130 - To Heal A Dragon Part 2

Vittoria balanced on a branch, watching the carnage below her. The sweat slicked the back of her neck, mostly from heat rather than exertion.

Arrows of light had pierced through several bodies, hitting vital points that paralyzed her opponents without killing them.

Or at least it should have paralyzed them.

Some of them were still moving, rising through sheer force of will, their limbs hanging off at odd angles, eyes glowing red.

Demon-possessed humans who had lent their bodies out to be used. Disgust rippled down her throat. She would rather die than be as they were, and she didn’t know how people were so willing to hand over their senses, their heart, and everything they valued to a demon who could not care less about them.

Especially since, now that they were unconscious, the demons were free to act with total disregard for their mortal flesh, pushing it past the breaking point to release spells and explosive power the human body was not designed to contain.

They would likely die in the process, and for what?

Was it worth it? Vittoria wondered. What was the point of all of this?

Killing the human shell to get rid of the demon would even be a mercy at this point. Nevertheless, she hesitated.

She watched as one of them opened its mouth wide, splitting at the cheeks, with blood streaming out as it released a storm of fire.

Vittoria merely blocked it with her shield.

The fire mushroomed around her, blocking her vision, smoke filling her lungs, but she could still sense the attack from behind. She shifted at the last minute, grabbed their ankle with a lasso of light, and sent them into a tree, pinning them there with more arrows of light.

Growls sounded below her. Agitation-infected beasts swarmed the ground, and they were kept there by her [Living Earth] spell that turned the mushy land into a trap, preventing them from coming after her.

As she moved to avoid another burst of flames and finally shot the demon-human through the brain, she wondered how Arielle was holding up. She could sense with her portal bird that Arielle was talking to someone, probably the dragon.

That should be a shock to her, but Vittoria was all burnt out on shock when it came to Arielle Blacksoil.

She had pretty much accepted at this point that the girl would keep surprising her, and there was nothing she could do about it.

It did bother her, though, that she could not hear what the dragon was saying to Arielle.

They tended to talk telepathically, and it could be telling Arielle something completely counterintuitive to their plans.

Ari was already prone to insubordination. Sentinel only knew what he was asking her to do.

Suddenly, Vittoria felt a pulse in the atmosphere that made her cores shrivel.

Her blade of light extinguished, the magical arrows she’d stamped into their flesh vanishing too. As did the shield she had placed to contain the fight, and her connection to the additional sight pieces she'd littered around the forest, warning her of any further advances.

Vittoria glanced around her, picking up on the shift of the atmosphere.

An Overlord?

No. Nothing else about the environment was changing, and an Overlord wouldn't be able to cancel out magic entirely.

A hybrid. A very powerful one from the looks of it. Vittoria glanced around her through the trees, trying to spot where the creature was, but without her enhanced sight spell, it was difficult to see miles away, like she used to, although she could still see further than most.

Not to mention, now that the infected creatures were no longer trapped, they were jumping into the air, occupying trees, obscuring even more of her vision.

They wouldn’t be as affected by the Overlord's attack, because their magic was infused in their bodies, rather than external. The demons also had the advantage in that sense.

Clever. Very clever.

Oh well. She cracked her neck. It had been a while since she’d gotten any physical exercise. She might as well use this opportunity to test out her melee, see if she was still the brawler she used to be.

Her only worry was that it had disrupted her connection to Arielle’s portal bird, so she would not know if Ari was in trouble. However, the portal bird had emergency commands built in, which would evacuate Arielle with or without Vittoria’s interference. Vittoria didn’t want to lead the hybrid there either, so she had to kill it before she went for Ari.

Her build gave her significantly boosted perception, speed, and endurance. She quickly scanned the number of creatures surrounding her and perked her ears towards the trees, attempting to identify the hybrid by hearing.

“I’m going to find you,” she announced to the concealed critter who had messed with her magic. “And I’m going to kill you, very painfully and very slowly.”

There was no response. She assumed they were smiling, but that might just be her own sick imagination.

Regardless, she smiled back and attacked.

***

A dragon’s core was nothing like a human’s core.

There was simply no comparison, and Arielle was almost ashamed to refer to hers as a core when she finally saw what the dragon was giving her access to.

When the shield dropped, Arielle's world changed.

