It was strange looking somewhere, but having your vision be filled with another thing. Even more so when your vision didn't move with the movement of your eyes, or even the movement of your neck.
"Four," you tell Lansseax, counting the number of claws she held up as you shared the vision of the creature you'd blessed.
Unsurprisingly, once you'd started the lesson, It hadn't taken you that long to get the ability to rescind your ability down. And why would it?
After all, you'd spent the whole morning using the veritable mountain of runes you'd collected to improve your ability to understand spell. That, and several other things, such as the hardness of your scales. All in preparation for your incoming fight for the next great rune.
Still, once Lansseax had seen that you had fully understood the ability to rescind your blessing, this is what she'd started to teach you. Well, after she'd give you a long talk about why you shouldn't give your blessings without reason, and especially not to do so without getting something for the blessing.
… you didn't expect so many dragons to have died due to the blessing they gave.
But anyways, she began teaching you the ability to see through the eyes of those you'd blessed.
And that too, you understood with great ease and rapidity. In fact, you learnt with such high speed and with such ease that, what before Lansseax had to go, you'd fully learnt that ability too.
"Alright, enough. I can see that thou has learnt the spell," you felt your vision swim a bit as it suddenly snapped back to your body, as you cancelled the spell, but you could still hear the exasperation in her voice while that happened, "… I suppose I may as well teach thee something to avoid the issue with spreading your blessings too far."
You nod rapidly, fast enough to cause the wind to whistle. It'd be rather nice to know.
"… before that, I wish to ask if thy plan is to fight Rykard still?" you look at her, "because I shall not stop thee, but I will also not help thee. Thou understand that? You will die if you go fight him."
You nod at that, showing that you understand. However you couldn't help but also wonder why, according to what you understood of her emotions, she appeared to be lying about something.
"Hmm, fine!" for some reason she didn't seem happy with your reply, "fine… I suppose I should teach thee the spell now."
…
You didn't learn the spell by the time she left, which she did after giving you a sever look and another reminder that you'd die to Rykard as you are now.
But you learnt enough to go complete learning it yourself later, on your own.
[Blessing rescind] miscellaneous spell learnt
[Deadman switch (blessing)] 1/4 learnt
Blessing rescind
Can take back blessings you've given to other beings. Though this isn't foolproof.
You can rescind all the blessings or only specific ones
It was finally time.
You were ready to go and face this Rykard and claim yet another great rune, and so you took off. Heading towards the direction Lansseax had warned you to avoid.
Well, one of them anyways.
Still, you fly over to the mountains, with smoke leaking from the top, that presumably held Rykard. It didn't take you long to see where you were meant to go, a giant mansion sitting on lava, and make your way towards it.
Only to stop as, once you got close enough, you saw a thin red barrier surrounding the mansion. Though you didn't stop for long as a light shot from your chest into the barrier, causing a gap to open in it.
"If you seek audience with lord Rykard, please allow us to welcome you first lord dragon," a feminine voice rand out from nowhere as you passed through the gap.
You consider that, even as you casually glide closer to the manor. You did wish to see, for a definition of see, Rykard. However…
… taking a deep inhale of the air and stretching out your senses you confirm what you felt. You could feel danger coming from directly below the manor, along with a deeply unsettling scent.
You… hated this smell and feeling, knowing that the thing it was from was not something you were willing to let live. But you could also feel the sensation of a great rune in that feeling.
Meaning the source of this feeling was likely Rykard…
You suppose that this was the reason Lansseax warned you about him, and apparently for good reason too. Wasn't going to stop you, but you would be a bit more cautious.
Or as cautious as you could be.
But for now the question was simple. Did you go to the manor, or did you just go directly to where you sensed Rykard?
You consider going to the mansion for a moment.
And then that moment passes and you stop considering it. There was little to no reason for you to go to the mansion, in fact there was every reason not to.
Because you had no way of knowing that they wouldn't case you problems and, while you're sure you would be able to deal with them with ease, you wanted to got into this fight with Rykard at your best. Both mentally and physically.
So, your mind made up, you pinpoint the rough location, of the sensation you think is Rykard, and without hesitation dive.
You even begin using your wings to further increase your drop speed mid-dive.
Until finally, with a feeling similar to falling into water, you crash through the magma, right to the bottom of the lava pool. Then through the bottom as you beginning to burrow through the ground.
And, before you even begin to noticeably slow down, you crash through a roof and into a cavern. Magma quickly rushing through the hole you left behind, quickly cooling and forming a pillar of magma.
Though you only saw that vaguely through the edge of your perception, your attention focused on the writhing mass of flesh and fire before you. One filled with rifts in the flesh showing writhing masses of red tendrils.
Which unentangled to face you, showing a serpentine - though some of the proportions were clearly off - face. Something which then also revealed the pale, rotted, arms sticking out from wounds in its side.
Just looking at it you felt uncomfortable in a way you couldn't describe.
Then it hissed, though it sounded more like a roar, and you knew that this fight would be the hardest one yet.
It came as a surprise. How fast the snake before you was, that is.
Honestly, just judging by its appearance and how it moved, you'd been expecting it to be far slower. Something which turned out to not be the case as, form one moment to the next, an open maw was rushing towards you.
