' = Internal dialogue

ยจ= Normal speech

* = Sounds / Etc

-Chapter 47 Start-

As I stepped off the small platform of ice that I had ascended with to the sky, I decided to bring the fight up to another level, as the three big drakes I assumed were Vesperon, Shadron, and Tenebron all had gathered beside each other down where one of them had crashed into the mountain as he was pulling his wing away from the stalactite.

With a slow-motion pull, the drake got his wing out and roared angrily at me, "Was that the best you can do!?" I smirked. Of course, these drakes could talk, and this drake proved to be quite the sassy creature.

Taking his little challenge as a signal for me to continue, I raised my hands swiftly in an upward motion as I looked the drake in the eye and grinned.

The drake was flabbergasted when ten sharp new stalactites impaled it brutally all over its body. At the same time, its two drake friends watched helplessly.

*ROOOOOOOOOOAR* The drake cried out in pain and anger as it was now currently bound with sharp spikes of stalactite with their ends like an arrow designed to make the target bleed and make the projectile harder to pull out of the target's body, meaning he was now stuck with an enormous amount of pain and suffering as he spasmed around helplessly.

Somehow, the pointy spears of stone had missed its head as it trashed around.

It did not bleed either for some reason, almost as if its blood was pushed back into the body as soon as it left. I could only assume this was the passive healing going into overdrive, suddenly the two other drakes finally reacted and they flew away from their friend in all haste.

I could see one of them start to charge up some kind of flame breath attack toward me, while the other one dashed toward Thorim as fire and a thick veil of shadows surrounded it.

Thorim, however, had spent the little time I had made by putting them on the defensive, charging up a powerful projectile of thunder as he blasted the drake rapidly approaching him through the chest, making a wide circular-sized hole, oddly it did not halt the drake as it kept up its charge. At the same time, its wound visibly healed, Thorim recoiled as his own chest had been impacted by something invisible.

'That Drake can redirect the damage it takes onto his enemies? Shit.'

Turns out I had underestimated the drakes, I couldn't help but sigh in annoyance at the situation unfolding before me.

Thorim ended up kiting the drake around as it attempted to bait him into attacking it, a good strategy if it was a normal opponent; however, this was a Keeper, and Thorim had realized that staying close to the drake was a lousy idea the moment he felt the impact to his chest and had managed to bait it into appearing beside him as he unleashed a new kind of projectile, which spread out as a net and coiled the drake's wings around itself making it dive toward the ocean underneath.

As the other drake's breath came my way, I met it with my own fire, which willed onto the air above, feeding the purple-ish blue fire with the oxygen around us as, it crashed into the incoming orange flames of the drake that thought it could burn me.

My flames won as it enveloped the drake like the hungry maw of an animated inferno swallowing its prey. With one last shrill screech of pain, the drake's wings had turned to ash as it dove in silence toward the ocean. It would not fly again, as the previous healing did not start taking place on it.

Only smoke and ash escaped the creature as it fell apart on its path toward the unforgiving ocean below, meaning it was dead.

At least, that was my assumption after watching it fall without any sign of waking up.

With a large splash, the drake hit the watery surface. Its form disappeared slowly as it submerged further into the water lifelessly.

When I heard a roar of sorrow, I turned toward the one still pinned to the mountain. It had seen what happened to its friend, and its eyes had turned bloodshot in anger as it gazed directly toward me.

Deciding to show some slight mercy to the enraged drake, I pointed my hand toward it. I waved it upward as a sharp stalactite instantly burrowed itself through its jaw and brain.

The drake had no possible way to dodge while all its limbs were locked in place by painful spikes of serrated and hardened earth.

Turning back to see how Thorim was doing, I noticed that his form was covered by a thin veil of lightning, which seemed to reinvigorate the Stormlord slightly as his newly acquired injury healed back to normal.

I heard splashing underneath us, and we both gazed down, then after looking at each other for a brief moment. We both fired a potent wave of lightning at the frantically splashing drake, who kept trying to escape the surface but had no idea how.

*ZZZZZZZAP* The drake got electrified so badly that it kept spasming shortly after its death, while the water surrounding it churned because of the strength of the lightning coursing through it.