The cave was now submerged with circles upon circles that did not exist in the same plane as Arielle.

It was vast, slightly translucent, a reflection of what was within the creature. It was a well of magic that encompassed Arielle, an endless sea of what could be thousands of cores.

It made sense. Dragons were ancient, so it made sense that they had had eons to cultivate cores that humans had never even heard of or seen.

But what Arielle didn't understand was why those cores were surrounded by a ridiculous amount of essences.

To her knowledge, humans did not have essences surrounding their cores, at least not so closely.

"What do you see, child?" the dragon asked. "Or were you bluffing when you told me you could see essences?"

"No, I can." Ari cleared her throat. "You have many, many cores, but there are also essences surrounding them."

"Ah. So you do have some skill." The dragon spoke with a considering murmur. "Well. I suppose all of you can't be disappointing."

Arielle ignored the vague insult and wondered, with this type of power, how the dragon was captured in the first place. Not only did they have large, powerful cores, but their cores seemed to be generating magic by themselves. At least that was what Arielle assumed from the essences, some of which were not in the atmosphere. They clung close to the cores too, not moving much, as though protecting them.

She would assume it was soul magic, but this wasn’t the soul. This was simply a part of its body that it kept hidden from the world.

"Do you see it now, child?” The dragon spoke. “Do you see the difference in our standings? Do you see how insignificant humans are?”

“Yes,” Ari responded, although she wasn’t sure if she was speaking outwardly or inwardly. She was too enraptured. “It is beautiful.”

“Well,” the dragon sniffed. “Obviously. I am a thing of beauty.”

“Your cores are…a lot.”

“Yes. But currently, there are blockages. If they remain that way, I will die."

"I don't understand. How could such powerful cores be blocked? It makes no sense."

"It would make sense if you knew how to open your third eye." She sniffed. "Now, you said you can visualize essences?”

Arielle nodded.

“I have not heard of a human with this ability in recent times. You are not lying to me, are you?”

“No. I wouldn’t.” The dragon had threatened to kill her, and Ari quite liked her life.

“Good. Now, explain to me what you can see in more detail. What are the arrangements in relation to each other?”

Arielle opened her mouth and explained, describing every single orb by its color and its size, even trying to count how many there were. She began to trace it out with light, but the dragon interrupted before she could finish.

"I see," the dragon said. "I believe you now. That is...more than I was expecting. You humans haven’t lost all your skills, I suppose. Now you must locate the blockages on my cores and release them"

"How do I find the blockages?"

“How else? Search.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You said you would offer direction."

“How much more direction do you need?”

A lot. Arielle was surrounded by an endless ocean. She did have some connection to some of the essences because the dragon put up zero resistance, but she did not have the cores for most of them. Not to mention, Arielle did not understand why the dragon could not release the blockages themselves.

"Can I ask a question?" she stated.

"You already did, child."

"Another one?"

The dragon seemed irritated but remained silent long enough for Ari to voice her question.

"If you have this much magic within you...why do you use so little of it? Why do dragons only breathe fire? How were you captured by the ritual in the first place, and how can you not free yourself?"

The dragon remained silent for a few seconds, then asked, irritably, "Are you trying to insult me?"

"No," Arielle said. "Merely trying to understand."

"How can you expect your stunted human brain to understand something so ancient and divine? How do you expect to even begin to comprehend it, or for me to explain to you something completely antithetical to human existence?"

“An explanation might help me figure out what I’m supposed to do," she pointed out.

The dragon paused. "What exactly do you think a...spirit path is?"

"According to my professor, it’s supposed to be the path by which our qi travels, our life force that we obtain as a residue from casting spells. This reportedly is acted upon by the Divine Hand of the Universe, which assigns weakness to balance out strength and also gives creatures like you your immortality."

The dragon was silent for a few seconds.

"You humans are certainly creative, if nothing else, although often needlessly so. I suppose that is just your natural narcissism at play."

"Natural narcissism?" That was quite ironic. Only one of them had referred to herself as a thing of beauty.

"Yes, because even when discussing something so supposedly divine, you still only think of what the universe can do for you, the power that it can give you. You think the universe finds you so important that it would want to control your strengths and weaknesses. It's amusing, really, and sad that humans need to forever justify the validity of their self-centered existence. To feel like all your deeds and misdeeds have a greater purpose rather than to feed the bottomless well of greed within you."

