Upon feeling the elder dragon’s intent, Llamiryl and Yfera frowned, somehow, the atmosphere in the room felt far heavier than usual.
“The epicenter of the earthquake, if you could even call it that, seemed to occur at the core abyss, meaning the predictions regarding the dragon’s nest within are true, it is even the worst possible scenario.” Yfera brought a finger to her chin, uncaring of the falling debris from the destroyed roof.
“Now the question is, how could anyone possibly intrude upon a nest located deep within the earth? Not only would the temperature and pressure instantly kill a regular fleshly body, no being can survive the exposure to such a concentrated mass of mana crystals. Unless of course, they were made from the very material.” Yfera took a glance around the room.
Cale and Elizabeth were silent; they were visibly shocked at the sudden chain of events, and while they had already witnessed the capabilities of an elder dragon, the beam of light was a lot more threatening when it came from an unseen force.
As for Elyssa, she was visibly shaking in fear, the calming effect of Cale’s soul weapon could no longer keep up with the shock she had felt. Luckily, her bladder still preserved her dignity.
“I-“ She paused, and gulped as if something was stuck on her throat.
“Is it after one of us? How are we even still alive?” The words barely came out of her mouth.
Yfera’s eyes stopped darting around the room, to which the pair landed on Elizabeth.
“Yfera, we should get going to a safer area… I hope you aren’t confused as to what your current job is?” Llamiryl’s voice called out to her and interrupted her observations.
“Why of course…” Yfera glanced down at her long apron, and stared at the pocket watch hung on her waste. The hands of the clock indicated that it was approaching midnight.
“Ah right, I’m working overtime.”
Cale shook his head and waved his soul weapon, his body relaxed and his eyes narrowed a little.
Elyssa finally stopped shaking.
“What are you, a maid working nine to five?” A slight smile appeared on Cale’s face.
Yfera stepped forward and headed for a direction outside of the campus, Llamiryl and Cale followed suit, but Elizabeth had to drag her sister for a few meters before she started walking on her own.
“I’m surprised you can still make small talk in a situation like this. Nine to five is a weird way to put it though… but I do like to keep my working hours to a minimum, at least as a personal servant of the Elven Imperial Family.” She matched her pace with Llamiryl.
“It just so happens that it is my duty to protect one right now.”
“Huh, a maid that treats her duties like office hours, that’s definitely new.” Cale crossed his arms, his fingers tightly held on to his soul weapon. The false flame within the lamp burned brightly.
The air around them sped up, the gust of wind came from the exposed portion of the ceiling.
“Where exactly would be safe? I am not sure if there would be any place that would warrant any more safety from dragons, considering I am already right beside you.” Yfera boasted.
“An underground base, draconic species are very mindful of not destroying the earth too much, so their capabilities would be greatly reduced underground.” Llamiryl commented, the confidence in her voice was that of an expert in the field.
“That is true, then lead the way!” Yfera proclaimed.
Llamiryl went ahead of Yfera.
“Ah, but do try to stay beside me, at least if you get harmed I could say I tried all that I could.” Yfera once again arrived at Llamiryl’s side and placed her arm in front of her as if she was a parent protecting her child from a creepy stranger.
Llamiryl sighed and shook her head.
Cale moved to the side of Elizabeth, a confident smile appeared on his face and he whispered in her ear,
“Hey remember our argument about whether or not an actual maid could be lazy or not? Well I think I won that one.”
The corners of Elizabeth’s lips slightly curled down.
“Is that really the best time to bring that up?”
Cale shrugged and let out a short laugh.
“Hah, well it’s not good to be feeling nervous in a situation like this, don’t you think? I may as well lighten the mood.”
“I think my sister needs that more than me.” Elizabeth glanced at her sister who silently followed behind her. Her expression was blank and her figure visibly shook, although not to the point where it was obvious.
Cale scratched the back of his head and gazed downwards.
“Well I’m no good with that.”
A few small pebbles fell from the ceiling, they made a soft thump on the floor. Yfera gazed upwards and observed the ceiling.
“Step back a few meters, please.” She spoke in an audible voice.
Llamiryl had already stepped backwards long before Yfera had spoken.
Cale immediately leaped backwards and stumbled a bit due to the awkward action.
Elizabeth dragged Elyssa away from Yfera’s position.
Yfera knelt down and placed a pouch of cloth on the ground, a faint golden glow emanated from the pouch.
A second later, the ceiling broke down and revealed the figure of five beasts, their lizard-like body was made of earth, the cracks within their “skin” oozed molten rock and a pair of stone wings adorned their back.
They were young dragons.
After a deafening roar, the dragons crashed down on the floor below them, strangely, the material of the floor did not shatter, despite the walls and ceiling being reduced to nothing more than dust, but the shockwave created by the landing would be enough to kill all humans in the immediate area.
Would, is the key word here, as everyone in the immediate vicinity remained largely unscathed, much to their confusion.
Aside from Yfera and Llamiryl, the former of which had a shining blue lotus cupped between her two hands.
Meanwhile, the five dragons winced as chunks of rock fell from their body.
