Chapter 189
Mighty Morphing Pomeranians (Part 1)
Okay, so it is fairly irrefutable that I resurrected a sacred cardinal protector. It might also be irrefutable that I put said resurrected spirit into a vessel that was not only a hundred times smaller than the original form, but also had a slightly different shape than previously accounted for.
While all the Cardinal Protectors were originally given the shapes of mythical European style dragons, complete with larger than necessary stomachs to account for an abnormally large core. What I managed to do, could be seen as a form of model and innovation. Taking that ungodly stadium sized lizard shape with a seemingly proportional scale of overwhelming power and managing to shrink that down to the size of a much cuter and far more manageable Pomeranian.
There are apparently a few issues, namely since I went off the original pigmentations provided, I ended up giving the Pomeranian glowing blue fur, versus keeping the original glowing blue scales. But to my defense a scaley Pomeranian would just look weird. As such I improvised.
Honestly, I was sort of impressed with my ability to basically compact the energy held within a soul upon itself while keeping the same level of energy and power but forcing the soul to take on a different form entirely.
While I was impressed, the world itself was not, going so far as to note the spell I created was considered an ultimate form of Necromancy. While I remember the warning before, I didn’t think anything of it at the time.
However, this has since caused Zero, a spirit dragon and my familiar, to act as a sort of liaison between the four cardinal protectors and myself.
“You need to fix this.” Zero said, anger and irritation in his voice as he spoke and pointed down at Nagingah, who for her part sat anxiously on the ground and did that cute little forced to sit happy dance that Pomeranians apparently do, complete with wagging her tail excitedly.
“What? She is absolutely perfect.” I say, while reaching down to scratch Nagingah behind her glowing blue ears.
Ruff.
Nagingah lets out a cute little bark, followed by a few words that seem to contradict her actions.
“You must change me back immediately, I will not stand for this,” Nagingah states, while tilting her head and forcing her head and ear into my right hand. I make sure to release a bit of golden and spirit Qi into my scratches to make them extra effective, trying out what I’ve recently learned about the two similar but different forms of energy.
“Oh, and what’s so wrong about this, you are so cute and approachable. Not anything like those big brothers and sister of yours. Do you think they will get a head scratch from me?” I ask, in my voice that I refer to as my semi-baby coo voice. I’m not proud of it, but when I’m in this state, I can’t seem to help myself.
“You don’t understand, I need to be a symbol of peace and prosperity for the lands. In the past just my arrival alone to the Tribunal meetings was enough to broker peaceful resolutions to problems that arose among the inhabitants of the lands.”
New Skill Gained: Ancient Cardinal Protector Lore has reached level 1. Ancient Cardinal Protector Lore is an Intelligence based skill.
Oh, they are bribing me with skills, at this, I know this is good.
“Really?” I ask, hoping that the Pomeranian will give me more of these sweet skill increases.
“Yes. Now I am but a fraction of my former size and glory. While I will admit that there is no loss of power, my size alone, is enough to make the other Cardinal Protectors mock me.”
“Ahh, I get it. They are body shaming you.” I say, realizing that this world is cruel.
“NO, they are shaming her for the body that you gave her!” Zero cuts in, clearly angry at this.
“Right, body shaming,” I say to Zero. Then turning back to Nagingah, I say, “don’t worry. I think you are great just the way you are.”
“Do you hear yourself?” Zero cuts in, clearly getting angry. Honestly this is sort of new, as I’ve never seen Zero stick to a cause like this before. Honestly, I kind of like it, as it shows that Zero will stand up for himself, or at least a cause he believes in.
“Clearly, kind of hard not to with these ears.” I say, flipping my long pointy elven ears.
“Look, will you help Nagingah out or not?” Zero finally demands, and like that I am made aware that I have unlocked a specialty quest.
Specialty Unique Quest Unlocked: Fixing Mistakes (Personal-Unique): Your familiar Zero has informed you of an issue involving a fellow dragon. Nagingah a dragon you resurrected into the form of a Pomeranian is having body issues and wishes to be changed back into her normal form. Help Nagingah regain her natural form and repair your relationship with Zero. Rewards: Experience, Skill(s), Improved Relationship with Zero. Note: Refusing this quest will start an irrevocable rift between you and your familiar.
Wow, I had kind of pushed for the quest angle, but didn’t realize that Zero was actually getting angry at the whole situation. Well, I realized it, but didn’t realize exactly how far Zero had gone down the path of resentment. Good to note, Zero might have a thing for Nagingah the dragon and not as a Pomeranian.
“Of course, I’ll fix her.” I say, realizing that I can’t refuse this quest, as I don’t want to lose Zero. Especially not after I have gone this far to make sure he is a part of my life. Also, I guess I kind of had this coming as the world itself really seems against the path of forcefully changing things on it. Maybe this is Karma in a way.
