Day 3: I woke up because something was tugging on my tails.

“Are you awake?” I got out of the ball made by my tails. Good morning, Azu.

“Something is off, the echoes have stopped.” I got up and looked at where Boshi town was. The ground was closed up and it seemed calm. The only thing that was off was the root that was still there. “Can you link me up with your eyes again?” I linked her up and we checked out the area. You’re right, there is nothing. I'd like to say that this is good but I know better. I woke up my buddies and linked them up with my vision.

This is concerning. Let's check it out! Raishin grabbed us with his tails and teleported us to where Boshi town once stood.

Great job at closing that hole. Ugh, it was exhausting. Yeah, we dropped asleep after we finished.

Hmm, my clone seemed to have done its job. It seems the clone already finished the transaction and got the gold. I look around and there is no trace of there ever being a hole here. It seemed like they tried to mimic Boshi lake but it looked… artificial.

Nice lake. Hey, it's hard to make it look natural!

When have you ever seen a hexagonal lake? Ugh, that might have been me I just wanted to get over with it.

“I like it!” So, we have this whole place for ourselves what do we do? Wanna play pinball? I am going to destroy you this time! The sky flashed pink and the root seemed like it grew and grew 2 smaller roots that headed toward us.

I guess the root doesn't like pinball… Ugh, what is it this time… Guys... Can we please run? What is your intuition telling you? Azu put up a barrier which worked out because a fraction of a second later 3 pink shockwaves shot out from the root and hit the barrier.

“Are you guys alright?” Yes, but you aren't! There is pink energy clinging to you! Gregory moved the pink energy that was clinging to Azu’s body. And suddenly we felt strong magical presences appearing.

So Raishin you remember that talk we had when we were gaming right? Yeah… we totally jinxed it. In front of us, we could see a relatively pink version of the spirit sisters, the Mountain, and whatever we kind of one shot in the last timeline.

So this is what you guys refer to as “Cheating’... Ted can take the Mountain, I will take the sisters, Raishin and Greg take the uhm whoever that guy is. Is it going to be this easy?

“What about me? I’m not letting you do a 2 versus 1! I’m coming with you!” Uhh, I would prefer it if you help my buddies, I can keep them busy. Uhm guys, that isn't the biggest problem look! Raishin pointed at a silhouette behind the pinkish guardians.

Is that? Azu?

“Oooh! I look so hot in pink!” Right, guys, we’re dead, it was nice knowing you! Adventuring with you guys was a blast, I will miss you. Hey, guys, we're not dead! Yet. Ted smacked me.

I’m afraid that Azu can’t help us, can you keep your clone busy?

“I won't let this imposter play with Agnis' tails! That is my duty!” I will just ignore that comment and take that as a yes, can you at least try to take your battle somewhere else Azu? We will probably die if we get caught in the crossfire… Yeah, can you do that, please?

“Fine! Just promise to not do anything reckless!” Got it! Everyone looked at me.

“Ugh, I will try to make it quick and help Agnis.” Please do so. Much appreciated. Please save Agnis from himself!

Hey, guys come on! Azu vanished, slammed her pink imitation to the ground, and vanished with it.

Wow… Ugh, we still have to deal with this at least they aren't as annoying as that dragon. Yeah, it would be so cool if we had a dragon on our side! I suddenly remembered something.

Oh! Agnis? What did you remember? Gregory approached me suspiciously.

Uhm well, haha you see, I totally forgot but we might or might not have a dragon on our side. Gregory grabbed my collar. And you only remember now?! Well, I was kind of busy, and uhm I forgot... So ehm oops? Ted and Gregory spent 5 minutes kicking my ass.

Ugh, you guys are so cruel. Go get that dragon, Raishin let's deal with that uhm guardian. Let's get out of here before he remembers something else that will increase my headache! Gregory stomped away and dragged Raishin with him.

After we escape, we need to get your head checked. Ted went big bear mode, got his bear avatar out, and charged at the Mountain. I shot a [Fireball] at the pink sisters. This caused them to immediately lock on to me. Right, how did Tero tell me how to call for him again? I forgot, I just stomped on the ground and let nature energy carry the shockwave as far as possible. The root spawned more pink shades but the weaker kind. I started evading ice attacks and ignored the fire attacks. Guyani noticed but didn’t switch to ice attacks. I just needed to stretch time until Tero arrived. Hehe, I can't wait to fight with a dragon! I used [Confusion] on them by shattering 10 layers for each. They didn't seem to like it and started casting spirit magic. I fired a [Spirit bolt] at their attack but it was too weak. The earth started to tremble. I threw some fireballs at them and they seemed really cautious and evaded them.

As the ground started shaking violently Nayani sent [ice disks] at me but when they arrived there was no target. All it hit was a huge earth dragon that came out of the ground. It did precisely 0 damage to Tero. Tero was now flying in the air and I was on his head because he emerged from right under me. Yoo Tero.

“Hey, son of Edea.” My name is Agnis.

“Haha, I didn't forget.” I believe that you were probably just thinking about my mother again you perverted dragon.

