— He opened his eyes.
He was on the porch of his house, at Yggdrasil, at Candlepoint.
For a long moment, Erick just breathed. And then he started resummoning Ophiel, because he had moved very far away from the little guy and Ophiel had popped. The little guy responded to his renewed existence as he usually did when he was accidentally unsummoned; with squeaks and flute sounds and unhappy chimes. Erick apologized as best he could while petting the little guy, and also sending out telepathic messages.
Within moments Poi had reappeared at home, and Erick got to talking about all that had happened with one of the few people he could trust with this sort of thing. After a while, Poi suggested and Erick agreed that it was time to call in Teressa, and also Aisha, who were both still in the Benevolence Research Tower.
Both women were very worried about odd things that they had sensed, and then even more worried as Erick told them what was happening all across the world right now, and what his response could be. There was worry, yes, but also a specific request that mirrored Rozeta’s earlier request.
As the sun set in the west, Erick opened the way into his Gate Space, and led Teressa, Aisha, and Poi inside. As the entrance shut, and the sky started to tangle, Teressa and Aisha locked Sight with Benevolence. Whatever they were seeing was something special, but what Poi saw, standing next to Erick, was the same thing that Erick saw when he was here with Rozeta, not two hours ago.
A misty tangle of shadowy spots in the hundred year wall. A tangle of shadows hovering on the edge of the platform, spilling life and death onto the white stone.
And an orrery of black tangled planets orbiting in the distant sky.
Poi stared.
With zero reverence at all, Poi gestured to the nearest ‘planet’, saying, “That one has to be Yoril. I’m pretty sure that if it was filled with water that the shape of those dark spots would be the major continents. Not sure about the order of the other ones, but I’m rather certain about Yoril there.” He kept his eyes locked on the sky, saying, “You should be a dragon, Erick. More power is the safer option for you, no matter how much you think vulnerability makes people able to approach you. Vulnerability is also a weakness, and while your defensive measures haven’t been tested yet, I would prefer that when they are, that you are found as resilient as adamantium.”
Briefly, Erick wondered if he could just become a wrought.
“Not possible,” Poi said, “Wrought are not like flesh and blood people. You could become a lich, though? If you had a tutor and the desire to be that way, you could, but that would certainly change who you are. Becoming a lich always turns a person into some monster for a good decade or more before they’re able to get hold of their transformation. Becoming a dragon is the safe option.”
“An hour ago you were terrified of this whole idea. What changed?”
“You being a dragon means you’ll never need a guard again. I’ll still want to be by your side, but you won’t actually need me like you do now. You won’t need anyone.”
“… That seems awfully lonely, Poi.”
Poi pointed at the dark tangle, touching upon the edge of the platform, spilling green life and then turning all to ash right after. That cycle of death and birth continued, as Poi said, “Teressa and Aisha are having a moment, and you’re going to talk to them for another hour or two when they come out of it, but in the end you’re going to make this decision on your own. If your options are remaining as you are, and eventually becoming a full Wizard, who is still rather vulnerable to concentrated annihilation, or becoming a dragon, resistant to every sort of magic out there, practically unkillable in either form for they just revert to their dragon form and start rampaging, with all the innate damage reduction of a dragon’s body and the magical power therein…
“The choice is obvious.”
Erick said, “It’s still not obvious to me. No one should have as much power as everyone suddenly wants me to have— Rozeta wants me to be able to fight Melemizargo if it should come to that.”
“The gods have been giving you power for months and years, already. They just recognize what is possible now, and Rozeta’s specific concern is yet another major reason to pick this option.”
Erick watched the sky.
After a moment, he breathed out, and his decision settled.
The tangle of shadows on the edge of the platform turned wispy. Green life exploded from the ground, and then the tangle vanished.
Poi breathed deep, saying, “Good choice, sir.”
Teressa jolted, coming out of her trance. She turned to Erick. “Ah. Okay then.”
Aisha calmly exited her trance. She turned to Erick and gently went to her knees, before kowtowing fully. She whispered, “My king.”
… Erick needed to allow that display, he supposed. He thought that maybe he shouldn’t, but he had seen a lot of people professing obeisance to him in the last months since he became a king. Aisha’s new display was just an extreme version of what he had already seen.
