"Take the core?”

I was honestly a little surprised that she didn’t say we should destroy it. Wouldn’t she want to see the dragon soul or whatever it was that receded in this core to be annihilated from this world?

“Dragon core’s are very valuable.” Terra went on to explain. “After everything that Master has done, I wouldn’t dare to ask him to so casually destroy it.”

“Very well… then, please… bring me the core.”

I didn’t want to go chopping into a dragon myself, after all. I had a feeling that with Terra’s abilities and experience with the dragon, she probably knew how to find it and get it out safely over anyone else. Terra nodded and then turned to the dragon. She had her hands out in front of her as if she was feeling for something. A moment later, there was a rumble in the ground. It made me slightly nervous because of the previous cave-in, but Terra was an earth golem, so I figured I needed to trust her on this.

A moment later, a spike erupted through the dragon. It jerked a single time, but then the lights in its eyes went out. The spike came out somewhere near where Terra was standing. Cupped inside it was a small orb which looked to be made of glass. She fetched out the orb casually, turned and then presented it to me. Smiling, I reached out, grabbed her fingers, and then closed them around the orb.

“You did it…” I explained. “You defeated the clockwork dragon. No one has earned this core more than you.”

“Me? Eh? Wha-“ She looked back at the dragon, now lifeless, and then to me again, growing increasingly flustered.

The other reason I asked her to fetch the orb was that I wanted her to do the final killing blow. This was a creature she had literally been fighting her entire life.

“Congratulations.” I pulled her into a hug. “You protected us all, and you have made a splendid guardian.”

“Ah…” Tears started to form in her eyes, and suddenly she clung to me desperately, and I could hear crying.

The other two girls ran up and hugged the pair us too, crying right alongside her. Why were they crying? Wasn’t this Terra’s burden to unload? Ah… well… it was fine. Her story was finally brought to a close. She had finally destroyed the dragon that had once destroyed her. Wait… something about that thought unnerved me slightly. I felt a strange aching feeling. It was a feeling I had felt twice already. Suddenly, I noticed something rising out of the pocket of the unconscious Carmine.

A bright light filled the cavern that made my own orbs seem negligible. The light pulsated for a few seconds, but it was almost like I could read its mind. A… finished… lore…

“H-hey… no-no-no… didn’t she finish it? What are you doing! Wait!”

A light shot towards me and text started to float into my mind. A searing feeling wrapped around my thigh as a new tattoo branded itself on my body. Lore began to flood into my mind. Another blessing. Another curse.