“You will? Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.” Nagingah says, jumping up onto me and knocking me down with her overexcited pounce.
Crunch.
Yep, I did a great job on that conversion, as apparently even the mass of Nagingah is the same as her giant dragon form, it is just a lot more compact in this smaller Pomeranian form.
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I can feel my bones breaking and cracking from the pressure.
“Oh, oh, I’m so sorry.” Nagingah offers, rolling off of me in an instant, but the damage is done. My ribs are cracked, my right femur is shattered and I am having a hard time taking in a breath of air.
Wheeze.
“All good.” I respond, as I immediately begin Healing myself. If that wasn’t a warning of why having an overly powered Pomeranian was bad, I couldn’t find a better reason.
Dusting myself I am finally capable of standing up a few seconds later.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. It’s just that everyone who looked at me couldn’t figure out what exactly you did. Then hearing that it was you, no one even wanted to attempt to try to combat your magic thinking that they would cause more damage than good. And well, I guess you could say I was desperate.” Nagingah said.
“Yeah.” I manage, then begin looking at Nagingah, trying to figure out how I could magically Resurrect a new body for her.
“If it hadn’t been for Zero here, I don’t think I would have ever had the courage to even ask you. I mean you did save my life, and I did understand that you were on a time crunch at the time. What with trying to get my older protective brother from trying to destroy your whole civilization and all.” Nagingah said, and I swear I could see the faintest form of a blush coming to Zero’s face.
“Oh, it was nothing.” Zero says, blushing even brighter.
Seeing his reaction, I smile as I suddenly understand why Zero was so adamant that I fix this mistake. Seeing and feeling Zero’s embarrassment from being praised, I can’t help but smile on my own, as I realize Zero might be a bit lonely as a dragon. Actually, I really want to encourage this, especially as it means that Zero might want to come back here more often.
Mentally, I am kicking myself as I don’t want to have to kill Nagingah again, in order to Resurrect her back into a larger form. Especially as I got a warning about doing that with her. Now doing the same thing by taking an already condensed soul and stretching it out to fill a larger vessel seems like I am just asking for karma or vindictive warnings to come down and smite me.
Also, with Zero clearly showing interest in the dragon, I can’t see him enjoying the idea of causing mortal damage to the dragon. There is the idea that I could potentially pull out the soul of the dragon and place it into another vessel, but that seems extra-necromanticy. No, there are no good solutions.
At least that was what I thought, until I realized that I had effectively been the guideline for what I was supposed to do. Or at least that was the way I was inferring the quest rewards I had just been given.
In particular the new title and bloodline markers I had been given for removing Flumberro’s power.
Title Gained: Core Master: Your ability to destroy, create, or otherwise work with cores is improved greatly. Effect +25% skill efficacy while focusing on an individual’s core.
Then there was the bloodline markers for uniting the land.
Bloodline Evolution Perk marked.
Bloodline Evolution Markers Gained: Mana and Qi core manipulation markers identified.
At the time I thought they were oddly incongruent, but now I wonder if they were placed as a subtle reminder of what I was supposed to do now.
“Why is her tongue sticking out like that?” Nagingah asked in an overly loud stage whisper to Zero.
“Shh, this is her coming up with something crazy look. You need to give her a moment to finish her thoughts, otherwise she might mess up.” Zero replies back in that same overly loud stage whisper.
Gah.
I was about to say I wasn’t doing that, but then I realized I first needed to pull my tongue back into my mouth to speak.
“All right, the way I see it, we have two options to get you back into your natural form.” I begin.
With this both Zero and Nagingah are both staring at me. It is odd how good Zero is at pretending to be able to see, I have that thought then dismiss it as it is something we have both learned to do together.
“The first way, and the way I do not recommend is that we remove your spirit entirely from your current body and grabbing your spirit force it into a larger body that I will need to create from mana alone and fuse your free-floating spirit into that new form. This will be similar to what I did originally, all except using a form that your body will be able to adjust to naturally.” I state.
Both of them think about this, but then seem to come to the same question. “Okay, but what exactly is so wrong with this process?”
“We would have to kill you. Or maybe just forcefully rip out your soul from your body and then make sure we got all the free-floating pieces and then squish them into a larger vessel that your spirit might or might not adjust to, potentially losing part of your power and by extension who you are in the process.” I sate.
With that they both seem to cower slightly. Well Nagingah cowers, Zero on the other hand looks pissed.
“No, absolutely not. That is unacceptable.” Zero shouts.
Smiling inwardly, I am glad that Zero rose to the bait as it seems that Nagingah took that moment to truly look at Zero and how much effort he was going to go for her.