Still, though.
Still it was a lot.
Erick broke down, saying, “Get up, Aisha. We’ve only been working together for a few months. I cannot possibly have more than 65% of your loyalty.”
Aisha lifted her head. “You have 100%, my king.”
… Well okay then.
Erick turned to Poi, saying, “Can you verify that it’s still me afterward?”
“Since you won’t be affected by the Curse, then that’s not an issue. As for being a dragon: aside from desiring to assert your authority over an increasingly larger area, and from slight new bonuses in cognition and otherwise granting you new insights into your own position in life, becoming a dragon does nothing, mentally.” Poi said, “And you’re already doing all that, so separating the two combining factors will be like trying to pull blue dye out of blue water.”
Erick glanced over to the edge of the platform, at the new riot of green blanketing the white stone, where the tangle of shadows had been. He had made his decision, and apparently it was a good one.
So why was he hesitating?
- - - -
“It’s like with all those [Reincarnation]s you did to others, Erick. It’s terrifying being turned into someone and something else.” Rozeta said, “Even if the next form is categorically stronger, smarter, faster, and healthier than the previous form. Even if in your next form, you'll be better able to pursue all the good things you were already pursuing.”
Erick sat on a chair made of clouds that was neither a chair, nor made of clouds, in the middle of an endless blue sky that was not sky at all, nor was it blue. Rozeta stood in her white wrought form, right beside Erick. Now Rozeta might have been real. Or at least Real.
And Erick felt like he was in a dentist’s chair.
“That might be part of it,” Erick said, trying to come to terms with what was happening, and his odd reclined position. “But I don’t think anyone should have this much power at all.”
Rozeta smiled softly. “You’re one of the few people in this world that I would trust with this much power. But since you’re worried, I feel I should tell you about the next world: if Melemizargo cooperates and doesn’t create Ancients, and his Shades don’t create monsters, one of the small things that the Relevant Entities have decided is that there will be a lot less Script assistance. One of the few things the majority of us have agreed upon is that [Teleport] will not be purchasable for a single point. The release of that magic out into the Open Script was only ever an emergency response to a dire situation, which never got repealed when [Teleport] turned out necessary for continued survival against my father. So if you don’t like people having this much power, then all you gotta do is hold the world together for all of us for the next hundred years.”
Erick actually felt good about that. He smiled a little. “Is that all? Just survive?”
“I’d prefer ‘thriving’, so if you can [Strike] that it would be most appreciated.”
Erick spoke in order to distract himself, “I’m a bit surprised that Darkness makes mana, and yet, it makes a lot of sense. And yet, I cannot see that part of my soul at all.”
With a friendly attitude, Rozeta said, “That fact was why it would have required a full referendum from the Relevant Entities to make protean’s mana generation like that of dragons’. We gods could do it, if we all worked together and you contributed a lot, but that sort of thing is not lightly done, for it surely would have attracted my father’s undivided attention.”
“… He’s probably going to try and fuck this up somehow.”
“I don’t think he will, actually.” Rozeta said, “I don’t trust him at all. I don’t trust that fairy, either. I don’t fully trust a lot of people, Erick. But I trust you, and you are a Wizard, so you can technically fight back against him. You might even be able to win for a little while, when it is most necessary; you and Kirginatharp, and all the wrought and all the dragons you will bless, and all the people you will raise in your kingdom. In a hundred years, we might actually be able to force my father’s compliance, because, yes, he probably will try some shit. Him, or any of the other tens of forces out there that are powerful, but too damned selfish to build a better world the way it should be built.
“The angels, who inherit all their predecessors’ whims. The demons who had been replaced by the souls of incani, but who fell into the same patterns as the Old Demons. The dragons of Ar’Cosmos. The coming fae. The undead of Quintlan and their soul horrors. And whatever forces you make to help combat all of those other forces.
“Will your ideas of how magic should be taught pan out well? Or will you have to cull the very generation you raise?
“Does your idea for the Crystal Forest turn out well? Or do you accidentally unleash Crystal Mimics through your Gate Network, and infect the world?