It was so fast that you had next to no time to react… or that's how it would've been had you not shoot back from the maw as evrything came into focus from due to a cold fury, narrowly avoiding the rapidly shutting jaws of the snake, with the aid of another sudden burst of speed.
Then you punished it.
It has, after all, over extended in its attempt to attack you.
And not just over-extended, but over-extended by a lot. Meaning that you had more than enough time for your counterattack.
That, however, didn't mean you were going to waste even a moment of it.
So two phantom head, mimicking your own head, appeared behind you as you rushed towards the open neck of the serpent. And with three breath spewing from your maws, each a beam of freezing white mist, even as your claws reached for the vulnerable flesh.
Then you unleashed a frenzied attack, claws slicing through tough flesh like a hot knife through butter. Each strike breaking your claws and bones from the force you put behind them, your throat sizzling as it freezes and crumbles with your continuous breath. But it all regrows and heals at an astonishing rate, almost as soon as it occurs, thanks to the vitality springing froth from your core.
All while wrestling with it to avoid getting bitten.
For just a moment, you felt that nothing could stop you as you tore chunks of flesh away with lightning speed. That the snake was already dead.
And then your instincts scream at you and you disengage form the snake as a maw, leaking green mist, passes by where you'd been a moment ago.
It wasn't going to be that easy.
You realise that as you look at the snake before you, hissing at you, as it drips green fluid, that hisses as it rapidly melts the ground. It didn't even seem to notice the additional gaping, bloody, ravines along its body.
And, judging from a closer look at those same wounds, you can also see that they are healing at a visible ra-
Again your instincts scream at you and you, instinctively, pump even more of your energy into your maws, along with heat and energy from your core, to instantly evaporate the spray of caustic fluid from the snake. Something which you succeed in accomplishing, even despite the breath attacks being weaker from lack of energy on your par-
You jerk your neck back, just barely avoiding the dripping fangs sinking into it, as the creature breaks through the last bit of your breath to try and get you.
But, with this, it had once again left itself open, this time worse than the last.
A loud, wet, squelch rings out as you push your claw halfway through the head.
Then you push even further, causing the sharpened bone to replace broken claws as the flesh of your claw to peel back to reveal them, and pierce all the way through the head.
Instantly the entire snake went limp, falling onto the floor once you removed your claw. Dead.
Or that's what you assumed. Initially
Because the red aura and rapid healing of the wounds told you, quite clearly, that it wasn't truly dead. And, almost as if to give a concrete confirmation, the entire body twitched before retracting into the mess of tangled flesh that was its body.
This fight… you were beginning to feel frustrated now.
Mostly due to the fact that you were currently completely running on fumes and… is that a face?
Yes, the snake, which really should be dead, had just gotten up and, through a very unnatural looking twisting of the body, had turned to reveal a face on its underbelly.
And the whole process was, quite honestly, rather slow. The only reason you didn't take advantage was because you were trying to recover your energy.
However, you still brace yourself for a sudden attack just in case. Only for it to, instead of attacking you, shoves one of its sickly looking arms… into the mouth of the head you just killed?
Ah, that is a rather large and dangerous feeling sword.
"Hmm, yesss," and it could talk, which wasn't as much of a surprise after it revealed the face on its underbelly.
You proceed to ignore what it was saying, but only mostly.
You do register some of the interesting words it says. Specifically, something about 'dragon blood' and how I was 'wortheee' and could join the 'familee'. You also note how strange it was that it was struggling with pronunciation of certain words, something you remember Lansseax saying only happened with beginners or 'lesser beings'.
Maybe you'll ask her about this later.
Of course, while recovering energy and mostly ignoring it, you occupied yourself with something else. Namely, actually examining the area you were in.
And it was a rather strange place, being another underground area that just seemed to stretch on and on. This one, however, being more purely lava and fire based, as opposed to the blood and fire of the other fiery underground area.
There were also pillars of bodies in the more immediate area too, presumably having fallen down from the manor you knew was above. The chandeliers also, presumably, being from the manor above.
…oddly enough, the heat, lava, subtle scent of burning flesh caused a feeling of nostalgia to bloom in your mind. But you quickly snuff it and refocus…
The snake's still talking.
Well, you're almost fully recovered anyways. You'll directly attack it, if it still hasn't stopped talking soon, once you're fully recovered. Until then you'll just take another look aro-
Something catches your interest, and suddenly, your sight ceases wandering.
There, right next to a hole in the wall, was a particularly weird looking corpse holding something rather interesting. A spear, one that, to your senses, was giving off the feeling that you could best describe as… anti-snake. Specifically, it gave off a feeling that seemed to be in direct opposition of the snake in front of you.
You look at it again, it was still talking.
Then you turn back to the spear, before quickly shrinking to your partial form and rushing towards it. The moment your hands close around the spear, which continently grows to an appropriate size for you, you turn to face the snake.
Who'd finally stopped talking.
And then you were dodging, weaving and deflected a flurry of, deceptively skilled, sword slashes from the snake. Even as you yourself kept harrying it with the breaths from the phantom, and real, maws alike. Though those breaths did little more than take a small layer of scale and flesh on contact.
