CHAPTER. 149: THE END OF THE NIGHTMARE (PART 5)

“He’s not here…” Regis’karr said with a grave tone.

“I can’t believe it…” The Dragon of Earth looked with narrowed eyes. “The Dragon of Taboo lied to me about their whereabouts for… centuries?”

“Perhaps… it’s to be expected.” Regis’karr shifted. “We never really know what the Dragon of Taboo is up to, perhaps he deceived us so we don’t catch a glimpse of their wretched experiments.”

“Indeed.” The Dragon of Earth. “He’s a mysterious one, it wouldn’t surprise me if he kept some slaves around. The occult is quite the terrifying element.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter if the Dragon of Taboo is out torturing someone, what should we do now?”

The Dragon of Earth looked at the empty cave and let out a very long sigh.

“I do not know.”

* * * * *

The Dragon of Taboo stirred from her sleep. Something⁠— something⁠ was very wrong⁠— very very very wrong. All her senses told her that something was incredibly wrong. Normally, nothing disturbed her where she resided but now an ominous feeling disturbed her to her very core.

The energies of the world had shifted.

They had moved. The once calm world Arlas had stirred for a moment, as if screaming for something to stop⁠— something that shouldn’t be in this world had come to it. The last time it happened was a little over three weeks ago when the world of Arlas screamed as it was tore⁠— something had left the world then.

It was an anomaly, something that rarely ever happened, the Dragon of Taboo took notes of every time it happened. The first time she had been able to properly sense it was most recent, just a few months ago. Then, sometime after, after the Dragon Queen had been elected⁠— they went to an entrance of the Forgotten Places and opened it.

That time, she felt the same feeling of invasion. Which meant…

Something had crossed from the Forgotten Places.

The Dragon of Taboo jolted straight, this was bad.

She immediately turned around and headed to assess the situation, it had happened ⁠inside of her cave — something from the Forgotten Places was here. And she… judging on how the world felt at the moment, she was sure that she could fight it. While she kept to herself in almost all cases, she was still an SS Tier combatant, and regarded as one of the strongest ones at that. Death wasn’t something she was unfamiliar with.

Immediately she turned serious and headed deep into the cave, her heart steadily beating as she prepared herself to fight the corruption of the world of Arlas. Soon, she began to feel a presence and it felt normal, almost familiar ⁠— was this some trick of the corruption?

She wasn’t well informed about it, but she prepared her SS Tier skill and walked into the room with a burst of speed.

“[Death is⁠—]” And the Dragon of Taboo paused looking at who was before her.

It was a girl, blood was still pooling on the ground and next to her lay a black and blue spear. The girl herself had pale features and one of her legs was made out of ice, aside from that her clothes were absolutely torn; resembling nothing but rags. At her neck, was a necklace with a half broken gemstone.

And she… had a tear running down her cheek?

More importantly… What?

“Dragon Queen of Frost…?” The Dragon of Taboo asked, in absolute shock.

* * * * *

“Dragon Queen of Frost…?”

I raised my head, being met with a blue dragon, tattoo-like patterns running throughout their body. They felt familiar but their voice did not ring a bell. I hadn’t even noticed their presence until they called out to me.

[Dragon of Taboo. Tier: SS].

“Oh…” I wiped a tear off my eye remembering something. “What… what are you doing here? Aren’t you one of the elders?”

The Dragon of Taboo stiffened and immediately nodded. “Y-Yes, but… why are you here? Dragon Queen of Frost? I sensed… corruption, did you fight it off?”

“Fight it off?” I blinked, then shook my head. “No, it just left where it had come from. Probably never to be seen again,” I said grimly.

“Right… I shan’t be concerned about the corruption then. You are… very injured, please allow me to treat you.” He bowed.

“Injured?” I asked, looking at my body.

I was lightly bleeding but I was just fine. Asok had said that my body was no longer corrupted and yet from what I could tell, I was still just as durable as I had been throughout the battle⁠— no, I could feel it, I was actually stronger.

“I’ll be fine.” I shook my head.

That said, my mana was… I didn’t have a lot of it but it was present. Though it felt distinctly different. A lot more concentrated and powerful? I couldn’t really tell, but then again I had succeeded in my endeavor.

So I can use arcane magic now? I looked at my hand for a moment before the Dragon of Taboo spoke up.

“Nonsense, you’re a guest of mine. You’re in my cave, besides it’s the least I could do for the Queen of Dragons.”

“Is that so?” I raised my brow. “Also you can just call me Arc.”