“And what about my father’s capture of that unique Soul Ooze, which threatened all the world if it had been allowed to grow for one more night? I still have no idea what he is doing with that, and I hope it is nothing too deadly, once it is finally revealed.
“For make no mistake, Erick, power is necessary in order to do all the good you want to do.
“Know now, what I already know: that the power I invest into you today is going to a good cause; the continued safety of all this world, and all the worlds to come.”
Erick breathed, listening to Rozeta, Dragon Goddess of the Script. By the time her voice fell silent, she was no longer the white wrought woman she had been. She was a sky-spanning dragon, a twisting river of white scales and faint golden flames, and eyes of brightest, white gold. From high above she gazed down at Erick, and asked,
“Are you ready?”
Erick tried a joke, “It’s like you’re asking me to marry you.” And then he suddenly realized what he had said, and he found himself whispering, “It’s just that there’s a lot of that going around… And…” His voice trailed off.
Rozeta grinned. “Maybe I’ll be your mistress in a hundred and twenty years, after you get some skill using your new form and I’m not so busy. Go ahead and mate and marry and be happy long before that, though. I am not a jealous lover.”
“… Ah.”
The world went white.
Rozeta’s voice surrounded him,
“You’ll see the part you need to help at, and it will be instinctual at that point, Erick, so just do that, and this all will go well.”
The world went blank.
- - - -
In a white room, something shifted.
A darkness displaced the center of the room, only becoming visible in that displacement, as it was joined with another, smaller shadow, hovering to the side. And then another smaller shadow joined the first interloper, followed by a second and a third, and then there were more small shadows in the room than there was darkness.
But the white room was not a room, and the darkness and the shadows were neither of those things, either.
Erick blinked.
Ah.
This was where he took over.
Well. Based on the not-shadows all around the not-darkness, they should all be one, right? Just, shove this one in there, and then— bam!
They all go together, just like this.
Not-shadows rushed into not-darkness, and became one in the same, and then the depths inverted and a well of white light poured outward, shining with flickering lightning.
And then… Nothing.
The original darkness and all the other shadows were gone.
The room was white again, as though nothing had changed at all.
But maybe… It felt more real?
Whatever the case, the room was not a room, the dark was not the dark, the flickers of lightning were not lightning. But maybe, down there in that corner, and then over there in the other space…?
Those flashes of white that crawled like tendrils and then vanished as soon as they appeared.
That certainly looked like Benevolence.
The entire room looked like Benevolence.
It probably was.
One thing stood out from all the rest, though.
Down in that corner that was not a corner, was a circle of black with a white center that was not a circle of black. It was an eye, peering through a crack in the world.
The Darkness looking inward, in approval.
Or rather.
Almost approval.
“Just a single... small change—”
The room shifted.
“—and we’re good!”
- - - -
Erick woke up with a headache that rapidly passed.
He was in his bed, in his room on Yggdrasil, and he was human-shaped. A happy laugh escaped his throat, unbidden, as a quiet joy filled his heart. He was still human-shaped. He sighed, and then he turned to the other people in the room.
“Hello, Poi, Teressa. Kiri.” Erick glanced up at the white [Scry] eye hovering above, that looked just as concerned as Poi and Teressa did. “Glad to see you back for a little bit, Yggdrasil.”
Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye hovered directly above him. Poi stood on the right side of his bed. Teressa stood beside him. Kiri was on his other side with a multicolor Sunny loosely wrapped around her neck, who was also looking at him.
Ophiel chirped on the headboard, flapping his wings and growing a few more eyes to look down on Erick as he sang in happy violin sounds.
Poi smiled, saying, “Welcome back, sir.”
Teressa grinned. “Now I don’t have to ever worry about leaving you alone. You’re your own tank, now.”
Erick sat up, propping himself up on his pillows as he chuckled, saying, “I think I’ll have to rely on you to guard myself and the entire realm with your Sight now, Teressa, instead of with your arms.”
“I won’t let you down, Boss!” Teressa said, blushing with embarrassment and joy.
Kiri whispered, “So you really did it, then? You did the Benevolent Dragon thing?”
Some blue boxes began to blink into existence before him. Reading them was the work of a microsecond, but while their contents and implications were surprising, they were nothing truly unexpected. Not really.
