Augmented Aspects: Chapter 184 Mistakes Were Made (Patreon)

Chapter 184

Mistakes Were Made

“So, I admit that shrinking down the reincarnated spirit of a cardinal protector from their normal size of a massive dragon to that of a Pomeranian was a bit much. I admit this, okay. Not taking one modicum of responsibility away from that absolute fact. That said, I do think you could be a bit nicer.” I respond to the clearly irate Flumberro.

Of course, at this moment I am fairly certain that he will not hurt me. Especially now that the whole conquering the lands thing was finally ended.

Honestly, that is the part that I am still frustrated about the most, the fact that I could have probably avoided battling all three, well four of the cardinal protectors had I just taken a moment to think about everything.

Well, there was still a final battle, as things had escalated due to the death and subsequent resurrection of the blue dragon into what is apparently a blue flying Pomeranian. Honestly, that was a slight miscalculation, and to my defense I am color blind. Or at least the only colors I see relate to power, so I guess turning the fur of a resurrected water dragon blue was a minor inconvenience. Still, try and tell that to this final dragon, who will not listen to reason.

“Nicer! You want me to be nicer? You have come here, conquered the lands that I have been entrusted to protect, turning on of the faithful protectors into an oversized blue furred rodent.” Flumberro states, still angry, but unwilling to let me heal him.

“Look, you have a shattered core. I can either heal that for you, something that is no doubt needed as you are effectively the embodiment of the fire element, and thus needing to contain your mana in some meaningful way. Or you can die of your own arrogance.” I state, and instantly prepare for the tirade that will come next.

“Arrogance!” Flumberro demands, defiance and anger in his voice.

And like that I can only sigh as I realize that the word I used was a bit too harsh. “Would you fweel better if I said, little baby was stubborn instead of arrogant?”

Yeah, I am not helping this situation at all, especially as I feel half of the dragon’s arrogant demeanor against me is that he sees me as a small child, rather than a competent healer. Thus, while insulting his overbearing pride might feel better momentarily, it does nothing to alleviate the problem that we are having. I know, as a doctor I should speak a bit more passively to a patient, but seeing the dragon like this makes me just want to punch him again. As apparently the first time wasn’t enough to set him straight. Of course, that is also something I can’t tell him, as well, never mind.

“Is there something wrong?” Mallory asks, stepping forward and allowing me a moment to regain my composure, which is clearly lacking from this arrogant dragon’s talk.

“Yes, chosen one’s future other half. This impertinent one here dares to sully my scales with her vile magic. Magic that has corrupted the core of my fellow guardians.” Flumberro tells Mallory, directing his ire towards me.

“Why I…” I begin, as I can feel my Qi violently stirring up within me as the strain and constant pressure of this day are finally building up within me.

“Doctor, will you please give us a moment?” Mallory asks me nicely, clearly giving me the opportunity to leave and calm myself down so that I can try to salvage the rest of this suddenly strange set of circumstances that we have all found ourselves in.

How did I get here? Why are we here exactly.

“How did it go, did you heal him?” An overly excited Nagingah asks, jumping up and running around my feet while searching for attention and confirmation that her friend will be fixed.

“No, he thinks that I am incapable of properly healing someone. He even used you as an example.” I get out tersely before continuing, “now if you don’t mind, I need to do a few more things here while he comes to his senses.”

“Okay boss, I’ll talk to him.” Nagingah yips excitedly, before making one more quick track around my legs and darting into the tent behind me. I was about to remind her not to call me boss, but she was gone before I could even state otherwise.

“You okay boss?” This time Zero asks, and again I hate the term boss. It implies that someone has a plan or a basic idea of what is going to happen next. As for me, I don’t. I make it a few more steps, before a sudden plan comes to mind.

“Yeah, actually, thank you Zero.” I say, reaching out to stroke Zero twice, as the answer for how to be able to solve all of these problems suddenly came to mind.

“Um, okay?” Zero says, before melting into my scratches.

“Yeah, just wait here, and I will be right back.” I say, and mean it, as the answer to this problem once again is right there, it was even in the beast’s stupid words, and I just didn’t recognize it for what they were.

With a spar of inspiration, I Teleport away, and begin the process of fixing this rather complex set of problems before me.

How did I get here? Where exactly is here? Well, I guess to give the answer of what needs to be done, I should likely start off by pointing out how we get to this point in particular.

***

(Two hours ago)

“Your call has been dropped,” that was my sign to Mallory that her thoughts were becoming more and more volatile and while I was fairly certain I had managed to keep her thoughts from bleeding over to the others, I couldn’t be entirely certain. As such, it was easier to disconnect her, while I connected Flumberro with Nagingah’s mind.

