Arc | Chapter. 55: The Arcane (Patreon)

Chapter. 55: The Arcane

His name was ancient, long forgotten by everyone alive, only the remnants of it known by a select few. However, all of that was irrelevant, now, he was known as the Dragon of Frost. He was the first Grand Dragon Elder and he had a very simple mission, and that was to ensure the Heroine of Frost came to their side, and for that he needed to make her submit.

The Dragon of Frost narrowed his eyes as a retaliation came, a blast of ice instantly arrived and he⁠⁠— scoffed. With a sweep of his claws, the blizzard-like burst of ice failed to reach him, dispersing around him as his eyes narrowed.

He was fighting against a hero. And his own counterpart no less.

The Heroine of Frost.

Which was why he had to be careful in the first place. He didn’t want to use his preparations if he didn’t have to. And so, instead he decided that he had to win the fight as fast as possible, through using nothing but his own strength.

His muscles tensed, his bones creaked, and his mana flared. The Heroine of Frost took notice of it, but it didn’t matter as he instantly channeled all of his mana to his extremities, and feeling it from his throat he called⁠:

“Oh, no you don’t!” And the Heroine of Frost appeared, slashing down upon his neck⁠—

“[Playground of Frozen Nightmares]!”

And the ice sword that hit his neck shattered⁠— a blast of ice sent the Heroine of Frost tumbling back as the entirety of the mountaintop was engulfed in a thin layer of gray colored ice. In an instant, the surroundings became engulfed in a sharp blizzard of sharp ice, and with a command of his extremities, deformed creatures appeared.

The Heroine of Frost stared surprised as her cheek was slashed by the blizzard.

He knew her boon, he knew the only way to truly get rid of her was by using SS Tier skills, and this was just the beginning.

He was the oldest, the wisest, and the strongest.

His eyes narrowed as he commanded the monsters of forgotten times to attack. A worm immediately pounced, one that was hundreds of meters long and a dozen meters wide, its elongated body shattered the ice; the surrounding monsters too attacked; a twisted wolf and a four winged bird.

The expression of the Heroine of Frost never changed as she made an ice spear and her body was engulfed in an armor of ice. Then, a moment later, all of the monsters impacted⁠— ice shards flew through the air and roars echoed.

The Dragon of Frost smiled, he watched as more beasts formed. The environment was his and his to control alone, he could feel it, pulsating with waves of his mana, he could feel the instincts of the ice monsters that had been created, and it was exhilarating.

The beasts attacked, some died, but in the end, it was too overwhelming as the Heroine of Frost got thrown around. She fought back, sometimes her reflexes were truly worth of praise, and other times, for more inoffensive attacks, they were incredibly dull; almost lazy.

The Dragon of Frost scoffed, and commanded the monsters to be more aggressive.

She was pushed faster, made to react more, but in the end it didn’t matter as a hill sized four-legged beast hit her with its claws. The armor shattered, sending the Heroine of Frost flying, and that’s when he saw it…

Her face.

It was almost vacant.

Had she given up on fighting already!?

The Dragon of Frost felt anger like never before and immediately slammed both of his claws down as most of the monsters began to fuse into two legendary beasts. One was the worm, the other was a serpent, just as big. They had both been two terrifying beings that ruled the grand desert of Arlas:

The Great Serpent, Anara, and Salas, the Conqueror of Sands.

He had fought them in the past, but now he was using them to put an end to this and kill the Heroine of Frost in order to start the process of forcing her to come to their side.

His eyes narrowed.

It was only a matter of time before she started to beg for her life.

* * * * *

Malz flew above the peak of the maw, worried about what was unfolding before her eyes. The Dragon of Frost was fighting Arc, for some reason. She had kicked the chalice and soon after, a battle ensued. Arc had no animosity towards the dragons, and Malz had reason to believe the woman was telling the truth for her reason to come here.