“Exactly, which is why I will pose option two, which does not require any killing, ripping out of souls, or shoving souls into new bodies.” I say, pausing on that last part before realizing I was factually correct, though I was toeing the line there.
“And just what exactly is this second option of yours?” Zero asks, a harsh edge to his words as he is clearly defensive of Nagingah.
“Simple really,” I say first to Zero, then turning back to Nagingah I lock eyes with her. Or at least I try to, never can quite tell if I’m looking at someone in the eyes. “I modify a portion of your core to allow you to effectively morph into your natural form for as long as you want. In that, your body, core and all your power will remain the same, just your size will adjust to the way you are normally. Then once you are done you will just revert back to your current size, if an when you so choose.” I state.
There is a pause as Nagingah looks to Zero, “is what she saying even possible? Can someone really modify the cores of others?”
“She is the one who both single handedly shattered and then healed the core of your older brother. She is also the same one who modified her friend’s core to be more mana efficient on markers. If anyone can do this, she can.” Zero said, clearly speaking of my work on improving Mallory’s core. I also did the same for Gwen and a few others, but that is besides the point.
“Can I have a second to speak with my brothers and sister?” Nagingah asked.
“Take all the time you need.” I respond.
Then with that she leaves. Zero looks from Nagingah to me, then back. All it takes is a simple gesture and me saying, “go,” for him to get the clue and follow after her.
With that, I watch as the four Cardinal Protectors all gather around talking. Then after a minute Zero arrives and apparently gives an impassioned speech. At least I think it is impassioned, as he is using his claws to gesticulate wildly, pointing back towards me every so often.
After a few more minutes the four Cardinal Protectors talk amongst themselves. Then finally Nagingah gestures for Zero to leave.
Slightly dejectedly Zero drops his shoulders then begins to do his slink-flying thing he does to get over by my side.
Once he gest over to me, I ask the important question. “You like her don’t you?”
Zero looks shocked at first, but then asks. “Is it that easy to tell?”
“It is for me, but then again I think I know you fairly well by this point.” I reply.
“That only makes it worse. I mean she is a Cardinal Protector from the time of the Tribunals. Do you know what that means?”
“She is in the MILF or GMILF category for you?” I pose.
“No, it means she is effectively royalty. Not just royalty but supreme royalty. I can’t compare to her.” He states, dejectedly.
“Well aren’t you some type of royalty as well? I mean isn’t that what we were supposed to find at the heart of Arcanarus Tower?” I ask.
“Maybe. I mean, I think my mother is important, but I don’t know. Also, until I actually meet her and earn her blessing, her status means nothing as I will just be the equivalent of a disinherited disgrace that even his own mother won’t acknowledge.” Zero states, pure anguish in his voice as he speaks.
Hearing that, I didn’t realize that there was so much politics involved in dragon affairs, though I guess there should be. Now I can see why that great turtle gave us the quest so long ago to find Zero’s mother.
“Well, that just means we need to go find your mother and get her to accept you as her child. Forcefully if necessary.” I state, flexing my fist in a faux form of force.
“Please don’t even imply that you will hurt my mother if we find her.” Zero asks.
“Of course not.” I say, and before I can go any further we both pause as the four Cardinal Guardians break up their little conference and all come towards us at once.
Rumble.
Even with just three Cardinal Protectors in their natural forms, they are easily large enough to cause minor tremors and earthquakes to rattle all around us.
When they arrive, Nagingah is the only one who speaks.
“I have decided to take you up on your offer of altering my core to allow me to transform into my natural state. While this isn’t ideal, it is better than the alternate method you posed of forceful murder and then subsequent resurrection.” Nagingah states, then pausing for a second she continues. “That said, should anything untoward happen to me, my brothers and sister here will avenge me by killing you, your familiar and destroying all the lands that your guild has painstakingly claimed. Is that understood?”
I pause, taking in a deep breath trying to calm myself.
“Just so we are clear. I don’t take well to threats. Know that the only reason why I am even contemplating this operation, one that I don’t need to perform and only serves to take up my time and efforts. Efforts that you spit at with your apparent discontent, is because of my friend Zero. Who for some odd unexplainable reason found something worth redeeming in you. Know that it is for his sake and his alone that I will do this, and not because you are threatening me. Do I make myself clear?”
As I speak, I spark my Qi to reinforce my body in case this creature decides to lunge at me again, while also preparing a spell within my mind of what I would do as a way to disable this creature and her three other guardians.
There is moment of stillness, I can tell Zero is the first to crack as he looks like he is about to say something. To stop him, I hold up a finger and all but demand that Zero back down right now. Zero, apparently realizing that I will easily leave here and never bother with this Pomeranian princess again stops and just shoots a hopeful gaze at Nagingah.
While this happens the other three Guardians take a step forward.
Then before they could do anything stupid, support came, in the most unlikely of forms.