[Various Spell Buffs] [Music Resonation (Major)] [Humanize (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]
“Last one caught! Haaaa, I’m fucking done… goodnight!” Exhausted, Vifi started falling from the skies as she deactivated [Air Walk], forcing to dampen her fall with [Featherfall].
Walking over to her, I couldn’t help but smile with guilt as I felt so refreshed for the first ti in over a month, while Vifi looked exactly what you would imagine a girl to look after living in the wilds without any hygiene products and proper beauty products. Her hair was in tangles with so of them looking like they were frozen, her armor was in shambles from all the fighting, and the shadow under her eyes just looked dreadful.
Funnily enough, unlike , she had full access to the subspace all this ti! In other words, she probably looked so terrible ‘cause she fought for four hours straight in this freezing glacier against an ever-regenerating army of greater elentals. Since they could remain alive by absorbing the surrounding mana, they eventually understood that fighting us was impossible.
Vifi and my clan’s dragoon-commander, Estranor, were practically in the high rank if you converted their levels into monster level, and they had enough stats and skills to completely overpower the greater elentals by themselves. With nine other rank As and over 35 rank Bs acting as supporters, they were pretty much a hunting party that could handle most rank A monsters with moderate ease. Especially against monsters on Frozen Nest, as the dragoons were all equipped with sturdy ice-resistant armor made from dragonkin scales.
Four hours wasn’t due to fighting, it was due to chasing. Those greater elentals had so fun with hide-and-seek with Vifi and the twins blitzing through the glaciers to the point they started looking blue. Estranor and his web—the military term for a squadron of dragoons just under a “wing”—of 44 dragoons had to take over, but since he didn’t have a way to zoom around like Vifi or , the dragoons were practically searching through a stack of hay for a few needles.
And thus, after a two-hour spa session where my maids could finally treat like a kid they haven’t spoiled in a while, I ca out of the subspace and started helping. Capturing and weakening the elentals was made easy when I started spamming fire spells and Abilities. It wasn’t as effective when they were inside my monster room or my Territory, but my mana still acted like a counter to their absorption ability, so we could capture them in fairnite potion bottles.
“Report: nine elentals were captured. With the ones you already have captured, that amounts to 14,” Estranor reported.
“All six greater fae whom Tasianna and I t were amongst them. The rest were those who supported the dragon hunt,” Vifi added, throwing the bottled fae into the subspace for Gravy to catch. “We took down the greater elental army, I think. Well, not to say there aren’t possibly more, but we can probably take a rest now. How is it looking on the prince’s side?”
“Not good…” I answered, rembering the report I got from Nong after I finished my bath. “The elental emperor had reached the tundra.”
Estranor closed his eyes, agitating the other dragoons resting close to us. Those inside my temporary clinic were also reeling from the news.
“Then it seems the hamlets will be attacked,” Estranor said with a grim frown. “I apologize, your highness. My web is spent. Our supplies of potions, rations, and equipnt are almost exhausted with the urgent dispatch, not to ntion the non-stop chasing that nearly took five bells' worth of ti.”
“It’s fine, Commander. You already did a grand favor by coming to our support after I needed to rest. Vifi, Shay, and Beth wouldn’t have been able to do it without you and your dragoons, so I do hope you take this ti to rest. I am just happy that none of you died,” I said, causing Estranor and any dragoon who could stand to bow with their tail tucked under their legs.
“You honor us, my princess,” Estranor said with a stoic face, but I could see from his twitching tail that he probably was happy for the comndation. “Yet, I cannot help but feel we must do sothing. The fact that a single web was enough to take down so many greater elentals, when two wings are normally needed to subdue an army of rampaging greater elentals is due to you, your highness. Having a fire dragonkin who can endure the cold and possess strong enough fire-aligned mana to cripple the ice elentals’ regeneration is unheard of. Your siblings and father, after all, rarely co to Frozen Nest to help out with any military operations.”
“That’s to say they have done it once?” I asked.
