Arc | Chapter. 52: Meeting at the Maw (Patreon)

Chapter. 52: Meeting at the Maw

If I was honest, I was annoyed, bothered that things had turned out this way. I had tried to enjoy myself this entire month, but I could only enjoy myself so much when I was trying to live life on standby. I wasn’t trying to settle down or anything, so even if I found myself enjoying going to the ice workshop every other day, I couldn’t exactly treat it like a hobby but a distraction instead.

Even if I enjoyed it.

I turned to Regis, the Dragon of Flames who had just used some kind of skill or magic to contact his fellow dragons. However, before I could speak, I brought up the two questions I had in my mind.

“Do other heroes know of the Forgotten Places?”

“They do, but…” Regis shook his head. “They don’t think it’s worth the trouble last time I checked. Should I elaborate?”

“No.” With that I moved onto my next question. “So now with everything out of the way. I have to ask; what did you do for a month in this room?”

“I was in deep thought,” Regis said simply. “I laid in bed and thought.”

I raised my brow, somewhat intrigued but also skeptical. “What did you think about?”

“I…” he trailed off for a moment, and then, he met my gaze with resolution. “It was all in regards to you and how to proceed for the future.”

His reply stunned me for a moment. “Ha?”

“You are, while not the strongest hero, your talent is something I had never even heard of before,” he said looking at the ground. “I don’t know how to process it, or how to ask for your help, what to expect from you⁠— nothing.”

I followed his words, thinking through them before deciding to acknowledge things very slowly.

“I do not know how talented I am, and I find it baffling, however, there is nothing to process Regis,” I said, shaking my head. “If you need my help, and you do become my friend I shall help you, as for what to expect from me? Well, I enjoy fighting but contrary to what it seems like right now, I do not actively seek it out. I just take opportunities thrown at me⁠—”

“Like our fight,” he interrupted and I nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, my main goal is finding a home and enjoy what this world has to offer, nothing else and nothing more. So I guess you can expect me to help you if you have personal struggles,” I said tilting my head. “But if it’s too troublesome I won’t lift a finger.”

“That is harsh but I understand.” Then he lightly smiled. “Thank you for explaining it to me. I concluded something similar.”

“I see.” I closed my eyes for a moment, before making a decision. “We should leave now.”

“Right, let’s go.” With those words he stepped towards the door only to pause. “Where is Ceylon?”

I shook my head. “Ceylon won’t be coming along, she is busy dealing with the ice business.”

Though, that wasn’t the truth.

She did want to come, except I had denied her. Unlike other times, I knew that if things went somehow wrong with the dragons, I’d likely be unable to protect her. So in the end, I told her to focus on her family and left a graciously large stock of ice, and even gave her permission to sell all of the ice sculptures I had made throughout the month.

After that, we said our goodbyes, but she did make me promise that I’d return which was something that made me smile.

Finally, I returned to the moment, and moved to leave the room.

“Let’s go, we are going now.”

“Right.”

With those words, we quietly left the place of residence of the Arlow family in the middle of the night. Soon after, leaving the town of Rivas and heading as far away as possible. Unfortunately, we had to travel through the use of [God Step] and [Quick Step] due to the fact that the dragon sightings had been linked to the Hero of Frost.

So; the Dragon of Flames could not be spotted anywhere near Rivas, which made us travel for hours rather than minutes.

But eventually, we were in the clear and rode towards the Maw of Dragons.

A place, where perhaps, a life changing event awaited me...

◇ ◇ ◇

An hour later, we found ourselves flying over a vast sea. I had no clue where we were, but Draliz, the country that I had emerged in and lived in since coming here, had been left behind even if briefly. And now, I watched the sparkling stars overhead atop of Regis’karr, the Dragon of Flames, all while watching the eternal blue expanse all around us.

The wind rustled my hair and I just relaxed.

I had spoken with Regis about what to expect, and in the end, it seemed that the dragons would try to intimidate me perhaps, or welcome me; he was unsure. However, he reassured me that there was no ill will from them, which well, was to be expected since they wanted me to go to their side.

So given all of that, I decided to relax and enjoy the scenery, mostly the stars.

And that’s what I did, until finally, Regis spoke up.

“We are arriving now.”

I blinked, and rose from his back, turning back to see the vast ocean, and off in the distance. I saw it, a gigantic mountain on the horizon, almost the size of a small country. It was in the middle of the sea, and impossibly tall; it soared above the clouds themselves, and through its middle, a large gaping crack ran, one filled with incandescent light; palpitating and pulsating as if it were alive.

I recognized it instantly.

It was the Maw of Dragons.

The place where Regis told me to seek him last time, and the place where I would be meeting the other Grand Dragon Elders; SS Tier beings. The notion made me briefly hold my breath as we got closer and closer to the country-sized mountain.

And soon, Regis’karr flew through the crack in the middle where through gaps in the stone, we suddenly found ourselves in a center-most area. A large place with a center-most pit, one that was filled with magma. And as Regis’karr landed, I saw them.

[Dragon of Wind. Tier: SS]

[Dragon of Shadows. Tier: SS]

[Dragon of Earth. Tier: SS]

…

The seven Grand Dragon Elders.

However, one caught my eye. While the ground wasn’t completely even, one part in particular stood out which was like a small hill across the room, and there, the last Grand Dragon Elder sat.

He had blue scales, and it was none other than…

[Dragon of Frost. Tier: SS]

My dragon counterpart.