Then your head was suddenly mere inches from the blade swinging down on you.
You don't know how, nor do you care, but you deflected the devastating strike without getting harmed more than you were already harming yourself.
And then you thrust back, and the spear in your hands burst into a lance of wind that shot the serpent away from you and into the far wall… where it just lay?
…
It appeared as if your attack had stunned it, and so you had another opportunity to deal whatever damage you wished to.
So you focused, another phantom head appearing behind you as you floated upwards into the air.
And as you poured waves upon waves of your magical energies into blasting the downed snake with mist beams, you continued to pour everything else into the spear.
Your stamina, every ounce of your strength, your very vitality. It all poured and condensed into the spear, eventually even your breath attacks faded and stopped suppressing the serpent.
But it didn't matter, because you were already prepared to throw the spear at the barely recovered creature.
Which, with the tensing, the spear shot forward, containing all of your might. More even, as you pushed more and more and when you began to run dry?
You snapped every muscle, threw in the dregs of your vitality and squeezed your very core for even mor-
And suddenly it all went cold, even as you watched the spear slam into the serpent and crater the ground and walls.
You suddenly found yourself falling from your position in the air, though you didn't exactly care for that.
Your mind was focused on the sudden coldness that spread across your body, numbing every part it passed. You could not even move your eyes, instead being stuck staring at the approaching ground.
What… what was happening?
Why could you not control your body any more? Was this some sort of attack from that snake?
You didn't even feel any of the rage, albeit a cold one, from the ability you activated at the very start of this fight.
…
Oh, it was because your heart and core ruptured.
You were dying.
… but that doesn't mean you had to stop living.
Gradually, as colour drained from your scales, your descent slowed down, until you ceased falling merely an arms length off the ground. Then you righted yourself and raised a claw, examining it with a strange apathy blanketing your mind.
It appeared that you had, in addition to losing the colouring of your scales, grown somewhat skinnier… you could feel the energy, black and reeking of decay, just beneath your scales. How it wanted to be used, how it was being restrained by something.
Then the sound of shifting molten rocks causes you to look up.
The serpent was approaching you rapidly… and it too was shrouded in that very energy you sensed within you… hmm.
You willed the energy to cause its movement to cease, you were not interested in prolonging this process any further.
And your will was answered, rather eagerly at that, as the shroud upon the serpent, presumably Rykard, coalesced into countless half rotted figures. All of them appearing like phantoms, but still having tangible effect on the snake.
The tangible effect, in this case, being the complete ceasure of its movement as it was held in the grasp of thousands upon thousands of phantasmal figures, all a different size or shape. Yet one thing in common among them seemed to be the fact that they were all cursing at Rykard, from the snippets you caught.
Not that it mattered, for you once again took to the air with a simple push off the ground. Then the spear reappeared in your outstretched hand, as it was meant to, and you pointed the tip towards the restrained creature before you.
Then you once again pulled the spear back to prepare for a throw, which got the target to start futilely struggling once more.
It accomplished nothing significant, other than getting you to summon a phantom head and evaporate pieces of it and the oncoming venom it spewed towards you,
Then, once again, you threw the spear filled with your own might. This time watching the effects calmly.
As the spear glowed with energy, how it sparked off it, how it was surrounded in a storm of power, and how the wind split in its passage and a vacuum was left.
And, once again, the serpent fell down limp. This time with a blinding, completely silent, flash.
Yet the fact that the phantasmal beings still clung to its corpse showed that it was likely not dead, at least since you instinctually knew they'd only go away early if the shrouded being was dead, something confirmed as it starts thrashing again after an exclamation of the serpent never dying.
Though, that does not appear to be the case as, when you float down and land upon the restrained face to deal the final blow, it goes limp again. This time for good.
Though the face itself took longer to die, giving it enough time to stare at you as you extracted the spear.
The final act it did, as the light faded from its eyes, was stare at you before laughing quietly, as though it saw a joke only it could see while looking at you. Though the quiet laugh got louder, right until it died.
And then, once you hopped off the dead, though you could tell that would not be the case for long, body you found something crashing in front of you. It was only once the dust cleared that you saw that it was Lansseax.
"Ah, hello Lansseax. As you can see, I killed Rykard," you inform her, returning to your full dragon from and gesturing to the, now larger, glowing gold symbols upon your torso.
She looked at you, and just covered her eyes with her claws.
Lansseax POV, a short time ago
Now, she'd admit.
It was hypocritical of her to do what she was doing now. She had told the stupid, yet academically 'smart', child about the dangers of his actions. The warning had been given and, as is customary for her kind, that should have been enough.
That isn't even to say how she believed that only those in possession of sufficient individual strength should be allowed to possess the great runes.
Those that met an early end would, obviously, not be worthy and thus deserved their fate.
It was something she believed, no matter how much it pained her to believe so sometimes.
And so it was that she found herself questioning why she was hovering over the whelp, using her arcane knowledge to divorce herself from the timeline to avoid detection, as he went into a fight the she had explicitly warned him against.
Had it been anyone else she would have left them to their fate, in fact she did leave others to their fate before. Cocky tarnished, and lesser demigods alike. Even the one other dragon, too stupid to know that dragons are incapable of interacting with great runes… ordinarily.
