[“Sister, go to her Highness now!”] Shay ordered as I pulled my paternal grandmother’s crown from my storage, feeling a bit light-headed as the flow of my solar energy was starting to slow down. That prickly feeling of having my arms or legs go numb started to stab , helping stay awake and focused on solving my problem.
“Keep up, Shay! Hestia might have cut it in half, but there are still bits of ice close to the shaft,” Vifi yelled as I felt her aura spreading around the area. “So, how about you go away for now, monkey?”
Okay, Hikari, for now, stop the ensemble and play [The Will to Fight and Survive] and [The Heir of Hope]. Shay needs to keep up when Vifi—
—activates her Territory!
“If you’re already struggling with a spear made by an ancient dragoness, then tell , monkey, how will you handle now that it’s broken? Better start using your Territory as well, or you’ll be king of the dead monkeys!” Vifi yelled as the arena started to break apart, ravaged by the static electricity emitted from Vifi’s body and aura. “Let’s begin.”
Vifi clapped her hands, expelling the mandril out of the arena with a powerful magnetic force. Unfortunately, unlike how she was able to send or a rank B dragon away with ease, the mandril couldn’t be pushed any further than the outer shell of my arena, holding himself down by freezing his feet to anchor himself.
Vifi didn’t look fazed by this outco, almost as if she had expected this. Then again, she hadn’t used her magnetism once during this fight or the one we had before. She was the expert when it ca to her red lightning, so, I presud, she must have understood that unless she used her Territory to boost her magnetic powers to a higher degree, she wouldn’t be able to attract or repulse the mandril like she usually could with humanoids.
After all, as a wrath demonkin, her power was intrinsically linked to her emotional state. As she could only reach 27% with [Excited], [Anger], and [Fear], it also affected the limits her current power could reach. Well, that didn’t matter at this point. What mattered was that Vifi was buying ti to get this sorted out with Kramps’s and Beth’s help.
“Your Highness!” Beth said in Draconic, biting down on the ice spear as she covered her body with true ice. As she tried to pull it out, though, Kramps imdiately warned to tell her off.
You said we need all three ntos.
Imperfect for now, per—
You make it sound so easy when trying to endure all this ice mana will only weaken . What about the fight with the man—
‘Ruthal mirsk gafuug’tal.’
[Battle Frenzy (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
H-Hikari?
‘This isn’t the ti to worry about everything, Hestia. Vifi understands the plan, so let us listen to Kramps. We’re lting this ice spear and will absorb everything! Co on, just like we trained! Activate your[Battle Frenzy]!’
All right, then. Kriffiek kllk gaaung!
[Battle Frenzy] abnormality detected on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]. Two instances of [Battle Frenzy (Moderate)] are in effect. [Split Soul Autonomy] was activated to rectify the error. Overflow of draconic energy detected due to two instances of [Battle Frenzy (Moderate)]. [Ruby Star] activated to control the output of draconic energy. Warning to [Split Soul Autonomy] user [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: prepare for escalation of [Battle Frenzy (Moderate)] into [Battle Frenzy (Major)] within a Peolyncian standard minute
Yup, we’d cheat the system. At this point, reaching the major or critical stage of [Battle Frenzy] would require a serious emotional trauma to activate. With my training, controlling [Battle Frenzy] had beco as easy as ever, especially since having Hikari undergo the sa training also helped her clear up her past worries, which raised the ti limit for us to remain in [Battle Frenzy (Moderate)].
Though the idea could also work in reverse. Two active [Battle Frenzy] in a single body shouldn’t be possible, but Hikari and I made it work during our one-month wait. It was plenty of ti to help Hikari unlock her [Battle Frenzy] training up to greed, since we both understood our individual greed.
If we needed more wisdom to survive the magical damage of this ice spear, then we would activate the 45% stat boost from [Battle Frenzy (Major)]. Technically, we should be avoiding major like the plague since we haven’t unlocked the seventh, and last, stage of the [Battle Frenzy] training yet. If one of us entered it, our instincts would take over, and our bodies would go berserk.
My [Parallel Thoughts] had always been a cheat skill for , and [Split Soul Autonomy] would keep on inheriting that title. I already had access to 22 simultaneous spell casts, so why not access to [Battle Frenzy (Major)]?
[Battle Frenzy (Major)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
Krk!
My mind was instantly assaulted by a thick cloud of desire. The desire to kill, fight, and feed pushed most thoughts out of the way, pulling out my full draconic instincts from the depths of my heart. That ntal line I had created for myself to remain human had started to vanish, stepped on by the stampeding rage I felt for everything around . Sensing Beth close to made my already agitated mind start to break down, causing my vision to turn black and red.
“Your Highness!” Beth shouted, clattering her teeth as she panicked from my sudden anger. She almost wanted to pull out the spear, but I stopped her.
