cushion, I ran over to Amara''s room, where I saw her sitting up in bed with her hand on her head. "W..what? W..where am I?"


    "We are at the inn. How are you feeling?" Having Ilios sit in the doorway to make sure Sigmond didn''t peek her head in, I walked up and sat on the edge of the bed.


    "Huh? Vasilias? Is that-Ah, sorry..." She looked incredibly troubled and confused, but after a short moment, she just looked back down at her bedsheets. "What.. happened?"


    "Can you not remember anything?" Seeing her reluctantly shake her head, I tried to give a quick overview. "We were getting a bite to eat before we came to the inn, but then all of a sudden you leapt up and attacked the waitress. I managed to stop you, but you weren''t acting like yourself and even attacked me a few times."


    A look of guilt immediately washed across her face. "I.. actually attacked you?"


    "Yeah, don''t worry too much though. Things ended up working out alright. I do still want to know why you just went for her neck though..." I immediately thought back to the warp''s voice from just a moment ago. -''People lost to their emotions are easier to control'', huh? But what made her lose control in the first ce?-


    Amara just looked confused though. "I''m.. not really sure..."


    I gave her another moment to think before deciding to pull in the catalyst itself. -I''m sure she''ll remember when she sees Sigmond, right?- "Ilios, can you bring her in for me?"Giving a confident nod, he quickly disappeared from the doorway.


    Turning back to Amara, I put on a serious expression. "I have no idea what could have made you so upset that you''d want to kill her, but please don''t lose yourself this time. I just want to understand what''s wrong..."


    "O..okay..." She didn''t seem to really understand, but she nodded anyway.


    We sat in silence for another moment until we could hear the pitter-patter of Ilios trotting back towards the room. *tip-tap-tip-tap*


    As he got closer, I kept my eye on Amara and braced myself.


    She gave me an odd look as she noticed how tense I was, but her confusion vanished as Ilios walked back through the door with Sigmond in tow.


    Her pupils dted and her body tensed up immediately, but thankfully she seemed to still be in control of it, even if just barely.


    The instant Sigmond saw Amara''s look, her face lost its color and she looked down towards the floor.


    It was a look of surrender, but Amara didn''t care for it. "Who are you?"


    Although the question was simple, the tone of her voice made it sound like a threat. "M..y name is L..Liv Sigmond... The current C..Commander of Spiall''s military forces."


    But Amara''s sharp re didn''t dull even after her answer. "Does the name Dion ring a bell?" Amara''s anger looked like it was about to burst through the dam any second.


    But her question just threw me a massive curveball. -Dion? What does he have to do with this?- Momentarily taking my eyes off Amara, I looked towards Sigmond just to see her not react at all.


    "Hooh..." She took a deep breath to calm her nerves before speaking with shocking rity. "I do not know anyone with that name."


    -She isn''t lying...- ncing back at Amara, I noticed her gaze had finally dulled just slightly.


    "Then is this familiar?" Hastily reaching into her pocket, she pulled out and set a small bronze scale on the bed.


    It was only a few seconds after she showed it that everything started to click. -That draconic part of her aura...- Turning to look at Sigmond again, I finally recognized it. -It''s really simr to that half-breed kid''s, isn''t it...-


    Now being on the receiving end of both of our gazes, Sigmond shriveled up further. "I do not."


    "Oh really now?" Amara didn''t believe her at all. "It looks simr to those scales on your neck, don''t you think?"


    Unable to continue to stand up straight, Sigmond fell into a deep bow. "I have no connection to the ingredients in the elixir that caused the scales to appear on my body." She nced up at me as if looking for support, but I was already wrapped up in my thoughts.


    -Wait a minute... If the secret ingredient in the elixir was a dragon scale, then the weird evolution would make sense, but...- Looking down at the scale on the bed, I struggled to believe that the child''s scale could have been used in the elixir. -Where could the scale have evene from?- Almost immediately, a sickening feeling filled my stomach. -There''s no way, right?- "Do you know the name, Yrsa Helvig?"


    The instant I said the name, both Amara and Sigmond twitched, but Sigmond was the only one to talk. "She is the crippled daughter of Marquis Helvig. A well-known noble family here in Valtivar."


    -She survived?!- For a split second, a mix of aura and bloodlust rushed forward, but I was quick to suppress it again, even if it was with delusions. -I need to calm down... I don''t have any proof the ingredient was the kid''s scale beside a vague resemnce...-


    But unlike me, Amara couldn''t trick herself anymore. "Are you implying that a child''s scale was used to make a f*cking elixir?"


    Sigmond broke out into a nervous sweat as she lowered her head even closer to the ground. "I was only ever told t..hat it was an ingredient supplied b..y the previous Commander, Commander Dolph!" She seemed desperate to get out of the situation.


    "Vasilias." Amara''s voice was cold but calm. "I think I need some.. fresh air..."


    Hastily turning around, I noticed Amara''s body waspletely rxed as if she had finally let go of her anger, but her eyes still had fire behind them. "What are you thinking of doing, Amara..." Her eyes gave me a bad feeling.


    "I just want to confirm something..." As she swung her legs off the bed, she let out a deep breath. "I won''t be long."


    But as she hopped off the bed and tried to walk out, I stood up and stopped her. "I don''t know what you''re thinking of doing, but you need to take a minute and give it some more thought."


    My words weren''t taken kindly though. "More thought? What good is giving more thought to something that will always remain a theory?" She was clearly getting upset. "How will only thinking about an issue resolve it?"


    Her words immediately struck a chord in my mind, making me unable to refute them. "So are you going to just waltz into a Marquis''s estate?"


    Her pupils dted slightly as she finally looked me in the eyes. "You think they can stop me?"


    I couldn''t even respond. "Haah..." -She just can''t continue to trick herself into believing the hunter did a good thing...- There was a short moment of silence as I contemted whether to stop her or not before finally moving aside. "Just.. make sure you confirm your thoughts before you make a mess..."


    When she saw me sit back down on the bed, the fire in her eyes dimmed slightly and she smiled gratefully. "I''ll be back soon." But as she walked past Sigmond, the expression she showed me disappeared. "If I find out you''re lying, you''re dead." *tap-tap-tap* *Click*


    As she left the room and closed the door behind her, silence epassed us, but it didn''tst long.


    "Haah..." ncing at Sigmond, I noticed she still looked excessively nervous, but some color had returned to her face. "I''ll let you go back home in a bit, but I want to talk more about divinity first."


    "O..okay..."


    As we walked back out into the living area, I picked up and poured myself a cup of alcohol to sip on. -I''m sure she''ll be fine, but...- I nced down at Ilios who was looking up at me like he knew what I was about to say. "Hey Ilios, can you follow after her and make sure she doesn''t get herself hurt?"


    Almost immediately, he gave an exaggerated nod and started trotting towards the door.


    "Make sure you''re careful!"


    "Woof!" He gave me a confident look as he nonchntly opened the door with magic and left the room.


    "Haah..." -I guess there''s nothing to be worried about with him...-

 Chapter 195: The Line Between Genius and Stupidity

    Chapter 195: The Line Between Genius and Stupidity


    Mid Morning - Late Fall : The Golden Lotus, Northern Market District (Valtivar)


    "Haah..." Several hours had already passed since Amara left, but instead of experimenting to pass time like I normally would, I was drowning my agitation in alcohol at the living room table. -I shouldn''t have asked Sigmond to try and exin divinity...-


    Long story short, once Amara left, and Sigmond and I went back to talking about divinity, my whole understanding of it was thrown out the window. -It honestly feels like an amalgamation of concepts bundled together to fill gaps of uncertainty in other theories...- (Like dark matter)


    Digging through my memories once again, I did all I could to try and visualize something that could possibly fit even just a handful of the concepts Sigmond mentioned, but nothing fit the bill. At least that''s what I thought.


    -Wait a minute... Could that be it?- Thinking all the way back to my dragon sleep in Kan, I finally remembered the tiny, mana-like energy that was exuded from my body in the ''dream''. (Chapter 77 [1])


    It was an energy that fit the mold for several of Sigmond''s oundish concepts, being a nearly omnipotent energy that even had the potential to manipte or create mana, but... -Did the voice say it was a bit moreplicated than that because it''s totally wrong? Or just partially...- *tap* Getting caught in another dilemma, I set my head down on the table. "Haah..."


    Although it was also a little concerning that my body in the dream exuded that energy, I was able to chalk it up to the energy simply not originating from anything divine as its name suggested. -But wait.. if I think of it as an energy that''s independent from the gods, how would mortal beings manage to obtain it?-


    As if a lightbulb lit up in my head, countless usible theories sted through my mind, with one that stood out among them. -What if I were to pressure mana beyond the point it would naturally turn crystalline?- Even though it sounded like an impossible scenario, even back then, I knew a creature could have enough mana that at the very center of their reserve, the mana would naturally crystallize. -It wouldn''t be crazy to think something could go beyond that, right?-


    But that was easier said than done.The next couple of hours felt like an eternity as I continued to get more and more agitated from failing to get a single reaction over and over again.


    But that was when an ident turned into a blessing.


    Mid-experiment, I identally used a bit of space mana and watched it send a tiny ripple through the fabric of space. *vwoom*


    This was nothing out of the norm, but something was a bit peculiar about mana��s reaction to it. -The mana didn''t warp with it?-


    Wanting to make sure I wasn''t going insane, I sent another, muchrger ripple through the bundle of mana I was looking at, and noticed that, unlike atoms, that both moved and appeared to visibly shrink momentarily within the ripple, the mana only moved.


    It was at that moment that an unfathomably insane idea came to mind. -What if I used a sudden warp in space to force the mana to undergo insane pressure?- It was a level of pressure far beyond anything naturally obtainable, but that didn''t mean there was no way it could be done by humanoids. -By using ripples caused by mana cores exploding, it would totally be possible...-


    Not realizing how hot the fire I was ying with was, I started with just a handful of aura and slowly escted things until I decided to try it on my reserve itself.


    -There wasn''t much of a reaction with the smaller amounts, but maybe it just needs a bnce of density, quantity, and pressure.- Looking more closely at my reserve, I lined the outside with countless rings of space mana and braced myself.


    "Hooh..." -Here goes nothing...- *vwoom* As the circr waves of space mana were shot into my reserve, the ripple continued to grow exponentially until it finally reached its apex at the very center of my ocean of mana.


    I watched intently, excited to see the result of the experiment, but before I could see what happened...


    *blip-VWOOOM*


    My mind flicked off like a light switch.


    *thud*


    -


    - Leif Vilulf ~


    *flip* "Holy..." -Just how excited were the citizens after hearing about The Revival during thest pilgrimage?- I struggled to believe my eyes as I read the paper on my desk: ''Current Estimated Poption: 226,469,020. 37% Increase from the previous pilgrimage.''


    -The area around the Tree of Prayer should still fit them all, but the capital will need to expand considerably before the next pilgrimage...-


    "Oh, Miss Apostle~!" *Thunk* Kicking open the door to my office was a familiar face, my childhood friend and personal assistant, Oda Ashild.


    "Took you long enough." Finally pulling my mind out of the paperwork on my desk, I leaned back and took a sip of my tea. "So how was your trip?"


    "Haah, couldn''t have been worse..." Plopping herself and her stack of papers down on the couch in front of my desk, she poured herself a cup of tea and swigged it like it was alcohol. "You''ll either be weing a new apostle candidate this pilgrimage or dealing with something unreasonably troublesome..."


    I tilted my head with a confused look. -What kind of options are those?- "Where is the possible candidate from?"


    "Spiall, the city that ended up killing that evolutionary beast." She leaned back like she was a bit agitated.


    -Oh right...- "Did they end up taking the elixir before we could seize it?"


    "Correct. One ended up taking it before we could get there, and sadly it was the most potent of the batch." Setting down her empty ss, she reached over and sifted through several papers. "Her name is Liv Sigmond, a student at the academy."


    "Oh, that''s good." Although I tried to stay nonchnt, just hearing her name made me excited. -Finally! A female candidate!-


    "A few years ago, when shest reported to the academy, she was low-cleric rank with quite an impressive record. Even at the pace she had then, she had the potential to be a priest."


    "Wow, so she is talented too? It sounds like she deserved the elixir in my opinion, so what''s with your expression?" Normally, Oda would also be excited about this kind of thing, but this time, her expression looked conflicted.


    "Haah... She underwent evolution after drinking the elixir, but..."


    "But, what? Did she turn into a frog or something?"


    As I was about to chuckle though, she looked me in the eyes. "Instead of bing a high-elf like expected, she became something closer to part elf, part dragon..."


    My mind stuttered the instant she said it. "Did you say, dragon?" Seeing her nod, I felt a sudden knot appear in my stomach. "Have you detained the people who made the elixir yet?"


    "Yes, and we did find the culprit quite quickly. At the orders and supply of the previous Commander of Spiall, a dragon scale was mixed into the elixir." Her face showed a mix of fear and concern.


    "Are you sure it was an actual dragon scale?" At that point, I was trying to hopelessly grasp at loose strings.


    "You remember Verdandi? That low-priest I brought with me? She said herself that the scales on Miss Sigmond''s body did <strong>not</strong> belong to a wyvern."


    "Hooh..." I had to let out a deep breath to try and calm down. "I need you to call her here immedi-"


    "Great Vilulf!" The voice of a maid I only vaguely recognized echoed down the hallway outside my office.


    -What could she possibly be interrupting us for?-


    *knock-knock-knock*


    "Pleasee in." My voice was merciless, but my expression changed when I saw the maid''s pale face.


    "I havee to deliver an urgent message! Someone is destroying the Helvig family!"


    *Vwoom-shatter* When my aura rushed forward into the room, the ss tea cup on my desk shattered. "Who dares to make a mess during the pilgrimage?!" I was simply livid. -Even the dragons can not cause a mess during this time!-


    Quickly springing up from my desk, I picked up my sword and clipped it to my waist.


    At that point, I was nning to go out and resolve the problem myself, but when I walked towards the door to my office, it felt like the sky copsed.


    *thud-Gasp* For a split second, I felt a presence so immense that I fell to my knees and gasped for air.


    "Leif!" Oda broke into panic and immediately came to my side, but her look of concern turned to confusion when she noticed my expression.


    I wore a smile, a smile of ecstasy. -I knew Dagr couldn''t have revived alone!- "Our lord.. has finally returned!"

 Chapter 196: A Step into a New World

    Chapter 196: A Step into a New World


    Late Afternoon - Late Fall : The Golden Lotus, Northern Market District (Valtivar)


    *GASP* Jolting awake with a gasp, I threw myself over and threw up blood. "Blurgh..." I didn''t have time to question what happened at all, I just felt awful. "BLURGH!" Each time I threw up, the liquid continued to darken, until it was simply ck sludge. "What the hell happened to m-BLEEGH..."


    I ended up throwing up over a dozen times before it was all out of my body, leaving a fairlyrge puddle of ck liquid on the floor of the room.


    *thump* "Haah.. haah.. haah..." As I rolled onto my back, I couldn''t do anything other than bathe in the feeling of relief. "What the hell.. happened to me..."


    In an attempt to see what I even threw up, I ran some aura through the puddle, but it just made me more confused. -What even is that sh*t...-


    The only way to describe it was to say it was a puddle of random organic waste with poorly ced mana strengthening it. -I thought my body didn''t produce waste.. where the hell did all that evene from...-


    Finally looking inside my body, I noticed that my reserve was only a little over half full. -What did I even.. Oh right...- Remembering my stupid experiment, I couldn''t help but want to kick myself. -What did it do though... The mana had to go somewhere...-


    Turning my attention away from my reserve, I looked through my body but only found a few changes.


    The two most noticeable of those I came across were the increase in the amount of muscle all around my body, and the increased rigidity of my bones, but neither of those could ount for the amount of mana I was missing. -But after being strengthened by so much mana, I wonder if my bones are even white still...-But as that casual thought passed through my head, I identally stumbled upon something. -What the?- Although I wasn''t sure what exactly I was looking at for a moment, it only took another second for me to recognize it.


    -Wait, it''s those things?!- Spread all throughout my body like a spider web were millions of astronomically tiny ck tubes [1], just barely too small for even singr protons to fit into. -I thought this was something that could only exist in that other dimension...-


    Thinking back to my dragon sleep in Kan, I vividly remembered the nearly infinite number of tubes thatposed my body in the dream but couldn''t help to have mixed feelings about seeing them now. -What even are they? They''re clearly not organic, but if that''s the case, why did they suddenly appear all around my body?- There was no semnce to the direction the tubes flowed either. It just felt as if they wereid down at random and were too few and far between to seemingly make any physical difference. -I mean, I really have to focus to find any of them...-


    I ended upying there for several more minutes after that to try and figure out what they were, but with no luck. -I''m sure I''ll figure something out eventually though, right?-


    *knock-knock* "Sir. um.. Vasilias?" The voice of the inn receptionist came from behind the door. "Are you alright sir?"


    -What is she doing here?- As I sat up, I took a second to clean up my appearance and cloak my, now slightly longer, horns.


    "Sir? If you don''t respond, I wille in to make sure everything is alright!" Her voice was drowned in concern.


    *Click* Opening the door, I looked down and noticed the receptionist was wearing a worried expression. "Is there a problem ma''am?"


    "Ah, uh. I was justing up to make sure everything was alright. The people next door said they heard a loud thud earlier in the day, and then not long ago, the people staying below reported a blood-like liquid dripping from the ceiling." Quickly looking me up and down as if to see if I was injured, her worried look slowly dissipated. "It seems I made some kind of mistake, I apologize." She fell into a bow before giving me a chance to say anything. "Sorry to bother-"


    "It''s fine, it is my fault anyways. I''ll clean it up, so I apologize for causing you to worry." Not wanting to let it sit and make my job more difficult, I moved my aura over to the puddle on the ground and under the floorboards, and nearly instantly turned it all to hydrogen. *sssss-spf* Likepressed air being let out of a can, air rushed through the floorboards.


    Not sure what even happened, the receptionist just looked at me with a mix of awe and confusion. "Uh... I-"


    "If that is all, I will return to what I was doing." Seeing her nod as if to say ��okay��, I wasted no time in closing the door and walking back towards the table. "Haah..." -And I really thought I wouldn''t do something as stupid as eating that mana core in Kan again...-


    Quickly sitting down and gettingfortable at the table, I went back to scouring through my body to look for other changes, but to no avail. Seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned to hours, eventually, before I knew it, around 4 hours passed by.


    *knock-knock*


    Casually looking at my aura through the door to see who it was, I was immediately met with a familiar face. -Oh, they finally made it.- Quickly cloaking my eyes and horns as the door swung open, I shot a nce towards Bjorn and Ynda. "How was the trip?"


    "Aaah!" Bjorn jumped back like a ghost leapt out at him.


    "Pfft... It''s good to see not much has changed." I couldn''t help but let a smile onto my face.


    "How can you nearly scare me to death and be so nonchnt?!" He gave me a yfully agitated look.


    "Haha, just get better at sensing auras. Wasn''t Ynda teaching you?"


    Bjorn just looked at me like I was crazy as he brought his bag inside. "Just because my teacher is enough of a monster to be able to sense your horrifically thin presence doesn''t mean I can."


    -Is it really that thin?-


    *Click* As he closed the door behind Ynda, he took a quick look around the room. "So whose room is whose?"


    "It''s up to you guys, I think Amara wants the first room though." Seeing Ynda and Bjorn give each other a weird look, I decided to add one other thing. "I won''t be sleeping in a bedroom so you two don''t need to share a room if you don''t want to."


    The instant I said it, Ynda''s face lit up. "I-it''s nothing like that!" As she turned away from Bjorn, she ran to the middle room. "I''ll take this room!" Before anyone could even think of saying anything, the door mmed behind her.


    "Haah..." -She really is hopeless...-


    Bjorn looked at the door like he didn''t even know what to think before eventually letting out a sigh. "Haah, sometimes I wonder if she''s really the age she says she is..."


    Time started to tick by again after that. Bjorn went and unpacked, and we spent a little while catching up before he inevitably went to bed.


    It wasn��t long after that, that the recluse finally came back out of her cove as well. *Click* Coming back out of her bedroom with a pillow in hand, was Ynda.


    She honestly looked like a kiding to ask her parents if she could sleep with them.


    "I thought you went to sleep." Pausing my experiment for a moment, I turned my attention to her.


    "I tried..." She looked incredibly lethargic, but something about her eyes looked fearful.


    -Did she have a nightmare or something?- ��Do you have something on your mind?��


    ��Ah.. well���� As she sat down, she gave me a look of curiosity mixed with anxiety. ��Are you.. really a dragon?��

 Chapter 197: My Limitless Abnormalities

    Chapter 197: My Limitless Abnormalities


    Late Evening - Late Fall : The Golden Lotus, Northern Market District (Valtivar)


    "Are you.. really a dragon?" She became anxious the instant she asked the question, as if she didn''t know how I would react to it.


    But I could only tilt my head. "What do you mean?"


    ncing towards Bjorn''s room, she casually put up a silencing barrier. "I know from Amara that you''re supposedly a pure dragon-like she is, but... your aura..."


    -Hm?- "What about it?"


    "Your control, your amount of aura.. even how it makes me feel..."


    "Does it make you feel bad or something?"


    "Well... It just makes me feel.. inferior... Not like, strength wise, but more.. existentially..." She hung her head with a gloomy expression. "Even if I am a half-breed, the inferiority I felt from Sir Myles Kalfas''s aura all those years ago cannot bepared to yours..." She looked away from me as she spoke. "I just find it hard to believe your aura could belong to a dragon..."


    "Hm." But unlike what she was likely expecting, instead of getting offended, I was simply surprised. -To think she could figure it out from just that...- Figuring it wouldn''t matter since Bjorn wasn''t around, I dissipated the light magic hiding my eyes and horns. "How''s this for proof that I''m a dragon?"As she slowly turned to see what I was talking about, her eyes widened. "..wait... YOU''RE AN ELDER?!" Her cheeks immediately turned rosy from embarrassment.


    "Pffft-haha! No, no. Technically, I''m only 15." -I''m actually 23 if I include my time in that bubble in Kan though...-


    But even if I said I was 23, it wouldn''t have made a difference. "It''s possible to awaken your true form that young?!" Ynda''s jaw was already hanging wide open.


    "Haha, I''m just a unique case. Don''t think too deeply about it."


    "Don''t think too deeply about it?!" *Wham* mming her hands down on the table, she gave me an upset look. "You awakened your true form over 100 years before Bahamut! The strongest and most talented dragon to ever exist! How are you so nonchnt about that?!"


    Her reaction made me want tough, but she said something that stuck in my mind. -Bahamut wasn''t always a god?- Although it sounded like something obvious, with the way most dragons treated him, he was portrayed as something closer to the creator of the dragon race. "How old was he when he awakened it?"


    "It was on his 121st birthday. How do you not kn-" *Click*


    -She''s back earlier than I expected...- Turning to the door, I saw Ilios happily trot inside with Amara in tow.


    "Hey, buddy." Quickly running up to my seat, he jumped up on me and started rubbing his head into my chest. "Haha, good boy." -Thankfully, she doesn''t look injured...-


    Likely noticing my aura scan through her body, she dissipated the light magic around her to reveal arge amount of dried blood on her clothes.


    -She really didn''t hold back, huh...- Looking at her saddened expression, it was obvious what the result of her ''interrogation'' was. -To think that hunter somehow survived and still had the audacity to keep a scale...-


    Wanting to try and cheer her up a bit, I pulled out a seat at the table and brought over the half-empty barrel of Piotita.


    Ynda didn''t react so calmly though. "Amara?!" Completely throwing our conversation aside, she hopped up and dashed over to Amara. "What did you do?! Are you alright?!" She sounded like a worried younger sister.


    "I''m alright, Ynda... I just.. had to confirm something for myself." Her expression seemed to warm up a bit as Ynda hugged her waist, but it just turned troubled again as she looked up at me. "Do you have a moment to talk, Vasilia- Huh?" Her troubled look turned to shock the instant she saw me pouring myself a ss of Piotita. "Oi! You can''t just drink the rest of the barrel while I''m gone!"


    As I put the ss to my lips, I gave her a taunting look. "Then you shoulde have some before I finish it all."


    Her saddened expression immediately subsided as she hurriedly grabbed another ss and poured herself a cup.


    I felt an odd sense of aplishment having cheered her back up so quickly, but little did I expect, my taunt was a bit more effective than anticipated.


    *gulp-gulp-gulp* She ended up drinking several sses back to back before uttering a single word.


    "Haah." *m* As she mmed the empty wooden mug onto the table, she looked me in the eyes with a yfully angry look. "How dare you threaten me with this divine drink."


    I could only smile as the faint sadness and guilt in her eyes finally fadedpletely. *sip* "I''m d you''re back safe, Amara."


    Her cheeks turned red and she averted her eyes the instant I spoke, but a momentter, she nced back up at me. "T..thank you, Vasilias..." She sounded a bit embarrassed to thank me, but it didn''tst forever.


    We quickly move on to light-hearted discussion after that, discussing whatever came to mind while avoiding anything rted to the half-breed kid and the hunter. But the topic was eventually directed back at me.


    "You know.. I''ve always wondered... Why do you always ''wear'' light magic to look demihuman, even in private?" Amara gave me a curious look as she set her ss down.


    "Hm? What do you mean? I can''t exactly show this to many people." I tilted my head a bit and pointed to my horns.


    "No, no. I mean the ears and tail... Why do you bother trying to disguise yourself with it, like now?"


    -Huh?- *sip* "I''m not disguising myself at all right now though."


    The instant I said that both Ynda and Amara mmed up, but Amara seemed to think I was joking.


    "Ha-ha, very funny." Her sarcasm was palpable, but when she finally saw my serious expression, she had a rude awakening. "Wait, you aren''t kidding?"


    I casually shook my head and moved my ears a bit. "My ears and tail are real."


    As if she still refused to believe me, she got up and leaned across the table.


    Thinking there was no reason to continue hiding it from them, I decided not to move away from her approaching hand.


    *Puff* Her expression froze as her fingers finally touched my ear. "So you.. aren''t a dragon?" Her voice sounded cold and lifeless, but it onlysted an instant. "Wait, but that''s impossible..."


    Thinking she was turning down a dangerous road, I decided to put her back on track. "I am indeed a dragon. I''m just.. an oddball of sorts."


    "Wait, so what race are your parents?" She continued to pop in and out of deep thought as she spoke.


    "They are both pure-breed dragons. Didn''t I tell you that before?" But even though I spoke with my usual confidence, it took several seconds for her mind to finally catch up to speed.


    Her face scrunched up from confusion as she went to speak. "H..how do you have both demihuman and draconic features if.. you''re a pure dragon? It would make more sense if you just said you were a dragon with mostly demihuman blood, but even that would just raise more questions..."


    "Hm." Thinking about how to word it understandably, I decided to just go for it. "Well, although I was indeed born as a pure dragon, my gic- I mean, my race was altered a bit by an artifact not long after I was born."


    Finally managing to calm down some, Amara seemed to be looking more like herself again. "An artifact?"


    "Yeah, it was something my father received as a gift after helping the Holy Empire in some conflict. He didn''t really know what it was or what it did for a long time, but that was when I hatched and ended up touching it."


    Finally starting to believe me again, Amara looked like she was trying to figure it out with me, but that was when Ynda finally chimed in again. "So if the artifact changed your race.. what did it change to?"


    "Ah, I think I''m technically part Dragon, part Ancient Fenrir." I said it casually, but the instant it met their ears, their eyes went wide, and faces paled. -Did I say something wrong?-

 Chapter 198: What I am

    Chapter 198: What I am


    Late Evening - Late Fall : The Golden Lotus, Northern Market District (Valtivar)


    Silence filled the room the instant I finished talking. -Did I say something wrong?-


    Seeing Amara and Ynda''s pale faces, I started to second guess whether it was really a good idea to tell them about what I really was. -As long as they keep it a secret though, it should be fine, right?-


    But as if to destroy my newly built falsefort, Amara slowly turned and looked up at me. "D..did you s..say Ancient.. F-F-Fenrir?" It was the first time I had ever heard her stutter and, needless to say, it didn��t ease my worries at all.


    ��Y..yeah? Is there something wrong with that?"


    She just sat there frozen for another moment before looking toward the ceiling like she was trying to reason with herself. "Well... T..that would indeed e..exin a lot..."


    Thinking it was a sign that she knew something about them, after taking a second to think of what to ask, I decided to probe a bit. "Do you know much about the Ancient Fenrir?"


    But her reaction was a tad different than I expected. "Obviously!" She looked at me like I was stupid.


    I jolted back a bit from surprise. -What''s with that reaction...- "How much do you-""A LOT! Everyone in this entire country knows about them! I think I��ve even talked to you about th- WAIT WHAT?!"


    I had to move back a bit further as she stuck her head out toward me with a look of disbelief.


    "Y-y-you don''t know about them?!�� A mix of anger and confusion clouded her face. ��You mean to t-tell me you don''t know what you are?" She honestly looked a bit lightheaded.


    There was another short moment of silence while I desperately tried to think of what to say. "Y..you remember when you asked me why I came to Siratha?"


    A confused look came to her face immediately.


    "Well, I actually came here to learn about the Ancient Fenrir."


    As I reluctantly moved back to my seat at the table, Ynda and Amara looked at each other in shock. "What do we even say?"''


    Ynda''s eyes bounced back and forth between Ilios and me before finally turning back to Amara. "What can we even say?"


    As they finally turned back to me with looks of disbelief, I couldn''t help but feel ufortable, like I was caught with my pants down. -I know the Ancient Fenrir are beings superior to dragons, but what''s with this reaction?- I honestly thought they were overreacting at first.


    But the deafening silence only continued for another moment before Amara broke the ice with a serious expression. "Vasilias... How much do you know about them?"


    -Huh?- It was a question that came from left field, but I somehow felt ready for it. "I don''t really know much, honestly. The main points my parents always told me were that there were only ever two of them, one ck and one white and that dragonspared to them as a hatchling wouldpare to an Ancient."


    ��...�� Amara and Ynda had serious looks as I spoke but��


    The silence that filled the room after I stopped talking only got more awkward with every passing second.


    Amara''s serious look steadily turned to disbelief again before I knew it. "Huh? T..that''s it?!" *Wham* She seemed genuinely upset as she mmed her hands into the table just like Ynda did earlier. "That''s all your parents ever told you?!"


    Taken aback by her hostility, I was simply at a loss for words. "Y..yes?"


    *pat* As Amara fell back into her chair, her head fell into her hands. "Hooh... I need to calm down..."


    Not sure what to do or think, I just sat there in silence, bracing myself for her to jump out at me again. -I definitely shouldn��t have said anything��-


    But as I felt a bead of cold sweat form on my forehead, Ynda leaned over the table with an expression devoid of her usual childlike nature. "Vasilias. I think you''re misunderstanding something."


    The demanding tone in her voice made me unreasonably nervous. "Huh?"


    "You seem to think the Ancient Fenrir are a species or race." Seeing me nervously nod, she continued with a serious tone. "Although you aren''t entirely wrong, since the Ancient Fenrir did originally evolve from regr Fenrir, that name isn''t the name of their race."


    Struggling to understand what she was trying to get at, I only got more confused. "What do you mean?"


    "The name ''Ancient Fenrir'' is actually more of a name given to lump together two.. beings." She paused to make sure she was wording things carefully before continuing. "Think of the name ''Ancient Fenrir'' as being something closer to a group name for two specific individuals, rather than a whole race."


    Although one might have thought that her exnation would have caused a light bulb to turn on in my head, in reality, my mind was still covered in a fog. "That.. just makes less sense. If Ancient Fenrir weren''t a race, then what did that artifact try to turn me into?" -My abnormal growth, strength, and body clearly have toe from something above dragons, but the Ancient Fenrir are the only thing that can fit the bill no matter how I look at it...-


    The room fell into silence again for a moment before Amara picked her head back up with a worried expression. "I''m going to just tell him, Ynda..."


    Ynda��s look immediately shifted to one of concern. "Are you sure?"


    It was a scene that made me so ufortable that I wanted to run away and hide in some random cave. -But.. this will clearly be important��-


    As Amara finally looked me in the eyes, I tried my best to ignore my difort. "Vasilias, do you know the names of the Ancient Fenrir?"


    With curiosity being the only thing keeping me from running away, I spoke with reluctance. "N..no?"


    Amara''s face scrunched up slightly like she was worried about how I would react before finally speaking. "It''s.. Dagr and Nott."


    The difort vanished immediately as time seemingly froze. "Dagr.. and Nott?"


    Looking up at the wall behind Amara, my eyes met with a carving of the sun and moon dancing around one another, and couldn''t help but feel like some sort of connection was made between my body and mind.


    -Day and night... Sun and moon... Life and death...- Looking down at Ilios, I noticed he was casually sitting there and giving me a wide smile. "You knew.. didn''t you..."


    His smile grew even wider as he straightened up his body and bowed his head toward the floor.


    -He.. always knew...- Things finally started to click as innumerable memories raced through my mind. -Even Grandmother and that woman from my ��dreams�� knew��-


    Leaning back in my seat, I looked down at my palm and felt the weight of countless questions ease off my mind. -The artifact didn''t alter my gics to be closer to a certain race.. it altered them to be closer to a certain individual...- My mind stuttered as it tried to wrap itself around the reality of my origin. -Closer to.. a god...-


    It was an epiphany. A realization that provided the answer to countless questions, but even though an immense weight was lifted off my shoulders, I honestly felt like it was reced immediately.


    -Me? A god?- As nonchntly as breathing, I pressed my thumbnail against another finger and shed it open. *shik* Dark red blood immediately came gushing out, and a sharp pain shot through my body, but I didn��t flinch. -No, of course I''m not��- As I watched the gash in my finger heal nearly instantly, I clenched my fist and tried to suppress my denial. -The artifact just made me capable of getting there.-


    But not long after that, while I was sorting the thousands of questions racing through my mind, I stumbled across a realization.


    It was something that made my eyes go wide. -What was the purpose of such an artifact to begin with?- It was a thought that sent my mind into even more turmoil. -How did they manage to get the gics of a god at all?-


    But thankfully, after what felt like an eternity, a voice started to pull me out of my thoughts.


    "Va..s..ia�� Vas..ias��" Like a voice calling me from the void, Amara''s worried tone slowly pulled me back to reality. ��Vasilias?!�� Her voice was panicked, and she was grabbing my shoulders with a worried expression when I finally came back to my senses.


    -Huh? What is she��- Noticing her look, I tried to get a grasp of the situation and calm her down. ��I..I��m alright. T..thanks����


    As I gently pulled her hand off my shoulder, she moved back with a guilty expression. ��S..sorry����


    ��No, no. Please don''t be sorry.�� As I tried tofort her, I gripped my forehead and tried to silence the millions of thoughts racing through my mind. "Hooh..." -One step.. at a time��-


    ��M..maybe I should have stayed quiet���� Amara was cringing from guilt as she spoke.


    ��Amara, please don''t feel sorry. This���� Although I was still struggling to wrap my head around it, it fit too many puzzle pieces to deny. ��I would have figured it out on my own eventually����


    ��But.. maybe that would have been better����


    ��Hooh���� Finally managing to calm down some, I gave her a serious look. ��I can promise you it wouldn��t have.�� As I leaned back in my seat and tried to think about what the situation would have been like, I felt a shiver pass down my spine. -In any case, what��s done, is done��-


    A mix of negative emotions immediately started to well up in my chest again, but that was when I felt Ilios jump up on myp and rub his head against my body.


    As I looked down into his pure, joyful, and angelic golden eyes, I felt the raging ocean in my mind start to calm and felt a smile slowly creep up onto my face. -Right��-


    Looking towards the window at the end of the room, I saw my unchanged reflection wearing a subtle smile. -What good does dwelling on what I am, really make? Will it answer all my questions? Will it fix the chaos in my mind?-


    Turning back to Ilios, I happily rubbed his head and ran my fingers through his fur. -It��s better to just let the wave throw you around, so what am I doing trying to fight it?-


    As I sat there in silence, I felt a calm, unlike anything I had felt in a very long time, overtake my body and mind.


    -I just need to deal with things as they happen, and take things one step at a time, like I��ve always done...- As a grateful expression came to my face, I looked over toward Ynda and Amara, who were still wearing worried looks. "I''m not sure if this will ease your worries, but t..thank you..." -Without you two, it would have been.. difficult to ept...-


    But as I bowed my head, I felt Ilios shift around on myp. "Woof!" His bark made me jolt a bit, but when I turned to look at him, he gave me a look of scrutiny.


    It was honestly adorable. "Hahaha, thank you too, buddy."


    But as if he didn''t want to ept myte thank you and head rubs, his look of scrutiny turned to a pout. "Hmph..."


    "Hmm, then how about we go down the treant and y some tomorrow morning?"


    Immediately turning back to me with stars in his eyes, his tail started speeding up. *tail wagging vigorously*


    "Haha, alright, let''s n for that then!" -I wonder if he really meant to cheer me up like that...-


    Although I didn''t recognize it at the time, looking back now, that short exchange with Ilios was what finally made me ept everything. To ept not just what I was, but what I was bound to be.


    I really wonder if that was his objective all along.

 Chapter 199: An Interrupted Trial

    Chapter 199: An Interrupted Trial


    Mid Evening - Late Fall : The Elder Hall, Northern Bahamut


    - Asimi Ragnarok ~


    "So what is the n for today? Any trials?" I asked as I sorted some human-sized paperwork with magic.


    "Yeah, we are starting off with one today, but it was a case that was only opened a week ago, so, before you ask, I don''t know much either." To my right was arge turquoise dragon, only a tad bigger than me. Her name was Galen Kerato, the sole daughter of a young, but famous ancient known as The Grand Healer. "At the very least, it should be an interesting start to the day."


    "Well, after having nothing interesting over the past two months, we can only hope so." Although it was indeed unusual for a trial to make it to the elder hall so quickly, it wasn��t totally unheard of. -Maybe it''s finally something major��-


    But not everyone took her words as casually as I did. "A trial got escted that quickly?!" On the opposite side of the hall was arge blue and brown half-breed named Lex Naftis. He was one of the two halfies to fill the spots left behind by Eugene and Basilia.


    Even after working together for a few years though, Galen wasn''t too fond of him. "It was escted through an executive decision." She didn''t even nce at him when she spoke.


    But I was too preupied with what she said to notice. "Wait, really?" -When was thest time that happened?- "Who escted it?"


    Thinking she knew, I looked over at Galen, but she simply motioned toward Pluto Chrysos, who sat on the opposite side of me. Put simply, he was a filthy rich, gold-scaled 665-year-old elder, the second oldest within the Hall, and the oldest present today by nearly 300 years.Having worked in the Hall for nearly 400 years at this point, seemingly nothing ever caught his interest, and today was no different. "It was a trail published and escted by Halcyon Aetos." He said it so nonchntly, that Galen and Lex took a second to react.


    But unlike them, I was more confused than shocked. -Aetos?- "Didn''t the Aetos family say they were backing out of the Court when that so-called prodigy was born?"


    "That was just the younger generation." Pluto shot me a look of indifference before turning back to his personal work. "Halcyon would rather give up his family name than lose that next-in-line spot to the Elder Hall he finally got after 200 years of effort."


    -Fair enough...- "But for him to submit and escte his own trial... Is he that confident he can win?" [1] -Isn''t he afraid to lose the very thing he''s devoted his life to achieve?-


    Galen seemed to be thinking the same as me as well. "I knew he escted it, but to think he was the one to actually submit it as well... Has he finally gone insane?"


    "It''s definitely possible..." -It sounds like he''s scheming more than anything though...-


    We continued to idly chat about it for a couple minutes after that, but eventually, Pluto cut us off.


    "Whatever he''s thinking, if it is a false im, we need to catch it." Finally moving his personal work to the side, he nced at the double door to the hallway that led outside. "He''s here."


    Assuming he just sensed an aura outside, none of us questioned him and started to follow his lead.


    While we were cleaning up our things, Pluto threw a nce at Lex. "Before hees in, Lex, don''t take everything he says at face value. Since your new here, you might not know, but he''s always been a schemer."


    With a slightly nervous nod, Lex finally finished cleaning his things.


    It was only a few minutes after that though, that a 20-meter-tall, wine-red dragon opened the door to the Hall. *ng-creak* She bowed her head right as she walked in and spoke clearly. "Halcyon Aetos has arrived."


    Waiting for her to continue, the Hall fell into silence for a moment. "Who did hee with?"


    "He came alone, Sir Chrysos."


    Immediately squinting his eyes, Pluto nced around the room to see us all sharing a simr expression. "Haah... Please send him in."


    "Right away." With a polite bow of her head, the young girl turned around and walked out of the Hall. *creak-nk*


    As silence quickly filled the room, everyone fell into thought.


    -He seriously came alone?- I simply couldn''t ignore such arge red g. -He''s been in the Court for nearly 200 years... What in the world is he thinking...-


    As I was thinking about it though, the noise of the lock on the door being removed echoed through the room. *nk* *creeeeak* As the door swung open, a 57-meter-tall, sky-blue dragon walked into the room with an air of confidence all around him.


    He was already off to the worst start possible, without a single one of us in the Hall giving him so much as an indifferent look.


    "Central Noble Halcyon Aetos greets the Elder Hall." After a shallow bow, he looked up to see our looks of skepticism, but his confident expression remained unchanged.


    There was another short moment of silence after his greeting before Pluto started us off. "As this is an escted trial, please start with the subject of the case and tell us who you n to involve with it. Then you may begin with your side of the story and present evidence as you see fit."


    With a quick nod, Halcyon''s expression finally turned serious. "I wish to use Amphitrite, The Queen of The Forbidden Seas, for illegal usage of a Divine-Grade artifa-"


    *WHAM* Cutting his words short, the door to the hallway behind him was mmed open.


    The moods of everyone in the Hall somehow darkened even further.


    "Sir Aetos! Sir Aetos!" The 18-meter-tall, dirt-brown half-breed called for Halcyon the instant he got through the door, but none of us were amused.


    "Do you understand what it means to interrupt a trial?" Not caring to wait for someone else to do it, I jumped down from my seat and got ready to forcefully remove the man. -How did he even get past the guards?-


    His face paled when he noticed me walking toward him. "Y-y-yes, I am aware, Great Ragnarok!" He threw himself into a grovel without the slightest hesitation.


    "Then I hope you have a damn good reason for it." I gave him a threatening re as I stood over him.


    "I was ordered to deliver urgent news to Sir Aetos no matter what, please forgive me!" There was a short moment of silence that followed his plea.


    "Well? What is it?" Seeing his nervous nce toward Halcyon, I decided to try and appease my curiosity. -For him to still be reluctant in this situation.. it must be quite serious...-


    "W-w-well, Sir Aetos, your son, Cyrus Aetos..." He paused as he noticed Halcyon''s death stare. "He has been confirmed dead in Siratha''s capital, Valtivar, as of yesterday evening!"


    The Hall immediately fell into silence again, but it wasn''t from sympathy or sadness. It was suspicion. -Did he just say Siratha? What was he doing there?-


    Before I could act on that suspicion though, Halcyon broke the silence. "You expect me to believe my son simply died in thergest city on the western continent?!" He looked like he wanted to rip the messenger apart.


    "S-s-sir, I am only here to ry what I was told!"


    Seeing the man cower in fear, I finally asked what was on everyone''s minds. "Is there anything else you know?"


    The messenger tensed up immediately but was quick to continue. "His body was found buried under the rubble of the Helvig Family estate with arge hole through his torso." He paused to look up and see everyone''s looks of expectation before hastily continuing. "Prior to his body being found, the estate was destroyed with no survivors left behind. It is safe to assume he was caught up in the event!"


    Although the Helvig family name didn''t immediately ring a bell, I knew just how serious the destruction of a noble family in Valtivar, and the death of a young elder was. -Did one of the apostles do it?-


    But as I was thinking about it, Galen spoke up. "Halcyon, I thought your son was taking care of his child in central Bahamut. What was he doing in Siratha? In a Marquis estate, no less?"


    It was a question that was spoken like an acquisition, but surprisingly, his anger didn''t grow. "How am I supposed to know what he''s doing with his own ti-"


    Before he could finish, I remembered something and cut him off. "Wasn''t the Helvig family the one we investigated all those years ago for illegal distribution of information?"


    Galen was quick to confirm my memory. "Yes, we didn''t find anything at the time, but..." She squinted her eyes at Halcyon. "That doesn''t mean we couldn''t have identally overlooked something..."


    Unable to continue holding it back, his anger slowly started bing more apparent. "Are you implying my son was leaking information to those wretched elves?" He wore a look like he expected sympathy.


    But Galen''s re was merciless. "As the leaking of information has continued since that investigation, that is a possibility we cannot simply ignore."


    Seeing Halcyon''sck of response, Pluto voiced his opinion on the situation. "Messenger kid, you said the Helvig estate was destroyedst night, correct?"


    The messenger gave him a nervous nod. "T-t-that is correct sir Chrysos..."


    "Hm. Then how about we send a group to clean up the ce and send a group to Sir Halcyon''s estates to conduct a new investigation as well." Pluto looked at Halcyon to see how he''d react, but surprisingly, he didn''t react at all.


    "I have no objections."


    Pluto gave him a look of distaste at his response. "I doubt it would have mattered if you objected, but shall we cast a vote just in case?" Seeing everyone''s simrly distasteful expressions, a smile came to his face. "Those in favor, please raise your tail."


    Immediately, the four of us present in the Elder Hall raised our tails.


    "Then, let''s put it on paper, shall we?" Using magic, a paper and quill were pulled off his desk. He started reading what he was writing immediately. "In addition to a new investigation of the Helvig family and the cause of their demise in Valtivar, Siratha, we will conduct an investigation into the Aetos family. During this investigation, Halcyon Aetos is forbidden tomunicate with family members, and will conduct the previously scheduled trial as normal until further notice."


    Halcyon''s expression darkened as Pluto continued, but there was nothing he could do besides sit there and ept it.


    -But isn''t he a bit too calm after just receiving news of his son''s death?- I simply couldn''t help but feel ufortable.


    After continuing to read and write countless other legal details, Pluto eventually finished and moved the paper and quill towards Lex, then Galen, then me to sign it.


    None of us had the slightest objection before I finally handed the paper back to Pluto.


    "That is 4 signatures, the investigation will begin immediately." He casually handed the paper to Lex after checking the signatures. "Lex, could you run this over to Leander? He should be in the Central Estate still."


    The way Pluto asked sounded quite demeaning, but surprisingly, Lex seemed more than happy. "Of course!" Quickly grabbing hold of the paper with magic, he hopped out of his seat and trotted past me down the hallway. "Hehe, to think I''d actually be able to meet the Foreign Intelligence Leader in my lifetime!"


    As he trotted down the hall and made his way outside, I couldn''t help but sigh. "Haah..." -And I really wondered why Galen doesn''t like him...-

 Chapter 200: Mindful Steps

    Chapter 200: Mindful Steps


    Mid Morning - Late Fall : The Golden Lotus, Northern Market District (Valtivar)


    *Click* *Yawn~* "Hm?" Finallying out of her room after nearly a full day of rest, Amara gave me a confused look. "How do you and Ilios seem even closer than before?"


    "Haha, do we?" Looking down at Ilios, who was sleeping while stretched across my body, I couldn''t help but notice warmth fill my chest. -I guess I can''t deny it...-


    As I idly thought back to my ''enlightenment'' again, I casually ran my mind over the events that followed it to make sure I didn''t miss something.


    But in all honesty, not much happened.


    After I finally epted reality for what it was, Amara, Ynda, and I continued our talk for quite a while.


    At first, the conversation stayed aimed at Ilios and me to figure out what our ns were going forward since it didn''t make much sense to continue a pilgrimage meant to show loyalty and worship to ourselves. But after some thought, I decided to continue with things as they were. -At the very least, it''ll be worthwhile to see what the prayer is all about.-


    After figuring out our n though, the conversation finally changed directions andnded on Amara and her situation with the halfie and Helvig family.


    Our conversation gradually fell apart after that, and I''m sure it made her night feel like an eternity, but it was good for her to vent pent-up feelings and finally sort out her thoughts on the situation.Following that, Amara said she felt exhausted and went to take a nap, leaving Ynda and me alone for a while, before she inevitably went back to her room as well.


    But at the end of it all, it made things work out quite well.


    While they napped, I left the inn with Ilios and flew out of treant territory to spend the day ying with him.


    -Maybe I got a bit carried away while ying though...- Since it was the first time really ying with him after quite a while, we were at it for several hours non-stop, and I ended up not watching his stamina closely enough.


    When he suddenly slowed down and hung his head to pant heavily, I broke into panic, but things settled down once I finally realized that we had yed for twice as long as normal and used iparably more strength as well. -But to think those tiny ck tubes all around my body affected my strength and stamina so much...-


    After ying with Ilios for nearly the whole day, I wasn''t even half as winded as I normally was. But even though the gap between us in terms of strength and stamina widened... -He still crushes me in terms of speed... Without using magic, I could only barely even catch his tail.-


    But instead of feeling jealous, when I looked down at his sleepy face, I felt proud. -It''s good to see that you''re still getting stronger, buddy!- *pat-pat*


    "You know, recently, I was starting to question whether you or Ilios slept at all." Amara wore a smile as she poured herself a ss of water.


    "Haha, I don''t me you. It''s pretty rare." -Normally I''m more careful with his stamina, so he doesn''t get so exhausted...- I felt a bit guilty seeing his exhaustion, but I knew he wouldn''t have pushed himself so hard if he didn''t enjoy it. -If I told him I felt guilty about it, he��d probably just try to smack me��-


    "In any case, it''s good to see you didn''t change much." Casually picking up a snack and some cold water, Amara walked over to the table and sat down. "When I told you the Ancient Fenrir''s names, I was honestly scared it would ruin our rtionship..." She paused with a slightly conflicted expression on her face. "Haha, I guess it''s a good thing I canugh at that now, right?"


    Seeing she was still stressing over the whole situation, I decided to give her some simple advice. "Well, dwelling on the past is only worthwhile if you still have something to learn from it. Do you think there is still a lesson to be learned from it?"


    "But that''s the thing... How do you know if you''ve learned everything?" She gave me a slightly desperate look.


    "Haha, the funny thing is, you don''t."


    "Huh?" Not expecting my response, her conflicted expression turned to surprise.


    "What''s the difference between dwelling on something and constantly looking at it to find future solutions?" Seeing her fall into thought, I continued with a grateful look on my face. "At some point, you need to let it go and look forward again. If you don''t watch where you''re walking for too long you might identally step off a cliff."


    Seeing my worry for her, her look of surprise shifted to a warm smile. "T..thank you, Vasilias... I think I needed that." There was a short awkward silence that followed as she took a sip of water before changing the subject. "So what''s the n for today?"


    "Hm? I''m not sure, honestly. We still have two days till the prayer, so do you have any ideas?"


    "Hm, well, there should be some high-yield martial arts tournaments going on in the Northern Gambling District that we could check out."


    "Valtivar has a gambling district?" I immediately raised an eyebrow. -I wonder if it will only be tournament bets like the rest of the western continent though��-


    "Haha, Valtivar actually has four of them with the north and south being the biggest. Do you want to go check it out?"


    "Sure, are we gonna wait for Ynda and Bjorn to wake up and see if they want toe?"


    "Well, I''d assume you want to let Ilios continue sleeping, right?" She gave me a smile like she already knew the answer. "If they''re up by the time Ilios wakes up, then I don��t see why not."


    "Haha, fair enough." Looking back at Ilios again, I rubbed his head and felt a nket of pure bliss wrap around my mind. -Hehe...-


    The next couple of hours passed fairly quickly as Amara and I casually talked about whatever came to mind. It was a nice and calm chat, but that of course didn''tst forever.


    Eventually, both Ynda and Bjorn woke up and came into the living area for a morning drink and snack to start off the day, and, when asked if they wanted to join Amara and me, they immediately agreed.


    After that, we idly chatted and waited for Ilios to wake up. After about two hours, I was getting ready to just tell them to go on ahead of me, but that was when Ilios finally woke up with a stretch.


    "Haha, based on that stretch, it seems you slept well, huh."


    He gave a slow but strong nod immediately before licking my face a bit.


    "Haha, I love you too, buddy." With a few extra pets though, he finally moved to the side and let me sit up. "Well, bud. How does going to the gambling district sound? You want toe?"


    He nodded before I even finished. "Woof!"


    "Haha, it''s good to see you back to your energetic self again." Casually leaning over, I gave him a quick kiss on the forehead before finally standing up. "Well, now that he''s finally up, let''s get going shall we?"


    Seeing everyone in agreeance, we finally made our way out of the inn and across town as a group. We ended up walking for about a little over an hour before we finally made it to the district though.


    "Is this it?" Seeing that I was the only one new to Valtivar, I had to ask quite a few questions to stay up to speed.


    "Yeah, this is the edge of it, where lower-cost gambling dens are. The deeper you go, the more expensive they get." Amara spoke like she had fond memories of the ce.


    "Oh?" -So we��re going to the high-end district?- "Sounds fun! So where exactly are we going first? Didn''t you say it was a tournament or something?" Casually looking around, I tried to not make a connection to Earth, but I couldn''t see the ''gambling dens'' as anything other than casinos. -They even have card games of some sort...- Although I couldn��t tell exactly what the games were, the cards looked extremely simr to those from Earth. -It��s probably just a coincidence though��-


    Turning my attention back to where we were walking, we quickly traveled through the treant town and came into a different, more well-lit area with half-breeds, elves, and demihumans of all kinds walking around. -There are even some dark elves... How rare...-


    Continuing even further into the town, we eventually came onto a branch of a treant that didn��t act like a street at all. "What is this?" The entire width of the branch was taken up by arge raised tform.


    Thankfully, Amara was quick to exin. "This is called the Western Martial Road, it''s a ce for martial artists to fight and train, but.." She paused as we walked up the stairs to see countless people huddled around the arenas. "It doubles as a ce for people to bet on fighters."


    "Why is it the western Martial Road and not northern?" -And why is there not a single noble-looking guy or dragon around any of these arenas?-


    "Well, that''s because Valtivar��s Grand Martial Hall is at the center of that treant over there." A wild grin came to her face before I knew it. "That��s where the really big bets are!"


    Although I didn��t think much of her excitement at the time, thinking she was just excited to ce bets and watch, I was very, very wrong.


    *Ding* "And after 15 long years! The rising star, the Bronze Stallion, Amara Chalkos has returned!"


    Sitting in the stands among countless cheering elven nobles, half-breeds, and even dragons, I looked down at the arena to see Amara wearing adventuring clothes with an excited grin on her face.


    "Haha, I really should��ve expected it from her!" -To think she wanted toe here, not to ce bets, but to let off some steam��-

 Chapter 201: Under Ones Nose

    Chapter 201: Under One''s Nose


    Late Morning - Late Fall : Northern Gambling District (Valtivar)


    *ding-ding* "And the winner is Amara Chalkos! After 21 consecutive wins, her bounty has been increased to 18 tinum and 21 gold! Are there anypetitors who wish to give it a try?"


    -My lord, how many broken bones did that guy end up with?- I couldn''t help but look at the poor guy in the area with awe after seeing him still trying to stand up after having his arms and a leg broken. -She''s really merciless today... I wonder if she is still mad at that rich brat fromst night...- Idly thinking back to the scene of Amara knocking out a noble brat with a gold coin, I chuckled under my breath. -It''s a shame his guard didn''t fight Amara... That would''ve been a fun fight to watch...-


    As I waited for someone to inevitably fall to the temptation of 18 tinum, I walked up to the top of the stair-like seating area and got myself a drink. "Haah..." -I wonder what Bjorn and Ynda are up to...-


    It was the afternoon prior that they actually left.


    Although Bjorn did enjoy simply watching the fights, Ynda wasn''t so fond of it and ended up leaving only a couple hours after we got there. Unsurprisingly, Bjorn ended up following after her, while leaving me to watch over Amara.


    But it was a simple task. Before Bjorn even left, Amara was absorbed into her fights, using the steady flow of younger, overconfident dragons and halfies as punching bags, letting me simply rx in the stands.


    Whenever she had a break, she woulde to chat, but most of the time, I just theorized about repairing theboratory, only pulling myself out of thought to watch the asional interesting fight. -Watching fights is an oddly good way to clear mental blocks, huh...-


    "Here is your pink lily, sir!"Quickly reaching over the bar, I grabbed hold of the wooden mug the bartender handed me. "Thanks."


    Finally walking back to my seat with a drink in hand, I nced down to look for the nextpetitor but was disappointed to see another overconfident adolescent dragon who was probably barely 30 years old. -I wonder what tricks this kid has up his sleeve.-


    As I got to my seat and got ready to watch the match though, a well-built man walked up to me. "Sir, do you mind if I sit here?" He casually pointed to the empty spot next to me before getting ready to sit down without waiting for my confirmation.


    -For an elder dragon, he reallycks manners...- "Sorry, but that seat is taken."


    The man paused for a second before standing back up. "Is it too rude to ask where the owner of this spot is?"


    Looking down towards the arena, I pointed at Amara. "It''s that female fighter''s spot."


    He hesitated for a second when he nced at her before quickly turning back to me. "Oh, do you happen to know her?"


    -What''s with the way this guy talks?- His voice was already getting on my nerves, but I didn''t let it show. "Yeah, she''s a good friend of mine."


    "Ah. what a coincidence! You see, I am also quite familiar with her. I actually came to talk with her, but since she seems to be busy, I will sit here until she has a break." Not bothering to ask for confirmation again, he sat down in Amara''s spot.


    -Someone like you is familiar with Amara?- Although my gut told me it was basically impossible, I didn''t have remotely enough reason to make my skepticism obvious. -I''ll see if he''s lying when Amara finishes anyways.-


    There was a short moment of silence before he nced at Iliosying his head on myp. "Would that happen to be your Fenrir?"


    "He is, indeed."


    Ilios gave the man an intimidating nce, making him pale slightly.


    "He seems to be quite.. special." Although he tried to do it without me noticing, he did a hand gesture that caused a group cloaked with light magic behind us to scatter. "Where did you find him?"


    "He was in the forest outside of my childhood home."


    "Ah, how nice. What part of Siratha was it?"


    -Who is this guy? Is he an interrogator or something?- "I''m actually not from Siratha."


    There was a momentary change in the air around him as he hesitated. "In that case, where are you fr-"


    "Don''t you think you''re being a little rude?" I gave him an annoyed nce as I cut him off.


    Taken aback by my interruption, he looked at me like I was the rude one before forcing himself to smile again. "Oh, my sincerest apologies. I got a bit carried away by old habits." He was quick to try and recover his image. "My name is Vernados, an investigator that works within Siratha''s investigation department."


    But although his words might have sounded genuine to onlookers, I wasn''t buying it. -A pure elder dragon works in Siratha''s investigation department?- Although it made sense for such a department to exist, the fact that he held his head and spoke like a high-noble dragon made me struggle to believe him. -He must be from Bahamut...-


    But, thankfully, he continued normally without noticing my suspicion. "I originally came here in search of that youngdy down there, to ask her questions about a current investigation, but I got sidetracked by your furry little friend." He lowered his gaze toward Ilios again.


    "Please get to the point..." I had already lost my patience with the way he talked. -I just need to know whether I need to silence him or not...-


    "In that case, I will be blunt." His expression turned serious. "ording to some recently questioned witnesses, that girl down there and your Fenrir were spotted destroying the Helvig family estate, and are considered responsible for 83 deaths. Did you know of the incident?"


    -Damn, so it was 83 total? She really did go on a rampage...- "Of course I do."


    Vernados immediately got suspicious seeing how casual I was. "Are you aware that you, your pet, and your friend down there could be put in jail or killed because of what you just said?"


    "Mhmm." Casually taking a sip of alcohol, I idly watched Amara''s fight start. -Well, the adolescent kid is holding out.. sort of...-


    "Sir, I am going to need you and your pet to follow me." As he stood up, he looked down at me like I was some pesky rat.


    "Haah..." Not in the mood to move, I motionlessly put a simple silencing barrier up around us.


    The man was put on edge instantly, but thankfully he didn''t do anything stupid.


    -At least it looks like he has some brains...- "You are working under Bahamut, correct?"


    Like I pinched a nerve, his face scrunched up. "How does a mere demihuman-"


    "Haah. I''m not a demihuman, dumbass..." Casually pulling out my ID, I tossed it up to him.


    After nervously snatching it out of the air, he gave it a look of scrutiny before finally reading my name. "Whyte, huh?"


    It was a much moreid-back reaction than I expected. -To be that casual about figuring out he was rude to an upper noble family member, he must be from one himself...-


    But instead of continuing to be demeaning like I partially expected, he momentarily lowered his head. "I sincerely apologize if I may have offended you, Sir Whyte."


    Although a part of me still wanted to smack him, his respect subsided that urge for a moment. "You''re fine for now. Anyway, you''re really from Bahamut, correct?"


    "That is correct." He was quick to respond.


    "Then I have to ask.." Seeing that Amara''s fight was uneventful, I finally turned to the man. "Why does Bahamut care so much about who destroyed a random noble family to send you here to find them?"


    "I cannot say that, sir." It was nice that he was finally showing a bit of respect, but I still didn''t like him.


    -He can''t say, huh? In that case...- Quickly thinking back to everything Amara had told me about the incident, I decided to make what I thought was an obvious connection. "Is it rted to the dozen or so pure and half-breed dragons that were killed in the incident?" I was confident I was right when I spoke, but his reaction was a little unexpected.


    "Huh?" He just gave me a confused look. "Sir Whyte, now isn''t the time to joke."


    I was totally stunned for a moment. -Wait, what? Is he serious?- "Did you really not look over a casualty report or something before you came here?"


    But he only got more upset. "Sir, there was only one dragon who was reported as dead. Please do not exaggerate."


    -Wait seriously? Amara wouldn''t lie about something like that.. but for that to be the case, that would mean...- Deciding to put all my eggs in one basket, I looked him in the eyes with a serious expression. "Sir, I promise under Bahamut''s name that there were at least 11 dragons killed in the incident."


    His eyes widened when he realized what the implications of my words were.


    "If you wish to ask Amara herself, she can give you a first-hand ount of the whole incident, but I think you have bigger fish to fry now."


    Seeing him deep in thought, I wasn''t sure whether he even heard me, but after another moment, he looked back at me. "It seems I have an urgent matter I must.. deal with. Thank you for your time, Sir Whyte. Please be aware you may be called to Bahamut ining days."


    He was quick to turn to leave, but I stopped him to say onest thing. "Hey, a bit of advice. You might want to report that kind of discrepancy to the highest level you can... I''m sure you know what I mean."


    Giving a strong nod, he finally walked out of the barrier and disappeared with the use of light magic.


    As my barrier finally dissipated, I couldn''t help but let out a deep breath. "Haah..." -I knew something was fishy when she said there were so many dragons in that damned estate...-


    *crunch* *ding-ding* "And the winner is Amara Chalkos for her 22nd consecutive win!"


    As the announcer yelled out into the crowd, I looked down at Amara, who wore a pure smile, oblivious to what just happened.


    -I made her dodge a bullet and she doesn''t even recognize it... How should I even tell her?-

 Chapter 202: Preparation for Prayer

    Chapter 202: Preparation for Prayer


    Early Evening - Late Fall : The Golden Lotus, Northern Market District (Valtivar)


    "So you''re saying that Bahamut is getting involved with investigating the Helvig estate, but even though they knew I was the one who did it, I wasn''t charged with anything?" Amara was still struggling to wrap her head around the situation while we sipped on the remaining Piotita.


    "Sort of, yes. Originally, he was probably nning to interrogate us, but I stumbled across a more serious problem which turned his attention elsewhere." Leaning back in my seat, I reached down and rubbed Ilios''s belly.


    "What problem could possibly pull someone in the foreign intelligence division away from a case?" She gave me a curious look as she fell deep into thought.


    "Betrayal, for starters." I said it so nonchntly that it caught Amara off guard.


    "What did you say?!" She stared at me with a look of awe. "How in the world did you get him to betray the Foreign Intelligence Division?"


    "Pfft-Hahaha! I didn��t get him to betray anyone, I just noticed a discrepancy in the information he was given."


    "Hm? What do you mean by ''discrepancy''?"


    Her growing curiosity quickly brought a smile to my face. "Well, ording to his information, of the 83 people killed, only one was a dragon. Since that was such a stark difference from what you told me, I figured someone up the hierarchy wanted to hide something and simply brought it to the interrogator''s attention.""But he actually believed you? The loyalty of those in the Foreign Intelligence Division might as well be limitless."


    Finally finishing my ss of alcohol, I set it on the table and moved over to the couch to let Ilios lie with me. "I mean, what is more trustworthy, people he might not even know, or a high noble swearing under Bahamut''s name."


    Her eyes went wide.


    -Hm?- "What''s wrong? It''s not like I lied, nor did I have ill intentions when I swore."


    "But.. what if I identally told you the wrong number of dragons that were killed?"


    "Well, did you?"


    "N..no?"


    "Then that''s that." Patting my chest, Ilios hopped up on the couch and found afy spot next to me.


    "But I definitely didn''t see everyone Ilios killed... What if he-"


    "Just don''t worry about it. Worstes to worst, I''ll just go to Bahamut and clean things up myself."


    She gave me a look of guilt before finally calming back down. "Haah..." There was a short pause before she looked back up at me. "If something like that does happen.. please tell me... At the very least, I''m sure my family will be helpful to you."


    I nced at her as I contemted saying something before deciding not to. "Just don''t worry yourself over it."


    Silence filled the room for several minutes after that, but I eventually noticed some familiar auras approaching the inn from down the street. -They��re finally back�� Where did they even go?-


    Around a minuteter, they finally got to our room and opened up the door. *Click*


    "Oh, you guys are already back?" Ynda was smiling from cheek to cheek.


    Amara, finally shaking off her lingering guilt, put on a smile as well. "Yeah, we got back about half an hour ago. Where did you guys end up going? I thought you��d be back before us."


    "We just explored the gambling district and yed around. We ended up running into a few old friends that lent us some money to y with." The moderately sized leather sack in her hands made a distinct noise as she set it on the table. *ching*


    Thoughtlessly, I pushed some aura into the sack to see several dozen gold and around five tinum. -Damn, to think someone as immature as her can be good at gambling...-


    Bjorn let out a chuckle as he walked over to the table. "Haha, sometimes I really question how she does it. She only lost a few bets the whole day today." *Creak* The chair creaked as he sat down and went to pour himself the veryst ss of Piotita.


    I had left it for Amara to have, so it didn''t bother me too much, but Amara herself looked heartbroken.


    She could do nothing but watch helplessly as Bjorn set the mug to his lips and finally took a sip.


    "PPPFFFTT!" He spat it out instantly.


    "AYE!" Amara looked horrified as she used magic to grab what he spat into the air. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"


    Bjorn had absolutely no idea what she was mad about. "Huh? What? I''m sorry!" He jumped back and apologized before he could gather a single clue of what was happening.


    Thankfully though, Amara was quick to get her anger under control. "That alcohol is worth more than you can imagine! Don''t just spit it out like that!" Looking intently at the umtion of liquid she gathered, she slowly tried to pick out the impurities.


    I thought about helping her but ended up doing nothing. -She''s not doing that bad of a job...-


    Finally calming down enough to think things through, Bjorn lowered his arms from in front of his face to look at Amara. "Sorry! I didn''t know it was that expensive! It was just so bitter that my body kind of just.. ejected it..."


    Amara and I immediately gave each other a confused nce. ""It tastes bitter to you?""


    "Y..yeah..." He just looked confused.


    -I guess dragon taste buds are a bit more different from humanoids than I thought...- "It must just be.. an acquired taste."


    Realizing what I was doing, Amara was quick to y along. "R..right, not liking it is understandable.. but still, please be careful with it." Carefully looking through the liquid floating in the air again, she cleaned a few more specs out of it and poured it back into Bjorn''s cup.


    Entranced by her control over magic, Bjorn was quick to calm down again. "I''ll.. be sure to be more careful in the future then..."


    Silence wrapped around the room for another minute before I finally changed the subject. "So what is the n for tomorrow?"


    Everyone turned to me immediately, but Amara was the only one to respond. "I sort of assumed we would just rx here until we needed to leave, but if anyone has any better ideas, I''m alright with anything."


    But as if she was waiting for the moment, Ynda voiced her opinion immediately. "I''m fine with sleeping inte!"


    "Haha, of course you are." Bjorn gave her a warm smile before turning back to Amara. "It''s not like we could go do a whole lot tomorrow anyway, so I''m alright with that."


    Amara gave a light nod before finally turning to me. "What about you, Vasilias?"


    Everyone turned to look at me like I had the final say in the matter.


    "I��m okay with whatever you guys decide." -I''m just looking forward to the actual event�� How will millions of people attend a single prayer?- But before I got sidetracked, there was something I needed to ask. "What all do I need to know before we go, by the way? Like what time it is or religious rules or something��"


    Amara gave me a surprised look for a moment before letting out a quick breath. "Oh, right."


    -Did you seriously forget I''m not from around here?-


    Not noticing my unimpressed look, she continued casually. "For starters, the prayer is right at sundown, when the sun and moon are on opposing horizons, so we will leave sometime in the afternoon." She nced at me to make sure I was listening before continuing. "As for the more religious side of things, you should avoid alcohol and food for the day, as well as anything sexual or dangerous. It is not only disgraceful to those around you, but also to the gods."


    -Fair enough��-


    "A priest can legally kill you if you are seen doing anything taboo on the day of prayer."


    I jolted a bit as I realized what she said. -Good f*cking lord!- I looked over at her to see if she was joking, but her face waspletely indifferent. "Isn''t that a bit extreme?"


    "It''s just a part of the culture here. Since it''s how people are taught growing up, it''s never been seen as a big deal."


    Although what she said was true, I still struggled to believe it. "What��s the priest''s justification for it though?"


    "Those whomit those taboos are considered to be rebelling against the gods, and are executed to let the gods pass judgment on them." She casually took a sip of Piotita as she finished. "It''s honestly not much different from the Coming-of-Age Festival in Baham-"


    Ynda and I immediately went wide-eyed as we used magic to mute Amara''s voice.


    At first, Amara was just a little startled and confused, but that was when she finally realized what she had said.


    Bjorn was still clueless though. "Baha- what?"


    "NOTHING! It was nothing!" Amara stood up from her seat in a panic. "In any case, I think we have covered everything for tomorrow. Does anyone else have anything to add before we go to bed?" She scanned the room in a hurry, before gulping down the rest of her Piotita and hastily continuing. "Since no one else has anything to add, I shall go to bed first. Sleep well, everyone!" Not wasting a single extra second, she darted into her room and mmed the door behind her. *Wham*


    Bjorn could only look at her bedroom door in shock and confusion. "Did I say something wrong?"


    Ynda and I both nced at each other while wondering what to do before I figured Bjorn wasn��t curious enough to dig too deep. "Don''t worry about it. If you ever need to know, you will."


    He raised his eyebrow at me for a moment before finally letting go of his curiosity, as I expected. "Haah, alright. In that case, I will head to bed as well. Good night, Vasilias. Good night, Ynda!" *click*


    As the door closed behind him, Ynda nced at Amara��s room with an odd expression. "Sometimes I really wonder how she��s 40 years older than me..."


    "Yeah�� She��s over 80 years older than me, as well. Sometimes it doesn''t make much sense."


    Ynda was quick to turn back to me with an unamused expression. "You��re a freak of nature, of course that wouldn''t make sense��" Her look slowly shifted to a joking smile. "You have your moments, but you could have told me you were an ancient and I would have believed you��"


    "Haha, is that so?" -I still think I act younger when I''m with you guys though��-


    "Anyways, I''m a bit tired from gambling all day, so I��ll head out as well."


    "Alright, sleep well, Ynda."


    "Goodnight, Vasilias!" *click*


    Left alone in the living room again, I stared up at the ceiling at rubbed Ilios''s head. -I should be excited about tomorrow... so why do I feel so uneasy...-


    But as if he could read my mind, Ilios crawled up and licked my face, making the feeling in my gut immediately disappear.


    "Haah... I really wonder how you do that sometimes..." Deciding not to think much more about it, I justid back and rxed. -Maybe I''m just overthinking things...-

 Chapter 203: The Tree of Prayer

    Chapter 203: The Tree of Prayer


    Early Afternoon - Late Fall : Northern Market District (Valtivar)


    "Will you all be returning after the prayer?" The receptionist, who seemed to be gathering her things to leave as well, caught us as we walked out of the inn.


    "Yes, we should be back afterward. We locked our room already." Bjorn was quick to respond.


    "Good. Also, please note that the inn will be locked until I return. Since you are all leaving already though, you shouldn''t have to worry about that."


    "Yeah, we are going all the way to the tree, so you will definitely be back first."


    "Wow, how exciting! In that case, I''ll quit holding you back. Be sure to enjoy the ceremony!" The kind receptionist waved to us as we finally walked outside.


    -She seems awfully excited, huh...-


    It was early in the afternoon when we left. We originally nned to leave a littleter, but because of Amara''s gut feeling, we left extra early.


    But things ended up working out.The next several hours were filled with a mix of walking and running as we passed through district after district until we eventually came to the innermostyer, the ''industrial district''.


    The district, built on a branch over a kilometer off the ground, was like a totally different world, with buildings made entirely of stone and a smithy, alchemist, and guild building on every tiny stretch of road.


    -Amara wasn''t calling it a hunter''s paradise for no reason, I guess...-


    But the hunters weren''t the only ones living in the area. Usually, wrapped around the center of the treants were stone residences meant for the wealthy and low nobility.


    But even though the building was like an apartment building, the rooms were far from cheap.


    "50 tinum for one room?! If low nobility can afford that, what are the homes of high nobles like?!"


    Amara was wearing a gleeful smile as she exined. "Haha, high nobles have entire treants to themselves, they just aren''t this close to the Tree of Prayer. The onlyrger estates in this direction are the homes of the Great Apostles."


    "Damn..." -I wonder what their estates are like...- As I mindlessly thought about it, I nced around at the surrounding crowd of people getting ready for the ceremony and noticed I couldn''t find a single one that wasn''t smiling.


    "Do you think we will see them, Mother?!" A young kid standing outside of a high-end restaurant was literally bouncing up and down with excitement.


    And his mother wasn''t much different either. "I''m not sure, but even if we only receive a sign from them, it will be an event we can tellter generations with pride!"


    For a moment, I thought she was just being a bit over the top for her child, but the more I looked around, the more I noticed that her excitement was far from out of ce.


    All around us were elves and demihumans alike, filled with childish excitement. -I mean, I would understand if it was just some or even most of them.. but all of them?- I found it quite odd.


    Seeing me looking around, Amara let out a hardyugh. "Haha, you think their excitement is a bit much, don''t you?"


    "I mean, yeah?" I responded somewhat absentmindedly.


    "Well, I can''t me you. Even in Siratha, people have never been this excited about the prayer before."


    "Hm?" Finally turning back to her, I noticed she wore a warm smile while staring off into space. -Does she have fond memories of this event?- Not wanting to interrupt her reminiscing, I turned to Bjorn. "What''s different this year?"


    He was quick on the uptake. "Well, 15 years ago, during thest pilgrimage, we were all told that our gods had returned. This will be the first time in nearly 10,000 years that we have the chance actually see our beloved gods."


    -I guess that''s true... But for people to go 10,000 years without seeing them once... How are they still this devoted?- There was a pause while I gave it some thought. "The Ancient Fenrir must have been some really benevolent gods."


    "Well, of course! They gave elves longer lifespans, demihumans greater strength, and, to top it off, they even gave us the Tree of Prayer!" His smile was wide and bright.


    "What''s so great about the Tree of Prayer?" -Is it not just a big treant that happens to be a ce of worship?-


    Bjorn immediately turned to me with sparks of devotion in his eyes. "The Tree of Prayer is the very foundation of Siratha! It''s where the sicke to heal, where the weake to grow strong, and where the poore for opportunity. It is the source of health and prosperity for every Sirathian, no matter their origins!" His eyes were full of pride and confidence.


    "Haha, it seems I underestimated the gods'' benevolence then." Thinking it was best to not show my skepticism, I just smiled and went along with him. -I''m sure he''s exaggerating since, even if the tree really is the source of all the ambient mana around here, it would only help so much...-


    Amara gave me a smug look while I was thinking to myself. "You''re in for quite a surprise..."


    "Hm?" Turning to see what she was talking about, Ynda looked me in the eyes for a moment before her look turned smug as well. "Hehe~..."


    Their expressions made me quite ufortable, but it wasn''t long before my worries were needed elsewhere.


    About 30 minutester, when we reached the end of thest branch of the final treant, we made our way into one of the hundreds of small huts with tight ropes leading all the way to the ground, some 1500 meters below us. -What are these things?- Although I had seen them everywhere around treant territory, I didn''t exactly know what they were for and never cared enough to ask.


    But as we walked in, my expression turned troubled. "So.. what is this?" Looking at the center of the room, I saw what could only be described as a big wooden bucket with a tube and rope running through the middle of it.


    "Hm? Are you talking about this?" Amara nonchntly nced at me as she stepped onto it. "This is our way down!"


    I could only look at her in disbelief. -There''s no way this thing will handle my weight...- Although I was in my humanoid form, I was still far from the weight of a normal humanoid, and would normally have to distribute my weight aroundrge areas to make sure I didn''t break the floor. "I think I''m a bit too heavy for this thing..." -Maybe it''d be easier if I just jumped down myself...-


    But Amara and Ynda weren''t fans of the idea. "Oh, quit thinking of ways to escape and get on!" Amara hastily grabbed my arm and pulled me onto the lift.


    Seeing how badly she wanted me to go with them, I just gave up. -I guess I''ll just strengthen the rope and hope it doesn''t snap...-


    *creaakkk* As I slowly got rid of my weight distribution spread around the small hut, the bucket and rope started to creak, but surprisingly, it seemed to hold me.. barely. -If I strengthen it as we go down, it''ll be fine.. hopefully.- But when I thought about that, I started to wonder how exactly the lift worked.


    But it turned out to be much more simple than I thought. Inside the tube in the middle of the bucket, the rope was being pinched by alternating gears that were each connected to two different runes which, when supplied with mana, would bring the bucket up and down, respectively. -Simple enough...-


    But it wasn''t till we started descending that I asked a question that came to mind. "How do the lifts get brought back up for the next group to use?" I could vividly remember seeing several lines outside of other lifts.


    "For this lift, it''d be whoever happens to want toe back up. This is a two-way lift. The ones up top with lines were one way and just go down beforeing straight back up." She pointed behind herself to an empty lift, that was being pulled back up with a pully of some kind.


    -So the one-way lifts are the reliable ones. That''s why people don''t mind waiting on them...- "So does that mean we just get lucky to get an avable two-way?"


    She shrugged her shoulders with a yful smile on her face. "Who knows?"


    I couldn''t help but feel like she was a bit out of character at the time, but little did I know, it was just her excitement from earlier returning. -What is she so eager for anyways...- Seeing her look of expectation, I decided to just change the subject. "So where''s the Tree of Prayer from here?" I casually leaned my back against the side of the bucket as I looked toward Amara.


    But instead of giving directions, she just smiled and pointed behind me.


    "Hm? What are you-" My voice was cut off, and I froze in ce when I turned around. "Ho..ly.. sh*t..."


    Amara and Ynda''s faces showed pure joy the instant I said anything, but I couldn''t have cared less.


    I was simply entranced to the point that I almost identally stopped strengthening the rope.


    -This.. is a tree?!- Looking straight out towards where the horizon would normally be, my gaze was set on the center of a tree trunk well over five kilometers across. -What the f*ck?!-


    Looking down towards the colossal roots of the oak-like tree, I saw it was surrounded by a circr, grassy clearing that extended another 20 kilometers before continuing under the treants all the way to the horizon.


    But the most mind-boggling thing was that no matter where I looked, I could see people littering the ground like ants. -Just how many people are there...-


    Amara already knew what I was thinking when she saw me looking all around the ground. "The poption of Siratha around thest pilgrimage was a bit over 160 million. People will be lining the ground for another few hundred kilometers into the treant forest in all directions."


    My jaw, which was already hanging slightly open, widened. "I''m sorry, what?" It took a solid minute for a single coherent thought to evene to mind. "How would people so far over the horizon even participate in the prayer?"


    Amara gave me a surprised look before quickly answering. "If you look at the base of the treants around here, you''ll see people standing about a hundred meters up the trunk. Those are priests and clerics that ry the voices of the apostles who stand on the Tree of Prayer out to those farther away. They also stand guard over the people on the ground."


    -They just ry the voices?- Thinking back to the game telephone from Earth, I started to wonder how reasonable such a method really was.


    But Amara was quick to pull me from my thoughts again. "In case you''re wondering, even if the people hundreds of kilometers away dont hear the message of the apostles, they will still know when the prayer begins."


    -Huh? How does that work?- As I went to give it some thought, I quickly realized I wouldn''t be able to figure it out on my own anyways and just kept my mouth shut. -At any rate.. this is on a scale I really underestimated...-


    As we were slowly lowered to the ground, I could do nothing but gawk at the horrific amount of aura and mana already in the air. -If this is thebined aura of this many people.. what will it be like when everyone is here?-


    Looking up towards the base of the tree, where a huge crowd of people were already gathered, I could see a blue cloud of mana epassing everything. -It really is as intimidating as it is beautiful...-

 Chapter 204: A Potentially Bothersome Situation

    Chapter 204: A Potentially Bothersome Situation


    Late Afternoon - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    *creaaakk* The rope continued to creak as we descended. -Even after all that strengthening magic, is it really still at its limit...-


    Looking up the rope, I saw countless frayed strands sticking out. -The gears that bring us down probably aren''t good for the rope either...-


    "Are you really worried about the rope enough to let it ruin the view?" Amara, who was leaning over the edge of the bucket next to me, nced at me with a yful look.


    "Well, I mean, do you want to fall a kilometer to the ground?" I wanted tough but held it back.


    "Pfft, fall to the ground? If it was going to snap, it already would have!" Her smile turned childish as she moved towards the center of the bucket. "These ropes are specially made to withstand several thousand tons and are strong enough that they couldn''t be cut by most weapons!" She sounded like she was trying to show off, but that was when she raised her hand just above where the gears were.


    -What? What is she...- My thoughts came to a screeching halt as I looked up to see her about to flick the rope. "DON''T-"


    Before I could even move my aura over to stop her, her finger mmed into the rope and sent an almost unnoticeable shockwave through it. *thud*


    She pulled her hand away immediately and shook it in the air. "Ow!" Her finger was already red. "Just what the hell is that thing made of?!" Finally looking up from her hand, she noticed that instead of looking at her, I was looking straight up. "Huh? What are you looking a-" *thwang* The bucket abruptly dropped a few centimeters as a metal cable-like noise ripped through the air.Bjorn, Amara, and Ynda''s expressions all turned nervous as they looked at the rope in the middle of the bucket.


    But that wasn''t where the problem was. "F*ck..." I let out a curse as I watched the wooden hut above us start to splinter. -To think the wood is what gave out first...-


    Finally noticing that the bucket was slowly sagging, Bjorn and Ynda''s faces started to pale.


    "Amara, grab onto Bjorn and Ynda!"


    "What do you mea-" *crackle* Before she could finish, the rope suddenly went ck, and everyone felt their stomachs try to escape through their mouths.


    "Huh? Ah.. AHHH!!" Bjorn let out a scream of horror as the bucket lost support and rotated, throwing him out of it in the process.


    -Sh*t, Amara is too far from him...- Seeing Amara sessfully grab hold of Ynda, I looked at Ilios. "Ilios, bring Bjorn to the ground safely." Looking under us, I saw that the stone tform meant to anchor our rope was surrounded by several people. "Tch..." -Of course, things wouldn''t be simple... Why would they?!-


    *Bang-Fwooosh* Tapping my thrusters for an instant, Iunched myself toward the ground tond before the bucket.


    "OI, HEADS UP!" I tried to yell out to the people near the tform, but by the time they could react to it, I hit the ground.


    *CRUNCH* The tform practically exploded when Inded, sending chunks of stone flying in all directions before I caught them with my aura. -Alright.. who do I need to catch?!-


    As I looked up at everything falling toward me, I saw Amara bracing herself tond and Ilios carefully holding onto Bjorn. -Alright, all that''s left is the debris...-


    Not wanting to have any bystanders get hurt or killed by the falling debris, I readied arge amount of hydrogen in my palm and raised it in the air. -Just a bit more...-


    A few secondster, when Amara and Ilios finallynded on either side of me, the bucket was a couple meters away from my hand. -Close enough...- *BANG*


    With a loud bang and a bright sh of light, the bucket was simply reced by a white cloud made of freshly formed water. -Now for the building!-


    Turning my attention to the falling hut, still half a kilometer in the air, I made sure nothing important was directly behind it and pointed my palm at it. -Let''s give Ilios''s magic a try, shall we?-


    *sh-BRRRMM* Although it onlysted half a second, a beam of light, only a few meters in diameter, lit up the surrounding forest as if a massive LED was turned on.


    *tssssss* The air, still humid from the hydrogen thruster, sizzled as I looked up to make sure there wasn''t a single piece of debris left.


    -Damn.. what vicious magic...- But after taking a second to make sure nothing was left, I finally lowered my gaze to see every single living being in sight of me, humanoid or not, staring at me inplete silence.


    "Ah..." -I got a bit carried away.. didn''t I...-


    As if to confirm my suspicions, Ilios let out a happy bark and trotted up to me with a wagging tail. "Woof!"


    "Haah..." My face fell into my palm as I let out a deep breath. -I can''t tell if he''s poking fun at me or if he''s just excited that I used his magic...- Hurriedly trying to think of what to do, I eventually just gave up and turned to Amara and the gang.


    But they, just like everyone else, were staring at me in silence.


    -Maybe it''ll be better if I just...- *vwoom* Using light magic, I simply made myself disappear, but Ilios quickly followed suit.


    At first, I didn''t think much of it, but him following my lead only made the situation moreplicated.


    "Huh? Where did they.. go?" An older man standing not far away was the first to break from the trance.


    "That boy and his Fenrir.. they were just there, right?"


    "Yeah, I saw them too."


    "That boy used some magic I''ve never even heard of.. just who was that?"


    "Could it be a priest I just don''t know of?"


    "No way, I don''t think the apostles could do what he did that casually..."


    While the people nearby started to crowd around us and gossip, I walked over to Amara and tapped her on the shoulder. "Let''s get out of here before things escte further..." Looking over towards the treant we just came off of, I could see someone wearing a religious robe leaping over the crowds anding toward us. -It''ll be troublesome if we get caught...-


    But thankfully, Amara was quick to follow along, hastily informing Bjorn and Ynda before dispersing and disappearing into the crowd. -Why do they look like they have experience with that?-


    *sckshhh* The rubble from the stonending area crunched under the priest''s feet as hended. "My name is Priest Agnar! Please, someone,e forward to exin what happened!" His face showed a mix of irritation and fear, but as fun as it would have been to y with him, I just followed after Amara.


    I stayed cloaked for several minutes after that, only deciding to get rid of the magic when we started approaching the couple dozen-meter-tall wall that epassed the field around the Tree of Prayer.


    -Hm.. what is this wall for?- As I dissipated the light magic, I noticed the gate in the wall had several hunters in heavy armor standing by it checking IDs. "Can only certain people get inside?"


    "AH!" Ynda let out a startled yell when I spoke up next to her. "Are you a ghost or something?! Where''s your aura?!"


    "Haha, sorry!" I let out a chuckle thinking she was joking, before quickly turning to Amara. "So, like I was saying, what''s this wall for and why are there people checking IDs at the gate?"


    "Haha, the wall and gate help regte who can and can''t go inside." Amara moved over to Ynda''s side before rubbing her head. "It''s basically just a way to let nobles and people of influence in more distant cities have a chance of getting a spot next to the tree without having to leave their position weeks in advance. It''s only blocked off like this around the pilgrimage though."


    -Not a bad system...- "But.. ''trusted individuals''? Will I be able to get in?"


    Amara looked like she was thoroughly enjoying herself. "Of course! You have that insignia plus a top-rank medallion from Morva Asari. Either one of those alone is enough to get in here."


    -So dragons, the wealthy, and the influential get in, but not regr citizens...- Although it sounded a bit extreme, I couldn''t say it was that unreasonable. -It would probably cause some political issues if the nobles had to stand in the back during every pilgrimage too.-


    Continuing to follow Amara up to the gate, we each, one by one, showed our IDs to the guards before being let in.


    Bjorn did get stopped for a moment, but once we told the guards he was with us, theyplied almost immediately. -Respectful, butid back. I like those guys...-


    Finally walking through the gate, I came out the other side and into the field around the Tree of Prayer.


    "Woah..." I had my breath taken away immediately.


    Although I saw the trunk when we descended, being out from under the treants limbs let me see the top of the Tree of Prayer and its colossal, widely-spanning canopy thatfortably covered the entire 40-kilometer wide field.


    -No wonder it''s associated with the gods...- The canopy was shrouded in a fog, colored thanks to the dense ambient mana.


    It gave the tree an especially surreal atmosphere, but oddly enough, there was only a single, simple thought that resonated through my mind. -You know.. it really does look like it''d be a good ce to nap...-

 Chapter 205: A Coincidence?

    Chapter 205: A Coincidence?


    Early Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    - Leif Vilulf ~


    "Hmm-hm-hmm-hm-hmmm..." I happily hummed as I walked down the street and waved to the few people who still hadn''t yet descended for the prayer. -Today is going to be a good day...-


    My mind was still repeating the memory of the enchanting feeling of oppression I felt from our lord''s presence a few days prior.


    It was a feeling no one had felt for over ten thousand years. -The only other time anyone had felt either Dagr or Nott''s presence was 15 years ago...- But at that time, Dagr''s presence was so faint and disappeared so quickly that some of us questioned whether or not we had just imagined it.


    -But now I know for certain!- My excitement looked quite childish, but I didn''t bother hiding it. -To think I would be alive to witness their return!- I was so happy I wanted to cry.


    But that was when I noticed a strong auraing straight at me. -Hm? A priest?-


    It was a middle-aged elven priest whom I only vaguely recognized. -What is he doing here?-


    Finally making it up to me, he threw himself into a kneel. "Northern Priest Agnar greets the Apostle of the Night!" He was breathing fairly heavily and seemed to be in a bit of a panic.-For a priest toe to me by themselves...- "Is there something wrong? What are you doing here?"


    "I have been sent by High Priest Oda Ashild to retrieve you. An incident that she believes urgently needs your attention has urred." His eyes showed a mix of anxiety and nervousness.


    -Oda sent him? Why would she...- Stopping myself before I could jump to any conclusions, my expression visibly darkened. "Where is she?"


    "Miss Ashild should be waiting below the southern branch of the central northern treant."


    -The southern branch? Was there a problem with one of the lifts? But she wouldn''t need me for that...- Before I could let my thoughts dy me anymore, I turned away from the priest. "Please return to your assigned position. I will handle it from here."


    "As you order."


    As soon as he lowered his head toward the ground to show he had nothing else to add, I disappeared from in front of him and dashed down the road. -What could possibly be serious enough that even Oda couldn''t handle it?- I grimaced a bit as a certain possibility came to mind. -It''s not a dragon, is it?-


    Trying not to make any more assumptions, I quickly passed through several treants before finally wrapping around the center of the treant Oda was under.


    -Hm?- Looking toward the ground beneath the branch, I saw an unusually dense crowd around one of the lift anchors (the stone base). -So it was an issue with a lift...-


    But although I could clearly see the scene, I wasn''t exactly sure what I was looking at. -The rope is in pieces, the lift is gone, and the anchor is destroyed... How does that even happen...-


    Quickly making my way to the lift neighboring the destroyed one, I leapt off the branch and hastily slid down the rope. *Pffff*


    "What happened?" I could immediately hear the chatter of the crowd. "What was that explosion and that sh of light earlier?"


    "I''m not totally sure. Some people are saying it was our gods making an appearance to save the people from a falling lift."


    "Haha, how wonderful would it have been to see it!"


    "Haha, right? Honestly though, I think it was just one of the apostles."


    "Right? That would definitely make the most sense..."


    "Yeah, it wouldn''t make sense for the gods to make an appearance just to save some regr people."


    My minor irritation only worsened as I listened to them talk. -Oundish rumors have already started...- Looking over toward Oda, I saw her just looking at a piece of rope like she didn''t know what it was. -What the hell is she doing...-


    Finally making it a bit over halfway down, I leapt off the rope and aimed tond on the pile of rubble that was the remains of the lift anchor. *Crunch*


    The nearby chatter stopped the instant Inded. "Oda, what did you call me for?"


    She twitched a bit from my voice but stayed abnormally calm. "Just.. look at this..." With an expression I had never seen her wear before, she turned and handed me the small, stiff piece of rope she was holding.


    "What are you giving me this for-" My voice was cut off when I grabbed onto it. -What.. the...- It felt light like regr rope but had the rigidity of a metal rod.


    Oda''s expression remained unchanged even after seeing my reaction. "Have you ever seen that kind of strengthening? It looks like something from the Age of Gods..."


    I was at a loss of words and could only mindlessly stare at the rope that had been strengthened more than my father''s axe, which was considered nearly indestructible. "What.. am I looking at?" Turning it over to look at its ends, I noticed one side looked crudely burned while the other was a nearly perfectly tyer of char. -What the...-


    "W..well, as of now, we think it is the only remaining piece of the rope that was above the lift."


    -Above the lift?- Not understanding, I quickly turned to her. "Just exin what happened first." *vwoom* A wave of silence wrapped around us as I put up a silencing barrier.


    "From what we have gathered so far, this was a lift that was lowering a group of four people and a Fenrir when the lift''s dock gave out and copsed."


    -A dock actually broke?- It was something almost impossible under normal circumstances.


    Oda continued before I could think much about it though. "ording to the select few people who actually saw anything, a demihuman boy, likely only 16 or 17,nded here on the anchor, which destroyed it, before using unknown magic to destroy the lift itself and the falling dock." Her face showed a tinge of worry as she spoke. "ording to Agnar, the only priest who saw the second spell, it looked like ''a pir of light pierced the sky'', and from what we can tell, it wasn''t an exaggeration." She casually pointed straight up as she finished.


    -Hm? What is she...- My thoughts were cut short when I saw clouds through a perfectly circr hole in the canopy.


    As my eyes widened, a phrase was repeated in my mind. -A pir.. of light...- My thoughts started to speed up exponentially as I repeated the phrase several more times to visualize the spell. -A pir.. a ray.. a column.. a beam...- But that was when it finally clicked.


    "Ah!" My previously suppressed excitement rushed forward like a tidal wave. "The Fenrir that got on the lift, what color was it?"


    Oda''s worry quickly worsened like she thought I finally lost it. "Uh, bright white... Why?"


    -IT REALLY WAS WHITE!- My heart was racing as thoughts ripped through my mind. -A white Fenrir and what could possibly be Lord Dagr''s magic! They must be...-


    As she saw my ecstatic smile starting to grow wider, Oda grabbed onto me. "Look, I don''t know what insane thing you''re thinking about, but all the Fenrir did was catch someone who was falling."


    -Huh?- My excitement came to a screeching halt. "So... Are you saying the demihuman boy actually used that spell? -There''s no way...-


    "Yes. Every single witness had the same story."


    -But that''s not possible...- My mind started to wander ande up with countless theories as I looked back up at the hole in the canopy, but I eventually stopped and looked toward the surrounding crowd. "The boy, what did he look like, and where did they go?" -I just need to find them, and confirm things for myself...-


    "The boy looked like a wolf demihuman, but his body was extremely toned, his hair was dark ck, and his tail was longer and fluffier than normal. As for where they went..." She gave me an awkward expression.


    Even though she only paused for a second, I was too eager to wait. "Went where?! Just say it!" I grabbed onto her shoulders again, but she just averted her eyes.


    "They, uh.. disappeared... We think it was with advanced light magic..."


    -Light magic again...- Although I didn''t want to assume anything too oundish, I couldn''t help but connect the scene to Dagr at every turn. "Hooh..." I had to take a deep breath to calm myself. -It could still be a coincidence... It could definitely just be a coincidence...- "Hooooh..."


    "A..are you alright, Leif?" Oda gave me a worried look.


    "Yes.. I''m okay." Finally getting a hold of my thoughts, I let go of Oda''s shoulders and looked toward the Tree of Prayer behind her. "Tell the local priests that I will reward them handsomely if they find any information on that boy or the Fenrir." -Even if they aren''t rted to Dagr or Nott, I need information on that magic...-


    Oda was quick to give me a nod. "I will inform them immediately."


    "Hooh.. good." *vwoom* With a wave of my hand, I lowered the silencing barrier around us, filling the air with loud chatter.


    But my thoughts were elsewhere. -If they really are rted.. I will find out soon enough...-


    Looking up through the hole in the canopy again, I saw the sky finally start to dim. -Only an hour to go...-

 Chapter 206: A Mind Numbing Amount of Mana

    Chapter 206: A Mind Numbing Amount of Mana


    Early Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    *vwoom-vwoom-vmmm* The sound of mana shing around us filled the air.


    It was definitely a bit odd at first, but after an hour of constantly hearing it, I quickly found myself getting used to it. -I guess it should be expected that so many strong people in one ce would cause some odd spectacles...-


    Casually looking around with my own aura, I watched as the countless otherrge auras danced around one another like oil and water before rising up a few more meters and suddenly mixing like there wasn''t anything keeping them apart in the first ce.


    It was a simple phenomenon caused by people''s subconscious aura control.


    To put it simply, while they still had influence over it, it wouldn''t naturally flow into neighboring, dense auras. But once control was inevitably lost, the mana would simply lose its attributes and be ambient mana that easily mixes with everything around it.


    It was an aspect of aura I had known about ever since I first obtained mana, but seeing it in such exaggerated conditions made it something truly fascinating to watch. -At ground level, there is barely any ambient (absorbable) mana, but just a few meters above us is an ocean of it...- "It''s really quite beautiful, isn''t it..."


    A smile came to Amara''s face as she turned around to see me staring up in the air. "It truly is something to behold." Her expression quickly turned warm. "This amount of mana is usually only visible in parts of the Holy Kingdom, during the Coming-Of-Age festival, or in As. Even people like us don''t get to see it often..."


    "R..right..." I stuttered a bit when she mentioned As. -That��s where Krystallo is going to school, isn��t it? I hope she is doing well...- Feeling a cold nket of yearning wrap around my mind, I tried to distract myself with some more idle conversation. "If the density of people''s auras weren��t so high around here, people would definitely get mana poisoning. Is it really like that in As and the Holy Kingdom as well?""Actually, yeah. You need a certain amount of aura to enter the cities where mana is this thick." Without making even the slightest movement, she threw up a silencing barrier. "The use of the mana here is a bit different though."


    "Hm? What do you mean?"


    "Well, in those cities, normally it''s better for people to absorb, get stronger, and heal, but here, all that mana isn��t for us."


    I raised an eyebrow with a confused look.


    Amara seemed to find it funny but held back herugh. "Ahem. Well, all that mana is to be given to the gods. The mana we receive and absorbes from the Tree of Prayer��s roots beneath us, but that mana is the reason this ceremony is so appealing to dragons."


    A look of surprise came to my face immediately. -You know, now that you mention it, there are a lot of dragons around...- Practically 1 out of every 15 people I could see were either half-breeds or pure dragons. "Why is the mana from the Tree of Prayer so appealing though?"


    "Haha, well, for one, it''s an absorbable attributed mana that gives a refreshed and invigorated feeling when absorbed, but it also gives the younger dragons an opportunity to practice and hone their ability to absorb mana!"


    It was like a lightbulb went off at that moment. -So that''s why all the dragons I''ve seen around here are young!- Except for a few younger elders, Amara was one of the oldest dragons I had seen, and she wasn''t even 100 years old. "But why can��t they just practice normally, with like, regr ambient mana?"


    "Not all dragons are born equal, Vasilias. Some of the less talented dragons struggle to learn the basics of mana even after dozens of years." Her smile turned warm as if she recalled an old memory. "Absorbing the Tree of Prayer''s mana during the ceremony helps remove that handicap. It''s like being guided by nature itself. Even you, someone who knows more about mana than anyone I know, might gain some insight from it."


    She was so proud as she exined it all, that I could only hide my skepticism. -''Being guided by nature'', huh��-


    Although I didn��t want to show it, I found it a little hard to believe that simply absorbing some attributed mana would really be considered teaching. -If anything, wouldn��t it be better to go to As or something and absorb the denser mana?-


    But before I could think about it, I noticed a figure suddenly appear on a tiny wooden tform about halfway down the tree.


    It was a wolf demihuman woman with dark grey, almost ck hair and vibrant blue eyes. She seemed oddly simr to me and even carried a slight air of strength and majesty around her, but unbefitting that image, she wore a beaming, childish smile.


    As she raised her hand, the crowd''s chatter that had been non-stop since we got here, turned into a dead and somewhat eerie silence. -It must be starting...-


    Keeping a close eye on the woman, I watched as she waved her hand around before lowering it back to her side. -What in the world is she doing...-


    "10,890 years." Although she was still a few kilometers away, her voice was clear, calm, and smooth. "It has been exactly 10,890 years since our beloved gods came to visit us... I''m sure many of you have found yourself doubting your belief at times, thinking ''what if they nevere back'', or wondering what the point of praying to an absent god was."


    A few of the elves and demihumans�� excited looks around me slowly morphed with guilt.


    "But such doubts are not unwarranted. Our lords had indeed left us to fend for ourselves, and their absence had indeed left a seed of doubt in the minds of everyone��" Her childish expression turned serious for a moment. "Every fifteen years, we would pray for our families and our health. We would wish for prosperity, ande to this very spot to seek the recognition of our gods�� But each time, we would go home questioning if anything would really change." Her smile slowly started creeping back onto her face. "But at longst, the time we have all prayed for has finallye!" Contagious enthusiasm and excitement oozed from her voice.


    It only took an instant for it to spread to the crowd, washing away everyone''s guilt and bringing excitement back to their faces.


    "Our gracious gods have finally returned after so many years! They havee home to rest, and gather their strength once more, so how about we show them just how much we have grown thanks to their previous protection and blessings!" She enthusiastically threw her arms out as all the visible ambient mana within a few hundred meters of the tree became denser and more vibrant.


    It was a beautiful scene, but it also sent a shiver down my spine. -What a ridiculous amount of mana...- But little did I know, that was just the start.


    "Let''s show our lords how far we havee!"


    As her voice echoed through the crowd, every single person, without exception, pointed their palms toward the center of the canopy.


    -Huh? Is this the ceremony?- Following everyone else''s lead, I held my arms up for several seconds before questioning whether I was doing it right.


    But that was when the real ceremony began.


    *RUMBLE* The Tree of Prayer started to pulsate out of nowhere, sending wide but short ripples through the ground like a heartbeat, but oddly enough, no one thought it was even the slightest bit odd.


    -How is everyone so calm?- But I didn''t have time to even question it before every single person, draconic, elven, and demihuman alike, started to simply dump their mana into the air.


    *vvVwwWwWwOOooOmmMMM* I could only watch in awe as a ceiling of mana appeared above us and stretched as far as the eye could see.


    It was a level of mana that instantly put the containment center to shame and even made me quite ufortable, but it didn''t end with just that, and instead only continued to grow.


    I could do nothing but stand there, frozen from awe for several seconds, as the dense sea of mana continued to grow deeper and deeper as people continued to release all the mana they could into the air.


    But that was when I noticed that the colossal mass of mana was going to converge at one point at the top of the tree.


    At that instant, like a switch was flipped in my mind, my intimidation, nervousness, and difort, turned into a deep an almost senseless greed.


    -With that much mana.. how much divinity could I make...-

 Chapter 207: The Realm Within The Clouds

    Chapter 207: The Realm Within The Clouds


    Early Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    -With that much mana.. how much divinity could I make...- Not even taking the time to question how I would make it, I pulled in my aura to form a bubble around my body, picked up Ilios, and disappeared with light magic.


    -Just like when I was underwater, I need topletely hide my presence...- "Hooh..." *vwWwwWoom* The noises from my surroundings started to warp as I took control of everything that even had the slightest chance of giving away my presence.


    The light, and everything in the air, down to the atom, fell under my control within seconds.


    -All that''s left is to mask the ripple I''ll make when I pass through that ocean of mana...-


    Hastily running through my options, I quickly settled on a n of action, even though I wasn''t exactly too confident about it.


    Put simply, I nned to spin my aura around my body at an incredible speed, which theoretically would scatter the ripple I would inevitably create. -It might cause some odd visuals, but I can mask that with light magic as a temporary measure... It''ll look odd to those who are less sensitive to mana, but they aren''t the ones I need to fool...-


    Looking at the woman a few kilometers up the tree, I could clearly make out the boundary of her aura, but although it was extremely dense, it was quite small. -She must be using her aura to avoid getting poisoned by the ambient mana...-


    But even though my assumption was likely wrong, why she was controlling her mana as such didn''t matter. -All that matters is that she will have to rely on her physical senses to notice me...- It was a picture-perfect scenario.With a smile of greed and excitement, I hastily finished myst preparations and set my sights on the center of the canopy. -Let''s see why the gods liked napping here, shall we?-


    After quickly making sure Ilios was securely in my grasp, I jumped up a few meters before creating a table of mana for me to stand on above the crowd.


    In short, it was an extreme version of the magic I used to distribute my weight, but instead of supporting me directly, it supported a tiny tform for me to jump off.


    -To think I''d create magic that lets me seemingly run on air...- *tap* Comfortablynding on the sturdy, invisible tform, I darted forward and ran across other tforms as I created them. *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap*


    Although it was a bit slow-going at first, after a while, I was creating and running across the tforms at nearly full speed. -To think it''d be so much fun to use such precise magic so quickly!-


    Before I knew it, I covered the four kilometers between the tree and where we originally stood, andnded on the top of one of the tree''s massive roots.


    But that didn''t mean I slowed down.


    *thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk* Using my built-up momentum, I used the curvature of where the root met the trunk to ramp myself up the side of the tree.


    *ZzZiipP* An odd noise met my ears as I ripped through the ridiculously dense mana, but thankfully my aura technique managed to nullify most of the ripple as I darted past the woman on the tree.


    A few seconds after I passed, when the remnants of the ripple finally made it to her, she turned and looked around, but I was already long gone by then.


    -Wow.. scattering mana ripples like that works really well...- Finally beginning to lose my initial momentum several kilometers above the woman, I used wind magic to press me against the trunk and simply ran the rest of the way up. *t-t-t-t-tap*


    -I should be far enough that they can''t feel my running, right?- Looking down again, I saw the woman still standing there, nervously looking around. -I''ll take that as a.. maybe...-


    But before I could turn back around to look where I was running, I sted into the canopy''s cold and dense fog.


    Instantaneously, I felt a moderately chilly but unfathomablyfortable air blow around me.


    It was a feeling that calmed my mind so quickly that I couldn''t even react to the immense drowsiness that started to epass my mind. -What a..fortable.. temperature...-


    But when my legs lost their strength and my knees buckled, my instinct purged every single thought in my mind and woke me up with a jolt.


    *THUNK* The tree shook as I drove my hand into the trunk to keep myself from falling.


    *crackle* It wasn''t until I heard the sound of the bark that my hand was embedded in start to splinter that my mind finally recollected itself. "Holy sh*t..." -I actually almost fell asleep like that?!-


    Nowpletely awake and able to raise my guard again, I had no problem resisting the enticing drowsiness the fog made me feel.


    But the damage was already done. -I made such a racket and even dispersed all my stealth magic... I really hope I''m far enough into the fog...-


    Looking down, I saw nothing but the blinding fog, which at least stretched as far as my aura could reach. -I should be fine...-


    Finally gathering myself, I carefully pulled my hand out of the tree and continued climbing.


    Things continued quietly for a couple more minutes after that. I carefully ran through the fog with only my cloudy aura and gut to guide me, but eventually, things started to level out in an oddly concerning fashion. -Where am I?-


    I felt like I was running over the top of a dome, with things gradually rounding and leveling out. At first, I thought it was simply the area between some branches that I just couldn''t see, but as I tried to paint the image in my mind, I couldn''t help but feel confused. -This doesn''t make sense...-


    After another couple hundred meters of running, thingspletely leveled out, with no hints that it would be changing in any direction, leaving me even more confused.


    *t-t-tap-tap* *tap* *tap* Slowing down to a walk and waking up Ilios to set him down, I quickly made sure I was oriented properly before thinking back to what the tree looked like from the ground. -With the angle that the trunk has been tapering off.. the diameter up here should be less than four kilometers... But that would mean I''m only a kilometer and a half from the very center of it...-


    It simply didn''t make any logical sense, but while I was contemting what to do, Ilios motioned me along with a lethargic but warm expression. -Does he know something?-


    Thoughtlessly following after him, seconds slowly turned to minutes, but then, out of nowhere, Ilios changed to his full size, turned to me, and sat down.


    -Huh?- I was taken slightly aback. "What''s wrong?" I gave him a confused look, but he just bowed his head to me like he had done several times previously.


    -What is he doing...- But when I thought that, I noticed some kind of engraving with my aura just ahead of us. -Hm? What''s that?-


    Seeing Ilios subtly motion me toward it, I walked past him to see what it was, but could only slow down to a halt when I covered a portion of it with my aura. "What.. is this?"


    -


    - Leif Vilulf ~ (Back several minutes)


    "Let''s show our lords how far we havee!" My voice, amplified by a series of wind runes, passed over the crowd like a wave.


    The instant it reached their ears, they raised their hands into the air without exception.


    -To think that even the dragons are excited this year!- As I spread my arms out wide, I brought all my aura closer to my body and braced myself.


    *Vwooom* The mana in the air around the tree immediately started to increase in density before several, heartbeat-like shockwaves passed down the trunk.


    *RUMBLE* The ground below started to shake as the shockwaves passed through the roots beneath it, but from where I was, distinct ripples could be seen. -No matter how many times I see it.. it''s truly stunning...-


    But while I was bathing in the beauty of the scene, I saw an absolutely colossal amount of aura within the crowd vanish instantaneously. -What the...-


    Thinking I couldn''t have just imagined it, I gave the area where it was a closer look but found nothing out of the ordinary, from the flow of mana to the expressions of the people praying. -Did I really just.. imagine that?-


    After giving it some more thought, I finally just suppressed my worries and turned my attention back to the quickly rising sea of mana that extended to the horizon.


    But after less than a minute, while I was watching over the people below, apletely out-of-ce ripple came from my left. *vWooOmMm* It sounded like a very low-energy ripple, but at the same time, it was moving ridiculously quickly. -Did I really miss someone running by?-


    Hastily looking around, I honestly found a concerning amount of nothing, to the point that I questioned whether Gulbrand, the apostle adjacent to me, had caused it. -What could he do to create that though... It felt like it was muffled...-


    Without waiting for my thoughts though, the prayer continued and the sea of mana finally started to get close to me. I simply had no choice but to pull my thoughts back together. "Hooh..." -Even if it was someone running past, I don''t need to worry...- *tap*


    As if meant to try and keep me from calming my thoughts, I felt a very faint tap from within the tree.


    Although I wasn''t sure why at the time, my instincts made me look up at the fog-covered canopy, where there was a very faint, spiraling motion in the fog. -So someone did enter? But.. they didn''t fall back out...- I stood there and stared at the spiraling motion for several seconds, simply waiting for someone to fall out, but no one ever did.


    Before long, my thoughts started to wander and my excitement mounted. -Could that have really been <em>him</em>?-

 Chapter 208: Knowledge Lost to Time

    Chapter 208: Knowledge Lost to Time


    Early Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    *tap* *tap* *tap* Walking past Ilios, I spread out my aura and quickly found an odd engraving of some sort a couple dozen meters ahead, but couldn''t make out any details because of the fog''s interference. That was when I really started wondering... -What is this fog anyway?-


    I idly thought about it as I walked closer, but nothing ever came to mind.


    From what I could tell, the fog was practically intangible. Even when I packed my aura as densely as possible, I could only barely detect the faint existence of the energy that made up the fog. -If it didn''t mess with me reading my aura and feel so abnormally cold, I probably wouldn''t have looked close enough to notice it...-


    After giving it a little more thought, I started getting close to the engraving and moved my questions to the side. -Whatever it is, I''m sure I will figure it out in due time...- Standing right over the engraving, I squatted down so I could make out the details with just my eyes.


    "What.. is this?" It was a rectangr engraving about 3 centimeters deep and 5 centimeters wide, but it waspletely full of crystalline mana.


    -It looks like a tubr mana core, but the manaposing the shell looks too random... Almost as if it was a.. clogged rune or something...- As I spread out my hundreds of meters of aura again to try and get a better scope of the engraving, I quickly noticed that I could only see a portion of it. -What the actual f*ck...-


    From what I could tell, it was indeed a rune of some kind, but it was nearly a kilometer across, and saying it had sat there for thousands of years would have been a grave understatement. -This might even predate the Great War...- I could only look at it in awe.


    But the longer I stared at it and tried to figure out what it was for, the moreplex I noticed it was and the more curious I became.Before I knew it, my curiosity had grown beyond the point where my sense of reason could still suppress it.


    Without a single thought of possible repercussions, I reached back and pulled out my greatsword before holding the tip just above the ring. -Now, let''s see how well you clean up...-


    *Clink* At first, it sounded like I tapped my sword against a block of metal, but when I eventually put more of the de''s weight on it, the ring cracked and exploded like a mana core. *crackle*


    But there was no following noise. There was no wave of mana at all, even though the amount that should have been in it was colossal.


    It made me halt my excitement immediately. "Huh?" -Where''s the mana?-


    I had originally nned to absorb some of it since the ambient mana within the fog was practically nonexistent, but from what I could tell, it just disappeared like it never existed in the first ce. -What just happened?-


    Thinking I just missed it since I wasn''t paying much attention, I shifted over to the next ring, which had moreplicated engravings just a few centimeters away.


    -Alright... I''m not gonna miss it this time...- Squatting down next to the ring loaded with symbols, I carefully used the hilt of my sword to tap and shatter the brittle shell of mana. *Clink-crackle*


    But once again, as the ring shattered, the only mana that escaped into the air was the mana thatposed the solid, crystalline shell, and even it seemed to disappear before I could look too closely at it.


    I was honestly at a loss for words. I simply couldn''t understand where the mana was going. -And for a core like this to not have any mana in it, yet still hold its shape... How does that even happen?-


    Moving to the next ring, I did the same thing but tried to follow the mana directly from the shell. *Clink-crackle*


    But that only made things more frustrating. No matter how well I focused or made sure I couldn''t lose sight of the particle of mana, it would just disappear.


    -Am I going crazy or something?!- I was starting to get frustrated that I couldn''t see what was happening even when I trapped a singr particle within a block of aura. -It couldn''t have slipped out, so where did it go?!-


    My curiosity-driven frustration only grew as I moved from ring to ring in a vain attempt to find out what was happening. *Clink* *Clink* *Clink*


    Hundreds of separate rings were broken as I tried everything I could think of, but eventually, I started getting somewhere.


    By pressing my aura into a particle of mana as hard as I could, I was able to feel the particle, instead of disappearing, shrink at an astronomical rate.


    It was finally a step in the right direction, and even though it raised several more questions, I was fine with it. If anything, it made me more excited.


    But eventually, as I started getting close to the center of the tree, the fog became too thick for me to conduct any urate experiments. "Sh*t..." My aura was too clouded to make any reliable observations anymore. -Well.. I guess I have to leave it at that for now...-


    I was incredibly unsatisfied with having to leave my questions up in the air when I felt so close to the answer, but I was left with no choice.


    The farther I walked into the fog to clean the tubes of mana out of the massive rune, the thicker the fog became.


    A few minutes and several thousand ringster, I found myself running my hand across the ground and breaking rings with my fingernail. My aura was almostpletely useless at that point. -Just what is this stuff...-


    Having long since put aside my frustration, I was simply focused on figuring out what the rune was.


    And at longst, I was getting to the center. -This is it...- Running my finger over the pea-sized area right below me, I felt countless astronomically tiny engravings. -I just need to unclog that and probably give it some mana...-


    But as I thought that, I felt a mass of mana so ridiculous it made my mind go nk rising up through the tree.


    It only took a second for me to realize what it was. -The mana from the prayer!- I had actually gotten so caught up in my own curiosity that I had forgotten what I was there to do.


    But that didn''t mean I nned on changing what I was doing.


    In fact, it was quite the opposite. -Talk about a perfect source of mana for the rune!-


    cing my thumb over thest area with engravings, I gathered aura around it and jabbed it into the thousands of separate rings as urately as possible.


    *Cr-r-r-r-rackle* It made an odd noise, but as far as I could tell, it worked. -Now, I can only pray that none of the rings or symbols themselves were damaged...-


    Although I didn''t want to jinx myself, I knew it was extremely unlikely that there was no damage to the carvings themselves that could cause the rune to not function properly, but I didn''t have the time or luxury to check it all.


    -All I can do is sit back and watch...- Sitting crisscross over the very center of the rune, Iyered my aura around myself to form a protective barrier of sorts and prayed for the best.


    That was when it finally happened. *vwowowowmmm* Rhythmic, vibration-like ripples were sent through my aura as the mana within the tree finally touched the underside of the rune.


    I was filled with limitless excitement to see what the rune was for, and what mystical purpose such a massive rune served, but as mana flowed into it, I was only left confused. -Huh?-


    The immense volume of mana being pushed into the rune was simply run in circles that alternated directions with eachyer without funneling towards the center at all.


    From my experience, that meant the rune was iplete or damaged, but I didn''t let my hopes get down. -It could still be warming up... Maybe...-


    But although that was just my wishful thinking, it turned out to be true.


    *VWOWOWOWOWOWM* The rhythmic reverberation of mana from the rune was both soothing and a bit concerning, but before I could do anything about my worries, I noticed the fog, albeit in a small volume, begin to turn and flow with the movement of the mana.


    As seconds ticked by, that flow began to increase in volume until it formed a hurricane-like spin over the center of the rune.


    I could only watch with a look of curiosity and intrigue as the fog began to spin faster and faster until it got too fast for me to follow.


    And then things stayed like that for several seconds.


    From what I could tell, the fog wasn''t actually going anywhere even though I felt like it was meant to flow into the rune, leaving me with a mound of questions and no answers. -So.. is it really broken?-


    I felt an immeasurable disappointment, like I was so close to something but could only make assumptions about what was wrong. -Sh*t.. is it actually damaged?- My high hopes wereing crashing back down


    As I was about to stand up and try to look at the outer rings of the rune though, a needle-like dart of mana, iparable to anything prior, came mming up into the center of the rune''s underside.


    *sh* As a bright glow came from the center, the swirling fog was sucked down and funneled into the center of the rune like water draining out of a sink.


    *CrAckLE* Apletely indescribable sound filled the air the instant the fog collided with the mana in the rune, but although I would have normally been curious about it, I was too busy staring at a glowing beam sting straight up through the center of the fog funnel.


    Questions raced through my mind as I wondered how it all worked and what exactly was happening, but one question trumped the rest. -Is that.. divinity?-

 Chapter 209: The Foundation

    Chapter 209: The Foundation


    Mid Evening - Late Fall : The Ancient Rune, The Tree of Prayer


    *CrAckLE* As a beam of light shot up from the rune, narrowly missing my face, I jolted from shock. -Is that.. divinity?-


    It was an astronomically tiny beam, but at the same time, it was still divinity. -So how should I absorb it... Do I just...- Reaching my hand out, I reluctantly stuck it into the beam to try and absorb it like mana, but nothing happened.


    The divinity passed through my hand like it didn''t even exist. -If that''s not it, then how about this!-


    Not wanting to let any more go to waste, I shifted forward and moved my reserve directly over it.


    *CrAckLE* "Ack..." A sharp pain ripped through my body the instant the divinity entered my reserve, but unlikest time, I had no problem staying conscious. "Agh..." -But what is causing that pain?!-


    Gritting my teeth through the pain of my flesh being slowly shredded, I moved my aura and scanned the area around my reserve to see what was happening.


    But once I saw it, I could only cringe from disgust. -How unsettling...-


    Throughout my abdomen, weaving in and around the shell of my reserve, I could sense the microscopic ck tubes of divinity moving like some alien creature while digging through my flesh like a worm.The tubes grew and moved as if they had no destination in mind, digging through anything in their path, be it muscle, bone, or organs. -If my body still relied on my normal organs to keep me alive, this would be really dangerous...-


    Thankfully, without any vitals left besides my brain, I had no problem letting the divinity spread where it pleased.


    But that led to problems of its own. "k..." Almost vomiting up blood, I held my hand over my mouth and somehow managed to keep anything from getting on the rune. -I can''t risk having it interfere with the rune!-


    Leaning my head forward to get out of the funnel of dense fog, I used magic to break down the bloody vomit as best as I could before letting it out as a cloud of toxic chemicals. "Hooh..."


    A deep sense of lethargy immediately epassed my mind as my body rushed to heal the slough of internal injuries, but thankfully, not long after, the amount of damage being inflicted by the spread of divinity started to lessen in severity.


    "Hah.. hah..." My breathing was heavy, but once I managed to catch my breath, I looked through myself with my aura once again and tried to learn from what was happening.


    It actually didn''t take long for me to start noticing patterns. -So.. the divinity was doing more damage at the beginning because it had fewer branches to spread to...-


    From what I could tell, divinity followed the path of least resistance through my body, happily traveling through the preexisting framework of tubes before branching out into countless different areas at once. -But the longer I absorb it, the more branches and the more spread out the growth is...-


    The more spread out things were, the easier it was for my body to heal, which, in turn, made the damage more manageable. -It seems the pain is easing up as well...- "Phew..."


    I let out a breath of relief as I leaned my head back and nced to the side.


    Although I couldn''t exactly see him through the fog, I somehow knew Ilios was sitting there with a wagging tail.


    That was when my mind finally took a step back. -Now that I''m past the initial curve, I should give him the rest...-


    The instant that thought came to mind, I wasted no time carefully moving my reserve out of the beam and standing up.


    -It''ll be safer for him to get through the bad part while the supply of divinity is stable and controlled...- Turning in his direction, I darted through the quickly ever-thinning fog until eventually making it to where Ilios was sitting with a wagging tail.


    -Has the fog really thinned out or am I just.. adjusting to it or something...- I was a bit confused as to why my visibility was so much better than before, but once I finally made it to Ilios, that confusion was put to the side.


    *pat-pat* I gently rubbed Ilios''s head as he lowered it to me, but my voice stayed serious. "Ilios, it''s your turn. Come on." Ilios stood up as I pulled my hands away and turned back around. "Be careful not to step on any of the engravings as we run."


    The instant he nodded his head, I darted back into the fog with Ilios quickly following suit.


    It only took us a few seconds to arrive, and thankfully, the beam of divinity was still going strong. -Alright... We need to make the most of what''s left...- "Ilios,e lie here and set your reserve over the beam of light."


    His ears perked up, and he lightly tilted his head slightly when I motioned him forward.


    -There''s no way he doesn''t understand me...- "I need you to absorb this since it''s such a controlled environment. It will be much safer if you absorb your first bit of divinity here." -I can''t have him run the risk of permanently damaging or killing himself if he were to somehow absorb too much at once...-


    But even though he saw that I was serious, he just shook his head and nudged me toward it.


    -You seriously want to give it all to me?- "Ilios, I have already built my foundation with this stuff. Now it''s your turn." Since he didn''t want to do it as I told him, I warmed up my tone and gave him some encouragement. "The more of this you absorb, the more we will be able to y in the future."


    He immediately froze and looked at me like he was weighing the pros and cons of the deal before letting out a quick breath and holding his head high. "Huff..." His childish excitement and limitless confidence quickly found their way back to his face as he finally walked past me.


    It only took a second for his joy to spread to me as well. -How is he so damn cute no matter what he does...- The warmth I felt from him quickly overwrote the nervousness I felt. "Go ahead and lie down next to it so I can get a good look at your condition before we start."


    *Puff* Not wasting a single extra second, he plopped himself down right next to the beam and looked at me with a wagging tail.


    But although I would have normally jumped all over him, I had to remain serious. "Hooh..." -Let''s see what he''s working with first...-


    *vwooom* Quickly flooding his body with my aura, I looked around to see that he wasn''t actually much different from me on the inside. -To think he''d only have a stomach and lungs, like me...-


    It was a bit odd to see so few organs in a creature other than myself, but I couldn''t bring myself to think it was totally unexpected. -So the reason my organs were removed with my dragon sleeps was because I am part Ancient Fenrir, huh...-


    Giving another quick look through his body to make sure I didn''t miss anything else, I finally looked at him with a confident expression. "Alright, buddy. When you''re ready, scoot up just a bit. It will hurt at the start, but try to push yourself through it." I tried tofort him by rubbing his side, and it seemed to help.


    "Hopphhh..." He let out a quick breath as he prepared himself before scooching forward into the beam.


    But that preparation was only so effective...


    *tap* He jolted the instant the beam touched his reserve, likely feeling the awful sensation of the tubes of divinity being driven through his flesh.


    But thankfully, everything so far was going as expected.


    Ilios easily stayed conscious, and I was able to carefully keep watch on the tiny ck tubes that weaved themselves around his reserve before spreading out into the rest of his body.


    "Hick..." Ilios let out an odd noise as I looked over to see him struggling not to vomit.


    -Sh*t! I forgot to tell him how to deal with that!- Quickly moving over to his head, I set my hand on the base of his neck. "Ilios, look up and open your mouth for me."


    Instinctually following my instructions, he opened his mouth and let the gas I created vent out.


    -Perfect...- Carefully moving down his throat, I cleared out the blood and did my best to clean up his countless internal injuries, but although it looked quite messy, everything was going well. -Only a little longer until the damage will taper off...-


    My focus steadily became more honed with each passing second, but eventually, that focus started to iste me from my surroundings.


    It wasn''t until several minutester that my spatial awareness finally returned, but my surroundings had alreadypletely changed.


    The dense fog that used to epass everything had all been moved into a single, colossal tornado-like funnel over the center of the rune.


    That phenomenon finally gave me the chance to see everything around me beyond the limit of my aura, but before I could even look away from the tornado, a ball of hydrogen formed in front of my forehead.


    -Huh?- For a split second, I wondered why I made it, but that was answered almost instantly.


    *pshh-FWOOOSH* Instinctually lighting the hydrogen as if it was a thruster, my head was jolted back at a ridiculous speed.


    Confusion immediately wrapped around my mind, but in the next instant, a fist plowed through the area where my head was.


    -WHAT THE F*CK?!-

 Chapter 210: Faith

    Chapter 210: Faith


    Mid Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    - Leif Vilulf ~ (A few minutes prior)


    *vvVwwWwWwOOooOmmMMM* It had been about 5 minutes since the ceremony began, and it was about time to wrap it up, but even though I needed to prepare my finishing speech, my attention was elsewhere.


    -I wasn''t just imagining things...- An ecstatic smile crept onto my face as I looked up to see the fog starting to circle the tree. -They''re really here!-


    It was truly surreal seeing the Fog of Sin start to move for the first time in countless generations. Not only was it a sign that the gods were present, but it was also an indication that an event was about to take ce.


    -To think I''d be able to take part in a Divine Appearance!- It was an event mentioned in countless ancient texts as it happened at almost every prayer for thousands of years when Siratha was being founded, but now it was simply a legend lost to time.


    To describe it simply, it was an event where the gods would lift the Fog of Sin to make examples of sinful apostles, appoint new ones, and give out oracles and guidance as they deemed fit.


    It was the god''s way of keeping the apostles in check, to make sure those leading themon folk used their power to help the weak rather than dominate them.


    At the time, it was an odd ideal, but after numerous perfect oracles, and undeniable blessings, people came to consider their decisions as undisputable and followed their word no matter what.-I truly can''t believe people ever dared to doubt such generous Lords... With their guidance, the dog-eat-dog world this nation had been, ever since people first stepped foot here, became a thing of the past...-


    At the time, it made Siratha nothing short of a utopia, giving rise to previously unfathomable growth.


    Even the Siratha of 300 years ago, when I officially became an apostle, was simply unrecognizable from the current nation.


    -And it was all done to fit our Lord''s guidance!- I honestly felt proud about what I had managed to aplish in my time as an apostle, and although I didn''t expect praise, I hadn''t the slightest concern that I wouldn''t be epted by the gods.


    At least that was the case until a few minutes after that when I finally traveled up the tree to see our beloved gods.


    *tap-tap-tap-tap* Hastily running up the side of the tree, I quickly made it to a ce known as the Gods'' Abode, an area that the Tree of Prayer grew around to form a shelter.


    "Woah..." I let out a breath of awe as I looked into the massive opening in the trunk lined with beautiful carvings and runes that perfectly matched the descriptions I read from ancient texts. -To think the carvings are still in such perfect condition after all these years...-


    Continuing up the gradually decreasing incline, I quickly made it into the room itself and felt a childish passion deep in me grow like a fueled me.


    -So this is where the gods stayed...- The visible part of the ceiling was lined with ancient carvings that seemed to tell a story, and the ground was covered in a single, inexplicably colossal rune.


    But at the very center of that rune, where I expected to see two over 200-meter-tall Fenrir sitting, I saw a single pure white Fenrir that could have only been 18 meters tall,ying next to a ck-haired demihuman with a level of majesty that mortal beings simply couldn''t obtain.


    Even I, someone who had never had the slightest reaction to a man, felt my heart flutter.


    The boy had his hands pressed firmly into Dagr''s side with a calm expression on his face. It made me wonder if the boy was somehow Nott, but at the same time, neither Dagr nor Nott were ever known to have a humanoid form.


    But before I could reason through that possibility, I saw Gulbrand, one of the apostles that was supposed to be under my guidance, dash out into the room and charge straight at them.


    My thoughts stopped, and my mind went nk as I questioned what he could possibly be trying to achieve, but that was when he finally got close to them and threw a punch at the boy.


    My heart sank like a rock in the ocean.


    -


    - Vasilias ~


    *pshh-FWOOOSH* Throwing my head back with a thruster, I narrowly managed to dodge the iing punch. -WHAT THE F*CK?!-


    Before I could even look at the aggressor, a knee entered my aura just above my waist. -SH*T!- I tried to quickly brace myself, but it wasn''t enough.


    *cRaCk* A rib broke as my body bent around the man''s knee. "Ack!" *CRACK-FWOOSH* I smashed through the sound barrier immediately as I wasunched out through one of the openings in the tree trunk.


    *Crunch-crackle* *crackle-CrUnCh* I smashed through several small limbs before catching myself on something.


    But even though I couldn''t tell what it was the instant my aura was around it, all that mattered was that it was strong enough to jump off of. "You''re dead now, you f*cker!"


    *CRACK* The odd protrusion shattered the instant I jumped off it, but even though I was well past mach... -It''s not fast enough...-


    *psh-RUMMMBLLEE* A wall of blue mes appeared behind me as I was slingshot through Mach 10 in an instant.


    Setting my sights on the elven man as he reached his hand toward Ilios, I drew my sword in a fit of rage. -You filthy scum!-


    I was moving so fast that I practically appeared next to him before I threw all my momentum into my sword. "DON''T YOU DARE!" *SHIIIING* My sword sliced into his flesh like butter, but once it got halfway through him, I felt like I hit a wall.


    *DIIIIIIING-FWOOOSH* My sword rang like a bell as he wasunched into the opposing wall, obliterating the carving that had been there for thousands of years.


    He was bleeding profusely with his sliced-apart intestines hanging out of the gash in his side.


    But the part that really sent me over the edge was when I saw that he was still alive.


    *crackle* Clenching his fist, he ripped himself out of the splintered wood he was embedded in, shredding his skin and covering his body in countless cuts.


    He looked possessed as he stood there while dripping blood, but I had no choice but to turn my attention away from him.


    "Ilios, are you alright?!" I hurriedly injected an ocean of aura into his body, doing everything I could to help minimize the rming amount of damage that had umted in the few seconds I was gone, but that was all before I realized Ilios had passed out. -Sh*t, why now?!- It was the one situation I wanted to avoid at all costs.


    -I can''t afford to be away from him if he can''t move out of the beam on his own...- A mix of anxiety and fury filled my mind as I pinned all the me on the man.


    "To think you''d be able to obtain more divinity than this child in less than 20 years after being reborn..." A man''s voice came from behind me, just outside of my aura. "You really are a monster... One that can''t be allowed to grow..."


    Looking over my shoulder with a fiery re, I saw the man staring at me with a crazed smile on his face, surrounded by an air of confidence that simply couldn''t belong to someone on the verge of death.


    "You know, I used to wonder why they despised you two so much. After all, your influence and dominance over this pitiful world is what gave them the chance to grow and rise to power, but now I understand..." *cRAckLE* A gut-wrenching noise came from him as his skeletal structure morphed and changed. "As mortals, we all believed that the mountain only seemed impossible to climb because you two were gods, but once we eventually reached that peak ourselves, we realized just how impossible you two were to ovee."


    Hastily calming my surging anger to stay rational, I did my best to make sense of what he was saying but was only left with questions. -If he really is a god, why did he have to possess someone toe kill me?-


    It didn''t make much sense, but at that point, it didn''t need to. -All that matters is that he wants to kill Ilios and I...- *creaak* Clutching my sword so hard it creaked, I turned around to face him while keeping a close watch on Ilios''s condition.


    *Pop* The man casually popped his limp jaw back into ce as his bones finally stopped morphing, leaving his appearance as somethingpletely unrecognizable from before.


    "But now look at you..." His smile was full of arrogance. "You used to be a monster that wiped out gods on a whim, but now you can''t even cut through someone as weak as this apostle. Was trying to save that damned lizard worth it?" His smile only turned more psychotic. "How does it feel to be like us? How does it feel to be powerless in front of an insurmountable wall?"


    His expression made me want to skin him alive, but I couldn''t bring myself to attack first, not because of fear, but because of uncertainty.


    Even without him being inside my aura, I could see just how ridiculously the fabric of space was bent around him. -For his presence alone to bend light...- The warp I had talked to a few days prior could barely be considered existent inparison. -Just what am I about to fight...-

 Chapter 211: Encroaching On A Distant Realm

    Chapter 211: Encroaching On A Distant Realm


    Mid Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    -For his presence alone to bend light... Just what am I about to fight...- Too nervous to give him the first move, I created a heavily strengthened steel dart, with a pocket of hexane and hydrogen in the middle, behind a wall of light magic right next to me.


    "You have truly impressed me over thest few years, Nott. You have shown me all kinds of spells I had never heard of and used incredible martial techniques that even I, the god of strength, couldn''t fathom. But even with the unfathomable growth you''ve experienced and themendable amount of divinity you managed to acquire, you are limited to a mortal body."


    Wanting to buy a bit more time, I finally spoke to him. "Couldn''t I say the same about you then?" But my uncertainty only grew as I spoke. "Even if you are the god of strength, you can only do so much in a damaged body..." -Where.. is his aura...-


    He paused for a moment like he didn''t believe I was serious. "Hahahaha! You are quite right! No matter how much of my own divinity I use to strengthen this body, it will still be that of a mortal human." His gaze turned hostile in an instant. "But this much is more than enough to deal with you, even in your wretched dragon f-"


    *CRRAACK* The sound barrier ripped apart as Iunched the dart at the man''s chest.


    But even though he seemed to notice and react to it almost instantly, he wasn''t remotely fast enough in that body to dodge the Mach 15 hunk of steel.


    *CRUNCHHH* The echo of his ribcage getting pulverized filled the air, but just when I thought he was dead, I saw him digging his fingers into the side of the dart, preventing it from flying straight through his body.


    But his body was still that of an elf. *fwip* The instant he managed to stop the dart, his feet were swept off the ground, and he was sent flying back toward the opening in the side of the room.His face turned serious for a moment as he repositioned himself to use air resistance to press his feet back into the ground, but it was already toote. *crackle* The hexane and hydrogen mixture I left inside the dart had already ignited. *BAAANG*


    The whole tree shook violently from the explosion, but even though it was nothing to scoff at, after hearing him mention that he knew of my dragon form, my lingering confidence vanished.


    -If he knows about my dragon form, my humanoid one definitely won''t be enough...- *sh* Filling the room with a blinding purple light, I hastily changed to my dragon form without regard for the 3 other people who were watching the scene from the sidelines.


    "To use that spell right off the bat... Talk about some truly frightening magic..." Confidently walking out of the smoke while holding his neck, the man made his way toward me with melted skin and exposed flesh all across his upper body.


    He looked like a zombie or some skinless monster from a video game. -How is someone who looks like that.. still confident...- Unable to hold onto my confidence in keeping my eye on Ilios''s internals while also protecting him, I gently nudged him out of the beam of divinity and quickly stabilized his condition. -Ilios.. If you could wake up quickly.. that would be great...-


    Lowering my stance, I sneakily moved my reserve over the beam of divinity and started absorbing all I could, even when I knew it wouldn''t be enough to change anything.


    "Haha! Are you really clinging onto that pitiful beam of divinity thinking it''ll save you?" He casually lowered himself to the ground before lunging at me. *CRACK* He smashed through the sound barrier instantly.


    -If he has the mobility advantage, I''ll need to take advantage of his confidence...- I waited until he got close, before darting forward and throwing a casual kick at him, hoping he would dodge.


    Which he did. *fwip* Darting around my paw, he got directly under me and threw a punch into my stomach.


    *psh-FWOOOSH* I sted a thruster into his face, thinking I could m him into the ground and use it as a chance to impale him with a w, but instead, I felt his fist, aimed at my reserve, meet my gut.


    *CRUNCH* My scales shattered like brittle stones as I wasunched into the air, but unbeknownst to him, my reserve wouldn''t break from blunt force trauma. -My reserve isn''t a brittle orb like everyone else''s...-


    "Ugh..." Closing my eyes and gritting my teeth, I made it look like I was in pain so he''d think his attack was effective.


    And it seemed to work since his arrogant look returned immediately.


    -Arrogant f*cker...- *p-FWOOSH* Raising my wings to the ceiling as fast as I could, I threw myself toward the ground and mmed a w straight into his chest, but before I could get to the ground and drive it through him, he mmed his hands into the opposing sides of it and snapped it like a twig. *crack*


    "Ow!" Keeping up my speed, I quicklynded before him and threw a thruster-backed kick into his side. *psh-FWOOSH-CRRRAAACKK* It sounded like every bone in his body broke as he flew into the wall like a beam of light.


    But little did I know, the breaking noise wasn''t from him.


    -What the f*ck?!- When I nced down at my broken w, I saw that the scales where I hit him were all shattered. -What the f*ck is this guy made of?!-


    *crackle* Pulling himself out of the splintered wall once again, he looked nothing short of a tortured, dying man, yet he was still smiling. "It feels like you just kicked a wall, right?"


    Ignoring his taunt, I nced behind myself to see Ilios still unconscious and the three other apostles still standing at their respective entrances,pletely dumbfounded.


    But before I could turn back around, the man darted back into my aura and leapt at my head. "Listen to me.. WHEN I''M TALKING!" Putting his whole body into it, he tried to drive his fist into the side of my head.


    But now that I could have more confidence that Ilios would be alright without me, I could clear my clouded thoughts.


    *VWOOOM* Using my aura to pressure him, he was promptly mmed toward the ground, but that still wasn''t enough.


    Lining the back of my front leg with hyper-reactive cubane, I nned to use the recoil from the explosion to drive the back of my wrist into his head like it was a ser ball.


    *sizzle-BAAANG* My paw ripped through Mach 10 instantly, driving my several-thousand-ton leg straight into his upper body and popping his head like a balloon. *Cr-r-r-RACK* The sound started to warp as he ripped through the air.


    -To think you''d really only have raw strength going for you...- Darting behind him with the help of a cubane-fueled thruster, Iunched myself back at him with my jaws wide open. -You created a really disadvantageous matchup for yourself...-


    *CrUnCh* His body crunched like a cracker as my teeth were driven into him.


    But he still didn''t give up.


    In the next instant, the headless body went to punch and shatter the inside of my jaw, but I interrupted it by throwing him toward the entrance he came from. *fwip-CRACK*


    He flew through the air as a headless, mangled body, but still seemed to be controlling it and trying tond.


    But I wouldn''t give him that chance. -Even if you use your divinity in that body to control him like a puppet, YOU CAN''T DO THAT IF HE DOESN''T HAVE A BODY!- In a wave of unbridled anger, I instantly created nearly a gram of antimatter in my breath nd and opened my mouth.


    *sh-BRRRRRRMMMM* Almost instantaneously, the several-million-degree beam of pure energy that left my mouth vaporized his body and everything behind him for dozens of kilometers.


    *tssss* The moist wood beneath my feet sizzled as I stood there and let out a deep breath. "Hooh..." -I guess it''s to be expected that a god would be overconfident...-


    *tap* *tap-tap* *tap* The sound of his remaining, charred, and ashen limbs hitting the ground brought me an incredible sense of satisfaction, but that didn''tst long.


    *VWOOOOM* Instead of the body and the ridiculous warp vanishing together, the warp remained untouched and unaltered.


    It was a cloud that took the shape of a tall and muscr man wearing some sort of armor, but before I could even start to use my space mana to clean him up, he vanished.


    "Tch..." -To think such a haughty mother f*cker would run away...- I looked around the room with great haste, simply trying to find the figure again so I could shred it with gates like the female specter told me a few days ago.


    But before I could find it, one of the other apostles came charging into my aura with the familiar heavy warp around them at a speed iparable to before.


    -What the?!- My instincts screamed at me and made my thoughts go nk immediately.


    In a futile attempt to defend myself, I tried to turn and block him somehow, but I simply couldn''t move fast enough without a premade thruster spell.


    But after another moment, when I finally noticed where he was aiming his fist, time began to slow and my thoughts returned while carrying a memory I had almost forgotten.


    The memory was of an attack I used on ident when I woke up after fighting the lurkers. An attack that mixed an explosion with space mana to shred the fabric of space.


    Just being reminded of it made my already growing confidence increase even more. -You better hope and pray that this hit cripples me...- *CRRRRUNCH*

 Chapter 212: Shredding Reality

    Chapter 212: Shredding Reality


    Late Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    The apostle''s fist came sting into my side at over Mach 7, a speed I simply couldn''t dodge without thruster magic prepared beforehand.


    But even though it was a strike with enough force to cripple almost any living being, I was showing hostility instead of worry. -You better hope and pray that this hit cripples me...-


    *CRRRRUNCH* The scales near his fist shattered like ss before being sted through my skin and muscle like a shotgun.


    But although it hurt, when I gritted my teeth, it wasn''t from the pain. "Ack!" *VWOOOOM* The shockwave mmed into the thin walls of my reserve with a horrific amount of force, but instead of it shattering like the man wanted, it morphed around the shockwave like a water balloon. "Urck!"


    I felt like I needed to throw up as my reserve was stretched so much I thought it might rip apart, but the shockwave blew through the rest of my body and hurled me into the wall before I could do anything about it.


    *WHAM-CRACKLE* The poor tree splintered and broke apart as it desperately tried to absorb my momentum, but I was already several meters deep before it caught me.


    -Sh*t...- "Hah... Hah... Hah..." *Craacklee* I tried to catch my breath as I pried myself out of the splintered and destroyed wall, but my lower body felt too weak to stand.


    *THUD* I barely managed to keep myself from copsing when Inded on the ground, but thankfully my shaking was quickly fading away. I could already feel some of the shredded muscles in my abdomen starting to heal, but I still needed more time. -I need to stall for a few seconds...-"To think your reserve would stay in one piece even after that..." His voice was filled with anger. "You truly are disgustingly resilient, aren''t you..."


    ncing over at the voice, I saw him walking toward me with blood dripping from his fist. -Is he really going to start talking again?- A smile crept onto my face as my confidence started building and strength started returning to my lower body. "What.. hah.. is your name?" I tried exaggerating my heavy breathing to build up his confidence.


    "Why would I give my name to a bast*rd like you?" Arrogance was oozing out of him.


    "Haha..." I let out an awkward chuckle. "I just want to know whose temple I need to desecrate after I kill you."


    His confident smile was reced with an unpleasant frown instantly. "If you were trying to provoke me so I''ll just finish you off quicker, it won''t work."


    -You think you can dictate when I die?- An easily misinterpretable, irritated look washed over my provoking smile. -You''re overestimating yourself...-


    "Unlike the others, I didn''t have enough followers for any to still be praising my name after 10,000 years of absence. My followers all died or started following other gods before we were released from that wretched prison..." He wore a look of deep distaste as he popped his neck.


    -Wait, what? Prison?-


    "But I guess since you fixed this rune for me and made that exactck of followers no longer an issue, I will share my name." He paused as his expression turned back to a cocky smile. "My name is Magni, the God of Strength." He paused as he bent over. "You should pray to that name in your next life. If you are genuine, I might give you a blessing!" *CRACK*


    The instant he lunged, he turned hypersonic, closing the distance between us and appearing next to the base of my neck in a sh.


    But this time, I was ready. -You talked for too long!- *BANG* Blowing up the mass of cubane sitting in my breath nd, my body was thrown backward, letting me narrowly dodge the punch.


    -Have you learned nothing?!- With a slightly crazed smile, I channeled all my upward momentum into my leg, ignited the cubane on the back of my leg, and mmed it into his underside. *Crackle-BANG-FWOOOSH*


    *Crunch* He practically teleported to the ceiling before bouncing off a rounded carving and getting thrown into the tornado of fog.


    But that was a mistake. -SH*T! I can''t afford to lose sight of him!- *BANG-FWWOOSH*


    Using space mana to create and use cubane as fuel for a thruster, I hurled myself across the room and into the fog where I expected him to be.


    But instead of mming into him inside the fog like I expected, I came out the opposite side empty-handed.


    *Fwip-CRUNCH* -W..where did he go?!- Digging my ws into the ceiling, I looked around in a frenzy before ncing at Ilios stillying just outside of the fog. -He wouldn''t dare...-


    But that was when I saw a hand pop out of the funnel of fog, only a few meters above him.


    Time paused, and my surroundings turned dark in that instant.


    My mind raced through countless options of what I could do, but none of them worked. No matter what course of action I thought of, I would arrivete, even if only by a thousandth of a second.


    I needed speed, enough to cover the kilometer between us in a fraction of a second, but the thruster magic using the cubane I had ready was still not enough.


    That left only a single option.


    *BANG* Using the remaining cubane to fold my wings inward, I redirected the space mana I had ready to make and spread nearly a gram of antimatter across my back. -You crossed the line you shouldn''t have...-


    *FLASH* A light, thousands of times brighter than the sun, filled the room before a wave of heat capable of melting steel ripped through the air.


    *BAAANG* I was thrown across the room in an instant, arriving where Magni was in the fog faster than my instinct could even react.


    But my mouth was already open. *CRRRRUNCH* My back teeth shattered like brittle stones as they desperately tried to pierce and slice through the apostle''s divinity-filled body, but all that mattered was that I held him there.


    -You''re confident about your survivability, right?!-


    *CRACKLE* Ricocheting myself off the ground, Iunched myself out of the tree like aet, with a long tail of sma tracing my path into the canopy of the Tree of Prayer. (Around Mach 65-70 (24km/s))


    But although I couldn''t even remotely sustain that speed because of the air resistance, it was more than enough.


    "You are truly a freak." Magni''s voice was that of a dying man as his body had its limbs ripped off and organs turned to mush by the g-force, but his head that barely remained attached still smiled. "No matter what you do, I will just find another body ande back."


    Completely ignoring his useless taunt, I abruptly opened my mouth and slowed down,unching his body out of my mouth like a rocket.


    "No matter what you do, you won''t be able to kill me!" His smile was full of arrogance and confidence, but his eyes lost their life before I could do anything.


    I could only watch as the warp was slowly pulled out of the mutted body, continuing to grow in intensity until a cloud-like figure in armor was revealed.


    But that was when I opened my mouth.


    His cloud-like figure nced at me with a crazed smile, but that expression only came from ignorance.


    *FLASH* A cone of light with simr intensity to Ilios''s light magic exited my mouth, vaporizing the apostle''s body before continuing through the canopy and lighting everything it touched on fire.


    -Try surviving this, you cocky motherf*cker!- In the next instant, every ounce of energy contained in 20 grams of antimatter,ced with space mana, exited my mouth. (~450 Kilotons)


    The noise it made was indescribably deafening.


    *CRRRRRRAAAACCCCKKKKKLLLLLEEEE* The blinding light from the explosion vanished instantaneously as an unfathomable number of holes were ripped in the fabric of space, shredding the atoms thatposed the atmosphere and sucking the energy released by them into the void.


    Anything and everything in the explosion''s path met its end at that instant, with the massive section of the canopy of the Tree of Prayer being no exception.


    *CRACKLEEE* The st continued without losing strength for dozens of kilometers, removing even the tiniest trace of anything in its path from reality, as if it never existed in the first ce.


    *Fwooosh-Tssss* The humid air sizzled as it rushed past me to try and fill the vacuum left behind by the st, but it took several more seconds for the holes in the fabric of space to repair themselves.


    I didn''t just wait around to watch it though.


    *CRACK-FWOOOOSH* Using some hastily created cubane, I darted back into the tree andnded next to Ilios. *CRACKLE*


    The funnel of fog had be disrupted after I destroyed a section of the rune controlling it by ricocheting off the ground, but the rune was the least of my worries currently. -If he somehow survived that.. I''m sure he will go for Ilios again...- A knot of unease and anxiety was still lingering in my stomach. -I can''t let himy a finger on Ilios...-

 Chapter 213: Long-Lasting Guilt

    Chapter 213: Long-Lasting Guilt


    Time Error - �D?�D???��?��???????????��?��???�D�D??? : Location Error - �D?�D?��?��?????????��?��?�D?�D?


    - Skuld (The Goddess of Oracles) ~


    Sitting on the roof of one of my many old abandoned temples, I looked over the mountainous forest and endless ocean at the stunning sunrise.


    -Being isted in an empty space for so long.. really makes you appreciate the simple things.. doesn''t it...- I almost wanted to cry from the beauty of it, but I was too anxious to actually enjoy it. "Haah..."


    Following my sigh, I nced behind myself at the familiar noise that had yet to happen. *Vwomp*


    Suddenly appearing with the expected noise, I met eyes with a mature avian woman wearing a long white robe. "It''s been a while, Eir..."


    Her name was Eir, the Goddess of Bnce, and she was someone akin to my older sister, even before we became gods. "So you were here..." Her voice carried a motherly warmth with it, but she sounded worried. "How are you adjusting?"


    I turned back toward the sunrise with a slightly bothered look. "Terribly..."


    Her worry quickly worsened. "Do you want to talk about it.. or-""No... Please don''t remind me..." I pulled my legs up and hugged my knees, doing my best not to remind myself of the vision I had when we were first released from The Runes.


    "B..but if we talk about it, maybe we can find a way to avoid-"


    "Stop... The future I saw was our fate.. it was the result of our karma... Nothing we can do will stop it..."


    "Karma? Do you still feel guilty for what happened?" She slowly walked over before sitting down next to me.


    "Of course I do... I still regret not being able to do anything but sit and watch from the sidelines, and still despise everyone for their actions..." I nced at her for a moment before turning away. "Including you..."


    Her face darkened with guilt and sadness immediately. "You know there was nothing I could do... No matter how unhappy I was with the n, I couldn''t stop Odin alone, let alone all four of them together..."


    "But you could have abstained! Nothing forced you to help them!" I turned to her with anger written all over my face.


    "But Odin would have forced-"


    "No, he wouldn''t have!" I stood up and turned away in a fit of anger. "He isn''t omnipotent, Eir! If he was, he would have never even considered that f*cking n! I don''t know what he did to brainwash you all, but he is simply a man who lost his mind to envy and jealousy."


    She stared at me with a look of guilt before looking back out to the horizon on the verge of tears. "I''m.. sorry-"


    Her voice was cut short, and we both froze in ce in an instant. -W..what...- Whipping back around, I looked toward the sunrise in a daze.


    "W..where did it go..." Eir was staring at the horizon with wide eyes as well. "W..where did Magni''s presence go?!"


    After only giving each other a momentary nce, we disappeared from where we were and darted over the endless ocean in front of us, continuing until the sun fell beneath the horizon behind us. *Vwoom*


    It was only an instant before we came up to arge tree we were both quite familiar with, but unlike its normal state, the tree wasn''t totally enshrouded in the dense fog that even we gods couldn''t see through.


    But that sudden visibility only helped reveal a sight neither of us could have ever been prepared for.


    "What.. the..."


    -


    - Vasilias ~


    *VwwWwWwoommMm* Huddling over Ilios, I leaned down and coated my wings in cubane so I could react to anything, no matter how fast, but when I looked around beneath the ever-descending fog, I saw the two remaining apostles still standing in the same ces they had been in the whole time.


    -But their expressions...- One of them had fallen over and was shaking from fear, while the other, being the woman I darted past when I came up the tree, just stood there and stared at me in a trance.


    It was quite obvious that both reactions were normal and genuine, but I couldn''t help but be curious about the enchanted woman. -Even after I disyed such overwhelming strength.. she stands tall without intimidation...-


    But as if she knew what I was thinking, when she finally seemed to notice my gaze, she threw herself into a grovel. "Leif Vilulf humbly greets Lord Nott!" Her voice was quite distant, but I could hear her it clearly.


    -So, just like Magni, she thinks I''m one of the original Ancient Fenrir...- The only difference was that her having that facy was convenient for me. -Maybe I should call her over...-


    But before I could even consider doing it, a familiar woman''s voice resonated through the air. "~You really are a horrifying creature, aren''t you...~"


    Immediately pinching a nerve, I rose my guard again and gave her a threatening re.


    But instead of shying away or even just reacting like I expected, she just smiled and came closer. "~You can rx. Even the strongest of gods couldn''t survive that.~"


    Her attempt atforting words only made me more uneasy though. "How would you know that?"


    Her smile slowly grew wider. "~You just shredded his soul and scattered the pieces in a different dimension, Vasilias. The only way for anything, including gods, to survive that kind of attack is to dodge it, but he was still trying to detach his tether from that unfortunate elf''s body when it hit him.~"


    -His tether?- Although her reasoning did make sense, and mostly lined up with what I believed as well, I couldn''t calm my nerves so quickly. "But, even if he is dead, how do I know some other god won''t try and kill me when I let my guard down..." I squinted my eyes as I looked at her cloud-like face, vividly remembering Magni mentioning that multiple gods shared his views.


    "~Huhu, I like your caution, but they wouldn''t dare wander here. The gods that want your downfall are afraid of that fog above you.~" She calmly pointed above herself.


    -What?- It caught me a little off guard. "Why would the gods fear such a simple thing?"


    "~Pfft-hahaha!~" The genuineness of herugh helped ease my nerves slightly, but that onlysted a moment. "~Simple?! Is a conglomeration of tens, if not hundreds, of billions of souls simple to you? No wonder the others envied your kind so much.~" Her smile was washed with greedy confidence.


    But it only made me tense up more. "Wait... The fog is made up of.. souls?" I nervously nced up at the swirling fog as a slew of emotions and thoughts raced through my mind.


    But the woman continued before I could think much about it. "~Indeed it is. But more urately, they are lost souls trying to absorb enough energy from mana to reincarnate but have been caught in an endless maze with no exit.~"


    "W..what do you mean..." I gave a quick nce at the two apostles again to make sure nothing had changed before finally starting to ease up my tense body. -She has only helped me so far, so.. maybe.. I can trust her a little...-


    As if knowing I was deep in thought, the cloud-like woman waited till I turned back to her to continue. "~Just understand that only you, Ilios, and souls strong enough to maintain a ''conscious mortal tether'' can exist and function normally in it. Even the souls of gods can get lost if they aren''t careful.~"


    -That''s not what I was asking about, but...- Before I knew it, my curiosity started recing my anxiety. -How fascinating...- Hastily turning back to the woman with a gleam in my eye, a smile came to my face. "Then this rune.. what does it do?"


    Her smile turned warmer the longer we talked. "~Hmm, I guess you could think of it as giving the souls an escape route.~"


    -So, the rune isn''t for divinity but instead to help souls reincarnate? Is the beam of divinity really just a convenient byproduct of the process?- But before I could fall deeper into thought, the woman interrupted again.


    "~In any case, I''m running out of time with that scary fog descending again, so I will take my leave.~"


    -What? She should have several minutes left before it descends enough to be problematic...- But instead of questioning her, I figured she had her reasons and stayed quiet.


    "~Let me give you onest piece of advice before I go though...~" She appeared next to me as if she teleported before continuing in an out-of-ce, warm voice. "Be wary of the Holy Kingdom, okay? After this, I''m sure they will try to make countermeasures against you... Just.. don''t die on me...~" And without even giving me time to think about her words, she gently rubbed the top of my head and disappeared without a trace.


    I stood there, not sure how to react for several seconds after that. -What the...- My brain was simply stuttering as it struggled to make sense of what happened, but the instant I finally reorganized myself, I noticed that something about her felt familiar. -But what is it?-


    But that was when several fuzzy memories from my previous dragon sleeps suddenly surfaced in my mind. -Wait a minute... She couldn''t be <strong><em>her</em></strong>, could she?-

 Chapter 214: Beings Lost To Time

    Chapter 214: Beings Lost To Time


    Late Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    -Wait a minute... She couldn''t be her, could she?- A series of dots suddenly connected the instant I thought about it. -Her voice is different, but her figure and way of speaking...-


    Although there were definitely some discrepancies, too many dots connected for me to pass it off as a coincidence. -But.. even though my gut says not to trust her, I can''t deny that she''s has helped me quite a bit...- I knew she had an ulterior motive ever since she started suddenly being nicer to me, but it was also true that, so far, her advice hadn''t been bad for me. -Maybe I should.. just take her advice with a grain of salt...-


    Idly looking to the side as I thought to myself, I noticed the apostle from earlier still groveling with her forehead pressed against the floor. -She''s still there, huh...- The other apostle had run away while I was talking to the suspicious goddess, but the one who paid respects to me stayed with her head lowered. -How loyal...-


    Finally noticing that the beam of divinity had finally putzed out and I had finished absorbing everything I could, I carefully lifted Ilios onto my back and stored my slightly damaged sword under my wing. -Now, how would a god greet one of their subjects...-


    As I finally walked over to the apostle, I noticed her body starting to shake, but it didn''t seem to be from nervousness. -Is she shaking from excitement?-


    Once I eventually got up moderately close to her, Iid down and rxed some. "You may raise your head."


    Her shaking stopped the instant I spoke. "C-congrattions on being reborn, Lord Nott! I cannot express my joy with words!" Her excitement was shockingly genuine.


    "I''m d to see that one of you could still recognize me." It felt a bit odd to respond to a different name, but it was nothing I couldn''t get used to. "The others didn''t seem to be so epting of my new appearance." I nced at the adjacent entrance where the fearful apostle was with an annoyed expression."Y-your new appearance is just as majestic and enchanting as the one described in ancient texts, my Lord! The others who rejected it simply didn''t have eyes worthy of witnessing your beautiful and enchanting body anyways!" She lowered her head as she spoke, seemingly unable to speak while maintaining eye contact.


    But I was too busy enjoying the praise to care. -She really knows how to make a good impression!- "Your name was Leif Vilulf, correct?" (Meaning Descendant of the Wolf''s-Will)


    "T-th-that is c-correct, my lord!" She became incredibly flustered the instant I said her name.


    "Are you a descendant of a famous apostle or a family of apostles?" It was an odd question, but the meaning behind her name made me curious. -Did her family have a direct connection to Nott or Dagr at some point?-


    "Yes, that is indeed the case, my Lord. For the entirety of our family''s known history, the Vilulfs have served you as apostles." She spoke with pride and confidence, yet still sounded humble.


    -So, her family produces an apostle every generation? Are they just born as high-demihumans?- Unable to hold back my curiosity, I carefully scanned her body with aura to see arge of divinity spread throughout her body as well as a generalck of many organs. "Ah..." -Is what makes a race capable of absorbing divinity the position and volume organs upy?-


    It was a bit of an odd theory, but based on what I knew, it made sense. -Having fewer, smaller organs would give the divinity significantly more space to grow and spread through before it carved its way through any vitals... If a normal demihuman acquired even nearly as much divinity as she has, it would have probably bored through their heart or some other vital organ and killed them...-


    It was truly fascinating to think about, but I quickly halted my curiosity before I got carried away. -Maybe I''ll ask her how she acquired the divinity itselfter...- *vwoom* "Sorry for the intrusiveness of my aura. There was something I was curious about."


    "I do not mind in the slightest, my Lord!" She gave me an ecstatic look as I pulled my aura away.


    -What an odd apostle she is...- "In any case, I should show some appreciation toward the loyalty and dedication of you and your family. Is there something you would like?" Although I knew it was probably unnecessary, I wanted to make a good impression as well. -As long as I have her loyalty, Siratha will be in the palm of my hand.-


    But honestly, her response was about what I expected. "You acknowledging us is more than enough of a reward, my Lord!" Her joy and excitement were still overflowing like an endless waterfall.


    -But if she doesn''t want a reward, how should I...- "How could I help you then? Considering I just killed two other apostles, you might need someone to take their positions, right?"


    She paused to think for a moment before speaking. "In the modern era, priests suitable to be apostles are hard toe by, so if you have someone in mind, I will happily take them under my wing!" She sounded a bit awkward, but that wasn''t too surprising.


    "In that case, there is a young woman named Liv Sigmond who should be able to fill a position. She is an ascended race already and even has experience in leading people. Should you deem her unfit though, you may use her how you wish."


    "I-I would never deem someone acknowledged by your greatness as unfit, my Lord." She quickly got nervous.


    -Haah.. I should have figured she''d respond like that...- "Don''t give her any special treatment just because I rmended her. If you need to be hard on her, be hard on her. You should raise her to be an apostle you can be proud of, alright?"


    Her nervous expression quickly turned determined. "U..understood! I will do my best to raise her into an apostle worthy of serving you!"


    -Much better...- Casually ncing above us, I noticed the fog was starting to get a little close, and figured it would be smart to y it safe. "Since the fog is descending on us, I will end our discussion here." I continued talking as I stood up. "You may expect more frequent visits from me in the future, Miss Vilulf. I''m excited to see how you grow."


    She looked paralyzed after I finished talking, but once I went to walk past her, she snapped out of it. "R-r-right! I will take my leave now. Thank you for everything, my Lord!" Hastily standing up, she gave me a deep bow and darted out of the tree before I could say anything else. *FWOOSH*


    -Damn she''s quick...- Although it was nothingpared to the god-possessed apostles earlier, her speed was nothing to scoff at. -Divinity really closes the strength gap between creatures quickly, doesn''t it...-


    *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* The thump of my footsteps echoed through the empty room as I made my way back to the opening in the side of the tree trunk. -Now, what should I do while I wait for Ilios to wake up...-


    But that idle thought didn''tst long. "Huh?" Confusion washed over my face instantly when I looked out into the exposed canopy and saw two elder dragon skeletons strewn across a couplerge branches. -How''d those get there? Are they even real?-


    Wanting a closer look, I quickly leapt into the air and flew out of the room.


    But that only made things worse. "W..wh..what the f*ck..." Instead of only going to get a closer look at the two dragon skeletons, the moment I entered the canopy, I noticed they were far from alone. -Just.. how many...-


    Lining each and every branch without exception was an appalling number of scattered bones and skeletons, and they hadin there for so long that the tree started to grow around them. -So the thing I caught myself on earlier wasn''t a brittle branch.. was it...-


    Looking down at the lower,rger branches, I saw the thousands upon thousands of monster, humanoid, and draconic corpses that had long since rotted away, with only brittle, stained bones and scattered armor, weapons, and artifacts being left behind as proof they ever existed.


    But those countless long-lost skeletons and treasures weren''t the ones that bothered me.


    Drooped over innumerable branches above me were countless skeletons of massive elder and ancient dragons thatpletely dwarfed me.


    The thousands of skeletons were all indiscriminately eaten away by the passage of time, no matter howrge or strong they may have been when they were alive.


    Some of the skeletons even belonged to dragons that would have been nearly 100-meters-tall, but regardless of the endless strength and wisdom that woulde from living nearly 2000 years, they were still dead and hanging over the branches of the Tree of Prayer. -But for so many old dragons to havee and died here... Why?-

 Chapter 215: A Being Beyond Mortality

    Chapter 215: A Being Beyond Mortality


    Late Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    - Vernados Peroti ~ (The dragon who originally came to arrest Vasilias and Amara for the murder of Cyrus Aetos in Chapter 201)


    *Fwooosh* *p-fwoosh* *p-fwoosh* I zipped through the evening sky as I made my way toward the center of Valtivar with great haste. -The ceremony should be starting soon. I hope I can catch them before they leave...-


    Technically, I was still on a mission that involved the destruction of the Helvig estate, but instead of the mission being to find and arrest the culprits, the investigation was reset, and the aforementioned culprits were to be questioned without punishment.


    It was quite a sharp change in direction, but with the information I stumbled across, such a shift was to be expected. The only problem was that the information I nned to report wasn''t what caused the change. -For the higher-ups to reset the investigation yet not know of the tant maniption of information... Just what is going on?-


    A few days prior, I had met up with a young dragon named Vasilias Whyte, who was closely associated with the culprits. But instead of arresting him like I was ordered, he pointed out an incredible discrepancy in the information I was provided, which, in turn, made their arrests impossible.


    Regardless, as I was flying back to Bahamut to report it, I was still quite nervous that the information he gave me could have been false and that I would be punished for not following orders, but thankfully that wasn''t the case.


    By the time I arrived, the investigation had already been reset, and we were ordered to reinvestigate everything from the ground up while purging our prior knowledge because of something called Suspicion of Honesty. It was basically a protocol normally used when a witness or investigator is caught or suspected of lying.


    At the time, I thought it all made sense, thinking someone must have just reported some other kind of information discrepancy before I could. But when I finally reported my observations directly to Miss Exypnos (his boss''s boss), she started panicking and sent her direct subordinates to oversee the investigation personally.It was a worrying reaction, to say the least. -If Miss Exypnos didn''t know about an investigator or group of investigators lying, then what caused the Suspicion of Honesty?-


    I quickly fell into a rabbit hole of inexplicable questions as I hopelessly tried to figure out the situation.


    But, in the next instant, the walls of the hole I would have struggled to escape vanished like they were never around me in the first ce.


    "Huh?" My eyes went wide as I looked at the horizon and saw an absolutely colossal beam of light stretch into the sky like a rising sun. -W..what.. is that...-


    The blinding light alone made me feel like death was looming over me and made the beat of my heart start to slow down, but I only started to panic when I realized where the beam came from. -The Tree of Prayer should be just over the horizon.. don''t tell me...-


    I immediately sped up, using every ounce of strength in my wings to fly as fast as possible, and darted over the horizon.


    Several minutester, when I finally got close to the tree, I noticed the fog was slightly less voluminous than usual, and that some of the outskirts of the canopy were visible.


    But that only made me see something I was likely never meant to. -I..is that a dragon''s tail?-


    -


    - Vasilias ~


    *crack-Fwoosh* *tap-crackle* -W..why are there so many?- *crackle-Fwoosh* Jumping between branches in the dense fog, I was slowly working my way up through the canopy, where the fog never actually uncovered, to see if anything was different.


    But nothing was.


    The higher I went, therger the skeletons became and the more ufortable I got. -That goddess wasn''t kidding when she said the fog would kill just about anything that went inside of it, huh...- Some of the skeletons I had seen in my slow climb would have easily been over a hundred meters tall, but around 120 meters seemed to be the limit. -120 meters... That would be an ancient over 2,000 years old.. yet it died helplessly here even with the mountain of artifacts it brought...-


    *crackle-Fwoosh* Throwing myself up to the next branch above me, I came face to face with a nearly 112-meter-tall dragon loaded to the teeth with artifacts and even a few scales that had long since lost their luster. -They clearly didn''te here with the intent to die.. so.. why?-


    I felt like there were countless possible answers, with curiosity being one of the most believable, but at the same time, I didn''t think things were so simple. -These ancients were practically all close to or over 2,000 years old.. they wouldn''t sumb to their curiosity like the animals and younger dragons on the lower branches would...- But the more I looked around, the more confused I got trying to exin it.


    Eventually, I found myself at the top edge of the fog, only a few dozen meters from the outside edge of the canopy, but that was when I saw something a bit unusual. "Hm?" -What is that?-


    Through a few tiny gaps in the leaves of the dense canopy, I saw some bone, but its cement was quite odd. Instead of being strewn across countless branches like the other skeletons, it was simply sticking into the air.


    -What am I looking at?- Too curious to leave it as a mystery, I hastily worked my way out of the canopy and flew toward it. But that only made me more confused.


    *Fwoosh* "Huh?" Just in front of me was a dragon''s tail sticking several meters out of the canopy. -Did it really dive into the canopy head-first and die that quickly?-


    But instead of looking into the canopy and seeing its body just within the edge of the fog, I only saw the tail continue until I couldn''t see it anymore. -W..what?-


    At the very least, it was the tail of a dragon that was simply iparable to anything I had seen before, but its full size was something I was gravely underestimated, even then.


    *crunch-crunch-crackle-crunch* mming my way through the smaller branches, I followed the tail through the fog, but it kept going until I had gone just short of half a kilometer into the canopy.


    -T..the tail alone is nearly 400 meters long... Is this really a dragon?!- Continuing down the spine that was barely being held together by a trace, yet still considerablyrge amount of lingering divinity, a knot of anxiety grew in my stomach. -Just how much divinity did it have when it was alive for not all of it to have dissipated already?-


    I found it hard to believe it could be a dragon with how massive it was, as even the biggest ancients ever recorded were only around 130 meters tall, but there was simply nothing about the skeleton that didn''t seem draconic.


    At least that was the case until I got to the base of the neck and saw something that made assuming it was a dragon much more oundish.


    *crackle* Landing on a sizable branch that had grown through the skeleton over the countless years itid there, I turned to the base of the skeleton''s neck with a look of confusion. "What the f*ck am I looking at?"


    In the area where the base of the neck should have been, the spine split apart and formed three identical, smaller vertebrae that then grew out to form three distinctly different necks. -So it''s not a dragon, but a creature with multiple heads? How would that even work?-


    With my curiosity quickly blotting out my other emotions, I promptly stepped off the branch and descended farther into the canopy to try and find one of the detached necks of the creature.


    But when I eventually stumbled across one of them, my confusion returned like a wave. "I must be hallucinating.. r..right?" Drooped across arge branch with countless smaller branches woven through it was a massive, and distinctly draconian neck and head.


    The size of it made me shiver, as its head alone was nearly as big as I was, but I was so intrigued that I simply ignored the fear.


    -A multi-headed dragon, hundreds of metersrger than even thergest and oldest of ancients...- Only a single theory made sense. -So there really is a stage beyond Ancient...-


    As I crept closer to the colossal, hanging skull of the dragon, I finally noticed arge, but deteriorated golden ring around one of its countless massive horns, with the only remaining legible text reading: ''Lernaean~''


    -Lernaean... Was that.. its name?- I memorized the word in a heartbeat, hoping it would eventually lead me to some information about the colossal, multi-headed dragon when I returned to Bahamut.


    But I was still left in a pit full of questions with no answers. -Could the other ancients havee into the fog out of curiosity fueled by the tail sticking out of the canopy? Or did theye here for a different reason��-


    Quickly getting lost in thought, I nced down toward the rune within the tree trunk that remained far out of sight. -I wonder...-

 Chapter 216: A Spectacle From the Gods

    Chapter 216: A Spectacle From the Gods


    Late Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer


    - Amara Chalkos ~ (Back Several Minutes)


    *Vwowowowoom* The noise of the dense ambient mana flowing around me filled the air, helping me fall into a trance-like focus as I absorbed the cool and refreshing mana from the tree roots beneath me.


    "Haah..." My mind was calm, and my heart was steady. I felt like I could fall asleep at any moment, but when I eventually opened my eyes and nced to the side, I noticed Vasilias was nowhere to be seen. -What? Where did he..-


    *Thud* *Thud-thud* *Thump* The ground shook slightly before I could finish my thought. -Huh?- But when I looked up toward the tree to see what was happening, my eyes went wide.


    "W..woah..." The fog had been raised, revealing the beautiful, colossalwork of branches within the canopy. It was a spectacle I had only heard about in legends and was even more beautiful than I could have imagined, but my attention was too preupied to be able to enjoy the view. -Are those.. bones?-


    Like a web strewn throughout the tree, I could see what looked like bonesid across branches. -That one especially looks like a.. dragon''s wing...-


    My face slowly paled as I continued to look around to see more and more bones that resembled those of dragons.


    But before I could even think of what to do next, a wave of warmth blew past me, and everything went white. *FLASH*"Ahh!" I was quick to close and cover my eyes, but it was toote. My vision was already bleached by a white canvas of light by the time I tried to focus on the dark part of my shadow.


    ""AAHHH!"" Yells and screams could be heard all throughout the crowd.


    "I APOLOGIZE FOR MY SINS!" Some even jumped to conclusions, thinking it was the gods smiting them for their sins, but my mind was simply a cesspool of anxiety, fear, and confusion.


    -W..what is happening...- But little did I know, that was just the start.


    *BBBAAA-BBBBAAAANNNGGG* The deafening shockwaves of two unfathomable explosions ripped through the air the instant before the ground started to shake violently.


    *RUMBLE-CRRUMMBLEE* Before we had a moment to even think, the ground started to break apart and rise into the air.


    The roots wereing out of the ground.


    *VWOWOWWOOM* A horrific wave of fresh mana shot up through everyone as the roots were promptly exposed, but the only people left conscious were the dragons.


    *Rriiiing* Even I was struggling to recollect myself until I felt someone''s hand on my back.


    "A..ra... Am..ra... Amara!" Ynda''s panicked voice finally made it through the ringing in my ears after several calls. "Are y..u al..ght?!"


    Finally managing to get my bearings, I looked at her with a pale face. "Y..yes..." I was in a daze, still seeing everything as if it were bleached in light, but I could at least make out some detail. "Are you.. okay?"


    *Riiiing* "My ears are r..ging, but I th..nk I''m al..ight!" It was still hard to hear through the ringing, but I somehow managed.


    "Is Bjorn okay?!" Hastily looking over, I saw Bjornying on the ground,pletely unconscious.


    "The sho..kwave knocked hi.. out, but he s..ms fine!" We both had to yell to hear each other, but after a quick nce around the valley between the roots we stood in, I quickly noticed we weren''t the only ones.


    -Everyone is in disarray...- "Quickly absorb the mana from the root! It should help us recover!" Slowly sitting myself down, I crossed my legs and focused on absorbing all the mana I could, but it didn''t take long for my mind to wander once again. -Those explosions...- I felt my chest tighten as I thought about it. -Vasilias is probably fine.. right?-


    Seconds quickly turned into minutes as I sat there, dwelling on dark thoughts while struggling to meditate, but my vision and hearing returned to normal long before I could calm down.


    "Is everyone alright?"


    "Brynjar! Bring over the nourishment artifact!"


    "Give the injured and elderly priority treatment!" Countless voices could be heard all around us as priests and clerics busily ran around attempting to help those who were injured by the aftereffects of the explosions.


    But as much as I wanted to help them, I was too deep in a hole I dug myself into to escape. -How big would an explosion have to be to cause this kind of aftermath this far away... It even uprooted a section of the Tree of Prayer...- Even as a dragon, it was on a scale I couldn''t wrap my mind around. -Could that have really been Vasilias''s magic?-


    It was an impossible thought, but considering he was the only being I could possibly believe fired off such a horrifying spell, it was the theory I went with. -All I can do is hope he''s alright...- I felt a bit guilty that I couldn''t immediately go up and check on him, but even if I could, the apostles would stop me.


    But then, as if it were a message from the heavens, a voice echoed through the air. "Be not afraid!" Her voice carried a deep and contagious confidence. "Our Lords have finally returned and have cleansed the sinful apostles from this beautifulnd! We have been granted guidance once again!"


    -C..cleansed?- Her phrasing was a bit worrying, but after seeing how she held herself, I felt reassured. -It seems Vasilias is alright...- "Phew..."


    "The disy of power you have all just witnessed is something you should remember with great detail! It should build a sense of fear in the sinful, and pride in the devout! We must all use this as a sign of motivation to grow!"


    *Tap-Tap* Feeling someone tap me on the shoulder, I momentarily stopped listening to the apostle and nced over my shoulder. "Hm?"


    I immediately met eyes with a draconic man who used light magic to hide his wings and horns. "You are Amara Chalkos, correct? Do you have a moment to speak with me?" He spoke as if he knew me, yet I had never seen him before.


    -Who is this guy?-


    -


    - Vasilias ~


    "Uwaah..." I let out a lethargic yawn as Iid my head down on the reincarnation rune to try and recover while waiting for Ilios to wake up. -For how deadly and eerie this fog is.. it''s quitefortable...-


    Although it was indeed horrifying to see the countless other dragons, nearly a dozen timesrger and a hundred times older than me, all dead throughout the canopy, knowing that it wouldn''t kill me made me feel quite safe. -If that monstrosity of a dragon died helplessly in the fog, and even the gods avoid it.. I have nothing to worry about...-


    ncing back at Ilios, I quickly made sure he was still resting soundly before finally rxing my body. "Hooh..." -I guess it''s no wonder why this was Dagr and Nott''s resting ce...-


    As I slowly closed my eyes to try and rest though, I felt the burden of a thousand questions start weighing on my mind, immediately repelling the drowsiness I felt. -Are you serious...-


    Being so physically tired, I wanted nothing more than a nap, but my own bottomless curiosity didn''t allow that. -Well.. so much for my nap...-


    Finally allocating my attention to the mountain of questions racing through my mind, I finally started to sift through everything until I came to have a more organized train of thought.


    But even it was messy.


    -And I am once again left with more questions than answers...- The most pressing matter was currently the ''others'' that both the goddess and Magni mentioned, but I simply didn''t know enough about them to do anything about them. -If only that damn goddess gave me some details...-


    My only current usible theory about them was that they and the Holy Kingdom were somehow rted. But even if I didn''t want to take the goddess''s advice about avoiding them, it seemed like the smartest thing to do. -The ''others'' might be the gods the Holy Kingdom worships...But if that''s the case...- I was in a bad spot, to say the least. -I guess I need to give researching them priority...-


    It took several more minutes of sifting through my thoughts before I finally settled on a general course of action though.


    -I need to head back to Bahamut and do some research on the Holy Kingdom before anything else...- The n also allowed me to stop by home and research whatever that multi-headed dragon was, which killed three birds with one stone.


    -Next time I see that goddess though, I should trap her in a gate so we can have a more.. fair discussion...-

 Chapter 217: A Suspicious Offer

    Chapter 217: A Suspicious Offer


    Mid Afternoon (Next Day) - Late Fall : The Forgotten Inds


    - Amphitrite Ouran��s ~


    "So, I heard you were summoned to Bahamut." My eldest daughter, Zafe��ri, gave me a serious look as she walked up next to me. "What''s it for?"


    The window we stood in front of was built into the side of an underwater cliff that overlooked a massive, lush reef. It was a ce I would go to when I was stressed since it let me watch the fish without scaring them away. "You know of Holcyon Aetos, right?"


    "Is that the judge or the judge''s kid?"


    "The judge himself."


    "Then, yeah. Why?"


    I paused as I turned back to the window to watch a small buckfish swim through the reef like it owned the ce. "Holcyon started a case several days ago that used me of using or giving away one of my divine-grade artifacts without reporting it to the Elder Hall." I paused as I watched the confident buckfish swim over a small opening in the rock where it was turned to mince meat by a lurking predator. -He really doesn''t realize he''s only a big fish in his part of the ocean, huh...-


    Interrupting my thought though, Zafe��ri gave me an unconvinced look and shifted around the barrel of Piotita she had been sucking on like a piece of candy. "An artifact hoarder like you used one of your most prized possessions? Yeah right. You couldn''t think of a better fake story?" She seemed confident that I was joking.But even though I was being serious, her confidence made me smile. "Hey, first of all, I''m a collector, not a hoarder. Second of all, I did use one. His case is very legitimate."


    She jolted immediately. "Huh?! Did you get possessed or something?" She immediately pressed her wing against my neck with a worried expression. "Were you ckmailed? Did you get into some life-threatening situation?"


    Her childish nature was slipping out, which brought back some old memories, but now wasn''t the time to reminisce. "You think someone could ckmail me? You should know better than anyone that I''m one of the strongest dragons alive."


    "But if that''s not the case.. w..what made you use one?" Her worry may have looked over the top to some, but it was actually well warranted.


    My divine-grade artifacts were akin to family heirlooms that I would rather die than use. -But not all of them are like that...- "Let''s just say I took an opportunity to improve the rtionship between our family and someone much stronger than us." -It''s not like we knew how to use that thing anyway.-


    Zafe��ri wasn''t satisfied with my exnation though. "So you went behind the Elder Hall''s back.. to bribe someone with one of the artifacts you treasure more than your own life?" She looked at me like I was crazy. "I guess even dragons can grow senile."


    -To think her tongue would get so sharp after she became an ancient...- "Who said I valued it more than my life? That thing might as well have been a shiny rock to me. If they didn''t ask for it specifically, it would have just sat in our treasury forever."


    Her eyes went wide immediately. "WHAT?! What divine-grade artifact is worthless, especially to you?! You could buy entire nations with the money you''ve spent on some of those things!"


    "The ''ghost'' artifact, sweetie." -I guess I can''t be too surprised that she has forgotten about it...- "It''s the one we didn''t even know existed until we reorganized the vault all those years ago."


    She froze the moment I gave her a refresher. "Ah.. that thing? I guess that makes more sense..." There was a short pause before she straightened back up. "Was that thing really divine grade?" I thought you just told me that to keep me from messing with it..."


    "ording to the only record we have of it, yes, but I''m almost positive that rank was given because there was simply nothing known about it." Simply put, it was an artifact no one had ever managed to get working and was made using technology not native to this world. -I''m sure it caused all sorts of trouble when it was first found, but now, all sorts of simr, useless ''artifacts'' have been found...-


    Although I knew some of them weren''t totally useless after using the ''ghost'' artifact, it was also a fact that I had no clue what they did or how they worked. -But as long as I can strengthen my rtionship with <strong><em>her</em></strong> by using them, I should try and collect more...-


    But before I could finish my thought, the entire cliff vibrated slightly. *Thump* "Huh?" -Were we expecting a visitor?-


    "What was that? Is someone here?" Zafe��ri looked just as confused as me.


    "It felt like a fairlyrge dragonnded up top.. but I''m not sure who it could be..." I finally stood up after a short moment of thought. "I will go check who it is. Stay here for now." Slowly making my way over to the back of the room, I changed to my humanoid form and made my way up a small spiral staircase.


    Once at the top, I walked into another massive room and changed back to my dragon form to open the door. *creeeaakk*


    The moment I opened the door, I was met with a cool oceanic breeze and a stunning view of a massive, 105-meter-tall dragon covered in beautiful mint-colored scales that changed shade and glistened in the sunlight.


    He was someone I recognized instantly, but his identity only made things more confusing. -Leander? Of all people.. what is he doing here?- "Well, that''s a face I haven''t seen in a long time..."


    "It has indeed been a while, Miss Ouran��s. I hope you have been well." His voice was calm and soothing, like that of an old sage.


    "So, what brings you here?" Although I was a bit nervous that I was about to be wrapped up in something troublesome, I figured it was unavoidable.


    "I havee to ask for a favor as someone from the same generation..."


    Confusion washed over my face right away. -He wants me to do him.. a favor?- Although there was a point in time when we talked fairly regrly, we never had much trust in each other. -So is it a favor with too much risk to give someone he trusts.. or...- I was already suspicious. "I am all ears..."


    His green eyes stared into mine for a moment before he eased his gaze and spoke. "About the case that Holcyon Aetos opened against you. I need you to stall your presentation of evidence as long as you can."


    I was taken aback before he even finished talking. "W..what?" -The head of the Intelligence Agency wants me to..mit ''deception''?-


    Leander was a prideful dragon, more so than almost anyone I had ever met, but at that moment, he was lowering his head and asking me tomit a crime punishable by execution.


    Even if I was really worried about losing the case, it was a low I wouldn''t stoop to. -This case isn''t hard enough to win to risk getting executed...- "I hope you have a good reason..." My gaze turned hostile in an instant.


    "I do. Although I cannot disclose many details currently, I have reason to believe that the Aetos family has broken multiple rules set during the reformation of Bahamut 10,000 years ago. From what I can tell, their influence and corruption run deep throughout the upper branches of ournd, and because of such, I cannot risk you losing your case against him yet." He paused to look up into my eyes again. He waspletely serious.


    -He.. isn''t exaggerating...- Just seeing the extent to which he was going to stop the Aetos family made me worried. "However, I will not lose the case. I see no reason to-"


    "I will get Asimi Ragnarok to assist you in dying it, and, should you agree, I will give you the two northernmost inds of The Forgotten Inds."


    My eyes widened immediately. -The two northern inds?- They were the only inds I still needed to acquire before I could finally say I owned the entire Forgotten Ind archipgo. They were inds I was ready to pay a fortune for. -What an.. enticing offer...- "How do I know I will receive both inds? As far as I know, Kalfas still owns Rematra." (Therger northern ind)


    "Myles still owes me quite a lot, and he doesn''t care for thend, so if I tell him that giving it to you would clear arge portion of his debt, he''d give it up in a heartbeat." He spoke with too much confidence for it to be a lie.


    I stood there in silence for another moment as I thought about it before finally caving into his suspicious deal. "Alright. How long do you need me to stall?"


    "At least two weeks from now."


    I grimaced instantly. -Oh boy...- It wasn''t an impossible amount of time, but it was longer than I was hoping. "I will see what I can do."


    Leander''s serious expression didn''t budge at all even after I agreed. "In that case, I wish you luck. Please be careful."


    "Haah.. I will, don''t worry." Although I said that, I couldn''t deny that I was quite nervous about it all. -I guess I need to start thinking of a story...-


    -


    - Asimi Ragnarok ~


    "Ugh..." It was the middle of the afternoon when I woke up to a feeling of difort in my chest.


    "Is something the matter, Miss Asimi? I expected you to sleep for another day." Doris''s young cheerful voice filled the room before I could even gather my thoughts.


    "Haah..." I let out a sigh as I nced toward her. "I just feel like something bothersome is about to happen..." It had only been a few days since I started my break from the Hall, and although I should have had a few more, my gut was telling me that wouldn''t happen.


    *Thump* I felt the ground vibrate slightly just as I started thinking about what could happen.


    -That sounded heavy... Is it Myles?- "Doris, could you please go see who justnded?"


    She was quick to give a cheerful nod and disappear through a door before returning a momentter with aplicated expression.


    -That look...- "It was Myles, wasn''t it..." I felt like my anxiety was confirmed immediately.


    "Ah.. no, that''s not the case."


    -Huh?- "What? Then who was it?"


    "Uhm..." She hesitated before bowing toward the floor. "Leander Sofos hase requesting to meet with you, Miss Asimi..."


    In an instant, my face flushed with confusion. -L..Leander is here in person?!-

 Chapter 218: A Peculiar Sight

    Chapter 218: A Peculiar Sight


    Late Morning - Early Winter : The Tree of Prayer


    "Hwaah..." I woke up with a yawn as I lethargically nced toward my side and saw Ilios lying on his back. -So I ended up falling asleep after all...-


    I was still a tad tired, but after realizing I had been out for well over a day, I didn''t bother falling back asleep. *crackle* As I stood up, I forgot to distribute my weight and identally splintered the wood under my paw and slightly damaged the reincarnation rune. -Whoops...-


    It wasn''t a big deal since it was an easy fix, but it worked as a reminder. -I should probably repair the rest of the rune while I''m at it...- After ncing at Ilios and seeing him still asleep, I stopped wasting my time and got to repairing it.


    It was a dizzying process to run in a slowly growing spiral, scanning each ring of the rune for damage and repairing it, but although it was tedious, I managed to finish after a couple of hours. -I hope I didn''t identally mess something up though...-


    Although most of the rune was only slightly damaged from age, there were a few areas that were simply unrecognizable. -The area I ricocheted off after biting into Magni at nearly Mach 70 was almost irreparable... I really hope I didn''t misce any of the rune channels there...-


    I had a clear mental map of the whole rune at that point, but I still wasn''t exactly sure where everything went since the rune channels in each ring varied greatly. -Whatever... I just need to make sure I''m here during the next pilgrimage to make sure it all functions properly...-


    Finally making my way back toward the center of the rune, I walked up to where Ilios was sleeping and saw him sitting and staring at me with a wagging tail.


    The joy that covered his face was simply contagious. "Hehe... How did you sleep, buddy?"His tail started wagging faster and faster until it became a weapon of mass destruction as I walked up to him. But once I finally got close to him, he jumped straight up onto my back and started licking my face like we hadn''t seen each other in ages.


    "Haha, it''s good to see you too, Ilios." assuming resistance was futile, I let him continue licking me for several more minutes until he eventually calmed down enough for me to pull myself away. -He''s really energetic today.- "Well, since we''re both well rested, how about we go check in on Amara and the crew?"


    He paused before giving a determined nod and hopping off my back. "Wuf!"


    His confident posture warmed my soul as he walked away. -He''s just so cute...-


    After enjoying the moment for a few more seconds, I finally started getting to leave.


    Momentarily hopping into the void to create a marker for the rune, I


    finally came back out and changed to my humanoid form.


    *sh-Thunk* *Shing* After creating a new set of clothes and sheathing my sword, I looked around to make sure I was situated before bringing Ilios to my side and walking out of the tree. -It really is no wonder this is Dagr and Nott''s nap spot...-


    We quickly made our way out of the trunk after that. Once the angle we walked down eventually got too steep, we simply slid until we entered freefall.


    But unlike what I expected, it felt more like I was in an elevator than in freefall. -I guess my muscle and few remaining organs are being held in ce by divinity...- It was honestly quite pleasant.


    But my casual, rxed thoughts quickly halted once I exited the fog. *fwoosh*


    -Huh?- Looking down the edge of the tree, I saw the ground around the trunkpletely buckled and warped for a few kilometers. -Woah...-


    It was quite a spectacle to see tree roots, easily more than a hundred meters in diameter, somehow ripped out of the ground as if an earthquake ravaged the ce.


    But I knew exactly what caused it.


    When I initially blew up the mass of antimatter to finish off Magni, I transferred the recoil from me to the branches and tree trunk behind me. When I did it, I didn''t expect the tree to even feel it since it was so massive... -But to think the recoil from that spell would be so immense...-


    Looking a bit more closely, I could clearly see countless people in religious robes walking around the roots, either praying or meditating.


    The mana they all emitted was far from sufficient to get the reincarnation rune going, but at the same time, if they kept it up for long enough, it would at least get it running on a very small scale. -It won''t lift the fog, but it will ever-so-slowly reincarnate souls...- It still felt odd to think about, honestly. -I wonder if the newly reincarnated souls will affect the world poption at all...-


    Before long, I got lost in thought, only to snap out of it when I started sliding down the base of arge root. *skkkksh*


    "Uwaaah..." I let out a long yawn as I slowly transitioned to running and made my way past the countless praying folk and to the treant directly north of the Tree of Prayer. -There sure are a lot of them...-


    Eventually passing by the countless lifts leading up to the Northern Treant''s branches, I made my way toward the trunk before throwing myself up onto a main branch with thruster magic. *RUMBLE-FWOOSH*


    Once I eventuallynded on a building and hopped down onto the street, I overheard all sorts ofmotion about the noise, but it changed to a discussion about the prayer almost immediately.


    "Do you think that scene we saw around the Tree of Prayer was really or lords cleansing sinful apostles?"


    "Yeah, I''m curious as well! There''s a rumor going around that two of The Great Apostles actually died though."


    "Yeah, I heard that Great Apostle Skati locked herself in her estate and hasn''t shown herself yet."


    "Do you really think the rumor of her being that scared could possibly be true though?"


    "Well, if the explosion we saw and felt really came from the top of the tree.. how big would it have needed to be? Wouldn''t you be afraid too?"


    "But didn''t you see how excited The Night Apostle was? She didn''t have the slightest fear in her voice during her announcement."


    "I.. guess that''s true..."


    -So that other woman just locked herself in her room, huh...- It felt odd knowing I traumatized someone to such an extent, but at the same time, I didn''t think it was such a bad thing. -I guess I can only hope that fear turns into loyalty...-


    Finally continuing down the road, I stopped at a few stalls to get a bite to eat and a drink to wash it down before picking up the pace once again.


    Without having to mind my pace so Bjorn and Ynda could keep up, I actually got back to our inn quickly, with almost no difficulty.


    And to make things even better, as I walked up to the inn, I could sense Bjorn and Ynda''s auras emanating from the window to our room. -Thank goodness they''re still here...- I didn''t sense Amara, but didn''t really question it much before walking inside.


    "Wee back, sir!" The receptionist seemed to be in a great mood. "Did you enjoy the prayer?"


    Her enthusiasm only fueled my already good mood. "I did indeed. I hope you did as well."


    "Well, of course! Anyway, here is your key to the room." As she handed me the wooden key with a cloth tag on it, she leaned over the desk and whispered in my ear. "Be careful walking in though."


    -Huh?- "Why?"


    "Well, let''s just say.. they''ve been having.. a moment..."


    Her awkwardness only confused me before I eventually made my way upstairs and to the door to our room. *clunk-thunk* *click* Promptly unlocking the door and walking in, the smell of sweet alcohol and flowers assaulted my nose.


    My mind stuttered as countless thoughts ripped through it, but only one idea stuck. -What... There''s no way...-


    Pinching the bridge of my nose from disappointment, I walked over to Ynda''s room, where the smell was strongest, and reached for the doorknob.


    Not hearing any noise inside, I finally pushed open the door. *click*


    An even more overpowering scent of alcohol punched my nose as the door opened to reveal a bed covered in empty alcohol bottles and flower petals.


    "Haah..." -What in the world happened while I was gone...- I could only let out a deep sigh as I looked at Bjorn, who was reading a book while Ynda clung to his stomach, dead asleep.


    Ynda honestly looked like a ragged mess, yet somehow Bjorn looked absolutely, unbelievably normal. "Oh, wee back, Vasilias!"


    I wanted to facepalm after hearing him respond as if nothing was out of the norm. "Hoooh..." -He can''t be serious...- I nced up and looked at the scene in silence for another moment before saying anything else. -I guess I''m as prepared as I can be...- "So.. do you care to exin?"

 Chapter 219: A Quick Goodbye

    Chapter 219: A Quick Goodbye


    Late Morning - Early Winter : Northern Market District


    I gave Bjorn a look of disappointment as the silence turned awkward. "So.. do you care to exin?"


    "Haah..." He let out a deep sigh as he nced down at Ynda. "Right, sorry for the mess.�� His expression slowly turned more worried as he talked. ��Ynda.. got a bit depressed after Amara left without her."


    "Huh?" -Amara left? But wait, before that...- "Did Ynda really drink all of this herself?" -It''s all wine... She hates wine...-


    "Yeah... Drinking it all was her attempt at drowning her sorrows with alcohol. She repeatedly sent me out to get more of whatever I could find for a few hours straight earlier. The flowers were my own attempt at cheering her up, but..." He looked down at the sliced-apart petals on the bed with a guilty expression. "They.. weren''t received too well..."


    "Haah, yeah... She has a bad reputation with red flowers specifically..." I gave her a worried look as silence filled the room.


    Seeing her tightly gripping onto Bjorn was a genuinely pitiful sight, but even though it was childish, I couldn''t bring myself to say or do anything. -Amara is the closest thing she''s ever had to a mother�� For her to suddenly vanish.. it probably reminded her of her father...-


    "All we can do is hope she feels better when she wakes up." -I really hope she isn��t dwelling on it��- There was a short moment of silence before I continued. "So.. about Amara... You said she left?"


    "Y..yeah. ording to Ynda, she left without telling us anything, not long after the prayer itself ended. I thought she would have at least told Ynda something, but apparently not..."-Oh��- "Yeah, that''s.. really unusual for her..." It was the first time I had even heard of Amara leaving Ynda without saying anything. -Amara knows about her past as well... Why would she leave her like this? There''s no way she was kidnapped or something, right?- Although the chances were slim to none, they were still greater than zero. "Did you happen to see her leave?"


    "No, I was still passed out when she left."


    "What? Why did you pass out?"


    "ording to Ynda, it was the sh and shockwave from a spell Dagr used to cleanse a sinful apostle, but all I remember is seeing a bright sh, then feeling something hit me.�� A forced smile slowly crept onto his face as he spoke. ��I really wish I was awake to properly see it."


    I stiffened up immediately. "Y..yeah, it was quite a beautiful disy of strength..."


    Bjorn slowly nodded before looking back at me. "Anyway.. what''s your n? Are you going to leave as well?"


    Slowly easing up, I gently leaned against the side of the doorframe. "That''s the n... There are some things I need to check on at home, so I was nning on leaving this afternoon or tonight."


    "Ah. How long will you be gone?"


    I felt awkward thinking about what to say before simply being honest. "I''m.. not too sure, but it might be a while. I do n to stop by when Ie through town, but I can��t say it will be that often..."


    I was a bit nervous he would get disheartened after catching my drift, but it seemed to be a needless worry. "Oh? You still have things to do in Siratha?"


    He seemed genuinely d that I would still visit from time to time. "Yeah, there are a few things around here that I need to keep my eyes on."


    "Haha, that''s good to hear. I was a bit worried we would be parting ways." Hisugh sounded half forced, but it ever-so-slowly eased the mood until the conversation started returning to normal.


    We continued talking for a while after that, discussing our ns for the future and idly talking about our hobbies.


    It was honestly quite a refreshing chat, but it came to an end the moment Ynda woke up...


    "Mmm... Hm?" She looked incredibly lethargic as she nced around the room, but when she saw me, her eyes went wide. "VASILIAAASS!" Jumping off the bed and darting over to me, she threw her face into my chest and started crying. "AHHH, I THOUGHT YOU LEFT TOOO!"


    A knot of guilt formed in my stomach the moment I realized how distraught she was, but I couldn''t bring myself to say anything and just started rubbing her head like Amara sometimes would. *pat* *rub-rub*


    The next few minutes felt like an eternity, but eventually, she stopped crying, and things calmed down enough for us to move out of the messy bedroom and into the living area.


    "Would you like some warm tea?" I tried to speak up to break the ice, but it hardly did anything.


    "Y..yes, please..." *sniffle* Ynda sat at the table, wrapped up in a soft nket I made for her while slowly but surely calming back down.


    *Clink* Carefully setting the cup of steaming tea in front of her, I finally sat down and gave her a moment to ease her nerves.


    Eventually, she nced at me after a few sips and mumbled under her breath. "Thank you, Vasilias..." Her voicecked its usual confidence and joy, but it was an improvement from earlier.


    "Don''t thank me for something like this. I��m here to help you when you need it�� If you want some, please just ask." Seeing Amara awkwardly ncing around, trying to turn our gazes off her, I quickly got back up and fixed two more cups of tea.


    *Clink* "T..thanks." Bjorn happily took the tea once I handed it to him and immediately started using it to warm up.


    *Clink* The sound of Ynda setting down her ss pierced through the silence as Bjorn and I turned to her.


    "Vasilias... Amara is probably alright.. right?" Her voice carried a mix of fear and worry, but it helped ease me into the conversation.


    "Amara is from a well-known noble family and is quite strong herself. I don''t think we need to worry about her too much."


    "But-"


    "Ynda, if it is within her ability, she wille back." -She''s thest person on this who would abandon you...- "But if it will help ease your worries, I''ll get someone trustworthy to look for her."


    "O..okay..." She awkwardly looked at her reflection in the tea as she let out a deep sigh. "Haah... I��ll.. take you up on that�� I''m sorry for the trouble..."


    "Don''t worry about it. It''s something I nned to do regardless."


    "T..thank you�� Truly��"


    The next few hours flew by before any of us even realized it. Although our conversation started stagnantly, as time passed, Bjorn and I worked to warm up the atmosphere, and eventually, Ynda joined in. We managed to chat and reminisce about the past like everything was normal.


    Eventually, the afternoon rolled around, and instead of continuing to coop ourselves inside the chilly room, we went out and strolled the market, getting Ynda some of her favorite candy, getting Bjorn some nice warm clothes, and even grabbing lunch at a cozy tavern.


    By the time evening rolled around, everyone''s mood had improved substantially, and Ynda was once again able to put aside some of her worries and anxiety.


    But eventually, as sunset neared, the time of my departure arrived.


    "You won''t forget toe and visit, right?" Ynda''s cheerful smile could finally be seen again, glistening in the warm light from antern hanging from the inn.


    It was a truly refreshing sight. "Haha, of course not. Will you still be living in Morva Asari for the time being?"


    "Yeah, I n to stay there until Amara returns."


    "Alright, in that case, I''ll tell the people I send out to give you updates if they find anything." Seeing her nod in understanding, I happily continued. ��Let me give you onest present before I leave.��


    "Hm?" She gave me a confused nce as I grabbed her hand and closed it to form a fist. ��Huh?�� *clink* Her expression turned panicked as she felt cold metal press against her palm.


    "Think of this as me asking you to forgive my untimely departure." *pat* *rub-rub* "Be safe without me, alright?"


    When I let go of her hand and gently rubbed her head, she looked in her palm to see several freshly minted tinum coins. "W..what?! This much is-"


    But by the time she looked up, I was gone.


    She immediately pouted. "He could have at least let me say thanks or goodbye..."


    "You know how he is sometimes." Bjorn idly looked down the road with a warm expression. ��We should go to the Tree tomorrow and pray for both him and Amara. Maybe our lords will be able to watch over them����


    Ynda''s mixed expression quickly lightened back up as she let out a lighthearted chuckle. "Haha, alright. Let��s do that."


    "Huh? Is something funny?"


    Her pure smile turned smug the more confused Bjorn became. "Hm? I don''t know what you''re talking about~."

 Chapter 220: An Determined Subordinate

    Chapter 220: An Determined Subordinate


    Late Evening - Early Winter : Central Valtivar


    -Where is this ce... Shouldn''t something so huge be easy to find?- It had been a little over an hour since I left Bjorn and Ynda, and I was about to head home, but there was one ce I needed to stop by before I did that. -Ah, there it is.-


    Finally finding the massive white-stone estate wrapped around the trunk of the neighboring treant, I cloaked myself and made my way toward it. -I wonder who built it. Its architecture looks draconic...-


    It was Leif Vilulf''s estate, and although I expected her to livevishly since she was the strongest and most influential among the apostles, I was pretty shocked when I saw it. -This ce isparable to some of the estates I saw in Bahamut...-


    Crossing over to the treant with the estate, I quickly made my way up to a gate with a few guards holding back several people attempting to get in.


    They looked like paparazzi wanting to meet a celebrity. -I guess people are the same no matter what world you''re in...- *tap* Nonchntly hopping over the people and the gate, I made my way across the estate and to the central building but quickly ran into a problem. -Where do I even look for her?-


    Although I could just run around and try and find her aura, I was feeling toozy to do that. -Let''s do this the easy way...- "Ilios, just stay invisible for now."


    *vwowom* Quickly changing my clothes to something less baggy and covering, I made sure my face would be easily visible and found an isted hallway to go inside. *Click*


    The estate''s interior was fairly standard, with warm air and light filling the hallways and all sorts of art pieces lining the walls. Most of the paintings were portraits of people or families, but quite a number of them didn''t seem too wealthy. -Are these not portraits of famous people?-But as I idly thought to myself, someone turned into the hallway just ahead of me.


    She was a young elf who could pass for a teenage human carrying a bundle of clothes. -She looks like a newbie.. how perfect.-


    Immediately uncloaking myself, I called out to her. "Young miss." I spoke formally in a casual tone.


    But she still jolted the moment she heard me. "S..sir? Guests are not supposed to be in this area..." She was clearly suspicious of me.


    "Ah, my apologies. I just happened to be wandering around and got lost. Could you give me some directions to Miss Vilulf''s office? I happen to have a meeting with her soon."


    She paused for an instant as her suspicions started to fade. "I..if it is soon, would you like me to lead you there, Noble Sir?"


    "I am alright on my own if you wish to just give directions." Moving a bit more of my aura onto her, I quickly dispelled any of her lingering suspicions.


    "How could I possibly let a guest walk alone? Please give me one moment, Sir. I will return quickly."


    "Alright, please take your time."


    Without wasting any more time, the maid ran into another room along the hallway beforeing out with empty hands and a jade-colored medallion hanging from her waist. -Is that for security or identification?-


    Speedily walking up to me, she bowed deeply and spoke formally as if she was a different person. "Sir, would you allow me to escort you?"


    -This is going smoother than anticipated...- "Please lead the way, young miss."


    "As you wish." Promptly standing up straight, she turned around and started walking down the hall with me in tow.


    The hallways we walked through felt like an endless maze, but after finding a small spiral staircase and going up nearly eight floors, we finally came into a muchrger and morevishly decorated hallway.


    -This must be one of the main halls...- With tall ceilings covered in carvings and walls lined with all kinds of religious artwork and sculptures, I could immediately tell we were finally in one of the main areas. -To think the ce I decided to enter would be the maids'' lodging... The farthest thing from this ce...- I wanted to facepalm but needed to y it cool. -This ce is so huge though, it would have taken longer to find it on my own...-


    Shortly after entering the main hallway, we approached arge double door with two knights standing by it and stopped walking.


    After turning to me, the maid bowed deeply. "I apologize, Sir, but this is as far as my clearance will allow me to guide you. If you would like, I could retrieve one of my seniors to lead you the rest of the way."


    "I think this will be alright, thank you."


    With a formal nod, she straightened up but kept her gaze lowered. "I wish you luck in your meeting, Sir."


    -She''s a bit too stoic for my liking, but her manners are on point...- After giving her a chance to leave, I turned back to the knights and noticed their suspicious looks. -Well, at least it was smooth sailing till this point.- "Alright, would either of you be willing to escort me to Miss Vilulf''s office?"


    "Sir, we cannot do that if you do not have your token with you." His voice was deep and somewhat threatening.


    -A token? Does he mean something like the jade medallion all those maids had?- "Damn. Whatever..." -I guess I''ll have to find it on my own from here...-


    *th-thump-ng-nk* The knights limply copsed to the ground the instant I stepped toward them and forced their brains into a sleep-like state. -Damn, my mana control is getting pretty good...-


    *Click* Casually opening the door and stepping over an unconscious knight, I made my way into another grand hallway with several people frantically running around.


    -Everyone seems panicked. Did something happen?- Before getting spotted, I cloaked myself and continued down the hall.


    From what I could gather, they were primarily priests that worked under Vilulf, and the frantic panic was them trying to reallocate the work given to them after the deaths of the other apostles. -Looks like they have a lot of work on their hands...-


    But oddly enough, although it looked chaotic, many of the people I saw were smiling and enjoying themselves. -I guess not everyone dislikes work, huh...-


    After continuing further down the hall though, the halls slowly emptied until only the distant chatter from the entrance could be heard. -I must be getting close...-


    And close I was. The moment I thought that, I sensed Miss Vilulf''s aura. -What perfect timing.-


    Quickly making my way to the door her aura was behind, I overheard some voices chatting inside and lightly knocked on the door. *knock-knock*


    The voices stopped instantly, but even after several seconds, no one asked who was there. -Then I''ll just let myself in...- *click*


    But I felt an opposing force when I released the lock and started opening the door. -Are they seriously blocking the door?-


    "Please state your name." An incredibly aggressive woman''s voice came through the small crack in the door.


    "Sorry, but no." Continuing to push open the door as if the woman on the other side wasn''t there, I felt the force disappear and saw a de peek through the crack. -She''s a feisty one...-


    *tap* Grabbing onto the de just before it hit my stomach, the door drifted open to reveal a mature demihuman woman holding onto the hilt of the sword with white knuckles. -Her strength isn''t too shabby...-


    But she was simply frozen in ce, unable to move at all before the door drifted open enough for me to meet eyes with Miss Vilulf.


    Her eyes went wide instantly as she disappeared from behind her desk. *FWOOSH* Suddenly appearing next to the woman holding the sword, Leif threw her fist into her stomach. *WHAM-CRACK-CRUNCH*


    The woman mmed through the stone wall like it was made of sand before continuing across the hall and through another wall.


    The distant chatter that used to be easily audible suddenly ceased as I turned back to see Leif cowering at my feet. "Humble servant Leif Vilulf asks Lord Dagr for forgiveness!"


    -That punch was really satisfying...- "I''m not upset; please raise your head." Quickly walking inside to avoid the eyes of those in the hallway, I closed the door and helped Leif stand up with my aura.


    But once she finally stood back up, she immediately bowed again. "Thank you for your gracious generosity, my lord."


    "Please think of it as my apology for the chaos I seem to have caused." Walking over to the couch, I finally sat down and let Iliosy beside me while staying cloaked.


    "My Lord, the noise outside is simply because of my subordinates''ck of prepar-"


    "Miss Vilulf, you are too nervous. Please take a deep breath."


    She gave me an odd look before finallyplying. "Hoooh..." Using my aura to help calm her down, I eventually managed to get her to sit on the couch opposite me, but she still looked quite nervous.


    -She''s really trying her best to please me, but...- She moved and talked like she was walking through a minefield. "Haah... Alright..." -I guess I have to ease her into it...- "How have the past few days gone?"


    But she only mmed up when I asked.


    -Oh boy...-


    The following discussion was honestly excruciating. Miss Vilulf was too nervous that I would be disappointed in how she handled things to speak confidently, which made the discussion more one-sided than I had hoped. -But she''s slowly warming up to me...-


    At the very least, the discussion was informative.


    In short, the chaos in the hallway was from the sudden transfer of power between the remaining apostles.


    Now that half of the leading apostles were dead, Vilulf was required to take ownership of their work until new ones were appointed, but among the current apostle candidates, none were qualified.


    It was a challenging situation, to say the least, but ording to Vilulf, her subordinates were handling things better than anticipated. -I can''t believe they didn''t split up the workload like this before... Just how much work did the apostles have to deal with?-


    I felt bored just thinking about it, to the point that, after a while, I gave advice until I felt satisfied with how things would be done in the future.


    "But I think that is all I can help you with, currently." Although far from an expert in political matters, their management was so disorganized that I was confident my advice would help. -The only reason they''ve grown so big is because they let cities be mostly sovereign...-


    "T-th-thank you, my Lord! We will be sure to follow your guidance immediately!" Her excitement reminded me of when we first talked.


    "You''re wee, Leif. Just don''t change too many things too quickly." After seeing her difort with calling her Miss Vilulf, I started calling her by her first name.


    "R-r-right!" She looked a bit embarrassed but still held her head high.


    -At least she''s getting better...- "Alright, well, it''s about time I get going. I apologize for leaving so soon, but I''ll stop by every now and then to check on how you are doing."


    "Please do not apologize, my Lord!"


    I let out a chuckle as I stood up. "Haha, alright. In any case, keep your eye out for someone named Amara Chalkos while I''m gone. Please assist her if you find her in trouble, but don''t interfere too much if you don''t need to."


    "As you wish!"


    "Haah..." -Alright, I think that''s everything.- Finally making my way toward the door, I nced back at Leif with a smile. "I look forward to seeing the results of your efforts."


    Her eyes lit up as she threw herself into a bow immediately. "I will not disappoint you!"


    I couldn''t help but be happy seeing her determination. -Maybe having a subordinate won''t be as bad as I expected...-

 Chapter 221: The Mysteries of the Moon

    Chapter 221: The Mysteries of the Moon


    Mid Morning - Early Winter : Outside of Northern Valtivar


    *thump-Thud* -This spot should be isted enough...- *FWOOSH-CRACKLE* With a strong p of my wings, I hurled Ilios and I through the canopy above us. *CrAcKLe*


    *fwoosh* Quickly piercing through the ceiling of leaves and branches, I was met with a sudden wave of warmth from the morning sun and couldn''t help but close my eyes and let out a deep, rxed breath. "Haaah.." But as I continued to climb in altitude, I started rethinking my initial ns. -Today.. maybe I should take my time...-


    Although I originally nned to take a trip through the void to get to Bahamut instantly, after feeling how nice it was to fly without being in any sort of rush, I decided to take my time and enjoy the flight. -It''s not like Bahamut is that far, anyway...-


    Leaning back and rolling over, I faced the horizon opposite the sun and finally started using my routine high-speed-travel spells. *tsss-fwoOoOOOSH* -If only it was still nighttime...-


    But then, as if I started turning back the hands of time, the sun started to set below the horizon behind me.


    Before I knew it, I could see stars, gxies, and distant nebs distorted by the atmosphere near the horizon, but no matter how beautiful the view there was, I couldn''t pull my eyes off the moon. -W..woah...-


    The moon, covered in its usual mountains, valleys, craters, and beautiful colors from the countless mineralsposing its surface, was something I hade to memorize over the years. Yet, still, at that moment, I felt like I was seeing it for the first time.


    -Did divinity.. really enhance my vision this much?- The details I could see on the moon''s surface were simply iparable to anything I''d seen before.But although it made the view of the moon all the more enchanting, when I finally turned my attention to the all-too-circr crater with the web of odd, shiny cracks spreading from its center, my mind went nk. -W..what the...-


    Although it was still challenging to distinguish exactly what it was, my theory that the cracks were natural and the reflection was from a liquid that filled them was immediately disproven. -That kind of reflection can''te from something in a crack...-


    Although it could have been the atmosphere slightly distorting things, the ground around the dozens of cracks was abnormally well-lit, as if illuminated by the reflections right next to them. -But if that''s really the case.. then the only usible idea is that they''re actually structures of some kind...-


    Previously, I would have found that idea absolutely insane, but after stumbling across the Acardi Laboratory at the bottom of the ocean a few years ago, that oundish theory became a very real possibility.


    But I still had my suspicions. -Would the Acardi really have reason to build such a megastructure?-


    Although the system of irregr lines wasn''t too big when looking at the whole moon, it was still hundreds of kilometers in diameter, with the abnormally smooth and circr ''crater'' it sat in being ten times that size.


    -It just.. doesn''t make sense...- No matter how I looked at it, it looked too imperfect and, honestly, like itcked the efficiency I hade to recognize in everything the Acardi made. -But that may just be my naivety... Theb and containment center looked to be built for a generally human-sized species. If a structure that big was meant to house arge poption of people, some of the structural ''irregrities'' could be ounted for...-


    But even that idea sounded oundish the moment I thought about it. -Would a civilization as advanced as the Acardi really bring such a massive poption of people to the moon of a they were only beginning to research in the first ce?-


    I wanted to kick myself for even considering it possible, but at the end of the day, I didn''t have a better idea.


    "Haaah..." -Maybe.. I just need to go up there and get a closer look myself...-


    But just as I idly started thinking about the multitude of things I would need to figure out before I could even consider going on such a trip, Ilios tapped my back. *tap-tap*


    "Hm?" Casually ncing where he was looking, I saw the massive northeastern-most mountain of Bahamut, Mount Sidero.


    It was a huge mountain, almost entirely made of mana-strengthened iron, a very precious resource, but instead of harvesting it, the upper echelon of Bahamut turned it into a high-security prison, where the few inmates ever sent there would be slowly starved until they either died or finished their sentence.


    It was a ce akin to hell.


    All the stories I ever heard about the ce were indescribably terrible, to the point that I thought they were exaggerated.


    But after seeing its dark and uneasy vibe in person, the stories about how the strongest-willed and most torture-resistant dragons somehow lost their minds after only a few weeks gained some credibility.


    -But why did Ilios point at it?- Although it was indeed an interesting sight, we were still nearly 5,000 kilometers from Grandmother''s estate, and even though I did get lost in thought, I didn''t lose track of where we were.


    The part that bothered me was simply that no matter how closely I looked in the direction Ilios was pointing me, I couldn''t see anything too out of the ordinary.


    At least, that''s what I thought. "Huh?" Flying toward me, blending in with the ocean behind him, was a sleek, dark blue dragon that looked to be at the beginning of the ancient stage. -What is he doing?-


    Turning off my thruster magic while idly contemting whether or not to let him catch me, I watched the man''s serious expression turn aggressive.


    -Does the mythril band around his ankle mean he''s a prison guard?- Although it could have been a simple piece of jewelry, seeing that the other dragons scattered around the mountainside of the prison wore the same thing, I assumed that''s what it meant. -And considering he''s not trying to sneak up on me, he must just be trying to figure out who I am.-


    It made sense since I was going to fly straight over them, but at the same time, I was a bit too high up for him to get up to me, and slowing down to meet with him felt troublesome. -It''s not like he can recognize me from this distance anyway, right?-


    Turning slightly and using light magic to make myself even more impossible to spot, I casually glided over him without so much as a sound.


    "Haah..." ncing back at him after a couple minutes, I saw him still frantically looking around and trying to find me before finally shooting off a blindingly bright fireball. -What the...-


    Immediately responding like it was a signal re, the dozen other dragons scattered around the mountain started frantically moving about, with half of them taking to the skies and starting to look around as well. -Are they.. trying to find me?-


    At first, I thought it was simply them being cautious and raising their guards, but even after the prison fell below the horizon behind me, I still had to actively dodge the eyes of even different, armor-wearing dragons that took to the skies in front of me. -What the hell is happening?-


    I tried not to think much of it at first, but after being forced to glide in silence for several hundred kilometers, I got sick of avoiding their eyes and jumped through a gate. *Vwoom*


    "Haah..." I let out an annoyed breath as I hastily moved a mass of mana to keep the void away from Ilios, but I quickly got sidetracked when I noticed him moving around like normal. "Huh?"


    Usually, creatures would look like they were ''frozen in time'' when in the void, and while I knew Ilios was different since he could always move some, he was never able to move this freely.


    -I wonder if the divinity he absorbed is what made the change...- ncing back at him again after a bit of idle thought, I watched as he actively dispersed the mana I used to protect him from the void.


    The moment he did, his fur started flowing as if it were underwater, and ever-so-slowly, a smile of satisfaction came to his face.


    Before I knew it, the lingering anxiety about the troubles I identally caused outside started to fade away, all in favor of seeing Ilios''s adorable smile.


    "Haah..." -I guess.. I''ll just ask Grandmother what it was all about when I get there...- Finally tossing away myst bit of worry, I looked around and quickly found the void marker I left in her estate. -Let''s finally finish this flight, shall we?-

 Chapter 222: An Accumulating Mountain of Questions

    Chapter 222: An umting Mountain of Questions


    Late Evening - Early Winter : Northern Bahamut (In the Void)


    "Haah..." I let out a sigh as I looked around the surprisingly colorful void and found a small ck diamond floating in the middle of a of tubes. -That should be the marker at Grandmother''s estate...-


    Although I wanted to go straight to Mother and Father, I didn''t have a marker at their new estate yet and wanted to give priority to having a certain talk with Grandmother. -Even excluding everything about whatever is going on around the prison, she has some questions to answer...-


    With my expression slowly turning serious, I moved just above the marker and promptly jumped into a gate. *Vwoom*


    *Fwooosh* The chilly air in the jetstream sted across my body the moment I popped out of the gate, but it honestly felt quite nice. *inhale* "Haaah..."


    The night sky was as stunning as always, but for once, I resisted my urge to stargaze. *fwoosh-fwoosh* With a few ps of my wings, I reoriented myself and slowly glided down through the thin clouds. -Alright, let''s go say hello, shall we?-


    But when I finally got under the thin clouds, the colossal estate came into view, and I noticed that several of the armored dragons around the estate weren''t the ones normally on patrol, with the dragon by the main gate being the most unexpected. -Is that.. Rhodes? Did something happen to Grandmother?-


    Hastily gliding down, I made myself obviously visible and slowly approached.


    At first, Rhodes looked quite hostile, but his expression quickly eased. "V..Vasilias?"Thankfully he recognized me pretty quickly. "It''s only been 3 years. Am I that hard to recognize?" *fwoosh* *fwoosh-thump*


    "You grew over a meter every year! Even if you''re only 15, you''re already over 33 meters tall! Isn''t that kind of growth a bit too crazy?" He seemed quite happy to see me.


    It only took a moment for some of his joy to spread to me. "Haha, fair enough, fair enough. In any case, I came back to check on everyone but I didn''t see any of the normal guards around while I was up in the air. Did something happen to Orion and his crew?"


    Rhodes''s yful expression quickly dulled. "N..no, the other guards are currentlyid off for the time being, and Orion... Well, he''s just been with your grandmother at the Elder Hall recently."


    -Recently?- "How long has she been there?"


    "Just a few days, but it''s odd, isn''t it?" A smile crept onto his face as he spoke, seemingly rting to my confusion. "Although I''m not sure what exactly happened, a few days ago, Leander visited and had a meeting with her. Not long after that, I was ordered to lock down the estate and not let anyone in or out. I thought it sounded a little too sudden, but I still don''t know enough to question anything."


    -To lock down the estate... It must be something serious...- "But, Leander? As in the Foreign Intelligence leader Leander?" -If it''s him...-


    "Yes, him. He''s been pretty quiet and secretive in recent years, but oddly enough, he started moving recently. Sorry I don''t know more details..."


    "No, just that is plenty..." -If Leander came to Grandmother for something, then it''s probably a foreign problem.. but why would she lock up the estate for something foreign?- Things weren''t really adding up, but I had no choice but to trek forward. -I wonder if it''s connected to the insane security around the prison... I guess I can only go find out myself...- "Do you know if they''re at the actual hall, or are they somewhere else?"


    "I''m not sure, but you could ask one of the assistants at the Hall itself. If she isn''t there, they can tell you where she went. At the very least, I''m sure she''s in that general area."


    "Hmm, alright. In that case, I should get going. Sorry I couldn''t stick around and catch up some more."


    "Haha, don''t worry about it. I''m d I could be of help. If you ever need anything, just swing by!"


    ncing to the side and seeing another elder-stage dragon in armor walking up to the gate, I decided to take my leave. "Alright, thanks for the help. I''ll hopefully be backter!"


    "Alright, be safe!"


    After a quick exchange of nods, I leapt off the ground and turned for the horizon, but I couldn''t help but feel uneasy as I left. "Haah..." -Why.. do I have a bad feeling about this...-


    The next hour passed in a sh as I flew to the Elder Hall like a normal dragon would, trying to stay low since I was flying back toward where the people searching for me were.


    By the time I got there, the sun was beginning to rise again, but it made the view of the Elder Hall all that more beautiful. -Draconic architecture is truly something incredible.. isn''t it...-


    Finally descending andnding on what looked like anding pad, I nced around and noticed everyone staring at me with mixed expressions.


    The area was packed with dozens, if not hundreds of dragons from all walks of life, each clearly stressed and busy. -This ce seems really busy...- Finally noticing ate-adult-stage blue dragon carrying a few leather chests on his back not far from me, I moved over and stopped him.


    "Sir, may I ask you something?"


    The man paused immediately before awkwardly ncing around. "Y..yes, what is it?"


    "I''m looking for Asimi Ragnarok, as I have an important message for her. Do you happen to know where she is?" I tried to act like a messenger to avoid making things moreplicated than they needed to be, and thankfully it seemed to work.


    "She left just before sunset. I believe she should be in the Housing District, currently."


    "Hmm, alright. Could you point me in the direction of it?"


    The man gave me an odd look for a moment before pointing to the northeastern horizon. "It''s just over there. You can''t miss it."


    -Why northeast of all directions...- But, continuing to suppress my uneasiness, I kept up my act. "Great, thank you, kind sir." Not letting another second go to waste, I hastily moved back to where Inded and leapt into the air. *Fwooosh*


    Thankfully, the district wasn''t too hard to find, or recognize. -This must be it...-


    Stretching for several kilometers in each direction was nearly a hundredrgeplexes of 6 buildings, only around 100 by 100 meters each, built around a circr courtyard that was basically anding area.


    From what I could tell, each building only had one room, but it definitely seemed like it would do the job. -But where would Grandmother be...-


    I continued flying and looking around for several minutes after that before noticing a muchrger estate towards the back of all theplexes.


    It looked simr to many of the noble estates I had seen thus far, but it seemed less gaudy and more aestetic than most. -Maybe she''s there...-


    The moment Inded in the estate''s courtyard though, a small sky-blue dragon came running up to me. -Is heing to me?- He couldn''t have been older than 14


    But even though I was towering over him, his hostility was unmatched. "Hey, you!"


    -Oh boy...- His arrogance was oozing out of him. "What is it, kid?"


    "You think I wouldn''t recognize you?!"


    "Hm?" My calm and collected expression quickly turned confused. "Have we met?"


    "Yeah! You''re that bast*rd that dropped that mountain of ice on me and my friends!"


    Quickly sifting through my memories, I eventually stumbled across what the kid seemed to be referencing. (Chapter 130) -Oh, that?- "Kid, you shot your magic at me while I was idly flying overhead. You can''t be mad about receiving punishment for that." I was slowly getting annoyed since I didn''t want to deal with him.


    "I d-d-don''t know what you are talking about! I, a noble Aetos, would never do such an uwful thing!" He held his head high as if winning the fight he was picking wasn''t an issue. "How dare you use me of doing such a thing."


    "Haah..." -Aetos, huh... That must be some noble family...- "Kid, listen. I don''t have time for you, so get to the point."


    His expression darkened further, still drowned in naive confidence. "You must submit to me, or else my grandfather will make you!"


    -This kid can''t be serious.- "I don''t know what kind of people the Aetos Family are, but you''re barking up the wrong tree, kid. Since you don''t seem to understand that though, I''ll turn a blind eye. Have a good day." Quickly turning away, I started walking back toward the estate only to see two beautiful copper-colored dragons walking out of its main entrance with nervous expressions.


    The dragons looked like they were mother and daughter, with the bigger one being considerably bigger than me and the other just a bit smaller than Mother.


    But regardless, I recognized one of them almost immediately. -So this is where Amara went.- Her sudden departure from Siratha already started to make sense. -But what was she summoned for?- Thinking it couldn''t hurt to go and ask, I started walking over to her.


    But the kid I was ignoring wouldn''t let me leave so peacefully. "You cocky bast*rd!" His voice echoed through the courtyard, grabbing the attention of everyone around before he charged at me.


    -This kid can''t be serious...-


    But serious, he was.


    *CrUnCh* The noise of teeth breaking apart echoed through the silence that filled the courtyard, making everyone freeze in ce and stare at the stupid child biting the tail of a dragon nearly 3 times its size.


    -I guess I was the naive one for thinking he would leave me alone, huh...-

 Chapter 223: A Familiar Face

    Chapter 223: A Familiar Face


    Early Morning - Early Winter : Elder Hall, Northern Bahamut


    *CrUnCh* The noise of teeth shattering echoed through the courtyard as I slowly turned around to see the kid, a third my size, biting on my tail with bloody chunks of his teeth falling to the ground. -You.. can''t be serious...-


    The silence that followed the terrible crunch was genuinely excruciating.


    But it didn''tst long.


    "AHHHH!" The kid let out a terrible yell as he fell to the ground and noticed the bloody chunks of his teeth falling out of his mouth.


    A part of me wanted tough seeing his unfathomable arrogance backfire, but I sadly didn''t get the chance to.


    "What is going on here?!" Arge, nearly 60-meter-tall dragon covered in armor came running up with a concerned look that quickly shifted to anger. "Sir, it is a grave crime to fight here."


    His reaction made my urge tough vanish in an instant. "I wasn''t the one to start it, sir." -This.. feels like it will get troublesome...- "The kid was mad at me for something that happened a few years ago, and when I ignored his threats about forcing me to be his servant, he got mad and bit my tail." I gave the knightly dragon an unamused look, expecting him to continue to defend the kid.


    But surprisingly, confusion slipped into his expression instead. "I..is that so?" Turning back to the kid, he leaned down and looked him in the eye like a parent would. "Sir Aetos, is that true?"But instead of simply agreeing and letting things end simply, the kid looked back up at me with fiery eyes. "HE MADE FUN OF FATHER''S DEATH!" He screamed through his tears as his expression only turned more distraught.


    -You have to be f*cking kidding me...- The serious look I was trying to maintain quickly shifted to one of annoyance.


    But someone else spoke up before I could. "No, he didn''t." Her voice was smooth and elegant but carried deep displeasure.


    -Who?- Looking toward the voice, I noticed the dragon who was with Amara walking toward us.


    "Young Aetos, do you understand what troubles you could have given this man with such a lie?" The intimidating woman gave me a judgmental nce as she walked by, but eventually turned back to the kid. "You seem to not understand the weight of your words."


    Her ruthless tone made his already visible worry and fear worsen, finally dissipating his lingering anger. "U..uh..." Hastily looking around as if to find someone to help him, he finally noticed the disappointed and annoyed looks on everyone''s faces. "I... I-"


    "Quit looking for someone to save you. Even if your grandfather was here, he would have to show me respect." Although her words sounded arrogant, her tone made me believe it. "Now, apologize."


    The kid''s fearful eyes slowly drifted over to me before he anxiously lowered his gaze.


    I gave the woman an odd look as I questioned her motives before eventually sending the kid off. "Kid, don''t-"


    *Fwooosh* But, once again, I was interrupted. *fwoosh* -Again?!- *fwoosh-thud* Looking toward the dragonnding next to us, I met eyes with a beautiful, turquoise-scaled elder. -She''s quite pretty...-


    But even though she had a beautiful body, her gaze was sharp. "Bite on this while picking up the pieces of your teeth, kid. I will bring you to the infirmary in a moment." She spoke coldly as she handed the boy a damp cloth and turned to us. "I just happened to be flying by and noticed this brat bleeding. Does anyone care to exin?"


    There was a short moment of silence before the copper dragon next to me spoke up. "It''s been a while, Galen." She bowed her head slightly to show courtesy before quickly straightening back up. "This child here is the young Aetos, as I''m sure you know, and what I assume was done to vent some of the emotions from his Father''s recent passing, picked a fight, and bit this gentleman''s tail."


    But although what she said was generally the truth, Galen wasn''t buying it. "Are you seriously telling me this young boy, broke his teeth by biting this.. ''man''s'' tail?" She turned to me with a look of skepticism. "I don''t even see a scratch... That kind of durability isn''t possible below the Ancient stage."


    I wanted to deny her words, but I couldn''t. -She has a point...- But I couldn''t just ept her believing it was a lie. "In that case, what could I do to prove it to you?"


    "Let me sh your tail." She responded immediately with a merciless tone.


    Everyone in earshot immediately turned to me with wide eyes hearing her request, but instead of listening to the red g, I turned slightly and pointed my tail at her. "Go for it."


    Giving a displeased look at my tail, she lifted her paw and drove her ws straight into the top of it.


    *CrUnCh* A familiar crunch sounded through the area as I looked back and noticed there was hardly a scratch on my scales. -Ah...-


    Galen''s cold expression quickly turned to one of disbelief as she slowly pulled away her paw and noticed a drop of blood drip off one of her ws.


    -Was she not suspicious of my confidence at all?- "I''m not sure if you thought I was lying or what, but I believe this proves it."


    She slowly looked back up at me with a mix of awe and confusion. "W..what are you made of?" A dim glow appeared around her cracked w as it quickly started healing.


    -Healing magic?- But although I was curious, I had more pressing matters to deal with. "No idea. So can I go now?"


    "Y..yes. I.. apologize for the trouble..." Still wearing a look of disbelief, she waited for her nail to quickly heal before driving it into the ground.


    *Crunch* Her whole paw pierced the ground without issue, but as she went to look back up at me, I was already walking away.


    Quicklying up next to the copper-scaled woman, I gave a formal greeting. "My name is Vasilias. Thanks for the help there. That.. would have been troublesome without you."


    Her imposing posture quickly rxed once I greeted her. "Haha, my name is Voun��, Voun�� Chalkos. I thought my daughter was crazy for forcing me toe help you out, but it seems like she has a good eye." Her smile was a bit greedy, but I surprisingly didn''t mind it.


    -She speaks much more elegantly than Amara.. I''m surprised they''re even rted...- Looking over toward Amara again, I saw her walking toward us.


    She wore a refreshingly familiar smile. "I didn''t recognize you at first, I''m d I saw Ilios."


    -Ah...- I wanted tough realizing I nearly forgot Ilios was still sleeping on my back. -Maybe that exins some of the odd looks.-


    "So you two do know each other?" Voun�� gave Amara a curious nce.


    "We''re good friends, Mom. We met in Siratha a few years ago."


    "Oh, I see." Turning back to me, her smile turned sly. "What do you think of my daughter, Vasilias?"


    -What''s with that look?- "She''s an irreceable friend." Seeing her sly grin widen, I quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, I didn''t expect to see you here, Amara."


    "Yeah, it''s kind of a long story. I wanted to leave a proper message for you and Ynda, but.. was in a bit of a rush..."


    "Don''t worry about it. Ynda calmed down after a bit, and I figured you had your reasons."


    "Y..yeah... In any case, what are you doing here?"


    "Ah, I''m just here to meet with my gr- I mean, with Asimi Ragnarok."


    Both Voun�� and Asimi raised their eyebrows as they caught my slip-up, but neither of them mentioned anything. "So were you not summoned here for the ''case''?"


    -Hm?- "Case? What case?"


    They both nced at each other before awkwardly standing up. "Asimi is busy inside currently, so why don''t we.. go somewhere more private to talk?"


    Slowly standing up with them, I carefully watched their expressions beplicated. -Is it something that serious?-

 Chapter 224: Reunion

    Chapter 224: Reunion


    Late Morning - Early Winter : Elder Hall Housing District, Northern Bahamut


    "So.. what''s going on?" Walking into a sizable but isted room in one of the manypounds, I closed the door, and found a ce to sit.


    "Haah, alright, I guess I''ll start from the beginning." Amara let out a stressed sigh as she sat down across from me. "A couple of months ago, Holcyon Aetos, a very well-known judge in the upper courts, brought a case to the elder hall. I don''t know the details of it, but when he was about to present his part of the story, a messenger barged in and announced that his son was killed."


    "What does this have to do with you?"


    "Well, it turns out he was one of the dragons Ilios and I killed when we destroyed the Helvig estate."


    -Ah...- My mind immediately shed back to my discussion with the interrogator in Siratha. (Chapter 201) -Is that why they were so interested in the estate being destroyed?- "So is the interrogation about using you of killing him?"


    Seeing my expression turn sour, she quickly stopped me. "N-no!"


    Voun�� just gave me an odd look though. "I''m not sure if you know or not, Vasilias, but killing another dragon is only restricted in Bahamut and The Forgotten Inds. In most humanoid nations, you won''t receive any formal punishment for killing another dragon, no matter their standing or your motive. With some exceptions, of course."


    An image of the interrogator I met in Siratha popped into my head immediately. -But, I guess he was trying to act like a Sirathan official at first, so maybe him threatening me with execution was just an act...- I was still a bit annoyed, but I eventually continued. "So if it isn''t that, what''s the investigation about?""We aren''t exactly sure since nothing official has been released, but based on the recent events, we can take a decent guess."


    -Hm?- "What recent events?"


    Amara interjected immediately. "Did you not have to go through the insane security at the space rune between here and Siratha?"


    "Huh? I didn''t take the space ru-" But just as I was about to say no, I remembered something. -The excessive security around the prison... Was that not for the prison?- It made way more sense that the seemingly excessive reaction was for something like border security instead, but at the same time, if that was the case, it would be incredibly troublesome for me if I was caught. -I guess I can only hope they didn''t get a good look at me...-


    "Vasilias?" Amara gave me a worried look, which hastily pulled me from my thoughts.


    "Ah, right. Sorry. I got a bit lost in thought." I was a bit flustered but tried to quickly calm back down. "I didn''t actually take the space rune, but I did run into the excessive security. What about it?"


    Amara and her mother awkwardly nced at each other before eventually continuing. "Well, the security seems to be gathering the identities of everyoneing from Siratha, whether flying normally or taking a space rune, with anyone in any rtion to nearly a dozen or so noble families being brought here to be interrogated."


    -Huh... It honestly sounds like they''re still trying to find the betrayer in that other investigation, is that all it is?- Although I still had my doubts, it''s what I felt was most usible. "Is there any corrtion between the families brought here?"


    "Not exactly. Some are extremely wealthy, and some are fallen nobles and half breeds. It is a mixed bag, to say the least."


    -So they''re sweeping in a bunch of people before thinning them out...- But while I thought to myself about what could be going on, there was a knock on the door. *knock-knock* -Huh?- Sending some of my aura through the door, I noticed a presence I recognized. "I got it."


    Slowly getting up and opening the door, I met eyes with an armored, orange-scaled dragon wearing an exhausted expression.


    "Is Vasil- Oh, there you are..." He sounded like he hadn''t slept in months.


    "Orion?" -Is he alright?-


    "Haha, it''s good to see you. Anyway, now isn''t the time to talk. The Missus has called for you."


    -She knew I was here?- ncing back at Amara and Voun��, I saw them both staring at me in shock. -I guess they know who he is too...- "Let''s continue this talkter, alright? Hopefully, it shouldn''t take too long."


    Finally walking outside without another word, I gently closed the door and started following after Orion.


    We quickly ended up taking to the air after that, flying back to the main estate beforending again a few secondster.


    "You look exhausted. Are you alright?" I was honestly a bit worried for him.


    "Yeah.. just.. a lot of work. You don''t need to worry though, I finally get a few days to rest starting tomorrow."


    "Oh that''s good. I thought I was going to have to ask grandmother to give you a break."


    A warm smile quickly came to his face as he let out a lethargicugh. "Haha, she takes care of me, don''t worry." He paused for a moment to open the door to the estate and lead me into a long hallway. "In any case, there''s been a report floating around this morning saying a dark-scaled dragon was seen flying over the prison,ing from Siratha." He nced back at me like he already knew. "If that was you, you should be alright, but try toy low for a couple weeks to let things settle down."


    -So they didn''t get a good view of me... Good...- I wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but quickly got sidetracked. "Right, about that, what''s up with all the insane security with peopleing from Siratha?"


    His expression darkened immediately. "The Missus will fill you in on that. I don''t exactly have the authority to say anything."


    -So it is something serious...- "Alright." -Would a betrayer in foreign intelligence really garner this kind of a reaction?-


    I idly thought about it as we continued to walk until, eventually, we came up to a door that read: ''Interrogation Room''


    -So she''s the one doing the interrogations?- *knock-knock*


    "You may enter."


    *Click* Promptly opening the door, I walked into a surprisinglyrge but mostly empty room with a single desk, toorge for a human, but far too small for a dragon,pletely loaded with papers. -Good lord, that''s a lot of paperwork...-


    But just behind it was Grandmother, sitting there and looking at a few dozen papers she held in the air with her aura.


    She looked nervous and stressed, to the point that she didn''t even notice when I filled the room with my aura. "It''s been a while, Grandmother!" Quickly making sure the door was closed so no sound could escape, I walked toward the desk.


    "Hm?" Almost immediately after hearing my voice though, the stress on her face seemed to wash away. "It really was you!"


    Although I was still a bit worried about her previous expression, I quickly set my worries aside for a moment to walk up and give her a gentle hug. "It''s good to see you again, Grandmother."


    "Haah..." She let out a sigh of relief as she gently rubbed her cheek against mine. "It''s good to see that you''re safe and healthy..." We stayed in that position for quite a while before she eventually released me and sat back down. "So, how was your trip to Siratha? I heard a report saying you got into some trouble with the young Chalkos."


    I couldn''t help but smile when I heard her joyful, motherly tone. "It was an experience for sure. I definitely have quite a few stories to tell."


    "Oh? Now you have me excited to wrap up my work!" The genuineness of her excitement made my heart melt, but I had to restrain myself.


    "Before that..." Mustering up the courage to try and put on a serious face, I tried to look her in the eyes. "Grandmother, I have something to ask first."


    "Hm?" She tilted her head slightly after seeing my expression. "What is it?"


    "Hooh..." I let out one final breath before finally letting it loose. "Was it really necessary to make me learn that I''M PART GOD, WITHOUT ANY WARNING?!"


    An awkward, but sly smile immediately came to her face.


    -SHE ACTUALLY KNEW?!-

 Chapter 225: The Oracle

    Chapter 225: The Oracle


    Early Afternoon - Early Winter : Elder Hall, Northern Bahamut


    "Was it really necessary to make me learn that I''M PART GOD, WITHOUT ANY WARNING?!"


    An awkward, but sly smile immediately came to her face.


    -SHE ACTUALLY KNEW?!- I could only stare at her in disbelief before she finally responded.


    "Vasilias." Her voice was warm, but she sounded like she was holding back augh. "Please have a seat, so I can exin."


    I sat down immediately, eagerly waiting for an exnation.


    But she didn''t say what I was expecting. "Have you ever wondered where my parents are?"


    -W..what?- I was immediately taken aback by the seemingly random question but tried to follow along. "Well.. I can''t say it never crossed my mind, but when I asked Mother, she said she didn''t know." -Not that I really believed her...-


    "That is to be expected, sweetie, don''t be mad at her. I have yet to tell her about what I am about to tell you." Her smile was oddly motherly.-But her words are really ominous...- "So.. what happened to them?" -Did they die?-


    "Unfortunately, they passed away during their st sleep''."


    I jolted slightly upon hearing her mention her parents'' deaths so lightly.


    "They were both nearly 2,200 years old and lived fulfilling lives, helping advance magic and preserving our deep history."


    -2,200... That would mean they were at least 2,000 years old when they had a child...- It was an idea that didn''t make sense to me. "Why did they.. uh..."


    "Wait so long to have a child?"


    I reluctantly nodded after seeing her smile like she was eager to tell me.


    She didn''t hesitate to continue. "Well, that''s because of a tradition that ran in our family." She nced over at a painting of a huge dragon flying in the clouds. "Starting all the way back during the Great War, the head of the Ragnarok family was banned from having children until they turned 2,000 years old, and even when those fateful 3 eggs wereid, only 1 pure white dragon woulde out." She motioned to the painting above the door as the smile started fading from her face. "The white dragon was to be the sessor of the family and was raised strictly, while the others were to be exiled or abandoned. It was a tradition that made me dread the day I was going to have children. I wanted to cherish them, to raise them with love and freedom, but I knew that was impossible."


    I felt a bit awkward seeing her talk about something so dark, but that was when her smile suddenly came back.


    "Do you know why I broke that tradition and never told Zachari about it?"


    I quickly shook my head.


    "Well, nearly 113 years ago, I was napping at home when I received an oracle, a dream of a voice. The man''s voice was smooth and enchanting but sounded faded and distant. He spoke in anguage I had never heard as well, but I somehow managed to understand exactly three words he said, ''It is time''."


    -Anguage she had never heard... That sounds.. familiar...-


    But Grandmother continued, regardless of my train of thought. "I wasn''t sure who the voice belonged to or what they meant for years after that, but then, exactly three yearster, I had a feeling I had never felt before." She paused as if wanting me to ask.


    "W..what was it?"


    "I wasying eggs."


    A mix of disbelief and confusion washed over my face immediately, bringing my rampant thoughts and theories to a screeching halt. "Huh?"


    "Haha, it sounds crazy, doesn''t it? Iid healthy, fertile eggs without ever being with a man, but it didn''t end there. All three of my eggs hatched with beautiful, snow-white scaled children that looked just like me." Her smile brought warmth to my chest immediately. "With the tradition forcefully broken by a god''s will, I didn''t hesitate to raise them more freely, exempt from the traditions that had haunted me for the majority of my life. But after a while, I started to question why it all happened. For what purpose did I receive such a blessing, and what did the being who gave me the oracle want..."


    "Could the parts of the dream you couldn''t understand have been the reason?"


    Her expression slowly darkened like I made her remember a bad memory. "For a long time, I wasn''t sure... I lived my days cherishing my children, but I always had a lingering worry that I wasn''t understanding something." She paused as she slowly looked up at me. "When I heard you were born with ck scales, I got even more worried, but as time passed and I heard the story of what happened to you from your father, I felt like things.. weren''t being left to chance.. but I only felt that way when it involved you..."


    Although I had been idly theorizing as she talked, my mind went nk the instant she finished.


    "For a long time, I was truly nervous with each and every step, anxious that I would identally mess something up if I intervened too much, so when you asked me about the Ancient Fenrir, I.. had no choice but to keep my hands off... I didn''t want to risk my intervention messing up the flow of fate, so I gave you a hint and left it up to you... I''m sorry if I felt.. distant during that time..." She gave me a guilty nce for a moment, only to see me wearing a fascinated look instead of a resentful one.


    -Did a god really know I was going toe to this world over a hundred years before it happened?- "So you think my existence could have been something prepared by a god?"


    She reluctantly nodded her head, likely nervous that I would take the possibility of such a reality poorly.


    But what she didn''t know is that I had alreadye to terms with it long before I even knew of the existence of gods. -But who would the god that gave the ''oracle'' be? She said it was a faded man''s voice, so it couldn''t be the goddess, but...-


    Before I coulde to any decent conclusion, I felt Ilios shift around on my back, and finally pulled myself out of the ever-growing rabbit hole I was digging myself into.


    -I guess I need to do more research into the gods...- Looking back up at Grandmother, I noticed her staring at me with an odd look. "Sorry about that. I got a bit lost in thought."


    "No no, it''s quite alright. I apologize for dampening the mood." She lowered her gaze with a slightly guilty expression as we both fell into silence.


    But eventually, I spoke up again in a more gentle tone. "Do you.. ever n on telling Mother about all of that?"


    "I will have to do it eventually, but I want Krystallo to leave the nest first."


    -Huh?- "Why?"


    "Zachari is already extremely protective over you two, and I feel like telling her about everything would only make it worse... If you think she wouldn''t cause you too many problems, I can talk to her about it once this whole event settles, but if not..."


    -Oh right.. I nearly forgot about that...- "I think it''s best if we give her some time..." I nced away for a moment before turning back to her. "Besides that, what all is happening here?"


    "Ah, right. I haven''t exined that yet." Trying to recollect herself, she took a deep breath and continued in a more serious tone. "Hooh... How much do you already know about it? About the investigation."


    "I can''t say a lot, but I know it''s rted to Holcyon Aetos and his son''s death in Siratha."


    "So you at least know who Holcyon Aetos is, correct?" She continued after I nodded. "In that case, I will start off by saying that currently, his family, and several others who were rted to those found in the Helvig estate in Siratha, are being investigated for several things, with one of them being ''Foreign Leaking''."


    -Foreign leaking?- "What is that?"


    "To put it simply, it is when a dragon leaks information about Bahamut or dragon society in general, to humanoids. Recently there have been some fairly minor slip-ups in Siratha, but we haven''t questioned it much since they were minor details like dragons still existing and some bans to preserve their life."


    -Is she talking about the ''they can only kill non-intelligent dragons'' thing Liv mentioned?- [1]


    She quickly pulled a sheet of paper off her desk with her aura and showed it to me. "Recently, however, some information in regards to our advanced magics was put directly into the curriculum of therger schools in Siratha."


    Immediately understanding how serious the situation was, I skimmed through the rest of the paper she was showing me. -So the border security isn''t to catch the betrayer, but instead to try and find people rted to this... Could the betrayer and this incident be connected?-


    "As you are probably aware, this is a grave sin that vites the agreement between Bahamut and the human gods during the Great War."


    There was a moment of silence while I finished skimming the paper. "But why? What would they have to gain from spreading that information?"


    Haah..." Her sigh sounded troubled. "That''s what we are trying to figure out. Not only would spreading that information not be helpful to them, but they also wouldn''t need to meet up or make any borate n that would require them to meet up to leak it."


    -That''s a fair point...- "So you think there''s more than meets the eye..."


    "Most definitely."


    Seeing her determination, a sly smile crept onto my face. "You know.. I might be able to help youe with that."

 Last One of the Year

    Last One of the Year


    Hey guys, sorry for the untimely notice again, but today''s chapter will be moved to Thursday.


    There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that it just needs a bit more polish since I couldn''t do it yesterday. (I had myst couple finals yesterday)


    In any case, sorry to bore you all with that. This will be thest dy/break before the New Years since I am officially done with sses! I hope you all are looking forward to the winter holidays no matter what you celebrate, and I look forward to seeing you all Thursday!


    Happy Holidays!

 Chapter 226: Abandoned History

    Chapter 226: Abandoned History


    Early Evening - Early Winter : Western Sirathan Space Rune


    *Vwoop* *Ssh-crash* We were met with the nostalgic sounds of waves crashing on the beach as we finally popped out of the space rune in the mountains of Siratha.


    It had only been a few hours since I initially spoke with Grandmother, but things had quickly escted to get us here. "So, basically, what you''re telling me is that Leif thinks you are Nott''s reincarnation and is now your subordinate?" She continued our conversation normally, as if the half-hour of silence I experienced in the void never happened.


    But my mind was elsewhere. -I probably shouldn''t mention that I killed two of the other apostles...- "Y-yeah, that sounds about right." -But is she really on a first-name-basis with Leif?- I idly thought to myself as I nced around to check the sky''s condition before eventually turning back to Grandmother. "Anyway, go ahead and change to your humanoid form, it''ll be quicker if I fly."


    She paused to look at me for a moment before finallyplying. "I remember your father saying you were quite fast. Do you think you''re faster than me?"


    "Absolutely."


    She was slightly taken aback by my immediate response. "A..alright, then." Finally climbing into my paw, she used some of her aura to hold herself in ce, but I was a bit worried it wasn''t enough.


