Chapter 2292: Arad’s Hibernation IV

Mary looked at Eris with a grin. "Listen, you can’t stay grumpy like that. You know well that the solution is to get stronger, and lying in bed doesn’t help with that." Mary was right; if Eris was depressed because she could do nothing against Vorvadoss, her only option to remedy that was to become stronger.

Eris looked at her for a long second, and then sat up. "I know that. Gamond said the same. It’s just that... I don’t want to do anything now. I just want to sit... and relax." She waved her hand and immediately teleported the blood vial from Mary’s stomach to her hand.

The glass vial itself was already empty, as Eris teleported the blood directly to her stomach, knowing that drinking it here, with the vampire maids and nuns around, was dangerous for them.

She then burned the vial to nothing and glanced at Zia. "Arad’s blood is indeed powerful. But I want to rest a bit..." She looked out the window and sighed. "I need to rethink everything. From how I use my divine magic, to how I use stars and the murder divine portfolio, and then figure a way to get even faster. Otherwise, I’ll be useless if anything else happens. Vorvadoss is powerful, I understand that. But he isn’t anywhere near the one we need to actually defeat."

Zia stared at her in silence for a few seconds, and then smiled. "It’ll be best of we all thought about that. We should find a solution before Arad wakes up."

****

Far outside the castle, in one of the city’s endless streets, Jack walked into a nameless bar and pulled a stool for himself. The bartender, a disheveled old man with glasses, looked at him for a second, and then smiled.

"Lord Jack, what shall I bring you today? Something light, hard, or fresh?" The bartender moved slightly aside and let Jack see all the bottles on the shelves behind him, and Jack quickly pointed at a few of them. "As for those, I’ll leave the rest to you. Give me something nice."

As the bartender started mixing Jack’s drink, Jack himself looked to his side, seeing the ghost of a man sitting on the stool beside him, smoking a large cigar. "It’s been a while since I’ve seen you last. How have you been doing, Aether?"

Aether kept smoking for a few seconds, and then smiled. "This shit is good, and it’s not even real." He threw a glance at Jack. "Want to try it?"

Jack waved his hand at the cigar, and his fingers passed right through it. "See? You said it yourself. Not real." Jack chuckled. "Why do you even need to smoke?"

Aether thought about it for a long while -almost two full minutes- and then smoked for another minute before replying. "Beat me... I can’t even remember when I started. Was it a thousand years ago? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? I’ve been alive so damn long, I can’t even guess."

As a time dragon, Aether lived far longer than many would assume. His existence could easily loop through time, witness endless futures, and even travel across time to experience things he never thought possible.

But as a direct counter to all that power, they are limited in what they can and cannot interact with. They are bound to be observers, and very few of them can do much besides watching and occasionally talking to the people of the time they visit.

The only real exception is the timeline in which they should be alive.

"You’ve already lived that much?" Jack asked, and Aether smiled. "Of course, not just me, all time dragons do. The moment we are born, our minds and bodies sink into the depths of time, like a leaf in a fucking river. We can’t stop, we can’t change direction; we just move, learn, and grow. A second after birth, we’re already a decade old." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"It’s like breathing. Imagine if you didn’t count age by time, but by the volume of air you breath, or by the volume of thoughts your mind hallucinates in your sick mind."

Aether chuckled. "Imagine an island full of sexy elves. All of them are beautiful, pristine, and at your beck and call. Imagine how you’ll spend a whole year there, or what each day would entail. Congratulations, you’ve already imagined more than a year of events in a few seconds."

Jack got his drink and took a sip. The bartender noticed that Jack was talking to thin air, but he didn’t bother asking why. The last time he asked Jack and Abel, they told him they were talking to an angel.

While it wasn’t a common knowledge, many people now know of Jack’s wive, Lydia the Archon, so they don’t question him as much.

"So, if you flew fifty years into the past and lived through all fifty years to reach today, you’d..." Jack put the glass down, "...be just that: someone who has lived fifty years without anyone noticing."

Aether smiled. "What if I told you I’m already a month older since we sat here? Look at the bartender; that bastard has one hell of a daughter upstairs. He doesn’t keep her locked up, but he never tried to convince her to get out. The bitch holed up in her room playing with spells all day long."

Jack looked up, then glanced behind him as Abel finally arrived. "Yo... Jack... and Aether, I’m pretty sure. I can’t see you, but I can feel it."

Aether smiled. "Yo! Been a while, playboy. Tell me, how’s the count this week?"

Abel could hear the voice inside his head, and he smiled as he jumped on one of the stools. He asked the bartender for a drink, a stronger one. "I’ll tell you about this elf I met; she’s a fighter and good with dual swords. I met her in the forest, and I never saw one so expressive before. She moans like a wolf."

Jack looked absolutely disappointed, "Really, another one? How do you even get them to strip?"

Abel explained with a puffed chest filled with pride. "Two things, first, pick the right target. Some girls are just more open than the others, and know how to ask and when." He pointed at his nose. "I can sniff those up."

He then pointed up and whispered to them. "This bartender has a nice daughter upstairs. He always nagged her about staying holed up in her room, so if you just tell her that you’ll let her live with you in peace and practice her spells, she’ll happily go with you."

"I knew it." Aether smiled and Jack sighed.

At that moment, Alcott walked into the bar and sat beside them. "I see you three are already here. Alex, their tab is on me." He waved his hand and then leaned down toward the three. "Ready for the mission?"

"You didn’t even tell us what to expect." Jack leaned back. "But you said it’ll be fun."

Abel smiled. "I know what real fun is, so it better be something even better than that." He then glanced at the bartender and asked him to bring him something even more expensive, since Alcott is paying.

"It’s not that complicated, a simple fetch job."

Aether grumbled, "Fetch my ass... ah, sorry, you’re supposed to be my grandpa." He then leaned back. "But honestly, I gotta tell you straight. You’re fucking insane if you think we can grab that bitch and safely bring her here."

"You know what?" Alcott smiled. "You’re right." He sat down. "Elder Cursed Metal Drakaina just flew past Violet’s draconic body and she’s trying to find a spot to sneak in."