“Such rudeness towards one that comes out to help. So, what trouble did you get yourself into… Oh.” Tero looked around and saw the chaos. “You really have a talent, just like your mother.” Ugh please don't remind me, we need to do something about those two. As I pointed at the sisters who seemed quite shocked. Not only they were shocked, but my buddies also seemed quite shocked. During our conversation, Tero was flying uhh whatever the opposite is of gracefully. You aren't great at flying, are you? What was I expecting from an EARTH dragon?

“I need to have a chat with your mother about your rudeness! And this might sound like an excuse but listen!” Hmm, I'm listening.

“You can recognize what type a dragon is by how it flies!” I wanted to call that bullshit but I've only seen wind and fire no-winged dragons fly, mainly because those are the only ones I've seen, and they indeed did fly differently from each other. You don't sound very convincing but I believe you so how is that relevant to how you are flying? Like you can only turn in angles and not just bend naturally.

“That is just how it is with earth dragons and earth dragon veins. Have you mastered some of it?” Uhh no.

“The movements of how we dragons fly are similar to those needed for dragon vein. Water is flowing and flexible movements, wind is powerful strokes that still have flexibility, and fire and lightning are explosive in their own way.” And earth is janky?

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“Don't call it that!” Is that why all my attempts to use Dragonvein have turned into water?

“Possibly.” During all this, we were dodging the attacks that resumed. I say we, but it was Tero. However, did he need to? His janky movements were uncomfortable. Okay let's go on the offensive, you can use fire, right?

“Of course, I can! I’m a dragon!” Ok cool, let's go! As I pointed at the sisters, I shot frost pellets at the attacks they sent at us.

“Lead the way.” What do you mean, lead the way, you are flying!

“Just like hot chicks can't help to shake their body when music plays, no-winged dragons can't help it to follow the movements of one using dragon vein.” Can you stop with those tasteless comparisons? And does that mean you become my pet?

“Dream on kiddo!” Rude! But I don't know how to jank ehh use earth dragon vein, I've only ever made water.

“That is fine because I'm wise and smart I know how to fly like a water dragon!” Isn't saying " smart " after "wise" redundant? It doesn't make you look wise at all…

“Let's go!” I connected to the leyline energy, heard the voice again and compiled all the information I had about leyline energy in my tails, and applied it. I started to move the leyline energy in the way I always do it. I created a large volume of water and Tero seemed to follow my movements mirroring how the water moved. It was a little bit janky but way less than before. I assume this time it was my fault because my moves were a bit rough. I am probably stuck using water leyline energy for now but that is fine. Water hit Guyani as did a dragon tail sending her flying.

“It is a bit rough but you seem to have a decent grasp on it! Let's smoke these bitches!”

Uhh ok… I made Tero turn towards Guyani who got sent flying and made the water I created swirl around me. I could make it do this without any movements so I could move Tero while not having to keep wasting water. It seemed the skill Azu gave me affected the leyline energy too because the volume of water that I was controlling was ballooning in volume. Tero spoke some words that I vaguely understood. Probably because his mouth was filling with fire and he shot a fire-based [Dragon breath] at Guyani. Nayani made an [ice wall] trying to protect her sister but I dispelled it. The breath impacted and threw up a lot of smoke and dust.

I sent the water and thus Tero down to Guyani because I could see that she blocked it partially with a wind barrier. It didn't seem to have done as much damage as I hoped. As the water crashed into Guyani so did Tero. This ended us pushing Guyani underground and separating her from her sister. As Tero burrowed deeper he shot another [fire breath]. Guyani who was at point-blank range managed to tank it but it didn't seem to do much damage. I curved Tero upward toward the surface because it seemed we couldn’t defeat them with just dragon fire. We surfaced and were met with enormous ice disks. I wanted to dispel them but Tero said to not bother. The disks hit Tero and did 0 damage. Dragons are so overpowered.

“So young phoenix what are we going to do about these 2, just like they don't do a lot of damage, neither do we.” I’m a nine-tail spirit fox, not a phoe… Wait this pervert dragon was right. I was a phoenix. I just never bothered to use that side because I would turn anything into ash. I should be able to control the flames now but even if I can’t I have millions of illusion layers on my side. I used 5 200 layered [Confusion] on the spirit sisters which seemed to deal quite a lot of damage. Despite that, they seemed mostly unaffected. How tanky were these two?

-Yoo guys, I'm going phoenix mode, you have 30 seconds to run or hide. - -Wait…- as I closed the Teleroad link. I checked stuff that would change if I shifted toward my phoenix mode. Not much it seemed, it would allow me for better use of frost magic since it would have a way lower effect on my core temperature. I would lose access to my dimensional pocket though. Hmm. I took out some daggers and a sword just to be sure. I also used some dragon vein movements to send Tero up into the sky. Which I later realized was pointless because phoenixes can fly.

“Hey, easy! I don't do this often! Give me a break!” I went phoenix mode and felt myself getting hotter and lighter. I also got a weird invigorating feeling which reminded me of my mother's light golden flames.