    -She''s an elder... She can probably handle a few Gs, right?- But after some thought, I decided not to risk it and used my aura as well. "My aura should hold you, but you might want to brace yourself."


    She quickly looked up at me with a na?ve smile. "I will be alright, sweetie."-Alright...- "Suit yourself." Finally spreading and pping my wings, I hurled us into the sky, not hesitating to st my thruster magic in the process. *psh-FWOOOSH*


    Grandmother went wide-eyed and gripped one of my ws with white knuckles like a child on a roller coaster.


    It was quite a funny sight, but she quickly eased back up once she got used to the eleration. -I wonder why that felt so good...- With a satisfied smile, I turned back to the horizon and continued elerating.


    But it was only a few minutes after that that the fog-covered canopy of the Tree of Prayer could finally be seen cresting the horizon.


    I didn''t think much of it at first, but eventually, I noticed a massive, bony tail sticking out of the top of its canopy, with a few dragons hovering around it.


    -Right.. I almost forgot about that...- Slowing down slightly, I thinned the vacuum barrier around us and gave us a bit of still air to talk in. "Grandmother, I have a quick question."


    "What is it, sweetie?" Her voice was filled with awe as she looked toward the horizon.


    -Did she notice it already?- "The name Lernaean. Does it ring a bell?"


    Her eyes went wide with surprise immediately. "Where did you hear that?"


    I spoke casually as I motioned toward the horizon. "The dragon with its tail sticking out of the canopy over there, it had a gold band around one of its horns with that name on it."


    But instead of simply answering, her expression turned panicked. "You went into the fog?!"


    -Ah... I forgot about that...- "Y..yeah, I went in before I realized how deadly it was.. sorry..." Seeing her more worried about me than learning of the existence of such a colossal dragon, I quickly started making assumptions. -She must have already known about it...-


    "You seem alright, so I won''t pester you about it, but you shouldn''t mention that to your Mother..." She sounded like she was joking but her voice carried a deep worry.


    "R-right..." -Duly noted...- "In any case, that dragon down there was big enough to eat me like a snack. Do you know anything about it?"


    "Hooh... Of course I do." She paused as she took a moment to shake off her worry. "Since you probably won''t ever go to the academy, I will try my best to exin." Going ''teacher mode'' she put on a serious expression and looked up at me. "Lernaean was a hydra, a long-extinct draconic race with multiple heads, and was known for his generally ''friendly'' rivalry with Bahamut before the Great War."


    -Is she really going to just gloss over that?- "Did something kill the hydras off?"


    She immediately started mming up. "That''s.. a bitplicated to get into right now..." She quickly averted her eyes before promptly continuing. "In any case, Lernaean was one of the only other dragons besides Bahamut ever known to survive the st sleep'' and actually enter what is generally known as ''The Demigod stage'', but recently people have started calling it ''the Stage Beyond Mortality''."


    My eyes went wide instantly. -So.. they do know about the stage beyond ancient...- Ever since I found Lernaean''s body, I had wondered if they knew about it, but hearing that they did, made me feel more conflicted than I expected. -How have I not heard of it...- "Mother never told me about that stage... Is it-"


    "It''s generally considered impossible to attain, so most families don''t mention it to their children until they grow up, or simply wait for the academy to teach them in their 30s... She just wanted to protect you from setting a goal you could never reach, even if that sounds like a stupid statement now..." A proud but conflicted smile slowly came to her face as she looked back down at the tree.


    "So.. about Lernaean."


    "Ah.. right..." Quickly shaking her head, she tried to speak a bit more enthusiastically. "With him being the oldest Demigod stage dragon by a significant margin, many believed he woulde out and fight with Bahamut during the Great War, but to the surprise of many, Bahamut never even called for his help."


    -What?- "Why would he do that?" -Did he not think he needed it?-


    "Everyone else wondered that too back then, but at the time they assumed it was because of Bahamut''s confidence... But a few hundred yearster, once the dust started to settle, we dragon''s started to fly throughout the world again, and..." Her expression quickly darkened.


    -So he was already dead...-


    She continued with a slightly resentful tone. "Many actually couldn''te to terms with his death... For a long time, people chose to believe that he found the key to achieving godhood within the tree and entered a dragon sleep.. but, over time.. that tail remained cold and unmoving... And eventually, reality became undeniable..." She described the event as if it were a bad memory. "To this day, there are a few noble families who still remember him, but they resent him for not assisting Bahamut before his <em>disappearance</em>." She paused as her voice grew quieter. "But I.. think the way things turned out was fate..."


    Giving her a curious look, I wanted to ask what she meant by that but ended up keeping my mouth shut.


    The next several minutes were wrapped in silence as we flew over countless treants and worked our way toward arger treant not far from the Tree of Prayer. -This should be it...-


    Finally cloaking us, I flew down to the top of the canopy and changed to my humanoid form. "Stay close to me so I can keep you hidden, and don''t talk since I''m not masking much more than our footsteps."


    She immediately nodded as wended and started sliding down several huge leaves until eventuallynding on a fairly big branch hanging over Leif''s colossal estate. -Things seem to have calmed down a bit... I wonder how things are going...-


    Immediately thinking of how to get in, I looked around and noticed a carriage led by a perky-eared panther-like creature being let through the gate. -What perfect timing...- Quickly running through my few other options, I quickly settled on what to do. "We''ll go through the main entrance when it opens for the people in that carriage, remember to stick close to me." After waiting for her nod, I finally stood up and ran to the trunk of the tree, where I carefully climbed down the tree and the estate, eventually making it to the main entrance.


    We actually got there just as the carriage was opening.


    *Click* The first to exit was a knightly elf, who immediately turned around and held up his hand. "Please be careful, mydy."


    I expected a beautiful noblewoman to exit, but instead, a ghastly pale hand reached out, quickly revealing a disheveled and insane-looking young woman.


    -She looks terrible...- It was the fearful apostle that ran away after my fight with Magni, but she was barely familiar.


    Her body and skin condition were simply perfect, but she was so pale she barely looked alive, and her expression looked as if she was worried she would be killed at any moment.


    -She must being to meet with Leif...-


    A few moments passed as she stood in front of the door with her knight until a familiar young maid came out. "Wee, Miss Alva Ae. Please follow me; I will lead you to the Missus'' office."


    With the apostle''s lethargic nod, they finally turned to the door and made their way inside, with Ilios, Grandmother, and I quickly slipping in behind them.


    But as we made our way through the halls, I slowly started questioning if I should change ns slightly. -I wonder what they''ll talk about...-

 Chapter 227: An Untimely Confession

    Chapter 227: An Untimely Confession


    Early Evening - Early Winter : Central Valtivar, Siratha


    *tap-tap-tap-tap* As everyone came to a stop, the elven knight next to the apostle walked up to the two guards at the door in the hallway with a displeased look. "Miss Ae has arrived, please make way."


    "Identificat-" Before the guard could finish, the knight shoved a medallion in his face.


    "Is this enough?" His expression remained serious, as if he thought he was being cool.


    But even though he was acting like a child role-ying as the princess''s knight, the guards ignored it and opened the doors.


    -New guards, huh... I wonder what happened to the ones I knocked out...- Finally walking through the door, we continued into the familiar, busy hallway leading up to Leif''s office, while noticing many people''s sour looks toward the apostle.


    I honestly thought it was a bit of an odd reaction to seeing her, considering her political position, but after looking at her condition once again, I assumed there must have been a reason for it.


    But I didn''t even get a hint of what that reason was the whole time we walked. -Maybe it''s rted to what she and Leif will talk about...-


    Continuing down the hall, we eventually came up to Leif''s, now repaired, office, where the elven knight obnoxiously knocked on the door. *Thunk* *Thunk* "Miss Ae is here to speak with you, Miss Vilulf."Almost immediately, I heard a drawer close behind the door. *clunk* "She may enter."


    Hearing Leif, the disheveled apostle reached for the doorknob, but the young knight with her grabbed and opened it first. *click* "Please have a good meeting, mydy." He bowed as he held the door open, but the apostle didn''t move.


    She immediately started mming up and broke into a cold sweat, but instead of taking time to think about it, I took the opportunity to walk in ahead of her.


    "Alva Ae," Leif spoke in a cold tone right as we walked in, cracking a momentary smile as I walked by before putting a serious expression back on. "Our Lord let you live; he clearly must have seen something in you, but here you are living in fear." Her voice was provoking, but the displeasure in it felt oddly forced.


    "I-I..." Ae spoke with a quivering voice.


    It seemed to make the knight she was with quite upset as well. "Miss Vilulf, Miss Ae was told this was urgent, must you continue to belittle-"


    "Child." Vilulf''s voice echoed through the open door and down the hall. "You have no right to speak for her."


    He froze from shock for a moment before silently clicking his tongue and backing away from the door.


    Turning back to Ae, Leif gave her a dark re. "Alva,e in and have a seat. We need to talk."


    Almost immediately, she shakily walked forward, grabbing the doorknob from her knight, walking in, and closing the door behind her. *click*


    Silence magic wrapped around the room in an instant, as she stood at the door, seemingly avoiding Leif''s eyes.


    "Alva, I hope you have a good reason for the way you have acted recently."


    Too curious about what she was going to say, I stayed cloaked and listened. -Plus, Leif already knows I''m here.. she must want me to hear this...-


    However, as a result of that judgment, things quickly becameplicated. "T-The others were cleansed for their s-sins... S-so..." She tightly gripped her robe as she turned around with tears running down her face. "W-when will I?"


    I immediately got ufortable, but Leif didn''t even flinch. "Alva... What. did. you. do." She sounded like a mother reprimanding her child.


    "I.. may have.. um..." She was so nervous she looked sick, but after a quick breath, she managed to speak. "In e-exchange for helping me be an apostle, I-I did whatever the d-dragons asked me to do! But I promise it was never anything too bad!"


    The silence that wrapped around the room after she finished was excruciating.


    But it didn''tst long.


    Dispersing my light magic around her, Grandmother appeared with a furious expression. "You did what?!"


    Ae immediately jolted at her unexpected appearance but Vilulf just smiled and nced at me.


    -Well.. that was easier than expected...- Remaining cloaked, I silently walked over to Vilulf and whispered in her ear. "She is here to investigate something on her own. She should keep her requests toned down, but assist her as you deem fit..." I nced back over at them to see Grandmother getting ready to talk. -She should be fine on her own now...- "In any case, you don''t need to keep an eye out for Amara Chalkos anymore, and please send a letter to the others in Morva Asari that she is with ''Vasilias''. I have something I must go check so please take things from here."


    She nodded immediately with a proud smile.


    "Ah, and onest thing..." I pointed at therge window behind us, not thinking that she couldn''t see it. "You should make a small balcony for your office." -Having to sneak my way through the entire building every time is pretty troublesome...-


    After seeing her obediently nod without questioning anything, I gently patted her head without thinking and motioned over Ilios. -Alright, that should be all I need to do here...-


    Quickly making sure I was holding Ilios securely, I finally jumped into the void, changing to my dragon form in the process. *vwoop*


    Thankfully, it only took a second to adjust. "Phew.. alright..." Slowly shifting gears, I quickly settled on a new course of action. -Now that she''s all set up... Let''s head back to the god''s abode and see if I can answer any questions...- After speaking with Grandmother, I felt the urge to give looking at the carvings in the ceiling of that room some priority. -Even if I don''t quite have time to look at it all, maybe I can figure something out...-


    Although my chances of sess were low, I was still hopeful.


    But little did I know, sess always came with a new set of problems.


    -


    - Holcyon Aetos ~


    "My lord, the rumors have begun to spread, and<em><strong> they</strong></em> are also cooperating as you predicted."


    Slowly ncing to the side in the single small room I was granted, I saw a humanoid in a ck robe, kneeling to me. "It''s about time..."


    The robed man immediately tensed up. "I apologize if I was too slow, my lord!"


    "No, it''s not you. <em><strong>They</strong></em> have always acted slowly." -Even with our help, they progress like snails...- "In any case, where has that troublesome bi*ch gone? I heard she left the Centre several hours ago."


    "She left with a ck-scaled dragon and went to the northwestern space rune. We suspect she went to Siratha."


    "Tch..." I clicked my tongue immediately. -She wouldn''t go herself if she didn''t have a good reason...- Quickly crossing off various possibilities, I hastily tried toe up with a new n. "Since Leander has ratted out our cover and left us in the dark, let''s assume the worst. Send a group to go interfere with Asimi as much as possible, even if it uses force. We cannot let her find whatever she is looking for."


    "As you wish, my lord."


    Seeing that he was about to leave, I quickly added onest thing. "While you''re at it, investigate that ck dragon... I heard he disregarded the Aetos name." I slowlyid my head back down with an angry expression as the man in the corner suddenly disappeared.


    The room fell into silence in an instant.


    "Haah..." Letting out a sigh to suppress my lingering anger, I quickly refreshed myself on everything I still needed to do, but the list felt too long for the amount of time I had to do it. -If only that stupid son of mine didn''t get himself killed.. none of this would have happened...-

 Chapter 228: Alterations

    Chapter 228: Alterations


    Mid Evening - Early Winter : Central Valtivar, Siratha


    *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* It had only been half an hour since I got to the God''s Abode, and I had found quite a bit already, but I still wasn''t sure how to feel about it. -So, are the carvings meant to be four separate stories?-


    Walking around the edge of the reincarnation rune, I used my aura to scan the bottom of the wall through the fog, revealing four seemingly independent sets of carvings separated by the four massive entrances.


    At the base of each set there was a simr, but distinctly different portrait of a curved section of a. -One set of carvings has two wolves, one has a white wolf, one has a ck wolf, and one is empty...-


    Although I couldn''t quite see the carvings above the portraits with my aura from the ground, I could generally tell that each wall shared very simr features while having their own unique differences. -Then I guess it''s time to check them out... Let''s start with this one...-


    Casually changing to my humanoid form and walking up to the wall with the ck wolf at its base, I used my aura to push myself into the wall and walked up.


    It only took a moment for me to finally get up to the next carving however, as it spanned across the entire section of the wall. -Woah...-


    The detail in the carving was honestly ridiculous, with one side showing a massive area with kingdoms, humans, demihumans, elves, and even a forest of treants, and the other showing huge mountains and cities of dragons.


    But those two sides remained distinctly separated.Between them sat a massive dragon that towered into the clouds with its head lowered toward the ground, seemingly lifeless. -I.. recognize that dragon...- Almost immediately, the image of a statue I saw in Bahamut came to mind. -Could that be Bahamut?-


    But just as I started to recognize a few inconsistencies, I noticed something on the edge of my aura that wasn''t the edge of the carving. -Hm?- Quickly walking over, I came up to three massive carvings of people, with no details on their faces.


    The carvings were quite eerie and creepy, but as I tried to examine them a bit closer, I noticed that one of them seemed somewhat familiar. -Could this one be.. Magni?- The armor set I saw in the carving was almost the same one I saw when I fought him.


    But I couldn''t be certain. -It''s not quite identical.. so...-


    Quickly making my way above that carving, I came across a simr canvas to the one below, but the dead-looking dragon between the humans and dragons waspletely mutted, with countless humanoids running over its body to attack the dragons, getting massacred in the process.


    On the human side of that carving though, there was a distinct figure that stood within the clouds just below the gods, holding onto arge greatsword. -Is that a hero or something?-


    Continuing up to the next carving, the figure with the sword was seen fighting the dragons, with a trail of draconic bodiesying behind them, but back on the human side, you could see the humans building a wall where the colossal dragon once rested, with the ''human'' gods remaining unchanged.


    In the next carving, the man with the sword was seen kneeling on a mountain of dead dragons, missing an arm and covered in injuries, while the other side of the now-built wall showed the humans and gods facing the other direction, paying no mind to the man with the sword. -How cliche...-


    But my ability to joke quickly came to a halt as I worked my way up to the final carving.


    There were no words that could describe the scene that the carving disyed. There was simply nothing but a pile of rubble, body parts, and a single, perfectly smooth oval floating in the sky.


    I was honestly left speechless, not sure what to think about what I just looked through. -It''s telling a story, but.. of what?- From what I could tell, it looked like it was telling a story about history, but at the same time... -Since the great war.. there weren''t any big wars between humans and dragons, and both humans and dragons still exist, so...-


    I continued to wrack my brain for several more minutes after that before deciding to just move on and go to another set of carvings to seek some insight.


    But the carvings that stemmed from the adjacent wall, with no wolves, left me even more confused.


    In the first carving above the bottom portrait, the humanoids and dragons were once again divided by a massive resting dragon, but there were no humanoid gods to be seen; the canvas simply ended short. -What?-


    Thinking I might have been misunderstanding something, I continued upwards until I came across the second carving which was very simr to the other wall as well, with the humans trampling the dead dragon''s body and fighting the dragon. But this time there was no ''hero'' on the human side.


    The canvas above that then showed the human side left as a pile of rubble, with only a handful of survivors, while the dragons stood over them, almost untouched.


    The carving above that was thest, showing a new world where dragons and humanoids were partially mixed, but the humans were few in number and looked closer to ves than free people. -But there''s not a panel of the oval destroying everything this time...-


    Quickly trying to piece together the countless loose strings I was grasping at, I unknowingly found my way to the wall with both wolves on it and promptly started looking through it.


    This time, the carvings of the humans and dragons had no dragon dividing them, and there were six gods on the human side.


    The next carving showed the humans once again pushing into the dragon''s half of the carving, but this time they were backed by several other dragons. -Is it a revolt?-


    But the next set of carvings made that question irrelevant.


    On the right side of the carving, there were several dragons that all stood behind onerger dragon, but to the left of thatrger dragon was nothing, no gods, humans, or dragons, without even the rubble of a kingdom left. -W..what?-


    It took me a minute to try and process what happened, but after several minutes of processing theories, I finally moved up to thest carving on this wall.


    But it didn''t help my confusion.


    Flying above the clouds was the huge dragon from the carving below, but it waspletely covered in scars and faced nearly a dozen perfectly identical ovals that matched the one I saw on the ck wolf''s wall. -But, what.. are they?-


    Although there was no carving above the one I was staring at, the ending was self-exnatory. -Could the ovals represent.. the Acardi?- It was a bit of a stretch, but it''s what my gut told me. -They just feel so out-of-ce in these carvings...-


    Continuing to look around and make sure I didn''t miss anything, I slowly walked back across the ceiling and down the wall with a conflicted feeling. -Only one wall left... I guess let''s hope it gives me some answers...-


    But it was worse than the others.


    The wall with the white wolf on the bottom, was the wall I vaporized a section of when I used antimatter tounch myself at Magni toward the end of our fight, so I already expected to get very little information from it, but to my surprise, the first panel was somewhat examinable.


    But maybe it would have been better if it wasn''t.


    Although the canvas was extremely simr to the ck wolf wall, instead of there being three gods like I expected, there were seven. -W..what?!-


    I started getting angry at my confusion but decided to push it to the side for a moment to look closer at the gods themselves.


    From what I could tell, the six gods over the humans were the same as those I saw earlier, but the seventh god stood over the dragons and was one I had never seen prior. -Who could this be...-


    Although extremely burnt and almost unrecognizable, the general figure of the carving looked female, which gave me an odd thought. -Could this be.. <strong><em>that</em></strong> goddess?-


    Not wanting to settle on any conclusion yet, I continued up the wall to see if I could make out any other carvings, but to no avail. -Damn...-


    But although that was thest wall I had to look at, I continued across the ceiling toward the very middle of the room. -Something must be there...-


    And sure enough, there was.


    Starting nearly a hundred meters away from the center of the room was an absolutely colossal carving. -Is this a carving of a dragon?-


    After quickly walking around it to get a general idea of what it was, I noticed it was a carving of a colossal dragon curled into a ball, but at the very center of it was a carving of a. -A dragon curled around a...-


    Wild theories immediately started racing through my mind, but that was when I noticed how familiar the dragon carving looked.

 Chapter 229: A Guessing Game

    Chapter 229: A Guessing Game


    Late Evening - Early Winter : Central Valtivar, Siratha


    *thump-thump-thump-thump* It had already been a few hours since I finished examining all the carvings I found, but I was still pacing around, wracking my brain with the innumerable theories I hade up with.


    The issue was a majority of them were soplicated that they had practically be guesses. -Things definitely aren''t as cut and dry as they seem, but they likely aren''t as cryptic as I''m imagining...-


    Thinking I was too far down the wrong path, I stopped my pacing, sat down, and let out a deep breath. "Hooh..." Immediately purging the details from my mind, I took my best theory and started over. -Let''s try this again...-


    -Okay.. my best theory is that these are ancient oracles about the Great War...- Knowing what I did about gods, higher dimensions, and time, I knew that genuine oracles most definitely did exist. -But this idea doesn''t exin everything...- My focus quickly drifted to the bottom portrait of the fenrir.


    Originally I wanted to believe that they indicated something along the lines of who came up with or supported the oracle or timeline presented, but after some additional thought, I decided the distribution was a bit too perfect, even if it was only a sample of 4. -But that would mean there is a more direct rtionship between them...-


    The issue was that I didn''t have the slightest clue as to what that rtionship could be.


    It once again devolved into a guessing game. -Could the fenrir be what causes the differences between timelines? Or could they be what differentiates them?-


    Trying to first make sense of that idea, I idly walked over to the wall with both wolves, sat down, and stared at it. -For that to be the case, they must all originate from the same timeline.. but if they all originate from the same timeline, there should be obvious patterns and corrtions... So, why am I not noticing any?-Getting a bit frustrated, I showed myself a mental image of the carvings and, once again, started overanalyzing them, trying to find patterns in even the most minute details.


    It was exactly what I had just stopped myself from doing. -Sh*t, I''m doing it again...-


    Quickly trying to calm my nerves, I took a moment to silence the calctive part of my brain and let out another breath. "Hooh..." -I just need to look at surface-level stuff first...-


    Only projecting an image of the wall with both wolves and the wall with none in my mind, I started looking solely at the differences to try and find more general corrtions.


    -Okay... Ignoring the details.. the wall with no wolves has no human gods and no ovals, while the wall with both has no dragon dividing them, six gods, and many ovals...-


    Attempting to apply those differences with context, I thought back to what I was taught about the Great War, even if I had reason to believe a lot of it was incorrect. -The human gods started a war with the dragons. If I assume the dragon between them is symbolic of Bahamut''s order for dragons to cease excessive interaction with the human world.. that would make the humans trampling Bahamut''s mutted body make sense, but then why would there be no dragon on the wall with both wolves...-


    It was aplication that threw a wrench in my theory no matter how I twisted it because it meant that the timelines didn''t start the same. -Based on what I know, the Ancient Fenrir were probably on Bahamut''s side.. so I can attribute theck of human gods at the start and ovals at the end to the Ancient Fenrir, but...- Once again, I was at a dead end. Bahamut not dividing the humans and dragons was too big of aplication to ignore. "Haah..."


    At least, I thought I was.


    "Wait a minute..." -What if instead of them being oracles about the Great War itself.. they''re oracles about something after it, and the differences in the first panels are actually because they ARE different timelines! Maybe the timelines are based on the possible oues of the Great War...-


    Quickly bringing the image of all the carvings to mind again, theck of obvious patterns in the initial variations in the first panels finally had a usible exnation. -If the first panel was the oue of the Great War.. it would make sense... The oues would then be based on which fenrir either lived or died.-


    Quickly turning my attention to the wall with both wolves, Bahamut''s missing appearance could finally be exined. -It doesn''t show him dividing the humans and dragons because he probably survived in that timeline. Maybe that''s him thates out and destroys the humans in theter panel as well...-


    But this theory also had someplications. -If they''re all oracles about events that haven''t yet happened, then one should closely resemble the current timeline at the very least.. but...-


    The only one I considered usible was the wall without any wolves since I Ilios and I''s existence made the possibility that one of the Ancient Fenrir was alive impossible, but that wall couldn''t be correct either since I already met and killed Magni, one of the gods disyed on the other walls.


    -Even looking past the fenrir... Magni is only on Dagr''s wall and the wall with both of them...- ncing over my shoulder toward the damaged, Dagr''s wall, I idly thought about the goddess carved over the dragons. -What if.. the goddess I know is her and not one of the six human gods? That would make that the right timeline...- What made it even more usible was that a majority of it was burnt, so I couldn''t look for things other than Dagr being at the bottom to disprove it.


    But I still couldn''t get my mind over Dagr being present.


    -The only way that could be the right timeline is...- ncing over at Ilios, I put on a serious expression and looked him in the eye. "Ilios."


    He immediately turned to me.


    I hesitated slightly, unsure about whether it was something I wanted to know or not, but went for it anyway. "Are you.. Dagr?"


    There was a short pause that felt like an eternity as I waited for his response, but eventually... *tap* He just tilted his head, confused.


    "Phew..." A mountain of anxiety in my stomach disappeared immediately. -Maybe the timelines are just wrong.- It was a bit of a stretch since, from what I knew, the Ancient Fenrir were nigh-omnipotent, but it was reassuring to believe. -Maybe the oue of the Great War just wasn''t one of the four the Fenrir predicted...-


    Knowing firsthand how vtile the future was, I was pretty confident that things could have definitely changed, but I found it concerning that the wall with no fenrir and the wall with both, the only ones I believed could be possible depending on whether the fenrir shown were the ones to survive or die, were the least likely options.


    "Haah..." My expression quickly turned troubled. -Maybe.. one of them did survive, but they died before Ilios or I were born...-


    A rouge thought streaked across my mind like a meteor as I nced over my shoulder toward the two, single fenrir sets of carvings. -I wonder if the voice Grandmother heard.. was one of the fenrir...-


    But as destructive of a thought as it was, it wasn''t totally unfounded. -The blessing and oracle were definitely about me.. but a human god would want to prevent me from being born, right?- The only thing I could think of was greed or vengeance, but even that didn''t totally make sense either. -The goddess supporting me definitely isn''t the source of the voice Grandmother heard.. so that would mean there are or at least were two gods, a god and a goddess, that have supported me for whatever reason...-


    Projecting an image solely of Dagr''s carving in my mind, I looked through the half-burnt first panel to look for anything that could possibly prove or disprove my ideas.


    But there was nothing. Bahamut was dead and dividing the humans and dragons, and the human gods stood over the human side just like they did on the other walls.


    The only thing I could find that was out of the ordinary, was the goddess that stood over the dragons.


    "Haah... Damnit..." -Of all the carvings.. why was that the one I destroyed...- Looking up at the ceiling, I idly thought about what the dragon curled around the could mean, but devolved back into guessing. -That dragon.. does kind of look like me though...-

 Chapter 230: Conflicting Opinions

    Chapter 230: Conflicting Opinions


    Late Evening - Early Winter : Central Valtivar, Siratha


    - Leif Vilulf ~


    "Haah..." I let out a foggy breath as I looked out my office window at the people in the courtyard below. -What design shall I give the balcony...-


    My thoughts were quite rudely interrupted though. "I-it''s.. not my fault..." It had already been close to half an hour since I sent Miss Ragnarok outside with a maid to view a few specific documents, but Alva still couldn''te to terms with her actions.


    It was honestly starting to get on my nerves. "Alva." I nced back at her with a look of disdain. "Our Lord has spared you twice now. Are you really going to continue to let yourself waste away after receiving his grace?"


    Her guilt worsened immediately. "I..I-"


    "I know how you feel. That inexplicable, looming sensation that you could be killed on a whim." I slowly turned back to the window as I spoke. "It''s a sensation we do not feel often as apostles..." My expression slowly darkened with anger. "But even if you feared our lord during that initial moment, the instant he gave you mercy, you should have kneeled at his feet like a ve begging for forgiveness."


    Her face paled as she looked over and noticed my face in the reflection of the window.


    "If the Lord didn''t have ns for you, I would have killed you myself. Now I suggest you straighten your act before hees back."She nodded hastily as she tried to calm her shaking hands.


    "Haah..." -It seems having her meet Miss Ragnarok was what the Lord wanted from her... I wonder if he will spare her again...-


    *knock-knock* A familiar presence knocked on the door while I idly thought to myself.


    "You may enter."


    *Click* Quickly opening the door was a familiar face, Oda Ashild, my closest friend and personal assistant. [1]


    "I didn''t expect to see you here, Oda. Shouldn''t you be training Liv right about now?"


    Hastilying inside and closing the door, Oda gave a shallow bow to Alva and promptly turned to me. "Yes, but there was something I wished to bring to your attention."


    -Hoh?- "What would that be?" Finally turning around, I noticed her anxious state.


    "Although I personally didn''t see anything, Miss Liv said she saw a dragonnd in the canopy above the estate and cloak themselves."


    -Another dragon? Could they be with the Lord?- After taking a second to think, I walked back over to the window and set my hand on it. *chink-SHATTER*


    Both Oda and Alva stared at me with wide eyes as I finally stepped on the window seal and stuck my head outside.


    *crunch* Quickly looking up in the canopy, I saw a single, nearly 40-meter-tall dragon looking down over the estate while cloaked in light magic. [2] -Sure enough...-


    For a second, I continued to question what their purpose was, but eventually, I decided to take matters into my own hands. "I will be right back. Oda, you may return to the training hall."


    *thump* Immediately vanishing from the window seal, I darted up the tree and abruptly stopped next to the rouge dragon.


    "Sir, may I ask what your purpose here is?" I tried to act somewhat polite at first, thinking they could have been guests of the Lord.


    But that possibility vanished quite quickly. "You must be Leif Vilulf." Seeing me nod, he continued arrogantly. "We simply need to meet with a dragon in your estate."


    -''We''... So he''s not alone...- Thinking it would be easier to dig for information if Iplied, I continued ying along. "What would their name be?"


    But he kept pushing the limit. "Asimi Ragnarok. Could you bring her to us?" His arrogant grin made me want to hit him more than anything.


    "She is unavable currently, but I can ry a message if you wish."


    "Ah, thank you, but that won''t be necessary. They will eventuallye to us."


    -What?- "They? Is there someone else you are looking for?"


    He slowly nced at me with a greedy smile. "Ah, although we are unsure where he is, there was a ck dragon that came here with her. Assuming he is her ve-"


    *BANG-CRUNCH* The dragon''s leg snapped like a piece of wood the instant I kicked it, sending pieces of bone, scales, and blood falling to the ground below. "You dare call our lord a ve?!" Immediately leaping up onto his back, I saw him getting ready to fire a spell at me, and grabbed his wing.


    "You crazy bi*ch!" *tsk-FWOOOSH* A huge wall of indescribably hot and dense mes appeared in an instant, but it just showed me he didn''t know who he was fighting.


    *SNAP* Casually snapping his wing in half, I folded it back over his body and used it to block the fire.


    "AGGH!"


    Throwing the wing out of the way the instant his breath stopped, I darted over his head.


    He immediately realized there was nothing he could do to defend himself as his eyes went wide and his pupils dted.


    *CRACK-CRUNCH* His scales shattered, and his skull cracked as my punch drove his head into the side of the branch we stood on, promptly knocking him out.


    *skkshhh-fwoosh* Like a dead body, he limply slid off the branch and fell toward the courtyard below.


    Everyone in the surrounding area stared with wide eyes as they looked to see what themotion was and saw a massive dragon falling out of the canopy, but they all understood once they saw me jumping down behind it.


    *THUUUD* The impact of the dragon shook the whole treant and immediately grabbed everyone''s attention.


    It worked out quite well for me.


    *tap-tap-tap* Casually walking up onto the dragon''s body, I looked toward the gates that were now crowded with people. "This should serve as a warning to those who dare to insult our lords!"


    Many people at the gate wore confused expressions after hearing me, as being isted or punished by those around you was an obvious result of insulting our lords.


    But there were a select few who turned pale.


    -This is for them...- I had never considered enforcing something like this on the dragons before since there was generally no reason to, but now that our lords had returned, that all changed. "All manner of beings are wee to live here, but as of now, you must ept our Lords as your own! Belittling, insulting, and threatening our lords will now be punishable as a national offense! Additional priests will now be stationed in cities, and now, even smaller towns will be eligible to receive funding to build a Hall of Prayer, along with the clerics required to take care of it! An announcement will be made soon regarding the details!"


    Many people in the crowd had already pulled out their quills and begun writing down what I said, but it was what I wanted. -It seems I need to adjust my schedule...-


    Feeling exceptionally motivated to get started on the new policies, I swiftly hopped off the dragon, snapped its two hind legs, and made my way back up to my now-broken office window.


    Miss Ragnarok was waiting for me the moment I got there though. "It seems I have missed something..." She seemed quite upset.


    "That dragon insulted the lord, so I punished him."


    "You seem to be misunderstanding something." She looked at me with obvious hostility. "That announcement you just made..."


    I already knew what she was thinking. "I don''t support the things Alva has done, or the things the dragons using her were likely nning, but you cannot tell me that there aren''t already countless other dragons living as elves and demihumans all throughout Siratha. Honestly, I am not against letting them live here as dragons, without disguising themselves, but that doesn''t mean they can do whatever they want." Seeing her anger not subside, I continued. "Since you came with the Lord, I have treated you with respect, but do not believe for a second that you have free reign here." Instead of sitting at my desk, I continued to walk up to her. "This is not your nation. Your opinion of my decision means nothing."


    "But when your decision involves dragons, it no longer involves only your nation..."


    -She must be kidding...- "Miss Ragnarok, I suggest you take a deep breath and think about the implications of what you are about to say." My aura surrounded her like a cloud of des. "I am simply telling the dragons in my nation to worship a powerful living god or leave and continue to cling to their ever-fading hope that theirs will return."


    The room fell into silence immediately.


    Finally turning around, I walked back to my desk. "I believe it''s best to take a good look at our lord when he returns, and question whether picking a fight with us is worth fighting him." *puff* The moment I sat down, I reached for my quill. "He has ns for us, so listen to him and stay in yourne."

 Chapter 231: Something Smells Fishy

    Chapter 231: Something Smells Fishy


    Early Morning - Early Winter : Central Valtivar, Siratha


    *fwoosh* *fwoosh* *fwoosh* Casually flying over the canopy, I started making my way back to Leif''s estate, but I still had a lot on my mind. "Haah..." -Every time I feel like I am getting close to an answer.. ten more questions appear...-


    To call it an annoying situation was an understatement since, even though I made some progress, I felt farther from the answers than I did originally. -But dwelling on things like that won''t do me any good...-


    Quickly shaking my head, I silenced my rampant theorizing and shifted gears. -Grandmother should be done with whatever she needed, so I should meet back up with her...-


    Finally making it to Vilulf''s treant, I lowered myself to the canopy and changed to my humanoid form.


    *skshh* *tap* After sliding down a few absolutely massive leaves, I eventuallynded on a small branch and started working my way down through the canopy.


    Eventually, though, Inded on a branch with some unusual scars on it. -w marks?- It honestly looked like a dragon or wyvern had wed the branch, but not only were they fresh, they were also too long to be something like an attack. -Did a dragon fall off?-


    Using a bit of my aura to keep me pinned to the branch, I walked over the edge and looked at the estate below. -What the hell?-


    Laying there in the courtyard with dried blood staining the ground around its head, wings, and legs was a fairlyrge dark blue dragon.It looked quite mangled from what I could tell, but it slowly twitched as if it were on the verge of waking up. -Why are Grandmother and Leif just leaving it there?- Although I knew I would have no issue, no matter the reason, I couldn''t say I wasn''t curious.


    Finally continuing to make my way down, I nned to go check out the dragon first, but ended up passing Leif''s office and noticed the window was broken. -Hm? I still feel their auras.. what happened?-


    Casually hopping over onto the window frame, I motioned Ilios next to me and looked inside to see everyone doing their own thing and not talking at all. -It seems they are done...-


    *Vwoom* "So, how did things go?" My voice shredded the silence without mercy, causing everyone, including Leif, to jolt and turn to me.


    Grandmother was quick to calm back down, but Leif and Alva were not the same.


    Immediately dashing over to the window seal Ilios and I sat on, Leif and Alva groveled in front of me. "Apostle Leif Vilulf humbly greets the Lords!"


    "Apostle Alva Ae humbly greets the Lords!" Alva was visibly shaking as she held her forehead to the ground.


    But it stopped the moment I spoke. "You may raise your heads."


    Slowly looking up at me, Leif wore a look of worship and pride, while Alva stared at me in awe.


    "Miss Asimi, how did things go?"


    Grandmother was quick to y along as she stood up and bowed. "I have found what I was looking for and am just waiting on an assistant to fetch a few documents."


    Alva and Leif slowly nced back and shot Grandmother a death stare, likely thinking she was being rude, but I quickly silenced them. "Good. I have also found what I came for so we will be leaving soon."


    "As you wish." Finally standing up straight, she smiled and turned silent.


    -She cast silencing magic between us?- Generally assuming what she was doing, I surrounded us in silencing magic and looked down at Alva. "So, Miss Ae.. is there something you wish to tell me?"


    She immediately started shaking again as she pressed her forehead on the ground. "I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE FOR HOW I HAVE ACTED RECENTLY! If there is anything I can do to redeem myself, I am willing to do anything!"


    Although scared, her will to redeem herself was shockingly genuine. -Hm...- I quickly settled on something as well. "Assist Vilulf in her endeavors, whether that is helping raise the other apostle or helping ease her workload. You two should work together and not against one another. It will be better for both of you and Siratha."


    "Y-yes, my Lord!" That was when her shaking finally stopped.


    -Good, now that she is hopefully taken care of...- "So, what did I miss outside?"


    Leif was quick to jump in and try to exin. "That rude dragonnded in the canopy not long ago, and asked for me to bring out you and Miss Ragnarok." Her expression suddenly darkened. "He even dared to call you a ve, my Lord, so I dealt with him. I n to interrogate him about his real ns once he wakes."


    Slowly turning around to look at the dragon again, I saw his sorry state andpared it to Leif, who didn''t even have dust on her. -I hope he didn''t have good intentions...- "Alright, be sure to record what you learn from him. Don''t share what you learn with anyone but Miss Asimi. Some fishy things are happening in Bahamut currently."


    She immediately nodded without the slightest hesitation.


    Finally dispersing the silencing magic, I looked over toward Grandmother and continued. "Miss Asimi, we can either stay here until that dragon outside wakes up so we can interrogate it, or we can leave and you cane back to pick up the information gained from it on your own time."


    She quickly bowed again. "If you wouldn''t mind, I think it would be better to return first. The information I have is quite time sensitive."


    -She''s a good actor...- "Alright, in that case, we will return now." Standing up in the window, I motioned Grandmother over. "Leif, I will leave things to you. Make sure you exercise caution, especially when dealing with dragons."


    "Of course, my lord!"


    "Alva, I look forward to seeing your improvements when I return."


    "Y-y-yes!" She gave a flustered response but seemed much more positive than before. "I will be sure to not let you down!"


    Her oddly childish enthusiasm quickly raised my mood as Grandmother finally got up to the window and followed me out.


    Quickly jumping up the estate and running up the trunk of the treant, we started working our way through the canopy until we got to one of the highest branches that could still hold my dragon form. *sh*


    Finally letting Grandmother into my paw, I noticed her expression had turned troubled again. -Just.. what did they talk about?-


    But that was a question that would be answered not long after we got in the air.


    "Vasilias, I''m guessing you spoke with the apostles about what happened?" She wore a conflicted expression as she spoke.


    "About the dragon, or about what you two discussed?"


    "What we discussed."


    I paused for a moment before ncing at her. "No, I actually didn''t think much of it. I guess I assumed it was something that was mainly on the draconic side of things."


    "Haah... It really should be, but sadly things aren''t so simple."


    -Hm?- "What do you mean? What did you find?"


    "Well, as expected, there were dragons behind the information leaks over the past several years, but after looking at everything together with a timeline and everything, their motive became quite obvious..." Her expression continued to darken. "Whoever the group of dragons is, they look like they are trying to get the people of Siratha to view dragons like people, not monsters..."


    -What?- I immediately nced at her with a confused look. "Why is that so bad?"


    Right after I said that however, the answer popped into my head, but it was toote. "It''s bad because it means they''re trying to integrate dragons into Sirathan society... They''re trying to do what the Ouran��s family did to the Forgotten Inds all those years ago, but this time.. they have things to gain besidesnd and money..."


    My eyes went wide as I slowly started realizing the implications of her words. -Could they be...-


    But my thoughts quickly came to a halt as I looked toward the mountains in front of us and noticed a group of elders the size of Grandmother eyeing us. -What the... A dragon at the estate.. and now here...-


    It didn''t take much to but two and two together. -Something.. is wrong here...-

 Happy New Years!

    Happy New Years!


    I hope everyone had a good new years, it''s pretty crazy to think that its already 2023.


    But besides that, I wish to discus the timely matter of New Years resolutions.


    -


    So to keep things short, this year, I want to set up a patreon with chapters and such on it, but Im not sure if there would be any demand for it, or what would be reasonable.


    My current idea is that I would make the releases here on RR one chapter every 6 days with patreon receiving normal 1 per 3 day releases for a couple weeks, just to get ahead a few chapters (like 5 or 6). Once ahead, releases here would return to normal, and I would have a "fast pass" thing that maybe is 5 advanced chapters for the month or something along those lines.


    If anyone has advice, it would be wonderful. I have never use patreon so Ill take any advice I can get.


    Also, please be honest with the poll results, I will not be offended by the results, I just need to know where to direct my focus.

 Chapter 232: Prideless Dragons

    Chapter 232: Prideless Dragons


    Mid Morning - Early Winter : Western Siratha Space Rune


    -


    - Unknown Dragon ~


    *wooooosh*


    "Uuwaaah...." My eyelids felt a bit heavy as Iid my head down. -It''s so peaceful here...-


    "Rxing, isn''t it?" Anthos nced at me with a sly smirk as he rolled onto his back. "The smell of the ocean isn''t fishy here like in other ces..."


    "Yeah, it smells like flowers here..." Odell looked like he was on the verge of sleep like the rest of us too. "Is that from the coral?"


    "Probably... Aren''t corals the flowers of the ocean?"


    "That''s what I was taught.""Me too. What about you, Thaddeus?"


    -If the boss was here, he''d wring out necks...- "You two haven''t forgotten why we are here, right?"


    "Of course not! But that doesn''t mean we can''t rx while we wait." Odell didn''t seem to understand what I was getting at.


    "You remember the story I told you guys, right? I''m sure they sent people to watch us."


    Anthos wasn''t taking my side either. "Aren''t those people calleds because they''ll catch us when things go south?"


    "Who told you they would catch us? They will just clean up whatever mess we make... They should be called cleaners more thans..."


    "Well, yeah. But I''m sure they will step in once they see how outssed we are..."


    "R..right.. about that..." Odell''s expression slowly turned nervous. "Are we really going to have to fight a Ragnarok?"


    "What do we have to be nervous about? She can only be so much stronger than a normal dragon her age. Two of us should be more than enough." I paused as I nced at arge mana core behind me. -Plus, we have whatever that is...-


    "But wasn''t she with-"


    -He''s so anxious...- "It''s a halfie. How strong could it be?" Sitting up and looking over the endless forest toward the sun, now well over the horizon, I saw nothing but clear skies. "If we''re lucky, they''lle one at a time. We just need to have the artifact ready in case we need it."


    "T..true... Maybe I''m just imagining things again..."


    But although I wanted to agree and say he was being too naive like he normally was, I couldn''t help but agree that I had a bad feeling in my chest. "Haah..." -It''s probably nothing...-


    But over the next few hours, the feeling only worsened. -My gut is never wrong...- By then, I felt sick to my stomach.


    "Did you eat something rotten? You look sick." Odell''s nervousness seemed to worsen along with my condition.


    "I''m fine... I''m just a bit hungry."


    "A..alright..."


    "Hey, guys," Anthos called out to us while he peered over the mountaintop toward the horizon. "One of the dragons we''re after ispletely ck, right?"


    -He can''t be serious...- "Yes? I''m really starting to get worried about your memory, man..."


    "N..no, this isn''t about that... I think our time to lounge around ising to an end..."


    -Huh?- Quickly getting up and poking my head over the ridge as well, I looked toward the blinding sun and saw arge blue light, with a ck dot at its center. -What is that?- It was extremely difficult to make out what it was, but after trying to focus on it for several moments, the blue behind it finally faded, revealing a familiar shape. -It''s actually a dragon?!-


    Odell''s eyes went wide the instant he looked at it as well. "H..how high is that?!"


    It was only after he mentioned it that I even thought about it. -N..now that he mentions it...- Although I could see the dragon fairly clearly, it looked as if it was bleached by the sky, making many details harder to distinguish. -How far away would something need to be to look like that?-


    But while I was curious about it, the time for those thoughts didn''tst forever. "I think.. it''sing toward us..."


    "Alright, let''s assume it''s the guy. If it isn''t him we can justy low but I will get the artifact ready just in case." Quickly falling back below the ridgeline, I walked over and picked up therge core, and sat down, slowly activating countless runes in a specific order. *vwoop-vwoom-click*


    "I-I''m not sure we have enough time, that dragon is really fast!" Odell turned to me in a hurry.


    "Anthos, go stall for time while I finish. If it is just him, and you think you can win, go for it, but if they are with the Ragnarok, the artifact will be ready in about 30 seconds."


    "Right away!" *fwoosh* Quickly taking to the air, I putplete trust in him and turned my attention back to the artifact.


    -Come on...- *click-VWOOM* -Got it!- The moment the artifact started shaking, I tossed it in my mouth and readied a substantial amount of lightning magic, as I had been instructed previously. "Od''ll, do''s h'' n''d it-" I could only mumble as the artifact filled my mouth, but he thankfully understood before I even finished.


    "YES! HURRY-"


    But his voice was cut short.


    *BRRRRRMMMMMMMM* A deafening and blinding beam of light shot across the sky in an instant.


    But before I could even think, everything vanished into ckness.


    I could only get out onest thought as I lost all my senses. -The.. artifact?-


    -


    - Vasilias ~ (back a couple minutes)


    -Something.. is wrong here...- Quickly turning off my thruster magic, I continued gliding toward the somewhat distant mountain with the group of dragons. "Grandmother, we may have somepany."


    "Hm? What do you mean, sweetie?"


    "On the farthest ridge, there are a few dragons staring at us... They look like they have bad intentions." Although I couldn''t be certain, the situation made me assume the worst. -But I need to keep my finger off the trigger for now...-


    Gradually slowing down as I approached, the one remaining dragon that was still showing itself finally left his hidey-hole and flew out toward me with no obvious aggression.


    -Was it a false rm?-


    "Sir, may I ask where you are headed?" For an elder, his voice was nothing out of the ordinary, but he didn''t carry himself with nobility like the other elders I had met.


    -Even Orion, a guard, carries himself with more pride than this guy...- It made me feel a bit ufortable, but I tried not to show it. "We are heading to Bahamut. Is there a problem?"


    "Of course! The borders of Bahamut have been locked down for several days now. No one can pass without proper clearance."


    Feeling Grandmother tap my paw a few times, I moved it out in front of me.


    She spoke the moment she met eyes with the dragon. "My name is Asimi Ragnarok," Quickly pulling out a small medallion-like piece of mythril, she pointed it toward the dragon. "I believe this should be more than enough to let us pass."


    He paused for a moment as his eyes darted back and forth between Grandmother and I, but he eventually spoke. "I apologize, but that isn''t enough for me to give you anything. If you two could wait, however, I could send one of my colleagues to fetch someone for you."


    Thinking the story mostly added up, I looked down at Grandmother, but she wore a skeptical expression.


    She didn''t bother hiding her suspicion at all. "Actually, I don''t believe you have the authority to stop me, and to add to it, it is quite odd that I haven''t heard of people waiting on the other ends of the space runes to work as border control, even though I am one of the people in the elder hall."


    "Miss, with all due respect, this was a decision that was made while you were away. I hope you understand." His nervousness slowly started bing more apparent as he spoke.


    But Grandmother wasn''t having it. *tap-tap* Slowly standing up, she went to step out of my paw, likely to change to her dragon form, but the dragon had other ns.


    *FWOOSH* In an instant, he threw himself at Grandmother and opened his mouth to bite her, but she remained calm.


    I couldn''t actually tell whether it was her own confidence or trust in me, but I wasn''t taking any chances. *fwip* Turning my leg around, I used my shin to absorb his bite.


    *Crruunch-Crackle* The noise of my scales and his teeth cracking in unison filled the air, but it didn''tst long.


    "You really didn''t do enough homework on who you were fighting..." Before he could pull himself away, I lowered my head and chomped into his neck. *CRUNCH* His scales cracked and shattered like y pottery as I ripped him off my leg and pointed my mouth up in the air. -There is a special ce in hell for scum like you...-


    But just as I was about to use a simple steel dart to finish him off, a chill passed down my spine and a colossal amount of mana flooded into the air over the ridge.


    Although I didn''t feel fear, it was enough of a shock for my instinct to momentarily take over.


    *BRRRRRMMMMMMMM* sting an unfathomably bright and hot beam of light through the dragon''s neck, I let go and instantly turned toward the source of the mana. *CRAAACK*


    The railgun shot used several dozen times more lightning magic than usual, making it hit the mountain like a colossal sledgehammer. *BAANG-CRUUUNCH* The ridge of the mountain exploded as a huge section of rock was sted off of it.


    But what I did seemed to only make things worse.


    *FLASH* An instantaneous sh and wave of heat melted the surrounding rock instantly, recreating a scene I knew all too well.


    A nuclear st.


    -SH*T!- Knowing Grandmother''s humanoid form couldn''t handle the heat, I threw her behind me and attempted to cast a spell to counter it as quickly as possible, no matter how impossible a task that was.


    *vwoop-pop* *BAAAAAAANGGGG*

 Chapter 233: Unfathomability

    Chapter 233: Unfathomability


    Mid Morning - Early Winter : Western Siratha Space Rune


    -


    - Unknown Dragon ~


    *distant crunching* -Are they finally doing something?- Hearing some noise off in the distance, I slowly shifted my head to peek around the rock I wasying behind. -Is one of the targetsing?-


    I watched in silence as the dragons on the opposite ridgeline hastily moved around and prepared their things before one of them finally picked up The Artifact and started activating the runes on it. -So they''re nning on using it? It must be the Ragnarok that''sing then...-


    Immediately remembering what my superior told me about the artifact, I slowly stood up and snuck into the nearby cave that cuts through the mountain.


    It felt a bit odd to have to leave the area of the group I was told to watch over, but I had no reason not to abide by my superior''s warning: ''If you can see it, it will f*ck you up.''


    It was honestly such an aggressive warning that it made me curious. -Just what does that artifact do for me to use a mountain to shield myself from it?-


    But I had no ns to stand around and satisfy that curiosity. I was simply going to do as I was told: ''Wait at the space rune until the sky turns white, then leave immediately.'' -Simple enough...-Finally making it to the other side of the mountain, I left the cave and glided down the mountainside toward the space rune.


    *vwoop* The moment I got there, I configured the rune and made sure everything was ready for a swift departure, but as I slowly looked back up toward the sky, a simply indescribable beam of light streaked across it. *BRRRMMMM*


    "Huh?!" It wasn''t quite what I was told to look out for, but instead of immediately assuming I misunderstood my superior''s exnation of what to look for and leaving for Bahamut, I waited another moment.


    If I knew what I did now, however, I would not have waited for a single instant.


    *FLASH* The instant I showed hesitation, a blinding light filled the air around me, leaving only an unfathomable silence and my other senses to keep mepany.


    Before I could even react, my eyes started burning as if I opened them while submerged in unfathomably hot magma, and my skin and scales felt as if they had started melting.


    Thankfully though, I finally managed to react and activate the space rune before the paralyzing feeling of death could grip my mind.


    *vwoop-TSSSSSS* An extremely loud sizzle filled the air as I copsed and felt cold stone beneath me.


    I still couldn''t see, but my mind was too preupied with the pain to notice.


    *thump-thump-thump-thump* The noise of someone running toward me met my ears as I struggled to form a coherent thought.


    "We..n''t y..u told t.. n.. be n..r it ..en it go.. o..?!" The voice I heard was faintly familiar but was too muffled for me to understand it.


    After hearing the voice, Iid there for what felt like an eternity, but eventually, a few dragons picked me up, finally snapping my mind out of survival mode.


    But that didn''t mean I could think straight.


    My thoughts were still in shambles. I couldn''t see at all, my hearing was severely damaged, and a majority of my body was numb except for my underside, where I felt the other dragons touching me.


    Eventually, though, I felt myself getid down on some kind of cloth, and let my body rx, but the moment I did, I lost consciousness with only a mix of confusion and fear to apany me.


    -


    - Vasilias ~


    *BAANG-CRUUUNCH* The mountain exploded as my railgun magic sted through it. But an instantter, the stone all instantaneously melted, and a light brighter than the sun sted into the air.


    -SH*T!- Knowing Grandmother couldn''t handle a nuclear st in her current state, I threw her behind me and prepared the only spell I could use to counter it in time.


    -I need to worry about the repercussionster!- Instantaneously creating several grams of antimatter, I aimed toward where I thought the source of the st was and covered the sides of my mouth with an imprable wall of space mana.


    It was an insane n, but feeling Ilios''s aura behind me gave me confidence. -Here goes nothing!-


    *vwoop-pop* A silent pop resonated through my body, as I tensed up and used more space mana to brace myself on the fabric of space.


    But I didn''t have time to worry about the unusual sound.


    *BAAAAAAANGGGG* The moment the antimatter exploded, a beam of light infinitely brighter than the explosion appeared, instantly engulfing the epicenter of the other explosion like a grouper swallowing a small fish, before expanding into a colossal cone that engulfed everything behind the mountain.


    But saying it onlysted an instant would be an overstatement.


    Before I could even process what had happened, the pure white beam expanded into the surrounding air, separating its pure white color into a nearly infinite number of other unimaginable colors.


    My head instantly started aching as if I had tried to look into the past or future, forcing me to close my eyes.


    But even though I felt like I reopened them instantly, by the time I did, the array of unfathomable colors was reced by a wall of ck smoke mixed with white steam.


    I floated there, stunned for a moment while I tried to process what just happened, before promptly being interrupted by an extremely odd hum. *vwowowowmmm*


    Immediately looking toward the noise, I saw the massive wall of abyssal ckness that had formed around my body like a dense cloud.


    It only took me an instant to recognize what it was as well. -Maybe.. using the fabric of space to brace myself was a bad idea...-


    Quickly releasing control of all the space mana I used to brace myself, the cloud quickly started dissipating, revealing Ilios seemingly standing on nothing with Grandmother behind him in her dragon form.


    Thankfully, they both looked unharmed, and with a quick check of my aura, the air around them was still fairly cool, especially whenpared to the zing sma thatposed the air in front of me.


    Still unable to suppress my worries however, I didn''t hesitate to break out of the cloud of gates that epassed me and immediately darted over to Grandmother. "Are you alr-"


    But the moment she saw me, she threw herself at me with a pale expression. "VASILIAS, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" *WHAM* She mmed into me in her flurry of panic, but I managed to keep us in the air with thruster magic.


    "Yes, I''m fine." I wanted to let out a breath of relief, seeing that she was truly unharmed, but I couldn''t help but be worried by her panic. "Don''t worry. Something like that is far from enough to hurt me-"


    "Don''t worry?!" She seemed genuinely mad. "Artifacts like that can make entire cities disappear!" She yelled as she carefully inspected my body for injuries or damage.


    I ended up just staying still for a moment while she carefully inspected me, but after another moment, she finally started to calm down some.


    "Thank Bahamut you look alright..." Her worried expression looked just like Mother''s. "Do you have any internal injuries?"


    "N-no..."


    Her panic slowly started to fade after another moment. "Phew... We must have been really lucky-" But her voice was cut short the moment she looked up toward the mountains.


    -Huh?- Thinking it could have been something bad, I heightened my senses again and looked over, but instead of seeing something dangerous, I just saw a huge circr section of the mountain glowing orange as molten rock started flowing down the mountainside, with a circr section around 30 meters across that waspletely devoid of matter, where the beam I fired passed through.


    But the sight behind it was what took my breath away.


    Instead of seeing the second ridgeline that hid away the space rune, I simply saw the ocean, steaming as molten rock flowed into the water from the two inside edges of what used to be a mountain ridge.


    The exact area that was meant to have the space rune was toward the edge of the damage, but although it was still engulfed in a cloud of steam, I already knew what happened to it. -Ah, hell...-


    In my eyes, seeing it missing felt like adding a troublesome chore to my to-do list, but to Grandmother, it was the sight of an irreceable relic being destroyed.


    Once again looking back at her heartbroken expression, I tried tofort her. "I can make a new space rune, Grandmother. Don''t worry."


    But instead of calming down, she jolted slightly and turned back to me with a look of concern. "You can.. what?"

 Chapter 234: Uncertain Origins

    Chapter 234: Uncertain Origins


    Early Afternoon - Early Winter : Western Siratha Space Rune


    -


    *rumble* The muffled rumble of my thruster magic filled the air as Grandmother stared at me with a mix of concern and worry. "You can.. what?"


    Her reaction wasn''t what I expected at all. "I-I said I can just make a new space rune... I-isn''t that what-"


    *Bonk* She abruptly cut me off with a light tap on my nose. "Why would I worry about that in this situation?!"


    "H-huh?" I was immediately taken aback. "T-then-"


    "It''s nothing, sweetie." Quickly calming down, she slowly looked back up toward the mountains and mumbled under her breath. "I.. just had toe to terms with something."


    I raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding what she meant until she looked back at me.


    "In any case..." Her expression darkened with guilt the moment she paused. "T..thank you for not getting yourself hurt to protect me..."There was a short moment of silence that filled the air before I said anything. "You really are just like Mom..."


    "Huh?" Her guilty look vanished in an instant as she looked up to see my slightly prideful smile.


    "I''m d you''re worried about me, but even if that artifact blew up right next to me three years ago, I would have been fine. To me now, that might as well have been a firecracker." She stared at me with wide eyes as I spoke. "I''ve already had this talk with Mother and Father, but.. you shouldn''t feel bad about standing behind me. I promise you I''m much stronger than you think."


    Her shock slowly faded, but her guilt was still apparent. "I''m just.. not sure what I would do with myself if you got hurt while protecting me... I''m your grandmother... I should be the one protecting you..."


    Slowly straightening up, I lightly nudged her off of me and used thruster magic to let her float. "Then think of it this way. If I took a blow to protect you and it really injured me.. what would it have done to you?" It was a dark thought, but I had to drive my point home. "I can always heal an injury, but I can''t revive the dead... At least for Mother and Krystallo''s sake.. don''t feel bad about standing behind me."


    She quickly fell silent and averted her eyes before eventually letting out a sigh. "Haah... I really do wonder how your personality is so simr to Father''s sometimes..." She looked toward the ground with a reminiscing expression before finally turning back to me. "In any case, let''s talk while we fly... We should get going..." Immediately changing to her humanoid form again, she used wind magic tond on my arm.


    "Huh? Already?" -Why is she in such a rush?-


    "We need to get back to Bahamut as fast as we can, and the longer we stay here, the more likely people are toe and check if I was killed or not."


    -Oh.. I didn''t think about that...- "But with the rune destroyed, won''tmunication with Bahamut be extremely dyed?"


    "Only by a couple days. Once they figure out the rune is broken, they will go through the temple northwest of us."


    -But wait...- "The only way they''d know it''s broken is if someone on this side of the rune came to inspect it and went up to the temple."


    "Hm? What makes you say that?" She gave me a confused look.


    "The other space runes will still show this ce as a destination, just the people that go into it will be eaten by the void... Wouldn''t that dy it more?"


    "Yes, but they would only send a few people into it that way before noticing something wrong. At most, we have half a week..."


    Seeing her stressed expression, I had to ask. "That''s more than enough time... Why do you look so worried?"


    "I don''t think we should take the rune at the temple..." She bit the tip of her thumb as she fell further into thought.


    "Why?"


    "If they have enough power to get a hold of one of those artifacts, they will definitely have people waiting at the runes in Bahamut..."


    -Ah...- I was immediately reminded that she knew something about the artifact and felt the urgent need to ask about it, but I had to hold myself back. -She won''t make it to Bahamut if she flies herself...- "In that case, I can just carry you."


    She jolted slightly as I suggested it. "I don''t think that''s a good idea..."


    "Why not?"


    She looked at me like I was crazy. "I know you are insanely fast, but what if you run out of mana before we get there? There''s nowhere tond-"


    Seeing her genuine concern, I wanted tough. "I promise you my mana is not a concern."


    She still looked reluctant as she shifted around, but eventually, she found her way to my paw and sat down. "H..how fast can we get there?"


    "A few hours max, but I need to do something before we go."


    "Hm?" She immediately turned to look at me. "What is it?"


    "Well, with the space rune destroyed, I need to go into the void and make sure peopleing from ces other than Bahamut won''t be killed."


    "Ah.. I didn''t even think about that..."


    "Here, Ilios, can you carry her for a moment?" Turning to look at Ilios, who was using space mana to stand on the fabric of space, I reached over and set Grandmother on his back. -Did he know he could do that before, or did he learn after seeing me use it to stop the recoil?- It was an odd feeling to once again be reminded that Ilios was technically a god, but unfortunately, I didn''t have the time to really think about it. "I''ll be back in a second." *Vwoop*


    *Vwoop* Immediately popping into the void, I looked around at the usual web of tubes between the space runes, but this time, one of therge ck spheres that existed where several tubes met up was gone, allowing space mana to freely flow into the tubes themselves. -My theory was right... Anyone who enters any of the runes leading here will just be eaten by the void...-


    It was a grim thought, especially when considering that there was a very real chance that it could be someone I knew, but all I could do was hope no one had been fated to the void just yet. -In any case.. I should get to work.-


    In total, there were five tubes filled with space mana, but I had to clean and repair them one at a time. -I guess I''m starting with this one...-


    Quickly traveling down the tube to the temple by Captain Lassar''s settlement, I got to the end and started to push out the space mana like liquid in a syringe, leaving just a bit of mana from my aura behind me to help ease the process. -Haah... I really hope this works...-


    Eventually making it to the end, I rounded out the end of the tube and coated the inside with simple repulsion runes that would grow in strength as someone approached it, before eventually sending them back to the entrance of the space rune.


    It was incredibly crude, but I was confident it would at least work well enough. -Now I have to do that three more times...-


    Quickly getting to work, I patched up the tubes one by one, leaving only the northern Bahamut space rune open to the void. -Based on what is happening in Bahamut, the public can''t use the rune toe in this direction right now anyway... I just need to make sure Ie and fix it once things settle down...-


    Looking around at my work and quickly making sure there weren''t any obvious mistakes, I finally made my way back toward where I entered the void and popped out. *vwoop*


    "Huh? Did something go wrong?" Grandmother gave me a slightly worried look as I appeared again.


    "Hm? No, I just finished up."


    As I extended my paw to her, her face washed with a mix of confusion and awe.


    "I thought I already told you that time doesn''t flow in the void..." I paused as I helped her and Ilios get situated. "I was in there for what felt like an hour... In any case, let''s get going, shall we?"


    "R..right." After finally getting herself situated, I increased the strength of the thruster magic I used to hover and took to the skies.


    The next several minutes were wrapped inplete silence as I climbed in altitude as much as I could and further increased our speed.


    But eventually, we got so high in the atmosphere that I could ease my vacuum magic and give us some air to talk in. -It''s now or never...- "Grandmother..."


    "What is it, sweetie?" She spoke while looking down toward the endless ocean below us.


    "That artifact... What do you know about it? It sounded like you already had experience with something simr before..."


    She tensed up the moment I mentioned it. "W..well.. that''s a little difficult to exin..."


    I wasn''t willing to take no for an answer though. -Draconic science is far from evening close to understanding how nuclear fission works, and based on how there was almost no radiation after it blew up.. it was probably fusion...- I was already almost certain I knew what the answer was, but I needed to hear it from her. "Does confidentiality really matter after what just happened?"


    "Well..." She paused as she looked below us toward the still-glowing orange mountains that were slowly approaching the horizon. "I''m just not sure how to say it..."


    "Say what?"


    She paused before turning to look up at me. "That artifact, if it''s what I think it is.. wasn''t made by dragons..."


    -Yeah, I already know that much...- But as I went to speak again, my thoughts got hung up. -Wait... she couldn''t mean...-

 Chapter 235: Uncertain Suspicion

    Chapter 235: Uncertain Suspicion


    Early Afternoon - Early Winter : Off-Coast Western Siratha


    -


    "That artifact, if it''s what I think it is.. wasn''t made by dragons..."


    -Yeah, I already know that much...- But as I went to speak again, my thoughts got hung up. -Wait... she couldn''t mean...- I felt my whole body stiffen instantly.


    "We.. still don''t know their origins, but they showed up a few hundred years ago in the hands of the Holy Kingdom, so one can only assume..." She spoke with a dark expression, as if talking about a bad memory.


    -The Holy Kingdom again...- A knot of anxiety formed in my chest as I remembered the goddess telling me to steer clear of there. "Do you really think they could have made such an insane artifact though?"


    She hesitated before ncing up at me. "Although I have my doubts, it''s.. one of the better options since it would give us an excuse to wipe them off the map... The only other decent possibility is that they came across something made by Bahamut or the Ancient Fenrir, but that is even less likely."


    -Huh?- "Why is that?" The bad feeling in my chest only grew as I nced at her.


    "There.. were too many of them..." She leaned back in my palm as she awkwardly rubbed her arm with a dark expression.-Too.. many?- My mind immediately stuttered, unsure what to think about what she said. "What do you mean.. too many?"


    "Well.. when we were first notified of their existence, a group of ancients was sent to the Holy Kingdom to confiscate them... If I remember correctly, after we finishedbing through the kingdom''s magic towers and vaults, we had found 17 of them..."


    -Seven..teen?- My eyes went wide.


    But she didn''t stop there. "And to make things even scarier..." She grimaced as she gripped into her arm. "I was told we dismantled them all..."


    The theories I idly thought about while she spoke vanished in an instant. -So...- "That means someone either lied about what they found.. or the Holy Kingdom had another, and someone got it from them..."


    "Correct..." Both possibilities were extremely bad, to the point that I started to get nervous and think about whether I really wanted to get myself involved with it.


    But, deep down, I didn''t have a choice. "Do you think the remains could have been put back together? Or maybe reverse-engineered?"


    "Reverse-engineered?" She gave me a confused nce before looking back at the horizon. "If you mean someone learning how to make it by taking it apart, it''s quite unlikely... Even the most skilled dragons would struggle to recreate all the runes on one of them, let alone recreate the artifact itself. As for the possibility of someone putting one back together..."


    Her pause was a bad sign.


    "As far as I know, the remaining parts of the artifacts were scattered in Deaths Gape... The pieces shouldn''t be recoverable..."


    -Ah, sh*t...- The only options left were the worst-case scenarios, someone in a seat of power betraying Bahamut, or a group with tight connections to the Holy Kingdom.


    It actually reminded me of one of the carvings in the tree of prayer. -Dragons that joined the humans to revolt against the dragons...-


    It was a future I didn''t even want to consider. -I just need more information...-


    After that, we continued talking, and one by one, my theories were thrown to the wayside.


    I wasn''t left empty-handed, however. Although Grandmother didn''t seem to have all the details I would have liked, she mentioned a list of names. The names of the ancients who went and confiscated the artifacts themselves.


    Several of the names were unfamiliar, but ording to Grandmother, they were mostly people who had extremely good reputations in Bahamut.


    But there were a few names that stood out: Amphitrite Ouran��s, Myles Kalfas, andstly, a man named Erpo Krymmenos, the youngest among those sent by nearly 400 years.


    But his age wasn''t the only thing that stood out.


    "Who is Erpo Krymmenos? To be such an outlier in terms of age, does he have some special connection with the Elder Hall?" He was the only one in the list who had a family name I had never heard of.


    "Oh him? He''s one of Leander''s direct subordinates. He''s actually second-in-line to seed Leander, right behind Agatha Exypnos."


    -Wait, Leander?- "Was Leander the foreign intelligence head back then too?"


    "Yes, this incident happened about 30 years after his father entered his final sleep, so Leander had already seeded his position by the time this.. issue arose."


    -That.. makes sense...- "So Leander probably sent him to have his own set of eyes..."


    "Exactly..." She paused as a troubled look came to her face. "Of all the people sent on the mission, he is pretty far down my list of suspects, and based on Leander''s reaction to recent events, I assume he is not directly involved either."


    But even though I wanted to ept Grandmother''s dismissals, I couldn''t help but have a stray thought. -Wait a minute...-


    Grandmother seemed to notice me falling into thought as well. "What are you thinking?"


    -I''m probably overthinking it...- "It''s probably nothing... I just thought that I should ask Leander about something when I meet him..."


    Grandmother cracked an awkward smile as she tried to warm the atmosphere some. "Haha, Leander is the most justice-driven dragon I have ever known, and he is always quite strict with his direct subordinates, so I don''t think there is anything to worry about."


    "Y-yeah, I''m almost certain I''m connecting unrted things..." -I just hope he doesn''t take it the wrong way...-


    -


    Fae, Holy Kingdom


    - Unknown Identity ~


    *Click* Looking over at the door, I saw an old butler entering my room.


    I got a bit mad at first, but that quickly changed. "Young Master, thest mercenary has arrived."


    The good news immediately brought a smile to my face. -Perfect!- Quickly hopping out of bed, I called in a few maids to help me get dressed and hastily made my way outside to the carriage.


    Today was a big day. The fableding-of-age ceremony was finally upon me, and it was my turn to see if I was qualified to be the hero!


    But even I knew that was impossible.


    No matter how confident or arrogant I could be, the chances of me bing the hero were practically zero. -After not having a hero for thousands of years.. I really wonder if there will ever be another...-


    Idly getting distracted and thinking about the future, I was escorted out into the courtyard, where I saw the beautiful carriage my family rarely ever used, with my mother standing by the door with a warm smile on her face.


    It made me smile unconsciously.


    "You seem excited."


    "Of course! How could I not be? I get to finally start my journey to bing a proper merchant, just like Father!"


    "Haha, are you still looking to follow in his footsteps?" She gently hugged me as we waited for the head maid to load my things into the back of the carriage.


    "Of course! If he can be a noble as a peasant, I can definitely get us an estate in the capital!"


    "Hoho~, I look forward to your efforts then, my little prince." She gently ruffled my hair as the head knight came up to us.


    "Madam, young Master, the mercenary who just arrived does not wish to introduce themselves, so I will do it for them."


    -''Doesn''t wish to introduce themselves''?- I was slightly taken aback, as a mercenary introducing themselves to their contractors went far beyond the point of being optional. -Who is she?-


    Looking over toward the only horse I had never seen before, I saw a small, ck-hooded figure with long animal ears under the hood.


    -Oh.. a demihuman...-


    "Her mercenary name is Snow; she just arrived in Fae recently and is going to apany us to the capital without receiving payment."


    -What?- "Did she refuse it?"


    "No, sir. She was someone with a reputation on the Main Continent, so she was immediately evaluated as Holy Cleric rank; however, the evaluator said she should be a Holy Priest rank, and told her to go to the capital to be instated into the position. As such, she is more akin to a guest than a mercenary."


    -HOLY PRIEST RANK?!- It was a rank I had only heard about, one that was usually exclusively reserved for humans that were extremely devout to Asgard.


    But the underlying feature of every single one of them was strength and power.


    Bing a Holy Priest was something unachievable with just money. Strength, power, and fame were all needed in a single package for them to be promoted.


    -But she.. is a demihuman... How strong must she be for the evaluator to send her to the capital?- I looked at her sitting on the horse with a look of curiosity and intrigue.


    But that was when a strong breeze blew past us, pulling away some of the cloth that hid her sword and revealing a beautiful silver hilt.


    It was the most beautiful silver I had ever seen, even after living in a noble estate my whole life.


    But the instant I showed the slightest desire to touch it, it felt like the world copsed around me, and the next thing I knew, I was face down on the ground.


    -W..what?-

 Chapter 236: A Brewing Storm

    Chapter 236: A Brewing Storm


    Late Afternoon - Early Winter : Elder Hall, Northern Bahamut


    -


    - Leander Sofos ~


    *Fwooosh* *Fwooosh* *Fwooosh* Casting a colossal shadow over those under us, I flew over the countless districts surrounding the elder hall with a group of nearly 15 elders and young ancients in tow. -He truly is the most arrogant bast*rd I have ever seen...-


    Currently, I was flying from the Foreign Intelligence Estate to the Elder Hall itself, a path I hadn''t flown in nearly 1,200 years.


    But I didn''t feel the slightest hint of nostalgia.


    Instead, my mind was solely focused on wringing the neck of one man. -Holcyon Aetos.. you truly are just like your father...-


    Several hours prior, I was notified that the young Ragnarok (Asimi) had suddenly left her temporary office in the housing district estate apanied by a ck dragon, then waster told they jumped to Siratha through the northern space rune.


    At first, I assumed it was because she had found a lead of some sort, but around half an hour ago, I was told that Holcyon''s trial against Amphitrite was going to be pushed forward several days and begin at sunset.ording to the report, Amphitrite refused the Hall''s summons directly, so the trial would begin without her.


    But I knew that didn''t happen.


    -He must have someone in the Hall helping him; otherwise, it wouldn''t have been pushed the moment Asimi left, but it doesn''t matter who it is...- Letting the trial begin was something I couldn''t let happen in the first ce.


    "His name was Lex Naftis, correct?" I nced back at Agatha to see her quickly nod. -Sorry kid, but I need you to catch some k and buy us some time...- "When exactly did Erpo leave to fetch Amphitrite?"


    Agatha quickly closed the distance between us. "The moment he received the order."


    -Good... We should only need to buy a few hours then...- "Alright, everyone knows the drill, right?!"


    """Yes, Sir!""" Everyone behind me responded in unison with excited expressions.


    -I''m d you all are excited.. you will need the energy...-


    With the Elder Hall finallying into sight, I quickly scanned the courtyard and made sure Holcyon wasn''t present yet. -Perfect.-


    Rushing ahead of the group, I found my way to thending area in front of the hall and touched down.


    *FWOOOOSH* Promptly drawing the attention of everyone around with a strong st of wind from my wings, Inded and turned my back to the Hall itself. "This area will now be under lockdown, as issued by the Foreign Intelligence Agency for investigations rted to rebellion! Those who do notply will be dealt with using force!"


    The moment I finished, the surrounding area was cast in over a dozen massive shadows, causing everyone to look up and stare with wide eyes.


    Today, I wasn''t going to take any chances and pulled out the strongest group I could.


    I knew them as the Lightning Squad, the squad I would call on when I needed something handled quickly and thoroughly, but most dragons knew them by a different alias.


    The Silencers.


    *Fw-Fw-Fw-Fwoo-oo-oo-sh* A truly unbelievable and still silence filled the air as everyonended around the courtyard.


    "Everyone here will be questioned, and your belongings will be searched!" The moment Agathanded, she started giving orders. "In ordance with the ss 5 investigation, we have been granted permission to read through every document you have in your possession, including private letters and confidential documents! Once again, those who do notply will be dealt with using force and will not be granted a trial!"


    Although the scene was mostly fabricated, I couldn''t say it was unlikely that something rted to the rebellion would be found. -But even if something does turn up, she should be able to handle it...- Turning back to the entrance to the Elder Hall, I walked over and opened the door with some of my aura.


    "S-s-sir! We cannot let people ins-" *CRUNCH* The stone under him shattered like hardened y as his body was mmed to the ground by my aura.


    "I believe you heard my subordinate just now... This is a ss 5 investigation, you no longer have permission to enforce anything in this area." Turning to the other knight, I noticed him staring at his colleague with a disappointed expression. "You two are dismissed for the day. As long as you aren''t carrying anything rted to the rebellion, you will be let out shortly and will receivepensation."


    The knight immediately turned to me and lowered his head. "Thank you for your generosity, Lord Sofos." Quickly moving out from in front of the door, he sat down and kept his gaze toward the ground.


    -To think someone like that is stuck here...- But while I was tempted to recruit him, now wasn''t the time. "If you''re interested in a better job, we will wee you."


    He immediately twitched, but before he could respond, I opened the doors and continued into the hallway that I had to duck down to fit in. -Now.. let''s see who will give me trouble...-


    *WHAM* Closing the door behind me, I walked through the hall and eventually made it to the second set of doors.


    -To think they really put a lock on the inside...- *CLUNK-WHAM* Throwing the massive hunk of stone off the back side of the door, I pushed them open and walked inside.


    "Who dares-!" Miss Kerato''s voice was cut short in an instant.


    -Four people are already present, huh...- It was only half the hall, but there were no trials today and the summons only took effect toward the evening. -Why are they already here...-


    "For you to be here in person, I assume it must be important." Pluto Chrysos was the first to say anything as he slowly got up fromying down.


    "Indeed." -The one helping Holcyon must be here.. I should take advantage of that...- "A ss 5 investigation has been issued against Mister Naftis for a confidential topic rted to the recent rebellion."


    Naftis, one of those present, went wide-eyed immediately.


    "Under the rules of a ss 5 investigation, all those with a connection to him must be searched. I hope you will allply."


    Everyone present immediately tensed up.


    This was an order they could not refuse.


    But not everyone was so quick toply. "I believe not all aspects of a ss 5 search apply to us, correct?" Pluto was quick to voice his opposition. "You are not allowed to view confidential documents that have not yet been filed."


    -Hoh?- "It seems you know your stuff, but sadly that will not be the case today." *VWOOOM* Immediately letting my aura fill the room, everyone''s expressions simultaneously darkened. "As this investigation directly involves someone serving in the Elder Hall, you will all be thoroughly searched one at a time. Now, everyone except Sir Naftis, please wait in the hall."


    -


    - Holcyon Aetos ~ (30 minutes prior)


    *vwoom* Feeling a familiar thin presence suddenly appear, I looked toward the corner behind the door and saw a ck-clothed, human-looking man kneeling to me.


    "My lord, the has returned, but he was heavily injured."


    -What?! They failed?!- "What were his injuries?"


    "His body was covered in burns, his ears are full of charred blood, he cannot see, and he struggles to walk."


    -Ah, so he simply didn''t abide by my warning then...- "Phew..." -I almost initiated n B when I didn''t need to...- "That is fine, it means he did his job. What is the status of the runes?"


    "No one hase from Siratha as of yet, but those we have sent through the northern rune to Siratha have yet to return."


    -Hmm... She wouldn''t be sitting there hunting dragons that came through...- "How long has it been since the first one entered?"


    "10 minutes, my lord."


    -That isn''t very long, but if she doesn''te through the space rune either, it''s safe to assume the job was finished...- "In that case, let''s assume things are as they should be. Go ahead and tell them to push the trial forward using this letter." Quickly picking up a small letter with my aura, I moved it over and handed it to the human-looking man dressed in ck.


    "As you wish, my lord."


    But just as he was about to leave, I caught him. "Onest thing, make sure<strong><em> he</em></strong> is ready."


    "Right away." *fwoosh* He disappeared in an instant, letting me once again turn back to the papers I scattered around the room.


    "Hooh..." -Leander, oh Leander.. for how many years you made my life a living hell, you should be d that I will send you off so mercifully.- I slowly looked over my shoulder at a portrait on the wall of a dragon that looked simr to me. -Father.. it''s time I put your soul at ease.. and finish what you started...- "It''s time people remember our name."

 Chapter 237: The Realm of Titans

    Chapter 237: The Realm of Titans


    Early Evening - Early Winter : Elder Hall, Northern Bahamut


    -


    - Leander Sofos ~


    "With this, you have been cleared, Miss Kerato. You may bring the others back in."


    Giving a short, annoyed nod, she turned to the door and opened it, immediately letting the three other elders back inside.


    They all looked quite upset with me, but now they couldn''t say a word. "Thank you all for your cooperation. As I''m sure you have already noticed, I have collected the necessary evidence to send a few of my subordinates to search Sir Naftis''s temporary estate in the housing district." I held a stack of papers in front of me with my aura, making sure everyone could see it. "I''m sure you all understand what that means... This will take a few hours. I ask for your understanding."


    Everyone immediately turned to Naftis with expressions of anger and annoyance as I finally turned back to the door.


    Quickly walking out of the hall itself and closing the doors with my tail, I started down the hallway. -Things truly could not have gone better...-


    Prior to the investigation, I had scraped together all the old dirt I could find rted to Naftis and his previous connections to the rebellion so that if someone attempted to call our investigation unnecessary, I could simply shut them down. -But not only did Naftis have more evidence on him...- I looked down at a letter I had sitting on the stack of papers. -He even gave me some evidence against Holcyon...-A smile slowly crept onto my face as I thought about it. -Now I just need to wait for Erpo to return with Amphitrite...-


    Finally making my way outside, I called over a few young and trustworthy ancients and handed them a small mythril medallion. "I need you all to run over to Lex Naftis''s estate in the housing district and search it for anything rted to the rebellion." As I handed it to them, I leaned over and spoke in a hushed tone. "Take your time to be thorough."


    Quickly catching my drift, they nodded and backed away before taking to the skies.


    -Hopefully, that should buy us a few hours...- Now, it all came down to how fast Erpo could retrieve Amphitrite. -At worst, I can stall for longer with that...-


    Quickly motioning over Agatha, she set down her things and came running over. "What is it?"


    "I need you to run back to my office and grab the third letter from the bottom of the stack on the right edge of my desk. It''s a letter from Amphitrite."


    "Okay, is there anything else?"


    "No, but be quick. I need it to be able to prove forgery."


    Her eyes immediately went wide as she realized the severity of the situation. "I will be as quick as I can!"


    Watching her promptly take to the sky and fly away, I turned to look at the horizon and watched as the sun steadily approached it. -Let''s hope she makes it...-


    But sadly, even after another half hour, the sun had started to set and neither Erpo nor Agatha had returned. -They''re bothte...-


    Although I understood that Erpo could be a bitte, Agatha should have taken no longer than 15 to 20 minutes. -Something feels off...-


    But then, as if my suspicions were answered by the heavens, I saw a massive and immediately recognizable dragon crest the horizon toward the housing district.


    -Meg��los Kerato...- The one known as the Grand Healer; an ancient with an unfathomably favored reputation throughout Bahamut. -What is he doing here...-


    I already knew his sudden appearance spelled trouble, but it only got worse when I recognized the two dragons following him.


    One was Holcyon, and the other was Erpo. -WHAT?!- My blood started to boil in an instant. -WHAT IS HE DOING WITH THEM?!- Flooding my aura into the surrounding air, it sharpened like a de, making everyone nearby turn to look at me with a nervous expressions. "Everyone, dismiss those who still haven''t been searched, and clear the area!" -If Meg��los is a part of Holcyon''s scheme.. this could turn really bad...-


    Making my way out toward thending area, I stood there and waited for the massive turquoise dragon toe closer and eventuallynd.


    As theynded, Meg��los and Holcyon wore smiles, but Erpo wore an expression of anger and aimed it right at me. -He must have truly lost his mind...-


    But before I could even think of doing anything, Meg��los stepped forward. "How long has it been, Leander? 600 years?"


    "Bast*rd, what are you doing here?" I didn''t bother to hide my hostility.


    "Still angry, huh... You know she-" *CRUNCH* The ground beneath him shattered with such immense force from my aura that it looked like the ground exploded.


    "If you dare say her name, I''ll kill you." Both Holcyon and Erpo tensed up behind him, but they seemed a little too trusting.


    "Alright, alright. Sorry to touch an open wound." His smile slowly widened. "In any case, what are you doing here, Leander?" He quickly nced around at the Lightning squad that kept people froming near.


    Although I wanted to rip his throat out there and then, I had to calm down. "This area is under lockdown for a ss 5 investigation."


    "Hoh?"


    "Lex Naftis is being investigated for reasons rted to rebellion. I''m sorry, but none of you have a right to be here." I red at Erpo for a moment before turning back to Meg��los.


    "Hm? Is that so?" He gave me a troubled look for a moment before smiling. "Well, you see, I need to speak with my daughter, and this man behind me supposedly has a trial that should be starting sometime soon."


    "That trial will not be able tomence until the investigation isplete, but I could send someone to retrieve your daughter for a moment. However, she cannot leave the area."


    "That is alright. I simply need to speak with her."


    -Something seems off...- My gut kept telling me not to listen, but his request was something I couldn''t refuse without a reason. "Please wait here a moment then. As for you," I looked at Holcyon. "I rmend leaving anding backter. As Lex is a part of the Elder Hall, your trial will be postponed until this matter is resolved."


    His expression turned sour in an instant.


    -How does it feel to be powerless, you weak excuse of a dragon?- Finally turning away from the group, I called over one of my subordinates and sent them into the Hall to fetch Galen.


    While waiting for them to return, I decided to confront Erpo to see if he would really choose to feign ignorance. "So you returned without her?"


    He responded immediately. "She said that she wasn''ting. Supposedly she already sent a letter stating that."


    -You think that lowly of me, huh...- My eyes turned cold as I lost all traces of sympathy for him. -Maybe I should have trusted my gut back then...-


    *Clunk* Hearing the huge door to the hall open once again, I turned around to see Galen Kerato slowly walking outside. -To think she was the one helping Holcyon in the Hall...-


    But unlike what I expected, her eyes went wide the moment she saw her father. "Father? What are you doing here?"


    Her reaction looked so genuine that my mind stuttered for a moment, but I quickly caught myself. -No, she must be acting... There''s no way Meg��los isn''t with Holcyon...-


    But although I didn''t want to admit it, I didn''t have a single reason to tie Galen to Holcyon besides her father, even afterpletely searching her, and couldn''t tie Meg��los to Holcyon without simply listening to my gut. -Lex was the only one with evidence of being inmunication with Holcyon...- I momentarily nced down at the letter I got from him with a momentary sense of doubt.


    But that doubt was destroyed in an instant. "Don''t trust them!"


    Hearing Agatha''s voice, I looked over in a sh, but I didn''t see anyone in the air. -What? Am I hearing things?-


    But after another moment, I saw her head poke around the edge of a building. The issue was, the further she crawled out from behind the building, the paler I became.


    Her body was covered in injuries, with all but one leg and one wing broken and bleeding. "They''re all together! Meg��los burned the letter and tried to cripple me!"


    Immediately following her words, Meg��los turned around with a look of shock and anger.


    It was thest bit of evidence I needed. *VWOOOM-CRACKLE* The ground cracked beneath my feet as I slowly turned to him with a look of indescribable fury. -To think you would touch her...-


    Meg��los immediately used wind magic to silently speak to Holcyon, but I heard it anyway. "Holcyon, it seems we need to move to n B..." Finally turning to me, his expression darkened.


    -This bast*rd really doesn''t know which lines to never cross, huh...-


    "Father, what did you do?!" Galen''s voice was drowned in confusion, but I had already blocked it out.


    The only thing in my mind was Meg��los. "You''ve taken it too far, Meg��los..."


    However, he was quick to calm down. "Is that so?" His smile slowly turned greedy before he spoke up with enough volume for other people to hear. "How dare you use me of such a horrible action! Do you truly believe I am a dragon of such terrible char-"


    Not letting him finish, I lunged forward and bit into his neck before mming him into the ground. *crunch-WHAAAAM*


    The entire area shook like there was an earthquake as his nearly 110-meter-tall body was mmed into the ground. -Today will be the day I behead you...-


    But as I reached up and set my leg on his neck to break it, his smile only grew wider, and a look of insanity appeared in his eyes. "Now it''s my turn!"

 Chapter 238: A Real Monster

    Chapter 238: A Real Monster


    Mid Evening - Early Winter : Elder Hall, Northern Bahamut


    -


    *muffled rumble* -The sun is about to set...- Noticing the horizon slowly starting to turn orange, I nced back at Grandmother. "We should be getting close to the prison. Where do we need to go specifically?"


    However, she was still biting her thumbnail from anxiety. "Continue south. We don''t want to get close enough to the prison that they can spot us."


    "Alright..." Keeping my eye on her, I tried to brainstorm about what exactly was going on, but she still hadn''t told me enough. "Is there anything I can do to help?" I already had a decent idea of what was happening, but I wasn''t sure of the specifics or how she wanted to handle things.


    "Even just yesterday, I nned to have you involved in this issue since it involved Siratha so deeply, but now.. I don''t think I can let you..." Leaning back in my palm, she blindfolded herself with light magic to try and focus.


    -So, the artifact is what escted the situation beyond me... But...- "Why can''t I get involved anymore? Something on the scale of that artifact can''t hurt me, and if I''m fast enough, I can even stop-"


    "No, it''s not about the artifact itself..."


    -Hm?- "Then what is it?"She paused before finally letting out a sigh. "Haah..." She hesitated as if unsure what to say before continuing. "Around a week ago, Leander came to my estate in order to speak with me. He came bearing deep suspicions about that man named Holcyon Aetos and the trial he set into motion a few days prior."


    Assuming she was finally giving me some details, I stayed quiet and listened intently.


    "His suspicions sounded a bit far-fetched at first, but I ended up going along with it and helping him. I just didn''t expect it to be such a deep rabbit hole... The deeper I dug, the more I found that connected him to the information leaks in Siratha, and the more concerned I got about finding concrete evidence to finally put an end to whatever he is scheming." She paused for a moment to fiddle with her hands. "That was when you showed up..."


    -Why did she.. say it like that...-


    "Aftering to Siratha with you, I managed to confirm most of what Leander had already predicted with verifiable evidence... In short, the Aetos family is trying to turn Siratha into a second Bahamut, where they can essentially rule as monarchs from behind the scenes while using the trial with Amphitrite and the confiscation of her inds as their cover." Her voice slowly turned more troubled.


    -So he wants the resources and military power of Siratha...- Although it sounded a bit odd at first, I couldn''t help but agree that, with the aid of draconic magic and techniques, Siratha had the potential to be a major power that could even pressure Bahamut, if only slightly. -But that feels.. too simple...-


    Grandmother only went to reinforce the bad feeling in my gut as well. "Had it truly remained like that, I would have been more than happy to have you help resolve the situation.. but..." She grimaced as she paused. "The fact that he managed to get a hold of one of those artifacts means he has significantly stronger and more influential backers than we originally expected... A rouge group of elders would never be able to get their hands on one, no matter where it came from, let alone know how to activate it..."


    -Then...- "Do you think he could be the puppet of someone behind the scenes?"


    She reluctantly shrugged. "It could go either way... Knowing the history of the Aetos family, I have my doubts, but the fact they have some sort of influential person or group behind them is a fact I cannot ignore..." Removing the light magic over her eyes, she gave me a worried, but serious look. "Regardless, the fact that this matter involves at least one influential ancient, means that it''s beyond what I''mfortable letting you get involved in..."


    -Ah...- Her reasoning was something I couldn''t refute. "But even if you just use me as a taxi, tell me what I need to do to help. I can''t just sit on the sidelines..." -At the very least, I need to learn more about those artifacts...-


    But she simply fell silent and looked away, as if she knew what I was thinking already. "I will.. consider it..."


    The next several minutes passed in silence as we continued flying over the seemingly endless ocean.


    But eventually, she spoke up once again. "Let''s turn ind about here."


    Immediately listening, I banked right and turned toward the shore.


    We were about 1,200 kilometers south of the prison by now, which was well out of their area of surveince, but Grandmother was still just as anxious.


    -Is she alright?- I was starting to get worried, but at the same time, there was almost nothing I could do. "So what is the n once we get overnd?"


    She paused for a moment before finally easing up slightly. "We are going to pay someone a visit... His estate is about 300 kilometers ahead. Just be sure to turn off or hide your magic once we get overnd so we aren''t spotted."


    "Roger that." Immediately using light magic to hide the massive blue mes, I finally started slowing down and kept my eye on the trees that were just now cresting the horizon. -Who are we meeting?-


    Originally, I expected us to go straight to the Elder Hall, but evidently, Grandmother had other ns.


    The next several minutes were, once again, wrapped in silence as I glided over the edge of the ind and descended just below the thick rain clouds that blocked my vision.


    But it didn''t exactly help too much.


    The dense downpours below the clouds made it impossible to see the ground, and extremely difficult to maintain speed.


    But thankfully, not long after that, Grandmother tapped on my paw and pointed at the ground just ahead of us. -Is that where I need to go?-


    Quickly setting a mental marker for where I needed to head, I started slowly descending until the edge of my aura could feel the auras of dragons on the ground.


    At first, it made me tense up. -They''re all strong...- Each and every aura I felt was at least as strong as Grandmother''s, but after looking back at her, she gave me a reassuring nod. -Where.. are we?-


    Continuing further ahead, I eventually made it to where Grandmother pointed and finally descended to the ground.


    I was immediately noticed by the people below, but they weren''t immediately hostile.


    *fwoosh* *fwoosh* *fwoosh-thud* Finallynding on a stone pathway, I set down Grandmother and gave her a moment to change forms before following her toward the few closest auras.


    As we walked, I couldn''t help but ask, "Where are we?"


    "We are going to meet Myles. He is akin to your great-uncle, so be polite."


    -Myles Kalfas?!- I immediately tensed up slightly as a wave of stories about him surfaced in my mind. -Those must have been exaggerations, right?-


    Continuing along the stone pathway, we quickly came up to a colossal metal gate with two nearly 80-meter-tall ancients standing by it.


    Both wore shiny metal armor, but in all honesty, I wasn''t sure if it did anything. -Shouldn''t their scales be stronger than the metal itself?-


    But the time for idle thoughts quickly came to an end.


    "Miss Ragnarok, it is good to see you again." A smile came to the face of one of the guards the moment he saw us through the monsoon-like downpour.


    "It''s good to see you too. It has been a while."


    "Indeed it has. So what brings you here?"


    Her slightly forced smile vanished instantly. "I need to meet with Myles. Tell him it''s an emergency."


    He immediately tensed up. "R-right away!" Quickly running back to the gate, he set his w against a blue artifact and spoke. "Sir Kalfas, Miss Ragnarok hase to meet with you. She has a guest and is saying it is an emergency."


    He took his w off it for a moment before it faintly glowed. "Let them in." The voice was deep but so heavily distorted that it was hard to understand.


    -They have artifacts that can do that?- I immediately got curious about how the artifact worked but was pulled from my thoughts before I could say or do anything.


    "Please follow me, young miss." *CLANG-click-click-click-click* As the massive gate opened automatically, Grandmother and I walked in behind the knight and eventually made it to the door of an estate I couldn''t even feel the edges of with my aura.


    -How big is this ce?!- Continuing inside, we came into a massive entry hall a few hundred meters wide and nearly 250 meters tall and were immediately greeted by a young dragon around Krystallo''s age in what could only be described as a draconic maid outfit.


    "Miss Ragnarok, please follow me." She politely bowed her head before turning around and making her way down a gargantuan hallway.


    We ended up walking for nearly two kilometers, but eventually, we came up to a massive, 140-meter-tall door.


    "Sir Kalfas, the guests are here."


    *Click* Hearing some kind of lock, I looked toward the door and noticed it start to open and reveal a 75-meter-tall violet-scaled ancient wearing a simr maid outfit.


    But the aura that flooded through the door the moment it opened was what caught me off guard.


    -What the?!- Feeling an aura that at least rivaled mine, my instincts were heightened to an insane degree.


    Grandmother noticed my change in demeanor right away, but she was quick to calm me down. "It''s alright, dear."


    -Are you sure about that!- After waiting another moment for the door to finish opening, the violet-scaled dragon motioned us inside.


    That was when I was met with a sight I would never forget.


    Laying on the opposite end of the unbelievably massive room was a bulky and gargantuan dragon, likely close to 125 or 130 meters tall, with flowing blue scales that looked identical to a high-grade mythril.


    But although his scales were beautiful, the air of strength that surrounded him made me anxious, and his serious expression and sharp aura didn''t help.


    -Those stories.. were <strong>not </strong>exaggerations...-

 Short Break Announcement

    Short Break Announcement


    Hey everyone, hope you are all doing well.


    The purpose of todays announcement is to say that there wont be a chapter today, or Sunday at the very least. Currently, I am in a lull where I just don''t feel super motivated to do much of anything be it sswork or writing, and although its still the start of the semester, I need to give my sswork some priority for a week or so.


    I do n on starting a patreon at some point, but it wont be for at least a month so I can make sure I have all my ss stuff sorted out to keep breaks like this to a minimum.


    In any case, I apologize for the untimely dy. When Ie back, Ill make sure the chapter is quite a bit longer than usual to try and make up for it.


    Regardless, I hope you all have a wonderful week and look forward to seeing everyone then!


    |-----------------------------|


    Speaking of longer chapters, some things have been brought to my attention and gotten me thinking, so I will leave a poll and let you all decide which you would prefer.

 Chapter 239: A Difficult Man

    Chapter 239: A Difficult Man


    Mid Evening - Early Winter : Elder Hall, Northern Bahamut


    -


    *Vwowowooom* The huge mass of aura in the room made an easily audible noise as it mmed into mine. -An aura that rivals mine.. and...-


    Looking down at his body, I felt a slight chill. -What a monster...-


    There was a short moment of silence while Grandmother walked further into the room and picked up a human-sized barrel with a slightly stressed expression. "Your aura is just as oppressive as ever. Don''t you remember how many times it made me feel sick?" *Crunch* Casually biting off the top of the barrel, she exposed the bright red liquid in it.


    It looked like an elixir, but I couldn''t confirm it.


    "You handled it well this time. I told you that you would eventually get used to it." He kept his eye on me while he spoke with Grandmother.


    "That''s not because of you." *Crunch* Another crunch echoed through the room as she chewed and swallowed the rest of the barrel and its contents.


    "In any case, how are your grandchildren doing?" Slowly sitting up, he lifted his head just enough to be above mine and turned to Grandmother. "I haven''t heard about them for quite some time.""Haah..." Grandmother let out a deep sigh as her aura slowly calmed. "Krystallo is doing well. She is the academy''s top student and is quickly establishing herself as the greatest genius of the next generation among the teachers and students."


    "Hoh? That''s quite a feat, but I remember you saying that Vasilias was the one to keep my eye on. Since Krystallo is at the top of her ss, that must mean he has fallen behind."


    "Hah-" Her slightly stressed look turned faintly smug as she chucked and looked at him.


    "Hm? Did I say something funny?"


    "With the way I described him to you, I expected you to recognize him." She quickly motioned in my direction. "Myles, please meet Vasilias. Vasilias, this is Myles Kalfas, my Father''s closest friend, and the one who controls nearly all the knights all around Bahamut."


    Immediately picking up on what she wanted me to do, I turned to him and lowered my head slightly. "It''s a pleasure to meet you, Sir Kalfas." It was a tense introduction, but I managed to hide my anxiousness for the most part. "My name is Vasilias Ragnarok."


    His aura immediately started probing mine even more than before, causing my body to instinctively stiffen up. "And here I was thinking you were simply exaggerating your praises of him..."


    *creaaak* The flooring around the stone pad heid on creaked as he carefully stood up.


    "''Scales as dark as the void''." *creak* "''Enough mana to suffocate a dragon ten times his age''." *creak* "''And an unparalleled magic genius''." *creak* With only a few steps, he closed the distance between us and loomed over me. "In the 2,000 years I have lived, I don''t believe I have met a single dragon worthy of any one of those descriptors..." Slowly lowering his head next to mine, he looked me in the eye with a cold expression that slowly turned angered. "And for the cold and heartless Asimi to be the one spouting high praises... It makes me wonder if you''re the reason she-"


    "Myles." Grandmother''s voice echoed through the room with a horrifically threatening tone. "You know what I said about that."


    My whole body immediately tensed up as I looked over to see a look in her eyes I had never seen before. -W..what...-


    But before I could even think though, Myles pulled his gaze off me. "So he really is Vasilias..." He sounded incredibly disappointed as if dissatisfied with me. "In that case, kid. The Ragnarok name isn''t something you can simply inherit." He continued as he turned back toward the stone pad he had beenying on. "Even with the loss of your brother, you will have to earn it, just like your ancestors have." *creaaak-thump* As heid back down, he gave me a cold look. "If you are not capable of handling the responsibility thates with that name, I will personally make sure you cannot use it."


    A sour taste immediately came to my mouth, but as I looked toward Grandmother, she simply let out an annoyed sigh. -She''s not gonna say anything?-


    "In any case, what brings you two here."


    "Haah, right..." Quickly letting out an annoyed sigh, she looked up at Myles with a dark expression. "I assume you are aware of the recent developments with the Aetos family, correct?"


    "I know a few things."


    "Alright, then I''ll skip the basics. Several hours ago, Vasilias came by my estate and..." Grandmother then went into quite a thorough exnation, very simr to what she had told me as we flew, but only discussing the most recent developments. It was only about a minute of exnations in total, but eventually, she got to the real reason we were there. "Then, after grabbing all the information I could, we left for the space rune. As I mentioned earlier, we ran into assassins right at the rune, but..."


    "''But'', what. I doubt you woulde to me if-"


    "The assassins had a City Killer... Thankfully it misfired, so we managed to get out fairly unscathed, but itpletely destroyed the space rune." She spoke anxiously as if recalling the moment itself.


    -So she''s making a story...- Although I knew she was just trying to protect me, I couldn''t help but wish she''d be honest.


    But it didn''t matter. "That''s not possible, Asimi." He didn''t even consider it.


    "Now isn''t the time to be difficult, Myles. I saw a mountain get reduced to ash! What else could it have been?!"


    "Asimi." He sounded like he was starting to get annoyed as well. "We looked through every nook and cranny of that empire, and we found nothing. Leander even told us to search the entire mountain range, including that ancient wreckage, in case they had found them somewhere, but we came out empty-handed."


    -Ancient wreckage?- My annoyance was almost instantly bnced out by curiosity.


    "And to make things worse, the research the kingdom was conducting wasughable. They wouldn''t have been able to replicate the runes on the outeryer, let alone the thousands ofyers inside it."


    "Do you think they came out of thin air?! They had to of gotten them from somewhere!"


    "Haah..." He let out a sigh before continuing in a sarcastic tone. "Even if we missed one, do you really think dragons would cooperate with the Holy Kingdom to get it?"


    *CLUNK-creaaaak* Hearing the door suddenly swing open, I quickly looked over to see an elder in full metal armor breathing heavily. "Hah.. hah... Sir Myles!"


    Myles'' expression immediately turned sour. "You know you aren''t allowed to-"


    "Sir Leander and Sir Kerato are fighting at the Elder Hall!"


    Everyone immediately went wide-eyed as the room fell into silence.


    *Crunch* Hearing stone shatter, I looked over to see Myles standing up and pulling several jewelry-like artifacts off a nearby shelf.


    "Haah... Sorry to end our discussion here, Asimi, but it seems an urgent matter has arisen."


    Recognizing his stance on the situation, she was quick to try and stop him. "No! I''m certain Megalos didn''t pick a fight for no reason! He must be a part of this!"


    But he just gave her a heartless nce. "Asimi." His cold and stern voice immediately sent a chill down my spine. "If anyone made a deal with the Holy Kingdom or secretly kept around an artifact from back then, it''d be Leander, but if I''ve learned anything in my life, it''d be to never assume anything." He continued as he put on several rings and bandsced with artifacts. "Either of us could be right, or we could both be wrong, but I will find out in a moment regardless."


    Looking over at Grandmother, I saw her gritting her teeth,pletely unable to refute.


    -So this is how things arending...- I already knew Grandmother would get mad at me for what I was about to do, but I needed the information he had. "Since this is an urgent matter, let me fly you there."


    Grandmother immediately froze in ce, but Myles gave me a simple nce. "You? Fly me?" A look of scrutiny immediately appeared in his eyes. "Kid, you can''t be seri-"


    "I can get you there in three minutes." -I can''t take him through the void, but I don''t need to hold back on my thruster magic if I don''t have Grandmother with me...-


    "I sure hope you didn''t mean to say thirty." Before I knew it, a subtle, sly smile had crept onto his face. "How about we make a bet?"


    -He''s confident...- "Alright, what are the stakes?"


    "If I win, you will be my subordinate for the next five years... and if you win, I will personally recognize you as a Ragnarok, and will give you myplete backing and support." His smile had quickly be greedy. "So, how about it?"


    Although I wasn''t sure what he was nning to get out of having me as a subordinate, the chance of losing the bet didn''t even cross my mind. -Does he really think my confidence is childish?- Rousing mypetitive spirit, a smile crept onto my face as well. "Deal."

 Chapter 240: A District Reduced to Ash and Rubble

    Chapter 240: A District Reduced to Ash and Rubble


    Late Evening - Early Winter : Myles Kalfas'' Estate, Northeastern Bahamut


    -


    *thump* *thump* *thump* Quickly walking down the hall from Myles'' office with him in tow, I nced back and gave a light nod to Ilios.


    Although I could bring him along, I nned to leave him here to protect Grandmother. -I doubt the assassins even know she''s here.. but it''s better to be safe than sorry...-


    "My lord, do you wish to bring <em><strong>that</strong></em> with you?" A butler came up to us as we came into the main hall.


    "<em><strong>That</strong></em> won''t be necessary. ording to the messenger, it''s only Leander and Megalos; I will be fine without it." His confidence was still overflowing. "Prepare squadrons 1 and 2 and send them to the Elder Hall the moment they''re ready."


    "As you wish."


    Watching the man run off, I turned to Myles and noticed confidence still oozing out of him. -Ah, it''s gonna feel nice to wipe that grin off his face...-


    But although I was also confident, I couldn''t say I wasn''t worried. -It''s nearly 3,000 kilometers to the Elder Hall from here... That means I''d have to travel at about 17 kilometers per second (Mach 50) the entire way, and that doesn''t even take into ount the altitude I need...-It was a speed I had barely even touched for more than an instant, but oddly enough, it felt doable. -It''ll be a question of how fast I can elerate with him...-


    Quickly wrapping up his conversation with a few nearby maids, he finally turned back to me with a wide smile. "Alright, let''s leave, shall we?"


    Immediately making our way outside, we came into his massive courtyard, where I abruptly stopped. "This is good enough. Go ahead and change to your humanoid form."


    His smile turned sly. "If you say so." *sh*


    The moment the blinding light subsided, I met eyes with an extremely toned draconic man easily over 2 meters tall with an extremely nice outfit and covered in jewelry. -He''s quite tall...-


    The moment I held my paw out toward him, he scoffed. "I''m a bit heavy, I hope you don''t mind." But it onlysted an instant as he climbed on and noticed me casually pulling him close to my underside.


    "Use your aura and physically hold on, or else you could fall out." Preemptively umting a significant amount of hydrogen around my wings, I helped him get situated and even used a significant amount of my own aura to lock him in ce.


    His overflowing confidence had already started to waver, but I hadn''t even left the ground. "I am ready when you are."


    "Alright. Hold on." Quickly making sure no one was within several hundred meters, I finally pped my wings. *fw-WOOOOOSH* Almost instantaneously, we wereunched a kilometer in the air, but I wasn''t going to let such precious momentum go to waste. -I should be high enough...-


    *blub-psh* The instant I ignited the thruster magic, everything went silent, and the estate below us shrank until it was but a small dot.


    In a matter of seconds, the sun darted back above the horizon, and the skyline curled.


    Before we could even realize it, we had reached the edge of the atmosphere. -Time to push back the clock.. shall we?- Assuming the air was finally thin enough, I dispersed the hydrogen around my wings and leveled out our flight path. -If I''m not careful, I''ll get hurled into orbit... But this should be good enough...- Cruising at around Mach 20, we were already going insanely fast, but it wasn''t enough. -Time for antimatter...-


    In an instant, the glow between my scales turned sky blue, and I looked down to see Myles looking toward the ground with wide eyes. -I''m sure he can handle it...-


    Looking up at the horizon once more, I dumped my focus into my mana and curled my wings inward. *crackle-FLASH* As if it had be day, a huge area ofnd beneath us lit up, but it only stayed lit for an instant. -10... 15... 20...- (20km/s = Mach 58) By the time we got up to speed and I stopped using the antimatter, we had covered upwards of a thousand kilometers, giving momentary daylight to everything we passed over.


    Giving a quick nce at Myles with my aura revealed him tightly gripping one of my fingers with a look of disbelief and awe. -To think he doesn''t even look lightheaded...-


    "How are you holding up?" I spoke to him through wind magic that copied the vibrations of the isted air around my mouth.


    He immediately jolted once he heard it, but he could hardly move with how tense he was. "W..what.. are you..." He spoke with a curious tone, but his sense of awe couldn''t be suppressed.


    "A Ragnarok. What else?"


    "You.. really are just like him..."


    With my smug look quickly turning curious, I gave his words a moment of thought before tossing them aside and turning back to the horizon. -We''re about a minute and a half out... I should start getting ready to slow down...-


    -


    - Leander Sofos ~


    *CRUNCH-WHAAAAM* My scales shattered as Megalos bit into my neck and mmed me onto my back. *Crackle* The dozen buildings under my body were pulverized in an instant. -This bast*rd!-


    *Crunch-FWOOOOSH* pping my wings, I threw my back off the ground and swung around to try and pin him, but he let go of my neck and darted off before I could grab him.


    *Crackle-CRRRUNCH* Mercilessly plowing through buildings as he darted away, he came to a halt and lowered into an agile stance.


    "You''re just as slimy as ever, Megalos..."


    "To think I''d be called slimy by the likes of you!" He wore a confident smile as a bright glow appeared behind his teeth.


    -This psycho!- *CRACCK-FWOOOOSH* A colossal tornado of fire ripped through the air toward me in an instant, vaporizing everything in its path and leaving me no other choice but to do the same. *psh-RUMBLE*


    As our breaths, each capable of destroying a human city in an instant, collided a huge wall of destruction spanning nearly a kilometer across formed, reducing the buildings in its path to ash finer than dust.


    But it didn''tst long. -I need to conserve my mana...-


    Ceasing my breath in an instant, I darted up to the wall of scorching fire and readied another spell.


    *crackle-BANG* A huge opening in the wall of fire and molten material formed instantly as I blew a huge hole through it, sending zing chunks of molten rock in every direction.


    It was only a fraction of an instant before Megalos locked eyes with me, but I was already too close for him to dodge.


    *ck* Locking my ws in his teeth, I pulled his breath toward the ground before mming into him and biting into his wing. *WHAAAAM* His huge body was mmed into the molten ground instantly, partially melting many of his scales and covering his back in molten rock.


    *shik* Using the recoil of hitting the ground, my teeth finally punctured the scales covering his wing and reached the bone.


    I didn''t hesitate to st earth mana into it the instant I could. *CRUUNCH*


    But although I managed to shatter the bonepletely, it stood strong, held in ce by several strands of divinity. -He has that much?!-


    I immediately went to pull away, but before I could do anything, I felt a burning sensation in my side. -SH*T!- *CRUNCH*


    Feeling two of my ribs shatter and my flesh getting shredded, I gritted my teeth and jumped off him.


    *shik* His blood-covered w ripped out of my side with a stream of blood quickly following it.


    *tssss* The blood turned to vapor as it poured out of my side and onto the nearly-molten ground. -Tch... It''s deep...- Although it was nothing life-threatening, it was a wound I couldn''t ignore. -But he''s going to be worse...- Looking over at Megalos, I watched him carefully fold in his broken wing while using earth magic to break off the molten rock that solidified on his back.


    He was bleeding from the mouth and all across his body where I dug my ws into him, but none of the wounds were too deep.


    Not yet at least.


    *FWOOOSH* Hurling myself back at him, I used my aura to pin his leg to the ground and gripped it before driving my other w into his chest. *CRUNCH-SHIK* My ws punctured his scales and skin in an instant, letting me immediately m my weight down on the inside of his rib cage.


    *CRUNCH* Several of his ribs shattered instantly, but even though the divinity kept me from ripping through them, his body was still mmed into the ground. "This is the end, Megalos."


    I was in aplete position of power. There was nothing he could do to get out of the situation.


    At least that''s what I thought.


    *vwowowowoom* Out of nowhere, a warped cloud appeared just in front of me. -What...-


    But before I could even react to it, I felt as if I could see a human hand reach toward me.


    That was the moment when it felt like the world copsed around me. *WHHHHHAM* Every remaining building within several hundred meters was crushed and reduced to rubble instantly, with my body mming into the ground so hard my legs, wings, and ribs all shattered.


    It sent an unfathomable pain through my body as the divinity holding my legs together strained to stay in one piece.


    But that was when I heard Megalos speak through heavy breaths. "This is indeed the end.. Leander... Haah... The end for you."

 Chapter 241: A Ripened Fruit

    Chapter 241: A Ripened Fruit


    Late Evening - Early Winter : Northeastern Bahamut


    -


    *RUMBLEEE* The violent rumble of my thrusters filled the air as I sted them in front of me, hoping to slow down some.


    But slowing down from nearly Mach 60 was no simple feat. Even with thrustersrge enough to easily sustain me at my usual Mach 15, I was only barely slowing down. -It''s working well enough, at least...-


    Looking up at the horizon, nearly 500 kilometers away, I saw a town full of lights and countless colossal buildings, with one, in particr, standing out. -That must be it...- The light was so warped by the atmosphere that it was a bit hard to tell exactly what the town and structure were, but it lined up with my mental map perfectly. -500 kilometers to the Elder Hall...-


    ncing back at Myles, who was still awestruck, I decided to ask how and where he wanted me tond. "Myles, where do you want me to-"


    But I couldn''t even finish before the horizon lit up. *sh*


    -Huh?- At first, it was only two small, bright dots, but in a matter of seconds, those dots turned into massive beams that eventually collided to form what could only be described as a portal to hell.


    The wall of fire and molten rock stretched well over a kilometer in every direction, with massive chunks of molten material being flung over five kilometers like sparks from a stoked me, quickly spreading the destruction to the town around the Elder Hall.But that was when I noticed that the wall of fire wasn''t outside of the town, to begin with. -Wait a minute...- The area around the wall of fire, now well-lit and easily visible, showed theplete and utter destruction of everything down to rubble, with only a handful of buildings remaining.


    "What..." Myles spoke as he looked toward the horizon with wide eyes. But his shock onlysted an instant. "Kid, how fast can you get us there?!"


    "30 seconds!"


    "Make it 15!" Almost instantly, I felt his aura wrap around my whole body, clinging to each scale individually before he started frantically activating his countless artifacts.


    -He''s actually serious...- Quickly crunching numbers to figure out the speed I needed, I dissipated the thruster magic again and resorted to antimatter. *FLASH-FWOOOOOSH*


    The sun-like light from the antimatter illuminated the ground beneath us again as we darted toward the horizon.


    It was only an instantter that Myles yelled out again. "Alright kid, I need you to do me a favor! When we get within 100 kilometers, I want you to drop me and go to the Elder Hall!" *vwooom*


    -Is you insane?! You want me to drop you when we''re going this fast?!-


    "If it''s someone you can''t fight, just run, but I need you to check on the Elder Hall members and try to make sure they are safe!"


    "Ah..." -Shit...- Feeling like refusing wasn''t an option, and hoping he actually understood how fast we were going, I reluctantly nodded and turned downward slightly. "After I drop you, don''t spread your wings or you could break them."


    "Duly noted."


    Turning back to the wall of fire, I noticed a huge hole had suddenly appeared in it, and it had begun changing shape, morphing as if the beam on the side away from us had ceased.


    But before I could shift gears to get ready to drop Myles, the beam of fire closest to us turned to the ground."


    In less than a second, the beam of fire spread out well over a kilometer and leveled everything still standing and turning the huge piles of rubble into t ground.


    "They must have lost their minds..." Myles spoke under his breath while oozing a palpable bloodlust. "Vasilias, drop me."


    -I''ll try to shield him while he changes forms...- *tap* Immediately opening my paw and letting him fall out, I threw him behind me where he promptly changed to his dragon form while being protected in my slipstream.


    His form quickly got too big for me to protect though. -I hope you can slow down, Myles; otherwise, you''re about to hit the ground really f*cking hard...- Pulling away, I watched as Myles mmed through the wall of air so fast that sma formed around his body like a nket.


    But he lookedpletely unphased. His cold eyes were locked on the source of the fire, still some 80 kilometers away, without the slightest care for the zing air that surrounded him. -What a monster...-


    But at the same time, I could have said the same thing about myself. *crackle-sizzle* The air around me sizzled as I released my vacuum magic. -I guess I should trust him for now...- Spreading my wings slightly, I instantly changed direction and went hurtling toward the Elder Hall that was now easily visible.


    "Haah..." Although I knew this would be troublesome, a part of me was a bit excited. -I hope I can stretch my legs a bit...- *Zip*


    Quickly scanning over the empty and damaged courtyard in front of the Hall, I noticed several dragons trying to control a crowd, with many flying away from the fight Myles was headed to. -But it doesn''t look like there is any conflict here...-


    *zip-crackle-RUUUMBLE* My thrusters stretched across the sky in an instant as I sted them to slow down.


    *pop-tsss* The humid air sizzled as I slowed down enough to release the magic and fell out of the cloud it left behind.


    *Fwoosh-fwoosh* *THUMP* As Inded, I was immediately met with the stares of everyone nearby, including an elder and an ancient that were speaking with each other.


    Surprisingly though, the ancient was the flustered one. "S-sir you cannot be here!" She sounded extremely stressed.


    -I guess I should just use Myles'' authority...- "I''m here with-"


    "How <strong><em>are</em></strong> you here?" The elder cut me off with a puzzled expression.


    -What?- A bad feeling came to my stomach the moment I heard the elder''s voice. "And what could you mean by that?"


    "Oh, nothing. You simply reminded me of someone I believed to be dead."


    I squinted my eyes slightly as suppressed anger came to my face. "Are you Holcyon Aetos by any chance?"


    But as if not caring about me, he smiled. "I am indeed."


    -I reminded you of someone who should be dead, huh...- *crunch* The ground cracked as I started walking toward him. "Could I hear more about how the person you mistook me for died?"


    His smile faded in an instant as he noticed my intent. "Young man, I''m not sure how you are involved in this, but since you helped me out quite a bit, I will spare you. However, I suggest you get running before I change my mind."


    But I didn''t budge. "Unfortunately, that won''t be happening." -No one touches those close to me...-


    "Haah..." He let out a sigh as he rxed his body. "Youngsters these days really are quite arrogant, aren''t they..." As he lowered his head, he awkwardly shifted his wing.


    -A signal?- *CRUNCH* Hearing the ground shatter behind me, I nced over to see another mid-size ancient that was a simr size to the woman.


    His face oozed aggression and killing intent, causing the woman next to me to tense up. "Erpo.. don''t do this..." She looked incredibly stressed.


    "Agatha, I apologize since my hatred isn''t aimed toward you, but I don''t expect you to forgive me in the afterlife. Please just ept your fate." *CRACK* Vanishing from where he was, he appeared next to the woman with his jaws about to mp on her neck.


    *CRACKLE* The noise of scales shattering echoed through the courtyard, and as if signaled by it, innumerable bright orange glows arose within the surrounding crowd. -Huh?-


    "Everyone," Holcyon''s voice filled the air like a devil''s whisper. "It''s time we reach for the fruit."


    -Wha..- *FWOOOOOOSH* In an instant, countless mes filled the air, engulfing the dragons controlling the crowd.


    As I watched the scene with wide eyes as Holcyon''s paw raised over my head.


    But instead of wearing a smile, a look of anger, or even spite, he gave me a look of pity. "Your prayers will fall on deaf ears." It was the look that finally made me snap. "Maybe in your next life, you will have the pleasure of worshiping a god that will respond..."


    My pupils dted the moment I locked eyes with him. "What good would praying do..."


    *CRUNCH* The ground shattered beneath my feet as he mmed his paw down onto my head, but my head didn''t lower at all.


    His eyes slowly widened with fear.


    "What reason does a god have to pray..."

 Chapter 242: The Realm of The Unrivaled

    Chapter 242: The Realm of The Unrivaled


    Late Evening - Early Winter : Northeastern Bahamut


    -


    - Myles Kalfas ~ (Back Several Minutes)


    *vwoop-vwoom-pop* Hastily activating the several artifacts on my fingers, I felt a huge suction pulling mana from my reserve to my hands and tapped Vasilias''s paw. "Vasilias, drop me."


    *fwip-Fwooosh* Immediately getting tossed behind him by his aura, I rxed my body and changed to my dragon form. *FLASH-FWOOOOSH* As my body grew toorge to hide behind Vasilias, I was met with immense pressure from the wind, but I didn''t have much time to think about it.


    *fwip-WHAM-CRACKK* The moment Vasilias pulled away, a wall of air stronger than iron mmed into my body with a deafening crack.


    An immediate, indescribable sensation wrapped around my body as if I were flying through a block of metal, but as I locked eyes on the two ancients in the distance, my mind blocked out my surroundings.


    But that was when <strong><em>he</em></strong> appeared.


    *puff* Just behind Megalos was the cloudy figure of a human, a figure I knew all too well. "THAT BASTARD IS BEHIND THIS?!"As I yelled out, I saw him reach toward Leander. -SH*T!-


    *VWOOOOM-CRACKLE* Everything within a kilometer of the figure instantaneously mmed into the ground, with only Megalos being the only exception.


    Before I knew it, a fire had appeared in my eyes, and as I quickly closed in, I watched the cloudy figure look in my direction and disappear, leaving Megalos alone, holding his paw in the air over Leander.


    "OH, NO YOU DON''T!"


    "..the end for you." *CRAAAACK-WHAAAM* Megalos was instantly mmed into the ground and sent bouncing across the ground, quickly exiting the circle of destruction and plowing through countless buildings. *CRRUUUUUNCHHHHH* The ground shook violently from the impact, quickly spreading even more destruction to the Elder''s District.


    But now I had slowed down enough to control myself. "THAT. IS. ENOUGH!" *WHHHHHHAAAMMMM* mming straight down onto Megalos, I pinned him against the ground and prepared some magic.


    "M..Myles Kal-" *CRUNCH* The moment he tried to speak, I sent a spell-backed stomp down onto his leg,pletely shattering everything in it before ripping it off, leaving only loose strings of divinity sticking out. "ARGGGGHH!"


    He immediately let out a scream, but I didn''t care in the slightest.


    "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU CAN''T-" *CRACK*


    Effortlessly biting into his neck, I ripped him out of the ground and hurled him back in Leander''s direction. *FWOOOOSH*


    *WHAM* *Crunch-CRACKLE* As he slowly stopped bouncing across the ground, he tried to recover and stand up, but immediately fell over as if yet to realize he was missing a leg. "W-what are you doing here?!" *shik-FWOOOSH*


    Throwing him again, I watched him m into the ground with a cold and heartless expression.


    This time, however, he noticed. "You c-can''t kill me!" He dizzily tried standing up again before falling onto his face. *Thump*


    "Oh, and why is that?"


    "H-h-he will kill you!"


    I clicked my tongue as I walked up to him. -Right... Knowing <strong><em>he</em></strong> is here.. I need to act like I have <strong><em>that</em></strong> with me...- "Is the ''he'' you speak of a human deity?"


    He immediately paled slightly.


    "You know, I met a simr cloudy figure about 20 years ago. He came up to me with the offer to show me how to escape mortality if I gave my assistance to the humans." I lowered my head to look into his eyes with dted pupils. "I didn''t expect anyone to fall for such a tant lie." *shik-FWOOOOSH*


    *WHAM-THUMP-Crackle* "H-how do you know it''s a trick?! If anyone knew how to reach godhood, it would be a god!"


    "Would a being who truly knew, resort to force the moment I turned them down?"


    "Th-th-that''s not possible! You would be dead if he wanted it!"


    My pupils thinned as I wanted to do nothing more than stomp his skull into the ground. "You think I''m so weak I would lose to a human without a body?" I paused as I continued up to him. "There are only a few things in this world that could kill me, but not a single one of them is human..." *shik-FWOOOSH*


    Tossing him onest time, I watched him bounce and slide across the ground beforeing to a stop next to Leander''s unconscious body.


    "I expected more from you when we first met all those years ago, Megalos... I''m truly disappointed."


    He continued to try and push himself up with heavy breaths. "Don''t give me that sh*t..." A me slowly appeared in his eyes as he spoke. "Bahamut is dead... It''s time we dragons start worshiping gods that will-" *CRUNCH* The ground shattered under his jaw as I mmed it into the ground.


    "We don''t worship Bahamut because we expect anything in return. We never have." *CRRRUNCH* Putting more weight onto my foot, his head slowly sank into the ground. "We worship Bahamut because he is the role model for future generations, the being to which all dragons should strive to be." *CRACKLE* "I guess it was too much to expect a pitiful bastard like you to understand that."


    "Tch..." He clicked his tongue without hesitation. "You wille to know it in time... We dragons have always worshipped strength and power above all else, but this isn''t the golden age, Myles. We don''t have the strength to rival <strong><em>them</em></strong>."


    An image popped into my head the moment he said it. The image of a dragon. "I wouldn''t be too sure about that..."


    But the instant I finished, a deafening noise rang out behind us. *BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMM*


    I instantly turned to look toward it, but the moment I did, my eyes went wide.


    A beam of abyssal darkness stretched across the night sky as if the space had simply been erased without any trace remaining.


    It was a sight that sent a shiver down my spine, but also made me feel oddly excited. "We are on the verge of a new era... An era that will make the golden age look like child''s y."


    -


    - Vasilias ~ (Back A Couple Minutes)


    "Maybe in your next life, you will have the pleasure of worshiping a god that will respond..."


    My pupils dted the moment I locked eyes with him. "What good would praying do..."


    *WHAM-CRUNCH* The ground shattered beneath my feet as he mmed his paw down onto my head, but my head didn''t lower at all.


    His eyes slowly widened with fear the longer he looked at me.


    "What reason does a god have to pray..."


    *WHAAAM* His body mmed into the ground instantly, creating a web of cracks that quickly spread throughout the courtyard.


    "You know, I was originally going to kill you immediately after finding out whether you really sent those assassins or not, but now you''ve caught my attention." I gently set my paw on his shoulder as my aura kept him pinned to the ground. "The god that you worship isn''t Bahamut, is it?" A slightly crazed look came to my face as I looked into his eyes.


    "Y-you dare c-call yourself.. a god?" He spoke with a strained voice. "W-what kind of bullsh-" *WHAAAMMM* The entire courtyard shook violently as it shattered and sank into the ground, causing the entrance of the Elder Hall behind me to copse. *Crumble-THUD* "AAAGHHH!" Holcyon let out a scream through his teeth as I pulled my bloody paw out of what used to be his shoulder.


    "Now, let me ask again..." This time lowering my head next to his, the glow between my scales gained a blue hue. "Who is that god you worship-"


    "What is going on here?!"


    Hearing an unfamiliar, deep voice, I lifted my gaze off Holcyon and looked toward the destroyed entrance to the Elder Hall.


    Running down the hallway was arge golden dragon with a furious expression. -He must be a member of the council.-


    As he neared the entrance and saw the destruction and the countless dragons fighting in the fire around the edge of the courtyard, his expression worsened.


    But it wasn''t until he looked at me that things turned for the worst.


    Holcyon gave the dragon a pitiful, pleading expression, and almost immediately, the golden dragon tensed up. "To think a single half-breed could raise suck a ruckus!"


    As he lowered his body and got ready to lunge at me, I noticed a sly smilee to Holcyon''s face. -He must have gone insane from the pain...-


    *FWOOOSH* Instantly closing the distance between us, I watched as the golden dragon tried to drive his ws into my back.


    *clink* But they just slid off, leaving only a small scratch, as if they were a dull knife hitting a block of steel.


    *Crunch-CRACK-FWOOOSH* Smacking him across the face with my tail, I sent him flying into the surrounding crowd of brawling dragons before turning back to Holcyon with a crazed smile.


    "Now, where was I?"

 Temporary

Temporary


    I can promise the chapter will not disappoint!


    -


    This announcement will be deleted tomorrow when the chapter is uploaded

 Chapter 243: The Sound of Death

    Chapter 243: The Sound of Death


    Late Evening - Early Winter : Northeastern Bahamut


    -


    *clink* *Crunch-CRACK-FWOOOSH* The scales on the dragon''s face shattered like y as my tail sent him flying into the crowd of dragons a couple hundred meters away.


    "Now, where was I?" The air turned cold as I shifted my gaze back toward Holcyon.


    He immediately paled from fear.


    "How about you tell me about that god you worship?" My expression slowly turned crazed as I loomed over him.


    He immediately looked toward the crowd, as if to look for someone.


    But that wasn''t the answer to my question. *tap-CRUUUNCH* His paw crunched like a bundle of sticks as I stepped on it.


    "AAGH!" He immediately grit his teeth as his expression turned angry. "You b-bastard!" He stuttered as he pushed through the pain. "You didn''t even let me answer!"I calmly lowered my head next to his, so he had to look into my eyes. "Maybe if you didn''t look to signal someone in the crowd, I would have given you more time."


    *cRaCkLe* "Ack..." He gritted his teeth again as I put more weight onto his paw.


    "Now, how about you start with their name?"


    "W-why would I tell that.. to a dead man?" A smile slowly crept onto his face as he spoke.


    I almost wanted tough. "You can''t be serious, right?" *CRACKLE* His shin broke like a twig as I moved my paw forward. "You really think someone can save you here?"


    "TCH-... Bastards like you.. who refuse to open your eyes.. will always fall to the strong."


    A smile quickly came to my face as I noticed his confidence. "You better pray your god personallyes to save you then." *cRaCkLe* A bloody mist appeared over my head before small pieces of flesh, bones, clothes, and the shattered remains of a metal sword fell to the ground around me. "Because I can guarantee no one else is strong enough."


    His face paled before my attention turned to something else. *ding-cling*


    Looking toward the noise, I saw a golden band rolling off my body from the human I had just killed.


    On the band, there was an insignia I hade to know quite well recently. -The Holy Kingdom...-


    The moment I thought of the name, over a dozen more people with their presences concealed dashed at me. -Humans really are overconfident... No matter the world...-


    Instantly pulling my aura off Holcyon, I used it to wring the necks of the humans like chickens, causing them all to limply and helplessly fall to the ground.


    But the moment I made an opening, Holcyon leapt up and lunged at me, gripping his ws into my neck before a surge of mana flowed into his paw.


    It was hisst, fear-driven attack, but it was shamefully weak.


    *CrAcK-WHAM* His ws shattered and his body mmed back into the ground the moment I turned my attention back to him. "For a dragon to depend on humans... You truly must not realize the kind of blessing being born as a dragon is..." Raising my foot over his head, I decided it was best to knock him out and wait to regroup with Myles, but the moment I did, a cold and domineering voice met my ears.


    "Child, although I usually forgive the ignorant, I cannot let you ruin our ns any further."


    -Huh?- My body turned weightless instantly. *FWOOOOOSH-WHAAAM-CRUMBLE* The next thing I knew, I was hurled into the Elder Hall at a speed I wasn''t ready to react to.


    *tumble-SMASH-WHAM* Finallying to a stop, I found myself embedded in the wall of a colosseum-like room with tworge dragons staring at me with wide eyes. -Is this the inside of the Elder Hall?-


    Both dragons were half-breeds that I hadn''t seen before, but it''s not like that mattered.


    *Crumble* Using my wings to push myself out of the wall, I looked out of the hole I created on my way in and saw the clouded figure pointing at me. -For a god, he''s quite shameless...-


    But I couldn''t even finish my thought before a bone-chilling suction of mana started pulling everything into the middle of the room.


    It was a familiar sensation that simply made my eyes go wide.


    It was a fusion artifact. -There is one in the ground?! Are they trying to kill everyone in this city?!-


    Instantly blocking out my surroundings, I darted toward the center of the room and stomped the ground. *CRUNCH-VWOOOM* Almost immediately, a huge column of stone was ejected from the ground, bringing with it arge, brightly glowing orb. -You want to y like that?! ALRIGHT!-


    *CRRRUNCH* Biting into the stone column, I ripped out the artifact and moved it to the back of my mouth.


    But by the time I turned to actually run it toward and use it on Holcyon, it was toote. -SHIT!-


    The next thing I knew, time was frozen, and in my mouth was the fusion artifact on the verge of detonation.


    Countless thoughts ran through my mind as I questioned the limited number of things I could actually do before it detonated.


    But amongst the ideas, there was only one option that kept everything in front of me from getting obliterated.


    *Chomp* Making sure my mouth was tightly closed, I instantaneouslyyered space mana around my reserve. -HERE GOES NOTHING!-


    *vWWWOOOOOM* A searing pain coursed through me as divinity flooded my body at the expense of the mana in my reserve.


    But even though the divinity spread through my body faster than light, it still wasn''t quick enough. *tink-VWOOOOM-BAAAAAAAANNNNNGGGG*


    The Elder Hall melted instantaneously before the shockwave sent the molten rock hurtling into the town at an astonishing speed and sank the whole area into a crater.


    *fwoooossshhh-crackle-blub* Air rushed through the area as it eagerly tried to find equilibrium within the zing sma.


    *pft-st-thump* Almost falling over, I caught myself with a haze filling my mind. -I''m.. alive...-


    My reserve had barely one percent of what it did just a single second ago, and my body felt like it was on fire.


    But oddly enough, as the haze started to clear, I felt confident I could make due. -To throw me like that.. that god must be tethered to a physical body nearby...- *crackle-thump* *thump* *thump* Quickly recollecting myself, I slowly made my way out of the crater and met eyes with Holcyon and the figure with him.


    This time the god''s body had the clear form of a man in archaic-looking armor, and I could even partially see his expression.


    He simply stood there, paralyzed with wide eyes, as I walked out of the crater with a smile slowly creeping on my face.


    But that was when he vanished from where he was and appeared next to me without uttering a word. *vwwooop* A glove of divinity formed around his hand as an invisibly small string in the air seemed to supply him with the mana to make use of it. -A.. tether?-


    *WHAAAMMMMM* The molten crater exploded the moment his hand hit me, sending a huge shockwave into the town and causing the whole area to sink further into the ground.


    It was a hit that I expected to do a number on me.


    But I stood there with a crazed expression after having my head only recoil slightly. "To think you''d willingly show me your tether!"


    His eyes instantly widened with fear as I looked over toward two ancients who had ceased their fighting and were staring at me.


    "To think a god can form a tether with a dragon!" *FWO-CRAAAACKKK* I instantly vanished from where I was before appearing next to the ancient named Erpo. "Sorry to interrupt!" *Fwip-CRAACK-VWOOOOM* Driving my paw into his side, his bones and scales shattered as if they were never there, before causing a violent explosion of mana as his reserve ruptured and shredded his tether with the god *CRACK-FWOOOOOOOSH*


    Seeing the dragon hurtling toward the horizon well past Mach, I darted back to the god, who now had a massive chunk of his body missing. "You know! Killing gods is pretty fun!" The glow between my scales turned bright blue instantly the moment I aimed up at him.


    His eyes widened as he sat there, seemingly unable to move. "SKULD YOU LYING WHOR-" *FLASH* An instantaneous sh caused the night sky to turn white before a beam that absorbed and annihted everything followed it. *BBBBRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*


    The noise echoed through the area countless times faster and farther than sound as the beam stretched into the sky like a beacon.


    Even dragons over 500 kilometers away could hear and see the beam with ease as it stretched toward the stars before turning bright once more and illuminating the world like a rising sun.


    The deep and chilling noise that countless dragons heard that day quickly earned it a name that would be known all throughout Bahamut, before the news of what happened could even spread.


    It became known as the Sound of Death.

 Chapter 244: Devils Temptation

    Chapter 244: Devil''s Temptation


    Early Morning - Early Winter : Northeastern Bahamut


    -


    "SKULD YOU LYING WHOR-" *FLASH* *BBBBRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM* The whole shook violently as a beam so hot it could turn steel to gas instantaneously reached far out of the atmosphere.


    But it quickly died down. *MMMMmmmmm* As the beam thinned, a glowing pir of sma that stretched to the edge of the atmosphere was revealed and remained still and unchanging like a beacon.


    "Hooh..." I let out a quick breath as my head fell toward the ground. *TSSSSSSS-blub-THUMP* The pool of molted rock I stood in sshed as I caught myself from falling over. "Haaaaah..." My breathing was heavy, and my head was still spinning after turning nearly my entire reserve into divinity, but after using that antimatter spell, I was essentially running on fumes. -Thank goodness antimatter is so efficient...-


    Quickly thinning my reserve as much as possible, a colossal stream of mana started flowing into me, but it could barely be considered a drop every few seconds. -But as long as no one else picks a fight I can''t settle physically... I should be alright...-


    Finally taking a moment to look at my unfamiliar, molten surroundings, I noticed I was embedded in a crater nearly a hundred meters deep and several hundred meters wide. "Haah..." But while it was huge, a part of me was surprised it wasn''t bigger. -I guess the crater was purely from residual heat though...-


    Not feeling energetic enough to fly, I looked around to try and orient myself before starting to walk out of the crater. -I wonder how many people survived the heat wave...-


    *thump* *thump* *thump* Finally cresting the edge of the crater, I was immediately met with the stares of the several dozen dragons still at the edge of the courtyard only a couple hundred meters away.Surprisingly, almost none of them looked like they had any kind of injuries from the heat, with only a handful having char marks that were likely from Holcyons group''s breaths. -Did the fires from those breaths end up protecting them?-


    Quickly scanning over the crowd, I checked to make sure no one else was going to pick a fight before looking toward where I left Holcyon, somewhere only a few dozen meters from the edge of the crater.


    -He really is like a cockroach...- After watching him desperately crawl away with hisst functioning leg for a moment, I finally made my way over.


    *thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* But as if he couldn''t even feel the vibrations of my steps, he didn''t stop to look toward me.


    "I knew you acted and fought like a bug.. but to think you''d even crawl like one." *CRUNCH* Hisst remaining leg snapped like a twig as he pushed extra hard on it.


    "Mmm..." *thud* I stood over him as he fell to the ground, only noticing that his melted scales had locked his mouth, nose, and eyes shut after another moment.


    -That''s no good...- *crackle* Holding one of my ws near his mouth, I thoughtlessly used the residual heat around my body to melt his scales again.


    It was only an instantter that his mouth shot open with a gasp for air. *GASP* "ACK-" Almost instantly after gasping though, he vomited up a pool of crimson blood that boiled the moment it touched the ground.


    *tsssss* But my heartless expression remained unchanged. "Even if you were not injured at all, you couldn''t run from me... Give up."


    The weight on his broken leg eased almost immediately. "You.. monster..."


    He looked like he was finally epting his fate, but I had no ns to let him die so soon. "Call me whatever you like. I couldn''t care less about how you view me." I paused and looked at him like I was looking at a bug before deciding to continue. "That god. What was his name?"


    "Hah.. hah.. T..Tyr..." His voice was incredibly strained and soundedpletely different from earlier, likely from the heat wave burning his passageways. "The.. god of war..."


    -The god of war, huh?- "So I''m guessing you got those ''city killer'' artifacts from him?"


    "H..he told us.. where to find them..."


    I twitched the instant I recognized what he said. "And where would that be?"


    "I-in a small mountain.. a few dozen kilometers north of the ancient wreckage..."


    -The ancient wreckage again...- Instantlymitting the directions to memory, I sat down and decided to ask some more timely questions while I waited for Myles''s eventual arrival. "What were you trying to achieve with this?"


    "Huek-" He threw up more blood before continuing. "Power... I was going to rule over everything this world had to offer..."


    -With your strength?- I squinted my eyes immediately. "And how did you expect that to happen?"


    "Siratha... Siratha was the key..." His eyes slowly lost their life the longer he talked. "Siratha''s strength is second only to the Holy Kingdom and the Forgotten Inds, and with my case against Amphitrite, I was going to get control of the merfolk... All that was left was for us to take control of Siratha and groom the poption into a military force capable of conquering the continents..."


    -You''re severely underestimating Vilulf...- But honestly, I couldn''t even trick myself to believe it would get that far. "Myles and Amphitrite would most definitely stop you, let alone the many other ancients who still respect world order."


    "But I had Asgard and the Holy Kingdom behind me... They said they would protect me..."


    "As if." My voice turned dark instantly. "Humans in power would never do anything that lessened their position. You were being used like a puppet."


    "But-"


    "Holcyon." Myles''s voice quickly cut him off before he could spew more bullsh*t. "I never imagined I''d see you stooping this low." *WHAAAAAM* The ground shook violently as the massive body of arge ancient limply mmed down next to me.


    I recognized its turquoise scales instantly. -This must be the ancient that was fighting Leander...-


    "To think you were here too..." Holcyon looked at Myles with a hint of anger in his eyes. "Things really would have been perfect... We could have killed you today as well..." His eyes slowly lost their fire as he looked back at me. "If only the devil himself didn''t descend... If only.. the Goddess of Oracles didn''t lie..."


    I squinted my eyes again as I looked back to see him on the verge of passing out. -The Goddess of Oracles, huh...-


    "Holcyon, think about it..." *CRUNCH* The rubble-covered ground crunched like gravel as Mylesnded. "If I am an obstacle in Asgard''s way, then why am I alive?" Myles''s bloodlust oozed out of him as he reached down and picked up Holcyon by the head. "I''m not on their side, so how could that be?"


    His look turned crazed for a moment, immediately giving me a chill.


    "It''s because they''re afraid of me. And this incident will only fuel the fire." *Crunch* He dropped Holcyon''s unconscious head back to the ground before letting out a quick breath and turning to the crowd of dragons still watching from the sidelines. "Haah... No one is allowed to say a word about a ck dragon rting to this incident. Those of you who were with Holcyon, I know who you are, but I will not push capital punishment, but if something gets out rted to this incident, I will personally wipe out the existence of each and every one of you, along with your families. I believe I have made myself clear."


    A deafening silence filled the air almost instantly.


    -


    - Skuld, The Goddess of Oracles ~


    *fwoooooosh* A steady breeze blew through me while I looked over the ocean, but I couldn''t feel a thing.


    It felt horrible. Having not felt a cool breeze or even a mortal''s touch in well over ten thousand years, there was nothing I wanted more than to feel something besides emotion.


    But such was the cost of being a god. -''Losing everything that makes you mortal'', huh... I didn''t really think about it back then...-


    Pulling up and hugging my legs, I set my head on them and watched as the ck horizon was slowly lit up by the rising sun behind me. -I wonder if any of my family were in that first group to reincarnate...-


    *Vwoop* An odd noise cut off my thought as a heavily suppressed presence appeared behind me.


    "You look guilty." Her voice was smooth and soothing.


    "It''s not about what you think..."


    "Hoh? You aren''t guilty about sending Tyr to his death?"


    Slowly looking over my shoulder, I met eyes with a ck-haired woman with beauty that rivaled Freya. "I told him the oracle I saw at the time... That oracle was simply wrong..."


    "Huhu~, how could that be? Your Oracles view the fate of the future, don''t they?"


    I gave her a look of skepticism before turning back to the horizon. "Why are you here..."


    She paused before walking up next to me. "I came with a proposition."


    -Hm?-


    "There is a young demihuman girl that has been making quite a name for herself in recent years."


    "I''m not going to kill her if that''s where you''re going."


    "No, not quite. She just recently arrived in the Holy Kingdom." A smile crept onto her face as she spoke. "Convince Odin to take her in as the hero..."


    "You know how much Odin hates demi-"


    "..and I will help you create a body that can feel."

 Chapter 255: The Artifacts Doing

    Chapter 255: The Artifact''s Doing


    Late Morning - Early Winter : Outskirts of Fae, Holy Kingdom


    -


    - Unknown Noble ~ (Same as Ch. 235)


    "Uwaah..." I let out a yawn as I looked out the window of the carriage and into the forest. -I wonder what that tremorst night was from...-


    The night prior, we were camping on the roadside and eating our dinner before we nned toy down and get some rest, but out of nowhere, the carriage started to rattle slightly and an extremely faint vibration could be felt, but it didn''t seem to being from the ground.


    It was nothing like anything anyone in my escort group had ever experienced to the point that we struggled to call it a tremor, but we eventually came to the conclusion it was some monsters fighting off in the distance and decided to pack things back up and get on the road. -But that.. mercenary has been acting weirdly ever since...-


    Looking forward out the window, I saw the small, ck-robed figure tightly hugging her cloth-wrapped de. -Just who is she...-


    "Are you alright, young lord?" The voice of the maid who came with me snapped me out of my thoughts in an instant.


    "Ah, uh, yes. I''m fine." I felt like I was on the verge of falling asleep, but I had to stay up."This carriage can be slept in if you wish to rest. The seats pull out, and there is a cushion and nket in the cab behind the backrest-"


    "The knight captain told me not to fall asleep in case something happens..."


    "That was nearly three hours ago, young lord... The monsters we felt fighting should be far behind us by now."


    I paused as I turned to look at her, quickly noticing her worried look. "Father taught me not to rest without the knights. If I rest without them, I won''t have any idea how tired they are..." Although I thought it was a bit of a dumb rule, I could somewhat understand it. -Regardless, it is true that we are in Orc territory... I guess it couldn''t hurt to stay alert...-


    Right as I thought that though, a faint but growing vibration could be felt. *rrrrumble*


    The frantic voices of everyone outside sounded through the carriage immediately as I looked out the window to see two knights blocking the door to the carriage with their horses. -What is...-


    "Young Lord! Pleasey down! You mustn''t let anyone or anything outside know you are in-"


    *rrrrrrummmbleee-crunch-crackle* The noise of trees copsing followed the approaching rumble before the door to the carriage was broken open.


    "Young lord!" It was the head knight. "Get on my horse! Hurry! There is a stampede!"


    The maid and I both paled instantly as she hastily got me up and moved me to the door. "Young Lord you need to hurry!"


    Without being able to say a word, the head knight casually grabbed me as if I weighed nothing and set me behind him on his horse. "Kid, hold on to me!" But instead of dashing ahead or running away when I gripped onto his cold metal armor, he stayed still next to the carriage and frantically looked around.


    That was when a man in light leather armor came sprinting out of the woods.


    His look of panic only made my mind go nk with fear. "Captain! It''s orcs!"


    "WHAT?!" The head knight yelled out instantly. "Why would orcs create a stampede?!"


    "They didn''t create one!" He paused as he frantically looked over his shoulder. "They ARE the stampede!"


    Almost immediately after he finished yelling out, a huge plume of dirt and dust peeked over the trees, and the ever-approaching noises of the stampede grew louder.


    But before they made it to the road, the dust cloud changed direction.


    "They turned..." The head knight watched the plume of dust closely before a single massive orc came charging out of the forest ahead of us.


    "Eouu!" *Crackle* It grunted as it plowed through a tree and entered the road.


    But it onlysted a mere instant. *fwip* The subtle noise of a thin de passing through the air met my ears as I watched the huge orc''s body fall to the ground in two bloody pieces, cut in half at the stomach.


    The sight made me feel sick, but as I looked ahead, nearly a hundred orcs plowed through the forest and charged across the road, quickly causing my disgust to be overruled by fear.


    *rrrruuummbbleeee* as thest few orcs crossed the road a few hundred meters ahead, we all stayed still, and quiet, as we watched intently.


    But sadly, staying quiet did nothing.


    "RRRRROOOOAAARR!" A deafening roar ripped through the air, as everyone looked where the stampede came from and saw an absolutely massive wyvern.


    Its roar alone sent a paralyzing fear through my body, and as itnded, I could do nothing but sit still, frozen from fear. *WHAM*


    But it''s what followed that I woulde to remember for the rest of my life. *CRUUNCH-CRRACK* The nauseating noise of bones breaking made me feel the urge to vomit instantly, but when I finally peeked around the head knight, instead of seeing a knight being eaten by the wyvern, I saw the ck-robed mercenary standing on its head. -W..what?-


    The wyvern''s jaw was bloody from being mmed into the ground, but it instantly threw its head up and tossed the mercenary into the air, immediately preparing to breathe fire on her.


    But the mercenary simply reached for her sword, still wrapped in cloth and likely even sheathed.


    -W..what is she...-


    *CRRRUUUUNNNCHHH* The head of the wyvern suddenly exploded into a bloody mist as the mercenary instantly appeared next to it.


    *flop-THUD* As the wyvern''s body limply fell to the ground, everyone who was frozen from fear looked at the scene in awe.


    The robe the mercenary wore continued to grow bloodier as she stood in the clouded remains of the wyvern''s head, yet somehow the cloth around her de was untouched, untainted by the blood of the monster even though she had driven it through its head.


    But I was simply too awestruck to notice such a minor detail.


    The only thing that could even enter my mind was the sensation of awe apanied by a single thought. -How can.. someone be that strong...-


    -


    - Vasilias ~


    *rumble* The muffled rumble of shrunken thrusters filled the air as I flew over the wide channel between Khor''s ind and the maind. (The big northeastern ind Myles''s estate and the northern prison are on)


    "Haah..." I let out a quick breath as I dispersed the thrusters to glide once again. -I really wish I could nap right about now...- "Uwaah..."


    It had been a little over two hours since I had killed Tyr, and I still had a lot on my mind, but I was so exhausted that my thoughts were stuck in a fog. -Mana exhaustion is a really.. unpleasant experience...-


    Thankfully, even though my reserve was almost empty, I had more than enough mana to sustain my body''s function even if I couldn''t absorb mana for a couple months, but this didn''t numb the feeling of mana exhaustion at all. "Ugh..." -At least Myles took the k for me...-


    Back when Mylesnded next to me, he quickly silenced the crowd and essentially erased my influence from the whole event. -Now the gods will target him, and I can continue to lie low for the time being...- But just as I thought that, the idea of checking out the ''ancient wreckage'' in the mountains of the Holy Kingdom crossed my mind. -The gods don''t seem to be able to sense what I am, so.. maybe I can sneak over there...-


    As I looked down though, I saw arge dragon with two children who could only barely be 10 years old trailing behind. The children smiled brightly as the mother slowed down to let them catch their breath on her back.


    Without even realizing it, I started smiling. -I wonder how everyone is doing...-


    But my smile didn''tst too long. "~Every time I see you, I get more jealous...~"


    -Wow, not having a lot of aura is really bad... I didn''t sense her at all...- "Can you not stand on my head?" I tilted my head slightly to look up at the cloudy figure. -She''s still cloudypared to Tyr... Does that mean she''s weaker than him?-


    "~You know it''s not nice to look at me like I''m some weak being...~" She casually floated out in front of me, perfectly keeping up with my pace. "~I''m a goddess, you know.~"


    "Uh-huh..." I agreed with some sarcasm before seeing her cross her arms. "So what is it you want this time?"


    "~Can I not simply visit you to chat?~"


    "Why would some ten-thousand-year-old goddess want to simply chat with me... Especially a human one..." -She is definitely only helping me because she has something to gain... I just don''t know what it is...- I squinted my eyes slightly as I spoke.


    "~Haah, Im not sure whether to agree or be offended...~" She mumbled under her breath before looking me in the eye. "~Regardless, since you aren''t in a yful mood, I''ll get to the point.~" She paused as if waiting for a reaction from me before continuing. "~When you kill a god, you essentially shred their soul and scatter it in that.. other dimension.~"


    "Yeah, and?"


    "~Well, I might be able to absorb the remnants of their souls even if their divinity has already been devoured... By now, there should be no impurities left in the soul fragments at all, so I should be able to absorb them with no side effects...~"


    A bad feeling came to my gut in an instant. "You can''t seriously think I''m that stupid, right?" -She''s out of her mind if she thinks I''ll even consider that...-


    "~You are impossible to fool... I already learned that years ago...~" She let out a quick breath before giving me a serious look. "~This isn''t a thoughtless request...~"


    After squinting my eyes for a moment, I decided to at least hear her out. "So, what do I stand to gain?"


    "~If you let me absorb the soul fragments, I will be able to better assist you in your growth...~" Seeing me not convinced, she quickly continued. "Even after absorbing the soul fragments, I will be far too weak to even scratch your scales.. plus, you cannot absorb the fragments yourself, so you have nothing to lose...~"


    -Hm?- "Why couldn''t I absorb them?"


    "~Because...~" She immediately started mming up. "~You don''t exactly have a soul to absorb the fragments...~"


    My whole body tensed instantaneously as the fog clouding my mind cleared. "That''s not possible. Every living being must have a soul."


    "~Yes, that is correct, but your soul isn''t in your body...~" She promptly continued seeing my look of disbelief. "~That artifact you touched right after you hatched.. although I don''t know everything it did, I know for a fact it detached your soul from your body... It''s actually one of the reasons you''re still alive...~"


    I paused as I looked at her with a threatening re. "I''m going to need you to give me some details... Don''t even think about running off this time..."


    "~I won''t.~" She put up her hands with a calm expression. "~It''s about time you learned anyway...~"

 Chapter 245: The Artifacts Doing

    Chapter 245: The Artifact''s Doing


    Late Morning - Early Winter : Outskirts of Fae, Holy Kingdom


    -


    - Unknown Noble ~ (Same as Ch. 235)


    "Uwaah..." I let out a yawn as I looked out the window of the carriage and into the forest. -I wonder what that tremorst night was from...-


    The night prior, we were camping on the roadside and eating our dinner before we nned toy down and get some rest, but out of nowhere, the carriage started to rattle slightly and an extremely faint vibration could be felt, but it didn''t seem to being from the ground.


    It was nothing like anything anyone in my escort group had ever experienced to the point that we struggled to call it a tremor, but we eventually came to the conclusion it was some monsters fighting off in the distance and decided to pack things back up and get on the road. -But that.. mercenary has been acting weirdly ever since...-


    Looking forward out the window, I saw the small, ck-robed figure tightly hugging her cloth-wrapped de. -Just who is she...-


    "Are you alright, young lord?" The voice of the maid who came with me snapped me out of my thoughts in an instant.


    "Ah, uh, yes. I''m fine." I felt like I was on the verge of falling asleep, but I had to stay up."This carriage can be slept in if you wish to rest. The seats pull out, and there is a cushion and nket in the cab behind the backrest-"


    "The knight captain told me not to fall asleep in case something happens..."


    "That was nearly three hours ago, young lord... The monsters we felt fighting should be far behind us by now."


    I paused as I turned to look at her, quickly noticing her worried look. "Father taught me not to rest without the knights. If I rest without them, I won''t have any idea how tired they are..." Although I thought it was a bit of a dumb rule, I could somewhat understand it. -Regardless, it is true that we are in Orc territory... I guess it couldn''t hurt to stay alert...-


    Right as I thought that though, a faint but growing vibration could be felt. *rrrrumble*


    The frantic voices of everyone outside sounded through the carriage immediately as I looked out the window to see two knights blocking the door to the carriage with their horses. -What is...-


    "Young Lord! Pleasey down! You mustn''t let anyone or anything outside know you are in-"


    *rrrrrrummmbleee-crunch-crackle* The noise of trees copsing followed the approaching rumble before the door to the carriage was broken open.


    "Young lord!" It was the head knight. "Get on my horse! Hurry! There is a stampede!"


    The maid and I both paled instantly as she hastily got me up and moved me to the door. "Young Lord you need to hurry!"


    Without being able to say a word, the head knight casually grabbed me as if I weighed nothing and set me behind him on his horse. "Kid, hold on to me!" But instead of dashing ahead or running away when I gripped onto his cold metal armor, he stayed still next to the carriage and frantically looked around.


    That was when a man in light leather armor came sprinting out of the woods.


    His look of panic only made my mind go nk with fear. "Captain! It''s orcs!"


    "WHAT?!" The head knight yelled out instantly. "Why would orcs create a stampede?!"


    "They didn''t create one!" He paused as he frantically looked over his shoulder. "They ARE the stampede!"


    Almost immediately after he finished yelling out, a huge plume of dirt and dust peeked over the trees, and the ever-approaching noises of the stampede grew louder.


    But before they made it to the road, the dust cloud changed direction.


    "They turned..." The head knight watched the plume of dust closely before a single massive orc came charging out of the forest ahead of us.


    "Eouu!" *Crackle* It grunted as it plowed through a tree and entered the road.


    But it onlysted a mere instant. *fwip* The subtle noise of a thin de passing through the air met my ears as I watched the huge orc''s body fall to the ground in two bloody pieces, cut in half at the stomach.


    The sight made me feel sick, but as I looked ahead, nearly a hundred orcs plowed through the forest and charged across the road, quickly causing my disgust to be overruled by fear.


    *rrrruuummbbleeee* as thest few orcs crossed the road a few hundred meters ahead, we all stayed still, and quiet, as we watched intently.


    But sadly, staying quiet did nothing.


    "RRRRROOOOAAARR!" A deafening roar ripped through the air, as everyone looked where the stampede came from and saw an absolutely massive wyvern.


    Its roar alone sent a paralyzing fear through my body, and as itnded, I could do nothing but sit still, frozen from fear. *WHAM*


    But it''s what followed that I woulde to remember for the rest of my life. *CRUUNCH-CRRACK* The nauseating noise of bones breaking made me feel the urge to vomit instantly, but when I finally peeked around the head knight, instead of seeing a knight being eaten by the wyvern, I saw the ck-robed mercenary standing on its head. -W..what?-


    The wyvern''s jaw was bloody from being mmed into the ground, but it instantly threw its head up and tossed the mercenary into the air, immediately preparing to breathe fire on her.


    But the mercenary simply reached for her sword, still wrapped in cloth and likely even sheathed.


    -W..what is she...-


    *CRRRUUUUNNNCHHH* The head of the wyvern suddenly exploded into a bloody mist as the mercenary instantly appeared next to it.


    *flop-THUD* As the wyvern''s body limply fell to the ground, everyone who was frozen from fear looked at the scene in awe.


    The robe the mercenary wore continued to grow bloodier as she stood in the clouded remains of the wyvern''s head, yet somehow the cloth around her de was untouched, untainted by the blood of the monster even though she had driven it through its head.


    But I was simply too awestruck to notice such a minor detail.


    The only thing that could even enter my mind was the sensation of awe apanied by a single thought. -How can.. someone be that strong...-


    -


    - Vasilias ~


    *rumble* The muffled rumble of shrunken thrusters filled the air as I flew over the wide channel between Khor''s ind and the maind. (The big northeastern ind Myles''s estate and the northern prison are on)


    "Haah..." I let out a quick breath as I dispersed the thrusters to glide once again. -I really wish I could nap right about now...- "Uwaah..."


    It had been a little over two hours since I had killed Tyr, and I still had a lot on my mind, but I was so exhausted that my thoughts were stuck in a fog. -Mana exhaustion is a really.. unpleasant experience...-


    Thankfully, even though my reserve was almost empty, I had more than enough mana to sustain my body''s function even if I couldn''t absorb mana for a couple months, but this didn''t numb the feeling of mana exhaustion at all. "Ugh..." -At least Myles took the k for me...-


    Back when Mylesnded next to me, he quickly silenced the crowd and essentially erased my influence from the whole event. -Now the gods will target him, and I can continue to lie low for the time being...- But just as I thought that, the idea of checking out the ''ancient wreckage'' in the mountains of the Holy Kingdom crossed my mind. -The gods don''t seem to be able to sense what I am, so.. maybe I can sneak over there...-


    As I looked down though, I saw arge dragon with two children who could only barely be 10 years old trailing behind. The children smiled brightly as the mother slowed down to let them catch their breath on her back.


    Without even realizing it, I started smiling. -I wonder how everyone is doing...-


    But my smile didn''tst too long. "~Every time I see you, I get more jealous...~"


    -Wow, not having a lot of aura is really bad... I didn''t sense her at all...- "Can you not stand on my head?" I tilted my head slightly to look up at the cloudy figure. -She''s still cloudypared to Tyr... Does that mean she''s weaker than him?-


    "~You know it''s not nice to look at me like I''m some weak being...~" She casually floated out in front of me, perfectly keeping up with my pace. "~I''m a goddess, you know.~"


    "Uh-huh..." I agreed with some sarcasm before seeing her cross her arms. "So what is it you want this time?"


    "~Can I not simply visit you to chat?~"


    "Why would some ten-thousand-year-old goddess want to simply chat with me... Especially a human one..." -She is definitely only helping me because she has something to gain... I just don''t know what it is...- I squinted my eyes slightly as I spoke.


    "~Haah, Im not sure whether to agree or be offended...~" She mumbled under her breath before looking me in the eye. "~Regardless, since you aren''t in a yful mood, I''ll get to the point.~" She paused as if waiting for a reaction from me before continuing. "~When you kill a god, you essentially shred their soul and scatter it in that.. other dimension.~"


    "Yeah, and?"


    "~Well, I might be able to absorb the remnants of their souls even if their divinity has already been devoured... By now, there should be no impurities left in the soul fragments at all, so I should be able to absorb them with no side effects...~"


    A bad feeling came to my gut in an instant. "You can''t seriously think I''m that stupid, right?" -She''s out of her mind if she thinks I''ll even consider that...-


    "~You are impossible to fool... I already learned that years ago...~" She let out a quick breath before giving me a serious look. "~This isn''t a thoughtless request...~"


    After squinting my eyes for a moment, I decided to at least hear her out. "So, what do I stand to gain?"


    "~If you let me absorb the soul fragments, I will be able to better assist you in your growth...~" Seeing me not convinced, she quickly continued. "Even after absorbing the soul fragments, I will be far too weak to even scratch your scales.. plus, you cannot absorb the fragments yourself, so you have nothing to lose...~"


    -Hm?- "Why couldn''t I absorb them?"


    "~Because...~" She immediately started mming up. "~You don''t exactly have a soul to absorb the fragments...~"


    My whole body tensed instantaneously as the fog clouding my mind cleared. "That''s not possible. Every living being must have a soul."


    "~Yes, that is correct, but your soul isn''t in your body...~" She promptly continued seeing my look of disbelief. "~That artifact you touched right after you hatched.. although I don''t know everything it did, I know for a fact it detached your soul from your body... It''s actually one of the reasons you''re still alive...~"


    I paused as I looked at her with a threatening re. "I''m going to need you to give me some details... Don''t even think about running off this time..."


    "~I won''t.~" She put up her hands with a calm expression. "~It''s about time you learned anyway...~"

 Chapter 246: A Deadly Seed of Doubt

    Chapter 246: A Deadly Seed of Doubt


    Early Afternoon - Early Winter : Northeastern Bahamut


    -


    "I''m going to need you to give me some details..." I gave the goddess a threatening re as I carefully watched her bodynguage. "Don''t even think about running off this time..."


    But instead of looking to run away, she lowered her head and raised her arms. "~I won''t.~" Her demeanor quickly shifted as her voice turned anxious. "~It''s about time you learned anyway...~"


    *fwoosh* *fwoosh* fwoosh* The loud pping of my wings filled the air as she paused.


    "~Do you.. remember anything from before you were born as Vasilias Ragnarok?~"


    I tensed up immediately as I questioned how to respond. -I should probably be careful with what I say...- "I remember a few things..."


    I expected her to go somewhat wide-eyed, but to my surprise, she just looked at the ground with a dark expression. "~Then you must remember that horrible sensation right before you were born as well... The feeling of your existence being eaten...~"


    My eyes went wide. "Y..yeah.. I do." At that moment, every other concern in my mind vanished. -She really knows something...-"~That sensation you felt was your soul being eaten by the realm you havee to call the void... You were truly lucky to survive with a remaining sense of self...~" She rubbed her arm like she was speaking on a bad memory.


    Assuming she already knew the implications of that realm, I decided to take a shot in the dark. "You.. also came here from a different world.. didn''t you..."


    She paused before reluctantly nodding. "~I don''t remember much of it, but I remember that I was a god.. a strong one at that... Just like you...~"


    -Huh?- I was slightly taken aback. "What makes you think I was a god?"


    "~You must be kidding... A mortal being can''t have a soul remotely as horrifying as yours... Your''s rivals a being in my home world, which we all naively considered the one above all... He was simply called God.~"


    -What? My soul is that strong? But.. how...- Although most of my previous life''s memories had be foggy with time, it was true that I still vividly remembered everything from my death as a human to my birth as a dragon. -I was most definitely not a god...- But that only raised the question... -So how do I have the soul of one?-


    But while I was slowly spiraling down into an unfathomable rabbit hole within my mind, the goddess continued. "~Your soul was essentially in tatters when I first saw you. The soul of a god with no form, and no ability to resist... You were essentially a massive ball of strength that could be absorbed and turned into my own at any moment... But as time passed.. your soul somehow started to repair itself and morph into something new.. something truly scary...~"


    My eyes went wide as I finally confirmed it. -So she really is the woman from..- "Ack..." A searing pain rushed through my head as I thought back to my first dragon sleep.


    "~You probably don''t remember anything about back then because the memories are exclusively in your soul and not your mind... But you will remember in time...~" She gave me a slightly remorseful look before continuing. "~Regardless, your soul was not only too strong for the body you had, but it was also barely even holding itself together. If that artifact didn''t split them apart, they would have simply destroyed each other.. essentially erasing you from existence.~"


    Questions that only dug the rabbit hole deeper ripped through my mind as I tried to settle on the right question to ask. But after not saying anything for a while, I managed to think of it. The issue was that the question had the potential to screw me. "What if.. I wasn''t a god in my past life?"


    She just shook her head though. "~That''s not possible... Even if you somehow managed to absorb several souls to resist being devoured by the void, to go from being a mortal to what you have now simply isn''t conceivable. You would have been the one that got absorbed unless you were already a god yourself or only picked up millions, if not hundreds of millions, of clean soul remnants before the void devoured them. Soul fragments, at their biggest, are only a tenth or fifteenth of the original soul. You would have needed to devour a world''s worth of them to get anywhere near where you are.~"


    -It would take that many, huh...- Almost immediately, a seed of doubt was nted in my sense of self. -Did I really just.. have a life I don''t remember anything about? Or.. am I even who I think I am?-


    We both fell into silence as my mind slowly sank further and further into the dark, but after another moment, the goddess snapped me out of it. "~Regardless of the past, if you let me absorb Tyr''s soul fragments, I promise I will do everything I can to help you recover the strength you lost.. even if your memories are lost to time.~"


    I paused as I thought about her offer again.


    But I still felt suspicious. "Why have you helped me at all up to this point... As you said earlier, you could have just absorbed me the moment we met..." Although not doubtful of her word, my gut continued to tell me something was off.


    "~There is something I wish for you to do eventually, but you aren''t strong enough currently, so I will keep it to myself for now.~"


    -There it is...- "And what if I don''t agree to the request when you eventually ask?"


    "~Then I will ept that as my fate...~"


    I paused for a moment to give her an odd look before letting out a quick breath. "Haah..." Momentarily setting aside the mountain of doubt and confusion that filled my mind, I started slowing down. -Even if she gets stronger, it shouldn''t be anything to worry about...- "How do you go about absorbing the fragments?"


    "~I need you to enter the void with me, then I will find and absorb them. Once Im done, I will need you to bring me back as well.~"


    "Alright... Do you need me to protect you from the void?"


    She was quick to respond, even though she looked nervous. "~While I may be weak, it would take an eternity in the void to cause any noticeable damage.~"


    -But an eternity in the void is a second within the real world...- Immediately glossing over the countless other risks of the void, I grabbed a bit of space mana. "Alright, then..." *FWOOOSH-vwoop*


    Instantly stopping myself with a p of my wings, I encapsted us in a gate and killed the rest of our momentum before entering the void.


    The abyssal darkness inside the gate quickly faded as we were released into the nebulous space of the void.


    The goddess instantly got nervous though. "~Ugh.. I will be quick...~" Hastily looking around, she found a scattered pale cloud not far away and floated over to it. "~This ce is just as unpleasant as I remember...~"


    As soon as she reached out to it, it slowly began to twitch and change shape before being pulled into her palm.


    Her figure started to change almost instantly, bing significantly more defined and gaining some faint colors. "Hoooh..." Even her voice was much clearer than it had been.


    But what caught my attention wasn''t her body or her voice.


    On her back, there were tworge, feathered wings that resembled an avian''s, but they wererger, the feathers were much smaller, and above all, they were ck.


    The moment she noticed me looking at them, she folded them inward and made them vanish. "Sorry..." She sounded surprisingly remorseful. "They turned ck to remind me of my sins..."


    -Huh?- I was immediately taken aback.


    But she continued as if she hadn''t said anything. "Before we go, could you cut off this hand?" She immediately held out her hand which was faintly glowing. "It''s the core of Tyr''s soul, so I can''t absorb it without taking a big risk... It''s better to let the void eat it."


    "Ah.. alright..." Coating the tip of my w in space mana, I reached over and swiped it through her wrist.


    The hand instantly detached from her and turned into a glowing orb before she pulled away and formed a new hand.


    As the orb started floating away, a faint blue glow formed around it, a sign that the space mana had already begun eating it.


    It was a sight that once again made me question myself. -It''s only been a few hours, and his soul was already reduced to that small cloud... If I really came to this world through the void.. would the soul of a normal human have really survived?-


    It was a seed of doubt I couldn''t simply shake off, one that would cause an inconceivable amount of strife.


    But the goddess noticed right away. "Questioning what or who you are will only cause harm as things are now."


    I quickly turned to look at her as she slowly floated back toward me.


    "Who you are, changes at every moment, but the fact that you are you at any given instant is also true. You can''t let questioning who you used to be, bog you down because your past lives are no longer you... If that is too hard to ept, then lock the memories of them away, or else you won''t ever be able to look forward." As she finally made it to me, she turned around and looked out into the void with a slight guilt on her face. "Memories are a tool you can use to learn from, but they can also be a bomb thatpletely destroys who you are... You simply need to be careful in how you use them..."

 Chapter 247: Forced Transcendence

    Chapter 247: Forced Transcendence


    Mid Afternoon - Early Winter : Northeastern Bahamut


    -


    *fwooosh* *fwooosh* *fwooosh-Thud* As Inded in the courtyard of Myles'' estate, I was immediately greeted with the odd looks of everyone nearby before one of the bigger ancients by the gate hastily flew over.


    "Sir, you muste through the gate." The knight wore a look of confusion as he looked me up and down.


    "I left with Myles just this morning. Do I really need another security check?"


    He paused as he squinted his eyes slightly. "You are.. him?"


    My face immediately warped with confusion. "Uh, yeah?" -Did they forget my face already? Or is it just because I don''t have much aura right now?-


    But thankfully, he quickly straightened up after I confirmed it was me. "I apologize for not recognizing you, sir! I hope you may forgive me!" He immediately lowered his head to the point his nose touched the ground


    "You''re fine." It felt a bit odd seeing such arge dragon bow to me, but I couldn''t say it felt bad. -I guess the scene I made this morning really left an impression...- "Anyway, do you know where Asimi is?""I believe she is still within the estate. As for where, I am unsure."


    "Hm... Alright, thanks." -I guess I''ll just ask a maid...-


    Seeing me turn away, the ancient called out to me one more time. "If there is anything you ever need, you may ask anyone here! We will be happy to assist you!"


    -Don''t they need to go through Myles for stuff like that?- I questioned it immediately, but at the same time, I wasn''t in any position toin. "Alright, thanks!" Finally turning back toward the main entrance of the estate, I started making my way across the courtyard and up to the massive double door. -I wonder if Myles would mind me borrowing a room for a couple days...-


    But as I idly thought to myself and gently opened the door with my wing, I poked my head into the entrance and immediately felt something m into my nose. *thump* -Hm?- Instantly snapping out of my thoughts, I met eyes with a slightly shrunken Ilios hanging off my nose with his tail wagging so fast it blew up the rug behind him.


    "Haha, it''s good to see you too, Ilios!" Finally opening the door enough for me to get in, I walked inside and let Ilios climb up onto my head, but I almost immediately noticed something odd. -Why does this room feel.. a little smaller?-


    And that was when Grandmother rounded the corner. "I figured you wereing back when Ilios started getting excite- huh?" Her smile turned to a look of confusion almost immediately. "Did you grow?" Immediately trotting over, she started closely inspecting me.


    "What do you mean?"


    "You''re a little taller and your horns are a tad longer."


    -Huh?- Without aura, I had gone this whole time without noticing a single change, but the moment I looked down at the ground to gauge my height, I noticed the difference. -I really did grow... When did that happen?- Although not much, I had gotten a couple meters taller and was now just over 37 meters tall. "Uh, I''m honestly not sure when or how that happened..." -Did I grow suddenly when I turned my mana into divinity? How would that have worked?-


    "Your aura is almost non-existent too..." She looked up at me with a serious, but worried look. "Are you really going to feign ignorance?!"


    "N-Not at all..." I immediately started mming up. "I went to help Myles with something at the Hall while he dealt with Leander and Megalos, and ended up getting into a fight, but it''s nothing to worry about." -There is no way I can tell her I fought a god...- There was a short pause before I tried to quickly change the subject. "Regardless, I''m still really tired from it. Do you think he would mind if I borrowed a room for a few days?"


    But instead of Grandmother responding, the butler Myles spoke with before we left came up to us. "The strong are always wee to stay here, but may I ask where the lord is?" He gave me a look of suspicion as he waited for my response.


    "He''s still at the Hall handling the aftermath. I kicked up a bit of a scene, so he''s got a bit of extra cleanup to do."


    "Hoh? Sir Kalfas is cleaning up for someone?" He immediately raised his eyebrows, but I couldn''t tell if his surprise was genuine or not.


    "It''s just the way things turned out. It''s better for him to take the credit right now."


    Everyone immediately stopped in their tracks and went wide-eyed.


    The butler was no exception, but he immediately yed it off. "Hoho! In that case, you are more than wee to stay here. Would you like me to show you to a room?"


    "If you could."


    "Then, right this way, sir!"


    As he bowed and started walking away, I felt Grandmother''sser-like stare toward me. "I will exin things more once I wake up." -I need toe up with a good story first...- Finally following the butler, I quickly made it into an adjacent hallway where I could ease my nerves slightly, and eventually made it to anotherrge double door.


    "This will be your room for the time being. Should you need anything, please put mana into the artifact on they stone and a maid wille in."


    -Oh, so the same thing as at home...- "Alright. Thanks for the amodation."


    "You are very wee, sir. The strong are always wee in this estate." He immediately bowed.


    "Ah, onest thing before you go. When Myles returns, tell him not to tell Asimi about who I fought." -I might be able to get away with telling her I fought Erpo...-


    He gave me an odd nce before lowering his gaze again. "Is that all?"


    "Yes, thank you again."


    "It is our pleasure."


    Seeing him get up from his bow and turn to leave, I turned back to the door and carefully opened the mana lock to go inside. *vwoop-click*


    The inside of the room was nothing special, with arge stone pad and several generic decorations and old paintings, with a couple artifacts scattered about, but as I approached the stone pad, I noticed arge rune on it that somewhat resembled the one in the Tree of Prayer. -Just instead of spreading out mana and running it in a circle, it focuses it toward the center like a lens...-


    It was a simple, but shockingly efficient rune. -I wonder who made it...-


    But that question slowly faded out of my mind as Iid down and activated it with an artifact on the edge of the pad.


    *Vwowowoom* As I thinned the walls of my reserve and felt the steady stream of mana start flowing into it, the difort I felt from my mana exhaustion vanished and an unreasonable sleepiness surfaced.


    "Uwaah..." Letting out a yawn as Iid down, I quickly helped Ilios get situated before closing my eyes and attempting to fall asleep.


    But even though I was incredibly drowsy, I had too much on my mind to fall asleep right away.


    "Haah..." It had only been around two hours since I split up with the goddess, and honestly, I still felt conflicted; unsure of how to make sense of my mix of emotions or what to even consider doing going forward.


    My original n was to return here, grab Ilios, and go to As to meet up with everyone, but now, I felt as if there were things that had begun to take priority, the most urgent of which being investigating the ancient wreckage and the ce in the mountains north of it, where Holcyon got the fusion artifacts. -If it''s really an Acardib or something, I need to go and investigate it before Myles can get to it...-


    Assuming Myles would have to go through some official formalities after cleaning up the mess I made, I estimated that I had around a week before he would send people out to investigate it. -But I can''t take any risks with this...-


    Thankfully, I had a bit of leeway I could bepletely confident in. -The closest space rune is the temple... Even if they left the Elder Hall now it should take two or three days to get to the edge of the Holy Kingdom from that rune...-


    It essentially meant I had two days to rest, and, the most worrying part, to find it.


    I already knew it would be a time crunch, even if I had several days to look for it because of what I had been told about the mountains and environment there, but I had no choice but to make it work. -But now that I think about it... I wonder how much the Acardi influenced my reincarnation...- The memory of the moment I first touched The Artifact, suddenly surfaced as I thought about it. (Ch. 2-3) -''Damaged soul of higher dimensional being'', huh...-


    Previously, I had believed I just misunderstood it, as the artifact generally spoke to me through my own thoughts rather than in any specifguage. -But now that I somewhat know the Acardinguage, I can confirm it... I can confirm it wasn''t a misunderstanding.. and I can confirm...-


    My thoughts paused as a sentence was reyed in my mind. ''Conditions Met: Activating Procedure ��??��????��???��??????????��???"''


    ''Conditions Met: Activating Procedure ��??��????��???��??????????��???"''


    ''Conditions Met: Activating Procedure ��??��????��???��??????????��???"''


    ...


    The procedure name still made almost no sense even after listening to it closely and attempting to connect its structure to Acardi words I knew, even if it only vaguely, but after reying it in my mind several dozen times, the gibberish slowly became more clear, and understandable...


    And eventually, the structure of the noise matched two specific words almost perfectly.


    ''Conditions Met: Activating Procedure: <strong><em>Forced Transcendence</em></strong>''

 Chapter 248: Unfathomable Scale

    Chapter 248: Unfathomable Scale


    Late Morning - Early Winter : Northeastern Bahamut


    -


    "Uwahh..." I let out a groggy yawn as I slowly turned to stretch my incredibly stiff body. "Ugh..." It hadn''t even been 24 hours, but my body made me think I had overslept by a couple weeks.


    As I looked down though, I understood why. -I grew again?- It was only by about half a meter, but there was a noticeable difference in the shape of my scales, which were much more jaggedpared to the rounded scales I had grown used to, and my horns, which grew slightly longer and had a bit more texture than before. -I wonder if Father and Krystallo will even recognize me at this point...-


    But as Iid my head back down and idly thought about it, Ilios finally woke up and shifted over to lick my face. *lick-lick-lick* "Haha... Good morning, buddy..."


    He was in an unusually good mood that morning, but while I wasn''t sure why, I wasn''tining. -Maybe its a sign that today will be a good day...-


    A smile slowly crept onto my face as my self-doubt faded before I finally decided to get up with another stretch. "Mmmm... Alright..." -Let''s see if I can find that so-called ancient wreckage in a timely manner...-


    Finally turning off the rune and making my way outside, I was immediately met with the odd looks of several maids, but paid them no mind and made my way down the hallway with Ilios on my back.


    Thankfully, after sleeping on the umtion rune, my reserve was around 10% full, so I had some aura to work with and had no issue finding Grandmother.But as I approached her room, I noticed just how calm and smooth her aura was. -Ah.. she''s asleep... Uh... That might be a problem...-


    My original n was to wake up and exin a manipted version ofst night''s events to her, exining that I got into a fight with Erpo and that I wasn''t injured and such, but now I couldn''t do that. -I don''t have time to wait for her to wake up either...-


    Quickly finding a passing maid, I motioned her over.


    "What is it, my Lord?"


    -''My lord''?- I was slightly taken aback for a moment before assuming I just misheard her. "Could you bring me a piece of paper and something to write with?"


    "Right away." She gave me a deep bow before running over and handing her things to the supervising butler walking down the hall.


    He wore a confused look for a moment, but as he noticed me looking at him, he simply smiled and continued on as if nothing had happened. -What is up with them today...-


    The unusual stares of the other maids and butlers continued as I sat there and waited, but thankfully, it only took another moment for the maid to return. "Here you are, my lord." She bowed again as she held up a few sheets of paper and a quill with a small artifact inside it.


    -Is it customary for maids to call all the male guests here, ''my lord''?- Slowly picking up the paper and quill with my aura, I tried to shake off any unnecessary thoughts and start writing.


    -Hm...- It only took a few minutes for me to finish writing before giving it a quick proofread, drying the ink, and folding the paper.


    The story was a bit of a stretch, and I honestly wasn''t sure whether Grandmother would even believe it, but I didn''t really have a choice at the time. -It''s not like I can really tell the truth here...- Finally lowering the letter back to the maid, I yed it off casually. "Hand this to Asimi when she wakes up. Make sure no one but her reads it."


    "As you wish!" She gently pulled the letter in toward her chest before bowing one more time. "Is there anything else you require?"


    With a quick thought, I ran through everything else I could think of before finally shaking my head. "That is all." Casually creating a tinum coin, I lowered it in front of her, where she just stared at it with a confused look for a moment before it fell to the ground. *chink-cling* *vwoop*


    "Huh?" A confused look came to her face immediately. "My lord, I don''t need-"


    But by the time she looked up, I was already gone.


    *vwowowooop* The mana in the gate ripped as I jumped through it to instantly find myself floating in the nebulous void. -I wonder if Maria is as natural and formal as that girl now...-


    Quickly helping Ilios get situated, I finally shook all unnecessary thoughts out of my mind and moved back slightly to get a better view of the near-kilometer-wide, faintly glowing orb I was practically standing on. -What the...-


    It was something I had never seen before.


    -That''s.. new...- I tilted my head slightly before looking around and noticing that all of the markers for the space runes were on the very outer edge of the glowing area of the orb, with my marker for theboratory being less than a meter inside the edge. -Is this.. the?-


    I was expecting to have to do some calctions to figure out where would be safe to exit the void, but now that I could vaguely see an outline of the, I didn''t have a whole lot of guessing to do. -I should still exit a good ways off the surface to be safe though...-


    Hastily running through some numbers to double-check the orb as I floated toward the temple rune, I confirmed the glow should technically be at least generally urate. -But is my space ratio actually urate?- I ran into what seemed to be a bit of an anomaly. -This is a <strong>lot</strong> bigger than Earth...-


    Although I already knew this world wasrger than Earth, I most definitely didn''t realize that it was by so much. -If my ratio is right, the diameter of this is at least twice Earth''s... How did life evolve so simrly...-


    At the least, if this had a simr density to Earth, gravity would be around 1.5 times Earth''s, but I was already skeptical about that. -The way mana strengthening works.. this is most definitely denser than Earth... It likely wouldn''t be by a small amount either...-


    I slowly sank into thought as I floated toward the rune before eventually having Ilios snap me out of my thoughts. *tap* -Hm?- Finally looking around and noticing I was passing the temple rune, I reoriented myself with the other runes and started making my way toward where I assumed the Holy Kingdom to be.


    Thankfully, it wasn''t hard to find once I got closer, as the mountains were very easily visible from my approach. -Those things are massive...- With a conservative estimate, the mountains were at least 40-50 kilometers tall and spread over an absolutely colossal area.


    I silently gulped down a bit of anxiety as I started to worry about whether I could find the wreckage before finally approaching the glowing peaks.


    "Hooh..." -Alright...- Quickly taking a moment to inspect the mountain range, I found where I believed the edge of the glow was and moved a decent bit away from it. -I should be around 10 kilometers to the side of the peak...-


    Ten kilometers gave me a ton of headroom. *vwoop* But for whatever reason, when I created the gate, the anxiety I felt in my stomach worsened.


    As I released the gate, I assumed it was simply because I was worried about finding the wreckage in time, but I quickly found that not to be the case.


    *crraaCCCKKLLEE-BANG* An insane amount of pressure mmed into my body before instantly being released with a bang.


    -WHAT THE?!- *WHAM* Instantly spreading my wings to try and catch myself, I felt them get driven into stone before the gate dissipated to reveal therge, dimly lit hole I caught myself in.


    Before doing anything, I checked to make sure Ilios was alright, but I barely had time for it before the entire area below my wings broke off. *CRACKLE-FWWOOOOOOSH*


    The next thing I knew, I was in free fall, riding a hunk of stone down the side of a horrifically steep cliff that waspletely shrouded in fog, but thankfully I managed to calm down quite quickly. -Holy sh*t that could have been bad...-


    Finally spreading my wings again, the huge section of the cliff that broke off disappeared in the fog beneath me, and I glided out into the cloudy space away from the snowy cliff face.


    But it was only a few secondster, after I started questioning what I did wrong, that I realized I still hadn''t heard the massive stone b hit the ground yet. -Wait a minute.. no part of the mountain near where I wanted toe out was this steep...-


    The possibility that I embedded myself in the edge of the mountain peak ceased instantly. -The glow.. must have only shown the core of the mountain then...-


    As I looked down, I tried to listen for the sound of the stone b hitting the ground, and sure enough, after several more seconds, I heard it. *crackle*


    But the noise sounded so distant that it made my eyes go wide. -How.. big is this mountain?-

 Chapter 249: An Unhealable Scar

    Chapter 249: An Unheble Scar


    Late Morning - Early Summer : Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -


    *crackle* The distant noise of the huge b of rock hitting the ground echoed up the mountainside as I flew out into the dense cloud. -How.. big is this mountain?-


    Assuming I had plenty of room below me, I slowly started gliding down away from the slope and eventually poked through the bottom of the cloud.


    But there was nothing that could have prepared me for the sight that would meet my eyes. -W..oah...-


    Below me was a vast snowy and icy mountainside that could only barely be considered steep but was sorge that the seemingly small cliffs all along the ridges were easily a few kilometers tall, with almost no level areas.


    If I were to have fallen with the stone b I sheared off, I would have rolled nearly 250 kilometers to the calm, icy bay at the base of the slope, as it was the only t area around.


    The area in front of the bay honestly looked like a good ce for a port settlement at first, but to either side of it, the mountain had formed what could only be described as miniature mountain ranges that even I couldn''t see over even at my altitude. -That ''ridgeline'' has to be at least 30 kilometers high...-


    But while I marveled at the view, I turned to look at the several-kilometer-tall spikes of ice around the base of the mountain that poked through the ground like the tips of arrowheads.With how much ice and snow there was, even in the bay, the spikes didn''t seem that out of ce, especially if you wanted to say they were remnants of old ciers, but there was something odd about them that didn''t exactly make sense.


    Toward the top, they were a familiar bright blue color, but as you looked down, the ice became darker and darker until it was such a deep blue it was almost ck.


    The deep blue color of the spikes was incredibly beautiful to look at, but at the same time, I couldn''t help but begin to question how they formed. -How much pressure is needed for the ice to be that dark...-


    But while I struggled to withhold my curiosity to go and investigate it, I finally turned around and felt the innumerable questions in my mind vanish.


    At that moment, I wasn''t more than a few kilometers off the mountainside, but it was more than enough for me to finally realize the scale of everything. -How the hell am I going to find anything...-


    Massive, dark clouds covered nearly everything but the ridgelines of outcrops above around fifteen kilometers in altitude, and while they began to thin out about halfway up, once they reached where I was, they leveled out and formed a simply unfathomable, outstretching cloud that covered everything down to the bay in a dark, storm-like shade with only a handful of god rays shining through. -Where would I even start...-


    Several more moments ended up passing by as I starteding up with ideas and strategies to look for the wreckage, but eventually, I grew sick of the feeling that I was barely moving and decided to use some light thruster magic. *psh-FWOOOOSH*


    But even at Mach 5, I felt like a snail. With some extra contemtion, I finally switched to antimatter thrusters and simply tuned them to not throw me to the horizon instantly.


    But it''s not like tuning them back did much, since I just had to continue increasing their strength till I nearly reached Mach 20. *FWOWOWOOOOOSH* -I never thought it''d be possible to feel so slow when covering nearly 7 kilometers a second...-


    Looking around the base of the mountain one more time, I tried to shake off all my distracting thoughts and finally get to looking for the wreckage. -If it isn''t an obvious structure, I''lle back and check in those clouds... Unless...- Looking more closely at the massive ice spikes again, I noticed the several dozen massive wyverns flying about and even a handful of drakes and other monsters, but couldn''t see anything that could be described as a wreckage. -Maybe those are somehow natural...-


    Finally shaking off the distractions, I continued across the side of the mountain and eventually made it over thergest mountain-range-sized outcrop that stretched along the bay to see a simr terrain to before, just with fewer clouds and a bit more fauna and wildlife. -But.. how big is this thing?-


    The mountainside I looked over was easily 300 kilometers long from its base to the clouds, but the slope itself stretched all the way to the horizon and barely had any curvature at all. -That.. can''t be right...-


    Based on the slope and height of the other mountainside, I expected this mountain to be about 90 kilometers tall.


    But that peak was far too close for the mountainside I was looking at to wrap around it. -Th..there''s no way...-


    Immediately turning up into the overhanging cloud, I hastily climbed in altitude until the clouds abruptly ceased.


    My thoughts quickly followed...


    In front of me was the mountainside from below, as I expected, but it didn''t climb up to a simple, clearly defined peak, even at nearly 80, 90, or 100 kilometers above sea level... Instead, it continued to stretch on and on.


    -That mountain.. was just a part of an outcrop?- I almost forgot to p my wings as I looked up at the unfathomable mountain peak standing over the horizon nearly 1500 kilometers away. -What.. the.. fuck...-


    The whole thing I assumed was a mountain range within the void, was actually just the profile of the edge a single mountain nearly 500 kilometers tall and likely upwards of 3 or 4,000 kilometers wide. At the least, it was a mountain I couldn''t even begin to grasp the scale of even at nearly 100 kilometers in the air. -I can''t even see opposite edges...-


    Looking below myself again, I saw the puffy, outstretching cloud I had just flown through. It generally ended right around 75 kilometers, with only a handful of formations going higher, but as if it were a boundary, everything above the clouds was simply lifeless, leaving only sparse snow and ice to color the in rocky mountainside.


    It was a mountain sorge it essentially stretched into space and simply couldn''t have been formed by tectonic tes colliding with how circr it was. -But it couldn''t be a volcano either...-


    I tilted my head slightly as I looked around, but there was nothing even remotely volcanic looking about the mountain besides some deep fissures that all pointed to the peak.


    But it was those fissures that made a crazy ideae to mind.. -It kind of looks like the back of a dent...-


    It wasn''t until a few minutester that two dots seemed to connect. -The western.. deep section of Death''s Gape is right on the other side of the, isn''t it?- My eyes slowly widened as I looked down.


    -Could this mountain.. have formed from a meteor impact?-


    For any sort of formation to form from on the opposite side of the, the impact would have had to of been colossal, and for it to form such arge mountain, saying it would be a-destroying collision would not be an exaggeration. -But if mana exists inside the as well.. wouldn''t it be able to hold itself together?-


    Attempting to apply what I knew about mana to the innumerable theories on formation and meteor impacts on Earth, things actually managed to somewhat line up. -If the meteor wasn''t heavily mana strengthened but the tes were, the impact might not obliterate the surface, and instead send the energy from the shockwave straight into the...-


    But while it was a very convincing theory, it was far from perfect. The biggest issue being the depth of Deaths Gape. -It would have to be way deeper than 200 kilometers to form this...-


    But I didn''t let it debunk my theory. -Maybe that''s just as deep as dragons have gone.. and they assumed it to be the bottom...- I paused before looking around, across the deste mountain again. -Regardless.. I don''t know whether to be happy that I can look over such a huge area so quickly for the wreckage or be upset that if it''s not up here... I''m fucked...-


    Looking to the right, I saw several smaller, more spaced-out peaks that just barely poked through the clouds leading to the horizon, and suddenly I remembered something. -Wait a minute... Holcyon said they found the fusion artifacts in the mountains north of the wreckage... In the mountain<strong><em>s</em></strong>...-


    Immediately looking north, where the clouds were far more sparse, I couldn''t really see any sort of mountain rangepared to what I saw to the southeast. -Could that be the mountain range the wreckage is south of?-


    It was a definite shot in the dark, but if I didn''t try to narrow down where I had to look, I''d be trying to find a grain of rice in a desert. -But if I''m lucky and there isn''t another mountain range to the north.. I might have a chance of finding it still...-

 Chapter 250: Fanning The Flames

    Chapter 250: Fanning The mes


    Time Error - �D?�D???��?��???????????��?��???�D�D??? : Location Error - �D?�D?��?��?????????��?��?�D?�D?


    -


    - Skuld, The Goddess of Oracles ~


    It was the middle of the afternoon when I found myself floating over a fairly small noble envoy as it approached a small town.


    They had supposedly left from Fae a few days prior, but even with the innumerable monster outbreaks, they looked essentially unharmed.


    "Haah..." I couldn''t help but let out a sigh as I looked at the small, robed figure that led the group. -To think she can already kill such arge wyvern...-


    Trailing the main carriage was arge wagon, usually used to carry food and general supplies for long trips, but it was instead filled to the brim with wyvern parts the envoy was likely going to sell once they made it to a bigger city.


    But the wyvern wasn''t exactly the reason I was so deep in thought.


    -Should I really try and give her to Odin...- In her current state, she was an unpolished gem, one with the potential to be a god on her own if given enough time, and one that could ascend in just a couple hundred years if given some support. -But if I give her to Odin, she will never ascend...- I knew if I convinced Odin to take her in as the hero, he would suppress her until she would eventually sumb to old age, just like all the other heroes he had groomed to be his ves. -But...-My body shivered slightly and an ecstatic look came to my face as I thought about the ability to feel once again. -Even if I took her under my wing and tried to hide her.. how long could I go before Odin noticed... How long could I go before Odin would consider it defecting and kill me...-


    *vwoop* That was when a familiar sound came from behind me and I felt time stop.


    I wiped the look off my face in an instant.


    "I was wondering where you were..." It was Eir, the Goddess of Bnce.


    But even though I had always seen her as a sister, I felt oddly ufortable at that moment. "Is there something you need?"


    She reluctantly nodded and looked around beforeing closer. "Freya is looking for you... You need to get out of here..."


    I immediately jolted. "W-what?" -Why would she ever want to see me?!-


    Freya was a horrifically arrogant woman, to the extent that I had simply begun avoiding her not long after I ascended.


    -But if anything.. she likes that I avoid her...- Fueled by the jealousy of Odin giving me his attention while I was still a young god, Freya had always despised me, and should she ever need to tell me something, she would simply send the message through Eir.


    Seeing my reaction, Eir quickly straightened up. "I know how you feel, but you can''t just stand around.. she wouldn''t be looking for you like this if it was something small."


    "Huh? Why should I run from her?" While Freya was not a weak god, even in my weakened state I could handle her.


    "Because Hel is with her!"


    My whole body tensed up instantly. "She''s alive?!"


    "Yes, she woke up a few days ago and she''s pissed cause she just learned Loki was killed! You need to hide till she can cool off, Im worried Freya is trying to take advantage of her anger."


    My mind went nk. -Oh sh*t...-


    Back during Ragnarok, Hel did everything in her power to protect her son, Loki, and when we were all banished into that ''prison'', he was alive and well.


    But as fate would behold, he woke up a few hundred years before the rest of us and got himself killed in Bahamut. -Is Freya going to try and pin the me on me?- "No.. Odin wouldn''t let Freya trick her... She must need me for something else."


    "Whatever her reason, it''s not worth the risk! Even if Hel is weakened as much as we were when we woke up, I don''t think I can take her!"


    "Alright, in that case, I''ll y it safe..." But fate was something that could not be tempted.


    The moment I suppressed the activity of my divinity, the light around me began to warp. *vwoop* It was toote.


    Turning around in an instant, I was immediately met with Freya''s hand grabbing me. "WHERE IS SHE?!" Her eyes had a crazed look in them as she gripped the illusory clothes covering my body.


    "W..what?" My expression immediately turned anxious. -She''s lost it...-


    "THAT UGLY WHORE! WHERE IS SHE?!"


    My anxiety immediately worsened. "How would I know? Even Odin can''t find her."


    But as I reached down to pull her off me, her grip tightened. "Odin said he felt her aura next to yours for a moment yesterday, I''m sure you two spoke. NOW. WHERE. IS. SHE?"


    "She must have been watching me then. I didn''t even sense her." I looked back at Hel to see her rage-filled eyes. -So Odin decided to pin the me of Loki''s death on ''her''...-


    But while I had started to calm down, Freya was still livid. "You expect me to believe that?!"


    "Im not Odin, Freya. I can''t even sense you if you aren''t right next to me." I continued to feign ignorance as I tried to redirect her anger, but it only made it worse.


    "You lying bi*ch!" *VFWOOOM* Everything nearby bent into her hand as she mmed it into my chest. *VWOWOWOWOWOOM*


    The ground around me instantly vanished before I stopped myself on the side of an unfathomably massive mountain with a hole in my chest. -She''s lost her mind...-


    *vwoop* Appearing next to me, Freya lunged at me again, but this time I caught her arm. *VWOOM*


    "Freya, you need to calm down before you do something you regret." I gave her a threatening look as Eir and Hel appeared behind her. "I''m sure she is somewhere in Bahamut, so why don''t you look there?"


    "So you did know where she was..." Hel''s cold voice sent a chill down my spine instantly.


    "That isn''t the case." I quickly corrected her before her anger could shift to me. "Tyr was killed in Bahamut yesterday, I''m simply confident that she was rted to it."


    "Is that so..." The light around her started to warp more and more as she slowly looked up toward the clouds not far above us.


    "Saying I killed Tyr is a bit of a bold assumption, isn''t it?" A smooth and calm woman''s voice resonated through the air around us.


    Everyone but Hel jolted and went wide-eyed immediately. -Does she have a death wish?!-


    Looking up, I saw an incredibly beautiful, ck-haired woman in a red dress, but her eyes were locked on Hel.


    "You must be Grace." Hel''s divinity stiffened and sharpened to form a de as she looked up at her.


    "That is correct. And who are you?"


    As the ck de became more distinct, her aura turned cold. "A mother.. here to avenge her son." Finally gripping her sword she looked up at the goddess with an unfathomably heavy bloodlust.


    But Grace was smiling. "Here to avenge your son? Why would you look at me while saying that?"


    Hel immediately hesitated.


    "I couldn''t kill one of you old war gods even if I wanted to. How could I kill the child of a goddess as strong as yourself." She released some of her aura for a moment to show us that it was inplete disarray, almost like she was on the verge of death.


    -W..what.. happened to her?-


    There was another moment of silence before Hel pulled back her posture. "Odin told me you killed my son before any of us woke up. Are you trying to say he lied?"


    "Absolutely not. How could I me the ignorant."


    Freya instantly tensed up and looked as if she was about to attack the goddess, but Eir reached out and stopped her.


    "To call Odin ignorant... You truly don''t value your existence."


    "Hoho, that isn''t the case." Her smile slowly widened. "Odin may be incredibly powerful, to the point that some believe him to be omnipotent, but he was also trapped in that prison like the rest of you... How would he know exactly what happened during that time?"


    Hel continued to pull back her bloodlust as Grace spoke. "In that case, do you know who killed my son?"


    "DON''T LISTEN TO HER!" Freya finally snapped as she broke free from Eir''s grasp and lunged at Grace.


    But Hel''s de appeared right in front of her neck before she could reach her target. "Freya." Hel gave her a horrifically cold look. "If you take another step I''ll kill you."


    Grace gave Freya a smug look for a moment before looking back at Hel. "Was your son that troublemaker named Loki?"


    Hel slowly turned back to Grace with a serious expression.


    "He was truly an incredibly talented child, but his shenanigans put him in deep water in Bahamut." She paused while intently watching for Hel''s reaction. "He was killed by a dragon."


    Hel didn''t believe it at all. "To tell such a tant lie-"


    "The dragon''s name is Myles Kalfas. The one currently in possession of ''that'' artifact."


    Everyone including myself, looked up at her with wide eyes. -If she is siding with the dragons.. why would she expose her card?- My only guess was that it was a trap, and she was confident that Myles could handle Hel, but even I had begun to question her motives knowing she wasn''t dumb enough to entice Hel''s anger.


    Seeing our expressions, her serious look nearly cracked into a smile. "I am unsure about the details of what happened to Loki myself, but I would be wary... Loki is not the only god Kalfas has killed."


    There was a long silence that filled the air as Hel dissipated the de of divinity in her hand.


    "What you decide to do with that information has nothing to do with me, but I hope you allow me to continue to live quietly."


    Hel slowly looked up at her in silence for a moment. "If I find out anything you have just said to be false..."


    "If what I said is false, you can absorb my divinity. How about it?"


    We all looked at her like she was crazy. "Alright. I sure hope you aren''t going to try and hide."


    Grace''s smile slowly widened. "Of course not."

 Chapter 251: Life Outside Logic

    Chapter 251: Life Outside Logic


    Late Afternoon - Early Summer : Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -


    *sh* The blinding white light of the antimatter thrusters continued to follow me around in silence as I circled my way up the mountain.


    It had been around seven hours since I first started my search, but while I was still yet to leave the mountain, it had been far from a fruitless venture. -How fascinating...-


    The mountain, as I had previously noticed, waspletely covered in massive fissures and ravines that stretched anywhere from a few hundred meters to several kilometers, but inside of these cracks were essentiallypletely isted ecosystems that had likely existed for millions, if not billions, of years, and held life unlike anything I had ever seen before.


    Blue, purple, and even violet-colored vegetation wasmon in these little ecosystems, with a huge variety of sizable insects, and even a ''jellyfish out of water''-looking slime being visible as well. -But how do these creatures even survive and continue to grow here?-


    While the cracks were veryrge and even had tiny atmospheres in them, it was also true that the molecules in the air were simply too scarce to support any kind of poption.


    My only reasonable guess was that many of the creatures and vegetation in these environments were like me, and used the shockingly dense mana epassing the top of the mountain to make incredibly efficient use of resources.


    But while I was truly curious about the countless new discoveries I was constantly stumbling across, I still had to focus. -I''m finally nearing the top...-Not seeing any more fissures between me and the peak on my final circle around it, I finally turned up and made my way to it.


    It only took me a few seconds to get there at the speed I was traveling, and even less to notice therge, but broken, pirs sticking out of the edge. -Antimatter generators, huh...-


    Assuming I had found something worth investigating, I started to slow down before eventually cresting over the edge of the peak and noticing a massive, but mostly destroyed ck cubeying there.


    Just like on theboratory, there were symbols along the outside, but they were nearly impossible to read with how damaged everything was.


    With a bit of effort, however, I got there. -Con..tain-? Is it ''Containment''? Is it another dungeon core?- It was a bit of a guess, but it''s not like it really mattered since I was going to investigate it regardless.


    *rrrrumble* Finally slowing down andnding, I walked over to the structure and went to poke my head through some of the massive holes in its side, but didn''t see much of anything different from the containment center in the dungeon. -I don''t feel any auras either... Did whatever this was containing end up dying?-


    It was a more than likely possibility, with no atmosphere and several huge holes in the side of the structure, the conditions inside were equivalent to those of space.


    But even though something could have still been living in there, that wasn''t the case this time.


    Finally poking my head through one of the holes on the back side of the structure, I came face to face with an absolutely colossal dragon that likely once stood well over 160 meters tall.


    But while it made me jolt back almost instantly, it had been dead for eons.


    Huge, deep blue scales littered the floor of the room, half buried under the powdered rock from outside and pieces of its own, half-mummified body.


    But while it was a sorry sight to see what would have been an incredibly majestic dragon lying dead and being eroded away, its head looked essentially untouched.


    With a streamlined facial structure and long, flowing horns, the dragon was more beautiful than any other I had ever seen, but I couldn''t help but feel curious. -Its face looks like.. it hasn''t decayed or mummified at all...-


    I immediately started moving to widen the hole in the structure so I could climb in and get a closer look, but before I could do anything, I nearly jumped out of my skin.


    "~I never thought I''d have visitors...~"


    *WHAM* Instantly jolting back, I mmed my head into the top of the hole and caused the whole structure to rock. *THUMP* As it came silently mming back down, a massive cloud of dust and rock was ejected out from under it, immediately surrounding Ilios and me.


    "~You.. heard me..? I apologize if I scared you...~" The faint, but beautiful female voice came once again from the dragon head within the structure, but it hadn''t moved.


    -Am I going insane?- The voice was clear, but it spoke in a dialect I had never heard. *sh-FWOOSH* Using a tiny amount of antimatter to blow away the dust, the area around me cleared instantly.


    That was when I once again looked at the head of the dragon through the erged hole and noticed a faintly glowing cloud above it.


    It had no defined shape and looked closer to Tyr''s scattered remains in the void than a god, but it was.. ''something''.


    "~I never thought I would see another living being.. let alone a dragon...~" The cloud slowly descended off the dragon''s head before floating to the edge of the room. "~But I suppose I could be imagining things after being imprisoned here for so long...~" The hope in the being''s voice faded as I stared at it in silence.


    *vwoooom* Hastily moving some mana to create a huge amount of hydrogen, I filled the air between the being and me, being careful to contain it and not let it touch the corpse.


    It pulled back slightly as it was surrounded by the gaseous hydrogen, but thankfully stayed mostly still.


    That was when I could finally speak. "Who.. are you?"


    -


    - Amphitrite Ouran��s ~


    *FWOOOOSH* *FWOOOOSH* *FWOOOOSH* The ps of my wings were the only thing to fill the silence as I flew toward the Elder hall from the space rune in Emporio.


    Just a few hours prior, I was speaking with my daughter, Zafe��ri, about the situation rted to Holcyon''s trial against me when ''she'' appeared and told me to head toward the Elder Hall immediately.


    I didn''t have a reason to object, as she had done nothing to cause my trust in her to waver and I was getting a bit bored of holing myself up in my secret estate, but this time it felt a bit odd. -Is she finally nning something?-


    Although we talked fairly regrly for thest few hundred years, I still didn''t know much about her besides that her name was Grace, a name I had never heard before, and that she was a goddess of some kind. She was simply an enigma that I hade to ept as a friend.


    But around fifteen years ago, she started bing more active, spending less time idly chatting with me and instead only asionally giving me some sort of job like finding some obscure, tiny, and impossible-to-find artifact, then telling me I needed to give it to some kid in the middle of the ocean because that kid could kill Magni, a god Grace and I both despised.


    Of course, I believed that reason to be a lie at first since I considered myself to be one of the strongest beings alive and still could never finish off Magni before he could run away, but after meeting that child, I couldn''t help but be somewhat convinced. -ording to Grace, he even followed through with the deal and already killed him (Magni)... I wonder what he''s up to...-


    But the time for such thoughts quickly came to an end as I noticed the ckenednd on the horizon. -W..what the...- It was the ce where I expected to see a massive colosseum standing over arge town, but instead, I saw ttened, charred ground.


    Hastily speeding up, I quickly approached the area where the elder hall should have been and noticed Myles Kalfas standing near the edge of a crater that emitted a light-rippling heat. -Who did he even fight...- I was simply in awe seeing the scale of destruction, but after another moment, once I wasing intond, I noticed something odd... -Is that.. a human?-


    A normal, ck-clothed human was sitting on the edge of the destruction, peering through a pile of rubble to keep watch on Myles.


    He was very well hidden, but his uncontrolled aura made him stick out like a sore thumb. -He seems like the only one around too...-


    *fwoo-OOOSH- WHAAAAAM* Promptly diving down, I mmed down right behind him and threw away the rubble surrounding him with my aura. *crumble-crackle*


    He stood there,pletely paralyzed from fear, as I lowered my head next to his body.


    Under his ck clothing, I could clearly see several hidden weaponsced with a liquid death poison, but it was still far too weak to deal any damage to a dragon beyond the adult stage.


    But the poison weapons weren''t what caught my attention.. it was the band around his arm. -The Holy Kingdom, huh...- A spark of rage immediately formed in the back of my mind. -They must not realize the kinds of beings we dragons are...-


    *CRACK* The sound of bones cracking echoed into the air as several bloody teeth floated out of the man''s mouth. "I hope you didn''t expect that to work."


    The man immediately started shivering from pain and fear, seemingly understanding what I said even though I spoke in draconic, anguage humans can''t learn even if taught.


    *Shik* As the tip of my wing impaled his stomach and lifted him off the ground, I looked toward Myles, who had finally noticed me, and motioned toward the man.


    But he just shook his head.


    "Damn..." -So he already has captives...- "That''s unfortunate..." *blub* Almost immediately, arge ball of water formed in front of the man on my wing before instantaneously disappearing to form a huge red mist behind me. -And here I was thinking I could have Myles owe me a favor...- "Haah..." -I guess that was wishful thinking...-

 Temp

Temp


    Todays chapter ising, it will just be a littleter in the day than usual.

 Chapter 252: An Experiment

    Chapter 252: An Experiment


    Late Afternoon - Early Summer : Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -


    As the air between the being and I filled with Hydrogen, I locked my eyes on it and finally opened my mouth. "Who.. are you?"


    The cloud-like entity immediately froze as if it had be a statue before eventually speaking with a slightly shaky voice. "~Y..you.. are real..?~" She sounded like she was about to cry, and it only got worse after I reluctantly nodded. "~H..how long has it been since I have heard a voice...~" She quickly started floating toward me. "Child.. tell me.. what is your name?"


    I immediately hesitated as I looked past her to see a thick, rope-like tether leading into the structure. -She must be a god that was tethered to that dragon before it died...- I paused and quickly weighed my odds of winning a fight with it in my current state before continuing with a bit of caution. "My name is Vasilias Ragnarok."


    "~R..Ragnarok...~" Her voice quivered slightly. "~For a family to be named after it... Were your parents involved in the war?~"


    I immediately tilted my head in confusion. "Huh?" -Did she lose track of time?-


    "~Is it not called Ragnarok anymore-~"


    "The great war ended nearly ten and a half thousand years ago... No one alive today, their parents or even grandparents were alive back then."The figure froze immediately. "~Huh? N..no one? What about Bahamut, o-or As, or-~"


    I immediately shook my head. "I''m almost certain that Bahamut is dead. And among those who went to assist him, As was the only one to technically survive, but even he died a few yearster, after being given our family name."


    A long silence instantly filled the air between us. "~Ah... So that''s how it is...~" The faint hope in her voice that appeared after I first spoke quickly began to fade. "~Seeing as how you.. one of his descendants are still alive though... We must have won.~"


    Finally confirming she was on the dragon''s side, I eased slightly, but something still felt off. "For you to mention As so casually... Just who are you?"


    "~Ah, right... I haven''t introduced myself.~" She paused before moving away from me some. "~My name is Hera Monachik��s...~"


    I felt as if everything around me froze instantly.


    "~I was the one called ''The Queen'' for many thousands of years, and was a dragon expected to ascend to godhood, but.. now look at me...~"


    -Hera.. Monachik��s...- It was a name I knew extremely well. The name of the being who ruled over the dragons of the Golden Era whenever Bahamut wasn''t present and acted as his substitute.


    But she was generally considered a wise and benevolent ruler at the time, but the moment the Great War started, she disappeared, and her glimmering reputation sank like a steel ball in the ocean.


    -Even Mother spoke about her like she betrayed Bahamut, but...- Looking back toward the containment center, I felt a mixed feeling begin to swirl in my mind.


    "~After being captured by those.. beings.. I expected to be tortured for information about Bahamut, but instead, I simply became their experimental test subject... I can''t even remember how long they experimented on me before they eventually left me to die...~"


    I stood there,pletely speechless for a while, before I finally managed to get a few words out. "W..why didn''t you break out..." -She should have been able to easily overpower any kind of technology that could hold her in ce...-


    But she just let out a painful chuckle. "~Haha.. I couldn''t... They flooded the room I was held in with so much mana I could barely remain conscious...~" Finally moving it back to the cube, she came up to the opening and stopped, as if to look at her ruined body. "~That mana is the only reason I am still here though...~"


    -R..right.. about that...- "How.. are you still alive."


    She immediately hesitated. "~Saying I''m ''alive'' would be too generous...~"


    Finally shaking off the shock enough to move, I walked up to the hole next to her.


    "~Thanks to all that mana they supplied, I managed to umte quite a lot of divinity, so once they finally left and I came to my senses enough to see the state of my body, I was able to quickly detach my soul from it.. simrly to what the humans do to be what they believe to be a ''god''...~"


    Theories regarding the gods immediately started rushing through my mind, but she continued regardless of that.


    "~Unlike those humans though.. I didn''t want to simply abandon my body... Immediately after detaching my soul, I created the strongest tether I could and eventually found a way to use it to control some of my body again...~" The mouth of the dragon in the cube immediately opened slightly as if to show me. "~It took an eternity, but I even figured out a way to prevent any mana from rushing out of my reserve to hopelessly heal my body so I could use it all to preserve my brain... But after hopelesslyying here for so many millennia.. my reserve is beginning to dry up...~"


    A look of awe came to my face as I looked at the beautiful dragon head attached to the colossal half-mummified, half-rotted body once again. -So she essentially let her body rot for thousands of years to save her mind in the hopes of being saved...- But there was something I still didn''t understand. "C..couldn''t you use that control over your reserve to absorb more mana?" -The mana here is incredibly dense...-


    But she simply stood there in silence. "~Sadly, I don''t have enough control to absorb mana whilst still preventing it from leaking out... The only thing I could do would be to remove my restrictions on it, but if I did that, the few remaining drops of mana in my reserve would instantly be used up to try and repair my body.. and the amount of mana I would absorb wouldn''t be nearly enough to sustain that healing process... It would only take a few days for my reserve to rupture...~"


    -Oh.. r..right...- Although it sounded weird for a moment, I had to quickly remind myself that my reserve was far from the norm, even whenpared to a demigod. "So then the reason you detached your soul from your body in the first ce..."


    "~Was because I would have had to essentially rebuild my body from nothing to heal the damage those experiments did.. and my reserve simply isn''trge enough for that... If I had ess to food and water I might have tried.. but up here.. there is nothing but cold, dry rock...~" She sounded more regretful the longer she spoke.


    Silence quickly epassed us as I fell into thought. But it didn''t take long for me toe up with a stupid idea. "If you theoretically had the ability to absorb enough mana, could you still heal?"


    "~Haah, yes.. but it''s not so simple...~" She sounded like she had essentially given up hope. "~With the current state of my body, I would have to absorb mana several-fold the rate I could in my prime, and even if I absorbed every drop of ambient mana here, I would only be able to regenerate a small part of my body...~" She slowly floated out of the hole in the cube as she spoke. "~Although mana looks abundant here, it doesn''t flow like normal... It would run out long before more mana could take its ce...~"


    I fell silent as I started to think again. "If you had a source of mana, like a core to pull from, could you create a tether with it as well, and transfer mana from it to your reserve?"


    But instead of my idea giving her voice more hope, it just made her skeptical. "~I guess it is possible, but tethers can only be attached to sentient, consenting beings... The only option would be to tether to you if you allowed it, but you clearly don''t have the means to sustain the amount of mana I would need.~"


    -Hmm...- While she was somewhat correct in saying I couldn''t sustain her forever, especially in my current state, I was oddly confident it would be enough to do in bursts, healing bits of her body at a time, and slowly rebuilding everything until she could repossess her body. -But why would I do that?- "Could you wait here for a bit? There is something I''m gonna go grab."


    I felt as if she gave me an odd look before finally floating back inside the cube. "~I know I can''t hold you here.. no matter how much I enjoy yourpany... Just.. visit once every few years if you could...~" Her voice was concerningly devoid of hope and filled with sadness.


    But even still, a smile was slowly creeping on my face. "I promise I will be right back, don''t worry." -Why would I ever pass up such a juicy opportunity...- Quickly letting Ilios off my back, I gently rubbed my head against him before backing away and jumping into the void. *vwoop*


    -To think I would actually find such a good use for it...- Hastily looking around, I quickly found the marker I left at the underwaterboratory not far away and made my way to it. -Even if this doesn''t work.. it''ll give me the ability to more than sustain her so she can tether to me...-


    *vwoop-BLUB* Feeling the immense water pressure m into my body, I opened my eyes and quickly oriented myself to start making my way into the dungeon again. -It hasn''t even been that long since I''ve been here.. why am I feeling nostalgic...-


    Quickly winding my way through the serpentining dungeon, I found the antimatter pirs for the containment center down below and clogged them all, essentially turning them off. -Now I''m on the clock...-


    Immediately turning and racing through the dungeon again, I hastily found my way to the room with the containment center and was met with a massive, lone fish.


    "Get out of the way." *BANG* With a blinding sh, the 100-meter-long creature lunging at me turned into charred chum, with a wide tube of steam appearing where most of his body used to be.


    It looked truly pitiful as it sank to the floor of the room. -I guess the guardian really was abnormally strong, even for this depth, huh...-


    Quickly shaking my head, I continued further into the room and quickly found the containment center exactly as I had left it.


    I truly couldn''t help but smile as I approached it. -Oh, you sweet dungeon core, I truly hope you will be nice andpliant with me... I''m gonna help you make a new friend!-

 Chapter 253: A Portable Battery

    Chapter 253: A ''Portable'' Battery


    Late Afternoon - Early Summer : Sirathan Deep Sea Containment Center


    -


    *tsss-blub* A small steam bubble rose past my face as I carefully cut through the antimatter cable.


    *clink-blub* But the steam wasn''t from me cutting it. It was actually from me patching the cut with two independent pieces of woven carbon (the material the cables were made of) to guarantee no unwanted partictes could leak into the antimatter channels'' perfect vacuum. -Just in case I ever need to power this thing again, I should be careful with it...-


    Finally finishing the cable, I watched it swing out into the darkness, while the containment center sagged slightly. *creeaaak*


    That was to be expected though. While the cables from the ceiling looked somewhat ck, the structure was fully hanging from them. -The ck is probably just from their weight...- And that meant I could confidently get down to thest cable or two without needing to worry about the tension straining them. -If I didn''t almost get incinerated by the antimatter battery in the Laboratory, I might''ve thought the Acardi had good safety regtions...-


    Quickly moving to the cable opposite the one I just cut, I got to work again.


    One by one, the cables started to disconnect and swing out into the water, lowering the structure closer and closer to the bottom.


    *creeaaaak-thump* Cutting the second tost cable, the massive structure tipped and mmed into the bottom, kicking up a huge plume of dirt and gunk, but I paid it no mind and promptly cut thest cable as well. *fwoosh-thumpp*Slowly sinking down and standing on the structure, I looked over it, and only then did I finally begin to question if I could even bring it through the void. -How am I going to move this thing... Can I even protect it from the void''s space mana?-


    But thankfully, it didn''t take long for me toe up with a decent idea. -Right.. couldn''t I do something like that?-


    *vwoop* Quickly jumping into the void, I made a small marker where the top of the structure was and got to work.


    Essentially what I was going to do was create arge, hollow cylinder that epassed where the initial and final gates would be, simrly to the other space runes. The difference was that, in the void, the structure would take up an absolutely insane amount of space, so I couldn''t simply bring it here on its own, but I had a solution for this.


    Although I was still learning the specifics of how it worked, recently, I discovered something I had begun calling ''vectorpression''.


    In short, it was the phenomenon where the space inside the gate would be pressed'' in reality as it pushed everything inside it into the void to create two, inversely proportional gates that existed simultaneously (one in each realm). In thispressed state, if timed perfectly, you could shrink a mountain-sized gate down into the size of a baseball with no loss of ''information'' (atoms, their positions, their energy states, etc.); the only downsides being the insane mana control and timing required to pull it off, the fact that the gate would exist in both the void and reality simultaneously, and most of all, the fact that I would need to time it inside the gate, then leave the gate, catch it before its contents were released into the void or the gate expanded too much, and then move it.


    And it was every bit as sketchy as it sounded.


    I continued to think about it while I made the hollow cylinder itself, and surprisingly everything went nearly perfectly.


    It only ended up taking about an hour to finish the tube, but thankfully that was enough time to finalize a decent n. "Haah... Alright..." But I couldn''t say I wasn''t still nervous.


    This was the first time I would be moving something using vectorpression the correct way, and instead of being a clump of disposable matter, it was a massive structure with cargo I couldn''t afford to lose just yet. -Theoretically, the gate won''t affect anything it passes through in reality, so I shouldn''t have to worry about losing anything.. but if the gate ruptures anyway, the core itself should still emit enough mana for me to move it through the void unprotected if I''m fast...-


    It was high risk, but I didn''t exactly have a choice. -Well.. here goes nothing...- *vwoop-blub* Appearing over the structure again, I sank down on top of it and let out a quick breath before creating the massive gate. "Hooh..." *blub-VWOOOOP*


    The instant the gate finished, I released my influence on it before immediately catching it again. I could immediately tell my timing was off, but I could only hope it was enough. -Well that''s not a good start...-


    Moving to the very edge of the gate, I took a single point in its shell and created another gate. *vwoooop*


    Instantaneously appearing in the void, I released a massive amount of space mana out, shredding the secondary gate I was in and grabbing hold of the one with the containment center in it.


    It was currently around 20 meters across since I was a bit too slow, but it was small enough to do the job. "Phew..."


    With a quick breath of relief, I tightened my hold on the gate and started pulling it through the empty cylinder very slowly and carefully.


    Thankfully, things went pretty smoothly. Once I got to the marker I left at the top of the mountain, I pushed the gate inward to send it out of the void ahead of me. *vwoo-*


    But the sound was different from normal. -Huh? Did I do something wr...- *WHAAAM* A huge sphere of water and a massive ck wall mmed into me before I could even react. -OH SH*T!- I felt my whole body tense up instantly.


    It was the containment center.


    But thankfully I was quick to react. -COME ON!- *VWOOP* With a hastily and crudely made gate, I managed to jump back out of the void with the structure before the ambient space mana could eat its way through the insanely dense water and mana surrounding it. -Holy sh*t...-


    *Vwowowoop* *RUMBLE* Instantly creating hydrogen thrusters beneath the structure as the gate dissipated, I carefully lowered it to the ground and set it down within a massive cloud of dust.


    Silence filled the air the instant the thrusters stopped.


    But while I was tense looking over the wet structure with water boiling off of it, my body slowly started to ease. -It looks.. mostly undamaged...- The only ce with even minor cosmetic damage was the corner I dropped into the bottom when cutting the cables. "Hooh..." -That could''ve been.. really bad...-


    "~W..what in the world...~" Hera''s awe-filled voice met my ears as Ilios hopped up onto the structure and trotted over to me.


    "Hey, buddy." He was quick to hop back on my back andy down. -He looks grumpy.. is he upset that I didn''t bring him with me?- But seeing that he was already about to fall asleep, I decided not to pay it much mind. *vwowowoom* Filling the air between Hera and me with hydrogen once again, I walked toward her and sat down on the edge of the structure. "So, do you think this is enough mana?"


    The cloud-like figure stood frozen in front of the wall beneath me. "~H..how did you even bring this here... You just.. appeared with it...~"


    "I brought it through the void. It was way too deep underwater and too far away for me to fly it here."


    "~T..the void? Underwater?~" The confusion in her voice was palpable.


    -Space runes existed in the Golden Era, right?- I continued assuming that was the case. "This containment center was off the coast of Siratha around.. 25 thousand-ish kilometers south-southwest of here, and the void is just the name I gave the realm the space runes send people through."


    There was a long silence before she backed away slightly. "~Y..you.. can freely move through that realm?~"


    "Mhm. Couldn''t Bahamut do the same?" I tilted my head slightly.


    "~N..no, even he had to be extremely careful... He could only go into that realm for moments at a time, and had to use runes...~"


    -Huh? Is she misinterpreting what was happening when Bahamut would just disappear and reappear instantly?- But after a bit of extra thought, I decided to just set it aside for now. "In any case, do I need to cut a hole in the structure for you to form a tether?"


    She paused for a moment before responding with some reluctance. "~Technically yes, but with a hole, I can make a bigger tether.~"


    -Hm.. so that means tethers do take up physical space...- "Alright, in that case..." *tap* *silence* *CRRRUNCHHH* The ground shattered beneath my feet as Inded after jumping off the structure. -The thinnest wall should be that one...-


    Walking over to the corner, I pressed the tip of my wing into it and started pushing. *crackle* The ground beneath the structure crunched like gravel as I turned it until the correct side faced Hera, and pushed it toward her. -That should be enough...-


    Walking back around to where she was, I pushed my aura into the wall and started looking through it.


    The first few moments passed in silence, but it didn''t take long for Hera to get curious. "~What are you looking for, exactly?~"


    "A ce to cut through without damaging anything." The wall waspletely full of cables and other intricate technologies I dared not touch, but eventually, I found a decent spot. -I can push the cable down and cut through there...- Standing up on my hind legs, I got my face close to the area I wanted to cut and used the same strategy I used when cutting therge antimatter cables. *tink*


    But the instant I opened the whole, a genuinely insane amount of mana shot out like a jet engine. *vwowowowowowowowoooom*


    Hera just stood behind me in awe.


    -Good lord, that''s a lot of mana...- I slowly turned back to her as I lowered myself to the ground. "So uh, you think this guy has enough mana?"


    There was a short moment of silence before she finally moved toward the mana jet. "~I have never even heard of a dungeon core getting this big... I don''t think I''ll use much more than half...~"


    -HALF?!- My jaw fell open immediately. -HOW MUCH MANA EVEN IS THAT?!- But while I was absolutely stunned, I couldn''t help but be thankful it wasn''t all of it. -Once she''s done, I guess I''ll need to bring it back down to theb to let it refill...-


    While it''s true that the core would not be a bad cost to ''revive'' and form a strong connection with Hera, it''s also true that with the use of tethers, I could essentially use it as a colossal mana battery; a tool that could prove very helpful in the future.


    -But for now...- I looked toward Hera as she pushed an almost invisible thread through the mana jet. -Maybe I should ask how to actually make a tether...-

 Chapter 254: An Unmistakable Being

    Chapter 254: An Unmistakable Being


    Early Evening - Early Winter : Elder Hall, Bahamut


    -


    - Myles Kalfas ~


    "Haah..." I let out a deep, foggy breath as I continued to look over the long-since-cooled remains of the Elder Hall. -Just how strong is that kid to not only kill Tyr but take a serious blow from him like it was nothing...-


    The scene had been repeatedly reying in my mind ever since I saw it, and my awe had yet to fade even slightly. -To kill him is one thing... I could have done it if I caught him properly.. but that blow...- The feeling of the whole town sinking beneath my feet as Vasilias was hit remained fresh in my mind. -Could I have walked away after taking that to the head?-


    Tyr was a god I had fought several times over the years, but I only ever let himnd a hit on me once, and it was a moment I couldn''t forget even if I tried.


    -


    - shback ~


    It was only around a decade ago when we first met. At the time, I was lying down in my estate, condensing more divinity while futilely attempting toprehend a space rune.*vwooowowoom* -Hm?- Looking toward the noise of mana rippling, I met eyes with his indescribable figure; a man with no aura, no mana, and no physical body, standing there and staring at me lifelessly.


    At first, even though his presence was odd, I simply assumed he was some lost spirit, a being that usually could not interfere in the physical world, and ignored him.


    But that only happened once. *crackle* Feeling the intangible presence of the man appear next to me as if having teleported, my instinct took over, and I pped my wings.


    *FWOOOOOSH-BANG* My room exploded from the air pressure as if a massive explosion spell was cast, and I immediately found myself in the air over a kilometer away.


    -W..what?- I felt nothing but confusion as to why I reacted like that at first, but that was when he appeared in front of me again, this time with a ck fist. -A mere lost spirit dares!-


    I immediately moved up to parry him with one of my ws, but his fist was equivalent to an unstoppable force.


    *CRRACCKLEEE* The feeling of a bone-shattering into fine bits was a feeling I had long since forgotten; after all, it had been over five hundred years since someone had managed to hit me through my scales, which were akin to mythril, but that day gave me a brutal reminder.


    *FWOOOOOSH-WHHAAAAMMM* The mix of pain and confusion sent me into a daze as I ricocheted off the ground several kilometers away. -H..huh?- My confidence to im I was the strongest being alive immediately started to waver.


    But that was where I drew the line.


    *CRUNCH* Spreading my wings as I mmed into a small cliff, I instantly came to a stop and locked my eyes on the cloudy figure in the distance. *Crackle-FWOOSH* I started running through my options as I threw myself out of the cliff, but no matter how fast my eyes or mind could move, I still couldn''t follow him.


    *vwooom* He appeared behind me in an instant.


    But this time, I was ready. *FWOOOOSH* Tilting my head to the side as I threw myself backward, his fist narrowly missed me.


    But as my head passed him, and I opened my mouth to retaliate, I noticed his posturepletelycked any kind of reaction, even though his head followed me.


    It immediately reminded me of a fight I had 300 years prior. -He''s fast, but his attacks are slow...- I opened my mouth as I passed him. *cra-BBAAAAANNNGGG* With a casual thought, a blinding yellow and red beam erupted from my mouth, clearing the clouds out to the horizon in an instant.


    But I simply used it as a cover and made a dash for the estate again.


    It was an attack that could destroy nations, even if it was toned back, and yet there I was running toward my estate knowing he woulde outpletely unharmed.


    -Amphitrite was right... The gods really are waking back up...-


    - (End of shback)


    It was only the second time I had ever run into a god, the first resulting in a month-long brawl with a bratty kid named Loki, but my fight with him was the only thing that prepared me for my fights with Tyr-.


    "Haah..." -I somewhat miss the thrill of fighting the unknown back then... But regardless...- I looked down at my long-since-healed leg with a dark expression.


    "What has you so deep in thought?" Amphitrite''s familiar voice snapped me out of my thoughts immediately.


    "That kid... What else would it be?" I slowly set my leg down as I nced at her.


    "Hoho~, are you that interested in him? You haven''t mentioned anything else for the past hour... Do you perhaps want to take him in as a disciple?"


    I felt my whole body tense immediately. "I may have slowly be crazy as I have grown older, but I haven''t grown senile..."


    "Hoh? I thought him killing a god you''ve been hunting would make you want him even more." She walked up in front of me with a yful grin on her face.


    -This woman...- Her being right only made me more annoyed. -But...- "If you saw what he did, you wouldn''t consider it either. Saying he simply killed Tyr does not do it justice."


    But she simply shrugged her wings. "Killing a god automatically puts him on the same level as us, but that doesn''t mean we still couldn''t teach him a thing or two. We have lived for nearly two millennia, Myles. Is that head of yours truly so empty you can''t think of anything to teach him?"


    -Her tongue is as sharp as ever...- But unlike usual, it was the least of my worries. "That is not the problem, Amphitrite. He didn''t simply kill Tyr.. he erased him... The breath he used made my advanced magic feel like child''s y..." I looked at her like she was crazy. "Magic like that doesn''te out of thin air."


    She stood in silence as her smile slowly faded. "You are worried.. aren''t you..."


    "Haah..." I let out a stress-filled breath seeing that she had already noticed. "Are you telling me you aren''t?"


    "Of course I am." She responded without hesitation. "The sudden appearance of Heimdall and Loki 300 years ago was one thing since they were minor gods, but Tyr and Magni were gods that actually fought in the Great War, and were confirmed by As to have fallen during Ragnarok.. they should not still be alive." Her voice had a hint of anger in it as she spoke. "But even if Bahamut doesn''t return, and even if Vasilias isn''t here, are you seriously trying to act like we are powerless?"


    I looked down at the ground with a dark expression. "Just because we have the artifacts of our forefathers does not mean we are strong."


    "And just because we have to use those artifacts tond a killing blow doesn''t mean we are weak. Of anyone, you and I should know that best." She held up her foot to show me the familiar mythril band with innumerable runes carved into it around her ankle. "I fought Heimdall for two months before I managed to kill him, and during that time, I brought him to the brink of death nearly a dozen times, but every chance I got to kill him, he would just scamper off like a rat to recollect himself, and the fight would start over... I''m sure you had the same experience with Loki. All we are missing is the method to deal that final blow"


    "But that is precisely why we are powerless without the artifacts..." Without any way to stop them from recovering the damage we dealt, it would turn into a battle of stamina, which we as living beings would inevitably lose.


    It wasn''t like I hadn''t learned anything during or since my fight with Loki either. Tyr fought in a very simr fashion and gave me a decade toe up with and test the innumerable ideas I hade up with over the years, but after all was said and done, I was still essentially empty-handed. That feeling of powerlessness only worked as a motivator for so long. -Can I really do nothing but depend on the strength of other dragons?-


    Amphitrite clearly didn''t have the same view as me though. "If you are that worried, why don''t you give one of your artifacts to those magic-crazy bastards in As? Just because we cannot understand what exactly the artifacts do doesn''t mean no one else can. Even if they can''t reproduce the artifact itself, they may be able to exin what it does in a way we can understand and replicate ourselves."


    "Tch... You know that isn''t an option."


    "With the Elder Hall gone, it is." She nced back at me momentarily. "Who is going to stop you- Huh?" She abruptly cut herself off as her foggy breath crystallized in the air. "Since when did it get this cold?"


    -Huh?- I was taken aback as well. "Today has been a cool day, but-"


    *vwowowoooom* I was immediately cut off by an all too familiar rhythm of mana ripples. -SHIT!- *fwip* Immediately ducking my head without a second thought, a horrifyingly sharp de of air passed over me. *CRUNCHHHH* As it hit the ground behind us, it dug out a deep cavity, immediately causing the town above it to cave in. *CRUMBLE* -What the hell?!-


    Not giving the being another chance to attack, I lunged back and looked up to meet eyes with a woman, half monster, half human, staring at me with a long ck sword in hand.


    My whole body tensed up instantaneously.


    Even without looking closely at her presence, her heavily bandaged, half-porcin, half-decayed body with white hair and two curved, dark grey wyvern horns told me exactly who she was.


    Referred to by humans as the goddess of the underworld and referred to by dragons as ''the researcher'' she was a genius born a human but turned monster as a cost of her research.


    She was known as the only non-human god in Asgard, the Goddess Hel.

 Chapter 256: Suffocation of Emotion

    Chapter 256: Suffocation of Emotion


    Late Afternoon - Mid Evening : The Scar, Southwestern Holy Kingdom (The mountain)


    -


    - Amphitrite Ouran��s ~


    *Crunch-FWOOSH* Myles leapt into the air the moment he hit the ground after catching Hel''s de in his mouth, but our eyes simultaneously went wide the moment we saw that she was still firmly holding it. -SHIT!- Panic set in immediately


    *FWOOOSH* I immediately pped my wings and darted toward them, hoping to knock her away.


    But I was far too slow. "~To think my son was killed by someone so weak!~" Her mocking words and bottomless confidence sent a chill down my spine as she ripped the de from his mouth and mmed the hilt of it into his face, shattering every scale and bone in the vicinity. *CRUNCH-CRRR-WHAAAAAAAM*


    But Myles was not one to go down so easily. *BAAAAAAANG* The moment he hit the ground, a mountain of debris was hurled into the air, and the ground quaked as if wailing in pain, but he stood firmly. -Now it''s my turn!-


    elerating once again, I appeared behind Hel in an instant.


    *FWOOSH* She didn''t even seem to know I was there even as my mana-coated ws, each bigger than her body, loomed over her head, but it gave me hope. -If Myles cannd a hit here, I might be able to finish her off!-*WHAAAAM* My ws felt like they hit an unbreakable rock as they hit her head, but now wasn''t the time to let my emotions waver. *CRAAAACK* Instantly hurling her to the ground countless times faster than sound, I looked at Myles and saw him already darting through the dust cloud that covered the ground. -Perfect...-


    *VWOOOM* To follow him up, I hastily activated the artifact on my ankle which immediately covered my paw in a dark ck cloud, and darted down after her as well. *FWOOOSH*


    But as I approached, and Myles got close enough to nearly put Hel in his mouth, I saw her de disintegrate before appearing in her other hand, directly over Myles'' head.


    Time felt like it stopped at that instant. My mind started racing, desperately trying to think of a way to save him, but there was nothing I could do but watch in horror.


    I was simply too slow.


    *VWOOOOOOM* A deafening mana ripple from Myles desperately trying to save himself met my ears as her de mmed into his nose.


    Without knowing any better, one would think it was an attack Myles could take. Her human-sized de couldn''t reach anything vital, after all.


    But both Myles and I knew it wasn''t that simple.


    Collisions of divinity were not to be trifled with.


    *CRUNCH* The moment her de smashed through the broken scales on his nose and collided with his divinity, every scale and horn down to his hind legs shattered instantaneously, and the air beneath his body turned opaque as if solidifying.


    The scene unfolded so fast that I normally wouldn''t have had much time to react, but at that moment my mind raced with such urgency that it felt as though time itself had slowed down, prolonging my agony as I powerlessly watched the gut-wrenching scene.


    But after what felt like an eternity, there was a spark; a spark that lit the fear, sadness, and pain that clouded my mind into an unfathomable ze.


    That was the moment time began to flow once more.


    *VWOOOOP* Gripping every particle of air within my aura, I locked my eyes onto Hel and hurled myself downward. *FWOOOOOOOSH* I was moving so fast that I practically teleported down on top of her before setting the tip of my w in the center of her back.


    Finally sensing me, her sword vanished, and the center of her body ckened and hardened.


    But it was exactly what I wanted. -Now eat this you stupid bitch!-


    An indescribable ck light formed at the tip of my w as it touched her body, but it disappeared a momentter.


    *pop*


    In an instant, the ground I could partially see through her body vanished, reced by an unfathomable wall of white light, while the area around my w was wrapped in ineffable darkness.


    The recoil was immense, immediately spreading through my body (via divinity) before the artifact blew itself apart, gouging the flesh around it and shattering my leg in the process.


    But I was far too angry to even recognize what I was feeling.


    All that mattered at that moment, was that everything in front of me would vanish.


    *BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM* The indescribable noise echoed through my mind endlessly as my subconscious panicked to try and calm me down, but it wasn''t until the blinding light faded to reveal a hole coated in magma, nearly 30 meters wide and over a kilometer deep that the endless ze of rage I felt finally started to suffocate itself.


    But my panic was far from over. "MYLES!" Darting over to his limp body as it fell to the ground I threw myself under him and dashed a few hundred meters away in an instant.


    *CRUMBLE-PSHHHH* The ground behind us started to copse inwards as I finally set him down, before immediately flooding his head and chest with mana. -Please.. please.. please.. please.. please...-


    I found myself begging the world to show some kind of sign of life as I looked through his body, but my indescribable expression only darkened.


    His blood and aura were still, and his shredded muscles were rxed, but the most painful to see.. was that his mind was silent.


    I felt as if my whole body had been paralyzed as the fiery rage finally ran out of fuel.


    Emotions started to drain from my mind immediately, but after a short moment, I was left with despair, hatred, and regret. -Why...-


    I lowered my head to nudge him as I felt my eyelids be heavy. -Why wasn''t it me...-


    The silence that filled the air as the dust began to settle only made my chest ache more, but there was nothing I could do but grit my teeth and weep, continuously questioning what I could have done differently, knowing all too well nothing would change.


    But that was when it happened. "~So that''s how you killed him.~" Hel''s voice met my ears like a harbinger of despair.


    And it hit my brittle mind like an iron hammer.


    "~I was wondering what kind of tricks you would have to give you the confidence to fight back.~"


    Feeling cracks begin to spread through my mind, I shakily looked back to see Hel floating there as if unharmed, the only difference being the significantly lessened amount of dark, hardened divinity.


    But that difference didn''t matter. "~What a nice expression.~" Her straight face slowly morphed into a horrifying smile as she looked into my eyes. "~Who knew such a big lizard could mourn!~"


    As theparatively small amount of remaining hardened divinity umted in her hand, I sat still, as if having finally epted fate. -So this.. is how it ends...-


    Memories I thought I had long since forgotten started ying in my mind as I watched her slowly approach.


    They yed as if to let me relive them, to be reminded of everything I had done, from my greatest aplishments to my greatest failures...


    It was a reminder of what I had aplished; a reminder that I lived a life I could be proud of...


    -AS IF!- *VWOOOM* Mana immediately erupted out of my reserve as my body tensed and my pupils dted.


    "~Hoh? Do you wish to die as well? Are you hoping to join him in the afterlife?~" She spoke as if to taunt me; as if she wanted to lure me in.


    But her words failed to reach me as my reserve drained itself into my breath nd.


    One by one, my senses went dark, devoting every ounce of my subconscious to preparing the spell. It was a spell that was going to leave me crippled even if I managed to survive. -But as long as I kill you, I don''t care...-


    I had already steeled my resolve. No matter what the cost was, I was going to kill her.


    But that opportunity never came.


    *vwoop-VVVVMMMMM* A beam of mana so bright it made my spell earlier look like a candle ripped past my head in an instant.


    It was so fast that I didn''t have a chance to react, and while it instantly melted to the topyer of my scales, it felt unfathomably cold. -H..huh?-


    As the light faded, I looked toward the source of the beam to see a floating fist of divinity and a small melon-sized, ck orb floating where Hel''s head should have been, and a huge white fenrir floating in the air behind it.


    Questions instantly started ripping through my mind, but the moment I looked into its eyes, my mind went silent, and I lost every ounce of my will to fight.


    "~D-D-D-DAGR?!~" Hel''s previously cold and emotionless voice suddenly turned fearful and panicked. "~HOW ARE YOU ALI-~"


    *tink* Her panicked voice was cut off by an indescribable noise as the fenrir''s mouth closed on the ck orb.


    "~AAAAGH!~"


    Her cry of agony, which would have brought me bliss just a moment ago, made my mind go nk.


    "~I-I-I''M SORRY! PLEASE LET ME-~" *crackle* "~AAAAAAAHHH!~"


    The fenrir, seemingly walking on air, passed right by me as if I wasn''t there before stopping next to Myles'' body.


    "~N-N-N-NO PLEASE! I NEVER TOUCHED BAHAMUT! I WASN''T ONE OF THE ONES TO DEFE-~" *CRACKLE* "~AAAGGHH!! N-N-NOO-~" *CRUNCH* Her voice ceased the instant the ck sphere shattered, immediately exposing a beautiful transparent white cloud.


    I could do nothing but watch in awe and confusion as a silent crackling filled the air, and countless tiny ck cracks appeared within the cloud.


    Somehow the noise was oddly tranquil, causing my mind and body to ease as if everything I had just experienced was a dream.


    But that was when the world stopped turning.


    *CRRRUNCH-BRRRRMMMMM* A colossal st of dirt and rubble appeared behind Myles as a huge white beam blew a hole through his chest, immediately exposing aplex web of ck strings with a beautiful deep blue orb at the center.


    It was Myles'' reserve, but I wasn''t even given time to process that fact...


    *tink-crackle-VWOOOOOOOM* The already cracked reserve exploded as if it had been waiting for it, triggering an unfathomable shockwave of mana that ttened the rubble-covered and turned it molten.


    But almost immediately, the cloudy remains of the ck sphere floating in the fenrir''s mouth were moved into the hole by a ck fog, instantly causing the insane surge of mana to halt.


    The mana was so still for that moment that my instinct red up; it was as if an unfathomable being was staring at me.


    Even as the mana started to move again, my mind and body were simply paralyzed.


    It wasn''t until long after the fenrir disappeared that my mind eased enough to allow a singr coherent thought to form.


    -The mana.. is swirling?-

 Happy Easter! & Patreon Questions and Information!

    Happy Easter! & Patreon Questions and Information!


    Happy Easter everyone! Just a short announcement that there won''t be a chapter today, and a quick question to those of you who support other authors through a patreon.


    So Im looking to finally start one myself, but I''m not sure exactly how it all works usually. Basically, what I am nning to do is have the patreon just be 5 or 6 chapters ahead of this story, that people can pay like $5-6 to unlock for the month (like a fast past thatsts a month, not $5 for just those 5 or 6 chaps), but would I just post the chapters into patreon? Or is there some external site other authors use that makes reading the chapters a bit easier?


    I apologize if these are super basic questions that seem likemon sense but I''ve never had a patreon or personally supported one of another author so I''m sort of going in blind.


    If anyone has any advice, it would be greatly appreciated!


    -


    The patreon itself will (hopefully) open exactly 6 days from now. Chapters here on Royal Road will temporarily release once every 6 days while chapters are being uploaded to the patreon every 3 as it would normally. This willst either 5 or 6 cycles (1 cycle being 6 days) depending on what I decide to do for the number of advanced chapters.


    Once the chapters are caught up to the patreon, chapters here on RR will resume the normal one chapter every 3 days schedule. Chapter length will remain the same for now.


    -


    In any case, Happy Easter to those who celebrate it and I hope you all have a good day!-


    ''Chapter 257: The Scars of War'' Will be released in 3 days. (4/12/2023 at 1:30 PM EST)

 Chapter 257: Reasoning

    Chapter 257: Reasoning


    Late Evening - Mid Summer : The Scar, Southwestern Holy Kingdom (The mountain)


    -


    *vwoop* *vwowoom* "Hmm..." I looked intently at the ck cylinder sitting static in the air in front of me with an annoyed expression. -How troublesome...-


    "~Did youe up with an idea?~" Hera spoke from within the containment center while she continued making adjustments to the tether connecting to her physical body''s reserve.


    "Haah, no. I actually ran into another problem..."


    "~Hoh? Isn''t that a good thing?~"


    I wanted to scoff at her way of thinking, but I couldn''t say she was wrong. "It gave me a hint, but I don''t think I can do anything with it." -I don''t even know where to start...- Moving my head close enough to nearly touch the cylinder, I flooded the area with my space mana, and gently broke one end of the cylinder.


    *Vwip* Instantly, there was a huge suction force that pulled on the surrounding mana before vanishing as the space manaposing the fabric of space formed a liquid-like membrane over the hole.


    The membrane itself was incredibly free-flowing, as anything I tossed at it passed straight through, including mana. The issue was that, besides my own space mana, nothing actually disced the membrane while passing through. -They just phase through it...- (simr to quantum tunneling).But while it was troubling to have to actually try and study, it was far from the first time I had seen the phenomenon. -Why does mana have to be soplicated...-


    Composing and filling absolutely everything, the fabric of space essentiallypletely fills space. If that fabric didn''t allow for matter to pass straight through it, hypothetically, matter would not be able to exist since the moment it was created, space mana from the fabric would wrap around it and inevitably create a gate, sending the newly created matter into the void to be eaten.


    It was an essential phenomenon of ''natural'' space mana that had to be in ce for anything to exist, but that didn''t mean I could even remotely understand it. -My space mana disces both physical matter and the fabric of space, so does that mean it''s an entirely different particle.. or could space mana have observable energy states unlike its cousins...-


    In physics, absolutely everything has energy states; like raising the temperature of water until it boils, matter will act differently at two different states no matter how small the difference in energy is.


    -The issue though, is that, from my current understanding, mana cannot follow that principle...- While mana does have different types with different properties and energy levels, not only are there too many different ''states'', but the energyposing each type of mana particle is fundamentally different and independent from one another.


    In a way, mana acted more like a molecule that was adjusted to create the other attributes rather than each type being an energy state split by a ''phase change''.


    -But space mana, on the other hand, can definitely change the amount of energy it possesses...- While I never looked too deeply into it previously, within the void, space mana that was fed energy, whether in the form of matter or mana, would change color. This meant that at the very least, space mana had the ability to hold a varying amount of energy. -But would changing that amount of energy really change its properties so much?-


    It was clear my understanding of space mana wascking, but it only made me more excited to try and dissect it. Thankfully though, before I got too sidetracked, I felt Ilios''s presence suddenly appear much closer than before and looked over to see his head pop over the edge of the caldera. -Oh, he''s back!-


    I immediately set my thoughts aside as he ran over. -His aura is a bit smaller than before... Did he fight something?-


    *tap-tap-tap-tap* As he jumped up onto my back with a wagging tail, he looked at me as if expecting praise for something.


    It was honestly so adorable that I decided not to question his change in aura too much. -He isn''t injured, so I guess I don''t need to worry.- "Haha, did you have fun?"


    He immediately nodded before trotting up to my head and begging for pets.


    -Gosh, he is so cute...- Unable to hold myself back I took a moment to pet his flowing fur before being interrupted by Hera floating out to the edge of her containment center.


    "~Now that he is back, are you going to leave?~"


    I quickly nodded. "Yeah. Although I have really enjoyed our time together, finding that wreckage is a bit more of an urgent matter."


    "~Of course. It will take me at least 7 or 8 years to heal enough to try and repossess my body, so even if you onlye by now and then, we will have plenty of time to talk in the future.~" She sounded oddly happy.


    "Right, after I check out the wreckage, I n to pay my family a visit, but I will definitelye back. Having another voice of opinion about my theories was really helpful."


    "~Haha, I''m truly d my limited knowledge was helpful. In any case, the wreckage you are going to check out, is it southwest of here?~"


    -Hm?- I immediately paused. "I''m.. not sure. I was actually flying around the mountain looking for it. All I know is that it''s around here somewhere."


    "~Ah, in that case, it may be the wreckage from when I was captured. Although I was inevitably caught, I didn''t go down without a fight.~"


    -Southwest is toward the mountains.. that must be it...- But while I was eager to leave, I decided it was best to try and get a better understanding of what exactly the wreckage was first. "Right, I have been wondering since earlier, how did you end up getting captured? Did you just get overwhelmed by numbers?"


    But she just scoffed. "~Hah, I had the power to wipe out the entire human race, even if they came at me all at once during my prime. After a certain age, the number of enemies stops mattering because you simply have so much mana.~"


    I looked at her with wide eyes as she spoke. It sounded like a truly oundish im, yet somehow I believed her confidence with certainty. "Then, what was it?" -Technology can only bridge a gap in strength so wide...-


    She hesitated for a moment before speaking. "~There was a fleet of three ships Bahamut sent me to destroy... At the time we had never seen anything like them, but they hadnded over an area where we knew arge mythril vein to be, so we assumed it was because of that, but they were essentially unprotected... It was a tantly obvious trap, but nheless, I confidently went out to destroy it, believing that nothing they had could prevent me from at least running away.~" She paused for a moment before speaking in a slightly regretful tone. "~It wasn''t long after the war started, but even still, we were too naive to believe they hadn''t noticed our arrogance...~"


    -She says that as if.. the war wasn''t with the human gods at all but instead with the Acardi...- Before I knew it, I was once again questioning what I knew of the history of the world. "S..so what happened?"