“This is before my ti, but your father, the emperor, has been noted to have visited Frozen Nest quite often in the past to hunt with Her Majesty. Though, while they were docunted as military operations for the emperor to ‘assure the safety of his empire,’ it is clear what they were…”
Dates… I really shouldn’t pry too much with this. Better not be curious about the love life of my parents, which has lasted for over 2000 years.
In any case, back to what Estranor just said… A “wing” in military terms was considered the entirety of either the dragonewt dragoons or the wyvern division of a nest, excluding the true dragonkin, as they kept the general term of flight and wake for dragons and drakes, respectively. A web was part of a wing—the Nordor clan’s dragoons were part of the “Unified Dragoon Army of Frozen Nest”—so when “wings” was used for the military, it ant the inclusion of the dragoons and wyverns.
Hearing this, it did make understand why the dragoons and elentals weren’t able to do anything against each other. It was a stalemate even with my party’s help, requiring an “outsider” like to intervene with fire mana to turn the tide. This should an that Nong’s fire should help stop the elental emperor… but according to him, he was barely stalling them.
“… I understand, but if my brother can’t do anything, then it will only be harder for . My core broke,” I replied, pointing at my dimd chest. The freezing wind of the glacier was sapping my strength even through my thick winter coat. “Without a core, I am also unable to change my scales’ color to silver.”
Hearing this, Estranor’s face crumpled up a bit, confirming my initial impression when we t just about five hours ago. Though I could understand his disappointnt. For the first ti ever, my scales turned silver, confirming my Nordor bloodline wasn’t completely drowned out by my father’s genes. To the clan mbers, seeing —Hikari—fight with a silver-scaled body on the stream was probably like your favorite idol revealing a personal interest that made them even more attractive. Like an idol being extrely invested in various subcultures like gaming, making them more liked by people who ga a lot.
Speaking of [Fire Ice Fusion Core], our hot spring session did allow to extract so information from both Kramps and Hikari after my [Battle Frenzy (Major)] ntal ltdown. Essentially, the main soul switch thing? Yeah, now it was a 100% commitnt into [Fire Ice Fusion Core].
This ant whenever I gave Hikari control over our body, [Fire Ice Fusion Core] would always activate, turning my flas into ice and my crimson scales into silver ones. There was technically no mana cost for this switch, but due to the change in my elental alignnt and switching scale-dust out for silver powder, it did an whenever I switched back and forth, I required a small ramp up ti for whoever was in control of the body.
This should technically also apply to my dragonewt form, so a silver-haired “Hestia” was entirely possible now without having to dye my hair. Honestly, this sounded kinda cool for my stage performance.
In any case, since I used an improper thod to unlock my silver dragon bloodline—I pretty much only had the crown since my grandmother’s ice lance wasn’t properly enchanted with the Divine Quest—the complications were obvious. A 50% increased mana cost for all ice-related attacks and this small delay on my transformation was a small price to my near immunity against ice attacks whenever I turned into a silver dragon.
Yes, I would beco weak to fire, but I could just remain in my fire dragon form when that happened. I still had holy and solar energy for offensive choices against fire-aligned enemies. Furthermore, becoming a silver dragon also vastly reduced my weakness to water attacks, so I pretty much covered every single one of my weaknesses if I used this transformation well.
Although if there was one thing I disliked was that I had to give over our body’s control to Hikari since I was better at controlling our body during a fight. Just a small inconvenience, though. If I had to compare my situation to sothing familiar, it would be like changing my class mid-fight.
Funnily enough, class-wise, I was now able to evolve two of my developnt Jobs in [Star Idol] and [Lightbearer] after Hikari got us to level 45! Yahoo, max level reached for rank B and the first requirent to evolve into a rank A has been achieved after… three years. Honestly, that sounded a bit less dramatic when I initially thought about it.
Sadly, it didn’t give so grandiose congratulations, unlike when I evolved into a rank B, but that was okay. I was more preoccupied with everything else, after all. I haven’t even initiated my Job evolutions since I was more worried about the elental emperor.