[“Beth, as I said, I’m listening to Kramps, right now!”] I said. [“Don’t pull out the spear. If you want to help , keep safe from that mandril, please!”]
“Y-ye—” Beth stuttered before she switched over to [Telepathy]. [“I understand, Princess Hestia. I will keep watch! I will be your shield.”]
I nodded as I ripped open the [Panzer] on my chest, where I saw that Kramp’s assumption was wrong. The ice spear had pierced my armor, but it didn’t break the runes on it. Layers of spiky ice were forming around my chest and spreading around my torso, explaining why I felt so numb.
Furthermore, I could also see my hands shivering. [Battle Frenzy (Major)] was starting to take control over my body.
Wait, didn’t you tell to equip the thing around my core, once?
Urgh! Got it! Okay, Hikari, let’s do this! Getting a headache with [Battle Frenzy] pounding my mind, I decided to trust Kramps’s decision. As such, we enacted the “cheat.”
Once I gave Hikari control over my body, she deactivated her [Battle Frenzy (Moderate)], allowing her to finally relax and control our body. However, I didn’t. Sitting down, I started to ditate, undergoing the [Battle Frenzy] training again in an attempt to control myself.
Due to our soul connection, Hikari would feel the agony and fury I was feeling, but we trained for these monts. Having two minds ant we could delegate and multitask better, and this was a simple progression of that idea. One of us attempts to control our feral side, while the other assures that our body wouldn’t go wild while we maintained [Battle Frenzy (Major)]
Though, unlike our practice sessions, this was—
Arrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
—quite a bit more difficult since ice was freezing our bodies at the sa ti. The heat was rising to our head since our solar core was working overti again after just being regrown.
So, uh, Hestia was now roaring out like a blood-starved beast. She was clawing on the ground, spitting out fire, and acting like her berserker self inside our ntal world. This was shared with . Luckily, I wasn’t dealing with my own [Battle Frenzy] right now, so it felt more like an annoying pain that wasn’t disappearing inside my brain. It felt like I was having a stroke.
Co on, Hikari. Hestia’s relying on you! I need to keep us sane! Graaaaagah!
I slamd Grandmother’s crown on the ground, splintering it into its individual scales. Wrapping everything in my corrosive flas, I then hardened it into its sli form, creating an easily digestible gelatin with the scales inside. Popping it into my mouth, I chewed on it as best as I could before swallowing everything.
Entering [Solar Overdrive] mode, now!
[“Beth! Aim my head at the mandril. Vifi, Shay, lead that guy to where my eyes are aiming at!”] I spoke to my party mbers, while controlling [Hydra], [Sun, Consu All], and [Quartz Regen] all by myself to help everybody bring our enemy into place.
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Further opening the arena up, until the entire ceiling was gone, revealing the sky to . Due to the absence of the ceiling, that also ant there wasn’t a platform for anybody to fight above. They had to rely on either [Air Walk] or the nearby mountain to continue their fight.
Surprised by the lack of footing, the mandril wasn’t able to reach a stable spot in ti, becoming prey to Vifi’s Territory repulsion and attraction like a ping-pong ball. With [Hydra] grabbing his limbs with its sli, even punching him in the face to let him consu so of the toxins, while Shay bombarded him with ballistic scale shots, the mandril was pulled right into my line of sight.
With Beth holding my head to stabilize my shivering body—both due to [Battle Frenzy] and the cold—the heat in my throat finally reached a temperature hot enough to burn myself! Releasing the solar energy into my mouth, I unleashed [Ruby Shredder] at the mandril.
“Grrrhk!” The ape roared as its skills warned him, but it was too late. Either take the hit with the spear or die, essentially!
Choosing the forr, the mandril used the ice spear like a shield as my explosive dragon breath struck the weapon, causing a massive explosion around it as the mandril yelled in pain. Beth did as well, due to the heat, forcing her to wrap her body in true ice armor to keep her from burning herself.
Yet, just like the ice spear lodged on my chest, the intense heat I was radiating like a fusion reactor was quickly lting through her armor. It was just enough to turn her true ice back to normal ice, causing the armor to lt.
She jerked back. Without her support, I wasn’t able to keep my head steady due to the recoil, causing my beam to start deviating, giving the mandril the chance to throw his nearly molten spear to his left arm, sacrificing his right arm to [Ruby Shredder], but allowing him to strike at with one last attack.
As the ice mist shot forward, the mandril roared as if his life was on the line, as the spear extended to shoot what remained of the ice at .
Hydra, prote—
“Raaaaghhh!”
Yet, [Hydra] wouldn’t be able to move in ti, nor could Vifi and Shay. The only one who could was Beth, as she charged in front of with a bloodcurdling roar, reforming her [Hoarfrost Scales]. Slamming her wings onto the ground, she acted as my shield as the spear pierced right through her left arm.