“Right… Arc is fine… okay…” The Dragon of Taboo suddenly turned weird before shaking his head. “Very well, Arc please follow me.”

With a nod, the dragon turned and made me go up a path of rocks. It took less than a minute before I found myself in a rather large cavern. Oddly enough, there were some bookshelves filled, some furniture and even a closet and a normal bed to sleep in. The cave was divided into what I’d call two sides⁠— a human side and a dragon side.

“Please make yourself at home,” the Dragon of Taboo said before it went towards the Dragon side, it had a lot of things I didn’t understand and weird shaped objects.

I nodded and chose to sit at the couch as the Dragon of Taboo worked in the background. I placed the spear to the side as I just observed my surroundings.

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“Arc, can I ask how did you lose your leg?”

I blinked and looked down at the extremely cracked leg of ice.

“I lost it in the Forgotten Places, as for how I ended up there…” I closed my eyes feeling momentary anger before sighing. “You can ask the Hero of Arlas that is on this side. Or the one in the Forgotten Places works too, though he didn’t answer when I asked him.”

“You… were⁠— you survived the Forgotten Places?!” The Dragon of Taboo freaked out as I heard something break. “Ah…”

“I guess I did.”

A sigh left the dragon. “Well, what is this about two Heroes of Arlas?”

“I wish I knew,” I said somewhat despondently.

“I see.”

And with that, our conversation ended. I felt like the Dragon of Taboo was… strange. They felt completely normal to be around⁠— though I didn’t question their lair. However, they did not speak a single word to me the last time I met them which was odd to me. And the reason I thought was strange is because sometimes he would tense up when talking.

But, well, I didn’t judge him. I was grateful enough that he just welcomed me just like that. Instead, I took the chance to relax and look at the rocky ceiling. My mana was still regenerating and it seemed to be rather slow so perhaps it’d take a full day for it to come back.

I really did it though…

I grabbed the spear and paused.

It wasn’t Sol’as’ Spear…

“Huh…?” I blinked and [Appraisal] went off.

[Arc’s Spear of Legacies. Tier: SSS+]

Sol’as Spear and Alfina’s Sword are gone…? I felt my heart drop before another System notification came.

[ Since this weapon is named after you, you can see it’s unique abilities. ]

Then, the System continued.

[ Skill: World Ender. Tier: SSS+ ⁠— Effects: Unknown ]

[ Skill: Division. Tier: SSS+ ⁠— Effects: Divide Arc’s Spear of Legacies into: Sol’as’ Spear. Tier: SSS and Alfina’s Sword. Tier: SSS ]

[ Skill: Form Shift. Tier S ⁠— Effects: Shift the form of the weapon towards one of the weapons Arc’s Spear of Legacies is made out of. ]

I blinked and sighed in relief.

“So neither of you are gone,” I said to myself looking at the spear.

My spear… the spear resembled Sol’as’ Spear in being blue, though it had black ornaments of wings and depictions of gusts of wind running throughout its entire length. Its tip resembled a sword tip rather than a spear tip too and it was a very pale white. It clearly was a mix of the two weapons and it had been named after me.

“So I can use World Ender without problems… though is it a system skill or an arcane magic skill…?” I pondered in confusion. “Well I can test it out later⁠…” And I paused thinking of the destruction it had caused. “Or maybe not⁠—”

The footsteps from the Dragon of Taboo interrupted me, he was coming my way now holding in his maw what seemed to be a crude stick with a bunch of ornaments attached. He stopped before me, much to my curiosity as he dropped it to the ground and grabbed it with his claw.

“Now… I’ll heal you, please do not move,”

I nodded. And a moment later a purple light enveloped me. It felt… warm. And it disappeared as soon as it came. I blinked, feeling a surge of strength all around my body. Meanwhile, the stick within the dragon’s claw broke apart. I looked down at myself only to see that I no longer had a speck of blood on my body⁠ not even my clothes had blood ⁠— though they were still torn. Even the ice around my leg had been restored.

“Sorry, at this moment I cannot recover your leg. I need a high grade health potion for that which I do not have at the moment.” He bowed apologetically.

I blinked. “No need to apologize, this is…” I stood up lightly moving my limbs and feeling no pain, “great actually. All my fatigue is gone too.”

The Dragon of Taboo nodded, closing his eyes. “Glad you’re pleased, Arc.”

I nodded and turned to him. “Thank you Dragon of Taboo…” and I paused, having a random thought. “Do you prefer to be called by your name or title?”