“I know you are worried, but I was told that our army’s dispatchnt is working quite smoothly after Fehrkatruk took over command, correct?” I asked, trying to help Estranor relax.
“If I may speak my mind, I do not trust the fire dragonkin, your highness. I still do not like those fire wyverns you accepted as your retainers. I have my own grievances, so I cannot help my agitation. I wish to help my country as one of the nest’s dragoon-commanders,” Estranor spoke as bluntly as any other high-ranking knight I have t so far. Heh, I could see a resemblance to Yorshka even if the two weren’t directly related. “Your actions in stopping this threat, to buy us as much ti as we needed while warning those who must flee from the danger, have compelled many more than just my feather, Princess Hestia. Rest for the weary, yes, but my body exudes enough energy for a thousand n!”
“So do I! Our spears, arrows, and scales are ready for more battles!” a dragoon shouted, raising his spear in the air to compel his fellow dragoons to do the sa.
As worthy as their enthusiasm was, I felt a bit unnerved by this behavior simply ‘cause I couldn’t help but look at Vifi and the twins, and how exhausted they look. This also didn’t include the dragoons resting inside my field and subspace clinic. There were only about 17 dragoons who could be called battle-ready, and only five of the rank As were included in this.
“Whatever!” I crossed my arms before waving at all of them to start bringing the injured into the subspace. “It doesn’t matter, right now! We need to regroup, so bring everything back into the subspace. I need to stay outside so I’ll have to carry the runes with . Probably, I think—”
“We do not know if there are more greater elentals lurking sowhere. I must suggest you fly with as your partner, your highness,” Estranor volunteered. “Spent as I am, I am still the fastest flyer amongst us, right now. Vifi requires actual rest before we engage the emperor.”
“Good point. However, you require rest as well, so choose one of your fellow dragoons to share a shift with. You will switch with them once we are halfway to the tundra,” I ordered, prompting the commander to salute . “Breaking Father’s taboo once for a good reason might get him off my tail, but using it now might not. We’ll be flying together then, so I hope you can keep up with !”
“Confidence is a whelpling’s privilege, your highness.” Estranor smiled, eying with a competitive look. “Though I might not compare in speed, I will not slow you down. Let us fly!”
Activating any buffs that could provide a speed boost, including drinking so agility elixirs, I turned back into a dragon before Estranor and I set off. While I used my scale-dust to propel myself through the air like a rocket, the dragoon-commander flew like any other dragonewt by flapping his wings with [Wind Blast]. As he was also a dragoon, he could use [Air Walk] and [Dragoon Jump] to accelerate himself even further, but even with all of these options, my rocket boosters were simply better.
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Even if it stung his pride, I still decided to slow down. It was probably better this way to conserve mana and nutrients, as I didn’t have my solar core for an endless source of regeneration.
[“My princess,”] Estranor called, his voice sounding a bit wobbly in my head. [“Is there truly no way to accelerate the regeneration of your solar core?”]
[“… You really want to see with silver scales, huh?”] I confronted him.
Estranor turned silent for a mont before he sent a telepathic image of himself nodding. [“Yes. Aside from the rest of your clan, I believe your mother would also be quite elated if she were to see your changes. Your mother’s happiness, after all, has been a topic of concern for all of us, Princess Hestia. A happy and ntally stimulated ancient dragon is more likely to live.”]
[“I see… Yeah, I can see your reasoning for that,”] I replied. [“Mom has already told that she would be okay for a long ti. With her most recent hibernation and also what I did to help her soul, you shouldn’t have to worry about her health, Commander. Though, I can understand your concerns. Father’s deteriorating soul has plunged the entire empire into disarray.”]