“My soul weapon allows me to share any damage I take with someone, and vice versa. They have to be able to sense my soul weapon in one way or another though, and I also have to be aware of their presence.” Yfera hastily explained.
The pouch on the ground had already been ripped apart by the initial impact, it revealed a yellow particle the size of a marble.
The particle combusted into a sea of flames that engulfed Yfera and the young dragons, the fire was a scorching blue-violet at the base of the blast, which changed into a yellow-white hue the farther away it was, and a wave of heat rushed through the surrounding area.
Hurricane force winds blew through the area, but it only served to fan the flames and spread them out in a wider radius.
Llamiryl simply stood there with her arms crossed, she was confident that the heat would not even burn her one bit.
Elizabeth had dragged Cale and Elyssa to a place where the concentration of flames was the lowest, but they then realized that the heat did not hurt them at all.
“I’m no adept at quick casting, but I’m glad that I thought to prepare a few of these beforehand.” Yfera took out three more pouches of the delayed fire blast and threw them at the young dragons who were still frantically flapping their wings in an attempt to fan the flames away from them.
However, this only directed the flames to Yfera, who directed the damage from the flames back to the dragons.
Three balls of fire once more rose up from the ground and engulfed the dragons and Yfera in even more flames.
“Drat. This will take a while.” Yfera cursed as she wiped some dirt from her face.
At this moment, Cale waved his soul weapon at Elizabeth and turned her into a wisp of purple, much to Elyssa’s shock.
“The spirit and body are the same, yet they take different roles in the material plane, take these forms and reverse their roles from whence they came!”
The wisp of purple seemed to visibly cringe, despite being just a wisp of purple. It weaved it’s way through the sea of flames and found its way above a struggling young dragon.
“Return to origin!” Cale raised the lamp to the level of his head.
The wisp of purple turned back into Elizabeth, who had the Swiss army knife grasped between her two hands. The edge of the utility knife found its way onto the exterior of the dragon, causing superficial damage.
Or at least one would think, as the blow had extinguished all life from the young dragon, turning it into nothing more than a lump of rock.
Yfera, who witnessed the scene had an expression of shock plastered on her face. She quickly awakened from her stupor and rushed to the corpse of the young dragon to harvest it’s “core” that had the properties of a mana crystal.
Only to find it completely missing
Elizabeth carefully slid down the lump of earth, and waited a moment before a tail of a dragon brushed past her.
Two young dragons started to charge up a breath attack, which quickly came under notice of Yfera, who immediately rushed to take the full force of the blow.
However, Elizabeth took the chance to climb on the head of a a dragon that was charging up its attack, this was possible due to its head that was bent down at a low altitude.
The dragon’s head jerked upwards in panic, but before she was knocked into the air Elizabeth managed to land a glancing blow on the dragon and kill it.
Using the momentum from the dragon’s head, she found her way on the body of the other that was charging up its attack, she did not hesitate to end its life with a stab of her not-so-normal utility knife.
She gracefully landed on the ground and dusted her clothes.
“Well, I can’t have you three do all the work, can I?” Llamiryl commented, she did a swift motion with her hand and all of the sudden; the space that the remaining two dragons occupied was torn asunder.
Such an event was not known to everyone but Llamiryl, as only a moment later the space returned to its original state, but the life that the two dragons held did not.
They were dead without anyone even knowing what happened.
Yfera let out a relieved breath and fixed her dress that was now a bit wrinkled from the fight. She took a glance at the "corpses" of the young dragons, but she decided it was not worth her time harvesting them for any useful bits.
“Well, I always knew that your imperial highness was impressive in terms of combat capabilities, but her friends are outstanding as well, huh? That was a wonderful performance, Miss Elizabeth.”
“Oh please, you flatter me. It would have been impossible without your help.” Elizabeth responded, the pitch of her voice was slightly higher.
She jumped up in shock as she felt a hand on her shoulder; she turned around and saw the face of her sister, whose eyes were practically glaring at her.
“Sister, after this fiasco is all over, you have a lot to tell me, alright? Last time I checked slaying three young dragons in the span of a few seconds was not an attainable achievement for even a student of Great Leyline academy.”
Elizabeth turned to Llamiryl and Cale for confirmation, the two shrugged and left the decision to her.
Elizabeth sighed.
“Alright then, it cannot be helped.”
Cale tugged at Yfera’s dress and asked a question.
“Hey, you said your soul weapon shares the damage you take right? I assume you somehow linked it to us so we wouldn’t be crushed to meat paste, but how the hell are you still unharmed.”
Much to Cale’s surprise, Yfera answered his inquiry without much hesitation.
“Before I arrived, I cast a peak level warding spell of Invulnerability, it makes me immune to all manners of attacks for a set period of time.” She checked the pocket watch hung on her waste.
“It seems it is about to expire, so I would not recommend having another fight like this”
Cale nodded at her explanation, and was about to retreat until Yfera stopped him.
“I am curious, though, the attacks of adult and elder dragons are usually imbued with a property that harms the soul, that is not something that Invulnerability can protect against. I, however, find my spirit wholly unscathed.”
Cale held his chin in deliberation before he responded.