Erick focused on his direct surroundings. From the chairs set up in his room, and a few scattered bits of food, and a half-full pot of coffee over there, it looked like he had been unconscious for a while. A day? Maybe.
Erick said to Kiri, “Yup. I did. It was the best option of the paths laid down before me, and I can already tell it worked perfectly. I’m thinking of Kirginatharp and others right now, and I have no desire at all to go fight them, or take their lands, or anything like that. Plus, the notes from Rozeta said it was a success.”
Not a complete success, though. Not the way Rozeta had intended.
Poi said, “Ascendant Prime has measured you, as you requested. You have zero personality shift.”
Erick smiled at that, too.
“But still…” Kiri shook her head. She put on a smile. “I’m glad you’re okay, Erick. I’m also glad to report the kingdom has not fallen in your absence.”
Erick chuckled. “I can already tell that. I don’t even see any new construction on the shores of the lake. What’s it been? A day?”
“Two.” Kiri said, “The transformation was…” Her voice trailed off.
Poi said, “The transformation was rougher than Rozeta expected it to be, though you went through the worst of it with her. When she delivered you unto us she said to take care of you, and you should wake in a few days. We’ve been taking shifts. Jane is on her way back.”
Warmth spread through Erick’s heart. “I love you all, too.”
Teressa blushed. Kiri blushed, too. Poi just smiled softly.
Hearing that Jane was coming back, which meant she was okay, was the only thing he could not check on himself, so he was glad to hear that. He could even go back to bed if he wanted. At that moment he realized he still felt a little sleepy, so he almost wanted to lay back down, even though he had never really risen, but it was time to get up. And yet, he decided to stay propped up on pillows for a little while longer.
He had some thoughts.
Erick asked, “So does that mean that Jane found her sword?”
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“She did not,” Poi said.
“Tell her I’m good, then tell her she can continue the search.” Erick said, “Last I heard she and her team were killing hidden Ancients down there in the dark. They should keep doing that.”
Poi said, “She will be thrilled to hear all of that, though she will want to speak to you directly. You missed her last communication.”
Erick briefly closed his eyes, still smiling, as he said, “I will be ready to receive her condemnation of this completely un-undoable decision at a time of her choosing. Make sure she knows that, please. There is no going back from this.”
Kiri asked, “Can I give you my condemnation, now?”
“Ahh! But Kiri! You are the apprentice, remember? Here’s a lesson for you: sometimes the gods want assurances of the future, and if you’re the best one to provide those assurances, then they stuff you with as much power as you can handle.” Erick added, “Apparently.”
Teressa nodded. “Apparent King.”
“Apparent dragon,” Kiri muttered.
“And also Apparent Wizard,” Poi added.
Erick smiled, then said to Kiri, “Go ahead and give it to me.”
Kiri breathed deep, then began, “You STUPID MAN! How could you endanger yourself like this! How could you endanger the kingdom like this! I’m out there turning the land livable and you’re in that House making people work together and now you throw this NONSENSE into the mix! Do you know how many dragon fights we’re going to get here now?! Even if you can put them down yourself…”
Kiri spoke for a while.
Erick listened.
Then he rose from bed and gave the girl a hug and told her everything was going to be okay. Kiri bawled on his shoulders, talking about how worried she was, and that dragons were dangerous, and how he was already a Wizard and that everyone was going to worry way too much about him and someone would probably do something crazy.
Erick listened again.
Jane’s words were rather similar to Kiri’s, when Erick finally got to have that conversation.
Jane was doing nice in the Underworld, though. Almost figured out a Prismatic Domain!
Not quite there yet, but she was getting there.
Erick went to the House next and caught up with Zolan about what had happened while he was gone. Thankfully, nothing much had happened at all. A lot of letters. A few meetings between offices to sort out some administrative tasks. A lot of normal meetings that Zolan had expected Erick to be there for, but which he had handled himself. There had also been quite a few anonymous questions and a few not-so-anonymous appointment requests from people who were obviously dragons.