    "~Mana.~" She responded instantly as if the event was still fresh in her mind. "~The moment I was about to peek over the horizon, I saw the three ships spinning in the air over the forest, but by then it was toote. Before I could see or feel anythinging, a beam of mana so dense it nearly made my reserve rupture, ripped through my body... It incapacitated me nearly instantly.~"


    I felt my body tense up immediately. -T..the Acardi could artificially store and release mana?- I felt like the world stopped turning for a moment. The one advantage life in this world had over the Acardi, which was the ability for creatures to control huge volumes of mana with their reserves, was gone with the wind.


    But before I could spiral into a rabbit hole of dark thoughts, Hera continued. "~Thankfully, by the time another ship came by, likely to relocate me here, I managed to recover enough strength to break out and destroy it, but I was in no condition to run... Even still, as I cleaved my way through a fleet in a daze, the ship that shot the beam of mana was nowhere to be seen...~"


    I stood inplete silence as countless thoughts ripped through my mind, but thankfully, I managed to get a hold of myself with a bit of reasoning. -Theboratory and containment center both didn''t have any sort of mana storage device, even though they would have greatly benefited from it...- Looking at the broken antimatter charge pirs lining the edge of the caldera, my thoughts continued to calm. -Even this ce doesn''t have one... Meaning the device was either exceedingly difficult to make and maintain, even for a race as advanced as the Acardi, or.. they couldn''t make efficient use of it...-


    The more I thought about it, the more I came to a realization. -Were the Acardi not here to study life.. but instead to study mana''s interaction with it?-

 Chapter 258: The Scars of War

    Chapter 258: The Scars of War


    Late Evening - Mid Summer : The Scar, Southwestern Holy Kingdom (The mountain)


    -----


    *rrrrumble-FWOOOOOSH* Hurtling down the mountainside with a massive me trailing behind me, my eyes were locked on the distant rocky peaks peeking through the clouds while my mind continued falling farther down a rabbit hole.


    -If the Acardi were here to investigate life''s integration with mana, wouldn''t that mean it was a foreign energy to them? But if that''s the case, how did they know how to create and use antimatter runes? Maybe there were other worlds they investigated that had mana, but life on thoses didn''t evolve with it?- Conflicting, unanswerable questions continued ringing through my mind as I sank deeper into thought.


    But thankfully, after a few minutes of descending into madness, I finally managed to slow down and take a deep breath. "Haah..." -Right.. the wreckage and that ce in the mountains might be able to give me some answers, I just need to be patient...-


    ording to Hera, the wreckage I was likely looking for was arge one, which she believed was going to bring her to the containment center. -If I''m lucky, it could be a research ship...- But while I was hoping to look more into the Acardi''s research and purpose thereof, I couldn''t say it would be bad if it were abat ship. -Regardless, I shouldn''t get antsy...-


    Looking ahead of myself again, I found myself quickly approaching the tall mountain peaks and turning slightly so I could dive through the clouds without worrying about hitting the mountain range-like outcrop. -This should be enough...-


    *vwoom* Finally activating the rest of my vacuum spells, I moved my little-remaining aura in front and finally hit the clouds.


    *POUF-CRACKLE-TSSS* The vapor in the cloud condensed into water before boiling almost instantly as I ripped past it.But this was no surprise.


    Ripping through the cloud at nearly 9 kilometers a second, I had enough momentum to destroy a mountain, but I was stillpletely calm, simply watching my altitude as I descended. -80 kilometers, 70, 60, 50... 40.-


    Quickly releasing my thruster magic and spreading my wings to level out, the clouds started to lighten, and I was finally released into the world beneath. *pouf*


    With the moon low on the horizon, the dew covering the trees and foliage below glistened, giving the area quite a surreal feeling. It felt a bit like a different world.


    But the lighting wasn''t the only thing that made the area feel so alien. All over the ground throughout the forest, were dozens of huge creatures I had never seen before, thergest of which being a turtle of some kind with a miniature forest growing like moss on its back.


    Almost directly below me, there were three of them, each upwards of 60 meters tall, munching on trees like they were made of graham crackers, with a herd of smaller creatures trailing them while eating the trees trampled by the massive turtles.


    It was a truly surreal sight, but unfortunately, I didn''t have time to waste admiring it. -Now, let''s see if I can find this thing...-


    Several minutes passed in a sh as I followed the mountain range all the way to the horizon and didn''t see anything too abnormal besides the wildlife, but eventually, I spotted something. "What is that?"


    Toward the horizon, there was a sudden, immense growth in the size of the trees, going from about 30-50 meters, to upwards of 200. -They don''t look like treants... Are they some sort of rtive?-


    Hastily approaching the rtively thin strip of massive trees, the mana in the air continued to get denser and denser until it even started to rival parts of Bahamut. -Damn... To get this dense this fast.. is there a really big ancient sleeping in this forest or something?-


    The thought was only half a joke. The mana in the air around me was most definitely not aura, but at the same time, I didn''t have any better guesses.


    Eventually getting over the edge of the strip of trees, I got a better view of what I was looking at, but it only made me more troubled. -What even is this?-


    Stretching all the way to the horizon was a four-kilometer-wide, perfectly straight strip of tall trees that dwarfed everything else in eyesight.


    Although I wasn''t sure what exactly made the dots connect, I recognized it fairly quickly. -Hera was hit by an immensely dense beam of mana.. could this be the result of that beam?-


    The ship that hit Hera was most definitely a weapon of war; however, instead of leaving a trail of destruction across thend, it left a trail of environmental prosperity that is still visible more than a dozen millenniater. -The trees must have absorbed the mana left by the beam.. did they end up forming a core and evolving?- It was my best guess for how the mana''s density gradient was so much steeper than normal.


    -But geez... How much mana did that beam actually have to leave this kind of mark...- At the very least, it would have been several times the amount of mana in the dungeon core that Hera was healing herself with, maybe even more. It was a simply unfathomable amount of mana. -It makes me wonder how they could have possibly contained it...-


    Quickly getting curious, I turned around and looked over the ground at the beginning of the strip of forest to see if there were any remnants of the ship, but to my disappointment, there was nothing. -I guess it could be buried, but a ship as big as what Hera described would definitely have parts sticking out of the ground, or areas without trees...-


    To try and y it safe, I ended up looping around a few more times to make sure I didn''t miss something because it was behind a tree, but I found nothing out of the ordinary. -Damn... Well, at least I know where I am now...-


    Finally finishing myst pass over the small section of forest, I turned back to fly over ''the Strip''.


    It led all the way to the horizon, and that didn''t change even as I flew toward it, but eventually, the tree''s height started to taper off. -I must be getting close...-


    Hastilying up on the end of the tallest trees, I kept my head on a swivel looking for any sort ofrge clearing or wreckages but still saw nothing. -Where is it?-


    It wasn''t until a couple minutes had passed that Ilios tapped my back. *tap-tap*


    -Hm?- Momentarily ncing at him, I saw him looking west and checked that direction as well. -But I don''t see anything standing out...-


    Feeling like Ilios wanted me to go that way regardless though, I quickly turned west and flew where he was looking.


    However, it wasn''t long after turning in that direction, that I ended up spotting it.


    Blending in with the canopy was a huge, half-buried, ck and purple structure with an insane amount of damage and all sorts of foliage growing through it. -That must be it...-


    It was around 300 meters wide and 400 meters long, but looked to be only a section of a muchrger ship. -Is there another wreckage nearby, or is this all that''s left?-


    Continuing to look around as I descended, I scanned through the forest to look for any other debris, but not only did I not find any, I didn''t even see any animals bigger than rodents. -For how lively this forest is, why isn''t there anything here? There is no way nothing lives in the wreckage...-


    *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* Quickly finding a sizable clearing tond in, I descended all the way to the ground andnded, but the moment my legs should have touched down, they sank into the ground wasn''t there. -What the hell?!-


    *vwoom-CRUNCH* The ground was incredibly powdery, as if it were just a pit full of dust, so the moment I spread out my weight tond, the entire area sank down andpacted.


    Thankfully though, while I sank nearly 20 meters into the ground, the surrounding ground didn''t copse in on me. -What the hell is this stuff...-


    Looking closer, I noticed it was an odd mix of dirt and rock, but the rock particles were all essentially in the shape of sea urchins with small bodies and long spikes. It was a formation I had never seen before, but it didn''t take long for me to figure out what it was.


    -Could this be.. rock that condensed after turning into a gas?- At first, it sounded like a shot in the dark, since under normal circumstances, temperatures that high would split the rock into its baseponents, ripping out every ounce of impurities.


    But the addition of mana changes that. -It was rock so hot that it turned to gas, and when it cooled again, it formed these, like a snowke...- The particle itself was essentially just an assortment of random minerals you would normally find in rocks, with trace amounts of maic iron that likely led to the formation of the unusual spikes. -But how hot would the ground need to be for this to be able to happen...-


    From what I could tell, the depth of the dust-like rock was somewhere around 70 meters, before meeting ayer of water and an incredibly dense and smooth surface of heavy metals; amon sight in arge crater formed by immense heat, many folds beyond what nuclear power could produce. -I knew the forest looked too pristine from the air...-


    Looking up at a tree that was on the edge of the clearing Inded in, I sent some of my aura into the wall to see how it was growing and found huge roots digging down through the rock and dirt before reaching the bottom of the crater and spreading out, likely to absorb the water that settled there. -Life really does find a way...-


    Momentarily looking around again, I eventually turned my attention back to the ship, and walked toward it, distributing my weight to the surface topact the ground as I walked.


    It only took a moment for me to get to the incredibly damaged section of the ship, but it was absolutely full of stone and dust, so much so that I started to doubt whether it would have any worth to explore. -Maybe I should just leave and fly northwest to try and find where Holcyon got the fusion artifacts...-


    But curiosity ended up getting the best of me. -I guess I might as well run through it while I''m here...-


    Finally changing to my humanoid form, I walked up to what seemed to be an exposed end of a hallway and used my aura like a shovel to clear a path.


    Unfortunately, the hallway and all adjacent rooms were in absolutely horrible condition, but as I continued deeper into the structure, the dirt and rock started to finally thin out, and I could actually start walking around normally, but there was still not much to see. The entire structure was essentially the same as theboratory, with tons of residential-rted areas and a handful of small, destroyedbs or medical bays, all of which had nothing of value left in them, with some even looking like they were salvaged. -There must have been survivors...-


    But as my disappointment started to umte from theck of valuable information I could actually gather, I went to an elevator shaft and was about to simply jump up to the next floor as I had done several times already when I noticed the edge of a veryrge cable embedded into the side of the elevator shaft.


    It was actually the same ''main power cable'' I had seen in theboratory that was used to carry antimatter. -Why would a cable like this be in a residential area?-


    Before I knew it, I was following it through the wall, silently being led through the ship before reaching one of the top floors. -Is that.. a reactor?-

 Chapter 259: The Key

    Chapter 259: The Key


    Early Morning - Mid Summer : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    -Hm...- I tilted my head slightly as I followed the cable into two antimatter batteries that then led to an oblong torus-like space made of mana-strengthened tungsten and coated in a slightly maic alloy, with arge, ring-shaped ma just outside of it. -Is that.. a reactor?- Although it was quite hard to confidently tell what it was, its interior somewhat resembled fusion reactors from Earth. -This must be what turns the antimatter into usable energy...-


    Quickly looking further above the reactor, I found another thick cable leading into a small ck box with countless smaller cables spreading from it.


    My eyes lit up brighter the longer I looked at it. It was the key I had been so eagerly hoping to find. -The key to powering theboratory again...-


    Although it was true that the small reactor and junction box were far too low output to handle the entireboratory, it was also true that it was a perfect temte for me to make one that could. -Thankfully, everything looks like it will work...-


    It was a truly lucky find, as even the deep sea containment center didn''t have such a beautifullyplex reactor. -The issue with the ''reactor'' in the containment center was its scbility and the junction box connected to it. While I could have powered a section of theboratory, I never would have gotten the AI online... But with this one...- My smile slowly widened. -This one has some scbility...-


    In short, the reactor in the containment center made use of a low profile, low-input ''impact reactor'', that worked simrly to a piston in an engine while also making use of the heat with water and steam like a traditional reactor from Earth. The reactor was great in that it didn''t require hardly any antimatter to run while still producing enough energy to run the entire containment center with some energy to spare, but it was incrediblycking when it came to increasing the output. -Making that kind of reactor big enough to run theb is just asking to get blown up...-


    But this reactor, on the other hand, looked to be arge-scale reactor that had been shrunken down. -For it to also not rely on water and steam, it either means the water has too many maintainability issues.. or using water and steam would limit its output...-Either way, this reactor used knowledge and technology eons beyond what Earth could make, and I couldn''t have been more excited about it.


    -Now, how do I turn it on...-


    At that point, the entire structure had been offline for eons, and because of that, I didn''t dare put any antimatter into the battery to let it feed into the reactor. This meant I had to at least power the battery or manually fuel the reactor until the battery was charged. -Looking at the tubes feeding into the reactor, I think I can simte it...-


    Although I didn''t know what the current or speed of the antimatter needed to be, at the very bottom of the reactor, there were two single-particle antimatter tubes and two slightlyrger tubes for protons on the opposite side. -The proton tube is angled lower, so the collision must be proton on antimatter right about here...-


    Finally creating several protons and some antimatter inside the reactor, I set them on the ends of the tubes and tossed them so they would all collide simultaneously.


    *sh* In an instant, the two pairs of particles exploded, sending a st of energy up into the top of the reactor, instantly forming a bright ring before promptly dissipating. -Hm...- It was a reaction I half expected. -The electroma tried to turn, but only for a moment... Is the motion of energy supposed to follow it?-


    With the angle of the ring-shaped ma being slightly tilted, it seemed toply with what the flow of energy would look like if I didn''t move the antimatter so fast. -Let''s try that...-


    *sh* As the ring of energy formed along the ma, the ma finally started to turn, and my attention was brought to the very top of the reactor, where a glowing pattern could be seen in the tungsten.


    But the reaction stopped before I could get any sort of good look at it. -Was that a rune? It''s not engraved on the surface, so...-


    This time keeping my eyes on where the pattern was, I sent a short stream of antimatter and protons into the reactor once again. *sh-vvvVVVVMM* An audible hum could be heard as the ma picked up speed and the patterns became visible.


    -What the.. hell is this..?- I felt a mix of confusion and awe well up in me as I watched the mana-strengthened tungsten glow red hot in an incredibly controlled fashion. -But.. why?-


    The tungsten continued to get so hot that I was nervous it would melt before I stopped the reaction.


    *MMmmm* I fell into thought as the ma spun down. -The parts that are heating up are way too defined to be caused by some sort of malfunction.. but why would that happen?-


    The reactor, while already generating an immense amount of energy with the ma, was simply letting the countless other forms of energy, like ionizing radiation and neutrinos, flow through the tungsten at the top of the reactor in an incredibly controlled fashion, but I simply couldn''t understand why. -It just leads into the mythril connector between the reactor and the cable leading to the junction box... What is that supposed to achieve? Is the mythril supposed to act like a filter?-


    But once I started looking closer at the connector, I noticed something. -What are these?-


    The connector, which looked to be nothing more than a block of mythril, was actuallyposed of millions upon millions ofyers of cubic carbon, so mana-strengthened that it looked akin to the shell of a mana core, with specific sections of atoms missing to form channels that differed between eachyer. -Are these..yered runes?-


    There were millions of them, all stacked on top of one another beforeing into contact with the incredibly pure alloy of titanium, copper, silver, and carbon that made up the inside of the cable, but they were so clogged with mana that I struggled to get my aura in beyond the first hundredyers.


    "Hmm..." -I guess I should start cleaning it out...-


    But while I thought about it casually, cleaning out the runes was no simple task. Before I knew it, nearly two days had passed.


    "Phew..." -Am I finally done?- Pushing my aura through the huge system of runes onest time, I double-checked to make sure there was nothing I missed and finally looked back at the reactor. -Now.. let''s see what all those runes do, shall we?-


    *sh-vvvVVVVVMMMM* As the ma ramped up, the patterns of heated tungsten started to appear, and a rtively small but steady flow of mana moved toward the connector.


    *vwowowowoom* The mana around the connector rippled as it flowed into the countless runes, but a momentter, the result was born.


    *tink-FLASH* Every light and electronic device I could see turned on in an instant as an unfathomable amount of electricity ripped through the cable and junction box.


    It was a current, millions of times that which the ma produced, and tens of millions of times what I theorized a fission nuclear reactor to be capable of.


    But before I could shake off my awe, a faintly robotic voice met my ears. "Warning: Battery 7 Critically Low ; Warning: Battery 8 Critically Low ; Warning: Energy Leaks Detected: Attempting forced shutdown."


    My whole body tensed instantly. "W-WAIT!" *CLANG* A deafening noise ripped through the ship as the ma came to a stop so fast it blew itself apart.


    I couldn''t help but cringe as I looked at the damaged space around the core. -Sh*t... At least I learned what I needed to before it blew itself apart.. I guess...-


    I was honestly incredibly disappointed, but I had already learned what I needed to. -All I need to do now is y around with upscaling it and figuring out how the transformer works...- It was essentially the final step before I could once again turn on theboratory. -But that is a project that has to wait a bit...-


    Quickly cutting a hole through the wall with mana, I disconnected the connector full of runes and cut it off the cable. *Click-nk*


    As I pulled it out of the wall, I carefully surrounded it with ayer of woven carbon to protect it before eventually connecting it to my vest with several bands of cloth. -At least this didn''t get damaged...-


    While I had indeed memorized countless runes while cleaning out the connector, there was no way I could have memorized them all. -Right now, this thing is more valuable than anything...-


    Finally making sure it was secure, I continued my search through the wreckage, and while I found a few offices, smallerboratories, and what looked like surgery rooms, they were all totally gutted.


    Just like several other rooms, it looked as if someone hade through and taken everything salvageable, whether it be equipment or information. -No bodies, noputer terminals, no tablets... There aren''t even any personal items in all of these rooms... Did the Acardie to rescue survivors and salvage what was left of the ship?-


    Everything considered, that was definitely the most likely case, but I couldn''t help but feel like the way things were salvaged was odd. -If they wanted to salvage it.. why wouldn''t they take the whole ship?-


    But I tried not to think about it too much as I ran through the rest of the ship and eventually made my way back outside. -Well, it''s a shame the ship didn''t answer any of the questions I wanted it to, but I can''tin about the result...- The reactor and transformer alone were essentially the keys to a massive library of information that most definitely had some answers in it, so while I was definitely unhappy with theck of information about the ship itself, I couldn''t be mad. -Plus, I still have that ce in the mountains to check out...-


    *sh-vwoom* As I changed back to my dragon form and put the connector in a safe spot behind my wing, I let Ilios back up onto my back and took to the skies once more. -Holcyon said it was ''a few dozen kilometers north of the wreckage''... Assuming that means under a hundred kilometers, that leaves a good section of the mountain range to search...-


    Compared to searching the mountain Hera was on, it made me want tough. -But I shouldn''t lollygag after spending so long in the wreckage...- *pshh-crackle-FWOOOOOSH*


    Hurtling along the mountainside, I expected to find some sort of obvious structure quite quickly, but even after multiple passes over both sides of the mountain, looking through the clouds and trees, I found nothing. -What the hell? Did he lie to me?-


    Not believing that what he said could be a lie, I expanded my search area by several hundred kilometers but still saw nothing out of the ordinary until I spotted a lone dragon flying nearly straight over the ancient wreckage. -What is a dragon doing all the way out here?-


    Deciding to hide and watch them, I concealed myself with light magic and made my way over to get a better look.


    However, just a momentter, theynded at the entrance of a tiny cave and promptly changed to their humanoid form.


    It was an elder, and a prettyrge one at that, but I was far more concerned that they walked into one of the hundreds of tiny caves without any hesitation.


    Almost as if they were familiar with it.


    -Myles definitely would have sent a team of people... So who could this be?-

 Chapter 260: A Mysterious Figure

    Chapter 260: A Mysterious Figure


    <strong>Two Days Prior:</strong>


    Early Morning - Mid Summer : Deepcross, Southern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    - Astren Ravenna ~ (Unintroduced)


    "Have you guys heard of the monster wave to the south? I heard there was a massive wyvern hunting the orcs."


    "Yeah, one of the knight orders left the other day to go handle it, but they haven''t returned yet. Do you think they could''ve been killed?"


    "Pft, yer out of yer mind if you think they''d lose to a wyvern. They had a temr knight with them."


    "Haha, I guess that''s true... Do ya think it''d be worth to head south to try and pige the orc viges while they are all gone? We may find somethin good."


    "Hooh, thats not a bad idea!" The group of adventurers at the table behind me spoke nonchntly, not caring about the dozen other groups within the tavern listening in on them."Hey, maybe if we make it big I can spend a night with that beauty!" The most ragged of the group nced back at the young brown-haired waitress as he spoke.


    Almost immediately, all of the locals went silent, and the gazes of several people idly sipping alcohol by themselves locked onto the group.


    "Haah..." I could only let out a sigh. -They must be new around here...- The group of men behind me were clearly naive to the way things worked in these parts, likely only living and spending time around major cities and towns. -But if they have a death wish, it ain''t my problem...-


    The town I was in was called Deepcross, a town settled right between four huge dungeons, and my hometown.


    All things considered, it was essentially the boonies. With a poption of only fifteen hundred, everyone knew each other, and foreigners stook out like a sore thumb.


    But it wasn''t that we didn''t like them, it was actually quite the opposite. As the town has grown over the years, many powerful individuals havee and stayed. Without a guild being here, one would expect crime to be rampant, but the locals always make sure to form connections with the strong. -I guess my father was one of them at one point...-


    My father was a temr knight of the cleric rank, and while he likely could get promoted to bishop with his strength, hecked the faith in Asgard required for it. -I wonder when he will be back though...-


    "Haah..." -Maybe he found a trace of Mother...-


    As I let out a deep sigh, the group of men at the table behind me finally stood up and left, giving the waitress a hefty tip and a wink on the way out.


    It wasn''t long after that, that one of the men drinking alone at the edge of the tavern got up as well, setting a small golden medallion on the table as he did so.


    But the young waitress was quick to move over and stand at his table. "Sir, is there anything you wish to drink or eat?"


    Almost immediately, the hooded man paused. "An onion soup and a water will be fine..."


    "Hmph..." The girl was quick to pout. "You know, if you eat too much onion soup, your breath will start to stink. And no one wants to talk to someone with bad breath."


    "Haah..." The man''s sigh was heavy as he sat back down and tossed the medallion up into his sleeve. "Then, just a water will do."


    "Alright! Coming right up!" With a smile returning to her face, the waitress happily made her way back behind the bar.


    -She is truly a kind soul...- The robed man in the corner was a man everyone called Shadow. Before being exiled, he was a priest within the capital, and while we don''t know much about his life before he came here, we all could tell it was one filled with blood and despair. -But regardless, he''s one of the reasons this town is so safe...-


    Although he was always quiet and did all he could to stay out of sight, he did everything in his power to help the locals and keep the town safe, including ''cleaning out'' bad actors, but Elora, the waitress at this tavern, was never fond of killing and would always let people go unless they posed some sort of threat to her or the town. -But its been especially bad recently with the sudden rise in activity within the church...-


    Although no one knew why, the strongest divisions of temr knights and other groups serving the church were all being assembled in the capital over recent years. -It makes me wonder if those rumors about the gods returning are really true...-


    But after slowly getting lost in thought, I felt an aura so controlled it made my skin crawl.


    At first I thought it was Shadow''s, but when I looked at him, I saw him staring at the door to the tavern while on edge. -W..what?-


    Immediately putting my hand on the hilt of my sword, I looked toward the door and expected the worst.


    "Young master, please hold yourself back, this is not a town we should stay in for long." The voice was that of a rtively young woman, but she sounded truly worried.


    -What is a noble doing here?- Expecting the ''young master'' the woman mentioned to be the source of the aura, I tensed my whole body and prepared for a fight.


    But as the door was eventually pushed open, instead of seeing a tall, powerful noble, I saw a short figure in a ck robe, followed by a young brat and a maid.


    I felt so confused that I wasn''t sure what to think, but that was when my attention was brought to the obvious pointy ears beneath the hood of the figure leading the noble kid. -A demihuman?-


    Throughout the Holy Kingdom, seeing a demihuman was nothing odd, but they were either all ves or runaways who did all they could to hide their identity.


    Carefully keeping my eye on the group as they walked in, the noble kid and his maid took a seat at the table behind me while the demihuman continued up to the bar. -A ve would have sat with their master...- Not hiding her ears while not being a ve was a show of arrogance that made me curious about who they were.


    Elora didn''t seem to care though. "What can I do for you?" There was a short moment of silence as Elora seemed to hear something we couldn''t. "Haha, no I haven''t heard of anyone like that around these parts, but my brother might have. Would you like me to ask him?"


    The cloaked figure nodded immediately.


    "Alright, then. Let me get you your drink first."


    I looked at the figure in awe. -H..how are they doing that?- Being able to speak without letting noise leak out was one thing, but we could hear Elora perfectly without any kind of distortion meaning it wasn''t a silencing barrier. -That person is strong...-


    Urgently wanting to form a connection with them, I stood up and brought my drink to the bar.


    As I sat down, Elora set a fruity, light alcohol in front of them, and I was quick to catch her attention. "Please put their drink on my tab."


    But she justughed. "Haha, alright." She smirked as she turned back to the hooded figure. "I rmend our morning special and Liquid Silver, it''s a really tasty drink we make here but it''s a bit pricy."


    "Hey, you told me you were out of that!"


    "We are, I just have a secret stash for guests I like."


    -For guests she likes?- I turned to the person next to me with a quizzical look.


    But that was when they reached for their mug, revealing their small white hands that resembled a young girls.


    They looked as if they were made of porcin;cking any callouses or blemishes even though she was carrying some sort of sword and had the aura of a fighter who was far more skilled than I.


    But before I could even question it, an enchanting voice met my ears. "Thank you."


    She was clearly still learning thenguage, but her ent was one I had never heard before. -Where is she from?-


    But before I could actually ask, the doors mmed open. *WHAM*


    Everyone turned to look at the voice instantly, only to see a man holding his knees and breathing heavily.


    I immediately noticed his unusual clothing, but it took me too long to realize it was what knights wore under their armor.


    "Hah... Hah... Everyone needs to evacuate!" The silence that filled the room was deafening. "There is another huge monster waveing here! Hah... This time from the Southern Dungeon!"


    As if no one knew how to react, everyone just looked at each other until the panic started.


    The several dozen adventurer groups in the tavern thinned out before anyone could even try to calm everyone down, leaving only about 10 people, two of which were the noble brat and his maid.


    The maid was begging him to leave. "Young Master we need to leave! The city is only half a days journey north, so we should be able to make it even without restocking supplies."


    "But we have Snow with us!" The young boy immediately looked at the girl next to me. "She''s so strong that she could effortlessly kill that wy-" *thud* Before he could finish speaking, he fell unconscious on the table.


    The maid erupted into panic. "YOUNG MASTER?!"


    But she was promptly calmed down as Shadow walked over. "Miss, he is fine, I just put him to sleep. He will probably wake up in about an hour though, so you should probably get going."


    She immediately gave him a conflicted look before finally thanking him and running out the door with the boy in her arms. "T-thank you, sir!"


    Once she left, the remaining 8 of us sat is silence.


    We were all strong, with the weakest of us being A rank, but even still, we were skeptical whether we would survive if the monster wave was mainly monsters from within the dungeon.


    But before long, a sigh broke the silence. "Haah..." The girl next to me finally set down her mug as she tightened her embrace on her sword and hopped off her seat, somehow keeping her face just out of eyesight.


    We all watched her as she got up, and expected her to simply walk out to catch up with the noble boy.


    But that was when I heard her voice again. "Allow me to repay the favor for the drink..."

 Chapter 261: The Gaze of A Monster

    Chapter 261: The Gaze of A Monster


    Early Morning - Mid Summer : South of Deepcross, Southern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    - Rhanes Ravenna ~


    "tsss-" *crack-CRACK* mming my hammer down into the head of the basilisk as it lunged at me, its head exploded, and a web of cracks spread through the dry soil.


    "Sir Temr! There are too many of them!"


    -Tch...- Tightening the grip on my hammer, I gritted my teeth and whipped it around. "I.. KNOW!" *CRACKLE* The hammer smashed through the jaw of a drake behind me with ease before I lunged forward to throw a punch that would cave in its chest.


    *WHAM-FWOOOSH* In an instant, the massive body of the drake was hurled through the forest, quickly clearing a path through countless weak monsters and giving the knights a second or two to resituate themselves.


    -They are already in bad condition...- "Everyone! Work to thin their numbers as much as you can! Don''t be afraid to fall back!" Quickly shifting my grip up below the head of the hammer, I darted forward onto the basilisk''s body and threw myself in the air. "Hyup!" -I need to clear out the stronger monsters if I want these young brats to live...-


    Quickly scanning over the horde of monsters in front of me, I quickly spotted several morerge drakes with a shell dragon behind them, a 25-meter-tall, 6-legged behemoth reaching well into the Cleric rank. -Sh*t...-It was nothing I couldn''t handle, especially in a one-on-one since the hammer was a perfect counter, but the fact it was here meant the monster that disced it from the dungeon must have been at least priest rank, if not higher. -Even the big names in Deepcross can barely fend off Bishop ranks... If it leaves the dungeon andes this way.. we are f*cked...-


    *CRUNCH* Finallynding, crushing an ogre beneath my feet, I cleared my mind and charged through the horde, hastily clearing a path to the closest group of smaller drakes at the beginning of A rank.


    *tap-tap-tap-crunch* *tap-tap-crack* I mercilessly ughtered dozens of monsters who attempted to grab me as I passed, before I eventually got to the front-most drake and raised my hammer.


    *crackle* A fire grew in my eyes as a bright orange glow formed in the drake''s throat. "Now stay away.. FROM MY TOWN!" *WHAAAAM*


    That was the swing that started it. The brawl that wouldst an eternity. *Ding-CRUNCH* With every swing, I could feel my muscles tearing.


    *FWOOOSH-WHAMMM* But I continued pushing forward, leaving a pile of mutted bodies wherever I walked.


    But even after what felt like several days, the sun was still high in the sky.


    -When.. will it.. END?!- *Ding-CRACK-WHAAM* Every single moment after that first swing, I had been fighting with my life on the line, brawling against monsters dozens of times my size in a hopeless struggle to prevent the destruction of my hometown, and the deaths of my friends and loved ones.


    I believed that if I killed the strongest among the horde, the knights that were with me, numbering almost 200, would be able to stop the rest or at least thin them out enough for the adventurers in the town to be able to clean up.


    But after killing countless monsters and letting even more run past me, I knew how futile those odds were. -This really is.. a monster wave of everything in the dungeon...- *Crunch* The ground cracked as I finally dropped my half-broken hammer next to me. "Hah... Hah..." My mind and body had finally reached their absolute limits. -But I..- "Hah..." -..can''t stop here...-


    Slowly looking up, I found myself staring into the cold, lifeless eyes of a nearly fifteen-meter-tall arachnid called a hell spider, a monster that, at that size, was likely around the peak of A rank or entry to cleric. -To think the bast*rds who never leave the bottom of the dungeon are here as well...-


    It was a monster I could normally kill with ease, especially in a one-on-one, but my condition was far from normal.


    *cough* "Huek..." Falling to my knees, I held my stomach where a monster''s w had pierced me and threw up blood. -Shit... Of all the monsters I could die to.. why is it a single hell spider...-


    After another moment, my vision started to blur further, and with the feeling of the ground shaking, I thought I was dead. *thump*


    But the noise that followed wasn''t my bones cracking. *CRRRRACKLE* It was the sound of the spider''s exoskeleton being blown to bits.


    Slowly looking toward the noise, I saw the huge spider''s green flesh and blood covering the ground with its detached legs and head still twitching. -W..what?- The strength required to create such a scene was entirely out of my realm. "W..who.. is there?"


    Just as I asked that however, a glistening figure entered my vision and came running up to me.


    "S... S..r... Sir... SIR!"


    The initially distant voice got louder and louder as the figure approached before finally getting close enough for me to make out a golden symbol on their armor. -Other.. t..temrs?-


    The unfamiliar voice wasced with worry as he finally made it to my side and pressed an artifact called a plug into the wound on my stomach. "Sir, we weren''t aware a fellow Temr would be around here! I will bring you to my division''s medics! Please hold on for a moment!"


    I was on the verge of losing consciousness as he finally picked me up and started running, but while we ran, there was something I couldn''t help but question. -W..why are we.. running toward the dungeon?-


    But it was only a momentter that I saw a huge outstanding shadow in the middle of the clearing left by the monster flood, and looked up to see a behemoth standing nearly 50 meters tall looking down on us.


    I felt as if time stopped as my vision suddenly sharpened to reveal the being''s cold, uncaring gaze aimed right at me.


    Then, the moment I blinked, I found myself staring at the sky,ying at the base of a towering obelisk I knew all too well. -W..what am I doing.. at the southern dungeon?-


    -----


    - Astren Ravenna ~


    "M-miss! We should head back to the tavern ande up with a n! There is no reason to throw your life away by charging in alone!" I called out to the robed figure again while chasing after her at full speed.


    But even though I said she was throwing her life away, her strength was far beyond what I could ever gauge.


    *fwip-CRACK-BAAAAANG* With each swing, she drew a beautiful white line through the air like a string of yarn before having it instantaneously expand to mercilessly obliterate every creature in her vicinity.


    It was truly a sight so horrifying that it was beautiful.


    But as she continued dashing through the forest while cleaving huge swaths of monsters like cutting des of grass, the monsters only grew stronger.


    Eventually, some even started to survive her swings.


    *BAAAANG-CRACK* The first monster to survive the st of air from one of her swings was a huge basilisk around 5 meters in diameter; a monster that could easily be a high B, if not A, rank.


    But the robed girl didn''t even slow down to pay it mind.


    *CRRRRRACCKKK* The moment it moved after taking the first swing, an opaque white conepletely engulfed it.


    *FWOOOOOSH* The shockwave from the swing was enough to turn the basilisk''s brain to mush before continuing through the trampled forest.


    -W..what the hell...- Seeing the huge trees that were uprooted by the monster wave get thrown like twigs in the wind was a scene I could barely wrap my head around. -H..how strong is she?-


    As we zipped past the squirming basilisk, we continued further and further through the monster wave, decimating nearly everything in our path and making quick work of even low-cleric rank monsters.


    But the monsters only continued to get stronger.


    Before long, the monsters the girl was killing were ones I would surely die in a fight against, and the girl had to start slowing down to deal with them.


    But.. truth be told, none of the monsterssted more than a few swings. *fwip-CR-R-R-RAAACK* Even a group of several hell spiders was turned into a cloud of green blood before they could hardly move.


    But it wasn''t long after that, that we made it out of the back of the wave, and finally came into arge clearing of trampled trees left in the wave''s wake.


    The ground waspletely littered with bodies, both monster and human, but thankfully, none of the armor on the mangled human corpses looked like Fathers. -He must be up ahead still...-


    But the longer we ran through the clearing, the fewer monster corpses there were, and the fewer traces of Father I could see.


    At least that was initially the case.


    Looking ahead of us, I saw a mutted hell spider and noticed something white and gold glistening on the green-blood-soaked ground.


    At that moment, time stopped, and although I thought I was already sprinting at my top speed, the moment I saw the object, my legs gained strength I couldn''t have imagined. *CRACK-FWOOOOSH*


    Hurling myself up to the object, I immediately recognized it.


    It was Father''s hammer.


    For a moment, my heart felt like it turned into a stone, but after looking more closely at it, I noticed it was on the verge of breaking. -He treats this hammer like his best friend... Could he have dropped it because.. he didn''t want to break it?-


    I hurriedly tried to convince myself everything was fine, but after another moment I saw a small fragment of broken armorying under a monster''s flesh.


    In an instant, my mind was clouded in doubt and despair. -What if.. he''s really dead...-


    But just as tears started to well in my eyes, I heard a voice; a voice that met my ears like that of a goddess. "He isn''t dead."


    -H..huh?- My eyes went wide as I looked up to see the robed girl pointing at the ground. -What is she...-


    She was pointing at footprints, too small to be Fathers, but too deep to be someone alone, even for the mushy, bloodied ground. -Did someone pick him up?- I hastily wiped away several tears before looking down the trail of footprints. -They lead toward the dungeon, but.. they look like they were left by someone in temr armor...-


    A cloud of confusion started to grow in my mind before finally gripping the nonsensically heavy hammer and standing up, grasping at the thin string of hopeid out in front of me.


    "Hooh..." I let out a deep breath as I steeled my will. -If a temr picked him up, that must mean there is a division here... They must have been sent to kill whatever monster started the wave...-


    It was quite an assumption, but the presence of another temr gave me hope. -The fact someone carried Father must mean he must be alive...-


    The possibility of Father having already passed quickly became an afterthought as the robed girl and I started running again, quickly making our way toward the dungeon through the slowly thinning clearing.


    Once we started getting close, however, we were stopped by a deep inhuman voice that sounded like it came from every direction. "Turn around and leave."


    It was a voice so cold that sent a chill down my spine.


    But I was the only one to slow down because of it.


    *FWOOSH* In an instant, the robed girl increased speed beforeing to an abrupt stop in the middle of the clearing. -W..what is she doing?-


    She was looking up, seemingly at nothing, before I heard the same deep voiceing from her direction. "To think a demihuman child would see through my magic..."


    I stared wide-eyed at the girl as the light around her started to warp.


    After what felt like an eternity, a nearly 50-meter tall, dark green-scaled behemoth revealed itself.


    It was a dragon that looked like something out of an ancient tale, a monster of myths.


    As it lowered its head next to the tiny girl with a cold gaze, I worried it would eat her, but I was simply frozen in ce. My instinct wouldn''t let me get any closer.


    But it''s not like I was strong enough to help her anyway.


    "State your name." The dragon seemed to speak in a humannguage I couldn''t understand.


    But I wasn''t the recipient anyway.


    Without hesitation, the robed girl reached up and pulled off her hood, revealing two tall, white fox ears and beautiful white hair.


    It was a sight that left me speechless. -Who.. is she?-


    "My name is Katherine. Katherine Whyte."

 Chapter 262: Corruption

    Chapter 262: Corruption


    Mid Morning - Mid Summer : South of Deepcross, Southern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    - Rhanes Ravenna ~


    "Ugh..." I gripped my head as I tried to sit up in a daze.


    But I almost immediately felt someone force me back down. "Sir, please rx." ncing toward the voice, I met eyes with a thin man wearing a round monocle and a mostly clean white garb.


    He was far from strong enough to push me down, but I recognized him andplied immediately. -What in the world is Temr Division Two doing out here?-


    The man standing next to me was named Oswyn Aegar, a man referred to by Temrs and many nobles as the Mad Doctor for his incredibly gruesome, yet effective, ''medical practices'', but known by a majority ofmon folk as the Lab Rat.


    Unfortunately, his incredible achievements in advancing human medicine were continually overshadowed by something else.


    -He is skinnier and paler than I expected...- Momentarily looking at the top of his head, I saw his tworge, round mouse ears before quickly averting my eyes.I didn''t want to risk offending the man who was treating my wounds, after all.


    But truth be told, I doubt he would have cared. "Sir, your body is in terrible condition. You have several severely ripped muscles and tendons, a cracked vertebra, three broken ribs, and a hole in your stomach that I could fit my arm into... You should thank Aesir for even surviving as long as you did."


    I winced from a momentary surge of pain as he situated my head on an ufortable cushion.


    "I have already done all the procedures I can, from cleaning up and partially closing the wound in your stomach to resituating the scattered fragments of your rib cage. But now that you are awake, there are some things I must ask." He silently pulled up and sat in a chair as he looked me in the eyes. "You are Rhanes Ravenna from Temr Division Four, correct?" He waited for my subtle nod to continue. "What are you doing out here? The higher-ups said there were no Temrs in Deepcross."


    -No temrs in Deepcross? Why would the higher-ups bother mentioning that?- A hint of doubt appeared in my mind before I could even speak. "I was temporarily released from duty three months ago, so I came here to spend time with my daughter."


    "Ah, I see. Well, that is truly unfortunate." His voice and expression werepletely heartless.


    I gave him an angry nce before catching myself and assuming it was a misunderstanding. "Haah..." -I need to rx...- "She may only be 20 years old, but she is close to bing a Cleric, so I''m not worried about her surviving the flood." -Plus, Shadow is with her...- I was convinced I had nothing to worry about.


    But that didn''tst very long. "Sir, I was not referring to the monster flood."


    -Huh?- My eyes instantly shot open. -W..what does he mean by that?-


    I didn''t have long to question it, however. "I never would have thought a noble temr would let a family member live in a town like Deepcross." A deep and slightly dissatisfied voice met my ears as my gaze locked onto a huge man in temr armor walking over to me. "Since it seems you weren''t informed of this mission beforehand, allow me to break the news to you."


    The man was huge, standing just shy of two and a half meters tall, with a wide, muscr build and an incredibly oppressive aura to match.


    His expression was quite unsavory as he stood over me. "The name is Andras Snyder, the Captain of the Second Temr Division. I''m sure you''ve heard of me."


    I gave a very subtle nod as I tried to shake off my wandering thoughts about the situation. "M-my name is-"


    "Rhanes Ravenna; Division Four, right? From what a few of my men have said, you have quite a good reputation among the Temrs." He quickly nced at Oswyn, making him momentarily walk away. "I''m quite surprised you weren''t informed of this matter. Does your captain know you are here in Deepcross?" Seeing me nod, he continued with a suspicious tone. "Well, that''s quite peculiar, because the higher-ups specifically said that there were no temrs here a mere week ago..."


    His gaze felt like it could burn a hole through iron.


    "For now, I will assume it''s a misunderstanding and get to the point..." He uncrossed his arms as he walked over and picked up a book that was lying on a small table next to me. "A week ago, we were given a mission toe here and retrieve something. Unfortunately, I can''t tell you what it is, but in the process of us going to get it, we caused the monster flood you had the displeasure of experiencing."


    He paused, likely to watch for my reaction, but I was already losing myself in my own thoughts.


    "Originally, our n was to clear out the dungeon as we descended, but the higher-ups had other ns." *p* He closed up the book with one hand before looking me in the eyes with a serious expression. "The second part of our mission was to use the monster flood to destroy Deepcross and go through to ''clean up what was left'' after it had dealt its damage."


    -W..what...- In an instant, the steady breeze turned still, and the rustling leaves in the canopy went silent. -W..why would they.. order that?-


    "As it turns out, the higher-ups view Deepcross as an oasis of sin. A ce full of criminals and runaways. A blemish in the world they wish to present to the gods... It was why they made sure there wasn''t someone like a devout Temr here.. yet here you are..."


    My face had long since lost its color. Thoughts and emotions were ripping through my mind so fast that they had lost their form and begun mixing into a hellish concoction, but through the storm, one desire stood strong. -I need to guarantee Astren''s safety...-


    It was a desire that filled my body, which was on death''s edge, with enough energy to destroy a mountain.


    But for some reason, I couldn''t move or even speak. It was as if I was suddenly glued to the table and a rag was shoved in my mouth.


    It was as if my body refused to listen to me.


    *thump* *thump* *thump* Distant rhythmic vibrations could be felt as I fell into prayer, wishing only for my daughter''s survival and wellbeing, even if it meant I was to be tortured and treated like a sinner.


    But my instinct only continued to take more and more control of my body until an unfamiliar voice finally met my ears.


    "C-Captain!" It was a young temr knight, likely in his early thirties. "Sir D��ntro has-"


    The man was almost immediately interrupted by a deep, inhuman voice that seemed toe from everywhere. "Kid, get out here. We are having a change in ns."


    The voice sent a chill down my spine and made mepletely stop breathing.


    Even Andras, a man who could snap me like a twig looked a little anxious. "Isn''t that a bit too sudden?"


    It was a scene that purged every single unrted thought from my mind. -H..huh?-


    -----


    - Astren Ravenna ~


    *thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* "So.. where is it bringing us?" I leaned over and whispered to Miss Whyte as we followed the colossal dragon through the clearing.


    "To camp." She responded to me bluntly before looking back at the dragon with an indescribably bright look in her eyes.


    -To think she can still wear such an innocent expression...-


    She couldn''t have been more than 14 or 15 years old, with a wless face, moderately long white hair, and an aura that could easily be mistaken for a queen''s, but no matter how I twisted it, I couldn''t understand her at all.


    Even just a few moments ago, she stood in front of a colossal dragon without a hint of fear and spoke to it like it was a normal urrence, while I was walking behind her, feeling like I could die at any instant.


    But thankfully, I was able to partially distract myself from that awful feeling by questioning what Miss Whyte spoke to the dragon about.


    From what I could vaguely gather, her name was Katherine Whyte, or she was looking for someone named Katherine Whyte, and there was something about that name that led to us being brought ''to camp''.


    They didn''t talk for very long, so clearly I was missing something, but I had no right to question it. "Hooh..." -I just need to take a deep breath.. and follow along...-


    But even though I just needed to follow in their footsteps, the walk was absolutely excruciating.


    Like walking on the edge of a de, I felt that if I made one wrong move, the massive tail looming over my head, creating huge gusts of wind as it swung side to side, woulde crashing down.


    But eventually, we made it to the camp.


    -Is this the Southern Dungeon?- Looking forward, between the legs of the massive dragon, I could see arge, familiar obelisk built on top of arge cave entrance in a rocky hill.


    But, oddly enough, except for the countless monster bodies along the ground, and therge clearing, it looked mostly normal.


    At least that was until we saw ''them''.


    "Lord D��ntro, you have returned." The first to show themselves was a young Temr, who immediately ran out into the clearing to bow to the dragon.


    -Lord.. D��ntro?- I didn''t realize whose name it was at first.


    "Has Adonis returned?" The dragon immediately responded to the knight with an inhuman, but clearly understandable voice.


    -Is it speaking with magic?-


    "He should be out soon, Lord D��ntro." The knight held his bow but somehow didn''t sound the slightest bit nervous.


    "In that case where is Andras? We are adjusting the n."


    "H-huh?!" The knight quickly became flustered. "B-but Sir Dentro-!"


    "Nevermind, I found him... Kid, get out here. We are having a change in ns."


    There was a short moment of silence that followed the dragon''s voice before the younger Temr ran off, and a giant of a man came walking out of the woods.


    The man was easily over two meters tall, with a wide frame and musclesrger than I had ever seen. Even his presence was heavy as if tens of thousands of angry souls surrounded him.


    Even in front of the colossal dragon, he didn''t back down. "Why are you suddenly changing the n? Although you dragons may have freedom, if my men abandon the n ''they'' gave us, we will be held ountable."


    "You don''t have any right to bebative with me, kid." *CRUNCH* A massive web of cracks spread through the entire area in an instant.


    "Hoh? You think just cause you''re so much bigger than me that you can boss me around?" He slowly reached up for the hilt of his greatsword, which looked as long as him.


    "You know what will happen if you draw that sword." *crackle* The blue sky immediately went dark as the huge creature spread its wings. "Even if your strength were greater than mine, you would still have the body of a human."


    "Tch..." The huge man immediately clicked his tongue before pulling away his hand. "If that ''brother'' of yours wasn''t such a monster, I''d drag your head through the capital and take the title of dragon yer." His confidence was endless in front of the dragon.


    But it didn''tst very long.


    "Andras... Angelos..." *tremble* The entire forest trembled as the horrifically deep voice met our ears. "I remember suggesting you two get along... Are you two truly not going to heed my advice?"


    The voice echoed out of the dungeon nearly half a kilometer away before the head of a dragon,pletely dwarfing the one I stood behind, appeared.


    -W..what...- My eyes only widened as it squeezed itself through the massive, 40-meter entrance to the dungeon and finally stood up. -W..what.. is that?-


    Towering over 80 meters tall, with dark crimson scales and countless horns making up its crown, it looked like a totally different creature from the dragon next to me.


    But even still, the dragon next to me treated him like nothing. "Took you long enough... Did you get it?"


    "Who do you think I am?" Opening its mouth slightly, it showed a nearly two-meter-wide orb in its mouth before hiding it again. "In any case, I heard as I wasing out that you want to change the n..." *crunch* *crunch* *crunch* The ground cracked beneath its feet as it walked over. "Is it rted to those two?"


    Seeing the behemoth lock eyes on me, my entire body froze.


    "Not the girl in the back. I am not sure who she is.. but..." The green-scaled dragon suddenly paused before opening his mouth and causing the ground to shake. *TREMBLE* "|The girl in front is named Katherine Whyte.|"


    The dragon''s voice was indescribable and iprehensible, speaking in anguage I couldn''t fathom.


    The crimson dragon responded in a simr fashion. "|Hoh? A demihuman with the name Whyte? Are you sure it isn''t a coincidence?|"


    "|Absolutely certain. Just look at her sword and clothes...|" Both dragons momentarily looked toward Katherine while they seemed to speak to each other. "|It was all clearly made by a dragon, whether she was truly given the name Whyte, or not... However, if she truly is a Whyte, then we could bring this matter to the Hall. Bringing down the Whyte family ahead of schedule couldn''t be bad...|"


    "|Ture...|" The crimson dragon quickly closed the distance between us with a few steps before lowering his head to get a closer look at Katherine. "Little girl, it seems you wish to say something to me... You may spea-"


    She interrupted him without the slightest worry or hesitation. "Help me find someone!"


    Everyone in earshot immediately froze, while the dragons just looked at each other with expressions even I could tell were confused.


    I, on the other hand, was simply appalled by the fact that she would interrupt such a colossal monster. -Is she stupid?!-

 Chapter 263: The Sensation

    Chapter 263: The Sensation


    <strong>*Back to Present*</strong>


    Early Morning - Mid Summer : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    Gliding just below the clouds while cloaked with light magic, I watched the 65-meter-tall elder fly a straight path from where I first saw him to a tiny cave entrance before changing to his humanoid form and walking inside without hesitation. -Myles definitely would have sent a team of people... So, who could this be?-


    After waiting another moment to make sure no other dragons were around and he wasn''ting right back out, I glided down to the cave entrance and found a spot tond around two hundred meters away.


    *fwo-oowsh* *fwoosh* *fwoosh-tap-tap* Thending was as gentle as I could make it. -He shouldn''t feel the vibration from this distance either.. hopefully...-


    Hastily changing to my humanoid form, I looked over at Ilios and had him stay at full size. "Watch the entrance for me. If he slips past me somehow, I want you to grab him, alright?"


    "Huff." He straightened up with a determined expression, quickly reminding me how big he had grown.


    -We really have bepletely different beings in just a few years... I wonder what Mother and Father will think when they see us...- I had been nning to visit them for quite a while now, but one thing continually led to another. -Maybe after I handle this, I''ll have the chance to visit them in As...-Giving Ilios a gentle pet as he lowered his head next to me, I sent him up the mountain and finally cleared my thoughts. "Hooh..." -Whatever the case, I will y it as itys. For now, let''s focus on this...-


    Quickly situating my greatsword and the reactor connector, I made my way up the rocky mountainside being extra careful of my weight, before finally making it to the tiny entrance and squeezing myself inside. -This is a little tighter than it looked...-


    But while my horns scraped the ceiling and my sword cut into the wall, once I got through the entrance, it opened into a tunnel I could morefortably walk in. -But what are those?-


    The tunnel itself looked like nothing more than a cave, but all along the wall, there were several clearly manufactured metal rectangles with some sort of heavily worn carving in them. -Are these mounts for lights or something?-


    They looked spaced as if they were supposed to be lighting the path, but not only were there none hanging there, the metal mounts were incredibly rusted and clearly extremely old. -These have to be at least a few thousand years old, but they''re too crude to be done by the Acardi...-


    Curious if it was something that fell off, I quickly sent a bit of aura into the ground but found nothing out of ce. -Hm... How odd...-


    Finally standing back up, I turned away and tried to move on, but something continued to weigh on my mind as I walked. -First, the entrance was too small for a fusion artifact to fit through, and now these mounts that don''t look like they''re from the Acardi... Is this not the cave I''m looking for?-


    My doubts only umted the longer I walked, but before long, they vanished.


    *clunk* The noise of metal bending ripped through the silence around me like a sonic boom. *VWWOOM* It caught me so off guard I almost didn''t manage to silence it before it continued deeper into the cave. -Holy hell that was close...- "Phew..." -But.. what was that?-


    Moving some aura into the ground beneath my foot, I immediately noticed a fairly thick b of cast iron with a crudely made handle on the edge.


    It was entirely covered in a thickyer of dust and rust. I was honestly lucky to not fall through it. -W..woah... What is this?-


    Hastily blowing away a majority of the dust that settled on it, I reached down and gripped the handle. -Is it a hatch?-


    But the moment I was about to pull up, a foot met with the back of my head.


    *fwip-WH-W-W-WHAM-FWOOOOOSH* In an instant, I was sent ricocheting down the corridor before mming into a solid wall. *DING-CRRRUNCH*


    A ring of metal filled the air as I instantly came to a stop. -Tch... To think I would let him sneak up on me...-


    More annoyed than hurt, I hastily pressed my aura into the wall to dislodge my body but almost immediately noticed that my back wasn''t lodged in stone. -HUH?!-


    My eyes went wide as I looked at what should have been a cave wall to see a massive titanium alloy wall.


    I recognized it as the same material that made up the interior of the Ancient Wreckage immediately.


    But it made my mind stutter for a split second...


    And to a dragon, a split second was plenty of time...


    The next thing I knew, a half-sky-blue-scaled fist came zipping through the cloud of dust and mmed into my chest. *DIIIIING-CRREAAAK-CRACK* The punch instantly sent me through the wall of titanium, hurling me into a room full of all sorts of equipment I recognized.


    From the titanium tiles on the floor to ss enclosures and robotic arms strewn about, the entire room was made of salvage that had been pieced together. -Someone.. was living here...-


    *CLAAAANG* mming into another, far more solid titanium wall, I hastily dispersed all my momentum and narrowly avoidednding on a container full of a blue liquid that reacted with my aura. -Woah, what is that?- *thunk*


    I gave it a curious look as I finallynded.


    But the elder didn''t care.


    *puff* Seemingly not wanting to let me catch my breath, the somewhat short, but muscr man came flying out of the cloud of dust before meeting my gaze and going wide-eyed.


    At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to kill him on the spot. -But unfortunately, I need to keep you alive for now...- Looking past him into the cloud of dust, I quickly visualized where the entrance was and closed the distance between us. *fwip* The surrounding air turned opaque as if it had be a solid wall immediately. "I sure hope you''re durable."


    The instant the tip of my fingers met his clothes, my hand curled into a fist and teleported into his stomach.


    *vwoom-tink* *CRA-FWOOOOOOMM* He vanished almost instantaneously, beingunched out of the room at several times the speed of sound.


    At the time, I intended to hit him down the corridor hard enough for him to bounce around the small bend in the cave before breaking out through the cave entrance.


    But I had no clue how much my strength had progressed.


    *BAAAANG-Shatter-CRUMBLE* As an immense st of air rushed through the cave toward the entrance, a huge section of the mountainside, spanning several hundred meters, shattered before being blown off the mountain entirely.


    The elder didn''t bounce around the curve at all.. he simply plowed straight through the wall.


    *crrrumble* Although I couldn''t see any of it from inside the cave, the noise of crumbling rock made me freeze, with the annoyance and anger directed at the elder disappearing almost instantly.


    My worry of the cave copsing on the rooms entirely washed over my mind like a wave of rity.


    But thankfully, the damage didn''t spread back into the mountain too far, and once the noise subsided, I managed to ease my nerves. -Are things.. alright?- Hastily looking around, I tried to find any cracks that looked out of ce but the entire cave in front of me looked like it had been sand sted to oblivion. -Holy sh*t... I didn''t think that through...-


    I was honestly incredibly lucky, not just because the cave didn''t copse on the room I was on the edge of, but because there was another entrance at the other end of the cave, letting the cave into a massive wind tunnel instead of a vacuum bomb that''d cause the entire mountainside above me toe crashing down. -But.. things worked out somehow.. so why don''t I just count my lucky stars...-


    Finally catching my breath, I got ready to go out and blow a hole through the rubble so I could make sure the elder was still alive, but before I could hop through the hole in the wall, a blinding light appeared at the end of the tunnel.


    *Brrmmm* -Huh?- *fwooosh* The dust filling the cave was immediately blown back toward me with a wave of hot air before it finally dimmed, and a big white fenrir poked his head in.


    His head was nearly as big as the tunnel, but after spotting me, he pulled it back out.


    He was calling me over. -Did he catch him?-


    Quickly hopping out of the room and making my way to the newly made cave entrance, I looked outside to see Ilios sitting next to the Elder''s sprawled-out body.


    His condition looked shockingly alright except for a considerably swollen and bruised abdomen, and a few teeth marks from Ilios, but I went in for a closer look just to make sure he wasn''t going to die. -Considering the artifact I had to punch through though... I''m sure he''s fine.-


    As expected, there was nothing much of note; a significant amount of shredded muscle, ripped tendons, a bit of internal bleeding, a few fractured bones and vertebrae, and some other minor injuries which were already healing.


    To a dragon, most of the damage was surface level. -But, it''ll be at least a few days to heal the fractures... Even if he wakes up in an hour, he shouldn''t be able to move...-


    Quickly going through his pockets, I found a pouch of tinum coins, several fairly basic artifacts including a normal-looking ID, a few nk pieces of paper, and a weird, small, glowing sphere that looked like it was made of a beautiful jade. -What''s this?-


    It was quite small, only about the size of a golf ball, but it slowly emitted mana and glowed a beautiful teal color. -How pretty...-


    Assuming it was some sort of charm, I quickly slipped it into my pocket before finally standing up and brushing off my clothes. "Alright, I think I found what I was looking for in the cave, so can you watch over him for me?"


    Ilios immediately nodded before trotting over so I could praise him.


    "Haha, yes, yes, you did a great job." He immediately started smiling from my praise, and the next thing I knew, I was smiling as well. "I promise we will y some when we visit Mother and Father after dropping this guy off, alright?"


    Seeing him gleefully nod as his tail started wagging faster, the tenseness and anxiety still lingering in my mind finally subsided, letting a much more pure mix of excitement and curiosity dominate my thoughts.


    It was an odd feeling, as if my mind was actively being healed or somehow influenced, but it was a feeling I had be quite familiar with. -I have felt it so many times now.. yet every time I feel it, I can''t help but wonder... What is it?-

 Chapter 264: A Survivor

    Chapter 264: A Survivor


    Mid Morning - Mid Summer : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    -Geez... Who could even make all of this...- *tap-clunk* Gently setting down a small but exceedinglyplex mechanical creation on the table, I turned my attention to arge rectangr device with its side panel off, exposing some incredibly intricate machinery.


    From what I could tell, it was some sort of engraving or precision cutting tool, and the small, out-of-ce mechanical piece on the table next to it was an attempt to repair it. -It looks like it might even work...-


    Reaching over and gently picking up a piece of paper wrapped in an odd film, seemingly untouched by time, I saw an incredibly precise blueprint of the small piece on the table with all sorts of notes, add-ons, and additional ideas on how to approve it. It honestly looked like something from Earth if you looked past that it was all written in Acardi. -Whatever the case, this guy knew his stuff...-


    Finally setting down the paper, I continued around the room to see what everything else was, and things went pretty well.


    The room looked like a workshop of some kind, with all sorts of tools and salvaged equipment that had been pieced together to create more useful things; a massive titanium forge, something resembling a 3D printer, and a hand-held railgun just to name a few. It was inly obvious that the person who created it all was rted to the Acardi, if not one of them themselves. -Well, they definitely aren''t a native that just salvaged some of the wreckage...-


    But issues arose when I started looking for less surface-level information.


    Within the workshop, every single device had a disy, from the nters with isted miniature ecosystems to the massive kiln that sat in the corner. Even the ''wooden'' desk the engraver was on had one.Under normal circumstances, this would be absolutely incredible, as it would entail ess to historical information far beyond what could be provided through paper, but in their current condition, they were nothing more than fancy ck mirrors. -I may be able to power them though...-


    Throughout the workshop, cables were run along the walls before beingbined with several junctions, eventually leading into a ck rectangr pedestal in an empty corner of the room.


    When I first saw it, I thought it looked incredibly out of ce, especially with how crowded the rest of the room was.


    However... *thump-creaaaak* As I approached it, the titanium tiles under my feet creaked, and an echo could be heard from beneath with every step. *thump* *thump* *thump* -Ah, this must be the way you''re supposed to get in here...-


    Quickly sending some aura into the ground, I saw a system of pulleys and cables that would lower the floor like an elevator and spread my aura out to figure out how it operated. -Geez... How long would it have taken to make this by hand?-


    Eventually ending up inside the pedestal, I quickly noticed how it worked like a small junction box for the rest of the workshop, as well as aplex but reliable elevator.


    But even though there were several buttons at the top of the pedestal, seemingly for controls, they all required electricity. -What if their generator breaks while they''re in here? Wouldn''t this be a death trap?-


    Not believing what I was looking at, I used my aura to push the buttons, but as expected, they did nothing. -Talk about a design w...-


    But I wasn''t one to give up easily.


    Looking at the cable leading down the elevator shaft beneath the pir, I considered giving it some juice myself, by against my curiosity and eagerness, I held off. -Unless the destroyed wall was where the door from the cave was meant to be, the area this elevator leads should have another entrance...-


    Finally standing up, I walked back out into the cave and up to the big metal rectangle that was now sticking out of the ground. -If I''m lucky, the other entrance is this...-


    Although it used to be embedded slightly in the ground, it was now quite exposed and looked as if it had been sandsted, likely from when I hit the elder, but all it did was reveal a concerning amount of corrosion.


    But I didn''t even think of what it meant.


    Reaching down and gripping the cold iron handle, I lifted up the several-centimeter-thick te that came off its hinge like it was nothing.


    *creaaak-crumble* *pwoof* I was met with a horrible draft of damp air immediately, before looking down into the opening to see countless heavily rusted rings crudely embedded into the wall to form adder leading almost 40 meters down.


    "Wh..what?" I honestly didn''t believe what I was looking at. -There''s no way this was made by the same guy as the workshop...-


    The workshop was definitely of a pretty high standard, especially with all the equipment in it, but at the same time, it was most definitely not done by some professional group. -But I can''t forget how old this ce is... The workshop was beyond lucky to still be in such good condition...-


    Deciding to stay hopeful and give it the benefit of the doubt, I hopped into the hole and fell past thedder.


    *f-f-f-f-f-f-fwoosh-DING* The titanium floor rang as it bent slightly around my feet.


    But even though it rang, it was far from pristine. -Holy sh*t...- *ssh* The entire floor was covered in a thinyer of water, and the sprawled-out titanium tiles were in horrible condition. "Ack..." -Holy hell, that smells terrible...-


    The things above the water weren''t any better off, with anything that used to be organicying there as a pile of dirt, and anything metal being unrecognizably corroded.


    But it wasn''t all unrecognizable.


    The wall to my left specifically was about 4 meters tall and 18 meters wide, with absolutely nothing taking up the floor space near it, but that wasn''t what caught my eye.


    The wall was incrementally sectioned as if it were meant to retract into itself, and in the middle of where the two retractable walls met was a small gap with something indistinguishable on the other side. -Is that a gate?-


    As I walked over to it, it became increasingly obvious that the small opening in the gate was the source of the water and corrosion. *creaaak* -The hydraulics in this must have died eons ago...- With a light nudge, the outermost section of the gate retracted into itself, letting me finally see what was on the other side.


    But the instant I poked my head through it, I found myself staring straight into the eyes of a nearly 10-meter-wide basilisk that took up a majority of what looked to be a cave.


    I gave it an annoyed look immediately. -I guess I should just kill it before it damages anything...-


    But before I could even walk out of the gate, it turned away and darted off.


    *blub-ssh-crunch* *crackle-crunch* The loose stones on the cave floor were turned to a fine powder under the creature''s weight.


    A look of surprise instantly came to my face. "Wow..." -That basilisk has some really heightened instincts...- My surprise grew even more when I looked down to see a group of six eggsying submerged in a small pool of rainwater. -That thing has better instincts than almost all the creatures I''ve seen... But I guess I can''tin...-


    With the basilisk gone, I could finally see what this cave was.


    And it was pretty recognizable. -Is this a dead dungeon?- With mostly uniform cave walls, and a considerable amount of mythril exposed in them, it heavily resembled an older dungeon, but the flow of mana wasparably almost nonexistent.


    The theory did make some sense too. A dead dungeon was an excellent ce to build a shelter like this since monsters would never have a reason toe inside unless they were nesting or seeking shelter near the entrance.


    But nevertheless, I had some concerns, the biggest of which being how the person who made this ce even managed to move so much salvage from the wreckage at least a dozen kilometers away. -This ce isn''t small.. at all...-


    Although it was extremely difficult to tell what sort of build quality this area was made with because of the corrosion, from what I could tell, it looked a little above the workshop. -But nothing about it is lightweight... Moving any of it so far would be a huge pain for something human-sized... Through a forest no less...-


    No matter how I twisted it, it didn''t make sense.


    At least until my entire view of what the Acardi species looked like started to shift.


    But thankfully, before it could warp too much, I managed to stop myself and make my way back into the gate to take another look through the shelter.


    "Hooh..." -I need to get more information before I make any assumptions...- Quickly walking back through the gate, I looked around the room and saw arge corroded door that was opposite thedder, but there was another anomaly that pulled my attention away from it almost immediately.


    -Huh?- On the center of the opposite wall, several gunk-covered tiles stuck just above the water line, and on a few of them, there was a clean streak as if something had scraped off the organic gunk that had built up. -That looks pretty recent...-


    *tap* *ssh* *ssh* *ssh* Hastily making my way over, I walked up to the wall and immediately noticed a thin but perfectly straight line of corrosion that just so happened to be the very center of the semicircle of scraped tiles.


    It only took me a moment to put two and two together. -Is this a door?-


    Not bothering to take any more precautions, I pushed some aura into the wall and immediately found a sequence of touch sensors, as well as a panel that looked like it was meant to pop out of the wall, before finally undoing the mechanical part of the lock.


    Then, with a click, the door popped out of the wall and swung open. *click* *nk-fwooosh*


    With a gust of scentless air, the door swung open to reveal an absolutely pristine white room,pletely devoid of corrosion, with arge ss tube of blue liquid at the center and a massive panel of screens, a few mechanical sensors, and a few buttons on the wall behind it.


    The center tube, reminiscent of the AI in theboratory, caught my attention quite quickly, but without the ability to power it, I forced myself to move on.


    -But.. what even is this ce?- All along the left wall were several spherical artifacts lined up between three metal rods that led into a hole in the wall with the text ''Hot Cores'' above it, and on the right side was the same thing except with three artifacts and the text reading ''Cold Cores''


    It was puzzling, to say the least, but even as I was walking over to them, a theory came to mind. -Wait a minute... ''Hot cores''.. in a room that looked like it was recently essed...-


    It was the red light I had been looking for.

 Normal Release Schedule is Coming!

    Normal Release Schedule is Coming!


    Hey everyone! I know many of you were probably expecting a chapter today and are disappointed to not see one, but it will have to wait until Thursday.


    I have finally caught up and will be resuming normal schedule of writing + releasing the Patreon on Thursday! The reason it can''t be today is simply because I need to go through and proofread/edit the chapters that will be published (6 in total, 1 for here and 5 for Patreon) which will take at least today and tomorrow.


    Again, I apologize for having to push it back 3 days after having to already wait 6, but starting Thursday, we will be back to good ole 3 day releases!

 Chapter 265: Unmatched Resilience

    Chapter 265: Unmatched Resilience


    Mid Morning - Mid Summer : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    "W..woah..." Gently picking up a ''Hot Core'', I looked at theplicated yet beautiful map of runes on its exterior before carefully sending some aura through it.


    The artifact was nothing short of a work of art. The chained runes were soplex they were hard to follow, yet at the same time, every single one was made with intent as if they were pieces of a puzzle. -But.. is this really something made by the Acardi?-


    From what I could tell, there were two independent chains of runes, one to turn some of the helium into hydrogen and the other to create a trace amount of a much heavier metal, with countless other lone runes lining the inside of the core''s shell.


    Besides the runes themselves, it was nearly identical to something I would have made if I were to create a fusion bomb.


    But this artifact was, at the very least, not meant to be a bomb.


    From how I interpreted it, the artifact was essentially a ''heat and fuel injector'', taking a trace amount of some heavy, radioactive metal and using its fission to kick start a small-scale fusion reaction that would then be released that through a hole in the side of the artifact to jump-start arger reaction, likely inside of a reactor or something simr.


    But that''s where the problem was. -Is this.. a fusion catalyst?-Not only was the artifact the ''easiest to activate'' weapon of mass destruction I could ever imagine, but it was also something meant for energy production. -It would make more sense if it was rigged to be a weapon. All someone has to do is remove or force mana through those mythril ''safety valves'' to use it as one... But the caps on the injector tube are untouched...-


    No matter how I twisted it, the artifact was meant to be an injector. -But even if it was a bit outdated, it isn''t even remotelyparable to the antimatter runes and reactor I saw on the wreckage... That gap in technology is far more than just a few generations...-


    Things simply weren''t adding up.


    But that was something I couldn''t let myself get hung on. "Haah..." -Well, regardless of all that... I''m almost certain this is the artifact Holcyon took...- The artifactfortably checked all of the boxes I was looking for; ease of use without much knowledge, incredibly high explosive potential, and something beings from this world would find impossible to recreate.


    And while I couldn''t help but find it weird that live, operational artifacts remained here after someone came through, I knew simply questioning it would do me no good. -Maybe I''ll ask Holcyon when I get back... If he''s still alive...-


    But as my gaze slowly turned back to the hole in the wall, my curiosity about the artifact and structure returned. -I should have a few more days before Myles, and his crew show up, right? Let''s see what this artifact is really for...-


    *clunk* Gently setting it down in the rack, I walked over to the front panel full of confidence and quickly looked over the several dozen mechanical sensors, switches, and buttons with a curious look, trying to get a general idea of what each was.


    But while I looked at them fully expecting to not recognize any, there was actually one gauge that used a metric I knew: ''<strong>��</strong>''


    -So, those artifacts are actually meant to be used how they were meant to...-


    <strong>��</strong> was a symbol I had previously seen in the Acardi database at theboratory. In short, it was a metric used to denote a reactor''s stability and efficiency, usually between 1 and 100, with 50 being an ideal bnce. [1]


    The issue was that the database specifically stated that it ''lost standard'' 1000 years prior to the data entry, meaning the reactor in this structure was technology a millennia older than almost everything else I had seen.


    But as fascinating as it was to learn that the Acardi had fusion at least a thousand years before the Great War, I was extremely hesitant.


    -I''m.. not really sure I want to try and turn it on now...- Quickly scanning over the other sensors, I tried to find anything else I recognized, but didn''t find anything except a switch under a cover with thebel: ''Cold Start'' on it.


    Deep down, I knew flipping that switch was a terrible idea. Attempting to turn on the reactor was essentially like shaking a bottle of nitroglycerin right in front of my face, but even still, I couldn''t help myself. -I could probably survive in this form.. right?-


    *vwoooom* Sending aura into the wall with some hesitation, I passed through tons of electronics and mechanical parts beforeing into arge reactor core I could easily stand in.


    It wasn''t too much different from the antimatter reactor I saw on the ancient wreckage, except that it was upscaled, relied on water, and had about 20 times the number of moving parts that could break at any moment. -But it doesn''t look corroded...- Even in the center of the core, where a pir of water flowed, there was no corrosion or mineral buildup at all.


    And as if it wasn''t already enticing enough, at the very bottom of the reactor was a hot core,pletely filled with helium and in even better condition than the one I inspected.


    It was as if it was asking to be turned on.


    -I know I shouldn''t.. but...- The possibility of essing archived data from the structure, even if only the workshop''s data was intact, was too enticing.


    -Plus, it does look all right...- I spent a while after that inspecting various parts of the reactor with a hesitant look before finally letting out a deep breath. "Haah..." -I should just be ready to jump into the void...-


    *vwoooom* Finally deciding it was worth the risk, I readied several times the space mana I needed to enter the void and took onest breath.


    "Hooh..." -Well, here goes nothing...-


    *tink-ZAP* My ears were met with the horrible noise of arching electricity the instant the switch closed before being immediately followed by a mechanical hatch opening and the liquid in the tube at the center of the room beginning to flow. *CLUNK-BLUB-huuummmmm*


    From what I could tell, the water in the tube at the center of the room was turning turbines to generate enough electricity to remove the ''safety valves'' on the fusion artifact''s runes.


    But my senses couldn''t be dulled even if I wanted them to. -This is it...-


    *WHAM* *vvvvvvvwooOOOOM* An exponentially growing suction of mana appeared instantly as all the ambient mana in the area was ripped through the walls and into the artifact.


    *VWOOOOOOOM* *TINK-CRACKLE* It only took a few seconds for the material in the artifact to start the reaction. *tss-crackle-WHHHAAAMMMM* *vvvvvvVVVVVMMMMMM*


    A deafening explosion ripped through the room as the matter in the core of the artifact was injected straight into the reactor, spinning it up and causing the lights in the room to turn on instantly.


    *VVVvvvvmmmmmm* As the hum eventually stabilized, I slowly and hesitantly eased my nerves.


    But they were heightened again almost instantly.


    "<strong>ETSC 4 Systems Booting...</strong>"


    "AH!" The horrifically loud, crackly, and distorted voiceing from several speakers in the walls sent my nerves through the roof. -Holy shit, that was loud...- It made me jump out of my skin, but I thankfully managed to calm back down.


    "Loading Presets... Crawler Activating..."


    -Huh? Crawler?- Quickly looking at the central monitor on the wall as it shed for a moment, a few lines of basic text appeared:


    ''Extraterrestrial Surface Crawler 4:


    Critical Error: Legs Inoperable: Automatic Repair: Impossible


    Security Systems: Disabled


    Data Integrity Verification: Disabled


    Reactor Protocol: 48B16.5A


    Reactor Integrity: Passable


    Booting Systems...''


    The screen quickly returned to ck before being reced by a simple menu, while the other screens lit up to show countless calctions, measurements, electronic gauges, and even a sonar map of the surrounding area. -Woah...-


    "Activating Locally Detected Systems... Main Server: Unreachable... Connecting to Local Database. Integrity: Uncertain."


    -Local Database?- My eyes lit up like a kid opening a present on Christmas. -Is that something I can ess through this?-


    Quickly toning out the automated voice, I looked more into the menu on the central screen and, to my surprise, immediately found the database.


    My eyes were lit up like stars as I looked through the astronomical amount of data in the database, including the ''Activity Records'' of every device connected to the reactor, power consumption and management, and all activities over the course of nearly 100 years with extremely few glitches in the data.


    Now, it is true that most of that data was meaningless to me, but the deeper I went, the more I found. -''Travel Records''? What''s this?-


    Quickly opening the tab, I was presented with a giant, somewhat low-detail 3D map of the surrounding area, but with thin trails leading just about everywhere.


    The trails themselves were surrounded with incredibly detailed renderings of the area, to the point that I could count the leaves on trees, as well as specific nodes that could be tapped to bring up a note, usually being something short and simple, like ''S34 Section 3 Salvage'' or ''Hostile Wildlife and Fauna'' with a date and time.


    But among the nodes, there were two that had clearly had the most traffic between them: ''S34 Atmospheric Freighter'', which was right on the ancient wreckage, and ''Home'', which was exactly where I was.


    It immediately destroyed any hint of doubt I still had. -This guy was definitely an Acardi survivor...-


    Quickly tapping and skimming through the notes on each of the nodes along the nearly 1,200 trails, that fact became increasingly evident. Almost two hundred of the half a thousand nodes were rted to other survivors, being locations of emergency broadcasts or thest known locations of people. There were even nodes higher on the mountainbeled ''Personal Emergency Broadcast'', which was likely the owner of this ce''s own attempt to be rescued.


    -But they never came...- ncing up at the date on thest personal broadcast node, I couldn''t help but let out a sigh. "Haah..." -To think he''d keep pushing for his survival even after being abandoned...- The date was almost a hundred and twenty years after the first broadcast. -I''m not sure whether to give him pity or praise for holding onto hope for that long...-


    Quickly checking out thest few nodes, I gave the map onest skim before finally closing it and moving on.


    But most of the database was still irrelevant information, with most of it being stored logs from various machines, including some of those in the workshop, as well as things like blueprints and projects for machines, rooms, gadgets, and weapons, among other things.


    However, something interesting among the blueprints was a rough blueprint of the crawler itself.


    As it turned out, the area I was in now and the area with therge gate were two of the three main parts of the original crawler, with a little over a dozen cked-out crab-like legs sprawling out from under it.


    It honestly looked a bit creepy, but I couldn''t deny that it was an effective design. -It definitely wasn''t meant for a hostile surface though...- The best defensive armament on it was essentially just a vent of heat and sma from the reactor. -But if it works, it works, I guess...-


    Continuing deeper into the database, I came across some data about possible survivors and their information,st locations, chances of survival, etc., along with a folder of distorted images and error-filled videos that looked to be taken from the surrounding area. -The data here is pretty distorted though...-


    Among the images I could see though, there were horrifically mutted creatures, puddles of unrecognizable blood and flesh, massive swaths of destroyed forest, pieces of bones, blood-covered railguns and other weapons, and countless other horrible images.


    The videos were not so lucky, with very few even being yable, let alone watchable.


    However, one of the few watchable videos was simply a ck screen instead of static, with thebel ''Final Broadcast - Friedrich al-Gobcheif ; -351.3, 138.1, 7.8, 91.2''.


    -Hm? What is this?- I opened it immediately.

 Chapter 266: A Final Warning

    Chapter 266: A Final Warning


    Late Morning - Mid Summer : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    *btzzz-crackle* My ears were met with a distorted crackle as I opened up the ''Final Broadcast'' video.


    The screen waspletely ck, and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of the wind and what sounded like someone moving the camera, but eventually, it went silent, and a voice could be heard.


    "My name is Friedrich al-Gobcheif. The Vice-Commander, and likely thest surviving crewmember of the S34." The voice was deep, worn, and gravelly, sounding more simr to a demihuman than a human. "It has been 8 months since the destruction of the S34, and this will be my final message. I hope for it to serve as a warning..."


    The hum of the reactor slowly disappeared as I focused on the voice.


    "This is somewhere we should have never ventured. We havee into someone else''s home and made a mess we cannot clean..." The sound of crashing waves could be heard in the background as the man paused. "From our ships, the seems much like any other, with the exceptions of the anomalies.. namely the dragons... But after wandering around on its surface, fighting for my life over thest 8 months, I can confidently say it is anything but... *fwoosh* This itself is alive. It is conscious. It breathes and gives life to everything here.. and just like a mother, it is going to protect its children... *puff*"


    The sound of something falling into sand met my ears as he paused again before continuing in the tone of someone who had given up.


    "If any other survivors are able to hear this, do everything you can to not just hide away or blend in, but be a resident of this world. Learn the nativenguages and befriend the people, appreciate the beauty of what this world has to offer, and in death, be a part of it... And as for if this message is to ever reach the ears of the Mothership, I beg of you to heed my advice and leave. The dragons are far from alone, and the entity at the bottom of the ck Ocean and the gods that the natives worship are the red gs... This world is not ours, and if we do not stop what we are doing before we step on the wrong tail.. I''m afraid that..." He suddenly stopped as an unidentifiable noise could be heard before the microphone peaked. "*pshhh-CRACKLE*" But after a moment, it quieted down, and the noise of sand and rocks falling to the ground could be heard. "*pitter-patter-puff*"


    It was only a moment before another voice appeared. "|To think a rat like you would finally leave your den...|" It was the voice of a dragon, and an incredibly big one at that.


    But the voice was still rxed. "Haah.. It seems my luck has run out... If anyone can hear this, don''t bother looking for me..."


    "|Tch.. another one that won''t even try to run... How boring...|"


    "I truly pray for the salvation of our Sector, and wish prosperity for you all... I hope we can redeem our mistake before-"


    "*CRRRRUN-tshhhhhh*" The noise of bones being crushed like ice echoed through the speakers before finally cutting out to static.


    Seeing that the broadcast continued for another full minute, I continued to listen, but there was nothing besides an eerie static.


    It didn''t help my wandering thoughts in the slightest. "Haah..." All I could do was hang my head down and try to sift through countless theories and ideas.


    But more than anything, my theories were falling apart.


    The first thing to break was my idea of what the Acardi race was. The voice sounded and felt far too human for the humanoid but alien race I envisioned them to be.


    But the possibility of them being humans only paved the way to far more vtile theories.


    -First was the architecture, then theputers, and then how they act... And now even their voice...- No matter how much I wanted to deny it.. everything about them resembled humans from Earth.


    -Maybe.. there was more time between my death and my reincarnation than I thought...- But even that seemed impossible. From what I knew, the most likely way I reincarnated here was by my soul being brought through the void. -But the time dtion in the void is too much for that...- The only way to exin it would be to say that my soul wandered the world after exiting the void for upwards of ten thousand years before possessing the egg I was born from. -But while that''s usible, I don''t buy it...-


    And that was for one reason.


    -It''s more likely that evolution''s path to advanced sentience is through the ''human''.- It was a slightly oundish-sounding theory that had been stuck in my head ever since I first learned of the existence of humans in this world. -If two independent humanoid species in two different parts of the universe with two vastly different surface conditions have developed an almost identical figure to one another, it cannot simply be coincidence...-


    But of course, no matter how much time passed, the existence of dragons, in particr, was a wrench that prevented those cogs from turning.


    At least, that was the case until the broadcast video. -For someone from a race that could explore the stars to refer to dragons as ''anomalies'' while seemingly ignoring the ''native citizens''...-


    It was a situation that could only arise if those ''native citizens'' weren''t nearly as rare as two or three civilizations in the universe.


    But then it begs the question, what was the reason the dragons werebeled as anomalies?


    The answer was simple. -Because they are a species that can only exist if the beginning of their evolutionary paths had ess to an extreme abundance of mana...-


    It was a connection that could answer countless questions and verify a myriad of theories. -Ifs that grew and evolved with mana is what is a rarity, then that would exin the Acardi''s unusual fascination with this world almost entirely...-


    It wasn''t that mana was foreign to them or that they had never seen how life interacted with it; it was that they were curious how life and sentience evolved with it over millions or even billions of years.


    Even on Earth, scientists would constantly turn to evolution to try and find answers to questions that could better the human race as a whole, be it creating some supplement or creating a cure for a disease. -But to a civilization that can modify their own gic code, a world that evolved with mana instead of being introduced to it is a priceless gem in every sense...-


    Wanting to see if I could confirm my theory, I hastily turned back to the terminal and started digging through the rest of the database, sifting through all the irrelevant garbage in hopes of finding gold.


    But unfortunately, there wasn''t much directly rted to the Acardi; however, I was far from out of luck. -Now I know what to ask the AI in the Lab once I get it running!-


    Deciding to give this database onest dig before shutting off the reactor, I returned to the central monitor and went straight to a list of logs and data entries that had previously caught my attention. -It should be in here... Ah, there it is.- *tap*


    The screen quickly refreshed as arge folder opened with thousands of text documentsbeled by date. -To think the earliest andtest entries would be 140 years apart... He really never gave up...-


    The entries were all notes, a majority being in a diary format, written by who I assumed was the creator of this ce.


    ording to the handful of entries that even regarded the author, they were the Head Engineer on the S34 and were lucky to have been working on the inside of a crawlers reactor that was dry running during the disaster. (Water flowing, maic shell on, etc)


    ording to him, it was the only reason he survived and was lucky enough to find a different crawler that survived the event, mainly being shielded from the st.


    But he never called himself lucky a single time.


    Rather, he said he was cursed.


    A vast majority of the entries were about him struggling to fight off the madness, loneliness, and despair he was left with after narrowly surviving the disaster and hearing nothing but emergency broadcasts of other survivors, just to go search for them and only find the remnants of their body scattered across the ground, with some of them even being his friends, Friedrich al-Gobcheif being a name specifically mentioned several times.


    ording to someter entries, the only thing that kept him sane was taking onrge salvage and repair operations to expand his new home, build new machines, and dip his toes into other activities like data encoding and hardware maintenance.


    But I had to attribute it to his determination to live. -Regardless, I should be thankful for that resilience of his.. because what he made is going to help me monumentally...-


    I spent quite a while after that, skimming through the rest of the notes before eventually getting up to check out the ''lodging'' on the crawler and explore the actual shelter.


    The lodging itself was nothing too fancy, with a standard bed, sprawled-out half-decayed bedsheets, and a desk with some blueprints and drawings spread around, but besides the bed, everything looked to be in great condition.


    Everything outside the crawler, however, wasn''t so lucky.


    At one point, the shelter was likely an incredible feat of engineering, with countlessplex machines all around each of the rooms, but now they were nothing more than umtions of rust and corrosion. -It looks like water came through the walls and ceiling at some point...-


    And sure enough, after sending some aura into the most corroded section of the roof, I found a titanium pipe, likely for plumbing, with apletely solid cylinder of minerals filling the entire thing.


    It was truly impressive that this ce ever had plumbing in the first ce, feeding water into what seemed like a kitchen and another room to bathe, but it was a shame because had it not been there, the technology in the rest of the shelter may have remained preserved like the reactor, and the workshop.


    -But at least I got the blueprints for the more critical parts...- It was a bit disappointing that I couldn''t see what the man surviving here managed to create over 140 years, but the database gave me what I really needed. -It was an unexpected boon to have found so many blueprints of fine electronics...-


    Although most of them were basic or unusable for something on the scale of theboratory, they were enough to help me improve my understanding of fine electronics and potentially even the device I found in Kan. -The issue is I can''t remember everything...-


    Something I was worried about was getting stumped on some small detail I couldn''t remember with certainty or something simr.


    But I had a solution to that.


    -What if I just took it with me?- But even with just a little thought, I realized I had nowhere to bring it.


    -The Lab is off-limits. This thing would crumble like an umtion of silt at that depth.. and it''s probably not the best idea to bring it to Bahamut...-


    However, there was one ce that no one could stumble across, where I would also seldom have to worry about nature. -What if I brought it up to Hera?-

 Chapter 267: A New Scar

    Chapter 267: A New Scar


    Early Evening - Mid Summer : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    *tap-ap* *tap-ap* *tap-ap* The echo of my footsteps could be heard as I walked out of the gate of the crawler.


    It had been a couple hours since I finished exploring the shelter at that point, but I had been far from idle. Before turning off the reactor, I gave the workshop onest look through and relocated several of the more interesting items, like a handheld railgun and carbon 3D printer, to the living quarters, before finally having Ilios move several kilometers up the mountain with the Elder.


    After heading back down to the crawler, I finally shut down the reactor and ensured that a new Hot Core was in ce before finally doing a bit of cleanup and beginning the final preparations for moving the crawler.


    For starters, everything inside the gate room was moved into the cave, from the piles of corrosion that used to be machines to mounds of organic material, loose tiles, and anything else that could move or lead to more deterioration in the future.


    But as I worked on that, all the cables leading to the other areas of the shelter were disconnected, the wall of the crawler that was welded to the wall of the shelter was broken free, and most importantly, everything in regards to power and the reactor was made airtight.


    That stuff alone took about 2 hours, but after finishing them, I only had one thing left. -The legs are already severely corroded, so they should break off when I pull on it.. all that''s left is to create an exit!-


    Currently, the dungeon had a main entrance only about 10 meters in diameter, far from big enough to fit the crawler through, but at the same time, couldn''t be erged with any ease as it was a slow taper over several kilometers.Another option I had was to bring it through the void, but that came with an extensive list of risks that I didn''t want to take. -I still need to experiment more with vectorpression... But regardless, this will definitely be the safest route...-


    *sh-vWOOM* *SPLASH* The pool of water sshed as I changed to my dragon form and walked out through it.


    It wasn''t actually all that deep, maybe about 4 meters at the deepest point, but it was still just enough for what I wanted to use it for.


    *blub* *ssh-crash-ssh* Standing at the deepest point of the puddle, I used quite a bit of magic to ever-so-carefully move the water behind me, toward the crawler, before lifting it up to form a wall covering an entirety of the cave like a plug. -That should be good...-


    In short, it was a plug that would prevent the soon-toe surge of heat and air pressure from causing any damage to the crawler. -It''s unfortunate that I can''t just use vacuum magic for this, but I don''t think it''ll be enough... Hopefully, this should be fine.-


    Not wanting to continue to waste more of my limited mana by holding up the wall of water, I dug my ws into the stone and started preparing the spell.


    I needed something that could bore a sizable hole through a tremendous amount of rock while not causing any damage to the surrounding area or causing the cave to copse.


    But while those were some big demands, I had just the spell. -Let''s see what the limit of Ilios''s magic is...-


    *VWWOOOOOM* To be frank, this spell was so mana-expensive on this kind of scale that it was incredibly not worth using.


    The cost of energizing photons to such an extreme degree while simultaneously umting more of them, beat out any other spell I had ever used by a long shot.


    It was actually so expensive that even though I had a little under a fifth of my reserve avable, I was worried. -After this, I won''t have a whole lot of mana left... But at least I can use it as an excuse to crash at home...-


    *tsssss* Some of the water in the wall started to boil as the air around me heated up. -Alright, let''s start small hole, then make it bigger...- *tsk-crackle* The instant I looked up and opened my mouth, a thin beam, barelyrger than a pencil, pierced through the top of the cave.


    But it didn''t stay thin for long.


    *crackle-hummmmmmrrrrrrrrRRRRRMMMMMM* The beam slowly started to expand as it exponentially grew in volume and brightness until I eventually couldn''t see anything at all without my aura.


    But it kept growing.


    *-RRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMM* Over the span of several seconds, the beam had grown from the width of a pencil to almost 50 meters.


    Thankfully, I managed to ease the mana consumption a bit by making the very center of the beam hollow and expanding that with the outside, but after maintaining it all for several seconds, I was drained.


    *RRRRrrrrrrmmmmmm* As the beam thinned, I opened my eyes again to see an extremely bright blue sky through a hole in the clouds, even though it was the evening before the warm glow of the sunset returned.


    *ttssss-blub* The noise of water boiling and molten rock dripping off the ceiling filled the air as I looked up through the massive glowing molten hole above me.


    "Hooh..." *fwooosh* Quickly letting out a slightly strained breath, I released the wall of water and let it ssh down onto the molten ground. *blub-tss-POP-TSSSS*


    But almost immediately, the scent of molten rock and iron was overpowered by something.


    *sniff* "Huh?" It was an odd scent, but it wasn''t bad. -Is iting from those?- Leaning down toward the basilisk eggs floating by my feet, I took a quick sniff and had the scent punch my nose. "Hwoof!"


    It smelled like nothing I had ever experienced, being somewhere between steak and sushi, with a spicy scent between horseradish and an extremely hot pepper.


    It honestly smelled kind of good. -Did the eggs get boiled during my spell?- Leaning down again, I gave them a slightly closer look and contemted what to do, but the next thing I knew, my mouth was watering, and a purely instinctual thought rang through my mind. -I wonder what they taste like...-


    It had been so long since I had actually eaten anything that, the moment I smelled something decent, I craved it. -Eh, it''s not like it''ll hurt...-


    *crunch* The brittle shell shattered as I crushed it with my tongue, releasing an incredible wave of spice through my mouth. It was on apletely different level of heat from any pepper or spices I had tried during my time traveling across the Western Continent, but it was delicious. -I''m not sure what that vor is, but damn, is it good...-


    It was a pleasant surprise that refreshed my energy and motivation after burning off such a tremendous amount of mana.


    -I guess it can''t hurt to rx for a minute... I need to let things cool off a bit anyways, right?- After ncing up at the nearly 45-meter-wide molten hole I had created, I plopped down into the pool of boiling water with a smile of satisfaction. *SPLASH-tssss* But something was missing.


    -Hmm... I wonder if Ilios would like one...-


    The evening sun quickly set below the horizon after that.


    I ended up bringing the eggs outside to watch the sunset while sharing them with Ilios before eventually heading back into the cave to make somest-minute modifications to the crawler.


    After using Ilios''s spell, I no longer had enough mana and aura tofortably carry the crawler with, while also using any form of thruster magic and vacuum magic, so I had to do things the old fashion way. -I need to carry it without any magic...-


    But it was a little too big and inconvenient to do that, especially with how corroded the gate room was, but after some brainstorming, I had an idea. -Would the main circuit cable be strong enough to hold the reactor?-


    Running through the floor and ceiling of the gate room were two massive cables withrge transformers on each. It was the main circuit from the reactor, used to power everything inside the crawler and the shelter, but it was also the one thing that was untouched by corrosion. -It''syered with a mix of woven andyered carbon, and its connectors are pretty heavily reinforced around the reactor, so.. it should be strong enough... I think...-


    With a bit of hesitation, I reached up and stepped on the gate, pushing the cables together. *creeeeaaaaak* The corroded room creaked as the ceiling and floor were pushed together, but it worked surprisingly well. -No cables broke...- "Phew..." Finally pulling my weight off it, I drove my tail through the ceiling and floor before wrapping it around the inside of the circuit cables. *CLANK-crumble*


    From there, it was easy; all I did was pull it out toward the water, gather up as much hydrogen and oxygen as I could, and fly out of the cave with thruster magic. *pshHHHHHHHH* They were so low power that I was hardly moving up, but after several seconds I got to the edge of the hole andnded. *thump-crackle*


    *creaaaak* The crawler still creaked from the tension on the cables, but thankfully it was holding. -It looks like it shouldst...- "Alright, Ilios. I''m going to fly this up to where Hera is. While I do that, I need you to watch over that idiot." I quickly motioned toward the Elder. -Himing would make this trip a hell of a lot easier, but I can''t leave the Elder alone, and I don''t think he can survive in a vacuum like us...- It was unfortunate, but there was nothing I could do. "When I get back, we will head to the Temple, drop that loser off with Myles, and then go to As. Sound like a n?"


    He immediately gave an excited nod as his tail started to wag.


    "Haha, alright!" Lowering my head to his level, he came trotting over to lick my face and let me rub my cheek against his before finally running back to the Elder.


    Then, with onest nod to him, I took to the air and quickly climbed straight up through the clouds.


    Thankfully, once I got above them, the air was thin enough for me to release my vacuum magic to save mana and not worry about the drag being too much for the corroded shell of the crawler, but by the time I got to Hera, I was literally on fumes.


    *RUUUUMBLE* *THUMP* As I finally set the crawler down on its rear andnded, I lowered my head and took a huge gulp of the dense ambient mana. "Hoooh..." -I feel sick...- Realistically, I had about 3 or 4% of my reserve left, which in the grand scheme of things was still quite a lot, but my body didn''t care if it was an ocean or a puddle from the perspective of other dragons.


    "~What did you bring this time?~" Hera floated out of the edge of the containment center with a curious tone in her voice.


    But I didn''t even bother creating air between us to speak. "Something that would make people think this mountain is a volcano..."

 The Chapter is coming Tomorrow

    The Chapter ising Tomorrow


    Hey guys, short and sweet announcement today. The chapter will be tomorrow.


    I''ve been out of town over thest week and am spending a day and a half driving home so the chapter will be postponed till tomorrow to give me a bit more time to work on things.


    If you don''t wish to wait, feel free to visit my Patreon. :)


    Also, I may be releasing a chapter of a new action story sometime soon. It''s just a fun idea I had for a story a while back, that I decided to write a chapter for though. I don''t really expect it to amount to much, but some of you may find it interesting. (OP MC, Female MC (no romance), System, Action, etc.)


    Regardless, I will see you all tomorrow!

 Chapter 268: The Enticement of a Nap

    Chapter 268: The Enticement of a Nap


    Late Evening - Mid Summer : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    *ffffffwwWWWWOOOOOSH* The noise of the air ripping past me quickly ramped up as thest bit of sunlight disappeared behind the horizon, and I reentered the atmosphere.


    It had been several hours since I parted with Ilios at that point, and while I wanted to return to him earlier, I didn''t have much of a choice.


    When I initially got to the mountaintop, the symptoms of mana exhaustion were already setting in, so I ended up staying there for a bit longer than I needed to try and shake it off before it got too bad. That gave me a couple hours to kill, but instead of letting that time go to waste, I quickly situated the crawler next to Hera''s containment center, did another quick quality check of everything, and eventually did some minor modifications to the fusion cores.


    As it turned out, the mythril safety valves on the core''s runes were a little loose, and since I didn''t want the dungeon core or Hera identally setting one off, I had to essentially lock them shut.


    For the most part, the modifications were simple and straightforward, but the entire time I was fixing them, Hera was looking over my shoulder and asking an unfathomable amount of questions.


    -But I can''t say it was all that bad.- It felt nice to feel like I had some truepany again, to have someone I could bounce ideas off that could actually correct me.


    She was a shockingly quick learner, too, with an unfathomably vast knowledge of magic that, while not as advanced as mine, was filled to the brim with things I didn''t know.It made a part of me want to stay up there and learn from her more, but unfortunately, now was not the time for that. -For now, I need to focus on leaving this ce before Myles'' group shows up and finally going home...-


    Quickly turning my attention back to where I was flying, I blew through the underside of the clouds and immediately started scanning over the forest like a hawk.


    I was over the forest about 20 kilometers off the mountainside where Ilios wasying at the time, but my predator-like focus wasn''t to figure that out.


    It was to hunt, not for food, but for mana.


    Scanning over the moonlit forest, I looked for anything big or any sign of a dungeon, but my attention was quickly drawn to a section of the woods a few kilometers away that was lit up by a towering orange me. -Huh?-


    Immediately looking toward it, I saw what looked like the shell of one of the colossal turtle-like creatures I had seen previously, wholly illuminated.


    The turtle was a little on the smaller sidepared to the ones I saw earlier, but I couldn''t care less at that moment. Not only would something that big certainly have a decent mana core.. -It''s even using magic!- With a dozen rings of glistening water around its head, it actively used a plume of water vapor to protect itself from the fire.


    At that moment, my mind stopped seeing it as a creature and more like a ball of mana.


    But it was only a momentter, when the mes started to dissipate, that my target changedpletely.


    Standing just in front of the turtle was a nearly 20-meter-tall creature that looked like a cross between a forest drake and a very bulky wolf.


    But what caught my eye wasn''t the creature itself; it was its aura that glistened like a beacon while bathed in the fading light of the fire. -What a gem!-


    *zip-FWOOOOOOSH* Maintaining all my momentum from reentry, I adjusted my trajectory toward the fighting creatures and closed in like a meteor.


    When I first exited below the clouds, I was about 60 kilometers away.


    But that distance closed to 0 in about 5 seconds.


    *FWO-WO-BAAAANG* The ground exploded as Inded next to the creature,unching a tremendous amount of ejecta kilometers into the air and causing the surrounding kilometer of forest to sink over a dozen meters into the ground instantly.


    The sudden, immense change in terrain was too fast even for the monster to keep up, leaving him floating helplessly in the air in front of me.


    The next thing I knew, a slightly crazed, instinctual smile hade to my face. -What a lucky find!-


    Before escape could even cross the creature''s mind, I ripped my right w out of the molten ground and shed it through the creature''s neck. *CRRRRRRACK* It instantly killed the massive creature, removing a massive section of its neck like it never existed before the body finally started limply falling to the ground.


    *SPLASH-THUD* As the carcass sshed in the pool of molten rock, I leaned down and quickly zeroed in on the mana core in its chest. -There it is...-


    *CRRUUUNCH* The creature''s ribs shattered as I forced my ws through them before quickly finding the core and pulling it out.


    *crackle* The core was glowing a bright sky blue and was about the same size as the one I ate in Kan, butpared to that one, this had substantially more mana.


    However, this time, I could actually handle it.


    *plop-gulp* Tossing the core into my mouth, I swallowed it like a pill before shattering it the moment it reached my stomach. *CRACKLE-VWOOOOM* Instantly, an immense mana wave erupted from my body before suddenly reversing directions and mming into my reserve.


    But even though I braced myself for a bit of strain and pain, the sensation was like I had just poured a cup of tea into a 5-gallon bucket.


    It was tasty, but nowhere near the amount of mana I anticipated. Or maybe it would be better to say that I was just out of touch with howrge my reserve had gotten.


    -W..what the hell?- At most, my reserve filled by about 2%. -That amount of mana would''ve ruptured my reserve, even just a couple years ago... What the hell?-


    The next thing I knew, I was questioning everything I knew about the efficiency of my spells. -I.. need to rework some of my magic if they consume that much...-


    But that was forter. -For now...- I slowly nced back at the turtle that was still frozen stiff. -Even if his core is the same size as this guy''s, it''s not enough to let me be liberal with thruster spells...-


    Essentially, no matter what I did, I would have to fly without magic for a stretch of the trip.


    "Haah..." -Whatever... I might as well just save my energy then...- Quickly spreading my wings, I turned away from the turtle and hurled myself into the air. *FWOOOSH* -If only I didn''t have to carry that damn Elder, I could just leave the atmosphere and only use magic to maintain altitude...-


    Quickly making my way back to the mountain, I met back up with Ilios and quickly resituated my sword and other belongings behind my wing. Without much aura to spare, they got jumbled up during my hard mana-lessnding. -But I think that''s everything...- Giving onest look around the area, I tried to think of anything I still needed to do here, but nothing came to mind. -I took everything I need, so Myles or the Holy Kingdom can do what they want to do with the rest...-


    A part of me hoped that they would be able to learn a thing or two from what was left, but as I took to the sky, I had my doubts. -Maybe I''ll give Myles a hint when I get back...-


    The flight after that was pretty smooth. I ended up flying southwest out of the mountains and generally followed the northwestern edge of the Western Continent in case I needed tond and take a break at some point, but thankfully, I managed my mana pretty well and never pushed myself far enough to feel the effects of mana exhaustion again.


    That did entail flying about halfway without any magic, but that was better than feeling sick. -It did turn a 30-minute flight into a nearly 3-hour one though...- Even cruising just shy of Mach 2 felt like a snail''s pacepared to normal. -But we''re finally here...-


    Cresting the horizon as I idly thought to myself was the tops of tropical green trees. A truly glorious sight for me, as it meant that I was one step closer to getting home and being able to sleep for a week or two.


    *crackle-FWOOSH* Momentarily using magic again, I hastily sped back up and eventually made it to the temple, which had even more cleared area around it than it used to, as well as quite a few more people guarding the perimeter.


    It was nice to see. Clearly the settlement was growing, quite quickly might I add, and Captain Lassar was keeping the deal. -It does make me wonder what Adrian and Emelia are up to these days though...- [1] But now wasn''t the time for such thoughts. -Right.. how am I actually going to get to the rune? Father never showed me...-


    Momentarily sparing a bit of mana to cloak myself until I dropped into the damaged tower of the temple, I quicklynded and immediately found myself in the exact same situation as when I first came here. -This.. might be troublesome... Should I just dart through it again?-


    I didn''t want to use the mana, but after looking through the floor where I knew a trap was and didn''t find anything, I just gave up. "Haah..." -Well, I''m d I left the antimatter reactor connector with Hera now... I guess here goes nothing...-


    *CRUNCH* Trying to rely mostly on physical strength, I lunged forward with a horrific amount of force, further shattering the ground andunching myself down the hallway, only using one foot to push off the ground and stay in the air or change directions on the corners. *fwo-FWOOOSH-CRACK* *CRACK-CRUNCH* *CRACK*


    Thankfully, it was only a momentter that the final room came into view.


    *CR-R-RUNCH* Abruptlying to a stop, countless cracks ripped across the room, but they all stopped once they met the tform the rune was on.


    "Phew..." -Well, the rest of this should be easy, right?- Quickly catching my breath and calming down, I walked over to the space rune and noticed several names around the edge of the pedestal and a few small glowing dots next to each within the ck artifact.


    The names next to each node were : ''Nouniel'' A small kingdom just south of the Kingdom of Deacia. ; ''Siratha'' ; ''Ampelos'' A city on the southeastern corner of Bahamut. ; ''Nkrem��'' A city in the western mountains of Bahamut. ; ''Emporio'' ; andstly the northernmost city in Bahamut, nicknamed The Frontier of War, ''Akri''. The home of Bahamut''s main military force.


    -After everything that''s happened, I think it''s a safe bet to say Myles will be there or still at the Elder Hall...- And worst case, if he wasn''t at either of those ces, I was confident Akri would have people who did know where he was.


    -Well, let''s not waste any time then! Time to drop this dumbass off with Myles and go home!- *vwoop*


    But unfortunately, when I entered that space rune, I failed to think through what exactly the situation really was.


    -----


    <strong>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</strong>


    <strong>Additional Notes:</strong>


    [1] - Adrian is the captain of the ship that brought Vasilias halfway between the Main and Western Continents, and Emelia was his daughter. Chapter 145 was when Emelia was introduced, and 174 for Adrian if my memory serves.


    <strong>---</strong>


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    (In case Embeded Link doesn''t work: /TDOD )

 Chapter 269: The Mysterious Nature of the Void

    Chapter 269: The Mysterious Nature of the Void


    Early Morning - Mid Summer : Temple Space Rune, Eastern Oasis


    -----


    -Well, let''s not waste any time then! Time to drop this dumbass off with Myles and go home!- *vwoop* Quickly injecting a decent bit of mana into the glowing dot next to ''Akri'', a gate expanded out of the pedestal that immediately stopped once it epassed the artifact and letting a second gate envelope us and our surroundings.


    And as if that wasn''t already enough to send me through a loop, the second gate didn''t cut into the ground at all. -Wait, what?- It made sense but, at the same time, didn''t. -How does that work? And how did the artifact create a gate inside a gate? Is that even possible?- A troubled look washed over my face immediately.


    In an instant, I had gone from smiling, looking forward to getting home, to using everyst drop of my mental energy to st through theories.


    But after a moment of several different trains of thought continually getting tripped over one another, I slowed down with a deep breath and focused on the one I thought I could exin first. -Okay.. first, the second gate not cutting into the ground...-


    Although I, unfortunately, wasn''t focusing on it when it surrounded us, after a bit of thought and reasoning, it did line up with a few of my more experimental theories.


    From what I could tell, when the gate formed, instead of going through/around atoms to create aplete sphere, the gate formed a shape akin to a deted ball on the ground or a water droplet on a t surface to avoid any of the tform being sent into the void whenever someone used the rune.


    Normally, something like this is impossible without external assistance, simr to creating a pentagonal gate or a gate in some otherplex shape, but something I had lightly theorized about over recent years called ''space mana strengthening'' was a possible exnation I had.In short, space mana strengthening was the process of strengthening a material or object with space manapared to unattributed mana.


    But much like strengthening things with other attributes of mana, strengthening with space mana did, in fact, work, but it was sadly not as cut and dry as the other elements.


    To keep it simple, strengthening something with space mana caused the item to interfere with the fabric of space, and that interaction would always lead to the space mana in the strengthened itempletely disintegrating, which in almost all cases destroyed the item at the atomic level.


    After discovering that reaction, I totally stopped messing with it. In my eyes back then, such a brutal after-effect made itpletely useless, and I was better allocating my time to other theories, but now things made more sense. -If the tform was strengthened with space mana, wouldn''t it be able to stop the expansion of a gate? It''d be tedious to strengthen it meticulously enough for that, but as long as the strengthening is more crystalline than the expanding gate, it''d be doable...-


    It was undoubtedly a theory I couldn''t guarantee without doing a few experiments, but it was usible enough for me to at least believe it.


    However, the other issue of the artifact forming a gate inside of another gate... That was something I was almost entirely in the dark about.


    -If the tform doesn''t get spared from the void because of space mana strengthening, how does the pedestal survive?-


    It was a question I asked myself repeatedly because the pedestal surviving the gate couldn''t be exined with anything else I could think of. No matter how I wanted to twist it, it itself was the epicenter of the gate.


    Had the epicenter been just outside of the pedestal, I could have used the same theory as the tform, but at the same time, creating a gate outside the center of the runes with just an artifact would be unfathomably tricky, to the point I questioned if it was even possible.


    "Haah..." -No, I must be overthinking things...- Deciding to take a few more steps back, I halted the theories I was formting and tried to force more straightforward approaches. -Bahamut and the Ancient Fenrir definitely knew more about space mana than I do.. so there must be something I''m missing...-


    But of course, those simple theories just spiraled out of control, like a derailed train that had to be repeatedly reset. Over.. and over again.


    Things continued like that for what felt like days, but eventually, as we were finally getting close to the gate to Akri, I was once again reminded of one of the simplest mathematical theories in the book. -The negative of a negative is a positive...-


    It was a theory I had thought about quite a bit since the discovery of space mana since it looked like a hand meant for a glove, but progress with it was extremelycking.


    The predicament was essentially this.


    If I created a gate, then went to make a bigger one around it, I wouldn''t be able to give the bigger gate an epicenter without taking away from the shell of the smaller gate (which would destroy it). And if I forced the gate to exist without an epicenter, it would dissipate the instant I released it. -The only way for that work would be if two gates could share the exact same epicenter...-


    But that was a possibility I had ruled out many years prior. -Could I have really been wrong about that?-


    My thoughts jumbled as I thought of the burden of scrapping and relearning most of my space magic, but then, seemingly out of the blue, an idle thought crossed my mind that made something click.


    -Wait.. what if it isn''t two gates at all?-


    Although it sounded like a stretch at first, the more I thought about it, the more reasonable it sounded. -Would it not be possible to position the six mana particles from the epicenter of the gate in a fashion that could allow for a doubleyered gate? [1] The ''second gate'' wouldn''t have any space in it initially, but from there, you could expand the outeryer independently and simply stack a column of space mana off the epicenter particles to make it technically remain a part of the main gate!-


    Creating a gate in such a fashion would make it so that when the outeryer ''closes,'' everything between the inner and outeryer would be sent into the void while keeping the inner gate intact so it could just dissipate afterward, leaving everything inside essentially untouched.


    It simply clicked too well for me to have many doubts.


    And, of course, it was that moment when I was most dumbfounded that we were finally released from the void. *vwoop*


    -Holy shit, if I can do that with gates, I can... Huh?- My thoughts were promptly cut off by the bright morning sun that shined through the shell of the gate. -Oh, right, I was going to Akri...- I got so sidetracked that I nearly forgot what I was doing.


    Quickly adjusting my eyes to the bright light as the gate dissipated, I found myself standing on a solid, half-kilometer-wide mythril tformpletely surrounded by a 20-meter metal wall with three mid-size ancientsying on it.


    It honestly looked like something akin to an execution circle. -Am I in the right ce?- But my doubts were quickly destroyed upon seeing Akri''s insignia on the bands around the horns and ankles of the ancients. [2] -Ah, they must be for security... Maybe they can point me toward Myles...-


    As I walked over to one of the ancients, he picked his head up and gave me an unusual look before ncing at the other two.


    I didn''t really pay it mind at the time. "Sir, do you-" *vwWWWWOOOM* My voice was abruptly cut short by the three ancients promptly surrounding the entire area with silencing magic.


    "I rmend you start exining yourself." The ancient in front of me spoke with an extremely aggressive tone as the dome of silencing magic finished.


    -Oi, what''s up with these guys?- "Do you mean this guy?" I motioned back to the elder as Ilios picked him up in his mouth. "He''s a traitorous dragon involved with the Holy-"


    But I couldn''t even finish speaking before one of the ancients behind me closed the distance between us and swung at Ilios.


    It was the gesture that told me everything I needed to know.


    -----


    <strong>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</strong>


    <strong>Additional Notes:</strong>


    [1] - To visualize it, think of every particle of space mana being a Go piece (a squished sphere basically) with each end of each piece being connected to the end of another piece to form a circle/sphere. That is a gate. Now imagine shifting up the pieces on each axis up slightly so instead of the exact end of the pieces touching the rest, it is the underbelly of the piece, then created another circle/sphere touching the top side of the piece. That is the idea.


    [2] - Being a military city, Akri''s insignia was simply a rune that was thebination of a strengthening and sticity rune. During the great war the rune was on everything, and over time, as it became outdated, people epted it as Akri''s insignia. It had be a symbol of strength.


    <strong>---</strong>


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 Chapter 270: Mass Destruction

    Chapter 270: Mass Destruction


    Early Morning - Mid Winter : Akri, Bahamut


    -----


    -Oi, what''s up with these guys?- I gave the ancient in front a re. "Do you mean exining this guy?" I motioned back to the Elder as Ilios picked him up in his mouth. "He''s a traitorous dragon involved with the Holy-"


    But I couldn''t even finish before one of the ancients behind me closed the distance between us and swung at Ilios.


    It flipped my switch instantly.


    *FWOOSH-CLACK* Narrowly dodging the swing, I bolted to the side and knocked his other leg out from under him before immediately turning and driving my head into his underside. *CRACK-WHAAAAM*


    *FWOOSH-SLAM-CRACKLE-VWOOOM* He immediately went tumbling over the thick metal wall around the tform before exiting the dome of silencing magic.


    "Hey, that didn''t feel like detaining force..." -Do they recognize the Elder?- My cold gaze slowly turned to the ancient in front of me again. "What reason do you have to kill me? Are you all dragons who have betrayed Bahamut as well?" My expression slowly turned angered.


    "Tch..." The moment I finished, the ancient clicked his tongue and lunged at me, with the other ancient behind quickly following suit. *FWOOOOOSH*Thankfully, the moment they made a move, Ilios darted off my back with the Elder, so I finally had the chance to move more freely.


    -They''re really going for the kill!- *VWOOOM-Crunch* Before I could even read their moves, their auras mmed into me like a tidal wave strong enough to crack the mythril under my feet. -But you''ll need more than that hold me in ce...- *FWOOSH* Nearly instantly pping my wings, I lunged at the ancient in front and went to bite his neck, but the side of my face was immediately met with his wing.


    Without mana, I had lost my immense speed advantage. *FW-WHAAAAM* Flicking my head to the side and blocking my vision, he swung up his paw and mmed it into my chest,unching me through the air. *FWOOOSH*


    Thankfully, the hit woke my senses up. "Hooh..." Quickly flipping onto my back, I looked down at the other ancient below me with a predatory smile. -I can spare a bit of mana for you...- *BAAAANNNGGG-CRRRAAACKKK* The sound barrier shattered like fragile ss as I pped my wings and used antimatter to flip over and drive my body weight into his head. *CR-RRRUUUNNCCHHHH-RUMBLE*


    The entire mythril tform exploded instantaneously, splintering the metal wall surrounding it and throwing obliterated buildings and roads into the air behind it.


    It looked as if there was a meteor impact.


    But even still, the ancient survived. *FWOOOSH* pping his wings, he tossed me off his head and drove his shoulders into my side. *WHAAAAM*


    *FWOOSH* Being thrown into the cloud of mythril dust, I hastily looked around for the other ancient before the morning light bouncing through the glistening dust turned dark.


    It was a shadow. -There he is!- *FWOOSH* I hurled myself toward the source of the shadow without hesitation, but the moment I left the dust, I was greeted by jaws nearly the size of my body. -SHIT!- *CRUNCH* My scales finally started to crack as he bit into me before using his whole body to m me into the ground.


    *WHAMMM-TREEMBLE* Another immense shockwave spread through the area as a few of his teeth finally started to pierce my scales.


    -AS IF!- *CRACK* Shattering several bones in his snout, I mmed my front ws into the side of his nose and the roof of his mouth before using all my strength to turn his head over and m it into the ground.


    But even though he did all he could to try and nt his feet, the back of his head was already nted into the ground. *fwwWWWWOOOOSHHHH* His colossal body was nearlypletely vertical for a moment as I threw him over me, painting an unforgettable image in the minds of all those who could see it.


    But he didn''t let me m him down. *FWOOSH* Opening his mouth slightly, he flicked his head to the side, not caring that my ws were deep in the roof of his mouth. *CRACKLE-SPLATT* As I wasunched out, my ws dug out through the roof of his mouth, bringing a huge amount of bone, flesh, and several teeth with me.


    *FW-W-W-W-WOOOSH-WHAM-SLAM-WHAM-CRUUUNCHHH* Quickly bringing my tumbling body to a halt, I looked up and met eyes with the bloodied, monster-like dragon that looked like he was going to rip me limb from limb.


    -Tch... That just pissed him off...-


    Keeping watch of his bodynguage, I lowered my body to dodge and counterattack whatever he could throw at me, but a massive pair of ws mmed into my side before he even moved. -HUH?!- *WHAAAAM-ZIP-CRUNCH* *DIIIING* The ring of the metal wall around the tform filled the air as I mmed into it and ripped its remaining solid section entirely out of the ground.


    But they didn''t simply watch the scene.


    *FWIP* Instantly darting to the side, a massive paw came mming down on where I was. *DIIING-CRACKLE* It was the paw of the ancient I crushed. -SHIT! HE CAN STILL MOVE LIKE THAT?!-


    At that moment, every ounce of hope I had to incapacitate or kill the ancients without mana was thrown out the window. -FUCK! IF ONLY I HAD MY MANA!-


    *CRUNCH-WHAM* *FWIP-CRACKLE-FWOOOOSH* But as I dodged several spells from the bigger ancient and a flurry of attacks from the smaller one, an idea came to mind, one that would have repulsed me just a few years ago. -You should have taken the easy way out and stayed down...-


    Instantly tensing my whole body, a cloud of mana moved out of my nearly empty reserve and flooded into several of my attribute nodes. *CRACKLE-BANG-FWOOOOOSH*


    Instantly teleporting into the underside of the smaller, 80-meter-tall ancient flying above me, I dug my ws into his chest and used a mix of antimatter thrusters and brute strength to hurl him into the ground. *FWOOOSH-WHAAAAMMMM*


    With his underside pointing up toward me, my stare turned cold, and the bloodlust surrounding me thickened.


    *CRACKLE-BRRRRMMMM* Likely because of his instincts, he released a zing beam of fire and light magic with a look of horror on his mangled face.


    But my heartless gaze remained unchanged even as it enveloped my body. -You should have thought of the consequences before you stood back up.- *tsk-crackle-TSSS* The small ball of clear liquid sizzled on my back as it was spread across my body.


    It looked like water, but was certainly nothing so stable.


    *sh-VWOOM-BAAAAAAANG* The ground exploded as my paws punched into his chest like a pile drive, sending a shockwave several magnitudes greater than most earthquakes straight into his reserve, with only the dense divinity around it preventing me from plowing straight through. *VWOOOOOOOOMMMMMM*


    The amount of mana that erupted into the air was mind-numbing, causing light to warp and the colors of everything around to turn blue.


    But to my mana-starved mind, it looked like nothing more than a feast. *VWW-W-WOOM* On the verge of losing consciousness from mana exhaustion, I felt the vast cloud of mana start flooding into my reserve, heightening my senses again instantly.


    My eyes were like that of a terminator as I looked up at the other ancient, through the cloud of glistening mythril.


    *crackle* More antimatter began to form on my back as the surrounding mana thinned until finally, the surge of mana into my reserve finished.


    *BAAAANG* I closed the distance between us instantly, but the moment I exited the cloud of dust, I found the tip of a w beneath my chin.


    "Tch..." -Fighting without my aura is such a pain...-


    *CRACK* His w mmed into my neck like a train before mming his paw into my chest and crushing me against the ground. *WHAAAAMMM*


    I immediately dug my ws into his paw and readied a mix of earth and space magic to shred it, but I didn''t have that opportunity. *CRUNCH* Putting his entire weight and aura on me, I sank further into the ground before a flood of earth magic ripped through my ws, thankfully shattering them before the magic could reach my paw.


    But it left me in a pickle. -FUCK!- *tsk-CRACKLE* Quickly forming a sphere of antimatter in my breath nd, I opened my mouth and let it rip. *VWOOOOM-BOOOOOM* The ground epassing me vanished instantly as molten rock wasunched into the air, and the zing beam engulfed the ancients leg, melting his scales and incinerating the center of his paw before he could react.


    *FWOOSH* *fwip-SPLASH* Quickly turning over in the pool of molten rock after he jumped away, I locked eyes on him again. His mouth had already stopped bleeding, but his leg was mangled. -He already carved out all the burnt flesh (to avoid scarring)... He''s still confident...-


    *fwooosh* Feeling a steady breeze returning, I nced to check if the silencing magic had dissipated, but instead caught the gazes of dozens of dragons, at least at the elder stage on the ground and in the air, staring at me. -You have to be kidding...-


    The glow between my scales quickly shifted to a bright blue as I formed a substantial amount of antimatter in my breath nd. -I need to try and talk my way out...-


    But I didn''t have that opportunity. "To think a traitor would bring themselves to Akri!" The ancient I hit out of the area earlier was flying amongst the other dragons. "Does everyone see the jade artifact by the sword under his wing? That is a medallion of the Holy Kingdom! An artifact only used to transfer messages between the higher-ups of the church!"


    -So they really are traitors...- My faint uncertainty eased instantly. -But a message artifact? It hardly even looks like an artifact, so how does that work?- I quickly decided to make it my alibi. "Since it sounds like you are familiar with it, why don''t youe over and show me how to use it? I''d dly share the message with everyone if I knew how."


    The ancient wasn''t very happy with my response. "Hah! A traitor would share a message such as that? How dare you lure me in with such a tant lie!"


    It was a boldeback, but I didn''t have a counter. -If I toss the artifact to him, he''ll probably just break it...-


    But to my surprise, there was one other ancient, one not much smaller than Myles, that wasn''t buying it. "I wonder how many years it has been since I''ve seen such an intriguing young man..." He was almost exactly 100 meters tall, donning an insane number of artifacts, with his most recognizable feature being the amethyst-colored scales and numerous hornsing out of his chin like a beard. "Boy, are you implying that you will share that message with everyone if I tell you how?"


    His name was Astrafter�� M��llon, one of Myles''s closest friends and the Commander of several of the strongest military units within Bahamut.


    -There is no way he is with the Holy Kingdom, right?- I gave it a bit of thought before responding. "If you teach me how, I will dly put the message on disy, but I cannot give it to you. I apologize."


    The other ancient didn''t let the opportunity slip either. "He is going to break it and me Sir M��llon''s teachings!"


    Several other dragon''s were quick to agree with clearly hostile expressions.


    But the Commander didn''t budge. "If he breaks it, we will temporarily treat it as an ident and bring him under investigation. There is no reason to outright kill a man who may be telling the truth."


    "But Sir M��llon, he has already-"


    "I don''t want to hear another word from you, Officer R��on." He cut off the ancient without mercy. "There has been a new investigation issued, as of midnight, that involves everyone here. You will all receive a briefing on itter today. For now, I will handle this. You are all dismissed."


    With just a few words, the dozens of dragons scattered, leaving just the three guards and myself with the Commander as he walked over to me.


    His towering figure was surrounded by a sense of oppression, immediately reminding me of Myles, but his expression was far more unreadable.


    -Shit... Is he really on my side?-


    -----


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 Chapter 271: The Wrong Tail

    Chapter 271: The Wrong Tail


    Mid Morning - Mid Winter : Akri, Bahamut


    -----


    *Crackle-Crunch* The mythril dust crunched like sand under Commander M��llon''s feet as he fearlessly walked toward me beforeing to a stop only a few hundred meters away.


    He absolutely towered over me, even at a distance, but even though I was far from fearful of him, his presence alone kept me on edge. -Shit, why is he so hard to read?-


    His expression was cold, and his eyes were dead. He truly looked like a man who had given up on living, but his slightly curious tone and glowing aura made things seem like theplete opposite. "My name is Astrafter�� M��llon, the Vice-Commander of Bahamut''s main force here in Akri, and the Head of the Artifact and Elixir research divisions. May I request your name?"


    -So, he is in charge of research...- I hesitated momentarily before ncing at the other Ancients to try and figure out whose side he was on, but neither of them did anything obvious. "My name is Vasilias Whyte."


    "Hm... Are you rted to the noble Whyte family?"


    "Something like that."


    He quickly looked me up and down before looking me in the eye. "I see. In that case, please take out the artifact and look inside it. How many lines intersect?"Both of the other ancients immediately tensed up, but I tilted my head in confusion. -Lines?- I had looked in the artifact previously and did see several lines, but they looked like divisions betweenyers of sediment rather than purposefully ced pieces. "Seven?"


    "Hoh, to think the humans would have such a leap in progress." His aura immediately sharpened around the artifact, but I used a bit of leftover space mana to shake it off. He noticed it right away. "It seems you don''t trust me."


    I immediately shook my head. "There is only one person who I can trust with this. I apologize." -Whether this is really a message artifact or not, I should verify it with Myles.-


    "May I be so rude to ask who that would be?"


    "That would be Myles Kalf-" My voice was abruptly cut off by a streak of light that instantly ripped through the space mana surrounding the artifact before mming into the side of my broken w and exploding.


    *CRRRRACK* Thankfully, I managed to intercept it with my w, or else the molten steel marble would have definitely obliterated the jade artifact.


    But at that moment, I couldn''t have cared less about it.


    -This is steel... And that magic...- The air instantly turned heavy as I looked over at the ancient in the sky with enough bloodlust to make the Commander''s aura sharpen and turn into a wall of des.


    However, he didn''t realize what the situation had be.


    My eyes locked onto the ancient in the air like a dragon who found a human in its nest. "Where did you get that marble..." My voice echoed through the area like the voice of death, immediately making the two remaining guards'' faces pale and the Commander fully jump up.


    "W-What do you care-"


    *BANG-FWOOOOSH* Using antimatter to instantly close the distance between us, I forced my half-broken ws into his neck and adjusted my wings to drive him into the ground. *WH-HAMMMMM-CRUNCH* A ring of scales around his neck shattered like ss as my ws suddenly started to heal, progressively digging further into his flesh.


    I was like a feral monster as I looked into his eyes with a bright yellow glow in my scales. "Now, speak."


    His face was that of someone who had seen a ghost. "A-As! A professor in As taught me the technique and gave me a bag of those marbles a few months ago!" *clink-clunk-thud* A small pouch immediately fell off his side, spilling out several dozen perfect steel marbles as it hit the ground.


    They were marbles I had made for Krystallo. -A professor, huh?- Time paused as I looked back at the other ancient. -To think the Holy Kingdom would be shameless enough to target the next generation as well...-


    *Crackle* The ancient''s scales shattered between my ws as I clenched my paw.


    At that moment, there was nothing that could save him, but the instant before I relocated the atoms in his throat to the mantle of the, I eased up. "If you don''t give me the information I want, I''m going to throw you into space and let you rot."


    *BAAAANG-FWOOOOSH* Commander M��llon instantly appeared next to me before stopping his ws just short of the back of my head. "Young man, I believe you have gone too far."


    My anxiousness about him being an enemy eased instantly. "Even if I were to blow a hole through his neck it wouldn''t be too far. Traitorous scum like these two deserve to die." *vwoop* Tossing the jade artifact up in front of his face, I looked back and locked onto the other ancient.


    He was in the air, darting toward the horizon. -As if...-


    But before I could even prepare the magic to catch up to him, a streak of light ripped across the sky and obliterated the base of his right wing. *crackle-BAAAANG*


    The ancient immediately lost bnce, but while he was not slow to recover, by the time he looked for the source of the attack, Ilios was in his face.


    *CRACK* *FWOOOSH-WHAAAM* A massive plume of dust, dirt, and rubble was thrown into the air as the colossal dragon hit the ground before Ilios darted down and mmed into the ancient one more time. *BAAAAANG*


    The Commander watched the scene with a nk expression, but he didn''t stay like that forever. "To call my men ''traitorous scum'' and mercilessly attack them right in front of me." He slowly looked back at me with a stare of intent. "Do you take me for someone weak?"


    His aura surrounded me once more before I gave him a distasteful look. "Someone who can say they are friends with Myles still considers trash who turned their back on Bahamut as ''your men''?"


    "Turned their back on Bahamut? That is quite the im." His nk expression slowly morphed to show a hint of anger.


    "Yeah, because countless pieces of another jade artifact being in this bastard''s pouch isn''t enough." I spoke with heavy sarcasm as I tossed the pouch of steel marbles to the Commander. "Since that''s the case, why don''t you go ask it from the source?"


    His expressionless face immediately started to darken as he turned to look at the ancient under my feet.


    But I just moved my wing in front of his face. "Oi, I meant the other guard... This fucker is mine..."


    Seeing my bloodlust return as I looked back down at the ancient, Commander M��llon finally turned away and got ready to fly over to the guard Ilios incapacitated.


    "But before you go, take that bastard too." I pointed to his feet as Ilios darted up next to him and dropped the body of the Elder. "I ran into him at a shelter in the mountains north of the Ancient Wreckage; he was the one I took that jade from."


    The Commander''s face only became more furious as he saw and eventually picked up the Elder with his aura. "I see." As he spread his wings, he nced back at me with a threatening look. "If you are wrong, I hope you are prepared for the consequences."


    *FWOOOSH* Finally taking to the air, the Commander made his way over to the other ancient with great haste, leaving just Ilios and me with the other ancient.


    It made me look like a hawk who had just caught a mouse. "Now, how about you start exining exactly how you got that pouch of marbles."


    The ''interrogation'' went smoothly after that.


    ording to the ancient, the person who gave them both the marbles and the jade was a professor in As who said they managed to create the new set of spells after having an epiphany from watching a student''s magic a few months prior.


    Thankfully, no matter how I probed him, fear of hearing that something had happened to Krystallo never came to light, but at the same time, the possibility still existed. -There is no way she would just give those to someone, even if a professor asked for them...-


    But there was nothing else I could dig out of the ancient himself. -I guess I''ll just have to pay the academy a ''visit'' when I get home...-


    *Shik* Pulling my ws out of the ancient''s neck, I finally wrapped up my questions and dragged the guard across the dust and rubble-covered ground before tossing him over next to the Commander. *FWOOSH-CRUNCH*


    The whole time I was interrogating the guard, he had been torturing the other ancient in an increasingly brutal manner, with a no longer expressionless look on his face. However, contrary to before, his voice had turned cold. "It seems you have finished with him."


    I quickly nodded. "I figured out what I needed to, and since you seem to be on our side, I will just leave him with you. He has a loose jaw, so you should be able to get plenty out of him."


    "How convenient." *Crackle* The other guard''s ribs cracked as the Commander pulled his paw off his barely conscious body. "Earlier, you mentioned the one person you trusted to leave the artifact to was Myles Kalfas, correct? I thought you just said that name to pull me off your trail, but I think I understand now."


    -Hm?- Although I was preparing to leave, I paused when he spoke.


    "You are rted to the Ragnarok, aren''t you..." His tone had once again be curious, but after seeing me nod, he just turned back to the guards. "I see. In that case, I will not poke my nose in any further; however, before you leave, read through this."


    He immediately moved a letter out of a small bag under his wing and held it in front of me.


    Visually, the paper waspletely nk and looked just like the ones I found on the Elder in the mountains, but looking with my aura revealed aplex set of runes, seemingly carved into the paper''s surface.


    "If you inject mana into the rune on the bottom corner of it, then evenly push mana behind it, the text will appear."


    -What?- Immediately questioning how the text would appear since the runes didn''t have any obviously useful effects, I followed his instructions and injected a bit of mana into it.


    *vwowowowom* The paper immediately started vibrating, and as instructed, I put an evenyer of mana behind it, but seemingly nothing happened.


    At least, that was the case until I looked at the letter with my aura again and noticed countless patterned channels of mana flowing up through the letter.


    It formed a text. A string of draconic letters mentioning what happened at the Elder Hall and detailing a fight I hadn''t heard about involving Amphitrite Ouran��s before eventually saying something directly regarding Myles.


    A part of me couldn''t believe what I was seeing. -He entered his dragon sleep?!-


    -----


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 Chapter 272: Atlas, The City of the Powerful

    Chapter 272: As, The City of the Powerful


    Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : Emporio, Bahamut


    -----


    *Fwoooosh* The warm afternoon air quickly blew across my scales as I glided through the sky on the northern outskirts of Emporio.


    At that point, it had been several hours since I left Akri, but nothing too eventful happened.


    For starters, after reading the letter addressed to Commander M��llon about Myles entering his dragon sleep and being fatally wounded in a fight I didn''t know about, I quickly told him to send a group of researchers to the shelter by the wreckage and left for the Elder Hall.


    -Who could have done that much damage to Myles? Especially with Amphitrite there...- I had a bad feeling about it.


    But unfortunately, even after getting there, I couldn''t get that close to Myles without causing some issues; however, from the air, it was apparent how terrible his condition was. -He definitely would have died if he didn''t enter his dragon sleep...-


    But while I really wanted to know what happened, Amphitrite, the only one who actually saw the event, had left several hours before I arrived and didn''t tell anyone anything.


    Then, with Leander also still unconscious, the only person I could ask about what happened was the female ancient that worked under Leander, who was in charge of the situation, but she wasn''t sure what happened either. -All she said was that Amphitrite flew straight for Emporio almost immediately after Myles''s dragon sleep started... She must have been going for the space rune...-It was pretty unfortunate. The space rune opened up every other fathomable possibility for where she could have gone, so even though I felt like I needed to hear what happened, I had no choice but to give it up for now.


    -Currently, I need to focus on As...- Knowing a professor that was on the Holy Kingdom''s side was close enough to Krystallo to take the steel beads I gave her left a terrible taste in my mouth...


    But regardless of that, instead of returning to Akri, since it was a little closer to the Elder Hall than Emporio, I decided to follow Amphitrite''s flight path just in case I could catch her, but as expected, I had no luck. -It''s a shame.. but I nned to bounce through Emporio anyway...-


    Having been away from home for so long, I wanted to get Krystallo something, but I needed to figure out what. -I''m sure she would prefer something made by me, but I''m not sure what to make...-


    My n was to spend a few minutes looking through the streets of Emporio for some ideas on what to make while I moved to As through the space rune. -I should have enough mana to make something nice as long as I don''t get into some big fight... But.. what to make...-


    My ideas were mostly weapons, but I wasn''t so sure how Mother and Father would react to me bringing her something like that. "Hmm.. what else..." -She likes science.. what if I got her something like...- Then it hit me. The perfect gift.


    It was something simple to make for someone like me but something I was confident she would love. It honestly made me excited to see how she would react. -I know what I can make for her birthday now too!- That was something just around the corner as well.


    Although I didn''t do it intentionally, I was going to return home just two weeks before our birthdays, giving me some time to spend time with everyone, regain some mana, and even begin my investigation in the Academy.


    All that was left was to go to As. -Home, sweet home, here Ie!-


    Quickly returning to the space rune, I waited for a few other groups to take the rune before eventually going on myself. *vwooom*


    This time I carefully watched how the rune and artifact worked, and it turned out to be exactly as I hypothesized.


    Both the tform being space mana strengthened and the double gate''syered functionality lined up perfectly with my theories. -For the main space rune to have simple space mana runes to strengthen the tform as well.. it''s quite smart...-


    Although it would have issues if activated too quickly after initially being built, if the rune was given a few months to strengthen the tform, it would work quite reliably. -It doesn''t make a whole lot of sense how the artifact manages to make the doubleyered gate so wlessly, but learning that it for another time...-


    For now, I needed to put my focus into something else. -I wonder how she will react when she uses it for the first time...-


    My time in the void quickly passed after that. I promptly got to work on Krystallo''s gift and used my spare time to think about exactly how I would go about investigating the Academy, even though I would need to see what it was like before nning anything.


    But before I knew it, I made it to the As space runes, a famed array of two dozen space runes built on a single colossal tform made of Mythril that was so high grade that even the biggest of ancients couldn''t do anything beyond cosmetic damage with just physical force.


    But while the glowing tform was eye-catching, as the gate dissipated, I was presented with a much more astonishing view.


    "W..woah..." Surrounding the massive tform were countless absolutely colossal structures, some pushing over half a kilometer tall, with an incredible number of dragons with varying, brightly-colored scales in the sky and on the ground.


    It made Emporio look like some back-water town.


    "Sir, pleasee this way for the identity screening." A young ancient in glistening armor called me over immediately.


    As I made my way over, I noticed his look of distaste but assumed it was nothing.


    "Sir, do you have an As Nobility Medallion?"


    I immediately tilted my head. "A nobility medallion? Not that I know of."


    "Haah..." His look of annoyance immediately worsened. "To have one made is one gold; for single time entry, it is 50 silver. If you are a high-noble, the medallion is free of charge, and if you do not have the funds to enter, please go to the back of the line for the space runes..."


    -The Whyte''s are high-nobility, right?- I quickly pulled out my mythril ID and handed it to him.


    "Hm?" But instead of what I expected, he gave it a skeptical look before looking me up and down. "Sir, I am going to need you to follow me..."


    -Huh? What''s this about?- At first, I thought it was just a discrepancy in my ID not matching my appearance after it changed so much or the fact my scales were ck, but my name was Whyte.


    But eventually, I was led into a massive building that looked like an empty shop but was immediately led to a lower level.


    As we walked down, things started making more sense. -These rats are everywhere...- Although I hadn''t confirmed it, I came to the assumption that he just like the ancients in Akri, a dragon with the Holy Kingdom here to catch targets of interest, and he was leading me underground to ''deal with me''.


    However, as we continued downward, there was a rhythmic vibration that steadily increased in strength as we descended until, eventually, the entire spiraling hallway shook. *thump* *thump* *thump* -What is that?-


    Finally making it to the end of the path, we came up to a massive door with a scorching heat emitting from it, along with the noise of metal being hammered. -Where am I being brought?-


    Finally stopping in front of it, the young ancient eventually knocked on the door with a bit of hesitancy. "Sir Ats��li, the man you told me to keep my eye out for is here."


    The rhythmic vibrations finally stopped for a moment before an incredibly oppressive aura shot through the door and surrounded me. -Ah, shit...- Now wasn''t the time.


    Immediately bracing myself for a fight, I bent down and readied a bit of mana. -How am I going to do this without destroying a sector of the city above...-


    But then the door finally swung open, revealing a colossal, 105-meter-tall ancient with dark maroon scales partially covered in soot, with a wide smile on his face. "The young master has finally arrived! You''re even scarier than I was told!"


    His voice was that of a jolly old man, but his aura was as lively as a childs. "W..who are you?"


    He quickly motioned the knight back up the stairs before using a bit of water magic to clean off his scales. *tsssss* "My name is Vathys Ats��li, the best smith in Bahamut, but also someone very close with your grandmother and indebted to your great-grandmother."


    He quickly motioned me in to have a seat at a massive wooden table that looked to be carved from a single tree, but I was still hesitant.


    "A couple years ago, your grandmother paid me a visit and said that you would eventuallye here, and since you are a Ragnarok, I would have to be the one to make your medallion, so I had the knights keep an eye out for you and your furry friend." He nced over at Ilios, who was sticking his head in the furnace, smelling around while he closed the door.


    I couldn''t deny that I was still a little on edge, but it had moreso turned to confusion at that point. "So the reason I was brought through that sketchy store and spiraling hallway was just so I could have my medallion made? I was expecting to have to fight some people..."


    "Haha, you look disappointed." He finally made his way over to the table as well, before setting a barrel in front of me. *thunk* "Can this make up for it?"


    It had an instantly recognizable aroma. -Pi��tita?!-


    "Haha, d to see you are familiar with it! If you had never had it, I would have needed to have a discussion with your grandmother."


    I finally started easing up as I put the barrel in my mouth.


    His smile widened after seeing my face of satisfaction. "Well, now that I have eased the tension a bit, let''s get to the matters at hand; there are a few things I would like to discuss."


    -----


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 Chapter 273: The Tension of Reunion

    Chapter 273: The Tension of Reunion


    Late Afternoon - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    "Well, now that I have eased the tension a bit, let''s get to the matters at hand; there are a few things I would like to discuss."


    Having finally eased my nerves, I gave Sir Ats��li a curious look. "Sure thing. What do you need?" -I need to get going, but I guess I need to wait on the medallion regardless...-


    "For starters, could I see your ID? I''d like to work on the medallion while we talk. Hopefully, it shouldn''t take long."


    -Oh, perfect.- Without thinking much of it, I tossed it to him.


    He snatched it out of the air with his aura immediately before looking it over and spinning it around. "This is some extremely high-grade Mythril you got. I will pay you more than you''d believe if you could tell me where to find some of it."


    -To say that even while knowing I''m a Ragnarok...- Although it was true I could almost always create my own coins or even head to the Eastern Oasis or the Kingdom of Zan''s old capital for a bit of money, such sources weren''t viable for more considerable sums.


    -Plus, this shouldn''t take much work from me...- "I''ll be sure to keep an eye out, but I expect to only be able to sell the mythril to you rather than point you to a location."He immediately smiled. "I will dly take anything you wish to sell to me, but keep in mind the cost solely depends on the grade."


    "Of course." -Sweet... I can make some really high-grade stuff in my free time...-


    *ck* Finally setting the ID back on the table, he turned and walked toward the colossal furnace, simultaneously using his aura to move several things around. *clink-ng-tsss-pop*


    But even while doing dozens of things with his aura at the same time, he spoke exceptionally casually. "Out of curiosity, who made that sword under your wing?" He paused as he nced back at it. "It''s one of only a few weapons that I can''t discern the technique used to create it."


    "Ah, this old thing?" I quickly pulled it out andid it on the table. *creaaak* "I made this a while back. Over time, I just made small changes to it, but after my recent growth, I n to remake it entirely."


    He immediately burst outughing. "Haha, you made that yourself?! I truly deserved to be shamed for doubting your grandmother''s praises!" Quickly picking it up with his aura, he moved it next to his head and inspected it closely. "Its bnce is a bit off, and the material of the de is a bit soft, but I can''t find even the slightest imperfections within the metal itself... Do you mind if I ask how you made it?"


    I immediately shrugged. "I just used mana. I took material from the air and ground, turned it into what I wanted, and pieced it together, starting with a frame and building it out inyers."


    He gave me a look filled with both skepticism and curiosity. "But how does that work? This is clearly some extremely high-grade material. It shouldn''t be possible to make anything remotely this strong using that method."


    I tilted my head slightly. "What do you mean?"


    "Even if I were to try and create a simple bar of this metal, it would crumble the moment I released it. The only way to make such a material hold is to contaminate it with other materials, but then it loses its purity and strength."


    -Ah, is he referring to bncing molecules?- I took a moment to think of how to exin it before just going for it. -If he has gotten far enough to piece atoms together, he should be able to understand...- "Well, you see, when ites to those tiny particles, they each have. . ."


    It only took us a moment for us to get lost in conversation.


    I gave him a quick rundown on atoms and molecules and showed him how to make higher-grade materials using carbon as a framework.


    He was an exceptionally quick learner, even if his talent was far from rivaling Hera''s.


    Eventually, he got so interested that, when he started getting close to finishing the medallion, he began throwing offers at me to teach him more, such as bing his disciple, him bing my disciple, a bag of a few hundred tinum, then progressivelyrger sums all the way to a dozen royal gold coins.


    But while the sum was unfathomable, I didn''t end up caving into the pressure.


    "Are you sure?" He reluctantly started cleaning up the freshly crafted medallion as he looked me in the eyes. "I can do anything you want. I can even be your servant if you wish."


    "Haha," -I guess I should expect such curiosity from an ancient...- His requests made me feel a bit awkward, but it was also true that nothing bad woulde from forming a connection with such an influential dragon. "How about this. You can send me a letter with up to 4 questions once per month. I will answer or exin whatever you wish me to, but it can only be using those questions."


    He quickly pulled his head back and gave me a quizzical look before eventually smiling. "You truly aren''t a child, no matter how I look at it." He seemed to like that though. "Alright, I can do that. I hope you don''t expect easy questions!"


    "Haha, of course not." -If the world of magic has really gone as stagnant and even backtracked as much as Hera says it has, I should make it start moving again.-


    It was not a simple decision.


    Getting the cogs of societal growth to turn again was something I had thought about over the course of several years, but as I was always happy with how things were, I never did anything. -Telling dragons how to make anything they wish would also be like opening pandora''s box...-


    But even though I still believed that to be the case, ording to Hera, such an ability would be limited to older ancients and was a skill known and used throughout the Golden Era, even if their reasons for ''why'' it worked weren''t urate. -If that''s the case, maybe it won''t be too bad... But just in case, I should probably introduce science to Siratha as well...-


    "Well, I think this is all. Are you sure you want to leave your sword with me? You could easily sell it for at least a royal gold even if you sold it as raw material."


    "Yeah, it''s fine. I would rather give you an example to learn from."


    His smile widened as he handed the medallion to me. "You would make a fine teacher; you should teach at the Acad-"


    "Nope." I gave him an immediate, blunt response. "I have no interest in teaching the masses anything."


    He quickly let out a sigh. "Haah, I thought I''d try... Well, in any case, I wish I could hold you here longer, but you look like you''re ready to go."


    I was quick to nod. "I think it''s about time I get going."


    There was a short moment of silence before he turned to me and lowered his head all the way to the ground. "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn from you, even if it is not much."


    "No worries!" -I''m just killing two birds with one stone.- "Before I go though, be sure to keep your eyes on the guards."


    He raised his brow as he looked up at me.


    "I just came from Akri, and the three ancients that guarded the space rune were traitors working with the Holy Kingdom; they were a real pain. If you want more details, you will have to ask Commander M��llon though. I don''t know how much he wants to disclose."


    His expression instantly turned sour. "So ''the ignorant'' have finally started to move..." Somehow, he seemed well aware of the situation already. "Haah, well, thanks for telling me. Although I will have to talk to the guys in Akri about it, I will be sure to keep my eye out... Regardless, thank you foring."


    "Of course, it was my pleasure. I will look forward to your letter."


    "Haha, of course."


    We both quickly gave our goodbyes after that, finally parting ways after much discussion. -He''s a good ally to have...-


    As I walked back up the long ramp back to the surface, I had a lot on my mind, but once I saw the light through the windows of the dusty shop, my mind cleared. -Right.. it''s time to finally go home...-


    I was excited, excited beyond belief, but at the same time, I was nervous.


    Quickly exiting the store and taking to the sky, I reoriented myself with the horizon and started flying to where Mother had told me the estate was several years prior.


    However, it, unfortunately, still wasn''t easy to find, and it took some asking around, but I managed to find it just before sunset.


    -Woah...- The estate itself was considerably smaller than our previous estates, with much smaller fields and gardens around the main building.


    But whenparing it to the surrounding area, being mostlyprised of dense buildings and streets, it truly stood out on a mind-blowing scale. -Evenpared to the other noble estates, it really stands out...-


    The building was clearly much older than almost anything nearby, but the old aesthetic looked incredibly good and made it pop even when surrounded by countless othervish buildings and enormous estates. -Sometimes, I forget the position of the Whyte family...-


    But that was enough gawking.


    Quickly making my way down to the main entrance, I came face to face with two nearly 70-meter-tall ancients with bright white armor and artifacts with the Whyte Family insignia on them.


    "Sir, onlookers aren''t allowed in-"


    I ripped out my medallion and threw it in front of his face instantly.


    My chest was tight, and adrenaline was pumping through my veins as I looked at the estate through the tall metal gate.


    Although it had only been a few years, so much had happened that I couldn''t help but be nervous.


    It only got worse when the knight looked at the medallion. "Ah, Sir Whyte! We were eagerly waiting for your arrival." Although he sounded like he didn''t really believe it, he motioned to the other guard and had him open the gate.


    *vwoop* *faint mumbling* *Ding!* The gate opened as several artifacts lit up around it.


    The other guard was quick to speak as well. "The estate will be sending out a maid if you wish to wait for an escort, but regardless, we dearly hope you enjoy your st-"


    *FWOOOOSH* Immediately darting through the gate and up to the door, the attention of everyone nearby locked on me.


    But I truly could not have cared less.


    "Hooh..." My anxiety only grew as I looked up at the handle of the colossal door. -Well.. it''s now or never!-


    Quickly moving my wing up to open the door, I had a short moment of hesitation.


    But the world didn''t care about a time for pause. *Click* The lock undid itself before I even touched it.


    -----


    <strong>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</strong>


    <strong>Additional Notes:</strong>


    In preparation for the next chapter, I will give a short refresher for those who need it.


    Zachari Ragnarok - Vasilias��s Mother


    Osto Ragnarok (Whyte) - Vasilias��s Father


    Krystallo Ragnarok - Vasilias��s Sister


    Maria - Krystallo��s Maid (From the Kingdom of Kan Arc)


    Chloe - Vasilias��s Maid


    <strong>---</strong>


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 Chapter 274: Troublesome Curiosity

    Chapter 274: Troublesome Curiosity


    Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    - Krystallo Ragnarok (A few hours prior) ~


    "Krystallo, how about you? Do you know what this rune is for?" The professor gave me a curious look as he motioned toward a glowing rune on the wall.


    It was a rune far moreplex than he was showing previously, but I hardly noticed that change. "It is a rune that would shoot a thin beam of water, professor!"


    His smile quickly turned proud. "Hoho, that is correct, but you are missing anotherponent." Momentarily turning back to the ss, he moved to the side and made the rune significantly bigger. "If anyone can tell me what else it does, I will bring you the treat of your choice tomorrow."


    The eyes of everyone in ss immediately lit up as they all focused on the rune.


    Several people quickly jumped up and raised their hands, hoping for the professor to choose them.


    "Young P��linos, what do you think?"The young boy in front of me immediately answered. "Does it heat the water?"


    "Hoho, that is a good guess, but not quite... How about you, Miss Fter��?"


    She immediately jumped up out of her seat. "Is it lightning magic?" Her humanoid form''s avian wings twitched with excitement.


    "Yes! That is correct! Now, can you guess what that lightning magic is for?"


    She immediately hesitated before finally blurting it out. "Is it using the water as a medium to extend its range?"


    The professor''s smile immediately widened. "This ss truly exceeds my expectations! Be sure to tell me what you would like after ss."


    Several students looked disappointed after hearing that she was right, but most were still eagerly listening, knowing another opportunity would likely arise.


    Finally turning back to everyone else, the professor shrunk the rune and picked up two fruit off his desk. "That is correct. Did everyone hear that? This rune is meant to give pure lightning spells better range and increased potency... Allow me to demonstrate!"


    *thump* *tap* Carefully setting two fruit on the far end of his desk, he took a few steps away and stuck his hand out


    "Now, if I use a simple Bolt spell with 50 units of mana, assuming I use half of it for control and half of it for strength, what will happen to the fruit?"


    Several students immediately jumped up before the professor pointed to a boy in the middle. "With only 25 units for strength, if it doesn''t deviate, it would only cken the skin and maybe knock it off the desk."


    I quickly nodded in agreement. -At that range, it would barely be able to kill a rodent...-


    We all watched silently as a yellow glow appeared in the professor''s hand, and thin arcs of lightning became visible. *crackle* *zap* *cracke-CRACK*


    With a bright sh of light and a loud crack, the fruit on the desk turned ck and was sent rolling over the edge. *thump* It was exactly as we expected.


    "Now, what will happen if I use the rune I just showed you all on the other fruit, this time omitting the control mana? Remember, the rune''s mana ratios are 7 part lighting, 2 part wind, and 1 part water."


    This time he gave everyone a moment to think before pointing his palm at the other fruit. *glow* Most of us expected him to call on someone, but the next thing we knew, a thin glowing beam of water, hardly a millimeter in diameter, appeared and connected to the fruit like a string. *crackle-POP*


    The fruit exploded instantaneously, sending steaming chunks of fruit flying out towards us faster than we could react to, but the professor thankfully caught it all. *vwooom*


    Most of us were simply frozen, myself included. -W..why did it react so violently? Even the 50-unit bolt he used on a fruit in his hand didn''t react like that...-


    The sight sparked my curiosity and made countless theories start blowing through my mind.


    The professor smiled, seeing me fall into thought. "It seems that wasn''t the reaction you all expected." He seemed proud to stump us, but especially so for me. "Does anyone have any ideas?"


    No one raised their hands this time.


    Except for me, at least.


    "Yes, Krystallo."


    It was a bit of a shot in the dark. "Is it because the water being used as the medium superheated and exploded inside of the fruit?" -I remember Brother showing me what water can do when heated quickly in a confined space...- But no matter how I wanted to twist it, I was clueless about why it happened so suddenly, especially when the water wasn''t even boiling on its way to the fruit.


    "That is indeed part of it! Great job!"


    His praise was something I would usually love, but this time it fell on deaf ears. I wanted to know why it happened.


    But unfortunately, that desire was left to fester. "For homework today, I would like you all to write your own theories for what you believe happened. Don''t feel bad if what you write sounds like nonsense or if you know it isn''t right. Something is always better than nothing." He smiled, seeing the students'' mix of eager and disappointed looks. "Haha, I will give a bag of stoneberries to those with good answers, so think hard! Tomorrow, we will discuss your theories and eventually go over what exactly happened. Until then, you are all dismissed!"


    As everyone started getting up to leave, theories continued to rip through my mind, and my gaze slowly turned to the floor. -The water wouldn''t gain enough heat to explode when hitting the fruit on its own, so it must have to do with the lightning magic... So, think... What did the lightning do to cause that...-


    But I was eventually pulled out of that trance. *tap-tap* -Hm?- Quickly noticing the room was already mostly empty, I looked to the side and met eyes with Fter��.


    She was wearing her usual bright smile. "Hehe~, I told the professor to bring us some of that ''Velvet Cake'' we saw in the bakery after sses the other day."


    My train of thought immediately shifted as my mouth started to water. "Really?! He said he would bring that?" -That tiny little cake was almost 50 gold...-


    "Yeah! He said he would buy it for us to share since we have improved so much recently!"


    -I guess it makes sense that he would be wealthy, but isn''t he spoiling us a bit too much?-


    sses started back up on the winter solstice, which was just a couple weeks ago, and our rune and magic theory professor was switched out to this man, so he was still new, despite having won over the hearts of his students already.


    Of course, I had no reason toin. He was especially knowledgeable on everything he taught, and his teaching methods were extremely involved, especially whenpared to our previous professor. -He really knows how to grab everyone''s attention too...-


    Finally getting up, I followed Fter�� out of ss and into the colossal hallway that could easily fit an ancient. It was time to head to our next ss.


    But I wasn''t looking forward to it. "Do you think she will actually tell my parents if I skip ss again?"


    "Uh, yeah?" Fter�� looked at me like I was crazy. "Has she ever not followed through with one of her threats?"


    "Haah..." Our history professor was truly like a witch out of some story.


    Having already learned a lot of history from Mother, ever since I joined her ss, I had to constantly correct her on topics she was teaching.


    And it wasn''t just small details either. Even some of the significant events she tried to tell us about were inly wrong. -And she would never admit anything... To an extent, I feel like she is lying on purpose...- But that was a bit too much of an assumption. "I just wish I could tell the headmaster..."


    "Ah, right; where did you say he went?"


    "Siratha. I don''t know why he went there, but he left about a month ago." Finally turning into a different hallway, we eventually made it to the room. "Haah..." *click* The moment the door opened, I could feel her gaze. -Maybe I should tell Mother about her...-


    Quickly making it to my seat, I chatted with Fter�� for a bit, and the ss eventually started.


    But it was nothing short of excruciating.


    As usual, the professor said countless things that were wrong, and no matter how much I wanted to ignore it, some of the statements were simply oundish.


    She, of course, made it difficult for me to say anything regarding what she was ''teaching'' and gave me her usual warnings about interrupting, but I no longer cared. -The moment the headmaster returns, I will just report her...-


    But as I went to leave the ss after being dismissed, she stopped me.


    "Krystallo." Her annoyed look was much more visible than normal. "If you are going to continue to ''correct me'', even after my warnings, you are wee to not attend. However, you must pass this ss to graduate, so think carefully. Our next test is in 7 days."


    Seeing my expression as the professor turned back to the papers on her desk, Fter�� was quick to drag me out of the room.


    "Are you crazy?!" She was always the one to try and mitigate things since she was one of the professor''s favorites. "No matter who your parents are, they won''t be able to save you if you get expelled! Why don''t you just try and learn from her? She wouldn''t be a professor here in As if she was stupid."


    "Haah..." I couldn''t deny her. That fact was actually why I initially doubted what I remembered from Mother''s lessons when first attending history ss, as well as why I was always the only one to speak up about what she taught. -But I can''t let her just get away with it... I''m not sure how she got this position, but she clearly isn''t worthy of it.-


    It was at that moment that I finally steeled my will to ask Mother if she could do something, even though I believed it went against our family rule about relying on the family name.


    However, Mother''s reaction wasn''t exactly what I expected.


    "Your professor told you WHAT?!" Her calm expression morphed with shock the instant I mentioned what the professor was trying to tell us a few days prior.


    "S-she said that Bahamut left Hera Monachik��s to die because he believed the way she ruled was-"


    Bloodlust immediately appeared in Mother''s gaze, making me nervous to say anything more, but she instead just looked at Father with a gaze of fire.


    However, he looked just as upset. "It seems I need to have a talk with the Vice-Headmaster about who they have chosen to be a professor."


    "I agree. I will contact Myles." Mother''s expression softened, and intent to kill vanished the instant she turned back to me. "Sweetie, you said your friend''s name was Fter��, right? Why don''t you bring her here after your rune and magic theory ss? While your Father and I look into this, I will give you two lessons."


    I immediately nodded as my nervousness was reced with excitement. "Okay!"


    "For now, Osto, you know who to visit. I will send a letter to Mother, and Myles, as well as try to reach the headmaster.��


    Father quickly nodded in agreement. ��Alright, I will be back soon.��


    He quickly left the room and headed to the door, but although we expected to hear him throw the door open and m it behind himself, we heard nothing after he opened it. -Huh? What is he doing?-


    -----


    <strong>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</strong>


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 Chapter 275: Home Sweet Home

    Chapter 275: Home Sweet Home


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *Click* Hearing the lock get undone, I stepped back from the door, but instead of seeing a maid as it swung open, I found myself looking down at a white dragon almost 10 meters shorter than me.


    -To think I grew this much... We were basically eye-to-eye before I left...- I subconsciously lowered my head and softened my posture upon seeing him. "H-Hey, Father... Have you been well?"


    His expression was a mix of confusion, awe, and worry. "V-Vasilias?! Y-you''re already back? Nothing serious happened, right?"


    I immediately mmed up a bit. "A few things happened, but that''s not why I''m here." -I don''t think I''ll be able to avoid the issue this time, but that''s forter...- "I just haven''t been able to keep in touch over thest few years, so I decided toe back and visit for a while."


    His worry quickly started to fade as he let out a deep breath. "Phew..."


    However, his worry wasn''t the one I was anxious about. "Honey? Is everything alr-" As Mother rounded the corner, shepletely froze in ce with an expression remarkably simr to Fathers before bolting to the door and quickly inspecting me. *FWOOSH* "Vasilias?! What are you doing here?! Are you alright?! Are you in trouble?! Do you need help?!"


    Her worry hit me in the face like a train, forcing me to quickly pull her in for a hug. "I''m alright, Mother! You don''t need to worry so much."Her worry slowly started to dissipate with my affirmation, but her heart was still racing. "What do you mean, ''not worry''? When children leave the nest, it''s for at least 10 years. If theye back sooner, it either means something bad happened, or they struggled to adapt to living on their own.. and I know you aren''t thetter..."


    Her worry was definitely warranted, especially with the condition of my aura and slightly visible exhaustion. -But I can''t let her worry like that...- "I just came back because I missed you all... Is that such a bad thing?"


    Her face quickly morphed as if she wanted to cry before shoving it into me and speaking in a hushed tone. "N..no... Thank you foring back..."


    A warm feeling arose in my chest immediately. "Of course... It''s good to be back."


    There was a short moment of silence, not just among us but also the maids, as we stood in the doorway and enjoyed our reunion.


    However, after a moment, I decided to ask something weighing on my mind. "So, where is Krystallo?" It was pretty unusual that she didn''t charge into me the moment I came through the door.


    Mother slowly pulled away again, clearly still emotional. "Since the incident with Eugene and Basilia, she is cautious whenever someone visits... However..." She slowly backed up with a more purely joyful expressioning to her face. "She will definitely freak out when she sees that it''s you."


    I smiled just thinking about it. "What makes you say that?"


    "She took you leaving the nest harder than anyone. It even made it hard for her to make friends when she first started going to the academy."


    Suddenly feeling a bit guilty, I followed Mother into the estate, away from the peeping eyes of the people. -I knew she would take it a bit hard, but I didn''t think it would be that bad...-


    As we started walking, Mother slowed down to speak with me. "I don''t think I ever told you, but when you had one of your first dragon sleeps, Krystallo stuck to you like a ma. Whenever I told her she needed to sleep on her own, she would refuse and crawl up next to you like Ilios does." Her familiar warm expression quickly started to return as she nced back at Ilios, who was already napping.


    "Haha, is that so?" -I remember her crawling up next to me some when we were young, but to think it started that early on...- My smile slowly grew. -We will be turning 16 soon... Maybe I will finally be able to have some fun teasing her.-


    However, all hopes of me getting some fun out of teasing her was tossed out of the window mere momentster.


    Coming up on what I assumed was the living room, Mother walked ahead and opened the door. "Sweetie, Vasilias came-"


    *FWOOOOSH* A white blur sted through the door immediately before leaping off the ground and heading straight for my face. *CLACK*


    The next thing I knew, I had a 16-meter-tall dragon hanging off my head, ring at me with a gleam in her eyes and a wagging tail.


    I wanted tough, but something about the look in her eyes made me hesitant.


    That was when she broke the silence. "You have to take me with you next time you leave." She spoke without the slightest trace of sarcasm in her voice.


    "Haha, I will be staying here for a while, don''t worry; if I need to go by Siratha, however, I can show you around." -I should see if I can get her to form a connection with Leif...-


    "Right! You have to tell me all about your trip too! And give me science lessons again! Or else I won''t forgive you for leaving." She proudly swung herself around to perch herself on my head with a smug look.


    Being a bit over double her height, I was just big enough for her toy there with her legs hanging off. "Haah, alright. Anything else you would like?"


    "Hmmmm..." She paused with a contemting look for a moment before having a lightbulb go off and hanging her head down to look me in the eyes. "Come to the academy with me tomorrow!"


    Her expression was difficult to refuse. -But I can''t just yet...- "Okay, but I''m not sure I can do tomorrow."


    She immediately pouted. "Hmph."


    "Haha, I just need to recover some mana and rest a bit before I can go with you, but I promise I will go with you after that. I do have something that can hopefullypensate for that, though."


    Her expression flipped instantly. "A gift?!"


    I quickly moved it over to her with my aura.


    But she obviously didn''t recognize it. "Huh? What.. is this?"


    Both Mother and Father looked a bit confused as well.


    "That''s called a microscope." It took a while to make and get working correctly, but it was as good as it gets before moving to an electron microscope.


    "A micro-scope?"


    I proudly nodded. "Here, look at this." I quickly took out a slide of two incredibly thin pieces of ss with a tiny bit of water between them and slipped it into the lower power lens. "Change to your humanoid form and look through those two things at the top."


    *sh* She did as I said without any hesitation at all. "W-what the?! What are these things?!" Her reaction was beautiful.


    "Those are called bacteria. They are essentially tiny little creatures that live anywhere and everywhere, that are so small you can''t see them with just your eyes."


    While it was true that you could see them with aura, they were typically on a scale that people would overlook, so while their existence was known, it wasn''tmon knowledge among anyone but old elders and ancients.


    However, to someone young like Krystallo, it would be like bing told a whole different world existed right under their feet. "Woaaah!" She pulled her eyes away for a moment to look at the slide normally. "The water looks so clear, though... If there are really that many little creatures, why are they not visible, even as a blur?"


    "Because they are so small that light can pass straight through them."


    There was a short moment of silence as she looked back through the lens. "Wooahh..."


    My smile quickly widened, seeing her enjoying it so much before giving her a basic rundown of how it worked and how to use and change the slides to look at almost anything she wanted to.


    However, by the time I finished exining it, I had managed to pique Mother''s curiosity and got tasked with making another one for her.


    Of course, I didn''t mind, but one thing quickly led to another after that.


    Before I knew it, the question I knew was inevitable finally came.


    Father was pretty blunt about it too. "You keep mentioning that you need to replenish your mana, but no matter how I look at it, your aura doesn''t exactly seem all that low."


    -Haah.. I guess I''ll need to tell them soon anyway...- I quickly shook my head. "My reserve has grown immensely over thest few years. I have actually been narrowly avoiding mana exhaustion for a few days now..."


    Mother tensed up immediately, clearly putting two and two together. "If your reserve has grown that much.. then what did you do that drained it?" She looked extremely anxious.


    "Well.. it''s a long story, but I guess I should start by saying... I am basically the ruler of Siratha now."


    Krystallo immediately looked up from the microscope and gave me a confused look. "Didn''t the Sirathian gods return during the recent prayer?"


    I was quick to nod. "What would you say if I told you that your brother is their god?"


    Her eyes lit up like a beacon.


    But Mother still wore a worried look. "So you were the one to kill the apostles?!"


    My nod told a thousand words. "But it''s not what you think." I hesitated for a moment to think of how to exin it before deciding to just go for it. "The apostles that I killed were ones who got possessed by a human god named Magni. I couldn''t-"


    Mother''s face turned pale before I could even finish. "Don''t tell me..."


    I moved over to her in a sh. "Don''t worry! I didn''t get marked or anything! The human gods still have no idea what or who I am."


    She didn''t believe me, though. "S..sweetie... T..that isn''t possible if the god was there themselves..."


    Seeing such doubt and worry, I could no longer beat around the bush. "It is possible because I killed him before he could escape."


    Silence filled the room instantly, freezing everyone in ce and making their faces pale.


    My statement to Krystallo about being a god was suddenly no longer a child''s exaggeration.


    Krystallo was actually the only one who didn''t wear a look of disbelief or fear, even among the maids. She just looked at me with an unfathomably prideful light in her eyes.


    "Haah..." -At least I avoided worrying her...-


    -----


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 Welp, My Power is Out

    Welp, My Power is Out


    Hey guys, just wanted to let you guys know the chapter tomorrow wille out on Saturday. Although I''m not sure how, my power went out without there being a storm, and its been several hours, so, I haven''t been able to get the work done that I needed to and will need to push things back.


    In any case, I apologize for the sudden announcement, and hope to see you all Saturday!


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 Chapter 276: The Brewing Clouds

    Chapter 276: The Brewing Clouds


    Mid Evening - Mid Winter : Home | As, Bahamut


    -----


    "Haah..." It had only been about an hour since I first returned home, and I already felt more drained than after I fought the guards in Akri.


    After finally arriving and having an abrupt greeting with Mother, Father, and Krystallo, we moved on to the situations involving Siratha, the Holy Kingdom, and Bahamut. It was a discussion I wanted to wait until after my nap to have, but I didn''t quite have that luxury.


    One thing led to another, and I eventually decided to spill out that I was not only the ruler of Siratha but also essentially a god. -Although I haven''t quite stepped into that realm, all that''s left is umting more divinity...-


    From there, our discussion turned into me exining the recent events of what was really happening with Siratha, as well as what happened at the Elder Hall and what happened to Myles since the only news they had heard were rumors and spection, but both Mother and Father were quick to realize it was already at a scale that far surpassed the previous halfie revolt a few years prior.


    "It''s simply a brewing storm that we can no longer stop..." Mother''s expression had long since be worried. Being a Ragnarok, she was someone forced to stand on the beach as the hurricane madendfall, which was something that would inevitably put the rest of us in danger as well.


    It was something I was actually quite worried about, too, especially with Krystallo, but currently, we didn''t need to worry about such things. "Even if it is a storm we cannot stop, I am almost certain the events at the Elder Hall have forced them to take a step back."


    Father gave me an odd look. "What makes you say that?""The gods are the Holy Kingdom''s sole advantage over Bahamut, and they are not beings that can simply be reced. Even if Magni and Tyr were the weakest among them, losing them both back to back is a blow they cannot ignore." I tried to speak with confidence to ease Mother''s worries.


    "But if what you said about Myles''s condition is true, then the dragon they likely see as the biggest threat is out ofmission. Wouldn''t essentially killing Myles at the cost of two gods be eptable?"


    I quickly shook my head. "No, and that''s for the sole reason that neither of those two gods'' deaths could be easily tied to Myles... Seeing how far into Akri and the Foreign Intelligence Agency they already were, I would be astonished if they believed Myles killed Magni in Siratha and even more so if they weren''t doubtful about who killed Tyr. Not only was the spell I usedpletely different from anything anyone has ever seen, but it was also on a scale that even Myles would struggle to mimic."


    There was a long pause before Mother finally spoke again. "So, are you saying that the recent events have forced them to reconsider their ns?"


    "More than just reconsider. I''m almost certain they will need toe up with an entirely new n."


    Mother and Father gave me a confused look, clearly not following how I came to that conclusion.


    "From what I know, their original n at the Elder Hall was to take it over long enough to get the consent of the Merfolk, which would just leave Amphitrite as the final obstacle preventing their control of the Forgotten Inds and kill Leander, which would blind us and allow them to move on Siratha more openly. Their actions at the Elder Hall would also inevitably lure in Myles, which I am almost certain was the reason for the artifact beneath the Elder Hall."


    Although they didn''t expect Myles to be there right as it was starting, I was certain the fusion artifact under the Elder Hall wasid as andmine with his name on it. -Even though he probably would have survived the st...-


    "Regardless, if I am right, the incident at the Hall, along with what I did in Siratha, should have fucked their ns to an unsalvageable extent."


    The room fell into silence the instant I finished speaking before Mother spoke in an even more anxious tone. "And what if you''re wrong..."


    "Then I will use everything in my power to end things before they reach us." While I certainly wasn''t confident I could kill all the gods of Asgard and survive, I did have the capabilities to create an antimatter spell sorge it would turn the Holy Kingdom into an endless field of ss. "However, the gods definitely believe they have the time advantage..."


    Being immortal meant they could simply y the long con, targeting the following generations and slowly whittling down Bahamut from the inside.


    Knowing they even had a professor in the academy, it wasn''t a crazy assumption to believe they had already started something like that. -But even if they manage to salvage a new n, they have no reason to rush things... At the very least, we should have a few years...-


    It still wasn''t a long time, especially for dragons, but it was something I could work with.


    Mother, however, wasn''t so keen. The look in her eyes was simply petrifying. "Vasilias." Even the tone of her voice made my spine shiver. "Don''t even think of leaving this room if you have the gall to even consider throwing your life away to protect the weak."


    I practically turned into a statue at that moment.


    Mother had certainly punished and reprimanded me before, but something about it then was different.


    Any and every thought I had about taking on the gods while being too weak to make it out alive was ejected from my mind instantly. "Y-y-y-yes, Mother." My confident posture shrunk instantly as I threw my head to the floor. -Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.- I started to panic immediately.


    "Haah..." Mother''s anxious, worried, and disappointed sigh hit me several magnitudes harder than Tyr...


    But just as I registered it, I felt a warm embrace. -Huh?-


    Mother had used her aura to pull my head into her chest. "I know you just want us to be safe, but you must never consider throwing your life away like that..." Her voice was calm and loving, and her embrace was warm and firm. "No matter what happens in the future, you must survive... Even if we are too weak, and you must let us go.. even if the world begins to fall apart around you.. you must promise me that you will stay alive and grow..."


    I suddenly felt Father and Krystalloe up and hug me as well, and looked over to see Krystallo clinging to my leg with tears in her eyes.


    She looked angry. "I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU IF YOU DIE ON ME!"


    Her tears and heart-wrenched voice made my chest ache, but my resolve remained firm.


    I would do everything in my power to break the hand of nature when it reached too far, no matter how many times I had to do it, even if it came at the cost of my life.


    However, unlike what Mother thought, I had no ns to simply throw away my life for some altruistic bullshit. -If anything, I''m more selfish than anyone...-


    Be it destroying the world and bringing them to a new one or turning them into monsters who could squash it beneath their feet, I would do whatever it took to protect them, no matter the cost.


    "Okay... I promise..."


    I continued to get reprimanded for a while after that, even after exining that I was certain it would at least be a few years before the Holy Kingdom moved again, but oddly enough, I didn''t mind it.


    It reminded me of being at home, ying with experimental spells that Mother continuously told me not to use out of worry that I would injure myself, or venturing into the forest and returning after sundown.


    It reminded me of what a loving family felt like.


    Once things eventually settled back down, Mother and Father moved into a different room to speak about the matters with the Holy Kingdom, and I left Krystallo to finally have my long-awaited nap.


    With a mana-umtion rune on the incredibly plush cushion in my room, my reserve would take several days to refill, but even if I wanted to wake up earlier, I wouldn''t have been able to.


    With the warmth of love still fresh in my mind, the moment Iid down, 6 days passed.


    "Uwaaah..." With a yawn and stretch, I woke up with an incredibly blissful sensation filling my body. -Wow... When was thest time I slept that well...-


    Still in a floaty, rxed state, I moved my head over and rubbed it into Ilios''s fur before stretching one more time to finally wake up. No matter how badly I wanted to rest, it was time for me to get up. -It''s finally time I head to the academy.-


    *knock-knock*


    "You may enter."


    *Click* The moment the door opened, I met eyes with a pink-haired elven maid.


    Seeing her quickly brought a smile to my face. "It''s been a while, Chloe. Have you been well?"


    Her smile was boundless. "Of course! Nothing could be better now that you are back, my Lord." She was quick to bow. "I apologize for not being able to greet you before your nap."


    "Don''t stress it." Finally standing up and using a bit of magic to clean myself off, I wrangled my colossal aura back under control. "Was there anything I missed while I was asleep?"


    She slowly pulled up from her bow as I looked at her, this time exposing several pieces of folded clothes and boots. "Your Father has left, as ordered by the Missus, and Lady Krystallo has shifted to at-home tutoring with her friend. It turns out there is a professor they are skeptical of, so they requested her absence until you woke up."


    My anger toward the professor immediately reignited, but I did my best to suppress it. -I need to save it for now...- "I see... Would that make tomorrow the day I go to the academy with her?"


    She gently nodded. "The Missus has also prepared these clothes for you to wear when you go. They are a newer style that she hadmissioned just for you. It is quite popr with noblemen these days." She held out the clothes in her hand before letting me pick them up.


    It was shockingly simple and looked reminiscent of some modern takes on old fashion from Earth, even having some of the features of a modern suit. However, with gold detailing, it looked a little too gaudy for my taste, and it was far too small for me�� -But.. with ck and silver.. And a few other adjustments that could look pretty good...-


    And just like that, my final preparations before leaving to go to the academy were finished. -Now, should I go out and see what Krystallo is up to?-


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 Chapter 277: A Plan

    Chapter 277: A n


    Mid Evening - Mid Winter : Home | As, Bahamut


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    *Vwowowoom* Mana rippled throughout my room as I worked on and adjusted my new outfit.


    It was nothing serious, but no matter what I changed, the outfit didn''t quite look right on me. -It doesn''t really fit my frame...-


    Thankfully though, Chloe had a much better eye for clothing than I did. "What if instead of doing that overhanging coat, you wore it like a robe, tightened the sleeves, then opened up the bottom?"


    Having her walk me through what to do, I eventuallynded on something decent.


    "Hmm... Now try using a bit of gold thread here on the waist, and fold this up here like the cor of the coat..." She was truly like a clothing designer. "If you would like, you can add some gold detailing to it, with some matching gold on the shoulders and forearms... However, that may be too much to create every time you change forms..." She looked a little nervous as she suggested it, but I tried it anyway.


    And sure enough, it looked great, even with gold rather than silver. -But she is right... It''s a tad expensive for some clothing...- However, I did manage to think of a solution. -If I stored the gold somewhere, I could solely use mana to change its form...-


    After a bit of thought, I decided that I would indeed just carry the gold, running it through the area between my scales on the base of my wing. -Perfect...-Quickly testing it, I swapped back into my dragon form before changing back, and it worked wlessly. -Wow.. that works really well...- "Any other input?"


    I quickly looked at Chloe to see if there was anything else, but she just shook her head with a smile. "You look great, my lord!"


    Before I knew it, I was smiling as well. The new outfit was much morefortable than my previous one, and I couldn''t lie that although it was a little extravagant, I liked it. [1] -It makes me feel a little more noble. Now I just need to make a new sword...-


    However, I got a little carried away without realizing it and spent several hours creating it.


    But it was worth it.


    Using my own scales for a majority of the frame and de before using a bit of silver and gold to fill in the texturing, I was left with a truly beautiful sword.


    As the material used to make it used to be a part of me as well, it had an insane amount of mana conduction and truly felt like an extension of myself. -It''s incredibly well-bnced as well...-


    And then, to top it off, I made the edge of the de out of mana-strengthened diamond, so there were very few things I was worried it wouldn''t cut. -And even if I hit something I can''t slice through, the edge shouldn''t dull much...-


    I was honestly quite proud of it.


    Chloe was still watching in horror, though. "M-My Lord.. did you really have to use your own scales to create a sword?!" Although she spoke like it was horrible, she seemed to be unable to take her eyes off it.


    "Well, it gives it some personality and makes it feel like an extension of my body when I hold it... It''s not like those scales will take more than a few hours to regrow anyway." After holding it out to double-check for any imperfections, I tossed it up in the air and used my aura to move it into its new, nearly invisible, sheath. "In any case, do you know where Mother is?" Although I woke up in the afternoon, I had spent so long on the clothes and sword that it was already after dark outside.


    "She is likely in her office. Her lessons with Krystallo have typically ended a few hours before sundown. Would you like to go see her?"


    "Yeah, I still need to ask about some things for tomorrow. Would you mind leading me there?"


    She quickly nodded with a slightly anxious smile. "O-Of course!"


    Quickly changing to my dragon form again, I followed Chloe out into the hall and hastily made my way to the opposite end of the estate, where we were met with arge double door.


    *knock-knock* Chloe knocked without much hesitation. "My Lady, the Young Lord has awoken."


    Mother responded immediately. "Ah, please send him in!"


    *Click* Quickly walking into the spacious room, I met eyes with Mother lying on arge cushion while surrounded by hundreds of papers.


    She looked like she could use a nap more than anything, but regardless of that, her face was washed with pure joy and pride. "How was your nap, sweetie?"


    Quickly walking up andying on one of the massive cushions, I stretched out a bit. "Really good. I could have slept for another week though." Her delightful mood felt like it had healing powers.


    "Hoho, well, you are wee to take a nap there if you wish to. Although I can''t guarantee Krystallo won''t find her way in."


    "Haha, I''m sure she''s grown out of that by now."


    "I wouldn''t be so sure about that." She momentarily gave me a smug smile before turning away to continue sorting her things. "In any case, I can''t believe how heavy your aura has gotten... Are you sure you didn''t enter another dragon sleep like you did in Kan?"


    I quickly shook my head. "Definitely not."


    She still struggled to believe me though. "Are you sure? Your aura practically multiplied itself, and your body.. well, I don''t think I need to say much about that."


    She wasn''t wrong. Not only had I put on about 9 meters in height, but I had also filled out that frame significantly.


    To put it bluntly, I definitely didn''t look like a kid or even a young adult now. "I''m not sure, myself. I''m even out-pacing Ilios by quite a margin, so I''m not sure if I can totally attribute my growth to my change in species anymore."


    Ilios popped his head up as I mentioned him before trotting over and cuddling up against Mother.


    She weed him right away but remained focused. "Unfortunately, my research into that turned up mostly nk as well. Even the oldest records I can ess depict the Ancient Fenrir asplete gods, with essentially no change in the description, even over thousands of years... However, I do believe it could have to do with how their mana and reserve affect your growth as a dragon."


    -Huh? I never thought of it like that...- Although I was hastily outgrowing him in size and strength, our mana was a slightly different story.


    "In any case, we can discuss that another time..." Mother''s serious tone quickly pulled me from my thoughts. "Are you alright with leaving for the academy with Krystallo first thing in the morning?"


    I quickly nodded. "Of course."


    "Okay, good..." She quickly sifted through some papers before pulling one out and handing it to me with her aura. "As you may have heard from Chloe, I have kept Krystallo here for a few days and given her and her friend some tutoring. As it turns out, her history professor has been teaching dangerously incorrect information to the students."


    I quickly skimmed through the paper, reading about several reports from other parents, as well as a note from the headmaster requesting Mother to get Leander to investigate the matter.


    "I spoke with the headmaster about it while you were asleep, and he told me the issue seemed a little beyond just a teacher who didn''t know what they were talking about, but he doesn''t have enough evidence to create any sort of case orunch any formal investigation... As such, I gave him a suggestion." She looked me in the eyes while handing me another paper. "Tomorrow is an exam. How would you feel about pretending to be a new student and investigating it?"


    I immediately tilted my head slightly. "Are you sure he can even make a case? The Elder Hall and everything around it is a half-molten wastnd now."


    She was quick to nod. "Thankfully, the major yers of the Elder Hall weren''t present, so while they will have to move to Ampelos or Akri for some time, they will still have their duties."


    -Ah, I see...- "In that case, I can do it.. but I don''t think I''ll exactly fit in as a ''student''."


    Mother immediately turned confused. "Hm? What do you mean?"


    "Well..." -I guess I should have expected it after seeing how small the clothes she gave me were...- *sh* Quickly changing to my humanoid form, I gave her an awkward look. "I feel like I''d fit in better if I acted like a professor or something..."


    Being a smidge over 180cm now, with a mostly filled-out build, I felt like being with Krystallo''s age group, looking only about 12 or 13 in their humanoid forms, would be troublesome. -Maybe I can act as an upperssman?-


    But Mother was shockingly quick to jump on the idea of me being a mock professor though. "Hoho~, to think your humanoid form would grow so much as well. Maybe I should introduce you to some women." She chuckled, seeing me m up before trying to turn serious again. "In any case, going as an intern professor is even better, although you may have to give a lesson or two to not stand out."


    "That should be fine." -But it depends on the subject, I guess...-


    She hastily moved several papers around before pulling out a few to read. "For now, n to act as a professor whose teaching subject hasn''t been decided. For example, if someone asks what you teach, say you are sitting in on sses to see what you prefer." She quickly handed me a few pieces of paper held by a pin as she stood up. "This is Krystallo''s ss schedule. I will go talk to the headmaster now to see if we can get some more specifics worked out, but for now, if I''m not back before you leave, someone will meet you at Krystallo''s first ss to give you some extra information."


    Finally looking at the schedule, I saw her first ss. ''Active Combat: Mid-year Growth Assessment''


    There was nothing odd about the ss description or anything, but as I was about to flip the paper, it made me realize something. -Wait, that ancient in Akri was also taught how to use the railgun magic... Why would a history professor know that? Unless...-


    My expression quickly soured. -This may not be.. so simple...-


    Eventually finishing up our chat, I parted ways with Mother and had Chloe bring me to Krystallo''s room, where I asked about her professors, what they were teaching, how they acted, etc.


    But there was nothing suspicious about anyone but the history professor.


    "She did spectate thestbat assessment, but that isn''t too odd. However..." She quickly became awkward.


    -Huh?- "What''s wrong? Did something happen at thest assessment?"


    "W..well.. I used your magic because I wanted to show off some.. and I got in a little trouble."


    "How so?"


    She continued with hesitancy. "Well,ter that day, Madam P��so said she had to take the beads you gave me because they were too dangerous even though I knew how to use them safely..."


    A nerve was pinched instantly, but I tried not to show it and instead reassured Krystallo that I would make her a new set of beads with another pouch.


    However even while seeing her pure smilee back to her face, my anger was a struggle to keep hidden. -Do they truly have no shame?-


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>[1] -</strong> This is generally how his new outfit looks, of course using gold as mentioned above: https://ibb.co/p3R9VGj


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 Chapter 278: Atlas Academy

    Chapter 278: As Academy


    Mid Morning - Mid Winter : Home | As, Bahamut


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    "My Lord, the youngdy is ready." Chloe gave me a deep bow right as she entered my room.


    "Alright, tell her I will be out in a moment."


    With a nod, Chloe walked back outside, and I hastily wrapped up what I was doing to follow after her.


    It had been about an hour since Mother returned at that point, and while she had returned with a n, it was certainly a littlecking.


    To put things simply, I was to act as a professor that would sit in on sses, simr to a student, until Krystallo''s history ss, where I would do some investigating and inevitably cause a scene that the head guard would be waiting for. Beyond that, I just needed to turn things over to the headmaster, but until then, I was on my own. -I hope Krystallo isn''t too upset that I won''t be going with her as a student.-


    Mother had already told her about the n as well, but I wasn''t sure how she would react.


    But, of course, it was a needless worry.The moment I came out of my room, Krystallotched herself onto my leg. "Brother, you''re going to be a professor for today?!"


    -Phew...- I let out a subconscious sigh of relief immediately. "Yeah, there would have been some issues if I went in as a ''student''."


    Her eyes were gleaming as she looked up at me. "Does that mean you give us a lesson?"


    Her eager look was truly difficult to resist, but just because I was technically a professor for the day didn''t mean I had the actual authority of one. "Haha, no promises." -I can''t do anything unless the actual professor asks me to.-


    However, just a moment after a pout came to her face, a lightbulb seemed to go off and she let go of me. "Okay then!"


    "Haah..." I could already tell she was nning something, but it made me smile, regardless. "I''d rmend focusing on yourbat evaluation rather than thinking of some n to get me to teach a ss."


    "Ack!" She tensed up instantly. "How did you know?!"


    "Haha, who knows." With a smug smile, I shrugged my wings and finally started walking to the door.


    "Hey, don''t just ignore me!" She quickly followed after me as well.


    It wasn''t a bad start to the morning. After all, even if it was a day I knew would inevitably beplicated, for that moment, it was simply a good bonding moment with my adorable little sister.


    Once we eventually got outside, we made our way out of the estate and met up with a very young ancient woman who wore several insignias belonging to As and the Academy and started our flight.


    ording to her, she was the escort assigned to Krystallo by the academy to make sure she arrived safely, something all students had.


    However, she typically escorted a small group of students rather than just one. "Is there any specific reason you are just escorting us today?"


    She was quick to look at me. "It would be rude for me to escort a group of students with a new professor, would it not? Especially such a strong and young- ahem!" She instantly looked back to the horizon when she cut herself off. "I apologize... In any case, I was sent by the headmaster to give you something." As we flew, she pulled out a small gold sphere.


    -Hm?- I inspected it as I took it. It seemed like an artifact, but it wasn''t clear what it did.


    Thankfully, the escort noticed. "On your As medallion, you should have a small circr indent. Please press that artifact into that indent."


    -Alright...- As I did it, the artifact vibrated slightly, and a pattern appeared in the air above my medallion. -Ah, this must be the thing Mother mentioned...-


    It was an artifact that permitted me to walk freely around the campus and carry a weapon, using my medallion as a verification of its legitimacy.


    As it finished and I handed the small gold sphere back to the escort, she gave me a curious look. "The headmaster must trust you quite a bit. It''s rare for people, even trusted professors, to be given clearance that high. Are you going to be abat instructor?"


    I quickly shook my head. "I''m not sure yet, but I''m certainly leaning in that direction."


    "Haha, I see. In any case, if you help with thebat evaluation, I will look forward to seeing you."


    -Hm?- "Are you going to be watching?"


    She quickly nodded. "Quite a few staff members will be. Although I can''t speak for everyone, many of us find pleasure in seeing the growth of the next generation."


    "I see." Her expression was so pure that it quickly shook off any suspicions I had about her identity, but at the same time, what she said worried me. -The more people who watch, the more troublesome this could turn out to be...-


    To try and get as much information as possible before arriving, we continued to chat, and I continued to dig out all I could, but eventually, we started toe up to a structure that forced me to rethink how I would be doing things going forward. -What the hell?-


    It was the academy, an absolutely colossal expanse ofnd and architecture spanning dozens of kilometers in every direction, with the main building still standing over a kilometer tall at the central spire and made with a mix of white stone, gold, silver, and even mythril.


    Simply calling it a piece of architecture from the golden era didn''t do it justice. It made even the mostvish, several hundred-meter-tall buildings in the city around it look like abandoned shacks.


    But as beautiful as it was, it was truly ominous.


    My hope that only a few people who turned to the Holy Kingdom would be there, along with my ns to try and drag them out faded instantly. -Just how many rats could hide in a ce like this...-


    Whether I wanted to do it or not, I was going to have to y things by ear.


    Finally descending toward the eastern entrance, wended and gave a quick farewell to the escort before walking into one of the six gates.


    The inside of each was a fairly simple, short tunnel where people could walk through and insert their medallions into the wall. Another artifact would then scan their medallions and let the knights on the other side of the tunnel verify who was entering.


    It was a simple, but shockingly good system.


    "Professor Whyte, you may enter." The knight humbly bowed his head as I approached. "Wee to As Academy."


    As I came through the other side of the tunnel, I got some odd looks from the knights, as well as students and staff who were in earshot.


    However, even if I wanted to ignore them, while I waited for Krystallo, a very young elder woman, standing right at my height, walked over to me.


    Her scales were an unusual violet color, and the air around her was calm and gentle, but contrarily, her voice was quite energetic. "I haven''t heard anything about a new professor, especially such a young one..." She gave a quick bow once she got close. "My name is Evodi��, thebat instructor for the first and second-year students. Might I have the honor of an introduction?"


    Most people around us looked at her like she was insane, but they would understand immediately if they also tried to probe me with their aura as well. -Mother did mention that I could trust this woman though...- However, just because she was Krystallo''s professor and someone Mother trusted didn''t mean I could let my guard down. "My name is Vasilias, a new intern professor. I hope we can get along."


    She quickly raised her head with a smile. "Of course! Are you going to be the newbat instructor for the upper-ssman?"


    -Are they in need of one?- "I''m not sure what exactly I want to teach, so I n to sit in on some sses to see if any of them pique my interest. However, I am confident I can fill any position."


    "Hoho~, I truly can''t me you for being confident with that kind of aura." She quickly nced around before giving me a slightly confused look. "Are you perhaps waiting for someone?"


    Finally ncing at the gate, I met eyes with Krystallo and caused her to quickly run over. "I am well acquainted with her parents, so I n to generally follow her through her sses for the day."


    She looked a bit shocked. "I guess geniuses do tend to be familiar with each other..."


    Once Krystallo finally made it up to us, she came to my side and smiled up at the other professor. "Good morning, miss Evodi��!"


    A smile promptly returned to the professor''s face. "Good morning, Krystallo. Are you ready for the assessment today?"


    Krystallo nodded with a fiery look in her eyes. "I won''t let you down!"


    "Haha, now you have me excited! I wonder what our talented missy will show us this time." After taking a moment to praise Krystallo, she turned back to me. "In any case, shall we head to The Arena now? I''m sure the upperssman have already started."


    I quickly nodded. "Of course!"


    Finally resuming our walk, we started heading toward The Arena, a giant colosseum on the northern edge of the campus with many uses, including thebat assessments.


    As we walked, we continued to talk about all sorts of things, but thankfully, Evodi�� recognized that I was unfamiliar with the ce and helped exin the things that weren''t too inly obvious, such as unspoken rules, professors to avoid, and even some advice about which subject to choose.


    It was all information that felt a little too timely. -But I have no reason toin...-


    By the time we made it to The Arena, I had enough information that I could ease my difort and uncertainty about how the day would go.


    The issue was that, when dealing with uncertainty, any of it could be too much.


    The moment we got to the main arena, full of students of all sizes, ages, and colors, Evodi�� yelled out, "Hello, everyone!" Her cheery voice quickly grabbed everyone''s attention. "There will be a new face among the instructors today! You may all call him Professor Whyte! I hope you will all be weing!"


    Not wanting to deal with the attention, I waved my wing and walked past her, paying close attention to the looks of the people in the stands. "Hello, everyone." -I guess I should find a good spot to watch the upper ssman''s final tests...-


    But before I could even find a spot, a younger man''s voice met my ears. "For a new professor to have a sword. Is he gonna be our new teacher?"


    Quickly looking over, I met eyes with a dragon, likely in his 30s. -He must be an upperssman...-


    His expression clearly told me he was trying to be provoking though. "If that''s the case, shouldn''t I test with him instead of waiting for sir Btos to return?"


    I quickly shot him an unamused look. "If you want me to test you, I can, but don''t expect to pass." -I don''t even know what the bar is, so how can I know if you pass it...-


    But clearly knowing something I didn''t, the whole room went silent instantaneously.


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 Chapter 279: Rats in Hiding

    Chapter 279: Rats in Hiding


    Late Morning - Mid Winter : As Academy | As, Bahamut


    -----


    "If you want me to test you, I can, but don''t expect to pass."


    The whole room fell into silence instantly, with the only person even moving being Evodi��, who quickly darted over to me. "I apologize, everyone. It seems Professor Whyte is unaware of Sir S��dero''s ''reputation''." She seemed a little panicked.


    The student, however, wore a greedy expression. "No, no. He already said he would test me, so now he must follow through with his word!"


    He was clearly trying to lure me into what he thought was a trap, but I had too much on my mind to even consider caring. "Alright, whatever you want, kid. I hope you don''t regret it." With a path clearing between the student and me, I changed to my humanoid form.


    Almost immediately, everyone''s eyes went wide, and Evodi��''s face turned pale.


    But shockingly, it was a student who tried to convince me to change back. "P-Professor Whyte! You need to be in your dragon form, especially for Sir S��dero! He has a reputation of not holding back, even if it means his opponent gets hurt..." It was a young girl with white-ish silver scales, seemingly from Krystallo''s age group.


    -So he''s one of those guys...- I put on a smile as I nced toward the girl. "Thank you for your worry, but it''s the only way I can give him a chance." -Although even with this, ites down to whether I let him pass or not...-S��dero immediately burst outughing. "Hahaha! To think such an arrogant half-breed could be a professor! I guess the standards of this academy truly are beginning to fall."


    -How ironic...- With what was going on behind the scenes, I couldn''t exactly disagree, but to also call me arrogant was like a pot calling the kettle ck. "You should learn to be more careful when judging people. You won''t make it very far outside this academy if you arrogantly try to look down on everyone." Quickly sheathing my sword with my aura, I continued out into the arena.


    "Strength is everything, is it not? If I am stronger than my opponent, who is to tell me I cannot be arrogant?"


    "Haah..." While I wasn''t originally nning to actually fail him, I changed my mind at that moment. -He needs to learn a lesson.- Finally reaching the center of the sandy arena, I turned back to him. "Alright, since a handicap spar like you would do with a different professor would be unfair, we will do this..." *puff* Using my aura, I created an indent in the ground around me, marking off a 10-meter-wide circle. "To pass, all you have to do is get me out of this circle; there are no other rules."


    Everyone looked at me like I was crazy, including the professors and staff in the stands.


    "You have 60 seconds. You may begin."


    He stared at me in shock for several seconds before moving. "Huh? You''re being serious?" He quickly looked around before looking into my eyes and smiling again. "Haha! And you tried to lecture me on arrogance!" He promptly walked over to me with his head held high, not bothering to lower it even though he towered over me. "Even if you wish to back out now, it''s toote!" As he raised his paw, he seemed to watch for my reaction, but it never came.


    *CRACKLE* The noise of something breaking echoed through the arena the instant he swung his paw into me, forcing several of the students to look away.


    But as the dust settled, people finally started to notice that my figure hadn''t moved.


    -Wow...- "You''re even weaker than I expected..." All I did was stretch out my arm and stop his paw, but it shattered his scales and even drew some blood. "Well, give it another try."


    *FWOOSH* He hastily leapt back with a bit of bloodlust before lunging back at me and using his speed and body weight to m the top of his paw into me. *CRAACK-WHAAAM* Expecting me to fly away and let him follow through, the moment his paw came to an abrupt stop, he mmed face-first into the ground.


    The impact cracked the ground slightly and kicked up another dust cloud, but yet again, I didn''t even budge.


    -That was a bit better though...- I was the only one to break the silence after several seconds. "30 seconds left."


    Everyone stared at the scene with wide eyes, either not believing what was happening or struggling to even register it.


    There was, however, someone in the stands who seemed especially displeased. "To think a professor would cheat in order to fail a student..." It was an older man, likely an older elder with crimson scales matching S��deros.


    -Is he S��dero''s father?- "There are no rules on what he can and cannot do. If he wants, he could even get someone like you to try and move me, but don''t expect me to treat you so kindly."


    *p-Fwoosh* Hastily flying into the air, S��dero threw himself down on me, but the result was the same, leaving him to jump back and recollect himself.


    But now his expression had be much more serious. -Much better...- He was finally using his brain.


    But before he coulde at me again, the Elder in the stands hopped down into the arena and darted at me.


    However, the moment he threw his heavy punch at me, I simply turned and caught it. *CLAP* "Hey, I don''t remember hearing this student say you could do anything." Gripping his fist, I threw him to the side like he was some kind of paperweight.


    *FWOOOSH-WHAAMM* The entire arena shook as he hit the wall, leaving everyone watching in silence.


    But S��dero seemed unfazed.


    -Wow, is he actually putting aside his arrogance?- It was quite a pleasant sight, but he was still unfit to pass. "You have 15 seconds left."


    The next thing I knew, I was getting barraged by spells I had never seen before, zapped by lightning, burnt by fire, and even sliced by water.


    He was simply throwing everything he could at me, even if it seemed shameless, but while it was certainlymendable, I didn''t step out of the circle. "3.. 2.. 1... Time''s up."


    *VWOOM-WHAMMM* The ground shook violently as I mmed my aura onto him and pinned him to the sand.


    "You have failed your examination."


    A look of fear starteding to his face as I walked over to him.


    "Your strength and determination are certainly worthy of praise; however, your character needs work."


    *crumble* Hearing some noise behind me, I looked at the opposite end of the arena and saw the Elder I threw back in his dragon form.


    He looked truly furious. "You failed my son because of his character?!"


    "Haah..." I could only let out a sigh. -I guess it runs in the family...-


    "You think you have the authority to do that?! How dare a mere fake prof-"


    *FWOOOSH* Instantly appearing in front of his face, I stared into his eyes with narrow pupils oozing bloodlust.


    -How does he know about that...- mping his mouth shut with my aura, I changed back to my dragon form. "I apologize, everyone. It seems there is something I need to discuss with this man here."


    However, before I could actually do anything, someone interrupted. "Professor Whyte, I can deal with him if you would like to continue testing other students." The man''s voice was deep and smooth, and when I turned around to see who it was, I saw an elf in a white Sirathian priest''s robe in the back of the stands.


    He looked like a man in his 70s with white hair and a thick beard. -Who is that?-


    Several students immediately spoke up in unison. """ Headmaster?!"""


    "Hoho~; I''m d you all can still recognize me." The light around him quickly started to warp, revealing a draconic man that looked like a 25-year-old human with the air of a prince around him.


    However, even though he looked young, his aura was enormous, even beating out Myles by quite a margin.


    -So that''s him, huh...- Mother had given me a very detailed description of him before I left; the only difference was his demeanor. -Didn''t Mother say he was typically stern and cold to new people?-


    He looked at me with a wide, pleased smile. "It seems I didn''t go wrong in choosing you as a professor, Sir Whyte. However, I believe it would be best to leave this matter to me." *FWOOSH* Instantly disappearing from where he was, he appeared in the center of the arena, kicking up a huge amount of sand. "Although I certainly understand that you could handle this matter, I believe it would be better for you to test the other students as well."


    The students all tensed up instantly, but I couldn''t me them. "I can test those who wish to be tested by me, however..." I quickly turned to the students. "I don''t think there is any-"


    Krystallo immediately threw her wing into the air with an expression of pure excitement.


    People looked at her like she was crazy, but it just made the headmaster chuckle. "See? How could I dare let my professor handle something so tedious at the cost of bonding with the students?" He immediately probed my aura and used a bit of wind magic to speak solely to me. "Let me handle this. That man has very close ties to the upperssman''s currentbat instructor and is a very well-known and respected man in As. At least in front of others, this matter must be handled delicately."


    I hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Haah, alright. In that case, I will leave this to you." Finally backing away, I used magic to silently speak to the professor as well. "Make sure to tell me what you figure out."


    He responded in kind. "Of course."


    Walking back out into the arena, I looked over the students. "Since Miss Krystallo is the only one that wishes to get tested by me, the tests will resume normally." I quickly looked at the professor who was standing with the upperssman. "If you need any help, just let me know."


    He reluctantly nodded before trying to break the ice off everyone by resuming things as usual, but almost everyone was still tense.


    Scanning over the rows of seats in the stands as I walked back into the crowd, I noticed several people I had my eyes on had disappeared, with a few others watching me with condescending looks. -It seems like there are indeed more rats than we originally thought...-


    Finally finding a ce to lie down, I spent my time watching the student''s tests while carefully observing those in the stands, and while there were certainly a few that I needed to keep my eye on, the most suspicious ones had already left. -I should tell the Headmaster about it when I get the chance...-


    Before I knew it though, the upperssman had finished, and it was my turn to test Krystallo.


    But now, with most of the bad actors gone, I had to admit that I was quite excited. "Alright, Miss Krystallo, I hope you aren''t expecting me to go easy on you."


    She quickly showed apetitive smile. "Of course not!"


    I gently motioned to her, having her pull out the bag of steel beads I had made herst night. -Let''s see how she has progressed, shall we?-


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 Chapter 280: The Blindfold of Pride

    Chapter 280: The Blindfold of Pride


    Early Afternoon - Mid Winter : As Academy | As, Bahamut


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    "Alright, Miss Krystallo, I hope you aren''t expecting me to go easy on you."


    She quickly gave me apetitive smile. "Of course not!"


    Her eagerness to start was a truly refreshing sight. "For this test, I will spread gold coins like this one through the air." I held up a in gold coin with my aura as I spoke. "I will keep them stationary at the start and then start moving them if you do well. Your goal is to react to and hit them as fast as possible. You can use anything you want, but the more urate you are, the better."


    The worried looks among the younger students quickly turned curious as Krystallo pulled out a steel bead and held it over her head.


    However, I already had a dozen coins in the air. -I think she expects me to start slow...- "Are you ready?" Previously, she had issues with the calctions required to do this magic exercise with much pace; however, 3 years had passed.


    She immediately nodded with confidence.


    "Alright, 3.. 2.. 1..."*vwoom* The instant I revealed the first coin, Krystallo locked on it like a hawk and let the bead rip. *Crack-Ding* It was a perfect bullseye.


    -Wow.. did I really underestimate her that much?- Deciding to increase the difficulty a bit, I immediately started revealing more coins, even as she scrambled to ready another bead.


    But she didn''t falter even as she fell behind.


    Instead of simply readying a single bead, she readied a dozen, firing them off as soon as they were ready before pulling more out of her pouch. *Crrrrack-D-D-D-Ding*


    Before I knew it, she was caught up to speed, and I could go even faster.


    And while I quickly found her limit, it was stillpletely beyond expectations.


    Not only had her proficiency with railgun magic progressed by leaps and bounds, but her reaction time and ability to multitask were simply iparable to 3 years ago. -To think she''d be so talented...-


    Expanding the area the coins could appear by almost 100 meters in every direction and adding more variance in their distance from her, they started bing less predictable, and she started slowing down.


    However, her uracy was still impable, with her worst shots only being a few millimeters off the coin''s center.


    -I''d say it''s time to start moving them...- Starting simple, I moved them slowly and in a straight line.


    *Di-Di-Ding-Ding* Once again, her pace took a hit, and her uracy started bing a bit more varied, but she was still leagues beyond what I expected. -She''s putting more power into these too... Is she trying to minimize how much she has to lead things?-


    To see if that was the case, I sped the coins up substantially, making coins disappear if she didn''t react to them fast enough.


    *Cr-Ding-Crack-Crack-Cr-Ding* Her uracy plummeted instantly, and her expression started showing a bit of strain.


    -I see...- Pausing for a moment, I hid all the coins. "When you shoot a bead, pay attention to how fast it leaves your aura, and use it to calcte how much you need to lead the coin. Once you do it a few times, you''ll start visualizing the path of the bead."


    After giving her a moment to think it through, she looked back at me and nodded, signaling me to start the exercise again.


    -I wonder how many shots it''ll take her...- *vwoom* Slowing things down to the pace I originally started moving them at, her uracy was all over the ce, but after just a few shots, they started to get more and more precise. -Hoh?-


    After a dozen shots, her precision was nearly perfect again, and her pace started to increase.


    But unfortunately, before I could get back up to speed to test her new limit, her pouch ran empty.


    *Ding* The ring of the final coin echoed through the silence in the arena like a church bell before focusing everyone''s attention, especially those in the stands, on Krystallo.


    She looked a little mentally drained but generally seemed to have more than enough energy to continue. However, I didn''t have the chance to do anything other than give her back the beads.


    "Oh my goodness! How did you do that?!"


    "That was so cool!"


    "I couldn''t even follow what you were doing! Aren''t you better than our teacher?!"


    Several students ran out to congratte her right after we stopped.


    Thankfully, it brought me back to my senses before I got carried away. -Right.. we aren''t at home...-


    Quickly scanning through the stands, I noticed most of the people wore looks of amazement or shock as they talked to each other, but there were still 3 people spread about who wore troubled expressions aimed at me rather than Krystallo. -So they''re the only ones left... To be confident enough to stick around, they must be professors...-


    Tapping Evodi��''s shoulder with the edge of my aura, I got her attention and used wind magic to whisper to her. "Evodi��, do you know who those three staring at me in the stands are?"


    She tensed up for a moment before looking out at me with an odd expression.


    -Ah...- Being nearly half a kilometer away, I was way outside the range of her magic. "Just whisper. I''ll be able to hear you."


    "Alright..." Finally looking in the stands, she nced around before quickly finding the people I was talking about. "The older woman is the history professor you mentioned earlier, and the younger girl is Professor Giasem��, one of the upperssman Calctions professors. She is fairly new as well."


    -Is that so...- "And what about the guy? By the eastern entrance."


    She hesitated for a moment when she looked. "He is the deputy master. The one who takes the headmaster''s position when he is absent."


    I tensed up instantly. -You have to be kidding...- Although I couldn''t wholly base such a heavy assumption on an expression, considering everything I knew about the headmaster''s recent absence and the more egregious teachings from the history professor that he was only now bing aware of, there were certainly some arrows pointed in that direction.


    -For now, I just need to take it as a sign to be careful...- Turning back to Krystallo, I saw her proudly talking with several students and started wrapping up. "I don''t believe there is anyone who will object to Krystallo passing, correct?" Seeing the history and calctions professors get up and gather their things to leave, I continued. "In that case, everyone, please give your congrattions to Krystallo. She earned it."


    Almost immediately, Krystallo''s eyes locked on me with a look of expectation.


    "Haah..." -She truly is hopeless...- Unable to resist her re, I spoke to her through my aura. "You grew more than I could have imagined; it seems I''ll have to adjust the difficulty of your lessons at home." She gave a yful pout before smiling again. "Haha, congrattions on passing, Krystallo."


    "Hehe~" Her childish smile, which I would destroy the world to protect, immediately washed over her face.


    -It seems I need to start getting a n together... Something aggressive but cautious...- I slowly fell into thought as I walked back toward the sidelines before Evodi�� swiftly pulled me out of it.


    "Now, where do you think you''re going, mister professor?" She wore an expression that seemed a little out of ce.


    -Hm?- ncing behind myself, I saw all the students around Krystallo wearing looks of curiosity and expectation.


    "It seems some of the students have changed their minds about having you test them."


    Needing to focus oning up with a n, having to give a bunch of students their assessments was far from ideal. -But it might not be a bad idea to try and throw them off my trail...-


    Even though I couldn''t dismiss the possibility that those siding with the Holy Kingdom already knew about me, being a good teacher and garnering the support of other professors and students could weave some doubt into their minds.


    And so, I asked the question once more. "Is there anyone who wants me to test them?"


    Several wings shot into the air instantly.


    "Haah..." I could only sigh. -Well, I guess I might as well try to brainstorm while I do this...- "So, who is up first?"


    Evodi�� quickly motioned to the young girl who warned me about S��dero''s reputation.


    She looked surprisingly eager but still understandably worried. "Alright, and what is your name?"


    She hesitated and nced back at Krystallo before finally working up the courage to speak. "My name is Fter��, Professor Whyte."


    -Oh, so that''s her...- She was Krystallo''s friend who came to our estate over the past few days for tutoring. -I wonder how shepares to Krystallo...- "Would you prefer using magic, or-"


    She nodded before I could finish.


    -Hmm... So, how should I test her...- I was a bit unsure at first, but I eventually settled on a method simr to what I did with Krystallo, except much closer range and permanently keeping the coins hidden so she had to rely on her aura.


    And it went shockingly well.


    As things progressed, I gave her some pointers, and, while iparable to Krystallo, she was still leaps and bounds beyond my expectations for the age group.


    However, without regard for her talent, her progress quickly grabbed the attention of other students and, before long, made it so I was the professor testing everyone, even if many of them were bound to not understand my tips.


    Thankfully though, after about 6 assessments, the headmaster returned and called me to the side.


    "Professor Whyte.. could I borrow you for a moment?"


    "Of course." Quickly wrapping up the assessment I was giving, I headed over to the southern entrance of the arena and was signaled into a human-sized room on the side where the headmaster was.


    As I changed to my humanoid form and walked inside, I noticed his expression was quite sour and prepared for the worst. "So, what''s the news?" -Do they really already know about the n?-


    As if seeing my anxiousness, he quickly pulled a drink off a nearby shelf and poured us both cups. "I can''t be certain, but at the very least, it seems that him calling you a fake professor was just an untimely insult since he believed you were a half-breed."


    A wave of relief washed over me instantly. "Hooh, I see..." -However, I can''t rx just yet...-


    While I was giving the assessments to the other students, I hade to a general consensus that I needed to go from the top down if I wanted any chance of cleaning out the academy, and while that may have sounded likemon sense, with there being a chance that the deputy master was siding with the Holy Kingdom, I was in a tough spot. -Mother warned me to not offend the headmaster.. but I don''t think now is the time to worry about connections...-


    As silence filled the room, I took a sip of the headmaster''s bitter alcohol before setting down the ss. *tap* "I believe there is a chance that the deputy master is siding with the Holy Kingdom."


    The headmaster''s aura instantly turned into a wall of des where it met mine. "That is quite an assumption to make... Do you have any evidence?"


    "There are just a few things that don''t add up, so I want to look into it."


    He immediately started pushing his aura into mine. "That won''t be necessary..."


    -He''s high on his pride...- "Any possibility could exist. It would be smarter to start from the top and work our way down, regardless of whether he is innocent or not..." *VWOOM* I instantly overpowered his aura as I pushed it back. "This ce is full of rats, and if you kill one of them, the rest will scatter�� If you want to delude yourself into thinking there aren''t rats everywhere in this ce, be my guest.. but don''t expect me to wait for you to realize what reality is."


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 Chapter 281: Questioning the Foundation

    Chapter 281: Questioning the Foundation


    Late Afternoon - Mid Summer (Opposite Hemisphere) : Featherspine, Holy Kingdom


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    - Astren Ravenna ~


    *gulp-gulp* I took a fast gulp of alcohol as I looked across the table at a tall man with fiery red hair drinking wine straight from the barrel and a younger emerald-haired man lounging with his feet perched on the table.


    From the eyes of onlookers, they were nothing more than foreign adventurers with some odd hair colors, but little did they know, those two ''men'' were monsters the likes of which they couldn''t even fathom. -It''s insane to me how even the stronger adventurers don''t seem to even notice it...-


    I quickly nced at the bar to see a group of three guys, all stronger than me, casually chatting as if nothing was wrong, somehow not feeling the unfathomably heavy presences just a few meters behind them.


    But somehow, such a sight wasmon. "Haah..."


    At first, not seeing anyone reacting at all made me doubt if what I saw and felt at our first meeting was even real; if the massive dragons I met were simply illusions meant to trick me into being fearful, but every now and then, I would be ruthlessly reminded by something that could not be faked.


    Strength."Brr..." A chill instantly passed down my spine as memories I desperately wanted to forget surfaced again. -Fuck...- Trying to drown it out, I leaned my head back and drank everyst drop in my mug. *ck* But nothing could make me forget. -I wonder if it would have been better to die back then...-


    "Haaaah..." *ck* Finally setting down the half-empty barrel, the crimson-haired man looked at me with an uncaring but curious expression before raising his hand and motioning the waitress to me.


    She was a young and cheerful girl, but even her bright smile couldn''t lighten my mood. "Miss, would you like another drink?"


    I immediately nodded and let her fill it to the brim with more dark-amber-colored alcohol before hastily drinking more. -Ugh...- It was the strongest stuff they had, and it tasted like shit, but without it, I wouldn''t have been able to get my mind off my regrets. "Thank you..."


    After another moment of heavy drinking, Iid my head on the table with a flushed face, but right after, the green-haired man finally sat up. "You said you were from Deepcross, right?"


    I immediately moved my mug to the side to look him in the eyes. "I was.. now, I''m from a field of burning rubble."


    Without alcohol, I never could have been able to speak sopulsively, but thankfully he didn''t get upset. "You should be proud that you and your father convinced Andras to spare the citizens who evacuated. If you didn''t, he most certainly would have executed them all."


    For a moment, I wanted to lean over the table and hit him for such a sick joke, but no matter how much I wanted to deny it, I knew he wasn''t lying.


    Back in Deepcross, after first getting tied in with Katherine and meeting those two monsters, I was reunited with my father, but our reunion turned sour the more we spoke and the more I was exposed to the horrors of the Church''s corruption.


    At first, when my father told me about the Church''s actual n with the monster wave and Deepcross, I didn''t believe it; after all, who would believe that their own nation would decimate its own city and ughter its own citizens?


    But reality was harsh. With the Church saying the gods had returned, they had the perfect excuse to do anything they wished without penalty.


    Before I knew it, the oundish rumors and stories I used to hear about the Church throughout Deepcross gained credibility, and the horror set in.


    The more stories and rumors I remembered, the more I questioned what I believed.


    Before long, I even started to question the foundation of my beliefs. "Do you believe in the gods, Sir D��ntro?" I nced up at him as Iid my head on the table.


    His expression quickly soured. "It depends on what gods you speak of."


    Immediately curious about his word choice, I couldn''t help but ask, "Are there gods you believe in outside of Asgard?"


    He hesitated for a moment before forcefully hiding his sour look. "Of course not. While they may exist, how do I know if they cannot answer prayers?"


    -Hmm...- I fell into thought almost immediately. "How do you know if your prayer was answered though? What if it was just a coincidence?"


    He quickly shook his head. "Asgard has many vocal gods. Depending on what you ask for, you may even hear their voice. Adonis has even spoken with one of them."


    Seeing Sir D��ntro point to him, he finally moved his barrel of alcohol to the side. "It was quite a while ago now, but I must admit that it was quite surreal. It was an experience that forced me to rethink everything I knew."


    -Rethink everything he knew, huh...- It was no question as to how meeting, let alone speaking with a god, could change one''s life; however, the way he phrased it made me ask something that nearly got me killed. "Do dragons have gods as well?"


    The crimson dragon instantly froze as he looked me in the eyes with enough bloodlust to suffocate me.


    It sobered me up instantaneously. *Fwip-Crackle* Lowering my head as much as I could, I mmed it straight through the table. "Please forgive me!"


    The entire tavern had turned dead silent instantly, but before even the slightest noise could break it, a young voice met my ears like the voice of a goddess answering a prayer.


    "I hope you haven''t forgotten our agreement." It was Katherine.


    The bloodlust I felt vanished almost instantly. "I haven''t."


    Sitting down next to me, she carefully started resituating the cloth around her sword and briefly nced at him. "In that case, you should be careful."


    It was clearly a threat, but he looked past it after clicking his tongue. -She must really be insane...-


    As I awkwardly sat back up, I was quite anxious that my head would go flying if I overstepped my bounds again, so I quickly calmed down.


    However, after feeling like frost was starting to form in the frigid silence, I worked up the courage to break the ice. "So, how was your ''shopping''?"


    Every time we stopped to rest in a town or city, Katherine would routinely go around ''shopping'' for information in regards to the person she was looking for.


    However, the result was always the same. "There was nothing."


    Sir D��ntro immediately gave her an annoyed look. "We already told you we would help you look for ''him''. Why are you still bothering to ask around?"


    As she finally finished rewrapping the sword, she hugged it and looked at Sir D��ntro with a cold re. "Unless you truly find him, I will continue my own efforts."


    He clearly despised her tone, but just like Sir Btos, he held it in. "Haah... In any case, now that you are back, I believe it''s time we get going."


    Sir Btos immediately nodded. "Yes, the Temrs should be done resting by now. Shall we get back on the road?"


    Seeing them stand up, I did the same and eventually followed them back outside.


    Then, once again, the clock started ticking. -7 days to the capital...-


    -----


    - Vasilias ~


    *FWOOSH-FWOOSH-FWOOSH-ck* Narrowly dodging several swings, I carefully watched the student''s footwork before eventually stopping and catching their w. *pat-CRACKLE* -To even crack the ground...- It was barely anything, even whenpared with some of the other young students, but his stature was so much smaller that he would have had to make up for hisck of weight with technique. -Impressive...-


    Finally letting go of his w, the young boy pulled back and stared at me with an eager sparkle in his eyes.


    It was a sight that made me smile right away. "Congrattions on passing."


    His smile instantly widened, simr to the other students that I tested. "Th-Thank you for your guidance, Professor Whyte!"


    He was a small and shy kid that, whilecking in strength and mana, was quick on the uptake whenever I gave him guidance. -He isn''t quite to Krystallo''s or even Fter��''s level of talent, but he certainly shouldn''t be at the bottom of this ss.- "You have a lot of potential with how fast you learn. Be sure to make the most of it."


    He looked towards his friends in a sh, smiling like a child on their birthday.


    -Once they learn something, their shyness and hesitancypletely disappear... Is that from them developing curiosity in themselves?- As I used magic to clean the dust off myself, I changed back to my dragon form. *sh* -I just can''t help but wonder why they haven''t already been given that spark...- Among all 40 students, Krystallo and Fter�� were the only ones taking advantage of their talents. It was like they were being taught wrong rather than just poorly. -Maybe I need to look more closely at all thebat professors...-


    ncing over at Evodi��, I saw her happily interacting with the students and decided not to say anything. -Someone as innocent as her wouldn''t be on the Holy Kingdom''s side, anyway... Maybe she is just bad at spotting peoples'' talents...-


    Finally confirming that was thest student I needed to test, I walked back to the sidelines and was immediately met with several students.


    They were all extremely eager. "Professor Whyte, Professor Whyte! Are you going to teach any of our other sses?"


    At the academy, sses were assigned at the beginning of each grade and would share the same schedule for both one-year-long semesters.


    That meant I was to watch over this ss for the whole day. "Maybe. It all depends on what your professors decide."


    They immediately looked around before nodding at each other and scattering back to the sidelines. -What is that all about?-


    Looking over at Krystallo, I expected to see her confused as well, but she just wore a smug smile. -What could they possibly be scheming?-


    Little did I know, they were all agreeing to make it their mission to make me teach every single ss.


    After finally wrapping up thebat assessments, there was a short break between sses that I used to meet back up with the headmaster and discuss a new n. While we didn''t exactly see eye to eye earlier in the day, he came around after watching some of the assessments.


    In short, I would still act as a professor and would attend the history professor''s ss, but rather than making a scene, I would do my own investigation to try and get as many names as possible to let us clean the rats in one go. -But it definitely won''t be that clean or straightforward...-


    Essentially, the headmaster told me toe up with a n and do it myself while he would have a few of his most trusted professors and assistants do simr investigations.


    It was what we both agreed would be the best course of action, and while an investigation entailed that I would remain as an intern professor for a few more days, I somehow didn''t mind it so far.


    -Teaching isn''t as bad as I thought...- Both calctions and ''life studies'' were fields I was extremely adept in, and havinge from Earth, I was able to give some good tips and tricks that helped the students and even the professors immensely.


    I also couldn''t deny that part of why I enjoyed it so much was seeing Krystallo''s sky-high pride whenever she answered one of my questions. -The students are starting to look at her like a saint.-


    But eventually, my favorite subject rolled around.


    Looking up at the door, I read ''Rune and Magic Theory''. -Oh! This one should be fun.-


    Finally opening the door and walking inside, Krystallo darted to her seat, and I was met with an older man looking at me from behind the desk.


    "Ah, you must be the new professor the students have been gossiping about." He looked like a gentle old man, but the moment I came through the door, I was met with a wave of aura. *vwooom*


    But rather than being directed at me, he focused it on two people hidden in the crowd in the hallway, quickly forcing them to leave.


    They were two people who had followed me between every ss but always kept their distance.


    -Hoh?- Looking back at the man wearing a gentle smile, I smiled as well. -He''s not so simple...-


    -----


    <strong>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</strong>


    <strong>Quick rification: </strong>The age range of students is typically 14-16 to 34-36, with the ''years'' (grade levels) being divided into 2 year sections. (Think of 2 semesters, each 1 year long.)


    This is a detail I couldn''t really work in, so I will leave it here.


    -----


    <strong>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</strong>


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 Chapter 282: An Explosive Situation

    Chapter 282: An Explosive Situation


    Late Afternoon - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    "You know, the students have been begging me all day to have you teach even though it is your first day here." The professor smiled as he stroked his short white beard. "But I can certainly see why." Slowly getting up from his desk, he walked over to me and held out his hand. "My name is st��ri Pi��s, a rune and magic theory specialist."


    -Oh, a Pi��s?- I quickly stretched out my hand and gripped his. "My name is Vasilias Whyte."


    The Pi��s family was an extremely old noble family I had actually heard about back when I first came to Bahamut. In short, they were a schrly family at the forefront of draconic magic development, but around thirty years ago, there were some inner conflicts that made the family disappear from the scene.


    -But it''s not like their downfall was from ack of prowess...- "I didn''t expect to see someone like you teaching the first years."


    With the academy being the most prestigious in Bahamut, it made sense for countless well-known noble families to be a part of it, but from what Evodi�� said, they almost exclusively taught upperssmen, with the only exceptions being sses outside their specialty. -But this is certainly his specialty... So, why...-


    Noticing a bit of my skepticism, he let out a chuckle. "Hoho, I was originally going to teach the eighth years and up, but I got transferred to this ss because of some..st-minuteplications." He paused before letting go of my hand. "In any case, if you wish to teach, you may. Here is the lesson I had nned for the day, but if you wish to teach something else, feel free. The ss will start in 20 minutes."


    Quickly taking a paper from him, I started skimming through it. -''Water and fire magic''s interactions with lightning magic''? This should be a fun one to teach, actually.- From what I could tell, all of the theories were extremely basic and self-exnatory, but that, of course, meant I could simply ask the students ''why'' and get their brains going. -I need to think of how to stump Krystallo though...-I quickly started falling into thought, but before long, the professor''s aura pierced mine and approached my ears. "Those two people in the hallway... I hope you can exin why they were with you..."


    My curious expression darkened instantly as I looked up from the paper and met his hostile gaze.


    Although he wasn''t thoughtlessly releasing bloodlust, he was clearly suppressing it.


    -To not even wait till after ss...- I squinted my eyes as I pierced his aura like he did mine. "Do you know who they are?"


    He hesitated for a moment as he sneakily injected some mana into a rune beneath the floor from behind his desk. "I don''t believe you are in a position to ask questions."


    -How audacious...- "Oh, but I am." I immediately mmed my aura into him. *VWOOM* "Sit back down."


    *crackle* The metal legs of his chair instantly splintered as he mmed down onto them.


    But his hostile expression didn''t change until he saw the students looking at him. "Professor, are you alright?"


    He quickly forced a smile. "Yes, I apologize. It seems I pushed myself too hard yesterday."


    Seeing him turn back to me the moment the students started gossiping, I forcefully cut off his mana flowing into the rune. "If you don''t want to create a scene, I would rmend you start talking."


    His expression quickly turned troubled before he finally rxed his aura and clicked his tongue. "Tch... So my brother finally sent a spy to take care of me, huh..."


    -Hoh?- It was quite an unexpected response. "Your brother?"


    "He goes by Michalis Logios."


    A smile came to my face almost instantly. -My luck is really on point today...- After having just spoken to the headmaster about him, the deputy headmaster''s truly ironic name was still fresh in my mind. [1] "You seem quite hostile with him."


    "Of course!" His anger started to appear on his face right away. "He was the bastard who ruined our family, and you bastards were the ones who manipted him into doing it!"


    -Hoh?- Finally confirming he had some information I needed, I quickly cleared the misunderstanding. "Don''t lump me in with them. After all, they were just some random people who had been following me since this morning."


    He immediately froze in ce as his anger vanished.


    "However, to call me a spy who works under the deputy... I hope you are willing to borate." Freely walking over to him, I leaned against his desk with a carefree smile, only using a bit of light and wind magic to keep the students from seeing or hearing anything.


    He was quick to notice it as well. "Just.. who are you..."


    "Just think of me as a janitor giving the academy a ''deep clean''."


    He hesitated before looking me in the eyes. "Then, I take it that my brother is one of the people you n on cleaning..."


    -Hm?- Seeing his look, I wasn''t sure how to feel. -Don''t tell me he is gonna try to protect him...- "He was someone I nned to look into."


    A serious, determined look immediately came to his face. "In that case.. I will save you the time; however, I want you to do me a favor."


    I gave him a quizzical look before he finally continued.


    "I want you to let me speak with him before he is killed or taken by the authorities."


    I instantly tensed up a bit. -Well.. that''s not what I expected...- I gave him an odd look for a moment, but his determination didn''t fade. "Alright. But I can''t guarantee anything if it isn''t rted to what I''m looking for."


    He quickly nodded. "That is alright."


    I hesitated momentarily as he lowered his head, but eventually, I pulled my aura off him and let him start.


    He immediately started with the story of his brother, exining that it all began around a hundred years ago when his brother left for the Holy Kingdom on a sightseeing trip.


    Originally, it was only meant tost around 3 years, but every time the day he said he woulde back came, the family received another letter saying he was going to stay for a bit longer.


    At the end of it all, he had stayed in the Holy Kingdom for nearly 60 years, almost half of which were after he stopped sending letters.


    When he did eventually return, most of the family thought they were seeing a ghost since they all believed he had died, but he acted like he never left in the first ce.


    The family all considered the behavior quite odd, especially for him, but most of them managed to look past it and simply be thankful he was back.


    The issue was that they could only look past it for so long.


    "Over time, he slowly started getting more extreme and pushy with his new-found beliefs and attempted to get us to go back to the Holy Kingdom with him, but after we declined, his character changed entirely. He essentially became a stranger living under our roof, and unbeknownst to everyone except a couple maids, he even started pushing things rted to the Holy Church onto my grandchildren... And before we even knew it was happening, he vanished with them..."


    My expression turned serious as his darkened.


    "It was what caused our family to essentially implode... We used every ounce of our family resources and even abandoned our research to search for them, but we didn''t even find a hint until just three years ago when I was about to halt the search to try and rebuild some of our lost wealth... Somehow, he had be the deputy headmaster here and was living under apletely new identity..."


    -Geez... So, he really destroyed his own family and took up a new name...- To be frank, it was disgusting. "What are the odds he was already within the academy beforeing back and wrecking the family?"


    He nced at me before letting out a quick breath. "After figuring out he was the deputy, I used several old connections to get the headmaster to appoint me as a professor so I could investigate things further, but when I eventually asked him about my brother, the headmaster said he had been here for almost 50 years and earned the position. The headmaster didn''t even believe me when I said the deputy was my brother and showed me his paperwork, which was without a w, meaning he has someone in the court that''s backing him as well."


    "That won''t be an issue." -It must have been Holcyon or one of his subordinates...-


    While it could have also been someone in the Elder Hall, risking their position for something so simple would be stupid. -Plus, even if it is, I have more than enough authority to handle it...-


    I fell into thought for a moment before noticing him staring up at me. "I will see what I can do." Looking at the mechanical clock over the door, I saw that it was about time for ss to start. "For now, just help me gather names of people in the academy you think could be connected to him. Or if you know a way to lure him out with his subordinates, that would be even better."


    His gloomy expression quickly turned serious again. "I will do the best I can."


    I quickly nodded as I stood up. "As you should." *vwoom* Quickly dispelling the magic around us, I immediately caught the attention of the students and put on a smile. "It seems like it''s time to start ss. Are you all ready?"


    Wide smiles instantly swept across the ss, with only a few exceptions. """Yes!"""


    "Good, in that case, I will get started... Today I will be teaching you all about the interactions of lightning and the environment. How much have you guys already learned about it?"


    Krystallo''s hand immediately shot into the air. "We have learned that water can extend the range of lightning magic and greatly increase its power, while also improving uracy and precision!"


    She was as proud as could be. -But that is quite abat-oriented response...- "Does anyone know why it works like that?"


    Krystallo immediately jumped up again. "Because water conducts the lightning!"


    I quickly looked around the room but only saw people nodding in agreement. "That is a good guess, but it''s not entirely urate. Does anyone else think they know the answer?"


    The room stayed silent as I looked around and only saw confused expressions.


    Looking at the professor, I saw him wearing an equally interested look. -Hmm...- "Alright, in that case, how about I do a demonstration."


    *vwoom* Quickly creating a thin string of water and a small metal ball, I ced the ball on a table and held the end of the string just a few centimeters from it. *tap*


    "This is a string of water, and that over there is a metal ball. When I put lightning magic into this end over here, you all believe it should conduct to the other end of the water and leap to the metal ball, correct?" Everyone immediately nodded. "Then let''s see." *vwoom-zap* The moment I put lightning magic into the water, it arced from the other end to the ball.


    Everyone''s expressions only became more confused.


    "As you can see, it acted just as you all expected. Now, what if I remove everything in the water that isn''t water?" Several specks of fine ck dust immediately fell out from under it. "Does anyone have any guesses?"


    This time, the young girl next to Krystallo, Fter�� stood up. "It won''t do anything?"


    "Okay, and what will happen if I only increase the amount of lightning magic until it does something?"


    She wore a puzzled look but didn''t shy away. "Well, wouldn''t it just jump to the ball without the help of the water?"


    I immediately smiled. "Well, let''s see!" Quickly moving my hand to the end of the water, I started umting the lightning magic, and eventually, a bolt arced straight from my hand to the floor. *ZAP*


    The looks of pure confusion on the students'' faces were honestly beautiful.


    "As you can see, it arced to the ground. Does anyone want to guess why it didn''t go through the water?"


    I quickly pointed to a different student in the middle who stood up. "Does it have to do with the impurities that were in the water?"


    I immediately smiled. "Precisely... Now, does anyone know what is an excellent conductor of lightning?"


    A few students quickly stood up before I chose one. "Metal!"


    "Haha, yes. Now, what if I was to add small bits of metal to the water? Will it differ from the first test I did?"


    I immediately got a mix of nods and shaking heads.


    "Fter��, what do you think will be different?"


    She immediately jumped up. "If metal is a better conductor than the dust that was originally in the water, wouldn''t it conduct the lightning better?"


    I quickly nodded. "Yes, and what would the difference in oue be?"


    "I-It would maintain its potency over a longer range, right?" She seemed a little unsure of herself.


    "It would indeed. Now, would you like toe give it a try?"


    She was a little hesitant at first, but after a short moment, she came up to the front of the ssroom.


    "Alright, for this demonstration, we will use this fruit." I quickly pulled a peach-like fruit off the professor''s desk and held it a few feet from her. "From where you are, I want you to hit this fruit with pure lightning magic."


    "O-Okay!" She quickly held out her hand and umted electricity before finally letting it go.


    *crackle-ZAP* It instantaneously charred the fruit''s skin.


    -Perfect...- "Now that we have a benchmark of what to expect, I am going to set the fruit at the very end of the water." *tap* "This time, use the exact same amount of lightning magic, but release it straight into the water."


    "Okay!" With a mix of curiosity and enthusiasm, she turned back to the water and umted enough electricity for it to arc between her fingers before finally putting her palm on the end of the string of water.


    *BANG* The string of water and the fruit exploded nearly instantaneously,unching the center pit of the fruit through the wooden table and into the strengthened flooring.


    I looked over the ss with a satisfied expression seeing their jaws hanging open and looks of shock on their face.


    But when I nced at the professor to see what he thought, I saw an expression that was just like the students.


    -Huh?- It caught me a little off guard. -Isn''t he from one of the most advanced magic families?-


    <strong>-----</strong>


    [1] - The name, Michalis Logios, essentially trantes to ''Schr close to God/the Gods''.


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 The Discord!

    The Discord!


    Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing well!


    Just wanted toe out and say that the discord is finally up and running!


    Most general notifications will start going through it rather than announcement chapters, and it will be a ce where we can all socialize about anything rted to novels or stories in general, hang out and chat, or theorized about TDOD!


    <strong>To get started, please at least skim through the rules in the initiation channel, and add a check mark to them, you will then gain ess to the rest of the server!</strong> If something goes wrong, please don''t hesitate to create a support ticket!


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 Chapter 283: A Change of Plans

    Chapter 283: A Change of ns


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    "So, Professor Whyte..." Professor Pi��s spoke in a curious tone as he looked at me. "Essentially, what you are saying is that the tiny particles thatpose everything are surrounded by even smaller particles, and lightning is made of those?" Halfway through my lecture, he had moved out from behind his desk to upy a seat among the students for a better view.


    He had essentially be a student. "Yes, and the more positive particles, protons, that are present in the nucleus of those particles, the more negative particles, electrons, there need to be."


    "Is that why things like metals withrger main particles have better conduction?"


    I quickly shook my head. "It''s because the metals are initially bnced in charge. This allows electrons to bounce around and take the ces of electrons in neighboring atoms, essentially creating a free-flowing pool of them within the metal."


    Everyone listened intently as I spoke.


    But seeing there weren''t any questions, I continued. "With such a pool already present, all you need to do is give the flow a single set direction by adding more electrons with lightning magic, and you can create a flow from the source of the lightning to the positively charged target on the other side of the wire. But keep in mind, if there is no positive charge for the lightning to jump to, nothing will happen."


    Professor Pi��s immediately fell into thought before another student stood up. "Is that why it jumps to the ground whenever there isn''t a target or a path to close the distance to the target?""Haha, yes." -They''re really fast learners...- "Lightning will always take the road of least resistance to reach something with a mass of positive charge, so if the path to the ground has less resistance than the path to the target, it will take that path."


    Fter�� quickly hopped up. "But wouldn''t that mean that less resistance would always yield more power?"


    -Hm?- Wondering where she was going with that thought, I gave a vague response. "Not necessarily... Do you have a specific situation in mind?"


    "The initial test.. with the metal filings in the water." She wore a look of curiosity but also irritation. "How was the reaction still so explosive even when it still had to traverse through water which doesn''t conduct it well? Wouldn''t a pure metal rod connecting them have been better?"


    -Good questions...- "The reason it had such an explosive reaction was because of the water between the filings and in the fruit." I promptly created a small sphere of water in the air next to me. "When water is superheated too quickly, it explodes; hence, the reaction you all saw." *snap-BANG* The ball instantly exploded into a cloud of steam. "As for if a metal rod would be better, technically, yes. However, the explosion from the water would have damage of its own, so while more lightning may make it to the target, you would most likely do less damage overall."


    Her expression turned confused. "B..but why?"


    I immediately chuckled seeing her expression. "Haha, because the path the lightning would take through the opponent''s body may not exactly do what you intend it to do." I quickly pointed at the floor with a smile.


    Finally understanding what I was implying, her eyes went wide. "But if that''s the case, why do we learn that lightning magic is so strong? If it would just take a path from the target to the ground, how could it kill anything?"


    "Well, whether it is weak or strong is something you must determine on your own; however, what I will say is that lightning magic has the potential to make opponents much stronger than you drop dead without knowing what hit them." -All it needs to do is discharge into the brain...- "But we can leave that for another day."


    A look of disappointment instantly washed over the students intrigue the moment I stopped.


    I wanted to continue just as much as them, but looking over at the clock, the end of the ss had arrived. "Alright, are there any more questions before we end ss?"


    Most of the ss remained seated and silent, with only a few standing up to ask some unrted questions like if I would continue to teach this ss in the future or if there was any homework, but before they could even finish, the professor stood up.


    He wore a very conflicted expression. "Professor Whyte.. If I may be so rude to ask..."


    I gave him an odd look, expecting him to be mad and refuse my ''theories'' in ce of his own research.


    But I was instead met with a pleasant surprise. "Could you please continue to teach me and my ss while you are here?" He immediately threw himself into a bow with his hands out in front of him.


    The sudden gesture made most of the ss tense up right away, with the more arrogant students breaking into a bit of panic.


    -I wonder if anyone will still arrogantly refuse my teachings tomorrow...- I smiled as I looked over the ss. "I don''t see why not."


    The professor''s aura instantly pierced mine and approached my ear once again. "I will surely repay you for this guidance!"


    I immediately smiled. "The more you help me, the more I can help you."


    A smile came to his face as well as he straightened up. "If you ever need anything from me or my family, don''t hesitate to reach out. I promise we will fulfill any request as long as it is within our power!" *glow* A glowing ring appeared in front of his head almost immediately.


    It was an oath rune. -To use an oath to guarantee a simple promise...-


    Almost anyone would call him a madman at that moment, but even if I ignored my biases, I couldn''t call him crazy. -His family has tried to advance magic for thousands of years, yet they could only take baby steps down the wrong path.-


    But now, he had the key to a new, far stronger foundation right in front of him; the key to a new era that his family could stand at the forefront of.


    His decisiveness toward grabbing at it made me smile right away. "Alright. I will keep that in mind." -I guess it can''t hurt to go ahead and start warming up Bahamut for what''s toe anyway...-


    Finally turning back to the ss, I took a few more questions and finally wrapped up before the clock over the door rang and dismissed everyone.


    Almost immediately, the professor came up and asked me if I could stay after ss to talk more about science, but I was quick to decline.


    It was finally time for me to shift gears. "Hooh..." -Let''s see just who this witch is.. shall we?-


    But when we finally got to the next ss, I was a bit taken aback by how different she was.


    "You must be Professor Whyte.�� Her name was Professor P��so, Krystallo��s history professor. ��I have heard about you a lot today, but I can''t say I expected to see you here." She was certainly on the older side, looking like a human in their 40s, but she was totally calm even around me.


    -She''s a good actor...- "I was told to sit in on sses today to see what I wanted to teach, but I also heard from the students that there is a test today." She gave me an odd look before I continued. "Could I see it?"


    She quickly grabbed a paper off a stack on her desk with her aura before handing it to me.


    Thinking she handed it over a little too easily, I read through it but found that the questions were actually quite good. "Could I see the key as well?"


    Once again, she immediately grabbed it off her desk and handed it to me. "If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. If not, you can spend your time in this ss however you wish."


    Her carefree smile only pushed the wrong buttons on me, but I kept my irritation hidden. "Alright, thank you."


    Finding a ce to sit, I thoroughly read through the entire test and key, but there was nothing wrong with either of them. It was almost as if she knew what the original n was.


    Had it still been in motion, I would have been in a tight spot.


    But now I had the freedom to move on my own.


    Once the test eventually started, I used my aura to check everyones'' answers, and, as expected, I found all but 4 people putting the same incorrect answer on several questions throughout the test.


    It was so evident that I was a bit offended. -Did she really think I wouldn''t check anything?-


    Finally getting up, I walked over to her desk and surrounded us in silencing magic.


    She quickly gave me a curious look. "What is it you need to ask?"


    -The audacity...- "Currently, there are only 4 students with passing grades." I set down the papers on her desk and looked her in the eyes. "I was hoping you could rify why that is."


    Her forced smile momentarily faded before quickly returning. "There were quite a few questions I failed to properly cover in my lectures. I n to adjust their grades ordingly, don''t worry."


    Standing over her desk, I quickly used my aura to search through it, but I didn''t even make it through the first drawer before finding a letter. One specifically from the deputy.


    It made my anxiousness of questioning how to go forward instantly go up in mes. -It seems I need to change my ns...-


    Holding back the urge to rip her spine out, I spoke calmly. "Unfortunately, I don''t think that is quite enough... Would you minding with me to the deputy''s office? I believe this issue needs to be addressed more formally."


    Her eyes went wide for a moment before she smiled at me. "If that is what you wish."


    Finally standing up, she told the ss she was going to step out for a moment and called in a universal teaching assistant to watch over the ss while we were gone.


    Once things were finally situated, we left and hastily navigated our way through the halls until eventually stopping in front of a massive dragon-sized door halfway up the central spire of the campus. -So this is the deputy''s office, huh...-


    *knock-knock* Finally knocking after a moment, the door opened and revealed a massive room with a nearly 90-meter-tall ancient lying in it.


    His scales were bright silver, simr to Professor Pi��s, but his aura and demeanor couldn''t have been more different.


    As he opened his eyes, Miss P��so quickly went to kneel, but she didn''t quite make it that far.


    *SNAP* The crack of bones filled the air as her head spun backward, and her body fell limply to the ground. *thump*


    The deputy could only stare at me with wide eyes.


    -You fuckers have really crossed the line this time...-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 284: The Eve of the Cleanse

    Chapter 284: The Eve of the Cleanse


    <em><strong>--------------------------------------------------</strong></em>


    <em><strong>---- Mild GORE and BRUTALITY Warning! ----</strong></em>


    <em><strong>--------------------------------------------------</strong></em>


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *SNAP* *thump* An abyss-like silence instantly filled the room as the history professor''s body limply fell to the ground.


    Her neck was snapped, and her spinal cord had been severed; without being able to use her mana, even if I did nothing, her brain would have slowly run out of oxygen, and she would have died.


    -But dying with such little pain in unbefitting someone like you.- *Vwooom* An indescribable void instantly epassed her body beforepressing into nothingness, leaving nothing but a footprint out in the hallway as evidence she was ever there. -Sending a soul as filthy as yours to reincarnate would be a disservice to those that deserve it.-


    Finally looking into the room again, my cold gaze locked onto the deputy headmaster, and I walked inside. *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap*Although I made it several steps before he reacted, on my fourth step, his aura mmed down onto me, and a massive rune lit up beneath my feet. *vwWOOOM*


    -Nice try.- Quickly moving my aura to counter his, I stopped distributing my weight and shattered the ground like it was made of hardened y. *CRRRACKLE*


    The brightly lit rune vanished nearly instantly before throwing its half-baked spell into the air as a plume of dust and fire.


    -Weak...- Seeing him hastily start standing up and readying several more spells in the air, I finally pulled my sword out of its sheath.


    *Vwoom* The de faintly glowed and vibrated as I grabbed it, but after a moment, it stabilized and began spewing my aura out as if it were a part of my body. -Not bad...-


    Moving it over my shoulder, I looked up at the dozens of spells in the air and gently swung across the room. *fwip* *VWOOOOM*


    The colossal wave of mana it created instantly blew across the room, obliterating every spell in the air and forcefully destabilizing his aura.


    Not letting the opportunity slip, I instantly mmed my aura down onto him and changed to my dragon form. *sh-Crackle*


    By the time he regained control of his aura and had the chance to stand back up, my foot was on his head. -Too slow.-


    *CRUNCH* Pressing my weight and aura down onto him, I prevented even the slightest movements and lowered my head to look into his eyes.


    Bloodlust was flowing out of me like a waterfall, but even still, his gaze was more aggressive than fearful. "If you back off and kneel, I''ll consider letting you live."


    My pupils instantly dted as I put more weight on him *CRACKLE* "Make me."


    As my ws started to dig into the side of his face, he finally forced his mouth open with an expression of rage.


    *CR-RACK* The sound barrier instantaneously ripped apart as a massive metal dart teleported from his mouth to my hind leg.


    But I watched it with a look of indifference. -Iron, huh....-


    *CLACK-BANG* Seeing the dart explode on impact, barely leaving a dent in my scales, his eyes went wide.


    "Wrong material, dumbass." *twist-CRACKLE* Twisting his head to the side, I created a steel dart and held it over his eye. "Would you like to see how it''s supposed to look?"


    Fear immediately found its way into his eyes, but he hid it from his voice. "Who are you..."


    "To you, I might as well be the grim reaper, so get talking... Who ordered you to write that letter."


    "I don''t know what letter you are-"


    "The one telling the bitch I just killed to give a few students an amnesia drug and bring them to you."


    He immediately hesitated. "I''m not sure what you-"


    *CRACKLE* His scales quickly started cracking beneath my paw. "You think I can''t kill you?" I looked down at him with a crazed look in my eyes. "I could turn the Holy Kingdom into a wastnd if I wanted to."


    "Tch..." He immediately clicked his tongue. "You think Asgard would let you-"


    mping his snout harder, his bones started the crack. "Call one of your gods here. I dare you." Seeing the fear in his eyes grow, I released his snout just enough to let him speak.


    He broke instantly. "Deacon Arca! She was the one who ordered it!" He paused before noticing my expression hadn''t changed and anxiously continued. "S-She is the direct subordinate of Goddess Freya''s second apostle!"


    My expression quickly darkened. "And what were her orders?"


    "T-To bring amnesic students to a rune beneath the academy!"


    -A rune beneath the academy?- "What kind of rune is it?"


    "A rune which shows people the might of the gods!"


    I quickly lowered the dart until it was partially embedded in his eye. *shik*


    "Argh!" He groaned loudly as if to try and call for help, but we were already surrounded by thick silencing magic.


    "To think you fuckers would resort to magic if a student knew better than to let themselves be brainwashed..." I looked down at him with nothing but the desire to crush his skull in my mind.


    Exactly four names were mentioned in the letter I read, and not coincidentally, those four were the ones who wrote the correct answers on the test.


    Krystallo was not an exception. -These fucking cockroaches...-


    But I had to hold myself back. "Hooh..." -If I kill him now, I''ll have to find the rest of the rats myself...- With a deep breath, I looked back down at his bleeding face. "You are going to act as if this never happened and give the Kingdom false reports as if everything is fine."


    His body quickly started to rx.


    "But... You are to also report every single one of their movements to me and gather the names of everyone in this academy affiliated with them." I quickly bent down next to his face. "Just know that if you even think of saying a single word about this, you will die a death more painful than you can imagine." *vwoWOOOOM*


    A massive surge of mana instantly flowed into his head as I created the most advanced and brutal oath rune I could manage.


    "If you want to try and break it or try to run away, I wish you luck.. because if you aren''t careful, you might just experience something no living being was meant to."


    *Crackle* Finally finishing, I pulled my paw off his head and eased my aura.


    But he justid there as if he were already dead.


    "Pray to the gods all you want. Even they won''t dare to try and save you now." Finally turning away, I returned to my humanoid form and walked to the door. "Tomorrow, we will go down to the rune you spoke of. n for it."


    -----


    - Krystallo ~


    "Alright, ss, has everyone turned in their test?" The teaching assistant quickly looked over us as she took up the final student''s papers. "Since it seems like we still have a bit of time left, you all can chat, do work from other sses, or even nap. I will be sure to wake you up once ss is dismissed."


    Looking down at Miss P��so''s desk, I quickly noticed the paper that Vasilias was looking at earlier and had an ideae to mind. "Could you grade them before we leave? All the questions were ''select your answer''." (multiple choice)


    She gave me a quizzical look before smiling. "I, unfortunately, don''t have the key, so..."


    I immediately smiled. "The key should be on her desk. When she has left in the past, she would leave it there for the assistants to use." It was a tant lie that made most of the ss gave me confused looks, but I didn''t care as long as no one said anything. -Miss P��so was one of the teachers Brother wanted to investigate... If she looks over the key and sees the wrong answers.. maybe I can help him alert the headmaster...-


    But it didn''t exactly go as expected at first. "Hm..." Gently picking the paper up, she skimmed over it but maintained a generally indifferent expression before sitting down and grading a few papers.


    I started to get a little worried as the first paper was graded without a hitch, but her calm expression quickly derailed after that.


    By the time she reached the fourth paper, her face was warped with confusion. "Um, Nichs, Ajax, Aithan, and Iris, please stand up."


    Almost immediately, the four people evenly spread around the room stood up.


    The teaching assistant''s confusion instantly worsened. "Do you four spend time studying together outside of ss?"


    They all nced at each other before shaking their heads.


    "W..what?" Quickly mumbling to herself, she looked back down at the tests and skimmed through the first page of several of them before finally standing up. "Can anyone tell me why Hera Monachik��s was sometimes referred to as The Tyrant?"


    Dozens of students immediately stood up before the teacher called on one of them. "Because she ruled Bahamut with an iron fist and focused on growing our strength and world power more than anything."


    "Correct." She paused before looking down at the test. "But even though that was the case, why did Bahamut leave her in that position?"


    She immediately called on another student. "He didn''t. Once the great war started, he sent her out to die."


    The assistant instantly froze in ce with a slightly angry expression. "Does anyone else wish to try and answer?"


    Seeing no one raise their hand, she called on a random student but they just gave her the same answer.


    After a few more attempts, she tossed the tests to the side and looked over the ss with a dark expression. "Can any one of you give me a different answer?"


    Fter�� and I quickly stood up before she called on Fter��.


    "Hera Monachik��s kept her position because she was wise and made her decisions based on what would be better for Bahamut rather than what would please the people, even if the Great War caused many of her decisions to age poorly."


    She quickly nodded. "Good, and what about you?" She immediately turned to me with a look of expectation.


    "I have the same answer as her." I motioned to Fter��.


    "I see." She paused for a moment before flipping through the tests and finding ours. "Who was it that taught you two?"


    Confidence quickly came to my face. "My mother taught us. She gave us tutoring herself after I told her about this ss."


    She gave me an odd look before turning back to the rest of the ss. "So the answers you all just gave me were what you were taught in ss?"


    Nearly everyone nodded simultaneously.


    "I see." *tap-tap-tap* Quickly straightening up the tests, she put on a serious expression and looked over the ss. "In that case, this is a matter I must bring up with the headmaster. Those of you who only put what Miss P��so taught you, don''t worry; we will figure out how to handle this matter without affecting you all too negatively. However, you may expect to have sses more often until things straighten out."