Arielle blinked. "That feels a little harsh."

"What's harsh is that humans already destroyed one of their homes and were granted yet another chance, and still they drive themselves and everything they touch into extinction. It's like you can't help it. You cannot help but take and take and take."

Guilt pricked Arielle's conscience. She knew what the dragon was talking about, knew that engaging essences in spells was ultimately killing them, although they did not seem to mind it.

Ari did not like to be reminded of it either, because the only alternative was giving up spell work, which she really, really did not want to do.

"But the essences want to be used..." Arielle said hesitantly. "Right?"

"Of course. They are parts of the universe, the divine being. They want to play their roles, as all things must. That is not what the problem is. The problem is the human drive to destroy without creating. They use the divine while rejecting it, giving nothing but taking everything."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about."

"Obviously. I do not know for the life of me what the spirits see in your kind."

"Spirits? You mean essences?" Ari's grandmother always called the orbs little spirits, and so had the ancients, supposedly.

"Yes. The essence of existence. That is what they are. The purity of the universe, a connection to the divine. That is what the spirit is, and the thing you refer to as a spirit path is something your ancients already rejected. You did not want to spend millennia creating and conversing with the divine as we did. You did not want to walk the path to enlightenment, because it would deny you the quick gratification you crave. You did not want to find meaning, only power."

"How would one walk the path and find meaning?"

"By meditation. Centuries of nothing but meditation, as we do."

"Oh." Arielle's spirit sank. She knew she could not do that. There was so much life to be lived with her eyes open that she could not justify spending an existence with her eyes closed, not even for the possibility of living forever.

"Is that why dragons sleep so much?" she said. "Because of the endless meditation?"

"Yes. As we age, we become in constant communication with the universe, in constant alignment. We feed the spirits, cajole the cosmos. We contemplate the meaning of its existence, seeking only answers, acknowledging the yin and yang. Our immortal life force, as a species, feeds back energy into the world. Humans cannot do that. They can only take what has already been there since the beginning, and when they run out, they destroy themselves."

"I see," Arielle said. She had so many more questions.

Was that how the first Earth was truly destroyed? And was that what the primordials were doing, meditating and producing the essences that humans used? If humans did that, theoretically, meditating for millennia at a time, could they also produce essences as the dragon did, like the Primordials?

It sounded like that was what she was saying.

But Ari knew she didn't have time for those answers. She had to focus on the task at hand, healing the dragon. "So the blockages in your core–I'm guessing you are blocked off from communing with the universe? Is that what the agitation does to you?"

The dragon sighed. "The agitation is not the cause. It’s a result of my extended distraction due to the pain, a disturbance in my energy that refuses to be smoothed over, an endless death cycle that is a perversion of reality. I was captured during a vulnerable time, while giving birth, forced into a dark ritual. I could not fight it with the tools I was allowed, or I would hurt my spawn as it came into this world. Then my body began making poison, rather than life. There is a blockage that has not been cleared, and I have been cut off from the divine and cannot find my way back. The universe can no longer commune with me. I am no longer a pathway for the spirit. I am now a pathway for poison. I would rather be dead than live like that. I will end it if it gets to that."

"You can simply do that?"

"Of course. I can do whatever I want. But my child..." She hesitated and said, "I don't want him to be at the mercy of those creatures who seek to harm him. I need to save him."

"He's not with them," Arielle assured her. "I still don’t understand why you could not simply break the ritual. You have so much magic, so much power."

“Not all magic we create is for us, you stupid human!” the dragon sounded frustrated. “To use the seed of the universe for my selfish cause will make me just as bad as you lot. I can only use what it gives me, my fire and my blood magic, not that which is not for me.”

Ari blinked. That sounded crazy to her, to have power and refuse to use it. But then again, she was just a selfish, egotistical human. “Please just tell me how to unblock it."

"If you get it wrong, you will make it worse for both of us."

"I won't get anything wrong,"Ari said. "I don't want you to die."

The dragon was quiet. "You are different from most humans. I can sense you are genuine, although I have threatened your life now multiple times."

"Well, I assume you're in pain. My sister also threatens my life when she's in pain."

The dragon snorted, then said, "The path that you traced with your potion. Go backwards from that point into the given cores. Since you don't have the third eye, you must feel around the cores until you notice a quiet spot. When you get to that spot, you must meditate on it. Give it life until it beats again."