Was it because he was a dragon? Because she named him?
Was it because he actually gave her hope that this nightmare would end? Perhaps it was the spark of familial affection, one she'd only admit to having in the bleakest moments, that she had for him. One partially caused by her lack of contact with her brother and her teaching him the things a parent should teach their own hatchlings.
Things he soaked up like a sponge, much to her frustration and amusement.
…
She didn't know, and it annoyed her. It annoyed her greatly.
Still though, just because she was tailing the boy, to ensure he does not die, does not mean that she would help in the fight. No, she believed that he needed, as some call it, a 'deflation of his ego'.
Perhaps then he may learn to not charge into danger beyond what he could handle, before she pulled him from the beating.
And so she continued tailing him.
Admittedly, her resolve, to let him make his mistakes, wavered for a moment as she saw him decide to dive into magma instead of going to challenge Rykard.
She had forgotten that he was… uniques, in his action sometime. That was what she assumed at the time.
But in the end she let him do what he was doing, which revealed that he wasn't that 'special'. Because, somehow, he had known that Rykard was in a lower cavern under the lake of lava.
… Rykard, just seeing the grotesque form he had taken, forced her to restrain herself lest she charge in to try and kill him.
All the atrocities, the blasphemies, his own brother's, Godwyn's, death and the desecration of his body. All for this… pathetic mockery? This was what he considered better, to be eaten by the disgusting serpent?
…
Releasing a sigh, she calmed herself and focused on the fight happening down below. She did not wish to make a mistake in the timing for this.
… a scoff left her, even as confusion filled her mind.
Why is he winning? No, seriously.
How is a whelp who, albeit possessing great strength and abilities, winning this fight against a serpent that had been fed the body of the greatest of the demigods.
…it's dead.
She just quietly watched as Votusax extracted his claw from the dead snake, only a single thought in her head.
Where's the humbling? Where did it go?
She was so caught up in those thoughts in fact that she missed the next few moments and so, when she turned back, the entire scene had changed. The serpent was no longer dead, instead having it was showing the horrific results of Rykard's plans, and for some backwards reason Votusax had decided to transform into his partial form.
He, Votusax, was also using a spear to deflect blows with skills she had no idea he had. Again, she just stared.
What was this entire situation?
Unfortunately, that was a question wasn't one that was going to be answered as, hearing a massive blasting sound, her attention snapped to the fight once again.
Then, horror filling her, she rushed forward as she saw her student falling as his presence vanished from her senses.
Only to find herself flying backwards instead, as instincts overtook her, and watch as the falling golden, partially humanoid, form release slowly ceased falling, a dangerous black mist shrouding it.
Then, before her eyes, that black mist shifted and warped before dissipating to reveal a changed form.
"What… what is this…" the words left her as she stared in equal parts shock and horror as she took in Votusax's new form. The bleached bone like scales, ghostly white pupils set into black sclera, and a near emaciated appearance, "what have you done to thyself?"
Once again her question was not answered, not that she expected it to be.
Instead, her student just summoned the spear and proceeded to slaughter the so called 'lord of blasphemies', and she feels a surge of instinctual fear as she watches him command the spirits of the dead to aid him.
Landing in front of him, after seeing all of that?
The first thing she does, after suppressing the headache she was getting, was ignore the dumb words leaving his mouth and grab the stupid child to begin examining his body. It was a tad awkward, with how she was smaller than his, now fully draconic, size, but she did it regardless.
She was certainly going to be questioning him later.
After she was sure he was going to be fine, after that would be her giving him the talk about picking fights.
Because, clearly, her whole plan for him to be humbled fell through.
Really, she had half a mind to make him write 'I will not eat random, strange, items I find and will always listen to my carer. Especially when she is clearly trying to help his longevity' on every wall of his den… in his human form… with a small stick.
… that is something to consider.
Lizard POV
It took a bit, but Lansseax eventually stopped looking you over…. or well, not really in a bit.
In fact, she actually continued to do things such as checking under your claws, and even getting you to open your maw to look into it, for long enough that your scales began to regain their colours.
And it wasn't like you could just tell her to stop.
You knew from your interactions with her that, if you were to do so, she'd likely get very angry at you. And you still wanted to talk to her tomorrow, so that wasn't going to happen.
"Well, thou art in good health it seems," you could hear the restraint in her voice as she said that, "I suppose that thy decision to completely ignore my warning was a good one. Good for thee. I shall be seeing thee in back in thy den."
… now, you weren't that experienced with social interactions. But, seeing her fly away with a peculiar aura around her, you felt that she was angry at you anyways, despite you letting her examine you.
You missed when things weren't so complicated.
Seeing as Lansseax had, not so subtly, hinted to you that she wanted you to return to the den immediately after her, you got right to returning there…
Right after you ate the dead snake next to that was just lying there.
Because there was no chance that you were going to just leave some perfectly good, and likely empowering, food behind for others to possibly steal it. So you began eating.
And then proceeded to swallow teeth along with extremely tough flesh, as you bit into it after the end of your empowered state.
By the time you returned to the den, it was with, at least, the hundredth set of teeth. You were also feeling distinctly unwell as, for the second time since you came here, your stomach churned. Though, this time, it wasn't due to disgust.