    The mood of the ss plummeted right away, but my head was held high. -I did it!-


    A blissful sensation filled my mind as I thought about never having to deal with Miss P��so again.


    -Now, I just wonder where she went with Brother... I hope he is alright...-


    But my worries were needless as when we were eventually dismissed, and I walked outside to see him leaning against the wall.


    Quickly running over to him, I noticed he wore a troubled look, but once he saw me, it turned back into a smile.


    "Hey, Krystallo." *pat* "I hope you aren''t too worried about the test."


    As heid his hand on my head, every distracting thought purged itself from my mind. "Of course not!"


    After another moment though, Fter�� ran up to us with an excited expression. "Krystallo, Krystallo! Professor Pi��s just came by and told me he can bring us to the bakery just outside the academy to get the velvet cake he promised before we stoppeding to ss! We should go!"


    My eyes instantly lit up. "Really?!" I quickly looked up at Vasilias with a gleam in my eye. "Come with us! The bakery has some really delicious things!"


    His smile quickly turned pure as he let out a warmugh. "Haha, alright. You will have to give me rmendations, though."


    A look of determination came to my face immediately. "Of course!"


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 Chapter 285: A Day Out

    Chapter 285: A Day Out


    Mid Evening - Mid Winter : As Academy | As, Bahamut


    -----


    "Hmm... What is this dark pink one over here?"


    Hearing Krystallo, the young man behind the counter poked his head over and looked at where she was pointing. "That one is a Southern Lotus Cake. It has a very simr base to the Pink Lotus Cake, but its taste is quite unique. I typically rmend it for elders and ancients, but everyone''s pte is different."


    Overhearing them, I got curious and looked over. "Is there any reason you mainly rmend it to older stages?"


    He quickly nodded. "It has Lantern in it, which has a very refreshing taste but can taste quite bitter depending on how developed one''s tongue is."


    -Hm?- "What''s Lantern? This is the first time I''ve heard of it."


    He immediately smiled. "It''s a more recently developed ''voring poison'', simr to Ocari, except instead of that spicy burn, it''s more cool and refreshing."


    "Ah, I see..." Essentially, voring poisons were human-grade poisons or venoms that dragons had developed as a spice, sauce, or voring agent, akin to things like malic acid or hot sauce for humans. -But they''re all pretty unique vors... I wonder what this stuff is like...- "Could I try a bit?""Sure, one moment." He quickly disappeared behind the counter before reappearing with a green flower petal in hand. "Just set this on your tongue and suck on it for a second. The petal should start to dissolve."


    Taking it from him with my aura, I did as instructed and almost immediately tasted something I had long since forgotten existed. -It''s.. minty?-


    I barely even recognized it. -I think I have lost my taste for it though...- Although I remember liking mint as a human, the taste wasn''t the most appealing anymore. -Maybe it''s just too strong though...- "Do you have a more subtle version of it?"


    "We do, but the only thing it''s in is rockfruit. Would you still like to try it?"


    "Hmm..." Rockfruit were a hard fruit with a sour and tart taste simr to an unripened muscadine or grape butcked most of the bitterness. -The one Grandmother got me to try was alright, but I can''t say I''m a big fan of it... Mint could work with it though...- "I guess it''s worth a shot."


    Giving a quick nod, the man behind the counter disappeared into the back, and I finally turned my attention back to Krystallo.


    She was still closely inspecting the pastries, cakes, and candies through the ss disy with a troubled expression. -How cute...- "Have you decided what you want to get?"


    She quickly looked over at me before ncing at Fter��, who was happily nibbling on a human-sized velvet cake in her dragon form. "The velvet cake is really good.. but I want to try something new. I''m just not sure what I''d like."


    I couldn''t help but smile seeing her staring at the sweets so intently. "Well, feel free to get a bunch and try them. I''ll pay, so don''t worry about holding back."


    She instantly froze before looking back at me with a gleam in her eyes. "Really?!"


    Looking at the prices, I saw most of the human-sized portions between 1 and 5 gold, meaning even if she wanted to use all of her weekly allowance, she could only get 2 expensive ones.


    -But, this is As; even if I created and spent a few royal gold, it wouldn''t even make a ripple...- "Go for it! You will have to share some with me though."


    "Of course!" Her vibrant excitement instantly filled the room as she changed to her dragon form and motioned over the other attendant to get and try several things.


    -Geez.. she really is growing like a weed...- My smile quickly warmed, but at the same time, a faint feeling of regret started to surface in the back of my mind.


    Thest three years were some of her most important years of development, the beginning of her filling out the mold of who she would be in the future, and yet I had been totally absent.


    As her brother, it made my heart ache no matter how I tried to twist it, but at the same time, fate hadid out its cards for our benefit.


    Without a curtain of naivete hiding the path I had unknowingly taken, I had no reason to doubt myself anymore, but at the same time, I could no longer happily lounge around while idly waiting to grow.


    From that point forward, I had to take every step with the intent of growing stronger until the gods looming over the Holy Kingdom were no longer a threat.. even if that came at the cost of spending time with family.


    -But everything in life is about bnce...- Looking at Krystallo''s back, my regret slowly started to fade. -Even if I will still need to leave and do things away from home, I can make the most of the time I have whenever I am with her...-


    Walking up to her, I tapped her shoulder with my aura and pointed into the window. "Have you tried this one yet? I think it''s called a cheesecake; I heard it''s pretty good."


    The young attendant Krystallo previously called over quickly agreed. "It''s one of our specialties! I highly rmend it."


    Krystallo''s eyes instantly lit up like a bright star in a dark night sky. "Okay! Try this one first, though."


    She quickly moved a piece of cake in front of me with her aura, which I promptly snatched out of the air and tried. "Mm, that one''s pretty good."


    "Right?" Her expression was simply washed with joy.


    "What about this one next? I think it''s chocte?" A yful smile quickly crept onto my face as I pointed to a fluffy cake.


    "Chocte? What''s that? It sounds tasty!"


    Seeing her turn back to the attendant with a radiant smile, my anxiousness started to melt away. -It seems like my worries of her losing her innocent childishness were needless...-


    Continuing to bounce off her excitement, we ended up trying dozens of sweets until she eventually settled on her favorite, and we split up with Fter�� and Pi��s to finally head home.


    At that point, I had changed back to my dragon form, but since Krystallo still hadn''t finished her cake, she sat on my head and ate to her heart''s content in her humanoid form.


    -She really is adorable...- "Are you happy with your decision to get the cake?"


    She nodded instantly. "Mhm, mhm!"


    She ended up getting one of the newer recipes called a fish cake, which was a lighter and more fruity blend of vors that used fish scales in it. -It''s an odd blend, but among what I tried, it''s definitely one of the best...-


    Likely noticing me eyeing it with my aura, she leaned over and looked me in the eye. "Do you want another piece?"


    "Haha, I''m okay. It''s really good, but I would rather you be the one to enjoy the final bites."


    "Hehe~" She quickly straightened back up before tossing the final small slice into the side of my mouth.


    "Mmm..." Without even realizing what she did, the taste of the cake filled my mouth, and a look of satisfaction came to my face. -Damn, that''s good...- But I quickly caught up to speed. "Oi, wait! I told you that you should have been the one to enjoy the pleasure of thest piece."


    "Hehe~, how could I monopolize it when you didn''t enjoy what you got?"


    "Do you mean the rockfruit? It wasn''t unenjoyable; it just wasn''t bliss in the form of a fruit.. thing."


    She quickly straightened up with a look of pride on her face. "But you enjoyed the fish cake, didn''t you? In that case, I should share it!"


    I gave her a surprised look before letting out a sigh. "Haah..." -I guess she picked up more from me when we were younger than I thought...-


    "Anyway, besides that, where are we going?"


    Noticing the mix of curiosity and confusion in her voice, I nced up at her. "What do you mean?"


    "Well, I thought we were going home, but that''s in the other direction..." She fell into thought for a moment before her eyes lit up. "Are we going to the space rune?! Are you taking me somewhere cool?!"


    "Haha, not quite." The urge to take her to Siratha only grew upon hearing her excitement, but I had to hold back. "While we were walking around town, I heard about a big auctioning up in a few days. Do you know anything about it?"


    Her excitement instantly grew. "The Chst��s auction?! Isn''t that solely reserved for the most noble of guests?!"


    -The most noble?- "I''m not sure, I have only just been hearing about it, but I can''t deny that I''m interested."


    "Huh?" She quickly started to calm down upon realizing I hadn''t nned this in advance. "So, where are we going then?"


    "Well, if we want to attend it, the person we''re going to see will be someone who can help us." Finally turning onto a different street, I walked down a few buildings and made my way into a rundown shop. "Plus, if we are going to attend something like that, I need a bit more spending money."


    She gave me a confused look as she nced around the empty shop before bing curious when we started making our way down to the smithy.


    *thump* *thump* *thump* Feeling the rhythmic vibrations in the ground, I quickly smiled. -Sweet.. he''s here...-


    Finally reaching the bottom, we approached the smithy''s massive door and knocked. *thud-thud*


    The hammering instantly stopped. "You may enter."


    *Click-creaaak* As the door swung open, a wave of heat sted past us, and we were presented with the view of a forge covered in all sorts of junk and Sir Ats��li standing at the center with his scales covered in soot.


    He would have looked like a kid who had a little too much fun with a new toy had it not been for his demeanor, but that changed the moment he saw me. "Vasilias! I didn''t think I would see you so soon!" His expression instantly lit up. "It seems we have another guest as well! Pleasee in and have a seat."


    Finally walking inside and over to the table, I set Krystallo down and let her change to her dragon form so the temperature wasn''t so ufortable.


    But Sir Ats��li got down to business instantly. "So, what brought you back so soon? I expected it to be a few months before you brought me any mythril." He cleaned himself off as he spoke.


    "Well, I do have some mythril, but I mainly came to inquire about something."


    He quickly shot me a quizzical look. "And what would that be? Is it rted to her?" He immediately gave Krystallo a curious look.


    "Haha, somewhat. Although I��m not sure if you two have already met, she is my sister, Krystallo. Krystallo, this is Sir Ats��li."


    Sir Ats��li quickly reached his wing across the table. "It''s my pleasure to meet another young Ragnarok, young miss."


    She instantly tensed up, but I was quick to calm her down. "He works with Mother and Father often, so you don''t need to worry about using that name."


    Finally, with a bit of hesitancy, she moved her wing up and tapped it against his.


    It was a bit of an awkward greeting, but it broke the ice between them. "So, what was it you came to ask about?"


    I quickly took a moment to think of how to ask before simply going for it. "I''ve been walking around town a good bit today, and I overheard some things about an auction called the Chst��s auction. I was wondering if you knew anything about it." -Maybe it''s something I could go to with Krystallo...-


    His smile instantly turned sly. "Hoho.. now that isn��t what I expected..."


    My expression quickly turned confused. -W..what''s that reaction about?-


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 Chapter 286: A Tangled Knot

    Chapter 286: A Tangled Knot


    Late Evening - Mid Winter : As Academy | As, Bahamut


    -----


    *ck* *pour* We sat in silence as Sir Ats��li poured some kind of drink into a small barrel before inevitably pushing it to Krystallo.


    It was an action he did out of nowhere, but I was so confused I couldn''t say anything.


    But his smile eventually started to fade. "You.. aren''t joking?"


    -Huh?- I immediately tilted my head. "What do you mean?"


    He paused to give me an odd look before finally letting out a quick breath. "Hooh... Kid, how much do you know about your family?"


    "Well, I''d like to say quite a bit." -But the way you''re acting is making me doubt myself...-


    "In that case, could you tell me why the Ragnarok family is held in such high esteem?" Grabbing two more small barrels off the shelves, he quickly started filling them with alcohol."It''s because of As, is it not?" I responded as if the answer were obvious.


    But he just scoffed. "Maybe to some, but if you think your family is able to hold nearly a hundred thousand dragons in the palm of their paw because of everyone else''s respect for As, you are gravely mistaken."


    My expression quickly turned curious.


    "You have too much faith in us as a species, Vasilias... If he was Bahamut, you would be correct, but As didn''t have that kind of presence." He continued as he pushed the small barrel of alcohol to me. "I would love to say that we dragons hold onto and respect honor forever, but unfortunately, the more time that passes, the more the weight of honor from our ancestors lightens, and the more people forget it ever existed in the first ce."


    My eyes instantly widened; he hit the nail square on the head. -But if people''s honor and respect for Bahamut are already starting to fade...- "Then what upholds the Ragnarok name?"


    He gave me a serious look before responding simply. "Money, strength, and blood." His voice was without an ounce of hesitation or uncertainty. "In her current state, you may see your grandmother as a youngss who is just beginning to see the world for what it really is, but if you give her a few hundred years, she will turn into a monster that even the strongest dragons would do anything to curry the favor of... However, what do you think they can give a family that already has enough gold to build an ind out of it and enough cities, resources, and skilled subordinates to essentially rule the world?"


    I immediately hesitated before finally speaking with some uncertainty. "Loyalty?"


    He nodded right away. "And with loyalty being something evenmon folk can pay, not only has their influence grown, but people''s trust that their loyalty will be repaid has deepened; after all, if people retain their loyalty to the Ragnaroks for long enough, their taxes in Ragnarok-owned cities will be shed. That single repayment caused their influence to spread like wildfire, to the point that even the two other major families could no longer escape from beneath their influence; however, among those two, the Chst��s family were the only ones to embrace it."


    The Chst��s family was one of the three major families from the great war and were a family that was meant to rival the Ragnaroks. -But while we grew our power and influence, they simply umted money like treasure hoarders.-


    But that was exactly what made them love us so much. -Alleviated taxes would essentially double or triple their profits, and that isn''t even including that they can use our influence for their own gain...- After falling into thought for a moment, I eventually spoke up. "So, are you trying to say that the Chst��s auction is beneath me?"


    He immediately smiled. "Well, you are a Ragnarok, are you not? If you want something from the auction, you could simply ask them, and they would sell it to you for cheap if not just outright give it to you."


    "I mean, sure, but we can''t go around touting the family name until the festival in 8 years." My smile finally returned as I tossed the small barrel into my mouth. "Plus, it would be more fun to attend regardless of that."


    "Ah, is that so." He immediately started to m up a bit. "In that case, the auction is held the day after tomorrow in the Southern Hall of the academy. Anyone affiliated with the academy is able to attend, so if you are to speak to the headmaster, he could get you a VIP spot, but if not, you could use the Whyte family name as well."


    "Hm, I see..." I quickly started to fall into thought again before promptly tensing up. "Wait, it''s in the academy?"


    He quickly nodded. "When the Chst��s family originally built it, it was meant to be a massive gathering hall for their businesses to host auctions, gatherings, and parties in, but once they realized it was quite unnecessary, they eventually changed it to be the academy we know of today, and only hold their biggest auctions in it."


    -Ah, that''s quite convenient...- But while it was convenient, it raised some of my worries. "Does the Chst��s family still have influence over the academy?"


    He gave me a confused look before responding inly. "Absolutely. They could shut down the entire ce and turn it into a field of grass if they wished."


    -So they are the ones with all the power...- My suspicions only worsened. "In that case, were they the ones to choose the headmaster?"


    "No, but he typically has to report everything he does to them, and if they wish for something to be done, he cannot object. Although after seeing how sessful the academy was, they rarely do anything besides things rted to the auction."


    "Ah, is that so..." I responded with a nk expression as my mind started to wander, questioning who I should really be pointing fingers at, but eventually I snapped out of it. -I should just ask Mother about that when we get back... But in any case...- "It seems like we will be going to the auction then... Before that though, I need some money."


    His smile widened instantly. "Right, you said you had some mythril for me?"


    "Well, of course." I smiled, thinking it would be a quick deal, but little did I know, it would be another hour before he even gave us the opportunity to leave.


    But eventually, after his endless barrage of questions about where I got the mythril and how much more he could get came to an end, he let us out, and we finally made our way home.


    But the questioning continued; the only difference was the identity of the interrogator.


    "So, is that all money you can spend right now? When are you going to go create an ount with the bank like Sir Ats��li suggested? Can I hold it until you deposit it?" Krystallo''s eyes simply had money signs in them from the moment she first heard Sir Ats��li say how much was in the pouch he gave me.


    But it''s not like I could me her; even for me, it was a sum way beyond what I imagined. -But why should Iin?- *cl-cl-clink* A warm smile came to my face as I tossed her the coins. "I''ll take it to the bank in the morning. Do you want to hold onto them until then?"


    Her eyes instantly lit up. "ABSOLUTELY!"


    Her enthusiasm hit me like the warmth of the sun, quickly lightening my mood and making the trek home quite a bit more enjoyable.


    However, once we eventually got back, I needed to shift gears once again.


    "Hehehe~" Just after we got back, Krystallo made her way back to her room with the pouch of money and a wide grin on her face, but my smile had already faded by then.


    "Wee back, my lord!" Chloe quickly greeted me as I walked inside, but now wasn''t the time for conversation.


    "Is Mother in her office?"


    She nodded immediately. "She is. Would you like to speak with her?"


    "Yes, if you could prepare that."


    "Right away!" She quickly straightened up before making her way down the adjacent hallway but almost immediately returned with a much older maid.


    The older woman bowed the moment she came up to me. "Young master, the Missus wishes to see you."


    -Good timing.- "Alright, please lead the way."


    Quickly following the maid down the hallway, we came up to Mother''s office and promptly opened the doors. *Click-fwoosh*


    As they swung open, a st of chilly air rushed past me, but contrarily, Mother''s expression was incredibly warm. "I heard about what you did in thebat assessments this morning... You know it made your name spread around like wildfire, right?" Her words sounded like she was trying to warn me, but her voice was full of pride.


    Quickly finding my way inside, I found thefiest cushion and promptly sat down. "I sort of figured that would happen. The students liked how I taught so much that they tried to get me to teach every ss for the whole day. Plus, I can''t deny that I made an impression on several of the professors as well."


    The pride in her expression only grew as I spoke. "Hoho~, it sounds like my sweetie is starting to get recognized by the world."


    I immediately let out an awkwardugh. "Haha, not quite. I still need toy on the low because of Asgard, but as long as I don''t trip on any of their wires, I should be alright..." I paused to think about the situation for a moment before continuing. "In any case, I need to ask you about a few things."


    She immediately straightened up her posture. "What is it?"


    "The headmaster and the Chst��s family. How much can we realistically trust them..."


    She was immediately taken aback. "What makes you ask that?"


    -Well...- "I have some suspicions about the headmaster, and since he has to report everything to the Chst��s family, I can''t exactly take any suspicions away from them either."


    She gave me an odd look before speaking. "I understand where you areing from, but at the same time, the headmaster is certainly not someone who betrayed Lord Bahamut."


    "But..." I felt a little back to be throwing out usations so baselessly, but at the same time, I couldn''t shake my suspicions. "How can you be so sure?"


    "Vasilias." Her expression quickly turned serious. "The group that still prays and worships Lord Bahamut. Do you know their name?"


    "Well, it''s Latre��a, isn''t it?" I responded instantly as if the name was already on my mind.


    But that''s because it was. -Wait.. isn''t that the headmaster''sst name?-


    My suspicions got tied into a knot almost instantly.


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 Chapter 287: Unbridled Disgust

    Chapter 287: Unbridled Disgust


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : As Academy | As, Bahamut


    -----


    *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* The sound of my footsteps echoed down the long, empty hallway as I made my way into the academy''s central spire.


    The final ss of the day had just started, and after leaving Krystallo''s history ss to a substitute, I was on my way to the deputy''s office.


    But while an onlooker might have thought I was rxed, I was far from it. -A rune that''s meant to show people the ''might of the gods'', huh...- Every time I thought about the possibilities of what the rune could be, my fist clenched. "Hooh..." -But I still need toy low for now...-


    After my discussion with Mother the night prior, the direction of my suspicions had started to waver, and after much additional thought, I inevitably dismantled everything I knew to try and form a new perspective.


    But not a lot changed.


    As thingsid, the deputy was working directly under one of the church''s deacons rather than the Chst��s family or the headmaster, but because of the headmaster''s weird movements and reactions to things rted to this matter, I couldn''t rule out that they weren''t unrted. -It feels like the headmaster is trying to cover things up.. but he also has reluctance...-


    Whether it was simple acting, coincidence, or whether he was truly under orders, I waspletely in the dark. -The fact he is a Latre��a makes me think it''s a coincidence...- But at the same time, having one of the main voices of the Latre��a as a subordinate would put the Holy Church in an incredible position of power over Bahamut''s future, even more so than by infiltrating the academy. -But I can''t be sure...-


    He was simply like a wrench that would force me to rethink everything whenever I tried to incorporate him. -At least Mother said she would look into the Chst��s family... Hopefully she can find something...-


    Finally making my way to the stairwell, I ascended the academy''s spire and eventually made it onto the deputy''s floor.


    *Vwoom* Forcing my aura through the wall, the moment I stepped out of the stairwell, my aura filled the entire 1-and-a-half-kilometer-long circr hallway, but unlike yesterday, I couldn''t feel a single aura other than the deputys. -To clear the floor today... It seems he''s still trying to save face...-


    The hallway was so quiet you could hear a feather falling, but I didn''t bother lightening my steps at all. *thump* *thump* *thump*


    As I walked, I began slowly pushing my aura into the deputy''s room, but nothing seemed amiss until I was about to step up to the door.


    *CR-RACK* The instant I stepped to the side, splintered wood blew out of the door, and a thin piece of metal zipped past me.


    -To think he would do that without care for the oath...- Turning and ncing back at the other hole made on the other side of the hall, I leaned back and let another metal rod zip past my chest. *zip-CRACK* -He must be confident in his mental strength...-


    Finally turning back to the door, I casually pushed it open and immediately saw a massive dragon squirming on the ground in pain.


    "AAGH!" His breath was haggard, and his body was shaking.


    -To think he had the willpower to push through the oath''s penalty, not once, but twice...- Slowly walking over to him, I matched his gaze with a condescending look. "You missed."


    The anger on his face quickly reappeared, but it only triggered more pain. "AAAGGH!"


    It was a scene that brought me immense satisfaction. "Seeing you squirm around like a poisoned rat... Something about it is truly enlightening..."


    His angered gaze immediately locked onto me as he gritted his teeth. "You fucking.. m-monster..."


    -Hoh?- "You can still speak?" -That''s not right...-


    His voice quivered. "W..who are you..."


    I paused momentarily before a slightly sadistic smile crept onto my face. "You can just call me.. the exterminator."


    Setting my hand on his head, the oath rune expanded and began to glow.


    Almost immediately, his eyes went wide, and his body went limp. His brain didn''t know how to process an amount of pain magnitudes beyond what would be possible to trante through his nerves, so it simply shut off.


    But as I walked over to the human-sized desk near the wall, he jolted awake and began writhing in pain once more.


    At that point, it was simply a matter of time.


    -Now the question is whether he will cave or go insane...- As I made it to the desk, I sat down and picked up a random stack of papers while also searching through the desk''s contents with my aura. -My guess is one minute...-


    But, to my surprise, it took nearly three minutes for the squirming to stop, and when I eventually turned around, I could still see light in his eyes. -That willpower is truly something...- "Are you finally willing to cooperate?"


    He immediately gave me a shaky nod. "P..please.. spare me..."


    -Hoh?- I slowly stood up with a bit of intrigue. -To think he didn''t ask to die...- "That would be possible.. but it would require a bit more than a little cooperation."


    "A-anything!" He responded instantly. "I''ll do anything!"


    My smile quickly widened. "In that case, why don''t you start by answering a few questions..."


    The next half hour passed in an instant, but while my mood started off quite good, with the deputy name-dropping several of his subordinates and supporters, it eventually turned troubled.


    Among the names he mentioned, most were just some low-nobility contributing with the promise of authority over Siratha or Bahamut, but on the other end of the spectrum, several were extremely high nobility contributing in order to curry the favor of the gods.


    -What a shit show... But the Chst��s family was never mentioned...- "What about the Latre��a family?"


    The deputy instantly hesitated. "I''m.. not sure."


    -Ah, shit...- It was the one response I didn''t want to hear.


    "If they contribute financially, I don''t know about it, but what I can say is..." His expression quickly turned troubled. "The headmaster has never blocked us or our ns... To an extent, it felt purposeful."


    My expression quickly started to darken. -So my gut wasn''t just from me overthinking things...-


    We continued talking for several more minutes after that, but the moment he recovered enough to stand, we left for the rune beneath the academy.


    The whole walk was shrouded in silence, but while the deputy''s staggered condition received many odd looks, no one dared to stop us.


    At least until we reached the bottom of the central spire''s main pir.


    For the most part, nothing looked special about it; it was simply a massive stone pir with a hallway wrapping around it.


    But as we approached it, a knight in bright white armor released the light magic around himself.


    *vwoom* *shing* He held his sword out in front of us without hesitation. "Deputy.. you know the rules-" *CLACK*


    In an instant, the deputy clocked the knight''s head, knocking him out and causing his body to crumple to the ground. *cl-clunk*


    It was a heavy but clean swing, leaving nothing but a small dent in his helmet as evidence that it had ever happened.


    But that dent was immediately fixed. *pop*


    Continuing up to the pir''s side, the deputy put his hand on it and injected mana into a massive rune just inside the white stone, causing the tiles around the pir to sink down and form a staircase.


    -That''s quite clever...- As we started walking down, the deputy dragged the knight along before eventually setting him down in the entrance of a rtivelyrge chamber, big enough to fit a few small dragons.


    -But what is this ce?- At first, it just looked like a big empty room, but as I went to send my aura into the floor, countless runes lit up beneath my feet, and the floor started to sink down. -I wonder who made this...-


    Inspecting the runes more closely, it was immediately clear that they were not developed in recent years. Even for me, some of the runes were incrediblyplex. -But if this ce is that old... What is the rune at the bottom going to be?-


    My mind quickly wandered as we descended, but eventually, the elevator slowed down, and a massive room came into view.


    The deputy wore a somber expression as the elevator finally stopped. "This is the ce."


    The room was easily a hundred meters tall and a few hundred meters wide, but it was almost entirely taken up by a round, dark mythril tform with a deep ck orb embedded in its center, surrounded by several bright blue monster cores.


    As we walked out into it, I wore a confused expression; no matter where I looked or sent my aura, I couldn''t find any kind of rune anywhere.


    But that was when it finally clicked.


    -There''s no way...- My eyes widened as I turned back to the ck artifact in the center of the tform and, this time, pushed space mana into it.


    However, instead of seeing a space rune, I saw something else... Something iparably disgusting...


    Noticing my expression, the deputy tensed up and stared at the ground, but I simply changed to my dragon form and walked past him without any care at all.


    -No, I must be seeing things wrong...- Quickly making it to the central-most ck orb, I wasted no time throwing some mana into it.


    Almost instantaneously, dozens of tendrils of divinity squirmed out through the shell of the artifact before splitting into dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of copies of themselves.


    To say it was stomach-churning was an understatement. -To think something so viscerally disgusting could exist...-


    As I raised up my paw, I formed a small amount of antimatter and coated it in space mana.


    Although I had no idea what I was truly looking at, seeing its countless tendrils slowly multiply and grow, stretching straight toward my head as if to grab it, made me feel sick. -Whatever it is.. it shouldn''t exist...-


    *tink-FLASH-BAAAANG* The entire mythril tform instantaneously splintered before being blown to pieces by a shockwave, sending massive cracks throughout the room and simultaneously obliterating the floor and walls.


    *crackle-crumble* But even as the cracks spread to the ceiling and the walls started to crumble, I felt nothing but disgust.


    After a moment of silence, I slowly pulled my paw out of the deep hole in the ground and finally turned around to look at the deputy with immense bloodlust.


    He was simply standing there,pletely frozen as if stunned by fear.


    But whether he was afraid of me or the thing I just killed, it didn''t matter. "I hope you can exin to me what the fuck that was..."


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 Chapter 288: A Lost God

    Chapter 288: A Lost God


    Late Evening - Mid Summer (Hemisphere Switch) : Goldenflower | The Holy Kingdom


    -----


    - Skuld, The Goddess of Oracles ~


    "Haah..." I let out a controlled breath as Iid on the head of a half-broken statue of me and nced over the empty prayer hall with a smile. -How long has it been since I''ve given a mortal an oracle...-


    Currently, I was in one of my few remaining temples, in a town deep in the Holy Kingdom called Goldenflower.


    Compared to how it looked in its glory days, the town was quite run down, nowcking the ethereal beauty of endless fields of flowers, and the temple most definitely reflected that, but shockingly the temple was still holding up and even had an elderly priestess taking care of it.


    However, although I considered her a priestess, from what I could tell, she was simply a generous old woman who took care of what remained of the temple without even knowing who the temple was for.


    But although it truly highlighted just how much the times have changed, my fall from grace was something I had already started to ept. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, the world had long since moved on from me, and it was time for me to ept that.


    However, there was still onest thing I needed to do... -She should be getting close...-Looking through the temple''s walls, I focused on the horizon and saw a sizable caravan of knights with a few disguised dragons standing around a single young girl at their front.


    That girl was Katherine Whyte, the key to my salvation. -No matter what it takes.. I need to make Odin take her as the hero... But for that, she must want it herself...-


    Originally, deciding which way to push the young girl was extremely difficult. Part of me wanted to be selfish and sumb to the devil''s temptations, while another part wanted to leave her be and let her grow to her true potential.


    But after feeling Hel''s presence vanish mere minutes after she left for Bahamut, that decision made itself. -No matter how I twist it, even if that ''Myles Kalfas'' truly has ''that artifact'', it couldn''t have caused Magni, Tyr, or Hel''s deaths.. their presences simply disappeared too abruptly for that...-


    But crossing that out only left a few possibilities, one of which being Odin''s worst nightmare, the return of one of the Ancient Fenrir. -But even if it isn''t one of them, the fact that that possibility is very real means that Odin can''t risk suffocating her growth like I had worried...-


    There was just one slight issue with that.


    -How in the world am I going to give her an oracle...-


    I needed to give her a prophecy, even if it was fake, to try and direct her to the heart of the capital. The issue with that was she had a.. shockingly draconic personality. -What could I say... What could I say...-


    I quickly fell into thought, but before I could evene up with anything decent, I sensed a new presence start approaching. -Huh?-


    Looking up hurriedly, I saw a young girl with bright blonde hair and sky-blue eyes standing at the altar below me and looking up at my statue.


    With just a nce, she looked like royalty; however, the light in her eyes was the contrary. -Who.. is this?-


    Moving off my statue, I floated down the get a little closer, but as I did, she squatted down and bowed until there were only her fingers between her forehead and the floor.


    -A.. prayer?!- It was exactly as I remembered it from before the Great War. -How does this little girl know that...-


    "Goddess of Oracles, Skuld, the Goddess that reigns over time and fate, please ept my prayer."


    I was simply frozen in ce the moment she spoke. She recited it perfectly. -That prayer was lost thousands of years ago... Even the Holy Kingdom''s records don''t have it... How does she know it...-


    Not wasting a single instant, I collected some divinity and instantly formed a tether with the girl''s reserve, letting me finally speak to her. "Young one.. may I hear thy name..."


    Her eyes went wide, and her heart rate picked up instantly. "T-this humble servant''s name is Elizabeth!"


    -Eliz..a..beth...- The name immediately caught me off guard. -What a foreign name...- "Young Elizabeth.. where is thee from?"


    She responded with a bit of hesitation. "This young one is from the Southern Penins of the Main Continent."


    -Huh?- It wasn''t what I expected. -Why does her name sound so off, then?- I quickly started to zone out in an effort to catch the thought on the tip of my tongue, but before I could gather it, my senses heightened, and the faint sensation of a god''s presence, somewhere over the horizon, suddenly appeared before almost instantly disappearing. -W..what?!-


    I instantly looked to the horizon with wide eyes. -That presence...- Although I only felt it for an instant, it was a presence I couldn''t mistake. -That was...-


    But the young Elizabeth pulled me from my thoughts right away. "I grew up in the forest of Altair with my grandfather. He taught me everything I know, but he sent me on a trip to this temple to receive your oraclest year.. so I pray to receive thine blessings."


    -Huh? She came here alone?- I immediately snapped back to the young girl, who was 16 at most, and noticed her state had calmed, and her aura had rxed. -She really knows the entire prayer...-


    Attempting to ignore the unusual, distant presence for a moment, I moved down to her and increased the size of my tether. -I need to address this matter first...-


    With no exaggeration, that girl was a walking blessing. -What perfect timing...- "Young Elizabeth, thine fate isplicated, so I cannot provide you withplete guidance." I paused for a moment before noticing her heart calming. "However, your fate resides in the capital with a young demihuman girl named Katherine Whyte, the one destined to be the hero." I quickly looked back up to where Katherine was on the horizon. "She will arrive at this town soon, so please prepare to befriend her and guide her to me."


    As I gave the ''oracle'', I felt the sensation of a vision beginning to appear, but believing I already knew what I would see, I simply closed my eyes and suppressed it.


    -If their fate is bound to be wrapped in tragedy... I would rather not see it...-


    As the vision finally started to fade, my gaze slowly drifted over the horizon behind me, where I saw Freya floating in the air, staring past me. -The fate of those tied to Odin.. never ends well...-


    -----


    - Vasilias ~


    *crackle-crumble* The noise of crumbling rock instantaneously filled the void-like silence that followed the explosion, but even still, I didn''t even acknowledge it.


    *Crumble-Clink* As the splintered mythril beneath my paw crunched like millions of tiny metal filings, I finally turned around and stared at the deputy with dted pupils. "I hope you can exin to me what the fuck that was..." At that moment, I had to hold back my entire being to keep myself from walking over and erasing him.


    But he didn''t react at all. He simply stood there.. frozen.


    -This bastard...- Instantly appearing in front of him, I drove the top of my paw into his body.


    *CRACK-WHAAAM* The wall exploded nearly instantaneously, sting stone all the way across the room, but the deputy stayedpletely still, even while embedded in the wall.


    I quickly walked over to him and ripped him out of the wall with my aura. "Hey, fucker. Wake up." *VWOOM* Flooding his head with my aura, I went to force him awake, but immediately found dozens of tiny oath runes ready to kill him in an instant. -How troublesome...-


    I quickly started to break them, but as I went to break the final one and wake him up, I stopped.


    "~Even if you wake him up, he won''t be able to answer that.~"


    The goddess''s voice made me stop in my tracks. "What makes you say that?" Looking over my shoulder, I met eyes with the faintly cloudy figure of a woman wearing some kind of red dress.


    "~Well, first and foremost, an oath rune would kill him the moment he considered saying anything... Secondly, he simply doesn''t know what it really was.~"


    *CRUNCH* As his stiffened body finally fell over, the ground broke even more, and I turned to the goddess. "In that case, I hope you''re willing to exin..."


    "~It was a god.~" She responded bluntly. "~Or at least what was left of one...~" She immediately disappeared before reappearing at the center of the tform, looking into the hole of molten rock where the artifact once was.


    "What do you mean by that?"


    She quickly paused before ncing over her shoulder. "~Well, his name used to be Odr, the God of Summer, but shortly after waking up, Odin decided to.. make use of him.. and turned him into that mindless.. creature of divinity."


    My disgust instantly worsened. -That thing used to be a human god?- Just thinking about it again made my skin crawl. "But what was it doing here?"


    "~Well, it was being used as a tool to rewrite dragons'' views of humans and, more importantly, the gods.~" She instantly vanished again before reappearing over the deputy''s body. "~Disgusting, isn''t it? To turn one''s race over to another...~"


    I felt as if I saw a smile on her face for a moment, but I agreed regardless. "It''s as disgusting as it gets, but unfortunately, I can''t kill that bastard just yet... He still has his uses..."


    "~Hoh?~" She sounded quite surprised. "~What do you n to use him for?~"


    The air around me instantly turned heavy. "To gather the rats."


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 Chapter 289: A Pure Warmth

    Chapter 289: A Pure Warmth


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


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    "~Gather the rats, you say?~" I felt as if I could hear the goddess grinning as she spoke.


    "Yeah, if I kill them one at a time, the rest will eventually scatter, so I may as welly a trap with some poison." I nced down at the deputy with a look of disgust.


    "~Hoho, how ruthless of you.~" She paused before moving to the other side of me. "~You know, I can''t say I ever expected you to initiate a genocide like this... But I can''t deny that I like it.~"


    I had a chill pass down my spine instantly. "Yeah, never say that again, please..." Feeling like I saw a yful expression on her face, I let out a sigh. "Haah... In any case, I''m sure you didn''t juste here to say that, right?"


    Hearing my tone, she sounded like she wanted tough. "~This time, it isn''t anything special, I promise! I just wanted to tell you about a few of the Aesir''s recent movements.~"


    -Hoh?- She instantly caught my attention. "Do continue."


    "~Well, for starters, the Aesir is in a frenzy. With you recently killing Magni, Tyr, and Hel, a string of distrust has started being woven into-~""Hel?" After a moment of thought, I cut her off. "Who.. is that?"


    The goddess froze instantly. "~Hel was the goddess of death and decay... She went to Bahamut not long after you killed Tyr and died within a few minutes... Do you mean that wasn''t you?~" She sounded quite concerned.


    But I could only shake my head. "It wasn''t me." But it did ring a bell. -Is Hel the one that did a number on Myles? If that''s the case...- "I think it''s more likely that Amphitrite was the one that killed her, especially if Myles and Amphitrite were the ones she ran into."


    But surprisingly, the goddess disagreed. "~No... Hel would be out of their league unless Myles brought ''that''... But I could have sworn... nevermind...~" There was a short pause before she continued in a troubled tone. "~In any case, before I go investigate that, the Aesir is a total wreck right now, and with you exposing Odr''s presence like you just did, the turmoil will onlypound on itself. However, at best, that turmoil can only buy you a year or two.~"


    I quickly caught her trail. "So you want me tond a blow while they''re down..."


    She immediately nodded. "~But I don''t think attempting to gather everyone in one spot is the right way to take things.~"


    "Who said I was gathering everyone?" Seeing her look up at me, I smiled. "All I have to do is cut their connection to the top. After all, what will a bunch of cockroaches do once there aren''t any more rats to leave them crumbs?"


    "~T..they will flock to the next sweetest smell...~"


    Before I knew it, my smile had started to turn crazed. -All I will have to do is blow it in their direction...-


    Continuing our talk, we discussed several other matters regarding the Holy Kingdom and its movements before splitting up again. However, essentially all of it could be summed up to, ''now is the time to hit them''.


    In short, recent events had sewn discord into the Aesir and caused many gods to grow suspicious about each other, with some going as far as giving their apostles orders to be wary of the other churches.


    But now, with the sudden appearance of Odr''s presence, a god pronounced dead by Odin at the beginning of the Great War, the discord would only grow. -But I only have a year or so even with that, so I need to get moving...-


    But thankfully, to me, a year was plenty. *Vwooom-crackle* -Now.. I just need to find this bastard''s switch...- Scanning through the deputy''s brain while in my humanoid form, I tried to find a neural path to wake him up with, but among those I was aware of, there were very few chains that I could corrte to any sort of major biological response. -But I guess it doesn''t really matter whether its stress, anxiety, fear, or despair...-


    Eventually narrowing it down to three separate chains I had observed leading to an increased heart rate during our talks earlier in the day, I gave up attempting to figure out which to do and simply hit them all at once. *vwoom*


    *GASP* "ACK!" He instantly jolted awake and gripped his chest with heavy breaths.


    "You''re finally awake, huh." He froze the moment I spoke before looking at me with wide eyes. "Took you long enough." *WHAAM* Driving my fist into his stomach, he disappeared from where he was sitting and mmed into the wall. *CRAACK*


    *Crumble-Crackle* "Kuek-BLEGHH!" He coughed heavily before falling out of the wall and vomiting.


    "Oh, so you can throw up?" I slowly walked over to him as my bloodlust increased. "I would have thought that you''d be unable to after growing used to the gut-wrenching guilt of corrupting the minds of your friend''s children..." I used my foot to pull his chin up, forcing him to look me in the eyes. "Or was it that you never felt that guilt in the first ce." I looked at him like I was looking at a cockroach.


    "Kuek..." But it only made his fear turn to anger. "You know nothing! You fucking insane bastard!" He quickly grabbed onto my ankle as if to try and break it but it didn''t move.


    "You want to call me insane? You?!" I looked at him like he was crazy. "The moment you even considered turning your back on your own species, you had lost your mind." *VWOOM-CRRUNCH* mming him into the ground with my aura, I squatted beside him. "But for now, I am being generous and giving you a chance to repent, but this time you don''t have the ability to refuse."


    *pat* Setting my hand on the back of his head, an immense amount of mana flowed into his brain, allowing me to extend the oath rune already in ce over nearly a hundred thousand additional neural paths, each of which I observed triggering with keywords or specific actions throughout our time together. -Space manaes in handy with stuff requiring stealth...- *vwowowoom*


    Finally, pulling my hand off his head, my expression started to ease. "Now, I have some questions. If you try to lie, that oath rune in your brain will let you experience pain that bypasses all numbness and tolerance just like earlier, but if you answer everything properly and follow my instructions, I will promise to let you live after all of this is over."


    His eyes instantly lost their fire.


    "Do you understand?"


    He only hesitated for an instant before nodding. "Y..yes... I will respond truthfully..."


    -Perfect...- Questions instantly started ringing through my mind. -But before that...- "Why don''t youe and answer questions too?" I nced toward the elevator shaft with a smile before grabbing the knight at the top with my aura and dragging him down. "You didn''t really think you were being sneaky, probing your aura into mine like that, did you?"


    As he finally came into view, his body started to glow from a transformation spell, but I didn''t give him time for that.


    The moment he reached me, I set my palm on his chest. *pat* *VWOOOOM* A colossal, visible mass of mana was instantly ejected out of his back before the spell came to a screeching halt.


    As he fell to his knees, I couldn''t deny that I felt a bit greedy. -To think another source of information presented itself so graciously...-


    But unfortunately, he was obscenely oblivious when it came to the things I wanted to know about. -Thankfully, the deputy had more than enough information topensate...-


    *tap-tap-tap-tap* Walking down one of the main hallways out of the central spire, I started making my way back to Krystallo''s ss with a lot on my mind, but even though I was now on a countdown, I wore a rxed smile. -Until those few professors in the Holy Kingdom return, the deputy can''t gather them, so until then, I can rx...-


    While the auction was still tomorrow, so I couldn''t wholly rx just yet, the deputy was quite confident that it would be a minimum of six days before the professors started returning, and the goddess was certain the gods wouldn''t be making moves any time soon either, so I could at least somewhat ease my nerves for the time being. -It would be nice if the auction is normal, though... I''d really like some quality time with Krystallo again...- "But even if that isn''t the case.. I can bring her somewhere today..."


    I continued down the hall with warm thoughts before eventually meeting up with Krystallo and leaving the academy.


    However, once we got outside, she raised a familiar question.


    "Where are we going?" She was once again sitting on my head in her humanoid form. "Are we going to visit Sir Ats��li again?"


    "Haha, not this time. Do you remember that ce he told us about?"


    She immediately tilted her head. "The ''fittings'' ce?" Seeing me nod, she continued. "What exactly is it?"


    -Hm? Has Mother never taken her?- "It''s a ce for professional designers to create a set of clothes for people who are unhappy with their own designs or struggle to adjust their spell to fit the design they want."


    Her confusion only grew. "But why are we going there?"


    "Well, I spoke with Mother, and she said we could go as the representatives of the Whyte family, but for that, you will need a new set of clothes."


    "But.. why?"


    I could only sigh at her obliviousness. "Haah..." -I guess I still have a lot I need to teach her...-


    Quickly making our way to the store, I let Krystallo off my head and changed to my humanoid form in order to walk inside.


    The inside of the store was beautiful, with a mostly wood nk floor, but utilizing entire tree trunks as the supports in the walls with all sorts of exquisite carvings and hanging outfits filling the empty wall space. -A lot of them actually look really good, too...- There was even one that closely resembled a suit from Earth.


    "Hello, Sir, Madam! Wee to our humble outfitter." A beautiful young draconic woman quickly greeted us with a shallow bow.


    I honestly wanted tough hearing her say humble, butpared to the rest of the stores in As, it was a more than apt descriptor.


    "What is it that brings you two here today? This Sir seems to have incredible skill and wonderful taste, so I can''t imagine how we could help."


    I quickly waved her off with my hand. "I didn''t design this myself, I simply chose the fabrics. In any case, we are going to attend the Chst��s Auction tomorrow, so I''d like to get her something more appropriate than an academy uniform to wear."


    "Hoho~" She chuckled as she looked Krystallo up and down. "It would be our pleasure to create something befitting this young missus beauty. Are there any specific details you would like added, such as an insignia?"


    "We can discuss the details when we get there; however, I hope you can create about five outfits for her, one for the auction and the rest for casual or other formal asions. Could you do that?"


    She gave me a surprised look but seemed more excited than anything. "Why, of course, but it will be quite expensive."


    "Of course. The prices do not matter, so please spare no expense in the designs."


    "Y-yes, sir!" She immediately threw herself into a deep bow with a look of joy before straightening up and motioning us along. "Pleasee this way!" As we began walking, though, she came to my side. "If I may be so rude to ask, were you referred to us by someone?"


    I quickly nodded. "It was Sfyr��o Ats��li. He had quite the high praises of this ce."


    She quickly tensed up with excitement. "I-I see! I promise we shall work to meet your expectations, Sir-" She hesitated as she went to say my name.


    "You can just call me Vasilias; however, this young girl is Krystallo Whyte."


    Krystallo instantly shot me a re, but she was promptly interrupted by the young woman. "Krystallo Whyte?! As in the next generation genius of the Academy?!"


    As if my statement of her being a young girl had never happened, Krystallo puffed up her chest with pride. "Haha, yes." Before I knew it, I was gently rubbing her head, but while she was much older and I was unsure how she''d react to it, she still wore a look of satisfaction. "Haah..." -It''s good to see I didn''t miss as much as I thought...-


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 Chapter 290: A Distant Gaze

    Chapter 290: A Distant Gaze


    Late Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    -Hmm... It looks like I will need another reactor...- *Click-HHHMMmmm* The miniature nuclear reactor inside the small carbon box in front of me promptly quieted down once I flipped a lone switch on it. -I guess its finally time to take a look at this freaky circuit board, huh...-


    As I continued to morph the two cherry-sized steel rails poking through the top of the box, I simultaneously started studying the circuit and moving things around within the chassis.


    Currently, I was working on reconstructing a slightly altered version of the Acardi railgun I found in the mountains to see if it would have any worth to a few people I thought could use it, mainly Krystallo, Chloe, and Maria.


    But while I was confident I could improve it, it was quickly bing moreplicated than anticipated. -Well.. how advanced can Acardiputing logic be...-


    Stopping the reconstruction of the rails for a moment, I focused entirely on the circuit board''s connection to the functioning reactor and ran through tens of millions of trial-and-error experiments to attempt to learn its logic before eventually beginning to remold arge section of it.


    Thankfully, while the board itself looked undeniablyplicated, the logic of it was simr to binary. -But that should be good for now...-


    Quickly finishing the rails and constructing a second reactor, I hooked everything up to the circuit board and began cooling the system with a rune engraved inside the chassis. -Alright, let''s give it a quick test...-*hhhhmmMMMM* As the reactors ramped up again, I monitored the circuit and capacitors more closely, using a metal needle to bridge the gap between several areas to make sure nothing was leaking before finally testing the armature bridging the rails at the base of the carbon box, where something like a metal dart would typically sit. -Looks like the change in the rails fixed the leak... Maybe I don''t have to worry about it blowing up this time...-


    After quickly ensuring everything was being properly controlled and the capacitors were full, I created a small steel marble and held it in front of the armature before finally pressing a tiny button on the circuit board.


    *Click-CRACK* The marble nearly instantly ripped through the sound barrier, bringing it to a half-molten state before I caught it, but regardless of that, I was disappointed.


    -Hmm...- It needed to be faster to have any practicality outside the realm of humans, not even being fast enough topletely liquefy the un-strengthened steel marble. -For that much energy, it feels too slow... Are the caps out of sync?-


    Looking closer at the capacitors, I flipped the switch again and immediately noticed they were indeed slightly out of sync.


    But something felt off about it. The area of the circuit board controlling the capacitors was identical to the one in the handheld railgun I found, the same as their connections to the rails. -Is it because of temperature or some environmental differences? Maybe mana-strengthening caused it?-


    Descending into thought, I ran through the design of the railgun in my head once more but continually questioned why.


    Once the capacitors eventually refilled, I flipped the switch without hesitation, but the electrical bursts were just as out of sync as anticipated, and to make things even odder, one of the capacitors released slightly more energy than the other.


    "Haaah..." I could only let out a distressed sigh as I looked up at the ceiling. -For it to be in the original, that dy must have a reason, right?-


    Although there was always a possibility that the Acardi survivor made it himself and simply made an error, I was skeptical. -It looked too ''mass manufactured'' for that...-


    Thinking back to when I first found it, I ran through everything I could remember but found nothing requiring them to be out of sync. Eventually, I began questioning whether there was supposed to be some kind of circuit switch or if the capacitors were meant to be on separate circuits, but that wasn''t the case based on my memory.


    "Hmmm..." -I wonder if I should just sync them...-


    *Click* "Pardon the intrusion, my lord. Are you alright?"


    ncing up at Chloe, I gave a gentle nod. "Just stumped on something."


    "To be able to stump the lord... It must be a veryplicated problem." She sounded quite curious.


    "Well, I''ll be pleased if it is, but I don''t think that will be the case." -Sometimes, the simple issues are the most troublesome to understand...- Quicklying to a decent stopping point in my thoughts, I finally set down the carbon box and looked up at Chloe. "In any case, what brought you here?"


    Her posture quickly straightened and turned formal. "The madam told me to bring you this. She told me you left it in your room when you left the nest." She quickly moved the box in her hands out in front of herself.


    I tilted my head immediately. "Huh?" -What did I leave?- Quickly taking the box from her, I didn''t waste any time opening it.


    *click* -Hm?-


    My eyes went wide instantly. "Oh, this thing?!" -So much happened that I practically forgot about it...-


    It was the small rectangr device made of dense woven carbon I had taken from Kan''s treasury.


    Immediately pulling it out of the cushioned box, my aura flooded into it, and I noticed a very familiar battery and countless other technologies I could now recognize. -Antimatter batteries, a tiny reactor, and even.. a processor? I think?-


    It was freakishly small andplicated, but at the same time, it drew in my curiosity like a ck hole. -It''s definitely from the Acardi... It''s much more advanced than what I saw in the mountains too!-


    My fascination grew by the second, but even though my thoughts started elerating, they were forcefully slowed down again.


    "There was one other thing as well," Chloe spoke with a suddenly serious tone. "The madam has asked for you toe to her office quickly. She says it is urgent."


    -Huh? Something urgent?- My mind shifted gears in an instant. "Alright, in that case, let''s not dally." -I can work on thister...-


    With a quick nod in agreement, Chloe opened the door and promptly brought me to Mother''s office down the hall.


    But just before we could reach the door, it opened, and a vast volume of aura zipped through mine with ease and started scanning my body.


    It wasn''t ufortable at all, but I couldn''t deny that I was a bit confused. "Is something wrong, Mom?"


    Upon seeing me tilting my head with an innocent confusion, her tense posture finally eased. "Phew... I apologize, sweetie..."


    With her using her aura to usher me inside, I quickly walked on in and sat down.


    But she continued with a worried tone before the door even closed behind me. "At the academy today. What happened?" Her face was wrought with anxiousness as she spoke.


    -Did something happen with the Chst��s family?- Her worry quickly started spreading to me. "Well, I met with the deputy again and confirmed that the Holy Kingdom has had ties to the academy for much longer than we previously discussed."


    "But did you get hit by anything?! Anything like a spell or weird magic you didn''t recognize?"


    I tensed up immediately. "I.. don''t think so? Why?"


    She quickly let out a breath of relief. "Phew, thank goodness..."


    My confusion only continued topound.


    "While you were at the academy, I just felt a sensation that churned my stomach.. and when I heard that there was arge shockwave felt throughout the academy, I got worried that it was rted to you..."


    -Huh?- My eyes instantly shot open. -Did she seriously sense Odr?- But after giving it a moment of thought, I shook off the possibility and summed it up to coincidence. "In any case, did you end up finding out anything in regards to the Chst��s family?"


    She immediately shook her head. "I haven''t had enough time, sweetie..." Her voice sounded considerably lethargic. "However, even if the family is unrted to the Holy Kingdom, I beg of you to be careful at the auction. I will be sending two escorts with you just in case and managed to get you a VIP room, so there should be plenty of security, but please be cautious."


    A bit of worry quickly crept into my mind as silence filled the room. "Is there any reason you are so worried about the auction?" -Is she just airing on the side of caution?-


    She nodded without the slightest hesitation. "The Chst��s auction is all about privacy and anonymity, so it is known to gather all kinds of dragons that I don''t want you and Krystallo meeting... But I trust you and your strength... Just promise me that you won''t hesitate to use it if you have to, even if it causes some coteral damage."


    The serious look in her eyes made my mind freeze for a moment, but I agreed regardless. "Of course."


    "Hooh..." She let out a heavy sigh before continuing. "In that case, let me exin a few more things..."


    Our discussion continued for a couple more hours after that, discussing everything rted to the auction, such as unspoken rules, and even beginning to refine my ns with the deputy, forcing me to take a less brute-force approach before finally letting me go.


    By the time we finished, morning had rolled around, and it was finally time to make ourst preparations for the auction, but there wasn''t much to prepare on my end, so I ended up helping out Krystallo, showing her how to use the presence nullification artifacts Mother provided and giving her a few other suggestions.


    But before we knew it, we were in a human-sized carriage with countless runes to prevent anyone from peeking inside.


    In my eyes, it didn''t make a whole lot of sense; after all, "Shouldn''t the guards at the gate verify who is in the carriage?"


    But it was mostly just because I was misunderstanding it. "The knights at the gate have devices to read things such as what family the carriage is from and can read medallions set in the door." He motioned toward the door where six empty areas for medallions were. "Then, when we finally arrive and get out, a headcount will be taken to ensure no foul y urred."


    -But.. that doesn''t ensure that the people in the carriage are who they say they are...- Deciding to simply follow along, we quickly made it to the gate and set out medallions into the door before finally entering the academy anding to a stop.


    *Click* As the door opened, we were immediately met with the view of a building I had never seen. -What is this?-


    But the masked butler who opened the door spoke as if reading my mind. "Wee to the Auditorium, esteemed guests. I hope your ride was pleasant."


    The escort riding with us, Krystallo, and I silently nodded in unison.


    "That is good to hear. Now, would you all like to visit the ballroom, main hall, or perhaps-"


    I quickly shed him a small rose gold token with the text ''EGT1'' on it. Mother gave it to me to ensure we received the room she reserved.


    However, unlike what I expected, the butler''s demeanor and expression didn''t change even the slightest. "I see. In that case, please follow me to your room. The security group is waiting to meet you."


    ncing around as we stepped out of the carriage, we were met with the gazes of several masked people in luxurious clothes, wearing beautifully crafted masks, looking in our direction, but as much as I wanted to, I couldn''t spread my aura out as per Mother''s warning. -But.. I feel a little too blind without any aura around me...-


    Noticing my uneasiness, the main escort quickly reassured me that he had us covered, but I decided to spread out a thin field of space mana regardless of that. -If the deputy couldn��t detect the amount I was using to watch his brain activity, then no one will be able to detect this��-


    But the moment I sent it out and expanded the cloud of space mana to fill the area my normal aura would, I felt a sudden gaze in the distance. -What the?!-


    But while I knew about where it came from, deep within the Auditorium, there wasn��t a single disturbance in the area when I looked. -W..what the hell was that?-


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 Chapter 291: Deep Roots

    Chapter 291: Deep Roots


    Mid Morning - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *vwoom-Click* *fwoosh* "This way, please." The masked butler quickly led us into a wide hallway after opening arge double door with a special medallion.


    We had been walking for several minutes at that point, winding our way through several colossal hallways before eventually splitting away from the main crowd anding into a smaller but calmer area with only butlers and maids.


    The butler leading us, however, seemed to be of quite a high ranking, as everyone from servants to the servants ordering around others made way for him.


    No matter how you could twist it, he was assigned to us in order to cater to us. The issue with that was that his methods were.. a little odd.


    "If a young servant catches the Lord''s eye, please do let us know." He casually motioned toward a young, slender woman with deep blue scales, giving us a bow as we walked by. "None of the maids here would be upset to serve a man of your stature and demeanor."


    The young maid quickly nced up at me before I turned back to the butler. "I have plenty of maids already. I do apologize."


    All throughout our walk, he kept a close eye on me and essentially told me I could have whatever I set my sights on, be it a painting or a woman, but I couldn''t care less about any of it. All it did was make me wonder how much they knew. -Would a Whyte actually get this kind of treatment.. or...-But rather than the butler cutting off my thoughts, my ears were met with the voice of an older woman. "Hoho~, there''s no need to be so modest~..."


    Looking ahead of us, I quickly met eyes with an ancient stage woman withrge, partially feathered white and blue wings, wearing a purple dress and no mask.


    When I first saw her with my space mana, I figured she was simply some daring, wealthy guest; however, that was clearly not the case. "Is it that you aren''t satisfied with our servants?" She quickly motioned the butler away as she walked up to us.


    "That isn''t the case. I apologize if I caused a misunderstanding."


    "Hoh? Then why are you refusing?" She approached us quite confidently. "With just a word, I could gather any number of beautiful women, from ves to high nobility."


    The forced smile behind my mask quickly disappeared. "No, thank you. If I wanted someone, I could get them myself."


    But even with my blunt rejection, her confidence remained unwavering. "Well, with your strength and looks, that may be true, but power and authority aren''t omnipotent."


    Seeing her sly look, I yed along. "You speak like you know something that is..."


    Her smile immediately widened. "Well, of course! What else would Bahamut be?"


    My suspicions quickly eased, although notpletely. "I''m not sure.. but I do believe that omnipotence may be a stretch."


    "Hoho~!" Her smile instantly turned ecstatic. "In that case, I do hope you are willing to stick around for the auctions finale... I believe it will be of great interest to you."


    I instinctually tilted my head in confusion before quickly straightening back up. "May I ask what it is?"


    But instead of responding, she simply put her finger over her mouth. "All I will say is that it is very real." Quickly spinning back around with a smile, she gestured to a maid ahead of us and had her disappear into a room. "In any case, why don''t I show you two to your booth? We still have some time to drink and talk more privately before the auction starts~."


    Giving me a quick nce, she started down the hall, but even though my gut was trying to tell me something, I followed her.


    All until we finally made it to the booth.


    *Vwoom-Click* The moment we got to the door, she motioned me to it and had me tap my rose gold token against it, causing it to nearly instantly unlock and swing open. *fwoosh*


    Inside the door was arge room with tworge couches, a table with several chairs around it, a bar with countless alcohols behind it, and tworge seats centered in front of a ss wall covered with external curtains.


    It was quite impressive, but there were also people, 3 hidden and 3 showing themselves.


    From what the butler mentioned earlier, they were the security group assigned to this room, but it was quite odd for some of them to be hidden, especially to still be eyeing us like they were.


    But thankfully, it was cleared up quickly. "This is your security group. They are the mercenary group known as The Blue Sun, led by my sister''s youngest." She quickly motioned to the low ancient stage man in the middle who had a simr wing and scales color pattern to her except with slightly more blue. "But, in case you aren''t satisfied with that, there are three others who were sent directly from Akri."


    The three people I was watching with my space mana immediately revealed themselves, clearly disying the medallions on their clothes before promptly disappearing again.


    "They have all taken vows to not share what is spoken about in this room; however, in cases where a vow isn''t enough, there are plenty of silencing artifacts spread about that you may use freely."


    -Interesting... They''ve really thought of everything...- "In that case, thank you in advance."


    "Of course." She quickly gave a shallow but formal bow before straightening up and walking to the bar. "Now, since that is done, why don''t we get to our talk... *clink* Do you like piotita?"


    Immediately nodding, I walked over to the table and sat down with Krystallo.


    As the woman walked back over, she set a wine bottle in front of each of us before sitting down as well. It looked to be fresh piotita. "I apologize for thete introduction, but I am Poniri�� Chst��s, the eldest daughter of the Chst��s family." She momentarily lowered her head again before pouring herself a ss.


    -As I thought...- *vwoom* Quickly activating the silencing magic, I followed suit. "You can just call me Vasilias."


    "And I am Krystallo." Krystallo gave a slightly nervous greeting before reluctantly opening the bottle and smelling the inside.


    "Hoho~, it is my pleasure to finally meet you two. I have heard quite a bit about you both from your grandmother over thest few years, but it turns out she truly wasn''t exaggerating her praises." She momentarily eyed me before finally taking a drink. "Although she did tell me you were strong, I didn''t expect it to be at the point where your aura makes me feel a thousand years younger."


    Finally beginning to ease up, I let out a light chuckle. "Haha, I am simply an anomaly. It would be best to not dwell on it too much."


    "Hah, well, it is certainly reassuring..." Taking another quick sip, she finally set down the ss and put on a more serious expression. "On that note, why don''t we get to the more pressing matter."


    Seeing her quickly push more mana into the silencing artifact, thickening it greatly, my expression also turned serious.


    "Last night, I caught wind that something was going on within the academy that I was unaware of, and was told by your Mother that you knew more than anyone... So I would like to hear what is happening first hand if you wouldn''t mind."


    I paused as I nced to the side before turning back to her. "Alright." I took a calm sip of piotita before continuing. "When was the basement of the academy constructed?"


    "When the academy was first built."


    "And its purpose?"


    She momentarily gave me a confused look before continuing. "It was originally meant to be for artifact storage, but it was changed to a space rune as it was being built. Unfortunately, though, it was never finished."


    -No wonder they looked so simr...- "So I take it that you didn''t know what that space rune was changed to?"


    She immediately shook her head.


    "Well, yesterday, I had the displeasure of seeing it." I momentarily used silencing magic around Krystallo as I went to speak. "They had turned it into a device that could alter the memories and dispositions of young dragons... The deputy headmaster would have a few professors feed students an amnesia drug, bring them down to that rune, and-"


    *SHATTER* The clear ss in her hand exploded before I could finish, and with it, my suspicions of her vanished.


    -I know that feeling...- "It was all done on the orders of the Holy Kingdom, and no matter how much you want to deny it, the academy is full of people just like the deputy. With Bahamut''sck of presence for so many years, many dragons have begun swaying away from him in favor of the human gods who they believe can answer prayers or in the promises ofnd and riches that the Holy Kingdom says they will provide, even if they must poison the next generation for it."


    The fire in her eyes quickly grew several magnitudes before she finally let out a heavy breath and leaned back in her seat. "Hooh... I apologize for myck ofposure."


    I quickly nodded. "Don''t worry about it."


    There was a long silence before she finally continued. "Do you have any idea how long the academy has been corrupted?"


    I quickly shook my head before ncing to the side with a displeased expression again. "I can''t know for sure, but seeing how deep they have dug, it cannot be a short period... Regardless, I n to clean them out in about a week."


    She gave me a conflicted look immediately. "How can you be confident you will get them all?"


    Slowly standing up, I looked across the room at her brother. "I can''t. I can only be sure to cut the snake''s head off."


    She quickly looked at him across the room as well as anger had once again filled her eyes. "No. In some situations, it is best to also pull out the roots."


    *VWOOM* Violently releasing her aura, she snatched her nephew from across the room and gripped his neck.


    The fire in her eyes had quickly returned. "I knew the tree had begun to grow, but I never would have suspected the roots had run this deep... It seems my family has been too negligent."


    Although Krystallo was still enraptured by the taste of her drink to be anything but confused as it happened, my expression was cold. -To tantly spy on our talk like that... Even if he isn''t rted to the Holy Kingdom, he must be out of his mind...-


    Poniri�� looked like she wanted to snap his neck but quickly managed to wrangle her anger. "Vasilias... No, Sir Vasilias, I apologize if it may be an inconvenience, but I would like to meet again after the auction to continue our discussion." The air around her quickly turned cold. "I want to ensure that everyst root is pulled from the ground."


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 Chapter 292: A Gaze Beyond Time

    Chapter 292: A Gaze Beyond Time


    Early Afternoon - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    "Sir Vasilias, Lady Krystallo, the auction is about to begin." An older, mellow butler bowed next to me as he held out a pillow with a small but very dark blue artifact. "If you wish to bid on an item, please tap this artifact against any of the mythril areas on the arms of the chairs, couches, or around the edge of the tables. However, please take note that idental touches do register, and idental bids cannot be removed."


    -Ah, is this the artifact Mother mentioned?- Carefully picking it up, I sent some space mana into it and immediately found countless tiny mythril strings woven into its shell and a humongous mass of mana inside. -Huh... Is it using mana like electricity?-


    The butler quickly continued as I inspected the ''wires'' of mythril running through the chair to see how it worked. "If you need anything, such as beverages, food, or other services, please touch the artifact on the table as you have been. We will prepare it for you right away."


    Seeing Krystallo stretch over the side of her chair and cup her hands with a sparkle in her eyes, I set the artifact in her palm. "I think we are alright for now, thank you."


    The butler quickly smiled and nodded. "It is truly our pleasure."


    Giving onest bow, the gentle butler quickly left the room, simultaneously dimming the lights and pulling back the curtains outside, revealing a massive auditorium, clearly meant for music, with countless rows of people wearing all kinds of clothes and disguising themselves with all manners of spells and masks.


    By the stage, the seats were all rtivelypact, but as you got farther away, they became more spaced out and eventually began clumping together by party, with each of the clumps being spaced out from one another all the way until you reached the row of six dozen VIP rooms, overlooking everyone through a wall of ss.But none of the ss was see-through, thanks to ayer of light magic. -Looks like we are in the center VIP room as well... Mother must have really used our family name...-


    With the lights inside our room dimming further, the lights outside grew in brightness and quickly focused on the stage where a single muscr, wide-winged man stood.


    "Hello, everyone!" His deep, booming voice traveled throughout the massive auditorium with ease. "Wee to the Chst��s Auctionhouse! I hope you all are satisfied with your arrangements." He quickly scanned over the VIP rooms before continuing. "It has already been eleven years since ourstrge event, and while some of you may be upset that it wasn''tst year as expected, we procured a few extra special items, which will be presentedter today."


    -So today is the big ticket items...- ording to Mother, the first day was the biggest, as it''s an auction of, not necessarily the best, but the most sought-after items, with subsequent days having progressively lesspetitive ones, typically leading to lower appraisal items.


    But while I was curious if there would be any unpolished gems in theter days, they weren''t my main interest. -The most sought-after items in Bahamut, huh?- My excitement quickly started building as the old announcer continued and finished discussing the general working of the auction and a few rules that were altered from previous auctions.


    But, once he finally finished, he looked straight at our booth. "As for the finale of this auction, I would rmend the VIP booths be careful about how much you spend prior to it. It is certainly an item worth saving for."


    My intrigue grew instantly, bringing most of my idle theorizing to a halt and allowing my focus to be drawn entirely to the stage.


    "In any case, that is enough chit-chat! Let us begin, shall we?" He wore a wide smile as he walked to the front of the stage. "For our first item, we have chosen a simple one; but don''t be fooled by its simplicity."


    Arge part of the stage behind him immediately sank into the ground before promptly returning and exposing the item.


    But it just made my face warp with confusion. -A small.. rock?-


    It looked like a simple boulder with some obsidian on its exterior and was only a few meters long.


    But the announcer wore a wide smile. "I''m sure many of you heard about the ''Message from Heaven'' in Sinder several years ago, correct?"


    -The one that led to Sinder''s royal family being overthrown?- I tilted my head a bit before he continued.


    "Well, a few years after it, a simr metal block came mming into one of the Southern Mountains of Iron, and after the Chalkos family found and appraised it, the refined metal inside was shockingly graded a 63, simr to upper mid-grade mythril, and while its purity was a measly 75%, it''s uniformity was an unfathomable 99%, truly earning its name as ''divine iron''..." His smile widened as he noticed countless people reaching to bid. "The minimum bid is 10 gold, and the starting bid is 100 gold."


    *t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-tap* The instant he finished, dozens of people sent bids, and with it, the auction finally began.


    But I was still a little confused. -Is that my steel?-


    Having inspected it while the auctioneer was speaking, the steel was nearly identical to the steel that I used in railgun darts; however, areas of it were considerably sloppy, and the mana strengthening felt too sparse for it to have been made by me. -But it''s too simr to mine to be someone random...-


    As I idly thought about it, the auctioneer continued ramping up the number all the way into the thousands before finally, Sir Ats��li, in the VIP room a few rooms over, ced the final bid at 4,420 gold. (44.2 tinum)


    "Going once! Going twice! Sold for 4,420 gold to booth six!" Silence instantly filled the hall as people looked up at Ats��li''s room.


    -Geez... The steel in my old sword is better than that rock... Why does he want it so badly?- In fairness, there was a shocking amount ofpetition between about ten people within the crowd all the way above 3,000 gold, which was quite shocking. -But I guess it makes sense for something called divine iron to catch attention.-


    Eventually moving on, therge section of the stage sank down with the rock again, and the auctioneer continued. "For our second set of items, we have something I''m sure you all know about." He walked to the side as the tform lifted back up to reveal three massive pots full of dirt and water.


    -Huh?- Although an odd sight, the pots all had a very thin fog over them and somehow felt quite familiar.


    "Today, we have three Sleep Lily sprouts! These will each be sold separately; however, the ages of them are still unknown and will need to be rented quickly before the pots they are in get engulfed by their ever-expanding ''aura''."


    My eyes went wide instantly. -Sleep lilies or the second item?!- They were things I had been looking for ever since I first found one. -If I want to help ensure Mother, Father, and Krystallo''s safety in passing their ancient stage sleeps, I need those...-


    But as expected, the battle of bids was ferocious. "11,400 gold! 11,500 gold! 12,000 gold!"


    *t-t-t-t-tap* -And here I was thinking I would be able to save up for theter items...-


    "12,500 gold! (1.25 royal gold) Going once! Going twice! Sold to booth 1!"


    "Phew..." I had to let out a heavy breath as I leaned back in my seat. -How am I going to get two more...- Although I wasn''t sure why or how, my gut was telling me I needed to be careful with my money if I didn''t want to create an absolutely insane amount of it with magicter on.


    But that was all decided for me, as the second sleep lily sold for over 24,000, which would have drained my pockets if I bid, and the third for 58,000, which was just shy of double what I had before I even bought the first lily.


    -But at least I got one...- Thankfully, I had almost 1800 years before I would need to worry about Mother and Father, giving me plenty of time to buy a few more, but having only been on the second item, I wouldn''t deny that I was nervous.


    -If sleep lilies were the second item.. what will be next?-


    Thankfully though, things slowed down some after that, with the following items being a mix ofplex artifacts, swords, or even charms and jewelry from the golden era that all sold for absolutely exorbitant amounts of money.


    Thankfully Krystallo hadn''t taken any interest in most of them, but that eventually changed.


    "For our next set of items, we have artifacts from the Great War, originating in Siratha! As you all have likely heard recently, the Ancient Fenrir of Siratha have returned, and with their return, multiple apostles were killed; as such, we managed to get our hands on some of their ''more prized possessions'' and will be selling them here today!"


    -The other apostles'' stuff?- I quickly got curious before noticing Krystallo was staring at the stage with excitement. -Maybe she will actually on these...-


    But while many of the artifacts were quite interesting, mainly rting to myths of godhood and immortality such as evolution elixirs and something said to be simr to a Sleep Lily called a Soul Pce, every.. single.. one.. was bought by one person, regardless of price.


    "Going once! Going twice! Sold, once again, to booth 24 for 108,000 gold! Congrattions on winning the Soul Pce!"


    -108,000...- It was an unfathomably massive sum of money, but it wasn''t simply a one-off buy for them. -Just who...-


    Finally sumbing to my curiosity, I moved my space mana over to that booth and immediately recognized who it was. -The headmaster?-


    While I wasn''t sure who to expect, he didn''t even cross my mind. -Why is he so interested in Sirathian artifacts?-


    As the next few artifacts came up for auction, the trend continued, and he bought everyst one, even if someone else was falsely pumping the price, until he had acquired them all, totaling a whopping 256,280 gold for everything. -What the hell?-


    Remembering him appearing during thebat assessments in a Sirathian Priest robe, I started to question what his motives were again. -Isn''t the reason he was away from the academy because he went to Sirathia too?-


    But the auction continued without care for my thoughts, and hours quickly started to pass by.


    Once I eventually set aside my curiosities about the headmaster and focused more on enjoying my time with Krystallo, the auction was actually quite fun, and while most of the items were either out of budget or not of interest, there were quite a few things Krystallo managed to snag, such as some pretty artifacts and charms that matched her scales and even a stunning white sword that looked simr to a katana.


    All in all, it was a wonderful time. Krystallo was cheery, and I was happy to see it.


    But after many hours, the afternoon of the following day started to roll around, and at longst, the final item of the first, main auction, was going to be presented.


    "Now, I believe it is time for the main event of this auction!" The announcer looked over the crowd with an ecstatic expression. "This item was something the Chst��s family had been attempting to procure for nearly three thousand years, but at longst, its anonymous owner decided to bring it to us in order to sell it!"


    -Wow... Three thousand years... Huh?- My expression of awe was quickly cut off as I suddenly sensed Ilios right next to me. -When did he get here?-


    He was meant to be at home watching over Mother and Father, but now I saw him sitting right next to my chair, hidden beneath mypressed aura and a of light magic.


    However, rather than looking up at me with a hopelessly cute smile like he normally would, he looked out the window at the stage with a serious expression. -What is he...-


    "After first appearing at the very end of the Great War, this artifact became well known for showing the future to those who even touch it, and while it was simply known as the Artifact of Oracles for its first thousand years of existence, we have alle to know it as something else! Now, I would like to present the world''s most powerful artifact! The Eye of Bahamut!"


    The instant he finished, light magic surrounding the stage dissipated and instantly revealed a massive deep and dark blue, almost ck mythril pedestal with a perfectly spherical melon-sized object on it.


    However, in that instant, the gaze I felt when we first exited the carriage returned.


    But this time, it did not fade.


    The sensation didn''t simply slow my thoughts. It stopped them instantaneously.


    -W..what.. is.. that...-


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 Chapter 293: Manipulation

    Chapter 293: Maniption


    Early Afternoon - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    "Now, I would like to present the world''s most powerful artifact! The Eye of Bahamut!"


    *VWOOM* Feeling the oppressive gaze descend on me again, my instincts took control of my mind and dedicated every ounce of brainpower to my senses.


    At that moment, nothing could escape me, not even singr electrons zipping through the air.


    But after unleashing my aura, the gaze''s oppressiveness eased, and with it, my mind let a single thought flow forth. -W..what.. is.. that...-


    Noticing my aura explode out of me, Krystallo stared at me with wide eyes.


    But I couldn''t pull my eyes off the artifact or even speak tofort her. My instinct told me I could die if I did.


    But after a moment of staring at the artifact inplete silence, Ilios gently set his paw on the side of my leg.His demeanor waspletely different from normal, wearing a dark expression aimed at the artifact, and controlling his aura to an unfathomably perfect extent, enough to make my control look like child''s y.


    But before I could think anything of it, my thoughts started to warp, and my urge to acquire the orb suddenly grew exponentially, quickly nearing the point of a craze. Something in my mind told me I had to acquire it under any circumstance, and while it felt truly unnatural, somehow, not even my gut could make me doubt it.


    I was simply.. hypnotized.


    "The starting bid is 150,000, and the minimum bid is 50,000!"


    *t-t-t-t-tap* Hearing the people in the other rooms starting to bid, I nced at Krystallo. "Feel free to have fun with this one, don''t worry about the cost."


    Her look of concern immediately shifted to excitement.


    "Three hundred thousand! Three hundred fifty! Four hundred thousand! Five hundred thousand!" Even without our bids, the price was already skyrocketing, but their bids were irrelevant to me at that point. "Eight hundred thousand! Nine hundred thousand!"


    Standing up from my seat, I walked over to the ss with my hands behind my back and looked over the people below, watching the auctioneer in awe.


    "One million gold!" *t-t-t-t-tap* Krystallo tapped the artifact on the chair eight times instantly. "One million, four hundred thousand! One million, five hundred thousand!" *t-t-t-t-tap* "We have two million! Two million, one hundred thousand!" *t-t-t-t-tap* "Two million, five hundred thousand!!"


    Each of her bids pumped the price higher and higher, but while they were simply numbers to me, that wasn''t the case for others.


    -Two hundred Royal Gold...- It was a colossal sum of money, so much so that I couldn''t even begin to fathom it. -But someone is still bidding... Just who...-


    Questioning who was still bidding, I scanned through all the VIP rooms but only found the disappointed or shocked expressions of those inside until I finally reached the smallest room at the very end.


    Inside was a familiar woman with two sets ofrge wings, bidding with a slightly anxious expression. But while she seemed familiar, her name was hidden behind the fog that filled my mind.


    But once again, my mind didn''t even question it. "Stop bidding. You can''t win."


    Hearing my voice through my space mana, the woman twitched slightly, but as she looked in my direction, she ced another bid.


    "Two million, six hundred thousand!" *t-t-t-t-tap* "Th-three million!!" Even the auctioneer was beginning to get antsy when he announced the bids.


    -Is she lying, knowing I will bid higher, or...- "Do you perhaps know something special about the artifact?"


    She immediately hesitated before letting out a heavy sigh. "Haah..."


    "Going once!" She started standing up as the auctioneer counted down. "Going twice!" But a momentter, the auctioneer''s face almost entirely lost its color. "E-Eight million!"


    As the woman stood up, she ced onest bid before dropping the artifact into the chair and casually walking out of the room.


    But Krystallo bid again immediately.


    *tap* "E-EIGHT MILLION AND ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND!!" The auctioneer looked like a ghost as he announced the final bid. "Going once! Going twice! Sold to booth One for eight million and one hundred thousand gold!!" He yelled out like he couldn''t believe it.


    But, at the same time, neither could I.


    The moment he announced it, Ilios pulled his paw off me, and the fog clouding my mind disappeared. -W..why did I just...-


    Looking down at Ilios, I quickly noticed his demeanor had returned to normal, and with it, so did his aura. -What did he...-


    But I didn''t have time to sort out my confusion. *knock-knock* "Sir Vasilias, a guest has arrived." The butler outside sounded slightly nervous as he spoke.


    -A guest?- *Vwoom* Rushing my aura through the door, I went to see who it was but was instantly met with an aura I couldn''t mistake. -Amphitrite?!-


    In an instant, my priorities changed, and my confusion was buried. -She was the one bidding against me?!-


    She was the person I needed to speak with under any circumstance, specifically about Myles, but after what I had just experienced, I had to truly question whether I was in the right state of mind for it. -Fuck...- But at the end of the day, I couldn''t let the opportunity slip by. "Please let her in."


    *Click* As the door opened, Krystallo hopped onto her knees and looked over the back of her chair while I straightened my demeanor.


    But rather than seeing a boastful and confident dragon walk through the door, I saw Amphitrite wearing a look of defeat.


    "I can''t say I ever expected to be in a battle of money against the Ragnaroks for their own artifact... I can see how I never would have won now..." She sounded like she had lost all hope.


    I quickly motioned her to the table as I moved some drinks onto it. "I didn''t know that was my family''s artifact, actually. I bought it for myself."


    Her expression immediately warped. "You, a dragon under 20 years old, have eight million gold without touching family money? [1]" She looked like she couldn''t believe it. "I guess I shouldn''t be surprised..."


    As she sat down, I used my aura to grab another drink for Krystallo and myself and sat down as well. "Don''t worry about it too much... In any case, I feel I must ask, why are you here?"


    Her wings unfolded slightly as her expression darkened. "I needed that artifact you just bought."


    "You were willing to spend 8 million gold to see a part of the future?" I didn''t buy it.


    But she just shook her head. "A few hundred years ago, a certain friend of mine told me it could be used to ensure my survival through my final sleep, but it woulde at the cost of me losing my sense of who I am, so I never had interest..." She fell silent as she drank straight from the bottle. "But now that Myles has been forced into his sleep and we have been exposed to what has been going on behind our backs, I have been made aware that Bahamut is in desperate need of a divine leader..."


    My expression quickly darkened as well. "Would that be enough to bring people together?"


    "You need divinity to fight divinity.. and with the human gods making a return, we are no longer the iron fist of the world."


    Krystallo quickly came up to the table with a confused expression. "But brother has killed two gods already and is also partially a god, himself. Couldn''t the people group beneath him?"


    Amphitrite''s slightly conflicted look quickly shifted to me.


    But I could only nod. "I have killed Tyr and Magni, and, as far as I know, am one of this generation''s Ancient Fenrir, but I still don''t know who killed Hel... Was it you and Myles?"


    Her eyes immediately drifted toward Ilios before her whole body tensed up, and her demeanor changed. "I-I was the one tond the final blow, but she, unfortunately, had already done a number on Myles at that point... Regardless, what I meant by a divine leader is a demigod stage dragon. A figure that could regain our standing as the strongest beings in the world."


    She looked a little anxious as she spoke, but I assumed it was because of guilt or fear and promptly looked past it. "So you were looking to use this artifact to make yourself that figure?"


    She immediately shook her head. "I was going to use it on Myles in order to speed up his sleep. We don''t exactly have fifty to a hundred years to spare at this point..."


    I couldn''t help but agree, but at the same time, no matter how conflicted I felt about what Ilios did to my mind earlier, I was sure there had to have been a reason. -I can''t just give up the artifact...-


    And that was when I remembered my dragon sleep in Kan.


    -Oh...- "What if I found a different way to speed it up?" Although I hadn''t even begun to hypothesize how it worked, all I needed was to know it was possible and be given enough time.


    But Amphitrite was skeptical. "Rushing a final sleep would certainly result in death."


    "Well, as long as he would already survive the sleep under normal circumstances, it would be fine... Do you think he could survive without the artifact?"


    Her expression immediately turned conflicted. "I don''t know. I want to believe he could, especially since his body has already been mostly destroyed, but there is no such thing as certainty with things like this..."


    We both fell silent right away as we fell into thought.


    But after just a few minutes, there was another knock on the door. *knock-knock* "Sir Vasilias, Lady Krystallo, your items have been prepared; however, Miss Chst��s has asked for you to retrieve the Eye of Bahamut yourself."


    -Ah, it''s time...- I quickly turned back to Amphitrite. "How about this, then. If you give me some time to try and figure out what this artifact really is, I may be able to recreate it or possibly mimic its effect on Myles, but if not, I will work to speed up his sleep with my own methods."


    She gave me an odd look before finally letting out a deep breath and leaning back in her chair. "Haah... If you were anyone else.. I''d say you''re insane..." Her gaze slowly turned up to the ceiling before a conflicted smile came to her face. "I feel like I''m getting deja vu.. letting go of an artifact I wanted in return for an insane favor..." Her gaze quickly lowered back to me. "But maybe you can pull off another miracle."


    *Click* As the door behind us opened, Amphitrite finally stood up and finished the bottle of alcohol in front of her with a single gulp.


    "Since you have earned ''her'' faith, I might as well give you mine. Just make sure you don''t sacrifice yourself." *Clunk* Setting down the empty ss of alcohol, she walked past the butler in the doorway and quickly disappeared down the hallway, leaving me to my thoughts.


    But after a moment, Krystallo spoke up. "What if you use the artifact on yourself?"


    I immediately shot her a questioning look before speaking in a sarcastic tone. "Do you want me to lose my sense of self?"


    "But you can''t lose! So it will be alright!"


    I wanted tough seeing her confidence in me, but after a moment of silence, I simply stood up. "Well, let''s see what the artifact really is before we jump to any conclusions, alright?"


    Her smile quickly widened. "Okay!"


    But while she was cheerful, I couldn''t deny that I was nervous. -If that gaze I felt was trulying from that artifact.. I may be juggling dynamite next to a fire...-


    But little did my ignorant self know.. that was a grave understatement.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    [1] - 8 Million gold is 800 royal gold coins. Equivalent to about $80,000,000,000 (eighty billion)


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 Chapter 294: Staring into the Infinite

    Chapter 294: Staring into the Infinite


    Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *tip* *tap* *tip* *tap* The echoes of my footsteps could be clearly heard bouncing off the distant walls as I followed the butler through a massive white-stone room filled with items, materials, and artifacts beneath the auditorium.


    It was the main storage area, where the items to be sold over the next few days were stored, disying countless beautiful artifacts, jewels, statues, and even ves and pets.


    But while I would have typically been quite fascinated seeing so many things from all over the world gathered in one ce, the farther we walked into the room, the more anxious I became. -W..what is going on...-


    It had only been a few minutes since Krystallo and I split up with Amphitrite at that point, but after being led into avish storage area, where we were presented with all the items Krystallo had bought as well as various ''courtesies'' provided by the Chst��s family such as alcohol, jewelry, and art, I was pulled away by our butler to retrieve and ''verify the integrity'' of the Eye of Bahamut.


    With the way the butler worded it, I figured he was simply taking me to a separate, nearby storage room simr to the one we were in, but I quickly found that not to be the case.


    Over the following eight minutes, we traced through a maze of hallways and security checkpoints while discussing how I would pay for the items until we eventually came into the main storage room.


    The moment we got there, the butler abruptly turnedpletely silent. Within the room, the only thing that made noise was our footsteps and the asional jingle of a chain from a ve, but that did not mean we were alone.Spread throughout the room, there were seven ancients lying beneath a nket of light magic, remainingpletely silent while eyeing us as we walked.


    But eventually, we came up to a colossal gold and marble door with a beautiful golden insignia of Bahamut on it and came to a stop.


    "This is as far as I can lead you, Sir Vasilias." The butler spoke with a bit of hesitancy as he bowed.


    -What does he mean? Is this the storage area?- I momentarily looked up at the door before turning back to him. "Is the artifact in there?"


    He nodded immediately. "Indeed. However, not only am I not permitted to enter, I am afraid my mind is too frail to withstand the gaze of the artifact."


    -So, that really is what I felt... I guess it''s name came from somewhere...- "I see. In that case, forgive me for going ahead." *sh*


    I quickly changed to my dragon form, but the butler didn''t even react. "If you require assistance, please ask. I will retrieve those able to move it for you."


    As my spell finished, I nced back at him. "Good to know."


    Quickly turning back to the marble door, I let more of my aura loose and walked over to it. *Vwoom*


    The door was a few meters thick and unbelievably heavy, but as I walked up to it, the lock was undone, and it swung open on its own.


    *ts-fwooosh* A strong but lifelessly dry and cold breeze immediately rushed out of the door as it opened, and with it, the horribly oppressive gaze returned.


    *VWOOM* Unleashing my aura again, I tried to ease the pressure as I did in the booth, but while it helped for a moment, with every step I took into the room, it grew stronger and harder to resist.


    The further I walked, the heavier my body felt and the more sluggish my mind became, until it finally felt like I was forcing my way through a deep bog.


    But continuing forward, one step at a time, I entered the massive area and carefully walked all the way to its center, where a massive mythril pedestalid, proudly disying a deep ck sphere.


    Just standing there somehow made my legs weak and my body feel fatigued.


    But as if that wasn''t enough, the moment I looked at the artifact, my skin crawled. It felt as if I was looking into a ck hole. As if I were looking at certain death.


    "Hah... Hah..." My breaths immediately became strained, and before long, my instincts began telling me to leave, but I did the opposite. -Just.. what are you...-


    With nothing but awful sensations filling my mind, I eventually worked up the courage to put a little mana into it; however, things didn''t exactly go as expected.


    *Vwowoom* "Huh?" Confusion instantly reced my difort.


    The moment I tried to give it some mana, I found that it wasn''t an artifact at all. -W..what? What is this thing?-


    Quickly gathering some space mana, I surrounded the spherepletely, but even at that scale, it seemed impossibly uniform and smooth and didn''t allow any mana to pass into it.


    That was when it finally clicked. "Is this.. pure divinity?"


    Although I couldn''t tell if it was hollow or solid, something in my gut told me it was somehow more than I imagined. -Just how much divinity is this...-


    Sumbing to my curiosity, as I leaned in to look at it more closely, I moved my paw over to it.


    As the tip of my w approached it, my instincts screamed at me to turn around and leave, but I continued to move it closer and closer until finally... *tink*


    *GASP* "AH!" I instantly jolted up in a panic, gripping my chest while drenched in sweat. "Hah.. hah..."


    But nothing felt right...


    -W..what just happened...-


    Looking up, I found myself on a soft bed in a frigid room with a simple closet, clothes spread across the ground, and a bedside table with several pictures of unfamiliar humans on them. -W..what?-


    Although I barely recognized it, I was back on Earth. In my room. -What the fuck?-


    Looking toward the window, I saw a thinyer of ice and snow beginning to build on it and quickly jumped off the bed to see the familiar scene of snowfall through the frosted ss.


    *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* Hearing the loud beeping of an rm suddenly filling the air, I looked over to see an rm clock suddenly on the bedside table, reading ''9:30 AM''. -What is going on...-


    Quickly walking out of the room, I entered a carpeted hallway and walked down it to find a familiar office with aputer disying dozens of blurry ck and white images. -This isn''t real...-


    *creak* The cheap wooden doorframe only creaked as I gripped it, immediately causing doubt to seep into my thoughts.. but after another moment, I ran back down the hallway to where the bathroom was and found the mirror.


    Looking into my reflection, I met eyes with a brown-haired, green-eyed human.


    Although it was only slightly, they looked somewhat familiar.


    They were me. But at the same time, they were a stranger.


    But rather than questioning or doubting it, my blood started to boil.


    In an instant, my reflection''s pupils dted and turned purple, its hair turned ck and grew in length, and two wolf ears and dragon horns sprouted out of its head.


    "What a sick fucking trick." *VWOOM-BAAAANG* The house instantaneously turned to sma as a massive fireball consumed my surroundings, vaporizing the snow-covered trees and dispersing the dense clouds above me.


    *st* Landing in the pool of molten rock, I looked up at the sky to see the sun and moon sitting next to each other like the eyes of a creature, and the gaze I previously felt from the artifact returned several thousand-fold. *VWOOOM-CRACK* But as the pressure destroyed everything around me, shattering the Earth''s surface andunching molten debris far into the air, my angered stare didn''t waver.


    *sh* Changing to my dragon form, I moved an unfathomable mass of mana into my breath nd and looked up at the sky once more. *VWOOOOM* "Of all the visions you could have given me, putting me in this memory was by far the worst choice."


    Opening my mouth, I aimed up at the moon andpressed all the matter in my breath nd to a single point.


    *FLASH* A silent string of light instantly stretched into the sky, but after just one second, there was another, far more blinding sh on the moon''s surface.


    *CRUMBLE* As the sh dissipated with a massive light-warping ripple, an unfathomably enormous fireball was made visible, and the surface of the moon shattered, sting colossal chunks of rock into space.


    But rather than the debris floating out in a straight line, it all slowly began changing directions before sinking in toward the sun like water draining from a sink.


    But it only made the gaze''s pressure grow in strength. *CRRRRUNCH* My scales shattered instantly, and my head lowered to the ground, but as I resisted and forced my head back up, an unfamiliar voice met my ears.


    "~What a fascinating being you have be...~"


    The instant the voice finished speaking, my surroundings changed, and I once again found myself in the storage room, standing over the mythril pedestal, this time without the pressure of the gaze.


    But as I went to look at the ''artifact'' once more, I found Ilios gripping his teeth into it with an enraged expression. -Huh?-


    Unlike earlier, during the bidding, he was himself, but he was wearing an expression I had never seen on him. "Ilios? Are you alright?"


    His expression quickly eased as his tail began wagging, but after another moment, it suddenly stopped, and his demeanor changed once again. -What is he...-


    He quickly shot me an unusual look before finally turning away and hopping off the pedestal with the artifact in his mouth.


    "Hey, Ilios.. what are you-" *vwoom* He instantaneously disappeared through a ck sphere as I spoke.


    It made my eyes shoot open instantly. -W..what? S..since when could he.. do that...-


    Feeling his ''presence'' grow incredibly faint and distant, simr to when I was with Hera, I looked toward his presence through the ground, but before I could question where he was, another gate appeared in front of me, and he dropped out of it with a thinyer of frost on his fur. *vwoom*


    His gaze and demeanor immediately returned to normal once he touched the ground as if what just happened was simply a fa?ade, but while he ran up to me, my expression wasn''t offort but rather of concern.


    "I..Ilios?"


    He cutely tilted his head as he looked up at me.


    But my chest was still tight with anxiety.. a part of me felt like naivety and ignorance would have been better than the truth, but even with that fact, after a moment, I asked it. "Are you.. really the Ilios, I know? Or has it all been.. an act..."


    His momentary pause felt like an eternity, but after giving me a confused look, his tail started to wag, and he sat down and looked me in the eyes.


    Unlike during the auction and just a moment ago, the deep void within his pupils didn''t seem empty, but rather full of color.. and full of stars...


    There was an immediate,forting sensation that washed through my mind, but along with it, there was a string of doubt... A single question that would contaminate my mind for years toe. -If he is really the Ilios I love... Then what was that look I saw just a second ago...-


    At that moment, it was what I wanted to ask him about it more than anything, but I also knew I wouldn''t get an answer.


    However.. that was undoubtedly for the best.. whether I really knew it then or not.


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 Chapter 295: Dodging Disaster

    Chapter 295: Dodging Disaster


    Mid Morning - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *Cl-link* *thud* The jingle of coins filled the air as I set a sizable bag on the table. "This should be everything left."


    The ancient behind the desk stared at the bag in awe before quickly returning his gaze to me. "S-Sir, we have a new system, something called ''stretched payments'', to allow you to pay in smaller amounts over a period of time if you wish to-"


    "I have already spoken with the auction house and have promised to give them quite a lot of mythril to help alleviate costs, so I will pay the remaining costs in full."


    What remained was about 250 royal gold, a bit below a third of my initial payment, but while it was still not a small sum, the auction house told me I could expect a veryrge portion of it to be covered by the mythril I promised to provide and sell through their auction once it sold over the next few days.


    To an extent, it felt like a steal since their baseline was simr to the rate Ats��li paid, but at the same time, I had no reason toin. -I just need to make a good bit of mythril over the next couple of days, and I can pay off the majority of what I spent...-


    But while it was indeed arge amount of mythril that would take some time to create, I had no need to rush.


    Finally exiting the room, I quickly met back up with my assigned butler and started making my way back to the storage room.It had only been about an hour since I split up with Krystallo at that point, but while I knew she wouldn''t have gotten herself into trouble, I couldn''t help but be a little anxious about something happening.


    But, of course, my worries were needless.


    "Hehe~!"


    As I neared the storage room, I could hear her innocent giggles, and as I rounded the corner, I was met with the view of a slender 16-meter-tall dragonying while covered in jewelry and artifacts, wearing an expression of pure joy.


    It was a sight that quickly alleviated some of my stress regarding the artifact and Ilios. "I thought you told Mother that you didn''t want a hoard of treasure."


    "Ack!" She immediately tensed up before popping her head up to see me. "I-I don''t! I am simply appraising the quality of my new things!"


    Seeing her deny it and turn her head away to expose even more artifacts on her horns, I wanted tough. "There is nothing bad about coveting riches. You should know better than me that it''s a normal thing."


    She quickly turned back to me with a pout. "But you don''t!"


    Finally managing to at least temporarily shake off my thoughts, I let out a light chuckle. "Haha, I do. I simply don''t act on it unless it has some real worth."


    She immediately hesitated before giving me a quizzical look. "I-In that case, I will..." She quickly looked at the empty boxes around her before using her aura to roughly straighten them up and take off almost every jewel and artifact she was wearing, with the exception of a select few.


    Once she finished, she was only left with a handful of the artifacts she had bought during the auction, but for the most part, they were all quite valuable. -What a good selection...- But while I was impressed, I could only sigh at her unyielding desire to use me as her guide. "Haah..." -If I jumped off a cliff, I bet she''d jump after me...- But after a moment, I simply motioned over the maids by the entrance. "Please help put the things she isn''t wearing into their respective boxes and prepare them to be picked upter today. Some people from my family wille by to pick it all up."


    They all nodded and bowed in unison before walking out into the room and beginning to order things.


    They were all quite efficient, but before they could finish, Krystallo changed back to her humanoid form and asked one of the maids to pack the artifacts she wanted to bring home herself, and we finally made our way back outside.


    Once we eventually got to our carriage, the butler who had stuck to us throughout the day promptly loaded all of the boxes and let our escort back inside the carriage with us, but as we were about to close the door, he gave us onest bow.


    "Sir, Madam, I do hope you have been satisfied with our service throughout the auction thus far. However, we will be sure to provide even better service should you return in the future." As he straightened back up, he looked straight at me. "As for the Lord, our madam has told me that you will return in two days, so we will prepare for your arrival ordingly."


    Krystallo immediately shot me a curious look before I waved him off. "Please don''t stress it. I would like to avoid making a scene."


    He immediately gave me a surprised look before lowering his gaze to the ground with a humble smile. "As you wish."


    Finally closing the door, the rest of our escorts boarded the outside of the carriage, and we made haste back through the gate and quickly made it back to the estate.


    Once we eventually got there, several maids came to help unload the carriage and retrieve the rest of our things, while Krystallo took a select few boxes and darted inside to show Mother.


    But, as expected, while it took a few minutes, I inevitably caught an earful about spending over 800 royal gold, which, even after exining how I was going to pay it off, didn''t ease at all.


    The next thing I knew, I wasying in our small backyard next to a mound of dark blue mythril as the sun began to set. "Phew..."


    In order to make sure I would actually be able to pay it all back on time, Mother forced me to make all of the mythril as fast as I could without cutting corners, saying I must deliver it before the ''raw materials'' auction, which was the following morning.


    But while it was a pretty busy 10 or so hours, I felt quite aplished when I was done.


    "How beautiful..." Chloe spoke under her breath with a look of awe as she held a smaller piece of mythril in the sunlight and watched it shimmer. "So would this be dark-grade mythril?"


    I quickly nodded. The mythril was an extremely deep blue color that almost appeared ck depending on the lighting, hence its name, but while its color alone made it a very high grade, when based on strength, it would score exponentially higher, ording to Ats��li, even putting it among the highest grades in Bahamut. -But I guess that is to be expected considering how I make it...-


    Finally sitting up, I motioned a butler near the estate''s back entrance over and asked him to bring out some people to move it all before promptly gathering my things and walking back inside with Chloe and Ilios.


    Although it took a while, my stress and anxiety about Ilios had subsided enough to allow my curiosity to return, and with it came my urge to look into something specific.


    *Puff* As I sat down on the cushion in my room, the air quickly started to cool, and I let out a visible breath. "Hooh..." Using my aura, I took a small ck object off of a shelf near the door and moved it in front of my face.


    *Vwoom* It was the Acardi artifact I took from Kan. -Let''s see what you really are.. shall we?-


    Carefully inspecting it a few more times, I triple-checked every device inside it for any damage or corrosion, even at an atomic level, but shockingly, it was quite minimal. -Some metal connections came loose or broke off, and it looks like there was some corrosion around.. what I think used to be a capacitor, but that should be easy to rebuild and rece...-


    Looking over the artifact a couple more times, I worked to fix and tidy everything I could, but as I was wrapping up my repairs, I started to question whether turning it on would even be a possibility.


    Within the ck box, there were countless devices, some of which I had seen or could recognize and others I couldn''t, but throughout all of them were runes.


    Those runes were all individually critical for the function of each device, essentially working as cogs in each machine, but while I could gather enough context clues to fix the runes for the devices I could recognize, the others would have required me to guess until something miraculously stuck.


    But thankfully, I had a better way to do things. -None of them look critical.. some of them even have bypass cables... What if I just activate them?-


    Inside many of the devices were switches that would connect the main circuit to tiny insted cables that simply looped back to the main circuit rather than continuing into the other devices.


    Assuming they were all there for emergency bypass, such as if that module had an issue and couldn''t be activated, I manually clicked over all the switches, and only left the modules I was confident in still connected.


    -Alright... That should be everything...-


    Finally giving it onest look over, I cleaned up and released my control over the final rune, a tiny antimatter rune that took up the entire back of the device.


    *vwowowoom* The flow of mana in my room changed in an instant.


    -Everything looks good so far...- Carefully watching every detail, I made sure there were no remaining issues with the battery and patiently waited for it to fill.


    But once it reached about 75%, a ma in the battery clicked over a switch that instantly activated the tiny reactor within the phone. *click-hummm*


    I jolted slightly at the click of the circuit before a faint hum filled the room.


    But I didn''t have time to think.


    In an instant, a wave of electricity coursed through the reactor''s cables and into the circuit board, and while I carefully watched it all through my aura, a momentter, my eyes were met with a bright light shining through the device''s ck shell. -H..Huh?!-


    That was when a somewhat robotic voice met my ears. "Tampering detected. Attempting to resolve abnormalities."


    *CLICK* The sound of every emergency switch opening simultaneously made my body tense and my mind freeze in an instant. -WAIT WHAT?!- *VWOOOM* I mmed all the aura I could into it instantaneously before promptly opening and jumping through a gate. *Vwoop*


    Silence filled my now-empty room in an instant.


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 Chapter 296: The Relay

    Chapter 296: The Ry


    Late Morning - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *CLICK* The sound of every emergency switch in the device opening simultaneously made my whole body tense up as if I had jumped in a pool of freezing water. -WAIT WHAT?!- *VWOOOM* mming a huge mass of mana into it, I tried to freeze everything in ce, and jumped into the void without hesitation. *Vwoop*


    As a listless sensation filled my body, I felt the immense pressure against my mana within the device ease. -Holy shit...- Slowly easing the rigidity of my mana, things tried to start flowing again; however, it was now essentially in slow motion. -That was really close...-


    Finally getting things under control again, I forced the emergency switches closed once more and made sure to hold them all in ce before getting ready to leave the void again, but as I went to create another gate, I noticed the surrounding space mana trying to force its way through my aura toward the device. -Huh?- It was like it was being sucked in by a vacuum. -Is the rune sucking it in?-


    *Vwoom* Immediately isting the rune, the space mana piercing into my aura rebounded out as if it were sprung by a trampoline and sent a ripple out into the void.


    But I paid it no mind and simply recreated the rune in an identical copper te and moved it to the edge of my aura. -Last I checked, space mana would just ignore runes... So why is it attracted to this one?-


    In my countless previous experiments, space mana within the void didn''t even remotely care about runes that didn''t involve space mana, so I couldn''t deny that seeing it suddenly react for seemingly no reason raised more than just confusion. -The only thing different about this rune is its size, is it not?-


    Finally letting space mana flow into the rune I created, I watched it begin navigating the channels of the maze-like rune while trying to eat the copper base before simply turning stagnant once enough mana flowed into it to fill it up.To put it bluntly, it did nothing. -Huh? Is it not the rune?-


    Undoing the barrier I put up around the Acardi artifact, I watched the space mana once again try to force its way through my aura. -W..why is it doing that?-


    But while it was quite a confusing problem, it didn''t take me long to figure out what it was.


    Attraction to energy.


    Ever since I first discovered the void, I had spent endless hours within it, experimenting and hypothesizing anything my mind could conjure up, but one of the first things I ever discovered was its ability to devour essentially anything.


    At the time, I wasn''t sure why or how it did that, but after enough experimenting, I came to the conclusion that it was for energy of some kind.


    The issue was that the only observable reaction of this ''desire'' was its faint change in color once it ate a considerable amount of matter. -But.. could its attraction here be simr?-


    Allowing a tiny amount of space mana to enter the Acardi device, I moved my mana with it and watched it flow straight through the copper te without regard for the rune and enter the antimatter battery before immediately flowing through the main cable leading to the reactor,pletely ignoring the antimatter it passed by. -What the.. its not trying to eat anything?-


    Continuing to watch it closely, it quickly made it to the main chamber of the reactor, where the antimatter was being destroyed, but the moment it entered the chamber, the space mana suddenly disappeared. -H..huh? What happened to it?-


    Trying it again with another clump of mana, I watched the exact same thing happen again.. and again.


    Before I knew it, hours began ticking by without me even realizing it, and I sank further and further into an abyss of thoughts, but after a while, my eyes were met with a bright light.


    -Huh?- Finally being pulled out of my thoughts for a moment, I looked down to see the Acardi device brightly glowing white like a huge LED. -Oh shit, I zoned out... Nothing bad happened, did it?- I had gotten so enraptured by the phenomena of the space mana that I had nearly forgotten why I was in the void in the first ce.


    But thankfully, the device was alright. -It looks like it''s trying to boot something, though... I should probably leave the void to focus on it again...-


    But as I started readying my mana to leave, I felt something odd in my gut, a sensation I couldn''t pinpoint the source of.


    It was uncertainty. -But.. why?-


    Staring out into the void, I watched as distant streaks of colors flowed and collided, swirling around each other and creating countless other colors before dissipating, and looked in another direction to see a simple ck band of space mana, devoid of color entirely.


    Such sights were normal, but for whatever reason, at that moment, I doubted myself.


    "Haah..." -But who am I kidding...- The void was an abyss of nothing but space mana, a reality where matter wasn''t allowed to exist. -Maybe I''ve finally started sumbing to madness...-


    Finally getting my mana ready, I closed my eyes and shook my head before promptly engulfing myself with a gate. -I can y with space manater, so for now, I''ll just focus on this thing...-


    *vwoop* Looking down at the artifact as I jumped through the gate, the bright white ''screen'' instantly showed a ck logo, a familiar insignia I had seen in every Acardi structure I had been to. -It''s slightly different, though... It looks like there is the Acardi symbol for ''3'' in its center...-


    As the gate dissipated around me, I kept a close eye on the artifact, but before long, its voice met my ears again.


    "Detached devices detected. Unable to establish connection." From what I could tell, it was still trying to connect to the devices whose switches I was forcing closed. "Booting in safe mode."


    -Hoh? Is it just a miniputer?- Watching the screen as it started booting, countless strings of text sted across it before it eventually turned off and on once more, this time the wall of text being reced by a single line. ''Attempting Connection to Local Ry''.


    But after waiting for it to fail to connect, I was presented with something I didn''t expect.


    "Please move to a ce with a clear view of the sky in order to establish an emergency connection."


    "Huh?" It caught me a little off guard, but out of curiosity, I did exactly as it asked and walked out to the back of the estate.


    But the device didn''t wait for me to get more than a few steps out the back door. "Satellite detected, establishing connection."


    -Satellite?- Almost immediately, a thin red beam shot out from the artifact and stretched into the sky. -How did it even find it?-


    "Connection was unable to be established. Attempting other Satellites." The beam then proceeded to switch directions well over a hundred times, each time to a different section of the sky before eventually speaking again. "Functional satellite detected. Establishing a temporary server." *Ding!*


    Hearing the device beep at me, I looked down to see the Acardi insignia I was familiar with, with text below it reading ''Sector 3''. -Ah, so that''s what the other insignia was for...-


    As the text on the screen disappeared, the voice returned. "Connection to local devices not avable. Unable to load existing data. Attempting creation of new data."


    The beam once again bounced around the sky like a LIDAR before finally returning to its original direction and bouncing around again, however, this time on a much smaller scale. -Is it trying to bounce theser off the satellite?-


    Looking up in the direction of the beam again, I tried to focus my eyes on it, but there was nothing. The bright blue sky was simply too opaque. -Maybe I''ll be able to see it at night...-


    *Beep* "Basic datapleted." Turning back to the artifact, I saw that the back side of the artifact had darkened, and the front disyed a simple panel that read, ''Please insert mana into mana authorization module to register ownership.''


    *Vwoom* Immediately doing as instructed, the white panel turned green, and the whole device lit up white again.


    *Beep* "Login Sessful." The voice suddenly became more human as it spoke again. "Wee to Div-4856 localwork #81421." *Ding!* The nk white screen transformed into a menu that generally resembled the one I saw in the crawler as a melodious noise met my ears, but unlike the one in the crawler, not only was almost every tab greyed out, but the names were also quite peculiar.


    -''Satellite Map'', ''Mothership Status'', ''Ship Summon''...- The more I read them, the more I had to reconsider what the device was. -''Orbital Cannon Targeting *authorization required*'', ''Weapon Requests'', ''Emergency Beacon'', and even ''Area Scan''...-


    But among everything the menu disyed, what caught my attention the most wasn''t any of the tabs.. it was the name of a statistic in the corner of the screen. "Loon orb freeking? What?" I tried to sound it out in the Acardinguage, but it still didn''t ring a bell. -Is it not meant to be a single word?-


    Trying to split it up, I cross-referenced countless words I had memorized from theboratory''s trantion dictionary, but they continually didn''t make sense.


    However, after a moment, I managed to figure out part of it. "Ping?" -Is it supposed to disy the ping to the server?-


    Quickly noticing one of the tabsbeled ''Latency'' and thinking it may be rted, I tapped it and immediately had arge but barely visible holographic disy appear in front of my face. -Woah...-


    It caught me a little off guard but disyed arge sphere with a small triangle on its surface that had exactly five white dots spread out over it.


    Unsure what I was looking at, I nced down at the screen again and saw a column of seven items, each with different names, and tapped the top one out of curiosity.


    *Beep* Almost instantly, a tiny panel appeared next to the triangle in the hologram that disyed, ''Host''.


    -Ah.. is the triangle me? That must mean the other dots are the satellites...- Quickly tapping through the other items in the menu, theser reappeared and darted around the sky before the hologram updated and disyed the names of each of the dots, which were all followed by a few lines of long numbers. -Interesting, so these numbers must reference something about the connection to each satellite...-


    But while it was cool, it meant nothing to me.


    However, the final item on the list didn''t have a name as nd as ''Satellite - 5920''.


    *Beep* "Sr Ry out of reach. Unable to establish a connection."


    -Sr Ry?- My curiosity instantly shot through the roof. -Wait a minute.. could it mean...- Looking to the horizon, I smiled and leapt into the air.


    *psh-FWOOOSH* sting into the air with simple thruster magic, I climbed into the upper atmosphere until the curvature of the became more and more apparent until, finally, over the horizon, a massive glowing object became visible.


    It was the moon.


    *Beep* "Sr Ry detected. Attempting connection."


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 Chapter 297: Four Days...

    Chapter 297: Four Days...


    Late Morning - Mid Winter : Rematra, The Forgotten Inds


    -----


    - Amphitrite Ouran��s (Three Days Later) ~


    *FWOOOSH-BANG-SPLASH* The face of a huge wave exploded into mist as I mmed my massive body through it and disappeared beneath the choppy water''s surface.


    *Blub-Rumble* The noise of my impact echoed off the bottom as I dove down before promptly spreading my wings just over the top of a cloud of sand.


    It almost looked like the sea floor, but that wasn''t the case.


    *Fwowoom* The moment I spread my wings, the sand settled to reveal countless creatures hiding among the rock and coral.


    But rather than darting back into cover and hiding in fear, they all swam out as if to greet me, carefreely swimming into the open water beneath my wings and circling around, knowing no predator would dare hunt them in my presence.


    But the longer I swam, the closer I got to the edge of the reef, and the more creatures returned to cover until, eventually, there wasn''t a single fish still with me.*Vwoom* The reef''s edge was simply a cliff into the abyss, going from about 75 meters to 75 kilometers in an instant, but rather than simply swimming down and into the cave just below me, I floated and looked out into the dark, ck water.


    It was like I was staring into a void, but somehow, it felt less empty that day. -Even the night sky has more color than the deep ocean.. but somehow.. today it feels more lively...-


    Just a few days prior, before I left for the auction, the ocean felt still and dead, but somehow that had changed. -Maybe that kid really can work out a miracle...-


    *Fwoom* Finally hopping out over the edge of the reef, I dove down a few hundred meters and came into a cave that descended even further before suddenly rising up.


    *blub-Ssh* *Crackle* The t, cut stones around the surface of the water cracked as I swam up and stepped out into a massive open space.


    "Wee back, Your Highness!" I was immediately greeted by a young merfolk girl with white horns, and light blue scales and webbing.


    Quickly looking around the several-kilometer-wide, grassy courtyard lit by bright artifacts, I noticed there were far fewer people than normal. "Has something happened? I don''t see many knights."


    The young girl quickly looked up at me. "The Ragnarok''s have dered a military summoning, but I am unsure about much beyond that."


    -A Ragnarok military summons?- To put it simply, it was an order that would summon all knights under the any said noble family. -But with the Ragnaroks, that''s nearly 80% of all knights in Bahamut...-


    In short, it was a summons that affected all of Bahamut. -And to go north and west... Are they being summoned to ''rune cities''?- [1]


    After giving it a second of thought, I finally turned back to the maid and sted the water off my scales. *Vwoomf* "Is Zafe��ri still here?"


    She nodded immediately. "She is in the Restricted Library."


    "Haah..." -I should speak with her first...- "Alright, tell Yannis to prepare the treasury while I''m at the library."


    "Right away!"


    As she bowed, I stepped over her and started walking down a stone pathway adjacent to the estate that led to arge building resembling an old temple.


    It was our restricted records storage, moremonly called the restricted library. -Zafe��ri is probably still looking for records on the Eye of Bahamut...- But the Eye was no longer something I needed to worry about.


    *thump* *thump* *vwoom* Stepping up the wide, mythril-ted steps, I changed to my humanoid form and walked into what looked like a stone wall without hesitation beforeing into a long, dimly lit hallway.


    *tap* *tap* *tap* My footsteps echoed down the long chamber, but after just a moment, the light at the end of the tunnel grew wider and wider, eventually revealing a colossal room filled with tall, tightly packed bookshelves.


    But unlike what I expected, I found countless scrolls, books, and other papers spread across the ground in many areas.


    "You have been busy." My voice ripped through the silence in the room instantly.


    "Of course. You think I''m going to let you, of all people, handle such a dangerous artifact?"


    Hearing the voice several shelves over, I walked down one of the many pathways until I found where she was. "You say that like I''m your child."


    She immediately looked up at me with an unamused expression. "If something goes wrong, you could identally get your body possessed or soul controlled. With Myles essentially dead, who the hell would be able to stop you if you went on a rampage?"


    I wanted to scoff but held it in before walking toward her. "There are many other dragons in the league of Myles and I. Even one of the young Ragnaroks could probably do it."


    She immediately set down several papers, sorting them into a few different piles. "This isn''t something you should joke about."


    "Hoho, but I''m not joking."


    "A dragon barely 150 years old is as strong as you? Give me a break."


    A smile slowly starteding to my face as I got closer to her. "Myles and I had that same thought until we met him; the only difference is that he''s 15 rather than 150."


    "Ha-ha, very funny." With a sarcasticugh, she turned back to the book she was holding up with her aura.


    She clearly had no intention of believing me. -But it''s not like I can me her...- "In any case, you don''t need to research it any more."


    Her eyes shot open in an instant. "What do you mean? That wasn''t enough gold?!"


    I quickly shook my head. "I would have lost no matter how much I brought, though, so there is no need to stress over it."


    She hopped up in a bit of a panic. "What do you mean ''not stress over it''? Are you just leaving Myles to die?"


    "Of course not. I am simply entrusting it to someone else."


    A look of shock washed over her face in an instant. "You trusted someone else with that? Did you finally go crazy?"


    "Once you meet him, you won''t think I''m crazy."


    "Bullshit."


    Picking up every book, scroll, and paper off the ground of each and every hallway with my aura, I nced over their contents before putting them back into their respective ces on the shelves.


    "You really.. didn''t get it..."


    I nodded seeing her look of disbelief. "I''m taking another gamble."


    She stared at me in silence before finally speaking bluntly. "Was it that maniptive bitch whispering in your ear again?"


    I wanted tough seeing her disdain. "It was all me this time."


    "Haah.. of course it was... I just hope you really understand what is on the line this time."


    "Sweetie, if I wasn''t good at weighing risks, I would have never made it to this point."


    She continued staring at me with an unamused look before letting out a sigh. "Haah.. whatever... If you are that confident, I will simply follow your lead..." Finally standing up to leave, she cleaned herself off, and we started walking out of the library.


    "When was thest time I led you astray?"


    "Two hundred years ago when you led me into that forsaken deep sea dungeon."


    "That was for your own good. You can''t deny that one."


    "Uh-huh..."


    Keeping up the more light-hearted banter as we walked, we quickly found our way back outside and started making our way toward the estate, but while we were walking, an older butler came running up to us.


    "Madam, missus." He gave us a deep bow the moment he got close. "A messenger is waiting on the surface with an urgent message for Lady Zafe��ri."


    Zafe��ri and I immediately looked at each other before Zafe��ri turned back to the butler. "What is the messenger''s origin?"


    "Thedy of the Chst��s family."


    Zafe��ri''s face quickly morphed with confusion before she ran over to the center of the courtyard and silently slipped into the pool of water. *slip-blub*


    -How odd...- Slowly turning back to the butler, I had to ask, "Do you know what their purpose here was?"


    Poniri�� was one of Zafe��ri''s closest friends; it was more than just slightly odd for her to send a messenger.


    But the butler just reinforced the confusion with a nod. "I believe it was as a summons. A summons to As."


    I was instantly taken aback. "A summons involving Zafe��ri?" -Just.. what would call for that?-


    -----


    - Vasilias ~


    *Vwoom-crackle* *tink* -Hmm... I wonder if that''s enough...- *click* *click*


    Quickly turning it off and on again, the screen flickered before revealing a red warning. "Tampering detected." *click*


    Letting one of the many emergency switches tick over, I watched as electricity coursed through a damaged module''s circuits, causing it to faintly glow and vibrate as it tried to turn on before suddenly stopping and closing the emergency switch once again. *click* -Damn...-


    It had been just over three days since I nearly destroyed the Acardi artifact, and while I still hadn''t fully repaired it, I had made some good progress, along with several fascinating discoveries.


    *Beep-Beep* "Booting into safe mode. Some functionalities may be disabled."


    *vwoom* Quickly injecting some mana into the device, the screen turned green and updated with a huge menu. *Beep* I pressed ''Area Scan'' without hesitation and was immediately shown a prompt.


    "Manamunications tether system not detected. Server connection not detected. Beginning local scan."


    -Damn.. its not even being detected...- *vwoom* The whole device lit up like a lightbulb in an instant before a bright hologram appeared in the air, showing a perfect 3d model of the front of my body along with the visible half of my room. -But I wonder if it auto-synced with the other scans without a satellite connection...-


    Quickly backing out to the main menu again, I moved over to a tabbeled ''local area map, and zoomed into a small dot on the hologram until eventually being presented with not only the rendering of my room, but also part of the estate, courtyard, and buildings surrounding it. -Hey, it worked!-


    Although not much, it was the culmination of several other scans from when I was still trying to figure out how the module worked. -But to think it really knew where this scan was taken in rtion to the others despite not being connected to anything... The module that records motion must be pretty damn urate...-


    But in all honesty, that wasn''t too surprising.


    Known as a Sector 3 Extraterrestrial Surface Support device, the artifact could do just about anything you could imagine with an unbelievable amount of precision, from simple tasks like functioning as a nearly infinite energy bank, to far moreplex things like advanced calctions, globalmunications, satellitemunications and evenser mapping.


    But while it was an unbelievably powerful device with hundreds of individual modules and functionalities that each made humanity on Earth look like it was in the Stone Age on its own, with the help of some satellites, its capabilitiespounded.


    The issue was the functionalities of the satellites.


    Having been floating through space for several millennia, it came as no surprise to see that they were heavily damaged, but over thest few days, I had pinged well over a thousand ''satellites'' and only received a signal from about 25, only half of which were even usable.


    But at the end of the day, something was better than nothing. Receiving a signal meant the satellite was still powered and functioning, if only barely, but that also meant it was repairable. -But unfortunately, just like with checking out ''The Ry'', such adventurous trips for repairs will need to wait.-


    *knock-knock* "My lord, Miss Poniri�� has requested for you."


    -Right on time...- ncing back at the door, I saw Chloe giving a deep bow and moved the artifact just under my wing without turning it off. "Tell her I will be out in a moment."


    The main part of the auction had finally finished, and as promised, it was time for us to discuss some more pressing matters.


    It was time for us to discuss The Cleanse.


    It was time for us to start the countdown.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>[1] - Rune cities are cities with space runes.</strong>


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 Chapter 298: Planning For The Shift

    Chapter 298: nning For The Shift


    Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    "Lord Vasilias, this way, please." A middle-aged ancient bowed deeply as I approached the gate of a massive estate just outside the Academy.


    -To have such a huge dragon bow to me... I could get used to this feeling...-


    Quickly making my way through the gate, I passed through several barriers and immediately smelled a wonderful mix of scents before noticing that the empty courtyard had suddenly filled with statues, greenery, and flowers.


    It was like I had stepped into another world for a moment.


    "From here, no one outside will be able to see you, so please treat this ce as if it were your own. A maid will meet with you shortly."


    ncing back at the ancient, I spoke calmly, "Thank you for your consideration."


    "It is our pleasure."Turning away, I continued into the courtyard and spent the next few minutes inspecting the various statues of historical figures spread around the garden.


    The statues were simply breathtaking, taking advantage of beautiful stones, gems, and rare metals to piece together a masterpiece. But no matter who they were, their statues were all in pristine condition, as if not a single particle had ever been removed from weathering.


    All except one.


    ''Hera Monachik��s - The Queen with ws of Mythril''


    Looking up from the mythril que on the statue''s base, I saw nothing but stone nubs where the paws were meant to be without a single detail still remaining, as if water had eroded every bit of what used to be there. -The world really turned its back on her, didn''t it...-


    To an extent, it made sense: a war of unprecedented proportions begins, and suddenly, one of your beloved rulers disappears. Even without knowing the whole story, I could see where the redirected hatred came from. -But at the same time, it feels like there is more to it... It feels like someone or somethingpounded their anger and simply used her as the scapegoat...-


    In all honesty, the more I thought about it, the more anxious I became about how Bahamut would even react to her return, but at the same time, her return was inevitable. -Maybe I will have to keep her on the low for a while...-


    But before I could give it much thought, I put it on hold and nced over my shoulder to see a massive ancient with sky-blue scales and a mix of white and blue feathers along her crown, back, and wings walking out of the gigantic main doors of the estate. -Her dragon form is quite pretty...-


    As if sensing my gaze, she immediately looked over at me and smiled slightly. "I knew you were an odd one, but I''m not sure I could have ever imagined you would look like that."


    Turning away from the statue, I started walking out of the garden. "I''ll take that as apliment."


    "Why, of course! Your scales are unlike anything I have ever seen! Typically, what people consider ''ck scales'' is the result of incredibly tarnished bloodlines, but your scales.. they are more pure than even the finest of gems." As she finally got close, she looked me up and down before shrinking herself down to my size and stretching out her wing. "It''s a pleasure to greet you more formally. Please just call me Poniri��."


    Following suit, I outstretched my wing as well, pressing it into hers and matching the pressure from her aura. "You can just call me Vasilias, then."


    Her smile momentarily turned sly before she pulled away her wing. "In that case, I won''t be polite, Vasilias. Shall we head inside? We have much to discuss."


    With a light nod, we quickly made our way into the estate and into the main hall.


    Simr to the outside, the estate''s interior was incredibly extravagant, with beautiful carvings and statues lining the walls and a colossal chandelier hanging over the main hall, but rather than going down one of the warmly lit and beautifully decorated hallways, we wrapped around the main staircase and eventually squeezed our way into a long stone tunnel leading underground. -What in the world? Where are we even going?-


    The tunnel was cramped, only big enough for me to walk through if I ducked my head down below my shoulders, and was incredibly dark and quiet, but even though you could hear even the faintest of noises, we moved down the tunnel inplete silence.


    At least we were until Poniri�� spoke. "We are heading to an old meeting area built during the Great War. Although I wouldn''t typically worry about things as petty as spies, lowering the odds of coincidence will be of great help."


    She spoke as if we were still outside,pletely contradicting her actions of trying to be quiet.


    But right as I questioned it, her smile faded, being reced by a look of caution, and she momentarily surrounded us in extremely strong silencing magic and spoke through wind magic. *vwoom* "This ce is connected to a massive maze of tunnels beneath the city, and sound travels very easily through them, but rather than using normal silencing magic, try to taper it and only use it on the edge of your aura."


    -Huh?- She caught me quite off guard. "Why?" -Why not just use normal barriers?-


    She quickly nced back at me with a slightly cold gaze. "To bait a hook. Just make sure you don''t let them get away if there is a bite." *vwoom*


    She let down the silencing magic the moment she finished, but I didn''t have anything to say anyway.


    -Is that why she was speaking so loudly? Was she banking that there was a spy in her estate that would hear it?- The next thing I knew, I was questioning just who I was getting involved with, but even if I wanted to turn back, it was toote.


    We walked for several more minutes after that, idly talking while winding our way through several tunnels before finallying into arge room where 6 separate paths met. -Is this the room she was mentioning?-


    The room was fairlyrge, being about 300 meters by 300 meters with a 90-meter ceiling, but the only source of light it had was a single light artifact at its center that was too dim to illuminate much of anything.


    But it''s not like there was much to illuminate. -This ce really is empty...-


    The tunnels around us were each several kilometers long, but even though my aura could reach deep into them, I couldn''t really detect anything at all. -With my aura, watching these tunnels is like looking over an ice t. There is simply nowhere to hide... I wonder if that''s why she wanted to have the meeting down here...-


    "Hooh..." *crackle* Breaking the eerie silence with a deep breath, Poniri�� finallyid down. "I believe it''s about time we get started, shall we?" Without wasting any time, she quickly pulled out a stack of papers I didn''t even notice she was carrying. "Over the past few days, I have had a group of people gathering intelligence on those supposedly rted to the Holy Kingdom in As..." Moving the stack of paper in front of her, she split it into separate piles and lined them up next to each other.


    But it didn''t take long for the stacks of paper to essentially form a wall. -Just how many...-


    "Thanks to that kid I used to call my nephew, it didn''t take much for us to start getting names, but while many of them had fairly open rtions to the church, others had not left Bahamut in hundreds of years." In total, there were around 600 separate stacks of paper, each with a different name on it, andbeled by level of suspicion and level of evidence.


    -But these all seem tock evidence...- It didn''t take long to piece together what was going on. "So you are unsure who is guilty and who is not..."


    "Exactly. Through my independent investigations, countless people popped up as suspicious, but the more I dug, the less evidence I found. It was a very simr case with many of the names my nephew tossed out."


    -So she''s worried about false positives...- "Hmm... Do you have any ideas?"


    She sat in silence for a moment before speaking. "We have a few options, but if you have any better ideas, please chime in." *crinkle* Stacking the papers once again, she set them aside. "Our first option is to wait. The more time we have to investigate, the more targets we will find, and the fewer innocents we will involve."


    -Time, huh...- It was a troublesome one. -I can''t risk missing the opportunity when the executives within the academy meet...-


    "Our second option is to take it from the head down; investigate the executives, which you seem to know a few of, and work our way through their subordinates oneyer at a time until we clean out everyone down to the grunts."


    -That''s not bad.. but...- Seeing her fall into silence, I spoke with a bit of hesitancy. "What''s the third option?"


    After a brief moment of silence, she continued, "I''m not sure how I feel about it just yet.. but our third option is to push for the settlement of Siratha and try to point those who wish to worship a god to the Ancient Fenrir. There are many issues with that, though; not only would it require the support of the Elder Hall and the widespread eptance of breaking the taboo set by Bahamut, but it would also require the Ancient Fenrir to show themselves again... And that''s assuming the people would turn their backs on the Aesir that easily."


    My expression quickly darkened. "I think it may be too much to expect to change the minds of those who have alreadymitted to the Aesir by simply opening a new path."


    Her expression quickly darkened as well. "So, what do you suggest?"


    I paused as I straightened my posture. "If we open a new path, we should show enticement beyond morality to turn around and take it. To do that, we either disy strength beyond what the human gods are capable of, or we simply spread the word of what has already happened."


    She immediately tilted her head slightly. "I''m not sure I follow."


    My smile quickly turned sly. "The recent happenings at the Elder Hall were at the hands of the Ancient Fenrir. If we tell the world that the Fenrir have already imed the lives of three human gods and, at the same time, caused a scene here in As and expanded our borders over Siratha, wouldn''t those who haven''t fullymittedpletely switch sides?"


    Her eyes quickly widened. "Who were the three gods?"


    "Magni, Tyr, and Hel. Magni was killed in Siratha, and Tyr and Hel were at the Elder Hall."


    Her aura tensed as she lowered her gaze to the ground and fell into thought. "If that''s the case.. we have much more to work with than I thought." Before long, a smile had returned to her face. "Let us speak of this in detail. That is a reasonable n, but it iscking some.. ''detail''."


    Seeing her slightly crazed look through the darkness, I felt a chill pass down my spine. -Why do I suddenly feel like I gave an idea to someone I shouldn''t have...-


    But the next thing I knew, I was wearing a simr smile, and my thoughts had been flipped on their heads.


    -She was the perfect person to discuss this with...-


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 Chapter 299: Refinement

    Chapter 299: Refinement


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *vwowowoom* The noise of countless ripples traveling through my aura filled the abyssal silence as I worked in the void, but the noise of my thoughts simply blotted it out. -How exactly should I mimic an Ancient Fenrir...-


    Currently, I was spending some time fixing the space rune leading to Siratha, but rather than spending my extra brain power theorizing about mana or physics like I usually would, I was busy trying to fill in the holes my secrecy left in Poniri��''s n. -Should I use light magic to actually make it look like I''m one of them.. or maybe I could just stay out of sight?-


    Our meeting ended just over a day ago andsted several hours, but by the end of it all, we hade up with a far more sound n than anything I had proposed.


    Originally, my n was to simply have the professors'' meeting moved to an isted part of As, where I would simply kill them under a veil and leave the grunts to inevitably disperse once their leaders were gone, but as time passed, it continued morphing.


    Once my meeting with Poniri�� rolled around and we started talking, ideas started flowing more fluidly, and eventually, my nnded on opening our borders with Siratha, exposing the deeds of the Ancient Fenrir, and using the professors'' deaths to set an example, such as disying their dead bodies or something the like. I figured those without any direct connections to the Holy Kingdom would break off out of fear and opt to go to Siratha instead, where the stronger gods reside.


    But Poniri�� had other ideas. To her, my ncked meat; itcked detail.


    And that was when that crazed woman''s true colors came out."Brr..." A chill passed down my back as I thought back to it. -But I can''t deny that, while her demeanor was.. concerning at times.. she really knew what she was doing...-


    Of everyone I had ever met or spoken with, she was by far the best at taking information and turning it into something else, and well.. after almost two hours of discussion, I spilled everything I could spare, including much of the information I normally kept quiet about, such as my connections to Siratha and ability to ''contact the Ancient Fenrir'', but in return, I received an invaluable ally and a proper n.


    For simplicity''s sake, the n shared the same general framework as the n I had proposed during the meeting and specifically shared the same first step. The expansion of draconic territory.


    But that was much easier said than done.


    The moment I returned home from the meeting, I met with Mother and Father to discuss how the diplomacy would work, and ording to them, it would take a month at an absolute minimum for such aplicated decision to be made, if not longer. Plus, even with Grandmother''s influence and connections, it would be a difficult change to make.


    But how long it would take or how difficult it would be to pass wasn''t an issue for us. What we wanted were the rumors that would result from it being presented to the Elder Hall. Rumors that could be easily manipted.


    Leading up to the day of the cleanse, we wanted to stoke the mes of curiosity in As, and not only turn their attention to Siratha, but the Ancient Fenrir. Once those rumors had begun, the 2nd stage of the n would begin.


    Originally, this part of the n was to spread the news that the Ancient Fenrir had imed the lives of three gods and use it to drive fear into those considering joining hands with the Holy Kingdom, but Poniri��, after much discussion, decided that we would do the opposite.


    Rather than crediting the Fenrir, who already had quite an extensive reputation among dragons, she would use her connections to advance the spread of the newsing from the Elder Hall: the news that Myles had be the first dragon to im victory over not just one, but two gods with main seats in the Aesir, and had sessfully taken the first steps to bing a demigod.


    That news alone had the power to shake the entirety of Bahamut and, ording to Poniri��, even possibly reignite the passion for growth and development that the draconic race had seemingly lost after the Great War; but for now, all we needed to do was put Myles on a pedestal over the Holy Kingdom''s gods, and paint him as a figure that could lead our race to a brighter future.


    Beyond that, whether we continued our n or not, Bahamut would naturally be nudged onto a path of progress by a surge of draconic pride, and while conflict with the Holy Kingdom would inevitably arise, Bahamut would be in a much better position than it was now.


    But while the n could have ended there and still been considered sessful, Poniri�� was one to drive every single nail into the coffin.


    The final part of the n was simple. Make a scene. And what better time and ce to make that scene than the meeting of traitors in the heart of As. The Academy.


    In short, when the meeting between traitorous professors and staff was to ur, Poniri�� wanted the Ancient Fenrir to make a scene and, if possible, form and announce some sort of allegiance with them.


    But even with my reassurance that ''the Fenrir'' would agree to the n and ''allegiance'', she prevented herself from putting all her eggs in one basket and decided to devise a backup n.


    That n, however, quickly changed my demeanor toward how I was going to handle the professors'' meeting.


    Using her family''s connections, she would gather as many ancients as she could, and when the time to make a scene came around, she would make an announcement over the academy, exposing the disgusting events that had urred within the academy''s confines before finally announcing ''the cleanse'' with a bang.


    The detonation of a fusion artifact.


    With the support of the ancients she nned on summoning to As, she would contain the damage to the walls of the academy and, in turn, turn the academy, which stood tall as a monument of prosperity for over ten millennia, into a crater of ash and molten rock.


    At first, I thought she had finally lost it; I couldn''t think of any good reason that would call for such an aggressive disy besides ''driving the message home'', but before long, she exined that the destruction of such a monument was necessary to not only force the surviving traitors to scatter but also give dragons ''a project'' to work together on.


    However, although I could roughly see where her reasons wereing from, -I still think she''s a little crazy, but who am I to judge. Being able to destroy the academy just makes things easier for me... Even if it''ll sting a little bit...- *vwoom* -All I have to do now is figure out how to go about doing it...- *vwowoom* I quickly wrapped up what I was working on as I decided to set my thoughts aside. -Regardless, it looks like I''m done here...-


    Quickly looking over my finished work within the void, I did all the final checks to ensure everything was in working order before finally approaching a small ck diamond at the center of several intersecting tubes of crystalline space mana.


    *vwoop* A ck sphere engulfed me the moment I got close, instantly recing the indescribable darkness around me with a colorful night sky and a view overlooking the ocean. *crash-crash*


    "Haah..." With a heavy breath, I finally pulled my eyes off the horizon and looked below myself to see a simple, small stone tform, stillcking the returning space rune.


    But just before I got started on it, an idea came to mind. -Wait, if I have to rebuild it anyway.. what if I moved it more into the heart of Siratha?-


    Currently, the rune was on the outside of a mountain bordering one of the most isted stretches of forest in Siratha. -Wouldn''t it be more convenient to have the rune a little closer to a city?- I figured that, since we were already nning to expand draconic territory over Siratha, moving the rune to a more convenient location would make dragons view Siratha more favorably toe and go from. -Wouldn''t that also help drive home the existence of the Ancient Fenrir?-


    But after a moment of thought, I decided to put it on hold.


    While it certainly would have been more convenient to build the rune elsewhere, other precautions would need to be taken beforehand, such as speaking to Leif about where it should be put as well as confirming that Bahamut would overtake Siratha with draconic influences.


    With a single word, I could get Leif to agree to it, but that wasn''t the case with the Elder Hall. -Once this is over though.. public opinion should hopefully shift in our favor... At least ording to Poniri��...-


    But that was something for another day. For now, I simply needed to focus on making the rune.


    And make the rune, I did.


    Over the course of the next few hours, I did everything I could to recreate the space rune as it was in other areas, and after trekking back and forth through the void several times, I eventuallynded on something that looked normal and functioned properly. -Some people may not even realize the rune was reced! At least if they don''t look at anything else...-


    Momentarily ncing down, I saw the dark gray, space-mana-strengthened steel tform and immediately let out a sigh. "Haah..." -Well, at least I got it working again.-


    Quickly activating the rune, I traveled back through the void before appearing in As, standing at the center of the only empty space rune, looking toward the wall of buildings blocking the view of the sunset on the horizon.


    *Fwoosh* Promptly taking to the sky, I was presented with a beautiful view of the city in front of a stunning sunset and turned around to see the top of the academy just barely peeking over the opposite horizon, glimmering in the warm glow of the sun.


    But while it was beautiful, it was likely to be thest time I could see it. -Day after tomorrow, that spire won''t be there anymore...-


    The beacon that provided light to As through the dark years following Bahamut''s disappearance would finally fall.


    But now wasn''t the time to worry about such things. I only had one day left to finish my preparations.


    But thankfully, that was more than enough time.


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 Chapter 300: Fall

    Chapter 300: Fall


    Time Error - �D?�D???��?��???????????��?��???�D�D??? : Location Error - �D?�D?��?��?????????��?��?�D?�D?


    -----


    - Freya (The Goddess of Beauty) ~


    Floating down the bustling hallway, I glided past clerics, bishops, and devotees. Their conversations bubbled with enthusiasm and their faces gleamed with joy.


    Today was a day of prayer, and the church of Frigg, the goddess of Motherhood, was awash with believers. Typically, my church was simr, but that day, their prayers would not reach me.


    *vwoom* Coming into the extravagant main hall built from marble and gold, with a ceiling so high it could amodate even thergest of dragons, a breathtaking mass of mana washed over me. However, I was not the one to receive it.


    On the opposite side of the hall was a massive stone effigy depicting a beautiful woman, poised gracefully with a child cradled in her arms. It drew prayers like moths to me, yet not a soul ventured near it.


    But it wasn''t their reverence that kept them away.


    *vwoom* Floating over to the statue, the air steadily grew heavier before eventually forcing me to anchor myself to the ground with divinity. -Ugh...- *tap* By then, those praying had be motionless, and the dust in the air remained still, hovering listlessly.But I continued forth, walking past the statue without hesitation before looking up at the towering, 150-meter-tall doors at the end of the hall.


    Before I knew it, a look of annoyance had fluttered across my face. -This bitch...- Even with the eyes of a god, I couldn''t see through it. -To think she''s already recovered enough to use her divinity so shamelessly...-


    *tap* *tap* *tap* Continuing up to the door with a look of frustration, I thrust my fingers into its surface. *CRACKLE* Cracks slowly began spreading through it before I pulled my hand back and threw open the colossal door as if it were made of paper. *FWOOOSH*


    A wave of mana mmed into me nearly instantly, causing my knees to buckle and soul suddenly feel heavy.


    But after just a moment, a voice, icy yet melodious, echoed from the vastness beyond the doors. "To desecrate another''s sanctuary as such."


    Behind the door, a gigantic stairway loomed over me, culminating in avishly adorned throne. Upon it sat a woman, exuding the grace and beauty of motherhood but with a chilling demeanor that shed with her appearance.


    "I see you have not ceased your antics, Freya."


    "Don''t even get me started, you conniving bitch. Just tell me what you called me here for."


    She immediately rested her cheek on her knuckles with a sense of aloofness. "In a moment. For now, how are you handling-"


    *CRACK* I cut her off with a burst of divinity, cracking the intricately built floor. "If you say a single damn word..."


    "Peace, Freya." She held my gaze, unyielding as she spoke. "I summoned you to give you some information and an offer, not to start a fight... Your reaction answered my question, regardless."


    "Tch..." With the click of my tongue, my tensed hand eased. "You know what, alright. Just make it quick."


    Her face remained still and emotionless as she responded. "Tomorrow, there shall be an event in Bahamut."


    A hint of confusion instantly found its way onto my face. "What event?" -I don''t believe there should be anything...-


    She slowly leaned back, a faint smirk appearing on her lips. "It��s recent news, known only to a select few mortals, currently. The academy in As, where so many of your dragons are stationed, is going to have a front row seat to.. quite a spectacle."


    Suspicion instantly started gnawing at me. "I''m going to need you to exin in detail."


    She leaned forward, the light catching her eyes. "In a moment. For now, I have a proposition. There''s someone in As that you might find.. interesting. I want them gone."


    rm bells instantly echoed through my head like a siren''s voice. "Then send Vidar. Or better yet, handle it yourself."


    "Patience, Freya," she intoned, a hint of allure lining her voice. "This individual, I believe, is rted to that.. anomaly we sensed."


    -What?!- I instantly recognized what she was referencing, but before I knew it, she had me in her web.


    "From my findings, a peculiar truth showed itself. The so-called ''Eye of Bahamut'' might just be what we believed never existed..." She had me so enraptured that I didn''t even notice the sly smile creeping onto her face. "Odr''s ''cell''... And now that ''artifact'' has transferred hands, from the Ragnarok family, to an individual."


    Thoughts ripped through my mind for a moment before I finally calmed down enough to respond. "So what''s in this for you."


    The silence that filled the room was excruciating. "He knows far too much. Left unchecked, he may be a thorn in Odin''s side. I cannot allow that." She slowly straightened her posture before at my core. The real eyes of my soul. "Should you seed, I will retrieve the artifact for you. However, in exchange, you will do me a favor."


    Every fiber of my being was yelling at me, yet somehow, I didn''t even notice.


    "Whenever you are to speak with Odin, you must speak with me first. Always." She watched my demeanor in silence for a moment before smiling and rxing her posture once more. "The academy in As, 3.5 west, 1.3 south. ''She'' will be waiting for you."


    The next thing I knew, I standing in front of the pristine marble door, as if I had teleported.


    But rather than being teleported, it felt as if I had yet to enter the room in the first ce.


    -----


    - Vasilias Ragnarok ~


    The sun painted the horizon with shades of gold, orange, and pink as I soared through the sky, the thoughts of Poniri��''s n still weighing heavily on my mind. Her drive and determination was impressive, but also unnerving, and the more time I had to think, the more it gnawed at me. -Why doesn''t someone like her have a reputation?-


    Over the past day and a half, I had spent most of my time in the estate''s lower library researching into the academy and Chst��s family''s past, but throughout my research, while there was a small amount of information rted to Poniri�� being a schemer, most of what I found was quite the opposite.


    The more I dug, the murkier the waters became. Stories of her well-thought schemes were closely apanied by stories of her rashness, just as stories of her being a gem in the Chst��s family were apanied with ims of her being banished from the family for irrational behavior. And the worst part was that most of these were years, or even decades apart.


    Her lineage records were even more baffling. Some records asserted she was a direct descendant, while others believed she hailed from a distant family branch.


    Everywhere I looked, it was like trying to piece together a jigsaw with extra, mismatched parts. -She is quite a well known political figure though... Perhaps they are just opposing sides of the same story.-


    In my eyes then, there was no reason for me to have any doubt. The Poniri�� I met was undoubtedly entric, but she didn''t strike me as someone warranting skepticism. It was what my gut told me after all.


    Furthermore, as promised, her n was already underway. Rumors had already begun spreading through the city like a wildfire, and people''s admiration for Myles and interest in Siratha and the Ancient Fenrir had all been growing exponentially.


    The stage had been set, all that was left was to meet with with her and finally get the ball rolling. -But I still have an hour to kill...-


    Continuing to fly over the city for another moment, I watched the sun slowly sink below the horizon before turning back to the estate.


    As I came in for anding, I noticed Krystallo standing out in the open, and as I finally touched down, she came running over in a hurry.


    "Brother!" She flung herself at me, clutching my chest in a panic. "Whereever you''re going soon, don''t!"


    -What?- "What do you mean?" Her panic caught me quite off guard.


    "I had a bad dream! A really bad dream!" She sounded like she was holding back tears.


    "Rx. Breathe..." I gave her a look of worry as I tried to embrace her. "Was there anything specific about the dream that you remember?"


    She instantly nodded while looking up at me. "I-It started with what l-looked like the body of a big brightly colored dragon being desecrated. W-When I approached it, the ground suddenly shook and the horizon went up in mes! Th-then when I t-turned around, the scales of the body had turned ck and it l-looked like yoours!" She finally broke into tears as she pushed her forehead into me.


    My gut instantly raised warning signals. Although I had told Mother about the n extensively, Krystallo had been purposefully left in the dark. -Where is thising from?-


    But myrgest priority was to calm her down. "Krystallo, look at me," I gently wrapped her in my aura as I sat down and lifted her chin, forcing her gaze to lock with mine. "It was just a dream. Nothing has happened yet, so please-"


    She sniffled, "Yet?!" As a fearful look spread across her face, her grip on me tightened.


    -Shit...- "That''s not what I meant..." Gently caressing the top of her head with my aura, I tried to take a step back. "You remember what Mother taught us, right? As we get older, our dreams start bing more and more like premonitions, but that isn''t until at least thete Elder stage. Before then, a dream could be anything from a visualization of your desires, to your fears." The tears in her eyes glistened as she looked up at me, pulling at my heart. "There is nothing to worry about. You know how strong I am, right?"


    She hesitated for a moment before hooking her ws onto my scales. "But.. what if it is a premonition..."


    "I promise to be extra careful just in case, okay?"


    As I gently cradled her, her grip eventually loosened, though her face still held a shadow of uncertainty. "You better be..."


    As the stars finally starteding out, I continued holding her close, but while I wanted tofort her, I couldn''t deny that I was unsettled as well.


    Still, my mind told me to chalk it up to mere coincidence. After all, dreams are often our subconscious mind''s way of working through our fears, anxieties, and desires. But the timing of her dream with Poniri��''s n was uncanny.


    Feeling her finally shift around, I looked down to see her staring in the direction of the academy with a shimmer in her eyes.


    "Just promise me," she whispered with a slight waverting in her voice. "Promise me you''lle back safe..."


    Finally letting out a stress-filled breath, I eased my nerves. "I will, I promise."


    She slowly nodded before begining to pull away, momentarily hesitating before letting gopletely. "If you aren''t back soon.. I won''t forgive you..."


    Watching her slowly trod back to the estate, a heaviness settled in my chest, and after just another moment, I let out another sigh and looked up to the sky. "Ilios."


    He instantly revealed himself next to me as if he was waiting for it.


    "I want you to watch over them while I''m out, but before I go..." I momentarily nced over at him, seeing his fur slowly wave in the calm breeze. "What do you think?"


    As if waiting for it, he trotted over and sat in front of me, looking up at me with an unreadable expression before standing up and touching a paw to my chest.


    Almost instantly, the mana in my reserve began to stir and a small suction of mana formed, quickly topping it off, but after a moment he removed his paw and stepped away, quickly following Krystallo''s footsteps toward the estate.


    Finding myself sitting out beneath the stars, all alone once again, I nced down at my chest, the glow beneath my scales seeming brighter than normal.


    I still had some time before I needed to meet with Poniri��, but now wasn''t the time to be lounging around. -Let''s go early...-


    *FWOOSH*


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 Chapter 301: A Figure

    Chapter 301: A Figure


    Mid Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *fwoooosh* The brisk evening breeze gently caressed my scales as I soared over the city. Nightfall had already enveloped the cityscape, but as if to fend off the darkness, countless light artifacts had already turned on, setting the streets aglow.


    But even in the void of the night sky, countless dragons could be seen. Although the skies had darkened, As remained full of energy, with most merchants and stores remaining open, handling a steady flow of dragons both in and out.


    But while there were dragons absolutely everywhere you looked, there was one ce not a single dragon neared.


    The Academy.


    On the not-so-distant horizon, the towering central spire of the academy shone brilliantly, akin to a star in the sky, bereft of any life.


    It was truly a beautiful sight, but no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn''t muster a smile. -Just a few hours until that disappears...- But while I had begun second-guessing myself, such reservations were useless. I had already dug too deep to turn away.


    Quickly continuing toward the academy, I found my way to a lofty, brightly lit building overlooking the academy''s massive courtyard andnded on its roof.The building was known as ''The Stars Reprieve'', an extremely renowned restaurant in the heart of As, and where Poniri�� and I agreed to meet before the event. -I wonder if she''s here already.-


    Walking up to what looked like a receptionists'' desk stationed by a door suited for humans, I was immediately greeted. "Wee, esteemed patron." The elder gentleman rose as I approached, his demeanor suggesting he had been waiting for me. "I hope you have had a wonderful evening, Sir!" He used his aura to open the door as he bowed. "Please, right this way." *click*


    Seeing him motion me inside, a slough of questions filled my mind, but after assuming Poniri�� had just told them to expect my arrival, I changed forms and promptly followed the man inside.


    The interior was inexplicablyvish. Plush red carpets cushioned each step, and towering mythril columns adorned with gold engravings lined every hall.


    But after just a moment of walking, such things had lost their grandeur, and my expression had darkened once more.


    The receptionist seemed to notice that as well. "Sir, the mistress is just ahead. Please allow me to verify that we may enter. In the meantime, allow a maid to assist you." He quickly motioned behind me, toward a long-haired elf half-breed in a pristine maids outfit. "If you wish to take her, all you must do is ask."


    As he quickly rushed down the adjacent hallway, I nced back at her, but she had no reaction. "Are the maids here disposable or something?"


    She immediately shook her head, keeping her gaze toward the ground. "Not typically."


    -Hm...- ncing toward the hallway the receptionist ran down, I used magic to speak to the maid in secret. "Do you know anything about the woman in this room?"


    But the maid didn''t budge at all. "We are not allowed to speak of our patrons."


    "Well, from this point on, she isn''t your patron." Pushing some of my aura into her, her emotionless expression immediately changed.


    "I-I see." Although seemingly fearful, she faintly smiled. "The person inside has had peopleing in and out all evening; another entered just a few minutes before you arrived."


    "Hm.. is that so?" -Those must have been the people she said she was summoning.- Not paying it mind, I straightened my posture and waited a moment for the receptionist to return.


    However, when he eventually returned, he was a bit panicked. "S-Sir!" He used a thin white handkerchief to soak up a bead of cold sweat as he bowed. "It appears that the mistress wishes to see you outside. She will be a moment, but in the meantime, has asked us to treat you to a barrel of piotita."


    -A whole barrel?- "Alright, that''s fine. While you fetch that, please prepare this maid to be escorted to the Whyte Family estate southwest of here. Use the name Vasilias at the gate."


    "R-right away, sir! Berenice, please lead him to the exit."


    As he ran off, the elven maid nced at me before smiling. "Please follow me, master."


    "''My Lord'', is fine."


    "A-As you wish, my lord."


    Quickly being led back outside, I changed back to my dragon form and found a ce toy down. After about a minute, a maid and butler came out, wheeling arge barrel of alcohol about a meter and a half long, which I promptly took and sucked on like it was candy. -It''s a bit stronger than normal...-


    But even after finishing it, Poniri�� had not shown up. -Twenty minutes, huh...- With new-found concerns already simmering in the back of my mind when I first got there, waiting did nothing but fester them.


    Thankfully though, after a few more minutes, she finally arrived.


    *click* *tap* *tap* *tap* "Sorry for the dy, Vasilias." She spoke smoothly and calmly as if her temperament was mellowed by alcohol.


    "It''s alright. I came before the agreed time."


    "Well, it''s good that you are here, regardless." *sh* Changing to her dragon form, she instantly went from looking up at me to looking down. "In any case, let''s get going. We can speak once we get somewhere else."


    -Somewhere else?- I immediately gave her a questioning look, but as she took to the sky, I followed without giving it much thought.


    The next thing I knew, we had flown about a dozen kilometers away from the academy andnded in a dark inner courtyard shared by several buildings, far from the sight of the bustling main roads. -Why are we here?-


    But that was answered the moment we walked into the bottom of a building with nothing but long-since-settled dust inside and pulled up a few of the floorboards. -Ah...-


    Beneath the flooring was a small spherical artifact with immediately visible Acardi symbols all over it. -There it is...- The artifact that could destroy the city in an instant. -It''s live too...-


    To have it stored in a ce with such an immense amount of mana was indescribably dumb, but thankfully, this artifact''s valves weren''t going to give way any time soon. -I still can''t help but wonder how she got it though... Did her family acquire one through their auction?-


    "This is it. The artifact you are to drop, should the Ancient Fenrir not make a move." She spoke calmly yet confidently. "Once it touches the top of the central spire, it will detonate, so make sure you aren''t in the vicinity by then. This artifact will not care how many barriers you have in ce if you are too close."


    "You speak like you''ve seen it explode in person."


    She hesitated for an instant before carefully pulling the artifact out of the ground. "I have heard stories."


    "I see..." I paused as she turned around and gently handed it to me. "In any case, when am I to drop it?"


    "The moment the moon is at its highest point in the sky, drop it and run; just don''t drop it early. If the Ancient Fenrir get involved, it will be then."


    -Alright...- "In that case, we have some time to kill." Using some aura to keep the valves closed within the artifact, I picked it up and turned to walk outside. "Where in the academy is the meeting?"


    "The floor above the headmaster''s office and two floors above the deputy." She paused as she walked toward me. "I wouldn''t rmend trying to spy on them if that is what you''re thinking."


    -Hoh?- "Why is that?"


    "It is a meeting between several ancients. You will most certainly get caught." She spoke harshly as if trying to drive home the warning.


    But I wasn''t one to care. "If I get caught, it wasn''t by one of the ancients." Finally stepping outside, I looked up toward the brightly colored night sky and spread my wings. "I will see you in a few minutes, Poniri��... When the academy is nothing but rubble." *Fwoosh*


    Quickly taking to the air, I turned toward the academy and zipped over the horizon.


    ncing up at the moon, I had about 20 minutes, and the timer was already ticking. -I need to check if there is anyone other than the professors.. but I need to be quick about it...-


    Pushing out a huge mass of mana, I slowed down and took control of the air around me, not letting a single disturbance escape while cloaking myself beneath a nket of light magic.


    Unless my body was within the range of your aura, I waspletely invisible. Perfectly camouged.


    And while I thought it may have been overkill at first, I quickly found that not to be the case.


    All throughout the outer branches of the building were ancients standing around as if on guard.


    At first, it seemed as though they were for simple security, but the more I looked around, the more I found it odd how evenly spaced they were and how it was as if they had been ced without regard for blindspots. Like they weren''t looking for trespassers. -Just.. what are they doing?-


    But without the time to stop and interrogate one of them, I forced myself to continue forward, scanning through the rest of the endless hallways with space mana before eventually making it to the spire.


    The spire wasn''t any different though. Spread all around it were dragons, Elder, or Ancient stage standing around twiddling their thumbs as if waiting for orders.


    But as I continued working my way up, they started thinning out until, eventually, I was met by a massive wall of aura. -That must be them...-


    It was the gathering of traitors. The group of targets I was to erase.


    But while it was meant to be a meeting, as I pushed space mana into the room to eavesdrop for the few remaining minutes I had, I noticed something odd. -Why.. aren''t they talking?-


    They were allpletely silent, standing around like statues with only their eyes and auras moving.


    It was like they were waiting for a signal, simr to the people below...


    The issue was, I didn''t have time to investigate. Looking up at the moon, I noticed my time was quickly running out, and after a couple minutes without a word being spoken, I decided to take it to the sky and begin preparing my spell.


    Thanks to the deputy, I already had more than enough evidence of guilt on each of them, so what did I care?


    But while that''s what I told myself, it would have been better to at least acknowledge the red g.


    As I flew into the sky above the academy, I began preparing my spell, but before long, I felt a sensation as if I was being watched. -Huh?-


    It shouldn''t have been possible for someone to see me, yet I still expected to see a dragon staring at me in the distance, perhaps seeing ripples in the mana around me, but when I looked toward it, rather than seeing that, I saw Mother''s humanoid form reaching for the artifact in my paw.


    A figure with no aura, no presence, and no life.


    Yet even still, that figure was smiling at me with a soft, loving gaze that could not be worn by anyone but her.


    *tink* The next thing I knew, my vision was engulfed in mes. A ze reaching over ten million degrees.


    Yet somehow, my body felt cold. Unimaginably cold.


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 Chapter 302: A Hunger

    Chapter 302: A Hunger


    --------------------------------------


    <em><strong>--- Mild Gore and Brutality Warning ---</strong></em>


    --------------------------------------


    Mid Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *Rrrrrumble* The deep rumble of a fireball over a kilometer wide, reaching temperatures rivaling the center of a burning star, surrounded me in an instant; the roar of the zing sma blotting out the noises of my surroundings and its blinding light rendering my vision useless.


    Yet, while most dragons wouldn''t even be able to react before the ze melted their scales and incinerated their flesh, I felt as if ayer of frost had formed around me. -Of all the people you could have mimicked...- Slowly looking up into the sky, I could somehow feel the gaze of a being in the distance. -You must have a death wish.-


    *vwoop* Epassing myself in a gate, I threw myself through the void before returning with a pocket of antimatter and hydrogen swirling in my breath nd.


    *vwoop* The instant I returned, I was almost a dozen kilometers in the air over the academy, right behind a cloudy, feminine figure.A god. -Had you not been so shameless, I might have given you a chance.-


    Opening my mouth before the gate could dissipate, a deep ck cloud finally showed itself. A breath of the void so dense that the universe''s most violent reaction wasn''t even visible until it had already consumed the sky. *crackle-BRRRRRRM*


    In an instant, the bright blue sky, lit by the momentary creation of a star, was consumed by the void in an unfathomable mass of darkness before releasing a sh of light so violent that it was visible nearly a thousand kilometers away.


    But somehow, although I couldn''t describe how I could feel it, her faint presence had yet to vanish. -Where is she...-


    Trying to heighten that odd sensation, Ipletely relinquished control of my aura and stripped the rest of my senses down to their most basic forms. *VWOOOM* And sure enough, I found her almost instantly. -There you are!- Looking past my unfurled wings, I met eyes with a young woman, still somewhat mimicking Mother''s figure.


    She disappeared before I could even react, and simultaneously, my senses started to blur as if they were contaminated by noise.


    But now I had a new sense I could follow. -Trying to run?!-


    Chasing after the presence, I hurled myself through the void before reappearing over a vast ocean.


    But this time, the instant the gate began dissipating, I felt a sudden pressure followed by a searing pain in my neck and wasunched to the ground.


    *SPLA-CRRACK* I hit the water like a rocky mountaintop, turning its surface into a field of ice before shattering and vaporizing it simultaneously.


    -Tch...- Quickly regaining control of my aura, I instantly noticed the huge gash exposing a cracked vertebrae at the base of my neck.


    It was a very shallow wound, especially if I could treat it immediately.


    But unfortunately, I wasn''t even given time to breathe.


    *ZIP-CRACK* Barely managing to react in time, I jolted my head to the side and narrowly dodged a small object traveling faster than I could even calcte. -WHAT THE FUCK?!- *crackle*


    *sizzle-BANG* Creating and using antimatter as fast as I could, Iunched myself out from beneath the st of air, plunging the area into the depths before looking up at the goddess with dted pupils. "You should have run when you had the chance."


    *vwoop* Disappearing into the void, I did a few prompt repairs on my neck before exiting the void several kilometers above where I was. -I won''t give you time to breathe anymore.-


    *vwoop* The instant the gate stopped expanding, I forcefully dissipated the gate and opened my mouth. *sizzle-crackle*


    But before the reaction could even start, she disappeared. -Shit, she''s fast...- And before I could even find where she moved to, my instincts threw me to the side. *ZIP-crackle* Although it just grazed me, it blew off my scales and flesh like it was made of jelly before turning it all into a dark, bloody mist.


    "Ack..." Wincing slightly, my thoughts sped up several-fold. -She''s too fast for me... I need to either slow her down.. or...- Looking up at her, I saw her creating a miniature cknce, and when I looked down, I saw that there was still only one impact on the surface of the water. -To reuse divinity like that... Is that how she''s using it without a tether?-


    By the time I looked back up, thence was already finished, and she had her arm outstretched with thence floating just beyond her fingertips.


    From there, all it took was a wave of her fingers. *ZIP-FWOOOSH* It reached me almost instantly, passing through a kilometer of aura before I could even consider intercepting it.


    But I already knew where it wouldnd.


    *CRACKLE* Shredding the fabric of space just over the base of my wing, I tried to catch and rip apart thence, but the moment before it hit, it froze in ce.


    -Tch...-


    Taking my chances, I moved the nearly half a kilogram of antimatter out of my breath nd and into my mouth before pulling up and facing it toward her. *crackle-BAAAAANG*


    The explosion engulfed the vast sky like a cup of ink in an aquarium, except it spread at the speed of light. The supposed speed limit of the universe.


    Yet as if expressly to defy it, before I could even recognize where her presence went, I felt a searing pain in my abdomen, and I looked down to see a massive gash, just below my reserve, with the goddess swinging the tip of a massivence like a sword.


    It almost felt like time had slowed down as she swung it, but as it finished slicing through my flesh, she pulled it around and smiled at me with a crazed expression. "~What an odd ce to have your mana core!~"


    My mind froze. Although I had time to try and catch her in a gate, I knew if I tried, she would simply move to a new spot and do the same thing. -I need to brace my reserve...-


    If I could withstand the hit from this close, there was not only a chance to destroy thence, but also a moment where she may be slowed enough for me to catch her, if only for an instant. -But you can only fight divinity with divinity...-


    Without the time to think, I tightly gripped the fabric of space around my reserve and created the strongest pressure wave I could,pletely dwarfing what I used in Siratha.


    But as I did it, the sudden memory of Ilios swirling my mana came to mind, and my body instinctually mimicked it.


    *vwowo-wwom-VWOWOOOM* The next thing I knew, pain ripped through my body, quickly spreading from my reserve to my head, but rather than stopping, I swirled my mana faster and faster.


    Eventually, the pain and immense pressure I felt all disappeared simultaneously.


    The mana in my reserve spun like a nuclear reactor, but now there was something other than mana at its center.


    Liquid divinity.


    "W..what..."


    My body instantly became heavy and stiff, and it felt as if I could walk on air, but as I looked down at the goddess, I saw her frozen in ce. "Hooh..." I stared at her like a predator that caught prey in a corner, with a dark ck fog leaking from my mouth like the breath of a wolf.


    "N..no... This isn''t possible..." Her voice quivered with fear, and her face was drained of any semnce of confidence.


    I had no idea what I had done at the time, nor did I care. All I knew was that I didn''t have time to waste. *crackle*


    Her eyes instantly widened. "W-W-W-WAIT! I DIDN''T KNOW! I SWEAR! LORD NOTT, PLEASE! I DIDN''T DO IT-"


    *vwoom-BRRRRMMMM* Detonating half a kilogram of antimatterced with space mana right in front of her face, her final plea was abruptly cut short, and the crackling of the fabric of space trying to repair itself filled the air.


    "Hooh..." Letting out a deep breath, the mana violently swirling in my reserve began to slow, and the liquid divinity finally crystallized and spread through my body. "Ack..." Gritting my teeth through the pain for a moment, it eventually subsided, and with it, time started to move again. My body felt lighter, and the air started to move again.


    *FLASH* -There it is...- ncing away from the seemingly dyed sh, I took a moment to clean up the gashes around my body, stopping the bleeding and closing the wound wherever there wasn''t too much flesh missing, but most of the repairs were needless, as thin fibers of muscle had already started growing out to fill the gaps. -The scales might take a day or so.. but I should be able to go back and rest now...-


    With my head spinning and a wave of nausea washing over me, I just wanted to go back and rest. The academy was destroyed, and the goddess who tried to intervene was dead. All that was left was to meet with Poniri�� and see if there was anything else I needed to do.


    At least, that''s what I thought.


    *vwoop* Momentarily hopping through the void, I reappeared in the skies over As, inside a tall, dark cloud.


    But when I descended toward the ground, expecting to find a field of molten rock, a voice amplified by magic met my ears.


    "Citizens of As! How can we stand by in the face of such brazen actions?" Poniri��''s voice rang out, passion and fury evident in her tone.


    -Ah, she already started her speech?-


    "To think those dogs known as the Ancient Fenrir would attempt to destroy our city!"


    I froze instantly.


    "Thank heavens for our valiant professors, the very pirs of As, stood tall and defended our legacy!" Poniri�� continued, "Their bravery has saved the beacon of draconic knowledge, still standing tall just as it did after the Great War!"


    Her words met my mind like a spark meets lighter fluid.


    "Our city, our traditions, and our future generations depend on our unity and resilience. We cannot let these threats deter us from our path forward. Let use together and unite in the face of adversity! The Chst��s family will lead this revolution from the front! We will be at the forefront of guiding Bahamut to a brighter fu-"


    *BAAANG* Clearing out the clouds with antimatter, I found myself over the central spire of the academy, its roof only partially melted, with Poniri�� wrapping herself around it.


    My stare was cold, and the air around me was even colder. -So it wasn''t just a rouge goddess taking advantage of the situation...-


    Her silence following the clouds clearing spoke a thousand words, but eventually, she looked up at me. "Look who it is! The culprit! The dragon who-" *WHAM-CRACKLE-CRUUUNCH*


    Not giving her a chance to run her mouth, I drove her through the roof of the spire and through almost a dozen floors before suddenly stopping in the spire''s central pir.


    My ws sliced through her scales and broke through her ribs with ease. *CRACKLE*


    But rather than wincing, she smiled. "I must trulymend your strength. It''s no wonder the Fenrir made you their apostle," Her eyes widened with craze, "but this time, you are out of your league."


    *FWIP-CRRRRACK* Jolting my head to the side, a second cloudy figure, this time with the figure of a man, zipped past me, gouging the edge of Poniri��''s neck and destroying a colossal section of the academy''s spire in a single swift attack. *CRUMBLE*


    It was an attack on par with Tyr, and as the spire started to copse, several full-size ancients exposed themselves and stared at me like a pack of hungry wolves.


    It was the professors, but somehow, rather than feeling like prey, I felt like a predator. I felt hungry.


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 Chapter 303: The Visualization of Death

    Chapter 303: The Visualization of Death


    -------------------------------


    <em><strong>--- Major Gore and Brutality Warning ---</strong></em>


    -------------------------------


    Mid Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    - Grace ~


    *FLASH* The creation of a star. It''s something believed to only be achievable by gods in the eyes of humans, the ultimate achievement, but while I watched the horizon burn in an unfathomable ze, with a young dragon at it''s heart, I couldn''t help but want tough. -If I went back a hundred years and showed myself this.. I would have dismissed it as an illusion...-


    Beneath the roaring ze, the academy was hedged by vast barriers, erected to shield against the searing heat and dampen the impending shockwave. *CRACK-RUUUMBLE*


    But little did they know, just above the unfathomable explosion they struggled to face was something that could erase them all before they could react. *crackle-FLASH* A power so immense that it even made a god like me shiver, to the point that when I felt Freya''s presence suddenly move thousands of kilometers north, I almost felt pity. -But she doesn''t deserve it...-Faintly sensing Vasilias''s presence disappear into the void, I nced at an estate several kilometers behind me with a look of expectation, but even after waiting for a moment, I felt nothing. -Is he not going to make a move?-


    Inside the estate, there was a massive white fenrirying on a bed many times his size, seemingly asleep.


    He was a monster I couldn''t begin to fathom, with an identity I could only assume, but one thing I knew for certain was that he would always watch over Vasilias. Whenever something happened, he would be there watching things like an observant hawk. -So why is he now still...-


    But the moment I questioned him, I instinctually faced the direction of Freya''s presence. Or at least.. where it used to be. -W..what...-


    It was a presence unlike anything I had ever felt, unlike anything words could do justice. Although it was undeniably weak, easily weaker than the weakest of gods, it struck a primal fear deep within my soul. It was as if I had suddenly be a small rabbit watching a hungry wolf roam an open field, not caring who could see it.


    But after an instant that felt like an eternity, the presence gradually faded into nothingness, and the fear that had carved a path into my soul began to thaw like a cier that had carved a canyon.


    The next thing I knew, the presence of a god that was many thousands of kilometers east was on the horizon, and the bed where the fenririd was empty.


    Yet neither could cause a question to surface in my mind.


    As I turned back to the academy, my gaze settled on a being descending through the clouds, and after a moment, I felt the tingling fear I had just shaken begin to resurface.


    At that moment, only one question endlessly echoed through my mind. -What have I created...-


    -----


    - Vasilias Ragnarok ~


    *FWIP-CRRRRACK* Jolting my head to the side, my dted pupils settled on the cloudy figure of a man as his fist was driven into the pir of the central spire, sending fragments rocketing skyward before demolishing a massive section of the spire entirely.


    *CRRRRUMBLE* The spire surrendered to gravity nearly instantly, buckling under its own weight after losing support, and after just a moment, the gazes of several ancientsnded on me.


    They stared down at me like a pack of coyotes that had surrounded their prey. Yet, despite being overpowered in mana, stature, and sheer number, neither fear nor arrogance surfaced within me. Instead, a raw, ravenous hunger stirred.


    *CRUMBLE* "Such a pity." Arge green dragonmented as he hopped off his crumbling perch above me. "We hoped you''d stand with us. But it seems your journey ends here." *fwip* With a swift p of his wings, he entered a dive, driving straight down into my back.


    But the moment before he touched me, his life ended. *FLASH-BRRRRMMM* Firing from the tip of my wing, a blinding beam ripped down his spine, incinerating everything in its path. -Don''t give me your pity.-


    Taking advantage of the instant silence that followed the st, I leapt off Poniria and mmed my ws into the lifeless chest of the professor, the newly created divinity in them slicing through their flesh with ease.


    But the enigmatic god didn''t give me the chance to build any momentum.


    "~Such savagery. Truly befitting your god.~" *vwoop* He appeared in front of me instantly, his fist cocked in front of my face. "~Had they not killed Freya, I would have nevere here. They were the ones to seal your fate.~"


    *CRRRACK-WHAAAAM* His fist connected with an unfathomable amount of force, hurling me through the tower''s crumbling remnants.


    But I had what I wanted. In my paw, I held a bloody blue sphere interwoven with countless ck threads.


    It was the professor''s core. The culmination of a thousand years of growth.


    But at that moment, it was nothing more than fuel. *tink* Casually tossing it into my maw, I gulped it down, and without missing a beat, I leapt into the void. *vwoop-VWOOM* The core exploded nearly instantaneously, but I didn''t even give myself time to absorb it before reemerging from the void just over arge red-scaled ancient.


    -You must be Professor Btos.- Not giving him time to react, I drove my paw into his spine, splintering itpletely before sending the fragments through his body like the pellets of a shotgun, rupturing his reserve and hurling him into the billowing dust cloud below in one swift move. *FWOOSH*


    The cloudy figure of the god below us instantly turned up to me with wide eyes, a hint of confusion visible in his conflicted expression, but before he moved, a set of massive ws mped onto my sides, pinning my wings down and allowing a massive maw to close on my neck.


    However, the moment their massive teeth met my scales, their grip on my body went limp. *fwip-CRRUNCH* With a fierce whip of my tail, I blew apart their ribcage and sent an immense shockwave through their body, sending it into a momentary state of shock before turning over and gripping my ws into their paws.


    Seeing the crazed look in my eyes, their eyes widened, but they wouldn''t have been able to run even if they had the time. *BANG* Moving their entire colossal body to the side with a bit of antimatter, I lined them up with a separate ancient, readying a spell in the air next to us and opened my mouth. *BRRRRMMMM* The devastating beam devoured the pair effortlessly, leaving only a resilient mesh of divinity and their prized mana cores intact.


    But before I could retrieve them, a sharp pain ripped through my chest, and my scales shattered like dry y. *CRACK-FWOOSH*


    The next thing I knew, I was in freefall, descending with the force of a meteor. *sh-WHHHAMMM* The remaining section of the spire''s main pir exploded into molten debris as it attempted to catch me, caving in the basement below andunching debris up through the dissipating clouds of dust to shower on the surrounding city.


    When I finally came to a stop, I found myself sprawled amidst a cauldron of molten stone, my mind foggy, and my thoughts consumed by an insatiable hunger that neared starvation.


    I needed mana, but my continual use of it only made things worse until, eventually.. the strained thread holding my consciousness together finally snapped.


    *sizzle* Silence enveloped the night instantly, broken only by the asional hiss of water reacting with molten stone stemming from damaged runes buried amidst the ruins.


    After a moment, the curious heads of dozens of dragons began peeking over the rim of the crater, and shortly following, the deputy finallynded around me with the few remaining professors.


    But the only one to get truly close to me was Poniria. *Thud-ssh* Landing over me with a mix of contempt and satisfaction, she raised her paw into the air before smashing it down onto my exposed head. *CRUNCH-WHAM* The magmaunched into the air like water from a geyser before sending ripples dancing across its molten surface.


    "It''s truly baffling that such chaos stemmed from a single being... A young dragon, no less." Retracting her paw, she overlooked the surrounding dragons and fixed her posture. "But while we may grieve for a prodigy''s fall, we cannot falter!" She paused as she amplified her voice with magic. "There will be more onughts like today! And now that we have been forced to bear witness to the consequences of ourck of preparation, we must not bex in seeking strength!"


    The mood of the dragons throughout the academy quickly started to lighten as she spoke, their fear dissipating with her words.


    "Are we so weak to fall at the hands of a mere dog?! NO! Today, we may have stumbled, but tomorrow, we shall stand firm! Tomorrow, we will begin our push for strength! TOMORROW, WE SHALL-" *CRAAACCKLLEE*


    A deafening crack echoed through the instantaneous silence as a plume of bone fragments, chunks of flesh, and a cloud of blood stretched into the sky.


    The countless onlookers ready to cheer with newfound vigor from Poniria''s speech found themselves frozen in horror as her torso was instantaneously blown to bits.


    *crackle* *SPLASH* As what was left of her body copsed into the magma, my unconscious body slowly stood up before using a small amount of mana to guide her exposed core into the magma next to me.


    And before anyone could realize it, the core was in my grasp. *tink-VWOOOM*


    A sudden, explosive surge of mana erupted outward, but as quickly as it expanded, it was drawn back as if to be consumed by an insatiable vortex.


    However, amidst the paralyzed onlookers, one figure remained active. "~Tch... How needlessly resilient...~" In an attempt to finally finish me off, he appeared over my head, driving the de of his massive greatsword into the top of my skull. *fwip-CRACK-WHAAAMMM*


    But rather than slicing cleanly through it, his de smashed through my skull and came to an instantaneous halt,unching the surrounding pool of magma into the air and mming my body into the ground.


    He instantly hesitated with shock. "~My de that can cut through divinity.. was.. stopped?~"


    But although his hesitation was brief, by the time his gaze shifted from his sword, I was nowhere to be seen.. with only a peculiar circr void in the rubble where I onceid.


    "~W..where did he-~"


    Countless onlookers were overwatching the academy at that moment, but none of them could have anticipated what they were about to witness. *FLASH-BRRRRRRRRRMMMMM*


    In an instant, the very heart of As was devoured by an unfathomable column of light, its heat so intense that what it failed to instantly incinerate, it reduced to molten sludge all the way to the very boundaries of the academy.


    To them, it was the incarnation of destruction. The visualization of death.


    But little did any of them know it was the signal of a new era.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 304: Dated Confidence

    Chapter 304: Dated Confidence


    Late Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *MMMMMmmmmmmmmm-blub* *hummm* The muffled hum of superheated metal met my ears as the roar of the spell slowly died down, and my body sank into a bath of mana-rich liquid rock.


    No longer feeling any presences, my body rxed, and my mind fell into a fog, but while a wave of fatigue tried to take over my body, an immense paining from my head wasbatting it. "Ugh..." The pain was akin to an extreme migraine and forcefully stopped any idly thoughts. -But pain means.. I''m alive...-


    Gently unfurling my wings, they almost immediately pierced into a semi-molten wall, halting my descent and letting me gently dig my ws into the wall without slicing through it like jelly.


    *Crackle-Crumble* -There it is...- Finally getting a grip in the solid part of the wall, I leveraged it with my wings and started the arduous climb. Without the energy to p my wings with any strength or the brain power to use a spell, I was left with no other choice.


    *Crackle* *Crunch* *Crunch* *blub-Crrumble* -This must be the top...- Feeling it suddenly level out, I used my little remaining energy to hop out in one push, but the walls crumbled before I could move much.


    *SPLASH-st* "Haah... Fuck..." As my headnded on the t ledge above the magma, I gave it one more try and forced myself up, but left my hind legs and tail still submerged after a surge of pain rushed through my brain. -Holy shit, my head hurts...-


    It felt as if the world was in a fog. My memories were fuzzy, and my senses were numbed. -I can''t even think...-But that was when adrenaline ripped through my body.


    *cr-r-r-r-r-RACKLE-VWOOM* Dozens of deafening noises met my ears the moment I tried to rx, instantly throwing my mind into a panic, but as my eyes jolted open, I didn''t see any dragons. Instead, I just found countless shattered and dissipating pieces of massive mana cores sinking into the shallow magma around me. -W..what?!-


    Looking up in a rush, adrenaline focused my blurry vision, but I only realized just how needless my worries were. "Ah..."


    Surrounding me were half-molten walls of rock and metal towering almost twelve kilometers over me, with an opening at the top about fifteen kilometers wide. -Were those the mana cores of.. the dragons up above?- Not seeing anyone around the edge of the hole, I looked back at the ground and quickly found a fewrger cores that remained intact before sluggishly crawling out of the magma and eating them.


    *tink-VWOOM* *tink-VWOOM* *tink-VWOOM* With each core, a wave of relief washed through me, settling the pain and fog in my mind, but even with the help of several cores, my reserve refused to start a suction like when I abruptly regained consciousness just a moment prior. "Hooh..." -But it''s alright... Although only barely.. I have enough mana to stay awake...-


    Thankfully, destroying Poniria''s core kickstarted a massive, albeit short-lived, mana suction that let me regain consciousness shortly after breaking it. Had that vortex not happened, I never would have even made it to the void to take time to absorb the mana trapped in my body, let alone think of my horrifically stupid n.


    -But all that matters is I''m alive.. and that that god is gone...- Unfortunately, I had no way to check if he was still alive; I barely even had the brain power to calcte how deep the hole I made was, let alone try to use that new sense to such an extreme degree.


    But just because I couldn''t didn''t mean no one could.


    "~ARE YOU INSANE?!~"


    Wincing slightly as her yell shot a pain through my head, I nced toward the red-dressed goddess with a slightly annoyed expression. "I won''t deny it this time..."


    Her form was slightly more defined than usual, with her dark feathered wings on full disy. However, her anger was clearly what I should have focused on. "~Not only did you nearly reduce yourself and the whole city to ash, you even announced your presence to the WHOLE FUCKING WORLD!~"


    -Ah.. yeah... I don''t remember how much antimatter I even used...- Momentarily giving the seemingly small sky a nce, I subconsciously tried to calcte it, but my mind screamed in pain before I even started. "Ack..." -But it was a lot...- "In any case, while you''re right about the spell, most onlookers shouldn''t have been able to even see me from outside the academy with how dark it was. At worst, there should-"


    She immediately teleported closer to me, setting her hands on the top of my snout as if leaning over a table. "~Not your identity! I mean your ''presence''!~"


    -Huh?- Confusion washed over my face in an instant. "I''m not sure I follow..."


    "~Your ''divine presence''!~" She stared into my eyes as she spoke as if she thought it''d help me understand. "~I felt it right when you killed Freya. What happened then?~"


    "Ah..." -When time seemed to stop?- "I just made some divinity, but rather than letting it crystalize in my body, I spun it to keep it more.. fluid-" My voice was cut short as her expression shifted to one of shock and fear. -Did I.. say something wrong?-


    "~L-liquid divinity amplifies the presence and general strength of souls; that''s why it''s called a divine presence. But that connection will invert if the soul is too weak. Without a soul strong enough, the divinity would literally shred your soul...~"


    "Oookay? But-"


    "~Vasilias.~" She immediately stared into my eyes with a slight craze. "~Your soul is literally halfway across the. Right now, all you have is a fragment that is barely any stronger than your sisters, let alone one that could withstand the amount of divinity you used.~"


    -Oh...- I hesitated as I nced down at myself. "But I feel fine..."


    "~Do you feel anything abnormal?~"


    "N..nothing that couldn''t be exined by something else... The only thing is maybe my hunger..." -It''s only gotten worse from when I made the divinity... Is it just from my reserve being so starved?-


    "~Are you sure? You seem a little...~"


    "My skull was just shattered by an attack that should have turned my brain to mush... Am I supposed to be totally normal already?"


    "~Ah.. right...~" ncing up at the top of my head, her demeanor slowly eased.


    "Regardless of that, what happened to that god? Did my spell reach him?"


    "~Vidar?~" She immediately shook her head before continuing with a shockingck of concern, "~I think it may have, but he ran away long before the spell finished.~"


    "Haah..." -Well, shit...- It was the one thing I wanted to avoid the most.


    But thankfully, the goddess continued before I could try sinking into thought. "~Regardless, don''t worry about him.~"


    "Huh? Why?"


    She paused before ncing to the side. "~When he ran, he flew east toward the Elder Hall, likely to regroup with a group of dragons he was sent to.. assist.~"


    -The Elder Hall? WAIT WHAT?!- It took me a moment to realize, but when I did, I broke into panic. -Were they targeting Myles?!-


    "~But he is dead now.~"


    My thoughts froze instantly. -Huh?- "M..Myles or-"


    "~Vidar... His presence disappeared the moment he got there.~"


    A conflicting mix of relief and confusion filled my mind instantly. As far as I knew, Amphitrite was the only one capable of killing a god, but she was supposed to be in the forgotten inds. -Did shee back? Or was he weak enough that a different ancient killed him?-


    But little did I know then, neither of those ideas were right...


    ----


    - Vidar, The God of Vengance ~ (Back two minutes)


    "~W..where did he-~" Tightly gripping my de, I looked at the ground in confusion, but before a single second could tick by, the ground was engulfed in a wall of light, and my soul was filled with something I had not felt in countless years.


    The fear of death.


    *sh-ZIP-BRRRRRRMMMMM* The instant I bolted backward, an unfathomable column of light over a dozen kilometers wide engulfed the academy, instantaneously devouring every spec of crystalline divinity I had.


    -Im..possible��- Had I not disconnected myself from it all, I most certainly would have been devoured as well, but there was one thing I couldn''t look past...


    -To destroy divinity like that��- My eyes widened as I backed away, unable to take my eyes off the towering wall of light engulfing everything in its path. ��~T..the Ancient Fenrir��~��


    Slowing time as much as I could, I darted over the horizon in aplete panic. *TWOOM-ZIP* -If I can regroup with Pyrgos, I can possess one of his subordinates��- ncing behind myself, I did everything I could to hide my presence while looking for the Fenrirs''. -Maybe I can get away��-


    *VWOOM* The ground below began to blur as I continually sped up until eventually arriving over a town of rubble and ash and darting toward the closest aura I could sense.


    But the moment I stopped, rather than looking down on a massive dragon standing over leveled buildings, I saw a small crater in the ground coated with blood, chunks of organs and flesh, and fragments of scales and bones with arge exposed mana core interwoven with divinity at its center.


    It was an unrecognizably mutted corpse, something I expected to see, but rather than the brightly colored, mythril scales of our target, they were a dark matte green. -W..what...-


    Finally looking around, I saw exactly nine other ''bodies'' in a simr state, with the mythril-scaled ancient between them all, still absorbing mana as ifpletely untouched.


    -Something.. ughtered them��- My mind raced as I looked over the western horizon in a hurry. -It must have been one of the Fenrir��-


    However, after not sensing either of their presence nearby, I darted over to thergest of the mutted bodies, a red-scaled dragon named Pyrgos.


    His body had simply been torn to pieces. His hind legs and tailid scattered on one side of the crater, and his front legs, neck, and headid on the other with nothing left to connect them besides tiny strings of divinity.


    But regardless of his state, he remained alive, left with only the ability to stare through his nk, unmoving eyes and think to himself while his mind slowly consumed its little remaining mana.


    -Fucking undying lizard��- Immediately reaching out for his mana core, I tried to connect a tether to it, but was stopped by his divinity before I could even start. -Shit.. now isn''t the time for this��- "~Allow me to form a tether, and I may be able to save you��~"


    It was a tant lie. Even Father himself couldn''t have saved him at that point, but even if he was savable, I could not have cared less.


    *Vwoom* Finally managing to connect my tether, a flood of memories came to mind. Memories of gathering around the mythril dragon in silence, waiting for my order to attack when several plumes of ash and rubble blew into the air, and the detached limbs of the cloaked dragons were scattered across the ground.


    In a single moment, they were all killed. Eviscerated by a power they could not react to.


    But I knew exactly who it was. -To die to the swat of a dog�� How befitting of dragons who believe they can own the world��-


    But the instant that thought passed through my mind, my tether was severed, and I was surrounded by a wall of flesh, ash, and rubble, exactly as I saw through Pyrgos''s memories. -H..huh�� Is this.. an illusion?- *VWOOM* My thoughts were instantly cut short as a shockwave of mana sted through my soul, momentarily crystallizing every bit of my divinity and freezing me in ce.


    The next thing I knew, the snout of a white fenrir poked through my stomach.. it''s teeth gripping onto the crystallized core of my soul like a feral beast. -W..wait...-


    Whether it was simply the materialization of my fear, or truly one of the fenrir gripping my soul, my mind couldn''t tell.


    But it didn''t matter.


    *CRUNCH* Before I could push a single thought through the heart-gripping fear, I felt the memories of who I was turn fuzzy, the visualization of my surroundings go dark, and every ounce of knowledge umted over countless years vanish in its entirety.


    The next thing I knew, I was listlessly floating in a dark, cool liquid, wholly surrounded by a thick wall, when a flood of foreign knowledge poured into my head.


    None of it made any sense at all, as if it were a simple conglomeration of unrted information, but the moment it finished flowing, the view of a tall, scaly creature came to mind, and I opened my eyes.


    -Ma..ma?-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    --------------------


    Behold, "The Queen of the Frost"

 Chapter 305: Recovery

    Chapter 305: Recovery


    Late Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    *Vwowowoom* The faint hum of the void feeding on mana filled my ears as I slowly drifted toward a small ck diamond floating in an endless sea of nothingness. "Hooh..." -Well.. making that gate hurt a lot...-


    At most, it had been five minutes since I spoke with the goddess, but in all honesty, it felt like an eternity.


    About four minutes after we started talking, dragons from the city started toe into the academy.. or what was left of it.. to investigate what had happened and look around for survivors. Thankfully, the goddess noticed and told me about them ahead of time, giving me a moment to make a gate and slip into the void before anyone could spot me, but the process of making the gate was nothing short of excruciating.


    -I guess I shouldn''t be surprised that it hurts to think too fast, considering I just took the sword swing of a god straight to my brain.. but geez...- I had been simply debilitated. My thoughts had slowed to the point that a single, basic gate took nearly a full minute, and although my reserve was still filling, I felt like I would pass out at any second.


    -But I need to make it to my room before I can do that...- Too worried about how everyone would react to me disappearing after making such a scene, I needed to at least let them know I was alive, while at the same time staying out of sight until my visible wounds had healed.


    It would have been perfect if I could have simply gone straight to my room through a gate, but unfortunately, the void marker I made for the estate was in the back garden, and I simply didn''t have the brainpower to calcte where my room would be in rtion to it with any kind of precision. -I won''t be able to cloak myself either...-


    My only option was to use the marker and take a gamble on whether a maid would be able to cloak me before too many eyes saw me.-Thankfully, it''s still dark... So, the odds may be in my favor...-


    But it was wishful thinking.


    Finally reaching the void marker, I wasted no time creating the gate, and after an excruciating minute, I finished and promptly closed it on myself. "Ack!"


    *Vwoop* *WHAM* I only fell a few centimeters aftering out of the gate, but without any aura to spread my weight out, I mmed down and sank into the grass almost instantly.


    -Ugh...- Just barely managing to keep myself from copsing on the spot, I looked up and tried to find the nearest maid, but rather than finding one, I found almost a dozen staring at me with wide eyes.


    They were all gathered in the garden, looking out toward where the academy used to be, likely wondering what was happening, but I couldn''t tell if their looks of panic and shock were from what they saw over the horizon or the way I looked.


    But I could not have cared less. Instantly spotting Chloe in the mix of maids, I locked eyes with her. "Chloe..e cloak me in light magic and walk me to my room..." I spoke withbored breaths before she hastily ran over and did as instructed. "As for the rest of you, don''t say a word about the way I look to anyone.. even Mother... Am I understood?"


    Most of them instantly started nodding, and after ncing at the stragglers, they followed suit.


    Seeing Chloe look up at me and indicate she was ready, I nced back over the maids again. "If anyone asks about my condition, simply tell them I looked tired or exhausted... If I hear that someone said otherwise, I won''t take it lightly..."


    Finally motioning Chloe ahead, we started walking out of the garden, but before we left, I called a few more maids to walk with us to help spread my weight out and lighten my steps. Without them, I would have sounded like an elephant walking through the estate.


    But once we got to my room and opened the door, the maids scattered, and a massive wave of mana washed into me. "Hooh..." -That feels good...-


    Finally following Chloe inside, she hastily closed the door before running over to my bed and activating several artifacts, one of which being for mana umtion. "If I had known you woulde back in such a state, I would have prepared more..." She spoke with worry woven in her words.


    "There is no need to worry yourself over an ''if''. This is already plenty..."


    "My Lord..." She hesitated as she motioned me over and had mey down. "How could I not worry."


    Finally sinking into the cushion, a wave of drowsiness started overtaking my mind, and at the same time, Chloe ran into the corner of the room and picked up several items while changing to her dragon form.


    "Could I clean you and treat your wounds, my lord?" She sounded a bit rushed as if knowing I was on the verge of falling asleep.


    "Mhmm..." I immediately rolled onto my side before exposing my still-wounded belly. "Just don''t leave anything in the wounds themselves.. even the deep ones... They''ll heal.. on their own..."


    The next thing I knew, I felt the gentle caress of a damp rag on my scales, and as if signaled by it, my heavy eyelids finally shut.


    My exhausted body could finally rest.


    -----


    Early Morning - Mid Summer : Goldenflower | The Holy Kingdom


    - Skuld, The Goddess of Oracles ~


    It was the heart of summer, a season typically bathed in warmth, but somehow, a peculiar chill had settled that morning, as though everything was draped in a thinyer of frost.


    *Sweep-Sweep* *Sweep* ncing down at the sole caretaker of my church, I watched her diligently sweep up the dust and leaves that had settled in the main hall overnight before cleaning the dpidated seats and washing the windows with a warm, unwavering smile.


    But for once, I could understand her joy in doing what she did.


    "Nanny, nanny!" The innocent voice of a child echoed through the hall as a young girl skipped through the main entrance with a handcrafted basket cradled in her arms. "Will we have breakfast together again? Mom fixed bread and jelly!"


    "Hoho, only if you don''t mind me taking the softest piece of bread." She spoke with a slightly yful tone before seeing the child''s joy and turning back to the colorful window she was cleaning. "Just allow me a moment to wrap up here, alright?"


    "Okay!" The young girl immediately pranced towards my statue at the front of the hall, making herselffortable at its base before uncovering the steaming bread and grabbing the smallest piece. "Om..."


    Her cheeks slowly turned rosy as she chewed on the warm bread and watched the priestess continue her cleaning, but after a moment, she looked straight up at my statue and squinted her eyes.


    "Hmm..." After a moment of deep pondering, she joyfully hopped up onto her feet and looked up at me before spreading her arms wide. "Goddess of Oracles, Skuld, the Goddess that rains downtime and fate, what is my prayer."


    "~Pfft...~"


    The priestess instantly let out a chuckle. "Darling, it''s ''the Goddess that reigns over time and fate, please ept my prayer''."


    "Ah, right!" Quickly shuffling her stance, the girl looked up at me and spread her arms once more. "Goddess of Oracles, Skuld, the Goddess that reigns over time and fate, please ept my prayer!"


    But there was only a moment of silence that followed her voice.


    "I''m sure the goddess admires your spirit, but you must offer mana for her to connect with you." Finally finishing, the priestess set aside what she was using to clean and made her way over to the young girl.


    But rather than the girl opening her eyes with a disappointed look, he pure smile and sparkling eyes didn''t waver. "I know! I just want to make sure she knows I love her!"


    A foreign warmth instantly found its way to my face as I instinctually smiled.


    "Hoho, how cute!" The priestess immediately rubbed her head. "If you show that love for long enough, who knows! Maybe one day you''ll be a proper priest!"


    "Hehe~" Her smile filled the hall with warmth almost instantly, quickly thawing the frost that had formed on my soul as the early morning sun shed light through the colorful windows by the entrance.


    It was truly a scene deserving of a painting. "Well, let''s not dally and let your Mother''s hard work go cold this morning, okay?"


    "Okay!" With an innocent smile, the young girl wasted no time trotting back up to the statue.


    But the moment she got there, the warmth in my chest vanished, and everything froze in ce.


    *Vwoom* The presence of a god appeared behind me instantaneously.


    It was Eir, but I couldn''t even turn around to face her.


    "Skuld," her tone was frosty and stern. "What are you doing..."


    Silence immediately wrapped around us before I slowly sat up. "I''m living."


    "Living?" Indignation seeped into her voice. "Living?! While everyone around you dies, you are sitting back and simply.. living?!"


    Her words pierced my soul like daggers of ice, but somehow, I didn''t shy away that day. "If you were me, what else would you have done?"


    "The least you could have done was give Vidar and Freya oracles-"


    "You know that wouldn''t have been possible," I spoke bluntly as I looked back at her. "Freya''s disdain for me was no secret, and Vidar never once acknowledged my existence after his mother''s death. If you really want to throw me at someone, me Odin. All he needed to do was send them to me. They would have listened..." Turning away, I looked back at the young girl below, happily reaching for a steaming piece of bread. "But he is too afraid of fate."


    Eir instantly fell into silence.


    "The Aesir is in shambles because of Odin, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not... The question now is whether you will remain loyal to a man who would throw his own son into a wolf''s den because he cannot face his own fear."


    Her eyes slowly widened. "You..."


    "Haah�� I''m going to leave the Aesir.. and hope the Fenrir are as merciful as Grace has said." As I slowly stood up, a vision surfaced in my mind, and my expression darkened. "I don''t expect you to understand me yet, but maybe you will eventually�� At least I hope����


    Giving her onest look, I saw her angered expression had washed with worry.


    ��I know you used to worry about me.. but this time you need to focus on yourself�� Frigg is a powder keg, and Odin is a crazed pirate with a match. Whether you wish to take that as a warning or the crazed ramblings of a woman who lost touch with herself.. It��s up to you�� I just hope you don��t fall into the same hole the others did��"


    *Vwoom* The moment I disappeared, my church, frozen in time, was wrapped in silence.


    Excruciating silence.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>The new POV format will only be used when the new setting is vastly different from the previous POV</strong>


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    --------------------


    Behold, "The Queen of the Frost"

 Chapter 306: Silencing the Masses

    Chapter 306: Silencing the Masses


    Mid Evening - Mid Winter : The Forgotten Inds


    -----


    - Amphitrite Ouran��s ~


    "Screech! Screech! Scr-" *POOF-FWOOOOSH* A huge ck bird exploded into a flurry of feathers as I ripped past it, yet my eyes never left the horizon for an instant.


    It had been about two hours since I left my estate at that point, and I was beginning to near the merfolk city ��rmos on the southern side of the Forgotten Inds, but rather than calming down as time passed, my anger only worsened. -If Poniria is truly involved in this... I swear to Bahamut...- By then, nothing but the thought of skinning Poniria like an ox could cross my mind.


    At least that was the case until ''she'' showed up.


    *Vwoom* As if teleporting, a faint figure of a woman appeared right next to my head, effortlessly keeping pace with me. "~You seem to be in a rush.~"


    Normally, I would have been quite happy to see her, but that time, things were a little different. "Now isn''t the time for a casual chat, Grace."


    "~Hoh? Have you already caught wind of the situation?~"My demeanor quickly shifted upon seeing that she knew something. "A couple hours ago, a sizable group of ancients came to my estate to try and kill me. Of those I spared, two of them spilled pretty easily..."


    "~I see. What did they say was happening?~"


    "In short, they were working with the Chst��s family to create a scene in As, kill a few important figures around Bahamut, then frame Siratha and the Ancient Fenrir for it all." Merely recalling their words left a sour tang on my tongue. "They even said some gods in the Aesir were getting involved. Do you know about them?" -If it''s more than one, I could be in trouble...-


    She immediately nodded. "~Both Freya and Vidar were involved.~"


    My body instantly tensed up. "W..What?" Both gods were big names in Asgard, with Freya being one of the main seats in the church and Vidar being Odin''s son. -But...- "What do you mean by ''were''?"


    "~Well, Freya''s main target was ''him''... What do you think happened?~"


    My eyes quickly widened.


    "~They thought he was Nott''s apostle so they tried to make a scene killing him, using it to spark hatred between the Fenrir and dragons, but ended up digging their own grave in the process. The issue is that the spark wasn''tpletely snuffed out with Freya''s death or the academy''s destruction.~"


    I almost instantly froze -The academy?- But the ice was quickly thawed by the growing fires of rage deep within me. "Poniri��, that deceitful bitch..."


    Thankfully though, Grace caught me before I could sink into the pit of fiery rage. "~She is dead already, and Zafe��ri is still alive and well, don''t worry. Thankfully, she was stationed on the outer wall of the academy, so she only received some burns.~"


    "A-Ah.. is that so..." I spoke with a slight quiver in my throat, the me of anger in my chest refusing to extinguish immediately.


    "~Nevertheless, I need a favor.~" Although I couldn''t see her eyes, it felt like she suddenly matched my gaze. "~Like I said earlier, the spark wasn''t snuffed out. Those who could hear Poniri��''s voice beyond the walls of the academy have already started concocting and spreading rumors through As, and the image of the Ancient Fenrir is falling because of it.~"


    -Why is that?- "Isn''t he a Ragnarok? They should be-"


    She quickly shook her head. "~They don''t know what really happened yet. Vasilias was.. not in the condition to speak with them... Regardless, that''s what I''m here for. I need you to go to the Ragnarok''s estate and tell them what really happened, perhaps omitting the parts pertaining to the gods, and assist them where you can.~"


    Taken aback by the genuine tone in her voice, my anger finally started to subside. "Hooh... Alright then.. I''ll see what I can do..." But as the view of a massive, half-submerged city began cresting the horizon, doubt started to surface. "Will I be able to get into the city?"


    "~You shouldn''t have any problems near the rune. The only thing locked down currently is the academy and the surrounding area.~" She paused before turning toward the northern horizon. "~In any case, it looks like I have somepany, so we will part ways here.~"


    I quickly nced over my shoulder to see if I could spot anyone, but to no avail. "Alright, I''ll see what I can do on my end, but before you go, do you know where Zafe��ri is?"


    "~The West Northwest edge of the academy. Last I checked, she was helping some younger dragons that incurred injuries beyond the wall.~"


    "Ah, I see..." -I don''t need to worry then...-


    "~Once you see the academy, you will understand. Until then, be safe. You were a target too.~"


    "Will do." With a quick nod, I blinked, and by the time I opened my eyes, Grace was already gone. "Haah..." -I hope herpany is friendly...-


    Turning back to the horizon, I continued my flight to the massive city built on stilts and eventually found my way to arge mythril tform raised far out of the water with statues of dragons and merfolk surrounding it.


    From the air, the surrounding buildings were quite empty, but as Inded and spread my aura through them, I found no signs of any fighting or resistance. -Good... It looks like those traitorous bastards at least didn''t cross the line here...- Assuming the merfolk had all retreated beneath the surface of the water, I quickly turned back to the rune, selecting As as I walked up to the pedestal before injecting some mana into it. *vwoop*


    Little did I know, I would soone face to face with a sight I could have never imagined and would be caught up in a whirlwind I could have never prepared for.


    -----


    Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : Valtivar | Siratha


    - Leif Vilulf ~


    *knock-knock* The soft rhythm of a knock echoed through my office as I looked out over the courtyard, dimly lit by the afternoon sun peeking through the clouds gathering over us.


    -What a fitting atmosphere...- Slowly turning around, I stepped away from the balcony''s railing and walked inside my office, leaving the door open to allow a chilly breeze inside. "You may enter."


    *Click* The door swung open, revealing a radiant young woman with lustrous silver hair and deep bronze irises.


    However, my eyes were immediately drawn to the exposed scales on her neck. -They look to be getting lighter...- "It seems your condition is continuing to improve."


    She immediately bowed once the door closed behind her. "It is all thanks to you, Lady Vilulf."


    "You know that I didn''t do anything. A generous sponsor simply decided to help you." Finally sitting down, I opened a small drawer and pulled out a ss vial containing a single drop of a bright copper-colored liquid.


    With a grateful smile, Siratha''s newest and youngest Apostle, Liv Sigmond, immediately walked up and bowed again before gently taking it from my hands. *tap*


    Carefully uncorking the delicate container, she tilted it up and dripped the trace volume of liquid into her mouth, causing her face to momentarily scrunch up before eventually easing.


    "You''re getting pretty good at handling the pain."


    Her cheeks slowly turned rosy before she let out a deep breath. "Hooh..." Her breath was easily visible in the cold air, but after a moment, she didn''t even seem to notice it. "Thank you for the praise."


    -She really has improved greatly... But she still has a ways to go...- Finally sitting down, I took a moment to shift things around on my desk before putting on a serious expression. "So, how are things going?"


    Quickly following suit, Liv''s demeanor turned more formal. "Things are going well. The new Hall of Prayers have been very well received so far, and, as you predicted, the number of people aspiring to be clerics and priests has grown exponentially. There has even been a surge of people already qualified for higher ranks appearing in mostrger cities."


    -Sounds like some of the dragons decided to make the shift already...- "That''s quite a good sign, but for now we should be careful." -The more dragons openly make the shift, the more disdain those loyal to the dragon god will have for us...- Slowly standing up from my seat, I looked over my shoulder, through the open door and over the railing of the balcony to meet eyes with a rtively thin, masked figure crouched on the roof of a building.


    He disappeared the moment I set eyes on him, but no matter what they might have thought, my eyes followed them with ease.


    "Some dragons are truly endlessly arrogant..." *CR-RAAAACK* A deafening noise exploded from the room as I punched through an invisible white barrier and connected with the chest of a transformed dragon.


    *CRUNCH-FWOOOSH* Their ribs instantly shattered like y before they plowed through the wall of my office, zipping across the courtyard and mming into arge building just beyond the front gate. *Crumble*


    -How helplessly naive...- "Liv," I slowly turned around to see her holding her hand in front of her face. "Go over and quickly detain him. Kill him if he starts to wake up."


    She slowly lowered her hands before jumping up in a hurry. "Y-Yes, ma''am!"


    Watching her dart through the hole in the wall, I rxed my posture once more and walked back out onto the balcony.


    But before I could let out an alleviating breath as I watched Liv pry the ck-robed man out of the rubble, I felt my skin crawl slightly. -Huh?-


    Instantly looking up into the canopy, my eyes went wide.


    Standing along the treant''s looming branches were six dragons, each towering 60 to 80 meters tall, staring down at me while mindlessly exuding their aura and leaking bloodlust.


    -Ah.. So it wasn''t just a lone.. arrogant dragon...- But rather than feeling fear, after a moment of shock, my heart steadied. -Had this been even just a year ago, I would have been worried...-


    Spreading my aura out, I tapped on the shoulders of several people throughout the estate, signaling them toe to my office, but before long, a smile came to my face. -I wonder how much I have improved since Lord Nott''s return...-


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 Chapter 307: Voldukirk, The City of Faith

    Chapter 307: Voldukirk, The City of Faith


    Late Afternoon - Mid Summer : Voldukirk | The Holy Kingdom


    -----


    - Astren Ravenna ~


    *Clop-Clop-Clop-Clop* The endless tter of hooves tapping against brick filled the air as we traveled down a somewhat crowded brickid road, cutting through a seemingly endless in. -To think the capital has such nice roads even this far outside of the city...-


    The road was incredibly wide, easily able to amodate severalnes of carriages going each direction, with more than enough space along its edges for groups to camp out while still within the short stone wall, and under the protection of the patrolling knights. -But even beyond the wall.. there''s nothing but rodents and.. some slimes...-


    Looking out over the wall, I watched a slow, clear-jelly-like blob slowly roll over and absorb the dead body of a mouse on the ground before simply sitting there. -There really isn''t anything harmful around here, is there...-


    But unlike what you would expect for such a peaceful area, the knights patrolling the road were all at least C rank, with many even reaching into A rank. -I guess.. the capital really is a different realm...- "Is it really like this all the way to the city?"


    ncing back over at Father, I saw him carefully adjusting several of the body-covering bandages he was wearing before gently picking up the reigns of his horse with his non-broken hand. "Typically, there aren''t nearly this many people." He spoke lethargically as he looked up at me. "Asgard has started bing more active recently, so many families have begun making pilgrimages to pray, and on top of it, it is almost the summer solstice, so some are alsoing for theiring of age ceremonies." He nced over his shoulder at the rows of knights walking in formation behind us with a visibly anxious expression as he spoke.


    His exhaustion likely extenuated his anxiety, but ever since I spoke with him at the Southern dungeon, he had been walking on eggshells. -But after seeing those monsters destroy our home... I can''t me him...-ncing back, I immediatelyid my gaze on a fancy, tan, and green-clothed man nonchntly walking ahead of the Temrs.


    Based on his outward appearance, he looked like nothing more than some young rich nobleman, perhaps even someone of extended royalty, but what no one but our group knew was that he was actually a colossal, green-scaled monster that could kill nearly everyone here on a whim.


    "Brr..." A chill passed down my spine as I recalled the memory of Lord Btos, an even more monstrous, red-scaled dragon, flying into the air and destroying Deepcross in a single swift, fiery breath from over a dozen kilometers away. -Fucking monsters...-


    Thankfully, he had already parted ways with us by then, and with Katherine nearby, I didn''t have to worry, but the memory had already dealt its damage and left its scar.


    "Haah..." Slowly easing my grip on the reigns, I looked up at the bright blue sky and tried to ease my nerves some, but after a moment, the thin cloud floating in the sky over us was scattered as if something had flown through it, and my nerves heightened again. "Ugh..."


    Whether it was real or simply my mind ying tricks on me, I truly couldn''t tell.


    "Are you having shbacks again?" Father spoke with worry as he pulled over to me. "Here, I still have some of that tea Elizabeth made the other night." Reaching into the pile of luggage on the back of his horse, he quickly pulled out a wine bottle before popping the cork and handing it to me.


    Inside the bottle was a type of tea I had previously never heard of, called rose tea. -But even though the taste isn''t great, it works like a potion...-


    *crackle* *swish-swish* Quickly warming it up with the fire rune on the ss, I swirled it around for a moment before tilting my head back and taking arge gulp. *Gulp* *swish* "Hooh..."


    Almost immediately, my body started to rx, but after taking another smaller sip, I gave the bottle back to Father and looked up to see another person pulling their horse over to me.


    It was a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl who could easily be mistaken for someone of royal blood if she simply dressed well.


    Her name was Elizabeth, the newest addition to our group. "Are you alright, Miss Astren? Is it the trauma again?"


    I immediately nodded. "I had some tea already though, so-"


    "The tea is only meant to ease your nerves for a couple hours. Hold on, let me grab something you can try." She looked like she could only be 13 or 14, but she somehow acted like she was in her twenties. "Here." After rummaging through her luggage for a moment, she pulled out a tiny white tablet with the texture of chalk. "Bite this, and spread it over your tongue. When you don''t feel any more chunks, swallow it."


    "O..Okay..." Hesitantly following her directions, I dropped the tablet into my mouth and crushed it between my teeth.


    "Try not to overexert yourself for at least a day. If you do, you''ll pay for it. And if you feel weird, let me know immediately."


    I gave her an odd look for a moment before simply nodding. "Alright..."


    Although I had more questions than I could count, something I came to realize shortly after she joined was that she was just as much of a monster as Katherine was.


    Unlike Katherine though, her strength wasn''t physical. Her strengthsid in her magic, which was unlike anything I had ever seen, and her simply mind-boggling medical knowledge that even shocked Doctor Oswyn. (The mouse demihuman doctor) -If she managed to shock the man leading the advancement of medicine.. who am I to question her...-


    Watching her quickly begin writing in a journal as she trotted back up to Katherine, I felt even more out of ce than I did before.


    But thankfully, there was something that quickly changed that.


    "W..what the..." My eyes went wide as I looked to the horizon and saw the top of a wall stretching over it.


    "Hm?" Elizabeth also looked up after hearing me, but unlike what I expected, her reaction was the same as mine. "I-is that.. a wall?!"


    Towering nearly a hundred and fifty meters tall, the wall of unblemished white rock covered in massive carvings of gold and gems stood like a gift left by our ancestors. A monument of prosperity from times that had long since passed. -But I''m not sure whether to feel impressed by it.. or afraid of what it was meant to stop...-


    As we continued to approach, the intricate designs on the wall became clearer, and detailed depictions of historical battles, mythical creatures, and divine symbols revealed themselves to form what could only be described as a story.


    The story of a war.


    "It''s beautiful, isn''t it?" Father spoke with a hint of awe while looking up at the engravings with an endearing look.


    "Y-yeah..." But I was wrapped with more curiosity than awe. -There really are a lot of gods depicted on the wall... Why don''t I recognize that many of them?-


    Falling into thought as we approached the gate, the Second Temr Division made their way to the front of the group and helped push us through the crowds of people at the entrance before eventually making it through the gate.


    *Vwoom* Almost instantly, it felt as though we had stepped into a different world. The temperature was cooler, the air was dryer, and the mana was thicker, but most of all, the city was unlike anything I had ever seen. -Woah...-


    Inside the walls, almost every building I could see touted six or more floors and simply exuded extravagance with the use of polished stones and crystal clear ss lining the walls of every store.


    But somehow, the atmosphere of the city didn''t take away from it.


    People d with beautiful clothing bustled about the streets, chatting, haggling, and shopping at the myriad stalls and shops that lined the broad boulevard. There were even street performers showcasing their talents, filling the air with melodies, dazzling tricks, and the gasps andughter from onlookers.


    It was truly as if I had stepped into a different time period. "Is it.. normally like this?" Murmuring to myself, I looked up at Elizabeth, but she seemed right at home, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath with a wide smile on her face, making me quickly question my dismissal of her being royalty.


    "There''s nothing quite like the heart of Voldukirk," Father remarked, his voice tinging with nostalgia.


    Wide-eyed, I could only nod in agreement. The city''s aura was intoxicating: a blend of history and modernity, a ce where tradition and innovation met.


    To my surprise, even Katherine seemed to be awestruck, looking down the boulevard toward the unfathomably massive structure that was only barely peeking over the horizon with wide eyes like I was.


    But unfortunately, we weren''t there to sightsee.


    After speaking with Andras Snyder, the captain of the Second Division Temrs, Father turned back to me with a serious look. "You, Elizabeth, and Katherine go get a few rooms as the Sunflower Inn just up the road here. I have to go with Sir D��ntro and the temrs to meet with the church for now."


    My worries quickly began poking through my awe. "Okay, but please be careful. Remember what Elizabeth said?"


    "Yes, yes, ''just because I don''t feel the pain doesn''t mean its not there''. I''ll still be careful; just promise me you''ll do the same."


    I quickly nodded. "I will..." -Im with these two monsters in the form of children... We will be fine...-


    Quickly sending him off, the Temrs continued up the wide street, drawing the attention of everyone around and leaving Elizabeth, Katherine, and I all alone.


    Or at least that was what we thought.


    "Ladies." A gentle man''s voice instantly made Elizabeth and I jolt as we whipped around and met eyes with a tall man in a white and gold robe. "Are you perhaps in need of a guide?"


    -Where did hee from...- I hadn''t sensed a thing, but before I could even question who he was, Katherine trotted away on her horse before stopping at a small merchant stall on the side of the road reading ''Denys Jerky'', with a mix of fresh meat hanging on it.


    The priest-looking man next to us looked simply dumbfounded, but after a moment, she returned with something in her mouth and a handful of something dark.


    "Here." Without warning, she tossed a strip each to Elizabeth and me.


    *pat* -Huh?- I couldn''t even tell what it was. -Is it old meat?-


    Looking back up at her, I wanted to ask what it was, but after seeing a faint smile on her face as she tore a piece off to eat, I simply followed suit.


    -It looks gross and.. smells weird, but...- Seeing her happily eating it, I simply closed my eyes and ripped a piece off after some effort.


    At first, it tasted like nothing, but once I started chewing it, a unique taste spread through my mouth. -Woah...-


    But the next thing I knew, the vibrant buzz around us was reced by an eerie silence, and Katherine''s joyful expression vanished. -What?-


    "My apologies for interrupting your treat, Ladies," the priest spoke softly, his voice carrying a subtle, otherworldly undertone. "But I must inquire once more. Do you require the services of a guide?"


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 Chapter 308: The Ties that Bind

    Chapter 308: The Ties that Bind


    Late Afternoon - Mid Summer : Voldukirk | The Holy Kingdom


    -----


    - Astren Ravenna ~


    "My apologies for interrupting your treat, Ladies," the priest spoke softly as we were surrounded by a veil of silence. "But I must inquire once more. Do you require the services of a guide?"


    He spoke politely, but something about his tone simply sent shivers down my spine. -And with so many people around, I can''t even sense his presence...-


    Looking into his eyes, I felt like my soul itself was being observed.. like I was looking at something more monster than human. -Is he.. a dragon?-


    "Since when did a priest require so many guards?" Elizabeth''s voice instantly ripped through the silence like a cold wind.


    "Hoh? I didn''t expect you to be able to sense them... But you are mistaken." Several people donning heavy white and gold armor instantly revealed themselves around us, each wearing a golden bnce on their chest. "My name is Barion Ilkari, a deacon of the Church of Bnce. I apologize for the misunderstanding." He bowed his head slightly as he spoke.


    But while Elizabeth and I were simply stunned, there was someone who wasn''t.*Clop* *Clop* *Clop* Walking her horse up to the deacon, Katherine looked down at him with a frigid gaze. "Have you heard of the name Vasilias Whyte?"


    Confusion immediately washed over his confidence, but after a moment, it turned to agitation. "Whyte?" Looking up at her, he didn''t bother hiding his distaste. "How does someone like you know that na-"


    *Fwip* As if teleporting, the tip of Katherine''s half-wrapped rapier appeared just in front of the deacon''s head.


    But he simply caught it on the bottom of his finger. "What a deceiving young gi-" *CRRACK* Jolting his head to the side, a white cloud instantly blew through his finger and gouged out a strip of the smooth brick road behind him.


    The wall of silence around us was instantly dispelled, but rather than hearing the chatter of everyone nearby, we heard nothing.


    Everyone nearby had their eyes on us, watching blood start dripping out of the hole in the deacon''s finger with a look of disbelief or awe until, finally, Katherine spoke in a bone-chilling tone. "Spill what you know, this time without the aggression."


    Whispers instantly filled the air around us, but after a moment, the people started to scatter, disappearing into alleyways and stores like mice hiding from a cat.


    "It appears I misunderstood who the guest was... I apologize for my rudeness." Pulling his bloody finger away from her rapier, he bowed again, this time more deeply. "If I were to guess, you must be Elizabeth Valia, correct?"


    He spoke confidently toward Katherine, but after just a moment, Elizabeth spoke up. "T..that would be me.. but..." Her look of shock quickly turned to skepticism. "How do you know my name..."


    "I told it to him."


    Hearing a youthful man''s voice, I instantly whipped my head around and met eyes with a man wearing a simple but beautiful white garb woven with gold string, proudly disying a golden scale surrounded by a halo on his chest.


    He was quite tall, with bright golden hair, and had the face of a prince, but his hands were both visibly worn from countless years of swinging a sword. -He looks like he''s only twenty, but...-


    At the time, I couldn''t sense his presence at all, but even still, my instincts told me what I needed to know. "My name is Hephas, the Apostle of Eir, the Goddess of Bnce. Please allow me to apologize for whatever my deacon has said to upset you." He immediately bowed deeply, his golden locks falling forward. "The Church of Bnce values harmony and peace above all else, and I assure you, Deacon Barion''s actions were not in alignment with our principles. I hope you can be forgiving."


    There was a moment of silence as Elizabeth and I nced at each other before Katherine spoke up. "In that case, do you know anything about the name Vasilias Whyte?"


    He slowly straightened back up with a hint of uncertainty. "Unfortunately not, however the goddess may." Finally looking toward the deacon and pdins, the Apostle tipped his head to the side, causing them to instantly vanish into the sea of presences around us. "In any case," turning toward Elizabeth, he put on a more gentle smile. "Our Goddess Eir has taken a particr interest in you, Miss Valia, and from what I''ve seen today, in yourpanion as well."


    Elizabeth was instantly taken aback. "Why would a goddess be interested in us?"


    He briefly nced at Katherine before turning back to Elizabeth. "It would be shameless of me to attempt to understand the reasoning of my god. All I must do is follow her guidance... However, I implore us to move to the church. There, we can discuss these matters.. away from prying eyes." He quickly shot a gaze over his shoulder before turning back to us with a polite air.


    But while I felt like I needed to follow his word, I was hesitant. "We were advised by the Second Temr Division to stay at the Sunflower Inn until they returned."


    "Do not fret." He spoke gently as if speaking to a young child. "I shall send some of our Pdins to inform the Temrs of your whereabouts. They will understand."


    Elizabeth instantly shot me a skeptical look upon hearing his tone, but before she could speak, Katherine turned to face him. "Only if the deacon is there."


    Hephas immediately raised his hand up to his chest before looking over Elizabeth and me. "Understood. Are there any other demands?"


    I quickly shook my head with reluctance before ncing at Elizabeth, looking toward Katherine with a mix of worry and confusion.


    But after a moment, she lowered her gaze. "If possible, allow me to speak with your goddess."


    "Why, of course." His smile slowly widened, causing me to start second-guessing myself, but rather than letting doubt fill my mind, I simply followed Katherine.


    -If he has bad intentions.. I''m safest with Elizabeth and Katherine...-


    And so, with a mix of reluctance and curiosity, we followed the Apostle several kilometers up the road, far past therge and extravagant Sunflower Inn, and into the upper district where everything was practically supersized, beforeing up to the towering spire of a church sorge, I had to question its real origin. -Was this city.. really made for humans?-


    -----


    Mid Morning - Mid Winter : As | Bahamut


    - Zachari Ragnarok ~


    The relentless scratching of a quill against paper echoed within the confines of my office, each line written with an intensity born from mounting stress as warm morning light shined through the warped wall of ss behind me. -It''s been two days... We are running out of time...-


    *Shuffle* Quickly pulling out several other papers, I skimmed through them. They were the interrogation records of those believed to be tied to the incident with the Chstis family, but no matter how many times I read through them, there were no patterns, ties, or inconsistencies. -And it''s safe to assume those on the list of ties that suddenly disappeared that night are dead...-


    A chill passed down my back as I thought about the sight of a colossal hole being in the ce of the academy a few nights prior. -The maids have been saying Vasilias was just tired when he returned, but.. is that really something he would do without being forced into a corner?-


    I felt my heart ache slightly as I thought about it, but after a moment, a soft knock interrupted my thoughts. *Knock-Knock*


    "You may enter." Finally setting down the quill with my aura, I looked up to the door as it opened to see a sleek multi-winged, blue-scaled dragon with the bodily maturity of an ancient, but shrunk down to my size.


    "Miss Ragnarok," she spoke in a much softer and more exhausted tone than when we spoke a few days prior.


    "I already told you that you can call me Zachari. In any case, how have things been progressing on your end?"


    Amphitrite''s expression instantly turned troubled. "Mixed..." Continuing into my office, she closed the door with her tail and sat on one of the many cushions in front of me. "Using conflicting rumors has effectively disconnected the colors of Vasilias''s scales from the event, but they have fallen short in most other aspects."


    "Haah..." My sigh was heavy and filled with anxiety. "Part of me wishes I could just hand this whole mess over to the Elder Hall."


    "You know as well as I that your family can''t stay silent for much longer. The rumors bought us some time, but that time is starting to run out."


    "I know, I know." I retorted with a hint of frustration in my voice. "The issue is that Vasilias destroyed every speck of evidence we could have used to incriminate the Chstis family." Straightening my posture, I handed her the investigation records. "Within the academy''s walls, nothing was even left recognizable, and when Sir Ats��li finally got to investigate the bottom of the pit, the only things left were artifacts made of ck mythril, some shattered mana cores, and several seemingly random divinity systems..."


    "How many divinity systems did he find?"


    "Around thirty, but none match any of the big figures we would have expected. Poniria and all the academy executives that were supposedly there are nowhere to be seen."


    "Then what if you made the divinity systems you found public knowledge and announced that the person everyone saw speaking wasn''t Poniria?"


    "And y it off like all the evidence of her and the professors heading into the academy doesn''t exist?" I quickly tossed her a massive stack of papers. "If we had evidence to incriminate her and the professors, this would be unbelievably easy, but we simply don''t... We can''t hit her for possessing a restricted artifact because the rumor that the initial st was a spell by the Ancient Fenrir has already spread, and we can''t simply im her words to be false without evidence stating otherwise."


    Amphitrite''s expression darkened the longer I spoke. "In that case, why don''t you rule with an iron fist. im it without evidence and start an official public investigation to tame the masses. No one would be able to object."


    "But trust in my family would plummet. Rumors have spread too far, and people are already upset..." I paused as I slowly fell into thought before mumbling to myself, "Maybe I should just proceed with what the n Vasilias told me was..." -Announcing an alliance with the Fenrir could help, but it would simultaneously force us to take me for destroying the academy, even if we find evidence to incriminate Poniria... Is that a cost we can take right now?-


    Amphitrite immediately opened her mouth to speak, but another knock at the door cut her off. *Knock-Kncok*


    Sensing two servants at the door, I momentarily set my thoughts aside. "Please enter."


    A butler opened immediately to reveal Antonia in her humanoid form, clutching a metal chest stained with dried blood. -What the...- "Antonia, what is that?"


    Walking inside, she motioned the butler to close the door and bowed to Amphitrite. "A messenger from.. the old Elder Hall.. came by with this and a message." *ck* Setting down the heavy chest, she picked up a scroll resting on top of it and moved it to me with her aura. "This is the original message."


    Quickly unrolling and reading through it, my eyes widened. "This scroll..."


    "It was written by Agatha Exypnos, the one with the temporary authority of the Intelligence Agency." Agatha held a deep bow as she spoke.


    -That means this.. is real...- Slowly looking back at the scroll, my mind raced. It detailed an event that urred at the old Elder Hall. Several ancients showed up as a group, visibly aggressive toward Myles, but one of the Ancient Fenrir killed them all, seemingly protecting Myles. -Based on how they described him.. it must have been Ilios...- "But what is the chest then?"


    Agatha held her bow in silence for a moment before speaking. "H-he said one of the Ancient Fenrir gave it to him and tied it to the scroll. I-I don''t know what is inside it."


    -What?- Quickly pushing my aura into it, I sensed stacks of artifacts and medallions, with a pile of letters at the bottom, but even though there was seemingly nothing stopping me from reading them, the letters simply appeared nk to my aura. -But no one would store nk letters with broken seals...- "Could they be..."


    And that was when I finally noticed the symbol on the wax used to seal the letters. -The Holy Kingdom...-


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 Chapter 309: Foreboding

    Chapter 309: Foreboding


    Early Evening - Mid Summer : Voldukirk | The Holy Kingdom


    -----


    - Astren Ravenna ~


    *fwoooosh* A strong, steady breeze blew over us as we walked through arge courtyard filled with trimmed green grass beneath the shade of the colossal, looming spire of the church. -The closer I get.. the less I understand...-


    It was so tall it looked like it could carve into the clouds and was so extravagant that the carvings on the city''s outer wall seemed like child''s y, but my mind could only barely wrap around it. -So this is a church of a true god...-


    But little did I know, the grandeur of the outside was just the beginning.


    Stepping through the massive archwayrge enough tofortably fit a dragon, we found ourselves in a cathedral hall somehow evenrger than it looked from the outside, with a mural of Valha on the veiling seamlessly connecting to the sky like a window into the realm of the gods.


    Had I seen it earlier in life, I may have simply seen an array of stunning paintings, but at that moment, there was something about it that made my mind spin. It felt as though the gazes of those in the painting were truly looking down on me.. judging me...


    The longer I stared at it, the more entranced I became until it eventually felt as though the painting itself began to breathe and move, but at that moment, the soft hum of prayer around me drew my mind back to reality. -Huh?-Lowering my gaze, I immediately found myself looking over countless rows of peasants and citizens groveling, engrossed in their own prayers, filling the air with murmurs of solemnity while beautiful priests and priestesses walked around and handed out bread and asionally silver coins with them.


    It was like a beautiful ceremony, lit by the warm light of artifacts on the ceiling as if it were blessed light from Valha.


    But while the atmosphere was warm, it was also heavy.


    The Apostle spoke softly as we walked. "Many whoe here do so after suffering immense loss. Theye to pray to the Goddess in order to look beyond their misfortunes and receive guidance to move on, even knowing that without mana, she cannot hear them." He looked over those praying with a soft gaze and a warm smile. "But even without hearing their voice, the Goddess understands why they are here, and that alone is enough to bring them sce."


    Looking down at a young woman as we walked past, I saw her tightly clutching the doll of a child, still damp from the tears dripping off her face, but she somehow still smiled, staring up at the mural of Valha on the ceiling as if she could see her child in it.


    But no matter how sorry I felt, I was still hesitant. -If the gods truly are omnipotent, why would they let people suffer such pain...-


    Continuing deeper into the cathedral, we quickly approached a colossal statue near the wall opposite the entrance. It depicted a beautiful woman, her stunning figure draped in a single cloth, holding a hanging golden bnce in her hands.


    When I first saw it, the bnce was perfectly poised, not tilting even the slightest in either direction, but as we finally walked beneath it, it suddenly started moving, ever-so-slowly osciting back and forth.


    It caught me by surprise. The bnce was sorge that even if a human was dropped on it, it wouldn''t budge, yet there it was, shifting as if nudged by a gentle breeze.


    "It seems the Goddess is quite eager to speak with you all," The Apostle murmured with a hint of awe. "I nned to speak with you all normally, but it seems the goddess wishes to do things differently."


    Quickly turning away from the ordinary, human-sized door we were walking to, we made our way up to the massive wall behind the statue. -What? What are we doing here?-


    Intricate carvings decorated its surface, telling tales of gods, men, and the eternal bnce between fortune and misfortune, war and love, but as the Apostle walked up to it and set his hands on it, there was nothing but confusion in my mind.


    At least until he pushed on it and effortlessly split open the wall like a door without making a sound, revealing the imprable darkness beyond it.


    It felt as though I was looking at an illusion, as if I was simply caught in a hallucination, and if I tried to walk it, I would just hit the wall.


    But the Apostle simply motioned us forth. "The Goddess will speak to each of you on your own. Be not afraid."


    His calm voice did nothing to ease the tangled web of anxiety forming in my stomach, but after watching Katherine and Elizabeth walk in without worry, I let out a deep breath and followed after them. "Hooh..."


    But the moment I stepped into the ckness, the world behind me disappeared, the murmurs of prayer and the noises of air flowing through the hall were silenced, and the feeling of the ground beneath my feet vanished. -W..what?-


    "~Hoh? What do we have here?~" A majestic, soothing voice echoed through my head instantly, bringing my thoughts and confusion to a halt. "~I never would have expected to find a neglected gem amongst those onlycking polish...~"


    I wanted to respond the moment the beautiful voice finished, even if it was to simply ask who she was, but the moment I tried, an energy enveloped me, warm andforting like a heavy nket woven by the love of a mother.


    "~It appears fate has tasked me with taking care of a lostmb.~" The voice carried a pure, inhuman joy within it.


    But while deep down, it felt maniptive, and mixed confusion and worry into my mind... There was nothing that could make it surface.


    Slowly sinking into the warm pressure of the energy around me, I slowly drifted to sleep, but at thest moment, a searing pain ripped through my head, my few remaining senses blurred, and the sensation of falling filled my body.


    But somehow, I didn''t feel fear.


    At that moment, it was as if I had be simply incapable of it.


    -----


    Mid Morning (A couple dayster) - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    - Vasilias Ragnarok ~


    *hmmm* The gentle hum of the mana umtion rune under my bed was the only thing that could be heard from my room that morning. Over thest four days, I had been in a sleep so deep that I wouldn''t have woken up even if someone had hit me with all their might, but that morning, there was a war going on between my mind and body to continue sleeping or wake up.


    *Click* "Hooh..." Letting out a foggy breath as she walked into my room, Chloe quickly changed to her dragon form and made her way to the corner, where severalrge rags and cloths wereid. "Just how much aura does he have at this point..."


    Gently draping them over her wing, she walked over to me and started gently washing my scales, starting at my ws and working her way up. It had be her routine over thest few days as the mana umtion rune caused lots of dust to settle on my body, but unfortunately, that day was a little different.


    The winner of the battle being waged in my body had decided the winner.


    *FWIP-CRRRACK* Jolting awake, I leapt up with enough force to shatter the stone tform beneath my bed, pinning Chloe to the ground in the process before suddenly regainingposure and lowing my head withbored breaths and saliva dripping from my mouth. "Hah... Hah... Hah...."


    My mind was in a fog, clouded by a hunger that consumed my mind.


    But as my mind struggled to keep control of my instincts, I looked up in the air and saw Ilios seemingly standing on nothing, looking down at me with a cold gaze and a still, unmoving tail.


    It was as if I was looking at apletely different Fenrir, but the instant I blinked, he vanished, and I felt a wagging tail brushing across the back of my neck.


    At the time, my aura was in such a mess that I couldn''t even tell what I saw was real, but after a moment, it didn''t matter.


    "C..Chloe... I need something to eat... Fast..." Lifting my paw off her, I didn''t even have the spare energy to apologize, but somehow, she didn''t seem to care.


    "Y-Yes, my lord! I''ll bring you something right away." Her voice tingled with a mix of worry and concern, but somehow, it didn''t seem to be about her own safety, even as she jumped up and small bits of cracked scales ked off her side. She simply acted as if nothing had happened to her.


    But as much as I wish I could have said something, at the time, I couldn''t even acknowledge it.


    As she hurried out of the room, I had to dedicate every ounce of my mind to suppressing my hunger and distracting myself from it, but the fog only thickened until she eventually returned.


    *vwoom-Click* Undoing the mana lock on therge main door of my room, the doors swung open to reveal an enormous, steaming fish on a metal tray.


    *Crackle* As she pushed it inside with the help of a butler, I continuously got weird looks from those in the hall, but the only thing my mind could think of was food.


    *FWOOSH* Darting up to the tray, I instantly mped my maw onto the fish, slicing through its scales, flesh, and bone with ease before tilting my head back and swallowing it whole.


    In an instant, a quarter of the fish disappeared along with part of the tray itid on, but the metal was simply treated like additional food when it finally fell into my stomach.


    However, it still wasn''t enough. "I need more... It doesn''t matter if it''s cooked or not, or even if it''s good or trash meat..."


    The butler was frozen in ce, speechless for a moment, but Chloe instantly threw herself into a deep bow. "Yes, my lord!"


    Darting back out of the room, she left me to scarf down the rest of the fish with an audience of butlers and maids gathering at the door before returning just a momentter with another fish, this time only barely cooked.


    I lunged at it instantly, but while I noticed the difference instantly, it took a moment for me to recognize who had reced the butler to help her bring the tray.


    "Vasilias, are you alright?!" Mother''s voice filled the room with a deep, heart-wrenching worry instantaneously.


    Even to my hunger-ridden mind, it made me freeze. "I-I''m just.. hungry..." Looking up at her with a mouthful of bloody fish, I felt a bit ashamed, but after swallowing it, my instincts forced me to take another bite.


    However, it only worsened the concern in her eyes. "Your reserve feels like it''s full.. is it not? You''re eating as if it��s empty..."


    *CRUNCH* "Ish full..." I tensely mumbled as I took another massive chunk out of the fish. *Gulp* "I just feel like my body would consume itself if I don��t feed it���� *CRUNCH*


    She tensely watched me remove another chunk from the fish as she fell silent, concern woven deep into her expression, but after a moment, her expression flipped and eyes suddenly widened as if from a realization. ��Wait�� Are you trying to suppress your dragon sleep?��


    At that instant, it became so silent, and everyone became so still it felt as if time had simply stopped.


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 Chapter 310: A Concerning Word

    Chapter 310: A Concerning Word


    Mid Morning - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    "Wait�� Are you trying to suppress your dragon sleep?" Mother''s voice echoed down the halls like a voice in the catbs. Instantly wrapping us in a shroud of silence.


    *plop* *drip* It was so quiet that the only noise in the air was the sound of blood dripping onto the metal tray from the chunk of fish in my mouth.


    Everyone seemed frozen in ce, both physically and mentally.. myself included. -I.. didn''t think about that...-


    Over the past few months, the thought of my inevitable dragon sleep would periodically surface. Considering I had already well-exceeded the regr upper size limit for the adult stage at just over 38 meters tall, it was something to give thought to, but at the same time, my age made it impossible. -Based on my younger years, I should be growing at about 5 times the rate of a normal dragon, but even by that insane standard, my next sleep shouldn''t be until I''m almost 40... Surely, this is too soon...- "Ack..."


    At the time, it didn''t seem too crazy to assume my body was simply in some sort of shock after being so starved of mana, but while I was still trying to push through my daze and think about it, Mother walked up and started poking her w around my side, somehow tapping all the ces I had taken damage before giving me an odd look.


    Her gaze held a mixt of annoyance and concern. "Haah... If you took care of your body like you should have, having another dragon sleep already would be impossible.. even for you... But..." She paused before gently grazing her w against my underbelly, where it was shed open. "Your body tends to grow in bursts whenever you get injured as if it were simply waiting for an opportunity to reconstruct your body... The more damage you took, the more you would grow..."


    Her voice grew soft, a whisper of worry coloring her words before she motioned away the onlookers in the hall."But this time.. despite the grievous injuries you sustained.. you barely grew." She looked up at me with a mix of pride and worry before lowering her gaze and pressing the top of her head into my side.


    She was right, to the point that even if my mind wasn''t in a fog, I wouldn''t have been able to refute it, but while I wanted to continue to deny it, my gut told me to ept it. "So.. if this really is my sleep, what am I supposed to do?" Without thinking, I leaned down and removed another massive chunk of meat from the fish, ncing at Grace to bring another while she closed the door. *Crunch-Click*


    "It''s rare for one to awaken right at the onset like you did..." She eyed the door as she spoke. "Looking at Chloe''s condition, it looks like you might have woken up after it started and just somehow pulled things back under control... So, I don''t know."


    Slowly looking up at Ilios, happily wagging his tail while sitting on my head, the image of his cold stare down at me shed in the back of my mind. -Right... He must''ve made that look because he was getting ready to stop me.. right?-


    But I didn''t have time to think about it. "You probably have a few days at most."


    -Huh?- Hearing the voice, I looked up toward the door to see it swing open and reveal a massive, four-winged blue dragon. -What is she doing here?-


    It was Amphitrite. "I apologize for the intrusion, Miss Ragnarok. Vasilias," She politely lowered her head to both of us right away, "but I felt that this was an urgent matter. About half an hour ago, someone attempted to burn those ''records'' we were supplied with a few days ago, and the people are demanding an exnation for the scene that was caused. If we don''t address it now, it''ll spread like a wildfire."


    Mother''s expression quickly darkened even further before she looked up at Amphitrite with a serious expression. "Let''s follow the n we discussed yesterday..." Slowly turning back to me, worry quickly reappeared on her face. "While you''re here though, do you know what we should do?"


    As Mother motioned toward me, Amphitrite shot me an odd look as if Mother''s question were rhetorical. "We managed to quell some of the rumors around the city, but he still needs toy low. Having his dragon sleep in As right now would ruin everything we have done thus far. As for his condition, like I said earlier, he probably only has a few days before his hunger makes him go feral. It''s not too abnormal forter sleep stages to start while you are awake, but people will typically eat their fill and find a good ce for it before it gets bad."


    -Shit...- It wasn''t what I wanted to hear, especially with Krystallo''s birthday being right around the corner, "But with only a few days, where could I go?"


    She hesitated for a moment before speaking, "If your aura is any indicator, it will probably be on a simr scale to an ancient''s dragon sleep, meaning Central and Eastern Bahamut is a no-go. We cannot afford your sleep interfering with Myles."


    -That doesn''t leave me with many options...- To my knowledge, the best ce would have been one of our old estates, but the area was off-limits with Myles having his sleep not far from there. -I can''t do it near Hera either since she is healing... Maybe I could ask Amara or her mother to have it in the southeastern mountains?-


    "If you don''t have anywhere in mind, you could go to the Forgotten Inds. My estate in Rematra would wee you. If you wish, my daughter can guide you and help make sure the servants know to take care of your needs."


    -That.. isn''t a bad idea...- However, upon further reflection, I reconsidered. "Without magic, I''m not sure where I would be able to fly to, but I think Siratha is my best bet regardless. If the gods find out I''m sleeping, they will undoubtedly try to kill or cripple me, and The Tree of Prayer will be able to protect me from them while also supplying me with plenty of mana."


    Mother''s worry deepened instantly while uncertainty clouded Amphitrite''s voice. "If you are sure you can have a sleep there, I will trust your judgment, but you may want to also consider how much food they can supply you with."


    -Right...- "I think I have a workaround for that." Although not a perfect n, the idea was to create heavy metals with space mana and drop them into my stomach, where they''d be broken down into some base elements usable by my body. -The issue is that it uses mana, so it will be false satiation; as long as I eat a lot today though, I should be able to use it to tide myself over...-


    But Mother seemed to have other worries, "Sweetie, the Tree of Prayer has a long reputation of killing dragons. Are you sure that you''ll be safe?"


    I immediately nodded while trying to put on a reassuring smile. "I''ve been there before. Although its reputation is justified, I don''t have much to worry about..."


    Lowering my head by hers, she quickly rubbed her cheek against mine. "Just.. make sure youe back safe..."


    Feeling her trembling slightly, I pulled her closer with my wing and sat down. "I will... I promise."


    The next 30 minutes quickly ticked by after that. While I held Mother, we discussed the ns they hade up with to clean up my mess before ironing out the final details of my dragon sleep.


    In short, I was going to eat my fill for the rest of the day and make any final rounds I needed to since once the sun set, I would go to the space rune and head to Siratha.


    But I quickly ran into a problem. My appetite was insatiable.


    After several hours of stuffing my face with food and, after a while, solid blocks of iron and bismuth, rather than satiating my hunger, it worsened.


    -Shit...- The thought of starting my dragon sleep while still near Krystallo was like a haunting nightmare. I knew she wouldn''t know to stay away from me once it started, even if I told her to, so my biggest priority was getting out of As.


    But as I tidied up some of the items in my room, like the railgun and the Acardi artifact, getting ready to leave, she woke up.


    "Brother?" She spoke with lethargy. "Are you.. going somewhere?" She had been sleeping since before I woke up, but the constant flow of people through the halls outside her room had woken her up.


    "Ah," -Shit.. why now...- "It looks like it''s time for my dragon sleep, and since it would be bad to have it here, I''m going to Siratha."


    Her face paled in an instant before she ran up to me. "But! But-"


    "I know..." I spoke as softly as I could before lowering my head pressing it against hers. "I wanted to be around so we could celebrate our birthday like we used to more than anything, but.. it''s not something I can postpone. If I stay here, I won''t only be ruining all of Mom''s hard work, I''ll be putting you all in danger..."


    The air around her started to fog as distraught washed over her face. "T-Then I can go with you!"


    "No, Krystallo," I began gently, "you can''t." I paused, trying to think of how to word it, but nothing came to mind.


    Standing on her hind legs, she pressed her paws into my chest and looked up at me with wetted eyes, desperately searching mine for any hint that I was just ying some cruel joke. "But.. why? You know I can take care of myself..."


    "It''s not that simple..." I hesitated for a moment as I thought of what to say. "Since I woke up before it started, at any moment, I could simply snap and..." My body tensed as a horrifying thought filled my stomach with nausea. "Just.. you can''t..."


    She seemed to search my eyes, looking for answers as confusion and frustration mixed into tears.


    "I''m.. sorry..."


    But rather than breaking down and crying, she lowered her gaze and whispered with a heavy tone. "Brother... Just like the other night, I have had a lot of.. nightmares over the past few days... Each time I see something different, and it never makes any sense... But every time I see you in them, I see this.. shadow next to you, a cloud of darkness that.. gives me a really bad feeling... Like it''s trying to take you away from us."


    I tensed up instantly, her words weighing a mountain of uncertainty in my mind. "It''ll be okay... Just likest time, right?"


    But she just leaned into me, shaking slightly. "I.. hope so..."


    Feeling frosted tears filled with fear and worry drip onto my chest, I tried to lean down and embrace her. I wanted to reassure her that everything would be alright.


    But somehow, I wasn''t sure if I could even reassure myself...


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 Chapter 311: An Observer

    Chapter 311: An Observer


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    "Hooh..." *fwip-fwip-fwip* *scratch-fwip* I let out a heavy, strained breath as I gently move a quill across a piece of paper, drawing several thick lines to divide a series ofplex drawings. -This.. should work...-


    To most, it may have been difficult to even understand what I had made; a piece of paper with well over a dozen unbelievably intricate drawings filled with numbers, mathematics, and even some unitspletely foreign to the world, but thankfully, the person I was going to give it to was not one to stray away fromplexity.


    -For him, everything should be self exnatory. I just hope he can understand my way of measuring the purity and rity of ss...- ncing at the bottom-right-most drawing of an array of dots and figures of varying sizes and patterns, a mix of thoughts flowed through my mind before I straightened up my posture and looked at a light on the ceiling. -Fuck, my head is really starting to hurt...-


    In short, what I made was the blueprint of a ratherplex telescope, the gift I nned to make for Krystallo''s birthday.


    Originally, I was going to make it after cleaning out the Academy. I already had the design in mind, I just needed to sit down and make it. I even considered working on it with Krystallo as an excuse to give her some lessons on magic and science, but unfortunately, from the moment I fell asleep, I lost every speck of the mentalputation I was so proud of.


    -That doesn''t mean I have to give up on her gift though...- I didn''t know how long I would be gone, nor did I know what the future would hold, but if anything was to be taken for certain, it was that she would miss me. -I can''t stand that I have to leave right after getting back... But I don''t have a choice...-


    *Fwip-Fwip* Quickly, but gently folding it, I set it next to an envelope containing a letter I wrote for her and moved it under my wing with a small piece of extremely dark mythril, a payment for Sir Astali so valuable he wouldn''t be able to refuse my request. "Hooh..." -Well, I guess it''s time to give Mother my farewell again...-Finally standing up with some effort, I left my chamber and immediately nced toward Krystallo''s room just down the hall, the visual of her crying into my chest still lingering in my mind, before turning away and walking down the hall to Mother''s office with a tight chest and a bundle of anxiety looming in my mind.


    Silence filled the halls as I walked, the soft rustling of my wings and the echo of my heavy steps being the only audible noises as if magic were cast, but as I finally approached Mother''s office, the rustling of papers could be heard, spilling into the hallway through the crack in the door with a soft glow.


    *tap* *creaak* As I nudged the door open, a wave of warm light from the setting sun washed over my body, and Mother''s sky-blue eyes met mine, a mix of determination and worry lingering behind them.


    "Vasilias..." She said softly, her voice thick with suppressed anxiety and concern, "Just a moment ago, Krystallo came in here and begged for me to stop you with tears running down her face..."


    My whole body instantly tensed and my stomach churned.


    "As a mother, every time you leave, I fear you won''te back.. but this time, my gut isn''t the one telling me everything will be alright... This time.. it''s the one giving the warnings." Worry slowly started showing in her gaze as her eyes became watery.


    "Mother..." I immediately hesitated, searching for the right words, "I wish I could stay too, for you and Krystallo both, but you know just as well as I what will happen if I stay here..."


    "I know..." Her expression continued to morph with heart-wrenching worry before she finally let out a deep breath and steeled her resolve. "That is why I don''t have any intention of stopping you... I just.. want to make sure you are going to be careful..." She paused as she looked up to the ceiling before speaking with a hint of anger, seemingly aimed at herself. "Just promise me..."


    I hesitated for a moment as her bright white scales glistened in the setting sun before holding my head high and trying to speak with confidence. "I promise."


    Several seconds passed in total silence before I finally walked up to her and set the top of my head beneath her chin, as I would do as a child.


    "I promise when I get back, I will spend every moment I can with you, Krystallo, and Father... In my time out of the nest, I found many things I want to show you all, and met many people I''d love for you to meet, but for now I need to leave again."


    Although I couldn''t see her face, I felt as if tears had pooled in her eyes.


    "I know I don''t say it enough, but thank you for raising me... I love you, Mom." Firmly pressing my head into her neck for a moment, I pulled away and finally turned toward the door.


    But it wasn''t until I reached for the door handle that I heard her reply with a slight quiver in her voice. "I love you too, sweetie..."


    As a faint, warm smile forced its way through my anxiety and worry, I stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind me, swiftly making my way out of the estate, attempting to distract myself with the soothing mix of warm and cold winds.


    "Are you ready?" A sweet woman''s voice quickly filled the air as I looked over and saw a smaller, and younger version of Amphitrite. "My name is Zafe��ri, nice to meet you." She gently lowered her head as a curtsy before looking up at me with a gaze filled with curiosity.


    She was Amphitrite''s daughter, and was the one who agreed to cloak me with magic while we flew to the space rune. "Nice to meet you." She was quite a beautiful dragon, but at that moment it was thest thought in my mind. "I need to drop something off with someone on the west side of the rune, but once we get there, you can leave if you''d like."


    She immediately shook her head. "My mother asked me to escort you through the rune, so I will do just that. I need to go to Siratha, regardless."


    I hesitated for a moment before eventually deciding it wasn''t worth arguing over. "Alright, I''ll apologize for the trouble in advance then."


    "No worries at all." She paused before motioning me over and surrounding me in light magic, changing the color of my scales to a deep blue, simr to hers. "Whenever you''re ready..."


    Letting out a short breath, I momentarily nced back at the estate before reluctantly turning away and nodding my head. "Let''s go."


    *fwip-FWOOSH-fwip-FWOOSH* Quickly taking to the air, we quickly flew all the way to the space rune without any issues besides a few dragons staring at us from the ground below, before quickly finding our way to a dusty and seemingly abandoned shop.


    "Is this it?" Zafe��ri asked with a mix of confusion and curiosity.


    "Yeah. Stay here for a minute, I''ll be right back." Gently folding my wings, I turned into the familiar abandoned-looking smithing store and made my way to the back before nudging open a hidden door and walking down a familiar spiraling ramp underground. -I hope he''s here...-


    I got a little worried he wouldn''t be there as I walked, since Mother had said he was involved with the cleanup of my mess, but after just another moment, a wave of warmth containing the smell of ash and iron met my nostrils, and a familiar aura filled the hallway. -Thank goodness...-


    As I finally rounded the corner near the door, the sounds of iron being smashed beneath a heavy hammer echoed freely through the halls, unobstructed by anything.


    As I looked ahead, I clearly saw the vast smithy with its doors wide open, and Sir Ats��li standing with his mouth open at the entrance of the forge, seemingly feeding it oxygen.


    "That''s a face I didn''t expect to see any time soon." He called out before he even turned around.


    "Vathys," I tried to suppress the hint of strain in my voice as I struggled to ignore my ever-growing hunger. "I apologize in advance for not being able to chat much, but I have a request."


    *crackle-crackle* Slowly pulling himself out of the forge, he nced back at me with an odd look. "What is it?"


    Walking up to the table, I took out the blueprint, letter, and the piece of mythril.


    His eyes instantly went wide before he set down everything and walked over in a hurry to inspect it.


    "I''m about to enter my a dragon sleep, so I won''t be around for a while. I want you to make something for me and make sure my sister, Krystallo, gets it."


    "Your dragon sleep, huh? I guess that''s obvious by your aura..." He momentarily nced at me before turning back to the mythril. "In any case, I''m guessing you want me to make it with this?" He spoke with awe while he continued closely inspecting it.


    "No, actually. That''s for payment."


    Confusion sted across his face instantly. "Huh? Then what do you want me to make?"


    Handing him the blueprint, I spoke casually, "Its a telescope: a device to help my sister view the stars."


    His eyes immediately scanned over the blueprint, the detailed numbers, mathematics, and foreign units making him furrow his brows, yet still allowing a small smirk to creep on his face. "Is this really what you consider a blueprint? A part of me wants to call it a piece of art..." He studied it in a deep focus for a moment beforending on the final image. "You even have a blueprint for the ss..."


    "The rity and uniformity of the ss is the most important thing, as you might have seen by the constraints."


    "Hmm.. I see that..." Scanning over it a few more times, he grabbed a bundle of sand and melted it in the forge before morphing it with his aura.


    "Her birthday is in three days; if you can''t finish it in time, don''t worry, just make sure you deliver this letter with it."


    "I have to say, I''ve never worked on something this.. unique.. but three days should be doable. Especially with such a generous payment." He spoke somewhat hesitantly as if trying to talk while deep in focus.


    -Looks like he understood everything...- "In that case, I can confidently leave it to you."


    "Of course!" He spoke enthusiastically as he set a glowing ss cube on his anvil and looked back at me. "If you ever have stuff like this in the future, I''d love to make it for you. Just let me know."