I miss her… I sent the water and Tero down while taking off. And uhh I got to apologize to Tero, flying is hard. My flight probably looked worse than Tero's with his janky earth flight. But that was fine, I was going to nuke the area and then go for a dive bomb. You don't need to know how to fly for that! I wrapped myself in blue flames, the same ones I used to vaporize that mountain before all this timeline stuff happened, but this time controlled, probably. I used [Phoenix Fire: Blue Mountain Buster].

I sent the flame pillar down and started my divebomb. I covered myself in blue flames and added some purple lightning in the mix. My control over the illusion shatters was less now that I was a phoenix but that can be easily fixed by increasing the shattered layers. The two sisters seemed to be really damaged. I shattered some more layers for more [Confusion] and used frost magic to freeze them in place. The sisters couldn't move and it seemed they wouldn't be able to for a long time. I broke the sound barrier as I crashed into them with my [Thermoelectric Divebomb]. I caused a large explosion which was followed by a steam explosion after all the water made contact with the fire. I regenerated as I looked around. So uhh I was planning to just nuke the sisters with my mountain buster but I kind of nuked the whole area. It seems the other guardians escaped; I don’t blame them nobody wants to fight a dragon. And my divebomb created a 30-meter-deep crater, just after my buddies closed a crater, I made a new one, I probably won't hear the end of it…. There was molten rock everywhere. You see, this is why I don't go phoenix mode, it is kind of unfriendly to my allies.

“Hey, kiddo are you trying to kill me?” You're a dragon, you're fine.

“Yes, but my feelings are hurt! You half melted my favorite scale!” Whud? I looked at Tero and it seemed like I almost landed a direct hit on him with my dive bomb he had 4 scales that looked singed and 2 were slightly distorted from melting. Oh sorry, but you have enough scales! Why is that your favorite scale though?

“So, 5712 years ago I met this hot water dragon chick and…” Never mind I was foolish to ask.

“I got to say though, that packed a serious punch.” Oh right, what happened to those sisters? I looked around but couldn't find them.

“You vaporized them ma dude. If you can melt an earth dragon scale, I'm not sure what other creature will be fine after a direct hit of that. Maybe I should change my plan of what to do when I meet your mother again, phoenixes are scary.” I’m just gonna pretend I didn't hear that. Anyways thank you for helping!

“No problem. Anyway this was fun! Call me again when you're in deep shit!” Tero burrowed and disappeared. The big root was still here. It took some damage from my divebomb but it was still standing. I switched back to my 9t Fox mode. The other guardians seemed to have fled inside the root, how does that even work? Couldn't they let themselves be one shot? Oh, right gotta check on my buddies.

-Are y'all still alive?- The ground shook and a huge crystal dome with shadows pouring out emerged from under the ground, which shattered and revealed my buddies. For some reason, they seemed to be sweating a lot.

-Hey Agnis, could you like, I don't know, give a longer time window before you vaporize the whole area?- -I knew you would manage!- -Wow you melted everything and vaporized those sisters!- -Hey Raishin, do you know what that means? There are a lot of more hot chicks now! -

-Wow Ted that is inappropriate. - -Says the guy that almost turned us into ash! -

-I have no idea what you're talking about. You seem fine-

I looked around and fell to the ground of exhaustion. Going phoenix mode was fine but using Dragonvein was physically draining. I realized that I could have just used [Foxfire: Winter’s End] and it would have had the same effect. Trying new stuff and doing a dive bomb is cool though. My buddies approached. Your dragon scared our bosses away… I’m sorry, I guess we will have to fight them another time. Did the dragon even do anything? This all seems like your doing. I thought about those words. Wait he's right. Tero pretended like he did something but all he did was give me a ride and scare some guardians. I will put him to work next time I call him. Greg, can you please remember that this jerk can call a dragon? It could have been useful so many times in the past! Of course, we are going to make full use of this information. We saw some blasts in the distance. I don't think it takes a genius to know that Azu is fighting there.

I think I can beat the Mountain by myself, before he ran away, he didn't seem to be able to do much to me. Our guardian was so slow he didn't manage to do one thing before he got grabbed by the Mountain and dragged inside the root. Good, so I won't be the only one to create craters fighting the guardians.

If Raishin behaves, you will be the only one… But this means we got stronger right? We used to have problems fighting them.

Hmm, I’m not sure if these are as strong or stronger than the originals, they do seem to have more energy but their behavior is a bit… robotic. Yeah, they didn't seem to adapt well. Not that I gave them a chance to. I’m sure the real ones would flee instantly the moment a dragon appeared. Why did ours run away then?

Because you guys suck? Hmm well, it seemed like those 2 really locked on to you, the Mountain didn't seem to be that interested in attacking me. Hmm, I can't tell what happened to ours because it didn't do anything… just use your taunting roar next time.

Will do. Ugh, I'm exhausted, maybe I should rest more… Yeah, shoo go rest, we will deal with the shades that you didn't vaporize. Hey, do you think these new guardians are the new echoes? They won't come back after we defeat them, right?

Uhh, Greg? I have no idea but I hope they stay gone. I looked at the dimensional fabric. It seemed like what parts weren't torn seemed to have improved in quality. Would defeating all these pink guardians enable me to fix it? Maybe we can only get rid of the root after we defeat all of them. I formed another ball with my tails and took a nap.