"What did thee do?" and apparently Lansseax saw this, and became suspicious, "… open thy mouth."
Instinctually, you knew that it would not be in your best interest for her to discover that you ate the snake. You also knew, through those same instincts, that if you were to refuse it'd be just as bad.
"Hmm, I wished to talk with thee… but it seems that is not to be," fortunately, you didn't have to worry as you made sure that every bit of that snake was in your stomach, meaning there was no proof that you ate it. Especially not in your mouth, "very well then, go. Sleep. I shall talk to thee in the morning."
Which is exactly what you went and did. Returning to your den, with a suspicious glare boring into your back, and going to sleep.
All while ignoring the churning of your stomach.
You'd likely be stronger in the morning from it anyways.
Day 21
As you opened your eyes, a new energy radiated within you, and it was as though you had undergone a metamorphosis.
Every breath felt like you were being refreshed, every sound echoed in your mind. Your senses were heightened, colours more vibrant, scents more fragrant, and textures more tangible. You could even see each individual grain that made up the stone of the roof of your…
You retracted your tongue, which had flopped onto your eye as you lay there with your mouth open, and got up.
You were on limited time, so there was no time for you to revel in this feeling.
[You will be leaving on the last 1/5 of this day]
Thus, seeing as you didn't have much time, you wasted no time in leaving you den. And then your spread open your wings, summoning some in-flight snacks into your claws, before crouching in preparation to leap into the air… and then you-
"Where do thee believe thou art going?"
Did not start flying immediately, instead, after instinctively returning the snacks to your space, you turn to see Lansseax sitting there. Waiting, with a… large – for your human form – stick in hand?
"I believe I had told thee that I wished to talk to thee today, did I not?"
You confirm that with a nod, your mind flashes back to the exact moment she was talking about. Then you ask her if the two of you can talk while flying.
You were a bit busy after all, and wanted to get some things done before you get pulled back home.
"Wha- Do thee understand what is about to occur?"
Well, you were going to go activate the great rune you just obtained while talking to her? You didn't understand why she was asking, but that's what you were telling her.
"… fine," her intonation of the word was harsh, and her emotional aura reflected that it was not, in fact, fine, "we shall go and activate that great rune first."
Then she shot into the sky, to which you followed after. The flight to the tower was a short one, led by Lannseax in front of you, and you'll admit, you had wanted to eat those snacks that you'd planned to eat before. The only reason you hadn't was due to something telling you that it may be a bad idea to do so at the moment.
So instead the flight was filled with you asking her what she wished to talk about. She didn't tell you what it was.
She just told you to wait till you activated your rune.
Which wasn't really that much of an issue, since you soon came to the tower with the two desiccated stumps atop it. And then, after you followed Lansseax's example of turning to your human form to walk in front of the stumps, you had the Great rune activated.
Great rune of consumption [Unranked] (1/9)
Every time you kill an enemy you heal 15% of your health
Healing recovers max health damage and debilatating effects
Killing and eating things can, on occasion, add a small fraction of thier max resources (HP, SP, MP) to your own
+10 to consumption rolls
Then you turned to Lansseax, immediately asking her what she wished to talk to you about.
Only for her to immediately… what's the word? Ah yes, wilt.
She wilted as she looked at you, when you turned to her to ask the question. Before then sighing and going back to normal again, "are thou feeling alright?"
You consider that. Were you feeling alright?
… you tell her your feeling a bit hungry.
"Of course that is what thou say," she nodded with an emotional aura saying that she expected it, "well, regardless. I wished to ask thee to just… just stop."
You tilt your head, as you've learnt denoted curiosity, and asked her what you should stop.
"Just stop risking thy life alright!" and suddenly she was being loud, "you keep risking your life without thinking and just… doing whatever stupidly dangerous thing you can! And don't think I don't know you ate Rykard's body, do you even know how stupid that was you- you bloody blockhead!"
… perhaps it was not your wisest moment to say that you felt better than ever after eating, what you assumed, was the big snake.
"See that, that!" her human arms, one of them actually, points straight at you, "is what I'm talking about! You do these things and then, instead of thinking, 'oh, that was dangerous. Let's not do that again,' you decide that it was fine because you were fine!"
You protest that, mostly because you never thought it was dangerous to start with. You'd always been able to eat almost anything, and learning how to reinforce yourself with runes had allowed you to know that it was an ability you naturally had.
Which, again, may have been the wrong thing to say
"Alright, and what if it fails? What then?" you consider saying that it won't happen… but after the last two times you realize that not saying anything might be best, "and don't even get me started on that- that… thing you used when fighting Rykard. I saw that too!"
…
…
… you ask her if she's talking about the bit where you were dying or the bit after.
"The. Bit. After."
You gave a sound of understanding, before once again choosing not to ask her what was wrong with it.
"Do you even comprehend how I felt seeing you used that power? I thought you'd died agai-"
She stopped abruptly, inhaling deeply. The aura of her emotions flashing fast enough that you couldn't even tell what they were before they changed.
"Votusax," she called you by the name she gave you, making the conversation feel… more important all of a sudden, "thou art important. More than thou can imagine."