The Dragon of Taboo completely paused his mind processing. Then after a second it answered, though its voice was… trembling.

“You can call me whatever you want to call me, but I’d prefer if you called me by my name… Lily…”

I blinked. “Lily…?”

The Dragon of Taboo shrunk. “Yes…”

“Isn’t that a… girl’s name?”

I saw the Dragon make itself smaller as it answered again. “It is…”

“So you’re a… woman?” I asked, confused.

“Yes…” Lily answered.

And for a moment there was just complete silence. My mind processed the entirety of our interactions and my interactions with other dragons.

“I thought Faral and Malz were the only two women.” I tilted my head.

The Dragon of Taboo panicked and immediately lowered her head in shame. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to deceive you⁠—”

“No it’s okay,” I interrupted sensing their… persona falling apart. “I don’t mind. Thanks for curing me Lily.”

Lily, at my words, seemed to relax as a long sigh left her. Then she looked at me. “Is it alright if I change to my… human form? I actually only use this form to sleep every now and then, mostly when I decide I’m too exhausted to… deal with the world,” she said meekly.

“Sure, go ahead.”

I watched as the Dragon of Taboo nodded and a moment later they were enveloped in purple light and a woman⁠— or rather girl stood before me. She was a head shorter than me and had a deep violet hair that didn’t go past her neck. Her clothes for me would be described as: casual fantasy clothes.

Black pants, a wine colored skirt over them and a light pink blouse. Then she shuffled awkwardly.

“Sorry, I don’t interact much with… people on a personal basis, so I hope you can overlook any… weirdness I may display,” she said awkwardly.

“It’s fine, I probably have to go anyway.” I shook my head and grabbed my spear as I began to walk towards the other tunnel inside the cave. “Ceylon and the others are waiting for me.”

“Right, allow me to accompany you,” she said in a hurry. “Draliz is actually… about a week away by flight for me so I think you may need my help.”

I paused. “Wait, just how far are we from Draliz?”

“About… four continents away…?” The Dragon of Taboo guessed.

“Right… please come with me then. I’ll require your help.”

Lily nodded and we headed for the outside of her lair. Though while doing so I couldn’t help but wonder.

Were Asok and Alfina doing alright?

* * * * *

“The scientist stayed behind,” Alfina said with a frown.

“Leave him be, we cannot rescue him not against… that.” The Dominion of Darkness looked at the distance as five Eternals attacked what remained of the land. “Even two of us commanders died.”

Alfina sighed. “Indeed we did, but at least Arc got out, and that attack.” She smiled. “Was fucking terrifying.”

“It truly was,” the Hero of Arlas said by the side. “She is truly something else, I can’t believe she survived. I think all of us saw her fight.”

“We did,” the Nightmarish Thunder agreed on the back.

“That said.” Alfina sighed. “We cannot be here any longer, plus we are all…” she trailed off looking at everyone, exhibiting blotches of corruption. “Injured.”

“Indeed we are,” the Domion of Darkness sighed before turning to the Hero of Arlas. “Okay, how are we going to save this world?”

“First we will find shelter and recover you all.” The man said as he turned away.

Alfina looked at him and⁠— he was completely uninjured, oddly enough. Then again, she knew the man always carried some form of corruption within him, she had sensed it as soon as she awakened from her eternal slumber.

“Then, we’ll continue by assaulting another pillar of corruption, hopefully we can keep growing our force of those at the peak of strength.”

The elf scoffed. “So give a bunch of civilizations hope just to take their fighters? Quite the funny thing you’re suggesting, though⁠— it’s essentially what happened with us so can’t complain.” She shrugged.

“Is it really wrong if we fight giving it our all every time?” The Guardian of the Red Forest asked. “I don’t think so, which is why I’ve chosen to follow Sir. Uwell.”

“I just pointed out it was quite funny,” the Dominion of Darkness said. “I have no choice but to follow, though…” She looked at the sky. “Even if I had a choice, I think I’d still follow through this.”

Alfina smiled. Only five of them remained, but they had grown to become friends. It was an adventure that she thought she’d never experience again. Just like her adventure with Sol’as.

“Let us go.” The Hero of Arlas gestured as they began their endless journey to purge the corruption.

Alfina nodded though in the back of her mind she couldn’t help but think about Arc, the person she had chosen to entrust Sol’as’ Spear and her sword to. She was sure they were in safe hands. She turned to look at the grand abyss that had been formed by Arc’s attack.

I hope we can meet again.

And then, she joined the others.