Now, with our ambushers dead, we raced ahead and destroyed as many of the crystals as possible, as the barrier surrounding Coldarra was getting increasingly chaotic and showing signs of weakening.

'Hope Jaina and Aegwynn are doing alright.'

[Change to Jaina PoV]

As my mentor and I destroyed the crystals above the ley lines, I felt we were being watched, which she also indicated she knew by looking me in the eyes and nodding, gesturing that we keep going.

As we watched the barrier toward the locked-down region start to waver, I felt something come through the air at high speed, and with it came a large wave of fire, seemingly aimed at the flying carpet underneath us.

The flame struck as it wrapped around us. We were protected by Aegwynn's empowered barrier, making the attack just sizzle out into nothing as the impact of a black dragon hit the shield with a resounding *BOOOOOM* as it bounced off us while we were sent the opposite direction while on the magic cloth, but somehow still standing on top of the carpet as nothing happened.

The dragon was persistent in getting close to us for some reason. I saw it then; its body glowed momentarily before releasing a powerful fire nova, which impacted the shield yet again.

Now, however, the shield showed visible cracks and signs of rapidly falling apart.

"Apprentice, get ready to move on your own carpet or find someplace safe to land." Aegwynn told me calmly as she assessed the threat.

I nodded, reached into my pouch, pulled a smaller magical carpet out, and stepped on it while casting one of the most potent bolts of frost I have ever cast toward the enraged dragon charging us.

With a rumbling roar, the dragon tried to stop the bolt of frozen magic by releasing another nova of fire. Still, it wasn't enough to dissipate the spell as it hit its left wing, resulting in it spinning out of control and descending toward the freezing ocean below.

The next moment, the air was overshadowed by large molten rocks descending toward us at high speed. With Aegwynn's barrier powering down, it incinerated the area where I stood before taking off on my own magical mount.

"We need to land. We are only target practice for whatever is inside the barrier!" The moment Aegwynn shouted, the barrier faded, showing a clear blue area within, and after looking toward me, she nodded and made her way inside the region of Colderra.

I was going to follow her, but a roar from below made me aware that the threat of an aerial battle was still on the table. It closed in on me slower than before due to its wing being hindered slightly as it seemingly had escaped the previous fate of diving head-first into the water.

Deciding to use one of the spells my mentor taught me, I put both my hands outward, focused for a brief moment before I felt my magic dance around in joy before I felt it cover the dragon who had been able to get as close as a few meters from me.

The black dragon stilled before a large glazier of ice covered its entire body, encasing it in thick ice. As it ascended toward me, I could put my hand on its frozen snout while looking at its eyes filled with terror. It was very much alive, but the spell I used wasn't meant to be used offensively.

{Cryogenic Freeze turns the target Immune and Immobilized while healing for 25% of max health per 1 sec, canon spell. Though this version doesn't heal, it keeps the target "Safe."}

I waved at it with a slight smile as it descended rapidly toward the cold, unforgiving depths below.

*SPLASH*

It's eyes still lingered on me. I looked back as it slowly sank underneath the water until it was no longer visible, and its yellow eyes disappeared into the depths.

I turn back toward the barrier onto the region. It was clear and see-through now, meaning that Medan and Thorim had broken through, or at least I hoped they did.

*BOOOOOOOOM* I instantly turned toward the noise and realized my mentor was fighting against what looked like a Bipedal dragon. It was a ten-meter tall black-skinned dragon closely resembling a human in stature, wearing golden armor with spikes coming out of its pauldrons.

It had just slashed its weapon, which resembled a polearm with the same length as the creature's body, right into a solid barrier surrounding Aegwynn, who was calmly summoning three giant arcane sentries.

Just when I was going to go and help as I landed nearby, bright red fire split me off from their fight as a hoarse voice shouted out behind me, "Turn them to ash, minions!"

The next thing I knew, two four-legged dragons wearing highly magical staves approached me and started casting different spells. The voice from before stood atop a small hill inward from the steep hill we were at.

Though the creature wasn't far away, it seemed to enjoy watching the fight unfold.

Taking a deep breath, I reach into myself and my magic again and exhale slowly as cold vapor appears in my breath, almost like a puff of smoke.