“My soul weapon cannot harm the mortal realm, but it deals in manipulating the properties of the unseen world.”
A satisfied smile curled up on his face.
“Ah, so it is just like old Willow’s, huh, that reminds me…”
She gazed up at the now exposed night sky, all manners of magical attacks pummeled the roaming dragons, save for spells that are related to fire.
“Has the academy experienced decadence over the years? I would not imagine that the local barrier would fall to a measly amount of five young dragons.”
The soothing voice of an old man answered her.
“How rude of you to assume that, it is simply costlier to activate the barrier at a moment’s notice rather than to rebuild the structure of the academy.”
Yfera turned around, and the figure of Principal Willow was revealed before his eyes, his robes were draped over his figure, but the expression of his face was ever-so-solemn.
Cale and Elizabeth took a few steps backwards.
“As cold and calculating as ever, Principal Willow.” Yfera responded, a tone of disdain clear in her voice.
Principal Willow laughed, the pitch of his laughter was painful to the ears.
“Have we grown so distant that you cannot deign to say my true name? Ah, very well, that is fine.” He shook his head, and gave Yfera the stink eye.
“I see you are still working for that dysfunctional government, life is short and fleeting even for one such as you, do you truly not wish to spend it in more fruitful endeavors?”
Yfera crossed her arms and scoffed.
“Hmph, if the pursuit of knowledge is what you call a fruitful endeavor, forget it. I much prefer an idle lifestyle.”
A slight smile crept up on Principal Willow’s face, he looked towards an undamaged part of the academy, the exposed marble walls within werelargely unscathed.
“I suppose that is true, decadence happens to us all as time passes, even the standards of my academy has grown more lax over the years, whether I like it or not.”
“If only the situation was more like that in the past.” Yfere relaxed her guard a little and dropped her shoulders a bit.
“You would not be where you are now if not for such standards pushing you to do hard work.” Principal Willow turned around.
“Spending more than a hundred years of my life dedicating myself to the pursuit of knowledge, I doubt that hard work was worth it.” Yfera retorted.
“To mock the fruit of your sorcery, that sure takes will. But that is to be expected of an elf that betrayed her own kind, after all.”
Principal Willow put his right foot forward.
“When I first took you under my care, I thought that the basic nature of creatures could be changed.”
His left foot followed.
“Until now, I do not know the answer. Are you fundamentally an elf, or a dark elf?”
A short laugh was heard in between his breaths.
“Ha, but it matters not now.”
He quickened his pace, headed northwards.
However, Yfera extended her hand to stop him and call out to him.
“Wait!”
Principal Willow raised an eyebrow and turned his head around.
“Hmm?”
“I noticed that there were fewer archmages maintaining the barrier, are they setting up a spell elsewhere?” Yfera asked.
“They’re about to do the hero summoning ritual.”
The expression on Yfera’s face contorted, she bit her lips.
“That blasphemous spell, are you not going to stop it?”
Principal Willow faced forwards once more.
“My contract with the dragons detailed that I should stop the ritual unless there is a good reason for it. An unannounced attack on the capital by an elder dragon is certainly a good reason to perform the ritual, no?”
“Wait, but the corruption of souls from another world is a sin against god-“
Principal Willow only quickened his pace, not sparing a moment to respond.
Yfera slowly put down her hand.
Llamiryl moved beside Yfera.
“Well that was informative, certainly worth the interruption, but before we get going, what’s the hero summoning ritual?” She inquired.
“It is a heretical ritual that involves poisoning a soul with power of eldritch origin, and while we cannot risk infecting a local soul with such a ritual, an outsider soul would simply cease to exist upon their death.” Yfera paused and took a deep breath.
“I personally think the ritual is just inviting an unknown danger we do not think of, but when faced against a power such as an elder dragon, I can understand why they would resort to it.”
A cold expression appeared on Yfera’s face.
“It is foolish to assume that a being corrupted with the power to slay an elder dragon will not pose a bigger threat to the kingdom, but Invicta would not proceed without a contingency plan. In any case, I can’t do anything to stop the ritual from proceeding anyways.”
She turned around and did a curtsy.
“My sincerest apologies for the interruption, her imperial highness and her friends, let us proceed to our destination.”
Cale started to frantically tap on his soul weapon and created a communication channel for him and Elizabeth.
‘Was this in one of the routes of the game?’
‘Not that I know of, and I pretty much know all the endings, not sure if I missed a small detail though.’
Cale massaged his forehead.
‘Well, shit, looks like we need to ask the others about that, Frank would definitely be willing to lend a hand. But I’m not sure if Anzhel and Dai would be willing to help us, they might grow curious about the process and ask us to not stop it. That would leave a bad taste in my mouth though, a bunch of teens getting isekai’d is fun to watch in theory, but in practice that would be pretty bad.’
‘Relax, I have a gut feeling that won’t be the case, and if they really were like that then they would have just dissected us from the get-go.’ Elizabeth comforted Cale and gave him a spiritual pat on the back.
‘Well, your gut feeling has always been correct, let’s hope this goes well.’
The group headed out of the academy and to the underground bunkers of General Alchemy.
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