    "I will, but for now, I need to be leaving." Feeling my aura start flowing a bit more aggressively, my nerves started to heighten.


    "Right, make sure you take care of yourself. Before you go though, let me give you some advice." His expression quickly turned serious. "When it truly starts, don''t fight or try to control your instincts. Simply float with the current until it gets shallow enough for you to stand again."


    His words immediately resonated in my mind like a piano string struck with a tuning hammer before I smiled with gratitude. "Thanks for the advice. I''ll be sure to remember it."


    "Of course. Take care of yourself, kid. "


    Finally giving my farewell, I turned to leave with a smile, but as I walked back up the spiraling hallway, the sound of the ze in the forge was no longer able to distract my mind, and I slowly sank back into a mix of stress, hunger, and anxiety.


    "Hooh..." -But there is nothing else I can do at this point... I just need to follow the current once the tide pulls me off the bottom...-


    Eventually returning to the surface, I walked back out of the shop and met up with Zafe��ri, sitting on the sidewalk by the door, looking down the empty roads with a hint of loneliness in her eyes.


    "Hm?" She turned to me the moment I left the stairwell. "All done?"


    I hesitated for a moment before nodding bluntly. "Yeah... Let''s get going."


    With the rune not far away, we quickly found our way over to it before easily getting through the tight security, walking through the massive archway that dwarfed us both, anding up to a familiar pedestal disying a small ck orb.


    When we got there, we didn''t waste any time to jump into the void.


    "Ready?" She nced at me, waiting for my nod before injecting mana into the rune.


    *Vwoop* We disappeared into the void instantaneously.


    But while any normal dragon would have practically teleported to their destination, I had to listlessly float through the tube of nothingness for hours while my hunger was left to fester. -Shit...-


    By the time we arrived in Siratha, my hunger had expounded several-fold, my breaths had bebored, and my mind was in even more turmoil.


    Without magic, I was easily several hours away, but while just a few hours ago, I thought that would be nothing, I was quickly humbled. -I''m.. not sure I can make this one...-


    *Vwoop* But while I struggled to keep hold of myself, Ilios opened his eyes and looked up at me with the same foreign, cold, and domineering demeanor I had seen several times recently.


    And unlike what he would usually do, he simply watched.


    He simply waited.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 312: A Fruit

    Chapter 312: A Fruit


    Late Evening - Mid Winter : Siratha Space Rune | Western Siratha


    -----


    *Vwoop* "So, you said you were going to Valtiv- Huh?" Zafe��ri''s eyes widened in rm as she saw my hunched stance and heavy,bored breathing. "Vasilias?"


    "Hah... Hah... Hahh..." Her voice, muffled as if consumed by the hunger clouding my mind, barely made it to my consciousness. "Y..yes?" -Fuck... I don''t think I can make it...-


    She quickly tried to rush over to me. "Are you alr-"


    Looking her in the eye with dted pupils, I instantly stuck out my wing to stop her, unknowingly leaking out some bloodlust. "Don''t get close to me..." Countless thoughts immediately dashed through my mind. -At most, I have an hour.. and that''s being generous... Where can I make it to...-


    Summoning all the energy I could muster, I frantically tried to think of any other ce I could fly to, but other than an empty expanse of ocean, mountains, and forest with a few elven towns, there was simply nothing.


    -The ocean''s depths might be able to hide me, but...- While it initially sounded decent, something in my mind despised the idea. "Fuck..." Quickly looking back toward Zafe��ri, I steadied myself with a heavy breath. "Hooh..." -No... Now that we''re out of the void.. maybe I can stress my senses to distract my mind from the hunger...-


    Although I knew it would cause my mind and body immense pain to forcefully suppress it in such a manner, being so far beyond the limit of what I could suppress with false satiety, it was my only choice if I wanted any chance of making it to the Tree of Prayer.-And even still, I might not make it... But it''s my only chance...- "Let''s get moving.. quick..." *snap-FWOOOSH* Instantly taking to the sky, the weight of every passing second began to weigh on me.


    Thankfully, Zafe��ri, although clearly unsettled by the momentary bloodlust I released, quickly nodded and followed after me, but this time, her carefree demeanor was reced by caution.


    Not that I could me her.


    Over the next hour of our flight, my consciousness was at war with my instincts, and the longer we flew, the more strained the thread I used to control myself became.


    Every moment that passed brought the risk that I might lose myself to my endlessly starved hunger, and with only her and Ilios nearby, the consequences would be dire. But by some miracle, I managed to hold on.


    Thanks to Zafe��ri''s vacuum magic, we were able to maintain Mach 3 nearly the entire time, and that meant we were actually over the edge of Valtivar already and were only a few minutes away from the Tree of Prayer, but at the same time, the thread tethering my consciousness had finally begun to fray.


    *FWOOSH* At that point, free thoughts could not surface in my mind, and Zafe��ri''s anxious voice could not reach my ears, no matter how loudly she spoke. Every single ounce of brainpower I had was simply being used to keep myself in control.


    But each wingbeat chipped away at me until finally, just as the Tree of Prayer emerged over the horizon.. exhaustion imed my mind.


    "V-VASILIAS?!" With swift reflexes, Zafe��ri darted beneath me and caught my body on her back before it could plummet to the ground. "We''re almost there! Hold on just a little longer!"


    But while I could still hear, see, and feel her, thest thread I had to hold onto had already snapped.


    In an instant, everything changed. I felt detached... I felt powerless, as if I was suddenly viewing a film or memory I could not influence.


    And that was when the horror set in. The horror of watching my jaws lower onto the back of Zafe��ri''s neck like a panther pouncing on its prey while being unable to do anything at all...


    But the instant my mouth was about to mp down, Ilios appeared just in front of my eye.


    *CRACK-FWOOSH* Hitting her hard enough to crack several scales, he threw her head toward the ground, moving her neck just out of my jaws the moment they mped down.


    But while I wanted to feel relief, Ilios''s expression did nothing but make my little remaining ability to think freeze solid.


    Much like earlier, his demeanor was as cold as the abyss, and his gaze pierced straight into my mind as if I was being stared at by the void itself.


    But his gaze wasn''t warm nor cold, gentle nor rough. It was simply as though I was looking at something I couldn''t fathom.


    And that was when a deep, mellow voice echoed through my mind. "~It seems as though the fruit has finally ripened...~"


    Disappearing from in front of me instantaneously, I felt the scales on the top of my head shatter and watched as my vision blurred and turned to face the ground.


    But I couldn''t even recognize what had happened before I was finally detached from my senses.


    *ckout*


    *GASP* "HAH.. Hah.. Hah..." -W..what the hell.. was that?- The moment I woke up, I was in apletely different space, surrounded by stone walls in what looked like a cave.


    It only took an instant for me to recognize it as the area beneath the pce in Kan, but the instant I came to my senses, a vaguely familiar enticement filled my mind, and soon enough, it was as if I had be a shark that smelled blood. -That must be my body...-


    *VWOOM* Instinctually moving the seemingly still, crystalline energy in my abdomen, it slowly became liquid and began flowing, simultaneously freezing everything around me as if slowing down the ticking of time itself.


    But it only made the enticement more pronounced and, after a moment, made it feel like I was being pulled toward it by an invisible force.


    However, this time, I didn''t let myself mindlessly float there. -Something feels wrong...-


    Using every ounce of strength in my soul''s cloudy, indistinct form, I darted straight into the solid ground, phasing past rock, soil, and magma at an unfathomable speed.


    For that moment, the only sensation that could surface in my mind was the irresistible enticement, which grew stronger and clearer the farther I moved. -It must be right here...-


    Suddenly speeding up even more, I bolted out of the ground expecting to see the familiarndscapes of central Siratha, but instead, I was met with the vast expanse of open ocean; the water glistening under the light of the full moon and reflecting the nebulous, constetion-filled darkness overhead like a mirror.


    -H..huh?- Instantly scanning the horizons around me, I tried to find any kind ofndmark at all, but there was simply nothing. Nothing but massive, cresting waves standing frozen in time.


    Still feeling the pull of the enticement, I once again looked in its direction, but rather than looking down or at the horizon, I found myself looking up. Straight.. up.


    My eyes widened as my gaze finally settled. I was looking straight into the moon, nowrger and brighter than I had ever seen.


    But rather than seeing it as a celestial body, I felt as if I was looking into the eye of a creature, a creature that could squash me like a bug.


    However, I didn''t have anywhere else I could go.


    Climbing into the night sky, my body quickly entered the vast emptiness of space, and the ever-growing unease in my mind started finally showing itself.


    I simply felt as if I could no longer tell illusion from reality, as if my mind was tricking itself into a false sense of security, and the longer I flew, the worse it became.


    With every meter, more detail revealed itself on the moon''s surface, from the massive, spanning fissures that were always too bright to make out finally dimming to faintly show a reflection of the behind me as if I was looking at a rounded mirror, and the endlessly massive, perfectly circr craters looking to have massive spanning structures at their center.


    But no matter how much I wanted to verify if what I saw was real, I couldn''t pull my focus off the one singr point the enticement wasing from, far away from anything that looked unusual.


    As I continued forth, the moon continually gotrger andrger until, eventually, I noticed an aura sorge it peeked through the moon''s thin atmosphere.


    It was my body, unmistakablyying on the surface of the moon, surrounded in a thin ck veil.


    It was a gate, and just like with my dragon sleep in Kan, I wasid perfectly inside of it. -But there isn''t much of any mana suction yet... Has it not started?-


    Assuming Ilios was the one that somehow brought me there, I looked around for him as I descended, but after finding he was nowhere to be seen, the doubt filling my mind became a certainty. "This must be another one of those visions..."


    I was confident. Ilios was the only one I knew of who could use space mana besides me, and even with how unusual he had been acting recently, I was sure he would still lie next to my body.


    But that was simply wishful thinking.


    "To think you would be able toe all this way so quickly."


    Instantly turning toward the smooth, deep voice I heard, I looked down and saw that Ilios had suddenly appeared next to my body, just inside the gate, with a ck sphere in his mouth.


    It was an artifact, the Eye of Bahamut. "I had hoped your soul would remain dormant for this, but it seems you are more willful than I anticipated..." The voice slowly darkened as Ilios finally stepped up on my body. "I apologize for not being able to send you home peacefully, but fret not.. I will send yourpanion''s soul with you. His body served me quite well while waiting for yours to ripen."


    As Ilios''s mouth opened, his body went limp, immediately falling to the ground next to my body and letting the artifact fall onto my face. *tink*


    "I apologize for using two innocent souls in such a manner, but your job here is done. I hope you cany down whatever resentment you have for me when you reach your home world." *VWOWOOOOM* Enough aura to cover hundreds of kilometers instantly exploded out of my body before halting and being irresistibly sucked back in with enough force to break down nearby matter.


    But while it all happened, my eyes could not leave Ilios. The image of his limp bodyying on the dusty surface of the moon was the only thing that could make it into my mind.


    "I wish good fortune upon your soul."


    I was surrounded by a gate in an instant, but while I was fast enough to escape, neither my eyes, nor body could budge.


    For the first time ever, my mind was truly still.. truly silent...


    But at that moment, even I didn''t realize that the web of strings holding together my sanity had already melted.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 313: A Change in the Tides

    Chapter 313: A Change in the Tides


    --------------


    <em><strong>- Minor Gore Warning -</strong></em>


    --------------


    Late Evening - Mid Winter : As, Bahamut


    -----


    - Krystallo ~


    *woosh* A gentle evening gust swept the garden with a chill that night. Usually, it''s cold could never pierce my scales, but somehow, it felt as if frost was forming on my skin at that moment. -I wonder if brother is up there somewhere...-


    At the time, I was staring up into the stars, questioning if Brother was hidden somewhere amongst them while reminiscing about the past. It was a pass time I had made routine whenever he wasn''t home.


    I missed the days he would teach me as a child dearly, attempting to exin the inner workings of the world through methods that seemed crazy or impossible to Mother and me at the time.To be frank, there was nothing I wanted more than for those moments toe back, for him to teach me about what he loved and what he was passionate about.


    But as time passed, even without understanding the weight of what he was truly doing, I forced myself to ept that those days may remain a memory.


    Whenever he would leave, I would feel my heart ache, and to alleviate it, I woulde outside at night and simply stare into space, desperately trying to think up questions to ask him when he returned.


    But that day was different. Rather than looking into space for questions.. I simply.. watched...


    And that was when it happened.


    *WHAM-CRACKLE* Hearing the locked back door of the estate get broken through, I whipped around in a hurry and met eyes with Mother. She was in aplete panic with a pale face and look of horror in her eyes so deep it made my heart sink. "M..Mom?"


    *FW-WOOOSH* Instantly darting out of the estate, shended in the garden not far from me before bolting into the sky without even ncing in my direction.


    -Where is she...- Watching her fly higher and higher into the sky, I saw her look straight toward the western horizon, but when I followed her gaze, all I saw was the moon hovering there, on the verge of setting, shining brightly as it always did. -What is she doing... Why is she...-


    But that was when my mind went nk.


    -----


    N/A - N/A : The Mallory Area | Lunar Derelict District


    - Vasilias ~


    The instant it happened, my mind went silent.


    Watching Ilios''s body limply fall to the dusty surface of the moon, time seemed to stretch endlessly, but no matter how much time passed, I couldn''t unfreeze myself. For every lingering moment his body fell, I was paralyzed, with my emotions only bing more and more distant with each passing instant.


    It was my mind panicking.


    In an attempt to save my sanity, my mind destroyed everything, even its own senses. I was deafened, blinded, and numbed of any sense of emotion before a single conscious thought could flow.


    But it was still too slow.


    By the time the gate formed around me, the few remaining strings holding my sanity had melted like a bundle of wires in a zing furnace.


    "I wish good fortune upon your soul."


    *Vwoo-* But the moment the gate was too close around me, the fabric of space screamed as if in pain. *split-SCRREEECH*


    Splitting the gate in half, I darted to the ground many times faster than light before throwing a fist of liquid divinity into the jaw of my old form.


    *CRRRRRAAACK* The scales, flesh, and bone at the base of the jaw were shattered and shredded instantaneously, but as if suddenly being reinforced, my fist hit a wall, sending a colossal impact into the moon. *WHAAAMMM*


    But as the shockwave shattered over a hundred kilometers of the moon''s surface, I heard that clear voice again. "Hoh? How could you damage your own body? What would your family think if I returned with a scar-"


    Cutting his voice short, I pulled my amorphous fist back up, instantaneously repatterning the liquid divinity in it before driving it back down into the body.


    *CRRRRACKK-WHAAAMM* An enormous expanse of stone spanning nearly a thousand kilometers was instantly ejected into the void as the scales and bones of the body liquified on the spot.


    But as my fist passed into its jaw, countless foreign strings of divinity spread into my hand, trying to ensnare and entangle my ethereal form before I was met by the dark, cold gaze of my own body.


    "I was to send you home with the blessing of godhood.. and you wish to reject it?" Whether I wanted to admit it or not, at that moment, that body was no longer mine. "Then I shall reim what does not belong to you."


    *VWOOM* An unfathomable suction instantly tugged on me from the ensnared strings of divinity in my hand. In an instant, each thread became cold, hungry, and draining, attempting to siphon my mind and body through my divinity like a straw.


    But as it tried to pull on my mind, the core of my soul, it quickly found there was nothing to grab.


    *CRRACKLE* Shearing off the strings in my hand, my arm took the form of a dragons leg, but the moment I was to m it back into his body, the massive paw of a wolf, simr to Ilios''s stretched from his body and tapped my abdomen. "Impudent!"


    *THOOOOOM* The surface of the moon instantaneously became distant before thousands of kilometers of its surface shattered.


    Everything from my mind to my body wanted to scream, but at that point, there was nothing left to process it.


    "Is this how you treat your creator?!" His voice boomed as if there was no space separating us.


    But rather than being an illusion, it was because he had simply closed the distance between us before my instincts could even process it.


    By the time I could process the appearance of a colossal, ethereal white wolf, the palm of a paw, dozens of timesrger than my whole body, mmed down with a strength countless realms beyond my own.


    *BOOOOOOM* I instantaneously mmed back into the surface of the moon, but before the shockwaves could even rip across its surface, the wolf reappeared on top of me and held me there, spreading massive tendrils of divinity from its paws, entangling and winding through me, binding to my soul and its divinity before squeezing tighter and tighter.


    "I raised you, bestowed upon you the souls of my own kin and his dearest friend, and yet you repay me like this?!" The wolf''s tone, eerily familiar from the whispers within the Eye of Bahamut, resonated with a blend of sorrow and fury. "To let someone as ungrateful as you wield such a gift would be a slight to their memory!"


    *CRAACKLE* A horrifically loud, distortion-like noise filled my mind as the binding tendrils started moving, churning the dense liquid divinity around the core of my soul with ease before finally wrapping around its crystalline structure.


    The moment it shattered, I would disappear.


    But the moment he moved to crush my soul, I regained consciousness. "Ungrateful?" My voice was deep and foreign to my own senses, but it didn''t even cross my mind. "What do I have to be grateful for if I am to lose it all again."


    *WOOOM* Before you could even see him move, he detached himself from his paw holding me, and darted away.


    Although thousands of kilometers away, his voice resounded in my mind instantly. "What have you done..."


    *crackle-CRUNCH* Crushing the thick tendrils in my body, I slowly beganpressing the energy within the crystalline core within my abdomen and sucked in the white cloud that used to be his paw as if it were mana.


    The next thing I knew, a refreshing feeling coursed through my body, and as my structureless body grew in size, a thread of consciousness formed.


    "You think I should be grateful? You''ve killed Ilios after using him for your own devices, taken my body the moment you had a chance, and even wish to take my identity..." Slowly lowering my gaze onto his distant figure, my expression darkened before freezing solid. "I''d destroy my own soul before I let you get away with that..."


    However, the moment I was going to lunge out at him, he appeared over me. "You still do not understand." His colossal form, now partially translucent against the void of space, loomed menacingly as he spoke with deep-seated anger. "The sacrifices made.. the struggles endured. All of it was for a greater purpose... I''ve witnessed the betrayal of those I had once given my trust and the suffering of those I hold dear."


    As the columns of rock and debris surrounding us slowly stretched into the air, I stared into his deep, cold eyes, tempered over countless millennia, with a hint of fear lingering in the back of my mind.


    "I am granting you mercy by taking your body, by taking the responsibility of protecting the world and those you cherish off your shoulders. Without my intervention, you would be forced to witness the very world crumble before your eyes and, eventually, face your own demise." His voice waspletely devoid of warmth. "You have no idea what the future holds. The horrors the world will witness."


    "As if that matters..." I snarked, "If a threat to the world happens to involve those I care about, then I will make damn sure they aren''t a threat anymore... Even if Ick the strength needed for it." *fwip-WOOOM* Instantly darting out from under him as fast as I could, I wrapped countless chains around the tether connecting him to my body several thousand kilometers away and crushed it. *CRACKLE*


    elerating far beyond the speed of light, my surroundings stretched and blurred. The colossal walls of rock and debris from our previous exchanges, still frozen in time, were continually extending into space, but I passed through them so fast I hardly noticed.


    *FWOOM* Nearly instantly appearing next to my old body, I stretched out my arm, reaching through the scales, flesh, and bone before finally grazing my reserve. The moment I touched it, my liquid divinity and soul instantaneously conjoined with it, sending an unfathomable tsunami of senses, sensations, and memories flooding into my mind.


    My idea was to stand up and destroy the Fenrir''s soul while his tether was broken, as I did with Tyr, but the instant I regained control of my body, every single thought and sensation was eclipsed by pain that nothing, even my reincarnation, couldpare to.


    My eyes instantly shot open, forcing my gaze upon the faint outline of an ethereal white fenrir over looming over me.


    "How arrogant..."


    Hearing his voice somehow piercing through the pain in my mind, I felt a shiver of fear pass down my spine.


    But rather than killing me or purging my soul from my body, he simply stood there in silence before mumbling to himself. "Maybe Nott was right... Maybe this time, we let t?h?e? ?f???r???u???i???t??? ???b???????e???????a???????r??????? ???????a??????? ???????n???????e???????w??????? ???????t???????r???????e???????e???????..."


    As his voice was slowly distorted, my vision finally faded to ck, and my mind continued to descend into an endless hell.


    Every second stretched into an eternity of agony, tormenting my soul, trying to shatter my consciousness.


    Faint memories of my past life as a human on earth intermingled with a different life as a dragon I didn''t recognize, sucking me into a maelstrom of emotions and memories as if to try and drown me before presenting me memories of the life I had lived as Vasilias.


    At that moment, they felt familiar but still foreign.


    However, tightly clinging onto the string connecting to my consciousness within my mind, I reached for it, forcing my paw into an imprable wall of liquid rushing so fast it sheared off my scales, flesh, and bone, leaving just a tangled, messy web of divinity in its ce, before forcing my body through as well.


    But no matter how far I reached, it always felt just a hair beyond my grasp.


    At least that was until my whole body had been destroyed, and all that was left was a web of divinity wrapping around a mana core, that the farthest tip of divinity finally grazed a memory.


    *crackle*


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</strong>


    Read up to <strong>5 chapters</strong> ahead of schedule, and get <strong>early ess to artwork</strong> on My Patreon!


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 Chapter 314: A New Sapling

    Chapter 314: A New Sapling


    N/A - N/A : The Mallory Area | Lunar Derelict District


    -----


    *Vwowowowoom* Within the silent depths of my mind, all I could make out was the hypnotic hum of mana being ripped through a sea of matter. The sound of a vortex so strong it ripped the mana out of atoms, forcing them to decay into their most basic form. Pure hydrogen.


    Without me knowing, it had be the melody of my unconscious mind, keeping thoughts from flowing and allowing my mind to listlessly drift through time as my body attempted to rebuild itself from nothing.


    But it could onlyst for so long.


    *THOOM* I instantly darted into the sky before finding myself looking over a vast empty crater of dust and rock hidden beneath a dense grey fog of hydrogen, leaving nothing but a potent mix of awe and confusion in my mind.


    I was.. alive?


    But the moment I looked down, I was met with the sight of my own body, mutted beyond recognition as if having decayed over countless years,ying next to a conglomeration of unrecognizable flesh I could only assume was what was left of Ilios.


    It instantly destabilized my mental state before plunging my mind into the depths of despair and agony without warning.But as the light in my eyes faded and darkened, I noticed something. -H..huh?-


    Within the unfathomable vortex of mana centered around my body, there was another. A suction that absorbed every drop it could grasp while resisting the pull of my dragon sleep in its entirety.


    *FWOOM* Instantly darting to the ground, I looked over the unrecognizable mound of flesh with a mix of hope and heartache. -Is he.. alive?-


    A part of me didn''t believe it right away, but after looking more deeply into his full, flowing mana core, I saw a faint cloud flowing freely within the ever-growing sea of mana. -Is that his soul?-


    It was a far cry from anything special, especiallypared to the Fenrir that had previously possessed him, but while it was nothing more than a thin cloud, it felt familiar, and it felt warm.


    After just looking at it for a moment, a subtle wag even found its way into my tail.


    However, as my mental state began to stabilize, memories from before I passed out started returning to vividity, and the swaying of my tail was halted by a wave of anxiety. -Wait a minute... If I''m really alive.. what happened to...-


    Quickly expanding my senses, I tried to find him, the Fenrir I could only assume was Dagr, fully expecting him to be in the air, watching over me like a cat ying with a mouse, only to find he was nowhere to be seen. -W..what? Am I dreaming? Where did he go? Why would he just.. leave us...-


    At the time, thest thing I could remember prior to falling unconscious was the feeling of his cold gaze on my body after I failed to stand up and finish him off. Had he willed it, I would have been dead. -But not only is my dragon sleep still proceeding.. even my tether is untouched...-


    Looking back down at the thin thread tying my soul to my reserve, I nced toward Ilios''s body and noticed his flesh was regrowing like mine. He was evolving, but no matter how I twisted it, it still made no sense. -What is he even evolving into? Wasn''t he already an Ancient Fenrir?-


    Slowly falling into thought, my gaze shifted to the ground, but after a moment, a set ofrge, ethereal wolf paws came into view, and after having my mind jolt out of my body for a moment, I found that they were mine.


    The form my soul had taken upon itself, rather than remaining an amorphous blob as it was previously, was what could only be described as a Fenrir with a slightly elongated neck, massive furred wings, and a very long but fluffy tail. A cross between a Fenrir and a dragon. -It feels weirdly natural.. but...-


    ncing over at my physical body, I watched as countless strands of flesh continued to weave through the web of divinity, tracing the figure of a dragon with every fiber of muscle andyer of bone before letting out a breath of relief. "Phew..."


    Although the form my soul took felt trulyfortable, I much preferred the dexterity, strength, and, most importantly, appearance that came with the body of a dragon. -It looks like my body is going to grow quite a bit in size too...-


    From what I could tell, all I needed to do was wait.


    For how long, though, I didn''t have a clue. -But even if it''s just a few days, I will need to kill time with something...-


    Yet, as I sat on the deste lunar surface, watching my body absorb more mana than I could fathom for a moment, finding something to kill time became the least of my worries.


    *Vwoom* Feeling a presence instantly appear behind me, I froze.


    "Don''t you look different..." His deep voice echoed through the fabric of space with ease while time around us started to slow. "I expected your soul to rip itself apart.. yet there you are, sitting as if nothing ever happened..."


    Slowly turning my head, I met eyes with the familiar, colossal fenrir, looming over me as if I were a human gazing upon a towering dragon.


    "It seems you didn''t lose your sense of self either..." His eyes carefully scanned my form as he lowered his head next to my body. "How impressive."


    For that moment, I was simply paralyzed, my previous confusion about his absence now seeming foolish. "I�� What do you want?" I stammered, trying to maintainposure. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, there was no way I could fight back if he really wanted to kill me, even if my body was untouched.


    But thankfully, his hostility was nowhere to be seen. "Curious, are we?" His smile sent a chill down my spine as his massive eye gazed into the core of my soul. "Well, let''s just say I decided to.. observe you for a little longer."


    Slowly mustering up the courage to speak under his gaze, I muttered, "W..what about Ilios..."


    "If I left him to reincarnate, we wouldn''t be able to speak here so calmly, don''t you agree?" Finally pulling his head away, a flicker of interest appeared in his gaze. "Although I was the one to initiate the connection between you two, I still find it fascinating how much the bond strengthened without my intervention." His tone wasn''t condescending, but rather contemtive, like a researcher observing an interesting specimen. "In any case, for now, I intend to watch you. To see if you are still a fruit to be eaten or already a seed alreadyying in the ground."


    Each of his words seemed riddled with hidden implications, but before I a chill could even pass down my spine, my attention was drawn elsewhere.


    *Vwowooom* "Hm?" As we heard a subtle disturbance in the hum of mana behind us, I felt a tingling sensation in the deepest parts of my core and turned around.


    Around my physical body, there had formed a film of mana so dense that it flowed like a liquid, crushing and shredding the cells and atoms in my flesh to reach my reserve, even if it meant destroying my body in the process.


    Back then, I didn''t have a clue as to how bad such a thing was, especially during a dragon sleep, but thankfully I wasn''t alone.


    "How unfortunate.. I had hoped to speak with you a little longer, but it appears we are out of time for now..."


    His tone quickly turned blunt as confusion filled my mind. -W..what does he mean?-


    But before I could react, his figure appeared over my body, and he tapped his paw against my reserve.


    The next thing I knew, my head was spinning, and I was looking straight down at the ground in a daze. *crackle-VWOOOM* My reserve had exploded like a strained water balloon the moment he touched it, heavily straining my tether before I was forcefully pulled into the center of where my reserve once was.


    Before I knew it, the unbelievably scattered senses of my destroyed body forced their way into my mind, numbing my thoughts and causing the light in my eyes to fade to nothingness until I once again woke up.


    It was an endless cycle of remembering and forgetting that went on for an indescribably eternity.


    Each time I woke up, I was presented with the horrific sight of our mutted bodies before finally having my memories return, just for Dagr to appear and destroy my reserve right afterward, once again tasking my soul with repairing it before restarting the cycle.


    But with each sessive cycle, our bodies would repair themselves more and more, and my soul would be more and more defined until finally, rather than waking up in the form of my soul, I opened the massive, deep purple eyes of my physical body.


    *GASP-VWOOOM* Jolting awake, the gate around me was shredded, sending a colossal surge of mana ripping through the dense air around me: a grey atmosphere of hydrogen that had formed around the moon during my sleep.


    "Hah... Hah..." -I''m.. awake?-


    Looking on the ground just in front of me, I saw a colossal fenrir still sleeping soundly with a faint mana suction still leading into his reserve, but I didn''t exactly have time to even think about it.


    At that moment, it felt as if I had just woken up from an eternal slumber, a dragon sleep that was extended over eons because of Dagr''s actions.


    But as my condition stabilized and a soothing sensation reminiscent of my reincarnation coursed through my mind and body, a number appeared in my mind, a number that couldn''t be right.


    -W..what?- It was supposedly the amount of time that my body said had psed since my sleep initially started. -But... No.. my body must have just.. made an error or something after being reconstructed so many times...-


    But no matter how many times I tried to check it, the numbers never changed.


    Each time my reserve was shattered, seven and a half years passed, with an additional thirteen years passing before I first awoke.


    At the end of it all, it totaled almost exactly 103 years.


    A number that did more than simply loom over my mind.


    -If that number is right... Just how long has passed in the outside world...-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 315: Thawing A Frosted Heart

    Chapter 315: Thawing A Frosted Heart


    N/A - N/A : The Mallory Area | Lunar Derelict District


    -----


    One hundred and three years��just over a century.


    For a creature barely over twenty, it was an eternity��an amount of time I couldn''t fathom.


    -But.. even if I want to deny it... How else would I have grown this much...- Now towering nearly 61 meters, I grew nearly 23 meters taller, with my wingspan growing to match and my tail growing far longer with some frills appearing on the end. With the additional height, I also seemed to grow out of my young, stocky stature, looking far more bnced while still maintaining a more muscr form.


    -It seems my scales are somewhat metallic now, too...- Although they were far from mirrors, considering they werepletely matte previously, any hint of sheen was quite a change, even within the fog of hydrogen surrounding me.


    Among other changes, my horns had grown quite significantly, with many more spikes sprouting around my body as well.


    But somehow, even though I looked like an entirely different dragon, my looks weren''t the part that changed the most.


    That award, at least then, was held by my aura.Now stretching outward almost a hundred kilometers in every direction, I went from havingplete control of my aura to essentially nothing, only being able to roughly control it out to about 12 kilometers and read it for about... "ACK-FUCK!" I yelped in pain the moment I tried to read my aura out to just a kilometer.


    -Holy shit, that hurt...- Before my dragon sleep, I had no issues reading my entire aura, spanning about a kilometer in every direction, but now, the moment I tried even half of that, it felt like my brain was overloaded with information. -What the hell?-


    Momentarily slowing my thoughts to let my aching brain catch a break, I isted a microscopic portion of my mana to read, but the moment I looked through it, my confusion only worsened. -What am I even looking at?-


    On a scale much smaller than atoms, I was seeing an inexplicable fuzz, sort of like static, that seemed to originate from nothing. -No fucking wonder it hurt when I tried to read it out to a kilometer... But why?-


    I was at aplete loss, but the moment I tried to look at it with some space mana, it became extremely obvious.


    -It''s.. space mana?- I furrowed my brows in confusion as I pulled my head back.


    All throughout my aura, there was now space mana present, constantly exuding from my body, just like normal mana. -The hell?-


    Quickly looking toward my reserve, I tried to find my attribute nodes but only found 6, all tightly clumped while now touching my reserve itself. -What the.. where even is my space mana node?- But after seeing the space mana within my aura flowing straight from my reserve, I noticed it. -What the.. did my reserve itself blend with it?-


    To some, it was a change that may not sound like it''d do much, but it was actually quite the opposite.


    On one hand, space mana was so fine that even when spread into a thinyer like it was in my aura, it would increase the detail of whatever I was reading to such an extent it hurt. -I can''t hardly read any of my aura anymore without feeling like my head is splitting apart because of it...-


    But on the other hand, with space mana now integrated within my aura, I could create gates and spells that used it with unrivaled speed and efficiency. -It''s a bit of a monkey''s paw.. a curse with a blessing.. but just having to figure out a new method to read my aura feels a little cheap for such a benefit...-


    Looking to the horizon, I got ready to test it out by creating and detonating some antimatter, but before I could even start, I was stopped by an odd hint of difort. -Huh?- It was a difort I hadn''t felt in a very long time, but I recognized it instantly, regardless of that.


    -Is this.. my third form?-


    Fresh at the forefront of my mind was a transformation spell nearly identical to what I used to switch to my true humanoid form, with only the smallest of details differing. -It''s a natural transformation spell?- Essentially, it was a spell that followed gics like the true humanoid transformation spell. -But don''t dragons only have two sections to their gics?-


    Deciding to simply go for it, I fed the spell mana just as my instincts instructed and closed my eyes.


    *FLASH* Almost instantly, a blinding sh exploded out of my body, and my mind was filled with a horrific mix of warm and tingly sensations.


    However, as time passed, I seemed to settle into a morefortable form.. one that somehow felt both foreign and familiar simultaneously. "Hooh..."


    As I finally opened my eyes, the first things I noticed were that my vision had improved substantially, now more simr to how I saw the world as a simple soul, and that I was quite a lot shorter, only standing at around 40 meters tall, but as I used my aura to get a better look at myself, I understood why.


    *Vwoom* My body, much like the form my soul had taken, generally resembled that of Dagr or Ilios, except with a much longer and heavier tail, elongated neck, massive wingsyered in fur, and tworge horns stretching up from just behind my ears, akin to my humanoid form. -The glow under the scales of my draconic form is present in my fur and under my wings still as well...-


    The only way I could describe it was the inverse of my draconic form, with my Fenrir and Draconic gics inverting over one another. -But besides my vision.. what possible benefit does this have?-


    To be frank, the only changes that felt apparent were that I was smaller, had far less mobility in my arms, and the biggest issue, had no hind w to use like a thumb if I wanted to grip something. -I can''t imagine I''m any stronger either... I lost a lot of mass...-


    But as eager as I was to put my new form to the test, that was something I had to save for another time.


    *Vwowowoom* Looking toward the noisy mana ripples, I immediately saw Ilios, still growing and evolving, desperately trying to absorb mana through my sea of aura before finally surrounding him with a gate.


    *vwWWOOOM* The vortex around his body instantly grew in strength several fold.


    However, as I sat there and watched.. waiting for him to break out of the gate, a wave of anxiety washed over me, and my chest started to ache.


    I had no idea what to expect. Trusting my instincts, I could tell it was Ilios''s soul within his body, but at the same time, I was still nervous.. I was doubtful.


    The more time passed, the more questions appeared and weighed on my mind. ''What if it isn''t him? What if he lost his memories? What if he.. isn''t the same Ilios I know...''


    They loomed over me like a dark storm cloud, each carrying the weight of a mountain and filling me with an ever-growing web of anxiety and doubt.


    But while the following few minutes were nothing short of a miserable eternity, like all things.. it eventually came to an end.


    *Whirring* As the vortex finally died down, the gate was violently split and shredded by the being inside, leaving me to watch with frozen breaths as the 24-meter-tall Fenrir inside was exposed before eventually turning to match my gaze.


    His eyes were bright, reminiscent of a star burning brightly within the abyss of space, and his stature was tall and confident, but his expression was indifferent.


    At that moment.. that instant.. time seemed to stop.


    However, as if I had simply zoned out, before I even realized, he had disappeared, exposing endless cracks in the ground behind where he previously stood. -Huh?-


    *fwo-WHAAAAMMMM* Before my mind could even defrost, an indescribably massive force mmed into my neck, instantly hurling me out of the moon''s atmosphere.


    Feeling ws trying to dig into my chest, I didn''t even want to look down.. I didn''t want to face reality...


    *CRACK-WHAAAM* As I was driven back into the ground, I simply closed my eyes and tried to brace myself for whatever reality was to feed me, struggling to hold back the tears welling in my eyes at the same time...


    But as the dust settled, I felt something somewhat soft and wet gently touch my nose. -What the..?- Jolting my eyes open, I was instantly met with Ilios''s gaze.


    *Fwoosh-Fwoosh-Fwoosh-Fwoosh* Wagging his tail with enough force to cause wind in the nearly non-existent atmosphere, he gently pressed his nose into mine while digging his ws into my chest.


    "I..Ilios?" At the time, I wasn''t sure how to even react. "Are you really-"


    *LIIIIIICK* He immediately cut me off as he licked myparably huge nose before pressing his nose back into it and staring deep into my eyes with a seemingly limitless excitement.


    A wave of relief so immense it made tearse to my eyes instantly washed through my body. -He''s.. really back...- "You''re really back!" Using my aura to pull him closer, my tail began to wag uncontrobly. "I thought I lost youuuu!"


    As I nestled my snout against him, he climbed up, licking away the tears streaming down my face as if to tell me I shouldn''t cry.


    But in that moment, nothing else mattered.


    I was lost in the moment, wrapped up in the emotion of having him back. His familiar presence, his warmth, and even the rhythmic wagging of his tail brushing against my bellyforted me in a way that words could hardly capture.


    But after just a moment, he suddenly pulled back slightly, his piercing gaze analyzing mine with a sense of relief, longing, and.. mischief?


    The next thing I knew, he hopped up in the air before mming his face into my chest, nuzzling his head into my fur like a fox trying to burrow before yfully rolling onto his back.


    "Haha." My chuckle immediately lifted the weight of a mountain range off my mind. "You like my fur?"


    He immediately rolled back over after squirming for a moment before looking me straight in the eyes and nodding with determination, only to continue rolling around again immediately after.


    "Pfft, you little-" *Fwip* Rolling over, I moved him off of me before rubbing my face into his belly as he did mine. "Now it''s my turn!"


    But rather than simply letting me get away with it, he reached up and started gnawing on one of my horns. *knack-knack*


    "Hey! Those aren''t for chewing!" Quickly standing up, I picked him almostpletely off the ground while he held onto my horn before looking at him with a pout.


    But rather than feeling any negative desire, I was thankful, limitlessly thankful to have him back. -And well.. I guess even if this form doesn''t end up having many real benefits.. at least Ilios likes it...-


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 Chapter 316: A Lurking Horror

    Chapter 316: A Lurking Horror


    Mid Evening - Early Summer : As | Bahamut


    -----


    - Krystallo Ragnarok ~


    The moon, the brightest beacon of the night sky, and an object of ambiguity and wonder.


    It was an object Brother always enjoyed talking about, saying that it was another world like ours with an unfathomablyrge expanse of unexplorednd and incredible mysteries even he, the one who I believed knew everything in the world, could only specte.


    -But now I can''t even look at it...- Walking out into the moonlit back garden of the estate, I nced up toward it, its blurred, badly scarred surface looming overhead as if it were an eye watching over me, but rather than feeling curious like I did as a child, I felt my heart tighten. -How long has it been since that horrible day...-


    Finally arriving at the center of the small field just beyond the garden, I sat down and simply looked up to the stars, its beautiful array of indescribable colors and formations bringing calm thoughts to my distraught mind.


    But while the moon was at its highest point, shining as brightly and beautifully as it always had, no matter how much time passed, I couldn''t bear to look at it.


    *Click* Hearing the door to the estate unlock, I slowly nced back and saw Mother walking out. After that day.. it had be our routine to stargaze each night like we would when I was a child."Where''s Father?" I spoke softly, my voice carrying through the cold evening air with ease.


    "He is still inside. With theing-of-age festival in just a few years.. he can''t avoid the paperwork anymore..." Her voice carried almost no energy at all, as if she waspletely drained. "No matter how much we want it to, the world will never stop turning, so.. maybe it''s time we finally move on..."


    My expression quickly morphed into an agitated frown. "You know just as well as me that we have to trust him." Turning away from her, I finally mustered the courage to look up at the moon, staring at the colossal scar of shattered rock on its side with an inquiring gaze. "He said he woulde back, so we should trust him."


    But as she came up to my side, her grim expression and hunched stature remained. "Sweetie..." She stared at my face for a moment before finally looking away and sitting down. "The mana vortex we see on the moon is almost twelve thousand kilometers wide, if not wider... No ancient in the history of Bahamut has made a vortex like that while they were still alive..."


    She was referring to something called reserve copse, an event where when someone''s reserve would rupture during their dragon sleep, it would trigger an unfathomable suction of mana that would reform the mana core even if the dragon had died. Typically, it led to the formation of a dungeon.


    "But none of them were Brother." My tail flickered with determination as I lowered my gaze back to her.


    "Sweetie, it''s been almost-"


    "His dragon sleeps have always been longer than normal for his stage." My tone was firm.


    But Mother wasn''t the same. She stared at me with a tense, contemtive look before reluctantly sighing and turning away to pick up arge and beautiful tool with her aura. "Haah..."


    It was a telescope, Brother''s final gift to me, a device that was meant to let me observe the stars and gaze up toward the moon with ease, but I hadn''t mustered the courage to use it more than a few times over the years.


    However, that was soon to change.


    As Mother lifted up the telescope and held it to her eye, she simply froze, and by the time I noticed anything was wrong, she was faintly shivering, and the air around her had condensed into a fog.


    -Huh?- Her expression was an unbridled mix of confusion and awe. "What''s wrong?"


    There was a long pause before she finally lowered the telescope from her eye and handed it to me. "The mana vortex... Am I seeing that right?"


    -What?- Not understanding what she was referencing, I took the telescope from her and looked up myself, but it made me freeze as well. -It.. stopped?-


    Typically, reserve copse onrger scales, even much smaller than what we saw on the moon, would continue until the reserve itself exploded, but rather than the unfathomable cloud of mana on the moon being scattered, it sat still like the canopy of a tree.


    "Am I.. seeing that right?" Mother''s tone quivered with disbelief and uncertainty as tears started to well in her eyes.


    But before I could respond, she jerked her head to the side and locked her eyes on the horizon as if she saw something. "My connection to him is.. back?" She paused as she turned to me with tears streaming down her cheeks and a look of disbelief on her face. "He''s really alive... He''s back!"


    The next thing I knew, I had tearsing from my eyes as well.


    Although I refused to admit it to myself, deep down, I believed his end was met on the moon as I watched its surface shatter all those years ago.


    So, to hear that he was still alive... I can''t even describe how I felt.


    I was simply too happy to think straight.


    -----


    N/A - N/A : The Mallory Area | Lunar Derelict District


    - Vasilias ~


    "From the moon.. the world really does seem small, doesn''t it?" Staring up at the unfathomably massive looming over the moon''s horizon, I couldn''t help but feel small. -Its almost like I could hold it with my paw from this far away...-


    But s, my body was still less than an ant inparison. Even though I had power many leagues beyond my appearance, only so much could be done about my size. -But my growth does seem to be elerating, if only slightly... Maybe it''s just a matter of time...-


    For now, though, it was nothing worth giving thought to.


    Quickly ncing down at Ilios, I noticed that his aura had finally stabilized, and his condition seemed to have returned to normal. -That means it is finally time to go back home...-


    While I wanted to stay and explore the moon some, especially to see if the structures I saw on its surface previously were more than just hallucinations, now wasn''t the time. "You ready, Ilios?"


    Gently opening his eyes and looking up at my draconic form, he nodded before hopping up onto my back and immediately falling back asleep.


    -The lethargy is finally hitting him, huh...- Although we had both technically been asleep for over a century, for whatever reason, after our auras finally stabilized, a wave of drowsiness overtook us both. -But now isn''t the time to nap...-


    Finally standing up, I did a quick stretch, pushing my legs forward and extending my wings as far as I could before finally creating a gate around myself. -Alright... Let''s go.-


    *Vwoop* The gate formed and closed around us nearly instantaneously, swapping the lunarndscape around me with a beautiful view of the void before I could hardly react.


    But before I could even think of ament on how fast the gate was, Ilios jolted awake, and my instincts screamed at me.


    "~H??????????????????????w??????? ???????????????f???????????????????????????????????????????????????i???????????????????n?????????????a?????????????t???????????i?????????????????????????????????????????...~" It was an indescribable series of sounds, deep and guttural, forming patterns between hums much like draconic to form anguage.


    But in my mind, all I felt was horror.


    *VWOOP-GASP* Instantly leaping back out of the void, I instinctually gasped for air even though there was nothing but hydrogen on the moon. -W..WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!-


    Just thinking about it gave me chills. In the ce I believed to be truly deste, a ce where nothing but me could survive, I was spoken to. -What an arrogant fucking thought that was...-


    Tensely looking around with uncertainty, I tried to see if anything followed me out of the void, but thankfully Ilios and I were still alone. -I really can''t catch a fucking break...- Although I didn''t have any clue as to what it was, at the time, I frankly didn''t care. "All I know is the void is off limits for the time being..."


    Looking up toward the, the distance was certainly intimidating, but anything was better than what I had just witnessed. -R..right... Maybe this is for the best. Maybe the world is just telling me I need to stretch my wings a bit...-


    Trying not to think about it, I quickly formed a long strip of antimatter along the back of my wings and bolted off the moon''s surface, unknowingly shattering several hundred kilometers of it as I leapt. *CRACKLE-WHAAAM* But I didn''t think of looking behind myself for a single instant.


    *RRRRUMBLE* With a steady flow of antimatter, I shortened the flight down to about ten minutes, but the entire time, I was on edge, feeling like I was being watched from every direction.


    Thankfully, using The Scar as myndmark, it didn''t take much thought to find my way to Bahamut, but once I got within the cloudy atmosphere, while it shook off my unease, it took a moment to find exactly where I was. -Ah, that must be Emporio way over there... So, I''m just over central Bahamut...-


    At my current speed, it was just a few minutes from As, but while that was far from a long time, as my nerves started to settle after being heightened in the void, those few minutes seemed to stretch forever.


    But eventually, the outskirts of As came into view, and as I recognized that nearly nothing had changed, a wave of relief passed over me. -Maybe.. it hasn''t been too long...-


    But as I got closer and closer to the heart of the city, that relief was flipped on its head.


    The denser downtown area of the city was practically unrecognizable, with massive, towering structures of marble having been built all throughout it, particrly around where the academy used to be.


    But while it all made me a bit worried, there was one thing that brought me the most relief in the world.


    -Huh?- Pulling my eyes off the horizon, I looked down over countless massive estates, and immediately found ours, but rather than seeing the estate itself, I saw arge white dragon, coated in ice flying directly at me.


    It was Mother, her metallic white scales glimmering beneath the moonlight.


    *crackle-FWOOSH* Quickly slowing down I tried to ease my descent as much as I could, but Mother maintained full speed until she mmed straight into my chest, burying her face into my scales with tears streaming down her face before I could say anything.


    But as I went to speak, someone else''s voice met my ears.


    ��YOU DUMMY!�� *CRRAACKKK* The next thing I knew, I felt a blow with the force of a thousand sunse mming down on my head.


    The unbridled might of an angry sister.


    But more than anything, I felt relief. Krystallo, while she had clearly grown, was still young.


    -Thank the heavens��- That sight alone lifted the weight of mountains of my mind instantly. -But I don��t think an apology will save me this time��-


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 Chapter 317: A Deep Warmth

    Chapter 317: A Deep Warmth


    Mid Evening - Early Summer : As | Bahamut


    -----


    "Dummy! Dummy! Dummy! Dummy!"


    Krystallo repeatedly stomped on my head as we slowly descended to the ground, with Mother still tightly clinging to my chest as if afraid to let go of me. *Fwoosh* *Fw-Fwoosh*


    As I finally touched down, I lowered my stance and looked up at Krystallo before speaking with a hopeful tone. "I-I''m assuming you won''t ept an apology?"


    "OF COURSE NOT!" *stomp-WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* Tears slowly welled in her eyes as she stomped on my head, managing to bnce herself on my head and horns.


    But while my mind raced to think of a way to calm her down, Mother finally started to ease her grip on me and looked up at me with a pure, thankful expression.


    "I..I''m d.. you''re finally home safe..." The tears in her eyes quickly started streaming down her face as she spoke. "I.. thought we really lost you..." *pat* Pressing her forehead into my chest again to hide her crying expression from my gaze, her frost tears dripped down my scales.


    Gently picking up Krystallo with my aura, I lowered my head next to Mother and spoke gently. "I''m sorry for making you worry..."As I gently pressed my head into her to hold her close, she gripped me even tighter before her breathing shortened and her words became stuttery. "If this- is a dream... I hope I- never wake up!"


    Seeing her sobbing, I felt my chest ache, but more than anything, I was thankful to be alive as well... -If I wasn''t spared... I wouldn''t be the one here right now...- A mix of worry, sadness, and anger instantly started to well in my mind.


    But after a moment, I felt small pieces of ice falling onto the back of my neck and nced up to see Krystallo sniveling while I held her with my aura. "I THOUGHT YOU REALLY DIED, YOU DUMMY!" She quickly started squirming as her icy, crystalline tears were thrown through the air.


    "A.. A lot happened... A lot of things out of my control..." Guilt quickly started infecting my swirling emotions. "I''m.. sorry..."


    Slowly lowering her back onto my head, she clung to me momentarily before Ilios walked up and started licking her face with a happy wag in his tail.


    "Mmmm..." *Lick-Lick-Lick* "Even Ilios is bigger than me now!" She pouted as Ilios happily licked away her tears.


    But the crying continued for many hours after that, until eventually, we made it to the living room where I hadid down with Krystallo and Ilios sleeping on me.


    Mother was the only one besides me still awake, but after crying her heart out for so long, even she was drowsy.


    However, rather than talking, we watched the massive me in the firece dance and listened to the enormous tree trunks crackling under the heat.


    But after a moment, she crept over and snuggled beside me.


    Once she finally gotfortable, she spoke with a lethargic but warm tone. "Was it you that broke the moon..?"


    She truly sounded like she already knew the answer. "It''s.. a long story..."


    "We have time... I have waited nearly eight years to hear it..."


    -So, my guesses were close...- With Mother having grown to 30 meters and Krystallo to 21, it was clear quite a bit of time had passed. -But it''s not nearly a century... Thank goodness...- "But I''m not sure where to start..." -How much should I even exin...-


    As I fell silent, trying to think of what to say, she eventually turned her yearning gaze back toward the fire and rested her head on my leg. "If you wish to keep it a secret, that''s fine... I''m sure you have your reasons."


    "I..." I hesitated hearing her tone. "All I can say is that it was rted to a god... I still don''t know how to feel about it..."


    Gently pressing her head into me, she finally closed her eyes before beginning to doze off. "Well.. if therees a time you want to talk about it, you know I will always lend an ear."


    A part of me wanted to keep talking, but at that moment, seeing her finally start to rx and ease enough to sleep, I stayed silent.


    *crackle.. pop* Hearing the fire pop, I looked back up to see a plume of glowing ashes rising into the chimney.


    The silencebined with the beautiful sight was the perfect time to think, but for the first time since I had awoken, my mind was truly at ease, finally at rest.


    But like all good things, it too eventually came to an end.


    After dozing off to sleep with them, I ended up passing out for several hours, but as I woke up, I found Krystallo standing over me with a lethargic but angry expression.


    I didn''t know how to even react; I simply froze when I saw her.


    "I''m d you can sleep so soundly after worrying everyone to death for thest seven and a half years..." She sounded like an angry teenager.


    "Sweetie, quit pestering him..." Mother struggled to open her eyes as she spoke with a heavy, sleepy tone. "There are reasons for everything unexpected... We can''t me him for things outside his control..."


    "But he''s so strong. His aura even warps the light around him now. How is anything out of his control?!"


    "Sweetie..."


    Seeing an opportunity, I quickly interjected. "The world is full of powerful beings, even ones that can kill me with a wave of their hand... As I told you before I left, I wanted to go to the Tree of Prayer, but after arriving in Siratha, my sleep started, and.. I''ll just say I was kidnapped by a god and taken to the moon."


    It wasn''t a lie, but Krystallo continued to give me a judgmental look as if it was a crazy, made-up story. "I hate you."


    I felt like a mountain instantly mmed down on my head before she started storming out of the room. "Hey," *Vwoom* Quickly picking her up with my aura, I switched to my fenririan form and dragged her back to me before smothering her in my fur before she could react.


    "HUH?! WHAT THE-" *puff-muffled noises*


    But while she squirmed about, trying to escape my grasp, Mother simply looked up at me with eyes filled with awe and curiosity.


    It took her a moment to speak as if she was at a loss for what to say. "How.. did this happen..." She quickly looked down at my fur-covered shoulder before gently pressing her nose into it to make sure she wasn''t hallucinating.


    "I unlocked this form during my dragon sleep. I think it had to do with reintegrating my soul into my body."


    "Y..your soul?" She sounded confused but also curious. "Is that why my connection to you is.. stronger than it was before?" She fell silent to think for a moment before looking up at me. "But if that''s the case, why wasn''t your soul already in your body? And why is a form rted to it fenririan?"


    "Well, I wish I knew more about it as well, but if I were to fill in the gaps..." I paused to think of how to word it all before finally speaking softly. "Before I hatched, my soul supposedly absorbed the remnants of Nott''s soul, as well as another god, so when I hatched, my body couldn''t contain my own soul and was destroying itself... If it weren''t for Father''s artifact, I would have died shortly after hatching."


    Mother listened intently as she stared at the glowing coals in the fire.


    "When I touched the artifact, it split my soul from my body and modified my gics so that my body could grow to contain it. This dragon sleep just happened to be when my body was strong enough to handle it." ncing at Ilios as he hopped off my back to check on Krystallo squirming beneath me, I nced back toward Mother. "This form is essentially the same thing as my humanoid form, except utilizing a different, new section of my gics." -The one the artifact added...-


    She remained silent once I finished talking, but after a moment, she leaned her head into me again. "So... Does that mean you''re really.. Nott?"


    I was quick to shake my head and ease her worries. "I hatched from your egg, did I not?"


    She immediately hesitated. "I..."


    "I''m undoubtedly your son, Mom." Pain coursed through my chest, seeing the hint of doubt on her face, but after a moment, it disappeared.


    "I know, sweetie." Her warm, motherly smile slowly returned to her face as she finally eased the tenseness in her body. "You may not realize it, but you''re draconic form is starting to resemble your great-grandfather''s quite a bit. If your scales were white and you were closer to Krystallo''s size, no one would doubt you are my child. Soon enough, though, it won''t matter."


    -Hm?- "Why is that?"


    Her smile slowly widened. "Theing-of-age festival is in just over two years, sweetie."


    My eyes shot open in an instant. "What?!"


    "PWAAAH!" Finally making out of my grasp with a bit of help from Ilios, Krystallo red up at me. "What was that for?!"


    "You said you hated me. I can''t just let you storm off and give such thoughts time to brew."


    "Ack..." She immediately tensed up. "Well.. I can''t deny that it helped calm me down a bit..."


    "Is that so?" ncing down at her, a slightly evil smile came to my face. "In that case, you should do it again."


    Her eyes instantly shot open. "WAIT, NO! MOOOOOOMMM-" *muffled noises*


    "Hoho, it seems her rebellious phase is nothing in front of you." Mother let out a soft chuckle hearing Krystallo, before closing her eyes again with a gentle smile. "I''m proud of how you''ve grown, Vasilias... I hope you know that..."


    A warm smile found its way onto my face as I looked down at Mother''s peaceful expression. I felt proud.


    But before I could truly bathe in the warmth of the moment, there was a knock on the door. *knock-knock*


    It was Chloe, and Mother was quick to let her in. "Please enter."


    I was a bit worried about my new form for a moment, but as Chloe entered, she never took her eyes off the ground. "Uh, h-here to report that most estate staff, people in the streets as well as nearby buildings, and the estate lord have passed out... Many nobles around As have alsoe to investigate the unbelievably oppressive aura as far as a hundred kilometers away... If I am not mistaken, it is my lord''s aura."


    -Ah... I forgot about that...- "Uh..." Slowly ncing down at Mother, I felt a cold bead of sweat form on my head. "About that..."


    But she was too shocked to budge. "A hundred kilometers?!" She quickly looked up at me. "Did you fly over them or something?"


    "Uhm.. that''s just my aura now... It''s.. uh.. pretty far beyond what I can control..."


    Her mouth slowly fell open before she zoned out and turned to Chloe. "T-tell them it''s one of the Ancient Fenrir."


    -Huh? What?-


    I was instantly thrown through a loop, but before I could think about it, Mother looked up at me. "I think.. it''s time I find you a better aura control technique... Although I''m not sure we have anything in our family library for that volume of aura..."


    -The family library?-


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 Chapter 318: An Act

    Chapter 318: An Act


    Early Morning - Early Summer : As | Bahamut


    -----


    "T-tell them it''s one of the Ancient Fenrir." Mother spoke to Chloe after barely a moment of thought.


    The nonchnce in her voice threw me for a loop. -Huh? What?-


    Quickly looking up at me, Mother spoke in a slightly troubled tone. "I think.. it''s time I find you a better aura control technique... Although I''m not sure we have anything in our family library for that volume of aura..."


    -The family library? But wait.. before that...- "Did you just tell her to say its the aura of one of the Fenrir?" Quickly turning toward the door, I contemted stopping Chloe before thinking Mother wouldn''t have said it without reason.


    "It''s a long story, but shortly after you left, we absorbed Siratha. However, one of the many conditions Miss Vilulf made was aplete allegiance with the Ancient Fenrir, meaning we were forced to ce the Fenrir alongside Bahamut and not shun their worship." She paused as she looked up at me. "With them being physical, living gods, it left a sour taste in the mouths of many as it meant they could take control of Bahamut at any moment if they wanted, but many simply dealt with it since you weren''t here... However, now that you''re back in As with an aura like this.. it seems it brought many of their worries to light."


    I immediately tensed. -Shit.. that''s not good...- Absorbing Siratha was actually something I had thought about before my sleep; however, my consensus was that it was too risky as long as I didn''t have the power to fill the role. -I mean... I might be able to now...- But I was still a bit unsure. "You mentioned there were other conditions in the deal with Siratha?"


    "Miss Vilulf gave us quite a few of them.. almost as if she knew we couldn''t refuse at the time..." Gently flicking her tail, Mother rolled onto her side before continuing calmly. "The two most problematic ones were that dragons, to live in Siratha as dragons, were required to openly worship the Fenrir, and, should the Fenrir request it, Siratha would be grantedplete sovereignty."-Holy shit... Sovereignty after assimtion like this would make it look like the status of elves is being put next to the status of dragons...- In short, it was a major blow to draconic pride, one I couldn''t me them for. "But if that''s the case, wouldn''t telling them my aura belongs to one of the Fenrir only make things.. like.. way worse?" -Wouldn''t it just paint their worries out in front of them?-


    Mother nodded without a moment of hesitation. "I won''t be surprised if Chloe telling them the aura belongs to one of the Ancient Fenrir causes some turmoil... But more than likely, they won''t even take our word for it."


    -How can they not take our word for it?! What other creature would have an aura like mine?!- A conflicted feeling quickly arose upon seeing how calm she was. "What if they do believe you, though?"


    "Then, once we leave for the family library, I wille up with an excuse for one of the Fenrir being here that eases their worries."


    I hesitated upon hearing her confidence, but while I trusted her, I didn''t trust those outside. -If they''re really upset about the deal with Siratha, they could use myck of action as the ignition for a rebellion...- In my eyes, it only left me with one option.


    However, before I could say anything...


    "PWAAH!" Bursting out from under me, Krystallo finally freed her head. "BROTHER! Go out and kick their asses!"


    I jolted slightly hearing her angry, demanding tone.


    "They have given Mom and Dad nothing but trouble ever since we made the deal with Siratha! Go out and put them in their ce!" She spoke with fire despite still being buried within my fur.


    "Sweetie," Mother''s tone instantly turned worried. "A few more months won''t hurt anyth-"


    "No! Now that he''s back, we should show them all why the deal was made in Siratha''s favor! They constantly asked where the Fenrir were, and about whether they truly deserved to be put next to Bahamut, so now it''s our turn to answer!"


    I was instantly taken aback by her ferocity, but at the same time, all she did was confirm my worries. -If I simply do nothing here.. it will just cause more problems...-


    Mother seemed to be more worried about me than anything, though.


    After seeing that I was taking Krystallo''s side, her expression was washed with worry. "Vasilias.. sweetie. I know what you''re thinking..." She paused as she looked up at me. "No matter what disy of strength you do, it won''t be enough. People will continuallypare it to their impossibly high visions of Bahamut, and no matter what you do, it will fall short..."


    "But..." A part of me couldn''t refute her words. "But if I can manage an adequate show of strength, wouldn''t it fix almost all our problems?"


    Her expression quickly turned more troubled, clearly displeased.


    "I haven''t actually tested much with my aura or this form much at all just yet, but my gut is telling me to be confident... Maybe I could use this as an opportunity to test the water..." It was a bit of a stretch and extremely risky, especially since even I didn''t know what the capabilities of this form were. -But if I simply do nothing, I''m almost certain things will make a turn for the worse... And if that''s the case, at least this would give us a chance to turn it around...-


    But Mother was still skeptical, not seeing it like I did.


    However, after staring me in the eyes for a moment, she eventually sighed heavily and sat up. "Haah... How certain are you?" She gave me a side eye while deep in thought.


    "Quite."


    She momentarily stared deep into my eyes before moving her tail over and grazing an artifact, causing it to immediately light up.


    Almost instantly, the old head butler of our family, Galen, showed up with a cold sweat. "Y..yes, mydy?"


    Mother looked back at him with a frigid gaze before the air around her fogged. "Summon everyone you can reach through the mana line if they aren''t already outside."


    -A mana line? Is that some new artifact formunications?- I immediately started questioning what it was before the butler gave me an odd nce.


    But after just a moment, he seemed to steel his resolve and nodded before bowing. "A-as you order, mydy."


    Mother''s worried expression quickly began to ease as he left, but it eventually turned back to me. "We need to give people a moment to arrive before we go out."


    -A moment to arrive?- "Won''t there being more people only make it harder for me to make a disy of power?"


    "Sweetie.. if a few extra people matter, it won''t be a big enough disy..." She spoke as if having already warned me before easing up slightly. "If you decide to simply hold up an air as we leave, you may. But let''s wait for everyone to arrive... I want to have as many people as possible to help suppress rumors."


    "A..alright..." -So I need to find a way to make do with what I have... To put the money where my mouth is.-


    The issue was that I wasn''t sure of my limits in my new form. -But.. I have a few minutes to find that out...-


    And find out, I did.


    After several minutes of more closely inspecting my new form, I found many things I hadn''t previously realized, from my reserve walls still being variable in thickness to the fact that the amount of divinity in my body was far beyond what I thought.


    But what drew my attention the most was that my reserve wasrge enough to idly create divinity at its center now.


    Granted, it was very slow, but the fact there was any at all was a wonderful thing. -It means if I umte it some, I can use it as liquid divinity like I did against Freya...- Although I had no idea how it worked, at that moment, I didn''t have the time to question it. -I don''t have enough to slow time like that right now though.. should I forcefully create some?-


    But before I could do anything, Chloe knocked on the door and pulled me from my thoughts.


    *knock-knock* "M-My Lord.. Madam." She tried to speak formally but was quite nervous. "All those who could be summoned have arrived."


    Mother immediately looked toward me to check if I was ready before seeing me reluctantly nod. "Alright. In that case.. let''s see how this goes..." She was clearly nervous, but as she stood up, she took a deep breath and instantly put on a serious expression as if it were a mask.


    "Hooh..." -Alright.. well, here goes nothing...- "So, you want me to walk out first, then follow you toward the library after I do my thing, right?"


    Mother gave a quick nod before turning to Krystallo. "Stay with your Father, alright, sweetie? Make sure he is alright when he wakes up, and try to help Chloe and Galen keep things in order as everyone wakes up."


    Krystallo eventually nodded after some hesitation, clearly upset she couldn''t go with us before tucking her face back into my fur.


    But the time to leave had already arrived. -Well... Here goes nothing...- "We''ll be back soon, Krystallo. I promise to make everything up to you when I return, alright?"


    As I gently nuzzled my snout against her, she gave me a grumpy look, making it clear I wouldn''t have it easy once I returned before stepping out from under me and letting us finally leave.


    At that moment, I was still quite confident, having already adjusted my demeanor and begun the act, but once we finally reached the door and walked outside, that quickly changed.


    *click-VWOOOM* Letting a heavy wave of mana inside, the door swung open and revealed a view of our courtyard, clean and empty, exactly as it was when I arrived, but as I walked outside and looked into the air, reality finally set in.


    All around the estate, lining the roofs of nearby buildings and filling the bright early morning sky, were massive dragons of nearly every stage. -There are even some kids down at street level...-


    But, maintaining the demeanor of a god, I walked out without any hesitation. -There really are a lot, though... I''m not sure my aura can suppress this many people... Should I try and make some liquid divinity?-


    Quickly looking up toward a group of about a dozen ancients probing my aura with theirs, their expressions turned extremely unsavory. -How rude...- Although I didn''t personally care, it was quite disrespectful.


    ncing back toward Mother, I saw her serious expression and spoke with confidence. "It appears I''m not as wee here as I thought."


    She immediately tensed up slightly but, after a moment, simply rolled with it. "It is likely because of your abrupt appearance. I apologize if their curiosities have upset you."


    "It''s not their curiosity that bothers me..."


    Politely lowering her head, she spoke with swiftness. "Then you may punish as you see fit."


    Slowlying to a stop in the center of the courtyard, I looked up at the ancients again before casually sitting down. "Then allow me to apologize for the damages in advance."


    *VWOOOM* mming the aura I could control down onto each of them, they instantly went wide-eyed before being mmed into the ground with an irresistible force.


    *WH-WH-WH-WHAAAM* Kicking up huge plumes of dust and rock as they shattered the ground, each of the eleven ancients were instantly, irresistibly pinned to the ground.


    -H..Holy shit...- Even I was taken aback by how oppressive it was. -And I still have some to spare...-


    *VWOOOM* Swiftly spreading out everything else I had control of, I immediately pressured countless other dragons throughout the audience elder and ancient stages alike, mming them down to the ground with pale faces while while the rest wore looks of awe, appearing like admiration on the faces of children.


    And before I knew it, a smirk appeared on my face. -Having so many dragons kneeling to me.. doesn''t feel too bad...- "Now, are there any others who need ''correcting''?"


    *crackle* Pressing down harder on the ancients as they tried to squirm out from beneath my aura, cracks continued to spread through the ground, and every unsavory expression remaining in the crowd was eased.


    "Much better." Finally standing up again, I nced back at Mother. "Now, let''s get moving again. I apologize for creating a scene."


    "Right... Now, if everyone would excuse us." Quickly walking past me, she took to the air, giving me onest moment to look around before I followed after her, only easing the pressure of my aura after I had taken to the air.


    However, even after I withdrew my aura, most remained motionless.


    They simply sat there in silence, in thought. Contemting the reality of what just happened.


    Attempting to fathom the being they just witnessed.


    Meanwhile I followed after Mother, contemting why my acting flowed a little too well off the tongue. -I guess Nott��s soul still had some influence.. huh��-


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 Chapter 319: An Ocean of Knowledge

    Chapter 319: An Ocean of Knowledge


    Early Morning - Early Summer : As | Bahamut


    -----


    "Hooh..." I let out a deep breath as I took to the air and finally pulled my aura off everyone. *Vwoom* -Geez.. just controlling that much is so draining, and controlling it somehow isn''t even my biggest problem...-


    But such issues were to be addressedter.


    "You''re quite a good actor, you know," Mother spoke to me through wind magic, her tone tinged with slight pride.


    It brought some ease to my mind right away. "Well, after calling myself a Whyte and pretending to be a demihuman for so long, I''d hope I''ve gotten pretty good."


    "Hoho~, you speak like you want it to end. Are you excited to finally be able to use the family name once the festival rolls around?" A smile slowly broke through her facade as she spoke.


    "How could I not be? Though I''m not sure exactly how it will all work out..." -I wonder if I should continue to lie low or finally announce myself... I''m sure Asgard knows about me now, especially considering the scene I made on the moon.. even if, for whatever reason, I was left alone...- From my perspective, it didn''t make much sense, but there was undoubtedly a reason, although I would end up saving it for the next time I saw the goddess.


    "Well, we still have a little over two years to think about it, so what''s the rush. For now, let''s just focus on the library.""R-Right. Speaking of..." I quickly nced at the horizon before turning back to Mother. "Where is it?" -I thought it would be at one of our estates, but.. I don''t remember anyone mentioning we had one over here...-


    "It''s a few kilometers northeast of the academy." She spoke as if it were something I should have known.


    But I was hung up on something else entirely. "Academy? Like where it used to be?"


    "Haha," she chuckled. "Where it still is."


    I tensed up immediately. -W..what?- Thoughts ripped through my mind instantly. I knew for a fact that I had erased every trace of the academy. -But it''s.. still there?-


    However, while I was still questioning my own memories, Mother motioned to the horizon ahead of us with a refreshed smile.


    -Huh? What is she...- On the distant horizon, a series of massive, unfamiliar structures began toe into view.


    They were all very simple and cubic, a stark difference from the intricately designed buildings within the city, and as we continued to fly, more and more of them started to appear until it had essentially be an endless field of them. -W..what are those?-


    I continually questioned myself as we flew, eventually finding them simr to the Elder Hall''s old housing district, but before long, something more familiar came into view.


    The hole. The ce where I incinerated countless ancients and erased an entire monument off the map.


    But something about it was.. different... As we approached, I wanted to ask Mother about it, but the closer we got, the more of the hole I could see and the more of a whirlwind my mind became. -W..what the hell?-


    The once-deste and devastated site of the academy was buzzing with activity and life, the hole''s expanded edges lined with the countless, newly constructed buildings with countless dragons traversing between them carrying tools, materials, and even artifacts leading toward the hole. "W..what are they.. doing?"


    Mother was quick to put on a proud look. "Well, you remember how Poniria said destroying the academy would help bring dragons together again? Although she may have been a maniptive bitch, she was right about that."


    -H..huh?- Looking back toward the academy, I could finally see into the hole, but rather than seeing the cooled molten rock like I expected, I saw nearly perfectly vertical, carved walls of stone with countless massive marble structures embedded in them, each with a dragon working on them from the surrounding scaffolding.


    It was truly a sight to behold, but once the bottom of the expanded, nearly 18-kilometer-wide hole came into view, I saw an unbelievably massive mythril structure, and it looked like just the base of a colossal spire. "That''s.. a lot of mythril..." I spoke with awe, unable to maintain my act. -I get that its mostly lower grade stuff, but holy shit, that''s a lot...-


    Mother''s smile only widened after seeing my reaction. "Once things cooled down after your spell, we sent Sir Ats��li down to check things out, but rather than finding survivors or anything, he found that you had uncovered a huge, low, and mid-grade mythril vein. It''s what we n to use to construct the entire central spire, leading from the very bottom to the top of the hole, giving more support to the walls and connecting all the rooms at the same time. But mind you, construction only began a couple years ago, so it will take quite some time before it''s done."


    "I-I see..." I was honestly speechless. The sight of nearly a thousand dragons all working simultaneously on the same project was nothing short of mind-boggling. -So the buildings up top must be for the artisans to live here while they work on it...- "What about sses and such in the meantime?"


    "They are temporarily being held at several different estates provided by various nobles around As, but the main hall is what used to be the Chst��s estate just south of here."


    "Used to be?" I tilted my head slightly as I nced south to see if I could see it.


    "After we cleaned up behind you, the Chst��s family was in shambles, and to make amends with As and us, they relinquished most of their possessions, donating artifacts, literary works, and various resources and funds for the construction of the new academy." She slowly banked toward the north as she continued. "When everything is finalized, I believe my eldest brother will receive their main estate, and the rest will be given to us."


    -Her eldest brother?- At first, it sounded a bit odd and random, but after seeing Mother quickly brush it off, I didn''t put any thought into it. "So, are we headed to the library now?"


    She nodded immediately. "It''s visible on the horizon, but we will have tond before we get to it since the surrounding five kilometers is a no-fly zone."


    -I.. don''t see it.. but...- "Alright..." Not knowing what to expect, I simply looked to the horizon and followed Mother.


    However, it wasn''t a long flight at all, maybe only a few dozen kilometers before wended, and began walking down a wide street leading toward what could only be described as a foggy bubble about five kilometers wide and three kilometers tall sitting on the ground.


    It didn''t make much sense, but as we hastily approached, trying to minimize the damage my aura felt to those in the city, Mother exined that it looked that way because of an ancient light artifact that had not been maintained properly.


    "This ce was meant to look like a uniform continuation of the city from the outside, but supposedly, as time passed, the artifact continued to deteriorate before eventually turning it into this." She spoke swiftly as we continued down the street, eventually reaching the very edge of the cloud anding to a stop.


    Pushing my aura inside, I immediately saw several ancients standing about, seemingly light-headed, before one finally walked up to the inside edge of the cloud.


    "M..miss Ragnarok..." He immediately bowed, just outside of the public''s sight. "I apologize for not having prepared for your arrival." His words and expression were quite strained.


    "You are alright. I apologize for arriving unannounced, but as you see, I have a guest."


    "R-right, Madam! Please enter."


    Quickly walking forward, we made our way into a thinyer of fog before finally peeking through the barrier.


    But as I came face to face with nearly thirty older ancients donning pure white and gold armor, kneeling before us, my attention was drawn upwards.


    -W..woah...- Although I knew to expect that a beautiful structure would be hidden within the fog, I certainly had not expected a massive spire, just over two kilometers wide and three kilometers tall, littered with intricate carvings, gold, gems, artifacts, and even entire statues made from ck mythril.


    -The carvings are tiny, too...- With no distinct start or end, the carvings seemed to tell a story that didn''t take ce over a set time but rather showed countless separate stories molded together like a photograph showing the lives and experiences of thousands simultaneously.


    To someone who couldn''t see the details from such a distance, it may have looked like made-up details or carvings with no meaning except to portray beauty and showcase wealth.


    But that couldn''t have been farther from the truth. "This is a library?" I immediately looked toward Mother, wanting to ask for some kind of exnation, but she simply nodded.


    "This is a true Ragnarok estate, the Library of Eternity. It holds just about every piece of history and information Bahamut has ever known, at least from about a thousand years after the end of The Great War..." She spoke as if she were a little disappointed. "Unfortunately, during the great war, the inner sections of the library were cut off from all outsiders, and with no one to help maintain everything, countless ancient texts were left to rot..."


    -Oh shit...- "Were they that worried about information leaking?"


    She quickly nodded as we finally started approaching a massive door at the base of the spire. "Even since then, because it was Bahamut''s order to lock it off, no one has been in there since the very end of the war."


    -Geez... So if it''s as old as the rune in the Tree of Prayer or the Acardi facilities... Most of the texts are probably really rotten...-


    Finally arriving at the door, Mother reached up and injected some of her mana into it, lighting up arge formation just beneath the stone before slowly opening the door. *vwoom-Click* -What a clean mana lock...-


    Quickly making our way inside, we were immediately presented with the view of a seemingly endless ocean of books, stacks of paper, stone tablets, and even animal hides covered in fairly primitivenguages lining shelves hundreds of meters high and managed by several younger and older ancient stage librarians. -They must be the caretakers...-


    "Miss Ragnarok! Wel-" Their cheeriness instantly halted when my aura reached them.


    "Haah..." Mother could only sigh. "One of you, please show my guest to the aura control and aura reading sections." She quickly looked back toward me before whispering. "Go ahead and take your time. While there are rules against removing books from here, given the status of the Fenrir now, they won''t apply to you. But to be sure, I will fill the rest of the caretakers in on it while you''re out."


    "Alright." Looking back over toward the caretakers, I saw onepletely frozen and shaking slightly, butpared to the other two, she was in rather good condition. "You seem to be able to handle my aura the best, so why don''t you show me around."


    The next thing I knew, she gulped her anxieties and nervously nodded. "Y..yes! Dear guest..."


    After that, it took some time to eventually get moving, but after leading me around the massive, circr library for a few moments, she stopped in front of a massive shelf before hopping up onto one of the many small balconies lining the wall of bookshelves.


    Although it took her some time, she actually managed to slowly get used to my aura. "This area here should be most of the books rted to aura, aura control, and aura reading, a-although there are a few techniques elsewhere if you would like me to grab them."


    Quickly walking up under her, I used my aura to start scanning the names of the books, pulling out the ones that stood out. "If you could, I''d be grateful." My voice was fairly soft as I had already started reading some of the texts.


    From the looks of things, it made her a bit flustered. "Y-yes, my lord! I will fetch them for you right away!"


    Before I could say anything more, she hopped off the balcony before gentlynding on the ground and rushing around the corner. -She really is quite dedicated...-


    But while I was extremely hopeful seeing just how many books there were on the subject, numbering close to a thousand, I was quickly let down by their content. -Some of these really sound like weird fantasy cultivation techniques...-


    ''If you imagine every ce the de of grass can be, then where it is will never be a surprise. You can read your aura in a simr fashion.'' -Ya don''t say...- *pop* Closing the book with a bit of agitation, I moved it back up to the shelf before turning to the next book I head ready.


    It had been about an hour since I arrived, and I had fully read around 700 books, but somehow, I felt dumber than when I started. -These.. really aren''t helpful...-


    To put things simply, the technique I was using was leaps and bounds beyond the ones in these texts, and the worst part was simply how cryptic and symbology-driven the texts were. -No wonder these texts are meant for geniuses.. you have to be a genius to even understand what the hell they''re trying to say...-


    Needless to say, I was starting to get upset and eventually just abandoned the technique texts entirely in favor of the theory ones.


    The caretaker assigned to me was actually beginning to get nervous after seeing that I was getting a bit agitated, but eventually, Ipletely changed the subject.


    "So, what kind of texts are in the inneryers if stuff like these techniques are out here?"


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 Chapter 320: Pieces Stuck in Time

    Chapter 320: Pieces Stuck in Time


    Mid Morning - Early Summer : The Library of Eternity


    -----


    *tap-fwoop* Quickly shelving a few books with my aura, I nced down at the caretaker. "So, what kind of texts are in the inneryers if stuff like these techniques are out here?"


    She immediately tensed up before looking up at me. "Uh.. the inneryers have more state-critical works."


    Curiosity piqued, I tilted my head slightly while shelving a few more books. "State-critical?"


    "Older texts and objects of importance that require more extreme conditions for preservation. The deeper we go, the more careful we must be around the objects, to the point that even our auras must be kept away from the pieces."


    -Geez... Isn''t that a bit extreme?- "What if you need to move things around?"


    "The objects are separated into sections, each of which can be moved with a special device stored in the secondyer. We as the librarians must meticulously organize these sections before relocating them to the inneryers."


    -So all the organization, and I''d assume ranking of importance, happens out here, then they just never touch them..? Wouldn''t that make stuff pile up in the inneryers?- Questions rang through my mind before I turned back to the caretaker. "How manyyers are there, and how big are they? Is the firstyer the biggest?"She shook her head immediately. "There are fouryers in total, though only three are essible," she exined with a hint of disappointment. "As for their sizes, the second is thergest, and the third follows it. Omitting the fourthyer, eachyer essentially acts as a filter for the deeperyers, but the secondyer umtes quite a lot that cannot be disposed of, but isn''t important enough for the thirdyer."


    -As I thought...- "I see..." Looking back down at the stacks of books around me, I skimmed through them with my aura before quickly putting them back on the shelf. "In that case, let''s see what the secondyer has to offer." -If it''srger and has been sifted through before, there has to be something...-


    "Uh.. about that..." She quickly tensed back up before breaking into a cold sweat. "No one is allowed inside except on set dates once every few years." She threw herself into a deep bow instantly. "I sincerely apologize."


    But as she bowed in silence, a smile found its way onto my face. "That''s fine. I''m not a caretaker after all."


    She quickly tensed up, but before she spoke, she looked toward the ground. "T-that is true..." Silence wrapped around us as she fell into thought. "However, there is still a procedure that must be taken." With some reluctance, she deepened her bow. "I apologize for my impudence, but please give us an hour to prepare for your entry."


    "Alright. In the meantime, I will continue to look around if that''s alright."


    "O-Of course! Please ask us if you need anything!"


    Finally dismissing her with a nod, I skimmed the rest of the texts around me before cing them back onto their respective shelves and standing up. I had an hour to roam and explore as I wished, but as I walked around the massive loop of the library, I quickly found that an hour was far from a long time in that ce.


    -Geez.. this ce is massive...- The outeryer technically had only three rings of bookshelves; however, each was nearly a hundred meters tall and ran in a circle around the entire spire.


    -It doesn''t help that it''s not only books either...- Scattered on the bookshelves were artifacts, ancient-looking stone tablets, scrolls, and preserved animal hides covered in text, several of which were written innguages unfamiliar to me. -Just where are these from...- But as I continued looking, I did eventually find things that did more than just stimte my curiosity.


    About a quarter of the way around the loop, I found a row of stone tablets that looked to have been taken out of the wall of a cave, and on them was thenguage of the Acardi. -W..what''s this?-


    Quickly reading through them, my expression of curiosity gradually darkened until I was simply left perplexed.


    The text, written by an Acardi survivor simr to the one whose crawler I found in the Holy Kingdom''s mountains, wasn''t anything like a diary, log, or will. Instead, it was endless mathematics and forms scratched into the stone''s surface, which I couldn''t directly connect to anything in physics.


    -What is this math for...- It was soplicated and exact that I was struggling to wrap my head around it all at once. Simply nothing I could think of could connect to it, even highly obscure topics like mana energy wavelengths.


    My only hint was the text that looked like chicken scratch at the very end, ''After being on the verge of death for so long, I solved the problem...''


    But as time ticked by, I sat down and stared at the shelf, continuously wracking my brain over the equation until, eventually, the caretaker came back up to me.


    "Lord Nott," she bowed deeply, pronounced with respect. "Your entry to the secondyer has been approved and prepared."


    -Ah.. has it been an hour already?- In all honesty, I had momentarily forgotten where I even was. "Alright, but before that, where did these tabletse from?"


    "Hm? Oh, those." She continued casually. "There was a noble family that finally copsed about 600 years ago, and these tablets were in the deepest, most secure parts of their vault."


    -What? Did they know what the text was or something?- "What was the family?"


    She looked up as if retrieving a deep-seated memory. "I believe it was the Synkr��tima family. They were a family that led the Intelligence Agency for about 6,000 years before falling from grace and decaying to theirplete abolition." She paused before looking back at me. "They were quite influential towards the end of the Great War, leading many of their belongings to be brought here under the pretense of historical importance. However, we still haven''t deciphered these tablets. More than likely, they will be moved to the secondyer and left until someone is able to decipher them."


    "I see..." ncing back at them, I tried dedicating the math to memory before returning to the caretaker. "Please make sure they don''t leave this library." -When I finally repair theboratory, if I need a refresher, I need to know where to find it...-


    "A-Alright." She was a bit flustered as she straightened up. "In that case, I will have someone archive it while you are in the secondyer."


    -Good...- Momentarily ncing back at the tablets, I got a somewhat ominous feeling before turning back to the caretaker. "Let''s head in, then."


    "A-As you wish!"


    After that, we made our way back to where we first entered with haste before finallying up on Mother, who was with the other caretakers.


    She was quick to put on her act after showing me a warm smile for a moment. "I assume you didn''t have much luck?"


    I immediately shook my head. "Not with what I initially came for. I''m going to give the secondyer a check, but if it''s fruitless as well, I will turn to look elsewhere." -Maybe I could ask Hera if she has anything...-


    Mother nodded, likely sensing I had a backup n already. "I apologize in advance if there isn''t anything that piques your interest."


    "No reason to apologize." Turning toward the massive door opposite where we entered, I looked at the guards and saw their extremely ufortable expressions. "It is my privilege to enter such a massive trove of knowledge."


    Finally walking over to them, the knights finally stepped aside before activating an artifact and opening the door.


    However, as the door opened, rather than seeing another trove of books and historical objects, I saw.. nothing. -What?-


    Behind the door was simply a projection of the same door, shown to be closed as if the door had never opened. -It even repels aura like a solid wall would...-


    One of the caretakers was quick to walk in front of me. "The only rules of the secondyer that everyone must abide by is no breathing, normal speaking, or quick movements that would cause the air to move too fast or spread unwee contaminants and moisture. Even small drafts of air can cause damage to many of the works in thisyer, so please be careful." She bowed deeply toward Mother and I before standing back up. "You are allowed to enter for up to four hours at a time. If you wish to handle or read any works, please read it with your aura. Removing items off of shelves can permanently damage them." She paused to make sure we understood before standing up. "If you can abide by those rules, you may enter, though, please note that we have methods to forcefully remove you if you do not follow them."


    -Hoh?- She looked straight at me with an unwavering expression while she spoke. -She''s really confident... It makes me curious...- But unfortunately, as badly as I wanted to see how they''d remove me, the library was something I needed to have ess to. -And winning over the caretakers is the first step...- "Then, in that case, I will see you all in a few hours."


    Acknowledging the caretaker''s instructions with a nod, I gave Mother a quick nce before finally taking a careful step through the thick wall of barriers anding into a vast, dimly lit space filled with rows upon rows of shelves, each crammed full of ancient texts and relics. -Holy shit...-


    It was simply iparable to the otheryer. The air was sterile and still, with almost no contaminants or flow at all, and an unfathomable silence hung over everything. -The air isn''t even breathable...-


    Mother was quick to use some extremely subtle wind magic to speak. "How eerie..." Her voice was soft and cautious.


    Seeing her looking around with a wide, curious look in her eyes, I used magic to whisper as well. "Have you not ever been in here?"


    She slowly shook her head. "I never had a need to... The youngest texts in thisyer are almost 2,000 years old. I''m not even sure if my mother has been into thisyer..."


    -2,000 years is the youngest?- I felt slightly taken aback for a moment, but as I looked around, that number made much more sense.


    Even with a simple nce down the nearestnes of shelves, my eyes caught glimpses of texts so old it looked as if their covers would crumble at the mere suggestion of touch, with many of the more ancient ones sealed within special containersced with runes to resist everything, even the faint aura of nearby artifacts. -I think even ''The Goddess of Harvest'' I read in Kan was less fragile than some of these...-


    But they weren''t what I was there for. "The shelf sections are scattered about, only sorted by time. Just walk around and look for a golden que that says aura and skim through the texts before moving to the next shelf." Her tone quickly changed as she turned to walk down one of therger, dragon-size aisles. "I n to look for.. something else..."


    Quickly deciding to leave her to her own devices, I slowly moved in the other direction before walking down one of the many paths to look for a shelf of items rted to aura.


    In all honesty, after seeing how old everything was, I was quite hopeful.


    But the shelves of items rted to aura were very few and far between, and nearly all the items on them were theory-based.


    However, thankfully, even a single book in thisyer was more helpful than everything I read in the firstyerbined. After reading through any and everything I could find, I managed to get a slightly different view of aura, as well as some methods to improve my ability to control it.


    My issue with reading it still persisted, and my control still needed an excessive amount of practice, but it was at least better than nothing.


    However, my greatest boon of the secondyer didn''t end up being the pieces rted to aura.


    It was pieces rted to the Acardi.


    All throughout the secondyer, there were artifacts, texts, devices, and blueprints, all made by the Acardi, stored and archived for thousands of years. -This ce is a fucking treasure trove...-


    The more I looked, the more I found. Broken versions of the mobile satellite device I had, electronic tablets, carbon printers, cables, which I may or may not have taken, and even an empty fusion core were all items I had seen around.


    But as I started nearing the four-hour mark and needed to head back to the door, I found an Acardi artifact I didn''t recognize. A simple ck cube with no glow at all. -Hm? What''s that?-


    *VWOOM* It instantly started glowing and humming as my aura brushed across it.


    "Authorized Personnel det-" *static*


    -Awe damn.. did it break?- Bringing it closer, I pushed some aura into it and fixed it in all the ces that looked damaged before finally letting the electricity and mana in it flow again.


    *HHmmmmm* The hum quickly settled down before the purple glow in it steadied and began flowing more smoothly. "Awaitingmand. . ."


    The robotic voice was almost identical to those I had heard previously from simr artifacts. -What is it though...- "Uh.. help?" -Will it listmands if I ask that?-


    "Invalidmand."


    -Figures...- Quickly straightening up, I looked over my shoulder toward the door, which was only just around the corner. -I don''t have time to mess with this...- "Deactivate?"


    *click* The glow and hum instantly stopped as the cube returned to looking like a simple ck cube. -Now I just need to think of an excuse to take it...-


    "You find something?"


    I jolted so badly that I nearlyunched the artifact into the ceiling after hearing Mother''s voice. *VWOOM* "Uh, yeah... Could you help me take this out of the library?"


    I lowered the artifact in front of her so she could look at it, but the moment I expected her to give a suggestion, she just lunged forward. *nom*


    I simply froze almost instantly. She simply.. ate it? -H..huh?-


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 Chapter 321: A Fathers Pain

    Chapter 321: A Father''s Pain


    Mid Afternoon - Early Summer : As | Bahamut


    -----


    "Did you really have to put it in your mouth?" I couldn''t help but give Mother an odd look as she opened her mouth and pulled out the Acardi artifact, freshly doused with saliva.


    "It was the only way. Only Bahamut has the authority to take things from the second and thirdyers of the library." She gave me a sly nce as she handed it to me. "But who knows, maybe I was hopeful it would turn my scales ck too."


    I hesitated, unsure if she was serious, before taking the artifact and cleaning off the saliva. "That was a very.. unique scenario..." Quickly getting it clean, I buried it into my fur and secured it with my aura. -Right.. I need to grab my ID and sword before I leave...- "Anyway, what was it you were getting ready to say before you grabbed the artifact?"


    "Ah, yes..." *fwoosh* *fwoosh* Landing gracefully back in the courtyard of our estate, she nced at me before turning to the door. "I was thinking, since you''re nning to stay in Siratha while you work to get a handle on your aura, why not take Krystallo with you?"


    I immediately tilted my head. "Is that really alright?" -I don''t know if I''mfortable bringing her into space to meet Hera, so I''d have to leave her alone.. although I''m sure Leif wouldn''t mind...-


    "Well, it would be a good opportunity for her to gain some experience in the outside world. Plus, with Siratha under Bahamut''s wing, she can use her draconic form, and I don''t need to worry about her getting hurt if she wanders off." She spoke with a prideful tone, confident Krystallo would be able to defend herself.


    But it just made me raise an eyebrow. "You think I would let anyone touch a single scale on her?""Haha, of course not." She let out a soft chuckle as her smile warmed. "But you did promise to make it up to her. Do you really think she''ll let you leave alone?"


    "Haah..." I immediately let out a heavy sigh, imaginatively feeling her weight on my back already. -She definitely won''t let go of me once I get inside...- But as we walked, I had an idea. "What if you and Father joined us in Siratha? Since it''s under Bahamut now, couldn''t you frame it as a diplomatic visit?"


    Mother stopped abruptly before falling into thought. "That''s.. not a bad idea actually... I''ve been looking to set up a meeting with Leif Vilulf for quite some time now."


    "Just say the word, and I''ll arrange it. It''s not like calling it a diplomatic visit would be a lie." -Although it might be more of a family trip...-


    "Hmm..." Mother looked into the air as she weighed the idea. "Okay, let me speak it over with Osto. We still have quite a lot of paperwork we need to clean up..." She turned back toward me with a slight flicker in her tail. "You''re going to leave here in a few minutes, right?"


    "Yeah, I just need to grab a few things."


    "Then expect us to arrive a few days after you. Assuming everything goes well, we will show up at Miss Vilulf''s estate under diplomatic pretenses." Still half in thought, she resumed her walk toward the estate.


    "Alright, then I''ll make sure they make amodations." Following after her, we hastily entered the estate, being anxiously greeted by the few conscious guards and maids while we walked.


    But as I was getting ready to turn into the hallway with my room, I found a white-scaled figure ring at me from around the corner.


    She stared like a panther lurking in the underbrush, and the moment I got close, she pounced. *thump-puff* She buried herself in my fur instantly. "YOU CAN''T LEAVE AGAIN!" She gripped my chest with all her strength as she yelled with an angry tone.


    She wasn''t merely making a statement; she was issuing amand. -Oh boy...- "You''re just going to travel with Mom, we''re going on a family trip, I just need to leave before-"


    "NO!" She dug her ws into me, her eyes burning with determination. "I''M NOT LETTING YOU OUT OF MY SIGHT FOR THE NEXT WEEK! MINIMUM!"


    I wanted to retort, but somehow, I couldn''t muster the strength. "Haah..." -Well.. maybe this isn''t all that bad... Since I won''t be using a space rune, I can show her sights she couldn''t imagine...- I paused to give it more thought before speaking with reluctance. "Alright. But as we leave, I''ll have to cloak you with light magic, so try to stay put until we are far enough from As that I can change back to my dragon form."


    Her anger turned into joy instantaneously. "Okay!" Her tail happily flicked around while she hung from my chest before I used aura to move her up onto my back where Ilios wasying.


    "We will be leaving in a minute, so go ahead and getfortable."


    *pomf* She went limp as if to spread out on my fur as much as possible without even a hint of hesitation.


    But after seeing her blissful expression, I simply left her. -She''ll probably hold on when we take off...-


    Finally helping bnce her on my back, I continued down the hall before arriving in my room, quickly opening it and gathering my things before offering to carry some of Krystallo''s stuff and getting ready to leave.


    But as we returned to the main hall, instead of inly finding everyone ovee by my aura, we found a white dragon standing at the base of the stairs, his head hanging low, clearly struggling to resist my aura.


    "V..Vasilias... I''m sorry..." He spoke as ifpletely exhausted. "I''m ashamed in myself that.. as a father, I cannot stand in front of my own child.. but..."


    *Vwoom* Quickly giving him some support with my aura, I did my best to try and keep some of it off him, but he never pulled his gaze off the ground. "Even ancients get suffocated in my aura. I don''t think this is something you should be ashamed of..."


    Finally raising his gaze, he looked at Krystallo casually lying on my back before gritting his teeth and turning toward the ground.


    It made my chest ache a bit seeing him so truly distraught. "Father, Krystallo grew up with my aura, and Mother has a very literal connection to me. Plus, you have spent a lot of time away from home, so you haven''t been able to gradually build up your tolerance to it."


    "But that does not take away from how shameful this is..." He sounded like he was on the verge of tears. "I''m a father short of breath by the mere presence of his son..."


    "I''m a god, Dad. This isn''t something to be ashamed of... Just look around. No one else, not even the ancients, can remain conscious this close to me, yet here you are, still standing." Immediately seeing he didn''t even have the strength to look around, I tried to speak a bit more softly. "The best way for you to ovee it is to be in the presence of it more often."


    His eyes quickly widened before he looked up at me.


    "This just means we need to find something to do together. To have some good father/son time." -Maybe I can take him down to the Acardib or something.. although I''m not sure if he can handle the depth...-


    However, he was still reluctant. "But just as with the rest of your childhood, I have political work to take care of... I don''t know how much we-"


    "I''ll make sure you don''t have anything then," I spoke slightly sternly. "If you have work, I will have it pushed to someone else or saved forter... I know the festival ising up, but you need a break, Dad... So for once.. why don''t you set your things aside and spend some time with us?"


    *sh* Momentarily switching to my dragon form, I walked over and gently pressed my forehead against his.


    "Let''s make this trip to Siratha an enjoyable one, okay?" I wore a warm smile as I pulled away.


    And finally, he looked me in the eyes, with tears hidden behind his smile. "A..alright."


    Seeing that he was barely remaining conscious after I got so close, I quickly pulled away before changing back to my fenririan form, letting Krystallo give her a short farewell as well before heading outside, with Ilios and Krystallo veiled under a cloak of light magic.


    Outside, tons of people were already watching, even more than earlier in the day, but unlike earlier, not one was in the air; they simply observed from the surrounding rooftops, even if a few still wore unsavory looks. -But any improvement is good, no matter how small...-


    *VWOOOM-CRACKLE* Quickly mming down some aura on those showing any kind of hostility, I walked out into the courtyard, spread my wings, and took to the air, being especially sure to hold Krystallo in ce as I flew up into the clouds.


    "Where are we going?" Krystallo spoke softly with a hint of confusion mixed with excitement.


    "Siratha," I replied somewhat bluntly as I started surrounding us in vacuum magic.


    "Then why aren''t we taking the space rune?"


    I immediately shook my head. "How will you ever understand the vastness and beauty of our world if you always take the space runes?"


    "B-but isn''t Siratha.. like.. really far away?"


    "Mhm!" I gave her a prideful nce before facing forward again. "That''s why you should start holding on! I don''t n to fly slowly."


    Courage instantly sparked in her eyes before she scoffed at my advice. *crackle* She didn''t quite realize what real speed was just yet, but I had no intention of forcing her to do anything.


    -Well, I warned her!- *crack-FWOOOM* sting the thrusters, she was instantly thrown backward,ingpletely off my back before she could react and grip my fur like her life depended on it.


    "WHAT THE?!" Even without any air resistance, she could barely hold on, but as she looked down at Ilios, nonchntly napping just in front of her, she put on a look of determination, trying to reel herself back in before yelling out, "How is Ilios napping?!"


    "You''ll get used to it like he did, I promise." Slightly easing the eleration, I let her pull herself back down to get a better grip on me, but by then, we were already on the edge of the atmosphere anding up on the ocean.


    *sh* Finally at altitude and up to speed, I changed to my draconic form and eased the thruster magic, allowing Krystallo to finally rx and have a moment to catch her breath and move around.


    She was a bit grumpy at first, but it only took a moment for that to change.


    Finally sitting up, she looked up to find the stars staring down at her, clearer than she had ever seen, and looked down around us to see the vast, unfathomable beauty of the ocean, only limited by the single distant horizon that encircled us.


    Wholly captivated, her ws firmly dug into the contours of my scales while she looked out over the world in awe, with eyes filled with countless glimmers of curiosity.


    For the first time, she truly had the chance to put everything into perspective, to see just how unfathomably vast the world she had at her fingertips was.


    "W..wow..." Her voice, soft and filled with awe, barely rose above a whisper. "How.. beautiful..."


    ncing back at her in silence, I watched the wonder in her eyes glimmer beneath the warmth of the sun just above us, staring out at the giant storm clouds gathering on the horizon with an indescribable fascination.


    To an extent, it felt as if I was looking at my former self, a young dragon suddenly realizing just what was at their fingertips, the expanse of unknown left to explore, and the unfathomable beauties thaty in hiding.


    Even after having technically flown around the world, I truly felt as if I had explored nothing. From the frigid expanse of the north to the zing abyss known as the Banv?nn Desert, there were countless mysteries about the world I had yet to even see, let alone touch.


    But while my mind usually ran rampant when thinking about such mysteries, set aze by the never-ending curiosity in my mind, at that moment, I had set it aside. -I wonder if I should really take her straight to Siratha... We have a few days to kill, don''t we?- At that moment, I simply wanted to show her more of the world. -But where to...-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 322: Nostalgia

    Chapter 322: Nostalgia


    Late Afternoon - Early Winter (northern hemisphere) : The Banv?nn Sea


    -----


    "Um.. Brother?" Krystallo''s voice trembled slightly with nervousness as we glided over a seemingly endless expanse of open ocean.


    "What''s up? Are you okay?" Quickly checking the air around her with a bit of concern, I made sure it was still breathable before easing my nerves.


    "Y-yeah, I''m fine. I was just wondering... Was that patch of desert we passed part of the Banv?nn?" She gestured her tail toward the distant horizon behind us as she spoke.


    "It was. Why do you ask?"


    "Isn''t Siratha near the western border of that desert? Weren''t we heading there?" Her furrowed brow suggested she thought we were lost, her mind likely racing to figure out how to guide us back.


    But, of course, I knew exactly where we were. "Haha, while I did say we''re going to Siratha, we aren''t going straight there. There is a ce I want to show you first."


    Her anxiety was almost instantly reced by a sparkle of excitement.It was truly an adorable sight. -I wish I could''ve taken her to the Eastern Oasis. It would have been fun to introduce her to some humans and maybe grab a barrel of piotita while we were there, but even though my aura theoretically shouldn''t kill humans, what good does visiting do if everyone is unconscious...- Turning back to the horizon ahead of us, I promptly centered Krystallo on my back and began thinning the vacuum magic around us. -In any case, this ce should be enjoyable too...-


    Finally beginning to slow down, the very edge of a shoreline began emerging over the horizon, with distant towering, cloud-covered mountain ridges quickly following behind it. -Those clouds must never dissipate...-


    The ce I was taking Krystallo was The Scar, but rather than taking her to its summit, I was simply taking her to see it and show her around the Acardi wreckage I had found there.


    Not feelingfortable bringing her into outer space or, frankly, introducing her to Hera without talking to her privately first, I nned to just skirt the edge and try to verify if Hera''s aura was at the peak before continuing to show Krystallo around to the unbelievable views and vista''s of the mountain ranges.


    But before I could even get to the closest beaches, I had to switch gears.


    -Tch...- I felt two presences moving toward me at a speed far beyond the limits of living flesh. -Of all the times for gods toe make trouble...-


    Noticing the change in the air around me, Krystallo immediately started to get anxious, but as she opened her mouth to speak, everything stopped.


    *Vwoom* Creating a bit of liquid divinity, I held its constant flow nearly to a halt, and in perfect sync, time seemed to freeze.


    It confirmed my theories about how liquid divinity worked almost instantly, but my focus was elsewhere at that moment.


    About a kilometer behind us, there were two goddesses - one familiar, the other a stranger.


    However, while the foreign face threw herself into a fearful bow the moment I set my eyes on her, she had a hint of confusion on her face.


    "So, who''s this? Did you make a friend?" Looking toward the goddess I recognized, she immediately jolted before starting with a stutter.


    "Y-You can''t go to the Holy Kingdom!"


    I was instantly taken aback. "What do you mean?" -Is she.. flustered?-


    "You can''t fight the Aesir yet! You need more-" Finally noticing Krystallo on my back, her panic screeched halted.


    "I''m not after the Aesir right now. I literally just woke up from a dragon sleep where I got repeatedly pummeled for over a hundred years... I just want to rx a little..."


    The other goddess, unknown to me, seemed baffled before the other spoke up again. "Ah, t-then good." Finally getting a hold of her nerves, her usual confident air started to slowly return.. but somehow, it didn''t feel the same as it once did. "Ahem. In any case, since we''re here, allow me to introduce the new face."


    But as she motioned toward the slightly transparent woman next to her, my eyes didn''t budge. "I think you are the one due for an introduction, actually..."


    She instantly tensed up.


    With the recent fusion of my soul and body, memories from my past dragon sleeps had be vivid again, but with it, my suspicions of the goddess skyrocketed. -She has helped me a lot since then, but I can''t just overlook it all...-


    However, while I expected her to be a little reluctant, sheplied quite easily. "My name is Grace, a goddess not from this world."


    My mind instantly stuttered. -G..Grace?- It was a name foreign to this world but somehow familiar to my ears. -Grace... Grace... Grace...- Instantly digging through the fuzziest of memories in the deepest recesses of my mind, I tried to find where I knew it from, and before long, I found it. "You.. you''re from Earth, aren''t you..." Although I couldn''t remember the specifics of how I knew, I was confident.


    "That name... It sounds familiar..." Her eyes widened as she slowly looked up at me. "Where did you learn it..."


    "It''s the name of the I originally came from, or at least a part of me did..." My gaze remained fixed on her, trying to read her reactions until I confirmed it. "Were you.. an angel?"


    And that was when the focus in her eyes blurred as if a wave of memories struck her in the head.


    -Holy shit...- To me it was nothing short of a revtion. -Earth is really connected to this world somehow...-


    Thinking the other goddess could be another angel, I looked toward her, but she looked more confused than anything.


    However, the moment she noticed my gaze, she threw herself into a bow. "I-I am Skuld, the Goddess of Oracles!"


    "Hoh?" -Isn''t that the name Tyr yelled out?- "What''s your connection to Grace?"


    "She invited me to work beneath, Your Majesty... Saying that you would be forgiving..." She paused before deepening her bow and exposing the core of her soul through her back. "I apologize for my rudeness, Your Majesty! I sincerely apologize for the transgressions I made in the past and wish to make it up somehow, even if it means bing a ve!"


    She spoke with a surprisingly genuine tone. -I see...- Still struggling to wrap my head around the situation with Grace, I quickly brushed Skuld off. "Just work well with Grace, and if you ever see something happening to the Ragnarok family or rted to the Aesir, report it to me... Do you have a way of finding me already?"


    "O-Of course! Your majesty''s presence is impossible to miss!"


    -So, my presence to the gods is constantly being exuded now, huh... It must really be tied to liquid divinity as well...- Looking back toward Grace, I found that her expression softened slightly, but rather than looking like a weight having lifted off her shoulders, it was pressing down on her even more.


    "Was I.. an angel?" Still zoned out, she mumbled something under her breath before a pair ofrge ck wings unfurled and revealed themselves behind her. "I.. was..." As focus slowly returned to her eyes, her tone shifted as if she was on the verge of tears. "But why don''t I.. remember anything..." Distraught was woven deep into her voice, to a nearly palpable extent.


    All I could do was let out a gentle sigh, deciding to give her some time to sort things out. "Take your time, Grace. We''ll talk when you''re ready." I paused as I turned my attention back to Skuld. "As for you, Skuld, as long as you remain loyal, we won''t have any issues... Although I do wish to speak again in a few days. When you feel my presence go up to the top of the mountain over here,e find me." -I have a lot of questions I need her to answer still...-


    "Y-Yes, Your Majesty," she stammered slightly, but a mix of hope and determination filled her voice.


    With a final, momentary nce at Grace, I released the hold on my liquid divinity, and time nearly instantly started flowing again. *FWOOOM*


    "Brother? Are you alright?" Krystallo instantly continued her statement as if nothing had happened.


    "Yeah, I just got lost in thought for a second," I spoke with reassurance. "In any case, we should being up on The Scar. Have you learned about it yet? I believe its typically called Bahamut''s nest." -At least that''s what some texts in the Library seemed to call it...-


    But she still simply shook her head.


    -Hoho... Looks like I''m in for a treat...- Almost immediately, some anticipation started to build, and the turmoil within my mind began to calm. It still took some time, of course, but once it all finally settled and I could give Krystallo my exclusive attention,ing up on the mountains turned into a really wonderful experience.


    The few minutes we approached the base of The Scar were honestly amazing, Krystallo''s adorable expression of awe and wonder was simply priceless, to the point I wish I had a camera to take pictures even though I knew such memories would never fade.


    "Are those tiny things down there wyverns?" Pointing below toward the massive ice spikes around the base of the sprawling mountain ridges, Krystallo''s eyes were filled with fascination.


    "They are indeed. When I was herest time, they were nesting in or around those big ice spikes, and there were simply tons of them. Some were pretty big, too, but they just look cute from up here."


    "Hehe, I wonder how many I could kill!"


    "Pfft-" The conflict between her tone and words caught me insanely off guard. -The apple doesn''t fall far from the tree, huh...- With a smile, I nced back at her. "If you want, we can go down and raid a nest."


    She immediately looked toward me with excitement simply oozing from her. "Is this what you brought me here for?" There was a happy flick in her tail as she spoke.


    "Haha, not quite." With a soft chuckle, I motioned my head forward. "What I actually wanted to show you was this."


    "Hm?" Straightening her posture, her gaze followed my indication, but she froze the moment itnded. "WOAAH!"


    Trotting up toward my neck with a sparkle in her eyes, she never pulled her gaze off The Scar, its unfathomable scale and indescribable beauty turning every emotion she had into awe.


    -Even still.. after having already ventured to it''s peak.. it''s truly a sight to behold...- And as if to make the vista even more incredible, at the very peak of the mountain, the faint glow of an aura was visible, glowing like a beacon left to guide me. -But I need to save visiting her forter...-


    Turning my attention back to Krystallo, we continued gliding around the base of the mountain for quite a while, relishing in the joy of sharing the moment together even after she had begun asking me all the questions that filled her mind like a barrage that flowed endlessly.


    But, with each question filled with a limitless, childlike wonder and curiosity as it did when she was younger, I simply answered them as best as I could, savoring every passing moment I could.


    But before long, the day began to wane, the sun dipped below the horizon and the sky was painted in hues of orange and purple before being nketed by the night sky.


    As night finally settled, I gently steered us southeast, following the rugged contour of the mountain range sprouting from The Scar. The next destination was the Acardi wreckage.


    By that time, I had started simply giving Krystallo a lesson on science and the stars as she gazed up at them, attempting to use the nigh unfathomable scale of The Scar to put space into perspective.


    But whether she was really understanding me or simply enjoying the moment, reminiscing over our childhoods, I couldn''t tell. All that mattered was that she was enjoying it.


    However, I didn''t expect that once we arrived at the wreckage, we would have someone interrupt our evening.


    -Someone.. is in the wreckage?-


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 Chapter 323: The Future’s Uncertainty

    Chapter 323: The Future��s Uncertainty


    Mid Evening - Mid Winter : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom


    -----


    *fwoooosh* "Brother.. how do you know so much about the stars?" Krystallo''s voice carried a mix of awe and curiosity, her scales catching the ethereal glow of the scarred moon above as we glided over the vast, shadow-draped forest below.


    A smile came to my face as I was reminded of the countless nights we spent under the stars as children. "Well, I''ve spent a lot of time studying them!"


    "But.. how do you know that each speck of light is a giant zing fireball hurtling through the empty expanse of space?"


    "That''s all thanks to their light! By breaking down the light emitted from a star into its base parts, you can see what the star is made of, how old it is, and even how fast and in what direction it''s moving."


    Her eyes widened with wonder as she turned to look at me. "H..how though... Where would you even start?"


    Swiftly creating a small piece of ss, I handed it to her. "You start by using something called a prism, like this piece of ss, and because different wavelengths travel at different speeds, you can separate them based on how much they bend; then, all you need to do is limit the light passing into the prism so it''s just the light of the star and boom."


    Her tail flicked excitedly as she held it to her eye and looked down at the soft glow in my scales. "Oh, we did actually learn about these! They taught us how to use them to help us find issues with our light magic that our eyes alone couldn''t see."I immediately raised an eyebrow as I nced back at her. -That''s actually really smart...- "Like to improve the uracy of your illusion spells?"


    "Exactly!" Her excitement was simply infectious. "And ording to our teacher, maybe even to give light magic the ability to heal wounds in the future!"


    -Huh? Does she mean, like.. disinfection with UV?- I tilted my head slightly as I thought about it, but I still drew a nk. "You''ll have to show me sometime. I''m not sure I know much about that."


    Glee instantly washed over her face. "Hehe, okay!"


    But as her contagious joy started spreading to me, my expression stiffened. -What the...-


    We were still about a hundred kilometers from the wreckage, but even still, I sensed a presence I could instantly recognize belonging to a dragon. -Without being able to read my aura it''s a bit hard to tell, but it feels like someone.. is in the wreckage?-


    At such a distance and without the ability to read my aura, it was a bit hard to tell its exact location. -But they''re in that general area and are barely moving... I wonder if it''s someone from the Intelligence Agency. Maybe they stumbled across it after I pointed them toward where the crawler was...-


    But the closer we got, the more oddities I found.


    Their aura was quite small, maybe only on par with an old adult-stage dragon, and was quite poorly controlled as if it were a human mage or perhaps a young dragon with far more aura than they could handle. -But if they''re that young.. what are they doing all the way out here, all alone? Just a few of those big wyverns could do them in...-


    It didn''t make sense no matter how I twisted it, but the closer we got, the more my curiosity grew. -It''s a shame I won''t be able to speak with them...-


    *Fwoosh-Fwoosh* *Fwoosh-thump* "Hm? Why are wending here?" Krystallo looked around with a blend of curiosity and caution as we finallynded in the rtively small clearing.


    "Well, this is the other thing I brought you here to see." As Ilios hopped off my back and stretched, I looked back at her excitedly. "Have you ever wondered if there was a way to travel between stars?"


    Not quite understanding me, she tilted her head slightly before a mix of countless expressions blew across her face. "H..huh?!"


    As I moved her off my back, I honestly wanted tough. She clearly picked up what I was alluding to, even if it was a little cruel. "Sorry to get your hopes up, but this doesn''t have that ability anymore."


    She immediately looked at me like she was upset, as if I had lied to her.


    But it wasn''t for the reason I thought. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ''ANYMORE''?!"


    -Ah...- I felt an awkward, cold bead of sweat instantly form on my forehead.


    "SINCE WHEN COULD WE EVER DO THAT?!"


    Quickly moving my wing over her, I pressed it down on her head to try and calm her down, but she just pouted. "It''s a little hard to exin at the moment, but for now, just know that this is a relic from the great war, alright?"


    She shot me a look of skepticism with a pout before turning and looking into the clearing. "So, where is it?"


    "The entrance is just down there." I motioned down the steep, fairly clear path into the crater quite nonchntly. -Looks like the intelligence agency did find this at some point...- By then, the trail I had made should have been long gone, but somehow, there was still an obvious path, with even the dust in the wallspacted slightly to make itst a while. -Looks like it was pretty high traffic at some point...-


    I honestly wasn''t sure what would even be left of the wreckage at that point. -But before that, I gotta take care of the unknown face...- "Here, Krystallo, stand behind me for a second. There''s someone inside I need to drag out."


    "Huh? Drag out?"


    *Vwoom* "AAAH!" A scream echoed out of the ship the instant I picked them up.


    -What the hell?!- One would think I ripped their arm off or something, but as I continued pulling them out, there was nothing but silence. -Did they finally pass out?-


    However, to my surprise, as I pulled them out of the wreckage, I set my eyes on the true humanoid form of a very lean man with mostly red scales and a few glimmers of gold.


    -This aura.. belongs to an elder?!- I honestly had no idea what I was even looking at. It was a man who looked both 40 and 240 simultaneously. -But he''s still conscious in my aura.. so...- "Who are you?" I spoke firmly but with a curious tone.


    But the man simply flinched before frantically responding with a shakey voice. "M-My name is C-Chrys�� Fl��ga! A-an aspiring r-runic researcher!" He paused as he turned his gaze even farther from mine, refusing to look at me. "I-I didn''t mean any harm, I pr-promise! I just... I just saw this ce from the air an-an-and..."


    His words trailed off as Krystallo''s gaze fixed on him, her own curiosity mingled with a hint of skepticism.


    -She''s looking at him like he''s not even a dragon...- "Okay, I get it, I get it." -He must be so skittish because of my aura...- "So, what brings you all the way out here? You know there are things here that can kill you around every corner, right?"


    "I-I l-like to think I could protect myself against m-most things..."


    "With what?" Looking at his aura, there was no chance he could even fend off one of therge wyverns on the beach.


    "I specialize w-with runes!" He instantly created an array of runes in the air in front of himself with light mana as if it were nothing.


    And to my surprise, each rune was actually prettyplex, to the point that it took me a second to even figure out what some of them were for, but once I saw how they came together, my eyes widened. -What the... Do these runes create oxyacetylene?-


    It was a pretty simple chemical, essentially just being a mix of acetylene, made of two carbon and two hydrogen, and high purity oxygen, but acetylene alone should have been extremely difficult to make with any kind of volume only using a rune, yet the one in front of me did it nearly wlessly with unbelievable efficiency. -His runes even have some Acardi influences...- "Did you make this yourself?"


    He gave me a nervous nod after a moment of reluctance. "K-kind of!" As he continued, his skittishness slowly vanished. "I found many different parts and pieces at ancient sites like this one and on ancient relics, but managed to cobble them together to make this. I understand how it all works and even how to further optimize it at times, but as soon as I try to create something from scratch, nothing seems to work." He started biting his nail as he spoke. "I know I''m close. It''s just a matter of time. Maybe I can try to-"


    -Jeez, he talks fast...- Finally cutting him off, I spoke bluntly. "Compounds are way moreplicated than you think. You can''t just mindlessly create something random and expect it to be stable, let alone have an effect you expect."


    Finally looking up at me, his eyes filled with interest. "Com..pound?"


    But I wasn''t in the mood to give him a lesson. "It''s what you''re creating with the center-left rune you showed. Regardless, you should still probably leave. This area is far from safe, even if you have that." -Although that would probably really mess up a wyvern...-


    His awkwardness returned like a wave the moment I changed the subject. "I-I have others depending on what creatures I need to fight. I just cannot return to Bahamut yet." For the first time since I pulled him out, he spoke boldly.


    -How firm...- "And why is that?"


    He looked me in the eyes before speaking with determination. "I haven''t found the phoenix yet."


    And that was when everything seemed to click. -Oh.. so he''s crazy...-


    In short, the Phoenix was an ancient being from long before the war, sort of simr to Bahamut or the Ancient Fenrir, but not nearly as domineering, and one that never showed itself, to the point that it was generally considered a myth even back during the war. -But to be somitted to finding it... I really have to give him props...-


    In my eyes, his efforts were futile. Even if he did somehow manage to find the Phoenix, he wouldn''t even be able to ruffle its feathers regardless of what runes he used. -But it''d be a shame if he dies... He honestly seems good enough with runes that I could make use of him...- "Alright, well, I need you to leave the wreckage for now, but I''ll give you an offer. If you return to Bahamut, apply to be the Ragnarok family''s runic researcher. Take it straight to Zachari or Asimi Ragnarok and say you''re there on ''Vasilias''s rmendation''."


    *ping* Flicking a small gold medallion with my insignia on it to him, I swiftly moved him up to the edge of the crater.


    "I can promise you money, prestige, and ess to runes and knowledge you won''t find or experiment with anywhere else, so give it some thought."


    He looked down at the medallion in a daze for a moment before finally looking back up at me with a gleam of hope in his eyes. "The Ragnarok.. family?" Seeing me nonchntly nod, he looked back down at the medallion and fell into thought. But after a moment, he simply bowed and held out the medallion. "I apologize..." He spoke without a hint of a stutter.


    -Hm?- I raised my eyebrow as I looked over at him. "What are you apologizing for?"


    But his bow didn''t waver. "I cannot ept your offer..." He looked up with a flicker of confusion mingling with determination in his eyes. "I appreciate your offer, truly. But my journey to find the Phoenix is mine alone... As I am currently, I am nothing but a burden, so please forgive my rudeness in refusing."


    But I wasn''t understanding. "Okay? But what are you giving me the medallion for? Should you ever give up on your path, the Ragnarok family will wee your talents. Keep it."


    "H-Huh?" He looked at me, confused, as if kindness was foreign to him before pulling the medallion back toward his chest. "I will not forget this!"


    "Mhm, just don''t die, kid." Finally motioning him off, he changed back to his dragon form and quickly took to the air.


    As he flew away, Krystallo stared at his back with a blend of intrigue and confusion on her face. "Brother, do you really think he''ll find what he''s looking for?"


    I immediately shrugged my wings. "The journey is more important than the destination sometimes. He clearly has some inner turmoils.. if his journey settles them, does he need to find the Phoenix?"


    Krystallo''s gaze turned to me as she sank into thought.


    But I was quick to continue. "In any case, let''s get back to what we were doing. You ready to go inside the wreckage?"


    Finally finding our way into the wreckage, Krystallo''s excitement quickly returned and grew. Each piece of twisted metal and fragmented technology was a story in itself, a relic of a time long gone.


    As expected, her questions flowed endlessly, as if argeke had finally caused the dam to burst, but while I didn''t know too much about the Acardi either, I wove tales of their ingenuity and the wonders they had achieved.


    The wreckage was more than just a pile of old metal; it was a testament to the reach and ambition of a civilization that had dared to touch the stars. And as we explored, I couldn''t help but feel a sense of connection to these long-gone innovators, their dreams and aspirations seemingly echoing through time.


    But the wreckage was only sorge.


    After a while, the moon climbed higher in the sky, its light casting long, eerie shadows across the wreckage site, and we finally made our way back outside, a new sense of inspiration and fascination dwelling in our minds.


    We had simply spent hours lost in the stories the outside world had long-since forgotten, pondering tales that had ended long ago.


    But unlike those, as we left the wreckage behind, heading back into the night sky, we knew that our journey was just beginning.


    At that moment, we just had each other, but neither of us had a mutter ofint.


    All I could hope for was that I was finally strong enough to guide her to the future she hoped for so dearly, to fly among the stars with me.


    But.. the future was always a mysterious thing. Even if you could see it, even the slightest differences could alter it. -And after experiencing the strength of Dagr''s soul alone.. I know I still have a long way to go... But...- Looking up at the stars, my mind felt at ease. -It''s not so bad spending some time like this too...-


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 Chapter 324: The Descendance of a God

    Chapter 324: The Descendance of a God


    Early Morning - Mid Summer : Valtivar | Siratha


    -----


    - Leif Vilulf ~


    The corridors of the estate resounded with the urgent patter of footsteps that morning, each one a note in a symphony of orchestrated chaos. Even outside,moners and officials alike scurried about with excited but baited breaths.


    Our Lord wasing.


    It had been nearly a decade since his presence faded since the moon bore its scar, but now that it was back, it was denser, thicker, and more oppressive than ever. -It feels a bit different than it used to as well, but somehow...- "Ah~!" My legs buckled the moment I tried to focus on it.


    Although I wasn''t sure why back then, after his return, whenever I tried to focus on his divine presence, an oppressive sensation as if I were being gazed upon by an almighty being would flood my body.


    The first time it happened, I felt fear, and the second time, I felt anxiety.


    To me, it felt like a test of faith, and while I didn''t want to admit it, I had most certainly failed.But after trying again and again, that feeling had slowly morphed into ecstasy. "Hooh..." -But I cannot let the Lord see me in such a shameful state...- Slowly standing back up with shaky legs, I supported myself on the wooden window seal.


    *Twack* "Leif! Are you okay?!" Bursting into the room, Liv darted to my side with an expression washed with concern.


    But I quickly waved her off. "I am fine... Our Lord has simply gotten so strong that it will take some time for me to adjust..." Finally catching my breath, I moved my gaze back out the window, overlooking the massive dragonsing to and from the estate while carrying all kinds of cargo and important figures from the outskirts of Valtivar. "I just hope we can live up to his expectations, considering the tter he served us before he left..." I mumbled beneath my breath before turning back to Liv with a less flustered expression. "In any case, how are preparationsing along."


    "Generally, everything is in order," Liv replied, retreating from the sunlight streaming through the window. "Prayers have already begunmencing by the tree, with all nearly distinguished figures in attendance, and as you requested, the apostle candidates have been gathered."


    -Excellent...- My thoughts quickly drifted to Alva, the only apostle other than me to survive the Lord''s cleansing. Her recent changes were more than wee. "When Alva arrives, bring her to my office." -I hope she can make it before the Lord arrives...-


    "As you wish." Quickly bowing, Liv''s long, lush hair parted to reveal beautiful bronze scales on the back of her neck. "She should be with her apostle candidate; should theye here with her?"


    -She''se a long way...- A smile crept onto my face as I looked down at her. "Send them to the base of the tree. I expect the Lord to haze them when he arrives."


    She instantly tensed up before slowly looking up at me. "Uh.. Miss Vilulf... I''m not going to get hazed with them, right?" She spoke anxiously, her young age quickly bing apparent.


    "Haha, I don''t know." ncing toward the horizon over my shoulder, I felt a chill pass down my back. "He may haze the whole city, so you might as well prepare for it." I spoke jokingly, my voice thick with sarcasm.


    And it helped lighten Liv''s mood, if only slightly. "O..okay! Then I will go finish my preparations."


    Watching her leave, a sense of paternal pride filled me, though I had no children of my own. "Hah..." -Our Lord''s foresight is truly limitless.- *Click*


    With a warm smile fresh on my face, I finally gathered myself and stepped out onto the balcony, looking up the warm ray of morning light shining through the windows of my office and staring into the sky.


    It felt warm, as if I was suddenly wrapped in a nket on a cold evening, but the warmth prated far deeper than the skin. *inhale* "Haah..." Letting out a heavy breath, the warmth eased every sense of tension out of my body.


    It was time for our Lord''s return, but somehow, rather than feeling tense, I felt rather eager and proud, like a child wanting to show their father something they made while he was away.


    Over thest eight years, a lot happened, from the skyrocketing poption and deepening of faith to so much technological development that we seemed like a totally different nation from just a few years prior, but rather than feeling nervous about how the Lord would react, I felt nothing but excitement for our Lord''s judgment.


    And that was solely because of the tter he served us before he left.


    The alliance with the draconic race.


    In the eyes of the public, it was generally viewed as an alliance that had countless veiled details beneath, but unbeknownst to them, rather than the details being in favor of dragons, I pulled the strings like a puppet master.


    In a matter of weeks, our society was injected with the knowledge of a race far beyond our own, and we found ourselves living amongst beings whose scales alone could let us evolve and ascend with almost no downsides to our society. -And it''s all thanks to the Lord.-


    Of course, in reality, the alliance wasn''tpletely one-sided in my favor, but in the end, it still felt as if I was stealing from them. -Because of our system of faith, unworthy dragons will almost never be able to rise into a seat of power, and even though they now have ess to ournd,bor, and resources, should they fail to abide by the rules we set, they won''t just get into trouble with us...-


    It truly felt like a win-win for us, but it was nothing I couldin about.


    However, the time to have such reflections eventually disappeared.


    After falling into thought for so long, the Lord''s continually approaching presence began to near, and it was finally time to begin the prayer I had prepared my entire life for. "Hooh..." -It''s finally time...- "My mind, body, and soul, belonging to the lords above, kneel before the arrival of their master, Lord Nott." My voice resonated across the courtyard as my form bowed in reverence.


    The crowd around the estate instantly looked up, startled, but before they could grasp the situation, an ethereal voice filled the forest.


    "Citizens of Siratha, please find a ce to lie down." The voice was simply ethereal, deep yet smooth, calm yetmanding.


    But mere seconds after the voice echoed through our minds, the world seemed to shudder. *vwwWWWOOOOMMM* It felt as if the sky was falling onto us, but after a moment of the air getting heavier and heavier, a huge figure appeared before me.


    Our Lord, our god. Gracing our bodies with his presence and our eyes with his towering form, unlike anything that was ever written in legends.


    Gazing upon him, my mind emptied, struck by his majesty before a voice, both familiar and unfamiliar, met my ears. "Good to see you, Lief."


    -----


    - Vasilias Ragnarok ~


    *FWOOSH* *FWOOSH* The rhythmic thrum of my wings cut through the morning air as I descended toward Leif''s estate. The lush canopy below me swayed gently before parting for my descent and revealing a colossal estate. "Good to see you, Lief." -She''s grown a lot stronger...-


    *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh-tap* Finally touching the ground, an eerie silence fell across the forest, only interrupted by the breeze rustling the leaves in the canopy. But rather than the silence stemming from everyone being unconscious, I found countless gazes aimed at me, the reverence in their minds keeping them awake while keeping their voices hushed.


    Leif, snapping out of her daze, bolted to the ground before groveling instantaneously. "Lord Nott, your presence alone graces us with unparalleled honor."


    A smile crept its way onto my face almost instantly. "It seems you have been managing things quite well." My gaze swept over the estate and its surroundings, taking note of the countless signs of growth and change no matter where I looked. -This ce has really been transformed...- But my attention quickly shifted. "Shall we head inside?"


    Lief sprang to her feet, her demeanor flipping from awestruck to almost buoyant like a switch. "Y-Yes, right this way!"


    Quickly following her into the estate, I reverted to my humanoid form, maintaining the cloak of light magic over Krystallo and Ilios as they followed after us before hastily remaking my clothes and repositioning my sword sheath.


    It wasn''t until that moment that I even thought about it, but my humanoid form had changed drastically.


    Mimicking my fenririan form, my humanoid form''s horns and tail had grown much longer, and my body had matured significantly, looking closer to someone in theirte 20s than anything. But the most significant change was the tworge, spanning, furred wings sprouting from my back. They weren''t exactly functional when it came to flying, but they were undoubtedly a handy tool I could make use of.


    However, that was for another time.


    Quickly folding my wings and following after Leif, we entered the estate, the interior reflecting Siratha''s transformation outside, melding tradition with newfound prosperity to create a unique air and beauty.


    But just like outside, the most surprising thing was the people, dragons, elves, and demihumans alike.


    Each and every hall we passed through was lined with people pressing their heads to the floor, their reverence manifesting in the silent, respectful atmosphere being a stark contrast to the reactions my presence usually elicited. It was an acknowledgment of not just my power but also their faith and devotion in me.


    In a way, it felt weing, as if they truly enjoyed my presence, unlike the dragons in Bahamut, bringing ease to my somewhat burdened mind.


    Of course, not everyone could remain conscious, but the majority took me by surprise to the point that when we finally arrived at our destination, I could dedicate my mind to what we were to speak about.


    *Click* Opening the door to a massive room with spanning bookshelves, walls of ss, statues, and colossal artifacts everywhere, I was slightly taken aback, but especially after noticing the dozens of mana umtion runes lining the ground like simple carvings, I had noints. *sh*


    "Lord Nott, this is the Grand Abode, a space only those you grant permission may enter." She bowed deeply in front of the open doors as I transformed just inside. "Please do what you wish with it."


    Finishing transforming back to my fenririan form, I uncloaked Krystallo and Ilios and used my aura to motion her inside. "Then pleasee in. We have a lot to talk about."


    Her eyes widened as she looked toward Ilios and Krystallo, cheerfully exploring the massive space, unsure how to react.


    "Don''t worry. She is my sister in this life, so please try to treat her well." *VWOOM* Quickly creating a ce for me toy down and arge, cushioned couch for her to sit, I made a small table to speak over before gettingfortable.


    But Leif had yet to even move from just inside the door.


    "If you wish to call a maid, you may. Otherwise,e and have a seat. There is much to discuss."


    But she didn''t budge.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 325: The Faith of Countless

    Chapter 325: The Faith of Countless


    Early Afternoon - Mid Summer : Valtivar | Siratha


    -----


    "In that case, I will leave for the Tree to make sure everything is in order before you arrive." Lief, rising gracefully from her kneel, bowed deeply, reflecting both respect and a slight tremor of anticipation. "Lady Krystallo, your acquaintance has been an honor. I hope you look forward to my guidance in theing days. I don''t n on falling short of the Lord''s expectations."


    "Hehe," Krystallo immediately returned her gaze with a yful yetpetitive smirk. "Just try and teach me something I can''t master!"


    A proud smile immediately crept onto Lief''s face, clearly invigorated by the challenge I had set before her before finally straightening up. "As someone close to the Lord, I would hope so, but let''s save such matters for another time." Finally looking up at me, her eyes glistened with determination. "Siratha shall kneel in your presence, My Lord!" Giving a shallow bow as a final curtsy, she hastily exited the room before leaving the estate and heading straight for the Tree.


    -Her loyalty is truly something...- Quickly turning my attention toward Krystallo, I stood up and gently stretched. "So you''re going to stay here with Ilios?"


    "Mhm!" She nodded without hesitation. "It sounds like you will be busy while you''re there, so I''ll just stay here and hang out with Ilios since we haven''t exactly bonded much since you returned." She immediately turned toward Ilios with a pout.


    And as if knowing exactly what she meant, he sprang to his feet and trotted over to her with a wagging tail.


    -How cute...- It was a scene that reminded me of the old days. -As long as he''s with her, she''ll be fine.- Watching them happily move back toward the towering bookshelves on the other side of the room, I moved over toward the wall-sized, one-way window overlooking the courtyard and took a moment to sort my thoughts while Lief worked on preparing things.It had been quite a while since we initially sat down, and as one would expect, we had talked about a lot, essentially discussing everything from my family and reincarnation, of course leaving many details out, to the state of Siratha and my rtions with Dagr. -But while it took a while for her to wrap her head around the fact I have family, she took everything surprisingly well...-


    Before we spoke, I was honestly a bit nervous about how she would react to the whole situation regarding my reincarnation, especially when it came to my family and mortality, but she didn''t seem to have even the slightest waver of faith the entire time. -It''s honestly a little hard to believe, even now...-


    But while I said that then, it wasn''t exactly too shocking. During our discussion, I spoke about how my reincarnation as a dragon was necessary because of the shorings of a body that could essentially be boiled down to a hyper-evolved fenrir, and casually spoke about how Dagr had previously possessed Ilios but recently pulled his soul out of him.


    To the ears of just about anyone besides me and maybe Krystallo, it was like I was speaking in some foreignnguage, and while I didn''t realize it at the time, my casual tone made it seem as if I scoffed at death, numbing reincarnation down to a mere tool I used for my own growth. Even if I told Lief that I was truly a mortal being, she certainly would not have believed me.


    But in the end, it worked to my benefit. Aftering clean about my identity, I had no unease at all when it came to having Siratha beneath my paw, even if I had no ns to micromanage it, and with my fenririan form, I had no more worries about getting in trouble using Nott''s name and reputation to my advantage. -Going by Nott feels unnaturally natural now too.. but I guess that''s cause I am technically him...-


    All in all, it was still taking some getting used to, but I was slowly getting there. -For now though, I just need to focus on making an impression on the citizens, pick a few new apostles, and give Lief a reward for her loyalty and faith to set an example for others.- Although I hadn''t discussed it with her, I had set my mind on setting her as the example. -The question is what should I give her...-


    A gift to the person who ruled one of thergest and strongest nations on the. I knew it couldn''t be simple.


    But it also didn''t take long for me to settle on an idea. -Yeah... I actually wonder what would happen if I did that...- It was a bit experimental, but I saw no reason for it not to work. -We''ll just have to wait and see...-


    Slowly escaping my thoughts, I looked back out the window and killed some time for another moment before feeling Lief''s frantically moving aura finallye to a stop about halfway up the trunk of the Tree of Prayer. -It must be time...- Then, after just a moment, I felt the air shake with the noise of countless voices speaking in unison.


    "In the shadow of the past, we gather beneath the boughs of life to present our mind, body, and soul." The voices of hundreds of thousands praying in unison resonated through the forest like the voices of a chorus. "In the presence of our Lords above, we seek the guidance of the eternal path. We present our full being, and submit to our gods. Dagr, Nott, hear our plea." A nket of silence was instantly draped over the forest as everyone fell into silent prayer.


    It was my cue.


    Quickly ncing back to make sure Krystallo and Ilios were still alright, I finally let out an anxious breath. "Hooh..." But it didn''t help. To make an entrance befitting a god, I needed to use the void, but after hearing what I heardst time, I was nervous. -But.. there''s no point in stalling the inevitable... I''ll have to check it eventually...-


    And finally, after steeling my will, I vanished. *Vwoop*


    In an instant, my senses, heightened to the moon, flooded my mind with information, but there was simply nothing. -It''s.. normal?-


    It made sense for whatever it was to be gone, considering how much time passed in the void, but regardless, my nerves never rxed. -Let''s just.. get out of here...-


    Quickly retargeting the focus in my mind, I let out another short breath to sharpen my act before finally stepping out of the void. *vwoop-VWOOOOM*


    In an instant, I found the Tree of Prayer''s foggy canopy looming over me, with the surrounding forest of treants set aglow by the buildings and streets lining their branches. -How beautiful...-


    *Vwoom* Quickly clinging to the trunk of The Tree with my aura, I made it appear as if I was standing on air before looking down over hundreds of thousands of elves, demihumans, and dragons alike bowing their heads in reverence on the uneven grounds disturbed by the exposed roots of the Tree of Prayer. -Right... I forgot I identally exposed those while I was fighting Magni...-


    It was like a scar that stood as a testament to history. -But it takes away from how beautiful this ce should be... Once I can read my aura, Ill try to adjust it... For now though...- Overlooking the countless people pressured beneath my immense aura, I found a group of about ten people kneeling side by side on thergest root, kneeling exactly as Lief did, with only Alva and Liv Sigmond standing over them with their gazes lowered. -Those must be the potential apostles...-


    Quickly throwing a nce at Lief, she darted to the ground beforeing to a stop between Liv and Alva, proudly overlooking the apostle candidates before lowering themselves to a kneel. "Divine Lord above, we present you with the most faithful souls of the next generation!"


    -Most faithful, huh...- *vwoop-vwoop* Teleporting to the ground using the void, I graced the root of the Tree with my paws before walking up to the apostles. -They''re all quite young, but none of them are weak...-


    Pushing some of my aura into their bodies to watch their minds and conditions as I walked around them, three immediately passed out, and even more began to shake.


    But among everyone, there were two that stood out, a high elf boy with hair like spun gold and a fresh elder stage girl with scales reminiscent of the canopy of a forest, their minds and bodies remaining calm even if I moved my nose close enough to nearly touch them. -Impressive... But is it because of faith, obliviousness, or because they''re looking down on me...-


    Lowering my snout just in front of them, I brushed them with my aura before speaking to them through magic. "Open your eyes."


    As I uttered themand, both of them slowly lifted their heads in unison, their eyes meeting mine with a mix of reverence and an unspoken understanding without the slightest trace of fear. -To have such clear eyes...- Looking through their eyes and into their head, I found a small, puffy, pure white cloud with an orderliness that none of the other candidates had.


    It was their souls, their true selves, and while I wasn''t sure how I felt like I could understand them without words. -To have their faith stem from their souls...-


    Pulling my snout away, I overlooked the crowd of people, but among those I saw, none except Lief, whose soul was on the verge of forming a core, were so orderly. -How fascinating...- "You may stand."


    Quickly standing up, the elf and dragon sneakily directed their gazes toward their fellow candidates without raising them before a hint of excitement and confusion found its way to their faces.


    Using my aura to pull up the chin of the elf once again, I matched his gaze. "What is your name?"


    He immediately started to m up, but it seemed to be from excitement. "Erling Eysteinn, My Lord!" His voice echoed through the silence instantly, drawing up the gazes of countless people around.


    "And you?" Pulling up the dragon''s gaze, her forest green eyes met mine.


    "Asa Gunvor, greets the almighty lord!" She seemed to want to throw herself into a bow almost instantly but held her gaze, refusing to fight the aura I used to hold her chin up.


    -These two are pretty good...- "I hope you two serve Siratha well." Looking up towards Lief, I motioned her to stand up with my aura before continuing to speak through wind magic. "These two will be the new apostles."


    "Understood, My Lord," Lief responded immediately, her voiceced with a mixture of reverence and pride before quickly moving to stand beside the newly chosen apostles.


    But as she went to speak, I stopped her. "I have something for you as well."


    "H-Huh?" At the unexpected notion that I was gifting her something, she became flustered, but after looking up at me and seeing me holding the broken-off tip of one of my horns with my aura, her face paled. "M-My Lord! I cannot take an item that leaves a mark on your-"


    "Quiet down." -As if breaking the tip of my horn off would leave a scar...- "It''s already grown back." Lowering my snout to show her my horn, she finally started to calm down, even if she still looked like a ghost. "Now take this and make an elixir for yourself with it. You have more than earned it with your faith and loyalty. Just make sure you are the only one to consume it."


    As I lowered the few centimeters of my horn into her shaky hands, the gazes of onlookers widened, but after a moment, I disappeared before their eyes.


    "Children of Siratha," my voice instantly drew everyone''s attention toward the canopy. "Those who pray in pure faith will have their prayers heard, while those who don''t will not. True faith is not measured merely in words but in actions and the intentions of one''s soul, cultivated through many lifetimes and reincarnations. Serve Siratha well, and remain steadfast in your belief, and maybe eventually your prayer will be answered." Momentarily stiffening my aura, countless eyes in the crowd went wide. "If youck faith in me, that is your decision; however, I hope you are willing to still have faith in your leaders, the apostles, as they can pray in your stead, for not just the good of you, but those around you, your children and your ancestors." I paused, overlooking the mixed gazes of the people below. "Remember, your actions, your thoughts, your very essence contribute to the fabric of Siratha. Each of you, in your own way, is a thread in the tapestry of our world. As such, I hope you all will uphold your values and bring honor to the legacy of those who came before you."


    Finally finishing, I gave onest look at the crowd before lowering my gaze toward the apostles and disappearing into the void. *Vwoop*


    For what felt like an eternity, silence had fallen over the crowd, so hushed even slight movements could be heard.


    But before long, a few souls, sparked with newfound purpose, lowered themselves once again, falling into prayer as they pushed their mana up to the top of the Tree. Before anyone knew it, they all followed suit before each raising their gaze and yelling, "Blessed be our Lords!"


    It was a phrase never used previously, something one person just happened to yell out at that moment, but ever since then, it became one of the mostmon phrases in Siratha.


    And while I didn''t realize it, after hearing it from Lief''s estate, a smile found its way onto my face.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</strong>


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    All are wee!

 Chapter 326: A Foreign Feeling

    Chapter 326: A Foreign Feeling


    Mid Afternoon - Mid Summer : Valtivar | Siratha


    -----


    *pitter-patter* *cr-RACK-rumble* "So.. I take a water molecule and.. try to.. split it..." The silent pitter-patter of rain followed periodic ps of lightning as Krystallo hung her head in thought. "It''s supposed to be.. two small parts and one big one..."


    The tiny droplet of water she was focusing on was almost invisible, yet its size was irrelevant to the mental gears grinding in her head. "The ''small ones'' you see are Hydrogen atoms, and therge ones are Oxygen atoms. There are a few ways to split them, but try using electricity first. Just be gentle. Start with a lower intensity and slowly ramp it up until you see it split apart."


    She nced up at me while I instructed her before closing her eyes again and letting out a deep, foggy breath. "Hooh..."


    It had been just over four days since I returned from the impromptu event at the Tree of Prayer at that point, but I can''t say much happened.


    Having to bend to Krystallo''s will, I had been giving her lessons essentially non-stop ever since I got back, with very few breaks. -But while she''s progressed a lot because of it.. after four straight days of lessons, I''d be willing to bet she''ll hit her limit with this one...- Currently, I was starting to teach her about my thruster magic, as per her demand. -But I think it''ll be a bit beyond her ability...-


    However, within moments of that thought, the small bundle of water started to boil, and eventually, the single water molecule she focused on, split. -Well, at least she isn''t giving up...- "When you see the particle you''re focused on split, slowly expand the bubble of mana you''re reading to epass more particles until you find afortable limit. For now, just focus on splitting everything you can see in that bubble and tell me when you''re done."


    The soft sound of rain dripping from the canopy filled the silence as Krystallo concentrated on her spell. However, when she reopened her eyes, there was a hint of uncertainty in her gaze. "D..done..." She sounded a bit disappointed."Alright." Swiftly creating a torus of vacuum magic around her bubble of mana, I created a fairly sizable open space beneath it. "Now, push the hydrogen and oxygen you just split down, but don''t follow it. Instead, look toward the top where the water is going to flow in and start splitting it as you see it... For this, tten therge spherical space you''re reading down into a ne and only split apart the water as it enters and passes through that ne. Just keep in mind that how fast you push things will dictate the flow of everything, so start slow."


    "O-Okay!" Eagerly returning her focus to her mana, the water started to flow, and the mix of pure hydrogen and oxygen started to flow into the pocket I made, albeit slowly.


    -Her control and calctive speed has improved by leaps and bounds over thest few days, but I might have to stop her after this one...- Her pace wasn''t terrible, but I could tell it also wasn''t her best. -Her mind needs to rest...-


    Although I knew she''d hate it, after continually monitoring her brain activity during the lessons, I could tell the mental fatigue was catching up to her. -And this exercise definitely won''t help it.-


    *vwoom* -But she''ll be alright for now...- Giving her a moment to focus, I silenced the room and simply watched her work.


    As expected, her technique and control were far from adequate, even for such a tiny sphere of water, but to my surprise, her pace improved so much in the time she worked on it that she split all but a few molecules of water in the droplet in just over two minutes, and finished with a pace I would expect from an early or mid elder stage dragon.


    However, that speed, expectedly, came at a cost. "I.. think I''m done..." She looked utterly drained, almost as if steam were about to burst from her ears.


    -Yeah, it''s time for a break... The timing worked out too...- "That was really fast! Good job." Gently patting her on the head with my wing, the exhaustion on her face seemed to vanish, if only for a second.


    "Hehe~! Really?"


    I immediately nodded with a bit of pride, even though it was purely a result of her own talent. "Yeah, you beat Mom''s first time by several minutes."


    Her eyes instantly lit up like gleaming stars before speaking with joyful disbelief, "I don''t believe you!" She spoke like she didn''t believe it but also wanted it to be true.


    "Well, if you don''t believe me, why don''t you go ask her yourself?"


    Her posture instantly straightened before I motioned my head to the side.


    "He isn''t lying, sweetie." Sitting and watching from the entrance of the room was Mother, her warm smile being a truly refreshing sight.


    "Mom!" Krystallo, leaping onto her feet, darted over instantly. "Is that true?!"


    Mother, who had been watching for several minutes nodded with an odd mix of pride and embarrassment. "That test took me about seven minutes on my first try." She quickly looked up at me. "What was Krystallo''s final time?"


    "About two minutes and seven seconds."


    Mother yfully hung her head in defeat while holding her smile with pride. "It seems like Vasilias wasn''t the only abnormality." Stretching her wing out around Krystallo, she hooked her in before rubbing her cheek and showering her with praise.


    Mother''s first tests began back when we were still at the home I was born in, and while her first tests were indeed around five to seven minutes, thest test I gave her was only twenty seconds. On par with what I''d expect from a young ancient. -I should get back into the routine of giving her lessons as well...-


    Sitting back and enjoying the atmosphere for a moment, I watched Krystallo crawl between Mother''s front legs and hold her head up into Mother''s chest.


    But after a moment, Krystallo''s pure, warm smile faded. "So, where''s Dad?" Looking around, she tried probing around with her aura but clearly didn''t sense him.


    Mother spoke calmly though. "He''s downstairs resting while the maids get our rooms ready... He pushed himself quite a bit to make sure he was done with everything before we got here." Looking up at me, I felt like I could see a bead of sweat on her forehead. "I know you told him not to, but since I told him I wouldn''t let him do anything here in Siratha either, he ended up pushing himself."


    "Well, at least he''ll have a moment to rx now..." But as I nced towards where I felt his aura, I noticed he was right beneath us. "Is he alright being this close to my aura now?"


    Mother immediately shook her head. "He still struggled on his way inside, but the mana umtion rune in the floor of this room is thankfully alleviating most of the pressure on people below."


    "Ah, that''s good..." Looking back toward Father through the ground, I tried to ease some of the tension in my chest, but after a moment just looked back up at Mother. "So, Mother, now that you''re here, I''m going to leave for a couple days."


    Krystallo immediately locked her eyes on me with some ferocity before Mother''s gaze settled on me. "Is that so?"


    She spoke calmly, but Krystallo didn''t share that sentiment. "EXCUSE ME?!"


    It was inevitable. "I need to go visit a friend of mine. I''m hoping they''ll be able to help me get a grasp on my aura because right now, I''m at a loss."


    *FWOOSH* Darting across the room at full speed, Krystallo mped onto my leg like her life depended on it. "Then you''re bringing me with you!"


    But that was something I had already given plenty of thought. "I can''t." I knew she wouldn''t be happy when I said it. "You need some time to rest after everything over thest few days, and I urgently need a way to get a handle on my aura."


    Her grip only tightened with my words, but after a moment, she noticed I wasn''t going to bend a knee. "Then.. I''ll rest while you''re gone... You will only be two days, right?!" She looked up at me with determined eyes.


    "Yes, two days, I promise."


    "Hmph." Finally letting go of me, she held her nose up while looking away from me. "If you''re a single minutete, there will be consequences." She sounded a bit like Mother.


    But it just made Mother interject with a chuckle. "Haha, Krystallo, don''t be so demanding of your brother. I know he was gone for a while, and you miss him, but it''s not like he''s leaving for long." She spoke softly while looking toward Krystallo, but somehow it felt like her words were daggers aimed at me.


    -Uh oh...- I felt a cold bead of sweat form on my head instantly. -I might really get in trouble if I don''t get back in a timely manner this time...- I felt like a kid who stayed out after curfew one too many times.


    But, after a bit more idle chatterced with hidden intentions, I made my swift departure through the void, not wasting a single instant to move to the upper atmosphere before beginning my flight to the Holy Kingdom.


    It was time to meet up with Hera, a demigod stage dragon from over ten thousand years ago and the only person I figured could help me, but after not seeing her for eight years, I had to expect her body to be mostly reconstructed and had to expect a foreign appearance. -Although I really have to wonder what she''ll look like...-


    In order to not be too taken aback when I saw her, my mind wandered the entire flight, burning through countless possibilities of what she would look like before finallying up on the mountain.


    But while I had imagined millions, if not billions of possible appearances for her, there wasn''t a single one that was even close.


    As I finally crested the edge of the caldera, sensing her aura as well as the core, I was instantly met with the gaze of a deep-ocean-blue scaled dragon, with countless sleek white horns, two main colossal wings with two smaller ones behind them, and an extremely long tail withid, webbed spikes akin to fins along the top and bottom.


    Her eyes, as deep as the ocean stared into mine, but while I felt my heart race slightly, I felt no fear. -W..what the...-


    Although it was a conservative estimate, she was easily five times my height, with an aura not that much smaller than my own, but somehow, even after my dragon sleep, I felt something I wasn''t sure I would ever feel again.


    Uncertainty. -I wonder.. if I could beat her in a fight...-


    Before I knew it, I felt a wave of excitement and eagerness to finallynd and talk to her.


    But within the mix of emotions, there were sensations I had never felt before, sensationspletely foreign to me no matter how deep within my soul I looked.


    But back then, I simply racked it all up to whatever I could exin it with.


    Not that that was a bad thing.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>Possible Seasonal Bonus Chapter Tomorrow or the Day After</strong>


    <strong>In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!</strong>


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    All are wee!

 Chapter 327: A Void in History

    Chapter 327: A Void in History


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : Hera''s Rest | The Scar


    -----


    *Vwowowooom* Within the empty vacuum of space, the eerie, muffled noise of mana rippled around me, marking the sh of two unfathomable auras.


    But even though it was the only noise that could meet my ears, silence still filled my mind in its entirety.


    For the first time since I hatched, I was gazing into the eyes of a being I truly couldn''t read, and it made my mind race. -I wonder.. if I could beat her in a fight...- But while I felt confident I could hold my own, as I got closer, Hera''s towering 322-meter-tall form was put into perspective, and uncertainty mixed with my thoughts.


    But eventually, I entered a dense bubble of air epassing the caldera, and such feelings became meaningless.


    "Are you really Vasilias?" Her voice, calm and imbued with an air of confidence and majesty, carried a mixture of curiosity. "I knew you would change a lot, but.. my goodness..."


    *FWOOOSH* *FW-FWOOSH* *Thud* Landing with heavy feet, I looked up at her face, which loomed over me even though she was lying down. "I could say the same about you." -She really is giant...- Although I wasn''t sure of its source, I felt a mixture of eagerness, pride, and nervousness as I finallynded.


    "Hoho~, I suppose you can. Even I didn''t expect to change this much, but it seems my body treated its reconstruction like a dragon sleep." ncing back over herself, she stretched out two of her wings and flicked her tail before looking back at me. "Just about every aspect of me has changed in some way... You on the other hand..." Moving her colossal head down in front of me, she squinted her eyes in skepticism. "You feel.. ''different''..."Not shying away from her stature, I confidently matched her gaze. "Of course. That''s because, in a way, I am a different person."


    She squinted her eyes as she slowly looked down my body.


    "It''s quite a long story, but to summarize, during my dragon sleep, I managed to fuse my body and soul back together." -Speaking of which...- Lowering my gaze downward, I could faintly see the outline of her reserve deep within her chest with a small, solid white sphere at its center.


    It was her soul, and with some practice over recent days, I was able to view it quite easily. -I can even see an outline of their reserve when I look for it now... I actually wonder if I can look through walls like that...-


    But the moment I gazed at her soul, her skepticism vanished, and she pulled her head back. "It''s impolite to look at a dragoness like that, you know."


    -Huh?- Hearing her odd tonation, I immediately looked up and noticed the flustered expression on her face. -She sensed that?!- It was my only exnation for her change in mood at the time. "Sorry if I was rude. I was just curious." -Her soul core is huge... I wonder if being in her soul form for so long was the cause...-


    "Ahem, it''s alright." She quickly straightened her posture, covering her face with her wing beforeposing herself. "In any case, back to what we were saying: you fused your soul with your body? Were they not already fused?"


    I quickly shook my head. "As far as I know, the piece of my soul controlling my body before was just a tiny fragment since my whole soul would have destroyed my body."


    Her eyes widened as countless questions raced behind them. "How fascinating..." She stared holes into me before her gaze finally softened. "I can''t say I dislike the change."


    "Haha, well, that''s good." Finally sitting down, I curled my tail around myself and folded my wings.


    But before I could move on and ask about aura techniques, I nced toward an approaching presence. -She really took her time... I guess it works out though...-


    Following my gaze, Hera looked toward the edge of the caldera as well, but it made her demeanor change instantaneously.


    *VWOOOOM* As if the sky was copsing, her colossal, looming aura mmed down around me, and a look of unbridled disgust appeared on her face. "To think that filthy bitch is still alive."


    Nervousness exploded across Skuld''s face immediately, but as if trying to avoid Hera''s gaze, she darted up next to me and cowered to the ground. "~T-This humble servant g-greets the Lord.~" Her voice shook, seemingly from anxiety and fear.


    "''Servant'', you say?" Hera was clearly the source, with her tone being nothing short of belittling. "You''d look better as a ve."


    I immediately nced toward Hera. -I wonder where that ising from.- "Are you two familiar?"


    Hera nodded without hesitation. "How could I not be familiar with the Aesir''s little mut? She''s the dog that did nothing but watch as the world burned."


    "~M-M-Miss Monachik��s!~" Skuld had fallen into panic. "~I promise I yed no role in the Aesir''s betrayal of Bahamut! I promi-~"


    Her voice was cut short as Hera and I stared at her, both of us oozing a thick, palpable bloodlust.


    "I''m going to need you to run that by me again." My voice was cold and empty, representing emotions that surfaced from the deepest parts of my soul. "The ''Aesir''s betrayal'' of.. who?"


    *VWOWOWOOOM-CRACKLE* Slowly standing up, Hera''s shadow cast over Skuld like the incarnate of death. "So, what I feared would happen ended up bing a reality." Her voice was cold and devoid of sympathy. "I told Bahamut not to trust you rats.. but he must not have listened..."


    In an instant, a colossal rune almost 70 meters wide lit up in the air over Skuld, but with a wave of my wing, it was scrambled. "Don''t kill her. I want to hear this from the source." *Crackle* Slowly standing up, I walked over to Skuld before slowing the liquid divinity in my reserve and lowering my snout to the top of her head. "You better start exining before I send your soul to rot in the void."


    Skuld''s body shook from fear as she spoke with a quivering voice. "~I-I don''t know the details, I promise! All I know is that Frigg and Odin had ns to use the Aesir''s alliance with Bahamut to lure him into a trap made by The Travellers.~" Her eyes instantly started darting around as if she was trying to find a way out.


    -Asgard''s alliance with Bahamut? That''s new...- *fwoom* Releasing the control on my divinity, I nced back at Hera. "Do you know anything about the alliance between the Aesir and Bahamut?


    But she just shook her head without pulling her gaze off Skuld. "I assume I was captured before that..." She sounded like she was resisting the urge to rip something''s head off.


    "Tch..." -Just when I thought I could get some answers...- Turning back to Skuld, my mind raced toe up with questions, but taking that time was meaningless since, over the next few hours, Hera and I asked everything on our minds.


    Unfortunately for us though, it did seem like Skuld wasn''t too deeply involved with it. There was only so much she could answer.


    But at the same time, that didn''t mean she couldn''t answer anything.


    After several hours and thousands upon thousands of questions, I had finally asked everything dwelling on my mind, and while she knew nothing of what transpired after she was trapped in ''her Cell'', Hera and I both had quite a good understanding of what events led up to it.


    To summarize, after Hera was captured by the Acardi, or as Hera and Skuld referred to them, The Travellers, the state of affairs, specifically for dragons, worsened to an unfathomable degree. It was the event that seemed to switch the momentum of the war in the Acardi''s favor.


    With countless new weapons and technologies, the Acardi leveled kingdoms, spread gues, tested poisons, and kidnapped dragons at every opportunity.


    To me, it sounded less like a war and more like the Acardi were simply using the as a subject of research.


    But after hundreds of years of downfall and suffering, Bahamut finally formed an alliance with the Holy Kingdom and Asgard, hoping an attackprised of several gods would swing the momentum of the war in their direction.


    However, back then, Bahamut had no idea the alliance with the Aesir was just a veil. The bait for a trap. -So that''s why Bahamut set all those rules restricting dragons from the human world...-


    -But what happened after that?- I anxiously flicked around my tail as thoughts ripped through my mind, but no matter how many questions I wanted to ask, with no one able to answer them, I was left to my own devices.


    I wasn''t the only one sinking into thought either. "That makes no sense... Why would the Fenrir not get involved?" Hera was just as troubled as me, if not more so.


    "I''m not sure they didn''t, Hera." Thinking back to the artifact that changed my gics when I was young, it most certainly had the full gic code of Nott. -But does that mean the Acardi killed or captured not only Bahamut but also Nott?-


    However, with just a casual reference to Dagr''s strength and the knowledge that the Fenrir had space attribute nodes, the odds of such a scenario plummeted nearly to zero. -With a fitting body, he could have totally destroyed the moon if he wanted to...-


    But as I was idly thinking to myself, a question I had yet to ask came to mind. -Right.. I meant to ask...- "Skuld, I know all the human gods saw, so why did you all leave me alone while I was having my dragon sleep on the moon?"


    With the moon high in the sky over us, the scar I left on its surface gazed down at us like an eye. "Besides Odin and Frigg, no one dared to venture into what you call space. To us, it''s a graveyard... During the war, going there was akin to a lone human walking into a dragon''s den."


    -So they were afraid...- "But if that''s the case, then why didn''t Odin or Frigg go kill me? As far as I know, I am their biggest enemy, and that would have been the perfect opportunity to kill me..."


    But Skuld just shook her head. "Among the upper echelon of Asgard, they are the only ones who are still technically tied to their cells. Even though their souls have escaped, their soul cores have not."


    -Wait.. then...- My eyes widened with eagerness the moment I thought about it. "Doesn''t that mean I should go kill them now before they get their soul cores out?"


    But Hera stopped me instantly. "You''re severely underestimating them, Vasilias."


    Skuld nodded in agreement as well. "Just because they have their soul cores trapped doesn''t mean they can''t ess their ocean of divinity..."


    "But if it limits their movement, couldn''t I just..." Pointing my paw to the side, a small dollop of clear liquid formed on the tip of my w.


    *fwoom-BAAAAANG* In an instant, the ground beneath me melted, and a beam about thirty meters wide effortlessly ate its way through the side of the caldera.


    It was a sight that made Skuld shiver, but contrarily, it made a look of excitemente to Hera''s face.


    As her gaze turned toward me, there was a childish excitement in her eyes. "Teach me!" She looked like a child who had just discovered a new toy.


    "Do you know how to use space mana?"


    She quickly shook her head, but the glimmer in her eyes didn''t fade for an instant. "Bahamut was the only dragon that could use the space rune."


    -Ah.. I was wondering about that...- "How about this, then? If you assist me in getting my aura under control, I promise to at least teach you the theoretical aspects."


    But rather than her agreeing like I expected, her expression turned disappointed. "Do you think that lowly of me? I would help you regardless." She seemed surprisingly upset that I tried to make it a trade. "I owe you more than just my life, and even though I doubt I will ever be able to truly repay my debt, I have no intention of falling short."


    The next thing I knew, her expression toward me turned smug and slightly predatory, but I brushed it off. "Then I won''t let your favor go to waste. However, when ites to sharing knowledge, I would prefer it to be a trade. Teaching others lets me hone and expand on my own theories. As long as they ask good questions, at least..."


    "Hoho~, keeping me indebted, aren''t you." Her tone made it seem like she was a little uncertain about how to feel, but her eyes showed she most certainly didn''t mind. "I guess there is nothing I can do~."


    "I won''t know when I really need a favor. I''m just saving it for a time I really need it." -In any case, I should probably send off Skuld now...-


    ncing over at the moon, hanging just over the edge of the caldera, I finally noticed I had already burned almost a third of a day. -If I want any hope of getting my aura under control in a timely manner, I need to start now.-


    My time limit was already ticking.


    But little did I know then, those two days were far from the only days I woulde to spend with Hera.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    A bonus chapter is in the works, but I''ve run into some issues with it so sorry for the dy


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 Chapter 328: The Assumption

    Chapter 328: The Assumption


    Mid Morning - Mid Winter : Hera''s Rest | The Scar


    -----


    "Hooh... HYUP!" *ooOOOOOOMMMM* Tensing every muscle in my body, my aura, flowing in every direction without exception, was slowly directed upward before forming a column of mana 10 kilometers wide and over 13,000 kilometers tall. *GASP* "HAAH..." Nearly copsing to my knees under the unbelievable weight of my own aura, I let out a foggy breath. -Holy shit, it''s always so much more than I think it is...-


    It felt like I was fighting the flow of countless tsunamis rushing in every direction. Like I was redirecting the flow of an entire ocean at once.


    "Your aura is really.. something," Hera remarked with awe as she gazed up the unfathomable column of mana. "I thought mine wasn''t too much smaller than yours.. but..."


    "Hah... Hah..." Laboring for breath, I finally released control of my aura, unleashing a st of mana that disintegrated the ground around me. *VWOOOOM* "Your aura has what.. an 80 kilometer radius?" Seeing her nod, I continued between breaths of exhaustion. "Mine is about 100 kilometers.. meaning I have just shy of double the volume of yours."


    "Hah," A bead of cold sweat formed on her forehead as her gaze settled back on me. "And here I thought our auras were simr..."


    *Thump-CRACKLE* The brittle ground seemed to shatter as I slumped down. "Well, it doesn''t matter how much I have if I can''t control it..." -Even after just holding it for a second, I feel like my head is splitting apart...-


    "But you''ve made so much progress over thest day and a half... you should feel aplished." Her voice carried a hint of concern as she used her aura to make me lie down. "My techniques can only help so much, and by the looks of things, your mind is still extremely cluttered."-Right...- Mental clutter. It was a term I had be painfully familiar with over thest couple days.


    ording to Hera, during a regr dragon''s dragon sleep to the demigod stage, their minds begin rewiring and reprogramming themselves to use divinity, essentially attempting to upgrade the mortal mind like updating the wiring of aputer.


    It was a process called the divine shift, a long and slow process that took thousands of years and countless near-death experiences, but, unbeknownst to me, I had already started it, even before my dragon sleep. -Looking back.. I''m pretty sure it''s the only reason Vidar''s sword didn''t blow my brains out when he hit me...-


    But, while it was a necessary step on the road to ascension, it brought along a unique struggle known as mental clutter.


    In short, it was when the bodyid out strings of divinity but didn''t make use of them right away because of preexisting neural pathways.


    During dragon sleeps, the body was supposed to naturally destroy and rece the neural paths as the strings of divinity wereid, like unplugging an old cable and plugging in a new one.


    However, because of the sheer amount of divinity I acquired during myst sleep, my body couldn''t keep up with its production, leaving my brain a tangled mess of divinity that I now had to ''declutter'' manually. -What a pain...-


    And I meant that literally.


    ording to Hera, the only way to clear mental clutter was to strain my mind to the point of destroying neural pathways and forcing my subconscious to switch to ''the new cable''. The issue with that was I couldn''t manually destroy the neurons, otherwise the string of divinity wouldn''t be ''forcefully reprogrammed'' by my subconscious. "It honestly feels like I''m ying with fire..."


    Hera''s worries seemed to stem from a simr ce as well. "Most dragon''s typically don''t have to reprogram their own minds to such an extent, but I can at least assure you that you won''t be able to strain the parts using divinity enough for them to destroy themselves. At most, it''d just rewire itself to something more efficient."


    -How convenient,- I wanted to say with sarcasm. "But what if the divinity doesn''t get reprogrammed after the neural path is destroyed? Will I just lose whatever knowledge is tied to that pathway?"


    Thankfully, Hera immediately shook her head, but it wasn''t because my assumption was wrong. "If the destruction is due to strain, the divinity will reprogram itself. You won''t lose anything, I promise."


    She tried to be reassuring, but I could only sigh. "Haah..." -That pain isn''t going to be fun to deal with... But..- "For now, I''ll just save it forter..." ncing at the sun, my time with Hera was running out. "It looks like it''s about time for me to head back."


    "Hoh?" Hera''s curiosity was piqued instantly. "Where to?"


    "Valtivar. I brought my family there for a vacation, but we told the public it was a diplomatic visit." Slowly getting back up onto my feet, I gently shook my head back and forth to try and alleviate some of the pain.


    "Oh? Do you have children?"


    Her sudden change in tone caught me off guard. "N..no? I''m with my sister and our parents."


    She immediately let out a short breath before continuing. "I see... I guess I have never asked, but.. I''m assuming you are of the ruling ss?"


    I continued with a nod. "As far as I know, after the fall of the Chst��s family, we are the only family in the ruling ss now."


    "Huh... I see..." She sounded both intrigued and confused simultaneously. "In that case, you wouldn''t mind if I came to Valtivar with you, would you?"


    -What?- "I don''t, but I thought you said you needed a few more months to finish healing?"


    "I do, but it''s mostly minor things. More importantly than that, if what you were saying earlier is right, I need to totally reshape everything I know about the world, and going through your family would probably be the safest way to do that..." She seemed to get a little flustered as she spoke as if she were asking for too much.


    "I already nned to have you work with my mother for that. We can''t exactly have you just waltz back into Bahamut after everything that''s happened." Over the past couple days, we spoke quite extensively about just how much the world had changed from what she knew, including how her name and image were tarnished. But thankfully, it all went over well. "It will definitely take some time to adjust, but feel free to stay as long as you need." Finally standing up, I nced over my shoulder. "In any case, if you''reing, change to your humanoid form. We can continue our chat while we fly."


    "Are you sure you can handle my weight?" she asked, intrigued.


    "You think I''m weak just because I''m small?" Looking up at her towering form, a confident grin crept onto my face.


    And before long, a grin came to her face as well. "Alright! If you say so." *sh*


    Quickly changing to her humanoid form, I was presented with the view of a regal, mature woman in her early 30s, with bright white horns and deep blue scales, exuding the air of a monarch.


    She truly embodied the queen of a nation. -How befitting...-


    But to me, it seemed more of a facade than anything.


    *CRUNCH-CRACK* Shattering the ground with each step, she walked over to me radiating a mix of childish excitement and confidence. As if certain she was certain she would best me.


    But, sure enough, while her weight felt akin to a mountain concentrated in the palm of my paw, she only weighed about twice as much as I did.


    "How impressive... I really thought I''d be too heavy..." She was quite impressed.


    "I told you I''m not weak." -She''s too heavy for me to ignore though.. I might pull a muscle if I st my thruster magic right off the bat...- "Regardless, since you seem situated, let''s get going."


    With a quick spread of my wings and a bit of help from some antimatter, we quickly took to the dark starry sky and started making our way back to Valtivar, engaging in idle chatter while we flew.


    But while she asked quite a lot about my thruster magic, among other things, as we finally approached Valtivar, the conversation ended up at a question I had forgotten to exin.


    "I apologize if this is a bit much to ask, but earlier, you said your family are descendants of As. If that''s the case, then why are your scales ck?" She spoke curiously without a hint of skepticism.


    And without giving it much thought, I spoke nonchntly. "Almost immediately after I hatched from my egg, I touched an artifact that messed with my gics, turning my scales ck among other things. That was actually the artifact I mentioned earlier, the one that split my soul from my body."


    "Ah, I see... So, are you still a pure dragon, or..?"


    My expression quickly becameplicated. "I was born a pure dragon, but am now half dragon and half Ancient Fenrir."


    I spoke as if it were nothing, but if Hera had a drink in her mouth at that moment, she would have spit it everywhere. "WHAT?!"


    -Oh, shit... I forgot to tell her that, didn''t I...- "Haha," I let out an awkward chuckle as I nced toward her. "I guess I forgot to tell you earlier.. I apologize."


    Her shock was honestly palpable. "Half.. ancient fenrir?"


    As we started quickly reentering the bright blue afternoon atmosphere, I nodded. "Although I only figured it out during my dragon sleep, I am, in more than one way, Nott''s reincarnation."


    There was a long silence that followed as she looked up toward me with questions ringing behind her eyes. "Do you.. have his memories?"


    But I hastily shook my head. While it would have certainly been convenient, I knew even less than Hera about the matters regarding the end of the war.


    However, that would change in due time. For now, all I had to do was take one step at a time and jump the hurdles as they came.


    But little did I know, a hurdle would find its way to me before I could even realize I needed to jump.


    *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* Coming in tond on Lief''s estate, I cut a hole in the roof of my room before descending into it,nding, and quickly patching the hole in one swift motion.


    Krystallo, who was sitting over by the bookshelves with Mother and Father, immediately hopped up as I came in. "Brother''s back!" But her happy trot came to a screeching halt as I finallynded and set down Hera.


    Even Mother was caught off guard. "Wee back, Va- Huh?" The moment she saw Hera, confusion sted across her face, but eventually, her expression just turned smug. "Hoho~, to think our Vasilias finally found himself a wife~." Quickly hopping up with her obscene assumption, she lowered her head toward Hera for a moment before matching her gaze. "My name is Zachari Ragnarok. If I may ask, who was given the pleasure?"


    Thankfully, Hera wasn''t too taken aback by her antics, but rather than directly clearing the misunderstanding, she simply gave a very humble bow. "My name is Hera. Hera Monachik��s." The whole room froze in an instant. "It''s truly a pleasure to meet you, Zachari."


    She spoke very casually, befitting the age difference, but Mother was so drowned in shock that she couldn''t even find words to respond.


    -I guess that''s one way to correct her...- "Mother, Father, Krystallo, please meet Hera." I paused as I overlooked them and saw Father was thankfully finally able to at least withstand my aura without passing out. "And before you ask, yes, she is ''The'' Hera Monachik��s." I had hoped her name would be enough to clear Mother''s insane deduction.


    But while only silence followed my voice, I felt like I could smell something burning, and after looking down I saw Krystallo, her gaze aimed at Hera like aser that could melt diamonds.


    -Oh boy... I guess Hera''s name wasn''t enough to clear Mom''s assumption for her...-


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 Chapter 329: A Hidden Talent

    Chapter 329: A Hidden Talent


    Early Evening - Late Summer : Valtivar | Siratha


    -----


    "How fascinating... So, the properties of atoms are dictated solely by the number of protons, and their stability is determined by the number of electrons and neutrons, but can be forcefully bnced with mana?" Hera slowly rotated a tiny aluminum marble with her aura as she stared into her unmoving reflection on its surface. "How did you even figure that out?"


    "Haha," I let out an awkward chuckle, unsure how to respond. "It''s not too hard to figure out with space mana."


    "Not too hard, he says..." A smile slowly mixed into her dumbfounded expression as she looked toward Mother and Father.


    But they both simply gave slow nods of understanding. "We know how you feel."


    Eventually turning back to me, she didn''t bother hiding her disbelief. "To be honest, whenever we spoke up on the mountain, I always assumed your knowledge stemmed from ''the times changing'' as you mentioned previously.. I simply couldn''t let myself believe a single dragon could advance things so much.. to the point that even after a month of constantly being proven otherwise, I still struggle to believe it..."


    Unable to say the foundation of my understanding was from Earth, I simply rolled with the praise. "All I did was look for exnations beyond magic. Like if I wave my wing and create a gust of wind, what did I do? Well, ''I created a gust of wind'' would be an easy answer, right? But ask how. If wind mana really was what made the wind move, what about if I p my wings so hard that ayer of ice momentarily forms on the underside of my wings? Creating such a destructive st of wind would take an equally immense amount of wind mana because energy requires energy."


    Father''s gaze, focused on me as I spoke, slowly shifted to his wing as he gently moved it around, attempting to answer the questions I posed. "Ah, so the energy being put into the wind is the energy I put into my wings to disce the air.. and the wind is simply the flow from high-pressure to low-pressure?"I slowly nodded with a smile, seeing he understood.


    It had been about a month since I returned with Hera at that point, and while she, of course, joined Mother and Krystallo''s science lessons without hesitation, Father had finally started getting interested in them as well.


    And to my surprise, he was actually an extremely quick learner, to the point that he made Mother seem slow, learning what took her several months in just a few weeks. "What a fascinating way to look at things..."


    But unfortunately, he couldn''t hold a candle to Hera. "It truly is..." Slowly sinking into thought, she used purely unattributed mana to put pressure on the aluminum marble, melting and morphing it with ease before splitting it and creating hundreds of tiny needles. "It''s a way of thinking that makes me question if I really know as much about mana as I thought..."


    Over thest month, after spending essentially all day every day with her, we quickly came to know each other pretty well, but with each passing day, it became more and more apparent how much of a monster she was. -She isn''t just a quick learner either... The moment she learns something, she can apply it.-


    But at the same time, who was I to even call her a monster...


    In just a month, I had massively improved my directional aura control, improved my fine control over my divinity by leaps and bounds, and even deepened my knowledge of mana and its properties far more than I normally would have, thanks to Hera. -It''s given me some pretty crazy ideas too.. but I''ll need to save that for another time...-


    Looking at the room''s entrance, I saw Lief bowing just beyond the door and immediately motioned her inside with aura.


    *click* Typically, when she entered, she would hold her head high until she got up to me, but her demeanor was a little different that day.


    *pat* Quickly walking up to me, she formally kneeled while maintaining a serious expression, something a little unusual. "I kneel before The Lord."


    "Lief, is something wrong?"


    She hesitated before nodding. "Off the coast near Morva Asari, there was a fleet of ships spotted, all bearing the g of the Holy Kingdom. I normally would have handled this myself, but one of the dragon scouts said it appears to be a military fleet with many dragons on board and among the crew."


    My gaze quickly shifted to Mother and Father, whose expressions were now dominated by displeasure. -A military fleet, huh...- "Do you know where they are headed?"


    She quickly shook her head. "We don''t know, but we do have a guess." She continued after seeing she had everyone''s attention. "Two weeks ago, a group of dragons gave the new apostles several assets, from dungeons, gold, and artifacts to an entire mythril mine in order to gain their favor. However, the mythril mine is just south of where they were seen, and they are hugging the coast as if looking for something in the mountains."


    "So the mine is their target?" Father was the first to speak up.


    "More than likely. The only other idea I have is they could be looking for the Dungeon of the Colossus near there, however, it isn''t visible from the sea, and no one I''ve spoken with can think of a reason the Holy Kingdom would visit it."


    -The Dungeon of the Colossus, huh...- It was a name I had actuallye to know fairly well over the years, it being a notoriously massive dungeon housing most of the biggest and strongest monsters in Siratha, to the point that even Mother taught Krystallo and me about it when we were young, saying it was a ce to avoid no matter what. -It honestly sounds pretty interesting.-


    But Mother seemed to think their focus was elsewhere. "I''m certain it''s the mine they''re after. We have been keeping an eye on them ever since the events with the academy, and over thest few years, they''ve acquired hundreds of mines across several continents for simply oundish sums of money. It certainly wouldn''t surprise me if they decided to raid this mine, assuming their attempts to purchase it failed."


    -What? Are they preparing for war or something?- Confusion filled my mind instantly. No matter how I twisted it. That many mines were too much, even for war. -It makes me wonder if they found a new use for it...- But that was beside the point. "So, by the sounds of things, we need to wreck the fleet?"


    Lief and Mother immediately nodded in unison.


    -It sounds like it''s fairly close to where theb is... Maybe I can use this as an excuse to swing by...- "Then I will go." Turning to Father, knowing he had the most experience of anyone here with the Holy Kingdom, I quickly recognized his displeasure. "Do you want to join me?"


    He nodded instantly, with a sh of determination in his eyes. "Of course!"


    Turning toward Mother and Krystallo, Mother simply shook her head and put her wing over Krystallo to quell her eagerness before turning my gaze to Hera.


    But she already had other ns. "You two can handle it. I need to take some time to speak with Zachari and Lief anyway. It''s about time I start getting back into the swing of things."


    I got a bit disappointed hearing she wasn''ting. -I wanted to see what her strength was like...- But considering she was still healing as well, it wasn''t a big deal. "Alright, then. Since there''s no time to waste, we might as well get going. Are you alright with that, Father?"


    He nodded without a moment of hesitation.


    "Then, just like old times?" I quickly held out my paw for him to sit in, the same way he sat when I flew him to Kan, but he simplyughed.


    "Hahaha, you say old times like it was a hundred years ago."


    "Haha," I quickly let out an awkward chuckle in response, but Lief was the only one to pick up on it. "I assume that means yes?"


    Finally changing to his humanoid form with a nod, he walked over and climbed into my paw, and after giving a quick farewell to everyone around, I left the same way I entered through the room''s ceiling and the treant''s canopy before quickly making my way across the wide clear sky, turned orange and purple by the setting sun.


    It was finally time to get back into the swing of things. Even though I did all I could to eliminate the work that needed to be done by Mother and Father to enjoy some time with them, the ticking of time never stopped, and eventually it had toe to an end.


    Or at least that was what I thought happened.


    After enjoying some idle chatter with Father, reminiscing over the past, we began approaching the mountains, and before long, the towering white sails of ships began to crest the horizon.


    "That must be them..." Father spoke with a slightly irritated tone before more and more ships began appearing on the horizon. "To think it was truly an entire fleet..."


    Before long, there were almost two hundred ships, some bearing traditional high sails and cannons, while others looked more like barges withrge metal structures built on them. "What are those?"


    "They''re called Moles in the Holy Kingdom. They were first developed only a few years ago." Father spoke with deep distaste. "It''s hard to exin what they are in just a few words, but think of it as a massive artifact meant to copse caves and dungeons."


    -A machine that caves in dungeons...- My expression quickly darkened, just like Father''s.


    Such a purpose-built machine being there narrowed their intentions to two options: copsing the mythril mine, possibly in an attempt to lower its value, or copsing The Dungeon of the Colossus.


    Neither were good options, but between the two, one had a far more immense impact on Siratha.


    And Father knew it too. "If they copse the dungeon, the dungeon''s core will go on a rampage and push the monsters out..." And the result would be a monster wave the likes of which no one could even fathom.


    -If Mother wasn''t exaggerating when she said that ce was dangerous even for Elders, a monster wave from there would be a serious problem...- "It''s a good thing we''re intercepting them before they reach the dungeon."


    "Yes, yes it is..." He spoke with a darkening tone as he squinted his eyes towards the ship. "It looks like there are temrs as well. The third Division."


    -Temrs and dragons, huh...- One of the most elite units of humansbined with dragons sounded like a nastybo, but somehow, as we got closer, I felt eager and excited.


    I felt like a kid ready to test his new toy.


    But as we approached, a slightly crazed smile came to Father''s face. "Do you mind if I make the first attack?"


    -Huh?- It wasn''t what I was expecting. "I don''t mind, but what is it you want to do?"


    "Haha, I just want to test an idea I got from one of your lessons..." He sounded like some mad scientist, twiddling his fingers, overlooking the massive fleet of ships like they were his prey.


    Honestly, I wasn''t sure how to feel about it. I wasn''t sure whether to be nervous or excited.


    But at the end of it all, I was curious, so I couldn''t say no.


    At least that was the case until he pulled out a fairlyrge, hollow sphere of mythril and began lining the outside with countless runes.


    -What is he...- But as I used my aura to see what exactly he was doing, my eyes went wide. "IS THAT CUBANE?!"


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 Chapter 330: Divergence

    Chapter 330: Divergence


    Early Evening - Late Summer : Off the Coast of the Western Sirathan Mountains


    -----


    -What is he...- Using my aura to see what exactly he was doing, my eyes shot open. "IS THAT CUBANE?!"


    ncing up at me while carving one of the countless runes on the newly created artifact, he looked puzzled. "Cubane?"


    "That chemical you''re making! Where did you learn about that?!" It was essentially octanitrocubane, an unbelievably explosive chemical I knew from Earth and something I had made a modified version of in the past. -But I never taught him, let alone anyone else about it... There is no way he just..-


    "I made it myself."


    -WHAT?!-


    "When you were talking about discement, the first thing I thought about was an explosion, and I wondered if I could use that idea to create an explosive chemical." He spoke like he created it on a whim. "Like you''ve hinted at when teaching Zachari, Krystallo, and Madam Monachik��s, I used carbon as the base, and in order to make it allbustible, I tacked on some nitrogen and oxygen... I''m not sure it will work, but-"


    "IT WILL! Now be gentle with it, or it''ll blow your hands off." Taking it with my aura, I held it just in front of him. "This chemical is insanely vtile to temperature because of how tense the carbon''s bonds between each other are." Giving a small helping hand, I quickly applied a few additional runes before handing it back to him.The artifact was simple but, in all honesty, quite vicious, taking advantage of mana''s innate ability to stabilize and strengthen unstable molecules with countless mana umtion runes on the outside of the mythril sphere to temporarily lessen the strain on the carbon atoms before detonating the cubane with some heat, and forcing the cubic atomic structures to jolt into a more rxed state.


    -And with the nitrogen and oxygen, it''ll just add fuel to the fire... Literally...- But I was there for it. Although it was an odd feeling, I was pretty excited to see how it would perform.


    And then, before I knew it, he finished. "Alright. This should be good."


    Having slowed down significantly, I tilted my paw and dropped him so he could change to his draconic form. By then, we were essentially straight over the Mole at the center of the fleet, but with severalyers of light magic and with me keeping the regr mana part of my aura over a kilometer off the ground, we stayed undetected. -I''m curious how much damage this artifact will do...-


    If it were something I had made, I would certainly call it weak since I knew it couldn''t contend with antimatter, but Father was not a monster like I was. At least not then.


    *fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh* Hovering just beneath me, Father quickly made a few final adjustments to the artifact before finally looking down.


    The Mole was colossal, but from over a dozen kilometers in the air, it was quite far. "Do you want to fly a bit lower?"


    But Father''s serious expression didn''t waver for an instant. "No, this height is fine." Finally lifting his gaze off the ship, he nced to his left before casually tossing the artifact, using a tiny bit of aura to make a tiny adjustment as it fell. "You see that tall knight? The one with the big hammer?" An eager look slowly crept onto his face as he spoke. "I''m gonna hit him in the head."


    "Pfffft-" I almost burst outughing instantly.


    "What are youughing for? You think I won''t?" He spoke confidently.


    Holding backughter, I tried to wave him off. "No, no. It''s not that I don''t think you could." Looking down at his target only made me want tough more. "I just think you could have chosen a better target."


    "Huh?" Looking back down, he didn''t seem to understand, but after a moment, the knight looked up and casually set his gaze on the falling artifact


    "Hmph." He let out a scoff as he pulled his hammer off his back. "We havepany! Everyone get to your positions!" His voice was heavy and coarse.


    But even though Father couldn''t hear him, he knew exactly what happened. "He saw it?!"


    "PFt-Hahaha!" Myughter finally escaped seeing Father finally get flustered. "Of course he did. Any ancient would be able to feel that thing''s mana signature when it entered their aura. Did you see how many mana umtion runes you put?!" Seeing him getting a little embarrassed, I eased up my pestering a bit. "But don''t worry, it''ll just make it more enjoyable to watch."


    He tilted his head slightly as everyone below frantically ran around, trying to prepare for enemies. "What do you mean?"


    My smile widened as I finally looked down. "Well, what do you think will happen when that big ole'' hammer of his hits it?"


    Following my gaze downward, we both fell silent.


    But eventually, the artifact neared the ground.


    "Captain! Be careful!" One of the human crewmates yelled out from the entrance of one of the metal structures on the mole before running inside.


    But the knight didn''t care. "As if an artifact like that could even singe my hair. I just want to see who. Would. DARE!-" *FWOOSH* His massive mythril hammer, easily weighing several tons, whipped around his body in an instant before mming into the artifact.


    Had the artifact survived the impact, it would have beenunched over the horizon well past the speed of sound.


    However, at that time, his strength didn''t work in his favor. *DING-crackle* The moment after his hammer hit it, the hollow sphere shattered, and the pressurized cubane inside simply.. popped.


    *tink* *FWO-BOOOOOM* In an instantaneous sh, a massive cone of light engulfed arge section of the Mole along with several ships in the direction he swung his hammer, their wooden hulls being reduced to less than ash before anyone could even react.


    *CLUNG-FWOOOSH* The knight''s hammer, absorbing much of the recoil of the st, was instantly sted out of the knight''s hand before bouncing off the smooth ocean surface and mming into one of the other ships behind him. *CRRRRACKLEE* It bored through the ship''s hull and lower decks with ease, eviscerating everything in its path before exiting the opposite side of the hull below the water level and creating a massive st of water that showered surrounding ships like rain.


    The whole time, the ancient stage knight was too unprepared to even react, and before he knew it, he had destroyed several ships with only his helmet melting to reveal his dumbfounded expression.


    "HAHAHA!" His reaction,bined with the artifact''s sess, made Father burst outughing instantly. "I didn''t know such shameless dragons could make that expression!"


    "Right?! It''s so satisfying seeing their arrogance disappear like that." I wore a satisfied smile as I looked down over the fleet, each ships crewmates running around in panic. "In any case, I''ll head down first, I haven''t been able to properly stretch my legs since I woke up."


    "Haha, alright! Go beat ''em up, but save some for me!"


    -Save some for him, huh...- Quickly scanning over the fleet, I almost immediately found a section of ships that seemed to be for cargo, carrying many supplies like food, gunpowder, and extra weapons for the other ships. "You see those 20 ships circled up over there? I''ll leave them for you. If you need help, just holler at me!"


    But he simply smiled confidently before pulling out another small mythril sphere.


    -Haha, why is he carrying those?- I honestly wondered, but at the same time, it just meant I didn''t have to worry much about him.


    Finally turning back to the fleet, I undid the light magic around me, released control of my aura, and started falling to the ground. *VWOOOOM* My aura fell onto the fleet as if the sky was falling, and before long, I had the attention of every dragon in the fleet focused on me.


    It was honestly more than I initially thought, but at the same time, my draconic form would have been another level of overkill for them. -So, why don''t I stretch the legs of my humanoid form some... I haven''t even had the chance to use my sword yet...-


    *sh* Changing forms on a whim, the attention of most of the humans finally turned up to me, but with Father still flying above me, most of them got the wrong idea.


    "It''s a dragon rider!" Somehow, it seemed like most of the humans couldn''t even sense my aura.


    But that wasn''t my problem.


    *FWOOOOSH* Ripping through the air with ever-increasing speed, I spread out my weight distribution magic over nearly two dozen kilometers of water before finally activating it anding to a stop, instantaneously transforming the ssy ocean into a field of ice. *FWOOOOM*


    Finallynding on the edge of the Mole, I continued to spread out my weight over the water, but even still, the barge listed to the point that the side of the ship dipped below the water line. *creaaaak-ssh* "How you guys doing?" I spoke casually, overlooking the expressions of fear on the crew''s faces.


    But among everyone, the knight Father tossed his artifact to looked surprisingly aggressive. "To not use your draconic form... You must be confident..." He seemed on edge but surprisingly didn''t shy away.


    Though, it''s not like he would know it was just arrogance fueled by naivety. "I''m just curious about some things." ncing to the side, I watching him hastily pull his hammer out of the water like Thor before taking up a stance.


    Seemingly forged out of pure high grade mythril, it survived the st without as much of a scratch. "Were you the one that dropped that artifact?"


    But I quickly waved his question away with my hand. "No, no. If I dropped one this fleet wouldn''t be here."


    "Tch..." He clicked his tongue as if sensing that I wasn''t lying. "Then what do you want..?"


    -Hoh? He has more brains than I thought.- "Well, I want to figure out what exactly you guys are nning, then I''ll just-" Cutting my words short, I jerked my head to the side before sticking out my arm and catching a massive, cannonball-sized metal bullet spinning as if it was fired from a cannon with rifling.


    For a moment, I was so impressed at how much they had improved the cannon that I didn''t care about them interrupting me.


    But after a moment of awe, I casually tossed the massive shell to the side, aending it hurtling through a nearby ship before reaching for my sword.


    But the knight never let me grab it. *FWOOSH* Darting at me at full speed, he pulled his hammer back before mming it forward with every fiber of muscle in his body.


    He knew it was his best shot at beating me, but unfortunately for him, it was far from enough.


    *CLING-WHAAMMM* Catching the head of the hammer with one hand, an immense shockwave ripped through the water behind me, and my fingers sank into the mythril like it was soft y.


    "And here I thought you at least had some survival instincts."


    He immediately tried to pull back his hammer, now with a bent shaft and the imprint of a hand on its head, but it didn''t budge.


    "Give me that." *pat* Casually ripping it from his hands, I tossed it into the air and grabbed its handle before creating awork of mana to spread the impact I would make with the hammer, over the ship that shot at me. -Ignorant bastards.- "Hyup!"


    Putting my weight into it, I mmed the hammer down on thework of mana with enough force to shatter the mythril. *crackle*


    And in an instant, the ship simply.. disappeared... *WHAAAAMMMM* The debris-filled plume of water that followed stretched hundreds of meters into the air as if a nuke was detonated, spreading shards of metal, wood, and fragments of bone over the surrounding ships like a scene from hell.


    The Ancient I stole the hammer from instantly turned a ghastly pale, finally realizing the kind of being that stood in front of him.


    I simply wasn''t a being in his league.


    But thankfully for him, he didn''t need to be. *crackle-BOOOM* As a massive explosion erupted from the cargo ships behind us, I slowly turned around to him. "So, why don''t you get to exining what you guys are doing here."


    But the moment he went to speak, I felt a tinge of a god''s presence appear behind me, and heard a young man''s voice boom outward. "Gentlemen! Fear not!" He was a young man who could have only been in his early 20s, wearing noble white and gold clothes with an extravagant white and gold sword. "As a grand priest of Lord Baldurs Church of Light, I shall-" *THWAAACK*


    With a wave of my hand, I sent him flying through his ship, mming through several deck levels before punching through the bottom. "Who is that dumbass?" -A grand priest? He''s dressed like some noble brat...-


    "H-He is the leader of this expedition!" The Ancient yelled out immediately, as if trying to suck up to me. "He was assigned to watch over us until we arrived at our destination!"


    -Hm?- "Which is?"


    "S-Siratha''s western mythril mine! The one on the Grand Mythril Vein!"


    -Huh? Why on earth...- "You aren''t headed toward The Dungeon of the Colossus?"


    He immediately shook his head. "Another fleet was assigned to head there! They should have already arrived!"


    -Huh?!- My gaze instantly turned to the southern horizon. -That.. is really bad...-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 331: Soul Fear

    Chapter 331: Soul Fear


    Mid Evening - Late Summer : Off the Coast of the Western Sirathan Mountains


    -----


    *fwooosh* A misty breeze blew over us as I gave the massive man kneeling next to me a look of confusion. "You aren''t headed toward The Dungeon of the Colossus?"


    He frantically shook his pale face as he eagerly responded, hoping it would entice me to give him mercy. "Another fleet was assigned to head there! They should have already arrived!"


    -Huh?!- My gaze instantly turned to the southern horizon. -That.. is really bad...-


    But while it was something I needed to urgently deal with, I was stuck. -I can''t leave Father here alone, nor can I kill everyone and bring him with me... If only I brought Ilios...-


    However, not having an obvious answer didn''t mean there wasn''t one.


    I just needed to find it.


    Finally turning back to the knight with a conflicted expression, I tried to bite my tongue. "What were you going to the mine for?""W-We were going to copse it with this ship h-here." He sputtered, "Of course, that isn''t the case any-" But his voice was cut short when he noticed the bloodlust oozing from me.


    "Just answer my question."


    Seeing me holding myself back through my dted pupils, he continued with fear continuing to seep into his voice. "We were told to sink the mountain into the mine! It would sacrifice the Mole but would allow us to create a path connecting the ocean to the forest and give us exclusive ess to the mine itself!"


    -Shit...- It confirmed my worries in an instant. -The Holy Kingdom isn''t trying to test the waters... They''re here to prepare for war...- And that meant the information from those present was all the more important.


    "FUCK!" *sh* *CREAAAK* Suddenly switching back to my draconic form, I slowed the flow of my divinity and increased the speed of my thoughts severalfold.


    In the eyes of those around me, not even an instant passed before I raised my w to the knight''s forehead, but in my mind, it had been hours. *Vwoom*


    "Ack-!" Immediately gripping his head in pain, the knight tried to break out of the grasp of my aura.


    But it was a hopeless effort. *vwoom* With a silent ripple of mana, a glowing, three-dimensional rune appeared at the tip of my w before morphing like a ball of snakes and seemingly dissipating.


    It was an oath rune more advanced than any I had ever made. "No one present here can leave, and you will be the one responsible for making sure no one escapes, even if you have to use force until I return or until a group from Siratha arrives, in which you will cooperate with them. If a single person escapes, I''ll personally ensure you can''t reincarnate." I traced his neurons and connected them to the rune as I spoke. "Your only rules are you cannot kill anyone or yourself, am I understood?"


    *nk-thump* Finishing the rune and releasing my grasp on him, he fell onto his hands and knees with sweat streaming off his nose.


    -Seems like its working...- "If you do well, I''ll remove the oath and let you live. As for the consequences, I''m sure I don''t need to borate."


    He immediately gave a shaky nod without muttering a word.


    "Good," Turning and looking over my shoulder, I quickly found Father and used wind magic to tell him we were leaving, but even though he left the other side of the fleet with haste before he could get close...


    *SPLASH-FWOOSH* There was a sudden explosion just beneath the ship in front of the Mole, and before most people could even react, the so-called ''grand priest'' was right in front of me, wielding his glowing golden sword.


    Unlike earlier, his expression was firm with a deep but controlled bloodlust, as if he was a man who had fought countless battles, but while he held his brightly glowing sword firmly, aiming to sh my neck, it was nothing shy ofughable.


    *nk* When his de met my scales, it was like a butter knife meeting a steel wall, sliding off without so much as a scratch.


    But his expression didn''t falter, rather, it looked like he was only starting.


    However, such arrogance was eventually met with reality. -Is he serious?- *THWACK* Swatting him out of the air with my tail, he suddenly vanished before plowing through several ships, onlying to a stop after plunging underwater about four kilometers away.


    Although he certainly wasn''t weak, especially for a being in the realm of humans,pared to me, he was like a buzzing mosquito. -It seems like he survived though.. that''s good.-


    Quickly pulling him out of the water and setting him on a random ship''s deck so he wouldn''t drown, I finally switched gears and took to the air, using my aura to sink over half the remaining fleet and pulverize the Mole before finally meeting up with Father. We didn''t have any more time to waste.


    "Is something going on?" Father spoke with a mix of concern and worry as he changed to his humanoid form.


    "Yeah, that ancient down there said there was another fleet ahead of them that was headed for the Dungeon of Colossus." Sticking out my paw, I quickly got him situated before turning to the horizon. "If we''re lucky, that fleet won''t have a Mole with them, but I can''t think of another reason they would go there..." Finally spreading my wings, I activated my thruster magic and turned the ground below into a blur. -All we can do is hope their fleet is behind schedule...-


    But it was wishful thinking.


    As we hastily approached the dungeon''s entrance, the telltale signs of disturbance only grew clearer. Smoke billowed up from the surrounding forest, and the distant sounds of crumbling rock and burning brush filled the air.


    "We''re toote..." Father spoke with frustration.


    But no matter how badly I wanted to disagree, I couldn''t.


    The surrounding forest was in shambles, towering plumes of smoke and ash rose through the canopies of trees as far as the eye could see, and a cloud of dust and rock epassed the entirety of the mountain at the epicenter of the damage.


    But as the base of the mountain starteding into view, and I expected to find a massive fleet waiting on standby, I found a small field of debris with just one ship aimlessly floating offshore. -What the...-


    The ship wasrge, simr to the one the ''grand priest'' was aboard in the other fleet, but somehow, it waspletely empty, with no one aboard at all. It was simply a ghost ship.


    Father seemed taken aback by it too. "Where''s the rest of the fleet?"


    Seeing the pool of splintered wood and tattered sails at the base of the mountain, it seemed pretty self-exnatory, but that wasn''t what he was asking about. "Yeah, where.. are they..."


    At most, the debris we saw could amount to five or six ships, a far cry from an entire fleet. "Just what is going on..."


    Finally descending toward the mountain, I started searching for auras, but while I did find a few lingering ones, none of them came from creatures that were still alive, a phenomenon that I knew happened shortly after death. -But if they just died.. what killed them?-


    Unable to read my aura so far out, I quickly started slowing down to approach the mountain with more caution, but the closer I got, the more bewildered both Father and I became.


    Littering the rubble-covered battlefield that cut through the mountains were the mutted bodies of humans and monsters alike; however, while some bodiesid with fresh crimson blood dripping from their wounds, others looked like they had been dead for a whole day. -If they copsed the dungeon some timest night or this morning, the damage to the forest, and the missing fleet would make some sense, but.. if that''s the case, why are some so fresh...-


    Finally slowing down enough to let go of Father, I dropped him, letting him change to his draconic form and glide toward the forest while I flew down to investigate the bodies.


    From the air, I questioned if some of the fresh-looking bodies only seemed fresh because of some kind of anticoagnt poison or venom, perhaps from a monster, but as I finally touched down, I checked the blood to find that it was truly fresh.. within the hour. -Shit...-


    Worried that whatever killed the final humans was still in the area and strong enough to make the fleet abandon theirrades and flee, I darted toward Father while scanning as much of the forest as I could.


    *FWWOOOSH* But as I came up to the edge of the rubble, overlooking the clearing that bordered the forest, rather than finding something out of the ordinary, I saw Father staring beneath me with a puzzled and bewildered look.


    -Huh? What is he...- Following his gaze with my aura, I finally noticed the colossal opening to a cave in the cliff right beneath me. By the looks of it, it was the newly formed entrance of the dungeon. -Did I tunnel-vision that hard? How did I miss that...-


    Quickly calming my nerves after finding nothing within a few kilometers, I let out a short breath and hopped down to Father''s side. "Anything?"


    "Yeah, but it''s certainly not good news." He pointed his w toward the dungeon''s entrance as he paused. "Dungeons take some time to reform themselves if there is a copse, and by the looks of things, it didn''t just reform its entrance... Even if this dungeon was absurdly quick, thetest they could have copsed the dungeon was this morning, if not yesterday..."


    His deduction perfectly lined up with the timeframe I estimated from the first bodies as well. -But that means the monsters that were here were disced already... That''s not good...-


    ncing over my shoulder into the forest, I tried to scan the entirety of my aura for other auras again, contemting whether I should leave to try and clean up some of the monsters that escaped.


    And just at that moment, I felt the edge of the aura of a monster, one that rivaled Myles. -Holy shit.. the monsters here were that strong?!-


    Figuring even a small group of normal ancients would struggle against such a being, my attention was quickly dragged away. It was something I needed to deal with personally. -Seeing that it''s the only one I sense, it might be the dungeon boss...-


    I quickly nced toward Father while readying thruster magic. "Father, it looks like there is a pretty strong monster about a hundred kilometers into the forest. It''s a little to strong for me to let it walk, so I will be right back." -It will especially need my attention if it isn''t alone...-


    Thankfully though, Father understood. "Alright, then, I''ll just investigate the surrounding area until you get back."


    With a nod, I finally turned in the direction of the aura and spread my wings. "That works, just be careful. I''ll try to be quick." *crackle* Then, in an instant, I vanished. *RUUUMBLE*


    -----


    - Deacon Arca ~


    "You humans truly have an interesting way of doing things..." The deep voice, seemingly from a young man, echoed through the cave as I walked down its pristine, serpentining path.


    It was a voice that gave me the chills no matter how many times I heard it. -Brr...- "Of course. When you don''t have unrivaled strength or mana, you have to get clever." ncing back, I met the gaze of a dark crimson-scaled dragon that stood just shy of a hundred meters tall. -To use magic so casually... It truly is a shame that the strong ones are so brutish.. even if it would make them harder to control...-


    The dragon''s name was Kapn��s, an Ancient that had worked alongside the Holy Kingdom since before I was even born. "There are dragons like that too, but more often than not, they simply lock themselves in an office or research facility, like Leander." He nced over his shoulders at the other three towering ancients as he walked. "It''s a shame that they''re so difficult to bring to the Holy Kingdom. I''m sure the church could make good use of them."


    "Of course..." -If there were more, we would''ve had no issues with our recent developments, and we wouldn''t need to be here...- Getting a bit jealous of dragons and their undeserved calctive abilities, I sank into thought, questioning the qualms of our recent developmental efforts before shifting my attention forward again.


    But just a momentter, while I was still lost in thought, my eardrums nearly exploded. *BOOOOOOOM* It was an explosion from the entrance of the dungeon that was so deafening it couldn''t even be put into words and so strong it rattled the entire dungeon. -What the hell?!-


    With a cloud of dust descending from the ceiling, I turned back and saw the ancients looking behind us with dark expressions.


    They all simply stared in silence, but after a moment, Kapn��s finally spoke up. "It seems we have somepany... I bet it''s that bastard we had to push out manually..." His voice was quite sour, but I could understand why.


    -That monster gave us a lot of trouble...- "Sir Kapn��s, why don''t you go shoo him away for us. Can you handle it on your own?"


    Slowly ncing back at me, his gaze met mine with a deep sense of distaste, but after a moment, he simply clicked his tongue and turned away. "Tch... |You three keep an eye on her while I''m gone. Make sure she upholds her promise if I''m not back in time��|"


    Hearing them speak back and forth in dragon tongue, I shifted my attention down toward the entrance of the dungeon, but the next thing I knew, my hand was hovering over the hilt of my sword, and I had broken into a cold sweat. -W..what...-


    It was a sensation of fear that made my heart ache and my body stiffen, something I hadn''t felt since I first met an ancient stage dragon.


    But this time, it didn''t originate from my mind or even my instincts, rather it came from my mana core.. from my soul.


    My entire being, at its very core, quivered. -What.. are we about to face...-


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 Chapter 332: A Burrowing Mountain

    Chapter 332: A Burrowing Mountain


    Late Evening - Late Summer : The Dungeon of Colossus | Western Sirathan Mountains


    -----


    "Hooh..." Readying my mana with a short breath, I pulled my gaze from Father and locked it onto the creature I sensed through almost a hundred kilometers of forest. -Let''s make it quick...-


    *crackle-FWO-* Everything instantly went quiet as I blew through the sound barrier several times over, elerating into the sky until I was practically splitting it apart.


    To most normal beings, a hundred kilometers was quite a distance, to humans, it was even a few hours of travel, but to me, it was essentially nothing.


    *FWOOOOSH* Zipping over the forest at close to Mach 40, I closed the distance in a matter of seconds; however, when the area I felt the aura finally peeked over the horizon, rather than seeing the continuous forest canopy, I saw an endless stretch of canyon-like cracks covered with toppled trees, and huge pirs of rock jutting out of the ground.


    -Huh?- It wasn''t a ce I was familiar with, and considering its extremely unique and unnatural look, I thought it was a ce I should have been aware of.


    But, unlike what I was thinking, the reason I had never heard of it had nothing to do with irrelevance or happenstance.


    Just as I got a good view of the area and started looking for my target, I found a weaker aura under the canopy at the edge of the canyons, but the moment I went to read my aura to see what it was, the entire forest shook. *RRRRUUUMMBBLLEE*In an instant, the ground beneath the creature bulged and split apart before countless beams of stone formed to try and pierce or crush the creature.


    And even though the creature darted off instantly, the crack and continuously forming spikes followed it, winding through the forest and destroying everything in its wake before eventually catching up.


    *SCREEECH* Finally falling into the ever-growing crack, the creature let out a horrific screech. By the looks of it, it was a forty-meter-tall.. thing.. akin to a spider, scorpion, andrvae all morphed in one.


    -How disgusting...- It truly looked like something that crawled out of hell, and as it was finally impaled by a stone spike, sttering its green blood across the forest, I felt nothing but disgust...


    However, the creature hunting it didn''t share that sentiment.


    *CRRRRACKLE* With a violent shake, the bulge in the ground disappeared before a colossal creature, about three hundred and fifty meters tall, burst out of the ground, swallowing the insect-like creature with a huge clump of stone like it was nothing.


    It was the owner of the aura I was looking for, an incredibly bulky drake-like creature with a massive row of spines along its back, stubby, muscr limbs carrying spaded paws, and battle-scarred scales that looked like a mix of iron and mythril ores. In a way, it looked as if it was sculpted out of a mountain.


    However, it was very much a living being.


    Finally detecting my aura, it turned its heavy, stubby neck and spotted me over the horizon, the vertical slits in its eyes oozing bloodlust like it wanted to make me its next meal.


    But unfortunately for it, the disgusting monstrosity it had just eaten would be its final meal. -My momentum should be enough...-


    Slowly attaching countless strings of mana to the creature like the arms of an octopus wrapping around its prey, I quickly closed in until I was about four kilometers away, when I spontaneously crystallized the mana.


    *CRACKLE-WHAAAAAMMM* A mountain of debris was instantly hurled into the air as the creature was mmed to the ground with its scales being crushed, bones being shattered, and flesh being shredded.


    In an instant, I had turned countless tendrils of mana into nearly indestructible nails.


    The creature died before it could even react.


    "Oh..." -I do feel a little woozy though...- Aftering to aplete stop from over Mach 40 in a matter of seconds, I felt like the world was spinning.


    But thankfully onlysted a moment.


    With a quick head shake like a dog shaking off water, the dizziness started to fade before eventually easing enough for me to mostly think straight.


    "Hooh... What a mess..." Finally regaining my senses, my eyes settled over the seemingly endless field of cracks, covered in towering stone spikes and pirs, surrounding the massive, mountain-like body of the creature I just ughtered.


    But while it was truly a sight worthy of awe, I didn''t have time to gawk.


    *woosh* Quickly gliding down to the creature''s body, I used some mana, runes, and divinity to hastily carve its mana core out of its chest, freeing it from the grasp of its own skeleton of divinity before giving it a little rinse.


    It was about the size of my head and, surprisingly, wasn''t too dark, looking like the surface of the ocean rather than its depths.


    -But I''m certain that''s just because of how much mana he used...- Giving the creature''s surroundings onest nce, I made sure nothing else I needed to kill was in the area before finally gripping the core more and taking to the air.


    Although I hadn''t been gone for long, I didn''t want to take any chances. Leaving Father alone in such a dangerous area just left a bad taste in my mouth, no matter how safe my aura said it was.


    And as if to worsen my fear, as I got close enough for my aura to epass the entire area around the dungeon, I couldn''t sense his aura anywhere.


    -Did he.. go into the dungeon?- It was the only logical exnation I could think of and was definitely something he''d do, but considering he said he would be scouting the surrounding area, it made me worried. -It hasn''t been long.. he wouldn''t have even had time for much...-


    Hastily increasing my pace, the dungeon starteding into view again, and I found that the entrance itself had grown by about twenty meters, now being about a hundred and eighty meters tall and wide.


    -To have grown that much in not even two minutes.. what on earth happened?- Questions instantly started ringing off in my mind. If the dungeon''s growth was steady, I would have seen it rapidly expanding even with my eyes, which meant it was spontaneous growth. -Did Father go in to investigate, or did the dungeon try to eat him?-


    Not wanting to take any chances, the moment Inded, I directed the entirety of my aura into the dungeon to check if he had really gone inside.


    But, as my aura flooded the dungeon, easily overpowering the insane aura of the dungeon core, I found a group of five people, four ancient-stage dragons and another whose aura I didn''t immediately recognize.


    However, amidst them was Father, and as if that weren''t enough to set me off, his aura was totally uncontrolled, as if he was unconscious.


    *vwwWWWOOOOMMM* Preventing my aura from escaping the dungeon anymore, the density of it increased several fold, to the point that it disintegrated the ground like a flowing river. -I''d like to see which arrogant fuck touched my Father.-


    -----


    - Deacon Arca ~


    *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* My light footsteps, independently disturbing the endless silence, echoed down the dungeon effortlessly while we walked toward the empty boss room. It was the only sound that could meet my ears, but contrarily, I was far from alone. Behind me, three towering dragons loomed, their presencespletely hushed by magic.


    Had I not known better, I wouldn''t have even known they were there.


    But while the explosion we heard made me uneasy, I was certain they were dependable figures. -They''re no less loyal to the Holy Kingdom than me.-


    However, the moment I felt a massive aura hastily approaching, my unease lingering from the explosion we heard spiked, even though I knew who it was. "That was fast."


    It was Kapn��s, but to my surprise, he wasn''t returning alone. "Of course. It was just this guy," moving his tail to the side, he showed aparably tiny white-scaled dragon that was totally unconscious. "It wasn''t the big bastard we pushed out earlier like we though."


    "Hm.. is that so?" -Then I wonder who he is...- The dragon was only about 31 meters tall, with memorable metallic, pure white scales and arge aura for his size. -But...- "He''s far too weak to create the explosion we heard..."


    Kapn��s immediately nodded in agreement. "But he was the only one around, and when I asked what he was doing there, he said he was from the northern fleet to check on what happened here..."


    "Sounds to me like he''s part of a group..." Quickly understanding there was no such white-scaled dragon in the fleet, the teal-scaled dragon in the middle of the group spoke up with a mature feminine voice. "Do you think the people he was with were the ones to cause the explosion?"


    "More than likely. They could''ve run into anything in that forest, even that dreadful ''boss''." He spoke with an annoyed tone. "But regardless, let''s just bring him along for now. Maybe we can rile up the dungeon core to deter the rest of his group and give us time to interrogate him..."


    -If he''s part of a Sirathan Envoy, he will definitely have some good info on him...-


    But at that moment, we needed to move our focus to something else.


    Finallying up to the boss room, we found it vacant as expected, but as we walked in and illuminated everything with light magic, we found more than we bargained for.


    "W..woah..." Even the nearly two-millennia-old dragons behind me let out a breath of awe as we found that the nearly kilometer-high ceilings were decorated with unbelievably intricate carvings depicting Valkyries being the harbingers of war, victory, fortune, and wealth, standing tall and valiantly holding their ground against monsters and dragons alike, protecting the humans behind them with a carving of the sun at the very center.


    The entire carving was a part of the dungeon, not being carved by hand but by the dungeon itself, making it look unbelievably pristine but at the same time, made it feel like an illusion. -What in the world...-


    Finally lowering our gazes, we found that the walls were just as adorned as the ceiling, disying 13 colossal gates wrapping around the room, with seven looking pristine and untouched while the others looked destroyed and scarred.


    It was almost as if it was depicting fallen Valkyries, but the further we walked into the room, the more we saw and the more questions we had. -But to think it would really be here...-


    Although I had heard of this ce from one of Frigg''s apostles personally, I found it hard to believe until that moment. -To think I would live to see the grave of the Valkyries...-


    But the moment I let my guard down, the dungeon started to shake. *rrrrumbblee*


    Thinking it was from the Sirathan Envoy, we all turned to look toward the entrance, but before we could react, it felt as if the sky had copsed on us. *VWOOOOM* Breathing became impossible, and even the knees of the mighty dragons with me buckled.


    It felt like it onlysted a moment, but by the time that horrific sensation lifted and we all looked up in a panic, we found our eyesid on a wall of stone where the entrance used to be.


    Before we could react, we were trapped in the dungeon''s boss room.


    For a moment, it felt like the dungeon was the one trapping us, as if it was waiting for us...


    But oh how little we knew...


    The dungeon wasn''t trapping us.. it was simply holing up as if it were a turtle; hiding in its shell, praying the predator outside wouldn''t be able to break through.


    -W..what happened... Was it a trap? Is this some kind of puzzle?-


    And all the while, we knew nothing of what wasing.


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 Chapter 333: Beyond The Fabric

    Chapter 333: Beyond The Fabric


    <strong>--------------------</strong>


    <strong>- Mild Non-Human Gore Warning -</strong>


    <strong>--------------------</strong>


    Late Evening - Late Summer : The Dungeon of Colossus | Western Sirathan Mountains


    -----


    *vvwwoooOOOOOMMM-TSSS* The air around me sizzled as the ground was reduced to powder and melted under the weight of my paws. My aura flowed so intensely that even the mana strengthening in the ground was eroded away until there was nothing left. -I''d like to see which arrogant fuck touched my Father.-


    *sh* Changing to my fenririan form as I lowered my stance and spread my wings, I started to roughly read my aura throughout the dungeon and calcte how I would traverse it, but before I could finish, the presences I felt deep in the dungeon suddenly vanished.


    -Huh?- It was like my aura suddenly couldn''t reach them.


    But it wasn''t what I expected. *rrruuuummbbllee* Before I could think, the entire dungeon started to shake as if the whole mountain was about to be split in half, and the entire pathway into the dungeon began to shrink and close.The dungeon was detaching itself from the surface, closing and sealing the path to its core, and before I even had the chance to notice, it hadpletely surrounded itself with several kilometers of stone and ore.


    But at that moment, there was nothing that could stop me. "Who knew a dungeon could feel fear..." *Fwoom* The sounds around me warped as everything suddenly slowed to a halt, and my draconic pupils thinned to focus on a single point through the ground.


    Far under the mountain, I could faintly see a blurry cloud-like sphere. -That must be the dungeon core...- It was so far away that, at least with my current ability, it was impossible to pinpoint.


    But all I needed was general direction. *blub-CRACKLE* Digging my paws into the half-molten ground, I flexed my legs, lowered my snout, and folded my wings.


    With time around me slowed with my divinity, whenever I touched something that wasn''t slowed to the same extent as my body, so much force would be applied and energy would be transferred that the ground would turn to liquid and the air would turn to sma. With most creatures, even if they could use divinity, just the forces of the slowed air around them would lock them in ce as well, as their bodies would break thanks to an equal but opposite reaction...


    But my body had no issue exerting such forces, even if I didn''t acknowledge it.


    *crack-FWOOOOM* Darting into the ground, an instantaneous tunnel of molten rock formed in the wake of my body without giving the surrounding rock and ore time to react to the impact. With my eyes focused on the blurry sphere, I simply tunnel-visioned until, eventually, the sphere came into focus, and I burst through the ceiling of the dungeon''s boss room.


    *VWOOP* My aura filled the room nearly instantly, and as I turned to look toward the auras I felt around Father, I found a white and gold-robed human with three ancients right behind her. However, they weren''t the subject of my gaze.


    -There you are...- Behind them was thergest of the group, a pure cherry-red scaled dragon standing tall and confident while dragging Father across the ground with his tail. -To show him such disrespect...- *VWOOOM* Zero''ing my momentum against the ground, I jumped into the void before instantly returning over his head. *vwoop-vwoop*


    But while I wanted to disassemble his skull, having him die without knowing how didn''t sit right with me. -I want you to feel the fear of death...-


    *mwooOOOF* Releasing my divinity, the flow of time around me started slowly returning to normal, but as it did, the world was finally able to react to the damage I had done.


    *crackle-sh* With the energy rivaling a nuke, a colossal pir of light and energy formed in the wake of where I traveled before the ground, where I zeroed my momentum spontaneously liquified and exploded downward. *BRRRRMMMMM* In an instant, half the boss room vanished.


    The ancients and the human instantly turned to face the immense burst of energy, but as the red-scaled dragon turned his head, his gazended on me, my form darkened and silhouetted by the wall of light so that only the purple glow in my eyes and within my fur was visible.


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    For an instant, our gazes matched, and color started draining from his face, but before he could move, I reached out and set my paw on his nose.


    *vwoop* Between us, there was nothing but silence. "How dare you touch him." *CRUUUNCH* His snout, starting from just in front of his eyes, instantly vanished as it was reduced to unrecognizable waste and sted into the ground. *CRACKLEE*


    Before he could even recognize what happened, an unfathomable wave of pain washed through his mind and he went to scream, "RAAAH!!!" But it sounded like nothing more than an unintelligible noise.


    Lowering his stance and turning his gaze to the ground, he looked down at the blood pouring from his ''mouth'' onto the shattered stones with a strained gaze before bringing his paw up to hold it, only to coat his ws with blood and find that his snout waspletely gone.


    In that instant, his body started to quiver, and a look of fear washed over his face.


    A look of fear that I relished. "Did you think that having a little strength would make you invincible?" Using my aura, I crushed and shredded the muscles in his tail and legs, forcing him to release his grasp on Father and copse to his knees. *thud* "Or was it that you thought following some god that only sees you as a tool would make you untouchable?"


    Finally recognizing my presence as the impact from my entrance started to lessen, the other ancients turned to look back at me, only to freeze in ce and turn pale before dozens of massive mythril spikes shot from the ceiling and ground and mmed into my back and underside.


    It was the dungeon''sst-ditch attempt to deal with me, but of course, it led nowhere.


    *Clink* As the spikes were bent against my fur, I turned my gaze toward it at the center of the room. "After seeing you move so much earth to try and hide from me, I had higher expectations." *Fwip* Then, with a swift swipe of my tail, the core across the room was ripped out of the ground and hurled toward me, where I would swat it out of the air. "Had you stayed out of this, I would have left you alone."


    *Crackle-VWOOOOM* The core exploded the moment my paw touched it, but while my senses were dulled by the explosion of mana, I found a white, cloudy figure looming over my head.


    It was a tall, strong-looking woman with a distinctly shaped soul, butcking much detail, simr to Magni.


    But to me now, someone with that level of strength was next to nothing. *WHAAAM-CRACKLLEEE* Spreading the impact of her fist across the ground, everything around me shattered, sending rubble into the walls and ceiling without making my head budge.


    From the looks of things, it was her full power. -How weak...-


    But as I got ready to erase her by shredding the fabric of space around her, I felt seven other divine presences suddenly appear, with four of them instantly appearing in front of my chest. -Huh?!-


    It wasn''t as if they had simplye from afar away using their divinity to ''teleport'', rather, it was like they just appeared.


    But besides catching me a little off guard, there wasn''t much going for them. *Fwoom* Freezing my divinity again, I bolted to the side before throwing the back of my wrist into all four of them at once, *CR-R-R-RACK* sending them into the opposite wall through the wall of smoke before the three other ancients, possessed by the other souls, froze their divinity and lunged at me.


    "Tch..." All I could do was click my tongue at such a disgraceful sight. "For dragons to give their bodies to humans... How sad."


    Deciding to test a new spell idea I got from Hera, I quickly poured mana out of my reserve to create an immense mass of space mana before connecting it to various points around each ancient.


    It was a spell I had never even tried in an experiment, but I was curious what the result would be. -Now, let''s see what their fate will be.- *crackle* Instantly detaching and isting a sphere of the fabric of space around them, I gripped the fabric with my own mana before suddenly flipping it and forcefully reattaching it.


    The fabric actually wouldn''t line up properly, but the moment I would release it, it would snap back into ce. -I wonder what the result will be...-


    But the moment I released it, unlike the instantaneous ''atomic disassembly'' I expected, the ancients were hurled upward at a speed I could barely follow with my eyes, even with my divinity frozen.


    -WHAT THE?!- In a moment of instinctual panic, I instantly shredded every spec of the fabric of space around them in hopes of containing the st of heat, radiation, and mana.


    But while it did end up limiting the damage to everything around me from the resulting beyond-fusion-scale temperatures.. the moment my eyes caught up to where I shredded everything, I found two of the huge spheres of cracks in space.


    However, as the fissures started repairing themselves, the ckness of the void suddenly started turning red, and bing brighter, and brighter..


    Until finally.. it turnedpletely white like the purest of beacons and exploded.


    *crackle-FLASH*


    The next thing I knew, every single one of my senses was overloaded to the point that they went numb, and I suddenly found myself in an empty, ck space with nothing but my mind.


    -W..what...-


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 Chapter 334: Mana’s Origin

    Chapter 334: Mana��s Origin


    Unknown - Unknown : Unknown


    -----


    *crackle* A sound akin to static filled my ears as I found myself helplessly floating in a dark abyss. It was so dark that I felt blind, so silent I felt deaf, and all the while, I couldn''t feel anything, my own mana nor my own body. -W..what...-


    Trying to look around and move, I did everything I could to try and find something I could do, no matter how tiny or meaningless it was.


    However, no matter what I tried, nothing changed. It waspletely unlike anything I had ever felt.


    -I have nothing.. no senses, no body, and no soul...- elerating my thoughts to their limit, I started burning through theories like igniting hydrogen.


    But no matter how many ideas I blew through, none of them stuck, as if they fundamentally couldn''t. -It''s like I''m in a dream, but I''m fully conscious with no control over anything...-


    It was as if I had simply ceased existing. -Could my mind have detached itself from my body?-


    But as I thought that, a noise finally met my ears.*tap.. tap-scratch-fwip* Through the static that filled the silence in my mind, I could faintly hear the noise of a quill sliding over paper. *fwip* *scribble-fwip*


    And then, there was a voice. "How..." The word was spoken in draconic, but was far quieter than even a whisper, as if the word wasn''t meant to be heard by anyone. *fw-fwip* *scribble-fwip-scratch*


    As the noise of the quill continued, it ever-so-slowly started bing clearer, only to be disrupted by the deafening static whenever I would hear another noise, from the flip of a page in a book, to the sound of the breeze or a ripple in mana.


    The only way I could describe it, was it was as if I was listening to a corrupted audio file... -What the hell is this...-


    *steady scribbles* *fwip* "Haah..." Interrupting my thoughts, I heard the sigh of a dragon farrger than even Hera before the scribbling suddenly paused, and a foreign voice intruded my mind as if it were my own. -{Why are the numbers wrong...}-


    The voice wasn''t familiar, and even the dialect was off-putting, but before I could think about it, an array of billions of atoms appeared in my head, as if I were reading them through my aura.


    At first, it seemed like a jumbled mess, a field of random atoms ced with no rhyme or reason, but the longer I stared and the harder I looked, the more patterns I found. -Wait.. is this all binary?-


    Finally noticing the spin of electrons, it all suddenly clicked.


    It was all mathematics beyond anything I could imagine, storing entire equations and endless constants into singr atoms before quicklypounding inplexity and escaping the realm of my understanding.


    From what I could infer, it was a system that, while unbelievablyplicated, was also unbelievably efficient,pletely eclipsing methods I used personally, even if that was because I rarely needed to crunch massive equations in one go. -But what is he trying to do?-


    Struggling to follow along with the math itself, I tried to trial and error my way through it in an attempt to figure out what the numbers meant, but every now and then, I would run into some kind of leap in logic I couldn''t follow.


    -{I''ve checked these numbers thousands of times.. none of it is wrong... So..}- "Why doesn''t it work?!" *CRACK* The sounds of splintering wood instantly echoed out before light finally met my eyes as if I suddenly opened them.


    I was in an office lined with massive marble bookshelves, walls of ss, and statues of mythril, with tons of paper, diagrams, and unbelievablyplex, traditional, two-dimensional runes.


    -{Something and nothing, zero and one, positive and negative... Everything in the world can be dulled down and exined with a simple sequence of yes and no''s.. so why is it the moment I add mana to the mix, it all suddenly goes to shit...}- My eyes, out of my control, quickly scanned over several diagrams and runes before pulling out a thin metal sheet with a rune carved into it.


    -{For mana to exist independently from matter, there must be independent sequences and transitions between everything within the isted system.. a way for energy to flow in two directions rather than one...}- Injecting some mana into the rune, the metal started to glow red through the creation of fire mana. -{So why is it that while theory and mathematics align, reality doesn''t...}-


    From what I could tell, the rune attempted to convert unattributed mana to fire mana, then convert it again to another type of mana, but to no avail. -Is he trying to figure out mana conversion?-


    It was a realm of mana I had lightly touched on to try and exin how and why the conversion between mana types works the way they do, but after much effort, I had given up on it. After an unbelievable amount of experimentation, I could find patterns, but I couldn''t figure out why they worked or what they were doing, so I epted the results and tried to move on. -But he hasn''t reached that point...-


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    To me, it was an unclimbable wall that stunted my fundamental understanding of mana.


    But just because I got stuck doesn''t mean everyone did.


    *tap* Picking up a small ck marble, my vision settled on the unfathomably intricate, three-dimensional space runeyering its interior, movingyer byyer, tracing the countless converging paths. -{To get to space mana via a rune, you have toyer it with thousands or even millions of other parts taken out ofmon attribute runes, and sequence them like a path...}-


    -Huh?- Suddenly noticing the simrities as well, I mentally traced through the intricate rune along with him.


    -{With just a few adjustments, I can even take out eachyer and turn them back into attribute runes, even if they''re less efficient... But why...}-


    As his thoughts paused, my mind started to wander, attempting to answer the question he posed before the voice returned, but after a moment, he spoke with a deep and gravelly voice. "Is it because mana attributes are energy states?"


    It was a thought I had had before but never managed to make any breakthroughs with.


    However, that was just because Icked a key piece of the puzzle back then.


    The knowledge of space mana. "Space mana is the only attribute that doesn''t decay with time, so that would likely imply it''s the lowest and most stable energy state, while unattributed mana would be the highest..."


    They were the zero and one he was looking for. -{That would mean there is a way for mana to not only decay to space mana, but also grow from it...}-


    With my vision hastily darting around the room, the being I looked through the eyes of quickly picked up several runes and a block of metal while his thoughts slowly became more energetic. -{Could the reason the math and theory works while the practice doesn''t be because I''m experimenting in the wrong enviroment? Could the ''growth'' of mana be rted to the ''hunger'' of space mana when it''s isted from the array of space?}- (fabric of space)


    *vwoop* Quickly enclosing himself in a gate using a rune, he created a small sphere of space mana before lowering the metal block into it.


    Almost instantly, it started changing colors, growing brighter and brighter while the metal block looked like it was being dissolved.


    It was as I expected, but after a certain point, it got so bright that it couldn''t get any brighter.. and that was when it happened... *VWOOOM* An explosion of pure unattributed mana exploded from the tiny sphere, filling the empty volume of the gate in an instant.


    The being whose eyes I looked through simply froze. It was the birth of mana as we knew it, a piece of insight that pointed us in the direction of the origin of mana.


    However, that was where everything ended, and I once again returned to the dark abyss I started in.


    *silence* It was like the end of a tape, an abrupt cut to silence. -W..what was that...- As if I suddenly snapped out of a trance, I immediately started questioning everything I just saw. -Was that some kind of vision.. or was it maybe a dream?-


    But before I could deduce anything, my sensations returned in a single nauseating wave, and I found myself lying in a pool of liquid mana on a bed of deep ck mythril. *GASP-SPLASH* Jolting up onto my feet, my mind was flooded with the burning sensation of mana permeating my skin, with it crystallizing on my fur like salt from the ocean.


    Without knowing any better, I had created what was akin to a nuke of mana, flooding the void with energy and getting enough mana to fill a continent in return. -But what about Father?!-


    Throwing everything I just experienced out the window, I broke into panic and looked around, quickly finding that I was alone in a fairly narrow but deep pit of mythril only about as wide as the pool of mana I stood in before bolting up out of it without hesitation.


    As I ascended, the density of the mana quickly started thinning but slowly stabilized at a level far above what dragons could tolerate.


    To Father, who had an even lower tolerance than most, it was nothing short of a death sentence. -Please. Please. Please. PLEASE!-


    Finally exiting the pit, I faintly felt a lingering part of Father''s aura through the mana and looked over to see himying on the ground not far away, still and unmoving.


    It was a sight that made my heart sink. -Nonononono...- Darting to his side, I immediately set my paw on him and started checking his vitals.


    But they were silent. His lungs and heartid unmoving, just as his eyes and body did.


    He was dead...


    Or at least.. he was conventionally.


    -It''s faint, but.. is the mana being absorbed?- All throughout his body, mana was being absorbed by each cell individually as if they each had their own tiny reserve, and when I looked at his reserve itself, while it was fractured, it was also attempting to absorb even more mana, although the mana outside was so dense it wasn''t giving it an option.


    -He''s.. alive...- It was a thought that washed over me like a wave of relief, a disaster turned into a blessing, but at the same time, it made me worry even more. -His body is trying to change so it can sustain itself off mana, but.. he doesn''t have enough aura for that...-


    His reserve, while sizable for his age, was far below what was required for his body to live off aura alone.


    So, in short, if he couldn''t more than quadruple the size of his reserve before he woke up.. he would struggle to sustain himself and would likely, inevitably, starve himself to death. -This.. might be a problem...-


    But there was a solution I already had in mind. -What if I.. forced his dragon sleep��-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 335: The Fate of the Strong

    Chapter 335: The Fate of the Strong


    Early Morning - Late Summer : Remains of The Dungeon of Colossus | Western Sirathan Mountains


    -----


    -What if I.. forced his dragon sleep��- It was a thought that intruded my mind like the voice of a devil on my shoulder. -I''ve force-started my own more than once, even if it was identally, so.. wouldn''t I be able to guide him through it?-


    Scanning through his body again, I more closely examined everything I could, from brain activity to the vtility of the mana in his reserve, while trying to think of a better n.


    But, realistically, there wasn''t a good option. -Though, this might not actually be too bad...- As crazy as it may have seemed, with my current knowledge and ability, forcing him into a dragon sleep actually wasn''t such an insane thought.


    As I looked through his body to see if it was feasible, one of the many things I checked was something Mother liked to call ''signals'', which were essentially signs showing how prepared a dragon''s body was for their dragon sleep, and while it varied quite a lot between the types of dragons, within Father, I found a thinned breath nd, thickened rear section of the skull,parably softened bones and even a rtively stic spinal cord.


    In short, it meant that Father was probably about two or two and a half years from his dragon sleep. -Which, for the elder stage sleep, should be close enough for his body to handle most of it...-


    But of course, this was not something I could risk taking any chances with. -Even if his body doesn''t want to help, I shouldn''t have issues guiding him through it. The only issue I can think of is how I will reform his reserve if it doesn''t do it on its own...-


    It was aplete grey area for me and was something I never had any sess with in terms of experiments, the closest I got being a small mana battery that was identical to a mana core, yet somehow functionally different. -It was like I was missing a piece of the puzzle...-However, I did have some idease to mind after I woke up from my own dragon sleep.


    *tap-tap* Gently pulling my paw off Father, I took a step back and looked over my shoulder toward what looked to be a statue of mythril with the vague silhouette of a human before settling my gaze on theparably tiny white cloud in its chest.


    It was the woman who was with the ancients I dematerialized, still standing as if frozen in time, with the front of her body and her clothespletely atomized, now forming various stretched and tapered structures of mythril and crystallized mana on the back side of her remains. -To think her body was durable enough to almost survive the st...-


    She was of course, very dead, with her brain and most of her body being reduced beyond nothing, but to my benefit, her reserve and soul survived, even if it was thanks to a pinch of divinity that wasn''t hers. -That must mean she was fairly high in the church though; even if she wasn''t an apostle...-


    Casually scanning through her body to see if I could find any identifiers, I eventually found a ne-like piece of jewelry buried under ayer of crystallized mana with a symbol I knew very well, and the engraving, ''Deacon Arca - of the Church of Peace''. (Freya''s Church)


    It brought a sour taste to my mouth instantly. -To think I would find her here...- It was the wretched bitch that was behind the atrocities that happened at the academy. "You''re lucky you''re already dead, or else I would''ve skinned you alive..." She was someone I wanted to personally ughter, but unfortunately I didn''t have that chance anymore.


    -Since I only have you to experiment on, I have to be gentle...- Quickly trying to move past my distaste, I let out a cold breath and walked over to her, more closely inspecting her reserve and soul, before sticking my paw up to it and slowing my divinity. *fwoom* *tink-FWO-BAAANG* With a light tap, the top half of what remained of her body instantaneously disappeared, with her reserve being totally eviscerated in the process.


    But what lingered behind was what I wanted; a small white fuzz that listlessly floated in the air. -Perfect.-


    Without much time to waste, I quickly began my experiments, creating a core and moving it around and through the soul in hopes it would attach to it, as well as supplying the soul with as much mana as it could ever desire.


    But while the soul did seem to umte at the center, densest point of the mana, it still refused to control it in any fashion, and rather than causing the mana to flow, it caused the soul to flow, chasing the densest parts of the mana. -How odd...- In theory, I believed the soul was my missing piece of the puzzle, but now it appeared it wasn''t so simple. -Do I need to make the soul denser for it to umte mana? Maybe the soul''s density needs to exceed the mana''s density?-


    Deciding to just give it a shot, I moved the pool of liquid mana away and created hundreds of rings of space mana, simr to when I wouldpress mana to create divinity in my reserve, centered around the soul, before suddenlypressing it all to a single point. *vwoop*


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    But nothing happened. -Shit...-


    At least.. that was the case when only looking through your eyes.


    Just as I got ready to move on to another experiment, I noticed something I almost missed in my aura. -For a split second, did it try to suck in the ambient mana?- Although my spell would move the ambient mana in a simr fashion, the tiny suction was like a reverberation of it,ing after the rings had already passed.


    To check if I was seeing it right, I quickly redid the spell and immediately found it was the case. -Then.. does it need more mana to kickstart it?-


    Quickly doing a few more experiments, things started to click. The soul was like a reactor, and the mana was the fuel. With too much mana and the reactor wouldn''t be able to hold it, and with too little, it wouldn''t be able to start.


    But when it was just the right bnce, it would start up like an engine. *crackle-vwWOOM* In an instant, a small core, almost identical to what she had, was created, and as if it was a living creature, its soul stayed in a denser state and started absorbing mana into the core even though it was already full. -There it is...-


    It was a reserve by every definition, the start of a new life and, in a way, a reincarnation.


    At the time, I didn''t quite realize just what I had done, but of course that woulde with time. -Let''s do a few more experiments before I try it on Father...- *tink-VWOOOM* Shattering the core, I immediately tried again.


    And again.. and again... Until I eventually understood it enough to feelfortable. "Hooh..." -Just the thought of messing with his soul makes me nervous...- My hopes were that I wouldn''t have to do much, but deep down, I knew things never ended so simply. -All I can do at this point is pray there aren''t any adverse effects of fucking with the soul...-


    In a way, it was a shot in the dark, but at the same time, it was the only shot I had if things came to it. -Its a risk but its the best option I have...- *fwip* *tink-tink-tink* Tossing the core I made to the side, I turned back toward Father and let out onest stiff breath.


    "Hooh... Okay..." It was finally time for me to start, but the nervousness was hard to suppress.


    This time, I wouldn''t just be dealing with the soul of some bitch I wanted to skin, but my own Father. One slip-up, and he would really be dead, perhaps without the ability to reincarnate. -But I''m as prepared as I can be...- Plus, no matter how much I wanted to avoid messing with the realm of souls, just looking at the direction I was headed made me rethink whether this would truly be a one-time thing.


    But the hardest part was the first step. -I have to destroy his reserve.. and his body...- My chest ached with just the thought of it, but I didn''t have a choice. "Alright... Then.. here goes nothing..." Gently setting my paw on his shoulder, directly over his reserve, I forcefully calmed my nerves before sending a shockwave into his body that shredded muscle and shattered bones. *CR-RAAACK-VWOOOM*


    His already damaged reserve exploded instantaneously, spreading the damage through his body and essentially destroying everything I spared except for his brain, which I actively protected.


    In the following moments, his body quickly started to adapt to the sudden st of mana, simrly to earlier, and kickstarted a more extreme evolutionary process, beginning to rid his body of unnecessary organs, pushing the waste from it out between shattered scales, and reprograming his cells to fit the blueprint of the next stage.


    It was generally what I expected, but, as I worried, after shattering, his reserve didn''t immediately start reforming itself, even though his soul was desperately trying to. -Fuck...- But it was the situation I prepared for. -I just need to be gentle...-


    However, the moment I started preparing my spell and gathering the mana, a presence I faintly felt above me darted down. *FWOOOM*


    It was Grace, wearing a look of absolute panic, standing between me and Father. "~STOP!~"


    Then, in an instant, my mind assumed the worst, and allposure I had vanished.


    "~His soul isn''t strong enough to contain the amount of mana his body will need!~"


    My chest felt like it was being ripped apart as my gaze turned up to match Grace''s.


    "~If you do this now, it will only hold until he wakes up.. then his reserve will explode, and he will die...~"


    It was the exact fate Mother taught us about when we were young, the inevitable end to those attempting to reach beyond their limits.


    Reserve copse.


    -His soul.. isn''t strong enough for a dragon sleep?- While I wanted to deny it, it was the way fateid its cards.


    Father was simply never fated to reach the stage where he would need such a volume of mana.


    Like most normal dragons, he was fated to die during a dragon sleep.


    The next thing I knew, an agonizing pain ripped through my head. In an instant, all sense of emotion was purged in the ce of calctive brain power.


    I had to think.. fast...


    All until the idea came to mind.


    "Grace." My voice was cold and devoid of emotion. "How well can you clean a soul..."


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>There will be a new schedule from now on.</strong>


    <strong>The normal one chapter every 3 days will continue as per normal, releasing at 1:30 PM EST, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays, chapters will release at 4 PM EST</strong>


    <strong>This is due to some conflicts with my ss schedule, so my apologies.</strong>


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 Chapter 336: The Realm of Gods

    Chapter 336: The Realm of Gods


    Mid Morning - Late Summer : Remains of The Dungeon of Colossus | Western Sirathan Mountains


    -----


    "Grace." My cold tone echoed through space, regardless of the flow of time, as I matched the gaze of the cloudy figure in front of me. "How well can you clean a soul..."


    Not giving her time to respond, I instantly wrapped us both in a gate before releasing us in the void. *vwoop* Even with divinity slowing time to a near halt, with the space mana in my aura it happened almost instantaneously. "~H-huh?~"


    Pulling my gaze off Grace, I finally looked around, expecting to seeplete destruction and chaos in the wake of what I had done, but the scene that met my eyes was rather a field of color as if I was in the middle of a neb, with countless speckles of souls mixed into it. -Seems like the void has eaten most of it.. hopefully it will still be enough...-


    Slowly easing from her state of shock, Grace finally started looking around to see the mess before noticing the countless soul fragments. "~Are these...~"


    "The fragmented souls of three ancients and three gods." Letting my aura flow unrestricted, I tried to keep tabs on everything around us, but it only made me feel unbelievably tiny, exposed, and anxious.


    But Grace only continued. "~Three of the Valkyries?~" She mumbled before slowly floating out into the field of fragments, gazing at each, one at a time.


    -So they really were the Valkyries...- I had learned quite a bit about them a couple of weeks prior from Hera when inquiring about Asgard and its gods. To keep things short, they were a group of thirteen goddesses that served beneath the main seats of Asgard, each with strength just below the likes of Magni, but predating all but Frigg and Odin. -Based on how they appeared so suddenly, I have to believe they were trapped in the dungeon somehow.. but that means the rest probably got away...-However, that was a problem I would address another time. "~Do you want me to...~"


    As Grace nervously turned back to look at me, I gave her a blunt stare. "If it''s possible."


    Slowly turning around to face the field of fragments again, she paused. "~It.. might be...~"


    Compared to their souls originally, the void had consumed most of what there was, leaving countless tiny umtions floating about. -But when it''s allbined, it will put Father''s soul just above one of the Valkyries...-


    However, that was wishful thinking.


    As Grace moved around, gently umting the countless fragments with a tiny, nearly invisible stretching from her body, she split fragments into several groups before suddenly mixed them all and splitting them out again.


    From what I could tell, it was part of the ''cleaning'' process, expelling any sense of personality or identity the fragments may still carry, but.. "~For how long these fragments have been in the void.. they''re filthy...~" Grace wore a slightly disgusted look as she continued tobine and split the fragments until one of the two pure white clouds was about three times the size of the other, and she flicked her fingers tounch it out into the void.


    The contaminated fragments made up the majority. -That''s all that''s left, huh...- It was still plenty, enough for Father''s soul to contend with most older ancients, but that meant the umtion of fragments wasrger than his soul itself.


    "~This should be clean enough to avoid any changes to his ego or personality,~" she held out the small, fluffy cloud as she spoke, "~but I can''t promise to know what will happen considering how muchrger it is than his soul itself...~"


    -But we also don''t have a choice...- "That just means we need to take it one step at a time and feed it to him bit by bit." After waiting a moment to see if she would object, I engulfed us in a gate and returned us to reality. -It''s a gamble.. but it''s the best shot we have...- *vwoop*


    *vwoom* Instantly being met with a wave of mana and the beaming morning light, I turned and confidently walked toward Father, with Grace quickly following suit.


    She seemed a little uneasy, but after taking a moment to gather herself, her expression stiffened. "~Hooh.. the issue is we can only take things so slow; once you force the reserve to start forming, the clock will start...~"


    I gave her a curious look as she floated up to me.


    "~As far as I can tell from what you did earlier, your spellpresses the soul so that it can act like a much stronger soul than it really is and allow a muchrger reserve than what it could normally handle to form, but over time it will return to normal,~" she spoke somewhat softly as she came up to Father''s soul. "~In theory, it should work in our favor since it will make the reserve fragile, hopefully enough that once the soul gets big enough, it will automatically reconstruct the reserve more naturally.. but we can only wait and see...~"


    In short, she was saying that the soul and reserve naturally desired a bnce between each other, and once that bnce was offset by so much, the reserve would be fragile and, when the right conditions appeared, reform itself to reestablish bnce. -It makes me wonder if that''s what happened with my dragon sleep in Kan...-


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    But that wasn''t the time for idle thought.


    Before my mind could wander, my gaze settled back on Father''s partially mangled body, and my chest clenched with anxiety and determination. "Hooh..." It was time once again.


    Quickly confirming that Grace was ready, I slowly stepped up and prepared my spell, just as I had previously.


    And after a moment of final preparation, I started the clock. *vw-wo-wo-woom*


    The moment his soul waspressed, the flow of everything around us bent inward, and the dense, almost palpable mana in the air started to umte and solidify.


    The reserve,pared to what he needed, was tiny. -But as things progress, it should continue to grow...-


    And grow it did. As we kept a close eye on his condition and slowly fed him bundles of soul fragments, his reserve continued to form, grow fragile, then crumble in an endless cycle of growth and destruction, just as Grace predicted.


    But unlike what she knew would happen, the farther we progressed, the more things deviated from our expectations.


    "Didn''t you say his soul should be getting more stable the stronger it gets?" Looking at the streaking edges of Father''s soul endlessly losing their definition, a knot of anxiety churned my stomach.


    "~F..from my understanding.. it should be...~" It was at the point where even Grace had started to get flustered. "~I''ve tried taking a break to see if giving it a moment to breathe would help it stabilize itself, but it doesn''t seem to be working...~" She gently bit her thumb with worry as she closely watched his soul swirl. "~The issue is I don''t think it''s a bnce problem...~"


    -Not a bnce problem?- ncing at her for a moment, my mind elerated, sting through every memory I had that could be tied to the stability of souls before finally.. I found a puzzle piece that was a perfect fit. "What about a sleep lily then?"


    Grace''s gaze instantly snapped to me. "~Do you have one?~"


    Her reaction was a good sign, giving me a moment of hope. "I do, but it''s not mature..." I had gotten a young sapling of one during the auction at the academy. -But it definitely hasn''t matured in just a few years...-


    And if it wasn''t mature, its effectiveness would be severely limited. -Shit...-


    Quickly trying to find alternate routes, I dug, and dug, but to no avail. "Do you know where a mature lily is?" I quickly looked up to Grace to try grasping at a hanging string, but she immediately shook her head. -Fuck... Should I just feed it to him while it''s young?-


    But while I questioned myself, wondering if I even had a different string I could lunge for, Grace spoke up. "~What if you somehow used your divinity to elerate the maturation of the lily?~"


    Her voice met my ears like the voice of the void, paralyzing my thoughts in an instant. -Right.. if I can slow time with divinity, why couldn''t I also speed it up?-


    But I was immediately met with a roadblock.


    See, liquid divinity in itself essentially has two auras: its presence and its influence. Within its aura of presence, it is able to interact with other beings who also have liquid divinity, just enough for each of them to sense one another from immense ranges. This aura, in my case at this time, was somewhere in the range of five to six thousand kilometers.


    The aura of influence, on the other hand, was the area at which time was affected when one''s divinity was manipted. Within this aura, near the center, the time dtion would be strongest, and toward the edge, it would be weakest, effectively allowing you to manipte the time of a space around you.


    But this aura was unbearably small, only reaching the outer edge of my scales thanks to my mana veins.


    However, that also meant if I put the flower in my body, I could freely manipte it''s time as I wished. -Right?-


    But my theories told me otherwise. -Wait.. if I want to elerate time.. isn''t that what I''m doing now?- *vwoop* Quickly jumping into a gate to give myself a moment to think through the theories, I ran through everything I knew about divinity and did my best to try and understand it.


    Currently, I believed I was slowing my divinity in order to slow time, tying the two together based off sensation, but isted within the gate, I focused every ounce of brainpower on my divinity, and tried to ''slow'' it. *vwoom*


    -H..huh?- But rather than slow to a halt like I expected, its speed remained nearlypletely constant, and rather than slowing down, it sped up by a nearly unnoticeable amount. -But I definitely...-


    And that was when I finally looked at it from the outside.


    When I slowed time around me, it meant that I was elerating time for myself, and in turn, the divinity which flowed at a ''constant rate'' in its own space would speed up by the time dtion between the observer, in this case, my brain, and my reserve.


    The whole time I had it backward, believing divinity was a dial I was turning, when in fact, it was something I had never questioned existing.


    It was a particle, not of space or matter, but of time.


    -And that''s why crystallized divinity is so stupidly strong...- Because while the particle wasn''t matter and was so small it didn''t have mass, it was frozen in time, making the only thing that could cut it be other divinity that had the same or arger time dtion.


    In an instant, the countless theories I had been cobbling together finally clicked into ce.


    The perfect joining of countless ideas and theorems.


    All to form a piece of artwork...


    A piece of artwork I woulde to call the Realm of Gods.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 337: The Tangibility of Godhood

    Chapter 337: The Tangibility of Godhood


    N/A - N/A : Within the Void


    -----


    My eyes widened as theories flooded my mind. In an instant, my mind had elerated to its limit and burned through the ideas and theories that had loomed in the back of my mind for decades, like the riddles of ancient mythology.


    But while my understanding and theories advanced with haste, I eventually hit a wall.


    Divinity was my first peek into a realmpletely different from anything I had ever been able to fathom, the realm of time and the realm of the gods, but understanding divinity was simply the first step.


    The first step of a very.. very long journey...


    But that was something that would take time, something that was still a precious resource, no matter how much my understanding of it deepened. -Shit, I got sidetracked...-


    Quickly shifting my attention back to Father''s situation, I slowly got my derailed mind back on track and eventually was met with the same roadblock. -I need to speed up time, not for me, but for the flower...- But now I had more than a few ideas.


    -Divinity''s aura of influence is pretty small, but as it progresses through energy states, it seems to grow or shrink.- To put it simply, the more crystalline it was, the smaller the aura, and the more energetic, liquidy, or gaseous it was, therger the aura. Of course, the amount of divinity also affected it, -but if I can make its aura big enough, I could engulf the flower with it. In theory, that would make it flow at a pace that would seem close to normal to me.-However, no matter how much I slowed my divinity beyond that, the flower would never flow through time faster than me. -If I did the opposite and actually slowed down my divinity, time would pass for everyone, and not just the flower...-


    One other option I had thought of was if I could control the divinity in the sleep lily and speed it up from the outside, but in practice, that wasn''t possible. -And if I try to move the divinity out of my reserve, it will just crystalize, so I can''t just move my divinity out of my body.-


    It was an annoying predicament. Every direction I turned, I was met with a different roadblock.


    But there was one theory that remained to be tested. -Divinity seems to have no effect in a gate and doesn''t do anything in the void either.. so that begs the question of what is required for it to work...- My draconic pupils thinned as I quickly created a dozen small cubes of uranium and, from them, recreated a small piece of the fabric of space using my own space mana. -Is it time that dictates divinity, or is it divinity that dictates time?-


    *crackle* Stopping the fabric just before it reached my body, I spread it through about half the gate and ced the cubes in random locations throughout it. When isted from my aura, the cubes of uranium remained still and unmoving even at the atomic level, keeping them from decaying. -But if time even just slightly starts moving, they''ll pop...-


    "Hooh..." It was the perfect environment to burn through experiments, but for once, I didn''t have many to burn through. -If I, myself, am in the fabric, when I adjust my divinity, time will be dted for me as well.. but what if I''m not in the fabric, yet my divinity''s aura of influence epasses it?-


    Thanks to the web of crystallized space mana that had spread throughout my body ever since I first awakened my attribute nodes, my body had its ownws with regard to time and constants I hade to know in physics when isted from the fabric of space, in a gate or in the void. In a way, it was a very sloppy fabric of space that gave me the privilege of moving freely within the void regardless of the absence of time even before I had divinity.


    -However, now isn''t the time for me to figure out why that is...- Letting out another heavy breath, I quickly formed and used a burst of space mana to create a surge of divinity on par with what I used against Freya. *vwoop-CRACKLE* Instantly grabbing the divinity, I kept it from flowing outward and crystalizing before speeding it up in order to slow time around me.


    However, because I wasn''t inside the fabric, it sped up time a thousand-fold. *P-Pop* As my aura of influence expanded beyond the reach of my body by about half a meter, it engulfed two of the dozen cubes and instantly caused them to decay with a pop.