The air around my opponents and myself, plus the observer a slight distance away, turned heavy as a cloud above took shape; meanwhile, it did so. I froze the ground around me, effectively halting the four-legged dragons in their tracks.

While this was happening, I had also been multitasking as two empowered water elementals took shape on both sides beside me. I sent them toward the observing coward while I threw a large lance of ice that split into two and struck both opponents who had made their way toward me.

They were violently tossed backward with a large lance of ice running through their chests, pinning them to the ground shortly after, dead.

These opponents' level was no longer challenging to take down efficiently. It would take much more effort if it was me from a few months back, not that I would struggle with opponents like these. Still, I would never be able to take down opponents this easily as I could feel the resistance toward magic that seemed to cover their skin as a thin layer of blue magic could be seen resonating if I looked hard enough.

When I looked back toward the previously shouting quadrupedal drake on the hill, I realized he was holding one of my water elementals in his hand and crushed it; as soon as he realized I was watching, he grinned and shouted, "You think you stand a chance!?"

The four-legged dragon now grasped an ominous-looking two-handed axe from his back and charged toward my location, but not before being pelted by a massive amount of sharp hail that finally had taken shape from the sky above.

I kept pushing my magic into the black cloud above while preparing to fight the previously observing grounded dragon; as the ground shook, he started to make his way toward me with mad glee in his eyes.

My remaining elemental pelted him with bolts of frost to slow him down. It worked, but barely, and just as I was going to freeze the ground under us, I felt a spike of terror hit my mind, turning every thought into pure panic and fear, making me freeze up completely as my blood ran cold.

'What is going on!?' I thought as my gaze turned away from my own fight briefly before the terror disappeared out of nowhere. Then I looked up as a razor-sharp axe descended toward my head.

Just as it almost bisected me, I leaned to the side at the last moment. I froze myself solid, making the axe bounce off with a violent *BANG* as it cut slightly into me before I managed to cover myself entirely in ice, causing my body to flare up in agony as I realized the axe had cut something important.

As the draconic figure in front of me recoiled away for a moment due to the hit's backlash from striking the magic ice, I freed myself and blinked a distance away.

I fell to my knees as I had to catch my breath, but not before charging the cloud above with some more magic. I dropped my staff to the ground the moment I had channeled more magic upward without noticing. As I was going to grasp the green staff that Archmage Antonidas had given me, I realized one of my arms wouldn't listen. That's when I looked down where it hung limp. The dragon's axe had hit a vital area, as blood pooled beneath my feet.

I gritted my teeth and froze the area he had struck; my right arm and shoulder were now useless against the enemy in front of me.

My elemental had now appeared back at my side, and I felt the dark clouds above finally reach the level of density I wanted. With a grimace, I turned toward the axe-wielding dragonoid as he again charged in my direction with reckless abandon.

Even as hail pelted the area, getting increasingly more intense, the monstrosity had failed to notice that the clouds so far above rapidly descended toward our location.

Just as he would strike again, I felt the terror strike again. Still, this time, I was prepared. I blinked behind him, reached the sky above with my one functional arm, and pulled down with all my might as I felt the cloud rapidly descend toward us both, even faster than before. I sighed in relief as I saw everything happen in front of me.

Every piece of hail that had previously fallen on the ground now rose to the air around me and turned into thin, sharp lances of ice.

Considering the fight had lasted for around ten minutes, several thousand ice lances slowly started to rotate in a large circle around me. None of the sharp spikes felt like any threat to me, the caster. Still, the spell had only begun as the ground under us froze and became solid, as mist covered the entire area.

And when the creature shouted once more, "The bronze dragonflight has chosen capable allies... A pity that I must END YOU!" enraged as his entire form swelled, he attempted to make his way toward me, which he managed to do to a certain degree, but not before his feet slowly become covered in a thick layer of frost, slowing him down to a halt.

When he realized the area was becoming very dark, he looked up. Fear finally appeared in his glossy eyes, previously full of murderous glee.

Then the cloud crashed into the ground, and like a guillotine, it struck the dragonoid. Millions of sharp, needle-like ice penetrated the dragon's entire body, shaving away his skin like one of those tools meant for slicing up ultra-thin layers of meat.