Zolan said, “I know what it looks like when someone requests anti-Dragon Essence treatment from Oceanside, and I know what it looks like when those requests are probably from real dragons trying to sneak in and murder the Headmaster. I’ve seen dragons pull a lot of shit over the years, Erick.” He gestured to the 15 letters that sat on Erick’s desk, between him and Erick, saying, “Those are outright [Reincarnation] requests from real dragons, or threats and demands for Benevolence-transformations. That’s the kind of shit that the Headmaster would respond to with utter annihilation and consumption, because that’s what all those sorts of meetings would devolve into if those sorts of people ever openly appeared near Oceanside. In my time, the Headmaster had standing instructions to hand these sorts of letters directly over to the Dragon Stalkers, and for him to never be involved at all.”
Erick read over all the letters in a flicker of mana sense, Perception, and Intelligence quickness, and he was glad to report to himself that he felt nothing of the Curse which plagued Dragon Essence. If he had, he would have wanted to kill every single one of these people.
And if that had been a worry at all, Erick wouldn’t have even been having this conversation with Zolan right now, for Erick wouldn’t put himself into that sort of position, and Zolan wouldn’t have shown Erick these letters in the first place.
Zolan did not know that Erick was a dragon, though.
Only Erick’s family knew, and also Aisha. And Rozeta.
… Zolan would probably know soon enough, and maybe at the end of this meeting, but not right now.
Erick picked up one of the letters that didn’t quite fit what Zolan was telling him, though. It was a letter written on pale blue paper, inside an envelope of darker blue. “This one is from a dragon who has halfway escaped the Curse already, though she is also a lich from Quintlan. What do you make of this one?”
“One of the safer ones to actually accept a meeting with, actually. Zenipeq, the Ice Wraith Queen, is a rather stable force over in Quintlan, though she is a horrible necromancer who has [Stone Pathway]ed the way for others to follow in her steps, to drown the world in undeath as much as she could. Someone is going to try to assassinate her the very second you [Reincarnation] her, if you choose to do that, so be prepared. She’s probably going to be prepared, too, with guards of exceptional quality and loyalty.” Zolan said, “She’s a truly dangerous person to be around, but… Not much more than all the rest.”
Erick nodded.
He decided to tell Zolan about his new Status.
Zolan took it pretty well, though his heart did thump so hard that Erick thought it might pop out his chest, but Zolan was a young man. He handled it pretty well. He also swore not to tell anyone, which was never in any doubt.
- - - -
It had been a very long day, and half of a night.
And now, Erick was done with his kingdom until tomorrow. It was time to check those boxes and shore up some things. And so, nude and in his human form, the Apparent King of Candlepoint, the Wizard of Benevolence, the Head of House Benevolence, and now a Benevolence Dragon, sat cross legged atop a crook in Yggdrasil’s upper branches, surrounded by a very large Privacy. He was meditating a little; clearing his mind before he got down to his next task.
The sky was dark with night, yet all around was light.
Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye held in the air beside him while Ophiel sat around on Yggdrasil’s glowing white bark here and there, chirping in unsure flutes and uneasy guitar sounds. Yggdrasil’s eye didn’t look too happy, either.
Yggdrasil asked, “Are you still you, father?”
“I am,” Erick said, “There’s just more of me. Sort of like how you grow up, I guess I can grow up, too.”
“The Arbors said that people don’t usually get bigger than they already are.” Yggdrasil hummed, then added, “Aside from babies. You’re not a baby?”
“I am not a baby, and the lessons the Arbors give you are only true in most cases. You should always keep your eyes and senses open for all the information there is, Yggdrasil. Don’t only listen to authority, try to figure out your own thoughts based on your own experiences, too.”
“I know! They tell me that, too.”
Erick smiled. He opened his eyes. He was ready to confront his new self.
With a thought, Erick pulled up the first box of many to come; the letter from Rozeta.
Erick.
My father did some shit, because he is a shithead. The good news is that nothing is actually wrong. Everything mechanically works just as it should. You even got a new spell that should help you do your Benevolence-ing of other dragons rather well. That was unexpected, and I believe that you are the one that did that. Not my father.
You are a ‘Benevolence Dragon’ now, with all that entails.