Moreover, no other Grand Dragon Elder had supervised the creation of the mana-filled blood within the chalice, it had all been supervised by the Dragon of Frost, the same dragon that was trying to kill Arc at this given moment. Malz found it strange, perhaps not out of character, but strange, also worrisome.

Yet she didn’t act, not while all the other Grand Dragon Elders flew by her side. Regis’karr stared, surprise within his eyes, however, the other elders were rather confused, and of course, gossiping amongst themselves.

“Is she against us?”

“She mentioned poison but!”

“Do you think Frosty would be as dumb as to try to poison a hero? It’s clear it was a premeditated decision by the Heroine of Frost!”

…

Malz listened, and she simply gritted her teeth listening to their ongoing thing. They weren’t even paying attention to the fight, not much at least. The elders were just angry, angry at Arc for standing up, angry that the Heroine of Frost was a savage that couldn’t follow the ceremony, that she would lie and taint the name of the dragons⁠—

It was all bullshit.

Malz teetered in indecision, she didn’t know what to actually do, Arc was struggling against the two beasts, but… Malz couldn’t jump in to save her, not without angering the rest of the elders and causing them to join the fight in the name of betrayal.

Her thoughts veered for a moment, before she heard one of the elders speak.

“We should help to punish the sinner.”

And at that moment, the other elders agreed. Malz paused and felt anger flare inside of her again.

“Are you all dumb?!” she roared.

The dragon elders paused, stunned at her comment and turned to her with frowns, but she continued without pause.

“Arc hasn’t done jackshit against us, the only reason she is even on our bad-side right now is because I literally forced her to fight me!” Malz protested. “Can you all think for a moment? All heroes have [Appraisal], if she said it’s poison then it probably is? Why would she provoke us when we are all here. If we all used our best skills, no single hero would be able to fight back!”

She flapped her wings with fervor, her anger raising.

“Think, didn’t the Dragon of Frost prepare the ceremony alone? And didn’t he react a little bit too fast? His words alone indicate that he was planning this!”

The elders blinked, stunned in silence as they registered what Malz was saying. That was until the Dragon of Earth spoke.

“And how can you be so certain of this?”

Malz blinked.

He can’t be serious⁠—

“Arc was telling the truth.” Regis’karr sighed. “That chalice indeed had poison. [Truth Divination] tells it all.”

There was another pause, the elders shared some glances and one talked about being unsure of Regis’karr’s words, and another dragon pointed out that they had been relying on him for information the entire time⁠. Then, it broke into an argument.

Malz couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t the oldest or youngest among the elders, but somehow at this moment, she felt as if she was looking at a bunch of fossils that had lost their reasoning from old age.

This was⁠—

And an explosion down below occurred. One that screamed with a shrill cacophony of sounds of broken glass. Malz paused, the elders froze and craned to look down only to see one of the beasts that was fighting Arc missing, and the serpent was sent flying again.

“You know, I really tried to understand it,” she said, shaking her head as she walked forward. “But the nature of an SS Tier skill is still relatively confusing to me. I cannot replicate it.”

At that moment, the serpent recovered and pounced⁠. Arc dodged and stabbed in between scales only for cracks to appear across the beast and⁠— shatter. The same horrible sound echoed as Arc continued to walk.

“However I’m done with all of that.”

She said shaking her head before meeting the gaze of the Dragon of Frost. Malz instinctually shivered and then, Arc spoke coldly.

“Now I’ll kill you.”

* * * * *

The Dragon of Frost felt his body tense at that moment. But the heroine continued as she walked forward.

“I don’t understand if you were telling the truth earlier in regards to the ceremony or if it was a ploy since the start. But I don’t care now.”

She spat on the ground.

“I need no stupid blood ceremony to overcome my problems, coming here was a mistake.”

At that moment, the Dragon of Frost felt his pride as a dragon being touched. She was looking down on one of the most esteemed and highly regarded traditions, and he couldn’t take it.

“The ceremony is real,” he growled. “Consuming the mana filled flesh of a dragon will instantly strengthen any living being, how dare you slander it!”