He stumbled forward with a yell of panic and pain; he tried to rise up again but did not realize he had left his four legs behind, as they stood like perfectly healthy legs struck to the ground behind him, except for the fact they no longer were attached to a body.

As the razor-sharp needle-like lances of ice kept pelting him, I could see his body slowly but surely get so full of sharp needles that it looked like he disappeared through some form of erasure.

Just as he was going to beg for mercy, his throat opened up, and his eyes filled with tears. As his last words ended up being only a gurgle, he fell forward. The only thing that remained of his body was a torso and a head that almost had dropped off his shoulders due to the lack of support.

I fell to my knees again, reached toward my bag, and pulled out a flask of the liquid I had made a few days prior. With a large gulp, I felt my mana fill back up and looked toward where I saw Aegwynn fight earlier and was met with a glare back.

*Hic!*

'I seriously need to find a way to remove the alcoholic factor this elixir...' I thought as I saw Aegwynn approach from the side.

"Apprentice, you should never have been caught by that strike of that caliber. Why did you not make the ice barrier I taught you not long ago?" Aegwynn's gaze was one of disappointment, which felt worse than an ice lance through the gut.

"I... I wasn't prepared. It never occurred during whatever he did to me briefly before the attack struck..." I told her honestly I had failed to keep my mind calm, and the enemy had managed to land some mental attack.

After a scrutinizing gaze from my mentor, she sighed and ruffled my hair, handed me a crimson-colored vial, and said, "Drink this. It won't heal the injury entirely, but it will make it manageable until my grandson can apply his ice to that nasty wound."

I drank the red liquid when she handed it to me and breathed a sigh of relief when the pain mostly disappeared. I rose up, gazed at the area Aegwynn had been fighting, and was met with a gruesome sight.

In a large pool of blood lay a humanoid-shaped dragon without any limbs, and his head impaled on top of his spear, which stood straight up from the ground, tongue lolling out. Eyes filled with primal fear before its death.

"If it wasn't for their unnatural amount of magic resistance, we would not still be around here and fighting dear apprentice, though if this is what the first line of defense looks like, then I have a sneaking suspicion that the 'pawns' we have just dealt with must have been empowered by something or someone quite powerful."

I nodded in agreement, and we started making our way toward the middle, where a structure of pure magic and wonder hovered in the air as far as the eye could see.

[Back to MC PoV]

As Thorim and I entered through the barrier toward Coldarra, I saw the massive structure in the sky hovering around like a magical clockwork. Nothing I have seen before resembled it even remotely.

As I could remember, it was only a spire surrounded by blue and gray-looking platforms, but this... This was truly magical. Every single platform rotated perfectly around large crystallized spheres of azure blue magic. At the same time, the spire in the middle was reinforced by what looked like a crystal tree, as several branches of glowing leaves rustled with the wind, making the entire thing seem alive.

If it wasn't for the fact that this further proved we had to deal with it as fast as possible, I would have gazed at it in pure wonder. Still, I had no time to ponder as purple-looking snakes slithered across the air toward us, numbering several thousand.

With a *CRACKLE* *POP* Sound in the air, I threw a dense amount of purple lightning imbued with a slight amount of fire toward the masses of flying snakes as they came at us with an evident lack of intellect in their eyes, as if being handled like puppets.

*Boom**BOOOOOOM*BOOOOOOOOOOM**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

The purple arc of lightning and fire instantly hit and spread like a spider web. The first died, and an armageddon occurred when the first explosion went off; as the passive skill went off, I braced Thorim and myself for impact by spreading my hands. A giant wall of ice surrounded all around us.

Hundreds of explosions turned into thousands in a matter of a second.

'I keep getting reminded that my fire passive is probably one of the most broken things I have when I encounter swarms like these...' I thought as the hundreds-of-meter-tall wall of fire that overshadowed the entire area started to sizzle out of existence.

Thorim's eyes hardened as he gazed back and forth between me and the previously flying swarm of snakes.

"You are a tiny, dangerous creature." He said stoically. I smiled as we continued toward the center, where I assumed our destination was.