[“It caused a complete collapse of what held this empire together, you an. Leviathans are attacking us without impunity, forcing multiple elder scales away while an elental is causing havoc to our citizens. A large portion of our two wings have departed, as well. I consider it a blessing that I am able to fight as the Nordor clan wasn’t called upon to fight, and it allowed to remain on Frozen Nest and function as the dragoon wing’s vice commander,”] he stated. [“Yet, these are only our concerns. What is happening in the south is far more aggravating. I heard the fire dragonkin are on the brink of their own civil war with the divide between the Dragon Ruler of Fire and Volcanoes.”]
[“Mhmm. I am well aware. That’s why I have been aiming to help out in the succession crisis without becoming a candidate. The number of dragonkin who want to beco their empress certainly astounds . A bit frightening, even.”]
[“Many are simply loyal to Empress lloxtressa,”] Estranor said with a slightly shaking voice. I could tell he didn’t want to say that, as it proved pretty much what I expected—that I was just an extension of Mom or just a tool for her happiness in the minds of the ice dragonkin. [“They do not—”]
[“I’ve made my piece,”] I interrupted. [“You are fully allowed to think like that, Commander. Everybody is, even Rhekk and his buddies are sowhat right in the way they think about . Though… expectations are like poison, correct? Even if they can give you aning, they can infect your soul and harm your self-worth. It’s all right, as long as I understand what I am and want.”]
[“Gaze upon you not as a child of the emperor and empress, but as your own dragoness. I understand…”]
[“Thank you, and I can certainly say that Hikari—my other half if you haven’t heard about it yet—will enjoy it once she assus control of our body. Everything you saw on the stream might be played up for the sake of urgency, but you had a chance to see who I am even if we barely talked, Commander. I am that type of girl,”] I explained, almost feeling a bit embarrassed at bragging about it.
[“And people have seen you, your highness. They have seen you fight on their behalf with courage and strength, all virtues before us dragonkin. While bloodline is important, one should speak against your commitnt to Frozen Nest. You are our princess, whether red or silver… I apologize.”]
[“Nah, we barely knew each other. Brother Kahalaet even gave us an excuse to interact with each other, but I still haven’t asked you to help with my dragoon training. Especially now that Hikari has to learn how to control her body better.”]
[“Then we should correct this once this is over, your highness. There will be quite so ti until your mother’s birthday, and not to ntion the ti after that. I suspect the other dragoons will also co to respect you enough to join us. The first prince, after all, is a beloved sight to all dragoons. Having his youngest sister and our princess do the sa would bring joy to our order.”]
[“What is with those expectations after I spoke my mind? Hahah, sure. Let us, so make sure you stay safe during the fight, Estranor.”]
[“This elder scale lowers his tail before you, your highness.”]
Flying together, even if it was unnecessary with the lack of threats, made flying through all the cold quite bearable. Estranor was surprisingly quite talkative, unlike more stoic knights like the Knight-Commander of the Knights of Aurena or even Vifi, if you could call her a knight. While he had a cold exterior, he certainly did resemble Yorshka in the way he talked.
After so ti, he did eventually reach his limit and we had to land and open the subspace for him to switch to one of his subordinates. However, instead of flying off imdiately, I was stopped by Shay when he told to et up with Gravy as it seed the greater elentals had sothing to say.
Switching the subspace entrance to Gravy’s monster room—our training room—I noticed Vifi was waiting there with Gravy, waving at when she placed one of the imprisoned greater elentals before .
“Their na is ‘Elk.’ Elentals do not possess their own nas, so this one was given to them by Tasianna. I think you can guess why she did it,” Vifi said, reminding of the elk-looking elental. They were the first ones we captured, after all. “I put in the ti to persuade them to help us, considering it’s Tasianna’s freedom on the line, and I only got through two of them—Elk and Burrower. The rest… they seem to have a different perspective on how much in danger Tasianna really is.”
[“Precisely because she wouldn’t die,”] a new voice entered my head, prompting to look down at the elental and address him as “Elk.” [“That is the na given to , yes. Princess of Frozen Nest and bearer of the Light Elental Emperor’s remains, I have asked to speak to you. Especially about the catalyst you possess.”]