"How do I give it life?"

"You cannot. Simply continue to meditate, and ensure your cores are in perfect alignment, your connection to mine strong. Then, remain still. No interruptions in your cores, no movement. Just stillness. Maybe, if the universe is merciful and has use for me yet, it might use you as a conduit to connect to me once more."

Arielle took a deep breath and did as she asked.

It was easy to find the path of the potion, and she saw precisely where it touched the core.

Arielle closed her eyes and began to survey it, to meditate on it, searching for the blockages.

It might take a while, because all she heard was mild buzzing.

"Can't you help me feel it?"

"I cannot feel it," the dragon said drolly. "That is the entire problem here."

"Right." Ari continued her search, swallowing as she touched the surface. She closed her eyes and used some of the technique she had learned with her abyssal spell work, shutting down her senses, focusing solely on the connection between their cores and her sensation of it. It was not easy in the least, but it was somewhat intuitive. This was what she was good at. She had been doing meditative core work since she was practically a child, before she even knew what she was really doing. She kept as still as possible, not moving, enjoying the soft silence.

Slowly but surely, a slow thump sounded in her ears.

"I hear a heartbeat."

"That is life," the dragons said, sounding nearly excited. "Keep going."

She did. She moved away from it in small steps, the sound reducing the farther away she went. Then, she found a patch where it was quiet, the life muted, and hovered there.

"I think I have it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." She remained, holding her cores in perfect alignment. It was good that their size was similar, extremely balanced, as it made it easier to hold all at the same time, with the same amount of force. Only her blue core was problematic, but even with that, she adjusted her grip until it stilled and refused to let it slip.

She didn’t know how long she stayed like that. Time ceased to have meaning in this space, just as it did whenever she meditated this deeply. All she knew was that at a point her back hurt. Her legs shook, and it felt like there were prongs poking in her brain.

Nevertheless, she didn’t move, kept her thoughts clear, focused on absolutely nothing.

Then...she felt it. Life.

"Good,” the dragon said. "You are doing well, human."

Arielle grinned. She wasn't truly doing anything. It was really the dragon’s core, drawing something from Arielle's core, but at the same time filling it with life.

Or perhaps it was the universe pushing in the opposite direction. Either way, she could feel their connection growing stronger, the heartbeat louder, debris being cleared from the point.

The dragon purred, then roared.

It was coming back to life. She felt it unfurling, stretching up, energy flowing through its body once more.

Its body grew hotter as it began to heal. Its connection to the universe was complete again, and its hold on Arielle snapped, letting her free.

As the dragon stuck its nose in the air and gave a breath of fire, Ari felt the restoration of divinity that had been dulled previously. She stared at it in wonder because this was not just any ordinary creature.

This was a true servant of the universe.

"That is enough," the dragon said with a smile over jagged teeth. "I can take care of the rest."

"Okay." Arielle put her hand down and backed up, feeling mildly exhausted but also exhilarated. Awed. She couldn't believe that happened.

"What is your name, human?" the dragon asked her.

"Arielle Blacksoil," she responded.

"Arielle Blacksoil. I will remember you."

Ari didn't know what that entailed, but she said, "Thank you."

The dragon inclined its head. “You have done well for a human,” the dragon said. “Far better than I expected.”

Ari beamed. She couldn’t believe that she had just connected to a dragon and the universe. That was amazing. It wasn't truly her power, but still. She was happy she had done it and had gotten the feeling of doing it.

She couldn't manage the endless meditation, so she probably would never get that feeling again, except with another dragon.

Or maybe elves? They were immortal too, right? Did they know about any of this? Did they also meditate for millennia?

The dragon stretched its wings suddenly, and before Ari could panic, it laid a single talon on her head.

Something glowed at the tip before it retreated.

Then she said, "Now excuse me, while I exact my revenge.”

The tone was so casual, it took Arielle a second to understand. "Revenge on who?”

"Every single human associated with those who did this to me, and anyone who gets in my way. They must pay for the humiliation,” she sniffed. "Don’t worry. I will spare you and all who bear your scent.”

Arielle gaped. "Wait, I don't think you should–"

Before Arielle or Vittoria's bird could react, the dragon leapt out of the volcano.