You note that she was back to her old way of speaking.
"Thou art the last hope for these land. The lands that so many people, good people, have sacrificed their lives for. Please, please, be more careful."
You easily give an agreement.
"Good. I know I cannot force thee to not risk thy life, it would be foolish to even try. I am not thy… mother," the aura of her emotions flashed rapidly again at that, but only for a moment, "and I shall not stop thee from doing what thee believe is best… just ensure that thee remember what I have said today."
And with that she flew back, transforming into her dragon form with a clap of lightning from the sky, "now, I shall leave thee to aquaint thouself with the great rune… stay safe."
… you didn't know you could transform like that, with the whole lightning and stuff.
Well, regardless, with her now gone you pulled out the snack you'd wanted to eat on the way here and tossed them into your maw. After turning back to normal, of course. It would've taken way too long to eat them in your human form.
… you'll make sure to remember what Lansseax said. It felt like the thing you should do.
[Spectral Lance] Evolves to [Spectral skewer]
Spectral skewer
Consumes: 10% mp (per turn)
Form a phantom aura around any spear weapon that lets you do ranged damage, +30 damage bonus
Bane: Increase the effects that increase damage against certain enemies
Range: 1 kilometers
Usable with claws
[Golden purity] +1 lv - (2/20)
[Helel] +1 lv - (2/5)
Magic defence +20
[?]
It was after taking a moment to feel the changes from your snacks settle in and messing around a bit, specifically with your new ability to clad your claws in an extendable aura, that you returned to you flew back to your den.
And saw Lansseax sitting at a cliff edge, looking at the splashing waves below.
"Hmm, what is it?" Lannseax asked, turning back as you landed behind her. To which you ask her for a lesson, specifically one where she taught you that territory mark ability.
It was something that interested you, knowing when someone went into a place that you didn't want them to. Like your den when you were sleeping there.
"Very well," she sighed, after looking at you for a moment, "I suppose it's better than dwelling on my thoughts… alright then, lets go get the beast men. We'll need them to act as the intruders for this."
A While Later
You look at Lansseax and ask if you got that right.
"Yes. It is perfect even," you perk up, "now warp there."
And now you weren't as happy, especially when all that happened, when you tried to do as she asked, your body only seemed to wobble for a moment before returning to normal.
"… thou art aware that that there is not a necessity to learn everything in a single lesson. Aren't thee?" to Lansseax's, monotone, words you say nothing.
Because while it was true that you didn't need to learn the teleportation aspect of the territory mark spell right away, that didn't change the fact that it was really annoying.
It was so annoying, having to spend so long learning some simple spell… huh, why was Lansseax giving you that look.
Oh? You said that out loud?
Okay, so why is she giving you that look?
… what? You weren't suddenly going to know just because she kept giving you that look.
[Territory mark] learnt
[Territory mark - warp] 2/5 Learnt
You didn't dwell on the fact that you didn't learn the second spell, or that Lansseax never explained what the look she kept giving you was… is what you would say, if you hadn't done exactly that.
Dwelling on those things that is.
In fact, you dwelled on them so much that, when you decided to go on a flight in the snowy lands to clear your mind, you somehow just ended up here.
Here being at the rim of giant… the only way you could describe was soup bowl. One that even had a flame, a red twisting thing, flickering at the bottom of it. Which was looking incredibly delicious looking, if you said so yourself – which you did.
… the words that Lansseax said to you rang in your mind.
Was this dangerous to you?
… nah, it'll probably be fine.
And with that thought your maw clamps around the small fire, practically embers really, before you. Consuming practically the entire thing, bar some light embers that fizzled out, in a single bite.
Then you swallowed…
And immediately regretted not listening to Lansseax's words. Oh sure, it started fairly fine. Just a pleasant heat as you swallowed, and it went down your throat before coming to a stop in your stomach.
You felt a twinge in your stomach, something that was entirely novel to you. It wasn't anything you'd ever truly felt before... and then it proceeded to get worse.
A dull pain in your gut, followed by lurching sensation. Peace.
Then, the sharp, wrenching, explosive stab hit. It felt like something sharp had been shoved into your stomach as you doubled over in pain, your entire body screaming in the worst agony you'd ever felt.
You lay on the ground. It did not help.
You twisted and turned in any way you could. It did not help.
You began tearing into the ground and shoving the dirt into your mouth, past the torrents of curdled blood flooding out.
It. Did. Not.Help.
Eventually all you could do was just lay there, writhing in agony as blood began to seep from your scaled. As your limbs began to grow cold and numb from the consistent blood loss, your healing unable to keep up. As you saw felt your ribs break as somethingpushedout from within you, only to heal and re-break all over again. As even your sense shut off one by one.
Until finally your eyes popped, the pain just a drop in the ocean to what you were already feeling, and you were left in complete sensory deprivation.
Which only made the painssomuch worse, as impossible as that seemed.
… but you survived.
And after who knows how long the pain diminished and all your senses returned to you. Your flesh regrew, scales reformed, until you were as good as new.
Better even.
… it didn't seem as worth it as you thought it should.
… perhaps Lansseax had a point after all. Perhaps.