Now for the bad news, and what my father actually did:
You will find out after you transform the first time. Do it somewhere that no one else can see. Also, never let anyone see your draconic form until you’re truly ready for that storm. It will be a big storm. Don’t ever bring out your horns, like the other dragons of Ar’Cosmos do. Trust me on this.
And now for some maybe neutral news:
I tried to give you a third [Paradox Shift] form, but that failed and I think it was because of you. I think you accepted this a lot more than I thought you would, and so your second form, the one you use all the time with the core, is now your base draconic form, too.
Your first form remains untouched.
And some good news:
Whatever other dragons you Benevolence should be more normal than you.
We’ll talk more whenever you wish!
For now: good luck with your kingdom. It’s going well.
Your kingdom and the basic security of it all should be a lot more secure, now that you are almost assassin-proof, what with [Unbreakable Form] stacking on top of your new reality.
Don’t go testing yourself against assassins, please!
-Rozeta
Erick dismissed that notification, breathing and exhaling a few times as he got ready for the next part.
And then he opened up the majority of his other notifications. He did not need to read the ones that said ‘[Spell] has been corrupted! Return to a Registrar to undo this!’, so he did not bring those up. He just read the important boxes in the order they had appeared. First came [Dragon Body], and then surprisingly, the upgrade to that one.
Dragon Body, Permanently Active, 0 mana
Assume a draconic form based on your nature, at will, gaining
Assume a new Familiar Form of any type you have experience with, at will.
Immortal.
Greater Dragon Body, Permanently Active, 0 mana
Assume a greater draconic form based on your nature, at will, gaining
Assume a new Familiar Form of any type you have experience with, at will.
Immortal.
As expected, dragons were fucking ridiculous. Erick already felt all of this new magic upon him the very second he had woken in that bed, hours ago and surrounded by most of his family. These magics weren’t even auras; they were just permanent effects, like Strong tripling his Health or Clarity reducing spell costs by half.
A few things about his new self stood out to him, though. That absolute damage reduction.
Dragons were highly resilient, yes, but Erick had no idea they were that resilient.
Of course, [Greater Draconic Body], which is the one Erick had now, since he had upgraded from the normal version during the course of his convalescence with Rozeta, had a whole bunch of carets. Those little angular brackets indicated stuff that was specific for the person who had that spell.
Other dragons probably had other numbers.
Normal dragons probably had double mana, or half mana costs, or whatever, and a little bit of absolute damage reduction. Fae dragons probably had something along the lines of ‘stronger illusion spells’, or ability to interact with Fairy. Carnage probably had a lot more absolute damage reduction, as well as damage bonuses. Death dragons for sure had massively increased control over undead creatures.
With that thought sorted, yet knowing he would need to ask other dragons for what they had, Erick felt that his absolute damage reduction was probably the only part of his own [Greater Dragon Body] that really stood out.
That, and that the ability was still called [Greater Draconic Body], and not [Greater Benevolence Dragon Body]. Erick had expected his [Pristine Benevolence] to join with [Dragon Body], and for him to only have one, but apparently that was not how it worked.
Erick moved on.
[Pristine Benevolence] had changed.
Pristine Benevolence, instant, super long range, 10 MP per second + Variable
You are a radiant new beginning.
May your influence be eternal.
Perfected Benevolence, instant, super long range, 5 mana per second + Variable
You are a radiant new beginning.
May your influence be eternal.
A new name and half cost, so not much of a change there. Still…
Erick held out a hand and Benevolence scattered from his hand like a splash of silent lightning, filling the air and touching upon Yggdrasil’s boughs. Green moss spread across the glowing white bark, surrounding Erick like a spreading carpet. That growth rolled right under his naked bum, lifting him off of Yggdrasil’s hard bark and setting him upon a much softer seat. Hmm. Somewhat unexpected. He had tried a very small jolt, but gotten a large one.
All of his magic was like that now. Dragons got size modifiers even outside of their big forms, and Erick was still in the learning curve of sensing how his magic worked.
Erick asked, “That didn’t hurt you, did it, Yggdrasil?”
“Not at all! I’m big and strong!” Yggdrasil asked, “Why the green carpet, though?”