“Graaahk! I am her shield!” she shouted as her left winged arm flew off her body, flying over the area as the spear barely missed my throat.
[“Bethlieranha!”] Shay roared as he unleashed a barrage of scale shots targeting the mandril’s left arm, knocking his aim even further away from , allowing just enough ti to redirect my [Ruby Shredder] back to the mandril, scorching a portion of his face.
Due to his high fire resistance, the attack wasn’t a killing blow, even with solar energy and holy mana embedded into the attack. Yet, it still was enough to burn through his fur and destroy the remaining ice spear and armor from [Ruby Shredder]’s explosions.
[Divine Quest: Trial of the Silver Dragon Matriarch] has failed. Under your god’s eyes, feel the scrutiny of a duty unfulfilled
It was a sha I couldn’t get Grandmother’s spear. I did want to show Mom it to remind her of her parents, but now wasn’t the ti for those thoughts. I had to survive both this fight and this infusion process.
[Solar Overdrive] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
As my breath attack died down, Vifi clapped her hands again, repelling the mandril into the nearby mountain.
Hostile Territory detected! [*, Surge-Feeder Mandoganga]’s unnad Territory has been activated!
Yet, like on cue, the mandril’s aura flooded the area, contesting Vifi’s as both lighting and fla burst from the hole the mandril was thrown into. It roared, slamming the mountain rock with its fists as its ice-white fur started to discolor to purple and red, standing up from the static electricity.
Thunder and flas started to attack everything around it, except for the ice elentals. Similar to my first Territory, his was as simple as [Magmakamr]. It was a simple expulsion of elental mana into the area to create an environnt fitting for it to fight inside, unlike the more elaborate Territories of Vifi or Neill.
Regardless, it was clear the mandril was desperate. Its dragon-killing weapon was destroyed, and it was probably in agony from its burned right side. It still was struggling against Vifi, as that confident demonkin said, and since I wasn’t dead, everybody could still be healed and buffed. Beth wasn’t an exception, although I couldn’t regrow her arm just yet.
[“Are you all right?”] I asked her as [Sun, Consu All] healed her up.
[“Never better, Princess Hestia!”] she shouted, smiling even as she locked onto the mandril, keeping her one remaining arm steady like a shield before . [“Concentrate on yourself! I will defend you!”]
It’s Hikari… I didn’t correct her. My other half had the sa voice as I did, so unless you focused on how we spoke, it would be hard for anybody to understand which of us was speaking.
Regardless, I took Beth’s enthusiasm to stride and focused on Kramps’s instruction.
[Symphonie des Feuergottes (Allegro)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
Temporarily changing [The Will to Fight and Survive] to [Dragon Fire] to grant Beth, Vifi, and Shay immunity to my fire attacks, I unleashed [Symphonie des Feuergottes] on myself before switching the songs back around. Wrapping myself in the heat, I felt [Battle Frenzy] getting worse as the heat raised my irritation.
I wanted to sweat so badly, but my body was unable to do so. Flas burst from every single opening of my body as it was impossible to contain everything, causing to look as if I was set on fire.
Krink!
Glass shattering sounds… a crack had appeared on my core. My body was reaching the limit of how much heat I could sustain. My core would continue cracking until it exploded, but I knew I could do this. I swam through a magma ocean inside Inferno Nest and survived the flas of a rank A fire dragon! This was just another part of my resistance training!
And, gosh, it finally paid off when I felt a different kinda mana enter my mana paths. No, it was more accurate to say that the numbness of being frozen was disappearing. Without my core having to take care of the core, I felt so energized as if I had drunk multiple energy drinks. The sense of drowsiness was gone!
I had [Hydra] slam onto my body and directed it to remove my armor. If my body were unable to endure this heat, neither could it. In fact, I even switched back to [Dragon Fire] just so Beth wouldn’t suddenly combust.
Controlling my mana paths to absorb only the ice mana from the molten ice spear was impossible for . I just had to do it the normal way, like always—spend mana to have my mana paths absorb mana from the air. Furthermore, as the ice spear lted with so of the water turning into steam, I also made sure to use [Aerokinesis] to breathe everything up, letting not one bit go to waste.
Yet, I also understood why Kramps called this imperfect. I was contaminating the ice spear with my fire mana, reducing the overall potency and purity. It couldn’t be helped. Better to commit to everything now that my life wasn’t on the line, since I had lted any problematic frozen bits off myself.
Using my mana running through my body, I also began the molting process and started to devour anything falling off my body, even entire scales, as my exploding scale-dust was damaging their binding to my skin.
Eat, eat, eat, eat—I ate everything like a glutton, showing no restraint. Yet, the process didn’t reduce the heat one bit, and I was starting to question why I was even doing this, but I knew I could trust Kramps here. Considering how much he needed to take care of Father, he probably was praying to Aurena at this point for my success!