Yeah, you're just gonna lie here a bit
[Aeter Sum] +3 max levels
[Aeter Sum] (1/5) - (1/8)
[Votusax will not eat anything he doesn't know the effects of for the next 2 weeks (time can be reduced through certain activities)]
Eventually though, you do get up.
Despite not truly wanting to, the impending feeling of your time here running out acted as enough of a motivator to get you to get up and begin exploring again.
It did occur to you to possibly go to the underground area and start hunting those insects again, you remembered them occasionally having rune arcs in them. Those would be rather nice to have right now, especially since you'd just gotten a new great rune that could likely use the upgrade.
But, if you were to be honest, you just didn't have it in you right now. So exploring the snowy lands was what was happening.
Though it seemed that, as you spot a flickering light in the flurry of white snow, you weren't wasting your time.
Because, as you dove down toward the light, turning into human form right as you were about to impact the ground, you found yourself face to face with a trader who looked a lot like that trader who'd sold you rune arcs.
… actually, now that you looked closer, he seemed to be almost completely identical to how you remembered that other one looking.
"… don't suppose your here to buy are you?" the merchant asked, only to be surprised when you actually replied with an affirmative. Which was weird to you, why ask if you were gonna be surprised by the answer?
Still, he showed you his stuff after he got over that surprise.
[Runes: 155,321]
Handing over the runes as you take the items you accept the items he hands you, slipping them into your storage the moment your hand made contact with them… except for a single one of the root resin.
You'd forgotten that you were limited to storing ninety-nine of a single item.
Still, you just held onto it instead and addressed the merchant, who'd sat back down, again, asking him if he had any special don't know exactly why you asked, but you had a feeling that he might have something he wasn't showing you.
It was just how he looked.
"Ah well, I don't know…" he looked around, though there was no mistaking the flash of hunger that flashed across his aura, "… I suppose I can show you some of my… alternative stock."
With that he got up, going over to his donkey and pulling off a box – about as large as three of your humans hands next to each other – before returning.
"Here have a look," he said, spilling some of the box's contents onto the cloth laid out in front of him. To which you did look…
… only to flinch back, hand going to your stomach, as flames sparked off one of the items. Not the same shade as the ones you'd eaten, but similar in some strange way.
You considered the items…
[Runes: 107,221]
… you hand over the runes to the merchant, quickly putting away the embers and the strange grapes, that seemed to have flames swirling insidethem. Despite your… apprehension about the items you still bought them. Perhaps in the future, when you knew what they did, you'd consume them.
The spear however, you were fine with. The heat that seemed to radiate from the marks, seemingly melted into it's handle, didcause your stomach to twinge in memory. But other than that it was fine.
But anyways, putting the spear away, you turned away from the merchant and jumped into the air, turning back to normal mid-air, and took off.
Back to your den, where you could hopefully talk to Lansseax again.
You felt that disappearing without telling her first would… not have good consequences.
[Runes: 84,621]
Fortunately for you, while Lansseax hadn't been at the den at the moment of your return she'd returned shortly after you used up the rune arcs you bought.
Which was good, especially since you could feel that you only really had a short while left before you returned.
Unfortunately, Lansseax wasn't exactly accepting of your whole 'going home for a bit' explanation. Or rather the lack of one, since you didn't actually know how your travelling ability really worked.
"Does thee even understand what words art coming out of thy mouth?" which wasn't good enough for Lansseax. At all, "thou hast given no explanation as to why thou art going home, now of all times, thou hast also failed to even give a location or method for this travel! Does thee not see how unacceptable that is?"
Quite frankly, you had a feeling that she wouldn't be willing to just accept it any time soon… and so you decided to distract her.
Specifically with the new spear you just bought… because you didn't know what else to use.
You didn't really want to show her the fiery items you'd bought, she might figure out that you'd eaten that other flame. Which you didn't truly mind happening, you'll even admit that it was because of that you thought that, maybe, she had a point with what she was saying about not eating random things.
But she would likely be rather displeased that you immediately ignored what she said.
So shifting to human form and holding out your new spear, catching her attention with the pole arm, it was.
"-and thy wish is for me… to… where did you get that?" and suddenly her human forms hand was around the wrist of the arm you held the spear with, an intenselook on her face. Her eyes wide and pupils shrunk into pinprick.
"Votusax? Where did you get this?" her voice was completely even as she asked that, the grip on your wrist so hard that you felt that it would've been rather painful. Especially seeing how her claws were actually digging a minute amount into your skin.
Still, you told her where you got it. It was obvious that she really wanted to know, and you saw no reason to not tell her.
"I see. It seems it was a mistake to show those worthless vermin mercy," her aura flashed, almost completely becoming rage, as she hissed, her eyes looking past you and her mouth set into a growl. Then her eyes refocused on you, "listen to me Votusax. If you see any more of those merchants? Kill them. Do not touch anything they sell, just destroy it all. You hear me? You won't touch those things, not like him!"
You nod, feeling more than a tad... concerned at the almost frantic way she was behaving. It felt like completely alien behaviour when it came to her.