“I was kinda wanting something softer to sit upon.” Erick continued to watch as the green carpet slowly continued to spread across this small part of Yggdrasil, slowing as it reached about ten meters away in every direction. A few ferns lifted here and there, like spouts of darker green among the soft green. “And I wanted to test out this new [Perfected Benevolence]. It seems to respond a lot better than [Pristine Benevolence], in that I can purposefully choose weal or woe. But besides that it’s kinda slippery sometimes here on your bark, and for what comes next I didn’t want to slip off, or maybe hurt you with… whatever happens.”
Erick was worried about claws.
“Okay! I like it!” Yggdrasil said, “People on my roots at Treehome fall off sometimes. This is a good solution. I’m fixing myself now.”
Before Erick could say another word, Yggdrasil flickered with [Perfected Benevolence].
Greenery spread out across the top of every single branch, and across the top of every single root, all across Yggdrasil’s entire five-kilometer wide reach and his twenty-kilometer long roots. That was some fast growth. Faster than Erick had expected. Faster than Yggdrasil had expected, too. The big guy was still a very bright, glowing white tree, but about a quarter of the light of his trunk, branches, and roots, vanished beneath normal green moss.
“… If you don’t like that, Yggdrasil,” Erick said, “You can pluck it off of you with some [Telekinesis].”
“… I will try it out,” Yggdrasil said cheerfully, “Life is about trying things out!”
“It is.”
Erick looked over the final box.
Blessing of Draconic Benevolence, instant, touch, 10,000 mana
Transform the recipient’s draconic nature into one of Benevolence.
Reading that, Erick reaffirmed his concern over having a split between his [Perfected Benevolence] and his [Greater Draconic Body]. They really should have been combined into [Greater Benevolent Dragon Body], right?
… Erick was just delaying.
He was nude for a reason; he didn’t want to destroy his clothes when he transformed.
With a final, muttered, “I don’t know how Jane does this,” Erick opened up a part of himself—
Like the unfurling of an emergency life raft, and feeling like he had been trapped until that very moment, Erick felt his senses vanish and then come back from one blink to the next.
The crook in the branches of Yggdrasil was smaller. That was Erick’s first impression. Where before he had been sitting in the center of a roughly 25 meter flat space, now he was very much not.
Erick scrambled to stop from falling, his great big claws ripping away deep green moss as something slapped back and forth behind him and some unfamiliar weights pulled down on his back. Leather snapped and pressures assailed Erick from unknown angles, touching unknown parts of him. He yelped, and it came out like a roar, as he fell off of Yggdrasil, smacking a branch on the way down before he was able to control himself with Benevolence. He stopped falling.
He pulled his tail back from outside of the Privacy, like pulling back his butt.
Slowly, Erick ascended back to where he had been before, stepping upon his [Perfected Benevolence] like it was solid light. He did not sit back down on Yggdrasil, though. The spot he had picked on the big guy’s branches was not large enough for him anymore. Instead, Erick sat in midair, his butt and long tail softly moving behind him like he was a comfortable cat. He was not comfortable, though he tried to get that way. This was who he was now, and it was what it was. Erick jerked his shoulder blades and felt out his body, trying to understand how those things were supposed to— Ah. It works like that. Yes. Erick extended his wings like they were a second pair of arms, and then he pulled them back, and like he was folding his arms, he folded his wings around him, down his back and around his neck. It took him a moment, but he got it done.
He did not expect the wings.
Normally, dragons did not have wings.
Normally, dragons had long bodies, fifty meters long or more. Rozeta was like an endless river of white scales when she was in her element. Erick did have a long neck, though, which he had expected, and which he had gained control of rather fast; it was like having a normal neck, but longer.
Simple stuff, really.
Erick sat there, midair in his Privacy, like he was standing on a platform of controlled lightning. And he inspected himself, both with his eyes, and with his mana sense.
Yup.
That was him.
His hands were almost like hands, but they were more paw-like, with very large white claws. Erick had clawed Yggdrasil a little bit when he had fallen off, which he was ashamed of…
“Ygg—” Erick paused. That was too deep. Too loud. Almost like a roar. He tried to be quieter and barely succeeded, “Yggdrasil.”
“… Father?”
