“We’re all set to go?” Lindyss asked as she looked around. Grimmy was sitting on his haunches with Floofykins on his head. A pair of skeletons gathered the fallen magical equipment that Lindyss had lying around. Tafel stood behind Lindyss, taking one last look at the trees she helped inscribe.
“How are we getting there?” Tafel asked. Grimmy and Lindyss turned to look at her.
“You’re teleporting us. Obviously,” Grimmy said as he tilted his head.
“What? Me?” Tafel asked. She stared at the two with her lips parted.
“Of course,” Lindyss said as she dragged her by her arm to Grimmy’s side. “Who else? It’d take too long to fly there.”
“But I don’t know where we’re going…,” Tafel said as she bit her lip. “And I’ve never teleported a dragon before. I don’t have enough mana to do that.”
“It’s fine,” Lindyss said. “We’ll just pour mana into your body while you set up the spell. We want to teleport about 2,000 kilometers in that direction.” Lindyss pointed to the northeast.
“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” Tafel said as she took a step backwards.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” Grimmy asked as he stretched his front legs. “That wacky human does it all the time.”
“We could end up hundreds of meters underground and suffocate,” Tafel said as she took another step backwards. “We could end up hundreds of meters above ground and-“
“Fly. Because I’m a dragon,” Grimmy said as he grinned. “If we teleport below ground, we’ll dig. If we teleport into the water, we’ll swim. If we teleport into lava, we’ll… well, you’d probably die, but I’d be fine.”
“I am very much against dying,” Tafel said as she lowered her head.
Lindyss raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you want to save Vur?” she asked. “How can you hope to be of use to him if you can’t even reach him? If ever a time came where Vur needed you to save him and we weren’t around to help, what would you do?”
Tafel ground her teeth. “Alright,” she said and sighed. “I’ll do it.”
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“W-what is this?” Lillian whispered. She sat with her knees folded under her; her hands were on the floor, supporting her body from behind. Her head was tilted upwards with her lips parted and eyes wide. Cold sweat rolled down her back and she gulped. Michelle, Roy, and Rudolph were in similar positions as Lillian, their backs to the walls. The pope was kneeling with his body shielded by the spirit standing over him. Trent stood in front of Rudolph with a grin plastered on his face. “Amazing,” he whispered as his body shuddered and he licked his lips.
Vur stood in the center of the room with his eyes closed. Waves of black colored light cascaded out of his body, washing over the inhabitants of the room. A layer of black mana obscured the finer details of his body. Scales formed along the aura and two pairs of wings sprouted from his back. The pair on his shoulders looked sharp and dragon-like, while the ones above his waist were rounded and fairy-like.
A bladed tail extended from his coccyx and claws covered his hands and feet. The aura around his head looked dragon-like with a pair of horns on his temples, similar in shape to the ones Yella had. The faintest hint of a golden mustache glowed below his nostrils. His golden slit-eyes opened and shone through the dark aura.
The golden spirit in front of him sighed. “It’s really no wonder why you were able to consume us so easily,” he said. Vur looked down at his hands and then craned his neck to look at his wings. The spirit walked in a circle around Vur. “We’ve seen hundreds of elves unleash auras during the wars, but we’ve never seen any that looked like this. There’ve also been a few of us who have been imprinted, but we never managed to awaken at all.”
Shouts sounded outside the temple and shrieks echoed through the air as the ground shook. Dust rained down from the ceiling as cracks spread down the walls. Rays of light pierced through the temple as the roof was ripped away, revealing a black dragon’s face.
“Eh?” Grimmy blinked his eyes. “Why aren’t you killing anything?”
Lindyss peaked over Grimmy’s snout. “Maybe he just finished transforming? It always takes a while the first time,” Lindyss said. “Let’s wait a bit and see.”
Grimmy nodded while sitting down. “Right,” he said and placed the roof back on top of the temple as if he was covering a pot with a lid. He turned and looked down at Paul, who was sitting in a puddle of urine near Grimmy’s feet. All the other humans in the vicinity were in the midst of hiding or running away.
“What are you looking at?” Grimmy asked as a wisp of smoke flew out of his nostril. “Never seen such a handsome creature before?” He lowered his head towards Paul. “Why aren’t you running?”
“M-my f-friends a-a-are t-there,” Paul said with a pale face as his shaking arm pointed towards the temple.
“Oh?” Grimmy said as he tilted his head. “I guess you’re not too bad of a human. Good thing I didn’t squish you on accident. You should do something about wetting your pants, though. It’s not very manly.” Grimmy’s tail thumped against the floor as he sighed and sat up. “I wish Vur would hurry up. I really want to see how he uses that leviathan tail.”
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A fairy with magenta-colored hair sat down outside of a cave, eating a berry. Metal bars with blue runes covered the entrance. Two fairies were lying face down in the cave with shackles attached to their ankles and wrists. The magenta-haired fairy looked up and saw an amber-haired fairy flying towards her.
“Oh? I’m off guard duty already?” she asked as she placed the rest of the berry in her mouth. She stood up and stretched her arms above her head.
“Any change?” the amber-haired fairy asked as she landed in front of the entrance.
“Nope. They haven’t moved since I got here.”
“They’re not dead, right?” the amber-haired fairy asked as she peered through the bars at the red and blue-haired fairies lying on the ground.
“Not possible. They couldn’t die even if they wanted to,” the magenta-haired fairy replied as she glanced at the chains holding Rella and Bella. “Have fun watching over them.” She laughed and flew up into the air.
The amber-haired fairy snorted and walked over to the chair as the other fairy disappeared into the distance. A crack formed beneath the fairy’s feet and she looked down while tilting her head. A worm shot out of the ground and pierced through her abdomen before she could react. Her body convulsed as she opened her mouth to scream, but no sounds came out. She lay on the floor twitching for a few moments before she stood up with unfocused eyes. She turned towards the cave entrance with saliva leaking from her mouth.
Rella was awakened by the sounds of crunching metal. She saw the back of a fairy who was crouched over her arm, eating the chains of her manacles. A shiver passed over her body and the eating fairy froze. She turned and stared at Rella.
A long moment passed before she continued to chew on the chains. Rella’s lips cracked as a corner of her mouth twitched. A chain has more mana than me, huh? she thought before her eyes closed as she lost consciousness.