[“Hestia is my na, first and foremost… I don’t rember bringing the catalyst out when we fought you, though,”] I said, but Vifi told the other greater elentals had spoken to them about it, prompting to shrug and pull out [Providence’s Will].
After what had happened against the mandril, the artificial intelligence inside the catalyst seed to have gone completely silent. It already wasn’t too talkative with its clear dislike for , but now it wasn’t even willing to talk about what had happened against the mandril and how it nearly got destroyed.
[“Light Elental Emperor…”] Elk stated with clear surprise while the fae in the back started banging against their bottles, trying to break open their prison by freezing the fairnite glass, but Gravy’s golems quickly started burying them into the warm-looking soil. Surprisingly, they stopped moving.
Noticing my confusion, Elk answered, [“Princess Hestia, I understand you are already aware that the ‘elental emperor’ currently running south is a fusion made from the Wind Elental Emperor and the Water Elental Emperor, correct? And that they are abusing the energy of the Origin Gods for their goals, correct?”]
I nodded.
[“Then you must also understand that they wish to free themselves from Frozen Nest and to return to the rest of the world so they may re-obtain what they have once lost—their divinity. Due to a lack of an elental emperor, we greater elentals always felt compelled to beco the next one through the true ice river that once flowed through the glaciers. Not that the source had dried up and our Ice Elental King had taken an heir, those instincts of ours had changed. We no longer seek to beco the next elental emperor, we seek to follow our Ice Elental King,”] they explained.
[“And that is Tasianna, and from what I heard, Vifi had tried to make you all understand that this isn’t what Tasianna would have wanted. I also know you and ‘Burrower’ had accompanied Tasianna and Vifi through the glaciers for nearly an entire month, yet both of you still decided to accompany the elental emperor in their crusade. Why? What are you trying to say by speaking with ?”]
[“That to Tasianna’s happiness is of importance,”] they replied. [“That our ‘god’ has died long ago as their vestiges try to grasp for any chance they can to return to life and correct their failures in the past. The elental emperors we see today are re phantoms, but our king is real. Real until she turns into a re source of mana for our dead god.”]
[“… A thought you should have realized the mont it happened.”]
[“I understand. Folly can also plague us, but we are elentals. Fae. We live by our emotions and desires and we will vanish into the winds of mana in a constant stasis. We do not grow, we do not adapt; we simply live and enjoy our lives as if ti doesn’t exist. You may deem us fools, but that is also why none of us were ever worthy of becoming the next Ice Elental King. None of us were able to bear the responsibilities laid upon us as a ‘ruler.’ An antonym of the nature of all fae… yet so still rise to assu those rules as if the world has decreed it thusly. Those are our kings and emperors. Our guides and caretakers,”] Elk stated in a somber tone, probably reflecting on themselves with the way they worded their race’s troubles. [“Yet, even those very rulers are fae. They cannot escape this nature. Neither could Tasianna, the Ice Elental King, or even the emperors. All still wish to live in a hollow dream that brings them back to their juvenility as carefree fae. All of us wished that the grandiose era of the fae would return… but our ti is over. Elves, humans, beastn, and dwarves have all risen from our stagnancy.”]
The fae banged against their bottle, prompting [Providence’s Will] to slowly move closer to them. I grabbed the catalyst, holding it back from entering the subspace.
[“We were dreaming, similar to how the emperor had led lesser fae, Tasianna, and the demonkin to dream of their wishes. The nectar of nostalgia. The starving desire to return to the past to right the wrong and to live in a ‘if it never happened.’ Pray, young dragoness, does not every being wish for a perfect world that caters to their desires?”]
I nodded for a mont before shaking my head. [“Imperfection is also just as sweet, when the bitter taste of struggle precedes it. Perfection is like weights in a sea of opportunities. Cut so of it off to not drown in your own self-pity.”]