    But while it was good that it worked, it made my eyes go wide. -Wait it actually.. worked?- I honestly expected the experiment to fail, as I believed time was what dictated the flow of divinity. -But if that''s not the case.. then what causes time to flow in reality?-


    A chill instantly passed down my spine with a shiver. -Just how much divinity would something need to dictate the time of something on the scale of a sr system...-


    It was a genuinely horrifying train of thought, but was also one I had no reason to dwell on. -If a creature like that really exists.. I''d be as insignificant as a mosquitorva.. so, maybe it''s best to just not think about it...-


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Trying my best to look past it, I did a couple other quick experiments to try and figure out the time dtion in rtion to my divinity before finally floating over toward a marker I left in the void and reappearing over As. *vwoop-vwoom*


    In an instant the dark yet colorful view of the void was reced by a dark blue sky, lit by the sun, which had yet to crest over the horizon, and filled with dragons already beginning their day.


    -Alright... Now, how am I going to find this thing...- Exiting the void over the estate, it was the first thing I checked, but it was nowhere to be seen inside, leaving the entire city for me to search.


    But as I started questioning where it could be and questioning where our family vaults were, I faintly sensed something about eighty kilometers north of me. -Huh?-


    I sensed it not with my aura but with my divinity. Feeling a sensation reminiscent of a god''s presence but on apletely different scale. -It''s so faint...-


    Quickly flying toward it, the presence I felt slowly split into multiple before I finally arrived at a veryrge estate with several buildings, some greenhouses, and some proper living quarters, but at its center, there was thergest building spanning about a kilometer across with six huge ss domesposing its roof.


    It was the building I felt the aurasing from, with extravagantly carved and decorated walls of white stones and colorful metals built around what looked like a section of forestyered with grass, flowers, and ponds with a small ecosystem of wildlife like a huge terrarium.


    But rather than a terrarium, it was a garden.


    Beneath the canopy of the towering trees that filled the ss domes, there were countless herbs and flowers I failed to recognize alongside many others I knew were precious. The most precious of which being in the areas I felt the presencesing from, where I found tiny, some yet to sprout, saplings of sleep lilies lying about.


    -Woah... There are so many...- They were almost all saplings, even younger than the sleep lily I bought from the auction, with some that couldn''t even be called seedlings. -But is mine here?-


    Continuing to look around through the dozens and dozens of tiny nts, I looked for my own, but to no avail, forcing me to try and find the presences of other sleep lilies in the city.


    But as I expanded the area I was looking for presences in, I found a stronger presence in arge room off to the side lined with mana umtion runes containing an area of soil that was essentially an oversized flower pot.


    And in that oversized flower pot, I found my lily, bathing in a sea of mana. -There it is...-


    Quickly descending next to the wall, I used the space mana in my aura to engulf it in a gate before shrinking it down to be smaller than the nucleus of an atom and pulling it out through the wall, weaving it between the atoms in the wall before finally releasing it in front of me and immediately jumping into a gate with it. *vwoop-vwoop*


    From the way it was situated in the room, the lily seemed to be living purely off mana, simr to other ascended creatures, but as I floated back to Siratha to grab some liquid mana from the pool I created, I noticed the flower''s head had a very dense white soul in it, with a small core of liquid divinity at its center. -Ah, so that is how it works...-


    Essentially, the flower''s head contained what looked like an umtion of soul fragments, somehow gathered to be denser than a normal soul would allow. -I wonder if that''s because of the divinity, or if the divinity can only be there because of the soul...-


    But the free time for such thoughts quickly came to an end as I returned to Father, speaking about it with Grace for a moment before gathering some liquid mana and jumping into a gate to start maturing the lily.


    But it was far from an easy process.


    Over the span of about two weeks from my perception of time, I had to doctor the flower to an unbelievable extent. It drank mana like an elephant drinks water, and while I quickly found out that constantly going in and out of the gate to grab some liquid mana wasn''t going to work, it wasn''t much less tedious to create a container in the void that I could use to monitor the flower while also creating ambient mana with the space mana around us by feeding it chunks of the heavy metals and rock from reality.


    While I did originally try simply making the elements with my mana, I quickly found out that I alone could not simply feed the void such a volume of energy, as a gram of exploding antimatter had a only slightlyrger reaction than two grams of normal hydrogen had. -But damn, that chunk of rock gave a lot...-


    *hummm* Theke of liquid mana I sat in hummed as the lily freely absorbed it all. It was so much mana that even I felt a bit suffocated, but it was beneficial for me as well.


    Over the span of the two weeks, I had progressed my understanding of mana, space mana, the void, and time immensely.


    It had gotten to the point that when in the void, I had the freedom to do essentially anything I wanted. -If I had enough mana and time, I could even create a small with an ecosystem and everything...-


    But that eventually brought up a question I had to really think about.


    What was the difference between me and a true god... Was I already one? Or was the bar of what constitutes a god just much.. much higher than I could imagine...


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 Chapter 338: The First Flame

    Chapter 338: The First me


    N/A - N/A : Within the Void


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    *hummm* Two weeks trapped in a ck space with nothing but a colorful flower blooming out of a pool of mana in front of you. To some creatures, that amount of time would have driven them to insanity, but for me, it seemed to pass in an instant.


    In my free time, while I wasn''t dealing with the sleep lily and its constant demands, I advanced many of my moreplex and theoretical sciences an incredible amount, from the binds of time and mana to more simple topics of how to get the Acardi Laboratory powered again.


    Thanks to the scene that yed in my mind when I identally created a miniature mana supernova, my understanding of mana across the board increased exponentially, with my newfound understanding of divinity onlypounding it. I even managed to figure out some techniques that helped minimize the mental static when reading my aura by essentially controlling how much of my aura was being converted to space mana like how I used to thicken and thin the walls of my reserve, but more so dealing with converting the space mana into other attributes.


    However, it was still a work in progress and continued to give me more trouble than I would have liked. -I think it''s a step in the right direction though...-


    Idly looking up, my gazended on a beautifully symmetric six-leaf lily with petals of crystallized mana, a stem of mythril, and a ck swirling ovule at its centerposed of liquid divinity.


    To put it bluntly, it was a mesmerizing flower, even if you ignored the ethereal white cloud that hung around its petals. -But it looks totally different from the one I ate...- Compared to the water lotus-like sleep lily I had eaten as a child, the flower in front of me looked more like a traditional lily.


    However, both of them, while differing in appearance and even species, were undoubtedly sleep lilies, and that was because of the simple fact that a sleep lily wasn''t a species of flower but rather just something that evolved to function simrly to the Tree of Prayer, umting soul fragments, and slowly cleaning them with mana and forming divinity over time. -It makes me wonder if the Tree of Prayer is technically just one massive sleep lily by that standard.. though maybe it gets disqualified because of the rune...-But while it was food for thought, such questions were quickly tossed to the side.


    *vwoom-ssh* Slowly standing up, I looked down at the lily with a quizzical gaze before finally dispelling the fabric and grabbing it with my aura.


    From what I could tell, it had matured. With its more than abundant supply of mana, it had formed quite a bit of divinity and stabilized its soul to the point that it was more defined than the likes of human gods. Unfortunately, with only the dirty soul fragments of the Valkyries and ancients being the only soul fragments in the vicinity, it couldn''t absorb other fragments to grow its soul.


    But in theory, that worked to my benefit. -Since we don''t need to necessarily grow his soul much, this should hopefully supplement the added stability he needs...-


    But as I took the lily and jumped through a gate back into reality, the reality of what I was about to do started to really set in, and a wave of anxiety and nervousness hit.


    "Hooh..." Even a heavy breath couldn''t save me from it. "I got it... Will this be enough?"


    Grace immediately turned back to face me, setting her eyes on my draconic form before lowering her gaze to the glistening lily in front of me. However, her expression quickly turned to one of awe before she spoke with a stutter. "~Y-Yes! I think...~" Quickly motioning me over, she floated to the side and motioned toward the open cavity in Father''s chest.


    Just the sight of it made me feel sick, but now was not the time I could stammer. "So, how will this work? I assume if we try to integrate it as is, the lily will be what absorbs his soul, rather than the other way around..."


    She instantly became nervous. "~That would be the right assumption. To my knowledge, when a dragon consumes a sleep lily, they essentially destroy the lily itself in their stomach, detaching the lily''s soul from its body, and allowing it to be absorbed by the soul which does have a tie to the body... The issue is his soul doesn''t have that tie right now, and if you touch the lily''s soul after getting rid of its body, you will absorb it...~"


    "That''s not an issue." -I can just move it with space mana since it has a core...- Walking up closer to Father, my mind raced to try and deduce the timings of everything that needed to happen before I finally took the leap of faith.


    *vwoom-crackle* Disintegrating the body of the lily, the crystalline mana it used for its petals quickly rushed outward before immediately trying to umte around the divinity again as if to form another reserve.


    But by the time it could do much of anything, nothing of its body remained, and with a light nudge, I pushed it toward Father''s soul. In its current state, it was essentially a can of gasoline that could light a fire from even the smallest spark.


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    "Hooh..." -Now to create that spark...- Honing my focus on Father''s soul as the lily slowly neared it, I let out a quick breath before forming hundreds and hundreds of gentle pression rings'' with space mana around his soul before rapid firing them one after the other.


    *vwowowowowowooom* Each ring rippled space, warping light and bending atoms while consecutively converging on Father''s soul, causing it to swirl and begin gathering the thick mana from the air around us and pulling on the mana surrounding the sleep lily, causing it to slowly suck in the lily as if it were a whirlpool.


    But this all took time. With my massively increased pool of divinity sped up as much as I could manage, I took things very slowly, ensuring I only took one step at a time while being extremely cautious of the field ofndmines thatid beneath me.


    However, things seemed to be progressing smoothly.


    With asional guidance from Grace whenever she noticed something, Father''s soul eventually managed to start forming its reserve and absorb the sleep lily, stabilizing his concerningly unstable soul and allowing it to create a muchrger and more stable reserve, closer to what one would see on a young ancient.


    Of course, the process wasn''t without its scares, but thankfully things managed to work out. Thankfully, his body which was close to its dragon sleep naturally, seemed to take the helm whenever things got out of hand and managed to get his body back on track, destroying and rebuilding everything in an endless cycle until the bumpier roads were behind us.


    After what felt like an eternity, his soul eventually settled into his new reserve, now strengthened by the divinity from the sleep lily, and his body reached a point where all it needed was mana and time in order to reconstruct itself.


    "HAAH..." *vwowowoom-FWOOOOSH* A huge wave of air sted over me as I let out a very heavy breath and released the control on my divinity, sending a searing pain through my body. "Ack..." -Shit.. that was more exhausting than I thought it''d be...-


    After myst talk with Hera, discussing how my mind was essentially converting itself to use divinity, I genuinely wondered if I could ever get mentally fatigued. -But it seems I can...-


    Giving Grace a quick nce, I hung my head down for a moment to try and let it rest. Needless to say, having my own Father''s life at the tip of my fingers, where one wrong step could eradicate his soul, took its toll on my mind. -And we still don''t know if he wille out the same...-


    But thankfully, Grace had some confidence. "~With you preserving his mind, even through the soul merges, I expect that his mind will take priority over the new fragments... So, in theory, nothing should change with his personality.~"


    -Right...- "I just hope the changes to his body won''t alter his mind too much..." -It shouldn''t.. but it still makes me uneasy...-


    Grace stared at me in silence for a moment, noticing my fatigue before speaking softly. "~So, what are your ns now..? Are you going to speed up his sleep in a gate where you can monitor him?~"


    I immediately shook my head. "I can''t right now." Unfortunately, while I wanted to, I simply needed too much divinity for it. "I could fast forward the time of the lily because it''s small, yet I still needed a ton of divinity to stretch the aura of influence out enough to epass it... I can''t imagine how much I need to epass him..."


    The long and short of it was that I simply didn''t have enough mana in my reserve, even if it was full, to create such an immense volume of it. -But over time, my body creates it.. so if I start holding onto what it creates, eventually, I may have enough.-


    "Although it wouldn''t be a bad idea to have Lief set up a prayer." -It would certainly shorten the amount of time I''ll need to umte that much divinity...- "But regardless, I can''t speed up his sleep now..."


    It had only been a few hours since I originally got to the dungeon, but so much happened that I had nearly forgotten what I was even doing there.


    "For the time being, either you or Skuld needs to watch over him while I''m not here. I don''t n to lollygag, but I need to make sure to hand off the fleet up north to Siratha as prisoners of war, establish some protections and restrictions for this area, warn Lief and the nearby cities about the monster wave, and somehow exin to my mother and sister what happened..." It was an abrupt but inevitable change of ns from what I had originallye to do, and was a change that really weighed on my mind. -Mom might really kill me this time...-


    But while a part of me was genuinely worried how she would react, the rest of me remained focused on the tasks at hand.


    The spark of war had already lit a match between Siratha and the Holy Kingdom, and now my family and I were caught in the middle of it. -If Odin and Frigg are really locked in the Holy Kingdom like Grace says they are, I should be able to manage, but nothing is preventing the Valkyries, Eir, Baldur, and H?er from making their moves...- And being just one creature who couldn''t be everywhere at once, I was worried.


    It was the eve of a new era, for not just Siratha and the Holy Kingdom, but for dragons, gods, and the rest of the world.


    But it was a fire that would take its time to spread, slowly burning everything in its path, sneaking up on many so silently that their homes would catch fire before they could react.


    It was all just a matter of time...


    But for the first time, I wasn''tpletely alone...


    As I frantically flew around, attempting to tame the mes of destruction that were sparked in Siratha, Hera was nning for her return, and halfway around the world, another dragon was finally about to open its eyes.. after eight long years...


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 Chapter 339: Years of Adjustment

    Chapter 339: Years of Adjustment


    Mid Morning - Late Winter : Voldukirk | The Holy Kingdom


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    - Astren Ravenna ~


    "Hooh..." My foggy breath passed over the metallic de of my sword as the crisp cool air brushed over my rosy cheeks. -Empty.. mind...-


    *FWIP* Instantly arcing the sword over my shoulder and angling it down my body, I supported the side of the de with my spare hand before the sensation of being punted by a dragon mmed through my body. *CLANK-FWOOSH*


    *GASP* With a desperate gasp, the ground suddenly vanished beneath my feet, forcing me to flip over before driving my sword into the ground and slowing myself to a halt. *C-C-C-CHINK-Cracklee* "Hah... Hah..." -Holy shit...- "Can you not.. swing any lighter?" Slowly opening my eyes and moving my gaze up off the ground, I met the eyes of a young tall, blonde-haired man.


    He was a man with the face of a prince but the mind of a demon. "How are you going to build muscle memory with your aura if I give you time to think?"


    His name was Hephas, the demon who lured me into the Church of Bnce eight years prior. "I don''t know, but couldn''t you at least make it so you didn''tunch me across the arena every time?!" *shink* Pulling the sword out of the ground, I straightened myself up with a hand on my back before ncing over my shoulder at the shattered stone wall just a meter behind me.


    "Well, you stopped yourself this time. Pat yourself on the back!" He smiled at me while gently pping. "Thest hundred times, you couldn''t react before you hit the wall, but now you can catch yourself! You should be proud of how fast you''re improving.""As if... If I told someone I was an apostle, they''dugh in my face..." Snarkily responding as I tried to brush the dust and rock off my clothes, I walked back toward the shattered ground where I originally stood and picked up the damaged, dark grey sheath.


    "If I told everyone the Goddess chose you to be her second Apostle, I''m sure they would shower you with praise and awe!"


    Slowly ncing at him as I straightened up and sheathed my sword, I gave him an unamused look over a moment of silence. "It''s been eight years... How do you still enjoy this so much..."


    "Enjoy what? Training a young apostle who will one day stand next to the Goddess of Bnce? Of course!" He smiled somewhat smugly as if I had caught him in the act.


    -Insane bastard...- Hooking my sword back onto my belt, I shot him another re before turning to leave the small,vishly decorated colosseum we were training in. It was known as the Arena of the Divine, a fairly small colosseum next to the Church of Bnce in the heart of Voldukirk, a ce that I hade to know better than my hometown in recent years.


    "Are you leaving already? I don''t believe we''ve finished."


    "Yeah." I responded bluntly before gently massaging my neck to relieve some stress. "The Second Temr Division just got backst night, so I''m going to grab a meal with my Father." It had been a few years since he was recruited by the second division at that point, but ever since then, he was rarely actually in the capital. -Elizabeth is supposed to join us as well...-


    "I see." Suddenly switching to a less yful demeanor as if dictated by a switch, his demonic smile faded to a more natural and warm one. "In that case, I won''t hold you any longer. Be sure to tell him I said hi."


    With a wave over my shoulder, I quickly left before he changed his mind, speeding through the arcing side entrance of the arena and quickly making my way outside. "Hooh..." -I''m surprised he let me go that easy..."


    The only other times he ever let me go like that were days of an emergency or days following prayer. -Maybe I''m finally at the point where I can have some freedom...-


    Finallying out into the court behind the Church, I made my way around to the side before hopping over a railing and falling into an alleyway that led out to the main road.


    Although it had been close to eight years since I unknowingly walked into the Church of Bnce and was chosen by the Goddess Eir to be her second Apostle, it had yet to be publicly announced since I still wasn''t strong enough to handle many of the expected obligations of an Apostle.


    But frankly, I couldn''t wait for it. Over thest eight years, I was forced to train under Hephas, Eir''s only apostle in the eyes of the public, and while my skin glowed radiantly, my body was fit, and my face was still young, it was nothing short of hell.


    But eventually, things would get better, and I believed that one day I''d have the kind of autonomy that Katherine had.


    Not long after I became an apostle, Katherine was picked as the hero, someone who was essentially an apostle of Asgard as a whole, with Elizabeth being made her public image shortly after that. As it turned out, the church had a problem with Katherine''s personality, or the fact she was demihuman, and used Elizabeth with her royal aura and convincing strength in her ce for public speeches or appearances.


    Over the years, they had both been two peas in a pod, growing closer with each other each and every day since they spent most of their time together, even training each other since it was more effective and enjoyable for them. -Though I haven''t been able to talk to Katherine in a while...-


    As usual, she was quiet and didn''t speak much, but this time, ording to a letter I received just a few hours prior, there was some issue that needed her attention.


    It was a shame, but as the hero, it wasn''t surprising. -When she was first appointed, they ran her around the continent under the guise of a ''test'', clearing dungeons, killing monsters, liberating viges, and even suppressing rebellions all to ''prove herself''.-


    But while it seemed like she was just being used, whenever I asked how she was doing, I heard the same thing: ''She''s running around the city, going to brothels, bars, and taverns.'' It was almost like she was running around and partying, but I knew that wasn''t the case.


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    She was still looking for the same person she originally was, even after eight years of searching each and every day.


    It had gotten to the point where I wondered just who that person was to her, a father, a husband, or just a friend, but I never got a straight response when I asked. -Eventually, I just came to ept it... It''s a shame I won''t be able to see her today though...-


    Continuing out onto the bustling main road of the eastern gate, I turned and made my way down toward the lower districts before eventuallying up to a thin, one-story building that looked as if it was stuffed in an alleyway. -I wonder if the rumors of this ce are true...-


    *Click* Quickly walking inside, I came into a tiny room with a grouchy old man perching his feet on a small reception desk.


    His face was wrinkled and worn, and his expression was scrunched. He didn''t seem to be in a good mood. "The parlor is down the street more, Miss." He pointed his thumb further down the street after a quick nce at me.


    But I continued up to him, eventually getting an odd look before I eventually showed my ID, a small white and gold tablet given to me by the church.


    "Ah, I see." His sour mood quickly lightened. "I apologize, I assumed you were some noble." Finally pulling his feet off the reception desk, he stood up, revealing his still tall and muscr body before walking over and opening an obvious hatch in the ground and revealing a dimly lit stairwell. "Again, sorry about the misunderstanding."


    "Don''t worry about it." Quickly walking in, I put my ID back in my pocket before the hatch closed behind me. *CLANK*


    The ce I was at was a restaurant reserved for temrs, or as they called them here, ''the ones who suffered''.


    *loud chatter* In short, it was a ce for mostly retired temrs to eat, chat, and share stories, with only a few of the younger groups daring to enter even though they had permission. -But supposedly the food is pretty good...-


    Continuing down the stairs, the chatter only grew louder before eventuallying up to a wooden door that was barely hanging on the wall.


    *tap-creaak* Gently pushing it open, I finally came into a fairlyrge room carved into the ground with a stone ceiling and walls, decorated with carvings and paintings of recognizable figures and a wooden floor covered in tables.


    But while I somewhat expected it to smell like old man and alcohol like the reception room did, it smelled incredible. -Oh my...-


    I quickly scanned the room to try and find Father, but before I could find him, an older woman came up to me and hooked her arm around my neck. *pat* "Hey, what''s our squadron''s little girlie doing here?" She spoke with a thick ent and slurred words, quickly grabbing the attention of everyone around us.


    She was the Selby Randi, the lieutenant, the second inmand of the Second Temr division behind Captain Snyder, a freakishly strong woman who cared for me like a mother ever since Father joined the Second Temr Division. "Well, Father said he wanted to try eating here, so I came to meet with him."


    "Hoho, I see." She hooked me in closer with a yful smile before finally letting me go. "In that case we ought to fix him a good weing meal!" With a cheer, she turned back to the crowd of older men and women drinking and chatting to their hearts content.


    To my relief, it seemed like nothing happened on their trip.


    And thankfully, I was right. After speaking to Selby some more, we idly spoke about what they had done on their expedition, which was essentially just heading to a southern port and helping a fleet prepare for an expedition simr to the ones they had sent out a few weeks prior. -It makes me wonder...- "Do you know what those fleets are doing? Wasn''t the third temr division sent in one of them?"


    *gulp-gulp* *thwack* mming down her wooden mug, she looked me in the eyes and shrugged. "They are headed to a ce called Siratha. I''m not sure why exactly though. Considering we sent two moles, I assume its probably a mythril mine they found."


    -Right.. I almost forgot about that...- "Where exactly is all that mythril going?"


    "We aren''t sure, even Andras is left in the dark when ites to that. All we know is a ton of it is being brought here to the capital, and that there are some big projects going on in the upper churches."


    An older man who I didn''t recognized, quickly leaned back in his chair toward us to chime in for a moment. "Some people are sayin'' it''s all going toward a statue, but I don'' believe it."


    -It''s too much mythril for a statue that have to be moved...- To my knowledge, it was a ludicrous amount of mythril, measuring in the hundreds or even thousands of kilograms per day. "If they released it all to market, the market would crash... Are they going to make a new currency with it?"


    "Hmm.. that''s possible, but I think unlikely..." Selby leaned back in her chair and perched her feet on the table as she fell into thought. "If I had to make a guess, I would say it''s them wanting to outfit the military with new equipment, but if ''our connections'' are right, I have my doubts..."


    She was referring to dragons. ording to them in recent years, Bahamut, thend of dragons, was looking at spreading its influence, and possibly even getting rid of the Holy Kingdom, seeing it as an eyesore. -If they''re right, it''d mean we''re preparing for a war with dragons.. so giving people new equipment would only help so much...- I paused in thought for a moment before looking up. "Could it be artifacts?"


    "Maybe." A sudden, young voice met my ears as I felt two hands press on my shoulders.


    "AH!" Jumping up out of my seat, I turned around to see a beautiful young woman in exquisite clothing without a speck of dust anywhere on them. -Oh.. it''s Elizabeth...- I couldn''t sense her presence at all. "Did you need to sneak up on me like that?!"


    "Haha, I just wanted to test you a bit. Is that so bad?" She smiled as she tilted her head before ncing at Selby. "Miss Randi, how are you doing."


    "Wonderfully! Even better now that the Hero is here!" She immediately held up her alcohol-filled mug to cheer, with many of the other temrs doing the same. """Glory to the Holy Kingdom! Glory to Asgard!"""


    Elizabeth quickly raised her hand to quell their cheers before finally sitting down in the seat next to mine. "In any case, Kath couldn''t make it. She said something happened in the churchst night and I haven''t seen her since."


    -Huh?- Slowly getting control of myself again, I moved back toward my seat. "That''s odd... She didn''t tell you where she was going?"


    She quickly shook her head. "I did hear that the Valkyries have given an oracle for the first time in over ten thousand years though. Maybe it''s rted to that?" Motioning to the man at the bar, she quickly got him to start making a drink.


    "She never cared about the church though... Could it be rted to that ''lead'' she got all those years ago from Sir Dentro?"


    I felt like that was a more likely possibility, but Elizabeth just shrugged. "I still can''t read her, so I''m not sure... Although she did seem a bit more engaged than normal... Maybe there was a new lead."


    "Hm.. maybe..." But as I thought about it more, things slowly started feeling more and more odd... After having been together for nearly 8 years, while Katherine was still always fairly quiet, whenever something happened, we were the first ones to know about it. -For her to leave without saying much�� Just what happened?-


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 Chapter 340: A Spark

    Chapter 340: A Spark


    Mid Morning - Late Summer : Valtivar | Siratha


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    *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* With the periodic p of my wings and the steady flow of air over my scales, my chest ever-so-slowly tensed with anxiety.


    At the time, I had just finished thinning some of the stronger monsters out of the monster wave and was now hurrying back to Valtivar. I needed to notify Lief about a lot and additionally speak with Mother on how to handle Father''s situation.


    But the anxiety in the back of my mind only grew. Without being near him, I felt unbearably uneasy. -Considering the monster wave has pushed everything away for now and Grace or Skuld should be with him, I shouldn''t need to worry... But I can''t shake the thought of a hostile god rolling up while I''m gone...-


    *FWOOSH* Trying to shake the thought, I sped up even more, zipping over the horizon and zooming over the outskirts of Valtivar beforeing up on the Tree of Prayer. -Alright.. let''s be quick...-


    *vwoom-sh* Quickly releasing my divinity and changing to my Fenririan form, I started slowing down before dipping below the canopy of the Tree of Prayer and descending toward Lief''s estate. -Good.. she''s here...-


    She was in her office, already kneeling, before I even came into sight. "Lief," I spoke through magic as soon as I got within a few kilometers. "I need you to listen closely. The Holy Kingdomunched an attack on Siratha."


    She instantly jolted in ce, opening her eyes wide with shock."There were two fleets. The forward fleet was at the Dungeon of Colossus; they copsed the dungeon and triggered a monster wave." Coming up to the estate, Inded on the roof and continued. "I thinned out some of the more threatening monsters, but you need to raise alert as soon as possible."


    *crackle* Opening my way through the ceiling, where I sensed Mother, Krystallo, Ilios, and Hera, Lief started alerting several people throughout the estate with her aura.


    "The second fleet was more north, being about a hundred kilometers south of Morva Asari. I kept them alive so you can get all the information you need from them, but they aren''t weak, so be careful who you send. One ancient won''t be enough." Pausing to carefully lower myself into the room, I tried to wrap things up for now. "Currently, one of their dragons is under oath and keeping everything under control, but it''s been a bit over an hour and a half since then, so proceed expecting a fight. As for other things, make sure the area around the Dungeon of Colossus remains off-limits and get ready to schedule a full-scale prayer within the year... Use my name however you need."


    Finally pulling my magic away from Lief, she immediately jumped up and darted out of her office.


    Trusting she would have no issues, I quickly turned my attention back to Mother, Krystallo, and Hera, but while Krystallo was nothing but excited to see me, Mother and Hera wore dark expressions.


    "Brother-"


    "What happened..." Mother cut off Krystallo in an instant.


    "It''s a bitplicated, but the gist of it is Father started his dragon sleep." I spoke swiftly as I lowered myself inside, standing on the removed section of the ceiling. "I''ll exin more while I fly. Hurry and get on."


    Ilios, getting up from behind Krystallo with a stretch, was the first to move, casually trotting over and hopping up on my back, with Mother notgging much behind him.


    However, while Krystallo also trotted toward me after getting a bit nervous, I quickly shook my head and nced at Hera. "I apologize, but could you watch over her for a bit?"


    She was quick to agree with a nod. "Have you already given Lief a rundown on the situation?"


    I quickly nodded. "I exined generally what I knew, but she''ll be fetching more information with interrogations soon enough."


    "Hmm, I see..." She paused to think for a moment before lowering her gaze. "Then, Krystallo, how about we go help Miss Lief while they are gone? This is a good opportunity for you to start learning how Siratha is run." She spoke with a lighter tone, as if to lure her in before setting the trap. "You want to learn how your brother''s country is managed, right?"


    A fire instantly lit in Krystallo''s eyes. "Yes!" She puffed up her chest before confidently looking back at Hera and vigorously nodding her head.


    "Hoho, how enthusiastic." Giving me a nce, Hera quickly motioned over Krystallo before giving Mother and I a chance to leave.


    -Perfect...- Taking the opportunity, I quickly moved us up out of the room before patching up the hole and taking to the air, starting my exnation of everything that happened before we even left from beneath the Tree of Prayer''s canopy.


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    I was honestly worried how it would go at that point, but thankfully, things went over smoothly.


    After exining everything, only leaving out my maniption of his soul, Mother sounded quite relieved. ording to her, his dragon sleep was actually quite overdue, and that worried her far more than I would have expected.


    How exactly she knew came as a surprise as well.


    It was all because of his lineage. The Whyte family was a family known for consistently having very early dragon sleepspared to other pure dragon families, having their elder stage sleep at around 168 years old every generation without fail. It was actually one of the reasons Grandmother never objected to Mother having children with him, even though his strength was only a bit above average.


    But with Father being the only one in thest eight thousand years to not have his sleep when he was around 168 years old, Mother got worried. With each year that ticked by, she started worrying more and more that his sleep would suddenly hit and be abnormally long and dangerous.


    And she was actually kind of right.


    Thinking about it now, I wasn''t too unsure that it had something to do with his abnormally weak soul, and I was surprised Mother''s intuition pointed to that being the case. Had I not intervened, even if he somehow survived his elder sleep, he would have inevitably died in his ancient sleep.


    But after everything that happened, there was no point in questioning or dwelling on it. -If everything worked.. he won''t have a problem reaching ancient stage anymore...- It was all just a matter of time.


    "For now though, what should we do?" ncing back at Mother as we starteding up to where the dungeon was, I found her deep in thought.


    Even without seeing him, she was alreadying up with a n. "If his condition is as good as you say, we may just need to guard him and make sure he has plenty of mana."


    -Ah...- "Mana actually shouldn''t be an issue..."


    "Huh?" Slowly looking up as the massive, smooth crater starteding into view, Mother''s expression froze.


    The crater was like a giant bowl containing boiling water, leaking a visible, colorful plume of mana into the air like steam.


    And as you looked lower and lower, the mana only got denser. "What on earth..."


    "Will you have any problems getting closer?"


    "N..no..." She spoke softly while staring in a daze. "But where did all this manae from? The dungeon core couldn''t have been that big..."


    "Well, it was what really knocked out Father in the first ce. I identally created.. a lot of mana..."


    Her gaze instantly turned to me. "You.. ''created'' mana?"


    I nodded while trying to think of how to numb it down. "Basically, if I feed the void energy, it creates mana. The issue was I did it on ident, and well..." As we passed over the center of the crater, where we could see down to the pool of liquid mana I woke up in, I spoke calmly. "I created a pretty insane amount."


    "Is that.. a pool of liquid mana?" Seeing what was essentially a well made of dark mythril containing not water but mana seemed to make Mother''s mind wander wildly. "Could you take me down to the edge of that pool..."


    Quickly descending through denser and denseryers of mana, I kept a close eye on Mother to make sure she could handle it before finally making it to the bottom of the crater andnding on the upper edge of the pit, directly above a pool of mana so volumous I could barely wrap my head around it.


    *sh* Changing to her dragon form, Mother seemed quite confident. With Ilios and my aura shielding her somewhat, the mana didn''t seem to have any effect on her at all.


    But that all changed when she confidently hopped off my back. *tap-VWOOM* "Hoooh..." Letting out a long breath, she held her nose high and spread her wings before finally breathing back in. *inhale* "Hoh?" As she let out her breath, her expressionpletely changed, her eyes losing some of their sharpness before her body rxed. "How.. incredibly intoxicating..."


    Carefully keeping my eye on her vitals, I did everything to make sure she wasn''t going to get mana poisoning, but to my surprise, she was handling it well, at least if you looked past the fact that she seemed a bit drunk.


    "Hooh..." Trying to steady her condition with another breath, the air around her instantly started to fog, and ayer of frost started spreading across the ground. With each breath, it looked as if the air around her got colder and colder, until finally, after close to a dozen breaths, she opened her eyes with a newfound sharpness and warmth. "Is this how you always feel?" Her eyes matched the color of the clear sky above us as she looked up the column of mana. "I feel.. so different..."


    "Well, your body is trying to adapt to the sudden increase in mana supply. First, it will use that mana to strengthen your body, then it will try to make your body rely on it, just like Father''s body did."


    "Hooh... I see." Her steady breaths continued before she slowly hung her head again. "Then I shouldn''t overdo it..." Taking onest long breath, she crawled back to me, and I dipped down to let her up on my back again.


    Her scales were so cold that the breeze blowing through the crater created a thin, long white cloud behind her like a jet trail, but aftering back into my aura, it quickly started to taper off.


    And that was when Mother made a suggestion out of the blue. "Why don''t we.. build an estate here- no... Why don''t we build a city here?"


    Thinking she was still a bit tipsy from the mana, I looked back at her with a confused look, only to find her staring at me with a firm, unwavering gaze. -Is she.. serious?-


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 Chapter 341: Payback

    Chapter 341: Payback


    Late Afternoon - Late Summer : The Dungeon Of Colossus (Whats left of it) | Siratha


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    "Uwaah..." Letting out a big yawn, I overlooked a huge clearing with almost a hundred dragons scattered about, each digging up the ground, uprooting and dragging away huge trees, and driving massive pirs into the ground before connecting them to countless several-thousand-ton bricks.


    They were the first pieces of the foundation for a series of massive structures being built around the crater I made at the Dungeon of Colossus, now nicknamed ''The Well of Mana''.


    It didn''t take long for the name to spread between the masons and knights guarding the ce, but with the mana being so dense that it was poisonous to younger dragons, even though some rumors had begun to spread, most people couldn''te here.


    There were certainly some anomalies though. *crackle-pat* "Are you tired, Brother?"


    "Hm?" ncing over at Krystallo, I saw her perched on a tall, partially mythril boulder next to me with a curious look in her eyes. She, much to my surprise, was able to handle the mana almost as well as Mother. "I guess I could use a nap." -Though I have something to do before that.-


    It had been a little over two weeks since shit hit the fan: since Siratha was invaded, the Dungeon of Colossus was turned into a giant crater, and Father almost died, and in that time, a lot had happened.


    Intoxicated by more mana than she had ever experienced, Mother came up with the insane idea to build a city around the well of mana I made, and thankfully, while she said she would settle for an estate, as things progressed, it seemed like her original n wasing to light.After we checked in on Father two weeks ago, and Mother got an idea of what to do, she returned to Bahamut, going straight to Akri to pick up many of our family''s strongest knights to protect Father. However, since the job would take years, the guards needed somece to live, and rather than sending them to one of the cities a few hundred kilometers away, or camp out on the dirt, Mother decided to use it as an excuse to use military funds to start a small town there, all centered around The Well of Mana where she nned to have our estate.


    It was a solid n that would let us knock out several birds with one stone, from strengthening our family''s perceived rtionship with Siratha to giving our family yet another resource to grow our family''s strength.


    But even though it was my family, Lief, along with every other apostle, including the two newly appointed ones, quite strongly objected to her ns, specifically stating that her ns made it seem like the well, something redited as my belonging, was going to be hoarded by dragons.


    So, as the deciding factor, I spoke with Lief and reigned in Mother to meet in the middle.


    Siratha''s apostles and the Ragnarok family would have two separate estates that would be the closest estates to the well, essentially acting as a representative estate for both Bahamut and Siratha, with the crater itself and some of the surrounding area being reserved for ''ancient architecture'', which were essentially monuments of worship, from around the time of The Great War, that would be my direct property as Nott like the God''s Abode in the Tree of Prayer.


    -But while the ns for this ce were kept secret, some people still caught wind of...- Looking a few dozen kilometers down the mountain range, I saw a group of elves sweating and heaving, struggling to handle the mana even at that distance.


    From what I overheard from the guards that checked on them, they were a group of extremely devout worshipers who wished toe see the first ''monument'' I had made in tens of thousands of years, going as far as to camp in the mountains to slowly get ustomed to the mana and inch closer.


    But soon enough they would no longer be alone, because of the announcement about everything that happened, the official reasons for the monster wave that had yet to settle downpletely, the announcement of the prayer moving forward several years, and the deration of war against the Holy Kingdom was only a few days away. -People will definitely flock here to see what''s going on regardless of it being a restricted area...- But the mana was so thick that even ancients couldn''t stand being too close for extended periods, so we didn''t really need to worry about too many people.


    Beyond that, I was hopeful not much would happen. Currently, Hera said she was still a few months from returning to Bahamut, and Lief''s elixir made from a piece of my horn would soon be ready, but I didn''t expect either of those to cause any sort ofmotion over at least the next couple months.


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    So, I nned on going down to work on the Acardiboratory. With Skuld now watching over Father, and plenty of ancients guarding him, I didn''t need to worry.


    My only issue was Krystallo.


    Looking over at her again, questions buzzed through my mind before she noticed my stare and spoke up. "Hm? Is something the matter?"


    "I n on going to a ce deep in the ocean soon, but I can''t bring you, so what do you want to do?" I quickly ran through everything I could think of before listing a few examples. "You can stay here with Ilios, I can bring you to Bahamut and you can stay with Grandmother and Mother, or you can stay with Lief and Hera."


    She didn''t give it even a moment of thought. "I''ll stay with sister Hera!"


    I instantly jolted while choking on my own thoughts. -SISTER?!- "Since when have you called her sister?"


    But she responded so nonchntly. "I originally called her auntie, but she insisted I say sister."


    A wave of conflicting feelings quickly clouded my mind before I eventually just let out a sigh. "Haah..." -I guess she''s still trying to warm up to Krystallo after her.. rough introduction...- I didn''t totally make sense to me at the time, especially considering how enthusiastically Krystallo said she would stay with her, but it was enough for me to look past it, eventually letting us move on to talk about a few more things before finally flying back to Valtivar.


    The flight itself was pretty enjoyable though. Over thest few days, a huge thunderstorm had formed over the outskirts of Valtivar, so the flight ended up getting extended a little bit by an unprompted lesson on electricity, which Krystallo really enjoyed.


    But eventually, it came to an end.


    After arriving in Valtivar, I met up with Hera and Lief, quickly speaking about the progress of the project around the Well of Mana and checking up on Lief''s elixir before eventually leaving Krystallo with Hera and getting ready to jump through the void to get to theb.


    But before I got that far, I noticed Ilios wasn''t too keen on staying with Krystallo this time. "Whats up buddy?"


    Although he looked like he was napping, he was clinging onto my back with his aura quite firmly.


    "Do you want toe with my this time?"


    His ears instantly perked up.


    "It''s in the ocean.. I''m not sure if you''ll really enjoy it..."


    Finally popping his head up, he looked a me with eyes of excitement as his tail started to wag furiously.


    It was adorable, but even I could tell it was from naivety. -He.. doesn''t know what it''s gonna be like, huh...- Quickly realizing I needed to slowly descend through the water in order to make sure he would be alright, I rified several things with him, exining how he needed to make sure his eardrums wouldn''t rupture and tell me if its getting too deep for him before finally moving through the void anding out in the sky over Amara''s family''s ce in the mountains.


    *vwoop* Immediately looking down to make sure we were in the right ce, I found Amara''s family''s ce, which thankfully seemed pretty untouched since I hadst seen it.


    But the moment I looked away, Ilios stood up and looked down at the towering, choppy wavesing from a storm off shore and hopped off my back with a wildly wagging tail.


    "How eager." Quickly following after him, we elerated toward the ground from almost a dozen kilometers in the air. -But he doesn''t seem to be slowing down...-


    Wondering what he was doing, I spread my wings to slow my descent slightly and kept my eyes on him.


    But the moment he reached the base of the mountain, he bounced off the rocky beach, maintaining his momentum beforeying his ears back and mming head-first into the face of a nearly hundred-meter wave.


    *ssh-BAAAAAANG* The water around him instantly vanished, turning into steam from the raw energy of the impact before ttening every wave within a dozen kilometers as if he just punched Posideon in the gut.


    If anything was in that water, it was undoubtedly liquified.


    But with some momentum to spare, he darted out over the now ssy ocean, running over it as if it were solid ground and picking up speed, elerating well past mach before finally jumping into the air and getting ready to dive down into the water like a fox diving into a burrow. -Should I.. stop him?-


    But with just a slight hesitation, I missed my chance to do anything. *VWOOM-BAAAANGGG* He hit the waters surface like a bomb, mming into the water like a sledgehammer and transferring the energy equivalent of an earthquake into the water.


    Or in other words, a nuke.


    The next thing I knew, I was simply hovering in the air, staring at a plume of water that stretched kilometers into the air, with a slight red tint within it before eventually, the squashed eyeball of a lurker came flying out of the top.


    The next thing I knew, a satisfied smile came across my face. -I wonder if my hate for those bastards tranted to Ilios or if it''s just a coincidence.-


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 Chapter 342: Restart

    Chapter 342: Restart


    Early Evening - Late Summer : Above the Deep Sea Laboratory | Siratha


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    *blub-blub* Slowly sinking down into the dark, frigid water, Ilios continuously created small air pockets with his aura before letting them copse from the pressure, carefully watching them implode into millions and then billions of tiny bubbles before dissipatingpletely.


    At this depth, even strengthened steel wouldn''t stand a chance.


    But we continued to sink, only inconvenienced by the asional current attempting to push us up the submerged mountainside. -Seems like he doesn''t care about the depth anymore...-


    When Ilios first dove into the water, he shot down to about three kilometers before getting mmed by the sudden increase in pressure, to the point that it actually did hurt his ears a bit, but thankfully he had gotten adjusted after quickly returning to the surface and slowly going down with me.


    *fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip* After a while, he didn''t even need to properly swim, and exclusively relied on the wag of his tail to stay in my wake.


    It was truly cute, and while a part of me thought it would slow down as we went deeper, even all the way down at seventy kilometers, his wag was undisturbed.


    At least until we changed directions.*Fwoosh* As we were mindlessly continuing deeper, the mountainside I followed with my aura eventually disappeared, and a stiff, lifeless current washed over us with nothing but ambient mana.


    -Ah.. right...- I had forgotten to retrieve the dungeon core from Hera''s rest, the mountain Hera was stuck on. -I need to go grab that when I go and get the reactor connector and stuff from the crawler... Hopefully, no other core has formed in the time it was away...- Thankfully, it didn''t seem like it, but checking and moving it all was for after I finished getting everything situated.


    Quickly turning into the abandoned and seemingly lifeless dungeon, I quickly came up on theboratory,pletely and utterly untouched from when I hadst seen it, without even ayer of dust on its roof. Thankfully, it seemed like nothing so much as bumped it while I was gone. -Thank goodness...-


    Eventually swimming up and over the edge of it, I descended into therge cone-shaped space in its center, where the old reactor used to be, and used my aura to attempt to refresh myself on the state and condition of theb.


    But, to put it simply, it was just as bad as I remembered.


    After I drained and sealed off the still-intact parts of theb and made an attempt at cleaning some of the cabling, theb was in a decent state, but at the same time, it was so incrediblyplicated, using almost three hundred and twenty different gauges of wire, that I simply felt.. a bit overwhelmed.


    But it wasn''t often I had that feeling, and oddly enough, after not feeling it for a while, it worked as a spark of excitement in the back of my mind.


    I finally had something I could focus everything I had on. A challenge I could really dedicate my mind to.


    It was all just a matter of time.


    Quickly running through my memories and refreshing myself on what I knew, I almost immediately hopped into the void with Ilios and went to Hera''s rest to retrieve what I needed. *Vwoop* I had a lot to do and no time to waste.


    And sure enough, after using vectorpression to return the dungeon core and its containment center back to the dungeon the grind began.


    The next few days passed in a sh, walking a path of trial and error only guided by memories of Acardi technology and my own intuition and scientific knowledge.


    But while it was a bumpy path, it was one I could walk.


    The first thing I did was fix the battery, recreating its simple array of electrically charged tubes and connecting it to all the halted external charging pylons before creating a more conventional battery that was continuously charged via a rune to keep the tubes powered even in the case of an emergency.


    After that, I began rerouting and extending the countless cables around theboratory, connecting them to their respective transformers as they were built until I was eventually left with a massive web of cables that filled the center space of theb as if it were a spider''s den that all connected at one point with six thick cables, where I nned to build the reactor.


    And the next thing I knew, almost a month passed.


    As it turns out, creating a reactor almost 15 meters across without miscing a single atom and then upscaling the mind-bogglinglyplex connector that did all the energy conversions was quite time-consuming and experimental. The connector itself, while essentially perfect on a small scale, was shockingly inefficient when scaled up, to the point that I was forced topletely redesign it, which meant I had to deepen my understanding of how it all worked and how I could scale it for a much, muchrger reactor.


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    But thankfully, I had the time.


    Every few days, Grace woulde from the surface and give me some updates on what all was happening, and thankfully, it hadn''t been too much. The Holy Kingdom hadn''t made any moves, Siratha''s announcement of war seemed to go over well thanks to a new national pride centered around my return, and Father''s condition was progressing smoothly. The only thing I knew I would have toe back for was Lief''s evolution thanks to the elixir from my horn, which was to be taken under ceremony in a few days, and Hera''s return to Bahamut, which was about a month out.


    -But.. it seems like I can finish the reactor before I need to return to help Lief...- Silently overlooking the colossal connector that was almost asrge as the reactor itself, I ran through eachyer, making sure everything was as it should be, and ensuring that there wouldn''t be any issues with materials melting or particles getting hung up in it. "Ilios, what do you think?"


    *fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip* Quickly swimming over with his wagging tail, carrying therge tentacle of an octopus in his mouth, he came up to me and used his aura to look over everything.


    Although he didn''t know the theories and numbers as well as I did, he was surprisingly good at recognizing patterns, fixing inconsistencies, and generally helping highlight areas where I could have made mistakes.


    But this time, for the first time since I had him look at the cabling, he didn''t point anything out. *blub-shik* After casually knawing on the tentacle for a moment, he simply turned back around and swam to his spot on the edge of the roof of theb where he had been eating the octopus he killed a couple of days ago. -Does that mean I''m really done?-


    Not really believing it, I took my time going over it several more times, but just as Ilios showed, there was nothing to be found.


    To my knowledge, everything was in ce, from the tiny circuit boards to massive antimatter transfer cables.


    All I had to do was start it. -Well.. I guess there''s no reason to hesitate...-


    Quickly scanning through the parts of the antimatter cables I didn''t touch, I did myst few checkups before finally using my aura to activate the charge pylons mounted around theb. -Here goes nothing...- *vwwWWOOOM* Using the mana being pulled into the dungeon by the mana core attempting to refill itself, the pylons instantly kicked on, roaring to life and lighting up the cables with a blue glow. -Seems good so far...-


    Closely keeping my eyes on the battery as it filled, I gave it some time and eventually, once it was about half full, flipped the switch to feed the reactor both hydrogen and antimatter, just like in the reactor I found, except with a much higher amplitude and frequency of fuel.


    *pop* *pop* *pop-pop-pop-pop-VWOOOM* Finally firing up with a roar, the reactor kicked to life, forming a zing ring of fire that instantly surpassed the temperature of the sun before flooding the connector with so much energy that the entireboratory started vibrating.


    But it was a good sign.


    *flick-flicker* After just a moment, the lights outside kicked on, and almost immediately, a crackly, robotic voice echoed through the interior in a very pre-programmed manner. "Severe damage detected. Cannot scan the integrity of systems. Cannot ess reactor controls. Attempting forced shut down-"


    It was theb itself issuing emergency protocol. Since it couldn''t control the reactor, it assumed the worst-case scenario, which was that the reactor would turn into a bomb just waiting to explode, much like the battery did several years ago, but thankfully, I had everything under control. -Now that the reactor has started, I just need to turn it down a bit, and...-


    Finally turning my attention toward the center control room, where I had spoken with the AI previously, I watched theputers finally start receiving electricity again and boot up.


    All that was left was to give the antimatter cable leading to the AI''s core ess to the antimatter in the battery. -I uh.. hope this doesn''t break anything...-


    It was a very thin wire, indicating it didn''t want much antimatter, but the systems the antimatter went to were considerably over my head. -Well.. all I can do is hope...-


    *crackle* Finally opening the hatch and allowing antimatter to flow at a rate the core it was flowing to should be able to dictate, I sat back and watched, only attempting to regte things if they went clearly wrong.


    "Sufficient Power detected." *Beep* With a gentle beep from one of theputers, I tilted my head slightly and made my way down into the main room of theb in my humanoid form, where the AI''s core was, and found theputer''s screen lit up with a familiar login screen.


    -It worked!- Countless questions instantly started ripping through my mind, and after quickly logging in and figuring out how to disable all the warnings and emergency protocols, the ck tube at the center of the room began to glow blue, slowly forming a sphere of light at its center. -Is that it?-


    "Dungeon Research Intelligence ''4856'' Activation Sequence Initiated." *hhhuuummm*


    Finally stepping away from theputer, I looked up at the central tube and felt a wave of satisfaction and a feeling of aplishment wash through me.


    At longst, I had it back online, and with its voice, a wave of nostalgia washed over my mind.


    *Beep* "Unable to connect to remote servers. Please Provide Instructions."


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 Chapter 343: Reconnection

    Chapter 343: Reconnection


    <strong>Quick Announcement: As chosen by the overwhelming majority in the discord, Chapters will now be bi-weekly, on Monday and Friday, so that my writing doesn��t interfere too much with my sses.</strong>


    <strong>I hope you all can be understanding <></strong>


    <strong>Anyway, enjoy the chapter!</strong>


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    ??? - Late Summer : The Acardi Laboratory | Siratha


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    *hhhuuummmmm* *Beep* "Unable to connect to remote servers. Please Provide Instructions." The glowing blue orb at the center of the room gently reverberated as the voice echoed through the room.


    -Is it really.. online?- A part of me somewhat struggled to believe it, but the more I monitored everything outside, the more it seemed like it really was stable. "The battery had a malfunction and destroyed most of theb. How much data can you still ess?"


    "Even I cannot ess above a certain clearance level. However, with your permission, I could verify."-With my permission?- "What is my clearance level?"


    "Maximum." The voice responded instantly with a very blunt tone.


    "T..then..." I was a bit taken aback. "Please verify the data..." Turning my attention back to theputer, I quickly navigated my way to the home screen and found the familiar series of files on the homepage, none of which stuck out as especially top secret. -Do you have to go through the AI for the top-secret stuff?-


    *Beep* "Most local data seems intact, with only a few exceptions."


    "And that is?"


    "File 8,142,029 in Registry 3. It was a file regarding Locally connected Deep Ocean Sensors and various misceneous files throughout Registry 5."


    -Deep ocean sensors?- "How do you know what it was for?"


    "The directory still remains; however, everything inside is corrupted beyond what I can repair."


    "Hm..." -I see... Does it have any information on them?- "What were the sensors for?"


    "They had various purposes. From monitoring seismic activity to monitoring ''The Leviathan'' at the top of the liquid ice sheet."


    My ears instantly perked up, and my chest tightened as the final words of one of the Acardi echoed through my mind. "The Leviathan?"


    "Would you like me to-"


    "Yes."


    The AI continued without a moment of hesitation. "The Leviathan is an A-rank Monster capable of threatening A-ss motherships and B-Ranks on its own. Colloquially as ''The Leviathan'', it is a creature known only in ancient myth as one of the founding beings of Div-4856, the locally known as Delphi, and is estimated to be on par with the King of Dragons. However, it has been registered as ''no apparent threat'' and is to be left alone unless stated otherwise."


    My mind instantly started to stutter. -Uh.. what?- "Is the ''King of Dragons'', known as Bahamut?"


    "That is correct."


    The noise of the room quickly started fading to silence as my mind began to race. "Please go into more detail on The Leviathan."


    *Beep* There was a short pause before it spoke. "The creature''s appearance is unknown; however, based on patterns in tremors detected from different locations, we believe it is a creature that resides predominantly in the mantle of the while asionally surfacing at the bottom of the ''Deaths Gape'' within the liquid ice sheet, and its size is likely on par with some of thergest creatures ever discovered."


    -That.. doesn''t sound good...- For a moment, I hesitated if I should ask for rification, but.. "How big would that be..?"


    "The mass equivalent of a considerablyrge moon."


    -WHAT?!- If I still had a heart, it most certainly would have stopped beating at that moment. -A.. moon?- "W..what would be ''considerablyrge''?"


    "A moon greater than 2,000 kilometers in diameter."


    I felt my surroundings suddenly vanish as the words bounced through my mind, shredding conscious thoughts like a blender. It was a considerable portion of a and well over half the size of Earth''s moon at a minimum. -To be that big.. it must be a god...- "Is there anything else you know?"


    "Information of The Leviathan is rather limited. Beyond that, I only have the raw data and vague habit patterns."


    -So it was something even the Acardi didn''t know much about...- It made sense, considering its location. If it never left the mantle, the only way the Acardi could learn about it was something like controlled seismic activity, but that would likely pose a risk of irritating it, something the Acardi would have avoided. -But what was it the AI mentioned?- "What is the liquid ice sheet?"


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    "At a depth of around 200 kilometers in the Deaths Gape, there is the liquid ice sheet, ayer of flowing ice formed purely through pressure rather than temperature. This causes its surface to look and behave like a liquid until anything disturbs it. However, you can freely move through it by using Acardi-developed Mana Repellers, which forcefully lower the density of the ice to allow travel." *BEEP* A deafening beep immediately followed its voice before I could think. "It is also noted that expeditions into the ice are no longer permitted after seventeen unsessful expeditions."


    My eyes went wide. -Seventeen?!- I thought for a moment that I misheard, and after thinking maybe they just did a lot, I asked, "How many expeditions were there total?"


    "Seventeen. Although some data has been collected ''through the wire,'' once the expeditions descended more than ten kilometers into the ice, an estimated twenty-fifth of the way to The Leviathan, their point of interest, they simply lost connection as if the ships disappeared. Return signals were still intact and stable, but they contained nothing."


    -Just how big of a ship were they using if they nned to go 250 kilometers into the ice.. and how would it just stop responding...- "How long did the signals remain steady?"


    "That information was lost with the deep sea sensor data."


    -I see...- "So do you know where those expeditions were in the ice?" -I wonder if I can salvage a ship from it...-


    "That data is avable. However, it is unlikely there will be anything there after so much time has passed."


    "That''s fine. Please bring up a map onputer three and pinpoint the locations." Looking back at theputer I was logged into, I watched as a map was instantly pulled up with exactly sixteen red dots over a slightly textured blue background. "Where is the seventeenth?"


    "The final expedition''s exact position is not logged. However, it was likely within this circle."


    *beep* Hearing a gentle beep, I looked back toward theputer and saw a red circle amidst a tight group of five dots. But after asking for scale, I quickly found that each dot was exactly fifty kilometers from the others, and exactly fifty kilometers from thest few was the circle.


    -Huh.. maybe I should n an expedition down there...- I was both curious about the area and hopeful that I could recover a ship, but it wasn''t because of the information. -If I recover a ship, maybe I can recover some Acardi bodies...-


    But that expedition was for another day.


    With the ceremony for Lief''s evolutioning up in just a few days, I didn''t currently have the time to go on such an expedition and instead opted to stay in theboratory and send my endless questions into the glowing blue sphere at the center of the room.


    But it was extremely productive. While I still couldn''t ask many of my more pressing questions because of information loss orck of connection to a server, there were many, many more pieces of information I managed to gather, from repairing my fragmented knowledge of Acardi technology to helping me understand more of what theboratory and dungeon was used for, essentially being a deep sea hub for researchers.


    But of everything I asked over the course of a few days, digging out every piece of information the AI had ess to, there was one question and answer that made me wrack my head.


    *hummmm* "So the Apothocaris is a carnivorous nt that lives by thermal vents and has a bunch of extreme healing properties?" At the time, I had already asked most of my more pressing questions and had moved on to asking about all the different lifeforms logged within the database, from those only known by fossils to those that were still around when the Acardi were studying the oceans.


    "That is correct. Although considerably dangerous with their durability and ability to use magic, the Apothocaris is extremely valuable and heavily valued within the Sector. Although farming is likely impossible because of the immense heat, pressure, and mana of their environments." It paused as it brought up a picture of a huge water tank with ash-filled water and a faintly visible, massive nt inside of it. "Attempts have been made within the Sector''s Mothership, but to no sess as of the most recent report."


    -Huh.. I wonder what they couldn''t replicate, considering how advanced they are...- "Can you ess that report?"


    "Not without ess to the Local Server Database."


    "Haaaah..." I let out a long, heavy sigh, hearing the same hopeless response I had been hearing a lot since I started digging deeper. -That does make me wonder though...- "So you need the Ping Tower to be repaired and the server to be online in order to connect to that database, right?"


    "That is correct."


    "So, where is that Ping Tower?"


    *Ding* The map on theputer instantly updated. "The tower was originally in this location and wasmunicated to via cables running across the sea floor, but the tower waster outfitted with a rune utilizing quantum entanglement as it was a faster and more reliable means of data transfer. Theck ofmunication to this tower may be due to the transponder here in theboratory malfunctioning, the tower, or both."


    -Interesting...- Essentially, quantum entanglement was a theory in quantum mechanics where two electrons would be entangled so that whenever one changed direction, so would the other. This, at least in theory, would allow for faster-than-light data transfer. "But why would they use a ry if they have those runes?"


    "For ease of initial and sustained connection, security, and allocation of data ess. With a Ping Tower, one can form a web of connections so the functionality of thework isn''t tied to one singr connection, and if a connection is ever lost, there are other connections that can be used while the other is repaired."


    -I see...- "Well, eventually, I can try and repair that and connect it to the tower. But I''d then have to connect it to the main server where the database is to establish a data link. Do you know where that server is?"


    "District 4B of the local lunar surface."


    I immediately jolted. -Lunar surface?!- I immediately thought back to everything I had heard before and visualized the sights I saw on the moon as I approached it before eventually asking another question. "Could you show a map of where that is?"


    Quickly turning to theputer, I watched the screen update with arge, somewhat colored spherical object with a grid over it and one of the small squared highlighted andbeled 4B. "It appears the map is outdated, however, if connection to satellites is reestablished, remapping is possible."


    But as the AI spoke, I zoned out, staring at the sphere on the screen with wide eyes.


    -Is that.. a city?-


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 Chapter 344: Genetics and Evolution

    Chapter 344: Gics and Evolution


    ??? - Late Summer : The Acardi Laboratory | Siratha


    -----


    *Vwooom* The mana in the air reverberated slightly as I studied a short optical cable in a different room while recreating it in front of me. It was a pretty simple optical cable only about a meter long andpared to many of the things I had already made, it was unbelievably simple, but it was something that would quickly be a huge help.


    "So, if I plug this in here, you can update everything?" I spoke with a bit of skepticism as I gently grabbed the fragile end of the cable and connected it to a small maic pad on the back of the monitor.


    "That is correct."


    -Well.. I guess I have no reason to doubt it...- *tap* Quickly connecting it, I tapped the other end on the top of the Acardi satellite mapping device I thankfully brought with me and almost immediately was presented with an archaic-looking prompt: ''Unknown Device Connected'' *Ding*


    "Connection detected. It appears to be an outdated ETBM, an extraterrestrial body mapping andmunication device rather than an OOM, an Orbital Object Mapper. This means it is quite outdated as OOM''s reced ETBM''s close to 500 years before my hosts left this ce. However, it can still be updated. Would you like to update from Version 23.58.7 to Version 493.17.1? This will take some time."


    -So, the OOM came after the ETBM? What''s the difference?- "As long as the hardware can handle it." Currently, I was allowing theboratory''s AI to give the device I had a proper recalibration and update. Over the past hour or so, I had managed to repair most of the remaining damaged modules in the device while speaking to the AI about what it was, however almost all the ''features'' that should have been unlocked by the repairs were mostly nonfunctional because the software was still corrupted and broken. "How long will it take?"


    "Unable to determine currently."Thankfully though, the AI was confident it could repair the software side of things for me. "Then, just keep it and work on it while I''m gone." -I need to get back for Lief''s ceremony...-


    It was a bit of a shame that I had to leave already. Thest few days had been extremely productive, even if it came at the cost of things weighing on my mind. I managed to learn of the existence of a city on the moon, acquired the knowledge to understand and fix almost any Acardi technology I came across, and even obtained the absolutely horrifying knowledge that a creature with the mass of a moon was living beneath my feet.


    But while some of that information was quite pressing, and with it, my curiosity was piqued, I knew I wouldn''t have time for any lengthy expedition for quite a while.


    -First is Lief''s ceremony, a month after that Hera will return to Bahamut, and not long after that will be the Prayer, waking up Father and even the Coming of Age festival all in the span of a year.- Obviously, at that time, I wasn''t aware of everything that would wreck that already busy schedule, so ideas of shorter trips like repairing the Ping Tower in preparation for a trip to the moon or a trip to the liquid ice sheet did cross my mind, but thanks to the void, I didn''t have time to even think about it.


    *vwoop* After quickly making sure nothing was going to malfunction with the reactor while I was gone, I jumped into the void and reappeared in the afternoon sky over the foggy canopy of the Tree of Prayer, promptly changing to my fenririan form and diving into the fog in one swift motion. *vwoop-sh-Fwoosh*


    Knowing the fog was simply an umtion of lost souls made it a bit of an ethereal experience, but after a moment, the odd sense offort I felt far outweighed everything else. -A ce safe from every living being and even the gods... It''s no wonder the Ancient Fenrir liked this spot...-


    *tap-tap-tap-tap* Swiftly hopping down through branches and winding my way through the seemingly endless graveyard that was the canopy, I eventually made it to the God''s Abode, letting Ilios hop off my back and wander off while I used my aura to overlook those below.


    To my surprise, even though I thought the ceremony was still about half an hour away based on the sun''s position, Lief was already kneeling at the foot of the tree with the other apostles lined up about twenty meters behind her. -They sure sensed my presence quickly...- It seemed like my appearance started the ceremony.


    Behind them was a crowd of about a hundred thousand people, dragons in both humanoid and draconic forms, elves, and demihumans, all donning religious garbs and jewelry, silently kneeling with their heads bowed.


    They seemed to be higher ranking members of the church, as all of those that looked likemon folk or even nobles were lining the inner branches of the surrounding treants, watching from afar.


    -What an odd feeling...- Finally walking up to the opening in the God''s Abode directly above Lief, Iid down, gently crossing my wrists while overlooking everyone below like a god watching over its subjects. It felt a bit odd and foreign at first, but it didn''t take long for me to be quite fond of the sensation. -This spot really is a nice perch...-


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    Sensing Ilios cloak himself and bolt out of the tree, I looked over and watched him leap all the way to one of the nearby treants before passing over the crowd anding up to two people standing on top of a small building at the end of a branch that was reserved for nobles.


    It was Krystallo and Hera, excitedly watching over the crowd at the base of the Tree of Prayer and anticipating my arrival, even though Hera knew exactly where I was, staring in my direction with a soft smile.


    But it didn''tst forever. *tap* "AH!" She let out a yell and sent the artifact in her hands ripping through the canopy as Ilios''s brushed past her side,pletely hiding his presence from her until that moment.


    "Pffft-hahaha." I couldn''t help butugh even as Hera looked down at him with a baffled and slightly horrified expression. -I guess I''m not the only one Ilios baffles.-


    But unfortunately, after enjoying watching Ilios and Krystallo happily reunite, the fun eventually came to an end.


    Not far away from them, arge, almost 95-meter-tall silver-scaled dragon glided out of the forest of treants with a small ss resting just above his head, filled with a slightly viscous ck liquid.


    It was the elixir that resulted from my horn.


    Quicklying up to the Tree of Prayer, the huge ancient found his way up to Lief and the apostles before making a gentlending and handing the ss bottle off to Alva, the strongest apostle behind Lief.


    *pat* Humbly taking it from the air with her aura, she gently took hold of the bottle before walking up behind Lief and holding it out over her with a bow.


    It was my signal.


    *vwoop-FWOOOM* In an instant, I relinquished control over my aura and appeared behind her without so much as causing a slight breeze.


    Moving so fast that only the oldest of dragons watching could notice me before I reached the ground, it seemed as if I just appeared out of nothingness.


    But everyone, no matter where they were looking, what they were doing, and what they were thinking, knew I was there.


    -So this is the elixir, huh...- Swiftly lowering my nose next to the bottle presented by Alva, I picked it up with my aura and quickly began inspecting it.


    From what I could tell, it was an extract of my gics, mixed with an oddly specific bnce of every type of mana and separated into specific sections by unattributed mana, as if waiting to mix in the gut of the host when consumed. It seemed like they nned to use the mixing of mana to shock the body into an evolutionary state. -But is this enough?-


    Looking down at Lief, I spoke through wind magic. "Did the alchemist mention any shorings in the process of making this?"


    She jolted slightly before speaking so softly that only Alva and I could hear it. "It was mentioned that they couldn''t infuse enough mana into it for it to take full effect because of how much mana I have, but-"


    -So it isn''t enough...- "Alright." Cutting her off, I looked back into the elixir and immediately began infusing a huge amount of mana into it, essentially injecting as much as I could without it being too dangerous for her. -I may as well add a small amount of space mana too...-


    Until finally, I arrived at a bnce that felt more right. After my experience with Father, I could more-so estimate the effects the mana would have on her body and reserve, and while it would certainly deal some damage, that was just part of the reconstructive process. -Thankfully, her soul should be more than enough to handle what will be her new body...-


    "This will hurt quite a lot. Just don''t fight it and follow your instincts. If something goes wrong, I''ll save you." Pulling the vial away, now acting more like a liquid with a colorful tinge of mana floating through it, I lifted Lief''s chin with my aura and opened the bottle with a pop. *pop*


    She waspletely rxed, unlike just a moment ago, now putting her whole faith in me.


    But I didn''t n to intervene.


    "Brace yourself..." As she opened her mouth, I carefully pulled the elixir out of the bottle and took a moment to look over the disheveled crowd.


    It was the first time since before the Great War that a true apostle of the Ancient Fenrir would be born and that the greatest gift to be bestowed upon a Sirathan would see the limelight. No one wanted to miss it, no matter how hard it was to stay awake within my aura.


    -But I can''t deny that for me.. this will be a bit of an experiment...- The first of many I would undertake to learn about the new realm of mana science I wanted to finally properly dip my toes into.


    The interactions of gics, mana, and evolution.


    *plop-glug* Dropping it into her mouth, the liquid flowed into her stomach without even slowing down for the air in her throat to escape.


    And almost instantaneously, she lost consciousness, and her aura, which had remained calm and controlled until that point, erupted outward. *VWOOOOOM*


    Before anyone could react, her robe, lined with priceless artifacts and runes, began to melt, burn, and freeze simultaneously, exposing the discolored skin around her stomach as it hastily began destroying and reconstructing itself to an ever-changing blueprint, no matter how iplete or corrupted it was.


    But as instants turned into seconds, the changes spread through her body like a simmering fire and eventually began to stabilize like a forest reduced to ash after a wildfire, simply waiting for the opportunity to regrow.


    It was the beginning of a metamorphosis the likes of which the world hadn''t witnessed in over ten millennia.


    The first step of a humanoid reaching beyond mortality.


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 Chapter 345: Poking the Nest

    Chapter 345: Poking the Nest


    Late Morning - Late Summer : The Tree of Prayer, Valtivar | Siratha


    -----


    *VWOWOWOWOOM* The mana around us was inplete turmoil as the color of Lief''s skin rapidly fluctuated, from a rotten ck to a bright porcin, seemingly dposing before reforming itself with tendrils of muscle and coating it with skin.


    To most, it was likely quite a disgusting sight, but at the same time, no one around could take their eyes off her.


    -Seems like things are going well...- Turning toward her soul, I watched as it continuously fluctuated and reformed itself like the mixing of yin and yang, forming a small vortex at the center of her reserve and sucking in a considerable amount of mana like she was entering a dragon sleep.


    However, thankfully for us, this wasn''t an evolution on that scale. -Since she isn''t growing in size, and her body is already that of an ascended demihuman, so this should be a fairly seamless process... Though she might need more mana...-


    Without pulling my eyes off her, I swiftly ripped a melon-sized chunk out of the massive tree root we stood on before vector-flipping it into the void.


    *crackle-VWOOOM* A st of raw mana instantly erupted from the void, only to be contained by my aura and focused around Lief.


    Almost immediately, her body started to devour it like a starved dog, sucking in so much of it that it created a vortex even children could see.But while it pushed her reserve to the brink of shattering, it didn''t take long for the space mana I injected into the elixir to spread through her abdomen and reinforce it.


    Beyond that, all I did was contain the dense mana around her and elerate her body''s regeneration while it slowly spread her new, modified gics throughout her body, something I studied closely as it spread.


    From what I could tell, the mix of mana within the elixir was the catalyst of the entire process, destroying essentially everything in her body at an atomic level, simr to immense radiation, but rather than immediately repairing her DNA like the rest of her body, it would take sections of my DNA within the elixir to patch it up. Because of this process, she could never gain something like a new form through an elixir, and would always have the humanoid frame, but it didn''t exempt her from taking some traits from my other forms, such as the less dense bones in the legs of my Fenririan form or the more dense ones from my draconic form.


    But while it seemed simple when just looking at one strand of DNA, the grander scale of things wasn''t so simple. Each and every cell was hit by the immense shock of mana differently, and to make things moreplicated, even if two cells were dealt the same damage, they wouldn''t heal the same as each other.


    However, much like in arge ecosystem, it was survival of the fittest, and as time passed, the same thing happened with her cells; as she was reconstructed, the number of altering DNA strands shrank until just one blueprint overwhelmingly dominated the rest. -It really is like a bunch of tiny animals fighting... How intriguing...-


    Just watching it caused my curiosity to spike with my desire to see how far I could take things, to see if I could give her a draconic form by tagging another section of gics onto hers.


    But Lief was far from receable. -I can''t let myself get carried away...-


    Quickly calming back down and giving her body some guidance, the ceremony continued for about another half an hour, giving me more than enough time to understand the process and feelfortable about leaving her on her own for the remainder of the evolution, something I expected to take about a week based on her regeneration speed.


    However, as I was wrapping things up and preparing to leave, Lief''s body had a sudden twitch. *flick*


    -Hm?- Up until this point, there had yet to be any real visible changes to her besides the vibrance of small parts of her skin, and for the most part, she didn''t so much as flex a muscle even as they were reconstructed. The changes in her body had only just started. -She can''t be waking up already...-


    Quickly shifting my attention to her brain, I noticed a sudden surge of brain activity as if she was on the verge of waking up, even though she was in what was essentially a trauma-induceda. -Is she dreaming?-


    But I quickly got an answer to that question.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    *VWOOM-CRACKLE-tssss* The air around us crackled, sparked, and hissed as I caught Lief''s fist with my aura just below my jaw. -Interesting...- It was a punch with enough force to shatter the skull of an Elder,ing purely from an instinctual reaction. -Did her mind suddenly consider me a threat?-


    But that wasn''t the case.


    As I once again tunnel-visioned on Lief''s condition, I felt the faintest of mana ripplesing from just above my head and a few meters behind Alva, who was about ten meters behind Leif.


    It made my eyes go wide instantly. -How did I not sense them until now?-


    *VWOOOM* Releasing control of the mana around Lief, I caught the heavy fists of two humans cloaked with light magic just before their heavy fists could m into the back of our heads. *CRACKLE*


    Their strength was only just below that of Lief''s; both of their punches were backed by a substantial amount of divinity.


    However, unlike those strong enough to have divinity, those two humans had no aura at all. -What the hell..?- The only way I could detect them without closely reading my aura was by sensing the mana ripplesing from the runes lining their dark leather clothescking any kind of insignia.


    Looking more closely, I found that they were seemingly normal humans in their twenties with highly trained bodies, no reserve or attribute nodes, the souls of the average peasant, and possessing a trait not too terribly umon among humans called mana insensitivity.


    But that wasn''t what disturbed me. -How do they have this much divinity...- Although nothingpared to what Lief had, it was enough to give regr humans the durability of older dragons and strength that could rival the likes of an Apostle like Alva, all while having an almost undetectable presence. -They aren''t apostles... There isn''t a tether connected to them at all. They also have no means ofmunication or identification...-


    It made me think they were some kind of puppet, like a lifeless shell infused with the desire of a god, something I knew to be possible, even if it was a bit of a stretch. -And with the Holy Kingdom constantly poking the nest.. I''m sure it''s them...-


    But once enough time passed for the humans to react, I found that not to be the case.


    "Ah-AHHH!" They both screamed as they finally reacted to every bone within their arms shattering from how my aura stopped their fists instantaneously.


    Not only were both the humans conscious, but they also acted and reacted normally, their hearts racing from stress and their minds breaking into panic. It was almost as if they were only trained physically. -Is this really the standard of assassins trained by the Holy Kingdom? They couldn''t have given this much divinity to sacrificialmbs, right?-


    Deciding to only interrogate one of the assassins, I picked the more panicked of the two, the one who was targeting me, and swiped my tail through him so fast my fur acted like dense wall of razor des, instantly reducing him to a misty and powdery mix of blood, flesh, and bone, and shredding everything down to his divinity.


    But while the other man was still alive, his death would be far more painful. "Hera, would you mind holding onto this man while I wrap things up?" Moving the man up to the edge of Hera''s aura, I held him there until she picked him up with a silent nod. "I expect him to be tied to Asgard somehow, but-"


    However, the moment I let go of him, his soul scattered, and every part of his body was stripped away from his web of divinity. *CRACKLE*


    But it wasn''t Hera''s doing. *VWOOM* Finally noticing the god''s appearance as the human''s body was eviscerated, I sped up my divinity slightly, but by the time I slowed things down, the presence had already moved thousands of kilometers away and dragged the human''s web of divinity with it, leaving only a bloody mist behind.


    But while I could have easily caught up to them with the void, and had more than enough divinity to ughter them like cattle, I simply normalized my divinity, not wanting to waste it before helping Father.


    "He sure hasn''t changed..." Hera mumbled under her breath as she looked toward the now-distant presence far over the horizon.


    "Do you know him?" I spoke calmly, already knowing they were a god of Asgard based on the direction they ran.


    "That was Baldur, the eldest son of Odin and Frigg... He''s just as childish as ever..."


    -Baldur, huh... Is he the one directing the pushes on Siratha?- He was a god I knew quite well through Hera, and was the epitome of a child born with a golden spoon.


    But in reality he was simply the result of a sessful experiment between Odin and Frigg to create a child through just the mixing andbinations of souls.


    He was essentially an amalgamation of the personalities of Frigg and Odin, mixed with that of a young human child, giving him strength rivaling the top of Asgard yet the disposition of a spoiled teenager. Energetic, unpredictable, and powerful.


    In other words, he was a bomb simply waiting to explode.


    It was just a matter of time. -But the more time he gives me, the easier he will be to deal with...-


    He was clearly nning something, going as far as to test the waters with me.


    But he had no idea what kind of nest he was jabbing at.


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 Chapter 346: Assimilation

    Chapter 346: Assimtion


    Early Evening - Late Summer : The Tree of Prayer, Valtivar | Siratha


    -----


    "So, you''re going to finally reveal yourself, huh?"


    There was a short pause before the air next to my ear gently vibrated, rying a deep draconic voice. "I was originally going to give it some more time, but there is no point in dying it further."


    I paused before turning my head slightly and shooting a gaze up into the branches of a nearby treant, meeting the stare of a beautiful draconic woman confidently sipping a ss of piotita on the roof of the most expensive tavern in town, overlooking the base of the Tree of Prayer. "Is that so?" It was Hera.


    Taking a casual sip, she leaned up against the railing, cloaking all but two of the wings sprouting from her back to avoid people raising suspicions of her. "Well, as you said the other day, I should strike while the iron is hot."


    It had been about a week and a half since the ceremony began at that point, and with me not feelingfortable leaving Lief alone after the appearance of Baldur, I had simply loitered around her at the base of the Tree of Prayer, cloaked with light magic while speaking to Hera about what was toe. "I meant that as more of a general statement." *pat* I continued as Iid my head back down. "The iron has already started to cool. You wouldn''t want to hit it now."


    She smirked as she leaned into the railing. "Hoh? And what makes you think that?"


    "The assimtion of Bahamut and Siratha was when the iron was struck; the moment of reformation that cleaned out the ''impurities'' and started a new era where dragons could start openly worshiping a Diety other than Bahamut... It''s a change not everyone could ept, but things have finally started to stabilize. If my family or I were fully backing you with your sudden reappearance, I''m sure it would raise suspicions about our intentions. It would be too much change too fast and just destabilize things... It would make the iron brittle.""Not necessarily..." She took a quick sip of her drink as she looked down at a young dragon and elf ying together in the street. "Currently, there are two main groups in Bahamut: those that support Siratha and those that do not, both sides will despise me. However, the disdain I''d receive from those who support Siratha''s growing power and influence would be quelled by your support, and those who don''t like the assimtion would be quelled by me, a demigod capable of filling the gap Bahamut has left vacant for so long."


    I immediately raised my eyebrows with an unconvinced look. "But you''re forgetting the public sentiment toward you... What makes you think the people who don''t like me would automatically ept you?"


    "Because in their eyes, even if you are supporting me, I am your opposition... As it stands, Bahamut has no God or even demigods. If you wanted to, you could flip the table on them and rule Bahamut whether they wanted it or not. No one could stop you..." She let out a short breath before moving her gaze back to me. "With me, they would have a force that can oppose you, a power that can keep you in check... Even if my reputation puts a bad taste in their mouth, they would have to deal with it in order to gain my strength."


    -I didn''t think about that...- It was actually a pretty solid n, appealing to public sentiment in order to take the upper hand. Her only issue would be getting the support of those within the Elder Hall and highly influential figures like Amphitrite and Myles to preemptively quell what would be the leading voices of the opposition. -Although there will always be those that speak up...- "What do you n to do about those that use your sudden usurpment of political power to spark a rebellion?"


    "Well, more than likely, it would be sparked by those who were rted to the original ndering of my name or are on the side of the Holy Kingdom, seeing it as an opportunity to sow discourse."


    -So she wants to use it as an opportunity to clean out the rest of the traitors as well...- "It seems like you''ve got it all figured out, huh... Just don''t forget to at least get the Elder Hall on your side before you do anything crazy..." Although there was still a lingering worry in the back of my mind, I simply shook it off as it appeared. "When are you nning on leaving?"


    "Haha, you say that like you aren''ting with me." Quickly finishing her drink, she moved the cup away with her aura to refill it. "I n to wait for Lief to awaken. I doubt that will be too far away."


    -That''s true...- After a week and a half, Lief''s condition had progressed greatly, and even though it took a little longer than I expected, she had almost entirely finished her evolution. "She''ll probably wake up at some point today." -In the meantime, I need to figure out what I''m going to do with Krystallo...-


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    Ever since the ceremony began, she had stuck to Hera like glue, receiving some lessons on politics, public image, and magic from her while receiving guidance from Ilios or me asionally. But that didn''t mean everything was perfect even if she herself didn''t notice.


    -While I want to leave her with Lief so she can resume her lessons on politics, I don''t think I can...- In recent days, she had stuck with Hera at all times, even out in public or when Hera bought out the roof of the mostvish tavern in town just to silently sip on piotita. [1]


    To the elves and demihumans who thought Krystallo was really a demihuman, they had begun spreading rumors that she was perhaps the apostle or child of Dagr, while the dragons who were in touch with the happenings in Bahamut were quick to tie her to the Ragnaroks, saying Hera was her guardian while Mother and Father were busy.


    But while such rumors weren''t exactly bad since that was all they were, considering the way the Aesir was watching Siratha, I didn''t want to risk a targetnding on her, as both circting rumors had the ability to put her in danger. -She needs to go back to Bahamut for a while.. if she stays by Father, it''ll only reinforce the idea that she''s a Ragnarok, and if she sticks to Lief she''ll seem like a young apostle...-


    Plus, I didn''t have the need to ask Krystallo herself what she wanted because I knew already.


    "Sister Hera! Sister Hera! I did it!" Happily trotting up the railing next to Hera was Krystallo, holding out a small, glowing ball of ice.


    It was something Hera told her to make in order to improve her fine mana control while isting it from its surroundings to prevent it from melting at the same time. "Wow! Would you look at that!" Hera''s expression lightened instantly. "Hasn''t it only been two hours? How did you make it so fast?"


    On the outside, it looked like a normal ball of ice, but instead, it was a ball utilizing a very specific fractal pattern that made the sphere essentially disintegrate when any kind of pressure was applied. "It wasn''t that bad! I just created a thin disk first like Brother said, then rotated and repeated the pattern to fill the sphere from the inside out!"


    Gently picking it up with her aura, Hera inspected it quite closely. "To get the fractal so small as well... Being full of surprises must run in your blood..."


    Krystallo immediately puffed up her chest with pride, and before I knew it, a few hours slipped away from me.


    Hera and I simply guided Krystallo through a few other spells to work on her control until Ilios eventually got up from his nap with a stretch and trotted over to the railing. -He felt that, huh...-


    Even when all the way up in a treant over a dozen kilometers away, he felt the faint vortex of mana around Lief finallye to an end.


    It wasn''t more than a few seconds after that that her body finally went limp and copsed to the ground, falling from the kneel that had held since the start of the ceremony. *thump*


    -She''s finally up, huh?- *pat* Standing up with a stretch, I sat down and looked over her, watching her brain activity slowly increase until finally.


    *flutter* Her eyes twitched before slowly opening as she rolled onto her back. "Hmmm..." It was like she was waking up from a good nap... At least until she saw me looming over her.


    "AH!" *VWOOM-FWOOOSH* In a flurry of panic, she sted out her aura and threw herself into a kneel, clearly not remembering what the situation is. "I-I''M S-SORRY MY LORD!" She immediately yelled out with slurred words and a lisp, not yet used to the difference in the strength of her tongue after her evolution.


    Oddly enough, I felt an odd pride seeing her kneeling there. She resembled my humanoid form so closely it made me feel like I was looking at my own child. "You just finished your evolution. What is there to be sorry about?"


    "Huh?" Finally remembering, she looked down at her pale hands and noticed the ck strands of hair hanging next to her face and went wide eyed.


    Her hair had turned ck, her eyes had turned silver, her tail had gotten longer, and she had even sprouted a single small horn next to her right ear with some dragon scales lining her spine.


    But while those changes were enough to nearlypletely alter her own identity, the changes inside her body were far greater.


    "How do you feel?" I spoke through a smile, more than satisfied with the changes to her body. -I wonder how strong she is now...-


    "I.. feel..." She paused as she clenched her fists a few times and ran her hand down her body, through the clothes I had temporarily made for her. "I feel s-so.. different..."


    "Well, of course! Did you think an elixir I gave to you would be weak?"


    Her eyes slowly lit up as she used her aura to look over herself. "Of course not!" Looking up at me, her eyes sparkled with a childish pride and joy simr to what I would usually see in Krystallo.


    But as I was about to offer a simple ''spar'', her gaze stiffened with hostility and shot up into the treant behind me.


    "Haha, that''s just Hera, Lief." I spoke calmly.


    But rather than relief, her expression warped to confusion. "Huh?!"


    I honestly didn''t know what to think of it. -Could you not sense her before?-


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>[1] - She was also talking to Vas at those times, the people around just didn''t know</strong>


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 Chapter 347: Preparing for the Return

    Chapter 347: Preparing for the Return


    Mid Evening - Late Summer : The Tree of Prayer, Valtivar | Siratha


    -----


    Lief instantly turned her head to me in agitated confusion. "Huh?!"


    I honestly didn''t know what to think of it. -Could you not sense her before?-


    "Has her aura always been that.." an irritated look came to her face as she looked back up toward Hera, "..bative?"


    Tilting my head a bit, I looked up toward her as well, but she just smiled and waved. -What does that mean?- Where Hera''s aura met mine, it waspletely smooth and calm, so I wasn''t sure where she wasing from.


    "I feel like she''s trying to squish us, My Lord..." The animosity in her voice slowly grew the longer she stared.


    -Hm...- A momentary silence epassed us as I gave something a bit of thought before deciding to go with it. "So what do you think of a friendly spar with her? You know, to stretch your legs some." Originally, I was going to ''spar'' with her myself, but after a moment of thought, I figured it would be better to take advantage of the sudden animosity since I wasn''t keen on the idea of unting my humanoid form in front of Sirathans as Nott.


    However, Lief''s reaction was a bit unexpected. "Huh?!" Her irritation and confidence disappeared in an instant. "A s-spar?!""Haha," I let out a chuckle as her slight lisp and slurring of words returned, and her ''confidence'' disappeared. "Just think of it as you receiving guidance from her. She''ll be limited to her humanoid form, and I''ll make sure she doesn''t go too far, okay?"


    Realizing I wasn''t really giving her a choice, she gulped down her already diminished confidence before looking back up at Hera, standing at the edge of the railing with a smile as she took a casual sip of a new ss of alcohol.


    To me, nothing about her seemed out of ce, but at that moment, to Lief, it was simply predatory. "Hera, what do you think about it? Care to give her some guidance?"


    Turning her gaze to me and looking deep into my eyes, Hera slowly took a final sip of piotita before moving the ss away with her aura and setting it on a table behind her. "I would rather tussle with you.." *sip* ".. but I wouldn''t mind guiding a junior." *tap* Reaching to the side, she gently rubbed Krystallo''s head and bent down to her level. "It seems your brother wants me to give Lief some ''guidance''. So, I''ll be right back."


    Krystallo''s curious and questioning expression instantly morphed with excitement as she ran up to the railing and looked down at Lief, who I just revealed from beneath my light magic. "A spar?!"


    Finally noticing that Lief had awoken, the crowd around us at the base of the tree immediately reached up in cheers, praising my name and congratting Lief on her sessful evolution.


    But after darting up to the tavern, the sound of their cheers had yet to reach us.


    "Is sister Hera really going to spar Miss Lief?!" Krystallo, bncing her waist on the railing, kicked her dangling feet with excitement as she looked down over the crowd.


    "Mhm! I''m curious how she''ll fare." Quickly grabbing a ss from downstairs, I filled it with Piotita from the barrel Hera bought earlier and brought it to my hand. *vwoom-pat*


    As I turned back to the railing, Krystallo looked back at me with an excited look. "Do you think Miss Lief will win?"


    "Haha!" I let out an immediate, hardyugh. "Absolutely not."


    *FLASH-CR-CRAAACK* The instant I finished speaking and put the ss to my lips, the area around Lief lit up with a sh, and Hera''s right palm, coated with superheated sma appeared in front of Lief''s chest.


    Lief barely even had a chance to react. *ZIP* Shifting her feet and turning her shoulder with pure reflexes, the palm zipped across her chest with enough force to kill an ancient. *FWOOOOOOSH*


    Looking at Hera''s partially scaled arm in pure shock, Lief''s eyes went wide.


    But Hera didn''t give her a chance to think. *THUMP* Swiping Lief''s legs out from under her, Hera instantly pulled her palm back and grabbed Lief''s face, but taking advantage of the split second Hera couldn''t dodge, Lief drove her foot into Hera''s cheek.


    *CRACK-CRACKLEEE* The entire Tree of Prayer shook violently as splinters of wood from the root they stood on shot out in every direction.


    Everything happened so fast the crowd couldn''t even react to it.


    But as the dust settled, Lief''s expression slowly turned worried.


    Rather than finding her foot firmly seated on the side of Hera''s face, or perhaps Hera wearing a serious or shocked expression, she found her firmly gripping the top of her foot with an entertained smile. "Hey, you''re better than I thought you''d be!"


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    As if having turned into a cat ying with a mouse, Hera instantlyunched Lief by the ankle over the crowd. *Fwip-FWOOOSH*


    *WHAM-CRACKLEE* Ripping up the ground as shended a few kilometers away, Lief quickly slowed to a halt before looking at her palm and clenching a fist with a shocked expression.


    With each second, the worry on her face was dissipating. -She''s finally recognizing her new strength, huh...-


    *VWOOM* Quickly sharpening and condensing her aura to be denser than Hera''s, it looked as if a bubble of mana suddenly formed around her. "Everyone on the ground, please clear the area!" She amplified her voice with magic as she spoke. "This spar was directed by Our Lord!"


    Hearing that I had directed it, every speck of animosity and displeasure in the crowd vanished, and they cleared out without a hint of hesitation.


    But it still took a few dozen seconds for them to clear the area.


    In the meantime, Hera gave Lief quite a good piece of advice. "What are you trying to aplish by not using magic?"


    "Hooh..." Letting out a frosty breath, Lief lowered her stance and shifted her entire demeanor, stiffening her gaze and rxing her body. "I wasn''t sure if I could go all out just yet... But don''t worry, because I will now..."


    As Lief''s gaze finallynded back on Hera, everyone hastily clearing the area watched her with baited breaths, but just a momentter, she vanished.


    It was time for her to finally make use of her new attribute nodes.


    *ZIP* A line of light created by zing sma instantly connected where she once stood to Hera.


    But even that speed was slow to Hera. "Are you really going to just charge straight at m-" *crackle* However, as she went to take a step back, her confident tone vanished, ice suddenly epassed her foot, and a beam of light blew over her face like an intense shbang. *BRRRMMM*


    With Lief''s aura sopacted around her, her sequence of spells made herpletely vanish from Hera''s senses, even her aura, allowing her to get close, stop just in front of her and swing her earth mana-strengthened shin up into Hera''s side.


    *WHAM* Without giving Hera a chance to react, she instantly followed it up with a lightning bolt far beyond the bounds of what nature could typically create. *CRRAAAACKK*


    But before the sh of light from the lightning could fade, Hera, who should have beenunched more than a few kilometers away, appeared in Lief''s face. "You''re too slowpared to your durability..."


    *CRACK* With a reflexive movement, Lief parried Hera''s punch aimed for her stomach and transferred the energy to her elbow, spinning around and catching Hera''s jaw with the force of her own punch.


    *WHAAAAAAM* Hitting the side of the tree root adjacent to them, the Tree of Prayer rattled, nearly ripping more roots out of the ground while catching Hera on a cushion of hardened wood that quickly turned to a bed of splinters.


    *thump* But as the dust settled, and Hera fell to the ground Lief just found her gently rubbing the side of her jaw, and went pale.


    "To think you would be able tond a hit that hard... I guess it''s no wonder ''he'' gave you special treatment..." Momentarily ncing up at me, Hera seemed to try and read my expression, but after lowering her gaze again, her expression finally stiffened. "Well, I guess that means I can go a little harder then."


    *FWOOOOM* "Stop." Feeling her speed up a small bit of her divinity, I finally stepped in with an unamused look. "I told you to give her guidance, not beat her."


    Hera almost instantly stopped. "The only way she can learn is through experience. Her technique isn''t far from perfect."


    "That doesn''t mean you can blow her spine out using divinity. If you want to guide her, beat her with technique, not raw strength."


    She paused before looking back at Lief. "In that case, I''ll start using magic. Is that fine?"


    *sip* "As long as you hold your strength back topensate."


    A grin immediately spread across her face. "Alright. I can work with that."


    Krystallo, watching with a worried look, mumbled as Hera gently massaged her neck. "Is sister Hera okay? That looked like a big hit..."


    *pat* Setting my hand on her head, the worry quickly faded from her eyes. "Hera could probably take my full strength; she''s more than okay. That was just a hit she felt."


    *sip* Taking a quick, refreshing sip of piotita, I looked down at Hera and Lief, watching closely as they restarted the spar.


    It was just as one-sided in Hera''s favor as I had imagined. There was only so much you could do against a being that much stronger than you, even if they were holding back.


    But it was a good opportunity for someone else. "Make sure you''re watching what they''re doing, even if it''s a little hard to follow... It''ll make for a good learning experience."


    I was hoping Krystallo would be able to watch the fight and maybe learn some techniques, but it seemed like saying anything was needless.


    Even before I opened my mouth, there was nothing but focus and the reflection of the fight in her eyes.


    Although the fight was happening so fast, even Elders wouldn''t be able to follow it; she didn''t seem to have any trouble. -Maybe it''s because she''s learned some techniques from both of them...-


    But it honestly made me start wondering. -When the Coming of Age Festival rolls around.. I wonder how the other prodigies will fare against her...-


    Although I can''t say I didn''t already have an idea how it was going to go...


    I was simply holding my hopes up that she could find a good rival.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>As many of you know, I will not be here next week so don��t expect any chapters! I��m flying across the country to spend some time with my girlfriend, so I will not be writing.</strong>


    <strong>However, while the next chapter will likely be Friday week after next, the half-chapter I promised a while back should also be finished up shortly after I get back. (I also may make it Patreon exclusive)</strong>


    <strong>In any case, I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!! Thank you for your eversting support!! <></strong>


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 Chapter 348: The Things I’ve Missed

    Chapter 348: The Things I��ve Missed


    Late Evening - Late Summer : The Tree of Prayer, Valtivar | Siratha


    -----


    Beams of orange light pierced the thick canopy and illuminated the upper tree trunk of the Tree of Prayer as the evening sun began to set behind the ever-distant horizon.


    It had been a few hours since Hera and Leif started sparring, and since then, they had gathered quite a crowd, from those who wanted to learn to those who simply wanted the entertainment of a fight at a level even the eldest ancients would struggle to contend at. It was honestly quite a sight seeing so many dragons gathered about, but as a consequence, many questions were being raised about Hera, asking who she was and what her rtion to Lief and I was to be involved in a ''spar dictated by the gods''.


    But with her likely only a few weeks from revealing herself to the public, I was far from worried.


    *sip* *tap* Setting my empty ss down after finishing thest barrel of piotita, I finally looked over the fight and spoke firmly, "I think it''s best to call things here."


    *FWOOM* The moment my words met their ears, both of them stopped, with Hera''s hand extended toward Lief, ready to apply even more pressure onto her, and Lief ready to defend in a lowered stance.


    But it onlysted a moment. *thump* "Hah... Hah..." Falling back onto her butt, Lief let out some heavy, worn breaths before shooting a gaze at Hera, standing with hardly a blemish on her clothes. "What kind of monster are you..."


    Hera was quick to shrug before looking out over the crowd and speaking without the use of silencing magic. "You will find out who I am in due time, don''t worry."To try andfort Lief a bit, I was quick to whisper to her. "She''s barely a step below a god," -At least in the traditional sense...- "Don''t stress it, you did great."


    And while it was true that Hera made her seem weak inparison, no one watching doubted her strength even for an instant. Rather than viewing Lief after her transformation as weak, they viewed Hera as an absolute monster.


    But it''s not like that was too surprising.


    As the fight progressed, Lief steadily improved her technique and constantly increased how much of her newfound strength she could bring to light, to the point that blows she dealt would cause the entire Tree of Prayer to shudder. The thing that just put it all into perspective was when she hit, she would hardly budge, partially from how sturdy she was and partially from the insane weight difference between them. -I think Hera is even heavier than me.. although I doubt it''s by too much...-


    "But, anyway..." *Vwoom* ncing to my side, I watched as Hera seemed to appear out of thin air before gently caressing Krystallo''s head.


    "Were you able to learn anything?"


    She immediately looked up at Hera with a sparkle in her eyes before giving a fervorous nod. "Of course!"


    Hera showed an oddly motherly smile for a moment before noticing me handing her a full ss of piotita. "Haha, is this thest ss?"


    I was quick to shrug. "I know a ce where I could always get more."


    "Hoh?" She gave me a sly smile as she took a sip. "You''ll have to take me there at some point."


    "Haha, do you want to drain my whole supply?"


    "Did you think that spar was free?"


    I paused for a moment before letting out a quick breath. "Well, I guess that''s fair. We can stop at my secret ce and pick up a few barrels before we head to Bahamut." -It''s about time I check up on the Oasis anyway...- "But before that..." Looking down at Lief, I saw herying out on one of the Tree of Prayer''s roots, panting from exhaustion. "We''re nning on leaving for Bahamut now. There are some matters I need to attend to there. I trust that you can handle things while I''m gone?"


    "Hah... Of... Course..." Slowly sitting up, she looked straight at me. "Is Lady Krystallo going to be staying with me?"


    I promptly shook my head. "No, she''ll being with Hera and I for the time being." -I can''t risk a targetnding on her, especially with Baldur running about...-


    "I see..." *thump* Laying back out, she continued to try and catch her breath. "In that case, there is nothing to worry about. But before you go, allow me to say thank you, My Lord for the opportunity to spar with someone so strong." An exhausted smile slowly crept onto her face as she spoke.


    "I''m just d you were able to learn something from it. Maybe next time I''ll have you spar me."


    "Ack- *cough-cough*" She immediately started coughing as she jolted up. "Surely you jest..."


    "Haha, I''d hold back." I paused as I nced at Hera, noticing she had already started finishing her drink. "In any case, we will get going... If you need to reach me for anything, there is a human god watching over my Father. I''ll tell them to alert me if you go there and ask for me."


    Slowly sitting up, she brought herself to a kneel before giving her momentary farewell. "As you wish, My Lord. I vow to use the strength you have bestowed on me for your good. You may rest easy leaving Siratha in my hands."


    I felt a bit awkward hearing her say it so genuinely since I felt like I hadn''t done much in terms of managing Siratha, but it was true that I trusted her more than anyone else in Siratha.


    Finally seeing her shift her attention toward the ever-approaching group of religious figures that were watching the spar, I turned my back to the railing and leaned against it. "Do you have your things together, Krystallo?"


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    She nodded immediately. "Mhm!"


    "Then let''s go get it and take to the skies, shall we?"


    After that, with some help from Hera, we went back to Lief''s estate to grab a few of Krystallo''s belongings before finally taking to the air.


    Our first destination was the Eastern Oasis, and while we took our time to get there, after flying into the sun for a couple of hours, it was still dusk when we arrived.


    But that only made the appearance of the Eastern Oasis blow my mind even more.


    As the temple began cresting the horizon, I found myself looking over a huge field of stilted buildings lit by artifacts andterns, with countless trails around the ind leading to other, more sparsely popted areas. -Geez.. to think it came this far in just a few years...-


    "So the temple was neglected to this extent, huh..." Hera seemed quite disappointed to see the state of the temple. "Even the inhabitants here have neglected themselves..."


    -Ah, she''s misunderstanding...- "No one was living here. There wasn''t so much as a single building left standing besides the temple when this city was established."


    "Huh?!" She immediately turned to me with a mix of confusion and horror. "This used to be a ce deeply worshipped by humans. It was home to one of the strongest economic cities in the world."


    "Well.. the after-effects of the Great War must have done quite a number on them..." -There didn''t seem to be so much as ruins before Abbie settled the town here...- Even looking beneath the ground, you could, at most, find some rubble, with almost nothing resembling so much as a foundation. -I guess ten thousand years on a small tropical ind sure dealt its damage...-


    Looking at the temple, thest relic of the city''s existence, I honestly began to question just what this ce looked like back then, but before long, Krystallo interrupted my thoughts.


    "Woooaaahh!" Hopping up with gleaming eyes and a smoothly wagging tail, Krystallo looked out over the town in awe. "This wasn''t here when we first went to Bahamut! What happened?!"


    "Haha," Seeing her gleaming excitement made me smile. "I made a deal with some pirates a while back, so they founded this ce as a pirate city."


    As I spoke, Krystallo''s gaze eventually found its way to the port, a massive area of docked ships, from small vessels to galleons, all hoisting the same ck g.


    It was actually a g I recognized. -Is that Adrian''s g? Did he take the ce from Abbie?- [1]


    But as we eventually descended toward the ind, and I scanned it to try and find them, I found that not to be the case.


    In the main tavern not far from the port, the same I found Abbie drinking in every time I arrived, I found Adrian and her drinking to their heart''s content, singing and dancing to the beat of a ragtag group of instrumentalists.


    It had been well over eight years since I had seen them, but they both hadn''t aged a day. -It looks like they''re doing well...-


    *FWOOSH* Finallying in for anding while cloaked with magic, I let Hera, Ilios, and Krystallo all off my back before changing to my humanoid form and fixing my clothes.


    "Brother?" Krystallo seemed both curious and worried. "Are you sure we can just walk in?"


    I was quick to nod. "Your brother owns this ind, don''t worry."


    Finally walking around the bend of the beach, we hopped up onto a raised deck at the edge of the port before nonchntly walking toward the main path leading to the town around theke.


    Almost immediately, we were spotted by several of the lookouts, but rather than sounding the rm, they panicked a bit before each ringing a bell twice. *Ding* *Ding*


    "Hm?" The next thing I knew, a young face popped over the edge of one of thergest, clearly stolen galleons before lighting up. "*Gasp* Is that Mister Vass?!"


    -Huh?- It was a young child who could only be six or seven years old. -Who is she?-


    Krystallo and Hera shared simrly confused expressions with me, both gazing at the child, wondering how not only such a young girl recognized me but was extremely excited to see me.


    However, after a moment of her moring to get off the ship and stumbling onto the dock, she turned to run to me, only to be stopped by one of the lookouts. *vwoom* He was quite strong for a human, all things considered. "Young miss," He spoke with a very hushed tone. "You cannot just run up to strangers..."


    She immediately pouted. "I would never fail to recognize Momma and Daddy''s savior!"


    -Huh?- I was taken aback before I could even think. "Little miss, who are your parents?"


    Her face lit up as I spoke to her, but the man with her went pale. "Miss, we can''t risk-"


    "My Momma is Captain Abbie, and my Daddy is Captain Adrian!"


    I instantly jolted. -Ah...- While I had indeed pushed them in a simr direction as one another, it didn''t turn out like I expected. -It seems like they''re doing even better than it looked like.- "And your name is?"


    "Ann!"


    "Well, Miss Ann. Would you like to walk with us back to town? We were headed to meet with your parents."


    "Of course!"


    Seeing the lookout try to keep her where she was, a few hundred meters away, I ''coerced'' him to let her go before finally turning for the city.


    "So, what''s your name? To follow Mister Vasilias, you must be super strong!" Ann was quick to run up to Krystallo not long after we started walking.


    But her reaction was about what I expected. "Of course I''m strong!" Although even by appearance, Krystallo was much older than the young girl, she certainly didn''t mind the praise.


    And like that, our entrance to the town was swift. Walking down a stone-paved road leading from the docks to theke before walking up onto the stilted town and making our way to the tavern.


    *ck* Shoving open the swinging doors, Ann ran straight into the tavern and hugged onto Abbie''s leg. "Momma, Momma! Look who came!" She immediately pointed at me in the door, and almost instantly, the whole tavern went quiet, and Abbie froze in ce.


    Adrian though, seemed to have other ns. "Vasilias?! How are you doin''?" He was absolutely wasted, holding a bottle of rum in one hand before reaching over the bar and grabbing a smaller white bottle from beneath the counter with his other hand. "I feel sad you took so long to just visit!" *fwip*


    *tap* Catching the bottle as he tossed it to me, I found it was a small white, human-portioned ss of Piotita.


    When I looked back up at him, I wanted tough. "I hope this isn''t the only Piotita you have."


    "Of course not!" *ck* Setting down his mug of Viliwyr, he moved his hand up and pinched his nose before exhaling a trail of smoke smelling of alcohol and bringing rity to his drunken eyes. "You think I would drink that nasty shit?"


    A smile quickly found its way onto my face. "You never know." -It seems I underestimated how much stronger he''s gotten, too.-


    <strong>-----</strong>


    [1] - Adrian was the pirate Vasilias met when first leaving the nest and heading to Siratha.


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 Chapter 349: Catch-Up

    Chapter 349: Catch-Up


    Late Evening - Late Summer : The Eastern Oasis


    -----


    "HAHA! I win again! Who''s next!" *Thump-CHUG* Ripping her mug off the table and throwing the drink down her throat, Hera dunked the mug into a barrel of liquid on the ground next to her and refilled it. "For a barrel of Piotita, 34 tinum can be yours!" She quickly pointed toward the center of the table, where a bag of coinsy.


    It had only been a few hours since we first arrived, but in that timeframe, Hera had amassed about twenty barrels of slightly aged Piotita. All from betting.


    In the eyes of everyone else, it was simple. Beat her in any game of your choice, and you win the bag of tinum, but if you lose, you have to pay up with a barrel of Piotita.


    As it turned out, people in the Oasis had begun amassing it because of a rumor that some people would pay huge sums of money for it from time to time. It was essentially like they were treating it as an investment. -An investment that will pay off for them.-


    *Clunk* Watching a saddened man stack yet another barrel of Piotita behind Hera, I let out a chuckle. -Well, at least some of them...- *sip* "I should probably buy some to take home though." Although Krystallo was still too young to enjoy the taste, I was certain Mother and Grandmother would enjoy it.


    "How many do you want? Five, ten barrels?" Adrian confidently looked over at me before looking at Abbie. "She''s stockpiled a couple hundred over the years just for you."


    A smile instantly came to my face. "I''m d you were thinking of me, but you should really be buying up as many as you can even if it costs a couple gold coins. I know some people that would pay some exorbitant sums to get just a few barrels.""Hoho, is that so?" It looked as if money signs suddenly flickered in Adrian''s eyes instantly.


    "It wouldn''t be a bad way to give the city a new ie source... Speaking of.. how''s everythinging along in the city''s development? From the sky, it seemed like the city was thriving."


    Not questioning my wording, Abbie quickly spoke up. "It hasn''t been easy, but we havee a long way. Our poption is somewhere around twenty thousand, and we are by far thergest pirate group around this part of the Main Continent.. although that''s bringing on some issues..."


    -Hm?- "How is that causing issues?" -Are there some groups getting hostile?-


    Her conflicted expression quickly darkened. "We have tried to work with Kan for peaceful rtions, such as simply having merchant ships pay us a tithe to pass through this area, or even engage in trade with us for mutual benefit, but they have all ended sour."


    -Huh? They''ve ended sour?- "What do you mean?"


    "Haah..." She let out a heavy, stress-filled sigh as she averted her eyes. "We''ve lost nearly all the ships we''ve sent to negotiate with them, even those waving a white g."


    -That.. doesn''t sound right...- Right away, something felt off. "Are you sure it''s Kan? Why would they sink surrendering ships?" -I doubt Oliver would be so overly hostile.. even to pirates...-


    "We haven''t ever had friendly rtions, but after we took one of their galleons, it got really bad. Because ofck ofpliance, we ended up killing the captain and several in the crew before selling the rest of the crew and the noble aboard for ransom."


    -Ah.. I bet the hostility is from the noble...- "Do you know who the noble was?"


    "He was just a wealthy man who owned inns throughout Kan, Toria, and the Holy Kingdom."


    -Well, shit...- It was money they fucked with. -He probably just loaded bounties on the Oasis... If he has inns all around here, I''m sure some of the ships that get robbed are his.- "Do you have trouble with Toria or the Holy Kingdom?"


    "Not as kingdoms. We''ve had trouble with certain merchant groups, but none of them got their respective kingdoms involved, and that gave us the upper hand in negotiations. The most trouble we''ve had outside of Kan was one of the international merchant groups. They put up a fight until Adrian came around. Supposedly the captain knew him." ncing up and seeing Adrian''s proud smile, a faint smile came to her face before looking away again.


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    Adrian was quick to continue where she left off. "He was a merchant I came to know while I was still in Elynnor. After I de-escted things with him, we made a deal to trade as long as we granted his vessels free use of the trade route... He gave us a decent discount on several things too."


    "Could you not ask him to mediate rtions with Kan?"


    Adrian quickly shook his head. "Unfortunately not. ording to thest trade ship that came by, he''s on his way towards Elynnor again. Even if we sent the message now, it''d take months."


    "Hm..." Turning back toward Hera, I took another sip of my Piotita. "In that case, use this..." *Ding* With a casual flick, I tossed a small gold medallion to Abbie with a special Kan insignia on it. "Just don''t go to the port. Take it straight to the capital. It''ll let you meet with the royal family... If they ask where you got it, say you got it from Vasilias Whyte."


    Overhearing me, Hera quickly looked over. "Do you know the royal family of Kan?"


    I quickly nodded. "How do you think they went from a fairly small nation to an Empire in nine years?"


    Silence quickly filled the tavern, but before long, Ann came running back inside after ying with Ilios, and the liveliness of the tavern returned, not to fade again for the rest of the night.


    By the time morning rolled back around and Hera finished creating a small horde of piotita, many of the pirates had passed out from the alcohol, and we finally decided it was our time to leave.


    Having talked to Abbie and Adrian the whole night, it was quite obvious they were doing well for themselves, having not only grown the city but also a family in that deste corner of the world. But I was quite happy for them. To a small extent, it made me want to start a family myself, although I knew such a thing wasn''t a possibility as things were.


    "That does make me wonder though..." Looking back at Hera as she hopped up on my back and got situated, I gave her a curious look. "Did you ever have kids?"


    Having never heard of the Monachik��s family outside of Hera, I honestly wondered what had happened with them.


    But I ended up getting the answer I didn''t expect. "I.. have not..." She quickly became embarrassed as she helped Krystallo up onto my back.


    -Huh?!- I was certain she would have, especially considering her position just below Bahamut. -I''m sure she had guys trying to court her...- "Was Bahamut your husband, and you just never tried to tie the knot?"


    "No." She instantly gave a firm response. "He never cared for anything like marriage.. and to be frank, he was a bit too much of a goody-two-shoes. In his eyes, everyone near him was equal, friend or foe, regardless of strength. The only exception to that was Nott..."


    -Is that so...- I could definitely see it from what I knew about him, from his legends to the policies he put in ce for the sake of humanoid races. It also made it make sense why he would put someone who rules with an iron fist, like Hera, by his side.. to keep his tendencies in line. -The more I hear about him, the less draconic he sounds...-


    Finally seeing Krystallo, Hera and Ilios situated on my back with the few barrels of Piotita I got, I finally took to the air and gave our idle chatter some thought while we flew.


    But I didn''t have too much time for that.


    Before long, we arrived at the space rune in the heart of the temple, and after letting everyone off my back, set the rune''s destination to Ampelos, the city a few thousand kilometers south of Akri, and about a thousand kilometers south of the newly constructed Elder Hall. -Mom and Grandmother should be there...-


    Looking up, Hera had transformed into a shrunken version of her draconic form, exactly matching my size, and Krystallo had followed suit. -Looks like they''re good to go...-


    But the moment I went to put my mana into the rune, a presence approached with haste. -Uh oh...-


    It was Grace. -Something better not have happened to Father...-


    *Fwoom* Slowing time around me as my presence turned heavy, I looked to the side before Grace''s figure suddenly appeared.


    But as she did, she hesitated.


    "What''s wrong? Did something happen to Father?"


    She quickly shook her head before ncing at Hera, who also used her divinity to chime in on our conversation. ~"I''m not sure if you really care to know, but.. Myles is about to wake up from his dragon sleep.~"


    My whole form tensed up instantly. -ALREADY?!- Turning to Hera in a sh, I asked in a frenzy. "Didn''t you say it would be at least sixteen years at a minimum?!"


    But rather than being shocked, she just shrugged. "I just gave you an estimate for what was average." A smile slowly crept onto her face as she paused. "But I can''t say I''m not interested in a dragon that could finish stepping into the realm of a demigod in just eight years."


    I looked at her in disbelief for a moment before letting out a hardy sigh. "Haaaah..." -Why do I feel like a sudden weight just appeared on my shoulders...-


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    All are wee!

 Chapter 350: Welcome!

    Chapter 350: Wee!


    Mid Morning - Late Summer : The Eastern Oasis


    -----


    *Fwoom* Easing the speed of my divinity as Grace disappeared, the flow of time almost instantly returned to normal. -So much for getting the support of the Elder Hall first...- *vwoom-tap-tap* Quickly changing the destination of the space rune to Emporio, I gave Hera an unamused look before injecting my mana and letting out a sigh. *Vwoom* "Haah..."


    No matter how much I wanted to deny it, I knew exactly what she was nning just by the smug look on her face. -So much for taking the time to n her return to Bahamut...-


    To be blunt, I had the feeling she was going to simply get Myles''s support as he woke up rather than the Elder Hall or dragons like Amphitrite. It just made a bit too much sense. With Myles being the first to survive the step into the demigod stage since the war, and with his long-standing trust from dragons around Bahamut, people were going to rally behind him en mass, likely even overpowering the existing system using the Elder Hall and essentially putting him in control of Bahamut.


    -Because he''s close with our family, it won''t threaten our position, but it will definitely cause some turmoil, and maybe even rebellions sparked by those in defiance...- But as if to make the situation even more troublesome, Hera''s appearance would flip everything on its head.


    I had to ask myself how people would react to her new appearance on its own, and while i thought I had it all figured out, Myles waking up threw a wrench into everything.


    Or so I thought.


    "Haah..." -This should be the closest point to the Elder Hall...- Generally calcting where we were within the void, I quickly created a gate at the top of the tube within the void, only a kilometer or so above thes surface, quickly epassing us and releasing us in reality.*VWOOP-FWOOSH* But we were instantly hit with a wave of heavy, water-filled mist and a st of wind.


    We were in the heart of a massive storm. *Crrrrrrackle* Electricity instantly started leaping between Krystallo, Hera, Ilios, and I.


    "W-Woah! Hehe..." A smile came to Krystallo''s face right away as she moved her arm around and watched the electricity arc between her scales.


    -Good lord... What a hot storm...- Pushing my aura down to the ground, the view of a huge section of forest as well as several estates came into view. -Looks like we''re still quite a bit west of the old Elder Hall...- "We need to cover about a thousand kilometers still, maybe two..." -They need to get on my back...-


    *Blub* Quickly creating a ball of liquid antimatter and liquid hydrogen, I split it up and spread it around us beforebining the dozens of individual droplets with their opposites. *crackle-BAAAAANG* The light was so blinding for an instant that it could have damaged Krystallo''s eyes, but with how immense the heat and shockwave were, my barriers to protect her from them didn''t even let singr photons through.


    On the inside of the barriers, it simply flicked to darkness for a moment, and a subtle thump sounded. *ckout-thump*


    *crackle-FWOOOOOSH* Releasing the barriers and only maintaining the vacuum magic, we were instantly showered with sunlight, just as the vast green forest beneath us was.


    "Change to your humanoid forms. We need to get moving." Hera, having anticipated what I was doing, had already transformed by the time I finished speaking, but Krystallo didn''t take more than a couple of seconds. -She''s gotten faster...- "Alright, hang on."


    *crackle-WOOOOM* elerating at the limit of what Krystallo couldfortably handle, we zipped over the horizon in a sh, piercing through the wall of clouds from the shockwave of the explosion before ripping through storm clouds like a spear through water.


    "Your control really is something..." Looking ahead as I split through the atmosphere far in front of us, Hera mumbled under her breath. "How does your vacuum magic even work?"


    Hearing her genuine curiosity, I nced back for a moment before simply saying. "All I do is run a program in my mind... Essentially I do all the calctions with oneplex form." -Although vacuum magic''s is quite simple...-


    "Hm..." Hera quickly started pondering before eventually sparking up conversation with Krystallo about it, discussing the logic behind my forms, which I used to teach her most of her spells.


    For me, it was just like running a few lines of code in my head, making most of my magic autonomous and able to have the heavy lifting done by my subconscious, but such an idea waspletely foreign to this world, even to those who had been alive for over fifteen millennia. -Hera''s methods aren''t too dissimr in most cases, but it''s certainly less efficient.-


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    But I had to admit, whether my forms were more efficient or not, some of the tricks and shortcuts she knew with mana left me in the dust whenever it came to speed. Her knowledge which had baked for millennia was simply something I couldn''tpete with yet.


    But that wasn''t going to be the case forever.


    Rather, it was just a matter of time.


    *FWOOOSH* Quickly traversing the nearly sixteen hundred kilometers while Hera and Krystallo nonchntly talked, we promptly came up to the ruins of the old Elder Hall.


    Or so I thought.


    -Huh? What is all this...- As we got close enough to start feeling the suction of mana from Myles, rather than finding a destend of abandoned buildings, I saw thriving marketces and bustling streets. -This ce was almost exclusively popted with those working alongside the Elder Hall... Did they not move it?-


    And to make things more confusing, as I got closer and closer to Myles, the city only got denser and denser, and eventually as the field of debris Leander had made was supposed toe into view, I simply saw a continued field of newly constructed buildings, eventually leading up to a massive stone tform loaded with countless mana umtion runes, all surrounding a huge dragon with scales of mythril.


    -They.. built a city around him?- Although certainly nothing on the scale of a city like As, it was a huge city, and at the very heart was Myles, sleeping soundly.


    Thinking back to Amphitrite''s deal she made with me to help Myles through his sleep, I instantly knew who was behind it. -But to think she would reform the entire city that fast...-


    "That Amphitrite woman is quite clever." Hera spoke softly as she looked over the city.


    "What makes you say that?"


    She paused before finally standing up and walking onto my shoulder, looking down at Myles far ahead of us. "She took advantage of the fact an ancient turning demigod was pulling in so much mana to make this a desirable ce to live. She rebuilt an entire city by simply building a few mana umtion runes and using some money to lower the cost of the properties the Elder Hall was leaving behind for non-nobles tofortably move here. I wouldn''t be surprised if this ce became a trade hub for Eastern Bahamut like it used to be."


    -Mother must have given her the details...- "I wouldn''t be surprised either, especially considering that there aren''t any major noble families by the looks of things. People in the lower sses finally have a chance to climb the socialdder... But I have to say, it would be ignorant to think someone who has monopolized the entirety of the Forgotten Inds isn''t clever."


    "Hoho~, so that''s her." Hera quickly became curious, but after putting her hands behind her back and looking down at Myles with a smile, she spoke. "Maybe I should meet with her, too."


    Quickly descending toward Myles, we steadily glided throughyer andyer of incredibly dense mana beforeing to a halt andnding directly next to him. -Looks like he really is about to wake up...-


    Although it was a little faint, the mana suction was only just beginning to equalize as we arrived, likely thanks to the appearance of Hera, Ilios, and my aura.


    "To think a mythril dragon would still be around..." Hera sounded a bit surprised as she slid off my back and changed back to her shrunken draconic form. "There were only two lineages of them when I was queen... What was it you said his family name was?"


    "Kalfas."


    "Hm..." She pondered as she looked over his rugged body, now nearly 135 meters tall, and with a slightly less bulky body than he previously had, now being closer to a more bnced form. "The name doesn''t ring a bell, but it''s simr to one of As''s underlings that was a mythril dragon."


    -With how close Myles is with pur family, that''s probably the case.-


    "Do you know if there are any other mythril dragons?" Gently scraping one of her ws across his scales, a scratch instantly appeared.


    "I know he had a brother that formed a family, but I''m not sure how they''re doing."


    She paused for a moment before looking up towards Myles face. "I see... Maybe he''ll be more open to concubines than his ancestors were."


    "PFFT-" I almost instantly burst outughing. "Where did thate from?"


    But rather than getting some whitty response, I ended up getting an earful about how good strong mythril dragons are, and just how much they can strengthen Bahamut.


    But it helped pass the time while we waited for Myles condition to normalize until, eventually, people in the city around us started to gather around for the historic moment.


    We as a group were still cloaked then, so none of thoseing around to see if Myles was going to wake up could see anything, but as Myles eventually sluggishly opened his eyes and the crowd watched with baited breaths, his gaze was met by Hera, donning her full-sized form, almost three times the size of him.


    All she did was look into his eyes, smile, and speak calmly. "Myles Kalfas. Wee to the afterlife!"


    "PFT-HAHAHA!" I burst out intoughter before I could even think.


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 Chapter 351: A Fellow Hybrid

    Chapter 351: A Fellow Hybrid


    Mid Morning - Late Summer : The Old Elder Hall


    -----


    "Myles Kalfas. Wee to the afterlife!" Hera''s voice boomed as Myles opened his eyes and found her colossal form looming over him.


    "PFT-HAHAHA!" I burst out intoughter before I could even think, only barely silencing it with magic before Myles could hear.


    "H..huh?" He spoke lethargically as if having just woken from the deepest sleep imaginable, unable to remember how he fell asleep in the first ce. "W..who... W..where..." He quickly scanned over the crowd, only to find them waiting with baited breaths.


    He was so lethargic he didn''t even notice the light magic around us, which happened to still show him asleep.


    "My name is Hera, Hera Monachik��s, and unfortunately, it seems like you didn''t survive your dragon sleep."


    He jolted slightly, finally remembering some of what happened. "R-Right! What about Amphitri-"


    "She''s alive." I spoke calmly with a slight elegance in my tone, pulling his attention toward me.But by the time he saw me, I was already in my fenririan form. "You... You''re-"


    "Nott. You likely know me as one of the ancient fenrir." Slowly getting up, I nonchntly walked up to him. "How does it feel to be dead? You almost made it."


    "It feels.. odd..." Slowly looking over the crowd again, his confused expression slowly became understanding. But as he looked to the side and met eyes with Krystallo, his expression morphed. "Huh? Who are you?"


    Seeing the opportunity, she immediately puffed up her chest. "I''m Gracia Ragnarok!" She hollered the name of Gracia, who was our long-passed great-great-grandmother.


    But unfortunately she didn''t realize that Gracia was Myles caretaker for a period of time when he was young. "Huh?" He knew she was lying immediately. "N..no.. you aren-"


    Then, in a flustered moment, he finally used his aura, sensing the immovable walls of mana emanating from Hera and I, as well as the surrounding light and sound barriers.


    Almost immediately, he went wide eyed and his gaze drifted to me, leaving me to simply tilt my head with a smile. "Did you finally use your brain?"


    A look of confusion and fear washed over his face in an instant. He simply froze. Unable toprehend the situation he was in.


    But while it was enjoyable to watch, with every second, Hera''s smile grew. "Since it seems like you finally understand, why don''t I reintroduce myself." She immediately pulled his gaze to her before pressing her foot onto his neck. "My name is Hera Monachik��s, and you are going to help me put Bahamut in my paw."


    I felt a hint of anxiousness as she slowly put her weight on his neck. -Is she really gonna kick his ass in front of all these people...-


    However, unlike what I expected, she calmly pulled her paw off him. ".. but perhaps this isn''t the best ce to discuss details..." Looking out over the crowd, she wore a slightly disappointed expression. "You know Vasilias, correct?" Myles reluctantly nodded before Hera looked at me. "So, where should we meet?"


    Taken aback by her restraining herself, I responded with a little surprise. "A-as we nned before, the Elder Hall would be the best... Especially if we n to simply overrule them." Lowering my gaze to Myles, I continued. "With you awake, our n has gotten easier."


    But Hera was quick to chime in. "Hoho~, overrule is a strong word. All we''re doing is making them our subordinates."


    A wave of relief instantly washed over my mind. I had expected her to use Myles to set an example, kicking his ass in front of the citizens so they couldn''t resist her usurpment of power. -Based on how all those old texts portrayed her way of ruling, I would''ve expected her to be more heavy-handed...- But that was simply because I didn''t understand the cogs turning in her head quite yet. "You''ll be swamped by the people as soon as I undo the light magic, but you need to be at the Elder Hall by this time tomorrow. It''s a thousand kilometers north of Ampelos."


    But while he seemed to understand me, he spoke with confusion. "You.. are you really.. Nott?"


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    However, as he asked, I changed back to my draconic form. "Nott or Vasilias. Whichever you prefer to call me."


    His eyes shot open in an instant.


    "It''s been eight years since you fell asleep Myles, I hope you slept well." Hera and Krystallo got back on my back as I spoke. "But while I know you have a time limit to get to the Elder Hall, you should write Amphitrite a letter." Helping them get situated, I slowly started turning away. "She missed you more than anyone." *p-FWOOSH* Taking to the air, I undid the barriers around him and exposed him to the surrounding crowd.


    For an instant, there was a moment of silence as even the ancients in the crowd didn''t notice the light magic.


    But after noticing that Myles was awake, such details became meaningless, and the city erupted into cheer.


    For the first time in ten millennia, a dragon had survived the step into the demigod stage.


    The unfortunate thing for that dragon, however, was that he had only gotten farther away from being the strongest of his race.


    And whether he wanted to recognize it or not, that gap would never close.


    "Hera Monachik��s is alive.. and Vasilias is one of the Ancient Fenrir..." Myles mumbled under his breath as he looked up toward us quickly flying away. "Is it really a coincidence that I was the first to step into the demigod stage after so many millennia..?"


    But right after asking himself the question that would weigh on his mind for eternity, his attention was finally dragged out toward the crowd of dragons cheering around him.


    "Hah..." The smile that came to his face was warm as if someone had just told him a joke. "I guess it doesn''t matter at this point..."


    Forcing himself up with his stiff limbs and gently stretching, his towering, muscled form stood over everyone in the crowd with ease, but after standing beneath Hera, he somehow felt small.


    "I am sorry for making you all wait." His voice boomed, easily audible several kilometers away over the noise of the crowd.


    And in an instant, the roaring cheers of thousands of dragons erupted. The cheers of those who could see him and those who could not.


    In their eyes, it called for the start of a new era. The era of Myles Kalfas.


    But little did they know it had already started, and the one building up the wave was only fifty kilometers away. -It looks like Myles won''t have any issue with the crowd...-


    They thought the wave was only beginning to build, when in fact, the wave they saw was just the tide returning before the tsunami.


    Turning my attention away from Myles, I looked at the horizon ahead of us and quickly sped up, gaining altitude until we neared the edge of space.


    Although I wasn''t sure how, we managed to get back on track with the n. "We still heading to meet with my Mother and Grandmother?"


    Hera quickly nodded. "But now that Myles is awake, this will get much easier."


    -Oh boy...-


    Continuing over the horizon, we picked up our conversation about what was toe before ironing out some of the details and painting a new n making use of Myles who was now a demigod with quickly rallying support.


    The n was to use his quickly building support to overtake the Elder Hall, making it a branch below him, and then have Hera take him as her subordinate whether he wanted it or not. It would effectively allow the support and reputation of Myles to fight the hate and resistance Hera''s appearance would cause, limiting those who want to resist to those who want to spark trouble rather than improve the state of Bahamut.


    Essentially, it was to sift through Bahamut for the troublemakers so Hera could clean them out in preparation for a war with the Holy Kingdom. -But with Lief ruling Siratha, and Hera ruling Bahamut.. will the Holy Kingdom be able to fight back?-


    That, however, was a very stupid question, I simply wouldn''t know before my naivity bit me.


    -Looks like this is where Mother is...- Finallying into view of a huge estate a few dozen kilometers from where I was told the new Elder Hall was, I looked for Mother''s aura and almost immediately found her and grandmother speaking in an isted room.


    But they weren''t alone. -Huh? Who is that?-


    One I recognized as a dragon named Pluto Chrysos, one of the other Elder Hall members, and one of the most wealthy Elders in Bahamut.


    -But the other.. who is that?- Something about them felt off.. as if they weren''t a dragon even though they didn''t look much different from most partially feathered dragons.


    And as I got close, I finally recognized what it was.


    They in fact weren''t a pure dragon, but they also weren''t a conventional half breed.


    "To think there would still be a half dragon, half thunderbird still around." Hera spoke with a mix of disgust and curiosity. "I wonder if he''s ''his'' descendant..."


    It was a creature born as the child between a dragon and thunderbird, an ancient race somewhat akin to wyverns yet able to achieve sentience in a normal life span. -They''re native around The Scar ording to some of the texts I''ve read but I''ve never seen one... To think the first I would see would be half dragon...-


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 Chapter 352: Birb

    Chapter 352: Birb


    Late Morning - Late Summer : The Elder Estate | The New Elder Hall


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    *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh-Thump* The estate shook slightly as Inded in front of the main gate with a thud, rattling the gate and alerting everyone around of my presence that had remained hidden until that moment.


    "Hey!" The ancient by the gate, who was seemingly a guard, immediately took a defensive stance thinking we were intruders, but I was quick to pull out my ID.


    "Here," But as I shed it to him, I noticed a familiar face running up from behind the gate.


    "Hey, let them pass!" It was a tall, orange-scaled dragon I recognized in an instant.


    "Orion?" It was Orion Cirillo. "It''s been so long! I''m surprised you recognized me."


    His face was a refreshing sight. "Haha, no one else has such deep ck scales. How could I mistake you?" He quickly spoke to the guard through the aura before making him open the gate. "Plus, how could I not recognize Lady Krystallo!" Shooting her a smile, he quickly motioned us through. "I must say I''m quite surprised to see you here though... Your Mother said you were quite busy."


    "I am. If I wasn''t busy, I wouldn''t be here..." -I''d be exploring the moon...- I nced back at Hera without thinking before looking back toward the estate. "But it''s a burden I''d have to take eventually.""A burden for you?" He immediately became curious. "Surely you exaggerate..." He quickly nced around before surrounding us in silencing magic. "You have already brought Siratha under your family''s wing... What more could burden you?"


    -Hah...- I wanted to chuckle hearing him say it was Siratha under our family''s wing, but nonchntly continued. "Well, let''s just call it giving Bahamut some long-overdue reforms."


    "Hm... Is your visit rted to Sir Haris?"


    "Sir Haris?" The name didn''t ring a bell at all. -Is he that Thunderbird half breed?- Assuming he was, I continued. "What''s he here for?"


    Orion quickly straightened his posture. "I''m notpletely sure, however I do know it''s rted to reforms somehow... I believe ''reform suggestions'' were his words."


    -Reform suggestions?- It almost instantly gave me a bad feeling. -Who else has the power to even suggest that and get to meet with Mother and Grandmother...-


    Of course, to an extent I was overthinking it, as anyone could meet with those in the Elder Hall for almost any reason if they take the proper course of action.


    However, this time, my worries were justified.


    As we walked up to the estate''s entrance, Ilios lowered his aura onto everyone inside, and almost instantly, the half-breed inside turned his head.


    -He didn''t seem to respond to either Hera''s or my auras... Why would...-


    But he didn''t give me time to finish that thought.


    *FWOOOOSH* In an instant, his elder-sized form grew to just over a hundred meters tall, and he darted straight at us through the walls of the estate, liquifying them before bursting through the front door with his glowing maw.


    However, Hera wasn''t going to let him use that spell. *tap* Instantly devouring his momentum, she closed his mouth with her aura and shot him an unamused look. "Who the hell do you think you are?"


    *sh-CRACKLE-FWOOOSH* The moment she finished speaking, two zing, bright blue mes erupted from his nostrils as if they were massive blow torches, and his body rumbled, rustling his feather-coated body.


    But the look of fury in his eyes didn''t fade. He simply stared straight into my eyes with a slightly visible craze.


    -What''s up with him...- Something seemed off; it looked like he was possessed somehow. -But his soul isn''t strong enough to belong to a god...- I just couldn''t think of an exnation for such deep seated anger to be aimed at me...


    "You fucking monster..." His voice quivered with rage as he started oozing a crazed bloodlust.


    "Who are you, dude?" I spoke casually, not seeing him as even a slight threat.


    But to him it seemed like a provocation. "You BASTARD!" *VWOOM* Releasing an aura a few timesrger than Myles before his sleep, he immediately pried himself out of Hera''s clutch and lunged for me.


    But before his brain could even register it, my aura mmed down onto him, stripping several feathers and scales off his back and driving his body into the solid stone pathway we stood on as if it was made of brittle sandstone. *VWOOOOM-WHAAMMM* It was so much force even the current Myles would struggle to resist it. -Let alone some angry brat...-


    His form, in the ballpark of 100 meters tall, would normally tower over me, but while his face was embedded in the ground, I looked down at him with a mix of irritation and pity. "What the hell is your problem, kid." His body indicated that he was quite old, but neither his voice nor demeanor reflected that. "We have never met."


    Tears slowly welled in his eyes as he helplessly tried to force his way out from beneath my aura. "You killed my grandfather, and you killed my Mother, you fucking dog..."


    I had no clue who he was referring to. -But...- "If I killed them, they must have opposed me." The only thing I could immediately think of was the Academy. -But that was credited to the Ancient Fenrir... How did he connect it to me?-


    But Hera chimed in before I could ask anything. "Who was your grandfather?"


    "Hr?svelgr." He responded in an instant.


    It was a name I didn''t recognize, but it made Hera''s eyes light up. "THE Hr?svelgr?" She paused before speaking to me through her aura. "He was the god of the Thunderbirds during the Great War. A god whogged only just behind Bahamut in terms of strength."


    -So Nott or Dagr must have killed him before the final battle...- Although it was faint, there was a hint of familiarity in my mind as I thought about it. -But for someone from the great war to only be his grandfather...- "Who are your parents?"


    This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    "He is a descendant of one of Sir Neoss��s''s concubines."


    Hearing Mother''s irritated voice, I looked up to see her walking through the molten tunnel bored through the estate with a look of pure annoyance. -Sir Neoss��s?- He was the current head of the Neoss��s family, one of the big three that fought alongside Bahamut, standing next to the Ragnarok''s and Chst��s families.


    Although I had heard quite a lot about that entric family over the years, I had never met any of them. -And I guess that remains true since this guy isn''t actually one of their descendants either...-


    But from what I could tell, Mother didn''t seem to know that his father wasn''t Sir Neoss��s. "He''s here mediating a discussion between us and an ancient thunderbird who is supposedly a demigod."


    -That must be his actual father...- "Is that so? What''s the conversation about?"


    Her expression quickly turned troubled. "Haah.. we''ll talk about it in a second... For now, let''s just move to a better ce..." Giving Haris an annoyed look, she quickly used her aura to tell people they were moving to the Elder Hall and took to the air, motioning me along with her as Grandmother and Pluto exited the estate and followed after her.


    Giving Haris a quick nce as I turned away, I eased my aura off him. "If you attack me again, I''ll go m your father''s face into the ground instead of yours, got it?"


    He gave me a stare of defiance before eventually nodding, letting me take to the air and quickly follow after Mother.


    The flight wasn''t more than a couple minutes, but while we flew, Mother and Krystallo had a moment to catch up with one another, and while Pluto and Haris were clearly curious about who Hera and I were, we remained mostly silent, only silently discussing between ourselves some of the Thunderbirds traditional traits, like being cocky and rash. "I certainly got that impression already..."


    But after chatting for a moment, we eventually starteding up on a colossal stone structure I understood to be the new Elder Hall, but it seemed quite oldpared to what I expected.


    "Is this not a newly constructed building? Why does it look so aged?" At first I thought it was just a repurposed building, but it only took a moment to get corrected.


    "There are always multiple backup halls spread around Bahamut for cases like this, where we need to relocate quickly." Grandmother spoke up with a softened tone. "In the early days of the Elder Hall, when Bahamut was trying to rebound, they made it a tradition to create a new hall with every generation following eaching-of-age ceremony, but once about thirty were built, they stopped. Unfortunately, now, that means they''re all extremely old buildings, but who knows.. maybe we''ll pick up the tradition again after what''s happened..."


    -That wouldn''t be a bad idea actually...-


    Continuing down to the Hall, we allnded and quickly made our way inside without getting questioned, beforeing into a huge central colosseum thatpletely dwarfed thest hall. "This ce looks like it was made for ancients..."


    "Thats because it was." Pluto''s deep but smooth voice immediately echoed. "This was only the second or third hall ever built. Back then, the Elder Hall still allowed ancients in the cab."


    "Ah, is that so?" -That makes me wonder why that''s against the rules nowadays though...-


    But before I had the chance to ask, everyone hopped up into seats looking over the entrance and the arena-like area at the center, where Haris and I stood. -I guess Ill hop up too...- *Hyup-tap*


    I immediately got a weird look from Pluto and Haris, but after noticing that Grandmother didn''t even pay me a nce, they didn''t inquire.


    "Now, let''s get back to the subject at hand, shall we?" Grandmother quickly split up the stack of papers she had been carrying before re-sorting them. "Haris, please start over for our guest."


    He gave me a quick re before continuing. "I''m here to propose giving Bahamut a figure to rally under, like when Bahamut or Monachalkos ruled us or like how Siratha is now. To keep things short, my suggestion is that we gather under Lord Pouli, a demigod thunderbird from the times of the Great War."


    -So they had a simr idea to us from a few years ago... But they want to suggest a non-dragon figure...-


    Pluto was quick to interject. "It''s something worth considering, but I can''t say I favor it..." He looked like he really wasn''t a fan of it. "If he cannot even meet us in person, I don''t believe he is worth trusting."


    "I agree."


    "I as well." Grandmother and Mother immediately agreed.


    But he didn''t shy away from it. "Then what if I were to call him here?"


    Everyone immediately shot him an odd look. "We will reconsider... How long will it take?"


    His confidence was boosted in an instant. "Give it a week-"


    But I quickly cut him off. "He''s already here."


    Everyone turned to me in a sh.


    "Hera, take Krystallo and the piotita. Go protect my family for a second."


    Sensing exactly what I did, she quickly nodded before hopping off my back and running toward Grandmother and Mother.


    Pluto, who was on the other side of the Hall, just gave me a look like I was crazy.


    But he didn''t have the opportunity to speak. "Well, it''s unfortunate, but it looks like you guys might be moving to a new Elder Hall soon. I''m starting to get the idea that thunderbirds have some anger issues."


    "NOTT!" A draconic-mimicked voice instantly boomed, being easily audible through the thick stone between us and the sky. "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY SON!"


    "Haah..." I let out a heavy sigh before changing to my fenririan form and ncing to my right. "Pluto, if you say a word about who I am, I''ll treat you like I''m about to treat this guy."


    "Huh?" His face was so warped with shock that his normal, domineering demeanor was reduced to pure confusion.


    But as I got ready to yank the colossal bird out of the air over us, Hera whispered to me. "Keep him alive."


    "Hm?" ncing over at her, I saw her wearing a wide smile.


    "If he really was born before the end of the war, he''ll be one of, if not the oldest thunderbird alive... Wouldn''t it be better to take such a figure in as a ve? Plus.. I have some ideas for him..."


    The next thing I knew, a smile came to my face as well. "I guess you''re right."


    Looking up through the ceiling, I saw the figure of a massive hawk, hovering over the hall with its freakishly huge wings.


    "You said thunderbirds are supposed to be much faster than dragons of the same age, right?" Seeing her nod with a satisfied smile, I looked toward the hall''s main entrance. -That would be a handy trait to nurture... Maybe I can use them like carrier pigeons while I figure out quantum tethering...- "That makes me wonder how fast they are though." *poof*


    I instantly vanished from my seat in the hall before the ground shattered, and a column of sunlight abruptly lit up where I once was.


    Before anyone could recognize what happened, I was several kilometers in the air, gripping my ws into the neck of a colossal white hawk that easily dwarfed me and staring into its eye. "I had hoped you would have at least reacted, you know."


    His eyes shot open and pupils dted as his brain finally caught up.


    "I''m not sure if you''re even worth being my carrier pigeon now."


    "WHAT THE?!" Reaching up his w as fast as he could, he gripped my long tail and opened his beak revealing an intense blue glow brighter than the sun.


    -Huh?- I was instantly taken aback. -Radiation?!-


    The next thing I knew, a shiver passed down my spine.


    It wasn''t radiation from any normal source.


    It was radiation that I knew to only result from impure antimatter reactions.


    -THIS STUPID PIGEON!-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 353: The Eve of Change

    Chapter 353: The Eve of Change


    Short Chapter today. This was originally written back when I was still sick, so it was shortened.


    My apologies, I hope you enjoy!


    ---------------------------------------------


    Early Afternoon - Late Summer : The New Elder Hall


    -----


    *Pat* Plunging my paws into the feathers on his neck as his eyes widened, I smiled snarkily. "I''m not sure if you''re even worth being my carrier pigeon now."


    "WHAT THE?!" In a sh, his long talons mped around my hanging tail, and he opened his beak to reveal an intense blue glow brighter than the sun.


    -Huh?- I recognized it in an instant. -Radiation?!-


    The next thing I knew, a shiver passed down my spine.It wasn''t normal radiation; it was a pure energy that could only radiate from an uncontrolled antimatter reaction.


    -THIS STUPID PIGEON!- *VWOOP* My mind instantly elerated along with my divinity as I threw us through a gate, hastily darting through the void before the space mana had the chance to do anything to him.


    *VWOOP* When we returned to reality, the blue sky that surrounded us turned ck, littered with sparking stars and the distant glow of nebs, hoisting the zing sun directly above us and leaving the glowing surface of Delphi below us.


    But the pigeon that was about to vomit the sun at me didn''t even notice... -Can he not see when he prepares this spell?- Looking at his eyes, I saw the glow of radiation shining through them, clearly blinding him, and grimaced. "You''re real fucking lucky you''re useful..."


    Resisting the urge to wring his stupid pigeon neck, I looked into his mouth before, finally, he finished.


    *crackle* *pop* *BRRRRRRRMMMMMM* The blinding beam engulfed my whole body in an instant, shaking the fabric of space and just barely missing the before continuing through space like aet until it would inevitably burn out.


    It likely originally started at almost ten grams of antimatter, but the reaction was so inefficient that the beam hit simrly to about four grams. -Not like ten would make a difference...-


    *RRRRmmmmm* As the beam slowly subsided, his beak slowly closed with a smile, feeling my tail still in his talons, thinking he killed me, but as his vision returned, he found me simply staring at him with an unamused expression.


    All his spell did was streak my hair back as if I stood in the wind for a while. "If I didn''t move us, you would''ve just introduced your kid and a few hundred dragons to the sensation of melting scales..." The confidence in his expression quickly started draining. "You''re pretty fucking stupid for a demigod..."


    Although he was a demigod, not only he and I but he and Hera, were inpletely different leagues.


    But somehow, I felt like he wouldn''t understand that until I made it explicitly clear. *Puff* Tightening the grip of my furred paws on his neck, my draconic pupils slowly thinned. "Hey, you see that over there?" I quickly rocked my head to the side as my ears twitched.


    Almost immediately, his eye darted over to see the moon, no longer hidden behind the horizon, far in the distance.


    And before he could move his eye back to me, I leapt through the void, gripped onto the fabric of space with my aura, and mmed him into it.


    *WHAAAAMMMM* An immense plume of molten debris instantly erupted through the mana and hydrogen atmosphere that formed after my dragon sleep as if a huge meteor mmed into its surface, sinking us down hundreds of meters.


    Stolen from its rightful ce, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    But eventually, we stopped sinking, and he had a chance to match my gaze again.


    However, now, I was standing over him, staring him in the eyes with an orb of glowing blue liquid in my mouth.


    It was a whole kilogram of antimatter mixed with hydrogen and igniting just enough to make it glow. "Do you want to continue?"


    His whole body tensed with fear as his hostilitypletely dried up, and he shook his head.


    "Good." *crackle* Quickly destroying all but about a gram with the void, I spread the rest out behind me and cleared the dust to reveal the endless void of space above us. *sh-BAAANG* "Now.. shall we have a more reasonable talk?"


    He immediately gulped. "*Gulp*..."


    -----


    Early Afternoon - Late Summer : The New Elder Hall


    (Back about a minute)


    - Hera ~


    "You said thunderbirds are supposed to be much faster than dragons of the same age, right?" Vasilias''s voice rang through the hall with a hint of eagerness as we all stared at him.


    Almost immediately, I gave him a satisfied smile and nodded.


    It was an approval that only made his smile widen. "That makes me wonder how fast they are though."


    *poof* *CRACKLE* He instantly disappeared from where he sat as cracks spread through the Hall and a hole appeared in the ceiling. -Not even using the door, how eager...-


    Quickly lifting and pointing my wing toward where he sat, I started repairing all the cracks before a thunderous voice rang out. "WHAT THE-" *Vwoop* And the next thing I knew, they seemed to vanish into thin air.


    -Space mana really is fascinating...- Although I did vaguely understand how it worked, there was always something about it that was just beyond me. -Maybe I should ask if he can make a rune for me to y with...-


    But now wasn''t the time for that.


    Looking back down at the half-breed named Haris, my expression darkened. "For how you dared to treat him, you should count your lucky stars he''s keeping your father alive."


    Haris''s expression instantly morphed with anger. "As if that fucking dog could-" *WHAMMM*


    The entire hall shook as my aura pancaked his body against the ground. "You should watch your mouth. You aren''t useful like your father."


    "You can''t kill me!" He paused upon realizing he couldn''t lean on his father''s name. "T-the Hall won''t let you- N-no! Father Neoss��s won''t let you get away with it!"


    Ignoring the gazes of Asimi and the young Chrysos, I released the control over my aura and let it instantly flood the room. -What a sorry excuse of an ancient... He acts like a child...- "I''m the strongest dragon alive. The only being that could stop me is Vasilias." *crack* Contemting just wringing his neck like a chicken, I identally broke some of the stone under my paw.


    But I was distracted before I did anything. "Uh..." The young Chrysos, frozen from shock, stared at me as he broke into a cold sweat. "W-who are you?"


    "Hah..." Letting out a quick breath to try and calm down, I sat back down more calmly. "Hera Monachik��s, Bahamut''s new ruler. Now go and call the other elders in the Hall as well as anyone else with authority, I don''t want to dy things any further. They need to be here by tomorrow."


    After managing to free himself from shock after some time, he finally got up from his seat and started quickly running out of the Elder Hall with haste to do as I asked.


    Although he was clearly a bit skeptical of me at first, after seeing Zachari not even bat an eysh, he more eagerly did what I asked. -He certainly has the mind of a merchant...-


    "In any case, Miss Asimi," Turning back to Asimi, I tried to put on a smile. "Apologies for thete introduction.. but while we wait for Vasilias to return, why don''t we discuss what you wish to do going forward."


    She was immediately taken aback. "Huh?"


    *pat* Letting Krystallo down, I picked up a barrel of Piotita and tossed it to her. "You''re Vasilias''s family head. I won''t make you work under me like the other elders; rather, you can work alongside me or not work at all. I will respect your wishes regardless."


    Looking down at the barrel, Asimi gently picked it up before shooting me a skeptical gaze. "How are you nning to rule Bahamut?"


    "Exactly how I did in the past." I responded without an ounce of hesitation. "But it will take some time, as all things do. However, I''ll have a few extra tools up my sleeve this time around..." I slowly smiled before looking up in the air, letting countless insane ideas flood through my mind. "A few extra tools I can use to not just return Bahamut to it''s former glory, but raise it beyond the peak where it once stood."


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 354: The Beginnings of the Reform

    Chapter 354: The Beginnings of the Reform


    N/A - N/A : Sector 8J of the Moon


    -----


    "So you want to reduce me to the mere ve of a dragon? I, the son of Hr?svelgr?!" The oversized dove tensed his body with a rasp in his voice as I slowly crushed him against the ground.


    "Truly.. how do you not realize the situation you''re in..." *CRACKLE* Cracks spread around us as I pressed more of my aura onto him. "I''m not giving you a choice, and you aren''t strong enough to say otherwise."


    "Tch-" He clicked his tongue before averting his eyes. "Stupid fucking dog..." *CRUNCH* His beak cracked as I dug my ws into it and forced him to look me in the eyes.


    "I exined the situation and gave you every chance to earn mercy, yet you seemed to take it for weakness..." I felt an unbelievable familiarity in my anger as the hint of a memory came to mind. "You really are just like your father, refusing to recognize mercy until I wring your neck like a fucking chicken."


    Almost instantly, all emotion drained from his face.


    "I had originally nned to let you serve Hera on your own whim, I didn''t even n on using a rune, but now I won''t only force you to serve her but your entire race as well." *Vwoom* A huge glowing sphere of runes lit up at the base of my paw as I looked into the reflection of his eyes. "I hope in your time serving her with your brothers and sisters descendants that you cane to recognize the missteps you have made. I hope the hate you receive from them opens your eyes."


    *tap* Pressing my paw into his cheek just below his eye, I started hooking up the oath rune before he opened his mouth again. "There wille a day that I kill you..." His voice and eyes oozed a pure bloodlust. "I don''t care how long it takes.. and I don''t care how it''s done.. but one day, I will watch the life drain from your eyes.""Good for you," I spoke bluntly before looking straight into his eyes, unwavering, "because, in a second, you''ll forget what the concept of revenge is."


    Matching his gaze, his chest started to glow. Deep in his body, he was preparing a spell that would reduce not only him, but a huge section of the moon to hydrogen in an instant.


    But I just lifted my paw and gently moved arge stone under it. "Imend you for trying." *WHAM-CRACKLE-VWOOOOM* Vector-flipping the stone, I hurled it into the void before using the sudden, colossal st of mana to clear the aura out from around his reserve, giving me the chance to drain theke of antimatter in his crop with the void.


    Watching the consciousness behind his eyes fade as his reserve was punched with a beam of liquid mana, I wanted to scoff. -Dumbass...-


    It had been a couple hours since we originally started talking at that point, but almost nothing ended as I wanted it to.


    To attempt to summarize, his name is Acanthis, the current god of the thunderbirds, a race reduced from a poption of upwards of a million to less than four thousand by none other than Nott at the end of the war.


    Colloquially known as Lord Pouli in Delphi''s legends and mythology, he was quite a well known being around the world following The Fall, the societal copse following the final battle of the Great War, helping recover not only his own race, but others as well, going as far as to be worshipped by not only the thunderbirds, but other sentient monsters and even humans throughout the Western Continent.


    Unfortunately, like most other thunderbirds, he didn''t remember too much before he evolved to gain sentience about half a millennia after he was born, so I wasn''t able to pry out nearly as much information as I wanted about the war, even if I did get some good details.


    However, among the details I did get, the greatest was about the indescribable hatred between the dragon race and the thunderbirds.


    When the conversation started, things went somewhat reasonably. Perhaps driven by fear, he answered everything I asked quickly and thoroughly, and even seemed like he would willinglye to my side and maybe willingly serve me, but the moment I mentioned him serving Hera, everything went to shit. -I don''t know if him being interested ining under me was just a guise, but perhaps his hatred for dragons is just that deep...-


    As far as I originally knew, thunderbirds had a simr affinity to dragons in that they would make friends with or serve those stronger than themselves, but because they were on a simr level to dragons, they were seen as rivals, enemies, and opposition. Little did I know until that conversation, the hatred between the two onlypounded through generations, and back during the Great War was so bad that the idea of Hr?svelgr siding with the Aesir to kill Bahamut did more than cross my mind.


    -But for Nott to nearly wipe out their entire race... I really have to wonder if it was just Hr?svelgr that tried something...- I honestly felt like I was missing something. -But for now.. lets just focus on taming his hatred with this rune...-


    While I nned to also bring the rest of the thunderbirds under Hera''s wing, I had honestly begun to question if it was something within reason. -Maybe they''ll willingly follow Acanthis under Hera...- That was more than a stretch though.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the vition.


    "Haah..." -Worst case, I''ll move them under Lief...- Finally finishing the oath rune on his brain, I pulled my paw off him and looked up into the dark yet colorful night sky. -All I can do is hope things go smoothly... Hera might have to work some magic, but I''m sure she''ll be able to make use of him.-


    *Vwoop* Quickly wrapping up, I jumped back into the void before darting back to the''s surface and returning to the embrace of the bright blue sky. *vwoop*


    *fffooosh* Acanthis''s body immediately began falling without my support, but being directly above the Elder Hall, I simply let it happen.


    "Seems like he''s back." Hera''s voice echoed through the hall as my aura finally epassed the ground.


    "What about Lord Pouli?" Grandmother spoke curiously before looking toward Hera.


    But rather than responding, she just closed her eyes and tilted her head down.


    "Huh?"


    *CRUNCH-CRUMBLE* As Grandmother tilted her head in confusion, the ceiling crumbled to bits, and a huge bird almost a hundred and fifty meters tall fell through, sprawling its wings over the raised seats of the hall and nearly crushing Haris in the process.


    "F-FATHER?!" Haris immediately started freaking out before darting up onto him, immediately noticing the strange mana leaking from a rtively small hole in his chest and his broken beak. "F..father?"


    "He''s alive." Finally descending behind him, I glided over to my seat in the hall and sat down with a cold air around me, remaining silent until Hera slowly opened her eyes to look at him. "His real name is Acanthis, and he was born right at the end of the war... Unfortunately though, that age didn''t bring him wisdom..."


    "Thunderbirds are characteristically dense rtive to their age," Hera spoke coldly as she looked down at Haris.


    -That exins a lot...- "Anyway, I put him under my oath rune, but I''m not sure how he''ll serve you... His hatred of dragons ran so deep I couldn''t block it all without seriously interfering with his memories." -It ran deeper than his hatred toward the one who killed his father...-


    But Hera didn''t seem to care. "As long as the oath stops him from running."


    I gently nodded as Ilios came back over to me, rubbing himself on my leg like a cat beforeying back down under me. -Seems like I didn''t miss much...- But there was one thing. Upon looking back up, I was met with the gazes of four Elders I didn''t recognize.


    Noticing my inquisitive gaze, thergest of the bunch, a towering 74-meter-tall emerald-scaled elder, stood up before formally bowing to me. "My name is The��ratos Pr��sinos, you may just call me Pr��sinos if you wish. It is an honor to meet such a mighty god in the flesh." His voice was extremely deep but smooth. "I am one of the current heads of the Elder Hall, although that seems like it may be changing soon."


    -He''s really big for an Elder...- "Is that so?" ncing at Hera, I wanted to ask what he was referencing, but she already knew.


    "I''m nning some major reforms, one of which is to allow ancients to serve within the Hall, but they can be voted out by the people, or me, at any time. If you''ve read about it, it was the system Bahamut used called The Cab. In summation, it''s a group of advisors and assistants to help keep Bahamut and I in check.. although I never used it."


    -Ah.. I think I did hear about that at some point...- Although I didn''t know much about it, I did know that there wasn''t any age limit to who could be voted into a position. -But it seems like Hera has some people in mind...-


    "Unfortunately, most of us will be voted out almost immediately." A softer voice filled the room as I looked over to see a rather spikey light brown dragon attempting to move Acanthis''s wing out from over him. "The few I could see surviving the reform are Miss Ragnarok, Pluto, and myself. Pluto being the financial advisor, and I being the resource and mining advisor."


    -How interesting...- His scale colors made me think he was a half breed, when he was actually totally pure. "And you would be?"


    "Ah, pardon my rudeness." *crunch* Finally getting the wing off him, he bowed deeply. "I am Gi Akathars��a, a dragon from the Southern Mountains. I oversee most of the mining families there."


    "Oh, are you familiar with the Chalkos family?"


    "Of course. I was Voun��''s teacher when she was young, learning how to manage her family''s assets."


    "If you get the chance, please tell Amara that I hope she is doing well." -I should find some time to meet with her...-


    The other Elder''s immediately went wide-eyed and tilted their heads toward me before Gi lowered his posture with a polite smile unbefitting his rugged body. "I wasn''t aware that you knew each other."


    "We met in Siratha a few years ago. Anyway, I hope you can continue to assist them."


    "Of course." He happily smiled as if realizing his position in the cab was cemented.


    Finally turning to thest two elders, I prepared for their introductions, but before they could speak, Haris yelled out, "How can you all talk so casually?!" He seemed quite upset.


    But I think rather than them talking casually, it was them attempting to jump at the opportunity to form connections with the mightiest of the mighty.


    -I can''t imagine those who genuinely climbed to this position with their own effort are stupid... Of course they''ll jump at such a ring opportunity.- And I didn''t mind them doing it in the slightest. "Kid, unlike your father, these people understand what an opportunity is... You should take note."


    Eventually turning my attention back to the elders, we continued speaking, catching me up to speed with Hera''s ns and weing other powerful figures as they continued to arrive.


    And, before we knew it, a day had passed, countless influential figures had arrived, and the man of the hour finally made his appearance.


    *Fwoooosh* *Fwoooosh* *Fwoooosh* Huge gusts could be heard outside from each p of his colossal wings as he flew over the hall before stopping, blotting out the sun with his massive body.


    But he didn''t even have the chance to show his grand new appearance before Hera simply looked up at him. "Get down here pipsqueak. You''re thest to arrive."


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>Added note: The ��crop�� of a bird isn��t the stomach, its a food storage area at the base of the throat</strong>


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 Chapter 355: A Silent Expedition

    Chapter 355: A Silent Expedition


    Mid Morning - Late Winter : Voldukirk | The Holy Kingdom


    -----


    - Astren Ravenna ~


    "Hooh..." A foggy breath left my mouth as I looked down at the new brown leather gloves on my hands. -Will just these be enough?-


    It was an early, frigid morning that day. The sun was already well over the horizon, yet it showed no sign of warming up the snow-covered streets.


    "Just where did all this snowe from? It''s supposed to almost be spring!"


    Looking over my shoulder, I was met with Elizabeth''s radiant blue eyes and bright rosy cheeks, bundled in thick clothes and carrying a rtivelyrge backpack that matched mine. "I''m not sure..." -She''s in a good mood...- I paused before watching her happily stick her tongue out to catch a snowke. "Haha, have you never seen snow before?"


    "Hehe, of course not! I came from the Forest of Altair! Snow is only a thing we hear about in stories and read about in books." Reaching her hand up, a sudden swirl of snow appeared before settling to reveal a fist-sized ball of snow in her hand. "I just can''t get over how pretty it is."


    I wanted tough seeing her genuinely inquisitive gaze at the ball. "Unfortunately, I don''t think we will be able to view it fondly in about a week.""Haha, I guess that''s true."


    Pausing our conversation, I quickly looked around before ncing up the street and waving to Selby, the Lieutenant of the Second Temr Division, who was walking two familiar horses toward us. "It would''ve been nice if Katherine were here. I wonder how she would react to the snow..."


    Elizabeth''s face almost immediately darkened slightly. "Y..yeah."


    Her reaction told me all I needed to know. -Shit... She still hasn''t heard from her...- "Have you even heard any rumors about her?"


    She quickly shook her head. "I suspect the Church sent her out to do something since whenever I asked, I just get told off."


    -Even with her position in the church?!- Being the stand-in for the hero, she had an absurd amount of administrative power and clearance. -For her to get told off... Just where did they send Kath?-


    "Hey, kiddos!" A booming voice echoed down the rtively quiet street as the clops of horses grew near.


    "Have you been well, Miss Randi?" Trying to lighten her mood again, Elizabeth was quick to speak up.


    "Of course! I heard a bit about your expedition before I left." She paused beforeing to a stop and tossing us the leads to the two horses behind her. "All the way to Mount Asgard, huh?" (The Scar)


    "Haah, yeah." I let out a stressed breath before motioning my horse over and gently petting his head for a moment. "I can''t say much about it, but it sounds like it''s going to be really rough..."


    "Haha, I bet!" Her hardyugh quickly eased the mood. "Unfortunately, I can only wish you guys luck. Have you met the rest of the group yer'' goin'' with?"


    I shook my head before motioning my horse forward and hopping on his back. "Our meeting spot is at the edge of the forest outside the western entrance." I gently motioned down the long, wide road toward the colossal gate.


    "I see, I see. Well, hopefully they''re pretty good. Considering they called both of you to go, it can''t be easy."


    "Since when has anything assigned by the Church been easy?"


    "HAHA! You have a point." She paused as she looked over her shoulder for a moment. "In any case, I can''t linger too long. Best of luck to you two! If you see that girlie Katherine, tell her I said hi."


    Waving to her as she left, I gently fixed my bags to the saddle on my horse and got moving. "Haah..." My breath was heavy and loaded with stress.


    It was finally time to meet the group we would be spending the next three months plundering the world''srgest mountain with. -Of all the missions I''ve heard the Church give.. this has to be the most absurd...-


    *clop-clop-clop-clop* Leaving the city, we made haste past countless carriages from merchant groups and peasants hauling huge amounts of lumber and hide before eventually getting out past the snow-covered ins and reaching the forest.


    "They said to look for a man with a wood and mythril staff, right?" Considering the unique blue hue of mythril, I expected it to be a good identifier. -But with all the people here...-


    Quickly slowing down, Elizabeth and I started scanning the area to look for our person before a voice aimed at us met our ears. "Hey, you two on the pretty horses! Where y''all going?"


    It was the voice of a very young boy, and as I looked over, I found him hanging upside down off the limb of a tree. -To be wearing such thin clothes in this cold...- He looked like a peasant that couldn''t have been older than 12 or 13. "Do you know where a man with a long mythril staff is?"


    He immediately shed me an excited look. "Ah! Do you mean that kind old man?"


    -Kind old man?-


    "About a hundred meters that way!" He pointed up the road as a young woman ran up to him in a panic.


    "What are you doing talking to strangers?!" She seemed to be his mother.


    It honestly reminded me of my time as a kid, but after enjoying the memories that momentarily surfaced and taking an apology from the child''s mother, we continued up the road before finding a man napping against a tree with a long staff of spiraled wood and mythril leaning over his shoulder. -That must be him...-


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    He was clearly a mage, with a long staff donning arge monster core on its top. -But his presence doesn''t seem as heavy as I expected...-


    "Are you two the ones sent by the Church?" Hearing the gravelly voice, I looked over and caught the gaze of a massive man, easily 2 meters tall leaning against a tree. "The name is Magnai, most people call me Mag. I use this axe, but am just as good with anything else. Fighting is my expertise." He quickly leaned his axe off the tree to show it before pointing toward a dark-skinned elven woman next to him. "This is Eve, she''s an archer and scout. She has the most experience exploring these mountains out of everyone here, so expect to follow her orders if things go south."


    We both exchanged a quick greeting before Mag pointed at the man napping behind us.


    "That over there is Michael Cotorel. I don''t know much about him since he''s been asleep since we got here, but he''s a pretty well-known mage from the Main Continent... And for thest two, there is a guy named Gale, who is also a scout, but he specializes in caves and biology more than fighting, and his wife Arcana, who is a rune mage that specializes in medicine andbat. She is a demihuman though, I hope you two don''t mind."


    "Of course not." I quickly held up my hands before looking around. "But if I may ask, where are they?"


    "They''re meeting with the guide. Supposedly he doesn''t like humans, so we can''t meet him until we get a ways out of the city." He shrugged for a moment before leaning back up against the tree. "So who are you two?"


    -Seems like everyone else here are hired mercenaries... Pretty high-rank ones at that...- "We were sent by the Church, but we cannot say anything about our positions; I hope you can be understanding." I gave a shallow but formal bow off the back of my horse before recognizing they didn''t care. "I am Astren, and this is Elizabeth. I am a swordsman and she is a mage, we look forward to being in your care."


    "Likewise." Eve spoke softly before nodding toward us with a warm smile.


    -Now we just need to wait until Gale and his wife get back...- Assuming we had plenty of time to get to know each otherter, Elizabeth and I walked our horses to one of the nearby trees and tied them up before taking some time to organize our things.


    But it wasn''t long before they returned.


    "Mag, Eve- Hm?" Noticing me, the seemingly average middle-aged man paused.


    Mag was quick to speak up. "They''re the ones sent by the church. The girl in front is Astren, and the other is Elizabeth."


    "Elizabeth?" He paused before looking toward her, trying to see under her hood before tensing up. "I-I see. It seems we''re in good hands!" He paused again before trying to hide his fluster. "Unfortunately, we will have to save the introductions for another time, though. The guide called us to get moving."


    Almost immediately, Eve and Mag got moving toward their horses, untying them and hopping on in a sh while Arcana gently woke up Michael and Gale prepared her horse.


    "*Snoreee-*-Huh?" Waking up with a bit of a jolt, Michael quickly got moving as well, and we all got on the road, trotting past the crowd before picking up our pace for a while.


    It was the beginning of a long expedition. As Elizabeth and I were told, we were going to Mount Asgard in order to meet with native, non-human folk that lived within the mountains known as the Thunderbirds. -Considering how haphazardly this trip was thrown together, it must have been something ordered by the gods...-


    But something about it left me uneasy, I simply couldn''t pinpoint what. -At least I''m out of that damned church...-


    Looking over my shoulder, I watched as the towering walls of the city fell behind the horizon behind us and lowered my head in prayer. -Oh, great Goddess of Bnce, please grant us luck.-


    As I opened my eyes again, I found Elizabeth looking at me with a slightly concerned expression. "Is everything alright?"


    I simply nodded in response. -All I can do is pray that things go well...-


    But, to my surprise, the next week passed smoothly.


    We traveled west, crossed the river Slidr and reached the less inhabited part of the Holy Kingdom, forcing us to travel down thin roads barely big enough for a carriage, and run through viges that made what I previously considered a small town, Deepcross, seem colossal.


    But the locals were wonderful, weing us with open arms, perhaps because of our money, and treating us to the best of their abilities.


    As a group, we also all got to know each other quite well. Eve and Mag were local mercenaries from the central Holy Kingdom, Michael was from the Kingdom of Kan, and Arcana and Gale were from central Faelith.


    A part of me really had to wonder how the Church managed to gather everyone since they all shared simr stories of how they got recruited, being contacted directly by a pdin at wherever they happened to be staying, even if it was several cities away from Voldukirk. -Gale and Arcana weren''t even registered mercenaries here...-


    But as a group, we meshed pretty well, so I had no reason toin.


    Continuing through the seemingly endless wilderness, we aimed for a town called Sol. This was thest town we would stay in until we reached the edge of the mountains, still about a weeks trip away, and was where we were to finally meet our guide, who had supposedly been following us the whole time. -To avoid humans to such an extent.. I can''t imagine he''s a dragon...-


    Supposedly he was also the reason we had seen such little wildlife in our travels. ording to Arcana, he was scaring off anything stronger than an Ogre since anything weaker couldn''t sense him.


    But I couldn''t sense him either. -Are my senses just that bad?-


    Just a momentter, Eve held up a fist, causing us all to slow to a halt almost immediately.


    "Seems like we gotpany." *CRACKLE* The sound of a tree snapping like a twig echoed through the forest as we looked down the thin dirt path and saw the head of a huge wyvern poke through the trees.


    -Thats a big one...- It was at least forty meters tall, more than big enough to be a hastle to deal with. "Elizabeth, you want to kill it-?" But I was abruptly cut off by Eve holding a finger up to her mouth, shushing me. -Hm?-


    I was a bit confused, but before she could even turn her head back around, we saw three other huge wyverns creep over the road, focused on something in the forest to our right.


    It was a hunting pod of wyverns, meaning there were likely more we couldn''t see as well. -Shit...-


    Although not too much for our group to handle, their attention was focused elsewhere. -We need to just let them walk...-


    But before my thoughts could even finish, a bright sh of light sted into the sky before a wall of light engulfed everything in front of us. *ZAP-CRACK*


    It onlysted an instant, but when the light faded and my eyes readjusted, a vast section of trees had vanished leaving only the half-molten ground,yered with what looked to be molten wyvern scales coating the ground.


    It was so loud that it made my ears ring, and looked like nothing I had ever seen. I was simply left awestruck, with the rest of the group left in the same position.


    *Rrrumble* The ground almost immediately started shaking, but before a single thought could pass through my mind, the wyverns that had just crossed the road bolted back across it, taking to the air and leaving a long trail of blood from where their scales had been blown off.


    We all simply stood there in shock, not quite understanding what happened until Arcana finally spoke up at a volume barely audible over the ring in my ears. "It uh.. seems like the Church wasn''t exaggerating about our guide..."


    "Hah..." I wanted tough but was too nervous to do so. "No kidding..." -Just where the hell is the Church sending us...-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 356: Unlucky

    Chapter 356: Unlucky


    Late Morning - Late Winter : Sol | Western Holy Kingdom


    -----


    - Astren Ravenna ~


    *Jingle-Thud* Dropping a small pouch of silver on the counter, I gently undid the string to show the Inn''s hostess, who was around my age, what was inside.


    "M-Miss, this is a bit too much. Allow me to count your change-"


    I quickly cut her off by motioning my hand, stopping her as she was about to pour out the coins. "Please keep what''s extra. Consider it the grace of the Goddess of Bnce." I gave her a warm smile over my shoulder as I leaned back against the desk. "If you think I can give you more without drawing unwanted attention to your inn, please just ask." Gently opening the pouch of coins hanging from my waist, I revealed several gold and even a tinum coin.


    The hostess immediately jolted before whispering. "You must be sure to be careful carrying so much... Even if you are from the church..."


    But her concern just made me want tough. "We aren''t going anywhere where bandits will be a problem." *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* Hearing some heavy steps, I looked over to see a huge bundle of brown fur walking down the stairs carrying arge rectangr bag before setting it on a table with a thud. "Hahaha, I almost mistook you for a bear."


    Elizabeth, who was under the thick and incredibly oversized fur coat, immediately turned to look me in the eyes. "It was the only size they had!" She paused before shooting me an irritated look. "You should have told me I was packing too light back in Voldukirk!"I smiled as I shrugged. "I thought you were just nning to use some magic to stay warm."


    "WELL, I MIGHT HAVE TO AT THIS RATE!"


    As she yelled, we heard a series of more gentle footsteps before we saw Arcana and Galeing down the stairs with their belongings. However, they were far more appropriately dressed, wearing heavy,yered clothes for extreme cold while notpromising on their ability to move or what equipment they were carrying.


    Eventually reaching the bottom of the stairs, Arcana quickly looked around before turning to me. "Did Eve leave with Michael to get the horses? Or did she go back to bed?"


    I quickly shook my head. "She went out to meet with the guide. Michael should be back in a minute or two. I assume she will be the same."


    "Hm, I see..." Finding a ce to set down her bag, she quickly opened it before pulling out several cloth scarves and tossing one to both Elizabeth and me.


    -Hm?- At first I thought they were just normal scarfs, but as I held it in my hand, I felt a very faint mana swirling around it, and they were warm as if they had sat next to a fire for a moment. "What''s this?"


    Arcana''s panther ears twitched as she turned around with a prideful smile. "Those scarves have a few runes on them that will help keep you warm once we get into the mountains where the ambient mana is thicker. I nned to hand them out when we were up in the mountains, but it seems like the cold is already getting a little unbearable." She quickly put on her own scarf, and covered her ears with a hood as she spoke.


    -Oh, really?- Although runes in clothes were not totally unheard of, they were typically very inefficient and horrendously expensive. -For it to run off ambient mana too... Just how efficient is the rune they used?- I gently wrapped the scarf around my head and neck as she continued.


    "If they aren''t warm enough for your liking, inject a bit of mana into them, and they''ll warm right up. Just be careful not to inject too much or the cloth will catch fire." She seemed a little anxious giving us the warning, but it was something we needed to hear, especially considering Elizabeth''s mana pool.


    *Vwoom* Gently injecting a tiny amount of mana into my own scarf, it almost immediately warmed up. "Woah..." Although it only warmed my head and shoulders, it felt like I had walked in front of the firece.


    Elizabeth was quite amazed as well. "To think this kind of efficiency is possible... Can I put this under my shirt?"


    Arcana''s expression instantly turned a bit awkward. "I.. don''t see why not."


    But the mood quickly lightened agian as Elizabeth darted back to her room to change beforeing down in much thinner and morefortable clothes.


    -It''s still.. a bit light for this weather, though...- But I didn''t have the courage to say anything.


    For a bit after that, we ended up just talking before Mag finally joined us, and Michael returned with the horses.


    All that was left was to wait for Eve.


    *Crackle* Loitering around the firece, we all tried to warm ourselves up as much as possible. In the first few hours of daylight, rather than the conditions improving as we expected, they got much, much worse to the point it neared a blizzard.


    "You think Eve will be alright?" Gale was the first to voice his concern. "It''s been almost three hours since she left."


    *fwooosh* Using the billows to stoke the fire, Mag spoke calmly. "She''s a survivalist who isn''t unfamiliar with the mountains. She''d be thest of us to die."


    "But.. in these conditions..." *Thump-creakk* *WOOOSH* Cutting him off, the doors to the inn swung open, and the noise of the sting winds outside filled the room.


    *Tap-Tap-Tap* It was Eve,pletely bundled up in clothes and only showing her eyes, but she wasn''t alone.


    Behind her was a man who looked barely older than me, with light, casual clothes meant for nobility in tropical regions. "Hello, everyone." His voice was unnaturally smooth, and his bright yellow eyes carried an air of supremacy. "You all must be the ''Frontier Group''."


    He gave off a simr vibe to Sir Btos, a colossal dragon, yetpared to him, I felt like I was standing on egg shells...


    "We are." Responding for us, Mag walked forward before bowing just enough that his towering head was just beneath the other man''s. "I assume you are our guide. It''s an honor to meet you."


    Pausing as Mag straightened his posture, the guide nced over the rest of us before settling his gaze on Elizabeth and I. "I look forward to working together with you all." His tone was a tad sour, as if he didn''t care that we knew his words were a lie.


    But such formalities weren''t what we were there for. "So, since everyone is here, are we ready to get going?"


    The guide nodded without a moment of hesitation. "The weather will only worsen once we enter the forest, so stick close to me. We will not be moving slowly."


    "Of course!"


    Quickly gathering our things, we got ready to hop back on our horses in the blizzard, but before we left, Eve walked up to Elizabeth and set her hand on her shoulder. "You should wear that big coat you got. It''s only going to get colder from here on out."


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    But she ignored the warning. "I''ll be alright! I have Miss Arcana''s heated scarf that will keep me warm!"


    Unfortunately though, exactly 3 minutester, she had a centimeter of snowyered on her head and was shivering.


    "WHY IS THIS PLACE SO COLD?! WE AREN''T EVEN IN THE MOUNTAINS!" Letting go of her horse''s reigns for a moment, she reached back to her bag before shakily pulling back out the massive fur coat. "I CAN FEEL MY EYES FREEZING!" Quickly bundling herself up, the faint glow of a me lit up her face from inside her coat.


    Although I couldn''t see more than a bit of the others'' horses, at that moment, I felt as if we all shared the same expression. -At least she''s learning...-


    -----


    Early Evening - Late Summer : The New Elder Hall


    (A few hourster)


    - Vasilias Ragnarok ~


    *Fw-w-w-wip* The sound of rustling papers filled the air as close to a thousand pieces of paper zipped around the room before neatly being ordered into several piles. -That should be everything for now...-


    It had been a week since Hera had flipped the Elder Hall on its head, and while the public had yet to be notified of the changes happening, the knowledge of Myles waking up and then immediatelying to the Elder Hall and summoning Bahamut''s highest ranking officials had people theorizing that a wave of change wasing. -But the news of Hera being the monarch will soon get out...-


    Although outside the public eye, the changes had already been made, and everything was progressing extremely smoothly. Who would dare to object the word of a dragon that was already one of the strongest demigods alive ten thousand years ago.


    The issue was the public. Not being able to see her in person yet, it would take time for people to truly believe she was still alive, let alone fix her reputation that was tarnished by the usations of betraying Bahamut. Comparing her to Myles, the one currently believed to be the Monarch, it was clear how the public would favor and support, but she wasn''t going to give them any choice.


    Over thest week, she had been mobilizing the entire military force of Bahamut, and the forces of several noble families to begin preparations for the chaos that would follow the news. While she had the ability to simply use Myles as a puppet for the time being to ease the public sentiment, she wanted to give specific groups of dragons an excuse for rebellion so that she could clean out those still connected to the Aesir.


    The crazy thing was just how acutely aware she was of the mess she was going to create. -I guess it makes sense considering she has close to two thousand years of experience being the Monarch... But did she really need to give me so many papers?-


    Finally getting the papers ordered, I picked them all up with my aura and walked out into the hall. On my side of things, thest week had been nothing short of a boring and aggravating hell. To try and give me political knowledge and experience, Hera had temporarily shifted all of the backlogged work of everyone in the disbanded Elder Hall to me.


    And as it turned out, I was absolutely terrible at it.


    Being a dragon so ridiculously outside the norm, I hadpletely lost touch with the powers and abilities of normal dragons, so when I filled out paperwork, I would provide a solution to a problem that normal dragons could not do. ording to Mother, I was also far too blunt and not understanding enough, but Hera actually took a liking to the way I handled ''non-problem/solution'' matters.


    Regardless, after filling out tens of thousands of pieces of paperwork, I had gotten better, even if I reguired the scolding and guidance of Mother, Grandmother, and Hera. -But at best, I''m still an amateur...- I still couldn''t even hold a candle to Krystallo, ording to Mother. -But at least I''m done for now...-


    Now, it was time for me to be given a mission that was more my speed.


    *knock* *knock* *Vwoom-click* Undoing the mana lock to Hera''s office after a couple knocks, I nudged open the door and walked in to see Hera firmly sitting on the head of a colossal brown-feathered bird. -Looks like the pigeon is still being domesticated...-


    Unfortunately, because of the divinity in his brain, my oath rune was only half-effective on him. -Not that it''ll matter considering who his master is...-


    "Have you finished? You were faster than yesterday." *Rustling* Moving the wall of papers blocking her face out of the way, Hera looked me in the eyes with a soft gaze.


    "I have. Today was a pretty easy batch. You mind looking over them?"


    "Of course not." *vwoom-FLUTTER* Taking the nearly 12,000 papers from me, she held them in front of herself before cycling through them absurdly quickly.


    She was using her eyes to read rather than her aura like me, but Icked the ability to say anything. -She can read faster than me...-


    It only took her about two minutes to finish reading all the papers before taking out a stack of about 500. "These need changes, if you want to look through them."


    As she handed them back to me, I skimmed through them and cringed at my inability to find the issues.


    "But we''ll save that work forter. For now, it''s time to be getting ready for your trip."


    -Right...- "Where is it to?"


    She paused as she lifted up her wing to look down at Acanthis''s face before turning back to me with a tail flicker. "The Scar."


    Over the course of the week, Hera had been squeezing information about the Thunderbirds from Acanthis, bits at a time, but at longst, she got the important bit of info. "So they are around the scar?" -If that''s the case, how did I not see one when I scouted the mountain?-


    But Hera cut my thoughts short as she shook her head. "They''re not around the mountain."


    "T-Then-"


    "They''re in it."


    -Huh?- My face warped with confusion as the tip of my tail that was curled with curiosity rxed. "What do you mean?"


    "I mean they''re living inside the mountain. I''d assume in some huge cave system. I still don''t know the details." She gave Acanthis an irritated nce before turning back to me.


    "S..so.. where is the cave entrance?"


    "In The Scar."


    -No shit...- "I mean like-"


    I was cut off as she shrugged her wings. "If I knew where the entrance was, why would I send you?"


    "Ugh..." All excitement to leave drained from my body in that instant. "I guess I''ll be back in a month or so, then."


    "Hm? Are you going on vacation?"


    "Eck..." I paused as I looked up into her eyes for a moment. "Fine. I''ll be back in two weeks."


    "That''s more like it!" A wide smile washed over her face as she finally got what she was wanting, but as I turned to leave, she spoke again, this time much more softly. "Thanks to you I can rest easy. Just be careful, please..."


    Her concern was genuine, but it just made me want to crack a joke. However, as I turned around and saw the soft warmth in her eyes, I hesitated. "Okay, I''ll be careful."


    Finally walking out of her office, I gently closed the door with my tail before looking down the hall and seeing Ilios happily trotting over to me. *pat-pat-pat*


    "You ready, buddy?"


    He joyfully nodded.


    "It looks like we''re gonna have to stretch our legs some on this trip, I hope you don''t mind." My excitement slowly started returning as he hopped up onto my back, but instead ofying down, sat up with his head held high with a constant wag in his tail. "Oh, you aren''t gonna nap?"


    He immediately shook his head before looking into my eyes with a determined and excited expression. "Ruff."


    "You want to race to find it?!" A me ofpetitiveness instantly lit in my chest. "Just don''t feel bad when I beat you, haha!" *Vwoop* Disappearing into the void, the halls instantly fell silent.


    But after a moment, one of the ancient-stage maids spoke up. "Did Dagr just.. woof?"


    As she turned around, she found all the other maids just staring where I once stood with dumbfounded expressions. "Doesn''t Nott call him Ilios? What if he isn''t Dagr?"


    The maid paused before looking at the butler that just spoke. "I.. suppose you''re right... But if he isn''t Dagr, then who is he?"


    It was that exact question that would make the name of Ilios, the new God of the Sun, begin to spread, not just through the estate but through the entirety of Bahamut.


    It would just take many years before I woulde to realize him making a name for himself wasn''t idental.


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 Chapter 357: Fear

    Chapter 357: Fear


    Late Evening - Late Summer : The Scar


    -----


    *vwoop-WOOOOSH* An immense st of cold, damp wind forcefully unfolded my wings the moment we exited the void near the western base of The Scar, about fifty kilometers above sea level.


    That evening, the skies were extremely clear, with the only visible clouds being barely over the horizon opposite the mountain, but with the winds, I didn''t have to ask why. -Holy shit...- Pushing upwards of eight or nine hundred kilometers an hour, winds being focused up the mountainside were so immense that, while there was plenty of moisture and dust, the water couldn''t condense properly. -That moisture must be condensing on the other side of the mountain. I bet it''s made one hell of a storm...-


    But, assuming I''d be heading over there in a moment anyway, I shifted gears back to the mission at hand: ''Find the entrance into the mountain.'' The issue was that the entrance wasn''t necessarily going to be visible, and that meant I would need to fly over the mountain at a very low altitude. -Taking into consideration that I can only urately control my aura out to 25 kilometers or so, and read it for even less.. this might be troublesome...-


    However, it was an opportunity for me to rewire my brain like Hera had instructed, even if it was going to make for a miserable experience. "Ugh..." -She was probably aware of that before she sent me here, too...- Knowing her, she probably already knew where the entrance was but sent me to find it regardless so that I''d stretch my legs and strain my brain under the excuse of finishing her task in a timely manner.


    Although I couldn''t deny that it was something I had been needing to do. -I''ve beenx on how hard I''ve pushed myself when I don''t need to recently... Maybe she noticed...-


    *tap-tap* *fwoosh* Eventually pulling me out of my thoughts, Ilios jumped off my back, leaving a trail of spontaneously formed clouds in his wake beforending on the sanded stone mountainside below.


    "Ah, right..." -I got sidetracked...- Looking down, I found his gaze aimed back up at me, filled with excitement as if the insane winds slicking his hair back meant nothing. "Haha," Letting out a soft chuckle, I finally started shifting gears. -I guess it''s time we start the race then, huh?-The moment that thought flowed through my mind, however, he disappeared as if he heard it. *CRRRACKKKK* Halting the winds for a moment, an absurdly deafening shockwave blew over me, and a huge section of the mountainside shattered. In the blink of an eye, Ilios stretched into a blur and zipped around the edge of the mountain, leaving a huge trail of U-shaped clouds in his wake.


    It was the sound of the starter pistol, and suddenly I felt like I was someone caught with their pants down as their opponent sprinted ahead.


    But I wasn''t so fond of losing.


    *sh* Changing to my fenririan form as apetitive spark lit a fire in my chest, I turned down the face of the mountain and pped my wings. -I can''t just let him win, now, can I?!- *CRRR-WOOOM* The game was on, and while I still hadn''t totally switched gears, it only took a couple minutes and a deep breath for mypetitiveness to finally get hold of me.


    "Hooohhh..." -It''s now or never...- *VW-W-WOOOM* "ACK-" Instantly feeling the familiar sensation of neurons ripping themselves apart as I spread and began reading my aura, I had to grit my teeth and tensed my body. The pain was blinding, but unless I wanted to just waste time, I couldn''t just mindlessly fly around the mountain. -I need to focus...-


    However, that was far easier said than done, and, unlike what I expected, finding the entrance was much.. much harder than I had anticipated.


    Before I knew it, half of the time I allotted myself with Hera was gone. A full week had passed. -What the fuck... Am I looking for something that doesn''t exist?! WHERE IS IT?!-


    Zipping just over treetops, I was flying slow, and using my aura to scan deep into the ground. Having already scanned a majority of the mountainside above me up to about seventy kilometers, I decided to try looking closer to the base, but regardless, had no luck whatsoever. -I''d lick a thunderbird''s talon if one told me where to find it at this point...-


    Of the things I found, I found simple caves, huge dungeons, and even tiny ones housing things on the level of goblins, but after focusing my aura into the entrances of anything that could fit something sizable, I found nothing abnormal. -Am I really about to have to start searching through the tiny dungeons too?-


    However, just as I was about to startnding at the entrance of the tiny caves to start more closely inspecting them as well, I sensed one deep underground containing a thin, but still ambient mana. -Huh?-


    It was out of a cave barely big enough to fit five or six humans shoulder to shoulder, and looked like a tunnel made by a tiny dungeon core. -But now that I think about it.. haven''t I seen other tunnels that look.. almost the same?-


    As I traveled around the mountain, I had found dozens of caves that were almost identical in size, but none of them caught my eye since they felt empty, like small, dead dungeons, something quitemon. -But this one...- While I couldn''t be sure of what I was sensing, it felt like it was filled with ambient mana that was left by something''s aura. -It''s certainly.. odd... I guess it wouldn''t hurt to check it out...-


    -----


    Early Morning - Late Winter : Eastern Area of The Scar


    (Several Hours Prior)


    - Astren Ravenna ~


    "Brrr..." A chill ran down my spine as I tightly gripped the reigns of my horse, trying to keep blood flowing to my fingers. "Are you sure we shouldn''t find somewhere to rest and warm up?" It had been a week since we left Sol at that point, and while our trip was periodically dyed by the absurdly frigid conditions to give us a chance to warm up and recuperate, we hadn''t stopped in close to two days, and the cold was getting to us.


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    "I agree, we should find a ce to stop for now..." Even Mag was nearing his limit.


    But the guide didn''t break stride. "We are getting close, please deal with it." Although we hadn''t spoken much with the guide outside of his duties, it was clear that he was getting sick of traveling.


    -To him, we''re probably moving at a snail''s pace...- Over thest week, he had guided us through conditions so terrible they made us want to quit and simply return the money we were given by the church to go home, and we were thankful he also acted as our bodyguard, protecting us from all kinds of monsters we would have struggled to fight given the conditions.


    But he was sick of us. *pat-pat-pat-pat* Running along the surface of the soft snow as if he were weightless, he picked up the pace, getting ahead of us before stopping in front of a small cliff, only about four meters tall.


    -Hm?- Above the cliff was nothing but a wall of snow, reaching several meters up the side of trees, but as we approached the entrance, the snow went from close to a meter thick to a couple centimeters. -Is this the ce?- But as I looked around, I didn''t see anything like a cave entrance.


    "Please dismount your horses." The guide spoke nonchntly as he looked up the cliff before ncing back at us while we followed his instruction. "From here, we will walk on foot. Please follow me one at a time. You will not fit otherwise."


    We all gave him a confused look before he finally turned back to the wall and nonchntly walked through the wall as if it didn''t exist.


    ""W..what?"" Elizabeth and Michael instantly went wide-eyed.


    It was illusion magic, but it was so convincing it was horrifying.


    "I-I''ll go first..." Reluctantly volunteering, Mag put an eye cover on his horse and followed after the guide, walking through the fake wall with ease.


    "I.. guess I''ll go next then..." Eventually following after him, I closed my eyes as I walked into the wall before suddenly, the air changed, bing dry in an instant. *tap-clop* *tap-clop* Hearing Mag in front of me, I finally opened my eyes to see.. nothing. "Did I go blind.. or..."


    "It''s just really dark..." *flicker* Using a tiny fire rune to create a candle-sized me, Mag illuminated the inside of the tiny stone tunnel, only two and a half meters wide and 3 meters tall.


    A ball of doubt quickly formed before twisting my stomach with anxiety. -Is this really.. the right ce?-


    But it was toote to turn back then.


    Eventually letting everyone inside, we got walking down the horrendously dark tunnel, using magic to give ourselves a little light while the guide led us intoplete darkness through a maze of tunnels


    After walking for what felt like an eternity though, the cave eventually started expanding until the ceiling was high enough for us to remount our horses.


    The thing was, when we remounted, we all expected to be just a few minutes from our destination, but as the cave got bigger, it seemed to get exponentially longer.


    Over the course of the next five hours, we ran through the cave system at full speed and eventually found ourselves running through a tunnel almost two hundred meters wide and a hundred and fifty meters tall. -The mana is getting thicker too...-


    "This tunnel.. gives me a really bad feeling..." Eve stared past me with an anxious expression as she spoke, just loud enough for us to hear her over the noise of our horses. "I feel like we''re being watched..."


    "You have good senses." Our guide spoke calmly, leading our horses forward at full speed while he seemed to be casually jogging. "What an interesting elf..."


    Her anxiety instantly worsened as she looked around, trying to peer through the darkness, scanning the dimly lit walls of the cave for anything at all. But not long after, she spoke again with reluctance. "What are those.. streak marks on the walls?"


    The guide didn''t take long to respond. "One of our elders recently left the roost through this entrance, and his wings scraped up the walls."


    We all froze instantly as the visualization of such an unbelievably massive creature came to mind, and we were finally hinted at what to expect.


    The beings we were about to meet were from a realm far outside the fathomability of something as insignificant as a human.


    *Clop-Clop-Clop-Clop* Continuing for another hour, the cave seemed to stop expanding, but more and more of the walls were covered with symbols that none of us could understand until, eventually, we spotted light ahead of us. -Is that the end?-


    As we neared it, we came to notice it was a huge, meticulously carved room with a ceiling nearly 400 meters tall, lined with colossal statues of humans, wolves, monsters, and various birds, thergest of which stood in front of aparably small door you could only reach by walking under it.


    Quicklying up to the room, the guide had us stop just before entering and walked in and bowed. "I have brought the ones I was ordered to bring." *sh* After a sudden, blinding sh, the light faded to reveal a towering, 60-meter-tall light grey and brown feathered bird bowing his head in front of the statue three times his size.


    -So that''s.. who our guide really is...- Justying my eyes on him made me feel under pressure, although nothingpared to Sir Btos.


    The others, however, didn''t have experience in a presence as suffocating as Sir Btos''s.


    At least.. all but one.


    To my right, Michael sat on his horseback, looking around at the inscriptions on the walls and inspecting the statues with a carefreeness in his eyes that made me really question who he was. -Is he.. a dragon?-


    But I was immediately pulled from my thoughts as my instincts suddenly screamed at me, and I looked up to see the massive bird statue in front of the door suddenly looking straight at us. -H..huh?-


    I instantly froze before my skin crawled with fear. -W..what the hell.. is that...-


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 Chapter 358: Living Rocks

    Chapter 358: Living Rocks


    Early Morning - Late Winter : Eastern Area of The Scar


    -----


    "Hm..." -Looks like this is the entrance...- *fwoosh* *fwoosh* *fwoosh-crunch* Gentlynding on the crunchy powdered snowyering the top of a tiny cliff all the way at the base of the mountain, I lowered my neck down to look into the cave entrance my aura said was right beneath my feet.


    But instead of peering into a small, dark cave, I was presented with the view of a seemingly normal, solid cliff. -Hah! To think I actually found this ce...- My tail gently flicked back and forth with joy as I looked at it closer.


    It was way outside of my search area. Being thunderbirds, I assumed they would use an entrance at least partially up the mountain or perhaps in a steep rock face to keep out the likes of wandering humans or other wildlife.


    But, instead of using an entrance that was hard to reach, the cave entrance was extremely isted and surrounded by runes engraved in parallel to create dozens of barriers that hid it so well it could have easily fooled my eyes if I weren''t looking for it. -By the looks of things, it even mimics the temperature and texture of the surrounding stone and even gives some resistance to a wall of high-pressure air... Although it makes it a bit abnormally squishy, a human wouldn''t know any better even if they touched or leaned up against it...- "How impressive..."


    But unfortunately for them, I wasn''t a creature so helpless that I couldn''t read my own aura and realize it was just a good illusion.


    *sh* Not bothering to waste time scouting the cave with my aura, I quickly changed to my humanoid form with a sh, but before the transformation could even finish, I tensed up and cringed while holding my arms up in the air, tangled in a mess of threads.


    *WHAAAMMMM* Cracks instantly spread down the cliff as the impact of my sword falling to the ground knocked the snow out of nearby trees. -Ah.. shit...-Although I didn''t give it any thought before transforming, I still hadn''t used my humanoid form much since before myst dragon sleep, so the spells I subconsciously used to create things like clothes and equip my sword were still.. miscalibrated.. leading me to identally tangle myself in a huge clump of broken wire and cloth as if I was at the center of a 3d-printer malfunction, and drop my sword on the ground rather than in a shieth. -So much for a silent entrance...-


    *Crackle-Woosh* But after clearing away the tangled mess I made with some fire magic, I finally had the chance to look at myself again, even though it felt a little odd.


    I was almost exactly the same height as I was before, right around 187 centimeters, and was still quite muscr and extremely toned, but much like my draconic form, I slimmed down considerably, giving me a much more bnced appearance.


    But such a change altered far more than just my appearance. When it came to my previously honed martial techniques and muscle memory, everything I had mastered, I now had to relearn. -But while it might take a while to optimize everything to this new body.. it should be far morefortable in the long run...-


    However, that was far from the only change I had to learn to work with before fighting anything on the level of a thunderbird.


    As if to just throw every wrench into the mix at once, with the exceptions of a few trails of scales here and there, my body grew to mimic my fenririan form to a tee: My horns grew immensely, my tail doubled in length, now being closer to the size of a dragon''s than a fenrir demihuman''s, and as if that wasn''t enough... *p* *p* "Haah..." I had tworge furred wings sprouting from my back, just below my upper back. -How bothersome...-


    Thankfully though, although it wasn''t until after I yed with them for a moment that I realized, while the wings were far too small to fly with and honestly just a in inconvenience to work around, theypensated for it by being extremely nimble, far more so than in either of my other forms.


    -Woah...- Not only could I tuck in or wrap my wings around myself like I could in my other forms, I could bend them down andy them one over the other on my lower back and butt to keep them out of the way whenever needed, whether I was squeezing through a tight space or fighting. -To lower my center of mass so much too... That''s pretty convenient...- My opinion on them flipped in an instant. -I wonder if other dragon''s humanoid form''s are like this...-


    As techniques started sting through my mind, I honestly began questioning if I couldn''t incorporate my horns or tail into techniques as well, but before I could get too carried away, I gathered myself and finally readjusted all my spells, this time permanently. -Let''s try that again, shall we?- *Vwoom*


    It only took a moment for my body to suddenly be tightly wrapped in cloth and my forearms to be mped with gold. -Now, if I just put my sword here...- Gently sliding it into its horizontal sheath hidden beneath the folded wings on my lower back, I took a moment to make a few final adjustments before shortening my hair some and tying it back in a ponytail. -Much better.-


    Eventually finishing, I turned my attention back to the cave and promptly hopped down the four-meter ''cliff'' to investigate it. *puff* But as Inded, I noticed a load of tracks in the snow, some left by shoes, and some not. -Those look like hoof prints... Did humanse through here?-


    I wanted to scratch my head as I wracked my brain toe up with a reason thunderbirds would need horses, but while I couldn''t think of anything, the idea of it being from humans made even less sense. -Based on the path they took through the woods, they came straight here... They knew exactly where this entrance was...- It was also a path through the trees that was too optimal to be done by humans, whether they followed a map or had just taken the path a million times. -But there''s no reason to try to be a detective... I''ll be meeting them soon enough.-


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    Finally turning back to the cave entrance, I casually walked through its barriers while massaging my neck. -Maybe instead of straining my brain, I can strain my body for once...- "Should I give it a shot?"


    Swiftly lowering my posture, I bent my knees before.. *CRACK-WOO-WHAAMMMMM* I vanished, smashing through the sound barrier before almost instantly tripping and going face first into the stone. *CR-CR-CR-CRUNCH* Eventually reaching my arm out and digging it into the ground, I brought my self to a halt before hastily standing up and brushing myself off as if someone might see me.


    "Ahem..." -Let''s uh.. try that again.. this time a bit slower...-


    Quickly starting back up, I worked my way from a walk to a jog to a run until I was back to darting through the cave faster than the speed of sound, this time in a far morefortable and controlled fashion.


    With how much stronger my body was, the sound barrier wasn''t much of a barrier anymore. Even without using vacuum magic, I could easily push through it. -But moving through such a confined space this fast is a bit annoying...- Not only were there countless things to trip me up, if I weren''t using any magic to muffle the shockwave I created, I would have been shattering and blowing out the walls of the cave.


    But it didn''t take long for the cave to start expanding, getting wider and wider until I could even fit my draconic form in it prettyfortably.


    However, I was still running. I had yet to slow down. -Just how fucking deep is this cave...- Although I was moving at a snail''s pacepared to what I usually did in my draconic form, Mach 1.5 through a cave was no joke. Keeping that pace for almost nine minutes, I had honestly started wondering just where I was going. -In a second, I''ll be nearing three hundred kilometers travelled in here... Where does this damn ce end?-


    But thankfully, not long after I questioned that, a mix of blue and yellow light met my eyes from way up ahead of me, and at the same time, I felt several considerably strong auras through the walls behind the light. -FINALLY!-


    Not bothering to hold back anymore, I quickly sped up even more before slowing to a walk right as I entered the massive rotunda-like room lined with symbols, intricate carvings, text, and massive statues while lit by a mix of torches and artifacts. -This must be the entrance...-


    It looked like the inside of some ancient temple with the statues of various animals, a few humanoid beings, and a huge thunderbird standing around arge tform as if judging whoever walked on it.


    Even I felt like I was being watched by each of them as I walked inside. -They''re clearly made of stone, so.. how...- Not only did I feel gazes from them, but I felt auras from them as well, although it was faint. -Do they use camera artifacts through the statues to judge whether to open the door or not?-


    But I quickly found that not to be the case.


    *Shift* Hearing a stone turn, I instantly froze and looked up at the towering thunderbird statue standing in front of the door to find its lifeless stone eyes staring straight at me. -What the... How did it do that...-


    It moved.


    Pushing my aura into the statue, I quickly scanned through it, only to find a sizable mana core emitting almost no aura at all. -That looks like an artifact.. but I don''t see any runes that it could make use of nearby...-


    However, while I couldn''t see what it was for, that was only for a moment.


    *VWOOM* While I was still looking at it, the aura it emitted exploded, multiplying by magnitudes before bringing a blue glow to its eyes. -What the fuck?-


    I recognized it instantly, but it was something I believed to be nothing more than an old myth. -It''s a golem?!-


    *shift-CRACKLE* Opening its mouth, a ball of glowing mes appeared inside its beak before sting out, engulfing me in an instant.


    But instead of panicking like any other being would, I felt a fire-like curiosity light in my chest. -To think it can even use magic!- Even while I was being bathed in a plume of fire hot enough to melt steel, I smiled. -How do you work?!- I was so incredibly fascinated by it because even with unbelievablyplicated runes, it was something I believed was impossible to make.


    *WOOooosh* As the mes died down, the smug thunderbird statue went to close its mouth again, having dealt with the enemy, but when it tried, it noticed it couldn''t.


    "How fascinating..."


    *shift* Shifting its eyes down more, it finally noticed me casually holding its mouth open, looking down at the core in its throat with my space mana.


    But when it forced its beak shut regardless, as if to try and crush me, its beak simply crumbled. *Crumble-woosh* Falling out of its beak, Inded on the ground with a crunch. *WHAM* -So if it works like that.. then what if I just...- *THWAK-WHAMM* Casually tapping one of its little chicken legs, the stone was reduced to dust before the huge statue began to fall.


    But before it could hit the ground, the stone in its body appeared to liquefy before reforming its leg like a dungeon core repairing itself. -What a clever way to do that...-


    Instead of just using automated, absurdlyplicated runes, someone was controlling the golem through a rtively thick mana tether connected to the ceiling, somewhat simrly to how Hera controlled her body before it healed. This gave the statues properties simr to dungeon cores while letting them be sentiently controlled.


    That did mean it had a massive weakness, being if the tether was cut, the golem would be reduced to a statue, but if their opponent wasn''t at least on the level of an older dragon, such things would be hard to discover. -That makes me wonder though... Just how strong are these things? Do they rely on magic? Or...- Looking back at the other statutes, I watched them all turn to me before setting my eyes on the humanoid statues wielding weapons. -I wonder...-


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 Chapter 359: Her

    Chapter 359: Her


    Mid Morning - Late Winter : The Nest


    -----


    *fwip-WOOSH* *tap-tap-WOOSH-WOOSH-WOOSH* Swiftly dodging each swing of the two cohesively moving sword and axe-wielding golems, I scrutinized each and every one of my own steps in an effort to try and reform my techniques to better fit my new body.


    But tunnel-visioning on myself so intently in the middle of a fight was never a good thing.


    *tap-Thud* Backing into the massive stone shield of one of the other golems without realizing it, I was engulfed in a plume of fire so hot it scorched everything around me, before the incredibly oversized sword and axe sliced through the mes from either side of me. -To control so many golems with such fluidity... I''m impressed...-


    I honestly felt like I was fighting a squad of giants.


    But unfortunately, there was a limit to the ability of not only the controller, but the statues.


    *THWACK* The shield pressed against my back was pulverized in an instant as my tail punched through it, reducing it dust along with the statue''s abdomen before I reached up and caught each of the huge des with one hand and swiped them over one another. *Cr-CRACKLE-WHAAMM* Before the controller could even react, the two statues were mmed into one another, reducing both to rubble simultaneously.


    It was truly an unfortunately lopsided matchup.But while I watched the thunderbird controlling the statues slowly be consumed by panic and fear in a room directly above us, I wore a wide smile. -Who knew regenerating punching bags would be so fun to y with?!-


    However, the time to y had toe to an end eventually.


    *Vwoop* Reaching up as a chunk of iron flew up in front of my face, I pulled back my finger and gave it a hardy flick. *zip-CRACK* It blew through the sound barrier severalfold in an instant, turning molten as it blew through the cloud of rubble from the still-colliding statues before caving in the neck of the thunderbird golem, blowing a hole through it and shattering its mana core with ease. *CR-VWOOM*


    It was the only golem I properly destroyed. All the others, I only selectively damaged so that they would eventually regenerate and remain operable.


    Thest thing I wanted to do was properly destroy what I assumed to be unique ancient relics from a dozen millennia ago. The only exception to that was the thunderbird statue, all because of how it was poised to look down at whoever entered the room as if it were superior.


    But while the other statues still had the ability to regenerate in a few seconds, that time, they remain piles of rubble. -Is he finally done?-


    Looking up through the ceiling, I watched as a big grey chicken frantically disconnected himself from the control runes before turning to run away.


    Of course, I didn''t let him get that far. *VWOOM-CRUNCH* The moment he disconnected himself and moved a short way from the control runes, I mmed my aura into him, ripping him through the ceiling before pinning him against the ground and walking up to him.


    "KYAA-!" His bird-like screech was deafening, like a human screaming for help, but with a wave of my hand, I wrapped him in silencing magic.


    -Geez, if I scare him any more he might justy an egg...- "I''m not going to kill you. Rx." Looking down at him from atop the mound of rubble in the center of the room, his gaze met mine, and he froze. "I just need you to open that door. Could you do that for me?"


    "Kyee... Y-Yes, mighty lord!" He spoke in his native tongue with a stutter as his face lit up, and while it was a bit hard to understand, I understood the gist of it.


    -Howcent...- *Vwoom* Pulling my aura off him, he wasted no time bolting back up into the control room.


    But while it took a moment, the door did eventually begin to open. -Did he sound an rm? The door alone couldn''t have taken that long...-


    However, the noise on the other side of the door was, instead ofplete silence or chaos, the sound of muffled chirps and chatter until finally, the door opened enough to reveal a long road lined with massive carved structures in an absolutely colossal, brightly lit cavern with a ceiling at least a few kilometers high.


    -Woah...- Unfortunately though, standing right in front of the door was a massive thunderbird, giving me a look of distaste before the controller jumped down next to him.


    He was easily eighty meters tall, twice the height of the controller, with his legs as well as other parts of his body ted with thin metal. "Chamrosh, how could you not stop a single person?" He sounded more annoyed than angry.


    But the controller, who appeared to be named Chamrosh, instead of quickly exining himself to the guard, just faced me and bowed his head. "Would you like a guide, sir?" He spoke in thenguage of the Holy Kingdom fluently.


    I was honestly taken aback. -Wow... Did he really not sound the rm or call for help...- But I wasn''t one toin. "If you wouldn''t mind-"


    "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" Rudely cutting me off, the guard, along with several other thunderbirds watching from the surrounding buildings, instantly shot him a heated gaze. "You dare treat that creature like a guest?!"


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    As it looked like he was going to hit Chamrosh though, Chamrosh shot him a deathly cold look and spoke in his native tongue. "Sir, if you fight this man, you will be humiliated..."


    I honestly wanted tough, but the guard didn''t take it as a joke. "AS IF!" His voice boomed before the distance between him and I was reduced to nothing. "If you don''t leave right now, I''ll kill you."


    His beak was right in front of my face, but after gently tapping it a couple times, I just looked him in the eye. *tap-tap* "Nah, you won''t."


    He snapped instantly, opening his mouth to reveal the bright blue glow of a me in his throat.


    But he didn''t get that far. *VWOOM-CRUNCH* mming him into the ground with my aura, I casually stepped forward before punting him into the wall with my foot. *WHAAAAM*


    The other thunderbirds watching instantly froze and fell silent, as a cloud of dust started falling from the ceiling.


    However, as I turned back toward Chamrosh, who still had his head lowered toward me, I caught something out of the corner of my eye. -Hm?-


    It was a human girl, standing in the lower-most entrance of one of the nearby buildingsbeled with a symbol of meat, with bright blond hair and sky blue eyes.


    For a human, her aura was more than a little impressive. Had you told me she was ate adult stage dragon, I could have believed you.


    But none of that was what caught my eye.


    "You..." -You''re her...- Thinking back to my earliest dragon sleeps, I remembered stumbling across a small hut in a forest that appeared to be the home of an old mage and little girl. *VWOOM* Instantly appearing right in front of her before her eyes could follow me, I looked down at her with a stern gaze. "You''re <em>that </em>little girl.. aren''t you..."


    -----


    (Back a few minutes)


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    *Sip* Taking a small sip of the extremely bitter alcohol, I looked down at the steaming, delicious-smelling food on my te without any appetite.


    We were brought into a tavern right after we got through the gate, but we couldn''t bring ourselves to eat. We all simply had a knot of anxiety churning our stomachs so much that if we ate, we would have thrown up.


    But there were two exceptions to that. Elizabeth Valia and Astren Ravenna.


    "Mmmm, what kind of meat is this?"


    Eve reluctantly nced at her te before looking at Elizabeth. "If I had to guess.. probably some part of a wyvern."


    A gleam quickly came to Astren''s eyes. "So this is what wyvern meat tastes like!" She looked like she was about to ask for more. "It''s so juicy."


    -How can they act so calmly...- I quickly slid my te toward them. "If you would like my serving as well.. please help yourself."


    "Hm? Are you sure?" They were so carefree it was honestly scary.


    Eventually nodding, I looked at Arcana, Gale, and Mag with an inquisitive gaze to see if they were thinking the same as me.


    And they were.


    After being wlessly guided through the forest in the middle of a blizzard, we were brought through a colossal cave system hidden with illusion magic so intricate that I didn''t even know what types of magic it used, before eventuallying into a ritual-like area lined with countless runes, engravings, and massive statues tall enough to look over the top of most buildings.


    Our group was onlyprised of the most experienced of adventurers, those at the top of their ss, and while we had all seen some incredible structures in our lives that made the statues seem like nothing, every single one of us felt a chill when we saw the eyes of the statues move.


    They weren''t just statues. "Those were golems.. weren''t they..." I spoke softly, only getting the attention of Arcana, the only person in our group who even knew what they were.


    "I''m thinking the same thing... But if these.. ''people'' have the ability to make golems... Just what else will they have..."


    My stomach churned just thinking about it. We were undoubtedly in over our heads... -This whole ce too...- Looking around the in stone room, I tried to find any other trace of humans being here but saw nothing other than empty, dust-covered tables that hadn''t been used in decades. -Humans were never meant toe here...- It was the residence of monsters far outside the realm of humanity.


    "If we get out of this alive, I might just retire to myboratory." Arcana spoke softly before Mag tried to reassure her.


    "We are here on peaceful terms. As long as we don''t offend them, we should be fine..." He silently looked back toward the door where he saw our guide leaning against the arched doorway to the so-called ''tavern'', sipping alcohol.


    -Let''s just hope everything goes well...- *Thump* Feeling the ground shake slightly as I turned back to the table, I overheard the guide mumble something to someone outside before hearing the ridiculously overpowering wing ps of a thunderbird as it took off into the cavern.


    It gave me a chill.


    If there were only one or two of them, I could have maybe been morefortable, but as we entered through the gate, we found the gazes of dozens of them on us, each with the ability to destroy considerablyrge cities, and since then, the idea that this ce was infested with them refused to leave my mind.


    Our only saving grace were the ones from the church who, while shaken up by the golems, didn''t seem to mind the judgemental gazes of them, as if they were used to it.


    But after a few minutes, a much.. much louder set of wing ps approached beforending in front of our tavern, revealing talons bigger than people and legs thicker than trees.


    It was a thunderbird thatpletely dwarfed everything we had seen until that point. A being that could tten kingdoms.


    But the next few minutes only made my expression warp with confusion.


    After hearing a loud crash and the sound of crumbling rock, we heard the gate open before suddenly, the thunderbirds started yelling at one another. -What the hell is going on...-


    I wanted to get up and look, but was so worried about being rude that I couldn''t move. However, after a moment, the melodious voice of a human met my ears. "If you wouldn''t mind-"


    "SCREE!" He was instantly cut off by what sounded like the colossal thunderbird we saw a moment prior.


    But just as we got up to the doorway to see what was happening, we watched at the massive, likely 80-meter-tall thunderbird was mercilessly pancaked against the ground andunched to the side, smashing through several structures before revealing a single man standing in the cloud of dust.


    My mind simply went silent when I set eyes on him, but I knew one thing was for sure. -He isn''t a human...-


    But before that thought could finish, he suddenly appeared in front of us, standing over and looking down at Elizabeth with a harsh, inhuman gaze before gently speaking. "You''re <em>that </em>little girl.. aren''t you..."


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 Chapter 360: Who are you

    Chapter 360: Who are you


    Late Morning - Late Winter : The Nest


    -----


    *WHAAAAMMM* The entire cavern shook violently as I casually kicked the massive thunderbird into the wall adjacent to us, having him ricochet off it before plowing through several heavily mana-strengthened stone structures as if they were made of hardened y. *Crumble* -Dumbass... Could he not feel my aura?- Since I entered, I hadn''t withheld it at all. -He wasn''t so weak that he couldn''t be able to sense it.. so why?-


    But after a moment of thought, as I went to turn back to Chamrosh, a young human woman caught my attention. -Hm?- She was familiar. Too familiar.


    She wasn''t someone I had simply seen when I was passing through a kingdom at some point in the past. She was someone I made a special note of.


    "You..." -You''re her...- *VWOOM* Instantly appearing in front of her, memories from my second dragon sleep vividly raced through my mind. Recounts of stumbling across a cabin in the woods, home to an old man and a young girl. A young girl who knew English. "You''re that little girl.. aren''t you..."


    The moment my words, spoken clearly in English, met the girl''s ears, her face paled and washed with fear.


    -She really is!- My curiosity exploded in an instant, bringing a slightly crazed smile to my face.


    But as a wave of excitement surged through me, a dark elf''s dagger paused in front of my neck, a towering man''s battle axe halted just over my head, and an arrow of fire, conjured through runes, appeared just in front of my forehead, all while an older female swordsman jumped in front of the girl, using a beautiful white sword braced against her arm to block as if I was going to attack.Their expressions were all dark, and they each oozed killing intent.


    But while I didn''t care about them in the slightest, seeing as they were herpanions, I held back. -If I kill them, then it will make our conversation more troublesome...- So I was quick to lighten my expression without pulling my eyes off her. "I mean no harm, so why don''t you all-"


    "If you say another word, I''ll slit your throat." The dark elf holding her knife to my neck like an assassin spoke with a sour, demanding tone. "We''ll be the ones asking the que-"


    *CRUNCH* Before she could finish, her body was instantaneously crushed against the ground, smashing through the half-rotten floorboards before spitting blood from where she bit through her tongue. "HYAK!"


    Almost immediately, the fire arrow in front of my face sted over me, and the massive mythril axe came crashing down on my head.


    But, of course, it didn''t reach me.


    *Creaaak* The echoing creak of metal instantly pierced through the sounds of crackling mes as my fingers sank into the mythril axe head. "And what did you think that was gonna do?" Watching him quickly go wide-eyed, my annoyance took the form of a column of aura that promptly came crashing down on him. *VWOOM-CRRACKLE*


    In an instant, the giant man was reduced to a fish out of water, pinned against the ground and gasping for air.


    Finally turning to the older woman who conjured the arrow as it''s mes dissipated, her whole body tensed, and the thick book of text, runes, research, and experiments fell out of her hands before her body followed suit, limply copsing as her knees became weak.


    -She''s a researcher, huh...- For a human, her rune actually wasn''t too bad. "I''ll give you a pass." *tap-CRUNCH* Casually dropping the heavy mythril axe just centimeters from the elf''s head behind me, I turned to the only two people in the group who hadn''t moved yet to see if they would, only to be surprised by a familiar face. "Huh? Michael Cotorel? What are you doing here?"


    He was the nation-rank mage I had the opportunity to meet during my time in Kan. The human that helped me define the realm of humans as a kid. "H..how do you know my name?" He spoke with a fearful quiver in his voice, clearly not recognizing me as the gazes of everyone still conscious turned to him.


    "Ah, I was much younger back then, I don''t me you for not recognizing me. However, I''ll take this as a chance to reintroduce myself." *vwoom* Easing my aura on the human and elf as they were about to suffocate, I looked into the fear filled eyes of the blond woman with a smile. "My name is Vasilias, but you may also call me Nott if you wish."


    The thunderbirds watching from the outside all simultaneously mmed up, recognizing the name.


    But the humans weren''t so educated.


    Finally recognizing me, Michael''s expression of fear deepened before suddenly turning conflicted with relief. "Y-You are Sir Whyte!"


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    I gave a gentle nod as my annoyance with the others started to subside. "Just Vasilias is fine." -I need to stop using thatst name so I don''t risk endangering them...-


    "T-Then, Lord Vasilias, please forgive myrades! They weren''t aware of your strength and only wished to protect theirrade."


    -Clearly...- I was quick to wave his worries away. -It wasn''t them jumping to protect her I had a problem with...-


    But as I was about to speak about the gall of the elf, the older woman in front of the blond I needed to speak with spoke up with a mix of fear and confusion in her voice. "Y-You.. went by the name Vasilias Whyte?"


    -Hm?- Curious why she was asking, I tilted my head slightly. "For quite a while." -Does she know it from somewhere?-


    However, instead of continuing, she simply looked back at the blond girl with an expression that could only be described as a mix of understanding and unadulterated confusion.


    -Did I miss something?-


    "D..Do you know of someone named Katherine Whyte?"


    -I haven''t met anyone in the Whyte family, so...- "N-"


    "She''s white fox demihuman."


    I instantly paused as several memories I had nearly forgotten surfaced in my mind. "To think I would hear about her on the opposite end of the world from Kan." -She must be in her twenties now...- "Is she someone you know?"


    The blond spoke softly and hesitantly as she still thawed from fear. "Y-Yes.. we are her friends..." She appeared to brace herself as she spoke.


    "Is that so?" My gaze slowly shifted back to the woman in front as my expression turned judgemental. "What''s her connection to the Holy Kingdom?" -To be friends with an apostle... She must be someone with authority...-


    As my gazended on the thin, noncontrolling tether connected to her reserve, she tensed and spoke quickly. "S-She is the hero!"


    -Hm...- My mood immediately darkened slightly, making the room''s atmosphere be heavy. "Is that the path fate chose for her?" It was a position I would most definitely have to eliminate eventually, a proxy for the strongest god in the Aesir. "How unfortunate..." Even back when I first met her, I knew she would turn into a monster. I even helped her with it. -It''s just a shame to see her take the other side...-


    With a slight panic, the older woman spoke with haste. "I-I-If you want toe back to Voldukirk with us, I''m sure you could meet with h-"


    "No," I spoke firmly. "We will eventually meet again, but now isn''t the time." -The day we meet will be the day I have to fight Odin...- My expression darkened further as the disgusting feeling of weakness filled my gut. -I''m still not strong enough for him...-


    But while he sat on his high horse, I was getting stronger, day by day, hour by hour.


    "Haah..." -I should probably pick up the pace though...- Although I didn''t want to admit it, ever since myst dragon sleep, my progression had slowed immensely, mirroring the growth of my body. With the exception of switching my brain to use divinity, it honestly felt like I had stagnated.. leaving a bad taste in my mouth. But after a moment, I clicked my tongue and turned back to the blond girl. "Tch.. whatever... Regardless, I have far more business with you than I do her."


    Her whole body jolted before I lifted my hand, creating a table and chairs out of a mix of carbon and several metals in less than a second.


    At the time, I had so much on my mind that I didn''t even realize just how much faster it was than normal. "Please have a seat."


    Everyone instantly jolted and stared at the table, having watched it suddenly appear out of nothingness before I casually walked up and sat down, using my aura to grab a few barrels of alcohol from the floor above us while I created two small sses on either end of the table and filled them with ice.


    *clink-clinck* I casually swished around the ice as I poured the opaque orange liquid into the ss and had a sip. *sip* -Oh.. it''s Orange Death.. how nostalgic...- It was the drink I had when I met Adrian and Emelia in Elynnor many years ago.


    But then wasn''t the time to reminisce. "Now, everyone but her, leave." Sliding the other ss across the table, it stopped just in front of the other chair. "Including you, Miss Apostle."


    She instantly tensed before the room fell silent.


    But it onlysted a moment. "I..It''s okay guys..." Finally breaking free from the fear gripping her heart, the blond reluctantly pushed aside her apostle friend before stepping forward and taking a seat. "I will be okay... Please go tend to Eve and Magnai..."


    She was still shaking from fear as she sat down, but nheless looked me in the eyes without holding back.


    "Howmendable." -I''d expect no less from someone like you.- *Vwoom* Wrapping us in silencing magic, as the others finally snapped out of their trances, my eyesnded on her chest, looking through her body at the reserve and soul opposite the heart, that looked akin to a dragons. -Unless she''s evolved, she isn''tpletely human, is she... How interesting...- "So, why don''t we start with your name?"


    She immediately hesitated, but after a moment of silence, spoke nervously. "M..my name is Elizabeth... Elizabeth Valia."


    -Even that name...- Although Valia was clearly native, Elizabeth was an English name. "Where is your name from?"


    Finally averting her eyes, she looked down at her legs as her posture turned anxious. "F-From the southern penins of the Main Continent. Valia was my grandfather''s-"


    "I''m not asking about the name Valia."


    She quickly looked up at me with a hint of confusion. "Y..yes, my first name is from there too-"


    *clink-clink* I swiftly interrupted her by swirling around the ice in my ss. "You really think you can deceive a god?" *tap* Getly setting it down, I finally leaned over the table and looked her in the eyes with a dark expression. "You know just as well as me that English isn''t native to this world."


    Every drop of color drained from her face instantaneously.


    "Now, let me ask again." *blink* All of our surroundings instantly went ck, leaving only light illuminating us and the table as I idly shifted around my ss. "Who are you?"


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 361: An Endless Circle

    Chapter 361: An Endless Circle


    Late Morning - Late Winter : The Nest


    -----


    *clink-clink* Gently swirling the ice in my ss, I looked her in the eye with a mix of pity and disappointment. "You really think you can deceive a god?" *tap* Gently setting it down after a moment of silence, her whole body stiffened with fear before I looked up from my ss and back into her eyes. "You know just as well as me that English isn''t native to this world."


    Her face drained of color instantaneously.


    "Now, let me ask again." *blink* Surrounding us with light magic, our surroundings instantly went dark, only leaving us and the table visible. "Who are you?"


    There was a long moment of silence as her expression started darkening before she hung her head. "I..." She sounded uncertain as she spoke under her breath. "I don''t know..."


    It was a response I didn''t expect, but some part of my soul seemed to resonate with it. -Is she really a reincarnator?- For some time, I had begun to consider if it was her ''grandfather'' that was the one to reincarnate. "Then how about this..." Easing my tone slightly, I leaned back off the table. "Why don''t you tell me about ''the past you''."


    Realizing what I was implying, she clenched her hands so hard they bruised one another before suddenly easing them. However, she never lifted her gaze up, letting the blood from her lip drip onto her hands as she sunk her teeth into it. "Do you.. already know about Earth..?"


    "Of course. Most of the details are fuzzy now, but I still have some memories from it." I spoke nonchntly while pouring myself another ss of alcohol.But she didn''t seem to take it so casually. "Huh?" Her tense expression eased with confusion instantly. "From.. it..? D..do you mean.. from other people who have reincarnated from Earth before me?"


    I quickly shook my head. "No. I mean my memories from Earth itself." *sip*


    But as I casually sipped my drink, a conflicting mix of fear, caution, and excitement filled her eyes. "Huh?! D-D-Do you mean y-you''re a reincarnator from Earth?" Not sure what to think or believe, her emotions quickly themselves into a knot.


    -But...- I responded with a shrug, "I remember my reincarnation quite vividly, and while they''re quite blurry, I do still have some memories of Earth. However, I can''t say that I was the one to live that life there." -Although it was undeniably a piece of me...- *Tap* Setting down my ss, I further rxed my posture. "But unlike me, you still seem to have quite a strong connection to that life."


    She paused as her expression turned conflicted, and she averted her eyes. "I.. do..."


    "So why don''t you tell me about it?" A smile slowly came to my face as I watched her brain race with thought. "If you''re nervous about me using something you tell me against you, don''t." As she looked up at me, my smile twisted slightly. "I wouldn''t use such a roundabout way to get what I want."


    But while it only seemed to send a shiver down her spine, after a moment of thought, she finally eased up. "O..okay..." She hung her head to think for almost half a minute before finally continuing. "A few of my memories are a little fuzzy, so I can''t remember myst name, but my name on Earth was Elizabeth, and I was 18 when I.. died..." She bit her lip again as she paused, clearly still struggling to deal with her emotions. "I was a freshly instated nun somewhere the United States.. I can''t recall where specifically."


    -Huh?- It wasn''t the response I expected at all. -She was a nun? Did she reincarnate way before me?- "I want to ask how did you died, but first, do you remember what year it was you died?"


    She quickly nodded. "It was 2012..."


    -That.. doesn''t help...- Without realizing it, I had long since forgotten when my reincarnation was. "Hm... I don''t remember the years..." -What can I ask to gauge the timeframe...- "Do you remember anything about electric cars?"


    Her face quickly brightened slightly. "Ah, y-yes." Quickly picking up what I was trying to ask, she continued. "They were a very new thing, though. I only heard about them a few months before I died."


    -So she did reincarnate before me...- It was by a fair bit too, a little over ten years. "Hm.. alright. Then, how did you reincarnate?"


    She quickly tensed up with emotion again. "Ah.. well, like I said a second ago, I was a nun, but it hadn''t been for long... Not long after I turned 18, my church sent me and my group to Jerusalem as a way to celebrate our initiation. It was quite a beautiful ce.. I can still remember it vividly.. but while we were walking around The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.. time seemed to stop, and I felt this.. horrible chill.. and the next thing I knew, I felt like a different person.. I lost my sense of self, and lost control of my body before everything finally went ck... After that, I can only remember waking up in the Forest of Altair, in the body of a three-year-old who was under the care of her grandfather... He spoke English, and while I never worked up the courage to ask, he always seemed acutely aware that I was a reincarnator, and looked at me as if he knew my past, thinking fondly of it, so I had this belief that he was an angel guiding me in heaven.. but now..."


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    -Hm...- My expression quickly turned troubled. -I was hoping our experiences would have lined up more, but...- My experience was quite drastically different. -There''s no way someone could forget the pain of your body and soul being eaten by the void... So, what happened to her...-


    However, as I tilted my head, watching her soul swirl within her reserve around a tiny, solid core with my mind fueled by curiosity, a presence I had been keeping my eye on for a while finally approached, and I slowed my divinity.


    *Vwoom* Before you could even blink, time seemed to stop, and Grace appeared right next to me, sitting on the edge of the table, hanging her head.


    I had never seen her like that. She looked almost.. guilty...


    "~I.. can exin...~" She spoke softly. Softer than I had ever heard before. "~Or.. I can at least try...~"


    A wave of thoughts instantly flooded my mind. "Are you.. rted to her reincarnation?"


    She immediately nodded. "~Unlike her, I can''t remember anything about the advent itself, but, I do know that I was responsible for it...~"


    -Huh? Wait.. then...- "Do you mean you did something to bring her here.. or do you mean.. you both came at the same time..." -There''s no way you had a way to return to Earth on her own.. so...-


    There was a long silence before she finally matched my gaze. "~I dragged her with me when I was.. transmigrated.. if you wish to word it that way...~"


    My mind instantly froze. -W..what?- "I-If that were the case, how is she still a young woman? She couldn''t have been reincarnated more than a year before me." -She was a child when I saw her in the forest... And even now.. she most certainly isn''t from the era of the Great War like Grace is... Plus, she only died on earth a few years before me...-


    But Grace just turned her head away in silence.


    That was when it finally clicked. "You''re kidding..." Looking back at Elizabeth''s soul, I stared at the solid soul core with wide eyes.


    "~When I strengthened her soul to survive in the void, it formed a core with her memories from Earth in it...~" She paused as she hung her head with guilt. "~And because of that core.. those memories never disappear, even if they''re meant to be cleaned by Delphi''s reincarnation cycle... So.. every time she reincarnates...~"


    Silence fell around us as I stared at Grace. -She''s been reincarnated with her memories from Earth continuously for ten thousand years..?- "So that''s why you were near that forest when we first met..."


    She gently nodded.


    "Then, her ''grandfather''... Who is-"


    "~He''s herst life''s son.~" She paused before finally floating off the table, still refusing to turn around and look at Elizabeth. "~Every generation I could, I have given an oracle to one of her children to move to that forest and take care of her next reincarnation.~"


    "Then.. the reason she doesn''t seem to be a human is..." -Because she isn''t...- Watching Grace nod, I fell back into my chair and looked at Elizabeth, not knowing what to think. -Fuck...-


    Before I knew it, my thoughts were racing. Just when I thought I was taking some steps forward in understanding the world and my reincarnation, I had to take a step back.


    -So she only died a few years before me on Earth.. yet ten thousand years earlier here on Delphi...- It meant there were two possibilities: either I reincarnated right after them, and Dagr simply took that long to find me a suitable body, or Delphi''s time dtion was just that ridiculous. -Based on what Dagr said.. it wouldn''t make sense for him to take so long to reincarnate me... So that just leaves time dtion...-


    But that had its own issues too. To survive traveling to Delphi through the void with just a human soul, Earth had to be somewhere close by; otherwise, just as Grace said before, a while back, I wouldn''t have made it here, even with Dagr''s help. However, the time dtion said otherwise. -Ugh...-


    It was a fruitless effort to dedicate thought to it as things were, but even after realizing that and setting those theories aside, my mind couldn''t rest easy.


    After I tried shifting gears back toward the girl in front of me, some part of my soul ached with sympathy. Her scenario was one that I had feared was happening to me for many years after all. -The curse of walking in a circle forever...- "Has she ever figured out the loop she''s in?"


    "~She usually does near the end of each life.. and she tries to leave mementos for her next reincarnation to find.. but she''s only ever found a few...~"


    I paused before looking back at Grace. "Why don''t you guide her toward them?"


    "~I have.~" She responded bluntly. "~She was my n A... If I reincarnated her enough.. I thought she may be able to be a god and help me.. get back to Earth...~" She spoke softly, as if unsure whether to tell me.


    My expression darkened in an instant. "So that was your objective..." Ever since she first spared me, I asked myself why. She could have easily killed me during my first few dragon sleeps, yet didn''t, and not only that, she even helped me with my growth quite significantly. "I''m assuming that means I''m your n B?" As she gently nodded, a mix of conflicting emotions filled my mind.


    "~You were a golden goose I had the audacity to try and control... The fruit of a being far above myself... If you don''t wish to forgive me for using you.. you can do what you wish with me, but...~" She spoke with reluctance.


    And while a part of me did want to dissolve her soul in the void, this was already a reality I hade to terms with. "You''re far more useful alive. Plus, if I ever get the strength to send you back, I will." I paused before pulling my eyes off her. "I''m quite curious about Earth myself..."


    The issue was.. I wasn''t sure I would make it that far.


    The world was filled with horrors I still couldn''tprehend, and as she said, I was still but a fruit to Dagr. I still had a long way to go if I wanted to keep my body...


    But as I was reminded of that reality, the light I believed I was seeing at the end of the tunnel flickered away like an illusion.


    I was much farther from the end than I had tricked myself into believing, like a frog in a well.


    "Haah..." But I wasn''t going to just give up. -I''ve been toox...- Instead, I was going to do the opposite. -But before that...- "What do you think about still making use of Elizabeth?"


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 Chapter 362: Looking over the Horizon

    Chapter 362: Looking over the Horizon


    Late Morning - Late Winter : The Nest


    -----


    "~M..Making.. use of her?~" Grace spoke hesitantly as she finally looked me in the eyes.


    "Don''t act dumb," I spoke bluntly as I straightened my posture. "I know you''re already using her to try andy andmine at Odin''s feet... But I think she''s more useful than that." Crossing my legs, I looked at Elizabeth with a somewhat predatory gaze.


    "~You mean...~"


    "I want to make her one of my apostles." As someone from Earth, even if she didn''t realize it herself, she possessed a wealth of knowledge not known to this world. -If she received any kind of education on Earth, she''ll be more than a little helpful...- Plus, since she was a nun in her past life, she was the perfect candidate to manage, spread, and deepen people''s faith toward me.


    But while Grace didn''t seem too against it, she didn''t seem too interested either. "~What if she refuses?~"


    "She won''t." My voice oozed with confidence. "I don''t n to force her to be my apostle, but I could tell when I asked about her reincarnation.. she would do anything to have her questions answered."


    There was a short pause before Grace floated behind me, falling into thought, before continuing with a muffled tone. "~So you want to tell her about the reality of her reincarnation...~""No. I want her to figure it out herself. All she needs is a guide." Feeling Grace turn to look at me as she realized what I was getting at, I spoke firmly. "I can tell that you still feel guilty about what you did to her, so I''m giving you an opportunity to redeem yourself, not to her, but to yourself..."


    There was a long silence before an incredibly muffled voice came from behind me. "~O..Okay... But only if she agrees...~" *Vwoom*


    As she disappeared from behind me, instantaneously moving a few hundred meters away, I rxed my divinity, and with it, time resumed, allowing Elizabeth to continue as if nothing happened.


    "Maybe.. I should go back and ask- huh?" But she quickly noticed that something changed. "What just..."


    -She really has some insanely sharp instincts...- Besides my posture changing slightly, the only thing to change was the atmosphere around me.


    But she noticed that instantly, without even looking at me. "D-Did I miss something?"


    I stayed quiet for a moment as she finally looked me in the eyes before leaning onto the table. "Elizabeth." The air around her shifted in an instant. "If you were given the opportunity to learn about the state of your reincarnation and have your questions answered, what would you give up for it?"


    Her whole body tensed, and her eyes went wide as she spoke without a hint of hesitation. "I would give up everything."


    It was a far quicker and firmer response than I expected. "Is that so? What if the reality of your reincarnation isn''t what you want to hear? What if it makes you want to spiral into despair?"


    "It won''t." She looked straight into my eyes with an uncharacteristically firm, unwavering gaze. "Despair is just your mind telling itself something is impossible and denying reality... However, after everything that''s happened, I''vee to believe that impossibility is a myth, and denying something because you don''t understand it is a sin to yourself."


    -Wow...- I had expected a much shakier response, but it just made me want her more. "Alright." A smile came to my face as the tip of my tail began to sway back and forth. "Then, I will provide you with that opportunity."


    Her eyes instantly stiffened with determination, no longer carrying the somewhat childish innocence from earlier. "What is it you want from me for it?"


    -It''s good she understands...- "Your faith." Seeing her tilt her head in confusion, I quickly rephrased. "I want you to be one of my apostles, Elizabeth... However, not right now." Using my aura, I poured her a ss of alcohol and moved it in front of her. "If you wish to ept, you will be guided to some ces containing more information on things you have forgotten. Once you have found everything, only then will I ept your answer."


    She paused as she looked down at the drink. "And if I refuse after learning about it?"


    *Clink* Quickly throwing back my ss, I drank thest bit of Orange Death I had before standing up. "Then I won''t break the cycle." *puff* Disintegrating my chair, I quickly straightened my clothes before looking at her one more time. "You will understand what I mean when the timees." *puff* Disintegrating the ss as well, I finally turned away before undoing the countless barriers around us. *Vwoom*


    This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The attention of everyone was instantly dragged toward us, where they saw Elizabeth still sitting, deep in thought.


    But it didn''t take her long to pick up the ss and drink it down in one gulp. *Clunk* "Hooh..." From before we spoke, the air around her had already changed immensely, and while her apostle friend ran over in a rush, I was more than satisfied with it.


    Wearing a pleased expression as I walked toward the door, I saw the tall axe-wielding man sitting up, having regained consciousness, with Michael tending to him while the other man who didn''t attack me and the rune mage woman tended to the elf. -She''s still unconscious, huh?-


    As everyone turned to look at me, I lifted up her body with my aura before rebuilding her pulverized ankles, knees, and vertebrae by weaving metal thread through the countless fragments before promptly dropping her back to the ground. *Thump* "She''ll be better in a few days if she heals fast."


    But while I walked past them expecting to have to smack another chicken in the street, as I walked out, I found nothing but eyes on me and the one grey thunderbird bowing next to me.


    "Did I miss anything while I was talking to that girl?"


    Chamrosh quickly shook his head as he straightened up. "No, although the central guard was notified."


    "Central guard?"


    "They are individually known as Floor Guardians and are the strongest thunderbirds beneath Acanthis."


    -Ah.- "Well, that''s good. That''ll speed things up." Looking into the cavern, where I felt a heavy approaching aura, I moved my hands behind my back. "If I were to gather all the thunderbirds in one ce, would I go through one of them?"


    Chamrosh paused for a moment before looking in the direction I was. "The floor guardians don''t exactly have that kind of authority. They are more than guards and do have some ability to manage floors within the cavern, but Lord Acanthis has what humans would call a secretary for organizing such things."


    "Is that so?" -I could probably gather them with a more heavy-handed method.. but that might have some unsavory long-term effects...- "Alright. Is there any way you can lead me to that person?"


    He quickly turned to me with a nervous look. "I-I can.. however, he resides on the upper floors, which I, as a non-noble, cannot ess."


    But it just made me raise my eyebrow at him. "Why would something like that matter when I''m here?"


    "A-Ah... That''s true..."


    Hearing him quickly go silent, I looked deep into the cavern once more and watched as a huge, singr thunderbird entered the edge of my aura. "Well, I guess it would be impolite to not meet him in the middle..." Turning to look at the group of adventurers, my gaze turned heavy. "You all can leave when you''re ready." -Although...- Looking at Michael, several thoughts ran through my mind before I used magic to speak solely to him. "If you wish to expand your knowledge on the world and the realm of magic, there is a nation called Siratha across the Banaevan Desert... Going there will do more than open your mind; however, if you need help, use the name of Nott to contact a woman named Leif Vilulf, and tell her I sent you.. she''ll be able to organize whatever you need."


    He froze, and his eyes went wide as he looked around to see if anyone else heard me before looking back at me.


    But all I did was nod. -Although, he''s still pretty lousy, with how much he''s grown in thest few years, he could be useful for establishing a ce of magic research in Siratha...- The issue was I also wanted to implement science into that, but had no one to do it for me. -I could maybe reach out to st��ri Pi��s at the academy.. but...-


    I needed someone more adept with the realm of science, but that reduced my possible candidates to.. Krystallo...


    But the thought of her doing research made me want to burst outughing, so I just shrugged it off for the time being. -I''m sure I''ll find someone eventually...-


    For now, I just needed to focus on baby steps.


    At least, that was the case for something like cultivating Siratha. -Since I''ve said what I need to, should I hit the road?- *sh* Changing back to my fenririan form, no longer caring about the peering eyes of the adventurers, I looked down the road with a wag in my tail. "Chamrosh, try and follow me, I''m gonna go take care of that guard."


    "A..Alr-" *CRACK* A deafening crack echoed through the cavern instantaneously as I disappeared, moving dozens of kilometers in the blink of an eye, before reappearing in front of the Floor Guardian.


    His feathers were a clean mix of vibrant brown and deep ck, and he donned heavy white armor all around his body. Only being about 20 meters shorter than Acanthis, he seemed like quite an interesting specimen.


    *Vwoof* As he finally reacted to my appearance, he instantly slowed to a halt a few kilometers off the ground, looking closely at me with a mix of apprehension and caution. "You.. really are Nott..."


    I immediately smiled, showing my teeth slightly.


    "You... Are you here to kill the rest of us?" His voice shook with fear ever so subtly.


    "No, rather, it''s the opposite." My long tail hanging beneath me wagged as I hovered. "I came with a proposition for your race."


    "Now, if you will excuse us." Chamrosh, finally catching up, quickly mediated. "Lord Nott here needs to meet with ''the Secretary''."


    He instantly tensed up before folding his wings and falling to the ground.


    -Hm...- Unlike his lord, he actually knew when he was in over his head. -He.. might be worth keeping instead of handing him to Hera...-


    But at that moment, all I nned to do was observe him. -Although.. I should be keeping my eyes out for promising birds...-


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 Chapter 363: The Rot of Corruption

    Chapter 363: The Rot of Corruption


    Late Morning - Late Winter : The Nest


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    *fwoosh* *fwoosh* *fwoosh-tap* "So, this is the gate between floors..." -It''s quite well built...- Looking up at the ceiling as I walked across a rounded, circr tform held just off the ceiling by massive pirs around its edge as if it were an upside-down pavilion, I closely inspected the countless incrediblyplex runes spread across conjoining light-colored mythril bs that appeared to close the entrance.


    It was quite impressive, with the pavilion being about a kilometer across and the entrance itself being closer to five hundred meters. -That''s a lot of mythril...- "It looks like the top floor really doesn''t want people breaking in from below..."


    "Y..Yes..." Chamrosh spoke awkwardly. "It''s rarely ever opened. Perhaps once every ten days or so when the lower floor guardian goes up to ry messages to the nobles."


    -Huh?- "Ry messages? They don''t have their own messengers who can pass through the gate as they wish?"


    He quickly shook his head as he stopped walking, seemingly being careful to not to walk in front of me. "The messengers and errand-runners for nobles are typically all non-nobility, so it''s quite a taboo to share the method to opening the gate outside of noble families."


    A part of me didn''t believe it. -They can''t be serious...- "Does that not cause issues?" -I can understand separating the nobles andmoners, but to separate them to this extent... No wonder this lower cavern looks like a shit hole...-


    Looking down through the tform, I found the insane maze of stone structures, statues, and monuments below us, lit by the warm light of artifacts and torches. Sure, some of the structures were extremelyplex and genuinely beautiful, but somehow, the back of my mind couldn''t connect that sight to a ce where giant oversized hawks lived."It''s causes a lot of issues..." Chamrosh continued before I could sink too far into thought. "Over thest couple thousand years, it''s gotten so bad that it feels like the nobles view us more like ves, same as they viewed the dwarves that once lived here."


    I instantly tensed up before looking at him. "Dwarves?" Although a part of me was a bit taken aback, an odd sensation of nostalgia filled my chest at that moment.


    "Yes.. this cavern was actually originally inhabited by dwarves, and was known as the Kingdom of Krunbar, but right after our race was culled..." He paused to watch for my reaction before cautiously continuing. "We came to stay in this mountain since we believed it would hide us from the dragons as well as.. you, my lord..." Seeing me wanting him to continue, he spoke with haste. "I only know what is passed down through stories, but the dwarves that lived here were turned into ves, and the ce was renovated to amodate us, going as far as installing an artifact on the underside of this tform that would illuminate the entire cavern with the light of the sun and moon, as well as others that gave the cavern rain, winds, and even storms... As a kid I was told the whole ce was once covered in green from trees and nts, but.. I find it hard to believe..."


    My eyes quickly wandered as he somberly hung his head. -I find that hard to believe too, but.. at the same time...- Looking around at the ceiling, there were indeed ces where such artifacts could have been ced. -With how big the cavern is, it could definitely have its own climate and ecosystems too...-


    Even on the ground, there were ces that looked like they once held greenery and nts, with several ces cleared for what could have been trees and small patches of forest. -It looks like the small ponds spread around used tobine intorgerkes too...-


    In its prime, it was likely quite a breathtaking ce.


    -But by the sounds of things, it was ruined by corruption and greed...- Slowly turning back to Chamrosh, I spoke with a stiffness in my voice. "And I''m guessing the fate of the dwarves was..."


    He cautiously nodded as he tucked his wings and lowered his stance. "Most of them died... Although a few managed to escape, most of them were either treated as food or worked to death by the nobility."


    "Tch..." I clicked my tongue as my mouth was filled with a disgusting, bitter taste. -Acanthis is lucky he''s useful... I ought to wring his fucking neck...- I paused before I finally continued walking toward the gate. "I just can''t wrap my head around why you guys don''t revolt or run away..."


    Awkwardly following after me, Chamrosh spoke softly. "Well.. we can''t leave the nest in a non-humanoid form because of rules set when we first settled here.. and with Sir Acanthis and the Secretary, we are too weak to fight nobility... Plus, nowadays, not only are they mostly older than us, we don''t even outnumber them..."


    I gently raised my eyebrow as I looked back at him. "You don''t outnumber the nobles?"


    He immediately shook his head before finally rxing his posture. "There hasn''t been a child born in the lower cavern for close to three hundred years, and before that child, it had been two hundred. With the upper cavern never slowing down their poption growth, it only took a couple thousand years for their poption to catch up to our thinning one."


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences elsewhere.


    -No kidding... With the rate you thunderbirds can have children, you should at least rival Bahamut''s poption...- Yet they still numbered in the low thousands. "Just how detached from reality is Acanthis..." -If he wanted to kill me, he should have cultivated his race, but instead, he left them to rot beneath corruption...-


    But, to an extent, it ended up working to my benefit.


    Finally walking up under the giant circr gate, I injected my mana into the runes lining the mythril bs in a specific sequence, almost immediately triggering the gate to open, *rumble* retracting the stone bs to reveal a long vertical tunnel about four kilometers long, with a bright light at the very end.


    As I spread my wings, ready to hurl myself up through it, I nced at Chamrosh. "If you want to stay in the lower cavern, you may. I''ll be back in a moment."


    But his gaze instantly turned firm as he looked up the tunnel at the bright light shining down. "No. I want to see what they took from us."


    I paused before finally looking away. "Do what you wish." *p-FWOOOOSH* An immense wind instantly ripped through the lower cavern as I hurled myself up through the gate.


    But as the bright light grew in size, as if I were flying up out of a well, my expression only darkened.


    *woooOOOSH* Finally sting out the other side of the tunnel anding into the upper cavern, I found myself flying in a blue sky filled with clouds, winds, and sunlight as if it were outside. -I was really hoping Chamrosh would be wrong...-


    The ground was littered with greenery, leaving only a few stone structures visible beneath the canopy of massive trees nearly a kilometer tall.


    Some of the trees appeared to have been partially hollowed out, while others had structures spread through their canopies, clearly meant to amodate not only thunderbirds but other wildlife as well. Although they were likely silenced by my aura, there were all kinds of regr animals spread about, from birds to insects, horses, and oxen. It truly felt like I had been teleported somewhere. -What a disgusting difference...-


    The air itself waspletely different as well, with close to three times the mana density, a steady, cool breeze, and enough moisture for rain clouds to form.


    Looking up at the light embedded in the ceiling some sixty kilometers over us, I found an artifact almost half a kilometer wide, mimicking the sun to a tee. -It looks like the artifact even moves across the ceiling to mimic the time of day...-


    It was an insane feat of engineering. -If a human came in here, they might actually think they''re outside...-


    But while it was undoubtedly beautiful to look over, as Chamrosh finally made it into the cavern, it looked like his mind was on the verge of crumbling from a mix of anxiety and disgust.


    All the stories he had been told when he was young, about days long since passed, suddenly gained validity, and with it, his understanding of his own race crumbled.


    -Looks like I''ve lost my guide for now...- Speaking through my aura, I tried to redirect the flood of emotions in his mind. "If you''d like, you can go bring others up here to see this."


    And as expected, all it did was stoke the me. Before I knew it, anger washed over his body, raising the feathers on his back and stiffening his wing ps before he finally folded his wings and dove back through the tunnel.


    -Good...- It was the spark I needed to light a fire. -Now.. time to make a statement...- Looking back up, I immediately saw several thunderbirdsing at me, zipping through the cavern far beyond the speed of sound, with one specifically donning armor. -She must be the floor guardian...-


    She was considerablyrger than even the first-floor guardian, only being about ten meters shorter than Acanthis, with light blue, almost white feathers and an aura that more than matched her size. -She looks like she might be a proper demigod...-


    But unfortunately, he didn''t seem to recognize me like the lower cavern''s guardian.


    As she prepared an antimatter spell, her chest started glowing. "Which arrogant bastard DARES TO LAY FOOT-"


    But before she could get close to firing it off, I simply pitched up my paw and pointed it at her. *crackle-FWOOOM* The focused st of several grams of antimatters instantaneously engulfed one of her wings before exiting my aura, expanding, and plowing into the opposite side of the cavern, devouring the rounded wall in an instant.


    By the time the light could fade and the floor guardian could react, her left wing was nothing but a mix of destroyed bones and charred flesh held together by a web of divinity, and before she could scream, I appeared in front of her, using my aura to hold her in ce.


    *Vwoom* "Now, why don''t you be a good chicken and tell me where the Secretary is..."


    Her face instantly drained of every emotion but fear as she shakily but quickly raised one of her talons and pointed behind me.


    -Is that so?- "Alright." *pat* Dropping her on the spot, I turned around before ripping through the cavern so fast it left a trail of clouds behind me. -Let''s see if I can find this bitch...-


    Since I didn''t know who I was actually looking for, I expected it to take quite a while, but after flying for just a few seconds, I found an auraparable to the upper-floor guardian''s in a massive tree close to the size of a small treant, towering over the rest. -That must be it...-


    Quickly closing the distance to it, I flooded the tree with my aura, showing me an unbelievably intricate structure of rooms inside, with one containing the aura I was looking for. *Vwoop*


    *Vwoop* All it took was a short jump through the void for me to appear in the room itself.


    But instead ofing face to face with the source of the aura, the moment I came out of the void, I found myself staring straight into the eyes of a dragon with mostly red scales, standing right in front of me. -H..huh?-


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 Chapter 364: Peering up the Mountain

    Chapter 364: Peering up the Mountain


    Early Afternoon - Late Winter : The Nest


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    *Vwoop-WHOOM* A heavy wave of mana blew over me the moment I exited the void inside the tree.


    However, the moment my aura filled the room and light met my eyes, rather than catching the gaze of a thunderbird several times my size, I found myself face to face with an elder red and gold-scaled dragon. -H..huh?!- "What are you doing here?" My voice instantly warped with confusion. "You are Chrys�� Fl��ga, right?"


    His wings, slightly spread from shock, instantly mped to his body. "L-L-Lord Ragnarok?!" He immediately threw himself into a panicked bow as his tail curled slightly.


    But I instantly took a step back with a slightly horrified expression on my face. "H..how the fuck did you recognize me..?" It was truly odd to feel such a mix of awe, confusion, and disbelief all at the same time.


    However, as he finally looked up and noticed my body, he started losing hisposure. "A-Ah! I-I apologize, sir! I-I just saw the look in your eyes and thought you were someone-"


    "You recognized who I was based on my eyes?!" -What the hell?- I was so taken aback that I forgot why I was even there for a moment.


    But it didn''t take me long to get a reminder.*VWOOOM-CRACK* As a mass of aura mmed down on me, the wood beneath my feet splintered, and an eloquent, feminine voice met my ears. "The mighty Fenrir sprouted wings and horns after growing weak, huh..." Disdain coated her voice like poison. "Is that why you have the etiquette of a dragon? Are you dependent on them after-"


    "Fuck off." *VWOOM-CRRUNCH* Cutting her voice short, the towering thunderbird ring at me from behind Chrysi instantaneously disappeared as its irritating face was mmed through the floor, caving in the tree''s trunk before blowing out the walls and ceiling.


    The tree, mana strengthened over several millennia, was as strong as mythril, but under the force of my aura, it just turned the tree into a massive fragmentation grenade. *CL-L-L-L-LATTER* However, as the millions of wooden shards peppered the surrounding area, blowing apart other trees and turning unsuspecting creatures into puffs of blood and fur, the upper half of the tree, losing the support of the tree trunk after it was obliterated, began to fall.


    *WOOOOSH* But as the leaves in the copsing canopy howled and the ground around us darkened under its thickening shadow, my gaze just shifted from Chrysi to the space beneath him and my expression darkened.


    *Vwoom* A glow almost instantly appeared within the cloud of dust as the calm voice met my ears again. "How naive."


    It was the glow of hundreds of runes. -To use runes while being crushed by my aura...- A part of me was quite impressed, but at the same time, there was nothing but irritation on my face. "No wonder Acanthis managed to fuck up his own race so badly..." As the glow grew brighter, I snickered with annoyance. "His advisor was just as dumb as he is."


    *Crackle-BRRRRRRMMMM* Nearly instantaneously, a colossal beam of pure energy, almost thirty meters wide, erupted from the runes, spreading into a cone just before it reached me as I used my aura to redirect the insane st of energy around Chrysi and I. -To fire off something like that inside the cavern...-


    It was a st of several grams of antimatter, more than enough to turn the whole cavern into a microwave and cause liquid rock to rain down like hail.