"Good, good… you won't fall- I won't let you," and finally she let go, slowly stepping away from you, taking a deep breath as her expression returned to the one she normally wore in human form. Her eyes went to the spear, and then your wrist – a miniscule amount of your smoky purple blood rapidly dissipating from it, "… I… I apologise. I just- I didn't want- I don't- I… I'm so...r…r…"
And suddenly she wasn't moving, frozen mid-apology as a familiar feeling washed over you.
You were returning home.
[Anchor great rune] +2 lv's — (7/9)
Anchor Great rune [Unranked] [Passive] (7/9)
+40 to all stats
Eating substances (and other abilities intergration) rolls are automatic nat 100's while this is active
Increase threshold of things you can safetly intergrate
+1 mutation cap
Only works on non-hostile things
Great rune of consumption [Unranked] (3/9)
Every time you kill an enemy (of close enough strength) you heal 15% of your health
Healing recovers max health damage and debilitating effects
Killing and eating things can, on occasion, add a small fraction of their max resources (HP, SP, MP) to your own
+20 to consumption rolls
Eaten flesh can be stored without affecting your weight and used as such :
Regurgitated and integrated into crafting rolls. Crafted item may gain flesh "donor's" trait Sacrificed to increase a single consumption roll (max: +10 to a single roll)
[Full contact re-established with peripheral]
Once again, you found yourself hurtling through the kaleidoscope, images flashing just like the last time you'd been here. Yet, unlike last time, you didn't immediately forgot the images after seeing them. Not all of them at least, you managed to remember a couple of them.
[Scanning for abnormalities… abnormality found]
An army of metal things coming out of a hole in the sky, a large red robed being hovering over a crowd of humans, a gigantic eye – blue on the outside, yellow on the inside and with a green slit pupil – looking straight at you.
[Analysing abnormality… abnormality analysed]
All images you saw and remembered.
[Additional bound causality packets found… activating trade-in protocol]
Suddenly, you were in a black void. Floating there, alone.
[Generating avatar]
Then, just as suddenly as when you arrived in the void, you were no longer alone. Instead, you were faced by a large glowing eyeball that you just… knew wasn't hostile to you. Just as you knew that you couldn't do anything to harm it.
*Ping*
It made a sound, or at least you felt like it did, and you knew what it wanted from you. Or rather what it wished to trade for you.
Trade:
Remembrance of the grafted
Remembrance of the blasphemous
All Shabriri grapes, All yellow embers
All meteor bolts, All formic rocks
Runes (20,000) [Current runes: 84,621]
Hero rune [4], Golden rune [11]
For:
Augmentation of causality storage [Max causality 10 - 12]
Ultimate one - class 1b connection: Allow bounty hunting for system in exchange for causality.
Achievement upgrade
Random achievement (2 causality worth) 1 causality
Equivelant in magical knowledge in magic skill of choice.
[Primal archon] achievement gained
Primal archon: You slew an enemy with at least 8 different elements.
Focus: [General evolution quality up], [Elemental], [Mana regeneration]
Causality worth: 2
[Achievement: Nuke] +1 lv
[Ultimate one - class 1b connection [Unranked] (1/3)] gained
Ultimate one - class 1b connection [Unranked] (1/3)
Contact system for local issue in need of resolution. Resolving issue will result in appropriat causality compensation (can overflow past max causality)
Priority level: Tertiary
Can used five times in a day before it starts costing causality (1 causality per use)
Warning: Issues will, at minmum, be peak tier 5
It took you a moment to comprehend the options you were provided, another to decide to take all of them. You didn't need to take another moment to actually give you answer.
Instead, between one moment of you finalizing your though and the next, the traded items disappeared directly from your storage.
*Ping*
Then, almost as it'd always been there, the eye was hovering over you. Bathing you in a white light as your mind was rapidly filled with notification of you getting the result of your trade. And then it was gone, the changes having been done without much fanfare, and you were just no longer in the black void.
Instead, you were in the den you hadn't seen in – probably – twenty days. Standing there in silence as you blinked, getting reacquainted with your new existence – which felt very different while still being unchanged.
*Crash*
And then you immediately went on alert as the sound of crashing, and shattering stone, came from the entrance.
Which was then followed by the sound of rapid footsteps approaching the door, as you prepared to shift into your dragon form… only to not do so when a dishevelled, dust covered, Myra burst in – shouting at the top of her lungs.
"What the actual… ever-loving… uh, hi," she greeted, going really quite as she looked at you. Really looked at you too, even looking your entire body over. Some places more than others.
Like your face and your arms, specifically the mid-bicep, where the clothes you had on ended in a grip around the arm.
And to add on to her weird behaviour, she also gave a full body shiver when you returned the greeting. Her pale skin getting red in some places.
Then she quickly patted down her clothes and leaned against a nearby wall, "So… I don't know who you are, but is there a reason you're in the royal patron's chamber?"
You give her a confused look, wondering who this royal patron is and why he's claimed your den. You hadn't been gone that long, right?
Well, there was a simple way to know what happened. You turn to her and ask her who this 'royal patron' is, why he's trying to claim your den.
"Well, the royal patron is obviously the dr-" she stops suddenly, before slowly giving you another look over, "… can you turn into a dragon."
You nod, even doing a quick transformation back and forth to demonstrate.
"I… am okay with this."
… why would she have a problem with this?