From what I could recall, the place betrayed my expectations. The whole bottom of the nexus had been remade into a blue crystalline entrance, with a fifty-meter tall opening and decorated with large magical torches hanging on each side. It glowered an eerily blue as it flickered unnaturally.

When we finally reached the entrance, I saw a magical carpet heading our direction and landed softly a short distance away.

Aegwynn then smiled and made her way toward the both of us and asked, "Any issues with the welcome?"

"Nah, we did underestimate them slightly, though, as they seemed to be able to heal through previous injuries," I told her as I returned a smile. Still, that smile disappeared when I saw Jaina looking like she had been close to being bisected by an insanely sharp blade, as it had run directly through her collarbone and deep into the shoulder right beside the neck."

I swiftly encased the injured area with my purple ice, which seemed to absorb the injury onto itself. Jaina was surprised by the sudden gesture but soon closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief as the damage started to visibly heal.

Aegwynn just stood and grinned after seeing my reaction, no doubt waiting for it to happen.

"Thank you... I made a mistake in my previous fight with a four-legged dragon-like thing. It looked like one of those you encountered in the prison in the city, but this one..." Jaina said in a low tone and slight shame.

"She got distracted after being caught off-guard by a mental attack. Remind me to drill it into her once we get back." Aegwynn said without mercy as she walked beside Thorim to see if he had gained any new injuries.

"Are you alright?" I asked Jaina in a low tone, "No... But I will be." She replied back.

When I saw the ice fully heal her wound, I removed it. I threw it to the ground, where it sizzled and evaporated slowly into nothingness. The ice had turned entirely black, but regardless of that, it left no visible trace it had ever existed the very next moment.

"So, ready to see what these dragons have in store for us?" I said Aegwynn's direction, and I could have sworn I saw a bloodthirsty smile for a moment, but I shrugged that off when I heard her reply.

"Well, of course, dear, I just waited for you to finish treating my apprentice. Thorim here seems to need some healing of his own, though I doubt your ice would work on him." She said while studying the Keeper.

Thorim just shook his head and turned to his two wolf companions an pressed a point in his chest that seemed to shimmer blue, the wolves then walked toward Thorim and closed their eyes, and then suddenly a bolt of lightning impacted the ground between the wolves and they were gone the next moment.

This made me look at the Keeper questioningly, but he only returned a brief glance and pointed to his chest where the blue light shimmered more intensely than before.

Then after that debacle, we slowly made our way through the large entrance leading downward, Thorim's mount following directly behind in case of an ambush.

We soon arrived inside and entered another huge hallway leading downward as it spiraled around. We kept going further and further down.

The further down we came, the more magic I felt fill the air, and after ten minutes of walking down the hallway filled with decorative lamps lighting up the areas with blue, we finally reached the bottom, where a large double door stood in the way, closed with blue crystals covering the middle as if it was a lock.

One look at Aegwynn, and we both shrugged as I threw a volatile ball of fire at the crystal. Thorim shot a potent bullet of lightning, Jaina cast a sharp ice lance, and Aegwynn snapped her fingers as an orb of arcane magic enveloped itself around the crystal, seemingly making our spells accelerate and, as a result, do more damage upon impact.

*BOOM*

The door flew off its hinges and got thrown inward toward what now seemed like a large circular hall where a sphere of a dark blue gem resided, which I recognized as the Focusing Iris from what I could recall.

"Well, well, well, I hadn't thought we would have visitors so soon.

I guess Chromie managed to find some fools for her suicidal errands, am I correct?" A voice sounded out from behind the glowing blue iris.

A humanoid looking troll female wearing a thin black robe that hugged her body made herself known as she slowly walked forward as if she were royalty.

Her eyes were hollow, and the only thing indicating she had any sight was a dim gray and blue light in her eye sockets. She had large platinum colored horns on her head, long black hair reaching her waist, and deathly pale skin.

She looked like some kind of pompous goth troll princess, but it was now clear what she was as she spoke.

"The Infinite dragonflight welcomes you, mortals... And Keeper, my name is Eternus, and I humbly ask you to return from whence you came." She said with a sly grin, no doubt knowing our answer even before the question escaped her.

-Chapter 47 End-