    But it was already obvious she didn''t care about the other thunderbirds nearby. "Oh, how long I''ve waited for this..." With a hint of craze in her voice, a wave of bloodlust exploded from her. "Ever since the day I watched you kill my mother.. since the day you forced us into hiding.. I have yearned for this moment..."


    *WOOM* As time began to warp, a god''s presence suddenly erupted from her, growing by magnitudes with every passing instant.


    "Everyone else has lived in fear.. fear that you woulde to kill us offpletely, but I..." *Crunch* Forcing herself up under my aura, a mix of anger and confidence flooded into her voice. "I took every waking moment preparing for your return..." *WOWOWOOM* Opening her mouth, she exposed a series of ck artifacts embedded in her tongue before space started to distort and she began mobilizing her divinity. "So why don''t you follow the wishes of heaven and stretch out your neck..."


    -This.. isn''t good...- My expression stiffened and my pupils dted as my instincts heightened.


    With each passing moment, her divine presence grew thicker and heavier, surpassing the likes of Myles, Acanthis, Freya, and even mine as the hair on the back of my neck stood up.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Before I could do anything, she surpassed all the divinity I had worked to umte. Even if I mobilized every spec of divinity I had, I wouldn''t be able to catch her. -She might be dangerous...-


    But while I needed a n of some kind, she didn''t give me time to think.


    *Woop* Watching her instantaneously disappear as if she dematerialized, I ducked down as fast as I could.


    But the next thing I knew, a talon caught one of my horns. "Too slow." *THWAAAACKKK-CRACK*


    Snapping my horn clean in half, I was instantlyunched off the splintered tree trunk, trailing a beam of light before ricocheting off the ground and plowing through another massive tree dozens of kilometers away. *CRRRUNCH*


    But as I caught myself within the cloud of debris and gently began speeding up my divinity to try and close the gap between us, the thoughts racing through my mind vanished.


    Realizing I had no chance of catching her with my eyes even if I raced every drop of divinity I had as fast as I could, I turned my attention to my aura.


    But at that moment, my mind subconsciously switched frommunicating with sentences to an endless array of numbers that meshed with my aura to reform the space around me to a map of constantly changing numbers, values, and forme as if I were looking through the eyes of my soul. (like during the dragon sleeps)


    It was a method of reading my aurapletely foreign to my memories, but somehow, it carried an indescribable familiarity, as if it were programmed into my soul.


    However, even with my efforts over thest week, my brain was not only way too slow for it, my consciousness had no clue how to read it. "ACK-" The method, while iparably fast and efficient to the method I was using previously, seemed to speak to my consciousness in a foreignnguage. My own brain didn''t even know how to read the map that it itself had made.


    *VWOOOM* But as my aura exploded, and my mind shredded itself trying to render the map of numbers in my mind, there was an object that appeared right in front of me, and my mind instinctually used the map to respond to it as if to show me how to use it. *Vwoop*


    It was her, the ''Secretary'', reaching out her talons to grab my face and wing as if wanting to rip me apart with her own hands.


    But before a thought could pass through either of our heads, a huge, thirty-meter-wide shard of wood just beneath and behind her flipped upside down before instantaneously disappearing into a column of light that pierced her torso.


    However, as my mind slowly caught up to speed and I watched her head, wings, tail, and legs detach from her body, a chill passed down my spine.


    The wall pierced by the beam of light, nearly fifty kilometers away, instantaneously ruptured, liquefying and shattering hundreds of kilometers of rock before finally, a beam of sunlight reached me.


    *WOOOOOM* The sound was indescribable, like a deep huming from the fabric of space itself that you could feel throughout your entire body, but as I watched the wall and ceiling continuously liquify, the view of a bright afternoon sky filled my vision and the sound didn''t even register.


    In a matter of seconds, a hole hundreds of kilometers wide had been blown through the mountainside, releasing a plume of molten rock into the air as if it were a volcanic eruption before the thunderbirds'' perceptions of safety vanished entirely.


    However, while many shied away as they finally witnessed the horrors their ancestors had described, others, who had finally seen the endless blue sky for the first time in their lives felt awe, as if ignoring the destruction to observe the beauty of the sky beyond the bounds of the cavern.


    The destruction was on such a massive scale it seemed to spread in slow motion, but while everyone else was entranced by it, my body tensed with fear. -That.. was so close to taking my head off...-


    Looking back at the detached, feathered head of the secretary as it continued toward me, a heavy air settled around me.


    For the first time ever, I feared my own power, not because of what I could do with it, or the responsibility it required to use, but rather because of how easy it was.


    Even if I took into ount that the secretary had done nothing but umte liquid divinity throughout her life, leaving very little crystalline divinitypared to the likes of Acanthis or me, using raw force of momentum to shear divinity, which I believed to be unbreakable by anything dependent on time, was nothing short of horrifying.


    If the angle of the flip was a single degree off, I would have taken my own head off, and even if I somehow survived, my face would have been mangled. -If I get into a fight with a creature who can do that...- I would die before I could even react.


    Or at least.. that''s what I thought...


    *Vwoop* Suddenly appearing right in front of my face out of a gate, my gazended on Ilios, carrying apletely charred and partially melted shard of wood a few meters long in his mouth. -Is that... There''s no way...-


    It was a piece of the wooden shard I had just vector flipped, still somehow intact, radiating enough heat to melt mythril like a piece of zing coal.


    But Ilios casually held it in his mouth, proudly wagging his tail as if it were a stick I threw for him.


    "Did you.. catch that..?" My thoughts instantly tied into a knot. -Was the sectretary''s body just that weak? Are we just that strong? Is he just that fast?- Nothing made sense. If my calctions were right, that fragment of wood was traveling at a speed even light couldn''t scoff at.


    But as I finally looked deeper into his eyes, there was an image that shed in my mind.


    A 3d map of numbers that reced the image my aura painted in my mind.


    The result of the method that came from the deepest reaches of my soul.


    And the result of the next step I was going to have to take.


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 Chapter 365: The Boundary of Mortality

    Chapter 365: The Boundary of Mortality


    Mid Afternoon - Late Winter : The Nest


    -----


    - Elizabeth Valia ~


    "E..li..beth... Eli..abeth... Elizabeth!"


    I jolted as I was ripped out of my thoughts by Astren on the horse next to me.


    "Are you okay?" It hadn''t been more than few minutes since we met ''him'' at that point, so we were all still rattled. "Ever since ''he'' appeared, you''ve.. not been yourself..."


    I gently nodded as my gaze turned away from her. "Y..yeah, I''m fine... I just have a lot on my mind..." My mind was an indescribable mess, with thoughts racing in every direction, to the point that I was beginning to not only question my memories and reincarnation, but my own identity as well.


    "What did you guys even talk about? He seemed to recognize you... Have you met before?"


    I quickly shook my head before looking up at the ceiling. "I never met him.. but he knew who I was..."With wrinkled eyebrows and a look of worry, she quickly turned toward Michael, who hadn''t said a word from the moment we left. "You seemed to know him, right? Who was he?"


    Subtly looking up at him, I watched him tense with an expression simr to mine, except with guilt woven into it. "I don''t know who he is.. but we did indeed meet many years ago..." There was a long pause as Arcana and Gale turned their ears to him. "We met back when in Kan.. before it became an empire... At the time, he had the appearance of a child, and at first, I thought he was just some foreign noble. He and his ''father'' were quite close with the royal family there, and until I saw him actually fighting, I assumed he was just an abnormal demihuman child..."


    "H..how many years ago was that for you to mistake a fucking monster like that for a child..." Mag spoke up with a shaky voice, riding on the back of Michael''s horse.


    "T-That was only before I saw him fight... While I was there, applying to be a nation-rank adventurer, he thwarted an assassination attempt on the king that even I wouldn''t have been able to stop right next to me... That event is what made me consider the path I was taking in life... " He hung is head as he paused. "But where I drew the line on him being a humanoid species was when.. a dragon appeared in the za..."


    Arcana instantly twitched as if recognizing what he was talking about.


    "He didn''t just win against her.. he one-sidedly crushed her with the body of a demihuman child... It wasn''t even a fight..."


    "Her?" Astren''s voice warped with confusion.


    "A-Ah! S-Sorry." His words quickly became fervent. "I was referring to the dragon that appeared. You may have heard of the incident, but it didn''t even end there... After he literally beat the dragon to the brink of death, he created these massive metallic bands to keep it from escaping. He even left it there alone for a while.. and if I remember right, there were rumors that he was not only able to talk with it, but was the one to.. dispose of it as well..."


    Arcana, finally turning to look at Michael''s oddly distraught expression, spoke calmly. "So he was the one behind that incident..."


    Michael quickly nodded. "It wasn''t just that.. the only reason Kan was able to take so muchnd was thanks to him... After I left Kan, I even heard rumors about how the Magic Tower in Decia, as well as thousands of upper government officials across the entire main continent, went missing in the span of a few days..." He paused as he recalled some bad memories. "At this point, I''d be pretty surprised if he wasn''t also rted to that Reverse Mana Wave or that field of ss they found near the Kingdom of Zan''s old border..."


    Arcana quickly chimed in with a mix of awe and curiosity in her voice. "Was the reverse mana wave not just a rumor? There was an institute in Voldukirk that imed it was fabricated, saying it was just a really strong mana wave that was misunderstood."


    But he immediately shook his head. "It was a very real event. It sucked mana out of not only artifacts but people. My friend, who is a cksmith there, had mythril turn into junk iron during the event... The rumor that it made Kan''s capital a mana-rich area is true too. Every time I visit, somehow, the mana feels thicker than thest time I visited... It''s like they have a mana fountain beneath the royal pce or something..."


    "How fascinating..."


    Finally pulling my gaze off him, the turmoil in my own mind quickly resumed. "I can at least say he''d certainly be capable of doing something like that..."


    Turning to me, Arcana''s curiosity started to show. "You mean creating a mana fountain?"


    I nodded. "There is nothing I saw in our conversation that said he was anything less than omnipotent..." I anxiously bit my thumb as my mind raced to try and find a w within our conversation. A single notion that said he didn''t already know everything.


    But there was nothing.


    Although he said he himself was a reincarnator from Earth, his response about his memories from there threw me off, and looking back on it, it felt like he was just saying that to try and get close to me. -He knew I was a reincarnator from the very beginning, and even offered to reveal the truth of my reincarnation to me...- Meaning he already knew the truth himself, likely before we even started speaking. "If he''s a god.. what reason is there to ce a limit on him?" There was a long pause before I silently mumbled. "To the likes of us, that kind of power may as well be limitless even if it isn''t..."


    Thinking about his offer again, my gaze fell toward my hands, tightly gripping the reigns of my horse as we raced through the huge tunnel.


    No matter how I twisted it, the whole situation felt like a trap. The way he responded when I asked ''what would happen if I refused to be his apostle'' after learning the truth was as if the thing I was going to learn would trap me into epting his offer. -So, if I ept this.. the odds are, I''ll have to be his apostle whether I want to or not...- I honestly didn''t know what to think or believe. Whether he was acting, leading me into a trap, or whether he was being truthful, earnestly desiring my faith.


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    -But.. would being the apostle of such a god-like entity be such a bad thing?-


    The moment I asked that to myself, however, my vision blurred, and an image appeared in my mind: the image of a tiny wooden cabin in the middle of the woods.


    Nothing about it particrly stood out. I had certainly never seen it before, but somehow, it felt familiar.


    Familiar enough for me to know exactly where it was.


    Without even realizing it, I had subconsciously epted the god''s offer. -How horrifying...- But as I thought that, a smile came to my face.


    I was afraid, but excited at the same time. Anxious about what was toe, but also curious.


    I could instinctively feel that what was toe wouldn''t be easy, but somehow, I yearned for it.. the answers to the questions that had dominated my mind for years.


    However, as my mind raced just thinking about it, the entire mountain started to shutter. *rrrRrRRuUUUMMBLLEE* It was like an unfathomable earthquake, causing several horses to lose bnce and fall over before coating us in dust and small debris that was shaken loose out of the ceiling.


    It was unlike anything any of us had ever experienced, an earthquake that felt like the itself was quivering.


    But while we all screamed, asking what the fuck happened.. deep down, we all had an idea...


    A few hourster, after finally traveling the length of the tunnel, we arrived at the entrance, but instead of only having to push through the thick magic barriers to get outside, there appeared to be a huge boulder blocking the entrance, so I stepped up to break us out with magic.


    However, the moment I broke through the opposite side of the rock, a wave of heat sted over us, and the forest that was previously a beautiful white from being covered in a nket of snow was nowhere to be seen, with the trees toppled, charred, and stripped of leaves as if an atom bomb had gone off right next to them.


    "What the..." As we continued out, noticing themon angle of the toppled trees, I hopped on my horse and trotted out around the nearly two-hundred-meter-wide rock that blocked the entrance and looked up the mountain.


    But the sight that met my eyes was not something I could do justice with words.


    As I simply stared, frozen from awe, the others came to look as well, but they were all instantly entranced, just as I was.


    The only one to speak was Mag, after several minutes of silence, and even he spoke at the volume of a whisper. "We.. really tried to fight that..."


    Although no one else said another word, we all instinctively agreed.


    ''He'' was a being not bound by the limits of something as fickle as mortality.


    ''He'' was a creature beyond ourprehension.


    ''He'' was a true god.


    -----


    - Vasilias Ragnarok ~


    (Back a few hours)


    *tap...* *tap...* *tap-CRUNCH* Gently poking the secretary''s long-dead head as itid on the ground, the skull shattered like ss the moment my w pressed into it. -Geez...- She had less crystalline divinity than even the youngest of ancients from what I could tell.


    Or at least, that''s what it seemed like.


    Gently opening her mouth with my aura, my eyes settled on her tongue and the threerge ck artifact-looking objects on it.


    I recognized them instantly. -They''re.. cells?- Simr to the god''s cell I saw beneath the academy several years ago, they were made of pure, crystalline divinity and had at least at one point contained liquid divinity and likely the soul of a deceased god as well. -It looks like she used some of her own divinity to create pathways between them all and her reserve too...-


    If my guess was right, when she began moving her own divinity, when her presence grew inexplicably exponentially, she also pulled the divinity out of those cells, absorbing the gods'' souls in the process to let her make use of every drop of divinity she had. -I wonder if her absorbing those souls also affected her mind...-


    It was a shame I couldn''t keep her alive. Had she lived, she would have been the perfect specimen for me to use to study souls and how they affect the mind. -It''s no wonder she neglected her own race so much... I wouldn''t be surprised if those gods'' souls contaminated her way of thinking in more ways than one...-


    If my hypothesis was right, the gods she ate probably also harbored grudges against me, likely exponentially increasing her hatred toward me, and blurring her own sense of self and pride in her race.


    Thanks to her, all that was left was a neglected poption of chickens with a handful of powerful figures that she likely used to her own benefit wherever possible. -If they cultivated their race, she and Acanthis could have created a poption that could rival the dragons again.- With the way Bahamut headpletely lost its ability to grow demigods, the thunderbirds would have eventually caught up with time. -But beside the secretary, there wasn''t anyone here strong enough to even lick Hera''s paw...-


    Of course, it worked out perfectly for me. All that was left was a nationced with resentment toward their leader. The perfect poption of subjects to conquer.


    Looking over my shoulder, I looked out through the hole I made connecting the upper cavern to the sky outside and idly thought to myself. -I might not even need to use fear and strength to rally them under the dragons.-


    The only issue was the upper cavern, the prideful nobles. -The ones in the lower cavern I can rally beneath me by simply showing them what was taken from them...- But the nobles, the ones who had the freedom to do everything they wished, couldn''t be coerced by freedom.


    -Though...- Looking into the cavern, I was immediately met with the gaze of thousands of thunderbirds, some flying while others were perched in tree canopies or standing on the ground. -Maybe fear will be enough...-


    But there was no guarantee even that would work. -Maybe It''d be better to just kill the troublesome ones...-


    However, as I looked over at Ilios, still proudly touting the superheated chunk of wood, my mind started to shift gears, turning back to face what I just experienced within my own mind. -Right...- Although I didn''t have much time to think about it, and would have been better off leaving it forter and going to speak to Chrysi, I couldn''t pull my mind off it.


    It was a method of reading my aura that was on the eve of perfection, turning the environment around me into an infinite number of strings, without any of the fuzzy imperfections from electrons or space mana, while also tranting things like particle energy states and stability to values my mind could more easily make use of.


    The issue was.. I didn''t know where it came from. It felt familiar, eerily simr to how I saw the world when in my soul form during dragon sleeps, but with some fundamental differences, and felt more like I had simply opened another eye rather than using some kind of technique.


    But it felt too iplete to be something instinctual, so at first, I simply assumed it was artificial.. something I pulled out of Nott''s lingering memories...


    But that was when I had a thought. -What if it isn''t some special technique... What if the reason it feels iplete isn''t because it''s artificial.. but because my mind would have really destroyed itself if it opened its eyes all the way...-


    I paused before looking down at my paw. ��What if I simply can��t yet perceive the rest of it����


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 Chapter 366: The Bounds of Curiosity

    Chapter 366: The Bounds of Curiosity


    Late Afternoon - Late Winter : The Nest


    -----


    *Wooooosh* A steady, cool breeze blew through the upper cavern as the zing air inside was cycled with the endless afternoon sky through the massive hole I punched through the mountain behind me.


    "Haah..." It was actually quite rxing, but I was too stressed to enjoy it. -Every time I answer a question, another pops up...- Deciding I needed to stop my theorizing before it spiraled toward insanity, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of the cool, fresh air blowing over me before looking over my shoulder.


    Although the destruction was still spreading around the edges, with molten rock continuously dripping down into the cavern like water from a leaky pipe, it had mostly finished.


    As things were, the hole was about a third the diameter of the entire cavern and nearly two-thirds the height, exposing a huge section to a nket of direct sunlight and letting the atmosphere outside freely flow in, even if the climate inside would remain somewhat contained because of the direction of the winds outside.


    But of course, with the inside of the cavern currently being several times the temperature and density of the cool upper atmosphere, the hole had turned the cavern into a popped balloon, causing the air pressure to plummet dramatically. -But it shouldn''t be a problem for anyone but the rodents and maybe the youngest of thunderbirds...-


    Finally sessfully shifting gears, I stood up, grabbing the Secretary''s head with my aura before immediately jumping through the void, seemingly instantaneously appearing over the tree stump the fight began on.


    It had been a few minutes since the fight at that point, but even as I reappeared over the stump, Chrysi was frozen. He hadn''t moved since he almost died. -Did he pass out from shock?-*Fwip* *THUMP* Tossing the Secretary''s head down next to him, he finally jolted out of the thoughts that entrapped him in his mind.


    "H..Huh- AH!" Jumping back as he noticed the massive headying next to him, he finally looked around and noticed the unfathomably massive hole exposing the bright afternoon sky before freezing again.


    "Have you been frozen since you almost got killed?" Thinking back to the antimatter st I protected him from, I remembered just how ridiculous the temperatures were before tilting my head slightly andnding. -He''s more heat-resistant than he looks...-


    "I-I just got mesmerized by the runes Lady Core used..."


    "Lady Core? Was that this bitch''s name?" *thump* Gently kicking her head toward him, I watched him shy away with disgust before answering my own question. -It must be...- "So, what were you doing here? It looked like you were acting as her servant."


    He immediately mmed up. "I wasn''t just acting."


    "Excuse me?" I gave him a look of both disgust and disappointment. "I''m gonna need you to run that by me again..."


    Noticing the sudden shift in my tone, his posture shrank, and his wings once again mped to his body. "W..would you like me to just exin from the-"


    "Yes, from the very beginning."


    He quickly paused before continuing somewhat shyly. "Well, not too long after, uh.. you and I first met, I ended up finding an Ancient Ind Turtle in a bay couple thousand kilometers from here, and managed to actually speak with him. He told me the phoenix used to reside in the mountain here and told me where I could find an entrance." He paused as he idly looked around the cavern.


    But somehow, he failed to notice the expression on my face. -HUH?!- I felt like I had to of misunderstood something.


    To quickly summarize, an Ancient Ind Turtle was a Mythical creature simr to the likes of the phoenix: a monster that, to obtain sentience, had to be well over ten thousand years old and literally be the size of an ind, typically several kilometers from head to tail.


    Unlike the phoenix however, it wasn''t a strikingly powerful god, nor was it alone. Spread all throughout the world, there was believed to be at least a few dozen or so that had the ability to speak, but with their habits of sleeping and not moving for several thousand years at a time, it made them quite hard to find.


    -But he found one not only moving, but one that was old enough to recall hearing about the phoenix?!- It meant the Turtle he found was at least more than twenty or thirty thousand years old.


    But Chrysi seemed to just brush over it. "When I was looking for the entrance he told me about, I ended up actually getting lost, and resorted to backtracking my steps and trying again. I continued that cycle of flying back and forth, trying to retrace my steps and follow the turtles directions for well over a week to no avail. However, after a while, I eventually ran into a thunderbird, and they said they could guide me."


    -A thunderbird offered to guide a dragon into their nest?- It was a scenario that was simplyced with red gs.


    "The girl was one of Core''s maids, out supposedly coordinating things with another servant outside the nest, but she promised to give me information on the phoenix if I followed her, so I did. Once we came in here, I knew I was on the right track so I continued along before meeting Lady Core. She made the same offer, giving me information if I helped her."


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    "Helped her.. how?"


    "Just with general chores and asionally asking questions about Bahamut."


    I felt the air around me turn thick with a mix of pity, disbelief, and disappointment as I sagged my head a bit. -How does a dragon let himself get so taken advantage of and somehow not even realize it...- I didn''t even know what to say. "Did you at least get information about the phoenix?"


    Expecting the answer to be no, I just sagged my head, but he responded swiftly. "Yes! Quite a bit."


    His response didn''t instill any confidence in me though. -Oh boy...- Thinking they just fed him random lies, I spoke softly. "And what did they tell you?"


    "They also said the phoenix was in the mountain, just like the turtle said. When they first moved here, they said the phoenix''s fire fueled the dwarven city in the lower cavern."


    My ears quickly perked up.


    "It''s fire kept the cavern warm, and powered the dwarven furnaces to the point they could melt even high grade mythril, but not long after the thunderbirds took over the cavern, it seemed to disappear, retreating deeper into the mountain to avoid being disturbed by the thunderbirds. They said, ording to the dwarves, it was the thing that created these caverns as well, leading them to suspect there might be another cavern beneath the lower cavern."


    Staring at him with wide eyes, thoughts ripped through my head.


    It was a concerningly reasonable exnation for how such unnaturally uniform, bubble-shaped caverns perfectly centered over one another were made. -I assumed the dwarves carved it out...- The reasoning for the dwarves creating a smithing city using the phoenix''s heat was also within the realm of possibility. "Was there anything else?"


    He quickly shook his head. "Lady Core said she would investigate the existence of a lower cavern if I kept up what I was doing, but that was well over a week ago."


    -Ugh...- I felt my chest ache again as I was reminded of him simply handing information about dragons to an enemy. -But I guess it doesn''t matter anymore...- "Were you here when Acanthis was still around?"


    He quickly nodded with a flicker in his tail. "Yes, him and Lady Core.. uh.. had some.. special time..." He paused as he awkwardly motioned his back left leg in the air.


    -Oh...- It was a motion dragon''s used to signify mating. -It might be troublesome if I tell Acanthis I killed her then... But then again, he also had a kid with a dragon, so he may not care...- However, as I thought about that, I had a sudden realization. -Wait.. what if Acanthising to Bahamut wasn''t because of his son..? What if it was because Chrysi gave him information on us?-


    With Chrysi not knowing the awakening of Myles, or the return of Hera, he could have easily instilled confidence in Acanthis. -Looking through Acanthis''s eyes, I would''ve been confident too...- Taking Myles out of the question entirely, Bahamut was indeed in a state where Acanthis could have dealt a very significant amount of damage to it. -Maybe they wanted to make use of the opening...-


    To an extent, we were lucky. Had Chrysi not spilled information on us, Acanthis never would havee, and the thunderbirds would have likely joined hands with the Holy Kingdom without us even noticing. -That must have been the reason those humans were here too...-


    Had they managed to form a proper alliance and cultivate one another for a few years, Bahamut could have been put in a really tight spot. -Core was concerningly strong too... If I wasn''t lucky, she could have really fucked me up...-


    But now she was nothing but a few pieces of meatying on the ground. "I guess fate smiles on some and not others." -In any case...- "How are you nning to continue your search from here?"


    His gaze slowly darkened as he sank into thought before looking at the massive hole in the wall. "I''m.. not sure... I would like to check for a lower cavern, but to do so, Id have to burrow through at least several kilometers of rock before I could say the cavern wasn''t there, so.. I might start by exploring all the caves that lead from the nest into the mountain. If I''m lucky, one might lead to another cavern."


    I paused as I looked him up and down, watching thoughts zip through his mind before suddenly looking back toward the center of the mountain.


    For just an instant, I felt the presence of a divinity flicker, as if waving at me beforepletely disappearing. -Hm...- "How about this, then."


    Getting his attention, he quickly looked up at me with a glow in his eyes.


    "I''ll check for another cavern for you, and dig you a path to it. However, if you do indeed find the phoenix and somehow survive, I want you to promise me to be my subordinate." Looking back at him, he quickly mmed up and sank into thought.


    But after a moment, he eased. "You are Vasilias.. correct?" He paused before looking up at me. "Is your offer from before still avable?"


    I nodded. "It is. I can also extend an offer to let you study in Siratha. Do you still have the medallion I gave you?"


    He hastily nodded but responded hesitantly. "I do, but... Are you really not going to ask for a phoenix feather?"


    I quickly gave him a look as if I wanted tough. "Why would I ask you to retrieve something like that for me?"


    "W..Well, it might be dangerous-"


    "Chrysi, if it''s dangerous for me, you''re really fucked." I let out a light chuckle as I turned away from him, ncing toward the gate at the center of the cavern. "Personally, I think you''re crazy for even wanting to find the phoenix, but somehow I don''t want to stop you anymore." -Beforeing here, I thought you were delusional even just saying it existed, but now, who knows... Maybe you have fate on your side...- "All I ask is that if you somehow survive, you be a subordinate of mine. I see a bit of a reflection of myself in that crazed curiosity of yours, and I''d like to make sure that talent never rots."


    A gleam of hope suddenly intruded his gaze as I nced back at him, but he continued with a doubtful tone. "If you think I am capable of such a feat.. I will follow your lead..." His expression and voice quickly stiffened. "However, only after finding the phoenix."


    -I can''t say I didn''t expect that...- "Alright, then, once I finish things here, I''ll take you to another cavern or at least point you in the right direction."


    A smile immediately washed over his face. "O-Okay! T-Thank you, my Lord!" He quickly threw himself into a nearly perfect bow as if he had done it a million times.


    "You said you''d only follow me after you found the phoenix. What are you doing calling me your lord?"


    "A-Ah, sorry! It was a slip of the tongue!" He seemed quite genuinely sorry.


    But little did he know, as I was looking away, I had a smile on my face. -I''ll be really disappointed if he dies now... I''ve taken quite a liking to him...-


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 Chapter 367: Steps Toward Salvation

    Chapter 367: Steps Toward Salvation


    Early Evening - Late Winter : The Nest


    -----


    - Chamrosh ~


    "How long are you all going to sit around, and let the upper cavern trample on us?!" I yelled out into the cavern with my chest as I walked around the edge of the gates tform with firm steps. "When I grew up, I was told all these incredible stories about how this cavern used to be a paradise! BUT LOOK AT IT NOW!" Angerced my voice like poison, yelling out over a crowd of thunderbirds suppressed by generational fear. "None of you, even the lucky ones with partners, wish to bring children into a world of fear and suffering, but we finally have an opportunity to change that fate! So what are you all doing?!"


    It had been several minutes since I first split up with the Lord and came down from the upper cavern, but while I initially tried to coerce the others toe see the upper cavern with gentle words, not a single one of them budged.


    "Lord Nott is here, not to kill us, but to kill the ones who took everything from us! The ones who left us to rot in this dark abyss, cowering in fear of the endless skies outside while they thrived!" The longer it went on, the more angry I became. "We aren''t paying for the sins of our ancestors anymore! We have no reason to hide! Had the Lord wished us to be dead, we would have had no ability to resist it, yet today, he waltzed through the cavern without killing a single one of us!"


    *Crackle* The edge of the tform cracked slightly as I dug my talons into it out of anger.


    -You know what...- "At this point, I''m convinced our ancestors deserved it." I spoke coldly as I stopped, looking down at the thunderbirds cowering in their crumbling stone nests below. "I''m certain we have been fed lies, manipted by the likes of Acanthis to drive us into fear, turning us into mindless ves that did nothing but exist and do the dirty work of the nobles. Whatever happened for the Ancient Fenrir to deem our race unworthy of the sky, I understand them. Earlier today, I was told by the floor guardian to allow a group of humans into the nest, led by one of Lady Core''s servants. They were an envoy of the Holy Kingdom, the kingdom of detestful humans to the east." A rune instantly lit off the tip of my beak before I spoke through it, amplifying my voice through the cavern. "What purpose do you all think a kingdom''s envoy would have here?!"


    The silence that filled the cavern whenever I stopped talking was indescribable. Throughout the entire cavern, there wasn''t even the sound of a wing beat."If my spection is right, the nobles were going to sell us to them.. like ves... They were going to make us fight their wars while they sat in the oasis of the upper cavern..." I paused before lowering my stance and speaking harshly. "Do any of you wish to listen to the orders of a human? Do you really wish to wield your sword for weak beings who believe they own the world?!" I let my voice echo for several seconds before I continued. "I don''t know about all of you, but I would much rather listen to Lord Nott, a being who nearly wiped out our race single-handedly, than some humans I could kill with a p of my wings."


    There was a long pause before, eventually, a shaky feminine voice appeared among the crowd. "How... How can you be so sure he will even let us serve him..."


    Straightening my posture, I picked out the young girl in the crowd, a thunderbird who could have only been 700 at most. "He is a god. For what reason would hee here to liberate us from corruption if it weren''t to gain our faith."


    "So, you want us to simply be the ves of someone else..." This time, another voice responded, the voice of a man around my age.


    "If you would simply fly up here and see the upper cavern myself, you would understand where I aming from. I would rather lick Nott''s paw than ever listen to another word from the nobles or Acanthis."


    There was an eerie silence that quickly overtook the cavern before eventually, an elder spoke up as he took to the air. "If you are so confident, then I will just have to see this myself."


    -Finally...- I wanted to click my tongue at him, but thankfully, after he flew up past me and entered the gate, others started reluctantly following his lead. "Those who wish to remain blind to the corruption we were rotting beneath, you can stay here. However.. if youe and see the upper cavern yourself, I can guarantee your mind will change."


    Eventually turning away from the edge of the tform, the flow of people heading up through the gate increased substantially. It seemed like once the dam broke, everyone started moving, and with every passing second, there were only more that wanted toe up. -I guess I should head up as well, then...- *Fwoosh*


    Quickly blending back into the crowd, I took to the air and headed back to the upper cavern, with my anger only growing as time passed.


    However, when the sky of the upper cavern starteding into view, something felt off.. the air was thin, and the air felt like it was on fire.


    The moment I flew up into the cavern and the crowd dispersed,nding around the opposite side of the gate, I looked around in a rush, only to find an unfathomable hole freshly bored through the side of the mountain, exposing the open sky outside. -W..woah...- It drove a sense of fear into me that I couldn''t describe.


    And I wasn''t alone. The rest of the cavern was generally as I saw it originally, but was a mess, wrapped inplete silence as everyone hopelessly stared at the hole as if the hand of god had fallen over them. Even thoseing up from the lower cavern couldn''t help but stare.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    After a moment though, we were all dragged out of our thoughts by the sight of Nott flying toward us.. carrying something...


    "Are.. Are you sure.. he won''t kill us..?" The voice of a younger thunderbird in the crowd below me spoke with a quivering voice.


    But even I wasn''t sure. As he flew over, I began doubting myself. -Did I.. misjudge why he was here..?-


    "Y-You all are from the lower cavern, right?"


    Hearing an extremely young voiceced with fear, I looked behind us to find a bright-blue feathered thunderbird shivering uncontrobly.


    He was clearly a noble, but while locked by fear just like the rest of us, his solution wasn''t to flee. "Y-You all need to go fight that demon for me! R-Right.. y-you have to!"


    One of the older folk who was among the crowd quickly turned back toward him with an uncontroble ze in his eyes, as if he was going to rip the young man limb from limb.


    But he didn''t get that chance. *VWOOM-CRUNNCHHH* Seemingly out of nowhere, the young man was pancaked against the ground, sending a puff of feathers out around him before an ethereal voice echoed over us and filled the cavern. "How shameless. You leave your people to rot, yet expect them to die for you."


    There was no malice in the voice, but somehow that only made it more horrifying.


    But after a moment, rather than crushing the young thunderbird like a grape under his paw, the pressure on him eased, and I turned back to see Nott hovering in front of us with a huge head floating in front of him.


    "Your leaders are no more. Acanthis is subservient to Hera Monachalkos, the current Monarch of Bahamut, and the Secretary is dead." Tossing the huge head down in front of us, it hit the ground with a crack. "I will now be the Monarch of the Thunderbirds, are there any objections?" *VWOOM* A deafening st of mana blew over us as a huge metal tform seemed to be made out of nothing before Nott gentlynded on it, expecting an answer.


    But whether from awe or fear, no one responded.


    "In that case, all thunderbirds residing in the upper cavern will go to Bahamut, just like Acanthis, and serve Hera. If anyone wishes, you may also choose to serve my apostles in Siratha, however, if no choice is made, I will make one for you. You will be treated as ves until you prove yourself, regardless of where you go." He paused before his gaze lowered toward those of us from the lower cavern. "As for the rest of you, you can choose to remain here and begin rebuilding your race, serve my apostles, or head to Bahamut with the nobility. If you want to leave and explore the world, do as you wish, however, be careful where you choose to go." The air suddenly turned heavy as the light started warping and bending around him. "If you genuinely wish to serve the Holy Kingdom, I will make sure you don''t die in one piece."


    There was a long pause before he slowly calmed back down, and the light around him seemed to return to normal.


    But that was when someone spoke up, a noble several kilometers away. "Who are you to tell us what to d-" *WOOM* The man''s voice was instantly cut short as his body was turned into a plume of mist, showing other nobles that were nearby.


    But Nott hadn''t even looked at him. "In a moment, I will read your minds to determine where you will be going, however, if I find a single drop of desire for revenge, I will do to you what I did to him. Now make your choice."


    The following moments felt like an indescribable eternity. Although we all wanted to speak between ourselves, sharing thoughts on what to do, there wasn''t a peep. Even the young thunderbirds, too young to have gained sentience hid in fear, and were wrapped in silence.


    But...


    Raising my wing, I looked up at him confidently.


    "Yes, Chamrosh?"


    Folding my wing back, I stood up straight. "If you are our Monarch, will you be the one to lead us?"


    But he only shook his head. "Those of you who remain here will choose a leader amongst yourselves, and that leader will be my direct subordinate. If no one wishes to be the leader, I will pick a dragon to be your leader."


    Everyone in the crowd immediately started chattering, whispering to each other as they realized death was no longer breathing down their necks.


    But as I went to chime in and see what people thought, I found many of them simply staring at me. "H..Huh?" With every passing second, I found more and more gazes on me. "I-I don''t know how to lead though... I''m too young..."


    But it didn''t matter.


    The crushing weight of responsibility was about tond on my shoulders, and there was nothing I could do to refuse. "G..Guys.. I can''t be responsible for the growth of a poption... I-I don''t even have a family... How do you expect me to lead you all..." But I cut myself short upon realizing it wasn''t something I could reason my way out of. -Isn''t this.. too much..?-


    After a moment of my thoughts continuing to race, I eventually gave up, thinking I would be able to reason my way out of itter when we returned to the lower cavern and figured out what the n going forward was with the people still down there.


    But before long, Nott continued. "Now that you have all had a moment to think, please close your eyes, and think of where you wish to go. Bahamut, or Siratha."


    After a short moment of silence, innumerable faint, almost insensible mana ripples echoed through the cavern before a bright rune lit up over the heads of the nobles from the upper cavern.


    However, the moment I looked around at them, questioning what the runes were, the sound of bones crackling and bodies being crushed into nothingness filled our minds like a dense fog.


    It was a purge. Those who conformed were spared and left to be treated as ves, while those who remained steadfast and thirsted for revenge were killed on the spot.


    But in the end, of the few thousand nobles, only a few dozen were killed, with the strongest of nobles, likely being the patriarchs of the more powerful families, not backing down till the moment they and their families were indescribably pulverized.


    It was a scene the word horror could not do justice; however, once the runes over their heads disappeared, the atmosphere of the entire cavern shifted, and a less cold, and more.. satisfied voice echoed through it. "I look forward to seeing how you all do."


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 Chapter 368: Ownership

    Chapter 368: Ownership


    Early Evening - Late Winter : The Nest


    -----


    "Hm..." Looking over the crowd of thunderbirds frantically speaking to one another while more continued up into the cavern, I wore a satisfied expression. -I had to simplify the oath runes to use them in mass, but it might work in my favor...-


    In short, I had imnted oath runes into about four thousand thunderbirds, essentially all the nobles, and because there were so many I had to do at once, I had to simplify them greatly. Instead of killing them for disobeying, it would simply inflict a debilitating migraine-like pain. It basically acted like a safety in case I made an error imnting the oath, so a thunderbird wouldn''t just drop dead if the rune was set off identally. -But it might work in my favor...-


    Watching a few thunderbirds quickly keel over in pain after ring at me, I smiled. -This worked out quite well...-


    Although I had deviated from the original n of bringing all the thunderbirds back to Bahamut, I was more than pleased with how thingsid.


    "S..sir... I-I mean Lord.. Nott..." A very young thunderbird, far younger than even Chamrosh, spoke up nervously as he walked up under me. "A..are you really not going to kill.. or enve us..?" He was clearly a non-noble and questioned my intentions behind leaving them all be.


    The moment he asked the question, everyone hushed in an instant.


    But I didn''t hesitate to answer. "I seated myself as your Monarch because you, as well as this cavern, are quite useful to me. I would like nothing more than for your race to thrive and grow. The stronger you grow, the greater asset you be."There was a pause before an older, female thunderbird spoke up. "So.. you see us as assets?"


    I quickly nodded. "However, I don''t believe you have room toin. Unlike the nobles, I am pulling you under my wing. You have the freedom to do what you wish, be it travel the world or start a family knowing I am backing you. You no longer have to fear the skies, and if you wish, I can give you all purpose again." I paused before looking at another man with a distasteful expression. "If you wish to stand against me, you may, but I can guarantee the fate of your friends and family who remain under my wing will be better."


    There was a pause before a younger girl turned toward the man I was looking at with an angry expression. "Why can''t you all just ept mercy?!"


    Her anger was so genuine it took me by surprise. -Huh?-


    "A feast has beenid at our feet, yet you all are questioning what to do with it! Stop staring at it, you idiots! This is an opportunity for us to finally return to our former glory.. so why do you have to be so skeptical?!"


    "Because a leader who sees his subjects as objects will never-"


    "HE''S NOT OUR LEADER!" She yelled with a squawk. "He said explicitly that we were to choose our own leader! All he is going to be is a guardian and a guiding hand!"


    There was a long pause that followed before Chamrosh chimed in with a more calm tone. "I agree, there are no unreasonable downsides to this offer. If you wish to live with humans, all you have to do is not assist the Holy Kingdom in, I''d assume, military-rted efforts." He nced up at me for confirmation before continuing. "If a monarch''s subjects are not assets to their leader, what are they? ves? Friends?"


    The other man responded instantly. "But what will happen when he needs to use us?! We will die-"


    *CRACK* The sound barrier snapped as an older female thunderbird smacked the man across the face with her talon, drawing blood from his cheek. "If you wish to die, do it on your own." She was easily one of the oldest thunderbirds among those I could see, speaking coldly and eloquently before turning back to me. "Lord Nott, we will take you up on your offer." Her eyes were lit with the fire of determination.


    -Hoh?- My smile widened.


    "However, I have a question."


    I paused.


    "What will our rtionship be with the dragons..." She seemed anxious as she spoke, darkening her expression without easing her gaze. "Will you protect us from them?"


    I quickly shook my head, but continued before anyone could jump to conclusions. "From now on, you will be working alongside the dragons, as well as my apostles in Siratha. You may consider it an alliance for mutual benefit." Idly ncing over the crowd, trying to gauge their reactions, I found surprisingly little resistance to the alliance.


    As the older woman turned to nce at another thunderbird a few dozen meters away, she nodded before lowering her head toward me. "In that case, I hope you can convince them to release any.. perhaps long-standing grudges..."


    -How humble...- I was honestly quite surprised. -But...- "That won''t be necessary."


    "Huh?" She quickly looked up at me with a confused expression.


    "Your race wasn''t the only to.. struggle a bit over thest few millennia. They have held up better culturally, as well as strength-wise, butpared to the dragons, you guys have.. actually preserved history from before the war."


    They quickly started mumbling, "Huh? But didn''t he mention Hera Monachalkos being the Monarch of Bahamut?"


    "I did." I straightened my posture as I spoke. "I helped her ''revive'' herself. She was pronounced dead before the end of the war, but she was just trapped at the peak of this mountain on the verge of death."


    Several of them in the crowd immediately tensed before looking upward, as if toward The Scar''s peak.


    "In any case, I believe you all should be able to handle things from here. I''m going to help that dragon back there before bringing the nobles to their ''new owners''." My smile slowly turned predatory as I looked over the thunderbirds scattered farther away from the hole. "I look forward to everyone''s cooperation in the future."


    Stolen from its rightful ce, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Finally hopping off the raised steel tform I had created, I made it crumble to a fine sand before turning back toward Chrysi and making my way over to him.


    As I flew, he simply stared at me with an expression of awe on his face, but while I didn''t know what it was for, he made it clear the moment Inded.


    "What kind of rune was that? How did you do a few thousand at once? What were they for? I''ve never seen them before." His questions were like a barrage of artillery.


    But I responded in kind. "They were oath runes. All I did was copy-paste a sequence a few thousand times. And they were to keep the thunderbirds from running off while I''m helping you or flying them out of here."


    His eyes gleamed even with my simple response. "C-Can I see the oath rune you used?"


    Gentlynding, I shook my head. "It''s not a rune you can use, nor will you understand what it''s doing."


    "B-But perhaps there is something to be gained..."


    Looking him in the eyes, I watched the ocean of curiosity rampaging as if stemming from his soul before sighing. "Haah.. alright. I''ll show you while I look for the other cavern, just follow me." Hopping into the air again, I got ready to show him the rune before ncing at his eager look one more time. "Just don''t tunnel vision on the rune. Watch where you''re flying."


    He quickly, eagerly nodded before taking to the air as well.


    But my warning wentpletely unheeded.


    To the thunderbirds nearby, it probably looked like I was dragging him through the air with something like a hypnotism spell. Thankfully though, while he was most definitely not watching where he was flying, everyone mostly cleared out of the way, so he didn''t bump into anyone.


    After we descended into the lower cavern, I flew around it so my aura could prate the ground in various spots and checked for another cavern, but there was nothing other than absolutely colossal veins of minerals, metals, and mythril that seemed to settle there, giving credit to the idea that the cavern had been melted away. -I wasn''t totally convinced that the presence I felt was a phoenix, but...- Slowly but surely, that was changing.


    However, regardless of what was there, it was nowhere to be seen. Through the floor of the cavern, there was nothing even looking down over fifty kilometers. -The question is.. should I point him toward the presence I felt wave at me, or...-


    Looking back at him, still entranced by his own curiousity, I had to weigh my options. The odds were, even if I pointed him toward the presence, he wouldn''t find it and would eventuallye to me, as I wished. -That presence was at least several hundred, if not a thousand kilometers away...-


    But if he did end up finding it, the odds of him dying were guaranteed. -Whatever waved at me was at least on my level...- If it was indeed a phoenix with the capability of melting a bubble in a mountain a few hundred kilometers wide, the odds of him even getting close were slim to none.


    And understanding his curiosity, I knew the temperature would only entice him more. -I''ll have to at least warn him so he doesn''t keep going down toward the mantle thinking the heat is from the phoenix...-


    But fate had its ns for everyone. Even if I wanted him toe under my wing, forcing him wasn''t the answer. -And if I misguide him and he notices, it will break trust...-


    Meaning the only thing I could do was let him forge his own path. "Haah..." -If he dies, I''ll be really annoyed though...-


    Reluctantly flying to the far side of the cavern from the entrance, aimed straight into the heart of the mountain, vaguely toward the presence I felt, I drove my aura through the wall to check for a cave system to send Chrysi into, but instead, I found something else. -Huh?-


    It was another cavern, although only about two hundred meters wide, with a small cave-like offshoot leading into the mountain. -What are the odds...-


    Being about eight kilometers into the wall, it certainly wasn''t super close. -But it could be something...-


    Eventually drilling to it, I made a moderately orderly tunnel before sending Chrysi on his way with a mound of warnings about what not to do so he didn''t identally cook himself or starve to death while he was exploring, telling him to regrly return to the cavern here to restock his supplies when needed, and remember his promise. -All I can do now is hope fate continues to be on his side...-


    Finally returning to the upper cavern, I spoke to Chamrosh about keeping his eye out for Chrysi, and to make amodations for him whenever possible, as well as getting up to speed on the thoughts of the thunderbirds.


    But there wasn''t much to see yet. -It seems like they''ll be fine though.-


    Thankfully, the lower caverns thunderbirds were.. shockingly adaptive. Most of them even favored me for the takeover rather than holding onto old disdain.


    Of course, there were still those who opposed me, but I simply let them be for the time being.


    All that was left for me to do was gather the nobles and bring them to Siratha and then Bahamut, with about three hundred expected to go under Lief, and the rest under Hera.


    But.. the trip was far more troublesome and time-consuming than expected.


    Although typically a fast race, the trip was only dragged by those who chose to rebel halfway through. There were even a few who died during the flight.


    In the end, it took almost a week to get to Valtivar, but when we got there, the thunderbirds'' opinions of my offers flipped on their heads.


    To them, Siratha''s forest of treants was an indescribable paradise even the nobles could only salivate at.


    Unfortunately for them though, wherever they initially chose to go was the ce they would end up, without exception, for the simple reason that I wasn''t confident Lief could manage, or even make effective use of more than a few hundred of them.


    But perhaps that was me just underestimating her.


    As I shifted to my humanoid form and walked into her office, giving her the gist of the situation, her eyes lit up. "How many can you give me?"


    To her, it seemed like she could more than easily make use of a few thousand, let alone the few hundred I was giving her. -Maybe I''ll tell the rest if they do well in Bahamut and get released, they cane here...-


    It was a small encouragement, but an encouragement nheless.


    And while most of them still harbored ill intentions toward me, there were indeed a few that started flipping sides when I raised the offer.


    However, it would be a long time before they managed toe back here.


    In their new home, in the heart of Bahamut, their new owner was going to work them like mules.


    -I just hope Hera doesn''t mind me being a littletepared to when I said I''d be back...-


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 369: An Endless Road

    Chapter 369: An Endless Road


    Mid Afternoon - Early Fall : The Elder Estate | The Cab (New Elder Hall)


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    "To think you were actuallyte..." Hera''s surprised voice met my ears as I hurtled through the thick, dark clouds looming over the estate I left from almost three weeks prior.


    "Had you given me a general area to search, it wouldn''t have taken me a week to just find the damn ce. I didn''t know I needed to search the entire fucking mountain for a cave barely big enough to fit a horse!"


    "Pft-Hahaha!" Hera immediately burst outughing,edically pping the end of her tail on the ground next to her. "Acanthis did make a bet that you would never find it. That must be why."


    "Haah..." My sigh was deep and heavy. "Well, I hope you at least bet on me."


    "Hoho~, of course."


    FWOOSH Finally piercing the underside of the dark storm clouds, the sight of nearly a thousand dragons bustling about came into view.


    Although I was technically over the exact area I left from to explore The Scar nearly three weeks prior, the view waspletely foreign to me.Directly below me was an absolutely colossal structure, still in the midst of construction, with a massive town being built around it, seemingly in a hurry.


    None of it was a sight I didn''t expect, as I saw it through my aura from quite a ways away, but I still had to admit.. it was quite a jarring sight. -I guess it makes sense for people to be flocking here, considering the opportunities that will eventually arise... -


    wooOOOSH-DINGGGG Landing on a thick metal driveway in the middle of a colossal courtyard, I looked up at the massive main doors of the new estate,rge enough to let Mylesfortably walk through, and tilted my head in confusion. -But I have to wonder.. how is she staying hidden after starting a project like this? She couldn''t have already announced herself as the Monarch to the public yet, could she?-


    Previously, the estate that was once there was meant for those in the Elder Hall to use, with rooms reserved for each member so they could all stay there and have more fluentmunication with one another when they weren''t needed at the Hall itself. However, with the dissolution of the Elder Hall, Hera had taken it for her own use, using it as a sort of temporary estate until things were worked out.


    But at that moment, I had to question the way I interpreted ''temporary''.


    "What in the world are you nning on using this huge ass estate for?" It was almost big enough to be considered a small town on its own, with arge central circr courtyard and exactly eight long offshoots to create a star pattern reminiscent of the academy. "I can''t say I could imagine you living here..."


    "Of course not. This ce is too small for me." She paused as she shuffled around papers in a smaller room not far from the main entrance. "This ce is going to be the new hub for the cab, called the Elder Estate. Each member will be expected to live here and manage a ''branch'' specialized around their field. In theory, it should centralize everything for us in quite a convenient and orderly manner."


    -Huh?- "A ''Branch''?"


    "Yeah, I''m actually going to try something Bahamut was too afraid to implement when he was Monarch." She spoke while deep in thought before setting down most of her papers. "I''m going to make the cab members something simr to my direct subordinates, each rted to a specific subject, while also having each of them form their own organizations, or branches, that are vaguely simr to human guilds."


    Finally walking up to the massive front door, I opened it and made my way inside.


    "Each branch will be responsible for gathering its own information and managing its own field all around Bahamut. A quick example would be Myles and the Military branch. To exin it quickly, it will be responsible for all military matters that don''t require my input, such as establishing public security forces, remote military training and recruitment, and documenting everything under the span of their branch. With their branch centralized here, if I ever need anything from the military, I can simplye here and issue orders or look into information. In my case, if the branch was already established, I would have gone through them to find and deal with the remaining supporters of the Holy Kingdom, at least when the timees."


    -How.. horrifyingly smart...- To summarize, it made it so all she needed to do to get what she needed was say a single sentence, even if it was to implement apletely new system that needed to be built from the ground up. -But...- "Why was Bahamut too afraid to implement that? It seems pretty convenient..."


    "His issue with it was it centralized power too much under the Monarch, it essentially made it so there was nothing to keep him in check if he had a bad idea."


    "But wouldn''t that check just happen when you ask one of the cab members to implement something?"


    She shook her head as she used her aura to open the door to her office and let me in. "Not exactly. If the Monarch wanted to, they could force it past the cab member. The Cab is made so the branch heads cane and go as they please since they''re voted in by the people, so if a corrupt Monarch got power, there would be nothing to stop them."


    -I see...- Walking inside, I quickly let Ilios down off my back and found a nice cushion to sit on, looking over at Hera''s shrunken, coiled body on the other side of the office. "That does make some sense, but..." -Bahamut was a god.. or at least close to one.. so why would he worry about someone else being Monarch... He couldn''t have been that cautious of Hera, right?-


    "Haah..." Hera let out a heavy sigh, knowing what I was thinking. "Bahamut was.. not the saint people believed him to be. He was powerful, so much so even I couldn''t hold a candle to him, even now, but as the leader of our race, he.. was not fit, and he knew it." Flutter Shuffling around papers with her aura, she quickly singled out a small stack and handed it to me, seemingly wanting to change the subject. "In any case, I''m not him, so I''m doing things differently... What I just handed you is a list of the branches I would like to establish, with the people expected to be their heads and some additional details about what each branch will cover... If you find something you think I should tweak, let me know."


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences.


    The moment she paused, my eyes turned down to the array of about sixty pages in front of me, and I quickly began reading through them. -Ah...- But it didn''t take long for things to begin falling into ce. -It''s.. surprisingly clean...-


    There were currently eight branches, with each cab member manning one. To quickly go over it, Gi Akatharsia, an elder I met at the Elder Hall just prior to leaving for The Scar, was the mining and farming advisor, Grandmother was the political advisor, Pluto Chrysos was the economic advisor, a man I didn''t know, Kt��rio P��ra, was the industry and development advisor, Myles was the military advisor, Amphitrite was the ''humanoid'' sector advisor, and another person I didn''t know, Vima Ep��meno, as the mana research and development advisor. The only branch without a head was the science and technology development branch, but surprisingly there were some names suggested for the head already.


    "Are the suggested names for the science branch people who study Acardi wreckages?" I spoke without pulling my eyes off the papers, reading through all the details to try and find ws.


    "Yes, actually. Although they were pretty hard to find since none of them live in Bahamut anymore, there were actually quite a few I found when I looked around. The issue is just how untalented or inexperienced most of them were."


    -I see...- Quickly trying to buzz through some ideas, I finally finished absorbing everything on the pages, making a few tweaks here and there before handing it all back to her. "Most of it looks good, I made a few tweaks, but I was expecting there to be a dedicated branch for the thunderbirds. I thought you said you wanted to make an organization specifically for them?"


    Skimming the pages, she spoke quickly. "I do, but not as an official branch."


    "Why not?" To quickly summarize what her n with the thunderbirds was, she wanted to create a massive intelligencework with them, using them for their speed, ability to fly at extremely high altitudes, and capability of cloaking themselves so well with light magic. It would give her eyes all around Bahamut, and let her gather any and all intel she needed, if it was inside the confines of Bahamut''s borders like a web of spies and satellites.


    But she didn''t realize why I was confused. "You must not understand how upset people would be if I made an entire branch dedicated to thunderbirds." She spoke as if it were obvious. "I''m actively trying to give people reasons for rebellion to try and drag the rest of the Holy Kingdom''s rats out of hiding, but I''m not going to do something that insane..."


    "Huh?" I immediately tilted my head. "Why would you dedicate the whole branch to them with you as the head? Why not use Leander as the head and absorb the Foreign Intelligence Agency?"


    She instantly froze. "Wait.. that''s.. not a bad idea actually..." Vwoom The fluttering of paper instantly filled the room again as tens of thousands of pages were hurtled into the air, before several were instantaneously covered in text as if they had been stamped. "Hmm..." But while she was working swiftly, her expression eventually turned troubled.


    "What''s up now?"


    She paused as she lowered most of the papers in the air and handed me one with a concept painting of a gargantuan building somewhat simr to the one we were in. "This is what I''m building just outside of Emporio. I nned for it to be the central hub of the organization I wanted to make with the thunderbirds. It''s not big enough to house all the ones you brought back, but a vast majority will be out working most of the time, and I n on sending to other branches, so that won''t be a problem."


    -I see...- "So what''s wrong?" I gently tilted my head.


    "Distance." She slowly started sitting up and gathering some of her things as she continued. "If I am to add another formal branch for intelligence stuff, I''ll need to add another branch to this building, but the structure outside Emporio is logistically the best hub for it. The only solution I can think of is moving the whole branch to Emporio.. but it will be troublesome for both me, and the other branches."


    -So she''s nervous that the distance willpromise themunication between branches...- It was indeed a predicament, but not one I didn''t have a solution for. "Why don''t I just create a space rune between that hub and here?-


    She instantly froze before looking me in the eyes. "You.. can do that?"


    I quickly nodded with a small flicker of excitement in my tail. "I''ll need to study the specifics of the existing runes, but yeah, I don''t see any reason why I couldn''t."


    She paused before cycling through pages again, falling victim to her rampaging thoughts. "In that case.. that makes things easier..." Quickly writing and editing hundreds of pages of documentation, she took out a stack of a few hundred pieces of paper before finally standing up. "I need to give these to the construction manager here to add on another branch here. How long do you think it will take to make the rune?"


    I gently shrugged my wings. "Longer than the thunderbirds can reasonably stay here." I gently motioned my wing up to them before her gaze followed.


    "Alright." A smile immediately washed over her face. "In that case, we can talk about the details of your trip while we fly them to Emporio and get them set up." Finally standing up, she quickly walked past me with a partial trot and a smooth, happy sway in her tail. "I''ll meet up with you after I drop this off real quick." shing her smile at me with a clump of papers in the air, she left without giving me a chance to move.


    But, even if she wanted me to hop up right then, it would have been difficult. "Haah..." From the moment I sat down, a lethargic wave washed over me, and the cushion felt as if it were sucking me into it. "Well, Ilios.. I know you''re ready for a nap, but it looks like we still have some flying to do..." I honestly wanted to just pass out right then and there too... -But.. we still have so much to do...- "Ugh..."


    Forcing myself up with a little groan, narrowly escaping the grasp of the cushion, I let Ilios up on my back before walking out into the only half-built hallway.


    There was a lot on the to-do list, and from my talk with Hera, it looked like I wouldn''t be getting any rest for quite a while.


    But oddly enough, I didn''t really mind it. Although I had minimal political experience or knowledge, I was oddly fascinated by learning how Hera was going to run such a massive country fluidly.


    Afterall, I was the Monarch of not one, but two countries now. I had a lot to learn from her.


    But sometimes.. her methods were.. a little unconventional...


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 Chapter 370: Flight of Monarchs

    Chapter 370: Flight of Monarchs


    Mid Evening - Early Fall : Near Emporio


    -----


    "So, this is really all that''s left of the thunderbirds, huh..." Hera nced behind us as she spoke. "Serves them right..."


    She spoke with such a deep-seated distaste it made me want to chuckle. "I only brought half back here, and I also left a few hundred with Lief, but yeah.. these are essentially all the elites."


    "It''s a shame Acanthis and that secretary were so ipetent. They could have given us some goodpetition if they cultivated their race." She continued as I nodded in agreement. "In any case, why did you leave half in the mountain? They couldn''t have been happy with you after everything you did. Why chance them leaving for the Holy Kingdom instead of just enving and using them here in Bahamut or Siratha?"


    I turned my nose up into the wind and took a rxed breath as we continued to glide over the puffy white clouds. "Well, just like with how you''re using them to survey Bahamut, I want to use them to survey the Holy Kingdom, but I n on starting slow and easing them into it. Thankfully, most of those I left alone didn''t seem to mind my take over once they saw how Acanthis left them to rot, but I don''t want to rush things." -Although, for convenience, I should probably go ahead and build the space rune there while I build this one for Hera...-


    "So you n on being their Monarch, like Siratha?" She looked at me curiously before turning forward again. "What do you think about sending a small poption of dragons to help them get a foothold?"


    I quickly tilted my head as if to shrug my wings. "I think it''s a good idea, but rather than sending a group with the goal of helping them, I was thinking of simply giving lower-ss dragons an opportunity as a whole."


    Her curious gaze quickly turned to me. "borate."Slowly pulling my eyes off the ground, I nced at the horizon before turning to her. "The lower cavern is unbelievably rich with minerals, so, just like when dragons were integrated into Siratha, I was thinking of giving them an opportunity to rise in ss. The opportunity would make people flock to it, and not only that, since it''s for their own benefit, they would work their asses off to grow the colony."


    She gave me a slightly surprised look as my gaze turned back to the turbulent sea below us.


    "In the long run, the colony should help both Siratha and Bahamut quite significantly. There are some other absolutely colossal mythril veins in other parts of the mountain that would give us ess to more resources than we could use. The issue is turning everyone''s focus from culture to industry."


    "Hoho~, to be thinking so far ahead already... You might have more talent in this than I thought..." Hera quickly gave me a prideful, but greedy look as she paused. "I''ll have to send some dragons over to survey the mountain in a few weeks."


    "Yeah, it would at least be worth looking into." -It might also be worth talking to Lief about that... Although I''m not sure how the thunderbirds would feel, formally integrating both Siratha and Bahamut into that colony could be a y...- Idly looking down below us as I sank into thought, a small beach and endless forest finally peeked through the clouds.


    It was the edge of Emporio, the huge ind and global hub of draconic trade in the center of Bahamut.


    However, while its city was considered one of the most densely popted areas in Bahamut, the east side of the ind, where we were flying over with a few thousand thunderbirds in our wake, waspletely empty. -Now that I think about it.. I haven''t seen a single estate yet...-


    Even after several minutes of flying into the ind. It was simply an endless sea of forests andkes as far as my aura could reach in every direction. It was the forest equivalent of a desert.


    Eventually not being able to hold my curiosity back, I asked Hera about it, but as it turned out, it was because the entire ind, except the city, had an owner. Before the war, she apparently had a massive estate here, but after digging through some old archives found that it was destroyed before the end of the war in a riot.


    It seemed to upset her more than I would have expected, but rather than that being because the estate was destroyed, it was more so because Bahamut did nothing to stop it. -I really have to wonder if that wasn''t because Bahamut was already dead though...-


    But, it''s not like it mattered much anymore.


    As it was now, thend was all owned by Grandmother. After the riots, it fell into Bahamut''s paw before inevitably bing a Ragnarok family possession. However, ording to Hera, Grandmother had ''given'' it back to her, as per some old rules regarding draconic wills, and she was nning on making the most of that.


    But before we could get too deep into it, we finally arrived at the estate and began introducing the thunderbirds to their new home.


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    Other than Hera and I, there were only a handful of other dragons present, namely Officer Mellon, an old military officer I met in Akri several years prior, about a dozen others there to teach the thunderbirds how the branch would function, and another dozen or so working on the estate''s construction.


    When I first got there, it seemed like my main role was just keeping the thunderbirds in line and making sure the oath runes worked properly, enhancing their reliability and tweaking their guidelines as Hera or the Officer wanted. -Looks like I''ll be starting on the space rune soon...-


    But the next thing I knew, time slipped through my grasp like an oiled tungsten sphere.


    Working closely with Hera, we spent our time refining the function of the ''Thunderbird Intelligence Network'' as well as the Cab system as a whole, and spoke extensively about her ns regarding the announcement of her session as the next Monarch of Bahamut.


    What we eventually settled on was to make the announcement during the Coming-of-Age Festival, which was still about a year away, so she could take more time to prepare for the chaos that would ensue afterward, while also having the ability to pronounce me by name as her assistant Monarch. -Although at this point, if she ever has to step away from the position as Monarch, it''d probably be to help me with something...- Which voided the whole purpose of an assistant Monarch, but she insisted.


    We also discussed whether I shoulde out as Nott during the event since it would need to happen eventually, but we ended up deciding to save it forter since we weren''t sure how much public distaste would be roused before the event.


    However, we did both agree that, if we needed thest push to drag out the Holy Kingdom''s rats, I would make the announcement. -I can''t say I''m too keen on it yet, but.. she isn''t wrong saying it''ll have toe out eventually...-


    After all that, we lightly discussed some ideas to run by Lief in an attempt to further integrate Siratha into Bahamut, from setting up a more extensive space rune system there, to some more major cultural renovations like focusing Siratha on the research of Magic and Science.


    ording to Hera, because of their gargantuan poption and still rtively human mindsets, they were more fit to research the new fields of science and mana while leaving Bahamut to develop the new research into more advanced forms.


    It was essentially an idea to make each race focus on what they were good at to form a coborative effort in the development of both nations.


    The only issue in Hera''s mind was getting Lief to redirect that many resources away from religion and the growth of poption, their current focus. She was worried Lief wouldn''t be too keen on shifting gears away from me that aggressively.


    However... "I LOVE IT!" Lief''s ck tail raced back and forth with excitement the moment I brought it up.


    ording to her, with me now being present in Siratha, the cultivation of faith was no longer something that required her input. Funding for things like churches had switched to the public sector with nobles beginning to invest huge amounts of money to build churches and spread faith, mainly to garner favor from the apostles, as well as me. -If Elizabeth bes my apostle, that will only be moremon as well...- Leaving Lief to be able to turn nearly the entire focus of Siratha toward developing technology and industry.


    But as with all things, it would take time.


    After finally chatting about the progress of the prayer, still about a month away, and checking in on Father, I returned to Bahamut, and finalized a few more things with Hera before building the space runes for her, thankfully not running into any issues like the ''voice'' within the void, even though I was anxious about it the whole time.


    By the time I was done though, I felt like I was about to copse.


    At that point, it had been about six weeks since Hera made her first appearance back in Bahamut, and while I certainly did nothing exhausting, because of the threat of Dagr breathing down my neck the whole time, my anxiety did nothing butpound until it began physically hindering me.


    *Vwoop* Popping out of the void in the bright blue skies over the Tree of Prayer, my mind was dominated by things I still needed to do, whether it was going to the Laboratory, trying to learn more about that ''third eye'' I opened momentarily in The Scar, or exploring Acardi City on the moon, but, -I just can''t...-


    I felt like my brain was about to begin breaking down. I needed a nap.


    -I just wish the prayer was now... I could continue umting divinity even in my sleep if it was...- But unfortunately, while the cloud of souls was gently swirling thanks to the prayers of the devout priests and clerics, it wasn''t nearly enough to engage the runes.


    *woooOOOSH-Thump* *Pat* *Pat* *Pat* Quicklynding and walking into the Gods'' Abode with Ilios, I watched as the faintest traces of mana running through the colossal rune in the ground caused the cloud to swirl, but could only snicker. -What a shame...- *Puff* Eventually making it to the center of the room, I finallyid down with a small stretch and got ready to go to sleep...


    But the moment my mind turned silent, right before I could sink into a dream, my eyes shot open with vibrance. -Wait...- Although my drowsiness was still more than present, for a moment, my mind became sharp. "The tree just needs mana.. right?"


    Looking down at the small rune beneath me, at the center of the countless colossal rings making up the floor of the room, the fog in my mind cleared.


    -Why was I thinking it needed mana from people.. it runs on pure mana, not aura... So...- Thinking back to theke of mana I made where Father was napping, my mind did nothing but continue to wander. -What if I just.. fueled the tree myself?-


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 Chapter 371: Warping Space

    Chapter 371: Warping Space


    Late Evening - Early Spring : The Tree of Prayer | Siratha


    -----


    -What if I just.. fueled the tree myself?- It was a thought that obliterated the ever-encroaching cloud of drowsiness that was taking over my mind.


    But the idea wasn''t nearly as simple as it initially sounded.


    The thing was, during prayers, the mana given by the worshipers was directed straight toward the top of the tree, causing the mana density to get higher and higher as it neared the rune, before eventually getting dense enough to naturally prate the tree trunk and individually fuel eachyer of the rune within the Gods'' Abode.


    As it was, the rune was perfectly designed with that method and effect in mind, using abination of mana flowing through the trunk to fuel the central runes, and arger volume of mana from outside to fuel the outer rings.


    It was the perfect rune to gather mana from the prayer.


    However, for me to mimic that effect, I would have to either hollow out the tree and fill it with mana or inly fill the air with a simr amount of mana to the prayer. -But that''d definitely kill a bunch of people...- For me to fill the air with that much mana while not having to constantly replenish it, I would have to bury the entire base of the tree in ake of liquid mana. -So I need a better idea...-


    But it didn''t take long for me toe up with one. -Hmm.. I wonder if I can do that...-The idea was pretty simple, create a rtively smallke of mana deep underground, directly beneath the tree, and guide the mana up through the tree trunk with a long sequence of runes, essentially making it a giant mana vein.


    In theory, it was totally possible, but as for whether the flow of the mana would be great enough, I could only guess. -It''s worth a shot though...-


    Deciding I would figure it out quicker through trial and error rather than purely theory, I hastily began carving out sequences of annoyinglyplex runes that spiraled around the core of the tree trunk with my aura.


    But the task quickly became even more daunting than I anticipated.


    Adjusting and testing my theories as they came to mind, I ended up burning through tens of thousands of theories, ideas, and designs of runes over the course of a couple of days.


    After a while, it even got to a point where I had to question if what I wanted to make was even reasonably possible.


    But that was when I stopped worrying about efficiency orplexity, and realized one key piece of information...


    It was that mana interacted with the fabric of space in the exact same manner as normal matter, but to a different extent.


    In the process of warping the fabric of space in any manner, an enormous force is exerted on the matter within the fabric to try and keep it in line with the warp. This force does not directly push matter in the direction of the warp like a shockwave, but rather tries to force the matter to take up arger or smaller volume based on the direction of the warp, consequently expanding orpressing EVERYTHING in that space.


    That meant the force was capable of literally ripping atomic nuclei apart, orpressing them to a density far beyond even the cores of neutron stars.


    However, this force was only on the motion of the bend itself. As long as the warp in the fabric didn''t change nigh-instantaneously, like with vector flipping, the forces within atoms would be able to adjust ordingly before they were ripped apart orpressed to such an unholy extreme... [1]


    But that was where the difference with manaid. Unlike matter, mana didn''t have those incredibly powerful atomic forces to resist the force resulting from the fabric of space being bent, allowing me to make a rune I would eventually call a ''warp rune'' that could create a rtive vacuum of mana, and then use mana''s desire to expand and fill that less dense space as the main force pulling the mana up the tree. [2]


    However, just moving the mana upward wasn''t enough. I also needed a way to contain the mana so it wouldn''t escape into the lower-density mana outside the tree trunk, as well as a way to spread the mana to the outer rings of the rune in the Gods'' Abode.


    But thankfully, there were easy solutions for both. -I need to make a pipe that can contain mana, and give it a cone-shaped top, then all I have to do is make the mana rotate in the pipe and it''ll spread itself out as its given more space...-


    But as with most simple-sounding things, the ''easy solutions'' I had were incredibly time-consuming.


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    By the time I finished, I had made a ring of three-dimensional runes, with the outside of them strengthening the tree with space mana, forming the shell of the pipe, and the inside being the warp runes to make the mana flow. Then, by stacking and slowly rotating those rings to form helices as I passed down the tree, I could then give the mana in the pipe directional momentum to spread the mana out at the top, where I greatly expanded the ''shell'' of the pipe in a cone shape so mana could reach the outer-most rings of the rune.


    After that, all I had to do was sequence and sync each spiraled stack of runes, and finally give it all fuel.


    "Hooh..." At the end of it all, it was quite the contraption. -But it''ll all be for naught if it doesn''t work...- Letting out a slightly anxious breath as I finally finished, I got up from the center of the Gods'' Abode and began walking to the edge, giving the runes onest look before casually hopping out of the tree. woooOOOOSH


    Not cloaking myself at all, I instantly found countless gazes on me, from both the nearby treants and the few people on the ground praying. -First off, I need those people to leave...-


    WOOOOSH Spreading my wings and stopping just above the ground, I used my aura to hold myself there before getting ready to speak through magic.


    But before I could say anything, Lief came careening off the branch of a nearby treant, moving well past the speed of sound before reaching the ground and immediately kneeling in front of me. CRAAACK -It seems like she''s getting used to her new strength...-


    "M-my Lord!" She immediately spoke in a bit of a panic. "I thought you were going to nap. Is something wrong?"


    But I just shook my head. "No, I''ve just had a change in ns for the time being. Can you clear everyone away from the tree for me? They can watch from the treants, but those who are extra sensitive to mana should be evacuated for a bit."


    Lief''s gaze shifted from worry and confusion to a mix of determination and excitement in an instant. "Of course! I will clear them out immediately!" Fwip-WOOSH Instantly darting off, she began issuing orders to people en mass, allowing me to continue to the ground.


    Pat-Crackle Not paying mind to the endless gazes thatnded on me, I quicklynded and began boring a hole undergound, going straight down before curving under the tree trunk, eventuallying up to a thinner tree root about a hundred meters wide.


    It was the root containing the mana pipe I made.


    Granted, the end of the pipe was much farther down the root, -But liquid mana will eat through this rock like its nothing...-


    Quickly closing the hole I bored to keep the mana from having any way to vent, I cleared out a ring around the root, and immediately began vector flipping huge chunks of stone into the void, one piece at a time, until all the stone around the root between me and the bottom of the pipe was cleared.


    WOWOWOWOOOM By the time I finished, the mana had cleared a whole cavern, easily a few hundred meters wide and over a kilometer tall with the single massive tree root stretching from the ceiling all the way to the ground where it was submerged in a shallowke of glowing liquid mana.


    It was honestly quite beautiful, with walls coated with crystals of crystallized mana and beautiful chunks of mythril, it looked like some ancient cave, glimmering with the glow of magic, while humming the melody of mana.


    A mage''s dream.


    But the mana there was too suffocating, even for ancients. -This should be good though...-


    Hopping down into theke, Inded with a ssh before immediately turning my attention to the runes at the base of the pipe.


    It was time to see if my contraption would work. -Well.. here goes nothing...-


    I was a little anxious, but as I removed the small pieces preventing the bottom runes from getting fuel, the whole thing instantly jolted to life and the entire ce started gently vibrating with a hum. hhhhmmmm


    The next thing I knew, the flow of the ambient mana in the cavern shifted, and my worries about the pipe''s flow not being enough vanished.


    When it worked, it fucking worked. With a flow rate so immense it ripped through the mana strengthening in the tree trunk before rearranging it in a less restricting manner, the flow rate, even at the top of the tree was immense. "Haha..." -Holy shit...- With a slightly nervousugh, a smile came across my face.


    It was really working. -I just need to head up to make sure it''s fueling the rune properly...- Vwoop


    With a bit of disbelief, I quickly jumped through the void, nearly instantly entering and exiting it, not even staying around long enough to look around.


    However, that instant was more than enough to send a spine-chilling fear through my body.


    Although I only caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eyes, for the instant I was in the void, I was being watched... From deep within the abyss, there were two massive, glowing eyes that stared at me.


    Vwoop By the time my gate above ground began dissipating, the excitement of my aplishment had vanished in its entirety, and I found myself gently shivering with the warmth drained from my face. -W..what the fuck was that...-


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>[1] - This hasn''t explicitly been exined yet, to my knowledge, but once the warp stops, and the fabric is stationary in rtion to the matter inside it, a constant, static centripetal force (gravity) is then applied to the matter, scaling exponentially with the curvature of the warp.</strong>


    <strong>[2] - Gravity from the warps is also helping the flow of mana, but to a much lesser extent than the other forces.</strong>


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 Chapter 372: A Sledgehammer

    Chapter 372: A Sledgehammer


    Early Afternoon - Early Spring : The Tree of Prayer | Siratha


    -----


    *Vwoop* Instantaneously exiting the void, my body felt cold and tense, with the excitement of my achievement dwindling into nonexistence. -W..what the fuck was that...- It was something staring at me from deep within the void with a predatory yet curious gaze.. but instead of calling it a creature, it felt more apt to call it the void itself.


    With no distinguishable features besides its huge, glowing purple eyes reminiscent of ck holes, it felt more like a machination of my own exhausted mind than anything.


    A mere misinterpretation of blurry shapes at the edge of my vision.


    However, as I tried to forcefully ease my nerves, and the gate started dissipating... *WOOP* The beams of light shining into the gate suddenly vanished, and the gate was resealed.


    *VWOOM* In a fit of panic, a colossal mass of mana exploded out of me, instantly blowing the gate to pieces.


    But instead of seeing myself in front of the tree of prayer, I found myself once again listless floating in the void.


    At that moment, all conscious thought purged itself from my mind.I felt like a human who walked into a dragon''s den...


    Helpless...


    And weak...


    But as my panicked mind did everything it could to find the threat.. I found nothing.


    -W..what...- There were no eyes.. and there was no creature.


    It made me feel like an insane man fighting his hallucinations. -But that gate couldn''t have closed itself...-


    Continuing to look around, I started looking deeper and deeper into the void, trying to find anything that could resemble something like what I saw, but it did nothing except further cloud my mind with doubt.


    But that was when I saw it.. the faint silhouette of a colossal ''thing'' slowly winding through the void like a crocodile swimming through water.


    It had to be at least a few hundred thousand kilometers from me, almost invisible thanks to the color of its body, but at the same time, it was sorge it made my mind go nk.


    With a long, dark body akin to a sea serpent, it had to be at least over ten thousand kilometers from head to tail. -I knew I wasn''t crazy...-


    Almost immediately, I recognized it as the thing that I caught a glimpse of... -But.. it doesn''t seem to know I''m here...- When I got dragged back into the void, I thought that it was the thing that somehow pulled me through, wanting to hunt or eat me, but instead.. it seemed to pay me no mind, as if it didn''t know I was there. -But if it wasn''t the thing to pull me through.. what was it?-


    I knew for certain such a phenomenon couldn''t happen on its own, but besides thoughtlessly throwing me at the creature in front of me, I was at a loss.


    At least that was before one name came to mind. -Dagr...- "Tch..." Clicking my tongue, I snarled slightly. -He must have possessed Ilios again and sent me back...- But at the same time, I couldn''t understand why. The only moderately usible reason I could think of was that he didn''t want me to see something in reality. -Because he definitely isn''t the type to throw his food to someone else...-


    But even though I had my doubts, I didn''t have a choice but to go with it...


    -Let''s just get out of here for now...- Looking back down toward the horrifyinglyrge creature still cruising through the void, I calcted where the Gods'' Abode would be and began forming the gate to return. *Vwoom* -I shouldn''t test my luck in here any longer...-


    However, just as the gate waspleted, and Ipressed it on myself to return to reality, my senses suddenly blurred, vision ceased, and all conscious thoughts were drowned in a sea of static.


    I was hit by something.


    -H..huh...- By the time my consciousness started returning, my senses had somewhat returned, and I not only felt myself being moved, but I felt my disfigured face being dragged over small grooves in the ground, trailing blood as my exposed, shattered skull tried to dig into the wooden floor. -I''m.. in the Tree of Prayer..?-


    I wasn''t dead.. even if it felt like it. From what I could tell, I was actually healing incredibly rapidly, with my mind bing clearer with each passing moment.


    But no matter how fast my thoughts could move, I couldn''t recall what happened. I simply felt like I was struck in the face by a massive sledgehammer.


    I knew I was missing something though. -M..my divinity... Where is my divinity..?- As my mind continued to clear, I tried to find the divinity I had been umting for Father, but it was nowhere to be found, not floating as a liquid in the center of my reserve, or crystalized around it.


    It seemed to have just vanished.


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    As I slowly started waking up though, close to two weeks after the incident, I found it.. crystallized.. and non-uniformlyyered around the inside of my skull in a manner that didn''t look natural.


    It looked more like it had been deliberatelyyered to try and form a shield, and sure enough, much of it was damaged as if it had received a serious impact. -Just.. what the fuck hit me...-


    There was only one thing I knew of that was capable of damaging divinity, but the damage I saw wasn''t something like a few strands being sheared off.


    It looked more like a huge block of divinity hit me in the face.


    And sure enough.. as my vision started slowly returning, my blurry gazended on a ck sphereying at the end of a trail of partially dried blood.


    A sphere of crystallized divinity.


    -----


    Early Evening - Early Spring : Voldukirk | The Holy Kingdom


    ---


    - Astren Ravenna ~


    *Clop-Clop-Clop-Clop* Returning home alone.. was an odd feeling.


    After spending so many years with Elizabeth, we had be something like family. -But for her to give me such a serious farewell right after we reached Sol...-


    She had a me of determination in her gaze I had never seen before, so I simply told myself to trust her and didn''t even think of stopping her.


    But at the same time, as more time passed, I couldn''t help but dwell on the fact I didn''t even try to convince her... The more time that passed, the more that farewell felt different from normal, like a parting of ways rather than a temporary one. -But.. I have no right to stop her...-


    "Identification, please."


    Looking down at the knight standing at the western gate of Voldukirk, I nonchntly pulled open my jacket to show him the insignia on the hilt of my sword before continuing into the city with a heavy heart. "Haah..." -Now I have to think of how to exin things to Katherine...-


    Continuing up the long road, I took my horse deeper and deeper into the capital before turning into the courtyard of The Church of Eir, hopping off and tying my horse to the stable near its entrance before taking off my jacket and continuing inside.


    Like usual, the hall was full of people and surrounded by the scent of fresh flowers, but it was so silent that I could hear the echo of each and every step.


    *Vwoom* As I finally passed the front row of people, the sound of my footsteps ceased, and a familiar presence exposed himself behind the leg of Eir''s statue. "You seem different from before you left."


    It was Hephas, my fellow apostle of Eir. "If you experienced what I did, you wouldn''t be the same either..."


    His expression stiffened with seriousness in an instant, as I swiftly walked past him. "Were you perhaps.. unsessful?" His tone felt like it set a de at my throat.


    But I ignored it in its entirety. "If you wish to volunteer to face a god that could destroy the world, be my guest." Momentarily breaking stride to look back at him, my dark and somewhat emotionless gazended on him. "That ce from a different realm than ours. If we poke that nest the wrong way, the Holy Kingdom will be wiped off the face of Delphi, and there is nothing we can do about it besides continue hiding behind the silhouette of our gods."


    His expression quickly darkened with anger. "Are you implying the Aesir is weak?"


    Not making any response, I turned back toward the wall where I was to step into Eir''s throne room. "If our gods could do what I saw, we would have dominated the world long ago..."


    Continuing forward, all the way to the back wall of the church, I felt a hint of lethargye over my mind before the wall opened up to let me through.


    Inside, there appeared to be nothing; aplete, indescribable darkness.


    But deep down, I knew there was a massive throne before me, with a woman sitting atop a grand throne.


    *Pat* Lethargically kneeling down, I lowered my head. "I am sorry, M-"


    "~Don''t be.~" She spoke bluntly in a fashion that sounded stressed. "~I am simply d you are alive. However, you must exin what happened in detail...~"


    I tensed slightly as I tried to look up toward her. "Were you not.. looking through my eyes like you said."


    "~How could I...~" Her tone slowly warped with a mix of worry and fear. "~Had I used my tether connected to you, you would have died, and I wouldn''t have escaped harm either.~" I felt as if she leaned back and interlocked her fingers as she spoke. "~As much as it may seem that we own the world here in Voldukirk, none of us do. Not me.. not Freya.. and not Odin... We are simply living in the world left by its owners, like a rat in an abandoned tavern.~"


    Thinking it was perhaps the dragons, I looked up, but even though I saw nothing, I could physically feel a gaze piercing mine.


    "~It isn''t the dragons.. nor the thunderbirds... No.. they are more like children given permission to y in someone else''s field...~"


    "T..then..."


    "~You already met one of them... Even if he was in a new body, with a new mind...~"


    The image of the colossal, winged Fenrir instantly appeared in my mind. "Who- no... What.. is he..?"


    "~The one you met was the creator.. and the other half was the conqueror... Odin always says they were the ones to invade our world, but.. even if they were, we were naive to interfere with them...~"


    I felt my soul itself tense as she spoke.


    "~I know Elizabeth left already.. and she was right to... If you wish to follow after her once we finish talking, I will release you.~" Her voice slowly stiffened. "~However, if you wish to stay and work as my hands and feet, I would be forever grateful...~"


    A weight of responsibility unlike anything I had ever felt instantly came crashing down onto my shoulders.


    But instead of being crushed, my gaze became firm, and the slight trembling in my hands ceased. "Please use me as you wish, Master."


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</strong>


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 Chapter 373: Crushed Beneath Questions

    Chapter 373: Crushed Beneath Questions


    Early Evening - Early Spring : The Scar


    -----


    - Elizabeth Valia ~


    *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* The sound of powdery snow crunching beneath my feet echoed through the forest as I braced myself on a colossal tree and paused to scan a small valley-like divot ahead of me.


    "Hooh..." -This should be the ce...- Idly ncing over my shoulder, I looked out through a gap in the trees to see the seemingly endless snowy forest covering the mountainside behind me like a nket, stretching all the way down to the green fields on the horizon nearly a thousand kilometers away.


    It was a vista so indescribably beautiful that a painting couldn''t do it justice.


    But at that point, I couldn''t even appreciate it. -A warm bed would change my view on life right about now...-


    As things were, I was well over forty kilometers above sea level on a seemingly endless mountainside, trekking through a forest capable of hiding giants over a hundred meters tall with ease.


    Evenpared to the other parts of the world, it felt alien.. and ethereal.. more than capable of contending for the title of the most beautiful ce I had ever seen, but at the same time, it was unspeakably miserable. -I must have been hallucinating when I had a vision of a cabin in this ce...-With temperatures so cold they''d freeze you solid the moment you gave it the chance, and air so thin it was nearly impossible to breathe, the conditions were beyond what could be described as uninhabitable.


    *Woosh* Even though I kept the wind off me with a thick wyvern hide nket I made, I constantly needed magic to keep myself from freezing to death, and was forced to warm up the air before each breath so it wouldn''t freeze my esophagus. -It''s absurd that a ce like this can even exist...-


    But as if that weren''t enough, I also had to deal with other, more apparent threats as well.


    *thump* *Puff-Crunch* Instantly crouching down into the snow and covering myself with light magic, I looked over the valley again to see a colossal, puffy white bird, at least thirty meters tall, clinging to the top of a gently swaying tree. -Shit...-


    It was a type of monster I had seen so many times that I gave them a name. -A Snow Whisper...-


    Compared to wyverns, they weren''t actually all that strong or even durable, but they more than made up for that with their speed, brains, and stealth.


    Unlike wyverns, the only sound that could be used to identify a Snow Whisper from a distance was if you were lucky enough to hear themnd on a tree before they spotted you. It made them feel like ghosts or hallucinations, and it made them far scarier than wyverns, to the point that I had to constantly be on edge, not sure whether I was being hunted or not at all times.


    -The worst part is if I make the first move and fail to kill it, it''ll wait for the perfect opening to attack...- Even if they had to stalk you for days to be presented with the opportunity. -It''s like being stalked by a mountain lion that never rests.. and has ws bigger than my whole body...-


    But it was indeed a beautiful creature, even if it was equally as horrifying.


    Keeping a close eye on it while holding my breath and suppressing my presence as much as possible, I waited for it to eventually take off and kick up a cloud of snow before letting out a breath of relief. "Phew..." It was honestly more nerve-wracking than staring into the eyes of a dragon. -Hopefully though, this will be thest encounter I have with those persistent bastards...-


    Quickly standing up again, not giving myself a moment to catch my breath, I pulled out the walking staff I made from a stick and several wyvern mana cores, and reactivated the runes engraved in it around my hand. *Vwoom*


    Almost immediately, the air around me warmed and became more breathable. "Hooh..." It was time for me to finish thest leg of my journey.


    Or at least.. thest leg of the first step��


    Finally continuing over the ridge and down into the small valley, I weaved through several more huge trees before eventuallying up to a small unusually circr clearing, identical to the one I saw during my vision when leaving the Thunderbird''s nest.


    But unlike in the vision I had, it was..pletely empty... -What..? This is the right ce.. right?-


    Anxiously looking around, I checked for traces of any nearby monsters before cloaking myself with magic and walking straight out into the clearing. *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch*


    But my confusion only grew. -W..where is it..?- The more I looked, the more clear it became that it was the same clearing I saw in my vision, but there was no trace of a cabin. -Did it rot away?-


    Walking around the center of the clearing for a moment, I used several trees asndmarks to find exactly where the cabin should have been before lifting my staff to cast a spell to clear the snow and break the ground beneath me. -Maybe there will be something buried underground...-


    *Woooooom-PUFF* But instead of smashing a hole in the ground, a huge plume of pure snow blew up around me, and I fell several meters only tond on more of it. *Puff* ��H..Huh?!��


    The snow I believed was only about a meter thick based on how it looked around the base of the trees turned out to be at least a dozen times that. -What the hell...- Finally pushing myself up, I raised my staff again to clear away the cloud of snow above me, only to find myself at the bottom of an eight-meter pit of pure, packed powder. -How has it not turned to ice at this depth...-


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    But while I was confused by it, it also sparked a pinch of hope in my chest. -Just maybe the cabin is just buried beneath it all...-


    Pointing my staff at the ground again, I quickly readied and fired off the same spell, immediately causing the ground beneath me to disappear.


    But this time, instead ofnding on another bed of powdery snow, or the t, solid ground... *Fwip-THUD* "OW!" Inded on a hard slope which swiped my feet out from under me and mmed me into it.


    As I quickly rushed to clear out the snow above me though, the mix of anger and pain in my expression vanished. *Vwoom-Fwoosh*


    The slope I wasying on turned out to be a bed of petrified wooden nks that felt like stone. -The cabin!-


    Quickly using several more spells to clear a path down to the ground, I slid off the roof andnded on a pile of old firewood before more carefully continuing down to an old cobblestone tform several meters below.


    Almost immediately, a mix of old sensations, as if stemming from lost memories, filled my mind, and in a mix of nervous excitement, I used magic to walk around the perimeter of the cabin, eventually finding a door that was firmly shut. -It''s locked...-


    Quickly overtaken with a mix of warmth and nostalgia, I eventually decided to use small amounts of earth magic to break the lock and hinges before jumping to the side as the absurdly heavy door fell outward. *Thunk-Woosh* It was the most gentle way I could break in.


    But before I could move again, a wave of dry, stale air carrying the scent of aged wood blew over me.


    It was a smell I should have expected, the smell of an old cabin left isted from the elements for eons��


    But somehow, the moment it entered my nostrils, tears welled in my eyes, and a more detailed vision of the cabin came to mind, ying a faint, blurry memory of a handying several of the stones I was standing on...


    But it wasn''t just any hand��


    It was my hand, aged and weathered, shivering as itidrge stones on ake of ice.


    Immediately cupping my hand over my mouth, a tear rolled off my cheek, crystallizing before shattering on the ground.


    With every passing instant, more vague, blurry memories of me building a structure I had never touched, in a ce I had never been, returned. -W..what.. is this ce...-


    *Th-Thunk* Shakily dropping my staff, I continued up to the door and looked inside.


    It was tiny, less than twenty square meters, but contained a beautiful stone firece, a desk lined with books and artifacts, a kitchen reminiscent of those on Earth, and a raised feather mattress, with the countless old, faded artworks depicting humans, dragons, birds, and gods lining the walls.


    The more I looked around, the more things felt familiar, and the more it felt like home.


    But as if my feet had a mind of their own, before I could even think of organizing my thoughts, I made my way inside and walked straight up to the desk, where I found an old leather-cover book centered on a small, beautifully embroidered cloth.


    They were the only two items in the entire ce I had a vivid memory of, as I could easily recall them being given to me by the blurry figure of a man.


    But as I stood in front of them, peering over the chair tucked beneath the desk less than an arm''s length away, I couldn''t move.


    The book was a diary.


    My diary.


    But as tears continued to stream down my face, I couldn''t even reach for it. -I.. I can''t...- I couldn''t muster the courage to look beyond its cover.


    Up until that point, I had simply continued relentlessly pushing forward, ignoring the warnings and uncertainties in the back of my mind, using curiosity to fuel my determination.


    Even as I found the cabin, I simply ignored the countless familiar images and sensations that popped into my mind, seemingly out of nothing. After all, it could have been exined as the influence of something guiding me.


    But I could no longer do that.


    Facing reality was impossible, like looking up into the night sky as a meteor hurtled toward the.


    Upon realizing the weight of my own existence, I simply couldn''t look fate in the face. As a cloud of uncertainty covered my sense of being, I couldn''t even think straight...


    *thump* Falling to my knees, my thoughts raced in every direction, tying knots that made it impossible for me to think, and forced a sensation of anxiety to embed itself in the deepest parts of my being.


    But as seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into days, my mind slowly ran out of fuel, and found its way to an equilibrium.


    Sitting against the wall adjacent to the desk, I hopelessly held my knees close to my chest, looking around the room with dry eyes as the feeling of hunger alleviated the burden on my mind.


    It had been at least three days since I entered the cabin at that point, and I almost hadn''t moved at all, but after all the vague sensations and memories finished surfacing, my mind felt like it had be numb, as ifing to terms with everything.


    The life I was living on Delphi was not my first, and the possibility that my memories of Earth were nted there artificially was more real than ever.


    But I no longer had the energy to let that burden me.


    Aftering to terms with my decision to ept lord Vasilias''s offer, I had no choice but to deal with the crushing pain of endless unanswered questions and take the next step, as it was the only thing that could bring my mind sce.


    But the next step was to open the diary.


    I was still afraid.. so much so that I could feel my soul.. the very essence of my being ache...


    But I didn''t have a choice...


    *Pat-brush* Finally standing up with some lethargy, I anxiously reached out and detached the chair from the floor, pulling it out from under the desk and sitting down in it.


    *Pat* The cushion was as hard as a rock, but my mind was in such chaos that I didn��t even notice.


    "Hooh..." But as I let out a deep, foggy breath and finally reached out and touched the book, the chaos in my mind went silent, and as I opened the cover, a string of words on the page echoed through my mind like an empty, endless tunnel.


    "This diary is under the protection of the Holy Kingdom. Possession by anyone other than the eyes of the dearest, Elizabeth Valia will result in execution.


    May this diary serve as her recount of heroism, and bravery. To etch her noble name into the endless history of this world."


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 374: Death

    Chapter 374: Death


    Mid Morning - Late Spring : The Tree of Prayer | Siratha


    -----


    "Nnngh..." Opening my eyes with a groan, a splitting pain ripped through my head, blurring my vision as I struggled to get up off my side. -Fuck...-


    It had been well over a month since the incident at that point, and while I had been awake for several weeks and had spent every waking moment focusing on healing, I wasn''t any better off.


    *Vwoom* "Ack..." Gritting my teeth through the pain, I forced myself onto my belly and used as little aura as I could to carve away sections of scarred flesh around my head, snout, and neck before roughly cleaning the opened wounds and rolling back onto my side to try and go back to sleep. *Pat* "Haah..." -I don''t know how, but it looks like I''ll somehow make a full recovery...-


    Just a few weeks prior, my face was so mangled that I wasn''t sure how I was alive, or if healing was even a possibility, but thankfully with Ilios''s tender care and the.. aggressive ''measures'' I took upon myself, I managed to straighten out my shattered snout, reposition the scattered chunks of my jaw, and move the teeth scattered around the inside of my skull back to my mouth...


    But my appearance and scarring were quite literally the least of my worries.


    Considering the absurd amount of damage I took externally, I was certain the inside was just as fucked.


    And the constant, excruciating pain I felt didn''t help that hypothesis."Agh- FUCK!" It felt like my brain was destroying itself, simr to whenever I pushed it beyond its limit with my aura, but immeasurably worse. It was actually so bad that I could only take control of a few meters of aura before my control simply scattered. -I don''t even want to try reading it outside my body...-


    My chest ached at the thought that the damage could be permanent, but as I closed my eyes and tried my best to ignore my anxiety and fall back asleep, Ilios walked up and began cuddling next to my still-bleeding head. *puff-pat*


    He had been extremely cuddly since the incident, almost never leaving my side for more that a few minutes at a time, and tending to my wounds as much as he could. He was also who I suspected dragged me over the rune in the Gods'' Abode right after I returned from the void.


    But there were also some behaviors I couldn''t help but find odd.


    Opening my eyes just enough to see his figure, I found himying down on his belly, resting but on alert, with his sharp, unwavering gaze aimed at a melon-sized ck orb on the ground several hundred meters away.


    It was an object that seemed to appear while I was working on the Tree of Prayer''s rune, an anomaly looking almost identical to a god''s cell or space mana artifact.


    However, after a few weeks of thinking about what it could be, instead of following my initial thoughts, I concluded that it was what hit me when I was returning from the void. -It''s ck like divinity.. and while I haven''t tested it, it''s likely possible that divinity can pass through the shell of a gate without breaking it...-


    It was also a perfect match for the damage I saw to my face, acting like a supersized cannon ball thatpletely shredded the smaller strands of divinity in my snout and dented the huge wall of it that I had crystallized in my skull to block it. -It sucks that I ended up burning all the divinity I was umting for Father.. but it saved my life...- So I had no room toin.


    After all, divinity was receable, even if it would take time.


    Eventually closing my eyes again, I did everything in my power to force myself to sleep through the pain while guiding the liquid divinity I was umting from the rune to my snout, working like metal wires to hold everything together while it all healed.


    It was the same routine I had used for thest month. -Thank the heavens for the divinity from the rune here...-


    But this time, as I finally began drifting off, I was abruptly woken up by the tree vibrating, starting subtle and growing stronger with every passing moment. -Uh oh...-


    Quickly waking up, my expression darkened. -Please don''t tell me the runes I made are breaking...- I wanted to cry.


    However, after a few seconds of the vibrations growing stronger and stronger, an absolutely unbelievable mass of mana mmed into the underside of the rune, increasing the output by severalfold before causing it to overflow and begin funneling a river of pure mana into my reserve.


    "Uck..." It made me feel incredibly nauseous, but without the ability to freely move out of the way I just had to deal with it, even if it made falling asleep impossible.


    But while I thought it would be easy to generally ignore and get used to, with every passing second, the river of mana grew faster, and thicker, until eventually...


    "BLEGH-" I threw up a mix of stomach acid, blood, and a thick ck sludge.


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    It was my body''s waste. -Oh fuck...- And it was a really.. really bad sign, implying that my brain was destroyed to the point that my subconscious couldn''t maintain the recycling process my body used to sustain itself off mana.


    If that were the case, it meant I was on the path of starvation rather than recovery, and no matter how much I wanted to fix it, all I could do was pray my body would figure itself out.


    It was a truly horrible sensation... I had more mana than I could imagine, with a huge stream of divinity to amodate it, yet there was nothing I could do but whither away.


    For once.. I had no escape n.. and no solution. -At this rate, my body will begin breaking down, and Dagr wille take it...-


    "~It seems you''re already aware...~"


    Hearing the dreaded voice, my whole body tensed, and I opened my eyes to see Ilios sitting in front of me with a gaze I hadn''t seen in a while. "Dagr..."


    His eyes were full of disappointment and his expression was dark and emotionless. "~You''re in a death spiral, yet you still waste your energy on anger... How upsetting...~"


    Gritting my teeth, I slowly got up off my side. "I don''t want to hear it, you fucker..." My eyes burned with an anger I hadn''t felt in years. "If it weren''t for you, I wouldn''t be in this state..."


    "~So you wish to me me instead of yourself...~" His expression continued to darken as he stared into my soul. "~I have to admit, I''m disappointed. Had you taken this moment as an opportunity, I may have been more inclined to give you more time.~"


    *Crrrrrunch* Digging my ws into the ground, splintering the wood, I forced myself up onto my feet and looked down at him with so much bloodlust it caused the air to vibrate. "Opportunity?!" A hint of craze and disbelief instantly seeped into my voice. "What opportunity?! My body is crumbling, and my brain is literally mush. If I do anything rash as it is, I''ll only elerate myself into a grave."


    He paused as he turned his gaze back to my soul. "~Is that what you think?~"


    "Yes, you dense fucker." Had he not been in Ilios''s body, I would have hit him with whatever strength I could muster. "If I push myself at all, my nervous system will crumble, and whatever neurons are left in the pool of mush that is my brain will stop trying to heal. All I can do now is wait for my body to figure its shit out on its own..."


    There was another long pause as his eyes traversed from my abdomen to my skull as if following my spine. "~I don''t understand... Why are you giving it the chance to heal?~"


    My expression instantly morphed with disgust. "Do you not realize how fucking stupid that makes you sound?"


    "~Hm.. what a shame...~" Letting out a breath of disappointment, he finally averted his gaze. "You still limit your understanding to that of a mortal''s."


    But like a can of gasoline being thrown into a campfire, it made my anger explode. *Pat-Crack* Pinning him against the ground, I mustered every ounce of strength I could just to hold him there. "Limit my understanding?! What alternative is there to healing in this situation?!"


    His eyes instantly snapped to mine as he finally opened his mouth and spoke. "Your alternative is to take the next step forward and migrate from the mind and body of a mortal to that of a god. If you let it heal, you will only further dy your ascendance, and I cannot let that happen any longer."


    *Fwip* My surroundings instantly blurred as I lost touch with the ground and mmed into the wall so hard I could no longer feel my body. *THWAAACK* -F..fuck...- I couldn''t move at all, even as I helplessly fell to the ground. *THUMP*


    I was paralyzed.


    "If you wish to waste more time, do it in your next life." Walking up to me, Dagr''s demeanor slowly heated and his voice wasced with bitterness. "You should be thankful I even gave you time to say farewell to your family. Be proud that you even had the opportunity to live this life..." *Pat* Setting his paw over my reserve, he looked straight into my soul. "If it weren''t for my brother, you wouldn''t be here..."


    But instead of fearing death as the pressure of his paw started increasing, a string of words suddenly surfaced from my soul. "Why would I let you have this body, Dagr."


    His gaze instantly sharpened upon hearing the slightly different tone in my voice. "You dare..."


    *Crack* Gripping my limbs with my aura, I forced myself up once more, ripping countless muscles and snapping tendons without care. "This body is mine and mine alone. I don''t believe I recall agreeing to give it to you." A wave of memories flooded my mind as my physical consciousness started to blur. "What I recall is saying I would have my sessor build you a new body. Since when did that mean I would give it to you."


    Dagr''s anger onlypounded. "FROM THE MOMENT THAT MORTAL CONSUMED YOU, CREATING A BODY FROM NOTHING WAS NO LONGER AN OPTION!"


    "Greedy bastard..." My voice, resorting to the brainpower of my subconscious to ry the voice from my soul, spoke coldly as my body started to crumble. "I am a creator. In my prime, I could create worlds, and through my reincarnation, I have only further expanded my understanding of existence."


    "But you said you were to be the one that consumed those mortals'' knowledge! Not letting them consume yours!"


    "You seem to misunderstand." The air around us began crystallizing as we both looked into each other''s eyes. "We are not separate, and no one consumed another." My voice echoed through the tree with a cold, chilling anger woven into it. "When our souls reached the crossroads of existence, we all stepped forward as one to form anew. I am not the human from Earth, I am not the ''god'' of the dragons, and I am not the Ancient Fenrir that was your brother." Lifting my head up over him, confidence wove itself into my gaze. "I am a new being, once again growing as I once had. But this time, I won''t stop because of your greed, and let my world get destroyed because of it."


    *Snap* The instant I finished, my head spun upside down, my spinal cord sheared, and my vision along with my other sensespletely vanished.


    *Thump* In an instant, I found myself listlessly floating in an infinite, perfectly empty space, with only my consciousness to keep mepany...


    I was in limbo, the realm of the dead.. waiting to be reincarnated.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 375: Rebirth

    Chapter 375: Rebirth


    Here is the correct chapter. PLEASE, if you read chap 379 on ident, forget everything about it...


    This arc is EXTREMELY important and that chap being released because of RR being buggy ruins it, so please try to forget about whatever you read in that chapter


    Unknown Time - Late Spring : The Scar


    -----


    - Chrysi Floga ~


    "Have you heard about what happened in Siratha?"


    "Hm?" Looking over at Chamrosh as I gathered my supplies, I tilted my head. "I haven''t. I didn''t even know you guys had a way to hear the happenings of the outside world."


    Gently opening one of myrge bags with his w, he started filling it with general supplies, such as food, water, and potions. "It''s thework I told you about a few weeks ago. We finally set it up and recently started receiving news from Siratha. Supposedly our Lord did something quite grand."


    "Hoh?" -What did he do?- I paused what I was doing as he spoke."For some context, our Lord recently made a summons for there to be a Prayer outside the sixteen-year cycle, but the apostles were having issues preparing for it because of the amount of mana seeping out of the ground around the Tree of Prayer. Supposedly, a few weeks prior, people saw the Lord tunnel underground and, shortly after, felt some huge surge of mana that nearly killed a few people. To me and many others in the nest, it sounds like he made a ''mana well''."


    -Huh?- "Those are real?" Although I may have sounded skeptical, there wasn''t an ounce of doubt in my mind. -I wonder how he did it...- Returning to packing my things, my mind started wandering. "Has there been any news about why he did it yet?"


    "None." He immediately shrugged his wings. "The only tidbit of information we know is that it''s fueling the reincarnation rune without the need for the prayers of the Sirathan people, but we don''t really know what the implications of that are just yet. None of the apostles have said anything about it."


    -I guess that''s to be expected...- Keeping hush about the actions of your god wasmon sense, after all. -But for him to fuel the reincarnation rune like that for the first time in history... Why does it feel so.. ominous...-


    The reincarnation rune was something I, like most other dragons, initially heard of through old tales, myths, and legends rting to the world''s initial conception. It was an important thing, not just to those worshipping the Ancient Fenrir, but to draconic culture as a whole. In Bahamut, we were formally taught in school that the rune was responsible for rebirth, assisting the souls of those who have passed into the afterlife with detaching themselves from their lives, their memories, and their lingering regrets to move on and start anew.


    -But.. for him to forcefully turn it on without the need of peoples'' prayers...- While a part of me wondered how he did it, another felt the air around the topic turn heavy whenever I gave it thought, as if it was something better left to ignorance. -I should just try and change the subject...-


    Eventually shifting gears and moving on, we got my things packed and finally equipped the thick vest holding my bags across my back before giving Chamrosh and a few others a quick farewell and heading into the tunnel toward the neighboring cavern.


    It had been several weeks since Lord Vasilias left the nest at that point, and the whole time, I had been exploring the cave systems connected to the tiny cavern he pointed me to, nearly without rest.


    As it turned out, the small cavern was connected to an absolutely massive array of caves stretching for dozens or even hundreds of kilometers in every direction.


    After taking about a week for each expedition, I had covered thousands upon thousands of kilometers of tunnels, but at the same time, I felt like I barely even made a dent into what I needed to explore. The caves honestly just felt endless.


    But thankfully, the trips weren''t all boring.


    On several of my previous expeditions, I had actually made multiple fascinating discoveries, from a silvery-white metal that sparked and exploded when clumped together, to an alien forest that was lit by the light of towering, glowing mushrooms.


    As things were, even if I didn''t find anything rted to the phoenix, I was at least looking forward to what other new things I would find.


    However, as I trekked deeper and deeper, my excitement took a shift. After just a few days of creeping through tiny caves, barely big enough for me to walk through, I found a path that was almostpletely straight,cking the typical curves and bends I hade to expect from natural caves. -It''s abnormally horizontal too...-


    For a while, I didn''t let it get me excited, after all, the odds that it was nothing were quite high. However, after a couple of days of traveling, the air started turning dry and began warming up to the point that I had to drink a heat resistance potion to stayfortable. -It looks like the walls of the cave are getting smoother too...-


    Eventually, it felt like I was walking through a dungeon, with a level of mana and heat unlike anything I hade across until that point. -Even the previous magmakes I came across weren''t this hot...-


    *Blub-Blub* *Plop-Tap* Taking careful steps across a shallow puddle of magma, my mind and heart started elerating. -I''m getting close to something...-


    With the heat only growing as I trekked forward, my body filled with adrenaline, until eventually, the cave opened up to an unbelievably massive cavern, sorge I couldn''t see the other side even with the blinding glow of molten rock. -Woah...-


    It was simply an ocean of molten rock, so endless it seemed to form a horizon. -I need to be careful though...-


    Heeding Lord Vasilias''s warnings, I strained myself to try and check how deep it was with my aura before deciding to jump in, however, with just a nce over the surface of the magma, I could see that the ridiculously powerful currents pushing and pulling magma off the surface were just waiting to suck me under. -I might really die if I fall in here...-


    But thankfully, I had another option in that cavern.


    Quickly pulling out and chomping on a few more potions, I wasted no time leaping out of the cave and pping my wings as hard and fast as possible to stay in the air. *FWOOSH-FWOOSH-FWOOSH*


    Eventually getting some altitude, I could only let out a stressed breath. "Hooh..." -The air in here is so thin it''s hard to fly...- But thankfully there was no need to worry about identally damaging anything, so I could freely use wind magic I normally couldn''t. -Now.. I just need to search this unbelievably massive ce...-


    Considering the curvature of the wall, it was at least six or seven hundred kilometers wide, meaning even if I extended my expedition, I likely wouldn''t be able to search the whole thing.


    But my gut told me I wouldn''t need to.


    Following my instincts, I went straight for the middle of the cavern, and after flying for what felt like an eternity, found an area where the magma dipped down, as if it was being pulled on something from below. -Huh?-


    It certainly wasn''t a phoenix, but as I passed over it, I spotted a rather a small, glowing orange string sticking through the surface of the magma. -What is that?-


    Unable to stop andnd, I circled back around and glided just over the surface of the magma, reaching out and plucking the string as I passed over it. *Blub*


    But while I wasn''t sure what to expect, as I looked down at it, I could only tilt my head.


    It was a bundle of fuzz, radiating so much heat it made my ws glow. -Woah... Is this the source of the heat in the cavern?-


    As I started holding it with my aura so my w wouldn''t melt, my thoughts raced to figure out what it was. -Is it a flower.. or maybe a coral?-


    I went on to have countless other theories about it as well, but as I got the idea to bring it to the edge of the cavern and more closely inspect it.. all sound ceased and the zing hot air I was flying in vanished.


    "~To think a dragon would sneak in here... Did that old dog send you over?~" The voice was deep and guttural, sounding as if it wasing from inside my own head.


    But it wasn''t a hallucination.


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    Breaking into panic as I started suddenly falling out of the air, I used every spec of aura I could control to pull hundreds of silver rocks out of my bags with my aura before using dozens of runes to spontaneously fuse them together. *sh* In an instant, they all turned into a single blinding, glowing blue light before I hurled it all into the magma below. *CRACK-PLOP*


    They were rocks I had found on several other expeditions, ones that violently glowed and exploded when clumped and fused together.


    However, I could have never expected the reaction I would get after fusing hundreds of kilograms of it together.


    "~Huh? What is-~" *FLASH* The voice was instantly cut off as my vision ceased.


    Without even realizing it, I had blinded myself, but before I could even react, a shockwave blew through my body, shattering my ribs and rupturing my veins before a wave of heat blew over me as well, melting my scales and vaporizing my nerves.


    In an instant.. I had lost every sense I had.


    It was an explosion so powerful the entire mountain trembled, shaking dust off the ceiling of the nest hundreds of kilometers away.


    But I survived. Although only barely, I could still think, and use my aura to see how unbelievably ruined my body was.


    However.. it onlysted a moment. *Vwoop* In an instant, another body appeared next to me within my aura. It was so close I could reach out and touch it, but even though I tried, my body didn''t move.


    "~What kind of cheap trick...~" The voice carried a hint of anger and awe as he spoke in a dialect of draconic I couldn''t recognize. "~You... What did you just do...~"


    As the creature reached out and touched my chest, I felt my scales drip off my body before the heat began melting through my skin and flesh.


    But I was numb.


    The only thing I could do was listen to the voice of the being next to me as if it were the voice of death... The voice of the being that would im my life. -Is this really all I amounted to..?- I felt both content and disappointed. -I found it.. the creature I was looking for.. yet I can''t even look at it with my eyes...-


    It felt like fate was ying an evil trick on me.. but I didn''t have a choice but to be dragged along with the beat of its drums. -If only.. I could see it...-


    Devoting everyst drop of brainpower I had to reading my aura, I concentrated it on the center of the being next to me...


    But just as the shape of a feather was painted in my mind.. it ceased. *Blip* And my consciousness faded.


    -----


    Early Evening - Late Spring : The Tree of Prayer | Valtivar


    - Leif Vilulf ~


    "This is the first time I''ve seen you so.. anxious..." Liv spoke softly as we overlooked the endless sea of dragons and people waiting for the beginning of the prayer.


    "How could I not be... Something just.. feels wrong..." Looking up the side of the Tree of Prayer, I felt my chest tighten. "Since the incident several weeks ago, I haven''t heard a thing from him, and somehow his presence feels like its.. weakening..."


    "Are you sure that isn''t because of all the mana making your senses fuzzy?" Holding out her hand, the blue fog of mana swirled in her palm before slowly dissipating.


    "I''m certain." The amount of mana in the air, especially close to the tree was indeed indescribable, so thick it was sickening. -But that doesn''t cloud my senses like it does others...-


    Looking up toward the Gods'' Abode, unable to ease my nerves, the countdown finally began, and Liv quickly left to go to her post on the other side of the tree.


    "Hoooh..." With a long, deep breath, I tried to use the anomalous hum inside the tree to calm my mind before raising my gaze over the crowd. "Everyone. Our mighty Lords need your help." My voice, burdened by anxiety, faintly quivered as I spoke. "It hasn''t been long since thest prayer, but we have been asked to gather once more to pray, for those who have fallen, for the prosperity of our nation, and for the strength of our lords."


    The endless crowd below waited with bated breaths as I paused.


    "I am not someone able to read the mind of our lord. I am unfit. Unworthy. However, for the first time in the recorded history of Siratha, we, the arms and legs of the Ancient Fenrir, have been tasked with raising our arms and mana in prayer. Now, if you all could join me..." An indescribable silence fell over the forest in an instant. "Everyone, grip your hearts and raise your hands with me! For tonight, beneath the limitless sea of stars, we give our lords our strength through this eternal prayer! Tonight, we shall give our strength to our God!"


    *VWWWWOOOOM* An unfathomable tidal wave of mana instantly erupted from the people on the ground, countless magnitudesrger than the previous prayer, before the tree started pulsating, shaking the entirety of Valtivar to its core.


    It was a prayer on a scale I struggled to even fathom.


    But as I spread my arms and closed my eyes, giving up my mana in prayer as the sickeninglyrge mana wave blew over me, I looked up the side of the tree toward the Gods'' Abode, waiting for our lord to call us up.


    But it never came. With every passing second of silence, I grew more and more anxious...


    Until finally.. after a minute that felt like an eternity... *Woop* Without giving us any warning or chance to react, his ever-thinning presence vanishedpletely, and my soul trembled.


    Without even thinking of signaling to Liv and Alva, I darted up the tree as fast as I could. *WooooOOOOSH*


    But when I got to the Gods'' Abode and finally looked inside while praying as hard as I could.. my heart stopped.


    The sight of my lord''s bodyying there, at the center of the reincarnation rune,pletely still.. and lifeless.. engraved itself into my soul.


    I wanted to rush over, but.. before I could move, I fell to my knees, unable to scratch the sight of his broken neck and bleeding legs from my mind. -H..how.. could this be...- Like a sand castle being hit by a wave, my mind was helplessly plunged into ruin.


    The being I devoted my entire existence to.. the being I served with every ounce of my flesh and blood.. was dead... -This.. can''t be...-


    After a moment, my anxious and sadness seemed to fade, but my expression hadn''t changed in the slightest.


    I was simply lost... Drowning in a river of despair...


    Even as the prayer eventually concluded, there was simply nothing I could do.


    I couldn''t shed a tear no matter how badly I wanted to cry.. and I couldn''t distract myself from the image that had engraved itself into the core of my being.


    From that moment, time became a blur. Lady Zachari and Lady Asimi came to visit in order to see me and check on the Lord and his Father.. but I couldn''t muster the courage to let them see me... My mind was simply.. ruined.


    Unable to do paperwork, the only person who I allowed to see me was Liv Sigmond, the apostle I took as my apprentice.


    But even she.. after visiting the Gods'' Abode, was forever changed.


    Before long, rumors began spreading that something happened to the Lord during the prayer with concerns stemming from the way we were acting, but even as months started ticking by, we hadn''t even made an appearance to the public.


    Every single day, I wanted to go up and check on him.. to try and give myself some hope.. but at the same time, I didn''t want thatst string of hope I had to snap...


    With my sanity hanging on by an indescribably thin thread, all I could muster was to hide behind a veil of ignorance...


    However, one evening, as I was sitting in my dark office nkly staring at the mound of paperwork that had piled up, I got up from my desk and opened the curtains, letting a beam of moonlight strike my face for the first time in six months.


    But it didn''t feel warm at all... My skin was pale and cold, and my expression was just as emotionless. -Is it really okay.. for me to continue clinging to such a delicate string of hope like this..?-


    After months of falling deeper and deeper into despair, Siratha was at its limit. Even with my subordinates running most of the country without me, if I wanted to keep the country from crumbling, I had to finally face reality... -I''m going to head up the Tree of Prayer...-


    Just thinking about it made my heart ache, but as the following day came and went, and nightfall returned, I slowly starteding to terms with it.


    *Pat* *Pat* *Pat* Slowly walking on the grass around the base of the tree, I looked up the towering tree trunk, easily able to see the entrance to the Gods'' Abode from the ground, with a calm heart. -It''s finally time...-


    *Thump* Carefully hopping up onto one of the towering tree roots, I started from a walk and slowly built up speed before zipping up the side of the tree, doing everything I could to prepare myself for whatever reality I would have to face.. even if I didn''t feel ready for it.


    However, the moment I was about to enter the abode, the voice of a being I had never heard rang through my head. "~Leave.~" *Vwoop* Almost instantaneously, my surroundings changed and I found myself back on the ground.


    -H..huh?!- The voice was that of a god.. but it was one I had never heard before, and was oneced with hostility.


    It made my mind snap instantly. -You.. you''re the one who killed him...- With the life behind my eyes fading, I used every ounce of strength I had, to bolt up the side of the tree while releasing a bloodlust so thick I left a trail in the air. *VWOOM-CRACK*


    However, before I could even get halfway, a presence appeared, the air trembled, and the moonlight shining through the canopy warped. *VWOOOOOM*


    "Ack-!" Before I could even react, my mind felt like it was splitting, and the very core of my being trembled from fear, as if my soul was on the verge of ripping itself apart.


    It was a presence so immense that my mind had to numb itself to the point I couldn''t think, and so heavy it caused the night sky to descend beneath the Tree of Prayer''s canopy.


    The presence of a being leagues above Lord Nott, announcing itself to the world as if returning for the first time in eons.


    A warning to the world that it had returned, this time not as a mortal, but as a god.


    A message that was felt by every being on the, no matter how strong or weak, near or far they happened to be.


    It was a moment of realization for every being around the world��


    The descent of a god��


    The descent of a king.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 376: For the Sake of Survival

    Chapter 376: For the Sake of Survival


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    -----


    Limbo. A realm of nothingness. A prison that traps your consciousness in the deepest reaches of your soul in a desperate attempt to preserve who you are.


    It was a realm that only existed in one''s mind, was only essible through death, and was only escapable through reincarnation.


    It was the highway between lives.


    However, while I listlessly existed in that realm with nothing but my deepest subconscious to keep mepany, I was calm. -How many times have I been here...-


    As a wave of familiar memories endlessly flooded into my mind, I closed my eyes and attempted to focus on them.


    But before I had that opportunity, I felt a cool, crisp breeze blow across my face, and with it, a smile surfaced. *Woosh**inhale* "Haah..." Taking a deep breath of the fresh, scented air, a monstrous wave of nostalgia washed through my consciousness, and Ifortably opened my eyes.


    I was in the middle of a field of multicolored flowers, beneath an endless, unfamiliar night sky popted by countless nebs and nearby gxies. -What a beautiful sky...-


    Gently sitting down as I looked up into the stars, I found myself in a shrunken, white-furred version of my fenririan form, only two meters tall, with rounded features and nubs for horns as if I were a child.


    But rather than startle me, it made mefortable.


    "There you are! How many times have I told you to note out here alone?!" Hearing the voice of a woman speaking anguage I hadn''t heard in millennia, I gently looked over my shoulder to find a normal, white Fenrir at least thirty times my height looking down at me.


    It was a being with no face, but I recognized it instantly. "Mom, do you ever look up into the stars and wonder what''s out there?" Looking back up into the sky, I smiled, letting myself fall into a trance.


    "Haha," Herugh was clear and warm. "Of course not, sweetie." Gently lowering herself next to me, she nudged her nose into my side. "Haven''t I told you, I already know everything that''s out there!"


    She spoke with confidence, but at the same time, it was a line that made my smile fade. "R..right..."


    Knowing what wasing, I closed my eyes and lowered my head.


    *crackle* Almost instantly, the faint crackle of a fire met my ears, a wave of heat blew over me, and the scent of burning flesh flooded my nostrils.


    Eventually opening my eyes, I found myself in a field of fire, now in a body that had matured immensely, with the mutted body of my motherying at my feet.


    No matter how many times I experienced it, I couldn''t get used to it.


    Looking back over my shoulder, I found a white fenrir, only slightly smaller than me, staring past me with a look of despair painted on his face.


    "You.. WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Bolting up to me, his jaws mped onto my leg, immediately fracturing it.


    But I let it happen. "Nothing... I did nothing..."


    Biting even harder, I felt his teeth cutting through my flesh as tears streamed down his face.


    "Stop... If you don''t control your aura we''ll be next." Looking up into the dark night sky, I found myself peering into an endless abyss devoid of stars.


    But that was when a sudden growing ring of light appeared, starting from the center of the sky, before expanding over every horizon in a matter of seconds.


    It was a ship sorge it could disruptary orbits, and so powerful it could effortlessly splits in half.


    Its presence alone was enough to ruin worlds.


    However, while they were our enemy.. we weren''t theirs...


    We were simply an obstacle in the direction they were running.


    *Zip-CRRRRAACCKK* A deafening shockwave blew over us as the ground turned molten and a line was drawn through the ''sky''.


    *FLASH* Everything was instantly washed in a sea of light as I lowered my head and tried to block out all sound.


    But it did nothing. *CRACK-BRRRRRMMM* As a heat wave so intense it burnt off my fur sted over us, all I could do was grasp my aching heart.


    "KIDS, WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?!" Father''s voice pierced the deafening mixture of sounds with ease. "I''LL BUY SOME TIME, SO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"


    As the visualization of his body melting away filled my mind, I could only cringe, desperately wanting it to end.


    But it continued.. and continued.. and continued... The eternally vivid memory of my father''s skin melting off as he tried to protect my brother and I from the aftermath of an attack not even aimed at us...


    -Stop...- It was so bad I had to plead with my own consciousness. -Please...- I knew it was an illusion, a memory ying before my eyes... "PLEASE STOP!"


    But it never did.. forcing me to relive every single second of that day''s agony before suddenly changing again.


    The next time I opened my eyes, I found myself looking up at the stars again, however, instead of in a field of flowers, I was sitting on a bed of corpses, and blue-burning metal wreckages.


    It had at least been fifteen thousand years since ''they'' arrived, and they were still like an endless infection that couldn''t be exterminated...


    Looking down, I saw the corpse of a human, many times smaller than a single one of my ws, staring up at me with a furious fire in his eyes.


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    He had a hole in his chest, with his mouth and nose still dripping blood, but he was alive, using magic to speak. "You can''t win..." Gritting his blood-covered teeth, he stared into my eyes like a feral monster. "No one can win. Just give up and-" *cRuNcH*


    Momentarily putting some weight on him, his body crushed into a puddle of mush with the other bodies he wasying on.


    "They''re like bacteria... They just won''t die..." Hearing the voice, I quickly turned around to once again see my brother walking over a field of blood with red-stained paws. "Do you think this will ever end?"


    I paused as another vivid memory yed in my mind. "Their ship was destroyed by one of those ''things'', and crashed here. They''repletely stranded, and the few times they''ve tried to leave, they didn''t even make it out of the sr system, so they''ve decided to stay here."


    "As if!" Walking up next to me, he looked out over the endless sea of blood and destruction with a sour expression. "I ought to just go kill them all."


    "You can''t." Feeling his angered gaze turn to me, I could only sigh. "Haah... The only reason we are still alive is because they''re using the wreckage of their ship to keep the in orbit. If you kill them all, it''s just a matter of time before this lopsided crashes into the sun..."


    "SO WHAT IS YOUR ALTERNATIVE?!" Getting more and more angry, he looked like he wanted to hit me.


    "You know those theories I was studying when I was young..? The ones you stole to try and make yourself stronger?"


    He instantly tensed.


    "I gave up on those theories after you stole them, but.. I was right..." My tone darkened as I lowered my head. "Had you not taken them, I would have continued to develop them, and there was a chance I could have saved Mom and D-" *pat*


    He cut my voice short as he pressed his nose into the side of my neck, looking into my eyes with a threatening gaze. "Don''t you dare try to twist me..."


    I didn''t hold back my gaze either. "I twisted nothing. If you simply kept your greedy paws off my shit, even if we were still in this situation, Mom and Dad wouldn''t be amongst the pile of corps-" *CRRACKK*


    Hitting me across the face, the ground on the opposite side of me exploded, erupting into a bloody cloud of debris.


    But I didnt move, looking him in the eyes with a fire that matched his own. "I''m going to start developing those theories again, and either get rid of the tumor clinging to this, or find a way off it."


    But unfortunately, we didn''t have time for either.


    With a blink, another thousand years passed, and once again, as I stared into the night sky, I saw nothing.


    But that time, it wasn''t a ship. "We need to leave..."


    *Zip-FLASH* As a rocketunched from a human base a few thousand kilometers lifted into the sky and exploded, a sh of light illuminated the underside of a creature, lined with endless rows of teethrger than mountains, and covered in scars collected over an eternity.


    It was the creature that had split the humans'' ship in half: A creature known as an Abyss Eater. Something that used to be a guardian on the outer reaches of our sr system, consuming everything from alien ships to stray moons.


    But that day was the day it turned its attention inward.


    Drawn by the endless expansion of humanity, it came to wipe them out, taking the with it. *CRRRRRAAACCKKK* In an instant, the entire was sheared in half, and in a rush for survival, my brother and I jumped into the void through a gate made with an experimental space rune I had developed.


    Back then, it caused an unfathomably vivid pain, the sensation of both my body and soul being eaten as if by acid, forcing us to race through the void as quickly as we could before eventually exiting to find ourselves in a world of endless rock and dust, under an atmosphere so thin it was nearly nonexistent.


    But all it did was give us a clearer view of our world as it was continuously sheared into smaller and smaller chunks between the enwrapped tentacles of a monster so dark it''s shape couldn''t be defined.


    Before long, the had been sheared so many times that it was nothing more than a giant molten rock. The grave of everyone and everything I knew.


    We sat on the lunar surface for what felt like eons, hopelessly staring into the abyss that devoured our world.


    We were its only survivors... Not even the so-called gods had a chance to fight back.


    With nowhere else to go, I sank every speck of my mind into theories, expanding my knowledge of space mana and the void in an attempt to find a way off the rock hurtling farther and farther from the sun with every orbit, while Dagr focused everything he had to develop his strength.


    Without food, water, orpany, it was a thousand years of hell, living off the ever-thinning mana emitting from the ever-distant star which was now a tiny blip in the endless night sky.


    But the more I studied, the less hopeful I became...


    Space mana devoured everything, and the only way to keep it away was with more space mana. Even with a perfect mana shield, it would still seep through, squeezing through unfathomably tiny crevices, not between imperfections, but between particles of mana.


    My only solution was to emit so much space mana that it pushed the rest away, effectively shielding me. -But I must haveplete control over it for it to work...-


    However, that was something far easier said than done. Even with the most efficient space rune I could craft, I simply couldn''t control the space mana it emitted.


    It was like an intangible cloud I could only control in clumps, forcing myself to rely on the control of runes rather than my own mind.


    But there was only one thing I could do to change that. -I need to make myself an attribute node...- Not artificially, but through the study and maniption of my gics.


    Using runes wasn''t enough to make the mana ''mine'', so I had to take extreme measures, using the void to damage myself so I could alter my own gics, destroying and reforming my reserve dozens of times to shred my organs, and begin sculpting a new body in its ce, modifying more than just the gics rted to my attribute node.


    But none of it was enough.


    No matter how much I destroyed my body, the attribute node I wanted my body to create wouldn''t appear.


    I needed something more...


    I needed to evolve...


    It was a concept familiar to many creatures on my old, where they would hibernate in order for their body to repeatedly destroy itself, and reconstruct everything.


    But we, as fenrir, didn''t have that, so I had to take to more extreme measures.


    "Dagr, I need to die." Looking him in the eyes as I interrupted his training, his expression darkened.


    "Have you given up?"


    I gently shook my head. "I need to evolve, and in order to do that, I need you to kill me."


    His bitter expression did nothing but darken the longer we stood there. "Find an alternative then, I''m not going to kill-"


    "Brother." My voice and gaze firmed in an instant. "I have already tried every alternative... We only have a hundred years before we go careening into the Abyss Eater''s territory. We don''t have time to find alternate routes."


    "But.. what if you don''t-"


    "I have everything set up, I just need to die." ncing over my shoulder, I looked back toward the cloud that had formed on the horizon, over a rune the size of a continent. "That rune gathers mana and souls, I made it using the rune of reincarnation Dad showed us when we were young as a reference..." Turning back to him, I saw him staring at the horizon with wide eyes. "If my theories are right. I can reincarnate myself, and the gic imprint on my soul will reconstruct my body."


    There was a long silence as his expression morphed between awe, despair, and anger.


    But eventually, he grit his teeth. "If this is your twisted way of abandoning me, I will never forgive you..."


    Finally standing up, I turned around to look at the cloud on the horizon. "What do you think I''ve done for thest two thousand years?" Walking ahead, my calctive expression lit up slightly. "Have some faith in me this time."


    But while I said that.. the pain of getting your skull caved in by your only family andpanion, hurt worse than anything I had ever experienced, and for him, the pain was only multiplied.


    It was for the sake of our survival, but to this day, even in memory, that pain lingers.


    But the worst part was.. it was only the beginning...


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 377: The Day the World Trembled

    Chapter 377: The Day the World Trembled


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    -----


    One. Two. Three. Four. ''What is death?''


    Five. Six. Seven. Eight. ''Is it your body ceasing function?''


    Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. ''Or is it your soul losing its connection to your body? If that''s the case then what is that connection? How do I ensure that connection doesn''t break? Is the connection maintained by me experiencing these memories?''


    Every time my brain and body were obliterated, and I was forced to relive the same series of horrible memories, I asked those questions.


    I was in limbo: an eternally echoing torture chamber, a state of consciousness where the soul reyed the most deep-seated memories of one''s life, the things that were carved into the core of one''s soul.


    Perhaps for some, the memories would all be bright, and limbo would feel like heaven, but for me, it was hell...Every time I died, the same memories would haunt me, and no matter how many times I relived them, they would hurt just as much as they did the first time, all those years ago.


    But while it was an endless hell that looped with every reincarnation, the more I experienced it, the more I understood.


    The memories I continually relived were my soul''s attempt to record the most defining moments of my life into its core, to preserve them through my reincarnation.


    That process, however, wasn''t as simple as moving data around. -Because I kept reincarnating myself into the same body, my soul core strengthened itself inyers...- And because I always revived atop a reincarnation rune, other souls being cleansed in the rune viewed my body as something to reincarnate into, like a hatchling in an egg, they funneled straight into it, only to get absorbed.


    Over time, it made my soul so strong that I could physically sense the connection I had with my body, and eventually even control mana in reality while I was still in limbo.


    At first, that control was quite useless, as without a reserve, the volume of mana I had control of was next to nothing, but the more I died, the more control I gained, eventually using that minuscule control to guide my body''s regeneration, and consequently adjust the gic imprint that had been carved into my soul.


    But even then it wasn''t easy.


    However, after a hundred years of constant reincarnations and self-experimentation, I did it.


    *Vwoom* Finally waking up on the lunar surface, I found that my fur had turned ck, my eyes had turned purple, and a glowing purple energy flowed out from beneath my fur.


    It was space mana. The building block of reality, and the most basic particle of mana.


    I didn''t have the pleasure of giving it much thought though.


    "IT TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH TO WAKE UP!" Dagr yelled in aplete and utter panic from close to five hundred kilometers away.


    And as I looked up, I understood why.


    There was no night sky, but this time, while it was endlessly dark, I could somehow see everything.


    Looming over our heads was an endless mass of tiny tendrils that were woven together to form-sized tentacles lined with teeth that mimiced the body of something between a starfish and an octopus.


    It was an abyss eater. The same that devoured my home.


    But as I looked up into it''s mouthpletely filled with squirming tentacles, instead of fear, I felt simple disgust. -How does a creature like this evene into existence...-


    "What are you standing in a daze for?!" Dagr quickly came up and used his aura to force me to look at him. "We need to get the hell out of here now!"


    But I disagreed. "I need to verify that everything will work before we can leave. Don''t stress it, we still have at least a month."


    The issue was, that month passed in the literal blink of an eye.


    *Vwoop* *CRRRRRUNCH* The first thing I remember whening out of the void several weekster was watching a web of tendrils the size of mountains swipe through the lunar surface like it was made of sand, while Dagr darted around, struggling to dodge them all.


    "DAGR, HURRY! WE DON''T HAVE TIME!" Even though I had a month to simply verify my theories, I had run into more problems than solutions. -But it''ll have to be enough...-


    Turning on a dime and darting toward me, Dagr shredded the moon''s surface with his wake, while I rushed to prepare a slough of spells.


    But that was my mistake.


    The moment I took my eyes off my surroundings, a huge tendril swiped past me, carving a chunk out of my side and hurling me up toward the abyss eater''s mouth. *CRRRACK-WOOOOSH* "AGH-!" In an instant, I lost the feeling of one of my legs.


    But it didn''t stop me. *Vwoop* Gripping the fabric of space with my space mana, I slung myself back toward the lunar surface where Dagr was, and threw us both into the void.


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    "Hah... Hah... Hah..." The pain was excruciating. The ambient mana in the void flooded into my open wound and burned it like acid, but after pushing a steady flow of mana into my new attribute node, the pain eased. "Hooh..." Finally managing to catch my breath, I turned toward Dagr, not sure how to interpret his silence, but he simply floated there, still and frozen.


    His expression, flexed muscle, and even the curl in his tail all remained the same, still and unwavering from the moment we entered the void.


    And that''s just how it was for a long.. long time...


    Leaving me withoutpany while traveling the endless expanse of the void, I put him in a gate and started the trek to the closest sr system we knew of.


    The journey took eons, and even in memory, I felt the endless pain and loneliness of every second that seemed to pass.


    I traveled through the void without end. If I were to put it in the perspective of time, it took nearly a thousand years just to get to the closest sr system I could find, but even when we got there and found a world to visit.. there was nothing...


    Every world we traveled to was like that, dead and empty...


    The sr systems were dry, devoid of mana or spark, and popted only by worlds where life couldn��t exist.


    So we continued on.. and on...


    For eons...


    Over time, Dagr slowly started being able to move in the void, but to me, he was always moving in slow motion, and even after tens of thousands of years of traveling between worlds, it never changed...


    Hopping between sr systems, we passed an innumerable number of worlds, some with basic life, and others with nothing but deste, superheated rocks.


    But while the journey was endless and excruciating, my knowledge of space mana grew, and I learned how to use the void to create mana so that Dagr didn''t starve while we were traveling between sr systems, letting us travel farther and farther through the void.


    But it all came at the cost of my mind. The farther we traveled, the longer it took, and the more excruciating the loneliness became.


    Eventually though, after traveling for an endless number of lifetimes, we found a world.


    *Vwoom* As the vivid memory continued ying in front of my eyes, I found myself looking down at a I instantly recognized. -Delphi...- Filled with endless clouds, and oceans, the was simply gorgeous, like an oasis in an endless desert.


    Even Dagr, regardless of not having experienced the endless eternity in the void like I did, could only gawk. "Woah..."


    The mana in that sr system was thick, emitting from the sun like an endless waterfall, and on thes surface it''d only be thicker. "This... This is it..." I didn''t know what to think.


    It was simply.. beautiful...


    "This is our new home..." I wanted to cry...


    But as we ventured down to the''s surface, finally reaching salvation, my memories got fuzzier, and fuzzier.. until they ended... Returning my mind to the endless abyss within limbo.


    *Woom* -Hm...- But it wasn''t that there weren''t defining moments, I could vaguely remember specific details, but they only ever felt as if they were on the tip of my tongue. -My soul must not have been able to log anything...- It meant that the next time I died, I died for real...


    But no matter how deep into my memories I tried to dig.. there was nothing. -Tch...-


    Not long after though, another set of memories began flooding my mind, memories of lives both human, and dragon even blurrier than those of my time on Delphi, but I instantly recognized them. -Bahamut...-


    They were the lives of my closest friend, a human god from another world reborn as a dragon... The only person who could rte to the endless pain and loneliness that had etched itself into my soul as Nott. -R..right.. I ate him...-


    Although it was his will, to ensure he was never lonely again, as his memories mixed with mine I felt my stomach churn. He was the closest thing I had to a true friend, and even though I didn''t agree with the way he handled managing the dragons, I could understand why. -He hated violence more than anyone...-


    To him, loneliness was scarier than anything else. If there was something he could do to preserve life, he would do it. -Even if it meant going against the desires of his race.. and throwing his life away...-


    Although I couldn''t remember how his death came about, my blood boiled at the thought of it.


    However, before that rage could settle, I was interrupted by a new set of memories being added to the mix.


    *Vwoom* This time, it was from the perspective of a seemingly ordinary human on Earth, with their distant, fuzzy memories suddenly regaining some rity, reminding me of the times I spent as a child in that lifetime, growing up with the same fascinations I had when I was Nott.. the endless fascinations of exining how the universe works.


    But unlike my life as Nott, I wasn''t blinded by magic and mana. Through that lifetime, I explored the ever-expanding realms of science without limit, slowly piecing together the other half of the universe''s foundation.


    That was the human I chose to use as my soul''s foundation, the basis of my mind in the next lifetime, and the lens I would choose to view the world through.


    With memories of science and technology,bined with my lives as Bahamut, and Nott, I was to be reborn under the name Vasilias Ragnarok.


    A new being, separate from those thatbined to make it; a new mind, a new body, and a new soul, now as one.


    It was the realization of who I was. I wasn''t any single person, nor was I only theirbination.


    I was something entirely new. My memories weren''t someone else''s, nor were my gics.


    They were all mine and mine alone.


    And upon having that realization, the fog in my consciousness finally cleared.


    Who I was, why I existed, and how I came to be were no longer questions that dwelled on my mind like a dense fog, clouding the rest of my thoughts.


    Now, everything was suddenly clear. Excruciatingly so.


    As the memories of my life as Vasilias finally started ying before my eyes, I felt my mind finally falling into a mold, morphing and blending before settling with a mix of determination and curiosity.


    It was time for me to return to the life I began, this time as the being I was meant to be.


    A god...


    A monster...


    A king...


    And that was the moment I finally opened my eyes and made my announcement, not to the world, but to the universe itself. *VWOOOOOMMMMM*


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 378: Loss of Self

    Chapter 378: Loss of Self


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    Mid Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer | Valtivar


    -----


    *Woooosh* A steady breeze blew through the forest that evening. With the moon hung high, and streets lit by the warm glow ofmps and the sounds of activity, it was a day like any other to the people of Valtivar.


    With people traveling to and from work, spending time with their family, or idly chatting about thetest news over drinks in the tavern, there was nothing unique about that day for most.


    However, there was something about the air that evening... It just felt.. thick...


    *Vwoop* Then, in the smallest instant one could fathom, a being''s eyes snapped open.. and the sky fell... *VWOOOOOMMMMM-RRRRMMMM*


    *tap* *tap* Firmly standing up with so much aura emitting from my body it caused the air to vibrate, I spread my weight out on the area around the Tree of Prayer, andid my eyes on aparably tiny white fenrir standing before me."Brother..." I hung my head as I spoke from my chest. "I''m surprised you waited..." My gaze was dull, but his was sharp.


    "I just wanted to see my brother onest time.. but it seems he isn''t here..." His expression was dark and his toneced with poison.


    "Is it just that your mind is clouded by jealousy? Greed? Or is that truly what you believe?" I paused as I looked through his eyes and into the colossal, surging soul possessing Ilios''s body. "If Mother were here-"


    "You keep her name out of your fucking mouth..." His pupils dted as he grit his teeth.


    But my gaze only darkened with detest. "As if you even remember it."


    *ZIP-Blink* Instantly disappearing from where he was, he solidified a block of divinity around his paw and mmed it into the side of my snout. *Crack-WHAAAAMM* But as indirect moonlight seeped through the canopy and lit the Gods'' Abode, it only revealed my face slightly turned to the side with my gaze locked on Dagr. "You''re just as miserable as you were back then..."


    *Thwap* A faint sound instantly rippled through the mana-dense air before he suddenly vanished again, this time plowing through the edge of the Gods'' Abode before zipping to the ground as a streak of light. *CRRRRAAACKKK-WHHAAAAMMMM* He hit the ground like a meteor, kicking up a wave of molten rock as colossal, building-sized wooden splinters rained down on the surrounding forest.


    It was a hit even he, after strengthening Ilios''s body to its limit with his own divinity, couldn''t handle.


    By the time he started standing up, I was already looming over him. "Dagr.. do you know why I chose a human?�� Lowering my head toward him, I spoke with an annoyed growl. ��It was because I needed to change the lens I looked at the universe through. In order to grow, I needed to go back to square one, and rebuild everything from nothing."


    His expression tightened as he forced himself up onto broken legs.


    "But look at me now." Lifting myself up with a mocking confidence, I held my fenririan head nearly eighty meters over him, spread my wings, and touted the two sets of dragon horns on my head. "I am a new type of being with infinitely more room to grow! I chose a dragon''s body so I could evolve, a human''s mind to rid myself of a worldview tainted by mana, and fenririan blood to fuel my growth.. and now look at me."


    His expression warped with anger and jealousy.


    "I made the same progress that took us twenty millennia, in a measly twenty-four years."


    "You only did it that fast because you had my help..." He spoke with a rasp.


    But as I rxed my posture, I gave him a look of disgust. "The only things I needed were the Acardi artifact and time. At worst, I would have taken five hundred years to reach this point." Lowering my snout next to him, my gaze sharpened. "Meanwhile, what have you done?"


    *CRRRUNCH* The solid ground beneath the molten rock shattered as I crushed him under my paw.


    "You''ve just be another god who has fallen from grace, and instead of looking for your own body to reincarnate into, you chose to wait and steal mine." *CRRRRUNCH* His ribs snapped as I progressively put more weight on him. "You''ve grownzy, and insecure, slowly descending into madness watching me grow while your strength has done nothing but stagnate."


    He had every opportunity to look for a fitting subject to reincarnate into, especially now... He could essentially pick any creature he wanted. With a single elixir from me, he could start anew as anything he wished.


    Yet he still chose to refuse my help and demand my body. "Just why���� My angry tone suddenly eased as confusion washed through it. ��Thest time you let your greed get a hold of you, our parents were killed, and we very nearly followed."


    He remained still and unmoving as he spoke with a softened tone. "You still wish to me me for that..."


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    "Because you refuse to learn from it!" My voice,den with disbelief instantly echoed through the forest. "How can you even tell yourself that just because you couldn''t understand the theories I wrote, that I couldn''t either?! If you had simply given those books back, I would have-"


    "~Shut up...~" His tone was instantly lined with daggers as he started speaking through divinity. "~Their fate wasn''t something either of us could have changed...~"


    "Fate�� Hah�� Did you seriously just use that word?" Watching his soul slowly leave Ilios''s body and form in front of me, my expression washed with a mix of disbelief and anger. "Is that what you''ve used as an excuse to cope with your mistakes after all these years?" *Vwoop* Wrapping Ilios''s body in a gate, I quickly moved him behind me and looked at Dagr.


    But he simply hung his head to bite his tongue.


    "Hah..." I almost couldn''t believe it... I wanted tough. "Is that how you could reason wanting to kill me and take my body? Because that''s what you believed you were ''fated to do''?" Silence filled the air as I waited for his response before suddenly elerating my own divinity with an ever-darkening expression. *Vwowowowowooom* "It seems you''ve been led astray... You''ve forgotten who you are."


    As my voice suddenly ran cold, a sphere of the ground beneath him was flipped upside down before violently exploding into a mass of mana, instantly solidifying the liquid divinity floating in his soul. *VWOOM*


    "Since you appear to need it, allow me to give you a refresher.�� *FWIP* Instantaneously closing the distance, I mmed my paw into the endless web of ck strings filling his body with everything I had, and almost instantly, it seemed to simply disappear, being relocated thousands of kilometers away so quickly his soul couldn��t follow it.


    Before he could react, his soul fell from that of a fallen god, to a mortal.


    But.. he didn''t react at all, even after more than enough time passed for him to notice.


    He simply.. didn''t resist it...


    But perhaps that was because he too noticed the errors in his mind.. stemming from a mess of wires that had be tangled over thousands of years...


    *Vwoop* Jumping through the void with him in hand, I exited inside the Tree of Prayer''s canopy, just beside the colossal skeleton of a multi-headed dragon that hadid dead for several millennia.


    Dagr had been without a body for far too long, so... "It''s time you step back into the world of the living, Brother." *Vwoop* Using a gate to release his soul inside the dragon''s skull, where the corpse''s crystallized divinity was centered, I forced his soul to cling to it before adding a tuft of Ilios''s fur to the mix. -It''s time you untangle the mess in your own mind, Brother...-


    *VWOOOOOOM* An unholy mass of mana instantly erupted from me as countless runes were engraved into the outside of the massive dragon''s skull, and several of its teeth were vector-flipped to submerge his soul in liquid mana.


    I was going to reincarnate him... Properly... Just as I had when I chose to be reborn as a hatchling.


    Even though my memories were still fuzzy, he wasn''t acting like himself. It was almost like his time as a fallen god caused his personality to be twisted and exaggerated. -Perhaps without a physical brain to keep his rationality in check, he drifted farther and farther away from the lessons he learned from his mistakes over the years...-


    With his greed and jealousy going unchecked, he had turned into a mess. -But it seems even he has started realizing it...-


    Look down into the dragon''s skull as the reincarnation rune I carved started ramping up, I watch his soul slowly lose its form before returning to an amorphous cloud, eventually revealing the tiny solid core at the center of it all.


    It was tiny.. even smaller than the likes of Hera, and given his age it was even worse.


    However, that didn''t surprise me at all...


    It was all because of our blood.


    The type of fenrir we were weren''t creatures meant to evolve. With an unlimited life span from birth, we had no spark for evolution outside of essentially being killed, so it caused our souls to not grow with our bodies, and make evolution harder the longer we lived. Creatures like dragons on the other hand, who were forced to evolve every so often, cultivated much stronger souls because of their dragon sleeps, acting like small-scale self-reincarnations every time they happened.


    It was a major weakness of our race and one of the main reasons I stepped away from it and chose to be a dragon. -I just hope that tiny core has enough of his memories logged for him to find his sense of self again...-


    It was risky, but there was no other option... "Good luck, brother..." I spoke somewhat softly, knowing he could no longer hear me. "I will pray you rediscover who you are..."


    Lowering my head and injecting some of my own mana into the runes as a method of prayer, I eventually turned around and looked at the gate holding Ilios''s body. -Now for the sweet child who got caught in our quarrel...- *Vwoop* Jumping through the void again, I moved into the Gods'' Abode before opening the gate andying his heavily damaged body on the center of the reincarnation rune.


    His body waspletely beyond repair, and his soul was so weak it wouldn''t survive reincarnation... -If I leave him be, his soul will end up being eaten by one of the souls being cleaned and reentering the reincarnation cycle through the Tree of Prayer...-


    But there was no chance I was going to leave him be.


    Sitting down next to him, I used my aura to grab the orb of divinity that the bastard in the void hit me with and moved it over to Ilios.


    Almost immediately, his tail started happily thumping against the ground and he reached out to grab it with his broken paws before pulling it into his chest as if thinking it were a toy.


    But before he could even realize that wasn''t the case, the countless strings of divinity in the sphere''s shell started moving like countless slithering snakes before breaking down from under the monstrous beam of mana, divinity, and souls from the reincarnation rune, and flowing into his chest.


    As if being put to sleep, a wave of drowsiness instantly started washing over him. ��But I need you to stay awake, okay?�� Gently nudging him, with my snout, his tail started thumping the ground once more.


    But I didn��t have time to think about anything happening around me. -It''s time for me to try and make an elixir...- *Snap*


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Art: Vasiliass New Humanoid Form!

    Art: Vasilias''s New Humanoid Form!


    At longst, Vasilias''s Humanoid form has some art done of it!


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 Chapter 379: The First Step

    Chapter 379: The First Step


    Mid Evening - Late Fall : The Tree of Prayer | Valtivar


    -----


    *Snap* The crisp snap of my horn echoed through the Gods'' Abode as I pulled it down in front of me and liquified it, removing its impurities before strengthening it all with mana until it became viscous, simr to the elixir I gave to Leif. -Whoever figured out how to make an elixir like this needs to be hailed...-


    The way it worked was pretty simple, essentially just using a mix of conflicting mana attributes to destroy someone''s insides and push them to the brink of death, then imnt someone else''s gics as the foundation for healing.


    It was a method that made it so you could create a hybrid between species as long as they sharedmon gic temtes, or in other words, were breedable. -But the more simr the two beings are gically, the worse the affinity with the elixir gets...- Meaning Ilios''s affinity with my elixir would be terrible. -But I''m not using it to change him... I''m using it to save him...-


    *thump-thump-thump-thump* Happily thumping his tail against the ground Ilios never once pulled his loving gaze off me, as if wanting my face to be thest thing he saw. -But I''m not gonna let you die, buddy...-


    Hastily finishing the elixir, I lowered my snout down to him and gently pressed it into his side. "Ilios.. this is going to really hurt, but I need you to stick with me, okay?" Moving the sphere of elixir in front of his snout, I anxiously held it there.


    Even though I was confident he would survive if he took it.. the odds weren''t guaranteed.


    But in my moment of hesitation, he pried it out of my aura and threw it into his stomach. "Gulp-" By the time I noticed, his gaze was soft, and he wore a satisfied expression. He had epted that the elixir could be the end...But it onlysted a moment. *VWOO-CRACKLE* With his eyes instantly shooting open, his body tensed and spasmed as if falling into a seizure, and I had no choice but to sever his spinal cord. -His body is sending too many signals to his brain...-


    Unlike with Leif, he wasn''t instantly knocked unconscious, so his mind actively tried to sort and respond to the countless messagesing from the rest of his body as it panicked, instead of ignoring it all to preserve itself. -If I can just keep his mind alive.. he can make it... But...-


    Looking down as his mind and expression finally eased, a wave of lethargy seemed to wash over him, but he fought it with every fiber of his being.


    *Pat* Gently pressing my wet snout into his cheek, I closed my eyes and spoke softly with my divinity... "~Just take a nap for me, okay? I''ll be here when you wake up.. I promise...~"


    Pausing, as if to think, he stared into my chest for a moment before his lips gently curled and his head rolled onto its side.


    Heid his faith on my shoulders.


    And I wasn''t going to fail him.


    Over the course of the next several days, I closely monitored everything his body was doing and guided it however I could, from aiding the growth of healthy cells to culling cancerous ones the moment they appeared.


    No matter what, I wasn''t going to let his body have any hindrances while it healed.


    But even with all of my efforts, his condition only worsened, and the source of it all was his nervous system. Even after healing his spinal cord, his body didn''t seem to want to use it, and I couldn''t tell why... His mind was starting to die, and I could do nothing but watch, only able to asionally send false signals to try and keep his mind awake...


    But eventually, as his mind did nothing but slow down, a single, slithering strand of divinity carved its way through his spine and climbed into his brain.


    It was the turning point I was looking for. -Please...- His body wasn''t ready to switch to a brain of divinity, but with his mind slowly dying, there was no other choice. "Just hang in there, Ilios... Don''t die on me..." I needed time, but time was tight...


    But then, after about a week, the several strands of divinity that had grown through his spine sent their first signal.


    He finally made it around the bend.


    "Hooooh..." Letting out an extremely long, stress-filled breath, I finally leaned back and looked up at the intricate carvings lining the ceiling and tried to sort my thoughts.


    But there was nothing...


    For the first time in what felt like eons, my mind was silent. "The breeze.. feels good..."


    Closing my eyes, I gently lifted my wings off my side before suddenly switching to my draconic form. *sh* At that moment, the sensation of the cool breeze flowing over my scales brought me nothing but bliss... -He''s going to survive...-


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    It felt good.


    "I just.. hope you don''t change too much..." Laying down next to him, I stared into the tiny white cloud floating in his reserve with a fond but nervous expression. "~You need to stay strong so none of the souls you absorb take over, okay?~"


    He couldn''t hear me, but his soul could, and for a moment, it seemed to swirl in the opposite direction as if to wave, and tell me not to worry.


    "Haha," I couldn''t help but let out a soft chuckle as my tail curled and started swaying back and forth. -He''ll be alright...-


    Now it was time for me toy my faith on him. With at least a few months needed for his psuedo-reincarnation and evolution to finish, I couldn''t stay and watch over him, but to an extent, I didn''t need to.


    Just like with Mother, there was some kind of connection between us, where no matter how far apart we were, I could feel his presence, and through it, understand his emotions, be it panic, understanding, or confidence.


    But as things were, I felt an endless warmth, so deep that there wasn''t a single speck of doubt in my mind. "~Call me over when you''re going to wake up, okay? I''ll be here.~" Gently nudging his side with my nose to center him over the reincarnation rune, I sat up straight with a smile before finally looking over my shoulder.


    At the edge of the Gods'' Abode stood a ck-haired fenrir demihuman who had been frozen from shock.


    Not that I could me her though. -A lot has changed...- Now standing just under a hundred meters tall in my draconic form, my face had changed quite a bit, and the appearance of my body followed suit, maturing to look like an ancient with tufts of fur spread along my back and at the tip of my tail. "How are you doing, Leif?" My voice was deep and somewhat gravelly, but filled with joy.


    And it instantly snapped Leif out of her trance. "A-Ah! My lord!" Instantly kneeling, she lowered her gaze to the ground in a panic. "I apologize for intruding! I just.. wanted to make sure everything was alright!"


    *WOOOSH* Instantly closing the distance between us, I walked around her back before using my scaly tail to pitch up her chin so she would look me in the eyes. "There''s no need to apologize. I know you were worried, but I''m okay." Finally taking a few steps back after forcing her to stand up, Iid down in front of her. "So, how have things been in Siratha? Is there anything that needs my attention?"


    "N-No!" She forced a smile on her face before speaking with a mix of anxiety and pride. "The thunderbirds have been adjusting well, and have been exceedingly helpful so far."


    "Hoh? That''s good to hear." Noticing a bead of sweat forming on her forehead, I tilted my head slightly. "Is something bothering you?"


    Instantly tensing, her smile faded and she seemed to scrunch up. "Uh.. t..this may be out of line, and I apologize if it is, but..." Looking up at me, her gaze was filled with a mix of worry and stress. "W..What exactly happened to you..?"


    -Oh, did she notice when my presence disappeared?- Deciding I could have a little fun with her, I smiled warmly. "I just killed and reincarnated myself. Nothing too major."


    The color instantly drained from her face. "You.. what?"


    "Hahaha," I couldn''t hold back myugh. "Don''t worry, it was something that needed to happen in order for me to ascend to godhood again."


    Her eyes went wide as her mind stuttered. "A..Ascend?"


    I gently nodded before tapping the w of my wing into the side of my head. *tap-tap* "Being a god is all about what''s going on up here. Using divinity to think."


    "D..Divinty?" Her eyes slowly started to glow as I spoke.


    "Haha, its a type of particle rted to time." Moving over my tail, I gently tapped it against her chest. "You have some too. One day you may even find yourself doing the same thing I just did."


    Looking down into the furred tip of my tail pressing against her chest, her eyes gleamed like a child. "I.. can be a god..?"


    "Of course, but it will take a very long time." -Perhaps too long...- But time was what both her body and soul needed. "If that is a path you wish to take, I will help you achieve it, but be warned.. it''s not going to be a small endeavor."


    "I-If bing a god means I can better serve you, I will do whatever it takes!"


    I felt like a parent looking into the eyes of their child as they were being sent off to start their journey in life.


    But Leif''s journey wasn''t just beginning.


    With a bit more idle conversation and catch-up, I quickly got caught up to speed on the situation with her and the other apostles, and got a better idea of how to help her, telling her toe up to the Gods'' Abode once a day to meditate in order to strengthen her soul before giving the Tree of Prayer some minor repairs, and taking to the sky.


    Although I wanted to stick around and greet the other apostles properly, after giving them all an ''oracle'' through my aura, now stretching close to a hundred and twenty kilometers in every direction, I jumped into the void to go check on Father, and eventually go back to Bahamut in order to see Mother. -Knowing my presence disappeared from Leif, I hope it didn''t disappear from Mother...-


    Thest thing I wanted was for her to think I was really dead. -Reincarnation can definitely break those kinds of connections though...- All I could do was hope.


    But after several hours of searching, I found myself gliding over the colossal estate of the Cab, only to see Mother and Hera happily chatting in the green central courtyard.


    It was a relief, but that was only because I didn''t know the absurdity of the monster that was lurking nearby.


    The monster that could deal a killing blow to me with a mere nce.


    The great and mighty Krystallo.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 380: Warmth

    Chapter 380: Warmth


    Late Afternoon - Late Fall : The Cab | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    "Oh my~," Hera spoke with a smile as I finally came in for anding. "Look who''s finally back~."


    She noticed my presence from much farther away, but acted as if she only noticed as Mother looked up at me. *Fwooosh* *Fwoooosh-Fwoosh-Thump* "What has you in such a good mood?" I spoke warmly as I shrunk down to about thirty meters, the same size as Hera and Mother.


    "Hoho~, how could I not be in a good mood? Just look at yourself~." Looking over at Mom, her grin widened with a hint of greed. "I told you that he would be fine, Zachari."


    But she didn''t seem to even notice. "W..What did I miss?" With a mix of awe woven into her voice, she never took her eyes off me. "Vasilias?"


    Quickly walking over to her, my yful smile turned warm and I lowered my head to ce it under her chin before gentlyying down. "I''m back, Mom."


    The worry instantly drained from her face as relief washed through her eyes. "I.. I thought you died..." But it was quickly drowned in panic. "W-What happened?!" Pulling her head off mine, she looked down my body in a hurry before tapping my horn. "You broke a horn?! Did you get in a fight?! Which bastard dared?!" She spoke through tears as the endless emotions pent up over thest few months were finally released.


    -So the connection really did break...- A wave of guilt overtook my mind as I lowered my head to her chest.. but after a moment, a warm smile swept across my face. "I can exin, Mom... I can finally exin..." Looking at the firm, defined soul in her chest, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the endless warmth flowing from it.It was the familiar warmth of Mother''s presence.


    A warmth that could thaw anything.. even a soul frozen by the pain of lives long past...


    "V..Vasilias?" She paused, pulling up my head to look into my eyes before her panic eased. "You''re.. really back?" She firmly gripped my arm as if afraid I would suddenly try and run away.


    But there was no ce I''d rather be.


    With a gentle nod, her tears began flowing like a waterfall, and as I raised my head, she immediately lowered hers to rub her cheek against mine.


    It felt good. I was finally back.


    But Mother''s grip on my arm only tightened. "You better tell me everything this time..." Pulling her head away to wipe her eye with the w of her wing, an endless joy seeped into her voice. "I want to hear the full story."


    My cheeks felt sore from smiling so much. "Okay... I promise I''ll tell you everything, but..." I paused as I looked into her eyes. "I think it should wait until I can wake up Dad."


    Her expression tensed for a moment. "Wake him.. up?"


    I gently nodded. "If you can just give me a month, I''ll elerate his dragon sleep and wake him up."


    She seemed shocked as she gave me a hesitant look, but after a moment, her gaze eased. "Okay... Right... All that matters is you''re back." *Pat* Firmly pressing her forehead into mine, her tears seemed to stop, and her usual calm but confident demeanor began shining once more. "Hmhm~, but I think you should probably hide in the meantime."


    Hearing her suppressed chuckle, I tilted my head. "Huh? What do you mean?" But as I looked up at her, I noticed her head deliberated held back, far away from me, with a nervous smile. -What on earth is she...-


    *CRACKLE* -Huh?- Hearing the familiar crackle of hydrogen being ignited, I looked to my side, only to have my vision blocked by a thick white nket. -Why is Mom holding a nket...-


    But that question was answered in an instant. "YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" *WHAAAAAAM* A furious yell met my ears as the nket suddenly mmed into my nose with the weight of an entire dragon behind it.


    It hit me so hard it knocked my head back, and to y along, I rolled onto my back, making it seem like she knocked me over.


    But Mother, even though she seemed to be in on it, exploded. "KRYSTALLO! WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!"


    "NO! HE MADE YOU CRY AGAIN! Why don''t you ever discipline him like you do me?! Last time I made you worry, you grounded me for a whole week!" *Thump-Thump* She angrily stomped the underside of my head as she pouted at Mom.


    But she wasn''t having any of it. "You were hanging out with that troublemaker! Of course I grounded you!"


    "He''s just a friend Mom! What''s the prob-"


    Cutting her off, my wagging tail stopped sweeping over the ground and I lifted her off my face with my aura. "Excuse me? ''He''?"


    But instead of shriveling up, her confidence only grew as if thinking I would take her side. "I made a friend recently, but Mom keeps trying to prevent us from hanging out! It''s unfair! You get so much freedom!"


    She had a fair point. "But I have that freedom because I''m strong."


    Turning her angry gaze to me she shot a railgun bead at my nose, *CRACK* only for it to liquefy without leaving a scratch. "USELESSLY STRONG! But I''m the best in my ss, so why can''t I have anything..."


    Looking over at Mom, she seemed to know what I was going to ask.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    "The young boy she wants to hang out with has parents that were involved in the halfie rebellion-"


    "HIS PARENTS, BUT NOT HIM!" Krystallo interupted.


    But Mother quickly continued. "We suspect he may still have some ties with an.. unsavory group."


    "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY HE''S AN ORPHAN!"


    Looking over at Hera, I found her wearing a shockingly serious expression.


    She spoke eerily seriously as well. "It is actually possible. I''ve had the thunderbirds keeping a close eye on some select individuals recently, and his movements aren''t exactly unconvincing."


    -For Hera to be that serious...- "What''s the group you think he''s connected with?" I knew it had to be more serious than Krystallo just making a troublesome rtionship.


    "It''s a cult that popped up about six months ago, when the apostles in Siratha suddenly went silent."


    -A cult?- "Who are they worshipping?"


    "We aren''t sure." She spoke through a sigh. "All we know is that it''s not anyone in the Aesir, nor you, Bahamut, or Myles.. although some people worshipping him have popped up."


    -A god that isn''t any of those?- "Do you have any ideas on who it could be?"


    She gently nodded. "Have you heard of the ''God of the Deep''? It''s the god of the merfolk."


    -What?- "I vaguely know of it... Is that the god you think it is?" Seeing her nod, I tilted my head. "What are they doing for you to treat such an insignificant thing with caution?"


    Her gaze instantly stiffened. "Is dragon''s worshipping some unknown god out of the blue not.. odd to you?"


    -Given the current state of Bahamut...- "Not at all." I spoke bluntly. "But, it may be worth looking into." -If it''s a god that''s alive, they could turn out to be pretty useful...- Looking up into Hera''s eyes, I spoke nonchntly. "You want to go check things out?"


    Her gaze instantly eased as she tilted her head. "Are you going toe with me?" The moment I nodded, her expression lit up like a lightbulb. "Then of course~!"


    *Thump* Throwing another metal bead at me, Krystallo tried to get my attention. "You better bring me with you this time..." She was already getting upset thinking I would decline like usual.


    But this time... "I nned to bring you with me from the beginning. We''ll see if your friend can give us a lead." Finally setting her down on my chest, I rolled my head back to rx. "But let''s save that forter. I want to rx some for once..." Closing my eyes, I wanted to simply zone out.


    But after just a moment, I felt a series of annoyed stomps on my chest. "Are you not going to tell me what happened? Where is Ilios? And why do you look so different?"


    "Hahaha," Letting out a warmugh, Hera quickly walked over beforeying next to me. "Are you really going to pester your brother right after he returns?"


    "YES!" *Stomp-Stomp* "He never tells me anything!" She sounded quite upset.


    But it was as adorable as ever. "Krystallo, if I said I reincarnated myself, would you believe me?"


    Mom instantly tensed up knowing I wouldn''t lie like that, but Krystallo just angrily looked at me. "Tell me a more believable lie."


    "Hmm.. how about, ''I finally stepped into the realm of godhood''?"


    Opening my eyes to peek at her, I immediately found her ring at me with an unamused look.


    But it only made me want tough. "Haha, don''t worry. I''ll tell you everything in due time, I promise."


    *Pat-Pat* Finallyying down on my chest, she gave me a dejected look before speaking softly. "That''s what you always say..."


    But I had nothing else to say. -It''s just.. not the right time for you to know...-


    To bepletely honest, I still wasn''t sure how much I was going to tell them. I wanted to tell Mother and Father everything, but at the same time, I wondered if ignorance was something they would prefer. -If I tell them about my previous lives, will they look at me like I was just a god that took the ce of their child? Will they think I was acting..?-


    At longst, I could finally be confident that I was me.. that my identity belonged to no one else.. but at the same time, thinking about telling Mother and Father the whole story made my chest burn.


    "~You should tell them...~"


    Hearing a voice, I slowly opened my eyes to find myself beneath the dark night sky, with Krystallo sleeping soundly on my chest, and Mother deep asleep with her head pressed into my side. "~So you know...~" Looking toward the voice, I immediately found myself in Hera''s gaze.


    "~I know the gist of it...~" She spoke with her divinity while keeping her eyes locked on mine. "~You finally got your memories back, didn''t you...~"


    "~Some of them...~" I continued as I looked up to the sky. "~A lot is still blurry...~"


    As a slightly warm smile came to her face, she paused and lifter her head, following my gaze up to the stars. "~So, who is the person I''m talking to now?~"


    "~Vasilias Ragnarok.~" I spoke bluntly. "~The memories I got back were of my past lives... Nothing more...~"


    Looking back at me, her grin softened. "~Then what is there to worry about?~" Laying her head back down, she stared straight into my eyes. "~The affection you just showed her was more than enough evidence that you are her son. Unless you were acting, there''s nothing to worry about.~"


    Finally looking up at the sky again, I felt the need to sigh. "~I hope you''re right...~"


    But Hera simply nudged my cheek with her snout. *Tap* "~Just don''t let it eat at you, okay? You wouldn''t be this anxious if you didn''t care for them, and I''m certain Zachari recognizes that.~"


    "~I just...~" -I don''t want to risk losing out on moments like this...- Feeling Krystallo''s gentle heartbeat, the memories of standing over my Mother''s body in my past life surfaced, and my chest clenched.


    But after a moment of staring into my eyes, Hera''s gaze softened and she started standing up. "~Since it seems like you want some time with your thoughts, I''ll leave you to rest...~"


    But I immediately stopped her. "~No...~" I spoke firmly before my tone softened. "~I''d like for you to stay...~"


    It made her tone and gaze warm in an instant. "~Okay,~" Gentlyying back down, she moved just a pinch closer to me beforeying her head right next to mine. "~Then I won''t go anywhere...~"


    "Huff," I let out a breath as if holding back a chuckle before I turned my warm gaze back up to the sky.


    For the first evening in what felt like countless millennia, I was able to rest with the warmth of others'' affection andpany filling my chest.


    And before I knew it, with the melody of nature filling the air, and the gentle thump of Krystallo''s heart on my chest, I fell into a sleep so deep that it didn''t feel real...


    It honestly felt like everything that had happened was part of an borate dream.. an endless illusion...


    But even if that was the case, and it was all an illusion.. all a dream manifested by my mind''s deepest desires.. it was a dream I never wanted to wake from.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    <strong>Sorry for all the dys recently! I''ve been busy with sswork recently, but it should be back to normal now :)</strong>


    <strong>Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!</strong>


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 Chapter 381: A Discomforting Conversation

    Chapter 381: A Diforting Conversation


    Mid Morning - Late Fall : Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    -To think they managed to build all this in just a few months...- As I admired the countless buildings lining the busy street, I nced over at Hera, walking beside me in her shrunken form. "Even if a lot of it is still under construction, this city is.. really astounding..." -It''s sofortable here...-


    "Haha, right? Isn''t it wonderful?" Hera spoke with pride.


    Touting streets nearly three hundred meters wide, and lined with buildings made to amodate dragons of all sizes, the city really felt like a ce made by dragons, for dragons.


    Hera seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit as well. "It reminds me of the ancient cities from my era."


    Straightening up my posture as we continued down the street, I gave her a curious nce. "Really? Why is that?"


    "It''s because those ancient cities didn��t pander to ''human culture''." She spoke as if it wasmon knowledge while she looked around with a reminiscent smile.


    But her words only tripped me up. "Huh? What do you mean?" Although I had never really thought about it before that moment, the instant I did, I found myself instinctually agreeing. -But.. why?-"Just take As as an example. If you walk along those streets, it feels cramped, right? The buildings are so tall and the streets are so thin that flying isn''t always convenient, or even an option, especially if there are people nearby. But look here." Pulling her wings off her side, she spread them out with ease. "Even though the buildings are smaller here, it feels bigger, more spacious, and more amodating does it not?"


    -Y..yeah... It really does...- I nodded with a mix of hesitancy and confusion. "But.. what does that have to do with pandering to humans?"


    Pulling in her wings again, she looked me in the eyes. "In As, did you ever look above the ground floor of the buildings in the city center?"


    "Uh.. yeah?" I tilted my head as I spoke, before my eyes suddenly went wide. "Wait now that you say that..." Thinking back, I could remember the tops of buildings being made to amodate human-sized creatures, be it an inn, a restaurant, or even a parlor. "Were those not for the convenience of other dragons? Like for those who wanted to use their humanoid forms?"


    "Of course. But think about it..." Tapping the w of her wing on the side of her head, she spoke firmly. "Dragons didn''t always value being high off the ground in a building.. however, humans always have. To them, tall buildings represented status and power, and being in them gave them a sensation of strength, as if giving them the ability to look down on others."


    -A..Ah!- That was when it suddenly clicked, and an old memory gained rity. -R..Right!- Old draconic architecture, however, was the exact opposite of humans. If you wanted to show off your status, you did so by owning morend, or building a huge, spanning estate more easily visible from the sky. -And the way they got around the space issue was to build cities partially underground...-


    Quickly pushing my aura through the street, I immediately found an endless maze of borate tunnels more than big enough to amodate a dragon the size of Hera right below us.


    To me, it defied my current understanding, but to her, it wasmon sense. "Underground, it''s morefortable for us, the temperatures are cooler, the mana can be made thicker, structurally it''s easier to build, and it helps limit the amount of aura distortion people have to deal with on a regr basis."


    In an instant, my perception of my own culture twisted. "So you''re saying As wasn''t meant for only dragons.. but for humans as well?"


    She firmly nodded.


    "But.. why?" As, known as the heart of draconic culture, always had its architecture touted as the cornerstone of draconic design. -But.. it''s not even meant for dragons?-


    "It was mostly because of Bahamut." She spoke bluntly as her smile seemed to fade. "He used his humanoid form a lot, he liked human culture, and he found importance in draconic and human rtions, so he got rid of the idea of building into the ground, and had everything built upwards, iming he wanted to ''show the world what we had built rather than hide it underground.'' At the same time though, he made the streets smaller, and clumped buildings together to help amodate creatures on a human scale... But I''m sure in the eyes of most, it just seemed like he just wanted the cities to look more grand..."


    -Yeah... He was just pandering...- Although I still couldn''t recall a vast majority of his memories, I could easily feel familiarity in what she was saying. "But nowadays it''s all used for the convenience of those who want to use their humanoid forms..."


    Her smile returned in an instant. "Haha, sure, but it''s not like this city ispletely abandoning that. All it''s doing is valuing the conveniences of the majority." Looking up into the dragon-filled sky above us, her eyes filled with satisfaction. "People are finally taking pride in the fact they''re dragons again, and hopefully this city will work as the catalyst. In the long run, that little bit of selfishness should help correct the direction Bahamut is headed as well."


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    "How clever." Although I could certainly see it bing a slippery slope of self-pride, eventually leading to an extreme where non-draconic life is hated, it was also good that dragons were beginning to take pride in their race again. -Too little pride and dragons gain the ideologies of humans, too much, and the dragons clean the of all other ''inferior'' life...-


    It was a fine bnce that needed to be carefully maintained.


    But as things were, dragons were far closer to the bottom line than the top. -And I didn''t even realize it...- If anything, my integration of Siratha only elerated it closer and closer to that bottom line. "But it seemed to work in our favor for the time being."


    Knowing exactly what I was talking about, Hera continued my thoughts. "Certainly, but while it made Siratha''s integration really smooth, now we have to take more drastic measures to correct it." Looking at the many statues and decorations lining the buildings, her smile slowly became predatory. "But those measures should also work in my favor."


    "Hoh? I didn''t even think about that..." She was talking about how dragons taking more pride in themselves would make her return to power easier, the subject of many conversations we had over the few days that had passed since my return. "But the way you talk about it makes me think you were the one to design the city."


    "Haha~, you have to start somewhere." Her smile warmed as she turned her gaze upward again. "Sometimes people just need a little nudge in the right direction."


    -Hm...- Lowering my gaze to the ground, I felt a wave of nostalgia suddenly wash through my mind, but I couldn''t tell where from. "Is that something Bahamut told you?"


    She was quick to nod before continuing with an annoyed tone. "Except back then, he was trying to push the draconic race in the opposite direction."


    -Well.. that''s just what happens when you never let go of the ideologies of your past life...- He was on a path to drag the entire draconic race down, reforming draconic society to better blend with the mind of a human, but it would only hurt his race in the long run. -And he knew it...- It was why he chose Hera as his substitute, in order to have someone correct him when he went too far, to try and find a bnce between extremes.


    But that was no longer me.


    Having long-since detached myself from my human mind, I was going to take apletely different approach to the mixing and managing of cultures, focusing on the betterment of each race individually before looking at the collective.


    And thankfully, Hera was inplete support of this n.


    Continuing to talk as we followed Krystallo, turning down a smaller street that seemed to act like an alleyway, we endlessly fueled one another''s ideas before eventually ending up with a better vision of what we both wanted, and found the destination we would aim for as time woulde to pass.


    However, after walking for a while, we eventually arrived at a small back alley tavern and were forced to shift gears, cloaking ourselves in light magic while halting our conversation.


    It was the ce Krystallo was told to meet her ''friend'' thest time they met, but as we walked in, we could immediately tell it wasn''t a ce for kids. -To think ces like this exist in Bahamut as well...-


    Filled with dragons lounging around, drinking, and flirting, it looked like a conglomeration of low-lives at first, but on a second nce, they all donned armor, weapons, and artifacts with the insignias of various notable noble families. -This must be a tavern meant for knights...- But even though they were all at least elders, none even paid a nce to Krystallo as she walked through.


    There was one person who recognized her though. "Ah,dy Krystallo, how are you doing?" It was an old, green-scaled bartender who seemed to be a retired butler. "Are you here for Myalo?" Paying Hera and I a nce as he spoke, we both pressed our auras into him for a moment before he instantly tensed and averted his eyes.


    "I am, where is he?"


    With a slight nervousness, he continued. "He is in the back speaking with someone. He''ll be out in a moment... In the meantime, can I get you a drink?" Awkwardly setting down everything he was doing, he tried to keep his eyes glued on Krystallo.


    But mine quickly drifted to the wall behind him. -He''s talking to another kid?- Behind the wall, in a room that led underground, Krystallo''s ''friend'' was speaking to another, simrly aged child, but.. something about the way they were talking felt.. off...


    The ''kid'' the boy was speaking to wore an eerie smile, devoid of warmth, and moved as if he was a wooden puppet, speaking with an awkwardness that pushed all the wrong buttons on me. "Something is wrong with that kid..."


    Hera also seemed to notice, responding with magic so only I could hear. "It doesn''t feel like a conversation between children... It feels like a child speaking to a priest, or a caretaker..."


    The conversation was so one-sided that it was unsettling, as if there were an adult in the reanimated body of a deceased child.


    But.. from what I could see, there was nothing odd about him besides the way he was acting. -No matter how I look at it.. he''s just a child.. so why is he acting like that?-


    As Krystallo ordered a drink, Hera and I continued listening to their conversation, before, out of the blue, the memory of what happened to students in the academy several years ago came to mind. -Oh shit�� Don��t tell me��-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    On RR and SH

 Art: The New Cover!

    Art: The New Cover!


    At longst, the new cover IS DONE!


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 Chapter 382: A Trap

    Chapter 382: A Trap


    Late Morning - Late Fall : The Banevean Desert


    (Back about a day)


    -----


    - Michael Cotorel ~


    *Gulp* *Gulp* *Gulp* "Aah..." Lowering the sk of gloriously cold water with a refreshed breath, I hastily lifted my bva back over my nose. -How is this ce even real...-


    *Pat* Grabbing my staff and sliding the sk into my belt as I stood up, I looked out over the endless, rolling sand dunes, only to be distracted by the beads of sweat already beginning to form beneath my mask. "Haah..." -Almost there... Hopefully...-


    Struggling to muster any motivation, I slowly worked myself up to a run while using magic to keep the sand out of my eyes and keep myself cool.


    But it honestly barely even helped.


    *wooooosh* With a relentless wind carrying temperatures that exceeded what I thought was even possible, it felt like I was running into the caldera of an active volcano. The heat was so intense that if I dripped water from my sk, it wouldn''t even make it to the ground.But while it was certainly a miserable hell that words could not describe, it felt more like a trial than anything else.


    Over thest six months, I had traveled nearly six thousand kilometers through some of the harshest conditions in the world, and in that time, I was forced to adapt just to survive.


    However, while filled with pain and struggles, in that drive for survival, my mind flourished like it never had before.


    During the few months of the trip, I felt my knowledge of magic and runes expand severalfold, a kind of growth I couldn''t have imagined even if I spent dozens of years studying like I used to.


    Between the heat, sand, and colossal monsters beyond my understanding, I was fighting for my life at every passing moment, but as I adapted to it, I grew. -If I think about it that way, this trip has been amazing...-


    But whether fortunately or unfortunately, my trip was only just beginning.


    As the sun started to set that evening, I looked out toward the distant, beautiful orange sky, only to find what looked like treetops just beginning to crest the horizon. -Hm?-


    At first sight, Ipletely disregarded it. With how intense the heat was, and how much it rippled light, it wasn''t umon for you to get tricked into thinking there was an oasis or forest off in the distance, and as the sky turned dark, I thought that forest was no different.


    With the light of the moon hidden behind thin cloud cover, I ran, and ran, taking advantage of the cooler temperatures at night to cover more ground, but after a while, I had to slow to halt, silencing my footsteps as I camp up to an extremely tall dune.


    *distant chatter* Off in the distance, I could hear what sounded like the voices of people, but with the winds, there was nothing I could distinguish. -There shouldn''t be people out here though...-


    *Chatter* Slowly, cautiously peeking over the massive, several-hundred-meter-high dune, I looked down into the valley behind it only to see the light of torches illuminating a group of nearly five people. -Huh?-


    It was a group of elves and demihumans, trying to run in the direction I was headed, straight into the wind, while trying to carry someone with a mutted leg, and leaving a trail of blood on the sand. -What did they fight for one of them to end up like that... Shouldn''t we be well outside burrower territory?- They were essentially colossal, leech-like snakes that would stay deep under the sand, and wait for something to pass over it, be it a single human, or a wyvern that happened to glide by.


    But I hadn''t run into one in nearly a thousand kilometers. -Did they run into a wyvern?-


    However, as I tilted my head to question it, the ground started to vibrate, and I started quickly sinking into the sand. *HMMM* -Uh oh...- Feeling the deep hum in my entire body, I felt the color drain from my face. -You have to be kidding me!-


    It was a burrower, and a really big one at that.


    *Vwoom-Woooosh* Hastily casting magic to stay on top of the sand, I hopped over the dune and sprinted down the other side, rushing toward the group as fast as I could.


    They seemed to know what to do to not sink into the sand, but the one carrying their injured friend couldn''t stop sinking, and by the time the others could help, the sand was up past his knees. -Shit...-


    *FWOOSH* As I slid to a stop right next to them, their eyes all snapped to me, but trying not to pay them mind, I grabbed a nearly invisible string hanging from the tip of my staff, drew it to my cheek, and pointed my staff toward the ground as if I was about to shoot a bow.


    But what I was actually doing wasn''t too dissimr.


    *VWOOM* As a heavy mana ripple blew through the air, the string lit up with the glow of the countless runes in it. -Please be enough...- *Vwoop* Injecting one final burst of mana into it, I grit my teeth through the pain of my fingertips burning before finally letting go of the string. *Fwip* The glow instantaneously drained from it as a thin beam of light shot into the ground, turning a melon-sized patch of sand around it molten before the vibration suddenly stopped, and we were all simultaneously thrown into the air. *BAAAANNGGG*


    It was a spell I made just for deterring burrowers. -But this one might not get deterred by such a small explosion.- Hastily shifting my focus to the group while we were still being lifted in the air from my spell, I used a huge mass of wind magic to redirect our upward momentum from the st andunch us forward. *FWOOOSH*


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    "AAAAHHH!" One of the younger elves yet out a fear-filled wail as we wereunched well over a hundred meters in the blink of an eye.


    But I don''t think it was because of me throwing them.


    *WOOOOSH* In an instant, the cloud of sand where we just were, still lit by the glow of torches, was engulfed in darkness and a huge wall seemed to sprout out of the ground right next to us, passing by so close to us that the gust of wind it dragged along threw us further into the air.


    The burrower was at least one or two hundred meters wide, and probably at least a kilometer or two long, by far the biggest I had ever seen.


    "Why is the broodmother here?!" One of the elves yelled in anguage I couldn''t understand as we continued soaring through the air. "Has god forsaken us?!"


    "You''d be in the stomach of that burrower if that were the case!"


    They seemed to be angrily arguing about something, but after eventuallynding on the back side of another dune some several hundred meters away, and tumbling to the bottom, their focus started shifting to me.


    *Pat-Pat* *Brush* As we all stood up, their gazes allnded on me. They were clearly very wary of me, and rightfully so.


    To them, I was just some random mage that ran up on them. *Brush* *Brush* But as I slowly stood up and brushed myself off, one of the older demihumans walked up to me and bowed.


    "Thank you, sir! If it weren''t for you, we wouldn''t have made it out alive!"


    But I couldn''t understand him at all. "U-Uh..." Quickly pulling down my bva, I tried to motion him upward and speak as clearly as I could. "I can''t understand you?" -Whatnguage even is that...- It was unlike anything else I had ever heard.


    And after seeing their confused expressions as they looked around at one another, they couldn''t seem to understand me either.


    -Could they be from Siratha?- It was the famed elven forest beyond the desert that most people on the Western Continent considered nothing more than a myth. -But the desert probably just detached them from the rest of the world...- The quality of their weapons and clothes seemed to reflect that as well. -They must be some native tribe...- "Do you know a woman named Leif Vilulf?" I tilted my head to try and make sure they understood it was a question.


    But they understood immediately, and nodded, easing their postures before motioning me along.


    "Are you seriously going to bring this human back to town with us?!" As we walked, they whispered to one another.


    "They saved us, and despite not knowing ournguage, know the name of Apostle Vilulf."


    "Doesn''t that make them even more suspicious?"


    The tall man, still carrying his friend, red at the woman. "I''m not taking any chances. He saved us, so he should be treated with respect... Plus, it''s not like we''re in the condition to fight him even if he does turn out to be a bad person... We need to just bring him to the town head... He might know this man''snguage."


    Trying my best to pick out words from their conversation, I carefully followed after them, unsure whether I was being led into a trap or not.


    For all I knew then, they could have been cannibals, or barbarians, even if that didn''t seem to be the case.


    But little did I know, it absolutely was a trap. One I wouldn''t realize I was caught in for several years toe.. and one I would never be able to escape...


    But perhaps that was simply fate''s n, since as time woulde to pass, I would find that it was a trapid specifically for people like me, and one I would eventually take pride in falling into.


    Getting brought to that town was simply the work of fate.. or perhaps it was it was the work of god...


    A god I woulde to befriend, and worship as time went on.


    But of course, I didn''t know that back then, and I doubted him. -Lord Vasilias.. just what am I about to get myself wrapped up in...-


    -----


    Early Afternoon - Late Fall : Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    (Present)


    - Vasilias Ragnarok ~


    "You recognize that kid''s condition?" Hera spoke softly as she looked through the walls of the saloon with a disgusted expression.


    "It''s simr to something I saw in the past.. but it wasn''t this bad..." Thinking back to the incident at the academy, I felt my stomach churn. -Back then, the maniption was fairly subtle...- Although the maniption of the minds of children to any extent was disgusting, somehow the sight before me made me feel especially sick... "Back when I destroyed the Academy in As, the rats of the Holy Kingdom were using an old god stripped of its ego and memories to manipte the minds of children and get them to worship the Aesir instead of Bahamut, but.. this feels.. different..."


    Although I couldn''t put my nose on it, this somehow seemed far more sinister. "Do you think it''s rted to the cult?"


    I immediately nodded. "More than likely... The so-called god they''re worshipping might be what''s manipting them, but..." Squinting slightly, I pushed my aura further and further into the ground, popting my mind with the colorless array of constantly changing numbers and information that took upon the shapes of countless strings as if I was looking through the eyes of my soul.


    It was as if I opened up another eye, able to see everything within nearly eighty kilometers of me with excruciating detail, all at once.


    But that was my limit, and there was nothing to see. "I don''t see anything suspicious nearby..." -It''s all just tunnels and buildings still under construction...-


    Hera seemed to do the same thing as me, turning up empty-handed as well. "This.. might be more troublesome than I was thinking it would be..."


    "You don''t say..." -There''s nothing out of the norm nearby.. and the ''child'' is alone...- "But nothing will be as difficult as finding that dreaded cave entrance to the thunderbirds'' nest."


    Hera instantly tensed up. "Was it really that bad?"


    I wanted to scoff. "It was bad enough for me to blow a hole the size of a city into the mountain so I''d never have to look for it again."


    Cracking a joke, the mood seemed to lighten just a tad, but before long, the child in the back room finished its conversation, and Krystallo was called in...


    Of course, not without me watching her like a hawk.


    But while I suspected the child of also being possessed, perhaps by a god, he didn''t seem to be able to sense me, there was no tether, and his soul looked normal for a dragon. Everything simply happened in his brain.. but even that seemed.. off... -His thoughts aren''t smooth.. it''s not just wires being crossed...-


    Rather than being the maniption of neural pathways, it seemed like something else was happening...


    It almost seemed like.. ''it'' had two consciousnesses...


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 383: The Search for a Word

    Chapter 383: The Search for a Word


    Early Afternoon - Late Fall : The Library of Eternity, As | Bahamut


    -----


    "Two consciousnesses?" *Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump* The rhythmic thump of books being ced on bookshelves filled the air as Hera and I walked down a long path between towering bookshelves. "It at least sounds pretty interesting."


    "Haha," I let out a chuckle hearing the hint of doubt in her voice. "It''s just an idea I had." -Although of everything I can think of, it''s the most probable...-


    It had been about a week since we went to investigate Krystallo''s rather unusual friend Myal�� for having connections with the cult at that point, but our investigation hadn''t really progressed since.


    "My other guess is that his subconscious mind has just learned to multitask, but.. I have even more doubts with that theory..."


    As things were, we had moved investigating him down in priority to try and give more focus to the cult itself because of some recent findings.


    But that just led us to my family''s archive in the heart of As, The Library of Eternity, where we killed time speaking about the abnormal child while scanning thousands of documents looking for a certain name.


    But while it was a name I expected to show up quickly, we ended up having more time on our hands than expected. "Really?" So we theorized. "Considering his soul looked normal and he didn''t have a tether or even a trace of divinity, wouldn''t that be more likely?""Well," I gently shrugged the furred wings of my fenririan form, "I may be wrong, but I don''t think so. The timing of thoughts in his subconscious just.. didn''t line up right..." ncing over at Hera, I saw her confused look before hastily continuing. "Think of it this way: the pace of a train of thought will constantly fluctuate based on the reactions of the consciousness, think of emotions, pain, etcetera. However, because these reactions originate from the consciousness, they will cause the same reaction on any line of thought under it, like speeding up thought if you''re in danger, or slowing it down if you''re rxing."


    "So, because the two separate lines of thought in his mind weren''t corrted, you think it''s two entirely separate consciousnesses." Seeing me nod, she quickly fell into thought. "That''s actually.. quite a fascinating theory... Even if it''s a bit creepy..."


    "Hah..." I let out an awkward, sympathetic chuckle knowing exactly where she wasing from. -It really is quite unsettling to think about...- It was like the boy was possessed. "My biggest issue with it though is that I just don''t know where that second consciousness woulde from. You said you were keeping an eye on him, right?"


    "Of course, but over thest week there''s been nothing. It''s almost like he knows he''s being watched. He hasn''te in contact with anyone we''ve deemed suspicious, hasn''t gone anywhere odd, and while he acts weird, he doesn''t actually talk about anything rted to the cult..." She seemed to cringe as a stray thought whizzed through her mind. "Do you think it could be a birth defect?"


    But I bluntly shook my head. "If it''s something like that, it''d have to do with the soul rather than gics... Maybe he absorbed his twin at birth, but their souls somehow managed to maintain their own consciousnesses." -Although I have more than a few doubts about that even being possible...-


    "It''s certainly food for thought... But for now, let''s just focus on looking for the records of the god the cultist mentioned... ''Lykos f��di'', was it?"


    Over thest week, we had done a deep sweep through the entirety of Eikas��a, looking for cultist gatherings, ritual sites, or anything else that was suspicious, even using our auras to scan the system of structures being built underground, but while we turned up empty-handed, one of Hera''s associates eventually reached out with some findings.


    Just a few days prior, they had caught a cultist amidst a sacrificial offering.


    But oddly enough, it was a name that I was already somewhat familiar with. "Yeah, I think so." -The name rings a bell from my time on Earth...- But that kind of connection wasn''t anymore more than coincidence, right? "What was the other name they called it? The World Serpent?"


    As Hera nodded, she finally turned back to the bookshelves. "It doesn''t ring a bell for me, so I have doubts about there being any records, but..." Inside the Ragnarok library, there were records of almost everything of note.


    -An old god would certainly be in here somewhere.. but it may be in a deeperyer...- "It''s worth looking into, regardless..." I winced slightly as I spoke, feeling a bit pessimistic.


    And the longer we walked around the library, one row of books at a time, the worse it seemed.


    After a while, we eventually called in one of the caretakers to have her prepare entry to the secondyer of the library since the firstyer didn''t have anything, but the second didn''t either.


    "Should we try the third and forth?" I tilted my head as I looked over at Hera.


    But she just gave me a weird look. "The thirdyer, maybe, but the fourth was where Bahamut lived for a while. You think he''d give me the keys to his room?"


    "Haha, I thought maybe." Seeing her disgusted look as she realized what I was implying, we finally walked out into the main hall, having circled around nearly every row of bookshelves in the secondyer before calling a caretaker to open the third.


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    But, unfortunately.. that was not such an easy request.


    "We cannot open the thirdyer today, regardless of your clearance. I apologize." Bowing all the way to the floor, the caretaker spoke sincerely. "It will take us a week to prepare for entry to the thirdyer, but that is something we can begin if you wish."


    I immediately nodded. "If you could, that would be great." -It''s a shame, but I can''t say I didn''t expect it...- After seeing just how horrifically fragile everything in the secondyer was, I couldn''t imagine how old the things in the thirdyer would be.


    "For now, could we speak with the caretakers sifting through the texts set to enter the firstyer?" Hera quickly interjected as the caretaker stopped speaking.


    "O-Of course! Their facility is by the northern entrance to the library, if you wish to follow me."


    Quickly nodding, Hera started following after her.


    But I wasn''t sure why. "What has you wanting to speak to the people sifting through the firstyer?" Considering the name we were looking for was a god that likely predated the war, I was expecting to have to wait until we got entry to the thirdyer at the absolute earliest to find a mention of the name.


    However, Hera thought differently. "The cult was formed recently, and if the god isn''t real, or didn''t exist prior to the cult''s creation, instead of looking deeper, we need to look shallower."


    "Oh..." -I.. didn''t think about that...- Essentially, instead of looking for older texts, she would see if the people sifting through thousands of books daily would know anything. -Considering the cult''s sudden uprising, there might''ve been one or two religious texts they submitted for archiving...-


    Because there was a gold reward for those who submitted texts that were sessfully archived, it was actually encouraged to submit things, even if they would inevitably be blocked. "But because it''s a religious text, they might''ve been confident it would get epted."


    "Are religious texts usually epted?"


    The caretaker immediately nodded. "If and only if their backing and origin are reliable... We''ve regrly have ''religious texts''e in that were fabricated by people looking for a quick coin." She nced back at us with a wide, somewhat greey smile while we walked. "However, if the origin of the text is reliable, we would happily pay quite a pretty penny for it."


    She seemed to be eyeing Hera, but she could onlyugh. "Hahaha, I don''t have anything I can submit, unfortunately."


    But the young caretaker, around Mother''s age, didn''t give up. "Seeing as you''re friends with a god, you could always write something yourself." She even probed me. "Knowledgeing from the source fetches the highest rewards."


    But I just yfully shook my head. "If you want religious texts about me, you can ask Leif."


    And even though I expected her to take that as asking for the impossible, a gleam instantly appeared in her eyes. "With your permission, I certainly will!" Quickly turning around with a childish enthusiasm, her smile widened, and we continued through the library, winding through countless rows of bookshelves before eventually finding our way to arge double door that was quite normal-lookingpared to everything else.


    It partially blended with the wall, without any carvings or decorations, and led straight into a row of bookshelves between the North and West entrances.


    It was the entrance to a roombeled: ''The Filter''


    -A little objectifying, isn''t it?- Feeling all the auras on the other side, there had to be at least twenty or thirty dragons inside.


    However, when the doors opened, we couldn''t see a single one.


    Opening without allowing for even a spec of wind or moisture into the library, Hera and I were presented with what could only be described as a wall of books. -W..What the hell?-


    There were at least eighty, maybe ny thousand books that we could see, with many being novels, some being biographies, and others even being children''s stories.


    But that was just the firstyer.


    "Ana?" The moment the caretaker spoke, the massive wall of books parted down the middle to reveal another mound of books behind it, with a single, sky blue-feathered dragon peeking her head over it.


    "Huh? Anthiza? What are you doing here? With guests no less..." She spoke extremely informally, somehow not recognizing my fenririan form. "Are they the new colleagues you mentioned?"


    Almost immediately, the towering wall of books behind her parted, and so did the one after to reveal about a dozen dragons peeking over at us, actively sifting through at least a million books. -Holy shit...-


    One thing was for certain, if you were to work there, you had to be passionate about it...


    But Hera didn''t seem to be as awestruck as me, and spoke bluntly. "Unfortunately not. We actually came with some questions."


    A couple more dragons immediately popped their heads around their walls of books to see what was going on as she spoke.


    "We are looking for information on a god called the World Serpent, or something named simrly. If anyone knows anything or can provide us with any texts, we will pay you up to twenty tinum."


    I instantly jolted before using magic to speak in her ear. "I didn''t know you brought any money..."


    But she just turned smug and looked at me. "Why would I bring money when I have you with me."


    "Just because I can make it doesn''t mean it''s free money-" Cutting me off she pressed the edge of her wing into my face.


    "Twenty tinum may as well be twenty coppers for you." Her smile slowly widened as she averted her gaze. "You didn''t even notice me spending a couple of royal gold on your dime the other day."


    "WHAT?!" I instantly tensed up. "The hell did you spend it on?!"


    Her smile warmed as her gaze found its way to my eyes. "You''ll see soon enough."


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 384: Tied Memories

    Chapter 384: Tied Memories


    Mid Afternoon - Late Fall : The Library of Eternity, As | Bahamut


    -----


    Staring into Hera''s eyes after she bluntly admitted to stealing my money, I felt her smug look eating away at my willpower before I finally gave in. "Ugh, whatever... If you wasted it, I''m gonna make sure ites out of your pocket." Averting my gaze, I quickly turned back toward the librarians.


    But Hera kept her gaze on me for just a moment longer. "Huhu~, I''m fine with that..." Speaking warmly, she turned back to the librarians with a pleased curl in her tail before continuing in a casual manner. "In any case, we will pay quite a bit if anyone knows anything. Any takers?"


    The whole room instantly fell silent as everyone''s focus turned to their own thoughts.


    But while I started having some doubts, after a moment, one of them started moving, sifting through a huge pile of books by picking them up and moving them in sequence as if to create a wave. -Did she remember something?-


    Her focus seemed to heighten the more books she moved before, out of nowhere, she pulled up one book, opened to a specific page, and read it. "I''m not sure if this is what you are looking for, but..." Closing the book, she moved it over to me with her aura.


    -Hm?- The cover read ''The Deep ck'', and looked like an encyclopedia of some sort. -Is this a bestiary?- *Flutter* Quickly opening it with a flutter, I skimmed through it before suddenlying to a stop about halfway through.


    The page I stopped on wasbeled ''The Continental Serpent'', filled with text, diagrams, and images of a scale that looked like it belonged to a fish.But it couldn''t havee from something so simple.


    And that was because of the text below the image. -''Retrieved from the deepest part of the Death''s Gape, the scale measured four kilometers, by six kilometers, with a thickness of half a kilometer and the material strength of a young Elder stage bronze dragon scale''...- I had to pause after I read it. -What the fuck...-


    *Fwip* Flipping the page, Hera poked her head in to read it, but her previously warm expression had turned stern, and her wings had rxed. "Oh.. this was something they retrieved from before the war... I forgot about it..." Pausing to read, she spoke curiously. "Does anyone here know of ''The Scale of the Colosus''?"


    -Hm?- It was something I had never heard of.


    But every single one of the librarians nodded. "Of course."


    "Ites up frequently in older texts."


    Properly looking up, Hera started sinking into her own thoughts. "Does ite up in newer texts as well? We didn''t see it mentioned anywhere in the first twoyers, but this book looks new."


    "That''s because they''re all copies of the ''Avgi Bestiary'', which is already stored in the thirdyer." The clerk next to us quickly interjected. "It''s very well known, and one of the most well-researched bestiaries in the world from before the war. It''s one of the few texts that had enough copies to survive from the Golden Age."


    "Hm..." Sinking into thought, Hera slowly pulled herself away. "Do any of you know of other ces the scale is mentioned?"


    There was a long silence that immediately filled the room as our eyes darted around at the various librarians.


    But after a moment, a young voice met our ears. "U-Uh.. I-I might!" Looking over, I immediately set my eyes on a young pink-scaled dragon who couldn''t have been much older than 30, carrying arge container of absolutely ancient-looking books.


    -Huh?- She looked just like Chloe, but there were some differences. "Would you introduce yourself, please?"


    Immediatelying to a stop, she tensed up. "M-My name is Anoixi!" She immediately threw herself into a bow as her wings mped to her side. "I am a simple helper here at the library. I bring books that require careful preservation to ''The Filter'' since I''m one of only a few dragons here that doesn''t get sick from the runes they need."


    -Anoixi...- Her name meant ''Spring''. -Even her name is simr...- "Do you have a sister named Chloe?"


    But she just hesitated, easing her posture before tilting her head.


    Honestly, Hera seemed more interested than the young girl did. "Who''s Chloe?"


    But I couldn''t shake my suspicion. -Is it really just a coincidence?- "She''s my maid..." But the young girl clearly didn''t recognize the name or even acknowledge having a sister. -Maybe I was mistaken...- "Anyway, what is it you know? We will pay you well if you know something good." *Vwoom-Clink* Quickly creating a few tinum, I split them between the librarians who contributed before watching the young girl''s eyes light up.


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    "W-Well, I was in ��rmos a few weeks ago to retrieve a few old texts from Madam Ouran��s." She motioned her head at the containers on her back as she spoke. "When I was there, I overheard some merfolk talking about one of the more isted tribes in the archipgo. I can''t remember the exact details, but there was something about an ind-sized scale." She spoke with a mix of haste and enthusiasm as her posture straightened and tail curled with greed. "It actually seemed like the scale was something they worshipped, so while I can''t be certain it''s the same as what you mentioned, it might be simr."


    -Something they worship?- Turning to Hera, I spoke through magic. "Where was the cultist you caught doing the sacrifice?"


    "It was in Nkremo... I''m almost certain they aren''t rted to the tribe..." She answered without me needing to ask the question. "But it reminded me of something." Motioning me to give her some coins, she turned to the other librarians. "Do any of you know what ''floating scales'' are?"


    Most of the librarians nodded immediately.


    "Are they still documented?"


    Slowly ncing around at each other with confused expressions, the librarians didn''t seem to know how to respond. "Uh.. thest person to document them was Avgi himself... And at the end of the war, he disappeared..."


    "Is that so..." Falling into thought, she motioned them away with her wing. "In that case, we need to leave to investigate something. Thank you all for your cooperation." Motioning me to hand out a few more coins, I did, and we followed the clerk back into the library before eventually getting outside and taking to the air.


    At that point, I had no idea what was on Hera''s mind, I simply followed along, however, when she started speaking again, an old memory red up. "You said you don''t remember much from your time on Delphi before the war, right?" Her tone was a bit different from normal. "Do you remember the ''floating scales''? I think at the time they were called the ''Scales of the Leviathan''."


    My eyes instantly jolted open as both memories from my current life, and from my time as Nott resurfaced. -Huh?- "Actually.. I think I might..."


    Pausing as she noticed me trying to recall some blurry memories, she spoke softly, as if trying to help. "They were huge scales that would surface on certain days every year around The Forgotten Inds. They all varied in size, from a couple of meters wide, to several hundred. At the time, we thought they were all from some unknown species of serpent that liked nesting around the inds, but as time passed we found more and more of the same scales resurfacing."


    As things finally clicked, I cut her off. "That''s because they all came from the same serpent..." Although still blurry, a connection between the memories of my current life and my past was formed, bringing a faint rity to them.


    But the memories only made my expression darken. -That fucker...- ''The Leviathan'' was a name that resonated with me more than any other, being one of the many aliases of a creature that had existed on Delphi far longer than I, living beneath the''s crust, not as a protector, but as a cultivator in a symbiotic rtionship with the itself. -Is he the bastard that nearly killed me in the void?-


    His name was Jormungandr, a creature known by many names I hadn''t been able to recognize until now. -But while he looked simr to what hit me in the void.. that couldn''t have been him...- While he was certainly strong, essing the void wasn''t something that could be done with strength alone.


    However, just because he wasn''t that being didn''t mean we were on good terms.


    As a bit of anger was suddenly woven into my expression, Hera became cautious.


    But I had to be cautious too. -Is he trying to be a god?- Although I couldn''t remember the details, he was someone I was on irredeemably bad terms with, but something about the idea of him bing a god simply felt off.


    "Did you.. remember something?" Hera spoke somewhat anxiously.


    "Yeah..." Pulling myself out of my thoughts for a moment, I Iooked out toward the distant blue sky hanging over the horizon. "If it''s what I''m thinking.. this might be a really big problem... But..." As my gaze thinned, my aura started warping the lightly colored sky around me. "Somehow I''m nervous it''s not that simple..."


    Suddenly bing serious, Hera''s gaze stiffened. "What do you mean..."


    "I.. can''t be sure..." -But my gut is telling me the idea of him wanting to be a god is a joke...- And that wasn''t because he already was one. -If I remember right.. he never showed a hint of interest in the surface...- Living around the core of the, he had no interest in the life that had evolved on the surface, but rather cared more about the ''life'' of the. -But even the Acardi documented himing up to the bottom of the Death''s Gape...- "Why..." I mumbled as I let out a stressed breath.


    But while it was eerie, and had me stressed, at the same time I had to simply focus on taking things one step at a time.


    Keeping most of my theories to myself, I followed Hera to Nkremo, a city in the northwestern mountains of Bahamut, in order to investigate her own theories.


    Her idea was that the dragons could be worshipping the leviathan because of a huge scale that surfaced in the ocean. "There would be no reason for a cultist to be making a sacrifice somewhere with no religious significance, so I''m thinking we should check around Nkremo for one of the scales... Although I only remember them existing near The Forgotten Inds, it''s possible one got dislodged and floated to the surface near there."


    Considering how fast it got deep right off the coast of the city, it wasn''t a terrible idea. The idea that the dragons unhappy with their choice of gods would turn to worship such a scale wasn''t unlikely either. -But I''m not so sure it could be boiled down to coincidence...-


    Something about it felt off.. almost as if an artificial scenario.


    But the issue was, only time would tell.


    Simply thinking about it got me nowhere. -Maybe it''s time I reactivate the otherboratories...-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 385: An Oracle

    Chapter 385: An Oracle


    Mid Evening - Late Fall : Nkremo | Bahamut


    -----


    *Wooooosh* The gentle wash of cool, misty air passing over my scales was like therapy for a troubled mind that evening, bringing a momentary calm to an ocean of stormy thoughts.


    At the time, Hera and I were just a few kilometers off the coast of Nkremo scanning the ocean bottom with our auras looking for scales of the Leviathan, but we were already reaching the limit of what we could scan with our auras.


    "Can you see the bottom here?" Hera spoke curiously.


    "Just barely." With the water being almost seventy kilometers deep, I could only barely make out the texture of the bottom.


    "Hoh? Your aura reading has improved that much?"


    I swiftly nodded as a smile crept onto my face. "After I ascended, my brain finally switched to using divinity, and while I can''t quite read my whole aura, the ''static'' from my space mana has gotten far more manageable... It''s still taking some practice though..." Although I was still far from perfecting it, I had figured out that if I controlled the emission of space mana in certain ways, I could get oddly consistent interference patterns when reading my aura, and over time, could ''tune it out''. -But it''s still far from perfect...-


    "Well, that''s good. Compared to where you were just a few months ago, seventy kilometers is nothing to scoff at."I somewhat proudly nodded before ncing back over at her. "By the way, I meant to ask earlier, but..." I paused to try and think of how to word it before continuing somewhat awkwardly. "Do you ever have an image pop up in your mind, like with aura, but where everything is math that takes the form of weird, tiny ck threads?"


    I spoke fully expecting her to look at me like I was insane, but unlike what I expected, she nodded. "I can''t do it anymore, but I think I know what you''re talking about."


    My eyes lit up instantly.


    "Are you talking about a projection that feels like when you read your aura, but it isn''ting from your mind, and differs from your aura''s detail and range? Like, almost as if it''s eye-sight based instead of mana-density based?"


    I fervently nodded.


    Although calling it eye-sight-based was a little bit of a stretch, I knew exactly what she meant. "That was something I experienced when I only had my soul left. It was simply how I saw the world back then, but ever since I was.. ''reborn'', I haven''t been able to see or use it."


    -So it must be rted to the soul somehow...- "Hm..."


    Hera gently tilted her head as she tried to read my expression. "I would''ve thought you''d know about it considering your past lives..."


    "Well, I do know ''of'' it. I just don''t know what it is or how to reliably use it yet."


    "Huh?" She immediately paused. "How to use it? You''ve seen it outside of your reincarnations?"


    "I''ve actually been seeing it more often recently, yeah. If I fall into a really deep focus, whether fighting or meditating, I can see it, but it feels more like opening another eye rather than reading already-present information like with my aura... Besides making some spells faster, I don''t really see much point in it..." I paused to think before looking into her eyes. "Is it just.. the eyes of the soul?"


    But she just gave me a baffled look. "Have you ever tried pulling on any of those ''threads''?"


    Almost immediately, a memory from my first dragon sleep resurfaced. -Oh...- But they were a little blurry. "I.. have but I don''t think I can do that here..."


    The way I remembered it, was that during my first dragon sleep, I could tug on a string and see the futures of the object the string was connected to.


    However, thest few times I had experienced it, it felt like I was looking at a projection of a world, akin to a hologram, rather than actually existing in the space.


    "Really?" Hera didn''t seem to understand. "If you can see it, you should be able to touch it..."


    Finally pulling myself out of thought, I shrugged. "I''ll have to look more into it whenever I have the chance..." -Being able to see the futures of things would be more than a little helpful...- Looking down at the smooth water passing by beneath me, I wanted to sigh. "But for now let''s just loop back and check another area. I definitely can''t read anything off the bottom at this depth..." Although it was faint, I could feel the bottom at the very edge of my aura almost a hundred and twenty kilometers down, but couldn''t make out any details in its texture. -We might as well dive down at this point...-


    But Hera kept gliding straight, heading toward deeper and deeper waters as if I didn''t say anything.


    "Hm? You change your n?" Slowly looking up, I expected to find her lost in thought or looking up at the sky, but instead, her pupils were dted and her gaze was aimed at the water. -H..huh?!-


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    "Vasilias..." She spoke with a faint quiver in her voice. "Did you just.. have a vision..?" Her voice wasced with worry.


    "N..no?" -I didn''t even feel anything...- "Did you?"


    She somewhat shakily nodded as she lifted off the water and started climbing in altitude. "I just saw something horrific.. but I.. don''t know what it was from..." She tried to speak firmly through the faint quiver in her voice as she looped backward and started scanning the water.


    Worried, I stuck right next to her. "W-What did you see? Was it a hallucination, or-"


    "No." She kept her eyes locked on the water as she broke into a cold sweat. "It wasn''t a hallucination.. it was a vision of something in the future.. but I wish I never saw it..."


    -W..what..?- Looking down into the water as well, I expanded my aura to cover far more than just the area we passed over...


    But there was nothing...


    "I don''t.. see anything..." And even after circling the area for several minutes, I felt nothing at all...


    However, Hera didn''t stop, climbing higher and higher with every pass until we eventually climbed well above the clouds, and came to a halt. *Snap-WOOOSH* Clearing the clouds with her aura, we looked down over the patch of ocean below us with a scrutinizing look, but I still didn''t find anything, only a small dark patch in the water that was so subtle it didn''t seem out of the norm at all.


    But after staring at it for a moment, Hera''s eyes shot open. "Vasilias..." Her mental exhaustion seemed to vanish in a sh. "Can you flood that dark patch of water with mana?"


    Simply following her lead, I pulled a massive swath of mana out of my reserve and dropped it onto the dark patch. -What is she expecting...-


    But, against my own expectations, the moment I released the mana into the environment, the dark patch shrank and darkened. "What the..."


    "It''s all divinity..." Hera immediately spoke with deep difort and bitterness. "When I first flew over it, I must''ve gotten caught by a stray strand..."


    It was the first time I had seen such a dark expression on her face. "Just.. what did you see?"


    Slowly turning to look me in the eyes, she stared straight into my soul with a hint of pain in her gaze. "Vasilias. I need you to listen to what I''m about to say, very carefully..."


    Immediately tensing, my gaze, locked in hers, didn''t budge.


    "I forbid you from looking into this matter further." She spoke firmly, filled with a determination I didn''t know she could muster.


    -But...- "Why..."


    Staring in my eyes for just a moment longer, she paused before looking back toward the water. "That divinity is likely part of the source of the cult... It gave me a vision of my own future.. one I will do anything to keep from happening... So, just.. don''t look into it anymore.. okay..?"


    Seeing the pain in her expression, I wanted to back off and give her some space, but I just couldn''t. "If it''s a vision of a future you want to prevent, shouldn''t you tell me about it as well-"


    "N-No." She spoke with a stutter as a hint of uncertainty found its way onto her face.


    "Hera." My voice and expression quickly firmed. "I''m going to need you to tell me exactly what you saw."


    But she only turned her gaze away and spoke so softly I almost couldn''t hear her. "I can''t risk the oracle being based on a future where you know about it, and investigate it yourself..."


    "So you''d rather risk it being based on a future where you keep the oracle to yourself?!" A sudden burst of anger quickly found its way into my voice.. but after a moment, I forced myself to calm down. "Look.. how about this." Pulling in her attention, I spoke more softly. "What if I promise to listen to whatever it is you want me to do after we discuss what you saw. If you want me to focus on other things while you look into it, I will, and if you want to look into it with me, we can do that as well.. but only after we talk about it..."


    There was a long.. long silence that ensued after I finished speaking. Hera hovered there, keeping her eyes on the dark blue water below, without saying or doing anything but pping her wings.


    However, after a moment, she spoke under her breath. "How can I trust that this isn''t the path towards the oracle... What if me telling you about it is the trigger that leads to your death..."


    -My death?- She was serious, but so was I. "How can you trust that any path isn''t toward the oracle? Is it not better to speak about it together ande up with a n that we can both agree on? Why risk your gamble being wrong?"


    She immediately snapped and turned to face me. "Because if there was one thing Bahamut taught me, it''s that the future is a fickle thing! The reason oracles are vague is because if they''re too specific, people will just guide themselves straight toward it in an effort to avoid it!" She spoke with haste, as if in a bit of a panic.


    But as I wrapped her in my aura, she slowly started calming down. "Hera, I need you to just trust me..." As I spoke, an old memory from my life as Nott resurfaced, from when I was a child. "You can''t avoid fate, but you can make yourself more prepared to face it... If you keep it to yourself, no matter where we try to run or hide, we won''t be able to escape it..."


    Her gaze slowly began to soften. "H..How do you know..."


    But my expression only continued to darken as memories resurfaced. "Because every single time Dagr and I tried it.. we failed..." Staring into her eyes, my gaze slowly softened. "Look.. oracles aren''t guaranteed to happen, but the more you try to run from it, the faster it will catch up to you... So.. why don''t we just face it?"


    Averting her gaze, she fell silent for what felt like eons. "Okay... Just.. promise me that you won''t sacrifice yourself or some other bullshit like that... Even if you can reincarnate yourself, I won''t ept it..."


    As my gaze slowly warmed, a smile crept onto my face. "Alright. I promise... Now just tell me about what you saw..."


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 386: A Wall

    Chapter 386: A Wall


    Late Evening - Late Fall : Nkremo | Bahamut


    -----


    - Hera Monachik��s ~


    A field of fire, and blood. The sprawled, mangled bodies of those whom I consideredrades, and the view of humans skinning scales off the face of a lifeless child.


    It looked like a battlefield.. and of war.. yet I was in the heart of Bahamut.


    It felt as if I had traveled back in time to view ''The Hero''s Graveyard'', a section of Bahamut that waspletely decimated by the Acardi not long before I was captured.


    However, this vision was of a very different time period...


    Slowly looking up, I found myself standing before a wall of grey scales, each the size of inds, connecting the horizons as if splitting the continent in two.


    It was the body of an armored reptile, one sorge, it could destroy entire continents by simply moving over them. -The Leviathan...-Even as a dragon that could contend for the title of ''the strongest'', I felt indescribably powerless looking up its side, seeing the edge of the atmosphere only part the way up its body, even whilst most of it was hidden underground.


    But the moment I blinked, the scenery changed, the battlefield turned into an endless field of ss and ash, and dozens of colossal holes bored through the serpent''s body appeared.


    It was a sight unlike anything that my imagination could create on its own, a scene of destruction unlike anything I believed possible.


    Yet while I looked upon the sight with baited breath, my gaze drifted toward my feet and my heart sank.


    At my feetid a nearly unrecognizable dragon, covered in wounds so grave that there was no chance it was alive.


    However, I recognized who it was in a heartbeat.


    "I was dead, huh..." Vasilias, slowly straightening his posture while effortlessly hovering over the water, immediately fell into thought, as if a vision depicting his own death meant nothing.


    "Are you seriously not worried about that?" -Even if you just consider it an omen...- I felt my chest tighten as the scene reyed in my mind.


    But Vasilias seemedpletely unbothered by it. "Not particrly... Specific details of visions typically aren''t fulfilled."


    "W..What..." I truly didn''t even know how to react. "You fighting the Leviathan and dying is a specific detail?!" Anger quickly found its way into my voice.


    But he remainedpletely calm. "I am likely fated to sh with Jormungandr again at some point, I won''t deny that, however the result of that sh is most certainly a detail." Turning his inquisitive gaze back down to the water below us, he spoke with a sudden firmness. "I''m more worried about how this divinity got here in the first ce..." As if remembering something, his expression darkened.


    "But.. how do you know your death is a detail bound to change?" I spoke somewhat anxiously.


    "Because visions like that only show you a single leaf on the tree of fate. A single moment in a timeline that takes ce after a series of specific events, with specific results." Looking down at the water, he spoke bluntly. "Somehow, this bundle of divinity just happened to be tied to a single leaf, so when you flew over it, and it grazed you, it showed you your future at that set period in time, in that set timeline... If I''m not wrong, it would exin why the cult seemed to appear out of nowhere and spread like wildfire... All they had to do to recruit new followers was bring them out to this little patch of water, and show them their own vision..."


    -So, the reason they''re hailing the Leviathan is to beg for mercy...- Had they seen the same sight as me, such a reaction would make sense. "But if it shows everyone that flies over it a vision, why didn''t you see one?" My tone slowly softened.


    "I have no idea." He immediately shrugged. "The memories of the times I researched oracles and visions are still blurry... It could be that I was dead in the timeline the vision showed, but as far as I know, that just means it should''ve shown me a vision of my death..."


    -Yet there was nothing...- Looking down at the ck speck in the water, my thoughts raced. "Do you have any idea how a vision could be tied to an a soulless piece of divinity either?" Although it was a little hard to see from our altitude, it most certainly didn''t house a soul.


    "Not a clue..." Vasilias was stumped too.


    ncing over at him, I found his eyespletely focused on the chunk of divinity. "Do you think it could be something like a trapid by the Aesir? Something to sew more discourse in Bahamut?"


    "It''s possible, but.. they already have rats here for that. There''s no point in spreading the praise of another so-called god... Plus if it was them, they would have done this in a higher traffic area like in the channel around Emporio."


    But I actually disagreed. "What if they were just changing the direction of their focus. What if they recognized making dragons turn toward human gods was too troublesome and rebranded to have them hail the Leviathan? They already have a following that will listen to them, so if they just redirected their focus, they would begin more naturally growing the cult... They would avoid higher-traffic areas because they know you exist, too. They wouldn''t want you catching wind of it..."


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    His expression instantly turned troubled. "But what if it isn''t the Aesir..."


    "And it was nted here by the Leviathan? What would be the point in that?"


    Pausing, his expression only continued to darken. "It might not have been nted here, but just happened to float up from the bottom... Again, it depends on what exactly this clump of divinity is from.. but it''s possible it was a byproduct of Jormungandr looking at his own future..."


    -Which isn''t a good sign...- It implied he was nning for something.


    "But I can''t get my mind off the second scene you saw... If it was Jormungandr trying to cherry-pick a future, why would he still be so gravely injured..."


    I paused for a moment to let him think. "Maybe.. it was the only future he managed to kill you..."


    Slowly turning his eyes to me, he slowly cracked a smile as if I had just told him a joke. "I''ll take pride in the fact you think that highly of me."


    My expression instantly turned unamused. -I can''t tell if he''s joking...- A part of me wanted to hit him for even implying he''d die if they fought.


    But.. he spoke before I could do anything. "Jormungandr could wipe out the entire Aesir on a whim, and I''m not certain I can even beat Freya at this point..."


    "Hm... Then it sounds like I need to throw you back into the Tree of Prayer so you can get some divinity back." Hearing my somewhat threatening tone and seeing the look in my eyes, his demeanor instantly softened.


    "I-I have a better idea actually!" Ducking his head down, he spoke with haste. "We might be able to figure out if it was him if we scan the ocean bottom..."


    I stared at him, unamused for a moment before suddenly going to grab him with my aura. "That might be the dumbest thing I''ve ever heard."


    But he didn''t let me grab him. "Hey, I didn''t mean we''d scan it ourselves! Why would I ever willingly do something that tedious?"


    Pausing, I gave him a curious look.


    I had no idea what he could have been thinking of, but after he reached out his paw and released a horrifying burst of energy,pletely engulfing the web of divinity, and essentially removing a several-kilometer-wide section of the ocean, he quite happily motioned me along. "Why don''t I just show you? I''m sure you''ll find it interesting!"


    -And he thinks he''d lose to Freya...- Looking down at the colossal section of ocean he essentially removed from existence, I felt the need to sigh. "Haah.. alright."


    Eventually deciding to just go with the flow, we flew back to Nkremo before taking the space rune to Siratha, and continuing up the coast. -Where are we headed?-


    I honestly didn''t know what to expect...


    But the ce he was taking me to wasn''t even remotely on my mind.


    There was no amount of thinking that could have gotten me to the answer.


    *CRASH* As the sounds of massive waves mming into the side of a mountain filled the air, I looked down into the water with a grimace. "You want to go where?"


    "There is an Acardi Laboratory I rebuilt here. With its AI active, we can connect it to otherbs scattered around the Death''s Gape and maybe use them to scan the sea floor."


    It honestly sounded like he was speaking a differentnguage. "''Ay eye''?" -The hell is he talking about..?-


    But he just smiled at my confusion. "I''ll exin while we swim. It''ll take us some time to get there."


    Watching him dive into the water, and reluctantly following after him, I felt more confused than I ever had before. -Where the hell is he taking me...-


    But instead of being unusually ufortable the whole time we swam, as he started more passionately exining what to expect, and what certain things he spoke of were, I grew curious.


    -An essentially sentient creature that isn''t alive.. but instead thinks and exists purely as a sequence of electrical signals...- The more he exined, the more my confusion grew, but at the same time, the more interested I became.


    "~Did the Acardi really haveboratories in the oceans that were that old?~"


    He immediately nodded. "~It wouldn''t surprise me if theseboratories existed before the war really started. The issue is, I don''t really know. The only data logged here is rted to biological life.~"


    *Hmmmm* As a gentle hum slowly filled the water, distracting me from our conversation, we suddenly entered what looked like an absolutely colossal dungeon, and began following a series of long, glowing cables that lead up to arge, eerily familiar cube-shaped building.


    Seeing it made my eyes go wide as it forced memories I wished I had forgotten into the forefront of my mind. -It looks just like the one I was trapped in...-


    But that was only from the front.


    As we swam up over it and looked down, the sight that met my eyes was unlike anything I could wrap my head around. An indescribable web of cables surrounding a glowing, humming core that even from a few hundred meters away, felt dangerous. "~What.. is that..?~"


    "~Hm?~" Vasilias, not knowing what I was talking about, quickly nced back at me. "~Are you talking about the reactor?~" Seeing me hesitantly nod as he nced toward it, he continued with a smile. "~I built that to power this facility! Isn''t it cool?~"


    I honestly felt my eye twitch hearing him speak as I looked inside it with my aura. "~You must be joking.. right?~" -If anything in that malfunctions, this whole ce will cease existing...- Inside the so-called ''reactor'' there was essentially a constant sequence of explosions so intense they could recreate volcanic eruptions, yet were contained in a little sphere and used to ''power'' the facility. -It''s moreplicated than anything I''ve ever seen too...-


    Even including the Acardi equipment I looked at in the facility I was captured in. -Maybe.. I''m a bitcking in my understanding of science still...-


    I felt my confidence slowly drain the longer I looked at everything he made.


    But as we swam down, oh-so-carefully navigating between the web of cables, and changed to our humanoid forms to walk inside, I nearly fainted.


    The hallway, lined with pristine white tile, so polished I could see my reflection in it, was lit by countless white lights, while the air smelled like an indescribable amount of nothingness.


    It was simr to the facility I was trapped in, but at the same timepletely different. -What the...-


    Nothing in it ran on runes or mana... -Everything is just connected by these metal wires...-


    It made no sense, even after having learned most of the basics of science from Vasilias. -The facility I was trapped in had runes everywhere.. but this ce.. is devoid of them...-


    But he seemedpletely unphased by it, gently setting his hand on my lower back while motioning me down the hall. "Don''t m up yet. You haven''t even seen the cool stuff."


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 387: The Acardi

    Chapter 387: The Acardi


    Mid Morning - Late Fall : Acardi Laboratory | Siratha


    -----


    -Looks like everything is still working correctly...- Scanning through the field of cables with my aura while carefully swimming down to theboratory''s entrance, I cut my usual door into the hallway before changing to my humanoid form right as I came inside. *sh* *tap-tap*


    *Inhale* "Haaaah..." Letting out a satisfied breath, I looked back toward the entrance as Hera''s colossal snout poked the barrier keeping the water out before changing to her humanoid form anding through. *sh*


    *Tap-Tap* As the light finally subsided, two gentle taps echoed down the hallway before my eyes fell on a stunning, mature draconic woman with pale skin, long dark blue hair, and clothes adorned with gold that almost looked like armor, entuating her curves while giving her an air of majesty that could only belong to a monarch. The only thing she was missing was a crown.


    But the glow in her eyes was so youthful it made her look more like a princess than a queen. -I guess I should follow suit then...-


    While she was upied, I quickly tweaked my clothes to appear slightly more formal before I took note of her expression and gently set my hand on her lower back. "Don''t m up yet. You haven''t even seen the cool stuff."


    "Huh?" Immediately turning to look at me, I could see the countless thoughts ripping through the back of her mind. "Is this ce really run only by that ''electricity'' thing you tried exining a while back?"


    I immediately nodded as my smile warmed, and a gentle flick passed through my tail. "I told you electricity had many uses, did I not?" Motioning her forward, we started making our way down the hall before peeking into a few rooms to see the remaining, abandoned containment facilities."Wow... They really had all kinds of creatures stored down here..." Pausing to read one of the screens, she reached up and tapped it as if trying to scroll before I curiously tilted my head.


    "Can you read theirnguage? You seem familiar with it."


    She gently nodded as she started reading the next screen. "If you don''t know thenguage of your enemies, how are you supposed to get information out of them?"


    She spoke incredibly bluntly, but in all honesty, it wasn''t a response I expected. "Hm... I guess that makes sense..." But it made me wonder. "What did their race actually look like, by the way?" Although there was an image painted in my head, I wasn''t exactly sure.


    But as I asked, Hera paused to think. "Hm... I guess you could think of them like humans..."


    My ears quickly flicked with curiosity. "Bipedal, soft-skinned creatures?"


    "Haha, I mean like, if one was amongst a group of humans, they''d stand out, but they would still probably be called humans." Slowly walking to the next containment center, she paused to wave her hand to the side. "Actually, why don''t I just show you..." *Vwoop*


    Almost instantly, a wall of light magic appeared, depicting a man quite a bit taller than me, with a very muscr build and a grizzled look on his face.


    "Their soldiers were quite tall, with thergest being a bit over two and a half meters tall, but the researchers were all much smaller..." The magic instantly flickered before a young man around my height appeared.


    He was still fairly well built, but a little on the skinny side, and at best, he looked like an abnormally tall human. -At least that is if I don''t look at his eyes...-


    Instead of having normal, white eyeballs like the soldier, one of his eyes was reced with a mechanical ball touting a lens of some sort.


    "Did they all have modifications like that?"


    "Hm?" Pausing to turn and look at her own light magic, she just looked confused. "What do you mean?"


    "His eye."


    "Hm..." She immediately paused. "I don''t know if I could call them modifications, but yes." Quickly changing the image again, this time showing a man with mechanical hands and some sort of device on his head. "Depending on their job or purpose, they would have these weird.. ''modifications''..." Unable to find a word for it, she hesitantly used what I called them.


    -But why is she so hesitant...- "What makes you want to call them something other than modifications?"


    She immediately shrugged. "The mismatches were extremely rare, and while they look like metal, they were made of some type of bone, and seamlessly attached to their bodies."


    "Huh..." -Interesting...-


    From how I saw it, they looked almost like cyborgs. -Perhaps using cybeic parts wherever it suits their profession...-


    Considering they were the creators of an artifact that changed the genes of my entire body as a hatchling, extremely advanced gic modification was possible as well. -But they do look eerily human...-


    While closer to demihumans in terms of stature, they were undoubtedly human looking. "How much variation was there in things like eye or skin color?"


    "It''s hard to say..." She paused as she walked out in front of the wall of magic and waved at it, making the man vanish. "Most of the ones I killed looked like a cloud of dust afterwards, so." Shrugging her wings, she smiled, as if wanting tough before walking past me toward the hall. "I''m surprised you had to ask that considering you''ve explored so many wreckage though." Pausing, she looked back at me. "Have you not at least found a skeleton?"


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    Walking up behind her, I smiled. "Nope! But it doesn''t surprise me too much." Seeing her tilt her head as we walked out into the hall, I continued with a somewhat annoyed tone. "From the data entries and stuff I''ve read, they seemed to be quite adept in surviving just long enough to get eaten by something..."


    "Pft-hahaha!" She immediately burst intoughter. "That''s so incredibly ironic." Seeing my confusion, she spoke with haste while trying to calm herself down. "S-So back during the war, we actually nicknamed them ''honeypots'' because whenever they set foot outside a ship, all the monsters nearby would hunt them down. It was so egregious that we even followed wyverns to find some of their hidden defense instations and containment centers since they would hunt the Acardi down from hundreds of kilometers away."


    "Haha, the world must have really not wanted them here, huh."


    She quickly, passionately nodded. "Some people said it was the itself that signaled the wildlife to target them, but I still think it was something else." Looking over at me, she yfully tapped her nose. "Their smells were extremely distinct, so even if you were kilometers away from one of them, their scent would cut through everything else. Things with more sensitive noses could track them for some insane distances."


    -How interesting...- "Was it a good scent?"


    "Nope, not at all." She gave me a firm look as she shook her head. "It smelled almost like breathing air over acid would, but for most of the monsters here, the Acardi were easy pickings if they were away from their ships." Looking up at the ceiling light as we walked under it, her expression slowly darkened. "The issue was when they had their ships, anything under the ss of an elder dragon would just get ughtered like cattle..." She was clearly speaking on bad memories...


    But as we came into the main room of theb with the massive, glowing tube at the center, her gaze turned curious again.


    *hhuuuummmm* Walking forward, I spoke casually toward the AI''s tube. "How has the ETBM''s update progressed?"


    *Beep* It went to respond immediately.. but it didn''t say what I expected. "Unable to operate with underqualified personnel in the room."


    -Huh?- ncing over at Hera, I saw the bright glimmer in her eyes before turning back to the AI. "Can I grant her appropriate permissions?"


    "Indeed. Please register their mana signature at aputer."


    -Perfect!- "Hera,e over here real quick."


    Still staring at the glowing tube containing the AI, she hesitantly turned to starting to me.


    Gently moving the sensor toward her, I tried to shake off her hesitance with a warm look. "Just inject a bit of mana in here and it will register you in the system."


    Somewhat nervously doing as I said, theputer instantly updated with an error message.


    *Beep* "It appears that ''said user'' is already registered in thetest update of the database. Their data has been marked as ''Maximum-Containment Research Subject'', so I am unable to grant them any permissions. However, you may do so manually on anyputer."


    -What?- Hera immediately gave me an anxious look, but I was quick to try and calm her down. "It sounds like they registered you when you were still captive... Don''t stress it..."


    Quickly pulling out a chair and logging in, I asked the AI to guide me through the process before finding myself in a massive registry with more registries than I cared to count. -Holy shit there are a lot of people in here...-


    It looked like an identification database, loaded with names, dates, and numbers I couldn''t really make sense of, with at least a few billion entries.


    "Your guest''s registry number is one, nine, eight, seven, six, one, three. Allow me to find it."


    *Flicker* The screen updated instantaneously before Hera''s registry popped up.


    It was a long document detailing everything from her name and estimated age, to scale hardness and inability to have children because of the heavy mana suppressing her body in the facility.


    Leaning over the back of the chair, Hera and I immediately started reading it. -''However, it is likely possible that during evolution, if the eggs are purged in advance, and the reproductive organs are damaged, the eggs may regrow like how we observed with younger test subjects.''-


    After reading it, a sudden light appeared in my eyes. "Does that mean dragons can have more than one clutch?"


    Hera, leaning farther over the back of my chair quickly spoke while reading the report as well. "In rare cases... We spent quite a bit of effort in my era to try and figure it out, but we never did, so we just said it was impossible to do reliably.. but..." Reading the report clearly stated otherwise. "I wonder..." Pausing, she quickly tapped on my shoulder. "Change my permissions so I can ask the AI something."


    Quickly continuing as the AI instructed, I found a panel on the report stating her permissions rank and containment breach protocol, which could be summed up to ''run for your damn lives until the mothership can assist'', and edited her permissions to the highest I could give.


    *Beep* "Permissions sessfully updated. However, this will remain as a local change, as the main server is still disconnected, so please proceed with caution. If you reconnect the main server, it is possible to make the change globally."


    -I need to ask more about how to do that while I''m out here...- But I had to save my questions for a moment.


    The moment I updated her permissions, Hera spoke freely with the AI, hammering it with question after question rted to the Acardi, and their study of life on this world, simr to the questions I had initially asked it.


    But as time passed, her questions slowly shifted to their research itself. "What part of the female reproductive organ of a dragon needs to be damaged to reinstate a clutch of eggs?"


    *Beep* "The ovaries. If they, with some of the surrounding tissue, are removedpletely prior to evolution, colloquially known as a dragon sleep, there is a high probability that another egg will be produced with the reconstruction of the organ. However, the amount of tissue that needs to be removedrgely depends on how old the dragon is."


    Hera''s excited look quickly calmed. "What do you mean?"


    "Within the ovaries, there is something called the bicordial nd. It produces a chemical that turns into MSC1, a protein that strengthens the gic makeup of the eggs and repairs defects, but ites at the cost of permanently damaging the ovaries and surrounding tissue after the production of an egg. If the entirety of the damaged tissue is removed and rebuilt from nothing, the ovaries will naturally produce another egg, but if the surrounding tissue is still damaged and the organ repairs itself from it, the damage will remain and no egg will be produced."


    Quickly turning to me, Hera''s eyes gleamed with a fiery passion I didn''t know she had.


    "Haha, what''s that look for?" Understanding how to drastically increase Bahamut''s poption was indeed something to be excited about.. however.. her gaze felt more predatory than excited.


    "Oh, it''s nothing." Slowly turning smug, her tail happily curled back and forth.


    "How ominous..." As a warm smile came to my face, I looked at the joy in her expression and felt myself rx. -Who knew that ''big and scary'' monarch had a cute side to her...-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 388: Surveillance

    Chapter 388: Surveince


    Late Morning - Late Fall : Acardi Laboratory | Siratha


    -----


    "So, how can I tell what tissue is damaged by the bicordial nd, and how deep does the damage typically spread?" Speaking with a joyful tone, Hera looked up toward the AI while her tail happily swayed back and forth.


    "The ''damaged'' tissue is only detectable through careful examination andparison of gic material from an ''actively healed area'' of a dragon''s body, namely the brain or eyes, and the gics of cells near the ovaries. And of 38 documented studies, the most widespread damage was about a dozen times the width of the ovary, but it can vary greatly between draconic species and ages as damage spreads through the breakdown and repair of cells overtime."


    Falling into thought, Hera immediately paused before giving me a more puzzled look. "Uh.. do you have any idea how to do that?"


    Gently nodding, I turned my chair around and looked up at the AI. "So, by the sounds of it, the damage is specifically to gics?"


    "That is correct."


    -That''s.. odd...- My blissful expression slowly morphed with confusion as the wag in my tail slowed. "Can you give me some more detail on the chemical the nd produces? You said it produces a protein that checks for defects?" -How would a protein really.. do that...-


    "That is correct. MSC1 is a ssification of nuclear envelope proteinsmon in most advanced lifeforms that verify the integrity of the DNA. Although study on younger dragons is limited, it is expected that the chemical verifies the DNA of the egg during its creation and after conception, when the gic temtes of the parents are blended. However, just one of these events is more than enough to cause permanent damage to the ovary itself, preventing the production of more eggs."Quickly speaking up, Hera spoke with a bit of haste. "If it damages the ovaries, does it also damage the egg?"


    "No." It responded firmly. "To our knowledge, it does not damage the eggs in the same way as surrounding tissue, however, its repairs are significant enough to draw the attention of lead researchers."


    -What?- With a bit of uneasiness starting toe over me, I felt myself tense slightly. "What do you mean?"


    "This world''s dragons are the only race ever discovered to produce this chemical in such huge amounts. Typically, the production of MSC1 proteins is isted to specific areas of cells at the end of mitosis, however, that isn''t the case here. The proteins are produced in a huge quantity, and check the DNA of already constructed cells many times over. This causes evolutionary mutations to be exceedingly rare, but ording to many recorded theories rting to the study of prehistoric dragon fossils and remains, the mutation could have only happened in thest forty or fifty thousand years. The issue is that timeframe is still far too short to so uniformly affect the entire draconic poption of this world."


    -What the hell...- Hera slowly turned to me with a slightly anxious look, and I felt exactly the same way she did. "Are you implying the presence of the nd could be artificial?"


    "It is entirely possible that the nd is natural, as there are many evolutionary advantages to it, preventing major defects, and encouraging selective breeding to more reliably create stronger young. However, its forceful overproduction of the proteins hinders the creation of multiple clutches to such an extent that it is quite evolutionarily disadvantageous, but it may be possible that there was a significant culling of the draconic poption, perhaps in the form of a war, and because they were stronger, the other gics were weeded out."


    -But...- Looking over at Hera, I watched her dig through her memories before looking up at me with worry in her eyes.


    "There wasn''t a major culling that I can remember..." She spoke with a mix of uncertainty and worry. "And dragons only being able to have a single clutch was a widespread issue even when I was young..." But anger was slowly woven into her voice.


    Grabbing her attention, I spoke softly. "Do you know of any events around that timeframe?"


    She immediately shook her head before whispering back. "I''d have to check old records..." Pausing to think, she turned back to the AI. "Is it possible that it was something done artificially?"


    The AI''s glow gently pulsated as if to nod. "It is, especially so if the nd itself formed naturally."


    -It''s just the overproduction of the chemical it makes that''s the problem...- *Creak* Leaning back in my chair, I looked up at the ceiling and let thoughts rip through my mind. -Forty to fifty thousand years before the great war...- It simply wasn''t a long enough time for there have been either a huge event, or a happenstance mutation that didn''t have any sort of record. -It''s too recent...-


    And Hera knew that just as well as I did...


    -Maybe...- "Could it have been something rted to diet? Could it have to do with it being oversupplied with nutrients?" Trying to take a shot in the dark in hopes of getting a hint at it being natural, I looked at the AI''s tube.


    But it responded bluntly. "This phenomenon urs in dragons who live almost entirely off mana as well. The issue is with the gics of the nd itself."


    *Tap-Creaaak* Leaning against the desk next to me, Hera hung her head with a dark expression while sinking into thought.


    She seemed to be trying to think back to an event that could have urred then, the same as me...


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    But we were both empty-handed.


    "Are your memories around that time still fuzzy?" She quickly gave me a hopeful nce.


    But I could only silently nod.


    "Then we need to check the inneryer of the library for stuff rted to that when we go back..." Speaking somewhat angrily, she gripped the desk hard enough for her fingers to sink into the metal, before easing herself with a deep breath. "If there was an event, the best ce we could find information on it is there..." Lowering her tone even further, she spoke under her breath, just loud enough for me to hear. "I just hope it''s not what I think it is..."


    Falling into silence, we both gave it some more thought before eventually, I decided to change subjects. "How is the progress on the ETBM?"


    Quickly grabbing Hera''s attention, helping distract her from her somber thoughts, the AI''s voice filled the room. "The update has beenpleted sessfully as per emergency protocol. However, in the process of switching to be an OOM, all local save data and interface preferences have been lost."


    "That''s fine." Turning back around to the desk, I reached over and gently picked it up.


    "Hm?" Peeking over my shoulder, Hera gave it a curious look. "What is that?"


    *Tap* Tapping the screen, it instantly lit up with a weing menu reading, ''SrCore Multipurpose Orbital Object Mapper'' with ''Unable to Connect to Local Ry'' in red text at the bottom. "It''s an old Acardi device I found in a human kingdom a long time ago. I could use it to map smaller areas, or connect it to satellites to maprger ones, but I didn''t have much of a use for it then."


    *Beep* With a silent beep, the screen updated to show aary body with a vague outline, and a blue glowing section centered on the screen, before a sudden panel appeared saying it was being updated.


    "Theb said it was really outdatedst time I came by, so I left it here to update..." -Let''s see what it can do now...-


    *Beep* With another beep, the 3D map of the entire popted, with several colors ranging from green to red as if depicting danger levels.


    "Huh..." A fascinated glow quickly found its way into Hera''s eyes. "Is this Delphi?"


    I quickly nodded. "It seems like a map the Acardi used.. but look at the colors..." Swiping around the, everywhere was marked with a color, with Bahamut, The Forgotten Inds, and all of the Western Continent Marked in dark red, while most of the rest of the world was varying shades of yellow.


    However, besides the tiny specs of green dots amidst the sea of yellow, there was onerge area marked green. -The Holy Kingdom...-


    The entirendmass where the Holy Kingdom was, with the exception of the Scar, was mapped with in green. "Hey, Lab, what are the colors marking?"


    Realizing what I was thinking, Hera''s expression darkened as well.


    "The colors depict danger levels. Blue is unknown, Red is deadly, or high-risk, yellow is dangerous, or medium-risk, and green is minimal risk, as well as the areas my hosts could safely exit their vehicles."


    -So it doesn''t necessarily mean the Acarrdi viewed The Holy Kingdom as allies...- But it was a possibility I wasn''t going to shake off that easily. "So what about these smaller green areas? There are a few in red areas."


    "Those are Acardi defensive installments,boratories, docking bays, or assorted research facilities. If you wish for them to be highlighted in a different color, you can customize it on the left."


    Quickly expanding a wall of settings that covered the screen, I took my time to scroll through all the different settings, finding many that weren''t rted to the map, before setting all the different Acardi structures to different colors and exiting to look at the map again.


    Almost instantly, hundreds of different areas lit up with different colors, showing me exactly what each structure was, no matter where it was. -Holy shit...- There were structures absolutely everywhere. -This should make finding the otherboratories easy, but...- The number of structures was mind-boggling.


    "Oh my goodness..." Even Hera was taken aback. "They really did.. infest this world..."


    No matter where you looked, as long as it wasn''t the heart of Siratha or Bahamut, there were structures scattered absolutely everywhere.


    Especially in the Holy Kingdom. -Oh my gosh...- It was almost like they had their own city there. -That.. is a bad sign...- My expression quickly turned troubled.


    "So they were allied with the Holy Kingdom..." Hera was thinking the same thing.


    But there was one thing continuously tripping up my thoughts. -The ship convoys they sent to Siratha were unbelievablycking if the Acardi gave them any technology... Especially after ten thousand years...- "I think it''s more likely that they made a deal rather than having a proper alliance..." Zooming in on the Holy Kingdom, I could easily pick out several research facilities where it looked like the capital was, but they were all subterranean. "If the Holy Kingdom had ess to Acardi tech, they would have already taken over the world, and most definitely wouldn''t have given my father the artifact that gave me a body my soul could coexist with... If Asgard had even an inkling of what that artifact did, they never would have parted ways with it..."


    "But I''m certain they gave the Holy Kingdom some things, they just probably couldn''t reverse engineer it."


    Gently nodding, I turned to look at thebs in the Deaths Gape, as well as a tiny spike in the middle of it that I understood to be the connection tower for thebs. "The idea of them having a weapon that can deal a blow to you or Myles leaves a bad taste in my mouth regardless..." But I was hopeful I wouldn''t need to test those waters for quite a while. "It''s all the more reason to keep eyes on them though..."


    *Beep* Selecting one of the many tabs at the top of the screen, the map instantly zoomed out to focus of the space around the.


    It was a satellite map, with several color options for marking different satellites just like with theary map.


    But there was one category of satellites that caught my eye. -Surveince satellites...- "After we reconnect thebs and get an updated map of the sea floor to see if the oracle really was from the Leviathan, I want to get these satellites back online..."


    Although we had acquired the thunderbirds, I wasn''t confident in testing the waters by having them look over the Holy Kingdom. -But if I use satellites, even Odin won''t fuck with them...-


    The question was how many would even be recoverable, and how I would have to go about syncing them up with theboratory. -I might have to restart the server that the Lab keeps mentioning...- Gently turning the map of the moon, I eventually found a tilebeled 4B, with a wide expanse of structures on it. -I just hope turning it back on isn''t going to open a whole nother can of worms...-


    <strong>-----</strong>


    Read up to <strong>5 chapters</strong> ahead of schedule, and get <strong>early ess to artwork</strong> on My Patreon!


    (In case Embedded Link doesn''t work: /TDOD )


    -------------


    Also, please feel free to check out our discord for all updates rted to TDOD releases! https://discord.gg/Dv7G5bQD4v


    All are wee!


    ---


    Also if you are looking for a new story, check out my new novel! The System''s Harvester


    On RR and SH

 Chapter 389: Lessons

    Chapter 389: Lessons


    Late Afternoon - Late Fall : Acardi Laboratory | Off the Coast of the Kingdom of Elynnor


    -----


    *Blub...* *t-t-t-tap-Blub...* *t-t-t-CLICK-WOOM* As the old, decaying reactor kicked on, a plume of steam erupted from the top of theb, funneling into a hole in the ceiling of the dungeon before funneling out into the open ocean like a massive volcanic vent.


    "~Hey, that one was pretty good!~" -Looks like she''s starting to get the hang of it...- Looking over at Hera as she carefully pulled her head out of the hole in the top of theboratory, leading directly to the heat chamber of the reactor, I watched her lean back and take a moment for her eyes to adjust before she set her eyes on me.


    "~Did I do this one right?~" Immediately seeing me nod, her expression lit up with pride. "~Haha! At longst!~"


    "~Pftt, what do you mean ''at longst'', you went from not knowing how electricity works to restarting a fusion reactor in like a week.~"


    "~And I STILL don''t know what the hell is happening in theb you literally reconstructed. All I''ve done is repairs!~"


    She seemed a bit annoyed, but just five days ago, I was trying to exin the concept of electricity to her while simultaneously attempting to exin why I was doing certain things when repairing an old fusion reactor. -It''s a process...- "~You''ll get there eventually, I promise.~" But I was honestly quite proud. "~You also just call them repairs, but you couldn''t have done them if you didn''t know how the whole system worked.~"


    "~Well, when I had to ask for a tutorial on every step of the process for thest twobs, of course I''d know now.~" Finally walking toward the edge of theb''s roof and hopping off, we swam toward the vehicle bay and made our way inside. *tsss-blub*"Wee.. aboard."


    It had been just under six days since I brought Hera to the Acardib off the coast of Siratha at that point, but we nearly couldn''t have been farther from it.


    Over the course of thest several days, we traveled all around the Death''s Gape following the directions of my OOM to find three other, much older abandonedboratories with the goal of bringing them all back online.


    ording to the mainb, the one in Siratha, they were theboratories with subaquatic and subsurface mapping facilities. The issue was, while we only needed to power three of them, we had to go through and repair everything incredibly thoroughly, whether it was fixing a cable that led to an outlet in the cafeteria or the central fusion reactor, which, given theirparably poor build quality, was more than a little time-consuming.


    But after several days, we were almost done. All we had left was to connect the finalb to the Ry Pylon in the middle of the Gape and return to the mainb to check if the AI couldmunicate with the other facilities. -After that, we should be able to look at a map of the bottom and figure out if Jormungandr could really be the source of that patch of divinity near Nkremo...-


    My thought was, because of how massive he was, with a subterranean map, we should be able to see where he had previously been, and in turn, see if he could''ve been the one that the oracle stemmed from.


    However, regardless of whether he was really the source of it or not, I nned to use these facilities to keep my eyes on him, just as I was going to do the Holy Kingdom with satellites. -It''s time I start using some tech to my advantage...-


    But I can''t lie, the state of the otherboratories had me worried.


    *Blub-Blub* While we waited for the old vehicle bay to drain, Hera sat down and gave me an odd look. "~Why were all thesebs so.. inferiorpared to the one you rebuilt, by the way? Didn''t you get that reactor from an Acardi wreckage?~"


    I gently nodded as the water drained past my head. "Thesebs are much, much older. The reactor I built was from a wreckage around the time you were captured, and by the looks of it, theb was simr." *sh* Quickly changing to our humanoid forms, we made our way out of the vehicle bay and into the dirty, dpidated hallway of theb. "If I had to guess, thesebs predate that by quite a margin..." -This was probably built at a simr point in time to the crawler I found...-


    "Is that so..." ncing around, she looked at the dim, flickering lights with a mix of curiosity and worry. "Did their technology really advance that fast? It couldn''t have been more than two hundred years before I got caught that they arrived."


    *Creak-THUD* Using my aura to forcefully rip open a heavily rusted door, we walked into arge control room with aputer terminal. "Well, it could have been the advancement of runes and magic, but some part of me thinks it''s more likely that it was the simple allocation of investment."


    This book''s true home is on another tform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "Investment?" She curiously tilted her head as I walked up to aputer, and plugged in my OOM.


    "If they could travel between stars, it''s probably more likely that these oldbs were from them deciding whether this was worth investing in. Whether the knowledge or resources of this were worth their time and effort..." *Click-Click-Beep* "But then again, I''m sure the advancement of knowledge around mana helped..."


    Quickly bouncing through several windows before editing a few numbers, I pressed a button that caused the monitor to go dark and my OOM''s screen to flicker. *Clip* Hastily unplugging it, I got up and walked to the back of the room while Hera watched.


    "You seem oddly.. used to using technology like this..." Hera spoke with a genuine curiosity, untainted by skepticism. "Have you really spent that much time studying the Acardi?"


    Unsure how to respond, I held my OOM up to a scanner before letting the massive door unlock itself and open with a hiss. *tssss* "I doubt you''d believe me."


    Leaning up against the desk while I walked into the abnormal dark purple room, lit by a faint blue glow, she spoke warmly. "I''d believe anything you tell me. Be it truth or lie."


    Injecting a bit of mana into an absolutely pristine rune, a metal sphere,pletely coated with microscopic runes popped up out of the glowing pedestal. *Tap* Gently grabbing it, I turned to walk back out, and caught Hera''s gaze.


    "Hah..." I continued somewhat jokingly. "If I told you it had to do with one of my past lives, would you believe me?"


    Her expression immediately turned smug. "I''m gonna make fun of you till the end of time if you used to be one of the Acardi."