During this time, I was multitasking, as I realized that the Deolar troops were all quivering and clearly frightened of the colossal enraged elemental monster that was bearing down on them. That is when I realized they likely needed a general or strong presence to guide them during this time and to help them rally.

Finding a small abandoned building in a city that I know was supposed to be excavated here shortly, I found an open area that was free of monsters and other obstructions, that is where I chose to hide myself while I did my next task.

Poof.

I entered the old abandoned area and instantly kicked up a cloud of dust from my sudden appearance. Fortunately, I had prepared for something like this, and was already holding my breath, the same way I would if I was jumping into a pool of water. That is when I heard the conversations going on in my mind, thanks to my Telepathy Trait.

“Brother, I am fine. Please assuage your anger.” Nagingah, the guardian of water said. As she spoke, I couldn’t help but feel proud of her amazing use of assuage.

“Good one,” the mother in me came out, as my voice rang out in the sealed off ancient building that had been buried under hundreds of pounds of sand.

“Sister, you are well?” Flumberro asked, a note of hope in his voice.

“I am.” Naginah responded, then I could almost feel the moment when FLumberro saw Naginah in her newly altered state.

“WHAT? What manner of devil did this to you?” Flumberro demanded.

With that, I realized that the system really did not like me messing with the sizes and shapes of its guardian protectors. Realizing I needed to hurry up with my plan, I began using my Ethereal Healer class Trait: Spiritual Doppelganger, where I changed from being myself with wings to removing the wings, getting rid of the weightless body, and instead allowed myself to change into King Galuminous De’Arcaneri. I didn’t know why, I could have chosen to go as Octavia, the princess, but for this one time I felt that showing myself as the King would be better.

Then not wanting to waste a moment, I made sure my costume was complete, complete with using my Guild’s Doctor suit, that had stretched out to fit my new frame and sadly did look like a track suit that an old man would wear.

Sighing and realizing that I might need more clothes on hand for when I change into the King, I realized that time was of the essence and Teleported to the front of the lines of Deolar soldiers. Soldiers who up until a moment ago were quivering and apparently waiting for the moment to run for cover.

“Relax my soldiers, I have come to stop this from continuing!” I shouted, raising my fist in the air. Only after I raised my fist did I realize just how empty my costume was, as I didn’t even have a long shiny sword to draw peoples’ attention towards. While King De’Arcaneri’s body was easily two feet taller than my normal body as he was a healthy fully grown adult elf, I feel that I might have likely done better with my ability to calm the troops had I had a weapon. Or any obvious way of defending myself from the massive flaming monster that stood before me.

“What is this?” Flumberro asked, and suddenly I could feel that his mind was so chaotic that he had to apparently drop the mental connection. Or at least he tried to. Of course, what he did was the equivalent of pressing down in the vicinity of the end call button, but not actually hitting the end call. Meaning, that I suddenly got a deluge of thoughts from the dragon.

“The King of Deolar has returned? Does that mean he wishes to enact the pact of the Tribunal? No, this is likely an impostor. I must first test to see if it is in fact the real King of Deolar.” Flumberro’s thoughts came, and they were so powerful that I almost let them bleed through to Naginah.

“What was that? I couldn’t quite…” Naginah began asking, but I quickly cut off her mental connection from my Telepathiclink, making it so that only Flumberro and I were mentally linked together.

Realizing this was likely my moment, and that I had been given the best prompt to alter the course of events here. I Decided to go all out.

“Great Cardinal Protector Flumberro, it is I King Galuminous De’Arcaneri, humble servant and follower of the great Tribunal accords.” I cry out, my words spoken in nearly perfect Ancient Elven. It’s really hard to get the tonal aspects of Ancient Elven, but fortunately it seems that the vocal cords of my Doppelganger body are developed enough to make the more musical resonating sounds of the language.

“He knows the old tongue and even knows of the old ways. But how can he truly prove who he is?” Flumberro’s thoughts ring out in my mind.

Of course, the world chose this exact time to hit me with a random quest prompt. A prompt that I almost ignored, except that I believe it gave me the final clue of how to end this whole campaign of cardinal protectors.

Hidden Quest Found (Timed Limited Duration): Proving Your Worth by Removing the Guardian’s Power. Flumberro, the last and most powerful of the ancient Cardinal Protectors serves as the last line of defense between your people and the invading foreign forces. As the rightful rulers of the region it is now your duty to remove the power from the last Guardian and let peace reign. Rewards: Experience, Title(s), variable.

Like that, I realize why the dragons always seemed hesitant to fight the undead forces, and why there was always a sort of stand off between the undead Deolar forces and the Cardinal Protectors. Only now did the parts make sense to my mind. Shaking my head, I realized the absurdity of it, and nearly forgot how the world would always need logic and rationale to follow random events.