Our gazes met, his blue eyes met mine for a moment, before finally he stood up. All of the dragons present were looking at us now, or rather at me. Regis got a few passing glances at most. So I stood there, confused on what to do now as I simply waited. Finally, the Dragon of Frost out of all people spoke up.

“Heroine of Frost, we welcome you to our humble abode.” His head lowered, as if in a bow. “It is with great pleasure, and shock to see you listen to our fellow Dragon Elder, Regis’karr.”

Right… I nodded very slowly, acknowledging what he had just said.

“We didn’t expect to welcome you this soon, however, you can make yourself at home.”

I looked around at the cave. How am I supposed to even make myself at home? Well I had an idea, but still…

I nodded once more, and then there was silence as his speech came to an end. All of the dragons turned to me as I struggled to not look at the ground. It was… awkward. I wasn’t used to being the center of attention, but I knew that I actually came here for one thing and one thing only.

And that was…

In my mind, I took a deep breath before speaking. “I came here, because I was promised one thing.” I didn’t know if to play the arrogant hero or not, but… “As for anything the Grand Dragon Elders, I’m more than happy to provide it afterwards.”

Regis winced, a lot of the dragons took a pause and finally, one of the elders spoke up.

“A transactional relationship?”

“I mean, I guess so?” I said, uncertain. “It is not purely a business oriented thing, I’ll never forget any favor that the Grand Dragon Elders do for me, and I do not intend to join any heroes⁠— I already attempted to kill the Hero of Shadows.”

“Siegfried?” The dark scaled Dragon of Shadows asked. “He is too hard to⁠—”

“Well I killed him,” I said simply. “I just didn’t know that the System would send kill notifications even if they revived.”

There was a silence before all of the dragons present started to bicker amongst themselves, all for me to hear given we were in the same room.

“So Regis’karr was saying the truth about her boon!”

“Well, I said he has [Truth Divination] already, of course he was telling the truth!”

“Still, to have a hero so strong here with us is…”

Their conversation continued and I noticed something, while Regis’karr just stood there unknowing of what to do, the Dragon of Frost was observing the other bickering dragons shaking his head.

Finally, after a minute of letting it play out, he spoke up again.

“That is enough, we have a guest here.” That was enough to silence things as he continued, turning to me. “Your arrival is largely unexpected, so unfortunately the blood ceremony cannot be done at this moment, for I must enact preparations first.”

“Right…” I nodded, as if understanding.

To be honest, it seemed a bit irresponsible to me that it couldn’t be done at this moment, it was… very disappointing; wasn’t that one of their selling points for recruiting me? It just left a bad impression on me, which the Dragon of Frost seemed to notice.

“I am sorry for our negligence, I will personally ensure it is ready as soon as possible by making the ceremony myself.”

With those words, he beat his wings and took flight, disappearing into a crack in the roof and going elsewhere. This, however, made the Grand Dragon Elders bicker once more amongst themselves.

Something about the Dragon of Frost being the one to do it personally was something that rarely if ever happened.

Which, well, was something I largely ignored.

Though, in the corner of my eye I noticed something. It was the Dragon of Shadows, and they were coming towards me. Regis’karr stepped aside as the Dragon of Shadows arrived meeting my gaze with their golden eyes, before finally, they spoke.

“Heroine of Shadows, what is your name?”

“Arc, do you need something?” I asked, raising my brow.

“Arc, I’d like to have a private talk with you.”

I paused, and thought for a moment before gauging Regis’karr’s reaction. He seemed surprised but said nothing, nor did he seem worried; considering all of those things, I agreed.

“Alright.”

The Dragon of Shadows nodded in response and turned around. “Please follow me.”

And just like that, I found myself following after the Dragon of Shadows. We quietly left the room through one of the many crevices in ground level, and… no  words were spoken as we traveled.

It took a few minutes, but eventually we found ourselves in a plateau overseeing the ocean. Finally, I turned to regard the Dragon of Shadows only to see them become a mass of black that quickly melted. And I paused. What greeted me was, a woman of black long hair and golden eyes, and she seemed to be wearing black leggings and a crop-top? It was… unexpected.

She smiled at me. “I’ll introduce myself now, I am the Dragon of Shadows, Malz, if it sounds weird to you, you can just call me Mally.”

“That is… right.” I nodded, still confused.

Her smile deepened. “Do I look weird or something?”

“I kind of just thought every dragon was male?” I said, doubting what I was saying. “You all kinda sound the same in dragon form.”

She chuckled. “That is fair, the Dragon of Wind is also a female if you’re curious, the rest are male.”

“Uh huh, right… thank you.”

Her smile faded to a small one as she spoke up. “I wanted to talk to you about the Hero of Shadows, Siegfried.” She turned to look at the ocean. “You see, I’ve fought them before.”

“And did you lose?”

“Not lose, I easily overpowered them.” She shook her head. “But he easily escaped my grasp, so I guess I am confused on how you did it and want to find out.”

“Oh.” I blinked. “I just used a do⁠—”

She shook her head, interrupting me. “No, that’s not what I mean. I don’t want you to explain it, I want to find out how you did it.”

“Find out…?”

Wasn’t explaining it finding out? Malz nodded at me, meeting my gaze before stepping away.

“That is why I brought you here.” Her figure became a pitch-black abyss, her voice distorting as she grew in size. “It wasn’t to talk, but to…”

And I was met by the looming Dragon of Shadows, who towered over me, bloodlust engulfing me.

“Fight you.”