Chapter 2293: Arad’s Hibernation V

Violet is busy, far too busy to handle this on her own, so she left the job for Alcott to handle. Right now, Violet is busy with war outside the universe, and her draconic body was left to float across the void of the universe on autopilot, durable enough to protect the world, but easily deceived and invaded.

That’s why it wasn’t a question of whether the Cursed Metal Drakaina would make it into the Mortal World, but when and where. The Drakaina would make it in; Alcott’s job was to find where and when before she spawns in the middle of a city and kills everyone.

To achieve that, Alcott pulled a large book and laid it on the bar’s table. Jack and Abel looked at it, and then Jack lifted an eyebrow. "Dragon encyclopedia?" He was right, this was an old book containing information about countless races of dragons ranging from Metallic to Chromatic, and it was precious.

Was this book the secret to Alcott’s skill? No, it wasn’t. Because Alcott himself was the writer. This is the book in which he kept all of his knowledge about dragons.

Alcott opened the book, looked at it, and then flipped across all pages until he reached one of the oldest entries. Cursed Dragons, Death Dragons, and the Yellow Ghosts.

Cursed Metal Dragons, as the name implies, they were classified as part of the Metallic dragons by many scholars, but there was no clear record of them. Alcott only knew about them because of a few scales that he had found in one of his quests. The scales were large, yellow, and flaky, and would increase the likelihood of a creature dying around them.

Judging by the scale that Alcott found, he could safely assume it belonged to an adult dragon, due to its size, flakiness, and shape. "As an adult... you’re saying the dragon should’ve been over two hundred meters long without counting the tail and neck? Just what kind of monster are we hunting?"

Alcott took a sip of his drink. "A powerful drakaina, and an Elder at that. You can think of her as having power of the same class as Gamond, and maybe even higher."

Jack sighed. "Well, at least she won’t be on the same level as Luminous and Linda." It was then that Alcott frowned. "Do you know what kind of nightmare Gamond is?"

Gamond was so far above the regular norms of dragons that people stopped being able to fathom the scale of her power, reach, and might. If Gamond wanted, in less than a minute, the entire world would be engulfed in an ice age colder than the Arctic North, and everyone would have to survive under the frigid veil of her draconic presence.

Even Alcott himself wouldn’t be able to slay her before she destroys everything. Millions, no, billions of people would die before he could even locate Gamond and hunt her down, if hunting her was even possible to begin with.

"We need to prepare and be ready for a disaster. Just her presence alone could curse everyone in this world to death. If Arad was awake, having him handle her would’ve been possible, but I think we sadly don’t have that luxury now."

****

On another side, inside Arad’s private quarters, Gamond stretched inside the cold bath, extending her feet out, flaring her toes, and throwing her arms back as she groaned, listening to her spine cracking as she stretched even harder.

She had just finished taking a bath with the drakainas and was now about to head out to train with Kossuth. Just like how depressed Eris was, Gamond felt the same. But she didn’t sit and cry about it; she was already actively trying to get stronger, training with Kossuth, her worst natural enemy.

Last time they trained, it was a simple endurance exercise. How long Could Gamond endure under the incinerating presence of Kossuth’s flames, which gave a surprising result.

Gamond’s body could cool and maintain a safe bubble around her body indefinitely. That was a feat that not even Kossuth or her archons could’ve predicted. Gamond’s own will and draconic presence were refined and powerful enough to endure even the flames of the goddess of fire.

The bubble of frigid cold extended a hundred kilometers outside of Gamond’s humanoid body in all directions and created a clear chunk of space that she dominated. This was a feat that not even middle-ranking gods of cold and ice could hope to match, as they all easily got evaporated by Kossuth’s flames.

Gamond smiled with pride; this at least meant that her ice wasn’t something that divinity could surpass easily. She had once frozen her entire world and thought that it would be the most impressive feat of her life, but now she had achieved something greater.

She looked up and saw the naked Isdis standing above her head and smiled. "What a sight. Arad is sure eating good these days." Gamond smiled, and Isdis sighed. "Stop it. Why did you call me here? You know I’m busy."

"Did you get the report of my training with Kossuth? I’m pretty sure I sent it with my letter." Gamond smiled as Isdis sat beside her. "Yes, I did... your full-output draconic presence allowed you to carve an oasis of cold in Kossuth’s flames. Impressive for a mere Mortal, Elder drakaina or not."

"Impressive, yes." Gamond frowned. "Adequate? I don’t think so. That is why full power. If I unleashed such a thing here, this entire Mortal World would’ve turned into an ice cube in seconds. But that power meant almost nothing in the face of Kossuth’s flames."

She looked at her with a stern face. "That isn’t enough, no where near enough. If I were in Eris’s place, I would’ve died like any other foot soldier out there."

"Then, why did you call me here?" Isdis and Gamond smiled. "Of course, I need your help. I want access to your divine magic of Peace and Control."

Isdis was silent for a few seconds, thinking hard about what Gamond had just asked. "You... want to become a paladin, my paladin?" Hearing that, Gamond laughed. "Your paladin? Hell no! I just want the power, the divine magic, to freeze everything."

"My divine magic gives peace and mind controls people. It doesn’t generate ice or cold. My ice magic did grow stronger thanks to my bloodline mixing with my divine magic, but that’s it."

Gamond lifted her hand and forced a cube of ice. "I collected the moisture from the air; this bath is steamy, after all. I condensed it by sucking the heat out, and then sucked even more heat to freeze it. This is the basics of ice magic. Cold magic is the magic to suck heat out of things."

She then lifted her second hand and conjured a ball of flames. "Then, I have to get rid of that heat somewhere, usually by breathing it out, or just passively releasing it." She smiled. "What I want to do is release that extra heat into you, so I can cool more things down."

Isdis looked up. "Then... it’ll also increase my fire abilities, as long as you don’t saturate my heat reserves."

Gamond looked at Isdis with a smile. "This is where my plan comes to fruition! A centipede!" She pointed at Isdis. "You... suck my heat off, and Eris sucks the heat off you; that would empower her plasma, and leave us both with enough space to freeze things. We’re so numerous that we can start circulating power among ourselves, instead of working as separate pieces."

"Is that why you and Eris fought earlier?" Isdis sighed and Gamond laughed. "Yeah, she asked if I knew of any easy solution to get stronger, and I told her, ’How about sucking the heat out of Isdis?’ and she snapped at me. Probably thought that I was mocking her."

Gamond then leaned back. "Of course, we solved the misunderstanding, and she agreed to at least try it out." She turned toward Isdis. "So, I siphon heat from Kossuth’s flames; you get that heat and give it to Eris. That way I get to train, you get to train, and Eris just gets more power shoved passively into her plasma."

Isdis closed her eyes for a second, reached out, and placed her hand on Gamond’s head. In a second or two, she had already established the link and let the heat that Gamond stored from Kossuth flames flow into her body, and she immediately cried. "AGHAAAAAAA!"

It felt like she got stabbed with a red-hot knife in her chest. All of this heat - it was enough to melt the entire mortal world several times over. "Gamond... this... Already more than half of my reserves."

"Yeah, I know. As a Goddess, you got far bigger heat storage than me. I wish I had that much." Gamond looked a bit envious, and Isdis almost snapped at her. "No, that isn’t what I’m talking about. You have more than half of my reserve, I’m a goddess, you’re a mere mortal. How is this possible."

"The job of us dragons is to protect the worlds we live in if an abomination invades. We sometimes fail, but that isn’t as common for Elder Dragons. Since I’m in this world, and if I were the only dragon left, Mortals can always live in the shadow of my presence until the gods swoop in to save the day."