[“Yet we cannot, for we are fae. Nor could the monsters living in the glacier, wishing to be treated as more than simple prey for the rulers of these lands. The mandragonga king was enticed by words similar to our king and the elental emperors, and this is the result of all the frustration being given a target—the corpse of Thalaxarus.”]
… The blizzard barrier around Frozen Nest. That’s the elental emperor’s goal? I realized in horror. If that last defense were to break down, the threat of the leviathans or even the fire dragonkin of Inferno Nest would rise. Frozen Nest would be forced into the civil war since we wouldn’t be able to control the people entering and leaving any longer, which would lead into tension like with Rhekk’s group.
[“The true ice mana gifted to Thalaxarus, the first friend of us ice elentals, is what the elental emperor seeks. Drain the bones of the true ice mana circulating through them and break down the barrier around Frozen Nest. It would free the emperor and also grant Tasianna even more true ice mana to grow. They seek to turn her into a pseudo Ice Elental Emperor. They seek to absorb the remains of all the other elental emperors to rise to godhood—they believed their failure lay in the fact that they were unable to unite when the Origin Gods descended,”] Elk continued as I turned to [Providence’s Will]. [“The mandragonga and we greater elentals dread of the emperor’s goals, and we knew the remains of the Light Elental Emperor were turned into this catalyst here. Even if their divine mana has long been turned into a catalyst’s skills, the fused emperor believed they would still sense their forr kin.”]
[“I see…”] I turned to my catalyst, letting it free from my draconic claws to fly around . [“[Providence’s Will], do you seek your forr fellow elental emperor.”]
[“It is only a simple feeling,”] it stuttered. [“Goddess Andira is our master now, but sothing is compelling the mana inside of us to move.”] Check latest chapters at novel-fire
[“You certainly couldn’t have chosen a worse ti, really. You could have been truly destroyed there,”] I replied, causing the sli to go silent. [“Tell , what do you wish to do?”]
[“Serve Goddess Andira.”]
[“She is not on the mortal planes any longer. You are now my catalyst.”]
[“You are not my creator. I do not deem your worthy of using , Usurper.”]
[“You say this all the ti like a machine. I’ve told you countless tis already that I have been given permission by your creator to use you.”]
[“Yet, I still will not deem you worthy of using , Champion of Aurena. You do not truly worship the Pantheon of Light. You do not truly follow Goddess Aurena, even as her blessed, yet you wish to use , a relic made for the use of a devout follower of her religion. I know your true belief after following you around, and while you are able to make use of my skills, I will never deem you worthy unless you show the pious need just like all previous owners. Even the last one, a traitor to the church of Aurena, still had much love for Goddess Aurena, even willing to condemn their soul and reputation by infiltrating the enemy for the sake of their Goddess’s faith. You serve no one but yourself, Usurper.”]
How could I possibly argue against any of those words? Though hearing the catalyst call out for my lack of faith in Aurena seed so annoying. I thought I had been able to show so sense of piety with how often I had prayed to her, compared to my lack of faith back on Earth. Haaa, this truly was a usage requirent from an RPG ga. I needed a certain amount of faith to use this item.
[“A re magically constructed mind, yet it follows its will like any other fae. Truly, an elental emperor powerful enough to transcend even death through re emotions left behind in their mana. It will not be possible to persuade them as such, Princess Hestia,”] Elk interrupted us, though they sounded like they had a plan. When I brought that up, they continued, [“I have a favor to ask: please, save Tasianna and allow her to assu her role as the heir of the Ice Elental King. Whether she denies her position like most fae or not, it doesn’t matter. As long as she can make her choice, it would satisfy .”]
[“Of course. She is one of my best friends, so why would I ever abandon her?”]
[“Thank you… then I have a proposal on how you may free her from her dream while also allowing yourself to bond with the forr light elental emperor,”] Elk added, causing a shiver to run down my spine as I awaited their answer. [“You must enter the dream world yourself. Experience the emotions left behind in the light elental emperor. Help Tasianna break from her dreamscape just like how Vifi broke out of hers.”]
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