The Dragon of Frost felt nothing but hatred consume him as he prepared his next skill, he was going to use everything and get rid of her once in for all⁠—

“Oh is that so?” She asked, appearing next to him. “Well I don’t care!”

And she slammed the spear down, at that moment a gigantic spear formed in the sky and was brought down. The Dragon of Frost was hit, screamed as judgment bore on him. Then, his eyes went wide seeing her in the distance. Sheholding her hands towards him, and then, a moment later, she clapped⁠—

The ice shifted, and he was hit. He was thrown into the air by a being bigger than him, a humanoid one that had red mana lights for eyes, and an elongated and twisted body. And before the Dragon of Frost could do anything else, the creature jumped.

His eyes grew wide as he saw the beast grip both of its deformed hands looming over him, and then it slammed⁠— the Dragon of Frost felt his body scream in pain as he crashed at supersonic speeds against the top of the Maw of Dragons. Rock exploding everywhere.

What is happening? The Dragon of Frost couldn’t understand. Things had been so much easier earlier. But now, the Heroine of Frost was suddenly so strong?! How?!

How had she shattered the beasts in the [Playground of Frozen Nightmares] so easily?!

It didn’t make sense to him, but he still had to kill her. He just needed respite.

[Blink]!

In a single moment, he appeared on the farthest cliffside and he immediately raised his claw to the air. Meanwhile, in the distance, the Heroine of Frost turned to him and pointed her finger.

The Dragon of Frost blinked, and next thing he knew was⁠— pain. He was thrown like a doll back to the center of the mountain. It was as if time had skipped for a single moment with no trace of the woman he was fighting.

He gritted his teeth.

It didn’t make sense at all!

Still, he just had to use his domain SS Tier skill and it would all be over!

He raised his claws. “[Coldest Rea⁠—]”

And he felt his mana itself flicker stop at random intervals enough to throw him off. A shadow loomed and the gigantic summoned beast slammed upon him, its whole body falling on top of the Dragon of Frost as it let out a miserable squeak.

There was so much he didn’t understand at this moment, but in his mind one realization became clear.

He was weaker than the Heroine of Frost. It was a painful fact, but one that he chose to swallow. Perhaps he wasn’t weaker, none of her skills had been SS Tier, but for some reason he was still outmatched. And deep down he felt like he knew the reason.

She was much more talented in the element of Frost than him.

He was the Dragon of Frost and yet he was lesser…

But why? He thought about his life, all he did for the dragons and his research, how he had experienced and looked at the things in the era of oblivion, how he had initially discovered the existence of arcane magic.

And then he arrived at why he wanted to subjugate the Heroine of Frost.

Perhaps it had been dumb to try to initially poison her, perhaps he should have just attacked her instead. And perhaps he should have tried to do things amicably instead. But in his heart, he would never trust a hero, which was why he had to do what he was trying to do; in the end, her power was invaluable to starting a new era.

Which is why he had made plans, plans that initially he didn’t want to use, but plans that he now had to use.

Even if it was a risk to the world, even if it was against the principles of the very system, even if it was an external power from bygone times⁠, he had to use it.

The Dragon of Frost screamed, roaring as he pushed his very will into the Maw of Dragons, mana leaving his body as it quickly reached his living quarters, where it was touched.

At that moment, a cold wave passed through the entire mountain, freezing the rock itself as the Heroine of Frost stopped in her tracks.

He was going to do it!

* * * * *

Malz froze, recognizing what she was feeling.

It was… arcane magic.

She was sure of it. It was chilling, alien, and dangerous. Her senses blared in alarm and a moment later a gigantic pale blue circle formed in the air above the entirety of the Maw of Dragons. It was kilometers wide with intricate designs.

Her heart stopped.

That was…

The Dragon of Frost screamed.

“Arcane Magic: Judgment of the Coldest Frost!”

And the circle fired, engulfing the Maw of Dragons in an instant.