In this case, the logic and rationale for why Cardinal Protectors would suddenly come out of nowhere and fight the invading land grabbers? Well first there would need to be a former pact between the elves and the dragons, which was already noted a few times in the different notes we unearthed about the Tribunal, where elves, orcs, and dragons all bonded together in harmony of this area. Then we take that to the next logical step, of the undead elves still had a lasting pact with the dragons. Dragons apparently left behind four guardians who remained hidden and immune to the Blight, and boom you had a double-sided attack vector on the Midnight Hunter’s Guild when they finally made their attempt to grab the high-level territory.

Of course, we avoided most of the major issues and thought it would be a relatively free land grab event by making peace with the Deolar empire. Which is why we were suddenly blindsided by the four random cardinal protectors.

I even had the thought of how damaging the attack would have been had we had to fight the dragons and elves at the same time. Then there were the notes of my finding the Library of the Tribunal just before this point and I could almost kick myself for missing what should have been obvious.

We didn’t have to kill the dragons, even the quest we received made it so it would be better to just get them to submit themselves, or have them subdued. Once again, I realize I am failing as a pacifist, in that this world doesn’t need us to fight all the time to get along.

In fact, it was fighting that caused the problems we have faced so far.

I realize that the quest that I have now been given is supposed to be a warning itself on how I can solve this problem. All I apparently need to do is remove the dragon’s source of power.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that there is an instruction manual on how to flip the off switch for the dragon’s power, or to remove its batteries.

Or so I thought, then the word about batteries gave me an idea.

Looking at the massive glowing beast with lines of fire energy flowing throughout its body. I realize that this creature is just a beast made up of mana. Well fire attributed mana that gets held in a giant core of power, like all mages have.

With that I realize that breaking a Mage’s core is the equivalent of taking out their batteries, which should suffice for the quest. Of course, I know I am missing the easy option, maybe saying the right words, or issuing the correct phrase in the draconian tongue? You know, something that would remove the power from the guardian. Yet, I cannot think of it, I can also tell that the longer I take to think, the more my window for solving this thing in a fairly peaceful manner begins to fade away.

Stepping forward, I distinguish myself from the crowd of Deolar soldiers that I just managed to rally by my appearance alone.

“Great Flumberro, you have gone too far. These are the lands of my betrothed, the one who I will once again give my heart and life to.” I say, hoping that will be enough to stop this.

“You have made a pact with the outsiders. I can see that, but your bond is not yet affirmed. How dare they come and take away the sacred lands without first bonding and showing supplication.” Flumberro demands.

“There will be no supplication, they will be our equals in all things. This is not a union of master and slave, but of equal partners.” I continue, as I do I continue moving closer with each word. Only after a bit do I realize that I am in fact speaking ancient elven, and other than a few words, it is coming rather easily to me.

“He seems to be the same King as before, but I must still test him.” Flumberro thinks, again not realizing that all his thoughts are feeding directly into my mind.

“It seems that love has blinded you to the predicament that you now find yourself in.” Flumberro states loudly, for everyone to hear. Though he too has taken on the speech of the ancient elves as well.

“I am not blinded by love, but finally awake to what the world is and has to offer.” I speak, by now I am just a dozen paces away from the great beast. I am so close, that the dragon with its long twisting neck has to curl downward to look at me. It is still standing upright, its weight balanced by its long tail, and two arms that are resting against the ground, but ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

“He seems to have either lost the blessing of the ancients, or is an imposter, as he could have and should have taken away my powers by now, if he truly wished for a peaceful resolution.” Flumberro thinks.

At that, I realize that I have likely missed something exceedingly easy and am desperately wracking my brain to find out what I need to do to take away the powers of this monster.

“Stand down,” I say, wondering if this monster is bound by my avatar’s authority as king.

“Make me.” Flumberro rumbles in challenge.

Yep, that would have been way too easy. Realizing I have nothing left, I feel myself slipping back to the most basic of negotiating tactics, threats followed up by fully anticipated actions.

“I must warn you. I have learned a lot while here. These people, the Midnight Hunters, they have a Doctor who has taught me the art of fighting against mages. I must warn you, if you do not stand down right now and submit, I will be forced to permanently remove your source of power.” I say.

“HAHAHA!” The giant Flumberro laughs wildly at that. Then finally after a few seconds of laughing where he raises a claw up to wipe away a molten tear, he continues “And just how do you intend to do this? You clearly do not remember the words or the rituals needed to do so, if you ever did.”

He’s got me, and for whatever reason, he is not thinking of the actual words and rituals needed to follow through on my threats.

“This is your last chance, I must warn you. After this I will do the five point exploding palm technique.”

“GHAHAHAHA! The Five Point Exploding Palm Technique? What manner of spell is that?” Flumberro asked.

“I tried to warn you.” Was all I could say, before the world slowed down around me as I began to make my move.