“Raaagarrrgrhkkk!” And as if I had finally found that answer, a new feeling started to well up around my core as my body temperature spiked. I clutched my chest as the obsidian ground below started to lt, unable to withstand the superheated air.
“Uraaagahkkk!” And as if it took notice of this change, the mandril with bright yellow and red fur roared and tried to lunge at , but Vifi had it covered with her magnetism.
With the mandril held back, I scowled as I saw steam escaping the edges of my core, seeing ice or sothing white starting to form around it. Though, as I wasn’t falling asleep like when I gained [Ruby Star], this couldn’t be a mutation or change in my body. Sothing else was happening.
“Shit!” Vifi suddenly shouted, stealing my attention for a mont before I snapped my head up to see an ice breath nearly hit her.
A blizzard then followed along, buffeting both Vifi and Shay while avoiding the mandril. In fact, even the powerful wind was blocked by the snow barrier whirling around him, created by the elentals. Seeing how Vifi wasn’t able to use her lightning movent, this blizzard was unnatural—the greater elentals had arrived.
The mandril roared as three elentals in the form of giant dragons appeared in the sky, raising his fist in the air as if he was greeting them. The elentals then crashed on the ground, engaging both Vifi and Shay, aning the Territory clash between Vifi and the mandril was weakening.
As Vifi had to temporarily focus on new arrivals, it ant she couldn’t control the mandril’s movent. As he was inside his own Territory, he could mostly nullify Vifi’s powerful magnetic pull, lunging at now that it could attack. Yet, once again, Beth fearlessly stood in his path, crashing against him with her true ice armor.
“Graaaahkkk! In the na of Princess Hestia and Empress lloxtressa, may you fall to the fury of true ice!”
Your bond with your retainer [Drifting Snow Wyvern, Bethlieranha] has reached a new height. Loyalty, friendship, and trust had sealed your bond with each other. With the strength to serve and protect you, your retainer deserves appropriate rewards
Beth?
“Raaaaahkk!” Biting into the mandril’s left arm, her white scales started to darken as I could see powder falling from the gaps of her scales like snowflakes.
The mandril slamd the wyvern onto the ground, but showing little to no damage, she struck his arm with her armored wing, slashing him with the edge of her [Hoarfrost Scale] armor. She then followed up on her attack, only this ti, the shining powder coated her ice armor, creating a silvery glint as her wind slash caused the mandril to bleed. She was doing damage despite the rank difference!
Silver powder? Wait, that’s our Nordor clan’s silver powder! What sorta unique skill did you get to copy my family’s powder, Beth? I questioned, but I understood that every second Beth bought for ant she would be in danger of the mandril killing her. I had to hurry.
Dragon Fire! Rain down on this blizzard and burn everything!
As giant dragon-sized flas and boulder-sized quartz crystals rained down from the skies as [Sun, Consu All] prevented the blizzard from darkening everything, [Hydra] struck at the greater elentals to support my party mbers. anwhile, my eyes were glued as I saw my crimson scales suddenly turn white… No, the neon white lights were from [Battle Frenzy], hiding the actual color my crimson was slowly turning into.
Skill requirent fulfilled. Unique skill [Fire Ice Fusion Core] has been gained
Yes! Fire Ice Fusion Core, activate!
The mont I activated the skill, the color of my red core turned blue as an explosive gas was released from my scales, reacting with the heat and fla as I exploded into a massive heat explosion that sent the mandril and Beth flying away. Yet, I couldn’t even feel the heat rising; in fact, my body temperature was sinking so fast I thought sothing had gone wrong.
Furthermore, it felt like I had lost control over the flas created by [Symphonie des Feuergottes]. I tried to use [Flash Fire] since I was still in [Battle Frenzy] mode, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t reacting. Sothing was wrong.
My eyes locked onto the first thing I saw once the ash cloud dissipated—the white, misty breath of the mandogonga.
Flash Fire.
My vision then blurred, confirming that I could use [Flash Fire], so I turned my body on and activated [Hellblade Dragon] to ignite my tail on… fire? I couldn’t feel any heat, but a complete lack thereof, yet it still felt correct.
The mont I closed onto the mandril, I activated [Hellblade Edge] and struck the mandril, slicing right into the ape’s burned right arm, causing it to roar in pain. Yet, no blood seeped out of his arm; instead, the red liquid was frozen. His entire arm started to freeze.
It was then that I noticed the scales on my tail. Instead of my iconic crimson color lighted up by neon-shining white, my scales glimred like the silver scales of the Nordor clan. White light reflected on it, causing a glaring radiance to nearly blind .
With the careful filming of a little rock, the entirety of Frozen Nest has witnessed the “birth” of the silver dragon, Hikari.
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