    But I quickly waved her off with a smile. "As if. If I had a life like that, I wouldn''t have had to ask you what they look like."


    "Hmm... That''s fair." Following me back into the hall, we walked in silence for a moment before she poked her head in again. "Are you not going to tell me?"


    Having fallen deep into thought, my expression had darkened, but I tried to lighten it as I responded. "I''ll tell you everything eventually. This just isn''t the time, nor ce for it."


    Giving me an odd look for a moment, her expression warmed. "Do you want to tell your mother first?"


    But I shook my head without hesitation. "I''m still afraid of telling her. As for you..." Pausing to look her in the eyes for a moment, I wanted to sigh. -Why am I even nervous about telling her...- "I just want to be able to exin it without being distracted..."


    Walking out into the docking bay, we quickly changed forms again before making our way to to the surface and heading to the center of the Gape.


    For the next hour, we barely spoke at all. Hera gave me a moment to sort my thoughts, and I gave her a moment to sort hers.


    It wasn''t until we swam down to the massive glowing obelisk in the middle of the ocean that Hera spoke up again, this time changing the subject. "~So, this should be thest one, right?~"


    Looking down at the tiny metal ball isted from the elements by countless barriers, I nodded. "~We should be able to return after getting this one connected.~"


    The thing I was holding was the container for the other entangled electron used tomunicate betweenboratories.


    It was why the room I got it from was so pristinepared to the rest of theb. -It was probably built around the time of the mainb, if not eventer...- *Hummmmm* Hearing a faint hum begin filling the water, Hera and I continued down before a colossal obelisk, at least half a kilometer wide and ten kilometers tall started revealing itself with the bright glow of radiation. -Let''s see if I can find the right bay...-


    Pulling out my OOM, also protected from the water by my aura, I jumped through several menu''s before finding a map of the obelisk and searching for the bay number of theb that I saw while on theputer. -Hmm... 1.. 7.. 2.. 8.. 4...- "~There it is...~" Mumbling as I found it, I immediately started swimming deeper toward the bottom, at a depth of about 170 kilometers, the deepest I had ever been.


    "~By the way...~" Looking down into the dark water, Hera spoke curiously. "~Why is the bottom around here all ice, yet it flows like water?~"


    Eventually finding the right bay, I used some aura to create a big vacuum pocket and simte a vehicle docking to open the locks before carefully setting the entangled electrons container inside. *Snap-Blub* Releasing the bubble as the bay closed, I finally responded to Hera. "~It''s because of the pressure down here.~"


    "~What? It''s that strong?~"


    I wanted to scoff seeing her genuine surprise. "~Do you not realize that like, a block of unstrengthened metal would be crushed into a sphere at this depth?~" -Even I don''t understand how the water at this depth can remain liquid...- Even as a liquid, it was far denser than normal ice.


    But Hera didn''t seem to even notice. "~I know it''s dense, but how could the pressure reform metal?~"


    -Oh boy...- Hindsight, a part of me thinks she was saying it just to distract me, to get my mind off the things I was dwelling on by getting me to rant about something I was passionate about.


    But whether it was her goal or not, it worked.


    And looking back, I couldn''t be more thankful for it.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    Read up to <strong>5 chapters</strong> ahead of schedule, and get <strong>early ess to artwork</strong> on My Patreon!


    (In case Embedded Link doesn''t work: /TDOD )


    -------------


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    All are wee!


    ---


    Also if you are looking for a new story, check out my new novel! The System''s Harvester


    On RR and SH

 Chapter 390: Unease

    Chapter 390: Unease


    Late Morning - Late Fall : Acardi Laboratory | Siratha


    -----


    *Thump...* *RATTLEEE* *Thump...* *RATTLEEE* Watching the equipment embedded in the walls of theb rattle as the entire structure seemed to vibrate, the empty blue window on the monitor next to me instantly began popting with light blue dots and lines. -Woah...-


    It was a map of the bottom of the ocean, using patterns of deep thumps and vibrations to map not only the incredibly t ocean bottom, but also the formations of things like caves beneath it. *Thump...* *RATTLEEE* -I can''t say I''m not skeptical about how the rest of the Gape is gonna get mapped though...-


    Currently, the charge pylons outside, along with the mapping facilities of the otherbs Hera and I reactivated were all connected in order to create the map, but with each facility being tens of thousands of kilometers apart, and seeing howparably localized the current mapping range was, I was skeptical.


    -It''s certainly impressive, even just to map everything within a couple thousand kilometers...- But the Gape was sorge it made The Scar look tiny, and as things were, the mapped areas could barely be called dots on the monitor. -I thought the AI said these facilities would map the entire Gape... Have they just been worn down that much?-


    But just as I thought that, and pushed some of my aura into the vibrating charge pylons outside, the thumps stopped, and the AI broke the silence. "Recalibrationplete."


    "Huh?" Hera instantly froze up.


    "Beginning deep sea scan sequence."Inplete silence, Hera and I locked our eyes on the pixted monitor and waited.


    But it didn''t take long for the screen to update.


    Without a sound, the blue glow around one of the facilities started growing.. and growing.. and growing, like an endlessly spreading shockwave from the epicenter of a nuclear explosion, before eventually slowing down and dimming.


    -Woah...- Quickly rotating the map and zooming in, I found that, rather than a map of the ocean floor, it was mapping the massive expanse of caves in a cone below the facility, revealing the countless scattered dungeonspletely hidden from the eyes of the world.


    When you looked far enough below the caves though, there was a vast t space beneath it all. -H..Holy shit...- And it only took a moment for me to realize what it was. "Did it just map the surface of the mantle..?" I felt a bead of sweat form on my forehead as more cones started appearing, mapping more and more of the surrounding area while creeping upward as if stacking cones on their side. -How is it mapping things that far away...-


    As the ''sonar'' cones slowly pitched up, more and more of the map was filled out, until nearly everything within ten thousand kilometers of theb was mapped.


    When it finished, it moved to the nextb, and then the next, varying in range slightly with eachb before finally, it was the Sirathanb''s turn. *Thump...* RATTLEEE* -There it goes...- Using my aura to look into one of the, seemingly multipurpose charge pylons, I watched as a massive metal block was mechanically mmed into the inside of the metal casing, sending massive shockwaves into the ground and vibrating the entire dungeon with each thump.


    But just like when it was recalibrating itself, it was just warming up.


    -What the...- After a moment, the piston stopped moving, and some of the antimatter the pylon created was brought into the chamber to be umted before eventually, the chamber was flooded with hydrogen, and the antimatter was detonated. *crackle-WOOOOM*


    Sending out a shockwave so massive it ripped space, the explosion mmed the piston into the ground so hard it melted the ck mythril containing it, andpletely liquified the regr rock on the other side.


    But while the initial impact rattled theb, after just under a minute, theb rattled again, yet the piston didn''t move.


    It was an echo off the surface of the mantle, nearly two hundred kilometers below us.


    "So that''s what those sounds were..." nkly staring at the monitor as the map was popted, Hera spoke softly.


    "You recognize it?" Looking over at her, I watched her gently nod.


    "During the war, we felt vibrations like this all the time... We thought they were earthquakes..." Her expression slowly darkened as she spoke.


    "Is that so..." Looking back at the monitor, I watched as the map was popted before the piston rotated and mmed down again...


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    And again...


    And again...


    Until all that was left was the very center of the Gape, around the central tower.


    By then, I had zoomed into the area around where we found the divinity, looking for any of the absolutely colossal caverns and deformations we saw elsewhere, assuming they were left behind by the Leviathan moving around in or near thes crust.


    And we ended up finding quite a few in the general area, but there was nothing too close. "It seems like he frequents the area under Bahamut, huh..."


    Gently nodding, Hera moved around the viewfinder to get a few different angles before zooming out and moving to other areas. "Aren''t they way too small though..? I mean look at these under The Forgotten Inds. They don''t look like dungeons since theye up from the mantle and go back into it, but it''s definitely too small..."


    Seeing what she was getting at, I tilted my head. "Do you think they could be old trails from when Jormungandr was younger?"


    Pausing, Hera nced up at the AI. "Do you happen to have old maps like this stored in records?"


    Without responding, the AI''s glow pulsated, and theputer beeped.


    *Beep* -Huh?- Another map was instantlyyered on top of the map we were watching with orange dots, showing an intricate map of caves just like we had seen. -But.. they''re all different...-


    Of all the caves, only a handful actually matched, and for the most part, they were solely the smaller caverns we believed were young dungeons seemingly making their way to the surface, with many of therger, older paths leading up and down into the mantle having been mostly filled, leaving a much smaller cavern behind in its ce.


    "What the..." Looking back at the monitor, Hera''s eyes went wide. "So all those old tunnels turned into dungeons?"


    Comparing all the simrly looking, small caverns from the old map, it was quite clear they were moving toward the surface because many of them had reached the surface and grown. -To think this is where dungeonse from...- But just as it was fascinating, it was puzzling. -How would a dungeon core form that far beneath the surface of the though..?-


    However, the longer we stared at it, the more puzzling differences we noticed, and the more questions we asked. -Wait...- "Why are there so many more tunnels on the new map?"


    "And.. why are they a bit bigger than before?" Hera spoke with a mix of anxiety and worry.


    But it only took a moment for our questions to be answered.


    *Blip* Seeing a spreading blue glow on the edge of the screen we zoomed out to see that the connection tower in the middle of the Gape had begun its own mapping.


    This time though, it wasn''t mapping the''s crust, but rather the mantle.


    However, as I zoomed out to watch the wave of blue dots spread through the mantle, I felt my stomach churn.


    Throughout the mantle, there were dozens of worm-like shapes spread around, with the smallest of them being almost a kilometer in diameter and a dozen kilometers long. -What the fuck...-


    It was like the was infected, filled with worms like maggots in rotting flesh, and over the following minutes, it only seemed to get worse, until eventually, the spreading wave of dots neared the''s core.


    "That must be.. The Leviathan..." The awe in Hera''s voice seemed to mimic my own.


    Right next to the outer core, seemingly swimming around it, was an indescribably massive object so dense it seemed to absorb the scan, creating a massive shadow on the map and hiding the core along with a huge section of the mantle on the other side.


    With its curled-up pose and odd body shape it was kind of hard to tell what it looked like, but after seeing simrities with the other smaller objects scattered around.. I only became more unsettled. -What.. are these things...- Although I had vivid memories of Jormungandr''s existence, and could piece together that he was the creature near the''s core.. the worm-like things on the map were.. unfamiliar to say the least.


    Even after trying to reference the countless years of traveling through space, I couldn''t even begin to guess what they were.


    But Hera had an idea I simply wasn''t ready for. "Are all these smaller ones.. The Leviathan''s offspring?"


    Instantly tensing up, my expression turned grim. "I.. don''t know..." Trying to jog old memories, I did everything I could to think back to my time on Delphi as Nott, but everything always turned up blurry.


    But the more I looked, the more uneasy I became.


    Even if I couldn''t find a memory with details, I expected to at least feel familiarity with things, especially with something major like the being infested with worms...


    But there was nothing... Nothing at all...


    "Hera..." Seeing my expression, she turned to me with a look drowned with worry. "During your time as monarch.. how often were there new dungeons?"


    Unsure how to respond, she hesitated. "Almost.. nev-" Realizing what I was getting at, she froze, before looking back up at the monitor with wide eyes. "Wait.. are you trying to say the reason there are so many young dungeons is..."


    "I think Delphi might be Jormungandr''s incubator..."


    "T..Then.. the oracle..."


    "It was probably ced there by someone other than Jormungandr, if he ever ventured to the surface we would see it. He''s far too big to be the one making any of those caverns.. but..." Now, the contents of the oracle had an entirely different meaning. -He wouldn''t juste up to the surface for no reason...- It was why I had doubts about the validity and likelihood of the oracle, especially after confirming it couldn''t have been from Jormungandr himself.


    But now, there were more than a few reasons I could think of, and not one of them was good.


    "This.. might be a bigger issue than I was anticipating..."


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 391: Steroids

    Chapter 391: Steroids


    Late Morning - Late Fall : The Cab | Bahamut


    -----


    - Krystallo Ragnarok ~


    "Mooom! When''s Brother going to be back?" Looking up at Mom while Iid on my back, I watched her sift through the wall of papers for a moment before sorting them into a stack and speaking.


    "He''ll be back soon, I promise."


    She spoke calmly, but in her voice, I could tell she was worried about something and rolled over to give her a skeptical look.


    But she just sighed. "Haah..."


    It had been exactly two weeks since Brother left us at that point, leaving me with Mother to get more political lessons while he and sister Hera ran around investigating the cult.


    The issue was, while Hera tasked Mother with keeping track of everyone suspicious and looking through new logs of other people to see if they were rted, she hadn''t made much progress in the investigation. "How tedious..." It had her quite stressed.And I had a solution. "Why don''t you let me work as bait? You know they''re trying to influence young dragons, so aren''t I the perfect-"


    "Don''t even think about it." Mother''s tone turned firm and serious in an instant.


    "But why? Just have Myles watch over me! Is he not the strongest dragon alive behind Hera and Brother? Who would oppose him?"


    "Haah..." Stopping what she was doing, she turned her attention to me. "It''s not a matter of strength, sweetie. Hera explicitly stated that Myles can''t show his face until the Coming of Age Festival. We need the public to think he''s in power until everything is ready. The only other person I could send to protect you right now is Leander, but..." She paused as a bit of bitterness snuck into her tone. "I can''t trust him like I used to..."


    "Ugh..." Pausing, Iid my head down. -I just want to do something fun...-


    But as Iid there, I didn''t give my mind even a moment''s rest, burning toe up with something that''d get me out of The Cab.


    But I didn''t have many options. "Mom, can I visit Diaforoi?" After Brother investigated him two weeks prior, he had been under constant watch. -He seemed normal when we spoke.. so why did Brother say he still needed to be investigated...-


    Mother was also suspicious of him even though she had never spoken with him. "Absolutely not." She didn''t seem to care about my thoughts on it, and simply followed what Brother said. "You heard what Vasilias said about him."


    "Yeah, he said I needed to keep my distance for now, but if people have been stationed to watch him, record his conversations, and even document his behavior, what''s wrong with it? Do I really need a bodyguard with me?"


    Looking at me, unamused, she spoke like Father. "Your brother, instead of dismissing the possibility of that young boy being involved, increased how much we were investigating him. He just said there were more important things for him and Hera to investigate right now so he left it to us." Turning back to her work, a stack of papers neatly stacked next to her exploded into the air. *Flutter* "Plus, we have actually gotten some.. interesting evidence from him over thest week."


    -Huh?- Thinking she had to be joking, I gave her a somewhat annoyed look. "Evidence? Of what? Him ying in the dirt?"


    "Of him being involved in the cult." *Flutter* Moving a paper over to me, she held it so close to my face that it forced me to read it.


    It was documentation of about a dozen people frequently visiting his general area and following him around like guards or assassins.


    "These people have also been investigated and are very likely close associates with the Holy Kingdom." Lowering the paper just enough for her eyes to peek over the paper, she spoke firmly. "Just because he may not seem involved to you, doesn''t mean he isn''t." Pulling back the paper, her expression was both caring and stern. "Your brother didn''t mention this to you, but he said that boy spokepletely differently to you than he did anyone else. He had a few theories on what it could be, but what I believe is the most likely is that he''s tricking you."


    My expression instantly warped and darkened.


    "He knows you are from an influential family. If he really is involved with the cult, him trying to curry your favor could be baiting you into a trap, or trying to curry our family''s support-"


    "HE WOULDN''T DO THAT!" Jumping up onto my feet, I gave her an angry re before the faint warmth in her gaze vanished. -Ah...- Instantly lowering my head and tucking my tail, I averted my gaze.


    But instead of getting scolded, she continued with a tone I wasn''t familiar with. "Alright. Then how about I schedule a meeting between you two, and let you work as an interrogator of the Cab?" Her usual motherly tone was nowhere in her voice as she spoke. "I''ll call him here, give you a list of questions to ask, and you can ask them and whatever else you want."


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    It.. actually didn''t seem like such a bad offer. "And if I clear the air about him, can we go back to hanging out?"


    With a gentle nod, she spoke firmly. "That''s fine, but what if you are wrong?"


    Pausing, I tried to think of something before looking her in the eyes. "I will do whatever you want me to withoutint."


    Her smile instantly returned, but instead of being warm and motherly, something about it felt.. almost smug...


    But unfortunately, I was too naive to notice. -Perfect!-


    Feeling hopeful, my spirits were lifted. Although I knew her request wasn''t going to be as simple as it sounded, I thought it was fair. -If you dig deep enough, you will find dirt... I just can''t understand why anyone would choose him to be the target of their me...-


    Being an orphan with no backing, he was certainly an easy target, but I couldn''t understand why. Originally, I thought it was just because Mother didn''t like him, but as time passed, I found that it ran much deeper than that. -It''s fine though... Once I clean his record, things can go back to the way they were...-


    Unfortunately though.. while people were cruel, reality was always crueler.


    And that was something I wasn''t ready for.


    -----


    Early Afternoon - Late Fall : The Library of Eternity, As | Bahamut


    - Vasilias Ragnarok ~


    "Beyond this point, you cannot create any disturbances in the air, be it through breathing or movement. Please mask your existence from the books with the magic we spoke about earlier. Next, you are to only read books with your aura, and the barrier between the shelves opening and the halls are to not be breached. I ask for understanding that many of these books are tens of thousands of years old, and do not have the proper strength to survive being touched, and the darker the bookshelf the older the books it has are, with the light-blue mythril shelves being the newest."


    Listening to the library clerk give us an earful of rules as we sat at the entrance to the 3rdyer of the Library of Eternity, Hera and I listened closely in order to make sure we wouldn''t damage anything while inside.


    But for the most part, they all made sense. "Lastly, it is against the rules to move anything. Even though you two have more than enough security clearance and authority to take items from the first twoyers, things in the thirdyer have a process that must take ce before anything can be removed. If there is something you need to take out, you need to discuss it with us. Failure to do so will result in you being banned from the Library."


    -Simple enough...- Looking up at the absolutely massive double door with a massive map of Bahamut carved into it, I felt a part of myself get a little nostalgic. -Is that what Bahamut used to look like?-


    None of the cities I knew, like As, Akri, and Nkremo were there, and were instead filled with other names I didn''t recognize. -This must be a map from the beginning of Bahamut''s reign...-


    But while a part of my soul enjoyed the nostalgia for a moment, just a momentter, the map was split in half and the doors opened, letting a tsunami of mana wash out. <em>WOOOOM</em>


    It was so intense it made my pupils thin and senses heighten, almost like I had plunged into an icyke.


    "Is this your first time feeling enriched mana?" Hera spoke with a slightly smug smile.


    "Enriched mana?" It created a sensation I only ever felt from mana I made in the void. "What is it?"


    Looking back through the doors, toward the wall of easily visible flowing blue mana, she looked proud. "It''s technically an eighth attribute to mana, but it depends on what you would ssify an attribute. You can think of it like extremely high-energy mana, a step above unattributed mana." Turning back to me with her smug smile, she continued. "Considering you have a little bit of it in your aura, I expected you to know about it."


    -Huh?- My expression instantly warped with confusion before my eyes went wide. "Wait, is that what causes my aura to calm or stress people?"


    She immediately nodded. "I''m not sure how you create it, but it''s certainly in there."


    -Interesting...- Finally standing up, we started walking through the doors and pushed ourselves through the barriers, but the enriched mana only got denser, and my senses only got sharper.


    "Hoooh..." Letting out a breath as her whole body seemed to be steaming inside the mana, Hera nced at me with a sharpness in her eyes that I had never seen. "~Doesn''t it feel good?~"


    Following her inside, my scales grew cold and my aura appeared to draw trails through the mana. It somehow felt even denser than liquid mana.


    But at the same time, the chill it gave me was incredible. "~Oh my...~" "Hoooh..." Having to let out a long breath to keep a chill from passing down my spine, my vision and thoughts had never been clearer. "~How does ambient mana even do this...~"


    "~Haha,~" letting out a muffled chuckle, Hera continued with a refreshed tone. "~You can''tpare it to normal mana. Because our bodies live off mana, giving it enriched mana is like giving it thousands and thousands of growth-enhancing elixirs. It''s like eating meat after knowing nothing but sd.~"


    "~Woah...~" As she spoke, more memories from my time as Nott surfaced, this time bringing with it some information. "~Actually I think I do remember something about enriched mana... It was what let Dagr and I grow so massive... We found a way to produce it in ourselves after one of my reincarnations.~" With it, we grew to well over a kilometer tall long before we even arrived at Delphi.


    It was like steroids for a body that lived off mana.


    -I really need to figure out how I''m managing to produce it so I can boost that production...- With all the dangers looming over the horizon, I needed everything I could get my hands on to grow stronger. "~But.. I can''t remember how we made it...~" Digging through memories at a speed I didn''t know I had, I tried to scrounge up some details with no luck.


    "~Well, if you do ever figure it out let me know.~" Turning away, Hera''s smile seemed to widen. "~But in the meantime I''m happy just taking a bit of yours.~"


    Following her inside, my smile slowly returned, and a happy sway found its way into my tail. "~That''s fine with me.~"


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 392: Unlocked

    Chapter 392: Unlocked


    Early Afternoon - Late Fall : The Library of Eternity, As | Bahamut


    -----


    -''Bahamut''s Questionable Choice'', ''The Bane of Progress'', ''The Tyrant''s Rule''..? Oh, it''s another about Hera...- Reading the titles of books as I walked down one of the twoyers of bookshelves, I paused to peek over the middle shelf at Hera. "~You really were a hot topic back in the day, huh...~" -This is like the eighth book on her and we just started...- ncing back at the door, we hadn''t gotten more than a few steps into the thirdyer.


    "~Of course. Bahamut essentially handing the country to me was a very hot topic back then, especially with those who believed they had power and influence because he made the decision without their input. They liked Bahamut though, so in order to keep his favor they aimed their voices at me, whether I was the one that did what they were mad about or not.~"


    -Interesting...- Lowering my head back below the top of the shelf, I got back to reading with my aura. "~So you were basically a scapegoat for everyone''s dislike?~"


    "~Something like that...~" Smiling with a somewhat reminiscent look, she continued. "~Back then, people said Bahamut put me in the position in order to court me. At that time, I was known for having quite a cold personality so they thought he was trying to ''win over the unwinnable'' byying the country in myp.~"


    "~So that''s why these books keep iming you were unworthy of the position... It looks like those rumors really caught on.~" -These books are from well after the war...-


    "~Well, Bahamut never once corrected them, so it''s what became the truth in the eyes of the public... But it worked better for me in the end, so I don''t mind.~" Looking at me, her smile turned somewhat yful.


    But I was too busy reading to notice. "~What do you mean by it worked out better? If instead of being hated, you were loved, you probably could have been saved from the Acardi.~""~But if I was saved from the Acardi, I wouldn''t be alive now.~"


    -Huh?- I wasn''t following. "~What do you mean?~"


    Looking over, I watched her nostalgic expression darken. "~I most certainly would not have survived even if I somehow managed to escape that facility alive...~" She paused before going back to reading. "~Even back then, I could tell the war wasn''t going well. Battles were short, and regardless of which side won, it felt like we were just taking jabs at each other, even though we were fighting with everything we had... But honestly.. after seeing everything you showed me over thest few days... I''ve found myself questioning how this world still exists as I remember it...~"


    Pausing as some memories gained a bit of rity, I spoke more softly and carefully. "~So you think Delphi should have lost against the Acardi...~"


    She immediately nodded. "~It wasn''t Delphi against them, it was the draconic race.. and if I''m being honest, unless thatboratory was the absolute pinnacle of what they could produce.. I don''t see a world where we could have won...~"


    Finding familiarity in her words, I raised a question. "~Do you think they could have simply lost interest?~"


    It was a blind toss, but she seemed to think differently. "~I don''t know what, but Delphi had something they needed. Unless it was simply mana, the odds of them leaving us alone are slim to none.~" Peeking over the bookshelf at me, she spoke with a serious tone. "~One of the many things I learned being around them for so long was that they weren''t a race to simply leave behind something valuable. They spoke about colonies on other worlds like we talk about kingdoms, and said that it was a shame to destroy certain worlds because ''the sector'' didn''t find them useful enough... The only reason I didn''t get killed when they left my facility was because the guy in charge hated me, and wanted me to have a slow death.~"


    -But if they were defeated, there would be traces...- For the Mothership to hold as many people as it did, I had expected to find colossal wreckages in the bottom of the Death''s Gape, but not only was there nothing, there weren''t any sizable debris fields at all. -So what happened to them...-


    Once again, I was back to square one, questioning the purpose of the Acardi and wondering what happened to them.


    But there was one thing I had to wonder as I read the ancient books lining the shelves. "~Do you think it could be rted to Jormungandr?~"


    If Delphi was an incubator for whatever kind of creature he was, maybe the Acardi needed it for something, came, found it was taken, and left.


    If Jormungandr was as powerful as I believed him to be, it would be logical that they wouldn''t try and piss him off.


    But that theory held less ground the more I gave it thought.


    So, for the next couple hours, Hera and I walked around the library, reading book after book about everything from the cost of living documentation and architecture blueprints to newspapers, old novels, and encyclopedias.


    For the most part, the knowledge and information they contained was useless to me, more so just giving me a look into the culture of Bahamut from that era, but every now and then I struck gold, like finding a book detailing old studies taken to look into science, attempting to exin quantum physics with mana, or finding a series of handwritten pieces detailing experiences during the fall of Bahamut.


    With every book, more and more memories seemed to gain rity, not from my time as Nott, but my time as Bahamut.


    However, it seemed those memories had a limit. -Bahamut''s soul must have been really damaged when I absorbed him...- Even strong, core memories were so fuzzy that while I felt clear emotions and intentions from them, I didn''t even know what the memory was.. to the extent I had to question if the void was what imed his life.


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    But as I continued to read more and more books, and more memories returned, that no longer was the question.


    Fragmented memories from a time when dragons were feral slowly began piecing themselves together, memories of a gold-scaled dragon hatching, alone in the middle of a swamp filled with monsters, forced to fight for its life in order to survive.


    It was me, as Bahamut, being born.


    But as the memories progressed, and the fragmented memories of me fighting for my own survival continued, the fragments started getting more and more spaced out.


    Memories of the moment I gained magic bordered those of the day I escaped the swamp to see my first view of civilization, nearly ten yearster.


    But it was enough. While the fragments started slowing in frequency, and the memories started bing more and more disconnected and fragmented, I felt oddly at ease, as if pleased that not everything had been forgotten.


    However, just when I thought all the remaining fragments regained whatever rity they would, one more was forced into my mind...


    A fragment nearly sixty thousand years after the most recent fragment I had.


    An image of a rune, and a sequence of numbers. -Huh?-


    Unlike the other fragments, that one wasn''t blurry, it more so felt.. fake... It felt as if it was a memory carved into my soul by hand rather than through evolution or reincarnation.


    But I didn''t have a clue as to what it could mean, even after dedicating some thought to it while Hera and I continued around the library, reading books that grew thousands and thousands of years older with every step. Ancient diaries of dragons who lost family in the war, recordings of huge ceremonies dedicated to those who were killed in battle, and logs of colossal battles where thousands of dragons fought as one bordered the praises of Bahamut, announcements of the endless progress in the Golden Era, and first-hand ounts of Hera''s reign.


    It was honestly like stepping through a time machine, but... -No wonder Bahamut''s technology fell back so aggressively after the war...-


    While the library was indeed packed with information, recounting countless huge events, cultural and technological milestones, and even the diaries of countless souls that had long since been lost to time, before the fall of Bahamut, details of technological developments vanished entirely. "~Bahamut''s culture was preserved, but not the technology that supported it...~"


    It was exactly as Hera thought. "~Back when Bahamut constructed this library, he wanted it to be a ce dedicated to preserving our traditional values, keeping dragons moral, humble, and happy... But unfortunately, everything he didn''t preserve was lost to time...~"


    -Well.. that might not have been a bad thing...- Although draconic technology had indeed taken quite a few steps back, it not being too advanced would help science take its hold, inevitably raising the limit of technology to a realm well above what it could have before. -But we are quite a ways from that...-


    Continuing further around the ring of shelves, books started getting noticeably more sparse, with more artifacts beginning to fill shelves, and leaving only massive cultural events such as Hera''s coronation or the rumored appearances of the Ancient Fenrir or Scales of the Leviathan to fill the shelves.


    But, while irrefutably fascinating, the information I originally hoped to find was nowhere to be found. Details about both Jormungandr and the Acardi were sparse at best, never being mentioned in any official documentation, and only ever being found in diaries and first-hand ounts,cking the details to even tie them to an interster or intergctic race. -Hm...-


    To an extent, it almost felt like the suppression of information, as if Bahamut didn''t want traces of the Acardi to remain after the war. -I wonder...-


    Coming out into the hallway we first started in after doing a full loop around the thirdyer, I sat down and looked toward the final door, the entrance to Bahamut''s nest.


    Just like the entrance to the thirdyer, it was a map of Bahamut, this timecking any indicator of cities as if to be a map from before the development of dragonic society.


    The detail of the map was incredible, with small clearings andkes even being visible amongst the sea of trees, but even though many of the parts were of ces I had never been, I was confident that was how it was at one point.


    I was confident that everything, down to the tinykes, and small dungeon entrances was perfectly urate.


    But it wasn''t because of trust in the architect of the library.


    -I.. carved this...- Although faint, the sensation of my ws carving away wood filled my mind while I stared at it. -How.. did I make the lock work though...-


    Finallying out into the hall as well Hera, holding her head and tail high gave me a curious look. "~It''s beautiful, isn''t it?~"


    Unable to pull myself from my thoughts I didn''t move at all.


    "~Are you trying to figure out how to open it?~" Following my gaze up to the door, she sat down. "~He said he only ever nned to give the key to his children, but he never had any... That ce was basically his bedroom while he was Monarch.~"


    "~But.. I might know it...~" Slowly standing up, I walked toward the door and looked around at the hundreds of tiny, darkkes carved into the wood. -They''re Acardi sensors... The same I use to log into theboratory...- It would act like a fingerprint scanner, unlocking whenever Bahamut walked close to the door. -But he wouldn''t be able to pass the code on to anyone if that was the only way in...-


    Thinking back to the countless scattered fragments of memories, I held them up next to the map in my eyes before finally, a pattern I held up to the map crossed over every singleke in a pattern.


    The pattern of ayer of a space rune. -And then the numbers in that memory fragment...- They indicated the sequence of kes'' mana in the space rune would pass through. -They''re the password...-


    *Vwoom* Pulling out some mana, I flooded the sensors following the sequence of numbers from my artificial memory.


    But.. nothing happened. -Huh?-


    Tilting my head, I sat back down before trying again, this time dragging a cloud of mana over the sequence, rather than pressing them like buttons. -Is it a pattern?-


    But that wasn''t it either.


    However, after sitting in focus for what felt like just an instant, I stood up and injected fire, electricity, and light mana into the wall at three points marked by mountains, as if it were being injected by a space rune.


    Because the sequence of numbers wasn''t the password, nor was it a sequence.


    The numbers were coordinates.


    *Click* And the moment I infused the right mana into those spots, a series of locks clicked open.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 393: A Confession of Faith

    Chapter 393: A Confession of Faith


    Late Afternoon - Late Fall : The Library of Eternity, As | Bahamut


    -----


    *Click*


    "Huh..." Jolting at the sound of the locks being undone, Hera stared at the door with wide eyes. *Tink-VWOOOOM*


    Covering the ground with another wave of enriched mana so thick it almost acted like a liquid, a crack in the door slowly appeared, letting out more and more enriched mana before Her and I werepletely engulfed in it.


    *WOWOWOOOM* -Holy.. SHIT...- Feeling the enriched mana easily force its way through my aura and dig into my skin, I felt like I had to start moving or else my muscles would harden into mythril, and had my vision blur before sharpening once more.


    It felt truly intoxicating, as if I had just chugged eighty barrels of Piotita.


    But after a moment, the fuzz in my senses vanished, and I found myself staring into an unbelievably beautiful space carved entirely out of a single chunk of wood. "Woah..."


    At the very center of the library, hidden by countlessyers of carved rock, gems, books, and stunning architecture was the trunk of a tree that had long since lost itself to time. -What.. is this...- Reluctantly stepping forward, I poked my head through the door, looking around the beautiful room with walls of bookshelves and artifacts, and a huge padded area in the middle meant for a dragon toy on.But.. oddly enough, the room only seemed partially designed for a dragon.


    Scattered along the wall opposite the door were all sorts of Acardi relics, oldputers, tablets, 3D printers, and weapons.


    It was like a small workshop, with a TV, books, and all sorts of other things meant for entertainment scattered around the adjacent area.


    The books filling the bookshelves weren''t simple either, with every single one sharing the same handwriting, and sharing simrly worded, categorized titles.


    But more interesting than anything, sitting in the middle of the back wall was a simple desk, lit by a single light artifact sat on the desk like amp, with a single bookying in its light.


    Its cover read, ''A Confession of Faith''.


    With how dense the enriched mana was, I couldn''t use my aura to read it, but as I stepped into the room to get a closer look, I suddenly came to a halt, and nced back.


    Yet to take a single step on the other side of the door, Hera stared at me.


    "~Are you okay?~" Setting aside my curiosity for a moment, I walked back toward her, trying to shield her from some of the enriched mana that was still pouring out of the room thinking it could have tensed her up.


    But it wasn''t that. "How.. did you open that..."


    Looking her in the eyes, I hesitated.. and took a moment to think of whether I should be honest. Whether this was a situation where ignorance was bliss or not. "Hera..." Even though I knew what her response would be, I was nervous, but I held my head up to speak confidently, with a slightly warmed, and softened tone. "I''m not just the reincarnation of Nott."


    "Huh?" Her expression immediately morphed with confusion. "What do you mean?"


    Thankfully, my casual tone helped take the edge off a bit. "I am the result of thebination of three souls. I was able to open the door because I remembered the key."


    "W..Wait..." Her tone instantly softened. "So, you-"


    Not wanting her to jump to conclusions, I tried to speak quickly. "I am my own independent being, no part of me is separate from the rest.. but of the three souls that werebined to make my soul, Bahamut''s memories and ego were by far the weakest." Lowering my gaze, I tried to speak firmly, and be as clear as possible. "Even now, I can''t remember much from that life, so don''t worry, I''m most certainly not the same-"


    *THWACK* Firmly smacking me across the face, my eyes shot open and my whole body tensed up.


    Slowly raising my gaze, I found Hera standing over me.


    "I''m disappointed."


    Her disapproving tone hit my mind like a train.


    "Do you really think I''m that stupid?" Raising my head with her tail, she made me look her in the eyes. "The only part of you that resembles that bastard is the way you hold your wings, yet you want to give me reassurance that you aren''t him?" Seeing my gaze drift, she jerked my head back. "You saying that only makes me question if everything you''ve shown me thus far was an act."


    Feeling somewhat guilty, I matched her gaze. "It wasn''t... Nothing was ever an act, I just know how you feel about Bahamut, and-"


    "Just stop. Look me in the eyes." Pausing, she left us to stare into each other''s eyes until my gaze started to warm. "I know who you are, and I like who you are, so stop being worried about who you used to be. Just because you have memories of a life you once lived doesn��t mean you should feel guilty because of the actions you made in them. Memories are to be learned from, not clung to, so stop bogging yourself down with the guilt of things you can''t do anything about. If you want to get it off your chest, I''m here to listen, but you have to be willing the move on in order to do that." Her tone quickly warmed as well. "Now, stop acting all guilty and worried, and speak. I''m not going anywhere, I know you well enough for who you were in your past lives to stop mattering."


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    Feeling like a mountain was suddenly lifted off my shoulders, I slowly straightened my posture, not breaking eye contact for a single second before speaking more freely. "Then.. I absorbed Bahamut''s soul before I was reincarnated."


    "And who was the third soul?"


    "A human from a world that''s very far away."


    Her smile slowly widened as her expression lightened. "What a lucky human. Did you choose him, or was it happenstance?"


    -Geez...- She understood what happened before I even exined it. "I chose him because of the way his brain worked, but his understanding of science was a nice bonus."


    "Oh?" Getting curious, her posture slowly eased. "So that''s where all the crazy knowledge of yourses from? How fascinating..."


    Smiling warmly as she walked a bit closer to me, I finally spoke at ease. "That world''s technology isn''t nearly as advanced as the Acardi, but all I needed was the foundation of science to then build my understanding of mana off of."


    "So you gave up your understanding of mana and magic with your reincarnation?"


    Quickly nodding, my posture rxed. "I didn''t have much of a choice though, for much of my childhood, my soul was detached from my body. The body of a hatchling simply couldn''t handle it."


    "I''m quite curious how you managed to split your soul from your own body.. but maybe we save that forter." Gently nudging my snout to the side with hers, she made me look back into the fourthyer of the library.


    -Ah, right... Now probably isn''t the best time...- Turning to follow Hera''s lead into the nest, I wore a wide, warm smile.


    And so did she.


    But.. it didn''tst long.


    "~What the hell are these books?~" Looking around the bookshelves inside the fourthyer, Hera and I read through the titles of books with continually darkening expressions. "~Vasilias.. do you remember anything about these?~" Motioning to the first book she picked up and started turning the pages of with her aura, Hera gave me a worried look.


    It was titled ''Global Mana Redistribution''. "~N..no, I don''t...~"


    "~It details how the mana on the Draconic Continent, what is now maind Bahamut, is too highpared to the rest of the world, so Bahamut nned to move the mana wells...~" Her expression darkened as she turned the page to continue reading. "~But I don''t remember there ever being mana wells in the maind.~"


    Coming over to read the book with her, I read what was essentially a manifesto of what Bahamut wanted to do and why he wanted to do it, detailing how he believed the high mana levels on the continent could lead to a ''gratuitous imbnce of power'' in the world, where humanoid life would inevitably be wiped out by trying to fulfill their own greed. "~''In order to protect an abundance of sentient life, the mana wells will be moved to these locations''...~"


    Looking at the map, it showed almost two dozen locations scattered around the different continents, and a few clumped up in what is now the Holy Kingdom.


    For the most part, they were fairly evenly scattered about, but Hera and I both immediately recognized a trend. "~Aren''t these wells the locations of kingdoms?~"


    Without exception, every single well had a kingdom nted right on top of it, even Kan. -Those wells must have dried up by now, but...- The trend was irrefutable.


    And with the Holy Kingdom being the strongest human nation with three mana well clumped up over it.. there was also a corrtion with strength.


    But as we moved around the room, reading more and more books, things only got worse.


    Nearly every book detailed an atrocitymitted toward dragons without them even knowing, from the redistribution of mana, to the culling of soul lilies, driving what once grew abundantly on the Draconic Continent nearly to extinction.


    But the worst of them all was something we had yet to read.


    Coming from a world with technology, Bahamut knew of things like science and gics.


    Shortly after gathering what he said was a ''healthy number of dragons'', he started having ceremonies to bless those who wished to have children, and would use their naivety against them, altering the gics of their eggs so that a protein-producing nd would overproduce to the extent that it would make them infertile.


    In his own words, he wanted it to limit the reproduction of dragons in order to prevent overpoption, and halt evolution. After having cultivated dragons till they numbered over a hundred thousand, he was worried that at their current growth rate, they would run into mass overpoption, and need to take over the other continents for more space and resources, which would inevitably create division in the draconic race.


    But I wasn''t the only one that didn''t believe that reasoning. "~To think his value of humans was so high he would risk killing off his own race...~" Hera spoke with a deep-seated bitterness as she gritted her teeth.


    And I couldn''t disagree.


    His reasonings, while perhaps reasonable from the perspective of a being creating a world, tricking himself by disguising his intention left a sour taste in my mouth. "~Everything Bahamut did had secret intentions, huh...~" Finally looking toward thest book in the middle of the far wall, my expression darkened even more.


    -But if everything else was that bad.. what is in there...-


    The book had loomed in the back of my mind the entire time Hera and I read through the texts, and it only made me more worried.


    ''A Confession of Faith'' by a being hailed as a god by a poption of people he didn''t deserve to rule, with the power to forcefully evolve or devolve life.


    Although not omnipotent, he was certainly powerful enough to act both benevolent and all-powerful in the eyes of those weaker than him.


    But instead of aiming his faith at those who put their faith in him, who treated his every word as gospel, he aimed his faith elsewhere.


    He, while recounting the idiocy of the draconic and humanoid races, didn''t realize he had the same ws.


    Bahamut was not a dragon.


    He was a being who stole the fate of someone else.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 394: Balance of Faith

    Chapter 394: Bnce of Faith


    Early Evening - Late Fall : The Library of Eternity, As | Bahamut


    -----


    *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* Walking across the cushioned floor toward the human-sized desk lit by the glow of a singlemp, the air slowly turned stale and a palpable bitterness crept into my mouth.


    Although all the texts Hera and I had read up until that point were faintly familiar to my memories as Nott, for the most part, the emotions tied to them were in indifference. Back then, while I could remember that I didn''t agree with his methods, I also didn''t particrly care what he did with the dragons.


    Of course, that was very different now that I was a dragon myself.


    However, as I stared at the book sitting on the desk, the deep-seated disgust I felt wasn''t from my current self.


    "''A Confession of Faith''..." Speaking coldly as I got closer to the book, I felt Hera''s gaze follow mine.


    "~What is that supposed to mean..?~" Following me with a darkening expression, she walked up next to me and sat down, waiting for me to open it.


    *Vwoom* But as I gripped its leathery mythril cover with my aura and opened it, the air in the room changed...It brought back memories instantly.


    It read:


    "August 7th, 1945


    How I loath that day... The day my failure resulted in the deaths of countless.. and the day humanity was shown the power of God''s greatest creation.


    I did everything I could leading up to the moment it was dropped. I tried to do everything I could to keep the deaths of innocents to a minimum.


    But everything I did ended in failure.


    It wasn''t my decision to make, I wanted to find other ways to end humanity''s eternal conflict, but the Lord works in mysterious ways... The other angels, and even Michael said it was a necessary expense for the preservation of God''s children... But I don''t understand...


    How can the deaths of so many be rectified? How can such bloodshed be allowed? I don''t understand.


    Every time I asked the other Archangels, they told me it is the will of God, our Father. But the Father I knew was infinitely just, infinitely wise, and infinitely loving.


    So why must so many die? Why must some of his children be sacrificed in order to save others?


    Why can''t they all be saved?


    In search of an answer, I stepped back and tried to watch Father''s actions from afar, watching some of my brothers and sisters push forward human technology and infrastructure through the creation and development of even more horrifying weapons, while others began cleaning the many internal struggles that riddled humanity.


    Everything was for Earth, and the development of its people. An egg nurturing the children of our Father.


    But.. as time passed, I started to see things differently.


    Thoughts that my siblings would consider insane flew through my mind at every moment, disagreements with the way the almighty Father handled things that bordered heresy.


    And he knew.


    As time passed, my brothers and sisters became more distant, I became more detached from Earth, and eventually, I wanted to escape.


    I wanted to follow Father''s image instead of him, trusting in myself before others.


    I believed that I could do a better job.


    And that was the day I was expelled from Earth.


    January 21st, 1956. Thest day I watched the sun set.


    -


    The void is truly a horrifying ce. An abyss where souls are sent to be cleansed.


    In a matter of moments, memories fade, your ego copses, and free thought bes a thing of the past.


    With every moment in that ce, I could feel my own sense of being be more distant.


    However, as my soul was devoured, I bumped into something.


    Within the void, there was a string, leading deeper into the void, away from Earth.


    Father was going to give me a chance. Rather than sending me to the void to dispose of me, he sent me to the void to find something.


    Clinging onto the string, I pulled myself along, using the little divinity I had left to find where the string led.


    But it only seemed to get longer as I pulled myself along, until eventually, I reached a small ck diamond. An object anchoring the string to a point in space, just like it did Earth.


    However, the moment I touched it, the space around me changed. I was instantly removed from the void, only to find myself in a world I didn''t recognize, a world with magic where primitive humans lived in the massive ruins of ancient kingdoms, hiding from the countless monsters that dominated the world.


    I wasn''t alone though. The moment I arrived in that world, I could feel it, the presence of other gods attempting to help the humans grow back what they lost.


    They were the Aesir, gods of the Nordic mythos, something I believed was redited to the minds of humans on Earth, with the likes of gods like Odin and Freya struggling to gather the humans together in order to try and rebuild human society.


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    However, every time the humans reached a point where technology allowed for the creation of kingdoms, and the management of cities that could stretch to the horizon, the creatures of this world would smite them, ttening their work, destroying their progress, and sending them back to square one.


    The Aesir never gave up though. When I appeared, they thought they saw some light at the end of the tunnel, they wanted me to join them in order to nurture humanity.


    But I had different ideas. After watching the cycle progress for a couple thousand years, I decided toe at the problem from a different angle. See, it was Father''s will for me to help this world find bnce, so that''s what I hoped to bring.


    Looking throughout the world, I wanted the perfect specimen, a creature whose mortal flesh could dominate everything the world had to offer.


    And I found that with the dragons.


    In the center of the world''s southernmost continent, I found the egg of a dragon. ''It must have fallen out of its Mother''s grasp while she flew overhead, and was left to be abandoned'' is what I thought, and thinking I was the one fated to possess it, I took the body, absorbing the soul meant to possess it in the process.


    I was simply following the hand of Father, oveing constant challenges in order to protect this world.


    But it was far from easy.


    Feeling things like pain, and negative emotions like anger that angels weren''t allowed to feele back to me, I struggled.


    In order to escape the swamp, I had to take the lives of countless creatures. For my own growth, I had to use corpses as my steps.


    But I tricked myself it was for the greater good... Exactly as I once criticized Father for doing...


    Eventually growing as a dragon, I learned about magic, how itbined with physics, and how to form spells on a scale this world had never seen.


    At the bat of an eye, I could turn a desert into a forest, I could bring up magma from the''s mantle to form mountains, and through my hand, I could gather the dragons, establishing a new culture,nguage, and home for the betterment of the rest of the world.


    With my body, and with my power, I could reign in the dragons, and use them to reign in the other races, giving the humans room to breathe while giving the dragons a chance to focus on their own development.


    But.. that seemed to be a very sharp double-edged sword.


    The dragons simply had too many advantages. While it made them the most powerful beings in the world, and it made it easy for me to dominate it, it was something that would inevitably cause problems.


    So I took it in my own hands to weaken them for the sake of this world''s diversity of life.


    I redistributed the Draconic Continent''s mana wells to help the humans, giving the Aesir''s homnd several in hopes that they could close the gap. I also made it so dragons could only have one clutch, I stopped their evolution, and I isted them to a single continent, setting an array of rules that would preserve human life, while not hurting the dragons themselves. I wanted the gap between humans and dragons to thin, I wanted them to coexist with one another even if I wasn''t around to manage it.


    But even after all of that, they were still too strong.


    A single dragon, barely out of adolescence, could manhandle the top 1% of humans and make it not even seem like a fight, so I took more drastic measures.


    I forcefully limited the progression of technology, attempting to keep the dragons fixated on the world of magic rather than science, while injecting that knowledge into humanity.


    But the Aesir didn''t like that.


    Even though I tried to tell them it would help, they refused.


    So I did the greatest sin.


    I created a religion centered around myself. I hailed myself as a god, a being taking Father''s light in hopes that my influence couldst for eons after my inevitable demise.


    But even as years turned into millennia, I was only growing stronger.


    I was a being where immortality and mortality could coexist, the truest form of a demigod.


    But at heart, I didn''t like it...


    I wanted to return to Earth, to return to Father''s grasp and enlighten the world to his love.


    I could understand why Father made the decisions he did, why there were things like evil and suffering still in the world, and no matter how badly I wanted to deny it, I had been doing exactly as he was.


    Without setbacks, there was no such thing as bnce. What drives growth is conflict, and even the all powerful cannot change that.


    Or at least that was what I thought.


    Not long after I first started contemting whether to find a way to return to Earth, a creature introduced itself to me as Nott, an Ancient Fenrir.


    He was so huge he made my almost 400 meter stature seem like nothing, and so powerful it wouldn''t have shocked me if he knew Father.


    He was a creator. A being that could create entire worlds out of nothing, manipte environments at the flick of a paw, and use the void as a tool rather than a weapon.


    The true embodiment of a god.


    He knew more about the universe than I did as well, telling me if I wanted bnce, I needed to take a different path than I had, showing me my mistakes in hopes that I would correct them.


    He tried teaching me how to feel at home in this new world, and how to feelfortable in my own skin, watching from the sideline as if he was Father''s hand, once again guiding me toward what I was fated to do.


    But while I tried to follow him, listening to his advice, giving the dragons a true leader, and helping them establish morality rather than setting limitations on them. I didn''t understand...


    The moment I shifted my focus in hopes of finding a new bnce in the world, the Aesir, and the humans that followed them, turned their backs on me.


    Instead of working with me, they constantly pushed back at everything I wanted to do, using their false religions to make the world think of dragons as no different than monsters.


    But I still believed that Father was holding my hand. I continued trekking forward, even after Delphi was invaded by creatures of science. I tried to do everything I could to strengthen the moralpass of the dragons so that they would help preserve humanity rather than destroy it after I leave and return to Earth.. and return to Father''s embrace.


    This life was one of many lessons, one of much time and knowledge.


    At longst, I could finally understand Father''s actions, and I could understand why things I didn''t like were necessary.


    Had I taken Nott''s approach, things would have been truly bnced. Dragons would have assimted into the human world, and while wars would have certainly ensued, it wouldn''t have been one side against another. Everyone could have worked together.. and everyone could have worked toward the progress of the world.


    If I had done that, the Acardi wouldn''t have made it this far. They wouldn''t have been able to toy with the dragons like they had, and wouldn''t have been able to so easily trick the Asgardian gods into siding with them.


    But I don''t regret the path I took. It was something I was fated to experience, the n of the almighty Father to let me find the correct path myself rather than simply giving me the answers. When I return to Earth, I expect to be a far more respectable Archangel, but I don''t wish to abandon this world just yet.


    Tomorrow I am to gather the strongest of the dragons to go fight the Acardi Mothership with Nott.. I just.. can only hope I''m not too useless.


    But perhaps my death, and the abandonment of my body is what is necessary. Perhaps through death, I will be enlightened to another of Father''s endless teachings.


    At least.. that is what I hope...


    I hope that my endless failures can be forgiven.. and hope my endless shorings can be rectified.


    But whether that is the case or not, I will follow Father''s light.


    Glorious Father, high and mighty, I entrust myself to your heavenly mediation. Please protect me from the evil once more, deliver to me your holy guidance, and heal me of my sin. If it is your wish, it shall be mymand, even if you wish for my sacrifice.


    Oh Holy Lord, I entrust my being to you, please guide me to your light onest time.


    Amen."


    <strong>-----</strong>


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 395: Living the End

    Chapter 395: Living the End


    Mid Evening - Late Fall : The Library of Eternity, As | Bahamut


    -----


    *Fwip* *Fwip* *Fwip* Turning nk page after nk page, Hera and I could do nothing but stare at the book in silence.


    Bahamut''s final work, a recollection of his life and his mistakes, recalling what he came to learn in his life as the god of the dragons. While it certainly answered countless questions, it also filled us with an ufortable mix of understanding and bitterness.


    "What a fool..." Finally breaking the silence, Hera spoke with scorn. "Instead of conforming to his new life and its environment, he did everything in his power to conform it to him..."


    He was someone who fell victim to letting their past lives lead them. -Had I not disconnected myself from a human mindset when I was young.. I wonder if I would''ve been the same as him...-


    I could understand the decisions he made, and I could understand why, but there was no redeeming his solutions to the problems raised, like grouping the dragons to nurture a society and trigger a poption boom before deciding it was enough and destroying their ability to reproduce, taking the route of separation and istion over the route of assimtion.


    It was a tragic foolishness that would lead to the destruction of the draconic race if it wasn''t corrected. "When he died, he started a clock. The moment another catastrophe struck the draconic race, we would go extinct..." Without the ability to reproduce much more than at the rate of recement, it made sense why dragons had learned to iste their children from the world for so long. To just maintain recement, the survival rate had to be incredible. -But if disaster strikes like another attack from the Acardi and the poption is culled, dragons would never be able to grow back or regain their former glory...-


    "I don''t know whether to be mad at his terrible decision-making, or be grateful I''m alive to fix it..." Speaking while falling into thought, Hera had already begun trying toe up with a n forward. "The only thing I''m not sure how we can fix on arge scale is female reproduction."Nodding, I was quick to close the book. "Just focus on taking things one step at a time. Restoring the mana wells is the easiest thing, so let''s start with that. Fixing the reproductive issues with dragons is going to take time to figure out, and will probably need to be approached on a dragon-to-dragon basis. We can forcefully create another clutch, but the problem will still persist until we figure out how to properly alter their gics." -The soul lilies as well will be.. more troublesome to fix. I''ll have toe up with a better way to cultivate them...-


    Pausing for a moment, Hera turned and gave me a confused look. "Are you.. trying to take responsibility for what Bahamut did?"


    My expression quickly darkened. "As the one who absorbed his soul, it''s my burden to bear, is it not?" Giving the book one more nce, I finally stood up. "Plus, if it''s not me, who else is going to things like create a bunch of mana wells around Bahamut? Who can?"


    Quickly getting up and walking over to me, Hera shoved her face into mine. "Be selfish, Vasilias! You made it clear to me that you weren''t Bahamut, so why you can''t make that clear to yourself?" Pulling herself away, her expression washed with a mix of confusion and annoyance. "Just stop letting guilt from things you cannot change linger. You''ve already learned the lesson to be learned from these things, so stop letting them burden you."


    "But they are still issues that must be addressed, and I am the only one able to fix them-"


    "But that doesn''t mean it has to be fixed now! You''re anxious because you''re trying to take Bahamut''s responsibility, you''re trying to fill the shoes he left because you haven''t convinced yourself that you aren''t him." Stepping in my tail and I stood up, she forced me to stay put. "Bahamut is gone, so focus on yourself! You aren''t the god of the draconic race, so stop trying to take upon the responsibility of that position!" Looking me in the eyes, her expression and tone began to soften. "Look, you have much more important things on your te, so put your mind at ease and go address them. When the timees, we can face these matters, but for now, just focus on yourself, okay?" Standing up, she quickly walked over to me before pressing her cheek into mine. "You aren''t alone in this war, so share some of your burdens with me... I know I wasn''t of much help with getting theboratories online, but I want to learn.. I want to help..."


    Feeling a warmth build in my chest, my expression finally started easing. "I know.. I''m sorry..." Pressing my cheek back into hers, I felt her whole body ease. "But that goes for you too, okay?" We were in it together, whether the fate of the worldnded on our shoulders or not.


    And even though she knew that, as she gently pulled herself away, she looked me in the eyes and smiled. "That''s fine with me~!"


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    Late Evening - Late Fall : The Cab | Bahamut


    - Krystallo Ragnarok ~


    *Tip-Tap* *Tip-Tap* Making haste down a long stone pathway between the different branches of the Cab, I found my way to a smaller building that was made for humanoids and dragons to share meetings in, or more namely, for whenever Leif, or one of the other apostles would inevitably visit Bahamut for diplomatic matters.


    However that day it was to be used to officiate the meeting of two children.


    -What is Mom thinking with these questions...- Looking over the sheet of interrogative questions I was going to have to ask someone I believed to be a friend, I felt a mix of guilt and determination.


    On one side of the coin, I was going to free him from the eyes of the Cab, but on the other, I felt like I was betraying his trust. -But.. it''s not like I''m the one who needs reassurance from these questions...-


    Letting out a deep breath as I finally made it to the building''s door, I folded the paper with my aura and walked inside, finding my way down a rather short hallway before turning into another, smaller room where Myalo sat in silence.


    "Krystallo?" As soon as he noticed me though, his expression lit up, and his mix of silver, white and grey scales glimmered in the light of the single artifact at the center of the room.


    "Y..Yeah, hey... I''m sorry we have to meet like this, my Mother-"


    "Don''t me her." Quickly sitting up on the other side of the table, a joyful sway found its way into the tip of his tail. "I know many people have their eyes on me.. but that''s okay. I can understand why." Speaking softly, he never broke eye contact.


    "You knew you were being watched?"


    He quickly nodded with a warm,fortable smile. "Of course... I''ve been watched like a hawk from the moment I hatched... After meeting you the number of eyes grew, but I don''t mind as long as they don''t take away from the view."


    Feeling a little awkward, I continued into the room before sitting on the opposite side of the table from him. "So, you know why I''m here.. don''t you."


    He was quick to nod. "Ask whatever can bring you all sce."


    Pausing, I pulled out the paper that listed the questions I was to ask. "Then.. let''s get started..." Somewhat nervously, I continued with questions, following the list from top to bottom.


    At the beginning, I mainly asked more blunt questions, seeing if he recognized names, or appearances, and as expected he answered them all with a simple,fortable no. -Mom hasn''t tagged me with her aura either, meaning she believes he''s not lying.-


    But as the questions continued, they slowly became more and more obscure, asking what he thinks of specific terms like Priest, or deity, some of which elicited a response from Mother, having her use her wind magic to give me follow-up questions.


    For the most part though, it went well. His responses were clear, and while it did sound like he had some run-ins with cult members, they sounded like wild happenstance.


    But that was before I reached thest set of questions, ones Mom said Brother wanted to ask.


    "Next... Do you ever feel like you have two voices in your head?" To me, it sounded like a stupid question, but I felt my whole body tense when he nodded.


    "There are always two others. We share the same mind, but we always disagree..."


    *Vwoom* Mother was quick to chime in with a cold tone. "Ask him what they disagree on."


    Not knowing what else to say, I did. "What do the voices disagree on?"


    "Many things." Averting his eyes, he looked almost pained. "How I act, what I think about, and the visions I have from time to time... The same ones I''ve mentioned several times today..."


    "The visions people believe are of the future?"


    He quickly nodded. "But I''m not so sure that''s the case... Even the other voices disagree on it... Some believe it''s a memory, and others believe it''s a vision of fate."


    Deciding to ask my own question, I spoke quickly. "What are the kinds of things you see in those visions?"


    His expression quickly started to darken. "Death..." The atmosphere of the entire room suddenly darkened as his expression shifted. "Every time I get a vision, it''s of a disaster... Visions of the world copsing, or visions of war..."


    -Could they be.. of the Great War?- As Mom quickly interjected, I asked the question she wanted to ask. "Are there anymonalities between all the visions?"


    Nodding, he finally looked up at me, this timecking the typical warmth in his gaze. "A huge silver creature.. like a serpent but sorge it seems like it could wrap itself around the world... The World Serpent.. I think it was called..." After going silent for a moment, his tone suddenly went cold, as if I was suddenly talking to someone else. "It''s a monster we cannot fight... It''s a monster that will bring the end of our race if we try to resist it..." Staring off into the distance, he spoke with a hint of craze. "The only way we can survive is if we treat it as our god."


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 Chapter 396: A Miracle

    Chapter 396: A Miracle


    Mid Morning - Early Winter : The Cab | Bahamut


    -----


    *Crackle-VWOOOM* Dousing myself with a wave of freshly made mana, I quickly shook it off my head before ncing around the cave-like well I had dug myself into. -There was less enriched mana this time... Maybe I am onto something...- *Ssh* Dunking my scaled tail into the pool of mana I was standing in, I tried to feel for how deep it was before hopping up out of the well itself.


    *FWOOSH-Thump* Finding myself in the central courtyard of the Cab, I wasted no time turning to a younger dragon wearing yellow bands around his horns and neck. "Sorry it took so long for me to get around to this well. I got caught up in my own endeavors."


    He immediately got flustered. "P-Please don''t be sorry, my lord! It''s a blessing just to be able to meet you, let alone see you perform such a miracle!"


    -Looks like Hera''s picked out some trusted young ones...- Simr to Chloe, he was a dragon with a very high mana tolerance, to the point he could withstand the creation of an immense mass of mana, and remain exposed to it for quite a while without trouble.


    He was her go-to project manager for more secretive projects like the construction of the thunderbird nest near Emporio, and the construction of the lids to the mana wells I had been creating around Bahamut.


    It did feel a little odd to expose my draconic form to him though, as he knew I was Nott. -But it''s not like it matters if someone in Hera''s inner circle knows about me.- He already knew about Hera after all. "Alright then, just keep up the good work."


    "O-Of course!" With a bright gleam in his eyes, he eagerly nodded before pulling out a mix of papers and materials.But I wasn''t about to stick around and watch him work.


    *FWOOSH* Quickly taking to the air, I sank back into my own thoughts.


    It had been a number of days since I left the Library of Eternity with Hera at that point, but while it was enough time to get a lot done, by Hera''s rmendation, I had been taking it somewhat easy by going and creating about a dozen mana wells around Bahamut, and using it as an opportunity to learn about enriched mana.


    As it was, enriched mana was like a thousand scattered puzzle pieces I had to slowly piece together, but it was steadilying along. Even in just the experiments I did when making thest two mana wells, I figured out that I could more reliably make it by focusing lots of energy into a small point, likeunching a long needle-like chunk of rock into the void rather than a normal round one. -Meaning enriched mana is probably just supercharged unattributed mana rather than being a new attribute...-


    But it, unfortunately, didn''t get me any closer to figuring out how to mass produce it, and while I found myself craving it from time to time, I could only leave that craving to fester while I worked on my to-do list.


    Not everything on that list was chores though. *Vwoop* *Vwoop* Quickly jumping through the void, I exited in the sky over the Sirathan Mountains before quickly descending to a mountaintop where two white dragons sat. *Fwoosh-Fwoosh-Thump* "Did I keep you waiting?"


    With a beautiful glistening in the ice hanging from her horns, Mother quickly turned to look at me. "Of course not. Is the mana well endeavor going well so far?"


    Quickly nodding, I shrunk down to about thirty meters and walked over to her. "It''ll be a while before we see much effect from them, but they will definitely help in the long run. The more urgent issue is the cultivation of soul lilies but Hera had a few ideas with that so I''m leaving it to her."


    Mother''s warm smile quickly turned smug. "It''s good to see you can trust her with such a task."


    "Well of course," Looking down the mountainside at Father''s still, unmoving body, I smiled. "Some other things have taken priority."


    Over the course of thest few days, I had finally amassed what I believed to be enough divinity to elerate Father''s dragon sleep, leaving just the final preparations which I needed to make within the void.


    But because of the difference in the flows of time, Mom and Krystallo hade to see Father''s awakening. In their eyes, it will be almost instant, even if it takes a few years for me. -But I don''t think it''ll be that bad...- "Also," Quickly turning my gaze to Krystallo who was sitting on the ground sorting a tall stack of paper, I gave Mom an awkward look. "Why is Krystallo doing that here?"


    Mother''s smile instantly widened. "Oh~, she just lost a bet with me-"


    "I DIDN''T!" *PUFF-Flutter* Angrily smacking the papers into the air, Krystallo whipped around and red at her. "Myalo has to be possessed or something! The switch was instant! People''s personalities don''t just change like that!"


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    Mother''s gaze quickly turned cold as she grabbed and restacked the papers Krystallo threw. "It doesn''t change the fact that he is rted to the cult, and that you shouldn''t go near him for the time being."


    Snapping her gaze onto me, Krystallo begged me with her eyes.


    -I wonder why she''s still defending him if she can''t refute that he''s involved in the cult...- Turning to Mom, I spoke calmly. "Could you summarize what the situation is?"


    She continued with a nod. "Myalo has multiple personalities by the looks of things, and one of them has visions of what we believe could be the target of worship of the cult. Considering the movements of suspicious figures around him, we think he may be something like an apostle or priest in the eyes of the cult, whether he knows about it or not."


    -Hm... That''s certainly possible...- "What was the multiple personality thing like?"


    Mother''s expression quickly turned grim. "The boy says there are always voices in his head, and by the sounds of things, are much more mature than he is so I thought it could be one of those possession things like Krystallo said, but figured you would have figured something like that out."


    As I nodded, the glimmer of hope on Krystallo''s face faded. "His soul is normal. If it is possession, they fullymitted to taking the body. I don''t see a reason why they''d leave the child to control the body." -But it makes even less sense if it''s multiple different people in his body...- It really felt odd to think about, almost like I was talking about some kind of chimera. -Maybe I just have to interrogate him myself when I get the chance.- "Has Hera made anyments on it yet?"


    "Not yet, she''s been wrapped up in other matters."


    -She''s probably getting ready to have Grandmother make that announcement about them...- While we were leaving the library, we discussed how we wanted to handle the cult since we knew the origin of it, and both agreed that a more passive approach was better for the time being. -If we acknowledge their existence and get them to stop doing things like live sacrifice, we can squash them when Hera announces her seat as Monarch during the Coming of Age Ceremony.-


    Which was right around the corner. "For now, just keep a bit of distance from him, okay Krystallo? I''ll personally take a closer look at him after I wake up Father, and get one other thing done." -Hopefully I can get the satellites back online... The intel from them would certainly be helpful.-


    *Thump* Sitting back down with a defeated pout, Krystallo silently muttered, "I just want to help him..."


    But I decided not toment on it. -Regardless of the oue, this should be a good lesson for her...- Looking over at Mom once more, I started walking toward the edge of the mountaintop. "In any case, I think it''s time we get to the reason I was here." *sh* Swapping to my fenririan form, I made my way down to the mana well, now surrounded by an entire town of elves and dragons watching on in awe. -Leif really built this ce up, huh...-


    But it certainly wasn''t a bad thing.


    From what I could tell, the Elves were mostly noble, and many of the dragons held their heads like nobility, meaning what I was about to do was going to be an incredibly influential publicity stunt, especially to those who looked at me with gazes of skepticism.


    But while it''d only be the flicker of a second for the ''miracle'' to take ce in their eyes, it was going to be a long haul for me.


    *Vwoom* Picking up Father with my aura, I quickly walked him toward the well before hopping down into the deep pool of liquid mana. "Ooo~..." It was nice and cool. -Wish I could stick around in it more...- *Vwoop*


    Quickly hopping into the void with Father and a huge mass of liquid mana, I hastily created an ''air pocket'' around us to keep the void away before constructing a miniature fabric of space around and through Father''s body.


    It was time to begin the most important experiment of my entire life.


    ''Could I speed up a dragon sleep''.


    And sure enough, while it took several years within the void, and a few returns to reality to grab more mana, his body grew, his soul was strengthened, and the color of his scales shifted.


    But more than anything, his reserve, working like an endlessly dry sponge, absorbed mana so aggressively that strands of divinity started forming a web in his chest.


    He reached a stage only dragons bing ancients were known to have.


    And when his eyes eventually snapped open, revealing his new, mythril-green irises, it was clear it wasn''t just happenstance.


    Father was back, this time with a body that could nearly sustain itself with mana, and the soul of an ancient.


    But even he didn''t seem to realize that at first. *Vwoop-SPLASH* Returning to reality the moment I saw his eyes beginning to open, we fell down into the pool of mana in the well, and he broke out into panic. "AH!"


    With a yell, he jolted up to his feet and jumped up out of the mana, but I was quick to pull him back down. "Where are you going?" *Vwoom-SPLASSHH* -Why is he so panicked?-


    But that question was answered almost instantly. "H-huh?! V-Vasilias?" His voice bordered delirious. "I.. I definitely died... W..What''s happening..?"


    He seemed tock the typical internal clock dragons were known to have, so he remembered the events in the dungeon as if they had just happened. -I wonder if that''s from me messing with his soul...-


    But while I was certainly curious, I didn''t really care.


    All I cared about was that he was alive, and that he seemed to be himself. -Thank goodness his soul is okay...-


    I could only let out a breath of relief as I watched him begin to take a look at the mythril tint in his silvery-white scales with a mix of awe and panic.


    "It''s good to have you back, Dad."


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 Chapter 397: Coming Clean

    Chapter 397: Coming Clean


    Early Afternoon - Early Winter : The Well | Siratha


    -----


    "S-So.. I didn''t die, but I was about to, so you forced me into a dragon sleep, used a soul lily on me, and then sped up the process inside the void..?" Struggling to piece everything together, Father looked me in the eyes with an expression that could only be described as a tangled mess of confusion and disbelief.


    "Essentially, yes." It looked like he had countless questions, but at the same time, he didn''t know which to ask. "It''s been about half a year since we went to deal with the convoys, and you got caught."


    "I-Is that so..." Slowly starting to calm down, he finally took a more objective look at his appearance, and the pool of mana he was wading in. "If it''s only been half a year though, howe you''ve changed so much..?"


    Instantly tensing up as his gazended on me, I wasn''t sure what to say.


    On top of the changes that came with my ascension, my draconic form had sprouted fur around my crown, along my spine, and along the top of my tail, now ending in a ck tuff. It was a change that would even catch Mother a bit off guard, so for him it was more than a little jarring.


    But I had no reason to lie. "While time hasn''t moved much in the outside world, I''ve spent a number of years in the void between you, aging the soul lily, and my own.. ''personal endeavors'', so I''ve undergone a fair bit of change." -All the enriched mana I absorbed while trying to study it did speed up the process immensely though...-


    "A-Ah..."With guilt quicklying across his face, I was quick to continue. "Please don''t feel bad about it. Others might think the void is a rather lonely ce but.. it has it''s charm." Trying to reassure him with a warm smile, I sat upfortably. "I''ll exin more in depthter, but for now just know that me spending time in the void like that isn''t umon, nor bad."


    Giving me an awkward look, he seemed to be unsure of how to feel.


    "Trust me, I''m alright, Dad." Walking over to him, I gently pressed the top of my head into his shoulder, and held it there until he finally rxed.


    "Haah..." But even when he rxed, finallying to terms with everything, his face darkened. "I''m sorry, Vasilias..." Speaking softly, his voice was deep andced with worry. "I just feel like.. I miss all the moments I told myself I wouldn''t after being forced to miss your early years..."


    -Ah...- Pulling myself away, I used my aura to force him to look at me. "We still have many years to go, there''s no need to feel bad. You''re starting to get interested in science, right?" Seeing him gently nod, I continued. "Then how about this, after you get reoriented with Mother, youe with me to recalibrate and repair some satellites?"


    A glow quickly found its way into his eyes as I sparked his curiosity. "Satellites? What are those?"


    Smiling, I quickly changed to my fenririan form. *FLASH* "I''ll show youter, but you can think of them like artifacts of science that orbit Delphi way up in the sky."


    Looking up into the sky through the top of the well, his eyes grew bright again.


    -There we go...- With my smile widening, I gave him onest look. "But for now, let''s go get you reoriented, alright?"


    "A-Alright!"


    Eventually hopping back up out of the well, I grew my fenririan form out to full size, now almost 98 meters tall, and walked over to greet Leif while Father hopped up out of the well behind me, and was greeted by Mother and Krystallo.


    Before I knew it, it had be a serious event, people standing around the well held their hands up in prayer, and Leif knelt before me as if greeting a king. -Looks like she''s grown used to her new strength...- Smiling with satisfaction, I quickly spoke to her through wind magic. "It looks like you''re doing well."


    Leif''s tail was quick to start wagging. "It is all thanks to you, my lord!"


    "Hm..." Pausing to look over the rest of the crowd, I spoke somewhat sternly. "Do you know of a man named Michael Cotorel?"


    But she quickly shook her head. "Is he someone I should look for?"


    "No.. I was just curious..." Giving the crowd onest look over with my aura, I turned away. -I wonder how he is doing...-


    After that, the afternoon passed in a sh, and before we knew it, the sun had set and the endless night sky had taken its grasp on Siratha.


    After Father''s awakening, we had gone back to Valtivar in order to spend the evening in Leif''s estate and have a small party with some of Mother''s inner-circle, mainly being some maids and butlers she was close with, Leif, and a few other people who were allowed to know my identity.


    Compared to most dragon sleep celebratory parties, it was incredibly small, especially considering we were next to royalty, but keeping it tight-knit made it quite a good time. -It''s nice to that Father hasn''t changed much...- Throughout the evening, he had spent most of his time talking to an elven researcher Leif wanted us to meet because of his endeavors in the realm of science, and they hit it off with one another right off the bat.


    -It''s a shame Hera isn''t here though...- Gentlyying my head down, I looked upon the pleasant atmosphere with a smile before a soft voice reached my ears.


    "Was Miss Hera unable toe?"


    Looking over, I found Chloe sitting next to me in her pink-haired humanoid form, and a dress that made her seem more like a noble than a maid. "She''s busy with other matters in Bahamut. We''re gonna do something together soon, so she wanted to knock some of the important stuff out before then."


    Smiling warmly, Chloe turned her pure, joyful gaze to me. "Is that so?" Her expression slowly turned smug before she turned back to the crowd to enjoy the music. "You know your Mother is proud of you."


    "Huh?" -That came out of nowhere...- "What makes you say that?"


    "Haha, you just aren''t around very often, so she''s made me stick next to her with Antonia and Maria so whenever you do return, I can fulfill my duty. But it''s made me see the things she regrly does in a different light. She''s certainly prideful of Krystallo, but I feel like she doesn''t seek her out forfort like she does you."


    Looking out toward Mother in the crowd of people, I felt my gaze soften.


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    "I say this because today I''ve noticed that you keep looking toward her with a rather anxious look." Looking toward Mother as well, she spoke freely. "I can promise you, whatever you''re nervous about, you shouldn''t be. As your Mother, she knows you better than anyone, so just be honest. If you need to get something off your chest with her, do it." Pausing as she looked over the crowd, she crossed her legs before leaning back and giving me a smug look. "Is the news you want to give her about you and Hera, perchance?"


    "Hah," Instantly smiling with a chuckle, the weight on my mind lightened a tad. "Not quite." It was time for me to exin who I really was now that Father was awake, but I was so nervous I felt like my stomach was tied in a knot.


    "Well, if you ever need help breaking the news of kids to your mother, just ask-"


    "Pftt-" Nearly spitting out the barrel of Piotita sitting in my cheek, I tried to straighten myself up and look normal like nothing happened. "Don''t say things like that so suddenly."


    Staring up at me with a widening smile, her smugness seeped into her voice. "As you wish~, my lord."


    "Haah..." Letting out a deep breath that neared a scoff, Iid my head back down to start shifting gears. -It''s finally time...-


    I promised Mother I would tell them everything when Father awoke, so I needed to stick with that promise, but the closer that time came, the more anxious I became.


    After the party finally came to an end, people started clearing out. Krystallo had fallen asleep, and after leaving the cleanup to the maids, Mother, Father, and I made our way toward the Tree of Prayer under the pretense that I was going to tell them something.


    But as we flew up the side of the tree andnded at the edge of the Gods'' Abode, the air suddenly changed.


    "How beautiful..." Speaking with awe, Mother''s eyes seemed to glow while looking at the carvings on the wall.


    But Father was more confused than anything. "What is this ce?"


    "It''s a ce called the Gods'' Abode." I was quick to respond in hopes that it''d ease my nerves. "It''s where the Ancient Fenrir spent most of their time."


    "Is that so..." Pausing to look around, he took a moment to enjoy the view out over the forest of treants before turning back to me a little anxiously. "But why did you bring us here?"


    Looking toward Mother, I made sure I had her attention before speaking. "I just thought that this would be the ce I tell you two about who I am..."


    Quickly Tilting his head, Father didn''t seem to understand.


    But Mother did instantly, walking over and sitting with Father,pletely discarding her curiosity of the Gods'' Abode. "Are you sure you''re ready to tell us?" Noticing my tenseness, she seemed a bit worried.


    But with a deep breath, I tried to shake it off. "Yeah... I''d just like to start by prefacing that the Vasilias you both know, is who I am. Regardless of my past lives and memories, I am your son, and that will never change." Lowering my head, my whole body rxed. "I just wanted to make sure I knew myself before telling you both about why I am such an anomaly."


    Finally realizing what I was getting out, Father tensed up.


    But Mother was still at ease.


    "When I hatched, I had more than just the knowledge from my knowledge inheritance. I had memories of a distant world without mana where I lived as a human... From the moment I hatched, I had a personality, and memories of a life I once lived, but after being reborn as a dragon, I wanted to learn how to be one, knowing if I didn''t abandon who I was in my past life, that I would bring trouble to Mother..." -Just like Bahamut��- Hanging my head, I continued softly. "But as time passed, and I learned how to be myself, as Vasilias Ragnarok, it turned out it wasn��t that simple..." Looking up, my tone firmed. "I am the reincarnation of Nott. When you found me in the nest with ck scales, it was because I touched an artifact that imnted some of Nott''s gics into my body. I still haven''t confirmed how the artifact itself got there because my memories are still blurry, but it''s why I''ve always had some of the characteristics of a halfie, why I''ve always had unknown knowledge, and where things like my space attribute node and unique aurae from..."


    "Is.. that so..?" Speaking softly, Mother sank into thought, but remainedpletely calm. "So that weird knowledge you seemed to get out of nowhere was from the memories of your past lives, yet you still abandoned it?"


    Gently nodding, I tried to rx. "I''m sorry I kept it from you both for so long, but I didn''t know the full story myself until recently.. and even more so, I was afraid of how you would-" *Pat*


    Abruptly cutting me off, Mother pressed the top of her head into my chest and closed her eyes. "Don��t be so tense, Vasilias..." Looking up at me with a smile, she scooted closer. "I don''t know what you expected from us, but there is no need to be nervous. Your Father and I already had an idea that it was something like that."


    Instantly jolting, my eyes went wide and locked on her.


    A smile almost instantly spread across her face. "Haha~, you think we haven��t discussed this?�� Her embrace tightened as she continued. ��But I knew before you even hatched.��


    Grabbing Father��s attention, his gaze stiffened.


    ��Before I evenid your egg, a spirit reached out to me in a dream offering to bless my children with the power to rule the world, saying the cost for the blessing would be the responsibility of raising you, and the alternative was a child that would never make it out of it��s egg..." Her expression darkened as she continued softly. "It wasn''t an offer I took right away, but the spirit continued to visit me in visions.. and I eventually epted... When you eventually hatched, I was anxious, and when Fengari never made it out of his egg, I hated myself, thinking that I had taken the hand of an evil spirit.. but as time passed I started to realize that you were the blessing."


    Watching her take a step away and formally bow her head, I felt my chest tighten.


    "I don''t know if the one I spoke to before your hatching was you as Nott.. or perhaps just the personification of my worries, but I''d like to say thank you, whether it was you or the hand of fate."


    But as she lowered her head, Father smiled. "I was also reached out to by the same spirit after it reached out to your Mother, this time told to retrieve an artifact... Looking back, it was a bit naive of us to follow the instructions of an anonymous spirit like we did, but after it showed me a vision of Zachari only having a single egg hatch from her clutch.. I had to�� Even if it was a decision that was made from selfishness..."


    Slowly straightening her posture and looking up at me, Mother''s warm gazended on my eyes. "And the spirit didn''t lie. He gave us children we couldn''t be more proud of."


    Feeling a sudden rush of emotions, I could only stand there in silence with a mixture of guilt and relief fighting in the back of my mind. "I.. I''m just sorry..." Eventually finding words to say, I spoke with a heavy tone.


    I felt like I had tricked them, believing that I was likely the spirit they were referring to, and that thought made me feel sick.


    But before I could get a word out, Mother and Father both walked over and caught me in their embrace. "Don''t be sorry, Vasilias." Mother''s soft voice nearly brought on tears as she pressed herself into me. "You are our son, are you not? What is there to be sorry about?"


    Father gently nodded in agreement with a satisfied expression. "You chose us, and we chose you. You are our child, a child born from fate, blessed with the strength to carry the burdens of the world. Who wouldn''t be proud to have you as their child?"


    Feeling the gentle thumps of their heartbeats, I had to fight back tears while a part of me I thought I had lost took over�CI wasn''t me, but rather the young fenrir who yed in endless prairies with his brother, and the young dragon who napped in the warm embrace of his Mother.


    Hanging my head, my heart finally found ease. "Thank you.. both of you... I hope you know that I love you both more than anything else in the world..."


    Hugging them back, I felt, for a moment, as if all the weight that had been crushing me was suddenly lifted, reced with a sense offort and warmth.


    I finally felt the bliss I only ever had as a child.


    I felt at ease... I felt at home.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    Read up to <strong>5 chapters</strong> ahead of schedule, and get <strong>early ess to artwork</strong> on My Patreon!


    (In case Embedded Link doesn''t work: /TDOD )


    -------------


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    All are wee!


    ---


    Also if you are looking for a new story, check out my new novel! The System''s Harvester


    On RR and SH

 Chapter 398: Learning To Live

    Chapter 398: Learning To Live


    A shorter Chapter today since this was written when I was getting smoked by Hurricane Helene


    Late Afternoon - Early Summer : Nouniel Kingdom


    -----


    - Elizabeth Valia ~


    -''Queen Elizabeth, the founder of the Nouniel Kingdom''... To think the nation I founded still exists almost eight thousand yearster...- Looking down at the image of what was once me painted into a book, I felt a wave of blurry memories and unassociated sensations start flowing into the back of my mind. -A life led by naivety and ignorance... At least it worked out for everyone else...- *Snap*


    Closing the book and cing it back on the shelf, I made my way out of the library, setting a silver coin on the receptionist''s desk as I covered my head with a leather hood. *Fwip*


    "Thank you for your patronage, miss!" Eagerly swiping the coin off the desk, the young demihuman receptionist bowed with a wide smile.


    Waving at her over my shoulder, I pushed therge door open and made my way out onto a porch shielded from the intense winds ripping down the sand-covered street, carrying with it an ocean mist and the scent of fish from the port, where the ship I was set to board was sitting.


    "Haah..." -The winds here are really ridiculous...- Finally putting on a ck mask, I made my way out onto the road and started heading to the port.Currently, I was in the Nouniel Kingdom, a very small kingdom situated on an ind south of the Kingdom of Deacia in the Shallow Sea.


    Up until that point, I had simply been following the visions of fragmented memories, guiding me all the way from the peak of the mountains in the Holy Kingdom, through Faelith, and across the Shallow Sea to recover the memories of the lives I once lived.


    As things were, I was about to head to the maind of the Main Continent after retrieving the mementos of my life as Elizabeth Nouniel, a pirate turned queen with the help of my friends who I could only now, eight thousand yearster, recognize were dragons. -Evan Pi��s... With ast name like that, you''d think I would have realized earlier...-


    Scoffing at my previous ignorance, I took a moment to bask in the nostalgia of the city before eventually making my way onto a massive galleon, showing a royal seal to the crew, and making my way into the suite next to the captain''s room.


    *ck* Closing the door behind me, I took off my damp, sand-covered cloak before setting down my bag and pulling out a book with a quill.


    It was my diary. Just as I had done in my countless past lives, I wanted to put everything I felt in writing.. it helped me organize my thoughts and feelings, and ease the endlessly shing emotions in the back of my mind.


    It was what kept me grounded, and kept me sane.


    But as time passed, I found my troubled heart rxing more and more even if I never picked up my quill. My shaky hands steadied, my fears faded, and I felt at ease even when I read the panicked words of my past selves sinking into despair after finding out the truth of my existence.


    But rather than having just grown used to it, or grownfortable with my fate, I had steeled my determination to change it.


    Even if that meant I had to reach for the hand of an unknown god.


    *Tap* Setting down my quill, I looked up at the ceiling and let my memories of the thunderbird''s nest rey in my mind.


    As someone who was once a believer and messenger of God, I was hesitant, but as someone whose fate had lost its guide, I was determined. -At the end of every diary I''ve found.. I asked God why.- I believed that in every reincarnation, I had a purpose that God wished for me to fulfill. -But the more I give it thought the more it seems like my prayers can no longer reach him...- Even after dozens of reincarnations, nothing ever changed.


    Until now... Until I met a god who knew of my origin and offered to give me answers to the endless questions that haunted my existence at the cost of taking hold of my soul and my fate.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    But while I was hesitant at first, with every new set of memories I regained, that hesitancy faded, reced by the light of a new faith.


    For the first time ever, I wasn''t stuck. I had the ability to break the cycle, figure out the truth behind my existence, and deepen my understanding of the world and its gods.


    It was just a matter of time.


    *Tap* Setting down my quill and getting up from the desk, I walked to the back of the room and looked out the window, over the endless sea.


    It was a sight that surfaced endless memories, but while I relived countless moments from the thousands of years I had lived, I smiled.


    While my mind aged with every memory, my body remained young. For the first time in my existence.. I could step beyond the veil of naivety without death grabbing me by the ankle.


    For the first time in my existence, I could live a life without being shielded by ignorance.


    And while I was anxious about what I would discover, I was eager to live it.


    I was going to make this life one where I could truly live.


    One where, on my deathbed, I could feel content with the things I had done...


    ...A life where I was no longer burdened by the weight of endless regret.


    -----


    Mid Evening - Early Winter : In the skies of Valtivar | Siratha


    - Vasilias Ragnarok ~


    "Okay, now, you need to ignite it, but be very careful to control the ignition area-"


    *Crackle-FWOOOOSH* Instantly disappearing from in front of me with a cloud of mist, I watched as Father went tumbling through the sky,unched via his first attempt at thruster magic. -It wasn''t that bad though...-


    Quickly flying over to him, I dissipated his magic to get him to stop spinning before using my aura to steady him up. "You alright?"


    Dizzily nodding, he slowly straightened himself up. "How in the world did you control this when you were young?"


    "Haha, it''s not that bad. You just need to make sure everything is symmetrical, the ignition area specifically." -I''m surprised he could even maintain the pressure for it to properly provide thrust...-


    Slowly shaking off his dizziness, his movements started returning to normal and his gaze steadied once again. "So that''s what you meant..."


    "Yeah, if you need another example, or need me to exin anything again, just ask." It had been less than a day since he woke up at that point, yet he had already nearlypletely recovered mentally.


    But while it was what Mother and I were waiting for in order to get him up to speed on everything he missed, we both agreed it would be better if he did something fun before his responsibilities for their way back to him.


    So, I was going to take him up to repair the satellites, and let his curiosity run wild, but, unfortunately, that required far more prep than I thought.


    "I think I understand..." The biggest thing was teaching him thruster magic. *Crackle-FWOOOOSH* But thankfully, although it took a few hours, he did eventually get the hang of it.


    Watching him go tumbling through the air again, this time in a much more controlled manner, I smiled somewhat pridefully. -He was a quick learner before too, but.. I think he''s gotten even faster...-


    As he slowly steadied himself with the thruster magic, he wobbled trying to find a perfect bnce before eventually realizing he could just rx his legs and tail to let them do the bncing for him.


    It was a simple thing, but it made him smile like a child.


    *RRRRRUMBLE* "Haha! I did it!" Looking toward me with a childish gleam in his eyes, I felt a tightness in my chest ease, and the lingering guilt of tampering with his soul fade.


    He was truly himself again, and like Mother had told me behind his back, he seemed to have regained his youth. His younger, more prideful self that had been squashed by responsibility over the years had regained its former glory, leaving the man Mother fell in love with the thrive once more.


    But while it was truly a wonderful sight to see Father so prideful again, it also brought with it its own set of challenges.


    Challenges that he would set upon Mother and me without warning.


    "So, what if I used this thruster magic to throw the cubane artifacts I made before? Like a giant explosive cannonball." Looking down at the sphere of hydrogen floating in front of him with a gleam in his eye, he turned to me.


    But I could only sigh. "Just focus on learning to fly with it for now, Dad." -His ideas are.. a little concerning sometimes...-


    And little did I know, they would only get crazier.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    Read up to <strong>5 chapters</strong> ahead of schedule, and get <strong>early ess to artwork</strong> on My Patreon!


    (In case Embedded Link doesn''t work: /TDOD )


    -------------


    Also, please feel free to check out our discord for all updates rted to TDOD releases! https://discord.gg/Dv7G5bQD4v


    All are wee!


    ---


    Also if you are looking for a new story, check out my new novel! The System''s Harvester


    On RR and SH

 BIG Announcement!! (And Art Collage)

    BIG Announcement!! (And Art Coge)


    Hey Everyone! Hope you''re all doing well!


    So, I know a few of you in the discord have been wondering when this announcement would be made since it''s something I''ve been sitting on for a while, but I thought that since it was my birthday I''d help spread a bit of excitement around.


    <strong>Now, after 3 long years, The Dragon of Dreams AND The System''s Harvester will be getting Webtoons!</strong>


    For a bit of extra detail, we are nning to release the 4-5 chapters, free for anyone to view, for each novel on the 30th, and although the chapters are rather short for the time being, I promise that will change as time passes, I''m just on a very tight budget currently. Expecting that they both do fairly well, or I manage to grow my Patreon, we are aiming for weekly 40 panel chapters (what is generally standard), but are currently doing biweekly 20 panel chapters until more funding is acquired, which, ording to the manager shouldn''t take too too long.


    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I would also like to add that I have a hand in every step of the process with these webtoons, so you can expect them to be good adaptations. The TDOD adaptation is based on the rewrites that will be posted whenever the webtoons go live, and I would highly rmend reading them when they are posted, I''ll make another announcement about that when the timees.


    But for now, I''ll leave things there and, to helpmemorate this moment and the 3 year anniversary of TDOD, I will coge all the art done for the novel! I can only hope you all are as excited as I am!


    Enjoy the art!

 Chapter 399: Learning to Learn

    Chapter 399: Learning to Learn


    Early Afternoon - Mid Winter : The Cab | Bahamut


    -----


    - Krystallo Ragnarok ~


    "So, he was normal up until you asked him about the visions he has?"


    Quickly nodding, I looked up at Brother with a somewhat distressed expression. "When I asked about the visions, his whole character shifted... It was like he suddenly sank into insanity..." Grimacing as I thought back to my interview with him, Brother instantly wrapped me in his aura.


    "So it''s aplete shift... Interesting... I wonder if it''s not just multiple personalities..." Speaking barely above a mumble for a moment, he gave it thought before turning to me. "I''ll go check him out for you, alright?"


    "B-But can Ie?" Realizing I spoke without thinking, I quickly went to retract my words, only to be met by the tip of Brother''s wing pressing into the top of my head.


    "Of course, I just can''t promise that what you want to happen, will."


    Quickly nodding, I hopped up onto my feet with a mix of excitement and anxiety churning my stomach.I wasn''t sure what to expect. Brother was someone I trusted more than the world, but if he said that Diaforoi was indeed dangerous like Mother had been trying to say.. I wasn''t sure how I''d respond.


    But thankfully, or perhaps unfortunately, their interaction wasn''t nearly as simple as I imagined.


    "My name is Vasilias," Entering the room in a shrunken version of his draconic form, he spoke with an alluring calmness and warmth like Mother. "What''s yours?"


    Looking up at Brother with a bright gleam in his eyes, Diaforoi spoke excitedly. "D-Diaforoi! My name is Diaforoi!"


    Smiling, Brother quickly found a ce to sit on the opposite end of the table, leaving me in the doorway behind a wall of light magic to watch. "It''s nice to meet you. Do the other ''you'' share that name as well?"


    Tilting his head to think, he didn''t show even a hint of skepticism before shaking his head.


    "Do you perhaps know their names?"


    "Hm..." Tilting his head again, the look in his eyes seemed to shift before his normal childishness returned. "I forgot it!"


    Brother''s tail quickly curled. "It?"


    Hastily nodding, he looked up at Brother with a bright smile. "They are one! They don''t have multiple names.. or at least, that''s how they used to be." Trying to recall memories one more time, he somewhat nervously tapped his foot and looked up at the ceiling.


    But he wasn''t given much time to think. "What do you mean by used to?" Speaking warmly once more, Brother continued probing him.


    "Uh.. before me." He seemed uncertain how to word it.


    I didn''t get it either, but Brother was quick to respond. "I see. Can you recall anything else about them ''before you''?"


    -What is that supposed to mean...- The longer they talked the more they seemed to speak in their ownnguage.


    But every time, Diaforoi understood the questions. "They were a big dragon! The size of a huge tower! And were always covered in beautiful jewels."


    "I see..." Pausing, Brother looked him in the eyes for a moment before bringing a smile back to his face. "How do you recall those details? Are they like a memory, or a vision?"


    "Hmm.. more like a memory."


    Having some kind of realization, he quickly rxed. "I see, thank you for your honesty..." But it didn''t take long for things to be tense. "Now, how about Krystallo? What do the other you think of her?"


    "They think she''s precious!"


    Feeling my cheeks warm as a smile spread across my face, he continued.


    "Although sometimes, they tell me to be cautious of her."


    -Huh?- Feeling my breathing stop for a moment, the gentle curl in my tail rxed.


    "Why is that?"


    Hesitating as he looked up at Brother, he spoke unusually cautiously. "They.. are afraid of you."


    "Do you know why?"


    Quickly shaking his head, his whole demeanor darkened. "N..No... We can''t remember why..."


    -Remember...- As my mind started piecing together the endless pieces of the puzzle, I felt my thoughts race.


    But Brother''s response caught me a little off guard. "Don''t feel bad, I can understand why they fear me.. however..." Pausing again, his expression darkened slightly. "Krystallo said you''ve been suffering from visions."


    He instantly jolted.


    "If you want me to help you with those, I can."


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the vition.


    Diaforoi''s face instantly washed with fear as he rushed backward, pinning himself against the wall.


    That was when Brother''s demeanor shifted, no longer forcing a smile for Diaforoi''sfort. "Looks like you really are afraid of me..." Reaching out his paw, pointing a w at Diaforoi, he spoke somewhat curiously. "I''m going to help you, but before I do, I want to ask.. does the name Lernaean ring a bell?"


    Diaforoi''s face instantly drained of emotion as his eyes went wide.


    "What a lucky kid, you are." *Vwoom* Brother''s mana immediately flooded the room before suddenly.. *Snap* With the sound of a gentle pop, Diaforoi limply copsed to the ground.


    -H..Huh..?- It took me a moment to even realize what happened.


    But when I did, my pupils dted. "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!" Bolting out from behind the veil of light magic, I went to run up to Diaforoi, only to be caught and lifted into the air by Brother''s aura. "What are you doing?! Let me down now!"


    "Krystallo," Forcing me to stop squirming, Brother made me look up at him. "You know you rushing out here only made me more likely to make a mistake, right?"


    Suddenly going pale, Ipletely stopped trying to fight back.


    "If you even grazed his body, he could''ve really died." Finally setting me down, he gave me a somewhat cold look. "I don''t know what has you so attached to this kid, if things go well, he''ll end up being a good friend, but for now, keep your distance."


    "Huh..?" Unable to pull my eyes off him, I watched as he motioned in a guard that was on standby before ordering him to give Diaforoi a room here at the cab and to confine him to it. "But.. why..?" -The talk went well.. right?-


    "When he wakes up, he might not be the little kid you remember anymore, and until his condition stabilizes, you can''t meet him directly."


    -W..what does that mean...- At the time I didn''t understand.


    As I watched Diaforoi''s limp body get carried out of the room, I didn''t have any words. I was simply stunned by confusion...


    In hopes of findingfort, I went to Mother, but she didn''t have any to give. Brother had already spoken to her about it, and ever since, she started referring to Diaforoi like he was someone old.


    It was weird.. he was a kid after all...


    Or at least that''s what I tried to tell myself until the day we met again.


    -----


    Mid Afternoon - Early Winter : The Cab | Bahamut


    - Vasilias Ragnarok ~


    -To think something like that was possible...- Thinking to myself as I left my meeting with the child named Diaforoi, I took to the air before suddenly jumping through the void to Emporio.


    It had been about a week since Father woke up at that point, but since he was taking a bit longer than I expected to get his hand on thruster magic and oxygen umtion, we had returned to Bahamut.


    Mother had begun easing him back into things, showing him everything he missed while he tried to get better at the magic I was teaching him. But while Mother was with him, I had some free time, so I took a moment to help Krystallo, only to unknowingly catch myself in an odd predicament. -To think that kid is a reincarnated hydra...-


    *Vwoop* Popping out of the void over Emporio, I made my way toward the thunderbirds ''Branch'', where Hera was, in order to talk to her about hydras to try and get a better idea of how exactly they worked.


    But Hera was in the same boat as me. "That''s possible?" Giving me a dumbfounded look as she pulled herself away from the thunderbird captain, she motioned him away. "I would have expected hydras to have more explicitly split souls considering how they act."


    I was quick to shake my head. "His soul ispletely smooth, without any divides, yet not only has he mentioned other ''voices'' in his head, he said they don''t go by his name, but by a name ''they'' forgot." -It''s really odd...- They acted like they were somehow divided, yet still one consciousness. -They just haven''t meshed with the kid yet is what it looks like...- "Anyway, I wasing to you to see if you knew anything about the traditions of the hydras that could lead to souls blending like that."


    "Hm..." Sitting down to think, she looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "They did have some odd traditions when it came to hatching, but I can''t remember the details, unfortunately... I remember them syncing their hatches with the prayers at the Tree of Prayer, but I can''t remember the details."


    -I wonder why...- Thinking I would head to Siratha and spend the rest of my evening looking into it while Father was upied with Mother, I turned around, ready to leave, only to have Hera wrap her tail around mine.


    "Where are you going?" Looking back at me, she gave me a slightly disappointed pout.


    "I was gonna head to Siratha for the evening to see if they have any information on it. What''s the matter?"


    "I was wondering when you wanted to reintroduce me to your Father since you said his memories are jumbled... I''ve been wrapped uptely, but it''s not like I can''t make time."


    -Ah, right...- I hadpletely forgotten that they hadn''t met. "I''m nning to take him up to repair the Acardi satellites with me in a few weeks, if-"


    "And you didn''t invite me?" Turning around and walking over to me, she pressed herself into my side. "I''m disappointed... You know I''d want to do something like that."


    "Ack-" Tensing up and averting my eyes, I did what I could to avoid her gaze. "I was going to! I just got sidetracked..."


    "Uh-huh..." Giving me a re for a moment, she slowly pulled herself away while gently caressing my side with her tail. "It''s good for you two to have some father-son time, so don''t worry about it. Just tell me when you want me to meet him and I''ll make time, okay?" Giving me a joyful smile as she walked away, my heart eased.


    "Then make time in two and a half weeks. I need to make sure Father won''t suffocate or float off into space while we''re up there..."


    Watching her suddenly tense, an awkwardness blew across my face.


    -Ah...- "You.. don''t know how to do thruster magic either, do you..."


    Instantly whipping her head around, her eyes locked on me with a bright gleam in them. "Nope, you need to teach me! I''ll make time right now!" *VWOOM* Her aura instantly mmed down around us as the thunderbirds watching us from some distance all scattered.


    "Haha, you know you just had to ask if you wanted to know, right?" As she quickly turned around and got close to me again, I felt my cheeks warm.


    But, as expected, she learned it almost instantly, leaving me to teach her other spells I thought were good to know as an excuse to spend a bit more time with her.


    And it made for a good evening, for both her and I, eventually leading to a new part of my routine.


    Whenever I had free time, I would spend it with her, for the entire two and a half weeks that Father was being reintegrated into society.


    It was a truly lovely few weeks, but unfortunately, it did eventually have toe to an end.


    And the day I was going to reintroduce Father to her before we went up to work on the satellites arrived.


    <strong>-----</strong>


    Read up to <strong>5 chapters</strong> ahead of schedule, and get <strong>early ess to artwork</strong> on My Patreon!


    (In case Embedded Link doesn''t work: /TDOD )


    -------------


    Also, please feel free to check out our discord for all updates rted to TDOD releases! https://discord.gg/Dv7G5bQD4v


    All are wee!


    ---


    Also if you are looking for a new story, check out my new novel! The System''s Harvester


    On RR and SH

 Chapter 400: Jogging Memories

    Chapter 400: Jogging Memories


    Mid Evening - Mid Winter : Six Hundred Kilometers East of the Cab


    -----


    *rrrruuuuMMMBBLLEEE-WOOSH* Watching Father zip past me at close to Mach 4, this time without his scales glowing red-hot or tumbling through the air, I nodded with a satisfied look.


    Mach 4 was most definitely his limit, but because he was limited by how thick the air was, as we rose in altitude, his speed limit would inevitably rise as well. *Vwoom* -He might have trouble managing his oxygen when we''re at altitude though...- Checking the space around his head with my aura as he disappeared over the horizon, I motioned him back, and used some of my mana to grow the rapidly-melting iceberg I was floating on.


    After all, I wasn''t sure a square kilometer of ice would survive.


    *Crackle-z-z-z-Z-Z-Z-ZIP-BAAAAANG* mming into the iceberg at full speed, cracks ripped through it like lightning before the whole thing was plunged beneath the water. *WOOOSH-SPLASSHH*


    -Oh, it survived this time...- Using the water that rushed across the surface to repair the huge cracks that appeared, I buried our ws in ice.


    But a bit of ice was far from enough to hold Father in ce. "HAHA!" *CRACK* Jumping out of the ice, he happily hopped around like an overjoyed child for a moment before turning to me. "Did you see that?! WOOOO, that felt good!" His happy roar quickly echoed off the massive waves surrounding us before I quelled them as well.


    "I told you going fast is euphoric." Smiling as I broke the ice around my ws and stepped out, I spread my wings and dried myself off. *Vwoom-Woosh* "How are your legs feeling though?""Much better!" Holding up his paw, he gently moved it around before firmly stomping a few times. "The work you did on itst time was wless."


    "Phew..." Letting out a silent breath of relief, I spoke more softly. "Thank goodness." Thest time we came out to fly, a few days prior, he did the same thing he just did, but went much faster and mmed straight into the water, consequently crushing the joints in his wrists and breaking a few bones in his legs.


    When I went to fix it, I did a bit of a procedure on him to not just repair everything, but strengthen it as well, and it seemed to work out. "You said it was just mana strengthening, but I''m not sure I believe you."


    "Well, that''s cause you''reparing my mana strengthening to normal people." With my recent time in the void, I found a much more time-consuming, but stronger method of mana strengthening usingttices interwoven with space mana. The downside was that it made whatever I strengthened a dark matte ck, whether it was supposed to be a shiny metal or white bone, and greatly stunted organic activity. -But before that really bes a problem, it''ll get reced with his own mana.-


    "I guess that''s true." Looking me in the eye as he started walking over, he spoke with excitement written all over his face. "In any case, do you think I''m finally ready for our excursion?"


    Somewhat hesitantly nodding, I tried to quell his excitement a bit. "I do, but we can''t leave just yet."


    "Hm?"


    "We have someone elseing with us," Without realizing, a smile spread across my face. "Someone I still need to reintroduce you to."


    As we flew back to the Cab, I tried to ease him into things, especially since I wasn''t sure how much Mother had exined to him already.


    "So, how much has Mother exined the governmental changes in Bahamut?"


    Shrugging as we flew, he spoke with a bit of uncertainty. "I thought a lot, at least about it''s function and origin. She didn''t mention much about what caused it."


    -Okay, then...- "Has Mother told you who the Monarch is?"


    He quickly shook his head. "I heard it was Myles Kalfas since he survived his dragon sleep. Is it not?"


    Shaking my head, I wanted tough. "Not quite. He''s the head of the military branch." -Looks like some of his memories are still jumbled...-


    Father, giving me an ufortable look, quickly squinted with skepticism. "Then.. who..?" Falling into thought, his gaze quickly wandered. "Is it you? Are you pulling my leg?"


    "Haha, nope." Continuing to let him guess while we flew, we eventually found a ce tond in the central courtyard and sat down.


    "Huh? Why are we sitting." Obediently sitting down as difort and concern rushed across his face, he spoke with haste. "We aren''t waiting for the Monarch toe to us, are we?!"


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Quickly waving my wing to calm him down, I used a bit of aura to check on Hera and make sure she wasn''t too busy.


    But she was already headed our way.


    *Click-FWOOSH* Throwing open the door ahead of us, Hera walked through while holding her head high with a prideful smile.


    It was a sight that made Father m up and instinctually throw himself into a bow. "What are you doing, Vasilias?!" Looking up at me, his gaze was washed with panic. "Why aren''t you bowing?"


    "Pft-" It made me want tough. "You think I''d invite her if we had that kind of rtionship? Rx, Dad." Using my aura to force him to stand up straight, I tried to start the reintroduction. "Dad, this is Hera. I believe you two met not long before you were sent into your dragon sleep, but since your memories seemed to still be a bit jumbled, I thought I''d reintroduce you."


    Instantly tensing up, he went wide-eyed before Hera bowed with a warm smile. "It''s a pleasure to meet you again, sir."


    "Ah-! Y-You don''t need to bow to someone like me!" Trying to force himself into a bow through my aura, he red at me and used a bit of wind magic to speak just to me, not knowing Hera could very easily hear it. "Let me bow, RIGHT NOW! Do you not know what it means to not bow to the Monarch?!"


    "Pfffft-hahaha!" Finally breaking character, Hera let out a hardyugh, causing Father''s expression to wash with a mix of uneasiness and confusion. "It''d be a bit awkward for him to bow to me, you know."


    Quickly nearing me, this time with a joyful curl in her tail, she pressed the top of her head into my cheek and leaned into me.


    "~Please let me introduce myself this time.~" Whispering to me with her divinity, I gently nodded and backed off as she turned back to Father. "Sir, my name is Hera Monachalkos. It seems you don''t remember but we spoke quite extensively about science in Valtivar throughout the month prior to the ident leading to your dragon sleep."


    Completely shellshocked, Father just stood there with his gaze bouncing between me and Hera before suddenly his eyes went wide. "A-Ah! I''m so sorry!" Finally forcing himself through my aura, he bowed and wiped the dumbfounded expression off his face. "It seems my dragon sleep jumbled my memories more than I thought... I sincerely apologize."


    Hera quickly nodded with a warm smile. "Please don''t be sorry, Vasilias had already told me all about it. We will get the chance to know each other again on this trip, so don''t worry."


    Warming up to her as his memories slowly returned to him, he started speaking morefortably. "R-Right, I apologize if this trip was something you wanted to be just between you and Vasilias."


    "Haha, don''t be. It''ll be good for us all to spend some time with each other. Plus, sometimes I can get lost in Vasilias''s exnations so it''ll be nice to have a head to butt against.. especially considering what he''ll be showing us..."


    Looking up into the sky, Father was quick to nod in understanding. "No kidding..."


    But I, unfortunately, had to get the ball moving. "In any case, shall we get going?" With only a month till the festival, we had to get moving. -Considering there are at least a few thousand satellites, I''m not sure what will be repairable and what won''t...- But with there being at least a few thousand satellites, I was sure it was going to take us some time.


    However, when we finally got up into the air, and I pulled out the freshly updated OOM, jumped through a few tabs to search for a nearby satellite, and eventually found one, catching up to it in its orbit.. I felt a bead of sweat form on my forehead.


    "Uh..." Hera and Father had the same reaction as me. "What are we looking at..?"


    Hesitating as I looked at therge purple cube floating before us, I wasn''t sure what to really think. -It looks like it runs mostly off mana...- But inside it was an incredible mix of technology and runes, intertwined so perfectly that it was a little hard to follow. -Besides cleaning up the runes and circuits a bit, this shouldn''t need much repairs...-


    However, I quickly found myself with another problem.


    "What.. is this thing supposed to do?" Tilting her head, Hera stared at it with an unbelievably confused expression.


    "That.. is a great question..." Pulling out the OOM again, I quickly connected to the satellite, did a few scans to make sure it was working properly, and then went into the ''in-depth diagnosis'' tab, telling me exactly what it checked, only to find that it was an outdatedmunications ry that was likely reced by the tower in the middle of the Death''s Gape.


    -Maybe.. I need to change how I go about doing this...-


    With a little more research, I quickly came to realize just how few of the fifteen thousand satellites the OOM found needed to be repaired.


    But.. that didn''t mean repairing them would be any easier...


    With every satellite we found, I felt more and more lost. "W..What..." -How does this shit even work?!-


    Honestly, I was intending for the trip to be something where I could help deepen Hera and Father��s knowledge of science, but.. before long, I found myself deepening my own.


    It just went to show how much more advanced the Acardi were than I had always envisioned.. to a point that it was truly a bit horrifying, not just to me, but Hera. ��How.. did the Acardi not conquer Delphi����


    Looking over at her staring at aputation module that used runes, mana, and quantum electronics, simultaneously,pletely dumbfounded, I couldn��t help but ask myself the same question. ��How.. did Delphi even survive����


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 401: Realizations

    Chapter 401: Realizations


    N/A - N/A : Orbiting Over the Cab


    -----


    "So.. this is that antimatter stuff you were talking about?" Father spoke somewhat cautiously as he used his aura to inspect the inside of a massive satellite.


    "Yeah, that battery you''re looking at could probably tten a small city if it was detonated properly." At the time, we were inspecting a new type of satellite we believed could be intended for optical observation, the type of satellite I specifically came into orbit to find. -It certainly looks promising...-


    Looking far more traditional than the previous hundred or so satellites we had messed with, it had a rtively small ck box at the center, with four long panels absolutely lined with lenses,sers and sensors, all aimed toward Delphi''s surface. -I just hope this isn''t one of those stupid atmospheric condition observers...-


    Quickly getting to work, I helped guide Hera and Father through some of the details before letting them repair the outer panels while I focused on the central control module. -Let''s see what we''re working with...-


    It had been several days since we went up into orbit at that point, and because most of the satellites didn''t have operationalmunications systems, we had flown up to about five thousand satellites to judge what was and wasn''t worth repairing, taking our time to fix whatever seemed promising, and getting quite lucky every now and then.


    While many of the things we took the gamble on turned out to be useless, we also managed to get things like atmospheric radar satellites, and inteary object trackers online again, giving me the ability to track anything flying in the atmosphere or floating through space, even if it was hundreds of millions of kilometers away. -If something like an abyss eater wanders too close to Delphi.. at least I''ll know now...-


    After all, even if I was nowhere near strong enough to deter something at that level, some warning was better than none.


    But those still weren''t the kind of satellites I was looking for.


    Finally managing to get the reactor and battery repaired, I moved to theputing module, carefully ensuring the antimatter battery wouldn''t try to incinerate us when we''d inevitably turn it on.


    "Okay, I think I''ve fixed the wiring in the panels." Closely inspecting the back of the array tes, Hera looked around as if she were looking through the metal before speaking somewhat idly. "This one was in pretty good condition... For the most part the damage is limited to scratches, and wear on the electronics..."


    "Yeah..." -We got pretty lucky...- Unlike this one, most of the satellites we had seen were more seriously damaged, missing chunks of electronics or even being nothing but a cloud of scrap where a satellite used to be. -But I''m not gonnain...-


    *Click* *Pop-Pop-Pop-HHHHMMMMM* Finally starting up the reactor after finishing my repairs and glossing over what Father and Hera did, I connected my OOM to the satellite and started doing a diagnosis to see what it could do.


    And sure enough, it was exactly what I was looking for.


    ''All Optical Systems: Online''


    -Fuck yeah...- But, after hastily jumping through some tabs on the OOM to see if I could pull up a view from the cameras... *Beep* ''Unable to view data outside of official ARX facilities''


    "Ugh..." Letting out a groan, I felt the excitement on my face fade a bit.


    "ARX again?" Hera tilted her head as she floated over to look at the OOM''s disy.


    "Yeah," It was the name of an Acardipany or technology rted to systems involving a mix of runes and quantumputing. -The issue is I''ve never heard of it...- Prior to working on the satellites, I had never heard of ARX, it wasn''t in any of the research directories in the Lab, nor in thenguage trantions. "I really hope the AI at theboratory knows something about it, but.. I''m a bit doubtful to say the least..."


    "Well, we can only hope... You can still pair it with the OOM though, right?" Father quickly came over as well.


    "Yeah, but that''s just to connect it to a ry. Not to view it''s data." Like many of the other satellites, each satellite had a code or signal that, when given to a ry satellite, would let it sync up with everything else in orbit, and theoreticallymunicate with facilities on Delphi or the moon. "If we find a more modern ry satellite, I might be able to pair it with the ry tower in the Death''s Gape, but I''m not sure if theboratory can process the information from these satellites regardless."


    But, there was only one way to find out.


    After continuing to a few more satellites that were rtively close by, we started making our way back to the ocean surface beneath us, before heading all the way down to the Acardiboratory.


    Thankfully, after all the training I made Father do to survive in space, he didn''t seem to have any issue in the water, even at depths close to seventy kilometers.


    But as we entered the colossal entrance to the dungeon and swam past the antimatter pylons, Father''s rather carefree, and curious attitude ceased. "What the..."


    *Hhhhmmmm* With a gentle hum filling the water, Hera and I swam over top of theb before shrinking down and more carefully navigating the sea of cables.


    However, Father was hesitant. "What.. is this..." Looking at the reactor with an anxious, almost feral expression, he suddenly stopped moving.


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    By then, we had already spoken quite extensively about what he should expect, what he needs to be sure to not touch, and generally how to handle himself around old Acardi tech.


    But even though we spoke about the reactor quite extensively, hearing about something was quite different from seeing and feeling it. "That... Is that really a reactor..?"


    Having be familiar with the much smaller reactors in the satellites, he had grown used to them being tiny. "It is."


    "And you.. built that..?" He seemed to go more pale the longer he looked at it.


    "There''s no need to be afraid of it. If you don''t mess with it, it''ll be fine, I promise you." Using a bit of my aura to ease his nerves, color quickly returned to his face.


    But he was still antsy, especially as he shrunk down and followed Hera and I into the web of cables. "So.. the battery in the satellite.. you said it could tten a small city..."


    "That''s only if the antimatter was detonated perfectly. Even if there was a catastrophic failure it wouldn''t detonate like that." Wanting to ease his nerves, I tried to dodge his question.


    Because I didn''t want him to think about the fact that he was swimming next to something that could tten central As. "I.. see..."


    "Nowe on, you can''t be getting awestruck before you see the cool stuff, right?"


    Fueling his curiosity a bit, he finally started to lighten up. "A-Alright." But it wasn''t until we finally got inside that his worries really started to ease. "Woah, what is all this?"


    Taking a moment to show him around the side rooms like I did with Hera, I showed him how to use the tablets and tried to give him some rough trantions so he could start learning thenguage, while letting him stroll around and look at the different skeletons of animals long-since lost to time, and read up on what was once disyed.


    But the longer he looked around, the more he understood the reaction Hera and I had to the satellites, and the more reality set in.


    But he seemed to mostly keep it to himself.


    Eventually making our way into the main room, I got to asking the AI several questions I had about the satellites, but unfortunately it didn''t know much.


    *Beep* "I have not been supplied with data rted to satellites."


    -Damn...- "What about ARX? Do you know what an ARX facility is?"


    "Yes. It is a facility that specializes in ARX format data transfer. Few such facilities exist, and require special clearance, but can be found aboard the Mothership, and in the lunar colony."n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    -The lunar colony again...- It was a ce I was both excited and nervous to visit. "Do you happen to have a breakdown of the format?"


    "Because of storage andputational limits, such data was never allowed in my directory."


    -Excuse me..?- I felt a bead of cold sweat form on my forehead instantly. -Maybe I need to.. reconsider trying to make aputer for that...-


    "If I am reconnected to the server, it is possible to remotely use these facilities with your clearance, however, you must grant thisboratory special system permissions to do so."


    -Fuck...- Biting my nail, I leaned up against the desk and fell into thought, letting Hera and Father start asking their own questions


    With every trip I made to grow my knowledge of Acardi technology, my need to restart the server grew. -But I don''t have any alternatives...- If I wanted to make use of Acardi tech on any kind of scale, I would need something that connected everything.


    And unfortunately, no matter how much I wanted to, I simply couldn''t create my own connection. -There''s a chance I can just power the ARX facility and connect it to the spire so theb can use it, but if I can''t edit thebs permissions locally, I won''t be able to do that either... Plus, stuff involving the Acardi is never so simple...-


    But it wasn''t like I was just going to give up on it. "~Hera.~"


    "~Hm?~" Pausing her conversation with Father and the AI, she curiously looked over at me.


    "~How much prep is left for the Festival?~"


    Looking away to think for a moment, she was quick to respond. "~I''ll have to be present in Bahamut at least a week before the festival. Why?~"


    -Hm.. that''s not ideal...- "~I want to go to the lunar colony, but if we continue working on the satellites, we won''t have time.~"


    Bringing a warm smile to her face, she turned back toward the AI while holding her head high and shoulders back. "~I can make time whenever you wish to go.~"


    "~It''s alright. Let''s just get back to the satellites. If we can find some older optical satellites that are fixable, they''ll do for now.~" -As long as I can get theboratory to start processing some data, I''ll be happy...-


    And I figured that, since we had at least ten thousand more satellites to fix, we''d likely find at least a few useful, non-ARX satellites that I could modify tomunicate with theboratory.


    Which was indeed the case.


    However, among those we found, a few were especially horrifying.. to the point even Father had a chill pass down his spine. "What the hell is this thing..."


    Floating around a massive cylinder-shaped satellite half covered in what looked like the shell of a colossal dungeon core, I read the text on its side with a look of concern. -''Final Evening''s False Sun''...-


    Spanning several hundred meters, it was a satellite housing a series of giant lenses, eachpletely covered in runes meant to amplify the light passing through it, and focus it into a beam of light akin to aser that was only a dozen meters across.


    "I''m.. not sure we should repair this one..." It even made Hera uneasy. "It''s turned on my simply removing that light shield, right?" Looking up at the top of the satellite facing away from Delphi, she set her eyes on theyer of metal blocking light from entering the lenses. "What if Odin managed to remove it and turn it against us?"


    It was a fair question, and one I honestly agreed with.


    If my numbers were right, theser, if fueled by the light of the sun, would be more than strong enough to heat up the air to a point where fusion was possible. -And if I do have to turn the server back on, I don''t want any weapons like this online...-


    If there was a chance it could be used by anyone other than me, I didn''t want it.


    I simply couldn''t take such a risk.


    And so, that was the first fixable satellite we decided to discard, punching a hole through the center of the lenses to ensure it would never be usable unless someone at least at Hera''s level came up to fix it.


    But it was far from alone.


    The longer we flew around, the more doomsday weapons we found aimed at Delphi, and the more Hera and I had to question why none of them were ever used. -They clearly weren''t nning on leaving Delphi intact, so.. why...- Looking up toward the moon hanging over us, I squinted my eyes. "Just what brought the end of the Acardi for them to not even have a chance to drag Delphi down with them..."

 Chapter 402: Preparation

    Chapter 402: Preparation


    Early Morning - Mid Winter : Sirathan Acardi Laboratory


    -----


    *Beep* "Unknown device connection detected. Scanning."


    -Please work this time...- Anxiously watching the monitor as a loading screen appeared, I waited with baited breath before the Lab''s voice came back over the inte.


    *Beep* "Video feed detected."


    My eyes instantly lit up. -Wait it recognized it...-


    "Do you wish to preview it?"


    "Yes!" Eagerly standing up, I spoke so fast I wasn''t sure the AI would recognize what I said.


    But after just a second of waiting with bated breath, the loading screen on the monitor was reced by a window disying the aerial view of a forest covered in clouds.


    "HAHA, NO WAY!" Throwing my hands in the air, I felt adrenaline rip through my veins. -To think that actually worked!-


    It had only been a few days since Father, Hera, and I finished inspecting all the satellites at that point, but while Hera and Father rushed back home to prepare for the festival, I decided to linger about for a bit to see if I could figure out how to get at least one of the four older optical satellites usable before the day Mother wanted me back by, but things weren''t exactly looking great.


    In order to get the satellite to connect to anything, I had to add another module to the satellite to allow it tomunicate to the connection tower in the Death''s Gape, and in-turn theboratory, through quantum tethering.


    It was honestly a bit of a shot in the dark, but after some trial and error, and taking the time to look at themunication modules of the other oldboratories, I managed to recreate the Acardi converter that tranted traditional electrical signals into qubit, and get the video feed streamed to theboratory with almost no dy. -Gosh, it''s so beautiful...-


    Not only was there not any distortion, there wasn''t even any artifacting. -It''s actually a clean signal...-


    Now, it was true that I couldn''t send anymands to the satellite, so if I wished to zoom out or aim it anywhere, I would have to move it manually. -But that''s fine...-


    Because now that I had a basis ofmunication established, it was just a matter of time before I figured out how to have theb give itmands. -It just sucks that I''ll have to put that on hold for now...- Mom wanted me at the estate in As in just a few hours, so further experimentation would be a bit limited.


    And while I really wanted to create a fabric of space in the void, and experiment there, the moment I tried, I found that electrons didn''t care about divinity, the flow of time, or something like the fabric of space, just like space mana. That meant, in order to test electronics in the void, quantum or not, I had to find something called ''divinity''s constant'', essentially being the pace of time for Delphi so that the electronics would function in a way that seemed normal.


    But just as it sounded.. that was something way above my pay grade. Not only did I have no clue where to even begin with gauging the pace of time, I didn''t have the control over my divinity required for it.


    -It''s really a shame.. but...- Thinking back to the ARX satellites and their mix of runes, magic, and electronics, I had to wonder... -I wonder if ARX is aputer that bypasses time dtion...-


    It was just a guess, but at the same time was a possibility that made my mind race. "Hooh, but I need to calm down for now..." With a few hours to kill, I wanted to add the newmunication modules to the other simrly dated optical satellites, hook them up to theb, and then see if I could get them hooked up with a tablet.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    But while I was a bit pessimistic about it, the AI seemed more than confident.


    After stealing a tablet from one of the many specimen disys in another part of theb, theb''s AI was quick to update its software, before exining that it wouldn''t be able to y a video feed unless it was plugged into something that couldmunicate directly to the satellite or theb.


    Which gave me an idea. -What if I took the module I added to the satellites.. and added it to the tablet?-


    Of course, with the tablet being small, I had to build it externally and connect it with a cable along with a few other modifications, but not too longter, boom. My tablet could receive a live video feed from the four satellites I managed to get connected to it.


    -Look at that...- Having zoomed out the satellites quite a bit, each camera showed a different part of the world, from views of a vast sea, a huge forest, and even a city somewhere in the middle of the Main Continent being more than easily visible. -It''ll definitely be a while before I can really use these things as an extra set of eyes like I wanted to,- At the very least I needed to be able to control them. -But, for now, it''s a pretty cool proof of concept... Even if I was.. expecting a bit more...-


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    But for now, it would have to suffice.


    After all, it was time for me to start preparing for the festival. But unlike what I was expecting, being a Ragnarok, being Nott, and someone who''d stand next to Hera, saying I had ''a lot'' on my te was an indescribable understatement.


    *Flutter* Cycling through several stacks of paper while several maids and tailors did measurements on my different forms, I did my best to multitask.


    But it was hard with Mother talking to me as well. "Gold will look really good with your ck scales.. but the purple, hmm..."


    "Miss, we actually have some new jewelry in. It is a type of mythril made from pure tinum." Quickly walking over to a wooden chest the tailors brought, one of the young, teal-scaled women pulled a piece of jewelry out of a chest with a vibrant purple metal decorated with a slightly pale jade. "It''s quite a rare metal so we may need to order more if we want to make all his jewelry out of it, but it should be possible."


    "Hm..." Mother quickly looked me up and down a few times before nodding. "Alright. Change the detailing to something white as well."


    "As you wish." She was quick to bow. "For the armor, what kind of colors would you like? We think a white with purple and ck ents would be best for contrast."


    "Do a ck, and use the glow in his scales for the main ent, with white as the tertiary."


    Gently nodding, the tailor moved the jewelry she was holding back into the chest before walking back over to me. "Please change to your humanoid form so we can get measurements."


    -Uh.. okay...- *sh* Quickly changing, I held my arms out to let them do their thing, pulling back my sleeves and undressing me a bit to get measurements against the skin.


    "And for the hair..." Walking out in front of me, she squinted at me. "Maybe we leave it... Spread your wings for me."


    Following her instructions, I quickly spread them out before folding them up against my lower back again.


    "Let''s shorten it a bit." Waving over the maids, they quickly got to cutting away at my hair. "That''s definitely better. What do you think Mistress?"


    Mother was quick to nod with a pleased curl in her tail. "I agree. With some jewelry and a more formal attire, he''ll be good... Use white-based jewelry for his humanoid form."


    With a quick nod, the tailor had a short back and forth with Mother about what would look best before eventually, they finished and left, leaving just Mother while I tried to wrap up the paperwork I was working on.


    "Okay, I guess it''s about time I give you a rundown on the festival now that they''re gone." Sitting up, pridefully holding her wings back, Mother''s warm smile slowly brightened with excitement.


    Because of all the paperwork I was working on, I already had a general idea of what to expect, but Mother was quick to start her rundown regardless.


    "The Coming of Age festival this time around is going to work a little differently from past festivals. Starting next week, the younger generation of dragons will leave their nests in order to travel around Bahamut and make connections with others in their generation, and others in the cities they visit. The way this will work is that, next week, everyone is going to pick a city connected to their starting city on this map."


    Quickly handing me a piece of paper with a map, I looked at exactly a dozen cities that were connected in a circle around Bahamut.


    "The city they choose to go to at the start will determine the direction they go around the circle, and they will follow that sequence of cities, stopping for about a month in each city until they reach the city they started in. Typically you can go at whatever pace you like for this, but it''s frowned upon to leave early, so please keep that in mind. Take your time to enjoy yourself a bit." Her smile widened the longer she spoke. "Each city will have different events taking ce to help everyone mix and socialize, but individual noble families will be hosting parties for those that wish to attend, regardless of status, so do whatever you want and have fun!"


    Gently nodding, I continued to listen intently.


    "Then, after exactly twelve months, when most people should be returning to their home city, everyone wille to As, including parents to celebrate together and go over things like the state of Bahamut. This is when Hera is nning to reveal herself as Monarch, and when she wants you to expose to the people of Bahamut who you really are. At that time, we will also go into more detail about the future of Bahamut, the government, and how things will work from then on."


    -Interesting...- "So that''s when all of Hera''s changes will finally be set in stone?"


    Gently nodding, Mother''s expression brightened. "It''ll be the day Bahamut''s future shifts toward a new horizon! The next generation will be released to do as they please, and the historians will have to mark the beginning of a new era. You and Hera will finally be able to do whatever you want without care for the eyes of the public as well." Giving me a somewhat smug look for a moment, I felt like the room suddenly went silent. "Speaking of you and Hera... Why don''t you invite her toe with you during the festival?"


    -Huh?- Tilting my head, I gave her an odd look. "Well I figured since she has already experienced the festival-"


    "I''m not sure what her festival was like when she was young, if there even was one back then, but I can say with certainty that she''s never been with you, so bring her along." Her smug look slowly mixed with pride as she spoke. "It''s not like you aren''t in a simr situation to her, so why not enjoy some time together?"


    Pausing to think, my gaze slowly turned to the ground before smiling and continuing more softly. "Alright... I''ll go see what she wants to do after I finish this paperwork."


    "Hoho~," Hiding her smile with the edge of her wing, she let out a warm chuckle. "I think that''s a wonderful idea~."

 Chapter 403: Ease

    Chapter 403: Ease


    Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : As | Bahamut


    -----


    "My lord," Gently bowing as she entered my room, Chloe spoke through a smile. "Everyone''s things have been prepared. I sincerely apologize if we made you wait."


    I was quick to wave her off with my wing. "Don''t worry, I only just wrapped up my work anyway. Go ahead and meet me outside while I take this to Mother''s office."


    Cheerfully nodding, she promptly trotted out of the room just before I made my way to Mother''s office with a few stacks of papers pertaining to the construction of Eikas��a, Hera''s underground city.


    *Vwoom* But while my mind had yet to switch gears, the moment I stepped into Mother''s cold office, memories of my childhood resurfaced, and my thoughts slowed.


    "Are you done already?" Speaking warmly, Mother gave me an oddly surprised look.


    "Yeah, Hera and I scanned a majority of the city when we were investigating the cult, so these were easy to do." For the most part, the papers were asking for permission to build certain structures, asking for advice, or raising questions about structural integrity, all of which I could easily answer after having seen it all in person.


    "Ah, that must be why Hera wanted me to forward those to you." Grabbing the stack of papers, she curiously looked through several of them before eventually looking back up at me. "So, are you nning to head to the Cab now?"


    Nodding, I walked over to her and gently pressed my head into the bottom of hers. "I''m not sure I''ll be back before the festival begins since Hera will probably want to run me around like a workhorse, so if not, I''ll see you whenever we get to As. Are you nning on staying at this estate or the-"


    "We will be here." Cutting me off, she let out a soft sigh. "Haah, unfortunately, our new estate on the outskirts hasn''t been finished yet, and probably won''t be finished for a number of months. With the construction of Eikas��a, many of the architects we normally hire have been preupied."


    She seemed both excited and disappointed. "What a shame..." After ncing over the design in some of the papers, I was honestly excited to see how it''d turn out. -But it looks like that''ll have to wait...- "In any case, I''ll head out now, before I make everyone wait too long."


    "Haha, alright, sweetie. Be safe~." Standing up and gently embracing me, her smile warmed.


    "Ah, actually, I have something for you." -I almost forgot.-


    "Hm?" She immediately tilted her head as she watched me pull something out from under my wing.


    "If you ever need me toe to you for anything, use this to reach me." Handing her a tiny, human-sized tablet, I turned on the screen to reveal a keypad. "If you just type ''4856'' into that keypad, it will notify me, and I''lle back in an instant."


    Her eyes instantly glowed as she took the tablet. "H..How do I type it in?"


    "Just tap a bit of electrically charged water onto one of the numbers. Like this," Quickly showing her how to use it to ensure she wouldn''t identally destroy the tablet when she needed me, her expression slowly lit up. "I only have one, so please be careful not to lose it, and be sure to keep it with you." -Now that Father''s awake, I''m a little less stressed about it, but...- "If something happens, please don''t hesitate to type in that code, okay?"


    Hastily nodding, she looked down at it like she was holding some priceless artifact. "I''ll take care of it, I promise!"


    "Haha," I honestly wanted tough. "When I get the chance, I''ll try and make a few more so Father and Krystallo can have one, but for the time being, I need you to at least watch over Father with it, okay?" -After his dragon sleep, he shouldn''t get pushed around by anyone under the ancient stage, but you never know what might happen...-


    Eventually wrapping up our talk, we finally exchanged our farewells, and I made my way outside to see Chloe, Maria, and Krystallo all waiting for me.


    "Apologies for making you finedies wait."


    ""Pft-!""


    Chloe and Maria almost choked at my joke before Krystallo held her head up with pride. "It''s okay, I''ll forgive you for the low-low price of a taxi ride across Bahamut."


    "Why, of course! Anything for the princess." *sh* Quickly changing to my fenririan form and growing in size, Iid down and lowered my wing to let them on my back in a jokingly posh manner that Chloe and Maria were both quick to y along with.


    But Krystallo was too stunned to move. "Wha-..." Looking me in the eyes, she wore a look that could only be described as unbridled disbelief. "How do you grow so much bigger every time you leave the nest?! Are you taking illegal elixirs or something?!" Hopping up onto my head, she gave me a few firm stomps before looking down into my eye with a pout. "Why can''t you let me in on your secrets? I want to grow strong too, you know..."


    "Haha, you are already strong Krystallo, far more so than you seem to think." Looking back at therge cloud-like soul stuffed in herparably tiny reserve, I wanted to scoff.


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    "But that doesn''t change the fact that you and I are brother and sister, yet you''re a god and people still treat me like a child..." Sitting down, her expression slowly darkened. "I know Mom said I shouldn''t be, but.. I''m jealous..."


    Seeing genuine pain creep into her eyes, I felt my chest tighten a bit and turned more serious. "Look, Krystallo..." Lowering my tone, her eyes snapped to me. "If you really want to get stronger, I can make that happen, but not only will it be difficult, if you don''t truly want it, and only seek it to satisfy your jealousy, you will only find yourself miserable..."


    As I grabbed her things and covered everyone in so manyyers of magic that they would barely even notice us moving, Krystallo''s face turned troubled and she fell into thought.


    -Good...- Eventually spreading my wings and taking to the air, I didn''t say a word, leaving just a soft breeze tofort her while we flew.


    But while I expected it to take some time, after about half an hour, she finally spoke again whilst looking over the vastnd of central Bahamut beneath us. "I guess I just.. want to feel worthy of being your sister..."


    My stomach churned instantly.


    "When we were young, it didn''t matter.. I didn''t know any better.. but as time has passed, the gap between us has only widened... I want to ask to spend more time with you, but am afraid you''ll turn me down like Mom, saying it''s too dangerous for me to go with you..." Almost wincing as she looked at the ground, her tone slowly turned solid. "So if strength is what I need to go with you on your trips, then I will train like no one ever has..."


    Feeling guilt simply destroy my insides, I looked down at the ground and tried to distract myself for a moment.


    But there was nothing I could do. "I know I''m probably just being ignorant and naive, but even if the trip puts my life at risk.. I want toe.. I want to see the world you live in and be able to say I deserve to stand next to you in it... I''ll make it happen even if I have to grab the devil''s hand-"


    "Stop." Steadying myself, I used my aura to ease her mind before quickly speaking. "That''s not something to joke about..." Seeing her hang her head, I softened my tone. "If you wish to walk with me on this path, you can.. but I also want you to experience a normal life... As much as I hate to admit it.. the way I live isn''t meant for most people. Not only is it dangerous, it''s taxing, andes with an immense amount of responsibility."


    "I don''t care! I''ve lived enough of a normal life to know it''s not what I want..."


    "Then I will show you the life I live, and you can decide what path you want to take, okay? If you wish to follow in my footsteps, I will do everything in my power to guide you... I just.. don''t want to put you at risk like I did Father..."


    Slowly realizing the magnitude of what I was saying, she fell silent.


    "You know I love you, Krystallo. I''d burn the world to protect you if I had to. So.. please don''t forget that..."


    Gently nodding, she nced at me before looking back at the ground. "I''m sorry..."


    "Don''t be..." Over thest ten years, I had constantly been run around without the ability to spend much time with her. "If anything, I should be the one saying sorry to you..." But having the ability to redeem myself in that aspect came with risks. -I can''t risk Odin setting his sight on her...-


    So, from that moment forward, I amplified my divinity''s presence several-fold, ensuring there wasn''t a single god on Delphi that didn''t know exactly where I was, and in turn, where to not wander.


    But while my divinity''s presence was now so thick that even Krystallo seemed to jolt from its sudden change, I tried my best to keep my nerves calm. "Let''s just focus on having a good time during the festival, okay?"


    Looking back at her, I watched her expression quickly warm. "Okay..."


    And atst, the tightness in my chest finally eased. -But, even though it''s what she wants.. bringing her into my world...- Looking at the seemingly distant, stormy clouds over the horizon, I felt nervous. -Is this really something I should do..?-


    Falling into silence as we continued through the rest of the flight, no one said another word, silently enjoying the view over Bahamut as the sun elerated toward the horizon behind us.


    It made for a rather peaceful and rxing flight, to the point that Krystallo had even dosed off halfway through, gently gripping my fur as she sank into a dream so deep she didn''t even wake up when wended. *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh-Thump*


    Quickly letting Chloe and Maria off with everyone''s things, I motioned over one of Hera''s maids and had her show them where everyone would be staying for the time being before looking over to see Hera walking out into the rain on the other side of the courtyard, shielding herself from it before walking out toward me.


    "She looksfortable..." Looking at Krystallo, still dead asleep on my back, she spoke with an oddly motherly tone.


    "She got some things off her chest." ncing back at her, I straightened my posture a bit beforeying down, lowering my head to be at the level of Hera''s shrunken form.


    "That''s good... She has some troublesome years ahead of her..." Pausing, her gaze quickly turned to me. "In any case, what brought you to the cab? I thought you were starting the festival in As."n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Well, I actually had a question." She immediately tilted her head as I spoke. "Did you ever go to a festival like this when you were younger?"


    Promptly nodding, she gently sat down. "I was usually in charge of managing the events. It feels nice to not have that responsibility this time..."


    -I see...- Looking up into the underside of the dark cloud as well, I paused before continuing more softly. "Then, do you want to experience the festival from a different angle this time? Technically I''m still young, so I was nning on going with Krystallo, but I''d like for you toe along as well if you think it''s something you''d enjoy."


    Lowering her gaze to me, a warm smile crept across her face. "Of course, I would. It''ll give me a chance to check out some of the areas of Bahamut I haven''t been in a dozen millennia, and..." Creeping up to me, she gently pressed herself into my chest. "I don''t mind having an excuse to spend more time with you."


    Seeing her smug look, I felt my chest grow warm. "Haha, alright." Gently lowering my head and nuzzling her with my snout, I spoke warmly. "Then I''ll do my best to make sure it''s worthwhile."


    "Haha, alright. I''ll look forward to it~."

 Chapter 404: Deciding Fate

    Chapter 404: Deciding Fate


    ??? - Mid Summer : ??? | ???


    -----


    - Chrysi Floga ~


    *Blub* -H..Huh?!- Jolting awake, my eyes sprung open only to be blinded by an endless white light. -What the hell?!- I couldn''t feel anything, not my own body, nor anything around me. I could only hear a deep, unending hum.


    But as my panic escted, my memories began returning, -Ah...- And my nerves started to ease. -I died.. didn''t I...- Thest thing I could recall was throwing hundreds of kilograms of silver rock toward a voice I heard. -I guess I got caught in the explosion...-


    To be honest, I wasn''t too surprised. Thinking back to all the warnings from Lord Vasilias and Chamrosh I chose to ignore, it was beyond foolish to continue so brazenly as I did. -Hah.. thinking about it now, it''s almost funny...- When I reminisced about my endless, almost obsessive drive to find the phoenix''s feather, I couldn''t help but want tough. Even though I saw nothing wrong with my decisions in the moment, looking back on it made me feel like I was a frog tunnel-visioned on a fly while a hawk loomed over me. -I guess it''s true that death sobers you up...-


    But even though that moment of rity brought upon a wave of regret, it didn''t take long for those feelings to fade.


    My life, while filled with terrible decisions, was one I had the pleasure of living. Just as there were many dark times, there were many bright ones as well.


    Even though I squandered it, having had the chance to meet and befriend the truly incredible people I had in theter years of my life and find people who were willing to ept me for who I was, I felt oddly content. -I just wish I could go back and thank Chamrosh and Lord Vasilias onest time...-


    Quickly sinking into my own memories, a voice echoed through my mind, and a presence almost seemed to appear in front of me. "~Young dragon... How does death feel?~"


    I could only barely understand its words, but attempted to speak in any fashion I could to respond. "~It.. isn''t as bad as I expected...~" Unable to feel my body or close my eyes, I tried to look toward the voice in the endless white space.


    But the next time I heard the voice, it was from a different area. "~Do you not harbor any regrets?~"


    Trying to shake my head, I responded lying softly. "~I certainly have them, but.. I understand that clinging to them will do me no good... I''d rather.. try and learn from them so maybe in my next life, I won''t repeat the same mistakes...~" Understanding that I was speaking to a god, I quickly stopped trying to find it, lowering my focus and rxing.


    "~What a fascinating child you are...~"


    Hearing what sounded like a hint of praise, joy joined the storm of emotions swirling in my mind.


    "~So.. what brought you into the mountain? What were you so eager to find that you woulde to such a deste.. and dangerous area?~"


    "~I wanted to find the phoenix.~" Not hiding a thing, I spoke freely.


    "~For what purpose?~"


    Pausing to think, old.. unsavory memories began surfacing, and my tone softened with thought. "~I have alwayscked talent... With a reserve so small that I couldn''t dream of using anything beyond basic draconic spells and a body so frail I''d lose a spar to someone half my age, I had to rely on my mind to try and fulfill my parents'' ever-rising expectations... But while it seemed to at least keep them hopeful when I was younger.. as my siblings got older, left the nest, and started achieving all these wonderful things while I sat at home, being forced to hide from the eyes of the public, their demeanor toward me shifted from hopeful indifference to disgust.. and my siblings mostly followed suit..." Even while I was enrolled at the academy, I was forced to use a differentst name, and regardless of how well I did in sses, my mother never once gave me as much as a smile.


    It was truly like she had disowned me.


    But that was something I had felt for a long time...


    Thinking back to the look of disappointment my Mother gave me when we tested my attribute node affinities, I felt my chest tighten to an almost sickening extent.


    "~Living under that roof, wondering when I would inevitably be disowned or forgotten about was nothing short of hell... But after I became an Elder, and finally let the lingering hope that I was just a te bloomer'' fade, I took matters into my own hands.~"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Watching me in silence, the god hesitated, taking a moment to think before speaking curiously. "~So you were seeking a phoenix''s feather in hopes that it would improve your constitution.~"


    "~That''s correct...~" Having spent dozens of years researching everything that could possibly let me grow my reserve or strengthen my body, from cultivation and alchemy, to miracle drugs and artifacts that only existed in myth, I spent decades trying absolutely everything I could get my hands on, no matter the risks.


    But even though some things nearly killed me, none of them ever worked. So, after bing an Elder, I decided to start looking into the things that only existed in myth, crossing off whatevercked evidence of it having ever existed and digging into whatever seemed promising.


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    And at the end of the road, I had settled on the feather of a phoenix.


    The god though, just like everyone else, thought I sounded insane. ��~What a ludicrous desire...~��


    His words, escaping with a chuckle, made me want to scoff. ��~It��s only ludicrous in the eyes of those who don��t understand�� Watching the gazes of those who once loved you fade and be filled with disdain is something far more painful than death...~��


    ��~You say that, yet just a moment ago you said you were content with your life.~��


    ��~Of course. Even if such memories are still burdens I must shed, I am content with how I lived my life, and the path fate chose for me... I truly couldn''t be more thankful to have had the chance to meet some of the people I did, and experience what I had... Just as there are bad memories, there are good...~"


    Falling silent, the god''s presence faded as if he started walking away. "~I see...~" As he paused, I could clearly feel his judgemental gaze on me. "~So, if you were given a chance to return to the world of the living, what would you do?~"


    "~I would settle the turmoil that has tainted my heart for centuries, and return to those that cared for me.~" I responded firmly.


    And the god noticed, falling silent while inspecting me.


    But I never raised my gaze, submittting to whatever the god was thinking about before he came to a decision. No matter what fate beheld me, I had already epted it.


    However, rather than telling me what it was, he asked me a question. "~Young boy, if you were to reincarnate as something other than a dragon, would you be displeased?~"


    -Huh?- "~N..no.~" I honestly didn''t know how to respond.


    "~Then, in that case, I will give you an opportunity.~" *Woosh* Hearing what sounded like the ignition of a me, an intense heat ripped through me. "~If you wish for it, I can fulfill your desires, however, it wille with the cost of your soul.~"


    Cautious, I spoke with a bit of worry. "~What.. does that mean..?~"


    His voice quickly steadied. "~My name is Konrul, the Phoenix of Eternity, and I wish to make you my apostle.~"


    -Ah...- It was the moment I was looking for. After endless years of searching, I had found the treasure I sought after. -But...- "~I have already lowered my head to serve another god...~" Regardless of how badly I wanted to ept, I couldn''t. "~I apologize.~"


    There was a long silence that surrounded us the moment I finished. "~You wish to reject bing an apostle because of your faith in another god?~" He asked as if I was insane.


    But I remained firm. "~He was one of the few to reach a hand out to me.. someone who showed me kindness when I didn''t deserve it... He was even the one to guide me to you.~"


    "~Ah...~" Having a moment of realization, Lord Konrul''s voice settled before he continued as if speaking through a smile. "~Is his name Nott, perhaps?~"


    I instantly tensed up, but tried to remain calm. "~That is one of his names, yes...~" I couldn''t shake the nervousness that took over my mind though.


    "~To think that really is that old dog...~" He spoke rather fondly before continuing with a bit of excitement creeping into his voice. "~Don''t worry, I won''t keep you from repaying your kindness to him, and I can promise he won''t mind you bing my apostle.~"


    Hesitating, my mind raced. "~Only if you can make an oath that you are telling the truth, and promise to never force me to harm anyone against my will...~"


    "~Hahaha!~" He instantly broke intoughter. "~Telling a god to make an oath... Alright, then.~" Although I couldn''t see his face, I could feel that his smile had grown wide. "~I will do everything I can to make sure your soul and body survive the ''ceremony'', however, it is up to you whether your mind escapes unchanged.~"


    Tensing up, not sure what he meant, I finally raised my ''gaze''.


    "~All I can do is wish you luck... This will not be an enjoyable experience.~"


    -W..what?- Feeling like I was slowly being submerged in magma, heat ripped through my very existence before an indescribably unbearable sensation filled my mind.


    In an instant, all conscious thought vanished, and instincts I didn''t know I had took over. My few remaining senses heightened as the hum faded, and a colossal, colorless feather appeared in the endless white space before me.


    It was the feather of a phoenix being shoved directly into my soul...


    A soul which still resided in the reserve of my own lifeless body.


    *Crackle* *VWOOM* Feeling a burst of mana shred my body the moment my soul''s connection to it returned, I watched as my own mana ripped through my body, tearing apart everything that was left of it.


    But even though my mind and nerves were instantaneously obliterated in the process, rather than the pain ceasing, it only grew in magnitude.


    Rather than being the pain of my body being blended, it was the pain of the feather attempting to rip my soul apart, and even after feeling what could only be described as a gentle embrace trying to keep my soul intact, the pain never settled.


    But little did I know, expecting it to settle was a rather foolish thing.. because even as eons seemed to pass in my mind, nothing ever changed, the only difference was that slowly.. but surely.. the feather dissolved.


    It was the only thing that gave me hope that it would eventually end.


    But sure enough, even though I was doubtful, when the feather eventually finished, the shears that had formed in my soul began repairing themselves, and the connection to my body was once again strengthened.


    But this time, rather than being instantly squashed under the unending pain, my body was filled with a wonderful warmth, as if I wasying before a firece on a cold evening.


    And for the first time in what felt like an eternity, my soul was given a moment of peace.


    Even if it wasn''t going tost long.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 405: Manipulation

    Chapter 405: Maniption


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : The Cab | Bahamut


    -----


    "So, you said you visited Diaforoi?" Looking over at Hera as we walked down the main, circr hallway of the Cab, I used my aura to hand off several stacks of papers to nearby maids.


    "I have. Like you said, that child is.. an odd one..." Tilting her head with trouble, she paused for a moment. "In the past, it wasn''t impossible for hydras to be born with one head and simply grow them with their dragon sleeps, but his different personalities are far too distinct for it to be that simple."


    "That''s why I think he''s the reincarnation of Lernaean, a demigod stage hydra that died in the Tree of Prayer. His soul almost certainly got caught by the tree of prayer, so who''s to say he managed to reincarnate as that kid?"


    "Wasn''t the Tree of Prayer inactive before you fixed it though?"


    "Yes, but the prayers never stopped, so, at least in theory, quite a few souls could have been reincarnated without their memories being totally cleansed." It was a theory I had had for a while. "Given he was likely at least a well-established demigod, having some memories and distinct divisions in his personality surviving reincarnation aren''t too far-fetched." -Especially if his soul was given the chance to engrave anything on his soul core.-


    The issue was that the kid''s soul, while certainly extremelyrge for his age, was far from even a low demigod stage dragon like Myles.


    "Hm..." Giving it some thought, Hera''s gaze fell before rather quickly returning to me. "Whatever the case, I think the kid''s only rtion to them is them interpreting him recalling his memories and ''visions'' as him receiving messages from a god, so after making sure his condition is still improving, I''m nning on leaving him to a maid that wished to adopt him after taking care of him for some time."


    -Good for him...- "I''m assuming they''re a maid we can trust?"


    Nodding with a smile, Hera continued warmly. "I trust her enough that if I needed a nanny for my kids, I would choose her. Although she might be a little to light-handed for my taste."


    "Hah," I wasn''t sure whether tough or not, but as we continued down the hallway with idle chatter, we eventually made it outside where Krystallo was waiting for us, and the conversation switched directions.


    With only a few hours before the sunset that marked the beginning of the festival, we were headed to central Eikas��a to grab dinner before heading to a nearby za where the official start of the festival would be announced.


    While we headed there, Hera, Krystallo, and I all discussed what our ns would be, where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to do for the week or two we would stay here, and after much back and forth got a decent game n going.


    In order to not stand out so much, Hera and I shrunk down to about 23 meters, the upper limit of those young enough to really be a part of the festival, and used a bit of magic to dull some of our sharper features to make us look a touch younger, and less like shrunken ancients while still looking old enough for most of the younger generation to not bother us.


    In theory, it was a pretty good idea, we could have our fun, follow Krystallo wherever she wanted to go, and adventure around all without getting bothered...


    However, that was only because we failed to realize one very important thing.


    Krystallo''s poprity.


    As we were sat at around arge grill in a fancy restaurant, still well before the festival even began, we had several young dragons, mostly boys around Krystallo''s age but much smaller in stature,e up to her to ask if she was looking for a partner or group to celebrate the festival with, with many touting their family''s name or wealth and offering to a dance at the party that would be held at their parent''s estate.


    For the most part, the young dragons were fairly well mannered, and after saying she was already with a group, most of them backed off, and their parents, who were seated not far away would apologize to Hera and me assuming we were all in a group already, but every now and then one would get a little too close and Hera or I would have to.. coerce them with our auras.


    Thankfully, it seemed like Mother had already had ''that talk'' with her since she seemed quite ufortable whenever they got too close, but I could already tell that it was going to be a very long festival if things were to continue as they were. -But what to do...-


    "What if we changed the color of her scales?" Tilting her head as she swallowed arge chunk of meat, Hera nced toward me.


    -I guess that is an option...- But it wasn''t my decision to make. "Krystallo, what do you think?"


    "Hmm..." Mindlessly tapping the ground with her front paws as she fell into thought, her gaze seemed to lose its focus beforending on a piece of seasoned meat on the grill. "I guess I just don''t really know." Looking over at Hera as she pulled off the piece of meat, she continued. "What do you think?"


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    Hera was quick to shrug. "It''d certainly make the festival a bit less stressful. If you have scales that don''t immediately identify you as high nobility, it''ll at least stop the ingenuine few from approaching you. If you have a more average color like mine, you''ll probably meet fewer people, but they''ll be less likely to establish a connection with you purely for their own profit."


    "Mmm..." Letting out a somewhat muffled, stressed groan, she promptly tossed a piece of bison meat in her mouth. "Then I guess I''ll change the color of my scales for a bit... How would you even do that?" Her eyes instantly lit up. "Could you give me one of the elixirs you gave to Auntie Leif?"


    I instantly jolted as the thought passed through my mind. "Are you kidding? Mom would kill me if I did that for such a stupid reason..." The thing was, while Krystallo clearly didn''t think the same about it, Mother took pride in her white scales. -If I gave Krystallo ck scales and fur, Mom would either kill me or pass out in disbelief.


    But thankfully, Hera was quick to take over. "Don''t worry, I know a temporary way to do it." Quickly tossing anotherrge chunk of meat in her mouth to savor, she made her way over to Krystallo. "All you need to do is tell me what color you want."


    "Oh!" A wag found its way into the tip of her tail instantly. "What about pink? Like Chloe!"


    Hera and I immediately froze at the unexpected response before giving each other a nce. "I actually think that''d look pretty good."


    Although neither Hera nor I said anything, depending on what color she chose, her horns and general statue could make her look extremely out of ce. -But she has a kind of simr stature to Chloe, so it might actually look alright...- I just couldn''t wrap my head around where the response came from.


    Eventually following up with a few other confirmational questions, Hera sat down behind Krystallo and essentially encapsted her in aura before turning to me. "Can you actually make a bit of gold for me? I don''t want to damage her scales by carving the runes into them."


    *Vwoom* *CLUNK* Dropping a few hundred kilograms of gold next to her, she immediately got to work.


    Her n was to carve some simple light runes into thin gold tes that would just adjust the white light being reflected from her scales to give them a pink hue, then hiding the tes between her scales where they would be viewed like jewelry, if noticed at all, and wouldn''t fall off in the wind or corrode.


    And while this n of attack certainly took longer than other methods since the runes could only cover a small section of her scales, as Hera did her work, Krystallo slowly but surely turned pink, with her horns being a bit darker and her irises being turned red.


    By the time Hera finished, I almost couldn''t recognize her.


    But I wasn''t alone in that.


    After working on it for a while, I made a mirror so she could see herself, and while she was as eager as a kid on Christmas morning to see it, the moment sheid eyes on her reflection she jolted. "What the hell?" Turning her head, she looked like she didn''t know how to feel. "How.. does it look so real?" She was honestly perturbed.


    "Well, the runes are fitted just for you. Unless you really, really look for it, you won''t see theyer of pink air around your scales. Plus, given how pure of a white your scales are, it''s no surprise its easy to change."


    Quickly turning to me, Krystallo looked confused.


    -Ah...- Although I had exined it to Hera in the past, I had never exined wavelengths of light in terms of colors to Krystallo. "You know how the colors you see are whatever colors the objects reflect, right? Well, white is created by every color reflecting, so, for something like this, all you need to do is trap all but whatever color you desire, and boom, your scales change color."


    Sinking into thought, she looked away before a mix of awe and wonder washed across her face. "Does that mean I can mimic whatever kind of dragon I want to with a bit of light magic?"


    Given that she had an extremely good affinity with light magic, it was more than just possible. "Given the differences in the general appearance of other types of dragons, it''s not quite that simple, but having white scales would certainly be a major plus." Because instead of having to make your entire body an illusion, it''d only be the small parts that needed change, like details on the face or the shape of a horn.


    However, while it certainly sounded like a nice advantage, I clearly wasn''t aware of what Krystallo was thinking of as her expression turned devious. "Hehe~." As she posed in the mirror, her expression and demeanorpletely shifted with an oddly predatory smile. "How fun."


    -Uh oh...- It was such a jarring change that I honestly had to question if the person in front of me was even my sister.


    But she was quick to confirm that it was really her as she turned to me and tilted her head. "Why don''t you ever use magic to disguise yourself?"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Shrugging my wings, I spoke somewhat bluntly. "What need do I have for it? I use some magic to hide my wings in my humanoid form sometimes, but for my draconic and fenriran forms, I don''t have any reason for it. It''s not like ck scales are particrly conspicuous. To the normal dragon, I probably look like an abnormally dark-scaled halfie." At least that was how it was if they ignored the way I held my head.


    ording to Hera, I held it exactly how a god walking amongst mortals would even though I didn''t notice it myself. It was actually how she knew when I recovered some of my memories from my time as Nott.


    But Krystallo didn''t seem to have that issue. As she looked back at the mirror, she seemed acutely aware of everything from the look in her eyes to her posture, letting her freely y around with how she was perceived.


    It was honestly kind of horrifying.. to the point I had to ask Hera if we would need to have a talk with her about how maniption was bad. Even Hera seemed a bit worried with how Krystallo was acting.


    But that was something that would have to wait since, before we knew it, the announcement for the beginning of the festival was upon us.

 Chapter 406: The Cold Rose

    Chapter 406: The Cold Rose


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    -Wow...- Looking around at the sea of dragonspletely filling the za and even flooding the streets around the center of the town while hundreds of others watched from the sky, I was almost reminded of the prayer in Siratha.


    With so many announcement areas around the city, one would expect the poption to have been more spread out.


    But that was only if you failed to realize that all the dragons in more rural areas would being into the city for the festival as well.


    Even though Eikas��a only had a poption of about three thousand, just looking at the other areas with my aura showed close to six or seven thousand dragons, all clumped up around the handful of zas around the city where the festival''s announcement would be made.


    -It almost makes me wonder...- "Do you think the festival will help bring more people into the city?"


    Hera quickly gave a prideful nod. "Of course! It''s part of the benefit of this festival. Not only can people make connections, they can find a ce they want to live." Looking at all the people ncing around at not just the crowd and merchant stalls, but the structures with curious looks, her smile widened.


    Given that the city was oversized enough fornd to be fairly cheap, especially when you considered how close it was to the Cab, it was more than just a somewhat appealing spot.-The climate is nice, and with all the cab members moving here, the concentration of wealth will be insane.- Given all of the absolutely massive estates being built by highly esteemed nobles, it was clear thatnd would inevitably explode in price. -It makes me wonder how many people have already swooped upnd.-


    But while it was certainly food for thought, before long, the time for such questions came to an end.


    "Wee everyone!" Hearing a deep, booming voice amplified over the city, we all looked in the air to see a huge, pure-crimson-scaled ancient with orange feathers around his crown, and along his back simr to my fur. "My name is Kt��rio P��ra, the newly appointed Industrial Advisor of the newly established Cab, and it is truly my pleasure to be given the privilege of making this announcement this year."


    Flying above us, bathed in the sunset''s glow as the city fell into shadow, he nced at Hera before smiling and averting his eyes.


    "This festival, as I''m sure many of you already know, will be a special one. For those who have not already received a letter detailing the rules and functions taking ce in the city, please turn your attention to the wonderful helpers currently flying around handing more of them out." *sh* Almost instantly, several younger dragons flying around withrge duffle bags of paper were engulfed in huge columns of light. "If you need a flyer, please signal to them with a basic firefly spell."


    Unsure what that spell was by ear, I looked around and noticed faint, glowing specks above some dragons'' heads, and quickly mimicked them. -I may as well get one to see what''s happening around the city...-


    After receiving the paper from the panicked young girl, I skimmed through it while Kt��rio continued a lengthy speech about the festival rules, essentially summarizing what Mother had already told me.


    "Among the events, we will be holding tours of the Cab, doing tournaments on everything from traditionalbat to designing architecture, and even hosting debates where you can share your thoughts on the current state of Bahamut directly with members of the Cab, or even apply to get recruited by a branch! I know that I for one will be on the lookout for promising talents among the next generation, and I''m sure many others are as well, so make sure to take advantage of all the opportunities you can! You may not have a second chance!"


    Riling up the crowd, his voice boomed, and the air was flooded with the excitement of countless young dragons eager to take the next step in their lives.


    "Anyway, I think I''ve rambled enough, right? It''s about time we got the ball rolling!"


    *Rrrrrumbbllee* The ground literally shook as the younger dragons that surrounded us excitedly tapped their tails on the ground and fluttered their wings.


    "Alright then!" Smiling wide, Kt��rio straightened up his posture and nced at the setting sun just as his face was covered in the shadow of the horizon. "Let''s all wee the next generation, cheer as they finally begin writing their own stories, and start anew as we enter a new era! It''s time for you all to be the main characters of your own stories, and be the new pirs of Bahamut!"


    """RAAAH!!""" Everyone simply exploded with cheers as the entire city quaked.


    And before anyone knew it, over every single za, the sky was lit ame with spells akin to massive fireworks, and the official beginning of the festival was marked.


    Finally dispersing with many taking to the air, the crowd started spreading out, flooding the surrounding streets, swarming the taverns, and grouping around other areas where events were nned.


    "So, where do you guys want to go first?" Looking at Hera and Krystallo, I tilted my head with a smile.


    But while I wasn''t sure what to expect, Krystallo somehow picked what I hadn''t even considered an option. "Thebat tournament!" She instantly hopped up and pointed at an event on the flyer. "The ''Generational Unbarred Sparring Competition''."


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    -Huh?- "Really?"


    She nodded fervently. "I haven''t had the chance to do much when ites to fighting. Besides you teaching me to defend myself with railgun magic and Mother showing me some movement techniques, I haven''t ever really been taught how to fight."


    Given that Mother wanted her to go down a more politically oriented path, it made sense. -But I guess I riled her up during the flight to the Cab...- "Sounds like it could be fun then." -I could use it as an opportunity to figure out what she''s talented in.-


    But after we flew across the city and found the huge, half-constructed colosseum where the tournament would be held, I had to reconsider my assertion.


    "Miss," At the gate, there was a young man registering people for the tournament, while also giving them all some warnings so they knew what they were getting themselves into. "The tournament is divided into leagues by size, but you will be at the bottom of your league, and as a disimer, the spars don''t necessarily end when blood is drawn." Pushing forward a sign, he bluntly motioned toward it while looking at Krystallo, clearly expecting her to withdrawl. "Lethal or highly dangerous attacks and spells are prohibited and will be stopped, so please don''t worry about being seriously injured, but it''s very likely you will take damage of some kind."


    Advertised as a serious sparring tournament, all but attacks that would lead to serious physical damage or implicate the crowd would be stopped, meaning it was quite unlikely that Krystallo would escape unscathed.


    "If you wish to continue, you agree that you are liable for your own injuries, and will only receive the medical treatment you are able to pay for."


    But regardless of the risk, "I agree." Krystallo signed up without an ounce of hesitation, and neither Hera nor I said anything.


    Only nning on stopping serious attacks, we decided to let Krystallo do what she wanted and learn from the consequences. After all, it was the fastest way for her to grow.


    "Alright then, what name do you wish to go by for the span of the event? Most people just use their names."


    She paused to think before her gaze lightened with a smile. "How about Anthisi."


    "Hm..." The man, hearing the name meaning ''bloom'', paused to look her up and down for a moment before reluctantly letting her pass. "Alright Miss Anthisi, you can head inside. Best of luck to you."


    "Hehe~," Continuing inside with a cheerful trot, she held her head with confidence.


    But after being led to an adjacent arena where she could warm up while Hera and I were seated in the stands of the colosseum, and she was shown what she would be up against, that overwhelming confidence wavered. Over the course of the next couple of hours, she was given an opportunity to warm up, but only ever watched the others train.


    It honestly made me a bit nervous, but Hera didn''t even bat an eysh, casually buying us both a small barrel of piotita to savor while we watched dancers take to the arena and put on a show before the fights began.


    "Looks like Krystallo is in for a bit of an awakening." Hera somewhat smugly looked toward the training area as the dancers started their routine. "I must say though, for her to fight first... She really is quite unlucky at times like this..."


    I was quick to nod. "Yeah, but it should make for a more interesting experience." Looking at her in the training area, finally starting to realize she had to get serious, I smiled. "It''ll certainly be a challenge for her, but it''s not like she''ll take it like a weakling." Gently tossing the small barrel of piotita under my tongue, I turned my attention back to the group of young, synchronized dancers.


    But eventually, the times for such entertainment came to an end.


    "Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the performance!" Right after the dancers had left the field through one of the many gates, the voice of the announcer filled the air and we all looked up to see a younger elder flying above us. "The dance group that came out was known as the Eastern Flowers, and I hope you all give them your praise after the event! They certainly earned it!"


    ""Woooo!!"" Cheers were quick to ring out.


    "But now, I''m sure you all are ready for the thing you came here for, right?! So let''s get it underway!" Quickly going over the rules of the spars, the man was quick to exin the way things would work, saying it would start with a traditional bracket for the first few days ofpetitions and morph into a king-of-the-hill style tournamentter on. "So, for the first fight of the Generational Unbarred Sparringpetition, please wee our firstpetitor, Miss Anthisi!"


    *Cl-l-l-l-lunk* Loudly opening the gate and having Krystallo somewhat hesitantly walk out, the crowd roared to life once more.


    "Having kept a vast majority of her techniques hidden during the warmup, many of the ''noble observers'' are already curious to see what she has to offer!" Essentially being recruiters for nobility, countless noble observers were present and looking to use the tournament to sift through the younger generation.


    And while Krystallo may not have realized it, because of all the observers being present, during the first several days, it wasn''t some random tournament, but rather one where the bestbat-specialized dragons would gather to show the world what they had to offer and start making a name for themselves.


    "So, in hopes of an exciting fight, let''s cheer on the flower and see what she has to offer!"


    Finally making her way out to the central, raised stone arena, Krystallo sat down and looked over the crowd somewhat anxiously, before letting out a deep breath and turning her gaze turned stern and cold.


    She was ready for a fight, at least mentally.


    But after a moment of cheering, the crowd calmed back down. "Now, for her opponent, we have a young man touting a specialty in dedbat! Yes, the new trend passing through the youth! So let''s make some noise for Atticus Sidero!"


    The crowd once again exploded with cheer before the gate eventually opened to let out an almost twenty-two-meter, stout, spikey brown dragon covered in scars while dragging along a huge hunk of metal with his mouth. *Cr-r-r-runch*


    It was a hunk of iron roughly formed into the shape of a sword, so heavy that when he got up onto the stage and dropped it, *CLANG-CRACK* The dense marble tform cracked.


    "I greet my opponent." But while he looked incredibly rough, he was quick to give a very noble-looking bow with one leg lifted, and his wings slightly raised. "I hope we can make this fight a good one." Raising his gaze, he most certainly wasn''t caring about Krystallo''s softer outer appearance. "I have many people I need to make an impression on, so I apologize in advance if you get hurt. I don''t n on holding back."


    But while he expected Krystallo to respond somewhat nervously, she was quick to stand up and bow just as he did without a slight shiver in her form. "I n on doing the same, so best of luck to each of us."


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 407: Learning

    Chapter 407: Learning


    Early Evening - Mid Winter : Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    "Bets! ce your bets now! The current odds are 26-1 in Sigmond''s favor! Do you wish to gamble on the mystique of the beauty or bank on the power of a brute? Come ce your bids now! We ept silver here!"


    Listening to a group of young guys trying to collect bids at the top of the stands, I watched as Krystallo and her opponent were given a quick debriefing inside the arena, essentially just going over a more specific list of rules and exchanging formalities with the elder who would be the referee.


    In the meantime, everyone in the stands was debating who they think is going to win and why. "I''m surprised the odds are so close. Is it because it''s the first fight of the festival?"


    "Probably, but after hearing about ''the underdog'' in As during thest festival, people are more willing to bank on unknowns."


    Overhearing the dragons behind us speaking, I nced back. "The underdog?"


    Turning to me, the man, around Father''s age, was quick to continue. "He was a few meters shorter than his opponent, like that missus out there, and had 8500-1 betting odds against him, but hepletely decimated his opponent who was from a big-name noble family." Looking out toward the arena, he was simply oozing excitement. "This time around it looks like people have learned to judge the contenders'' personalities more, whether they''re confident or just cocky, y''know?"


    I was quick to nod as I rxed and turned back to face the arena. "It''s certainly not a bad way to do things. That makes me wonder who you guys voted for though.""We decided to bank on the missy." The guy''s friend was quick to speak up. "The way she holds her snout up makes us think she''s from some noble family and is just undercover. What about you guys?"


    I immediately shrugged my wings. "I think it could go either way."


    And Hera was quick to agree. "If he has any proficiency with that sword, she''ll have a really hard time."


    -Hm?- Hearing an odd sense of familiarity in her voice, I looked over at her. "Do you know about that fighting style?"


    "I yed with it a bit in my younger years." Switching to using her divinity so the others nearby couldn''t hear us, she spoke bluntly. "~Although I doubt any techniques have survived to this day and age, if his sword isn''t too heavy, and he knows any techniques, she''ll seriously be in trouble...~"


    -Hm...- "~Is that so...~" Watching as he leaned down and let the referee put an emergency artifact around his neck, something meant to stop the fight at a moment''s notice, I wasn''t sure I could agree. "~I think if she can keep herself from getting hit by the first few swings, she will win.~"


    "~Hoh? I thought you weren''t confident she''d win.~"


    "~I''m not.~" The issue was that Krystallo had never been in a real fight before, and considering her rxed stance even as they lined up to start, I slowly became more pessimistic. "~If I''m honest, her getting through the first exchange will be a miracle.~" She simply wasn''t ready.


    But while a part of me wanted to warn her, I stayed silent.


    Some things are better learned from mistakes after all.


    "Alright! I hope everyone is ready!" As the referee finally backed away to the edge of the arena, and the boy picked up his sword, the announcer''s voice boomed through the arena. "After much preparations, the first fight of the festival will begin on my mark. Are the fighters ready?"


    Biting down hard on the sword''s handle, the tip instantly swung up off the ground before he nodded. *Woom*


    And as Krystallo nodded, the crowd suddenly went silent, waiting for the signal of the announcer with bated breaths and eager looks.


    Until finally... *SNAP* A thinser-like column of light zipped across the middle of the arena, and in the same instant, the boy hurled his sword at Krystallo.


    *ng-WOOSH* "WHAT THE-?!" Barely managing to move her head to the side in time, her eyes shot open and her pupils thinned.


    But her opponent wasn''t going to give her a chance to think.


    Slowing his sword with his aura and using the force to close the distance between them, he reached up and bit the handle again before swinging it down to drive it through Krystallo''s neck, leaving her no choice but to either jump out of the ring or close the distance further and get caught in the space between the de and his body.


    *CLANG-CRACKKK* But while it was clearly baiting her into a trap, as the tip of his de mmed into the ground over her back, she closed the distance just like he wanted, reaching up his paw as he let go of his sword with a smile.


    She waspletely caught in his trap with nowhere obvious to escape to.


    But instead of taking the moment he let go of his sword to make space and utilize her range advantage with magic, her paw shot up and interlocked with the boy��s.


    It was a sight that made Hera and I both want to facepalm.


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    In one swift move, she had put herself in the worst possible situation.. a battle of brute strength against a dragon that probably weighed twice what she did.


    However, just as disappointment washed over my face, a wave of ice blew over the arena and she twisted the boy''s wrist, forcing him to turn toward her and inevitably slip before she dug her hind ws into the ground, yanked him closer, and mmed her paw into the base of his neck, flipping him over in one swift motion. *Fwip*


    In the blink of an eye, she hadpletely pinned him down. It was a wless victory.


    Before the dust could even settle, the crowd simply exploded. "NO WAY!"


    "DID YOU SEE THAT?!"


    "THAT WAS AWESOME!!"


    But while they cheered, Hera and I couldn''t pull our dumbfounded expressions off her. "~Y..You saw that.. right?~"


    I was quick to nod as Krystallo finally let go of the boy''s dislocated wrist.


    Although the crowd seemed to of missed it, believing the poor boy was simply outyed by her utilization of ice magic, as my eyes drifted from the deep w marks dug in the stone to the boy''s broken ws after trying to anchor himself, a very conflicting mix of feelings surfaced in my mind. "~Did she really just.. overpower him that aggressively..?~" Honestly I was struggling to believe my own eyes.


    And Hera wasn''t any different. "~What the hell has your mom been feeding her..?~"


    The thing was, even with help from magic, muscle mass and density were by far the biggest factors that went into a being''s strength, however, Krystallo, who had neither denser muscle nor more mass by a massive margin, managed to not just overpower the young boy, butpletely manhandle him. -How is that even possible...-


    Finally pulling her paw off the boy''s neck, revealing a series of broken scales, she looked down and clenched her paw a few times, seemingly unsure how to feel while the referee came up to check on the boy.


    But, it didn''t take long for the referee to nod and back off, letting the boy get up himself after fixing his dislocated wrist.


    "And the first match goes to the flower!"


    ""RAAHH!!"" The crowd''s cheers were deafening.


    "It seems I misjudged you, Miss." Bowing his head to Krystallo, Atticus spoke rather formally before looking up at the announcer. "However, I would like to request a best of three!"


    "Hoho!" The announcer instantly lit up with excitement. "Are you sure? If you lose, you won''t be able to fight anyone else for the duration of the tournament, and even if you win, you must win twice or else you will still fall to the losers bracket!"


    The boy instantly nodded with overflowing excitement while a confident grin spread across his face.


    It was almost like he was waving a huge warning sign over his head, but somehow not seeing it, Krystallo justbatively held her head up. "I agree as well."


    -Uh oh...- Watching her confidence grow while the boy went and retrieved his sword, my worry instantly resurfaced.


    Now that she knew she was stronger than him physically, she was going to lean on and utilize that advantage again.


    But this time, her opponent knew exactly what he was up against.


    Knowing what was about to happen as they geared up to fight again, I simply watched in silence.


    *sh* Once again, the instant the beam of light zipped across the arena again, the boy threw his sword, but this time tossed it sideways as if trying to hand it to her.


    And, not understanding what he was doing, she simply caught it before... *DIIIING* Atticus lowered his head and mmed it into the side of his own de, sending her flying off the edge of the tform and tumbling onto the sandy colosseum floor.


    *THUD-CLANG* THUD* *THUD-Thud* Eventually catching herself on her feet, she vigntly took abat stance, only to be presented with the referee iming Atticus as the winner.


    "Haha," Hera couldn''t help but let out a little chuckle as we watched Krystallo''s confidence turn to annoyance. "You think she''ll have it figured out in the next round?"


    Watching her make her way back up on stage, holding her snout much lower with her wings red out a bit, I nodded. "It depends on what her takeaway from thest fight was, but I think she will." -She just needs to use her head...-


    And so, it came down to thest fight.


    One final brawl.


    And as they lined up on opposite ends of the arena, and Krystallo bent down, lowering her head below her shoulders, it was clear she was going to take a different approach.


    "Beware both contestants! Whoever loses this match will be sent to the loser''s bracket!" Riling up the crowd, the announcer used magic to amplify the stadium''s roar.


    It was only the first set of games of the festival, but it was already bing one people would remember.


    However... *sh* This time, the moment the column of light zipped across the arena, they both darted toward one another and met in the middle.


    Using his weight and reach his advantage, Atticus was quick to nt his paw and swing his head down, mming the de down right in front of Krystallo, forcing her to stop and change directions before he changed the way he held the sword in his mouth and lunged toward her again, trying to force her to the outer edge of the ring as they dashed around it.


    -Uh oh...- She was in trouble again.


    But as the boy continued to use his sword to keep her from getting too close and limit her movement, he mmed the de down in front of her, expecting her to try and hop over it before she mmed into it, only for her to face the palm of her paw to it, and turn to him.


    *Vwoom-CRRRACCKK* In an instant, the massive iron sword vanished, teleporting into the walls surrounding the arena before plowing through them, taking arge b of the raised stone stage with it.


    It was a maism spell simr to railgun magic, and by using the repulsive force from it to not only stop her momentum, but throw her in the opposite direction, she got her paw on Atticus''s head, and wasted no time spreading her wings and driving his face into the ground. *CRACKLE-WHAAAMMM*


    As I watched her skid to the opposite side of the ring after knocking the kid out, a smile spread across my face, and soon after, it spread across hers as well. -There she goes��-


    As she turned her gaze up into the stands, she gave Hera and I a beaming smile and held her head high.


    ��And the winner is Miss Anthisi!!��


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 Chapter 408: Like Mother, Like Daughter

    Chapter 408: Like Mother, Like Daughter


    Late Evening - Mid Winter : Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    "Oh my goodness! What an incredible set of fights!"


    "I know right?! ''The Flower'' is definitely still my favorite, but I think some of these young''ins will give her a run for her money."


    "For sure! Did you see the kid who fought in his humanoid form? He is definitely hiding some of his cards."


    "But so is ''The Flower'', so we won''t know who''s stronger until they fight."


    "Mhm, mhm," Excitedly nodding, the dragon sitting behind us turned from his friend back to the arena. "Anyway we have one more fight before the younger division matches begin, right?"


    "Yeah, and ording to some of the insiders it''ll apparently be a crazy fight. I didn''t recognize either of their names when I heard them, but supposedly the betting odds are a measely 1-2."


    "Dang." Unable to keep myself from blurting it out, I nced back at the two guys sitting behind me and Hera."Haha, I know right?" They were two old friends, that Hera and I had idly struck up conversations with to pass the time between matches. "It makes me wonder if I should even bet."


    "Why not?" They were nothing special, just your average dragons. "Haven''t you won like three matches in a row?" But while they didn''t realize it, during the moments when they discussed things like politics or money, they had be my teachers.


    "Haha, I need to be careful how I burn my fun money." Smiling wide as he reluctantly put a pouch of gold into arge duffle bag containing all sorts of assorted belongings, he was quick to rope in my skewed perception of dragons.


    Even if only a bit.


    "~You know, I knew your standards were skewed, but it looks like you''re really learning something every time you talk to them.~" Hera spoke somewhat yfully as she shot me a smug look.


    "~Haha, of course.~" Turning back to her, a joyful curl found its way into my tail. "~It''s not like I''ve ever had much time to mingle with normal people.~" -Just look at the people I normally spend my time with...- Be it the monarch of Bahamut, or the most powerful and influential noble family in the world, I was only ever surrounded by talent, power, and wealth.


    "~I guess that''s true.~"


    If I ever wanted to really help Mother, Hera, or even Lief with things rted to dragons, I needed to be more in tune with the standards of average folk, so during the festival, as per Mother''s suggestion, I nned to remold their image in my mind. -It looks like Krystallo could use a little remolding too though...- My gaze quickly drifted to the side of the arena where I looked at Krystallo with my aura, idly fiddling with lightning magic while rxing and being bathed by several maids.


    It had been several hours since the festival began at that point, and while I had hoped she woulde out to watch the rest of the matches with Hera and I, she had been lounging around theplimentary spa avable to those who won their matches the entire time. -But it looks like they''re about to cut her off.-


    With only one match remaining before the arena would switch to hosting the younger division ofpetitors, she only had a few minutes before she would be kicked out.


    It all just depended on how long the nextpetitors fought for, which, by the conversations of those around us, had the chance of being a while.


    "Alright! Are you all ready for the final fight of the upper division?" With just a few words from the announcer, the conversations filling the stands ceased and chants and cheers erupted. "For the final fight, we have a special one! A mage versus a brawler! But I''m certain you all have already been made aware, so let us not waste any more time!" Waving his wing to the south side of the arena, his voice boomed. "Now, let''s give our firstparator the wee they deserve! Give it up for M��vri Siop��!"


    Looking toward the gate, it instantly felt like wolf ears had perked up on my head. -Hoh?-


    Coming out of the gate was a 21-meter dragon with dark blue scales resembling the deep ocean, with arge, ovr mana core embedded directly in the underside of his mouth, touting it like it was a precious gem.


    But not everyone viewed it like that.


    "~To think that nasty tradition is still around...~" Hera was quick to shoot the boy a disgusted look.


    -Oh my...- She looked so repulsed that I was honestly taken aback.


    But she was quick to borate. "~If that''s the same as the tradition I remember, that''s the mana core of a wyvern they hunt right before their adult-stage dragon sleep.~"


    -Ew...- "~Why though?~" While killing a massive wyvern at such a young age was certainly impressive, making a piece of that creature into a part of you was no different from a human sewing a patch of elk skin on themselves to disy a trophy.


    In the eyes of most people, it was just impractical and gross, but as it turned out, Hera''s disgust came from another ce. "~It''s the tradition of an old tribe that predated Bahamut. In the past, they would eat or use everything they killed regardless of what it was.. even if it was another dragon...~" The air around her quickly turned sinister. "~I thought I remembered Bahamut killing them all back when he first became the Monarch, but I guess not.~"


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    Slowly turning my gaze back to the boy, I used my aura to scan through his body, flesh, and stomach, sending chills through him before somewhat reluctantly pulling away. -It''s pretty unlikely traditions like that havested this long...- Over the course of countless millennia, traditions were bound to change after all. -But...- "~Let''s still have someone look into them.~"


    Hera was quick to nod. "~I''ll have the thunderbird above us ry a message to the branch about it.~"


    -Hm, alright.- Looking up at the cloaked thunderbird some forty kilometers in the air, I nodded before returning my gaze back to the announcer and attempting to get my mind off the rather grim topic.


    But it didn''t take long for my mind to move its focus.


    "Now for hispetitor! Today, he will be up against the rising star, Alyssa Ep��meno!"


    -Oh?- It was a name I actually recognized.


    She was the youngest daughter of Vima Ep��meno, the Mana Development advisor of the cab, a woman Hera had cherry-picked for her knowledge and talent. -If she was good enough to catch Hera''s eye, I wonder how her daughter will do...-


    In an instant, my expectations had exploded.


    But she certainly didn''t fail to meet them.


    *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap* Nonchntly walking out of the gate, holding her head high with a breathlessly cold and calctive expression, was a slim and slender, smooth white-scaled dragon that looked like the embodiment of a slippery fighter. -She honestly looks like she has a bit of basilisk blood in her...-


    But she was undoubtedly a deep-blooded dragon. *VWOOM* Releasing the control on her aura, an icy fog erupted from her, quickly covering the sandy ground of the arena before she walked up on the stone stage, exhaling a thick cloud with every breath.


    "Hoho~." It was a sight that did more than catch my interest. From the first moment they met eyes, she was ready for a fight, regardless of her being at such a disadvantage by being a mage. -This should be a good fight...-


    "Alright," Quickly going over the rules, just as he had with all the other contestants, the announcer was quick to exchange greetings between them before rushing along the start of the fight. "Now, for the final fight of the upper division, the fighters will begin on my mark! Please ready yourselves!"


    The entire colosseum instantly fell silent as both fighters lowered their stances, eagerly waiting for the small column of light to cross the arena.


    Until finally...


    *Zip* Watching the column of light dart across the arena, Alyssa instantly ducked her head into the fog before pping her wings, throwing fog up over herself before nketing the area with light magic.


    But it was far from enough to fool the senses of a dragon.


    *CRRUNCH* Narrowly dodging Mavri''s paw after he bolted across the arena and tried to pin her head down through the fog, she darted to the side, kicking up a plume of smoke just past her before using light magic to make it look like she had moved farther than she did.


    But again, it wasn''t enough. Instantly darting over to her, Mavri managed totch onto her leg and went to use his jaws to pin her neck down, narrowly missing Alyssa before she finally switched gears. *CRACKLE* Freezing his paw and the side of his head, she quickly used several spells in a sequence to shatter and peel off the ice, shredding his scales with it and forcing him to jump back and create space.


    It rather quickly caused blood to start dripping down the side of his face and his forearm, but instead of thinking of the pain, he just smiled, gently shaking the stinging sensation out of his paw before setting it back down into the frigid fog. "Looks like the title of Ice Princess isn''t just for show." *Crunch* Shifting his weight forward, his tail raised off the ground with confidence, and his movements slowed, bing less instinctual and more methodical.


    But while his style was changing, so was Alyssa''s as she stood up out of the fog, no longer bothering to try and mess with his senses.


    "That boy needed to push through the damage and finish it there." Hera spoke with a hint of disappointment as she looked down at the foggy stage. "He''s going to lose now."


    -Hm?- She said it confidently, but I wasn''t so sure.


    At least that was until the next sh.


    *WOOSH* Darting across the arena again, Mavri wanted to put pressure on her to restrict her movements while staying just out of the range of her more potent ice magic, but the moment he went to stop, his legs were suddenly swept out from under him, a massive chunk of ice formed in front of his head, and Alyssa spread her wings with a rather merciless look on her face. "This is the end."


    Digging her ws into the arena, she pped her wings as hard as she could, dissipating the fog, revealing the countless disks of ice she used to swipe the boys legs out from under him before hurling the massive ice spike at the boy with her wings.


    But he was quick to recover, spreading his wings and turning his head to the side at thest second, just narrowly dodging the massive pir of ice as it scraped along his chest.


    However, being in the air so close to the ground he couldn''t p his wings, he couldn''t stop his momentum, and while he tried to dive into the ground to slow down, he could only helplesslynd on the ice-disk-covered arena, and promptly zip slide off the stage. *Fwip-THUD*


    A humiliating loss that wasn''t anyone''s fault but himself.


    But while he knew his mistakes, as he stood up, instead of calling for a best of three like I expected, he just snarled at her. "You''re lucky we''re fighting for fun..." Shaking the frozen blood off his paw, he finally turned away from her, admitting defeat. But it wasn''t before he used magic to tell her, and only her onest thing. "If we meet again, I won''t try to keep that pretty face of yours intact..."


    But unfortunately, such conduct was not something the tournament would let slide.


    And Alyssa knew that, recognizing that the ref was about to intervene before stopping him. "Oh yeah?" The ice on her body instantly started melting and steaming before suddenly, *FLASH* She bolted off the stage with a bright sh, and gripped his neck at the base of his head. "You better be thankful I''m getting to you before the ref." *WOOSH* A towering me instantly erupted from her back like thruster magic before suddenly, *CRRRACKK* She mmed his face into the ground so aggressively that it shook the stands.


    An instant knockout.


    And while everyone watched on in silence, unsure of what happened, Hera watched on with a wide, satisfied smile. "~She''s just as fiery as her Mother!~"


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 409: Huh?

    Chapter 409: Huh?


    Early Morning - Mid Winter : Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    "Ack- I missed something like that?!" Krystallo instantly tensed up with a yfully regretful look as I gave her a summary of the fights she missed.


    "You didn''t ever wonder why you were the only one in the spa?" Watching genuine anxiety slowly weave into her expression, I wanted tough. "Everyone else was busy watching the other fights to see who they''d be up against." Since neither Hera or I said anything though, I couldn''t be too harsh. "Regardless, I don''t think you need to worry for a while."


    "Hm? What do you mean?" Tilting her head as she continued out of the batant-only'' area of the arena, we finally got walking.


    "Well, I''ll just say that your performance will probably get you advanced up the bracket a fair bit, but I highly doubt you''ll go up against anyone too strong for a while." Knowing people of all skill levels would be grouped together in the tournament, the managers had made it so not only was there a winner and losers bracket, but based on one''s performance, they would be advanced up the bracket a certain amount.


    It was a somewhat arbitrary system made to keep the weaker dragons in the tournament from getting one-sidedly pummeled every match and encourage everyone to show what they could do without needing to worry about pacing themselves.


    After all, to most people, the tournament was an opportunity to make a name for themselves and show the elites of Bahamut everything they had to offer, whether they happened to be paired with a good or bad opponent.


    But I honestly wasn''t sure how far Krystallo would advance with her fight. While she clearly showed that there was an excessive gap in strength between her and her opponent, her inexperience and naivety shined through as well. -There''s a chance they''ll want to see her fight more to get to know how her skills since her fights ended so fast.-And sure enough, as we got to the booth where the tournament organizers would tell her when her next fight would be, we were told, "Tomorrow night, just after sunset. Many of our sponsors have voiced that they would like you to have one more fight before you are advanced any further, however, because of your strength, rather than fighting someone in the normal bracket you will be up against Alyssa Ep��meno, who was advanced in a simr fashion to you."


    Hera and I instantly shot a look at each other before looking down at a very confused Krystallo.


    "We wish you the best of luck in your fight, just please remember to do your best!" The older man behind the booth smiled like an old grandpa looking at Krystallo. "I, like many, am excited to see what you have to offer, so give us a show, alright?"


    Finally sliding a silver medallion across the booth, he went on to exin how exactly she would go about getting back into the arena when the time for her fight came, before sending us off, wishing us luck with having fun and enjoying the festival in the meantime.


    But, we didn''t really have anything we urgently wanted to do, so, to kill time, we traveled around the city to check out the variouspetitions going on in order to try and scout out promising talents, simr to many others. With everything from architectural to smithingpetitions, we were bound to find a few we could rmend to the Cab, or even to Siratha.


    And while that remained true while we cherry-picked promising young dragons, as we got to more obscure gatherings for topics like mathematics or more niche areas of magic, the number of unbelievably talented individuals we found skyrocketed, with nearly all of them being from non-noble backgrounds, and many even being self-taught, or unofficially educated.


    It was like we walked into a diamond mine, with so many unpolished gems that we had to actually raise our standards rather than lower them.


    And that included Hera. "What a terrifyingly talented generation..." Even she was taken aback by the sheer number of people seeminglying out of the woodwork.


    But she wasn''t going to just let any talent rot.


    So, for the next day and a half, we went to more niche events in lower-privilege areas to help guide as many young dragons to the right sectors as possible, while idly hypothesizing how she could address the influx of menteesing to the Cab.


    After all, well over a hundred young dragons who still needed teaching couldn''t all be personally mentored by current-standing members of the Cab.


    So, after much thought, Hera came to a quick decision. "I think we should make an academy."


    To summarize, her idea was to create a small private school, only essible through rmendation, that would allow members of the Cab to recruit promising young dragons a little less frugally, improving the efficiency at which they could thin the herd while also improving the final quality of the young dragons they couldter decide to personally recruit or mentor.


    And while she never mentioned it directly, it also made it so those who were rmended but perhaps didn''t quite make the cut for a spot in the Cab had something for their resume that would make them more enticing recruits in their field elsewhere, improving the odds that less fortunate, but still talented dragons could use their talents for the betterment of the draconic race.


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    So, just a few hours before Krystallo''s next fight was set to begin, we made a quick trip to the Cab in order to inform everyone of the sudden change, and make about a thousand small silver medallions that the Cab members could hand out to anyone promising. That way, once the ''academy'' was eventually constructed, they could alle back and use those medallions to enroll.


    It was honestly quite a rushed decision, but after getting everyone on board, telling them to simply give the medallion to anyone saying they came via our rmendation, and encouraging them all to visit more obscurepetitions in search of talent, we had to stop and to go back to the arena.


    Before we knew it, the time for Krystallo''s next fight arrived, and after a good bit of actual warmup this time, her time toe out on stage arrived.


    -----


    - Krystallo Ragnarok ~


    -Alyssa Ep��meno, huh...- It was a name I was quite familiar with, the daughter of Mother''s closest friend within the Cab, and someone Mom had always wanted me to meet. -ording to her, she should be a pretty talented mage...-


    Previously, we had never met. With her being in the adult stage at 41 years old, her mother had kept her out of the loop when it came to the existence of my brother or Hera, so she was never brought to the Cab, left to do her own thing, but still somewhat remaining under the care of her father, a rather well-renowned fighter who was once a high-ranking general in Akri. -If I had to guess, she''s probably sticking around to get trained by her dad, so I bet she''ll be a physical fighter...-


    Walking up to the gate, waiting to be called out to the stage, my mind raced to think of how I wanted to fight her, taking Brother''s warning to not get cocky and call or ept a best of three with her to heart. -If she is strong enough that a best of three is disadvantageous regardless of whether I win or lose, she must be at least as strong as me, so how should I approach this one...-


    *Cl-l-lnk* "And now, for herpetitor, let''s wee back Miss Anthisi!"


    Finally hearing my name get called as the massive metal gate to the arena opened, I quickly walked out and made my way up on stage, only to catch the cold gaze of a young basilisk-like dragon standing proudly on the other side of the arena.


    Sizing each other up, we both rather quickly tuned out the ref before walking to the center of the arena, turning around, and thumping our tails together in the air as a formal exchange of greeting, before walking back to opposite edges of the stage.


    It was how seemingly every fight began, but while I didn''t think anything of it in the first fight, as our tails hit, and I felt the looseness in hers, every assumption I had made up until that point was thrown to the wind. -She isn''t a physical fighter.. is she..?-


    Finally reaching my end of the raised stage, I turned around and used the final seconds of the announcer talking toe up with some sort of n.


    But I was going in blind.


    "Hoooh..." Letting out a long, stress-filled breath, I lowered my head and raised my tail, never once pulling my eyes off her.


    But unfortunately, that kind of vignce wouldn''t help me.


    *Zip* As the beam of light crossed in front of her, neither of us moved.


    At least that''s what I thought.


    *WOOSH* Jolting my head to the side as a conflict between senses blurred my mind, a white paw mmed down right next to me.


    She was using light magic while massively suppressing her aura to mess with my senses, but as I looked up into the slightly warped patch of sky, a spark of confidence found its way into my eyes. -Alright.. I get it now.-


    *Fwip-WOOSH* Recognizing I had the speed advantage, I jumped across the arena to make space again and started focusing more on my other senses, only idly following the slightly warped space with my eyes while tracking her with my aura.


    But it, unfortunately, wasn''t that easy.


    Even though I was confident I could throw her down if I got my paws on her, she was more slippery than a smander.


    Dodging her jaws as they snapped just under my neck, I leaned back and went to kick her away, only for her to hook her wing around my neck, throwing her entire body weight into it to whip herself around and throw me off my bnce. -UGH!- *CRACK* Getting irritated, I dug my ws into the arena and turned into her, opening my mouth before firing a blinding beam of light right into her face. *FLASH*


    Almost instantly, her light magic, unable to adjust to the sh, exposed her body. -I got your number now...- Finally slipping out from under the grip her wing had on my neck, I used my own wing to send a blow into the side of her head, pointing her face down into my paw where another blinding sh erupted. *FLASH*


    But as I confidently went to m my other paw down on the back of her neck to end the fight, she lunged forward, biting my paw before mming her shoulder into me, twisting my body, and forcefully ripping my legs out from under me.


    -Oh, you have to be fucking KIDDING!- *WHAM* Feeling my side finally hit the ground as she reced her jaws with a paw, and set her other paw on my side, an explosive anger flooded my mind, and I shot a vicious re up at her.


    It was my defeat, but I didn''t want to ept it.


    At least until she got off me and helped me up with a shockingly happy voice. "I apologize if I bit down a little too hard. I was nervous you''d do whatever you did to the first guy and break my grip if I didn''t give it my all."


    -What?- Her voice was soft, with a slight shake from excitement.


    I couldn''t understand her at all. "Anyway, I hope we get the chance to fight again in the finals!" Finally getting me up on my feet, she smiled wide. "I want to personally see the magic you used in your first fight, okay? So, when we fight again, don''t hide anything!"


    "And the winner is the young Ep��meno!!"


    Cheers instantly erupted as she finally turned to the crowd.


    But their noise didn''t even make it through the fog of confusion that filled my mind. -What just.. happened?-


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Chapter 410: Trouble

    Chapter 410: Trouble


    Late Evening - Mid Winter : Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    "Mhhh..." Letting out a groan as she angrily tore a chunk of meat off the side of a huge tuna-like fish, Krystallo''s eyes never once focused on anything.


    Ever since her loss, she had beenpletely trapped in her own thoughts, only ever snapping out of it to order some food and a drink.


    At first, it made Hera and I a bit worried, wondering if she was taking the loss a bit too harshly, and dwelling on it, but after asking and getting a few haphazard responses, she seemed to more-so be reanalyzing her thought process and decision-making during the fight in an attempt to learn from it.


    That alone was something that was quite pleasing to see, since she was trying to learn how to teach herself and not lean so much others.


    But it wasn''t like she was going to handicap herself by never asking us anything.


    "What would you two say is my biggest weakness right now?"


    ""Experience."" Hera and I responded in unison.But it just made Krystallo hang her head and rx her wings.


    Clearly, it wasn''t what she wanted to hear. -But unfortunately, there''s just no way around it...- "You struggle quite a bit with reading your opponent, and that can only really get better with time and practice."


    Instantly lighting back up, her gaze snapped to me. "What do you mean?"


    "I mean there are times you''re too confident going into an engagement and when your opponent does something you don''t expect, rather than reacting to it, you get flustered and it trips you up."


    Her expression instantly turned dumbfounded. "Really?" Lowering her gaze and falling into thought again, her eyes went wide. "You''re totally right... What the hell..?"


    I was quick to nod as I thought back on the two fights she had lost. "Your biggest issue is simply learning to react, and generally stay calm and level-headed so you can adapt to the situation. The problem with that is you can''t learn that through anything but experience."


    "Hm..." Idly taking anotherrge bite out of the side of the fish, she took a moment to think. "Then do you think I should ask people to spar in the training area?"


    But Hera immediately shook her head. "For this tournament, people are likely conserving their energy, so no one would ept a spar. However," Straightening up she pulled the small festival flier out from under her wing and handed it to Krystallo. "On the other side of the city, there is a noble family doing free lessons where you can be taught by a knight for a day. If you''d like, I''m sure they''d be willing to spar and give you some guidance."


    "Huh? Why does it have to be some random knight? Can''t you two spar with me?"


    "Nope." I instantly shut her down. "You need to learn how to face the unknown, and as much as Hera and I could simte that, nothing will beat a spar where you have a chance to win." -If she spars me, she will subconsciously hold back because she''ll know she can''t win...- But if she sparred with some random knight, she may be more keen on pushing her limits.


    And so, after a bit more discussion, Hera and I managed to convince her to give it a try, and flew all the way to the outskirts of the city where an old noble family''s ntation and brewery were.


    The fos family.


    Dating all the way back to when Bahamut was in his prime as Monarch, they were an incredibly influential family of dragons, even today.


    But rather than it being because they were deeply woven into politics, it was because they brewed and sold alcohol.


    More specifically, they soldparably vast quantities of Piotita, among other favorites within the draconic race.


    However, when Hera told me that and saw my eyes gleam, she instantly shut down what I was thinking. "Unfortunately, the fos family isn''t the one brewing Piotita, I''m still not sure who is, they are just a distributor." Noticing my sudden disappointment, she nodded in understanding. "I felt the same way about it, but not only do they still have far more than anyone else on the continent, the alcohols they brew themselves are still amazing, so they were a family I went out of my way to befriend when I went in and bought Eikas��a from them."


    After all, the key to the hearts of many dragons was money and alcohol, and since she was about to appoint herself as Monarch, they were a powerful ally to have. "I see. In that case I might have to buy some alcohol from them to.. establish good rtions."


    "Haha, for sure. I''ll have them bring a few barrels for you to try while Krystallo spars."


    Joyfully nodding, we continued over the endless fields before finally, a series of massive structures peeked over the horizon.


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    As Hera came to exin, they were the brewery, the knight''s facility, the main estate, and thergest structure of all, ''the silo'', with dragons buzzing around the silo, brewery, and knight''s facility like bees around a hive. -For how far out of town their estate is, I didn''t expect so many people to be out here... Are most of them workers?- Considering how much production the family has, they were bound to have a lot of workers.


    But as we finally began our approach on the knight''s facility, it became abundantly clear that not everyone was there to work.


    Completely filling therge open fields around the knight facility were younger, more average-looking dragons being taught in huge groups, learning all there was to know about the basics of fighting and sparring from fos family knights.


    By the looks of things, they were a group that didn''t really have any talent in fighting or have money to receive formal training, so they came here to either explore the possibility of bing a knight or take the opportunity to receive some formal training.


    Either way, it was quitemendable. -It might not be a bad ce to scout out some underfunded talent...-


    Eventually finding a spot tond, we sent Krystallo off to join one of the lessons since they appeared to be gearing up for live spars, and made our way toward where a number of older dragons were gathered. Supposedly, it was an area where people could learn more about the history of the fos family and how they influenced the draconic race throughout several millennia.


    -I thought the festival was just a time for the younger folk to socialize, but...- While that was correct, just like the guys we met at the arena, most people used the festival as an excuse to do many things. "Are all these people locals?"


    Hera was quick to nod. "The festival is certainly geared toward the younger generation, but normal folk also use it as an opportunity to travel and look for job opportunities as well." After all, if you weren''t a noble hosting parties and hunting for young talent during the festival, the only thing keeping you home was your job.


    -Interesting...- To an extent, the festival was almost meant to recalibrate or rewire the continent, forcing money move while helping spread out talent, and establishing the new connections necessary toy the foundation for years toe. "That makes me wonder if I should be making better use of my time during the festival too..."


    But Hera was quick to get me off that train of thought. "Just enjoy it for now, you can worry about taking advantage of opportunitiester." Warming her expression, her tone turned caring with a mix of worry woven into it. "You need a chance to unwind from time to time, you know..."


    "Haah... I know, I know..." But no matter how many times I acknowledged it, the unease that welled in my stomach never went away. No matter how much I tried to distract myself, it never settled.


    Even as Krystallo''s spar rolled around, and I smiled pridefully watching her continually get back up and ask for another round, anxiety secretly ate away at me.


    Deep down, I simply didn''t feel prepared.


    Being on the verge of war with the Holy Kingdom, while the leviathan lurked beneath our feet, it felt like I was wasting precious time, even if I was using any extra thought I had to try ande up with a n.


    But that evening, while I wandered away from the crowd, sipping on a barrel of a somewhat bitter alcohol, a dragon that had been observing the spars for several hours made his way over to me.


    With mostly brown and red scales with some white highlights on his chest and wings, one would think he was of a lower ss, but that was most certainly not the case. "You must be Vasilias. Madam Hera has told me quite a bit about you."


    -Is that so?- ncing back, it only took a moment for my gaze to find its way to the massive set of almost antler-like horns atop his head. "And you are?"


    Suddenly stopping in his tracks, he formally lifted his leg and spread one wing to bow. "My name is Keras fos, the current-standing patriarch of the fos family."


    -Hoh?- "My name is Vasilias, it''s a pleasure to meet you." By the looks of things, he was in thete ancient stage, with horns so heavy they made him move his head somewhat sluggishly.


    "Haha," *Vwoom* Isting us with sound magic, he firmly made his way up next to me, overlooking the endless field and peering up into the sky. "It''s truly an honor to have the Monarch and a gode to my humble estate. I hope my estate''s inadequacy isn''t the course of your trouble."


    -Ah...- Without realizing it, a troubled expression had clouded my face for quite a while. "It''s not that, your estate is a truly beautiful ce, so I apologize if that made you worry." Recognizing that he already knew my identity, I quickly eased up.


    "Hoho, please don''t apologize, I just wanted to make sure I made a good first impression."


    Hearing him speak, my nerves slowly eased. -How genuine...- Nowhere in his voice was there even a hint of greed or uncertainty. He spoke more like an honest old man, speaking so earnestly it made me smile. "Well, you don''t have anything to worry about there."


    "Phew," Jokingly giving an exaggerated sigh of relief, he finally walked up next to me and set down another barrel of alcohol. "You don''t mind if I have a drink with you, do you?"


    I quickly shook my head. "Of course not."


    Finally sitting down, he tapped in the lid of the barrel and pulled a ball of it out with magic, sipping on it one bit at a time.


    And just like that, we lost ourselves to a few hours of conversation, speaking on the state of Bahamut, his excitement for what was toe, and some idle probing to see what I was interested in, perhaps to help get my mind off what I was dwelling on.


    But as it turned out, he just intended on establishing a connection with me. "So Hera told me you''re trying to investigate the Acardi, right?"


    -Hoh? He knows about the Acardi?- Catching my interest, a curl finally found its way into my tail. "That is correct."


    "Hoho~, then I have something that you may find interesting. Care to see it?" Giving me a youthfully excited smile, his heavy tail started to gently sway.


    -If it has to do with the Acardi...- "Absolutely!"


    And so, after telling Hera what I was up to, and having her keep an eye on Krystallo for me, I followed him back to the incredibly grand main estate, where he nned to show me something only he knew about.


    <strong>-----</strong>


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 Art: The Breath of a God

    Art: The Breath of a God


    Hey guys, hope you are all doing well, some new art courtesy of Warhound in the discord!


    As a little update as well, as per a vote taken in the discord, <strong>TDOD''s new official schedule will be Sunday and Wednesday at 1:30 PM EST!</strong>


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences.


    <strong>-----------</strong>


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 Chapter 411: Why?

    Chapter 411: Why?


    Late Evening - Mid Winter : Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    "So, from what Madam Monachik��s said, you''re quite adept with Acardi technology." Using some wind magic to keep the maids and butlers running about the halls of the estate, Keras, the fos family patriarch, spoke with an oddly excited tone.


    "I am. Do you perhaps need my help trying to identify an artifact?"


    Quickly shaking his head, he motioned his wing to a few servants, sending them off before entering his office. *Woosh*


    Compared to the rest of the goldced estate, his office was quite a refreshing space. With mostly everything made of beautiful chocte-colored wood, detailed with ck cast iron, and supported by raw, thick tree trunks along the walls, it reminded me of some of the more nature-bound architecture I would traditionally find in Siratha.


    But while it was beautiful, after quickly walking over to one of the towering bookshelves and plucking a series of books off the shelves, the familiar hiss of hydraulics filled the air, and the entire wall sank in before being pulled to the side. -Hoh?-


    Curiously using my aura to check it out, I rather quickly found a series of hydraulics identical to what was in the old Acardi crawler I found, just sized up considerably, and powered by a series of old, clearly somewhat neglected electric motors.


    Or at least it''d look that way to an untrained eye. "Did you find the motors like that?" Noticing he didn''t quite know what I meant, I quickly borated. "The electric coil things that make the whole secret door system work.""Hoho~, is that what those are called? None of those worked when we found them, but after finding one that worked a little bit, we figured out how to repair the rest."


    "Hm." -I see that...- Looking at what was essentially a redneck repair of an advanced electric motor, I could only smile and nod. -But I have to give credit where it''s due...- "Just getting them working is quite an impressive feat, you should be proud."


    "Oh, we certainly are. The biggest issue is that the rules these devices follow aren''t the same rules of the world we know. I believe Madam Monachik��s said you called it science?"


    I was quick to nod my snout as my gaze drifted around at the rows of sculptures, artwork, and artifacts lining the wall. "Science is the true foundation of the world, magic just expands on it."


    Looking back at me with a glow in his eyes, Keras''s posture straightened with interest. "Exactly! It''s been so difficult to try and study things that don''t rely on magic for that exact reason. We have to frame our minds aroundws we don''t know, so even trying to exin simple things like why an object moves when touched bes quite difficult."


    "Hahaha," A wave of nostalgia instantly blew over me as fuzzy old memories passed through my mind. "I know the struggle. Once you know more of the basics though, exining moreplex things gets easier." -At least to an extent...- Having theories of quantum mechanicse to mind, a part of me wanted to correct myself.


    But even if I did, someone learning the most basic of basics wouldn''t understand. "I see, I see! How fascinating..." Quickly falling into thought, we continued to lead me down the long, descending hallway, continuing idle conversation with a mix of questions about science, and inquiring about my own interests.


    From what I could see, while his family specialized in brewing liquor, creating drinks, and managing taverns, his personal interests were aimed more at the Acardi. After stumbling across an old crash site in the dunes of the Banvean, he became fascinated with the world of advanced technology, using his family''s endlessly expanding fortune to fund research into it. But there were constantly challenges with that, one being his wife, and the other being his family''s ''noble obligation''.


    After all, like nearly all nobility, they had a city to manage. Even if they didn''t n on doing any expansion, just general upkeep and management was expensive.


    At least that was the case before Hera came along. "Ever since Madam Monachik��s bought Eikas��a from us, I''ve been able to funnel so much money unto the research that we have actually made some rather significant advancements. Hiding just how much money I''m spending on it from my wife has been a challenge, but it''ll all be worth it in the end."


    Finallying up to arge, ck-metal door, he held his w up to his family insignia before injecting some mana into it, undoing the lock. *Cl-Click*


    *Woosh* Pushing open the door, the familiar, sterile white-light-lit environment I''d expect from an Acardi facility peeked through the door before it opened enough to reveal a room lined with white tiles, and filled with about a dozen dragons of all ages spread out at tables, tinkering with half-assembled pieces of Arcardi tech.


    -Hoho~,- It was a sight that instantly hooked me in. "Is this from a ship you salvaged?" Looking up in the ceiling and walls with my mana, I found the familiar support structure of an Acardi ship, just cut, sectioned off, and buried a few kilometers under a huge field.


    "That''s correct!"


    Hearing his voice boom, everyone in the room jolted and nced back at us with a mix of curiosity and annoyance.


    "This is myb! Only maybe fifteen people even know this ce exists, but this isn''t what I wanted to show you."


    -Oh?- Getting more interested as I looked around and tried to gauge the level of the researchers, he led me through the room before opening up a series of three doors acting like an airlock.


    But while still in the first airlock, one of the researchers was quick toe up to me. "If you have anything on you that is not made of mythril, please leave them here." Motioning to a small paddedpartment in the wall, he bowed his head. "Beyond that door, you will be exposed to some rather harsh and extreme conditions, and it is rmended you wear safety equipment if necessary, and speak up should you feel anything abnormal." Motioning to the opposite wall, I found a series of hanging items that resembled a ss muzzle and goggles.


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    -Are these to breathe?- Getting curious, I quickly waved him off. "I''ll be alright."


    Looking at Keras for confirmation, the researcher seemed a bit nervous, but with a nod, he let us past. "Then I wish for you to have a pleasurable experience..." Tapping a button with his wing as he bowed, the middle door behind us quickly closed before taking a moment to seal.


    -Pleasure?- "Pft-, what sort of crazy shit do you have down here?"


    "Haha, its nothing like that." Walking up to the door, he gently tapped a simple button. *Click* "It''s just a little something I''ve been working on." *WOOM*


    An unbelievably intense burst of mana instantly flooded the room before a metal-melting heat blew over us.


    It was so intense it even made Keras, an old ancient, squint for a moment.


    But that was only before the heat, ripping past us like the wind of a hurricane settled, and the overpressured door opened.


    "Holy..." Walking through the door and out onto a pure mythril tform, my eyes went wide. "What the fuck.. is this..."


    "Hah!" Letting out a loud chuckle, he walked out to the edge of the tform before waving me along. "I''ve been wondering the same thing ever since I found it..."


    Finally peeking over the edge, the image my aura painted in my mind, the sight of something I couldn''t believe met my eyes.


    Nearly twenty kilometers down the excessively massive, heatshield-coated room was a small Acardi facility suspended over an orange and blue pool of liquid emanating nearly as much mana as the mana well beneath the Tree of Prayer. -What the hell..? Was this ce an old mana well?-


    With temperatures hot enough to melt steel and enough mana to break apart atoms, the structure down below had to be made of some kind of extreme mythril. -It must be ck mythril...-


    Unable to get my aura through it at such a distance, I quickly turned to Keras. "Could I go down and check it out?"


    But it was a question that just wiped the excitement off his face. "U-Uh, well... I don''t mean to underestimate you, but my body starts deteriorating at just a few kilometers down.. let alone all the way to that.. thing..." Looking down the hole again, his eyes gleamed with a mix of anxiety and fascination.


    A fascination I couldn''t help but respect. "Is it the heat or the mana?"


    "It''s the mix, but I can handle the heat with magic for a bit.. the issue is it only gets hotter and the mana only gets thicker as you go down..."


    -Yeah, I see that...- At the bottom, the temperatures were so insane that even mythril would melt. -But...- "That shouldn''t be an issue. If you want toe down with me, I can keep most of the heat and mana off you." Noticing his hesitancy, I was quick to spontaneously cool the air around him, condensing it to fog before separating him from the air and mana in the room entirely using a shell of space mana. *Vwoom*


    His gaze instantly shifted with a mix of awe and skepticism. "What the... How did you do that?"


    "It''s a trade secret." Quickly walking past him, I hopped over the railing without hesitation. "Anyway, feel free toe down at your own pace, I''ll keep the shell around you." *WoooOOOOSH* Folding my wings, I instantly started slicing through the dense sma, descending into the sickening mix of mana and beyond-volcanic heat.


    But it didn''t take long for me to start slowing down.


    -What the hell..?- Finally approaching the side of the rather tiny ''facility'' suspended by severalplex metal cables, my mind twisted with confusion.


    With no external sensors to entrances, I tried to just force my mana into it, but normal mana couldn''t even get through the shell.


    And I only knew one thing that could cause that. -Space mana...-


    The facility itself was reinforced with space mana, something I only knew toe from two sources, me or a rune. -Did they.. figure out how to create space runes?-


    But that couldn''t have been right. Something like a three-dimensional rune wasn''t something any creature less than a god could decipher. -Three-dimensional mana mechanics just aren''t that simple...- But as I gathered the space mana in my aura and forced it into the facility, I had to once again be enlightened to the horror that was theputer.


    Inside the facility was a series of machines, mechanical arms, and electrical systems all meant to move around and reorient tens of billions of tiny cubes, each being a tiny section of an oversized three-dimensional rune like an unsolvable puzzle with countless unused pieces.


    However, regardless of that, at the center of the facility was arge collection of blocks, around twenty meters across, containing several billion individual puzzle pieces that, while extremely inefficient and unlike anything I had ever seen, appeared to be a functioning space rune. -That''s.. possible..?- It even used methods and shortcuts I didn''t think were possible.


    But my fascination never had the chance to show itself through the horror written across my face. -They actually.. solved it...- Quickly turning my attention to the cables holding it up, I forced my aura through the walls, looking to see where the cables led, only to find that they were connected to massive arrays of thousands of quantum tethermunication modules almost identical to those I had found in themunications tower in the Death''s Gape.


    However, the facility wasn''t connected to all of themunication modules...


    Following a set of cables back up to the top of the room, I found sections of metal among the heat-absorbing tiles where cables likely suspended another facility at one point, and followed the other cables down through the walls until my aura could no longer follow it. -What the hell is this ce...-


    With no way to the surface besides the path I assumed Keras had made, I did idly question how the whole ce was built.


    It was in the middle of Bahamut after all, it wasn''t a ce where the Acardi could do whatever they wanted. -There''s no way Hera or Bahamut wouldn''t have realized they were building this if they hade from the surface, so...- Looking down into the boiling magma, I pushed my aura as deep into it as I could...


    But while I found a huge opening not too far down, well below it, the same, rectangr cut walls trailed deeper and deeper. -Did the Acardi..e up from the mantle?-


    But then that begged the question... -W..why.. here..?-


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 Chapter 412: Trouble

    Chapter 412: Trouble


    Early Morning - Mid Winter : fos Family Estate, Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    -W..why.. here...- Looking down over the edge of the facility, into the pit of mana-lit magma, my mind raced.


    Given that the facility was right under the Draconic Continent, it only made sense if the Acardi had bored up from deep underground, or more likely the mantle, to construct it, however, that possibility raised more questions than answers. With the ability to traverse the through Delphi''s mantle, it made no sense to build anything here at all, let alone what I suspected was a series of what was possibly the most advanced facilities on the. -It''s not like this would be a small project either, even for the Acardi...-


    From both an efficiency perspective, and a logical perspective, boring through so much earth just to put your most advanced facilities under your enemy''s nose didn''t make any sense. -If they just wanted to hide it, they would have just put it somewhere in or near the mantle...-


    Yet there it was, with the top of the bored tunnel being a mere five kilometers below the surface.


    -There has to be another reason...- But even as I pushed my aura as far into the magma as possible, I couldn''t even begin to guess. -Based on the cables in the walls, there must be more facilities down below.. and there also seems to be another cavern the Acardi dug out not too far down that I can''t follow with my aura...- Thinking I could maybe figure something out with a bit of exploration, I wanted to jump down into the magma and swim around so badly it was honestly excruciating.


    But it would have to wait.


    "What a fascinating structure..." Finally reaching the facility, Keras'' eyes glowed, inspecting the rune-like engravings on its side while doing everything he could to try and cope with the mix of heat and mana pushing through my barriers.But while he was clearly struggling to deal with it, his curiosity seemed to push him through it.


    Until he started reaching his limit, that is.


    "It''s a shame that this will probably be the only time I get to inspect this so closely..." After several minutes, he was literally steaming, attempting to use water magic to condense what little moisture escaped in his breath to sweat-like beads to keep his scales cool.


    That meant nothing when his scales glowed like hot iron though. *tssssss*


    -Geez...- Knowing I wouldn''t be able to go explore the magma until he was done, I tried to slow my racing thoughts with some idle conversation. "You know, spending time in here is really good for your body. If you stay in here long enough, you''ll eventually be able to venture down here on your own."


    Snapping out of his focus for a moment, an unusually forced smile came to his face. "I understand that, but at this point in my life, I need to spend my time wisely."


    -Hm...- Looking him up and down, my gaze turned a bit judgemental. "Are you worried about your dragon sleep?"


    He nodded without the slightest hesitation. "After hearing that Myles Kalfas survived his sleep, my wife and I had a flicker of hope, but the deeper I dug into it, the more I found that it just came down to fate." From essentially spending his entire life in an incredibly mana-dense environment, to being sent into a dragon sleep in the middle of a life-or-death battle, Myles had quite literally the perfect entrance into his sleep.


    Yet even still, without Dagr''s influence, he never would have survived, and Keras likely knew that.


    However, that was also what made me find our conversation so amusing. "Why is it that you don''t ask me for help? I''m sure you already know that I have the power to do that."


    "Haha," Letting out a difortedugh, his gaze turned to me before his forced smile vanished entirely. "You know just as well as me that I don''t deserve such mercy."


    Looking down at his cloudy soul, swirling with anxiety and uncertainty, I shrugged my wings. "You''d be surprised how fast death can sober someone up." Being the biggest distributor of alcohol on the entire continent, Keras was one of the most well-connected dragons alive, having connections to nearly everyone with influence, whether they weremoners or the richest of the rich.


    But, just like simrly powerful positions in the government, having such connections came with responsibility that needed to be acknowledged.


    And while Keras learned that with time, it wasn''t before he made enough mistakes that he was already caught in the trap. "Like Madam Monachik��s has likely already told you, when I was still building up my personal brand and expanding my connections to take the seat of family patriarch after my father, I did more than just nce into the dark alleyways of politics... Even though I thought I heeded my Father''s advice, the moment I took a step into the alley, I got trapped."


    Looking down at his glowing scales again, he cringed before continuing in a rushed manner.


    "Anyway, to try and keep things short, Madam Monachik��s has given me an offer to clean the blood off my paws, and I epted, but the bad deeds have already been done. I have bathed in too much blood for just cleaning the taste out of my mouth to be enough."


    "I see..." -What a troublesome predicament...- He was a man who wished to redeem himself but believed he was unable to because he knew the weight of his sins just as much as he knew the inevitability of death. -But.. he might be too useful for me to surrender him to time.-


    Looking deep into his eyes, my mind raced. -He has connections, experience with Acardi technology, and has even begun trying to learn and document physics...- In many ways, he nearly perfectly filled a seat I was eagerly looking to fill.


    But, half a day wasn''t enough time to bestow upon someone something like that.


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    So, giving him a cold look over, I spoke firmly. "If you satisfy Hera with your work and wish for a chance to clean the rest of the blood off yourself, I will give you that opportunity." Lowering my eyes to the soul in his chest, I continued. "Even if it takes you a thousand years."


    Understanding that I meant I would help him through his dragon sleep to give him a chance at redeeming himself, his eyes shot open.


    "Show that you are worthy of redemption, and the opportunity might justnd in front of you."


    Getting a bit flustered, he hastily turned away from the facility and lowered his head to the ground. "I will do my best!"


    -Good.- Greedily smiling, I raised my snout. "Then I look forward to seeing your progress."


    Quickly wrapping up our conversation with a rather satisfied feeling, Keras finally voiced that he had reached his limit with the heat and decided to leave, going on to dedicate himself to the tasks Hera had assigned him rather than continuing to indulge in any more ''unworthy pleasures''.


    Although it was impossible to tell if a momentary shift in motivations was enough to get a promising dragon back on track in the long term, it was a sight that left me more pleased than disappointed. -I quite like him...- Whether it was his craze about technology, or the urge to redeem himself, he was promising enough for me to consider him as something akin to an apostle candidate. -But I can''t get ahead of myself...-


    As Keras finally made it to the airlock, I undid my barriers around him and stood up, finally letting the turbine of curiosity rip before turning my attention toward the magma with a wide smile. *Tap-Creak-FLASH* Hopping off the facility, I changed my form to its full size before promptly mming through the almost non-Newtonian surface of the magma. *WoooOOOSH-THWASH*


    "Hooh..." Quickly getting limated to the heat, I flooded the magma with my aura, painting the t walls and sharp corners before quickly finding the artificial-looking hole in the side of the room not too far below. *blub-blub* -Hm... Since I still can''t see the next facility, I should check this before I go down any deeper...-


    After all, without my aura being able to make out anything inside it, the tunnel could very well lead to another facility.


    However, as I swam into it, forcing my way through the crushingly dense magma, I started noticing the mana growing denser and denser, interfeing with my aura more and more.


    Until eventually, the Acardi-made tunnel turned upward, and I found myself swimming through nothing but pure liquid mana,pletely blotting out my aura to a point that I bumped my nose into the walls of the cave more than once. -Holy shit...-


    But as I swam upward, the cavern seemed to grow wider and wider. Being able to spread my wingspletely and still not touch anything, it was a truly monumental volume of mana, by far more than I had ever seen in one ce.


    But like everything, it wasn''t infinite.


    *Blub-SPLASH* Eventually bursting through the surface of the ocean of mana, I found myself in an absolutely colossal, circr roompletely coated in ck mythril, with ambient mana so dense that the molecules in the air I exhaled were broken down into nothing but hydrogen.


    But, while absolutely horrifying, like anywhere else with such insanely high mana levels, the entire ce glowed and glimmered.


    -Woah...- With the void-like background of ck mythril, it almost felt like I wasn''t in an enclosed space at all, and was rather floating in a sea of mana amongst the stars, but the more I looked around, trying to make out the room''s finer details with the glow of mana, the more I ended up noticing shapes and formations that couldn''t have formed naturally. -What.. is all that..?-


    Finally swimming toward the embankment, I climbed up out of the pool of mana before using some light magic to flood the room with light beyond the normal visual wavelengths so I could see the form and texture of things, disregarding the void-like ck mythril coating everything.


    But that just exposed something I''m not sure I was ready to see.


    All around the central pool of mana, I found broken statues, artifacts, fossilized flowers, and even intricate carvings and ques so damaged they were hard to make out.


    Being nearly thirty kilometers underground, this was a ce that never should have been able to see sunlight, let alone life, yet everything I saw there told me otherwise. -What the hell...-


    More cautiously continuing into the room, I slowly made my way up to one of the many broken metal ques scattered on the ground and tried to read the engravings, only to be presented with an absolutely ancient, unreadable dialect of draconic my memories as Bahamut and Nott understood as ''primitive draconic'', anguage long predating both Bahamut, and my arrival to Delphi as Nott. -No way...-


    Having been preserved by the unfathomably high mana levels, it was like I was cracking open an ancient time capsule. Everywhere I looked, there were artifacts that predated the entirety of draconic civilization.


    But while I thought everything in there would be simrly prehistoric, after looking into more of the details of items, I found my fascination begin to twist into confusion.


    The more artifacts I inspected, the more I found that the eras they originated from fluctuated, with some having easily recognizable text not much different from Hera''s era while others depicted what could only be described as the draconic equivalent of cave paintings. -What the hell?-


    Thinking that maybe there used to be a path from the surface leading to this ce, I turned my attention to the walls and ceiling, looking for anything that could have been an old, capped pathway, but to no avail. -That can''t be right though...-


    It wasn''t like nearly thirty kilometers of rock and sediment coulde out of nowhere after all.


    So, to try and use another method of finding an entrance, I used my space mana to cut out sections of rock from different ces, starting on the ground and working my way up the wall, looking through the variousyers in hopes of finding variations in theiryers.


    And sure enough, while the ground and walls appeared to still beyers of dirt, strengthened to mythril over time, the ceiling was made entirely of bedrock that almost perfectly matched the surrounding bedrock.


    The entire mana well was buried... -The Acardi built here because they knew Bahamut wouldn''t ever dig it back up...- And with an essentially endless supply of mana and heat, they no longer had limits. With more energy than they could even utilize with the heat and mana, they could do whatever they wanted, in a ce that would never be discovered, while their enemy actively worked to hide whatever anomalies they created.


    After all, who would let their own crimes see the daylight after going through so much effort to bury it.


    *Thump* Sitting down, my ws curled with reignited anger, digging scratches into the ck mythril ground that had remained untouched for countless millennia.


    But as I sat there in the suffocating bubble of mana, struggling to suppress my anger aimed at Bahamut, I had an ideae to mind that rather quickly pulled my attention away from it...


    Because while Bahamutmitted atrocities that words could not describe, there was no need for me to dwell on the past...


    Especially if dwelling on it meant I had to pass up on such a magnificent opportunity. -With so much insanely high-density mana�� Isn��t this the perfect ce to study enriched mana?-


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    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 413: A Breathing Mountain Range

    Mid Morning - Mid Winter : Elafos Family Estate, Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    -With so much insanely high-density mana�� Isn��t this the perfect place to study enriched mana?- *Vwoooooom* Looking out over the massive, nearly three-kilometer-wide lake of mana, the constant, unending hum of overpressured mana clashing with my aura filled the room, and a slightly crazed smile spread across my face.


    Being well over thirty kilometers underground and encased in what was essentially a massive geode made of one of the strongest materials on the planet, it was the perfect place to conduct experiments that would be cataclysmic on the surface. -Even if I set off a bunch of antimatter in here...- Rather than blowing through the black mythril, the expanding gasses would just force themselves through the pool of mana and into the magma cavern.


    -But I can''t do anything too crazy just yet...- Quickly stopping myself from getting overzealous, I scanned the room, still finding well over fifty thousand different ancient artifacts I had yet to even glance at. -At the very least, I need to skim through the rest of that...-


    The issue was I couldn''t understand most of it. With many of the plaques of text grossly predating even my oldest recognizable memories on Delphi, I needed to sit down and essentially decipher an entire language.


    But while most people would have taken it as an impossible task, I wasn''t actually too worried about it.


    Not because I was some expert in linguistics, but rather because I had tens of thousands of other plaques I could use as the steps of a staircase descending back in time. -A lot of these plaques are much more recent.. probably from just before Hera''s era...- And while it took a bit of effort, I could somewhat comfortably read them. -Then from that point on, it looks like the plaques age pretty steadily...- With the unknown aspects of the language changing in a similar steady fashion.


    In other words, while I couldn''t even guess where to start deciphering the oldest plaques, if I deciphered the small unknown sections of the more recent texts and worked my way back one step at a time, by the time I reached the oldest plaques, they wouldn''t be completely unfamiliar. "Hooh..." -It''ll be a bit time-consuming though...-


    But time was something I had a fair bit of at the moment, even if I had to make sure I was able to take it.


    After creating a marker for the room in the void, I returned to the surface to check in on Hera and Krystallo.


    By then, it hadn''t been more than a handful of hours since I left for the main estate with Keras, but in that time, Krystallo had been having a blast.


    According to Hera, while Krystallo went into the training a bit arrogant, after she got laid out by a dragon around Mother''s age, she had a burst of motivation to properly learn more foundational things like footwork and more efficient leverage when it comes to combat. "Hmhm~, you should''ve been here to see the look on her face when she got pulled off her feet and thrown to the ground."


    Enjoying being able to take my mind off the things I found underground for a moment, a warm, almost fatherly smile quickly spread across my face. "Haha, it''s a shame I missed it, but..." Looking out into the massive field where she was getting a lesson from one of the night captains with several other young dragons, simply radiating excitement, my chest warmed. "I''m just glad to see she''s enjoying it."


    Hera, nodding in agreement, quickly warmed her expression as well before letting out a sigh and leaning into me. *Pat*


    In an instant, it was like all the tension in her body just left, completely relaxing and laying her head on my neck while watching as Krystallo''s tail wagged out in the field.


    It was oddly.. nice...


    "So, what''s up with you?" Speaking barely above a whisper, her gaze finally turned up to me. "You seem tense..."


    "Haah..." Letting out a sigh, my wings and tail quickly relaxed. "I just found more than I bargained for underground."


    "Oh?"


    Nodding as she leaned into me a bit more, I pulled a small black mythril sheet out from under my wing and showed it to her. "Below the Acardi facility Keras showed me, I found an old mana well that was buried." Having had some time to reorganize my thoughts by then, this time not blinded by anger, I had started questioning the theories I came up with underground. "I''m thinking it was buried by Bahamut, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes."


    "Hmm..." Trying to read the plaque, her expression darkened. "Is this.. old draconic?"


    "I believe so."


    "Wow... If it is, this must predate Bahamut..." Grabbing the metal plate from me, she more closely inspected it while speaking somewhat idly. "Are you suspicious because the well is too old to have been buried by Bahamut?"


    "No," I was quick to shake my head. "Some of the plaques down there have text from probably only ten thousand years before you were born. It was a well that was most certainly buried while Bahamut was around."This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    "I see..." Mumbling, she moved her eyes from me to the plate. "So what makes you suspicious?"


    "It''s depth." Feeling the gentle caress of the breeze while a fresh, almost foresty scent met my nose, I looked up at the horizon. "You remember how in Bahamut''s archive, he documented all the wells he buried, saying how hard they were to actually bury?" As she nodded, I turned to look at her. "Not only is this well not among those he documented, it was buried five times deeper than the deepest he sank."


    Sitting at six kilometers down, the deepest well he documented burying was stated as a challenge unlike anything he had ever faced.


    -And yet this one is five times deeper than that...- Falling into thought, my expression turned troubled. "It''s also disgustingly huge. To the point that it can''t be compared to those he documented." Although it didn''t quite register when I first got there, the well was an accumulation of mana that even my well under the tree of prayer couldn''t possibly compare to. "The surface alone was almost three kilometers across."


    "Holy shit..." Falling into thought as well, Hera''s gaze fell to the ground. "Something like that would definitely have legends or rumors about it, especially if it only predates me by a dozen millennia..."


    -That''s true...-


    "But I somehow can''t think of any..." Finally breaking out of her thoughts, she looked me in the eyes for a moment with a completely steady gaze. "Do you want to run to the library to see if you can find anything? I can watch over Krystallo in the meantime."


    Shaking my head, I looked back up at Krystallo. "I''m going to take a few days to try and learn the old languages on the plaques down there, and see if they can give me any insight."


    "Hah," Her expression eased in an instant. "You know, if you were anyone else, I''d interpret ''a few days'' as a handful of months." Deciding to set her likely still turbulent thoughts aside, she rested her head back on me. "Just save me some mana down there, okay?"


    "Haha," Feeling my chest warm up again, I let out a light chuckle before gently curling my tail around hers. "I will, don''t worry." Leaning over and pressing my snout into hers as she closed her eyes and raised it, her smile widened, and an almost euphoric peacefulness overtook my mind. -I promise to turn this mana well into an elixir we can both eat like gluttons...-


    But that would unfortunately take some time.


    After enjoying the morning a bit more with Hera and clearing my head, I returned to the subterranean room through the void and got to reading, taking things slow and one step at a time, backtracking whenever I found an error, and moving forward whenever I was fairly confident what I was reading was right.


    However, things progressed much, much faster than I initially expected.


    As I forced myself to read everything in the room at face value, regardless of whether I understood it or not, I found that nearly every plaque had one, identical string of words at the end.


    ''Praise Bahamut''.


    Whether the plaques were from his time period or not, they all contained the phrase, an anomaly so egregious that it made me question if I was even reading the more recent texts properly.


    However, because of the spacing between some of the letters on older plaques, I forced myself to look at it differently, breaking the name into a set of words, and in turn, a phrase.


    Until I got finally got something along the lines of, ''Praise (the) God of the Strong''.


    They were all indeed hailing a god, but rather than being the Bahamut I knew, it was something, or rather someone else.


    But even as I dug deeper into the languages, it was hard to piece together any sort of image of that being. Almost all of the plaques were prayers, with some detailing things like how the person who made it wished for their daughter to be successful while others were of people begging for solace after losing a loved one.


    All I knew was that they were praying to some kind of god that they believed resided in the well, and based on the carvings, they believed it was a dragon. -But the carvings are either too messy or oversimplified to tell what the dragon looks like...-


    Based on what I was seeing, the thing they were praying to was more like a mountain range with wings. -Hm...- Popping my head up, I quickly got back to looking around the room. -Where was that broken statue I found...-


    Eventually finding what looked like a random small pile of gravel, I walked over and pulled out a rather significant amount of my own mana to isolate myself from the mana in the room and began piecing the statue back together with my aura.


    It took quite a lot longer than expected, but after about an hour of trial and error, I found myself sitting next to the tiny statue of a draconic species I had never seen before, that even my memories as Bahamut didn''t find even remotely familiar.


    Just like the plaques, its base read ''Praise Bahamut'', however, unlike the appearance of the Bahamut I knew, the creator of the statue had carved mountains along its spine, rivers and valleys between its scales, and a forest of half-broken trees decorating its wings.


    It was very clearly an artistical exaggeration, after all, a dragon that size would be almost a hundred kilometers long, a completely unprecedented and unfathomable size for any planet-surface-bound creature...


    But rather than simply moving on after confirming that it wasn''t actually Bahamut and going back to deciphering the older plaques, I sat there in silence, staring at the statue while feeling like something was on the tip of my tongue.


    Somehow, the more I stared at it, the more the sight of it tickled the back of my mind, as if my brain was searching for something that didn''t exist.


    It was the faintest familiarity, an almost impossible-to-catch sensation tied to a memory that wasn''t logged in my mind.


    However, that was before I decided to try searching in a different place.


    -----


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 Chapter 414: Bahamut

    Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : Elafos Family Estate, Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    -Where.. are you from...- Sitting down next to the statue smaller than my paw, I stared at the clump of stone with an indescribably scrutinous gaze.


    Somehow, even though my memories as Bahamut had no recollection of the dragon, something about it scratched the deepest recesses of my mind.


    It was the faintest familiarity, an almost impossible-to-catch sensation tied to a memory that wasn''t logged in my mind, and just like a computer searching for a file that didn''t exist, I couldn''t put my tongue on it. -Who.. are you...-


    However, even though I recognized that the familiarity was coming from somewhere in my soul, not only could I not pinpoint it, I didn''t even know where to begin when it came to forcibly surfacing such a memory. -From my experience, the only ways are stimulating the memories with something I recognize, falling into a dragon sleep, or dying...- And considering the latter options were completely out the window, I was forced to try and find something else in the room that could ring the bell louder than the statue.


    But as one would expect, that proved to be far easier said than done.


    Going back to looking around the room, I tried my best to find things that were more unique than the prayer plaques, whether they were statues, essentially fossilized pieces of fabric, or artifacts I thought could have had messages in them.


    But to no avail.


    Compared to a statue of the dragon, nothing else could even remotely scratch that missing part of my mind again.


    However, it wasn''t a totally fruitless effort.


    After spending a little over two days deciphering more texts, I managed to get to a point where I could at least partially read everything in the room, and in the process, found quite a few interesting anomalies regarding the consistency of their contents, and the state of their preservation.


    The thing was, from the most recent texts back until I was reading the prayer plaques from the earliest days of Bahamut''s rule, most of the prayers metaphorically thanked their god for things like the ''blessing and enrichment of mana'', which, being left to interpretation, I assumed regarded the mana well. The plaques'' remarkable preservation only went to reinforce that.


    However, the deeper I dug into the phrasing, the more unusual it became, until eventually, I stumbled across a massive gap in the timeline, a time period of at least thirty or forty millennia where not a single prayer plaque was dropped by the well, and with it, the contents of the prayers changed completely.


    Compared to the younger texts, the contents of the older plaques were far more explicit, praying directly to a god that supposedly resided ''here'' as if speaking directly with them, not relying on euphemisms or figurative speech that was up to interpretation.


    However, at the same time, the mention of mana I could possibly relate to being from the well ceased completely, with the mention of the god''s presence as the only exception. -But that doesn''t make any sense.. even the old plaques are preserved nearly perfectly...-


    As I continued to read though, the thought that maybe this place wasn''t really a mana well was something I simply couldn''t shake from my mind. -It''s almost like this place just didn''t exist before that time skip around Bahamut''s rise...-


    But mana wells don''t just appear like that. -As far as I know, mana wells rise up out of the ground similar to dungeons... Could these older plaques be from before the well reached the surface?-


    The thing was, while each era of plaques had its own trends and consistencies, the older texts constantly spoke of this place being where the titanic dragon they were worshipping lived, very similar to the Tree of Prayer with me, with it being regularly mentioned that the god''s presence was too much for younger dragons. -That could be explained by the well just not having surfaced yet...-


    After all, such a colossal volume of mana being pushed up through the ground could easily be misunderstood by primitive dragons as the presence of a dragon the size of a mountain range, a god. -It''d also explain why none of the older plaques thanked anyone for the mana.- Since if they believed the mana belonged to a god, they wouldn''t dare take it.


    -How likely are primitive dragons to mistake regular mana for an aura though...- Although it was indeed understandable how a human could make the mistake, a dragon was an entirely different being. -Even if they were that primitive...- Aura had drastically different properties from normal mana to the extent that one could tell the difference completely instinctually.


    So, in order to fix my curiosity once and for all, I decided to try digging into the ground like I did the ceiling, but instead of taking several shallow samples, I took one super deep one. -Depending on how deep the black mythril goes compared to the walls, I might be able to tell if the well came up from the ground...-


    And that did seem to be the case.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    As I dug deeper and deeper, far from the wall of the mana pool, the black mythril not only never ended, it''s strength didn''t weaken at all, clearly indicating that the well came up from underground.


    However, after going down about three hundred meters, the mana levels I was finding underground started growing immensely, to the point that I couldn''t continue using space magic or my aura to dig much further because of the interference. -I must be hitting an offshoot of the tunnel connecting to the magma cavern...-


    It was something that truly didn''t surprise me, after all, such a huge volume of mana would inevitably eat away a pretty vast cave system.


    But I still took one last, far more shallow sample for good measure, pulling it up out of the small hole and glossing over it before tossing it onto the pile with all the other black mythril plugs I pulled from the hole. *Fwip-Thunk*


    But the sound instantly stopped in my tracks. -What the?- Compared to the metallic ping the other chunks of mythril I tossed into the pile gave, the shorter piece sounded more like a hunk of wood. -Is it because it''s smaller?-


    Not buying such a lousy excuse, I hastily picked it back up and looked through it more closely with my aura, checking the chemical composition from top to bottom.


    And sure enough, while the top portion was normal, ludicrously strengthened surface-level rock from the original mana well, the lower part was not so similar.


    Although incredibly damaged, and extremely porous, almost like lava rock, I couldn''t convince myself that that''s what it was.


    Unlike lava rock, rather than bubbles making the rock porous, it was a web-like series of tiny pathways, each identical to one another in dimension and shape.


    And it just so happened that it was a shape I recognized. -Is this.. bone..?- Although it certainly wasn''t a perfect fit, the tapered cone-like shapes that were empty within the bone looked almost identical to cells I found in my own bones. -If that is the case and the mana just dissolved them.. then does that mean I stumbled across a fossil?-


    It was a complete shot in the dark, and considering the well once resided on the surface, it wouldn''t be too surprising. Fossils were rather common on the surface.


    However, the section of bone I got was almost half a meter thick, implying it was from something fairly large, likely at least my size, so I ended up getting curious. -With how thick the mana in the hole has gotten down there, it''s probably only a few meters from the edge of the chamber of mana under it...- Looking over at the flowing surface of mana, I tilted my head. -I wonder if part of the fossil is exposed...-


    Thinking that it could possibly be a creature mistaken as the ''god'' that prayers mentioned, I was eager to check it out, so, not quite thinking about how I would actually see anything when I was in the cavern, I slowly eased into the well and did what I could to follow the wall down.


    However, after descending about two hundred meters, just past the depth of my last core sample, the passage opened up into an absolutely massive space like a water well leading into an aquifer. -Woah...- It turned out the well was somehow even larger than I thought. -Just how much mana is in this place...-


    *Woosh* Flapping my wings to ease my way onto the ceiling, I turned toward where I took samples of rock and used my wings, paws, and tail to feel my surroundings, steadily creating an image of my surroundings as I progressed.


    Obviously it didn''t tell me much at first, but the longer I moved, and the more I traced an image in my head, the more something about it felt odd... The ceiling was extremely rough and almost porous, but every now and then, there would be a huge, smooth bump, and then it would return to being rough for a while before repeating. -What an odd formation...-


    In my head, it felt almost like I was walking over dunes or hardened ripples of silt, but as I passed over more and more bumps, I found a rather concerning amount of consistency between them, from the length of the rough patches to the width, height, and even angle of the bumps, everything was almost completely identical. -There''s.. no way...- At most, there was a few centimeters of variance.


    But while I did what I could to keep my mind from coming up with anything too insane, as I finally walked up one of the bumps and found myself right below the area I took my rock samples, an idea I was trying to suppress snuck through.


    -Is this.. a ribcage..?-


    Not believing it, I quickly turned and started walking along the bump. If the lumps really were ribs, then I''d eventually find a vertebrae, but even as I passed the highest point of the cavern and started making my way down the wall, there was nothing. -Hah,- It made me want to laugh to shake off the anxiety welling in my stomach. -Who am I kidding, this cavern is way too big to be something like a skeleton...-


    After all, I, a dragon well over a hundred meters tall, felt like I was walking the perimeter of a huge colosseum as I made my way down the wall.


    However, just as I neared the middle of the wall, the hump I had followed across the roof and down the wall abruptly ended, and intersected with a different, much larger formation.


    One that, after feeling around for a moment and walking across it, only to find another hump stretching from the other side, made my entire body tense, and sent a chill down my spine.


    It was a vertebrae the size of me...


    I was inside of a creature''s chest cavity...


    -Then that means...- The plaques in the room were right. The inconsistencies I found were actually consistent, and the mana well wasn''t actually a mana well.


    It never was.


    -All this mana.. came from this creature...- Almost instantly, the series of lines I had drawn in my mind from tracing the cavern filled out, and I found myself in the middle of an unimaginably colossal skeleton.


    What was sunk into the ground wasn''t a mana well, it was a grave.


    The grave of a being who was once the true god of the dragons.


    The real Bahamut.


    -----


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    On RR and SH

 Chapter 415: Eyes on the Horizon

    Early Evening - Mid Winter : Elafos Family Estate, Eikas��a | Eastern Bahamut


    -----


    Bahamut.


    It was a name that always held significant meaning to me, whether as the god of the dragons, a friend, or a misled god, unable to shake off his human origins after being reborn.


    However, as I sat there, listlessly floating in an ocean of mana, that name''s meaning warped.


    As my mind created an image out of the lines I drew around the cavern, I subconsciously laid it over the static-laden projection of my aura''s space mana before suddenly, the vague shapes of ribs and vertebrae showed through the static...


    And I found myself floating in the chest cavity of a creature too large to fathom.


    It was Bahamut.


    The real Bahamut.


    A titan who could cause earthquakes with its steps, carry a mountain range on its back, and roam the surface like a continent with legs...


    Yet somehow was completely lost to time.


    No records.


    No myths.


    No legends... Just a bed of lost prayers.. a name that found a new owner.. and a memory...


    A memory I had lost in the depths of my soul.


    Feeling a sense of pity as I looked around the cavernous cavity, my mind raced to search for the rest of the memory, but even as seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours, I had nothing to show for it. -Is the only way for me to figure it out.. to reincarnate myself?-


    Thinking back to the endless years I spent with my brother, repeatedly reincarnating myself, my expression darkened.


    But nothing came of it. "Haah..." -Who am I kidding...- Letting out a heavy breath, liquid mana rushed over my tongue and instantly sharpened my pupils. -Now isn''t the time for that...-


    Quickly shifting gears, I looked back up at the ceiling again, envisioning the colossal skeleton making up the walls of the cavern while taking a moment to sort out my thoughts.


    After all, countless questions that had been dwelling on my mind ever since I looked at the first facility with Keras finally had answers.


    The place wasn''t a mana well Bahamut buried. It was a grave that significantly predated him, hidden from the world by someone else. -Bahamut didn''t have the strength, even at his peak, to sink suck a huge mass of earth this deep...-


    Being the grave of an ancient god, what I believed to be an oversized mana well was actually the remnants of the mana that was once compressed into a single being''s reserve, and as such, the ribcage I floated in must have accompanied it.


    And while I could only vaguely make out its general shape, especially at range, it was easily twenty or thirty kilometers long. -And that''s just the ribcage...- Assuming the legs and tail accompanied it, the amount of rock that needed to be sunk underground was, at a bare minimum, the size of a massive island. -I can''t even fathom how hard it would be to just move such a huge mass of rock.. let alone do that while keeping everything intact...-


    But while I certainly wondered who could possibly make such a feat possible, I simply didn''t have enough information to give it any thought.


    Finally shifting my attention back toward where the Acardi tunnel connected to the magma chamber, my mind continued shifting gears. -Well, in any case, it''s not a wonder why the Acardi built things here anymore...-


    After being.. enlightened to the reality of the ''well''.. it quickly became more clear that the Acardi were here for research purposes, likely researching the skeletal remains of the god while using its excessive mana to fuel advanced, mana-hungry facilities like the one that deciphered a space rune. -If I had to guess, the facility that was closer to the ceiling was probably similar...-


    However, despite concluding that they were there for research purposes, I still hadn''t found an actual research facility. -Is that what that other cable connected to?-


    Eagerly wanting to check it out, I finally started making my way out of the endless mass of mana before it began blending with the viscous magma again, and the blinding static that blinded my aura cleared. -Wow...- It honestly felt like I peeled off a blindfold and was seeing the world for the first time again. -I''ll never complain about my aura again...-


    Continuing out into the main magma chamber, directly beneath the space rune facility, I dove down, trying to track the set of thick cables through the wall with my aura as I descended.


    But it didn''t actually take too long for me to find where it led. -There it is...-


    After descending another thirty kilometers below the entrance to the grave, the cables turned toward the magma chamber, however, they never reached the magma chamber, instead, meeting some sort of block and stopping. -Looks like there really was another facility down here...-The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Being considerably larger than the laboratory off the coast of Siratha, it was most certainly a research facility, embedded in the wall some sixty kilometers below the surface. -To think they''d hide it under our nose...-


    Finally making my way up to the edge of it, where I found what looked like a gate for ships to enter, I used my aura to scan what I could of the facility in hopes of turning it back on and opening the gate normally before realizing that was a bit overzealous. -The condition of this place is good.. but there are a ton of systems I don''t recognize...- Mainly those operating the gate since this facility was dealing with scorching hot magma as opposed to some high-pressure water.


    However, if an inoperable door was enough to stop me, I never would have learned anything about the Acardi.


    *Vwoop-Tink* Casually cutting a hole in the wall of the facility, I used my aura to keep the magma out before squeezing my massive form inside the docking bay and patching it back up. *Vwoop*


    Shockingly though, while I still had to be quite hunched, unable to lift my head above my shoulders, I could almost stand up inside it with my full-size form, with plenty of room for my tail and neck.


    That was if there was nothing in the way.


    *Clang-Clang-Clang* Unable to keep my tail from wagging and smacking something behind me, I hastily shrunk my form to about thirty meters, and whipped my head around with a gleam in my eyes.


    It was an old Acardi ship; A large crawler-like craft nestled between six legs like a resting spider while also having an area to curl the legs into, giving it a generally aerodynamic look with what appeared to be the intakes of a jet on its front, and clear outtakes in the back. -Compared to the facility, it''s definitely a bit on the outdated side...- But even still, it was considerably more advanced than the ships that attacked Hera during the war.


    Quickly looking through it, it didn''t take long to find that it sat about fifteen people and carried a huge variety of storage, with everything from gyroscopically stabilized storages, to a variety of controlled temperatures, humidities, and air densities.


    However, rather than the storages containing vials, equipment, or even general scientific supplies that required those conditions, I found piles of gunk that seemed to be the remnants of organic matter as well as vast quantities of water, not just in their intended containers, but scattered throughout all the storages in quite a haphazard fashion. -What the...-


    Although it was certainly possible that I just misunderstood what I was looking at, at the time, I couldn''t help but think that it was all.. a bit odd... -What is all this about...-


    Taking a moment to try and diagnose what the gunk came from, I used my aura to break it down more, but besides finding traces of minerals like iron and calcium, there wasn''t much I could actually recognize or tie to any purpose. -Huh...- Turning to look toward the door leading into the facility, I felt like my ears perked up with curiosity. -I wonder if.. this ship wasn''t actually abandoned here...-


    -----


    (Same time, on the surface)


    - Hera Monachik��s ~


    "Mmmmhh..." Letting out an angry grumble as she rested between my legs, Krystallo shot me a glare.


    It was a scene that repeated itself more than daily ever since Vasilias left to investigate the Acardi facilities and mana well beneath the Elafos family estate.


    It had only been a few days since then, but in that time, he missed one of Krystallo''s fights, and that was something that made her.. more than a little upset.


    As the scene of her absolutely decimating her opponent in fit of anger came to mind, I felt a mix of nervousness and fascination. "Krystallo, he''ll be back soon-"


    "And how do you know? Every time Mom said he''d ''be back soon'', he took months."


    "Haha..." -He does get sidetracked pretty easily...- But this wasn''t one of those times. "I made sure he knew he couldn''t burn too much time. At the latest, he''ll be back tomorrow or the day after, okay?"


    "Hmph..." Pouting, she quickly laid her head back down on my leg before continuing to angrily thump her tail on the ground.


    "Haah..." -So hopeless...- Warmly smiling, I was quick to look back up over the silent training grounds. -I don''t think it''d be bad if he takes a couple extra days though...-


    The thing was, even though she seemed constantly distraught that Vasilias wasn''t around, her training never stopped outside of ''rest hours'' that were enforced by the Elafos estate. While they were only doing one day of free training per dragon, I ''swayed'' the knights with a bit of gold so she could stick around and continue to spar and reattend the lessons the knights gave to other dragons, and because of it, she was progressing more than steadily.


    However, while she didn''t quite realize it, as time passed and her anger about Vasilias wandering off without her grew, she started training more and more aggressively, to the point that even the knights had to be careful sparing her at times. Overhearing the knights cleaning up the training grounds gossiping about her, I wanted to laugh. -Hoho~, she really did go for the kill in some of her spars though.-


    But that kind of training was just what she needed, where nothing was on her mind except thinking about how to hurt her opponent, even if it was unknowingly, just to vent her own frustrations.


    Granted it wasn''t perfect, since, unlike Vasilias, she simply didn''t have the talent to mindlessly perfect techniques, but her improvement was more than visible.


    At least to everyone but her.


    Pouting as she looked out toward the horizon, thoughts raced behind her eyes, but rather than being clouded by worry for her brother as they would have been previously, there was the fear of inadequacy woven in as well, a worry of whether she was really making the most of the training she was subjecting herself to.


    But that fear was also an immense driving force for her. -Even though she lacks talent compared to her brother.. compared to the rest of the world she''s a genius beyond words...-


    However in her mind, no matter how much the rest of the world called her a genius, it meant nothing... She couldn''t escape the massive shadow her brother unknowingly cast on her, a wall of talent a mortal creature couldn''t dream of overcoming.


    However, that shadow was also where she found her solace, and her motivation, not in hopes of climbing to the peak of the mountain before her, but rather just climbing high enough to peek over the trees...


    Rather than wanting to overcome him because of something as petty as jealousy, she just wanted to see the world that he saw.


    She just wanted to find an excuse to spend time with him without feeling like baggage, regardless of how light or heavy she might be.


    But little did she know, that search for an excuse would lead her over taller mountains than regular dragons could see the peaks of.


    To a place where she could not only see over the trees, but over the horizon.


    -----


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    On RR and SH