Erick modulated his voice further, “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”
“Nope!” Yggdrasil’s white eye reappeared like a tiny dot within Erick’s sight. And then it got larger. “You’re bigger now! You sound like you and feel like you, but you do not look like you!”
“You can come out too, Ophiel. Sorry for scaring you. For scaring both of you.”
Yggdrasil said, “I’m not scared! You’re you!”
Ophiel had briefly hid but he was embarrassed about that. In order to outdo his brother he rushed out of hiding, each Ophiel puffing up to his full size, transforming from little, eye-filled piles of wings, into expansive earth-angels, with little eyes decorating them like jewels. Ophiel sang loud and clear in choral guitars at first, but then in happy violins.
And then he tried to find a place on Erick’s shoulder.
Erick did not have a shoulder, or at least not one that was for sitting. His wings covered both his shoulders right now.
Ophiel settled for sitting on Erick’s head, like a crown of white feathers among a crown of …
Well.
A crown of black horns.
There was no easy way to put this, Erick supposed.
He was a fully black dragon, except for his eyes, his claws, his fangs, and the inside of his mouth. He had wings, a tail, and a body like a typical western dragon, with a large chest and a tapered stomach. A body sort of like a greyhound?
Big arms to more match his human body, legs with two major joints, a clear propensity to standing on all fours, with a tail twice as long as his body and wings that spanned maybe twice his body length, and a neck that raised his head high above it all. Yup. This was a western dragon.
Erick did not even want to look at the more nuanced parts of himself, but he did, and they were what they were.
Overall, Erick looked like a smaller copy of Melemizargo, but instead of spreading darkness in his wake, Erick spread sparking white light.
He also had Ophiel sitting on his head, like a crown of feathers among all of Erick’s new black horns, chirping away in happy sounds. Soon, all the other Ophiel rapidly found a spot to stand atop their father, from Erick’s back between his wings, extending their own wings to try —and very much fail— to match him for size, to a second Ophiel on his muzzle, and more than a few on top of his butt, trying to make their way out to his swishing tail. Ophiel didn’t get very far along that swaying path. That insolent tail did not stop wafting back and forth, sending Ophiel after Ophiel flying back into the sky.
Ophiel kept trying, though, chirping in excited violins each time they got thrown.
Erick hmm’d.
This was going to be a problem.
“Yup.” Erick said, “Don’t think I’ll be doing this much at all.”
He transformed back into himself, scattering squawking Ophiels away as he shoved the draconic parts of himself back into a small box. It was not a comfortable fit. It was not fun. And he didn’t get it fully right the first time, either. But eventually he did.
Mostly.
As Erick stood there on the soft green grass he felt a weight upon his head. Not much of a weight. Nothing that he would have really noticed, except for he was specifically checking out all of himself to make sure he was in the right body once again. Which he was.
“… But I have horns.”
In a mirror to his draconic form, six small black horns, three on each side, started at his temples and then curled backward among his black hair, forming something of a small crown. They were highly noticeable. But! He could probably sleep with them on his head, if he wanted? It might be… comfortable...
… Wait.
That was the wrong thought, Erick.
No horns at all was the much better solution.
A few more adjustments shoved those horns back in the box. Hopefully they would stay there.
Erick conjured some clothes and went home.
- - - -
Erick reappeared in the main foyer.
In half a moment, as Teressa’s surprised voice came from upstairs, and Erick heard Poi groan from inside the library, and Kiri called out, ‘What’s happening?!’ Erick realized something very important. A few things, actually.
Poi walked out of the library and into the foyer.
Erick looked down at Poi.
Poi looked up at Erick.
Poi started, “I think you got—”
“Yeah I think I got the height wrong.”
Teressa appeared from out of the second floor hallway, eyes wide. “You’re bigger!”
Erick sighed, guessing, “It’s only, like, 215 centimeters, or something. You’re still way taller.”
Teressa said, “Let’s make all the doors bigger.”
Kiri rolled over in her bed, mumbling loud enough for everyone to hear, even though no one was near her, “Please no yelling for non-important things.” And then she went back to bed.
Erick asked Teressa, “You don’t like the doors? You should have just told me.”
“Well… I’m… telling you now?”
Erick said, “I’ll be back.”
He got it right the second time.
He also adjusted some problematic doors.